Thursday, July 31, 2008

Blizzard: Wrath will be out in Q4 2008



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Zach Yonzon on 7/31/08

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In an uncharacteristic display of candor, Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime confirmed during a conference call that the much-anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be released between October to December of this year. Shacknews quotes Morhaime saying, "we have said that it will be coming out this year," referring to earlier speculation stemming from a Vivendi press release. "I can tell you it's not coming in the July to September quarter," Morhaime states, and mentions that Beta testing "is going very well".

The confirmation of any release date is uncommon practice for Blizzard, whose common response to such questions is "when it's ready." Apparently, Blizzard is confident that Wrath of the Lich King will be ready within the year. From the polish that can be seen in the current Beta, this doesn't seem far from the truth. In the same conference call, Morhaime also discussed competing MMOs, the status of ongoing development (that is to say, very little information), and how World of Warcraft has been refined as a game over the past four years.

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Crushing blows (mostly) removed in Wrath as raiding changes



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Daniel Whitcomb on 7/31/08

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I'd be smiling in glee if I could figure out how to close my mouth. We've known for a while that the developers have wanted to remove crushing blows, but now it looks like they're starting the process for good: Ghostcrawler has confirmed that crushing blows will now occur only when a mob is 4 levels above you, rather than 3. Since "Boss" mobs are automatically 3 levels above the max level, that means that if you're running level appropriate content, you should no longer have to worry about crushing blows at all.

As Ghostcrawler explains it, crushing blows were originally meant to discourage you from attacking high level mobs and to make bosses more challenging. Now, they serve only the latter purpose, and Blizzard is working on other ways to make bosses challenging without making them so random.

Continue reading Crushing blows (mostly) removed in Wrath as raiding changes

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I See Dead People



 
 

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via A Dwarf Priest by dwarfpriest on 7/31/08


Well, I see an undead person.  At least I think she was a person once.

If you have the priest-only trinket "Eye of Divinity" (scored from Majordomo's chest in Molten Core and used in the process to get Benediction), equipping it will allow you to see an easter egg no other class can see.

Donning the Eye of Divinity and looking at Haris Pilton, the 24-slot bag the vendor of 24-slot bags in Shattrath's World's End Tavern, will show you a ghostly visage haunting her.

That being is the undead Ricole Nichie.  She sports the title "Ex-Socialite" (while Haris Pilton is entitled "Socialite").

Spectracles won't let you see Ricole. Eye of Divinity only!

I wonder if there are other hidden NPCs that can be seen this way.


 
 

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Mana and energy regeneration mechanics revamped on Beta



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Daniel Whitcomb on 7/30/08

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A change went in with the last Wrath Beta patch that's deceptively simple, but may have far reaching ramifications for many of the classes in game: Both energy and mana regenerate on a per second basis, rather than the previous ticks. Instead of a chunk of mana or energy every few seconds, you'll now see a steady trickle reappearing constantly at your bar (outside of the 5 second rule for casters, of course). As a friend put it, "Woah. It feels like I am playing Diablo II now."

You can see an example of the change in action in the video above from Youtube user koblec.

The energy change should be especially helpful for Rogues and Feral Druids in that they won't have to obsessively time their attacks to the rhythm of the energy tick system, and should be able to use extra energy from talents in an easier and more fluid manner. Likewise, mana and energy users alike won't be waiting for that one last tick to cast a crucial spell or ability, but can cast as soon as they have the mana.

Plus, it's honestly sort of empowering to see the mana bar running up like it does. Technically, I'm not regenerating mana any faster, but watching that blue bar go up so quickly makes it feel like I am, and makes it much easier to tell when I'm stuck in the 5 second rule, besides.

Of course, as with all changes, this is Beta, so things can change, and Koraa is asking for focused feedback and bug reports on the concept, but it's something I'm certainly hoping makes it live.

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New mounts discovered in Wrath Beta



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Zach Yonzon on 7/30/08

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MMO Champion has dug up more amazing stuff from the Wrath of the Lich King Beta in the form of new mounts! A full gallery of the mount models are up on their site, and they look very interesting. If you don't manage to get your own Amani War Bear before the expansion hits the shelves, it looks like you'll get another shot at an ursine transport in Northrend. Model previews show several versions of a polar bear mount, from what look like ordinary bears (60% speed increase) to armored bears (100% speed increase) to... double passenger armored bears! Don't ask about the goggles, though.

