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Watch Kungen's level 60 hardcore Diablo 3 character die unceremoniously
In Diablo III's hardcore mode, when you die in the game, you die in real life. Wait, no, that's not right. When you die in the game, you lose your character forever. Kungen, another former World of Warcraft raider turned competitive Diablo player, was known for his ... exploits in the world of Azeroth for years. He recently retired from the game and, since the release of the new Diablo title, has been playing that game nearly as much as he once played WoW. Kungen made it to level 60, began working his way through Inferno Hardcore, and met his untimely demise in the silliest possible way. His death screen states that he has spent a little over 175 hours on his hardcore barbarian, but how much of that was spent playing and how much was spent AFK or tabbed out while still logged in to the game, we don't really know. Judging by his death, maybe he should have spent a little less time tabbed out. "The good thing," Kungen remarked, "is that I'm going to be back at the same spot in like 30 hours."
The Queue: Trinket-Palooza 2009
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert is your hostess today again (our condolences).I'm in an autumnal sort of mood, hence today's picture. Yes, I know that Barrens trees always look like that. We got a really interesting question about trinkets the last time around that really caught my attention, so a lot of today's Queue is going to be comprised of an Enjoyable Stroll Down Memory Lane and Into Holy ^$*# Look At That Trinket From AQ40 How Has That Not Been Nerfed Yet.Starlin asks...So, what's up with Brewfest this year? Anything new or updated?Fortunately or us, Kisirani posted on this same question yesterday. To summarize, there are no major changes to the holiday, but Coren Direbrew has been updated to level 80, the mount drop rates haven't changed (nor are they now required for the Brewfest meta-achievement), and no new pets or mounts have been added. You can reasonably expect a beefed-up holiday boss with a new loot table (most likely of ilevel 200 items, possibly 219 if they want to match the gear from heroic Trial of the Champion), but otherwise the same experience as last year. I'll have an OverAchiever for the good folks seeking Brewfest achievements up on the site soon.
Ensidia downs Yogg-Saron
It was inevitable that someone would down Yogg-Saron pretty quickly, and less than twenty four hours after the patch went live European guild Ensidia have claimed World First on the Death God. Given the non-linear progression into Ulduar, a lot of other guilds were able to pull off world firsts on other bosses. It also seems that Ensidia was focusing on clearing Ulduar in normal mode, as none of their kills were done on hard mode. This means we're unlikely to see Algalon downed this week (not by Ensidia, anyway). While it came as no surprise that someone killed him, what surprised me was that it was Ensidia. I was betting on Vodka (can I get a 'for the Alliance!' from anyone?) and that they managed to do it while many of the EU realms were having stability issues. Of course, it should be noted that Ensidia was the same guild that cleared all Wrath content three days after its release (they hadn't decided on a name yet).Boubouille over at MMO Champion has a full raid list and info on some of the loot that dropped, including a rather nice cloak and a piece of that legendary healer mace.
TwentyFifthNovember beats all Wrath PvE content
Just an hour ago, we reported that über mutant guild conglomerate TwentyFifthNovember, a merger of two of the world's bleeding edge guilds -- SK Gaming and Nihilum -- beat the 'entry-level' raid of Naxxramas. This was fast, although not entirely unexpected considering that Naxxramas was an old-world raid that was retuned for 25-man (and 10-man) content. However, TwentyFifthNovember's website reports that they have also defeated Malygos, currently the end, and supposedly most difficult, boss of current Wrath of the Lich King content (Icecrown and Arthas will be accessible in a future patch). Their website says 'soon...' but I didn't take that to mean 'right now'.This means that within three days of the game's launch, a guild has leveled to max level (although some members of the raid were below 80) and defeated all available raid content. While Blizzard has admitted to tuning the game to become more accessible to more players, or a more casual audience, TwentyFifthNovember's defeat of all PvE content available in the current game brings into question just how tuned down PvE content has become. It will be interesting to see how long it will take another Guild to clear through all of Northrend. Congratulations, TwentyFifthNovember! You can now all go an play Guitar Hero. Or something.
The drums of progress
Anyone watching Nihilum's recent achievement closely would notice a few odd things. It was notable that the kill was achieved without a single Rogue, or more appropriately, melee DPS class in the raid. Nihilum guild leader Kungen is renowned for his traditional views on class roles, although he is open to off-specs and has even taken a Retribution Paladin on a progression kill. But there's always a simple explanation behind each of their actions (no melee classes were on, can't have all Paladins specced Holy for this boss, etc.). Interestingly, my armory-trolling cousin pointed out something curious that a close inspection of Nihilum's raid make-up would reveal: only three members (including Kungen) aren't Leatherworkers. You read that right, that means even cloth classes dropped old professions in favor of Leatherworking. The thing is, this trend isn't restricted to Nihilum. The most dedicated, progressive guilds in the game have many of their members going for Leatherworking.The explanation is simple: drums. In particular, the Drums of Battle, which increases melee, ranged, and spell haste. In an exclusive interview with WoW Insider last March, Neg of Nihilum remarked that the one thing that impressed him (and presumably Nihilum and their raid planning) was the effectiveness of haste. Haste is a statistic that became extremely prevalent in Patch 2.4, with many new items containing haste, including spell (currently AWOL) haste gems. Our raid specialist Marcie Knox wrote thoroughly about haste in a series of articles under her column RaidRX. It's a lesson that the top raiding guilds seem to know by heart. Nihilum was so impressed by haste that most of their core raid members leveled Leatherworking to be able to use drums, because it benefits the raid more than the individual unlike other professions like, say, Tailoring.Before Patch 2.4 dropped, many members of the game's top guilds furiously leveled Leatherworking. With almost all raid members carrying the Drums of Battle, a raid can have an almost permanent haste buff that stacks with Heroism/Bloodlust. Having all your raid members level Leatherworking -- and basically for one item -- for raid progress is a masterstroke that shows the lengths that hardcore raiders will go to push the envelope. Clearly, it isn't the only reason Nihilum beat the Eredar Twins, but with a 6-minute enrage timer breathing down on every raid group doing the encounter, it certainly helps.
