Our good friends at Joystiq are passing out the cigars today -- the newest site in the Joystiq network (which WoW Insider is a part of, within Weblogs, Inc., which is a division of AOL) is called Big Download, is in beta, and is open right now for your browsing and file grabbing pleasure. We'll direct you to the most important part of the site, the World of Warcraft page, where you can grab Blizzard's latest patch and trailer at your convenience (in case you haven't gotten them yet), but the site's got lots of other good stuff, too, including that sweet looking Mirror's Edge gameplay video everyone's going gaga over, and even full MMO clients like Dream of Mirror Online and EVE Online.
The site's got a decidedly PC bent, which we're big fans of, obviously, and there's a news page which will cover PC and game file news from 1 to 100% downloaded. And with a feature called "My Tracker," you can sign in and every time there's a new file for a game you want (say, a certain 10 million player fantasy MMO that you just can't get enough of), they'll tell you right away.
Looks cool to us. The site is still in beta, as we said, so stay tuned for more updates and features all the time. And what's that you say? You want a place where you can get up-to-date, virus-free WoW addons, a place that never goes down and charges no fees and requires no registration to download from? Patience, my friends. In time, good things will come.
Blizzard has released tonight the patch notes for patch 2.4.2, which means the PTR will probably be up and running sometime soon. Patch 2.4 will likely be the last major patch before Wrath of the Lich King, and we expect to see a couple more of these minor patches before WotLK comes out.
Void Shatter no longer has a cooldown, and other cooldowns have been reduced.
Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid wipes during his death speech.
If you are sheeped / polymorphed by a mob, you will no longer gain back health (ie: the mass sheep in Aran, which regens your health before he fire blasts the raid). This is a potentially large change.
Many main hand weapons are now one hand weapons.
A good list of bug fixes, including several problems associated with sounds.
Full patch notes for your convenience after the break!
Totem Talk is on the wrong day because Matthew Rossi had a big bug in his bonnet (what? No, I don't know if it was a bee or not. Look, I'm not sticking my head into a bonnet to check the kind of bug in it. No, you go look if you're so interested! It's a bug, that's good enough for me) about expert ease or something. Anyway, today we're going to talk about the future of the Shaman class now that there's a new expansion on the horizon.
Wrath of the Lich King is in Alpha. That means... well, it means some folks are playing around with a really early version of the next expansion. It also means that we hearken back to the last time WoW had an expansion, and start considering how the classes will change. Will there be new talents? If so, we'll see even more specialization between talent specs. If not, we'll see a lot more broad viability as people find ways to spend ten extra talent points.
Just before The Burning Crusade we saw the Before the Storm patch which introduced the new 41 point talents to all three trees. Dual wielding, raging enhancement shaman, earth shielding resto shaman, and wrath totem dropping elemental shamans all come from this patch, which changed the face of the shaman class. The ridiculously high burst of a windfury imbued 2h weapon became less common as the new talents changed the way each spec played.
Now, clearly I have no special insight into the direction Blizzard and the developers plan to take the shaman class. I'm just another shammy out in the trenches punching things. But there are things I'd like to see and also things I'd like to see but which I don't expect will happen, and so I figured I might as well speculate as to a few possible changes coming in the expansion. Maybe somehow the viral nature of the internet will cause one of these ideas to worm its way into someone who can actually implement them. And possibly vast sums of gold will rain down upon my shaman wherever he goes, while I'm dreaming.
Okay, I have no idea who Hello Kitty is. I barely know what Sanrio is because I have nieces. Anyway, for those of us who intent to keep playing World of Warcraft (seriously, Hello Kitty Online? I have to start reading the memos Mike sends out) most of the realms are still down and maintenance is being extended to 12:00 pm Pacific. Like many, I've been haunting the realm status forums since 11 Pacific waiting for news, and I hope Malfurion or Norgannon come up soon.
In the meantime I've been reading about a new console version of Molten Core coming out (sounds so sweet, and no downtimes!) and considering whether or not I'll reroll Bard for the expansion. I think not; I'm a warrior till I die, but the "Metal" tree does intrigue me.
I have no idea if I'll be making that many more posts here, because I am so not even trying to write the "How to tank with hugs" column.
Editor's Note: We apologize for letting this non-HKO post get through. Blogger Matthew Rossi is being dealt with accordingly.
Since patch 2.4, hunters have been having some problems. Aside from the outrage over the fact that our traps are now announced, we seem to be having issues with mana.