Are passenger-ready mounts usable anywhere? Or will they be zone-exclusive, similar to the bug mounts in Ahn'Qiraj? There's no way to tell just yet, but MMO Champion also has pictures of a three-passenger Alliance Wooly Mammoth. This means a Horde version is available, too, and likely to be part of a PvP scenario where the two factions have different mount skins. Speaking of PvP scenarios, there are also pictures of new siege vehicles as well as the previously seen Skeletal Gryphon Mount and an odd Blizzcon-tagged bear.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Wrath Money Sink Found: Dalaran teleport rings for 8000 gold



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Daniel Whitcomb on 7/29/08

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Here's a brand new find fresh from the Kirin Tor capital of Dalaran on the Wrath Beta servers. We've been wondering for a while what type of money sinks Blizzard might implement in wrath, and we've found one, to the tune of 8000 gold coins: A set of melee and caster rings that not only deliver some pretty sweet stats, but also have a free teleport to Dalaran on use to the tune of an hour cooldown.

The rings are sold by Tiffany Cartier, the Jewelcrafting supply vendor in Dalaran, who hangs out next to the jewelcrafting trainer. They come in both melee and caster versions, and seem to have pretty solid stats. Still, the main draw is the teleport, and it seems very likely that it will be on a separate cooldown from the Hearthstone. That means that for a paltry sum, you too can feel somewhat like a Mage once an hour.

It's also worth noting that Tiffany herself is on the Kirin Tor faction. That means that if you care to do a bit of grinding before you spend your dough, you'll be able to haggle the price down to 6400 gold -- still far above the price of Burning Crusade's major money sink.

This is certainly a useful and clever way for Blizzard to siphon money out of the economy once we all hit 80 and start doing all our Argent Crusade dailies, and it makes me sort of glad I didn't blow all my money on the Gigantique bag craze. Of course, now I need to figure out where I'm going to find the gold to buy one for all my alts.

Thanks to Kurai for the tip, and Alex for heading to Dalaran for screenshots.

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

A look at Wrath of the Lich King's Green quest rewards



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Zach Yonzon on 7/27/08

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When Blizzard half-seriously apologized for the brutally ugly Season 4 Brutal Gladiator gear by saying that their artists were hard at work on the expansion, they weren't kidding. If any of us were afraid that there'd be massive clown action, we can rest easy because from the look of things, even green items have an epic feel to them. The designers over at Blizzard have done a fantastic job making the green quest rewards in Northrend look impressive and even menacing that players won't feel embarrassed to equip them.

I haven't checked out all of the armor pieces, but a quick perusal of the weapons shows that Northrend won't be a total circus when we finally get there. I mean, just look at the gun above. That looks really badass, specially with the skull and weathered metal. Check out pics of uncommon, or 'green', weapons found all over Northrend in the gallery below.

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How to fly through the cold winds of Northrend



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Zach Yonzon on 7/27/08

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Blizzard has stated that they'll be disallowing the use of flying mounts in Northrend for the first few levels in order for players to appreciate the geography and not miss anything in the latest expansion. Given the amount of work they've put in so far, and looking through the fantastic scenery, it seems like a fair charge. It's recently come to light that the 'attunement' process, which was under much speculation, will not be an attunement at all or cost any money.

In fact, the ability or key to fly in Northrend, called Cold Weather Flying, is a reward from a quest chain obtained in Sholazar Basin at Level 77. The so-called attunement process for flying will actually even reward money, rather than cost anything. MMO Champion has screenshots of, and Wowhead has information on the ability and quest chain. It seems like the mad rush won't necessarily be to Level 80, but a first stop at the all-important Level 77.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

JC info from the beta



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Eliah Hecht on 7/22/08

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Last time we met to talk about Jewelcrafting in Wrath, I only knew the names of the various uncommon and rare gems. Now I have the names of the epic gems too, as well as values for the cuts. The epics are called:

  • Red: Cardinal Ruby
  • Yellow: King's Amber
  • Blue: Majestic Zircon
  • Purple: Dreadstone
  • Orange: Flawless Ametrine
  • Green: Eye of Zul
More cool names, in this blogger's opinion. Except Cardinal Ruby - that sounds a little "blah" to me. Which is not to say I won't socket them, of course; that +parry rating cut that looks quite tasty for a Death Knight tank.

