Challenge Rift - Week 48

Interview with our Class Competition Winner - McF4rtson & the Sea Witch Class

Battle for Azeroth Reunion Comic Kotaku Preview
Kotaku AU posted a preview of Reunion, the first of three comics that Blizzard is releasing to tell important characters' stories leading up to the new expansion. Renuion details Jaina Proudmoore's return to the ruins of Theramore. It was written by Christie Golden and Andrew Robinson with art (including the following art Blizzard provided Kotaku to preview) done by Linda Cavallini and Emanuele Tenderini.







Blizzard's Official Drustvar Zone Preview
Blizzard posted a preview and lore summary for Drustvar today!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
In the land of Drustvar, the stalwart protectors of House Waycrest hold fast along the western border, but recently all contact with them has been lost. Travel beyond the frontier to learn of their fate and battle the resurgence of an ancient and terrifying enemy.

Drustvar is a region known for the tenacity of the soldiers who protect it. Long after the defeat of the mysterious Drust who once dwelled there, the descendants of Arom Waycrest and his people continue to eke out a living in this unyielding land. They are known throughout Kul Tiras as being a hearty, stoic, and deeply superstitious people, and would make keen allies in the fight against the Horde—but now it’s up to you to discover why they’ve gone silent.

Welcome to Drustvar.


When first arriving in Drustvar, you’ll be greeted by a dark and foreboding shoreline on the eastern border. Drustvar is a rugged land plagued by superstition, and signs of witchcraft are everywhere. The pathways through Glenbrook to Fallhaven are fraught with danger, so you’ll need to stay on your guard. Dark rumors swirl as to what may have befallen the Waycrest family—and if the Alliance has any hope of convincing the Kul Tirans to join them, you’ll need to untangle the mysteries that lay ahead.

Verdigris roofs and awnings adorn buildings of brick and wood, their amber window panes alight from within. The sea’s intrinsic role in Kul Tiran culture is reflected in the architecture, and anchors and other symbols of the sea decorate doorways and awnings.

A stygian pallor looms over the town of Fallhaven, reeking of mystical meddling. A large and ominous construct stands as sentinel in the center of town, and the townsfolk are . . . unresponsive. You’ll need to work diligently to break the curse on the town before you can make any progress toward getting to the heart of the troubles in Drustvar.

Cobblestone paths wind through the region and in and out of the various villages and towns. History and culture are deeply woven into the fabric of Kul Tiras, but so too are the workings of dark witches. Cursed and hopelessly twisted townsfolk and creatures work in servitude to these mystics’ machinations, set to a task you’ll need to decipher and put an end to—if you have the stomach for it.

Visitors to this region will need to rely on their wits, solve a few not-so-small issues the citizenry faces, and hopefully make some inroads with the people along the way.

Dark rituals are afoot in these lands. Will you be able to unravel their bindings?

There are more mysteries to unravel, and an ancient enemy is stirring in the land, causing a tremendous slew of trouble.

TAKE THE HIGHROAD

Traveling westward will lead to a large chain of rugged snow-touched mountains running from the northern border of the region to the southern Iceveil Glacier, nearly bisecting the region in two. Along Highroad Pass, you’ll come across various wildlife and creatures, including Chillwind Yetis who find the cold of the mountains to their liking and food sources plentiful.

The road is fraught with danger, but you’ll eventually arrive in the town of Arom’s Stand, which overlooks a valley to the west. A tribute to Arom Waycrest stands vigil even as the people here struggle against the darkness that has swept over the land.


Did you Know? Arom Waycrest was the first Lord of Drustvar, who helped his people overcome great opposition from a powerful enemy: the Drust.
On the southwestern coast you’ll cross into the Crimson Forest. Various shades of red assail your eyes and bear witness to the veracity of the name. The town of Falconhurst sits on the coast, and as in your previous travels through the region, you’ll find this settlement is under siege by dark forces.

Things to Try: Need a small break from saving the people of Drustvar? Visit the Falconhurst inn and join the children as they are regaled by stories and songs of heroic deeds and adventure.


TAINTED RULE

North of the Crimson Forest, the Ashenwood Grove bears witness to creatures adorned with fungi and strange creatures known as Fungarians patrolling the pathways. Farms dot the area and mines can be found dug into the mountainsides, but what should be bustling enterprises have ground to a halt as the witches’ special brand of pestilent creatures wreak havoc.

Each clue found and mystery solved only puts forth more questions as to what could be ultimately manipulating events in Drustvar. Perhaps you’ll find the source of the troubles within Waycrest Manor*—ancestral home of the Waycrest family who watches over Drustvar.

*Waycrest Manor is a 5-player dungeon in Drustvar.

