Legendary
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Warcraft Movie announces two new actors
Legendary Pictures has announced two more actors who will participate in the Warcraft movie, due to be released in March of 2016. WARCRAFT by @Legendary from @UniversalPics coming March 11, 2016 cast to also include @danielwuyanzu and Clancy Brown. - World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) December 19, 2013 While you might not necessarily be extremely familiar with these guys and their work, their histories are pretty impressive. Clancy Brown is an actor who principally focuses on voiceover, well-known for his parts in Shawshank Redemption, Highlander where he was Kurgan, Starship Troopers, and of course as Mr. Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants! His most recent film, Homefront, is in cinemas now. Daniel Wu is very well-known indeed in Chinese-language film, principally as an actor, but also a director and producer. He's been in over 40 films and won various awards, including a Hong Kong Film award for directing work in The Heavenly Kings. He most recently appeared in The Europa Report this year.
SOE offering free Legendary DC Universe Online access
If you're a former subscriber who has been thinking of heading back into DC Universe Online, you're fresh out of excuses not to, since SOE is giving you a free Legendary membership. It's a temporary deal of course, but you've got until January 15, 2014 to sample the various monthly stipends that come with a premium account and catch up on all the content updates you've missed. It's worth noting that the free Legendary membership is only being offered to former Legendary members who paid for at least one billing cycle between January 11, 2011 and December 10, 2013. Full details are available at the DCUO website. [Thanks Andy!]
Hearthstone: Rating the legendary cards
In between Hearthstone matches, I've been busy furiously writing tips and pointers for you to check out. The other day we looked at the top neutral rares that were available to players. If you're going to buy rares, those were the ones you should get as they offer the best bang for the buck and can be included in more than one deck type. Today, we look at the more glamorous cards. We're going to look at the big guns in Hearthstone: Legendaries. Style key Bold: Craft it. Italics: Nice to have, not a necessity. Unformatted: Walk away. Al'Akir the Windlord - Okay for shaman decks. I feel that he's a little weak in the punch area, but has incredible staying power with the divine shield. The ability to strike twice with windfury means that he can't take down most mid-sized minions effectively. Alexstrasza - Can be used offensively or defensively on any player. It's not a damage dealer but she does set the life. Warriors that are armored up should still have their armor active. A warrior with 5 life and 10 armor with Alexstrasza on them will have 15 life and 10 armor (This was fixed in the recent patch).
Breakfast Topic: How legendary should legendary be?
Has WoW's latest legendary item become a mandatory checkbox on the raid recruitment circuit? The legendary cloak has been called "the people's legendary" based on its relative ease of acquisition. "As long as you put in the time there is literally no barrier to entry," explains WoW Insider's Adam Koebel. "It's the most powerful item you will equip this expansion -- sometimes the proc alone is over 10% of my damage on a boss fight, and that's not counting its enormous stat budget or the metagem." Sounds like a pretty key piece to acquire, doesn't it? Apparently, so goes the thinking of guild leaders across Azeroth. Tales from the field indicate that a legendary cloak has become a prerequisite for players seeking entry into a raiding guild. It seems reasonable enough: Completing the cloak quest is a pretty good benchmark of persistence and basic game knowledge, and the cloak is certainly a powerful piece in its own right. Still, how legendary can a cloak be if the community at large establishes it as the bottom line for endgame participation? "I must state that this cape and all its associated quests and grinds still do not make it feel 'legendary' IMO," wrote WI commenter shaw.sbst. "But, I do applaud Blizzard in trying to find ways to emulate the epicness of what was trying to get a legendary weapon, or an equivalent in terms of personal importance, like what it was to get the class mounts." What does it say when a supposedly legendary item becomes an expected prerequisite for endgame play? Does that dilute its status? What makes a legendary item "legendary," and did the so-called people's legendary cloak achieve that goal? How much value does the term "legendary" itself hold for you?
Dominic Cooper rumored to be joining Warcraft film cast
If you thought yesterday's cast announcement would slow down the Warcraft film rumors, you would be wrong because the rumors keep flying. Today we're hearing that Dominic Cooper -- whom you might know from Captain America or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter -- may be joining the cast as well. And though this isn't confirmed, quite a few of the past movie casting rumors have proven true -- and, who knows, we may still see Colin Farrell joining the cast. Still, none of the rumors have given a hint as to who's playing what, so there's still a lot we don't know about the upcoming Warcraft movie. Come on, Blizzard, can we at least get a hint?
