Random Ravings of Warcraft

Cook me this

2009-11-08T19:31:00.009+01:00

Two more weeks until pilgrim's bounty starts. Are you prepared yet?
And, in the theme of all good things, be sure to get this one for the fun of it.

For myself (and oh hey, there's a list of all alts n such) I started working on getting all those alts up to par for cooking. In my case, that means I'm currently working on the lower three to get on par with the fourth, and then to get all four of those up to 385. In short, I need lots and lots of meat and fish!

* level Name cur Max Needs

* 80: Zurgat 450 450 x
* 80: Belzur 385 450 Great feasts
* 70: Elrath 385 450 Great feasts
* 70: Targash 385 450 Great feasts
* 70: Neruhe 385 450 Great feasts
* 71: Arthul 285 300 raw whitescale salmon / darkclaw lobster / large raw mightfish
* 80: Tikasar 125 225 raw sagefish
* 72: Geshrat 114 150 boar ribs / crawler meat / raw sagefish
* 20: Nefaria 130 225 boar ribs / crawler meat / raw sagefish

Guess I'll be leveling my fishing skill, or looking for cheap stacks of fish on the AH. Though cooking skill has at least some use, I've only raised fishing on one character. Blizzard really should add "something" to that profession to make it worth raising imo.

It was worth a try

Random "where did you get that mount" whisper #236
After a while it gets old, really. Actually, it got old after the first 3-4, but after a dozen and some you start making up stuff on where to get it. Some fall for it, some don't.

Today, I figured I'd try out the ole engineering.

* [19:31:53][W From] [Himagain]: were did you found your mount?
* [19:32:08][W To] [Himagain]: [Practice Lock]
* [19:32:18][W To] [Himagain]: wanna buy some?
* [19:32:19][W From] [Himagain]: cool
* [19:32:31][W From] [80:Himagain]: there in you found your mount?
* [19:32:37][W To] [80:Himagain]: Yep, totally.
* [19:32:40][W To] [80:Himagain]: Get em all the time really.
* [19:32:46][W From] [80:Himagain]: owmuch?
* [19:33:02][W To] [80:Himagain]: 10g per box?
* [19:33:06][W From] [80:Himagain]: no

Also Interesting

You might like this Elona Shooter. At first glance it's "yet another" one of those side shooter, defend the whatever last stand till your mouse breaks games. But, this one's got a bit more depth than the usual muck among those. Just, give it a try I guess. If you don't like it, too bad :P

I've spent a good few hours on getting a bunch of those trophies so far.
Don't bother trying to get ragnarock until you've reached level 50 or whatever, and at the least have a chalice ready.
Oh, and aim for the head. Gives bonus damage.

Poll end

The previous question: Are you sick of badges yet?
* Yes.. ugh.. - 29 (63%)
* No, gimme more! - 17 (36%)

Closed up, and opening a new question:
* Did you check out the Icecrown Citadel Spoilers yet?

And Finally

In three days we should get the onyxia whelpling in the mail for the WoW 5th anniversary. It's also the last day you can log in normally, after that you'll need to merge with your battle.net account to be able to play WoW.

Halloween no more

2009-11-01T18:55:00.004+01:00

And Halloween is over. Hope you got your achievements by now. Glad I did mine last year ugh.

All but one that is. Though I suspect I'm not alone in that. It's just ten points anyhow, and not needed for the meta achievement. See MMOC for a bit more details. It's really a small "event" if you can call it that.

Speaking of ten points, this sunday and monday you can get Dead Man's Party. It's quick, dead easy (haha couldn't resist that pun...) and there's a vendor that sells you an extra Cooking recipe.

Personally I'm on 164/169, and in no more than two weeks time there's the Pilgrim's feast event starting that should allow everyone to get another five.
* Cranberry Chutney
* Candied Sweet Potatoe
* Pumpkin Pie
* Slow-Roasted Turkey
* Spice Bread Stuffing

If you're only a few recipes away from Chef de Cuisine, those few might get you there.

(Also, you get a cookie if you can guess where that screenshot was taken)

Remember the Sunwell?

Sheesh what's up with the silly puns today?

The sunwell, I'm sure some of you readers have been there during the time that it was actually "hard" still, and not just a place to go to pick up an achievement. Back in that time it was rather controversial as it had a unique buff added by blizzard. Namely Sunwell Radiance, yeah that's a nasty buff. And, all bosses in there had it. Actually, not just bosses but every single mob in that damn instance had it.

Blizzard's excuse at the time was something like "we've given you too much evasion, so this allows us to make bosses hit less hard". Something along those lines anyway. But it sort of made druids - who's main defence was dodge, rather redundant.
Other tanks could drop dodge and start stacking parry and block, but druids, well, couldn't. Lots of unhappy players, but most still managed and got a good way into the instance before WotLK suddenly made the instance redundant.

That's the way of endgame instances sadly. Blizzard makes them useless before you've really had a chance to do them proper. TAQ and Naxx back in Pre-TBC had the same issue.

Anyway, I digress. The point being, that exact same damn buff is going to be active in Icecrown Citadel(aka ICC). Of course It'll be named differently, but it's the exact same buff. -20% dodge on all players, and mobs get an extra +5% chance to hit you.

Basically it's like this.
Players have gotten too much evasion, so instead of making bosses hit 2x as hard and potentially one or two shot any tank, they're killing your dodge so that bosses can hit you more often. This means they don't need to buff the boss' damage output too much, and they don't need to nerf our gear or evasion ratings either. (Like they've done to rogue agility etc) The reason to that was this - rogue tanks!

One must miss those days *sniff*

It'll remain to be seen whether this makes druids cry again.
Patch 3.3, I don't know about you, but it's looking rather interesting so far.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to complete it this time, yet, Cataclysm is getting closer, and THAT is also looking rather good.

Oh the dilemma...

Cheap news

2009-10-25T19:47:00.003+01:00

Winter time!
Clocks in Europe are moved one whole hour backward.
Ugh, going to be hard to get some sleep adjustment then.

So, recently there was this "Twitter thing" where the Blues answered some stuff most of us already knew for people who didn't know yet. It's twitter seriously. Most of them are half brain dead talking about poo. Either way, I spent most of my day farming ToC 5 man normal, and trolling newgrounds so there's not "that" much interesting to post this weekend.

Cataclysm

Q: Will Path of the Titans be as time consuming as obtaining Sons of Hodir reputation?
A: Sons of Hodir was easy, we're thinking more along the lines of Argent Dawn rep actually. JK! As a matter of fact, we don't want the paths of the titans to feel grindy at all so we're trying to make sure that each step along the way feels more like a great quest, or a key achievement (like killing all the bosses in a new raid zone). So, it should be more oriented around accomplishing something that feels important rather than grinding.

Q: What’s Deathwing’s current relationship with the Old Gods?
A: In facebook terms, I'd list it as "It's Complicated". "Single" or "Married" are probably too extreme in this case.

Q: Will there be Wintergrasp-like capturable zones in Cataclysm?
A: Yes, there is an island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms named Tol Barad. Players will fight for control of the island and its famous prison. However, while the battle for Tol Barad is not in progress, players will find that it will remind them much more of the Isle of Quel'Danas, in that it'll be a major daily quest hub with quite a bit of random world pvp (presumably).

Q: Thousand Needles is getting a big change in levels; how has the Cataclysm affected it?
A: As a result of the Cataclysm, Thousand Needles has been completely flooded with water!

Q: With Cataclysm revisiting the old world, any plan to make the old reputations worthwhile again?
A: With each expansion, we introduce new reputations with new rewards. Sometimes we introduce reputations that are obviously related, such as Argent Dawn/Argent Crusade and Cenarion Circle/Cenarion Expedition. We don’t update the rewards for existing reps, as we don’t want to put new characters at such a significant disadvantage.

Q: With the removal of defense in Cataclysm, will plate gear still have avoidance stats or will tanks and dps be sharing?
A: Tanking gear will still have avoidance stats, they just won't have the defense stat anymore. So to answer your question, tanking and dps gear will not be the same.

Q: Any plans of doing anything with Grim Batol in the Wetlands?
A: Yes, we currently plan for Grim Batol to be one of the raid zones in Cataclysm. =]

Q: What are the plans for the current Goblin-run towns after Cataclysm is out?
A: Most Goblin-run towns will continue to operate as normal. In general, the existing Goblin cartels tend to be self-serving, and therefore aren't taking sides.

Patch 3.3

Q: There's plenty of great endgame content, what about some new early/mid content to keep new players entertained?
A: We actually have some small changes to the early game going live in 3.3.0 to help eliminate some new player confusion. This is not content specific, it is more focused around easing the new player pain.

Q: Will leveling from 80-85 be like leveling from 70-80?
A: It's too early to say. We base our leveling more around how much quest content we have and how good the reward pacing feels. If we have as many quests as we did from 70-80 and if it feels like your character is getting a reasonable amount of new stuff for the time invested, then it could end up being similar.

Q: Will players be able to do 'old world' quests after Cataclysm is released?
A: Only "old world" quests that we don't change. However, once the Cataclysm happens, it happens for everyone and there's no going back.

Q: How will you handle beginning characters and higher level friends after Cataclysm? WIll they be out of phase?
Players will not be out of phase. The Cataclysm changes the world for everyone.

Q: Are Worgen going to have mounts?
A: Both Worgen and Goblins will have new, racial specific mounts.

Q: Will there be events where ally + horde players have to work together to kill a boss?
A: Generally speaking we don't do this because we prefer that the horde and alliance feel like enemies rather than a big happy family working together to defeat a common foe. If anything, we want tension between the sides to rise.

Q: Will Hyjal be made for exploration in Cataclysm?
A: Yes.

Raids & Dungeons

Q: Love the steps taken to making high-end content accessible to casual players. How committed are you to continuing this?
A: This is something we talk about on a regular basis. There isn’t a line in the sand we have made, it’s much more on a per piece of content basis. We do like the way the regular modes are shaping up to be more casual friendly, while the hardmodes are a way to reward very hardcore play.

Q: Ulduar had one kind of hard mode(triggered).. ToC had another (ToC vs TOGC).. Ony has none. What will ICC have?"
A: ICC's hard modes will be triggered, but via in-game UI (much like how you toggle between normal and heroic modes today) rather than triggered by game mechanics (like not killing the three drakes before you attack Sartharion).

Q: For Cross-realm LFG if the group is composed by members of other realms do they have to go on foot or will they be teleported?
A: The current plan is for players using the LFG system to be automatically teleported into the instance, similar to how battleground queuing works today. This is active on the PTR now, and we plan to host a community event around this feature soon!

Q: Any chance to have LFG menu to show classes you're looking for I.E just showing all tanks or healers currently qued in LFG.
A: The plan right now is to allow players to register for roles they are capable of filling, then have the queue system make the best decision possible for the player. This is to give all classes an equal chance at participation. We also have plans to diversify the class makeup in a future PTR update.

Q: With T10, are we going to see tokens like in Ulduar? or like CC? CC style had every class and spec rolling on same thing.
A: With t10 we're going to see a hybrid. The tier 10 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 10-player raid) will be purchased with Emblems of Frost.

The tier 10.5 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 25-player raid) will be obtained by getting a token (one that is specific to 3 or 4 classes, much like the ulduar tokens) and using it to upgrade the tier 10 item that was purchased with emblems of frost.

Q: Will there be anymore epic storylines with cinematics like the wrathgate questline?
A: We have big plans for additional in game cinematics! We are happy with how the Wrathgate questline worked out, and want to do more lines like this.

Q: May I create a group with 4 friends and then use the LFG interface to gain the random dungeon reward?
A: Yes. In fact, you can join it with a full group of 5 and still get the random dungeon reward. The reward is for doing a random dungeon, not necessarily for having random members.

Q: Crowd control is all but dead in raids. Is that something you plan on bringing back?
A: Like say... with the Faction Champions encounter in ToC? ;]

Q: Are there any plans to open the other "sanctums" in Wyrmrest (i.e. Obsidian Sanctum, Azure Sanctum, Emerald Sanctum)?
A: Possibly. =]

Q: Are hardmodes going to get anything to make them feel like a different fight visually or auditory
A: I find the hard modes very different visually. Much more black and white imo.

Q: Any chance that the hybrid system that is going to be implemented for T10, could be retro fitted to all WotLK raids?
A: I'll take that as a good reaction to the t10 system. =] However, it unfortunately won't be retroactively applied.

Q: Will 10-man raiding guilds see Legendary quality weapons (items) drop in their raids anytime soon? Or in Cataclysm?
A: Our current plan is to reserve Legendary weapons for the 25 person encounters, I wouldn’t rule it out in the future though.

Q: Any plans for a gated system in IIC like in Colliseum that prevents us from doing hardmodes from day 1?
A: We do have a system that unlocks bosses similar to how we handled TOC and Sunwell. We are restricting hard modes to raid leaders that have defeated Arthas in regular mode.

Q: In the future will hard modes have greater fidelity like Sarth, Sarth+1, Sarth+2, Sarth+3 rather than the Binary Normal/Hard?
A: Generally we have learned that hard modes should be more binary, but that doesn’t mean we will never do something like Sarth 3 drakes again.

Misc.

Q: When Race change is live will we be able to change to any race in our faction no matter what class we are?
A: No, you can only Race Change to a race that allows your specific class.

