Opinion: September 2008 Archives

I have noticed while reading the latest Blue Posts that we are beginning to see a list of stuff mentioned at Blizzcon '07 and WWI '08 that I noted that has been added to the 'Not at ship' list. So far I am noticing new Druid form art, already changed from a promised Dire Cat Form, will now not happen until after Wrath ships. I would note they don't seem to be doing it half assed, which is nice, but this makes me wonder if some of the data mined Minor Gyphs that would have changed the look of cat form will actually make it into the game at launch. This also makes me wonder how many minor glyphs, if any, will actually ship, since I am not yet seeing any in beta and only a handful of potential minor glyphs data mined.

We also know now that the former 11 point talent, Trap Mastery, will now be a 41 point talent and is currently broken. Something that saddens me more, though, is that Koraa has stated that the talent will not be improved before Wrath ships, instead getting some changes 'in a future patch', which could mean 3.1, 3.5, or somewhere in between. Add on to this that the shaman ability Riptide will not ship with proper sound and animations, causing complaints from Shamans that caused Tigole, a Dev, to ban at least two players last weekend.

We already knew that Icecrown Citadel would not be in Wrath on the 13th of November, as they have stated all along that it will be in an early 3.x content patch, but I have to wonder what else will change to 'will not ship'. Will many of the minor glyphs change? I would imagine, based on the blue post, that any texture changes to the Druid forms will not be there, so no polar bear tanks in Wrath. Don't get me wrong, I love the level of detail they are aiming for because the Swift Flight Form, for druids at least, looked absolutely awesome, but I just wish that they would stick to their guns on some of the promised coolness.

When I began working on this post, I will admit, the only thing I had was the Druid skin thing, but this post on WoW Insider brought several more issues to my attention. Zach Yonzon, the author of the post, points out, and rightly so, that this is not the usual 'When it's Ready' we get from Blizzard. This has the feel of an expansion being pushed out on a deadline that simply must be met. Is this the result of Activision Blizzard? Devs banning people for complaints that are more plentiful than mosquitoes in July? Titles shipping come hell or high water by a certain date, unfinished or not? I think the poll on WoW Insider says it all about what the fans think, with a 2:1 ratio of folks who want the expansion When it IS ready, versus on the date that was set.

Do you know of anything else that has been stated as 'not when shipped'? Dance Studios? Dual Specs? Dire Cat Form? What features of the game do you fear are at the high probability of being put off to a later patch? Let me know in the comments of the blog here at From the Abbey to Outlands!

For the last several months, pretty much since we had confirmation of what the Wrath Collector's Edition pet would be, and therefore receiving confirmation there would be a Collector's Edition, I have been calling my local(4 blocks away) EB Games to see if they have the Collector's Edition in their pre order system yet. Well, they hadn't. Until last Tuesday, the 16th. On Monday Blizzard announced that the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will be released on November 13th, and they also formally announced the Collector's Edition.

A lot of my friends, both the cynical Europeans and the frugal Americans, seem to think I am nuts. I may just be. I did, though, wanted to give my reasons why I changed my preorder from the normal Wrath to the Collector's edition. Let's go with the feature list up first:

• DVD of the expansion - I cannot count the number of times I have cursed loosing my original game DVD as I have reinstalled from the 4 disc set, then patched it all the way to current.
• The art book and behind the scenes DVD - Often, when I feel the old game creep in and slowly sadden me, I take out the art book and DVD, then revel in the creative process that went into making this a game I have played for 4 years now.
• The Official Soundtrack - Because I will buy this off iTunes if I don't get it here. I love the music in the beta already!
• Two March of the Legion TCG Starter Decks - Rocket Chicken, Paper Flying Machine Kit, and the Dragon Kite. 'Nough said.
• Map of Northrend Mouse Pad - I might use this for a bit if it's not the hard plastic kind that seems to curl at the sides and becomes unplayable.
• Lastly... Frosty the baby frost wyrm! Yeah, I am a sucker for the pet, and really regretted not getting the TBC CE for the Netherwhelp. I <3 my Panda's, Diablo's, and Zergling's from the original CE, and wish they would bring the three in one back!
  

