Finally, some resto Shammy gear! Not only is this sweet helm statted out (yes, I just made that up), but it's named after someone you may have heard of in passing -- that other half of the Lich King.
Name: Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul (WoWDB, Wowhead, Thottbot) Type: Epic Mail Head Armor: 902 Abilities:
In order to save space, I'm going to give you the lore behind this helm while I tell you its stats. So Ner'zhul was an old Chieftain/Shaman of the Orcs, and since this is Warcraft, he was powerhungry and it drove him to make deals with demons. Plus his helm had +48 Stamina and +41 Intellect, which actually made it nice for PvP as well.
It also had a Yellow and Meta socket, and a socket bonus of 2 mp5. Ner'zhul didn't exactly knowingly make deals with demons, though -- he did what he thought was right, and aligned with Kil'jaeden, who he thought was actually a helpful "ancient ancestor."
But realizing Kil'jaeden is evil is actually as obvious as the 33 spell haste rating and 13mp5 on this helm, and eventually Ner'zhul did. It was too late, though -- Gul'dan took over, and Ner'zhul only barely saved the Frostwolf Orcs from drinking Mannoroth's blood.
Kil'jaeden wasn't thrilled with that, obviously, and stuck Ner'zhul in the Frozen Throne as the Lich King, until a young man named Arthas Menethil came along, shattered the Frozen Throne, and combined his bad self with Ner'zhul's in order to become a crazy powerful being (with lots of Wrath, which we'll see sooner or later).
And oh yeah, the helm's got 134 healing and 45 spell damage on it. Ner'zhul was originally an Orc Chieftain and resto Shaman, so this helm came from back when he was still supposedly a good guy. But interestingly enough, he still kind of is -- both he and Arthas slaughtered a lot of people thinking they were doing the right thing, and both he and Arthas were corrupted by the deals they made for power. Maybe they belong in that Frozen Throne together.
How to Get It: This is an interesting piece of loot that supposedly comes from the Sunwell. As of this writing, it hasn't been in player hands yet, but it actually comes from another helm, the Cowl of Gul'dan, which reportedly drops from Kil'jaeden. Since Killy Jay hasn't been killed yet, we're not sure about this, but this is what an "ancient ancestor" told us.
Blizzard is trying something new with the Sunwell Loot -- if you don't like the loot you get or want to switch it out for another piece of gear, you can bring the old helm to a Transmuter, along with a Sunmote (that can be obtained from trash inside Sunwell Plateau), and they'll transmute the helm for you. So get the Cowl of Gul'dan (drop rate unknown), add a Sunmote in there, take it to the Transmuter, and voila, you've got (what's probably a replication of) the Shroud of Chieftain Ner'hzul. Cake, right?
Getting Rid of It: Oh, you won't, not for a while anyway. All of the non-raiders will be switching out their casual epics for greens at level 71, but a helm like this you'll hold on to for a while. It does disenchant into a Void Crystal, though -- at least we assume it does. The ancient ancestor was unclear about that one.
I love this -- miladyhikara is working on a series of sketches featuring "Bad Girls of Warcraft," and the beginnings of the pieces are now up over on her deviantART page. They look fantastic -- I especially think this Shivarra looks good, but she's also got a female Naga, a Succubus, and Lady Barov herself. She says she's working on color palettes for most of them, so we'll have to wait to see the finished product -- if the sketches are any indication, they should look amazing.
She's also still asking for suggestions apparently -- who else would go in the "Bad Girls of Warcraft" series? Sylvanas? (is she really bad?) Onyxia for sure (in both forms). And she's also thinking about doing a "Good Girls of Warcraft" series, too -- hello Jaina, Tyrande and Fandral Staghelm. Wait, he's not a girl? Then why's he wearing that dress?
Yes indeed, after our short foray into multiboxing last week, the WoW Insider Show is back in its original form this week -- not only will Turpster be back in the WoW Insider Show studios, but WI's Zach Yonzon will be on with me, and we'll have all of our usual features: listener mail (you too can email us at theshow@wowinsider.com), shout outs (I swear I'll remember to do them this week, guys), and the best gosh-darned discussion of the biggest news in the last week of Warcraft, including, but not limited to, yesterday's Wrath alpha news, how all the servers are doing on the Sunwell dailies, and everything else going on at the Sunwell.
As requested, we'll also have some nice PvP discussion -- I especially want to take issue with Zach on what he said about WSG, as in my experience, things still aren't hunky dory in there. And we'll talk about the Arena tourney as well, I'm sure.
Tune in tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm EST on WoW Radio for episode number 33 of the WoW Insider Show, and feel free to join us in the IRC chat as well: it's at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel. See you tomorrow afternoon.
The OC Register (Blizzard's HQ -- I'm pretty sure that's where it's at, as they're not exactly open with their location info -- is located right down near them in Southern California) has a blog post up featuring 11 "innovation lessons" other companies can learn from the folks behind World of Warcraft. While the lessons aren't exactly innovative themselves (I think there are lots of companies that do this stuff, and none of them have a ten million player game), the post does provide a good look inside Blizzard's process and the thinking behind what they do.
