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Curse acquires MMO-Champion
Yesterday, Curse.com announced the acquisition of MMO-Champion from its owners, Major League Gaming. Boubouille, the big dog over at MMO-Champion, is heading to the Curse team as well. This is some pretty exciting news for the Curse network! Curse, which already has one of the largest repositories of WoW addons and mods for download, as well as the venerable World of Raids outlet, adds on significant prowess in the WoW information community. With content from all three channeled into each other, you can expect big things from all involved. Read the official press release over at Curse or MMO-Champion. Some of the questions that I personally had about the acquisition were, happily and thankfully, answered by both World of Raids and Boubouille himself. Curse currently has a premium subscription-based service, and I wanted to know if we could expect something similar from MMO-Champion in the future. Boubouille answered on his website: I'm not going to bullshit you, premium might happen but it's really not a top priority for the moment. I would hardly call it premium, more like "Donator/Sponsor" for people who would like to help, I would also like to explore new features through that like user generated blogs or user groups on forums, etc ... But really, I don't see it happening in 2010. If I ever add a Premium feature to the site, it will be because it can bring something more without penalizing people who don't want to pay, it won't be just because I'm jealous of Ghostcrawler and want to buy a bigger yacht than his. If something is free today, it will stay free. It's that simple. Doesn't sound attractive or well-thought? Good, that's because we have no immediate plan to do that. Exactly my point. Secondly, what happens to World of Raids, now that two similarly positioned outlets are housed under the same roof? From World of Raids: What this means for World of Raids, and when it will happen, is still being worked out. I'll make sure to announce any plans well in advance though. We talked with Boubouille back in 2009, and the interview is definitely worth a read. Good luck to Boubouille at his new home and big grats to Curse for picking up a hot property.
The Frozen Throne is now in Icecrown (sort of)
We took notice of this in an earlier edition of the Queue, but I thought this little bit of news merited its own article for the benefit of lore junkies, raid leaders, or anyone who just might have missed it. After being asked a question over where Angrathar was really located in the larger Icecrown raid complex, I flew out to no-man's-land of southern Icecrown/northwestern Dragonblight and tried to get a good handle on the architecture. While doing so, I noticed a new and extremely tall spire nestled in the mountain range past the Wrath Gate and flew over to investigate. At the top of a saronite spire is huge chunk of misty ice capped by a flat surface with a black design vaguely reminiscent of the one on the Lordaeron throne room (although for all I know this is entirely unintended). From above, it bears a startling resemblance to an image datamined by Boubouille some time ago that was guessed to be the location of the eventual fight with the Lich King -- and I think this exterior "set" could be quite useful for any raid attempting to work on positioning once details of the fight become known. Curiously enough, the Throne itself doesn't appear to be present in-game at the moment, but that might change soon.
Headless Horseman loot updated for level 80
The burning question about Hallow's Eve this year has been whether or not the Headless Horseman's loot table would be updated for level 80. It had seemed pretty likely, since Coren Direbrew had his myriads of drops tuned for the current expansion. Boubouille answered the question, though, when he posted the newly updated items over on MMO-Champion.Of course, old Headless is still going to have three pretty key items. He'll still drop the Magic Broom, most likely, which has always been a crowd favorite to zip around the world. You can definitely expect the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling pet, since those are key to the Hallowed Be Thy Name achievement. Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns will still be common for the same reason.Jump behind the cut to see the new stuff, though.
