Tier 16 Armor Set videos: Paladin, Druid, Rogue, Death Knight [Updated]

Adriacraft are back with more tier set videos. This time we've got the tier 16 armor sets for Paladins and Druids, with Rogues to follow later. What do you think of the sets? Here at WoW Insider we're unsure, both these tiers look rather similar, and there seems to be a recurring theme of basic-colored armor with some unusual, even bizarre, frill detail.

As previously, the tiers' different colors will come from different difficulties. You can also remind yourself of the previous datamined tier sets for the Warrior, Priest and Hunter. Hit the break for the other two sets! And do check out Adriacraft on YouTube for all the latest patch videos!

Tags: breaking, druid, paladin, patch-5.4, rogue, tier-16

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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Young Welsh player achieves Stood in the Fire every night

Ten-year-old Connor of Wrexham, Wales, has adored World of Warcraft ever since he began watching his mother Emma play during The Burning Crusade. Today, Connor plays a worgen frost mage and has even raided the first three bosses of the Terrace of Endless Spring with his mom's guild. "We have always encouraged him because it helps with his literacy skills," she says.

So when it came time to find out Connor what he wanted on his bedroom wall when the family moved to a new home, the young fan was adamant: Deathwing, and plenty of it. Thanks to the talents of family friend and local artist Rachel West (more of her other art at faceART), that's exactly what Connor got.

"He loves his pet battles and enjoys looking at older raid content," Emma reports. "All the people in the guild are lovely with him and have helped various times so he can see content of the game." Still, his family seems content to let him get Stood in the Fire every night when he goes to bed ... That's one boy you can truly describe with a "well done, young man, well done." Tags: Deathwing-art, featured, wall-mural, wow-art, wow-artwork, wow-crafts, wow-fan, wow-fan-art, wow-fan-made, wow-fan-made-art, wow-fan-made-artwork, wow-fans, WoW-wall-mural

Filed under: Arts and Crafts

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Know Your Lore: The Contradictions of the Mogu

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

If Lei Shen was born, how was he born?

Even among the mighty mogu of ancient Pandaria, Lei Shen was known as a military prodigy. The son of a warlord, Lei Shen aimed not simply to conquer weaker races, as his forebears had done, but to build a true empire.

We're told that Lei Shen was born the son of a warlord during the Age of a Hundred Kings when the mogu, bereft of leadership following the silence of Master Ra (Ra-Den in the mogu language) and their being left to their own devices. If this is so... if Lei Shen was someone's son, how was he born? The mogu of today have no females save two, the Twin Consorts, but Monara's anguished spirit indicates that they once did. Considering that Lei Shen discovered the Engine of Nalak'sha and the Forge of the Endless, perhaps the Thunder King simply decided to stop letting his people reproduce via the Curse of Flesh. It's often argued that the mogu reverse engineered the Curse, but it's possible that they also decided to return to using the technology of the creation forges for their reproduction and as such, no longer needed to allow women of their race to exist.

The Twin Consorts themselves are clearly constructs, so either Lei Shen had them specially made for his own vanity (and in fact decided to be the only mogu who would have wives) or there is a pattern for female mogu inside the Forge of the Endless. Since the other Titan created races (vrykul, earthen, gnomes) have genders, and the Watchers have them as well, the lack of gender among the mogu of this era is notable. The existence of Monara and the legends surrounding Sparkmancer Vu indicate that at one time mogu women were a part of their society. This makes their near total removal from the mogu a sign of just how thoroughly Lei Shen remade his people, a terrifying prospect.

To Lei Shen, his people exist to serve his will. And for no other reason.

What's fascinating is, Lei Shen isn't immortal as such - he apparently died of old age, although there are contradictory stories that say he died in a great battle. However, we do know that there were several emperors after Lei Shen ruled, yet it seems safe to say that all of the hallmarks of the mogu, from the Serpent's Spine sealing the mantid away from the rest of Pandaria to the creation of the saurok date back to Lei Shen's rule. His successors, whatever their relationship to him, were not as successful partially because they could not think as he did, and partially because they did not hold the raw power that Lei Shen found in the Mogu'shan Vaults. Dojan Firecrown, who succeeded Lei Shen, made a few changes - he moved the seat of mogu power to the Mogu'shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, a structure built in ancient times when the mogu still served Master Ra and the Titans. But for the most part his reign was spent fighting the saurok that had been created within the Throne of Thunder.

We don't know how many emperors there were - before them, the Age of a Hundred Kings stretches for an equally unknown time, and after the death of Emperor Lao-Fe during the Pandaren revolt, there were kings again among the mogu because no one claimed the imperial title - but we do know that from the time of Lei Shen's death until the death of the last emperor Lao-Fe that the empire rocked beneath their feet. The saurok rebellion was followed by an organized revolt of all the subjugated people of the continent, and it smashed for many thousands of years the imperial ambitions of the mogu.

The issue then becomes this - where did the mogu go?

When we arrive on Pandaria, the mogu are found exploring ancient ruins in the Jade Forest. Similar mogu expeditions are found in the Krasarang forests (the ruins of Dojanni, named for Emperor Dojan II, who died fighting the saurok insurrection), and throughout Kun-Lai. These appearances of the mogu are stated to be unusual by the pandaren people - Kang Bramblestaff in particular describes the mogu as 'thugs' and scoffs at the idea that they can work magic at all despite the fact that they are using arcane portals to explore the Dojanni ruins for ancient relics of their people. Kang's statement that only when they ruled their old empire could they work any kind of magic makes me wonder what happened to them all once they lost that empire. And furthermore, without any currently living women, and no access to the Mogu'shan Vaults, why are there any mogu at all or at least, why were there whole clans of mogu for Xin the Weaponmaster to be ruling over?

It's clear that there is so method by which those mogu that are still flesh (that is, suffering from the Curse of Flesh) can keep themselves hidden and propagate their people. It's also clear that at some point, the Mogu'shan Vaults were accessed by the mogu and the Forge of the Endless activated, and many of the current mogu are constructs. It's possible that the mogu have been hiding in plain sight - that they have used the subterranean tunnels connecting all these ancient Titan complexes to move unobserved throughout Pandaria. It would also explain how they manage to continue to exist at all without women, since they'd have to be creating new mogu with the Forge of the Endless and then somehow using their knowledge of the Curse of Flesh (remember, they've been repeatedly said to have 'reverse sngineered' it) to effectively curse the constructs into new mogu. As bizarre as the theory is, it's basically the best idea we currently have as for how the society Lei Shen created, with its utter lack of women, could possibly keep existing much less survive for over twelve thousand years following the Pandaren Rebellion while keeping hidden.

This still leaves many mysteries - if Kang Bramblestaff is to be belived, the mogu haven't used magic in over twelve thousand years? Why, and why do their magical abilities seem to have returned with the lifting of the mists? Mogu are some of the proudest creatures in the world - is their dormancy related to the mists, created by the Sha of Pride? We know the Korune were tapping Sha energies to create wonders like the Divine Bell, and that mogu armies were often infused with Sha power by the Bell - why did the mogu seal the bell away? What role, if any, did the Sha play in the fall of the Mogu Empire? If Lei Shen could be raised from the dead, why did he even allow himself to die at all, and did he die, or return to stone? Did the majority of the mogu people spend the past millennia as unmoving, unfeeling stone? Did the clans survive to the present day not by conversion, but by hibernation, and if so what was Xin's plan for the clans who assembled in the Mogu'shan Palace?

Next week, the hidden secrets of the mogu temples. While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: featured, guide, guide-to-lore, Lei-Shen, lore, lore-guide, mogu, Mogu-women, Monara, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.4 PTR: Mounts, cloaks and glyphs

Wowhead's dataminers have unearthed a whole lot of new items with the latest build to hit the PTR servers, as Perculia posted earlier. First up, there's the Legendary capes, with their procs in place, seven in total, with different stats for different classes and specializations. You can also see the 3D models of the Legendary capes over on Wowhead, and I have to say, as someone who usually leaves their cloak turned off, these are very pretty indeed.

There are also new mounts, the Vicious Skeletal Warhorse, as shown in the header image, and the Vicious Warsaber. These may well be new mounts to purchase with honor points, conquest points, or may require a certain rating, or similar, but however you get them we absolutely agree with Perculia when she says they sound PvP-centric.

What's more, Corrupted Garrosh now has a glowy new look, a vast improvement on his old one, and appears to be less bulked out with all the sha influence.

Instead, he appears to be surrounded with a faint purple glow, whilst looking far more like his former self, but it is possible that we might see the very purple hulked Garrosh make a return, this could be an interim look for him while he's in the process of being corrupted.

There are also several new glyphs, but these are all marked with NYI, meaning Not Yet Implemented, so these could count for nothing at all. Some of them do look pretty great, though, even if several are cosmetic effects like surrounding you in feathers if you have Slow Fall active, or reducing the size of a Water Elemental. Do check out the full post at Wowhead!Tags: breaking, new-mounts, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-mounts, patch-5.4-ptr

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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Around Azeroth: Dragons don't need swords

"Gimmlette from Spectacular Death (A-Llane) was preparing for the guild's next raid," writes Gimmlette herself. "Part of that preparation is to make sure one's weapons are ready to go. So she stopped in to see Marda Weller in Stormwind. 'See these talons on my feet?' Gimlette said. 'They aren't sharp enough. Don't mind that they're currently digging into your floor.' Marda wasn't impressed by the talons or the dragon standing in front of her. 'You'll have to go to a jewelcrafter,' she replied. 'I think you need a grinder to sharpen those. Oh, and I'll be sending your guild a bill for replacing my floor planks.'"
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

Filed under: Around Azeroth

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Breakfast Topic: Whatever happened to healing assignments?

