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Dragonica New Origin expansion coming September 20th
Dragonica is getting a new expansion, and the latest gPotato press release calls it the game's largest content update yet. September 20th is the big day, and the appropriately titled New Origin patch will feature new classes, new riding pets, a level cap increase (to 80), and new video resolution options. New dungeons are coming too, in the form of level 45 and 75 instances. Some of the old world maps have been redrawn as well, and gPotato says the redesign "[gives] the game a new and improved feel." The new classes take the form of the Shaman and the Amazonian, and there's also a new, as-yet unnamed race in the works. Finally, we've gotten our claws on the New Origin teaser trailer, and if you're in the mood for some CG, cute mounts, and fire-breathing dragons, you'll find all of that and more after the cut. [Source: gPotato press release]
Choose My Adventure Live: Level 55 to 59 Battlegrounds
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. Today we are celebrating back to school by making the Alliance fly off ledges. Join us by watching the stream above and choosing Roblinator's adventures in the chat room after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch us play Arathi Basin three times in a row, with the final one being an absolute Thunderstorm of fun. Just click on the image above for the video replay.
Reader UI of the Week: Adding to a UI compilation
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Welcome back to Reader UI of the Week, folks. I have just moved a few characters around server and faction-wise, so I've been knee-deep in moving interface folders around and setting up addons again with the incredibly annoying, yet functional, profile system. Suffice to say, I hope the profile system gets updated in the future with more options. This week's Reader UI submission comes from Zachi, long-time addon junkie and new reader to WoW Insider. Welcome, ma'am or sir; we are glad to have you here. Hang around, won't you? Zachi's UI is based around ElvUI, my personal favorite (and recommended) UI compilation that makes a great base for any user interface, be it tank, DPS, or healer. Adding to a compilation UI can be a tricky affair, so let's see what we can learn from how Zachi added addons to an already featured UI compilation.
Is it time to kill pure DPS?
Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are. The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom. Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do? Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.
Choose My Adventure Live: Dungeonation
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator, or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. Yo. I don't got it; you don't want it. Actually, if you've seen how I've been dressing lately, it's more like: I got it and no one wants it. Let's see if I can fix my wardrobe eyesores in today's dungeonating. Join us by watching the stream above and choosing my adventures in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. Click on the image above to watch the replay of Sunken Temple and UBRS.
Choose My Adventure Live: What dungeon will we get?
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. It's time to take our chances on the wheel of dungeons. Will we get a repeat or forge ahead into unRoblinatored territory? Join me and the awesome players who carry me while I chat by watching the stream above and participating in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. If you would like to watch us take on Sunken Temple and BRD, please click on the image above.
Cataclysm Post-Mortem: Deepholm
Alex Ziebart and Mathew McCurley (that's me) decided to give each Cataclysm zone the once-over now that we're many months out from the release of the expansion. In this post-mortem series, we'll examine what worked and what didn't work in terms of story, quests, and overall feel for the zones and the cool moments that dotted the landscape. The Earthen Plane. Therazane's domain. The place where primordial rock and earth and stone were banished after the Titans subdued the elemental lords and their Old God masters. Deepholm is where Deathwing laid his broken body and waited, watched, heaved, and went mad. In the center of the mighty plane of earth stood the World Pillar, the only support keeping Deepholm from crashing into Azeroth itself. When Deathwing unleashed himself upon the world, the World Pillar shattered. Only through the tireless and diligent efforts of the Earthen Ring, shaman from all walks of life and races, could the tear in the Maelstrom be contained. Now flooded by members of the Twilight's Hammer cult, a raging war between earthen and trogg, and the harshness of the Stonemother herself, the Horde and the Alliance must find a way to restore the World Pillar and save Azeroth from the very plane of earth it rests upon. Deepholm was the first bottleneck zone after the two opening Cataclysm leveling experiences, Hyjal and Vashj'ir. Everyone passed through Deepholm on the way to 85, getting to experience one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring zones ever created for World of Warcraft. From the rocks that hung eerily in the air to the various factions and allegiances, Deepholm provided one of the most unique leveling experiences in World of Warcraft to date.
