Think you know your lore? Test your knowledge in our , and you might win a hardcover copy of the World of Warcraft comic book signed by artist Jim Lee! For years, World of Warcraft players have been waiting to learn the origin and fate of the missing king of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn. The story of his incredible journey has been chronicled in Wildstorm's fast-paced World of Warcraft monthly comic series, written by comic legend Walt Simonson and featuring art by Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, and Mike Bowden. or to make sure you're in the know on the world-shaking events that affect Wrath of the Lich King and beyond. Also be sure to check out , a hardcover collection of issues 0 through 7. It's on shelves and available online now at all major comic retailers. Once you've read up, you're ready to take the quiz. Complete contest rules, including requirements and eligibility, can be found . Good luck!
Do i need to have level 55+ character on some realm or i can create DK right away from the beggining?you need to have a level 55+ character on your realm of choice,before you can make a death knight and no it won't destroy your original level 55 character.
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With the Patch 3.1 patch notes as long as they are, even we miss a lot of the little things that crop up in them. Luckily, I was reading Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog (which is fantastic) and happened to spot this little tidbit: All Engineers, regardless of specialization, will be able to get their hands on both Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling. You don't need to do the repeatable quest(s) for them and pray to the RNG gods anymore, either.The schemata for Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling are now Bind on Pickup drops from Gnomeregan. I know, I know, Gnomeregan is terrible, but most pet collectors are so overleveled for that place that this new method of getting the recipes should be dramatically easier. The Pet Bombling appears to be a 100% drop off of Thermaplugg, the final boss of the dungeon. Lil' Smoky is slightly less reliable, but not by much. He drops off of the Arcane Nullifiers and only the Arcane Nullifiers, as far as testers have found. That makes sense, considering Lil' Smoky shares their model.If you're going to be hunting down these bad (and smelly) boys come patch 3.1, Gnomeregan is the place to be. Kaliope even has some further advice on tracking down Lil' Smoky, should you need it. Good luck on your hunt!
With the Patch 3.1 patch notes as long as they are, even we miss a lot of the little things that crop up in them. Luckily, I was reading Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog (which is fantastic) and happened to spot this little tidbit: All Engineers, regardless of specialization, will be able to get their hands on both Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling. You don't need to do the repeatable quest(s) for them and pray to the RNG gods anymore, either.The schemata for Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling are now Bind on Pickup drops from Gnomeregan. I know, I know, Gnomeregan is terrible, but most pet collectors are so overleveled for that place that this new method of getting the recipes should be dramatically easier. The Pet Bombling appears to be a 100% drop off of Thermaplugg, the final boss of the dungeon. Lil' Smoky is slightly less reliable, but not by much. He drops off of the Arcane Nullifiers and only the Arcane Nullifiers, as far as testers have found. That makes sense, considering Lil' Smoky shares their model.If you're going to be hunting down these bad (and smelly) boys come patch 3.1, Gnomeregan is the place to be. Kaliope even has some further advice on tracking down Lil' Smoky, should you need it. Good luck on your hunt!
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matt offers some tips and insights for the healing Priests that are struggling with Sartharion and his 3 drakes up Welcome to the toughest raid encounter that Wrath has to offer. By the end of the first night, you will wish you decided to stay home and watch the latest episode of House instead.
As a healing Priest, you're going to be extremely valuable to your raid group. It doesn't matter if you're Holy or Discipline. You will have access to either of the two skills that will help your raid get through this encounter.
Guardian Spirit: For the Holy Priests, keep this spell macro'd and on your main tank of choice.
Pain Suppression: Discipline Priests will want to do the same thing.
My guild employs both a Discipline and a Holy Priest and I'll present the strategies used from both perspectives. Is it possible to interchange their roles? Yes. But doing so means that the classes aren't playing at their most optimized positions. When engaging Sartharion with all drakes active, there is virtually no room for error. If even one player gets careless, it has the possibility of wiping the entire raid. Actually, if one player gets careless and gets caught it will wipe the entire raid.
Hazards
Beware tunnel vision: Keep your eyes and ears open for the extraneous hazards that come your way. Step out of the way of fire walls. Run straight out of void zones. Fade when your aggro meter goes off the charts because you crit healed right when whelps spawn. Most importantly, don't lose sight of your healing assignments. I find it extremely easy to avoid the environmental hazards. I also find it easy to heal one player specifically. But doing both can be a challenge to all but the most seasoned of raiders.
Aggravated guildies: I can't stress this enough. Priests, you are going to wipe. Sartharion with all drakes active is the hardest encounter in the game for a reason. This should serve as a reality check to you. You might have stomped your way through Naxx and Malygos without too much difficulty. Then you met this big black dragon and all of a sudden the game is back to being too hard. Deal with it. Be patient, be understanding. My guild clocked around 8 hours before we got this oversized turkey down.
For the Discipline Priest
There are a few tips I can offer. I regularly go through this encounter as Discipline. Here's a few things that I do:
Place myself in the tank group: This is mostly for Prayer of Healing use. Depending on where I stand and where the other tanks stand, I'm able to hit 2 or 3 of them with Prayer of Healing. This won't be that important when 3.1 goes live due to the fact that Prayer of Healing can target other players outside of your party.
Glyphed Prayer of Healing: I run the Flash Heal, Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Healing Glyphs. I find the HoT effect from Prayer of Healing helps if you're diligent about using the spell.
Assigned to the main tank: We usually bring around seven healers to this encounter and I'll put myself on the main tank. Discipline Priests really shine when they need to worry about only one player.
If you have the Grace talent, then chances are you're going to keep the buff up on your main tank no matter what anyway.
Pain Suppression is the key here.
Your clutch moment is when Vesperon lands. In most cases, Shadron will still be active. He should have around 40% health or less remaining. The combination of Shadron and Vesperon being alive that Sartharion's flame breath will one shot your tank unless you work together and time your cooldowns in such a way to help your main tank live.
We used a Feral Druid tank who busted out the Feral Instincts and Barkskin combo in order to survive one of the breaths.
We didn't use a Death Knight tank yet until we felt that his tanking gear was ready. Having a Death Knight tank on Sarth has the benefit of both Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell. That's two tank saving cooldowns compared to a Druid's one.
You have to set up a cycle in such a fashion that there is a defensive cooldown ready to protect your main tank from Sarth's fully powered up Sarth breath. Here's a list of abilities that will do the trick among healers:
Holy Priest: Guardian Spirit
Discipline Priest: Pain Suppression
Paladin: Hand of Sacrifice
Let your tank get the first breath (and second breaths) if possible. This is the time to be vocal. Your tank and healers should give a count of the current breath that they just prevented. Try to have a set order.
Here's an example of the back and forth communication that I have going on:
*Sarth breathes*
Tank: "That's one!"
*13 seconds passes, Sarth breathes again*
Tank: "Two!"
*11 seconds later, Sarth breathes again*
Disc Priest: "I got three!"
*10 seconds, Sarth breathes again*
Holy Paladin: "That's four!"
That time span between Vesperon going active and when Shadron dies is the make or break phase of this fight. As the Discipline Priest, you should be able to hold down the fort with relative ease.
For the Holy Priest
For the few times I went Holy on this fight, I found that I was better suited to healing the raid members or one of the drake tanks. Drake tanks have to be kept up. Once they've finished tanking and the drake dies, I switched and started going full time on the raid.
Some quick tips.
Position: I would often jump between the middle of the island and the west part of the island to dodge firewalls. As a contrast with Discipline, I dodged by going between the middle area and toward the east (to maintain range on the main tank).
Don't jump out of void zones: I don't want to get too much into details. But the game code translates your position as going from X to Y. That is, if you jump from X to Y, you're still going to be at X until you land on Y. You're better off strafing or running straight out of the void zone. This helps explain some of the early deaths I've had. I knew I was clear of the voids, but I'd still die because the void zone effect went off while I was in the air. The game code still interpreted my position as still being inside the void zone.
Again, the clutch moment is between Vesperon going live and Shadron dying. The issue here I found as a Holy Priest is that I had to make sure I get in range of the main tank. I was fourth on the tank saving cooldown list. Using the previous example above in regards to communication, once I heard the tank say "Two", I'd start hustling over and make sure that I could the tank from where I was.
On a side note, Twilight Torment is literally going to kill your raid. Every healer is going to have to work their butt off to try to keep the raid afloat during this crucial time. Keep cycling the Circle of Healing and the Prayer of Mending as often as they're up. Surge of Light procs are a godsend.
Keep plugging away. Don't be discouraged. It's a hard and tough fight.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries!
"Our 14-day free trial program is an effort to give everyone a taste of Pirates of the Burning Sea game-play," said Russell Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software. "People are really going to enjoy their experience with us, and I'm excited to welcome these new members into our community!"
Pirates of the Burning Sea is now offering a 14-day free trial that gives full access to Flying Lab Software's seafaring MMO for two weeks. If you haven't checked out Pirates of the Burning Sea yet, this is your chance to do so.
All you have to do to sign up is visit the free trial page and enter your email address. Soon after you'll receive an email from Flying Lab with details on how to activate your trial key, get the game, and begin plundering booty in the Caribbean!
Key Features of Pirates of the Burning Sea:
Build, capture, and customize 158 historical ships
Design your own personal flags and customize sail decals
Choose from 3 different styles of combat - deadly and formal Fencing, flashy, dual wielding Florentine or rowdy and treacherous Dirty FightingJoin one of the four loyalties - France, Spain, England or Pirate
Battle other players to control more than 80 conquerable ports in the Caribbean
Explore the world and make a name for yourself in more than 1,000 missions
Vie for power and wealth with the fully player-driven economy
Tags: Pirates of the Burning Sea
Additionally, players on the North American servers will be able to participate inside the virtual City of Heroes world to win prizes during an in game event.
Palit and AMD have partnered with City of Heroes® to offer the "Create a Character" Costume Contest! Now through October 17th players can submit screenshots and bio of their character and be entered into the contest to win great prizes, including award winning Palit video cards and the grand prize of Custom Gaming PC!
This was added to the game because we wanted to offer our players more flexibility when trading or helping friends out, without increasing the threat of real-world trading.From today we have doubled (in some cases tripled) the flexibility of the player trade system. All players will notice an increase in the amount they can trade with other players.
This means accounts with fewer than 10 quest points will be able to earn or lose up to 5,000 coins in wealth every 15 minutes from trading, free players will be able to earn a maximum of 10,000 coins every 15 minutes by completing the free quests and members will have access to a maximum of 60,000 coins per 15 minutes if they have 270 quest points. Your trade margin will increase with each quest point after 10 - for example, at 100 quest points you'll have a margin of 24,038 coins, and at 200 quest points you'll have a margin of 45,192 coins.
In other news...
We'd like to remind players that dangerous Clan Wars matches (including the dangerous free-for-all arena) now allow you to pick up some of your opponents' items to replenish your supplies - food, potions, runes and other ammunition - and that there are now NO gravestones in these arenas. This means that you will be unable to recover any items you drop, so only take items you don't mind risking.
Mod Mark
Lead Designer - RuneScape
Note: Currently there are only 269 quest points available in the game, so no player will be able to reach the 60,000 coin margin until our next quest update, scheduled for a few weeks' time. The trade margin does scale up to that, though, so players a few quest points short of 270 will have a trade margin only slightly below it.
Setting the Pace
Speaking of pacing, I found the pace of Warhammer Online to be absolutely optimal for a game focused around competition. While most massively multiplayer online games are loaded with various time sinks, WAR is chuck full of things to do and easy ways for you to do them. Want to go RvR? Simply jump in a queue. Feel the need to do some PvEing? Go run out and get it done! Want to do both? That's absolutely possible.
On top of all that, the leveling in the game is frenetic. In just a few hours each day, you can easily progress your character up to the midway point with two weeks, and it's entirely possible to move to the high end of the game - the level 40 areas - within a month with only a few hours spent each day. In a game focused on competition, it makes sense to really give players the feeling that they're driving towards a competitive level, and the quick way players earn ranks is a great way to accentuate this competitive environment.
 The pace of WAR is very fast; there are lots of things to do. |
 Many of the annoying elements of MMOGs have been cut out of WAR, leaving just the quick gameplay. |
We've even seen fantasy games show up, such as "Dungeons & Dragons Online" a property that has been around longer than EverQuest or World of Warcraft yet it didn't reach that mass appeal, why?
John Smedley: A lot of that is a matter of quality too. You have to have some new and something really cool to appeal to people. But there have been a lot of what I would consider high caliber and high quality games that haven��t done terribly well. What it takes to have that extra spark is making sure that you take the time to do the releases right. That is something we��re focused on. We��ve been invested in this game Free Realms since 2005 and we have the best in class for free MMOs. It is coming out in January, and we��re really proud of that.
We've even seen fantasy games show up, such as "Dungeons & Dragons Online," a property that has been around longer than EverQuest or World of Warcraft yet it didn't reach that mass appeal, why?
John Smedley: A lot of that is a matter of quality too. You have to have some new and something really cool to appeal to people. But there have been a lot of what I would consider high caliber and high quality games that haven't done terribly well. What it takes to have that extra spark is making sure that you take the time to do the releases right. That is something we're focused on. We've been invested in this game Free Realms since 2005 and we have the best in class for free MMOs. It is coming out in January, and we're really proud of that.
What can you tell us about Free Realms?
John Smedley: Free Realms isn't exactly high fantasy. I'd say it is more whimsical fantasy. Think of the movie Shrek, and you wouldn't be too far off. It is that kind of irreverent humor set in a fantasy world. But we still think that high fantasy has a key pillar spot in our company. We want to continue to invest in that, and we are doing so very actively.
Costs are rising in the MMO space, but are we seeing enough players to support the games for the developers to stay profitable?
John Smedley: First and foremost, you have to make great games. But a close second to that is run your business smart and profitably, and that's something we've been doing for many years. We believe very strongly that you have the investment spending with huge negatives. And now I see a lot of venture money going to this space and a lot of it is going into chasing World of Warcraft, and what we should be focusing on is what is the next best thing. Now we've seen some games come in at the low, low cost and there have been some very good examples of that, such as Eve Online. They started very small with that and its grown very well. But I think we'll see the Warhammer Onlines, and the next EverQuests. These are the high budget brands just like there are summer movie blockbusters. I think that is going to be the norm.
Sony's EverQuest was once the most popular, most talked about online role-playing game, but its been eclipsed by World of Warcraft. Do you ever see a way that an EverQuest property can recapture that top spot and regain the crown?
John Smedley: Ever Quest is a franchise that we have a lot of faith in, it's been around 10 years now and we've released "EverQuest 2�� very successfully. We've run both games very profitably, and they've made a lot of money. More importantly they've made a lot of players very happy. So yes, we're investing in the EverQuest franchise for the future. And you'll see more EverQuest games in the future. We liked the look of the crown, and we'd like to put that back on.
So maybe there will be a South Park episode centered around EverQuest?
John Smedley: It is my dream! That was one of the funniest South Park episodes [featuring World of Warcraft], and that might just have been the best South Park episode ever. Look, I'm a fan of what the guys at Blizzard are doing. I'm super impressed with World of Warcraft. So to get on South Park, that and [The Colbert Report], are the dreams.
All the of the most successful MMOs have had a fantasy element. The success of those games is something that not even "Sims Online" or even "Star Wars" could match, so why is the fantasy element such a draw for gamers?
John Smedley: It has more to do with the gameplay in them, and in the case of Star Wars I think that is an IP that can reach millions and millions of people. From our perspective, at least while we were creating, it was a different time and a place. But what we've seen is that gameplay has evolved so quickly to become a bit more of the casual play and less of the super hardcore that we had started with EverQuest. So that's something we're adapting to, and that's why we have [the free upocming MMO] "Free Realms" and we have "DC Universe Online" and why we have The Agency. We're broadening out our demographic to be sure that we have games that fit in a lot of different genres, and therefore appeal to a wider range of gamers. I think it is possible to do big games that don't have to be in the fantasy space.
Tags: Ever Quest, Online Games
Given that all US game publishers are traded on the NASDAQ, it was unsurprising that they, too, were down across the board. The share price of Activision Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero World Tour), the newly minted biggest third-party publisher on the planet, slid 13.8 percent ($2.26) to end the day at $14.12. Former top dog Electronic Arts (Madden NFL 09) saw $3.63 shaved off of its stock price, ending the day down 9.16 percent at $36 even. THQ (Saints Row 2) lost 7 percent, or $0.87, to close at $11.48, and shares in Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto IV) lost 4.52 percent ($0.73) to close at $15.43-nearly $10 less than its asking price one month ago.
Though the US economy has been listing during 2008, analysts have been touting game stocks as a safe bet. In a May online column for the financial weekly Barron's, Signal Hill Capital Group Senior analyst Todd Greenwald called the game industry "virtually recession-proof." In a piece aired last week, National Public Radio said games' are growing more popular because they offer cost-effective escapism, much like films did during the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, today's massive market loss affected even the most prosperous of publishers. As the Dow Jones industrial average shed a whopping 777.68 points (6.98 percent)-the biggest one-day point drop in history-the NASDAQ composite index was also clobbered, falling 199.61 points, or 9.14 percent.
But though today's losses in American markets came after the US House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bailout bill, some game companies overseas were flagging even before the legislative decision. Worst hit was Paris-based Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed), which lost a whopping €12.47 ($17.92) per share in just hours, closing at €45.50 ($65.37) on the Euronext market. Eidos Interactive parent SCi Entertainment (Tomb Raider Underworld) lost £3.75 ($6.75) on the London Stock Exchange, ending the day at £26.75 ($48.16).
Large multinational companies with large game components also suffered. Software giant and Xbox 360 maker Microsoft (Gears of War 2) saw 8.72 percent ($2.39 per share) of its multibillion-dollar market value vanish in a single day, closing at $25.01. On the New York Stock Exchange, PlayStation 3 manufacturer Sony Corp (Resistance 2) shed 5.09 percent ($1.65 per share), ending trading at $30.76.
The intention with these articles – focused on RVR and PVE career mechanics for Warhammer Online ’s characters, is to really provide an in depth look at what each of the many paths has to offer.
Now you may find yourself asking, “Who the heck is this guy, and who cares what he has to say?” I wish I had a satisfactory answer that could convince everyone I’m 100% right about everything. I’m sure most of us would like that ability. I’m simply someone who’s been PvPing in online games (mostly MMO’s, earlier on in MUD’s) since their debut well over a decade ago. I look at myself as a fair and balanced writer with an approach to analysis that provides everyone with a fair and in depth glimpse of what they can expect as if they were actually playing the character.
I should note that I’ve beta’d WAR for the majority of their closed beta, and leave it at that. Each analysis posted isn’t from a 3-4 hour experience I had RVRing one day like so many others decide to throw up because they got rolled in Nordenwatch. They come from hundreds of hours of playtime in PVE and PVP scenarios. I won’t review classes I haven’t extensively played – and I won’t assume to provide you with any information I haven’t acquired first hand.
With that out of the way, I’d like to start with the Chosen career – A tank class that can best be described by combining EQ’s Bard class with Steroids and enough utility skills to fill up four action bars. I date myself a bit and reference a class from the first Everquest because the Chosen use auras to buff themselves, and/or debuff anything within 30 feet of them. These auras activate instantly, with a 2.5 second cool down; lingering for 12 seconds before they deactivate – meaning you can have as many as three active at one time if you constantly rotate their activation, and sneak in an attack every once in awhile. Granted, its worth the buffs, but as anyone who played a Bard back then knows its not very fun to constantly spam 3-4 buttons over and over and over while watching everyone else smash things.
The auras range from strength and toughness buff/debuffs, to adding resistances to yourself and your group and even making everything around you more vulnerable to magic. There’s a lot of utility at the Chosen’s disposal, and not just from his Chaotic Auras.
While some of your skills are general cookie cutter push X to deal damage, push Y to taunt skills, the Chosen gets quite a few skills early on that really stand out. As early as level 5, you’ll receive a melee attack that does entirely spirit damage (Ravage) which completely ignores your target’s armor and goes straight to a resistance check, which is lovely because lower level NPCs (and a decent amount of PCs until their 30’s) actually have nearly zero resistances to magic, and you’ll mow right through them, cleaving off about 1/10th of their total wounds each shot. While you obviously won’t be doing 10% of someone’s total hp in PvP using Ravage, you’ll still be dealing spirit damage and seeing a very irrelevant amount of it mitigated.
At level 8, you’ll get an attack that can’t be defended against (Cleave), however it really doesn’t do enough damage to warrant usage. With Ravage’s spirit damage, it just makes more sense to keep using what works – even if it occasionally gets blocked, it still does more damage over a period of time. Cleave does come in handy if you find yourself against another tank class that’s used a morale ability or just happens to be blocking everything you throw at them, whack then with Cleave a few times, while low on damage, its better then not doing any.
At level 9 you get your standard snare + damage ability (dizzying blow). It’s nice to have something to keep things from getting away, it cools down in just 5 seconds (it lasts for 7) so you’ll be able to spam it on someone attempting to get away.
Before mentioning the very tactical skill you get at level 10, I should state that the Chosen have very high Wounds, and coupled with some toughness points from your equipment and RR abilities, you’ve really got a character that can withstand a ton of punishment. Hold the Line is a shield skill that increases your chances to dodge and disrupt (essentially ignore) enemy skills by 45%, for 12 seconds. It also provides everyone in your group (behind you, up to 40 feet) with the same bonuses at 15% as long as they stay behind you. This effect can stack three times on someone, meaning a tank could have 75% (45 + 15 + 15) added to their dodge and disrupt chances if they had 2 tanks in front of them using the skill. Hold the line is a very cool and potentially life saving skill if you’re covering healers and/or ranged DPS while under heavy fire.
Another attack that should be noted is Withering blow, which deals damage and removes your target’s action points (great for shutting down healers). Along with Repel, a knock back ability with often hilarious results, as at times it looks like you picked up the player and threw them like a hail mary pass instead of just tapping them back a few yards. Try knocking someone off a hill when the opportunity arises… wave afterwards. This tactic is effective with all classes that receive a knock back ability, as you can literally propel your target completely out of a fight by knocking them down a hill or off a cliff. Instead of bothering to go straight for the healers, or to focus your damage on a particularly tough tank, just line yourself up and smack them out of the area – they’ll have to waste valuable time heading back, and will be completely taken out of the action for a while.
Another ability of the Chosen that really stands out is acquired at level 16 – a morale ability (built up over time in combat, triggered at any time you’d like – they’re found in the lower right hand side of the screen by default) called Grapple. Grapple holds you and your target in place for 10 seconds, and there isn’t anything they can do about it except hope you die. While you can still cast spells and use abilities, it effectively denies any escape, or tactical advantages some classes receive by attacking from the side/rear. A truly fantastic and menacing skill, usable once every minute as long as you’ve built up your morale bar.
Getting tied down too much in PvP? You’ve got the Juggernaut ability to look forward to; it removes all roots, snares, stuns and disarming effects immediately, and can do so again in 60 seconds. Later down the road you’ll receive a career tactic that reduces that cool down to every 20 seconds – aptly named Unstoppable Juggernaut. I really don’t see a need for that tactic, however, if you’re getting disarmed over and over, retreat and throw up a few auras to debuff your enemies a bit. Aside from in PvE, I rarely get disarmed in PvP at any level, its just one of those situations that doesn’t arise often enough to warrant tactical consideration.
Blast wave (level 15) is another notable ability, as it deals PBAOE (point blank area of effect) spirit damage to everything within 30 feet, which is also the range of your auras. I note that here because everything under the effect of an aura when this spell is cast also loses a ton of resistances for 20 seconds. And by a ton I’ll throw in some perspective. At level 5, your targets would lose 47 to all their resists. This scales almost ludicrously with your level. It’s enough to effectively negate any chance they have of not taking almost complete damage from any spell cast at them. You can use the Blast wave skill in conjunction with the level 25 aura, Dreadful agony, which deals moderate spirit damage every 3 seconds. This effectively makes you a walking DPS machine to an opposing group, dealing damage after nullifying their resists. Follow up a target of choice with an ability like Ravage, which just deals spirit damage, and you’ll watch them scatter or drop like files.
Maybe you’re still having a problem getting things to stick around when using the combo mentioned above. Are dizzying blow or grapple just not cutting off your enemies escape quick enough? Use the petrify ability (level 30); it’ll root anything within aura range (30 feet, up to 4 targets) for 10 seconds. Damage gives them a chance to break the root, however. So pick your target wisely when you decide to start swinging after activating petrify.
Finishing up the Chosen’s already insane number of aggravating abilities are the Bane Shield, and Touch of Palsy skills (attained at levels 35 and 40, respectively). Bane shield is one of those abilities you activate when you know you’re probably about to die anyway. Let’s say the enemy group finally decided to single you out and surrounds you, 8 or so enemies swinging away. Bane shield makes them all take a moderate amount of spirit damage every time they hit you. Every time. If they hit you 7,234 times, they take damage each time. Combine this with the blast wave and dreadful agony and you’ve got a decent chance at wiping out half the enemy group before they get you.
I mentioned touch of Palsy in the previous paragraph; however it really bears mentioning separately, as it’s absolutely devastating. If you haven’t figured out by now, it’s difficult to get away from a Chosen. However, now I’m going to say let them run – but cast touch of palsy on them first. They’ll take damage, albeit low damage, every half second they’re moving. Every half second. Even if it deals 50 damage, every half second, just about anything will be dead or close enough to it when it realizes what is happening. It only lasts 10 seconds though, so be careful when you cast it, if it’s a healer standing still, don’t bother; however if they turn and run, let em have it. Also, note the people that jump around and think that circling you makes them good at PvP, hit them with this too. Point and laugh after they kill themselves.
Now when it comes down to picking a mastery tree, really any of the three are viable paths. While you can’t directly enhance the Blast Wave/Dreadful Agony combo from one tree, splitting your points between the Dread and Discord trees is certainly an OK move in my book – as much as I’m usually opposed to that sort of thing. Doing this will enhance a lot of key abilities and really give you the spirit damage and debuff skills you need to tear through just about anything.
Throwing three points into Corruption for the Dire shielding tactic isn’t a bad idea either if you’re just playing around. This allows your Bane shield to also take hold on any group mates within 30 feet of you. Great for those situations when everything just turns sour and you’d like to walk away knowing at least a few people went down with you.
In terms of overall statistics for your Chosen, go with Wounds for . . . wounds, Toughness for the damage reduction and strength for damage. Ballistics and willpower are almost useless – but you can throw some extra RR points (if you have them) into intelligence to boost your spirit damage on some attacks. You can also consider the initiative tactic so you’ll have a slightly smaller chance to get critically hit and evade attacks.
I should mention two more things to wrap this up. Most people’s perception of 30 feet in real life is probably quite wrong. It’s just as inaccurate in WAR, as 30 feet roughly equals between three or four of your characters put side by side. Closer to 3. Line of sight applies to all auras, as it should. I should mention that anyone wishing to play a Chosen really needs to be aware when playing this class. To put it nicely, to be effective you need to know what your doing. If you can’t watch your targets debuff bar (under their picture when you target them) while timing auras and attacks correctly, you really won’t be much more than a glorified meat shield lumbering around aimlessly. Anyone looking to just run around and smash things should probably steer clear of the chosen class, as you won’t even be close to as effective as you could be if you weaved auras and used your debuffs and skills effectively. Anyone who likes to play a melee utility class, the Chosen really stands alone, I should note, however, that without timing and skill behind your ability activation, your dps will be rather low compared to most other classes. So what is the downside to all this? Action Points. Your abilities need to be used in constant succession and tactically in order to remain effective.
Tags: Warhammer Online
We would like to remind players that as well as adversely affecting game balance, the use of third-party tools or cheats can also have consequences that are not immediately obvious, such as introducing damaging viruses, and comprising the security of private account details. Usage of third-party tools will not be tolerated within FINAL FANTASY XI, and we will continue to severely penalize any players found to be in violation of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.
As we continue to ensure a fun and balanced environment for FINAL FANTASY XI, we hope that our players enjoy the game as it was intended and take care to avoid involvement in activities that violate the PlayOnline Member Agreement.
We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.
Based on the results of our investigation, around 4640 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 340 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.
Details of the violations are as follows:
- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Week of August 24, Approx. 130 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 290 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 260 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 270 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 170 cases
- Usage of tools that circumvent game mechanics with respect to the timing of ability use,
etc. in certain areas or at points where Notorious Monsters appear.
September 25, Approx. 20 cases
- Using cheats to automatically repeat a particular action.
Week of August 24, Approx. 20 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 110 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 180 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 200 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 220 cases
- Gil and item exchange for real world money.
Week of August 24, Approx. 10 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 20 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 30 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 310 cases
Week of September 21m Approx. 220 cases
- Instances of areas or monster monopolization.
September 4, Approx. 130 cases
September 11, Approx. 100 cases
- Involved in compromised accounts
Week of August 31, Approx. 400 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 690 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 710 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 490 cases
The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 1.8 billion gil from circulation.
Tags: FFXI, Final fantasy XI
The event is currently looking for staff to make it come true!
-Judges is for the sponsored lists, open lists and archery tournament. The Sponsored and Open List judges will help running the contest and help keeping the bonfires making the arena light; other people are encouraged to help keeping the fires alive too. For the Archery tournament it is important that the judge will have a lot of HP. The contestants will shoot once at the archery butte and the loss of HP will be transformed into points.
The Eastvale Tournament will be held on October 11, 2008, it as same as two years ago, The realm is Argent Dawn and organized by Acrona according to official shows. They will start taking sign-ups on the October 1!
-Raffle ticket vendors: will require a lot of bag space
-Fireworks specialists: for making firework launchers say boom-boom every now and then during the event
-Entertainers: for greater atmosphere
-Traders: for greater atmosphere
-Catering services: for greater atmosphere
Bad Moons Rising is the first major update of 2Moons for 2008. Players will be captivated by all the latest content and new game features included in this major update, which includes brand new areas, dungeons, quests, monsters, skills and equipment.
Los Angeles (March 31, 2008) - Acclaim Games announces the highly anticipated release of the "Bad Moons Rising" game update with tons of new content for 2Moons, a free to play extreme action Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) for PC.
Two new maps called Space of Pilgrimage and Aquirai Ruins will feature all new and exciting content, with hordes of new monsters and bosses to defeat. New dungeons such as the Nest of Cherubim will also challenge players and test their skills. New quests have also been added for players to complete for various items and rewards.
"Acclaim is growing rapidly and our coordination of new content into our games has been massively improved, our goal is to deliver major updates like this every 90-120 days and the next two major updates are already on the way. It's going to be a very exciting year for 2Moons players," says David Perry, the game's Director.
Some new game modifications have been made specifically for beginning players. Low level quests have been renewed and new monsters have been added for beginners. Also, players from level 1 to 60 can receive special items to help boost their character's stats.
The latest game update will also feature increased security and spam control to help ensure a more safe and enjoyable gaming experience for all 2Moons players.
The Bad Moons Rising update introduces a new pet system, providing players with new companions that will accompany them on adventures and help collect items. You can choose from 3 pets currently available (Ariel, Woody, and Wiki) with more to be added in future item updates. Mounts have also been upgraded for greater speed, so players can travel much faster when riding these mythical creatures across the 2Moons environment.
Players can also check out some of the all new skills, weapons, and armor sets that are specific to their character class to enhance their characters for the bloodiest of battles.
Tags: 2Moons
This first ever online-only Star Wars® trading card game provides Star Wars Galaxies subscribers with an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game! For the first time onlineNow the Galactic Civil War released the Trading Card Game: Champions of the Force. players can:
1.Find more than 20 loot cards in the first release that Star Wars Galaxies players with a paid account, in good standing, can redeem for fantastic in-game items!
2.Plus, challenge their skills in solo play, or join with friends in epic one-on-one matches, cooperative Heroic Encounters and even official tournaments!
3.Choose between the light and dark sides of the Force and build their own Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game decks to fight virtual matches for the Rebel, Imperial, Jedi or Sith
4.Collect more than 250 beautifully detailed original Star Wars-themed digital cards
5.Enhance their digital card decks with 15-card Booster Packs
Just a week,a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG. WAR creator spent years on providing players with the most stable, epic, and polished online world, but it is the players that have truly brought the Age of Reckoning to life.Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning had fully launched for just a week,and the new players who registered have surpass 500,000. wow~
Based on Games Workshop's epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, WAR is a unique MMORPG that features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm (RvR) gameplay that will attract players in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come. WAR has been recognized for its unique play style that appeals newbies while offering incredible depth for sensoned players.
