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Cataclysm prologue quest data added to game wow goldPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkCataclysm prologue quest data added to game wow goldThe patch 3.3.3 PTR has a bunch of cool pre-Cataclysm content added to it that was datamined by MMO-Champion. Massive spoiler alert, so don't click on that link or follow us after the break if you want to avoid spoilers! We covered some of the achievements and abilities being added before, but the latest update has a bunch of new information in it. Specifically, there are a whole whack of quests being added that relate to the Alliance retaking of Gnomeregan and the Horde retaking of Echo Isles! Also, both Alliance and Horde will be able to do a Twilight's Hammer cult quest line. Click through for an exhaustive list. Also to note: they traced out where the new flight paths for these events will take you. Here's the Alliance map, and here's the Horde map. Some teenagers wouldn't dream of playing a video game like WoW with their parents. Others enjoy wow gold being able to share an enjoyable pastime. And some wow gold players discover that what they consider to be an appropriate level of familial togetherness changes as they get older. Marita: When I was a teenager (now 24), I too thought the line was too thin and wow gold preferred to have my parents away from my internet time. (No porn sessions or anything like that in my leisure time, just having fun.) But it turned out bad. Why? Because now they don't understand, want or respect anything I like/do that they don't know something about. In this guide, it is a game the parent plays, but what about an activity the parent knows nothing about? Should they wow gold forbid it and then ask? Or ask and then forbid? Neither. Looking back, it would have been better to have them there with me, not always but on a regular basis. Because now they would understand me better, judge me less, and wow gold be better parents, because they would have learned to be better parents, and to understand the world as it is today, and to respect me more in this context. Maybe in Europe it's different (I'm from South America), yes, but they have more lonely people, thousands of lonely elders, people dying alone and found months later. I don't think that wow gold kind of detachment is good. I don't think legal soft porn is good either! Too much freedom gives nice opportunities to grow up, yes, but is that really the best? At 15 I would have said "yes." Now I know the gap is too big. And I regret it. What a wistful reminiscence from a grown gamer. My own family plays some half dozen or more games separately, together, in all different combinations -- teenagers wow gold included (or not included, as the particular case may be.) What about you? Do you play WoW with your family? It looks like the Alliance are going to get to: Drop complex radiation detection equipment from a flying mount Learn to use Mechano-Tanks Retake the surface of Gnomeregan The Horde will get to: Launch eavesdropping frog spies from a flying mount Enlist the help of some sort of super-tiger Retake Echo Isles I assume (and am hoping!) that this means we'll continue to have access to the Gnomeregan instance once these quests are done. ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold Around Azeroth: 911 is not a joke wow power levelingPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkAround Azeroth: 911 is not a joke wow power levelingOne unlucky gnome in Booty Bay has learned not to take his romantic cues from The Sandlot. After faking a drowning episode in the ocean waters, he 'woke up' to find the lovely first responder/warlock Darrisse of Draka about to give him the kiss of life. Unfortunately for our love-lorn little friend, Darrisse decided to suck his soul out and imprison it for all eternity to teach him an important lesson about the misuse of emergency services. Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Blizzard quite clearly believes that players wow power leveling should not be skipping through heroic instance bosses to get to the wow power leveling last boss ... But do the players? Qot: I'm wondering if there might be a role division on this topic. If you're DPS, you spent 15 minutes in the queue. Spending 10 extra minutes clearing trash and doing the optional bosses isn't awful and bumps up your badges/hour. If you're tank/heals, you spent a minute or less in the queue. In the 10 extra minutes on optionals, you could've finished this dungeon, gotten your two completion badges and be half way through a Nex or DTK random. Gamer am I: It's sad that heroics have become so easy wow power leveling that people feel entitled to skip to the last boss. I think that's one of the new emblem system's failures: giving people raid-quality gear without giving them the content to use it in. As such, they get bored with heroics but don't run anything other than them, so they just want to