"For the Horde" gets world-first A Tribute to Insanity-10
With the heroic versions of Trial of the Crusader going live yesterday, raiding guilds are already venturing into the more challenging versions of Tier 9. As of evening Tuesday EST, the European guild For the Horde has claimed a world-first A Tribute to Insanity-10 (a no-wipe full clear of the instance) on 10-man heroic Trial. Unfortunately, I don't speak German so I might be missing some of the finer points related on their website (anyone who can shed more light on this, please drop a comment!) but it looks like they weren't deliberately aiming for the achievement until they reached Anub'arak with all 50 attempts remaining, and then decided to go for it. Next in achievement progression? A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity -- repeating it without any gear from 25-man ToC, which is broadly equivalent to the Herald of the Titans achievement. Ouch.Boubouille at MMO Champion has since confirmed that the Swift Horde Wolf and its Alliance counterpart the Swift Alliance Steed are drops from the tribute chest upon completion of the no-wipe clear, and it's quite possible that the mounts also drop from the 25-man version as well. However, I doubt we'll be seeing A Tribute to Insanity-25 this week, as none of the guilds doing the heroic-25 mode have reported a wipe-free experience thus far.We'll keep an eye on guild progression for you, and congratulations to For the Horde!
Patch 3.2.2 PTR: Pandaren and Lil' K.T. pets revealed in latest build
Like Diablo's Cow Level, the Pandaren have almost mythic status within World of Warcraft since that memorable and almost plausible April Fool's Day prank. Blizzard has paid homage to that by tucking a pet Pandaren Monk into the latest build (10371) of patch 3.2.2 which has just gone live on the PTR.Boubouille over at MMO Champion has once again been rooting around the patch files and he came across the first model of the aforementioned pet. Isn't he cute? Heavy on the Chinese aethetics, we have no idea how you'll be able to get this little guy. While datamining, Boubouille also discovered another hitherto unmentioned pet, Lil' K.T.. Yes, you too can have your own pocket-sized Kel'Thuzad, a tiny trophy-sized lich to call your very own! Again, we're not sure how you get one. Here's hoping he drops off his full-sized self in Naxx but who knows? For now we just have a spell note in the files And as a note, please remember that Pandarens are not a playable race, nor is this an indication they will ever be added to WoW. 2n - 1 go left, 2n go right. I don't see enough DoTs! More DoTs now! Are you ready for the return of Onyxia? With the Brood Mother being revitalized as a 10 and 25 person raid, you'll need to be sure you know everything that's coming at you. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.2 will make sure your set for the next patch!
PTR Patch 3.2.2: New pets and mounts revealed
Once again, our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has been a busy boy. With the surprise announcement that the PTRs were up for the testing of the WoW Anniversary Patch (aka patch 3.2.2), he's been digging deep into the patch files and guess what he found?Well the big news is aptly summed up in the image above. Yes, it's the Onyxia mount (though not actually the Broodmother herself). A picture really does say a thousand words, doesn't it? However that's not all he's found by datamining. There are yet more mounts, including a Spectral Tiger cub! I suspect this little cub may well be from a future TCG expansion. After all, where did this little guy's parent come from? Ditto the rather awesome Tuskarr kite.On top of that there are some regular mounts in the form of a Little White Stallion and yet another dino-centric mount, this time a Little Ivory Raptor. Boubouille also found the Onyxia Whelping, which is the pet everyone who logs in during November will recieve (think the Blizzard Bear). Ain't it a cutie?However the oddest thing he uncovered was a collection of Mohawk themed spells. These relate to the now memorable TV advert in which Mr. T creates his own class, the infamous Night Elf Mohawk. From the spell descriptions, I can't help thinking this is not some hint towards a new class in the next expansion but, rather, will be some kind of NPC or quest-related summonable pet. Either way, it sounds awesome.
