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White and longer than your average cloak
It seems like so long ago. But only three or four years ago, I got a very special drop from Stratholme. No, the original Stratholme, not even the Culling of Stratholme. I want to say we were doing one of the old timed runs, when you tried to kill Baron Rivendare within 45 minutes. But, we just happened to have a night when the rare-spawn gargoyle, Stonespine, appeared. I got luck and won my very own Stoneskin Gargoyle Cape. When I looked up information about the cape on Thottbot, I found myself a little treat. The very first comment proclaimed that this cape was "white and looks longer than your average cloak or cape." Something about that comment must have caught the imagination of other WoW players, because the comment thread went on for pages. The Stoneskin Gargoyle Cape became a Thottbot meme, and was (perhaps) a predecessor to things like the Three Wolf Moon shirt. It was an amusing blip on the community of World of Warcraft, but not one I've thought about for a long time. It's with great joy that I am now the proud owner of a Saronite Gargoyle Cloak, which "drops" from the box after you complete Icecrown Citadel's gunship battle. The flavor text for the cloak proclaims that it is "even longer than your average cloak or cape." It's an unmistakeable shout out to that original item, and one that had me giggling like a mad man. I love it when Blizzard pokes a little fun at themselves, and indulge in a bit of metagame. I usually leave my cloak invisible, but I absolutely had to turn it back on for the Saronite Gargoyle Cloak. And I assure you, gentle reader, that this item is absolutely white and even longer than your average cape or cloak.
Phat Loot Phriday: Zod's Repeating Longbow
Reader Matthias C. wrote in with a special request to see this item here, so here you go. Name: Zod's Repeating Longbow (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory) Type: Epic Bow Damage/Speed: 541-887 / 2.80 (255 DPS) Attributes: +34 Agility, +51 Stamina On equip: Your ranged attacks have a 4% chance to cause you to instantly attack with this weapon for 50% weapon damage. This one's interesting -- the tooltip actually says the chance to hit. It's not the first time that's happened, but plenty of tooltips will say "a chance of" proccing rather than mentioning the actual percentage. %Gallery-33600%
Phat Loot Phriday: Sharpened Obsidian Edged Blade
Taveena recommended this one in last week's comments, so here you go. A big, bad sword. Name: Sharpened Obsidian Edged Blade (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory) Type: Epic Two-hand sword Damage/Speed: 715 - 1074 / 3.50 (255.6 DPS) Attributes: +146 Strength, +179 Stamina Improves critical strike rating by 69 and expertise by 103 %Gallery-33600%
Phat Loot Phriday: Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw)
I'm kind of surprised we've never done this one on PLP (in fact, I think we may have, though I couldn't find it in the archives at all, and it just changed recently anyway). But just in case you don't want to spend $10 of real money on an epic in-game pet, you can try to get this one anyway. Name: Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw) (Wowhead, Thottbot, WarcraftPets) Type: Epic (yes, Epic) Noncombat Pet Damage/Speed: N/A Attributes: Allows you to summon the Hyacinth Macaw companion pet, one of the most beautiful "parrot style" pets in the game. %Gallery-33600%
Phat Loot Phriday: Constellus
Not all of us get to run around with Val'aynr. But for you mace casters out there who aren't first on your guild's Legendary list, here's another sweet mace to hunt down.Name: Constellus (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Epic Main Hand MaceDamage/Speed: 93-298 / 1.80 (108.8 DPS)Attributes: +55 Stamina, +54 Intellect Blue socket with a +5 Spell Power bonus Improves crit strike rating by 29, restores 19 mana per five seconds, and improves spell power by 587 %Gallery-33600%
Player receives Developer item in the mail, one-shots Ulduar
Update April 30th, 2009: Karatechop's account has been closed. Read the full story here. We first received a tip on a mysterious guild that was blowing through Ulduar's hardest achievements one after the other, all in one day, about a day or two ago. Their gear and raid experience stated very well that they were in no position to do any of those achievements, but we sort of shrugged and let it pass by. It was odd that these players were barely in Naxxramas gear, and their first recorded Kel'thuzad kill was only two weeks prior to their explosion of Ulduar achievements, but we initially ignored these reports because surely, nobody could be hacking the game. On top of that, the forum threads submitted to us all had so many posts deleted from them that they were completely incomprehensible. There was nothing solid about any of it. Tips on it are still flooding our mailboxes today and a bit more information has surfaced, so let's look into it a little, shall we? The guild is The Marvel Family of US-Vek'nilash. The character Karatechop is the one that has attracted the most attention, and you'll see why in just a moment. If you look over his gear, it's not that bad, really. Epic tank gear, a lot of it from Naxxramas, so it's feasible that he could make some progress through Ulduar. It gets weird when you go to his Statistics and/or Achievements panels. Let's go to his statistics first.
