epics
Latest
New M'uru items datamined
In the wake of SK-Gaming's world-first kill of the Sunwell Plateau boss M'uru, World of Raids has checked out the data files and found some other items that they're pretty sure are on M'uru's loot table. You can also see information on these items, and other new items as they are discovered, on Wowhead's new additions page, a handy resource. Pictured is the one-handed sword Muramasa, which looks pretty bad-ass if you ask me.For this and the rest of the items, I've made a gallery containing the tooltips with all the stats, and the item models when appropriate. However, M'uru's loot table seems to consist mostly of rings and trinkets, so there's not much to show for those besides the tooltips themselves. I don't mind -- I'll drool just as much over stats as over an item's appearance. Click on, fellow stat geeks!%Gallery-22108%[via World of Raids]
Why the PvP game exists in WoW, and why it's a good thing
Last night I posted why I feel that the PvE game has been, is, and always will be the real game in WoW. One of the interesting inferences that people made was that I don't like PvP, and that I don't do it. Nothing is further from the truth. It was interesting to read the number of comments on that article, and I think it might surprise some folks that save for this introduction paragraph and a few edits I made, this article was written before I wrote my PvE piece.So, why do I PvP? What attracts me to the PvP game, and why is it a worthwhile thing to do in WoW? There are three primary reasons that PvP is a game worth playing. First, it provides a critical and necessary change of pace from the PvE game. Secondly, it gives those with limited play time an opportunity to enjoy the game and succeed at what they do. Finally, PvP is beginning to turn into a legitimate eSport, and provides some good entertainment there in. Let's look at each of these reasons individually.
Gear transition between BC and WoTLK should be smoother, says Bornakk
We've known for a while that we've been getting a gear reset in WoTLK, and just this morning, we've discussed and speculated on how it will affect people as they transition into the 70-80 game, especially alt-o-holics. Here's some news that should strike a lot of people as good: Bornakk confirmed in a thread yesterday that we really won't be seeing quite as large a gear gap in the jump from Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King as we did in the past: No more doubling of stamina values this time, guys. This should be good news for raiders who feel like their epics don't mean that much anymore (although to be honest, I was using a few of my BWL and AQ40 drops well into my late 60s, so I don't think the gear reset was that bad after all). If the gear jump isn't that bad, your shiny new epics should still work pretty well. Heck, same goes for badge runners. I've suspected for a while that the new Badge of Justice gear was meant to be a partial preliminary gear rest ahead of time, and I'd bet this more or less confirms it: If there's not going to be as much as a jump, these Tameless Breeches might last my druid longer than one might think. I think it's definitely a good middle road to take. We'll get a gear reset so alt-o-holics and casuals can jump right into the Howling Fjord, but the gap won't be quite as great, meaning that raiders and badge gear savers won't need to feel like they're watching months of work go down the drain when that first level 71 green drops.
Breakfast Topic: Fun surprises
As many of you are, I've been doing my duty to my server and pocketbook by completing the Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests every day. I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed that the reward for many of the quests is [Shattered Sun Supplies]. Before opening it, I was excited. I expected some nifty food and potions, maybe gems or herbs, and greens. I like to be surprised by some things, so I hadn't looked up the current loot list. Needless to say, after a few days, and a bag full of useless 68 greens with + resistances on them, I became discouraged. Then I opened my first one of the day, and voila! A [Badge of Justice]! Because I rarely have much time to spend in-game these days, I hadn't collected any of these yet (sad I know). The experience actually reminded me of the two times that [Wall of the Dead] dropped for me, and the time that [Kang the Decapitator] fell into my hands, and the roll came out in my favor. The two rarest pets I've ever farmed and received, the [Captured Firefly] and the [Tiny Crimson Whelpling], also definitely gave me a natural high.What warm and fuzzy memories do you have of surprising drops and good fortune? Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
Size matters: Tauren shrinkage
For those of you who do not frequent the forums, you might not know that since patch 2.4, there has been a Tauren outcry. It seems that cows everywhere are logging in to find that their weapons are roughly 50% smaller than they were previously. Should you take your weapon out to get a better look at it, you'll get to watch it grow back to pre-patch size. Unfortunately, this is not a bug. Hortus has confirmed that it was an intentional change because certain weapons would clip the ground while sheathed. While the Tauren have been getting some support on the forums, some players seem unsure of why this is such a big issue. Let's take a deeper look into why players are upset, including the fact that cows will seemingly be the brunt of even more jokes. Not innocent jokes either; not like "steak! It's what's for dinner!"