In the end, I found the original Collector's Edition more than worth the effort to get it, and knew that this year's would be blockbuster. I really look forward to opening my box at 12:01 or 12:30 AM on the 13th and sliding the DVD in, beginning the install of the expansion, and hitting play on the behind the scenes DVD as I hunt the starter decks for a loot card. See you in line!

As you likely know by now, Brewfest, the Oktoberfest of World of Warcraft, and the holiday has a fair number of new things that weren't around in 2007. First off, the new holiday boss. Coren Direbrew can be found, when you have the quest at 70, in the Grim Guzzler in Blackrock Depths. He is a fairly hard fight, with different phases. Much like the Lord Ahune fight at midsummer, there are things that pop up out of the ground to knock you in the air, there are adds that make things difficult, and of course awesome loot.

At the last minute Blizzard announced they will allow all races to get both the Kodo and Ram mounts, though they will now be dropped by Coren, not purchased for tokens. While Kisirani just a day before had adamantly argued in this lengthy thread that they would not be allowing Alliance to get Kodos, we did find out due to this post that Blizzard had hotfixed the two mounts into Coren's loot table and all races would be able to win the mounts.

To get to Coren,you pick up a quest in Kharanos, Dun Morogh, though some requisites might be needed, then you head to the Blackrock Depths. When inside the instance, you kill off the level 70 Dark Irons, then use the controller to travel through the Depths to the Grim Guzzler. That's right, no need to clear the way. Once there, you talk to the dwarven spy, admire some demonic tail, and when you are all ready, you go and toss a few 'Yo Mama's at Coren, causing him to attack.

My advice is this: Run away when he disarms, have a healthstone ready, and burn him down as fast as you possibly can. There will be stuns, throws, and adds, and all of those will be dealt with in the proper times, but the big thing is to get him down as fast as you can. The loot is decent, though there is no known pet that he drops. He does have two trinkets that summon mobs to help you, but those are not vanity pets. Our group had 4 summons and killed him twice, which got me Empty Mug of Direbrew on Telaan. Enjoy Brewfest, and be sure to act responsibly and to not drink and ride!

I figured that since there is so much yummy goodness in the beta, I would start a small series of top 5s, just to give you short roundups from my beta testing experiences. The first one I want to tackle, of course, it the top 5 Paladin spells I have learned so far in the beta.

Divine Storm - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards.  The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
This spell right now is #2 in my rotation on the beta, right after Crusader Strike. While the DPS of this ability can be sweet, especially when it procs, the soloing bonus of that 20% can be amazing to see. I now almost always pull 2 - 3 mobs in order to maximize the benefits.

Judgement of the Wise - Your Judgement spells have a 100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second, and to immediately grant you 20% of your maximum mana.
This is commonly known among the paladins I talk to as a mana battery. Every 10 seconds, as long as I have a Seal up, I can replenish, at level 75, about 1500 mana using Judgement of Wisdom. With Global Cooldown and the other spells in my rotation, it is rare that I am not at least 85% mana as long as I do not forget to judge. In fact, I more often find myself low on health than low on mana. I am considering testing this with Judgement of Light, just to get a small heal in here and there.

Repentance - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage caused will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
This ability is what I usually use for the 4th mob I pull. If I know my Divine Storm won't hit everyone, being limited to 3 an all, I will usually repentance one of the enemies, and pull the other 3 far enough away. Often by the time the 1 minute is up, I am done with his friends and ready to take him on. Long overdue improvement to this spell.

Art of War - Increases the critical strike damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 20% and when these abilities critically hit your next Flash of Light spell becomes instant cast.
This ability was already pretty sweet with the recent improvements to the Flash of Light component. I have not yet tried the Flash of Light side, due to repeated crashes from the beta client, but I will be deliberately watching for the buff and seeing if it is as useful as I suspect.

Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 10 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50%.
This is one of the many in a new class of spell I call a MoT(Mana over Time) spells that have crept into the game in the Wrath of the Lich King. This is one of those 'Oh crap, I have no mana' spells, since judgements cost mana, and while it feels like the regen of mana takes forever, in no time you have at least enough for Holy Shield or a last hoorah spell to try to eek out victory.


