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More Ruby Sanctum information: loot, lore, and more
Today's announcement of the upcoming Ruby Sanctum raid, coming with Patch 3.3.5, was well-met, though it raised a number of questions as to the nature of the instance -- how will it work, what kind of loot can we expect, etc. Zarhym popped back into the original thread a few times to give clarification on a few points: While the instance has a similar layout to the Obsidian Sanctum philosophically, the three sub-bosses (Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and General Zarithrian) will each be own encounter all their own. The "drakes-up" functionality of Sartharion will not carry over into the Halion encounter. Heroic difficulty is likely to be toggled in the same way that heroic difficulties are handled in ICC (a UI toggle). Saviana, Baltharus, and Zarithrian will each drop an Emblem of Frost, but probably not special loot. Expect loot in the instance to be "about the same item level" as the Lich King items on their respective difficulties. The loot from Halion will be offset pieces as well as trinkets and other items "of that nature." So, basically, Sartharion loot. The instance is intended to be a prelude to Cataclysm and should provide some advancement for the new expansion's storyline before the 4.0 patch, drawing on Deathwing's desire to weaken the Wyrmrest Accord prior to his emergence from Deepholm. Arthas is still considered the final boss of the expansion -- this is merely a complementary raid, like Onyxia with ToC, with ties to Cataclysm. Sounds like about what we were expecting. Keep an eye on WoW.com for more information on the Ruby Sanctum as it comes in, likely starting with the upcoming PTR.
Loot is in the air
Love is already in the air on the European realms and MMO Champion has the details on the loot which drops from the three new Love is in the Air bosses. Three apothecaries have taken up shop in Shadowfang Keep: Baxter, Hummel and Frye. They'll be there for the duration of the holiday as daily quest bosses and following is a list of what they drop (mouseover for their stats): Winking Eye of Love Heartbreak Charm Shard of Pirouetting Happiness Sweet Perfume Broach Choker of the Pure Heart Forever-Lovely Rose Vile Fumigator's Mask Toxic Wasteling The Heartbreaker But the drop from Apothecary Hummel that I am most excited about is the Big Love Rocket Mount. It's pink, it has zhevra seats and a naughty, naughty name. Naughty. Stay tuned for more Love is in the Air info as it comes in.
Raid Rx: 10 ways to support your healing lead
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. A great team of healers need a leader who can help them stay focused and give them the right assignments. Without their direction (or at least, someone to coordinate healing actions), it can get pretty messy fast. Being the boss of healers and acting as an intermediary between them and the raid leader or officers can often times be stressing. They're often the first person people go to after a wipe wondering what happened or who failed and so forth. As a healer though, you can help ease the stress that they experience.
Breakfast topic: How far is your guild in Icecrown Citadel?
This is it. The final gates of Icecrown have been opened up. If you need help, we have overviews and other resources to the encounters right here. While I'd guess that the majority of us aren't exactly competing for world firsts or even server firsts, progression is still progression. I know starting out that I had my own internal expectations of where our guild would be at and we've met them. We haven't cleared out all the new bosses yet but I know with time, we will be able to. Along the way, we managed to score a few unexpected achievements. I for one didn't recall going after The Orb Whisperer. Anyway, some guilds take their progression seriously. In fact, I think there are a few out there who purposely used a lockout from the previous week just to have the extra time advantage to work on Valithria and Sindragosa. What about your raid groups? Are you happy with how you're progressing so far? Did they surpass your wildest dreams or are you discontent and think you should be further ahead?
Scattered Shots: Hunting the ICC Lower Spire
Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week Frostheim uses logic and science mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout to look deep into the Hunter class. ICC Lower Spire offers four separate opportunities for hunters to shine like the radiant beacons of death we are. In addition to the normal assortment of target switching and void zone dancing in boss fights, we even have an encounter that has many raid leaders on their knees and begging for more hunters! So step with me beyond the cut and through the doors of Icecrown Citadel for a look at how to optimize your hunter performance on the first four speed bumps in the path to the Lich King.
