WOW Insider

Jinx puts WoW shirts on sale

Eliah Hecht — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:00:00 EST

This may not qualify as big news on a day when we learned more about Wrath of the Lich King than we have since Blizzcon, but in case you're in need of a new t-shirt or two, Jinx is having a sale on four WoW-themed designs. Each design, in men's, is available for $5, and they are:

Note that all sizes in each of the four designs are out of stock except large and extra-large, so I hope your size is one of those. The sale continues until May 14th -- go get your shop on!

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[1.Local]: A week of reader comments

Lisa Poisso — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Know your Lore, Interviews, [1.Local]

[1.Local] serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Readers seemed to be on helpful mode this week at WoW Insider, with lots of mechanics and theory questions addressed in post comments. The Very Serious Business of Guild Business was definitely top of mind, as readers shared insights on raid scheduling, application procedures and fine-tuning the performance of lovable but noobish guildmates. Readers also talked about wearing their WoW on their sleeves, the whole e-sports concept and the continued fill-in-the-blanks-until-WotLK trend of retro raiding.

Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread and add your own thoughts - unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.

Continue reading [1.Local]: A week of reader comments

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Curse's interview with Tigole and Kalgan

Eliah Hecht — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Expansions, Interviews, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

Like many other sites, Curse.com got a chance to visit Blizzard and take home some information on everything Wrath. They have an interview with lead designers Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan and Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, and a general writeup. A lot of it has already been covered in our previous reports, but here's what looked new to me:

Karazhan showed Blizzard that 10-man raids could work, and were good for more casual players; on the other hand, more hardcore raiding guilds were upset about having to break into 10-man groups. Thus Wrath's split 10-man/25-man raid system.
Naxx is going to have to be tuned way down, since it's now an entry-level raid instead of a top-level raid.
Class balance as we know it is going to change drastically with the new talents for every class (at least in their current, secret, developmental state).
WoW was always planned out with item inflation in mind, so don't worry about it too much.
There will be a Northrend kick-off event.
Kaplan would rather we did dailies for gold instead of farming primals, since it's less repetitive; on that note, he wants to make more of a varied experience, like the cooking daily or the daily dungeon with randomization built in.

More after the break.

Continue reading Curse's interview with Tigole and Kalgan

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WoW Moviewatch: Zalgradis Paladin PvP 3

Moo Money — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Machinima, Humor, WoW Moviewatch

(This video contain some language, so view with caution.)

TotalBiscuit, of WoW Radio, is probably the most notorious commenter in the WoW Moviewatch section, so we asked him to recommend something that he actually liked. He offered up Zalgradis Paladin PvP 3. While I absolutely hated it, he had some interesting things to say about it.

Before 1.9, Zalgradis was able to do incredible things that not many were able to do as a Paladin at that time. In the film, he combined a(horrible) metal soundtrack with action bits, while other sections had scripted comedy. Thank you, TB, for reminding me why I never feature PvP!

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: To Gear A Fury

Matthew Rossi — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors

The Care and Feeding of Warriors takes a look at gear and the fury warrior this week. Matthew Rossi has been playing with fury on his tauren this week, when not forgetting to re-equip his shield on Kael'thas while playing his human. Sure, the Phaseshift Bulwark is nice, but if you leave the instance it goes away, which I really should have paid attention to. On the up side, it's hilarious to go down in two seconds to a trash mob because you forgot which button is your shield macro. Well, hilarious now. With distance. At the time it was less hilarious and more smashing my face into the keyboard.

Before we get rolling, you should take a look at this thread from the Elitist Jerks forums that gathers up a lot of information on warrior DPS specs and what to look for when gearing. One of the things to keep in mind is that it's not as straightforward as just piling on the stats that help you do damage... much like tanking, where you first stack defense until you reach the target (in the case of tanking you want 490 defense) when assembling fury gear you prioritize hit until you reach 9% chance to hit, and then start stacking crit, attack power and armor penetration.

