The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Kill Halion, take his stuff

by Matthew Rossi Jul 9th 2010

The Care and Feeding of Warriors is about warriors, who hurl themselves into the fray, the very teeth of danger armed with nothing more than the biggest weapons and armored with the absolutely heaviest armor we can find. Hey, we're not stupid, we're just crazy.

Never fear, we'll be doing more leveling posts and more report cards in the future. (I've been messing around with arms again lately on my night elf warrior -- having some fun with it, too.) But this week, we'll be talking about the Ruby Sanctum instance. The storyline of the Ruby Sanctum links Wrath of the Lich King's storylines with those of the upcoming Cataclysm, but the encounter mechanics and loot are still pretty solidly Wrath.

First we'll talk about the minibosses and Halion himself from both a DPS and a tanking perspective. Since much of that work has already been done by Michael Gray, we'll then go on to talk about loot. Then I'm gonna go eat something. I'd invite you, but by the time you read this I will have already eaten. The bane of the internet: I can't share my jalapeno-flavored chips with you. (Nor, to be honest, would I. They're mine. MINE!)

The first thing to talk about in Ruby Sanctum are the trash pulls. As a DPSer, you really just need to know what the kill order is and to stick to it, but I also suggest to be aware. Remember Ulduar on the way to General Vezax? Yeah, it's like that. There most likely will be CC, and it's a bad idea to Whirlwind/Bladestorm in the middle of it. So pay attention and use your abilities responsibly. As a tank, you should likewise watch your AoE threat moves and make sure only to break CC when you need to. Make sure to use Charge to get right back on the Charscale Invoker when it punts you, and in general, use your stuns and silences to keep the casters locked down as much as possible when tanking them. If you're tanking the Charscale Commanders, pull them out; don't let them use Rallying Shout. There's no reason to let a five-or-so-mob trash pull get a 25% DPS increase.

Once you get done with the trash, it's on to the mini-bosses.

Baltharus the Warborn

For DPS, the main concerns are Blade Tempest, Enervating Brand, Repelling Wave and his clone ability. He also does a cleave, but that's fairly simple stuff; you shouldn't be standing next to the tank, anyway. Blade Tempest is a frontal cone, so again, try not to be in front of Baltharus and you should be OK. If you get Enervating Brand, move away from the raid so you don't end up feeding Baltharus enough power to one-shot your tank when your brand ticks in two seconds and leeches half the raid in one go. As DPS, there's not really much you can do about Repelling Wave; it's an instant-cast, so you can't really avoid it, just wait to come out of the stun and hope you didn't get punted into another pack. (I tend to like to clear around Baltharus as much as possible for that reason.) When Baltharus is about to clone himself, make sure you confine your DPS to single target until the clone is picked up. You want to keep your DPS on the original Baltharus, so just let the off tanks pull the clones away; don't concern yourself with them.

For a tank, it depends what you're tanking. If you're going to be tanking the clones, you should probably just hang out and wait for them. It's a bad idea to be stunned by Repelling Wave when the clone spawns. Pick them up as quickly as possible and move them away from the raid while staying in healing range; they still hit pretty hard.

If you're tanking Baltharus himself, remember to use trinkets or small cooldowns like the T10 set bonus for Blade Tempest. There's nothing you can do about Enervating Brand; just hope your raid deals with the debuff so as not to boost him so high he one-shots you. If for whatever reason he doesn't come back to you after Repelling Wave, charge him. It's a pretty straightforward tank and spank.

Saviana Ragefire

Your typical drake. She has two phases: a ground phase in which she's tanked like any other dragon and an air phase in which she can't be tanked at all, flying over a lake in the sanctum and casting Conflagration on members of the raid. If you are DPS on this fight, don't stand in her flame breath, and if you get Conflagration, run away from the raid before you spread it to others. It helps if your raid groups up so those who get the Conflagration can run away -- as long as you actually do run away. Do not stand there and chain Conflagration onto your entire raid.

As a tank, turn her away from the raid so they don't eat flame breath, and pick her up when she lands. Easy, peasy.

General Zarithrian

The only real complication here for DPS are the fears he does recurrently (and since you're a warrior, you'll be breaking those with zerker rage) and the adds he spawns (and since you're DPS, you'll be ignoring those until/unless your raid leader calls for you to DPS them; my raid has ranged burn them and switched back to the boss, but every raid is different).

For a tank, the major issue here is Zarithrian's Cleave Armor ability. It removes armor by 20% with every application and stacks up to five, so most strategies I've seen call for a tank to swap it off at three stacks. Depending on how many tanks you have, you may have the other tank/tanks picking up Onyx Flamecallers as he spawns them. (We run with three tanks in our 25-man, so we usually have a tank free for this.) Just keep breaking his fears, taunt switching at three stacks of his debuff and picking up adds if/when called for. He goes down easy.

Now we're up to the big boss man, Barney the Purple Dragon himself.

Halion

I refer you again to Michael Gray's excellent guide to Halion.

As a DPS warrior, you have no way to run faster or cleanse yourself when you get Fiery Combustion. So the second you get it, run run run away from everyone else, so that when you are cleansed you don't kill anyone and the fire you drop on the ground doesn't swallow up half of the available area. When the meteors are dropped, don't stand in the fire. Simple, and yet it still needs to be said.

Inside the portal, treat Soul Combustion exactly as you did Fiery Combustion. Get away. Do not stand next to someone. When you are cleansed, you will yank any unfortunates close to you right to your location, just like XT-002 hard mode. Don't do that to people. Also, instead of the Meteor Strikes, the Shadow Pulsar orbs are going to shoot Twilight Cutter beams between them as they orbit the portal zone. Don't be between those orbs or hit by that Cutter beam, or you will die.

At phase three (50%), you'll either stay in or port out, depending on what your raid does. My raid keeps the melee in and sends the ranged out. No, Heroic Throw doesn't make you ranged. Whatever the raid call is, just keep doing whatever you're supposed to do in whichever zone you're in, while also listening for calls on Corporeality. You may have to stop DPS to let the other side catch up. Please don't ignore these calls. The more imbalanced Halion's Corporeality is, the more likely he is to absolutely ravage one of the tanks in the completely not fun way. This is not the cover of a romance novel with Halion ripping off a blouse and yelling, "Take me now!" This is Halion ripping off your tank's face and your tank yelling, "My nostrils, my precious nostrils, you've torn them off!"

Your tank needs his or her nostrils to appreciate life and its many savours; please don't help Halion rip them off.

As a tank, you'll most likely want to keep Halion up against the side of the ring of fire in the physical realm to give your raid the maximum chance to move for Fiery Combustion. In the Twilight Realm, you'll probably need to be more central in order to be able to be aware of and avoid Shadow Pulsar. If Corporeality gets really bad, blow your cooldowns to stay alive and give your raid more time to get it balanced. Some raids choose to have everyone go into the portal; my raid has a tank and a healer stay out to pick Halion up for phase 3.

Now, let's talk about loot.

Loot

10-man Halion drops the Bracers of the Heir, Scion's Treads and Zarithrian's Offering. They're all well itemized (heroic versions even more so) and will serve you well if you get them. I really like that ring.

25-man Halion drops the Apocalypse's Advance, Penumbra Pendant, Petrified Twilight Scale, Sharpened Twilight Scale and Treads of Impending Resurrection. Both the Treads (with two blue sockets and loads of defense, dodge and parry) and the Petrified Twilight Scale are really nice tanking pieces. The armor on the PTS alone makes it a really solid drop, and while we can argue the relative merit of the proc, it doesn't take away from the solid mitigation this will provide to add some streaky avoidance. The Sharpened Twilight Scale is effectively the last ArP trinket you're ever going to see. And it's a beautiful one. If you don't have DBW, it's absolutely glorious; even if you do have that trinket, you might want to pick this one up too and free up some itemization on gear.

The Penumbra Pendant is almost made for warriors with strength, crit and ArP. Yellow socket's kind of odd, but you can work around it. The Apocalypse's Advance are certainly solid boots, especially if you end up ArP capped from trinkets and rings and such and need to drop some from somewhere else. All the heroic gear is better, of course, but the same arguments apply.

In general, Ruby Sanctum gear seems aimed at providing alternatives to items that often just won't drop or aren't as well itemized. Until Cataclysm drops, ArP is still one of our best DPS stats, and Ruby Sanctum has it in spades.

Next week, well, with the bombshells dropping like they have been lately, it's tough to say.

Ruby Sanctum is open [Updated]

by Michael Sacco on Jun 29th 2010

Although several realms are still under extended maintenance in preparation for Cataclysm, Patch 3.3.5's Ruby Sanctum is currently open for business. Players can enter the instance at this time and kill the trash and minibosses, and Halion is able to be engaged. We've not yet received word on whether or not he's killable, or whether anyone has killed him. It's likely that this was unintentional.

We'll keep you posted, though. Now would probably be a good time to brush up on the dungeon's final boss with WoW.com's Guide to Halion!

Update 6:29 p.m. EDT: The opening of Ruby Sanctum might be a bug, but nonetheless, it's up and running. We have staff who are running it both on normal and heroic mode on the live servers. Blizzard is being coy about it, so who knows ... either way, the boss is up and can be engaged right now.

Update 6:39 p.m. EDT: Nethaera confirms that this isn't a bug: Ruby Sanctum is open, despite several battlegroups being down for another day.

www.mmogah.com

Your first WoW memory

by Mathew McCurley Jun 27th

There are two early memories of World of Warcraft that have stayed with me for a long, long time. The first memory was the original announcement of the game back in 2001. As was the thing to do back in the day, I was at a friend's house eagerly awaiting Blizzard's big announcement. Warcraft III was still on the horizon, to be released in 2002. We were still high on the Ultima Online 2 announcement, sequel to our MMO of choice. Sadly, UO2 would never see the light of day, but a lot of the game's systems seemed to show up in Star Wars: Galaxies ... I never did get to the bottom of that.

