We reported the launch of Blizzard’s World of War Pet Store a few days ago, and it appears now that the Pandaren Monk pet (which runs $10) is sold out.

Only the insanely loyal Blizzard population could conjure up a sold out status for a virtual item. In reality, as the headline states, the virtual sellout is due to a system error on the Blizzard’s side. A buggy Blizzard launch? What has this World of Warcraft come to?

I’m sure Blizzard will get the problem sorted out sooner or later, and if you get a kick out of virtual status symbols (who doesn’t these days?), half the purchase price of each Pandaren Monk sold is donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

[Thanks WoW.com]

Tired of your unimpressive World of Warcraft pet collection? Would you rather die than be caught in Iron Forge with a run of the mill cat following your every move? Well if you answered yes, Blizzard has just the thing … the World of Warcraft Pet Store!

“Today we’re pleased to introduce the Pet Store for ‘World of Warcraft,’ a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth … Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil’ K.T. and the Pandaren Monk.”

Each pet will cost $10, with 50% of proceeds earned on Pandaren Monk sales during 2009 donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Here’s your chance to trade in some of that useless real money burning a hole in your pocket and make miniture Kel’Thuzad your bitch!

Morgan Webb joins the ranks of the raiding elite. The beautiful X-Play co-host sits down with several key members of the Blizzard staff to talk about their hugely successful MMO World of Warcraft as it approaches the five year anniversary benchmark.
The video below is part of a series of segments you can view over at G4TV.com/wowretrospective.

Alright, Blizzcon 09 day two is upon us, and the World of Warcraft Dungeons and Raids Panel will be getting started shortly. I will be live blogging the event starting at 1PM PST. Get yourself situated and your refresh button ready to go.

Panel begins. Initial conversation talks about how a raid is designed. It all starts with an idea and then transitions into a layout phase. The raid is first designed on paper creating a 2D dungeon — where bosses/points of interest will be placed, etc. Below are example paper layouts of Grim Batol (from upcoming Cataclysm and a layout from the four floor Ice Crown Citedal in Lich King).

The next step consists of a simple 3D layout. It now becomes a part of the game and is playable but with simple 3D shapes. He also mentions that teleporters (like those in Ulduar) will also be found in Ice Crown.

After that the group discusses interactive elements (i.e. platform breaking in Malygos before mounting your drakes for the final phase of the counter).

From there they move to artistic renderings/concept pieces that help to sometimes change the layout or experience of the dungeon drastically. See the Mimiron train below.

After the dungeon is designed, the group shifts focus to the actual Encounter Design. The Mimiron encounter was actually based on  the groups love for Voltron. Things they think about are will this be a tank and spank, how much movement will be required, etc.

They use a tool called “Wow Edit” this helps with Creature placement, spell casting, etc. The wow edit tool allows for custom/random timers for moves (i.e. cast every 15-20 seconds).

After the encounters are designed, the five man team tests out the dungeons. The biggest challenge they joke about here is who will tank and who will heal.

They now shift topic to Cataclysm dungeons (4 ready to go at launch) Abyssal Maw, Halls of Origination, Grim Batol, Fire Lands, Black Wing Decent, Shadowfang Keep, and Dead Mines.

First discussed is the under water Abyssal Maw Dungeon complete with new water effects which will also be present in the game outside of raid as well. This is a 78-82 dungeon.

The Halls of Origination is a Titan Dungeon (complete with Brann Bbeard). Non linear experience. Planned to have 6-7 bosses. “Amazing art style”. Rumors of this dungeon housing a secret weapon wanted by both Horde and Alliance.

Blackrock Caverns will be an entirely new instance located inside of Blackrock Mountain giving Bliz a chance to recreate a fan favorite zone. This place houses the “Twighlight Hammer”. Hints at their being “more than one beast” inside.

Conversation switches to talk about Ice Crown Citedal. Ten and 25 Raid with joke made about 31 bosses and GC’s big mouth. Instance will really have 12 bosses.

First floor will include two bosses and a glimpse at the thrones base. The second floor will have rocket ships that will allow you to race the apposing faction to the next floor while attacking them (at least that is how they made it sound).

The third floor contains several bosses, and the fourth floor will have the Lich King. Parts of the 4th floor will break and if you fall it will be “bad”. There will be three separate wings with 8 bosses across them. Epic quest line will unlock access to second and third wings.

You will fight along horde and alliance characters.

Blackwing Decent will be a new raid inspired by Blackwing Lair. The Firelands will be an exterior 25-10 man raid. This will the first time we fight Raagnurus at his “full strength. Below is some art from the Firelands.

Conversation now switches to Anniversary talks about Onyxia, her updated level 80 abilities, more random breaths, updated tier two art loot, and very rare epic fast mount. Below is the rare mount as well as the Onyxia whelp that everyone will get for logging in during the anniversary celebration. The whelp will try to do deep breaths occasionally but fail (funny).

Another new feature in the expansion will be Cross Server LFG (Looking For Group) will work similar to Battle Grounds. This is designed to help PUGS. There will be a reward system for this.  An example of this is if you flag yourself as a leader and help people run a dungeon, if you successfully complete it you will get a reward. This is scheduled for release with Patch 3.3 — so look for it before the Expansion.

That concludes the Raids Panel portion. The Q&A Session is about to start.

Q: Additional Instances cant be launched? Any solutions? Yes. The same tech used for Cross Server LFG is already being implemented on some servers and it helps to resolve this problem. It will become more widespread soon.

Q: Will reputations be brought back in dungeons and raids? Yes. In a different way they do want to bring them back. Think tabbards as an example.

Q: Are the nerfs to hard modes that have occurred recently what you wanted the hard modes to be? Yes. Some of the hard modes were too hard. We do want the hard modes to be beaten as well. People thought Yogg plus 0 was too hard for a long time and then it got beaten and we were very happy (cough bullshit — with 25 warlocks — what a load of shit). Blah blah blah.

Q: How intensive is your internal testing and did anyone at Blizzard defeat the Yogg plus 0 encounter before release? (I’ll translate his answer for you) The QA team got their ass kicked by Yogg plus 4 — so no they did not get Yogg 0 down. (Apparently they didn’t have enough Asian Walocks.)

(Ok, guys I am sorry but some of these questions are just ridiculously stupid. I will update you with ones that are worth mentioning.)

And that’s it. Panel is over and and the Q&A QQ has concluded as well. Time for me to get some food. Peace.

Sit back, relax, and allow me to type my fingers to the bone in an effort to keep you updated on all your World of Warcraft class panel information as it breaks. Panel starts at 5:00 PM PST. Hit the jump and refresh accordingly.

Goblin (Can’t be Paladin or Druid)

Rocket Jump – Activate your rocket belt to jump up to 20 yards. Rocket barrage.

Time is Money – Cash in on a 1% increase to attack speed.