So what's the hit cap? Well, in general a fury warrior with full precision should look to accumulate hit gear until roughly 96 hit rating, which should put you at about 9% actual bonus hit. Up until 9%, it's generally accepted that hit provides the greatest boost to your damage both from the damage that you actually do with your white hits and from the rage you generate by them, as well as reducing the chance of special attacks like Bloodthirst (not Bloodlust, you can tell I play my shammy too much) and Whirlwind to be missed, which is not only annoying but amazingly does not seem to hurt monsters. Not even their feelings.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: To Gear A Fury

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Around Azeroth: Grand Theft Azeroth

Elizabeth Wachowski — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your submissions to Grand Theft Azeroth. There were a lot of wonderful pictures, and I had trouble choosing the top five to put up for a vote here. We extended the contest a day because ... well, because I forgot what day the contest was supposed to end. Nevertheless, voting will take place Fri-Sun and a winner will be announced Monday. Now let's get to the five nominees, each with their own special category:

Continue reading Around Azeroth: Grand Theft Azeroth

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BigRedKitty: Hydross the Unstable Hunter-guide movie

Daniel Howell — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hunter, Raiding, Bosses, (Hunter) Big Red Kitty

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

The first boss you meet in Serpentshrine Cavern is Hydross the Unstable. Please allow us to present a Hunter-perspective into defeating this guy.

And yes, TJ really does need a present. Don't freak if you don't get it; it's not important to the fight.

You are most welcome to download this movie (34.9 MB) by right-clicking here.

Another great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!

From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.

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Gamespy Interviews J. Allen Brack

Daniel Whitcomb — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:25:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Instances, Quests, Expansions, Raiding, Lore, Mounts, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King

Here's one more tidbit of WoTLK information for you, courtesy of Gamespy. They sat down for an interview with co-lead design J. Allen Brack. Most of the information is stuff we've heard in the past or have already posted on in this morning's massive flurry, but it's always nice to get a peek into the brain of the folks who bring us this amazing game.

Among some of the things discussed by J. Allen Brack and Gamespy:

Flying Mounts are gone until level 77, at which point you will either complete a quest or a visit a trainer to be able to use them again. You will still not be able to use the mounts in the old world, so even though Naxxramas is on Azeroth, your flying mount will not be able to cross back over the sea to visit the old stomping grounds. The Old World was designed using too many graphical shortcuts in places people were not meant to access to allow flying mounts.
They have recieved massive positive feedback so far about the return to Azeroth and the old traditional fantasy as opposed to the sci-fi feel of the Burning Crusade. In that same vein, they are bringing back many familiar sights and storylines from Old Azeroth. Sholozar Basin will be Un'goro 2.0, complete with crystals and pylons. No word on whether it will also contain more Land of the Lost and Nintendo references. It will also contain some of the flavors of Stranglethorn and the old Netherstorm biodomes, says J. Allen.
In a similar vein, we can expect to see more of the ever-popular Scarlet Crusade, this time in the form of the Scarlet Onslaught. The Worgen are back in homage to the Sons of Arugal and Shadowfang Keep.
While the city of Dalaran will be headed up to WoTLK, don't expect to see nothing but a hole in the ground where it used to be in Alterac. J. Allen reveals that they do have plans for the spot, and the concept drawings they have for it look very cool.
The Dragonblight, J. Allen Brack said, is probably his favorite new piece of content for the expansion. It is where the Dragons were born, where they recieved sentience from the Titans, and where they come to die, and where the Lich King has been twisting Dragon corpses to serve him as Frost Wyrms, so there's a lot of great lore and history there. It will include a raid instance called the Chamber of the Aspects, and while no bosses have been designed for it yet, it will probably have bosses representing each of the Dragonflights.

It sounds like the developers are nearly as excited about WoTLK as we are, which is usually a good sign of things to come. We hope you've enjoyed all this awesome new information we've found for you tonight. There may be more to come, so stay tuned as we scour all the latest news.

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The Death Knight class revealed

Daniel Whitcomb — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:25:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

Via Gamespy and Worldofwar.net, we finally have a good idea of what rolling a Death Knight will be like. A lot of the rumors seem to have panned out, but others have not. All I know is that at this point, I am full speed ahead to make a Death Knight my new main come WoTLK. There's a lot of meaty info to dig into, so let's get to it after the break.

