The Tuesday Morning Post: Post-WWI edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 1st 2008 at 2:36AM
Good Tuesday Morning everyone! We have a long maintenance ahead of us today, from 3AM to 11AM PDT. This downtime is in part to install new hardware on the Dunemaul realm in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. Adam speculated a bit on what it may mean for the release date, but what it means in the short term is that those of us who play around now have to find something else to do.
Since we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 hours to wait until we can play WoW again, this is the perfect time to do a little bit of browsing on WoW Insider. Here's a recap of just some of the great content from the past week.
The World Wide Invitational was the big event of the weekend, of course, and there we had a team on the convention floor gathering all the news. You can check out our giant WWI roundup for all the liveblogs and reports on the class panel, the PvP panel, the dungeons and raids panel, and the Q&A panel, and event coverage. You'll also find extensive analysis of all the information broken down by class and subject. We also have a peek at the WWI goodie bag and videos from the Turpster! Check the roundup for all of it.
In addition, we posted even more Worldwide Invitational news and analysis on Monday:
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Take a peek at the WWI's playable Death Knight demo, complete with sneak peaks at all 3 talent trees.
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Get a look at the Oculus, one of the instances previewed at the dungeons and raids panel.
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Find out about how championing, coming in WoTLK, will make faction grinds easier. Factions will be more rewarding for tradeskillers too.
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Get a look at the new battleground coming our way in WoTLK.
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A German CM at the WWI may have let WoW's beta release date slip.
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Amanda Dean breaks down the results of the WWI's 3v3 Arena tournament.
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Despite some people's predictions, there was no Wrath cinematic at the WWI. When will it show up?
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The Blizzard Authenticator made its debut at the WWI, and is now for sale online.
While WWI did take up a lot of everyone's time and imagination this past week, there was other non-WWI news to be had... for example, the splash screen that appeared in the days before WWI!
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For the first couple days, it seemed like we had some breaking ice, and a Frostmourne rune and a Hel rune.
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Then we suddenly got all Starcraft-like, with a Protoss Rune in the mix.
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On the 26th of June, we saw some sort of strange solar system rune, and a face in the night sky beyond the ice.
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The 27th revealed a viking rune and a "Lost" purple penguin. I still like the name "powder" for it.
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Midnight on the 28th bought a nudge and a wink from Blizzard, but the answer was revealed a few hours later as the WWI began.
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Some people don't think we've heard the last about all this, though.
But seriously, there was non-WWI related news this week. For example, Season 4 went live recently, and we have all the news and guides you'll need to make the most of it.
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If you still haven't found your feet in Arena Season 4, be sure to check out our guide roundup.
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Even if you have found your feet, you'll probably still want to check Zach's gear guides.
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There was some slight confusion over end-of-season titles and titles from last year.
Here's a roundup of some of the other breaking news, analysis, and other such things from the team here at WoW Insider:
- Rumor has it that we may get Death Knights before WoTLK.
- If you're a Guitar Hero, you might like to download L70ETC's "I am Murloc" for Guitar Hero III.
- Unfortunately, the Alliance won't be getting those Brewfest Kodos after all.
- Almost making up for this is the fact that new holiday boss, Coren Direbrew, drops trinkets that summon Brewmaidens.
- Natalie weighs in on the level 30 mount change coming with 2.4.3
- Did you know that WoW was once planned to be free to play?
- Check out the new tabards you can get via UDE points from the TCG.
If guides are more your speed, we had some good ones premiering this week:
- Ever wondered what exactly all those priests in the Cathedral of the Light do all day? Are you lost when it comes to loas? Then you'll want to read Alex's introduction and discussion of the religions of Azeroth.
- If you're a bit confused about all this whole Weapons training thing, let us show you the way.
- Brush up on your reputations with WoW Insider.
Enjoy, and keep checking back throughout the downtime for all the latest news and information on WoW. Also, be sure to join It Came From The Blog on the Zangarmarsh server tomorrow for the second part of our Midsummer Fire Festival tour!
Filed under: Realm News, Events, Realm Status, Blizzard, News items, Worldwide Invitational
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vlatch Jul 1st 2008 9:02AM
Something that I think was overlooked was a comment made by the developers to the effect that we could expect to see a LOT of mobs during fights. Combine this with the idea that they seem to be adding a lot of tanking abilities to other classes (hunter pets come to mind). Even rogues are getting an AoE.
What you get, may be a Diablo-like experience in some ways; fighting waves of undead mobs and feeling extremely powerful. Elite mobs in BC gave you the feeling of danger - being less powerful than an NPC your level.
If the statements made at WWI hold true, we may all start to feel like true heroes, facing legions of undead. I for one, would love to see it.
Vlatch Jul 1st 2008 9:05AM
I found the developer comment in question. It's in the Q&A session from Paris. Here it is:
7:13pm CEST: Q: Can Warriors look forward to Retaliation become less useless in Wrath. A: We will have swarms of mobs that will attack you.
makishima Jul 1st 2008 10:28AM
I just thought of this looking back over the post about Championing. Has anyone considered that the even thought the tabard does require exalted that maybe that's the whole point? Blizz has already said that they want the items that can be passed on to your alts, etc. Maybe the tabards are like this in order to make grinding factions on alts easier, but still have it be a challenge that 1st time around? Just a thought.
Aichon Jul 1st 2008 12:24PM
Regarding those runes on the splash screen, I was checking the D3 last night and was glancing through Cain's journal. If you look at page 13 of his journal, you might see some familiar things...
Pigs need love Jul 1st 2008 7:00PM
Wtf is Dunemaul?
Daniel Whitcomb Jul 1st 2008 10:59PM
It's a Server.
Pigs need love Jul 1st 2008 11:16PM
@Daniel: It most certainly is, but I was under the impression that it was Dreadmaul that was getting the server hardware upgrades. Not Runemaul.
Juliah Jul 2nd 2008 1:45AM
Daniel, I enjoy your posts, but this one has a minor typo. The word you're looking for is "peek" rather than "peak." Seeing "sneak peak" makes me think that some playful, stealthy mountain has gotten loose and is trying to tiptoe up behind someone and frighten them. :)