Arthas Menethil – Hero, or Villain? (Part Two)

In my last post I talked about Arthas’ beginnings, his early life, and the culling of Stratholme, an event that majorly impacted Azeroth.  Sure, he killed all of those infected townsfolk.  But what would you have done?  Let the plague spread?  Is Arthas a hero for what he did?  Or is he a monster?  Maybe hearing the rest of the story will help you decide.

• Arthas followed Mal’Ganis, the demon responsible for Stratholme, to Northrend.
• Arthas and his men ran into Muradin Bronzebeard, the Dwarf that trained Arthas in swordfighting as a boy.  He was with his group of Dwarves exploring.
• Arthas received word from Uther and his father to return home with his men.
• Arthas wouldn’t leave until he killed Mal’Ganis.  While his men were heading back to the boats, he hired a group of mercenaries to set fire to the ships.
• When Arthas’ men arrived, he betrayed the mercenaries, accused them of burning the boats, and had them killed.
• Muradin told Arthas of Frostmourne, a fabled runeblade hidden in Northrend.  
• Arthas, Muradin, and a small group of men pressed on to Mal’Ganis’ base. 
• Using an ancient waygate, they made their way to Frostmourne, inside an icy cavern.

• Arthas was confronted by a Revenant Guardian, who told Arthas that Frostmourne was a cursed blade, and that he would not allow him to have it.  Arthas struck him down.
• As the Revenant was dying, he said, “Turn away… before it’s… too late.”  Arthas replied saying, “Still trying to protect the sword, are you?”  “No…” the Revenant said, “Trying to protect you… from it.
• Muradin read an inscription on the ice, and told Arthas that the blade was indeed cursed.  He told him to forget about the blade and lead his men home.
• Arthas refused, he stood before the blade, and shouted out to the spirits of the cavern to release Frostmourne, that he would give anything to protect his people.
• As the weapon broke from its icy prism, Muradin, Arthas’ long friend was struck by a shard of ice.  Arthas no longer cared about his friend.
• Arthas dropped his holy warhammer, wielded Frostmourne, and made his way past Muradin to defeat Mal’Ganis.
• Mal’Ganis told Arthas about how his thoughts were now controlled by the Lich King.  Arthas replied telling him that the voice said to kill him.  Slaying the dreadlord, Arthas ran farther north, leaving his troops to fend for themselves.
• Arthas soon lost the last remnants of his sanity.

Arthas Menethil - Hero, or Villain? (Part One)

Many WoW players nowadays only know of the villainous Arthas, the Lich King, the ‘bad guy’, or big scary guy in black armor that you see when rolling a Death Knight.  Everyone coin has two sides, and it saddens me to know that many people are playing WoW without knowing anything about the story line. 

Arthas, after he turned evil.

Arthas, before he turned evil.

So, let me fill you in on how Arthas Menethil, an innocent boy, turned into the Lich King.

• Arthas was born a prince, heir to King Terenas Menethil II, ruler of Lordaeron, now known as the Undercity.
• At age nine, Arthas was gifted a horse from family friends, he named it ‘Invincible’, and fell in love with it through battle.  It was his war-steed.
• Ten years later, in the harsh of winter, Athas needed some alone time from the insides of Lordaeron, so he decided to take Invincible out for a joy ride.
• Once outside, with snow and ice blanketing the ground, he guided Invincible over a familiar jump, but his horse slipped, shattering its forelegs.  With no way to get help, Arthas gave Invincible a merciful death.  Some say it pushed him to become a paladin, some say it pushed him to the darker side of things.

Arthas, and Invincible.

• Training under the first Paladin, Uther, Arthas was accepted into the Knights of the Silver Hand at age 19.  The greatest fighting force of the Alliance.
• Arthas formed a romantic relationship with Jaina Proudmoore, a powerful mage.
• When Arthas was 23, scourge invaded northern land spreading the plague.
• Arthas, Jaina, and his men went to defend their land and found Kel’Thuzad, one of the scourges leaders.
• Before Arthas killed him, Kel’Thuzad told them that he had infected the stored grain in Anderhol, and had already shipped it out to the surrounding villages.
• Kel’Thuzad also told them that his boss, Mal’Ganis, a demon, who was stationed in Stratholme.  Arthas, his soldiers, and Jaina, met up with Uther, Arthas’ mentor.
• Here’s where it get’s intense.  They get to Strathlome to find that most of the citizens have already eaten the infect grain, and are turning into the undead.
• Arthas ordered his soldiers and Uther to purge the entire town.  Uther was shocked Arthas said that, even if he was the king he wouldn’t follow that order.
• Jaina and those who were loyal to Uther left, while Arthas and those loyal to him remained.  They slaughtered every townsfolk they saw, and set Stratholme on fire.
• Arthas encountered Mal’Ganis and demanded a duel, but he slipped away, telling Arthas to meet him in Northrend.
• Something snapped in Arthas that day.  He realized that whatever he did, however many people he killed, he wouldn’t be able to stop the scourge.  The plague would always spread faster then he could quell it.

Cataclysm is coming up. Lets get to know Deathwing!

So here’s what happened. 

• At the beginning of time there were these Titans, they created Azeroth. 
• They created the Old Gods to watch over everything and start up mortal life.
• Old Gods thought they were hot shit, went batshit crazy, and tried to corrupt everything. 
• Titans came back and kicked their asses.  The Titans then created the Five Dragon Aspects to rule over Azeroth.