Blizzard is pretty stubbornly committed to quality -- not only do they notoriously release things "when they're done," but if something doesn't work they apparently are happy to trash it completely (see Starcraft: Ghost). It is amusing, too, that Rob Pardo says he and Frank Pearce are trying to make "great entertainment projects, not perfect ones." WoW has its bugs, sure, but when you look at Blizzard's catalog: Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, you have to wonder what a "perfect" game looks like in Pardo's mind. Those are about as perfect as they come.
And they "eat their own dog food," too: J. Allen Brack apparently spends four hours a night (up to 15 hours a week) playing the game on his own time at home. Seems like it would be tough for other companies to pull these strategies into their own plan (Blizzard really releases one-of-a-kind products), but as consumers, it's neat to get another look into the way they work.
So the combat log will not be rolled back and there may not be a Patch 2.5 before Wrath of the Lich King.
He did say, however, that the UI changes that were to happen in the fictional 2.5 will in fact happen in WotLK. Specifically, the arguments "this" and "argN" will be phased out of the Blizzard UI in favor of "self" and other local arguments. Slouken recommends that authors start using "self" in the meantime, so that they will be prepared for when the expansion comes out.
I am very fond of collecting vanity pets in WoW. The Sprite Darter Hatchling is possible my favorite, though Mr. Wiggles is pretty cool too. While some of the pets do have some interesting animations, like the Mini Diablo and his flame breath, the only vanity pet that would actually do anything was the Battle BotClockwork Rocket Bot. And that got nerfed.
Vanity pets in HKO will be a bit more useful. It seems that not only will they follow you around, but some will also be extra bag space. I can't tell you how much I wish my WoW pets would carry stuff for me. Sanrio hints that they will have other uses as well.
How will you get pets in Hello Kitty Online? Some monsters will drop "pet cards" which will allow you to have that monster as your pet. Also, there will be a way to acquire some Sanrio characters as your pets. This may require a lot of reputation or perhaps an extended quest chain or both, judging from the use of "eventually" by Sanrio.
Masterdragon will be updating the list two or three times a day and requests that you check the list before posting your server's phase status.
I'm impressed that Masterdragon is putting in all this effort to update this tracking list. It's too bad that Blizzard can't provide one for us so that he doesn't have to. An official list could indicate the percentage completed for each phase as well. But I suppose they have enough work putting a spin on the undocumented changes that have popped up in Patch 2.4.
Do you think Blizzard should have an official list? Or are you just happy that a fellow player took the initiative to make one himself?
Just in case the original $5k was too much for you on that Dell Warcraft laptop deal, Dell has apparently dropped the price to a still pretty high $4k, or $3999. That's still more than our questionable pricing out of the laptop and all of the goodies that come with it, but then again, it is a sweet gaming-spec, Warcraft branded laptop -- can you really put a price on a paradise like that?
And yes, it still does come with all the old stuff, including Alliance or Horde branding, all the Warcraft software, and a bunch of other goodies including those beta keys that we still have no idea are for. Where Dell found $1000 to cut out of that deal we can't figure either, unless... you don't think they were just topping more than a cool grand of straight profit on this deal, were they? Sneaky moneymaking bastards!
Update: Apparently we now know where they got $1000 out of the deal -- it doesn't come with all the extras any more. According to reader DevilStick, who chatted with a Dell sales rep, all it comes with is the mousepad and possibly a laptop bag. So the novels, the beta keys, and all of the books and other goodies were limited time only.
Update II: Dell themselves have contacted us with the news that the sales rep DevilStick chatted with was wrong: even at the lower price, it still does come with all the goodies. So if $5k was too much, but $4k is worth it to you to have "the ultimate Warcraft laptop," order away.
Methedras asks once again over on WoW LJ if now is a good time to be playing the old Warcraft RTS games, and, actually no, now is probably not a good time to be playing them. You should probably be heading up to the Isle of Quel'danas and helping your realm and the Shattered Sun get those dailies unlocked.
But yes, after patch 2.4 has quenched your interest in the World of Warcraft for a while, now would be a perfect time to play Warcraft III and its expansion, the Frozen Throne. Because we are right smack dab in the thick of the lore following both of those games -- Illidan and Kael'thas' stories have just finished, and the main event, with Arthas Menethil, is just about to start in Northrend. Up until the end of Wrath of the Lich King (and we're just now reaching the end of the Burning Crusade), World of Warcraft was really just a gigantic, cross-genre, extremely involved and detailed sequel to Blizzard's earlier Warcraft games.
There are other places to go beyond this, however, of course, and we've discussed a lot of them before (and will again, no doubt). But yes, if you haven't played the RTS games yet, you've already missed half of the story. Now would be a great time to play them, before you miss the second (and in my estimation, much more interesting) half.
Eurogamer has interviewed Samwise Didier, Warcraft artist and icon, and the man who's pretty much defined the look and feel of Blizzard since even the early days. There's a lot of great stuff for Blizzard fans in this one -- I had no idea that an early build of The Lost Vikings had about 20 Vikings in it instead of the three we know -- and Samwise talks about his influences, including the way that Blizzard makes twists on standard genre conventions.
