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Fully public APB beta on its way
We haven't heard too much in the past month about the cops and robbers MMO All Points Bulletin from developer Realtime Worlds. At least not until recently, we haven't. While gameplay information may still be scare at least we now know that APB is entering its Alpha stage with an eventual fully public beta on the horizon. This information all comes from Mario Rizzo, Realtime Worlds' business development manager. While it's no official announcement, it is the next best thing. We can certainly understand why a public beta would do a game like All Points Bulletin a lot of good -- it's not exactly your typical MMO or sandbox action game. Heck, it's very likely that many players will simply be enamored with the character creation process that was such a smash hit at GDC this year. You can count on us spending the first hour or two of our time with the game's beta making an awesome character.
Warlock melee? Really?
An interesting thing about the Wrath of the Lich King Alpha -- well, one of them, anyway -- is the proposed 51-point Demonology talent for Warlocks. More than a few Warlocks have daydreamed about a Demon Form or being able to summon a Dreadlord for quite some time. If the Metamorphosis talent makes it all the way to release, both those wishes will actually come true. The interesting bit is this: two of the proposed abilities for the new form are melee-oriented. This means that Warlocks will actually need to adapt a different playing style when switching forms. In fact, Warlocks might even have to start looking at a stat they've previously ignored -- top end weapon damage. In the past, weapon damage and DPS was irrelevant to casters, who generally only looked a +Spell damage (or, ahem, Unified Spell Damage). With a melee strike that deals weapon damage, as well as a Charge-like ability that deals normal (physical) damage, Warlocks move into uncharted territory. Will we begin to see Warlocks roll on weapons traditionally associated with melee classes? Or will we see a spike in top end damage for caster weapons? Does this mean that Warlocks will actually have to -- *gasp* -- raise their skill with Daggers or Swords? Of course, none of this matters if the abilities never make it live, but it's interesting to imagine Warlocks actually heading into the fray with the intention of poking their enemies with weapons rather than casting spells.
LotRO-style achievements coming to Wrath?
One thing I like about the history of MMO development so far (and game development in general, I suppose) is the tradition of borrowing the best parts of other games for your own games. Heck, WoW (as it's often said) had very little in the way of sheer newness when it was launched; rather, it polished and perfected concepts and trends started in Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and others. If you are willing to do a little interpretation on some leaked screenshots from the Wrath alpha, it looks like Blizzard will be adapting another feature into WoW, this one familiar from Lord of the Rings Online (and Xbox Live): achievements. Basically, an achievement is an unlockable something, unlocked by reaching a certain goal. That's a vague definition, so here are some example goals hinted at by what's leaked out: Reveal the whole map of Outland Do at least one daily quest a day for five days Get a character to level 80 on both factions Achievements are clearly not yet implemented, even in the beta; many of the numbers in the screenshots are placeholder values, and the rewards for completing the achievements, whatever they may be, are completely unknown. It does look like there is a point system – the UI implies that each of the above achievements is rewarded with 50 points – but what might these points be used to purchase? Well, gear, most likely, but it's also possible that they may be a way to get prestige items, like special mounts or titles. Either way, I welcome yet another advancement path; more importantly, achievements are just plain fun!
Breakfast Topic: What's the big deal with the Alpha?
If you're like me, you probably geek out at every bit of news that leaks out from the Wrath of the Lich King Alpha. Granted, there really aren't supposed to be any, but we fanboys take whatever we can. The curious thing is, what's the big deal? It's a game that was announced almost a year ago and doesn't look like it will come out anytime soon. Furthermore, the biggest things about the expansion such as the Death Knight hero class and Inscription profession has already been revealed.But every little thing stokes the fires of anticipation -- at least for me -- and even silly things like icons of items make my stupidly grin. Never mind that Blizzard has put a tight lid on everything, or at least tried, but it's kind of like Apple trying to put a lid on the iPhone before it came out. Everyone knew it was coming even though Apple wanted to keep it a secret, but in the end, people snapped it up anyway. Wrath of the Lich King is kind of like that. We scrape and claw for every little bit of information, from spells to screenshots to images of possible armor sets. It's a huge deal for me because as much as I still enjoy playing the game now, I'm really hungry for something more. The only thing I'll ever see in Sunwell Plateau is Kil'jaeden's 'welcome' doormat. Maybe. So while the Alpha might be scraps as far as information goes, I'm devouring every bit of information like a famished man. How about you? Are you excited about information leaking from the Alpha? Does it whet your appetite for Wrath of the Lich King? What information are you most concerned about?