B.O.S.S. Wiimote shell fills giant people with sense of SNES nostalgia
It might be hard to tell from the picture, but that B.O.S.S. controller, built by Performance Designed Products, is no controller at all. Instead it's a SNES controller-shaped, super-sized shell that slides over a regular Wiimote and turns it into a monstrosity of memories and oversized buttons. Kudos for ingenuity, but unfortunately the playability suffers and the bulk is just too much to handle, according to Ars Technica. For $10 you can't fault it too much (and it least it isn't reliant on its own batteries, a sore subject for the manufacturer), but we think we might save that cash for some international postage to write Nintendo about its unconscionable neglect of the Wii Classic Controller with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Phat Loot Phriday: Unspeakable Secret
Mindor asked us to please do a caster staff this week, so here's one you can go find in the new Frozen Halls instances this weekend. Name: Unspeakable Secret (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory) Type: Epic Staff Damage/Speed: 281-519 / 2.80 (143.1 DPS) Attributes: +81 Stamina, +81 Intellect. %Gallery-33600%
BOSS eBand Audio Player lets you rock along to its tinny accompaniment
Are you sick of the guitar player in your life anachronistically asking you to reset the needle on their turntable so they can rock out to the Electric Light Orchestra? Maybe the eBand JS-8 from BOSS will shut them up. The unit (which doesn't float in the air casting reflections upon jeans, as the horrible Photoshop above might suggest) can play tracks off of a USB stick or SD card, with the ability to change the pitch and tempo of songs, as well as some audio engineering magic to kill the guitar or vocal parts. They can then plug your guitar in and rock out over the built-in speakers, and tap record to immortalize their roughly hewn pentatonic scales up against the backing tracks. It's sort of a less-portable version of Tascam's MP-GT1 DAP, and perfect for the guitar player who doesn't have everything.
Marvel at Lost Planet 2's enormous bosses in these new screens
We imagine it'll be somewhat strange the first time we watch Resident Evil's Albert Wesker being eaten by Lost Planet 2's giant salamander boss, now named "Gordiant". And watching the helmet-less antagonist desperately struggling to keep his hair just so while battling the third level's boss, "Red Eye," should prove comedic if nothing else. We just couldn't help but put two and two together when looking at the new screens the game's publisher released recently of three new bosses (including the eloquently named "Akrid X"), especially with the knowledge that we can play through the entirety of Lost Planet 2 as Resident Evil's recurring villain still so fresh in our minds. Sure, finding out that the ginormous monster that we battled in the demo is named "Gordiant" is just about as exciting as meeting Michael Bublé (swoon), but it doesn't have quite the same charm as finally watching Wesker perish. The demo experience has certainly changed for us, though – now we have a name to direct all these profanities at while being repeatedly murdalized. Source 1 - Capcom Unity Source 2 - Capcom Unity Source 3 - Capcom Unity %Gallery-79321%
Icecrown Citadel testing for this weekend
Come, my tan-faced children. Follow well in order! Get your weapons ready! Because Icecrown Citadel raid testing is back on track for both the US and EU, according to Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, AKA Daelo. His post on the official forums has scheduled the following encounters for testing on the Patch 3.3 PTR, barring any unforeseen difficulties, including build changes, server status, or capricious developer whims. US Servers Friday, November 6 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Valithria Dreamwalker Saturday, November 7 at 4PM EST / 1PM PST – Icecrown Gunship Battle EU Servers Friday, November 6 at 19:30 CET – Lady Deathwhisper Saturday, November 7 at 19:30 CET – Professor Putricide And be sure to let us know if you catch a glimpse of that legendary sharp-edged axe, pioneers, o pioneers! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Raid Rx: Healing heroic Northrend Beasts
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. his week, we step into one of the more challenging hard mode encounters: Northrend Beasts in Trial of the Grand Crusader. Welcome to the NBE encounter. And no, I'm not referring to Megatron. NBE is shorthand for the Northrend Beasts Encounter. It's a straightforward engagement on normal. Once the switch is toggled to heroic, the fight goes into over drive. There's a few changes that us healers need to grasp. For one, there's a strict time limit on each set of beasts. Can't kill Gormok quick enough? Too bad! Ready or not, here's the twin snakes!
