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The hulking Orc hovered above the bodies of the fallen. It would be a successful ambush, led by Warlord Aesma, Fury of Orgrimmar. Surely he would receive a feast in his honor, and perhaps someday, a monument to reflect upon his greatness; a symbol of power and fear for all of Orc-kind to see and honor.

As it turned out, one among the Humans that lay before Aesma and his clan was an outcast High Priest of Stormwind. The Warlord’s Shaman was quick to identify the figure as High Priest Shar Drakowen. Rumors had circulated amongst the Orcs that one among the Humans had been banished from Stormwind because of an immeasurable cruelty towards the muddled races - those non-Human and thus, impure. It was said that Drakowen and his followers wandered the hostile territories of Kalimdor, brutally exterminating all forms of life that had the misfortune of crossing their path. A glorious victory for the Horde, indeed.

Aesma began to rummage through the caravan, claiming first right to any treasures that may have been stowed within the wreckage. The Orc lord was stopped short, however, when he heard a faint whisper coming from the direction of the High Priest’s broken body. Aesma shook his head in disbelief. Could it be possible that the High Priest survived the surprise attack by the mighty Orc clan? It would be impossible, he thought. The High Priest had been asleep when they had attacked, caught completely off guard. Aesma would take no chances. He drew his war hammer and turned toward the body of Drakowen. As he approached the figure, he noticed that the Priest was attempting to speak … The Warlord’s men noticed slight apprehension in Aesma as he had approached the corpse and quickly took to arms. The mighty Warlord raised his fist and commanded the men to stand down. One mortally injured Human would not and could not pose a threat to the Fury of Orgrimmar. He could barely hear the words coming from the High Priest but identified them to be Orcish. Upon one knee, Aesma sank down to the bloodied and beaten body of Shar Drakowen. Still, he could not make out the words. He turned his head to face the High Priest… a mistake he would regret until the end of days.

Drakowen’s eye shot open, looking straight into the eyes of Aesma. “I claim dominion Orcling…. Today I drink in your agony…” Aesma felt his consciousness slipping, fading... He had lost control over his own body and could only watch in horror as to what would happen next. The powerful Warlord stood up and turned toward his horde. With a few mighty sweeps of his war hammer, twelve of his own were quickly dispatched. The remaining Orcs fled, running for their lives, hoping to escape the enraged Warlord’s vengeance. As the Warlord’s rage died down, he began to regain control of his body. His state of consciousness only lasted a minute, though, as he was quickly entranced by the High Priest, who was now standing proudly, a grin drawn wide upon his face. Drakowen slowly began to raise his fallen comrades, drawing intricate runes in the air over their bodies. One by one the men stood up, regaining consciousness… regaining… life. All hope was lost for the Orc. There would be no feast, no celebration in his honor - he would die here, disavowed by his own, at the hands of the Humans, whom only moments ago were corpses piled at his feet.

Drakowen had completed the final resurrections and was now walking towards Aesma. He circled the entranced Orc. Was he laughing? Aesma had never encountered such cold cruelty, something he once thought impossible considering his own upbringing. The High Priest began to speak. “I am not going to kill you Orcling. Your life will serve a far greater purpose than your death ever could. You will run back to Orgrimmar. You will tell your filthy brethren what transpired here today… For the rest of your days you will live as an outcast among your own kind… dishonored and despised… “

“Tell them I come for them, Orcling… I will drink in their agony and pain as I have in yours… the torment shall be divine…”

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This is the first in a series of stories that I will be writing to introduce World of Warcraft character classes. I have chosen this format to give the readers a bit of a feel for the world. This short story represents the Warrior and Priest class of the World of Warcraft. It is worth mentioning that the underlying point of the story is to demonstrate one thing: Good and Evil don't make their homes within the player based on their race, but rather, what that player's mindset is in regards to the gameworld. Evil and good, after all, are relative...


The Priest

This is not the Everquest Cleric you know and loathe. "There will be no complete heal chains in the World of Warcraft." That was one of the first things said to me last Friday as Jeffrey Kaplan (Tigole) and Rob Pardo (Ariel for those of you that know your Legacy of Steel history) demonstrated the Priest class in action. And what a show it was...

The World of Warcraft Priest shuns plate armor and instead opts for cloth. What they lose in defense, however, they make up for with some new abilities that definitely differ from any traditional cleric roles found in many other MMORGs. Most notable is the ability of the World of Warcraft Priest to use mind control on their foes. The Priest can mesmerize/entrance enemies and can also use a spell/ability to dominate the will of others. A Priest, however, is not the Enchanter of the World of Warcraft. Their crowd control ability is strictly limited. The Priest can only mesmerize one opponent at a time. Additionally, when using their Dominate ability, the priest falls into a sort of stasis or trance, unable to move or cast any spells, but instead possessing their target. When Dominating, the priest gains whatever abilities their opponent may have within their arsenal and moves/functions within the body of the enemy. Of course these spells can be resisted and the duration on the Dominate ability is still being tuned.