Continue reading The Death Knight class revealed

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More Wrath of the Lich King impressions and information coming out

Mike Schramm — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:15:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Lore, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

WorldofWar.net also got an invitation to the Blizzard event this past week (our invitation must have been lost in the mail, maybe?), and they've got six full pages of text about what they saw. Six pages hard to read though, so we've got all the salient points right here:

Both Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton presented, with Kaplan showing off the Death Knight class and Chilton showing off the work they've done on Northrend.
The Forsaken-designed starting town Vengeance Landing was shown off -- this was the same area we got to play back at Blizzcon, as well as Utgarde Keep
They also got to see Valliance Keep (the other Alliance starting area), and Warsong Hold, a huge gothic iron structure run by Garosh Hellscream that Kaplan apparently called the "new look " of the Horde
Horde players will be taking a Zepplin up to Northrend
The Nexus, in the Coldarra part of the Borean Tundra, is the first instance on the western side of Northrend from Utgarde Keep, and it's a three wing instance with a raid dungeon where players will meet Malygos.
The Badge of Justice system will continue in Northrend, but there will be new tokens to act as Badges and be returned for loot.

Lots more after the break.

Continue reading More Wrath of the Lich King impressions and information coming out

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Dungeons and Raids in Wrath of the Lich King

Robin Torres — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:55:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Expansions, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King

There's more news coming in for Wrath of the Lich King regarding how dungeons and raids will work. First the 5-mans:

All 5-man dungeons will have a Heroic mode
Heroic dungeons will have a separate loot table than non-Heroics
A new token system will be used, similar to the Badge of Justice one used now
The 5-man instances are designed to not take more than an hour

The 5-man news really was expected, but the raid info is much more exciting:

All raid dungeons will have both 10-man and 25-man versions
The 10 and 25-man progressions will not depend on each other
There will be no attunements or keys necessary for any raid
The 25-man loot will be a tier higher than the 10-man loot
The 10 and 25-man versions of the same raid will be on different timers so that each can be attempted on the same day by the same people

It seems that Blizzard is trying to make both the hardcore and casual raiders happy with these changes. Those guilds who can only see the 10 man content will be able to see all of the endgame content, but those who can organize 25 person raids will reap the benefits of the most challenging content and best gear in the game. And group instances that only take an hour will be great for those of us with limited playtime.

[via Gamespy and World of War]

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New WotLK videos via Gamespy

Adam Holisky — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:46:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Wrath of the Lich King

Gamespy has five new amazing videos everyone should check out. They include several sneak peaks of things we haven't seen before. They are the most detailed and rich in-game videos of WotLK to date. The videos cover the areas of Dragonblight, Zul'Drak, Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra, and the Howling Fjord.

There are several first looks at the new cities, zones, and architecture of Wrath of the Lich King that we haven't seen from Blizzcon. This also includes several mobs that have not been seen before. Zul'Drak is reminiscent of Zul'Gurub, and looks quite new and refreshing. Sholazar Basin is a cross between Stranglethorn Vale and Ungoro Crater, heavily influenced by Troll architecture.

We are also presented with vehicle combat in the Sholazar Basin video. This is simply amazing. The video shows a gnome flying machine contraption shooting missiles at other flying mounts, and then a gnome ejecting and floating down to safety in a parachute. Grand Theft Azeroth.

In the Borean Tundra video we see a beautiful look at the new cities for both Horde and Alliance players. There are also images of Dragon kind, similar to what players experience during the last leg of the Onyxia quest chain from pre-BC. Also included is a gnome city, much like Area-52.

Check it out now, and watch for more detailed analysis of the video and all the other news as the day goes on.

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GameSpy speaks with Jeff Kaplan about Wrath of the Lich King

Mike Schramm — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:25:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Interviews, Death Knight

In addition to all the other info dropping today (apparently Blizzard held an event this last week at their HQ to show off some new Wrath information), GameSpy got to chat with Jeff Kaplan, WoW's Lead Designer, about Death Knights and what they're going to be for in the next expansion.