On the forums, hunters are not seeing much love from the non-hunter crowd, but I suppose that is to be expected. It is important to note however, that our mana efficiency is an intended attribute of our class. We are useful, not solely, but arguably primarily, because we can provide sustainable, long-term DPS. No, we don't crit like mages. In a boss fight though, we can keep going after mages short out.
Why are hunters all of a sudden having issues with mana? There are a few theories floating around, but we have yet to be graced with a blue response. Take the jump to learn more about why this might be happening.
Drysc is keeping a post up-to-date of all the latest hotfixes that are happening. Patch 2.4 went live without too much trouble this last Tuesday, yet there is a slow but steady stream of issues popping up in the game. Each morning for the next few days we'll let you know about all the hotfixes that have come out the previous day.
Yesterday's hotfixes include:
Increased Felbound Initiate respawn rate. These are the guys you need in the "Blood for Blood" quest.
You can no longer accept thequests given by Magistrix Seyla up in Hellfire Penisula without first compleating "The Missing Magistrix."
Thanks to rolling restarts last night, you will now see your server name correctly displayed in battlegrounds.
Of course, if something major comes up, expect to see it covered right away on WoW Insider. Enjoy your patch 2.4 fun!
I've spent the day collecting patch mirrors for everyone. Some may require a short free registration. All of them are sources I, and others, use and trust. However with that said, we can't be responsible if something goes wrong. But I've never heard of that happening.
There are more lists available at WoWWiki and Nihilum. However, there are several sites on there that I haven't been able to test or havne't used before - so your mileage may vary.
The long-awaited patch 2.4 is finally here, and if you're a crafting nut, you'll find yourself asking, "what do I do first?". Luckily, WoW Insider has you covered.
We have also compiled all of the upcoming changes for each profession into two round-up posts, including linkage and summaries of materials and costs.
For miners, blacksmiths, engineers, and fishermen, check out your complete guide to crafting 2.4. If you are a jewelcrafter, enchanter, tailor, alchemist, herbalist, leatherworker, or cook, we have compiled all things 2.4 for you. Both post have news and information about crafting reagents.
Surprised to see us again so soon? Well, with 2.4 hitting today (Elune willing), it's time to see what there is out there for rogues in the new patch -- at least gear-wise, since rogues don't have many mechanic changes on the PTR right now. This new gear is available as badge rewards, drops from Magister's Terrace, and even crafted loot! (Sorry -- since the Sunwell isn't going to be open at first, loot from the 25-man raid has been left out of this one, and we talked about the Shattered Sun rep rewards already.)
Badge of Justice Loot
The first things you'll probably be staring at in the new badge vendor's inventory are the new daggers. The Blade of Serration, Swift Blade of Uncertainity, and the Mutilator clearly have a lot in common -- all three have the same 103.1 DPS and stam/hit/AP stats. However, the Blade of Serration is 1.8 speed, one-handed, and costs 105 Badges of Justice, while the identical Mutilator is off-hand only and costs only 45 Badges. The Swift Balde, intended as an off-hand for combat dagger rogues, boasts a speed of 1.5 and the same discount off-hand price of 45 Badges. Since these daggers clock in as the fourth-best daggers in the game DPS-wise, they're a must-have for all small-group dagger rogues.
Combat fist spec rogues can also enjoy some hot new weapons. (Sorry, swords and maces, but no new pointies/blunties for you.) Vanir's Right (and left) Fist of Brutality and Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery forgo the hit rating and stam of the daggers in exchange for agi and haste rating. They share the same 105/45 badge price as the daggers, so you can pick up the whole set for 150 Badges of Justice. Drawbacks include that the models look like rejected monsters from AQ40.
Once again, we find ourselves anxiously waiting for the World of Warcraftservers to come back up. However, today stands out as the best (and worst) variety of Tuesday downtime. Today we see the release of patch 2.4 and, for your addons, it is a day of reckoning. The majority of you are familiar with new content patches and the havoc they wreak on addons, but for those of you new to this; many of your addons could very well be broken.
There are a number of philosophies on how one should approach this. Some would suggest disabling your addons and waiting a few days until the storm subsides. Some have even said you should clear out your Addons folder, or your WTF folder. Clearing out the Addons folder gets rid of the addons, while deleting your WTF folder will clear all player and character settings. I personally go this route when I find that most of my addons are acting "buggy" or weird, or when I want to start with a clean slate.
