eu-forums
Latest
Would you bring back "boss must die!" quests?
Once upon a time it was common for there to exist daily (for dungeons) or weekly (for raids) boss-kill quests in WoW; think Archmage Lan'dalock during Wrath of the Lich King. User Frozenclaw, over on the EU forums, is wondering just what happened to those types of quests? Why don't we see any in Mists of Pandaria? It would be a great way to drive players to some of the lower-tier raids (such as Heart of Fear or Terrace of Endless Spring) these days, as well as a way to gain some reward for being willing to step into old content. I think this would be a great idea! I still regularly hit up some of the initial MoP raids for valor and the like, but sometimes the queue times are, uh, depressing. The addition of an extra reward for killing certain bosses might help drive people into these older raids--great if you're trying to gear an alt in LFR, for example--and give them something nice for doing so. Would you like to see the return of these types of quests? Would you run them if they did come back? What kind of rewards would you like to see out of them?
Show off your best WoW-related jokes
How do you know someone's been playing since Vanilla? Don't worry, they'll tell you. ...My apologies to Gewain, in this thread, because I've stolen his joke. It's definitely a smash hit as far as WoW jokes go, and I winced a little even as I laughed, because, well, I recognize myself in there, at least a little bit. So far, most people seem to be sticking to the "clean jokes only" request of the original poster, which is nice to see. Not every single joke has struck me as entirely funny, but a couple have elicited a barking belly laugh from me, which I certainly appreciate. WoW has a deep enough subculture and has been around for long enough that I'm sure there's plenty of fodder for good jokes, at least from people who are more clever than myself. If you've got an EU account, maybe head on over to the thread and add your own, and if you don't, tell us what they are in the comments! I'm going to bug the heck out of my guild with my favorites, for sure. Hey, what do rogues and noobs have in common? They both pick locks!* *My GM's main is a warlock.
Ask The Developers: PvP changes on the PTR
A wild post has appeared on the EU forums, detailing the ground rules for an upcoming "Ask the Developers" opportunity relating to the PvP changes on the patch 5.3 PTR. It's currently locked, but on April 9th the thread will go live for 48 hours, during which time players are encouraged to post all of their PvP-related questions and to vote on their favorites. Don't ignore the voting option, because Blizz will be prioritizing their responses by popularity, and the questions with the most votes are the most likely to be answered. There are also some ground rules for how the thread will work that are typical for "Ask the Dev" designated posts, and shouldn't be anything new for forum veterans. If you're planning on participating in the post, it's worth reading over them so your questions have the best chance of being taken seriously. So far it looks like this Q&A opportunity is only available to those with EU forum access, but we'll keep our eyes peeled for any similar posts appearing on the North American forum. You can find the full blue post behind the cut.
EU fansites giving away Mists of Pandaria beta keys
If you're living in Europe and waiting patiently (or even not so patiently) for an invite to the beta for Mists of Pandaria, then consider these fansites -- for they are just giving them away. CM Nakatoir posted the list of participating fansites with stashes of keys to give away on the forums, making it all the easier for you to find and enter as many as you can. There are also threads linked for German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian players, with a French thread on the way. So get out there and enter some sweepstakes. There's nothing to lose and a possible Mists of Pandaria beta slot to win. If you're an annual pass subscriber, however, you should already have access to the beta. Just head over to your Battle.net account page and check for the Mists of Pandaria beta account. From there, you can download the client and log in to start experiencing all the beta fun. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
EU Arena Tournament standings posted in anticipation of phase 4
Vaneras has posted the latest EU Arena tournament rankings over on the forums (after the latest phase ended), and it looks like PMR has found their way back on top across the pond: Priest/Mage/Rogue teams have taken over the top three spots. The Death Knight/Paladin/DPS teams, formerly dominating, have fallen down to just two spots out of ten, and two Shamans have made an appearance, one partnered with a Druid and a Mage, and the other with a Lock and Hunter. Very interesting.We should see the US standings posted soon. You can see the rest of the EU teams in the big listing over on the Armory if you want. Phase 4 of the tournament, Vaneras says, will be an invitational, and will start next week on April 14th. Congrats to all of the winners so far, and good luck in the rest of the tourney!
