WoW Reviews & Guides

Onyxia is the current broodmother of the black dragonflight on Azeroth. After carefully calculating her plans for many years, she entered into a pact with her elder brother, Nefarian, to take over for their missing father and gain control of the entire flight. To this end, she has begun manipulating many mortals and dragons alike to her own ends and wields considerable political power over many groups

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Naxxramas is a giant necropolis floating over Wintergarde Keep, in Dragonblight. It has the questionable honor to serve as the seat of one of the Lich King’s most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel’Thuzad.

The instance has been redesigned for 10 and 25-man raids. It consists of four different wings which, when cleared, grant access to the Frostwyrm Lair (a fifth and final wing). The first four wings are, in order of ascending difficulty: Arachnid, Plague, Military, Construct. Progression is non-linear – raids may select their own path to the final lair.

History

An ancient Nerubian ziggurat, Naxxramas was torn free from the ground by agents of the Lich King to serve as Kel’Thuzad’s base of operations as he spreads the plague throughout Lordaeron. Other sources say Obrahiim, the Traveler, a great skeletal architect, was pivotal in the conception of Naxxramas, hinting that it was altered or retooled. See the Compendium of Fallen Heroes for more details.

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Tags: Ancient, Argent, Armor, attunement, check, DPS, Dragonblight, Epic, first, Forsaken, four wings, From, Frostwyrm, gear, General, giant, healers, Heroic, instance, kel thuzad, Kel'Thuzad, King, Lich, Lich King, Lordaeron, mount, Naxxramas, naxxramas 10, naxxramas 25, naxxramas boss, naxxramas loot, naxxramas wowhead, Nerub, Nerubian, plague, raid, raid naxxramas, Scarlet Crusade, Special, Spire, tanks, The Lich King, warcraft, Wings, Wintergarde, world of warcraft, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, wow naxxramas

BigWigs is a boss alert mod. It consists of many individual “boss modules”, mini addons that are designed to trigger alert messages and timer bars for one specific raid boss each. Modules are activated when you target or mouseover a Boss, or if any other BigWigs use in your raid does. In most cases only one module will be running at any given time.

Plugins

• Messages: Can be moved, re-coloured & locked.
• Bars: Can be moved, skinned to different textures(SharedMedia compatible), resized & also have an ‘emphasis’ feature to flash when they are about to expire.
• RaidIcon: Target painting (put an icon over a player that has been singled out by the boss).
• RaidWarn: Sending alerts to RaidWarning, tells & chat.
• BossBlock: Suppress “spam” sent by other player’s bossmods.
• Comm: Syncing via the addon channel (so that the player don’t have to be in combat range to trigger a message)
• Target Monitor: For enabling boss modules when you see them, instead of having them constantly enabled.
• Sound: Plays various sounds on different events(SharedMedia compatible).
• FuBar/Minimap: Button for easy access to the configuration menu, resetting running modules, and seeing what modules are active.

Extras

• Tranq: For keep track of hunters Tranq cooldowns, vital for some bosses.
• Proximity: For displaying players within a certain range on certain boss encounters.
• Test: Test your bars and warnings, and move them around.
• CustomBar: For ‘PizzaTimers’, create your own custom bars.
• Version: A query for not only the core BigWigs version, but also the instance version numbers.
• Flash’N'Shake: Shake and/or Flash the screen blue when something important happens that directly affects you, such as a debuff. (Off by default)

The creation

BigWigs is a boss timer and warning mod. Tekkub, the original BigWigs1 for Ace1 author, was inspired to write this after his very first raid run. He was horrified by the massive amount of spam his raid leader was creating with his boss mod. He was getting messages all over the place for things he didn’t care about (Hunters can’t dispel a curse or interrupt a heal). He also found that the “60 seconds until painful doom” timer messages were such a waste. Why not use a nice simple timerbar to show this?