Breakfast topic: When Blizzard listens
For years it has been a running joke that the level 11 elite Hogger should be a high level raid boss. Every server will have heard talk of a 40-man Hogger run or re-rolling a bunch of level 1's just to tackle this insurmountable foe. He is surely the scourge of Alliance toons everywhere simply because he is the first elite we encounter as we explore Elwynn. Well, it seems Blizzard have listened, Boubouille over at MMO Champion has been datamining the 3.2 patch files and has discovered tidbits about some of the bosses we'll be fighting. Indeed the most interesting part involves memories of past encounters -- including Hogger. Yes, you can also fight Algalon, Onyxia, Illidan and Edwin VanCleef but Hogger is the most important. What confuses me though is whose memories are you fighting? Those of your own past encounters or those of one of the Argent Crusade? If it's the former, what happens if you've not fought said boss? What if you're Horde? But I digress. While you can bet Hogger won't be a level 11 anymore, it's a shocking revelation. While we know Blizzard pays attention to what WoW players are saying, it's nice to be reminded of that. So I want to know your reactions? Is it a good thing for Blizzard to pander to player's whims? Do you think reminding players where they came from and their past triumphs is a good thing? Not so keen? Is it just an excuse to be lazy and rehash old content? Tell us, constant readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.
15 Minutes of Fame: Boubouille proves an MMO Champion
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.What does it take to bring WoW fanatics the freshest World of Warcraft news on the planet? Imagine, if you will, a guy who sleeps literally no more than three or four hours at a stretch so he won't miss any World of Warcraft news. Imagine a guy who spends hour upon hour digging through game database files searching for anything that appears remotely different. Imagine a guy who no longer raids because he's so weary from 10-hour stretches on the PTR (public test realm).Meet Boubouille, the force behind MMO-Champion. The hard-working Boubouille is also one of the friendliest, most genuine voices in the WoWosphere. Ever notice how often WoW Insider links developments, new items and spells and breaking news back to MMO-Champion? While Boubouille's first on the money, he's also quick on the tips and first to share a really interesting scoop – that's just the way he rolls. We poked our heads into his insane, non-stop schedule to find out what keeps him ticking along and where MMO-Champion is headed as WoW evolves over time.
Tier 8 set bonuses hit the PTR
A new build has hit the patch 3.1 PTR, and with it has come something that many people have been waiting on most of all: Tier 8 set bonuses! We have all of them listed below, but keep something in mind while you read them: They are probably not finished, just take this as a preview. Set bonuses always shift and change before they go live, and I can guarantee that some of these will. At the very least, they'll have some typos and grammatical issues cleaned up, and we'll find out where the missing percentage symbols are supposed to go.Death Knight DPS 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of Death Coil and Frost Strike by 5%. DPS 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the bonus damage done per disease by 20% on Blood Strike, Heart Strike, Obliterate, and Scourge Strike. Tank 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by Rune Strike by 5%. Tank 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by Rune Strike by 10%.
The Queue: WoW Insider Mobile and more
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Ah, Monday afternoon! Does it get any better than this? ...Actually yes. Yes it does. Someone throw me off of a cliff, please. I want to go back to bed. Yes, I know it's almost 4 PM. I don't care.Thander asked...When you pay for the dual specialization do you also get separate gem slots?
Patch 3.1 PTR build 9658 Priest changes
As I'm sure many of you have heard already, another build has hit the PTR this afternoon. Information on what's contained within is still slowly filtering in, but many of the class changes are already known thanks to Boubouille. Most of the Priest changes are just number tweaks, but there's some good stuff in there for potential Holy Priest PvP viability. Yes, Holy PvP! Let's dig into what we've got.Shadow Shadowform now gives the the periodic damage from your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells the ability to critically hit for 100% increased damage.
MMO-Champion's Tier 8 preview video
I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty hungry for patch 3.1 information. There's not a whole lot of it yet, but I suspect we'll be hit with a deluge of it by mid-Februrary. That's just my personal guess though, and I can't say there's much to back it up. It's sort of a void of information right now. I'm still itching to see and hear more about it though, so I was pretty happy to see the video MMO-Champion posted earlier today. It highlights the Tier 8 sets that can currently be found in the datafiles, which we've seen before but not in such a clear and simple video, with nice and (generally) neutral lighting. Death Knights, Hunters, Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, and Priests are highlighted, in that order. The last few classes don't have any skins (or hints of skins) buried in the game yet, so we'll need to wait awhile to see those. Out of the ones we can see, I'm not really sure which set is my favorite. They're all pretty cool and fit the class decently enough, except for possibly Hunters which is still cool but looks a lot like a Plate set for some reason. The Priest set is pretty amazing, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on it eventually.
