aeus
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Got your ram yet?
Did you get your Brewfest ram yet? I have to say, ashamedly, that I haven't-- I moved to a new apartment last week and was without internet long enough that I wasn't able to start Brewfest right away, and now I fear I'm too far behind to even get started. You need 600 Brewfest tickets to get the ram, and with all the quests (despite the bugs), you are supposed to be able to pick up around 100 tickets a day (30, if you're good, from the two keg runs you can do every 12 hours, and 40 from the Bark for the brewery quests). Add the tickets from the one-time quests for that, and you're looking at just under a week of grinding to get the Racing Ram for yourself.Unfortunately, Brewfest is shutting down on Tuesday, which means even if I worked like mad until then, odds are I wouldn't be able to get 600 tickets in time (not to mention I need some training-- I just did another keg delivery run, and only picked up a little over 20 tickets). So if, like me, you're starting late, you're probably out of luck this year.However, Aeus has good news-- Brewfest (and the ram racing) will be back again next year, and you can save all your tickets until then. Of course, next year, considering the popularity, they'll probably have even cooler prizes to spend tickets on, but still-- if you're left in the lurch with Brewfest tickets, stick 'em in your bank and wait until next Brewfest. Hallow's End is next!
Brewfest is still a bugfest
Brewfest bugs continue to infest the live servers. Despite a rolling restart of all the realms this morning, the Barker quest is still bugged on many servers. Blizzard is aware and is currently trying to unravel the latest mystery glitch.Blizzard was increasing the ticket reward for the Barker quest to make up for disabling the Dark Iron attack quest. If they can't get the Barker quest to work properly, they are going to have to think of another plan. There is only a limited amount of time to gather tickets for players who want the permanent rewards. CM Aeus on the European servers nixed the idea of the event getting extended. Oceanic realms are also having Brewfest problems of their own. Because the servers are hosted in a different time zone, the Brewfest events didn't go live at midnight, but many hours later. Blizzard is aware of the time discrepancy problem and is looking into ways to avoid it in the future.For players who intend to do the Barker quest when it is working, Blizzard has pointed out that /waving and /yelling are not necessary. You simply need to get close enough to the flags while on the Riding Ram. The quest updates using waypoint triggers, not emotes. One bit of good news: the always excellent WoW Wiki has a page up on Brewfest listing quests, rewards, etc. This may help answer many questions players have such as, can I get the Ram quest before L40? (No.)
How should WotLK beta keys be given out?
Player Blazith of the Sunstrider server wanted to know if players in the TBC beta will get beta keys for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion? Community Manager Aeus responds that though the exact method of beta key distribution has not been worked out, being in the previous beta will not automatically qualify you.The real question here is: how should Blizzard distribute the beta keys? The sign-up-for-random-distribution leads to many people getting in for bragging rights rather than testing. The give-beta-keys-to-PTR-players-with-numerous- bug-reports method would be a good start, but probably isn't enough to fill all the beta slots Blizzard has lined up. Plus, hardcore testers tend to be a different breed than the average player and not report on gameplay "feel" that average user experiences.How do you think the beta keys should be distributed?
WotLK official release date... maybe.
Over on the European forums, we seem to have a confirmation of an official WotLK release date. Forum poster Evlinn links to a pre-order page slating the game for a May 30th, 2008 release and CM Aeus replies: It's the 29th actually, they must be lagging..However, over on the US forums, CM Nethaera gives us the usual Blizzard line:It will be released (everyone say it with me now, you know how this one goes) when it's ready. ;)What does this conflicting information mean? It means you should get ready for a May release date... maybe![Thanks, David!]
Mage's evocation: working as intended?
Over on the European forums, there's been some question over the Mage ability Evocation. High end mages are saying it's just not restoring enough mana to be useful. CM Aeus comes to the rescue with an answer -- though not the answer most Mages want to hear: We feel evocate is working as it is intended: it's simply highly dependent on how much spirit the mage has. Unfortunately, many mages seem not to like spirit that much and would rather spend their gem slots and enchants on other stats. This is fine, everyone has the freedom to choose what stats they want to focus on. Whereas in the past we forced a lot of spirit onto the mage's tier sets so that they would have good mana regen, to leave more room for flexibility and choice we have replaced a lot of that spirit with gem slots in recent gear.Mages, on the other hand, say that to maximize their DPS and justify their use in a raid, they're required to stack gear and gems that eschew spirit and add to their spell damage, thereby rendering Evocation useless. But if they want decent returns from Evocation, and enough mana regeneration to keep them going in long fights, they have to sacrifice their spot on the damage charts in order to equip more spirit gear. To this Aeus responds:No one's asking anyone to gimp themselves; just making it clear that choices have to be made when it comes to certain aspects.So, Mages, what do you think? Is Evocation working as intended -- or does it just not give Mages these days enough staying power if they're trying to keep to the top of the DPS charts?
