w797 – The Collection of Game Post

Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Forums

Retribution Paladins continue to take a beating. As much as Ghostcrawler tried to soften the blow in his post, there just isn’t any nice way to go about this — Blizzard is looking for a way to make Divine Shield and Avenging Wrath to be mutually exclusive once again. He says that the combination of both spells contribute to the impression that the spec is overpowered.

Blizzard might do this through Forebearance, but says that they’re also looking to reduce the duration of Forebearance through a hotfix. This means it’s a pretty serious issue considering the duration of Forebearance was also intended to balance or space out the use of Divine Shield and Divine Protection. They have no timetable for the change, although it should be expected that it will be applied soon. Blizzard doesn’t seem to hold back on nerfing the Paladin class, stating that “the last round of pretty severe nerfs didn’t seem to do enough to Ret’s dominance of PvP”.

These are very fast reactions to nerf a spec that was “dominant” for all of a few weeks in a metagame that is tuned for Level 80. This is an extremely disappointing course of action in comparison to the complete absence of nerfs to Druids despite their utter dominance of the Arena format for three seasons (reducing Cyclone’s range wasn’t quite the solution, was it?). Paladin representation in Arenas went on sharp decline through all four seasons — and this includes the Holy spec.

Continue reading Invincible vengeance no more

Invincible vengeance no more originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Forums

Retribution Paladins continue to take a beating. As much as Ghostcrawler tried to soften the blow in his post, there just isn’t any nice way to go about this — Blizzard is looking for a way to make Divine Shield and Avenging Wrath to be mutually exclusive once again. He says that the combination of both spells contribute to the impression that the spec is overpowered.

Blizzard might do this through Forebearance, but says that they’re also looking to reduce the duration of Forebearance through a hotfix. This means it’s a pretty serious issue considering the duration of Forebearance was also intended to balance or space out the use of Divine Shield and Divine Protection. They have no timetable for the change, although it should be expected that it will be applied soon. Blizzard doesn’t seem to hold back on nerfing the Paladin class, stating that “the last round of pretty severe nerfs didn’t seem to do enough to Ret’s dominance of PvP”.

These are very fast reactions to nerf a spec that was “dominant” for all of a few weeks in a metagame that is tuned for Level 80. This is an extremely disappointing course of action in comparison to the complete absence of nerfs to Druids despite their utter dominance of the Arena format for three seasons (reducing Cyclone’s range wasn’t quite the solution, was it?). Paladin representation in Arenas went on sharp decline through all four seasons — and this includes the Holy spec.

[UPDATE: The nerf has been applied on live realms. So much for the advanced warning Ghostcrawler was talking about. Avenging Wrath now causes Forebearance, and Forebearance's duration has been reduced to 2 minutes.]

Continue reading [UPDATED] Invincible vengeance no more

[UPDATED] Invincible vengeance no more originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima

From comedians Rich Kuras and Sandeep Parikh (who you know best from The Guild, most likely) comes a look at the United States presidential election through the eyes of Azeroth. If all of the 11 million active World of Warcraft subscriptions were US citizens, Azeroth would be the 8th largest state in the union. Rich Kuras looks to find out whether Azeroth would be a red or a blue state. I think the last thing any of us want is political fisticuffs, so just take this video as the light political humor that it is and don’t read too much into it.

The polling stats at the end are a little silly because the numbers most certainly wouldn’t come out that way on a larger scale survey, but that’s alright, it’s not meant to be super accurate. It’s just a silly little thing, and I chuckled at the commentary from the people they spoke to on both sides of the fence. Deep political commentary? No. Mildly entertaining? Yes! And I admit, I smirked at the mention of Mike Gravel.

Thanks to all of you that wrote in about this video the last few days!