Q: Any chance the Legendary items will grow stronger as players level up as heirlooms? Its too much work, just to ditch after a patch.
A: This is something we have talked about a great deal. One of the concerns about making a weapon “best in the game” that scales up, is that players will continue to do old, outdated content in order to obtain the weapon. This ends up being not very fun for the other participants. While obtaining a legendary weapon is an incredible accomplishment, it is important cycle out weapons on a somewhat regular basis to make sure players are always playing new content.

Q: Any chance of being able to link more then one authenticator on one account? (in case I lose or break one)
A: We are talking about the authenticator and how to make it a better experience. Your suggestion is one we are talking about.

Q: Do you have plans to have acheivement points redeemable?
A: Achievement points are a prestige reward only. There are no plans to turn them into some kind of currency.

Q: Any plans on adding bonuses to certain titles your character obtains? Like "...of the alliance" gives +5 to all stats
A: We have no plans to introduce combat advantages to titles. Titles in World of Warcraft are very specifically set up as prestige rewards only.

Q: Can locks have a summonable flying mount now please
A: Now? As in right this second? No.

Q: Will Alliance ever get an ingame band like the Hordes L80ETC?
A: Sure, if somebody knows of an awesome Alliance band...

Q: When do hunters get to tame druids?
A: Right after druids get a hunter form.

Q: What will happen to Mankrik's Wife? Please don't tell me she's gobbled up by the lava?
A: You'll have to wait and see. =]

Last question!

Q: Who are the two developers answering these questions?
A: Game Director Tom Chilton and Director of Production J. Allen Brack.

Also see: mmoc.

Weapon skill

2009-10-18T17:44:00.005+02:00

Ah, such a frustrating mechanic.

Back in the "old" days where it was still a desirable skill for melee classes it at least made some amount of sense to have to raise it manually. Having +5 or +10 extra weapon skill on top of the base 300 meant that you ended up with a LOT less glancing blows. As a rogue, that meant loads of white damage extra.

Weapon skill got changed. A few times even.
Currently it's equivalent is called Expertise. But in 4.0 (The cataclysm) it'll get removed yet again.

However, we still have Weapon skill. No longer as a bonus stat, but still as a dated mechanic that we need to work through on every character when they gain a level. Be it mains or alts.

Unarmed skill, Axes, Defence, Maces, Polearms, Swords, Two-Handed Axes, Staves, Wands, and more.

Warriors, rogues and hunters have it especially bad as they got nearly a full range of weapons to choose from. And luck would have it, you'll end up wielding each weapon every so and then as you upgrade them from greens, to blue, and epic. Or in the modern days of alts from Hierloom to dungeon blue, to raid epic.

At 1/400 weapon skill you'll miss, miss, miss, miss.
Starting from 350 or so, you'll hit more, but only do 1% of the weapon's damage if you hit. And you can forget about getting crits. Those numbers steadily increase as your weapon skill increases, but... So does the time in between gaining skill points in that skill. If your class doesn't have any instant attacks - Such as rogues training bow or crossbow skill, well damn, you'll be taking HOURS for those last few skill points.

Luck would have it though, you've found this post!
Personally I'd prefer weapon skill to be removed entirely, but for a lack of that option I'll give you a few weapons with a "fast" attack speed so you can hit mobs more often, and get skill points more often. Indeed, weapon speed increases the rate at which you gain skill.

So, let's see:

If you run into a nice epic / blue item that nobody during a dungeon run is interested in don't be afraid to roll greed for it. After all, it'll save you hours of time at any point in your character's development stage. On overall though, you should be able to find most weapons easily on a vendor. Simple white junk you can grab and re-sell again later. You also want as low dps as possible, since the monster you're trying to raise your skills on will then survive for longer, and thus give you more skill points.

Daggers:
* Poignard. Can't beat this one really. Low dps and widely available.

Fists:
* MH: Dalaran Knuckles
* OH: Left-Handed Brass Knuckles

Axes:
* MH: Dalaran Axe
* OH: Marshfang Blade Axe
* OH: Biting Axe
* OH: Icy Quick Edge
* OH: Tomahawk

Maces:
* Furious Saronite Beatstick
* Dalaran Cudgel

Swords:
* Dalaran Sword

Polearms:
* Ethereum Phase-Spear
* Dalaran Spear

Staves:
* Dalaran Stave

Two handed Axes:
* Mag'hari Battleaxe
* Dalaran Great Axe

Two handed Maces:
* Manual Crowd Pummeler
* Dalaran Hammer

Two handed Swords:
* Barovian Family Sword
* Dalaran Greatsword

Bows:
* Dalaran Bow

Crossbows:
* Frigid Crossbow
* Dalaran Crossbow

Guns:
* Dalaran Rifle
* Moonsight Rifle

Thrown:
* Dalaran Dart

Wands:
* Consecrated Wand
* Cookie's Stirring Rod
* Wand of Onyx

Dr.Z's cooking tips

The trick is to get your meat to turn crispy brown.
If you are ending up with 'crunchy', then you should really pull it from the pan sooner.

Alt-a-holic

2009-10-11T18:00:00.009+02:00

Yeah, I've been in denial long enough.
I guess it's time to come out in the open and just admit it straight out, I'm an altaholic like no doubt plenty others.

Not so bad as to have a dozen lvl 30-40 characters spread among different servers, but still. I just went ahead and started leveling my "bank alt" so she can reach level 20 and have a mount to move faster in Undercity. Seriously. It's a lot like how It went with the warlock when blizzard added enchanting levels needed for disenchanting.
First he's 20, then 30, 40, and before you know it you've got another level 70 character on the list.

I'm sorted on professions, one of each of the basic professions, and multiple skinners and miners. Next up, one of each class. Just missing a warrior and a priest now. Already had the priest as bank alt for the private welfare guild bank, and now she's suddenly level 8. I suspect she'll hit 20 in due time, then roll on straight to 40 and probably more.

The warrior is alliance, to spy on them :P
When cataclysm comes around, I guess she might turn into a worgen or goblin for the fun of it.

It's a real shame blizzard changed the way those hierloom items allow certain shoulder enchants. I still got +30 AP on a pair of plate and leather shoulders. But the cloth version simply refuses to accept the same Zul'Gurub enchant.

Still, +4 stats on the chest, and +30 spellpower on the staff makes for a happy alt.

Things not to do in the kitchen

You know how meat from the supermarket always has at least 30% extra water in it?
Well, I had two. Put some butter in the pan, turn them around so and then, and repeat until done. Unlike regular "slightly more expensive" meat from a proper butcher, you then end up with a layer of boiling hot butter mixed with water in the pan.

Now, since I was also planning to bake some diced ham bits to mix with the potatoes I figured I'd get rid of all that grease and pour it into one of those white plastic / foam things that you normally buy the meat in. "Normally" when you pour said grease and water into one of those, it's been standing there in the kitchen for about thirty or more minutes. Cooling. This time however, it was still sizzling and hot as fuck. I figured, what the heck and held the white container above the sink and proceeded to pour the hot grease into it.

It fell "straight" through, as if it wasn't even there. o_O
At least that proves those things are definitely not heat resistant.

That was definitely one of those, "don't try this at home kids" moments.

PS: No pigs were hurt during the writing of this post, all meat was already dead when I bought it.

Battle.net

OK, blizzard has now officially announced you "Need" to merge your WoW account with your Battle.net account.

Make sure you do it before November 12th. Or you won't be able to play the game anymore. You even get a free penguin to boot.
See MMOC for a shot of the penguin ;)

Blog

The RSS seems to be acting up strange, am I the only one noticing this, or, is anyone else getting this page to show up white randomly?

Linky

This one's bordering on porn, so don't click it if you're not at least 18 years or older. (And not at work obvioulsy) But hot dam it's is SO FUNNY! linky. Go check it out, awesome comic.

A dozen reasons why 3.2 sucks

2009-10-04T15:34:00.000+02:00

Emblems!
Emblems and badges from 5 mans, 10 mans, 25 mans, there's no end to it nowadays.

Emblems of Conquest drop like candy from every heroic that previously dropped emblems of heroism / valor. Meaning you can now buy ilvl 226 loot from dungeons you were previously struggling through in ilvl 200 gear. If that doesn't mean anything to you, just skip to the last part of today's post :P

And now there's yet another Emblem added in 3.2 - Trial of the Crusader.
These drop from the 10 man, and 25 man instance, on normal and on heroic mode. And you get 2 for doing the daily heroic as well as the new boss in Vault of Archavon.

Way back when Karazhan, Serpentshrine and Black Temple were still the mainstream you only got 1 type of badge. Obviously there was a general outcry when higher level loot was made available for those low level badges you were awarded in something as simple as 5 man heroics. We figured blizzard was doing a better job when 3.x came around and there were badges for 5-10 mans and another type of badge for 25 man instances. The former allowed you to buy slightly lower ilvl items than the one from 25 mans. But, rather than maintain what instances drop each type of bad, Blizzard is again catering to the casual and social aspect of the game. Rather than change the gear you can buy with said Tier-1 badges, they now make those low level bosses drop higher level badges. This means you can't stockpile as much as in TBC but the end result is still pretty much the same.

Free loot. And, being forced into the same 5 man dungeons you've been doing for nearly a year now to be able to keep up. Some will applaud this no doubt, others will not.

The main grievance in 3.2 however, is the complete and utterly generic loot distribution system now in place for gear tokens.

"Trophy of the Crusade" These drop from the new 25 man instance, and unlike the ulduar tokens can be used by any class at all. Less gear to disenchant you might think, and while that's certainly true you also need the aforementioned "Emblem of Triumph" in combination with these trophy tokens to be able to buy the 25 man instance armor pieces.

Luckily the Hard mode 25 man instance actually drops 3-4 class linked Regalia tokens which don't need anything else. But hard mode is in fact "hard". So all those wow players who've been spoon fed over the last year and a half with easy instances and optional hard mode bosses won't know what hit them. If you're after the hard mode 25 man gear, good luck and hopefully you're in a high end guild.

If you're in a mid level 10-25 man guild however, the easy / normal mode for the new instance is so damnably simple that you'll notice your average pug succeeding. Alts and casuals getting the achievement in guildchat. While at the same time you're sitting around being frustrated over the fact that you need yet another few dozen Emblems of Triumph to be able to buy the item you want. Technically you could be doing those 5 man instances that you're probably sick of by now, or do the 10 man version of the instance just to get badges. Badges, badges, badges, badges!

I just want random loot without being forced to grind badges elsewhere. Making the badges a requirement for main gear rather than trinkets, rings etc off the side was imo a poor choice by Blizzard. Onyxia is a fun reminder of old times but the class specific gear (much like in VoA) will undoubtedly set some teeth on edge.

So what do you do in a raid week?
25 man ToC, 10 man ToC, Vault of Archavon.

And then, either 4-5 days of banging your head against the wall called "hard mode" and slowly watch the guild fall apart due to people who've been spoon fed with easy modes getting bored and leaving?
Or, do you persuade your fellow raiders to go back into Ulduar - in which all the gear that could potentially drop is already outdated due to the new ToC instance - to farm the Legendary mace for your healers? Most people are bored of ulduar by now, and not getting any usual gear from there certainly doesn't help.

How's your guild managing?
Unless everyone "knows" that you're a casual lot, or zomghardcore you've probably got some trouble filling raids.
Well, you can blame patch 3.2

Fear not!

Patch 3.3 is available on the PTR and indeed Icecrown citadel, long awaited is available for running around in. Monsters and bosses don't give any loot yet but the items seen so far look very promising. It'll surely be a good change of pace over having every druid and rogue look the same, or every paladin, deathknight and warrior wearing the same gear with slightly different colors.

See MMOC for some screenshots:
* Weapons 1 + Dungeons 1
* Dungeons 2
* Dungeons 3

Iirc there will be 13 bosses inside ICC itself, with obviously arthas - aka the lich king himself at the end. Unlike the poor excuse of a dungeon that is the loot pinyata called ToC, ICC should prove to be a lot like Black Temple.

Robokill

I found this little gem on Armor Games: Robokill. It's a pretty well made top-down 2x shooter that should keep you going for a few hours. If you enjoy the short demo or already reached level 16, just google the "full version" on google or pay the meager 9.95$ for it. I'd recommend googling the full version though, as the game isn't very big and the max level is only 34.

Poll end

Q: What are you most looking forward to?

* 4.x The Cataclysm! - 46 (48%)
* Diablo 3 - 21 (22%)
* 3.3 Icecrown + Arthas - 16 (16%)
* Starcraft 2 - 9 (9%)
* Other - 3 (3%)

Pretty predictable results I guess :P

Diablo 3 scored pretty high, sadly we won't be seeing more info about that until blizzcon next year, and an actual release as I suspect won't be until 2011.

New poll up, are you sick of badges yet?
* If yes, good for you!
* If no, watch the video again before voting.

Whuzzaaaa

2009-09-27T22:28:00.004+02:00

It's been a busy weekend.

Update:

* I'm going to kill my neighbor, and I'm working on a good murder plan.
* The police are generally retarded, unhelpful, and useless for anything other than making your life harder. They sure as heck are proving to be unwilling to help in any domestic disputes. Hence I'm going to kill my neighbor. Or at least make the bitch suffer. Then kill her after.
* Also looking for a new house so I don't have to look at the red bloodstains on my roof all day.
* Remind me to delete those previous lines so I don't leave evidence of that fact.

* Cooked and cleaned, installed heat reflective insulation material of some sort behind one of the radiators here, three to go. I cut it to size and placed books on it so it flattens first.. That first batch was a horror to install.

