Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth is a popular webcomic by Dave "Fargo" Kosak, made using screenshots from World of Warcraft. Originally conceived as part of a column about virtual life in WoW, focus soon shifted to Flintlocke and his quest to discover the ultimate weapon.Flintlocke is a dwarven warrior who prefers to fight with his bizarrely engineered weapons, to his own detriment and that of those around him. Scatterbrained and none-too-bright, he nonetheless slaps together a party to aid him in his quest for more boom. This team includes:
Bloodrose, a gnome mage and extreme powergamer who boasts that she "blows through levels like Kleenex!"
and Lowping, a gnome rogue running entirely on macros and scripts written by a Chinese gold farmer, making him an effective looter but unreliable fighter.
The original comic ran for two years before reaching its explosive conclusion, after which a "drawn" comic was planned to follow it up. That didn't pan out, so after spending some time in limbo, the comic was revived with a new story, Flintlocke Versus the Horde, focusing on a group of Horde players opposing Flintlocke's band. The new story concluded in early 2009, and with the creator's decision to move on getting hired by Blizzard to work as a designer for World of Warcraft, this would seem to be the end of Flintlocke's adventures.The Horde counterparts include:
Rok'tar: A Roleplaying Orc Hunter who gets a bit too much into his character.
Gravy: A Troll Shaman who prefers to just get high all the time.
Bubbles: A Forsaken Priest who serves as the group foil to Bloodrose.
Cheri: An incredibly ditzy Blood Elf Warlock.
A "director's cut" of the original comic can be found here, while Flintlocke Versus the Horde can be found here. Since it's hosted by Gamespy, there's gonna be an ad every couple of pages, so apologies in advance.
This comic contains examples of:
Abnormal Ammo: A lot of what Flintlocke ends up shooting from his musket is both alive and reluctant to take part in the fighting.
Ascended Fanboy: Dave Kosak gave up doing the series...because he got hired by Blizzard to work as a designer for World of Warcraft. Huzzah! (and yes, that's the real reason Flintlocke, Schweitzer, Rok'tar, and Gravy appear in Cataclysm).
Chekhov's Gun: The Wuuf training Schweitzer and reallocating his talent points.
Cherry Tapping: In the final battle between Rok'tar and Flintlocke, Bun'kar finishes off Lowping, who had previously been reduced to 1 hp.
Death Is Cheap: It is based on World of Warcraft, after all. Slightly subverted in the battle between Rok'tar's party and Flintlocke's party; death is still cheap, but the closest Graveyard to the area is too far away for anyone killed in the battle to return in time to be effective again.
Deus Exit Machina: In the battle between Rok'tar and Flintlocke's parties, Bloodrose, The Munchkin of Flintlocke's party, is the first to be killed, having been caught while out of mana.
Do Wrong, Right: Flintlocke refuses to use the Ultimate Goblin Engineered Weapon on the Everblooming the group is being attacked by... because the forest they are surrounded by is too green for the weapon to achieve maximum collateral damage.
Edible Ammunition: According to Flintlocke, a Dwarven Thanksgiving tradition is to stuff the turkey with blasting powder, so it can be fired as-is from a cannon in the event of an attack. The party ends up actually doing so, albeit offscreen.
Fail O'Suckyname: Apparently the reason the Horde overran Westfall. And the next stronghold after that was Fort Pwned.
Fan Nick Name: The Horde priest's real name was never revealed in the strip; somebody just called him "Bubbles" in the comments one day and it caught on.
False Reassurance: When Bloodrose expresses concern that the "Remote Backstab" is just another ridiculous made-up tactic of Flintlocke's:
Flintlocke: Nonsense. Tha' Remote Backstab is a time-honored move wit' tha utmost a' respectability.
Improbable Weapon User: Flintlocke once wields a question mark in battle against a goblin using dual exclamation points.
I'm Going to Hell for This: Schweitzer notes this after he uses his revive on Flintlocke's ram and instead zombified it. He notes however that he'll have a drink first before hell.
Insult Backfire: Kathrena calls Schweitzer "the worst living priest on the server". Schweitzer points out that, putting emphasis on the "living" part, it's actually not that bad a title.
It's a Wonderful Plot: One strip has a variation when the characters imagine what Azeroth would be like without rogues. Apparently, in such a world, the Alliance and Horde have settled their differences and the classes are all in perfect balance.
Tempting Fate: In the final strip of Flintlocke vs. The Horde.
"We can't possibly lose!"
Took a Level in Badass: Schweitzer, after the reveal that the Wuuf had custom designed a "Murder" macro for him and his party managed to convince him to actually use it.
Tuxedo and Martini: Bubbles' plan for Rok'tar to get through Teldrassil is pictured as him becoming this.
Ultimate Gamer 386: The Wuuf, a night elf priest who spends his time calculating the most powerful talent combinations, a gamer so hardcore that even WoW's developers are scared of him. His Horde counterpart is Bubbles the Forsaken Priest.
Unusual Euphemism: Flintlocke appears to use the term 'jimmy/jimmies' instead of testicles.
Justified, since it's a part of the Scottish accent Flintlocke favors.
Tinkmaster Overspark calls Flintlocke a "lugnut" when he doesn't seem to grasp the concept of a mount.
You Killed My Father: Rok'tar declares vengeance on Flintlocke due to him killing off his father. It's not really that big of a deal since his father's an NPC who just respawns in a few minutes. Admittedly, Flintlocke did kill his father twenty more times as well as Malakkaboom, as he thought that they were Kel'Thuzad and Illidan, respectively.
, while Flintlocke Versus the Horde can be found here
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