Patch 3.0.3 as good as confirmed for November 4th
About that whole hat eating... thing. Hahaha, we're all going to forget about that, right? It was just a joke. Haha! See? Laughter! Oh gosh, please don't make me eat my hat. Hats are so... hatty.In all seriousness, Patch 3.0.3 has been as good as confirmed for tomorrow. As was pointed out to me, while the breaking news announcement about tomorrow's maintenance doesn't explicitly say it's an extended maintenance, the timeframe for it is definitely longer than the norm. Moreover, Boubouille over at MMO-Champion says it's tomorrow, and that's as close to confirmed as it gets without... you know, a confirmation. When he opens his mouth, blue crayons fall out.As always, WoW Insider will be here in the morning to help you through the patching process, from the hours of boredom to the stretch of discovering just what the heck is different. And as I mentioned before, if you're a US citizen, you have other things to do as well.
MMO Champion reveals in game footage of Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury
Boubouille of MMO Champion has a special treat for Hunters and loot hounds everywhere today, unveiling footage of the legendary bow Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury in action. The bow itself looks pretty awesome, with lots of detail and colors. In addition, it looks like when you shoot it, you get a pretty nice light show going on. I'd say that they've managed to make it rather legendary indeed, looks wise. It's worth noting that the stat data shown in this video is from PTR data mining, so it may not keep those exact stats when the 3rd gate opens and Kil'jaedan is finally downed, but I imagine a lot of Hunters (myself included) are drooling big time over this little glimpse, and can't wait to get their hands on it regardless.
Rumored new Sunwell loots are pretty phat
Our good friend Boubouille at MMO Champion tipped us off to some of the loot items he expects to come out of the Sunwell. He doesn't say a source on these, but the guy knows his upcoming items, so here they are for your viewing pleasure. Plus, even if they don't actually turn out to be real, it'll still be fun drooling over them. Look at that Soul Render sword! And the Vial of the Sunwell trinket!Hot stuff. Of course, the Sunwell isn't like Zul'Aman-- it's the new endgame. So if you haven't seen Illidan yet, and think Mount Hyjal is that level in the old RTS game, odds are you won't be carrying these around anytime soon. But it is cool to know that if this stuff is real, we'll see some records broken in patch 2.4.
Low level dungeon item updates
Boubouille over at MMO Champion has compiled a list of low level items which drop in dungeons, and are set to receive some significant upgrades in patch 2.3. If you'll be working on a new character once the midlevel leveling changes come into play, then you may be interested to look at this list and see which items you'll want to be shooting for once you reach the right level range to go adventuring in instances.Keep in mind, however, that any of these stats might change as new builds come up on the PTR. Some updated items in particular seem to be missing (such as all Gnomeregan drops, and the new low-level epics we've heard about), so check back at the list now and then to see any updates.
WoW Moviewatch: Northrend video (not really)
Know why I love you guys? Because when you go too long without hearing new information about the next patch and expansion, you just go out there and make it up.This video says it's by Fanatik, who you may remember has leaked some info about upcoming content before. This purports to be a video of the next expansion, situated in Northrend-- except that it's completely and totally fake. Some parts are better than others-- the last cinematic is ripped straight out of WC3, but the main screen looks OK, at least until you realize that it too is chopped together from the previous Warcraft game. Boubouille has a list over at MMO Champion of where everything in the video comes from, and it's all completely fake-- Fanatik didn't even create it.Still, it would be nice to hear some official word from Blizzard about what's coming next, wouldn't it? Until then (probably around Blizzcon, if my instincts are correct), I guess we'll have to make do with this.
