Friday! Woohoo!

Last week was pretty busy with lots of new info about the next expansion. This week is a bit less busy. All things shall have balance. In progress I'm working (on and off) on a Rogue FAQ, which I'm sure a few of you should find interesting. In progress here. Don't be shy to contribute. My BvS character is up to Season 9 now and should be reaching Season 10 tomorrow. He's getting strong now ;) It's quite funny, I'm seeing that style signature on the MMOC forums more and more each passing week. Poll End Closing poll: Have you merged your WoW account and Battle.net account yet? * Yes - 47 (61%) * No - 21 (27%) * Will do later - 8 (10%) Keep in mind that the battle.net account merge for WoW players will soon become mandatory. If you haven't already done so, it's highly recommended you get to it soon. You wouldn't want to be locked out of the account page due to the huge flood of players who "forgot" or didn't bother causing the page to time out when Blizzard throws the switch. Blizzard is working on integrating battle.net further into WoW and other games. See the bottom of this post. You'll be able to add your battle.net friends to your WoW friendslist based on their Real ID and always see where they're hanging out! Anyhow, a new poll is up, let me know your mind. * What are you most looking forward to?

Cataclysm progression

Last post for this weekend, more next week no doubt. Still, today's another venerable "wall of text" for your enjoyment! If you're wondering why I'm not really bothering with posting much raid and dungeon info here, that's because there's just not that much to say about it. Sure, cataclysm starts with 4 raids and six 5-man dungeons and two more revamped old dungeons, but other than that... See for yourself. I've always enjoyed BRD (Blackrock Depths) though, it's BIG and good for soloing. In Cataclysm we'll be seeing Blackrock Caverns make an appearance, in mostly the same style and inspiration. It's got great potential. Icecrown Citadel - Patch 3.3, will have 12 bosses, 4 floors, and make use of those two airships you can see flying around in the zone. LFM BRC As far as "how" you'll find people to go to those dungeons with you, Blizzard is planning to implement Cross Server LFG. This should greatly increase the ease at which you find people to play with. At a turn-side however, this will make it a lot easier for ninjas and simply horrible players to get away with doing what they do best. Being idiots. Not only that, but, Blizzard intends to give some sort of reward for group leaders who successfully take a 5 man group through a cross server dungeon. The end result? Everyone will want to be leader, and nobody will want to make a regular group anymore... Time will tell how that fares. In due time the XS-LFG will most likely be expanded to be usable for raids as well. Further expanding the ninja problem. Hopefully some sort of reputation / Karma system will be implemented someday so you will have an easier time filtering out the rotten apples from PUGs. Account-wide (rather than character specific) achievements would go a LONG way in helping with that imo. That aside, I sincerely hope there'll be some gear checking and balancing when the system picks people to make a group with. I don't know about you, but when I'm trying to do the day's daily dungeon quest I surely can't be arsed with getting forcibly teamed up with somebody's green geared alt. Oh, and they're planning to make XS-LFG available starting 3.3 :) Professional Craftsmanship How's that for a clever subtitle eh? Archeology will "primarily" be used to provide you with a new sort of glyph. Namely, "Ancient glyphs". These glyphs can't be made by scribes like the Major / Minor glyphs can. Archeology doesn't actually "make" glyphs either, but you use your ancient findings to trade in for the new items. For further character profession you can choose between some "Paths", you can change paths like any respec, and dual spec remembers the path per spec as well. Earning ranks down your selected Path of the ancients takes time and is limited to a certain maximum each week. Each path will have 2-3 ancient glyph choices, you can respec if you decide to go down another path. Initially there will be six paths available, but more are said to be added later in content patches. (4.1, 4.2 etc) * Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father * Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder * Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver * Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper * Path of Aggramar, the Avenger * Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer Logically the paths will most likely focus on a certain aspect of gameplay. For instance: Tanking, physical dps, caster dps, healer, pvp dps, pvp healer. And provide some interesting utility here and there. Golganneth's path for example gives the bonuses: * Earth's Embrace: Physical damage taken decreased by 4% * Battle Hardened: Reduces the duration of stun and bleed effects by 20% * Medic: Bandages heal targets by an additional 30% * Fortification: (instant, 5 min cd) : Nearby allies take 10% less damage for 6 sec. * Breakthrough: (instant, 5 min cd) : Increases damage dealt by 10% for 10 sec. Only usable after dealing a critical strike. See MMOC for a few screens of the new Glyphs and the new Glyph intereface. It also looks like we'll bet getting one extra Major glyph at level 85, though that's not confirmed yet. More talents Blizzard believes there are too many talents currently, they won't be adding another tier to all classes. Instead you'll just get the expected 5 talent points. However, the talents are also getting a full scale overhaul. The interface will be improved as well, you'll be able to see all three trees in one view instead of separate tabs. Most of the passive talents, such as "+1% crit" are being removed. Instead these bonuses will be given passively(Heh, funny). And you'll get more active talents. You can see the passive bonuses at the bottom of each tree. These will increase automatically as you put more talents in each tree. Each class has their own variation of those. Paladins and warriors for example, will receive health and blocking in their tanking tree. Melee damage and crit in their "damage" tree. T-t-t-teamwork! Blizzard is doing a LOT of cool things for guilds in Cataclysm. One such features is a guild feed, probably RSS, in which people can see what bosses they've killed. This should leave little doubt about who's "first" or not. As stated earlier, your guild will also get it's very own achievement tab in which guild wide achievements will be stored. These achievements, players gaining XP, winning battlegrounds, Arenas, reputation and more. The maximum guild level will initially be lvl 20, each level will earn the guild a single talent point which can be used in the guild talent tree. Some such, talents will slightly increase the gold drops for all monsters killed in raids, dungeons and outside for all guild member. Some will reduce the cost of repairs, improve the effect potions have on members, reputation gains (awesome for grinding), xp gains from monsters (great for your alts), and what looks like mounted speed up to 10% (finally) re-added, mass resurrection (out of combat). Once the guild reaches level 20, any excess experience gained becomes a currency. This can then be used to buy patterns and hierlooms which become available for distribution. Be aware however, that those items are guild-bound. Should you ever decide to leave the guild you obtained the items from (or get kicked for being an idiot) the items will automatically be returned to the guild bank so they can be given to another player. Information wise, there's also a HUGE and much demanded (by myself included) feature being implemented. Profession listings. At last! You'll be able to check the professions and recipes of ALL members in the guild. No longer needing to ask whether there's an enchanter, blacksmith or whatever "online", simply look up the information you seek, check the required materials and ask the person in question directly. Some other stuff Music! If you've listened to Ozzy Osbourne at Blizzcon, hopefully you've developed a taste for more. I present you with: Finger Eleven. Just check it out. If it's not your thing, click it away. No (physical) harm in checking, right? Rock on!