A vast coastline surrounds Drustvar to the east, south, and west, where those brave enough can fish, boat, swim, and hunt for treasure. Inland, the mountains and forests provide a chance to hunt a variety of . . . interesting . . . creatures. To the north, the rolling hills and mountains of Stormsong Valley await, while eastward lies Tiragarde Sound—and even more opportunities to earn your way into the good graces of the Kul Tirans.

Battle for Azeroth Beta - Uther's Tomb Updates
Uther's Tomb in Western Plaguelands received some cosmetic and visual updates in the latest Battle for Azeroth Beta update. Uther's model also was recently updated.






Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
The 50% Rule
I have put a lot of thought into this an hours crafting this excellent new rule that I very much hope Blizzard will implement if not now then in the next expansion.

It is the 50% rule. Here it is: After one month of release, any and all content shall be completed by at least 50% of the players. In the event this is not the case, the content in question will be re-tuned so that 50% of the player base has achieved success in said content.

...

Just because content is not able to be completed does not mean it is necessarily broke or needs adjustment. Sure you can have things that function incorrectly and we usually respond to that pretty quickly when its current content and get it fixed.

If we haven't adjusted something like say the Mage Tower by now, that means we think its working fine, which for additional context we do if the previous wasn't clear enough. It's okay to have hard content that you cannot complete. To me the game feels bigger if there are things I've been unable to do yet. If everything was easy and you could get any reward without any sort of effort then there would be almost no desire to play. It's a balancing act of accessible versus hard content but it doesn't mean you cannot still have hard content.

Just because I can't do it doesn't mean it should be adjusted lower, that means I can do better to accomplish that goal. Sure it took me 140+ tries on my first mage tower appearance, but it was fun. Every death is a learning opportunity to figure out what not to do. It's intended for you to die and struggle but its designed so that it can be beat (Spoiler: All PvE content is designed so that you can beat it). With the increase in gearing, the Mage Towers are no longer as challenging as they were but that doesn't mean you get a free pass for a reward. You still have to pay attention to timings and learn how to do them. Mage Tower's are supposed to be difficult and the reward is considered a badge of skill with that spec, just like the Challenge Modes, and just like the original Proving Grounds.

Being bad is the first step to gittin gud, before anyone was gud, they were bad. Not everyone is as equally skilled at the start but everyone can learn to git gud.

Side Note: Your posts are irritating to read because of your random bolding of words. Let's cut that out or we'll start editing them in the future.

The OP has endured the flame war, and was most gracious when this blue ordered him too goose step into submission with threats of Orwellian censoring.

Everyone has an opinion about this game, the OPs is just an opinion, that is all. For a representative of Blizzard to threaten a paying customer with verbal throttling goes beyond the scope of reasonable conduct.

I am neither for or against the OPs suggestion. I could care less. What I do care about is a Blizzard employee marching into this forum under the pretense of monitoring and instead berates and abuses whatever small power base they give them.

Little hyperbolic don't you think? I asked Rastlin to please stop. They said sure. The discussion about it ended. Rastlin is totally fine to voice their opinion about content and what they feel should change about it, and there is nothing wrong about that. I suggested it because it is irritating to read because I see it in every post they make. You don't have to excessively bold, caps lock, asterisk, italicize, or underline to get your point across. If you can't then your point probably wasn't coming across well in the first place and you should start there. Rastlin doesn't need to do either, their point is coming across just fine. I may not agree with what they say but they're one of the better posters in that they make it clear what they're asking for. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

FFXIV - Patch 4.3: Under the Moonlight
FFXIV Patch 4.3 brings a new raid, dungeon, quests, mounts, hairstyles, emotes, and more!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Reunion BfA Comic Kotaku Preview, Drustvar Preview, Uther's Tomb Updates, Blue Posts started by Stoy View original post
Comments 62 Comments
  1. Gloriandus's Avatar
    I know it's silly to expect, and would be an enormous hog of resources for such a minor thing, but I hate when famous lore NPCs are given a mix of player armor pieces instead of their own unique set.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Nichilin View Post
    Whoever posted about that 50% rule, the fact you actually need this means you should probably quit
    The OP who posted that idea is a well-known troll on the General Discussion forum.
  1. Ithekro's Avatar
    Scenario 5: Kalec says "Ladies ladies... you don't have to fight over me.. There is enough dragon penis for the both of you"
    I read it as Lando Calrissian's voice.
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    Someone needs to tell that artist that Caucasian eyes don't somehow magically transform into Asian shaped eyes just because you draw them from a profile perspective.
  1. Escepticus's Avatar
    The art of that comic is HORRENDOUS!!!!!
    WTF Blizzard?????
  1. Vilendor's Avatar
    That FF video is horrible. The music is earrape, the scenes are a mess, the cutscenes are low quality and terribly dubbed, it's incoherent and tells nothing about the patch or the game. After a wow teaser i can't wait to jump into the game, but this literally repelled me from this game. (ps: not criticizing the game, just this video)
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vilendor View Post
    That FF video is horrible. The music is earrape, the scenes are a mess, the cutscenes are low quality and terribly dubbed, it's incoherent and tells nothing about the patch or the game. After a wow teaser i can't wait to jump into the game, but this literally repelled me from this game. (ps: not criticizing the game, just this video)
    Literally shows off the content though.

