Posts with tag swimming

You may have noticed an interesting little change in the 3.1 patch notes: ground mounts are now able to swim! This made us curious: how does a Mechanostrider swim? How does a Kodo swim? So, Adam and I ran off to the test realms to capture video of it all. And, before you ask, no bears were harmed in the making of these videos. (The Talbuks, though, whose heads seem to be under water even when you're on the surface, we make no promises about.)

This is something I would like to be doing right now. Maybe in a slightly larger facility, not to mention one without its own face. I once saw a screen shot on the World of Warcraft homepage that had a Gnome standing inside of her Voidwalker. So I wondered, you know those giant water elementals found here and there? Yeah, totally on top of that sport.

I thought now would be a good time to use this idea, seeing as how some people are starting school again soon. Missing summer? Try this!

See you next week!

While there's no definite word from a blue on whether it's working as intended or not, there's an interesting buff on the Beta servers at the moment: Everyone seems to have a much longer breath timer when swimming underwater. Whereas it took about 1 minute for breath to run out, now it seems to last for approximately 3 minutes.

In effect then, it's like everyone has gained the Underwater Breathing racial of the Forsaken. If it's a permanent buff and not just some crossed wires, it should make underwater questing (and there is some in Wrath) a bit easier!

Of course, I'm not giving up my Hydrocane just yet, either. It seems like a strange change to make out of the blue, and it does negate one of the Forsaken's racials, more or less.

This is something we've all dealt with: my Hunter is traipsing through Terrokar right now, and nothing makes me more frustrated than hitting those little rivers on my mount and having to dismount in water. When you think about it, the logical reasons for our mounts disappearing once we hit water are pretty sound -- you don't want that cat or wolf you worked so hard for to drown. But on the other hand, it's a huge annoyance -- not only does it slow you down while crossing the water, but you have to wait another second afterwards to resummon the mount.

On larger bodies of water, this isn't so bad, but those little rivers are nothing but trouble (and Gnomes have it even worse). Even cowboys knew how to ford with their horses -- why can't we do the same with our mounts?

Zarhym, the new CM, doesn't seem very empathetic, so odds are that this won't change anytime soon. We can only hope that in future designs, Blizzard stays away from putting the deeper water all over the landscape, where it acts as nothing but an annoying roadblock in front of our next quest. It's not like we don't have enough problems with the water as it is.

Reader Arsenie sends along this shot of the full moon along-side a pirate ship off the coast of Tanaris. What's unusual about the image, besides a nice composition (hey, are you sure we're not playing Pirates of the Burning Sea?) is the fact that these ships are way, way, way out at sea. Arsenie tells us that on the map they look like islands and that it took two corpse runs (fatigue is a killer) to get this shot!

Have you managed to visit a unique spot that no one else has seen? Gone through trials and tribulations to find that perfect screenshot? We'd like to see it on Around Azeroth! All you have to do is e-mail aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your screenshot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could find your pictures and story featured next!

Many of the game mechanics in WoW have improved over time. Some of them we received word of in patch notes. But I can't seem for the life of me remember when my Felguard began to swim.

It's a simple thing, but to me it makes all the difference considering the amount of time I've spent in lakes farming water motes. I've racked my brain, but I come up empty when I try to find that exact moment when instead of sliding clumsily through the water in standing animation he began to frog his way through the water. When did he have time to take lessons? Is there some demon water training course he took while I was summoning succubae to assist me in Shadow Labs? The same could be said of the water elementals in various oceans and lakes around the game. When exactly did they spring to life instead of traveling woodenly around their watery homes?

I am often struck by the subtle changes made to the game without announcement or fan fair. The added artwork that began to decorate walls around Stormwind sometime last year is a good example, or the addition of supplementary items strewn in front of Darnassus. It's the details that count, that add atmosphere and story to the environments we play in. Have you noticed any subtle changes to the game?