Some things you didn't know about WoW...

[GeordieMagpie]

Is it sad I know about 90% (if not all) of these?

[Deleted]

i remember when the honor system was first introduced you would be ranked among your fellow competitors in a percentual manner, meaning you had to be among the top earners of honor per week to progress in the ranks to high warlord.

so top ranking people would grind pvp pretty much 24/7 madly to progress in any way, because the highest ranks pretty much were capped to a few.

so you always had some very known people on your server who were trying to reach the #1 spot and progress and those would switch occasionally.

i remember our guild in the summer of 05 farming wsg madly from morning to evening, all the while still trying to progress in wow. our guy was mostly ranked #1 and was at lvl 10th or so when we decided pvp farming wasn't worth it in favor of MC, god was he pissed, i myself was only ranked centurion or so, because i always sleept late in the summer holidays

anyway the real deal was that for a short time with the introduction, if i remember correctly, it was necessary to wear the pvp gear to actually BE the rank it had required, meaning you would have had to pretty much still be #1 in this abyssmal grind every week to be qualified to wear your full pvp equip at all times. if you missed a week and downranked... there goes your ability to wear your pvp weapon... but blizzard pretty soon changed that. but still pvp was a sick grind with competitive rankings in progression.

AND pvp queuing was fucked up at the beginning, there were no mechanisms to switch places in the queue, if i recall correctly, so if you tried to join with your 10 man group and 3 people were before you, no bg would happen because 3 people is 7 less eligible for a valid wsg opening.
so when no bg happend for 30 minutes our teamleader would leave the queue and reapply hoping to make it happen this time.

[Jasper Kazai]

Adding one from long time ago (not sure when this was fixed, definitely after Vanilla):
If you disconnected, there was a high chance you could not log into your character straight away. Instead, you would get an error message stating "A character with that name already exists", because your character was not yet logged out. It could take several minutes before you were allowed back into the game on that character. If you would log into another character, you could see 'yourself' still online.

That's not old at all. I get that rather frequently, even today, since my internet has patches of being shit then back to being ok.

[Duridi]

"-Many players think that the worst quest in Vanilla was "Deep Ocean, Vast Sea...", because the breath timer was only 60 seconds and Murlocs could move through walls. "

I can sooooo relate to that. I skipped it on my main after several attempts, then later got a level 60 druid to help me with it on my alt. It is one of those quests that stuck to my memory as goddamn annoying. Along with escort quests.

[Meralus II]

I'll add a few, apologies if they've been mentioned:

1) No groung mount till LvL40 (Imagine running around STV and 30-39 zones with no mount, still then. Even upon dinging 40 very few people could afford it. Epic mount at 60 and again, expensive as heck.
2) No flying till LvL 70 in Outland. You had to run around on your ground mount, epic flying was expensive and most people got loans off friends to buy their epic flyer.
3) Shaman totem quests, having to run around half of Kalimdor for each respective totem quest. Air, water, fire and earth. No mount, must have spent hours doing these quests.
4) Certain BC heroics required you to attune to enter, same as some of the BC raids. Was a very grind, yet worthwhile and rewarding process.
5) Back in Vanilla/BC/EarlyWrath herilooms did not exist, it was a bigger grind not to mention levelling was much harder with little XP benefits available nor was the XP requirement per a lvl cut down.

[teebo]

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8...00/Kalidar.jpg This is called "Kalidar". Looks like a battleground to me.

Looks like Deepwind Gorge.

[Deleted]

3) Shaman totem quests, having to run around half of Kalimdor for each respective totem quest. Air, water, fire and earth. No mount, must have spent hours doing these quests.

ERGH.
ERGHH.
ERGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Please do not even mention that.

[Ciddy]

I remember Tauren plainsrunning. It sounds cool, but it sucked in gameplay. For one, the 10 seconds or so that it took to kick in was slower than a normal mount (you just had to run for like 10 seconds, and it would automatically kick in to make you suddenly start running at mount speed), so it kinda sucked if you were doing a lot of "stop and go" stuff like farming minerals/herbs. Also, it would sometimes kick in when you didn't want it to kick in and make you run to undesirable locations.

I don't think that actually made it to live though, did it? Thought it was just a beta thing that got removed before the game actually went live.

Also, yes, those fucking totem quests...I can't remember which one, but you had to take some winding path up a cliff...I almost gave up on that because I couldn't find the start to the path.

[Deleted]

Not sure if these were mentioned but:

Human priests had desperate prayer AND Feedback, which drained some mana off your attacker when they hit you... So awesome compared to fearward...
Dwarf priests had desperate prayer as well.
The Mount you could got at 40/60 depended on your race, and if you wanted a nightelf mount (which was really popular) you had to turn in TONS of Runecloth in darnassus to get Exalted.
Priests usually had a hybrid spec of disc/holy for healing, seeing as Lightwell was... Well shit (Got better later on, and now the login tip can even be "Click the Lightwell")
Shadow priests could tank Onyxia because of their high threat, and Mind blast acting like a taunt.
Oh and the best one IMO: Raid bosses in 40mans dropped 2-4 epics!
ZG had a set as well, but you enedes tons of rep to it, the rep youd get from bijous and coins.
There was an area in Plaguelands with elite mobs, these could drop the other other item needed to start the Benediction quest (priests doing this quests brought these fire potions to help with killing the skeletons)
Lastly healing mages used to be awful, they had less hp than other classes, so healing these on Vael in BWL was intense in the beginning.

