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Breakfast Topic: The way we was
Yes, I've stolen the title from an old Simpsons episode, before anyone nabs it in the comments.Well, WoW -- happy birthday! I don't think anyone, least of all Blizzard, expected the game to be anywhere near as popular as it's become, and it's just getting stronger. The game has changed a lot in the past four years, both for better (if you're me) and for worse (if you're a forum troll commenting on every change that has ever been made or ever will be made, unless it results in their character being absurdly overpowered, in which case any effort to fix this will be termed "a slap in the face"). Classes have also drastically changed in the process, with far less attention being paid to their traditional roles in previous MMORPG's and more attention paid to soloability, adaptability, and just plain fun. The character you rolled when you first began playing may bear no resemblance to the character you expected to be playing now, even if it's the same toon. And for some of you, that you're playing an MMORPG at all would have been a laughable notion before WoW debuted.
Worldwide Invitational Paris: The roundup
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_best_of_WoW_dev_panels_at_the_Paris_Invitational'; Happy Monday morning everyone! If you're a fan of World of Warcraft, chances are you heard about the big old shindig Blizzard threw in Paris this week. If you didn't a chance to get to Paris this year or catch any of the news over the weekend, you'll want to keep reading. We had a crack team on the convention floor, and more of us watching the live feeds all weekend, all working hard to deliver up to date reports and analysis. What that means for you is that this is the perfect place to catch up on all the WoW news from Paris. This handy list will direct you to exactly where you want to go to get the information you need. Liveblogs and other event reporting: Opening Ceremony liveblog: If you haven't heard yet, there was a pretty big announcement at this one. Developer's Class Panel: There's a little something for every class in here. Find out what's coming for your favorite character! Q&A Grab Bag Panel: See what WWI attendees had on their minds, and how the developers answered. Dungeons and raids panel: See what's next in the Caverns of Time, Ulduar, and more. Don't forget to check out parts two, three, and four for the whole scoop. PvP panel: Find out about Lake Winterspring, siege engines, Arenas, Battlegrounds, and pretty much everything except class balance. Includes pictures! Be sure to check parts two, three, and four as well. Arena Tournament, day 1: Amanda Dean breaks down the results. Notes from the costume contest: See how creative your fellow fans are -- includes pictures! The goodie bag: Even in real life, we like our epic loot. Let us show you the swag. Of course, if the flood of liveblog information makes your head spin, no worries, we have analysis on every angle and every little tidbit discussed during the Invitational. Check them out after the break.
Breakfast topic: Class consciousness
Day 1 of the World Wide Invitational has been filled with exciting news for WoW players, and well as some fascinating displays of entertainment. Blizzard hosted panel discussions with information about changes for each of the classes in Wrath of the Lich King. In case you've missed it, here's the good news for each of the classes: Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior I'd like to know what everyone thinks about these changes. It looks to me like some classes are making out better than others. I, for one, am nearly giddy.
Eyonix gives Paladins some (forum) love
Eyonix seems to have taken quite a lot of coffee this morning and made a rare appearance on the Paladin boards by making a lot of posts on a couple of threads. The Blizzard CM, not to be confused with the eponymous Innkeeper in Stormspire, surprised the Paladin community by responding to some threads dealing with Protection Paladin weapons and Avenging Wrath. One thread asks for a decent Paladin tanking weapon, which is in short supply compared to the numerous Warrior tanking weapons which have Warrior-friendly mitigation and threat-generation stats. A Paladin tank benefits from a +spell damage weapon -- oddly enough one of the best Paladin tank weapons are the different Gladiator Gavels. Eyonix responds that the amount of spell damage a Paladin tank needs is directly proportional to the raid's DPS capability (in a nutshell, strong DPS needs higher +spell damage) -- which doesn't quite answer the request for more +spell damage tanking weapons, but it was nice to hear from Eyonix, anyway. As a bonus, Eyonix reveals that his Paladin tank is currently raiding SSC and TK with a *gasp* Continuum Blade.With regards to Avenging Wrath, Eyonix doesn't quite address the fact that it's an easily dispellable (leaving Forbearance, to boot!) buff that has little use for Holy Pallies and in PvP (great from screenshots, though!). He does chime in to say, however, that the Blizzard devs "didn't shoot down" the observation that Avenging Wrath currently confers no benefits to Holy Paladins. Without making any promises, Eyonix says, "you never know what the future holds." Of course, Paladins should learn not to expect anything. This is Blizzard, after all. Eyonix cleverly avoids posting a response on a thread that has had seven maxed response iterations -- suspiciously Kalganized. WoW Insider's Dan and Brian both think that Blizzard could communicate better, but any presence from Blizzard is better than no presence at all. Eyonix also posts a sobering thought on his own thread by saying that "All classes are a work in progress. That doesn't mean any class is "unfinished". Our design team will simply never be satisfied with any area the game. Our goal is to make this game the best it can be in every area imaginable." Coming from someone who has more than a few 70s -- and thus knows classes reasonably well -- that's certainly good to know.
