Category: World of Warcraft

Lightning gears is welcomed by wide players in the World of Warcraft. It gives players new goals in game and give normal players chances to catch up with the professional players. Even through Blizzard has said that they think the lightning gears performs really well in the earlier period, we have no idea whether there will still be lighting gears in the latter content. So, why don’t we have a discussion about it? How do you like the idea of lightning gears in WOW?

It is a good idea and it gives normal players new hopes. Since the release of the patch 5.2, players had chances to win the Thunderforged items in normal and heroic raids whose item levels are 6 levels higher than the counterparts. If you are kind of tired with the normal ways to get the wow items of top levels, you may have hopes and start to expect for more things. The Thunderforged items are like the extra gifts to those who have good lucks and work harder.

It is hard to get, and it makes little difference. To be honest, it is not easy to get the Thunderforged items. As the drop rate is much lower, you have to try more times to get it. Since the drop rate in the 25-player raid is much higher than it is in the 10-player raid, to have bigger chance to win the prize, you’d better join a 25-player team. It is easy for those who are in Guild or have many friends in WOW, but it is never easy for those who do not have so much companions. They have to wait for really long time to get a random 25-player team. So, most of them can just stay in 10-player team, from which the item level is much lower than the 25-play team, and the drop rate for the Thunderforged items is lower as well. It is never easy, so it makes little difference to their game experience.

Some adjustments need to be done. Just like what we have mentioned above, some adjustments may be done to the drop rate of the Thunderforged items in 10-player and 25-player raids. So, the wider players can enjoy the prizes and share the new hopes. But from the view of the game developers, it is not that easy to just adjust the drop rate, they have to consider more things to protect the benefit of more players’. So, how to keep the balance and make more players satisfy, Blizzard may need to think about smarter ideas. 

Azeroth was just another routine stop on Algalon’s continued scanning of the cosmos. Loken, the Primary Designate in charge of keeping Yogg-Saron locked away, had died at the hands of mortals merrily tromping through the Halls of Lightning in search of knowledge and loot. With his last breath, Loken gasped that his death heralded the end of the world — because he knew that his death was the key to bringing Algalon to Azeroth.

And once Algalon was on Azeroth, he would perform his scan. He would find the Well of Eternity destroyed, one Aspect corrupted by an Old God, another Aspect dead, the Primary Designate dead, and Yogg-Saron breaking his way out of his prison. There was zero chance that Algalon would send anything other than a Reply code Omega, Sell world of warcraft gold and Azeroth’s re-origination was guaranteed … almost.

Because the only thing Algalon didn’t expect was that the tiny mortal races of the world would fight their way to his chamber and try to keep him from sending that Reply code with every ounce of tenacity and strength they possessed. And to Algalon, this simply … did not compute.

I have seen worlds bathed in the Makers’ flames. Their denizens fading without so much as a whimper. Entire planetary systems born and razed in the time that it takes your mortal hearts to beat once. Yet all throughout, my own heart, devoid of emotion… of empathy. I… have… felt… NOTHING! A million, million lives wasted. Had they all held within them your tenacity? Had they all loved life as you do?

Of all the worlds Algalon had encountered, of all of the worlds he had mechanically scanned and re-originated, not a single one possessed mortal races who were not only cognizant of their world’s corruption but intent on fighting it. Not a single one had registered on his radar. And when the mortals of Azeroth broke into the Celestial Planetarium to confront him directly and were successful at doing so, Algalon was at a loss. This was simply not in his programming. 

Thus, that is exactly what Algalon chose to do. He hasn’t left the world of Azeroth, nor has he perished. Instead, Algalon watches the world and the creatures upon it, trying desperately to divine what sort of strange malfunction caused the mortals of Azeroth to turn into creatures with the strength to face him and change a destiny that was nigh irrevocable. These mortals, their passion, their strength, their odd penchant for violence starkly opposed in direct contrast to their keen wish for peace — all of these things are now being carefully observed.

In a way, as we continue on with our strange destiny, whatever that may be, the mortals of Azeroth are slowly working the training wheels free. In The Burning Crusade, we restored the Sunwell and stopped Kil’jaeden from encroaching upon the world. In Wrath, we found ourselves helping those that were supposed to keep the world safe and orderly by freeing the corrupted Watchers of Ulduar. In Cataclysm, we put an end to Deathwing and assured the safety of our world in such a way that the Aspects themselves stepped down. On top of that, we successfully shut down the re-origination device in Uldum, saving our world from destruction yet again.

We are a continued force to be reckoned with. And in all the calculations Algalon has processed over aeons, we are one calculation he simply cannot compute.