WAR subscription options include:
Monthly Subscription: 14.99 USD
3-Month Subscription: 41.97 USD(13.99 USD per month)
6-Month Subscription: 77.94 USD(12.99 USD per month)
Fans looking forward to laying siege to their enemy's capital city will have several pricing options available, beginning with a ?14.99 monthly subscription. Additionally, collectible 30- and 60-day prepaid Game Time Cards will be available at many game retailers.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Although there are ten PvP levels, the gear available only goes up to level 5 so far. More gear will be coming in the future to take the system all the way up to level 10.
You can plan out exactly what you want to wear in your PvP career. You can pick the gear up from vendors, who you can find in the game's racial hubs. Each piece has a minimum PvP level required to wear or wield. Note that the minimum character level is 80; this is definitely endgame stuff. It took a while getting there, but PvP gear finally made it to Age of Conan. The PvP patch has caused a marked increase in enthusiasm for the game, and players are killing each other like never before in their haste to earn PvP levels. Unfortunately, the AoC PvP notoriety patch didn't go live yet, so nobody is being branded as a murderer or criminal no matter how many lower level passers-by they ambush and massacre.
Tactic Trainers: All tactic trainers in the main city libraries have been temporarily turned off, while we investigate an issue involving them. They will return as soon as this issue is resolved, we apologize for the inconvenience.
Troll Country: Players will no longer get the T3 scenario queue window when attempting to zone into the scenario cave in Troll Country
Open-RvR Servers: Players will no longer receive the "bolster" buff while in Kadrin Valley
The first patch comes in the morning of Sep.6. And the down time only lasted a little more than 1 hour and a half. The patch notes are below:
Patch Notes
Queues bypass system: Player's position in the queues will now be saved when disconnected for a short period of time.
Guild Tavern: All players in a guild will now have access to the guild tavern at the appropriate guild rank level.
Tags: Warhammer Online
PQ For Me And You
More interesting than RvR (for me, at least) are the Public Quests. Here's an example: I'm sent to kill some Annoying Squigs on a quest (with Squiggle, my Squig Herder). When I arrive at the killing field, the game tells me that the area also happens to be a Public Quest called Ugrog's Rage (Oh, that giant troll thing!) where the first objective is killing quite of few of the buggers. I notice another player in the area, and invite them to a party.
Parties are automatically labeled as open, and in the upper left there is an icon you can click at any time to see what parties are available, how far they are from you, and what they are doing. Everyone in the area knows we're here doing this PQ, and we can keep inviting people, too. Even players not in our party (or eventual warband, if enough show up—that's a group of up to four parties) are helping the cause.
Next we have to collect Ugrog some beer kegs, but there are still enemies to deal with as well. Finally, once he's good and boozed up he'll bust down the door to this dwarven fortress and the bosses first send minions charging, before finally running out themselves.
Most PQs seem to have three stages, and when it's over you get a loot drop (or not, if there were a lot of people involved) depending on how well you participated. The drop is a grab bag where you get to choose one item, and there is always something you can use, whether it's armor or a crafting material. If you help out a lot, you also get tons of influence (points—a bar that fills for each chapter of the story) and are able to pick up influence rewards from the rally master in town.
I love PQs. It's a great excuse to get a party together and once you have one you can just roam the zone from PQ to PQ. Or you can run one a few times in a row if it's crowded, since the more consecutive attempts you put in, the higher your roll modifier bonus will be.
I Made This For You
Gathering and Crafting skills are acquired in the chapter 2 zones for each race. Of the four gathering skills, Cultivating is definitely the most compelling, since instead of just picking over corpses or breaking down unwanted gear into magical essences, you're growing seeds. The process starts by opening the Cultivating window and choosing a plot. You place a seed and then add soil, water, and nutrients as a timer runs down. I didn't get far enough to see what sort of effect upgrading your soil types and watering cans would have, but you definitely run into higher quality ingredients as you go (or if you buy them from a Scavenger.)
So far there are two crafting systems in the game, one for making potions and one for making talismans. Talismans seem more difficult due to the rarer ingredients required, whereas many potion ingredients are readily available through butchery or cultivating. For that reason, I spent a lot more time with my Apothecary characters.
To make a potion you need a container, a main ingredient, and supporting ingredients for stabilization and added effects. For instance, you can turn regular green healing potion into pink healing-over-time by adding an ingredient that increases the duration of a potion’s effects.
Overall, I found myself actually enjoying crafting, for once. Even though I made way more potions than I really needed, the more active systems made the whole process more satisfying.
Bottom Line Time
I haven't said much about the Tome of Knowledge yet, but that’s because I personally didn't find it very interesting. It's basically a cross between a fantasy novel and an encyclopedia of your progress, which is great if you're super into Warhammer, but you can tell the designers don't even expect people to read all the quest text-the dialogue is in a rusty red color as opposed to the sharp black of the actual directions—so to include all this extra reading material is either a huge waste of time or a way to show the true fans how much they are loved. I guess we'll go with the latter, but it would be interesting to see what percentage of players reads every entry.
As far as audio/video goes, you'll want to run WAR with more than minimum specs, obviously, for the ultimate RvR experience. It's a pretty game, and less cartoony than World of Warcraft while still maintaining a clearly fantasy style. The main theme is hummable while you're waiting for the game to load-especially if your server is full; the game is definitely popular.
My biggest complaint, aside from the crashes that made me want to just quit completely, is the lack of official forums. I don't want to be part of a community, I want to be part of the community. Yes, you can report bugs in-game, but it still just puzzles me that Mythic doesn't run their own forums rather than check-up on fan sites.
Love Your Job
Warhammer is about a war. No kidding! The Order faction consists of the Empire (humans), High Elves, and Dwarves, and on the flipside lies Destruction, composed of Greenskins (Goblins and Orcs), Dark Elves, and Chaos. The careers are all tied to race, so it's more important to decide what your job will be than what you want to look like.
Maybe you want to be a Witch Hunter. I mean, you get a gun and the ability to pile up accusations until an execution move becomes available, and who doesn't want to follow the mastery Path of "Confession?" Actually, I spent most of my time with a Marauder, whose arm shapeshifts as needed, although the Brutality sword-like appendage seemed to rock the hardest, with its Convulsive Slashing move that just tears up your target.
From level 11 you start gaining mastery points with which you specialize your career. For instance, I started up the Path of Brutality which not only improves all the moves specifically using the Brutality-shaped arm, but eventually unlocks new moves and passive career tactics you can slot to increase your effectiveness. High Elf Archmages who not only heal, but shoot lasers out of their eyes, Goblin Squig Herders who attack at range while commanding one ugly-looking pet monster—I wasn't able to try every career, but the fact that I wish I could have says a lot.
RvR Puts Hair On Your Chest
Of course there are plenty normal MMO quests (Kill wolves, find this dude, collect mushrooms...) but you can play any game for those. If you're coming to Warhammer, you're coming for the Realm vs. Realm and the Public Quests. The Realm vs. Realm (or you could say, "epic PvP" with plural Ps) comes in many varieties from open RvR servers to zones within a "core" server, to specific instanced missions called Scenarios. Scenarios are great because they last just fifteen minutes, you get set up with a group as you arrive, and you can zap straight to one from anywhere.
In the upper right hand corner of the screen, near your mini-map (with handy red blotches that designate quest objectives), there is a button to queue for a Scenario. Once you sign up, you can just forget about it and quest, craft, or whatever. When the Scenario resets and slots open up, a window pops up to let you know and you can warp from the spot you stand to battle it out against the opposing faction. Obviously noobs will be overwhelmed in these situations, but it's only fifteen minutes and you respawn easily in the zone to just keep hacking away. There are also quest objectives for killing members of the opposing faction, and you get experience just for finishing the encounter. Then, of course, there's the added bonus that even if you managed to kill just one guy, it still helps your realm in the overall battle.
Unfortunately, that vague knowledge is as close as we got to the huge scale that the war ends up taking. The highly anticipated sieges of "living cities" (that are more or less prosperous depending on how your faction is doing) are for those a bit closer to the 40 level cap.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Hell is Other People
The biggest irony of Warhammer Online is that its greatest strength is also its biggest weakness -the reliance on other people. The vast majority of the game's content, especially its meta-game, requires an active and enthusiastic player-base committed to getting to the city sieges. In the game's opening days as everybody levels up and the game still exudes that "new game smell," that isn't a problem. Even in these first days, however, we've found that there are inconveniently located PQs that are virtually abandoned. We're concerned that as the player base ages, these areas may be abandoned, making the trip to level 40 the grind that Mythic worked so hard to avoid.
Fortunately, Mythic is aware of this and put systems in place to try to stem it. Since every zone in the game contributes to the push-pull city-raiding meta-game, there is certainly an incentive for players to level alts and leave them at specific levels in order to be able to switch to different content tiers when the situation requires it. The game also offers a "Tome of Knowledge" that in itself is a huge piece of content. The Tome is combination achievement/kill-counter system that tracks virtually every aspect of gameplay. There's a kill counter for every type of creature (and player) in the game, exploration unlocks for finding specific locations, well-written story snippets as a reward for following the PvE questlines, titles, new skills and much much more. In fact, there's even a whole host of silly and secret achievements in the Tome such as clicking on your own character 100 times, fighting while naked or just adding five players to your friends list cheap wow gold.
As players progress through the game, a fascinating melding of PvE and PvP content begins to occur. Certain PvE quests will send players into PvP "lakes" to complete objectives that have nothing to do with fighting other players. Others will offer players in PvE zones opposing PQ objectives conveniently located right next to PvP areas where players can slip over and try to kill one another when taunting and interference aren't enough. In higher-level PvP zones, capturing objectives entails dealing with very powerful NPCs that require raid-level coordination to take down. City sieges -the very goal of the game -are the ultimate fusion of the two. Once a city siege begins, players will have to compete in PvP events to unlock a whole instanced capital loaded with PvE content ranging from low-level quests to loot and kill regular citizens to high-level dungeons and huge raid-level bosses that will take the resources of a guild to destroy.
The Enemy of My Enemy is my Enemy
It doesn't take much play time before the PvP heart of Warhammer Online becomes clear. Scenario-based PvP is available from the instant a player logs into the game. All a player has to do is click the "Join Scenario" button on the UI anywhere in the world and they queue up. When in a scenario, characters will be leveled to the tier mean. They won't be given any extra skills, which means that very low-level characters will still be at a slight disadvantage, but the field will be more or less even and everyone feels useful. Scenarios run the gamut from simple timed slaughterfests for points to take-and-hold actions to king-of-the-hill games to capture the flag. As players level, they'll be asked to take part in more elaborate scenarios that will require more coordination and planning but even the simplest (Tier One) scenarios in the game offer a huge variety of play styles and a host of ingenious play mechanics.
The other part of Warhammer Online's PvP system is the Realm vs. Realm combat. This consists of PvP "lakes" within larger PvE zones (one for each side) that surround it. In these areas are a series of objectives such as castles or points of interest that are guarded by NPCs that can be captured by players to control the zone. This is easily the game's biggest individual attraction. First, it offers a ton of balanced PvP combat confined to limited areas under specific rule sets and avoids the annoying "ganking" phenomenon (for those who want it, Mythic has created a number of "Open RvR" servers). Second, these RvR lakes are amazingly fun. In a couple of days' worth of battles we accumulated more stories of brilliant assaults, sneak attacks, dirty tricks, desperate last stands and amazingly funny moments than in a year of another MMOs PvP. If the greatest piece of content in an MMO is other people, Warhammer Online offers an endless variety of PvP "content" to explore.
Unfortunately, all of this PvP combat comes at a price -fairly steep system requirements. While lag, stutter and chug are usually not a problem at the game's lower levels, in larger battles with dozens of players it's very possible players without a high-end system will see their game slow down. We never had a problem so bad it made the game unplayable, but even on our highest-end machines we had to tone down the graphics in some of the larger fights. That may turn off some gamers who were looking forward to the game but may not wish to upgrade their systems -especially that segment that's been playing nothing but World of Warcraft for the past four years without an upgrade.
Tags: Warhammer Online, World of warcraft, WoW News
There's also a host of smaller problems, though none of them rise to more than a small level of annoyance. Players in scenarios can "AFK" their way through, stealing experience and renown points they don't deserve. There's a weird graphic bug that will lock an avatar into one animation cycle (though you can still play the game). The crafting is confusing and feels like an afterthought. The UI, while quite good, could use a few now-common elements like the ability to hot-link items and abilities in chat. Considering how important player coordination is in higher-level PvP, the game could really use some type of built-in voice chat system. Some of the terrain in the scenarios and the PvP lakes could use some tweaking, as their proximity to spawn points sometimes gives an advantage to one side while the other faction faces an incredibly long post-death trek.
In the end, though, all of the problems, even the most serious one of lag in heavy player combat, are ultimately fixable. Warhammer Online has had the smoothest, most complete MMO launch we've ever seen. Game balance and other elements of the game need tweaking but they're all there, they all work and most importantly, they're all fun. This is a game that has 20 separate classes and while some may be overpowered or underpowered, none of them are boring to play. The game comes loaded with PvP and PvE content that -balance issues notwithstanding -is as good as or much better than that of any other MMO on the market. Warhammer Online is the next great game of Player vs. Player and Realm vs. Realm content and we have the feeling that somewhere on the other side of reality, the Chaos god Tzeentch is smiling.
Xbox Live's achievement system proved some time ago that people will go to incredible lengths for a score beside their name and a few virtual medals. The developers at Mythic took that lesson and ran with it. There will certainly be a large contingent of players who make it a goal to unlock everything in the Tome. For everyone else, the Tome is a sort of goad to experience everything in the game. It's worth playing that PvP scenario one more time to finish an obscure Tome unlock. It's worth going through low-level PvE quest lines in the other races' areas and doing public quests that one has outleveled just to get the unlocks. More than that, the Tome is just one of a host of meters to fill and counters to click and trophies to go for. The game's guild system treats guilds almost like players with their own system of levels and bonuses and prizes that players can work to unlock. There's an entire separate system of PvP leveling that unlocks access to high-level loot. One of the key benefits of all this is it keeps players circulating throughout the world and participating in all of its content.
Greenskins in the Woodpile
Despite all the well-deserved praise, Warhammer Online is not without its problems. While the game seems to have avoided the big technical nightmare of unstable servers, there's a definite danger of population imbalance. As players come on board, there seems to be a pronounced predilection for the Destruction side. While the developers at Mythic have taken steps to ameliorate this, the resulting low population caps on servers have contributed to long wait times for scenarios and 10- to 20-minute waits to log in at peak hours. Since balanced populations fighting each other are the key to this game -much more so than in World of Warcraft, which continues to wrestle with this issue four years after launch -this is something that needs to be carefully monitored and controlled as the game moves forward.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Lastly for today (I think I have taken a good deal of your time already, hopefully constructively so!) I also wanted to mention that we‘ve come very far with the DirectX 10 version, which we unfortunately had to keep on internal test-servers for launch. It’s now almost ready for the full test server. Once the next game-play update is out expect to start to see the DX10 functionality coming to the test environment. How long it will take to transition to live will depend on the testing of course, but it’s starting to shape up nicely. Having done some reviews of it internally over the last few weeks I can admit that a few of the features really do give some added visual punch. I know it’s a feature that is long awaited and I can assure you the technical folk here are working flat out to try and get the version in a state where it can be considered for live release.
There are two things on the immediate horizon that will very soon be on the test server for public testing in the shape of Ymir’s Pass and the second stage of the PVP update. There are a couple of things I want to address on these.
Firstly Ymir’s Pass is a large zone and has quite a bit of content to test. This may mean that it stays on the test server through several updates on live. We have the ability not to include a given playfield when we build new versions for live, which means that this testing won’t hold up the release of the other new content and Ymir’s Pass will still get the time on the test server that it needs. We want the experience to be as good as possible for its release and feel the public testing phase is important in that. We hope to be bringing the playfield to the test server shortly, and we all hope you will enjoy the many varied encounters it brings.
Then there is the second stage of the PVP update that brings with it the consequence system. This new system allows for players PVP actions to have real consequences in the world, and it will greatly enhance the entire PvP experience in Conan. As you know the system is meant to bring repercussions for repeated evil behaviour (i.e. killing players outside of your level range), so should you chose to “gank” other players, a whole new gameplay area opens up! For one, it will result in you no longer being welcome in many parts of the game-world, but in its place you will have to rely on a newly arrived network of camps and areas that function with a little more moral ambiguity. This is very true to the essence of the Conan lore, and a change I think many players will find intriguing.
You will be able to access the same services as you can in the “orderly” parts of the world, but you might find your new ‘friends’ have a price for their services. We felt it was very important to make the system as immersive as possible and not just a purely mechanical system on top of the game-world to support PVP. So to that end, these new camps and NPC’s function as a kind of “shady network” for those with more nefarious reputations. Be warned though. It also means that those who hunt for such criminally inclined adversaries might find out where to look for you!
The other new content additions are all shaping up internally, and I’ll let you know the order in which they will appear after Ymir’s in my next letter.
Moving on to some things a little further out I mentioned in my welcome letter that we are working on the itemization and gem systems, as well as how the budgets for character statistics are going to be refined and improved. This is an area I wanted to elaborate on a little in this letter.
One of the issues we have been working on in that regards is the limited budgets that were originally assigned to the in-game items.It was always the intention that Age of Conan would not be a game where items would be the deciding factor in encounters. This meant though that the statistics available for items, and their actual effect on your character, was simply too slim. The items do scale within very limited ranges and have quite a limited effect on your characters abilities, and this I feel we need to do something about. When we sat down and analyzed the way this worked and the impact it had on players actual sense of progression through the game, so we came to the hard choice that something had to change.
With that in mind we have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for a shift in the range and meaningfulness of character statistics and items. So what exactly does that mean? Well, firstly it does not mean that we are going straight to the other end of the spectrum and making items the ‘be all and end all’ of progression. We will though be making items and statistics more important to your characters.
Currently the items account for a maximum contribution of 25% of your characters total in any given statistic or ability (if you had all the stat modifications available for that statistic equipped, which in itself isn’t always practical). We are aiming to increase that so that your statistics from items contribute closer to 50% (although it will vary slightly from class to class), while also adjusting the formulas so that ability statistics (strength, stamina etc) contribute more meaningfully to your visible abilities, like health and Damage per Second. Items do have an effect on those calculations at the moment, but just in numbers, and that mean it isn’t always all that visible or impactful given the vagaries of an inherently random roll system. The most telling factor is probably that many players felt these statistics were ‘broken’ when in fact they were working correctly, they just didn’t contribute enough of a variance for players to see or feel it properly in combat. Evolving this part of the game is therefore something we deem very important, and something we are actively working on right now.
Next up I wanted to cover two features that were talked about previously that will change significantly from what was originally mentioned, and that’s ‘Powerpoints’ and ‘Kingship’. While both are great concepts I felt that we needed to go back to the drawing board a little with both of them. They will however make an appearance in some form in the future.
The ‘Powerpoints’ type of concept will appear first in some form of loyalty program, although I think we might try and find a more suitably ‘Conanesque’ title for it! (…and yes, for those who have asked in the forums, any loyalty program will in effect be ‘backdated’ and take into account how long you have already been subscribed since launch).
The ‘Kingship’ concept will be taken back for another design round internally, before we announce our plans for building the guild and conflict elements of the game. It’s an area that I believe is key to the ongoing success of any MMO and is an area that we really want to do well. This means that we are taking another look at how to best achieve it. This will include looking at building more, and better guild support functions inside the game. Also we most likely want to include some other forms of ‘lateral progression’ at the same time, an alternate advancement path for max level characters, for example. It is an area that I feel will bring some great new content to the game in the new year, but we have to address it properly and put something in that will have lasting appeal.
Another aspect which has popped up in the forums recently is whether we are going to do a server merge or not, and I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way. We will come back with more info on this, but I hope that this will serve as a positive injection to the social scene in the game.
So what does it mean to the game-play? It means that items will have more varied and more meaningful statistics. Existing items will be modified appropriately and you won’t have to go and find new gear (of course it might mean you want to, once the statistics start to be more meaningful!). We are aiming for the conversion to the new system to feel like players have not lost any relative power in their game-play experience. The key difference will be that if you don’t have your items equipped, or relatively up to date with your level, you will start to notice the difference! We feel this is important for the ongoing progression in the game to be more meaningful andwe are not doing it lightly. It will go through extensive testing and feedback cycles (this letter being the start of that part of the process!). We genuinely want to ensure that we have the ability to deliver a much more meaningful feeling of progression and achievement for players, but without going too far away from the action elements that makes the unique combat system what it is.
It is currently coming together internally and will require a good deal of testing at our end. We will be letting you all know when the new system is ready for public testing. In the meantime your feedback will be an important part of the process, so please feel free to give your initial thoughts and reactions. I am certain that this change will improve the overall gameplay experience, and that items dropping from encounters will matter more than it currently does.
Tags: Age of Conan
Some of you may be expecting me to tell you that Warhammer Online was just that sort of title. Other editors from various media sites have pushed hordes of flowered prose down the throats of their readers telling the various wonders and enjoyable encounters they'd been a part of during their short stints in WAR. Since I've been fairly positive with other titles in the past in my first impressions, it could be assumed that Warhammer Online deserved a heaping pile of praise right from the start.As a long time reviewer of both online and offline games, there's usually a point in the process of the game review where the game reaches above the below average status and begins to earn its stripes as a high quality game. Sometimes a game never reaches that average status, either because of nagging bugs or just a thoroughly unimpressive presentation and gameplay experience. Other titles take a few days to really sink in, with the depth of the control mechanics or competitive playstyles helping push the game into the average or above average status.
 WAR did not immediately appeal to my sense of MMO gaming. |
 Ranks are attained very quickly in WAR. |
 Eventually I found the RvR scenario experience, which completely changed the state of WAR. |
Some new changes were added to the patch 2.4.3 PTR notes. Among them are the entries below concerning warlocks and mages.
Mage
* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
Warlock
* Demon Skin, Demon Armor, and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
This change is obviously a PvP one and is probably not much of a big deal. It seems strange that these armors can no longer be dispelled since the effects they give are indeed magical. In this sense, there's not much difference that these armors have with the Inner Fire ability that priests have and yet only the mage and warlock armors have this benefit. Not all armors are mere armor giving effects either since fel armor actually gives the warlock +spell damage and this is something that an opponent would probably want to get rid of.
Perhaps this change is in line with the shaman totem change that was announced some time back wherein the act of dropping totems is in the physical school so even if the shaman is spell locked he can still cast totems. I never really thought of being able to dispel these armors as imbalanced but I'm not really complaining.
As always, the latest PTR patch notes can be found here.
Ever since the announcement that ammunition will no longer be consumed and that hunters will gaining their quiver/ammo pouch haste bonus through other means, freeing up a slot for another bag, warlocks have been wishing that they might get a similar treatment. They are indeed getting some help with their soul shards but it's not in the form of removing the shards altogether or going to free up a bag slot either. Soul shard farming isn't a thing of the past but it's going to get a whole lot easier and faster.
Soul shards are getting easier to get and easier to manage with the following changes in patch 3.1:
* Drain Soul: Each time Drain Soul deals damage to a target which can grant experience, it now has a chance to generate a Soul Shard.
* Soul Shard: This item now has a maximum count of 32 in inventory.
The first change all fun, making it possible to get shards while wiping on boss fights and much easier to get shards in trash fights. It seems though like the second one isn't great at all, especially if you're used to running around with more shards than that. Ghostcrawler has an explanation and it's all part of making shard management easier.
Drain Soul will produce enough shards that you should never be without them. Even if you are learning a boss through repeated wiping, you should be able to get the new shards you need each attempt.
In fact, it produces so many shards that we figured you'd end up having to delete them constantly, which would be annoying. The 32 limit will fill up your largest bag (which only holds shards anyway) without spilling over into the rest of your inventory. We figured very few locks carried around a lot more shards than that, and like I said, they are easy enough to replace now for those of you who do manage to go through them quickly. source
So basically warlocks will be getting shards out of their ears so it's just best that they put a cap to it. they figure it's more convenient to just grab the shards you need rather than having to get rid of the ones that could fill up all your bags. It's a sound reasoning especially if your factor the minor glyph, glyph of drain soul which has a chance of giving you an extra shard! What I'm wondering though is that with this change, locks will have to cast drain soul even boss fights if you're running low on shards so how will this practice affect their rotation? It might not be much of a big deal but it's something that has to be asked.
The Wrath of the Lich King expansion is still a long way from coming out (no announcement yet) but the warlock class has gotten a sneak peak at what the devs might have in store for them when it does come out. Kalgan (Lead designer Tom Chilton) leaked out to the warlock forums an idea for a spell that gives warlocks a sort of "blink" ability.
We definitely feel the need for warlocks to gain some sort of active defense so we don't have to try to balance them around the assumption that they're "tanking" melee classes. For example, an idea we're running with internally is the concept of a warlock being able to cast a spell that places a circle of demonic power on the ground. The warlock would be able to teleport to this location from within a relatively short range (ie: 40 yards), and would also be able to summon demons more quickly if they're standing within the circle.
Note: this idea is intended as a sneak peek, it's not something that we're planning for 2.4, it would be more likely as an expansion ability, and may change entirely before said time. source
Having played both a mage and a warlock (my warlock is 47), my observation has always been that warlocks don't have that many escape mechanisms. As a mage, abilities like mana shield, blink, polymorph and even the frost talent ice barrier can help escape a bad situation. Ice block will do the trick too if you're in a group. As a warlock, you only have fear, death coil and sacrifice. Fear isn't always reliable and death coil is on a 2 minute cool down while sacrifice only works if you have your voidwalker out.
At the risk of getting flamed and getting told that warlocks are overpowered and that this shouldn't happen, I actually have to say that this "blink" spell is actually a great idea for the future. I'm thinking a spell like this would have a cool down of at least 1 minute although I'm guessing it would be more like 2 or 3. Of course, if this happens I'd really wish mages got something equally as cool!
update: Kalgan assures mages that they'll get something cool in the expansion too.
Mages will get new abilities in the expansion too, believe it or not. In fact, we intend to tone down how strong of a counter warlocks are to mages through the wotlk spells/talents. source
OMG New Drain Animations! Or is it actually old? I don't really know...
This is something I just noticed earlier when I was playing my warlock. It's possible I never noticed it until today because I haven't really been playing my warlock much. For some of you, this might not really be very new since I've seen videos of this as early as September from the beta and I've also read that it might have been implemented when Patch 3.02 came out. As for me, I never noticed it until today and I'm very fascinated by it since it looks awesome!
Instead of looking like a colored lasso connecting drainer to drainee, it actually looks like something could be getting drained there! The new twisting animation makes it look more classy and believable Drain Soul, Drain Mana, Drain Life or Health Funnel share this cool new animation with the appropriate color of course. Pardon me for being excited about this just now.
Below is a video of the animations in action.
In an effort to help warlocks in their soul shard usage, one of the changes coming in the next patch has something to do with their Ritual of Summoning spell. In the pre-TBC days warlocks had to stockpile loads of soul shards to summon every member of the 40 man raids twho were not present. While the move to a smaller 25 man raid was a lot of help, what really made it easier for warlocks is shift to using meeting stones to summon people. This way any two members of the group could summon the whole party.
The new change coming to the Ritual of Summoning is in effect something from the pages of the Mage Ritual of Refreshment spell or the Warlock Ritual of Souls spell where a tangible object is summoned for the rest of the group to benefit. In the case of Ritual of Summoning, the warlock creates an object that acts like a meeting stone. For one shard, the warlock can summon the whole raid from anywhere where summoning is allowed. In fact, since it acts like a meeting stone the warlock doesn't even need to be there. H e just creates the object and can leave the summoning to the rest of the group present.
Just like Ritual of Refreshment frees the mage from having to do the hard work of conjuring so much water and trading it to the party, this new change to Ritual of Summoning frees the warlock from having to do so much clicking to summon people.
the PTR patch notes for patch 3.1 listed in MMO Champion features a lot of changes for locks in all their talent trees. There are some cool changes and a lot nerfs in other areas. But right now I want to talk about the demonology talent Demonic Sacrifice because when the patch rolls in, we won't see it anymore.
According to the patch notes, Demonic Sacrifice will be removed from the game. Obviously the patch notes are incomplete since we still don't know what's replacing it, even if some new talents have been revealed. This is sort of the same fate of the paladin talent Blessing of Kings (which will be made trainable in the patch) and still no announcement of what will take its place.
The removal of Demonic Sacrifice from the game is a bit of a toss-up for me. On one hand, a lot of Demo warlocks didn't take the talent anymore since it seemed like having your demon up is nice even in dungeons because of the buffs from Master Demonologist and Demonic Empowerment. Keeping your pet up has been made easier by the new Fel Synergey talent which was moved to the first tier and has a 100% at max rank to heal your demon by 30% of damage you deal. It doesn't help the cause that Destruction warlcoks like having their imp out because of the increased crit chance given by Empowered Imp.
On the other hand, Demonic Sacrifice was introduced to the game to allow warlocks put their demons to good use when they're better off gone than there. As I stated above, perhaps this thinking is obsolete but there could be instances when it could still be useful. The most obvious one I could think of is the Heigan dance in Naxx where a pet could be at high risk of dying and thus be off no use to the raid, so a sacrificed demon would probably be better. Perhaps the Sapphiron fight is also another instance where it's better to have a sacced pet because of the air phases where you need to get behind an iceblock or die.
Well no matter what you think about the talent, it's no question that it was a cool concept while it lasted and I hope that it's replacement will be something just as cool and hopefully something that could be an integral part of a demo build and others like destruction as well.
Ever since Blizzard announced that Warlocks will be able to turn themselves into a demon, I've always wondered how that would work out and what it would look like. This video gives a nice idea of both. In my opinion, the demon form looks pretty imposing but still I feel like it could use a bit more work on the scary look. It would probably be awesome to see a gnome warlock go from a small little thing to that huge demon a kick some ass. That leap ability definitely looks pretty imposing!
The one thing about this video though is that it gave me the impression that you could use the ability often but the reality is it's on a 5 minute cool down and it only lasts for 45 seconds. For a 51 point talent that's not very impressive. In fact, as I look at the Demonology tree as it is now, there doesn't seem to be any synergy between this skill and the rest of the tree. That's not good for the talent at the very bottom of the tree.
The warlock community got excited ever since the announcement came out that affliction warlocks would get a similar treatment to the change shadow priests got that allowed mind flay to crit. I was a bit skeptical about allowing warlock DoT's to crit because warlocks do so much damage already and they're well off with their non-critting DoT's. But the announceent was made that said a new affliction talent would be implemented and the keywords would be "Dot's" and "Crit". There was a lot of speculation exactly how this would be implemented and the affliction warlock inside of me (currently level 56) was hoping that at least the basic DoT's would get even a small chance fixed to crit. To some extent, that's what eventually happened.
The new talent is called Pandemic and it's on the same tier as Unstable Affliction and also has UA as a prerequisite. basically what it does is that every time your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells damage a target, it has a chance equal to your crit chance to deal 33%/66%/100% more damage. At max rank, every time this procs means it's like actually critting. It's one of those talents that's nice to have and definitely has that coolness factor too see it go off especially since Corruption and UA are two of the hardest hitting DoT's around. But it also is a poor reason to start stacking as much crit as say mages, in my opinion. Spell hit is still king for PvE affliction warlocks and Pandemic is just like an icing on the cake. I shudder to see this talent in action for PvP when UA gets dispelled. Whammo!
As a warlock, the idea idea of turning yourself into a demon and gaining demonic powers just like your trusty minions seems like a dream come true. Unfortunately, the whole ability was not at all worth getting since it was too underwhelming for a very bottom of the tree talent. The nice thing about seeing talents like that in their beta stage is the fact that they are in no way final. Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler released some great ideas about Metamorphosis the design team are thinking about that would definitely lift the ability up to a status worthy of a real 51 point talent.
While this is not final and could absolutely change, here is what we're thinking about for the new design:
You keep your pet.
You keep your spells.
It buffs spell damage (for that "blow your cooldowns" feel).
It buffs mitigation (you could even tank for a bit).
It provides the current snare reduction for PvP.
You'll still get a few fun demon abilities, but you can just use your normal spells if you'd rather.
