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nelfs · 4 years ago

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after hitting 1k io today I think I’m finally qualified to rank the shadowlands dungeons. here they are from best to worst:

de other side: amazing. show stopping. phenomenal. super fun. hearing muehzala and bwonsamdi duke it out the whole time is iconic. the visuals are awesome, the fights are awesome, I get to feel useful by cracking open the night fae jars. the manastorms are in it and bwonsamdi says some concerning things. flawless dungeon

mists of tirna scithe: nice and quick and easy. low pressure, playful, more relaxed until you get into higher keys and the second boss turns into sheer chaos, which is incredibly fun. puzzle is an amazing source of nerd rage

spires of ascension: this one is up so far because I’m comfortable with it and not intimidated and i like saying I MOURN YOUR BETRAYAL along with kyrestia. the land of many pack skips. second boss can either be incredibly easy or a bullet hell nightmare of epic proportions. annoying run backs but one of my preferred dungeons.

halls of atonement: sort of a weird dungeon, you clear all the trash and then do a boss zerg rush type of thing. one of those dungeons where you’re never sure if you’re going to time it. the pathing mobs are stressful... but lord chamberlain is here :)

necrotic wake: if it weren’t for the messy & stressful appearance of this dungeon it’d be up higher. easy to ass pull stuff at the start. stitchflesh is a great boss and he can have my night elf’s ears if he really needs them

sanguine depths: this one WAS going to be higher but then I thought about the second boss and the camera angles and the gauntlet and wanted to die a little. thematically it’s great though... love them vampires

theater of pain: I want to like this dungeon because I love maldraxxus but truth be told i cannot ever find my way around in here and half the mobs vomit and shit on you. oh and it loses points on that platform section too because I do Not like it... and I think there are too many green dungeons in shadowlands and they all kinda blend together for me. im sorry grandmaster vole :(

plaguefall: i dont need to explain this one

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merelliahallewell · 4 years ago

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The Drust in Ardenweald

This post is going to sum up everything I’ve learned and inferred about the Drust from Ardenweald and what they’re up to there.

This will contain information from the main Ardenweald questline in Shadowlands, random world quests I’ve done, the zone in general, and the Mists of Tirna Scithe dungeon, but not the Covenant Campaign.

Part 1 - The Drust Backstory

Part 2 - The Drust in BfA

Part 4 - The Drust in the Night Fae Campaign (1)

Part 5 - The Drust in the Night Fae Campaign (2)

Recap

Let’s begin by laying out what’s going on, in case you zoomed through the Ardenweald story.

Ardenweald is a place of rest and rebirth, representing the “winter” as compared to the summer and springtime that the Emerald Dream is. It is where spirits of nature that die go to rest before they return to their worlds. Spirits are contained within Wildseeds, and nurtured by the native Night Fae, keepers of the many groves and great trees there. With the flow of souls having entirely abated and Anima no longer arriving, Ardenweald has felt the drought more acutely than the other realms. The Winter Queen must make the difficult decision to let some groves and wild spirits die in order to save others and conserve what resources they have. This drives the local fauna into a frenzy. Gorm, Devourers, and Spriggan are all making other things worse too, and the realm is in dire straits.

In the middle of all this, the fucking Drust show up. Assholes.

The Invasion

Apparently they’ve invaded once before, according to Marasmius. This time they’re invading directly from the Maw of Thros, stealing anima, and taking advantage of the drought’s chaos. The Drust have been utilizing the abandoned groves as bases to fortify, with Darkreach and the Oaken Assembly being chock full of elites and acting as their main base. On top of this, the Drust have somehow convinced (forcibly, in many cases) a number of Fae to don various masks. This places them under the control of the Drust. At this point in the story, it’s unclear if they can be freed from their control. What’s worse, it’s revealed that these masks will, at some point literally turn them into Drust. It is not clear if they outnumber the Wild Hunt or not, but they are able to stretch them thin.

Per the Ingra Maloch boss description, The Drust are invading in order to utilize Ardenweald’s “mechanism of Rebirth.” This, presumably, is the mechanic that can be seen in the Queen’s Conservatory and in the cinematic with Ursoc- wildseeds containing souls are nurtured with anima and then sent back to their home worlds.