Alexstrasza, the Life-Binder.

(The ‘mommy’ dragon.)

Nozdormu, the Timeless One.

(Controls time, pretty important.)

Neltharion, the Earth-Warder

(Deathwing, the biggest, badass one of them all)

Malygos, the Spell-Weaver

(Badass mage dragon.)

Ysera, the Dreamer.

(But she’s not the only one.)

• The Old Gods started whispering to Neltharion telling him of a power he could have.
• They told him to create a Dragon Soul and to convince the other dragons to put their power inside of it.
• Burning Legion was attacking the Night Elf capital, Zin-Azshari.
• Neltharion unleashed the Dragon Soul, killing the burning legion AND a lot of Night Elves.
• Neltharion wanted the other dragons to obey him and his power, but they weren’t gonna take any shit.
• All of the Dragon Aspects and their families attack Neltharion.
• Neltharion paralyzed all of them with the Dragon Soul, wiped out most of Blue Dragonflight.
• Nozdormu, Alexstrasza, Ysera, and Malygos all managed to escape, and went into hiding to protect their dragon flights (Kin).
• Neltharion now known as Deathwing, Dragon Soul now known as Demon Soul.
• Malfurion Stormrage stole the Demon Soul, Illidan Stormrage took it and gave it to Mannoroth.
• Mannoroth used it to open a portal for Sargeras to enter Azeroth. (Very bad!)
• Deathwing tried to get the Demon Soul back, interrupting the portal, and blowing up everything.
• The Dragon Aspects tapped all of their energy into the Demon Soul to seal it, Malfurion hid it.
• 10,000 years later, Deathwing finds the Demon Soul, can’t use it, so manipulates orcs.  Alexstrasza gets held captive by the horde working for Deathwing.
• One of her kin, Korialstrasz and a human mage, Rhonin, try to free Alexstrasza by stealing the Soul.
• Korialstrasz gets the other Dragons to come out of hiding to kill Deathwing, even without their powers.
• Rhonin discovered the weakness of the Demon Soul, and destroys it, freeing Alesxstraza and restoring the powers of the other Dragon Aspects.
• Deathwing managed to escape from the other Dragons, and went into hiding… until the Cataclysm.

Plants vs. Zombies? No Wrong! Peacebloom vs. Ghouls

So for anyone who hasn't seen this yet, this is World of Warcraft's newest mini game addition in the cataclysm beta. This is not an addon, it will be a short quest line available and once you finish it you will be able to repeat the quest indefinitely each time you repeat it though it gets more difficult.

In my opinion this is exactly what blizzard needed to do and keep doing, I don't play anymore but after seeing this I am having thoughts on returning for cataclysm basically just to play this mini-game. I would like to hear your thoughts on this and also if you liked the video you can check out some more of The Cynical Brits work at http://www.cynicalbrit.com/

Ranged Carries vs. Melee Carries

I'm in a stats game, 1600+ as usual, easy mode.  (I know, what a noob!)  I find easy mode more fun, blow me if you think your epeen is bigger.   

Anyways, we have an Accursed, Torturer, Pyro, and slither.  I still haven't picked, and the clock is ticking down. (Damn the shortened timer.)  All of the sudden my chat log is filled with "purp carry"  "need carry".  Alright.  I hate playing Magebane, or Chronos, but love to play Corrupted Disciple.  So I right click him to preselect.  

There's 5 seconds left on the clock and all I hear is people shouting..  I would tell you what they were shouting about but it sounded like they were speaking Portuguese or some language that definitely wasn't English.  Before the game even starts, were sitting in the well and my team is already saying gg, no carry.  I proceed to carry the team to victory (Pro, I know.)  So then I started thinking.  Melee vs Ranged carries.

Idiot-proof guide for buying a Courier.

Are you a support character?

If NO, DON'T BUY A COURIER

If YES, proceed.

Does your team already have a courier?

If YES, DON'T BUY A COURIER

If NO, proceed.

Are you an idiot?

If you are reading this, probably not.

But if you are, buy the god damned courier!

 

As you can see from the screen shot I took, common sense is quite uncommon.  You might be thinking, "Oh, it was probably a noobs no stats game."  Nope, it was a 1600+ rated game.  (Big shot, I know.)  Going into a stats game without any friends is almost a death wish.  It's like rolling the dice.  The team with the least amount of idiots win, and hopefully you will be on that team.  

Another point I would like to make is how much it pisses me off when people don't share their couriers.  Let me give you an example.  (This was right after retail came out.)  I was playing Chronos I think, (lol, I know right?) and there was a Glacius on my team.  "i got courier" he said. Let me repeat that, "i got courier".  Whatever, I just went to my lane.  I was farming well and got my marchers and gloves of haste, all I needed was my bolstering armband to finish off steamboots.  I clicked the squiggly thing on my keyboard to select the courier. BUT OH WAIT.   It wasn't being shared.  "Glacius, share please."  What did I get in return? "stfu i bought it".  I facepalmed.  HARD.

Now I would understand if say someone like Pyro buys a courier off the bat to ferry his bottle back and forth, but at least (hopefully) the pyro would let the team know that he's not sharing it.

Well, that's it for the first Flying Courier post.  I hope you guys enjoyed the read and I'll have more blogs about Hon, and possibly SC2, LoL, WOW, etc.  Later!