The aim

BigWigs aims to be as efficient as possible (creating a lower memory per second footprint and using a lower amount of CPU than any other boss mod), as effectively as possible. When modules are written every aspect of the encounter is revised. Is syncing required? Is target scanning required? What events are really to be warned for. It also aims to have the latest boss modules out asap, that means that not long after the first few attempts of a brand new boss, it usually has a working boss mod.

Unique Features

Bigwigs has an ‘Emphasis’ feature that allows certain bars to be more prominent than others, so your attention is in the right place. SharedMedia support allows you to customize the look of your bars and choose different sounds for warnings. BigWigs can identify when you have wiped on a boss and reset the bars and timers automatically. It loads only the boss logic you need for the boss you’re currently facing, rather load up the logic for the whole instance.

Install Instructions:

BigWigs-r7428 download it. Click on a file link to start the zip file download. You would “open” the downloaded file or you can double click zip files to open them on Windows.

You unzip the downloaded zip file to the Game’s Interface\Addons folder and you are done.

Look at the shortcut (right click the Warcraft icon and select properties) you use to start Warcraft to get the path to where the game is installed.

Typical locations for the AddOns folder:

Windows XP: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Windows Vista: “C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Mac: “Machintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns”

Warcraft only finds addons when it starts. Close Warcraft before you install an addon.

Tags: About, addon, AddOns, Aspect, BigWigs, BigWigs Bossmods, BigWigs download, Blue, boss, bosses, buff, Don, download, first, Games, hunter, Install, instance, King, map, minimap, mount, plugin, raid, raid leader, Spire, Target, warcraft, wow, wow BigWigs Bossmods

LightHeaded is a very simple addon that displays quest information and comments from http://www.wowhead.com in game, eliminating the need to Alt-Tab when you get stuck on quest. This addon was inspired by qcomments and wowhead_quests, which both serve a similar purpose. Data is only loaded when you first request it, so you can be sure you’re not using more memory than you need to.

The following slash commands are valid:

• /lh attach – Attaches the frame to the quest log
• /lh detach – Detaches the frame, allows you to resize and move it
• /lh sound – Toggles the open/close sound
• /lh page – Toggles showing all comments on one page, or with multiple pages
• /lh bgalpha <0.0-1.0> – Changes the alpha of the LH window background textures, so you can see the world.
• /lh debug – Enables or disabled debug messages when loading quest databases
• /lh config – Opens the LightHeaded configuration window

LightHeaded supports sending coordinates to TomTom, MapNotes, Cartographer2 and Cartographer3.

IMPORTANT: Addon authors that wish to use this API and data should
include the wowhead logo in the frame that displays this information.
They are kind enough to let me continue parsing their database, and we
owe them at least that much. Thank you.

Install Instructions:

Download it. Click on a file link to start the zip file download. You would “open” the downloaded file or you can double click zip files to open them on Windows.

You unzip the downloaded zip file to the Game’s Interface\Addons folder and you are done.

Look at the shortcut (right click the Warcraft icon and select properties) you use to start Warcraft to get the path to where the game is installed.

Typical locations for the AddOns folder:

Windows XP: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Windows Vista: “C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Mac: “Machintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns”

Warcraft only finds addons when it starts. Close Warcraft before you install an addon.

Tags: addon, AddOns, coordinates, databases, Don, download, download LightHeaded, first, fro, From, Games, Install, LightHeaded, map, Quest, Spire, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow, wow LightHeaded, wowhead

Blizzard’s announced a 24 hour downtime window for a large group of servers, from 12:01 AM Pacific time on Tuesday, June 8th, to 12:01 Pacific time on Wednesday, June 9th. All other servers will have a normal downtime window of 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific time.

The extended downtime, says Blizzard, is to prepare the servers for the Cataclysm expansion. While this should not be taken as a sign that the expansion is imminent, it’s at least nice to see that preparations are continuing apace. In addition, it’s probably fair to assume that even if your server isn’t in this current list, it’ll eventually get a day of downtime of its own as Blizzard gets all of their servers in shape.