The most important thing about these changes for me is that you get to keep your pet. The whole Demonology tree is about you and your pet giving each other benefits. Aside from the occasional times when you use Demonic Sacrifice, Demonology is all about keeping your pet with you and the talents are all about exactly that. So the current design of metamorphosis doesn't make sense at all since the whole duration you're morphed all your other talents are worthless since your pet is not there.
The other problem I had with the very first version of the talent was that the cooldown was 5 mins. For a then underwhelming talent that was too long long especially for something that lasts just 45 seconds. The current 3 mins is much more sensible.
Being able to have your pet with you while having all your regular spells at your disposal and having increased spell damage, increased mitigation and snare reduction while morphed - that's what I'm talking about when it comes to a 51 point talent and i didn't even mention that you still get to have cool demon abilities. Now it feels like it's a celebration of what the Demonology tree is all about. I really hope these changes make it to live and I know a lot of warlocks who would be happy to see them too.
So, I currently own the best level 1 twink on my server, and one of the best around. Recently I discovered the toughness exploit, granting me 700 extra hp. This was great, considering my twink was known for his 1000+ hp. When WoTLK came out, tauren racial was nerfed, and I feared I would never break 1k HP again. But that all changed. Here is a screenie of him with no health buffs at 1661hp.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9323/holyhpxh9.jpg
I recently also found about about the all-so-mighty twink 2h. I had to go get one and try it out for myself. Once I got it, I put my STR gear on, procced a crusader, switched to Enti, and crit a swine. Here's the outcome:
Read the rest of this entry »
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There is a quest called Post-Partum Aggression (Approx lvl 76-78)
Post-partum Aggression - Quest - World of Warcraft
Well in this quest you get to ride the mammoth over to kill a dragon. Well there is an extra attack "War Stomp" if you press "7%26#8243; on your keyboard. You cannot click it because it isn't on the action bar, But if you press 7 you get to cast it.
Oh i know, SS or didn't happen so here ya go, Clearly the aoe dmg in the picture is War Stomp!
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k68/streetska8er/Warstomp.png
by Scrubs
Yesterday I was doing DTK for the 4th time that day (Yes, I was very bored) and was in skeleton phase as normal. I was on my death knight and KM kept proccing. I accidentally hit my Howling Blast key as it's bound near the spells you use while a skeleton and it cast it.
I'm going to take a crack and say this isn't working as intended since your bars get changed when you turn into a skeleton.
Later when I get another DTK group I'll take a screenshot / fraps to prove it, but for now, try it yourself I suppose.
IN SHORT: Spells (abilities too?) work while you're a skeleton on the last boss of DTK, Tharon'ja. Just make sure they're not on your main bar.
Picture for proof.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4345/hwskelezs5.jpg
by wolfiewolf666
This isn't like all the other threads, this is aimed @ legit guilds that are working hard towards a kill.
Ok, for all the guilds out there that are getting the 2nd drake down or getting close and finding out that their main tank or offtanks are getting jibbed, there is a way that you can reduce their incoming damage by 50% we used this on Sarth after the 2nd drake had died till after we had killed the 3rd drake and the melee had gone in and killed the adds inside the portal
(At that point in time Sarth has +75% fire damage, there is a raid dot, and his attack speed and damage is increased by 50%)
So Sartharion currently has 150% attack speed +50% damage and 1.5 second breaths that are still hitting for 20k'ish, at this point most tanks just get gibbed because of the pure burst damage from his insanely fast melee attack and high damage breaths.
Exploit is, Druid hurricane works on Bosses reducing their cast speed by 50% ( Making his flame breath 3 second cast, and reducing their melee attack by 50%, and 50% of his attack speed takes him from 150% Attack speed down to 75% attack speed, which make this transition of 3 drakes in 25 man that insanely easy to heal through it's really not funny anymore.
Basically the exploit is hurricane works on bosses and this counters the entire mechanics of difficulty in this encounter.
PS: If your druid is having mana issues make sure they have omen of clarity for clearcasting, and also tank the fire adds over near sarth to help the druid proc his/her clearcasting (100% mana cost reduced on next spell) as hurricane can be mana intensive.
by Snowae
This bug will allow you to permanently have a deathrune up (i.e it never turns back into a Blood rune, it will always %26#8216;recharge' back into a deathrune)
This is good because:
- A Death Rune can be used to power ANY type of ability
- You don't have to keep using blood strike to get deathrune
- You can use Icy Touch / Plague Strike 3 times in a row instead of 2 times
For this to work you need:
- To be a Death Knight
- Unholy Spec
- Have the %26#8216;Reaping' talent which turns Blood Runes into Death Runes for one time use.
How to do it:
1. Get 2 Death Runes available (you can do this by using Blood Strike twice)
2. Wait untill the runes are %26#8216;recharged' (so they ready to use)
3. Use Blood Strike, so it puts one of the death runes on CD
4. Use Icy Touch, so that now both Death Runes are recharging
5. Use Blood Tap
6. Now you should notice that ONE of the runes will be a PERMANENT Death Rune, nomatter what spell or attack you use it will ALWAYS %26#8216;recharge' as a Death Rune and it will stay as a deathrune untill you change zone, die or log off
You will still have to wait for the death rune to recharge of course, but it just means you can spam icy touch 3 times.etc, and don't have to waste time using blood strike twice to get 2 death runes
by Xiandri
1. Find a program that can limit your incoming network connection. Configure it to limit incoming packets to 5 to 20 a second. I use Netlimiter2 for this.
2. Approach a mob in an area you have access to, have it begin killing you, try not to attack it in case someone comes along and decides to kill it. (IE: Hostile or Red mobs.)
3. When you're about to die, wait a few seconds until the mob should have killed you, switch on the limit, and run into the areas you want to discover. You can pop sprint or use speed potions BEFORE switching the limiter on to increase your speed, or use a process speed hack if you want to take a risk.
4. Eventually you will either DC or Die. Switch off the limit and rez at the exact spot you died. Rinse and repeat.
ZOMG WHAT HAPPENED!? You're dead server side, but you can still move client side since your client hasn't been notified of your death. Your corpse will look as if it slides across the ground. This can be done in instances to speed things up for the runner. Since you can't get XP while you're dead, you still discover.
by n4ru70h4%26#215;0r
Well so all what u need is Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth - Item - World of Warcraft to use this nice exploit.
To pass the first wall - %26gt;
%26lt; - if uf stay like this just unmount now u will fall into the wall and can walk through it.
Now for the inner door we use this nice mount again look here - %26gt; 
%26lt; - if u stay like this just unmount again and u will fall into the door and u can walk throught it again.
And now if you are an rogue u can go there - %26gt;
%26lt; - and if the door is down you can start to tap the orb and in 90% no one will interrupt you cause no1 will think that there is som1 before the door is down.
by Venomdeath
We all know Surge of Light is reserved for the holy specced and is required to talents. Well, not anymore!!!... And this is ideal for arena healers!
Place enough talents so you have that Surge of Light and Holy Concentration.
Make it Procc (so you get the buff)
Unlearn the talents @ trainer before the procc runs out
Specc discipline and you will see it procc in arena, or you maybe wont see it, but you will get INSTANT flash heal!
Happy exploiting and if you cant make it work, then you probably failed or they already fixed it
by Come Undone
So last night I was in Zangarmarsh on my hunter and I have this as one of my glyphs for kiteing purposes if I get caught up somehow. Well I was swimming out to the Drain to investigate it and I had some fish start attacking so i popped my aspect of the monkey on just so I had the extra dodge.
Well at some point I had my glyph triggered and I was in the middle of chatting while I was running and had ended a message a tad bit early....I accidently hit Space jumped out of the water then was running on the water until the buff wore off. At first I was just thinking that it was a one time bug. So I went to the edge of water near some nagas and recreated this situation multiple times.
Basicly the expoit is if you have this Glyph and it procs you can run on water when you have the buff and I have been useing this all day in Zang to run back and forth across the lakes just keep a fish or something just in range so I can be lazy and not have to do the slow ass swimming.
This could be a possible working as intended but it doesnt mention any water walking in the tooltip for the item.If this is a Repost I am sorry and will swiftly remove this post if provided the proof.Hope it helps someone out there.
This first one is showing me get the buff.
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/7691/wowscrnshot011509173851uc4.jpg
This one is showeing me have the Buff and haveing it refreshed twice.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2707/wowscrnshot011509173754hi9.jpg
by Voip
Horde:
I've seen posts about it being possible to reach the alliance wintergrasp portal and use it - when alliance is in control and your own portal isn't up. And I'll explain the easiest way to get there for horde characters.
Here I go:
Enter The Violet Citadel and take the portal named Portal to The Purple Parlor. (Up the stairs and then to the right)
When you have teleported up, run straight forward, out of the room and onto the balcony. %26#8216;Aim' yourself so that you see the alliance part of the city, and simply mount up with your flying mount. (Yes its possible to mount up here!) Now just fly into The Silver Enclave and use the portal*! - Tada, you are now teleported to the horde camp in wintergrasp!
Using this way you will not even get the "restricted flight area"-debuff and you will not risk %26#8216;loosing time' from having to retry it!
* Do not land your mount, because if you do, you will get teleported out like if you were running on foot.
Note: If you're a paladin, you can of course just bubble up and run into the portal without the guards beeing able to portal you out.
Alliance:
Simply go to Kraus's Landing, mount up, and fly straight to the wintergrasp porta*l. Ignore the "Restricted area"-debuff and hope you make it! Some scouting on the map may be needed. I'm sorry I can't write it better for alliance, but I have never tried as alliance. The idea here seems very possible and easy tho!
* Start with flying along the utter wall of the building just north of Krasu's Landing. Turn left immediatly when the wall %26#8216;turns' and then right as soon as possible - then go straight forward into the doorway and use the portal.
by Mollymus
If you have the Grand Black War Mammoth, it has 2 seats in the back. But hey! You want more people to sit in it? Than read on.
What you need -
1 Person with the Grand War Black Mammoth (Drops from Vault of Archavon, rare)
3~ People trying to mount up
Steps -
1. Player with the mount start summoning it
2. Have 2-3 people right click spamming you really fast and not stopping
3. If you failed repeat steps 1-2, Keep trying.
If it worked than usually 2 people would be in 1 seat, thus bugging your mount and allowing more people to come ignoring the restriction, (up to total of 5)
Have fun
by Zoniao
This is a guide about how to get some money with ~400 fishing...
We will be fishing Pygmy Suckerfish wich sells for about 150g depending on server.
First of all get your fishing to 400-450 (or use lures), loot filter and a bot if you are to lazy to fish by yourself
Position yourself in Howling Fjord around here:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/willecoolis/Fishing01.jpg
On this cliff allmost no one will spot you:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/willecoolis/Fishing02.jpg
But before fishing you should setup lootfilter by writing "/lf" in the chat and then click on "Name" and then write in items to keep "Pygmy Suckerfish":
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/willecoolis/Fishing03.jpg%26lt;
Then go to Quality and on "Poor (Grey)" %26amp; "Common (White)" check the box to delete them...
And you are ready to go Hopefully this helps you in some way!
(And if you got alchemy you can turn the fishes into pygmy oil, if its more expensive on your server )
by willecoolis
Zone: Borean Tundra
Area: Mightstone Quarry
__________________________________________________________________
1. Enter Mightstone Quarry, and searched for the Nerub'ar Victims (inside the Spider Webs, low health).
2. Kill as many as you possibly can.
3. Go and gather up as many mobs as you can in this area, keeping an AoE up with little damage to keep aggro but not kill them.
4. Kill all, loot, skin.
5. Here is what I got in 37 Minutes.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o117/lilb978/222LOLTrashMobs.png
Completed on a 80 Holy Priest.
How?: Gather up, Mind Seer %26amp; Holy Nova (alternate), Rinse, Repeat
by Trollin
Unlike Death Coil, Drain Life, Soul Leech, etc, Haunt's heal is taking into account Overkill damage. This means that one can use this on critters or any other one shot mobs and still receive the full benefits of the Haunt heal. Cheap fast healing.
Proof:
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6480/wowscrnshot031109103111.jpg
by xmagusx
If you have a demolisher vehicle and angle it right you can attack the inner wg wall before killing the outer walls. You can also hit the keep door before breaking the inner walls. Ill post a ss or video next time wg is up.
by wootpeng
i found a spot on my level 70 prot pally that i've been AoE farming for a good few hours now. Skorn in Howling Fjord. The mobs are packed pretty tight, they hit weak, and drop a decient amount of $, cloth, and greens. I started AoE farming here halfway through 70, now i'm a half bubble from 72 and still going strong. This isn't nearly as good as the alliance one, but, it's the best i've found so far for horde. It even beat questing by a bit, although it gets extremely boring.
I'm getting 414K EXP/hour and 226 gold/hour here.
My friend came in here with his 80 prot pally, he's bringing in ~430 gold/hour. So, not a bad farming place for an 80 either.
Pics:
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww185/codydude0815/HowlingFjordbig.jpg
by codydude815
DK's http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55670 (50% slowing effect) and ferals http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48485 (25%x2=50% slowing effect) stacks = 100% slowing effect.
In arena its nice etcetc, 3v3/5v5 mainly I suppose, could probably rape in 2s aswell.
by egg1337lol
Its currently bugged i think because its ment to be lvl375 however blues from 80 heroics and disenchantable at lvl 325
lvl like 78 greens require like 350 and can't disenchant them so definitly a bug
example of one items
- Shadowseeker's Pendent Shadowseeker's Pendant - Item - World of Warcraft
?
by connoromg
so this is pretty funny...
If you know someone has a mechano-hog and they are in the process of casting it. Spam click them until it spawns. If you are fast enough you will steal the passenger seat of the hog even if you are not lgrouped to the person.
This will either force the person to ride you around or get out themselves to remount it. In which case you can just do this again 
Remember you gotta do it AS they are spawning it because as soon as they get on it, you will not be able to ride shotgun unless you are linked to the driver.
This also works with the Grand Black War Mammoth and the Grand Ice Mammoth. It does not work with the Tundra due to the fact that when the driver spawns the mount, the 2 vendors are already taking up the 2 seats.
by bubbajackson
I was running 10 man Naxx with my guild last night when i tank who was a warrior used Shield Slam right after the Stoneskin Gargoyle finished Casting Stoneskin (Stoneskin - Spell - World of Warcraft) and It stopped healing the Gargoyle and allowed for a fast kill
by reagansmash94
this is a Exploit found by myself after wiping in Naxxramas 10 Man Yesterday several times with a Random Group.
So what are the Basical Problems at Saphiron with Randoms?
- Blizzard ( Movement )
- Drain Life ( Dispelling )
You can't make sure that everyone is able to do his Job if you are not used to play together. That Equals that maybe some of your Group die, because of Drain Life or Blizzard.
And in my Opinion, the most critical Problem as a Random Group is the Ice Bomb, dropped by Saphiron from time to time. It's the highest priority to avoid to let someone die during this Phase of the fight, and this is exactly what this Thread is all about, Here a Picture of Saphiron's Room.
Green = Tank Spot
Yellow = Saphiron
Pink = Caster %26amp; Healer Spot
Lila = Meele DD's Spot
Those are the most used spots for Saphiron, and the best ones in my Opinion.
So what you do now basically is, instead of Waiting for someone to become a Ice Block and hide behind him, which is pretty dangerous though, because some Blocks are Buggy(?) or bad-shaped.
You group Up at the Place of the Caster %26amp; Healers:
Red = Raid-Group up Spot
From there you see the 3 "Chambers", how I call them, marked with a "%26#8212;-%26gt;".
In those ones you wont get hit by the Ice Bomb dropped by Saphiron, and it sure that 100% of your Raid is going to Survive it. Just Run there as soon and as fast as Possible, there just get yourselfs into this Position:
Red = Safe Spot.
Make sure to Stay there as close to the Wall AS POSSIBLE!
Just tested this in 10 Man, but I don't see why it shouldn't be possible in 25 Man Raid.
by Cryde1509
Things you will need for this exploit:
-Need to be an alliance toon (sorry horde)
-Must not have completed the quest "It goes to 11..."
*for those of you that are unsure if you've completed this quest, this is the one where you gain control of a harpoon gun and shoot buildings to alert guard and then you shoot them out of the sky. If you've completed the quest then sadly you will not be able to do this exploit.
-Finally you will need a person to group with that can potentially stay in howling fjord anywhere in the zone (preferably the valgarde inn)
-This isn't required, but highly recommended. 10% xp shoulders as you will be getting xp solely from killing mobs, and as much rested xp as possible.
If you were to do this quest out of a party you would find yourself shooting the buildings one at a time and then killing the guards that are alerted for a measly 58xp a piece. For some reason when you're in a group with someone and they're still in the zone you will see a jump in xp gained per kill to over 1900xp. We thought this was impossible, but try it out and see for yourself. You can also shoot more than one building at a time if you spam the button, and more buildings mean more guards. You'll get an average of 4 guards per building and so long as you're using the harpoon to destroy the buildings whenever it's up you'll constantly have guards to kill. Doing this method I was able to level my mage from 70 to 73 in about 5 hours. So if you've got some alts sitting at 70 that you just haven't been in the mood to level, try this out.
Just a heads up. The harpoon has a health bar and if you get overwhelmed by guards they can easily destroy your harpoon and it takes several seconds to spawn a new one. Also while the harpoon is destroyed the guards will change their focus to you so plan your farming accordingly. The use on the harpoon only lasts for 5 minutes at a time, so even if your harpoon isn't destroyed you'll be kicked off after 5 minutes and the harpoon health will hold over to the next time you use it.
Have fun with this exploit and happy farming
by GMUNYIFan
http://files.filefront.com/ring+of+valor+newmpg/;13418716;/fileinfo.html
Please, do consider this is a 3 months old video and that I'm getting to the next point.
In the video, you can see how to get on top of the arena floor before the game actually starts :
1. Wait till about 3-4 seconds before the game timer says when the match starts.
2. Alt+tab out of the game
3. Count to 5
4. Alt+tab back into the game
Before, this was useless. But now, when Blizzard hotfixed the gates (removed them) this is actually very neat for both ranged and melee classes.
*Does not work in windowed mode.
by Smeag
How to duplicate the flag in WSG (have many people pick up the flag).
What you need
Warlock (you can do it multiple times, so more warlocks equals more flags!)
How it works
Have a warlock place a teleport circle on the highest platform (roof) in the enemy flag room. The warlock jumps down, grabs the flag, and teleports back up. It is tricky because you have to time it perfectly. If all went well, the flag will still remain in its holster in the base, but the warlock will also have a flag. Another runner can simply grab the flag from the holster and run it back.
When someone dies with one of the flags, the flag carrier name and icon at the top will be gone, but the other players who grabbed the flag can still turn theirs in.
Unfortunately, they can still cap when you have one of the bugged flags but, hey, so can you
If you have 2 locks, you can do this twice to have 3 flag runners.
NOTE: If 2-3 people run back with the flag, the first cap will be fine. The second capper will have to wait until you get the "flag is placed at the base" message before it allows him to cap, and the third capper will have to wait until that same message pops up again after the second capper turned it in.
That's it!
Enjoy the WSG weekend
by Xposed
Step 1:
Ok so first clear mobs like usual and position yourself.
Step 2:
Then pull her and her adds and look image 2
Step 3:
Then turn left and about where the torch is you will lose aggro ( look picture 3 )
Step 4:
As soon as you lose aggro start going back to where you just came from and you'll get aggro, u need to be fast ( look pic 4 ) I know there is no aggro sign ( didn't had time to make new screen shots )
Step 5:
repeat Step 3 and Step 4 until you bug her ( step 3 just where you lose aggro at torch )
by markons
let say you have one horde account and one alliance account
the Neutral AH is the only way to transfer money between them and the 15% cut is annoying
now when you set the item price to 28634g
the fees will only be 13s27c
why?
One of my friend familiar with programme explain to me by this:
(well I dont understand this shit too I just know it works and copy and paste it here)
the model answer should be: 28633g11s54c
because 286331154 * 15 = 4294967310
change it to hexadecimal: 10000000E
it become 9 digits, for a 32-bit system the 9digit will overflow
and the fees will be 0 T 14/100 = 0
and in the 5%AH you set the price 85899g34s60c will have the same effect
so when you set the price to 28634g in a neutral AH the fees should be 4295g10s
but because the limit of the fees is 4294g96s72.96c, the fees will be overflow and become 13s27c
the exploits is quite useless if you dont have a horde and alliance account
but the "overflow concept" maybe useful in another way so I would like to share it out
by benjamin66
A friend of mine discovered that using an elixir called [Gift of Arthas] will give your attackers a 30% chance to inflict themselves with a disease that lasts 30minutes.
Pretty much means you drink the elixir, which lasts 30minutes, and during that time, any melee attackers that hit you have a 1/3 chance to catch this disease.
Your [Death Strike] ability heals for 50% damage dealt per disease on the target, so this elixir's disease would add 50% to the healing done on that ability. An easy way to test, (which I have) is to allow a mob to attack you until only the elixir's disease is on the target. Then proceed to death strike it once, and watch as you get healed for 50% of the damage you dealt. Proof: if you have no diseases on the target, you will not be healed.
As for where this would come in handy, as a tank, you have a higher amount of damaged self-healed, and since this can also be spread through pestilence, you will potentialy be able to pull out more threat.
1.Drink [Gift of Arthas]
2.Get hit by melee attacks until your target has the disease
3.Apply all the diseases you normally use
4.You now have obliterate/death strike/heart strike bonus damage from that third disease
5.Profit
by Apotheosiss
I remember reading the original thread weeks ago and rolled a toon just to try it. Unfortunately it got patched as soon as I hit 74.
I was discouraged, but I decided to work around it to see if I can still make use of the other quest. As I predicted, the other quests in the chain still give exp/gold.
Here's a list of quests:
Overlord Drakuru - NPC - World of Warcraft
Dark Horizon (or Reunited) are the two quests that have been patched to give no rewards. However, the rest still provide the gold/exp listed. For example right now I'm using It Rolls Downhill to farm exp/gold. I would believe that any in the chain afterward would work too, but I can't confirm myself, so I will only advertise that quest for now.
There are some downsides from doing this rather than Dark Horizon/Reunited:
- You actually have to quest
- It takes much longer to do, and you're subject to many ways of messing up (a shade finds you, your costume fails, ganking, etc.)
So why still do this?
- Repeatable, meaning at 80 you can go back and do all the other quests for gold.
- You're doing the same quest over again, no travel time, don't need to look up how to do quests
- If you can avoid the shades well and don't get unlucky with costume failing, you don't have to kill anything
Here is the theoretical fastest speed doing this quest (ignoring any mess ups, I timed each part several times to see on average how long it took):
- 30 secs, grab quest, go up to Drakuru, get his quest, come back down
- 175 secs(7*25) secs per crystal turn in (including MCing the pet)
- 30 secs going back up, turning in to Drakuru, drop quest, and come back down
Works out to 240 seconds (or 4 minutes).
Using 4 minutes at 20950 exp per turn in, you do 314250 exp/hour.
These figures come off as much slower than soloing, but remember, even if it's slower, it means you keep more quests to do at 80. Also you don't have to walk around as much or fight (saving durability).
Some tips to speed it up:
- Hotkey the mind control rod, the horn to call stefan, and the costume. It'll make it much easier.
- Hug the staircase to avoid most shades. Wait until a shade pats past you before you grab the geist. Also don't MC a geist close to a shade or it'll agro you.
- If you agro a shade somehow, run to the portal and use it, you will drop agro and still maintain your costume if not hit.
by alpha21
Foreword: This exploit requires a diminutive stature, and as such is not applicable to horde as far as I know. I did this as a dwarf, presumably it will work with gnomes too, however it does NOT work with humans! (hence the assumption of height)
Alright, so first you head over to krasus landing. Look to your left and fly up to the ledge, make sure you land so your mount is running. (your collision box might be too big otherwise)
Then head to the spot in the picture below, and go forward. You should clip through the wall.
From there you can fly to just about anywhere, but becareful there are a handful of spots that have NO way out other than hearthing (auto-unstuck marks the area for the dev's to look at, so don't use it!)
In this pic you can see an overview of the area Northwest of the landing, the mass of water is the black market (area across from the sewers inn)
I was using a normal flying mount, so I couldn't quite reach the arena area, but with an epic flying mount you will definitely be able too. Just be careful about where you are flying, the walls do not have textures on your side!
Pics of the areas I got stuck:
And the croc!
by tiptopz
The Loaned mounts, as we all know, are awesome. Here's another really neat trick to fly inside caves for as long as you like and also a way to get under storm peaks with it.
Basically you'll get dismounted if you:
- Stop
- Move up/down
- Strafe
- Touch Walls/Ground/Ceiling
by m5k
it's kinda fun when you're assaulting 1k-Winter in a fast pace, you'll read why:
First of all, this is for all who are
- Engineer + Rogue
- Engineer + Druid (I guess it works too)
You'll need a Flexweave Underlay (Engineer Recipe) for your cloak for this little piece of fun...
What I do is:
- Fly to 1k Winter (when the battle is HOT HOT HOT)
- Wait for the dismount right above the castle
- Let the regular parachute fly you above the spot where you want to land
- Dismiss the regular buff
- A few seconds before the regular landing open your Engineer Parachute and right after that press your Stealth Button.
- It will result in a stealthed You+Parachute
- NOONE will see your parachute, it will stealth together with you.
Result: You land safely in the enemy base, noone saw you, go kill your enemy from within their base.
=%26gt; ADDITION: I just found that...you won't get unstealthed even if you take falldamage when the Parachute runs out of juice AND you're already stealthed on it!!
[This "trick" I found a few days ago and it's not stolen from any site - Feel free to share it]
For all you stupid "SHOW A SCREEN; ELSE IT DIDN'T HAPPENZZZ!!!1111!;!;$"
Here you go:
http://i42.tinypic.com/2reo1mp.jpg
Now go and make profit out of it!
by Lifestream
You can use Baby Spice - Item - World of Warcraft on a tank and it makes it very tiny while you remain big. Pretty funny. Alot of times the enemy doesn't notice and it gives me enough time to break a wall. Also if you use bloodlust or elixir of giant growth you can become really out of proportion.
Probably works with wg vehichles aswell. Not sure if it affects the hitbox tho.
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7030/wowa.png
Edit: You get the item from doing the cooking daily. Its a fairly good droprate.%26lt;
by wootpeng
The Brew of the Month for March is [Aromatic Honey Brew], which when drunk can proc and give the buff "Honey Touched, You are dripping with honey and are attracting some friends" that makes you run around randomly like when feared.
What can this be used for? Well, of course - walking through walls!
So far I have only tried this on the old 'sheeping place' in IF to get into old-IF, as well as the exit from old-IF in the kings room.
However, I imagine that this can be used in many other places, for example where sheeping used to work before but doesn't due to dueling limitations.
by Nightcap
I just discovered something quite funny that I didnt know was possible. Basically I am after the epic ring from final boss drektharon keep, we started running it 45 mins before instance reset.
We killed the boss 5 mins before the reset and the damn ring didnt drop, then we decided to try something.
1. Warlock summoned us to near the final boss.
2. Instances reset and we where ported to HS location.
3. Accepted the summon.
4. Did final boss again this time the ring dropped!
by izzywizzybuzy
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/Viralrush/greaterinscriptionofthegladiator.jpg
This enchant can be placed on BOA shoulders and sent to your alt. Obviously unintended as the ZG enchants were recently restricted from being used on BOA items.
Proof:
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/Viralrush/shaman.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/Viralrush/rogue.jpg
by Viralrush
when DK uses lichborne (Lichborne - Spell - World of Warcraft), pally can use turn undead to fear them (instant cast with glyph). Since unholy DK got some nerf, alot of DK will be going 20/51, and they'll be picking up lichborne.
apparently lichborne also makes you immune to hex and sheep, even though not shown on tooltip.
So whenever you see DK pops them, you can fear them on pally, even though on tooltip its suppose to make you immune to fear. Same goes being immune to hex/sheep.
by bighandxyz
The simple fact of the mater is that during this time of year it's increasingly hard for players to find raids of any size to run with. It leaves guild leader's heads in knots as they try to make everyone happy, and saddens the hard core raider as they can't work on progression content (especially with a new expansion).
Of course the flip side to this is that in a little over a month everyone will return wanting to raid even more than before. That's a good thing for everyone who enjoys that aspect of the game.
It's that time of the year again. Holidays are upon us and suddenly millions of players realize that real life > WoW. Thanksgiving dinner left overs or some 25-man Naxxramas?
An official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle or a dead Sartharion?
Clearly the answer is the BB Gun for for most us. But there are a few out there that are experience the holiday raiding blues. And they just had their first taste of them.
Tags: Naxxramas
If warlocks existed in modern earth, their abilities would be against all international agreements on human rights and rules of warfare; they would be squarely in the evil company of terrorism, drug-trafficking, slavery, and biological germ warfare development.Why are these forces evil, you ask? Aren't magical powers neutral in themselves depending on how you use them? Isn't killing with one weapon more or less the same as killing with another? Well, if you consider that a warrior basically cuts or bashes things, and a paladin cuts or bashes and brings down the righteous energy of justice. But a warlock uses curses and spells, which, like horrifying biological weapons of modern days, destroy his enemies' minds and eat away their bodies from the inside; wreaks massive havoc with great explosions and persisting fire; and sucks the souls out of people and creatures and uses them to power even more horrifying abilities, such as summoning demonic creatures who would just as soon pluck out your eyeballs as look at you.
To suffer at the hands of a warlock is significantly more excruciating than the attacks of any other class -a slow, painful, torturous, agonizing death. The Warlock is the ideological counterpart to the Paladin. Where paladins strive to wipe out evil wherever they see it, warlocks enslave those evils and use them for their own purposes. Being a warlock is all about harnessing the most wicked, corrupting, and evil forces in the universe.
And yet if your warlock works for the Alliance or the Horde, he or she claims to do all of these things all for the greater good.
Do two evils make a good?
On the other hand, if you're like me, you want to play a warlock because the game mechanics of the class itself look pretty fun, but you don't like roleplaying evil characters so much. For my warlock character, I reinterpreted some of the spells and abilities in my own way, so that, as far as I'm concerned at least, my character doesn't feel so much "evil" as "morally ambiguous."
She claims that when she takes a Soul Shard, for instance, she's not actually capturing someone's soul, but rather some little portion of that person's soul or mind: all their memories before the age of 8, their awareness of the color teal, or perhaps even just a single word from that person's vocabulary (so that they would never again be able to speak, hear, or think about "massage" for instance, although "back rub" would still make sense). To me that's a lot more creative than just stealing someone's soul, and it makes more sense in the case of creatures such as constructs or zombies that don't necessarily have souls; my character can take away a construct's programming for violent actions, or a zombie's constant hunger for brains, and then use these to power her spells.
And speaking of spells, my character would say that just because "Curse of Agony" sounds really bad, doesn't mean it actually is. She says it's the kind of pain that feels really bad at the time, but after healing seems as though it never happened, and besides, it's really no worse than being eviscerated or mind-flayed. There are lots of nasty attacks other classes can do, she would argue, so why do warlocks get all the bad rep? Summoning demons isn't so bad if you keep them under control, right? (By the way, remember that the warlock class is the only one with pets that can talk: use the Pet Emote addon to make the best use of these demon minions as characters to compliment your own. If they merely follow you around without saying anything interesting, you're missing out on a lot of good roleplay opportunities.)
First, a bit of history
Warlock magic is relatively new to Azeroth, although it is a bit older or the Horde than the Alliance. Although Warlock magic was first developed by the eredar, the orcs were the first race in the game to learn the ways of demonic magic, when Gul'dan became corrupted by the Burning Legion and set their race to the destruction of the draenei. Soon after, when the orcs entered Azeroth through the Dark Portal, they used these powers to great effect against the humans, no doubt making some mages secretly wish they could use those powers too.
After the Horde lost the Second War, however, no doubt a few humans and elves tried to learn demonic magic from their new captives. At that time, they would have kept it very secret, but as time progressed and the chaos of the Third War broke loose, this demonic knowledge became more and more widespread among races without a strong racial sense of distaste and distrust towards these things. The gnomes were probably more captivated by all the new magics warlocks could teach, without realizing how very evil the demonic powers were at first. The blood elves simply became more open about their demonic studies once their nation had been ravaged by the Scourge and they were forced to turn towards some amount of demonic energies to sustain themselves anyways. And the Forsaken probably have the temperament most suited toward warlock magic, as many of them are former humans and elves whose sense of emotion and morality has been distorted or largely removed.
