Archive for December, 2009
December 21st, 2009
The Ancient Gaming Noob picked up this awesome trailer for Icecrown Citadel, created originally by Kesudor. The title of this piece is Wrath of the Lich King, Casino Royale Style. If you’re a fan of the James Bond movies, there’s no way you can miss the obvious homage to those distinctive, elegant opening credits.
Two things in particular stood out to me as clever takes on the style. First, the heavy use of Frostmourne as an iconic image mirrors the use of a gun in the James Bond trailers. Displaying a weapon in this kind of trailer gives the audience a sense of menace, and helps cement what genre the movie lives in.
The second clever touch was the cut-aways between Sylvanas and Blood-Queen Lana’thel. As you watch the video, there’s a still image of Sylvanas staring out at the audience. Small bits of glass float by the Dark Lady. When the glass is over her face, you instead see Lana’thel. It’s hard to tell what plot elements might be implied by this interaction, but it was still a pretty classy touch.
Ultimately, this was a fun trailer, and I really enjoyed it. I’ll be keeping an eye out to see what other fun stuff Kesudor might create.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch
WoW Moviewatch: Wrath of the Lich King, Casino Royale Style originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
December 21st, 2009
In backchannel team discussion, Dan O’Halloran asked us to nominate our best stories for the year. “I don’t mean the most popular or even the most commented on,” he wrote, but “editorials, class columns, analysis, or even funny or touching posts,” the ones we were happiest and/or proudest of writing. I’d like to think that our list captures (or at least tries to capture) the zeitgeist of the player community, and how things evolved from the very beginning of Wrath to the patch where players will (eventually) face the ultimate boss of the expansion.
Yesterday we realized that, as of today, there are 12 days to go until 2010, so we though what we’d do is break down our favorite posts into each month of 2009.
Today, obviously, covers January. Wrath was less than two months old when the new year rolled around. While most players were still leveling their mains, gearing them up, and taking their first steps into heroics, others were already steamrolling Tier 7 or trying to steamroll things like Glory of the Raider.
Continue reading The best of WoW.com: January 2009
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Features
The best of WoW.com: January 2009 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 20th, 2009
Last week’s post included a whole slew of commenter tips about WoW-related comic strips, so in addition to reading through your favorites, check out some of these newcomers:
- The latest from Torment of the Week. My main comment here would be: WTB perma-links.
- Here is one from Real Life Comics that is about Diablo 2, but I’ll include it because it is also about Blizzard’s patching habits.
- GRATS! The De-Evolution of the Quest. I love how game issues are discussed beneath the comic. I also love how the old guy is a dead ringer for Disney’s Jafar from the first Aladdin movie when he pretends to be a prisoner in order to convince Aladdin to go into the cave and retrieve the lamp.
- The Battlemasters: Guilded Butterflies.
- Here’s a new one: Guilded Age. Start reading from the title page, and next week I’ll start posting the updates.
- Working Daze also recently posted two WoW-related comics, including one about patch day.
- Teh Gladiators: They’re A Hungry Bunch.
- Da!ly Quests: Goblin Ingenuity. This is exactly what I thought when I first read Allison’s The single greatest thing that has ever happened in this game.
- Dark Legacy Comics: Ammunition.
- NPC: Cuddle Cats. That one isn’t entirely WoW-related but it rocks, and it does tie into their alt leveling, as well as the next storyline. Declaration.
- NPC: Intervention Cats.
- Beyond the Tree: Chekov’s Gunmen.
- LFG #313 and #314.
- NoObz: Ninth Commantment.
- Slash AFK: Fish Pwned.
- Check out Complex Actions #44: Swimsuit Edition by going to their main page.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies
Sunday Morning Funnies: Rub my belly originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 20th, 2009
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown.
We’ve been doing a series on playing a low level tank. We started out with talking some theory and stats, worked our way into talents, and this week, we’re going to delve into the world of skills. Paladins, as a hybrid class, have a wide variety of skills available to them. Some of these can be useful, some have no part in a tank’s skill rotation. We’ll take you through your initial buffs and what skills to keep within reach if things get ugly.
Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The low level tank, part 3
The Light and How to Swing It: The low level tank, part 3 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 20th, 2009
It’s time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that loves nothing more than to gaze down upon the whole of Northrend from one of the floating chunks of stone around Dalaran and realize that at some point, a mage has probably killed every living thing down there. At least the targetable ones, anyway. And the ones you can’t target? I’m sure more than one mage has certainly tried.
So I’m officially nominating patch 3.3 for “best patch ever” status. Here’s a short list of the highlights of this patch:
- Three highly challenging, fun, lore-filled 5-man instances, full of sweet loot
- A massive new raid, with four gated sections, 12 bosses, and the promise of eventually being able to shove a Fireball up the Lich King’s tailpipe
- The incredible, game-changing Dungeon Finder Tool, which is responsible for peace in the Middle East, has brought an end to the recession, and has cured cancer
- A few choice mage buffs, including a PvE viable Frost spec
- Quest Tracking without the need for an addon
- Quel’delar and Shadowmourne
- A swiftly approaching new Arena Season
- Weekly raid quests
- The Kalu’ak Fishing Derby
- Perky the Pug
- A host of little changes for low level characters
- Rocket bare
Not shabby, right? And best of all, Blizzard has managed to deploy the majority of this new content without also deploying a host of bugs, glitches, and instability, or otherwise making the game unplayable for awhile as we’ve come to expect from patches this large. There were some log-in issues and bugginess on day one, but by day two, everything was running relatively smoothly by day two. I’m being relatively conservative when I say that Blizzard, in my personal opinion, has hit this one out of the park.
Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Gearing up after the glorious patch 3.3
Filed under: Mage, Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Instances, Features, Guides, Classes, Alts, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance
Arcane Brilliance: Gearing up after the glorious patch 3.3 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
December 19th, 2009
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players — and just as we don’t want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We’re taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.
Most of us have been having a great time with the new Dungeon Finder. (And if you haven’t, then you really, really should. It’s a gamechanger.) We have our good PuG stories and, of course, the bad PuGs. My first experience was in a dungeon where all but the main boss had been downed. I got in because the rogue whose place my mage was taking had quit in order to turn in a quest. None of us could figure out why he didn’t want to wait the three minutes, get the random dungeon rewards and then turn in the quest. But his loss was my gain. He was a bad PuGger (PuGgie? PuGinator?) because he left his team hanging and waiting to pick up a 5th person before they could finish their dungeon and move onto the next one.
Here are some more examples of bad PuGgers that I think most of us can agree on:
- The player who puts the tank on follow and doesn’t participate.
- The tanks who don’t pay attention to healer mana and then complain when they die.
- The players who don’t manage their aggro, regardless of role.
- Rude and/or spammy chatters.
- Players who make careless mistakes and repeatedly wipe the group. (One mistake does not a bad PuGger make.)
But what about the player in blues and greens who doesn’t make mistakes, is perfectly pleasant and cooperative, but isn’t putting out the numbers you think he or she should?
Continue reading Drama Mamas: Dungeon Finder advice
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves, Instances, Features, Drama Mamas
Drama Mamas: Dungeon Finder advice originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 19th, 2009
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related.
Icecrown Citadel has been out for a little over a week now and most progression guilds have cleared the lower area. Even now I get asked on Twitter from anxious healers who have yet to step into Arthas’ domain about the difficulty level and their readiness.
“How do I know if I can hold my own in Icecrown?”
“What are the minimum stats required for me to go in?”
That’s a judgment call that only you can make!
Continue reading Raid Rx: Are you ready to heal Icecrown?
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Raid Healing) Raid Rx
Raid Rx: Are you ready to heal Icecrown? originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 18th, 2009
With so many sites and stores promoting commercialism and spending, it’s always refreshing to see fansites run contests that are in the true spirit of the season — altruism (and ad traffic, of course). In this case, WoW-Achievements.com is getting into the Winter Veil spirit with their Twelve Days of Grunty contest!
From December 13th to December 25th, the site is presenting one new WoW trivia question each day. A winner is chosen randomly from those who answer correctly, and each day a Grunty the Murloc Marine pet is awarded. No registration is necessary, and the questions are easily answerable with a quick Google search. If you didn’t get to go to BlizzCon ’09, or if you didn’t order the livestream from DirecTV, this might be your only shot at getting Grunty in your digital stocking, save asking Santa. And I don’t think Santa does the whole eBay thing.
If you know of other sites running holiday contests, please let us know so we can make sure everybody gets a chance to cash in on the season of giving!
Filed under: Contests
Still time to win the Twelve Days of Grunty contest originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 18th, 2009
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Sacco will be your host today.
It’s my little brother’s birthday today — fourteen years old, what the heck — so today’s Queue is quick and dirty so I can get the caking and presenting done.
Lochlorien asked…
Will we be able to wield Frostmourne after we defeat Arthas?
Nope, the developers opted not to make Frostmourne an equippable weapon, replacing it as the Icecrown legendary weapon with Shadowmourne.
Continue reading The Queue: Going to a party party
Filed under: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue, Cataclysm
The Queue: Going to a party party originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 17th, 2009
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Sacco will be your host today.
It’s officially Winter Veil, and you know what that means! Azerothians donning their yuletide apparel and decking the halls with the blood of their enemies. Is there anything more demoralizing than getting decapitated by someone dressed like a holiday centerfold? And just think, without achievements, this activity would be naught but a holiday novelty. Technology is a wondrous thing.
Daniel asked…
I have noticed that dark ranger hanging around in Dalaran, and decided to look them up, and noticed that they were neutral hero unit in Warcraft 3:The Frozen Throne. I was wondering, could, it be even remotely possible, that in the future we have that class introduced into the game that will be neutral?
Extremely unlikely. There are also some dark rangers wandering around the Undercity post-3.3, and it appears that they’re there as a buildup to playable forsaken hunters in Cataclysm. Sylvanas herself is classified as a dark ranger. We’ll probably see quests just like the ones introducing night elf mages and tauren priests and paladins for these NPCs.
Continue reading The Queue: Isthmus-time is here
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue, Cataclysm
The Queue: Isthmus-time is here originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.