November 2008 Archives

This post, and the Podcast I released a few minutes ago, mark the completion of the Post Months. For All Things Azeroth we did the National Podcast Post Month, also known as NaPodPoMo, where we released a podcast episode everyday during the month of November. On this here blog I am, with this post, completing the National Blog Post Month, putting out a blog entry every day for the month of November. I could have gone with NaBloPoMo on the podcast site too, since the publishing process includes a blog post, but I felt that would be unfair.

I wanted to take a few minutes to give my thoughts and my thanks. First and foremost I want to thank my podcast co host Graece for her awesome efforts in getting the month completed. Not only has she stepped up on the editing side, she also did some awesome 30+ minute shows at the beginning of the month, and some great dungeon walkthroughs at the end. I want to thank those on my Twitter list, because you all will never know how much of my content, ideas, and thoughts for blogs and pods this month came from you all. You folks saved my bacon on more than one occasion, and I know a lot of you listened and gave your feedback.

Lastly, the readers and fans. I know that daily content, when you are not used ot it, can become a pain, but so many of you all stayed around that it made doing blog posts that were ranging from insightful to humorous, helpful to ranting, that much easier. It was a great fun blogging and podcasting for you all over the last 30 days. I hope you will all stick around and give me your thoughts on the future shows and blogs just as much, or more, than you have this month. I will try to keep bringing you good, and useful commentary, tips, and thoughts on the game as long as you all keep coming back. Thanks, Take care, Happy Hunting, and See you in Outlands, and Northrend.

I was at work tonight, and a co worker came up to me. She handed me a list of games she had played. She wanted to know which one was most like World of Warcraft, so she would know what game she could compare it to and thus know what to expect. I told her my first recommendation would be to try at least Warcraft 3, cause that is big these days, but I didn't see any games on her list that were MMOs. In the end, though, I came to a conclusion that it is very hard to even try to compare WoW to any other game, even other MMOs.

World of Warcraft is so clearly in a league all it's own that there is no easy way to say 'it's just like...' in any way that is not a horrible injustice. Is it like Warhammer? Age of Conan? Dark Ages of Camelot? I don't think, in my admittedly biased way, that there is anything that can fit the 'just like' moniker. The art and game design style is too unique, too original to compare it. Also, when you consider all the inspirations they have had, the little bits they took from other games and the community itself, the list of where they got the most popular parts of the UI would be so long as to be laughable. After 4 years, WoW is a game in a class all it's own, I think. What do you all think? Let me know how you would answer that question, "WoW is like...?" in the comments

Hallow's End is long in the past.
The Wrath Day glow just didn't last.
We travel North to continue our tale.
As closer comes the feast of Winter'Veil!

With all that has happened in this game in the last few weeks, it can be forgiven that we might have lost track, forgotten the upcoming holiday. While Winter's Veil has lost some luster as compared to the events with seasonal bosses like Hallow's End, Midsummer, and Brewfest, I still think that Winter's Veil is one of the most exciting times. The cities of Orgrimmar and Ironforge get decked out in lights, and Greatfather Winter sets up in his rightful place on his seat. Holly is passed around and gifts are given. I still recall fondly my first Winter's Veil, when people were desperately trying to figure out where to get their Greench's from, how you became a helper gnome elf, or how you learned to make your very own Snowmaster.

While a part of me hopes Blizzard adds a bit more to this year's event, I chuckle a bit to myself as I notice that a number of my alts still have unopened presents in their bags at this late date, and I know Blizz has more in store for us. We know the Clockwork Rocket Bot was available last year, while a new Achievement this year, Crashin' Thrashin' Racer tells us that we likely have Crashin' Thrashin' Racer Controller coming to us this year. Arita already has one due to an unopened present from '07, and I have to say it looks awesome! What are you looking forward to most from this year's Festival?

I want to first preface this with the fact I do not know if this is possible or even viable. I was sitting here at lunch and a thought struck me. What if the limited time summoning use by the RAF program was able to be used in capitals or dungeons to kill leaders or bypass content? Let me explain the premise in the first case. Rogue with a player on RAF stealths into a city, say Orgrimmar, and finds a safe, unguarded place near the leader. Uses the one hour cooldown summon to summon player B. Player B summons a warlock also on RAF, and using shards or the new summoning stone coming soon, the group begins summoning dozens of their allies. Since they are already well past the majority of guards, the gather an epic raid and wait for their time to strike.

