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The Art of Wushu: Paying doesn't mean winning
Age of Wushu has come under a lot of fire as a pay-to-win game. There are ways to get in-game power for out-of-game money, so there are a lot of reasons to assume that real cash can turn you into one of the top fighters in Jianghu. Fortunately for the dedicated players (and to the chagrin of cash shop whales), the truth is a bit more skewed. There are varying degrees of pay-to-win cash shops, but Age of Wushu's cash shop provides very few outlets to directly buy power. The main culprit is the simple fact that spending real money can give a player silver to spend on anything he or she wants. Silver is king in Age of Wushu. The entire player market revolves around silver, and the largest source of it comes from the cash shop. Does this mean you need to pay to have a chance?
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Breakfast Topic: Reining in the ease of collecting mounts
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Mounts are everywhere -- rightfully so, as they're an absolute necessity. These furry, feathery, leathery or mechanical steeds practically fall from the sky. You can get them from in-game vendors, out-of-game vendors, random drops, timed heroic runs, fishing, trading cards and even just having a bunch of mounts. With so many ways to get them, it's easy to forget how hard they were to get just a few scant years ago. My first character at level cap was my much-missed warlock. As if slinging curses, ordering around demons and sipping the tears of my enemies weren't enough, I was treated to one of the best climaxes to a quest chain in game. The sheer wildness of trying to keep everything working while simultaneously fending off droves of enemies, culminating in a fantastic boss fight, is something everyone should experience. True, the quests leading up to the final showdown were annoying and expensive, but they were worth it in the end. However, Blizzard has gone out of their way to make mounts very easy to get. Paladins and warlocks no longer have to go on an epic adventure for their noble or demonic steeds; they simply have to talk to their trainers. The minimum level to get the first mount has been dropped from 40 to 30 to 20, while epic mounts are now under the rumps of those much lower than level 60. Even flying mounts are now available almost as soon as you step into the Outland. So I've been pondering: Does the huge variety, abundance and awesomeness of mounts these days make up for the ease of obtaining them? Or do you think it was better when you had to walk for a much longer time and scrounge up much more gold (when gold was hard to get)? Are new players missing out on something special by not having to triumph over waves of demons to get their new demon, or are they simply bypassing an unnecessary annoyance to get to the real meat of the game? Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!
The Light and How to Swing It: Five things every Paladin must do. Period.
After a unintended long hiatus, The Light and How to Swing It is back with a message from the Light. Inspired by a recent post by our very funny Christian Belt who writes the Mage column, we'll go and pick up his great idea and twist it a little bit, just like how Blood Elves used to siphon power off M'uru and twist it around. For today we'll go over all the things you have to do in the game in order to get the best experience out of your Paladin.Now, I'll preface the column to disclaim that I'm nowhere near as funny as Mr. Belt (regular readers rub that in among all our other writers with the exception of Allison Robert) - I'm actually quite humorless - and that obviously this list isn't going to be the definitive guide to playing a Paladin. It's just that for this exercise, I'm going to pick out several things in the World of Warcraft that should make your Paladin more, ah, complete.
Breakfast Topic: A trip down memory lane
While browsing the General Discussion forums the other day, I noticed a recently-resurrected 2007 thread collecting players' oldest screenshots. Due to the age of the thread, some of the links (mostly on the first two pages) are dead and gone, which was really disappointing because some of them sound great, but there are plenty of good ones. Among the best are the character creation screen during beta, the old Troll epic mount, and -- according to Gorhendizzle of Bloodhoof on page 5 -- the first publicity screenshot Blizz ever released. I don't know whether that's true, but trying to figure out what the screenshot is of is driving me nuts. It looks like Elwynn, but I can't tell where.My own oldest screenshot (see above) is fairly tame by comparison; I had just turned 41, and was proudly astride my new kodo on a starry night outside Orgrimmar. What (if anything) prompted you to start snapping ingame pictures? Are there any historical gems buried in your own screenshot folder? Search your hard drive; you know it to be true.
The Queue: Genn, you're such a jerk
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.Be warned that the very end of today's edition of The Queue contains minor spoilers for the upcoming Ulduar raid zone. Everything is perfectly safe until the very last question, and even then the spoilers are very minor. Minor as in it describes a couple of the bosses found within the zone. It doesn't give away any story or plot. If you want your experience to remain pure, stop at the last question. If you don't care so much about knowing who you'll see in Ulduar, it's perfectly safe.I warn because I love.mindor asked...What is the deal with the Greymane wall in Silverpine forest? Is there an old raid set in there? What is on the other side of that monstrous wall?
