WoW: Guide to Pre-Cataclysm Events in Azeroth

Tags : cataclysm events, cataclysm guide, pre-cataclysm events, cataclysm news

Much like the events that lead up to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard is adding several new and exciting in-game events in order to amp up the masses for the release of World of Warcraft’s biggest expansion yet; Cataclysm. Instead of making this one huge event that all players may not be able to experience fully, Blizzard will instead be releasing these events in four phases throughout the next several weeks leading up to the release of Cataclysm.

The various phases and the details behind them can be found below:

(Please note that some of these phases are based on PTR speculations only)

Phase One

Start: November 1 2010 - End: Unknown

Elemental Invasion
The world before Cataclysm is an unstable place, and as a testament to that, rifts containing elementals of all types (earth, fire, air, and water) are spawning throughout Azeroth. These unstable rifts spawn at select locations every hour on the hour and will create elementals that reflect the level of the zone it spawned in. But what exactly are these elementals good for besides wiping out unsuspecting players?

Players who are brave enough to take on the angry elementals will find that each elemental they kill will reduce the nearby rift’s health by 1. Defeat enough elementals and the rift will eventually close. If a rift of each element (earth, fire, air, and water) is defeated the player will gain a brand new achievement entitled: ‘Tripping the Rifts”. To get this achievement you must kill rifts containing elementals that match you current level or above.

Each zone will only produce certain types of elementals the locations of which can be found below:

Air	Earth	Fire	Water
Sholazar Basin	Grizzly Hills	Westfall	Thousand Needles
Netherstorm	Howling Fjord	Zul'drak	Silverpine Forest
Borean Tundra	Storm Peaks	Winterspring	Ghostlands
Eastern Plaguelands	Nagrand	Hellfire Peninsula	Straglethorn Vale
Terokkar Forest	Blade's Edge Mountains	The Barrens	Wetlands
Arathi Highlands	Silithus	Searing Gorge	Un'Goro Crater
Duskwood	Loch Modan	Blasted Lands	Icecrown
Darkshore	Desolace	Hinterlands	Zangarmarsh
Hillsbrad Foothills	Redride Mountains	Dustwallow Marsh	Shadowmoon Valley
	Western Plaguelands		Swamp of Sorrows
	Burning Steppes

Once a rift has been defeated it will grant the player a one hour buff based on the type of rift defeated.

Air - Each melee attack, ranged attack, harmful spell or healing spell has a chance to increase your haste rating by 50 for 10 seconds.

Earth - Each melee attack, ranged attack, harmful spell or healing spell has a chance to heal you for 2% of your maximum health

Fire - Each melee attack, ranged attack, harmful spell or healing spell has a chance of engulfing the target in flames, dealing damage over 15 seconds. Stacks 5 times.

Water - Each melee attack, ranged attack, harmful spell or healing spell has a chance to increase your Energy, Rage, Mana, or Runic Power gain by 15%.

Twilight’s Cult
The second part of the initial phase centers around some mysterious new additions to both Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Spreading the word in both cities about the apparent end of the world, these cultists have managed to raise a few eyebrows and more than a little suspicion. To unravel the mystery behind these new arrivals a brand new quest chain is available in both cities.

For more information on both Horde and Alliance quest lines please see our Twilight’s Cult Quest Line Walkthrough. Please note because it is a walkthrough it does contain many spoilers.

Phase Two

Start: Unknown - End: Unknown

So you have helped to thwart the Twilight’s Hammer’s first attack on the cities of Orgrimmar and Stormwind. However, despite this victory both leaders of the Horde and Alliance realize that the battle is far from over. With their enemies revealed, both King Varian and Garrosh have made the bold decision to take the fight to the enemy instead of simply waiting for the next attack on their beloved cities to commence.

Obviously Garrosh and Varian have no intention of getting their hands dirty with such a menial task, so to assist them in disrupting the cultists further a new set of quests will be unlocked that will ask you to actually weed out cultists from the masses, capture them, and then learn all that you can so that eventually the threat can be eliminated entirely. A guide to these quests will be posted as they become available on the PTR.

Information regarding Phase Three and Four of the pre-Cataclysm events will be posted as information becomes available. Check back often for updates!

Source: tentonhammer.com