Cataclysm follow up

BlizzCon day 2 should be starting in a couple of hours., On the schedule are: * 10:00am PST - WoW Open Q&A * 11:30am PST - WoW Game Systems * 01:00pm PST - WoW Dungeons & Raids * 02:30pm PST - WoW Classes, Items, and Professions So there will be more info coming :) As a follow up from yesterday are some more of the item and profession changes. (Which I had to miss due to needing sleep) Firstly though, let's put a quick stop to that whole "the list" bullshit. I'm sure you've seen it linked on the MMOC forums a dozen times a day claiming it was right or almost right even before the Cataclysm was announced. Well, let's just put this into your face and say it's WRONG. The original poster confirmed he made it up. At the time the first 3 continents (including TBC and WotLK) were already common knowledge and available for speculation as to how the land mass would be divided. Now the cataclysm comes and surprise surprise it's deviating from his list. Level cap 85 instead of 90, no bloody pandas, worgen an expansion early, etc. It's dead, it's over, quit posting that shit or I'll look you up and carve you out with a dull spoon alright? Next, classes. Dumbing it down Do not underestimate the cunning that is Blizzard. Not only are they planning to severely dumb down the game in Cataclysm, all new items will probably be semi on par with current gear at the rate they're going. Of course the new gear will have a much higher ilvl and more stats, but they'll have much fewer stats. Consider this: You get an item with +20 agi +20 crit. In terms of item budget it's then at it's limit. However, if that same item had it's stats distributed as +15 agi, +15 crit and +15 hit, it'd be using the exact same budget, same ilvl, but "5" whole stat points more. Knowing that, look at where this leads us... Itemization Some quoted texts below. In Cataclysm, there are plans to streamline the statistics found on items. We want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all "core" stats more appealing. Here are some examples of such plans, as various stats will be removed! : * MP5: Will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability. * Spell Power: Is being removed from items as well. To compensate Intellect will provide mana and Spell Power. * Attack Power: Will also be removed from items. Instead, Agility will provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. While strength will give Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers. * Defense: Also being removed (again, from items) so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest. * Block: Is being removed. Blocking an attack will now always mitigate a set percentage of damage. So, that's five possible stats removed. New players will have an easier time, while theory crafters will get bored sooner. And some more stat changes * Armor Penetration: Was considered to be too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later! Basically we had Weapon skill before, then it became weapon mastery, then it became armor penetration, and now it's being changed AGAIN into "mastery". Make up your mind Blizzard T_T * Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit. More haste, more energy... That'll be crazy for Combat rogues, and I seriously hope they'll increase our energy bar. At 100 energy, with certain talents I'm already having trouble trying to make sure that energy stays below 100... It just refills too quickly. * Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed. Yay, not. Anyone else think this game is too focused on PvP? What's your class doing? Hunters Hunters get their mana changed into "Focus". Basically it's the same as the rogue's energy, or their pet's focus, just with a different name. Meaning they'll be less burst capable. Also means aspect of the viper is probably going to be removed. They also won't have to worry so much about ammo anymore, as ammo becomes a "relic slot" and new types of ammo will drop from bosses or be buyable at the vendor. No longer will you need to carry a giant quiver with 24.000 arrows or bullets. I'm not suite what will actually happen to the quivers themselves though. Warlocks Warlocks will finally have their soul shards removed. Instead they'll be using a rune like system that Deathknights already employ. You get three shards per fight, which will regenerate quickly while out of combat. Soul drain will allow you to regenerate them during combat. Image on MMOC. Soul shards will be used to "empower" spells once every 30 seconds, allowing the warlock to remove the cast time, or guarantee the next few spells to crit. Summoning demons will no longer cost you soul shards. Good times! Worgen Bluequote: The worgen, our new Alliance race -- has both a true form and a human form. The true form is purely cosmetic, and provides no combat bonus. A player may remain in either form when out of combat, but are automatically placed in their true form upon entering combat. Worgens have a racial ability called Darkflight, which allows the worgen to temporarily increase their movement speed by 70%, and can be used every three minutes. This activated ability, like entering combat, will also force the worgen into its true form. Other worgen racials include a passive 1% increase to all damage, reduced duration from the effects of curses and disease, and a bonus to skinning, as well as the ability to skin faster. Worgen will have access to all classes except paladin and shaman. In case you're still wondering what the female worgen will look like, have a peek at this pic on MMOC. Goblins Bluequote: The goblin race, available to the Horde, will be able to choose from all classes except paladin and druid. Goblins also have some very interesting racial abilities, including a rocket belt that allows players to activate one of two rocket abilities every two minutes. The first ability enables the player to jump up to 20 yards, while the other shoots rockets at an enemy player within 30 yards. Additionally, every 30 minutes the goblin can summon a pack hobgoblin, which will act as a personal servant granting bank access. Goblins also gain a bonus to their alchemy skill, and should a player decide to become an alchemist there will be an increased benefit from drinking health and mana potions. Additional passive goblin racials include a permanent 1% increase to attack and casting speed, and because of their knack for mercantile affairs, goblins will always receive the best possible gold discount regardless of reputation. And yeah, the female goblins look rather.... strange. Professions The professions are naturally not untouched either. It's likely you'll get to train your stuff up to 525 skill, but that won't be all! A new profession will be added called Archeology. image. Bluequote: Archeology is the new secondary profession that will be joining the ranks of cooking, fishing, and first aid in Cataclysm. Archeology allows the player to unlock new abilities and rewards by discovering ancient treasures throughout the world. Each archaeologist uses the profession to uncover clues hidden in the world around them, such as troll relics or map fragments, and decipher their meaning, enabling the clever archaeologist to manipulate pieces of the past, learning the location of a treasure cache or valuable artifact. Such artifacts are highly sought after by the Archeology Society, and they pay in gold and items for their return. Those who have mastered archeology can find Titan artifacts, earning special currency used to unlock character paths and allowing the player to further customize their character. Basically, you'll be a treasure hunter like back in Ultima Online. I wonder if you'll also be accidentally summoning dragons when you dig up something ;) Also, note it's a Secondary profession, so you won't have to drop any profession to learn it. It's low cost, new and won't force you to drop leatherworking or engineering to pick up the new skill. Which is obviously, awesome news! Re-forging Ah, now, "this" is what will make having a crafting profession worthwhile. Indeed, you get to re-forge your armor somewhat, customize it to your exact needs. There are some restrictions though. Basically, bluequote: Reforging affords tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, engineers, and jewelcrafters the opportunity to customize any player's gear, including their own. Specifically, they can reduce a single statistic on applicable items and convert the lost points into another stat not already on the item. This means, if an item has 20 agi, 20 stam, 20 crit, 20 hit. You'd be able to lower the agi by 10 points, and add 10 intellect to the item instead. You can't add crit or hit, as those stats are already present on the item.

Cataclysm confirmed!

