BlizzCon is Coming

 Blizzard  No Responses »
May 262011
 

As you know it’s coming. I won’t be there this year, how about you?

 

From Dev Zarhym on the WoW forums:

BlizzCon 2011 will soon be upon us! While the article below was written for issue #3 of the World of Warcraft Official Magazine, which was released prior to BlizzCon 2010, I feel the message is still very relevant. Read on to discover just why we, your friendly Blizzard community managers, value each and every BlizzCon event we host. We hope to see some of you at this year’s show!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2850849

As to the Who, What, Where…. (source)

…In addition, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner will go on sale Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m. PDT. BlizzCon tickets will be available at $175 USD each, while tickets to the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner (which include admission to the show) will be priced at $500 each, with proceeds going to benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Tickets to previous BlizzCon shows have sold out within minutes, so be sure to synchronize your hourglasses.

If you can’t make it to the show in person, the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will once again allow you to watch the event live from the comfort of your own home. The Virtual Ticket will be available as multi-channel Internet stream around the world and also via DIRECTV in the United States.

See the full press release or visit the official BlizzCon website for more information, and we’ll see you at BlizzCon!

When: Friday, October 21, 2011 and October 22, 2011, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. PT (both days)
Where: Anaheim Convention Center, 800 West Katella Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92802

(Event info is here)

Blizzcon 2010 stuff

The MMO Report: Blizzcon 2010 Special – G4tv.com

Every fall thousands of gamers descend upon the Anaheim Convention Center for Blizzcon, and this year The MMO Report went all out. Not only did we get Casey a new suit for the occaision, but we got…

Publish Date: 10/28/2010 15:55

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/708311/the-mmo-report-blizzcon-2010-special/

Maybe they’ll have something akin to the D3 announcements?

Blizzcon 2010: Blizzard Announces the Demon Hunter class and …

This year’s Blizzcon 2010 Opening Ceremony has been taking place this afternoon, and we’ve been following along with the news along with all of you. So, what excitement has been in store today? It went a little something …

Publish Date: 10/22/2010 11:49

http://geek.pikimal.com/2010/10/22/blizzcon-2010-blizzard-announces-the-demon-hunter-class-and-player-vs-player-arenas/

 Posted by Greg at 3:31 pm  Tagged with:

bin Laden Raid Boss Downed

 Miscellaneous, Raiding  3 Responses »
May 022011
 

The 25 man Heroic raid boss bin Ladin is finally down. While the instance was actually opened perhaps five years ago, no announcement was made. In fact, measures were taken to keep the opening of the raid zone a secret. After years of careful study the raid entrance was discovered.

A team of, mostly ranged, DPS from the guild “Seal Team 6″ did their homework, studied the fights, learned their rotations, practiced until everything was second nature, made sure consumable were stocked and gear was repaired, and in an assault that should be used as a model for raids everywhere, downed the trash and the boss in well under an hour. The only loss was, apparently, one gyro.

Rather than the usual practice of the raid team standing around the body for screenshots, they removed the body from the scene and vendored it… er… buried it at sea.

Here’s a poor video of the post raid scene, no bodies, some blood.

Some say that the raid happened a week ago, but the live tweeting shows that it was, in fact, yesterday.

Kudos to the Seal team 6 guild, and their associates, for a job well done!

 Posted by Greg at 8:48 am

New Guild Finder Tool in 4.1

 Patch Notes  No Responses »
Apr 222011
 

This looks like a very cool idea. From the devs:

In patch 4.1 we’ll be introducing the Guild Finder, a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership.

The Guild Finder is intended to act as an in-game bulletin board for guilds that are actively recruiting. Previously in World of Warcraft, your options were limited. You would have to publicly post on your realm forum message board, or speak to other players directly via private messages or the chat channels. That can be a time consuming process. Guild Finder will allow your “looking for new members” message to work 24 hours a day, accessible to all of the characters in your faction, from anywhere in the game.

Click here for the rest

This will reduce trade chat spam to some extent, depending on how widely known it becomes and if people decide that it’s a pretty cool tool. I think it looks great and will be a big help to getting people into the right guilds.

I didn’t see anything on that page about creating guilds, but that’s easy enough. Offer 10 or 20g to anyone who signs, become official, then fill out your info in the widget.

Will it do away with blind invites? I don’t think so, but I think they may become fewer.

Will it help or hurt smaller guilds? I have no idea, but I can think of arguments either way.

 Posted by Greg at 10:33 am  Tagged with:

How To Make Gold In WOW – What To Do If You Are Brand New To The Game!

 Get the Gold  No Responses »
Mar 222011
 

This is a guest post from Chris

If you have been playing WOW since Vanilla you will know that there have been a ton of changes to the game and the most recent is, of course, WOW Cataclysm.

Well, I have decided to write a post for those of you that are looking for ways to make gold and are either too low a level to take part in the heroics or so new to the game that you are not sure where to begin.