Pack Hobgoblin – Calls in your personal servant, allowing you bank access every 30 min

Better Living through Chemistry – Alch skill + 15, your potions give more health/mana

Worgen (Can’t be Paladin or Shaman)

Darkflight – Activate your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 6 sec every 3 min

Dark All damage increased by 1% (I’ll add the rest – went too fast)

Worgen Form – Cosmetic only, Out of combat you choose human or worgen form

In combat = Worgen

Transform instantly in combat

New Horde Race/Classes Announced: Undead Hunter, Blood Elf Warrior, Tauren Paladin

New Alliance Race/Classes Announced: Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Night Elf Mage

Warlock

Soul shards no longer in your bag

Blow your cooldowns

only used in combat

UI, Not inventory

Three shards per fight

Regen quickly out of combat

Possible to get more shards for long fights or mistakes

Drain Soul = Shard evocation

Soul Burn – Costs 1 Shard, 30 Second cooldown off GCD

Empowers your next spell (Amp Curse)

Searing Pain = Next 3 Searing pain crit

Summon Demon = Instant Fel Dom

Soulfire = Instnt PoM

Fear = Instant

Hunters

No more mana

Focus regenerates continuously

Hunter focus regens 6 per sec

Max focus 100

No more aspect of the viper

Fewer cooldowns

Ammo is an item not a consumable – may drop off bosses (not sure yet)

—–

Itemization Changes

MP5 – GONE!

Spirit is mana regen

All healers will get meditation like skill

Mages and warlocks no longer need to deal with it

Spell power GONE!

Intel is finally good – will provide mana and Spell power

No more int for Enhance Shammy and Hunter

Attack Power – GONE

Agility – Now provides 2 AP for rogues and hunters sham and druid

No more plate wearers stealing your gear

Defense - Gone

No more juggling the cap

Tanks will receive needed anti crit from talents

Armor Pen – GONE!

Too confusing (Mathy)

Replaced with Mastery

Mastery makes you better at whatever you like to do (more in panel tomorrow)

Haste - push more buttons

Increases rate which you gain rune rage and focus

Block – Block value goes away – now mitigates incoming damage

Needs to be real mitigation stat

Stamina – No more defense, Spell power, ap, – more stamina for all – Everyone will have the same stam as plate wearers (reeeeeetarded)

New Legendary (Behold: Shadowmourne) Legendary 2 handed axe. (Frostmourne is not happening)

—-

Professions

Archeology – Secondary profession like cooking

Collect artifacts throughout world and make char more powerful

Unlock paths of the titans (more discussed tomorrow)

Unique rewards like ports, vanity pets, etc

Artifacts will be stored in a journal (not your bag)

You gather pieces, put together and then do some sort of “deciphering” could be quest like or mini game — they aren’t sure yet.

Reforging – another way to customize your gear. This will be something that Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, Tailors, and Engineers. Engineers can redo trinkets and ranged weapons, BS can do plate, etc.

You can find a stat on your item, cut it in half and put the other points into another stat. In other words, take stam and turn it into agility or hit etc. You can not add a stat that already exists on that item, so you cant add more strength but this will help for certain items (pretty cool).

Leveling a profession – Leveling will now allow you to make useful items like a blue breastplate instead of 5 green bracers. This will allow you to make something useful and get 5 skill ups for one instead of getting 5 points over 5 items.

They are also thinking of allowing miners (gatherers in general) to have different types of bonuses (i.e. Miner may not be stuck with a stam bonus).

Engineering - will get some more stuff to make it unique (he doesn’t talk about it though)

Teases at big changes coming to fishing that he cant talk about yet – Just says they will make it more “fun”.

All professions will go up by another 75 points – new title will be Illustrious.

You will be allowed to make Goblin and Worgen DK’s — they don’t care about lore implications – they just thought it would be something that would be fun (they may or may not keep it)

Casters promised a Legendary right out the gate in Cataclysm by Ghost Crawler.

——-

Q&A Session Highlights

No more ability Ranks - Abilities will scale with character level instead of going up in chunks.

Still only 2 main professions – Professions beyond 2 per was discussed but they decided against it, so as for now, you won’t be able to have more than 2 but — they did say that we will be able to “track 2 things at the same time, i.e. mining nodes and herbs”.

Dual spec is it for now — Look for Tri spec maybe at some point in the future but not any time soon.

Dispell Magic - Because of PVP implication, everyone will be able to dispell the important magic that needs to be dispelled but things like curses, diseases, etc will still have their own niche.

Where have all the good treasures gone? Dwarfs treasure finding ability has been crap lately, but they promise to reintroduce that into the game. The reason they shied away from them in the recent past was because of exploiters.

Will old speed mounts be able to go 310 speed as long as you own one 310 speed mount? They say its cool and it is something they are talking about (someone mumbled that is what Chris wants to do) — so maybe?

Staves and crossbows will remain uncraftable but may be found via the new archeology profession.

Will there be something that ends the Gold spammers spelling the names of their sites in large cities? Trial accounts have thier purpose but once they figure out a way to clamp down on it they will.

With stat identifiers changing, what will you do with Pally Blessings? If spell power is now int, spell power and int buffs may not exist on the same class. Things will have to change. Improved buffs will likely go away. I.e. Improved mark of the wild — gone.

Here is a video fly through courtesy of the boys and girls over at Joystiq. Hit play and you will see before and after footage of The Barrens, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Desolace, Stonetalon Mountains, Gilneas, and the Lost Isles. Sit back and hit the play button already.

That’s right. According to a recent interview appearing on the DirecTV live broadcast of the show, everyone who plays World of Warcraft will be able to experience the new zones and alterations made to Azeroth. This also means that once the Cataclysm hits, you won’t be able to access the old quest chains any longer.

Ok guys, I found some food and I am about to start live blogging the Cataclysm panel in a few moments. Make sure to hit refresh repeatedly to get my updates. Here goes.

The panel takes the stage. Mountain dew for all!!!! Corey Stockson (i think) lead world designer is on stage. Chris is back as well. He mentions to the crowd that the new expansion, once again is Cataclysm.

Chris talks about the Lich King expansion, having a primary villain. He talks about what they learned from Illidan and how he wasn’t put in the path of players as much and they wanted to do that more with Illidan. So that when you get to him you know about him. They want players to have a personal reason to kick the bosses ass.

Deathwing is someone many wow players may not have seen. He is one of five dragon aspects. Talks about lore and how Deathwing was charged to protect the realm of earth. About ten thousand years ago during war of the ancients, Deathwing spent alot of time in the earth. Given his proximity, he heard whispers from the old gods which drove him mad. His power unleashed and ripped him apart. Over the years he had to be strapped down to keep him controlled. His purpose became to take over mortal races and have the dragons rule once again.