get them over with quickly. Docp: I think the problem is, is that people are being forced to do something they don't like wow power leveling in order to achieve in another aspect of the game. I think giving Frost as an incentive was a mistake; it should have just been two extra Triumphs and left at that. This way, you'd only have people who actually want to run heroics going. I'd rather have longer queues than be forced to team with grumpy people who really don't want to be there. uncaringbear: @Docp I think you have a legitimate point there. The original idea of rewarding Frost emblems in heroics was to give incentive to high-end players to wow power leveling participate in heroics and help newer/less-geared players progress through heroics and build up their emblems. Instead, what has happened is that heroics have now become a farming ground for the high-end players who have no desire at all to run them, except to get the two Frost emblems. Many players who genuinely need to run the heroics end up being abused and criticized by the raiders for wearing level-appropriate gear and making honest mistakes. When you force people to play a part of the game that they don't want to play, this is bound to happen. And yes, these raiders can opt to not run heroics -- but for them, that is not a choice they would ever make for fear of falling behind in progression. Here is a suggestion: Remove the Frost emblems from wow power leveling the random heroics. This will ensure that the people who run the heroics are the ones who really need to run them. As an alternative, make a series of daily quests that need to be completed that will reward a total of two Frost emblems. One of the quests can be a group quest. The people who want the Frost emblems can get it on their own time without making others miserable. Are you a speed-runner, or do you like to savor your heroics? Do you think removing wow power leveling Frost emblems from the daily heroic would help alleviate the teeth-grinding, "let's get this over with" attitude of some players? Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here. ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold Cataclysm: Stylish overcloaks! wow goldPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkCataclysm: Stylish overcloaks! wow goldThe thing about our cloaks is that the ones that give us the most power for our characters aren't always the ones that look the best. Turns out that is about to change. Our friends over at MMO Champion have revealed a new Overcloak function. They're entirely cosmetic in appearance and allow you to slightly customize the look of your cloak. In world of Dungeon wow gold Finder PUGs with overgeared wow gold groupmates, when is enough DPS "enough"? Sehvekah: Maybe I'm just weird, but I *like* topping the meters by (sometimes well) more than 1k DPS with everyone wow gold else doing 1.5k-2k. Yes, it's an ego thing, but not like your knee-jerk reaction would indicate. See, when I'm in a group where *everyone* (including the tank and "healer") is doing 2.5k-5k+, I get my emblems, it's quick, sometimes I get an achievement -- but I never feel like I really *did* anything. Sure, nobody died, but even with emblems or the odd bit of loot from the IC five-mans, I walk away wondering what the point was. When I'm blowing up the meters with a group of more-or-less fresh 80s, though, it really wow gold feels like I'm *doing* something. I know I'm helping the tank hold aggro via glyphed TotT+FoK combo. I'm keeping the healer in mana by making things die faster before they cause too many problems. I'm helping the other DPSs by making their run that extra bit faster. Everyone (is) getting their emblems and sometimes upgrades from drops, there's the odd achievement, and damn it, the slower run makes it feel more like *something actually happened* beyond my getting two EoF for T10 and a few EoTs closer to kitting my 'lock out in heirlooms. And that's without mentioning the fact that wow gold these groups often have actual *conversations* and sometimes the awe of those new to the game, experiencing these "tired old dungeons" for the first time. Hell, it even gives me time to slow down a bit and actually *look* at the places I've been running though. So many times I've run Old Kingdom without paying attention to anything more than the loot pinatas scattered throughout, and that was really stupid on my part. A lot of these places are really awesome and deserve to be savored, rather than rushed through. So to all the newbs, thank you. You're making my playtime that much wow gold more fun, so I'll do my part to help you get the loot you need in return. To those who think recount/DPS means everything, go eat s*$@. Where do you stand on DPS wow gold thresholds? Do you believe that too much DPS is never enough? It appears there will be a toggle option of some sort for players who wish to display their cloak along with an overcloak. My guess is that these cloaks will be incentive rewards that come from reputation, limited seasonal drops or really rare drops (like mounts and companion pets). Ironforge represent! ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold Richard A. Knaak's Stormrage wow power levelingPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkRichard A. Knaak's Stormrage wow power levelingBefore we begin, in the interest of full disclosure, we will make it clear that Simon and Schuster did forward us free copies of Stormrage for this review. They did not, however, dictate any of the opinions held in this review. In addition, our network has a policy against keeping 'giveaways' sent to us, so our copies of the novel will be given away on our site sometime in the future. With that out of the way, let's get to the review. The last book we reviewed here on WoW.com was Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. It was written by Christie Golden and was a little over three hundred pages of Prince Arthas Menethil's personal history, from his childhood to his fall to the Scourge. If that's what you're expecting out of Richard A. Knaak's Stormrage, drop those expectations. All of that can be found in the War of the Ancients trilogy. Despite the similar naming scheme, Stormrage is a novel that takes place at the same time as the events going on in Wrath of the Lich King. It's specifically stated that the Wrath Gate incident has already happened by the time the events in this novel begin. This isn't backstory, this is buildup to Cataclysm. The beginning of the novel doesn't waste much time bringing you into the story. Very little time is spent on exposition pertaining to the main plot. There is some time taken to introduce characters readers may be unfamiliar with such as Broll Bearmantle and Thura, a female orc warrior who happens to be the niece of Broxigar and Varok Saurfang. The plot itself is made quite clear, however: Malfurion Stormrage is lost in the Emerald Nightmare and he is dying. How many WoW players does it take to change a lightbulb? Last week's bizarre e-mail of the wow power leveling week kicked off a whole new meme: how many X wow power leveling does it take to change a light bulb? Clydtsdk-Rivendare: How many Soviet Russians does it take to wow power leveling change a lightbulb? Doesn't matter, the lightbulbs change them. How many Titans does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change it and one to clear out an Old God infestation a few thousand years later. How many WoW players does it take to change wow power leveling a light bulb? 1,002: one to actually change it, and one to berate the first thousand others for not having the 5k GearScore necessary to change his light bulb. How many Kael'thas jokes does it take to change a light bulb? It depends if the burnt-out bulb was merely a setback wow power leveling or a stepping stone to a much greater plan. How many raiders does it take to change a light bulb? Three: one huntard to shoot (and thus break) the old bulb, one to replace it, and one to ninja all the epics found on the broken bulb's corpse. How many Gnomes does it take to change a light wow power leveling bulb? Ten: Nine to stand on each other's shoulders and one to replace it. How many light bulb jokes does it take to change a light bulb? *asplodes* Hey, Clydtsdk-Rivendare -- get back wow power leveling here and sweep up these broken pieces, eh? As you might have gleaned from the Stormrage preview Simon and Schuster released, this story is not exclusively about Malfurion. That's only one part of the story, and I would go as far as to say it's a relatively minor part. The book addresses a number of Night Elven plots and storylines that have been hanging loose for years now. The Emerald Nightmare, the corruption of Teldrassil, Fandral Staghelm's role in Night Elven society and his obsession with Morrowgrain all play prominent roles, and I would say all of that is far more interesting than the intitial journey to save Malfurion. The novel spans far more than just Elven territory, too. The story spans the entire world, bringing in key figures from the Horde and the Alliance. Varian Wrynn is a strong presence in the novel, for example. One of the complaints often leveled at Richard Knaak's Warcraft novels is that they're rather disconnected from the overall story of Warcraft. His books include important antagonists such as Deathwing and Queen Azshara, he's the one that introduced the various Dragonflights, but you rarely see any of the primary protagonists from the rest of the Warcraft universe standing on their own two feet. Original characters such as Rhonin, Krasus and Kalec steal the stage. While Stormrage is no exception on that front, you might find it promising that Richard Knaak does use a number of somewhat obscure, existing characters to fill out the cast. ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Reader UI of the Week: wow goldPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkReader UI of the Week: wow goldEach week WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using This week on Reader UI of the Week, I want to showcase a UI that does something that I, stylistically, don't enjoy, but done in such a manner that makes me change my tune. Daedhir's UI is a compact and neat interface that strives to make use of the game's user interface art in order to give the UI a little classic with the total revamp. Suffice to say, I like it. Let's take a look inside. This is a comparatively bad idea wow gold until you get to level 64 and finally obtain your wow gold spec's primary spell, Arcane Blast. When I die, I will ask Jesus why Blizzard refuses to make this spell available earlier to the spec that relies upon it. Then the good lord will look down upon me and say, "LTP nub." But barring divine wisdom (or a blue post) bestowing upon me the answer, I suppose I will have to settle for my current state of perpetual bafflement. It's not that arcane mage leveling is terrible, just that wow gold you'll have an infinitely easier time of it if you spec frost or fire instead. Arcane's best spells don't come until much later in the game. Does 60+ levels of using untalented Fireball/Frostbolt as your primary DPS spell sound good to you? No? That's cool, you can always spam Arcane Missiles I guess. Because until you hit level 60 and can finally take Arcane Barrage, that's your sole tree-specific damage spell. Have fun with that. Arcane leveling can be done, but it's simply not a lot of fun for the majority of the game. Switch to it at level 64, though, and you'll have a great time from Outland through Northrend. If you insist upon doing it, then talent your way down the arcane tree first, because you'll want Arcane Barrage as soon as possible, and make certain you fully talent into Arcane Stability right away. You'll want to make sure your Arcane Missiles are uninterruptible ASAP. Prismatic Cloak is another must-have leveling talent. Nothing saves a mage's life like instant Invisibility. I've recently written an entire series wow gold on mage leveling, so visit that if you want a more comprehensive guide. Arcane's max DPS rotation is actually pretty simple: spam Arcane Blast forever. This will kill everything. Unfortunately, it will also kill your mana pool. It's an unsustainable rotation. Your actual rotation should look wow gold like this: Arcane Blast x 4-->Missile Barrage+Arcane Missiles-->repeat. Missile Barrage is the key here. If it doesn't proc after 4 Arcane Blasts, you have a choice. You can either get rid of the stack with an Arcane Barrage (also the best choice if you need to move), or cast another Arcane Blast in the hopes of finally proccing Missile Barrage. This can be rough on your mana pool, so you have to choose judiciously based on the current state of your mana and the time left in the encounter. Use Arcane Power, Icy Veins, and Presence of Mind pretty much every time they're up, and when you run out of wow gold mana (which shouldn't be happening very often, if you're being conservative about your Arcane Blast spam and Missile Barrage is proccing at a reasonable rate) Evocate. In fact, if you can, it can pay to time an Evocation along with Icy Veins or a Bloodlust pop by the Shaman. For AoE: Arcane AoE sucks. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Your best AoE spell is Arcane Explosion, which requires you to A.) be in the middle of lots of things wow gold that like to eat mages, and B.) burn through mana like nobody's business. You're better off standing at range and spamming Blizzard, to be honest. Your AoE DPS is going to suck, but nobody much cares about that. Or at least, nobody who isn't a douche cares about that. Daedhir's UI has actually been featured here before during the early days after the launch of Wrath of the Lich King as one of five user interfaces spotlighted for WoW.com readers. Daedhir was kind enough to send me a quick message telling us all about the new changes to his addon package in a 2.0 release: Hi. An earlier version of my UI was featured back at launch of Wrath along with a few other reader UIs, and the exposure led to me putting my UI up for download. I've been providing it ever since. I very recently put up a complete revamp of the UI. I've tried to make it fit in very well with the default Blizzard UI elements, using a lot of the original Blizzard UI artwork to make things look good. It's a pretty big departure from what most UI developers do these days -- most go for something very minimalistic. I've tried to make the major elements in my UI get out of the way as much as possible, while still providing tons of information and lots of room for action bar buttons. I also put into practice many of the accepted techniques for power users -- for instance, putting the unit frames below the player's character model, to minimize the distance that they player's eye has to travel on screen when fighting. But I really tried to make the aesthetic fit in well with Blizzard's overall look. I'm really happy with how it turned out. You can find lots more info at http://daedhirui.blogspot.com and this page contains a link to where the UI is available on WoWinterface. Thanks, and I hope you find my submission useful. ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold The Queue: Son of Q wow power levelingPosted on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - LinkThe Queue: Son of Q wow power levelingWelcome back to The Queue, daily Q&A column where the team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Gray will be your host today. While Adam yesterday (rightfully) pointed out the necessity of the occasional Star Trek reference in this feature, he failed to point out its natural outgrowth. While there is always Q Continuum, there must also be the Son of Q. He goes by q, in the lower case. That leads to some funny sounding dialogue like "I will always be your soulmate, little-case-q." Or something more awkward like "I am the great and powerful little-case-q." But that's okay. For the continuum, it's all third person references. Which leads me to . . . Transit asked . . . "At he beginning of Forge of Souls (Horde version) Lady Sylvanas says; "The Dark Lady watches over you. Make haste!" Readers have been captivated by "Invincible," the sweeping wow power leveling new musical piece released by Blizzard wow power leveling recalling the leitmotif of the Wrath of the Lich King trailer. Kael: Oh man. I really didn't expect it, and this never happens, but that was actually very moving. I got choked up listening to that. It's incredible; I can't wait to listen to it again. That song is the pinnacle of video game wow power leveling music in my book. Wow. Simply astonishing. Frank: /agreed! I was surprised to find myself getting choked up, too, which is even more amazing because I have (of course) NO clue what they are singing or the context for the music. A piece of music worth an epic event, for sure. Behold the power of music! Hats off to all responsible for this one. Killchrono: Leitmotifs are my favourite wow power leveling musical convention, especially when used in media like games, movies or shows. You know a song has great power when it becomes synonymous with a character, an emotion or even an entire franchise. Think Darth Vader with the "Imperial March," or the main Star Wars theme. I got shivers hearing the "Arthas, My Son" leitmotif in this song. It convinces me that this'll be the song that plays during the wow power leveling epic finish, perhaps when Arthas takes his dying breath. It's so sad and moving that it's making me wonder whether Arthas feels the last tinge of humanity in his heart as he dies. Regardless, this song would be an amazing piece to see off one of Warcraft's most influential characters. Brett: There were excerpts of this in the 3.3 trailer, when the ghosts appear around Arthas while Terenas is talking to him. Such a heartbreaking and evocative piece of music. Naraxis: Wow, just wow. I have never heard anything that beautiful in my whole life, was absolutely amazing. Before, my motivation for getting to the Lich King to wow power leveling kill him was so I could hack off a piece of his throne for Shadowmourne, but now my motivation for getting to him is to hear that song. At our house, game soundtracks (including WoW) are a regular part of the mix of our daily music. While my son wow power leveling sometimes queues up a more pumping rhythm when he PvPs, we otherwise all seem to prefer keeping our game sounds on so we can soak up the atmospherics. (Except for Molten Core, back in the day. I think I would have had a seizure listening to that for very long. /twitch) Do you ever listen to the WoW soundtrack or music outside of the game? Do you keep the sound on while you play? Who is the Dark Lady? She could be talking about herself in the 3rd person, but I don't think so. It seems she is talking about a particular entity. I also noticed the "Dark Lady" in the phrase is capitalized, which I think is also significant." I had actually wondered the same thing, once. I briefly believed that maybe this was some kind of generic dialogue, and maybe Blizzard didn't update it to be spoken by Sylvanas. Now, however, I have learned the error of my ways. Sylvanas is The Dark Lady. She's just referring to herself in third person, as you pointed out. It might seem a little up-on-herself, but it's more that she's being regal and queenly. Imagine King Wrynn urging Alliance soldiers forward, shouting at them "Go! Your King commands it!" You wouldn't think anything particularly odd about that phrase. In this case, it just looks a little funny because The Dark Lady isn't a title we're accustomed to seeing elsewhere. ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Related Article: aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold aion gold |
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