1UP sure has a way of sniffing out stories before they happen, to such a degree that speculations run rampart and at times nothing really happens. It may or may not be the case with today’s story, which prompts Marvel Universe Online as the unhappy nominee for a Microsoft project cancellation. Ever since Microsoft announced the game on 26 September 2006, details have been scarce if any, complete with a lack of direct responses from developers when confronted with the issue in several interviews. Teasers are common place after one year of development cycle, including concept art, 3D renderings, screenshots and story snippets, but it isn’t the case with Marvel Universe Online. It’s rather sad to see it turn into vaporware, as the game world has a huge fan base that anxiously awaits its arrival to the online realms.

To put things into context, Cryptic Studios is the Marvel Universe Online developer, also known for comic based MMORPGs City of Heroes and City Of Villains. Not two weeks ago, publisher NCSoft acquired the rights for thee two retail releases. Approximately 15% of Cyptic’s staff was relocated to Mountain View, California to start a new studio under the NCSoft banner. With the IPs out of their yard, one would think Cryptic is free to pursue other projects, including Marvel Universe Online, but while Microsoft insists that the sale will not negatively affect any such projects, we’ve yet to hear news of the comic title.

Cyptic’s upcoming superhero MMORPG has not been cancelled outright, but Microsoft is known to take their time when it comes for such official announcements. 1UP’s inside sources prompt the game development to be on the bricks though. There was talk of “a big Microsoft first-party title that's been in the works for a very long time that people are very excited for” but looking back on the facts, Marvel Universe Online isn’t a perfect match. Aside from the mysterious source, Cryptic developers were cryptic themselves when it came to passing information about the game. 1UP is very eloquent in this regard, citing the suspicious inability by the project's collaborators to confirm the game's on-going development. Up until now, all we have is the game cinematic trailer which conveniently doesn’t present any type of in game footage.

Enough time has passed and it’s time for yet another Blizzard goodie to hit the World of Warcraft live servers. Patch 2.3 went live today on the US servers and will be up for Europe early tomorrow after maintenance. It’s a matter of preference actually, because we have Zul Aman and its animal bosses for PvE raiders in 2.3 and we’ll have the start of the PvP Season 3 complete with a ladder reset in exactly one week. Supplemented by serious class tweaking, big changes are coming to the live servers for everyone. It’s part of Blizzard policy to release new content on a regular basis and we see new instances introduced to the game each four months and a ladder reset on the same timetable. Time’s up, thus game hype will once again rise as old accounts get reactivated and the flame is rekindled in the hearts of MMO gamers.

Patch testing and changes have been the bread and butter of WoW fan sites all over the net for a month now, so let’s take a quick look at what the future has in store for us. First and foremost we have Zul Aman, which will be fully reviewed hands on in a couple of days. This lost temple can be found in the Ghostlands and requires no attunement quests performed. It’s a relic of the old Amani Empire, one of the two troll factions known to Azeroth (the Gurubashi Empire being the other). Zul Aman is Blizzard’s way of responding to public feedback. For a fact, Karazhan proved to be a huge success, if not due to its native fun filled encounters, then because of its wide accessibility. Here we go again with events scaled to go up from Prince Malchezaar and beyond. Guilds that are just about to enter Serpentshire Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye will find Zul Aman just about right in terms of gear versus challenge.

Too bad Blizzard didn’t learn anything from last Halloween, when alliance players were forced to wait in front of Scarlet Monastery and deal with PvP against countless horde that had the advantage of the home court. Ghostlands is the Blood Elf starting area, so be ready to witness the same scenario again: Several groups get ready to enter Zul Aman and start gathering by the summoning stone. We have horde and alliance together, bundled for a group hug, when someone attacks and just like a bar fight, everything ends up in a bloody mess.