Alternatives to WoWJutsu
It's very, very rare that pioneers are actually the best at what they do. They have great ideas, and those ideas revolutionize their field... but they're just ideas, concepts. It's not long before someone else improves those initial concepts and makes them the new standard. This more or less describes the situation around WoWJutsu.WoWJutsu was once the number one guild ranking website, tracking progression, boss kills and all of that great stuff. Unfortunately, it hasn't kept up with the times. WoWJutsu's tracking relies on the Armory, crawling the whole thing and using gear that characters have equipped to determine progress. In order for your guild's Malygos kill to be marked down, members of your guild need to have Malygos drops on their Armory profile. This is the only way, as far as I know, that WoWJutsu will list your kill.What does that mean? Well, it implies that guild progression isn't tracked properly at all. The first guild on a server to clear all of the content can easily come in third or fourth or twelfth on the ranking list. If your armory page doesn't update right away, that alone is going to throw your guild's progression record off. As minor as it may seem, it actually has some bad side effects, specifically when it comes to recruitment. If you claim your guild has cleared the hardest content in the game when you're looking for applicants, and people check WoWJutsu to make sure you're not making false claims... well, WoWJutsu's inaccuracies could imply that you're lying, when you're not at all. It's damaging.
Creating an open source WoW database
This is an interesting idea -- Daniel over at Marenkay.com is the creator of phpArmory, which is the closest thing we have to an official API for Blizzard's Armory site, and he's now turning his eye towards unofficial databases. Sites like Wowhead and Thottbot are extremely informative, but the one thing they don't allow is player access directly to their own data -- obviously they have a monetary interest in keeping their information on their site. But an open source site, as Daniel says, would allow players to get at that information whenever and for whatever purpose they wanted.Very interesting idea, and it sounds like he's got the coding chops to do it -- he's already got a working prototype together, apparently, and he's taking suggestions on where to go next. We'll keep a curious eye on this one. Competition is always good for customers, and while the current database sites might not be interested in an up-and-coming open source version of themselves (actually, the great WoWWiki is pretty open already, though they don't really collect as much numerical information), having widespread open data on drops, kills, and gear would be very beneficial for players. This could turn out to be a very important and helpful project.
Wowhead and Thottbot on ad strike
Thottbot and Wowhead, two of the most popular WoW database sites, have been having a few problems with ads lately. There was that brief issue with the trojan in a banner last month, and also apparently some rather irritating ads with flashing and sound have been showing up lately (and I think we can all agree that ads with sound are evil). But, like much of the Internet, these sites are kept free for us because they are ad-supported, so what can they do? Well, they've gone on advertising strike.
Gamers on the Street: Reading up on WoW
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.When you can't log in to World of Warcraft, do you get your fix from game sites instead? Gamers on the Street visited with two chatty young players from Zul'jin this morning about their WoW reading and research habits. Deathrowcame (70 Undead Warlock) and Docevil (70 Undead Rogue) were both on alts when we met up, but both popped over to Orgrimmar on their 70s to finish our conversation and take a group shot, as well as to share a few tidbits about life on Zul'Jin. Be sure to drop by the comments at the end of the article and share your own favorite sites and sources.Gamers on the Street: Hi guys, thanks for sharing. We're curious about people who like to read and research their characters and game info a lot. Are you both the studious type?Deathrowcame: Yeah, I am. I got a 70 'lock that I bought, so I have to research it – no, I'm joking,. LOLDocevil: I read up on what abilities I can get and what the easiest specialization is to use to level.Deathrowcame: I surf wowhead and thottbot daily to research gear for my level and class and what quest my class should do.
April Fool's is upon us
Yes, it's only midnight, and already the wackiness has started. These people just couldn't wait to do something a little silly on the first day of April. Reader Tim let us know that Baron Soosdon has quit his job at Machinima.com and stopped making machinima in general. He's said goodbye with (what else?) a Linkin Park video. WoWWiki has apparently switched places with the Guild Wars wiki, and vice versa. Make sure to check out their news section, where they mix up Guild Wars news with WoW news. Have you heard about the CM leaving, or the upcoming sequel? Wowhead's site, as you can see above, looks strangely familiar (thanks to everyone who sent this in). More to come for sure. Don't believe anything you read today (unless you read it here on WoW Insider, of course).
