Nethaera has been pretty visible on the forums lately, answering a lot of questions about Wrath of the Lich King. She even popped into one discussion asking about the possibility of being able to change faces in the expansion if only to say that plastic surgery isn't in the cards quite yet. However, Neth mentions that players will be able to change hairstyles, facial hair, and possibly even get tattoos.
So while some of us who've chosen wrinkled, old mugs might not get a rejuvenating facelift (and Undead who don't have jaws will continue to miss them), a lot of customization will be available in the form of new horns for tauren, jewelry, and maybe tattoos. Salthem states the same thing in another thread, saying that there's a lot of development to be done, but that this was the direction they were taking.
The April Fool's prank that Blizzard pulled this year featured the Guitar Hero-inspired Bard class, and pictures of the character had intricate tattoos on both arms. Some early speculation posited that it could be from the new profession Inscription. It could be that the tattoos were just an artist's embellishment for the prank, but it's equally probable that the barber shops in Northrend just might be tattoo parlors, as well.
The other day, Kromzul of Burning Blade posted a thread in the official Wrath of the Lich King forum about dungeon design. He asks if instances will be deeper than those in the Burning Crusade, and I agree with most of what he says. Essentially, the epic, sprawling dungeon crawls of old have gone extinct with BC. Bornakk chimes in to say that The Burning Crusade dungeon design was heavily influenced by player feedback, wishing for more Scarlet Monastery-esque dungeons. I can see that, and to an extent, I agree with that, too. Scarlet Monastery, while shorter and more linear, was also pretty cool.
Personally, I don't think that it really comes down to one or the other. Take Dire Maul, for instance. Each wing could be tackled in a straightforward, linear fashion. However, each of them also had alternative routes, and some of them even had alternative ways of defeating them. For example, Tribute Runs in Dire Maul: North. Plus, they were even connected via the library. If you really want to, you could go from one wing to the other without any loading screen.
I don't know what it is about the WoW community, but every link I see I'm forced to double check its authenticity just so I don't get Rick Rolled. What is this cultural phenomenon of Rick Rolling you ask? No, it's not some sort of new drug, it's just a YouTube video of Rick Astley singing "Never gonna give you up." When you watch the video for the hundredth time it gets a tad annoying. And you do have to watch the whole video, because let's face it, if you don't the tune is just going to sit in your head for the rest of the day. Then you'll be dreaming of Rick Astley, and that's...well... just unsettling.
Often times in the official forums people will post a link to some WoWWiki article or something, and instead of the link actually going where it is advertized to go, it'll go to the Rick Roll video instead.
I personally am rather tired of always having to check the link to see if the video ends in uuiU, which seems to be the most common YouTube video used to Rick Roll people. There are some browser addons out there that'll stop you from being Rick Rolled, if you're so inclined to install them. But as always, be sure that you're getting these addons from a reputable source.
Have you been Rick Rolled lately? Share your tales of horror.
Sunday Morning Funnies has quite the line-up this week, with even more on the horizon for next week. As always, don't forget to leave a tip about a WoW-themed comic you know!
A new WoW-themed comic from Action Trip. I would explain but I think I'll just let you click through and see for yourselves.
Do you read your realm forums? Simple question, eh? Personally, I make sure I at least take a look at my realm forums once a day, even if I don't post.
Admittedly, realm forums are quite often just a pile of drama. Who cybered who, who ninja'd from who, who ganked who. Blah blah blah. Hidden behind all of that, though, there is usually a lot of helpful information. Patch note discussions, recruitment notices, maybe even server progression lists or charts of who on the server has rare crafting recipes.
I've been amazed a few times by people that desperately search for raiding guilds to join on the server, but have not once looked at the official realm boards to see who is even recruiting. Plus, as an officer in a raiding guild, it's just a little bothersome to find out there are so many people that may have been interested in that open spot you had for two months, you just had no way to reach them or know about them.
I've been under the impression that most people who play more than a few hours a week read their realm boards, but I'm not so sure that's the case. That would be a lot of people, when you think about it. So what about you guys? Do you read? Do you post?
Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
Zom over on the forums asks: what's your favorite WoW holiday? And the response is extra special because it's by Kisirani, who, you may know, is actually Blizzard's World Event Designer-- him showing up in your thread about holidays is kind of like God showing up on a thread about your favorite mountain range.
