BurningCrusade
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Taking a PVE guild to the expansion
So the endgame guild I'm a part of (shout out to Gothic Bunnies on Thunderhorn-H!) is doing really well lately. We just got a nice influx of new members right around the time we started getting serious about MC and ZG, and just this last weekend, we finally made it to Domo (Rag, you're on notice) and, later the same day, downed Hakkar (that was an experience, let me tell you). So we're rolling right along-- we're already getting set for Onyxia, and by the time the expansion hits, we'll be ready for BWL.Oh, right-- the expansion. I'm not in a position of leadership in this guild (or any guild), but you have to think the sudden influx of great items, new instances, and ten more levels (I just kind of assume everyone in the guild plays WoW enough to buy it as early as possible) might throw things off a bit. What's the point in farming MC for tier 1 stuff when even quest rewards in the expansion look better? And how can you get a group of 20 together for AQ Ruins when everyone has to work up ten levels again, will be starting new alts with the new races, and LFGing (with the new system) for PVP and the new instances?In short, how do you keep a "mid-endgame" guild together when all the cool new stuff hits?Now, if you're in Naxx already and half the guild is dressed in Tier 3, I'm sure it's not that big a problem-- you'll probably all go to Outland and level up together. And if you haven't made it to 60 yet, you're probably not worried at all-- you haven't invested enough time in this raiding system to care too much. But it seems to me that things are going to be pretty scattered when the expansion hits, and it's coming right at a time when a guild like mine is hitting our stride on the old stuff. I do trust our leadership-- I'm sure that if anyone can strike a balance between leading the guild into the new content and staying busy on the "old" content, they can. But I expect it to be pretty tough. I don't think we're wasting our time on the "old" content-- even if my ZG gear will be outdated by the end of the year, downing Hakkar was an experience I'll never forget. But with all the new instances calling, along with the phat lewts and new encounters, will current "mid-endgame" guilds ever feel the need to go for C'thun? Or will AQ become the new Dire Maul-- an instance that has some cool stuff and fun encounters, but often gets overlooked on the way to endgame?
Combat rating system explained
Eyonix has let us all in on the details of the new combat rating system being rolled out in the Burning Crusade expansion. Basically the combat rating system takes any current combat stat that is measured by a percentage and instead measures that stat by a combat rating. The higher rating you have, the better percent to crit, dodge, parry, etc. And it scales by level, so a 14 dodge rating at level 25 equates to a much higher dodge percentage than the same 14 rating at level 65. Why change the system? According to Eyonix, this is going to allow Blizzard to create items without eventually reaching a point where people could have a 100% chance to crit, dodge, etc. Eyonix also explains exactly how the new resilience stat will function. Have I confused you with my lame explanation? No doubt! Thankfully Eyonix lays this out much better than I could, and if you like doing all the math for your character, or you simply want to know what all these new ratings mean, you should definitely check it out. For you folks stuck at work and unable to get to WoW.com, you will find Eyonix's complete post after the jump.
New LFG interface announced
We saw some leaked screenshots not too long ago, but now we have official news of an interesting new LFG interface. And, if we're lucky, players might actually use it. Via this new interface panel, you can select what sort of things you might be wanting to group for, and other players can use the same interface to find folks interested in grouping for the same activities. Tobold also gives some information on this system in the first of his Burning Crusade journal entries, in which he notes that most players still seem to shout out for players via the old LFG line. Hopefully by the time the expansion is released, we'll see a whole slew of players making use of this feature.
Burning Crusade profession updates
Some of this has been categorized as rumor before, but now there's official word on some updates for existing professions. All crafting professions can expect new recipes and all gathering professions can expect new types of item to gather, but there are a few interesting tidbits mentioned as well. Alchemy will have specializations that will occasionally allow the player two create two of their specialization's items. (Potions, elixirs, and transmutations.) Blacksmiths will be given powerful bind on pickup items for their specialization. These items will be upgradable to keep up with the blacksmith's progression in the game. (Nope, there are no further details on this yet.) Enchantments now seem to have a minimum level requirement (based on the sample enchants being shown) and there will be new enchants for rings in the game. Engineers are promised "many new and intense gadgets" but I'm not personally impressed by any of the previewed items. Herbalists can expect to find plant-based monsters beyond the Dark Portal from which a trained herbalist will be able to harvest herbs, much like a skinner skins beasts. Jewelcrafting will, as we know, allow for the creation of necklaces, rings, trinkets, and socketable gems. If you match the color of the gems to the color of the sockets on a socketed item, you'll receive an additional bonus from them. Leatherworking will offer more high-end armor options, with claims of viable crafted gear to help you venture into end-game dungeons. Miners will also find some creatures of the Outlands to yield harvestable minerals when killed. Tailoring is set to have its own specializations, though there's no announcement on what these will be, the specializations will allow the creation of multiple items occasionally, like alchemy. Most interesting, however, are the tailor-made (and tailoring skill required to use) nets that can be used to capture targets for several seconds. [Thanks, Bonemouse!]