No matter which race you choose, unless you're an orc, warlock magic isn't something you would have grown up with -on the contrary, if you belong to one of the older races your character would have grown up as a mage, priest, shaman or something and only discovered the ways of the warlock later on, within the last 15 or 20 years or so. If you are a young human warlock, you might have been going through puberty when one of your parents started uncovering the secrets of this magic from the orcs and accidentally allowed you to witness its power.
The masquerade
So the big question is: are all warlocks evil? Certainly, if you want to be evil, the Warlock is the class for you -feel free to cackle madly and destroy things with wild abandon. If you're undead you can even eat your enemies after you agonize them to death.
But remember, you are part of either the Alliance or the Horde. You must walk in their cities, buy from their auctions, and fight foes alongside other characters in your faction. In many places, it would not be wise to go around broadcasting that you are a warlock, as there are many people who detest everything warlocks stand for. If you are indeed an evil warlock -perhaps some sort of spy for the Burning Legion, or maybe just a free agent of mayhem -it might be wise to have some sort of cover story for your character to hide what you really are. "Warlock? No! I'm a mage who just happens to know a lot of fire and shadow spells." Or, if someone catches you with your demon out, you might claim that as a warlock, you "control" these forces of evil without doing anything evil yourself. Someone who doesn't know the extent to which warlock magic not only destroys but tortures as well might just believe it.
Tags: Warlock
As with our previous gear guide, I'm operating on the assumptions that haste and armor penetration are less desirable for Death Knight and that expertise is primarily for Death Knight tanks.I'm sure a lot of Death Knights are, like yours truly, getting into the level 80 home stretch and trying to figure out which of the Wrath factions to grind first. If you've already read our Wrath 101 guides to reputation and to the Oracle and Frenzyheart tribes, you're off to a good start. In this week's Lichborne, we'll take it a step further by looking at the purchasable rewards for each faction with the eye of a Death Knight.
The Kalu'ak
The Tuskarr have a good selection of quest rewards that end up being very Death Knight friendly. You can easily get honored simply by completing all the Kalu'ak-specific quests in Howling Fjord, which will give you access to a set of plate breastplates, the Whalebone Carapace and the Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard. Both are pretty solid for their specific role, and don't have any less useful stats such as shield block and haste, so chances are you'll end up wanting to pick up one of each when you hit level 76.
In addition, once you hit revered and level 78, you'll be able to pick up the Whale-Stick Harpoon. While it doesn't have any pure strength, it does have quite a bit of attack power and agility, and it has more DPS and high-end damage than the De-Raged Waraxe, the quest reward from the Ampitheatre of Anguish that will probably end up being a Death Knight leveling staple which want to buy cheap wow gold.
You'll also want to consider finishing the grind to exalted, even though neither of the exalted rewards are specifically for Death Knights. One of them is a penguin pet, and the other is a fishing pole which comes with the side bonus of granting underwater breathing. Much like our Rogue brethren, we're locked out of using the Hydrocane, so this is a nice way for us to grab that extra bit of utility -we may need it when we're raiding the Naga capital next expansion, right?
Alliance Vanguard and Horde Expedition
The first reputations you encounter are pretty sparse, actually. Maybe the Horde and Alliance aren't so sure about this Death Knight thing after all. Still, it's worth grinding to revered for the Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator if you're planning to do any PvP. In addition, if you're a dual wielder, the honored reward Hammer of the Alliance Vanguard/Warsong Punisher may be a relatively decent off-hand choice at level 78.
The Frenzyheart and the Oracles
So I actually already told you about one reason to go Oracle earlier today. Seriously, that egg is awesome. But if pets and mounts aren't your bag, there's plenty of other reasons.
At Revered, you'll get your choice of some level 78 plate shoulders. The Glimmershell Shoulder Protectors are very nice for tanks (though you may want to make sure you're defense capped first), and the Gold Star Spaulders are awesome for DPS. Both have plenty of the stats a Death Knights need, and none of the ones we don't. At exalted, the Oracle Talisman of Ablution (which we covered in Phat Loot Phriday) acts both as a nice chunk of critical strike rating and a sort of mini-Butchery proc. At the least, that's good for keeping Horn of Winter up.
I'm not sure why you'd insist on repping with the Wolvar. Maybe you like jerks. Maybe you're an achievement hound. Maybe you're hoping that Disgusting Jar eventually spits out a slime pet or something. I won't judge. I'll just warn you that they don't offer much for Death Knights. The Giant-Sized Gauntlets at revered admittedly work rather well for Death Knight tanks, but their exalted trinket has haste and a frenzy on kill proc, both of which really don't match what the Oracle talisman offers for Death Knights.
Making your Choice
As you can see, every faction does have at least one reason (even if, in some cases, only one) to grind. Choosing which one to grind may, in the end, come down to personal preference. Myself, if I was pressed for time and choosing, I'd probably focus on the Kal'uak for the nice leveling goodies, then the Wyrmrest Accord for the nice outlay of tanking gear, then the Argent Crusade for the nice Revered Mace (And yes, Death Knights can use maces, we just have to train them at a weapons master). Whatever you choose, good luck with your grind, and we'll see you next week. Glacier.
The Wyrmrest Accord
The Dragons at Wyrmrest are a veritable treasure trove for the beginning level 80 Death Knight tank. At honored, you can grab the Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions, and at revered you can get the Breastplate of the Solemn Council and the Sabatons of Draconic Vigor. All are pretty solid pieces that should last you until you can grab a proper heroic upgrade.
In addition, dual wielders might want to grab the Fang of Truth as an offhand weapon at honored. While it has no strength, it does have solid DPS stats otherwise, including a nice chunk of precious, precious hit rating. At exalted, you can get the Legplates of Bloody Reprisal for DPS, although the armor penetration somewhat hobbles them for Death Knight use. But hey, you're going to grind for the Red Drake anyway, so if you don't have anything better, why not?
The Argent Crusade
The Argent Crusade, despite skewing a bit too much toward armor penetration for my Death Knight tastes, still has some worthwhile rewards to grab. The Special Issue Legplates are quite solid for Death Knight tanks at honored, and at revered, you can grab the tank head enchantment, the Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector.
In the DPS arena, the Cloak of Holy Extermination's stats aren't really Death Knight focused -it has no strength, and it has armor penetration -but it will do in a pinch if you need a better DPS cloak and you're honored with the Crusade. At revered, you can pick up the Fang-Deflecting Faceguard, which has a lot of strength, but will be hobbled because of that armor penetration. Finally, also at revered, there's the Argent Skeleton Crusher, which is big, slow, and hard hitting, just the way a Death Knight likes it. The Strength and Stamina should make up for the Armor Penetration.
The Ebon Blade
Despite being the Death Knight faction, the Ebon Blade seems to have decided to mostly service the other classes in handing out their rewards. The honored tanking boots have shield block, for crying out loud.
The two melee weapons they offer at revered aren't really optimized for Death Knights either. The Runeblade of Demonstrable Power and the Reaper of Dark Souls both eschew strength for agility and attack power, and the Runeblade has haste, arguably the least useful melee DPS stat for a 2-handed wielding Death Knight. Still, the Reaper of Dark Souls is probably a pretty solid dual-wielding main hander anyway, and the Runeblade should still hit hard enough to make it a passable weapon if you don't have better.
Still, a couple pieces of loot may just make the rep grind worth it anyway. At revered, you'll get access to the Arcanum of Torment, the DPS head enchantment for Wrath. In addition, the Death-Inured Sabatons at Exalted are amazing Death Knight DPS boots, with strength and plenty of critical strike rating in abundance.
The Sons of Hodir
Unless you took up or plan to take up Inscription, you'll probably want to quest to exalted with these guys, as they're the shoulder enchantment faction for Wrath. At honored, you can get the Inscription of the Axe for DPS or the Inscription of the Pinnacle for tanking, and at exalted, the Greater Inscriptions of the Axe and the Pinnacle.
There's other worthwhile rewards as well. At revered, you can grab the Spaulders of the Giant Lords, which are some nice, straightforward strength and critical strike rating DPS shoulders, perfect for Death Knight DPS. The Stalactite Chopper is also a pretty solid choice for a dual wielded main hand, though it is marred by some armor penetration.
Kirin Tor
While the Mages of Dalaran have accepted Death Knights on their streets, they, unfortunately, don't seem to stock much for us in the way of awesome magical artifacts. Still, if you're a Death Knight tank and you have a bit of spare time, you might consider getting exalted anyway, as the Fireproven Gauntlets are pretty much tailor made for Death Knight tanking, with lots of strength and defense, as well as some dodge rating for making Bone Shield last a little a bit longer.
Tags: death knight, level 80, Wrath
There's a raffle going on as well (I'm angling to get some World of Warcraft-related gear in the pot), and there'll also be a Mortal Kombat vs. DC tournament going on thanks to Chicago's own Midway Games (and I heard there was a Rock Band event, though that may have since fallen through -we'll see). And oh yeah, since the event is taking place at Plan B, there'll be drinking. It's $10 admission, or you can give $50 for admission and an open bar, though you have to be over 21 for both. I'll let you guess which ticket I bought (hint: the one with the booze).
Should be a lot of fun -if you're in Chicago and weren't able to make it to our launch party, see if your calendar's clear for this event. And if you're not in Chicago, Child's Play has lots of events going on around the country, and obviously they're happy to take donations anyway. Hopefully we'll see lots of WoW Insider readers at the event next month -when else do you get to drink, play games, and help kids all at the same time?
Child's Play, the charity started up by Penny Arcade that hooks up kids in the hospital with videogames to play while there, is holding a benefit event in Chicago early next month on December 9th, and I'm going to be there. It's definitely a worthy charity, and I know there are lots of WoW Insider fans in the Second City (many of whom I was able to meet at our Wrath launch meetup), so if you're a fan of videogames, helping sick kids, and want to come out and talk some WoW with me, tickets are available right now.
Dual specs are a feature that's very much looked forward to by many players, in particular tanks and healers. No longer will players have to spend horrendous amounts of gold just to enjoy both solo content and group content. The introduction of them will truly be game changing for many folks.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll see dual specs appear in 3.1. The 3.0.4 PTR should be coming around shortly, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 3.1 PTR shortly after the beginning of the new year. So maybe if I'm lucky around February or March next year I won't be spending 400g/week respecing.Ghostcrawler provided a bit of an update yesterday on the ETA of Dual Specs. He makes it clear that while they'd love to have them in patch 3.1 (which is when we'll see Ulduar and some other post Wrath), he doesn't want to say something and then not deliver – only to get players upset.
How much harder are WotLK heroic dungeons than their regular counterparts? When I hit level 80 in my levelling greens and blues, will I be successful in heroics with a decent group, or is there a significant gear check on heroic dungeons?
Heroics are far more brutal than their Normal counterparts, but if you're in mostly Northrend blues you should be alright to start them. I went into Wrath in Tier 6, so I started Heroics pretty much just as soon as I hit 80, which is the point where blues start to catch up to T6. The biggest difference I noticed is that encounters just required a lot more finesse in execution.
We still hardly use CC on trash pulls and AOE it all down, but bosses require a bit more coordination. Loken in Heroic Halls of Lightning will ruin you if you have people who don't know how to run out of the huge freaking explosions, whereas on normal mode you can sort of blunder through it. If you're in full level 80 ish blues, the claims of people needing to CC in Heroics is completely false. If you're a little undergeared (greens, sub-80 blues), yeah, play it safe and use a bit of crowd control. Now with that cleared up, the Q&A! We'll start with Stormscape's question...
Does Crusader Aura or On A Pale Horse affect vehicle speed?
I can confirm that Crusader Aura does. My raid's Protection Paladin was one of the first people on my server with a motorcycle, which is technically a vehicle. He rocks out with his chopper out. I cannot promise that On a Pale Horse does, but I think it's a pretty safe assumption.
I was just wondering if anyone else found Unholy aura a little...out of place? Blood aura; extra damage and healing, yeah! Frost aura; extra armor and stam (and spell resistance on talenting), yeah! Unholy aura...here we go...the crazy, insane power of an Unholy ex-minion of the Arthas and one-time Knight of the Scourge is...you can run faster! ...What?
Hey, don't underestimate that run speed. It might be ho-hum in 5-mans, but extra movement speed is truly, legitimately useful in raids. Not only for getting out of AOEs and all of that jazz, but from getting from target to target, increasing contact time and thus increasing your DPS.
Plus, there's no escaping death. Death is inevitable. Especially if it runs faster than you do.
Originally, Death Knights were gonna be available to make on every realm as long as you had a 55 character on one realm. When they changed it to only having a Death Knight on the realm your character was on, I heard it was only temporary and at some point it would change back. Is this true? And if so, when?
We don't really have an answer for this except that it might change. From what I understand, there were some technical issues that prevented them from allowing this across realms and they may or may not find a fix/workaround for it. All that we know is they might do it, they might not. If you're waiting to decide on whether you should roll your Death Knight now or wait until Blizzard can allow it crossrealm, I guess the question is how bad do you want to play a Death Knight? If you can wait, wait and see. If you really want to play one, you might want to just cave and powerlevel a throw-away character to 55 somewhere else.
Tags: death knight, level 80, wotlk
And Hakkar was anticlimactic -he just basically tanked and spanked. He tried to anti-magic the Blood Syphons, but they didn't heal for much, so he just wailed on Hakkar until he was the last one standing. Quite a feat. Of course, at level 80, he was 20 levels above where this 20 man instance was meant to be, so we probably haven't seen the end of the level 60 content being soloed. But it seems that Death Knights are almost more equipped than Paladins to bring down some of the raid content on their own.
Paladins have been the solo instance kings for a while now, from BRD to Onyxia to Blood Furnace, but there may be a new contender in town. Felblood let us know that his level 80 Death Knight (I believe this is his Armory page) has soloed one of my favorite instances, Zul'Gurub, going from the snake boss all the way to Hakkar with just his character.
The snake boss, he says, was easy, just a nuke. The bat boss Jeklik silences, and a few of his resists failed on her, so she got some healing off, but she still dropped. Panther and spider went down all right, though the spider's webbing apparently kept him from healing as well -being silenced, he couldn't cast disease, so Death Strike didn't heal. Bloodlord Mandokir was super tough, apparently -I can imagine that watching would be pretty nuts during that. On Thekal, the tiger boss, his problem was that he was killing too fast: the boss would get ressed when one of the adds died early. Eventually he just brought them down to 50% and then just nuked all out, and the second phase was easy.
Tags: death knight, level 80
In the gallery below you'll find a quick guide to all of the 5-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King, in order of the level of the instance. It contains brief descriptions of each dungeon, their level range, and just where to find all of the quests for each of them. I hope it proves useful, and if not, at least some of the pictures are pretty!
Still leveling? Looking to do some dungeon runs? Want to know where to go, or where to find your quests? ...No? Oh. Well, okay. You can leave, then. Wait, I think I heard someone say yes! In that case, you might be interested in WoW Insider's guide to the dungeons of Wrath.
Reputations work a bit differently in Wrath, mainly due to the idea of championing. If you're looking for a detailed explanation, check out Alex's article on the topic, he gets into the nitty gritty of how it works. I'll be covering the specific pieces of gear that are of interest to Rogues: weapons and armor. The first two factions we'll explore are the Horde Expedition and Alliance Vanguard. Blizzard has thankfully revived the blood feud between the two main factions of Azeroth, even splitting Dalaran into sections for each. I hated the Scryer vs Aldor motif of TBC; it just didn't feel epic or like I was really a part of something greater than myself.Rogues are like butterflies. We soar between currents of air, our paths seemingly chaotic. We serve no master, no blood oaths to demons or fear of a higher power. We simply float our way through the world, focusing on preservation of self as the highest goal. Our path is truly our own.
Rogues are also like Joe The Plumber. We've got bills to pay, mats to farm, and drops to grind. While driving around Azeroth in your parent's Traveler's Tundra Mammoth with your disappearing act may seem attractive, life in WoW isn't that easy for a Rogue. In order to keep up with content, we're in constant need of new leather gear to keep us at the top of our game. We've got our dues to pay, and one word describes how "The Man" requires us to fulfill these obligations: Reputation. Read on to explore exactly what juicy pieces of rep gear await in Northrend.
Horde Expedition & Alliance Vanguard: OH Mace, Quick Dagger.
The Horde Expedition has 2 items of potential use for Rogues, and both are level 78 blue weapons. The Warsong Punisher and Warsong Shanker are both very strong weapons, although the Punisher looks to have been designed more for a tanking class. It's best suited for an off-hand to a Mace Rogue, of which there aren't too many after the changes to Mace Specialization. The Shanker, on the other hand, screams for us to do naughty things using it. With a quick 1.5 speed and all the right stats in all the right places, it compliments any spec as an off-hand, or can be used for a PvE Mutilate main-hand if you don't have anything quicker. The Alliance Vanguard's rewards mirror these, they're simply renamed: the Hammer of the Alliance Vanguard and the Vanguard Soldier's Dagger.
There are also several neutral factions that we can align ourselves with in Northrend. There's only one "faction choice" similar to the Scryer/Aldor factions in Shattrath: The Frenzyheart Tribe and their enemies, the Oracles.
Frenzyheart Tribe: Pants, Trinket, Throwing Weapon
The Frenzyheart Tribe is a group of Wolvar (think werewolf) that will allow you to join their fold through a series of quests. As far as reputation rewards go, these guys have their counterpart, the Oracles beat pretty badly, at least for Rogues. Not only do they have some awesome Azure Strappy Pants and a Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury, they also host the Stolen Vrykul Harpoon throwing weapon. I will be allying with the Frenzyheart's for this thrown weapon alone. Finally, a throwing weapon that doesn't look like we bought it off a level 1 vendor! Plus, they're werewolves. I think wolves and Rogues have a lot in common, but if that doesn't convince you, take a look at the Oracles.
The Oracles: Belt, Trinket.
First discovered by Mohinder Suresh, The Oracles are considered to be an evolutionary step-up from Murlocs; I imagine some people will align with them just to avoid being zerged by the sound of mrrrglglglrmgl while walking around Sholazar basin. Their trinket offering, the Oracle Talisman of Ablution is arguably the better trinket when compared to the Frenzyheart's. They've also got a fairly good belt option in the Glitterscale Wrap. But they have a wand instead of a throwing weapon, which is an instant turn-off.
Kalu'ak: Slow Dagger, Chest, Fishing Pole
Our next faction is the Kalu'ak tribe. They're a race of tuskarr (walruses) that are really good at hunting and fishing, and not so good at being sneaky. They've still got some great Rogue rewards though, starting with a lower-level leather chest made from whale skin. The Traditional Flensing Knife has one of my favorite weapon models (it looks like a fish hook), and is a good slow Mutilate dagger for PvP builds. Their final reward is a Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole, which is not only awesome for catching fish; it also allows the user to breath underwater. Rogues had been excluded from the Hydrocane club due to its 2-hand requirement, and so now we will have our revenge!
We'll now be moving to the more "end game" factions that offer level 80 rewards as well as epic items.
Wyrmrest Accord: Epic Bracers, Quick Sword
The Wyrmrest Accord seems to be the faction of choice for tanks, with mostly plate and tanking rewards. They do offer the epic Dragonfriend Bracers which are fairly standard issue as far as stats go; and the Fang of Truth, which every Combat Sword Rogue will be after as soon as possible. It's top-tier as far as sword off-hands go in Northrend.
Knights of the Ebon Hold: Epic Chest, Slow Sword, Helm Enchant
After Arthas takes leave of Ebon Hold, the Knights of the Ebon Blade take over. They're the faction behind Death Knights, and if there's one thing that DKs know how to do, it's hit stuff hard. With the epic Darkheart Chestguard and its 4.5% armor penetration coupled with the Reaper of Dark Souls completing the main-hand Sword for your Combat set, you'll want to work on leveling your faction with them early. They also house our Arcanum of Torment, the helm enchant of choice for any Rogue.
Sons of Hodir: Slow Dagger, Shoulders, Shoulder Enchant
The Sons of Hodir complete our study of the factions, while also bringing the highest quality rewards. The reputation grind with them is similar to the Netherwing faction of TBC, but the rewards are definitely worth the effort. The best reputation PvP dagger is their Broken Stalactite, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of Assassination and Subtlety Rogues wielding these in the weeks to come. The Sons of Hodir not only offer the Greater Inscription of the Axe, our shoulder enchant; they even have a pair of decent blue shoulders for us to put the enchant on!
Argent Crusade: Cloak, Boots
The first of these factions is the Argent Crusade, who were formed by the merging of the Knights of the Silver Hand and the Argent Dawn. They're leading the fight against Arthas, and offer some of the best gear to aid in that conflict. They have a decent Cloak of Holy Extermination available, but their strongest offering are a pair of Boots of the Neverending Path. These are stacked with enough hit rating for 2% hit at level 80 and some awesome AP and agility to boot (zing!).
Kirin Tor: Quick Dagger, Pants
The Kirin Tor are unfortunately a caster faction, so don't expect any epic rewards from them. Their blue offerings are very, very sweet to make up for this inequality. Their Lightblade Rivener is an insanely good Mutilate dagger that's non-unique, so pick up two and get raiding – it only requires honored reputation! They've also got a pair of Mind-Expanding Leggings that offer enough Expertise Rating to reduce your chance to be dodged/parried by nearly 2%. That's a 4% increase in frontal DPS (2% parry AND 2% dodge reduction), which is great when soloing. It also helps avoid getting "parry gibbed" when a boss parries you, and helps against enemy players who have higher dodge/parry than your typical mob.
Tags: Wrath
Update: Just noticed that Blizzard also has a news feed on the main page when you log in that tells you about goings on and realm firsts for your character specifically, from who's downed the heroics recently to the first characters to level 80 on your own realm. I wonder what they'll report on when all the firsts have been taken, but we'll have to see -that might be an interesting feed to follow (they provide RSS for it as well).Blizzard has updated the Armory with a new Wrath of the Lich King theme, and achievements and stat information for each player. It's very cool -not only can you check out what each player has done so far (including all and recent achievements, and all of the statistics available ingame), but you can also compare players to each other, both in the stats and achievements pages, and you even get, as you can see above, the totals for everything, so you can see just how "achieved" you are.
Very cool. We've been expecting this one since patch 3.0.2 came out (if it's in the game, why wouldn't it be in the Armory?) but obviously other priorities rose to the top before now. Blizzard did a great job with it, though -they can all head off to the holiday weekend now without worrying about the update.
Tags: level 80, Patch 3.0.2
Since most of our bloggers were out for the holiday this week, it was just me and her, but we had a lot of fun -there are some good hints in there about new characters coming to join our favorite guildies this season, the third season (!) of the show, and how Felicia is able to get MMO concepts (like "DKP" and the idea of a "guild" itself) across to people who may not play MMOs. And I also got to read some emails and get a little bit of WoW talk in there -if you'd like to email the show a question or comment for next time, you can do so at theshow@wowinsider.com as always.
We'll be back as usual live on Ustream on Saturday, December 6th at 3:30 Eastern, so make sure to tune in then when we'll get back to the WoW talk. In the meantime, enjoy the show, and do go check out the first show of The Guild's second season (or watch it in HD on Xbox Live) -it's great.
Yes, our podcast is a little early today (due to the holiday, I'm going to be traveling on Saturday, so no live show as usual this week), but we've got a bonus for you anyway: Felicia Day, creator of The Guild and star of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, joined us to talk about the second season of her web series, which just started up the other day, and the deal they've recently made for Microsoft to show it exclusively on MSN, Zune, and Xbox Live.
If you're still not sure how to grind reputation in Northrend, or forgot where the quartermasters are, be sure to check out our Wrath 101 post on reputations, as well as our post on the Wolvar and Oracles of Sholozar Basin. Once you've done that, or if you remember the basics!So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to level 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which reputation should I grind first? There's tons of ways to choose, be it roleplaying who your character would align themselves with or choosing the one that's easiest to grind. One of the most popular and most effective though, is pretty simple: Asking yourself which one has the best loot. Today's Scattered Shots will center around that last one to buy cheap wow gold.
Alliance Vanguard and Horde Expedition
Much like in Burning Crusade, the first faction you encounter in Wrath will be based on your side, and the quartermaster for either side will carry items that are mostly the same stat-wise.
If you're a fan of Phat Loot Phriday, chances are you may recall why this set of factions is a recommended grind for most Hunters. At revered and level 78, the Alliance will get access to the Sawed-Off Hand Cannon, while the Horde gets the Sin'dorei Recurve Bow. These weapons edge out the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes for DPS, so if you've been carrying it around since 70, here's a nice quick and dirty upgrade.
If you're a dual wielder, you might find that the level 78 Warsong Shanker, aka the Vanguard Soldier's Dagger, has a nice outlay of Hunter stats. Finally, if you PvP, you'll want to pick up the Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator. The arcanum is an exalted reward, while the daggers are revered.
The Kalu'ak
This will likely be the second reputation you encounter in large numbers in Northrend. The Tuskarr are well worth the grind, especially since said grind isn't too difficult. A quick run through their quests in Howling Fjord alone is more than enough to gain honored.
At honored reputation, you'll find the pattern for the Dragonscale Ammo Pouch, as well as a good level 76 mail chest piece, the Cuttlefish Scale Breastplate. At Revered and level 78, the Whale-Stick Harpoon should prove a pretty solid weapon of choice for anyone who didn't get their hands on a badge or Arena weapon or better. Finally, even though it's not directly Hunter related, I'm going to encourage you to keep grinding to exalted. Not only do you get the best fishing pole outside of the Booty Bay fishing competition, you get a penguin pet. I firmly believe that you can never have enough pets.
The Oracles and the Frenzyheart
Next, we come to the Scryers and the Aldor of Wrath of the Lich King. In this case, I have to say that I believe the Oracles win out, both because they're not jerks and because they have the better rewards. Sorry Wolvar.
At revered, the level 78 Toothslice Helm not only looks pretty cool, it provides stats that make it pretty competitive with Gronnstalker, although it lacks the metagem slot. At exalted, the Oracle Talisman of Ablution provides not only a great amount of critical strike rating, but free mana on kill, perfect for chain pulling situations. Anything that keeps you out of Aspect of the Viper a little bit longer is probably a good thing, right? To top it all off, you can also buy the Mysterious Egg from the Oracles, which will eventually hatch into a variety of things, including one of three to four different vanity pets.
On the Wolvar side, there's honestly not much. Their only ranged weapon is thrown, and while it looks cool, it isn't a Hunter weapon. If you insist on grinding the Wolvar though, the Azure Scrappy Pants at honored aren't the worst you can do for a leg slot if you don't mind wearing leather, and at Exalted, you can grab a haste trinket that also gives a 10-second damage buff, which for my money isn't as good as the Oracle exalted trinket. They have a Disgusting Jar, but so far it doesn't seem to give out pets like the egg does, just Frenzyheart Brew, which is I suppose is okay if you like looking like a jerk.
Argent Crusade
The Argent Crusade is the reformed Argent Dawn, but there's more reasons to grind it than just the nostalgia factor. There's some pretty nice Hunter gear too.
At Honored and level 78, you'll be able to pick up the Cloak of Holy Extermination, which is essentially a greatly upgraded Dory's Embrace, shedding the critical strike rating and resilience for some nice juicy Agility. Chances are this cloak will be a good upgrade for you, at least for finishing the grind up to 80.
Revered gives you the opportunity for another ranged upgrade. The Zombie Sweeper Shotgun definitely blows all three of the ranged weapons we were discussing in the last section out of the water, with superior DPS, superior high end damage, and a good outlay of extra stats. You'll have to wait until level 80 to use it, though.
If you finish the exalted grind for the Crusade, you have one more level 80 reward coming your way: The Polished Regimental Hauberk. It has over double the agility of the Gronnstalker's Chestguard, and edges it out on most other stats too. Combine this with a very sizable portion of hit rating, and you'll likely want to consider this upgrade. If you don't mind the armor hit on yourself or your pet, the Boots of the Neverending Path are pretty solid for Hunter DPS too.
The Wyrmrest Accord
The Dragons may still be mad at us for that whole Dragonstalker armor deal, because their Hunter rewards are few and far between. Dual wielders may find the Fang of Truth to their liking at honored reputation. If you don't mind wearing leather, you can also grind to exalted to get the Dragonfriend Bracers, which have a nice amount of attack power, critical strike rating, and agility. And face it, you'll probably be grinding to exalted eventually for the dragon mount.
The Sons of Hodir
These are another faction you'll definitely want to grind for, since they provide shoulder enchantments for your end-game. At Honored, you can get the Lesser Inscription of the Axe, and at exalted, the Greater Inscription of the Axe.
In other rewards, the Giant Ring Belt at Honored has some solid Hunter stats, while at revered, you can get some good solid dual-wielder Hunter weapons in the Broken Stalactite and the Stalactite Chopper. And before you ask, no, these mammoth mounts do not come with vendors, sorry.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see, you can find an excuse to grind just about any reputation in Wrath you want. In the end, it's probably up to you to decide what's most important to you. Me, if I was pressed for time, I'd probably focus on the Argent Crusade, the Oracles, and the Kalu'ak. All three have rewards both useful and fun that I really want to get my hands on. But look over the rewards, take as much time as you need, and then choose. But choose quickly. After all, the next expansion may only be a couple of years away.
Kirin Tor
If you're a Beastmastery Hunter, grinding Kirin Tor reputation might give you pause, since many of their Hunter-friendly rewards have haste, which is dangerously close to useless for you. But other specs that need haste will probably be pretty happy with these.
At Honored, the level 78 Spaulders of Grounded Lightning offer a nice outlay of Hunter stats that any Hunter will want to consider. If you're a PvPer, there's a bit of resilience on there as well, so it's a good choice to fill out your gear until you can get a decent Arena rating. Dual wielders may want to take a look at the Lightblade Rivener, which provides agility, attack power, and haste. The other solid Hunter reward is at Exalted, where the Boots of the Twinkling Stars provide intellect, agility, attack power, and haste rating.
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Despite being mostly made up of plate-wearers, the Death Knight faction actually has some pretty useful rewards for other classes. If you're a Leatherworker, the Nerubian Reinforced Quiver pattern is obtainable at honored.
You'll definitely want to get at least revered with these guys, as the Arcanum of Torment is the PvE Hunter helm enchantment of choice. In addition, revered reputation also grants you access to the Spaulders of the Black Arrow, a solid set of DPS shoulders. For weapons, the Runeblade of Demonstrable Power is nice for Marksmanship and Survival Hunters, with a solid balance of agility, attack power, haste rating, and critical strike rating that blow old high-end favorites like The Blade of Harbingers out of the water. Dual wielders may also find that the Reaper of Dark Souls is a good upgrade for them. All of these rewards are, of course, level 80.
Tags: Hunter, level 80, wrath of the Lich King
Friend or Fowl.
After you've eaten your turkey dinner and said goodbye to the family, take some time and go kill 15 turkeys in under 3 minutes.
The best spot to become the harbinger of turkey death is in the Howling Fjord around 69, 65. This is up the western road from the Explorers' League Outpost, and south of Nifflevar. You'll notice a large rock with some turkeys on it. Kill them and run around the rock killing every turkey you see. It only took me about 45 seconds to get all 15, but I was the only person around at the time. After you've killed your 15 you'll get that special ding and earn the Friend or Fowl achievement.
So celebrate Thanksgiving by slaughtering some turkeys over in the Howling Fjord. And next thing you know WoW Insider will be holding a press conference on a turkey farm.
This Thanksgiving there is much to celebrate in game. Leveling from 70 to 80 is the most fun many of us have ever had leveling, there's tons of shiny new gear in Northrend for everyone, and guilds everywhere are beginning to enter and enjoy the splendor that is Naxxramas.
But don't let all this endgame stuff get in the way of the one true important achievement in Wrath.
Tags: Leveling from 70 to 80
While the dual wielding goodness/badness that is Titan's Grip continues today, Heroic Leap was removed mid-beta with Warriors everywhere screaming and crying. Yours truly shed a tear. I loved leveling through the Howling Fjord and Dragonblight with Heroic Leap at my side. One press of a button and bam – I'd be raining down upon my enemies with my plate shining and dual two-handers blaring.
Its demise has always been speculated upon. Many thought that the skill just provided one too many ways for a warrior to quickly move about the world. Others thought that it was due to it being too over powered in PvP. Still others thought it had to do with exploitation of the terrain.There was a time in the beta of Wrath of the Lich King that Warriors everywhere were excited little special snowflakes. They had not one but two, cheap wow gold, special talents: Heroic Leap and Titan's Grip.
