Archive for October, 2009
October 28th, 2009
The PTR Patch 3.3 notes have been updated, including major changes about the new Looking For Group / Looking For Raid / “Dungeon System”. The entire changes after the break.
Some major highlights (although you should really read everything after the break, all of it is very important):
- Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained.
- Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes.
- The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated.
- Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item.
- Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player’s current level.
- LFG channel has returned to being a realm-wide channel accessible in any city!
The full update to the patch notes after the break.
Continue reading PTR Patch 3.3: Patch notes updated
Filed under: Patches, News items
PTR Patch 3.3: Patch notes updated originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 27th, 2009
Sometimes you’d like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all those other shiny MMOs! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world.
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LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour If you’ve been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you’ve heard — or even seen yourself — so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. |
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GameX 2009: Massively.com talks with The Guild GameX 2009 was insane this weekend and we were all over the place, but one of the first groups that we set a chunk of time aside for was Jeff Lewis (Vork), Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), and Robin Thorsen (Clara) from The Guild. We weren’t missing out on catching up with those three. |
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A look back at Aion’s first month and impressions 43,829 minutes. That’s roughly how long Aion’s been out in the West. Depending on your tolerance for grinding, it may or may not have felt like that amount of time passed. There’s no doubt it’s been a busy month full of ups and downs, so we’d like to take an extensive look back at the last 30-days and give our impressions on the game. |
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Star Trek Online closed beta has begun The Star Trek Online closed beta has officially begun as of today, October 22, Cryptic Studios announced. Rekhan from Cryptic Studios writes: “If you’ve signed up, keep an eye on your email, as we’ll periodically be inviting people to join in and share their feedback.” He also pointed out that the “Closed Beta” graphic seen on the game’s homepage will change to read “ACCEPTED” in big, bold letters once you’re in. |
Continue reading MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Features, MMO Roundup
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 27th, 2009
As some of you have seen, we’ve been covering the new Looking of Group interface coming in patch 3.3. It is going to allow cross-realm queuing for dungeons as well as providing a new interface for your heroic dungeon dailies. As some of you have noticed, this new system does not appear to currently support raid groups. After some digging, we were able to pull up the new raid queue interface and take a look at it.
Continue reading Patch 3.3 PTR: New Looking for Raid interface
Patch 3.3 PTR: New Looking for Raid interface originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 26th, 2009
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers’ Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
Patch 3.2 brought a welcome change for both raid leaders and game masters: BOP loot no longer binds to a character immediately. We now have a convenient two-hour window to make sure the item goes to the right player. It’s a change that saves both time and hassle, and I applaud it.
However, now that items aren’t bound as soon as they’re looted, I’ve noticed some shenanigans going on in my guild’s partially pugged 25-player ToC runs. Sometimes, when a player wins an item with a roll, a few people who really want that item have been offering the winner gold in exchange for trading the still-unbound item to them.
I’ve made it clear that we’re not running a GDKP raid and that I don’t want to hear about any such transactions. It’s a slippery slope. Pretty soon you’ll have everyone who’s eligible for an item rolling on it whether they want it or not, solely in hopes of banking a tidy profit.
It seems this two-hour window has also brought back a classic cheat. Click through to read about it in this week’s e-mail!
Continue reading Officers’ Quarters: Partners in crime
Filed under: (Guild Leadership) Officers’ Quarters
Officers’ Quarters: Partners in crime originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 26th, 2009
Reader comments — ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.
ElderDruid doesn’t think we’ll be working too hard for our gold and our emblems in 3.3.
ElderDruid:
Look at them yo-yo’s, that’s the way you do it
You PUG for money on the 3.3
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it
PUGgin for money and emblems for free
Now that’s just profit, that’s the way you do it
Let me tell you, them guys ain’t dumb
Gonna keep subscribers with the epic carrot
Keep ‘em till the launch of Cataclysm.
I want my … I want my … I want my emblems free …
Continue reading [1.Local]: PUGgin’ for money and emblems for free
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Features, [1.Local]
[1.Local]: PUGgin’ for money and emblems for free originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 25th, 2009
For anyone that has tried leveling up a profession, you know that it can be a bit of a grind. This can be especially true with things like engineering or jewelcrafting that have little parts that you have to make in order to make the actual items. Even leatherworking has the ability to upgrade leather from one grade to a better grade and still make something out of it. All of this can be confusing, especially with the categories that Blizzard has setup in the normal trade window. Advanced Trade Skill Window can help out with that problem.
