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Phat Loot Phriday: Serpentshrine Shuriken
In all of the different items we've done here on Phat Loot Phriday, we've never once featured a thrown weapon. Time to fix that.Name: Serpentshrine ShurikenType: Epic ThrownDamage/Speed: 97-146 / 1.40 (86.8 DPS)Abilties: +14 Stamina, which doesn't seem like a lot, but don't forget, this is on a thrown weapon. That's a whopping +14 Stamina you can't get anywhere else. Improves hit rating by 12 and critical strike rating by 20. And while thrown weapons used to be used only for pulling or tagging cowardly mobs, the Rogue ability Deadly Throw has changed the game. You can get some nice crits in (using this or any other high level thrown items) if you've worked up a good number of combo points on a target running away from you. Put on the HWL or Gladiator's gloves and this also becomes a spell interrupt, so you want as nice a thrown weapon as you can find. How to Get It: The Shuriken drops from trash mobs in Serpentshrine Cavern, at a rate of about 1%, so it's not super easy to come by. I'd really say the weapon is meant for Rogues, too, but I could see how fury Warriors and other classes would have an interest in it, so you might have to win a competitive roll on it, too. But spend a lot of time in SSC, be a little lucky, and you can probably pick it up without too much trouble.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants to a Void Crystal, and I bet that's where most of these things have ended up, because odds are that anyone who could really use it in PvP has already picked up the PvP version anyway. Maybe there's a reason we've never done a thrown weapon... Sells to vendors for 3g 63s 68c.
Low level dungeon item updates
Boubouille over at MMO Champion has compiled a list of low level items which drop in dungeons, and are set to receive some significant upgrades in patch 2.3. If you'll be working on a new character once the midlevel leveling changes come into play, then you may be interested to look at this list and see which items you'll want to be shooting for once you reach the right level range to go adventuring in instances.Keep in mind, however, that any of these stats might change as new builds come up on the PTR. Some updated items in particular seem to be missing (such as all Gnomeregan drops, and the new low-level epics we've heard about), so check back at the list now and then to see any updates.
Heroic dungeons now require "Honored" reputation
This just in: In addition to the latest Patch 2.3 updates we just noted, the various heroic instance keys will no longer require "Revered" reputation with the various factions around Outland. "Honored" is now sufficient to get you in to Heroic dungeons everywhere.This raises myriad questions: Does this devalue the heroic instances at all, or does it simply open them up to more players? Is it a slap in the face to all those who had to grind their way to revered up to now, or is it just the natural progression of opening up content for more and more people to access as time goes by? Will anyone run regular Steamvents, Shattered Halls, or Shadow Labyrinth when they can just skip to the heroic versions? Will this get thousands (or millions?) of players who got burned out on the rep-grind back into the game?
Ask WoW Insider: What's your kill order?
Greetings, Azerothians! It's time for another Friday edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we publish your questions for the world (... of Warcraft) to answer. Last week we looked at how to find a new server, and this week we examine the curious and culturally diverse practice of marking targets in instances. Djinni on Anvilmar-A relates the following tale of falling down the rabbit hole: I was in a 5-man the other day with 4 members of one guild, and me, the non-guildy. Not exactly a PUG, since I know 2 of the people, and they asked me to join. For the first 10-15 minutes of this instance, I was getting crazy aggro and had either died or had to Vanish on every pull. I also noticed that I seemed to be the only one doing damage to my target. Finally, I stopped the group and asked what was going wrong...telling them that no one else seems to be attacking Skull. And that's when this became the weirdest instance run ever. They dropped the Kill Order Bomb. Square, X (if it exists), Triangle (Sap), Skull, Moon (Sheep). And this didn't seem strange to any of them. To this day, it remains the only group I've ever been in that didn't make Skull first target. For the next hour or so, I was in Bizarro world...as if the water in the toilet would spin backwards (and maybe up) if I flushed it. I wonder if anyone else has had a completely unintuitive Kill Order imposed on them? What's your Kill Order? To some it seems obvious that the skull symbolizes death and death quickly, but to others, X marks the spot. Still others have been thrown into a murderous rage at the mere sight of the orange nipple. What's your preferred kill order when marking instances, and have you ever been subject to one that seemed particularly daft? Naturally whilst struggling against a Burning Crusade you build up a few burning questions -- Ask WoW Insider can help! Send us your questions at ask AT wow insider DOT com.