The Burning Crusade: Level 1 - 5
For those poor souls not lucky enough to be in the beta (myself included!), I ran into this movie on Google video showing a Blood Elf wandering the starting zone and leveling from 1 to 5 to give us a taste of what to expect. At over 18 minutes long, it's not for the faint of heart and if you're anything like me you'll keep trying to click things on the video screen long before it's over.
First steps into the Burning Crusade beta
Yesterday, I rolled a blood elf. I didn't exactly plan to, but what else is one supposed to do while waiting for high-level characters to transfer? And besides, they're so pretty.I found myself alone -- but for fifty paladins -- on Sunstrider Isle, armed with nothing but a dagger and some lurid green clothes. For the first time in months, I didn't know what to do next -- and I liked it.
Ebay your way to the Burning Crusade beta
In the least shocking news of the year, some folks lucky enough to get a Burning Crusade beta invite are selling their beta keys on Ebay. The auctions are most definitely getting bids, and the current going rate seems to be in the neighborhood of $200 or so. While not cheap, it is a little more reasonable than the $300 Murloc pet beta key cards that have been making the rounds for the past year. Of course, by saving $100 you don't get the Murloc pet, which is a bit of a bummer. I am not against anyone trying make an extra buck. Sure, some of the sellers are using the cash to finance their upcoming PS3 or to payoff their bookie, but others might actually use the money to, you know, take care of their families. But at the same time, I don't think Blizzard handed out the keys so people could profit from them.What do you guys think? Would you buy one? Or is spending $200 to experience a beta that might last only a month a little extravagant?
More BC screenshots than you can shake a stick at!
Browsing the World of Raids forums I ran across these links to hundreds of screenshots taken from the Burning Crusade beta test. Huzzah for its lack of an NDA! So... if you've got a lot of free time on your hands, head over and check out gallery 1 and gallery 2.
The flood of BC info begins...
Now that the Burning Crusade beta is underway, will we be able to keep up with the flood of info coming out about it? My guess is no-- but we're sure gonna try! Arena teams can be named, just like guilds. I call dibs on "Two Men Enter One Man Leaves". Yes, I know 1v1 isn't possible but it's Mad Max, man! Also, no requirements on classes, but I didn't think there were, anyway. Tree of Life. And apparently the droods love it. Even the whiny ones. Dual wielding shamans will get to put one buff on each weapon, and that is awesome. BC will have a brand-new cinematic. Woohah! If you were worried about flying mounts costing 5000g, don't worry too much. There'll be lots of gold to go around, and the price may even change. Holy moly, this Burning Crusade release is going to be a thing to see. Expect more info as we get it-- lots and lots more.
You knew this was coming...
Reader Nelson sends in this screenshot showing that in the Burning Crusade, yes, you will be able to wield the infamous Sword of a Thousand Truths. Just like the South Park kids. Of course, the screenshot could be faked, but if so the image looks awfully clean to me.
More jewelcrafting rumors
Because just one set of rumored items just isn't enough, today I bring you even more possibly real, possibly fake, jewelcrafting items. Noggyh on the World of Raids forums has posted a list of some very interesting new trinkets, necklaces, and rings. And, wow, some of these things look awfully nice. (Which probably just means they'll take ten of each of the rarest jewels to craft, I assume.) Chance on spell hit to restore 128-173 mana to the bearer? Looks like I'm going to be adding several new trinkets to my collection...
Jewelcrafting items
Last week we made a post about what sorts of benefits various gems could provide when inserted into socketed items (all rumor, of course), but a jewelcrafter will be able to do more than simply cut gems for socketing. Jewelcrafters will also be able to create necklaces, rings, and trinkets -- and if this list on World of Raids is right, some other armor slots, as well. All of the items have interesting effects, and all I have to say is Truesilver Boar ftw! Read on if you don't feel up to scrolling through all of World of Raids' profession information to find jewelcrafting.