It turns out that those folks who thought that exploiting the terrain was the reason for its demise were correct. Ghostcrawler weighed in on Heroic Leap's removal and gave this very reason.
Ghostcrawler answered a criticism that the Death Knight's Death Grip did the same thing. He points out that with Death Grip you can assume the player is in legal terrain and pulling the mob to them. You can't reverse Death Grip and go to the mob. Thus if the mob is somehow in illegal terrain, it's not an issue. With Heroic Leap it would be.
Ghostcrawler does make an interesting revelation. He mentions that they had thought about making Heroic Leap a Blink or Disengage like ability. In the end they decided against it. But I have to believe and have hope that one day Heroic Leap might find itself back in the game with mechanics like Blink.
When you think about heroic leap from a game stand point, it is an ability which avoids the majority of terrain, and thus limits on the player's movements, to get to a given mob. Is there a stump between you and that nasty spider you want to kill? Heroic Leap and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, you're over the stump and standing on top of the spider beating the living daylights out of it.
It's this nature of placing the player at the mob while avoiding the majority of terrain paths that caused Heroic Leap's demise. Players could (and did) exploit this. Thus the ability had to go.
Tags: wrath of the Lich King
Being about half-way through Grizzly Hills on my shaman and already nearly level 75 (I did both starting zones) you could even skip one of these zones if you wanted to. If that's the case, don't skip Zul'Drak, as the zone has some weapon rewards that are simply extraordinary.now we move on to yet more gear. Last time we covered Dragonblight and its related instances, this week we move over to Grizzly Hills and Drak'Tharon Keep, and from there Zul'Drak and Gundrak will be our focus as you level through the zones. By the time you're done in Gundrak you should easily be level 77, have access to Lava Burst, and be ready to go exploring in Sholozar, Icecrown and Storm Peaks.
Grizzly Hills
As is always the case, we're probably going to skip most green quest rewards unless they're exceptional, as it's not like you won't get piles of the stuff questing.
First up, let us talk blue quest rewards. From the quest Ursoc, the Bear God which both Alliance and Horde get access to, there's the Greaves of Sanctified Dissolution. That's a lot of attack power. 169 AP between the Agility and the straight bonus. And the amount of crit you'll get from the combined agi and crit rating is nothing to sneer at either. These are straight up physical DPS legs, although with no Int on them you'll take a hit to your mana pool when Maelstrom procs.
Next up is the quest Hour of the Worg which brings back fond memories of running through Silverpine Forest with rare spawn elites just popping up and wrecking your face. Good times. As you relive many a Shadowfang Keep run, why not pick up the Keen Razorfang Spaulders for your enhancement set?
Finally, if you're Horde, you can pick up the Handguards of Deluded Might by completing the Conquest Pit questline. They're nice gloves.
Having covered the quest blues, let's take a look at quests that lead you into Drak'Tharon Keep. The quest Cleansing Drak'Tharon gets you Shoulders of the Seducer for your primarily restoration needs. Playing some Head Games on a boss inside the Keep and some folks outside will net you Accursed Wristguards, also aimed at restoration. I don't know why they're cursed, or if they come with free Frogurt. Finally, if you go on a Search and Rescue mission inside the Keep, you will have a choice between a nice ring for restoration or a physical DPS ring. Choose wisely.
And now, for the instance itself: what awaits you inside its dark and stony corridors? Lots of trolls, living and dead, and some other weird stuff too.
Zul'Drak
Zul'Drak is a spectactularly creepy zone. Crawling with undead, the real horror of Zul'Drak, to my mind, is the theological implication of their desperation and the depths they sink to in attempting to ward off the Lich King: I'm not going to spoil it for you, I'll just say pay close attention to the quests you get. As a shaman this is some heavy stuff to digest.
However, if you're just in it for the loot, you'll get plenty of that as well.
From the quest The Storm King's Vengeance which is crazy fun once you figure it out, we have the Bracers of Vengeful Flight. Pretty solid for enhancement, with over 108 AP. Caster shamans can get a nice set of pants by killing Malas the Corrupter, the Ceremonial Pike Leggings. They seem more designed for resto than elemental, admittedly.
Finally, the quest Convocation at Zol'Heb will net you the Chestguard of Rampaging Fury. Again we see a lot of attack power here.
The quest Betrayal which follows up, thematically, from your Drak'Tharon Keep run has two potential rewards for shamans. The Choker of Betrayal has a good array of options for a caster shaman and a socket allowing you to customize it for either elemental or restoration as you choose. Meanwhile, the Choker of the Betrayer is physical DPS.
The Ampitheatre of Anguish questline has a lot of interest to a shaman. The final quest, the Champion of Anguish, has three rewards for you to consider. Enhancement Shamans will most likely just get this and go home. Elemental may get this staff, but the ostensibly healing mace available has crit and MP5, making it attractive to both caster specs. At any rate it's a heck of a fun questline with good rewards.
Once you're done running around Zul'Drak, it's time to go into Gundrak. There are several quests that send you in to consider before we move on to the drops inside.
For Posterity will have you collecting tablets, rewarding you with either a physical DPS ring or a caster DPS ring. Gal'darah must pay sends you in to whack the leader of Gundrak and gives you a nice enhancement belt for your trouble. Finally, One of a Kind gets you some caster boots. Better for elemental, but usable as restoration. Now, what about what drops inside?
Gundrak
The instance is full of levers that need to be thrown and trolls that need to be killed. Caster shamans will make sure that the Arcane Focal Signet finds a good home, of course. The Hauberk of Totemic Mastery will make restoration sit up and take notice. The Frozen Scepter of Necromancy is, sad to say, not as good as the healing mace from the Ampitheatre quests, but if you're enhancement and need an off-spec healing weapon it's better than nothing. Consider letting the enchanter have the shard, though. Enhancement will find the Cannibal's Legguards to be a delicious item, I'm sure.
When you come back later on Heroic, the following drops are of interest: Fist of the Deity and Helmet of the Shine.
Drak'Tharon Keep
There's actually a good assortment of drops for the shaman inside Drak'Tharon. The end-boss drops Tharon'ja's Aegis, a good elemental shield (and not terrible for a resto shaman looking for some more crit for proc-based effects) as well as the Helmet of Living Flesh, a very solid enhancement hat. Novos the Summoner, who you have to kill for a quest anyway, drops the Crystal Pendant of Warding and Summoner's Stone Gavel. The Gavel is a little fast but could still prove serviceable, while the Pendant is a nice restoration neck. The Staff of the Great Beast would be awesome for elemental shamans if not for that massive whack of spirit on it, but while it's certainly better for other classes than for shamans, if it happens to be better than what you have then it's an upgrade. Elementals will have to console themselves with the Infection Resistant Legguards, I suppose.
Heroic drops are relatively good here for shamans. There's the Limb Regeneration Bracers, the Incisor Fragment, King Dred's Helm, the Necromantic Wristguards and the Temple Crystal Fragment for casters who don't have a better shield.
This instance leads almost directly to Zul'Drak, lore and story-wise, but I won't spoil how. However, once you get through with it, you'll be aimed directly at the terraced city, so we'll cover that zone next.
Tags: level 75
Wait, these are Orcs we're talking about...OK, who seriously hunts in the buff?
Taurens should either be warriors or druids, period, not hunters. Tauren warriors rock our socks, but Tauren hunters? Excluding Rhino-pets, the size difference between a Tauren and his pet is just silly. If you're a Tauren hunter and don't have a Rhino, you're not bringing it like you should. A Survivalist Tauren hunter is about as wrong an idea as there can possibly be. Survivalist? How are you going to 'survive' when every member of the Alliance has targeted you, just because you take up one quarter of their screen!If we were to ever re-roll Horde, we'd be a female Troll hunter. Yes, the Trolls got their kiesters kicked by rampaging murlocs -murlocs! -but the ladies can be hunters, and have just enough ‘oomph' in both looks and performance to make them our first choice should the Alliance ever be eliminated. What about our other options?
Orcs are just too steel-plate-in-the-skull dumb for our liking. Nobody does nude better than Orcs, but who hunts in the buff?
Nobody likes Blood Elves, not even other Horde. Are we right? Of course we are.
And the Forsaken can't even be hunters; they deserve our pity more than anything else.
But we're not going to re-roll, for we are a member of the best race in the game. The race that Warcraft made its cover picture, the race that introduced WoW to millions, the race that oozes -both literally and figuratively -charisma, competence, and warm ale: The Dwarves.
Humans cause 85% of the problems in WoW. Arthas, need we say more? Plus, they can't hunt, so end of story.
Gnomes can't even retake their capital city. We like gnomes, we really do, but fellas, call us when you're not renting, OK?
Night Elves can hunt, but they've got a priest leading them. A priest as your battlemaster? If it ain't DPS, it's crap. Plus, her mate is a druid. /eww Next!
Draenei...let's just admit once and for all that the Draenei should be eliminated as soon as possible, shall we? It was a huge mistake to allow a space ship crash to disgorge a new race just so the Alliance would have something to counter Blood Elves. Memo to Blizz: Alliance doesn't need Draenei and we loathe their accents. "May the light embrrrace you!" Shut up already! If the dwarves had just been allowed to be shaman instead of introducing the Draenei, nobody would've complained at all.
Dwarves, dear readers. We can tank, we can DPS, and we can heal. We are the masters of beverages; there's even a holiday in honor of our skill with liquid refreshments. We dig up the best enemies to raid. We have the largest collection of insane quest givers. We have the most efficient capital city. We are exploring every nook and cranny of every continent looking for fun, excitement, knowledge, and drinks. We are the most dedicated, creative, and motivated race, period.
If you're at a party, and a pack of Gnomes wander in, you just hold your head and pray they don't talk to you.
If a gaggle of Humans blow through, you know they're going to start prattling on about Medivh or some other powerful human who abused his powers and screwed everything up.
But when a passel of Dwarves roll in, you know they're hauling their own keg, that they have an iPod loaded with party songs, that they've got a 1000-watt mono-bridged amp powering dual 15″ subwoofers installed in their ram, and the girls are going to be loud, busty, and easy.
Now the boys are loud, busty, and easy too, we'll grant you that, but Dwarf-tuckus is a heck of a lot more appealing than some crotch-grabbing Human-dude. Can we get an ‘Amen'?
If an army of Orcs smash down the door, you're expecting a high repair bill from the furniture-repair guy and stains on the carpets, 'cause Orcs don't do coasters, placemats, or doilies.
If a swarm of Trolls take over, you know the CD player is going to be reprogrammed with some bizzarre band you've never heard of, and the kitchen is going to be a huge mess from the jambalya.
The old trinket gave back about 200 mana (or 20 energy or rage), but we're not exactly sure how much this one gives back. Probably more in terms of mana (since we probably all have bigger mana pools), but you'll probably have to do some testing (or just check the comments below) to find out exactly how much it gives.
And you probably thought I spelled "Absolution" wrong, but no -it's actually the Talisman of Ablution, which is the act of cleaning yourself, ritually or for hygenic purposes. And now you know.Improves crit strike rating by 71. Restores mana, energy, rage, or runic power when you kill a target that grants honor or XP. That proc look familiar? It should -it was on the Power-infused Mushroom that probably helped you out right around Zangarmarsh the last expansion. Pretty helpful for leveling -it's helpful in PvP too, obviously, but the XP add makes this helpful for leveling as well.
Do the quests, go Oracle, and once Exalted you can buy this from Geen, the pretty-looking Oracle above, for 42g 93s 75c.
Getting Rid of it: I still have my Mushroom in the bank, and you'll probably have this in your bank after Northrend as well. In fact, while I'm thinking about it, why have I not been wearing that Mushroom since I first stepped foot in Northrend? Missed opportunity! Vendors will give you 10g 73s 43c if you do want to sell it, and it probably won't disenchant -nobody's tried yet.
How to Get It: This requires Exalted with the Oracles, one of the two new "choice" factions in Northrend. The other is the Frenzyheart tribe of Wolvar, and while the Wolvar have a nice trinket too (it gives a nice damage boost after a kill, though it seems meant more for PvP, since XP doesn't proc it), the Oracle one is the one you'll really want for leveling. You can find both factions in Sholazar Basin, and unlike the old Aldor/Scryer choice, you'll get to choose your faction at the end of the grind, not the beginning, so if you decide you'd rather have the other one, you can do that.
Well, arms partisans, I admit it for cheap wow gold. The spec may have been overshadowed by the sheer coolness factor of a TG build, but in terms of power and effectiveness grinding your way through mobs to get your quests done, it's a solid spec. It's so solid that I even respecced my 80 warrior for the holiday weekend and picked up an Argent Skeleton Crusher to replace my De-Raged Waraxe. What it lacks in prot's pure refusal to die it gains in the excellent, underrated (by me) spectacle of unleashing a bladestorm in the middle of a three mob pull. I'm now eyeing that titansteel I have in the bank and mulling over the merits of making myself a Destroyer.
A caveat: if you do not like watching for procs, you won't like the new arms. I leveled back in vanilla WoW as an arms warrior when MS was the top of the tree and you could raid tank in the spec. It still bears the stamp of that time (and MS is still the heart of the tree) but you'll find overpower and execute have moved up to be equal damage dealing instants once they proper talents allow their use.
Last week we talked about protection, which I said (and stand by) was the the best leveling spec in the game for warriors, being fast, fun and powerful. A lot of people took umbrage, saying that I was ignoring how strong Arms was as a leveling spec. I'm not going to take back my statement about prot...it's a wonderful, versatile, almost unkillable leveling spec that can do a lot of damage to groups and takes a beating and a half. I'm in love with how Blizzard has revamped the spec, making it strong for solo as well as tanking. But fair is fair, and since I have plenty of warriors, it's not like respeccing one to arms and testing it out is going to kill me.
Arms is good enough now that, at 80 in tanking gear I was doing significant damage with it. Once I grabbed a few DPS pieces and got them properly enchanted, well, I became just as enchanted with the spec as all the commenters from last week: it requires a more focused attention on your abilities but if you can get that overpower or execute off on time, you'll benefit greatly. Improved Rend not only does reasonable damage now, but with talents like Deep Wounds, Taste for Blood, Trauma, Unrelenting Assault and Blood Frenzy, arms is all about a cascade effect, as your bleeds not only do more damage but give you more instant attacks for more chances to crit and increase how much damage your bleed effects can do, while simultaneously increasing how much damage your targets can take from physical attacks and increasing your attack speed. Arms actually feels like you're a slow burn, a juggernaut who just does more and more damage the longer the fight goes and your abilities all come into play.
Okay, let's look first at the build I tested out on my draenei warrior. Technically he's level 73 now and this is a level 70 build, so just pretend he forgot to spend two talent points I guess. It's intended as a leveling build and assumes you may want to do some tanking with it, hence the inclusion of full Tactical Mastery.
This is a heavy arms build, going over into fury for the two must-have DPS talents Armored to the Teeth and Cruelty. Improved Overpower is a must for any arms build that aims to take advantage of Taste for Blood - if Rend is going to let you proc a low rage cost, high damage instant attack, you want to have an extra 50% chance to crit with that attack, especially with talents like Unrelenting Assault lowering your overpower cooldowns and Wrecking Crew enraging you on any successful melee critical. I won't lie to you: I only put that point in Improved Intercept out of habit. I don't think I shifted out of battle stance very often at all while grinding in Storm Peaks, there just was no reason to when I saw Overpower lighting up all the time. I specced axes for this build because both my human and my draenei have good axes, but you could use any weapon you like. Axe spec is pretty strong for this particular build, though, with both additional critical hit chance and damage. For PvE axe spec is hard to say no to, frankly, with all the synergy it has with Wrecking Crew and Trauma.
I then decided to play around on my tauren with a slightly more advanced version of the spec. Since he's just level 74, you'll have to pretend he had an extra point. Frankly, at this point I was kind of at a loss as to what to spend points in arms on. I don't like Imp Slam for a soloing/questing build because I'm rarely ever going to be casting slam, especially with Overpower and Execute procs and Mortal Strike already using up so much of my rage (even with that extra 10 rage after every execute) so I took points in Second Wind (always good for when some annoying mob has a stun) but I really feel like the points in Improved Intercept are almost wasted now, and would have been better in Imp Charge or Imp HS. I stance dance for the occasional intercept, but it's not as important in a leveling build as it would be for a dedicated PvP build, which this isn't. The two points in Unbridled Wrath are in preperation for where the spec will be in another five points, plus it never hurts to get rage back.
There's probably lots of ways to improve this spec...like I said, just looking at it now I thought about dumping Imp Intercept for Commanding Shout, as more AP is always good and I'm just not shifting into zerk enough to benefit from the intercept cooldown. Honestly, with all the changes, I'd almost suggest putting Imp Intercept back into fury, but I'm sure if I was PvP arms I'd hate that idea. I leave it to our dedicated arms warriors to come and explain how to improve it in more detail: I know from testing that these specs can serve their desired function (as my squidface is now 73 because I was testing this spec) and you can use them as a base to design your own spec. Just please, don't forget to include Wrecking Crew as nothing is more embarrassing than having to go back to the trainer as everyone else is waiting at the stone for you.
Finally, the spec I used at 80. This is still intended for soloing/questing/occasional instancing, it's not aimed at sustained raid damage dealing or dedicated PvP. It's solid for grinding rep to get better armor and weapons and can clutch tank if needed as well. Again, I'm not sold on Imp Intercept, but it's in the spec as I have it so I'm keeping it here for you to look at and consider how you'd better spend the points. (If I were doing a lot of instances as DPS, I'd almost assuredly dump it for Imp Slam or Imp HS, or even consider trying to move those points over to Commanding Presence.) I was surprised by how much I loved Sudden Death, to be honest. Execute 'spam' (it's hard to really spam an ability with a 9% proc chance) saved my bacon on at least two bad pulls up around Dun Niffleheim, and combined with the raw damage output of Bladestorm (thankfully, mobs are too stupid to run away) and judicious use of the new Retaliation and Recklessness (pop reck and then bladestorm back to back, it's hilarious) I was easily able to grind my daily quests with almost ridiculous ease. Sweeping Strikes, Bladestorm and Improved Cleave give this spec a solid amount of area damage when it becomes necessary to break it out.
Is there any reason other than looks for a hunter to pick a Tenacity pet other than a gorilla? From what I've been hearing, gorillas are far and away the best tanking pets.
Besides aesthetics? If RP reasons counts as looks/aesthetics, it mostly comes down to utility options. The Gorilla is probably the best tanking pet overall, yeah, but you might like the unique abilities of the other pets. For Beastmasters, the Acid Spit from worms is really good if you don't have Sunder Armor in your raid/party. Scorpid Poison is a huge pain in PvP. If you wanted a pure tanking pet, though? Gorilla is the way to go, no doubt, no question.
I can't find any reference to this, but is there anything that will replace the riding crop?
This is something we don't know yet. Last we knew they were trying to find a different way to handle those speed boosts that wasn't so clunky and annoying, but I don't know if they're still working on it. I have to admit though, now that Riding Crops are gone I don't really miss them. I liked it when I had it, but it was pretty annoying. Now that it doesn't exist, I just don't care and fly on my awesome red drake contentedly. They might reintroduce it somehow, but we don't know yet. If they do, I hope they do it in a 'set it and forget it' kind of way. Not worrying about it is nice.
Sorry if this has been asked before, but does anyone know why Dalaran is a no-fly zone?
They wanted Dalaran to be more like an actual city, forcing the players down into the streets. Instead of just flying over everything and skipping it all, we're down on the roads and sidewalks passing eachother by and interacting. We see the entire city and the neat things that go on instead of just seeing rooftops and specks that may or may not be players on the ground.
In my opinion, the only downside to these few no-fly zones is setting yourself on auto-pilot and walking away from your keyboard for a minute is dangerous nowadays. With Wintergrasp being right in the middle of everything, the number of times I see "Oh dammit!" in my guild chat increases every day as more and more people get flight back and immediately plummet to their deaths.
I was just thinking about Death Knights and PvP and realized, Casters are really going to be hurting in the areas now if they match up agianst a DK. Death Knights don't care about your casting bar because they can just yank you in or go Vader on you because you forgot his cookies, and choke you for the Silence. Matter of fact, if they get you close, they really have 3 or 4 ways to interupt those casts, if you include the stun from an Unholy DK's Ghoul, that is. Am I just stammering on and not knowing what I'm talking about, or are Death Knights going to make this upcoming Arena season VERY Melee heavy?
It's hard to tell how Death Knights will fare in the arena. While there's a lot of people that expect Death Knights will dominate, there's also a very vocal (and smart) group of players that think Death Knights will start strong when they're an unknown, but people will learn fast and utterly dominate them. Death Knights have a lot of tools, but a lot of pretty big weaknesses as well. As the devs themselves have said, it's really, really hard to predict arena play. It's not just numbers or spells, it's strategy and tactics, too. A seemingly weak spec (or even spell) could become the backbone of a team.
If a couple of popular compositions completely shut down Death Knights, we might barely see any of them with a high rating. At least not until someone else figures out a comp that dominated the one that originally shut Death Knights out. That's the nature of the arena. It's hard to guess, and it's always changing. That being said, my personal prediction is that Death Knights will be more effective in a 2v2 or 3v3 setting than in the 5v5 setting. A double or triple melee team with a Death Knight will absolutely ruin Healers, I think. In the 5v5 setting, the healer(s) will have a lot more support, and a lone Death Knight won't complete dominate the entire other side.
It's a topic that people can debate for hours, days, or weeks, and there will never be a conclusion until we're deep in Season 5. And when Season 6 comes around? The scene could change completely.
Tags: death knight
Cool to see that it's working so well. The site lets you upload screenshots of your character, and then pulls Armory data (including gems, enchants, and set item bonuses) out into the page as well. We'll have to see, too, if Aaron is able to implement the new Achievement and stat info -maybe you'll be able to chart your character's gold or achievements over time.
Finally, Aaron says that he is working on support for alts and thinking about setting up "path of a guild"-type features, so you can track not only a character's progress, but a guild's progress as well. Definitely a cool idea to look back at where you were in the game, and see all of the things you've earned and achieved so far.
Path of a Hero site that we linked to a while back, sent us an email to say that the site is better than ever. It's jumped up to 3700 users (probably more since he told us that), all the EU realms are now supported, and there are many more social updates built into the interface. Not only can you search the entire database with a new Ubersearch, but users can now comment on journal entries and even send messages to each other. Aaron tells us that stability is better than ever, and he says he's been getting a lot of good feedback, too -people have been telling him that they wish the site had been around since they were level 1.
Training and leveling
While leveling your skill, I recommend staying in the two starting zones, the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. Despite the fact that they are still somewhat crowded, the volume of herb spawns is high, and the difficulty of reaching each mob will be lessened by the fact that the mobs are in the high sixties.
If you press on into Dragonblight, be aware that the frozen herb nodes will yield a random herb, and rarely ever gives more than one. Still, it only takes one for a skill point!
In fact, you will also find your trainer in the starting zones. For the Horde, Marjory Kains resides in Vengeance Landing, and will teach you all that you need to know. If you find yourself in the Borean Tundra, then search the second level of Warsong Hold, behind the stairs, for Tansy Wildmane.
Alliance members in the Howling Fjord should seek out Fayin Whisperleaf in Valgarde near the Inn. If in the Borean Tundra, pay a visit to Kirea Moondancer in Valiance Keep.
Sweet spots
The Sholazar Basin seems to be the most fertile area in Northrend. Once you have leveled your character to the upper seventies, you should survive while herbing there.
Of course, not all herbs are found there. Talandra's Rose, for example, is found most commonly in Zul'Drak, a level 74-77 zone. Lichbloom and Icethorn can be found in The Storm Peaks (76-80) and Icecrown (77-80) in heavy numbers.
Herbs like Deadnettle, Constrictor Grass and Frost Lotus are occasionally found inside the spawns of other herbs.
Herbalism
Being an herbalist in Northrend is a tough job. Your toes, or perhaps hooves, are freezing. Your eyes, or eye sockets, are blinded by the wind and snow. Yet you must push on through it all, bravely climbing slippery mountain slopes, balancing on cliffs, and wading through camps of hostiles, all with one goal in mind.
When you finally reach the herb and finish carefully extracting it from its icy tomb, you have to pack it into your bags between your mace that glows with magical fire and your chocolate cake. Try not to ruin it!
Special abilities
Herbalists are awarded with their very own self-heal, Lifeblood, that upgrades as your herbalism skill does. Over the course of a short five seconds, you are healed for:
300 with rank one.
480 with rank two.
720 with rank three.
900 with rank four.
1200 with rank five.
2000 with rank six.
Mining
Miners in Northrend are hereby advised to bundle up. A warm hat and a sturdy pair of gloves that afford a good grip should do the trick.
Training and leveling
The Alliance trainer in Howling Fjord will find Grumbol Stoutpick of Valgarde near the forge. Fendrig Redbeard of Valiance Keep awaits eager miners in Borean Tundra.
Jonathan Lewis resides in Vengeance Landing, Howling Fjord, for the Horde, while Brunna Ironaxe can be found in Warsong Hold in the Borean Tundra.
Just like herbalists, I am going to advise that you do much of your leveling in the starter zones, simply because you will be able to spend less time killing monsters in order to reach your nodes.
Sweet Spots
Once again, the Sholazar Basin is home to much of the ore that you will seek. It has the most number of nodes for both Titanium and Saronite. If you find the area is packed with miners, then check out Icecrown and the Storm Peaks.
Cobalt, on the other hand, is found most notably in Zul'Drak, along with the two starting zones.
Special abilities
Miners are granted a special ability called Toughness. It increases their maximum hit points by a number that is relative to one's abilities.
Rank one: 30hp.
Rank two: 50hp.
Rank three: 70hp.
Rank four: 100hp.
Rank five: 300 hp.
Rank six: 500hp.
Skinning
Skinning is very different from the other two gathering professions, as it allows you to create your own ‘nodes.' As you quest, you will inevitably be killing beasts, affording you the opportunity to skin the corpse. You will also happen upon corpses of beasts killed by non-skinners, which always feels like a bonus.
Sweet Spots
The pit outside of Warsong Hold in the Borean Tundra. There are boar at a farm to the North West of Warsong Hold.
Check out the worgs that spawn to the South West of Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord. There are many mammoths that roam the Borean Tundra, and shoveltusks that roam the Howling Fjord. Beware that, because they travel in packs, attacking one will bring a swarm of vengeance upon your head. In Dragonblight, there is an area full of diseased animals that are part of a quest or two. You can find these animals lurking near Azjol-Nerub, west of Agmar's Hammer.
Training and leveling
In the Borean Tundra, Trapper Jack awaits Alliance skinners in Valiance Keep. Frederic Burrhus of Valgarde is located in the Howling Fjord.
The Horde can choose to visit Roberta Jacks at Vengeance Landing in the Howling Fjord, or Tiponi Stormwhisper within the inn at the Taunka'le Village in the Borean Tundra.
Leveling skinning quickly is a matter of finding ideal circumstances and then getting to work. For example, Horde skinners need only to step outside of Warsong Hold to find a pit full of quick-spawning skinnables associated with several quests. Not only could you knock off those quests, you would be able to reap benefits from everyone else's labors.
Another method of farming skins is to locate an area full of mobs that drop something else that you need. Perhaps they have a specific meat type that you require to level your cooking, or that can be sold for a high amount because it is part of a sought-after cooked item.
If you are not a craftsperson in need of your skins, then get ready to make some serious money for every Arctic Fur that you find! Currently, on my server, each is a guaranteed 35 gold minimum sale on the Auction House. This is found randomly while skinning.
You will also notice one important difference in Northrend skinning that is not present in the profession for other skin types. Normally, you need to be a leatherworker to convert skins. The following is a paraphrased version of a recent [1: General] conversation:
Some Guy: "Can anyone tell me when we learn to convert scraps into leather? I have like 350."
Helpful Respondant: "Just right click on them."
Some Guy: "What? Seriously?" (Profanity removed for your protection. Try picturing yourself on a beach instead. The sound of the waves is soothing, isn't it?)
Tags: Northrend
Argent Dawn appears to be in the worst shape, as Blizzard is sending players from that realm onto three different realms. Magtheridon seems to be the least busy -all they're transferring off there is the Horde-side players. They're also transferring players off of a few different realms to the newly-created one, Chamber of Aspects, so if you're looking for a new start, there you go to buy cheap wow gold.
We're just now coming out of our Thanksgiving turkey-induced haze here at WoW Insider, so if you've seen this already, forgive us, but Blizzard announced late last week that there's relief on the way for EU characters tied up by queues -they've got a whole mess of free migrations in the mix. We've got the whole list of transfers after the break as well.
These migrations are going until December 2nd, so now's your chance, EU players, if you're on the selected realms and have been waiting to jump ship.
Magtheridon (Horde only) => Zenedar, Haomarush
Neptulon => Ahn'Qiraj, Daggerspine
Outland => Bladefist, Karazhan
Ravencrest => Burning Blade, Deathwing
Sylvanas => Auchindoun, Lightning's Blade
Twilight's Hammer => Auchindoun, Lightning's Blade
Al'Akir => Dentarg, Xavius
Argent Dawn => Darkmoon Faire, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Sha'tar
Burning Legion => Ahn'Qiraj, Daggerspine
Crushridge => Bladefist, Karazhan
Drak'thul => Burning Blade, Deathwing
Grim Batol => Dentarg, Xavius
I've had a Warlock main for the ~4 years I've been playing WoW and so I'm used to playing a DPS role in raids. With the new expansion I want to start a shaman healer but the concept of keeping track of what totems are up, who to heal, which heals to use, etc. is confusing to me, is there anyway to ease the transition of being the DPS to healing the raid?
The biggest thing to ease the transition is mods, so I hope you're not against addons. For Shaman specific abilities, TotemTimers is your bread and butter. It makes all of your cooldowns, timers, elemental shields, all of that really easy to watch and organize.
For general Healing use, try out Grid and Clique if you don't mind investing a little time into your mods. They're kind of annoying to figure out and set up, but once you do the Healing experience becomes much more enjoyable. As for what heals to use, just do some reading. It's all situational, though Chain Heal is your bread and butter heal as a Resto Shaman, it's your biggest strength.
To make the transition from DPS to Healer easier, just imagine you're DPSing your friend. Instead of their health going from right to left, you need to make it go from left to right.
Do vehicles like the motorcycle and mammoth count towards the mount achievements?
They're learned just like mounts and go in the mounts tab on your character screen, so yep!
Can one mail enchanted heirloom items to alts? Do the enchants scale?
Enchants do not scale. You can only put pre-BC enchants on them, because heirloom items are considered level 0. They're definitely below the level 35 or level 60 requirements on some enchants.
In looking at badge rewards, a couple guildies and I noticed that there are more rewards and item types available for 25-man badges than for 10-man badges. Is this intended? Are the heroic and 10-man level badges relegated to stacking endlessly once you have the two or three pieces of gear you need from them? Or is Blizz planning on adding more gear soon? Compared to BC badge gear, there is very little available.
That badge gear built up over two years. There was hardly any gear when The Burning Crusade launched, if there was any at all. Then more was added with Zul'Aman, then even more with Sunwell Plateau and patch 2.4. If Wrath of the Lich King launched with as much badge gear as The Burning Crusade ended with, I would be really, really worried.
For those of us who never saw BC raid level content and now are reaching WotLK heroics in Northrend blues, which heroics are easiest for newcomers? Which should I avoid like the plague until I get much better gear? Or are they all equally difficult?
In my experience, Violet Hold is the easiest Heroic by far, though it can be a bit harder or easier depending on which of the random bosses you get. It's still the easiest no matter what, I think. Instead of feeling like a Heroic, it feels like a hard-hitting level 80 Normal dungeon. This is a place every caster is going to run on Heroic, too. The ones trying to get their hit cap back, anyway. Cyanigosa drops Mark of the War Prisoner, which is a hell of a lot of hit for one item.
Last week we went over some of the new Wrath factions and the rewards they offer for Mages. If you missed that first part, you can find it here. As quite a few of you pointed out in the comments, the stuff from those factions was a bit...underwhelming. Fear not, fellow Mages, the best is yet to come. This week, we'll hit the rest of the new expansion's reputation rewards and highlight those that you'll want to start grinding for now, if you haven't already started.
