Ritual of Summoning revamped
Written by Eliah Hecht.
Soul Shards: love them or hate them, they're iconic of the Warlock class. Most choose to hate them, but I think locks are just full of hate in general and need to vent it somewhere. Along with a tantalizing note about "exciting changes to how soul shards might work," European CM Vaneck has just let us know that one common shard-based ability, Ritual of Summoning, is going to be changed Before the 3.1/Ulduar Patch (a promise I'm seeing a lot of lately; we can only hope that patch is soon).
Essentially, the new RoS will create a meeting stone-like object. It'll still take two players in addition to the Warlock, as well as one shard, but once the ritual has been cast, the stone can be re-used to summon as many people as desired within its five minute duration, and that summoning action will merely require any two players, just like a meeting stone. You can also summon multiple people simultaneously, and all just for one shard. You won't be able to summon in situations where you currently can't (Netherstorm, battlegrounds, in combat), but this will make summoning much easier, quicker, and less shard-intensive. A great idea.
Ritual of Summoning revamped originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Duration, Full Of Hate, Insider, Locks, Lot, Minute Duration, Patches, Soul Shards, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk betaRelated posts
That sinking sensation
Written by Allison Robert.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Quests, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
If you're not that far into Dragonblight quests and don't want to be spoiled, I'm putting it behind the cut.
Continue reading That sinking sensation
That sinking sensation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Apothecary, Horde, Insider, Lore, Moral Line, Odds And Ends, Plague, Plausible Deniability, Quest Series, Scourge, Sensation, Skates, True Intentions, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
World of WarCrafts: Faction scarves
Written by Shelbi Roach.
Filed under: World of WarCrafts
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Though some of you may not have made it outside since the release of Wrath of the Lich King, I assure you that in some places the weather is quite cold.
One way to keep warm this season is by adorning these 100% hand-crafted scarves sold in Wingo's Crochet Shop. Each scarf is reversible and is perfect for the coming winter. She currently has both Alliance and Horde scarves in stock.
World of WarCrafts: Faction scarves originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Bronze, Cold One, Coming Winter, Crafts, Email, Faction, Hand Crafted, Horde, Insider, Real World, Roach, Scarf, Scarves, Shelbi, Stock World, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, Weather, Wingo, World Of Warcrafts, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
BlizzCast episode 6 available for download
Written by Alex Ziebart.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Blizzard, Interviews
The 6th episode of BlizzCast was posted today, and though it contains very little WoW-specific information, the podcast still contains a ton of information general Blizzard fans would like to hear. When listening to it, keep in mind that it wasn't recorded in the last few days or anything like that, it's a few weeks old at least. They mention Wrath of the Lich King still being in beta testing and Sylvanas' custom model hadn't yet been implemented, for example.Their guests this time around are Lead Tools Programmer Monte Krol, Senior Art Director Samwise Didier, Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder, and senior artist for Diablo III Anthony Rivero. That lineup of guests really offers up a cool look at the early design and development of Blizzard games, and the guests actually offer a little insight into just how you can start working for Blizzard yourselves. They also have another installment of their Q&A portion with various developers.
Starcraft and Diablo fans will find the gameplay information in this BlizzCast more interesting than people who are exclusively WoW players. As always, BlizzCast is available for download through the official website (EU has it as well), iTunes, or you can read the transcript right on their website.
BlizzCast episode 6 available for download originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Amp, Art Director, Beta Testing, Blizzard Games, Cool Look, Custom Model, Developers, Diablo Iii, Few Days, Game Designer, Insider, Insight, Interviews, Krol, Lead Tools, Podcast, Programmer, Senior Art, Starcraft, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
Upper Deck offers free shipping on WoW stuff
Written by Mike Schramm.
Filed under: Events, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard, WoW TCG
Blizzplanet's got the news that Upper Deck is offering a break on shipping in the next 24 hours, so if you've been thinking of picking up any WoW TCG-related items for a friend, now's the time to do it.It's a pretty terrible deal though -- you've got to order $50 worth of stuff to get the free shipping, and at Upper Deck's official prices, you're probably just better running out to a hobby store and picking the things up yourself. But who knows. Maybe there's one of you in Alaska who have wanted to buy tons of stuff from UDE without paying shipping, but don't have a hobby store for miles around -- if so, you're in luck.
The sale inexplicably ends on November 21st, which by my calculations is tomorrow, so get your order in fast. But seriously, someone needs to teach Upper Deck how to have a holiday sale -- who buys all their gifts by Thanksgiving? Maybe we'll see a better sale on Black Friday.
Upper Deck offers free shipping on WoW stuff originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Alaska, Black Friday, Blizzard, Blizzplanet, Break, Free Shipping, Free Stuff, Hobby Store, Insider, Odds And Ends, Thanksgiving, Upper Deck, Virtual Selves, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, Wow TcgRelated posts
Checking your caps: Defense, Block, Hit, Expertise
Written by Mike Schramm.
Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Guides, Classes, Talents, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Honor's Code has a great post up about the secondary gear stats that often get overlooked in favor of the main attributes. Everyone knows that Hunters need Agility and Warriors need Strength, but after that, things tend to get a little fuzzy -- just what does Expertise or Hit do for you? HC breaks it down from a Pally perspective, but what they say about these stats is helpful for any class that has to deal with attacking the bad guys.Defense comes first -- defense rating, for tanks, allows you to make sure that bosses can't crit you. Each class has its own defense cap, and the cap has changed from 70 to 80, so you'll have to keep an eye out for your own cap when you get that far. Block is next -- a high Block rating means you're pushing other attack options off the table when you're hit, so that when something does hit you, you block the damage on it. Both of those stats are mainly for tanks -- other classes, who aren't getting hit, won't have to worry about them at all.