Level tweaking on instances 1-60 in patch 2.3
Hopefully you were just as excited as I was yesterday to see that specifics about leveling improvements have been announced, as well as about 60 brand new midlevel quests (!) in Dustwallow Marsh. And as we heard, low level dungeons are getting tweaked, too, though not in any way I would have imagined. Blizzard, it sounds like, is going to be streamlining them, changing them from (for example with Shadowfang Keep) a 18-25 level dungeon, to an 18-21.But waitaminute-- we've already got dungeons from 18-21. Wailing Caverns and Deadmines, specifically, and moving SFK up to 21 leaves a hole before Stockades and Blackfathom Deeps. What gives?What gives, says Bornakk, is that Blizzard is streamlining the whole experience, which means all the instances are going to be given this same tweaking. BFD, Stockades, RFK, Gnomer (ooh, interesting) are all going to be streamlined to be finished before 30, where, Bornakk says, Scarlet Monastery, RFD, and Uldaman will await characters. In essence it sounds like the clumps of leveling 1-60 are getting evened out, and that big hole around the mid 30s (where STV is your only choice) is getting filled in.Sounds great to me. I'm especially excited about Dustwallow Marsh-- I have three or four characters languishing in their mid 30s, so new quests there will be much appreciated. And Blizzard is always watching how we play-- if new content in the 30s is as popular as I suspect it will be, maybe they can consider adding in even more midlevel content for alts and newbies.
Players want more mid-level content!
I was intrigued to read the results of the poll over at Kinless' Chronicles. Before they moved from their old blog hosting provider they started a poll asking what people wanted the most in World of Warcraft.Of all the poll results, I was most interested by the fact that 64% of respondents wanted more level 20-60 content and only 15% wanted more end-game content. Also of note is that only 12% wanted more races in the game. So in other words, people don't want new "starter areas", they want alternatives to the "grinding content" that they've run so many times they can do it in their sleep.I pretty much agree with all the poll results and wonder why Blizzard seems to have turned a blind eye to the obvious. I think it's fair to say that most of us have one or two high or maxed-level characters, and a handful of lower level characters we "mess around with" trying to find something we like. So why don't they develop new mid-range content?What format do you see new mid-level content content being packaged in? New zones? New quests? New instances? What about just new items? Personally, when I played The Sims, I always loved the "item packs" that gave me new items to play with in-game. They weren't a content expansion, they were pretty inexpensive, but they offered some new items to spice up gameplay. I think this could be a cheap way for Blizzard to throw the mid-level people a proverbial bone without spending a lot of development time.
Heroic badges in Kara and Zul'Aman
Dan mentioned it in a quick note earlier this morning, but this is such a big piece of news, to my mind, that it deserves an even bigger mention: in patch 2.3, Heroic badges will drop from bosses in Karazhan and Zul'Aman.That's a gigantic change. We can only guess that it'll work the same way that Heroic instance bosses do now-- every member of the raid will get to grab their own Badge of Honor for each and every boss kill. And that is big-- currently, the badges are only available from bosses in Heroic mode dungeons, which means the only way to get them is to run Heroics.Of course, whether Heroics or Karazhan are harder for you depends on your experience and your raid, but my sense of the general consensus is that most guilds are already farming Karazhan, while Heroics are only being run by small groups of really experienced players just to get the badges. And when you don't need to get the badges from Heroics any more, what reason is there to go in there?
Things to know about Patch 2.2
As is common with any major patch day, there are a few issues. Here are a few from the forums and what I've experienced:Instance servers are crashing on many realms. From AV to Tempest Keep, players are having a hard time completing instances. Raiding is particularly hard hit.It's OK to delete the Auction Sale Pending notice from your mailbox. You will still get your cash when the new 1 hour delay is up. And, yes, everyone else seems to hate the new delay, too.Windows resolutions and UI Scaling have been tweaked. It's not your imagination and it also, according to Hortus, isn't a bug. Changing resolutions of the same aspect ratio will only give you a higher or lower image quality, but otherwise your view will not change. Windows are automatically resized to maintain aspect ratios and to reduce issues with stretching and distortion. If you aren't happy with the new size of your UI, turn on UI Scaling in the Video menu and adjust it accordingly.Hopefully the instance servers will have been fixed by the time the patch is live in Europe. Sometimes it's better not being first.I also recommend checking out the undocumented patch notes.
Breakfast Topic: Repeat visits
Seeya from Dethecus has an interesting question for us to answer this Saturday morning: What's the total number of times you've visited the instance you've seen the most of?Most guilds raided Molten Core many, many times to gear up everyone that needed it, and back at 60, I spent many weekends plowing through the lava packs down there. I've also run Shadow Labs many, many times since BC dropped, and Steam Vaults and the Arcatraz have also seen me go through quite a few times. Nowadays, Karazhan is probably getting the most traffic, although the cooldown on it probably keeps people going through there as often as they'd like. And don't forget lowbie instances-- I've been through SM and Deadmines on every character at least a few times.But for me, the instance I've been through the most times overall is definitely UBRS. There were days, when I first hit 60, when we would run it twice a day. I've tanked it, healed it, and DPSed it. I've learned it, taught it, marked it, master looted it, done every quest in there and seen every drop. I've seen a hunter pull Drakk, a Mage pull Drakk, a Warrior tank them all, and even seen a Rogue do the pull. I can't count the number of times I've seen Eviscerate IX drop, and at one point, I could probably list off both all the pulls and Rend and Nef's dialogue to you-- without being near a computer. UBRS is my instance, and I'd put my runs through there at almost 100.So what's the instance you've run the most, and how many times have you been through?