How does the Cataclysm spark? Deathwing awakes from his slumber and erupts into the world. His explosion into the world of Azeroth causes chaos. Tsunami’s freak storms. No part of hte world is left untouched  “ok, maybe Westfall” he jokingly adds (crowd laughs). He refers to Deathwing as “the world breaker”.

Cataclysm will change the world. That text appears on a screen behind the panel. Deathwing brings down all the elemental plains. If you dont know what they are, there are four plains that the titans created many years ago. The titans in an interest to shape the world and create order they locked the elementals away. The reemergence of these plains is a big part of the story in the expansion.

Some artistic renderings of the world now adorn the screen behind them. Lots of lava, destructed structures…very colorful and mass mayham looking.

They now talk about the Worgen Alliance race. Worgen story is since the time of Warcraft 3 and the scourge, as Dalaran fell, scourge started to prevail, a Dalaran Wizard by the name of Aragol summoned creatures that could fight the scourge for them. What he summoned was the Worgen. He compares the Worgen as the “Wolverine” of the Alliance faction. They talk about the starting area and say that if you enjoyed the Deathnight area you will really like this one.

They now transition into the Goblin Horde race.Very technological race broken up into factions or cartels. They have been more of a neutral group, but the group played by the Horde are a specific group. The specific goblin group was hit hard by the Cataclysm and driven out to an area that put them in close proximity to the Horde. This allowed them to befriend the Horde faction.

He refers to the goblin race as comic relief for the Horde. Above is an image shown of the goblin concept art on the screen behind the panel.

They now talk about heros returning home from up “north” fighing the Lich King to find that things on Azeroth are not as they left them. This is the basis of the Cataclysm. Mass destruction and mayham.

They feel that the Lich put the “war” back in warcraft and they feel that the Cataclsym revamp will take that to another level.

Now they talk about the new level cap at 85. Why not 90? They put their time into revamping the 1-60 and they decided that a 5 level increase would be the best thing to do (translation we want to milk our journey to 100 as much as we can).

Screen shown of Worgen. The only class they won’t be able to be is a Paladin or Priest.

Worgen will have some cool racials like a belt that propels them forward and backwards. The screen below is a Goblin Rogue.

New world map zones are shown. Mount Hyjal, Sunken City of Vashj’ir, The Lost Isles, Twighlight, Highlands, Deepholm, Uldum.

They now talk about the details of Guild leveling. Perks like mass resurrection, cheaper repairs, less durability loss, etc. These will be available in guild talent trees. Points will become available to level these trees by members of the guild doing things like dailys etc. Crowd cheers.

Gnome priest and Dwarf Shaman is shown as a new class/race combo. Crowd cheers.

World terrain will change as you quest. Example shown is how the shore coast line changes as you progress in a quest. The beach gets eaten up and in the end is totally gone. This may be a bitch if you are getting help from a friend who hasn’t unlocked that quest but it still seems like a cool idea.

New profession called “Archaeology”. Collection of artifacts that will help with “Path of the Titans” progression. Path of the Titans is a new way for players to expand their players. The talent tree itself will not expand beyond 51 points. We will be allowed to put more points into the abilities we currently have and then in addition we can also spec into this new “Path of the Titans” with new abilities and passive bonuses depending on the path you chose. Pretty vauge at the moment but that’s all that was said.

Another thing announced is “Mastery System” a passive bonus system that means as you spend points in a talent tree your character will become more powerful i.e. more crit damage or more poison damage, etc.

Panel now talks about new worlds and zones. Cataclysm has dramatically altered zones. Five adventure zones and two new starter zones. Starting zones are 1-15. You will be able to fly everywhere in Azeroth. No more no fly zones.

Talking about change to the zones, places like Elwynn will remain mostly unchanged but the Barrens is severed in half.

They also talk about new “zone flows” to make it easier for questing. New paths from old zones are opened up, and Alliance no longer controls South Shore. (the horde fans cheer).

Panel now dips into actual zone changes. First off showing the Barrens actually split in half. Another screen shows a lush area of the Barrens “regrown”.

Next they show Desolace which was once very bare and is now lush with green fields and trees due to the inflow of water.

Darkshore is shown next. A screen of Auberdine is shown with the port bridges completely destroyed. No more waiting to see where the Horde is going by standing on the bridge network.

Charged Veil is covered in molten lava. Undercity has been revised as well as other zones because of the fly everywhere capability. Stormwind changes also shown.

Suken City and Mount Hyjal will be the two starting zones available to players. The Sunken City will have two dungeons for players to explore.

New technology will allow for under water combat that feels much like combat on land — with the addition of swimming of course.

New underwater mounts will be introduced, like flying mounts usable underwater — faster than turtle mount currently in game.

Now they show some info about Deepholm — accessible via the Deathing scar left on the surface of the earth. This will allow players access in and out of Deepholm. Described as a huge enclosed cave accessible by flying mounts — very temple like. This area is also known as Deathwing’s domain.

Uldum. A new zone complete with two new dungeons located to the west of Tenaris. A comparison is made to Egypt in terms of the layout of the land. Complete with temples made by the Titians. Bronzbeard will be there waiting for us (joy). Rumored to hold “super secret weapon” coveted by Alliance and Horde. A hint is given — calling it the old “dooms day weapon.”  This is the home of “stone-like cat people”.

Transition now talks about the new Mount Hyjal area. Malfrion has awoken from the Emerald Dream. Area is under siege by Ragnaros. World Tree is regrowing. Some screens are shown (I will update them in as soon as I can.)

Twilight Highlands now discussed. This is Deathwings base of operations. Will contain two new towns. Grim Batol, sheared in half by Deathwing. Red Dragons pushed back base here.

Dungeons and Raids now discussed. Halls of Origination and the Lost City of Ulvear (I think thats what he said) The Firelands (home a new, stronger, more pissed off Ragnaros). Blackrock Cavern. Grim Batol (will have level up dungeon and raid), Skywall raid and dungeon. And … some new Heroics. Heroic DEADMINES and Shadowfang Keep! (No more joking about it).

PVP segment begins. New PVP zone described as Isle meets Wintergrasp concepts. This new area is called the Tol Barad PVP Zone. There will be “extra profitable” daily quests here. A Battle for Gilneas Battleground has been added. New arena maps (no number announced yet — just “some” new ones). New rated Battlegrounds feature added for those that enjoy battleground PVP but not arena. This will allow access to the same type of gear available in the Arena system. (big cheer for this feature).

This concludes the panel discussion. Q&A Session will be available tomorrow. I will be there. Right now I gotta get up….my ass is killing me. Later.

Hit the jump for an excerpt from my live blog of the opening ceremonies that talks directly about the World of Warcraft expansion titled Cataclysm. Hit it.

Chris now segways into WoW. He talks briefly about rumors around the internet. Touching on new races, possible expansions. He then says, Blizzcon, the wait is over. In just a second he promises a glimpse at a trailer showing the first Blizzcon Expansion set. (crowd erupts).