The Drust are general boogeymen throughout the Ardenweald storyline, with the Masked Fae as the regular foes that have to be fought. They steal and hoard anima and attack the special wildseed we escort all around Ardenweald. They do not necessarily do or say a huge number of things or even have many notable characters introduced at this point in time. Most of the foes seem to be either converted Fae or Drust behemoths (which I think are constructs), rather than true, breathing Drust.

When a vrykul-shaped Drust does show up, it’s treated as a large and powerful threat, needing several fae and the Champion to defeat. It is unclear after a certain part who is or isn’t a true Drust, and I think this may be deliberate- the Night Fae once fully converted are no different than any other Drust.

This may explain how they managed to rebuild their armies after their initial defeat, since many of them had their bodies destroyed twice in Kul Tiras.

The Possessed and the Masks

The Drust use masks to convert the fae into their own kind. However, the methods of getting them to don these masks are left pretty vague. It is implied that it’s a choice given to the fae.

Join us, Niya. Don the mask and serve the masters!

We get hints of this in the side quest chain, An Ominous Stone. In a village on the far east of the map, you collect the journal of Lewor, who described his village’s struggles with the Anima drought. The Gorm were began to gorge themselves on the land and have collapsed whole chunks of the village due to their tunnels. Land even broke off of Ardenweald, and the messengers they dispatched to ask for aid but the Wild Hunt was unable to spare any.

At some point, a strange stone appeared that was certainly not of Ardenweald, radiating with power. He believed that it was not of Ardenweald, but that the forest may have provided it from another land. Lewor even believed that they could use its power to drive off or even defeat the Gorm.

What happened between then and the current events are unclear, but this stone seems to have spread some sort of corruption or magic to the fae, leading to them all donning the masks. There is no mention of the Drust directly being involved in what happened there- this was a conquest through subterfuge.

Why would a Fae willingly wear a mask and serve unknown masters from another realm? At first it may be confusing to see them join a faction known for decay and destruction, but one has to remember how seriously the drought affected Ardenweald. It may be that the Fae, dispossessed and lost after their groves were culled, were tempted by the power the Drust offered to drive off the enemies already in Ardenweald. This is speculation, though, and not hard lore- we ultimately do not know why they accepted the masks.

There is no hope for any Fae once they have donned the mask. From the quests:

There is no coming back for those who have become possessed. Believe me... I tried.

Thank you. I tried so hard to save them... but once that mask is on, there is no return.

They are all wearing these masks now, and they are not themselves any more.

A Pause for Speculation

If the Drust possess a curse that can be used to enslave the minds of any it touches without even having to be physically touching them, why are they doing this mask stuff and not following the same tactic as the Coven did in Drustvar? My speculation is this:

1) The Drust are known by the ancient and powerful beings of Ardenweald, mainly Marasimus and the Winter Queen. They want to avoid displaying who real threat is and taking advantage of the chaos to build their army.

2) They disappear into the chaos caused by the Gorm and Devourers and Spriggan and even Mueh’zalah, who have already stretched the Wild Hunt so thin they can’t assist outlying villages. If those beings knew what was really happening with the Drust, they would turn their focus onto them more fully and employ the whole Wild Hunt to stop them.

3) They needed time bought by the masked fae menace to position their existing forces to capture many of the outlying groves and fortify them. They may also have wanted the secrets Tirna Scithe held or the wildseeds hidden there.

Drust Types

I slapped this together to show the different types of Drust present in Ardenweald. Gorak Tul’s model is on the left for comparison. As a small aside, I find it interesting that the vrykul Drust almost appear to have had their heads fused with the masks somehow. Gorak Tul is so deep into that process (if it exists) that he has sprouted another few eyes and his mouth has elongated.

Weirdly, the lady Drust do not appear to have any weird bark skin or masks anything, and the only effect they have is a general loss of bulk compared to the vrykul model used for them in BfA and freaky looking fingers. It seems as if the matrons of the Heartsbane Coven slit their throats to transform themselves into Drustlike forms.