* Killed a plant, possibly by drowning it with water....
* Got "brewmaster" completed today, and "what a strange long trip it's been". Up to 7075 achievement points or so. Haven't really been making an effort on that though. Yeah that damn mount is pink, of all things.
* Alt paladin dinged 80 at last. Making the total tally 3x80 and 5x70, all of them with epic flying skill. No shortage on gold here.

* Got another tinfoil piece, just two to go then all the F-ranks are done.
* Armor games slacks on updates.
* MSN messenger is STILL acting weird.

* Cleaned out my old Old OLD pc that I'm using as a lamp stand (p2 350 with 6gb hd) and found out it still has some 35 MB of data that I'd like to save somehow. However..... It can't access internet, It won't recognize USB sticks, doesn't have a CD burner, and it freezes up every 10 or so minutes. Still trying to work out how to get it off in an efficient way that doesn't involve chopping the data into 1.44MB floppies. So I can turn the thing into an aquarium afterwards.

And, well,,,, OMG it's sunday evening already o_O

What a long strange trip, conslusion

2009-09-20T14:10:00.004+02:00

Brewfest started this sunday. And with that has arrived the "nearly" one year anniversary of the achievement system. Some crazy no-lifes have already gotten over 10.000 points farmed. Crazy.

Brewfest and more importantly the Brew Master achievement. Which should be the last most people need to complete this achievement and obtain the 310% speed Violet Protodrake.
The same speed as birdy and metal birdy, all the pvp arena flyers, and even the Yogg+0 reward: Mimiron's head are.

While most of those 310% mounts require either some effort, or a crazy amount of luck to obtain, the violet proto drake is just the result of dutifully doing all the World events and festivals. Which, a lot of people did.

That violet drake is a HORRIBLE color, but an important (useful) thing to remember is that blizzard "may be" intending to allow a few things to be linked to the achievement of getting a 310% mount. Such as allowing some crafters to create more 310% speed mounts - flying carapets, copters etc - and any owner of said achievement would (in the next expansion) be able to use any of their flying mounts and enjoy 310% speed.

A good reason to put a little effort in trying to get one at least. It's only 30% faster than the regular 280% one, but combined with the multiplying talents (15% or 30%) that adds up. Faster flight means faster farming, faster questing, more profit!

I still want that Remote T_T It's the only item from mr.direbrew that's any use. The rest are (cute for alts) ilvl 200 trinkets that you wouldn't use for much. Update: Got it :)

The teleporter would come in handy in the expansion, when Blackrock Deeps / caverns, and the new raid "above" BWL are added. Would save so much flight time.

Raging sheep!

2009-09-13T16:09:00.008+02:00

For the most part, WoW players are sheep.
And not just any kind of sheep either, mindless drooling idiots that will believe anything and everything you say and take it as actual truthful facts.

No, don't worry, there's no don't get offended just yet. Since you're reading this you've already proven you're to be different and unique from the general herd.

Lets clarify with the use of some examples.

Presume you're in one of the three high end raiding guilds on the server. Competition is strong, sometimes you get the first kill on a boss and sometimes the other guild will beat you to it. At the same time you're having fun and socializing with the other members of your guild, while the other guilds are doing the same in their collective green text environment. All good so far.
A new content patch arrives and all the guilds on the server start trying to get the usual first kills. Your guild manages to kill the first two bosses and then wipe the rest of the evening on the next one. One of the other guilds kill the boss you spent all night wiping on, and just like you made a post on the forums showing off your first kill screenshots, they do so of their first kill screenshot.

Nothing unusual right?
Until, someone from their guild decides to make fun of the fact that you wiped on the third boss. One becomes two, two becomes three, and suddenly a whole bunch of players are crossposting over the two topics about who was first, who was better and then the real fun begins. Someone starts calling the other group idiots, losers, and plenty of other degeneratives that I'll leave to your imagination to fill in.

A guild feud started that day, and competition for the next bosses will be even stronger. People from guild-A will refuse to group or Pug with people from Guild-B because they're idiots, assholes, can't play for shit, etc etc. Even if it's a new recruit from another server, or a recently leveled character from a completely different guild. As soon as a player has the Guild-B tag above their head Guild-A will boycott them.

Why? Because most WoW players are sheep, cattle, herd animals, unable to form their own opinion.

Comical

So, you may wonder were I'm going with this rant.
It's not so much a rant as a thought that was raised on a not-so-recent discussion on the MMOC forums regarding Tim Buckley, the author of Ctrl Alt Del. As WoW players once again displayed the uncanny ability to act like sheep.

Tim Buckley is an asshole, Tim Buckley is an idiot, Tim Buckley can't draw for shit, and the list goes on. So, I ask one of the ranters, "why" do you feel this way about him?

His answer, quite blatantly came down to: "Because people said so".
Wow! I mean, would you jump off a 20 story flat "because people say so"? I sure wouldn't.

Me: Do you personally know him then?
Him: No.
M: So basically you came to the conclusion of him being an idiot solely on the opinions of other people?
H: Well, yeah, everyone says so, it must be true right?

Everyone says so. Rrrright. A perfect example of sheep.
Now, I'm not going to say Tim "isn't" a complete asshole as I can't prove or disprove his character traits. In all likeliness he is in fact a complete ass, but since I don't personally know the guy I'll keep my opinion on him neutral. I refuse to act like a sheep. (Insert lol haha you're playing WoW just like 11 million other players joke here) But seriously, more people should stop and think about that. Your opinion is your own, at least take the time for come to your own conclusions rather than let others dictate your mind.

Whispers from the dark

Funny enough, I ran into another sheep myself while playing on my rogue some time ago. I didn't think to make a screenshot to show it off here for comedy value, but I think you'll get the idea.

SomeIdiot whispers you: Asshole!

Huh?
OK, so, I'm not stealing anyone's mobs, I'm practically alone in the zone, and didn't gank or corpse camp anyone for weeks if not longer. What would this be about I wonder..

I shiftclick his name.
SomeIdiot Level 58 (Some minor guild) - Orgrimmar

He's not in my zone, probably an alt, and in a guild that I've never had any dealing with in my life. This should be interesting.

Me: While I'm certainly not the nicest guy on the server,,, I highly doubt I've done anything to offend you recently. Why exactly would you then call me an ass?

Him: Everyone in the guild says you are. /spit

Me: And, everyone in your guild has known me exactly how long?

-SomeIdiot- is ignoring you.

Amazing. No doubt the pinnacle of human evolution.
I did some asking around and had a chat with one of the more reasonably minded characters in that guild, and it turns out they were talking about evil raid leaders in the high end raiding guilds. A conversation apparently during which some 12 year old got so hyped up that he decided to whisper me.

Sheep.
Black sheep.

I might be a judgmental bastard at the best of times, but if you do get on my shit list at least you'll know it's personal.

So, ask yourself this. Do you control your own opinion?

Rogue FAQ 1.0

2009-09-05T15:49:00.003+02:00

It's pretty basic so far, but feel free to drop in some suggestions.
e.g. "stuff you wish you knew earlier but never bothered to ask"

It's a FAQ though, not a guide.
Simple questions, simple answers.

Rogue FAQ 1.0

Q: What's the ArPen Cap?

100%, or 12.31 * 100 = 1231 Armor Penetration Rating.
Less if you have talents that boost this obviously.

Be aware that having both of these active:
* http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40256 (612) and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45931 (665)
Is already more than the cap, especially since you'll likely already have a decent number of ArPen rating on your gear.
So it is highly discouraged to use both at the same time.

Q: What's my HitCap?

Assuming you have 5/5 precision:
* To cap specials (yellow attacks) you need 99 hit rating. Shouldn't be too hard to reach that.
* To cap poison attacks 315 hit rating. Poison is considered a spell and affected by precision as of 3.0.1
* To cap poison attacks, while improved Faery fire or misery(shadow priest) are active, you'll need only 237 hit rating.
* To cap white attacks you need 722 hit rating. Don't bother with that though.
* If you have a Draenei in your group, you'll need 33 rating less.

If you don't have 5/5 precision or simply less of it:
~32.78 hit rating equals 1% hit
~65.56 hit rating equals 2% hit
~98.34 hit rating equals 3% hit
~131.12 hit rating equals 4% hit
~163.9 hit rating equals 5% hit

Once you reach your poison hit cap the value of hit rating will decrease substantially (provides you with much less dps increase per point), thus, once you reach the poison cap it's recommended you try to work on the expertise cap and/or start stacking agility or ArPen.

Q: What's the expertise Cap?

~32.78 expertise rating equals 4 expertise = 1% less dodge, parry, and block on your target. So 1% increase to hit your target from behind, 3% increase from the front.

Bosses are presumed to have 6.5% dodge, which means you need 26 expertise, or 214 expertise rating.
If you have Weapon expertise 2/2 you need 16 expertise, or 132 expertise rating.
If you're a human(or dwarf) wielding a sword(or mace) or Orc(with axes) then you only need 13 = 107 rating

Q: What gems should I use?

Epic ones obviously. Or the Jewelcrafting ones if you have access to those.

Alternatively, The difference between 20 Agi, 40 AP, or 20 ArPen are "very" marginal.
Personally I'd suggest the following:
Meta: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398
Red sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40112
Yellow sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40147
Blue sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49110 : only one though, you can usually just flood the rest of your gear with red gems.

Q: What does AEP/EP/MAEP mean?

Agility Equivalence Points and alike. Basically it is a way to compare other stats to 1 point of agility as a base.
For example 1 Agi = 1.5 hit = 1.75 crit = 2 AP (Those values are just an example, for now)

Q: What weapons are best for Mutilate?

Two big juicy high dps daggers, a slow (1.7-1.8 speed) for mainhand, and a fast (1.3-1.5 speed) one for offhand.

Q: What weapons are best for Combat?

That really varies what the best weapons in the current patch are. For 3.1 that was Mainhand fist + offhand dagger.
For 3.2 it's 2 axes (MH slow, OH fast obviously), nobody knows yet what 3.3 will bring but the MH slow OH fast will always remain true.

Q: What is better for DPS, combat or mutilate? Or Honor among thieves?

This is a FAQ, not a theorycrafting guide.
And it really depends on your playstyle.

HaT got nerfed in 3.2 so it's worthless now.
Combat is king, but only marginally ahead of mutilate at the time of writing this.
Mutilate isn't bad, and blizzard has intentions of making it more prominent. As they want rogues to be a primarily "dagger wielding class"

Q: What stats are beneficial to me?

Get: Agility and Attack power.
Avoid: Spirit and Strength (Strength only gives half the AP value per point)

Get: Crit, Hit, Haste, Expertise, ArPen rating.
Avoid: Spell power, Mana regen, armor, block, dodge, parry rating.

Stamina is never bad, but it doesn't help your DPS either.

Q: Why can't I use some abilities when I'm not standing behind my enemy?

Some abilities require you to be in front (gouge) while some require you to be behind (backstab, ambush) your target. You can't really go "lol backstab in your face". Front and back are actually two 180 degree circles, but don't take those as 100% accurate all the time. If you want to backstab something, get behind the target.

This also means combat spec (which doesn't rely on backstab) is quite good for leveling.
Mutilate can also be used from the front as of a recent patch.

Q: Why "is" a slow mainhand better than a fast one?

Slower weapons have a bigger damage range than faster weapons.
e.g. a 1.3 speed dagger might do 50-60 damage, while a 2.6 speed sword will do 100-120. Even if their DPS is the same. Over time the damage will be the same, but that only applies to autoattacks (white damage). Since sinister strike, mutilate, ambush, backstab, hemo all use the weapon's damage for instant attacks it's simply a matter of BIGGER is better. And thus slower weapons are a prime choice for your main hand attacks.

Q: What are the best glyphs to use for DPS?

Combat: Sinister strike, slice and dice, rupture, killing spree, tricks of the trade. Sinister strike is mandatory really. Minor glyphs don't matter much.
Mutilate: Mutilate, tricks of the trade, hunger for blood. (rupture and slice and dice can be used, but probably won't give you much benefit)

Q: Why doesn't Vanish always work?

Server sync lag mainly.
You click vanish, and your client thinks you're in stealth.
The server receives an attack command from the other player or npc.
The server "then" receives your vanish command.
The server allows you to get hit.
You lose stealth, you die, etc.

As a "fix" blizzard has added a 0.5 second immunity to vanish. It's nearly impossible to notice but there have been many cases where a rogue has been able to survive a lethal crushing blow from a boss mob by vanishing "right" at the correct time. Your combat log will show you received a 60K hit, gain stealth. But not actually taken damage.

At any rate, blizzard is "aware" of the issue and has some plans for fixing it in due time. Obviously, it's not a very high priority.

Q: What professions will give me the best DPS improvement?

See this link.
Basically:
* Engineering gives "up to" 47 EP for mutilate and "up to" 57 EP for combat, depending how good you keep all your cooldowns on the glove enchant and belt enchant running. See here
* Jewelcrafting gives 42 EP (or, AEP if you prefer)
* Blacksmithing, inscription, enchanting, leatherworking and skinning are all 40 EP.
* Alchemy is 40 but requires you to have a flask active.

Don't bother with the rest if you're looking for more damage.
Tailoring is shit, and both herbalism and mining are primarily just for PvP.

Q: What races are best for PvE?

In order from good to bad:
* Horde: Orc, Troll, (goblin?), blood elf, undead.
* Alliance: Human, Night elf, Dwarf, Gnome.