WORLD OF WARCRAFT CATACLYSM!!! Video rolls. As the war against the lich king continues, the fight for peace goes on, but there can be no peace. Kalimdore and the eastern kingdoms have been transformed. Destruction of the world is shown.

Shows goblins as a new horde faction. Worgens are alliance faction. Flying mounts are now allowed in Azeroth.  New monsters revealed. Some look like mutant turtles and rock beasts. Some new dungeons and changes to Azeroth. Rated teams in battlegrounds, new level cap (I think it said 85). Heroic Shadowfang keep. Guild leveling system. Gnome priests. There will be new race class combinations along with new achievements. Archaeology will be a new secondary profession (on the same level as cooking and first aid).

Logo hits screen…crowd goes wild.

Mike Morhaime takes the stage after an introduction that asks show attendees to respect each other and not act like a bunch of tchotchke hungry douche bags.

Mike talks about how awesome Blizzard is, before taking a brief pause to resume talking about how awesome Blizzard is.

He talks about how this years tickets sold out in less than one minute — less time than it takes Ret pallys to storm the forums after a nerf.

Thanks go out to the service men and women around the world.

Mike now talks about what has happened since last years Blizz Con. The first thing mentioned is Wrath’s sale records. He now shows a video clip from last years Blizz Con and the WoW LtlK midnight launch.

Video concludes and Mike makes a joke about long lines at midnight release that bombs (yawn). He then transfers into changes Blizzard has made including faction change (and the crowd boos). Mike talks about the Mobile Warcraft Armory and segways into the 5 year anniversary plans for WoW including a revamp of Onixia.

He talks about Battle.net and Sam Rami signing on to make the WoW movie.

Mike now explains the layout and availability of games on the floor during Blizzcon 09. The crowd cheers.

He now talks about the exclusive collectible in our goodie bags that will never be reproduced. He calls the nube and “instant collectible” that we can save or put on Ebay for the price of a small car.

MC Front Alot and Jay Mohr will be on hand to entertain the show attendees. On the musical side of things, level 80 elite Tauren chief is back, along with…the Prince of Darkness Ozzy (crowd goes wild).

Thanks everyone for their support of the show and asks us all to give ourselves a “/cheer”. (my god the nerd level just shot through the roof). Mike’s segment concludes.

Chris Metzen takes the stage…

Whats up Blizzcon! Chris talks about how the company prides themselves about not putting games out until they are “done”. (pshhhhh my ass). Thanks crowd for support, understanding, and enthusiasm. Asks them to clap for themselves. Shows the crowd the shirt that Blizz employees will be wearing and urges the show attendees to mug them whenever possible (I’m going to guess Chris will be hiding during the show).

Chris asks “where’s the ALLIANCE AT??!!” (crowd erupts). Then he asks “Where’s the HORDE!!!??!” (crowd erupts just a little louder). He then says that with a roar like that the Lich King is going to pee his frozen panties. He then asks “where are the Diablo players in the house?” Crowd erupts again.

He tells the audience sarcastically that they have been working on a small internal project in secret called “Diablo 3″.

Chris introduces new Diablo 3 playable class…THE MUNK. Video rolls. A staff wielding character with a long brown beard and beaded necklace approaches a sand filled city escorted by an ominous character covered in cloth from head to toe — face concealed. He battles enemies after being locked in and survives only to confront the mysterious figure that led him there afterwords, demanding that the deceiver “reveal himself. He does and a battle ensues.

View ends and the crowd cheers. He then shows an actual gameplay sequence so people can see how the Munk plays. It looks pretty standard for what players would expect from Diablo. Fans clap (so it must be good).

Chris now segways into WoW. He talks briefly about rumors around the internet. Touching on new races, possible expansions. He then says, Blizzcon, the wait is over. In just a second he promises a glimpse at a trailer showing the first Blizzcon Expansion set. (crowd erupts).

WORLD OF WARCRAFT CATACLYSM!!! Video rolls. As the war against the lich king continues, the fight for peace goes on, but there can be no peace. Kalimdore and the eastern kingdoms have been transformed. Destruction of the world is shown.

Shows goblins as a new horde faction. Worgens are alliance faction. Flying mounts are now allowed in Azeroth.  New monsters revealed. Some look like mutant turtles and rock beasts. Some new dungeons and changes to Azeroth. Rated teams in battlegrounds, new level cap (I think it said 85). Heroic Shadowfang keep. Guild leveling system. Gnome priests. There will be new race class combinations along with new achievements. Archaeology will be a new secondary profession (on the same level as cooking and first aid).

Logo hits screen…crowd goes wild.

WOW Panel will be coming up soon. I will be there as well. As for now, this concludes the opening ceremony live blog. Thanks for reading. I have to go find something to eat and try not to get stomped on by the freaks.

Who needs a mount when you can fly. Plus, our armor is shiny and stuff!

Aion, lately, has been the talk of most MMO hoppers, and even some more devoted players. Its game revolves around the two races, and two parts of its world. Asmoade is the world of darkness, where its inhabitants have been covered in darkness, and Elysea, a world bathed in light.

The world itself is a marvel of graphics, using the Crysis engine it greatly surpasses World of Warcraft, and it has an extremely customizable character creation, on my first login the game was absolutely stunning. One thing though, I cant get over is the fruitiness of the game, in a world of death and destruction, you happen to grab a magical falling leaf when it rains. For graphics and video related customization, Aion comes out a victor.

Something i was largely disappointed with is Aion’s no third party user interface addons, greatly reducing comfort in customizable UI, using only a top and bottom UI style, although greatly customizable compared to most standard UI’s in MMOs the game is a big blocky when it comes to smooth UI. WoW’s UI has thousands of addons that can be introduced in minutes, making the game fit for the person who is playing needs as well as their personal comfort. For UI and interface customization, WoW is on top.

It is totally raining and I just got my hair did! Eww!

Game play i found was very, strange, but not new. It felt like playing Tekken with combos. Personally though many have stated RNG isn’t a big factor in this game as WoW is, I’d say it would be more in certain situations. Certain abilities trigger combos, but combos have chances to trigger special combos, a team of two could beat a team of 4 simply because of lucky RNG. Also, when casting one cannot turn, move, or do anything but sit still, giving it a very stationary feeling, and making the game feel controlled and less fun, as well as impairing views of the landscape. The WoW fighting style seems more delicately woven, smooth and free. As for fighting, Aion might be unique, but the WoW stylings are much better in terms of playability.