Now think about dungeons. Say a Rogue or even a Druid stealths to the end boss, or maybe a little trash before him, and again, like my first example, begins the RAF summoning followed by a warlock mass summing the entire 25 man raid to this point. I can admit I do not know if there are many, or any bosses that call on mobs not killed in the instance, thought I think the Obsidian Sanctum raid does bring in the mini bosses left alive to the final fight, improving the loot that drops. This is one of those things I feel Blizzard would be incredibly concerned with. City leaders are not a huge concern, but raid and dungeon content being easily bypassed? Blizzard despises when that happens! Do any of you know of if these possibilities are real? Or has Blizzard already made sure to guard against these potential exploits?

First up, this is not a rumor or even stated as possible by Blizzard. I do want to suggest this, though. The Collector's Edition of the game and expansions have not been cheap, ranging from $80 to $150 dependent on where and when you ordered it and the willingness of the vendor to gouge their customers. While you do get a fair bit, without a doubt, there is more Blizzard could do to reward players for their continuing loyalty, and their patronage in the face of the often high prices of the boxes. Some of the things Blizz could offer for loyal CE buyers are clips from Blizzcon, exclusive wallpaper, or ongoing flavor items in game. I will be talking more about this on today's AzPodMo, so do watch out for that episode!

I was reading on Twitter the other day, about several well know WoW Bloggers who have shifts some attention over to other games. These happened not in the months of Wrath beta, but in the week and a half since the expansion launched! One of the reasons given was that the luster had worn off. Another was that the expansion was just not... enough. Yet another said that they were leveling again, and they hated leveling. This last one made me think, and think hard. I have heard a few times the suggestion that blizzard release an expansion that is not 10 more levels, in fact one with no additional levels at all.

That is correct, no new levels to work through, but, somehow, there would be new lands, new dungeons, improved gear, and one would imagine a desire to have progressively better abilities. I am curious if anyone out there has any successful, or even possible ideas for such an expansion. How would new lands work, how would we gauge our progress through them, without additional levels? Gear? Tokens? Quests? What would stop someone from going right to the end game instead of going through all of the content?

I think that is the biggest barrier I see right now to a level free expansion. How do you stop people from bypassing all but the best? So, my readers, fellow bloggers, listeners, and just random folks, I ask you: Educate the unknowing. Explain how this idea would work? Tell me how you would do an expansion without as level grind, and I will be happy to blog your responses. Comment away!

I dinged 72 tonight in Borean Tundra, over a dozen quests still left to go, and wondered to myself. Is there a benefit to doing both of the starter zones, Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord? On beta I did both, and found I was barely halfway through Grizzly Hills before I got the quest in Dalaran to fly out to Sholazar. That was also before I had a 20% jump start in xp from my previously mentioned daily plan. I am almost certain I could get by pretty effectively without having to do the Howling Fjord, and instead moving on to Dragonblight right away. The lore of that zone makes it even more tempting, I assure you.

The flipside to all of that, of course, is gold. Cold, hard cash. If I do all the quests available as I go along, Borean, Howling, Blight, Grizzly, Sholazar, Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, well I should hit 80 by Sholazar or Zul'Drak, I would think. In Beta I skipped a big chunk of Grizzly Hills to move on to Sholazar, and hit 77 about halfway there. I am pretty sure I would have left Sholazar late 78, or somewhere in 79 if I had stayed in Grizzly. This means it wouldn't have taken much in Zul'Drak, or maybe an instance or two, to hit 80 in that zone, leaving me roughly 2-2.5 zones of pure quest gold plus dailies.

This will be even better on Telaan, who will be leveled third, cause he is doing 2 dailies every day, and is nearing on 71.5. I suspect he will be into 72 before I pick him up to level again. How all of this might hit Ameland or Arita I am not sure, while I am pretty sure Connroe will be hit hard since he has about 22 levels to go and a long road to go. I think I will take him in chunks. In the end, this leveling thing can be tricky. In BC it took me 3 70s before I perfected it for Telaan, and I just do not know how close I can get this time to perfection. I had time between my toons to evaluate, collect, prepare. I do not see any Unidentified Plant Part type items that are tradeable in Wrath, so that might be hard. Time will tell, I suppose. What do you all think?