If you want to know "why", just look at the racials.

Q: What addons do you recommend I use?

Classtimer, to see your "timers".
Bartender, for more bars.
Grid, to see who else is in the raid with you, and allow you to select tricks of the trade targets more easily.
Fubar, just because it's awesome.
Bigwigs, because you need it for raid warnings.

Get them on curse (yuck) or through mmoui minion.

Q: What enchants should I use?

* Weapons: Berserking. This one was made a bit less dramatic in 3.0.8 -5% reduced armor instead of a whooping -25%
* Helm: Arcanum of Torment. Requires revered with Knights of the Ebon Blade.
* Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe. Requires exalted with the Sons of Hodir. (Or inscription enchant)
* Chest: Powerful Stats +10 to all.
* Cloak: Major Agility +22 (or engineer enchant)
* Bracers: Greater Assault +50 AP (or Leatherworking enchant)
* Gloves: Crusher +44 AP (or engineering enchant)
* Legs: Icescale Leg Armor +75 AP +22 crit.
* Boots: Icewalker +12 hit, +12 crit (or engineering enchant)
* Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle +1 socket = 20 agi

Q: What poisons work best in PvE?

For combat:
* MH Wound poison and OH Deadly poison. Depends on the speed of your offhand, attack speed, and haste which one should be MH and OH though. Generally you want it like that however.

Without sword spec (fist/mace MH and dagger/fist/mace OH):
* OH speed = 1.4: DP/WP : For example 2.6 MH, 1.4 OH
* OH speed > 1.4: WP/DP : For example 2.5 MH, 1.6 OH

With sword spec (either MH or OH sword or axe or both):
* OH speed = 1.4: WP/WP
* OH speed > 1.4: WP/DP

For assassination:
* Deadly + Instant (someone verify?)

Q: Why not use Instant poison as Combat?

Without talents wound poison simply does more damage.
Less damage per hit, but WAY higher proc rate = more damage over time.

Instant poison is still useful, but only if you are specced deep into mutilate.

Q: What poisons work best in PvP?

Crippling is pretty much mandatory.
Mind numbing poison / Wound poison depending on the situation.

Q: Why can't I use cloth / Mail?

You can use cloth, but there is no cloth with stats that benefit you.
And, you can't train mail or plate armor.
Rogues are "stealthy", so no clinking mail for you.

Q: Where do I train certain weapon skills?

At the weapon master, see: http://www.wowwiki.com/Weapon_master
As a rogue you can learn:
* Melee: Unarmed, Daggers, Swords, Axes (as of 3.2), Maces. All one handed only.
* Ranged: Bows / Crossbows / Guns / Thrown

Q: Are there any useful links where I can look for more information?

Some Extra info sources:
* Some old stuff this FAQ is based on: http://rrvs.blogspot.com/2009/01/rogue-wotlk-stuff.html
* 3.2 Professions in detail: http://rrvs.blogspot.com/2009/07/slow-week-for-32-professions.html
* PvE DPS: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24301-rogue_pve_dps/
* Spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t39136-combat_3_2_mutilate_3_1_spreadsheets/
* Spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t27244-roguecraft_spreadsheet/
* Rogue Info: http://www.wowwiki.com/Rogue
* Rating values: http://www.wowwiki.com/Combat_rating_system
* Gear list: http://www.shadowpanther.net/

Friday! Woohoo!

2009-08-28T20:45:00.004+02:00

Last week was pretty busy with lots of new info about the next expansion. This week is a bit less busy. All things shall have balance.

In progress

I'm working (on and off) on a Rogue FAQ, which I'm sure a few of you should find interesting. In progress here. Don't be shy to contribute.

My BvS character is up to Season 9 now and should be reaching Season 10 tomorrow. He's getting strong now ;) It's quite funny, I'm seeing that style signature on the MMOC forums more and more each passing week.

Poll End

Closing poll: Have you merged your WoW account and Battle.net account yet?

* Yes - 47 (61%)
* No - 21 (27%)
* Will do later - 8 (10%)

Keep in mind that the battle.net account merge for WoW players will soon become mandatory. If you haven't already done so, it's highly recommended you get to it soon. You wouldn't want to be locked out of the account page due to the huge flood of players who "forgot" or didn't bother causing the page to time out when Blizzard throws the switch.

Blizzard is working on integrating battle.net further into WoW and other games. See the bottom of this post. You'll be able to add your battle.net friends to your WoW friendslist based on their Real ID and always see where they're hanging out!

Anyhow, a new poll is up, let me know your mind.
* What are you most looking forward to?

Cataclysm progression

2009-08-23T13:55:00.011+02:00

Last post for this weekend, more next week no doubt. Still, today's another venerable "wall of text" for your enjoyment!

If you're wondering why I'm not really bothering with posting much raid and dungeon info here, that's because there's just not that much to say about it. Sure, cataclysm starts with 4 raids and six 5-man dungeons and two more revamped old dungeons, but other than that... See for yourself.

I've always enjoyed BRD (Blackrock Depths) though, it's BIG and good for soloing. In Cataclysm we'll be seeing Blackrock Caverns make an appearance, in mostly the same style and inspiration. It's got great potential.

Icecrown Citadel - Patch 3.3, will have 12 bosses, 4 floors, and make use of those two airships you can see flying around in the zone.

LFM BRC

As far as "how" you'll find people to go to those dungeons with you, Blizzard is planning to implement Cross Server LFG. This should greatly increase the ease at which you find people to play with. At a turn-side however, this will make it a lot easier for ninjas and simply horrible players to get away with doing what they do best. Being idiots. Not only that, but, Blizzard intends to give some sort of reward for group leaders who successfully take a 5 man group through a cross server dungeon. The end result? Everyone will want to be leader, and nobody will want to make a regular group anymore...

Time will tell how that fares.

In due time the XS-LFG will most likely be expanded to be usable for raids as well. Further expanding the ninja problem. Hopefully some sort of reputation / Karma system will be implemented someday so you will have an easier time filtering out the rotten apples from PUGs. Account-wide (rather than character specific) achievements would go a LONG way in helping with that imo.

That aside, I sincerely hope there'll be some gear checking and balancing when the system picks people to make a group with. I don't know about you, but when I'm trying to do the day's daily dungeon quest I surely can't be arsed with getting forcibly teamed up with somebody's green geared alt.

Oh, and they're planning to make XS-LFG available starting 3.3 :)

Professional Craftsmanship

How's that for a clever subtitle eh?

Archeology will "primarily" be used to provide you with a new sort of glyph. Namely, "Ancient glyphs". These glyphs can't be made by scribes like the Major / Minor glyphs can. Archeology doesn't actually "make" glyphs either, but you use your ancient findings to trade in for the new items.

For further character profession you can choose between some "Paths", you can change paths like any respec, and dual spec remembers the path per spec as well. Earning ranks down your selected Path of the ancients takes time and is limited to a certain maximum each week.

Each path will have 2-3 ancient glyph choices, you can respec if you decide to go down another path. Initially there will be six paths available, but more are said to be added later in content patches. (4.1, 4.2 etc)
* Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father
* Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder
* Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver
* Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper
* Path of Aggramar, the Avenger
* Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer

Logically the paths will most likely focus on a certain aspect of gameplay. For instance: Tanking, physical dps, caster dps, healer, pvp dps, pvp healer. And provide some interesting utility here and there.

Golganneth's path for example gives the bonuses:
* Earth's Embrace: Physical damage taken decreased by 4%
* Battle Hardened: Reduces the duration of stun and bleed effects by 20%
* Medic: Bandages heal targets by an additional 30%
* Fortification: (instant, 5 min cd) : Nearby allies take 10% less damage for 6 sec.
* Breakthrough: (instant, 5 min cd) : Increases damage dealt by 10% for 10 sec. Only usable after dealing a critical strike.

See MMOC for a few screens of the new Glyphs and the new Glyph intereface. It also looks like we'll bet getting one extra Major glyph at level 85, though that's not confirmed yet.

More talents

Blizzard believes there are too many talents currently, they won't be adding another tier to all classes. Instead you'll just get the expected 5 talent points. However, the talents are also getting a full scale overhaul. The interface will be improved as well, you'll be able to see all three trees in one view instead of separate tabs. Most of the passive talents, such as "+1% crit" are being removed. Instead these bonuses will be given passively(Heh, funny). And you'll get more active talents.

You can see the passive bonuses at the bottom of each tree. These will increase automatically as you put more talents in each tree. Each class has their own variation of those. Paladins and warriors for example, will receive health and blocking in their tanking tree. Melee damage and crit in their "damage" tree.

T-t-t-teamwork!

Blizzard is doing a LOT of cool things for guilds in Cataclysm. One such features is a guild feed, probably RSS, in which people can see what bosses they've killed. This should leave little doubt about who's "first" or not.

As stated earlier, your guild will also get it's very own achievement tab in which guild wide achievements will be stored. These achievements, players gaining XP, winning battlegrounds, Arenas, reputation and more. The maximum guild level will initially be lvl 20, each level will earn the guild a single talent point which can be used in the guild talent tree. Some such, talents will slightly increase the gold drops for all monsters killed in raids, dungeons and outside for all guild member. Some will reduce the cost of repairs, improve the effect potions have on members, reputation gains (awesome for grinding), xp gains from monsters (great for your alts), and what looks like mounted speed up to 10% (finally) re-added, mass resurrection (out of combat).

Once the guild reaches level 20, any excess experience gained becomes a currency. This can then be used to buy patterns and hierlooms which become available for distribution. Be aware however, that those items are guild-bound. Should you ever decide to leave the guild you obtained the items from (or get kicked for being an idiot) the items will automatically be returned to the guild bank so they can be given to another player.

Information wise, there's also a HUGE and much demanded (by myself included) feature being implemented. Profession listings. At last! You'll be able to check the professions and recipes of ALL members in the guild. No longer needing to ask whether there's an enchanter, blacksmith or whatever "online", simply look up the information you seek, check the required materials and ask the person in question directly.

Some other stuff

Music! If you've listened to Ozzy Osbourne at Blizzcon, hopefully you've developed a taste for more. I present you with: Finger Eleven. Just check it out. If it's not your thing, click it away. No (physical) harm in checking, right? Rock on!

Cataclysm follow up

2009-08-22T13:28:00.008+02:00

BlizzCon day 2 should be starting in a couple of hours.
On the schedule are:
* 10:00am PST - WoW Open Q&A
* 11:30am PST - WoW Game Systems
* 01:00pm PST - WoW Dungeons & Raids
* 02:30pm PST - WoW Classes, Items, and Professions

So there will be more info coming :)

As a follow up from yesterday are some more of the item and profession changes. (Which I had to miss due to needing sleep) Firstly though, let's put a quick stop to that whole "the list" bullshit.

I'm sure you've seen it linked on the MMOC forums a dozen times a day claiming it was right or almost right even before the Cataclysm was announced. Well, let's just put this into your face and say it's WRONG. The original poster confirmed he made it up. At the time the first 3 continents (including TBC and WotLK) were already common knowledge and available for speculation as to how the land mass would be divided. Now the cataclysm comes and surprise surprise it's deviating from his list. Level cap 85 instead of 90, no bloody pandas, worgen an expansion early, etc. It's dead, it's over, quit posting that shit or I'll look you up and carve you out with a dull spoon alright?

Next, classes.

Dumbing it down

Do not underestimate the cunning that is Blizzard. Not only are they planning to severely dumb down the game in Cataclysm, all new items will probably be semi on par with current gear at the rate they're going. Of course the new gear will have a much higher ilvl and more stats, but they'll have much fewer stats.

Consider this: You get an item with +20 agi +20 crit. In terms of item budget it's then at it's limit. However, if that same item had it's stats distributed as +15 agi, +15 crit and +15 hit, it'd be using the exact same budget, same ilvl, but "5" whole stat points more. Knowing that, look at where this leads us...

Itemization

Some quoted texts below.

In Cataclysm, there are plans to streamline the statistics found on items. We want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all "core" stats more appealing. Here are some examples of such plans, as various stats will be removed! :

* MP5: Will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.
* Spell Power: Is being removed from items as well. To compensate Intellect will provide mana and Spell Power.
* Attack Power: Will also be removed from items. Instead, Agility will provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. While strength will give Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.
* Defense: Also being removed (again, from items) so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.
* Block: Is being removed. Blocking an attack will now always mitigate a set percentage of damage.

So, that's five possible stats removed. New players will have an easier time, while theory crafters will get bored sooner.

And some more stat changes

* Armor Penetration: Was considered to be too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later! Basically we had Weapon skill before, then it became weapon mastery, then it became armor penetration, and now it's being changed AGAIN into "mastery". Make up your mind Blizzard T_T
* Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit. More haste, more energy... That'll be crazy for Combat rogues, and I seriously hope they'll increase our energy bar. At 100 energy, with certain talents I'm already having trouble trying to make sure that energy stays below 100... It just refills too quickly.
* Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed. Yay, not. Anyone else think this game is too focused on PvP?

What's your class doing?

Hunters

Hunters get their mana changed into "Focus". Basically it's the same as the rogue's energy, or their pet's focus, just with a different name. Meaning they'll be less burst capable. Also means aspect of the viper is probably going to be removed. They also won't have to worry so much about ammo anymore, as ammo becomes a "relic slot" and new types of ammo will drop from bosses or be buyable at the vendor. No longer will you need to carry a giant quiver with 24.000 arrows or bullets. I'm not suite what will actually happen to the quivers themselves though.