Finally finding out about Blizzard's massively multiplayer aspirations hooked us instantly. There was no turning back. This was the game we were going to play. We had nothing to go on but Blizzard's track record, but we poured our hearts into the game from the first minute. It was a good memory.

My first real memory from the game itself was creating my very first character in May 2004. I was fortunate enough to get a beta invite and immediately downloaded the client and made my first character -- a human paladin. My Horde obsession did not begin until the release proper. Starting the game for the first time is one of my favorite memories. I had been watching streaming video of beta players and living vicariously through screenshots. Finally, I got to experience the game for myself, and Northshire Abbey was the first locale I ever saw, where Deputy Willem greeted me, ever eager to send me on my way.

What was your very first WoW memory? What was your first exposure to the game or its world? Sound off!

www.Mmogah.com

Scattered Shots: Hunter loot in Ruby Sanctum

by Brian Wood Jun 24th 2010

Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week, Frostheim uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Got hunter questions? Feel free to email Frostheim.

Patch 3.3.5 is live, and it won't be long now before the Ruby Sanctum opens, giving us yet another dragon to kill and another chest overflowing with nothing but hunter loot. Like a good hunter, I've been poking through the Ruby Sanctum loot lists and doing some paper napkin math to decide exactly what drops I'm going to want to keep safely out of the hands of dirty rogues.

Now, the loot lists we have access to may not be complete. I want to stress this. I really, really hope they're not, because, all joking aside, the hunter loot selection is grim as all heck. I'm seeing three hunter drops from 25-man, which is fine. But in 10-man I'm only seeing one hunter drop, and it's probably not going to be used by any hunter -- basically no hunter loot in the 10-man version. On the bright side, awesome new trinket!

Join me after the cut as we take a look at what kind of worthwhile loot (i.e. hunter loot) Ruby Sanctum has to offer.

Twilight Scale Shoulders (10-man, shoulders)

We do not yet have a convenient Wowhead tooltip for these, so here are the stats:

98 Agility
90 Stamina
52 Intellect
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
+12 attack power socket bonus
153 attack power
66 armor penetration rating
48 haste rating

About the only thing these shoulders have going for them is the ArP and even with that they are worse overall than our ilvl 264 tier 10 shoulders -- and that's without the set bonus. The fact is that every hunter out there is absolutely going to be using the shoulder slot for the set pieces. Our set bonuses are totally awesome these days and are not worth sacrificing even for a gear upgrade, let alone a downgrade or sidegrade.

Sadly, this is the only piece of hunter loot currently known to be on the 10-man loot table. QQ.

Returning Footfalls (25-man, feet)

The Returning Footfalls look quite lovely for most hunters. A straight upgrade from the Rock-Steady Treads that most are sporting, Returning Footfalls is probably the best foot slot loot available for most hunters, regardless of spec. If you're truly hit-starved, you will probably still get more bang out of Treads of the Wasteland (Blood Princes 25-man), but I highly recommend finding other sources for your hit rating. While you can technically get more ArP from Taldron's Long-Neglected Boots (Festergut 10-man heroic), the overall stat loss for them isn't worth it.

Returning Footfalls is a delightful drop in a slot that needed some more options.

Signet of Twilight (25-man, finger)

Signet of Twilight brings another ring into the hunter mix, and it's a perfectly good ring. The Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance will remain our first choice for our first ring slot, of course. If you're stacking ArP, you're going to want to pass on the Signet of Twilight and will still want the Frostbrood Sapphire Ring (Valithria 25-man) in your second ring slot.

However, if you don't care much about ArP and need the hit rating, the Signet of Twilight will make an excellent second ring, trumping the next nearest Band of the Bone Colossus (Marrowgar 25-man).

Sharpened Twilight Scale (25-man, trinket)

The Sharpened Twilight Scale is the real treasure of Ruby Sanctum, and this is a trinket every hunter is going to want. Since the very nicely sized AP proc lasts for 15 seconds, it seems reasonable to assume a 45-second internal cooldown (just like every other 15-second proc trinket) which makes the proc quite nice indeed. But the real gem here is the whopping 163 passive ArP. This trinket will suddenly allow a whole new generation of hunters to hard cap their ArP.

The only downside of the Sharpened Twilight Scale is that since the proc is attack power, we don't have as many opportunities to use it to stack cooldowns for multiplicative advantages. Even so, this trinket theorycrafts out better than any other trinket, including normal mode Deathbringer's Will (though technically DBW has a few other advantages, including cooldown stacking at the start of a fight and reapplying Serpent Sting on the 600 crit proc).

Regardless, there is no question about the quality of this trinket. You want it. Even if you aren't pursuing the ArP hard cap, you still want it. Even survival, which doesn't worship at the same alter of armor pen as marksman and beast mastery, even they want this trinket. Even for survival, it's better than Deathbringer's Will (though not by nearly as large a margin).

So if you only get one piece of loot from Ruby Sanctum, make it this one. And if you only raid 10-man, well, I'm so sorry. My only advice is to desperately try to form up a 25-man, preferably through some kind of guild alliance. Ruby Sanctum looks like it's designed to be a PUG-killer.

You want to be a hunter, eh? You start with science, then you add some Dwarven Stout and round it off some elf-bashing. The end result is massive DPS. Scattered Shots is the WoW.com column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter. See the Scattered Shots Resource Guide for a full listing of vital and entertaining hunter guides, including how to improve your heroic DPS, understand the impact of skill vs. gear, get started with Beast Mastery 101 and Marksman 101 and even solo bosses with some extreme soloing.

The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm available for preorder

by Anne Stickney on Jun 16th 2010

Cataclysm beta guild contest

by Gregg Reece Jun 7th 2010

Want to get into the beta and don't know how? Well, here's a chance for you and nine of your guild members to make it in. Blizzard is asking for players to send in a short essay on why their guild should be accepted into the beta and what they'll do to push the new Cataclysm systems to the brink. You'll be able to play with and give feedback on the new guild leveling system, updated professions, the new archaeology system and even run the worgen and goblin starting zones.

They'll be picking 100 contestants each week over the course of five weeks. Check the contest rules and then send your essay to blizzardcontest@blizzard.com to enter.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From goblins and worgens to mastery and guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.

Gold Capped: Using the new armory auction house

by Basil Berntsen May 26th 2010

Want to get Gold Capped? Every week, Basil Berntsen takes a short break from trying to build a raiding guild on US Drenden-A to write up a guide that will help you achieve the goal of acquiring 214,748 gold, 36 silver and 48 copper. Well, technically that's just a symbolic milestone. The goal is making gold, no matter how much you have or how much you want. Got feedback, questions or hate mail? Email Basil!

This game is constantly changing. Every new patch, Blizzard delivers new content, new rules and new interfaces. We've seen some major quality of life improvements in the auction house of late, and these are continuing. The latest one (which is still in beta) is that the mobile armory now lets you trade on the AH from anywhere using either an app on an iPhone/iPod touch or your browser.

Right now, for testing purposes, we're limited to 25 actions a day (purchases, bids, auctions), but we can clear out our mail! To be honest, that's the killer feature for me. I spend an inordinate amount of time clearing out my mail. The majority of my profits in, say, vellums will come from sales of singles. I list stacks of all sizes, but the singles are what sell best. On my mid-range population server, I can easily sell 200 of these a day, and that adds up to a lot of time watching my mailbox empty.

Once the feature goes live and they raise the limit to 200 actions per day, I'll probably use this to list my vellums too. In the interest of using my 25 moves in the most profitable manner, however, I'm going to avoid that for the beta.

Before we go any further: this product is currently in beta. Any money you lose due to bugs is probably gone forever. I posted a load of stacks of 10 Greater Cosmics, and they all ended up getting listed with a stack price of what I intended the unit price to be. This is a buggy beta test, so be very careful and validate your auctions by searching for them after you post.

I'm assuming that most people interested in this probably want to auction from work, and I personally detest any small devices trying to be real computers. If they ever make this available on the iPad and then give me an iPad for free, I'll consider using the app version. Otherwise, I'm all about the real computer version. On that note, Macs aren't real computers.

When you log into the armory's auction house interface, you see this:

The default character was set to my hunter; however, I clicked the top right icon and was able to promote my auction alts into the five available slots for auction house characters. Use the plus sign to the left in the list of characters they show you. First up, I want to empty my mail. This is how you collect your sales:

Clicking "Claim All Gold" is the fastest. Now let's try creating some auctions: click the "create auctions" tab, and then pick your product. You'll see this:

Awesomely, this has more functionality than the in-game selling tab. It will actually show you your competition's prices and let you undercut! Also, it lets you post from your expired auctions in mail, your bank and your inventory as a single source. This is, in fact, way better than the in-game version. I can only hope that they make these features available via the in-game interface.

When I create 10 auctions, this is what it looks like:

You can relist expired auctions as well, but I don't have any at the moment, so we're skipping to the buying interface. Click on "Browse Auctions," and you can search the AH for stuff you need.

Being an auctioneer is like being able to print money (or gold, as it were). Wait, that doesn't make sense ... You can print on gold, but you can't print gold. That would be closer to transmutation? I can transmute titanium, but that's only worth it if the price of saronite is low enough to justify the time spent making it. I need some sort of analogy here. ... Whatever, I'll figure it out later. Making gold? Every week, Gold Capped will teach you the tricks of the trade, from setting up your auction addons and user interface, to cross-faction arbitrage, to learning how to use your trade skills.