So, it turns out everything that was posted on MMOC before turned out true. Indeed, Goblins as well as Worgen. This is sorta reprocessing news as it happens, but MMOC is being besieged by about 16000 visitors at the moment and the site is straining to load. Give it a try, but don't say I didn't warn you. Now then, in summary I'll tell you the short version, then you don't need to fly through pages long of stuff. The Cataclysm Deathwing is the cause, not Queen Azshara. Quite interesting that. And he looks omfg badass (see his face in the topright of this post). More artwork here. This will make an awesome wallpaper :) Worgen and Goblins, as stated a few days ago will probably get the following classes: * Worgen: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warlock * Goblin: Mage, Paladin, Priest Which proved to be somewhat inaccurate. The actual classes are: (linky) * Worgen: Deathknight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest(wtf), Rogue, Warlock, Warrior. * Goblin: Deathknight, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior. One screenshot showed an Orc wearing Tattoos. Let's hope that's a bonus customization feature. Worgen look closer to furries than actual "worgen". It'll take some getting used to no doubt. Possibly the Goblin mount link. See the official image. Enough on the artwork... Features! Level Cap Increased to 85. Still obviously only 1 skill point be level. Talent trees won't be extended, you will just get those 5 more talent points. * The Path of the Titans will let players follow a path (not restricted to classes), this is a new talent system with new skills and passive abilities. * A mastery system is being added as well, a lot of talents will be reworked to be more fun. The point is to get rid of a lot of the talent skills and not make you spend all your points in a talent tree just because it gives you more damage or higher crit chance. Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two. Every single zone in old Azeroth is remade, remodeled and revamped to be smooth and improved. You will be able to use Flying mounts in all the "old" zones. New High-Level Zones: Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea. Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements. This one is, at least, finally something to really work for "as a guild" instead of as an individual. * 20 guild levels. Can level by doing what you normally do: raids, dailies, battlegrounds. * Levels unlock perks: guild talent tree. (wtf) * Cheaper repairs, less durability loss on wipes used as examples. * Mass resurrection (guild-wide res) Archeology. The new profession. Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards. Whatever that means... More info on that later no doubt. There will be NO hero class in this expansion. So, probably the next one ;) Some graphical enhancements will be made, specifically to water rendering. If your computer was running vanilla wow smoothly, not so smooth in TBC, and struggling in WotLK it's high time you improve your setup. The game isn't going to be a smooth ride if your hardware is already struggling. (/nudge a certain druid) The Barrens are split in half and become two zones rather than one. More on Lore Such as things are with phasing, you might see the world affected in the near future by your own hand and choices. Thrall was "hinted" as having a role to play in tirisfal, while garrosh might have an eye on taking over / starting a new horde. Several storylines are left open and will most likely be explored further in the Cataclysm. The World Also see here. * Azeroth is now flyable. Pretty much all the zones will be changed to some extent, some of them like Elwynn Forest won't change too much but others like The Barrens will be sundered in two by Deathwing. * The Wailing Caverns are now a lush and verdant Area. * Desolace now has a lot more waters and a lot of plants can be seen in the screenshots. * The Horde finally conquered Southshore. * Auberdine was destroyed and the night elves have set up a new camp north of it. Garrosh wants to expand the horde and has built a fortified camp at the south of the zone. * Stonetalon has been cleaned by the Goblins, Azshara will be the new Goblin zone, and are using quarries in the mountains of Azshara to build their town. * We all left a little part of ourselves in Northrend and the old world will be much darker than it was to make heroism and brotherhood more meaningful like Warcraft should be. * Every zones will be revamped with new quests, items, and art. The old world will be a brand new experience and you won't have to deal with the annoying agility/spirit quest rewards anymore. * 7 new zones will be added : Twilight Highlands, Mount Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Gilneas, The Lost Isles, Sunken City of Vash'jir. * The Worgens and Goblins starting zone level goes from 1 to 15. * Sunken City of Vashj'ir will be an underwater zone and was the home city of Lady Vashj before the original sundering, this is a gateway to the Abyssal Maw. Going through the Abyssal Maw will take you to the Elemental Plane of Water, even if the zone will be underwater you will be walking on the sea floor here, new underwater mounts will be available and should have the same speed as normal flying mounts. * Deepholm will be the new hub of the expansion, you will have portals here to let you teleport to Hyjal, Uldum, etc ... The Twilight's Hammer now serves Deathwing and have brought him back to full health in the Temple of Earth at the center of the map. * Uldum will have at least two dungeons and is heavily inspired from Egypt. The sea at the west of Tanaris was just an illusion created by the Titan and Uldum is actually a brand new zone. It is rumored to hold a super weapon. Uldum is also the home of the Tolvir, a race of stone-like cats created by the titans. * Ragnaros used the cataclysm to come back from the Plane of Fire where we sent him and his now sieging the World Tree in Mount Hyjal to burn it down. Malfurion is back from the Emerald Dream. The whole zone (Hyjal) will make extensive use of phasing. * Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol, * Apparently Orgrimmar will be rebuilt and reinforced with steel, it now looks a lot like Garrosh strongholds... * Undercity has been redesigned to be flyable, it now looks much more impressive from the outside. * Deepholm isn't really connected to Azeroth, the connection is where Deathwing * The Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol, Deathwing literally broke open Grim Batol as he emerged from the ground. This is the new Twilight's Hammer base in Azeroth and both Horde and Alliance will have a new port town with boats here. The Red Dragonflight is still here but has been pushed back to the west of the zone near the Wetlands. * The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be back in a brand new level 85 heroic version. * Blackrock Caverns will be a new level-up dungeon located in Blackrock Spire. This is an entirely new dungeon, new art, new creatures, new everything. * Phasing can now add and remove terrain based on your progress. Coasts will be progressively more flooded depending on how far you are in a storyline for example. The Trailer See the trailer video on youtube here for the high quality version. Official Blizzard HD trailer at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/. Blizzcon World of Warcraft info panel. Info trailer 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2f6sEqL54M Info trailer 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffbyoq8JxU Info trailer 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhM6RxHSCo Info trailer 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33PLxl-ESA Info trailer 5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VJi2JdSyo Info trailer 6 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WacdPQnA7g Part 7, 8, 9 and 10 are also there, just check the link on the youtube page. Diablo 3 New class "the monk". See blizzard's site. One player asked what the 5th class would be, and whether they'd consider the amazon/rogue. They said they'd answer that "next year". So diablo 3 won't be released for another year at least. /sad puppy.