Zul Aman is the home of the elder totemic gods of the Amani trolls. It’s been a place of worship since the very beginning thus the upper priesthood hierarchy has been granted powers beyond those of mortal trolls. You’ll meet the great bear guardian first, dire Nalorakk. Be sure to direct nightly prayers his way if you dream about riding that wicked looking bear out sometime in the near future. Akil'zon is the eagle avatar and master of storms. Unlike his Zul Gurub counterpart, the lynx avatar Halazzi does not have three acolytes that resurrect one another. Jan'alai, dragonhawk avatar puts up a good fight protecting the eggs of the flying hunter. Many raids will find their doom by the hands of Hex Lord Malacrass but none of the above is as powerful as the master himself, Zul’Jin.

Needless to mention, loot rises to the occasion by pumping up as much spell and melee haste as possible within level 131 items, along with melee armor penetration stats. In terms of item level alone, these should neither make nor break high end raiding itemization on guilds raiding Hyjal and Black Temple. But in practice, Zul Aman will boost casual raiding guilds itemization to a great extend, introducing item stats previously native to the high end part of the spectrum. It’s a bit unfair from Blizzard’s part, but then again, they always nerfed encounters in order to make them more accessible. Another random drop specific to Zul Aman is the enchant weapon: Executioner recipe. The enchant grants the use a chance to deal attacks that ignore 840 target armor for 10 seconds, for a good dps boost against low armored targets. Needless to say, Executioner is the new mongoose for PvP use, a clever time sink which gobbles up roughly 500g on each application. WoW greatness is never cheap. Not unless you count the new mad alchemist healing potions which grant a random buff on each use, stackable with any elixirs and flasks you may use at the time.

There can’t be a good patch without random freebies. Although the proper riding skill is required, engineers will be happy to know that Blizzard graced them with new normal and epic flying mounts. Flying machines they are called and supposedly have nothing in common with flying saucers. It’s still a question of goblin versus gnomish engineering. If they bug and end up in a huge explosion I’ll bet on gnomes. Maybe it’s better to have faith in goblin racing minds. There is little profit to be gained should your flying machine suddenly stop and fail high above Netherstorm. Awesome 8 seconds to treasure life before the corpse run though. It’s a good think the Cenarion Expedition has new hyppogriph mounts for sale, just as good looking and more dependable.

Now that I mentioned PvP, many things will change in a week so I recommend you start farming honor right away if you haven’t already. If you’re a newcomer to competitive PvP, 50k honor would just about grab you four pieces of the now honor-standard Gladiator set. Its arena point requirements have been removed and the old blues High Warlord set becomes obsolete. New trinkets that give a specific class bonus and boost your hit points by 1750 for 20 seconds are also available, sharing different cooldown than regular damage dealing trinkets. Blizzard seems to think nuking is out of control, or at least it will be with the new itemization and skill changes. Season 3 Vengeful Gladiator armors and weapons have plenty nice surprises to show, most notably being the introduction of extra armor (the green markup) and armor penetration. Gibing casters seems to get easier and easier, but what do they get in return?

Hunters get a ranged mortal strike effect on each aimed shot. Warriors get important talents from the fury tree moved to arms. I can’t even begin to stress the importance of this minor change. We’ll have brick walls that hit like trucks, are immune to fear for a long time and hit fast and harder as the battle drags on. Priests get a lovely discipline buff and can land Pain Suppression on any team member, just like paladins do with their Blessing of Protection. Mages have the damage coefficient tax removes thus fireballs and frostbolts will deal roughly 10% more damage. Dual wielding shamans have so many changes in store for them, that I’m almost tempted to get one in my arena teams. Whenever shamanistic rage gets activated, shamans get 30% reduction on both physical and magic damage, unkillable for 30 seconds.

Many more undocumented changes will stir things up even more. I have to admit, I came to love these first aid packs that boost enjoyment for a while longer. MMORPGs are born, live and eventually die, but WoW has its moments even after three years of existence. Be sure to get the patch in advance with the automatic background-downloader. Servers should be up by 11 AM tomorrow, but you never know what complications may arise. Patch days tend to get unexpected errors and delays in realm resuscitation.

The fate of this game was decided long before the actual work for it had even started. The developers are the same ones who left from Blizzard a long time ago and are the authors of the Diablo game series. The history of this game started in the house of one of the developers and later on they had a fully working studio which got the name “Flagship Studio”. The fact that they started out in a small place working on this project bonded the developers very much. What they wanted was to give life to a new game that would create a new genre within the list of the types of games of today.