    First bit shows parts of the story, then cuts to Ridorana the new 24 man just like WoW does small raid cuts in the videos, sneak peek at Eureka, then the dungeon, back to the story and the ends with a tiny sneak peak at the Ultimate fight.

    FF14 actually tried to be more WoW like with it's trailers since 4.0 believe it or not. Hence why they are shorter.

    Agree on the scenes though. Could be tied together a bit better. The transition at the start to Ridorana wasn't so bad but that's where I feel these trailers get a minus from me.
  1. Escepticus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vilendor View Post
    That FF video is horrible. The music is earrape, the scenes are a mess, the cutscenes are low quality and terribly dubbed, it's incoherent and tells nothing about the patch or the game. After a wow teaser i can't wait to jump into the game, but this literally repelled me from this game. (ps: not criticizing the game, just this video)
    I agree with you 100% (and I am a big FF lover). It doesn't do justice to the game at all.
  1. Trumpcat's Avatar
    Love the comics preview, can't wait!!! Jaina is my favorite character, so much peril, she was punished hard on numerous occasions for wanting good for everyone. Nice preview of the zone too.

    Don't care about Final Fantasy.
  1. thilicen's Avatar
    That 50% rule is probably the dumbest idea I have heard since alpha vanilla.
  1. lizzurd88's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vilendor View Post
    That FF video is horrible. The music is earrape, the scenes are a mess, the cutscenes are low quality and terribly dubbed, it's incoherent and tells nothing about the patch or the game. After a wow teaser i can't wait to jump into the game, but this literally repelled me from this game. (ps: not criticizing the game, just this video)
    You've obviously never seen a FFXIV patch release video, lol. It's fine, calm down.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Arbs View Post
    I would be totally alright with this even if it was it own site, FF14 is my other fav MMO.
    Same here!
  1. ElDoorO's Avatar
    Old days Blue: Hey guys, be polite.
    Now-a-days Blue: Guys, fix your formatting... or we'll modify it for you.
    That blue seemed awfully upset -- I wonder if something in real life is bothering them. They seemed way too sensitive with a hint of arrogance. They know better and that's that. Well if that's the case -- shut down the forums, they don't need any player feedback. At all. They have all the answers.
  1. Sorrior's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Literally shows off the content though.

    First bit shows parts of the story, then cuts to Ridorana the new 24 man just like WoW does small raid cuts in the videos, sneak peek at Eureka, then the dungeon, back to the story and the ends with a tiny sneak peak at the Ultimate fight.

    FF14 actually tried to be more WoW like with it's trailers since 4.0 believe it or not. Hence why they are shorter.

    Agree on the scenes though. Could be tied together a bit better. The transition at the start to Ridorana wasn't so bad but that's where I feel these trailers get a minus from me.
    Is THAT why the 4.0 vids don't get ne as hyped. Gods i swear ffxiv is just taking too much from wow.
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sorrior View Post
    Is THAT why the 4.0 vids don't get ne as hyped. Gods i swear ffxiv is just taking too much from wow.
    I prefer them to the 8 minute ones we used to have. They felt a bit too formal in telling us the exact content.

    These shorter ones feel a bit more cinematic imo.

    Just my two cents though.
  1. Cosmic Janitor's Avatar
    I know why I play FFXIV only with jap audio and subtitles..

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by rosso View Post
    Ye but if you look at the panel it seems that rexxar is having a boner while killing Daelin and Jain talks like she was tricked into let them kill her father, while rexxar and thrall are pretty much the most peaceful orcs in the entire game.