Continue reading AddOn Spotlight: Advanced Trade Skill Window
Filed under: Mining, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Enchanting, First Aid, AddOns, Jewelcrafting, AddOn Spotlight, Inscription
AddOn Spotlight: Advanced Trade Skill Window originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 25th, 2009
Zarhym has posted that Blizzard is aware of the problem and their network technicians are working towards fixing it.
So sit back, have a glass of wine, and enjoy your Saturday night. Try not to use the AH, because finding all your stuff gone wouldn’t be cool (you’ll get it back though, I’m sure, if it is gone, one way or another).
We’ll update this post when a resolution is announced.
Auction houses broken across Azeroth originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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October 24th, 2009
Don’t forget to join It came from the Blog for some Hallow’s End fun today!
- When: 4:30pm EDT (2:30pm Server Time, 1:30pm PDT) Today
- Where: Meet at Falconwing Square on Zangarmarsh (U.S.)
- Who: Any Horde character, any level. There will also be a second part of the event for epic mounted, flightpathed characters.
- What: Various Hallow’s End activities in the Eastern Kingdoms.
- How: Ask Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker for an invite to the guild.
We will be doing some all level activities for the greater portion of the event and will finish up Trick or Treats in the Eastern Kingdoms with the epic mounted/flightpathed (yes, they will mostly be death knights) players.
Have any questions that are not answered here? Please see our FAQ.
We hope you’ll join us!
Filed under: Events, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog
Reminder: ICftB Trick or Treat event today originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 24th, 2009
One of the big UI changes coming in patch 3.3 is an option to Consolidate Buffs. It appears that when the feature is enabled, specific short term buffs like Replenishment and longer duration buffs like Gift of the Wild or Arcane Brilliance will be tucked aside and hidden in a buff box. When you mouse over it, the box will expand and display the buffs within. In other words, we can get more real estate back!
On the other hand, certain important buffs that may be critical to the operation of your class will always be displayed. For example, Art of War procs on my retribution paladin will always show up so I know when to slam Exorcism. (Don’t hate on me because I have ret paladin now!) Heroism (or Bloodlust) and other similar cooldowns will be shown as well as range limited buffs like totems and paladin auras.
From the debuff side of things, there’s another option called Castable Debuffs. When it’s enabled, all it will do is show debuffs that you apply. My elemental shaman will throw Flame Shocks and that’s all that will appear. I won’t see a shadow priest’s Misery or a rogue’s Rupture. It’s an interesting way to cut down on screen clutter.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com’s Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Patches, Buffs, Wrath of the Lich King
Patch 3.3 PTR: Consolidate buffs and debuffs in the default UI originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
October 23rd, 2009
I love this, as I seem to love most of the things that Mania does. She’s just posted that she’s put together a whole guild of hunters, all with XP turned off at different levels, for one purpose: testing pets as they move up the leveling ranks. She says she cheated a little bit to do it — transferred alts from other realms, and it’s Alliance-only — but just having the idea to put something like this together is super creative. We’ve talked about people who’ve leveled up one of every class before, but I never considered just how much the XP-off option changes the game in terms of what Mania calls “special purpose characters.”
Of course, raiding at level 60 is one way to use it, but you can go even lower than that — want to farm Runecloth without it getting too boring? Roll up a death knight, and leave him in Felwood to grind on Furbolgs. Really love running, really running, Scarlet Monastery with your friends? You can all roll characters to 39 (or lower, if you’re looking for a regular challenge), turn XP off, and leave them camped outside the instance. Turning XP off means you can create characters for almost any purpose, and having heirloom items (especially if you buy cloth, which any alt can wear, even if it means they take an armor hit in some cases) means that leveling them up doesn’t take more than a few days of free time. Lots of interesting ideas to play around with there for sure.
Filed under: Hunter, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends
Creating “special purpose characters” with the XP toggle originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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