World of Noobcraft, the 2.4 debate
With the changes comes to World of Warcraft in 2.4, many of the hardcore raiders out there have begun wailing once more. Blizzard has removed the attunement requirements for Mount Hyjal and Black Temple, two of the most difficult 25-man raid encounters in the game, and also introduced new gear comparable to what can be found in those raids that you can purchase with badges from heroics. To some, this is tantamount to a whole new kind of "welfare epic" and demeans the accomplishments of the game's elite.As Ron at Gaming Today points out, this is exactly the kind of attitude that turns so many people off of MMOs in the first place. A tiny segment of the population, which considers itself the "core" of the developer's audience, raises a big stink because they feel they'll be losing some of their elite status. What they fail to realize is that Blizzard doesn't have a vested interest in their egos, and they would rather more people see the wonderful content that they've spent so much time laboring over. I never really got into the TBC end-game myself, but I'd consider getting back into the game knowing that the barrier for entry has been lowered. The system works!
Congestion relief on the TTR: more vendor locations
Vaneras over at the European forums has announced that some planned changes to the starting spawn locations on the Tournament Test Realm are in the works to address congestion issues. At the moment, the current spawn areas and vendors are located in each race's starting area, which is heavily populated upon character creation and log-in. The high density of players population cause heavy lag and much difficulty purchasing items from vendors. To address the situation, Vaneras reports that Blizzard is working on randomizing spawn locations (e.g. creating a Tauren won't necessarily start you off at Red Cloud Mesa) as well as adding new places for item vendors. The current list of vendor locations is as follows (subject to change):1. Ammen Vale2. North Shire3. Coldridge Valley4. Shadowglen5. Goldshire6. Sentinel Hill (Westfall)7. Kharanos8. Ironforge9. Stormwind10. Deathknell11. Sunstrider Isle12. Red Cloud Mesa13. Valley of TrialsThere are currently more Alliance vendor locations than there are Horde, but it's likely that more locations will be added in the future. So if you haven't visited the TTR yet, why don't you get the PTR client and try it out. Even if only to check out your toon dressed in phat lewtz.
Prettiest in public
My favorite part of the Public Test Realm is pre-made characters and gear vendors. Not because it's "free epics" or anything like that, not because it's particularly anything out of my reach, but because I get a fun little preview of what my characters may look like down the road.I'm very picky when it comes to style. I adore the style of Warcraft, but other games(and even some cartoons and movies) have turned me off from them by not having an art style that grabs my attention right away. So that being said, I'll admit that even in the highest points of the Black Temple, my upgrade choices are sometimes dictated by what looks the coolest. If the ugly items are a massive upgrade for me, I'll just put them at the end of my list and hold off from looking like a freak as long as possible.Being able to toss on full Tier 6 the last time they did pre-mades on the Public Test Realm wasn't about being super powered for a week or two for me. It was a glimpse into the future. How cool will I look a few months down the road? What if I'm going to be wearing a clown suit!? That'd be horrible! Let's log onto the PTR and find out!Sure sure, you can always use the dressing room feature on the live servers, but nothing is quite the same as actually putting it on and running around in it. I spent a little time on the Arena Tournament PTR doing this with clones of my lower level alts, but I was disappointed to heart all of the PvE content, including mobs out in the world, have been deactivated. How am I supposed to look awesome without level 1 boars to slaughter?
Epic jewelcrafting recipes go factional on the PTR, goggles and tier 6 gear also get changes.
World of Raids has discovered something hiding in the latest patch build: All the epic gem cut recipes from current 25 mans will now be available from the Shattered Sun Offensive at various reputation levels.While no vendor has been found for them, the most likely candidate would seem be Shaani, one of the new NPCs we mentioned yesterday. In fact, I would call this even further evidence for the likelihood of epic gem transmutes from the lab set up by Mar'nah from the Razorthorn Rise daily, also mentioned in that article. Certainly, if casuals will be able to learn epic gem cuts from a daily grind reputation, it would make sense that they'd also be able to obtain epic gems to cut from somewhere other than the AH. It really does seem like Blizzard is preparing for Wrath of the Lich King with this patch, giving more and more opportunities for the casual player to catch up so they can start the expansion on a much more equal footing with the raiding player than they did for the Burning Crusade. In other item and trade skill news from the latest build, the new goggles will now require more ingredients to make, mostly extra primals of various types. Finally, most of the new tier 6 gear had previously been stripped of stamina, but now has it back, though in slightly smaller amounts than before. This should be good news to all those Druid Tanks who were a bit concerned about what use the gear would be for them, at the least. Oh, and the scaling bug continues to be hilarious.