Blizzard to break the AVR mod in

by Fox Van Allen May 20th 2010

Suffer, mortals, as your pathetic mod betrays you! Come patch 3.3.5, Blizzard is disabling the functionality of the ultra-useful Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) addon. The popular mod allows three-dimensional images to be shared between party members in real time to aid in raid strategy and positioning. It is perhaps best known for making the Sindragosa encounter a snap during the ice blocking phase (and, of course, for sharing crudely drawn pictures of genitalia).

Blizzard poster Bashiok broke the news of AVR's impending demise, citing its invasive nature and the fact that it takes away from the need for on-the-spot decision making:

Bashiok -- AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5

This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

source

The full announcement after the break.

Bashiok -- AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5

This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

We're making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we're willing to allow.

The change we're making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we've targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.

source

Reaction to the news will surely be mixed -- there are plenty of purists who feel that AVR's very existence goes against what Warcraft is supposed to be about, and there are plenty of people who find AVR an invaluable tool that does little more than enhance their playing experience.

What's your reaction to the news? Did Blizzard go too far, or were they right in stamping out a blight on the World of Warcraft?

BlizzCon 2010 tickets on sale June 2nd and June 5th for $150

by Adam Holisky on May 18th 2010

BlizzCon 2010 tickets will be on sale Wednesday June 2nd at 7:00 p.m. PDT and Saturday June 5th at 2:00 p.m. PDT according to a Blizzard Press release. BlizzCon 2010 will be taking place October 22nd and 23rd in Anaheim, California.

Tickets are $150 each, and will be purchased through the same Blizzard Store system used last year.

The internet stream and the DirecTV package will be back this year for $39.95. There will be an in-game item this year associated with the the internet stream, the ticket, and the DirecTV package -- just like in previous years. However, details of what the item exactly is have not been announced yet.

This post is currently being edited.

Filed under: News items, BlizzCon

WoW Magazine issue 2 preview now online

by Robin Torres on May 12th 2010

The preview for issue 2 of the World of Warcraft Official Magazine is up for browsing. It is 46 pages and highlights four subjects covered in the 148-page publication:

• Dragons All of the dragonflights are described in detail along with a glossary of all dragon terms.
• 40-man raids Tackling 40-man raids with level 80s
• Warsong Gulch Strategies for WSG
• Community Columns Members of the community contribute columns

The WoW Magazine is quarterly, by subscription only and has no ads. It's subscription price starts at $39.95 for a year. I haven't ordered it yet, but dragons are cool. Really cool.

Patch 3.3.5 PTR Patch Notes

by Adam Holisky May 10th 2010 at 6:05PM

Zarhym has just released the Patch 3.3.5 PTR Patch Notes. Patch 3.3.5 will introduce the Ruby Sanctum, an all new level 80 raid dungeon located below the Wrymrest Temple in Dragonblight. Other major features of 3.3.5 include:

• The new Real ID system / Cross-server, cross-game, cross-faction friend chat / Battle.net 2.0 is active for testing on the PTR.
• There is a new "pop out" option for chat channels, placing them in their own tab of the chat window.
• The new "pop out" option can also apply for whisper conversations with an individual player.

Remember, these patch notes are only for the PTR, and they often change. Don't expect them to be exactly like this when 3.3.5 is released to the live servers.

The full notes after the break.

Zarhym

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

• The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, is now available for testing! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.
• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

User Interface

• Chat Frame
  
  
  • Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose the Pop Out Chat option. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
    
    
    • Using the Pop Out Chat option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
    • Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
  • Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
  • Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
  • The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
• Friends List
  
  
  • A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
  • In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
  • A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
  • Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
  • A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster's Real ID information in each friend's list.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

source

Battle.net Real ID preview and FAQ

by Robin Torres May 5th 2010 at 3:30PM

We're getting a lot of info today about Battle.net's new features. First it was Facebook integration and now a full explanation of the Real ID features. We previewed some of the features of Real ID before and there were some concerns. This Battle.net feature is completely voluntary and requires mutual acceptance. So the only people who will be your Real ID friends are the ones that you agree to (and they have to agree as well).

Real ID features

• Real names for friends Your Real ID friends' names will appear next to their characters.
• Cross-Game chat You will be able to talk to your Real ID friends cross realm and in other games like StarCraft II and Diablo III.
• Rich Presence You will be able to snoop see what games and modes your Real ID friends are playing. So you'll know if they are just hanging around Dalaran. And they'll know the same about you.
• Broadcast You can broadcast short messages to all of your Real ID friends and view recent messages that they have broadcast.
• Friend once, see all characters Real ID friends can see all of each other's characters. All. You won't be able to pick and choose which ones can be seen, unless they are on another Battle.net account.

Again, both friends have to agree to become Real ID friends and this will not be a mandatory feature of Battle.net. This is obviously a feature that you will want to use only with people that you don't mind knowing what Blizzard game you are playing on which character and where.

The complete Real ID FAQ is after the break.

Real ID FAQ

Battle.net's Real ID system is a new, optional layer of identity beyond the standard in-game character level of identity that keeps players connected to each other across multiple Blizzard Entertainment games. When players mutually agree to become Real ID friends, they'll have access to a wealth of additional features designed to enhance their social gaming experience. For information on these upcoming features, check out our Real ID page and read the FAQ below.

Real ID Friends

How will I become Real ID friends with another player?

Both players must first mutually agree to become Real ID friends. To send a Real ID friend request to another player, simply enter his or her Battle.net account name (an email address) using the Add Friend function in-game. The other player will see the pending request in their friends list, and if they accept, you will become Real ID friends with each other.

Who should I add to my Real ID friends list?

Real ID is a system designed to be used with people you know and trust in real life -- friends, co-workers and family -- though it's ultimately up to you to determine who you wish to interact with in this fashion. When you become Real ID friends with another player, you will be sharing your real name and opening up new communication options with that player. In addition, players who are Real ID friends with that player will be able to see your name in a "friends of friends" list, which allows people to be able to quickly send Real ID friend requests to others they may know.

What is the "friends of friends" feature of Real ID?

Similar to other social-networking platforms, when you click on one of your Real ID friends, you will be able to see the names of his or her other Real ID friends, even if you are not Real ID friends with those players yourself. If you happen to know someone on that list, you will be able to quickly send a Real ID friend request to that player. This feature is designed to make it easy to populate your Real ID friends list with people you might enjoy playing with.

How can I remove a Real ID friend from my list?

Simply right-click their Real ID name and select Remove Friend. That player will no longer be on your Real ID friends list, and you will no longer be on theirs. To stop using Real ID, simply remove all of your Real ID friends from your friends list, and do not accept any more Real ID friend requests.

Will Battle.net inform me if I enter an invalid Battle.net account name when I send a Real ID friend request?

A player who sends a Real ID friend request will only be notified if the other player accepts the request. To protect the privacy and security of all of our players, the requesting player will not be notified if the email address entered is an invalid Battle.net account name or if the other player declines the request.

What information about me will other players see when I use Real ID?

If you are using Real ID, your mutual Real ID friends, as well as their Real ID friends, will be able to see your first and last name (the name registered to the Battle.net account). You will also be able to see the first and last name of your Real ID friends and their Real ID friends. Your Battle.net account name (your email address) is not displayed to other players through the Real ID friends list. In addition, players with Real ID relationships will be able to view each other's online status, Rich Presence information, and Broadcast messages, and will be able to see which character and game their Real ID friends are playing across supported Blizzard games.

Am I able to set my status to show my Real ID friends whether I am online or away?

You are always able to set your status to show whether you are online, away, or busy. Any Real ID or character-level friend on your friends list will see your online status. Beyond simple online status information, Real ID friends will see detailed Rich Presence information (what character the Real ID friend is playing, what they are doing within that game, etc.) and will be able to view and send Broadcast messages to other Real ID friends.

How does Blizzard safeguard my information?

We respect the privacy of our players and recognize the importance of providing a secure environment for them. You can find out how Blizzard safeguards user information by reading our Online Privacy Policy.

What can I do if another player is contacting me through the service and behaving inappropriately?

If you feel that another player is behaving inappropriately when contacting you through the service, please contact a Game Master in-game or visit the in-game support contact page, and a support representative will be able to assist you. There is also an option to permanently block individuals from communicating with you in Battle.net and within the games themselves.

Will parents be able to manage whether their children are able to use Real ID?

We plan to update our Parental Controls with tools that will allow parents to manage their children's use of Real ID. We'll have more details to share in the future.

World of Warcraft Friends & StarCraft II Friends

What's a World of Warcraft friend or StarCraft II friend?

A World of Warcraft friend is any player you add to your friends list by World of Warcraft character name; this works just like adding friends works in World of Warcraft now. You will be able to add StarCraft II character names to your StarCraft II friends list in a similar fashion. If you add a character name to your friends list and are not Real ID friends with the player, you will not see the player's real name in the game, nor will they see yours. Character-level friends such as these are specific to each game (i.e. World of Warcraft character friends cannot see each other in StarCraft II or communicate cross-game) and can see online and offline status information only, not Rich Presence details or Broadcast messages. Other characters that a World of Warcraft friend creates will not automatically be added to your friends list.

What information about me will other players see in-game if I do not use Real ID?

If you are not using Real ID, only the in-game character name and online/offline status of the character you are playing will be visible to other players, and only within that game.

Can I use features such as cross-game chat, Rich Presence, or Broadcasts if I do not use Real ID?

Features such as cross-game chat, World of Warcraft cross-realm and cross-faction chat, Broadcast messages, and Rich Presence are only available if you use Real ID. For more information, visit the Real ID features page.

Can my Real ID friends see all of my World of Warcraft characters?

