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World of Warcraft guild leader wins Oscar (no, really)
Apparently last night was an Oscars evening. Didn't you know? Well, we sure didn't -- but that's besides the point. As it turns out, one particular winner in the visual effects category was Steve Preeg, who's also a guild leader in World of Warcraft. Now it'd be one thing to say he played the game, but to be the leader of an active guild means he plays the game.In fact WoW Insider was informed via one of Preeg's guildies that he's not only a guild leader in the game, but that he plays a Combat Rogue with 450 (that'd be maxed) Enchanting and Inscription and runs a progression guild that's downed almost everything the game has to offer.We can't turn down this chance to offer props to Mr. Preeg on his epic loot drop last night. That blue is most assuredly sitting somewhere prominent at his home, likely somewhere close to where he plays World of Warcraft -- at least when he's not making award winning feature films. Is this guy some kind of machine or what?[via WoW Insider]
New glyphs incoming soon
Eyonix chimed in on the General forums earlier to say that we'll be seeing new glyphs soon. It's just a small line, but it should be good news for all tradeskills. It's very rare for them to add a significant amount of items to one tradeskill in a content patch and leave all of the others untouched. Personally, I think it's a good sign that we'll be seeing a lot of tradeskill love in patch 3.1, but maybe I'm reading into it too deeply.Even if we're in some crazy world where only Inscription receives tradeskill love, this is interesting news regardless. We might be seeing more glyphs incoming for a lot of our Wrath of the Lich King abilities that weren't given glyphs, so we could experience the base abilities before we started augmenting them. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we started seeing things like Glyph of Frostfire Bolt Mind Sear in patch 3.1.As soon as the PTR comes up, we'll be hitting the trainers and reputation vendors to see what is coming our way, so keep an eye on WoW Insider for all of that good stuff once it happens.Edit: Shhh. You didn't see that. It has a line through it, that means it didn't happen.
The Light and How to Swing It: What dual specs mean for the class
So. Dual specs. More than any other class except, perhaps, for those freakish shapeshifting Druids, dual specs will have a great impact on Paladins. For one, it will save a lot of money on respec costs. I spend at least 600 Gold a week on respecs and re-glyphs, toggling back and forth between my raid and PvP specs. It also allows players to diversify their roles in a raid. At a glance, the feature has a lot of potential and should greatly improve the experience for all players regardless of class.What do dual specs mean for this Paladins, anyway? For a hybrid class that can fill the three archetypal roles in the game, it means a lot. Healers can become tanks, tanks can become DPS, DPS can become healers... anything, really. It's simply a matter of toggling the proverbial switch both in the game and mindset. You can even bring PvE and PvP specs into the equation, expanding the Paladin's options considerably. When dual specs kick in with Patch 3.1 (fingers crossed), let's take a look at the delicious possibilities that open up for the class.
Wrath 101: Darkmoon Cards
Now that that Silas Darkmoon and his merry bunch are in town -- well, if you'd like to call outside of desolate Shattrath your town -- it's a good time to take a look at the four new Darkmoon Cards that have come out in Wrath of the Lich King. The method of acquiring the cards, unlike in the past, is no longer as random as it used to be. The new darkmoon cards can be created through the Inscription spell Darkmoon Card of the North, which is learned from Grand Master Inscription Trainers at skill level 400. It still isn't easy to get the right cards, of course, as each Darkmoon Card of the North can produce one of eight cards from four different decks. With a little patience and a lot of resources, it's possible to get the right cards or trade for them. Failing that, there's always the Auction House, which is still the most common way to complete a deck. You will also sometimes see entire decks for sale. Realm economies notwithstanding, the most expensive deck will be the infamous Nobles Deck. What is the this deck and what Darkmoon Card does it give? A look at all the new Darkmoon Cards in Wrath after the jump.
Arcane Brilliance: Grading the glyphs
Each week Arcane Brilliance writes a column about the ins and outs of Magehood. Mostly, what's in a Mage's hood is the Mage's face (which may or may not have a lower jaw), and what's out of a Mage's hood is fiery death. Did you see what I did there? It's clever word-play, you see...ins and outs...Magehood...in a Mage's hood...out...get it? Oh, fine. You try to come up with something witty every week! It's hard! Stupid italicized introductory paragraphs...I should have just gone with some more Warlock-bashing.I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, discretionary funds were rare and precious. There were so many toys to buy, and so little money with which to purchase them. If Grandma were to send me a card with five bucks in it for my birthday, that was a windfall of epic proportions. Each purchase had to be carefully planned, each dollar wrung for as much value as it could provide. Use the money now on a Storm Shadow action figure (with combat grip!), or save it to someday replace the NES controller that had died a premature death in the wake of a last second Tecmo Super Bowl loss to my little brother? Yes, my childhood was in many ways resource management training for later years spent playing games like Starcraft.And games like World of Warcraft.Do I spend my Stone Keeper's Shards on a meta gem now, or save them for that sweet Mammoth? Use my honor to upgrade my cloak now, or save it and get the trinket? Use that socket for spellpower or hit rating? Kill the Warlock, or kill the Warlock? So many choices. All of which brings us to this week's topic: what to do with our precious and very limited Glyph slots? Follow me through the jump, and we'll discuss.