Warlocks

Warlocks will finally have their soul shards removed. Instead they'll be using a rune like system that Deathknights already employ. You get three shards per fight, which will regenerate quickly while out of combat. Soul drain will allow you to regenerate them during combat. Image on MMOC.

Soul shards will be used to "empower" spells once every 30 seconds, allowing the warlock to remove the cast time, or guarantee the next few spells to crit. Summoning demons will no longer cost you soul shards. Good times!

Worgen

Bluequote:
The worgen, our new Alliance race -- has both a true form and a human form. The true form is purely cosmetic, and provides no combat bonus. A player may remain in either form when out of combat, but are automatically placed in their true form upon entering combat. Worgens have a racial ability called Darkflight, which allows the worgen to temporarily increase their movement speed by 70%, and can be used every three minutes. This activated ability, like entering combat, will also force the worgen into its true form. Other worgen racials include a passive 1% increase to all damage, reduced duration from the effects of curses and disease, and a bonus to skinning, as well as the ability to skin faster. Worgen will have access to all classes except paladin and shaman.

In case you're still wondering what the female worgen will look like, have a peek at this pic on MMOC.

Goblins

Bluequote:
The goblin race, available to the Horde, will be able to choose from all classes except paladin and druid. Goblins also have some very interesting racial abilities, including a rocket belt that allows players to activate one of two rocket abilities every two minutes. The first ability enables the player to jump up to 20 yards, while the other shoots rockets at an enemy player within 30 yards. Additionally, every 30 minutes the goblin can summon a pack hobgoblin, which will act as a personal servant granting bank access. Goblins also gain a bonus to their alchemy skill, and should a player decide to become an alchemist there will be an increased benefit from drinking health and mana potions. Additional passive goblin racials include a permanent 1% increase to attack and casting speed, and because of their knack for mercantile affairs, goblins will always receive the best possible gold discount regardless of reputation.

And yeah, the female goblins look rather.... strange.

Professions

The professions are naturally not untouched either. It's likely you'll get to train your stuff up to 525 skill, but that won't be all! A new profession will be added called Archeology. image.

Bluequote:
Archeology is the new secondary profession that will be joining the ranks of cooking, fishing, and first aid in Cataclysm. Archeology allows the player to unlock new abilities and rewards by discovering ancient treasures throughout the world. Each archaeologist uses the profession to uncover clues hidden in the world around them, such as troll relics or map fragments, and decipher their meaning, enabling the clever archaeologist to manipulate pieces of the past, learning the location of a treasure cache or valuable artifact. Such artifacts are highly sought after by the Archeology Society, and they pay in gold and items for their return. Those who have mastered archeology can find Titan artifacts, earning special currency used to unlock character paths and allowing the player to further customize their character.

Basically, you'll be a treasure hunter like back in Ultima Online. I wonder if you'll also be accidentally summoning dragons when you dig up something ;)

Also, note it's a Secondary profession, so you won't have to drop any profession to learn it. It's low cost, new and won't force you to drop leatherworking or engineering to pick up the new skill. Which is obviously, awesome news!

Re-forging

Ah, now, "this" is what will make having a crafting profession worthwhile. Indeed, you get to re-forge your armor somewhat, customize it to your exact needs. There are some restrictions though. Basically, bluequote:
Reforging affords tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, engineers, and jewelcrafters the opportunity to customize any player's gear, including their own. Specifically, they can reduce a single statistic on applicable items and convert the lost points into another stat not already on the item.

This means, if an item has 20 agi, 20 stam, 20 crit, 20 hit. You'd be able to lower the agi by 10 points, and add 10 intellect to the item instead. You can't add crit or hit, as those stats are already present on the item.

Cataclysm confirmed!

2009-08-21T21:30:00.020+02:00

So, it turns out everything that was posted on MMOC before turned out true.
Indeed, Goblins as well as Worgen.

This is sorta reprocessing news as it happens, but MMOC is being besieged by about 16000 visitors at the moment and the site is straining to load. Give it a try, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Now then, in summary I'll tell you the short version, then you don't need to fly through pages long of stuff.

The Cataclysm

Deathwing is the cause, not Queen Azshara. Quite interesting that. And he looks omfg badass (see his face in the topright of this post). More artwork here. This will make an awesome wallpaper :)

Worgen and Goblins, as stated a few days ago will probably get the following classes:
* Worgen: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warlock
* Goblin: Mage, Paladin, Priest

Which proved to be somewhat inaccurate.
The actual classes are: (linky)
* Worgen: Deathknight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest(wtf), Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
* Goblin: Deathknight, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.

One screenshot showed an Orc wearing Tattoos. Let's hope that's a bonus customization feature.

Worgen look closer to furries than actual "worgen". It'll take some getting used to no doubt.

Possibly the Goblin mount link. See the official image.

Enough on the artwork...

Features!

Level Cap Increased to 85. Still obviously only 1 skill point be level. Talent trees won't be extended, you will just get those 5 more talent points.
* The Path of the Titans will let players follow a path (not restricted to classes), this is a new talent system with new skills and passive abilities.
* A mastery system is being added as well, a lot of talents will be reworked to be more fun. The point is to get rid of a lot of the talent skills and not make you spend all your points in a talent tree just because it gives you more damage or higher crit chance.

Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two. Every single zone in old Azeroth is remade, remodeled and revamped to be smooth and improved.

You will be able to use Flying mounts in all the "old" zones.

New High-Level Zones: Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.

Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements. This one is, at least, finally something to really work for "as a guild" instead of as an individual.
* 20 guild levels. Can level by doing what you normally do: raids, dailies, battlegrounds.
* Levels unlock perks: guild talent tree. (wtf)
* Cheaper repairs, less durability loss on wipes used as examples.
* Mass resurrection (guild-wide res)

Archeology. The new profession. Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards. Whatever that means... More info on that later no doubt.

There will be NO hero class in this expansion. So, probably the next one ;)

Some graphical enhancements will be made, specifically to water rendering. If your computer was running vanilla wow smoothly, not so smooth in TBC, and struggling in WotLK it's high time you improve your setup. The game isn't going to be a smooth ride if your hardware is already struggling. (/nudge a certain druid)

The Barrens are split in half and become two zones rather than one.

More on Lore

Such as things are with phasing, you might see the world affected in the near future by your own hand and choices. Thrall was "hinted" as having a role to play in tirisfal, while garrosh might have an eye on taking over / starting a new horde.

Several storylines are left open and will most likely be explored further in the Cataclysm.

The World

Also see here.

* Azeroth is now flyable. Pretty much all the zones will be changed to some extent, some of them like Elwynn Forest won't change too much but others like The Barrens will be sundered in two by Deathwing.
* The Wailing Caverns are now a lush and verdant Area.
* Desolace now has a lot more waters and a lot of plants can be seen in the screenshots.
* The Horde finally conquered Southshore.
* Auberdine was destroyed and the night elves have set up a new camp north of it. Garrosh wants to expand the horde and has built a fortified camp at the south of the zone.
* Stonetalon has been cleaned by the Goblins, Azshara will be the new Goblin zone, and are using quarries in the mountains of Azshara to build their town.
* We all left a little part of ourselves in Northrend and the old world will be much darker than it was to make heroism and brotherhood more meaningful like Warcraft should be.
* Every zones will be revamped with new quests, items, and art. The old world will be a brand new experience and you won't have to deal with the annoying agility/spirit quest rewards anymore.
* 7 new zones will be added : Twilight Highlands, Mount Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Gilneas, The Lost Isles, Sunken City of Vash'jir.
* The Worgens and Goblins starting zone level goes from 1 to 15.
* Sunken City of Vashj'ir will be an underwater zone and was the home city of Lady Vashj before the original sundering, this is a gateway to the Abyssal Maw. Going through the Abyssal Maw will take you to the Elemental Plane of Water, even if the zone will be underwater you will be walking on the sea floor here, new underwater mounts will be available and should have the same speed as normal flying mounts.
* Deepholm will be the new hub of the expansion, you will have portals here to let you teleport to Hyjal, Uldum, etc ... The Twilight's Hammer now serves Deathwing and have brought him back to full health in the Temple of Earth at the center of the map.
* Uldum will have at least two dungeons and is heavily inspired from Egypt. The sea at the west of Tanaris was just an illusion created by the Titan and Uldum is actually a brand new zone. It is rumored to hold a super weapon. Uldum is also the home of the Tolvir, a race of stone-like cats created by the titans.
* Ragnaros used the cataclysm to come back from the Plane of Fire where we sent him and his now sieging the World Tree in Mount Hyjal to burn it down. Malfurion is back from the Emerald Dream. The whole zone (Hyjal) will make extensive use of phasing.
* Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol,
* Apparently Orgrimmar will be rebuilt and reinforced with steel, it now looks a lot like Garrosh strongholds...
* Undercity has been redesigned to be flyable, it now looks much more impressive from the outside.
* Deepholm isn't really connected to Azeroth, the connection is where Deathwing
* The Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol, Deathwing literally broke open Grim Batol as he emerged from the ground. This is the new Twilight's Hammer base in Azeroth and both Horde and Alliance will have a new port town with boats here. The Red Dragonflight is still here but has been pushed back to the west of the zone near the Wetlands.
* The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be back in a brand new level 85 heroic version.
* Blackrock Caverns will be a new level-up dungeon located in Blackrock Spire. This is an entirely new dungeon, new art, new creatures, new everything.
* Phasing can now add and remove terrain based on your progress. Coasts will be progressively more flooded depending on how far you are in a storyline for example.

The Trailer

See the trailer video on youtube here for the high quality version.

Official Blizzard HD trailer at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/.

Blizzcon World of Warcraft info panel.
Info trailer 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2f6sEqL54M
Info trailer 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffbyoq8JxU
Info trailer 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhM6RxHSCo
Info trailer 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33PLxl-ESA
Info trailer 5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VJi2JdSyo
Info trailer 6 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WacdPQnA7g
Part 7, 8, 9 and 10 are also there, just check the link on the youtube page.

Diablo 3

New class "the monk". See blizzard's site.
One player asked what the 5th class would be, and whether they'd consider the amazon/rogue. They said they'd answer that "next year". So diablo 3 won't be released for another year at least. /sad puppy.

BlizzCon is now!

2009-08-20T20:44:00.009+02:00

More info on Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and the new World of Warcraft expansion details will be given out. Are you getting excited yet? :P

Also: failoc. A silly little game blizzard made to keep you busy while waiting on blizzcon.

Linkage

On a less related note, you should visit these two sites sometime. They've been pushing the top advertising spots on this blog for the last few months. Dedicated is what they are, so show them some appreciation :)
* Coffee with Sargeras.
* Kuroneko's Addiction.

Also, does this picture look familiar to anyone? (Hint, loading screen)

Just dusted off some of the links in the sidebar (e.g. removed disfunctional ones). If you got some suggestions of awesome stuff that should be shared with the rest of the world, just drop a comment here.

Random Ravings + Maelstrom

2009-08-15T19:41:00.007+02:00

Just a small update today.
Just uploaded: "Random Ravings of a Madman - Page 3" to Drunk Duck.

So, be sure to Read the full page and leave a comment ;)

Art by: iPoppet. Make sure you show her your appreciation as well!

Maelstrom

Only a week until BlizzCon starts and most, if not all speculation can be put to rest. The Maelstrom, World of Warcraft version 4.x. Goblins and Worgen as playable races?

MMOC has posted a pretty big list of new stuff which just "might" make you fall backward in your chair. Keep in mind, none of it has been verified by Blizzard.

Alright? Good, now just to make sure you realize this. None of this has been verified by Blizzard.
So there's a good chance it's not going to happen.

But, as I've said plenty of times in the past, speculation can be damn fun.

Some highlights

If you haven't looked at it yet, you'll probably do so in a few minutes. However, I'll give you a quick summary of what "the players" have so far been able to put together into a list of all the expected features. These are Not verified by Blizzard (One can not say this enough), but there is some quite strong evidence to some of these.

New level cap. Either 85 or 90.

New classes were datamined:
* Human Hunter
* Orc Mage
* Night Elf Mage
* Dwarf Mage
* Blood Elf Warrior
* Dwarf Shaman
* Undead Hunter
* Tauren Paladin
* Tauren Priest
* Gnome Priest
* Troll Druid

Putting those numbers into the current list would mean that the Class balance which is currently available to us would become:

Alliance, Horde 3.x -- Post 4.x

A 1, H 1 -- A 1, H 2 : Druid
A 3, H 4 -- A 4, H 5 : Hunter
A 3, H 3 -- A 5, H 4 : Mage
A 3, H 1 -- A 3, H 2 : Paladin
A 4, H 3 -- A 5, H 4 : Priest
A 4, H 4 -- A 4, H 4 : Rogue
A 1, H 3 -- A 2, H 3 : shaman
A 2, H 3 -- A 2, H 3 : Warlock
A 5, H 4 -- A 5, H 5 : Warrior
A 5, H 5 -- A 5, H 5 : Deathknight

But then, there's the potential "two" new races to balance things out.

Worgen: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warlock
Goblin: Mage, Paladin, Priest

That would balance things out. But, chances are very large both races will also be able to become a warrior at the least.

And there's more

A complete Azeroth revamp, including the ability to use flying mounts. Current day Hyjal, Gilneas, Uldum and more.