Naturally, the Priest shines in groups but is also able to solo with some success. Aside from different types of heals, which would fall under Holy Magic, the Priest is also able to make use of Shadow Magic. These would be Damage over Time and possibly some Direct Damage spells. Additionally, the Priest has a self rune type spell that they can cast upon themselves that allows the Priest to channel their magic through melee attacks more efficiently. This is basically a form of insurance for the Priest, allowing them to make certain their spell is cast without delay. It should be noted that spell casting classes (Priests/Mages/etc...) will be able to channel through melee normally, but the use of Holy Word Shield is a spell intrinsic to the Priest. How channeling normally works in the World of Warcraft is as such: As you begin to cast a spell you bring up a casting time bar. If you are hit while casting the spell, it does not interrupt the spell but rather it delays the casting bar for each hit that is taken by the spellcaster. There are, of course, abilities that NPCs and players alike have that can interrupt a spell outright (bash, stuns, special strikes, counterspells, etc…).

These abilities, of which I've barely touched on, as well as the ability to resurrect players at later levels and myriad other abilities and spells, are sure to make the Priest a very popular class within the World of Warcraft.

Now my personal opinion of the Priest is simply this: They kick ass. As we were porting around the world (which I will discuss in some depth in a future update - and no, it most certainly will not be so easy for the players to move around the world, we cheated) the guys (Jeffrey and Rob) put the Priest through its paces. We visited a hostile Ogre outpost where the Priest Dominated an Ogre or two and showed off some fancy moves while in the body of the fatties. They showed off some of the spells I mentioned earlier, healing, nuking, dotting, and falling back on the Priest's staff, administering some good old fashioned beatings. I also got to see some of the Priest's sight abilities, akin to Everquest's Bind Sight line - excellent utility spells for scouting and detecting some of those ambush traps I will undoubtedly be setting up to kill you in... Rule #1, never foolishly run up to a pile of gold conspicuously lying on the ground. Now I don't know if I can actually put gold or lewtz on the ground in the PvP areas, but I'll be damned if I don't try. You've seen the rule now, we both know you're not going to listen to the rule, which will inevitably result in me wearing your ears around my neck, pinned to my 'Necklace of Greedy Fool's Ears.' Don't be that guy...


The Warrior

Where to even begin? As many of you know, this is the class I play and have played for the past 5 years in Everquest. Comparing the two Warrior classes, Everquest versus the World of Warcraft, is like comparing your skinny cousin with the bad acne to Superman. World of Warcraft has a definitive advantage over Everquest, in that the classes are not as watered down and diluted, allowing for much more power to be allotted to individual classes. Sure there is another Tank class (The Paladin and to a lesser degree the Shaman and Druids can do some light tanking, but I digress) but he does not totally usurp the Warrior class, and in Warcraft our friend the Warrior is pissed off and packing something I like to call 'the pain.'

The Warrior is a class with depth. Aside from being a master of weaponry and armor, they are able to fight in three distinct stances (I was told that this may very well change, either reducing the number of stances or increasing them - it's in Alpha still people!). Additionally, a warriors special abilities come from two pools.

First are the abilities the warrior may draw upon from becoming enraged, known as gaining 'Rage.' Gaining Rage is essentially the reverse of the Spellcaster's mana bar which exists in Everquest and other MMORGs. A warrior starts at zero Rage and gains Rage totally dependant upon the stance they are in and the actions they take while in the stance (more on this to come). Rage decays when the Warrior is not in battle, resetting to zero when the Warrior is at peace (think Hulk).

The second pool with which they draw their power from are their shouts. As a warrior levels and gains power, they also gain the ability to perform shouts. Shouts can have various effects on the warrior, their group, or on the enemies they fight. One shout may increase the overall damage of your party, bolstering their spirits and weapon speed, while another shout may cause the warrior's targets to flee (something that could be very useful to the soloing warrior who gets more than he can handle while adventuring). No, you will not be able to 'twist' shouts - these are not Everquest Bards.

Naturally the warrior gets a taunt ability. Taunt in the World of Warcraft requires the use of Rage, has no effective Cooldown or refresh, and adds/builds up hate towards the Warrior instead of the train wreck which is taunt in Everquest. Speaking of Everquest, EQ Warriors should pay close attention here, if you're playing World of Warcraft, you will encounter a strange and new sensation while playing the Warrior. Once the initial shock wears off, you will realize that when you press 'Taunt' it actually taunts your opponent – it does not fail and end up doing absolutely nothing – it is always building up hate, so long as you have the necessary amount of Rage built up to make use of the ability. It's like reinventing the wheel, or as I like to call it, COMMON SENSE. Certainly high DPS classes can overaggro if they are not careful, but the World of Warcraft warrior is well equipped to deal with the absent minded mages and rogues of the gameworld. Hallelujah!