Glyph of Holy Light nerfed
Yesterday, the healing forums were flooded with complaints largely by Priests alleging that the new 3.0.8 version of the Paladin Glyph of Holy Light was completely overpowered and made Paladins into group healers, shoe-horning them into a niche recently left half-vacant by our Circle of Healing nerf. Such complainants will presumably be happy to hear that the glyph is being hotfixed, reducing the range from 20 yards to 8. Ghostcrawler calls the glyph "vastly overpowered," and goes on in a later post to give a bit more information. Like most changes, this was not done in response to QQ; as it turns out, the glyph was just overpowered. He also states that [major] glyphs are meant to be "about on par with passive talents" in terms of their power, which is in line with what I've been observing (maybe a few percent increase in damage/healing/mitigation per glyph, for the good ones). At any rate, sorry to my Holy Paladin friends; I guess this one was just too good to last. I'm still jealous of your everlasting mana.
Breakfast Topic: Are you a Trade Chat grammar narc?
I don't know which is funnier, watching people in Trade Chat trying to figure out what to call someone with the Inscription profession or watching the people who get upset by it. "Inscriptionator" versus "It's SCRIBE, you morons!!" -- they are both pretty funny.Trade Chat, as you know, includes a lot of things besides Trade chatter: Guild recruitment, LFG, general help, gold spam and, of course, every topic under the sun. It also includes a lot of typos and grammar errors. Some of them are pretty benign, but others are so bad it's hard to decipher the meaning. And then there are the pet peeves. You're a literate bunch. Do you correct people in Trade Chat? If not, do you mind or care when people do? And doesn't it take longer to type "ne1" than it does to type "anyone"? I know it does for me.
Note to self: Don't level a profession right before a restart
Here's a pro tip for you all this morning.Don't level a profession right before a server restart.I finally got around to creating a Death Knight yesterday, and after working through the starting zone I decided to stop off and level my herbalism a bit before heading to outland. I know the market for herbs is strong right now because of Inscriptions (which I'm also leveling), so that seemed like a good idea.I was working my way through Elwynn Forest gathering up all the flowers I could. After I hit 75 herbalism I went back to train to the Journeyman level and pickup Apprentice Inscription. There was about 5 minutes left before the server restart, so I decided that I would sit there and mill some herbs and make some ink.
Insider Trader: Inscription from 100 to 200
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Last week, we began the journey towards becoming a Grand Master Scribe. Starting with the basics, we discussed how to reach skill level 100, along with some general tips and strategy, and there were many helpful reader comments.Today, we will continue from skill level 100 to hit 200, which will place you partway through what a level 20 is capable of training. When herbs are mentioned, clicking on any of the links will take you to a Wowhead page showing you where you can find them. If you feel you need more background information on inscription tools, milling, or research, check out last week's column to brush up on the fundamentals. Otherwise, pass on through the break!