Choose My Adventure Live: Questing in Winterspring
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator, or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. Today, Roblinator is questing in Winterspring, as per your votes. Though you and my normal band of enablers are welcome to come quest at the same time, I will be in my own group in the hopes that any "collect 10 Yeti bellybuttons" quests will go a bit more quickly. Since I stop to read the quests out loud, fall into crevices, get lost when I have no one to follow, etc., questers beginning when I do should be way ahead of me by the time I actually make it to the quest area. So please join me in game or by watching the stream above and participating in the chat after the break. Also, I rant about battlegrounds later in this post, if that is of interest to you. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch the video replay by clicking on the image above.
Choose My Adventure Live: Late 40s, early 50s dungeon
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. Today we are dungeonating again! Join Roblinator and probably Keleo Kelius, Darkrozee, and Prottal for some instancing fun. I'm healing this week -- but don't worry, there will still be rockets to the face! Watch the stream above, and participate in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch the video replay of Zul'Farrak by clicking on the image above.
WoW Insider reviews Christie Golden's Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
Just under 10 years ago, on Oct. 1, 2001, a novel was released as a new addition to the Warcraft universe that would change the history and lore of the games forever. Lord of the Clans outlined the history and childhood of a young orc named Thrall. Son of Durotan and Draka, the former slave would break free from his imprisonment at the hands of Aedelas Blackmoore, step forward to unite the shattered and lethargic clans of the orcs, and lead the Horde in a manner that none that had played the original Warcraft games could possibly comprehend at that point in time. Almost a year later, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released, and that orc's journey from the beleaguered, Scourge-ridden lands of the Eastern Kingdoms to the dusty and barren shores of Kalimdor was told in a tale that captured the hearts of players. No longer simply a character in a novel, Thrall's travels and ultimate triumph, united with the night elves and humans at the peaks of Mount Hyjal and working as one to defeat Archimonde, would forever seal his place as true Warchief of the Horde. It is only appropriate then that the latest novel written for the Warcraft franchise, detailing the further journeys of Thrall, be undertaken by the woman who started it all -- Christie Golden. Not just an author with a host of Warcraft novels under her belt, Golden is the voice of the former Warchief, the author who gave him a life of his own. Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects continues the journey that Thrall began nearly 10 years ago -- and what a journey it is.
Choose My Adventure Live: Questing in the Badlands
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator, or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. This week, Roblinator is back questing in the Badlands, since she's still not 50 yet. I've got a solution to try for the slow questing problem, partially suggested by Kelius. Join us in game or by watching the stream above and participating in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch the replay of punching dragons by clicking on the image above.
Choose My Adventure Live: Balloons and level 45 to 49 PVP
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator, or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT. Welcome to the new day for Choose My Adventure Live. Today we have PVP as scheduled, but first, Roblinator is going to help a little orc boy find his balloons. Please join me in game or by watching the stream above and joining in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over, you can watch the replay of the new balloons quest and Eye of the Storm by clicking on the image above.
Choose My Adventure Live: Late 40s dungeon
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator, or join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Monday at 1 p.m. EDT. This week, Roblinator the shamanator will be dungeonating with her regular dungeonators. We'll random as usual, and it is doubtful we will have to queue. Join us by watching the stream above and participating in the chat after the break. Also, there's another poll, so please vote. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch the video replay of Dire Maul by clicking the image above.
Reader UI of the Week: Go hotkey crazy with Vardelm
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com. There are some people who hotkey a few abilities into their interface, relying on the number row and some macros to take care of the brunt of the work when it comes to mashing abilities. Vardelm's UI, however, has taken the notion of "hotkey crazy" to a whole new level. Completely eschewing action bars for an invisible approach to hotkeys, Vardelm makes efficient use of his keyboard while keeping the UI comprehensive and cohesive. Suffice to say, I'm impressed with the hotkeys. There is still something frightening to me about not having action bars readily available and in plain sight. Maybe they're my safety net while I perform the delicate trapeze of raid tanking, comforting me with their visual presence. Take away the net and I could panic so hard that I'd fall harder than Dick Grayson's parents. The upside would be becoming a rich dude's ward, so I guess that isn't so bad. %Gallery-19902%
Choose My Adventure Live: LFM level 45 to 49 battlegrounds
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator and join in with It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Monday at 1 p.m. EDT. We're back and it's time for some battleground action. Join me in game if you are between the levels of 45 and 49 Horde on Zangarmarsh or just follow the stream above and the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You may watch the replay of three battleground losses (2 AV and 1 WSG) by clicking on the image above.