Stances

The Battle Stance: When taking a Battle Stance, the warrior is a balanced fighting machine. In this stance, the warrior gains Rage from taking damage/hits and dishing out damage. As the Rage bar builds up, the warrior is able to perform special moves and abilities which cost a certain amount of Rage. Intrigued? You should be. These abilities are many, and can range from a simple extra attack at early levels, such as kick, to as Tigole said, 'AE Whoopass' which is the Whirlwind ability, gained later on in the Warrior's life. A side note here, in Warcraft you won't ever have 5 mobs messed/crowd controlled in your camp in a normal adventure group. The warrior is meant to dish out the AE damage, taunts, shouts; trying to keep some control of the chaos which will inevitably find you and your friends. Which stance you use will be totally dependant on the situation. With all that said, the Battle Stance is something Warriors will probably use most often when soloing.

The Defensive Stance: If you're going to be tanking in your group or raid, you're going to want to be in this stance. While in the Defensive Stance, the Warrior gains Rage from taking hits. With that built up Rage, they are able to perform various abilities that bolster their defenses. Some of these abilities substantially reduce the damage taken by the Warrior, while others empower the Warrior's shield with various attacks and strikes that can cripple their enemies.

The Berserker Stance: My personal favorite and one that probably most closely resembles my style of play. In the Berserker Stance, the Warrior gains Rage from dishing out damage. As the Rage builds up, the warrior is able to unleash devastating attacks upon his opponents. The aforementioned Whirlwind being one of those abilities, Cleave being another, which allows the warrior to exert such force upon their enemy that their weapon hits and damages the poor bastard standing next to the recipient of the Cleave. The saying, "I'm gonna hit you so hard your baby's mamma gonna feel it," comes to mind... To the Warrior in a Berserker Stance that's not an empty threat, that's a promise. Believe it...

With all of these abilities and powers, and from what was shown to me in gameplay, the Warrior will be an amazing and fun class to play. Definitely another class which I will use to kill you with...

I've only barely scratched the surface of what the Warrior can do in World of Warcraft, but I am quite certain it's more than 'press 'a' to attack, 'taunt,' and '/disc defensive,' for their 3 minutes of glory.


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Within the coming weeks I will be giving basic overviews of the other World of Warcraft classes, giving those of you foaming at the mouth for l33t infoz, something to help tide you over until you can experience the Warcraft universe for yourselves. Now, I leave you with some screen-shots... ENJOY!


In this picture the team was able to catch some of my relatives in their natural habitat. Scary, no?


A-nold is back and this time he's a dorf who isn't going to screw up his mission for the 4th time. John Connor is going to receive a beatdown, finally.


What a Colonoscopy would feel like in World of Warcraft. Eat your Wheaties kids, you don't want this up your ass.

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Since apparently the only time we'll see our non-boxed clerics is when our Plane of Time rotation is up, we need clerics. We are now accepting CLERIC applicants for LDoN raiding - Yep, Clerics. We need hardcore raiders who want to beat Time level Raids. While some people are content farming Time, we're not.

Minimum AA requirements as follows:

Healing Adept 3
Healing Gift 3
Spell Casting Mastery 3
Natural Durability 3
Mass Group Buff
Celestial Regeneration
Advanced Healing Gift 3
Advanced Healing Adept 3
Divine Arbitration 3
Unfailing Divinity 3
Celestial Renewal 2
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Not necessary but a plus if you have:

Everything else... (SCR, SCRM etc...)

We may or may not be accepting Xserver applicants as well depending on your situation. If you're interested, send an email to furor_foh@yahoo.com.

*NOTE: If you are a FUCKING DUMBASS, have a tendency to AFK constantly, are a weak bitch who will burn out under intense pressure, or just a pussy, don't waste my time. This isn't a happy family guild - We are here to beat shit down, end of story.









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It’s no secret that I have some friends that work at Sigil. It should also come as no surprise that if you give friends enough alcohol, eventually they’ll agree to almost anything. In this case, ‘anything’ became “LET ME SEE YOUR GAME DAMNIT!”

After the 12th or 13th Sake shot I took on the persona of Yoda. “Your game, see it I will.” “Game you have not! Sux0r you do!” Yep, I used the old Jedi Mind trick, Yoda, and a poorly hidden insult. CHA-CHING! The piece of paper dropped before me like so many cloth caps off an untuned uber mob. I made quick work of the NDA, a signature here, my firstborn there, etc... and was then told to wait patiently for my invitation. And wait I did…

Sometimes, I’d get a phone call from Bill in the middle of the day. Bill would tell me things like, ‘Soon man, soon.’ I’d tell him things like, ‘Are you calling me from a phone booth, dude? I hear traffic in the background and I dare say, I hear a hobo eating a ham sandwich.” (My sense of hearing is supernatural and a thing of legend in parts of the Middle-East, but I digress)

After months of waiting, I finally received a message from Cindy Bowens, the Community Manager for Sigil, to set up a meeting at their headquarters. A time and date was set for Friday, August 29th at 11:00am. Lunch was to be included! I figured after they showed me the concept art for their game, I’d at least score some phat lewtz in the form of food.

