Archive for August, 2010
August 31st, 2010
If you find yourselves especially bored today even after going through the backlog of posts you’ve missed this week, we have a fun little activity for you! Take the header image of this post, erase Deathy from the love-bubble, and insert other humorous things and link it in the comments below. Please, please keep it clean. You don’t want to get banned, and I don’t want to see your genitals. Really. I don’t. I promise.
Continue reading Tuesday Morning Post: Kawaii edition
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Tuesday Morning Post: Kawaii edition originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 31st, 2010
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com’s arena column.
Listening Music: Massive Attack’s “Teardrop.” Apparently this song is the Dr. House theme…or something. I only noticed this because of the comments on this video. I wouldn’t know, I don’t watch the show. Maybe I should start because obviously someone from that drama has taste in music.
Default to damage
Oh, Wrath of the Lich King, how we had such great hopes. Damage is almost always the most successful strategy. Defaulting to damage is something I have to explain often, especially when I start playing with new teammates who are trying to push for their first gladiator title.
Players who have high technical skill (for instance, being able to Spell Reflect an escaping druid’s Nature’s Grasp) often try to win games by doing things more “skilled” than the enemy. They’ll preach for seemingly endless hours about how often they Counterspelled their opponent’s Incinerates, yet they still lost the match. Sometimes, that global is better spent by doing damage, especially if an enemy is low on health. Why bother Counterspelling an enemy damage spell when you can get a kill in that time?
These same players look down on opposing compositions for being “faceroll” or “noob comp” because they win games by just pumping damage into the enemy. There’s a reason why “bad players” can get to high ratings by using certain compositions — damage is the premier strategy.
Continue reading Blood Sport: Become a 5v5 master (tips and tricks)
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)
Blood Sport: Become a 5v5 master (tips and tricks) originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 30th, 2010
On most Sundays, Spiritual Guidance by Dawn Moore is a semi-respectable guide for priests who want the latest news and thoughts on healing as a discipline or holy priest. However, due to decreased interest in priests, WoW.com has decided that starting next week Spiritual Guidance will be replaced by a new column, “One Less Lonely Elf,” by Justin Bieber. The new column will cover role playing in Silvermoon City. Dawn has declined to comment.
PSA stands for public service announcement (e.g. Dawn smiled with satisfaction as she stepped back to admire one of the many flyers she had spent the afternoon hanging around her guild hall. The words “Don’t drink and DPS” were spelled out cheerfully across a large piece of parchment. Below, a photograph of a staggeringly uneven damage meter was pictured, followed by some informative text and statistical data.)
It shouldn’t be confused with PDA, which stands for public display of affection (e.g. Thanks to a heady blend of Kungaloosh and port, Fox unabashedly pushed his warlock lover against the mailbox at the south bank and moved in for a kiss. Before their lips could touch though, Fox abruptly exploded into a cloud of luminescent, purple dust. His companion glowed red with discomfort as several bystanders turned to stare. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have had so much to drink,” Fox considered.)
Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Priest PSA
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Spiritual Guidance: Priest PSA originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 30th, 2010
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You’re playing the game, you’re fighting the bosses, you know the how — but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.
The dwarves of Warcraft are an interesting bunch of characters — though they haven’t had much “screen time” in World of Warcraft, over the course of the expansions we’ve seen more focus on this odd race and its mysterious origins. Rather than evolving or being created as a natural being like the trolls or the tauren, the dwarves were originally a race called the earthen, created by the Titans with the specific purpose of shaping and documenting the progress of the world of Azeroth.
The earthen were quite literally of the earth. Created from the stone and earth of the planet they watched over, these creatures shared a deep connection with the world itself. Each movement of the ground, every earthquake or natural disaster was felt by the earthen and affected them in a profound way. The explosion from the Sundering — the destruction of the Well of Eternity which caused the continent of Kalimdor to split into the continents we know today — affected the earthen deeply, and many retreated to the safety of the Titan cities from which they had originated after the explosion.
WARNING: The following post contains some spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain spoiler free, do not continue.
Continue reading Know Your Lore: Taking flight with the Wildhammer
Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore
Know Your Lore: Taking flight with the Wildhammer originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 29th, 2010
Axes, maces, lightning, Windfury and wolves. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance, and leads the guild Big Crits (Week 12 now out!)as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.