Definitely penguin pets!
Who doesn't love penguins? Well, definitely not us over here at WoW Insider. During one Insider show, we clamored for penguins to be the special pet to be included in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition. We know they haven't even announced a Collector's Edition yet, but since they've released one for most of their games -- they did it for both World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade -- there's a good chance they'll be announcing one soon.At any rate, fans of birds in tuxedos should rejoice. Tipster Josh led us to a collation of images (um, caveat clickor, as they say in Latin) that were apparently data-mined from the Wrath of the Lich King Alpha client. In it, we saw some blue dragonkin presumably from the Nexus using the same models with slightly different armor (ho-hum); some Undead versions of the Nerubians (Stratholme, anyone?) and the oversized Vrykul (interesting...); first looks at the Alliance and Horde siege machines (I want TOYS!); and -- you guessed it -- penguin pets (wahoo!). We have no idea how players will be able to get them, or even if they're obtainable as pets, but the spark of hope for pet lovers everywhere remains aflicker!
The Art of War(craft): DotA-style Battleground in WotLK?
My brothers are addicts. Actually, make that my brothers, my best friend, my brother-in-law, and more than a handful of other friends. Although most of them have played World of Warcraft at some point or the other, circumstances ranging from subscription fees and schedules have prohibited them from playing the game regularly. Instead, they get their Warcraft fix by playing DotA. A lot. For those unfamiliar with the term, DotA means Defense of the Ancients, a highly popular Warcraft III scenario developed by various independent authors. In the scenario, players control a single unit, a Hero -- one of about ninety as of version 6.52c -- that they use to combat waves of NPCs and take down enemy Heroes. They play DotA for hours on end every day, and if the rumors are true, it just might happen that their addiction just might become mine, as well.Through one of the most thorough tips WoW Insider's ever gotten, reader Kevin breaks down some speculation that the new Battleground in Wrath of the Lich King will be DotA-inspired. In the slew of interviews that Blizzard granted in early May about the next expansion, Tom Chilton and Jeffrey Kaplan confirmed that they would be introducing a new Battleground in WotLK which "(is) set up as sort of an attack-defend scenario; features siege vehicles, and (has) destructible building components." Those nebulous answers are wide open for interpretation, but if I allow my Battleground-hungry self to dream, all those features can translate into a World of Warcraft DotA map.
The Brewfest Kodo and what it may mean for WotLK's release date
Tipster Graffias pointed out an exciting find in the latest leaked Alpha files for WoTLK: An Icon for a Brewfest Kodo. You may recall that last year's Brewfest included a Ram mount that was purchasable with tickets by both sides, allowing the Horde very easy access to an Alliance mount with a few days of grinding for Brewfest Prize Tickets. Many Alliance weren't happy with this, annoyed that the Horde got such easy access to an Alliance mount without having to kill Baron Rivendare or a Troll a couple hundred times. Bornakk decided that the best way to answer this criticism would be by promising the Alliance that the Horde would be getting access to yet another previously alliance-only mount skin in the Cenarion War Hippogryph. Of course, Kisirani, being as awesome as she is, later said that we should have patience and things would work out in the end. Listening to the words of the world designer seem to have paid off, as it looks like the Dwarves are going to turn the tables on the Goblins this year and steal some Kodos from them. I can finally fulfill my dream of owning my very own Kodo. My Night Elf Druid is from Kalimdor after all, and you would think there would be some Night Elves who decided to domesticate Kodos as beasts of burden too. But really, as much as I am looking forward to grabbing myself a Kodo (and seeing a tiny Gnome riding around on a huge beast of burden), what's really exciting is this thought: If the Brewfest is in late September to early October, does that mean Blizzard is planning to give us WoTLK by September, Brewfest Kodo and all?
Blizzard changes the description of the Death Knight talent trees
Curse has noticed a very intriguing change to the Death Knight information page. The descriptions of each of the talent trees has been changed. Here are the old descriptions: Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage. Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage. Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities. And now, the new descriptions: Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes. Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos. Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases. This is quite a drastic change, but what could it mean? Let's look at the possibilities after the break.
Blood Pact: The Warlock's way ahead, part 2
In my last article, we looked at the Warlock in alpha: Atrocity, Metamorphosis (yay, demon form!), Decimate, and new synergies between our spells. All three top tier talents seem to have more utility in PvP and the Arenas, with Atrocity possibly having some amazing utility in some PvE situations. The synergy between DoTs and nukes is something to watch, particularly Eradication and Everlasting Affliction. New additions to the Destruction tree that seem to encourage cross-school casting turn out to be just minor improvements to the tree's PvP viability in their current form. We turn our attention now to the other talents, and Blizzard definitely plans to make Spirit matter to warlocks.
