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The best of WoW Insider: June 3-10, 2008
It's heating up outside, but the World of Warcraft is growing ever colder, as we get closer and closer to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. And as usual, Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider is covering every temperature drop that goes down -- from interviews with world-first guilds to the latest rumors and updates on what we'll find in Northrend, WoW Insider is there. Here's our most popular posts from the last week in WoW. News WoW Insider interviews SK Gaming about downing Kil'jaeden, the Sunwell, and why to stack +hasteThe world first guild to down the last boss of the endgame talks with us about high-end raiding. Blizzard changes the description of the Death Knight treesBlizz clarifies (or makes more vague, depending on how you look at it) what the Death Knights will do in the expansion. No pure +damage gear in Wrath, claims KalganA fundamental change to the way caster gear improves spell damage and healing stats. The Brewfest Kodo and what it may mean for Wrath's release dateAn October holiday mount is hidden in the expansion's files, which means we may see a release before then. Ten Druids go on nom spree in KaraHalf of Karazhan is brought down by ten Druids all on their own. Features Guildwatch: Open your face jellyfishA wacky drama queen in our weekly look at guild drama spawns a new catchphrase. Illusionary Tactics: Orb of DeceptionOur new weekly column examines items and spells that can change your appearance. Know Your Lore: The Scarlet CrusadeKYL examines the enemy faction that's probably been killed the most in-game (well, except for the Alliance). Tank Talk: Do you feel lucky, punk?Our new column for raiding tanks covers everything from armor to threat control. The Art of War(craft): DotA-style battleground in WotLK?Think you've seen the last of Defense of the Ancients (a.k.a. "Dhota")? Think again.
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?
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite WoW holiday?
Zom over on the forums asks: what's your favorite WoW holiday? And the response is extra special because it's by Kisirani, who, you may know, is actually Blizzard's World Event Designer-- him showing up in your thread about holidays is kind of like God showing up on a thread about your favorite mountain range.Kisirani asks specifically for constructive, reasoned posts, but c'mon, he's asking on the WoW forums. Fortunately, this site is not the WoW forums, and our comments are more than capable of giving constructive and reasoned.. well...I kid! Tell the guy what your favorite WoW holiday is, whether it be the free epics of Hallow's End or the ticket grinding of Brewfest, and maybe the upcoming updates to Nobelgarden (we hope) will incorporate some of your constructive and well-reasoned ideas!Thanks, Joshua!
WoW in the Guinness Book of World Records
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playable_web_games/WoW_is_in_the_Guinness_Book_of_World_Records_for_alcohol'; I'd like to propose a toast to WoW for setting a new world record. Yahoo News Canada has announced the first Gamer's Edition of the Guinness Book of World Records is due out on March 11, 2008. World of Warcraft's distinction? The world's largest virtual beerfest. Brewfest, in honor of Oktoberfest, is probably one of the most fun seasonal events in game. This event features festive food and beverages, along with fabulous rewards for participation. Every autumn, characters gather together from all over Azeroth to stoutly defend their treasured kegs from Dark Iron Dwarves. According to an informal Breakfast Topic poll, the most coveted prize for this event is the legendary (or at least epic) Brewfest Ram. Since WoW is hands down the most popular MMORPG on the planet it will like pop up all over the the Gamers Guiness Book of World Records. For now, here's to Brewfest!
Beefing up the holidays
Okinos does a little trolling on the forums about holidays supposedly being boring (when actually, with the exception of no new content for Winter's Veil, they have been anything but), but at least something good did come out of the thread: not only does Drysc lay down a huge burn, but we're rewarded with a visit from Kisirani, part of Blizzard's world events team.And she's got great news for those who love holidays-- all of the holiday events are scheduled to get a makeover, Hallow's End style. Darkmoon Faire is getting beefed up, as is "an older holiday" that is getting "a significant amount of punch" added to it. Chinese New Year, aka the Lunar Festival? Valentine's Day? Your guess is as good as ours.Blizzard's team has to take time off, too, so it's not too surprising that there wasn't too much new content to go through this year (although the Clockwork Bots definitely make up for it, if only they'd work right). But it's definitely awesome to hear that there's more in store for holiday events around the realms.
