Greetings, blog-readers. I hope none of you are drowning in summer humidity quite as badly as I am.

There is news on the Warcraft front, as Blizzard–after months of delays–finally released the second round of answers to Ask Creative Development, which is big news for lore nuts like me.

Perhaps the biggest revelation is that lore from the RPG books is not considered official canon–though a lot of material from them has and probably will continue to be brought into the official canon. This will probably cause a lot of controversy, but I think it’s a good decision. I was never comfortable with such a vast reservoir of lore coming from something so disconnected to the games, and a lot of it frankly wasn’t that interesting if you ask me.

The other big piece of news, at least to me, is the confirmation that the Lich King was, in fact, pulling his punches all this time–something I had assumed was just Uther trying to see the good in every one. (Now I’m going to have that Sloan song stuck in my head.)

I’m not happy about this. It detracts from the Lich King’s intimidation factor as a villain and just doesn’t make a lot of sense considering that Blizzard spent three games and a novel repeatedly hammering home just how evil and irredeemable Arthas was. Now we learn he really was a good guy after all? Huh? That said, I still think WotLK has the best story Blizzard’s produced since Reign of Chaos, and I think with time, fans or Blizzard (or both) may find an explanation that reconciles this with what had already been established about the Lich King. If anyone has any theories for this, please post a comment. Coming up with crazy theories to explain plot holes is half the fun of being a fan boy (or girl).

One other tidbit that interested me is Blizzard’s confirmation of Azeroth’s original sapient races from before the Ordering: elementals, Faceless Ones, Aqir, and Trolls. What’s interesting is the other revelations we can infer from this. For example, the Well of Eternity cannot have been created by the Titans, since the Aqir are said to have been created from it. Also, since there are now hints that the Old Gods may not be native to Azeroth and three of those races are known to have been servants of and/or created by the Old Gods, this may mean that Trolls are Azeroth’s only truly indigenous race. I’m not the biggest Troll fan, but I do like the angle of them being a displaced indigenous people, so this is an interesting thought. Please feel free to add any thoughts you have on this or any other revelation from Ask CDev.

Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands is also just around the corner, with all indications being that it will be released this Tuesday, bringing with it a new raid, a new daily quest zone, Cataclysm’s first legendary weapon, and–most important of all–/roar sounds for every race.

If the current tier of raiding is any indication, I won’t see the Firelands raid until War of the Ancients is released at the earliest, so that tempers my enthusiasm somewhat. I’ve also heard the new dailies are quite a grind, but that might turn out okay. If there’s one thing I learned from Quel’danas, it’s that grinding isn’t a pain if the quests are fun and I enjoy the zone. The new legendary staff–Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest–is probably only going to be a source of pain for me. I want it sooooo badly for my mage (and more importantly, I want to do its associated quests, which sound amazing from what little I’ve heard), but like all legendary weapons, I’m sure it will be far out of reach of mere mortals like myself.

But on the plus side, the current tier of raids will be nerfed into oblivion, and everyone will be geared to the nines with T11 being purchasable with justice points, so hopefully people will start PUGing raids again and I’ll finally be able to give Cho’gall a piece of my mind. Also, /roar. So on the whole, I’m still pretty excited about this patch.

One last thing to mention on the WoW front. I recently decided to try the odd experiment of leveling a warlock without using pets (except in instances, battlegrounds, or in emergencies) for a challenge. I find it quite fun, but what has really surprised me is how complex and challenging a class warlock is. I had previously sneered at locks for being an easy mode class, but now I feel the need to apologize. I still say that (with pets) locks are tied with hunters and DKs for being the most ridiculously coddled, faceroll soloing class out there, but to maximize one’s DPS in a group or survive a BG presents quite a challenge even at low levels. So, warlocks, I’m sorry. I failed to realize the level of skill your class required.

Finally, Weird Worm published another of my articles, Five Badass Gods. I hope some people might get some amusement out of it. I think this one is a little funnier than the last, though I doubt that’s saying much.

Have my posts intrigued you about World of Warcraft? Pick up a copy at my Amazon Affiliate. I think I’ve also got some old recruit-a-friend codes lying around if anyone wants to give it a free trial whilst possibly earning me a free month of play.