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The funny, morbid, and sad coins of the Dalaran fountain
Level up fishing so you can fish in the Dalaran fountain. I'm serious. This completely nonsensible and illogical statement is brought to you by the 53 tiny lore moments you'll get if you'll just sit yourself down somewhere and level up fishing. Yes, it's boring having to fish up dozens of useless fish to get to the good stuff in Outland and Northrend. Yes, you could be farming up gold or materials that will help you level in Wrath. I don't care. Go fish.You see, while you'll be fishing up a lot of equally useless fish in the Dalaran fountain, you'll also get coins. No, not in the sense that you'll be fishing up ingame money, but you'll fish up coins tossed into the fountain of this very old city by 53 people, many of whom will be known to you if you've played the game for any length of time. Some of them, perhaps most of them, are funny. Some are serious. Some are heartbreaking. I admit to a touch of being a lore geek, and it was wonderful being allowed a peek into the irreverent or hopeful or sad heads of Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall, or Stalvan Mistmantle. It is idiosyncratic little touches like this that make WoW hopelessly fun to play, and it is my fondest wish that whatever person at Blizzard who thought this up is pulled off whatever they're doing right now and chained to a desk until they come up with more stuff like this.So, if you don't do anything else with your time between patch 3.02 hitting and Wrath going live...level up fishing so you can fish in the Dalaran fountain. But don't read any further if you're not interested in Wrath spoilers, because there are a few here...
Ask a Beta Tester: It's all about the money
We have a lot of profession questions today, but also a few about Achievements, the Beast Mastery 51-point talent, and what happens when you push Death Knights off a cliff:Riley asks...How is the Shaman Hex ability working? Does the target still have control of movement and does the PvP trinket work against it?Hex is a the crowd-control spell for Shamans referenced by the devs at the class panel here, and it's been tinkered with a lot since we first heard about it. It was originally meant to be more of an emergency-only, short-duration CC. In its present form, Hex's duration has been increased to 30 seconds and it doesn't necessarily break on damage. However, in PvP the target can control where they go, the PvP trinket does work (you can also shapeshift out of it as a Druid), and it's considered a curse and can be dispelled by Mages, Druids, and restoration Shamans (who will have the ability do dispel curses with a 31-point talent Cleanse Spirit). Think of it as a somewhat odd combination of Counterspell, Fear, and Polymorph.
Sewer fishing for fun and profit (mostly fun)
I have a confession to make; I love fishing. Most people seem to hate it, and it's certainly not one of the more popular professions to level, but I could pass a perfectly entertaining afternoon ingame doing nothing more than chatting on vent and emptying pools of delicious and lucrative fish. Blizzard made a lot of effort towards improving the fishing experience in Burning Crusade, and tons of people wound up leveling it for a shot at Mr. Pinchy, the Find Fish skill, or the high-end raiding food buffs like Spicy Crawdad and Blackened Sporefish.You'll find an array of new fish and pools in Wrath, but for my money the two great joys are fishing in the Dalaran sewers and the Dalaran wishing fountain. The fountain is actually the more interesting of the two for a reason we'll cover in a bit, but you'll also need the sewers if you're interested in a new noncombat pet and the Accomplished Angler achievement (the one rewarding the "Salty" title, which I'm sure no one in the game ever intends to abuse).Spoiler warning: if you don't want to know the disgusting but highly interesting things you'll coax out of the Dalaran sewer system, just keep scrollin'.
Breakfast Topic: The not-so-easy achievements
If you're like many of us, you've probably looked at the Achievement system coming to the game in patch 3.02, picked a few favorites, and considered getting some of them done before Wrath hits and all hell breaks loose. The last few weeks before an expansion tend to be relatively relaxed and quiet, leaving you with plenty of time to, say, Explore Kalimdor, visit zones you may have missed for 1500 Quests, or just convince more factions that you're really not so bad.Some Achievements, however, are a little tougher, particularly those that will reward your character with a special title or mount. While I'm not sure I want to think about what something like For the Alliance! is going to be like, the one that I'm most concerned about is the Fishing Diplomat one. It's an an achievement needed for Accomplished Angler, and requires you to fish something up in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind. My main is a Tauren Druid, so fishing anything in Orgrimmar is a piece of cake. Stormwind, less so. While I can stealth into the city easily enough, fishing necessarily leaves you exposed for a period of 15-20 seconds. I don't think it'd bother me as much as it does if it weren't for the team of bored Alliance on my realm who typically camp quest objectives during holiday events. While I somehow doubt they've got the numbers or inclination to cover every inch of the Stormwind canals, I'm equally doubtful that my eight-foot cow's presence in the city will go unnoticed.I don't really have that much to worry about compared to the Hordies going after Old Ironjaw (in Ironforge) or Alliance going after Old Crafty (in Orgrimmar) for the Old Ironjaw and Old Crafty achievements respectively (what sadist came up with the idea of having you fish for a 0.1% drop in an enemy city?), but one thing's certain: some achievements are going to be more taxing than others.
