The Tuesday Morning Post: I love the Zombies
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Oct 28th 2008 at 7:30AM
Good Tuesday mrning everyone. It's a 5 AM to 11 AM PDT downtime today, which means you probably have time to do some reading right now, right? How about reading up on all the latest news from the last busy week of WoW?
So Here's the big story of the moment: Nearly as suddenly as it began, the great Zombie apocalypse is ended, and not with a bang but with a whimper. One blue post later, it quietly exited the servers at about noon PST yesterday. For some, this was a welcome relief. For others, such as myself, it was a bit of a downer. I was looking forward to one last hurrah of pushing the Zombie menace out of the cathedral district. Maybe it's the World War Z addict in me, but I was sort of having fun watching the world (of Warcraft) burn. Still, don't get too bummed, event enthusiasts. There's still plenty of Scourge-Invasion related events leftover to see. Check out those, as well as some of the highlights of the Zombie Invasion and a roundup of other odds and ends.
The Plague: What Remains
- If you haven't been to Karazhan yet, you have only a few days left to get your mitts on Tenris Mirkblood. He drops some pretty sweet stuff, so I'd recommend going for it. We have the strategy guide to help make it simple
- If you're not quite leet enough for Karazhan, don't get too glum. There's also a selection of bosses in many of the mid-level dungeons around the world, and we have a guide to them all.
- The Necropolises will be hovering over select points around Azeroth for at least a few more days. Be sure to get your Necrotic Runes so you can purchase all the cool Argent Dawn Trinkets and summon your own Bubble-hearther in shining armor.
A Zombie Retrospective
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Here's the post and picture gallery that marked the beginning, as the tendrils of the Lich King began to spread back into Azeroth again.
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Luckily, it wasn't your fault, you were a Zombie.
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But things gradually started getting worse. And worse.
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Some people thought they got worse in the completely wrong way, especially on PvE Servers.
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Of course, some simply reveled in it.
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Regardless, the plague continued to worsen, with Zombification setting in within 2 minutes of being hit by the buff.
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Finally, it got so bad that the leaders of the Horde and the Alliance stepped in.
Class News and Views
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In case you didn't hear by now, apparently Ghostcrawler wasn't completely joking with that "To the Ground, Baby" stuff. Retribution Paladins recieved quite a blow over the weekend. Even Ghostcrawler couldn't joke about these nerfs. But regardless of whether you think they were needed or not, they're coming. Some of them will probably be live when the servers come back up.
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Join Matticus as he takes the new Priest Discipline tree out for a spin in the raid game.
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If you're looking to test out that new DPS spec you created just for 3.0.2, why not try a training dummy?
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Nice news for Warriors: Titan's Grip is getting some Titanic buffs.
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There's some good news for Hunters -- Disengage is getting some buffs -- and some bad news. Technically, the bad news is bad news for all physical DPS classes and specs, as Armor is being bumped by 10% across the board for raid bosses.
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This is more of a long term thing, but good news for Shamans, Druids, Paladins, and Priests: Healing gets the next major revamp.
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Speaking of healing, here's a Shaman Restoration review for Echoes of Doom.
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And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Affliction and Demonology in 3.0.2.
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For Mages, here's a review of Mage PvP in 3.0.2.
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For Death Knights, a review of Unholy Blight, the 51 point Unholy tree talent.
Wrath Beta and Test Server News
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Patch 3.0.3, which will probably see the light of day before Wrath releases, is now on the PTR.
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Here's some news that some Druids, Paladins, and Warlocks may like: You no longer have to quest for your class-specific mounts or flying forms come next patch.
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There's been a few tweaks to tradeskills on Beta recently.
Odds and Ends
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Tired of seeing who achieved what every few seconds? Here's how to turn off the Achievement spam.
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If you're still annoyed over the recent Recruit-A-Friend level-granting problems, here's some good news: Blizzard is now trying to find a solution.
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Mark Jacobs may want to bone up on his MMO history if he really thinks WoW is copying Warhammer with Lake Wintergrasp.
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If you're still struggling to get in those last few Hallow's End Achievements before the event ends on November 1st, here's some help: The Hallowed Helm and Squashling are now trick-or-treatable.
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That's right, the Molten Core Console version is playable. Now with 8 different movement directions!
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Can't get enough of Achievements? Soon, you may be able to help your guild get some too.
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22 Servers are now open for free character transfers. See if yours is one of them.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
totemgimp Oct 28th 2008 7:41AM
i agree, the event fizzled worse than my jumper cables
Evi Oct 28th 2008 11:49AM
Agreed. The zombie infestation disappeared while I was still at work. I was so sad. :(
Robin Fensom Oct 28th 2008 7:47AM
If there is one main complaint I have about Warcraft events it's that they always seem to fizzle out in this manner.
You wake up and they're gone, no sign of them having existed.
I think it would be cool if there was a day of "cooldown" for events.
So for example, the day after Brewfest would see a few crumpled tents remaining, people packing up, the odd NPC unconcious here and there, that sort of thing.