So I assume that you're all about sick of leftover turkey at this point (at least, those of you who happen to live in America, I guess), and are ready for a heaping helping of something...Magier. Fear not, for Arcane Brilliance is here to serve a steaming pile of Mage directly to you. If you top it with enough gravy, it tastes pretty good.
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Though this faction is made up of rogue Death Knights, they have a couple of surprisingly Mage-friendly reputation rewards for sale. You'll find their quartermaster in Icecrown, at the Shadow Vault.
Dark Soldier Cape Available at level 78 and honored, this cloak is quite respectable. It has everything you want, and nothing you don't. Plus, I think it looks cool.
Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves I'm not really including these as a good Mage item. While they are made of cloth, and they do have a sizable amount of spelpower, all that spirit makes them more suitable for healers, really. No, I'm throwing these on the list simply because they have one of the best item-names ever. Bravo, Blizzard's item-naming team. Bravo.
Belt of Dark Mending For hitting exalted, Mages don't really have much to look forward to with this faction, but even though this belt has "mending" as part of its name, it isn't terrible. It has a lot of haste on it, but it also has a bunch of spellpower for a waist item. It's absolutely worth a pick-up.
The Sons of Hodir
You're going to want to start grinding rep with these guys as soon as you reach their base of operations way up north in the Storm Peaks. Not only do they offer some very nice shoulder enchants, they are also giants. As my mom used to always tell me before sending me off to school, it's always a good idea to be friends with giants. She used to tell me other things too, but years of therapy have made me forget most of them. Also, Mom? I'm totally just kidding.
You can locate their quartermaster in Dun Niffelem in the Storm Peaks.
Lesser Inscription of the Storm Yes, this is the shoulder-enchant faction for this expansion. This is the version you can obtain at honored, and it grants spellpower and crit. As we've previously discussed, we want spellpower and crit. If you don't need the crit, you can pick up the healer-ish version, complete with mana per 5.
Greater Inscription of the Storm And, of course, this is the epic version that you can pick up at exalted. As you may have surmised, it's just like the non-epic version, only with 100% more epic.
Argent Crusade
Signet of Hopeful Light I know, I know: it sounds like a healer ring. Just ignore that. And yes, it has a whole mess of haste rating. Despite my griping above, haste rating isn't a bad thing. Sure, I'd rather it was crit, but I'm not going to whine about it, because sweet fancy moses, look at the rest of those stats! Stamina and intellect to spare and a big dollop of spellpower. This is an excellent ring to take with you into the end-game content, no two ways about it. You'll have to get to exalted with this faction to purchase it, but this is worth the grind.
The new and improved version of the Argent Dawn, this faction's quartermaster can be found in Icecrown, at the Argent Vanguard. And find him you should, because exalted with this faction will earn you a very nice ring...
Purifying Torch ...and this semi-crappy wand. It isn't terrible, I guess. It has stamina and spellpower and mana per 5. It could definitely be worse. It could also be a whole lot better. You'll need level 78 and revered to buy/equip it.
Kirin Tor
If you haven't already taken your Mage to Dalaran (and seriously, if you haven't, what are you waiting for, exactly?), get them there and look up the Kirin Tor. As a Mage, you begin at friendly with them, so you have a leg up on everyone else, but you still need to get started. Buy their tabard, and start wearing it when you run a level 80 instance. If your Cooking skill isn't high enough, raise it so that you can do the Cooking daily quests, because they, like the daily Jewelcrafting quests, grant Kirin Tor reputation. You can find this faction's quartermaster in Dalaran, in the Violet Citadel.
Shroud of Dedicated Research The stats on this cloak aren't exactly earth-shattering, but as long as you aren't wearing a high-end epic from the very last of the previous expansion's content, it'll likely be an upgrade at the level. You may be noticing a trend in the caster gear offered in this expansion, and that trend is that apparently we're supposed to be stacking haste rating. You may also notice that we apparently aren't supposed to be stacking critical strike rating. Sorry, Fire and Frostfire Mages, no crit for you. It isn't as if you depend on crits for most of your DPS or anything, right? I really hope Blizzard is planning on adjusting their itemization a bit as we go along here, because all of this spirit and haste just isn't doing it for me. Seriously, guys. not all casters want the same stats. The Boomkin shouldn't be rolling on my cloth gear. He just shouldn't.
You can pick this up at honored and equip it at level 78.
Arcanum of Burning Mysteries For pure DPS (and really, why would you want anything else?), you want this head enchant. Mmmm...spellpower and crit. I take back everything I just said two seconds ago up there. Not really, but crit and spellpower on my head is exactly what I asked for for Christmas. How did you know, Blizzard? This is purchasable at revered, and you can put it on your head slot item at level 80.
Flameheart Spell Scalpel Ok, if you weren't sold on grinding reputation with the Kirin Tor already, this beauty should do the trick. This is, quite simply, the best non-epic 1-hand weapon for a Mage in the current version of this wonderful game. It has pretty much everything we want in a dagger: stam, int, hit, crit, and holy freaking crap 355 spellpower. Get to revered with this faction, check to make sure you're level 80, buy the head enchant and this dagger, and then go find a Warlock to kill.
Robes of Crackling Flame Again, I'm not a fan of all of this haste and spirit and mana per 5 junk. I guess I understand what Blizzard is trying to do here, I just don't like it. In Burning Crusade, Blizzard had to itemize for every kind of caster. With the spellpower stat consolidation, now they think they only have to itemize for certain broad "roles" instead of for various classes and specs. Somehow, I guess they think that an item like this one would work just as well for Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Paladins, Druids, Republicans, Democrats, and Ralph Nader. No, Blizzard. Just...no. Homogenizing stats isn't going to make the classes balanced, guys, and I think we all know it.
Anyway, if you aren't wearing something with more class and spec-appropriate stats, this isn't a bad upgrade. It does have a ridiculous amount of intellect and spellpower on it, though, so snatch it up, by all means. It requires exalted and level 80.
Tags: Knight, mage
This week's article examines the Arachnid Quarter, and we'll be visiting the other quarters in upcoming articles. We'll look at each boss on both normal and heroic modes, pointing out the differences (beyond HP increases). Generally, if you've defeated the boss on normal mode, there are only minor changes to adapt to on heroic mode (and vice versa).
Today we'll be looking at a blast from the past, revisiting Naxxramas and providing details on the boss encounters that await those brave enough to enter the dread citadel. For those of you who haven't had a chance to look inside the all-new Naxx, here's your spoiler warning: look away now if you don't want to hear about what's in store.
Anub'Rekhan
This crypt lord is the first resident of the Arachnid Quarter, and there are no special achievements linked to him. The challenging part of the fight involves avoiding his Locust Swarm ability -you also need to handle his adds, and spread out to minimise Impale.
Locust Swarm is cast at some point after 80 seconds, but isn't on a fixed timer, so your raid (especially the main tank) have to be awake and react when Anub'rekhan starts to cast it. The swarm lasts for 20 seconds, and any player within 30 yards of the boss becomes afflicted with the Locust Swarm debuff which not only prevents all abilities from being used, but also applies a stacking DoT. Therefore, until the swarm ends, the raid needs to move away from the boss and outrange it, while the tank also runs away from the boss. Anub'rekhan is slowed by Locust Swarm and so can be kited along the outer edge of the room -a hunter's Aspect of the Pack, or other speed-increasing effects, can help here but aren't necessary.
Anub'Rekhan also summons Crypt Guard adds (additionally, on heroic, he starts with two adds) occasionally throughout the fight. These cleave, apply a stacking DoT and frenzy, so they do need a plate or fur tank of some sort. As a crypt fiend spawns at the start of Locust Swarm, a good approach is to tank them on the opposite side from the kiting tank's path. As well as the large Crypt Fiend adds, occasionally Anub'Rekhan will summon corpse scarabs from a nearby corpse. These simply need to be AoEd down quickly.
Differences between heroic and normal:
Starts with two adds on heroic (none on normal)
Moves more slowly during Locust Swarm on normal
Mr Bigglesworth
The first boss to be found in Naxxramas, and not technically in the Arachnid Quarter at all, Mr. Bigglesworth can be soloed but it's unadvisable. Folk legend varies from server to server, some guilds claiming better loot if Bigglesworth is left alive, and others rewarding bonuses to the first to kill him. Proceed with caution.
Maexxna
If you're a little arachnophobic, you might not like this giant spider, lurking at the end of the Arachnid Quarter. (Note that the aptly-named Arachnophobia is a linked achievement for completing the wing -from Anub'Rekhan's death to Maexxna's -in 20 minutes). Maexxna has several abilities which can combine to pose a lot of danger to a raid.
Web Wrap sends a player flying against the wall and wraps them in a cocoon, dealing damage while they're in there. The player is incapacitated so ranged DPS need to be assigned to destroy the cocoons as soon as possible -for example, on normal mode, if a healer gets cocooned you will need them free very quickly.
Web Spray incapacitates the entire raid and is cast every 40 seconds. It lasts for 4 seconds on normal and 6 on heroic, so the tank needs to be loaded up with HoTs, shielded and so forth to survive this period. Maexxna also casts a poison on the main tank which reduces healing done (Necrotic Poison) so if you have a druid, keeping Abolish Poison up is important (a shaman's totem can work through Web Spray if there's no druid).
As if this wasn't enough, Maexxna spawns spiderling adds underneath her which need to be AoEd down -having casters ready to AoE on time stops the adds getting loose and thus becoming much harder to kill. These don't really need to be tanked if your casters all nuke at once.
At 30% Maexxna enrages, so you need to watch your DPS against the Web Spray timer and try to avoid hitting a Spray after 30%. The fight's timings are fairly easy to get used to, especially if you have boss mods, so it's just a case of stopping DPS as required.
Grand Widow Faerlina
After killing more spiders and several AoE packs of acolytes, you'll meet Faerlina. She has the linked achievement ‘Momma Said Knock You Out' and comes with six adds on heroic and four on normal. The main challenge of the fight is dealing with her Frenzy ability, cast every 60 seconds.
When Frenzied, Faerlina deals significantly more damage to the tank. For the achievement, any way of removing Frenzy is ignored and the extra damage is mitigated by cooldowns and healed through, simplifying the fight. However, this requires a well-geared tank, so the normal approach is to remove Frenzy -which is where the adds come in.
There are two ways to remove Frenzy, one for normal and the other heroic. On normal, if a Naxxramas Worshipper is killed near Faerlina, it applies the Widow's Embrace effect to the boss; on heroic mode, the Worshippers can be mind controlled and used to apply this effect manually. On normal, the adds can be reduced to low HP by their tank alone and simply finished off at the right time.
If Widow's Embrace is applied before she Frenzies, note that she can Frenzy again in 30 seconds (when Widow's Embrace fades); if applied after, she will have to wait for her 60 second cooldown to be up. Depending on your DPS and tank's gear, preventing rather than removing Frenzy might be safer.
The rhythm of the fight therefore follows the pattern: engage Faerlina, wait until she is about to Frenzy, remove Frenzy by killing a specific add or using mind control, repeat. Additionally she casts a poison volley and rain of fire which simply mean additional movement and cleansing. On heroic mode, her two extra adds -Naxxramas Followers -are not needed for mind control and can be killed or offtanked.
Differences between heroic and normal:
Two more adds on heroic
Immune to mind control on normal
Now, as you might imagine, this quest is difficult for the Horde to do since they can't buy the feed (Plus, it looks like the Horde can no longer get the quest at all, according to some), but there is a solution. If you're on a PvE server (or know someone who can make alliance characters on your PvP server), you can have a friend (or your second account) create an Alliance character (even a level 1 can get the quest) and run it out to Saldean's farm. They can do the quest, and when the egg appears on the ground, you can loot it to grab the egg for yourself.
If you're new to the world of pet collecting, or have just dabbled in it so far though, you may be struggling a bit to get those last few pets for the achievement. In the spirit of helping out my fellow pet enthusiasts, here's a few rarer or lesser known old world pets that you might have overlooked, especially if you started the game after Burning Crusade.
5. and 4. Worg Pup and Smolderweb Hatchling -You'll get these from quests given by Kibler, a goblin by the Horde flight point in Burning Steppes (He's neutral though, so Alliance can get these quests too). Both quests will send you into Lower Blackrock Spire to catch the pets yourself. You can actually drop off a couple ledges down to the bottom of the instance, and climb back up through some spiders to Halycon's den, giving you a perfect opportunity to grab both a spiderling and worg pup for the quest.
3. Mechanical Chicken -This one is missed by a lot of people simply because it requires a few drops and a few annoying escort quests: Namely, you must complete the quests from Distress Beacons in Hinterlands, Tanaris, and Feralas. Once you do that, Oglethorp Ognosticus will provide you with An OOX of your own. Sure, it's a smaller one with no combat capabilities, but hey, nothing's perfect. The pain with this quest will probably be remembering which distress beacons you already grabbed while you were leveling up. The other thing about this quest is that the pet is bind on equip, so if you're lucky, you may just be able to grab it off the auction house.
2. Disgusting Oozeling -This little guy comes from an Oozing Bag, which is a very rare random drop from just about any level 50 or higher slime-type monster in the old world. You'll probably want to just head to Felwood, Ungoro or Eastern Plaguelands and start slaughtering slimes. This one will take a while, especially since the Oozing Bag doesn't even always contain the pet, but when you do get it, he's at least a pretty unique little guy. He actually gives you an aura while he's out and drinks Dark Iron Ale.
1. Chicken -If you're the type of person who thinks that making weird faces at animals is the height of comedy, this is the quest for you. To get this one, you'll need to head to Saldean's farm in Westfall and spam the /chicken emote at a chicken. Whether you finally learn proper chicken-speak or the chicken just gets annoyed at you is unknown, but eventually, the chicken will offer you a quest. When you buy some Special Chicken Feed from Farmer Saldean and feed it to the chicken, it will lay an egg, which you can then loot for your pet.
Druid
Bear Scaling
I realize some players have made some passionate and intelligent arguments for other ways in which bears can scale from gear. That isn't something we are going to do at the moment, but something we may investigate in the future. I understand that it's fun to improve tanking gear, and while we don't want it to be such a burden to get the +armor pieces, we also don't want the choices to be so meaningless that you aren't gearing for tanking at all. Let's see how things stand after these changes go live.
Block Mechanics
Block is a very good stat now, and we have read a lot about the notion that "unblocked hits are the new crushing blows." We don't want the block mechanic to mean that death knights and druids (and possibly even paladins) are left behind. Again the goal is to have four viable tank classes. That doesn't mean identical, but it also doesn't mean that druids get swapped out for some fights or relegated to permanent off-tank status.
BlizzCast Episode 6
Included in BlizzCast is a chat about the tools Blizzard uses, including WoWEdit—their largest tool to date used to create pretty much everything in World of Warcraft. It's very interesting to hear that a single tool comprises so many aspects of World of Warcraft's development.
In the sixth epic episode of BlizzCast, we spend a day with a developer and find out what life is like for World of Warcraft Lead Tools Programmer Monte Krol. Next, we take a look at StarCraft II unit design from concept to creation with Senior Art Director Samwise Didier and Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder. In our third segment, Bashiok spends some time with Anthony Rivero, senior artist for Diablo III, and discusses "bridging the gap" in the series’ character design. Bornakk wraps the episode up by answering some questions from the community.
Feral Weapons
On the subject of weapons, this change should be transparent to most druids. You will end up having a few more items that you can use, but your feral staves will continue to do the damage they do now. If it makes it clearer, imagine that feral attack power is not going away as a concept, but weapon dps will instead translate to their current FAP values. This is also not license for us to never again add weapons which are optimized for druids. It should just provide more options in between major upgrades.
Feral Armor
On the subject of armor, the intent of the change is to give you more options in which trinkets and other jewelry you use, instead of always having to rely on the (relatively rare) bonus armor pieces. The change isn't intended to be a nerf at all. A lot of numbers have been thrown around in this thread. Give me some time to review them and see where any discrepancies lie.
Our design remains to have fewer specialized items drop so that more loot is actually valued by someone in the group. A lot of the druid itemization was a relic of the older system and we have been wanting to convert it over. But with any change like this, it may take some time before all of the rough edges are smoothed over. To use a tired cliche, the designers tend to take the stance that the design of WoW is a journey not a destination.
Tags: Druid, wrath of the Lich King
There's an outburst in the druid community now because the class is getting some nerfs in patch 3.1. One of them is the change to the feral talent Heart of the Wild where at max rank, the stamina bonus it gives will be reduced from a 20% increase to just a 10% increase. According to Ghostcrawler, this is part of their effort to make all tanks' HP pools closer together but of course a nerf is a nerf and this sucks for bear tanks.
The next change is the one to the resto spell lifebloom, the resto druid's best friend in tank healing in groups/raids. The change goes as follows:
Mana costs of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, It now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications.
Of course all resto druids are pretty mad that their bread and butter tank healing spell will become less efficient especially since the practice of rolling lifeblooms negates whatever bonus was given to it blooming given that that's what rolling lifeblooms is all about - keeping the 3 stack up at all times. Ghostcrawler's forum post on the matter gave you a sense that they felt the spell was too efficient a heal especially if kept rolling but instead of nerfing the heal itself they decided to just increase its cost. After being assigned to raid healing a few times in 10 man Naxx a few times, I found out that I cast lifeblooms and let them bloom quite often so this might be a nice change for people who do this since the bloom will refund mana and get a healing bonus.
While this change is quite a sad one for PvE resto druids, it's quite a buff for ones who do PvP a lot. People will think twice now before dispelling HoT's especially in the arena tournament. This is quite a welcome change to complement the fact that the PvP resto druid's worst enemy has been tamed because of the removal of the Death Knight's ability to remove HoT's through Plague Strike. These two changes just might catapult resto druids back to king status as arena healers.
Healers like myself have been cherishing the remaining time we have until the mana regen nerf is implemented since we are the ones most affected and targeted by the changes. The aim of the nerfs is to make mana conservation and management a big thing and not just rely on our regen to tide us over while we heal endlessly.
Ghostcrawler came up with more details about this nerf in a post in the official forums. Based on what he wrote, there's some cause for celebration since the nerfs don't seem to be as bad as we all thought. I won't go into detail with what he says but if you want to see the details then you can go ahead and read his post. The long and short of what he wrote is this:
Mana regen while not casting will be reduced by 40%
Mana regen while casting remains unchanged.
Talents that provide mana regen while casting (spirit tap, arcane meditation etc) will be increased by 67%
Paladins will have their Divine Plea healing penalty reduced to -50% and spiritual attunement mana gains decreased for non tanks.
It's still sad for us healers to see our regen get nerfed but as you can see from the details, it's not as bad as we thought. Sure we won't be able to take much advantage of those big regen ticks when we're not casting but at least the regen while casting still remains the same. In fights where we're constantly casting our heals, this nerf won't make a difference.
In the latest PTR patch notes for patch 3.08, balance druids got the news that their talent Celestial Focus will no longer work with Starfall. As always you can see the latest PTR patch notes here.
I play a balance druid right now but only to get to 80 faster then I'll be switching to Restoration. But I do know that that the stuns this talent brings can be pretty useful in PvP, especially with Starfall since you have so many stars amounting to potential stuns. I haven't done any PvP on my druid and I don't really intend to so I haven't tried it but looking around in the forums and asking friends confirmed that it is a technique that balance druids use. I'd use it myself if I did any PvP.
But with the change coming in the next patch, not only is this technique no longer possible with Starfall but some people have even questioned Starfall's viability as a 51 point talent. Starfall's alleged horrible damage output and the fact that it's on a 3 minute timer has it in the running in worst 51 talent point debates. Personally I still find it a bit useful especially when I'm trying to kill a lot of targets fast when I'm soloing.
What do you think about this change?
I'm not really familiar with the exact classes that sit at the top of the DPS meters right now but I guess that really varies from case to case and who you run with. I know Death Knights are up there and i guess Ret Pallies, Warlocks, and Mages are also frequent chart toppers. But it seems like certain specs of certain classes aren't doing so well in their dps output and Blizzard has taken notice. Blizzard is currently monitoring how the classes are doing so that they can potentially make some changes to help boost the output of those they feel need to be buffed.
Patch 3.08 saw some changes to the Elemental Shaman tree that gave them a pretty big dps boost. Ghostcrawler already mentioned in the official forums that they're going to take a look at Combat Rogues, Kitty Feral Druids and Beast Mastery Hunters as the specs that they feel might need a boost. I think the buffing of Elemental Shammies shows that Blizzard does listen to feedback and adjust accordingly if they feel that's what's needed. It might take some time but they get it done.
We just talked about part 1 of the class changes coming in patch 3.1 and then suddenly part two is here! This time around, druids, warriors and warlocks are getting their changes announced.
WARLOCK
# Improved Shadow Bolt this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).
# Improved Soul Leech this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)
# Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesnt die.
# Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.
# Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell
# Consume Shadows this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.
# Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication, Suppression, and Pandemic.
# Additional new talents have been added.DRUID
# Savage Defense this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.
# Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.
# Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.
# Thorns and Natures Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.
# Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form.
# Replenish to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed Revitalize. It now also works with Wild Growth.
# We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in cat form.WARRIOR
# Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.
# You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.
# Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
# Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.
# We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.
# We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries. source
Just like the changes for priests, rogues and shamans in the part one changes, it seems like the changes listed here are pretty much all buffs. There's a lot of interesting changes announced that will make the three classes here very happy. The change to Improved shadowbolt for locks has been a long time coming and it's actually really good now. Drain life having a chance to grant a shard even if the mob didn't die is quite an interesting change. I'm wondering how making destruction warlocks a replenishment spec just like survival hunters, shadow priests ad ret pallies will change things. I'm thinking that shadow priests don't have much of a niche going now that the other shadow damage class can be a mana battery.
Feral druids are looking stronger with the new savage defense passive ability for bears and the note that sustained kitty dps will be increased. For warriors, the most interesting change is that stance dancing is going to be easier to do now that you'll only lose a maximum of 20 rage (untalented) doing it. This will benefit warriors of all specs as they will be able tank and dps better with more rage at their disposal. Another cool change is the one about absorbed damage giving the warrior rage, making things like power word shield a more viable option when healing warriors. Strangely enough, there's no mention about this same mechanic for bear druids.
Now that part two is out so soon after part 1 came out, I think we can expect to see the final part out in a few hours or at least soon enough. I'm crossing my fingers that the last installment will see a lot of interesting changes as well.
While are many people with level 70's out there especially since the TBC expansion has been out for more than a year already, I'm sure there are lots of people who don't or at least just did and don't exactly know what to do. I was sitting around in Shattrath City earlier when someone asked the exact thing in trade chat, hinting that there might be a lot of people out there like this guy who don't know what to do when you first hit 70. So what exactly do you do? After allocating your last remaining talent point an buying your level 70 skills, these are things you may want to do when you hit 70.
1. If you've got the gold to spend, it would be really helpful to buy your flying mount right away. This could help in your mining and herbalism while also giving you access to places like Skettis, Ogri'la, Elemental Plateau and the Tempest Keep dungeons.
2. If you don't have the gold to spend or just want more of it, then it's really helpful to do the Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests. Ogri'la and Skettis requires you to have a flying mount to reach while the SSO dailies don't except for the quest Intercepting the Mana Cells, which you do in Blade's Edge Mountains.
3. Group quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley normally have great quest rewards that could add to your starting gear as a fresh 70.
4. If you're a clothie class and a tailor, investing time to farm the mats to make your Spellfire/Frozen Shadoweave/Primal Mooncloth sets.
5. As you're looking to gear up, PvP epics are generally a nice way to go to get yourself ready for higher content. BG and Arena gear are great at plugging those holes until you get a good PvE equivalent from Karazhan or Heroics.
6. I'm assuming that as you've leveled up to 70, you must have achieved honored rep with at least some of these factions: Thrallmar/Honored Hold, Cenarion Expedition, Keepers of Time, Sha'tar, and Lower City. These factions have a decent starter pvp set which could also be great for PvE.
Druid
Feral Dragonhide Battlegear
Resto Kodohide Battlegear
Balance Wyrmhide Battlegear
Hunter Stalker's Chain Battlegear
Mage Evoker's Silk Battlegear
Paladin
Holy Crusader's Ornamented Battlegear
Ret/Shockadin Crusader's Scaled Battlegear
Priest
Shadow Satin Battlegear
Holy Mooncloth Battlegear
Rogue Opportunist's Battlegear
Shaman
Enhancement Seer's Linked Battlegear
Restoration Seer's Ringmail Battlegear
Elemental Seer's Mail Battlegear
Warlock Dreadweave Battlegear
Warrior Savage Plate Battlegear
7. Of course you still have to do dungeons so that you can get nice blues to get you ready for Karazhan and heroics. Don't forget that while it's no longer required that every member of a Karazhan raid have the master's key, it's still nice to do the quests to get it. The quest chain brings you to some dungeons to get some gear and also the quest rewards afor the chain are pretty good too.
8. Rejoice and be glad that you have a level 70! To all of you guys who just got to 70, congratulations and have fun!
The past few days, I've been thinking about how the design of certain talents of a certain class would look pretty good if it were used by another class in their own way. If you think about it, some talents are already like this - just modifications of talents that already existed. For example isn't it that the Druid's Swiftmend, a spell obtained through talents, just a healing twist on the Warlock's Conflagrate, also a spell obtained through talents? The Paladin's Holy Guidance talent from the Holy tree is also a twist on the Mage's Mind Mastery talent from the Arcane tree. I've been thinking that there could be more potential in simply taking an existing talent and applying it to another class to fit their class design. I've listed a few below. While some ideas could be out of this world, I'm sure some have potential to actually be used in the WoTLK expansion.
Warlock: DoT Form
I was thinking that since druids are the kings of HoT's and warlocks are the kings of DoTs, perhaps the two get be potential partners in talent recycling. One idea I find amusing is to translate the Tree of Life talent for the use of warlocks. I was thinking of it being in the affliction tree somewhere deep. I'm not really familiar with how exactly end game affliction warlocks work but perhaps there are times when you're better off just using your DoT's the whole time if only you could maximize their damage potential. In these situations, the warlock can shift to form that makes use of just DoT's but while in this form they cost less to cast and do a heck lot more damage!
Healing class (Shaman maybe?): The Healing Arcane Power
Ever been in a situation where you need stronger heals during an encounter and you don't really care if it's going to cost you more mana? Let's say you got the boss down to 5% and you just need some staying power on your heals or the group wipes. This might be the answer! I'm thinking shaman since it sounds consistent with the type of thing a shaman would do with the blood lusts and shamanistic rage and all. Pop the talented ability and the shaman goes off into a healing frenzy!
Paladin: The Healing Ignite
Paladins have always complained about their lack of a heal over time. maybe a talent that can work like the healing version of the mage fire tree talent Ignite could help while not really giving them a true HoT. Basically when the paladin crits on his/her heals the target also gets a HoT equivalent to a percentage of the heal. This won't make holy paladins the kings of HoT's but it definitely sounds like a cool idea.
Mage: Spirit of Redemption For More Pwnage!
I've always been quite intrigued by the priest Spirit of Redemption talent since it allows them to heal for a while longer even after they die. Imagine if a mage would be able to wreak some havoc even after he falls. You could say that since the mage left behind some arcane residue, he is able to remain active and do some damage for some time even after dying.
What do you think about these ideas? Do you have some ideas of your own? Please share them here.
I was reading through some of the material about the World Wide Invitational (WWI) in World of Raids when I came across the mention of the dire cat form of Druids for Wrath of the Lich King. It's still in the planning stages as well as another model for dire bear form but the mention makes one wonder exactly what dire cat form will be.
I haven't played a druid to high levels yet but based what some people tell me about the situation of the cat druid and the rogue is that they have almost the same dps potential but the rogue is more flexible with his abilities. Rogues can stun, sap and even vanish when he's in trouble while cat druids can't. I've read of other claims that rogues beat cat dps by a substantial amount. (Someone please tell me which it is).
This leaves a lot of room for speculation about what the dire cat form could be, aside from a model change. Can it mean more damage? Or will it mean more armor or some form of avoiding or mitigating damage? Or will it mean getting a trick or two rogues have for escaping death like a version of vanish or something? My guess is probably as good as good as any one else's.
At the end of this all, the most important question will have to be answered. Will the dire cat form finally make cat druids a respectable and accepted member of even the most hardcore raiding guilds? If not, then having this improvement won't really change anything much.
My frustrations concerning the paladin holy tree for the WoTLK expansion got me planning ahead. I'm already leveling up my druid so that I can have it ready to be a healer just in case nothing changes for the better for my dear paladin. I figured that if things will go well with the paladin eventually, then my druid could be a Moonkin and blast some face.
This little project of mine got me planning ahead so I went browsing at the MMO Champion's list of spells for the expansion. While I found a lot of the spells quite interesting, one thing caught my eye. For a moment I thought I was seeing things and had to make a double take. It's this entry right here:
Revive (rank 7) level 80:Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 1800 health and 1365 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.
10 sec cast, 72% of base mana, 30 yd range
It's an out of combat rez! It's something that druids have been asking for since a long time ago (maybe even since the game came out). The really neat thing is that druids will get their first rank of Revive at level 12, according to MMO Champion. The argument against an OOC rez was that druids already have the battle rez Rebirth. Of course we know that it's no substitute for a real rez spell.
Now that druids finally have an OOC rez and a nice crowd control spell now that Entangling Roots can be used both indoors and outdoors, this gives Moonkins and Resto druids (especially with the new talents for both Balance and Resto) so much more group utility that it almost makes it it so much harder to not bring them to a group. This would definitely cause a lot of whines from other classes but I see it as a nice move that will benefit everyone more than cause any harm. Imagine, no more running back just because your only healer was a druid and couldn't rez you.
After the new talent trees for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion came out, it's become quite the opinion that Feral is the "lamest" of the three druid trees in the sense that Balance and Restoration got awesome talent additions while Feral didn't impress that much. As if that wasn't bad enough, feral druids were hit with some bad news once again! Blizzard poster Koraa gives the latest word about the mysterious Dire Cat form that was announced in the World Wide Invitational (WWI) a while back.
We have no plans to implement a "Dire Cat" form at this time. "Dire Bear" exists for the sole purpose of upgrading the Feral Druid's armor value to match the Warrior/Paladin etc. (Druids get no shield)
We do, however, intend to allow Druids to be able to use items and enchants with procs in forms, which I believe will work in the next beta build (don't hold me to it though).
I think what Kalgan meant was that we intend to do different texture variances for Druid forms, including Cat form. Which is true, though not sure how soon we're going to get that. They may come from a repeatable quest, or through inscription.
Source
While this affects all druids, this obviously affects feral druids the most who were expecting it to an improvement over the current cat form mechanics. Of course since it was so mysterious, there really isn't much of a surprise that all cat form is getting is an aesthetic change.
Just when feral druids everywhere were getting pissed and disappointed with the powershifting nerf, Blizzard poster Jimmythenumbers sends news that will make their frowns turn upside down.
I just changed Furor to read as follows with 5 talent points:
Gives you 100% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear and Dire Bear Form, and you keep up to 100 of your Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 10%.
So, fully-talented, you will no longer lose any energy from shapeshifting out and back into Cat Form. source
So while the practice of powershifting (shifting in and out of cat form to gain energy from the furor talent) is still out the window, at least you get to keep all your energy when you shift in and out of cat form. The buff it gives Moonkins is also a nice bonus, finally giving a reason for Moonkins to get the talent. What's strange about this change is that if they gave Moonkins something to cheer about with this Furor change, why didn't Tree druids get anything from it too? I mean, Furor is a restoration talent and it doesn't even help its own tree at all.
Just when Blizzard added the Death Knight hero class to address the tank shortage, it seems like a healer shortage is another problem that might have to be addressed. I say might because these are all observations from some people as the Wrath of the Lich King expansion approaches.
Dizeh of the Northrend-US server tells of having a healer shortage within their guild since they want to be something else. Cipher from the same server says that he has a hard time finding healers for instances. It seems that the culprit is a combination of different things.
One reason I can think of is the one mentioned above, players wanting to be something else. With the introduction of the Death Knight class and the cool stuff that many of the dps classes are getting, it seems like a lot of players want to try them out. Right now in fact, some of my very own friends who play tanks as doing some last minute leveling before the expansion comes out and the popular choices are mage and warlock but there are some rogues and hunters as well. Only a few of my friends who have dps or tanks as their mains are leveling healers.
