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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!

Seeing as how the episode in edit now is the 54th episode of this here fine Podcast product, and that makes the RSS feed a little long in the tooth, not to mention the file size,  I have decided to truncate the RSS feed and launch a new Full Archive feed. I recommend that you only use this feed if you need all of the 54 episodes of the show, and if not, stick to the one you can get via iTunes or the normal places. Thanks for staying tuned to Your World of Warcraft Podcast!

I am happy to reveal here that the most recent episode has become the most downloaded episode of this podcast. I want to thank the WotLK Wiki for their link and the info they have provided. To the new listeners and old, I promise you a new episode this week, as there is much to discuss surrounding the Worldwide Invitational that happened this past weekend in Paris. If you have not listened to the latest episode, I recommend you do so now. Thanks, one and all, for listening to Your World of Warcraft Podcast!

Going to be cross posting this on the Blog and the Podcast site between twitters as the Invitational news rolls in.

4:45 AM CST - Event begins
5:06 AM CST - Mike Morhaim takes the stage as the High Res audio and video begins working
5:20 AM CST - Diablo 3 is revealed as the next title from Blizzard Entertainment
5:45 AM CST - Dancers closing out ceremonies

Ok, so no Starcraft 2 news. No Wrath of the Lich King News. But we have Barbarians! And Witch Doctors! *yawn* What a waste of an hour's sleep.

Episode 53 brings an interview with Darkside from the Wrath Alpha Wiki. Music in opening by Dax of Musings of a Nut Job



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It all began with twitter, a micro blogging site out there on the tubes. I checked in randomly, and saw both the WoW Insider
account and one of their writer's, Matticus, post that they had
received a tip that Gamespy would have new info on Wrath of the Lich
King at midnight PST. It was about 25 minutes away, so I opened up the
many places I post to, and waited impatiently. What follows is the deluge of info released.


An interesting quote I pulled from the article has Jeff Kaplan saying
"going forward, all the five-man heroic dungeons will be itemized
completely separately from the lower-level experience." This is an
interesting change. Matticus has also posted on Twitter under Patyomatt
that he found that all WLK raid dungeons will have 10 and 25 man
versions... that is really interesting! Oh, and the two versions, like
the 5 man normal and heroics, will be itemized individually.


Coldara, the dungeon in Borean Tundra, is where we will face off
against the blue dragons, including an encounter where we get to fly
drakes around and use their abilities in the fight. Sounds like a
blast! Another thing Blizzard learned is that players like 5 man
dungeons that can begin and end within about an hour, which I will
concur is very much a welcome change.


Another point on the Raiding and Dungeon front is that there will be no
attunements in Wrath, nor will there be any requirement to do a 10 man
dungeon in order to do the 25 man, meaning blizzard learned from the
frustration that was heroic keys and painfully long attunement chains.


Death comes in many sizes

For the Death Knights, the news starts with the lore, and this is where
the Alliance get to share in some Forsaken style stories. The Death
Knights will be, much like Forsaken, former servants of Arthas who
broke from his control and now battle against him. Other news is a
solid standing of how to make a Death Knight, limitations on them, and
some of the features.


The main article goes more into how the Death Knight will work, but the
more I hear about the system for the DK, the more I think we will need
to see and play it, not to mention doing the hero intro quests, in
order to properly understand the class. The change from an expected
Level 80 epic quest to unlock, to a simple 'have a level 55 or better'
is really going to explode the number of Death Knights.


Speaking of Death Knights, the site also has an article specifically
about the class, detailing what I say above, and giving a bit more info
on them. First, the Death Knight will be able to summon undead, sort of
like the Druid trees from the Balance side. Second, the DK will be able
to ressurect a friendly or enemy fallen, though not in their form, and
not in their control, instead using them as a Ghoul that they can
choose to control or set wild on surrounding mobs.


For you Warriors out there, worried about losing your raid spots to
some up and coming young Death Knight, we got some more information on
how the DK tanking will be. First, there will be no shield for the
Death Knight. "their primary forms of mitigation will come in the form
of Parrying, and the inherent power of their Presences and rune
abilities." writes Gerald Villoria. He adds that Blood will, contrary
to early speculation, not be the DPS runes, but the primary tanking
runes. Not surprising, though, Frost will be the CC type runes.


With a reported niche in magic dealing bosses, versus melee bosses, the
Death Knight will definitely fill some roles that current tanks need
major healing through. I will definitely agree with Mr. Villoria, there
is a lot that players will be outraged about when it comes to this hero
class, but like many have asked for, this new class is feeling a lot
more heroic as more details emerge.

The videos
With this new deluge of info on Gamespy, we also received 5 new zone videos. I am going to give my thoughts on them here.

