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Ancilorn reveals extended EU maintenance next week

by Lesley Smith on Jul 9th 2009 (40 minutes ago)

European CM Ancilorn has revealed that, for next week's EU maintenance, some of the realms will be offline for a whopping fourteen hours. The Blue was keen to ensure players were given enough warning of 15th July's maintenance to make sure that players who have toons on the affected realms had an "opportunity to plan accordingly".

The affected realms are: Balnazzar, Bloodfeather, Darksorrow, Defias Brotherhood, Earthen Ring, Frostwhisper, Genjuros, Haomarush, Hellscream, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Magtheridon, Neptulon, Nordrassil, Quel'Thalas, Ragnaros, Ravencrest, Runetotem, Shadowmoon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Spinebreaker, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Sylvanas, Terenas, The Maelstrom, The Venture Co, Thunderhorn, Turalyon, Twisting Nether and Vashj.

While the problem seems to be specific to these realms, Ancilorn didn't elaborate on the precise reasons for the extensive maintenance. He only informed readers that these realms will be offline from 3:00am CEST until around 5:00pm CEST. I suggest this might be a very good time to explore the opposite faction on another server, roll a twink or level that long-neglected alt. We'll certainly keep you updated next week and hopefully the maintenance should run smoothly.

Filed under: Events, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Forums, Europe

Class Q&A: Paladin

by Eliah Hecht on Jul 9th 2009 (1 hour ago)

Once again, it's time for a Class Q&A with Ghostcrawler! Today Paladins get their chance to shine (previously: Shaman, Mage, Death Knight, Warlock).

As with the other Q&As, this one starts with a bit on what the idea is behind paladins, with a glance at their history and at their present.

In the beginning: paladins were a "defensive buffing class...buffs were pretty much the entire reason you'd want to group with a paladin."
End-game classic WoW: paladins were healers only.
BC: paladins could tank, but were still mostly OTs.
Wrath: "finally embraced all three specs."

Paladins still have several unique facets: bubbles, strong dispels, plate armor as a healer, and the Seal and Judgment system.

Itemization: so far in Wrath, MP5 wasn't particularly valuable, and they claim it wasn't inteded to be. They still think MP5 is undervalued right now, though, hence the buffs coming to it in patch 3.2. They also think Int/Crit based mana regen is a bit out of control, and furthermore than in patch 3.2, some Holy pallies might look into taking Haste.

Filed under: Paladin, Classes

SWAPS loot system offers another DKP option

by Mike Schramm on Jul 9th 2009 (2 hours ago)

I'm finding myself really fascinated with loot systems lately -- the old DKP is pretty good, but even that has drama, and it seems like there's a lot of interesting ideas going around about how to evenly and fairly distribute loot amongst a group of people. OutDPS has a writeup about a loot system called SWAPS. Instead of sending "points" off into the void, you actually "give" your spent points to everyone else in the raid. You start out with 1,000 free points (though those are distributed over time, to prevent new players from having tons of points early on) and then when an item comes up, everyone bids on it: the highest bid gets the item and the points they bid are spread around to the rest of the raiders. In other words, if someone in a 10-man raid bids 500 points and wins an item, those 500 points are distributed evenly amongst the other nine raiders. While the winner loses the 500 points they spent, everyone else gets a bonus 56 points. The person winning the item "pays" for the privilege of taking it by beefing up everyone else's point totals.

It is probably not a perfect system (there's no way to reward points for anything other than loot dropping, for one thing, and while some people have modified the rules to create a separate bidding pool for class items, the basic system doesn't cover class or offspec items), but it does solve a lot of the questions of fairness, and it keeps everything pretty above-board: if you are low on points, the only reason would be that either you just started raiding, or that you've just spent a lot of points on an item. There's an addon, of course, and it will give you all sorts of reports and updates on where all of your raiders are at in the system. If you've been poking around for a DKP system that is based on being open and fair, it might be worth trying out in your guild.

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Guilds, AddOns, Instances, Bosses

WoW Moviewatch: Gnome Overboard

by Michael Gray on Jul 9th 2009 (3 hours ago)

Hot on the heels of Steak Sandwiches, Oxhorn also released Gnome Overboard. This new installment in the series of Oxhorn's Short Shorts actually reminds me of the older, pre-Inventing Swear Words work done by the Tauren Maestro.

The story is not complicated. Three men decide to go hunting whales. (A perfectly reasonable thing to do in Northrend, mind you, as the whales there aggro from about a hundred miles away.) Despite their better judgement, the three men are convinced to let a gnome go with them. This proves to be a complete and total disaster, as gnomes are, apparently, filled with curses and spite. They all die.

Gnome Overboard is the resurgence of another favorite aspect of Oxhorn Brand Machinima. His music is creative, fun, and interesting. While I admit the voice in this song seemed to struggle a bit, his lyrics were amusing and cleverly written. On that subject, Oxhorn has also made his music available for purchase on Amazon.com, so if you like his work, you can pick it up fairly easily.

Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

WoW Insider Show with Medros of All Things Azeroth live tonight

by Mike Schramm on Jul 9th 2009 (4 hours ago)

We're doing the podcast at a special time this week, so if you can't usually tune in to us on Saturdays at 3:30 Eastern, now's your chance to catch a live show. Tonight at 6pm Eastern, we'll be live over on the Ustream page, and our special guest will be none other than Medros, of the All Things Azeroth podcast. He's the second in our ongoing series of guests from around the community -- Michelle Madison of Warcraft Outsiders, you'll remember, was on a few weeks ago, and we're planning on having more podcasters and bloggers on with us in the coming weeks as well. Medros will join Lesley Smith, Turpster, and I in discussing the biggest news of the past week, including those Worgen pets you may have seen around the game, what Tom Chilton said about the future of World of Warcraft, the upcoming changes to Northrend flying. And if things work out as planned, we might even be able to get a live report straight from the PTR about how testing of the Crusaders' Coliseum is going.

