US registration for Wrath beta now open

Posted Jul 3rd 2008 3:03PM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: News items, Features, Wrath of the Lich King

US accounts are now able to access the beta registration from https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/beta-opt-in.html and opt-in for the Wrath of the Lich King beta. EU accounts saw this feature implemented a short time ago. It looks like the leak from the German Community Manager Gnorog is holding up to be true.

Remember that when you opt in, you are not guaranteed a spot, and you will likely not get an email inviting you to the beta right away. Instead your name will go into a pool of players who will then be chosen for the beta. That's why they call it opting in.

This is a good time to remain vigilant about email scams and other malicious programs that might try to get your user name, password, and other account information. Never share these with anyone other than official worldofwarcraft.com websites.

If the beta invites do start going out soon, expect us at WoW Insider to let our friends and families know what's really important this holiday weekend: bringing everyone late breaking WotLK news, all while enjoying their finely cooked BBQ food. I'll take two burgers to go with jalapeno cheese and a Corona.

Gallery: Wrath of the Lich King

WoW Insider has the latest Wrath information for you including a list of the Death Knight spells, abilities and talents demo'd at last weekend's WWI in Paris, as well as complete write ups of all the Wrath WWI panels with analysis.

The Seven takes down Kil'jaeden in China

Posted Jun 2nd 2008 2:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Guilds, Instances, Raiding, Burning Crusade, Bosses

Our good friend Boubouille at MMO Champion is reporting that the last watermark of the latest content in the Sunwell Plateau has been reached -- The Seven (who, you might remember, also nabbed the first Illidan kill in China), has downed Kil'jaeden over there. Grats to them -- they didn't get Thori'dal, but they did get Apolyon, and who doesn't like rending souls, right?

To tell the truth I'm kind of surprised this happened so quickly -- apparently The9, who runs World of Warcraft in China, were able to drop the Sunwell Plateau patch pretty soon after it came out in the US and Europe. Burning Crusade, we know, took a long time to release over there (it came out months after it did on this side of the world), but either The9 is responding to pressure to release content closer, or patch updates are much easier to localize and distribute.

Either way, grats to The Seven and all of the other guilds worldwide able to topple The Deceiver. Next up, Northrend!

Update: Our commenters remembered something I forgot: All of the Sunwell Plateau gates were released open in China, to make up for the late content releases in the past.

Bloodlust realms down to fix latency

Posted Apr 30th 2008 2:30PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Realm Status, News items

As of 10:50 AM PDT, 1:50 PM EDT, Blizzard has brought down all the realms in the Bloodlust (US) battlegroup for brief maintenance "to address issues relating to high latency and disconnections." The affected realms are expected to be done after about an hour, which means they should come back up around 11:50 AM PDT/2:50 PM EDT, which is in twenty minutes.

The affected realms are listed as: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. Note that as far as I can tell the Dreadmaul realm does not actually exist. Edit: Never mind, it's the new Oceanic realm. It's just not listed on the Battlegroups page for some reason. I kind of wish they'd do some maintenance on my own realm (Shadow Council), since I've been having relatively high latency myself recently (150-200ms as opposed to my usual 60-100ms).

Update (3 PM): Not entirely unexpectedly, the realms are not fixed yet. The new ETA from Bizzard is 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.
Update (4:30 PM): The realms are back up, but still experiencing issues. Blizz promises to provide more updates as they are available.
Update (8:15 PM): Realms down again. They were supposed to be back up at 5 PDT/8 EDT, but apparently that is not the case.

Gold prices dropping in the US

Posted Apr 17th 2008 4:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Making money

PlayNoEvil is a blog that claims to do "MMO security news and analysis" -- they've got an interesting post up trying their best to track gold selling prices over time in various MMOs (the information itself seems to come from MMOBux.com). The World of Warcraft graphs (US seen above, EU on the site) show that for whatever reason, in the US at least, gold prices seem to be dropping. Of course, whether that's driven by low demand (thanks to Blizzard's daily quest implementation and other anti-gold selling mechanics), or high supply, we aren't quite sure.

In the EU, things aren't so clear -- while there are still bumps around content releases, things are holding pretty steadily at a price well below the United States. Either way, no matter what price it is, we should note as well that buying gold from anywhere is against Blizzard's terms of service and will get you banned. Hopefully, these lower prices in WoW mean that Blizzard's attacks on goldsellers are working, and that low demand has driven the price down further than its been in a long time. Even so, and even assuming that these prices actually do correspond to the market (no idea where MMOBux gets their info from), there's not much concrete info we can suss out of this other than the fact that prices are dropping in the US.