BlizzCon is now!

More info on Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and the new World of Warcraft expansion details will be given out. Are you getting excited yet? :P Also: failoc. A silly little game blizzard made to keep you busy while waiting on blizzcon. Linkage On a less related note, you should visit these two sites sometime. They've been pushing the top advertising spots on this blog for the last few months. Dedicated is what they are, so show them some appreciation :) * Coffee with Sargeras. * Kuroneko's Addiction. Also, does this picture look familiar to anyone? (Hint, loading screen) Just dusted off some of the links in the sidebar (e.g. removed disfunctional ones). If you got some suggestions of awesome stuff that should be shared with the rest of the world, just drop a comment here.

Random Ravings + Maelstrom

Just a small update today. Just uploaded: "Random Ravings of a Madman - Page 3" to Drunk Duck. So, be sure to Read the full page and leave a comment ;) Art by: iPoppet. Make sure you show her your appreciation as well! Maelstrom Only a week until BlizzCon starts and most, if not all speculation can be put to rest. The Maelstrom, World of Warcraft version 4.x. Goblins and Worgen as playable races? MMOC has posted a pretty big list of new stuff which just "might" make you fall backward in your chair. Keep in mind, none of it has been verified by Blizzard. Alright? Good, now just to make sure you realize this. None of this has been verified by Blizzard. So there's a good chance it's not going to happen. But, as I've said plenty of times in the past, speculation can be damn fun. Some highlights If you haven't looked at it yet, you'll probably do so in a few minutes. However, I'll give you a quick summary of what "the players" have so far been able to put together into a list of all the expected features. These are Not verified by Blizzard (One can not say this enough), but there is some quite strong evidence to some of these. New level cap. Either 85 or 90. New classes were datamined: * Human Hunter * Orc Mage * Night Elf Mage * Dwarf Mage * Blood Elf Warrior * Dwarf Shaman * Undead Hunter * Tauren Paladin * Tauren Priest * Gnome Priest * Troll Druid Putting those numbers into the current list would mean that the Class balance which is currently available to us would become: Alliance, Horde 3.x -- Post 4.x A 1, H 1 -- A 1, H 2 : Druid A 3, H 4 -- A 4, H 5 : Hunter A 3, H 3 -- A 5, H 4 : Mage A 3, H 1 -- A 3, H 2 : Paladin A 4, H 3 -- A 5, H 4 : Priest A 4, H 4 -- A 4, H 4 : Rogue A 1, H 3 -- A 2, H 3 : shaman A 2, H 3 -- A 2, H 3 : Warlock A 5, H 4 -- A 5, H 5 : Warrior A 5, H 5 -- A 5, H 5 : Deathknight But then, there's the potential "two" new races to balance things out. Worgen: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warlock Goblin: Mage, Paladin, Priest That would balance things out. But, chances are very large both races will also be able to become a warrior at the least. And there's more A complete Azeroth revamp, including the ability to use flying mounts. Current day Hyjal, Gilneas, Uldum and more. Much more, undoubtedly. But, I don't want to go too deep into that right now. Worgen and Goblins have my vote, but using phasing on the entire continent of old Azeroth seems a rather ambitious project. Still, nothing is impossible when you're dealing with Blizzard.

Onyxia is coming back!