Holy Stormstrikes! I’m going to refrain from using the term casual in a post ever again. Wait, I just used it there. Ah well, rack that promise up with “I’ll never drink again” and “I’ll never die to cutters again.” Lies, all of them, lies.
We all have different definitions of the term and judging by the comments in the last post, others’ definition of casual is more severe than mine. I’ll get into casual vs. hardcore and the ridiculousness of those classifications in another post. For now, I hear you loud and clear, so let’s refrain from diving into that now.
I digress. As I was writing last week’s article I had this sneaking suspicion that I already wrote several articles on gearing your non-end game enhancement shaman. In fact I had written articles many moons ago, and they are all on my neglected blog, Big Hit Box. Time for a revisit.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Enhancing your gear in only four dungeons
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Enhancing your gear in only four dungeons originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 29th, 2010
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
Are you someone who plays World of Warcraft and purchases booster boxes of each World of Warcraft Trading Card Game expansion in order to get its loot cards? Do you know how to play the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game? If not, then you are one of many online gamers I’ve heard of who help make the trading card game a hot property but have not discovered that those cards you are packing up and burying in your apartment or house are actually a lot of fun to play with. For those of you who haven’t taken a look at the trading card game at all, I’d highly recommend it.
I have been playing card games since 2003, and the WoW TCG is no exception. I spent over a year writing about the game, as well as playing and working at some of its biggest events (with a short break in 2008 to finish school). It was because of WoW TCG that I ended up getting into the WoW MMO in the first place!
The WoW Trading Card Game has been around since fall 2006 and has continued on through a transition from one company (Upper Deck Entertainment) to another (Cryptozoic). Organized play has had its ups and downs, but the game is starting to get more popular and attendance is once again picking up at events everywhere. However, a recent addition to the weekly tournament at my local comic book store mentioned that he knows plenty of people who buy the cards but never learn how to play.
Why is that?
Continue reading Guest Post: Getting into the WoW Trading Card Game
Filed under: WoW TCG, Guest Posts
Guest Post: Getting into the WoW Trading Card Game originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 28th, 2010
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H).
Note: Above is the video of the live stream that occurred Wednesday night. It is pretty much one big Cataclysm beta spoiler video. You have been warned.
Well, Robinka the dwarf shamanka turned out to be a complete yawn. I take full responsibility for not being able to fake enthusiasm for a quest area that is more concerned about food collection than lore. Peenk the gnome priestess was nothing but fun, however. This week I will be polling for next Wednesday’s stream. More details on that after the break.
Adventurers who play when they can
- Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the level 25 blood elf paladin
- Lisa Poisso as Prupher, the level 11 tauren druid
- Michael Sacco as Shockbroker, the goblin shaman
- Christian Belt, as Selfloathius, the level 16 blood elf warlock
- Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, the level 17 troll mage
- Michael Gray as Grayfields, the level 17 tauren hunter
- Gregg Reece as Sandwichdoc, the level 16 troll shaman
If you want to see more of our adventurers, please write them a letter in the comments and I will make sure the letters get to them.
Turn the page for the polls.
Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Polls for next Cataclysm beta stream
Filed under: It Came from the Blog, Choose My Adventure
Choose My Adventure: Polls for next Cataclysm beta stream originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 28th, 2010
“I just don’t get it,” Throgg said. “I mean, it’s kind of sick. It’s just not very charitable, you know? And, it’s completely savage, man. Totally Lord of the Flies.“
“I know,” Lolegolas replied. “I know, man. I just don’t know what to say. What makes you do something like that? What makes a chap think that’s OK?”
“I mean, I killed the werewolf — I get that,” Throgg said. “Hit him with a giant milkbone. He had no chance against the Lassie defense. And when I looted his still-fresh body for coin, beer and hair products, I thought nothing could go wrong. But this? This is just sick.”
Throgg ran his fingers over the thick Wolf Fur Coat he’d plucked from the dead worgen. “I mean, I know we get a bad rap for Garrosh and the blood elves. Er, no offense.”
