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The Daily Grind: Do you run old raid content?
One of the things that we heard about people doing over the recent holiday weekend was tackling legacy content. Why? Well, what we heard was mostly about how with people traveling, lots of raid schedules were changed. This meant "whoever can show up" groupings seemed to occur, with many of them heading for old raids (like the above Molten Core raid in World of Warcraft) for fun. Of course, this got us to thinking.... Does anyone just run old content for the fun of it -- at least, beyond the occasional raid-schedule disruption? Are you more focused on progressing in your game of choice? If you do like to check out old-school content, what is it about it that draws you? Did you never do it before? Did you prefer the mechanics? Or maybe you just like the storylines better. Let us know!
Blood Pact: The Warlock's way ahead, part 1
Most of you would have already sneaked a peek at the leaked details of the Wrath of the Lich King alpha. It's really premature now to decide on your new leveling build or comment on the level 80 endgame, but the new info is a good indication of the direction of the Warlock class in terms of class design and role. Is the new stuff PvP or PvE? Which tree is going to be the DPS king? Let's take a two-part look at some of our new, not-so-secret abilities, and whether some of our dark wishes are fulfilled.
Phat Loot Phriday: Earthshaker
This week on PLP we're covering a reader request: RetPallyJil sent us a note and said that we should cover this much-maligned mace. So here you go: the Earthshaker, hated by all guilds who've ever run Molten Core back in the day.Name: Earthshaker (Wowhead, Thottbot, Allakhazam), a.k.a. "Shardshaker" and/or "The MC Hammer"Type: Epic Two-Hand MaceDamage/Speed: 175-263 / 3.50 (62.6 DPS)Abilities: Chance on hit: Knocks down all nearby enemies for 3 seconds. Which is actually kind of fun, especially in PvP, and the proc goes off pretty often, too. Radius of the proc is 5 yards (melee range), and one cool thing about it is that there's no limit to the number of enemies it hits -- as long as they're in that range, they get stunned for 3 seconds. Increases attack power by 22. As RetPallyJil says, this weapon is actually most famous for being "the single most unilaterally and unfairly unloved and underrated weapon ... ever." There are a number of reasons why this weapon is so hated, but we can start with the low DPS -- never good for a two-hander, and while the proc sometimes makes up for not, it doesn't work well enough for a min-maxer. Plus, just who's supposed to use this weapon? Most people who were wielding two-handers pre-BC were wielding something much more useful, and the stun was more of a novelty than anything else. But the number one reason why this mace was so hated is probably just where it dropped -- as you can see below, it came from a boss in Molten Core. So imagine you finally get forty people together, finally organize them enough to down a couple of bosses, get to a place where (for some people) your first Tier 1 set piece might drop, and then... this "novelty" weapon. Didn't rub a lot of people the right way, and many, many shards were made with this weapon. How to Get It: Drops from Magmadar in Molten Core, which, like I said, is probably one reason why people hate this thing so much -- if it had come from anywhere that didn't require 40 people and a few weeks of raiding, people probably would have appreciated the great proc a little more. Then again, back then, there weren't too many places to get epics anyway, and ... but I digress.Anyway, make it to Magmadar, usually the second boss in MC (you've got to down Lucifron to get to him), and this drops at about at 22% rate from him. Back in the day, you could go with any run, and they'd be happy to let you take this off their hands (unless they wanted the shard). Nowadays, it's such a novelty that you might have to fight with the raid to get it, especially if there's another 2h wielder around. But it's easy to run -- come back the next week with another 5-10 guys, and odds are you'll get it again.Getting Rid of It: You never know when that proc will be useful, so if you've got it, you might want to hang on to it. If not, it sells for 9g 19s 3c, and it doesn't disenchant at all. No, of course I'm kidding -- as anyone who's ever run MC knows, this will disenchant into a Nexus Crystal.More Phat Loot Phriday...
