One of my big beefs with MMOs is that I have friends all around the world and can’t play with them. For example, most of Team WoW.com play on US realms, a couple on Oceanic and me and the T in the EU. Of course the biggest problem with playing any MMO will be timezones (especially if you like to raid) but that doesn’t stop some titles having just one massive server, regionless servers or allowing you to change realms on the fly. Sadly WoW has none of these and it frustrates me that there’s such a divide, even though here in Europe there are cross-language battlegroups and more servers than you can shake a stick at. However given the number of players across the US, EU and China I can understand the reasons for it.

So readers, putting aside region restrictions, logic and languages for a moment, do you wish WoW had just one giant server? Would you like the ability to move from server to server for free at a moment’s notice, depending on where your friends were playing? Would you rather the game was a bit more like Guild Wars in that it didn’t matter where you purchased the game from?

Filed under: Blizzard, Breakfast topics, Battlegrounds, Europe

Breakfast topic: Do you wish there were worldwide realms? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve started getting a few emails regarding the authentication servers. Apparently there are issues again tonight! None of us on staff were actually running into any trouble, so we assumed it was just an anomaly until we saw this thread. From reading through it, it appears that the reason none of us on staff had problems was because we had all converted to Battle.net accounts, and this time around only those that haven’t converted are running into problems. Fancy that!

Blizzard is aware of the problem, and seem to be actively investigating it. Keep an eye on the linked thread for updates, and if you want a quick fix to get on and play the game tonight… just convert to Battle.net and you’ll be on in no time.

And for the record, when you write in about server outages? If we haven’t posted about something yet, it doesn’t help you to accuse us of being paid off by Blizzard. We can dream of a bright future where Blizzard showers us with money, but no, that hasn’t happened yet. It’s much more likely that we just don’t know.

Filed under: Realm Status

Authentication problems for non-Battle.net users tonight originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Onion, the well-known and consistently hilarious parody news site, has turned its eyes toward World of Warcraft once again. In the past, they have introduced us to geek love in WoW and the World of World of Warcraft, and this time, they introduce us to the world of Raiding via nerd columnist Larry Groznic, who has previously written on his mastery of Quotes from Monty Python’s Holy Grail and the merits of Weird Al Yankovic’s Wikipedia entry.

Larry’s rant to an under performing guild member, while somewhat anachronistic (it focuses on a Zul’Aman raid) manages to poke fun at classic raid leader nerd rage, hilariously nonsensical guild names, perennial altoholics, and quite a few other WoW foibles. It may even hit too close to home for some of the people who might recognize some of themselves or others in Larry or his chosen victim. But hey, if we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at? The Onion’s done it again, and it’s worth a read.

Filed under: Instances, Humor, Raiding, Alts

The Onion takes on Raiding originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Matthew Rossi lovingly hand-crafts Totem Talk from a single switch of aged Barrens scrub pine. This week, we try and calm some fears and discuss what changes we’re still hoping might make it into patch 3.2. This week’s image comes from Protein, a restoration shaman on Bladefist (he didn’t specify US or EU realm).

Before we get rolling on the changes that shamans haven’t seen yet in the various notes to patch 3.2, let us take a look at what notes we have seen, especially the most recent ones.

• Shaman
• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).
• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.
• Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.

Hardly massive changes, but at the same time pretty welcome. The fact that ES gives a form of Thunder Clap is weird since pretty much every tank has or will have that debuff in patch 3.2 (Thunder Clap, Icy Touch, Infected Wounds and the incoming paladin ability) so it seems odd from a PvE standpoint to give it to a non tanking class. If this is intended as a PvP ability… well, it’s not terribly impressive. If your choice is between ES or Frost Shock against melee, you’re probably going to try and snare them instead of debuffing their attack speed.

Still, not having to use ES as an interrupt will be a positive boon for elemental shamans who saw their DPS nosedive every time they had to keep that cooldown open for Earth Shock instead of Flame Shock, and it’s not going to terribly impact enhancement in PvE at all. So I’d definitely call this one, on the whole, a positive change. And having Maelstrom affect Hex is just hilarious. Hex is kind of the poor man’s poly in PvP, a combination snare and disarm that can be trinketed out or dispelled.

Continue reading Totem Talk: Getting into the Spirit of the thing

Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, (Shaman) Totem Talk

Totem Talk: Getting into the Spirit of the thing originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

I love it when a content patch includes some professions love. As the details keep surfacing, patch 3.2 is looking better than ever.

In fact, with the upcoming patch, Engineers will finally be able to drop their Gnomish and/or Goblin specialties (“for a fee”)! This has been one of those issues, like ugly and buggy cat forms, that has dragged on and on.

The materials for Jeeves have also been updated (get the schematic!). If you’re wondering just what you should be saving, hop on through the break for that and other patch 3.2 news!

Continue reading Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 keeps getting better

Filed under: Alchemy, Engineering, Jewelcrafting, (Professions) Insider Trader

Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 keeps getting better originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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