Check the full list after the break to see if your server is in this batch:

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The Plagueworks is an area inside the west side of Icecrown Citadel it is an area connected to the rest of the instance by the Spire surrounding the Frozen Throne in the middle level of the zone.

The Plagueworks is a laboratory for creation of potions, vials and containers of the Plague of Undeath and blight slimes. It is also the factory where several Abominations and horrific scourge creations are made. Professor Putricide is the leader of the Plagueworks.

A central theme of the Plagueworks seems to be the green liquid plague seen in Warcraft III and classic World of Warcraft, alongside the orange Blight Crystal plague seen throughout Northrend (mainly in Zul’Drak).

The Plagueworks opened on January 5, 2010, 28 days after the opening of Icecrown Citadel.

Tags: Abomination, Abominations, citadel, Crystal, fro, Frozen, Frozen Throne, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, instance, Northrend, plague, Plagueworks, Professor Putricide, Putricide, Scourge, Spire, The Frozen Throne, The Plagueworks, The Spire, Undeath, warcraft, warcraft iii, World, world of warcraft, Zul'Drak

The frozen earth of Icecrown roils with throngs of the undead Scourge, reanimated bodies so numerous that there are few physical locations where the Horde and the Alliance can build their camps and strongholds. Instead, the defenders of Azeroth take to the sky.

Two gunships, the Skybreaker of the Alliance and Orgrim’s Hammer, named for the former Warchief of the Horde, patrol the skies of Icecrown. Early in the campaign against the Lich King, these grand vessels were used to scout overland terrain, where they frequently came into open conflict with each other, brightening the skies with their cannon fire.

Now, in the wake of the Argent Tournament, the enemies of the Scourge have finally gathered to lay siege to Icecrown Citadel. With the fortress nearly impenetrable on land and the spires of the citadel touching the sky at their peaks, it’s become clear to the leaders of both the Horde and the Alliance that an aerial assault, spearheaded by these two gunships, is the only way to infiltrate Arthas’s stronghold.

Two prominent warriors have stepped forward to lead the attack: Muradin Bronzebeard of the Alliance and High Overlord Saurfang of the Horde. Both seek to defeat the Lich King and spare the living from another plague — but there are other, more personal stakes for these heroes. Saurfang seeks to uncover the fate of his son, whose body was lost at the battle of the Wrath Gate, while Muradin, bearing the weight of Arthas’s atrocities, seeks justice, closure, and possibly even redemption for his former student.

And yet, even with their noble goals, there will be no shared glory for the Alliance and the Horde in this attack. The dock atop Icecrown Citadel is only big enough for one ship. Halfway up the spires, the Skybreaker and Orgrim’s Hammer are fated to clash again in a storm of gunfire, swinging blades, and bellowing warriors. Foremost in this mayhem are the combat crews, veteran heroes who’ve already begun the assault on Icecrown and who will fight to the last for a chance at Arthas — heroes like you.

Tags: Alliance, Argent, Argent Tournament, Arthas, Azeroth, Chance, citadel, Deadly, Deadly Fireworks, fro, From, Frozen, gunship, Gunship Battle, High Overlord Saurfang, horde, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, King, Last, Lich, Lich King, Muradin Bronzebeard, Orgrim's Hammer, plague, Saurfang, Scourge, Skybreaker, Spire, Storm, The Lich King, The Spire, Undead, warcraft, warrior, warriors, world of warcraft, wrath, Wrath Gate

Invincible was born to the mare Brightmane on the Balnir Farmstead in Tirisfal Glades, in the winter of the year Stormwind fell. Prince Arthas, then nine years old, was present when he was born, and was given the horse by the Balnir family, who bred horses used by the royal family. The horse had a white coat, different from the usual Balnir stock, which normally had gray coats. Arthas had considered naming the horse “Snowfall” or “Starlight”, but in the informal tradition of Lordaeron knights and nobles naming their steeds after a quality (Uther’s was “Steadfast”, King Terenas’ “Courageous”), he named the colt “Invincible”.