But Hit and Expertise you will have to worry about if you're DPS -- Hit will make sure that you don't miss your target (the fewer misses you have, the higher your DPS), and Expertise makes sure that those hits don't become dodges or parries. This is tough stuff, and it shows up much earlier in Wrath, it seems, than it did in Burning Crusade, But the good news is that there's a lot of help around -- Honor's Code offers a great overview for what everything means, and from there, you can search our site or others for what you need to know about each stat and how it works with your class.
Checking your caps: Defense, Block, Hit, Expertise originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Agility, Attributes, Bad Guys, Burning Crusade, Cap, Caps, Death Knight, Dps, druid, Insider, Misses, Perspective, Stat, Talents, Tanks, Target, Tough Stuff, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, Warriors, Wrath Of The Lich, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran
Written by Alex Ziebart.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue
Daily quests and reputation has been a really hot topic lately, not only in The Queue but across WoW in general. Some of our questions today will focus on that, but I'd also like to let you guys know that WoW Insider will overall have more information on those things coming really, really soon. Keep an eye on the site today and in the coming days for all of that good stuff.
Alright, let's gets started with my2cents' question...
Where, if anywhere, is the quartermaster for Valiance Expedition? I'm almost revered and I'm curious to see if there are any rewards available.
Continue reading The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran
The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Amp, Blizzard, Dalaran, Good Stuff, Hot Topic, Insider Team, Performance Analysis, Quartermaster, Queue, Reputation, Rewards, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, world of warcraft, World Of Warcraft Daily Quests, wow, Wrath Of The Lich, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
World of Warcraft’s birth and development chronicled by video retrospective
Written by Samuel Axon.
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Video, Culture
In addition to listing the distinct features that made WoW successful, the restrospective provides an overview of its post-launch history, up through The Burning Crusade's launch. Everything from Onyxia raids to the ever-changing PvP Honor system is covered. If you're a hardcore WoW addict, little of it will be new information, but if you're just getting started or a casual user, you'll probably learn a thing or two. See the vid embedded after the break.
[Via WoW Insider]
Continue reading World of Warcraft's birth and development chronicled by video retrospective
World of Warcraft's birth and development chronicled by video retrospective originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Addict, Blizzard, Blogs, Burning Crusade, Distinct Features, Everquest Game, Fantasy Video, Honor System, Insider, Launch, Lich King Expansion, Mmos, Nbsp, Video Culture, Video Retrospective, Videos, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, World Culture, world of warcraft, Wrath Of The Lich, wrath of the lich kingRelated posts
One Shots: Diablo doesn’t dance
Written by Krystalle Voecks.
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots
If you've snagged some silly or fun screenshots of yourself during a recent holiday or server event, we'd love to see them! Just send those to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game, and a quick description of what we're seeing. Your screenshots help us show off new and interesting lands here on One Shots (not to mention mean that we can quit digging through staff screenshot folders) so send yours in today!
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One Shots: Diablo doesn't dance originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Animation, Blogs, Craig, Diablo World, Fantasy, Folders, Game, Hallow, Halloween, Halloween Holiday, Horde, Love, Nbsp, One Shots, Outpost, Staff Columnist, Visuals, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta, Withers, world of warcraftRelated posts
Obama’s FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player
Written by Mike Schramm.
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Guilds, Odds and ends
I've had a political dream for a while now that I think all of us WoW players can agree on: someday, I hope, we will have a President in the White House that plays videogames. We're not quite there yet, but we're closer -- apparently, Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player, and has played in two different endgame guilds, including Joi Ito's famous We Know guild. This is a guy who knows all about the communities that these MMOs create, and just how awesome it is to run through Karazhan, or grind PvP for a Merciless Gladiator weapon... and he's been selected by the incoming President of the United States to run the FCC. That's beautiful.Too many government officials (both Democrat and Republican, this isn't partisan at all) suffer from the "series of tubes" mentality -- they are being asked to regulate and coordinate things that they don't understand at all. But getting guys like Kevin Werbach in there, no matter what your political affiliation, is a great step forward for all of us gamers -- we'll have people behind the regulatory wheel who know how important and wonderful virtual worlds like Azeroth can be.
Waltermonkey on Livejournal actually uncovered the guy's Armory profile (and has some great insight), and yes, though I'm sure some of the comments below will be about how you'd never be able to run a transition team AND get to level 80 at the same time, Werbach's been playing recently -- while he's still only level 70, he's actually got the Jenkins title. We've got a Resto Shaman helping run the FCC -- how awesome is that?
Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Armory, Co Chair, Endgame, Fcc, Incoming President, Karazhan, Kevin Werbach, Many Government Officials, Mentality, Merciless Gladiator, Mmos, Obama, Odds And Ends, Partisan, Political Affiliation, President Of The United States, Series Of Tubes, Transition Team, Virtual Selves, Virtual Worlds, warcraft world of warcraft wotlk the burning crusade guide news arena pvp honor badge beta forums news wotlk beta
