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WoW Archivist: Patch 3.0 -- Echoes of Doom
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Patch 6.0 is finally upon us. Like all pre-expansion patches, it has been both invigorating and chaotic. Almost exactly six years ago, a similar patch went live to begin a new era in WoW. Blizzard called Wrath of the Lich King's pre-expansion patch "Echoes of Doom." On October 14, 2008, this third version of the game gave us the brand-new achievement system, inscription and glyphs, 51-point talent trees, the zombie plague event, and TO THE GROUND, BABY. Read on to see what WoW was like for those turbulent few weeks before Wrath of the Lich King's launch. Dalaran, where art thou? Through all of classic and The Burning Crusade, Dalaran sat in northern Hillsbrad, but players couldn't see it. An opaque purple dome walled off the Kirin Tor from the world at large. At the time, the enormous structure was one of the most striking landmarks in Azeroth. Although a few quests hinted at what lay beneath it, players new to the WoW universe had no idea what was there. And then it was gone. All that remained was a city-sized crater. I remember making a pilgrimage to this site during the 3.0 prepatch just to see it for myself. We couldn't go to Northrend yet to see the city first-hand. We had to wait for the launch of Wrath to do that. But looking at that crater certainly fired the imagination. I couldn't wait to find out what had been lurking under that dome for the first four years of the game. I have to say, the city lived up to my high expectations.
Warlords of Draenor Beta: Face Re-customization via Barber Shop
There's been a lot of discussion of the new character models and people being afraid they won't like their character's face after they come in. Well, it appears Blizzard has been listening, because on the beta you can recustomize your character's face at the barber shop, meaning that you can now change your face, hair style, hair color and facial hair at the barber, and all for in-game gold. Of course it's the beta, things can change, don't count on this feature until it makes it live. But it does seem a pretty good way for Blizzard to address the concerns people have had that they may not like their characters after the model changes. It works exactly as the barber shop does now - you go in, sit down, get the menu and make your changes. You click through the available facial options with the right and left arrows. No mess, no fuss. Hopefully it'll make it live to the thunderous applause of those who were worried.
The Mog Log: Preparing for patch 2.1 in Final Fantasy XIV
All right, everyone, the time is nearly upon us. Final Fantasy XIV is about to unleash its first big patch. Please remain calm and take everything slowly. If necessary, painkillers may be consumed to reduce swelling. Anti-anxiety medications are not recommended. A friend of mine noted on Twitter that the presentation for this patch reads more like an expansion than just a patch, and I have to agree. There is a lot being added to the game with this patch, more than you would expect. I haven't been playing around with it on the test server thanks to the lack of a test server, but we've still seen enough information to have some idea of what comes next. So let's talk about patch 2.1. When it finally goes live, where will you go? What will you do? How can you get the most out of Final Fantasy XIV's major drop?
SWTOR is finally getting a barber shop feature
If you find yourself asking, "Hmm, when will I see more customization options for my character, new vehicles, and possibly a convenient one-stop-shop to adjust my character's look?" while playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, then your answer lies in the latest Insider video. In it, BioWare producer Cory Butler details some of the new features inbound for the space MMORPG. What does the Cartel Market have on offer this month? There's a new Eradicator's Warsuit, a killer-looking outfit that was inspired by the original Deceived trailer. The trooper's armor set will be introduced later in the month, and then look out for the Vice Commandant's Contraband pack, which includes all new pets, vehicles, and gear. After April, the game will introduce the appearance designer kiosk, an all-in-one barber shop that allows players to change their appearance and even race! And oh yeah, players can also re-color armor sets. It's time for a new summer look, Jedi! (The Sith can't stand the sun.) Click onward to check out the video for yourself.
BioWare hints at barber shop functionality for SWTOR
Fansite SWTOR-RP.com has posted an interesting Q&A with BioWare devs Damion Schubert and Charles Boyd. Boyd, Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead writer, and Schubert, its senior designer, have a lot to say regarding Game Update 2.0 (otherwise known as the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion). The interview should prove particularly welcome for players itching to customize their existing characters with some sort of barber shop functionality. "A feature which scratches this itch is in active development right now, but will not be part of Rise of the Hutt Cartel," Schubert says. "But this should get to you sooner than you think!"
Hyperspace Beacon: What would you like added to SWTOR's cash shop?
