Blizzard has posted an update to the Burning Crusade FAQ adding some new questions and answers to the list.

Most of the updates center around things such as raids and dungeons. Questions answered include: Will there be anymore 40 man raids? Answer, no. Will existing raid encounters have their caps decreased? Answer, no. And, will the current reset timers on raids be changed? Again, no.

A few interesting tidbits include some info on the difficulty settings for dungeons in the expansion. According to the FAQ all dungeons will have a normal and heroic difficulty setting. In order to unlock the heroic level of a dungeon, players will need to be level 70 and achieve other as-of-yet-unnamed objectives. The difficulty settings will only apply to non-raid dungeons.

The FAQ also hints at a world event to open the Dark Portal and relays a little trash talk from Illidan:

Filed under: News items, Expansions

Good news for users of Cedega who were banned by Blizzard a week ago for using what was reported as a hack. Cedaga is a program that allows Linux users to run World of Warcraft on their machines.

Linux Lookup is reporting that Blizzard has apparently lifted the ban on these players saying they were inadvertently caught up in the mass expulsion.

After working with TransGaming (the makers of Cedega) Blizzard was able to resolve the situation and restore the accounts.

Players who had their accounts suspended will receive a two week credit for their trouble.

Filed under: Cheats, Blizzard, News items

For the past few months one of the most common requests by WoW players is to have the game ported to the Xbox 360, but with the launch of Nintendo's much hyped new system, what about WoW on Wii?

Imagine how much fun it would be to smash Orcs and carve up Murlocs in your living room the your Wiimote acting as the Sword of a Thousand Truths.

It would certainly lead to a resurgence in fishing around Azeroth as apparently the new Zelda game has implemented the mechanics quite well.

Of course I would likely need to cover my living room in bubble wrap to protect my home from total destruction as swords and maces start flying around the room.

Nintendo's Wii is known for its lower graphical standards which melds perfectly with WoW's low system specs.

So who else would would relish the thought of getting out of their chair and turning WoW into an even more interactive experience?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

With all the mainstream media coverage WoW is garnering, from South Park to the New York Times, it is easy to come to the conclusion that MMOs are rising in popularity and societal acceptance.

However, as an interesting article in Terra Nova argues, perhaps the WoW phenomenon is the exception and not the rule.

The article looks at some of the negative aspects of the MMO brand identity and examines why some people, even hardcore gamers, are still turned off by the genre.

From tales of people keeling over from all night gaming sessions to support groups like Everquest Widows , there are many negative connotations related to MMOs that may stagnate their growth.

The nature of MMOs also leads some people to think of them more as a chore than something fun. I mean really, how many people think rep grinding is fun?

So is WoW the beginning of a tide of greater acceptance for the MMO genre or is it simply a one hit wonder that cannot escape the stereotypes of the caffeine-riddled, all-night gamer who rarely sees the sun?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items

On top of the already announced hunter talents and spells (Elizabeth beat me to them as I was in a Baron run) WoW developer Kalgan has been quite busy on the official hunter forums filling in some of the details of the several changes to hunter mechanics and stats.

The most significant change was already leaked to WoW Insider a few weeks ago, that being the change to hunter itemization that sees 1 point of agility give 1 point of attack power rather then the previous 2.

Here are the rest of the changes straight from Kalgan's post:

1. Traps are now on a 30 sec cooldown, but can be used in combat (you no longer need to feign/trap).

2. When feign death is resisted, you are still reduced to 0 threat for any targets that did not resist feign death (although if any creature resists the feign, you won't be taken completely out of combat, you'll still be on the creature group's target list).

3. Attack Power and Crit related changes:
a. Hunters now get 1 AP per Agility rather than 2. This change helps us provide more interesting stat distributions on hunter items. Previously, Hunters valued Agi significantly above any other stat, such that it was extremely difficult for us to create variety among Hunter items. For example, before this change, we could have spent 1 stat point on an item to give you either 2 AP or 1 Agi (which gave 2 AP along with a small bonus to crit and a small bonus to dodge... clearly the better choice). However, several changes have been made along with this change in order to offset the AP loss.

b. Hunters now get significantly more crit per point of Agility than before (about 33agi/crit at level 60).

c. Hunters now get more dodge per point of Agility than before (about 20agi/dodge at lvl 60).

d. Ranged weapons have had their damage values significantly increased (and consequently the weapon's dps)... this also helps make weapon upgrades feel more meaningful for Hunters than it did previously (along with the other changes, this change is retroactive).

e. Most Hunter equipment has been updated to have a better distribution between +Attack Power bonuses and Agility.

4. Aimed Shot related changes:
a. Aimed Shot now resets the Hunter's shot timer. This talent was always intended to be an "opening" shot, and not something that would be woven between shots. However, since Aimed Shot became such a core element for Hunter DPS, we didn't want to make this change until we were prepared to make several other changes to increase hunter DPS to offset it. Fortunately, this means that some of the odd side effects of the old Aimed Shot are no longer relevant, such as requiring hunters to use extremely slow weapons to maximize their DPS (weapons slow enough to be able to use Aimed Shot in between auto shots)

b. Arcane Shot now does substantially more damage than it did before, and scales with AP.

c. Steady Shot has been introduced as a core ability in the expansion, and provides much the same kind of gameplay as Aimed Shot did in the past (a shot you weave in between your normal shots), but to a much more managable degree (since it's a 1.5 sec shot, it doesn't require as slow of a weapon to take advantage of, and doesn't require to stand still for as long).

5. Other note: Wyvern Sting may now be used in combat.

EDIT: Kalgan also posted a word about the leaked pet skills. Apparently, as has been suggested before, the rumoured skills have been in the WoW database since launch and are not intended for use. The real pet skills will be released at a later date.

Filed under: Hunter, News items, Expansions

Well the evidence is starting to stack up in support of the earlier leaked Burning Crusade alpha hunter talents.

An intrepid alpha tester sent us this image which shows the apparent hunter talents which just so happen to match up perfectly with the earlier leak we received.

Seeing as how the talents are imminently going to released it would lend some credibility to these leaks as they would likely be in the alpha test already.

It seems as though virtually all the class talents were successfully leaked before they were released so the timing on this one seems about right. No word on new skills or pets in this image however.

This grumpy hunter certainly hopes the official ones are released with a quickness as my 57 warrior is starting to look mighty attractive as my new main.

[Thanks izzo]

Filed under: Hunter, News items, Expansions

For those of you for whom a simple box and CD just won't adequately express your love for a game, Blizzard announced today the details of the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition.

The Collectors Edition will feature:

• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade on both CD and DVD
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Behind-the-Scenes DVD
• The Art of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Hardcover Art Book
• Exclusive In-Game Pet: Netherwhelp
• Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Starter Packs, plus Exclusive Cards
• Map of Outland Mouse Pad
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Soundtrack CD

The behind the scenes DVD will feature more than two hours of developer interviews, commentary, trailers, cinematics from the game, and, if weren't able to make it to California, footage from the panel discussions at BlizzCon.

If you are interested in getting into the WoW trading card game, two TCG starter packs, one for you and one for a friend will be in the Collector's edition to get you properly hooked in the physical world as you are already in the virtual one.

And of course the pièce de resistance for any gamer, the exclusive in-game pet, the netherwhelp, which is apparently the love child of the nether drake flying mount that you will be soon grinding for hours to obtain.

Pricing and availability of the Collector's Edition were not released, but finalizing the details of what will go in the box might just be a sign that the expansion pack is close to finished.

Now if they would only send me my beta invite.

Filed under: News items, Expansions

Whether you are stuck on quest, lost or curious about dungeon drops, online resources on WoW are everywhere.

Some people consider using resources such as Thottbot to figure out a quest to be cheating. Personally, I will usually run through a quest the first time without looking it up and only look for help if I can't figure it out on my own in a reasonable amount of time.

There are a few well-known sites that are common among WoW players.

Thottbot: I have found Thottbot to have some of the best information but it does have its flaws. Quite often the site is busy or down and when it does work I find it very slow. Thottbot's search system also isn't the greatest, you can't search for the middle word of a quest name or item name, you must use the first word of words in order to get the proper results. Searches bring up a humongous list of hits most of which are irrelevant to what you are looking for and it can take a while to find what you are looking for...but it is there, somewhere.

I find often Thottbot has a lot of clutter as well, invalid or old entries show up in searches, a symptom of the fact it has been around since beta.

Another issue with Thottbot is its ownership. Thottbot is owned by gold selling company IGE brining up some ethical issues if you don't want to support these kinds of activities.

Allakhazam: This site has a much better look and UI, has almost as much information of Thottbot and usually works when Thottbot doesn't. The search is also much better, allowing you to search based on parts of a phrase, even from the middle. Example: searching for "a-me" in Allakhazam brings up the quest "Chasing A-Me 01" as it should, as well as the NPC A-Me 01, no other clutter or entries. In Thottbot you get dozens of entries that you must scan through before finding the right quest.

Like Thottbot, Allakhazam is also owned by IGE, it was bought out last year, apparently IGE is considering plans to consolidated the services. If you don't want to support gold sellers Allakhazam is out too.

WoWhead: A relative newcomer on the block, WoWhead just left beta status a few weeks ago. The interface, design and UI are miles ahead of the competition. Being a newcomer, WoWhead doesn't have an extensive database such as Thottbot, but it is growing everyday and will have entries for all but the most obscure searches. Being new, WoWhead has the advantage of less clutter from out-of-date or obsolete entries. WoWhead also has a built in talent calculator including the new Burning Crusade talents.

Searches on WoWhead are handled much better with a tabbed interface that categorizes results (quests, items, skills, etc.). I find that WoWhead still has issues with bringing up too much information, unlike Allakhazam, searching for "a-me" brought up hundreds of results, although they are easier to sift through, it did not put "Chasing A-Me 01" at the top.

WoWhead is owned by IGN, not to be confused with IGE, IGN is a well known video game news and information site owned by Fox Interactive Media Inc., therefore you can ease your conscience as you are not supporting gold-sellers.

Personally, I have been turned off Thottbot lately, I had used it since beta but the interface, clutter and unreliability of the site have led me over to WoWhead. I find WoWhead's user experience to be easier on the eyes, the database is really coming along, and I can sleep easy knowing I am not supporting gold-sellers.

So which online WoW resource do you use? Does the support of gold-selling influence your decision?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Tricks, Cheats

Some big news for hunters, priests, druids and warlocks in the Burning Crusade.

WoW CM Eyonix let drop a few interesting new tidbits about the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion.

First, in the expansion HoT spells will be stackable, meaning three priests can cast renew on single tank at the same time, makes you wonder how hard the raid bosses are going to be in BC.

And even more exciting, Eyonix says that hunter and warlock pets will be scalable in the expansion, meaning they will gain stats as their master levels and be able to get a boost through itemization.

The pet news might help ease the minds of the hunter community who have been on edge due to the length of time it has been taking to release their talents and skills and the news about a possible change to how hunter stats are calculated.

I must say, once a hunter hits 60 his pet is pretty much left behind in terms of usefulness, this change will definitely make pets a viable option again.

/me pets his worg Ishnu

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Priest, Warlock, News items, Expansions

[Disclaimer: Don't shoot the messenger, I know these may be fake.]

My quest to find hunter talents and skills from the Burning Crusade Alpha test continues unabated as I was directed to this post on Gamefaqs via the official WoW hunter forums.

The big news in this rumour is a complete revamp of hunter itemization and stats.

Apparently in the BC Alpha test hunters now only receive 1 point of ranged attack power per point of agi instead of 2, as well the agi/crit ratio for hunters has been lowered to approximately 33. To compensate for these changes all ranged weapons will have their dps value boosted by 10%.

To go along with these changes the method by which crit and hit stats will be calculated is changing as well. Crit % and hit % are being changed to crit rating and hit rating, this change is being done to prevent current items like Blackhand's Breath, which has a 2% crit increase on it, from being used at higher levels. Items will now have a crit rating which will be cumulative in value, not a percentage. (similar to the way the agi/crit ratio works) making items scale better at higher levels.

The hunter talents and skills look not too bad (again assuming they are real), I particularly like the Stampede skill as well as the Frozen Arrow skill.

The fundamental changes to how hunter stats are determined may cause (who am I kidding , will cause) an uproar amongst hunters, but if the changes allow Blizzard to properly itemize hunter gear it will be a good change over the long term.

Again, I will provide the disclaimer that these may very well be fake, but I just can't resist a good rumour and I am getting a little worried by the time it is taking Blizz to get the hunter info out.

Full details after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: Hunter, Expansions