Motivations

While it’s stated that the Drust want to escape their curse, that’s never really expanded upon. Let’s examine the phrasing from Ingra Maloch’s dungeon journal:

Cursed to exist outside the cycle of Life and Death, the Drust now seek to circumvent their fate using Ardenweald's mechanisms of Rebirth.

The mention of a curse is interesting, because that has never really been said before in an explicit fashion. Thros must be the reason they are cursed in this sort of fashion. It’s not mentioned just what being cursed outside this cycle means, for it’s stated in the Pride of Kul Tiras storyline that Gorak Tul could be slain within his own realm, and was defeated for good.

There are also some curious lines from NPCs that intrigue me.

The Drust will rule all realms!

Nature is meant to be controlled. Conquered. And the Drust will conquer all!

At face value, I think that this implies that they want to go around conquering more realms, either of the Shadowlands or elsehwere. Maybe they already have conquered other realms, during the time they’d supposedly been stuck in Thros? They have attacked Ardenweald once before, after all. It’s an interesting mystery for the time being but unless we get a Thros raid, I don’t see this being expanded upon. I wonder if the nature of this curse will be expanded upon at any point, but knowing Blizzard that is probably not going to happen.

Miscellaneous Bits

Stone is said to be a rare find in Ardenweald by Droman Tashmur. It seems that the Drust utilized strange rocks with runes chipped into them to spread their blight everywhere or potentially influence the Fae.

I found these lines interesting, as all are references to the Drust or their magic.

“Creatures of decay and destruction”

“This stone speaks of hate and broken branches”

"Alien presence that threatens the forest”

"A master who will watch Ardenweald wither”

“All shall wither”

“ Where she appears, decay follows.”

Ingra is a title used by several NPCs. I wonder if it some title of nobility in Thros or meant for commanders.

A Tiny Mystery

Soultwister Cero in Tirna Noch is opening some sort of a portal. It doesn’t appear to be some sort of a standard portal, because the ground bears a ritual circle akin to what the Heartsbane uses, and at each point of it are great stones bearing runes upon them. Atop the portal is a mask, and there are two large runestones on each side as well. Something had to be important to put so much effort into opening this gateway- but why? Is it a portal to Thros to bring more troops in through? A gate to another realm of the Shadowlands, akin to De Other Side’s entrance?

It may also just be the entrance to a lovely little vacation island just across the gap that has been occupied by the Drust, but that seems like a lot of effort to reach something that is a goblin glider jump away.

#Thros #Ardenweald #Shadowlands Lore #lore deep dive #Drust #Merellia's RP Resources

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transfemininomenon · 4 years ago

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think id rank the shadowlands dungeons

theatre of pain

halls of atonement

de other side

mists of tirna scithe

necrotic wake

spires of ascension

sanguine depths

plaguefall

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katieskarlette · 5 years ago

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WoW: What’s Next panel

This is the big one! I’ll be watching the panel on the livestream and editing this post as it goes, so check back for updates.

[EDIT: Panel’s over, post is finished!]

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Ion: We are not jumping on a ship and going to a land that “mapmakers have mysteriously ignored for the last ten years.” Ha. It’s another plane of existence.

The Warcraft Afterlife: Souls cross the veil between life and death Souls are brought before the mysterious female entity known as the Arbiter All the deeds/misdeeds, aspirations, triumphs and failures are laid bare to the Arbiter, who then routes the soul to one of the Shadowlands’ realms. Each realm is ruled by a powerful Covenant.

Souls bear with them a vital force called Anima. A quiet farmer who lived an unremarkable life has only a little Anima, while “Varian, Garrosh and Arthas had a ton.” He mentioned those characters by name. Hmmmmmm.

Ion joked about how the early concept art of Bastion was already leaked.

Bastion is home to the Covenant of the Kyrians, aka spirit healers. “Souls here shed past burdens and seek virtue.” Uther’s soul is here, and we’ll encounter him!

Kyrian are ordered and purposeful, dedicated to service.

Maldraxxus is ruled by the Necrolord Covenant. It is the heart of the Shadowlands’ military might who defend the Shadowlands from the enemies of death. They’re about survival of the fittest, not strictly evil. Relentless, unyielding spirits go here, including Thrall’s mother, Draka. It’s like EPL on steroids, aesthetically.