Another reason I can think of the removal of downranking and its effect on healer efficiency. A lot of healers have relied on downranking to be more efficient and stay effective in longer fights. With its removal, the fear of going OOM and possibly causing wipes because of it has scared away a lot of players. Not being able to heal properly makes a job that some already find boring annoying as well.
Personally, I liked my relatively short stint healing as a holy paladin so much that I've decided to level a druid and try healing as a Tree in the expansion. It was part of my backup plan to have another healing class in case holy paladins weren't going to be great in the expansion. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having two healer toons if both turn out to be great. So if there will indeed be a healer shortage, my friends can count on me if they need one.
What do you think? Do you see a healer shortage looming in your server?
Holy priests and Restoration druids just received some potentially sad news earlier about their spells Circle of Healing and Wild growth, respectively. Both spells have been known to be quite similar because of their AoE healing capability. Ghostcrawler posted in the forums that they are thinking of adding a 6 second cooldown for both spells
If implemented, this change would affect Circle of Healing more than Wild Growth since the it makes sense to spam the former because it heals it's full amount right away while the latter does it over time. This would make healing AoE encounters harder to do in the future. Would this decrease the value of both the Holy Priest and the Resto Druid to the raid in the future? Only time will tell I guess. While it might increase the value of the Chain Heal spamming Restoration Shaman to the raid, it might not necessarily lower that of the other two based on what Ghostcrawler said. He mentioned in the same post that if this change pushes through, they will have to tweak encounters keeping in mind that Circle of Healing will no longer be spammable.
Of course, a nerf is a nerf so if this pushes through it's still going to suck. I just hope that it's not going to suck too much.
I'm not really familiar with the actual state of druid tanking these days but I've heard some complains in the past. Whether these are just wild allegations or real concerns, they will be pleased to find out that they have been buffed.
The kind of surprising thing to this buff is that it isn't something announced to be included in the next patch. It was actually hotfixed into the game and hence is now actually live. As Ghostcrawler announced, the druid AoE tanking ability Swipe has been buffed to generate 50% more threat than before. In these days when it seems like the use of AoE is the way to go (in my experience, tanks usually prefer to use little or no crowd control and just burning them down with AoE), this should make bear druids more competent in dealing with the situation.
I found it funny that Ghostcrawler mentioned that this change might lead to bear tanks being able to tank so easily with one ability that they can macro Swipe to every keyboard button and faceroll. Of course that's always an exaggeration and I doubt that any kind of facerolling whether it be with chain heal, flash of light or the like would actually really work. But as I said, this would make bear tanking easier and they should be quite happy right now.
I was just reading through some of the "blue posts" and one of them caught my eye. According to Ghostcrawler, druids will be able to train for and use Polearms in patch 3.08. This was quite surprising for me since I knew that druids never could use them.
While this probably isn't a very big thing especially since there really don't seem to be many polearms around in the first place, this gives them another weapon type to use, most especially for the kitty druids out there. Whenever I think of polearms, for some reason I always think of the Ice Barbed Spear which you get from doing a quest in Alterac Valley at level 51. For those druids who will be around that level range when the patch comes out, it's nice to know it will be another option.
It's been almost a month and a half already since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion came out so it's probably safe to make a commentary about my observations about popularity of certain class specs. You can tell that the game has changed quite a bit when certain class specs that were quite popular before suddenly aren't as popular now and it seems like that's exactly the case for Wrath of the Lich King.
Perhaps the most glaring example that I have seen (at least in my experience) is the Protection Paladin. In TBC, they were very popular for their EZ-Mode tanking ability because of their mastery at AoE tanking. If you ran dungeons often, especially with a PuGs, then you would definitely have run into a Prot Pally back in the day. But with the introduction of Death Knights in the expansion and the recent rise of Retribution Paladins, it seems like Protection Paladins are a very rare sight nowadays. Holy paladins, in my experience, are also quite rarer than they used to for some reason.
In TBC, feral druids were also very popular because of their sudden viability as tanks, especially as off-tanks. Because of Death Knights and the improvements to the balance and resto tree and the not so impressive changes to the feral tree, it seems like ferals have also pretty much suffered losses to their numbers. In fact I have a friend who played a feral druid for all of TBC but suddenly decided to be a tree for this expansion.
The shadow priest is another example of a spec I haven't seen much of. In TBC, they were very useful as mana batteries - a niche that gave them some importance in raids. Perhaps because of their mediocre dps compared to other dps classes and the fact that the mana battery role has been made available to others like Ret pallies, the shadow priest isn't as popular as they used to be. In fact, I've only encountered a shadow priest in a dungeon run just today!
It's amazing how much things can change in just a small amount of time. I'm sure these vary from server to server but I'm sure at least some of these observations are true for some of you. What kind of changes to the class spec landscape have you experienced so far?
The current success of the Death Knight as the first hero class has made me quite optimistic that future hero classes could possibly thrive in the game. The death knight has its appeal stemming from the fact that it's something new and fun. Its potential as a killing machine can be reached without much effort, making it pretty user friendly for people who want to try it out. It's also different in the sense that it's made dual wield tanking viable and joins the feral druid as another class/spec that tanks without a shield.
As someone who found the joys of healing (something I thought I'd never do if you asked me in vanilla-WoW) while playing a holy paladin in TBC and currently plays a restoration druid, I would really love to see the same brand of innovation and appeal applied to a healing class. Shortly after Blizzard announced the death knight as a hero class, I always wondered about the possibility of a healing hero class. Later on after learning about the death knight rune system, I actually expanded that thought to the possibility of a healing class that doesn't use mana at all but something different just like the rune system. Apparently these thoughts I've been having are shared by Blizzard's Ghostcrawler himself as shown in his forum post below.
I could totally see several ways to design a new healing class that used mana in a different way or didn't use mana at all. You are right that it might not appeal to players who hate healing, but it might appeal to players who just haven't found a class that heals in a way that is fun for them. source
The most obvious problem with designing a healing class that doesn't use mana is that mana is center of what healing is currently about. Intellect, spirit, and mp5 all have something to do with mana and they are important to healers. The corollary to this problem is itemization since healing gear across all armor types use these stats. the only way I see this problem being solved is to design a system that translates these stats to affect the new resource system
Ghostcrawler mentioned something about healing in a different way than the current healing classes do. If they did implement a new healing hero class, it would certainly have its own style and niche and that's something I'm really excited to see in the future.I know that we're all supposed to be focused on the current expansion but Ghostcrawler's thoughts are already getting me excited and hoping that this idea gains some steam.
For a lot of us, the moment we got the expansion we immediately took our characters to either to Northrend, making the decision to go to either the Borean Tundra or the Howling Fjord first. Quite a number of us decided to abandon our 70's in the meantime to make a Death Knight to be the new main character.
I only got my copy of the expansion a few hours ago so I've had a lot of time to mess around in the Outlands for quite a bit on my characters. I'd usually go herbing to supply my druid's inscription and do some dailies and not much else. Out of boredom from not having the expansion the past few days, I'd just end up logging out early. But in my travels the past few days, I noticed one thing which will end up becoming the trend for quite some time - a ton of Death Knights going around the Outlands! For now, it's the Hellfire Peninsula but I imagine the swarm could follow all the way Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.
Everywhere I went on my druid, I saw a Death Knight whether Alliance or Horde there was at least one. But it's usually swarms! General chat was full of them and the stories are quite funny. A priest in my server who was leveling in Hellfire Peninsula was talking about a 5 man group he was in where there were 4 Death Knights and he was healing. My guild mate who plays a Death Knight was remarking that he didn't notice unless much later in the fight that he was actually fighting an elite because his health never went below 90%.
Another thing I was noticing was the choices on Death Knight races. As I said, I saw tons of them running around Hellfire Peninsula and I was keeping a rough score in my head. For the Alliance in my server, it seems like I only saw Humans and Night Elves and nothing else. I thought Gnome was going to be quite popular? I know that if my DK was Alliance, I'd be Gnome. I noticed that for the Horde in my server, Blood Elves were the most popular but I also saw a lot of Taurens and Undead and slightly less but still plenty Orcs. In my journeys, I only saw one Troll and it was a female.
This brings me to my Death Knight. I decided a long time ago that my Death Knight was going to be either Troll or Orc. I have an Undead Mage, Blood Elf Paladin, Tauren Druid and a Blood Elf Warlock I'm still working on. That left Orc and Troll as the only horde races I didn't have yet. All the guild mates I asked said I should go Troll and i seemed to agree since I liked Berserk and the new Voodoo Shuffle as racials. Seeing that Trolls didn't seem to be a popular choice also made me feel a bit unique or at least give me a sense of cheering the underdog or going against the norm. Of course it might be a while until I seriously get to play my Death Knight if ever i even decide to play it seriously at all.
We've been seeing several Death Knights running around and it seems like, in my experience, they aren't afraid to tank whenever you need one. In fact it seems like the presence of Death Knights have really helped the tank shortage problem as was intended. Healers seem to be harder to find now than tanks, at least in my experience leveling up.
Being a new class, it still has some issues that need to be addressed. Ghostcrawler floated around some ideas about Death Knight tanking in a post he made in the official forums. He mentions that they are not prepared to announce specific changes yet so don't be disappointed if some of the thoughts don't get implemented. His thoughts are summarized below. Click here to see the actual post.
1. Boost frost presence mitigation, lower mitigation of other abilities. DK's tank well with cooldowns and don't do as well without them.
2. Icebound fortitude could see mitigation scale based on defense.
3. Expect buffs for Blood tree tanking talents
4. Rune strike might get decreased damage and increased threat
5. Death and Decay is not supposed to be a tool used to gain runic power out of combat.
6. Horn of Winter and Unholy blight could get decreased runic power costs.
7. The Shadow of Death talent isn't intended to be used for escaping durability damage or resurrecting by zoning into an instance.
8. A new spell might be added to let you raise fallen allies (wait... they're getting a battle rez? 0.o) so you don't have to choose between bringing back a player or your ghoul.
Although I'm not really very familiar with Death Knights much less Death Knight tanking since I don't play mine much yet, it seems like the ideas being floated around look interesting. Being a new class, it's acceptable that Death Knights still have some issues but it's good to see an effort to make things better.
The next expansion will offer players to play the first of many planned hero classes, the Death Knight. Here are my thoughts about the much anticipated class based on the information we have now.
First of all, almost everything we know about the Death Knight class is not set in stone but what is confirmed is that it will start out at a much higher level. While other classes start out at level one, the plan is for Death Knights to starts out somewhere between 55 and 70. Starting out at higher levels is part of the prestige they will get out of being a hero class but this also opens up a whole new set of issues, good and bad. Starting out at higher levels will shorten the grind to 80. Leveling is fun but Im sure everyone will agree that it can also be a painful and long grind.
Starting out at higher levels also brings more pressure to learn the class as soon as possible. You dont have that leisure to go through the more forgiving low level instances like Deadmines and Wailing Caverns. If someone screws up in the higher levels a wipe is almost always imminent. Yes that a learning experience but its not the way we always want to learn. The Blizzard CM Bornakk says the following about having enough time to master the class.
Just leveling up to reach Northrend will take time and should provide players some great experience in learning the new class.
worldofwarcraft.com
That is enough time indeed but that depends if the player uses that time to learn the class. I play a paladin as an alt and shes level 32 right now. Putting aside the runs my high level guild mates have brought me too, I can say Ive never ran an instance at all. Im level 32 and I cant say I learned how to heal and tank since I soloed my way up. Whats stopping me from going all the way to 70 now and skipping all the dungeons along the way? Whats stopping me from doing that and deciding that Ill heal or tank in instances at 70 without prior experience? Whats stopping me from rolling a Death Knight come expansion and soloing my way to 80 and as a result not knowing exactly how I should act in groups? Nothing! But as a result Ill be hated in groups for sucking at playing the class. So while starting out at a higher can put pressure into learning your class sooner, it also could give rise to more and more high level players who dont know how to play. Its no coincidence that hunters, the easiest class to solo with, is also generally the most idiot filled class around, thus was given the huntard title.
"Ooh an update about the Death Knight's starting level! We'll finally know after all these months!"
Well not exactly.
The starting level of the Death Knight hero class has been an uncertainty ever since Blizzard announced it was going to start at a pretty high level. It has been the subject of many speculations even up to now. All we knew was that it could be 55, or 60 or even 70! Well CM Bornakk gives us an update about the subject.
We haven't completely finalized a number, but we plan to have them start at a level lower than 70. We didn't have Draenei or Blood Elves start at a higher level when they first entered the game so we are aiming to make this Hero Class at a good level to learn abilities but also get to Northrend a little faster. source
So there you have it. They plan to start the Death Knight at a level below 70. So it's NOT going to start at 70. Yeah not much help, was it? We'll take what we can get I guess. We'll just have to wait.
CM's Bornakk and Nethaera give us a little something about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and I figured they are probably stuff you guys would like to know. Bornakk tells us something about the 5 man dungeons while Nethaera clarifies how Death Knight creation and server transfers are going to work.
WotLK 5 man Dungeons
We are currently planning to keep the 5 person dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King fairly short in length, but with a boost to their overall epicness - the preview we have of The Nexus is a great example of this.
The more vast and sprawling dungeons will be found in the raid dungeons which more players will be able to experience with the changes to the setup. Source
Death Knight Creation and Server Transfer
An online poster in the official forums wrote this:
Bornak (I think) clarified that if a server is not yet open to transfers, then you need a level 55 on that server to create a Death Knight. Once it's open to transfers, though, it's fair game.
Nethaera replied:
This is correct. At this point in time, we don't have any further limitations on the creation. As always, I like to give a caveat that this could change if we feel it's necessary.
taken from here
It's good to hear that the 5 man dungeons of the next expansion won't.be too long. It's not that fun if a dungeon takes so long to finish. Dungeon length sometimes factors into whether or not someone can do the dungeon. Many times, I've been turned off by Botanica runs since it's pretty long.
When the Death Knight was announced as a hero class, I was quite surprised since it was something I didn't think they would do. But now, in a way I'm quite disappointed that only one new class would be added to the game. The game has been with us since late 2004 and until now the only new addition to the class selections is still on its way. I was actually expecting a new class when TBC was announced to come out. instead they just made shamans and paladins available to the opposite faction. I know it's a different situation but when the Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction expansion came out, it came with 2 new classes to choose from. I was hoping WoTLK would come with another hero class aside form the DK. But of course, I understand the situation. CM Nethaera explains below.
Here's the skinny, the lowdown, the 411 etc on the death knight choice.
First off, it fits in with Northrend extremely well for obvious reasons.
Second off, many people tend to have this strange belief that adding a new class is simple, easy as pie, and a cakewalk all on a Sunday afternoon, but it's not. There is a lot of work that goes into it and many considerations for how it will work, how it will work with other classes, how the lore ties in, how quests and npcs also can tie in to this new class, itemization, and a whole lot more. It takes a lot of forethought, testing, and care to add something this major to the game and for each new class that is added to the game, come the concerns about not maintaining the uniqueness of each class that already exists.
I'm not saying that the possibility of more classes being added in the future isn't a possibility. We had many ideas of what class we'd add in for Wrath of the Lich King prior to settling on the death knight. There are many more possibilities for classes we'd consider in the future as well, but we aren't going to rush to add them in and risk creating a situation where other classes lose their uniqueness and their value within the game. source
I think the plan is to have one hero class released per expansion from this point on although that may not be followed if it doesn't turn out to be what the designers want. But even at that pace, one per expansion seems a bit slow. Of course, balance is the key and the more classes there are, the harder it is to balance all of them.
Blizzard recently changed the Talent tree descriptions on the Death Knight page. The changes, while less descriptive, are very telling of what Blizzard plans for the Death Knight now.
Old Talent Tree Descriptions
Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage-dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage
Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage
Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases and PvP-focused abilites. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities.
taken from World of Raids
New talent Tree Descriptions
Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes.
Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos.
Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases.
The most telling difference that the new has from the old is that it seems like you could fill your role of tank or dps with any tree unlike the old where you needed to be Blood specced to tank and Frost to be dps. It seems now that the death knight just might be like a feral druid in that a change in gear and presence used could turn a DK from tank to dps or vice versa on the fly. of course this is just me speculating here. What do you think?
Ever since the Death Knight class was announced as a hero class, information about the class was always sought after. When the first set of information about the class was released a while back, it painted a picture of a class that is different what what we've seen in the past with the runes and runic power system, the spell damage tanking niche, disease based spells and many more.
I've heard that the talent trees were lurking around the internet a few days ago but I never really went out to look for them. but after I read a few interesting things about the trees, finally I decided to look. After some looking, I decided that the most complete and best presented on can be found here at Warpirate, which is a web site you can use to make your own talent trees. Someone made one for the DK talents that was going around. So for those looking for the talent trees, finally you found them!
What's very clear to me based on the talent trees is that no matter what spec you are, it's always important to keep your targets diseased because each tree has something to increase your Death Knight's effectiveness against diseased targets.
Based on the talents as they are now (since we know that we'll defiantly see a lot of tweaking from now until release), I can say that the Death Knight will be a fun and interesting class not play!
Just in case the link above from Warpirate disappears for any reason, the blood, frost and unholy talents of the death knight class can be seen at Blizplanet, although some of the slots are not filled up.
Who need the wow gold ? And do you know the Step Of Buying World of Warcraft Gold? For those who don't have the time or inclination to make gold in World of Warcraft with professions, buying gold could be the right alternative. There are many online companies just as www.wowgoldsell.com who specialize in selling WoW Gold to players. Some of these advertise their services in the WoW chat dialog window, so it may be confusing to choose a gold vendor. Here are some steps to make that process a little less confusing.
Step1 Shop around online for the best and cheapest Cheap WoW gold prices. Prices change constantly, and gold vendors have sales offering bonus gold or reduced prices. A good place to start is googling "wow gold" and checking out the websites of the top results.
Tags: power leveling, WoW News
2. Zhu-khang the Gold Seller
Anyone that has spent any decent amount of time in an MMORPG has inevitably gotten their share of gold seller spam and tells. Some creative soul at Funcom decided to have some fun with this annoying little aspect of our gaming world. Thus Zhu-khang the Gold Seller was born. This comical little man who doesn't speak English very well is the embodiment of all those annoying spammers in our beloved games. He makes those same kind of crazy offers like you give me your money for my money. And like in real life, there is someone along this guys quest line just stupid enough to buy it. Zhu-khang doesn't work alone though, he has his own sweatshop style labor in a poor soul known as Little Farmer.
1. Thoth Amon
What better way to end things than with the resident bad guy of Hyboria. Thoth Amon has been tormenting players since they crash landed on the shores of Tortage. Unfortunately, the battle leading up to the climax with Thoth Amon is like a bad sexual experience. There is a lot of talk and teasing leading up to the big moment, but when you get there nothing really happens. You don't even get a chance to suffer from premature attackulation (Thats my word, I made it up!). As you fight through the game and pursue this elusive wizard, you will come close to facing him time and time again. When you reach level 80 and finally do the last destiny quest you will enter the instance ready to give this guy 80 grind levels worth of beating. However, he will once again escape your vengeful grasp, denying you that climactic satisfaction again. I guess we'll have to wait for the next chapter in the Destiny Quest to find out if Funcom will give us that satisfying moment.
10. Lord Atum-Keket
Lord Atum-Keket is probably one of the more memorable bosses you will face in the early stages of your Hyborian adventures. This fat, bloated, greasy mouth, twelve sandwich eating bastage is found in the Pyramid of the Ancients and he will string you along the dungeon forcing you to find a bunch of shiny balls (arguably because years of imprisonment has corroded his own) before you can face him. When you do finally breach the door impeding your path to this chunky skirt wearing boss, he will bore you with slow yapping dialogue before finally attacking with smelly body odor.
9. Cock Handler
There really isn't a lot funny about this guy aside from his name, but if you paid any amount of attention to the forums at launch or during beta you probably know this fellow was a huge favorite of the community for his name alone. Having a name like %26#8216;Cock Handler' brought out the immature side of everyone that saw it as they giggled with glee. We all know his name was given to him for the fact that he is a chicken wrangler, but what do you expect from a bunch of gamers that enjoy severing heads and watching animated breasts jiggle about the land. We keep our minds in the gutter. We like it there. Seriously though, we just have a good sense of humor and this guy gave us all the ammo we needed to load our immature joke cannons for another shot.
8. Delia
Few people in Hyboria can make you hate them as much as Delia. This evil wench specializes in tormenting the populace of Tortage and causing you a massive headache. She has a face like a hound dog and looks like she sucked for hours on a super lemon. Aside from that she's pretty darn ugly. Her constant nagery and antagonizing of you keeps building with every encounter making the beating you finally get to give her during the last part of the Tortage Destiny Quest a very gratifying moment in your early adventures. Very little in Tortage is as rewarding as finally meeting Delia in battle and stomping a mud hole in this wench and walking it dry.
7. Skudd
Skudd is a recent addition to the AoC world that came with the Ymir's Pass update. This oversized Cimmerian loves to fight and you will actually be given a quest to let him join battle one more time. What follows is a quest where you have to safeguard this knucklehead as he tries to attack any and everything you come across. The end result has Skudd going into a killing frenzy leaving you on your own as he runs off flailing wildly into the wilderness. You later find this big lummox back at the camp recovering from his blackout episode and waking up with someone's gnawed off arm in his mouth. To make matters worse (or funnier) this oaf gives you the gnawed up arm of his latest victim as a reward. The sad part, it's a decent weapon for that level.
6. Sancha
Who wasn't amused the first time they met Sancha, the head Mistress of the local brothel in Tortage known as the Bearded Clam. The name of this establishment alone was enough to give us all a good laugh. It was almost as comical as our good friend the Cock Handler. Which to be honest, might be an appropriate name for someone working in this profession.
5. Strom
They say you never forget your first, and Strom was your first big bad guy. At the end of your Destiny Quest in Tortage you faced off against this evil man who has returned to life through the power of the Mark of Acherone. It was a gratifying feeling to finally pummel this nut job, and then you made an alt and did it again and again. After playing through Tortage a few times you will almost be ready to join Strom and help him burn that accursed city down yourself. Still, Strom earns honors as one of our top ten for the simple fact he is your first big name boss.
4. Fabio and Precious
when players first saw this guy and that was , "I can't believe it's not butter." Needless to say this character was obviously designed after the real Fabio and almost seems to be just as big a tool as he was. However, the climax to this guys supreme sissy factor quickly became apparent when he asks you to rescue his one true love. After running through half of Aquilonia to get what was needed for the safe return of his Precious, he ends up sending you on a rescue mission because he botched up his payment plan. During the daring rescue you discover the identity of Precious and that the woman you have been sent to save is not a woman at all, but rather a cute little puppy.
3. Drunken Pirate (Tortage)
Few sights in AoC will make you laugh as hard as the first time you're minding your own business on the Tortage Harbor docks and all of a sudden this drunken pirate staggers up beside you. Without so much as a warning he whips out Captain Winky and out comes a yellow stream of drunken goodness. It's a short, but rather comical experience. It might also be important to note that if you were taking a swim in the Harbor recently and noticed a change in water temperature, it probably wasn't because to the weather.
Tags: Age of Conan
Inquisitive minds are invited to uncover the truth about the town, and what connections lie beneath the surface to other regions of the Maple World. Players should bring along friends and explore the dark side of science together.
To get to Magatia, go North of Ariant and take the Sunset Road all the way down.Players can prepare for a journey into a world of magic, mechanical monstrosities and mischief! Located in the Nihal Desert, the town Magatia revolves around two societies, Alcadno and Zenumist. Maplers will run into strange creatures, strange items, exciting new quests, and secrets of the Maple World.
New Holiday Events
" Maplemas vs. Versalmas!
" Little Suzy's Dilemma
" The Spirit of Maplemas
" A Versal Tradition
" A Verry Merry Maplemas
" Happy Versalmas to you
" Grubber's Holiday Grudge
" Festival of Lights- Building the Altar
GM Event
" Day of Darkness (12.23.2008) All Day
" GM's will be spreading holiday cheer by summoning mobs throughout the day to challenge players.
3-Day %26amp; 10-Day Cash Shop Items
" For one week only, the Cash Shop will be carrying 3-day and 10-day items at a much cheaper price. Now, gamers can try out different outfits before buying them at the regular price.
Happyville
Players should head south to Happyville experience a festive holiday showcase.
Christmas Sock Mobs
Christmas Socks might look cute and pretty, but aren't always nice. These mobs will appear on random maps every 2 hours, so gamers must look out for these creatures.
New Pet
Check out the new Crystal Rudolph Pet, which transforms into a beautiful reindeer with a command and has cute animations. This pet is available only in the cash shop for a limited time.
Gift Function
The Gift Function has been changed so that you can gift to multiple friends at once.
Mini Dungeon
The Mini Dungeon will be over after the December patch so be sure to get your items before the event ends.
Tags: Maple Story
Anniversary Rings Available for a Limited Time Only
After the character has been restored and logged into the game, an Anniversary Ring will be made available through the method described below. The window to obtain the ring is as follows:
Thursday, December 18th at 00:00 (PST), 2008 through to Wednesday, April 15th at 01:00 (PDT), 2009.
The distribution of the rings will end at the same time the campaign does so be sure to pick up your ring before it's too late!
What Is the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign?
Designed specifically for those out there thinking of making a comeback to the online universe that is Vana'diel, the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign is a limited-time opportunity for players to restore their characters to their past glory!
Applications made during the established time frame will see their characters restored in full and exactly as they left them. Better yet, they will be immediately capable of embarking on new adventures!
Port San d'Oria (J-10) / Port Bastok (J-13) / Windurst Walls (C-14)
The Fine Print
- Although the campaign will welcome any player wishing to return to Vana'diel, the Anniversary Ring will only be available for a limited time. Therefore, it is possible that some campaign participants will be unable to receive a ring. Your understanding in this matter is greatly appreciated.
- Characters that have obtained an Anniversary Ring as part of the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign in May 2008 will be unable to acquire another ring, even if they return to FINAL FANTASY XI as part of the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign.
Anniversary Ring Eligibility
Only characters fulfilling the following two conditions will be eligible to receive an Anniversary Ring:
- Characters who did not receive an Anniversary Ring during the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign in May 2008.
- Characters who were created before Wednesday, May 28, 2008 and have logged into the game at least once since then.
*Note: Characters meeting the above requirements are able to receive an Anniversary Ring even without participating in the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign.
How to Obtain Your Ring
After making sure that you have at least one free space in your Gobbiebag, simply go and talk to any of the moogles located in the areas listed below:
Tags: FFXI
Event Duration:During the Christmas holiday
Event Rules
1. Continue talking with Wynne to get another reward, a Blue Christmas Case. Bring the Blue Christmas Case to Missy Elene at Icicle Castle, and then obtain a Santa Summon Scroll as a gift.
2. The quests can be repeated. When players finish quest the first part, "Collecting the Christmas Cases", and continue talking with Wynne, they can only accept the second part of the quest, escorting the Blue Christmas Case. If players want to get the first part of the quest again, they have to finish the whole quest again.
3. Go talk with Wynne to accept the quest.
4. Fight with the Christmas Reindeer in the outskirts of the 3 main cities, and collect the quest items. These include the Red Christmas Case, Orange Christmas Case and Green Christmas Case. After that players must return to Wynne and hand in the required items to obtain 8,000 EXP as a reward...
Tags: Santa Claus
Scholar
Job Ability "Enlightenment"
Optimizes both white and black magic capabilities and allows access to both addenda for your next spell. Recast: 10min. Each upgrade shortens recast time by 1 minute 15 seconds.
Job Trait "Stormsurge"
Storm-type spells grant a bonus to attributes associated with their element. Initial bonus value: +3. Each subsequent upgrade increases bonus value by 1.
Dancer
Job Ability "Saber Dance"
Increases Double Attack rate but renders Waltz unusable. Double Attack rate gradually decreases. Recast: 5min. Each upgrade shortens recast time by 30 seconds.
Job Ability "Fan Dance"
Reduces physical damage taken and increases enmity but renders Samba unusable. Physical damage reduction gradually decreases with each hit taken. Recast: 5min. Each upgrade shortens recast time by 30 seconds.
Tags: FFXI
Seven corporations with multiple Starbases set up for the express purpose of exploiting the issue. Three of those corporations were members of two alliances. CCP took immediate action against the offenders and banned over 70 accounts and destroyed all the Starbases run by the corporations in question. All the offending corporations are now effectively inactive as a result of our actions.On December 7th 2008, a petition from a concerned player alerted a serious problem with Starbase reactors. The petition had been filed five days earlier, CCP found that there was indeed a problem and that it was being exploited to gain unfair advantages.
The corporations were producing high end materials for T2 production. Working with the Research %26amp; Statistics team CCP have established that the effects on the markets have been considerable and far reaching. The effects of our actions against the exploiters will also be felt on the market as the production of the materials has been cut substantially. However, supply should increase again once players have mastered the alchemy process.
To trade in your coins, you'll want to see the Jester of Festivult. He can be found in a number of locations, but you can't just walk up to him this year -players will need to conquer the Jester's Jumping Puzzles in order to cash in coins and receive their presents, although certain areas have easier ways to reach the Jester for those that find the puzzles too difficult. After the break, we've got the full list of rewards and Jester locations. Once you get some coins (there are three different types) you can hand them in for rewards. These rewards range from a lump of coal, all the way up to something so good that it's being kept a secret.
The time for Dungeons and Dragons Online players to celebrate the Festival of the Twelfth Moon coming again. You can start to get into the holiday mood with a Festivult poem, but you'll also find that there's a long list of goodies to be had in-game. Getting your hands on some unique Festivult items isn't too hard -every treasure chest has a chance to drop Festival Coins, as well as whatever else is inside, during the holiday season.
Now the team is workinf hard on solving this problem. And resolving the conflicts in the database and fixing the problem with the allocation correctly to ensure it can't happen again and also ensure that player's items or characters are not risked.This issue caused there to be a risk, on some servers, under specific circumstances, of items having non-unique identifiers in the database.
This in turn might have lead to some cases of player's items not surviving the merge. It didn't happen at all during our testing, and may have been a possibly rare occurrence.merge process will almost certainly continue into January. Some additional ‘ground work' as it were to prepare the databases for the merges again. The community team will provide more details on this over the coming days and weeks in terms of schedules and when you can expect downtime so please keep your eyes out for details.
Tags: Age of Conan
The heroic encounter itself suffers from extreme lag issues and frame rate drops even on high end computers. Realizing that SWG is over five years old now and has seen no major upgrades to the MMO's engine, many have speculated that the Hoth heroic encounter is just too much for this outdated engine. Whether or not we will see a fix to these problems is yet to be seen. It is a reasonable theory to say that marketing drove the release prematurely to align with SOE's free month for veterans.The Battle of Echo Base was released recently on the Star Wars Galaxies live servers.
After the reviews by the Star Wars Galaxies community, the most obvious problem would be premature release of this chapter. Several parts of the game have been broken with no insight as to when they will be fixed, and lag hits the servers rampantly. SOE has released the 11.2 to fix delayed transport times, but other aspects of the game are still under strict scrutiny.
Hoth has been requested for a long time and in some cases as an entirely new planet. The argument is made however that Hoth is a desolate planet and would not be appropriate as an entire new planet in itself. The idea of creating an instance for The Battle of Echo Base appeals to both sides of that squabble. Regardless of the arguments made, Hoth is an entertaining instance with many collections contained within, and a feel for the true Star Wars canon. Hoth is also the first heroic encounter that can reward multiple or no tokens depending on whether or not you complete the objectives, and how well you complete them. This particular heroic encounter is split to either Rebels or Imperials and each side fights for different objectives. Sticking to Star Wars canon the Rebels will always lose and the Imperials will always win. What determines your success is how well the Rebels lose or how well the Imperials win.
Some of the collections include brand new killer collections. The probe droid killer collection rewards you with a probe droid holopet, and there are also kill collections for wampas, tauntauns, and Imperial/Rebel sharpshooters (depending on what side you are on). There are also clickable collections inside the instance which disappear once a player clicks on it. Finishing the instance and returning to the wampas seems to be the strategy of choice. The wampa boss (Ukajo) drops some interesting items including a Tauntaun skull backpack and Wampa DNA. Unfortunately this boss is extremely hard and requires some tactics to defeat, but the rewards are worth the victory. Two collections exist outside of the encounter, those being a Tatooine Vista Collection (rewards a painting) and a Tauntaun Holoemitter collection (rewards a Tauntaun holopet and holopet emitter). The Holoemitter collection pieces can be looted from droids within and outside of the instance. Most notably they can be looted from inside Borvo's Vault and the Droid Engineer's Cave on Lok.