[Via Worldofwar.net]

Many realms still down

Posted Apr 14th 2008 2:30PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Realm Status, News items

The saga of the Rampage and Shadowburn (US) battlegroups continues. All realms in those battlegroups have been down since at least 11:00 AM EDT this morning. Blizzard says they're working on it, but so far all we've seen is an ETA given, which was promptly missed -- that ETA was 1:30 EDT. The new word is to expect an update roughly now; I'll be keeping my eye on it and will update this post if there's any news.

Once again, the affected US realms are Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.

Zul'Jin is also reportedly down, as well as Burning Legion and Lothar; I'm unsure of the status of the rest of the Ruin and Vindication battlegroups.

Update: It looks like Ruin and Vindication are down in their entirety. Meanwhile, Blizzard updated to let us know they're still working on it, and they expect the Rampage and Shadowburn realms to be up by around 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.

Update 2: Apparently the Ruin and Vindication issues are a hardware problem; Blizzard knows about it and expects to have those realms back up by 3 PM PDT/7 PM EDT.

Realm progression rankings for the Shattered Sun questline

Posted Mar 29th 2008 9:30PM by Eliah Hecht

The efforts to retake the Isle of Quel'Danas proceed apace. Some realms are going faster than others, but Drysc assures us that even the low-population realms will get the phases auto-completed for them eventually if they don't have the manpower to get there fast enough on their own. What if you want to see exactly how the realms stack up? We talked last week about a manually maintained forum post; however, that has problems with trustworthiness and the difficulty of keeping it updated.

Edur, of Gorgonnash-A (EU), has created a web site that relies on game data form participants to rank the realms according to their completion of the Sunwell questline, and a very nice site it is. You can see all the US and European realms and where they stand both on the main phase quests and on the side accomplishments, like constructing the portal from Shattrath to Quel'Danas. There are also nice progress charts for each individual realm, and, most usefully, ETAs for when the objectives might be reached given current rates of completion.

Continue reading Realm progression rankings for the Shattered Sun questline

Learn how to get imba with Be Imba!

Posted Feb 28th 2008 9:01AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard

Our good friend (and co-worker) BigBearButt posted this the other day, but it never made it to us (and it's probably because it doesn't seem to be working for US players quite yet). Be Imba! is an awesome little site that purports to do what Dan's new column also does, which is make one character as good as it can be.

As I said, US players aren't really working at this point, and the site blames the Armory's instability (one more reason for Blizzard to start breaking out the stats). But I looked up an EU player I know (as you can see above), and the app is pretty cool -- it'll tell you where you're missing sockets, where your gear could be better, what your talents are "meant for," and where to run instances so you can get better gear. Pretty neat.

Now, a disclaimer: you should always spec and gear how you like, not how some online application tells you to. But everyone should be interested in making their character better, and a setup like this could be very helpful in figuring out how to get where you want to be going. Hopefully the site's creator (early apologies for sending traffic to the site, but it'll die down after a while) will figure out how to work with the Armory, or Blizzard will get it into their heads that opening up Armory info in XML or other open formats will make this easier for everyone.

[Via AA in its slick new location]

Special maintance for some realms tomorrow

Posted Feb 26th 2008 8:30PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Because Blizzard loves you so much, the following realms will get a brief, exclusive maintenance period tomorrow morning, February 26 27, from 5:00 AM PST to about 6:15 AM PST:

Agamaggan
Azshara
Baelgun
Dark Iron
Detheroc
Emerald Dream
Greymane
Kalecgos
Lightninghoof
Maelstrom
Malfurion
Moonrunner
Nazjatar
Sargeras
Staghelm
Twisting Nether
Ursin
Wildhammer

Prepare your emergency Caturday festivities. Or you could always visit another realm or the PTR, or make some breakfast. May I suggest these popovers? They are easy and delicious. If you start them when the realms go down, they should be ready to pull out of the oven for fresh play-snacking when the realms come back up.

Bornakk announces region free test servers

Posted Feb 9th 2008 3:35PM by Daniel Whitcomb
Filed under: Patches, Virtual selves, Blizzard, News items

Bornakk announced last night that we can expect what could be a fun change for this and future PTRs: the US, Korean, and EU servers will share test realms. We might speculate that this could be delaying the release of the PTRs despite the fact that we have the notes and the patch in hand, though it is, of course, possible that it's the problems with the live servers right now as well.

Regardless, it'll be interesting to see how this changes the test dynamic as testing goes forward. There's been some questions in the past over which region's raid groups are better, so it might be fun to see if they decide to duke it out over the new Sunwell content face-to-face. It might be fun to see if some multi-region arena tourneys get set up as well. Even on the casual side, some of us have overseas internet friends who play on different servers than us by necessity, so it should be great to meet up with them and kill a few monsters or do a few dailies together.