While these are merely the best I found, there was at least another 5 I could find in the changed spells list of the Wrath beta. Yes, most of these are Retribution, but that's what I play. If you are Holy or Protection specced and want to give me your top 5, let me know in the comments and I will be happy to post them as a guest entry on this blog, or even link to your own. Keep reading for the next in the list of Top 5s from the beta and live game!

Ok, so this is not quite the equivalent of the Fire Sale in Die Hard, but for those of you who were not around before BC launched, this is not uncommon. Now that we know exactly how long we have until the new expansion comes out, which you can see right on the front page of this blog courtesy of Aurdon over at isheepthings.com, people are selling off anything they don't need long term ont he working theory that on November 12th at 11:59 it will all be pretty much worthless.

Epic gems for 100g or less. Rare gems that are not Talasites nearing the 10g mark and dropping fast. Netherweave Cloth going for 1g a stack. Rare metals dropping under 50s each! Herbs going for 60-100g a stack! Wait... what? Oh, yeah, Herbs are the only things not on sale, because everyone and their uncle will be rolling a Scribe come the 3.0.2 patch and will need roughly one thousand herbs each to get from 1 to 300, and an unknown quantity to get from 300 to 375 in preparation for Wrath.

So, my friends, my readers, run to your nearest location for the fire sale is still in progress at an Auction House near you!

I first saw word of this from this post on Twitter by WoW Insider author Eliah Hecht. Matt quickly reposted, followed by me. The url in the post points to this post by Eliah on WoW Insider. The summary of the story is that WoW Head, my favorite game info database site, as well as their sister site Thottbot, have what is tantamount to an announcement that Wrath of the Lich King will release on November 13, 2008.

Now I do need to point out that we have no confirmation of this on the WoW site as yet, though Malgayne from WoW Head says it is legit and suggests the time was set for midnight, and the admin who released it is 3 hours ahead of Blizzard in Irvine, CA. What does this mean? I think we will have 3.0.2 within 7 days either way of Blizzcon. I think we will have a CE announcement, if not at the time of the official announcement of the date, within days. I think.... that midnight PST can't come soon enough!

[Update 1: The Customer Service forums are the first to get a blue response, though it remains inconclusive.]

I was working on my Inscription in the beta, and I thought to myself that leveling a gathering profession from 1 to 450 will be a horrible pain in my arse. This is the basis of this article. I feel that the lack of pre leveled professions for Death Knights will leave them as a default dual crafting profession class.

While the gathering from 1-300 will give a Death Knight a chance to explore the old world, a good thing due to the World Explorer achievement and title, I do not think that the majority of Death Knights will want to spend their valuable Wrath time going from Elwynn, to Westfall, to Darkshire, to Stranglethorn, all in search of the elusive dot on the mini map.

No, I think that those of us with at least a herbalist, or whatever gathering profession compliments our chosen crafting profession, will skip that grind and just pre gather, or gather for our Death Knights. I know I have pre gathered over 400 herbs for my Death Knight, who will be named Connroe. I am planning right now to make him a Scribe/Blacksmith combo, with potential leanings toward Weaponsmithing since so much of what a Death Knight is, lies in their runeforged weapon.

I am curious if I am the only one who plans to take this route? I was planning to take Traluun into Inscription when 3.0.2 came out, and I may still when I have a better idea of what the guildies are doing, but I know for sure that Connroe will be my go to character for long term inscription needs. I do not plan to have Connroe go into any gathering. I have learned how painful power leveling my herbalism will be if I decided to go that route. It has taken me 3 weeks to hit 300 and that is on a nearly barren realm. Trying to level herbalism within 3 months of Wrath will indeed be a painful thing to do.

What professions do you plan to take on your death dealer? Will you make your Death Knight a dual crafting toon? Are you already gathering in preparations? Let me know in the comments how you plan to proceed with your Death Knight when Wrath descends upon us all! 

I have a few friends in the European region who were in late alpha and early beta, and they all had a chance to see more phases of the expansion than I have in it's testing, so they have a unique perspective on the coming content than I do. This is a benefit when I am trying to research for writing on this blog. They were also invaluable when I got my beta invite. They were the folks I took my 'where's Dalaran' type questions to in my early beta days.