Seeking the Time-Lost Proto Drake
I don't know if we've mentioned this before, but even if we have, it's interesting enough to put out there again, I think. There is a dragon in the expansion that can be soloed, and drops a epic flying mount at 100% drop rate -- all you've got to do is find him. A few people have already nabbed the mount, and lots more are on the hunt right now. The mob in question is the Time-Lost Proto Drake: it's a rare elite spawn (but as I said, it's possible to solo it, especially at level 80) that shows up every six hours or so flying around the Storm Peaks. Unfortunately, none of the usual suspects have maps of where he's been seen yet, but we're hearing it's around the southern part of the zone. When he goes down, he'll drop the mount, a good chunk of gold, some Frostweave, and a random enchantment Talisman.An interesting tactic on Blizzard's part -- on the one hand, this is definitely a big change from the huge questlines and rep grind from the netherdrakes: just kill this one dragon and you're guaranteed the mount. On the other hand, the rare spawn rate, and the fact that it is a 100% drop rate means there'll be a lot of competition, at first anyway, for the kill. But the good news is that the odds will only get better -- if you're willing to do some dragon hunting for a few hours and have some keen eyes for what's in the air, you could pick up one of the coolest flying mounts yet.
Quested mounts and forms to be trainable in Patch 3.0.3
According to the Patch 3.0.3 patch notes, the Druid Swift Flight Form, Paladin Charger, and Warlock Dreadsteed spells will soon become trainable. Before you all celebrate (or throw out invectives...), it should be noted that these spells will only become available at a level above the minimum required level to obtain the mounts or form and will require the appropriate riding skill. Swift Flight Form will be trainable at Level 71 and require Artisan or 300 Riding skill, while both the Charger and Dreadsteed will become available at Level 61 and require Journeyman or 150 Riding skill.This means that players will still need to pony up for the cash required to train for the riding skill, which means an affordable 480-600 Gold for the land mounts and a not-quite-as-affordable 5,000 Gold for the epic flying skill. If you would like to get the satisfaction of doing some of the coolest quest lines in the game, you can check out the Dreadsteed guide on WoWwiki and our guides for the Paladin Charger for both the Alliance and the Horde. If you've got that 5,000 to plunk down -- which our very own Dan O'Halloran has been penny-pinching to avoid -- you can check out the epic flight form, too. And why not? You might even get a shot at getting one of the coolest ground mounts ever. If anything, doing the quest will grant you the mount a whopping one full level ahead of everyone else!
Why Blizzard needs to put AH data on the Armory
There is a certain party, a regular emailer to us among our readers, who believes that we here at WoW Insider take a little too long at the start of our posts to get to the actual point of each story, so in this one, I'll just get right down to it: Blizzard needs to put Auction House information on the Armory.I've been on the grind to the 5000g for my epic flying mount lately, and I've been playing the Auction House like a demon: calculating, buying, selling, and crafting my way to as much gold as I can throw together. And while Auctioneer has definitely helped, the best way I've found to track prices and make sure I get the most for my time in the AH is just to see the prices themselves -- no average price calculated by Auctioneer is worth enough as seeing the real thing. And that's where Blizzard comes in -- while there are a few sites that attempt to track prices with various methods, they have actual, constant access to the prices on every server. And they have a great place to put them: on the Armory.The item pages on the Armory right now are practically empty -- besides some vendor and reagent information, there's almost nothing there (especially compared to, say, Wowhead). Giving player access to AH information would pull them into the game even when they couldn't play, not to mention let some of Blizzard's most talented web programmers -- their fans -- at data that they could do tons of great stuff with. Want a text alert when your favorite mats drop in price, or when there's room on the AH to finally sell off those Elixirs of Agility you've got? By passing out AH info to the Armory, Blizzard could give fans access to the data needed to make their own great tools, not only leaving Blizzard free to work on actual development, but giving us Auction House haunters all the access we need to track prices and have that much more fun playing the AH.
WoW Rookie: Mount up!
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. UPDATE: The magic number is now 20! Read our updated version of mounts for the leveling player. In the World of Warcraft, 40 is a magic number. Once you hit this level you get access to a 31 point talent, which usually does some pretty nifty things for your class. You really start specializing into your role as a healer, tank or DPS character. The best part about 40 is getting your fancy new mount. Once you get used to traveling the world on you pony (wolf, nightsaber, raptor, ram, etc) it can be really hard to go back to hoofing it on foot.
Making/Money: The Wisdom of MMO Banking
Does it seem strange to save up to buy a house in a game? We are in an era where the real world economies of some nations are paralyzed by debts incurred from home purchases. Yet in games where there is player housing there is a surprising lack of player debt. MMOGs offer a simplified financial system seemingly impervious to the ills of modern society. What could we as a gaming society learn about real-world finance and money management from the way we act in game?
I spent how much on my alt?
Just this weekend I did something I never expected I would do: Spent 5,000 gold on epic flight. On my main? Oh no, I've had that for months now. I spent 5,000 gold on my alt. My alt! Good gravy!Honestly, I don't really regret it, it's mostly the shock of spending that much gold on an alt that gets me. I'll definitely be putting the epic gryphon to good use, I play my alt quite a bit. Like I mentioned in another recent post, my alt is almost my second main. Pretty much full epics, has seen the insides of Zul'Aman, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine, capped Blacksmithing, all of that. The fact remains, though, it is an alt. 5,000 gold on an alt!I can't be the only one crazy enough to do this, am I? Surely there are others with alts that have epic flight? Most of my friends poked fun at me about it, but besides waiting for Wrath of the Lich King, what am I going to use that money for anyway? I suppose I could feast on Stormwind Brie instead but I have a feeling an epic gryphon is a little more useful, no?