<-250x250 Square - left->The original idea that gave inspiration for the concept of Hellgate was “Half-Life meets Diablo”, according to one of the developers (Diablo2 was the only game that lasted more than 2 years on my hard drive – so you can only imagine how interested I was when I heard that a new game made by the same team was in the works). The result is pretty much a lot more than they originally expected – thousands of fans are active daily on the official site posting in the community. Yes, this game is more like “next-gen”, but you should take this phrase literally – the requirements are pretty much important and need to be respected, otherwise you will never enjoy the game at its best. The game has a multiplayer version as well (where you can go with your friends from your clan and defeat the demons together), based on monthly subscriptions with relatively good prices. If you hurry up, you might get a lifetime subscription as well.

You will need a dual core CPU with at least 2GHz, 2GB of RAM – yes it needs a lot of RAM, the more the better (seriously this game needs 4 GB RAM because of the high amount of data that keeps being loaded as you progress from one area to another so that the transition would be smooth), latest generation and especially top level video cards – the developers have worked mostly on Nvidia cards and that is also what they promote in their game. Momentarily, the 2x00 ATI cards work very well with the game, but only with the Catalyst 7.9 driver series. The page-file of your computer needs to be resized to a little above 10GB and the hard drive requirements are 7.5GB. You may wonder why this game needs so much – well it’s because of the engine. Even if you install the memory leak patch from Microsoft that the set-up will ask you to, it will still have problems with managing the video memory and the RAM memory – it would certainly need some tweaking, and the developers have released 3 patches so far, one after another, each giving a better overall performance, but the memory issue hasn’t been solved completely yet.

latest game trailer

The story of the game is neatly connected with its development - they began the concept arts with the Templar Knights because they have existed for a long time and they know how to deal with threats, always protecting the humankind. And around this idea the other classes have caught shape. “First person shooter meets RPG” – this was the full concept that determined the developers to create a fully featured and brand new game-engine, specialized in generating new maps and in handling massive amounts of characters, monsters and other 3D objects in motion, infinite replayability and an individualized gaming experience through dynamically created levels. As you can imagine it was not easy, and it took them years before they even came close to an alpha version of the game, when I received an invitation to take part in the testing. I was very happy that somebody was finally thinking of making something quite revolutionary, while bringing new concepts.

The alpha and beta testing went pretty much OK, but I can tell you now – the alpha version was already very good and performed impressively nice. The beta was tweaked and changed a few things, like the design of most of the tube stations. There are as many “levels” as many stations – in each of them you will have to do some “chores” in order to gain some experience points and there is of course the main line of quests, meant to bring you closer to the “Hellgate”. I am presenting the game levels from the point of view of a Knight, so it’s a Templar Knight’s version of the story, following mostly the main quest. The other classes have pretty much the same path, although they will definitely use their own special abilities to move through the hordes of demons and travel to each station doing good deeds.

Although, you will have to take up as many quests as possible and solve them, there is a purpose for this – increased experience will give you many points to allocate to the skills panel and 5 attribute points per gained level to distribute to the accuracy (the precision of the attacks), strength (for wearing the heaviest and strongest armors and also to hit better the monsters where it hurts), stamina (the life power – this increases directly your health levels) and willpower (the magic abilities). What this game has to offer is high-action single player that can be played also on the multiplayer. I strongly believe that this game is one very good advertiser for tourists who wish to visit London (as if there weren’t too many already). The weapons in the game are very capable of tweaking and have slots for inserting items that give them aditional and enhanced abilities. So here it goes:

“I still remember the orders from the first day I arrived at the Holborn Station, after meeting Murmur and helping out the Techsmith to restore the gate towards Covent Garden: “Fire and Glory! Remember the dead but fight for the living! Leave NONE (meaning demons) alive! Save London!” What happened that lead to this totally unbalanced universe: “A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.” There are 3 factions with the necessary skills for “demon-thrashing” and these are:

The legendary Templar Knights were the ones who have been doing “this job” for centuries and were specialists in sword attacks and extreme physical damage. They have developed quite unique and highly advanced armor along with cutting-edge powerful swords. The game’s general idea is focused around them and they were the first ones prepared to face the demons. Since I was “called for duty”, I had to join them and “regain” my former armor. I was ready as a blademaster to “match the blades” against the demons again, but this time it was going to be the end of them.