Ask WoW Insider: Wrath and the pre-60s
This week, Keyra of Farstriders has a question about a group that's been a little left out of the expansion excitement so far: midlevel folks. Here's what she is asking you, our readers:With all of the focus on Wrath, there seems to be a conspicuous absence toward those who are of lower-to-mid level and it's beginning to become irritating. Not everyone is level 65+! Some of us are still below level 40 and many of us are just starting out. So, here's my question: What can we who are mid-level expect to see from the expansion, if anything? Is it even worth the trouble to purchase since we can't benefit from the higher-level quests, items and what-not? And what would you suggest to speed our leveling so that we may enjoy what Wrath has to offer?KeyraThe fact is that most of the marquee features in the expansion pack are, yes, aimed at the higher levels. And most of the things that will affect lowbies -- Inscription, the faster leveling, and achievements, are already in the game anyway.So there are two questions here: if you're pre-60, why should you care about Wrath? Or should you at all? And Keyra also sounds like she wants leveling suggestions. My suggestion? Do quests, and lots of them. Do every quest in your log, in order, and then when you're out, go to the next town over and do all of those. The rewards will be good, it'll go as fast as leveling goes (even faster, now that Blizzard has added more XP to the mix all the way to 70), and you'll always have a clear goal: just do the next quest in your log. You might have to skip over group quests, but just keep doing quests and eventually you'll be 70 before you know it.What say you to Keyra, readers? And if you have a question you'd like to ask the (frankly, rowdy but loveable) readers of WoW Insider, just send it along ot ask AT wowinsider dot com, and you might see it up here next week.Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Arcane Brilliance: Inscription and the common Mage
Each week Arcane Brilliance gathers energy from the nether, spinning it from the bowels of the universe itself, then threads that dark matter together into a tapestry of destruction. This is a fancy way of saying that Arcane Brilliance summons up a column about Mages each Saturday. Then, over the course of a 5 second cast-time, it balls that column up into a giant ball of flame and nukes your face with it.Patch 3.0.2 hurled a new profession into our little virtual pond, and like Jewelcrafting before it, Inscription has plunged beneath the surface like a cannonball. We'll likely be sorting out the various waves and ripples that splash has created for months to come, but having spent the better part of three weeks with it, we can begin to see some results of the impact. Some of us have dived right in, picking up the profession and leveling it with gusto. Some of us only know that we saw a big splash, and that we are now very wet.As a Mage, this profession intrigues me more than most. Several of the glyphs for Mages are quite powerful, the Scribe-only shoulder enchants are pretty spectacular, and the off-hand weapons Scribes can create and equip seem like an attractive leveling option going into Wrath. What are the pros and cons of this new profession? Is it worth dropping old standards like Enchanting or Tailoring for? As a Mage, is Inscription worth learning, or am I better off just buying glyphs when I need them?Though we're still in the early stages of learning about this new tradeskill, we're at a point now where we can start to weigh its costs and benefits. After the break, we'll evaluate Inscription as a profession for Mages, and go over the glyphs available to us both now and after November 13th.
Ask a Beta Tester: Tradeskills, training, and rep gains
As the beta winds down, Ask a Beta Tester becomes a little more infrequent, but as long as we have questions, we will answer. Let's start with Rob's question...Are they planning to put in recipes for green items between 350-375 to make it easier to grind up professions? Or should i just suck it up and make (obsolete) blue/purple items to level up.Many professions start with new recipes at 350 skill in Northrend, and some of them at 360. Nobody starts at 375. 360-375 is usually taken up by 'end-game' items so you won't have to grind those out to skill up before Northrend. I recommend checking Wowhead to see where your particular profession starts out.Locke asked...I know there's the Wrath Gate cinematic and so on, have you come across or know any other cinematic events like this, or was this the only one? I'm sure there has to be in game scripted events. Thanks.
A WoW burnout's guide to Wrath of the Lich King
Does Wrath of the Lich King, the second World of Warcraft expansion, have enough new, interesting and worthwhile content to give longtime burnout players a reason to come back again? What about players who've recently hung up their Azerothian hat? In this feature, we're taking a burnout player's perspective and looking into all of the interesting things about the soon-to-see-release title expansion.
The best of WoW Insider: October 14-21, 2008
The World of Warcraft is hoppin' yet again -- patch 3.0.2, a.k.a. "Echoes of Doom" is out on the live realms, and everyone is revelling in the new talents, the new Inscription profession, and the new endgame, which is easier and more lucrative than ever. And Hallow's End has begun as well, bringing players of all kinds out to the Scarlet Monastery's Graveyard, where the Headless Horseman holiday raid boss calls home. Yes, times are good in Azeroth, but what's that in the Autumn air? A cold wind is about to blow in from the North... News Essential addons for patch 3.0.2There are a lot of changes in this patch, but the first thing to do is get your UI back up to speed. 3.0.2 patch notesDirect from Blizzard, 3.0.2 has all of the updates to the game before the second expansion goes live. Ret to be nerfed "to the ground"That was a joke, but seriously: Pallies are next for the nerf bat. Raiding has never been easier than in 3.0.2Right before we all head to Northrend, Blizzard gave players a break on the Burning Crusade endgame. Don't Panic: Frequently asked questions in 3.0.2Confused and perhaps even frightened by all the newness in the game? We've got you covered. Features WoW Insider's guide to Hallow's End 2008Hallow's End (Azeroth's version of Halloween) is live on the realms, and here's your guide to doing everything -- no trick. Patch 3.0.2 guide to exotic petsHunters get a slew of new companions -- find out which one's right for you. A brief introduction to glyphsEvery character gets a set of new upgrades to their spells, provided by inscribers. Here's how it all works. Patch 3.0.2 talent guidesYour talent points got refunded and you have no idea what to spec? Let our class columnists give you the lowdown on all the new talents. Apprentice Scribe: An Inscription FAQInks and parchments and what you can do with the game's new profession.
