MrT
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RIM BlackBerry 'T' (Talladega?) slider launching next month?
Hang with us for a sec as we conjure up a speculative device from a sordid collection of rumors. By now we've all seen the leaked BlackBerry slider right? How about the "Mr. T" phone, heard of that? Maybe you've heard of it by its other codename of Talladega? The connection here is that all of these devices are thought to be one and the same although that's definitely not confirmed by any stretch. Things got a bit more interesting today after a loose-lipped CEO of a RIM parts supplier (Woojeon & Handan) mentioned a brand new BlackBerry "T" phone launching next month during an interview posted on joins.com (a popular Korean news site). According to our translation or the Korean jibba jabba: "The Canadian company RIM famous for BlackBerry smartphones is releasing a new model next month. Known as the "T," The new model is an ambitious product aimed at competing against iPhone's storm of success. Rim will present it ("T") as its flagship model to compete in global markets such as the U.S. and Europe." Funny, we thought that the original Storm was RIM's answer to the iPhone. Anywho, Reuters picked up on the Woojeon & Handan interview today but shied away from mentioning the name or the "next month" timing, saying only that W&H would supply parts for a new RIM product to be released later this year. With any luck, we'll get a full reveal of the mythical BB slider next week with the kickoff of the big CTIA show. [Thanks, Frank] Update: You know what's next month? WES, RIM's own trade show, which runs from the 27th to the 29th of April. Perfect timing for something like this, if we do say so ourselves.
A plea on behalf of frustrated tanks everywhere
Several classes and specs have gotten "knockback" abilities as part of patch 3.02 and the game's transition to Wrath of the Lich King, and I've had fun watching these skills be deployed in battlegrounds to extensive and quite possibly evil use. It's pretty funny watching an elemental Shaman defend AB's lumber mill now, and the AV bridge? Even funnier. And yet...as I laughed, I started to cry inside, because I knew that these skills would also be deployed in 5-man groups and raids to much less amusing effect. And man, it's a real burden being right so often.
Forum post of the day: I need that for my PvP set
I'm sure at some point in time we've all seen epic looting nightmares. More than once I've been hoping for a drop in an instance only to have another party member beat me on a need roll. Usually, though it's something they actually do need, at least as much as I do. Sometimes ninja looting is even an accident, but other times it is not. Avirisa of Mannoroth is a might miffed that she was outrolled for a Commendation of Kael'Thas ... to a Hunter... for PvP. As a tank, she said he was running the instance to acquire that drop. Most responded that this behavior is part of what gives Hunters a bad name in the game (Huntard). Some blamed the original poster for inviting not only a Hunter, but a Night Elf Hunter to the group.
Singing the praises of Heroic Countenance
Lariana on Skywall has words of praise for "Heroic Countenance," a new NPC spell in patch 2.4 that unlocks you to the Heroic mode of MrT -- to get it cast on you, you have to complete the instance on Normal mode first by doing a quest to kill of Kael'thas once and for all. Basically, it replaces the Heroic reputation keys, which Lariana says were a much less interesting system than Heroic Countenance.And Bornakk basically confirms that Blizzard agrees (well, all he says is that they'll talk about it on the next Blizzcast, but he adds a smiley, so odds are that Blizzard is down with the Heroic Countenance). They've been talking for a while, too, about making the reputation grind easier for alts and guilds, so maybe this type of spell is how they'll deal with that -- get it cast on one of your characters, and it will be cast on all of them.The only question, then, is what to do with all those Heroic keys that we've picked up. The answer is probably nothing -- Blizzard doesn't really care, it seems, about updating old content, and my guess is that the instances in Outland won't be changing much from their current form. But in Wrath, it might be fun if the keys stayed, but opened up other, less consequential content. Instead of Heroic mode, what if a Revered rep key opened up the way to an additional optional boss, or an additional loot area per run? Not enough to make it necessary, but enough to reward those who went all the way with the reputation factions in the game.
The trinkets of Magisters' Terrace
The release of patch 2.4 was epic by anyone's standards. New content accessible to every level 70, new items, new high end raids, and a new instance. Magisters' Terrace is the newest addition to the WoW 5 man instance family, and has a lot of great goodies in it for the intrepid traveler.Heroic mode Magisters' Terrace can be a thing of beauty or a real pain. I find that while it's challenging and requires a lot of good social communication amongst participants, it can be a bit ridiculous at times. Especially the 9 mob pull right before you face Kael'Thas.However with that said, one of the best rewards in any five man instance comes out of heroic Magisters' Terrace's Priestess Delrissa: the trinkets. The tanking trinket in particular makes me cry it's so great. Five hundred seventy more HP and an amazing live saving dodge increase. The DPS trinkets, casting trinkets, and healing trinkets are equally great. Let's take a closer look at them.
Undocumented 2.4.1 change list
2.4.1's had a chance to settle in, and as usual, people have been finding a few extra changes that didn't get in the patch notes. There's nothing too earth shattering, though any Shamans out there who have been trying a dual-wield elemental hybrid build might be feeling a bit set back, since quite a few +spell damage one handers have been changed to main hand only, namely Sedai's Blade, Terokk's Gavel, Archmage's Guile, Seeker's Gavel, K'iru's Presage, and the Battle-mace of the High Priestess. Those of you jewelcrafters who have been feeling guilty about killing your poor Nightseye Panther will be happy to know that it now only fades away instead of dying when its buff ends. In addition, Normal and Heroic Magisters' Terrace mobs have had thier reputation gain adjusted, and you should now be getting about 2k Shattered Sun Offensive rep per a normal clear. For raiders, they'll find that Brutallus' Meteor Slash is now an unlimited range frontal cone attack, apparently to fix a problem with paladin taunting, accord to World of Raids. In case you missed our previous report on it, the Distraction at the Dead Scar bombing run is also a bit easier to finish. Finally, one documented non-change: The chat filtering problems that the notes claim were fixed are still present on live servers. Hortus confirmed that the fix had some bad side effects and was pulled at the last minute, but will hopefully reappear in a future patch. We'll keep watching for any other changes to pop up, so keep it tuned here to WoW Insider.