Much more, undoubtedly. But, I don't want to go too deep into that right now. Worgen and Goblins have my vote, but using phasing on the entire continent of old Azeroth seems a rather ambitious project. Still, nothing is impossible when you're dealing with Blizzard.

Onyxia is coming back!

2009-08-13T09:40:00.012+02:00

In honor of WoW's 5th Anniversary Patch 3.2.2, what is considered to be a minor fix patch will be bringing none other than her Lady Onyxia back into the raiding scene. The Blue text people have said:

She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch.

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called Brood of Onyxia. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!

Changes to the instance

It's not your typical new content, but keep in mind this is NOT a content patch. It's a quick and extra feature for your enjoyment. The old lvl 60 instance will no longer be available, and it'll be replaced with a revamped, re-seeded with new loot - 10+25 man instance.

You'll also be getting the ability to get a new "Onyxia style" 310% speed mount. Probably a rare drop. Not only that, you'll get your very own mini pet called an "onyxia whelp". Eye candy, but for old raiders who've spent a good few months on farming her it's a nice pat on the back.

Cry all you want, I'm happy to see some old content reworked for the current player level. Sure, you won't be able to solo her anymore, but was that ever really "worth" your time? Not since the boss gold drop nerf surely.

It'll also be interesting to see whether good old trusty Vis'kag the Bloodletter will make a return. I've used the blade for a good while before getting my hands on a Chromatically Tempered Sword, but the color! oh man the color. It's excellent stuff.

Another weapon of note is the Deathbringer. Previously this weapon would go to the crying warriors, while the rogues would take dibs on the deathbringer but..... With the changes in patch 3.2 Rogues can now wield axes. And if that weapon makes a return, and "if" they remake it as a 2.9 speed weapon (Doubtful, but perhaps 2.7 speed at least) every rogue on the server will cream his pants to get a hold of this weapon.

Since Onyxia is a single boss instance, and being remade for the anniversary etc, it's likely her loot and difficulty will be on par with Sartharion or Naxxramas... Meaning iLvL 226 "if we're lucky".

This is an estimate of what it'd look like with ilvl 245. The same as the 25 man coliseum boss drops.

Makes you wonder whether Quel'Serrar will also be updated... could be a nice feature.
Update: Looks like she gives ilvl 232 gear at 10 man, and ilvl 245 on 25 man. 22 slot bags, and the mount is a rare ~1% drop chance item. See MMOC.
Update2: Why, look at that.

Getting started

Some of you never did the gruelingly long quest chain to get to enter the instance.
Some probably never even visited her. Many won't remember the tactics. Plenty will have heard of the "Minus 50 fucking DKP" yell, or the MORE DOTS, and "onyxia deep breaths more often in this patch". If not, do your research.

At any rate, it's probably not a bad idea to read up on the boss tactics!
Sure, there's a very large chance that the tactics for this fight will get tweaked and modified to allow for a 10-25 man fight instead of the original - epic - 40 man group that it took to take her down. Though even when she was level 60, she's been done with as little as five, and even 3 iirc. Clever use of game mechanics and full naxx gear, and a sheetload of patience was all it took... ahem.

The fight consists of three phases. You enter the instance, kill a few wardens, group up at the ramp and then everyone races inside to their respective sides. West and East side yo! Odd and Even groups.

Disclaimer: Tactics "might" be subject to change in 3.2.2

Phase 1

Phase one starts as soon as the tank gets in range and aggros Onyxia, he'll have to turn her to the far wall in the back and start building threat (obviously) but also keep his threat level high constantly. In 3.x we have the added advantage of misdirects and tricks of the trade which will greatly help in this. Something we didn't even have back at level 60. The reason for this threat building, other than those reasons which prevent the boss from turning around and killing the other players, is that the boss uses an ability called Wing Buffet. Not only does that ability knock the tank back to the wall, but it also reduces his threat by a certain percentage. The result of this, is that you're dealing with a threat cap. All players should keep an eye on Omen, or whatever threatmeter you're using.

Even back at level 60 we had such a threatmeter, but even back then the exact mechanics of the onyxia fight were largely guesswork, and many a wipe ensued by players overaggroing the tank and causing a firebreath on their side. Usually resulting in a wipe.

Aside Wing buffet and Knock away, she also uses flame breath and Cleave in the front. (So don't stand there unless you're supposed to!) And a Tail Sweep in the back. If you're a hunter/ranged you can stand far enough away in the back to not have to worry about the tail, but it's usually recommended for everyone to be on either the left or right side.

Phase 2 will start at roughly 65%

Phase 2

This phase is the meat of the fight, survive this and you're nearly there.

Onyxia will lift off and start shooting Fireballs at players in the area. Now, some myths and theories are linked to these fireballs but basically she will shoot them at whoever is highest on her threat list. As the fireball has a splash effect everyone should spread out among the area. The fireball, when it hits also causes the affected player to lose a certain percentage of his threat. The exact value isn't known, but it's enough to make yourself want to get hit by it at least once more than the tank. That's largely outside of your control though.

Some whelps will spawn from the sides where the egg chambers are (don't run in there you'll cause a wipe) and these need to be taken care of by some aoe capable players.

Deep breath

Simply put, this hurts and it's going to kill you. If you see the emote "Onyxia takes in a deep breath..." You'd better run to a safe spot or you'll be one very crispy WoW player. There's about six spots where she can fly and hover, and each time after she moves there's a 50% chance that she's going to use the deep breath ability. Make sure there's a hunter on TS or Vent able to yell where she is, and keep a keen eye open yourself. Position yourself accordingly. If she's in the top-left, you move top-right or bottom-left. If she's top-right, you move top-left or bottom-right. Etc, etc.

Some speculation was made whether she'll deep breath more if players are too far away from her, but this was never (to my knowledge) tested and proven. Presume deep breath is fully random. The best defense against this ability is to simply burn her to 40% as quick as you can. All ranged DPS, and even melee if you're standing directly below her needs to take her health down quick. Just don't forget about the whelps, as they'll quickly target and eat your healers.

Phase 3

When her health reaches about 40% (sometimes a bit later) she will land in the middle of the cave and run for the player highest on her aggro list. Now, the fun part of this, is that she's immune to taunt and threat locking abilities. So your tank will need to start building threat like a maniac, rogues use tricks of the trade, hunters misdirect. Back at the lvl 60 version of this instance it was very common for her to eat her way through a good portion of your DPS "and healers" before a tank was able to get aggro back on her. With the new threat giving abilities at 80 this should be a lot easier.

Once you have a hold on her, simply move her back to the same spot she was in during phase 1 and burn her down the rest of the way. The only difference during phase 3 is that she'll use a bellowing roar which will fear everyone in the instance. Again, back at lvl 60 this meant you'd be praying tremor totem ticked just at the right time or you'd be pretty screwed. We didn't have dwarf priests / fear ward back then. And bosses ran off when the tank was feared. That "stick to the tank while feared" feature wasn't added until somewhere halfway during TBC. While this "bellowing roar" is in effect there will also be lava shooting from cracks in the ground. So bring that pvp trinket, tremor totems, fear ward, and above all stand at a safe spot away from the crack edges. Especially make sure you stay away from the whelp cave entrances, as those can be a nasty surprise during phase 3.

When her health reaches 10% she'll soft enrage, and start dealing more and more damage to the tank as her health gets closer to zero. Be aware of this, and bring her down to 0% for some hard earned loot.

Some more tricks up her sleeve

Once you've successfully done the fight a few times she really isn't "that" scary. However, there are a few more tricks she will occasionally use, and some of them are even considered to be bugs.

If you run too far away, or are at the instance entrance while the boss engages she will teleport you directly in front of her, and bite you dead. Simple fix, don't run away from her.

Speaking of running, if you feel a wipe is coming don't bother running. As soon as the fight engages the wardens you killed earlier will all respawn! Meaning you'll also have to run into the cave as a group. Leave no stragglers or you'll have to deal with some nasty elite adds early in the fight.

Fire immunity, that's right, she's a dragon and she's immune to fire. Much the same as Ragnaros. Don't bother shooting fireballs at her, they just tickle.

Taunt immunity, I already said it, but it is worth repeating. This is a single tank fight usually. Though it never hurts to have 1-2 offtanks building threat "just in case" so they can take over tanking in phase 3. Hey, it beats getting the rest of the raid eaten.

Bugged heals and evade. In the many times I've fought her, I've only seen her actually do this twice. Both times were explainable, as some player got feared up a ledge, or knocked there. Keep your feet on the ground, that also applies to the tank.

Going for a walk? I've only seen her do this when killing her with 2-3 people. She might wander off and take a hike through the whelp cave. It's very strange, and she'll still randomly try to hit people that get too close, but most of her abilities will no longer be used until she starts phase 2 or dies.

So, there you have it.
You feel ready to take on Lady Onyxia in 3.2.2 ?
Or still upset that Blizzard is adding "reused" content?

So, here's 3.2

2009-08-08T09:42:00.008+02:00

Also see Blizzard's Patch Notes for 3.2
All servers patched, and most of your addons broke down again. Go figure.
If you haven't installed the patch yet, Wirebrain has a very fast mirror. wowwiki also has a list of more.

So much to do T_T
I'll go ahead and bother you with a little to-do list again.

Call of the Crusade

You got a letter in the mail, there's new quests, and a new set of instances. Sadly the bosses are pitifully weak and released "1 per week", with heroic mode not being available until after 5 weeks. Go there, pick up the quests.

Children's non-week

Dalaran has a children's week matron in the south area of the city. She gives two quests (only one you can pick up) for either an oracles or frenzyheart pet. You'll receive the pet in the mail once you return the pet to her.

Professions

Oh boy, oh boy, lots of new stuff for professions.
Checking my main, and alts, it turns out some of the skills are still a bit low...
* Zurgat - Engineering: 490
* Arthul - Jewelcrafting: 429
* Geshrat - Mining: 430

Plenty of Saronite and mining later sorted them all to 450, but still, took a bit.
Bought some of the new gem patterns, and received a free +5 jewelcrafter's tokens in the mail. This way I can at least make the epic gems for my main without having to bother others for that.

Arthul:
* Design: Nightmare Tear
* Design: Deadly Ametrine
* Design: Shifting Dreadstone
* Design: delicate Cardinal Ruby

I should really go and do Sunstrider isle with that guy sometime and complete his collection.

Jeeves!
Easy to farm, but the pattern is Bind on Pickup so you will have to get it yourself. It can drop off any mechanicals lvl 70+ in northrend, including bosses. You do however have to dismantle them, so make sure your engineering skill is high enough.
I think it took me some 30-40 kills near the Colossus in Storm Peaks.

Next up:
* Train the new gem transmutes on alchemist - done.
* Replace engineering glove enchant - todo.
* Replace engineering cloak enchant - done.
* Replace engineering boot enchant - done.
* Make a mind control hat - todo.
* Craft a wormhole - done.
* Craft Jeeves - done.

More stuff to do

* Admire the new druid cat/bear form art - done.
* Try the new battleground - todo.
* Train axe skill on rogue - done.
* Raise axe skill to 400.... - to do...
* Rant on MMOC about hackers stealing my herbs/ore from underground - done.
* Complain on MMOC about the new auto complete feature in mail and chat - done.
* Install OldMailMenu addon to circumvent autocomplete mail crap - done.
* Buy the new 60% undead mounts - todo.
* Build two engineering helicopters with the reduced materials - todo.
* Set talents for all alts that got their talents reset - todo.
* Update ALL addons that need updating - todo.
* Delete vendor price addon - todo.
* Disable showing ilvl in addons, and enable it in the blizzard interface - todo.
* Lower shadow detail because all shadows are suddently flickering like a spaz in a strobe light - done. WTF is up with that?
* Visit the ravasaur trainer and go grind a new mount - todo.
* Check all alt-banks and "restack" potions to save space. Awesome! - done.
* Spend some badges of heroism to get the new Hierloom chest piece for an alt - done.
* Enchant the Hierloom chest with +4 stats - done.
* Buy the Hierloom northrend flying tome for all 6 of the lvl 70+ alts - done.
* Farm an Arconite Dragonling - STILL todo...
* Farm a Formula: Enchant 2H Weapon - Superior Impact - still todo.

Have you laid out your plans for the next week yet?

Banned, wtf?

2009-08-01T20:38:00.006+02:00

Banned? huh??
No, don't worry, not from WoW. Though I'm not quite actively playing right now. Patch 3.2 might see me doing some activity again, but until then, meh.

"One" of my image hosts apparently decided I was using too much bandwidth, and subsequently BANNED me and deleted the pictures without even bothering to tell me why or giving a warning. unlimited imagehosting. Unlimited, yeah right. Bastards. They took down the two RRVS comic previews I had on the blog here... But at least there's always the Drunk Duck version for that: RRVS comic.

As for other image hosting, Image Frog :) In fact, ImageFrog is better than ImageShack. No bloody pop-ups that I've seen yet, which is a BIG plus. And photobucket isn't bad either.

Pictures

The weather today was great, and I borrowed a camera, so...
I grabbed my bike and went outside (o m g) where I took some pictures of the world outside my house and around town. As well as some crafting with metal rings that I do so and then.

Patch! Or not...

Last week Blizzard shut down the PTR servers, and after some murmuring among the players this would make us think that "the patch" should be arriving this tuesday/wednesday. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the case. A new build has been posted, version 10192. Which means that even with having 2 parts of the patch already, the final 3.2 updater is still at least a week away.