I wondered for a long time whether western MMOs could survive a free-to-play transition, especially since many of them were bent on having both a cash shop and subscription fee. Star Trek Online is a key example of this. You couldn't even play that game without a subscription, and yet it still had a cash shop. Then you also had hybrid models like EverQuest II and Lord of The Rings Online, which didn't require subscriptions but seemed to force players into one. And despite my initial thinking, even these games thrived -- STO especially surprised me. Now, Star Wars: The Old Republic has picked up a similar model, and despite the negativity from the comments on gaming news sites, Electronic Arts says it is pleased with the results. In fact, SWTOR was listed as a major contributor to the company's $185 million in F2P revenue. As I've stated before, I don't really spend money in SWTOR's cash shop. But at the same time, I don't have any moral opposition to it. Plus BioWare is giving me 600 Cartel Coins a month thanks to my subscriptions and security key. It's just easier for me to buy items from the Galactic Trade Market, and no item on the Cartel Market has excited me enough to buy it right away. I know that eventually everything will end up on the GTN, so I just wait. However, since this model seems to be working well for the game, I thought about where there could be an item that would compel me to immediately buy it from the Cartel Market. I also asked some of my friends whether there are any items that they would immediately buy if they were to appear on the Cartel Market. I received some very interesting results.
Treat yourself to a makeover with Allods Online's Hall of Changes
Last weekend, we took a look at Allods Online's upcoming Astral Ship customization options. As it turns out, Astral Ships aren't the only things that players will be able to make fabulous. When patch 2.0.06 hits the live servers, players will be able to give their characters a makeover with the introduction of the Hall of Changes. Upon entering the mythical (and stylish!) Hall of Changes, players will be able to recreate their characters from the ground up. And when we say "from the ground up," we mean it; if you're tired of not having an hourglass figure and a bootylicious posterior, forget exercise! Just change your gender. Each race will also receive two brand-new hairstyles -- one for each gender -- as well as a new skin texture option, which will allow players to modify their characters' skin textures regardless of skin color. For the full details, head on over to the Allods official site and give it a look!
New hairstyles for dwarf women from Cataclysm beta
As a longtime fan of dwarf women, I got a bit of a shock when I logged on to the Cataclysm beta this evening and discovered my shaman's neat and tidy bun had morphed into an extroverted anime style! Obviously she's been visiting the stylist without my knowledge, but a quick trip to the Stormwind barber revealed a total of four possible new hairstyles for dwarf women. Who would have thought we'd be such trendsetters? Now, the textures for a few of them do look a little funky, and some of them look like several styles combined, so the usual this is beta and it is possibly a bug caveats apply here. In spite of that, I feel optimistic and look forward to the possibility of new hairstyles for the other races. So far, tauren are still woefully under-served when it comes to choice, and the gnomes and elves of beta are sticking to tried and tested styles. As for the men? We'll be adding new styles to the gallery as we find them. %Gallery-106691% World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
The OverAchiever: Pure win
Every so often I get tired of the self-seriousness that infests some of (OK, most of) the other work I do here, and get the urge to write something purely for fun. After our series on evil achievements and the relentless misery of School of Hard Knocks, I'd like to spend some time on achievements that are nothing but an absolute joy from beginning to end. The following is an entirely arbitrary set of five achievements that I personally believe are a hoot. Eventually, I'd like to expand this in the same fashion as the evil achievements series, and I'd welcome any comments or suggestions on your own favorites. Namely, what makes certain achievements fun? Is there any achievement you've made a point of getting on each of your characters?
The Queue: Praying for the PTR
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Good afternoon, WoW Insider! I'm feeling pretty good today, how about you? Why am I feeling so good? The idea of the PTR potentially going up in the next couple of days is giving me a bit of a rush. Seeing all of the new stuff is one of the big things that excites me about MMOs, and of course passing that info on to you guys. Let's hope it goes up sometime soon, because it will rule.Firestride asked...What should I do if I get into an AV raid that is intent on zerging, and going up against an opponent who is also zerging, only better at it?