This game... this community, has seen a lot of changes in the 4 years of live and another 6 months of beta before that. I have seen it progress from the Stress Test leveling contest that was extended due to a Hurricane, to an open beta where thousands beat down the virtual door of File Planet to get access. When the game launched, it did so with a fanfare to rival blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings, and books like Harry Potter. Within days the game had broken the records for MMO sales, and subscribers, the 500,000 peak of the past mere dust in the trail of World of Warcraft to the top. I was live on WoW Radio that day, 4 years ago, when the station owner Athalus interviewed the CM Caydiem live on the air via cell phone, since she was at the Fry's opening in Fountain View.

We have seen patches, nerfs, buffs, and complete game revamps many time since then, with all classes and specs getting their own share of love and hate. All through this, from Northshire Abbey on my first Paladin, Medros of course, on the Mannoroth PvP realm, to Medros, the 71 Paladin on Argent Dawn, who runs alongside 3 other high level characters and in a guilg that I do not think has a rival in the game, there has been a lot of names of the past. Dedric, who I played that stress test with, who played on Bronzebeard least I heard. Arcaron who was at WoW Radio, but loved to another server in the free transfers that came in those early days.

Even with the Shadow Walkers, I have seen a significant number of changes, from officers coming and going, to changes in the top 2 ranks of the guild. The game, my gametime, and how I play has changed a lot over the last four years, and so has the method of my interaction with the community. I went from fledgling show host with a few thousand tunes on WoW Radio to a Podcaster with hundreds of regular downloads with All Things Azeroth and a co host who not only knows her stuff, but has a desire to see the show grow, and improve. How can life, my memories, my game get any better? A polar bear cub pet, of course!

When Wrath came out, as I have chronicled before, I did a lot of different things. I rolled Connroe, my Death Knight, and worked him through the starting experience, then power leveled his Inscription to 360 or so. I worked on Medros, then Arita, and then Telaan, with a bit of time on Ameland to work on his skinning. In fact the only played toon I have done nothing on in the 9 days since Wrath is my lowbie hunter, whose enchanting I would like to get up so that I can DE all the greens I am making to progress my various skills.

The problem is that while I am 71 on 3 our of 4 prior 70s, I know people with less free time than I have who have gone from 65 to 75 in the same time. I have spent so much time repeating the same quests, the same areas, the same actions that I have slowed my own progress. Therefore I have decided to focus on Medros, much like I did in the early days of Burning Crusade, as my first and primary toon to level, and will level him up to 74. I will then decide if I want to level him to 77 or 80, or swap to Arita for some leveling. After both are up where I want, I will work on Telaan, as two Ret Paladins back to back would be really hard to do. I will still do the proper dailies on all three, but when it comes to questing Medros will be number one. What lessons have the first 10 days or so of Wrath taught you?

From: god@blizzard.com
To: WoW World Domination Planning and Implementation Working Group
CC: kwerbach@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Project World Domination proceeding well

Hello everyone! I wanted to first say how happy I am at the recent inroads we have made in key levels of government. A long time convert, Supernovan, was recently appointed by the new PoTUS to be part of the Transition team, and assures me that there will be an account invite sent in late January, once the new Dell XPS laptop is installed. This is a good recovery from the dismal failure that was recruiting the 43rd, who instead chose Hello Kitty Online as his game of choice.

We all know the popularity of the most recent offering, Wrath of the Lich King, and I want to congratulate all of you for your hard work ensuring that it had the best art, game play, and just enough addictive properties to keep the players coming back for months. While we had concern that the delay for the arrival of the end boss, Arthas the Lich King, would anger some players, the release of the expansion has effectively taken the players minds off the long term delays, and instead focused them on the short term grind.

Lastly the next MMO that is in design is coming along well. We plan a smooth, seamless transition from WoW to the next project, not yet titled. We will be sending out the hype kits to all participants a few months before the announcement in order to maximize the buzz that we want as the current project winds down and the next starts up. If you have any questions, want access to the current client, or anything else, please contact your designated Domination Manager. Thank you again, and see you at the next planning meeting.

Morhaime
God

The news we have all been waiting for since the high that came from the launch of Wrath finally began to subside has finally arrived. Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft, the most popular MMO in history, broke all previous sales records for a PC game, previously set by it's predecessor Burning Crusade, as they sold 2.8 million copies of the game in the first 24 hours of sales. I was recently talking to one of the few MMO players I know who did not get hooked on the WoW crack, and the one point about the superiority of WoW over EQ2 that he could not argue was the sheer subscriber count.