Warcraft movie cast announced by Legendary Pictures
Though it seemed likely we'd hear something about casting for the Warcraft movie at BlizzCon, the movie panel remained close-lipped on the subject of stars. Tonight, however, Legendary Pictures made the first cast announcement via Twitter. WARCRAFT movie fans! Cast reveal: Ben Foster, Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell, & Rob Kazinsky. Cc: @Warcraft (1/2) - Legendary (@Legendary) December 5, 2013 We'd heard rumors about some of these -- like Travis Fimmel and Paula Patton -- but now we know for sure. So now,on to the next question: who are these actors going to be playing? With filming starting in January, hopefully we'll hear more details soon.
Breakfast Topic: Do you want another 'people's legendary'?
The legendary cloak, often dubbed as the people's legendary, is a drastic departure from the legendary items of the past. As long as you put in the time there is literally no barrier to entry. It's the most powerful item you will equip this expansion -- sometimes the proc alone is over 10% of my damage on a boss fight, and that's not counting its enormous stat budget or the metagem. I've had some friends express frustration with the quest chain because they're the type of player who takes frequent breaks from the game. If you sit out for a few months it's very easy to fall behind, and then you're stuck running old content to play catch up. Quest item RNG was a cruel mistress to some as well. I was lucky to get 10 of each sigil at roughly the same time, but I know guildies who had 50+ of one type before getting 10 of the other. There was also the PvP portion of the quest which was not popular. I'm afraid to admit how many attempts it took me to get that Silvershard Mines win. I enjoyed the cookies along the way: the sha-touched gem, the weapon socket, the metagem, the epic cloak, and then finally the legendary. It was definitely worth the time investment for me. What about you? %Poll-85397%
Know Your Lore: The legacy you will leave behind
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. Mists of Pandaria is the story of an outsider, washed upon foreign shores, who changed the course of destiny for herself (or himself) and the world entire. Pandaria and the rest of Azeroth shifted on the fulcrum he (or possibly she) provided - the mogu, the mantid, the sha all fell before her (him) and even the Thunder King himself lies dead at his feet... or hooves, perhaps. Also, it hay have been her feet. Because in the end, Mists of Pandaria is the closest any MMO has ever come to being a single-player campaign and an multi-player experience at the same time. Mists of Pandaria is about you, your choices, the impact you have had and will have on the world. There have been tragedies. This isn't about those tragedies or what they might mean in the larger picture. Gods and dragons and celestials can worry themselves about what may be and what might happen - heroes live and act in the now. Given a bad situation, they take action to make it better. It can hurt, absolutely, but finding that balance between contemplation and action, to know what to do and then to do it, is all the difference. Let's tell that story, of one figure who landed a vagabond on a new shore. There will be spoilers for Patch 5.4 and the legendary quest chain in this post.
Patch 5.4: Answers to Frequently Re-Asked Questions
We here at WoW Insider see a few questions pretty much every time a new patch is announced. Often, we see these same questions asked repeatedly, many times after we've answered them. So, out of a desire to be helpful (and to have a place to point folks) here are a few of those questions, answered for you here. Q: What is happening to my Valor/Conquest points in patch 5.4? A: Your Conquest points will be converted to Honor. If you have 4000 honor already, or will be pushed over the 4000 honor mark by the conversion, they will be converted to gold. All other points, be they Valor, Justice, or Honor points will not be converted. Q: What new gear can I get for Valor points? A: None. There is no new Valor gear. Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor, but will be discounted by 34%. All other current Valor gear (from the original reputation gear to the Patch 5.1 items) will now cost Justice Points instead. More questions answered following the jump.
Warcraft movie to begin filming in January 2014
We heard earlier this year that the Warcraft movie would finally start filming in 2014, but the recent fall-out between Legendary Pictures and distributor Warner Bros. left the fate of the Warcraft feature film in some doubt. Though we're still not certain who will be distributing the Warcraft movie, rumors are that the Duncan Jones-helmed production is moving ahead with filming starting on January 13th. The film itself is still mostly question marks for fans -- though a teaser trailer was shown at Comic-Con, we don't know what characters the movie will contain or what story-line it might tackle. But with filming set to begin in just a few short months, we're hopeful that we'll be getting more details soon -- a BlizzCon announcement seems like a safe bet.
Blizzard livestream today at 1:30 pm Pacific time with Legendary
Patch 5.4 is just around the corner and plenty of Blizzard developers are doing the rounds of interviews. Today, at 1:30 pm Pacific time, World of Warcraft's Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas and Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street are going to be on Gamebreaker's Legendary livestream. We'll be watching, so you should, too.
