Spooncraft

Taken straight from the headlines over at World of Raids, Csulok has done another amazing job at writing a review of the Dragonblight in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. If I had the cash flow then I would definitely hire somebody like this to help me out here. Good news is that with everything kind of settling down around here I will be able to return to my original format of posting a menu of the day’s events/articles/posts every morning and get back to work on my additional pages.

Wyrmrest Temple is the huge titan building in the middle of Dragonblight, the first things you see in the background when arriving through Mo’aki Harbor or basically any other entry point to the zone. This article is about the questchains of the temple, therefore it contains heavy spoilers.

This is where the dragon aspects and their ambassadors meet to discuss dragon business. Now it’s full of Wyrmrest Accord NPCs who are united to solve the Malygos problem. The faction is lead by Alexstrasza, the Lifebringer herself. She can be found in the top chamber and after some long questlines, players eventually earn the right to talk to dragonqueen. Middle floor has only one humanform dragon, Lord Afrasastrasz, charged with defending the temple from the continous blue dragon attacks. Base floor has general NPCs, a magnataur questlady, basement has lots of titan waygates.

Next to Alexstrasza there is Krasus, consort of the dragonqueen; then there’s Chromie (from Western Plaguelands) ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight; Lord Itharius, ambassador of the Green Dragonflight and Nalice, Ambassador of the Black Dragonflight. They all give quests, more than interesting ones at that.

What’s with the Blue Dragonflight? Well, they are the bad guys, they don’t have an ambassador, they still have quests. It all starts in Agmar’s Hammer (for horde players) where a Dalaran mage notices some unusual things in the closeby Highborne cemetery so I’m sent to investigate. Apparently the newly come mage hunter forces were decimated by the Highborne spirits. Our investigation leads to the conclusion that the blues are tempering the ley lines of the region. After finding the local leader we can gather some information from the Ley Line Focus Rings that point us to another point of incursion, a nearby lake. Same process there, they point us the Azure Dragonshrine this time though. Hm! So they are redirecting the ley lines here. For evil stuff obviously. Now that information is worthy of getting a letter of recommendation and gaining an audience with the Queen herself. The Stewart of the temple agrees but first the Horde Ambassador to the Wyrmrest Accord sends me to the Ruby Dragonshrine.

Now there are some big battles going on at all entrances to the Ruby Dragonshrine, only smaller armies can the hold back the waves of Scourge pouring out of the shrine. So I help them out (crazy massacre I’m telling you) then carefully progress inside, only to find Scourge Necromancers siphoning the energies from fallen Red Dragons to do evil stuff. How did this happen? This dragonshrine has a protector appointed by Alexstrasza. After looking around a bit it seems she was corrupted by a death knight, without much of an effort sadly.

Let’s see the Bronze Dragonflight now. Chromie greets us in a rather funny way then alerts us to take the Hourglass to the Bronze Dragonshrine and protect it, because the Infinite Dragonflight is about to attack. When deploying it on the ground I appear in front of me. My future self. I am whispering some crazy things, too (I will be more skilled than now? Impossible!) So together, me and me defeat the incoming waves of dragons then something peculiar happens. The hourglass reveals Nozdormu. Of course the first thing that pops into my mind is that Nozdormu, the bronze dragonaspect is actually the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight who we all wanted to know about for 2 years now. But no, Chromie says he is fighting the infinite, not leading. Awesome!

At first I found the Black Dragonflight’s ambassador weird to be there since you know… they’re evil, but against the Scourge and Malygos, they might be good friends, too. So I’m sent to the Obsidian Dragonshrine to help Serinar. He has problems with the Cult of the Damned who - as it turns after some “cleansing” and investigating - are using the energies of the shrine to convert fallen black dragons into Magmawyrms. That’s like a frostwyrm made of lava. Even worse. They look magnificent though!

Lord Itharius is looking for better weapons against the Scourge, so he sends me to the Emerald Dragonshrine where Ysera is sleeping! Yes, this zone is so great we see 3 dragon aspects in person! So after coming back to my senses I need to find those seeds. A sidequest here and there, making sure Ysera has a pleasant dream and I have the seeds as well. Now I can take them to kill a really ugly and huge abomination under Naxxramas, a reanimated frostwyrm and a necromancer who’s making an army out of trolls at the awesomely huge steps of Zul’Drak. Of course the seeds help in making them soloable :]

So after discovering the plans of the Blue Dragonflight and helping out at the Ruby Dragonshrine I can finally talk to Her Majesty. She sends me to help defend the temple. On the back of a red drake! Cool, vehicle combat! And it’s a daily quest! So I got to kill some small blue dragons, big blue dragons and mess a bit with the Azure Dragonshrine. Feels good doing it while navigating on a red drake

At this point another questline joins in because I helped dealing with the Azjol-Nerub and Icemist Village problems, Overlord Agmar is just that much happy with my performance. He sends me to Saurfang the Younger at Angrathar, the Wrathgate. He directs me to just one more problem. The mega-sized bones of Galakrond are being worked on by Grand Necromancer Antiok. He is commanding a terrifying (in size and in numbers) Storm Giant army to raise the dragon. If they were to succeed, all the previous work against the Scourge would be for nothing. So I get to command my own red dragon (much bigger than last time) to deal with him. The quest ends at the Wrathgate where Saurfang the Younger is now prepared to fight the armies of the Lich King. I have also earned the achievement Veteran of the Wrathgate!

Dragonblight is just awesome. Agmar’s Hammer has amazing quests all filled with the Blue Dragonflight problems. Venomspite (not discussed in this article) is also amazing, there we get to know a lot (and I mean a lot, including a 24 page diary of a certain Scarlet leader) about the Scarlet Onslaught. And Wyrmrest Temple is just like a dream. It’s the best questhub ever in the entire game. Hopefully with many more additions to come.