Making Molten Core for consoles into a real game
Bornakk posted a poll on the forums the other day asking what everyone's favorite April Fool's joke from Blizzard was, and surprisingly (to me, anyway -- I thought Tauren Marines would win for sure), the Molten Core Atari game is winning. There's no question that the bears joke was great (it does make sense), but I thought the game looked a little boring. Blizzard fans disagree, however -- people like the pixelated versions of the old MC bosses.Which brings us to the question of whether Blizzard could actually do this. Boffo says he'd shell out $10 to play this game, while other people say they'd spend as much as $30 to actually see it on retail shelves (or, more likely, as a download). The game looks like a version of Asteroids more than anything, and the trailer (on purpose, probably) don't really make it clear what the rules are. But it looks simple enough to put together -- maybe a weekend's work by a dedicated coder with some MC runs under his or her belt.Instead of a release, though, it'd be more fun to see this implemented as a minigame somewhere. We already know that Blizzard is planning to do some mobile work, so maybe they could release this as a fun distraction for the iPhone while planning something bigger. Incorporating it into the main WoW game somewhere would be a fun possibility as well. I can't think of any other time when a Blizzard 4/1 joke actually made it into real life (Two-headed ogres aren't actually playable yet), but they might as well start here, right?
Blizzard wins the prank wars
Well, what else would you expect from the company that brought you murlocs? April Fool's day is in full effect in Blizzardlandia, and World of Warcraft isn't the only game to get the treatment, but it's a good place to start!Molten Core: for consolesHeavily trading on fond gamer memories of Atari's Adventure, Blizzard brings us the console version of its popular 40-player raid dungeon Molten Core. The game's site features screenshots alongside concept art, and a trailer, even, with an 8-bit, pixelated version of the company's logo. We won't spoil the show for you, but the best bullet point for the game has to be 'Has sound'. Check it out and wait for your chance to pre-order!
Maintenance extended for some realms to 12:00 Pacific
Okay, I have no idea who Hello Kitty is. I barely know what Sanrio is because I have nieces. Anyway, for those of us who intent to keep playing World of Warcraft (seriously, Hello Kitty Online? I have to start reading the memos Mike sends out) most of the realms are still down and maintenance is being extended to 12:00 pm Pacific. Like many, I've been haunting the realm status forums since 11 Pacific waiting for news, and I hope Malfurion or Norgannon come up soon.In the meantime I've been reading about a new console version of Molten Core coming out (sounds so sweet, and no downtimes!) and considering whether or not I'll reroll Bard for the expansion. I think not; I'm a warrior till I die, but the "Metal" tree does intrigue me.I have no idea if I'll be making that many more posts here, because I am so not even trying to write the "How to tank with hugs" column.Editor's Note: We apologize for letting this non-HKO post get through. Blogger Matthew Rossi is being dealt with accordingly.
New Hero Class revealed: Bard! Also, new Molten Core for the console
I did not think anything could break me away from the Death Knight class. The minute I got my hands on the Wrath of the Lich King beta, I was going to go to the character selection screen, pick Death Knight, and never look back. Sorry Druid, Sorry Hunter. Sorry Warlock. Maybe I'll come back to you when my uber awesome Death Knight is level 80 and I have Frostmourne in my hot little hands. Blizzard has once again raised the bar. No longer shall I be a Death Knight. Instead, I shall be a Bard. That's right, Blizzard's just announced a new Hero Class, and it's not the Archdruid that was previously rumored.
How many OTHER outfits do you have?
Fellow blogger Adam Holisky covered the vast myriad of outfits that raiders and hybrids need to do their jobs recently, and it got me to thinking. I certainly know how that goes, as a feral druid, I carry 3 and half outfits on me at all times, and I still occasionally find a spare piece of Molten Core fire resistance gear I forgot to destroy when the expansion hit. But there's other outfits I have too. My Warlock still keeps around his Silver-thread gear, because It looks pretty spiffy. My Hunter has a full set of Defias leather, because black leather is sort of an awesome look. My Druid has his old Tier 1 and Tier 2 sets because they make him look like a proper Archdruid for Roleplay events. I have Winter Clothing, Lunar Festival dresses and suits, Lovely Red Dresses, even an Easter Dress scattered about among my characters. Some of my 70s have Grayson's Torch keeping a spot in their bank just in case I ever need to join an angry mob. My Shaman still keeps his Stillpine Defender around because it's the perfect Witch Doctor shield. Even if he is a Draenei rather than a Troll. I mean, I don't even wear have this stuff more than once every 2 months, but I can't bring myself to throw it away! It looks too cool. So as much as I sometimes complain about bank space, I have to admit that some of the fault is mine. Sometimes I can't get rid of things even when they have no direct gameplay value. You will never make me throw away my Sang'thraze, never never never! So what about you? Do you have outfits or quest items or other things you just refuse to throw away, be it for looks or sentimental value? If you have full outfits like me, do you ever actually get to wear them?