WoW Insider Show Episode 26: Badges, Blizzard and buffs
This past Saturday the WoW Insider Show welcomed Amanda Dean and Adam Holisky on, as well as myself and Turpster, for the 26th episode of our podcast on WoW Radio. Despite some lackluster, if I may say so, email from readers (you can send us some better emails at theshow@wow.com), we charged through and got a lot of good discussion done: We chatted about Amanda's hacked characters, and what a little name-dropping will get you from Blizzard (not much) We confronted whether all this new badge loot makes raiding worthless (surprise -- we decided it does not) We talked about all the new class changes on the PTR, with a special look at Shamans, and the Warlock change to Lifetap. We ran over what Rob Pardo said during the GDC Liveblog And finally, we wondered just what kind of player it takes to PuG with Adam All in all, good show, and you can listen to it right now over on WoW Radio's website. You can also subscribe to our podcast in iTunes if you so choose, and we'll be back at it again next weekend -- every Saturday at 3:30pm EST. Enjoy the show!
Nethaera: "We do have class changes planned for patch 2.4.0."
In a thread on the General forums, Nethaera's spoken up to clarify a few issues in regards to the current patch and continued testing. She explains that with all of the major classes changes in 2.3.2, they wanted to see how they played out before adding more. However, they do in fact have more class changes planned for the current patch. In addition, she states that the patch notes will be the main thing to watch when figuring out when more of the "progressive patching" takes place. She also clarifies that it is not their intention to create huge "undocumented" changes, and that if there are any currently undocumented, they will go into the patch notes soon. The news that there are more class changes to come should be welcome for classes that feel that Blizzard hasn't been paying enough attention to them lately, especially Shamans. However, since we don't know for sure what the changes will be, and we were told earlier that there won't be any sweeping changes to classes this patch, we may not want to hold our breaths. Either way, with any luck, we'll see our first batch of progressive changes soon, so we can figure out what to expect when the PTRs close and it all goes live.
Sunwell Plateau: Not quite here yet
Nethaera has posted this morning that... no, we aren't getting new patch 2.4 information yet. Not today, and probably not Monday. Disappointing, but as with all posts from Nethaera, there's usually at least a few hints hidden within. Thanks to the bit of relief she brings, the lack of real news isn't all bad.There's been some doom and gloom hanging over the WoW community about the upcoming arena balancing, but Nethaera assures us there will be no "sweeping class changes." Whether this is a good or a bad thing is really up to you, but being the magical PvE carebear that I am, I'm certainly pleased with that. I'm sure the PvP community thinks otherwise, and would also like to eat me for breakfast.Nethaera goes on to crush our hopes and dreams by stating that fake patch notes are, indeed, fake. Sorry, warriors, Rend is still not for tanking!