Ardenweald is an enchanted fairy forest. It’s ruled by the Night Fae covenant. This enchanted mystical forest is the Emerald Dream’s dark mirror. It reflects fall and winter, a place of rest and rebirth. Cenarius’ soul went here after Grom killed him.

Revendreth is a creepy, gothic zone with miasma, soaring castles and dark secrets. Ruled by the Covenant of the Venthyr. Flawed and prideful souls atoning for their sins end up here. You don’t want to end up here, but it’s possible to redeem yourself and move on to another area of the Shadowlands. We will encounter KAEL’THAS there! Ooh! (And, yes, Ion made a “setback” joke.)

Covenants are the four powers of the Shadowlands and are integrated into almost every feature of the game. Each one seeks your aid, and each offers power and rewards. Each one has a full endgame narrative campaign, akin to the two factions’ war campaigns in BFA. Each gives you two active abilities, one of which is class-specific.

Endgame progression system: Soulbinds. Bind your soul to a powerful entity in the Shadowlands for unique benefits. There is no artifact power to grind! YAY! Ion says they have learned from the last couple of expansions. It’s important to have goals to work toward and ways to customize your characters’ playstyle without having it be a grind that is full of pressure and punishing to alts.

Each Covenant has a sanctum that we’ll build up and restore to glory, sort of like Shal’Aran was in Legion.

Covenants will also have rewards of mounts, transmog, etc. They will give you items for the cloak slot that will give you ornaments like, in the case of Kyrians, a halo or angel wings, etc.

Oribos, the Eternal City is an ancient city that predates memory, and the home of The Arbiter. Brokers and soul-traders gather here. It will be the main player hub and sanctuary city. “Khadgar wanted to bring Dalaran through but we figured there was already a city there, so not needed.” LOL

The Maw is a mystery even to Shadowlands natives. No known Covenant rules it. It’s ruled by a dark figure known as The Jailer, who is like a boogeyman to the people of the Shadowlands. It’s a horrific prison for the most vile souls. Nothing has ever, ever escaped.

In 9.0 the machinery of death is broken, and souls are pouring directly into the Maw without being routed first. The other parts of the Shadowlands are thus starved of Anima.

“What about Sylvanas’ role in all this?” asks the slide. Yes, Ion, do tell.

A picture of the burning of Teldrassil got a lot of booing, cheering, laughter and general excitement from the crowd.

“Arthas is dead, I’m sorry.” SO?!?!?! So are Uther, Draka and Kael’thas!

The Jailor in the Maw is the creepy silhouette that Sylvanas was facing in the teaser footage. Sylvanas doesn’t have a master, but her goals align with the Jailor’s. He’s been feeding her more power lately.

9.0 will start with Scourge marauding across Azeroth, since the Helm of Domination that held them back is shattered. Azeroth’s heroes make for Icecrown to stop the problem at its source. We are led by Bolvar, since he understands the Scourge best. He has one foot in each realm and knows more than anyone about them.

We go from Icecrown into The Maw, and that’s all, we’re trapped. Nothing’s ever escaped. “It’s a short expansion.” LOL! Actually, we escape the Maw and go on, but it sounds like some lore heroes stay trapped there...for now. Hmm.

We work with each realm’s leaders and borrow their powers, then choose a Covenant at max level.

However, once you have one character who has reached max level, your alts can pick their Covenant right away before they start leveling. You can level in any zone, do world quests, etc....lots of choices. You can work toward endgame progression while you level, reducing the sense that leveling and endgame are two separate games, that what you do while leveling doesn’t matter in the long run. Interesting.

At max level we return to the Maw, a fearsome zone with freeform outdoor gameplay. Unlike other max level zones, there are no innkeepers or friendly bases. You have to be on your toes all the time.

At the center of the Maw is Torghast, Tower of the Damned (the upside-down thing in the sky above Icecrown in the cinematic.) It’s an endless, ever-changing dungeon for 1-5 players. As you ascend the tower you earn upgrades that shore up your weaknesses, play to your strengths, etc. It looks a bit like the choices on each ring of Azerite gear.

