The glorious fount of arcane energy known as the Sunwell empowered the high elves for millennia, until the death knight Arthas laid siege to the elven kingdom and corrupted its sacred energies. Seeing no other alternative, a band of survivors led by Prince Kael'thas destroyed the ancient fount. Over time the surviving elves fell pray to a crippling magical withdrawal.
Now, promising salvation for his people, Kael'thas has returned. Soon the Sunwell will shine once again, but whether the sacred fount will usher in deliverance or destruction remains to be seen.
The large-scale designs inherent in Patch 2.4 compel me, even from retirement, to pen this very special News Post. My massive fanbase, after all, deserves the best.
Drawing upon rich veins of classic Warcraft lore, Fury of the Sunwell brings the initial storyline of The Burning Crusade to conclusion. Kil'jaeden's demonic invasion of Azeroth, long feared by both Aldor and Scryer, is come. Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider is returned to Quel'thalas in order to re-activate the Sunwell and fulfill his proverbial role as prodigal son... unless someone stops him.
Beyond this lavish mélange of high-end raiding content, Fury of the Sunwell adds a large amount of UI and PVP updates that will be beneficial to players of all commitment levels. An example of this may be seen at Sunwell Isle, Fury of the Sunwell's new map area that offers 5-man dungeons, brand-new Daily Quests, and an Ahn'Quiraj'esque effort that requires a server to complete set events prior to all 25-man raiding bosses (within the new Sunwell instance) becoming available.
Last, Fury of the Sunwell signals the beginning of the Global Arena Tournament - featuring a Grand Prize of $120,000. Unlike past competitions sponsored by Blizzard Entertainment, the Global Arena Tournament will seriously test the debate between gear and skill. Hosted upon a private server ($20 entry fee), individuals may choose to play a level 70 character of any combination imaginable. Gear, gems, enchantments, and gold are all available from NPCs - creating a level playing field for all contestants.
As always, my best wishes to all those entering Fury of the Sunwell. Loot something epic in my name.
The Feast of Winter Veil once again strikes Azeroth!
Merriment and reveling is around the corner in and out of World of Warcraft. So enjoy the season with friends and family alike! Happy Holidays from Reason of Kael'thas.
Zul'Aman is a great zone. Its fun, challenging and fast paced. Only negative to the zone is probably Zul'jin phase 3, it's really retarded. The real LoL is at Zul'jin with his one arm.
--Quinthalas
And now for something completely different...
In the 1993 Academy Award winning film The Fugitive, Harrison Ford stumbles upon the scene of his wife's vicious murder. The killer, a one-armed man, escapes the clutches of the law and leads Mr. Ford on an epic adventure across America. With the assistance of Tommy Lee Jones, Mr. Ford eventually captures his target and avenges his wife. The forces of good prevail!
Zul'Aman, the latest PVE installment to the World of Warcraft, might be described in a similar fashion. Raid groups are forced to battle against the minions of a one-armed troll in a desperate (and timed) attempt to secure justice... and phat loot. All illusions aside, Zul'Aman is an amazing raid environment and represents a true achievement for Blizzard Entertainment. The six bosses: Nalorakk, Akil'Zon, Jan'Alai, Halazzi, Hex Lord Malacrass, and Zul'jin brandish an intelligent mix of new and old mob abilities such as impaling characters with swords, creating wandering tornadoes, negating various abilities, and taking on the idiosyncrasies of a specific class.
Like Zul'Aman, all of Patch 2.3 is impressive. Many needed class talent, leveling, and Heroic Badge itemization changes are implemented as a result of World of Warcraft's newest patching. Guild banks are now in place, allowing for far easier access to various crafting materials and dissolving the need for a legion of guild-bank alts. I lost a good amount of gold on Tuesday, as the patch debuted without server lag or player crashes.
In conclusion, Zul'Aman and Patch 2.3 are well-received. Congratulations to Blizzard for a great job and Reason for a server-first clear!
-- Seraphiel
For two years now, Reason has been the dominant raiding guild on Kael'Thas, and our history on our old server, Eldre'thalas, stretches back almost another year to February of 2005. During this time over a hundred people have raided actively, and well over a hundred more have considered Reason their home within WoW either as casual raiders or non-raiders. We've been around a long time. Many people have joined our ranks as raiders, or just as friends and family; many of us have quit the game, left the server, or gone casual; but ultimately the names on the guild forums haven't changed all that much. New friends have joined us, but our old friends have never really left; people that quit the game years ago still visit the boards regularly. This is why Reason is not disbanding.
We have, however, decided to depart from the raiding scene as a guild. The game has grown tiring for many of us, with some of us quitting months ago, and some only recently departing or expressing our ennui in the last few weeks. The handful of us still interested in serious raiding are looking for new guilds and new servers with which to raid. Many of us are going casual, and it seems like most of the guild is now enjoying a fresh gaming environment in Hellgate: London.
As a guild we plan to farm Zul'Aman -- ten-man instances are perfect for us now -- and we'll likely casually play many of the 25 man instances, but don't expect Hyjal, BT, or Sunwell updates. That's not our gig anymore.
Many people, especially those outside the guild, have seen this as the death of Reason, but it's really just a change of direction. Let's call it a renaissance: a new age of Reason.
We took a short break from Archimonde in order to revisit an old friend in the Black Temple - Gurtogg Bloodboil. Previously, our attempts to bring this mutated orc down were not overly successful; however, we came prepared this time. Equiped with our secret weapon, we had little trouble bringing this beast down on our third pull.
For those unfamiliar with the fight, he really has two unique abilities which provide most of the challenge to the fight. The first is Bloodboil, a stacking debuff that he casts every 10 seconds to the 5 raid members furthest away from him, which deals 600 damage to the target every second for 24 seconds. The second is Fel Rage, a 30 second debuff placed on a seemingly random raid member and on Gurtogg himself, which increases size, health, damage, and healing done of both characters. The other aspect of Fel Rage is that Gurtogg will only attack the raid member with the Fel Rage debuff until they are dead or the debuff expires. Even with the massive buffs, keeping up a cloth wearer with Fel Rage requires a significant amount of healing. Combine this with Bloodboil and you have the recipe for an extremely healing intensive fight. In fact, once you get the bloodboil rotations worked out, this fight lies entirely on the shoulders of your raid's healers.
In the end, this fight feels like the first challenging fight in the Black Temple. The prior four fights focused more on execution of simple mechanics (i.e. killing ghosts, containing adds, avoiding volcanoes) rather than intricate healing and raid setups. We are definitely looking forward to see what lies ahead for the remaining 4 bosses.