Avatar

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The term avatar is used to refer to many different things in both game mechanics and Warcraft lore.

Avatar spells and abilities

• 
  In Warcraft III, Avatar was the name of an ability for the Mountain King hero that temporarily turned him to stone.

Activate Avatar to temporarily give the Mountain King 5 bonus armor, 500 bonus hit points, 20 bonus damage and spell immunity.

By focusing the energies of the dwarves’ “newly discovered enchanted heritage”, the mountain kings can grow in size and strength – and take on the physical characteristics of carved stone. In this form, they are impervious to magical attacks and have greatly increased durability.^{W3Man 9}

• In World of Warcraft, Vanndar Stormpike and Magni Bronzebeard have this ability, but it is less powerful.

Increases the Physical damage dealt by the caster by 50% and enhances their armor by 50% for 15 sec.

• In Warcraft RPG Avatar is a spell used by powerful sorcerers, wizards^{M&M #?}, mages and priests of any race^{WoWRPG 280}, as well as a dwarven mountain king ability.^{APG 57}

Upon casting this spell, a mage or priest becomes a fighting avatar of his ideals. The caster screams a war cry as he grows in size and strength. His flesh hardens.^{M&M #?} His skin, clothing and all his possessions become a dimly luminous silver-gray. His mindset changes so that he relishes combat. He loses his spellcasting ability, including his ability to use spell activation or spell completion magic items, just as if the spells were no longer on his class list. He gains enhancement bonuses to Strength, Stamina, and Agility. His armor increases, and so does his spell resistance. He becomes proficient with all simple and martial weapons. He doubles in height and increase in weight.^{WoWRPG 280}

To summerise, a mage gains combat ability and loses spellcasting ability^{WoWRPG #?}, and a priest becomes a mean, grey-sheened fighting machine.^{WoWRPG #?} A mountain king is able to use avatar as a "spell-like ability".^{APG 57}

Note: The mountain king's avatar ability is seperate from the mountain king's stoneflesh ability. The latter ability is learned later.^{APG 57, 58}

Other avatars

• Avatar of Freya
• Avatar of Hakkar
• Avatar of Vengeance
• Avatar of the Martyred
• Avatar of Sargeras
• Avatar of the Ancients^{MoM 50}
• Bone crusher - "the living avatars of Nath"^{HPG 58}
• Dwarven avatar - prestige class from Alliance & Horde Compendium.
• Pandaren transcendent - spiritual avatars of the pandaren race.^{DF #?}

Other definitions

In the context of a MMORPG, avatar has come to mean an iconic representation of a user, especially with chat or forum interfaces.

See also

• Player Character

Mythological Basis

The word avatar was originally the name of an earthly incarnation of Vishnu(Hinduism) (see avatar at wiktionary.org). It has since become more common to refer to any bodily or other familiar representation of any god.