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Searching for the most popular server
Kris over on the WoW LJ has an interesting question: what's the most popular server in the game? Blizzard never has (and likely never will) singled out one server as the most popular in the game, as the QQ that would ensue might bring the forums down (not to mention that it must change pretty often, as people transfer and reroll on other realms. It seems that everyone on a high population server thinks they must be top dog when they see queues during prime time, but the most widespread concrete numbers we have are probably from the unofficial Warcraft Realms census: they claim that, with over 35,000 characters on it, Whisperwind is number one.Of course, even that can't be trusted -- those numbers are picked up from the site's addon, all within the last 30 days, and it could just be that WR has more info about more people on that server. But at the same time, I'd guess that Warcraft Realms' numbers are in the ballpark, as long as you're talking about Yankee Stadium. Whisperwind, Cenarion Circle, Stormrage, Moon Guard, and Proudmoore are all big servers, I can promise you anecdotally, while Laughing Skull, Blood Furnace, and Malorne are definitely at the other end of the spectrum. As for a most popular realm, there probably isn't one specifically (it changes periodically, if not even at different times of the day). But if your realm is near the top of Warcraft Realms' list, it's probably busier than the others.
Retaliation battlegroup down again
For the second Tuesday in a row around the same time (9:00-9:30 pm EST-ish), the US Retaliation battlegroup has crashed. Blizzard has confirmed that it's performing urgent maintenance on the hardware of the affected realms, and they'll provide an update at 11:00 PM EST/8:00 PM PST. Hmmm. Makes you wonder if whatever caused last week's crash was accidentally rolled back during server maintenance earlier today.The following are the affected realms: Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Dawnbringer, Exodar, Fizzcrank, Galakrond, Ghostlands, Grizzly Hills, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, and Zangarmarsh. My guild's on Retaliation and has consequently found itself without something to raid for the second Tuesday running. Last week their solution was to take off to Mug'thol and do a level 1 Hogger raid, complete with designated tanks and healers, damage meters, and -- to top things off -- a bonafide ninja looter of the Malachite drop. Our server might be down, but our hallowed traditions remain.
Lichborne: Outland leveling Supplemental: Professions and Dungeons
Two major questions remain from our Outland Leveling advice column from last week: Is it worth it to run Dungeons, and is it worth it to level a Profession? In both cases, the answer is: It depends. I know that sounds like a bit of a copout, but it is true. You can pretty much level straight to 70 and even 80 without ever touching a dungeon or learning a profession and do just fine. That said, there are certainly advantages to delving into dungeons or putting your Gnomish Army Knife to actual use. Let's take a look.
The Queue: Tradeskill bits and pieces
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.First off, I want to apologize for an error I made yesterday. I didn't research the sockets that Blacksmiths can give only to themselves enough, and due to one-part misinformation, one-part assumption, I said those sockets overwrite enchants from Enchanting. That's actually not true. Leatherworking's fur linings do overwrite enchants. Tailoring's cloak embroidery overwrites enchants. Blacksmithing's sockets do not. Again, I apologize for that. Socket One-Handed Weapon still never made it into the game, though. With that all said, let's get into the questions.pietrex asked...I've got another question about sockets. I remember that we had lots of socketed quest rewards in Outlands. But I've completed three zones in Northrend and seen only few of these. Does it change in mid-70 zones or do we have to wait until we get our hands on gear from Heroics?
15 Minutes of Fame: 10-boxing Karazhan, Part 2
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Last week, 15 Minutes of Fame visited with multiboxer Nixi of team Absolute Power-H of Archimonde to bring WoW Insider readers his 10-boxing strategy for Karazhan. This week, we'll step back for a look at Nixi's hardware setup, his top five tips for new multiboxers and a broader look at why he's a 'boxer.Catch up with 10-boxing Karazhan Part 1, then join us after the break for an inside look at Nixi's 10-boxing team.
The one you never win
Recently the guild hit Supremus again -- or, I should say, Supremus hit us. You'd think this would be a fairly easy fight to master. Supremus has two phases: the first is a lot like Gruul except with no cave-ins, knockback, or Shatter, and during the second phase, he aggros random people and tries to reach them while moving at the approximate pace of a snail. Oh, and he sprouts volcanoes under other players that you have to avoid. These two phases alternate until he's a giant pile of rubble in Black Temple's scenic courtyard.Yep. Easy.We can't do it.The guild's been farming Black Temple for months and most of the usual roster is rocking at least 3 or 4 pieces of Tier 6 -- yet the vast majority of our Supremus fights end with more than half the raid taking a dirt nap. We've reached the point where even this is still usually a one-shot, but it's more than a little disturbing. How can you one-shot Illidan with 24 people still alive...and somehow fail to steamroll the giant McLootLoot?To be fair, it's not just raids. I've seen players break out in a cold sweat over Talon King Ikiss on heroic Sethekk (which always confused me; the great secret of the fight consists of tanking him in the doorway). Others cite Grandmaster Vorpil, the event before the second boss in Blood Furnace when you don't have a Paladin tank, or Warbringer O'mrogg on heroic Shattered Halls (actually, all of Shattered Halls can pretty much bite me. I hate tanking that place). My own personal nemesis is Vexallus on heroic Magisters' Terrace. I've even taken a group with two mages and a rogue in T5/T6 here and wiped 3 times. What gives?