His beloved EQ2 could never even hope to rival the numbers that WoW had done, even since day 1, and between the number of players who returned from AoC and WAR, and the second expansion breaking records set by only the expansion before, the combined effect pretty much seals the fact that World of Warcraft is the biggest MMO in history.

I am even willing to admit I was wrong in my prediction that the problems with Wrath that Blizzard themselves admitted would not be fixed by the release date would hurt the subscriber and sales numbers for Wrath and the game overall. Blizzard announced a few weeks before Wrath that the subscriber count was at 11 million, up from the previous 10.7 million milestone, and the announcement I mentioned before about the droves of players who said they were leaving for AoC and WAR coming back, nearly 70% in one case. What do you think the future of WoW holds? 12 Million players worldwide? Do you think we will see 15 million? Let me know your predictions for the future of WoW in the comments!

There has always been the saying 'if you do what you love for a living, you'll never work a day in your life'. While this is true, there is a limit. I know a lot of people who have tried to do what they love, computers, music, photography, in order to make a living, and have grown to hate their passion with a deep loathing. I guess this is why I have always been cautious to not take this hobby, this passion, too seriously. Yes, I have almost 300 days played, but a lot of that was relaxing, chatting in the channels, and RPing.

This is a far stretch from those players that Blizzard calls 'pro'. These players play for money! Every gamer's dream is to get paid to play their games, be it as a tester, or just a pro level gamer. There are sponsorships, companies, and even agents, just like atheletes and actors have, that represent these gamers. With the second big name gamer league going out of business, though, one has to wonder if these funds are misplaced. It's great that these players can make a living off their gaming, but if the leagues they make their names in can't make it more than a few years, is there really any point?

For me, gaming will always be fun times, or I will move on. If I ever take money, or seriously consider it, I will just stop. Gaming isn't a profession, an art, or a sport. You pay to play, not get paid. Now I am not saying that those people who do get paid are somehow lesser than me, because I fully admit they have skills the level of which I cannot even compare. However I will not allow those people to define my gaming for me. They are not my superiors in the world of gaming, they are just other players in the game, but they happen to take a bounty to hit Play, and I do it for the love of the game. 

If you are like me, you have noticed on those rare trips to Shattrath City that it seems to have been abandoned! Well, ok, the NPCs are all still there, the Naaru still protect the city, and Ezekiel still patrols the Terrace of the Light in a never ending journey. The heroes of the Alliance and Horde have abandoned the city to it's fate, though. Well, ok, not all members of the Horde and Alliance are gone. Those of the healing persuasions as well as these new death dealing plate wearers that have recently rejoined their respective factions.

I was wondering if anyone has thought of the potential ramifications of this center of Outlands being virtually abandoned? At least old world content still has the class trainers and auction houses in their favor. Do you think Burning Crusade content has anything going for it? Do you think there will always be lowbies and hero classes coming through that content in order and keeping it relevant? Or will it be relegated to the mothballs like so many old world dungeons? How must it feel to work at Blizzard and know years of work might be virtually mothballed by the next expansion?

As I write this it is just over 48 hours since I installed Wrath of the Lich King and boy have I been busy! As I mentioned in a recent All Things Azeroth, I started off by making my Death Knight named Connroe, then I completed my daily plan. This plan was given to me by Makea of Murloc Queen and went like this: clear out quest log completely, travel around Outlands getting all of the daily quests you can, then log out on the Isle of Quel'danas and wait for Wrath launch. After Wrath is installed, turn the Isle dailies, then return to Shattrath to turn in dailies there. Once Done there, I flew out to the Netherwing Ledge and turned about 10 dailies there to complete the daily quest plan.

I did a full 25 dailies on two of my 70s, and the rough numbers from those dailies was roughly 300k XP and about 150g. The one mistake I made was on making the fishing daily as one, and it gives no XP or gold, just the bag. On my Druid I did 16 dailies, netting about 200k XP and about 100g. I personally feel that since I would have spent time in game anyway, and am not hurting for gold, that this was all a very good way to spend a few days ore Wrath. Once I finished the daily turn ins, I took all my 70s to Northrend and trained them in all of their professions, costing roughly 300g for two primary and all three secondary skills. Once they were all at inns, getting rested XP, I logged back to my Death Knight and got him through the first phase of the starting experience.