Curse offers hints on expansion World PVP
Those wacky kids over at Curse have posted a few impressions of the World PVP options in the Burning Crusade on their forums. Being as the Alpha is supposed to be closed, we're not completely sure how Blizzard feels about that, but considering they haven't been entirely forthcoming with info about World PVP, these impressions are better than nothing.There are three zones covered here, and while the first two, Hellfire Peninsula and Zangamar Marsh, don't sound much different from what we have now in Eastern Plaguelands (the only difference being that in the Marsh, holding control points grants you not only a buff but access to a midzone graveyard), the third, in Nagrand, sounds much more interesting. Halaa is an entire controllable city held by whatever faction has grabbed it lately, and not only are there, Curse says, NPCs inside to turn in tokens and quests, but outside, on the four bridges that act as access points to the inner island, you'll be able to find "Wyvern Posts" at which you can hire flying mounts to use as bombadiers. Not only that, but there are guards inside the city that fight with or against you. Now that sounds cool-- it's like a whole other battleground, but in an overworld zone.Curse also mentions new rewards specifically for World PVP. Just as you can loot turn-in tokens from fallen players now in AV, there will be new tokens and purchaseable, zone-based buffs and items for World PVP rewards as well. There's also a few notes about Arena PVP, but I get the feeling that until we see some real maps for the setups Blizzard is planning, we won't have a good idea of what kind of strategic play they're looking for. Still, this is definitely more than we've ever heard about the new World PVP before, and it's great to see that Blizzard is trying to formalize and encourage the gigantic battles that used to be a part of World PVP in the past.
New Pally buff graphics leaked from BC
Well we've seen new armor, we've seen new mounts, and now we even see new animations from BC. Pallysucks points us to this forum thread in which Aireon from Arthas shows us a bunch of leaked animation graphics that look pretty sweet if you ask me. I've mirrored the files here for everyone to check out. First, as a bonus, here's what's purported to be the Pally PVP set. Nice shield! New Pally seal animations: Wisdom, Command, Crusader (I like that one, reminds me of the DAoC graphics) And others: Holy Shield, Blessing of Wisdom (think that one looks cool too, can't wait to see the other blessings), and Judgement. And perhaps the best thing about this leak is that this probably means there's lots more new graphics in store for all the different buffs and heals. I wouldn't even have though Blizzard was going to revamp the current game this intensively, but it looks like they weren't kidding around when they numbered the expansion WoW 2.0. Can't wait to see it in action.
Possible leaked screenshots of the new LFG and PvP windows?
The new LFG system that Blizzard has been hinting at is one of the things I am most looking forward to in the expansion. The current system, either using meeting stones (nobody does) or braving the LFG channel (if you're crazy) simply is not up to the task. These screenshots over at Gaming Hybrid seem to indicate a rather robust looking for group system and PvP matchmaking service awaits us in the Burning Crusade.If these screenshots are legit, and I have no reason to believe they aren't, that could mean that the days of looking for a group while sorting through endless spam could be at an end. Granted, the best way to find a group now is within your friends list or guild ranks, but this seems to be a much better solution than Blizzard's previous efforts at helping us find a party of like-minded adventurers. You can check out the screenshots after the jump.[Thanks Gamerz22 for sending this in and Gaming Hybrid for providing the leaked pictures!]
Official hunter talents released!
You heard correctly -- we have official news on hunter talents and spells. (I'm linking them via the European site, because the US site seems to be swamped right now.) These talents seem very similar to what we saw leaked last week, even including the odd "snake trap" ability. (Let the "snakes on a..." jokes begin!) And, before you ask -- yes, that is a legitimate screenshot from the website.
Burning Crusade mounts
BCspy.de.vu presents us with these lovely photographs of various mounts we'll be seeing in the Burning Crusade. For normal mounts, we have the Draenei's elephant-like Elekk, the Blood Elf's Cockatrices, a specially colored Paladin Warhorse for the Blood Elf, and the ram-like (only taller) Talbuk. For flying mounts, we have Gyphons for the alliance and Wyverns for the horde, as well as the (presumably more rare) Netherdrakes and Pheonixes. There's still no news about how to get any of these mounts (the Talbuk are especially mysterious -- they are listed as neutral mounts, and are obviously not of the flying sort, which makes them somewhat unusual), but they're great eye-candy -- so click on and enjoy!