4 dungeons to level up in: The Necrotic Wake, Plaguefall, Mists of Tirna Scithe, Halls of Atonement

4 max level dungeons: Spires of Ascension, Theater of Pain, Sanguine Depths, and The Other Side--where Bwonsamdi is!

Castle Nathria is a 10-boss raid at Revendreth. Think Dracula’s castle. It’s a winged raid and “for once you’re not going in through the sewer.”

Core philosophy: Focus on player agency. “We want to give all of you a feeling of more control over your destiny.” It’s something the playerbase has been asking for for years, and they’ve heard the feedback.

Profession updates: be guaranteed to craft an item with the secondary stats you want instead of having to craft a zillion items with random stats before you get the crit/haste/whatever you needed.

The weekly loot chest is the most hated example of RNG in the game today, according to Ion. It will now give you 5-6 items to pick from, based on the bosses you’ve used your bonus rolls on, etc.

Legendaries: Legion legendaries were fun when you had them, but the randomness of obtaining them was a major pain in the butt. In Shadowlands you’ll be able to work toward building a specific legendary that you want, then a second one, etc.

Shadowlands brings us a return to class identity as opposed to spec. Some abilities that were made spec-specific will go back to being class-specific, and some that were removed will be returning. Yay!

Shadowlands has a streamlined leveling experience. 120 characters going into the expansion will be 50 when they go into Shadowlands, and will level to 60 at the end. Every level will now unlock something and be meaningful, instead of dinging all the time but it being meaningless.

Unprecedented flexibility for alts. Want to just level in Pandaria? Do it, then go to Shadowlands. Skip everything else if you want to.

Character customization is the focus this time instead of new races. (YES!!!!!) Tattoos, body paint, new skin colors (be a Sandfury troll!), undead without visible bones(!!!), horn and tusk options, eye colors, etc. RACIALLY DIVERSE HUMAN MODELS! OMG! THEY LOOK AMAZING!

Every allied race will be able to be Death Knights.

Deep dive into Shadowlands at 11:15 AM Pacific tomorrow.

#Blizzcon with KS #shadowlands #shadowlands spoilers

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wisepowderposts · 4 years ago

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Top teams to compete in WoW Mythic Dungeon International Global Finals

Top teams to compete in WoW Mythic Dungeon International Global Finals The World of Warcraft Mythic Dungeon International Global Season 1 Finals will begin Friday, April 23. From April 23 to 25, the world’s top teams will compete for the World Champions title and a share of the $300,000 prize pool. To get more news about Best Place Buy WoW Gold, you can visit lootwowgold official website. The event will start off with four matches. Echo faces Stygia first. Last month, Echo secured their spot in the event by taking the Cup 4 tournament crown.Obey Alliance will go up against Does Gargoyle Stream? in the second match, while Perplexed will face Just So So. As for PI Me, they will first compete with the Golden Guardians. Each of these teams will participate in a series of best-of-three and double-elimination matches. However, the final match will be a best-of-five. The maps in play for the last series of matches will be Necrotic Wake, Halls of Atonement, Mists of Tirna Scithe, De Other Side and Halls of Atonement once again. Keystones will also be set to level 20. Dan “AutomaticJak” Anzenberger said he is curious about PI Me’s performance, since the team achieved wins through out-innovating their opponents and quickly adjusting to the meta. Meanwhile, Tristan “Dratnos” Killeen said he cannot wait to see how the game and format changes will shake things up. He noted that Echo is a favorite, but there are several teams that could prove to be a challenge against them. “PI Me has been ramping HARD in the past few cups and if that trajectory continues, we could see an impressive upset from them,” Dratnos said. “It’d also be irresponsible to count out Perplexed who have taken cups off Echo this season and last season!”As for Caroline “Naguura” Forer, she is looking forward to possible upsets because of the keystone changes and shifts in meta. “Perplexed has a big chance of winning too, since they were a team that also performed well in the first Shadowlands cup, proving that they are also really good at innovating routes,” Naguura added. “Many times, they have had better or more efficient routes than Echo, so I am really looking forward to seeing those two teams competing.” Similar to AutomaticJak and Dratnos, Peyton “Tettles” Tettleton also had thoughts on Pi Me. Tettles noted that the team could end up with compositions that others haven’t seen yet.

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