So here we go – even if you are more experienced with WOW and making gold you might want to have a read through as I am sure you will pick up some tips!

My first tip for anyone new to the game and wondering what professions they should pick:

Focus on Gathering

These are by far the easiest professions to get started with if you want to make gold. Of course they are not the most exciting and as you start making gold you might want to try something a bit more exciting, like Engineering.

However when you are starting out I swear by picking the gathering professions like Mining and Herbalism. The benefits of these are that you will be able to collect your herbs and ore as you are leveling up so you can do it in conjunction with your quests.

Of course when you are starting out in Elwynn Forest or Tirsfal Glades you will just be collecting Copper up to skill level 65 for mining,  and the same for Herbalism when you are collecting Silverleaf, Peacebloom, Earthroot and Mageroyal. Very quickly as you level up you will be able to sell ore and herbs for solid profits at the Auction House.

You should download Auctioneer, which is an awesome addon, if you don’t already have it, because it will tell you how much your items are worth and also allow you to undercut the competition!

Of course this is a very basic way of making gold, but it is also really effective and before you start getting the other professions, such as Engineering and Blacksmithing. These can cost a lot to level,  but are well worth doing.

Now you know how to start lining your pockets in WOW as a new player.

If you choose to get started with Mining be sure to check out this WOW Mining Guide, as it will show you where to find the nodes faster!

 Posted by Greg at 1:41 pm

Zygor’s Guide Levels Up

 Leveling  No Responses »
Mar 202011
 

As we all know, leveling guides can be a great way to power level your characters to 85 in a matter of days…as long as you start from level 1 and play solo. Anyone who has tried using a leveling guide with Pre-Leveled characters, Heirloom items, Recruit-A-Friend, or Dungeons/PVP, knows they don’t work as well in those situations. Some adjustment and catching up is needed.

Gain a few levels while questing, hop into the dungeons for a couple more, quest for a few more, jump into some PvP and gain a couple more levels, go back to questing… Even the in-game quest finder can’t handle that. Sure, it’ll show you where the quests are and you’ll see some gray quests in your log, but what’s not quite so clear is where to go and what to do, next.

That’s now changed. Zygor Guides has geared and gemmed up and now has a far higher Int than before.

It’s always been able to show you the best path to get leveled fast, but now it can do it efficiently even with you taking time out to dungeon or PvP level. Come out of the dungeons a few levels higher and Zygor’s will take note of your new level and figure out where you need to go.

It doesn’t matter if you start using the guide late in the game, or with the increased experience gained from Heirloom items or RAF, or even rest XP, Zygor’s guide can intelligently sync with your character instantly. You can even do dungeons or pvp and jump right back into the guide like you never stopped using it at all.

It really caters to your specific playing style.

We’ve been using the guides for a long time now (an 85 Rogue being the most recently leveled toon) and have seen a lot of upgrades and it just keeps getting better and better. (See our Zygor Guides review.) WoW’s in-game system is Ok, but it isn’t close to Zygor’s guides.

Check it out and grab your copy here.

 Posted by Greg at 11:41 am  Tagged with:

Boss Notes Addon

 Addons  1 Response »
Jan 172011
 

From the Dev:

Boss Notes provides shareable notes and other information for your guild, party and raid community. The add-on lets you take notes from your boss encounter learnings and share this information with other players. You can also use Boss Notes as a general, structured in-game notepad. In addition, Boss Notes records trash and boss abilities as well as boss emotes and provides a collection of short encounter tactics. With the powerful Rules module, you can extend your existing boss mod with additional encounter rules for custom notifications, timers, raid target icons and yells.

A guy in a cataclysm PuG was using this the other day. He’d post notes on the upcoming boss fight into the party chat. Very cool. There was even a “scroll up” note at the end of long notes. You can grab it here, at Curse: Boss Notes Addon

 Posted by Greg at 2:51 pm

Click on the Lightwell

 Priests  No Responses »
Jan 142011
 

From MMO-Champion – there seems to be some concern regarding the Lightwell mechanic. So in the interest of educating myself and the one or two others who might be reading this, here’s some info.

  • It is the highest heal-per-mana (hpm) spell for priests.
  • You can click it from up to 20 yards away.
  • Clicking it will not change your target and does not trigger the global cooldown.
  • It heals for more per tick than Renew.
  • It can be used while stunned, disoriented, sapped, blinded or casting.

WoWhead’s description:

  • Lightwell
  • 30% of base mana
  • 40 yd range
  • 0.5 sec cast
  • 3 min cooldown
  • Creates a Holy Lightwell.  Friendly players can click the Lightwell to restore (((2878 + ($SP * .308)) * 3) * 1.25) health over 6 sec.  Attacks done to you equal to 30% of your total health will cancel the effect. Lightwell lasts for 3 min or 10 charges.
  • You can click it from up to 20 yards away.