Apparently Kaplan says Blizzard has designed "zero" raid bosses for the next expansion yet, so he isn't sure where they'll fit among Pallies, Druids, and Warriors as tanks.
DKs will have a disease-based DoT, as well as the creature and ghoul summons we've posted about previously
As we heard before, Death Knights will serve as a "Fury Warrior" type of tank -- damage based rather than protection based.
Blizzard hasn't determined exactly whether there will be faction differences in the epic class quests, but they won't be too different for races or factions, just because the stories, he says, should be the same
Finally, Kaplan clarifies again that Death Knights will be available to all races, and that Arthas himself became not Undead, but Scourge

In case, maybe, Arthas wants to come back? We'll let you read the rest into what Kaplan said -- he unfortunately didn't tell us too much new information, but he did clarify a few points we already knew about Death Knights. And the news about Blizzard's nonaction on raid bosses so far is interesting -- has Blizzard really not made any raid bosses yet, or are they just not ready to tell us about them?

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Gamespy's hands on with Wrath of the Lich King

Mike Schramm — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:09:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, Rumors

Gamespy has lifted their press embargo, and there's lots of new Wrath of the Lich King info up. They apparently did a long hands-on with the expansion, and lots of new zone and gameplay info has come out.

The area is apparently much bigger than Outland
There is an aerial gondola, a huge sea battle, and apparently an archeological expedition where you'll be able to fly planes
All five Dragonflights appear in Dragonblight, a huge graveyard for dragons
There's "a sister area to Un'goro," which means tropical rainforests. There are also lots of different areas within larger zones.
Worgen and the sons of Arugal are back, and the Scarlet Crusade is now called the Scarlet Onslaught. And one quest is based on a mission from Warcraft III.
Death Knight can turn dead teammates into ghouls -- "plenty of fun in the Arenas"
There are "vehicle" quests, where players drive a vehicle (planes, trucks, or even dragons) around to accomplish tasks

Unfortunately, the Gamespy folks aren't raiders, so there's not much information about the new instances and raids in Northrend (in this piece anyway -- we've got more dungeons and raids info coming out). But just the mentions of some of this stuff -- the different vehicle quests (maybe Grand Theft Azeroth is realer than we thought) -- is enough to get us excited.

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Breaking: Gamespy to release new Wrath info at 12:01 a.m. [UPDATED]

Adam Holisky — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:11:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Wrath of the Lich King

Many thanks to Tisen for tipping off the late night WoW Insider crew that Gamespy will be releasing new Wrath of the Lich King info in about an hour from now - at 12:01 a.m. PST. We'll get it reported to you as soon as we see it. Stay tuned for updates. Their entire announcement reads:

You're going to want to stay tuned until the midnight here on GameSpy.com. At 12:01AM PST we'll be flooding the site with all-new World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King materials. New movies, media, a preview, a roundtable, two interviews and a look at the Death Knight. Enough for ya?

I have to admit, this is a little strange for it to be posted this late... but I've seen stranger things. More info as it comes in.

Update 12:05 a.m. PDT: No info yet. Though their website still says it's "Thursday." We're expecting something soon.

Update 12:07 a.m. PDT: Bornakk is up late and posted " They aren't the only ones..." in response to WotLK info being released tonight. More to come apparently.

Update 12:09 a.m. PDT: News is incoming, possibly from multiple sources, look for more posts soon.

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EA buys WoW social networking site Rupture

Mike Schramm — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:45:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, Making money

Social networking around MMOs just hit the big time. Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster way back when, created a site called Rupture a while back that purported to be a social networking site based around World of Warcraft. Since then, the site seemingly hasn't done anything all that interesting -- they've added a few games and a few new features, but they haven't yet made it out of beta, and it wasn't apparent that anyone was real interested in Rupture.

