"Uh ...Hello."
(long pause)
"My name is Kalak."
(a chair scrapes)
"And ... I'm, uh... I'm a ...(breathes) a ...NOGG-A-HOLIC!"
Kalak:
Warrior
Armoursmith
Smasher of heads
And now ... Master of Exploration
This post is one that has been a long time coming. For the past four months I have been devoting myself to long hours of exploring. Some of you may have heard rumours about me sneaking around behind the scenes in the early hours of the morning. Some of you may have heard me muttering over guild-chat, "wow", "awesome", and "WHOO-HO!" while being logged in "unknown zones". Others of you, I had promised you many times that I would post screenshots of my adventures in the forum. So I am finally making good on those promises with this new series devoted to exploration.
So, where have I gone? Can I truly back up my claim to be a "Master of Exploration"?
I'll list those areas below but first I want to make something clear. All of these places were accessed between patches 1.10 and 1.11. Therefore, there was no use of the "wall-walking" bug to access them. In addition, there were no hacks, mods, macros or any cheats whatsoever used.
The only resources I used to gain access to these places were a mouse and keyboard and the occasional batch of Noggenfogger. In short, I used the tools that Blizzard provided me.
So here we go:
- Booty Bay Bell Tower
- Hyjal (and the instance inside, Deathwing's Lair)
- Old Ironforge
- Old Zul'Gurub (solo)
- Peak of Ironforge
- Under Ironforge
- Under Stormwind (and the unnamed area north of it)
- Ironforge Airport
- Wetlands Farm
- Elwynn Waterfalls (and fought the Black Rogue Drake with the Dwarven Explorer League at the top of the falls)
- On top and inside the of gates of Uldum (Taranis)
- On top and inside of the gates of Timbermaw Gate (in Azshara)
- On top and inside of the Stranglethorn Vale Dam
- "Old" Caverns of Time
- Crom's (or Conan's) Crypt (Badlands)
- Ortell's Hideout (The one in Dun Moroagh, not Silithus)
- On top of Gadgetzan
- Dancing Troll Village
- Above and behind Gnomeregan
- Inside and behind the Greymane Wall (Silverpine Forest)
- The Crypt at Karazhan
- Underneath the Karazhan Tower
- First and second balconies of Karazhan Tower
- Goblin Lumber Camp (in Stonetalon Mountains)
- Southern Silithus and Ahn'Quiraj (solo)
In addition, I have been "above" a majority of the zones in the game and behind the scenes in countless areas, including the three unnamed zones in the Eastern Kingdoms.
Upcoming Exploits
(
denotes no known method yet)
- South Sea Islands
- Under Undercity
- Under Darnassus
- Inside the Darnassus bank
- In the water in the Deeprun Tram
- Above and under Orgrimmar
- Azshara Crater
- Exodar (and islands)
- The new territories in the Northern Eastern Kingdoms
- Old Hillsbrad Foothills
So how does one go about being an explorer? Here are some of the basics.
Exploring, an Ethical View
Is exploring ok? Exploring falls in a gray area for me. It's neither good nor bad. On one hand, I am going where the designers do not want me to go. On the other hand, I gain nothing from doing so. I don't gain experience, gold, items, reputation, or anything tangible from these journeys. And no one gets hurt (aside from group mates who take the wrong step off cliffs...). What I gain is something more personal - a sense of satisfaction.
- With this in mind, here are my ethical guidelines for exploring:
Don't profit. Meaning, don't advertise to take people to areas for money. And don't farm for items or cash. Mobs are rare but there are a few areas with them, such as the Dancing Troll Village and the Ironforge Airport.
- Be discrete. Bragging over local or trade channels about where you are is a definite no-no. Showing off on the guild channel is A-OK, though.
- Keep the secret safe. In other words, don't announce to the public exactly how to go to such and such an area. Sharing among close friends or guild mates is fine but chatting up that guy next to you on the boat is not. Secrets that become too public are always the first in line for deletion.
The Terrain and You
Head to the edge of any map in the game. Then try to find a way up over to the next area. Can you do it? Chances are that you won't be able to and that's Blizzard's hand at work. They have spent a good deal of time modifying the terrain to keep you contained and content, much like a sheep in a coral. It is the explorer's job to find the weak points in the terrain and exploit them, so they can get over the fence and into greener pastures. Exploring essentially boils down to a battle between you and the designers. They are determined to keep you out and you are determined to get in. One of the greatest joys that I get from exploring is knowing that I have outsmarted not only the designers but the whole quality assurance team. I'm sure they have a whole room of guys sitting there whose job is to find weak points. They bang around for a few hours and then report to their supervisor, with a laugh, "Yep, it's secure now. Nobody's going to get in there." After I get in, I am the one who gets to laugh.
A good explorer knows how to read the terrain and recognize what areas he can use to his advantage. In a sense, it has a lot in common with rock climbing, as you are always looking for footholds and leverage. Unfortunately, the ability to read the terrain can't be taught. The best way to learn it is to go out and attempt to scale the map's boundaries yourself.
Resources for the Explorer
If you are eager for a quick-start, head over to a video sharing site such as U Tube or Google Video and start browsing. There are dozens of movies on each site related to exploring. Some are specific while others are "proof-of-concept", meaning they show themselves in the area but not how to get there. Be wary, if they don't state that it is done on a live server, then there's a good chance it wasn't. Private servers allow you to jump anywhere in the world, so their "tricks" can be accomplished by tapping a few keys. Forums, or any place where people leave feedback, like Thottbot.com can also be good resources.