With Hoth released one cannot wonder what is next for SWG. Game Update 6 is set to address Politicians, Cities, Spies, and Player Associations, and Chapter 12 is entitled Droid Commander. From what has been released so far, Droid Commander will entail a new expertise tree similar to Beast Master but for droids. No word has been said how this will apply to Droid Engineer Traders yet. Hopefully Game Update 6 will make cities viable again as a place to congregate and receive bonuses.
There have been some arguments as to the time period conflicting with the historic SWG setting (between Episodes IV and V). Luckily, this encounter does fit in well with the time period; in that it does not interfere with iconic character's life, death or portrayal in the original trilogy. This encounter takes a lot of teamwork and strategy to complete flawlessly. Even if you only get a few tokens, the instance is fun and the loot is rewarding. None of the drops are no-trade so setting the loot to random is an excellent way to complete Hoth with everyone benefiting from the drops. The Rebels can fly a snowspeeder and the Imperials can pilot an AT-ST during the first phase. The second phase takes place inside the base itself, and the third phase is the evacuation of transport vessels. Non-player Characters (NPCs) will help you fight throughout the instance, but do not count on them winning it for you.
Tags: Star Wars Galaxies
Items
Vault Gem: Fixed an issue that allowed players to use this item in an unintended manner.
Tier 3 Keep Gold Bags would occasionally not have a set item in them. This has been corrected.
Quests %26amp; Public Quests
The Sea of Saphery: Added missing start and completion dialogue to this quest.
Working Undercover: Players who have abandoned this quest can now receive another helmet by killing Ranger Stoutfoot again.
The Windstep Codex: Fixed an issue that was preventing players from interacting with The Windstep Codex quest item in order to complete the quest.
Mind, Body %26amp; Soul (Disabled): Players can no longer accept this disabled quest.
Unlikely Origins: Bloodrock Poisontails and Bloodrock Scorpions should now appropriately count towards the Bloodrock Chitin requirement of this quest.
Footsteps of Evil: The Cruel Screamers will now spawn more frequently.
Wild Stunty Hunting: Undin Baladson's head will now only drop for players on the quest. This fixes an issue which had sometimes prevented players from getting credit for the kill.
Price of Mercy: Fixed an issue that was sometimes preventing players from being able to use the Lothern Spear in the proper area, causing the quest to become stuck.
Cleanin' Up Kadrin: Fixed several issues that were preventing players from completing the quest.
Restless Vengeance: Players can now summon the Vengeful Spirit to complete this quest
Culling the Weak: Added missing start and completion dialogue to this quest.
Head of the Line: Fixed an issue that was preventing players from interacting with the monument plaques.
Restless Vengeance: Added a return waypoint for this quest.
Ruins of Anlec: Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented the Stage 3 monsters of this Public Quest from despawning.
The Brass Legion: Fixed an issue with this Bastion Stair Public Quest which could, in some cases, prevent the first stage from being completed.
By Dawn's Early Light: Fixed an issues with this Public Quest that would cause the first stage condition to increment without player participation.
Shady Tower: Fixed an issue in which Lord Karoun would run out of the boundaries of Public Quest area.
Burnbeard's Oath: Fixed an issue which was preventing this Public Quest from being completed past the second stage.
Realm vs. Realm
Well of Qhaysh: Palisades have been added around this keep. This corrects an issue that could in some cases allow besieging players to improperly gain entry into the keep.
Martyr's Square: Fixed an issue in which players would not receive renown for capturing this Battle Field Objective.
Kadrin Valley: Healers have been placed in the Destruction Warcamp and in the Order Warcamp in this zone.
Nordland: The guards at the Order Warcamp will now better defend the camp from attackers.
Kazad Damaz: Fixed an issue that was causing the postern doors of this keep in Kadrin Valley keep to not function properly.
Other Updates
General Changes and Bug Fixes
There were some instances in which the reticule for ground-target-area-effect abilities was allowing these spells to be cast in areas which were not originally intended. This has been adjusted.
Several issues have been addressed that previously allowed players to get to locations they were not supposed to be able to reach.
Players will no longer appear mounted when they are not.
Based on player feedback, we have adjusted the way our End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) is presented. With this update, this window will only become visible in cases when we have made modifications to the contents of the EULA.
Additional improvements have been made to client performance and stability, particularly during periods of intense combat.
Content
Mikhail the Profane: This NPC will no longer spawn below the world.
The Empire Handgunners in Greenskin Chapter 10 will now defend themselves properly when attacked at range.
advertisement "No Strings Attached" Started by Shamarhaan in Bastok Markets at (F-9)
The first step to actually playing Puppetmaster is naturally unlocking it. After speaking Shamarhaan you'll need to head directly to Iruki-Waraki at (K-9) in Aht Urghan Whitegate and then Ghatsad at (I-7) in Whitegate as well. This is where things get time consuming and sometimes tedious. From this point you'll need to retrieve an "Antique Automaton" from the Arrapago Reef, however, to get there, you'll need to dodge Imps which can see through invisible and hear through sneak. Take the ferry to Nashmau to get entry to Caedarva Mire.
Head Northeast for awhile and then Northwest, to reach the (I-6) entrance into Arrapago Reef. Assuming you reach this point by not attracting the attention of a by standing Imp, there is a group of Lamia and undead outside the cave entrance at (I-6). Assuming you get through unscathed, head towards the first boat at (I-10) and you should find an %26#8216;???' where the Antique Automaton is located. After avoiding the Lamia on the boat and acquiring the Antique Automaton, return to Ghatsad. He will send you to Iruki-Waraki and follow the instructions from there to become a Puppetmaster!
Using hand to hand weapons, and wearing cloth armor, the job provides some challenges, and unlike other pet jobs where your pet serves a secondary role merely assisting you do the damage, Puppetmasters rely on their automatons for their strength and do everything to assist it and keep it alive.
There are several automaton frames and assorted automaton heads you can obtain as you progress. You start the job with a simple, unspectacular frame known as Harlequin, which is a fairly average enfeebler and will occasionally heal the master when you're hurt beyond a certain threshold. At level 10, you're able to unlock your first advanced frame, and you have three choices: Valoredge, Stormwaker, and Sharpshot. The Valoredge frame is the melee frame, which has extraordinary HP at higher levels, and as such can be a decent damage sponge. In terms of damage though, it's not comparable to Sharpshot. At lower levels, however, Valoredge is a magnificent tank when coupled with the Stoneskin attachment.
The Stormwaker frame is a magical automaton, capable of healing the master, nuking, enfeebling, and mediocre melee damage. In terms of damage, Stormwaker is adequate and can be something of a help in parties. The ranged frame is Sharpshot, and this frame is the supreme damage dealer of the pack in your average party. Capable of doing great ranged damage, excellent weapon skills and reasonable melee damage, this will be your frame of choice most of the time in a party.
At level 40 and 50, you'll be able to get two additional automaton heads designed for your Stormwaker frame, Soulsoother and Spiritreaver. The Soulsoother head allows your mage automaton to heal members of your party with cures, status effect removing spells, and spells like regen, as well as being able to cast reasonable enfeebling magic on enemies. Spiritreaver is the polar opposite, being a high-powered black mage head, it allows your mage automaton to cast powerful nukes on enemies, as well as aspir and drain. Each are very useful and can be obtained with the relevant items first at level 40. Personally I chose Soulsoother first.
The question rises inevitably however, "Is this a solo job?" In a word, no, Puppetmaster is not a replacement for the Beastmaster inclined who love soloing. Though it's capable of it in the early stages of the game, later on monsters get too powerful for you to handle on your own, and it gets much more difficult to gain experience on your own. Puppetmaster works best in parties, and work well it certainly does. Many unfortunate misconceptions exist about Puppetmaster, chief among them being that it's a weak job with no specific role. Well equipped and skilled Puppetmasters are essentially two people for the cost of one, being able to do damage on par with most other damage dealers, if not surpassing them.
Puppetmaster is also a very complicated job, and the process of understanding the behavior of magic automatons can be a lengthy read. Certain spells are only cast under certain HP or MP conditions under specific Maneuvers, which are job abilities based on every element, and incur special stat and ability boosts on your automaton, and encourages your mechanical friend to use certain spells and weapon skills. Not only this, but certain frame and head combinations from different sets can make the automaton act is quirky ways. For instance, a Stormwaker body with a Valoredge head will do nothing by melee attack and cast healing magic.
Even further, there are countless numbers of attachments you can (obviously) attach to your automaton giving it certain abilities, statistical enhancements, and traits. There are so many it's impossible to list them all in this article. From Stoneskin, increased Ranged Accuracy, casting Flash, the ability to Provoke, Regen and Refresh itself, and countless other things, the right combination of attachments can make your little buddy a force to be reckoned with indeed.
There are, of course, some downsides to this job, mainly the fact that due to the heavy emphasis placed on the automaton instead of the master; you yourself won't necessarily do that much damage on your own. In fact, without you're automaton you're practically a weak version of the Monk job, which also uses hand to hand weapons. Since the Puppetmaster isn't really a heavy powered role, SquareEnix has assigned only cloth armor to Puppetmasters, providing some challenges in seeking out and obtaining decent equipment. Unfortunately, some PUPs are forced to wear mage equipment because of no low-cost alternatives.
As for the proper support job, several come to mind depending on the job role your leader will have you play. For experience parties, Warrior and Dancer are adequate choices. Warrior will provide a lot of damage boosting potential as a sub-job, and provide you with several useful DD abilities. Dancer is perfect for a support role in the party, being able to assist with healing and enfeebling, at the cost of some damage dealing capabilities. For soloing and back-up healing abilities in a party, White Mage isn't a terrible choice for a Puppetmaster sub-job.
Which leads to another difficulty; this job can get expensive. Most attachments that you will want buy from the vender, Yoyroon, in Nashmau at (G-6) could end up costing you around 100,000gil just starting out, and this doesn't even include the far greater number of attachments you'll be forced to buy from the Auction House. Artifact Armor (Most of which is obtainable from the NPC Dhima Polvevhia at J-8 in Whitegate and Iruki-Waraki) items are even more expensive, and the items required to unlocking new automaton frames and heads can cost a pretty penny as well.
Tags: Final fantasy XI, Puppetmaster
Pretty incredible. EB Games isn't a small company by any means, and while we knew Wrath was big, it looks like Blizzard's second WoW expansion smashed pretty much every sequel it could in the chain, even toppling some of the console gaming records. Anyone that claimed World of Warcraft had peaked with Burning Crusade should be looking pretty foolish at this point.
We'll have to see where Blizzard goes from here -there's no doubt that one reason Wrath was so popular out of the gate was that it returned to the "core" of Warcraft III: the story of Arthas and the Scourge. Can Blizzard replicate that with another expansion, no matter what the setting?
One of our secret correspondents inside an EB Games store forwarded us this picture of an internal email sent out to the videogame retail company, saying that not only was the week of WotLK's launch the biggest sales week of the year, but it was the biggest week ever outside of last year's Christmas sales, and the biggest launch the chain has ever had. Additionally, at EB Games, Wrath was the highest presale ever, the highest single-format (which means PC/Mac only) week one sales (in just two days), and the highest day one sales of any game ever, multiformat or otherwise.
Tags: EB Games
This is a nice little way for Blizzard to thank all of us for spending years in the game. With over 11 million people playing WoW, and Wrath becoming a hit overnight, there's definitely a lot of celebrating to do over at Blizzard HQ.
The little bear that you get looks a like a small version of the BlizzCon Polar Bear Mount those of us lucky enough to attend BlizzCon this year got. It's a perfect traveling companion for you as you adventure around Northrend.Those of us waking up today and tomorrow will log into Azeroth and find in our mailboxes a little Baby Blizzard Bear non-combat pet. This pet will also give you a feat of strength achievement celebrating World of Warcraft's four years online.
The hook is that you cannot upgrade your Burning Crusade account to a Wrath of the Lich King account without accepting the fact that you may be required to open a Battle.net account at some point in the future. You can still play WoW and buy cheap wow gold, but you can't upgrade your account for Wrath.
This sounds scary, but it really isn't. If you were in the Wrath beta, you may remember that beta testers had to do something like that. It seems we were not only beta testing Wrath of the Lich King but also the implementation of Blizzard/Battle.net accounts. We logged in using our e-mail address, not our account name. And for our efforts, they awarded us with Chilly the Penguin. It was a pretty smooth transition from using one to the other once it was in place.
With all of the early copies of Wrath of the Lich King going around, people jumping in with early installations are finding some interesting things. Reader Emil J. wrote in to tell us about a message WoW-Europe displayed when they looked at the account upgrade page.
So when you see this when you're upgrading your account, I wouldn't worry about it. Go ahead and accept it, and enjoy Wrath of the Lich King. For the average WoW player, when the switchover happens it will probably only take five minutes over your time to plug in your information and you'll never even need to think of it again. If you're a diehard Blizzard fan and will be buying Diablo III, Starcraft II, and whatever other games come our way from them, this will actually be more convenient for you. This is also how achievements will be tracked across all Blizzard games like they have mentioned they want to do.
Plus, they'll probably still give out those adorable penguin pets when they go through with it. So cute!
It states that in the future, Blizzard intends to switch over from World of Warcraft accounts to a centralized account system for Battle.net. Which means that you'll create one account and you'll be able to use it for all of Blizzard's games with online capabilities in the future such as Diablo III and Starcraft II.
Experience Points by Scott Johnson is a new comic for this list. Check out their most recent WoW-related entry. Dark Legacy Comics: Haircut. I hope Blizz adds in new hairstyles soon. Most of my characters switched just for the achievement, and then switched back!
Flintlocke vs. The Horde: A Cunning Plan. Shakes and Fidget: Surprise. There are at least two surprises in this comic. A Little of Both from GU Comics. The latest from LFG. Where the Heck is the AH?! from Teh Gladiators. The latest from Scout Report. You might want to click back a few, as it seems the Ogres have been a little overly ambitious.
The expansion is drawing near, but for now, all I have to offer you folks is a brand spanking new list of comics. Well, except the first entry, it is not new. New to the list maybe but not "new" new. You see my point. Now get reading!
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.
Siewan, you fool! Did you fall asleep during your blue magic classes? Polymorph only changes the shape! The target is still as heavy as ever! Now I'm about to be stomped into the ground by a two thousand pound clefthoof/penguin. Oh .. wait .. I guess it only changes the size, not the mass. It only weighs eight pounds and it's now ... floating away on the breeze, into that dwarf's engineering mount. Okay, problem solved. Who wants clefthoofguin burgers for lunch, with a side of dwarf fries? (Thanks to Caeriss of %26lt;Tal'mahe'Ra%26gt; on Kirin Tor for the shot!)
Tags: Polymorph
Content
Trolls will no longer knockdown players with their Overhand Slam ability.
RvR
Players will no longer erroneously receive the "Bolster" buff when entering the Destruction warcamp in the Chaos Wastes.
Crafting
One of the things we’ve been hearing from players is that our Talisman making system was a bit more time-consuming than we wanted it to be. So, in an effort to make Talisman making more accessible to lower/mid-range crafters, our Items team changed Gold Essence (originally a product of Apothecary) to Gold Dust and added Gold Dust to crafting merchants to eliminate the need for a third crafter to level their skills. Unfortunately, this change was released slightly ahead of schedule and Gold Dust had no sell price. Rather than rollback everybody’s character, we decided to leave the change live. However, in order to avoid an impact on our economy, we have made it so that Gold Dust that had been purchased prior to server restart cannot be sold but it can still be used. This item can still be traded. So, since Gold Dust could previously be bought for no cost, well, you haven’t lost anything Players who previously had Gold Essence will notice that it has been converted to Gold Dust, which can be used in all recipes that previously required Gold Essence.
As a result of this change, Goldweed, which had previously been an ingredient used to create gold dust, has now been converted to a stabilizer for Apothecary. This is a boon to Cultivators, who could not previously create a stabilizer and it will help make tie Cultivation and Apothecary more tightly together.
Guild Recall Scrolls have been fixed so they can be purchased and used correctly by guild members of a Guild Rank 17 Guild. This fixes an issue where the scrolls were potentially being purchased ahead of time and could not be used until Guild Rank 17.
Addressed an issue which was causing the servers to crash.
We’ve corrected a bug that caused Balance Essence to not do as much damage as it should.
Da Smell Don't Bother Me has had its effect overhauled. It now provides a slight Heal Over Time effect to the Squig Herder while he is inside the Squig Armor.
Git %26#8216;Em will now upgrade correctly.
The following abilities should now be useable in Squig Armor:
Don't Eat Me
Farty Squig
Squig Frenzy
Tastes Like Chicken
All of the Pet summons.
Trial By Pain can now be used while moving, and will not be able to be setbacked. Fixed an issue where graphics settings sometimes did not save properly.
The vast majority of wearable items can now be dyed. This includes cloaks. Head on over to a merchant and make with the dyeing!
Players can now purchase shattered and ruined equipment from Hedge Wizard Merchant NPCs to help in improving their crafting skills.
Capital Cities
Tome tactic trainers in the libraries of capital cities will once again offer training.
Combat %26amp; Careers
The Templars of Myrmidia are known for keeping a clear head even in the heat of battle. Capable of quickly assessing the ebb and flow of combat the Knight is a born commander. They stride into battle shoulder to shoulder with their comrades shouting out orders and commands even as they swing their great blades. These Battlefield Commands give their allies a potent advantage, allowing them to swing their blades with great vigor or staunchly hold the line against the most oppressive of foes.
The Knights of the Blazing Sun are a small elite order of Templars devoted to the study and mastery of the science and art of warfare. These fervent followers of Myrmidia value ability and accomplishment over all other factors, including noble birth. It is because of this that the order has grown in prosperity attracting the finest military minds to its banner. A Knight of the Blazing Sun's primary goal is to obtain perfection in the art of War, as such they travel the old world individually seeking battle both large and small. A warband with a Knight of the Blazing sun at it's head is a potent force capable of dealing with opponents with a level of cunning that ensures victory before the battle is even joined.
Knight of the Blazing Sun Speciality
Playing a Knight of the Blazing Sun
The Knight of the Blazing Sun can be a daunting opponent to those who approach battle with a single strategy. The best defense against the Knight is to keep them on their toes and make them spend more time commanding the fight then actually participating in the melee. As with all heavily armored fighters the Knight of the Blazing sun is slower at closing the distance with ranged attackers and can be very vulnerable to ranged magic or missile fire. It is for this reason that Knight's frequently surround themselves with powerful allies to seal off their own inherent weaknesses.
A single Knight is a potent force indeed, but the Knight of the Blazing Sun truly shines when he is directing a force of allies in the heat of Battle. Knights must carefully watch the ebb of the fight and determine which commands and strategies are best suited for the situation at hand. Rapid reactions and a calm clear mind are the Knights greatest tools, allowing them to bolster their allies in battle while removing any advantage their opponents may have had.
Fighting against a Knight of the Blazing Sun
Tags: Knights
Server Updates
Developers of the Warhammer Online will release a new version, the patch 1.0.4 this mornig. This new version features many improvements and updates as well as some class balance changes and bug fixes.
This patch is being released by Mythic this evening and, if all their tests are successful then we will be able to roll it out with the usual small delay. Be sure to check the news for further information on the precise patch time as soon as we are able to confirm it.
For the latest and the quickest overview of the new patch, stay with us.
Two new careers will join the war
This November, the realm war will be even more deadly as two new careers take their place on the battlefield. The Empire will deploy the nobility and tactical cunning of the Knights of the Blazing Sun to aid the armies of Order in their battle against the encroaching darkness. Meanwhile Malekith's personal bodyguard, the much feared Black Guard will stride to war to bolster the Dark Elf armies as they struggle for their ancient homeland.
The Age of Reckoning has dawned
Across the Old World and on the island home of the High Elves, bitter enemies clash in bloody skirmishes and mighty battles. For the soldiers of Order and Destruction, there is no respite and no mercy. Now, the warring factions will gain new allies in the form of the fearsome Black Guard and the cunning Knight of the Blazing Sun. These heavily-armored soldiers race to the battlefront to anchor their realms' defenses and ensure that for every inch of ground given, the enemy pays in bitter blood.
With a thunderous war-cry and the ringing of steel on steel, the battle begins anew, with neither side willing to retreat or surrender.
To herald the arrival of these supreme warriors, we will be running a special event on all servers beginning on the 17th of November and you can read all about it on our Heavy Metal event page (for the detailed information, you can refer to our relating pages). You can also read more about the two new careers in our Universe section. Learn about the Knight of the Blazing Sun (again, you can have the detailed review of the Knight of the Blazing Sun in our relating parts covering the careers in the Warhammer Online ) and the Black Guard today (the same goes with the Knight of the Blazing Sun).
The darkness draws in on the most feared night of the year.
Witching Night approaches and all across the Old World, evil creatures awake to wreak mayhem. The twin moons bathe the land in pale light as this is the only time all year when they are both waxing full. The brave – or the foolhardy – hunt the twisted abominations that are called by the celestial confluence but will you be hunter or hunted?
From October 30th until the 3rd November, you will be able to take part in the deadly festivities of Witching Night. Fight in special Public Quests, unlock new rewards and look out for power hidden in dark places. See our Witching Night guide for more details.
Get a head start on the new WAR careers!!
When the Heavy Metal live event begins on November 17th, players who log into WAR will see a new tab in the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on this tab will open the Live Events page, where each day we'll place a new daily task. Completing these daily tasks earns influence, just like you'd earn in a public quest. There are rewards for Basic, Advanced and Elite influence, culminating in the ultimate prize: the chance to play WAR's new classes a full week before they're released to the public! This last reward won't be easy to earn, and players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event.
Things Go Bump in the Night
Tags: Warhammer Online
New In-Game Live Event Introduces Two New Careers to WAR!
The war has begun, and you've joined the forces of Order or Destruction, taking up arms with your realm-mates on the field of battle. You've conquered your foes in scenarios, stormed enemy-held keeps, raised your banners over battlefield objectives and banded together to thwart your enemies in public quests.
This November, we're bringing you a new challenge in the form of WAR's upcoming live event: Heavy Metal!
The Age of Reckoning has dawned
Across the Old World and on the island home of the High Elves, bitter enemies clash in bloody skirmishes and mighty battles. For the soldiers of Order and Destruction, there is no respite and no mercy. Now, the warring factions will gain new allies in the form of the fearsome Black Guard and the cunning Knight of the Blazing Sun. These heavily-armored soldiers race to the battlefront to anchor their realms' defenses and ensure that for every inch of ground given, the enemy pays in bitter blood.
With a thunderous war-cry and the ringing of steel on steel, the battle begins anew, with neither side willing to retreat or surrender.
The Age of Reckoning is about to get even deadlier as the noble and cunning Knights of the Blazing Sun and the deadly Black Guard join the fight for domination of the Warhammer world.
Get a head start on the new WAR careers!
We will also be adding a new scenario, Reikland Factory, for Heavy Metal that will only be available to players for the duration of this live event. This scenario will take place in a steam tank factory in the Empire Tier 4 zone of Reikland and see players battling for control of different areas of the factory. This new scenario will be available for players of all levels, on all tiers, but will not contribute to the campaign. Participation in this scenario will give players an extra 10% bonus to their Renown point gain.
When the Heavy Metal live event begins on November 18th, players who log into WAR will see a new tab in the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on this tab will open the Live Events page, where each day we'll place a new daily task. Completing these daily tasks earns influence, just like you'd earn in a public quest. There are rewards for Basic, Advanced and Elite influence, culminating in the ultimate prize: the chance to play WAR's new classes a full week before they're released to the public! This last reward won't be easy to earn, and players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event.
Exclusive Scenario
Tags: Warhammer Online
Violent and apocalyptic energies were unleashed, tearing the northern lands of Ulthuan apart. A wall of seawater a thousand feet high crashed into Nagarythe and drowned countless thousands. At the last moment, Malekith and the other surviving Sorcerers chanted spells to preserve their greatest fortresses, transforming them into floating Black Arks. These sailed westward, eventually coming to rest in the north of the New World. Malekith named this land Naggaroth and his exiled people, now called Dark Elves, made a new civilization for themselves.
What little remains of Nagarythe is a tortured and twisted land, blasted by fire and seared by destructive magical energies. Strange, mutated creatures stalk this gloomy, barren wasteland of gray earth and black stone. The High Elves named this cursed place the Shadowlands, for it seemed always to be in darkness.
It was not long before the Dark Elves returned to claim their ancestral land, and the two sides have fought ceaselessly for control of the region ever since.
Following the death of Aenarion, first Phoenix King of Ulthuan, the Elves faced a difficult choice. Some argued that Malekith, Aenarion's lone surviving son, should succeed his father. Others, however, feared what Aenarion had become after he drew the Sword of Khaine and worried that the dread sword's curse had been passed on to Malekith. In the end, it was Bel-Shannar who was chosen to lead the Elves, and not Aenarion's heir.At first, Malekith concealed his lust for power and his hatred of the Elves who had denied him his birthright. Instead, he made allies and won great victories in war, rising to a position of prominence among his people second only to the Phoenix King himself. It was then that he made his move, assassinating Bel-Shannar and proclaiming himself the rightful Phoenix King. Only one thing now remained. Malekith would have to prove his quality by entering the sacred flame at the Shrine of Asuryan, to be judged by the greatest of the Elven gods.
When he did so, however, the flame rejected him. Malekith was burned and disfigured, and his servants rushed the ambitious lord to the land of Nagarythe in the north of Ulthuan. When truth of the assassination came to light, the High Elves made war upon Malekith and his followers. When he was defeated by the new Phoenix King, Caledor the Conqueror, the son of Aenarion hatched a mad plan to undo the magic of the Vortex and let the raw power of Chaos spill into Ulthuan, destroying his enemies. The attempt was only partially successful, but the results were devastating.
Though the Shadowlands are forever ruined by the catastrophic wars of the Sundering, the armies of the High Elves and Dark Elves have once again converged here to do battle. The invaders from Naggaroth are searching for more of the ancient menhirs that anchor the Vortex, and the High Elves have come to make sure they do not gain control of these standing stones. The menhirs are sources of great arcane power, but any tampering with that power could have far-reaching effects that mirror the ancient Sundering.
The Shadowlands have other value for the Dark Elves. Artifacts and relics from their distant past can be found here as well, and these are prized by the nobles of Naggaroth. Eager-eyed scavengers search the blasted wastes for some trinket they can offer to curry favor with their lords, or perhaps even with the Witch King himself.
More time is needed to research the prophecy and convince the rulers of Ulthuan that it must be pursued. Time, however, is a luxury that the High Elves are quickly running out of. Their armies are spread thin, as many of their legions are still in the Old World fighting to aid the Empire and the realms of the Dwarfs. The Shining Guard has barely been able to slow the advance of the invading army, and if the Dark Elves move on the great gates that grant passage to the Inner Kingdoms, there is grave doubt that they can be stopped.
The spark of hope, it seems, may be extinguished before it has truly been kindled.
Experience Enhancements: Phase III
Open RvR combat enhancement
The first and the second experience enhancement phases rendered Tier 3 and Tier 4 questing and Keep warfare more rewarding. In this third phase, Mythic has now further enhanced Open RvR combat:
Experience Enhancements: Phase III
With the addition of the new region-wide and RvR-wide chat channels we have seen a marked increase in Open RvR participation. In order to encourage this trend even further, we have made an additional adjustment to the experience awarded for killing enemy players in an Open RvR %26#8216;lake'. Previously we increased this amount by 50%. As of today, that bonus has been raised to 100%. With this change players killed in Open RvR will now be worth double the experience than those killed in scenarios!
Complicating matters for the warriors of House Uthorin is the appearance of their great rival, House Arkaneth. These two houses despise each other deeply, even by Dark Elf standards. The Witch King has commanded the rulers of both noble houses to take control of the Shadowlands menhirs, pitting his two most powerful rivals against one another. In this way, Malekith intends to ensure that neither Lord Uthorin nor Lady Arkaneth become powerful enough to pose a threat to him.
While the warriors of Naggaroth scour the Shadowlands for pieces of the past, it is the High Elves who make the most surprising discovery. Following a battle at one of the invaders' dig sites, ancient scrolls are found that complete a prophecy once thought lost. The events described in the antiquated scrolls bear a disquieting reference to the unfolding Age of Reckoning, but the prophecy also offers a slim hope that the Dark Elves' terrible plan can be stopped.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Head out to Aeris Landing in South Western Nagrand and try your luck. You're guaranteed to come away with something, and you might get more than you'd hoped!
Check out our complete list of the bags you get at each reputation level for more information.
Didn't get what you needed? Check out our Consumer's Guide to Gems to get the scoop on how to go about choosing and acquiring gems for your gear.It's a new month, and those lovable little swindlers we call the Consortium are offering up free gems once again.
Of course, they don't give away their best stuff to just anyone.
The better your reputation, the higher the chance you have of being granted a blue quality gem, although nothing is a guarantee, even at exalted.
Semana De Los Muertos: Fight off evil ghosts and demons who are trying to take over the New World from October 28th to November 5th. Players can enter various portals in different parts of the New World and defend their families against these undead villains.
Spooky Halloween Quest: Join the Land of the Dead from October 28th November to 4th and embark on a spooky Halloween quest! Befriend a ghost and slay pumpkins to earn chilling rewards.
Tags: Sword of the New World
Tradeskills and Crafting
In this update, there is a slight change to the tradeskills.But this is only the beginning, it will be improved further in the future.
About the crafting, new type of armor and weapons, called "Base", "Culture" and "City" was added in to this update. This gives smiths a lot more to craft and the recipes for these items also include new resources that alchemists, skinners, weavers and woodcutters will have to provide, so working together with other player crafters and gatherers will become both encouraged and necessary. Resource drop-rates also have changed alot. The alchemy profession is getting a significant overhaul by having their number of recipes reduced and also making less resources necessary.
In the PVP consequence system, players who kill other weak and innocent players will be punished and get a criminal status and accumulate murder points, after accumulate enough murder points, you will be flagged as a murderer, basically making you an outcast of society. Murderers will be attacked by city guards and will be unable to trade with normal vendors. And murderers have to seek out renegade vendors on the fringes of society. You can absolve yourself of murder points by waiting it out as it fades over time and earning regular experience and performing redemption quests. Other players will want to hunt murderers down as killing a murderer increases PvP experience gained by one hundred percent!
Combat system
Players were allowed to break stuns, fears, roots, snares and charms when they have lost a certain amount of health. They have made the combos have fewer steps. when you miss with your directional combo strikes, and the penalty will increase with the number of missed strikes.
culture armor
Culture armor is a new type of armor in this update. 24 recipes in this update were released, each recipe making three pieces of armor in a set. Each class will get one culture armor set they can use, and everything is based on various Hyborian cultures. All culture armor is intended for high-level players, and in terms of stats they fall somewhere between dungeon-dropped blues and same-level epics. Culture armor will have to be crafted by players, and the recipes are dropped by boss mobs. And more culture armor will be added in the future.
Tags: Age of Conan
Update - 1:45PM EDT: The Realm Population Bonus only applies to North American Core Ruleset servers at this time. Players on select servers can transfer their characters via the Mythic Account Center.
Warhammer Online has announced that players can make free character transfers from servers to help balance the population on each server. The following information you need to pay attention to.
When the service is enabled in the coming days, players will see a Character Transfer button below "Activate a Key" and "Validate your Email Address." Players should take it serious to make a decision on transfering your character. You need to read all of the information very carefully.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Warhammer Online They are looking for ways to improve the game. So the Phase IV was proudly announced. In the patch 1.0.4, some changes have been made to the experience rewards.Warhammer Online is always around you, waiting for your reply and feedback in game. This is called Experience Enhancements.
Tags: Warhammer Online
To get started first take a look around this place, it's dreary, dead, lots of fighting and there are battle ships around you. Take note of Gorthan, he has a quest for you, "Blood Feud." The requirements for completion are to kill four sea guards. You should ignore Janesa for now. Go east of Gorthan to the fighting that's happening by a burning ship (check your map if you are lost, the red circles are your quest areas!) The Sea Guard are all aggro, so you might want to fight the ones that are already fighting someone so you don't have to travel too far into the fray. Slay four of these guys and head back to Garthan. He has a new quest for you "The Joys of War". Go to the reaper bolt towers (you can pick up "Tomes of Knowledge from J