"Leading the Cavalry" achievement lowered to 50 mounts
Looks like our little survey of mounts available for the Leading the Cavalry achievement found some ground at Blizzard -- they've lowered the number of necessary mounts from 75 to 50 in the latest beta build. Seventy-five mounts is a lot, and even though, yes, we didn't actually count any of the mounts coming in Wrath of the Lich King (surely there are plenty there), Tauren especially would have trouble coming up with that many things to ride around.And as you can see, the prize for having way more mounts than you'd ever need is... another mount. You can nab an Albino Netherdrake (a few commenters say it's just a drake, but that model looks like a netherdrake to me) for completing the achievement. We can say this: it'll definitely stand out in a crowd. But the green and the white together? The skin may change before launch, but maybe we don't actually need to bother getting those 50 mounts after all...
Unlock Fable 2 Achievements by seeing, not doing
The official Fable 2 Achievements have been unveiled, and it appears the previous rumor from August was pretty accurate. Even The Swinger (i.e. "Take part in a debauched bedroom party with several participants.") is still in there. However, there's an added note in about 30 of the Achievements, specifying the ability to earn them simply by watching someone else (i.e. another hero in a world you visit via online co-op) fulfill the requirement. Despite the lack of surprise, we are genuinely excited to being rather vice-full in our quest to obtain all 1000 Gamerscore points.[Via X3F]
Planning for the Brewmaster title in advance
A lot of people are understandably upset that the Brewfest mounts are now boss drops instead of buyable items. I've heard from no small number of folks who saved their Brewfest tickets from last year's event in order to purchase the mount with less hassle this year, only to discover that -- oops -- that wasn't in the cards. One particularly irate guildie logged off to go enjoy a mini-Brewfest of her own courtesy of the fridge after discovering that the ingame version wasn't going to cough up a ram.The new boss, Coren Direbrew, is pretty cool and I'm happy to see older content being made relevant again (especially when it's an instance as cool as BRD), but as far as I can tell from the forums and various data sites, the drop rate on the mounts is...less than spectacular. I'm seeing estimates that range from as little as 1% to as much as 15%. Blue poster Kisirani pops up to say it's "much, much easier" to get a Brewfest mount drop than it was to get the Sinister Squashling off the Headless Horseman. Wowhead lists the Squashling as a 2% drop, so maybe the 15% figure for the Brewfest mounts is more accurate.The mount might be a crapshoot, but you can cover the other bases on an upcoming Achievement and title by planning ahead:
LOL Abuse in patch 3.0.2
The new achievement system that will be introduced with the 3.0.2 patch is going to make this game a bit more interesting. People will begin to do things just so they can have the achievement. In my opinion, this is great. It extends the game play and gives everyone something more to 'achieve.'What is not great in the eyes of some is the potential and actual abuse from the system that will result.Take for instance what happened when I created simple macro that did /lol, and spammed it for 60 seconds. I got a nice number of 258 "Total times LOL'd" written down in my achievements page, right there for everyone to see. This just opens up the door for abuse of the worst kind – lol abuse.What do I mean by lol abuse?
World of Warcraft achievements will expand to other Blizzard titles
It's no secret that World of Warcraft will feature an achievement system that will roll out with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The writing's been on the wall for a little while now. New details have emerged, revealing that the achievement system will not be limited to World of Warcraft alone. Ultimately, the achievements will connect WoW with Blizzard's other major titles, namely Starcraft II and Diablo III. MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John recently spoke with WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan about the impending first incarnation of this system, which will be character-specific, as well as Blizzard's plans for account-level achievements that focus more on classes and professions. Hit MTV Multiplayer for more details on account-based achievements, WoW points, and the 'Blizzard Level' -- that all-important ranking which will soon command the attention of most Blizzard fans.