But the guy still stays incredibly humble, and acknowledges that as great as Blizzard's art is, the thing that really brings people back to these games is the fun factor. It's the humor and the enjoyment that Blizzard fans love, and Samwise's (and all of the other Blizzard artists') art make it that much better.
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time. Well, it used to be weekly and it will be again, starting today.
When last I wrote, which was ages ago, I promised to answer some reader mail about getting groups quickly. And then I vanished for a bit. I'm sorry about the interruption in this column and I will get to the reader mail, but not this week. With the new patch getting closer to release, I think I need to talk about some of the changes that will affect those of us with limited playtime.
First of all, our coverage of Patch 2.4 is very extensive and perhaps a bit overwhelming. I do recommend, however, spending some free time that you have access to WoW Insider catching up with the changes for your class, professions and playstyle. You don't want to spend your precious WoW session discovering unexpected changes after the new patch comes out.
Alerinne starts an interesting conversation over on the forums about bringing WoW back into "Medieval Fantasy" -- swords and sorcery instead of alien Draenei and spaceships. Normally, the conversation about MMO genre runs along the lines of too much fantasy, but many players, it seems, would rather be running around with axes and fireballs rather than lasers and robots, especially in a world that is so akin to traditional fantasy (Orcs, Elves, and so on).
To be fair, World of Warcraft has always had its own charms -- Dwarves have always been able to fire guns, something that's not usually in traditional fantasy, and even Goblins with their zeppelins (and Gnomes with their engineering) have always added a little extra flavor to the game that goes beyond purist fantasy. But it's true -- zones like Netherstorm and even Auchindoun go a little overboard for real fantasy fans.
So hopefully, as we hear in the thread, we'll see a little more traditional fantasy setting in Wrath of the Lich King. So far, lots of things we've seen there have had a bit of a Norse trend to them, from the Frozen Tundra to the Vykrul race found in the early zones. But there's more to this expansion that we haven't seen -- Icecrown Citadel is an old-fashioned ice fortress, according to the lore, and with the movement of Dalaran and the rumors of dragons up there, we definitely have a possibility of a return to the magic and steel that made this series so popular in the first place.
Are you new to the game and would like to visit all the major cities of your faction? Or do you have a bunch of lowbie alts (like me) that are stranded near their starting area? If so, make use of the Lunar Festival to get your lowbies out and about.
One of the great things about the Lunar Festival is that you get a free trip to Moonglade and then you can teleport to all of the major old world cities in your faction. (No, they won't let you travel to the major cities of the opposite faction. Sorry.) I found this particularly useful with my Draenei and Blood Elf noobs so that they can go out and see the world. Why would you want to get your lowbie out and about so young?
Weapon skills: You can use the teleports to go to the Weapons Masters in each city and get all of your missing weapons skills. Don't forget training weapons skills costs 10 silver each, so if you are new to the game or just the server, you may need to make some money before you take the trip.
Here's another one from the files of things we've desired/dreaded for years. In a post-DICE interview with Blizzard cofounder Frank Pearce, MTV learned that Blizzard is definitely thinking about making some kind of mobile WoW interface. He says it would probably just allow you to chat and monitor auctions and mail, without actually being able to buy and sell things. Still, I don't think I'm exaggerating much when I say hundreds of thousands of players would use an app like that. When last this was discussed here on WoW Insider, many of you were of the opinion that a mobile WoW would be yet another infringement on our already dwindling time for "real life," and that's a definite threat, but ultimately I think it's just as easy (or as hard) to exercise self-control on a cell phone as on a PC.
Other fun news from that interview:
Players in Taiwan have the shortest wait time for tickets
Blizz is working on a way to stream a trial version of WoW so people who want to try the game can be playing in 10 minutes. Is that even possible?Edit: Apparently, not only possible but already achieved. Magic!
Wrath "should feel at least as substantial as BC"
The movie was delayed by the just-ended WGA strike, but the project is now running again and looking for directors. Pearce: "When we talk about the quality of our movie and the quality of the movie we want to see delivered, we're talking about the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. That's what we want to deliver, that kind of epic experience." Yeah, good luck with that.
Blizzard today announced their fourth annual Worldwide Invitational tournament, featuring competition in all their current major games: Warcraft III, Starcraft, and of course WoW. It'll be held in Paris on June 28th and 29th. This is the first European engagement for the ongoing series. There will also be the usual excitement for a Blizz even, including developer panels, music, and "hands-on play" of both Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King.
Wait, what? Hands-on of Wrath? I may be reading too much into this, but that really makes it look like the expansion won't be released until after the tournament. Why would they have a hands-on demo of something that had already come out? So it looks like we're going to be waiting until July at least to get our Wrath on. Edit: Yes, I know we didn't really expect it before Q3 or Q4. But I like to hope. Suddenly releasing another raid doesn't seem like such a bad idea. More information on the WWI is available at Blizzard Europe.
Yes indeed, after 
The OC Register (
On April Fools' Day, amongst our extensive 
Methedras asks once again over on WoW LJ if now is a good time to be 
Alerinne starts an interesting conversation over on the forums about 
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