The upcoming patch, patch 2.4, now known as The Fury of the Sunwell, revolves around... well, the Sunwell! I guess there's something in there about a huge demon by the name of Kil'jaeden, but I'm sure he's not important. Like my previous installments of Know Your Lore, I'll give a little bit of background information on our subject, so you understand the foundation of it. This bit isn't quite as exciting as my last installment or two, but this took a lot more research, and a lot more piecing together half-told bits of story from multiple authors. It's a bit like playing Connect the Dots, but instead of getting a flower or a sailboat, I get Richard Knaak flipping me off. Sorry it's so dry, but on with the show!

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The Sunwell Plateau trailer, released by Blizzard, has to be on the coolest trailers I've seen from them recently. If you have a second, turn the sound up a bit and have a look. You can watch the trailer right above via a YouTube hosted copy of the video, or head on over to the Blizzard page about Patch 2.4 and watch it there.

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It's been awhile since I've had the time to hop on the patch 2.4 PTR and a lot has changed with the Shattered Sun Offensive. Sun's Reach Harbor has been captured, bringing with it several new quests and conveniences to the Isle of Quel'danas. For one thing, the harbor building now acts as an inn, with a water/food vendor, a place to set your hearthstone, a mailbox, a poison vendor for rogues and, of course, the granting of rest experience. Of course, the main attraction of the new phase is undoubtedly going to be the four new quests, three of which are repeatable dailies.

Two of the new quests directly relate to the last new structure to be built on the isle, the Monument to the Fallen. One of them, "A Magnanimous Benefactor", is a non-repeatable quest, available at exalted reputation, that allows you to purchase the title "of the Shattered Sun" for 1,000 gold. The other quest, "A Charitable Donation", can be repeated every day and is probably the most simple and straightforward quest found in the game so far. In order to earn some quick reputation, you simply have to give 10 gold to the quest giver. I suppose Blizzard decided they need new gold sinks with the limit on daily quests being raised to 25 from 10. Regardless, this second quest is tied to the construction of a statue near the other buildings you've helped capture. The Monument to the Fallen, pictured above, has a statue of a Draenei on one side and a Blood Elf on the other to commemorate the unity of the Aldor and Scryers against Kael'thas.

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Friday afternoon, when I checked the PTR, only about thirty percent progress had been made on retaking the Sun's Reach Armory. Less than twenty four hours later, we were about ten percent into the next phase, retaking Sun's Reach Harbor. Either a lot of new testers hit the PTR due to the weekend and the new patch build or Blizz helped us along. Either way, here's a quick overview of the new content that's unlocked in this third phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive.

Once the Armory is retaken, it's filled with Shattered Sun guards, three new daily quests become available and several new vendors are spawned in the building. Dragonhawks, piloted by Kael's minions, circle the building, doing battle with the archers on the upper level. On the bottom floor, you'll find an ammo vendor, the only one I've been able to find on the Isle. Upstairs are several new "Exotic Gear Purveyors". This is where you'll find all the PvP gear available for Badges of Justice or T4/5/6 armor tokens.

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The second phase of quest and NPC progression on the Isle of Quel'danas began a couple days ago on the US PvE PTR. Yesterday I covered the retaking of Sun's Reach Sanctum and the second phase is all about the building just across the road, the Sun's Reach Armory. The Armory is infested with demons, as you can see in the screenshot, and the new daily quests are all about driving them away.

First of all, let me state that the daily quests from phase one were still available on the PTR even after the Sanctum was taken from the Wretched. The names and quest text are a little different to reflect the changed state of the Isle, but the quest objectives and rewards remain exactly the same. It should be safe to assume that this trend will continue throughout every stage of the Shattered Sun Offensive.

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Thanks to tipster Panagiotis of <Horde Hit Squad> (EU-Mazrigos-A), and to valiant PTR testers, we now know where patch 2.4's new non-combat Phoenix Hatchling pet can be found: it drops from Kael'thas, in Magister's Terrace. This is kind of cute if you think about it, since the version of Kael'thas in the Eye drops the Ashes of Al'ar. Big Kael'thas, big phoenix; little Kael'thas, little phoenix. According to MMO-Champion, it drops it normal mode, but not in Heroic. If you need any help with your normal-mode Kael'thas strategy, check out this video. Still unknown is what the drop rate is. I'd guess pretty low, as these "frill" items tend to be that way (Baron's mount, anyone?).