Official word on classic servers for WoW
We've hit on the topic of "classic" servers before, and there are even players already carrying the idea out in game. Not everybody thinks Burning Crusade is the greatest thing since Molten Core, and so there are still quite a few players who wish they could play on servers that didn't go past level 60, where Naxx and AQ were still the main endgame, Bloodfang was the hotness, and Atiesh was more than just a few splinters taped together.But while people have asked for classic servers before, Drysc repeats what some of them might not already know: that though Blizzard has "seriously" considered the idea before, they eventually determined that it would be too much to run two majorly different versions of the game at a time.It's worth stating that you can definitely still run vanilla WoW without installing Burning Crusade at all, but even if you do that, you'll still see Blood Elves and Jewelcrafters running around, and people in the battlegrounds at level 60 will probably trounce you with all of their shiny Outland gear. It might be nice to experience the old endgame the way its meant to be experienced, but at least until WoW's population slows down and Blizzard determines they have the resources to do so, you can't go back to Old Azeroth again.
Why Karazhan still requires attunement
Here's a good question from Strykt on the forums: why does Karazhan still require attunement? Blizzard has already dropped attunements on SSC and TK, and patch 2.4 will bring the removal of attunements on BT and Hyjal. So why are we still being forced to get those key fragments and attune people to Karazhan?Bornakk shows up in the thread and says simply that it's a good way to find people to run Karazhan with, implying that Blizzard wants guilds to help each other get attuned, and that in essence, it's not so much a gear check as a group check-- you can't get into Karazhan as a guild unless you've helped each other to get in there first. And I actually like that idea-- if your guild wants your help in Karazhan, they've got to lend a hand first to get you into the instances to get the key fragments. "No guildie left behind," if you will.I don't have a problem with having an attunement quest to enter the endgame (and you'll probably remember that Onyxia, BWL, and Molten Core attunements are all still in the game). And it seems that Blizzard doesn't either-- they're willing to open up the later endgame as time goes along, but you've still got to get some help to enter it in the first place.
Patch 2.4: Hyjal and Black Temple attunements removed
Blizzard announced the following important four lines in their 2.4 Patch Notes: Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter Hyjal. Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter the Black Temple. Players who have completed the attunement quests for Black Temple and Hyjal will be granted the title of "Hand of A'dal". You may now fight Prince Kael'thas and Lady Vashj without first killing all the other bosses in their respective dungeons. I have to say, despite the difficulty of Vashj and Kael'Thas, I am quite surprised to find that Blizzard has removed the attunement requirements from Patch 2.4. Naxx, Blackwing Lair, and even Molten Core still require people to become attuned. Now seemingly, two of the hardest and most revered raids do not. While the removal of the attunement is obviously a way to get more people to see their new raid zone, the Sunwell Plateau, all is not golden. Many, many, many raiding guilds and players who have already made the brutal trek through Vashj and Kael will be quite upset. On the other hand players who are not yet able to, but perhaps ready for, the first few bosses of MH and BT, will undoubtedly rejoice.What are your opinions of this change? How do you think it will affect the raiding landscape?
Getting your loot priorities straight
Every successful guild that I've ever seen has some sort of loot distribution system. Whether it's a major DKP system with a dozen small caveats, or a slow moving loot council, some way, some how, all guilds get the job done handing out every day loot in a fair manner. But there comes a time, a dark and evil time, a time when brothers and sisters fight against each other, cats and dogs live together, and all things foul spill forth from the bowels of the Earth. There comes a time when special loot priorities come into effect.Many, many guilds have broken up over this. I've nearly been in a few myself. Back in the days of pre-bc, the first major loot drama came in Molten Core over the Hunter's ability Tranquil Shot. While now a days there are not really any single items that makes people fight tooth and nail over, there are a few bosses that drop some important equipment that might only be killed a few times.