Also, blizz quote:

We plan to begin collecting non-personal system specifications data from all World of Warcraft players again in the very near future. Players who have not merged their World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account will see a message stating, "Submitting non-personal system information". However, those who are playing with a Battle.net account will not see this message even though the system data is being gathered. This process will run for approximately one week. Please also rest assured that this data survey will have absolutely no affect on gameplay.

If you are wondering why they are doing this...

Presume you haven't attached your battle.net account to your WoW account yet. Not a big issue, I'm sure plenty of people haven't bothered doing that yet. However, if you just got yourself keylogged (Trojan virus, fake scam mail, whatever, they got your password and you were an idiot for allowing them to get it) and you don't have a blizzard authenticator yet... Well, these days the evil hackers have found a new way to prevent you from getting your account back. They will attach your WoW account to "their" battle.net account. Allowing them easy access for many days without worry of you being able to change your password back with the use of the "secret question". Indeed, you just got screwed good. You'll need to phone blizzard, wait seven days, send a picture of your CD box with the code clearly visible, wait for the mail, wait for blizzard some more, wait for emails... All the while Mr.Scammer is having fun using your account to scam other people, spread more trojans, and steal all your gold and gear.

Don't you just love being uninformed?

Well, now you can protect yourself from such evils.
* Step one: Don't download crap from weird sites. It's the best protection really.
* Step two: In case it's not entirely your own fault, there's always silly things like other sites getting hacked, and trying to infect you with a trojan.
* Step three: Install a damn virus stanner. Even if you don't want to pay for one, at least get a decent free one like AVG.
* Step four: If all else fails, buy an authenticator from Blizzard. It'll make logging into your account a lot harder, since any would be hacker will now also need a randomly generated 6-8 digit code to get into your WoW account.
* Step five: Go to battle.net and merge your WoW account into your Battle.net account before "they" do it for you. You'll be able to download WoW any time, even StarCraft if you got a legitimate cd-key as well as diablo. Plus you'll probably need it for StarCraft II and Diablo III later as well.

Which brings us to the poll.

Poll End

A few days early, but that's alright.

Have you EVER bought gold?
* Yes - 20 (16%)
* No - 104 (83%)

16%, that's a staggering result.
16% of all voters are too fucking lazy to grind their own gold, which might translate to some 10% of the wow players. Sad days. It's not like it's hard to get gold either. Ah well, lets hope it was a one time thing. Surely in WotLK you don't even need gold anymore, as it just comes falling from the sky in the form of daily quests and huge loads of boss drops.

And thus, the new question for this month:
* Have you merged your WoW account and Battle.net account yet?
Well, have you?

Slow week for 3.2 professions

2009-07-24T21:11:00.014+02:00

It's a fairly slow week, 3.2 is in progress and the first two parts are available for download through the use of the blizz background downloader. A few weeks at most I'd say. But I've been wrong before. (Not often, but often enough to be cautious about it)

Now, not to QQ, but when you're looking at the blizz, MMOC, WoR or WR forums and peek at whatever section there passes for the "professions forum" you'll notice quite often the same thread popping up...

What profession is best for my class?

If only I got a Euro each time some anonymous idiot asked that same question...

Lets skip the research and give you the juicy data right off.
Sorted from best to worst, for Physical DPS, most casters and tanking.

Physical DPS

* Jewelcrafting - 42 strength/agility - (3x 32 agi instead of 3x 20 agi)
* Engineering - (41,1 stat value) 68 haste (equals about 61,2 agi), 1 agi, -44 ap - (+23 agi -22 agility on cloak, -44 ap +68 haste on gloves. As well as an occasional boost in runspeed.) - Mind, haste isn't nearly as strong as agility, so it's use is very situational and class dependant.
* Blacksmithing - 40 strength/agility - (2x 20agi epic gems in extra sockets)
* Inscription - 80 attack power - (+80 ap vs epic Sons of hodir enchant)
* Leatherworking - 80 attack power - (130 AP fur lining vs 50 AP enchant)
* Enchanting - 80 attack power - (40 ap x 2 rings)
* Alchemy - 80 attack power - (260 AP instead of 180 base due to mixology)
* Skinning - 40 crit
* Tailoring - (28 stat value) 100 ap -22 agi - (Assumes 1/4 uptime for swordguard embroidery, 400 ap for 15s out of 60s) - It's poor, really poor. Avoid tailoring as a melee.
* Mining - 60 stamina
* Herbalism - 3600 healing over 5 seconds - Yes it sucks unless you're PvP.

Casters - Spell damage

With thanks to the EJ Forums.

* Tailoring - 73.75 spellpower, -23 haste - (Assumes 1/4 uptime for lightweave proc, 295 spellpower for 15s out of 60s)
* Jewelcrafting - 48 spellpower - (3x 39sp instead of 3x 23sp)
* Alchemy - 47 spellpower - (172sp flask w/ mixology vs 125 baseline)
* Blacksmithing - 46 spellpower - (2x 23sp epic gems in extra sockets)
* Enchanting - 46 spellpower - (23sp x 2 rings)
* Inscription - 46 spellpower - (70sp vs 24sp on epic Sons inscription)
* Leatherworking - 46 spellpower - (76sp fur lining - 30sp enchant)
* Engineering - 45 haste, -1 spellpower - (+27sp -23haste on cloak, -28sp +68haste on gloves. As well as an occasional boost in runspeed.)
* Skinning - 40 crit
* Mining - 60 stamina
* Herbalism - 3600 healing over 5 seconds - Yes it sucks unless you're PvP.

Tanking

This is a bit more tricky.

Firstly, blacksmithing and jewelcrafting will offer you the most diversity and value for your money, so I'd highly recommend those. That way you can put tank gems on your tanking kit, and dps gems on your dps kit rather than be stuck with 60 stamina in both gear sets for example.

* Jewelcrafting - 63 stamina - (3x 51 stamina instead of 3x 30 stamina)
* Leatherworking - 62 stamina - (102 stamina fur lining vs 40 stamina enchant)
* Blacksmithing - 40 dodge rating or 60 stamina - (2x 20 stat (30 stam) epic gems in extra sockets)
* Enchanting - 60 stamina - (30 stam x 2 rings)
* Mining - 60 stamina. A good 660 health with blessing of kings.
* Alchemy - 600 health - (1900 health instead of 1300 base due to mixology)
* Inscription - 40 dodge rating - (+40 dr vs epic Sons of hodir enchant)
* Engineering - 885 armor - (Glove enchant - vs armsman. Exceptional for Death knights).
* Skinning - 40 crit. For threat.
* Herbalism - 3600 healing over 5 seconds. 3 min cd. Effectively it's 3600/3/10 = 120 stamina. But won't prevent you from getting one-shot, and a LOT of healing (as you should know) is overhealing. Effectively, it's about 40 stamina, at most. It's use is fairly situational however.
* Tailoring - Useless, junk, crap, avoid it.

ps: Since this is PTR info, it might still be subject to change.

Goblins and Worgen

2009-07-17T13:53:00.023+02:00

For those of you who were expecting this post today, I greet you.
To those who didn't, enjoy the read. And the many images ^_^

Keep in mind a large part of today's post is Speculation based off a single image, mixed with an inch or to of some half truths, three cups of anticipation, a teaspoon of good guessing, a few pinches of wishful thinking, and a touch of common sense topped off with some relatively accurate background information. As you can guess, I'm not sure either, but if you put all the little dots together the story seems more and more likely than not to be something we can expect to see at some point in the future.

If you didn't know yet (What rock have you been sleeping under the last few weeks?) Blizzard has registered the name "Cataclysm" as a trademark. Now, the last time they did something like this was obviously before the burning crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. "The Cataclysm" in WoW lore refers to the Great Sundering, which resulted in the creation of the Maelstrom. This is a giant swirling mass between World of Warcraft's two main continents. The only reason that makes any kind of sense as to why they would register this name "now" (A short while before the next BlizzCon) would be because they intend to use it in the next expansion. World of Warcraft 4.0 coming to a local store near you, somewhere early 2010!

The Maelstrom

So, what is the Maelstrom? How big is it, where is it, why is it there?

Well, WoWWiki has some info about that.

The Maelstrom is the gigantic rift that was created when the Well of Eternity collapsed into itself during the Great Sundering.

As the aftershocks from the Well of Eternity's implosion rattled the bones of the world, the seas rushed in to fill the gaping wound left in the earth. Nearly eighty percent of Kalimdor's landmass had been blasted apart, leaving only a handful of separate continents surrounding the new, raging sea. At the center of the new sea, where the Well of Eternity once stood, was a tumultuous storm of tidal fury and chaotic energies. This terrible scar, known as the Maelstrom, would never cease its furious spinning. It would remain a constant reminder of the terrible catastrophe... and the Utopian era that had been lost forever.

It's right there on your map, you can't miss it.

It's the last large place of Azerothian landscape that hasn't really been disclosed to us yet. Queen Azshara is believed to reside there. Ugh yeah, more nagas. Don't fret however because "under" that giant swirly mass of clouds are islands! Lots and lots of tiny islands, as well as a few large ones.

Islands, that means water, lots of water.
Perhaps a very good reason why out mounts have recently gained the ability to swim. Something which, this far into the current expansion is completely useless. But in a water based expansion would be very welcome indeed.

No doubt you've seen these images before, but here they are again.

Directly under the Maelstrom are a series of small islands and land masses:
* The Eye, where below it's waters reside the two opposing empires of Naga and Makrura (Crab people).
* Nazjatar, the capital cith of the Naga in the Maelstrom, build in the walls of the rift.
* The Boiling Terrace, an area southeast in the Maelstrom.
* The Rift, all that remains of the original Well of Eternity.
* Scintal Reef, a vast reach of coral on the eastern side of the Maelstrom.
* The Drowned Reaches, a ship graveyard.
* Gishan Caverns, generally avoided by the Naga. Giant sea creatures are expected to dwell within.
* Mak'aru, capital city of the Makrura.
* Pillar Deep, home of tube worms.

Aside the Maelstrom itself we'd be looking at a few more islands and connecting land areas near and to the south:
* Kezan. The Island which is host to the underground city of Undermine.
* Plunder Isle. An island directly east of Kezan.
* Gilneas. A human capital directly south of Silverpine forest. Currently inaccessible due to the Greymane Wall.
* The Broken Isles. A series of islands south of the Maelstrom.
* Zandalar. A troll island, also south of the Maelstrom. (ugh more trolls...)
* Tel'Abim. Another island southwest of the Maelstrom.

Wait, wait, wait! Why are we talking about the Maelstrom so far?

OK, so, if you recall patch 2.4.0 - Fury of the Sunwell, perhaps you also recall that someone datamined the files in that patch and encountered some plants never before seen in Azeroth or Outland. Some other unknown items as well iirc. These 3D objects and plants were later removed from the data files a patch later, 2.4.1 or so. A lot of speculation had taken place as to the origins or intended use of those plants. The Sunwell was to be the last patch before WotLK, and thus the suspicion was made that the plants might be for the next expansion. In the end, we were informed by a Blizzard poster that the items were "unintentionally" added into the game's data files and thus removed.

Now, Patch 3.2 is currently on the PTR, and it turns out there are some unexpected treats in there for us to see.

A poster by the name of HandClaw encountered some Halloween masks with previously unseen models. Goblin male, Goblin female, and what appears to be Worgen. The files are named "Wo" for the first two letters of the race, thus hinting in that direction.

Worgen?!
Maybe just Wolf-people, or Wolvar or something. However, if you consider that Gilneas, which has been sitting just south of Silverpine, a place infested with worgen for years, might be added in the Cataclysm expansion as well. Suddenly things start to connect.

Goblins, Undermine, Worgen, Gilneas. Hmmmmmm...

As a result of that one picture, there's a growing thread on the MMOC forums speculating all manner of things regarding how Worgen and Goblins might, or might not become playable factions. So far the connecting pieces seem strongly in favor, but one can never be a hundred percent sure until Blizzard actually says so.

Goblins and Worgen as faction

Goblins

Goblins have always had strong ties with the horde, were part of the faction during Warcraft I and II. But, in WoW they've always been a neutral presence. Steamweedle Cartel is neutral / friendly for both the horde and the alliance, Ventore.Co however, is hostile with both factions. While the zeppelin crews are friendly only with the horde.

Goblins are after your money first and foremost, explosives second.
If there's a faction of goblins specifically friendly with the Horde, and hostile with the alliance, there's no reason for the other (neutral) factions to suddenly hate the alliance as well. After all, there's also certain mostly human (argent crusade / argent dawn) factions which are neutral to the horde as well.

Starting zone? Kezan seems the most obvious location, though they might as well "start" on one of the many small islands near Kezan. That way Kezan and Undermine itself can still be neutral territory available to both factions.

Worgen

How about worgen though? Never before have we seen a specifically engineered female worgen. Yet here we are, a female worgen mask. Why, other than for a playable faction would Blizzard "accidentally" add in worgen masks. There's no masks for other npcs or monsters. But, here you go a worgen mask, male and female. High quality as well.

So, would Worgen be an alliance faction then? Historical / lore blabla would indicate they strongly favor the alliance. The first Worgen were "summoned" to Azeroth by Velinde Starsong and her magical Scythe of Elune. A night elf who was able to command the worgen into battle.

Quote from the wiki:
Holding the scythe in her hands, she received a vision of chaos. Wolf-men, the worgen, battled an incredible enemy. The worgen fought savagely, as fit their primitive race, but they faced an unflinching enemy: Lords of the Emerald Flame.