On day 2 I began to work on Connroe right out of the gate, thoroughly enjoying doing the experience when it counted. I quickly made it through the experience and stayed in Stormwind at the end to begin making use of the 1500 herbs I had stocked up to level Inscription. Right now Connroe is *350* and am waiting to hit 60 or so in order to train up to Grand Master. Connroe is also right now at 150 in Blacksmithing, though I may take a break from leveling that for a bit due to the large number of new Death Knight miners in the game, including some guildies. The last thing that I have spent time doing, or I guess lucked into, was that I got all 5 toons(Medros, Ameland, Arita, Telaan, and Connroe) hearthstoned in Dalaran. I knew it would take a couple days for Argent Dawn to see a nice number of 74 Mages, and I found one in Stormwind who was willing to portal all of them to Dalaran for a generous tip. The Mages I saw in /2 were talking 100-200g per portal the night before, and I was not willing to throw my gold away like that.

As for today, I intend to finish getting all my 70s the Borean - Howling - Dalaran Flight Path connections(all Tuskarr villages, Dalaran, and the alliance settlements) in order to facilitate easy travel through the first 3 zones of Northrend. Then, I think I am going to let Connroe rest a bit, and work on getting Medros to level 74, the point where he would have gotten the ability to go to Dalaran anyway. So, how have you spent your first 48 Wrath filled hours? Are you, like the SK Gaming/Nihilum mega guild, trying to get into raiding and clear Wrath on 25 man? Or are you just relaxing and leveling comfortably?

I have mentioned excitedly before what my plans were for the Wrath Launch events, which was to go to the local EB Games and wait eagerly for my Collector's Edition which I had paid for, $10 more than what I was told at pre order, the Saturday before. The 5 hours at work that night were agonizing, as I could mentally count down the hours in my head. At precisely 9 pm I left work, though I spent a bit of time recruiting a new player to WoW, and headed out. I stopped at home, trying to get my podcast and blog up, and then headed out to walk the 4 blocks to the store.

When I walked up, there was 2 empty fold up chairs, and two guys sitting in their van out front of the store. I proceeded to move to the far side of them from the door, and the wait began. The minutes ticked by, and the line began to grow. By ones and twos the line eventually grew into 50 or more people, all enjoying the weather to get Wrath of the Lich King. Ner'zhul, Malygos, Draenor, Exodar; all these realms were mentioned for those in line close to me. Staff began to show up, and the numbers inside the store increased slowly.

As midnight grew closer we watched as they rolled up posters(giveaways) and chatted comfortably behind the glass. When midnight rolled around we all waited eagerly. As 12:05 came and went, we all grew impatient. 12:10 and people were getting mad since the 'staff' inside were clearly just chatting and stuff, not doing actual work. These folks stood around in a nice warm store and we shivered in the winter weather. Finally at 12:15 a staff member came and opened the door, advising us they couldn't start taking orders yet, cause their system wouldn't let them, but we could at least get in. We rushed in, the first 5 or 6 people, and were told to stay back from the registers.

Then aggravation turned to anger. The 'staff', or at least 5 of them, stepped up to the counter to pay for their own copies of the Wrath Collector's Edition. I watched, surprise on my face, as the realization that these were not staff, but friends of the staff, who got to bypass the line and get up first, and get out first, with their Collector's Editions. It made me wonder if these folks had to do anything by the 'rules' at that store. Once they were done, I stepped up and presented my receipt, knowing I would just sign a paper and walk out. The first sign of trouble was 'ok, so I am sorry to say but...'

That ended with the fact that, after raising the price on my 1 week before, they had raised it again. 'We only found it out a few seconds ago when our machines started taking orders' the staff member who originally took my $5 pre order back in September and who lamented then that the $70 price tag was pretty high. Interesting, I thought, that the registers were not live when we got in, and they didn't need to tell their friends that when they paid for their copies. What do I think? I think they knew, and tried to do a slow progression rise of the price, but I paid mine out too soon to launch, and that made me notice more.

I got mad, and asked them what they were doing, and after a few minutes the guy who took my 'final' payment a few days before looked at me and said, essentially, that's the price, if you don't like it, leave. I looked at him with anger, and told them that I would not be canceling my preorder yet. I stepped out of line, trying to think of who I could call at 12:20 AM to bring me $12, finding no one who was up, when one of those close to me in line, a guy by the name of Brian(server currently unknown) came back into the store and offered to use the last few bucks he had on his debit card to help me pay off my Collector's Edition.