WoW Insider Weekly
Missed some of our great weekly content over the last seven days? Worry not, good reader! Here it is, recapped in easily clickable link roundup form. Insider Trader: Wrath alpha editionInsider Trader examines what just might happen with professions in the expansion. Blood Pact: The Warlock's way ahead, part 1Vims examines what's next for the class that parties with demons. Hybrid Theory: Druids and the Wrath alphaWhat kind of loving will Druids get when Blizzard takes us up to Northrend? Guildwatch: 25man raid LF24M, healers and tanks preferredThis is what happens when guilds stop being nice -- and start getting real. Even more great weekly content found after the jump.
New tier gear video
Fresh from the alpha leaks that have been coming our way is a new video posted on Vimeo that shows new Wrath of the Lich King gear for Hunters, Mages, Priests, Rogues, and Warlocks. We don't know what tier level (ie: 7.5, 8, 9) this gear is for, but we do know that it fits the overall model of previous tier gear. When you watch the video you'll notice that not everything is done yet. Obviously, this is because the game is still in alpha. And remember that these models could be completely thrown out and replaced with something different. My personal favorite is the rogue gear.Give it a watch and get yourself some of these juicy alpha leaks!
Blood Pact: The Warlock's way ahead, part 1
Most of you would have already sneaked a peek at the leaked details of the Wrath of the Lich King alpha. It's really premature now to decide on your new leveling build or comment on the level 80 endgame, but the new info is a good indication of the direction of the Warlock class in terms of class design and role. Is the new stuff PvP or PvE? Which tree is going to be the DPS king? Let's take a two-part look at some of our new, not-so-secret abilities, and whether some of our dark wishes are fulfilled.
Wrath of the Lich King update loaded with frozen treats
As World of Warcraft slowly progresses to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the juicy tidbits keep hearthing our way. Blizzard recently took some time to release some more information concerning Northrend within Wrath of the Lich King. There are a few glimpses at new dungeons, some notes on vehicle combat, and some new screens of snow and ice. The big feature is an entirely new site devoted to the new class, the Death Knight. Not surprisingly, the updates come rather close to the release of Age of Conan and are filled with content information and a nifty little Death Knight animation. The new WotLK gameplay features talk about some rather major changes to quest mechanics and, most importantly, raid mechanics. For the hardcore raider in you, the instances now carry a 10 and 25 man raid that are the exact same instances, but offer different ways to advance. Players taking on the 25 man content will get better rewards, but the shift is meant to allow more folks to absorb the new content. If some extra power is needed, the new Death Knight class will be a welcome friend (oddly enough) in any raid or group with his all powerful skills. Unlocking this class of doom is an easy task. Simply have a level 55 character and the class is open to you. Then you create your Death Knight and start raising skeletons to do your bidding! The expansion is still in alpha testing, but make sure to check out some of these changes before you are left in the cold.
Hybrid Theory: Druids and the Wrath Alpha
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.Last week we discussed Death Knights a little bit, and my personal stance is that their impending introduction to the game won't harm existing tank classes too much. Most likely, they'll have their own niche (magic tanking) but with some work be capable of tanking other things. Warriors, Druids and Paladins will still retain their own niches, even with the addition of a new tanking class.I discussed that primarily because a lot of tanks, Druids especially, have voiced concern to me about losing their viability. How appropriate that Druids are the first pure hybrid class to have their new spells and talents implemented into the Wrath alpha. Before I start my analysis and slather my thoughts all over you, you can take a look at them on this Wrath wiki. To avoid spoiling those that want all of the expansion to be fresh come release, I've tucked all analysis behind the cut.
Insider Trader: Wrath alpha edition
As Wrath information is leaking from the alpha testing, we are seeing more and more glimpses into the expansion than ever before. This week, Insider Trader will be analyzing some of the changes and new abilities on the horizon for craftsmen. Because some people would really rather not know this information, I'm placing all of it beyond the break. It should be noted that none of these details are set in stone, and in fact, many will never make the actual expansion, or change significantly before it. Still, it is interesting to look into Blizzard's process, as they expand and evolve the professions, and create a new one. A few of the changes indicate that they are indeed listening to some of the ideas craftsmen have put forth for what they'd like to see, and I think we should be excited about some of the developments on the horizon.