PvP is the reason i think most people seem to like the idea this game, I’m beta once you get to level 25, they show you how to battle in the endgame pvp fortresses, to capture and hold a fortress, and use artifacts to hold, or turn the tide of a battle momentarily. The idea is amazing, with defenses of the fortress to prevent air based assaults, and so forth, but the idea is largely turned by the fact that if one side has more people, it makes it easier to win, a lot easier. Also, with this being the main PvP endgame outlets, it has 2 hours in between assaults, for all the bases, instead of a cascading cool down of fortress captures, so one is always up for grabs. The game seems more into survivability in PvP rather then burst, making healers essential, and with that it seems NCsoft has given them enormous healing capabilities, being overpowered, in 1v1, but not in group pvp. It has a ranking system like Vanilla WoW, but despite that, most players these days don’t have to have to go on to keep a rank, or have to play a game. The idea of Aion pvp is stunning, but the way NCsoft will implement it isn’t as good as everyone might think.

Leveling isn’t the most fun part in a game, sure, but there is some fun to be had in unique quests, and a number of ways to do something, in Aion this isn’t the case. The leveling is tedious, repeat quests are abundant past level 25, making it a grind of mobs to kill, kill, and rest. The game features campaign, standard, and word order quests. Campaign you mostly need groups for after you’ve done 1/2 of the zones regular quests, giving the game a very boring feeling, hours after hours of grinding for a reward as a level, giving it a tedious feeling, getting old fast. Compared to WoW when the questing never stops, and its important.

Finally, what i think personally is a deal breaker, class customization. The game itself has 4 classes and 8 subclasses, Mage, Priest, Warrior, and Scout, which each goes in Spirit master and Sorcerer, Cleric and Chanter, Gladiator and Templar, Assassin and Ranger, in that order. The customization virtually ends there. Unlike wow you choose your class, then subclass and that’s what you do, that is your solo role. Stigmas are abilities that you can have, that are extra, you put up to 5 in your tree and that’s it. One type of healer one type of tank. This is where Aion really falls down. WoW in class rolls and customization brings more to the table then Aion has in every way so far.

Overall, I think its a great game compared to most MMOs that were going to ‘replace’ WoW, it stumps AoC, and Warhammer, but the structure of the game depends on a balance in people on a server who play, without that it becomes who has more people, not more skill. I think its a great idea for a game, but NCsoft has introduced it poorly. With a few patches and implementations of things maybe the game will feel more content, but for now its another WoW ‘killer’ that will affect the game, but not to the degree previously thought.

WoW Insider is reporting on a European World of Warcraft moderator post (translated from French) that they believe points to a 3.2 patch release this coming Wednesday (tomorrow for us) or next Wednesday (August 11th for us). The variable here is the accuracy of the translation.

I do not speak French and WoW Insider’s Eliah Hecht is not 100% sure of his translation attempt either.

Source: WoW Insider

Have you seen Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie Brüno? Did you like it? Well, if you did then you’ll probably love Blizzard’s new Alliance specific tier 9 gear — if not, then I suggest you re-roll Horde, which will soon be much easier as Blizzard announced their intent to let players change their faction.

Seriously though, as a former art major, it doesn’t take long to figure out that more time and thought was put into the Horde tier designs than the Alliance. Either that or one set was thrown together after a company rushed out to see Brüno on their lunch break.

Both the Alliance rogue and druid appear to be wearing girdles, and while the shoulders on the Horde Shaman and Hunter have a clear design difference, their Alliance counterparts are exactly the same. The Alliance Warrior, Paladin, and Death Knight look like car hood ornaments that belong on a Dodge Ram truck.

The latest Alliance tier set is pure loss on the part of Blizzard’s designers. Heck, they even took the time to show the Horde Paladin gear on a Blood Elf but couldn’t muster up the effort to show the Alliance Shaman gear on a Draenei.

If this garbage goes live I can bet you that more than a few people will give the soon to be released MMO Aion. My proposed solution — scrap the faction based tier concept and give everyone the Horde design. After all, it’s obviously the set that had more attention given to it.

HORDE SET

ALLIANCE SET

Source: mmo-champion.com a few laps around the track.

The Proudmoore server held its 5th annual Gay Pride March a few days ago. This probably makes me sound really dorky, but seeing Horde and Alliance march together like that is a pretty powerful site, even if it’s just a video game. That’s right, I’m a nerd. Deal with it.

The latest batch of World of Warcraft PTR Patch notes are in, and the 3.2.0 patch features a few changes that will likely be viewed as welcome improvements.

In addition to the class changes, 3.2 will also enhance the in-game professions of WoW players. Miners will get more health from toughness, Skinners will see an increase in crit rating, and that 100 Dalaran cooking award chef hat will increase your cooking speed. Chef Flash to the rescue!

See the rest of the changes after the jump.

General

• Construction of the Crusaders’ Coliseum is complete. Testing not yet available. New raid normal and heroic modes for the Crusaders’ Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25 player versions. 10 player (normal), 25 player (normal), 10 player (heroic) and 25 player (heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.
  • Trial of the Champion
    • 5 player (normal and heroic mode) dungeon.
    • Daily quest added to the heroic daily dungeon quest giver.
  • Trial of the Crusader
    • 10 and 25 player (normal mode) raid dungeon.
  • Trial of the Grand Crusader
    • 10 and 25 player (heroic mode) raid dungeon.
    • Crusaders’ Tribute: Active on heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
• Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40 player siege-style battleground is now available for testing.
  • Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
  • Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
  • Capture the Docks, Airship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy’s base.
  • Capture the Oil Derrick or Cobalt Mine for their resources to garner reinforcements and a steady flow of bonus honor.
  • To claim victory, bust through the enemy’s keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.
• The Argent Tournament Expands
  • All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount, and new heirloom items.
  • All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts, and a new pet.
  • The Black Knight returns. Follow the continued story line as the saga unfolds before you.
• New druid art for cat and bear forms has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one’s cat and bear forms.
• Portals from Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been added leading players to the Stair of Destiny at the Dark Portal. Once there, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.
• A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.
• The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and have decided to install a large number of new mailboxes to Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.
• Northrend Children’s Week has arrived in Dalaran! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Arenas
  • The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5 player team rating. Rating requirements from 2 player teams can still be used to purchase the previous season of gear.
  • Dalaran Sewers
    • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
    • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
    • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
  • Ruins of Lordaeron
    • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
    • Two line-of-sight tombstones have been added to the slime pool on the southern side of the map.
    • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
• Battlegrounds
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
    • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
    • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar – both located near the Battlemasters in either city – and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
    • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
    • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
    • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  • Arathi Basin
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Eye of the Storm
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  • Warsong Gulch
    • There is a now a 20 minute timer on this battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.

Races: General

• Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
• Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren’s Lucky Coin, Lavanthor’s Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier 8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier 5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier 5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
• Emblem System Changes
  • Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders’ Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  • The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
  • The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
• Mounts
  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  • Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
  • Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
  • Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
  • Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage over time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

Classes: General

• All pets now receive 40% of their master’s resilience and 100% of their master’s spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.
• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target’s maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
• Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3 second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

Death Knight

• Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.
• Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 50% per disease.
• Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.
• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
• Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.
• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
• Talents
  • Blood
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
  • Frost
    • Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
    • Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    • Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
    • Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
  • Unholy
    • Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
    • Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
    • Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
    • Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Druid

• Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
• Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
• Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
• Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Talents
  • Balance
    • Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
    • Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30 second. cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
    • Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
  • Restoration
    • Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
    • Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

Hunter

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Deterrence now has a new visual spell effect.
• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
• Traps now have separate 30 second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.
• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
  • Survival
    • Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 22 second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
  • Pets
    • Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the Hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.