Is Azeroth a red state or a blue state? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Tailoring, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, Odds and ends, Raiding, NPCs

Readers have already started sending in a few costumes for Halloween this year — if you’re dressing up as something from the World of Warcraft, don’t forget to take a picture and send it through our tipline. Reader Taytayflann of Frostmane assembled this great Bloodfang costume from a Horde hoodie that he bought — the shoulders, which took the longest to make, he says, are made out of shin pads, cardboard, wire, red and black cloth, and staples. They turned out really well, and even though it was probably tough putting them together, it was probably still easier and faster than traipsing around Blackwing Lair with 40 people trying to get the virtual set.

There are only a few pictures in the gallery below, but we’ll be adding in your entries from the tipline throughout the weekend (both of real-life and ingame costumes), so check back to see more. And don’t forget to have a safe and happy Halloween tonight from all of us here at WoW Insider.

Reader Halloween costumes 2008 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Events, Blizzard, Quests

No matter what you call those big floating pyramids above Azeroth, right now is the right time to chase them down and kill the Scourge hanging around beneath them. If you don’t have epic gloves or shoulders on right now, odds are that you could use the upgrades from the Argent Dawn, and while the necropoli were completely camped early on in the event, things have died down a bit now, especially in the off-prime hours. I was able to pick up my 30 runes earlier this week, and when I got lucky on a leggings drop (I love that my Hunter is in a mail kilt-y thing now), I picked up two nice new epics, a cool tabard and an achievement.

We don’t know exactly when this stuff is all ending — it might be soon, or it might run right up to the Wrath release, but either way, now is probably the time to play it safe and pick up your runes. Look on your map for the purple skulls when they spawn and make a beeline for the zone when you see them, keep an eye around the zone as you fly in where the necro might be, and with most people already having nabbed all the runes they need, the pickings are probably about as good as they’re going to get. You’ll have a tougher time nabbing the rare spawns that drop the legs and the chest, but if you just want to nab some runes for the various Argent Dawn rewards, it’ll go fast.

Now if I could just get people to stop camping my fish pools until I get Mr. Pinchy…

Reminder: Now’s the time to get your necrotic runes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, PvP, Instances, Humor, Classes, Battlegrounds

Several classes and specs have gotten “knockback” abilities as part of patch 3.02 and the game’s transition to Wrath of the Lich King, and I’ve had fun watching these skills be deployed in battlegrounds to extensive and quite possibly evil use. It’s pretty funny watching an elemental Shaman defend AB’s lumber mill now, and the AV bridge? Even funnier.

And yet…as I laughed, I started to cry inside, because I knew that these skills would also be deployed in 5-man groups and raids to much less amusing effect. And man, it’s a real burden being right so often.

Continue reading A plea on behalf of frustrated tanks everywhere

A plea on behalf of frustrated tanks everywhere originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Warrior, Blacksmithing, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Phat Loot Phriday, Lore

Yes, the Reaper, like 40 man raiding, has basically gone the way of the dodo. But with the coming of the Arcanite Ripper and even more references in Wrath, you kids today might not realize that there was once a weapon that everybody simultaneously loved and feared.

Name: Arcanite Reaper (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowwiki)
Type: Rare (yes, it’s not even Epic) Two-Hand Axe
Damage/Speed: 153-256/3.80 (53.8 DPS)
Abilities:

• +13 Stamina (this was before resilience was introduced to the game), +62 Attack Power (which is still substantial, but back then was phenomenal)
• And the main reason the Reaper was so nuts was because of it’s slow attack, but high damage. Back in the day, before things got all normalized, Mortal Strike was the shiznit. It was an instant attack based on weapon damage, and since this weapon’s damage was so high, pushed forward by the Attack Power bonus, Warriors basically owned PvP back around early level 60 times. In fact, you might even be able to trace the current population of Warriors back to this weapon alone, and for that reason, it’s earned not only a place in Warriors’ hearts, but in Blizzard’s culture as well.
• I should also mention Shaman and Windfury weapon here, because back before all the changes were made to Windfury, and even before Shammies could dual wield, one Shaman with Windfury and this weapon could one-shot almost anyone. Nowadays, everything’s mitigated, with nerfs and resilience and all the changes to endgame and Arena PvP. But back then, the Arcanite Reaper ruled the roost.
• Which explains why it’s everywhere — the Arcanite Ripper is a direct rip, if you will, off the old weapon, and brought many a tear to a Warrior’s eye when it returned to the game as a guitar. The skin has also been reused a few times, as with the Spinal Reaper. And in the next expansion, there’ll be an heirloom item bound to account called the Bloodied Arcanite Reaper, so all of your two-handed melee characters can relive the old days as they level up.
• Oh, and take a close look at that summoned Felguard running towards you while the Warlock’s DoTs are ripping you apart — he’s carrying an old Arcanite Reaper as well.