Real ID friends will be able to see all of each other's characters across games; there will not be an option to hide specific characters from Real ID friends or to appear offline to them when you're logged in. If you wish to communicate with someone through only a character, you can opt to use the traditional "in-game friend" system and add that player as a World of Warcraft friend.

Spiritual Guidance: Gear guide for fresh 80 healing priests

by Dawn Moore May 2nd 2010

Well, the day has come: I finally decided to put together a gear guide for fresh level 80 healing priests. Many readers have been requesting this, and I figured I ought to stop teasing everyone with promises of it. I hope that this list, combined with the 101 guides we published in the past few months, will be enough to help my fellow fledgling priests find themselves somewhere in Azeroth. I can't have you all getting lost before you have a chance to dive into that new, shiny Cataclysm water.

Before I get started, let it be known that this is not a list of any and all healing upgrades you can get after you hit 80. Instead it is a list of gear I would recommend to a healing priest who is trying to get the best gear he or she can without raiding or is trying to get enough gear to start healing in the current raiding content (Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel.) Since this is not a complete list, feel free to deviate from it when you find upgrades that work for you. A lot of items you find in heroics will be be better than the gear you are wearing from questing.

Now, let's get started.

First off, please know that I will not and do not encourage you to spend your Emblems of Triumph on items from badge vendors with an item level lower than 232. This is because the additional 5-man dungeons added in patch 3.3 offer better or equal options to 226 or lower gear, and there is no sense in spending precious badges on gear you're going to get in heroics you're running anyway.

Second, know that this list will not concern itself with the best stat optimization for different specs. Min/maxing for heroic healing isn't exactly necessary or feasible, so just take what you can get to start. Delicate stat tuning can occur later when you are downing heroic bosses and sipping your elite, English breakfast tea like the classy priest you are.

Finally, if you're wondering what vendor items to buy first, the answer lies with what you already have on. Figure out what your worst piece of gear is and set out to upgrade it first. As you get more badges, just work your way up from worst to best; this way you'll get the most bang for your badge each time you purchase some gear. Of course, if you have personal preferences toward upgrading to something else first (say, a pretty robe over a hideous quest robe), feel free to stray from this advice.

When you first hit 80, you will likely not be able to queue for heroics in your quest gear. Don't waste your time toiling in normal dungeons, trying to find one upgrade at a time while getting no badges. Take some of that gold you made from questing and go to the auction house instead. Search for "Frostsavage" or "Black Duskweave" and you'll find various 187 item level gear. Players who are leveling tailoring sometimes make these lower-level items and post them on the auction house, so you should be able to find some cheap pieces. (Obviously, if you're already a tailor, you can make some upgrades yourself.) Don't buy a full set of gear off the auction house! Just buy one or two pieces and then trying queuing for a heroic dungeon. If you still get an error message telling you that your gear isn't good enough, buy another piece and repeat the process until you can queue. Alternatively, if you have a lot of gold to spare, look through the list below first and take note of the items that I suggest purchasing. A single piece of 245 gear is sometimes all you need to queue for your first random heroic dungeon.

Back

• Cloak of the Fallen Cardinal -- Pit of Saron -- Oddly, there aren't too many cloak options available when you swear off old badge gear. Don't be dismayed, though; this one is at least easily farmable off the last boss of normal Pit of Saron, Scourgelord Tyrannus.
• Cloak of Displacement -- Dropped BoE -- You can find this BoE cloak from Trial of the Crusader on the auction house if you're lucky. It drops some stats into hit, so it's not perfectly optimizied for healing, but if you have the gold to spare this is quite a significant step above Cloak of the Fallen Cardinal.

Chest

• Velen's Robe of Conquest (Zabra's Robe of Conquest) -- 50 Emblems of Triumph -- This is an obvious upgrade choice -- so obvious that there isn't much to say about it. I personally always upgrade my robes first when I hit 80, just to get out of the icky-looking quest robes.
• Merlin's Robe or Royal Moonshroud Robe -- Crafted BoE -- If you don't want the tier 9 bonuses and have some time or gold to spare, these crafted robes provide better stats than the 232 tier 9. These should be more affordable with the recent changes to tailoring cooldown cloth and frozen orbs, so it might be worth it to you gather up the mats and have one of these two robes made.

Feet

• Prelate's Snowshoes -- Heroic Pit of Saron -- There aren't a good pair of boots you can purchase with badges, but you can pick up these boots of the last boss of heroic Pit of Saron, Scourgelord Tyrannus. Thank you to Dirgo for informing me of their existence!
• Ice-Steeped Sandals -- Pit of Saron -- These boots drop off of the first boss in normal Pit of Saron, Forgemaster Garfrost. They're not the best option, but while you're farming your cloak, you can pick these up if they drop.
• Sandals of Consecration -- Crafted BoE -- These are actually a pretty sound investment if you have the gold to spare. There aren't many boot upgrades in Icecrown Citadel, so these crafted boots might be something you'd end up having made anyway.
  

Finger

• Band of the Invoker -- 35 Emblems of Triumph -- For your first finger slot, this ring offers a nice selection of stats.
• Heartmender Circle -- 35 Emblems of Triumph -- For the other slot, you can pick up this ring with MP5.

Hands

• Velen's Gloves of Conquest (Zabra's Gloves of Conquest) -- 30 Emblems of Triumph -- These gloves will likely be the easiest option you have to upgrade from your quest gear.
• Suspiciously Soft Gloves -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- If you 1.) don't want tier bonuses and 2.) don't want to spend badges, then you can try hunting down these gloves from heroic Halls of Reflection. The stats are about on par with the tier, but they're not as good as the tier, since they lack a gem socket.

Head

• Helm of Clouded Sight (Hood of Clouded Sight) -- 75 Emblems of Triumph -- This non-tier helm is my first choice to pick over the 232 tier 9 helm. The stats are better, and I consider a yellow gem slot more favorable than the blue socket in the tier.
• Velen's Cowl of Conquest (Zabra's Cow of Conquest) -- 50 Emblems of Triumph -- This is the 232 tier 9 helm for reference. If you end up picking up a non-tier piece in one of your other main items slots, this is an option for nabbing the tier bonuses.

Legs

• Velen's Leggings of Conquest (Zabra's Leggings of Conquest) -- 50 Emblems of Triumph -- These vendor tier 9 legs should provide a nice upgrade to whatever quest gear you're wearing.
• Leggings of Woven Death or Lightweave Leggings -- Crafted BoE -- If you have a lot of extra gold, you could have these 264 legs crafted.

Neck

• Arcane Loops of Anger -- Heroic Forge of Souls -- You won't have a good vendor option for your neck slot, so heroic Forge of Souls is going to be the place to look for an upgrade. This neck drops from the Devourer of Souls, the second boss.
• Love's Prisoner -- Heroic Forge of Souls -- As I said above, there is no vendor neck option I would recommend. This neck, also from heroic Forge of Souls, drops off the first boss, Bronjahm.
• Blood Queen's Crimson Choker -- Dropped BoE -- For the affluent Azerothian, this BoE neck from Icecrown Citadel will be an amazing upgrade.

Off-hand

• Shriveled Heart -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- You can pair this with your Pit of Saron dagger to get the best, pre-raid weapons available. You can also link it in chat for the occasional bizarre or morbid joke. Not that I do things like that.

Shoulders

• Pauldrons of Revered Mortality (Mantle of Revered Mortality) -- 45 Emblems of Triumph -- Before you spend your badges on this, decide if you want to make use of the tier 9 four-piece bonus. If you do want the bonus, don't buy these shoulders. If you don't want the bonus, these shoulders will provide you better stat upgrades than 232 tier 9.
• Velen's Shoulderpads of Conquest (Zabra's Shoulderpads of Conquest) -- 30 Emblems of Triumph -- This is what you want to grab if you don't plan on using your tier 9 four-piece bonus.
• Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads -- Dropped BoE -- Here is another money bags option you can look for on the auction house. Should you be able to afford this and more, I wouldn't pay mind to the set bonuses on the 232 tier 9 pieces.

Trinket

• Ephemeral Snowflake -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- While this is far from being the best trinket you'll ever find, it's certainly a great start for a regen trinket. The use effect is rather "meh," but you could treat it as a miniature "oh shit" button to speed up some casts in a bad moment. This trinket drops off Marwyn, the second boss in Halls of Reflection.
• Tears of the Vanquished -- Trial of the Champion -- This trinket is a decent option to farm out of normal Trial of the Champion. It should be easy to find a group to farm this trinket, since the other 200 level trinkets available in the dungeon are highly sought after by DPS classes.
• Je'Tze's Bell -- Dropped BoE -- This is another one of those items I actually recommend saving your gold for, if you want a mana regen trinket.There are usually a couple of these trinkets available on the auction house, and it will set you back about 800 to 1,300 gold. I wouldn't spend any more than that.
• Talisman of Resurgence -- 50 Emblems of Triumph -- I don't care much for this trinket, but it is an option. The base intellect may help you out early on with pumping up your mana pool, but ultimately you'll want to find a more active regen trinket. The trinket's use effect isn't bad, but it will be up to you to utilize.

Waist

• Braid of Salt and Fire -- Heroic Pit of Saron -- As I said earlier, don't spend your badges on gear that has an item level lower than 232. This will unfortunately limit your options for certain gear slots, and the waist slot is one of them. This belt from heroic Pit of Saron (off the second boss, Ick) is the solution, although it may require some time or luck to acquire, seeing as it comes from a heroic dungeon.
• Strip of Remorse -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- This belt is an alternative upgrade to the Braid of Salt and Fire. You'll have to run heroics to get it, as well; it drops from the chest after you finish heroic Halls of Reflection.
• Cord of the White Dawn -- Crafted BoE -- This is the one case where I will list an item below 232 item level. The reason why is because with the cloth cooldown changes, this belt is significantly cheaper to craft than it once was, so if you have the resources to have it made you might as well. With the potential to attach three gems (two sockets, plus one from belt buckle enchant) you can get a tiny bit ahead of the spellpower on the two 232 belts I listed above. Weigh your costs though.