Until now -- EA (yes, that EA) has ponied up a whopping $30 million to buy Rupture and all of its potential up. A move to put some social networking into play on their upcoming Warhammer Online title? Taking competition away from an upcoming official site covering all their games? Whatever EA is planning to do with Rupture, they're paying through the nose for it -- this makes the $1 million Wowhead buyout look like chump change.

Then again, if Rupture turns out to be the "Facebook for gamer"s that they hope to be, $30 million will look like a bargain. Either way, EA just put their money where their mouth is in the social networking MMO game.

Thanks, Brooke!

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Scattered Shots: Why certain pet families are so popular

Daniel Whitcomb — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Guides, Arena, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Scattered Shots is for Hunters. David Bowers is caught in a Freezing Trap this week, so Daniel Whitcomb -- who did not set the trap, he swears to the Light -- is substituting for him.

You hear it pretty much all the time if you've ever slightly dipped into the world of Hunters. If you want to play in the big leagues, conventional wisdom says you're pretty much stuck with a select handful of pet types (also known as pet families): Ravagers, Cats, and Raptors for PvE, Scorpids for PvP.

But do you know why those pet families are so desired? What it really comes down to is Hunter roles and abilities.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Why certain pet families are so popular

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It came from the Blog: The running of the Orphans

Robin Torres — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, It came from the Blog

Last Sunday, It came from the Blog gathered to run the Orgrimmar Children's Week quests together. Some weren't level 10 yet, but ran with us anyway. Because many of us didn't have the flightpaths (and because it was more fun) we ran together from objective to objective.

Our Orphans were very well behaved, even after we gave them ice cream. I hope they enjoyed their group field trip as much as I did.

Don't forget to join us this Sunday for the Revenge of the Orc-Moms. We'll be meeting at 6pm Eastern/Blog Time (4pm Server time, 3pm Pacific). Bring your female Orc with some form of "mother" in the name and your maternal sense of humor. I hope to see you there!

Gallery: It came from the Blog: Children's Week Gallery

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M'uru video, interview from SK-Gaming; third kill by Premonition

Eliah Hecht — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Machinima, Guilds, News items, Raiding, Interviews

As the first guild to have killed M'uru, SK-Gaming has now released their video of the fight. You can see it above (if it's working; there seem to be some server issues on their end), or go to their site to download it in full-res glory. There are two different points of view: a BM hunter, and an enhancement shaman. I haven't been able to watch it yet because it's been down, but I'm sure it's an exciting fight.

The SK guild leaders also gave an interview a couple of days ago on their site. Here are some things they said that I find interesting:

SK is very impressed with the tuning on the fight, and think Kil'jaeden, the next fight, "might turn out to be the best encounter ever made."
Everyone gets to take an active role in the fight; for instance, there are adds that can only be killed by an offensive dispell, and melee gets to use stuns, mages get to polymorph, etc.
The viability of feral druids has been increased; they think Resto shaman is the "strongest overall class."
Most of the loot is pretty good, although they would have preferred a token system.

And of course they're looking forward to Kil'jaeden; who wouldn't be in that situation?

One final note: a third guild, in addition to SK-Gaming (world first) and Exodus (US first), has managed to down M'uru. Premonition, an Alliance guild on Alleria-US (and the first US guild to kill the Eredar Twins), took him down last night and received the following loot: Breastplate of Agony's Aversion, Bladed Chaos Tunic, Gloves of the Forest Drifter, and Sin'dorei Band of Dominance.

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Should Blizzard allow us to deposit money in a personal bank?

Daniel Whitcomb — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tricks, Making money, Alts

Ok, I'll be honest. I'm pretty fine with how we handle money now. Sure, back in Everquest, I needed to go deposit my money in my bank, because due to the encumbrance system, if I had kept all my platinum coins on me, I would have been glued to the spot, unable to walk. But in WoW, there's no encumbrance, and our coins take up no inventory space.

Still, I've seen a lot of people ask to be able to deposit money in the bank, so, being an equal time type of guy, I thought I'd sit back and try to figure out what the advantages would be.

Continue reading Should Blizzard allow us to deposit money in a personal bank?

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