Blizzard working to fix graphics issues on Macs
Reader Catsby sent along news of an issue that's apparently plaguing Mac users. Blizzard has confirmed that people using Macs with Nvidia 7300GT and 7600GT graphics cards in them (you can see what you've got by going to the Apple, "About this Mac," and then hitting more info) are having issues with framerates, especially around water and during boss fights (which is exactly when you want the graphics to mess up, right?) Unfortunately, there's no fix yet -- Blizzard says the issue is known and reproducible, and they're working to put a fix in "the next patch" (originally they say it'll be in a PTR patch 3.2.2 build, but a hint at the end of the thread suggests we may see it even sooner than that). So if your Mac has one of those graphics cards installed and you're having this issue, just sit tight -- Blizzard is working as fast as they can to get a fix out to you.
Patch 3.2: Argent Coliseum raid story and encounters (SPOILERS)
There's been a lot of speculation as to what Patch 3.2's new raid instance, the Argent Coliseum, will contain. We got a taste of what bosses we might fight a little while back when the 3.2 PTR launched and some Achievement information was datamined, but I've taken it all one step further. As with my previous post on the 5-man content in the Coliseum, I've datamined a ton of information from the PTR game files, including NPC and spell data (another massive thanks to Boubouille of MMO-Champion for his help), to determine not only who we're facing up against (for sure), but how exactly the encounters will go down once we've gotten our epicly-clad heinies into the octagon Coliseum.The same disclaimer as last time applies. The encounters could change at any time, datamining isn't an exact science, I could be misinterpreting files, etc, etc. But I'm pretty solid on what I've written down, and anything I'm speculating on will be noted as such.Any spell or ability listed in this guide will likely be a random rank, given the spell database's knack for throwing me 10-man and 25-man spells in the same area! Don't assume that the damage values are accurate until you get killed by them!Remember: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!Ready? Let's go!
Dragonica Online screens show off boss battles
We haven't heard a great deal about Dragonica Online before now, but it seems as though it's been cruising through its testing phases quite successfully under our noses. The game is an English adaptation of a fairly new Chinese MMO called Dream Dragon, and features 3D side-scrolling combat in a free-to-play format. Embedded above is an old video we found on Youtube that will give you an idea of how it works -- comparisons to MapleStory are inevitable. The game's publishers THQ*ICE have sent along some screenshots of a few of the bosses you'll find in-game, and we've put them in a new gallery for you to check out. The main thing to point out here is that a boss wolf, for example, doesn't just look like a slightly-different-colored regular wolf, which is always nice to see. If it's starting to look like your kind of game, make sure to visit THQ*ICE's official Dragonica Online site and register an account, as there's a preview beta test coming very soon.%Gallery-63222%
Ulduar achievements unveiled
Wow. MMO Champion, long trusted to datamine anything that's not nailed down to the floor, brings us the complete (to date) list of Ulduar achievements added to the 3.1 PTR, and yeah. It's long. Blizzard promised us some new achievements for Ulduar, but I wasn't expecting a list THIS long. Or this hilarious.There are the expected "kill these bosses" achievements, the inevitable "kill these bosses while doing something hard" achievements, silly achievements you'll get without trying, and more. Bear in mind that many of these numbers, and even some achievement criteria, are either incorrect or placeholders. Don't freak out. The full list is after the jump and is, of course, quite spoiler-heavy, so stay away if you want your Ulduar experience to be as pure as driven snow.The rest of you, though? CLICK. DO IT. COME ON.
Datamined Ulduar boss information, with analysis
Yes, yes, we know you're curious about what the Ulduar boss encounters will be like, loyal readers. With 14 bosses, 11 hard modes, and an optional heroic boss, we wonder, too! We'll be able to test some of these encounters on the 3.1 PTR soon, but there are, of course, those of us who just can't wait to know anything about what's going on in Ulduar. Luckily, ever-resourceful players and dataminers have acquired information about spells and abilities related to bosses in Ulduar from the 3.1 PTR files. There's a lot of of stuff in here -- some of it may make it into the live game, some may not, and some may be related to vehicles or other sundries involved with encounters. I'm going to go into detailed analysis of those encounters for which detailed spells exist. It goes without saying that these will be huge spoilers to anyone who doesn't want their Ulduar experience to be anything but pure, so don't read past the jump if you don't want to know!
Who's the boss (in Ulduar)?