Ten years later in winter, before Arthas was inducted into the Knights of the Silver Hand, Arthas’ exertion in the numbing cold resulted in a crippling injury to his beloved Invincible. Too far from help and unable to heal the stricken horse, Arthas was forced to kill him in order to relieve his pain. He was buried on the grounds of the Balnir Farmstead at Arthas’ request. Invincible’s death was one of the events that inspired Arthas to become a paladin.
Arthas and Invincible from The Frozen Throne.

After the fall of Lordaeron years later, Arthas – now a death knight – ran directly from Lordaeron after murdering his father, to the Balnir Farmstead where Invicible was buried. With the power of Frostmourne, Arthas resurrected the horse as his undead steed. Now fully living up to his name, Invincible could become a spectre and disappear, to be resummoned by Arthas at any time.

During the Scourge’s siege on the Sunwell, Anasterian Sunstrider confronted Arthas in single combat, severing Invincible’s forelegs with his runeblade, Felo’melorn, to dismount him. Witnessing Invincible’s injuries brought on a surge of memories and sent Arthas into a rage, during which he shattered Felo’melorn and struck down Anasterian. This time, however, Arthas was able to necromantically repair the injuries. It is likely that Invincible still serves as his master’s steed, even after Arthas became the new Lich King, though Sindragosa has also been referred to as his mount.

Players who defeat the Lich King on heroic difficulty will have the opportunity to obtain Invincible as a flying mount.

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Ashbringer is the sword of former Highlord Alexandros Mograine of the Silver Hand, named after Alexandros (“The Ashbringer”). His oldest son, Renault betrayed and murdered Alexandros using the sword, transforming it into Corrupted Ashbringer.

Alexandros was resurrected as a death knight and kept it in his possession until his younger son Darion was forced to kill him. Darion then used the sword to kill himself attempting to free his father’s soul, consequently becoming a death knight himself. The sword became purified after Darion betrayed the Lich King and he relinquished it to Tirion Fordring.

The Forging of Ashbringer

During the assault on Blackrock Spire in the Second War, Highlord Mograine of the Silver Hand claimed a mysterious dark crystal from a dead orc warlock. The crystal was the “living embodiment of shadow,” and originated from Draenor. Upon touching it, Mograine’s hand became afflicted with wounds that could not be healed.

Mograine kept the crystal a secret until the first whispers of the Scourge reached Lordaeron. He revealed it to the other leaders of the Silver Hand, suggesting that they search for the crystal’s polar opposite — a manifestation of the Light itself — to be used against the impending undead holocaust. Mograine’s peers, appalled at the sight of this dark crystal, attempted to destroy it with a holy spell. Unexpectedly, the crystal absorbed the spell and became its antithesis, the very crystal of pure light that Mograine suggested moments before. It was decided that from this crystal a weapon would be forged that would smite the undead with such power that only a cloud of ash would remain in its wake — The Ashbringer.

Tags: Alexandros, Alexandros Mograine, Ashbringer, Blackrock, Blackrock Spire, Corrupted Ashbringer, Crystal, Darion, Death, death knight, Elf, first, fro, From, Holy, Impending, King, Lich, Lich King, Lordaeron, omen, Orc, Renault, Scourge, Second War, shadow, Silver Hand, Spire, Sword, The Lich King, Tirion Fordring, Undead, warlock, Weapon

The Crimson Hall is an area inside the northern side of Icecrown Citadel. This section is the headquarters and home of the San’layn, the vampiric darkfallen blood elves in the service of the Scourge.

The area is luxuriously decorated in red decorations and scarlet coloured curtains similar to other blood elven decor. The Hall is connected to the rest of the instance by the Spire surrounding the Frozen Throne in the middle level of the zone.

Tags: blood elves, Crimson Hall, fro, Frozen, Frozen Throne, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, instance, Lich King, San'layn, Scourge, Spire, The Frozen Throne, The Spire