I got my game, then I got his name and number, and have now made arrangements to pay him back. I came home, and recorded the Unboxing video you have likely seen if you read my blog, and began to install my game. The reactions and thoughts to my podcast rant have been overwhelmingly on my side. I thank everyone for their words of support. So where do I go from here? Well, once this is up, I will spend Monday ensuring that EB Games know of this bad PR, and that I will never be shopping at their places again. I have a new place to buy my Game Cards, and will happily give a more honest, upfront, less greedy, and more professional company. I hope that some, if not many of you all do the same. If this company is willing to screw people, then get mad when they react badly, being rude and unprofessional, well, then they don't deserve the business of any gamers who value these things. What do you all think?

This is a link to my Wrath CE unboxing. It's my first try at this king of video, hell any kind of video, so be kind!

I know, I know, I promised that tonight there would be a live All Things Azeroth recording, and while it likely won't go out as a podcast item, there will be an event tonight on Stickam. I will be doing unboxing, first showing you all my original Collector's Edition for the game's launch, then my Wrath Collector's Edition. These will likely go live about 12:30 or so CST, and last about 15-20 minutes. If I can do it, I will put the video out on YouTube or something, so that you who cannot make it due to purchase lines and stuff can still see the glory of the CE. Graece may be there as a watcher, though her eagerness to get into the game will be hard to beat. So come on, join me tonight, and we'll all revel in the CE together!

I was working last night when the Lich King began his attacks on Orgrimmar and then Stormwind, but his attacks were still underway when I got home to try to record All Things Azeroth. Once that fell through, I headed into game and took a look for myself. I was very happy with the event, though wish it had gone longer. What was especially nice, for someone who is concerned a lot with the impact of epic world events on lower level characters, was that lower levels who ventured to the docks were not attacked by all the aggresive mobs that were out.

As an end to the Burning Crusade era of World of Warcraft, I couldn't ask for a better, more epic experience, and it might not even be over yet. Right now the servers are still down, a mail bug that occured on maintenance and vanished all of our mail(the work of the LichKing no doubt), but when they come back up, who knows what might be happening. Will the event have progressed? Or will repeated attacks on major cities be the end of the Burning Crusade era of this game we all love. Farewell, Lord Illidan. We were not prepared when we flooded through the portal, but we leave to face new challenges, new enemies, new adventures. /salute

I have asked before about preparation and plans surrounding Wrath before, but I thought it might be a good time to check in again, since when I asked before we were a long way off from Wrath's launch, coming in three days. So the first part was asking what you will be doing in the last 24 hours before Wrath launches? Will you be trying to get a few last items sold on the AH? Will you be grinding out some rep? Doing a few dailies whole they still return gold? Working to get your professions up to 350 in order to bring your skills up to where they start in Wrath? Respeccing or regemming to more leveling friendly specs or stats. Or maybe you just plan to farm for lowbies or your planned Death Knight? Me, I have plans to increase my xp gain right away on install.

Now to after the expansion hits. What are your plans for after the expansion goes live? Will you choose to be a servant of the Lich King? Will you hop a ride north and begin taking our fight to that very King? If so, will you be hitting up Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord? Going to Northrend to learn new levels of gathering skills, but going to Outlands to get skill ups? Working on Outlands or Azeroth to do old stuff to scour lag? Or are you pretty new to WoW, or too low, for Wrath to really matter to your game play? I also wonder how many just won't be getting the expansion, and instead will spend the day of and those after the expansion just reveling in how quickly Outlands cleared out? I will take all my 70s to Northrend for training but at least my Druid will keep farming Outlands for herbs to level alchemy and inscription.

Yesterday I talked a little about when to buy WoW's next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and went over some memories of two years ago, as well as the logic of those who will buy it now, soon, and later. Today I ask you where you plan to buy it. Do you have a Preorder? Will you go to a store and hope for the best? Will the freebies decide your loyalty, or will it be the place you get all your games from? Are you one of those who ordered online, and who awaits, eagerly, the knock from the UPS or FedEx guy with your peanut filled package of evil?

WoW Insider had been keeping their reader's eyes out for specials and freebies for Wrath's launch, which were very prevalent for Burning Crusade, but seems to come up sadly short. We have Best Buy, Future Shop, as well as a few foreign sellers with deals that have a mix of value, from the barely a deal, to a complete steal. Word has come that Amazon is selling the Collector's Edition again, this time at the harsh price of almost double the original price. I guess we can only be thankful that they are doing the gouging now, instead of in six months like they did for the original Collector's Edition. So, my beloved readers, where will you be going to buy Wrath from, and when?