Badges for dailies
Originally, there was only one way to obtain Badges of Justice: Heroic bosses. Now there are a couple more: Heroic daily quests as well as raids. Still, there hasn't been a way for the die-hard solo player to get their hands on some badges -- until now. The Shattered Sun Offensive (SSO), the new faction associated with patch 2.4, assigns many daily quests (to help you fill the new 25-dailies-a-day limit). Several of these quests reward you with Shattered Sun Supplies, a box which contains a high-level green item, and also -- coming to my point -- has a chance to contain a Badge of Justice.According to Wowhead, there are seven dailies that reward Shattered Sun Supplies. Some of them are apparently only available during certain phases of the SSO effort, so let's say you can do five of these per day. I don't have numbers on how often the supplies contain a Badge, but let's say it's a 50% chance, based on one comment that Badges are contained "more often than not." So on average, you could get 2.5 Badges per day just by doing these daily quests, which means 60 days to get one of those snazzy new 150-badge weapons. That's a long time, but arguably justified by the fact that these quests are probably pretty easy. Overall, this is, in my opinion, an excellent enhancement to the Badge system. Your thoughts?Update: Suzaku questions my hypothetical 50% drop rate in a comment. Obviously, the impact of these badges will depend on how frequent they are, and we just don't have solid numbers on that yet. Not to mention it may change during testing.
Crafter epic cloaks obtained, screenshotted and guides written
So how long has GU42 been out? Not even three days yet? Bravo EverQuest II crafters, bravo. Over at EQ2 Traders Corner, we get to see shots of some newly obtained crafter epic cloaks, and partial guides on how exactly you can get your hands on them. A note from Niami Denmother at EQ2TC before you get started (to scare off all the posers): 100 gathering will be required -20K (that is negative 20K) or better faction with Bathezid's Watch will be required T5 rares, and several imbue materials from T7 and T8 will be required Cooperation with crafters of other professions will be required. Unless they have 9 separate accounts, one for each of their level 80 crafters, even the most independent and antisocial crafter will need to work with other crafters and the commission system in order to receive the rewards. Even though some people have been able to churn these babies out in a matter of days, there's still a lot of work involved. For some extra incentive, however, it's not just the cloaks that you'll receive. You also get a prefix title, one of each tier 8 rare resource, a mastery certificate to place in your home, and without a doubt the best reward, a super nice piece of jewelery: the Earring of the Solstice. The earring is actually better than the cloak (each cloak has the same effect, +800 vs heat and an increased success chance of 1.4%) and should be considered the main reward -- but the cloaks are pimping too. You can see a gallery of all the cloaks EQ2TC has so far here.
Pictures of Monk and Bruiser epics emerge
Over at Ogrebear's Thoughts, we have the first look at some of the new epic weapons to be released in EverQuest II's Game Update 42. The picture apparently comes from Beckett Massive Online Gamer, and Ogrebear credits a player named Wyntre from the game's forums for the scan.The weapon with the blue background has been confirmed as the Monk epic. On the left is how it looks normally, and on the right (when it opens up) is when the player enters combat. Fancy. The red background weapon is for Bruisers, but there is supposedly a scorpion tail that attaches to it that is not pictured here. Queue up all your Wolverine jokes now people, GU42 isn't that far off.
EQ2 Game Update 42 to include epic quests
We have already had a preview of what is in store for EverQuest II's Game Update 42 with the recent patch notes for the Test server -- some new deities, house mannequins to display weapons and armor, a connection stats window etc. However, it appears that the Live server version of this update will implement, at long last, the epic weapon quests. The epic quests had originally been slated to release with the Rise of Kunark expansion, but due to the San Diego fires, development was pushed back. To make the original release after their setbacks would have meant a compromise to the quality of the quests or to the quality of the expansion, depending on how they channeled their resources, and neither of these options were preferable for the development team.EQII producer Bruce Ferguson has talked in the past about the epic quests, and in the above producer's letter, he mentions how careful the team is being with information relating to their completion. This is of course the reason that the quests were not released on Test along with the other GU42 features, as there would likely be a detailed walkthrough somewhere on the web before they even went live. Ferguson says that the team is on schedule and they hope to release GU42 in early February.