Borean Tundra - I love the whale under the water, but I hope we don't need to kill them. They look too cool, and I have waited too long for non monster water life to appear. The tuskarr look neat, but very cartoonish. Ok, even more cartoonish than the rest of WoW. The Alliance town by the sea actually looks like I had expected Menethil to, large, bustling, and ever growing. Oh god, not more Harvest Golems! I thought I was rid of them at level 20! Wow, Coldara looks awesome! No, it's not just the epic LOTR style of music either. Oh, nice, platforms, more places for me to fall off of!Definite goblin presence. Some very neat looking undead structures, I am guessing this is the vaunted 'first time the undead make something instead of take it over' type settlement.

Sholazar Basin - AKA Un'goro Crater: The Sequel! Looks like a jungle, with palm trees and great waterfalls. Can I bring my Canon 350D into WoW? Please? Whoa! Vehicle combat? Looks sort of cool... umm... did he just shoot some flying beasts out of the sky in his fighter plane? What about looting the bodies? This looks so cool, it makes the TBC bombing runs look almost boring! Ahh, those 'flying things' were gargoyles. Oh, look, his fighter plane even comes with a parachute that is so tattered he couldn't float if he were made of feathers. Still, it looks really neat.

Zul'Drak - Another troll dungeon or zone. Yay? Ahh, troll, abominations, and spiders. What else can they throw in a dungeon? Aww, the Lich has his own Dalaran bubble.. how cute! Hmm, that looks like a skeletal form of Hakkar... but smaller I think. Another place I could spend hours with my camera at if it were real... and not filled with stuff trying to kill me. Wait, what? Red forests reminscent of the area near Silvermoon? Huh? Ok, now I am confused, back to back shots of what looks like the same place, one has everything covered in snow, the other, looks like it could be a summer evening. Have to look into that more.

Dragonblight - Wow, that was a loud intro. Lots of channeling for some reason. Is that the boss from Magister's Terrace? The guy from the fight that is just like Curator? Nice dragon bones. Umm, why did they include a shot that looks barely rendered and not even colored or textured? Do giants in Northrend have no color or texture? More red foliage. Hmm. The Alliance under attack. Shocking. Naxx perhaps? With flying skeletal dragons partoling nearby? They look reminscent of the Wyrms from the Manga that the scourge was raising. Ok... now we are onto... Grizzly Hills - Another busy Alliance port city. Will these boats actually move? Be used? Horde deforestation... *sigh* Enough sterotypes, Blizz! Whoa! Ironforge in Northrend! Oh, wait, probably Ulduar. Looking impressive for sure.

Howling Fjord - Wait, ok, so this is where the Undead settlement is. I guess the one before was scourge or Nerubian. Did I mention that the undead scourge buildings and structures are largely Nerubian by design? Oops. We also have a Thunder Bluff type rise. Weren't there supposed to be ancestors to the Tauren out in Northrend? Requisite Dragon. Looks like a Vrykul settlement, and I do not want to know if that 'dragon hide' draped over a steel skeleton is real hide. neat, flaming ancient in a flaming forest ala Charred vale in Stonetalon. I sooo want to fly through this continent on my bird or dragon. Utgarde Keep looks cool, with some really neat fights and mechanics. I look forward to LFG UT in a few months.

That is about it for the videos. Some really amazing stuff to be seen, and I cannot wait for WLK to ship. Sadly, my predicted release range of summer keeps slipping. Maybe I thought too highly of Blizzard's ability to ship this game in less time than the last took. Look for a podcast between now and Saturday morning. 

More coming soon...

On the 31st of January I recorded episode 18, the 50th episode, of All Things Azeroth with the intent to edit and publish it last week. Tonight, due to the influx of information that has come out in the last few days about patch 2.4 and the Wrath of the Lich King, I recorded a new version. I think the one today will be better, more energetic and less rant filled than the last one. I hope to have it out by the 10th. Look for it soon!

This from WoW Insider, a new community for WoW bloggers and their fans can talk about stories and ideas in one easy place. Blog Azeroth is a great place to meet the bloggers you read every day(including me) and discuss hot topics in the World of Warcraft with those who are the most passionate about the game. With a section for podcasts, another for blogging tools, and tips for those who are planning to blog WoW. Check it out, and tell them Medros sent you!

After much consideration, I have decided to take on a sponsor for this here lowly
podcast, at least on a trial basis. This means that it is pretty likely that your RSS
feed has recently downloaded, or attempted to download, about 45 episodes of the
podcast due to some changes made to my RSS feed. I want to apologize briefly for this.
I plan and hope that this will be the last time you will have to see this occurrence.