It was then that Velinde realized the true power of the scythe. By focusing on it, she was able to communicate with the worgen. However, it was not speech she used to contact them. The worgen heard and understood her. By further channeling the energy of the scythe, the barriers weakened more, and she was able to draw the worgen to Azeroth. She summoned a score and a half. The worgen followed her into battle and, with their brutish strength at her command, they tore into the demons of Felwood.

In the beginning, all was well. She summoned larger numbers of the worgen to fight at her side and she marveled. Though they were of simple mind, they exhibited impressive ability to coordinate their attacks and function as a group.

She identified the leaders in their packs and gave them command of small groups. She then organized her rescued warriors into multiple attack parties, sending them out into the tainted forest to fight the demons.

She waited as her attack parties rampaged through the Felwood, slaughtering the demons in their path. Velinde waited until the appointed time for her soldiers to return came and went; only a few did. She called and searched for the people Elune had entrusted to her. She found not a trace of those missing packs. She returned to her camp, her half-man servants enjoying the freedom Velinde had given them. She lifted her scythe to contact the worgen’s violent home world. There she could bring more to her cause.

But though she had not summoned additional worgen, their numbers continued to increase. It was as though the scythe no longer required her intervention for the summoning process. She gathered as many of the packs as she could find, and ordered them to remain at the Shrine of Mel'Thandris. Velinde hurried to search the libraries in Darnassus and consulted with Onu in Darkshore, but not one scrap of information about these worgen could she find. She heard whispers of a Kirin Tor wizard named Arugal, who was said to have also summoned worgen. Velinde decided to venture to the Eastern Kingdoms and find this wizard in hopes of learning from him.

As the worgen were intelligent, and some groups of them had disappeared there are a lot of open options as to their current state. Arugal has "created" hybrid worgen who are human by day, and worgen by night. A good example of these hybrids can be seen in Silverpine forest.

The inhabitants of a small town beneath Shadowfang Keep display these characteristics. Though they are hostile to both factions, it wouldn't be impossible for a separate faction to exist, or to even have fully taken over Gilneas. Perhaps the worgen there are simply the inhabitants of Gilneas, further affected by Arugal's curse.

There have been some earlier ideas made by other users as to how a worgen faction could come into existence. The author of that article has debunked it to be a spin of his own imagination, but Blizzard might have taken some hints off it. There's also an area just north of Silverpine, and just south of the undead starting area which is inaccessible. You can't even click it, but it "is" there. Two fairly decent sized zones would allow a new race for a good starting zone.

The below pictures are fan-made, unofficial.

Druid skins.

Mage / Rogue geared worgen.

Worgen (shadow)deathknight.

As you can see, the worgen (And goblins) are among the few "non default NPCs" that are able to wear armor and even weapons. Perhaps an intentional foresight by Blizzard.

Hunter pet!

Next, you might have learned of a recent "bug" that was found out by hunters. This bug, or oversight allowed a hunter to tame the Worgen named Garwal during a quest in the Howling Fyord. Blizzard was very quick to give a response to this bug, and less than a day later it was hotfixed. Unlike the Ghost Wolf pet which was hotfixed much later (2 months instead of 2 days) or the tameable CrocoSlime pet which to my knowledge "still" isn't fixed after more than half a year.

Why would blizzard's reaction to these different pets be so different? Surely having a pet worgen couldn't harm anyone? Even if it's a humanoid by default, there's no real reason for them to hotfix it this fast. That is, "unless" they had plans for worgen in the near future. Such as, for example, making them a playable race.

Obviously the models for feral worgen would be different from the player worgen. Much as high elves and blood elves have gotten a complete re-modelling done to their appearance when The Burning Crusade was released. We can probably expect the same to happen for goblins if they become playable. The fact that a female worgen is coming, is in itself already a huge hint, as all the feral worgen that we know and have seen so far are quite simply all non-sexual, or male.

Balance?

Blizzard has done some balancing things in the past, giving the horde a "pretty" race in TBC as the blood elves was intended to draw more players from the alliance to the horde so they could play as an attractive looking elf. The alliance still doesn't have an ugly race however, and the horde still doesn't have a short race. Indeed goblins and worgen would fit those two roles perfectly.

The WotLK worgen in Grizzly hills are markedly different from those in Silverpine in two basic aspects. Although the worgen in silverpine are able to wear a cloak, the new worgen seem to have been adapted with the ability to wear helmets and wield weapons. Something crucial for players.

And then, there's the book called Torment of the Worgen, found in Karazhan. The book gives you a buff which has a chance to transform you into a worgen for ten seconds. This allows you to see and control a "lot" of animations which the npcs never use otherwise. Laughing, working, looting, shooting bows, swinging a 2h weapon, sleeping, waving and yes even mounting. (Something most other temporary shapeshifts and costumes - other than pirates and ninjas - are unable to do.)

If you've ever been turned into a skeleton / worm / bat / cat during Halloween, you'll recall those models have "very" limited animations. Worgen however, are already nearly perfectly animated. As one poster on MMOC comments, that's an awful lot of effort to put into an NPC whose animation you'd rarely use to begin with.

Seeding races?

Wow.com refers us to a quote from Kalgan, he mentions how Blizzard plans to "pre-seed" future playable races in the game before they actually become available. Something you can agree on, has been done with both Worgen and Goblins, plenty of lore and presence. It's quite a different approach from the way they threw Draenei into game.

So, worgen as a playable race?
While not confirmed, I'd say it is most certainly plausible.

Goblins?
I don't see why not.

Blizz images and legendaries

2009-07-11T20:21:00.006+02:00

Some awesome pictures of one of Blizzards's buildings joystiq.

Some impressive shots over at that site, showing the belly of one of Blizzard's buildings. Not to mention the awesome orc outside there.

There's also a couple more pictures over at tweakers, but that's in dutch so you'll need to fill in that URL into google translate.

Legendary

You're no doubt aware of the latest legendary called Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings. With it's ilvl 239. Whether by design, or "design" after voracious whining on the forums that the item's isn't good enough anymore in patch 3.2 when all the items will be ilvl 245 and 252... No way to tell. Either way mmoc lists that the item will be upgraded to a better lifetime with the coming patches and has been upgraded to ilvl 245. Something that's never been done to legendaries in the past. Thunderfury or Sulfuras just to name a few weren't upgraded when BWL was released, or TAQ, or Naxx 1.x. Neither were the Warglaives when the sunwell was released.

Strange things.

Banner

Somnio on the MMOC forums has started a thread offering his photoshop skillz. The queue already seems to be bigger than he can handle as more and more people join in and scream for more. He's put together some interesting stuff however, even a banner for this very blog! You can see it here (for the time being).

I'll put it into the overhead space later, need to tweak the file size a bit still. Google doesn't like me using too much bandwidth xD

Another interesting issue, is that pages.google.com is aparently going to be moved to yourname.googlepage.com I'm not sure how this will affect some of the images I'm using in the long term, but for now they seem fine. Just keep an eye on this...

Tier 9 and another comic!

2009-07-04T11:20:00.009+02:00

Quite an image heavy post today. Just a warning.

Tier 9

MMOC (and blizz) have posted some previews of the suspected Tier 9 gear which will be introduced with patch 3.2.

Unlike previous patches, the new tier will have special graphics for the Horde and Alliance. Unlike previous patches, this does mean some classes will have mostly re-colored versions of the other classes... See blizzard's under dev page.

They do look "gladiatorial" though :P

But for total effort, instead of making Tier 9 x 10 classes. They are making Tier 9 x 2 factions x 4 armor classes = 8 sets (20 recolors though, which are generally zero effort). So, in total Blizzard needs to design two armor sets less. Smart guys, saving effort.

Alliance (Warlock)

Alliance (Priest)

Alliance (Mage)

Horde (Shaman)

Horde (Hunter)

Horde Rogue / Horde Druid, Alliance Deathknight / Paladin / Warrior images here. Mostly recolors this patch it seems.

Random Ravings of a Madman - Page 2

(See the comic page on Drunk Duck for mirror.)
Art by ipoppet at Deviant Art.

China bans... Gold farming?!

2009-06-30T13:27:00.004+02:00

No, it's not April 1st, and you're not dreaming. You might be high, I don't know what you do in your spare time, but yes you read the post title correctly.

The chinese government has put a nation-wide ban on the act of buying any virtual items or currencies with real money. Thus, nobody in China is allowed to buy gold in World of warcraft. Virtual money may only be used to buy other virtual items.

In Quote:

China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit its possible impact on the real financial system.

The government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cyber-games, according to a joint circular from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce Friday.

"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services." it said.

Under the new rules, using virtual money for gambling will be punished by public security authorities, and minors may not buy virtual money.

The Ministry of Culture also vowed to step up supervision on money laundering via virtual credits and other illegal online activities.

The statement said Tencent had strongly opposed the underground trading of virtual money, which could enable online theft and fraud. The company would work with the authorities to combat online crimes, according to the statement.

World first?

To my knowledge, China has put down a world first with this act. Not only properly defining the difference of virtual goods and services, but also banning the transactions between real and virtual goods.

Their actual reasons? Control most likely. Though it seems a very strange move from my point of view. The country is receiving REAL money (albeit trough virtual banks transactions and credit cards) for virtual goods and services such as World of Warcraft gold and powerleveling. It is GREAT news for all us players without a doubt, but it boggles the mind why (which is presumed to be) the most dictatorial and keen to censor and block, government in the world would put such an act forward. Surely they know that "they" are the prime benefactor here? Well, if you read the declaration you'll see it's about a lot more than just WoW gold, but still.

We all know the whole "chinese gold farmer" term, how that works in practice is slightly different from the most common conception however.

See:
* Close touch with a gold farmer. Describes how one would work for 14 hours a day and earn 100-200 Yuan a month. FYI 1 yuan = 0.104 Euros (or 0.146 $). So he was making around 10-20 euros a month, for 14 hours of work a day.
* Ludens - Gold Farmers. Which further describes the human side of the "job".

Commonly these chinese youths would be forking for far less than minimal wage. (As the above comic video tells you jokingly, for less than 10 cents per hour) They'd transfer their farmed gold to a company commonly based in the USA or simply residing in china itself, who would then store and sell the gold to American, European, Australian and commonly Chinese customers for huge profit.

Such sweatshops, and endless goldspam, account hacking so they can be stripped of their value should hopefully notice a drastic reduction due to this new Chinese Law. But I don't expect them to disappear completely. As long as there are idiots willing to pay real cash for virtual gold there will always be someone willing to farm it for you. Maybe no longer from china, but there's always Nigeria.

Poll end

One poll down: "Do you agree with the JC Nerf?".
Seems the crowd is rather divided about Blizzard's choice to change the dragon's eyes from being prismatic, to only a single color.

* Yes - 40 (48%)
* No - 32 (38%)
* I'd have done it different - 11 (13%)

Somewhat lacking in votes people!
And a new one up: "Have you ever bought gold?"
Go on, be honest.

Epic Gems

2009-06-26T20:39:00.008+02:00

One gem no more

It's all over the news, BBC, NBC, CNN, your local radio, the lot.
If you haven't heard of it yet, you might want to consider coming from under your rock.

This morning, Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958) has died from an overdose.
He was 50 years old.

Image source: last.fm

I'll not bore you with the obscure and not so pretty details of his past, the many facial surgeries, his troubled youth, or his recent financial issues. I'm sure you've read or heard all about it on other sites by now. Just let me say this. The man was EPIC. (Legendary even)

Today's blog post is dedicated to his memory.
Never forget.

Epic gems in 3.2

As you may have already learned, patch 3.2 will bring everyone epic gems, readily available. Rare gems give +16 stats, Epic gems provide you with +20.

The new gems are:
* Purple: Dreadstone
* Blue: Majestic Zircon
* Green: Eye of Zul
* Yellow: King's Amber
* Orange: Ametrine
* Red: Cardinal Ruby

Gem sources:
* Transmutation. As above.
* Honor points. 10.000 honor per uncut gem.
* Prospecting Titanium Ore. Pretty random, low chance.
* Badges. 15 badges give one uncut gem.

Patterns to cut the gems into a usable form cost 5 Jewelcrafter's tokens each. Or, a bunch of honor, or stonekeeper's shards for the PvP equivalents.

So, what does this mean for your profession bonuses?
I mean, blacksmithing has two sockets right? So, they'd be getting 2x +20 stats.

Well, Blizzard has come up with a solution to that "issue" by giving all the other professions a slight boost in their special perks as well. As was described a few days back. As it turns out however, Jewelcrafting is stil set to remain Unique(3), and the dragon's eyes will give no less than 14 stats more than epic gems. This means, indeed, that Jewelcrafters will be receiving +42 stats in total. Compared to most / all other professions who will be receiving +40 to all stats, that's a whole "2" stats more!

Now, you and me will recall that Blizzard nerfed Jewelcrafting because "too many people were using it", simply because it was the most rewarding profession out there. And it seems, this will still remain the case.

Of course, it would EASILY be fixed by simply changing the Dragon's Eyes to be either Unique(2) or Unique(4), and have them in turn provide 40 or 30 stats total. You'd end up with a neat and perfectly balanced +40 stats for the profession perk. Just like all other professions. Who knows how Blizzard thinks though, but some of the developers need to get a checkup. Idiots.

And then I haven't even started on the ridiculously (underpowered) benefit of having Engineering instead of any of the other primary professions...