From a comment on that page:

This spell is way more powerful then you all think.  This spell can be used while

  • Tanking
  • Kiting
  • Blinded
  • Stunned
  • Disoriented
  • Sapped
  • Casting another heal or spell
  • You can click it from up to 20 yards away.

You don’t even need to un-click your current target. Lets compare with a more favored heal over time, Such as Renew.

Lightwell costs 30% of base mana, and does 10charges or “casts”.
So really its 3% of your base mana for every charge.

(the following is at 290 spell power)
Each charge heals 10,000 over 6seconds.
As for renew its 6,124 over 12seconds and costing 18% more mana per cast (compared to each charge)

You can literally be in two places at once, having your light well positioned properly. Heal ranged dps, or yourself while your to busy focusing on people who are dieing rather then injured. The ticks also tick faster [down from over 6seconds] with your haste. All you have to do is, Click.. and we will be well on our way to appreciating this spell.

Lightwell

Group around the lightwell

Did you know that  You can click it from up to 20 yards away?

 Posted by Greg at 12:21 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Cataclysm Assassination Rogue Builds

 Rogues  No Responses »
Dec 302010
 

Assassination’s looking pretty good these days, at least from my point of view. Here are a pair of builds, one for PvE and one for PvP. Naturally some talents may change depending on your exact team, raid, preferences, etc.

For both builds…

  • Daggers only
  • Slow main, fast off-hand
  • Instant poison in main, deadly in off, crippling is applied via deadly brew
  • Wpn DPS > Agility > Mastery/Haste/Expertise > Crit

Level 85 Assassination Rogue DPS Build (31/2/8)

This build is aimed at maximum DPS, not max suvivability.

Assassination (31 Points)

  • Coup de Grace – Rank 3/3
  • Lethality – Rank 3/3
  • Ruthlessness – Rank 3/3
  • Quickening – Rank 2/2
  • Puncturing Wounds – Rank 3/3
  • Deadly Brew – Rank 1/2
  • Cold Blood – Rank 1/1
  • Vile Poisons – Rank 3/3
  • Seal Fate – Rank 2/2
  • Murderous Intent – Rank 2/2
  • Overkill – Rank 1/1
  • Master Poisoner – Rank 1/1
  • Cut to the Chase – Rank 3/3
  • Venomous Wounds – Rank 2/2
  • Vendetta – Rank 1/1

Combat (2 Points)

  • Precision – Rank 2/3

Subtlety (8 Points)

  • Nightstalker – Rank 2/2 – In theory this will allow for more “attack from stealth” situations.
  • Relentless Strikes – Rank 3/3
  • Opportunity – Rank 3/3

Glyphs

  • Prime – Glyph of Mutilate
  • Prime – Glyph of Rupture
  • Prime – Glyph of Backstab
  • Major – Glyph of Tricks of the Trade
  • Major – Glyph of Feint
  • Major – Glyph of Sprint
  • Minor – Glyph of Safe Fall

Level 85 Assassination Rogue PvP build (32/2/7)

Think of this build as a starting point and adjust to fit your game. For example, if Improved Expose Armor doesn’t work for you then change it.

Assassination (32 Points)

  • Coup de Grace – Rank 3/3
  • Lethality – Rank 3/3
  • Ruthlessness – Rank 3/3
  • Quickening – Rank 2/2
  • Puncturing Wounds – Rank 3/3
  • Deadly Brew – Rank 2/2
  • Cold Blood – Rank 1/1
  • Vile Poisons – Rank 3/3
  • Seal Fate – Rank 2/2
  • Overkill – Rank 1/1
  • Master Poisoner – Rank 1/1
  • Improved Expose Armor – Rank 2/2
  • Cut to the Chase – Rank 3/3
  • Venomous Wounds – Rank 2/2
  • Vendetta – Rank 1/1

Combat (2 Points)

  • 1. Improved Recuperate – Rank 2/2

Subtlety (7 Points)

  • Nightstalker – Rank 2/2
  • Relentless Strikes – Rank 3/3
  • Opportunity – Rank 2/3

Glyphs

  • Prime – Glyph of Mutilate
  • Prime – Glyph of Rupture
  • Prime – Glyph of Vendetta
  • Major – Glyph of Blind
  • Major – Glyph of Kick
  • Major – Glyph of Garrote
  • Minor – Glyph of Distract
  • Minor – Glyph of Poisons
  • Minor – Glyph of Safe Fall

More details here: Assassination Rogue Guide

 Posted by Greg at 3:36 pm  Tagged with: ,

How Not to Fail With the New Dungeons/Raids

 Cataclysm  2 Responses »
Nov 292010
 

I think this is essential reading for anyone intending to do Cataclysm dungeons and raids:

What Wrath players need to know to not suck at Cata!

 Posted by Greg at 3:47 pm  Tagged with: ,

The Shattering is Here

 Cataclysm  2 Responses »
Nov 232010
 

Ok, the opening cinematic officially rocks.

Get ready for a whole new world.

 Posted by Greg at 11:37 am
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