In honor of WoW's 5th Anniversary Patch 3.2.2, what is considered to be a minor fix patch will be bringing none other than her Lady Onyxia back into the raiding scene. The Blue text people have said: She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch. This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called Brood of Onyxia. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again. Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet. We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates! Changes to the instance It's not your typical new content, but keep in mind this is NOT a content patch. It's a quick and extra feature for your enjoyment. The old lvl 60 instance will no longer be available, and it'll be replaced with a revamped, re-seeded with new loot - 10+25 man instance. You'll also be getting the ability to get a new "Onyxia style" 310% speed mount. Probably a rare drop. Not only that, you'll get your very own mini pet called an "onyxia whelp". Eye candy, but for old raiders who've spent a good few months on farming her it's a nice pat on the back. Cry all you want, I'm happy to see some old content reworked for the current player level. Sure, you won't be able to solo her anymore, but was that ever really "worth" your time? Not since the boss gold drop nerf surely. It'll also be interesting to see whether good old trusty Vis'kag the Bloodletter will make a return. I've used the blade for a good while before getting my hands on a Chromatically Tempered Sword, but the color! oh man the color. It's excellent stuff. Another weapon of note is the Deathbringer. Previously this weapon would go to the crying warriors, while the rogues would take dibs on the deathbringer but..... With the changes in patch 3.2 Rogues can now wield axes. And if that weapon makes a return, and "if" they remake it as a 2.9 speed weapon (Doubtful, but perhaps 2.7 speed at least) every rogue on the server will cream his pants to get a hold of this weapon. Since Onyxia is a single boss instance, and being remade for the anniversary etc, it's likely her loot and difficulty will be on par with Sartharion or Naxxramas... Meaning iLvL 226 "if we're lucky". This is an estimate of what it'd look like with ilvl 245. The same as the 25 man coliseum boss drops. Makes you wonder whether Quel'Serrar will also be updated... could be a nice feature. Update: Looks like she gives ilvl 232 gear at 10 man, and ilvl 245 on 25 man. 22 slot bags, and the mount is a rare ~1% drop chance item. See MMOC. Update2: Why, look at that. Getting started Some of you never did the gruelingly long quest chain to get to enter the instance. Some probably never even visited her. Many won't remember the tactics. Plenty will have heard of the "Minus 50 fucking DKP" yell, or the MORE DOTS, and "onyxia deep breaths more often in this patch". If not, do your research. At any rate, it's probably not a bad idea to read up on the boss tactics! Sure, there's a very large chance that the tactics for this fight will get tweaked and modified to allow for a 10-25 man fight instead of the original - epic - 40 man group that it took to take her down. Though even when she was level 60, she's been done with as little as five, and even 3 iirc. Clever use of game mechanics and full naxx gear, and a sheetload of patience was all it took... ahem. The fight consists of three phases. You enter the instance, kill a few wardens, group up at the ramp and then everyone races inside to their respective sides. West and East side yo! Odd and Even groups. Disclaimer: Tactics "might" be subject to change in 3.2.2 Phase 1 Phase one starts as soon as the tank gets in range and aggros Onyxia, he'll have to turn her to the far wall in the back and start building threat (obviously) but also keep his threat level high constantly. In 3.x we have the added advantage of misdirects and tricks of the trade which will greatly help in this. Something we didn't even have back at level 60. The reason for this threat building, other than those reasons which prevent the boss from turning around and killing the other players, is that the boss uses an ability called Wing Buffet. Not only does that ability knock the tank back to the wall, but it also reduces his threat by a certain percentage. The result of this, is that you're dealing with a threat cap. All players should keep an eye on Omen, or whatever threatmeter you're using. Even back at level 60 we had such a threatmeter, but even back then the exact mechanics of the onyxia fight were largely guesswork, and many a wipe ensued by players overaggroing the tank and causing a firebreath on their side. Usually resulting in a wipe. Aside Wing buffet and Knock away, she also uses flame breath and Cleave in the front. (So don't stand there unless you're supposed to!) And a Tail Sweep in the back. If you're a hunter/ranged you can stand far enough away in the back to not have to worry about the tail, but it's usually recommended for everyone to be on either the left or right side. Phase 2 will start at roughly 65% Phase 2 This phase is the meat of the fight, survive this and you're nearly there. Onyxia will lift off and start shooting Fireballs at players in the area. Now, some