Blademaster Templar in action

The Cabalists were the students of the dark arts and advanced science. They find themselves pretty much at the border between good and evil, luckily they use their forces to help the armies of the knights in mid-range combat against the demons. They use the force of the demons against them. This class reminded me of the Necromancer one from the Diablo game. They don’t do very much physical damage themselves - it’s the summoned creatures and the spells that do the tricks for them.

Cabalist Summoner in action

The Hunters are former highly ranked and trained military operatives and spies who make use of advanced technology to defeat their opponents – while they also use a lot of guns. They are the ones to show us the real first person shooter mode within the game. The developers wanted to make them look outstanding and not just like the "usual" marines.

Hunter Marksman in action

Moving on with the story, I managed to help the Techsmith in fixing the gate towards Covent Garden and I literally hacked and slashed through the restless packs of demons in order to reach the Covent Garden Station. This is where I met one of the highly ranked knights, namely Brandon Lann. He was pretty full of self-importance, but later on when I met him again he was very respectful. He sent me to search for one of his wounded knights from one of the Hellrifts (small portals between human world and the demon one). There I found a device that helped me destroy the Hellrift from the British Museum and I met “the oracle”, The Sage (very amusing, just like in the Matrix) who told me a “piece” of the truth. And that is what happened in Act 1 from the game.

When I came back, Lann sent me to Lord Arphaun, from the Charing Cross Station. Here I got the orders to clear out the Piccadilly Circus and the surrounding areas. While my skills have improved and I gained some “cash” I decided to get “some respectable gear”, as Lann suggested, at least until I would get the armor I was waiting for such a long time. And I must say I really enjoyed talking to Holloway, and I bought a lot of items, armors and swords from her. She is one of the cutest people to talk to, (but only before you apply any patch to the game – the patches remove her cool personality). Here, I was sent to talk to Lucious Aldin, a crazy old fool who proved to be pretty skillful in managing to keep me busy for a while in the Green Park Station and in Chocolate Park. After bringing down some uglies in the Millennium Battle and in the level that turns out to be RTS-like, namely the Embankment Redoubt, I reached the end of Act 2.

Embankment Redoubt
The next stop was the Temple Station – this where I found armor which resembled very much the one I’ve been waiting for. It wasn’t very sleek looking, but it protected me lots of times during my travels to The Barge House, The Big Gundown, The Puddle Dock and the Angel Passage. Rorke Pherral was in charge here, and he was from the Hunter faction. I noticed that the Templar Base was just one tunnel away, but I only visited it for the new gear and armor at that time. Things were starting to look better and the occasional “epic battles” were bringing me closer to the final fight against the big demon with blue eyes. When I went through the Angel Passage, I saw a lot of big and very ugly wart-like creatures that released a lot of infesting fumes – I used the special gun from the wizard-lizard Lady from the Temple Station to get rid of them and I finally met another form of “truth”, in a heaven-like area.

That was the end of Act 3 and the beginning of Act 4, and I moved on to the Monument Station where I was happy to find Lord Arphaun again and he asked me to rescue some fellow knights who were located in Aldgate, Canon Street Rail, and to clear out the Tower of London area. I helped the Techsmith to fix the train from Canon Street Rail, by bringing back the missing pieces and then I attacked the demons that were standing in the way of the train. I also returned to the Templar Base where I felt pretty much like home and very welcome, although Lord Maxim was arrogantly abusing his power. Hilariously enough, the game has a sense of knowing how good the player is and I received a hint during the missions from the Templar Base, and that was: “You should really know what you are doing by now” and I was like “wow, no kidding, you think?”