The Daily Grind: Oh there's no place like MMOs for the holidays
With the holidays coming up, everyone's waiting for their favorite events to start up. In WoW, it signals the return of the Winter Veil event, wherein people can run out and do some Greench whomping among many other things. In virtual worlds such as Second Life, the holidays are in full swing, with many of the private areas/sims covered in snow, and many people are dressed to kill in their holiday best. No matter what world you call home, there's almost certainly something fun and interesting going on there with events ranging from small to epic. For today's topic, we thought we'd ask you what your favorite in-game holiday is. Now, this doesn't have to be a game that you currently play -- or even an MMO that is still running if the best ever was in an old, defunct game. It also doesn't have to be about the Winter holidays, although we'd understand if they are foremost in your mind right now. Personally, mine actually isn't a winter holiday. Mine is Blizzard's Brewfest this year before the Dark Iron Dwarves and their giant drills went away. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun just drinking and winging beer mugs at Dark Iron Dwarves as they emerged to wreak havoc on the Brewfest revelers. Of course, once your character was properly faced, you could then do a quest to get yourself a Wolpertinger (essentially, WoW's version of a Jackalope) non-combat pet. Sure there weren't uber loots, but it was fun and that's what I look for in holidays. How about you? Are there any games you love to spend the holidays in? What's your personal favorite holiday across the board?
World events and how to run them
There's a discussion going down on the forums about what many consider to be the most exciting part of MMO games, including World of Warcraft-- world events. As many drawbacks as there were to the AQ events, no one can argue that they didn't affect everyone in the World-- everyone was able to step up and help the war effort, and even though everyone didn't fit in Silithus, everyone came across some of the invaders that spread across the world. While the Naxx event was that way as well, we haven't really seen anything else on that scale even in this, the largest MMO ever. And let's not forget that since Burning Crusade was released, we're dealing with a lot more people-- there are huge amounts of the population who have never seen a world event yet.Which makes it all the more likely that we will see a big one for Wrath of the Lich King. Bornakk says that while Blizzard realizes that a lot needs to go into creating a big world event, they've also learned a lot from Brewfest and the Hallow's End events about how to both tune the scale and get players involved. But Blizzard still wants to do a big one, and from what we heard at BlizzCon, they're going to come up with a reason for Alliance and Horde to head up to Northrend after Arthas.My guess? Arthas is going to become a threat again-- he'll invade Undercity, or bomb Darnassus, or somehow attack our world. And for the first time that I can think of since the game has started, we're going to actually lose something-- an NPC, a city (at the very least, Dalaran) or something else. For all of the fighting going on in the world of Warcraft, it hasn't yet changed that much. And I think that with the next expansion, Blizzard is looking to have Arthas shake things up a bit.
Around Azeroth: New and improved Shatterspear Village
Reader Sparticatina of Ysera sends us this excellent shot of a new take on Shatterspear Village (otherwise known as the dancing Troll village hidden away between Moonglade and Darkshore). In my humble opinion, the scenery is much improved by the addition of Gnomes, thanks to the Brewfest beer goggles!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
Gallery: Fun with Brewfest goggles
These images just keep making me laugh. Over the weekend, we posted pictures of people having fun with the Beerfest goggles around famous Azerothian NPCs, and although my original request of Illidan never panned out (he's not a humanoid, apparently, and thus not susceptible to the effects of beer goggles), you readers responded with tons of funny pictures featuring our fearless leaders as Gnomes and female Orcs.So here they are all collected into a gallery, and if you have any more, feel free to drop us a note with links to them, and I'll add them in. Thanks to all the commenters who posted links for these pics: Nate S., myrlin, Haaken, erin, and s02.%Gallery-8945%
Gruul looking as hot as he'll ever be, relatively speaking
Well unfortunately, it seems my request is not to be. As commenter so2 pointed out the other day, Illidan is not actually a humanoid, so he's not affected by the Beerfest goggles that turn everything into a Gnome (Alliance) or a female Orc (Horde). Bummer-- I really wanted to see Illidan as a tiny little Gnome guy.However, as you can see above, Gruul is technically a humanoid. And thanks to reader Nate S., we've got a picture of Gruul in his lair, looking as attractive as a female Orc can look. I don't know how much Mudder's Milk you have to drink to make Gruul look that attractive, but it's got to be a whole lot of alcohol.Of course, the other thing about Gruul is that as the fight goes on, he gets bigger, so I'm still curious to see if, while wearing the Gnome glasses, you could get a picture of the raid fighting a giant Gnome (heck, who needs the glasses-- Blizz, here's my official request for a giant Gnome instance boss in Northrend). And I think a lot more experimentation is needed with these goggles, anyway-- can we see Thrall as a Gnome or Bolivar Fordragon as a female Orc?Update: Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks, myrlin!