Rumor: Gamerscores transferring to next Xbox console
A rumor in Game Informer (full text from GI after the break) states that Gamerscores and achievements will be transferable to Microsoft's next console. As far a rumors go, this is one many Xbox 360 owners might pray Microsoft wouldn't prevent from becoming a reality.Achievements and Gamerscores are two features of the Xbox 360 that have developed a strong following, particularly among "ch33vo-holics." We can already imagine the internet hissy-fit temper-tantrum freak out we'll see if the Xbox faithful can't transfer their data. Although the next console is still years away, it would be unfortunate to envision Microsoft not allowing gamers to transfer their data effortlessly to the next system.[Via X3F]
Recap: X3F Live and Maybe Next Time Buddy
We did it guys! It was a huge success! Last night's Maybe Next Time Buddy X3F Live event (where we went on a mission to earn a certain achievement) was an overwhelming success as achievements were unlocked and I personally obtained 1000 Gamerscore in Halo 3. Woohooza! Click your way towards the break to read a detailed account of the event as well as view some screenshots featuring commentary (thanks to our new gallery system) and a crazy cool panorama shot. What are you waiting for guys? Get your click on ...
The Club nods at Gears of War's 'Seriously' achievement
For the thorough achievement hunter, there are an elite series of Gamerscore garnering goals that the softcore gamer is not likely to possess, such as Dead Rising's Zombie Genocider achievement, or, well, most of the achievements from Chromehounds. One stands out above the rest, though, requiring a great deal of time and skill to earn -- the "Seriously" achievement from Gears of War. Getting 10,000 kills in ranked multiplayer earns you 50 Gamerpoints, and hopefully, a concerned intervention from a few of your closest loved ones. Bizarre Creations' latest project The Club gives a hearty nod towards the life-consuming achievement with one of their own -- the cleverly titled "No, Seriously" requires you to kill 10,001 opponents in ranked online matches. Oh, we see what you did there. We'll have to wait until Feb. 19 to see if the game is good enough to merit that kind of time investment, and if Bizarre ripped anything else off of Gears -- such as a steroid-infused protagonist that speaks with the eloquence of Tourette's suffering sailor.
Team kill achievement in Turok is no more
Well, it looks like gamers can finally rest easy. Readers may recall that Turok was to include an achievement called "Grab Bag" that rewarded players for killing their own team members. Specifically, players had to kill "at least 1 creature, 1 enemy, 1 teammate, and yourself in the same round of a public match." With griefing players already ruining multiplayer games everywhere, gamers were naturally upset when Turok's developers decided to actually reward them for it. Thankfully though, the devs at Propaganda have seen the light and will be altering the achievement with a launch day patch for the game. The achievement will remain in the game after the patch, but will now only require players to kill a creature, an enemy, and themselves. So it's mostly fixed, but don't be surprised if your teammates are constantly throwing grenades at their feet.[Via Joystiq]
GameStrata statistic site launches, get PWN3D via graphs
GameStrata, a new game statistic tracking and social site, has just launched into a (semi-)public status. Players can use the free service to keep track of a range of quantifiable game performance details. We're not quite sure what to make of the service, since an Xbox Live Gamertag does nearly the same thing on a platform basis, albeit Xbox only. (We see overlap with Steam too, for another heavy competitor.)We'll give the site some hope, however, since it's signed a wide roster of EA, Activision, Capcom, and Sega for launch titles. Those games are Battlefield 2 (PC), Guitar Hero III (Wii, 360, PS3), Lost Planet (360), and Universe at War (PC, 360). The site combines stats from all of those games into a single user profile. It'll also strip Gamertag data into its service.GameStrata aims to bathe geeks in delicious data to keep them away from in-game -- and community-based -- competitors. Co-founder Barry Dorf takes exception to our classification, saying via email, "We do not see the space as having competitors, only partners.There are publishers that track stats and some that do not. We do not believe the publishers that are tracking stats are at the granular level we want them to be, or they want to be. Where do I rank in the first chorus during Sabotage in GH3 on Medium, or how many headshots did I make last week in Battlefield 2, and where did it rank amongst those stats?"Those details run deep, letting gamers graph performance over time -- say, kills with a certain weapon -- and compare it to friends. Players can also broadcast a syndicated news feed to update competitors with their latest achievements.