myths and theories are linked to these fireballs but basically she will shoot them at whoever is highest on her threat list. As the fireball has a splash effect everyone should spread out among the area. The fireball, when it hits also causes the affected player to lose a certain percentage of his threat. The exact value isn't known, but it's enough to make yourself want to get hit by it at least once more than the tank. That's largely outside of your control though. Some whelps will spawn from the sides where the egg chambers are (don't run in there you'll cause a wipe) and these need to be taken care of by some aoe capable players. Deep breath Simply put, this hurts and it's going to kill you. If you see the emote "Onyxia takes in a deep breath..." You'd better run to a safe spot or you'll be one very crispy WoW player. There's about six spots where she can fly and hover, and each time after she moves there's a 50% chance that she's going to use the deep breath ability. Make sure there's a hunter on TS or Vent able to yell where she is, and keep a keen eye open yourself. Position yourself accordingly. If she's in the top-left, you move top-right or bottom-left. If she's top-right, you move top-left or bottom-right. Etc, etc. Some speculation was made whether she'll deep breath more if players are too far away from her, but this was never (to my knowledge) tested and proven. Presume deep breath is fully random. The best defense against this ability is to simply burn her to 40% as quick as you can. All ranged DPS, and even melee if you're standing directly below her needs to take her health down quick. Just don't forget about the whelps, as they'll quickly target and eat your healers. Phase 3 When her health reaches about 40% (sometimes a bit later) she will land in the middle of the cave and run for the player highest on her aggro list. Now, the fun part of this, is that she's immune to taunt and threat locking abilities. So your tank will need to start building threat like a maniac, rogues use tricks of the trade, hunters misdirect. Back at the lvl 60 version of this instance it was very common for her to eat her way through a good portion of your DPS "and healers" before a tank was able to get aggro back on her. With the new threat giving abilities at 80 this should be a lot easier. Once you have a hold on her, simply move her back to the same spot she was in during phase 1 and burn her down the rest of the way. The only difference during phase 3 is that she'll use a bellowing roar which will fear everyone in the instance. Again, back at lvl 60 this meant you'd be praying tremor totem ticked just at the right time or you'd be pretty screwed. We didn't have dwarf priests / fear ward back then. And bosses ran off when the tank was feared. That "stick to the tank while feared" feature wasn't added until somewhere halfway during TBC. While this "bellowing roar" is in effect there will also be lava shooting from cracks in the ground. So bring that pvp trinket, tremor totems, fear ward, and above all stand at a safe spot away from the crack edges. Especially make sure you stay away from the whelp cave entrances, as those can be a nasty surprise during phase 3. When her health reaches 10% she'll soft enrage, and start dealing more and more damage to the tank as her health gets closer to zero. Be aware of this, and bring her down to 0% for some hard earned loot. Some more tricks up her sleeve Once you've successfully done the fight a few times she really isn't "that" scary. However, there are a few more tricks she will occasionally use, and some of them are even considered to be bugs. If you run too far away, or are at the instance entrance while the boss engages she will teleport you directly in front of her, and bite you dead. Simple fix, don't run away from her. Speaking of running, if you feel a wipe is coming don't bother running. As soon as the fight engages the wardens you killed earlier will all respawn! Meaning you'll also have to run into the cave as a group. Leave no stragglers or you'll have to deal with some nasty elite adds early in the fight. Fire immunity, that's right, she's a dragon and she's immune to fire. Much the same as Ragnaros. Don't bother shooting fireballs at her, they just tickle. Taunt immunity, I already said it, but it is worth repeating. This is a single tank fight usually. Though it never hurts to have 1-2 offtanks building threat "just in case" so they can take over tanking in phase 3. Hey, it beats getting the rest of the raid eaten. Bugged heals and evade. In the many times I've fought her, I've only seen her actually do this twice. Both times were explainable, as some player got feared up a ledge, or knocked there. Keep your feet on the ground, that also applies to the tank. Going for a walk? I've only seen her do this when killing her with 2-3 people. She might wander off and take a hike through the whelp cave. It's very strange, and she'll still randomly try to hit people that get too close, but most of her abilities will no longer be used until she starts phase 2 or dies. So, there you have it. You feel ready to take on Lady Onyxia in 3.2.2 ? Or still upset that Blizzard is adding "reused" content?