Continue reading More JC info from the beta

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Badges unbound



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Eliah Hecht on 7/22/08

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Badges of Justice: I love them. It's brilliant that you can go to a raid, down a boss, and have everyone walk away with a piece of an epic (albeit a fairly small piece). It really cuts back on the angst of not having what you want drop, as well as giving Blizzard a way to provide for uncommon specs without too much loot table bloat. And with the relatively recent system that has all raid bosses dropping badges, and some pretty great new badge rewards, the system is now quite strong. However, in my view, they do have one defect: they're soulbound.

Now there's a strong argument to be put for the concept that if a character can't do a raid, they shouldn't get the reward. And I certainly agree that badges should not be salable on the AH. However, I do think we should be able to send them between alts. I have one character who needs very little in the way of badge gear, and correspondingly rakes in badges like nobody's business by tearing through Karazhan. My character that really needs the gear is typically not taken on raids, or not "A-group" raids anyway. It would be nice to be able to send all my badges over to that toon to get an undergeared character geared up, without being able to give them to just anybody on the AH.

Continue reading Badges unbound

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Inscription details: Glyphs, runewords, and more



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Eliah Hecht on 7/21/08

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We found out a little bit about inscription and what materials it might need when the Wrath of the Lich King beta debuted last week, and yesterday we learned that they will be helping Enchanters use the auction house, but we were still left wondering about what was originally promoted as the central purpose of the new profession: enhancing spells. Thanks to the WotLK Wiki, we now have some information on that very intriguing functionality.

  • Spells will be enhanced by Glyphs, which will be created by inscribers and will be tradable (though there may be some inscriber-only Glyphs).
  • Glyphs come in three sizes: Minor, Lesser, and Greater. Minor Glyphs have small effects or cosmetic changes, Lesser Glyphs give moderate upgrades to spells, and Greater Glyphs give major upgrades to spells.
  • Each character has six Glyph slots: two Minor, two Lesser, and two Greater. The screenshot shown here is the Glyph interface, available to every character. The slots at top and bottom are for Greater Glyphs, those at top-right and top-left are for Lesser, and the sad-looking ones at bottom-left and bottom-right are for Minor glyphs.
  • There is an ability called Glyph Mastery that's categorized under Inscription which gives access to an additional Glyph slot for the inscriber, but it is unknown how this ability is attained. Maybe it's a specialization, like other professions have.

Continue reading Inscription details: Glyphs, runewords, and more

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My shadow is following me



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Matthew Rossi on 7/21/08

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Yes, apparently in Wrath you will see your shadow do things like change depending on where you are in relation to light sources and look more like you and less like a circle on the ground. It may not seem like a big change, but it's certainly an interesting one and helps to progressively create a sense of immersion (yay, my one theatre class finally pays off) in the world.

Now that we have this feature being implemented (although it does make me feel that time is fast approaching where I will have to upgrade my computer) what else would you like to see? We already have day/night cycles, some zones have weather to a degree and clearly that's going to also be the case in Northrend, so what's left? What are you looking forward to or hoping they'll add to the look of the game? Personally, I'm still hoping for dyes to customize my armor colors somewhat.

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Forum post of the day: Moving moments



 
 

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via WOW Insider by Amanda Dean on 7/10/08

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Since its inception World of Warcraft has been an evolving game. Someone who played only shortly after release would hardly recognize the game now. Blizzard has always welcomed feedback, but some changes have elicited more feedback than others. In a thread entitled "Epic moments in WoW QQ history," Gatsukaa chronicled some of the most upsetting events that have occurred in the evolution of our game:

Moment 1:
WoW is first released. Hunter and warlock pets could be one-shot. Hunter dps was pretty lackluster. Soulstones gave you rez sickness (I think). No soulshards from PvP. The first emo whiners in WoW were born: Hunters and Warlocks. World of Roguecraft video is released showing how a rogue in crap gear could wtfpwn people while warlocks were so gimp. Result is that warlocks went on to get buffed in nearly every patch as they were on their way to god-hood. No more world of roguecraft videos. Hunters saw substantial improvements as well, but weren't made into demigods.

Continue reading Forum post of the day: Moving moments

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