Wand

• Brimstone Igniter -- 25 Emblems of Triumph -- Even though this wand has hit on it, it's cheap and easy to attain and will likely provide a decent spellpower upgrade to whatever you've got on.
• Soulsplinter -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- If you don't like the idea of spending your badges on hit gear and you are able to queue for heroic Halls of Reflection, this wand drops off the first boss, Falric.
• Nightmare Ender -- Dropped BoE-- If you have deep pockets, keep your eyes on the auction house for this wand from Icecrown Citadel.

Weapon

• Surgeon's Needle -- Heroic Pit of Saron -- This is the weapon you'll want to hunt down. Its the best weapon you'll find without going into a raid, and it beats the Trial of the Champion weapons quite a bit on stats. This drops off the first boss of heroic Pit of Saron.

Wrists

• Bejeweled Wizards Bracers or Royal Moonshroud Bracers -- Crafted BoE -- Unlike most BoE items, the crafted 245 bracers are a bit more affordable to have crafted, especially with the recent changes to tailoring cloth cooldowns and frozen orbs. I would recommend putting in the time or gold to getting one of these bracers for yourself. As a note, the Royal Moonshroud Bracers tend to be more affordable.
• Wristguards of Subterranean Moss -- Pit of Saron -- The reason I recommend the crafted bracers so much is because these are the next, non-hit bracers you'll find without raiding. Fortunately, they drop from normal Pit of Saron (off the second boss, Ick), so you can farm them until they drop.
• Bracer of Worn Molars -- Heroic Halls of Reflection -- These bracers have hit on them, but they're a better upgrade in raw stats when compared to the Wristguards of Subterranean Moss. If you should come across them, you might as well bite the bullet and take the hit.

There! This list should keep you busy for a while. If you get all the gear above, you'll be more than ready to dive into tier 9 raids like Trial of the Crusader or Onyxia's Lair. You should be able to squeeze into Vault of Archevon groups prior to having all this gear too, so be sure to check those out; you might get lucky and get some better upgrades than what is listed here.

Don't forget to gem or enchant your gear!

* Shadow priests represent the highest number of victims in lethal pedestrian/Elekk-related accidents.

Want to find more great tips for carrying out your priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know. Check out Holy 101 or Disc 101 for an introduction to healing as a priest, or assess yourself for advice on how to improve yourself as a healer and raider.

www.MMOGAH.com

Security Warning: Phishing emails on the rise

by Robin Torres on Apr 30th 2010

Recently, Polar over at Securing WoW wrote about the latest phishing email being sent out by scammers. Account thieves are using the 2010 Arena Tournament as a way to lure you to their site to steal your login info. (Registration for the tournament ended on the 27th continues until June 7.) This is typical behavior by these crooks. Every time a Blizzard event is announced or even rumored, from the Cataclysm alpha to the StarCraft II beta, scammers take advantage it with legitimate looking emails. With the Cataclysm beta almost upon us, the expansion related phishing is going to get even worse.

But there are also the tried and true emails that are being sent out daily, regardless of upcoming events. They spoof their email so that it looks like it is coming from Blizzard and fill the email with legitimate links, making their info-stealing site link look real. Also, the links have misspellings which are hard to catch at a quick glance, (like "starcratf2" or "worldotwarcraft") and lead to sites that look very much like the official ones.

Blizzard has an excellent resource for protecting yourself from phishing attacks. In general, if you get an email that looks legitimate, type battle.net in your browser's address bar (spell it correctly). This will take you to the correct site for your region and there you can see the status of your account yourself. Some examples of phishing emails are after the break.

Phishing emails from my Spam folder
Some of these are to the email that is not connected to my WoW account, which is always a red flag.

Supposedly from a Senior Game Master at donotreply@blizzard.com:

Greetings,

During an investigation of your World of Warcraft account we have determined that it has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for the World of Warcraft by the In-Game Support staff of Blizzard Entertainment. Specifically, we have found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded.


The email says it's from noreply@blizzard.com, but details show it is mailed by hotmail.com:

Greetings,

An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard's EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here:
WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here:
WoW -> Legal -> Terms of Use


The from address says wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com, but is again mailed by hotmail.com:

We have verification the password for the World of Warcraft account associated with this email address. verification password, please click the following link and follow the instructions:

The link that follows here looks typed out and legitimate; but if you click on it, it takes you to a completely different site. Just because a link looks like a legitimate address, doesn't mean that it actually links to the address displayed. For example, I can tell you I'm sending you to http://pvzinsider.com, but the actual address I'm sending you to is completely different (though still containing some excellent PvZ advice). Most browsers will show you the actual address by mousing over the link, so you don't have to click through to the dangerous site to see.

The from address says support@starcraft2.com and even uses some wording from the actual invite:

Congratulations, this is your invitation to register for the beta test for Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™! You are receiving this email because you attended a special Blizzard Entertainment event, participated in a related contest or promotion, or have otherwise been selected to join the beta-testing process. This email contains a link to the beta registration form along with instructions on how to get started.

The very friendly link, however, goes to a phishing site.

Though these are not Blizzard account related, you should probably also know the following: your Paypal account has not been limited, you haven't won an email lottery and the key to her heart is not your size. Play safe!

Please remember that account safety and computer security is your responsibility! While WoW.com has provided you with resources to additional information, do your homework and make sure you know what you're doing before installing any antivirus or other software. And if your account does get stolen, please see our guide on what to do next.

www.MMOGah.com

Battle.net integration before Cataclysm

by Matthew Rossi on Apr 28th 2010

Do you want to talk to your friends even if they're on other servers, or the opposite faction on your server? Well, Blizzard aims to make that possible via Battle.net, and it's coming before Cataclysm.

Zarhym - Re: Cataclysm Friends List Idea

This is exactly what we are working on implementing with Battle.net and real-life friends. You'll be able to add friends at the Battle.net account level and talk to them while in-game whether they're on the opposing faction, a different realm, or another Blizzard game entirely. This is coming prior to Cataclysm.

---

Q u o t e:
Please tell me that people will not be able to "friend" me without my consent. I don't care to be tracked across servers and factions except by a couple people I know IRL.

---

This is correct. No one outside of your faction on your realm will be able to communicate with you unless you accept their friend request, or they accept yours. You will still have your normal World of Warcraft Friends list, but we'll be adding in the ability to have Battle.net players on your Friends list as well. The characters on your Friends list will allow the same communication functionality which exists today. It's only when you've confirmed someone as a Battle.net friend that you can take advantage of the additional communication features.

source

The real surprise for me is that people playing, say, StarCraft II or Diablo III will be able to chat with people playing World of Warcraft via their Battle.net accounts. It's a definite extension of their Real ID program mentioned during the StarCraft II preview, and I'm even more surprised that it's going to be out before Cataclysm ships. I know that even if I don't play Diablo III (which is unlikely, how will I be able to resist the barbarian?), being able to talk to the various friends I have across six servers will be a positive boon for me.

Refer-A-Friend rocket available starting tomorrow, Tuesday April 27

Zarhym has just posted to let us all know that the previously announced X-53 Touring Rocket, the only 2-seated flying mount currently available in game, will be claimable by qualifying Refer-A-Friend accounts starting tomorrow, Tuesday April 27. With this, the Zhevra mount will be retired, so if you want it, be sure to grab it tonight.

The full announcement text is behind the cut.

Zarhym

Time is running out for those who wish to claim their Zhevra, as the launch of the X-53 Touring Rocket is now scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, April 27! If you've fulfilled all of the Recruit-A-Friend requirements necessary to claim a mount now but choose not to claim the Zhevra, you will be able to claim the X-53 Touring Rocket instead once it launches. Sounds like they're firing it up for a final test run now....

source

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking stat changes in Cataclysm

by Gregg Reece on Apr 7th 2010

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown.

Since paladins are last on the list for the upcoming Cataclysm class previews due to how Blizzard ended up doing the development schedule, we've got another week and a half to wait for our details. I'm not picky as long as it gets done, so there's no reason to really grumble other than having to wait an extra week. However, I thought I'd go over some of the things we do know about Cataclysm for tanking.

Blizzard has mentioned that they're going to rethink tanking cooldowns and has previously asked for feedback on some of the abilities we currently have -- but to what end, we're unsure at this time. What they have told us about thus far is how some of the avoidance stats will be working in the coming expansion. Essentially, the only avoidance stat that isn't changing is dodge, with the others either being overhauled or removed. Let's take a look.

Reaching uncrittable in Cataclysm

First off, your defense rating stat is going away completely. That means the annoyance of trying to balance gear, gems and enchants to reach that magical 6% critical strike reduction (currently, 690 defense rating) also goes away.

While things aren't completely finalized, Blizzard has said that they will likely just make it so that having Righteous Fury up will automatically make you ready for tanking both dungeons and raids, as far as crits are concerned. Each of the other tanking classes will have a similar, simple mechanic for this. Druids will have it baked into Dire Bear Form instead of the current talent Survival of the Fittest, warriors will likely have it tacked onto Defensive Stance, and death knights will add it into Frost Presence.

Higher health, lower damage, more hits

As far as stat scaling goes for the coming expansion, Ghostcrawler has been letting everyone know that health pools should be a bit higher than expected. That's nice, because bosses are going to hit for less but hit more often, much like some of the bosses in Icecrown Citadel. Oh, and your avoidance stats will be in the toilet compared to what they currently are, to avoid what happened in both Sunwell and Icecrown Citadel.