Insider Trader: Guide to farming cloth
Cloth is like the gathering profession for everyone. You don't have to pay to pick it up, and there are no skills to level. Because of the sheer number of tailors, the amount of cloth tailoring eats up (not to mention first aid), cloth gathering can be a lucrative pass-time. Failing that, it can provide for your own cloth needs without having to hit the auction house. This week's Insider Trader will be going in-depth into the world of farming for cloth, and tackling the following issues: The best areas to farm the cloth you need. How to alleviate some of the boredom. Ways to make the most out of your farming stints. We will also be covering cloth that can be obtained by even level ones, and not just level 70s, as well as information about what it is used for, and who is going to want it. Linen cloth. (lvl 1-15) Wool cloth. (lvl 14-30) Silk cloth. (lvl 28-40) Mageweave cloth. (lvl 38-50) Runecloth. (lvl 50-62) Netherweave cloth. (lvl 58-70+) Felcloth. (lvl 50-60). Whether your career hinges on stacks of cloth or you're looking to finance your other exploits, you won't want to miss this week's guide.
Wowhead and other sites are having trouble with ad banner trojans
You'll want to be a bit more cautious when looking up information on the game today. World of Raids reports that an unknown ad banner appearing on Wowhead, Thottbot, and Allakhazam has an embedded keylogger trojan. You don't even need to click on the banner, apparently, simply mousing over it will be enough. Wowhead says that all they know for sure is that it originates from "ad.yieldmanager.com", and will produce a redirect to "xpantivirus.com." They're working at isolating it. The issue is known, and all parties involved are tracking it down, so it should hopefully be resolved soon. In the meantime, if you're looking for a quick way to protect yourself, I would follow the recommendation of World of Raids, and try out the Firefox web browser and the No Script extension. As long as you keep the scripts blocked, it should prevent the banner in question from forcing itself on you. This should also provide you with some protection if you accidentally click on the wrong link elsewhere, such as on the WoW general forums. Edit: Apparently, the virus in question is not an actual keylogger, but it still does a number on your system, which is reason enough to try to avoid it.
Legal files reveal IGE and Affinity connection once and for all
You may remember that earlier this summer, when Affinity Media purchased Wowhead (to add to their acquisitions of Thottbot and Allakhazam), we were able to interview Affinity Media CEO John Maffei, and he told us, in a very roundabout way, that Affinity and IGE had supposedly parted ways-- Affinity and its content sites were, he said, no longer associated with the company that sold gold in World of Warcraft. However, if you read the comments on that interview, you may have doubted what Maffei told us, and now, thanks to legal documents surfacing because of a legal action against IGE, it appears you were exactly right: Affinity and IGE are (or were, according to Affinity Media) still two peas in the same pod (see Update).I know for certain right now that some of you commenters are preparing the "aww geez, not this again" (NSFW) macro to post, and I don't blame you. You're exactly right; this is boring business stuff, not new news about the Sunwell, and anyone paying attention back during the Wowhead acquisition knew that the two companies were still connected anyway. If this isn't news you to, fine-- I don't mean to reopen Pandora's Box, we just want to make sure we do due diligence in covering this issue.
How to make RMT obsolete rather than legit
Raph Koster was nice enough to come by and read our post about Live Gamer and their attempts to make RMT legit, and responds that while I suggested RMT was cheating and reading strategy guides was not, many older gamers actually do consider sites like Thottbot and EVE-db cheating. Just as the spirit of gaming evolved to consider outside help legitimate, so, Raph argues, will designers give up to market and player pressure, and make RMT viable and "legal."Which is probably true-- it's easy to see a future where a game like Dungeon Runners becomes a big hit, and 90% of the people play the game for free (or close to it), and the other 10% of the audience pays for the game by using only the highest level items and gear, and shelling out money for both. But personally, I'd rather go for Raph's other idea-- that smart designers will find ways around integrating RMT solutions by coming up with ways to make RMT unnecessary. I've written and talked about this before-- when it's impossible and/or inconvenient to obtain ingame items with real money, players just won't do it. And no players means no market.And let's not forget, either, that these are just games we're talking about-- RMT can buy you all the items you want, but it can't buy you great gameplay, and that's the reason we're all here in the first place. If designers emphasize gameplay over simple epic item collection in the first place, there's no reason for RMT at all. Companies like Live Gamer smell money in the air around virtual items, but hopefully (and this is what Raph doubted in his first post) there is still more money to be made with a successful widespread game than just selling the items inside of it.
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.