Next, at the beginning of Act 5, I went to Liverpool Street Station, in order to meet Jessica Sumerisle, the young lady with blond hair and blue eyes, the leader of the Templar and of the whole movement against the dark forces. This is where I finally found the armor I’ve been looking for from the start. I helped Jessica to find the Sigil Sign in Necropolis and then I was sent to Finsbury Square to prove again in 5 “simple” tests how worthy I was to face the most dangerous demons out there. These tests reminded me a lot of the adventures from the Unreal Tournament, especially the “capture the flag” competitions.

The tests (Knowledge, Fellowship, Leadership, Beauty and the Final Test) weren’t exactly easy, but I managed to pass them in a relatively short time. I enjoyed very much the travel to Ploughyard, where Lucious Aldin and his 314 Techsmith were waiting for me along Murmur and Emmera: I was given a big robot to fight against the huge demons and I was very happy to use its automatic machine guns against the Furies that were standing in my way. At the end of this test, Murmur disappeared mysteriously because of the big demon, Sydonai, who made a short appearance. The last form under which the truth took shape was a child who foretold the future of the final battle. Next, Emmera encouraged me to go and be victorious in the battle at the Hellgate from St Paul’s Station, the final stop.

Just when I thought it could get any better armor-wise I was bewildered to discover that the knights have developed another type of armor, a newer one that was visibly stronger and thicker. When I put it on, I felt as if I was one of the Transformers, those really awesome robots. And it wasn’t a bad thing at all – I actually felt invincible in that “voltaic” armor. Before proceeding to the Hellgate, I saw that all the important people were at the entrance towards the gate, like Jessica, Lann, Arphaun and Emmera – they all wished me well and said they hoped to win the war. There is just one thing I need to mention now – all the knights that I encountered on the battle field were either stupid or simply incapable to handle the monsters – I had to “dispatch” the uglies up close and personal.

So it wasn’t something new when I saw the "little" Templars on the streets fighting without any hope against the demons. I cleared the path as usual and proceeded into Hell in order to fight against Sydonai. First I had to defeat 5 big demons who impersonated 5 lies (flaws), and then Sydonai showed up. Emmera used her powers to weaken him but she soon fainted and sent the remaining energies to me. So I took the chance and started to bring on all the “heavy artillery” I had available and also used a little magic to boost my finishing moves. It was a good idea because the big blue-eyed demon fell down struck by the lighting from my swords.

What happened next was the biggest surprise of all: Murmur showed up, but totally disfigured and he thanked me for clearing up the place for him – he casted a spell upon me and sent me back, outside the Hellgate, while he remained there reading and casting spells from a book he just unwrapped. I was told that this was the end and that the story would begin again in Nightmare mode, but it would have to take a lot of time before I was to return to the battle field – I needed some rest.”

Signed,
Lt. LightSabre

The developers have worked a lot on the detail of the sound in the game, and each effect was tweaked as much as possible in order to give a realistic feel. The thematic music wasn’t present in every action scene, but it was very well spread throughout the game, especially in the “crowded” areas, in order to stimulate the player. For more details check out the interview with the developers from the video below:

Interview With Hellgate London Developers

As a conclusion, I would like to thank the developers, especially Bill Roper and Max Schaefer, for creating such a great game, for giving life and shape to things I’ve been dreaming ever since I was a very young boy and for putting into spotlight moral values that make the humans stick together through hard times. Even if the game is not perfect (but then again nothing is!), it brings a totally new perspective for the gaming communities, by combining RPG elements with FPS style and even RTS features into one big and solid package. I would also like to thank Ping0 from the Hellgate London Community for keeping us up to date with the latest patches and news regarding the game development.

Digitainment Mark: 10 out of 10 (for creating a new genre in the gaming universe)

Developer: Flagship Studios

Publisher: EA, Namco Bandai Games, HanbitSoft, IAH games

Official game website: http://www.hellgatelondon.com

The fight has been raging for about 9 minutes now but our numbers held strong while confronting Illidan in his Black Temple lair. Two phases into the encounter and out dps didn’t die to parasites, the offtanks dodged the eye beams and danged around the infernals without taking the long sleep. Just when we though this was hard enough, Illidan decides to pass phase three to prove us wrong as the Embers of Azzinoth die.