You'll be doing fewer dodges, parries and blocks than you currently are, as Blizzard has more or less stated that tanking avoidance stats have probably started out too high for the past two expansions. So instead of staying block-capped most of the time, you'll be sitting at a lot less than 102.4% avoidance for most of the expansion. How much less? We're still not sure, as Blizzard has only been hinting at the details of that.

All in all, you'll probably spend more time around 50% health while tanking than you currently are, due to healing's also being reduced drastically. However, you'll be in much less danger of being instantly killed while in that scenario, due to the less-potent boss damage. All in all, it should make things a little more interesting and less of a twitch-gaming scenario.

Your shield side
First, let's take a look at our bread-and-butter avoidance stat: block. Currently, you've got block rating, which helps you to block more often, and you've got block value, which increases how much damage you can block from each hit. When trying to quickly glance through gear, it can be confusing unless you've trained your eyes to look for value versus rating. In Cataclysm, they're reducing this issue by flat removing block value.

"Why would Blizzard remove a way to increase how much damage we block?" you may be asking yourselves. Answer: Because block value kind of sucked in the long run and often needed fiddling with. Sure, it allowed you to virtually ignore the hits that legions of lower-level mobs dished out, but in higher-end content, it didn't scale well. All in all, it was a pretty broken mechanic in which it was either superb for things it didn't matter against or subpar on things you really needed it for.

Instead of a flat value, they're moving the damage blocked to a percentage, and it will be that percentage no matter how big or small the hit is. This allows you to scale your mitigated damage regardless of what type of content you're dealing with. The method by which you'll be raising that percentage of damaged blocked is through a new gear stat called mastery.

Mastery is a generic stat for all classes and specs that makes them better at what they want to be better at. The example above, given at BlizzCon 2009, shows that for paladins, mastery would give you more critical heals if you are holy, faster spell cooldowns if you are retribution, and a higher block percentage if you are protection. Of course, this might all change when they release details next Friday.

Your sword side

Along with the changes to block, we're also going to be seeing changes to parry. This will mostly affect death knights, as they rely much more on parry than we do. Instead of parry allowing you to avoid 100% of the damage from the hit, you instead stop 50% of the damage from that hit as well as 50% damage from the next hit. We still don't know what this will mean if you stack multiple parries in a row.

Some of you will probably have the same reaction as we did here at WoW.com and say, "How can you parry half of someone's sword?" To answer that, I'll just ask you how do you shoot holy fire from your fingertips to exorcise undead and demons? It's a game, and while they do try to make the game mechanics make sense logically, sometimes they've got to make changes to those game mechanics in order for things to work a bit better.

However, with parry reducing two hits by half, you will on average be avoiding one hit's worth of damage per parry. This also makes it easier on healers so that your incoming damage will be more steady, instead of spiking from those times where you're not dodging and parrying.

Overall, the game will be radically changing in some ways when Cataclysm hits, but hopefully, that's just to prepare it for another five years of active gaming.

The Light and How to Swing It tries to help paladins cope with the dark times coming in Cataclysm. See the upcoming paladin changes the expansion will bring. Wrath is coming to a close, and the final showdown with the Lich King is here. Are you ready for the assault on Icecrown Citadel?

PAX East 2010: Turbine on renting vs. owning in the MMO market

by Michael Sacco Mar 30th 2010 at 9:00PM

I asked Currie how DDO and LotRO differ from WoW in design philosophy, though we didn't stay on the topic for long.

"Well, DDO differs a lot more from WoW on fundamental levels than LotRO does," he said, "so I'll be talking about DDO in this case."

He brought up a number of points that made DDO different from WoW -- its combat is more action- and skill-based, letting you move to dodge attacks and missile spells, for example, offering a different fighting experience than WoW's more "turn-based" combat. He went on to praise WoW for its sheer amount of content but pointed out that a lot of the quests were what are termed "Fedex" quests early on -- the kind that send you off to distant areas with a package for someone, or a note, or a particular item. "We wanted to avoid that kind of thing, so from the beginning, quests were tailored to be very different from one another, to keep the experience fresh."

Probably anticipating that I'd bring up the upcoming Cataclysm expansion that'll retool most of WoW's early content, including quests Blizzard considered clunky, antiquated, or just not fun, Currie quickly noted that DDO didn't necessarily do everything right at launch either and that, like Blizzard, they've learned a lot since their respective games launched. The biggest change to the game since its launch in 2006, though, had nothing to do with gameplay.

"DDO went free-to-play late last year," I said. "Can you tell me a little about how that's going, for you and for the players?"

Currie seemed excited to talk about it, which surprised me. When I hear that an MMO that was originally subscription-based is going free-to-play, I tend to consider it banshee keening. For Turbine, though, DDO's new payment model has been an enormous success, both in terms of subscriber growth and financial gain. Currie stated that and that they had gained over a million new subscribers (effectively doubling their player base), and revenues from the game had increased by an astounding 500% since going free-to-play.

"You'll have to forgive me," I said, "but that almost doesn't make sense to me."

He laughed. "I know, it sounds crazy. How can you make money on a free game? We wondered that, too. We debated long and hard over the change to the payment model, but it's paid off big-time for us. And for the fans, too." Then he gave me a quick primer on how the system works: anyone can download and play the game for absolutely nothing. Everyone has access to basic content, but those who choose to pay a monthly fee get perks, such as VIP titles. Additionally, the game is supported by the DDO Store, which allows you to buy content packs, vanity items, potions, and other non-essential items.

Currie said that the store was intended to be mainly for convenience. The free-to-play genre is notorious for games that are nearly impossible to enjoy without pumping money into them -- many Korean import games fall into this trap. Yes, you can play for nothing, but you can't have fun or compete. "We wanted to make sure that the play experience wasn't cheapened by the store being there. Nothing you can buy gives players a concrete advantage over others in terms of progression." I pointed out that not many free-to-play games follow this model and he agreed that Turbine was in a rather unique position in the genre.

"Everyone can play through the content without ever getting anything from the store, and they'll have a fine time of it. What we're pretty proud of with the whole system is the fact that the player owns any content they buy."

I pressed for a bit of clarification. He obliged by likening most subscription-based games, like WoW, to renting something. When you buy an expansion pack for WoW, you only have access to that content, or any content, while your subscription is active. If your subscription lapses, you can't play what you bought anymore. "If you buy a content pack from the DDO store, on the other hand, it's yours forever, regardless of whether you're currently subscribed or not. If you're normally a VIP and have a rough month financially, you can go back to the free-play model and still play what you purchased in the store," Currie said.

It's unlikely that Blizzard will ever go for a free-to-play payment model for WoW -- they make billions on subscription fees -- but the effects of the switch for Turbine have been undeniable, and my interest was piqued when the renting-vs.-owning comparison was made. Save for social connections, players have very little they can take away from WoW when their subscription lapses. They've left no real permanent mark on Azeroth, they have no free pass back in when they want to come back, and their content purchases mean nothing when they have to pinch pennies for a while. It occurred to me that perhaps Blizzard could make the 1-60 game free-to-play, with Outland and Northrend being subscriber-only, but with Cataclysm hitting shortly, that's looking less and less likely.

I've understood for a long time -- since before I worked at Blizzard explaining this kind of information regularly -- that WoW is conditionally licensed to you (the condition being that you pay the fee and follow the rules). This is the same for many MMOs, of course, but Turbine appears to be trying to buck that trend by at least giving players a permanent foothold in the world of Eberron. You'll always have a home there no matter how much money you're making. You can't really say the same for Azeroth. Maybe Turbine is on to something.

Tags: ddo, dungeons-and-dragons-online, dungeons-and-dragons-online-eberron-unlimited, dungeons-and-dragons-online-unlimited, f2p, free-to-play, lotro, pax-east, pax-east-2010, pax-east-coast, subscription, subscriptions, turbine

Filed under: Events, Interviews

Breakfast Topic: What would the ultimate raid be?

by Matthew Rossi on Mar 20th 2010

I should probably asked "What would your ultimate raid be" instead but let's just run with it. For some people, Icecrown Citadel is the raid and the Lich King is the encounter they've been waiting for since WoW shipped. Arthas/The Lich King is on a lot of players' lists of favorite bad guy. For me, personally, there are a few contenders for 'Ultimate' raid status, as defined as both super-epic in lore and scope and the older definition of ultimate as the end. For me, if I ever get my ultimate raid, I may stop playing WoW.

