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Next wave of Connected Realms announced
Following Monday's successful connections, the next wave of realms to be added to the Connected Realms feature have just been announced. While Community Manager Nethaera had the names of the realms available for players, as of yet there still isn't a fixed date for the realm connections to take place. However, given the faster turnaround that we've been experiencing, players may see these connections happen sooner than one would think. Nethaera As a part of our ongoing Connected Realms implementation, we will be connecting additional realms as listed below. We don't have a specific date yet on when these connections will occur, but we'll provide another update once we do. Please be aware that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other. Next Realm Connections: Dethecus and Detheroc Auchindoun and Laughing Skull Hakkar and Aegwynn Rivendare and Firetree Dunemaul and Bloodscalp/ Maiev/Boulderfist We're currently evaluating further realm connections and will provide updates as they're available. For more information on Connected Realms, please read the preview blog post here. source It looks like the Maiev/Bloodscalp/Boulderfist triad can expect another addition to their happy little family with Dunemaul. In addition, Hakkar will join Aegwynn, which was connected to Gurubashi last week. If you're a player on one of the realms slated for connection, you might want to keep an eye on the official thread for future updates.
Know Your Lore: Nathanos Marris and the dark rangers of the Forsaken
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. When looking at the new race and class combinations that are coming out with Cataclysm, some are far easier than others to digest, such as the addition of the hunter class to the human race. Of course the humans can be hunters, that's not a terribly far-fetched statement at all. But what about the other new race that, as of Cataclysm, gets to take up the bow and tame beasts as well? I'm speaking of the Forsaken, of course -- the thought of an undead creature holding a biscuit and coaxing a wolf to be his new best friend is just a little off-putting. In Wrath, we've seen a sudden return of the dark rangers -- the forsaken remnants of what used to be Sylvanas' corps of elven rangers. As Ranger General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas led and commanded the Farstriders back before the Third War. After the events of the Third War, Sylvanas found herself turned into a banshee, and then after regaining her body, a dark ranger -- the first dark ranger of the Forsaken. But the Forsaken we play in game aren't really elven -- they're humans, the former residents of Lordaeron. How do they fit in? There's a few different and absolutely reasonable theories kicking around, but first we should take a look at the first and only human ranger lord -- Nathanos Marris. WARNING: The following post may contain some spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain unspoiled, stopping here would be advised!
Speaking up for what's right
This is a pretty insightful thread, from all sides, on what the forums and customer feedback are really for. Rekker on Detheroc makes a good point, and that is that while people will complain about anything, almost no one speaks up when things are working right. We talked a little bit about this on the podcast this past week: are Blizzard's decisions based on a player base that never seems to be happy, no matter what you throw at them, or on some arbitrary design guidelines that Blizzard has stuck with from the beginning? Ghostcrawler, as you might expect, says it's a little bit of both. Blizzard doesn't just do what players say -- they consider player feedback and then make decisions from there. But at the same time, they can't ignore what players say, either. GC agrees that the forums are not the best sample of feedback, for the same reasons that Rekker gives: players go there because something is bothering them and they want it changed, not usually because they really love something in the game and want it to stay the same.Of course, forums are not the only form of feedback from the community, and there are many places Blizzard can get feedback about things in the game that players like (ahem). But just like Blizzard does, whenever you look at the forums, you have to realize that you're looking at just a slice of the feedback. People don't make QQ posts about the stuff they appreciate and like having in the game.
The Colosseum: Sodah of Detheroc
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes. This is the last weekend of Season 4, which is ending early in preparation for the sweeping changes in the content patch. Even while we hear exciting news from BlizzCon, the final, definitive matches of the season are being played out on the live servers. Sodah is a Druid on Detheroc, a member of several very highly ranked Arena teams. At the time of this interview, Sodah's sitting at #2 for 2v2 and 5v5, and #3 for 3v3. You can imagine he's got something to say about the way the Arena plays out, especially with the content patch and Wrath right around the corner. Check out the interview behind the cut.
Restarts and maintenance for Tuesday, May 20th
It's a relatively painless Tuesday Morning this time around for those who play in what are the early morning hours at Blizzard HQ. This time, most US servers will just recieve a quick rolling restart at 5 AM PDT, about half an hour from now, which should result in no more than 15 minutes of downtime. However, there are some servers that will get 2 hours of downtime: Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and Wildhammer. Also, here's something that should please a lot of Australian players: Their realms won't get the rolling restarts until 5AM AEST -- which translates to noon PDT. That should translate to lots of time for night owls to finish their raids before the restarts kick them off. So in that 15 minutes to 2 hours of down time you'll have to go through, or if you're stuck at school or work, here's a few WoW Insider articles from the last week that are worth checking out. First, last week's major news and views: The WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha is underway, and we have the leaked patch notes. A Vivendi earnings statement gave us the first real official word on WoTLK's expected release date. The Hunter Growl and Scare Beast changes from patch 2.4.2 didn't turn out so great after all. Raiders rejoice: M'uru got a little easier, and those nasty Archimonde and Eredar Twin bugs got a hotfix. Death and Taxes, the premiere US WoW raiding guild, disbanded. That set a few of us to pontificating on the problems of raid guild drama here and here. We covered a few more tidbits of WoTLK info, such as Death Knight "reruning." Check out sister site BigDownload's interview with Blizzard on that whole eSport thing. In Hybrid Theory, Alex soothes your fears about Death Knights taking your jobs. If these aren't enough for you, there's more after the break.
Forum post of the day: Rez me, unworthy peons!
I used to think that certain healers had developed a martyr complex due to their constant complaining about their treatment at the hands of the mean, mean DPSers. All the DPSers I know are nice to healers -- after all, they keep us alive, and ticking off the dude with your life in his hands is rarely a good idea. Is there anyone really stupid enough to be mean to their healers? Well, there's at least one guy. Brainwashed, a mage and guild leader on Detheroc, has earned the ire of healers across the realms with his semi-coherent rant on the Detheroc realm forums. Somewhere along the line, Brainwashed picked up the idea that since priests, druids, shamans and paladins can rez, it's "their job" to run back and rez the rest of the group after a complete wipe. Especially since because, as he says, "99% of the time a wipe is because of the healer, the other 1% its a mispull or lack of DPS." Oh, and he also thinks it's a smart idea for druids to use their battle rez to rez another rezzer after a wipe. The rest of his server takes it upon themselves to inform Brainwashed that in the sane parts of Azeroth, a wipe means everyone runs back, and that it's not the rezzer's job to run back while the rest of the group alt-tabs to watch naked ladies. He then insults the skill of all of his Horde opponents and threatens to camp his Alliance foes. Brainwashed stopped responding to the thread shortly after it spread to the paladin, druid, priest and shaman forums, bringing in a fresh tidal wave of healers laughing at him. But there's still a lot of entertainment left, including one of Brainwashed's guild paladins /gquitting in the thread due to the massive amount of stupid. What do you think about this thread? Is it a common attitude among DPSers, or is Brainwashed just extremely lazy?