“No, none taken,” Lolegolas said, holding up a hand. “Probably a bit far with the babies-on-pikes thing.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Throgg blew his nose into the wolf pelt. “But they wear their own kind as clothing. I mean, that’s hardcore, man. That’s like some kind of mental problem or something. Even Garrosh is like, ‘Ew, dog.’”
“And for a measly 6 armor,” Lolegolas added. “Those worgen are just some sick puppies.”
Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday: Cataclysm
Filed under: Phat Loot Phriday
Phat Loot Phriday: Wolf Fur Coat originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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August 27th, 2010
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
A while back I ran a survey for a course I was taking and I enlisted the help of the WoW community. One of the more interesting results that came out of the survey was what classes the different genders played. From most played to least played, the classes were:
- Men paladin, druid, shaman, warrior, death knight, priest, mage, hunter, rogue, and then warlock
- Women druid, priest, paladin, shaman, hunter, mage, warlock, death knight, warrior, and then rogue
What you might notice is that men prefer the three-role hybrids, then the two-role hybrids, then the pure DPS classes. For women, the order of popularity is classes that can heal, classes that do ranged DPS, then the pure melee classes. The results of the survey would seem to imply that women and men have entirely different ways of approaching class choice. Men seem to judge a class based upon how much utility it provides or how flexible it is, whereas women seem to be more focused on what they’ll be doing and where they’ll be doing it.
Continue reading Breakfast Topic: Does gender influence class choice?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Breakfast Topic: Does gender influence class choice? originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
August 27th, 2010
There are four aspects involved in crafting:
- Gathering knowledge – This is learning how to craft items. It can be finding recipes, or trial and error, or even random chance.
- Gathering raw materials – This is getting the ingredients necessary to make the final item.
- Transmutation – this is the specific process of converting the raw materials to the finished product.
- Using the created item – Using the item for it’s intended (and maybe unintended) function.
Different games emphasise different aspects. For example, in A Tale in the Desert, Transmutation is a complicated process, essentially a mini-game within the game. In contrast, WoW abstracts Transmutation to a single press of a button. In WoW, the game associated with crafting is primarily focused on the first two aspects of acquiring knowledge and raw materials.
A lot of people dislike this choice, and feel that Transmutation should be more involved. I am not so sure that this is the case. An interesting mini-game is fun the first time you make the item, but it what about the tenth or hundredth time? Not to mention that it is inconvenient for potential customers. If I get some new gear and need 5 gems cut, I don’t really want to wait for my jewelcrafter guildie to struggle through 5 games of a Bejeweled clone, maybe even failing some of them. I much prefer getting the raw materials, giving them to her, and getting cut gems almost immediately.
I think where WoW’s crafting really falls down is actually Aspect 4: Using the Item.
Initially, WoW is character progression through level. But at the level cap, it switches to character progression through gear. But that progression is controlled through the Bind-on-Pickup mechanism. Bind-on-Pickup ensures that a player needs to actually complete content to have their character improve. While there is a smattering of items you can buy, or alternate ways to earn gear like daily heroics, the vast majority of good gear can only be gained by going out and defeating content.
The problem is that currently crafting cannot partake of the bind-on-pickup mechanism. As I’ve mentioned before, WoW crafting is missing an action: a crafter cannot create a Bind-on-Pickup item for another character using Bind-On-Pickup raw materials that the other character has acquired.
Crucially, an NPC can do this. That’s why crafting is sidelined in end-game, and NPCs hand out emblem gear. Crafting is missing that crucial verb that would allow it to be used in the endgame content.
If a crafter could make Bind-On-Pickup items for another player, that would open the door to a lot of possibilities. For example, Tier armor could be crafted entirely, given that it is already tokenized. Raid bosses could drop recipes, and players would gather raw materials along with special boss drops and take them to a crafter to get their tier gear. You could even restrict recipes to specific classes. Imagine if you had to find a paladin blacksmith to forge Lightsworn Battlegear.
Such a scheme would make crafting armor–not just consumables–an integral part of endgame once again. I think it would also feel better. To see what I mean, compare turning tokens to a vendor to gathering raw materials (could have a field day with what you need to collect) and getting armor forged by a blacksmith who learned the forgotten recipes deep inside the epic dungeon. On one level, both methods are really the same thing, but on another level, the latter would be so much more stylish.
Much better than getting to play a random Tetris-clone every time you want to cut a gem.