1. Deathwing. Frankly, if they do this fight the justice the character deserves, the fight will be so awesome that it may destroy my WoW installation upon finishing it. Deathwing is a character I've wanted to see more done with since our old days raiding BWL. I want cinematics, unique models, unique music, new mechanics, the works. I'm actually somewhat nervous about this character and hope his entrance in Cataclysm feels as portentous as it should.
2. Sargeras. We've yet to actually see Sargeras himself in the game. His spirit is supposedly drifting in the Twisting Nether, unable to access his original form, so will we eventually end up fighting him twice? Will we have to try and stop him from reclaiming his original titanic form and power, and then fight him later once he does? And will we even be on Azeroth when the confrontation takes place, since for him to enter our world bodily seems to take a massive amount of power (see the original Well of Eternity)?
3. Azshara. I really dig the Naga and I want to see more done with them. I know we'll have underwater cities and such in Cataclysm, but I'm eager to get to see the main event, so to speak. And Azshara ties well into the whole Sundering/Well of Eternity legacy which would make for all sorts of story hooks. I'm eager to see this character make an onscreen appearance in WoW.
4. Someone new entirely. Old gods and established lore characters are great, but one of the things that Vanilla WoW did was provide us with new or expanded enemies to fight and I'd like to see more of that. Nefarian and Onyxia, Ragnaros, even C'Thun were all new to World of Warcraft itself (although the Black Dragonflight and Old Gods weren't.) There's no reason something else from the Twisted Nether or Great Dark Beyond couldn't menace Azeroth, or some mortal wizard or warrior couldn't acquire vast power and become a threat. The Lich King had ties to the previous two Warcraft games but was new at the same time. Let's see something like that happen again and an entirely new menace confront us.
5. The Gronn. I kind of feel like the Gronn got short shrift in Burning Crusade. Here are these gigantic, semi-immortal beings of immense size and power, strong enough to go toe to toe with potent dragons and led by Gruul, who mysteriously has seven 'sons' (I can't tell Gronn genders, man, for all I know they use parthenogenesis to reproduce) each nearly as massive and vicious as he is. In Beyond the Dark Portal, Gruul is supposedly smart enough to know how to use the Alliance to help him defeat Deathwing, but in the game he's just kind of a drooling idiot. I'd enjoy a raid that dealt with the true origins of the ogres, their relation to the Gronn, and where the Gronn lords and Gruul actually came from.

So now we turn to you. What do you really want to raid? What raid would be your ultimate WoW experience?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Gold Capped: Crafting for disenchanting

by Basil Berntsen Mar 20th 2010 at 2:00PM

Want to get Gold Capped? This column will show you how, and is written by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, also of outdps.com, the Hunting Party podcast, and the Call to Auction podcast.

Enchanting mats are a strange business. They are in constant massive demand, and can be made in a variety of ways. Every Tuesday, thousands of guilds get thousands of upgrades that need to be enchanted, every day, hundreds of thousands of players run PUG and PvP content that gives them upgrades they want to enchant, and every day, thousands of players buy things like Bolts of Imbued Frostweave, which require enchanting mats to make.

The more things change

Recently, Blizzard added the ability to disenchant easily with the need before greed loot system, and created a massively popular random 5 man dungeon system. There's no overhead, just automatic mats appearing in everyone's bags. This created a huge source of supply for enchanting mats. Also, the amount of Infinite Dust created with each disenchant was recently raised significantly, altering the balance of dust to Greater Cosmic Essence available.

The demand for enchanting mats is not fixed. In fact, there is no market in WoW that has static demand. As things get cheaper, more people find them affordable and that increases demand. While high end raiders wouldn't dream of entering a guild instance without the best enchants on all their gear, many people don't run that type of content. They put the enchants they can afford onto their gear they have. As infinite dust became more and more affordable, people started enchanting more gear with better enchants, and this served to increase demand for greater cosmic essences.

Abyss Crystals have also undergone a few changes lately. They used to come mostly from unwanted raid gear, and were fairly expensive. Since the release of the Trial of the Champion 5 man, enchanters have been able to farm 5 of these every 15 minutes. That raised the supply so much that Blizzard introduced Abyssal Shatter, which lets you break an abyss crystal into an average of 4.75 infinite dust and 1.75 greater cosmic essences.

Where's my money?

Random supply from 5 mans is nice and all, but how does this affect you, a proactive auctioneer who wants to make money with enchanting mats? Why, crafting for disenchant, of course! While all these mats can be disenchanted from craftable items, now that dust is so cheap, most of them aren't profitable.

When you disenchant green armor, you get:

• a 75% chance of dust
• a 22% chance of cosmic essence
• a 3% chance of a Dream Shard (or Small Dream Shard, if it's low enough level)

When you disenchant green weapons, you get:

• a 75% chance of cosmic essence
• a 22% chance of dust
• a 3% chance of a Dream Shard (or Small Dream Shard, if it's low enough level)

Lastly, any blue weapons or armor yield shards. Since dream shards are a guaranteed drop off every boss in every 5 man with an enchanter, it's probably never worth crafting to disenchant these.

You can see here that while crafting armor for disenchant might have been a good business before, these days, green weapons are the sweet spot. Blacksmithing is the only profession that can make weapons, and one recipe stands ahead of the rest: the Notched Cobalt Waraxe requires 10 Cobalt Bars, and disenchants into greater essences. All the other similar items DE into lesser essences, and cost almost as much cobalt. Unlike the good old days of the "saronite shuffle" and disenchanting saronite based weapons and armor for then scarce shards, these days, the only farmable material we care about is cobalt. This will be a choke point for your business, as very few people farm this.

Step one: find cobalt.

Cobalt ore is always harder to find on the auction house than saronite as it's a little more spread and has no rare veins like Titanium to boost the average income. Add it to your daily purchase list. If you use Auctioneer's snatch feature, scan for it regularly.

Another thing: Cobalt Bars usually go for more than the ore. You need access to a miner if you want to be able to get the price advantage of buying ore. Luckily, smelting can be done AFK.

One way to increase the amount of cobalt you can process is to advertise in /trade that you're looking for miners. When people send you tells, reply to them asking if they'd be willing to farm cobalt for you. They invariably say that there's not enough money in it, so be prepared to do some convincing. I offer them about twice as much per stack as saronite provides, and I tip for large orders. Ask them how much they make per hour grinding saronite in Sholazar or Icecrown, and work backwards from there.

Step two: craft greens

Once you have your cobalt, you'll need to smelt it and craft the axes. A handy macro for handling the mail aspect of this was posted in an earlier column, however here's my cobalt version:

/run for bag=0,4 do for slot=1,GetContainerNumSlots(bag) do local item=GetContainerItemLink(bag,slot) if item and item:find("Cobalt") then UseContainerItem(bag,slot) end end end

Be aware that this clicks on anything in your bags that starts with the word "Cobalt". If you bought a bunch of ore on your main and need to send it to a miner to smelt, this will click on any cobalt ore or bars in your bag.

Here's my macro for mailing green quality items:

/run for bag=0,4 do for slot=1,GetContainerNumSlots(bag) do local texture,itemCount,locked,quality=GetContainerItemInfo(bag,slot) if quality==2 then UseContainerItem(bag,slot) end end end

Step three: disenchant greens

This is the longest part that can't be done AFK. You need to disenchant every single waraxe you just created. Luckily, this is much less of a grind than, say, prospecting or milling. You can keybind this macro if you want to turn around and watch a movie while you press the space bar:

/cast Disenchant
/use Notched Cobalt Waraxe

There you have it -- after a moderate amount of work, you're able to produce the most sought after and short supply enchanting material in the game. On my server, Greater Cosmic Essences can sell for as much as Abyss Crystals on raid nights.

Being an auctioneer is like being able to print money. Or gold, as it were. Wait, that doesn't make sense... you can print on gold, but you can't print gold. That would be closer to transmutation? I can transmute titanium, but that's only worth it if the price of saronite is low enough to justify the time spent making it. I need some sort of analogy here. Whatever, I'll figure it out later. Making gold? Every week, Gold Capped will teach you the tricks of the trade. From setting up your auction addons and user interface, to cross faction arbitrage, to learning how to use your tradeskills.

Tags: armor, blacksmith, blacksmithing, cosmic-essence, disenchanting, enchanting, farmers, farming, gold, gold-capped, gold-making, greater-cosmic-essence, greens, infinite-dust, materials, mats, mats-yield, miners, mining, notched-cobalt-waraxe, weapons

Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

The Light and How to Swing It: Ret tips from the healer

by Matt Low Mar 17th 2010 at 8:00PM

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown. At least, he usually does. But Gregg's a little pre-occupied this week. Therefore, Matt Low will be stepping in temporarily to handle some retribution goodness!

No one expected me to write this column. And I mean no one. What does a healing priest know about dealing damage? When I was approached to fill in for Gregg this week, the first word that came to my mind was "Seriously?" But that's all in the past now. You poor guys are stuck with me this week!

Anyway, yes, I do happen to have a paladin which I use to smash stuff with. Contrary to popular belief, I don't play a healer 24 hours, 7 days a week. I have to try to relax and de-stress myself after a long raid of hard healing. What better way to do that then swing a Justicebringer around? Now, I've been a healer for a long time so when I made the choice to go straight into retribution, I approached the class (and role) with a certain mentality. You see, there are a few things that annoy me when I was healing on my priest whenever there were ret paladins in the raid. I was determined to not be that ret pally.

So here's a few habits that I've gotten into. I've observed that there are some paladins out there that do some of the stuff, but not everyone does. In contrast to Gregg's retribution 101 and 102 posts, I'd classify these as the 200 level. Okay, maybe not. Here goes!

Dispelling: This absolutely drives me nuts. Paladins have the ability to dispel (Cleanse), no matter what spec. I can understand that it'll cost a single global cooldown which might throw off all your rotations and stuff. But you know, it's a huge annoyance when both healers happen to be green slimes in the plague wing of Icecrown and the only other player that can dispel is too busy wailing away on the mob to notice. It's the little things that count, you know? And such a minor action like dispelling can go a long way to impressing your healers and ultimately the rest of the raid (at least, the ones who are attentive enough to notice it).

Defensive cooldowns: Okay, granted, not every ret paladin gets Divine Sacrifice. I know Gregg wrote a lot about it before but it's not the only thing we have at our disposal. As a priest, I'll cast Pain Suppression or Guardian Spirit on tanks during crucial phases (Such as Festergut on his third inhale when he hits super hard). When I'm in raids on my ret paladin and we're hitting the dicey parts of an encounter, I light up the tank with a Hand of Sacrifice. Usually, in pickup raids, cooldowns aren't generally used in any order. In fact, they aren't usually used until it's too late. Be sure to Divine Shield yourself so you don't unexpectedly die. Hand of Protection on any healers that are about to get drilled is also an excellent way to get on their good side. I can't count the number of times where I thought I'd fall over but I was hit with a Hand of Protection in the last minute allowing me to live.