Wintergrasp retuning incoming
Back before Wintergrasp was first introduced, Blizzard told us that they'd finally figured out world PvP. They said to us that they'd figured out how to have hundreds of players fighting in an open zone at a time, without any major slowdown or lag issues. At the time, we were skeptical (and this was even before the instance lag after the WotLK release), and we continue to be: anyone who ducks inside Wintergrasp while things are nuts can tell you that they're far from perfect.But maybe not for the reason you think. Beatus on Kul Tiras posted a pretty well-written complaint about the layout of Wintergrasp on the EU forums, and new blue poster Ancilorn speaks up with a little insight into just how Blizzard was planning to keep down the lag in WG. They were planning to spread players around to the towers in the southern side of the zone, thus allowing hundreds of players to play, but in a few separate groups conquering different objectives.The only problem, says Ancilorn, is that there's not enough incentive to split players up -- people who go south miss out on honor and daily quests, and there's not enough reward to make them go that far. He says a retuning of the map will eventually be done to try and spread out the battle a little more.
Updated patch notes for patch 3.0.8
Early this morning, Wryxian of the European forum team posted an updated set of patch notes for the patch 3.0.8 PTR. That's pretty good news, because the old set was getting really, really outdated. Ghostcrawler hinted about this a couple of days ago, so we figured it was coming sooner or later.Nothing in the patch notes is that shocking that I can see, it's mostly just the changes we've heard about and maybe a more robust bug fix listing. It's just nice to see all of the additional changes that have come along gathered in one spot, instead of hunting around to make sure we're not crazy when trying to remember something. The patch notes on the EU website have been updated, but as far as we can see, neither the US forums or website have been. So if you're somewhere that you can't access the forums or official sites (work, school), we have them right here for you. Just click through the cut below!
Europe's turn for web site maintenance
You may remember a week or two ago when Blizzard's US web sites and related services went down for some scheduled maintenance. The same's happening tonight for the EU web sites starting at midnight Paris time. All related accesses (Account Creation, Subscription Renewal, WoW-Europe forums, the Armory) will also be down. The good news is that they'll be back up by 10am Paris time on June 19th. I doubt we'll see any of the oddities we saw the last time there was web maintenance, but we'll keep our eyes out. This could be the last step before converting Blizzard's online presence to something more thematically geared to the Wrath of the Lich King. If you're affected by this outage, you can use the time to see what Rob Parkins hasn't been up to, or get some overview of what has been happening in your World...of Warcraft.
Forum Post of the Day: Spicing up the splash screen
The tips that pop up as WoW is loading usually cover the most basic mechanics of the game. I have to admit that I was once surprised by "You can eat and drink at the same time." The idea was completely novel to me and I actually learned something. We've probably seen them all before, and pay them little attention. Some of the ones I've seen lately are: Your items do not suffer durability damage when you are killed by another player. The auction house in each of your factions' major cities are linked. Nearby quest givers that are awaiting your return are shown as a yellow question mark on your mini-map. Well, we've all made the effort to ignore them. Canika of EU-Spreggar felt that these tips needed an update. He inaugurated the thread, inviting others to share their splash-screen tips with "Common sense; the path toward most epics." Several others chimed in: Thalanor of EU-Al'Akir " When interacting with other players - a little kindness may cause them to latch onto you like a leech." Jidiro of EU-Sporeggar "It is not which class has more survivibility, it is which class the rogue goes after first" Raith of EU-The Maelstrom "Friends come and go epics are soulbound." Stronza of Ghostlands "Bring your friends to Azeroth, but don't forget to take them to Outland as well." Nagaraz of EU- Earthen Ring "No, you are not the most awesome player on your server." The thread is filled with similar delightful little gems. I have a few additions of my own. Beware of Warlocks bearing gifts. Look before you leap, especially if you don't have Slow Fall. If at first you don't succeed, it must be the Hunter's fault. Every time you dance on a mail box, Blizzard kills a Nightsaber. What would you add to the character loading screen?