On scalable instances and including everyone
Think it's "ridiculous" that you need exactly 10 or 25 (or 40-- or 3) people to raid? Beefpile does. He wants a World of Warcraft that conforms to his wishes-- if he's got seven players, they should have an instance to go without grabbing three more or leaving two behind.And there is such a game-- it's called Dungeon Runners, or Diablo II, or any other game that scales itself to match the players in it. But there are, of course, tradeoffs to such a system. If you have scalable instances (or a scalable overworld, or anything else that scales according to the people playing it), then you start to miss out on some of the development choices you can make. Many of the best bosses in the game don't work unless you have a certain number and a certain mix of characters involved, and any scalable instances would miss out on that design choice.It's the same reason we haven't seen single-player instances yet-- because making things scalable would mean that developers would have to make everything accessible for all classes, and therefore they would lose the design that made the game so popular in the first place. If you want to play a game that scales to as many players as you have, you're welcome to play something else. But if you want to experience the content designed by the WoW programmers the way they intended, you've got to log in with what each instance requires.
3-man group conquers Molten Core
3-man Molten Core. You read that right. sailoreagle on Livejournal walks us through the run his Tier 6 prot warrior, Tier 6 holy priest, and a "Tier 4-ish" feral druid (along with hunter and mage alts) had in a surprisingly easy Molten Core instance. You'd think they'd have trouble along the way (in fact, they thought they'd have trouble along the way), but from this account, it actually went down pretty easily. From the screenshots, it seems like they just plowed through the bosses-- they ate Magmadar's frenzies, exploded Garr's minions, organized around Sulfuron and Majordomo, and eventually, yes, survived wave after wave of sons to take out Raggy himself.Pretty amazing. They got both Bindings of the Windseeker out of the deal, along with a bunch of other epics that it used to take 40 different people to obtain. It's still not actually easy-- sailor says they burned through some hardcore potions, and clearly their gear helped out a lot (although think what this will be like at level 80), so it was still a challenge.Still, it's kind of sad, in a way. Remember when you went back to your childhood playground and everything seemed so... small? If three people can beat Ragnaros, is he really fit to carry the title of Firelord any more? Thanks, Timeless!
One Boss Leaves: Ragnaros vs. Ossirian wrap-up
Another week is over -- leaving us with another winner and another loser in our weekly series of fantasy deathmatches. Last week we tossed the Firelord Ragnaros into our theoretical arena along with Ossirian the Unscarred. Despite quite a few comments suggesting Ossirian's Supreme Mode would make him completely unkillable, the final results turned out in Ragnaros' favor: Thanks to the commenters who are enjoying our game in the spirit it was intended, especially mortalbound, whose recreation of the fight is too lengthy to reprint here, and Vaylix, who accurately noted, "This isn't about your data, or in game logic. This is about who is more awesome." Check back later for our next match, complete with more awesome, just for you.
AQ gates opened for players on transfer servers
Blizzard has just recently opened a new server over in the EU realms called Molten Core, and not only are they already seeing queues on there (due to all the migration), but Blizzard is thinking about opening the gates of AQ for them.Which strikes us as a little sad. Admittedly, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj is a huge undertaking, and it would likely take a long time for the players on the new realm to get the War Effort over and done with (and surely Blizzard wouldn't want that competing for attention with any World Events planned for the next expansion). And even after the gates open, players can still complete that giant quest to get the Scepter anyway (just as they can right now on any other live realm). And as Blizzard says, most of these incoming players are coming from realms where the gates are open already anyway.But it's still a little sad that Blizzard is stepping in to open the gates automatically rather than leaving the task up to the players. Just like all of the old world instances, Blizzard seems more than happy to leave all their old content and hard work behind, and instead focus players on what's coming out in the future.
Two Bosses Enter: Ragnaros vs. Ossirian
Two bosses may enter... but only one will get to leave in WoW Insider's fantasy deathmatch series. Every week we pit two of Azeroth's raid bosses against one another in a battle that your votes get to decide. This week we present Ragnaros the Firelord, coming all the way from the heart of Molten Core in Blackrock Mountain, and Ossirian the Unscarred, who's traveled from Ahn'Qiraj in the Silithus desert to participate in this match. Who wins and who loses? Ultimately, that's for you to decide -- so read on!