Crit happens
ces_1 over on WoW Ladies posted bragging about her 9.7k Healing Touch crit, and it reminded me that I do exactly the same thing. For some reason, seeing those big numbers pop up in the middle of battle is an indescribable thrill. Crits are strange entities-- they aren't even always helpful (there are many situations, mostly when aggro is tight, in which big crits are actually bad to get). But big numbers inspire something primal in us. And even if we aren't world-record critting (even in the LJ comments, people are showing off bigger Healing Touch crits), there's something super inspiring about seeing a huge number and then realizing it's your personal best. A 3k Lighting Bolt crit isn't that much, but darned if it wasn't a terrific feeling when I finally hit it on my Shaman.Loot is fun, but at the highest levels, it's a group thing-- you need to go into somewhere as a group or a raid, and then even if you do down the boss, you have to make sure you win a random roll or however else loot is distributed. But crits are far more personal-- even though they come from that loot, they're a result of all the gear choices you've made and the talents you've chosen for your character. Sure, a big dragon to fly around on is fun, but crits, out of the many rewards we've all earned in Azeroth, are maybe the most personal achievements you can find-- a real, numerical symbol that you've learned how to combine gear, class, and talents to do big things.
Turok developer may consider removing team kill achievement
After reviewing concerns about its Xbox achievement choices, Propaganda games says it'll consider removing the "team kill" award after the Turok launch early next year. Although CVG reports in its headline "Turok dev to scrap team kill achievement," the quote from Propaganda VP Josh Holmes is actually, "We are currently looking at readying a patch or solution for it if it does become an issue when the game releases" (um, looks like somebody forgot to read the story before writing the headline). That's not a definitive statement that Propaganda will nix the controversial achievement, but merely acknowledgment that the developer will consider doing so after the game releases.Actually, a few statements made by Holmes in the interview are a little frightening. For example, he says that the team kill achievement -- which gives ten points for killing one creature, enemy, teammate and yourself in a single round -- was originally created as a joke because they found that players in their first Turok match met all the criteria. That's not exactly a confidence builder.
70 new badges in Issue 11
A full listing of the new 70 new badges available in City of Heroes and City of Villains is available on Badge-Hunter.com's site. While Issue 11's new badges are split into Exploration and Achievement areas, the vast majority seem to be focused on the new Ouroboros-based missions. I'll even give you a hint on where to find the Chrononaut badge: it's placed in a similar location to two of the badges found in Atlas Park. And don't forget that you can change or clear your badge title at any time. After all, why be known as a Keeper of Secrets when you can be perceived as Justice Incarnate?[Via Kill Ten Rats]
How a 681-day achievement streak comes to an end
David Dreger, better known to the Xbox community by his gamertag "Knuckles Dawson," finally saw the end to his 681-day Xbox achievement streak on Oct. 4. Dreger tells why it happened in his latest Achievement 101 feature on sister-site X3F. After receiving MVP status from Microsoft on Oct. 1., he finally made the decision to stop -- but it took another few days for it to actually happen. Dreger received at least one achievement on his Xbox 360 gamertag every day from Nov. 22, 2005 until Oct. 4, 2007. Dreger, who is also a co-host on sister-site X3F's podcast, says he's accomplished all that he wanted to with the achievement streak. What finally made him stop his streak was a good game of Halo 3 with a friend while they were on the level "The Way the World Ends." Dreger says he's still interested in getting achievements as he is a self-proclaimed "achievement whore," but now is focusing on simpler tasks like getting his score to 54,321, to mirror when he had 12,345. Y'know, just for the heck of it.
X3F Achievements 101: Pre-E3 lull
Welcome to another edition of the weekly Gamerscore whoring extravaganza, X3F Achievements 101. As usual, I'll discuss the last week in unlocking Achievements, or discuss any news that's especially pertinent to the Achievement obsessed. Unfortunately, this week was pretty light, with E3 just around the corner, there wasn't much spare time to grind through any games. I didn't rent anything this week, but I did get my feet wet with Rainbow Six: Vegas, as well as made a couple discoveries whilst playing some Arcade titles locally with friends.
X3F Achievements 101: Dark Pirates
Welcome back to another edition of X3F Achievements 101, complete with Gamerscore whoring goodness. This week we take a look at finishing up Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, a very quick look at the ever distracting and delicious Darkness, as well as some personal Achievements, while not exactly adding any value to my Gamerscore, are still pretty cool little accomplishments that occurred over the past week. All in all, it was a solid week, with a few minor hiccups that'll you'll have to check it out for yourself.