Mage

• Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.
• Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3 second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.
• Talents
  • Fire
    • Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 1% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.

Paladin

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker’s maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Talents
  • Holy
    • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
    • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
    • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
  • Protection
    • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
  • Retribution
    • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
    • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4 second cooldown.
    • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
    • Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.
• Talents
  • Discipline
    • Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
  • Holy
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.

Rogue

• After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
• Talents
  • Combat
    • Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
  • Subtlety
    • Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.

Shaman

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
• Talents
  • Enhancement
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman’s attack power, down from 30%.
  • Restoration
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman’s health.
    • Nature’s Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30 second internal cooldown, and increases the shaman’s maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    • Nature’s Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

Warlock

• Banish: Effect will now be canceled if Banish is recast on a banished target.
• Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes
• Talents
  • Affliction
    • Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
  • Demonology
    • Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
  • Destruction
    • Empowered Imp: The warlock’s critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
    • Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.

Warrior

• Talents
  • Fury
    • Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.

User Interface

• Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Casting bars under a target’s portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
• Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
• Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
• Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.
• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.
• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Quests

• The ravasaur trainer Mor’vek has returned to Un’Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount… if they can survive the creature’s deadly poison.

Achievements

• A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.
• Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

• Alchemy
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or Strength for 1 hour and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
  • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
• Cooking
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  • Chef’s Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey’s Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward crate, barrel, or spice bag from the cooking dailies.
• Enchanting
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
• Engineering
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical units.
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  • Doubled the duration on Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  • Increased the passive bonus provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  • Spynocular belt enchantment changed to a Brassbolt Rebreather, allowing engineers to breathe underwater.
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  • Reduced the materials to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fishing
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
• Herbalism
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
• Inscription
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven’t yet obtained Mangle.  Inscribers can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  • Master’s Inscriptions increased.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased.
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s tokens.
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    • Alchemy transmutations
    • Purchased with Honor
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
• Leatherworking
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to Leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  • Fur Lining values increased.
• Mining
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
• Skinning
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
• Tailoring
  • Embroideries improved.

Items

• Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King arena seasons.
• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
  • Druids
    • Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
  • Paladins
    • Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
  • Rogues
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
  • Warlocks
    • Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
• Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.
• Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

Dungeons and Raids

• 25 player raids will no longer be referred to as heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders’ Coliseum.
• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  • Vehicles (drakes) used in these instances now scale with item level.
• Ulduar
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players.
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a tooltip issue with Pandora’s Plea.
• Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes (”of the Bear”) have had their stat values increased significantly.
• The leatherworking item Guardian Gloves is now correctly marked as “Good” quality.
• Hunter
  • All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
  • Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
  • Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
  • The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
  • T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
• Priest
  • The heal from Glyph of Power Word: Shield can now cause Divine Aegis.
  • Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
• Shaman
  • Fixed a bug where Frostbrand Weapon (Rank 9) was not scaling properly with a shaman’s spell power.

Source: mmo-champion.com

Mountain Dew and popular MMO World of Warcraft team up to offer gamers two new beverages capable of changing skin color, muscle tone, and sexual orientation. Oh, I’m sure they promise to give some sort of energy boost too.

Hit the jump for a lovely demonstration of the beverages in action by a gamer who looks nothing like the lovely ladies in the commercial above.

So, do you really think you have what it takes to be the number one dancer? You better check yo’self before you wreck yo’self then, son. Prove your skill in Blizzard’s new April Fool’s joke for World of Warcraft: the PvP Dance Battle System.

The new “Dance Battle System” will allow players to custoize their crews, see available dance moves through the custom action bar, and more.

“Once engaged in a Dance Battle, simply select the dance move you wish to perform, and your character will execute it. As with the Arena system, close communication and teamwork is crucial — you’ll have to be in sync, both with the music as well as with the other members of your crew, to become the “server” and not the “servee.”"

In order to serve the other crew, your crew must earn a higher score from the judges than the other crew earns. The top team will be known as Azeroth’s best dance crew. Can you earn the title!?

There’s a trailer for the gag on the official announcement page.

Tired of the constant nerf fest that is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft? Or maybe you are just looking for a break from Azeroth that doesn’t involve getting a job or anything remotely related to life in the “real world”.

Well, if you answered yes to any of those questions and at one point in your life pictured yourself in tightly fitting spandex, then Marvel and Gazillion Entertainment quite possibly have just the thing in store for you.

The two parties agreed on a ten year deal to create a Marvel Universe based Massive Multiplayer Online extravaganza. That’s right – Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and many others will soon be masquerading as quest givers in a game near you.

If quality is your concern, fear not. Gazillion is adequately equipped to create Marvel branded crack as their team of big wigs boast time spent at corporations such as Apple, Blizzard, Microsoft, and Pixar.

So forget those tired old exclamation points you are used to seeing and get ready to let your spider sense point you in the direction of the next quest giver — it’s bound to happen. Read more about the updated deal announcement over at marvel.com and check back with Ripten for more updates.

One of the latest posts on MMO-Champion reveals the tier 8 World of Warcraft stats and set bonuses. In addition, you can check out the latest plot to rain on your fun parade changes that will likely hit your talent tree in the 3.1 patch. As always, when you are done, you can head on over to the WoW class forums and bitch up a storm hoping someone in blue will give a damn. Check out the goods here.

If you’ve ever had a rich mining node ninja’d from under you after clearing the mob of surrounding trash, then you will likely welcome this change with open arms. Blizzard is instituting a mining change in their upcoming World of Warcraft patch — specifically, you will now be able to mine any node with one shot.

If you haven’t leveled a druid with epic flying you are going to want to get on that shit ASAP.

Source: WoW Insider

Once not too long ago, Blizzard joked about World of Warcraft coming to consoles in the form of a game called World of Warcraft: The Molten Core…for the Atari 2600.

Now some folks at Gamer’s University have been crazy enough to take that joke and roll with it so far as to create a playable game out of it, with “glorious” 192i resolution, 8-way directional control (!) and “revolutionary AI that reacts to your every move (which can be in any of 8 directions, remember?)”. I’m not sure how close it is to the real Molten Core having never done that raid, but it’s still pretty hilarious.