So when I made my temp DK, Isen, I was first excited to start First Aid at 270, then angered when they told me that no other professions get that boost, likely for the worries about having power leveled profession skills that could be exploited. While I can see this point, begrudgingly, I am still as little aggravated that I have had to, and will need to in live realms when Wrath launches, level my herbalism and Inscription from point 1. It looks really silly, seen to the the left, a level 58 master of slaughter and mayhem Death Knight picking Peacebloom in Elwynn Forest.

Now that I have tried out the Blood tree a bit, I decided when the last build gave me a talent reset I would go Unholy with some influence from this post on DeathKnight.info that said that Death Knights can now be a full use pet class. I do like me a pet class, but I would like to request, officially, that Blizzard give me a way to pretty up my Ghoul, who looks like he's falling to pieces. Flesheater is nice and all, but I am a little worried that a bone or key muscle may drop to the ground at a key time in a fight. Oh, and Blizzard? If this is my perma-pet, can I get the same one every time? kthnxbai!

I thought I would bring you all a few of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath beta as of build 8905, which launched Friday, September 5th, 2008. Please remember that this is still beta level content and there is a lot more than can, and will be done in the beta before all is said and done.

Mount on, Mount off - Mounting in cities like Ironforge and Stormwind, currently fine to do on live realms, is back off on the beta realms. I am not sure the cause of this, but I did notice after leaving Dalaran that there is a debuff about flying in Dalaran that did remain, and this could well be the cause of this mounting issues in other cities. I am not sure how many, or which Horde cities currently allow riding, though I do recall an time when many Horde complained about a difference of classifications. If this is still limited in most Horde cities, this could also have an effect on city mounting.

Return to the end - So my little DK, Isen, who is just a testing, screenshot, and exploration toon, not the DK I plan to make on the beta realms for actual play testing, has been advised to return to the Ebon Hold by this post, virtual ! and all, to 'complete' the Death Knight starting experience. What happened when I did was interesting, even if all it truly showed me was that the Starting Experience will be a mess on launch and that the experience should bring most players to 58 when they complete the experience as it is in this build.

To the right you will see a sample of the treatment my Death Knight got in Stormwind upon being sent there at the end of the current experience. I did not, sadly, have the foresight to check in on the cities before hitting a Death Gate back to the hold. What I found when I got there, though, was quite an interesting site. First the lag issues. Holy crap! It was taking about 30-90 seconds for any action to be registered in the game. There was Death Grips going off all over the place, with mobs sometimes being lassoed around from one end of the area to the next. I saw mobs which did not show the tag for them until just before they got their killing blow.

The idea by what I understood was that all of this occurs after the now legendary fight at Light's Hope Chapel. This is the former end of the experience where Tirion Fordring not only kicks the ass of the entire scourge forces, but redeems Darion Morgraine and wounds the Lich King enough to send his tail between his legs. Well, there was always one issue that could never be accounted for. While Darion and all the Player Death Knights are redeemed and brought to the realization of their horrific actions, there was a lot of Lich King loyalists back on Acherus. This step, where you get to fight Patchwerk, the boss from Naxx, and take out the last remnants of the Lich King's forces on Acherus, is the second to last step for your Death Knight.

The last is the utter humiliation of your Death Knight. You are sent through a portal with a letter for your respective faction's leader, Thrall if you are Horde or King Variann Wrynn if you are Alliance. Thrall makes mention of Tirion and his actions written about in 'Of Blood and Honor, where he saves Eitrigg from the hands of the Alliance. Wrynn... well, I guess he's still out of it a bit, cause he just hollers about the salvation of the Death Knights and your banana, spit, and apple attacks, not to mention the verbal abuse cease. The funniest part? The boy, Anduinn Wrynn <King of Stormwind> also spits on you. Yes, there are two kings of Stormwind.

Of Core Hounds and exotic pets - Corehounds, as found in Molton core, Shadowmoon Valley, and other places, look awesome, intimidating, and deadly in their own surroundings, but not so much in the service of a hunter. Also, I am pretty sure the Devilsaur look noticeably smaller this patch. Not having done much with Ameland on beta realms, though, and with the talent reset throwing me for a ride, I am not sure for myself. Anyone with photographic evidence, please email it in!