How to Get It: Here’s another reason why the Reaper was such a big deal — not only was it the best weapon to have for any class that wielded two-hand melee and counted on Attack Power, but it was craftable and BoE, so pretty much anyone who wanted one could get one. The plans drop from Bannok Grimaxe, a rare spawn found in Lower Blackrock Spire, which is actually an instance that’s getting some traffic nowadays with not one but two vanity pets and an achievement in there. You can probably solo to him without too much trouble, but the drop is the problem — it’s only around 6%, so you’ve got to be lucky.

But maybe you can find a Blacksmith with the plans already — in that case, you’ll need 20 Arcanite Bars, six Enchanted Leathers (made by an Enchanter from a Rugged Leather and a Lesser Eternal Essence), and two Dense Grinding Stones. Not a tall order, actually (yet another reason why this weapon was so popular). Melt it all together, and voila, you’ve got a classic weapon. Won’t do much good these days, as mechanics and upgrades have rendered the once great Reaper into a not very attractive blue. But don’t tell any grizzled old Warriors that — they’ll make you remember the old days whether you like it or not.

Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 6g 57s 36c. Disenchants into a Large Brilliant Shard. Has killed more Mages than you’ll ever meet, consarnit!

Phat Loot Phriday: Arcanite Reaper originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Early last week, we received word that had passed away. For those of you unfamiliar
with this courageous young man, Ezra visited Blizzard Entertainment in 2007 through the Make-A-Wish
Foundation, armed with the desire to design and implement his own quest in World of Warcraft.
To this day, we remain inspired by the creativity, intelligence, and passion he displayed during his
visit. We were extremely fortunate to have had a chance to get to know and work with Ezra, and our
sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends.
Strength and honor, Ezra.

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Nethaera has spoken !

Since the release of the latest patch, Echoes of Doom, we have gone through a series of optimizations in order to increase overall game performance. We’ve seen steady, stable populations and a flurry of activity and excitement during the Hallow’s End event and the latest rumblings of zombie attacks. It’s been an exciting time for us as we draw closer to the release of our second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

We’ve reached a point where we feel we can now accurately evaluate the events since the patch release. Though overall downtime has been minimal, players have experienced latency, inaccessible instances, and general frustrations. We are therefore announcing that we will be issuing compensation to accounts in all realms in the US, Oceanic, and Latin American regions. Accounts that are currently active and in good standing will be credited with an additional three days of game time.

We would like to thank you for your patience during this time and look forward to seeing you in game!

Let’s see those complainers come out and take back their criticism of Blizzard’s handling of the entire situation!

[Edit: This credit also applies to European and Russian subscribers.]

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Filed under: Events, Odds and ends, Humor

What happens when Halloween rolls around and you haven’t gotten around to buying your almost one year old daughter a costume for the holiday because you’ve been spending too much time playing and writing about the World of Warcraft? Well, you make her a murloc costume, of course!

From the moment my daughter was born, I just knew I had to dress her up as a character from my favorite game. I initially wanted to make a Moonkin costume but thought that it’d be best if she wore that when she was already walking proficiently. A miniature Moonkin waddling around would be priceless.

This year, however, found me short of time and ideas so I decided to steal the idea of a baby in a murloc suit from last year’s crop of Halloween costumes over at the Blizzard site. Since I don’t have mad sewing skills, I made a quick jaunt to a shoe supplies store and picked up a bunch of slice foam and some cyanoacrylate.

Continue reading My daughter the murloc

My daughter the murloc originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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