You get two characters (and of course Alliance and Horde), represented by two lines on the screen – they’re supposedly a Priest and a Warrior, and you go about exploring the dungeon, running into tough pulls and big bosses. Features include:

- 10 Bosses with 6 Unique Models
- Move in any of 8 unique directions
- Lush 2d environments
- Glorious 192i resolution
- Has Sound
- Revolutionary AI that reacts to your every move (which can be in any of 8 directions, remember?)
- Skinning a Bear should aggro every Bears in a 40 yard radius

I couldn’t really figure it out. The manual says “press your button” to attack and while I was trying to press my button I ended up dying. Oh well. Download it here.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You can do a lot of things in Second Life. You can run a business, you can be a musician, and you can be a totally different person. You can also cheat on your wife! And I don’t mean your Second Life wife, I mean your first life wife.

And maybe she’ll divorce you. Again, in first life.

Ann Taylor, a 28-year-old living in Cornwall, England, is filing for divorce from her 40-year-old husband David Pollard after she found out that he’d been virtually cheating on her.

She told Time magazine:

“It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much. His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me.”

The ironic thing is that, after meeting in a chat room in 2003, it was their love for Second Life that strengthened their relationship to the point where they got married.

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time Pollard virtually cheated on his wife. Not long after they had gotten married, Taylor caught Dave Barmy, Pollard’s character, having sex with a virtual prostitute.

“I went mad — I was so hurt. I just couldn’t believe what he’d done. I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It’s cheating as far as I’m concerned.”

After this first act of infidelity, Taylor virtually divorced their characters, Laura Skye and David Barmy, but stayed with Pollard in real life. She then hired a Second Life-based private investigator to keep an eye on Pollard’s character. The PI used a female character to attempt to seduce Barmy, but he refused and spoke of his affection for Laura Skye.

However, it was in April of this year that Taylor caught Barmy schmoozing with a female character named Modesty McDonnell. Pollard insisted that no virtual infidelity had taken place, but that didn’t seem to sway Taylor.

In the end, Pollard blames Taylor’s addiction to World of Warcraft for ruining their marriage.

“Amy never did anything around the house. She just played World of Warcraft all the time. If I wanted to spend time with her, I had to ask, but it was always too much trouble for her to come off the game to spend time with me, so the marriage was a bit of a joke.”

In the end, this story has a happy ending. Ann Taylor has a new boyfriend that she met through World of Warcraft and David Pollard is now engaged to 55-year-old Linda Brinkley, the woman behind Modesty McDonnell, the character that Taylor caught Barmy getting intimate with.

Usually this is the part of the article where I give my two cents on the story, so here goes: what the fuck?!

I got this lovely care package from Blizzard today, but as most World of Warcraft gamers know (especially those who got the game early), it doesn’t mean very much, because Northrend won’t be accessible until Midnight EST.

Well, that’s just 10 minutes away now. Mount your mounts, sharpen your blades, and load up on mana pots bitches — it’s time to explore Northrend!!!!

Update: 12:15am and Northrend looks pretty broken as you can see below. I took the boat from Stormwind Harbor and the game booted me. When I signed back in I had to work my way out of the boat because I was stuck halfway in the floor.

Once on top all I could see was floating trees and lots of fog. One brave soul jumped off the boat and I’m pretty sure he is still falling. So much for the big “WoW” moment…

It’s Blizzard’s World, we just live in it. To kick-off their millions-strong graduation to the hard stuff (level 70 and up), Blizzard is holding midnight release parties Nov 13 in Austin, New York, Anaheim, and San Francisco, featuring developers who will sign your game, plus extra copies of the Lich King Collector’s Edition.

International events will also be held in Seoul, Mexico City, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Taipei, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. Whew, sounds like a party!

Azeroth now has 11 million subscribers, which is more than the populations of Portugal, Belgium, or Hungary. That’s also more than Finland and Norway combined! Check out this page to make up your own fun facts about the World of Warcraft juggernaut. If Azeroth gets any bigger, the George Bush will have to invade it to keep the country safe from Horde terrorism.

Below is the list of official launch event locations in the United States:

Best Buy
529 5th Ave.
New York, NY 10017
Phone : (212) 808-0309

Fry’s Electronics
3370 E. La Palma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92806
Phone: (714) 688-3000

GameStop
151 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 362-7601

GameStop
10000 Research Blvd.
Austin, TX 78755
Phone: (512) 346-6437

If you want more specific details on the upcoming launch events for Lich King, check out this page on Blizzard’s website, and check back with Ripten for launch-day coverage.

Source: Blizzard.com

You may already have a good idea which “real world” states are set to support Obama and which will likely side with McCain, but what what about the 11 million residents of Azeroth?

The following four minute plus clip features funny man Rich Kuras and his quest to find out which issues matter most to Warlocks, Night Elves, Paladins, Mages, and other various classes found in the wonderful World of Warcraft.

If you haven’t relieved yourself in the past hour or so, I suggest you empty your bladder before watching this video. Hit the jump to find out which candidate has the stats it takes to get the job done in Azeroth.

Source: YouTube (via: Destructoid)

You know how you always say that you want developers to try new things? Be creative. Live on the edge. Show you stuff you’ve never seen before. Yea? Well, you’re full a shit.

You don’t want that — you want to feel at home, comfortable, and in command — and you’re not the only one. Many residents of the Azeroth, in the popular MMO World of Warcraft, are not the least bit amused by Blizzard’s attempt to transition into the Lich King expansion.

A simple sign on was all it took for me to feel like I’d been transported to a war torn section of Beirut. Seared flesh, battered bones, and suicidal exploding mad men running in my direction. What the hell’s going on you ask? Well, in the process of preparing gamers for Northrend, Arathas, and his massive scourge army, Blizzard designers decided to unleash a plague of undead zombies on their achievement happy community.

Crates, placed throughout the world, containing contaminated insects were opened by curious gamers. In a matter of moments, the infected individuals transformed into zombies capable of zombifiying others at will. Brain biters lurking around every corner may sound like the perfect compliment for Halloween at first, but listening to the complaints of several frustrated players may change your mind.

I hate this event. I hate this event so desperately that I’m having to talk myself out of canceling my account until it’s over. The game is becoming unplayable. Important NPCs like auctioneers, bankers, innkeepers and questgivers are almost always dead before I can use them … can’t go to major cities because I’ll get attacked by other players (and I’m on a PvE server for a reason). I can’t do dailies because most of the NPCs are permanently dead. - Saboruto

I’m frustrated beyond belief. I cannot understand why Blizz didn’t make this a voluntary event on PvE servers. Wherever I go into a city, I can count on being infected, becoming a zombie, and dying… just so that I can respawn, come back, and pay to have my gear repaired. - Nefetyra

The entire event should be optional…if you’re not flagged pvp then you should not be able to be zombied. Furthermore, if you do get infected, it should be a player removable debuff. - Balduun

I have never ever before considered canceling my subscription.. have loved everything about it.. but now.. well.. I am seriously considering [canceling] my pre-order for the expansion and going to other worlds for my fun.- Bridee

The root of the problem is not necessarily the content itself, rather the mindset of the individuals abusing it. However, it’s common knowledge at this point (thanks to games like GTA) that if you give gamers the ability to do something evil, they most likely will. In that regard, Blizzard must shoulder some of the blame.