Enhancement shaman itemization and the end boss effect
As you may or may not be aware, I've started gearing up my enhancement shaman and have been having a really good time playing him. I enjoy enhancement for a lot of reasons, including how different it feels from playing a warrior or feral druid, the other two melee classes I'm familiar with. However, finding weapons can be a bit of a pain. The best weapons for me outside of a raid are the two fist weapons in ZG, which drop from a randomly summoned boss. So you may not even get the boss who drops them, and the off-hand doesn't even drop from the same boss as the main-hand -- and in either case, it means I'm leveling archaeology on a fourth toon because half the time, no one can summon any of them. As annoying as this is, for raiding, it can get even worse. Getting a 2.6 speed agility main-hand weapon from raiding means killing Nefarian and praying that this week he drops your axe. (You can get an off-hand from trash, but you can't use it in your main hand, meaning you need at least one Neffy axe). Blizzard has come out and said it's fine with this for now.
Know Your Lore: The sources of magic, part 3
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. Last week, we talked about arcane magic (including fel energy and shadow) and the magic of the Holy Light (which also has shadow as a kind of opposite force). If that's not confusing enough, this week, we talk about the magic of shaman and druids, either of which could in its own way be called natural magic. In part 1 of this series, we talked about the various means by which magical energy can be tapped. One of these magical "fonts" is the Emerald Dream, a kind of palimpsest dimension that lays beneath and mimics Azeroth. It is, essentially, the first draft of creation, the blueprint to which the world would be returned to in the event of reorigination. It's Azeroth before the original Sundering, before intelligent life, as it was the second the Titans considered their creation complete. The reason Ysera of the dream is charged with protecting and safeguarding the Dream is that it is the world's base state.
Rediscovering Alts: A private Cataclysm
I've been playing an enhancement/resto shaman since The Burning Crusade. I like my two shaman because they're not warriors; they have a different playstyle and instead of tank/DPS hybrids, they're healer/DPS hybrids. (Admittedly, they once kind of tanked, if you squinted.) Even to this day, I read Josh and Sarah and Joe every week. Once Cataclysm came along, I was forced to put my shaman on the back burner for a while. Raid needed tank. Me tank. Me tank hard. (Okay, so I neither write or speak like that.) I also got to enjoying messing around with the various warrior DPS specs. But with the passing of time, as my warriors got geared enough to perform the roles expected of them, I got to missing my shaman. My orc, I may never level again (at least not until I finally break down and buy a race change to tauren -- you can thank Garrosh "Where did my neck go?" Hellscream), but my draenei, I still enjoy a great deal. I know a lot of Alliance shaman players went dwarf, but I'm fond of my big blue. So I went back and started leveling him and quickly discovered a few things. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. A lot of the essentials of the class are still there, but a lot really has changed. Fire Nova works entirely differently now. Stat weights are entirely different. We have whole new abilities, and our older abilities were either redesigned, moved around, or in some cases removed entirely. Sentry Totem is gone. I won't lie: I cried. We have two forms of CC now! Two! Holy crap, I remember when Hex was barely even viable. Now, it's pretty solid. Mages have stolen Heroism. This also made me cry.
Reader UI of the Week: Naina's UI and comfortable clutter
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com. Hello, friends. I hope you all had a nice three-day weekend (the Americans, at least) and ate all the ridiculous BBQ you could. I did, and it was glorious. I have a very special relationship with grills and grilling food, and we will leave it at that. This week's Reader UI of the Week is dedicated to healers and clutter and finding the right amount of compromise to make a UI work. Clutter isn't all bad, you know. Sometimes we pride ourselves on getting the bare minimum of "stuff" on the screen. Others pride themselves on fitting the most they can. Today, we're going to take pride in making sense of simple yet substantial. As usual, don't forget to send me your Reader UIs! I want to see everything from the most minimal concoctions to the biggest messes in need of some love. Send your submissions to readerui@wowinsider.com. %Gallery-19902%
Choose My Adventure Live: Mid-40s dungeon
Choose the adventures of Robin Torres as Roblinator the goblin shamanator or join in with <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) every Monday at 1 p.m. EDT. With today being a U.S. holiday, we may have fewer people than usual or more than ever -- who knows? I will be healing or DPSing, depending on what we need for a shorter queue -- if we need a queue at all. I'm hoping that it will be another guild run, however. Join us in game or by watching the stream above and participating in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You may watch the replay of our trip through Scholomance by clicking on the image above.