Lume the Mad tackles Wrath of the Lich King (all of it)
World of Warcraft blogger Lume the Mad wrote up a massive post describing the most important changes in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion which will be released on November 13th. He lists just about everything, and even provides analysis of the expansion's implications.It's a must-read for WoW players, especially those unfamiliar with the breadth of the changes occuring in the expansion. And for those who already know their stuff, there's some good commentary on the consequences of Blizzard's choices. It'll especially be useful to guild leaders who want to be prepared.He had some particularly harsh words to say about the changes ("homogenization") to buffs in some classes. He argued that the changes will render some players' characters undesirable to raid leaders. But it's not all high-brow theoretical talk; there are bits about vehicles, siege warfare, and even the barber shop in there. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Gameplay trailer for this Fall's most anticipated MMO
Don't worry, we're not going back to HKO Insider (although you really did want us to), but we know there's a good number of you out there tracking that other big MMO release this Fall, the one with the "Lich Kitty." And here's the first gameplay trailer for the game we're really hoping to play this November -- forget about Death Knights and siege vehicles and new pets and hairstyles, we're waiting for solving mysteries and Sanrio characters and... well, new pets and hairstyles.But seriously, it does look fun, doesn't it? WoW could certainly use a farming profession (maybe to go along with some player housing), and everything is just so bright and shiny and fun. The most popular zone in Outland was Nagrand, and we like to think it's because of the rolling green hills and the sparkling blue skies. If you ever get tired of Knights dressed in black metal and dark magics that curse and torment the leaders of the Horde, just know that Hello Kitty Online is out there, waiting just for you.[via WoW Ladies LJ]
Blizzard announces Pre-Wrath content patch
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Blizzard_announces_Pre_Wrath_content_patch'; Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. In a sign that Wrath of the Lich King is quickly moving toward release, Eyonix officially announced today that we will see a new content patch "in the coming weeks." This patch will introduce a good portion of the old world Wrath-related content and UI improvements, and will probably start the pre-Wrath opening event (If you don't mind spoilers, you can get some info on what that event may entail from us). Check out Eyonix's list of what is being implemented and what it may mean after the break.
Ask a Beta Tester: Healing, now with 100% more spell power!
Good morning, everyone! It's another day to answer your Wrath of the Lich King questions in Ask a Beta Tester. For as long as you have questions, we'll be here finding answers. In the image above, we see a Zeppelin leaving Orgrimmar heading for Northrend -- so let's go with them!Verodio asks... How well does healing gear transform into spell power gear? I want to know if my priest would be better served by holding onto epic items with high healing stats or by blue items that are +damage for grinding in Northrend. For example. Would a pair of pants that are +90 to have higher or lower spellpower than a pair of pants with +40 damage?It is not a direct one to one conversion and some of the changes may be surprising -- or at least they surprised me. Let's look at a couple of examples from the gear my Priest is wearing right now. My usual healing pants, Whitemend Pants, on the live realms, have +62 healing. On the Beta realms, the same Whitemend Pants have +33 spell power. Alternately, my DPS pants, Trial-Fire Trousers, have +49 damage and healing on the live realms. On the beta realms, the Trial-Fire Trousers have +49 spell power. I've seen a similar pattern across the board -- healing numbers significantly reduced, with spell damage numbers staying about the same. I'm sure it will work out fine in the long-run, but when you first enter Wrath, you may find that your DPS gear gives you more overall healing power than your healing gear!As several commenters have noted, though your healing numbers drop, your actual healing ability does not. I personally feel my heals are hitting somewhat harder on the beta realms than on the live realms, despite a huge drop (really, massive -- my beta +heal number is sort of depressing) in the healing number on my character sheet.
New hairstyles in Wrath of the Lich King revealed
Yes, you can have a Night Elf mohawk. That's the biggest thing you should take away from the new files uncovered by Andrige, a WoW fan artist. They show some of the new hairstyle options for various races showing up soon in a Barber Shop near you. He sent the files off to our own Big Bear Butt Blogger and to Phaelia of Resto4life. The Male hairstyles can be found at Big Bear Butt, while the female hairstyles can be found at Resto4Life. Right now, it looks like they've mostly swapped hairstyles between races -- male Gnomes have the Forsaken male hairstyles for example, while Night Elves seem to have taken a page from the Blood Elf book. Still, there are a few seemingly new unique hairstyles, such as the aforementioned Night Elf mohawk and new horn types for Tauren. of course, most of these new hairstyles aren't even immediately usable in the Beta barbershop yet, either, but it's likely that we'll see them in a future build. Also, I would imagine that we will see more hairstyles (hopefully more new and unique ones, specifically) coming as the Beta continues, but it's nice to get a sneak peak at what we have so far. Again, you can see the female hairstyles at Resto4Life, and the male hairstyles at Big Bear Butt. Be sure to check out our barbershop gallery as well if you haven't yet.
Breakfast Topic: If you could change one thing
Being a roleplayer, I spend a lot of time thinking about my characters in the context of the world, rather than just pumping their stats. Sometimes I regret making certain characters a certain class. Sometimes I wish I had picked a different race for them. Other times, I wish I could just display things on the character that we currently can't. For example, I would probably give my Paladin a more 'angry' expression if I could go back and change it, rather than the more neutral, aloof expression they have now. I would change my Priest's hair to make it longer, since she's kind of grown out of the cutesy short hairstyle. It doesn't go very well with Absolution. One of my friends wishes their Human Mage was a Draenei instead.The dance studio and barber shop in Wrath will help some of this, but there's still quite a bit of character customization that we don't have. And sometimes, you just plain feel like you made a mistake 30+ levels after you rolled your character, and you feel like it's too late to turn back. Have you ever felt this way? If you were given an opportunity to change one thing about your character, anything at all, what would it be?