Magisters' Terrace illuminated
Patch 2.4 is just a win all around, if you ask me. Very casual player? Only have an hour or less to play? Hit the dailies. Super-hardcore raider? Sunwell Plateau, baby, the hardest raid yet (or so I hear; I'll likely never see it myself). And if, like me, you flat-out love five-man dungeons, you have a new playground too: Magisters' Terrace, lovingly known as MrT.The gallery below is a comprehensive, step-by-step, illustrated guide to the Terrace on normal mode, starting from the first pull and going all the way through to Kael'thas. First, some quick notes on group composition. In my opinion this isn't the hardest of the level 70 instances (that honor would go to Arcactraz or Black Morrass), so you don't need everyone to be group-specced or raid-geared, but it does help tremendously to have some crowd control available. The more, the better. And if you don't have much CC, you'd better hope you have a tank that can keep threat on multiple targets (might be a bit more difficult for Druids).The good news is that the bulk of the mobs in the instance are humanoids, and can therefore be sheeped or seduced; traps also work well. There are also a few demons around that can be banished.But before you can start pulling, you've got to get there. The Terrace is on the new Isle of Quel'Danas (IoQD); taxis from Ironforge and the Silvermoon City will get you there quickly for 25 silver or so. Or, if your realm has completed the quests to activate the Sunwell portal, you can port straight from Shattrath to IoQD. Once you get on the island, just ride east up the road to get to the instance. It's hard to miss, what with the meeting stone and big glowing portal and all. Click on to the gallery below to see a picture of where it is on the map, and the rest of the walkthough.%Gallery-19389%
MT, MrT, MagT, MST, Magisters' Terrace
We hit on this a while back, but now that Magisters' Terrace has finally landed on the live realms, it's time to choose an official abbreviation. Players are apparently all over the place, but the time for debate and discussion is over. Let's come up with the real choice for Magisters' Terrace abbreviation.When making this decision, lots of things have to be considered. MT is out no matter what, as not only do many things in game use it as an abbreviation (main tank, mistell, Montana -- ok maybe that last one is a stretch), but it also leads us to confusion with the other "MT" instance in the game: Mana Tombs. For that reason, MaT is also out, though MagT has found a lot of foothold with many players, as has MgT. I originally thought MT would work well (since Mana Tombs is actually "Mana-Tombs," and would therefore be abbreviated M-T), but I haven't see that too much so far.But almost surprisingly, the thing I've seen most players using is something that I originally mentioned way back as just a joke. Yes, most players I've seen are actually describing the instance as MrT. Not that that makes any more sense, but it does kind of provide a nice homage to a Mohawked WoW hero.So in our (un)official capacity as WoW Insider, one of the 50 most influential blogs on the net, we're declaring the winner: from now on, the new Sunwell 5man will be known as "MrT." And we pity the fool who doesn't agree.Haven't been to MrT yet (or MagT, or MgT, or whatever you decide to call it)? We've got a Kalecgos-sized roundup of info on the brand new five-man, including a step-by-step walkthrough of what's in there and how to kill it.
Magisters' Terrace: Great instance or the greatest instance?
I, like many other players, spent the better part of the morning running the new 5man Magisters' Terrace instance (and yes -- it is "Magisters'," so there is actually more than one Magister in it), and while not everyone is thrilled with it (I know some are saying that it's too hard), I love it. I pretty much agree with AA -- it's not that hard when you actually figure out what to do with CC, and get a handle on the fact that even on normal difficulty, this is a dungeon that doesn't let up.But my favorite part of the dungeon is just the fact that Blizzard put their money where their mouth is on this one -- for a while, they've been saying that they wanted a five man to be like Deadmines, in that it felt like the end of a long storyline. And MT (which is what I think it will eventually be called by most players, since who really runs Mana Tombs anymore?) is definitely that -- I won't ruin the lore too much, but it works perfectly as both a cap on what happened in Outland, and as a sweet preview to Sunwell Plateau. I never thought we'd meet some of those names in a five man instance, but I loved it, and we'll see more of that in Wrath for sure.Plus, the encounters are fun. Unfortunately, there's nothing super new -- Blizzard cribbed directly from Warlord Kalithresh for the first boss and Curator for the second (boy, AoEing the little guys before that is exciting, isn't it?), but the miniboss battle near the end really does play like a little PvP-ish PvE (similar to the .5 upgrade event in BRD). All in all, I think it's a great instance, and a fun way to cap off five mans at level 70.
Mr. T and William Shatner ham it up for World of Warcraft commercials
There are two new commercials for World of Warcraft featuring Mr. T and William Shatner. Mr. T is a "mohawk" warrior and Shatner is a shaman. We have no idea why World of Warcraft needs to be advertised, but if it gives us gems like this -- we'll take 'em!Both ads can be found after the break and on the WoW site for download. There is also an ad with Verne Troyer (Mini Me) expected in the near future -- we're hoping for something less obvious than him being a gnome. Keep these types of ads coming Blizzard, we know you've got the money.[Thanks Steve, Via Massively]