Oh and wicked awesome post!

[Milerks]

http://imgur.com/gallery/jj3m7
wow

[Lord Pebbleton]

I'll add my stuff, i apologize if they've already been written.

-If you look from the right angle through the beard, you can clearly see that dwarven grin creepily.
-Gnoll tents are partly made out of human faces.
-There are quests you can do with the Golden Lotus, that will be removed when patch 5.4 hits. Through these quests you retrieve the Thunder's King own weapons, Uroe and Shan-Dun, along with his helm. However, those items do not resemble their ToT droppable counterpart even closely. In addition, Shan-Dun's model is the same of Wrathion's spear, the one you provide him after thrusting Nalak with it.
-It would seem Lei Shen, even if a mighty king, really didn't make much. Soon after he wakes, his island is under heavy siege and he's slain weeks later. The only thing he could do was sending troll scouts in Pandaria. To compare, Ragnaros sets half of Hyjal aflame before being killed.
-Speaking of Ragnaros; Deathwing could easily fly to the World Tree in Hyjal and destroy it, but he awakened Ragnaros for the task.
-There are Whale Sharks swimming around Pandaria, named Shrouded Cetacean. Unlike their Vashj'Ir counterpart, they award no achievement, while yelding the same trash loot.
-Around the isles near Townlong Steppes, you may find an Ancient Leviathan, Ozumat's younger brother. Watch out, because it doesn't have a death animation, making it extremely creepy when it's dead.
-There's an Onyx Serpent circling around the peak of Mount Neverest. Killing it awards a bag that contains loot similar to rares'. The same goes for Booms, an undead sailor that can be found on the ship at Unga Ingoo.
-Facts about Battle on the High Seas: 1. There's a dead sailor hidden in (almost?) every ship. Roll the dice in front of him to attempt to get a bonus, a curse, or nothing at all. This includes a friendly skeleton that follows you, a horde of skeletons attacking you, damage increase, healing over time, scurvy, cannon barrage, and cannon strikes chasing you around. 2. If you toy around with the dice long enough, it'll be clear that the High Seas want to claim your soul. 3. Jumping into the water starts a countdown, visible as a debuff; if you don't get on a ship before it fades, a small whale shark will come and oneshot you. Note that if you use things like Deterrence, Shield, Ice Block, the shark will bite, but you won't get any damage and survive; this will be enough to make the beast go away, clearing the debuff. 4. There's a man roaming around the ship, sailing on the back of two turtles. His only buff says they're held together by hair. This is a reference to Jack Sparrow, just like "Jack Arrow", an Alliance Captain in the Jade Forest that can be killed by horde to start an additional quest.
-Our characters' soul is void, empty, and in most cases doesn't exist anymore. This is because a lot of bosses' abilities involve cracking, smashing, destroying, ravaging, severing, tearing apart, splitting, stealing, burning, crushing our characters' soul.
-If you have Atiesh, a level 60 legendary that was lost when Naxxramas moved, you can go to Karazhan and engage in combat with the Shade of Aran to hear an unique quote.
-Karazhan was supposed to be Vanilla's last raid, used to connect with TBC, à la Ruby Sanctum. Somewhere during the process, the idea was scrapped. Karazhan still remains one of the best raids in World of Warcraft.
-Ever heard of the Silithus Cave? Back when you couldn't fly in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, there was a very small cave on a mountain bordering Loch Modan. If you managed to get inside by jumping skill, it'd tell you you were in Silithus, and you could read Silithus' general and local defense chat.
-Since the Cataclysm, Loch Modan's dam got destroyed and little water remained in the once glorious Loch. However, if you venture not too deep inside said water, you'll find the Modan Monster, who isn't really a friendly guest...
-Zaricotl was a carrion bird in Badlands that was the bane of many new players during Vanilla. being a level 55 elite in a level 30-40 zone, he could wreak havoc on unsuspecting victims. Since the Cataclysm, he's changed a while: he's still there, but coloured with an unique white skin. It would be a rare catch for hunters out there.
-Just north of Zaricotl's spawn point, there's a crypt hidden on the mountain. Descend, and you'll find a scenario with various harmless cosmetic skeletons, depicting a Conan the Barbarian's scene. However, look to the right as you enter, and be ready to be scared shitless by a pair of glowing eyes.
-Karazhan Crypt is a very well known place, so i won't lose time telling you what it's about. However, i'll tell you why it's so damn creepy, and that's because it's empty. That's it; there are no enemies inside. After 5 minutes in there, you desperately need something to kill to feel like there's someone else there, like a skeleton or a ghost like those you can find in front of Karazhan. Nothing, you're alone, behind a sealed gate. Alone, save for the being watching you nearby, unseen.
-Against All Odds, an achievement earned by winning Wintergrasp with Tenacity (the buff you got if teams didn't have equal member numbers), was to be converted to a Feat of Strength during WotLK. It later got removed completely. To this day, it is unknown why it didn't make it back.
-Vashj'Ir is a mysterious, watery zone. There are parts of it yet to be explored, far beyond sight, where just Far Sight and Hunters' eyes can see. To the south, in the distance, two big dragon skeletons lay nearby, an enormous blue pearl between them. Maybe an ancient fight took place there? Are there more secrets down there? We don't know.
-The Unknown Soldier is a hostile skeleton that can be seen kneeling before its own tomb in Duskwood, at the place named Beggar's Haunt. It is a very sorry sight.
-You may have found it while killing rares in the Barrens. Near the Wailing Caverns there's a shrine atop a small mountain, where a dead orc lies on an altar behind a guardian spirit. This is a tribute to a Blizzard developer, who died years ago, while WoW was still on its way.
-The northern part of Dire Maul, the one with King Gordok as the last boss, isn't really loved among new players. This is partly because the tribute chest you get at the end often doesn't give anything good at all; maybe some Morning Glory Dew and cloth. However, if you pay attention to what the ogre at the end (the one who spawns the chest) says, you'll learn that, the more bosses you left alive, the bigger your reward. If you leave every boss alive (except for King Gordok, obviously), the chest may contain the Treant's Bane, an epic axe. Before the Cataclysm, the place was tuned for level 60s, and the axe was a sought after item, since it was an epic outside of raids. Still, you needed to be lucky to get it.
-Knot Thimblejack was a goblin inside of Dire Maul North, who could be freed through a key randomly found on ogres. Not only was this a viable option to farm Steamwheedle Cartel reputation, but it gave access to various profession patterns that cannot be found in the game anymore, if not in the AH through those who still have them.
-The Essence of the Pure Flame, a trinket that still drops from Ragnaros in the Molten Core, is said to be one if not the worst item in the game, second only to the Lion Horn of Stormwind. Its only effect is to inflict 13 Fire damage when struck in combat, and even Carrot on a Stick was a huge improvement from that.
-In the beginning, it is said that trinkets were planned to have cosmetic effects only. The moment they added one giving advantages over other people was the moment Blizzard made trinkets be a part of our equipment.