Kisirani asks specifically for constructive, reasoned posts, but c'mon, he's asking on the WoW forums. Fortunately, this site is not the WoW forums, and our comments are more than capable of giving constructive and reasoned.. well...
I kid! Tell the guy what your favorite WoW holiday is, whether it be the free epics of Hallow's End or the ticket grinding of Brewfest, and maybe the upcoming updates to Nobelgarden (we hope) will incorporate some of your constructive and well-reasoned ideas!
Apparently this has been wandering around the forums for a while, but I haven't seen it before-- Zami the forum troll (and we mean that in a good way) has put together a dictionary of sorts for those browsing the forums. Not quite sure what people mean by QQ or "weaksauce"? Zami's got you covered. Well, he doesn't so much have you covered (we actually have a post for that), but at least he's entertaining.
"Watch out, the Lion King" was probably my favorite, but Taz'dingo was pretty informative too-- I never knew exactly what that meant. Zami's guide is definitely good for a laugh.
Today, while skimming over various WoWsites, I noticed two forum posts about the same topic: Players have discovered that there's a cap on how much money you can carry in the game. Apparently that amount is 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. After you reach that lofty sum, you'll no longer be able to receive money from any source in the game. While some responses to the original posts claim that this exact limit had previously been theorized to exist, there have been no reports of anyone in the game actually achieving this amount via legal means.
Dorgabas on the official forums and meth on MMO-Champion's forums both reported the discovery today, each with a screenshot to provide veracity to their claims. You can check them out by clickinghere. The shots are of two different players, one of whom is on a German-speaking server. In the shot you can read his conversation with a GM, which supposedly translates to him asking the GM about the limit and the GM scratching his head in response.
You can check out both threads linked above for more information, including a rough translation of the German conversation and an explanation of why this amount is the limit due to the game's coding.
Mileiamh has posted an idea for an auction house revamp in the official WoWsuggestions forums. Because neutral auction houses are located in neutral towns, and are therefore not frequently used, Mileiamh suggests that Blizzard could place faction neutral auction houses in "each of the pre-BC auction houses".
He posits that these new additions would "solve bad econom(ie)s on low pop servers" and eliminate the "need for opposite faction auction house alts". Furthermore, Mileiamh reasons that these auction houses would "likely supersede the old auction house" and therefore, could "replace [them] completely".
Seeing "no drawbacks", he seems excited at the prospect that the "items available to both factions" would be "greatly expand[ed]".
Taking the neutral auction houses as proof that "[B]lizzard seem[s] to have no problem with horde and alliance selling things to each other", Mileiamh invites everyone for further discussion. What potential benefits and drawbacks could other players point out?
The Eagles Pride guild on Malygos US had an interesting idea for a guild event. They all rolled level 1 Taurenalts and staged a raid boss encounter where they had to take down a level 70 mage. Apparently, a lot of thought went into the encounter, with the mage's gear and abilities tuned to create a realistic opponent for the little cows. Additionally, the mage, Belise, limited himself to using his abilities on certain cues and made good use of emote macros to further mimic a scripted boss encounter.
You can check out the thread on the official WoWforums which includes links to the twovideos of the entire event. The thread also contains more information regarding how they balanced the event and speculation concerning how similar fights would work with other classes. It would also be a good place to express your interest if you'd like to participate in another similar event in the future.
I've heard of some interesting guild events in the past, but personally, this one trumps them all. Have you ever taken part in something like this?
According to Joel Bylos, a developer for the upcoming MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, we may soon be seeing a decline in the popularity of WoW. Bylos claims that the "feeling on the internet", including that gleaned from "online communities", seems to be that WoW is "losing its lustre".
Of course, if that were really true, developers of upcoming MMOs that will be in competition with WoW would probably not feel the need to claim it. Especially considering the latest push from Blizzard to add to its already massive 9.3 million active subscriber base using celebrity-hosted dynamic commercials, combined with the buzz for the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King, it is doubtful that WoW will be going into decline any time soon.
In fact, Blizzard's parent company, Vivendi, has continued to show significant increased revenue that is attributed to the success of WoW. Its recent merger with Activision suggests that indeed, professional predictions by investors remain positive.