Spiritual Guidance: The Discipline raiding spec thoughts and review
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matticus is going to try to shed some light on the Discipline spec in a raiding environment! I'll admit it. I've been Holy my entire life. I'd only go Discipline just to have some fun in PvP on the weekends in order to grab myself some extra Arena points for PvP gear and what not. In the past, I did try to go all out Discipline because we had some many Priests. Variety is the spice of life right? As time went on, my Guild slowly started losing to Priests to real life until I was the only one remaining. The guild could not afford me to experiment any longer and I switched back to the comfort of Holy. Over the past weekend, I had a chance to try out Discipline in full with the new spells and expanded tree on both live and beta servers. How did it go?
Apprentice Scribe: An Inscription FAQ
Inscription was just added to the game two days ago, but many people have it at 350+ already. Understandably, there are a lot of questions. In this post I will attempt to answer some of them. This post is aimed at people who are scribes, or are interested in becoming scribes. If you're just interested in how to use glyphs to enhance your skills, but not in making them, you may want to look into the glyph FAQ. So what's this Inscription all about, then? Inscription is a new primary profession to make glyphs (permanent enhancements to spells), mostly. Scribes can also make scrolls, and for themselves, shoulder enchants and caster-oriented offhands. What goes into making a glyph? Herbs, primarily. Lots of herbs. You mill them into pigments, turn the pigments into ink, and put the ink down on parchment to make glyphs. What's the difference between a major and a minor glyph? Major glyphs make big changes to spells, minor glyphs make small ones. We have slots for both; you can't put a major glyph in a minor glyph slot, nor vice-versa. At level 70, we have two major slots, and three minor. At level 80, we'll have three of each.
A brief introduction to glyphs
Inscription is here (if your server is up, that is). And Inscription's primary goal in life is to make glyphs. For you. I say this because many people seem to have questions about what glyphs are, how they work, and where to get them. In this post I hope to answer those questions. Glyphs are made by players who have learned the new profession of Inscription (AKA scribes). The primary reagent for Inscription is herbs, which are milled to make pigments, which are turned into inks, which are then combined with parchments (which are bought from vendors) to make glyphs. Whew. Scribes can sell/trade/give glyphs to players, who then use them to enhance their spells. Each Glyph enhances a particular spell for a particular class.
Breakfast Topic: Power-leveling Inscription
When the realms come back up this afternoon, patch 3.0.2 will bring with it new talents, new skills, and a whole new profession: Inscription. This is one major Wrath feature we'll be getting early. The new profession will allow players to augment their spells with glyphs, which are ultimately made from herbs. The herb markets on some realms have already surged from people stocking up to power-level Inscription. I'll probably take advantage of the high prices to make a few gold, myself, and become a scribe later when it's cheaper. But if you are interested in becoming one of the first scribes on your server (which could be quite lucrative), you may want to look at this power-leveling guide over at WoW Economist. It details exactly what you'll need to rush from 1 to 350, and what you can make to do it. In total, it looks like it should take about 72 stacks of assorted herbs, so I hope you're stocked up. %Poll-20858%
Breakfast Topic: What confuses you about Patch 3.0.2?
We're 99% sure that Patch 3.0.2 "Echoes of Doom" will go live after tomorrow morning's maintenance. We know what's coming including: The new Inscription profession New Arenas The in-game Calendar feature New Raid buff system Barbershops Stormwind Harbor and of course, new Talents, Spells and Abilities That last one is the tricky bit. We're rolling out feature articles all day today and tomorrow morning that will guide you through the new trees for every class and spec. But is there anything we're missing? Is there something that confuses you about how Patch 3.0.2 affects you or your playstyle? Ask it here and we'll see what we can clear up before the servers come up tomorrow.
Ask a Beta Tester: It's all about the money
We have a lot of profession questions today, but also a few about Achievements, the Beast Mastery 51-point talent, and what happens when you push Death Knights off a cliff:Riley asks...How is the Shaman Hex ability working? Does the target still have control of movement and does the PvP trinket work against it?Hex is a the crowd-control spell for Shamans referenced by the devs at the class panel here, and it's been tinkered with a lot since we first heard about it. It was originally meant to be more of an emergency-only, short-duration CC. In its present form, Hex's duration has been increased to 30 seconds and it doesn't necessarily break on damage. However, in PvP the target can control where they go, the PvP trinket does work (you can also shapeshift out of it as a Druid), and it's considered a curse and can be dispelled by Mages, Druids, and restoration Shamans (who will have the ability do dispel curses with a 31-point talent Cleanse Spirit). Think of it as a somewhat odd combination of Counterspell, Fear, and Polymorph.