Phase Three and Four

<-250x250 Square - left->This time the main tank will hold him to the far left and far away from the raid in what’s basically phase one all over again, with the addition of Agonizing Flames. Expect shear, the flame trail once he jumps and the life restoring cone attack which requires the raid to stay behind. Agonizing flames is another kind of flamestrike area of effect spell which hits for 5k fire damage and ticks for increasingly more over one minute. It’s time for raid members to switch positions once more. The grate will be the designated spot for people infested with the random parasites, so take some distance and spread out between around the grate, even at the spot where Illidan was tanked in phase one. The important thing to remember is to keep distance from other. These locations should be designated in advance for each raid member. Agonizing flames leaves a debuff so it’s not a question of moving out of the way, but more about damage control. Healing three targets hit by agonizing flames is almost impossible to heal through and four is a definite wipe.

Phase three lasts exactly one minute and once it’s done, Illidan will suddenly stop and let loose the demon within. If you remember the Warcraft 3 game mechanics, what we see is the scaled 3D reiteration of the demon hunter metamorphosis ultimate skill. I have to admit there’s nothing quite like it, seeing Illidan growing in size as a huge black winged demon which hurls shadow blasts from afar. Definitely chaos damage, but with a weakness for the 250 shadow resistance your warlock tank will be wearing. The tank must position him in advance and he has a 10 second window for the actual transformation. In the mean time, everyone must take at least 20 yards from the warlock or suffer a miserable death once Illidan starts blasting because the shadow blasts are an area of effect attack which can’t be healed through. Melee should also move way, far away, because his inner demon has a thing called Aura of Dead which smites everyone in close range for absurd amounts of damage. It’s Blizzard’s way of letting you know that everyone should stay at range because … range might save your life.

Once the metamorphosis is complete, the fiend summons four Shadow Demons. Each demon randomly picks up a target, including and not limited to the warlock tank, incapacitates it and slowly moves in that direction following its eye beam. If one such beholder should happen to reach its unfortunate victim, the target’s soul gets devoured for an instant death, while the demon fixates another person. It’s possible and you will sometime see a raid member getting two fixates at the same time. The raid leader must call out the target that needs to be killed first, namely the shortest beam, and your warlock tank is a priority in this process. In the mean time, throw every slowing effect you have at the demons, to buy enough time to a clean kill. Note that melee can assist with the demons, but must just as fast come back to their spots once the work is done. As a side note, the warrior main tank should never stay close to Illidan in phase four, since failure to move further away can result in a deadly fixate and a wipe for the raid. Just run away as far as possible, you won’t be needed for a while. So demons get killed in 8 seconds and ranged dps has 22 more seconds of fun with Illidan, to top the damage meters. Thirty seconds pass and Illidan comes back to his usual form and phase three starts again. The reason I coupled phase three and four together is that we see an alternation in these, three to four times, until Illidan is hopefully cut down to 30%. Don’t risk a demon phase if you’re at 32% so just wait until the demon phase is over and then burn him down.

Where Maiev steps in

“Is this it, mortals? Is this all the fury you can muster?” Illidan is a shrewd tactician and you can’t expect such a being of immense power to play fair. Raid members will find themselves incapacitated in a sphere of energy, unable to act in any way as Illidan gets tired of these silly fleshling skirmishes. Remember Maiev Shadowsong? The proud Night Elf acted as Illidan’s jailor in his 10,000 year imprisonment and has been trapped by the cunning Akama. Fortunate for you, Maiev blinks in for the final confrontation with her prey: “Their fury pales before mine, Illidan. We have some unsettled business between us.”