2.3.2 patch notes updated
Earlier today, Salthem posted updated patch notes on the European WoW site and Teza has reposted them at World of Raids with all the changes highlighted. From my quick scan of the list, it appears that resto druids are getting nerfed, mages' Mana Emeralds as well as rogues' Hemorrhage ability are receiving some rather neutral changes, and rogues' Shadowstep is getting buffed.From my understanding, tree druids are currently able to maintain a high level of healing per second through careful upkeep of Lifebloom on their targets. This is due to the fact that a druid can pop all his trinkets to maximize his +healing and then cast the spell. As long as he keeps refreshing the HoT before it "blooms", it will maintain that maximized level of +healing, thus making for a very efficient and powerful spell. As I understand the new patch notes, this will no longer be possible since the incoming Lifeblooms will overwrite the +healing value of the previous ones. I don't play a tree druid, but I'm sure some of my guild mates will be ranting over this in tonight's raid.
LotRO Book 11: Defenders of Eriador notes and release date
It's official! Book 11 has a name and an upcoming October 24, 2007 due date in North America and October 25, 2007 in Europe. Best of all, it's free to download -- zilch -- zero -- nada -- did I mention it won't cost a thing? Shiny, new, precious Book 11. We wants it. There's so much stuff crammed into Book 11 if you have been waiting for new content the wait was worthwhile, keep reading for the skinny. Home, sweet home the Middle Earth way. Player-housing is probably the biggest undertaking for a free content update and the developers didn't skimp on the overall implementation. The biggest thing to get right with player-housing is that the elves and dwarves don't live in the same straw huts on a beach somewhere. The developers whole-heartedly agree since there are four different racially-styled homesteads that feature a distinctive Middle Earth architectural style and environment. When it comes to room there's plenty of plots around with 250 neighborhoods to each homestead, so all the hobbits can all live happily ever after and frolic on one giant bed after adventure hour just like in the movie -- I'm sorry, don't hurt me. Don't like your homeland? No problem, you don't have to be a hobbit to live in The Shire. If an elf decides to move in with my dwarven renegade and brings any of that elf culture with em', I'm setting up a neighborhood watch. Kinships won't be left out of the house either and various decorations ranging from paint to taxidermy and even music to help you clutter your new digs and set the mood for that special occasion. Lots and lots of good stuff for the crafters to keep them busy clicking and housing won't be about just the looks, being a home-owner also comes with a few other lucrative benefits. If playing house isn't your thing and you are more into wielding something other than a paint brush Book 11 has you covered with The Rift Nûrz Ghâshu. A new large underground dungeon filled with adventure for up to 12 players. That's not the only high-level content planned either. Also on the endless chapters in Book 11 is a ton of monster play enhancements and a little trip down yonder to the new Goblin-town! For the classes, this time around the Minstrel and Lore-Master see some love with numerous skill updates including a new pet for Lore-masters and Minstrels will be able to train others in their musical ways, which sounds really neat.
Turn and face the strange
We now are starting to see just how big patch 2.3 really is. It's turning out to be almost as big as the heralded Before the Storm patch that led to The Burning Crusade although as of yet no hints have been dropped that this is leading up to Wrath of the Lich King.Still, we're seeing a lot of class changes, new mounts including one for engineers, and even a whole new stat which will have an effect on pretty much every melee class in the game for good or ill. And, just as in previous wide ranging patches, it's going to change the way people play the game to some extent. Anyone who played Warlocks from release can remember how drastically the class has varied from its conception to now, while us old-hand warriors can remember the days of the Arcanite Reaper. It is impossible to dispute that changes like the upcoming patch can entirely alter the way you can play a class.I remember tanking Ragnaros with a 31/5/15 build, and the only person in my guild who had more points in protection than I did was our designated MT. It simply wasn't considered necessary to tank any end game content, ultimately - I even tanked Nefarian and Anub'Rekhan successfully with the spec. It was a time when a warrior could PvP and main tank with the same spec, and almost everyone did. And clearly, it's a time long since dead and buried, swept away alongside the Arcanite Reapers into the dustbin of expansion. How have you changed over patches and class reviews? Did you start playing after a momentous patch and have gotten tired of old warhorses telling you what it was like before shamans could dual wield? Are you a better player for having been with your class for a long time, or do you feel like a fresh perspective uncluttered by what used to work sets you apart? How have the changes changed you?