[Yossarian]

VERY nice topic, grays
I'll add one
-if you go by the north side of the Vale of the Eternal Blossom, you can find a path in the mountains, eventually leading to an old pandaren who will tell you the story of Alani

[Deleted]

These facts r suspiciously the same as a well known series of videos from Tradechat...

[Mormolyce]

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but there's a clam boss in the water off the coast of Dread Wastes/Townlong Steppes that when killed gives you a totally awesome vanity item.

-There's an Onyx Serpent circling around the peak of Mount Neverest. Killing it awards a bag that contains loot similar to rares'. The same goes for Booms, an undead sailor that can be found on the ship at Unga Ingoo.

This was actually added in 5.1 - at launch he dropped nothing. I know because I tried :P

[Lord Pebbleton]

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but there's a clam boss in the water off the coast of Dread Wastes/Townlong Steppes that when killed gives you a totally awesome vanity item.

Good old Gokk'lok, took ages to kill him, with his 16 million points hp. The best tactic would be picking one of the northern mantids as a minion, to make use of their 5% health-per-second ability.

These facts r suspiciously the same as a well known series of videos from Tradechat...

I can assure you it's the first time i see that video. Still, interesting facts in there.


I'll add another one. Maybe it's already well-known, but i found it on my own some time ago:
-East of the Temple of the Red Crane in Krasarang Wild, there's something weird in the water. Venture to the bottom, and look around. You will see rocks, pearls, other submarine stuff and a pipe arranged to look like an old man's face. It's even pretty big.

[RAFFLES]

WHAT!!! I want 40v40 battle for gilneas BG instead of this sh88ty 10v10 one!!!!!

[Chaosturn]

The cataclysm alpha login screen looked so good! It angers me so much knowing that beauty got replaced.
(to find it simply CTRL+F and type in Cataclysm Login on the first page and click the first link)

[Lord Pebbleton]

-The Secret Aerie is a zone north of the Veiled Stair. There are friendly pandaren affiliated to "The People of the Sky", and this place is home of the Hawkmasters. Inside a little cave there's Hawkmaster Liu, Nurong's brother.

[Serelean]

Not sure if I missed this or if anyone else mentioned this since I cba going through loads of pages but, in vanilla (can't remember what patch it was fixed) druids in shape shift forms were not able to speak to a NPC. You would get a error message say "You are shapeshifted" or something like that. But yea looking at this list does bring back some memories. ^_^

Also I've gotta add, that alpha troll form gave me the creeps and will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Another fact: The whale sharks don't swim like sharks, but except they swim like dolphins! Shark use their tails in an side to side motion, where as dolphins use the up and down motion!

[Inval1d]

Repost but interesting nonetheless!