Phat Loot Phriday: Cataclysm's Edge
No messing around here. Just a big, bad sword. This is why half of us are playing a sword and sorcery game in the first place, right?Name: Cataclysm's Edge (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWWiki, WoWDigger)Type: Epic Two-hand SwordDamage/Speed: 386 - 580 / 3.50 (138.0 DPS)Abilities: +75 (!) Strength, +49 Stamina Equip: your attacks ignore 335 of your opponent's armor. And that's not a proc, that's an equip. Wild. The math around that is complicated to say the least, but suffice it to say that whenever you attack anything with the sword, you treat the opponent like it has 335 less armor than it really does. Which means even more damage. And all that strength adds damage as well, since strength adds to attack power, which adds to melee damage, too. In short, when something gets hit with this sword, it feels it. And I always get called out and shown up when I make statements like this, but according to WoWWiki, this is the highest DPS melee weapon in the game. Theorycrafters, if you would like to challenge that, feel free to do so in the comments below. WoWWiki shows that the Axe from the Illidan Kael'thas (you're right, I'm drunk) event does more damage, but that's a summoned axe, and not a player-useable weapon. Same deal with the Artifact Twin Blades of Azzinoth. So I'm standing by the original claim. Prove me wrong if you must. How to Get It: Drops from Archimonde, the last boss in Mount Hyjal (and arguably, the game itself). It's a 10 to 15% drop, so you'll need to get him down a few times for the odds to fall in your favor. And you'll have to fight all those Mortal Strike warriors and ret pallies for the roll, since everybody who likes chopping things in half will be after this one.But the good news is that this will last long after the "gear reset" coming in the expansion. I hesitate to say that it will actually be able to challenge Frostmourne (because who knows how they'll implement that in the game), but odds are that if you're lucky enough to get this now, you'll be chopping things with it for quite a while.Getting Rid of It: Are you nuts? If you have so many of these things laying around that you have to get rid of one, go talk to Matthew Rossi, our warrior writer-- I'm sure he'll want one. But if you must vendor it, you'll get 19g 57s and 38c for it. Disenchants, as usual, into a Void Crystal.
Bornakk confirms WotLK gear reset
We've suspected this all along, but now Bornakk has confirmed that yes, when the next expansion comes out, we'll all be turning in our epics for green gear once more. (And via MMO Champion, here's a comic that explains just what you're feeling right now). As he says, the whole point of a subscription MMO is that you need to keep playing to be awesome, and so new, more powerful gear is exactly where Blizzard wants to go.On the one hand, this is actually a great thing. I just finally brought my Hunter alt through Hellfire Peninsula, and it was terrific to run a few quests and all of a sudden have what used to be raid level gear. And as Bornakk says, another reset in Wrath of the Lich King will accomplish the same thing for new players then (including Death Knights, ahem, so if you're reading between the lines as much as I am, that means that Death Knights will probably start before level 70, because they too apparently will be coming through the 70-71 gear transition). It is great to do the starter quests in a new expansion, and quickly get brought up to speed with some of the best gear in the game.However, now that this is known, does it mean the gear you earn now is worthless? I don't think so-- while the old endgame was almost all about gear, there are so many epics now and so many ways to get them that the game is much more about how you play rather than the gear you're playing for. Sure, we'll all end up stashing our epics away for a green quest reward from the Borean Tundra, but we'll always have Karazhan and Gruul's, right?
Happy carnival playtime: pre-mades on the PTR
Hortus, the PTR community manager, announced a few hours ago that pre-made characters are going to be enabled on the patch 2.3.2 PTRs, starting today. This often-requested but seldom realized capability means anyone who can get on the PTR can get a level 70 character there of any class they want. This time around they'll be geared up in Arena Season 2 and heroic badge reward gear, and will start with extra Badges of Justice to get whatever other gear they might want; "don't even ask" for other gear, warns Hortus and his spinny hat. In a later post, he says that the PTRs will not be up tonight, and are expected to be available "sometime late tomorrow."While the idea behind pre-mades might be testing new content, I have other intentions. I tend to use pre-mades as a way to test specs or classes I haven't gotten a chance to experience at level 70, to see if it's worth respeccing on the live realms or leveling a character up to 70. It's also a fun chance to play with gear you might not have on the live realms without having to work for it. Personally, I plan on making a ret pally, a resto druid, and some sort of shaman, since those are all classes I've never gotten very high with, and I'd like to see what their endgame is like. What sort of fun will you be having on the PTR?