I have talked to a lot of folks, guild members, bloggers, fans of the podcast and blog, and I have gotten a variety of answers to this question, and to be honest it surprised me. Perhaps it was my inexperience shining through, but when Burning Crusade his, 22 months ago, it felt like the collective of WoW players were bristling with excitement over the expansion. People eagerly warmed the gate area, slaughtering demons en masse, and waiting anxiously for the portal to be accessible, waiting to pass through it's swirl into the world many of us has seen only in screen shots and YouTube leaks.

I was there, on that dais, 22 months ago, when the first Netherwhelp appeared alongside it's proud new owner. A guildmate had gotten his Collector's Edition, so many of us int he Shadow Walkers, occupying a reserved corner of the platform, sat and watched, admiring the sweet looking pet. Then, his excitement getting the better of him, the netherwhelp departed, following it's owner, as he ventured to the portal and through it. "HOLY SHIT!" were the next words he uttered in guild chat, as he eyed the world on the other side. All of us, each just as envious as the next, sat there for the next hour as first one by one, then ten by ten, and then in waves the players of Argent Dawn US passed through the Dark Portal.

If I were to compare the excitement, the eagerness, and the atmosphere of that launch, on that cold, snowy night in January, to the times now, as we approach the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, I can only call this muted. Yes, there are midnight launches. Yes, there are parties planned the world over. But somehow, this time, it all seems less of a fervor. The bloggers are excited, but even a few of them have said they aren't getting Wrath on the 13th. Some will go on the weekend, some in a week, and yet others say they are going to be buying it in weeks or months.

Will every one of those people hold off? No, of course not. They will see their friends, and their guildmates going on those boats and those zepplins to Northrend. They will see the loot from Utgarde, and Nexus, and drool. They will use the dressing room to see how uber that Death Knight gear would look on them. But some will resist. Some will continue their resolve to hold back. I know I won't, and don't plan to. I intend to leave work at 9 pm, and take the next bus to the EB Games, preorder receipt in hand. I intend to hustle my ass along the no doubt ice filled sidewalks those 4 blocks to my home. I will turn the camera on, and begin to record the unboxing of my Collector's Edition. How about you?

Thrall is hitting up the Banshee Queen. Tirion, or at least one of them, is toying with Whitemane between her attempts to save Mograine and her complaints about losing her hat. The Lich King is recruiting undead bloggers. Vashj, Sunstrider, and both Illidan and Malfurion bicker, the arguments of old never resolved. Archimonde plots his next move, while Vishas, well, he doesn't do much of anything, as per usual.

The Eye of Naxxramas seems to be feeling the lonliness of having no one around to pick on, and Mankrik's Wife has been found, though no one cares yet. Cro Threadsong is proving he can pick fights with more than just the kind old fruit lady, C'Thun is trying out the latest delicacies, Putress is just being vile, and Illidan's roomie has joined the crowd. Check my show, myself, and my cohost over there too!

I was surfing around a few minutes ago and found a thread posted in the US forums by the Blizz rep Crygil, stating the beta realms were down as of 12 am PST. While it is true that beta realms have been literally deserted since 3.0.2 hit, I am very surprised that they brought the beta realms down so far in advance of the expansion launch. I am both surprised and saddened that there was no final event, like both of the prior betas. Vanilla WoW and TBC betas both had huge end of beta events! Deciding to test the waters, since it was about 3:15 CST(1:15 AM PST) I quickly updated the last beta patch and tried to login.

That was the point when I got the screenshot the to the right, a final farewell to the beta realms. While the beta realms are not yet down completely, I trust the blue in that they will have the realms down, but it saddens me that they could not take the Wrath beta out with their traditional, and beloved bang. No raid bosses in Shatt, not Lich King in Dalaran, no Magtheridon in Dun Morough. Just... *poof*. /mourn You will be missed, Wrath Beta Realms!

[Update: Apparently the 10 PM posting last night was meant to say that beta realms will be going down at 11:59 on the 4th, not 12:01 on the 4th, so they are still up as of 12:30 CST, but alas nothing notable going on, other than people spending all their gold on stupid stuff.]