You will also, if you are reading this, see an ad up top for my new sponsor. I have
known of Gotomeeting for a long time, but I only recently had the opportunity to check
them out. This is a first for me on my podcast, as the only ad offers before were for
gold sellers, which I adamantly refused due to my stand on the product, so I hope you
will all show my sponsor the respect they deserve for taking the plunge in supporting
this podcast, and at least check out their 45 day free trial offer.

Hopefully they will stay around, perhaps other offers will come my way, but for the
time being, this is where we're at.

The day's coverage began with many players criticizing the news site WoW Insider for not being willing to cover unverifiable rumors that fan sites like MMO Champion where reporting. Statements of being behind the curve and too slow to be a real source of information came from several readers, even when WoW Insider confirmed for themselves via a Blizz staff member, which is rather laughable seeing as how it proves the difference between a fan site and a new site.

Semantics and opinions aside, the big news was revealed yesterday, fueling a huge amount of hype and speculation. While I have said several times that I didn't think level 80 was enough for facing off against the combined powers of Arthas and the Lich King, and thus had predicted we'd have an Ocean based expansion first, and maybe at level 90 we'd be powerful enough for Arthas. I still think we are too weak, but I guess that is why I do not make these games.

Other highlights of the features already announced for the expansion are that we will go to Northrend, where we will face mobs such as the Tuskarr, Vrykul(15 foot tall viking like mobs), and possibly blue dragons as well. The home city of Northrend, the Shattrath of Northrend if you will, is going to be a transported Dalaran, which float above the lands of Northrend. Surprising no one, Blizz took this chance to get a few laughs with an animation of the beloved purple dome floating up to Northrend.

This expansion will bring to the game several features people have wanted, and in some cases Blizzard has suggested, since before the original launch of the game. Hero classes, starting with at least the Death Knight class, will be coming in the expansion, as well as Siege Weapons in Battle Grounds, and improve character customizations, even on existing characters. Can you say hair salons? I knew you could. Hair will not be the only customization, as dances and other features will be customizable, but Blizzard developers did say that plastic surgery would likely not be in the expansion.

From the Expansion panel, where Developers gave more details than the general publicity stuff of the main announcement, we learned the names, designs, and details about the first 4 zones of Northrend that are done right now. The main entry points to Northrend will be the Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra zones, the first being home to Utgarde Keep and the aforementioned large, evil vikings who have become corrupted by the Lich King Arthas, and the second being home to Tuskarr with Naga apparently working to melt the glacial lands of the Tundra.

The other 2 zones that Blizzard introduced where Grizzly Hills, home to some unpleasant Furbolg, and Dragonblight, the graveyard of the dragon flights, and suspected home of the Blue Dragonflight and their aspect, Malygos. I saw no information on which zone Dalaran will be in, but Blizzard did say it will be floating in the sky of Northrend, and accessible by land and by flying mounts, which will give us our first chance to control our own mounts in Azeroth. In response to a question on whether we will need new flying mounts for Northrend, a developer answered that there will be new mounts available, but old ones should still work.

As I said before, WoW players have been waiting for Hero Classes for almost 3 years, and the general consensus seems to be that while Death Knights are a good start, many hope there are other hero classes at the expansion's launch to allow players more choice and broader variations to the available hero classes. When asked about additional character slots, the original answer was no, but after much negative reaction from the audience, the devs said they would look into it.

The sense I got from what I read is that this may be simply a delaying tactic. I guess we will see. I would be happy with a different character selection screen for Heroes, but as my main server has currently 10/10 characters, if they do not have some way to add to the max limit, I would not be able to get a hero class. I would be more than a little disappointed at this. I hope we will see some news on this over the next few months.

Some of the stuff we learned about the hero class Death Knight is that it will have undead minion pets, wear plate, and have proficiency in bladed weapons. It will use runes instead of mana, with spells using specific rune combinations, each a mix of the three run types, frost, unholy, and blood. Death Knights will perform shadow spells, and will almost be a mix of the two classes Blizzard wanted to introduce in the beginning, Death Knight and Necromancer. The hero class will begin at somewhere between 55 and 70, and be a raid centric character, with the stated ability to 'hang out with Arthas'.

Some of the changes they stated that would be coming between now and the expansion is another CoT instance, the previously announced Zul'Aman, Voice chat, and Guild banks, more daily quests, dealing with stuff like cooking, battlegrounds, and at least one dungeon. We can eventually expect to see an improvement on the lowbie grind, more information on the new Inscription profession, and much more. Oh, and for those interested, Inscription can allow you to add effects and power to spells you already have.

I hope you like my summary/review of the news out of BlizzCon, and please stay tuned for the next episode of All Things Azeroth, coming sometime this coming week.