BoE Epic throwing weapon pickpocketed
Pickpocketing is one of my favorite things about the Rogue class. It adds some nice texture and a bit of extra cash to my grinding routine, keeps me stocked in Super Healing Potions and Flash Powder, and best of all, I can easily macro it along with my opening attack (usually Cheap Shot), so it doesn't even require an additional keystroke:/cast Pick Pocket/cast Cheap ShotNow, according to a few different reports around the official forums, there's a new reason to pick those pockets: epics.The BoE epic throwing weapon Spinesever was, allegedly, found in a lockbox picked from a random mob in Shadowmoon Valley. There seems to be some debate over whether it's real or not, but it is on Thottbot, and it looks believable enough. Edit: it's real. It does have rather high stats, and is probably the best throwing weapon in the game. I wonder what the skin looks like. What do you think? Is there a better throwing weapon out there? And how much do you think this is worth? People are suggesting that this is considerably over-budget; I don't know the item level formulas well enough to verify that claim -- can any of you?[Thanks, Gonçalo]
EverQuest II's senior producer explains the Kunark Epics delay
Massively's Rise of Kunark Beta Tour from early last week had a bevy of details on the just-released expansion. One of the hot-button items among the EverQuest 2 community, it seems, is the absence of the promised Epic weapons from Kunark's launch, a detail we first reported here on the site. TenTonHammer has followed up on player concerns in this area, speaking with EQ2's Senior Producer Scott Hartsman on the issue. Hartsman reveals that, unfortunately, the Kunark Epics are yet another victim of the recent San Diego fires. "What we were faced with was a bug count in which nothing had been touched in a week. When we are in our bug fix mode, the team is capable of fixing anywhere between 13 to 17 hundred bugs in a week, so losing a week is a big thing. At the end of the day it came down to well, we obviously need to focus on the overall launch of our expansion first. Epic weapons are something that yes, we've got a number of them in the bag, but the choice we had to make was, do we launch a game with 1500 bugs and epics that are 75% awesome and 25% less than awesome, or do we launch a game that's going to be as clean as we can make it and then push the epics out on an update? " Folks looking forward to tackling the weapons need not worry, though. Hartsman states that the Epics update will likely be coming just after the holiday season ends. This will give the team time to give the important items the polish they need ... and likely will let designers have a few moments with their families as well.
EverQuest 2 to add epic quests; bad memories of EQ1 epics come back
As Dan O'Halloran mentions in his write-up of the new EverQuest 2 expansion, Rise of Kunark. epic quests are coming to EQ2. If you played EverQuest, this could cause you to roll your eyes and exclaim, "Oh, no. Not this crap again!"This is likely to spark some debate, but I think epics rank high on the list of "Worst ideas in EverQuest." People felt a sense of entitlement to the damn things. It wasn't uncommon for people to cause guild strife getting the fool thing, only to quit their "fun" guild and join the uber guild that smartly required people to already have the items so they didn't go through all that malarky. Not that I'm bitter about it. mind you.It was the Cleric "click stick" epic that broke many guilds and player's spirits. EverQuest had a hefty experience point loss on death. The Cleric epic was a mana-less, instant-cast stick that gave you 100% of the xp back. [Edit: I stand corrected, it is indeed 96%. That's what I get for trusting my memory. What's 4% amongst friends?] If memory serves me right, it was also the only class epic that ended up being a have-to-get.
Warlock soloes the Horseman
Well I sure thought it would have been "some ambitious Paladin," but nope-- turns out it was an ambitious and crafty Warlock that brought the Horseman down all by his lonesome. As you can see in the video above, Deadmasters on EU Blackmoore has gone in SM with some amazing stats, and claimed all the epics off the Horseman for himself.So how'd he deal with tanking? Unfortunately, it seems like the whole thing is based on a pathing exploit-- the player can jump up on that ledge at the end of the fence, but the Horseman can't, so he basically "juggles" the bad guy back and forth while dotting and nuking him. The job gets harder when the pumpkins show up, but it's the same thing-- jump up and then jump back down when the Horseman gets close. If Blizzard had known about this, they probably could have fixed that pretty easily.But I don't mean to downplay Deadmasters' achievement-- clearly he's geared up right for the fight (look at those Affliction DoTs go!), and by the outtakes at the end, you can see that juggling the mobs just right was no easy task. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard makes changes in the encounter next year, though-- by then, we may be level 80, and who knows what horrors will lie in the SM GY?[ via incgamers ]