Children of a lesser guild
The worst part of guild membership is, by far, watching a guild die. I've seen guilds die from poor recruiting practices, internal drama, and, in one memorable case, a disgruntled member with /gkick privileges. But the most painful death I ever saw was that of a large casual raiding guild in which I was an officer. We weren't very good, and we never progressed far, mostly because anyone decent in our guild was immediately recruited away by one of the high-end guilds on our server. We kept it together for several months, but in the end, ten of our best players (including our two tanks and the best healer) were poached away by another guild. Eventually, the guild leader and I left too. Judging by his post on the EU General forums, Aires, GM of Flames of the Phoenix on EU-Terenas, is having the same problem. His small Kara guild is being eaten away by larger guilds who whisper his members, invite them to come to 25-mans, and then ask them if they'd like to join. Admirably, Aires does not cry about it or name names, but asks a general question: Is it ethically right to poach members from smaller guilds who don't approach you first? Opinions seem to be divided. On one hand, few people will argue that it's "nice" to cannibalize a smaller guild, and many SSC/TK guilds who do this to "loser guilds" would scream bloody murder if a BT/Hyjal guild did the same to them. But every server also has a limited supply of players who don't suck, and new recruits do have to come from somewhere. Plus, there's no real way to steal a player who doesn't want to be stolen in the first place. The thread also contains a rare personal opinion from a Blizzard employee. CM Vaneras says that your answer to the question basically depends on why you play the game. If you play for what Vaneras terms "shiny epics", you probably won't see anything wrong with poaching, while those who play for "the cameraderie and accomplishments of a guild" will hate it. What do you think about guild poaching?
Change your gender? Blizz says no
Character customization is on its way into Azeroth-- when Wrath of the Lich King comes around (whenever that is), we'll be able to change the way our characters look more than ever. But Blizzard still isn't interested in letting us change the most major functions of our characters-- Vaneras over on the EU forums makes it pretty clear that gender changes are never going to happen.Gender changes are still a subject that inspires a little taboo in real-life, but actually, in World of Warcraft, it's something that a lot of players might want. Plus, while it's obvious that Blizzard wouldn't want people changing race or class (since there are actual abilities that go with both of those choices), there is no difference in the game between male and female, save for the cosmetic look. Sure, the story behind it would be a hard workaround (I'll let you imagine how that might play out, or, more likely, not), but allowing gender changes wouldn't upset the game, and would let those who feel they've made the wrong choice, err, "fix" things.The fact is, however, that just like race and class, the gender you chose when you rolled a character have probably determined that character's existence. While changing the character's gender is just a cosmetic thing in terms of code, it's not in terms of identity, and that's what Blizzard has a problem with. The idea of a role playing game like WoW is that you choose a role to play. And if you have the option to change that role at a moment's notice, what's the point of asking you to choose in the first place?
Some Death Knight details from the EU forums
This isn't groundbreaking new information, but over on the European forums, CM Vaneras has provided a summery of information on the new Death Knight hero class. However, while not groundbreaking, it does clarify a few things and drop tiny fragments of new information. First up, the Death Knight's 6-rune resource system:Imagine it [the runes] being three different energy pools which you can change the size of before you get into combat. These runes, we know, will be etched on to the Death Knight's weapons and can be changed at any time out of combat. But it sounds like the details on weapons etching are still up in the air:There's no final decision or announcement on how multiple weapons would be etched, or how weapon switching may affect the etched runes. What has been discussed to some degree is that the main-hand weapon would be etched and that's it, but it's too early to say what would be allowed in the final game. What level the Death Knight will start at is still unknown but what races may play them is up in the air. Though during our liveblog of the WotLK demo, we were told that Blizzard's plan was to have the class available for all races (to cheers of "Gnome Death Knights ftw!" from the crowd), Vaneras expresses less certainty... more quotes and info after the jump!