When you first arrive at the new zone, the Isle of Quel'danas, in patch 2.4, you'll find a chaotic scene, even if there aren't hundreds of naked, level two Blood Elves running around getting slaughtered by level seventy creatures, as there are on the PTR. The Shattered Sun Offensive, the united group of Scryers and Aldor, have a small presence on the isle, consisting of a few tents and a boat, and they're combating a large group of demons and Blood Elves. As time goes on and more daily quests are completed, the new faction will gradually retake buildings on the isle, unlocking vendors, quest givers and a portal to Shattrath. Here's a quick run down of the quests and NPCs involved in the first phase of the offensive, which came to a close a couple of days ago on the US PvE PTR.

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Yesterday I was able to get my warrior copied over to the PTR. I proceeded to head up to the new 5 man instance, Magisters' Terrace, and see what it was all about. Its a pretty cool place over all. It feels a lot like the Blood Elf city, and has a couple cool encounters. Including Kalecgos!

Of course to get to the Terrace you first have to have your character copied over to the PTR. For a little while, Blizzard was letting new people through. But lately it seems that the PTR character copy queue is again backed up.

Take a look after the break for lots of pictures of the place, a good walk through, and my first impressions of each boss fight.



First thing first, you need to find the entrance. You can see the entrance pictured above. It's located up the eastern ramp to the terrace, and you can see the map location on the right. Simple enough. One thing to watch out for is horrible lag. When I first got there about a hundred people or so were standing around. And of course, anyone that could spit off some AoE was doing so. Even with my newly updated Mac OS 10.5.2 graphics, it still was pretty bad. And God help you if you're on the PvP server.

Another important thing to note is that there is no summoning stone. I don't know if this is an oversight by Blizzard, intentional, or part of the "unlocking of the Sunwell Isle" that the server participates in by turning in all those daily quests. Either way, there is no stone there for us to use right now.



The first sight you're greeted with in the Terrace is a large statue of Kael'Thas, and some entrances like those found in Silvermoon City. Neat looking. Traveling around the entrance (bonus points to the person who leaves a comment telling me what this type of entrance is called... I know I've heard a name for it before) you'll find a few mobs waiting for you.



They can be taken care of easily enough. In fact, nothing in the instance was terribly difficult in normal mode. Of course, it might have been because the group was mostly T6 equipped. I was the least equipped with a full compliment of T5 on. However even then, it all was quite manageable.



Making our way through the trash, we reach the first boss: Selin Fireheart. He's a push over. Tank and spank him near the big crystals, and when he starts to beam the crystals, kill the crystals. Just like Warlord Kalithresh in Steamvaults.

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Spoiler alert: this video shows a successful kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of the new 5-man Magister's Terrace in patch 2.4.

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With the PTR up and running, information is pouring in faster than ever. The Shattered Sun Offensive's reputation vendor is ready for perusal, and World of Raids has already delivered a screenshot of the full loot list. The tabard looks like it's going to be a favorite for a lot of people, looking more elaborate than possibly any current player-wearable tabard.

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People have asked for it and now it's here...or at least the preview to it. Patch 2.4.0 of Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG finally makes it way, revealing a lot of new quests, instances and some big bad bosses thrown into the mix for hard core gamers to enjoy themselves before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion finally goes live.

Patch 2.4.0 is the second patch that will hit next year and will feature the new Sunwell Isle and the two dungeons, Magister's Terrace (5-man) and Sunwell Plateau (25-man).

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Earlier today we reported on Swedish magazine Level's exclusive on new Patch 2.4 details. One of the revelations was that the 25-man dungeon, Sunwell Plateau, has a boss named Brutalicus, a pit lord who has lost his wings. MMO-Champion found the game model and has posted it for all to see.

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Blizzplanet, long home to detailed loregasms for those of us who can't keep it all straight (I have to use Know Your Lore constantly to keep track of who we're killing and why, try to keep it all straight as I may) as well as a good general resource for all of Blizzard's games, has dropped a nice roundup of the Sunwell lore in time for us to begin thinking about the Sunwell Plateau, the last big content release before Wrath of the Lich King drops. Packed with spoilers for the Sunwell Trilogy manga (which I have never read) it does a pretty decent job of filling in spaces I had missed... for example, I had no idea who this Dar'khan fellow was or how he'd betrayed the High Elves to the Scourge, and that's even after I'd killed him a couple of times. I need to start reading the quest text more and just clicking through to my rewards less.