Fun with the Gnome goggles, and a request
So here's the thing. We've posted about these Brewfest goggles that 00hshiny is wearing above before-- they were purchasable during Brewfest (although, I just went by Org this morning, and the Brewfest ticket guy was still standing all by his lonesome outside the city, even though the Brewfest celebration had moved on), and when you wear them, you see everyone in the game as either Female Orcs (the Horde version) or little Gnomes, as in the picture above (Alliance version). And we've already seen the goggles used to hilarious effect.But if you've been listening to the podcast, you'll know that there's one thing I haven't seen yet, and that I can't wait to see it. Someone, somewhere, please wear the Gnome goggles, and go down Illidan. I'm a Horde player, so I just can't do it, but surely there's some Alliance player out there who had some Brewfest fun in between raiding the Black Temple, and surely they can take the goggles on an Illidan run, and record the hilarious video results. I don't know what I can put on this for a bounty, but you tell me-- prizes? A promise to write about something of your choice on the blog? A callout on the podcast? Someone please go to see Illidan with the Gnome goggles on, and send us the FRAPS of it-- I'm just not prepared for how incredibly awesome that would be.Update: Aww, that's a bummer. Looks like Illidan don't play that game, homey. Looks like the dream is lost forever. Oh well. Thanks anyway, so2!
Listen to the WoW Insider Show, episode 7
Bored waiting for your character to copy over to the 2.3 PTR? Episode 7 of the WoW Insider Show is now available online over at WoW Radio for your listening pleasure. WoW Radio's Turpster, WoW Insider's Matthew Rossi and I sat down last Saturday and gave our listeners insight, discussion, and hopefully a little bit of humor regarding the following posts: The 2.3 PTR patch notes: Of course we had to discuss the upcoming patch. Forum Post of the Day: The fight to enter Zul'Aman: "One does not merely walk into the Ghostlands." WoW Moviewatch: Four wheels of Fury!: You can hear me do the "lawgiva" yell. Dalaran might be Alliance-only: Although Turpster disagrees. The sad state of BG healing: When a Warlock tops the healing charts, you know we're all in trouble. Got your ram yet? Our Brewfest wrapup. Plus, we talk at length about leveling the same class over and over again, Paladin viability with both DPS and tanking, and how Turpster is a master of WoW-related comedy. It's a good time, so give it a listen, won't you?And don't forget that we do this live on WoW Radio every Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm EST or 8:30pm GMT. This weekend, Turpster won't actually be around (he's going to Totalbiscuit's wedding-- Grats, TB and Eriyanna!), but as always, we'll have WoW Insider folks on with WoW Radio folks, and the best WoW insight and commentary outside of, well, this very site.
The Brewfest wrap-up question
The festive tents are coming down. The Pink Elekks are fading away. The Wolpertingers are are scurrying back to their hutch in Wolpertingerland. What? You've never heard of Wolpertinger- land? Trust me, you are noy prepared.Of course, neither was Blizzard. Nothing could prepare them for the combination of enthusiasm and technical glitches that made the inaugural Brewfest event something of a bugfest. But for the love of schnitzel and parading through Ogrimmar as a Tauren on a Riding Ram (so, so wrong) players dove in to the Daily Quests, both steins at the ready.But with Brewfest winding down today we figured it was time to count your tickets and see if that Pony Keg will be making an appearance at the next Gruul wipe. I bring you, the question of the day:%Poll-4273%Let us know what you accomplished and what got left behind like a bad hangover. I, for one, know that I shall never remove from my memory the site of a Blood Elf in Brewfest Regalia. How about you?