Hunter's Mark tells you how to know it all (without knowing it all)
Hunter's Mark has a terrific series up that's a great resource for anyone playing this game, not just Hunters. It's called "Being a Know-it-all Without Knowing it All," and if you've ever wondered where to go, what to do, or how to make your character better, reading through the series will give you access to pretty much every tool available online to figure out what's what.None of it is really new (it's definitely not news that Wowhead and Thottbot exist), and if you read our little site frequently, you're probably very familiar with what all these resources have to offer (we're pretty thorough like that). But if you know someone who's looking for a little more insight on the game, or want a general overview of everything that's available and what each site can offer you, this is it. From the Loot Lists to Bosskillers, tons of information about everything you need to know in World of Warcraft is online, and the Know-it-all series is a great overview of what's what.[ via Mania's ]
Lootables throws its hat in the item database ring
Apparently when Wowhead's million dollar sale hit the news, other website folks paid attention. First WoWDigger announced their bid to get in on the action, and now another site, Lootables (tipped to us by Birgitte, one of the creators), is going to give making an item database a go.My first reaction was "who needs another one?" but after messing around with the site for a few minutes, it doesn't look half bad. You've got your standard item search, and one feature there I've never seen on other sites is the ability to do searches by what drops in each dungeon-- yes, on Wowhead and Thottbot, you can look up dungeon bosses to see what they drop, but whenever I'm trying to figure out what instance to run, the first thing I do is check WoWWiki to click on each of the boss names in one place and see what they drop. Having everything in the dungeon at a glance is pretty nice. (Update: Wowhead can do this) The other big item of note is that Lootables actually links to each of the other databases in its listings. I didn't see a place to put comments (which are a huge draw on the other databases), but considering all the comments about the item are just a few clicks away, maybe they decided they didn't need them. You can also use the colored boxes near each item to "store" it in a dialogue on the right sidebar, and the site remembers what items you put there, so item comparison is super easy. Very nice feature.And the last thing I noticed that separates Lootables from other databases is that they've actually created leveling guides for all the professions, complete with links to all the recipes and items you need. Creating an item listing is one thing, but showing clearly how to use those items is definitely helpful.Birgitte also said she was looking for feedback, so if you guys have it, let's hear it. The only real suggestion I have is to come up with some way for us to see the items-- so far, the best these databases have all come up with is to use user-submitted pictures, but surely there must be some way to both avoid legal pitholes with Blizzard and show us what the items look like.
Thottbot introduces interface upgrades, new scoring system
I sure thought Thott had given up putting new features on his site (since things haven't changed in so long), but apparently not-- just the other day, he introduced Thottbot 3.10, including a new "scoring system," which is customizable so that you can determine for yourself just which weapons you want.Basically, every item now has a score associated with it, and that score is based on a number of different qualities, including base stats, armor, gem slots, resistances, spells, combat ratings-- anything that you'd ever associate with an ingame item. And then (and here's where it gets really cool), you can even change those score ratings yourself-- if having mp5 on a certain item is hugely important to you as a Shaman, for instance, you can add value to the mp5 stat, which will give those items a higher score. And custom score settings can even be turned into a permalink, which means players can easily trade their own custom scoring sets with each other. Incredibly powerful little feature.And Thott's added some awesome Javascript features to the listings as well-- you can now customize listed displays of items much more than ever before, and since it's done with AJAX, browsing loads faster as well. Really amazing job.Now ever since Thottbot and Wowhead moved under the same banner, players have said they wanted them to stay separate. But if this is the kind of thing we're going to be seeing coming out of these sites, bring it on-- I'd love to see the score feature brought into Wowhead's interface, and I'm sure a lot of people would love to use their same scoring profile on both sites to see what kind of information they can dig up.
Exclusive Interview: Wowhead and Affinity Media
I was actually running Wailing Caverns with a few guildies from IctfB on last Friday night around midnight when I heard the news: Wowhead had sold for $1 million to Affinity Media, the company that supposedly ran IGE, the notorious goldsellers. We'd received a tip from someone who claimed he used to work for IGE, and we rushed to get the story up and also make sure it was right-- word was that Affinity didn't own IGE any more, and that Wowhead had maybe sold because of that.Still, in the week or so since, players have had plenty of questions. Did Wowhead sell out to goldsellers? Did Affinity really sell IGE and are they really out of the goldselling business? And why did Affinity want to buy yet another database when they already owned both Allakazham and Thottbot? And perhaps most importantly, what kind of changes would come for Wowhead?WoW Insider got a chance to sit down for an exclusive chat with both John Maffei, president of the ZAM content network at Affinity Media, and Tim Sullivan, CEO of Wowhead, to talk about Affinity's past, the sale of Wowhead, and what's coming next. They wanted to clear up questions, and we wanted to get answers. To read the full, exclusive interview, click the link below.