[1.Local]: Readers have their say on this week's posts
[1.Local] serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous.WoW Insider readers both looked back and leaped forward this week, with reminiscences about the old days of Azeroth peppering a week rife with speculation about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Readers strolled down Memory Lane with a look at our most fond old-school memories, and they eagerly clambered aboard our newest regular column, Ask a Lore Nerd. Commenters squabbled over Blizzard's handling of Glider bannings and WotLK alpha information leaks. The flame-throwers came out in force over politics in a post reporting on The9's decision to close up shop for three days of mourning following the recent natural disasters in Asia. Also this week, readers shared their experiences dealing with rep grinds and wrapped up with a philosophical look at violence and honor in an armed world.Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one!) and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.
Blizzard: Sharing Wrath data is "extremely offensive and inappropriate"
As if there was any doubt, Nethaera has posted that Blizzard considers the sharing of any Wrath of the Lich King alpha information "extremely offensive and inappropriate," though it's a good question as to whom that is, other than Blizzard themselves. Here at WoW Insider, our policy is not to rehost or quote any leaked alpha information, though as a service to our readers, we've been linking to other sites where it may be found. But is it within Blizzard's rights to lash out at anyone who does host or discuss leaked alpha information?As copyright holders, they certainly have ownership of any notes, updates, or models released, so it could be considered a violation of copyright law to rehost the information. But to really get to the center of the problems behind this leak, you have to realize where it likely came from: the Friends and Family Alpha release. A little while ago, Blizzard distributed the client for Wrath to a number of their "friends and family" -- probably a group that consisted of employees and their WoW-playing relatives, as well as likely some folks at Vivendi and Activision, other Blizzard partners like Upper Deck and Figureprints, and probably a number of high-end raiding guilds who've done a lot of pre-beta testing for Blizzard before. Somewhere in there was someone not quite as trustworthy as Blizzard thought (odds are that Blizzard at the very least collected a signed non-disclosure agreement from everyone that they sent the client to), and that person uploaded or otherwise shared the client, against the agreement.Cut to a few days later, after that person shares it with another person, who shares it with one more person, who then uploads it to a popular bittorrent filesharing site, and suddenly everyone's got access to everything in the Wrath client, and even if they can't play it, they can still datamine and grab information.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Are we barbarians?
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is written by a human being. That human being is weak, and flawed, and does things like read forbidden patch notes from leaked alpha clients. That human being (old Matthew Rossi, you all know, lives in that crazy haunted mansion atop Death Hill... which, by the way, is a perfectly pleasant little town, it's just unfortunately named) knows it is verboten to host any files or take screenshots from said alpha, but he still wants to talk about the future. The future, Conan?Now, if I knew how the Azerothian calendar worked, I'd have a joke here. But since I don't, let's talk about talents and abilities that may or may not actually come to pass. (Fear not, Shaman enthusiasts, your regularly scheduled Shaman column will be coming to you tomorrow) You know how alphas are, they tease you with abilities that later are removed, changed or totally revamped due to feedback, but there's still lots to talk about. For instance, the image that heads up today's picture might well be waiting for you to meet... or even to be... in Northrend. Man, that's so awesome it makes my brain hurt. I really hope these talents aren't just a lot of hoaxish blue sky, but please make sure you keep your grains of salt handy in case you have to take a few.
Alpha: DK mount, starting gear?
More delicious rumors are starting to surface regarding what the Death Knight starts out with. Recall that he springs fully armed like Athena from Eastern Plaguelands (which when you think about it is kind of the forehead of Azeroth; it is, at least, a giant headache), and we were told earlier that he will come with the ability to summon a normal-speed mount. Well, rest easy: from what I'm seeing, it seems that mount does indeed greatly resemble the Baron's Deathcharger (Baron's mount pictured; to see the DK mount, look here). And there was much rejoicing.
Alpha: Changes to existing abilities
Some kind soul just dropped by the Wrath alpha wiki and posted a whole slew of purported changes to existing spells and talents, slated for Wrath. I trust these changes even less than the usual alpha information I see floating around (hence the "rumors" category on this post), but other people on that wiki's community do seem to be verifying them. And they do jive with what you can see at this site, for what that's worth. Of course, even if they are really what's showing up in the alpha, they have a long ways and a lot of change to go before Wrath goes live.There's a lot of interesting, strange, and flat-out unlikely stuff on there. As usual, for the full list of alleged changes go look at the wiki. Here are some of my reactions:
