Posts with tag news

The WoW Insider Weekly News Update is your source for all the biggest stories from the past week wrapped up in a neat little video package. Mathew McCurley hosts your quick look at this week's biggest news.

If you haven't already subscribed to the WoW Insider YouTube channel, you should!

This week's top stories include:

• Blizzard announces Battle.net Balance.
• Blizzard also announces Battle.net BattleTags.
• Winter Veil is here.
• Blizzard reclassified items for Dragon Soul's Raid Finder difficulty.

Win a Nightsaber Cub loot card from WoWTCGLoot! Here's how to enter: Subscribe to the WoW Insider YouTube channel and comment on the video over on YouTube for a chance to win! We'll contact our winner via YouTube on Friday, Dec. 23.

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Your regularly scheduled host Michael Gray will be back soon. He is all snowed in, and that's no fun for anyone. You've got me again.

Yesterday's News by slashdance is one of my favorite WoW machinima videos. Maybe because I have a soft spot in my heart for the coolness factor of the various types of meeting stones in game. Maybe because I totally feel for the poor Dwarven stonemason who builds them. Most of all, I think I wanted to share with you all this video because with Mists of Pandaria coming out, we'll be on expansion #4. A lot of time has passed in World of Warcraft. Like ... a lot. Going back and seeing how things used to be is almost like a history lesson as much as it is a nostalgia trip.

One of the things that strikes me about the video is that it's almost like watching myself play from the outside. I see people running up to stones and I see them clicking on portals, but it's not me doing it. These are actions that I take in game being represented in the fiction, but we perform that action all the time. It's a movie about a phenomenon in a game that is being portrayed as having its own reality. Whatever. It's late, I'm tired, and I love Yesterday's News.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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If you're on the Outland (EU) realm, you're in luck! Blizzard's Vaneras has announced in a blue post today that free character transfers have been opened from Outland to Agamaggan, Burning Steppes, and Vashj.

According to Warcraft Realms, all three destination realms are very lightly populated, which is likely the rationale behind this offer. Transfers will only be available until Oct. 18, so if you need a fresh start, now's your chance!

Free Character Migration (FCM)

The below FCM is available until October 18 2011. The migrations are open to both factions:

From: Outland
To: Agamaggan
To: Burning Steppes
To: Vashj

source

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An undocumented change that probably occurred in patch 4.1 is that the Icy Prism, a source for rare and epic Wrath of the Lich King-era gems, no longer has a cooldown. The highest stat gems that can be inserted into gear with an ilevel lower than 300 (which means all pre-Cataclysm gear) are Wrath gems, and this is likely now the cheapest way to get them.

The main way currently to get Wrath gems is to prospect Wrath ores, usually Saronite. Prospecting a stack will yield an average of about one blue-quality gem, and while other ores may look more attractive, I've had trouble finding them in volume. Now that the cooldown has been removed, any jewelcrafter can make an Icy Prism with nothing more than a Frozen Orb and a couple of cheap Wrath green gems. Each prism will yield a couple of blue-quality gems, rarely a Dragon's Eye, and even more rarely, an epic gem.

The Dragon's Eyes don't look like they'll be usable for much, but considering the price of Frozen Orbs, the blue and epic gems certainly look like they're worth making the prisms for. One thing to note: The prisms are unique, so you need to open one before you can make another. If, like me, you had stockpiled almost a thousand Frozen Orbs in Wrath just in case they ever became worth anything, this means a lot of clicking.

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WoW Patch 4.1 is live, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from guides of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.

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For those of us with multiple alts, there's one topic that seems to come up again and again at the top of our wish lists: account-wide achievements. The reasons are numerous. Achievements are often a barrier for entry into PUG groups. Some achievements are so absolutely tedious and time-consuming that most of us only have the patience to do them once. And, of course, some achievements award us with some pretty cool items that we'd like to be able to use on our alts, like the Reins of the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher.

Blizzard's developers are keenly aware of our desire for such functionality, and today on the Blizzard forums, Blizzard promised that it's something they're working on. Just don't expect it any time soon, and don't expect any additional account-wide functionality like account-wide reputations or professions. So says blue poster Wryxian:

BoA's, 1 step further

We do like the idea of account-wide achievements and it is something we have liked for a while. However we don't currently have the tech to be able to implement them as we'd like to, and probably won't have that for quite some time.

Account-wide professions or reputations are not something that is currently on our to-do list. If we were to think about that kind of thing, we'd have to carefully consider such a change as it has potential to heavily favour those of us who enjoy playing multiple alts. People who prefer just playing one character might not really see that as fair.

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Given how soon Blizzard typically means when it says "soon," we probably shouldn't be too optimistic when trying to interpret "quite some time" into real-world weeks and months. Perhaps in time for the next expansion? Perhaps something our grandchildren will be able to enjoy?

Hey, you! Yes, you -- dude sitting on the stained couch watching Family Feud and eating Cheetos. Need a little bit of high culture in your life? (And no, rewatching Once More, With Feeling doesn't count.)

WoW Insider may not be able to send you to the Louvre, and I'm not sure our legal department is okay with us reprinting the works of Maya Angelou. What we can do, however, is forward you along to some great new art just released at the Blizzard website. Specifically, there are three new pieces from the Wrath of the Lich King expansion: the Wrath box art, a piece called "Boneyard," and a piece called "Winter Tauren." They all show off the incredible level of talent of Blizzard's art department.

While you're there, be sure to page through the gallery and enjoy all the pieces of older concept art, too. They provide some great insight into how ideas transition from mere thoughts in an artist's head to a miserable, frustrating 5-man instance like The Oculus.

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Since this is still the PTR, these changes may or may not actually make it to the live game. Still, it is interesting to note exactly the type of things that Blizzard is looking at and the steps it is taking to try and balance the game. Cataclysm really did reshape the world -- not just the aesthetics but the mechanics for pretty much everyone and almost everything. With that big of an upheaval, it is expected that there is going to be a period of balancing relatively early in the expansion's cycle, and at just barely a month in, we're already starting to see some significant changes.

Hey everyone, having fun in those heroics yet? In my own personal (PUG) experiences, things go wrong far more often than they go right. While healer longevity is a major issue, effective crowd control and threat management is growing to be another. Some tanks are just ill-equipped to handle generating threat on supercharged mobs, and some DPSers are just unable to understand the basic rules of threat -- or ignore those rules entirely.

Perhaps it's timely, then, that Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street posted a blog entry about Blizzard's philosophy with regard to threat. The piece is something of a follow up to his previous blog entry on Vengeance and threat. A few of the key takeaways of his latest post include:

Threat Needs to Matter

"We don't think it's too much to ask for DPS and healers to wait a couple of GCDs for the tank to get the enemy under control ..."

"... if someone is nuking or cleaving a random target on a group pull instead of assisting the tank, that's not the tank's fault."

"... overall, we'd like to present threat better since we're asking you to take it seriously in the PvE game."

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The post, "Threat Needs to Matter," is worth reading regardless of whether you're a tank or not. The full text is after the break.

Jessica Sellers no longer accepts Ink of the Sea for lower-level inks. If you want to make, say, the Glyph of Mage Armor, you'll need to mill Outland herbs to be able to make Ethereal Ink. Speaking of that glyph, it's been uncraftable since 4.0.1 and is now available on the trainer. It's going to be a pain to collect mats to make it, however. Still, as one of the more desirable glyphs for mages, it's likely to find buyers, even if Outland herbs are expensive and hard to find.

So what is Jessica looking for these days? Why, nothing other than Blackfallow Ink! It's not yet available in game from any source, so until Dec. 7 when Cataclysm launches. A word to the wise: if you have an herbalist and want to spend a few weeks making cash hand over fist, farm for old-world herbs. Check the "milled from" tab on the following pigments to get a hit list:

• Emerald Pigment for Jadefire Ink
• Golden Pigment for Lion's Ink
• Silvery Pigment for Shimmering Ink
• Violet Pigment for Celestial Ink
• and of course, as I said above, Nether Pigment for Ethereal Ink

It's a little unfortunate that all these new players who are coming back are going to have to deal with low supply and weird pricing on the glyphs they probably want to try out; however, it's always possible that Blizzard will revert Jessica to her previous state of accepting Northrend inks.

World of Warcraft turns 6 years old next week, and just like in 2008 and 2009, players who log in during the anniversary celebration will be awarded a feat of strength. Blue poster Daxxarri broke the news yesterday night on the official forums:

World of Warcraft's 6th Anniversary!

World of Warcraft turns six on November 23rd, 2010! It's been a truly incredible six years, and we'd like to thank you all for joining us on this momentous occasion. To celebrate, players that log into the game between the dates of November 30th and December 14th will receive a feat of strength added to their Achievements. We look forward to another great year ahead and many more to come!

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But what about that free anniversary pet?

A blue post earlier this evening announced that the beginnings of the pre-Cataclysm events are currently being tested on the PTR.

Daeleht - Pre-Cataclysm World Event Thread

Greetings,

The early stages of the pre-Cataclysm events have begun on the PTR's.

If you're encountering any problems with the events themselves or have any feedback please post them in this thread.

Enjoy!

source

The first of the pre-Cataclysm events started earlier this month with Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall, which are still available on live realms right now. We'll get you more information on what is happening on the PTR as soon as possible.

Jace Hall is well-known for his comedy videos, but apparently he can also be a pretty serious dude when he wants to be. In a recent blog entry, the internet funnyman talks about a recent piece on "internet addiction" by CNN personality Campbell Brown.

Addiction is a tough topic, and WoW is an easy sell as a scapegoat. Like any activity you love, if you feel passionately about it, you should fight for its proper representation. Jace certainly is.

His stance on addiction:

"It is my opinion that human beings are capable of creating destructive relationships and associations with almost anything. Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain is a fundamental trait of the human condition. This trait can occasionally direct people toward the use of escapism. Sometimes this can be a necessary mode of survival and very healthy – other times is can lead to counterproductive personal and social behavior.

What that means is that, YES, someone can get so involved in watching movies, or reading books, or tweaking their myspace page, or surfing, or playing games, or swimming or drinking, or using drugs, or having sex, or ANYTHING THAT THEY FIND USEFUL TO ESCAPE WITH, that they actually begin to ignore other important aspects of their lives and it becomes a real problem."

Hall laments that news organizations and personalities seem eager to paint activities they're unfamiliar with or don't understand, like WoW, as unique and dangerous forces in addiction then countless other activities. Among those with addictive personalities or social difficulties, any activity can become addictive, and this particular report, he says, is pure fear-mongering "based ultimately on conjecture."

My personal opinion on these matters is that it's difficult to pin "WoW addiction" on any particular source, and that usually, like Jace says in his article, there are circumstances that extend far outside of the game that can cause these problems.

As you know, today was maintenance day and the background downloader is downloading more data for patch 3.3.3. However, that doesn't mean the patch itself is today. In fact, I know it's not because I logged on to my home server of Norgannon without having any of the patch data downloaded yet, and checked to make sure Revenge wasn't improved yet. It's not. No patch today. Sad face.

This is standard procedure for the weeks leading up to a patch: as much of the data as can be loaded before it actually drops is sent out to reduce the strain of thousands upon thousands of people all trying to log on and download the whole patch in one go. While it does mean we're possibly close to seeing 3.3.3, with me personally willing to bet before the end of the month, that day is not today.

Celestial steeds and more toys aren't the only new things coming in patch 3.3.3! With the new content also comes a variety of new music. Savvy dataminer Leviathonlx dug up several new tracks for the big events going on in the new patch. Accompanying the trolls in Operation Echo Isles will be an epic score tailored to the event, whether the calm before combat, the thick of the battle, or the climax of the fight, the music will get you in the mood for the voodoo.

Also uncovered was a track centered around the Ruby Sanctum. Not to be outdone by the trolls, the Red Dragonflight has made a strong showing with spooky music all their own.

• ZF Big Battle
• ZF Med Battle
• ZF Quiet
• Ruby Sanctum

Blizzard has always made it a point to use mood- and setting-appropriate music in all of their zones, instances and, on a larger scale, games. These cinematic-style tracks are no exception.

Be sure to check back often, as we'll keep you up to date with all news about Patch 3.3.3.

Patch 3.3.3 is going to the PTR soon, and there's a bunch of stuff that will affect those of us who play the auction house. I'm going to list them in the order I see them, and then we'll go into some analysis:

Professions

Runed Orbs: Recipes which require this item have had their material requirements significantly reduced.
Frozo the Renowned has moved into the Dalaran Magus Commerce Exchange and will be trading your Frozen Orbs for various other trade goods.

Update: Omega points out in the comments that Zarhym posted a list on the forums of what we'll be able to buy :

Crusader Orb (6)
Runed Orb (4)
Eternal Fire
Eternal Earth
Eternal Water
Eternal Air
Eternal Life
Eternal Shadow
Frost Lotus
Pattern: Frosty Flying Carpet [Tailors Only] (6)

Inscription

• Most recipes that required 2 inks now only require 1.