All this talk of 3.1 we've been seeing lately is fantastic! Class and talent changes everywhere, dual-spec announcements (see? I told you!), it's all great stuff. For me, though, the big draw of 3.1 is -- read my lips -- one new dungeon! I know, I know, raids is raids, but I'm getting pretty tired of Naxx, and I want a nice long raid to sink my teeth into. New strats to learn! Setting a course through uncharted territory! Wiping because we don't know the fight yet! I'm just so excited. Of course, the one thing we haven't found out about Ulduar yet is who the heck we're killing for their purples! Being a reasonable man who reads his quest text, though, I've been able to divine the identities of a few personalities we're likely to encounter. The Ulduar screenshots from beta, with their diverse wings and amazing architecture, also hint to these same folks. They'll be involved, and I'll put good gold on it. Who's ready to rumble?
Old world boss gold drops reduced in 3.0.8
Enjoy soloing Onyxia for a quick 180 gold every five days? With patch 3.0.8, those good old days are no more, as boss gold drops (at least back in the old world) seem to have been significantly reduced. Onyxia's 180 gold is now 50 gold and forum posters are noticing similar reductions in other old world raids from Ahn'Qiraj to Zul'Gurub. Is this the end of old world raiding for good? Well, it may not be as profitiable, but I'm willing to go on record saying that slaughtering Onyxia is still plenty of fun. Plus it's the only way to complete that awesome tier 2 set you need to be super stylish while idling in Dalaran.[Thanks, Rhaziel!]
Tenris Mirkblood strategy guide
With phase 4 of the zombie invasion going on we've now got a new boss in Karazhan to deal with: Tenris Mirkblood. He's tuned towards a 10-man group of Karazhan geared players, and can be pretty easily brute forced by a group of folks in Sunwell gear. We first heard about the possibility of Tenris earlier this week.Let's take a look at how to get to him, his abilities, and some simple strategy to defeat him.Before You GoGet the quest "Chamber of Secrets" from an Argent Dawn Emissary. There's one in Light's Hope Chapel in Eastern Plague Lands, and there are a couple in the capital cities. This quest can be shared with other raid members. After you've defeated Tenris you can pick up the quest item from his room to complete quest. Return the quest to either Light's Hope Chapel or the NPC you picked it up from.How To Reach Tenris MirkbloodGo into Karazhan and clear up to Attumen. Go up the stairs in the back of Attumen's room, right around where the repair guy is. You'll have to clear several sets of mobs. If you are in T5 gear or below, take your time. Most mobs are grouped up in packs of three to five. There are also a few roaming packs that you'll need to watch out for.At the top of the stairs you can go right or left. While both will eventually take you to Tenris, going right is the quickest. Clear the rest of the mobs until you come to Mirkblood's door. Be sure to clear any mobs around the area that might be patting back and forth.Do not open it until you are buffed up and ready to face him.
Solving the holiday boss summon problem
We've heard about a lot of problems with the Headless Horseman summon this year already (and Coren Direbrew had issues as well), but Kimberly over on WoW LJ has the worst story I've heard so far -- a group asked her to heal, claimed they all had summons, and then after killing the HH with her summon, ditched her, presumably to find some other sucker with a summon. That's not just scamming someone into taking you along for a round of summons (as we heard about in Guildwatch yesterday), it's actually scamming someone out of the rest of their chances, because, assuming Kimberly is honest for the rest of the day, why would another group take her?So this is clearly a problem. Let's fix it for Blizzard: how can we make sure everyone has five chances a day at summoning the Headless Horseman (one per day per group member) without ripping off people for helping their guildies or friends? Basically, we need a clear way of seeing whether someone has a summon or not -- maybe a debuff that resets at midnight every night, or a changing number of candles on the pedestal based on how many people in the instance can still do the daily quest? Right now, there's no accountability at all, and with droprates the way they are, getting screwed out of another chance at the HH (or even four chances, in the worst cases) can make the difference between having the achievement and not.Any other good ideas on how to solve this problem and keep players accountable? I'm sure players with less than upright morals have no problem claiming their brother used their summon or lying to steal the summons of others, but it would be a lot more fair for everyone if the possibility for scamming wasn't there at all.