I recently wrote an article on how you can automate the updating process, which I would recommend you take a look at, the servers are down anyway! Alright, really I would recommend reading through the comments of that post, as some of your fellow readers have some great advice and insight you may find helpful. Also, the folks over at WoWInterface contacted me in regards to their own addon updater, which looks promising as well. They have been busy testing it and have released a Windows version as well as a Mac/Linux version, both of which merit a look in my opinion. WoW Interface also released their Patch 2.4 Survival Guide, which I profiled recently. All this just screams that you've got options, so keep reading!
Patch 2.4 draws closer every day.Many players were speculating that it was going to be released yesterday (March 18, 2008).Blizzard has promised that the patch is coming soon and the background downloader has appeared. My best guest is that we'll be visiting Sunwell Isle on March 25, 2008.
The day that patch 2.3 was released I attempted to rush home from work to check out the new changes, but was thwarted by cross-town traffic.There are some things that I'm excited about for in the newest patch, but I'm not nearly as stoked as I was for the last major update.I try to keep in mind that what we've seen so far on the Public Test Realm is not the final product for the patch, but it gives us a pretty good indication of what's coming.
As Adam pointed out earlier this afternoon, the changes for patch 2.4 are starting to be less and less dramatic, which may indicate that the patch is nearing completion. Here's another such indication: parts of the patch (251 MB for me) are now being sent out to the background downloader. This means that some of the patch data is finalized, and we can get those parts of the patch now instead of having to get everything on patch day.
Note that the patch is not, in fact, being released today, or even necessarily next week. But I would bet that it won't be more than a few weeks until the Sunwell is upon us. And when the patch does drop, someone's going to win fabulous prizes! More importantly, I'll have some new dailies to do. Hurry it up, Blizz (but don't release it before it's ready, of course).
Edit: Patch 2.3 was on the background downloader for 12 days before it was released, and 2.1 was 11 days. But 2.2 was on for over a month, so it's hard to predict for sure how this will go.
We've added a gallery of screenshots just in time for the worldwide Arena battle.The battle will take place tomorrow, Sunday March 9from noon until three PM Pacific time (GMT -8).The latest patch gives players full sets of merciless gladiator gear for each spec for their given class. This change should reduce some of the frustration in gearing up a character.
Each player is given 5000 gold.You must still purchase you gems, enchantments, and accessories.These are available for purchase from vendors as there are no trade skills on the TTR.If you want alternative armor and weapons, you will have to buy those from their respective vendors.It's still crowded, but it seems more manageable than earlier in the week.
The PTRs just came back up about an hour ago from a new build being applied; some people were able to get on earlier, but any information they found is liable to be buggy. Here's what's been found since the realms came back online for real:
Shaman:
Flametongue weapon puts a 50% healing reduction on the target for 5 seconds, refreshing with every hit.
Toughness: each point in the talent now reduces the duration of movement-impairing effects by 10%, in addition to the previous effect of increasing armor. This means 50% reduced duration at 5/5.
Shamanistic Rage changed; now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% [was 15%] of your AP. Lasts 15 s [was 30 s].
Global cooldown on dropping totems reduced from 1.5 s to 1 s.
[Warlock] Life Tap (rank 3) converts 20% of your maximum health to 20% of your maximum mana. Still terrible, and not very much of a change from the 15% it was at before.
Life Tap is one of my favorite mechanics in the game. It's elegant, it's clever, and it's just plain fun; it's a big part of the reason a Warlock is my third-highest-level character (behind my two 70s). And it's really a defining part of the Warlock class, along with demons and soul shards. So when they nerfed it on the patch 2.4 PTR, I was mad, along with a lot of other people. I still am.
Anyway, two recent Eyonix posts have discussed the topic. First, he clarified that Improved Life Tap will work the same as in patch 2.3: you get more mana without losing more life. Zero talent points in ILT = 15% of your max mana for 15% of your max life, one point = 16.5% mana for 15% life, and two points = 18% for 15%.
Our good friends at Joystiq are passing out the cigars today -- the newest site in the Joystiq network (which WoW Insider is a part of, within Weblogs, Inc., which is a division of AOL) is called Big Download, is in beta, and is open right now for your browsing and file grabbing pleasure. We'll direct you to the most important part of the site, the World of Warcraft page, where you can grab Blizzard's latest patch and trailer at your convenience (in case you haven't gotten them yet), but the site's got lots of other good stuff, too, including that sweet looking Mirror's Edge gameplay video everyone's going gaga over, and even full MMO clients like Dream of Mirror Online and EVE Online.
...who has 
The long-awaited 
Once again, we find ourselves anxiously waiting for the 
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