WoW Archivist: WoW's first legendary quest line
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? Not every amazing weapon is legendary. WoW has seen plenty of great weapons come and go without a single orange letter in their tooltip. But let's face it: legendaries are the most interesting and coveted items in the game. In patch 5.4, many players who have never before been able to equip a legendary item will have their first opportunity, thanks to Wrathion's schemes. The quest line for our legendary cloaks has been the longest and most elaborate legendary quest line to date, spanning over multiple tiers of raiding. But how did it all begin? What was WoW's first legendary quest line? Let's take a look back to remember the legend of Thunderfury.
Pokemon X and Y's legendaries are of the fairy, dark and flying persuasion
The Pokemon Company recently revealed a few more details about the two new legendary creatures for Pokemon X and Y, Xerneas and Yveltal. Xerneas, the legendary being in Pokemon X, is a fairy type that has an exclusive Geomancy move. Yveltal, Pokemon Y's legendary beast, is a dark and flying type that uses the move Oblivion Wing. Xerneas comes with the Fairy Aura ability, which strengthens fairy-type moves for all Pokemon in battle, whereas Yveltal's ability is Dark Aura, which does the same for dark-type moves. Pokemon X and Y are due out on October 12 for 3DS. %Gallery-193698%
Warcraft movie will buck the bad game movie trend, according to Legendary Pictures
No, we don't have a release date or casting information yet, but during a recent press tour for Pacific Rim, Legendary Pictures founder and CEO Thomas Tull answered a few questions about the Warcraft movie to be. Will this be the video game movie that bucks the trend of bad video game movies? Tull thinks they can: by ignoring the video game aspect. "We don't know how to make a movie out of Warcraft, the video game," Tull explained to reporters. "It's the incredible story, and the war, and these races, and everything these guys at Blizzard have come up with. They have 100 books, and just this incredibly rich world that they've created." And fortunately, this is a sentiment director Duncan Jones seems to share. Before he was tapped to direct, he commented on the Warcraft film in a 2011 interview saying, "A good game adaptation is where you find the story or the emotional aspect that's at the heart of a computer game and you replicate that on film. It doesn't mean you need to have first person perspective or try and capture the mechanics of a game." Of Jones, Tull explains, "This guy gets it." So we may still not know the details, but we're holding on to hope for a great Warcraft film on the horizon.
A legendary for all, courtesy of Wrathion
It's confirmed -- everyone does indeed get a legendary, if they manage to finish Wrathion's expansion-long chain of requests. However, unlike any prior legendary to date, Wrathion's offering won't be a new set of weapons to wield ... and that's making some players a little irritated. Rather than the usual arming with weapons, Wrathion has instead chosen to give everyone legendary-quality cloaks, enhancing the cloaks received in patch 5.3 with some extra power -- and a little orange text -- in patch 5.4. Yes, some may have been expecting weapons -- but really, Wrathion's offering makes a lot more sense in terms of gameplay, balance, and possibly Wrathion's true motives in this little endeavor as well. In fact, the legendary offered in Mists of Pandaria manages to break every single perception we had about what a legendary is to date.
Legendary catch-up coming in Patch 5.4
For those of us who have not yet begun our Legendary item-building, not hung out with Wrathion at all, and not collected the relevant sigils and points and such, the idea of starting out now is daunting to say the least. But fear not! Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has tweeted with some excellent news: @weedeveryday420 ToT will drop all 3 legendary raid drops (in order) when 5.4 ships. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) June 14, 2013 I think we'll all agree that this is a pretty fantastic bit of news for players who want to catch up with the Legendary, perhaps having let it slide, and players with alts who might like some orange things in their life. But it's inevitable that this will also result in a slew of comments that legendaries should be hard to get, should require months of work, and should not have catch-up systems. That doing all those things makes them less legendary, not to mention the legendaries-for-all approach that has been ushered in with Mists of Pandaria. Which side of the fence do you sit on? Or are you awkwardly perched upon said fence like me? I am still not sure if one of my characters will ever have one.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game
After his departure from the Diablo III development team, Game Director Jay Wilson released a statement that the introduction of an auction house "really hurt the game." While players predicted doom the moment the Real Money Auction House was announced, Jay argued that the gold auction house was equally to blame for the game's fall from grace following its absolutely stellar launch sales. I don't normally agree with what Jay has to say on Diablo III, but in this case he does have a very valid point. Diablo II was consistently popular for over a decade thanks to its immense replayability. At its core, D2 was a game about building new characters and gearing them up by any means necessary. Every enemy in the game was a loot pinata just waiting to be popped, and players farmed endlessly for a few sought-after unique items. You almost never found an item that was ideal for your particular class and build, but you could usually trade for what you needed via trade channels and forums. Blizzard claimed that the auction house was intended just to streamline this process, but when Diablo III launched, it was clear that the entire game had been designed to make the auction house almost necessary for progress. The fault here lies not just with the concept of an auction house but with the game designers. That's right: I'm here to argue not only that Jay Wilson was right about the auction house ruining Diablo III but also that it was his own damn fault.