Breakfast Topic: Addon changes in the Burning Crusade
The recent announcement of major addon changes coming with the release of the Burning Crusade has caused an uproar on the official forums. Many applaud it -- saying it stops lazy or skill-less players from playing the game on easy mode. But many also decry the changes -- saying that it only serves to increase the portion of the game that is tedious and dull. So this morning's question is this -- which side are you on? Are you glad to see decursive go? Or will you miss it? (For my own part, I'm worried -- I have to yell often enough at the mages to decurse the main tank even when they do have decursive. How will I ever teach them to target-and-decurse when I can't even get them to one-click decurse?!)
Buying Burning Crusade: Collecter's Edition for profit? [Update]
Skimming the forums the past couple of days, I have seen several posts dealing with the perceived scarcity of the Burning Crusade Collector's Edition. Much like the XBox 360 last Christmas, and surely the PS3 and Wii this holiday, it seems like people are getting the idea of grabbing a Collector's Edition and hitting Ebay with it.While I am certainly not against anyone making a few extra dollars, I wonder about this strategy. Blizzard is in the business of making money, and you have to think they are going to be producing A LOT more Collector's Editions than they did with the original. A majority of the speculation about the perceived rarity of the CE stems from Gamestop.com taking down their preorder. However, Amazon's preorder page is still active, and they have the price at $59.99, not $69.99. Perhaps Gamestop.com had the price wrong and took down the page until they could get their ducks in a row. Additionally, the Gamestop near my house, and the 5 others I called in my area, are all taking preorders on the CE as of 3 PM today. Finally, my faith in Gamestop having any clue what they will or will not be getting in terms of product is nil. You see, last year I was number 13 on their XBox 360 preorder list, and they promised I'd get my 360 on release day. I ended up getting my 360 a full month after release. Liars I tell you! Why would they have any better idea what kind of CE stock they are going to get? If anything they are gun shy about making the same mistake twice, which is why they still aren't taking Wii preorders. If the CE is indeed rare, then more power to the people who are snatching the CEs. However, I sincerely hope that there is plenty to go around and everyone who wants one can get one without paying through the nose on Ebay.[Update: Seems like Amazon.com has taken down their CE page as well! Maybe it will be rare. Profit whores rejoice!][Update #2: Seems like the Amazon preorder is back up. I will not be updating at the whim of Amazon anymore, but suffice to say, it looks like you might want to reserve your copy ASAP, just in case.]
Huge addon changes in the Burning Crusade
A reeeally interesting post has appeared on the UI and Addon forums. There's a little flattery in there to butter up the UI Addon community, but then the bombshell hits: in the Burning Crusade, UI addons will not be capable of casting spells or targeting units.Ummm yeah. Goodbye Decursive. So long Panza, Benecast, and CastParty. So long one-click heals of any kind. So long almost every UI addon that's required by most guilds for endgame raiding. According to the post, most of the addons you know and love won't be allowed after they run the patch on the expansion.Now, there might be a little bit of leeway on this. Some "popular and benign UI mods" will be allowed to "take advantage of new functionality" being built into the expansion. So it's possible, depending on your reading, that mods like CT_raid (which really should have been built into the game in the first place, if you ask me) will be allowed to exist. But there's no telling at this point what this "new functionality" does. And since Blizzard doesn't elaborate on which mods cross the line-- is spamming Decursive their idea of cheating? How about clicking off debuffs person by person with CastParty?-- this little post doesn't really do much more than throw things up in the air.And there's no telling where they will land. Expect an outcry from the UI community over the next week or so, or at least until they can figure out what's happening. If there's a way around it, this may not be as big as it seems. But if Blizzard is really serious about shutting down some of these addons, not only will raiding grow a whole lot harder overnight, but the addon community (which has done a lot of great, hard work for Blizzard, without pay) might be affected irrevocably.[ Thanks, Owlboy! ]Update: Blue is answering some questions in this official thread. Basically, any mod that lets you click one button to do different things (Decursive) is out. Whatever you're clicking is not allowed to choose a spell for you. Now, I have zero experience with UI coding, so if someone else can explain it better, please do. But the fact remains that Blizzard is cracking down on a segment of the UI community, and it's likely to change the way almost everybody operates, especially in a raiding environment.
