Lost Vale Map

Since i saw another map of the Lost Vale floating around now, i figured there is no use to keep you guys waiting longer. Of course my map has more information and does look better. ;)
As a bonus for those that participated in the Lost Map Challenge, i gave them credit for unlocking the map on the map itself. Thanks for joining the fun! As for the last question from Challenge III: How many Gorgers in total live inside the Gorger Cave in Enclave? It was 29 in total when i went in there. The other two challenges would have been "find that place" and i would have posted screenshots, you had to find the place. I'll keep those for some upcoming challenge...

Here you can grab the high-definition 1600x1900 Lost Vale Map (choose free user).

The lost Map of Lost Vale Challenge III

The challenge for the lost map of Lost Vale is going into the third round. This time you'll have to adventure into the world and visit certain places to solve it. It's great to see people having fun crackin' the questions... maybe i can talk Paul out of a pair of his red sport shoes and we'll have another contest in the future. ;)

Challenge III tasks: Numbers
How many ships/boats can you see from the beach in Lost Vale? 9 (Aquaduck)
How many statues are placed at the large maingate towards the Stunty capitol? 12 (Aquaduck)
How many teeth does a Wyvern have? 22 (Sekrish)
How many teeth does a dragon have? 40-56 (Sekrish)
How many Gorgers in total live inside the Gorger Cave in Enclave?

Map info & Contest Rules

The lost Map of Lost Vale Challenge II

The response for the first challenge was much greater then i expected. Nicely done guys! Some of the later tasks will actually require you to venture into the warhammer world and check certain places, stay tuned. :) Alright, so here are the questions for the second part...

Challenge II tasks:
What kind of architect was Doctor Zumwald? architect of the plague (Mazar)
What is a Slayer's (Stunty) job? To die a honourable death on the battlefield (Sekrish)
What is the last name of Caledor, the high elf mage? Dragontamer (Mazar)
What have a Wise, a Goldhound and a Dragonsbane in common? they all were lieutenants of Runelord Ranik Valayason at Grom Rodrin (werit)

The third challenge is up...

The lost Map of Lost Vale Challenge

Like i wrote earlier, i created a complete map from Lost Vale. You may have already seen the teaser, below is a new one from the final map. As creating a proper map from an outdoor instance has been more work then the other smaller dungeons, I'll not just post it, but you can unlock it! I'm launching the Challenge for the lost map of Lost Vale:

The Rules:
The challenge will have five parts. Each sub-challenge will have certain tasks/questions. Once all sub-parts are solved I'll post the next sub-challenge. To solve a task, just post your solution in the comments to that task (if you post your char name, you'll get credit for being the first solving it). It's not necessary to answer all at the same time, I'll update the post with those tasks that have been solved already. If necessary post a screenshot to support your solution. There is no time limit for the challenge, but the final map will only be unlocked (posted) once all five challenges have been solved. Sounds like fun? Then get started right away...



The original map to be unlocked is 1600x1900 pixel in size, shows all three wings with necessary points of interest and has some basic guides where you need to go. Orientation inside the outdoor instance is pretty easy once you found your way around, but many players like the other dungeon maps for initial orientation.



Challenge I tasks:
We'll start off with some easy questions...
Which of the magic winds do Necromancers that turn into Liches learn to master? Wind of Shyish/Purple (Yavvy & Walo)
How do you call a hybrid creature half chicken, half lizard? Cockatrice (Snafzg)
Who or what is a Shartak? A Dragon Ogre (Mileena)
Which creatures do Ogres use as mounts? Rhinoxen (Snafzg)

The third challenge is up...

A sneak peak...

of the upcoming Lost Vale Map. It will be a full map with all three wings in one map. The final map will have some additional guidance where to go compared to my other maps as the multi-level outdoor environment can be confusing else by just looking at the map. Until its unlocked, you can use the map Grabz created, which i thought was funny. =)
BTW, voting for the 2008 Greeny Awards will go on until the 19th, so place your voice for the best community sites there.

What I'm working on

Felt like i could make a short post about what's in the pipeline and what I've been working on. I really want to finish my follow up on the WAR: Age of Blogging. Our initiative has been very successful so far... we got a lot of coverage, even the latest US GrabBag was refering to it. Edit: The WAR EU website posted about it today here. More important tho, a large amount of blogs introduced themselves. Thats the reason I'm lacking behind, as i at least want to have a brief look at every single one of them. I should get it done these days tho. Then I've been toying around with my personal version of RvR setup. I bought a bunch of gear and talismans from the AH, threw away some, got some others. I'm too lazy to respecc all the time, so I'm working on my own best version of a tank setup for RvR. I'll keep you posted once i was able to test it more. I also have all the screenshots for my post about exploration in WAR laying around, just need to write the article.