Steam deals: Stealth Bastard, Closure, Snapshot, more this week
This week, Steam is discounting a dozen different indie games. Stealth Bastard Deluxe, a fast-paced 2D stealth game from Curve Studios, is a tempting $4.99. Closure, the dark platformer from Eyebrow Interactive, is a mere $3.39 – definitely worth the pittance. Snapshot is also $3.39, a puzzle platformer from Kyle Pulver built upon an inventive photography mechanic. Retrovirus is half-off at $10, a shooter where players guide a ship through a computer system to eradicate a virus. Turret-based strategy game Sol Survivor is next on the list, down to $2.49 for the remainder of the sale. Spark Unlimited's Legendary, a shooter based on the Pandora's Box myth, joins the sale soiree for $1.24; Nikopal: Secrets of the Immortals is also $1.24, a 3D adventure game set in France during the year 2023. BC Kings, also $1.24, is s a strategy game set in the stone age. The final three games rounding out the list are: Puzzle Kingdoms for $3.74, a game from the creators of Puzzle Quest in very much the same vein; 4 Elements, a color-matching game from Playrix Entertainment set in a fantasy world, for $2; and Cave Story+ for $4.99, Nicalis' port of Daisuke Amaya's lauded platform-adventure game. All of these games are on sale until May 6 at 10am PT.
Legendary Meta Gem restrictions for upgraded items
The Legendary meta gems, added in patch 5.2, as the reward from the latest part of Wrathion's quest chain are getting quite the reputation. Amongst others, top EU guild Method asserted that these items were key to their World First Ra-den kill, as the buff they provide to gear, particularly the proc, is so substantial. But there's some confusion around regarding their usage. A cursory glance at the tooltip indicates that they can be socketed in any item with an ilvl of more than 504. A poster on the EU forums has asked today for explanation on why his ilvl 496 helm, which he had upgraded to ilvl 504, is still considered too low-level for the gem. Blizzard Community Manager Draztal responds as follows: Draztal Quote: Is it intended that you aren't able to socket upgraded gear prior to 5.2 with the legendary Meta? I have a 496 helm upgraded to 504 but it still denies that it is high enough to be socketed. Some dev feedback be appreciated. Yes, it is intended that you can't put the legendary meta gem on an upgraded 496 helm, but the developers are currently discussing how upgraded items may behave down the road. No promises or any specifics we can share at this time, though. source What's your take on this? I suspect that it's potentially born of an issue with the way upgrades are designed. It seems odd that, while the item has the required ilvl, an error is still generated. Perhaps it's an effort on the developers' part to ensure the Legendary meta can only be equipped in gear obtained from Throne of Thunder normal mode, or last tier's heroic gear. Ghostcrawler tweeted the following, which seems slightly contradictory to Draztal's post, but does clarify Blizzard's intent: @xxvanitasxx1 The intent was always for Throne of Thunder helms. Apologies that we did not communicate that intent well. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) April 17, 2013 Given that we've had reports of the gem working in last tier's Heroic items, it seems a little odd that upgraded gear should be excluded. Nonetheless, forewarned is forearmed, so we thought we should inform you!
Flameseeker Chronicles: The quest for Guild Wars 2's legendary The Flameseeker Prophecies
It's been quite the red-letter week in Guild Wars 2 for yours truly. My little guild piled up enough influence to unlock and build guild bounties, some of my best buddies bought me my first Commandership (which we promptly put to use in PvE shenanigans), and I completed my legendary shield, The Flameseeker Prophecies. Quite some time ago, we went through the piece-by-piece requirements for crafting your legendary weapon. The experience of making it is actually less daunting than the crazy list of materials makes it sound, but I'm probably only saying that because it's finished now, and I don't have to work up the mental energy to think about making another one for quite some time. Let's take a look at things, shall we?