So why say it at all? Honestly, it's not all wishful thinking. If you head over to these "online communities" such as the official forums, unofficial forums, and even our own comment boxes here at WoW Insider, you will find no shortage of complainants.
Earlier today, Eyonix created a rather unique thread on the official WoWPaladin forum. He made it clear that he wasn't asking for feedback to give to the developers on the class, but rather that the questions would come from him as a player of the game. Apparently he made a Paladinalt a couple of weeks ago and is seeking advice regarding the best leveling strategy.
Threads like this pop up in the class forums quite commonly. When faced with the grind from level one to seventy, players often turn to the more experienced members of their class for advice on talent builds and leveling strategies. Of course, those players are not also community managers, posting with the hallowed blue text.
As you can imagine, the thread is already quite long and only promises to grow longer since Eyonix has mentioned that he'll be keeping it updated through the week with new questions. It's interesting to see a Blizzard employee posting his talent spec and asking typical player questions and there is actually a lot of good advice on playing the class. Head on over to the Paladin forum to check out the thread yourself and L2p Paladin along with Eyonix.
To the best of my recollection, one of the WoW developers first coined the terminology "welfare epics" at last August's Blizzcon. I've had difficulty finding the original source, but as I recall, the context of the talk had to do with the goal of the WoW designers to make all players put forth some degree of effort in obtaining quality gear. The specific gear in question was that purchased with arena points.
New arena loot was released to the clamoring masses a couple of days ago, and some of the items have arena rating requirements on them, thus setting in motion the designers' plan to avoid a proliferation of welfare epics. As per usual with changes of this magnitude, the official forums are rife with controversial topics. This time around, its the PvE players arguing with PvP players regarding the quality and accessibility of arena loot. Some of this debate spilled over into the comments on one of my own recent posts, piquing my interest in the issue even further.
Yesterday I posted regarding the odd drop behavior of the design for the new meta gem, the Chaotic Skyfire Diamond. Many readers commented that the gem requirements were too stringent, making the gem undesirable for them. Unlike the majority of other gems, this one required exactly two blue gems in order to activate its bonus stats. Most meta gems have quantifiers like "at least" or "more than" and players found that limiting themselves to a specific number of gems was, well, too limiting.
Today a player brought their complaint regarding this requirement to the official WoW forums and was able to garner a blue response. Drysc posted in the thread, mentioning that the gem has already been changed in an upcoming patch. Specifically, the "exactly two blue gems" requirement will be changed to "at least two blue gems". Additionally, he stated that other meta gems with similar requirements are being reviewed as well (although I know of only one other that might fit that category).
What do you think? Is there any doubt now that this will be the best meta gem for most DPS caster builds?
Yesterday a player on the WoW forums pointed out that the Warrior skill Demoralizing Shout would be interesting to see in action. According to Undamian's interpretation, essentially, the skill involves insulting your opponents to throw them off balance in combat. Taunt,Challenging Shout, Piercing Howl and Intimidating Shout could also be viewed in a like manner. Unlike similarskills in other classes, warriors aren't considered magic users, so they must have an extensive vocabulary and a lot of creativity in order to affect their foes with mere words and body language.
The original poster's idea, of course, led to a slew of suggestions as to what it is that warrior's actually say when they use these abilities. Community ManagerNethaera even proffered a suggestion, and as the thread progressed, other skills, such as Commanding and Battle Shout were included. Some players even posted catch phrases that they have bound to their abilities in game via macros. What do you imagine your character would say when using these skills? Please keep it clean.
Nethaera has been pretty visible on the forums lately, answering a lot of questions about Wrath of the Lich King. She even popped into one discussion asking about the possibility of being able to change faces in the expansion if only to say that plastic surgery isn't in the cards quite yet. However, Neth mentions that players will be able to change hairstyles, facial hair, and possibly even get tattoos.
I don't know what it is about the WoW community, but every link I see I'm forced to double check its authenticity just so I don't get 
Do you read your 
Zom over on the forums asks: 
Apparently this has been wandering around the forums for a while, but I haven't seen it before-- Zami the forum troll (and we mean that in a good way) has 
Mileiamh
To the best of my recollection, one of the WoW developers first coined the terminology "welfare epics" at last August's 
Yesterday I 
Yesterday a player on the WoW forums 
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