It would really add to the flavour of these things and help to maintain the idea that something happened to the world.
sosei Oct 28th 2008 8:03AM
That would actually be awesome to see, especially if the NPCs had a 'Hangover' debuff or something.
Aubrecia Oct 28th 2008 9:14AM
This is a great idea! I agree completely, if only because I did manage to experience the full-blown chaos before it vanished, luckily enough. But to have it all gone without a trace is disappointing.
I also agree with the above poster about the "hungover" debuff.
Blizz could even implement wind-down "dailies" to replace the normal event dailies, if they wanted to.
Cleverson Oct 28th 2008 9:48AM
I couldn't agree more! You can see people working before Darkmoon Fair event. So, why not after the event?
Soriel Angelfyre Oct 28th 2008 7:48AM
the pally nerfs that they said would be hotfixed in have already taken effect (before the servers go down for maintainence) i actually ran out of mana as a ret pally for a moment....honestly though i still had almost no downtime between and during fights (granted i was just doing a couple normal quests killing level 68-70 nonelite mobs) but it doesnt seem so bad in comparison to pre-3.02
Elph Oct 28th 2008 8:26AM
Loved World War Z. Hated the zombie invasion in WoW.
mew4ever23 Oct 29th 2008 12:27PM
Agreed. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if the zombies hadn't been new-character-spawn camping. Seriously guys, that was low.
Jyra Oct 28th 2008 8:42AM
It did kinda fizzle - they found a 'cure', just the cure was a bit invisible and not a huge flash of light.
Now we can get back to the Scourge event and Arthas' infected zombies and other undead from the Necropoli(anyone else notice they are not plagued?) and wait for the next instalment of the plague event :)
Rekk Oct 29th 2008 12:25PM
I've been keeping tabs on blue posts these last couple days, and there are two things about this that they have to say:
1. The event did not 'fizzle'. There's a quest in Shattrath that says a cure has been found.
2. They drop multiple, very obvious hints that there is still more to come.
jefeweiss Oct 28th 2008 9:44AM
The zombie invasion was the most fun I have had in WoW in a long time. Previous to that, I had just been logging in maybe once every few days to check the AH, the game had kind of lost some of it's shine for me. There were times when I considered even *gasp* canceling my account until sometime after Wrath came out. I am pretty much fed up with grinding for anything, be it faction, money, gear, achievements. This event was perfect.
I miss you Zombies!
jtrain Oct 28th 2008 10:03AM
It still amazes me how different the opinions were of this event. Even in my guild, there was a clear division of those that loved this event and those that hated it.
As much as I try, I still cannot understand the QQ. The most prevailing complaint was that zombies were killing people who didn't want to 'play along' or were killing NPC's which made it difficult to enter BG's, check the AH, etc. Honestly, if a change to the environment and/or interaction with other players is that much of a problem for you, why are you playing this game? You pay $15 a month...you should expect the world to change form time-to-time! You should expect heavy player interaction! If not, cancel your account, save your money and play a single player RPG like Oblivion or something. I guarantee you won't have to worry about other players or events "ruining your game".
Bravo to Blizz for doing something new and exciting. I had a blast.
theholyevil Oct 28th 2008 10:29AM
In my oppinion the event could have gone better. yes it was fun for the six days it was on. but the fact that day 1 consisted of trying to infect anything! day 2, made it more possible to get infected then having to fly all the way to booty bay. day 3, was probably the highlight of the entire event. people worked hard to infect towns but people could fight back. after day 4 thngs got a little too crazy to be fun anymore. touch a guard with the plague and soon the entire city would be zombie town. then to have all that just vanish. I don't know, maybe we are in the "eye of the storm". But in my opinion, this event rocked, then started turning bad towards the end.
Silverrealm Oct 28th 2008 1:07PM
I don't know... it was crazy, but it was like that first time my guild ran the gauntlet in ZA going to Akil'zon. It was crazy, they kept coming, it wasn't incredibly difficult, but it was lots of fun and an adrenaline rush.
I guess, the 'boss' you can plan on coming is Arthas ;)
cerement Oct 28th 2008 7:03PM
The biggest complaints on my server weren't about the zombies, it was about the zombie players.
The zombies were fun.
The swarms of lvl 70s who used it as an excuse to grief everyone on their own faction they could find, not so much.
Minidrake Oct 28th 2008 7:37PM
Ah, so the mindless Scourge-borne undead zombies that were your former friends and guildmates were supposed to do... what?
"Pardon me, old chap, but it seems I've been transmogrified into a slavering eldritch horror and it would appear I've mislaid my brain. Could I, perhaps, were it not too much trouble, sample a bit of yours? There's good fellow!"
No. They turned into zombies. At that point, their job was to go an slaughter any living thing, level 70 or lowbie, anywhere in the world. That's how zombie infestations work.
cerement Oct 28th 2008 7:58PM
"mindless Scourge-borne undead zombies"
a) You weren't mindless, you retained full control over your character and its actions.
b) There's a difference between playing a zombie once you've been turned and actively going out and doing your best to become a zombie just to grief your own faction. Players in UC were coordinating finding every roach and crate in order to pull zombie raids on Deathknell ...