Multiple Vengeances/Corruption: It's possible to maintain two stacks of Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption (for the Horde). Comes in handy in a fight like Professor Putricide where you want to maintain DPS on the Professor and his various oozes when they're alive. Once you get 5 stacks on the Professor, switch targets to the Ooze. Remember to keep bouncing back to the Professor and refreshing the existing stack though. True it's not always efficient and there's always Seal of Command for trash. But it is useful if you can't be bothered to constantly switch seals on a boss encounter.

It's okay to heal yourself: Your Exorcism is on cooldown and your Art of War procced. What do you do? Why not Flash of Light yourself for a quick heal? As retribution, you're not expected to keep yourself or anyone else alive. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with healing yourself occasionally. When taking on Stinky, I tend to heal myself after he chomps everyone in the raid. I've managed to time it so that my heal lands just after the Decimate.

Get some tier 9 and 10 gear as quick as possible: Want to put up some amazing numbers? Grab the 2-piece tier 9 set and the 2-piece tier 10 set. The set bonuses alone are insane. While you're at it, pick up the Libram of Valiance. Both the libram and the tier 9 sets should be fairly easy to obtain. You just need the Emblems of Triumph for them. Tier 10 stuff will take slightly longer since they involve Emblems of Frost. With Divine Storm gaining the ability to randomly come off cooldown, you'll be able to use it with increasing frequency especially on trash packs with multiple mobs. As a healer, I don't often see such numbers so it's a nice change of pace for me.

Hand of Reckoning : This is a taunt spell. It only affects one target. Generally, you don't ever press this button unless there is an extreme reason to do it. If you ever become desperate enough, it should only be to save a healer or something. A great example would be on Saurfang. Are there Bloodbeasts up? Ranged DPS having a hard time killing them? Slap a taunt on it after it has moved some distance away.

Stuns: Try to time your stuns so that it chains with other stuns. For example, if someone interrupts or stuns a mob, wait a few seconds for it to start doing something again before hitting it with a Hammer of Justice. If it's undead, follow it up after with a Holy Wrath. This is especially useful in the opening chamber of Icecrown Citadel when those mobs cast those ice spikes that travel through the ground.

Righteous Fury: Uh, it's a pretty straightforward. Don't have this on. I accidentally toggled it before. It should go without saying though. I wasn't quite sure what it did until I managed to experience the effects myself.

The Light and How to Swing It tries to help Paladins cope with the dark times coming in Cataclysm. See the upcoming Paladin changes the expansion will bring. Wrath is coming to a close and the final showdown with the Lich King is here. Are you ready for the assault on Icecrown Citadel?

Tags: class-help, featured, guide, guide-to-paladins, guide-to-pallies, guide-to-pallys, paladin-guide, paladin-info, paladin-talents, pally-guide, pally-info, pally-talents, ret, retribution, talent, talents, world-of-warcraft-class-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, wow-class-guide, wow-class-help, wow-guide, wow-paladin, wow-paladin-info, wow-paladins, wow-pally, wow-pally-info, wow-talent-guide

Filed under: Paladin, Raiding, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

Around Azeroth: Kiko and the lavender moon

by Elizabeth Wachowski on Mar 12th 2010 (5 minutes ago)

Yes, yes, it's my second Los Lobos reference in as many days, but they're a good band and "That Train Don't Stop Here" is pretty tight. Anyway, Karli sent in this screenshot of her character using the Rituals of the New Moon to give her lupine friend some companionship. I'd be somewhat concerned that when she changes back in two minutes she'll be the other wolf's dinner, but even if it wasn't domesticated, WoW wolves of this particular fur color tend to be under level 10.

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Cataclysm Stat & System Changes

Cataclysm Mastery System Preview

Man in the middle attacks circumventing authenticators

It has been brought to our attention that Blizzard's technical support department is currently handling a security exploit that is, in a limited capacity, circumventing authenticators. Before we get into the details, please do not panic. This does not make authenticators worthless, and it is not yet a widespread problem. Do not remove your authenticator because of this, and do not base your decision on whether or not to buy an authenticator off of this. They are still very useful, and your account is much safer with an authenticator than it is without one.

This is not the only report of this that we've seen, but it is the first time that a Blizzard representative has openly acknowledged that there is something afoot. For a full account of what happened, check the thread on the EU Technical Support forums. To sum up: There is a piece of malware (emcor.dll is what is being reported at the moment) that is being used as a hijacking tool to facilitate Man-in-the-Middle attacks on users

Kropaclus

After looking into this, it has been escalated, but it is a Man in the Middle attack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack

This is still perpetrated by key loggers, and no method is always 100% secure.

source

Tags: account-security, authenticator, breaking, exploit, keylogger, keyloggers, malware, man-in-the-middle, safe-surfing, security, security-exploit, technical-support

Filed under: Account Security

Why Blizzard can't (and won't) sell gold

Cataclysm Expansion 2010

This BlizzCon we're hearing a lot about the ways guilds will be changing in Cataclysm. Not only will you be able to contribute to your guild by doing the things you already do like daily questing and PvP, your guild will be able to use its new abilities to directly benefit the members in various way. Even more intriguing is the talk of being able to transfer an entire guild to a new server at once.

However, even as things change for guilds, one thing remains the same: you will not be getting a guild hall. You're going to have to keep hanging around on the streets with us Hoi Polloi, I'm afraid. Still, what we are getting is extremely thought provoking on its own.
Frankly, the idea of leveling up your guild is not one I would have ever had on my own, so kudos to the folks at Blizzard for completely blindsiding me. At present we're hearing that there will be 20 levels of guild experience, and that levels will be earned though things people in guilds do anyway like killing bosses, playing in the new rated BGs and arena matches, and through progression in professions and reputations in game.

As guilds level, they'll gain access to guild talent specs, with talents that can directly make life easier for the guild's membership.Talents that will allow for mass resurrection and reduced repairs have been mentioned, although we're also hearing that "We're not going to be character talents in the guild talents. We don't want to put talents players have to have in the guild talents, ie: they have to have this talent in order to kill this boss." That seems like a very smart move to me, making guild talents provide convenience and perks rather than necessary boss killing abilities. Other possibilities not yet confirmed but mentioned in the Systems Panel were allowing for mass Guild server transfers (rather than the situation as it is now, with individual members having to transfer and then recreate the guild on the new server) and allowing guilds to purchase bank tabs via the leveling system. Guild Achievements will also be a part of the new system.

Other parts of the new guild system are guild vendors (selling reagents for guild currency earned during the leveling process) and guild heirloom gear, also purchased with guild currency and allowing you to level faster. These items will be bound to guilds and thus leaving the guild loses you the item. There will also be a Looking for Guild system similar to the current LFG system for grouping, and there will be a variety of new Guild UI options, including being able to look at other guild member's profession books and a percentage of all gold looted being sent as a bonus to the guild's bank. You'll even be able as a guild to invite other guilds to events like raids.

This is all rather astonishing stuff that should help make guilds a more involved element of gameplay. I'm extremely interested to see how this all plays out.

Player Housing and Upcoming Features

Faster delivery and more safe

Blizzard allowing cash for items and gold in the future?

See this little guy? Isn’t he adorable? He’s Mini KT, the Littlest Lich – and he can be yours for the low low price of $10 USD. That’s right, I said $10 DOLLARS, not 10 gold, and he’s not the only pet you can get in-game for that amount of money.

Remember back when we noticed that interesting new pets were appearing in the source files of the game? I was intrigued by the Pandaren Monk pet, but WoW.com also noticed a Core Hound Pup along with Lil KT up there a while back on the PTRs. Speculation ran rampant that they were potentially collector’s edition pets for Cataclysm, but now we know their true purpose: Blizzard will sell them in-game, through their Blizzard Store online, and likely through Battle.net at some point.

If you drop the ten bucks on the Pandaren Monk, half of that purchase will go to the Make-A-Wish foundation, which is a pretty good reason to spring for it.

In any event though, this is Blizzard’s first dabblings in micro-transactions in World of Warcraft, and it’s gotten more than a few people pretty riled up. Many other MMOs that have gone before WoW (and likely those that will come after) that used micro-transactions to get more real money out of the players who are subscribed, and most free MMOs use micro-transactions to get money out of players who can sign up and play for free, but if they want the best gear or a custom avatar or better graphics, they have to shell out a little cash.

The argument on both sides of this is immense, loud, and pretty empassioned: some people herald micro-transactions as the end of World of Warcraft entirely, both as a popular game and as a professional, high-quality one, labeling micro-transactions as the mark of MMOs that are on the decline. The other side sees this as another fantastic way that players who are willing to pay for it can customize their characters, and look forward to other potential options like special RP clothes, custom avatar appearances, and more.

Personally I can see the logic of both sides of the equation, but I have to call attention to the fact that Blizzard has essentially already given players what they want for real money in-game in the form of faction changes, race changes, server transfers, and so on. Even appearance changes (which cost in-game money, not real money) came at player behest. I’m completely on-board with the thought that only MMOs that need money or are moving to a “free to play” model currently make heavy use of micro-transactions, but World of Warcraft certainly isn’t there, and it’s certainly not on the decline.

So the moral of the story? If you don’t want to spend real money for an in-game pet, don’t buy one. If there are enough people who agree with you, it’ll be unpopular and Blizzard will shut it down. If on the other hand there’s a demand for it and people love the idea, it’ll grow in popularity and more items will likely be added to the store. In any event, it’s likely not the end of World of Warcraft as we know it – that’s going to happen in Cataclysm.