The Daily Grind: The nature of addiction
I can't forget an article featured earlier this year on The Washington Post about an internet addiction clinic in China, and how they were treating patients there with the same techniques they've used on heroin addicts. From electroshock therapy to involuntary isolation, take your pick.That's disturbing enough in itself, but personally? I've never considered internet usage to be addiction. Let alone MMOs, which are always at the heart of the argument. Would we send people to addiction clinics for watching too much TV? Reading too many books? Drinking too many smoothies? Of course not. Personal choice isn't addiction, even if it isn't good for you.But maybe we're too close to the issue. Judging from admittance to the clinic, anyone who has attended a Molten Core raid in World of Warcraft is a die-hard addict. We've all heard -- or seen! -- one or two horror stories, as well.Do you consider over-usage of the internet to be personal choice? Habit? Or an addiction that should be treated as such?
Ye olde loot drama
Andrek posted an interesting thought on the forums: remember loot drama? Sure, there's still loot drama floating around-- as long as there is more players than loot at each boss drop, there will always be loot drama. And maybe this is just nostalgia rearing its ugly head, but it seems like Andrek is right-- Molten Core was home to far more loot drama (Rogue weapon! No, Warrior weapon! No, Hunter weap!) than Outland's raids have been.There's a few reasons for this. As players note later in the thread, Blizzard is much, much better at itemization now than they were back when we were raiding Ragnaros. And we're all in 10 and 25 man groups rather than 40 man-- fewer people means fewer arguments about who gets what. Not to mention that there's so much more loot now (and so many more ways to get it), that even if you lose that roll to a Hunter, you still get Heroic badges to turn in, or you've still got your Arena rating to count on.It seems like loot actually means a little less now than it used to, and that's a great change. It's too bad that the old "hunter weapon" joke might actually be becoming obsolete, but less loot drama means more fun, and no guildleader will argue with that one.
Phat Loot Phriday: Talisman of Binding Shard
As per your requests, last week we went a little "husky" and had an item that everyone could get. This week, we go Orca Phat, and show you an item no one can get-- anymore. The only legendary amulet in the game really is legendary nowadays, in that no one's seen it in a long time.Name: Talisman of Binding ShardType: Legendary NecklaceArmor: N/AAbilities: +13 Strength, +5 Agility, +8 Stamina +24 Fire and +24 Nature Resistance, which in the old days of raiding, was a huge deal for tanks in MC and AQ. Equip: When struck in combat, inflicts 4 Nature damage to the attacker. That's not much, but it was a nice little bonus back at level 60 (which is when this Talisman dropped) in terms of damage and threat for tanks who are getting attacked all the time. Also, the effect puts the lightning shield graphic on your character, which is fun. All in all, a nifty neckpiece for tanks at level 60. At least it was, before it got pulled from the game! *insert scary musical sting here* How to Get It: The year was 2005, and Molten Core, the 40 man raid, was big stuff. Not only did Tier 1 gear drop there, but Tier 2 gear did as well, and all the bosses had almost completely different loot tables than they do now. In Patch 1.4, Blizzard decided to even this all out, buff a lot of the gear down in the raid, and have only Tier 1 gear drop in MC (most of it anyway-- I think Rag may have still dropped Tier 2 gear).Anyway, none of that matters anymore, right? So while they were tweaking around the loot tables, one of the devs accidentally put this legendary necklace in Baron Geddon's table. It wasn't, we're told, even intended to go live, but since so much work was being done on the MC loot, it accidentally went out there anyway. And of course, it dropped.Noktyn, an Undead Warrior from Nurfed (yes, of the UI) got the drop, and you can see a screenshot of the raid above. As soon as it dropped, the GMs realized something had been given out that shouldn't have, and took it off the loot tables. But they let Noktyn keep the necklace. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find him on the Armory (there are no 60+ Undead Warriors-- Nurfed is a US guild, right?), but even if he was still playing, odds are he would have taken it off long before now, as it's not really Legendary grade any more. And of course, no one else can ever get the item, because it's never been seen on the loot tables since.But it is cool to think that the Orange necklace is still out there somewhere, waiting to fall into the lap of some boss we may someday face. Of course, if it ever does show up again, Blizzard will have to rename it. "Noktyn's Talisman" has a nice ring to it.Getting Rid of It: You can't. because you don't have it. But if you did, a vendor would give you 3g 36s 25c for it. And while it probably disenchants into a Nexus Crystal, we just don't know for sure. Because no one's ever disenchanted it, you'll never know-- maybe it disenchants into a beautifully tasty piece of Key Lime Pie.