I woke up that Friday feeling refreshed. I took a nice long shower, shaved, put on a little of the man lotion, and got in the car. Forty-five minutes later I was in Carlsbad, California. Apparently, in my haste to get down there, I was early – by about an hour and a half. I decided to take a drive around Carlsbad and check out some of the sights. Much to my dismay, there were no sights in Carlsbad. I spent the next hour sitting on my ass at a nearby deli drinking coffee and quelling my nicotine habit. As 11:00am rolled around, I got back into my car and headed to Sigil HQ.

Hidden away in an industrial area of Carlsbad lays Sigil. I parked my car outside the building and attempted to locate the front door. I saw some couches and a table behind one door so I figured I was in the right place. I opened the door, walked in, and there was Cindy! Jackpot! Part one of my mission accomplished – finding the place and entering. Cindy pleasantly greeted me and began to round up some folks. At this point my mind started wandering. I recalled that I have undoubtedly called at least 80% of these guys a [insert insult here] at one point or another. Panic started to set in. What if this wasn’t a ‘meeting’ to see their game at all but just a good old fashioned beat down???? I weighed my options. I could probably take out one, maybe two of them, but then what??? I’d surely get stormed by the rest, unless they attacked me like plucky ninjas, one by one. What were the odds of that happening? My thoughts were interrupted when Brad McQuaid (Aradune) came out to greet me. Soon practically the whole damn team was there, Jeff Butler, Bill Fisher, John Capozzi, Lawrence Poe, etc... etc… etc… I was sure a beat down was coming.

Relief set in, though, when Jeff Butler started up ‘The Game.’ Right away I was pretty much in awe as I didn’t think they’d have anything to start up, let alone an actual working game. Boy was I in for a surprise.

That’s right boys and girls, all you naysayers and shit-talkers, Sigil does indeed have a product. Not just a product either, a product with thousands if not tens-of-thousands of man hours invested in it already.

So the game booted up and Jeff started taking me through a VERY small portion of the gameworld. I say very small but it was actually a very large play area. The game world is so massive that this section and rather other sections that I also saw were very small in context.

The graphics were unlike anything I have seen to date. Stunning visually – my words could do them no justice, plus I’d probably be sued for violating the NDA ;) Lighting effects, textures, bump mapping, all that stuff, it was INSANITY.

So what though, right? It’s a pretty game, lots of those around right? Wrong. This game was fleshed out and built from the ground UP. These guys put so much work into getting the game built that it would be impossible to put everything in this update; and also illegal. Thousands and thousands of pages of gameplay design and documentation - I’m talking massive BOOKS, full of lore, maps, class descriptions, races, monsters, everything. You won’t see any MOONS popping up out of nowhere in this game. Expansions, additions, extensions, all thoughtfully planned out.

Anyhow, Brad and Jeff demonstrated a little tandem grouping and slaying for me in game and then it was lunch time. We headed on over to ‘Claim Jumper’ and ate around 5-6 pounds of food each and then headed back to the studio.

I was then given a thorough tour of the Art Department, where all of the artists work (imagine that!), and received a sneak peek at some very hush-hush features. I was blown away by the work these guys put out. I met the great Keith Parkinson, who seemed even more enthusiastic about the game than I was, and he’d been working on it for over a year already. I stood in awe, watching over the shoulders of these guys as they put the game to life before my very eyes. It was truly amazing.

I took a brief step into the Designer’s Dojo where I got to see the world map and shoot the shit with the guys and hear a little more about their vision. By the way, did I mention this game was huge? When I saw the world map and they showed me the area(s) which were shown to me in game, it really, REALLY, gave me a scope of just how damn huge this game is going to be upon completion.

I also took a walkthrough the coder’s/programmer’s offices, or should I say dungeon. I nearly lost my damn arm! You gotta keep those guys fed FFS!

Anyways, all in all it was a real wake up call for me. The folks at Sigil already have a quality product on their hands and I cannot wait until they release some information to the public so all of you can have the pleasure of getting a glimpse of what I got to see during my visit. Thanks again to Cindy, Bill, Brad, Jeff, and everyone else working at Sigil that made Furor’s trip to the company a genuine kick ass time.

For further information, you can tune in to Sigil's web site at www.SigilGames.com. They have an assortment of message boards there where they interact with the public on a daily basis.

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