Unholy Blight Crash: Rank 2 - It seems that not only is Storm Peaks still causing the servers to be as stable as beta patch notes, Icecrown, opened in this patch, is also causing crashing issues. In addition, though, the Death Knight spell Unholy Blight Rank 2 is also said to be causing issues with the servers crashing and has been hotfixed out until the next patch right alongside the Storm Peaks and Icecrown. This makes for interesting flying into or out of Dalaran, as the flight path from any connected point traverses either Storm Peaks or Icecrown, giving you the No Man's Land debuff and sending you back to a Northrend starting area. Fun!

Ch-ch-changes! - Blizzard feels like they are still doing major class balancing with the last patch addressing long lists of changes for Rogues and Warriors, and Ret Paladins and Death Knights both getting a lot of tweaking. As Ghostcrawler put it, they are trying hard to get all of the classes right in their spreadsheets and in game, but it takes time. They are working on it, and this is beta, and in no way is this final.

Is that ice on the mailbox? - Medros was one of my alts lucky enough to receive a Penguin Egg in their mail, which is used to learn the spell to summon this cute little guy you see at left. He is absolutely adorable, and I am sure would look even more so with some of the pet tweaks seen from Breani in Dalaran, like the new pet grooming kit that WoW Insider mentioned over the weekend. I will definitely be heading into the beta realms to see how cute my Chilly looks waddling after the ball chase item from Breani.

Moving on up - Lastly, but related to the Death Knight stuff, I wanted to note how awesome the Stormwind Keep is looking. We now have the return of Variann Wrynn, who is the long lost, and forgetful King of Stormwind, though I am sure his son will one day get his own tag of King removed, perhaps replaced with Prince. I would also love to see Anduinn get a new model, maybe of a slightly older boy. Would be nice world progression. I am curious of what part the Argent Healer NPCs I see all over the place will play in patch 3.0.2 and beyond, but I can assume they have a role in the pre Wrath world events we saw, similar to the pre Burning Crusade events. I can't wait!

There you go, some of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Have something different? Something you want me to check out? Let me know in the comments and I will do my best for the mid week screenshot gallery!

When beta build 8885 went live late last week, there were a whole slew of titles that were put in for Feats of Strength. The feats are one time only, or no longer obtainable goals that are the other side of the achievement feature. Achievements are things you can work toward, things that anyone can obtain with enough work and perseverance. Feats of Strength are no longer obtainable or limited in their ability to obtain, like opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj or hitting 80 first on your server for your class.

With some Feats, there was a title attached, like for the first Death Knight to reach 80 on a realm there was the title of 'of the Ebon Blade', one which any Death Knight would be happy to have. The title aspect of those newly introduced Feats was something of a confusion for many players and beta testers who have been reminded continually that Blizzard wants us to take our time to level 80, not bypass all of the content they worked so hard to design for the adventure of that leveling.

This is why we can't fly in Northrend until level 77, right? Well, yes, that was what they were telling us, but then they put in Feats, which included much coveted titles, for those who did the opposite and rushed to Level 80. The first person to level 80 on a real would automatically get 3 titles, with other classes and races getting some as well. The point was made that these titles only rewarded unhealthy or illegitimate behavior.

Either you medically kepe yourself away for days at a time until you hit 80, or you share your account with others to keep the grind going, essentially working in shifts. Are either of these really fair? I think not. So Blizzard has removed them, realizing the mistake they were making and stepping back from that precipice. I am sure some or all of these titles will make it into the game eventually, but they will no longer be attached to the Feats, making them a sure fire way to induce players to do something they shouldn't.

I want to commend Blizzard for realizing that this was not the way to reward players, that there had to be a better way to convince the playerbase to work toward something. They made a mistake, yes, but they also fixed it, which is a good sign from a company that many of us feel, at times, doesn't listen to us as much as we would like. How do you think that some of the many awesome titles should be implemented to encourage game play, not insanity in order to obtain? Do you think the titles 'Of Argus', 'Crusader', and 'The Lion Hearted' should be obtainable by a small few, or any of those races or classes to whom they apply? Give feedback on this in the comment section below.