One moderator on the game’s official forum shared the following with irate members:

We do appreciate the feedback; if threads are being deleted, it’s because the moderators are trying to keep things consolidated and constructive, not because they seek to stifle dissenters.

As I have stated, if this was planned to last any longer than it is, we would have been a great deal more leery of the wide-reaching effects of the plague. This has been anticipated; I respect the concept that some people dislike it and we’ll certainly take that into account, but this was an event meant to impact players in all walks of life and routines. I am in no way stating it was perfect, and should we do something like this again the feedback both for and against will be taken into account when changes are made, particularly pertaining to lower level players. This event absolutely was meant to shake up the status quo of the average WoW day, and in that it’s been successful.

It will still continue as planned, but for those of you less than fond of the plague, you don’t have much longer to wait.

Afterthought: What do you think? Are you a fan of events that mix PVP with PVE or do you think Blizzard made a mistake by making this content unavoidable?

Source: forums.worldofwarcraft.com

Today’s episode of the Dr. Phil show, titled “Virtual Chaos”, addresses video game addiction, and it isn’t pretty. The featured guests spend 80 hours a week on average playing “the game” (which is on more than one occasion revealed to be World of Warcraft), abandoning their jobs, ignoring their wives, and neglecting their children.

One recovering video game addict in the audience described how he would secretly replace the guts of his PC when his wife went to work so that he could play more advanced games without her knowing about the expenses he was racking up. The camera panned to the current addict on stage as the audience member explained his secret upgrade process, and you could literally sense a light bulb going off in his head.

The recovering addict interestingly described the in-game “friendships” as performance based, adding that if you performed well in a particular game (raid), everyone would love you, but if you performed poorly, the opposite was true. Advocates could argue that he just had a bad group of in-game friends.

Overall, the show’s tone was serious and down right depressing at times, but I laughed out loud when Dr. Phil asked the current addict what he did in “the game.” The addict described upgrading his gear and collecting various mounts, conveniently forgetting to mention his in-game profession, likely due to his lack of a real world counterpart. Dr. Phil then asked to see some of his gear, adding “Where is your mount? Is it tied up outside?”

The conversation continued with the addict describing his in-game character as being a female Elemental Shaman. Dr. Phil asked why he chose to play a female, and the addict responded, “because the male characters are dumb.” Oh the irony in that statement.

It was a good show while it lasted, wasn’t it? Hey, let’s try another MMO. Oh this one has good PVP, it has cool innovations like public quests. But wait – there’s a new WoW patch? Okay, screw this, let’s play WoW.

That’s essentially the way Blizzard COO Paul Sams would tell you the story of how the folks who immigrated from World of Warcraft to Warhammer Online are already back to their previous MMO of choice.

We’ve seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving – they’ve already returned.

You think you’re out but then they just pull you back in. More thoughts from Sams after the jump.

While commending WAR on its success, Sams seemed a little backhandedly condescending in his comments on the game:

We respect those guys over there a lot and certainly wish them well to succeed but having registration troubles, having server troubles, these are things that come with the territory when you’re talking about managing a game as big as World of Warcraft or Warhammer or anything like that… I think Warhammer is best positioned to succeed out of the various products that have come out thus far since World of Warcraft has come out

But you’ll never beat us, bwahahahaha…

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

If there’s a downside to Blizzard’s monumental success with World of Warcraft, it’s where they go from here. With reaction to the company’s future endeavors ranging from the justifiably negative to the mostly positive, there’s certainly a fine line to walk for the company.

For their upcoming “next-gen MMO”, Blizzard’s got to win a whole new audience over while not cannibalizing their own properties – what’s their game plan then? Make something different, according to Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime.

We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.

Sounds interesting – let’s just hope they don’t sell a different game for every race. Read on for more Morhaime.

I imagine that people at Blizzard, for all the money they’re making from it, are getting kind of sick of World of Warcraft. That being said, they don’t plan to stop raking in the dough just because they might be getting bored of the game, because, well, nobody else is:

We definitely don’t have a deadline where at this point we’re not going to support World of Warcraft. We wanna support it as long as people want us to support it.

Source: Shacknews

Blizzard has some big plans in store for Warcraft lore lovers. The company has announced their intent to tie Wrath of the Lich King dungeons in with the World of Warcraft lore.

New dungeons will be connected to quests lines in an effort to further embellish the backstory behind Northrend, Arthas, the Titans, and others.

Below are some bulleted highlights from the Dungeons and Raids Panel, followed by detailed boss encounter information, and several clips from the panel itself.

Dungeon and Raid Panel Highlights:

• Huge scale environment and epic creatures with unique abilities.
• The developers emphasized that players do not fight the Titans right away but they do become more and more present as players progress through Northrend.
• Focusing on a shorter Dungeon model.
• Big scope but able to walk through without difficulty.
• Boss encounters with choices as to where and how a group fights them.
• CUSTOM CREATURE MODELS! Less recycling of creature models.
• 10 and 25 man dungeons for ALL of the raids instances.
• A push for players to experience raids no matter how large of social groups they are in.
• More rewards for 25 man instances.
• Certain boss fights they want to go all out with boss experiences.
• Destructible buildings during boss fights.
• Higher quality loot from heroics. A Tier better than normal dungeons.
• Players can earn badges: Emblem of Heroism(heroics) and Emblem of Valor(25 mans).
• Players can complete tier sets with badges.

Cool Boss Encounters:
The second boss in Ahn’kahet is a vampire. At different times during the encounter, the boss attacks a random member of the group, attempting to suck their blood. Players have to beat back the boss to prevent him from killing their party-mate. Surprisingly, the boss has an eerie resemblance to Tom Cruise.

The other highlighted boss encounter was the final boss in Chamber of Aspects. The developers spoke about two different ways to fight the boss. An easy way, and a more difficult way.

The boss is surrounded by three Twilight drakes. The easy route for taking the boss down is killing the Twilight drakes first, and then moving on to the boss resulting in a normal loot table. The more difficult method is to not kill the drakes beforehand, but to kill them during the boss fight. Doing this will drop a Twilight Drake mount that you can show off to your friends, better yet — your enemy’s.

Last but not least is news that will surely make Hunters happy. Due to the changes involving Hunter pets, specifically granting them access to a “tanking” talent tree, a Hunter’s pet will now be viable off-tanks in instances. Sorry to all the off-tanks out there … you’re going to be replaced by an overgrown turtle.

Featured Dungeons, Itemization, and Q&A Video:

The Halls of Lightening

Ahn’kahet:The Old Kingdom

Chamber of Aspects (raid)

Eyes of Eternity

Itemization

Q&A Session