Maiev will systematically lay traps for Illidan and the tank must drag him there. The problem lies with placement, as it’s totally random and there’s a chance the distance gets bigger than 25 yards. At this point two choices lay before the raid. Either tank Illidan to the trap fast, if the distance is somewhere in the radius of 13 yards, or stay put and be ready for massive pre-emptive healing. Illidan gets pissed off if you take too long to imprison him and goes into a mini rage. During this time, a fully T6 geared main tank with all buffs available in the game can simply *plop* die in 2 seconds if he’s not healed by pretty much every healer in the raid. But since Maiev’s traps are so random, it’s just one more situation you must deal with. Trapping Illidan is advisable, since he stops dps for a good number of seconds and takes extra damage in the process. Mana problems are evident at this stage and you should pick up 8-10 mana potions to use each try if you’re a healer and at least 4 if you’re a mana using damage dealer. Shadowpriest vampiric embrace and paladin blessing of wisdom won’t be enough to keep you going, not even with innervate now and then or mana tide totems, because it’s really that hard. About 20 people should be alive now, doing their best to dps Illidan before something goes wrong and the tank dies. Random death can still occur since he’s using all previous abilities from phase three so watch out for those parasites.

After the rain, an empty sky remains

I can’t even begin to describe the sensation. Everything moves so fast, even if it’s not the first time you get this far. The rush that the last boss alive in all of World of Warcraft struggles with your raid at 7% hit points is beyond words. One last effort, one last push and you can get there. The feeling is so real that’s almost like you can touch it, 3% and just a bit more. And then Illidan kneels, wounded: “You have won...Maiev. But the huntress...is nothing without the hunt. You are nothing...without me...” Silence. There is silence in my head and in my heart. It is over. There is no time to react, not even the joy of a first kill, nothing. The sudden realization that there is nothing more to raid in this push has a bitter sweet aftertaste. But Illidan lies in ruins at you feet and all his treasures are now yours. You can now return to Akama and complete the last quest in the Black Temple line, Fall of the betrayer, and collect your Blessed Medallion of Karabor. This upgraded version of the old necklace has the addition of free teleports to the Black Temple every 15 minutes. Congratulations, you’ve just made top 200 guilds in the world.

After weeks of strife we speared through, deep within the Black Temple as we stand before Malfurion’s lost twin brother. Illidan Stormrage became a transformed demon hunter after consuming the powers of the skull of Gul'dan. It is this very decrepit relic he now grips in his hand, seeming lost in thoughts as we walk up to the high terrace. What could such a being of immense power dwell upon? The many years spent as an outcast undoubtedly left their mark, like a wound that will never heal. In the times of the War of the Ancients, Illidan's lust for magical power and jealousy of his brother's lover caused betrayal. His kin was abandoned in favor of the Burning Legion, a choice which ultimately led to Illidan’s 10,000 years imprisonment following the Night Elf victory. Too late has Tyrande Whisperwind freed him from the long captivity, in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, so there is no room for regret. Vengeance! There can be no other feeling in the heart of one such as Illidan. They all must pay for the injustice inflicted on one such as him. Akama lead us to face the great tyrant and now we came to end yet another cause for a painful effect.

The long struggle

Illidan was defeated by Arthas while attempting to kill the Lich King in Northrend; although assumed dead, he was not actually slain. Twisted by his lust for arcane magic, he now commands a great army of Naga, Blood Elves, and Draenei from his encampment in Outland, in the fallen Temple of Karabor now suitably called the Black Temple. He has also closed off all the local portals to protect himself from both the armies of Azeroth and the wrath of the Burning Legion. None can tempt the anger of Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, but Illidan swore himself to the great Eredar and then failed him in the line of duty.

<-250x250 Square - left->We too have gone to great lengths in order to meet the ruler of Outland face to face. Naj’entus’ hard shell was cracked first; we chipped Supremus piece by piece until there was nothing left from the great infernal. Entering the temple courtyard and into the sanctuary, Akama was released from Illidan’s grip when we killed his shade. We’ve met plenty of fel orcs while advancing to Teron Gorefiend and his fiendish existence was put to a stop. Down below the Reliquary of souls waited for peace, which was well worth it in death. Gurtogg cast his last Bloodboil on us, while his rage diminished into a quiet sleep of the ages. The way was cleared to the perfume scented halls where Mother Shahraz reigns over the pleasure dome, a small stop before the ruling Illidari Council. It was a tough fight but we prevailed, confident in out power to overcome even the greatest of tasks. Here we stand now before Illidan, firmly believing that after six months of playing the Burning Crusade we are finally prepared.