So, here's 3.2

Also see Blizzard's Patch Notes for 3.2 All servers patched, and most of your addons broke down again. Go figure. If you haven't installed the patch yet, Wirebrain has a very fast mirror. wowwiki also has a list of more. So much to do T_T I'll go ahead and bother you with a little to-do list again. Call of the Crusade You got a letter in the mail, there's new quests, and a new set of instances. Sadly the bosses are pitifully weak and released "1 per week", with heroic mode not being available until after 5 weeks. Go there, pick up the quests. Children's non-week Dalaran has a children's week matron in the south area of the city. She gives two quests (only one you can pick up) for either an oracles or frenzyheart pet. You'll receive the pet in the mail once you return the pet to her. Professions Oh boy, oh boy, lots of new stuff for professions. Checking my main, and alts, it turns out some of the skills are still a bit low... * Zurgat - Engineering: 490 * Arthul - Jewelcrafting: 429 * Geshrat - Mining: 430 Plenty of Saronite and mining later sorted them all to 450, but still, took a bit. Bought some of the new gem patterns, and received a free +5 jewelcrafter's tokens in the mail. This way I can at least make the epic gems for my main without having to bother others for that. Arthul: * Design: Nightmare Tear * Design: Deadly Ametrine * Design: Shifting Dreadstone * Design: delicate Cardinal Ruby I should really go and do Sunstrider isle with that guy sometime and complete his collection. Jeeves! Easy to farm, but the pattern is Bind on Pickup so you will have to get it yourself. It can drop off any mechanicals lvl 70+ in northrend, including bosses. You do however have to dismantle them, so make sure your engineering skill is high enough. I think it took me some 30-40 kills near the Colossus in Storm Peaks. Next up: * Train the new gem transmutes on alchemist - done. * Replace engineering glove enchant - todo. * Replace engineering cloak enchant - done. * Replace engineering boot enchant - done. * Make a mind control hat - todo. * Craft a wormhole - done. * Craft Jeeves - done. More stuff to do * Admire the new druid cat/bear form art - done. * Try the new battleground - todo. * Train axe skill on rogue - done. * Raise axe skill to 400.... - to do... * Rant on MMOC about hackers stealing my herbs/ore from underground - done. * Complain on MMOC about the new auto complete feature in mail and chat - done. * Install OldMailMenu addon to circumvent autocomplete mail crap - done. * Buy the new 60% undead mounts - todo. * Build two engineering helicopters with the reduced materials - todo. * Set talents for all alts that got their talents reset - todo. * Update ALL addons that need updating - todo. * Delete vendor price addon - todo. * Disable showing ilvl in addons, and enable it in the blizzard interface - todo. * Lower shadow detail because all shadows are suddently flickering like a spaz in a strobe light - done. WTF is up with that? * Visit the ravasaur trainer and go grind a new mount - todo. * Check all alt-banks and "restack" potions to save space. Awesome! - done. * Spend some badges of heroism to get the new Hierloom chest piece for an alt - done. * Enchant the Hierloom chest with +4 stats - done. * Buy the Hierloom northrend flying tome for all 6 of the lvl 70+ alts - done. * Farm an Arconite Dragonling - STILL todo... * Farm a Formula: Enchant 2H Weapon - Superior Impact - still todo. Have you laid out your plans for the next week yet?