Blizzard explains the early WotLK No-Flight-Rule
Many players were unhappy to hear that their hard earned flying mounts aren't usable in the early parts of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Every player has to beg, borrow and steal to scrape together the 5,000g for their epic flying mount. Or in this case: grind, loot and mine. Why should they have to put aside their hard earned and beloved mount?Recently, CM Bornakk explained the reasoning behind that unpopular decision. Essentially, they don't want players flying over the early content. The entire expansion is designed with a certain progression in mind from zone to zone. Flying would make that irrelevant.There will be a point in the expansion where flight will be enabled in Northrend. Blizzard is currently considering level 78, but hasn't made a concrete decision.What do you guys think? Should flight be enabled immediately or should you enjoy the early zones flightless?
A guide to BC pre-raid goals and how to achieve them
I'm a little compulsive about finishing every quest in a zone. Ok, ok, I'm certifiably compulsive about it. I love exploring all the various corners of a zone and learning their dangers and rewards. Because of this, I barely got through half of the Outlands solo content before I hit L70. After thoroughly enjoying Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest and having just a taste of Nagrand and Blade's Edge, I hit the level cap. Why should I continue?Starryknight of the Executus server has an excellent answer: completing every Outland quest and running through every dungeon will net you the 5,000 gold for your epic mount, gain the necessary reputation to access later parts of the game and get you keyed for both the Heroic dungeons and Karahzhan. Essentially, you will be ready to jump into the raiding game, if you so desire.To achieve this, he wrote up a general guide on what to do in every Outland zone with links to more specific information about the quest chains for each area. For me, this is what I needed to push on and continue exploring the wonders that Warcraft still has to offer for people already at the level cap. Even if you don't intend to raid, the goal of buying an epic mount is reward enough. Check it out, it may be what you are looking for to refocus your goals in the game if you find your motivation has flagged.
Epic mount price drop rumors
Some people are passing the rumor around that the Epic Flying Mount prices have dropped to 3000g on the PTR. This is not true. The price is still 5000g and will probably remain so until there is another expansion or later. Drysc confirms: Depending on how mount riding skills are going to progress, the most likely point for a price drop would be with the release of the next expansion, just as the ground mount prices dropped when Burning Crusade was released. Again it would likely depend on a few factors, and may actually not change. But that's a question for a later time.Three days have passed since Quiham first posted this topic and it is still on the front page of the WoW General Discussion Forum, so this is a hot topic.Do you think, as Mike does, that the current Epic Flying Mount price is too steep? Or are you happy that only the privileged few have them? Or do you agree with many of the posters, that the "privileged few" = "players with no life outside WoW"?
Breakfast Topic: Epic mounts
I finally got my epic flying mount for my main the other day, and boy is that thing fast! 5200 gold well spent, if you ask me (5000 for the training, 200 for the mount itself). There aren't too many flying mounts available in game. Alliance get the choice between four different colors of gryphon: blue, red, purple, and green (I went with blue). The Horde counterpart is windriders, which come in yellow, red, purple, and green. Additionally, both factions in theory have access to the Nether Drake. Members of the top Arena team on each realm at the end of each season will get an armored Swift Nether Drake, which gives a 310% speed increase (other epic flying mounts are a 280% increase). For those of us who aren't going to be making it to the top of the Arena ladder anytime soon, Blizzard have said that there will be a way to get a 280% (non-armored) Nether Drake via questing, which will be "difficult" but not require a raid. Drysc also said there will be a 310% speed boost counterpart to the Arena reward, though he was unable to give details on how it might be attained. I'm guessing massive gold sinks.Have you got your epic mount yet? What color did you go for? And do you think it was worth the gold?
The joys of cat shopping
When I first hit level 60, I was poor. Training up a multitude of new skills and working on my equipment left me living life with nary a gold coin in my pocket for weeks, but like many other level 60s, I decided I wanted an epic mount. Although I'm still saving runecloth for a cross-racial mount, for now I've gone the traditional route and upgraded to the next brand of saber, as I'm a night elf.Getting the epic mount has been the culmination of weeks of half-formed ambition and several days of single-minded determination. Grinding and farming with the sole purpose of cash (although I tried to get reputation along the way) has almost burnt me out on solo play, especially on the night elf in question. However, when I rush across the landscape faster than ever before, running and jumping from the sheer joy of a speed increase, it all seems worth it.
The Challenges of Azeroth
What was your greatest challenge when traversing Azeroth? Of course there are epic monsters to conquer and countless bloody PvP encounters, but character after character I find that the most challenging and time-consuming obstacle in the game involves acquiring a mount. Even though I consider myself a conservative spender, I've never reached level 40 with anything near the 100 gold needed to buy one, and the following hunt for gold in all its forms usually lasts for several levels of scrimping and saving. And after all that work, there's nothing quite like running furiously back to town and buying that mount. There doesn't seem to be a single quest or monster that occupies my time as much as the attempt to acquire that first mount does every time. Is anyone out there with me on this?