Perhaps it is your imperfection, that which grants you free will, that allows you to persevere against cosmically calculated odds. You prevailed where the Titans’ own perfect creations have failed.

Algalon is astonished by the mortal races of Azeroth because despite the death of one who was meant to keep an Old God imprisoned, we persevered. And when the Titans’ own creations failed to keep themselves free of corruption, we stepped up and freed them ourselves. And when the Titan-created Aspects were driven to madness, we stepped up to take them out. That puts us in a very strange place, in Algalon’s opinion, a place where the tiny mortal natives of a tiny planet are suddenly stronger than what the Titans can create.

That makes us two things: fascinating and dangerous. It is likely for both of these reasons that Algalon chose to stay and observe. Our actions and reasoning are a delightful puzzle to the Observer, but in that puzzle is what could be a potential ally to the Titans or a potential threat. Until then, Algalon will continue to observe, taking no sides and staying out of any conflict. After all, emotion might compromise his programming — and then where would the universe be? 

Much like the other Watchers of Azeroth, Algalon had his own purpose. However, his particular purpose was on a much larger, universal scale. By his own words, Algalon has been to countless worlds and performed the same task repeatedly: Analyze the world the Titans created, and detect any “systemic corruption” — anything that would keep that world from thriving as the Titans had planned. Once it was determined that the world was indeed corrupt, Algalon would send one of two signals to the Titans: Reply code Alpha, signaling that the world was in fact, just fine, or Reply code Omega, signaling that corruption had been detected and the world would be re-originated.

The Titans didn’t bother returning to the world in question; instead, a signal would be sent to a re-origination device that would proceed to melt the world into its core elements and rebuild it according to its Titanic blueprint. There was nothing horrific in this process, as far as Algalon was concerned; he was merely doing his job. Think of Algalon as an exterminator. He shows up to check and see if your house is full of termite, only rather than simply tenting the house, Algalon would break the whole thing down and rebuild it, termite-free.

Unlike an exterminator, however, Algalon has little caring or empathy for the mortals of the worlds he observes. To him, they are inconsequential. Highly logical and systematic in his observations, Algalon is almost like a machine. He was built with one purpose in mind, and he goes about and fills that purpose without question, because that is what he was programmed to do.

Until, that is, he encountered Azeroth.

The mortals of Azeroth had done the unthinkable; they’d showed a stoic Watcher that there was more, far more to the universe than simple order and re-origination. And Algalon was left perplexed and almost angry at this realization, not because the mortals of Azeroth had done anything wrong but because he had suddenly been granted the knowledge that these tiny, inconsequential mortal lives that he had been eradicating for countless years were all quite possibly creatures of free will, creatures that did not want to die. Creatures that perhaps did not deserve to die.

In this realization, Algalon altered the Reply code to Alpha and ordered the mortals who so brazenly interrupted his scanning to take it to a place of power, close to the skies. Once the Reply code was taken to Dalaran, the altered code reset the designation of the world, and it was safe from re-origination … for now. As for Algalon, he was left with his task incomplete for the first time in his existence. Algalon was an observer, Algalon was assigned to scan the world for any outlying corruption leaching into the order of the world.

With Azeroth, he was presented with a world that was admittedly corrupt — but in that corruption was perhaps the saving grace of the world itself. This concept was so strange, so foreign that Algalon could not simply let the world be undone. This deviation from the Titans’ programming was so unique and bizarre that it deserved further observation. 

A new feature that enable players to upgrade high level items by using justice of valor points for PVE gear or honor or conquest points for PVP gear. Now let’s see how it changes.

You can find a new Ethereal that allows you to upgrade your items anywhere you would find the other Ethereals that allow Transmogrification, Reforging, and Void Storage. And you are able to upgrade most PVE and PVP item level 458 or higher items, including armor, weapons, and trinkets. But remember the item upgrades are neither refundable nor reversible.

For players’ convenience, you can judge whether the items is upgradable or not by checking a new line on the items display, which shows Upgrade Level 0/1 or 0/2. While upgrading your items, the enchants and gems in it will not be changed.

So, when you want to have your items upgraded, go to a capital city and find the Ethereal area. Once you find the item upgrader, talk to him. After dropping your item into the display box, it will show you what the upgrade will cost and how the stats will improve. Although the proc upgrade does not show in the preview, the trinket procs will be upgraded as well as stats on them.

It is good that this new feature allows players to make use of extra justice, valor, honor, or conquest points to upgrade the gear. Gears which you want to keep and want it be better now have its own way to go. But it is suggested that it would be better to buy ilevel 496 gear instead of upgrading gear you already have if there are no reputation items left as upgrades for your character. Now let gearing up your character be a little bit more interesting!