Welcome brave warriors of the Clan to the November Update!  What is happening in the life of the Thundering Hammer Clan?  Check it out below!

Looking Back

October was an exciting time for the Thundering Hammer as we inducted several new members, said farewell to the Call to Arms with some epic Alterac Valley pre-form action, announced plans for our Warlords of Draenor raid and helped folks in the guild and across the Horde here on Feathermoon get geared up for Warlords of Draenor.

We hosted two very successful Heirloom runs in Siege of Orgrimmar in the last few weeks as part of our expansion prep and Horde community outreach efforts.  It took a lot of preparation, planning and patience but in the end we carried a bunch of players who would never have otherwise been able to put their hands on those heirloom weapons.  Not satisfied with just wrecking SoO and equipping the greater Horde community for success in WoD we then went and knocked out the rest of the Heroic MoP guild achievements.

That’s right – there’s a new mount at the Guild Vendor!  Go grab it and say thanks to our dedicated Legacy Achievement teams!

Speaking of which – major kudos to Braksus, Jas, and their amazing support teams for putting those Heirloom and Legacy runs together.  If you see them in game, be sure to say, ‘Thanks!’

Its Expansion Time!

The Dark Portal is re-opened and on its other side an unbroken Draenor awaits – a world 35 years in our past, teeming with danger, adventure, and fresh opportunity for the warriors of the Thundering Hammer Clan to demonstrate their prowess in battle and their dominance over all foes!   Are you ready for what awaits you there?

Obviously the biggest upcoming event in front of all of us is the trip to 100 and the end game gearing up process that gets us all ready for Raids and PvP.  We’ve assembled a few links to help you along the way.  First up, we will all be starting our journey, Horde and Alliance both, in the Tanaan Jungle on the other side of the newly opened Dark Portal.  The opening quests there are designed to lay out the general story and to help instantly boosted 90s get up to speed.  From there we will be on our way to Frostfire Ridge to help the Frostwolf Clan, while the Alliance shuffle off to Shadowmoon Valley to assist the Draenei at the Temple of Karabor.

The basic structure of the gearing process in Warlords is designed to heavily incentivize new items with new stats over existing gear so in most cases you’ll wind up ditching your Siege gear relatively quickly.  If you’d like a more in depth look at gearing up in Warlords, Wowhead has an excellent guide to WoD gear here.

A couple of things to note as you prep for Raid and BGs in Warlords of Draenor:

• Questing and Normal level dungeons will only net you ilvl 610-615 items.  If you want to be prepared to enter Highmaul on Dec 2 with The Anvil you need to be running Heroics and turning in Apexis Crystals for the ilvl 630 gear.
• The Apexis Crystal items come in three levels, with levels two (Exceptional) and three (Flawless) being unlocked in conjunction with the opening of Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry.  The quests for these items are given from a daily quest in your Garrison.  The Garrison must be upgraded to lvl2 in order for you to access the quest and the maximum you can expect is about one item per week at the first level.

If you haven’t yet signed up for our Raid Team, you should head over to The Anvil’s section on our website and check out our plans and requirements and then get signed up!  We plan to hit the ground running as soon as possible.

Mortal Combat!

A new PvP season is on the way on 2 December, the same day that Highmaul opens!  That means that conquest gear will be available starting in the third week of the expansion!  There is a brand new system in place for PvP gear this time around, one that favors PvP gear in all PvP combat environments, whether that be in BGs, Ashran or any type of World PvP.

Here’s a brief run down on  how it works:

All PvP gear will have two sets of stats attached to it.  One set which operates in normal PvE situations and another which is dynamically activated anytime PvP combat occurs or anytime a player is in a PvP combat environment such as a Battleground, Arena or Ashran.  These PvP-stats when activated provide an immediate boost to item level, making the PvP gear more powerful than PvE gear in those situations.  In item level terms this automatic switch turns what is normally 660 ilvl gear into 690 ilvl gear the moment PvP combat starts or a PvP zone is entered.  Interested in some concrete numbers?  Check out this side by side comparison between Season 16 Conquest gear and the Heroic Tier 17 set for mages.

Honor gear will work the same way so there is a concrete and definite incentive for collecting PvP gear this time around if you want to grind Alliance bones into a useful paste.

There’s also utility for your Garrison in the PvP realm, as all of the bonuses and abilities that are unlocked by Garrison buildings and missions are also usable within Ashran!  Wait – did we mention Ashran yet?  You may have missed it but there was a great live-stream of Ashran action off of the BETA realm a few weeks ago hosted by the Blizzard devs where they walked through the entire zone and talked about the various features and sub-zones built into this new PvP playground.  We’ve bookmarked the past-broadcast from their stream and have it linked here.  Check out quick before it decays!

Are you ready to conquer PvP in Warlords of Draenor?  Ready to get into some Rateds and dominate the server once again?  Sign ups for Thundering Hammer’s Rated Battleground teams are open now.  Go check out our announcement here on the website and hit the sign up form!

Other Upcoming Events

Obviously the next few weeks will be consumed with levelling and gearing – but there are more events ahead on the horizon!  Pub Night is back on the 24th, we have two new recruits whose Thunderlords will be scheduled after the rush to 100 is complete and WoW’s 10th Anniversary (and ours!!!) will open up chances for us to host homecoming events for the Classic Era Anvil and A-Team players in LFR Molten Core and Tarren Mill!

November is already in full gear – the xpac is upon us, and the next chapter in the ten year history of the Thundering Hammer Clan is about to be written!  Are you ready for what comes next?

See you on the field!