I have used a number of videos to help discover things I didn't know about. But there was still plenty in the world which I discovered myself or had to figure out myself from watching a proof-of-concept. Try to limit the amount of "tutorial" you get from videos, as some of the greatest fun comes from figuring out things yourself.
Tools of the trade:
Noggenfogger Elixir
Noggenfogger can be purchased for 35s for 5 from Marin Noggenfogger once you finish the quest which starts in Gadgetzan. Let me be clear here: Noggenfogger is the core component of exploration. Many of the exploits in the game simply could not be possible without the slow fall effect that it gives. When consumed, Noggenfogger gives you one of three abilities.
- Light as a Feather: Slow fall. Lasts 2 minutes
- Stop Breathing: Turns you into a skeleton (allows underwater breathing). Lasts 10 minutes
- You feel smaller: Shrinks you. Lasts 10 minutes
The occurrence rate for each, out of 10 tries, is approximately 2/4/4. However, I once used twenty-four (24!) Noggenfogger's before I got slow fall. Kalak tries to keep an inventory of between 80 and 100 elixirs.
Mount
Necessary to increase the distance gained when jumping with slow fall on. Also needed in areas that are behind the scenes, since they are HUGE.
Gold
Yes, GOLD. Deaths from falling will be common when you are starting out, so you will need gold for repairs. As well, if you happen to die in an area which is inaccessible without a mount or slow fall, you will need to rez at the spirit healer.
Optional tools:
Swiftness potion
If you do not have an epic mount, sometimes you might need the extra boost from a swiftness potion.
Bandages + Food
There are many areas where you will face a drop but it is impractical to use a slow fall, so you will need to take damage. Bandages and food help reduce the downtime and get you back on your feet faster.
Spyglass
Ornate Spyglasses can be picked up cheap from the AH, for about 1g. If you do not have one yet, I highly recommend getting one. Spyglasses let you scout the areas ahead to find routes and spot dangers. It will also help you admire the scenery, since once you get high up and behind the scenes, you will appreciate the ability to see things far off.
The "Jump"
The final tool explained here is commonly referred to as a "Wall Jump". Some walls which are angled in a certain way are "sticky". When you hit the forward and jump keys together as combination, the resulting jumps allow you to advance up the object. Trees and jagged rocks also work in this manner, making it easier to advance up a detailed terrain than a plain one. However, the amount of stickiness that you encounter will vary, depending on the angle used for construction. Some are very easy while others take a considerable amount of effort to scale. Experiment with the walls you find in the world.
The History of Exploration
In the beginning, there was WoW and it was good.
...20 minutes later, Wall Walking is discovered. Every boy and his gnome scales the walls.
Patch 1.9. Wall walking removed. Exploration becomes a skill, not a given.
Patch 1.10. Golden Age of Exploring begins.
Patch 1.11 Cooldown on Noggenfogger removed. Route to the top of Orgrimmar removed. However, all other areas are still open and accessible. Explorers rejoice.
Patch 1.11.1 Route to the Emerald Dream via the Caverns of Time removed.
For the past two patches, these have been good times indeed for exploration. However, there's a coming storm that threatens this art form ...
The Future of Exploration
Heed my words, friends. The end of exploration is nigh.
Not that there won't be any exploration in TBC. Far from it, I'm sure. However, TBC will feature flying mounts, and that means that EVERY area in the Outlands will need to be completed, unlike Azeroth which features vast areas of uncompleted terrain. Otherwise anyone who had a flying mount could just cross over the boundary lines and see content they are not supposed to. That means there will be no real "behind the scenes" areas in TBC. These mounts will also make some types of exploring redundant. After all, where will be the challenge of finding a tricky route up a mountain path if someone else can just mount up and fly there?
I recently discovered something that horrified me. I don't normally read the beta patch notes but I stumbled upon the ones for November. In it, Blizzard announced that Noggenfogger will be given a 2 minute cooldown and slow fall will be changed from 2 minutes to 12 seconds. This will deeply impact not only exploration in the Outlands but also how exploration is done in Azeroth. While a majority of the current exploits will still be able to be done, it will be much more difficult and will take much longer. If I get slow fall once in every 5 tries, that's 20 minutes of waiting for cooldowns!
What motivated me to get going on this exploration series is two things. The first is that exploration is on a timer. As I write this, there are 31 days left to explore the world. Once those days have expired, and Janurary 16th comes, we will not have the same chances again. The second is that as of patch 2.0, the nerfs to exploration have already started. Since I started checking areas after the patch, I have discovered alternations to routes that I use for underneath Stormwind, the Ironforge Airport and Hyjal. I know these were done deliberately to stop people from going to these places. However, in each case I have still been able to get in but it is much more difficult now. How many other areas have been altered and how many are now completely inaccessible? Which ones are next? All aboard! Last chance to see!
What's next?
In the coming weeks, I will try to post as many summaries as I can of the different areas above, complete with screenshots. I doubt I will be able to cover every area, so if you'd like to see a particular area covered, let me know.
Acknowledgements:
I wish to thank our guild mistress, Elsheindra, for that fateful invitation in June to visit the Caverns of Time. It was there, and the free-fall afterwards through the wormhole, that my imagination was captured.
I would also like to thank Blizzard programmers for their "nudge nudge wink wink" relationship with explorers. As much as you try to stop me, I can't help but think you are secretly opening one door when closing another. Thanks guys. I would also like to thank Blizzard for making exploration meaningful by removing wall-walking and making it a challenge for the truly dedicated.
See below for some preview screenshots of areas to come!
Other pages for this series:*
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Elsheindra