Buying your way through raid content
There's a new game in town, and Artirius of the Aerie Peak server has noticed it, and admittedly, so have I. With attunements gone, it is now possible for any level 70 to go in and see tier 5 and 6 content whenever they want. Of course, they don't generally have a prayer of actually downing bosses unless they have 20-24 well geared people to help them out. That's where gold comes in. With a few thousand gold, you can buy your way into a tier 6 group that doesn't need the tier 6 armor and go along for the ride. A few hours later, you come out on the other end with Illidan dead and a few shiny new drops, even if you've never set foot in Karazhan. It's not just people trying to buy these slots in the trade channel either. As Artirius observes, many raid groups are actively soliciting for buyers for their raid slots. On my own server, one Horde group is trading tier 6 runs for large quantities of certain herbs, promising that all but a few select drops will go to the people who buy their slots with stacks of Netherbloom and Ghost Mushrooms. So what's causing this?
Breakfast Topic: What Blizzard didn't announce at the opening ceremony
By now I'm assuming you've read the liveblog or seen the announcement post and heard: Diablo 3 is go. By now you have probably also heard that there really weren't any other announcements at the opening ceremony. Don't get me wrong, Diablo 3 is awesome. But as much as we're Blizzard fanboys (and fangirls) here, we're all about the WoW first, and we need some WoTLK news to sustain us too -- and we still don't know what that mysterious "next generation MMO" in development is either -- it seems most people are assuming it's Starcraft now though. Me, I'm not convinced. After all, there's a Starcraft game in development too, so it could presumably be either franchise, or simply an updated World of Warcraft 2. There's quite a few things that could come out about WotLK today and tomorrow, of course. I'm still hoping for an opening cinematic and an official release date to start. While we're at it, how about giving us a demo of the Dance Studio or Barbershop, or better yet, some other unannounced new major feature for the expansion? I might even settle for new skills, talent trees, or even a new battleground preview. What are your expectations and hopes for news from the World Wide Invitational as it soldiers on?
WoTLK to bring new emotes
I know I've complained a bit about Warcraft's lack of character customization, but I must say that it seems like they've been slowly but surely taking steps to make things better on that front. There's the dance studio and the barber shop incoming, of course, but here's another leak that's popped up from the Alpha: New emotes! I know it sounds silly, but having pre-made emotes can really add to the fun factor of playing your character. Add them in macros (but don't spam them, that's just annoying) or use them to register your enjoyment, surprise, shock, or disgust at the situation. There's some really good ones in here that I've been wanting for a while -- although, word to wise, Blizzard: Facepalming is generally done with one palm, not two. I know you've seen the facepalm ASCII on the General Forums, too. Also, I would like to thank you for allowing me to finally act as my hero, Phoenix Wright, through the magic of emotes. I know it's just a minor thing, but still, I'm looking forward to having a bit more variety in playing with my character in the social part of the game. Now if we could only get outfits and player housing too... [Via Deathknight.info]
What's the point of new hairstyles?
One of the trumpeted features of Wrath of the Lich King are new dances and hairstyles. The new dances, I can understand. They're visually distinctive, fun at parties, and you can never dance enough on top of the mailbox. On the other hand, is there really a point to new hairstyles? I know Daniel has big plans for his characters, and my wife is excited at the prospect of finally being able to change what she disdainfully calls her 80's look. Personally, I've got half a mind to get one hairstyle change on one of my toons, but does anyone actually remember how your character's hair looks?I keep my helmet graphic off for PvP purposes, but most of the time, a lot characters have their heads all covered up. Even if they weren't, do you really remember if your Tauren buddy's horns are curved or straight? Or if your Troll guildie has green or orange hair? I'm willing to wager none of your friends remember what kind of haircut your Human Priest has, or what color it is. With few exceptions, even if players choose wacky, colorful hairstyles, most of us won't notice. I don't even really remember if my Rogue Arena teammate has a lower jaw. We simply don't pay enough attention to other people's characters for it to matter.On the other hand, new hairstyles will probably make us happier with our toons. My wife's looking forward to playing her Priest again, after regretting a hair choice she'd made ages ago while Daniel is excited to get royal purple samurai hair. Even if other players won't really remember how you look, the important thing is being happy with the character you play. The paid name change, for example, is one character customization feature I'm still happy about, even though I have yet to take advantage of it (my customization budget tops off at $10). So while the dances will be something everyone can appreciate the next time someone plays a piccolo at the Auction House, new hairstyles will be something more personal. Even if you cover it up with a helmet, at least you know no one can mess with your new 'do.