    Also dunno why thrall and rexxar looks like black thug and jaina the little white girl that is gonna get slammed on blacked dotcom
    That is probably the first post of yours that I agree with.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Darknessvamp View Post
    Jaina "I think it's fair if Theramore houses an army of Alliance soldiers and act as a staging ground so close to the Horde when I'm trying to be neutral, what can possibly go wrong?" Proudmore everyone. I also like how she admits she went to the Broken Shore with us but then ran away to "fight" the demons alone just goes to show she didn't care what happened to the Alliance and Horde forces. Why aren't we court marshaling her on the Alliance side immediately after she returns?
    That one panel is only in there because people (rightfully) called Blizzard out for their horrible writing and how she literally ran away at one of the most crucial moments in wow's history, because the other council members allowed some "ebil hordies" back into the city, to fight against the fucking burning legion while they were invading the whole of azeroth on a large scale.. Now they can claim that she did fight against the legion as well all the time, even alone! And if they want to, they can claim she killed Sageras left toe nail during the ending cinematic (we just couldn't see because of the clouds!). It's a very shallow attempt at fixing something very wrong with the character..
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    If you guys can't see this as a character development on jaina, even if blizzard made it very slow.... i'm afraid you are not really fans or don't love wow, you are just here to complaint... not that the 99% of people in forums connect just to do that...

    It's so sad to see that the external community of wow is so lame, and i'm sorry guys but that is not just blizzard's fault, they have a part on it, but you people really love to make something out of nothing or a bomb out of 3 grains of sand.

    If I have to describe it in terms of community in an example, wow community is the opposite of the league of legends community, the first one has amazing people in game but terrible outside of it, and the last, has one if not the worst community in game, but a really amazing one externally.

    It is a fact that one of the reasons apart from blizzard making mistakes that the subs keep going down is this shitty external community that just talks garbage, who the f..k would enter a game or even test it, after reading what you guys say all the time, with not even one good thing to say?. So sad really. Is just my way to see this and my opinion.

    P.D: Sorry for the english! ^^
  1. xlanonym0uslx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ElDoorO View Post
    Old days Blue: Hey guys, be polite.
    Now-a-days Blue: Guys, fix your formatting... or we'll modify it for you.
    That blue seemed awfully upset -- I wonder if something in real life is bothering them. They seemed way too sensitive with a hint of arrogance. They know better and that's that. Well if that's the case -- shut down the forums, they don't need any player feedback. At all. They have all the answers.

    Are you MAGA? An SJW? A black? An aryan? Seems like you like to find fault in whatever you disagree with. Someone legitimately finding fault, especially in regards to something that is conventionally found annoying, doesn't make then sensitive or arrogant, it just makes NORMAL people respect them for having the ability to stand up to people that are fucking annoying or just trolls.
  1. RamGuy's Avatar
    I don't want so sound harsh, but this engine is starting to hold the game back. The texture work is just awful and it doesn't really seem to improve all that much between expansions so it seems like Blizzard has pushed the engine as far as they possibly can? With Unity and Unreal Engine improving a lot and being so easily accessible we now have indie-developers providing games with much better visual fidelity and textures than this. It's starting to become a problem for the game.

    Sure, its a old engine and what they have been able to do with it for all these years is really impressive. But we still pay full-price for each and every expansion, and we also pay a monthly subscription. It just feels odd for the game to be stuck which this old engine, with these low-textured graphics in 2018. I feel its time for something new?

    I do still enjoy the game, but these textures are just not cutting it in 2018. And we still have a lot of UX-design in the game that dates back to the games original release. It doesn't really fit a modern game at all. Why don't we get a overhaul? And the fact that they are strictly using the in-game engine for all in-game cut-scenes makes the low texture quality hurt the game even more. The in-game cut-scenes don't look all that great. Why not make all the big, important ones CGI like they did with WarCraft III, Diablo II, Diablo III, StarCraft II etc..? I can still watch WarCraft III cinematic and they look great, but when I look at the WotLK end cut-scene it looks horrendous... It's a real shame for the game.
  1. mmoc157db6de0e's Avatar
    Uther has some mad Crocks on! WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOOSE!!!

    Bare feet with a block of metal going under the foot Arch OUCH!!
  1. s0ul's Avatar
    lmao hilarious seeing people cry about easy content to be even easier. When told, "It's okay to have hard content that you cannot complete." which by the way is absolutely correct, they start playing the victim card--how dare Blizzard answer a paying customer in this fashion.

    And when Blues get a bit feisty, the SJW on the forums start crying even more. They're people like you and I. If you're going to act like a smartass, they'll probably reply like smartasses.
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by s0ul View Post
    lmao hilarious seeing people cry about easy content to be even easier. When told, "It's okay to have hard content that you cannot complete." which by the way is absolutely correct, they start playing the victim card--how dare Blizzard answer a paying customer in this fashion.

    And when Blues get a bit feisty, the SJW on the forums start crying even more. They're people like you and I. If you're going to act like a smartass, they'll probably reply like smartasses.
    100% with you, this community is made of crybabies that have to complaint about everything, even how things are placed in the map. I'm astonished.

Site Navigation