Reminder: WoW Insider Show live tomorrow afternoon
Yes, it's almost Saturday again, and you know what that means-- the WoW Insider Show is set to take to the airwaves of WoW Radio once more. Episode 7 kicks off at 3:30pm EST (8:30pm GMT), and you can listen live over on our site, as well as chat with us in IRC at irc.wowirc.com in channel #wowradio. Our email address is theshow@wow.com, so if you've got feedback for us before or after the show, we're all ears.On the menu tomorrow, we'll be talking even more about 2.3 (duh-- it's huge!), what's up with Dalaran after it moves to Northrend, how much fun Brewfest was, and that Toyota ad everyone's talking about. I'll be hosting, Matthew Rossi will be aboard (so we'll definitely have to get some good tanking discussion in-- if you're a tank or have ever been protected by one, make sure to listen), and WoW Radio's Turpster should be there as well, so you know it'll be a great show.Should be, as always, a great time. Hit us up on WoW Radio tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 pm EST for Episode lucky number 7 of the WoW Insider Show. See you there!
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!
Dark Iron attacks finished for the year
It's sad, but true -- the Dark Iron Dwarf attacks that I certainly considered to be the most entertaining aspect of this year's Brewfest event are gone for the duration of the holiday. CM Vaneras tells us the bad news:They have successfully been driven back for the remainder of this year's Brewfest holiday, but we've intercepted communique being transferred within their spy network, and they are recouping their losses with plans to return next year with an even greater presence.However, the rest of the Brewfest celebrations are continuing until next Tuesday -- with barking quests and keg delivery quests, you still have a chance get enough tickets to win fabulous prizes.
WoW Moviewatch: A new take on the Karazhan chess event
Who out there isn't enjoying some of the Brewfest events right now? In addition to the simple pleasure of free booze, the Brewfest offers some interesting rewards -- one of which, the beer goggles, is showcased above. However, in this case I really feel like the Horde have the short end of the stick. If you play Horde and put on your beer goggles, everyone turns into an Orc. If you play Alliance and put on your beer goggles, everyone turns into a Gnome. And though the above video is amusing, I can only think of how more amusing it would have been with a more Gnomish theme.Previously, on Moviewatch...
Brewfest screenshots without that hangover
Haven't made it to all the Brewfest Beer Gardens yet? Can't find the Pink Elekk's and the dreaded Wolpertinger? Woken up in a stranger's capital city with no pants and no recollection of the last 24 hours? Have no fear. The WoW Insider team has done all that for you. And we took pictures!From Riding Rams to Tauren Beer Maidens, we've got screenshots of all the major attractions of this short-lived seasonal event celebrating, um, imaginary creatures and overindulgence, really. Best part: no Brewfest tickets required!%Gallery-8222%
Brewfest update: Barker quests fixed... mostly
The Barker quests for the Brewfest are fixed for almost everyone at this point. Unfortunately, some people are still unable to get credit when riding near flags and Blizzard is looking into it. Blizzard CM Drysc and Event Developer Kisirani have been giving updates for fixing the Bugfest. If you are still having trouble with a Barker quest, here is some info for making sure it's not you: You can only do one Barker quest a day. Double check your Daily Quest total in your Quest Log to make sure you haven't already completed it. There are two competitors vying for your barking prowess, but once you work for one brewer, the other won't offer you the quest until the next day. If you failed it, you can abandon the quest and try again. You have to be on your Rental Ram when going past the flags or else you will not get credit. Once you get all four flags, however, you can use your mount to race back to the brewer. More Brewfest updates after the jump...
Today in Warcraft
News Brewfest is still a bugfestBrewfest events buggy? There's a big brouhaha. 2.2.3 on the PTRYou've got another patch coming. More details on free Spell Damage for healersOne of the many exciting changes announced at BlizzCon was that free Spell Damage would be added to healing gear. The purpose of the change is to make it easier for healers to enjoy the solo PvE content in the uber gear they have picked up in groups and raids. Features Totem Talk: Three Classes In One?Shamans: your spec is like an aptitude: it defines what your character will have the most options in. Discussions Is Blizzard exploiting WoW players?Is Blizzard doing something unethical by producing and selling World of Warcraft? Rather than just the ol' "MMO games are too addictive" angle, an article in Australia's The Age (seriously, it's always the Aussies) has a new twist: game companies like Blizzard are actually "exploiting" their own players by implementing a reward system that keeps people playing. Draenei skin, or seeing Azeroth through all five sensesI love the question that juliamarcela over on Livejournal asks: What does Draenei skin feel like? Sure, they're probably not scaly or slimy, but it probably feels different than most skin we know.