One more thing I'm working on is a map for Lost Vale. As it's an outdoor instance, its not that easy to create a good map for that place. The basics are meanwhile done tho, only need to polish it and add the POIs and some waypoints to it. As this one was more work then the other ones, I'm thinking about creating a scavenger hunt for it, so readers of my blog will be able to do some tasks/exploration and finally unlock the map, resulting in it being posted. Once the map is done, I'll talk more about this project. Stay tuned.

On a sidenote, Denman, a guild mate of mine, created a great Black Orc RvR video. Fun to watch!

Bloodwrought Enclave Info & Map

We did a quick Bloodwrought Enclave run yesterday and as we checked the mini-bosses for new loot i was able to create a complete map from Enclave, maybe it helps the orientation for starters. The dungeon is for six rank 40 characters and is located in the far SE of the Inevitable City. It's pretty straight forward as well and when you have a good group and know the dungeon you can just completely ignore the right wing, speeding up the dungeon a lot. It's the easier of the two city dungeons and you can get away with less wards on gear.

There are two (main) bosses inside the dungeon:
Korthuk the Raging (Sentinel boots & belt)
Barakus the Godslayer (Sentinel helmet & belt)

Since Patch 1.1a all mini bosses inside the city dungeons can drop the belt (now BoE) as well.

Bloodwrought Enclave MAP v1.0

Bilerot Burrow Info & Map

During our last run through Bilerot Burrow i created a map from this place as well. The whole dungeon is very straight forward, but maybe a map can help with the initial orientation. Bilerot Burrow is located inside the Inevitable City (near Monolith) and is the harder one of the two capitol dungeons. If your group doesn't have enough wards you'll be better off going to Bloodwrought Enclave. Some of the trash mobs are harder then the bosses, but you'll find out very quickly if your group should be inside Bilerot or not, it's a gear check right at the beginning.

There are three bosses inside the dungeon:
Ssrydian Morbidae (Sentinel shoulders & belt)
Bartholomeus the Sickly (Sentinel gloves & belt)
The Bile Lord (Sentinel chest & belt)

Bilerot Burrow MAP v1.1

Update 04/12: added the location/name of the missing hero.

Bastion Stair General Info & Maps

The Bastion Stair (public) dungeon is one of the high level dungeons, you'll probably spend some time in. The Bloodlord set, which can be obtained from the bosses, has (like the Annihilator set) lesser wards, that will help inside the city dungeons and in Fortress fights. You best reach the dungeon through the very NE corner in Praag, there is a portal which will take you towards Bastion Stair. The structure is actually located in the Chaos Wastes (far SE corner) where there is a portal as well, but access through Praag is faster from flight point.

The Bastion Stair has an entrace hall where you'll find a bunch of quest givers, a healer and the rally master that will grant rewards from Bastion Stair influence (you gain from doing PQs inside the dungeon). Like in Mount Gunbad you'll need enough influence to enter the private boss instances at the end of each wing - first inf bar for first boss, etc. The lockout (after you kill one of the final wing bosses) for Bastion is 1440 minutes. You can use /lockout to check how much time is left on the instances you got an active lockout. The whole dungeon got a Khorne/Beast/Demon theme.

The Bastion Stair consists of three wings:


# Trail of Carnage
(left portal - mobs 33+)
There are three Public Quests in this wing:
1. Rise of Carnage
2. Bloodherd Labryinth (nice typo Mythic)
3. Trail of Carnage (Arena Challenges)

The final boss in wing 1 is Thar'lgnan (drops Bloodlord boots).
Trail of Carnage MAP v1.0
(with connections and boss spawns)


# Path of Fury
(right portal - mobs 35+)
There are three Public Quests in this wing:
1. Fury's Ascent
2. Halls of Rage
3. Path of Fury

The final boss in wing 2 is Lord Slaurith (drops Bloodlord shoulders).
Path of Fury MAP v1.1
(with connections and boss spawns)



# Steps of Ruin
(stairs straight ahead up - mobs 37+)
There are three Public Quests in this wing:
1. Step of Anger
2. Step of Hatred
3. The Brass Legion

The final boss in wing 3 is Kaarn the Vanquisher (drops Bloodlord helmet).
Steps of Ruin MAP coming soon.

As of patch 1.1a the Bloodlord gloves drop from golden PQ bags inside the dungeon.

There is also a fourth area, called the Rift of Rage, located at the end of the third wing, where the last and fourth boss, Skull Lord Var'Ithrok (drops chest & gloves), can be found. To gain access to the portal to enter the last private instance, you'll need to finish a few quests inside Bastion. The ones you need to finish for attunement are
wing 1: Blood on the Steps (3 part quest), leads to Leashing the Bull (kill wing 1 boss).
wing 3: Infinite Patience (4 part quest), leads to Vanquishing the Skull Lord.

In each wing you can find skulls laying around on the floor, they are named after the wing you picked them up (Skull of Carnage, Skull of Fury and Skull of Ruin). Those skulls can either be placed on pikes found throughout the dungeon - then they might yield a short buff or a curse - or can be placed at the respective skull piles near the entrance hall to spawn another boss called The Collector. Apparently you need around 100 skulls from each wing or something along those lines to spawn him.

NOTE: This post is work in progress and will be completed/updated with maps of the other wings as well as more info. You won't find any spoilers how to kill bosses here tho. It's just to provide some orientation inside the dungeon. If you find any errors (some things i just wrote from memory) please let me know. If you can remember the exact names from the non PQ related boss spawns, leave a note as well.

Update 24/11: Added the rest of the PQs and the map for wing 2.
Update 29/11: Updated the non PQ hero name for wing 2.
Update 13/12: Updated the patch 1.1a info about gloves.

Updated Map of the Inevitable City

Due to popular demand and many questions about the trainers and such i updated the city map with all the available trainers (career, renown, crafting) inside the city. There are no talisman & salvaging trainers inside the city, you'll need to visit the trainer camp in chapter 2 if you want to train it later on. I was finally able to witness the Monolith PQ and updated the name accordingly.

Check out the updated post here:
The Inevitable City Map

The Inevitable City Map (updated)

Watching the public chat channels and questions on some forums, there still seem to be a lot of people that have some trouble to find their way around inside the Inevitable City. Not anymore... here is a citymap with all important POIs in it. I did not clutter it with any trainers and such, as those are really everywhere and also show up properly on your map. The info & color code on the map should be simple enough to figure out. All city dungeons and public quests are on the map as well. enjoy.

Things to know:
Mount Vendor, needs to be rank 20, costs 15g.
Name Registrar, register 2nd name, needs to be rank 20, costs 4g.
The Viper Pit, Guild Tavern, needs city rank 2 (and guild rank 6) to open.

Points of Interest:
Bloodwrought Enclave, PvE instance (city rank 2, player rank 40)
Bilerot Burrow, PvE instance (city rank 3, player rank 40)
The Elysium, some strange garden (city rank 5)
Eternal Citadel (city rank 3)

Public Quests inside the City:
# Temple of the Damned
# Inevitable Rot
# Toil and Trouble (triggers by touching a cauldron in the alley)
# Chaos Unleashed - Defeat the Chaos Spawn (triggers by a skull in the alley)
# The Bigger They Are...
# The New Plague - Defend the Monolith (takes place inside the portal)
This PQ is triggered by a portal inside the Monolith, you can see the quest is "charged" by flashes below the portal that leads into it.

Tip of the Day: Did you know, that when you fall off the edge inside the Inevitable City, you'll get teleported to the resurrection point within the city, but without any penalty applied? Sometimes a fast way across the city.

Edit: Due to popular demand i added all the trainers (career, renown and crafting) to the map.

Crafting Trainer inside the city:
# Butcher
# Scavenger
# Cultivator
# Apothecary
# Salvager
# Talisman Trainer

Update 08/10/11: Added the PQ Chaos Unleashed, thanks Elsherath. Also added trigger info on two PQs.
Update 08/10/31: Added trigger info for Monolith PQ.
Update 08/12/13: Updated the Trainer locations for Talisman crafting and Salvaging for patch 1.1

Edit: Check this blog, should you search for an Altdorf map.

Preparing for WAR

With the open beta getting closer I try to get the best picture possible about how some mechanics & abilities work so i can get an idea what i want to try out during the few days. The fact i know already I'll play a Black Orc defensive tank makes things easier for me of course. I like to crunch a few numbers from time to time and know exactly what certain stats do. There are two posts i found interesting in particular:
Basic Statistic Functions
Terhix about game mechanics

In addition it helps to find your way around and check a few maps should you want to team up with friends early on:
Tier 1 Flight Masters for Destruction
Tier 1 Flight Masters for Order
Atlas of WAR