Banned, wtf?

Banned? huh?? No, don't worry, not from WoW. Though I'm not quite actively playing right now. Patch 3.2 might see me doing some activity again, but until then, meh. "One" of my image hosts apparently decided I was using too much bandwidth, and subsequently BANNED me and deleted the pictures without even bothering to tell me why or giving a warning. unlimited imagehosting. Unlimited, yeah right. Bastards. They took down the two RRVS comic previews I had on the blog here... But at least there's always the Drunk Duck version for that: RRVS comic. As for other image hosting, Image Frog :) In fact, ImageFrog is better than ImageShack. No bloody pop-ups that I've seen yet, which is a BIG plus. And photobucket isn't bad either. Pictures The weather today was great, and I borrowed a camera, so... I grabbed my bike and went outside (o m g) where I took some pictures of the world outside my house and around town. As well as some crafting with metal rings that I do so and then. Patch! Or not... Last week Blizzard shut down the PTR servers, and after some murmuring among the players this would make us think that "the patch" should be arriving this tuesday/wednesday. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the case. A new build has been posted, version 10192. Which means that even with having 2 parts of the patch already, the final 3.2 updater is still at least a week away. Also, blizz quote: We plan to begin collecting non-personal system specifications data from all World of Warcraft players again in the very near future. Players who have not merged their World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account will see a message stating, "Submitting non-personal system information". However, those who are playing with a Battle.net account will not see this message even though the system data is being gathered. This process will run for approximately one week. Please also rest assured that this data survey will have absolutely no affect on gameplay. If you are wondering why they are doing this... Presume you haven't attached your battle.net account to your WoW account yet. Not a big issue, I'm sure plenty of people haven't bothered doing that yet. However, if you just got yourself keylogged (Trojan virus, fake scam mail, whatever, they got your password and you were an idiot for allowing them to get it) and you don't have a blizzard authenticator yet... Well, these days the evil hackers have found a new way to prevent you from getting your account back. They will attach your WoW account to "their" battle.net account. Allowing them easy access for many days without worry of you being able to change your password back with the use of the "secret question". Indeed, you just got screwed good. You'll need to phone blizzard, wait seven days, send a picture of your CD box with the code clearly visible, wait for the mail, wait for blizzard some more, wait for emails... All the while Mr.Scammer is having fun using your account to scam other people, spread more trojans, and steal all your gold and gear. Don't you just love being uninformed? Well, now you can protect yourself from such evils. * Step one: Don't download crap from weird sites. It's the best protection really. * Step two: In case it's not entirely your own fault, there's always silly things like other sites getting hacked, and trying to infect you with a trojan. * Step three: Install a damn virus stanner. Even if you don't want to pay for one, at least get a decent free one like AVG. * Step four: If all else fails, buy an authenticator from Blizzard. It'll make logging into your account a lot harder, since any would be hacker will now also need a randomly generated 6-8 digit code to get into your WoW account. * Step five: Go to battle.net and merge your WoW account into your Battle.net account before "they" do it for you. You'll be able to download WoW any time, even StarCraft if you got a legitimate cd-key as well as diablo. Plus you'll probably need it for StarCraft II and Diablo III later as well. Which brings us to the poll. Poll End A few days early, but that's alright. Have you EVER bought gold? * Yes - 20 (16%) * No - 104 (83%) 16%, that's a staggering result. 16% of all voters are too fucking lazy to grind their own gold, which might translate to some 10% of the wow players. Sad days. It's not like it's hard to get gold either. Ah well, lets hope it was a one time thing. Surely in WotLK you don't even need gold anymore, as it just comes falling from the sky in the form of daily quests and huge loads of boss drops. And thus, the new question for this month: * Have you merged your WoW account and Battle.net account yet? Well, have you?