Should be a great time for sure. Tune in tonight on our Ustream page. It all starts off at July 9, 2009 6:00 PM EDT, so you can head there or just hit the link below to find an embedded version of the stream after the break. And while we'll be chatting live as usual during the show, you can always send us a note about something you hear or something you'd like us to talk about at theshow@wow.com. We'll see you tonight!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Raiding, Bosses, WoW Insider Show

Around Azeroth: Walk on water or drown

by Elizabeth Wachowski on Jul 9th 2009 (5 hours ago)

Oh, damn it. Where are my keys? They were on my belt like two minutes ago. I swear, if that ghoul ran off with them again, I'm going to roast his spleen with almond slices and manchego cheese and serve it to my other minions. Hey! There they are! Just under the water. And ... now they're in the mouth of The World's Largest Mudfish ... surrounded by five electric eels. Great. Okay, anyone here have 350 lockpicking? I need someone to get the lock off my motorbike so I can fetch my fishing poles. (Thanks to Ariake of <Gravy Robbers> on Azgalor for this lesson on the dangers of Path of Frost!)

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

Gallery: Around Azeroth

Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

One Boss Leaves: Dred devours Shadowseeker

by Lisa Poisso on Jul 9th 2009 (6 hours ago)

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

King Dred demonstrated how he earned his title in this week's Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves, shredding Jedoga Shadowseeker with nearly three-fourths of the reader vote. Delightfully, quite a few fans stepped up to the plate this week with their own versions of how this deathmatch would go down. Let's look at a few of the more entertaining narratives.

Blasterion: The face-off: Jedoga calls for her minions, while Dred calls one raptor to combat. Dred Grievous Bites Jedoga, as well as puts up his other debuffs. Jedoga calls for her first minion to be sacrificed. Dred uses his fear; the minion runs around while the raptor minion and Dred pick him off. DELICIOUS.

Jedoga comes down, irritated how her minions were weak. She casts Thundershock and kills the raptor. The minions to their masters are different; to Jedoga, her minions are tools, but to Dred, his raptors are loyal subjects. Enraged, Dred savagely destroys Jedoga and the rest of her minions. DELICIOUS.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Features, Lore, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter

Breakfast Topic: Different states of rest

by Lesley Smith on Jul 9th 2009 (7 hours ago)

While I was reading Adam's piece on the patches of yesteryear, I discovered something I didn't know. You need to understand that I missed the beta phase and didn't even know WoW existed, so I never really looked into how the game has changed for the better. So, I was fascinated to learn that during the beta it wasn't just normal or rested XP but fatigued and exhausted as well.

While no longer in the game, I think it's a really interesting idea. Indeed it's something which would make WoW a lot more interesting and also make sure people didn't play for 12 hours straight. Perhaps when you first log on, you'd be rested and fresh from your nap in an inn. After a couple of scuffles you'd be normal (as in the game now) but as you did battle with critters and mobs this would change. Perhaps if you did too many battles you'd become fatigued as your armor degraded and then, if you died too much, exhausted and forced to nip to town for a stiff drink and repairs.

While normal and rested XP have always been the boon and bane of the leveling toon, do you think a system like this would work? Would it make WoW a little more challenging, even for folks at the level cap (sans experience gain of course)? Did you play WoW when Patch 0.6 was released, what did you think of the differing levels of XP? Do you think something like this should be returned to the game?

Filed under: Patches, Breakfast topics

Preparing for BlizzCon: Expect geeks behaving badly

by Robin Torres on Jul 8th 2009 (18 hours ago)

BlizzCon approaches! Preparing for BlizzCon is your regular source for tips on how best to prepare for Blizzard's gaming extravaganza. These helpful hints are particularly suited for convention rookies. But if you are a con veteran, we'd love to hear your advice and wisdom in the comments as well.

After BlizzCon 2007, I had to apologize for assuming that forum trolls and all around funsuckers were mostly teenage boys. But the ill-mannered clods I encountered at BlizzCon looked to be in their 20s. Regardless of their age and gender, there unfortunately will be plenty of inconsiderates harshing your Blizzard buzz while you are trying to enjoy the con. Here are some things to expect and some tips on how to handle them.

Talking during the panels: Just like at the movies, people will talk loudly during the panels -- either to each other or on cellphones. You travel across country or around the world and pay all this money to hear the latest about expansions or your class and some jerk won't shut up. Advice: eHow suggests starting with a glare and moving onto a polite request to be quiet, should the glare fail.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, BlizzCon

Testing of Crusader's Coliseum starts tomorrow

by Eliah Hecht on Jul 8th 2009 (19 hours ago)

I was just bemoaning that we haven't gotten a chance to see patch 3.2's new raid content yet. It looks like that chance will come sooner than I expected: tomorrow night!

Daelo has just posted a testing schedule for Trial of the Crusader (a.k.a. Crusader's Coliseum).

North American realms: Lord Jaraxxus, Thursday, July 9, starting at 7 PM EDT
European realms: Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane, Thursday, July 9, starting at 19:00 CEST

Both of these fights will be available in normal mode (10 or 25) only, not heroic. The new 5-man, Trial of the Champion, will be open "later in the PTR cycle."

He also notes that Koralon, the new Vault boss, will be up, and you'll be able to access it if your side has Wintergrasp. Tanking and DPS Patchwerks will make a return. Unlike the patch 3.1 PTR tanking Patchwerk, this one just hits really hard ("as hard as Algalon"), all the time (instead of ramping his damage up over time).

Oh, and one more thing: there is, apparently, no trash at all in this raid. Woot?

Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!

Filed under: Patches, Raiding, Bosses