Of course, before we get to see if anything fun comes out of this, we'll have to make it on the PTRs. We'll be sure to tell you as soon as we see them up and running!

Free character moves for the US

Posted Dec 21st 2007 6:01PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Realm News, News items

We've had some moves recently for Oceanic and European realms, but these are the first North American free character transfers I've seen in a while. As of noon PST today, and until 12:01 PM PST a week from today, December 28th, players can make the following transfers free of charge:

• From: Arthas, Illidan, Mal'Ganis, Warsong
• To: Azshara

As always, players are urged to make the transfer as soon as possible if they intend to, since the transfers do sometimes close early if desired population levels are reached. Drysc promises that the realms they choose for transfers are based on exact population statistics, which seems to imply that, out of the North American reals, the source realms are the most overpopulated and Azshara is the most underpopulated. Those of you on these realms, does that ring true? Do you plan on taking advantage of the transfers? Azshara folks, do you welcome the newcomers?

Guides to choosing and leveling your pet

Posted Jul 7th 2007 2:02PM by David Bowers
Filed under: Hunter, Guides

Recently Lizzie experienced the joyful tribulation facing many hunters as they work their way through from levels 10 to 20, puzzling out the question of which pet suits them best. This is one of my favorite choices in the game, partly because there are so many pets to choose from, partly because your choice really makes a difference, and partly because you're not locked into it if you want to try something different later.

For you hunters out there who are looking into what your first pet should be, there is a guide to choosing a pet available on the US forums, which for some reason has not been stickied. It gives you a good overview of the different issues involved in choosing a pet, and sets you in the right direction you'll need to make your choice well.

For those of you who have already reached level 70, but decided that you actually want a pet that is only available at low levels (such as that pretty red kitty from Eversong Woods), there is a guide on the EU forums on how to level that pet up in the quickest way possible. You'll need patience for this, of course, and many hunters just don't have enough, even for picking up the highest-level boar in the game from the Eastern Plaguelands. Still, if you have the resolve, this guide can help you take lots of the pain out of the process.

CGS 2v2 Arena information

Posted Jun 27th 2007 4:06PM by Krystalle Voecks
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, BlizzCon

There were some people out there who thought that since WoW wasn't an FPS or RTS, that it didn't really belong in the world of competitive gaming. Heck, a friend of mine used to like to say that it wouldn't work unless you were "trying to judge one elf dancing on a mailbox compared to another." (This friend, I should add, is anti-WoW) That's why I'm glad to see the Arena competitions becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on.

As Drysc recently announced on the forums, World of Warcraft is set to appear in this year's Championship Gaming Series. Players will have a chance to land a spot in the draft at BlizzCon. And for those who thumb their noses at gaming as a possible job -- the winners stand to make between $30k and $100k when you figure in the base salary, bonuses for winning, and prize money. (I just hope it includes good medical, because I sense some carpal tunnel in the mix too. :D )

Check out Drysc's full announcement from the forums behind the jump...

Continue reading CGS 2v2 Arena information

Midnight launch event: your launches edition

Posted Jan 16th 2007 3:15PM by Barb Dybwad
Filed under: Events, Fan stuff, Expansions, Features, Burning Crusade

Several of you sent in your midnight launch photos, and we managed to get a tiny cross-section of this event from around the world (any players from Europe or Asia care to send your photos? we'll add them in!) -- the US, Canada, and Australia. Click on for some photos from your launch events.

[Above photo courtesy of Alec Paden]

Continue reading Midnight launch event: your launches edition

Dude, Where's My Country?

Posted Apr 4th 2006 8:00PM by Jennie Lees
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

When we purchased WoW, we all made a (mostly) unconscious choice. Based on geographic location alone, we committed ourselves to life on a certain set of servers, walled off from other regions -- American, European or Korean, we're now stuck with the original decision we made months or years ago.

There are various good reasons to think about switching, or going dual-region. It's possible to run two copies of WoW, or even just the one, as long as you're prepared to cough up the initial payment and monthly fee twice over. You might have friends abroad you wish to play with, or you may be away from your home country temporarily. You might be a night owl or early bird, more comfortable in a timezone several hours distant from your own. Perhaps there is a particular guild you wish to join, or news items you wish to keep up with; perhaps you would prefer to speak a certain language.

There are also bad reasons -- if you're disillusioned with some less-than-savoury experiences on your home server, switching region isn't going to help any more than just switching server, as bad PuGs and antisocial players exist on all servers. Also, playing away from home for the purposes of selling gold or characters in a more lucrative market isn't going to win you many friends.

Continue reading Dude, Where's My Country?

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