Phase One

Needless to say, full buff options are needed, in a raid setup complete with all classes. The main tank needs a shield block proficiency of 100% while two offtanks max out fire resistance and a third warlock offtank needs at least 250 shadow resistance. As long as no-one dies to stupid mistakes DPS should be fine, so get at least eight healers if not more. The fight itself lasts for more than 15 minutes, with Illidan having an enrage timer at 25, so make sure your healing can last that much. Talk to Akama once everyone is ready and he will go confront Illidan for a conclusion in the fight for the freedom of all Draenei in Outland. As any master villain, Illidan engages in a small discussion with his prey before yelling in confidence: “You are not prepared!”

The main tank shouldn’t have any difficulties grabbing him as ranged dps and healers stay on the grate, and melee dps rush right in. Just go all out once agro has been firmly established since there are no threat issues for the time being. Illidan hits for an average of 7k on plate and also has shear, an ability which damages the tank for 60% of his maximum hit points. Every once in a while he will jump high into the air and leave a flame trail below which ticks for 5k damage and lasts for 2 minutes. The main tank is to move immediately a few steps in a direction he’ll be keeping for the rest of phase one to avoid damaging the melee. Ranged don’t have it easy either, because Illidan throws a parasite randomly into the raid, a debuff which deals damage over time spawns two parasites after an incubation period. When the 10 seconds are gone, the victim must be out of the raid, at a position one of the hunters left a freezing trap to slow the parasites down. Do not try to damage them as they’ll retaliate and will only lead to another parasite incubating within your system. Instead, one hunter can deal with them relatively easy (take two for the extra margin of error). Phase one is the tank and spank part of the encounter we came to love, a way of topping the damage meters and showing off to your friends while claiming Illidan is not that hard. But all dreams come to and end as phase one lasts roughly until Illidan reaches 65%.

Phase Two

Slightly annoyed by your persistence, Illidan once again jumps high into the air but keeps floating for a while. Casting spells is always a nuisance while wielding the dual Warglaves of Azzinoth so he throws them away, to much effect. One can think it’s a good thing, until they see the horror of the two Embers of Azzinoth emerging from the blades. The twin fire elemental spawns are huge and take ages to kill. The good news is that we successfully used a paladin and a druid to tank the embers, even a warrior with mixed epic, blue and green fire resistance gear. Hit points and armor are of paramount importance if you have the right healing power, as long as fire resistance is capped (read 365). The bad news is tanks get severely punished for every little mistake they make and slipups usually result in a wipes.

All raid members get on the grate, into a cross-like position with four groups of up to six persons each. Just stay immobile, on top of each other as one. If someone moves too far away from either of the embers, then it gets charged by an ember and agro control won’t be established, resulting in a wipe. Illidan also throws big fireballs from the sky and hurts everyone in an area. Shamans do wonders here with chain heal, along with priest circle of healing, so each group must have a designated and dedicated healer. Tanks need to dance around the outer edge of the grate in a semi circular movement to avoid the flame trail left by embers. Once you’ve reached the “end of the line” you’ll have to turn, always facing the ember, otherwise there’s a good chance you’ll get dazed and later killed by the residue flames. Phase two is entirely dependant ok the way tanks deal with the situation, so expect a lot of hate from guildies if you can’t rise to the occasion fast enough. It’s a good idea to damage both elementals at first, to avoid agro pulling, and then focus until one’s dead. Besides the ember flames, there is another raid killer, namely Illidan’s gaze. It’s usually called in Ventrilo by the raid leader and tanks need to be extra careful to dodge it. Yes, I do mean the blue laser beam from the sky that barely strikes the outer edge of the grate circle. Avoid it or take 20k fire damage and additional 2k every tick. Illidan likes to randomly do Dark Barrage every two minutes once phase two started, dealing 30k shadow damage on a selected party member over 10 seconds. If you though this was hard, then Illidan enters phase three to prove you wrong once the Embers of Azzinoth die.