"Maximizing" reputation gains
My Blood Elf Paladin is level 63 now, and I'm currently after Sporeggar reputation, in hot pursuit of that greatest of Protadin prizes, the Petrified Lichen Guard. Of course, when I started, the first thing I did was go buy a few Bog Lord Tendrils, planning to turn them in until I jumped out of unfriendly. It was the most efficient way to get that faction jump, so I considered the silver money well spent. With friendly under my belt, I can safe turn in a load of Mature Spore Sacs and Glowcaps (I took the quests before I turned in the Tendrils, so I can still turn them in despite being friendly).
WoW Moviewatch: Solo runs of Ramparts, Blood Furnace, and Mana Tombs
Lately there's lots of people running old world instances solo, as well as some people attempting runs of Burning Crusade instances alone and ending up victorious. I even saw a Paladin tank solo Hellfire Ramparts once.But in this video a Tauren Druid named (perhaps appropriately) Immortal, kills all 3 bosses of Ramparts, all 3 bosses of Blood Furnace, and the 2nd boss of Mana Tombs -- all on his own. Definitely worth a watch!Previously on Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: 10 Paladins clear Karazhan (almost!)
We've profiled movies of a Paladin soloing Blackrock Depths. We've even seen one solo Blood Furnace. Now, ten of them have banded together to tackle Karazhan. And they manage to clear it all the way until the last two bosses, Nightbane and Netherspite. Not bad for a class that constantly beats up on itself for being gimped.The video is 26 minutes long, but enjoyable. The first part is RP related to the quest and the fights are at double speed. The music choice is very good IMHO and the humorous moments really help move it along. The shot of all 10 Blood Elf paladins dancing naked on the table was definitely a highlight. These are 10 players definitely enjoying themselves. Check it out.Previously, on Moviewatch...
Around Azeroth: Into the Blood Furnace
Reader Drakid of Arygos sends us this very pastel image of Blood Furnace, one of the wings of Hellfire Citadel in Hellfire Peninsula. With a name like "Blood Furnace," you'd really expect something more ominous than these pastel pinks and blues, though I doubt the choice of colors makes the monsters inside any friendlier.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Blood Furnace boss event now with ExtraHardSauce(tm)
Patch 2.1 had a few hidden surprises for players. Among them is the increase in difficulty of the Broggok event in Blood Furnace.For those of you not familiar with this boss fight, here's a quick overview. Big floating-eye poison-dropping tentacle-waving boss guy can't be touched until you take out four waves of Fel Orcs first. With a mix of elites and non-elites in each wave, these orcs were hard, but not crazy hard. After the last one dies, you can face off against Broggok who isn't as difficult as the orcs before him.The problem with this event is that your group's casters were usually out of mana at the end of the Fel Orc part of the event. Though Broggok isn't crazy tough, he isn't a pushover with zero healing mana available for the fight either. A typical strategy was using some form of crowd control on the last orc in the last wave to allow you group to regen mana before triggering the boss.But with the last patch, the game has a new twist.
Phat Loot Phriday: Glaive of the Pit
So I was thinking about what to do for Phat Loot this week, and it occurred to me that we've never done a Polearm. The reason is probably because most polearms suck (they tend to be faster than most 2hands, and what you really want with a 2hander is high damage and slow speed), but if you really want a polearm, this one's not bad. I kind of wanted to do Vendorstrike, because I think it's a cool idea, but I know none of you hardcore guys would let me get away with calling it "phat."Name: Glaive of the PitType: Epic Two-Hand PolearmDamage / Speed: 330-497 / 3.70 (111.6 DPS)Abilities: Three red sockets, with a socket bonus of +4 crit rating Chance on hit: steals 238 to 262 life from enemy (although the word on this proc is that it doesn't happen that often) It's a polearm, so chances are no one will really want it (hey, at least I got to post that picture, right?). If you're a Mortal Strike warrior who doesn't yet have an epic weapon (which isn't very likely, considering where this comes from), or you just really, really, really want to wield a polearm sometimes, it might be the phat loot for you. Just throw some gems in it, and then wait a bit, because something better will come along pretty quickly. How to Get It: Then again, there's lots of item tweaking going on, so maybe things will change-- who knows? Anyway, this is a drop from Magtheridon, one of the first 25 man raids in Outland. If you've ever run the Blood Furnace, and looked down through the grate after you've killed the final boss, you'll see Mag (he's also the voice yelling throughout the instance). Mag, of course, is a Pit Lord, hence the name.Drop him and hope for about an 8% chance, and this baby will drop. And hey, think about it this way-- if you really want it, you'll probably get it. Because no one else does.Getting Rid of It: I feel so bad for polearms now. I guess The Eye of Nerub isn't so bad for hunters at 60, but I can't seem to find a really amazing polearm. I guess the arena polearm isn't too bad. Anyway, the Glaive will give you 14g 58s and 33c from vendors, and will disenchant into a Void Crystal.
Around Azeroth: The Blood Furnace
Reader Almus of Shadowsong sends in this image of the final boss in the Blood Furnace wing of the Hellfire Citadel, an early dungeon to be found in the Outlands. He claims the whole dungeon is full of amazing views like this -- and with eye candy like this, how can anyone be content waiting these last weeks to the expansion release.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