The air has grown chilled, the waters stilled. The signs point to the event that has been anticipated with bated breath. Prepare yourselves, for... 3.0.3 is nearly upon us. The downtime is extended right about the same length of a usual patch maintenance, and people are preparing. While it is hard to know what the patch will actually hold, since even WoW Insider is only quoting the PTR notes, which could have changed in the 3 week or so run that the PTRs had.

We know that many Ret changes were hot fixed, which Siha points out were done without PTR testing, and other changes are so small, like the Hallowed Be Thy Name change, that they are unlikely to not make the patch. The Druid talent reset is pretty much a given, along with many of the changes to their talents. Other than that? Well, anything could happen. WoW Insider got something right, though, that Patch 3.0.3 is most likely going to happen, even if we haven't seen the typical 'thanks for testing' message on the PTR forums. 

Note: WoW Insider is using guesses and labeling Test Realm info as confirmed patch info. This should be noted, but isn't. PTR notes at launch can differ wildly from live patch notes.

Well, it's November 2nd, and that means that while it seems the Scourge Invasion is still in progress, the Hallow's End festival is now done for another year. How close are you to your particular faction's Hallowed by Thy Name meta achievement for a wicked 'The Hallowed' title? Don't forget, 3.0.3 will bring a change to that particular meta to remove the Mask For All Occasions achievement from the current live version of the meta. Me? I got no new helms for my toons. I still have no Sinister Squashling, though I will admit I did not summon the Horseman as much as I could, only doing about 30 or so summons between all my toons.

I wish Blizzard would make them more plentiful, as well as the new item The Horseman's Reins, but I think they best we are going to get is that the Squashling and Helm now come in the treat bags. I did get The Horseman's Helm on Telaan, making it 2/2 on my plate wearers, and Ameland got the new The Horseman's Blade, which looks awesome and has a nice Greater Agility enchant. I have about 150 Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern stored away on my mule, and those will be used to get my Death Knight the Check Your Head achievement and the rest will go on the AH around the end of Novemeber so all the other Death Knights can get their heads checked on time.

Lastly we have a little reminder. As it is the beginning of November, it's time to run out to Nagrand, to Aeris Landing, and grab your free container of gems, also known as Membership Benefits, if you are friendly or better. If you have no rep, I would hold off until the end of the month, since rep for these beings is faily easy to grind and honored is not that hard to get. The item you get is based on your rep at the time you complete the quest, I beleive, so it is always better to hold off and see what you can hit by month's end.

A few days back, when the first ret nerf hotfixes came in, the ones with the JotW changes, I had a short comment based conversation with Zach Yonzon, who is WoW Insider's resident Paladin expert, where I railed against the changes, while admitting that it is quite possible the dps changes were needed for PvP. Zach admitted that the JotW might need some looking into, which is a decent shift in his opinion. As the nerf bat kept swinging, Zach tried valiantly to see Blizzard's perspective.

I too was trying hard. Very, very hard. I don't PvP, so it could be reasoned that I do not understand the playstyle's minutiae. 36 hours ago I was all ready to give you my thoughts on what I thought would be the last swing of the nerfbat. At that point, I felt like I was back about 1 month ago. I was killing stuff about the same speed, I was running out of mana about as much, it felt like the only thing that had changed was I had a few new spells, and a few things had differed. Then came the word from Ghostcrawler on the Beta forums that they weren't done yet.

Apparently the already significant nerfs to Divine Storm, all of the seals and judgments, Judgment of the Wise, and Hammer of Wrath, as well as nerfing the spec down to equal to where they were before 3.0.2 and making Retribution Aura critical to a Paladin's dps, they still feel that there is more swings of the nerf bat in store. To make this worse, the 'if's and may be, and only if's seemed to count for little, since the hot fix went live either before, or very shortly after the post. So much for warning us, GC.

So now, we the DPS Retribution Paladins, long called lolret, and retardins, are back in the basement. Instead of nerfing us to the ground, they have once again nerfed us into the basement. They balance level 80 talents to a one month level 70 game. They tell us one time that we are fine in PvE, then the next time they tell us we were too good, too powerful, and must be nerfed. I, like Zach and many other Retribution Paladins, am tired of the nerfs. As of last night, after this nerf went live, I was literally worse off than I was 30 days before. It took me a lot longer to kill mobs, I ran out of mana significantly faster, and my dps was barely noticeable. Grats Blizzard, you have undone months of good will.