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The Burning Legion are probably the villains that we fight the most in WoW. Sure, the Scourge put up a good battle in a few instances, and the spawn of the Black Dragonflight dominated the level 60 raids, but the Burning Legion has really come into its own in the (duh) Burning Crusade. From Hellfire Peninsula to Shadowmoon Valley, we're constantly fighting demons. But who's leading the Crusade? We never see any of their higher-ups, unless you count Balnazzar (the secret mastermind behind the Scarlet Crusade) and Kazzak, who doesn't really do much but sit on his new throne and yell.

With that in mind, allow me to introduce the current Lord of the Burning Legion and a hell of a guy, Kil'jaeden!

Who: Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, acting Supreme Commander and Lord of the Burning Legion, former Special Operations and Recruitment Manager for the Burning Legion. Much like evil organizations everywhere, the Burning Legion has tons of bureaucratic titles.

What: An eredar, one of a race of magical creatures that lived on the planet Argus.

History: The planet Argus was a peaceful place, full of highly intelligent magic-users that called themselves the Eredar. Kil'jaeden was known as a "genius among geniuses", and along with his friends Archimonde and Velen, eventually became one of the leaders of Eredar society. Then one day, the three pals were contacted by the fallen titan Sargeras. "Hey, guys," Sargeras said, "I noticed you're pretty skilled at using magic. How about becoming loyal to me, and in the end, you'll end up famous and powerful, and will in no way end up killed at the hands of twenty-five nameless adventurers?"

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The second fellow in this week's Know Your Lore is one of the most influential figures in the Burning Crusade expansion. An entire zone, Netherstorm, is twisted around his plans and his personality. The blood elves practically worship him as a god and the draenei see him as their most bitter foe. And yet, no one knows quite what he's up to in his suspiciously pink floating ship. So quick, before someone kills him, meet ...

Who: Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider.

What: Blood elf. Yes! Finally! Someone who has stayed one race without being turned into a fish/corrupted by demons/etc.!

History: Kael'thas Sunstrider is the last of a dynasty of high elf kings that date back to Dath'Remar Sunstrider, the old leader of the Highborne. As a young man, he studied magic in Dalaran and became an accomplished mage. While in Dalaran, he met a human mage named Jaina Proudmoore and fell for her, even though she was a teenager and he was an ... immortal-type guy, so probably pretty old. But she decided that her studies were more important, and didn't respond when he courted her. Then Jaina started seeing Prince Arthas, and Kael'thas was devastated. Wow, Jaina kind of got around. I guess that's what comes from being one of the few female characters in an RPG. She's single now, though, unless you believe those rumors about her and Thrall.

Anyway, Kael was studying in Dalaran when Arthas went nutzo. Arthas marched his army of undead into Quel'Thalas and defiled the Sunwell, killing many blood elves and sickening more. Kael's father was among the dead. He hastened back to Quel'Thalas from Dalaran and took command of the remaining high elves. The bitter Kael renamed them the Sin'dorei, or blood elves, in honor of the dead. He and his troops joined the Alliance to fight against the Scourge.

Kael and his soldiers were sent to Silverpine Forest, where they began to notice disturbances around the city of Dalaran. They packed up and prepared to back into safer territory when Kael ran into Maiev Shadowsong and Tyrande Whisperwind. Kael told the two night elves that he thought Illidan might be behind the problems at Dalaran, and both offered him their assistance. On the way to Dalaran, the night elf/blood elf caravan was ambushed by undead. Maiev and Kael led their troops across a bridge to safety, while Tyrande stayed to fight off the undead and was swept away by the river. Kael started to go after her, but the big jerk Maiev told him that he needed to stay and help her catch Illidan.

The duo continued to Dalaran and met up with Malfurion, who was understandably upset that Tyrande had been swept into a river and presumably killed. They interrupted Illidan's big magic ritual, which would actually have killed the Lich King and probably saved Azeroth a lot of trouble in the end. Malfurion yelled at Illidan for his part in Tyrande's death, and Kael noted that they didn't actually see her die. Malfurion and Illidan took off to save the girl they both loved, closely followed by Maiev, while Kael'Thas stood in the ruins of Dalaran (probably vowing to swear off dating for life.)

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