A few nights ago, I was casually playing my mistweaver monk when I saw a pick-up group forming for Mogushan Vaults. He wasn't really that well geared, but I figured "why not?" and jumped in. Since this was my first time joining a raid on this character, I tried to be prepared; I ate my spirit food, drank a flask, and asked the raid leader for healing assignments. His response? Well, parts of it are unprintable, but the gist is that "assignments are lame" and "nobody uses them anymore."

I admit, I'm not the best at paying attention to what my healers are doing, other than thanking them when they repeatedly cover for my slow reaction times, or lighting our tree druid on fire. (Ulla, if you're reading this, it was the warlock. Really!) Thinking back, though, the last time I remember healing assignments really being a "thing" was Chimaeron, and nothing since then.

Understandably, heroic raiders still have assignments as they have to keep people from dying every second, but what about the rest of us? It seems like assignments have died out: do you think this is a bad thing or a good thing? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, healing-assignments, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMike

The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMike object,embed{display:none}(function(){var a=window,h,g=[],c=function(){if(h){return}h=1;for(var e=-1,d=g.length;++e Skip to Content

function runOmni(){s_265.pfxID="wwo";s_265.pageName="The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMike";s_265.server="";s_265.channel="us.wowinsd";s_265.pageType="";s_265.prop54="blogsmith";s_265.prop1="article";s_265.prop2="podcasts";s_265.prop18="podcasts|wow_insider_show";s_265.prop22="adam-holisky";s_265.prop19="@livefyre|facebookfeed|featured|podcast|podcasts|wow-com-podcast|wow-dot-com-podcast|wow-insider-podcast|wow-podcast|wow-podcasting|wow-podcasts|wow-show|wowcom-podcast|wowinsider-show";s_265.prop8="bss:99";s_265.prop9="bsd:20644525";s_265.mmxgo=true;s_265.prop12=document.location;s_265.t();}var s_account="aolwbjystiq,aolsvc";(function(d){var s=d.createElement("script");s.src=(location.protocol=='https:'?'https://s':'http://o')+'.aolcdn.com/omniunih.js';d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);})(document); WoW Insider has the latest on the Mists of Pandaria!SubscribeTwitterAOLMAILWoW ClassDeath Knight Druid Hunter Mage Monk Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior GuidesBlizzard Who's WhoCataclysm GuideLeveling GuidesLore GuideNew Player GuideWorld of Warcraft ResourcesRaidingReady CheckRaid RxAddonsAddon SpotlightReader UI of the WeekAddons 101LoreAll the World's a StageAround AzerothKnow Your LoreSunday Morning FunniesWoW Insider's Weekly ComicPvPBlood SportThe Art of War(craft)Daily FeaturesBreakfast TopicsThe Daily QuestThe QueueWoW MoviewatchWeekly Features15 Minutes of FameDrama MamasGuest PostsGold CappedOfficers' QuartersPhat Loot PhridayThe ClassifiedsThe LawbringerThe OverachieverWeekly Podcast RoundupWorld of WarcraftsWoW Insider ShowWoW RookieWRUPGuildIt Came from the BlogChoose My AdventureAbout Us | Contact UsPatch 5.4 patch notesVirtual Realms feature revealedThe Proving Grounds are comingThe latest patch 5.4 newsThe WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMikeby Adam Holisky Jul 3rd 2013 at 7:40PM

Every week, join us as we present you with The WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW Insider to emails from our readers and what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.

Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wowinsider.com! And don't forget to join us for the live show again next Monday at 8:00 p.m. PDT!

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Permalink0 Comments.fyre-notifier-container{display:none}.fyre{width:94%!important}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>span.fyre-comment-reply-wrapper{top:18px}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>a,.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>a:hover{top:20px}Breaking news FeedPatch 5.4 PTR: Mounts, cloaks and glyphsTier 16 Armor Set videos: Paladin, Druid, Rogue, Death Knight [Updated]Patch 5.4 PTR Datamine: 100% XP Buff via MicrotransactionPatch 5.4 PTR: More spoileriffic sound filesThe mount you'll engi-need in Patch 5.4Featured stories FeedBreakfast Topic: Do unlikely race/role combos disturb you?The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMikeRP Inside the Kirin Tor: 'There are specialists for everything, I suppose'Young Welsh player achieves Stood in the Fire every nightKnow Your Lore: The Contradictions of the MoguWoW Insider Show 

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