Guildwatch: Cookie drama
Wait, does that really say 17 healers on Maiden? That has nothing to do with the actual story, but 17 healers? How do you take 17 healers on a 10 man raid?This week's look at guild drama, downing, and recruiting starts right after the jump. Don't forget to send us your tips at wowguildwatch@gmail.com, as they're how this whole thing gets done. Click the link to read on!
Map of Utgarde Keep, and what we know about it
Well this is exciting. MMO Champion points us to WoW Wiki, where some enterprising person has assembled a map of Utgarde Keep, the first instance in Wrath of the Lich King. The map is apparently based on one published in Games for Windows, but as it appears on WoW Wiki, it's a little empty. Let's see if we can't clear some things up-- I've added letters to the map above, and below, I've described what is probably there, based on my own impressions and what we've heard elsewhere.A. This is the main entrance, and as I said before, it consists of Vrykul metalworkers and forgemasters. The big firey graphic is the Forge, which has three "walls" that only open up after the mobs are defeated there. After you clear all three walls, you head around to the left, and find...B. Dragonhandlers and "Trained Proto-drakes," which appeared to be Blue Dragons. Draw your own conclusions there. This area is a stable type of place, which explains the stalls.
Insomnia, or, I can't sleep so I play when no one else is on
One of the biggest problems I have is that, from time to time, I suffer from extremely painful bouts of insomnia. I've had this issue ever since I was a very young boy, and it still reoccurs from time to time. This has lead me to discover the joys and pains of logging on to play World of Warcraft in the middle of the night. Since I tend to play on servers in the same basic time zone as I am (Edmonton, Alberta if you're curious) this often leads me to discover that it can be an entirely different world when most of the server is asleep.One of the large positives is that I often catch the Auction House when a bid is about to expire - I got my BE pally a Sword of the Magistrate for practically nothing not an hour ago, for example. It's also a lot easier for me to do quests that involving farming mobs that are otherwise popular either because the quest itself is popular or because they drop something folks want, like the elementals in the badlands that everyone and their parents tend to farm.There are some big downsides, though. For starters, instances? Forget about it. If I can find two people on at my level at any given time it's a small miracle. Also, when you're bleary eyed from lack of sleep, that may not be the best time to try and do an annoying escort quest. Admittedly, I tend to find escort quests in general to be the second most annoying quests in the game, with "bring me x number of the eyes/hearts/brains of y" being the absolute worst, but I want to level my characters so I do them anyway.Is anyone else out there playing on the graveyard shift? It sometimes seems like I'm totally alone, but a few folks must be toiling away alongside me. Do you prefer it or are you just there sometimes? What's good, what's bad about it for you? I sometimes like the relative peace and quiet, but I miss being able to get a Sunken Temple group when I need one. And I can't say that playing the game makes me feel any more rested.
Breakfast Topic: Your least favorite instance
A couple of days ago we asked you what your favorite instance (not raid) was, and everyone seemed to have an opinion! I, for one, was surprised to see such overwhelming fondness for low-level dungeons, especially the Deadmines, Scarlet Monastery, and Shadowfang Keep. Does no one enjoy the game's newer dungeons? So today I'm going to ask you what your least favorite dungeon in the game is. Tell us all about it in the comments!
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite instance
For today's Breakfast Topic, we're asking a question I'm not even sure I could answer. I can often be found playing a healer, which makes running instances (and I do mean smaller instances, not raids) is my favorite thing to do. And in the game right now there are so many great instance runs to choose from that it's hard to pick just one as a favorite. But, fortunately, I'm not asking myself, I'm asking you -- what's your favorite small instance (not raid) to run in World of Warcraft today? And if you have a favorite, why is it your favorite? (Great loot, good reputation, amusing mob chats, what?) Tell us all about it in the comments!
Ask WoW Insider: What's the best of Ask WoW Insider?
Fridays are a time for early happy hour quiet contemplation and reflection upon the past, and in that spirit we're taking a look back at some of the best posts from over the lifespan of Ask WoW Insider. Now that we're all older and wiser -- who *did* end up being the top PvP classes at 70? Best duo for PvP or grinding"What team of classes make the best duo for PVP or for grinding?" Top PvP classes at level 70Just after Burning Crusade came out, we speculated on which classes would dominate in PvP. Were we right? Would you change the answer you gave then? Best ways to make money in Burning Crusade"What are some good ways of making money for levels 60-70 in Burning Crusade? Are there people making money from jewelcrafting yet, should I pick that up? What about good mobs to grind or drops that sell well to vendors or on the AH?" Best way to get instance invites"What are your tips and tricks for convincing a group you've got the goods despite not having seen the inside of the dungeon?" Why are you overpowered?"Dig deep, self-examine and admit it: what makes your class overpowered?" How's WoW performance on a Mac?"I play Wow on a PC, and am looking towards a new computer purchase. One thing that influences my purchase is how well WoW will run on my new computer. I'm leaning towards a Mac, but how well does WoW run on a Mac?" Best way to power level alts"What's your strategy for the quickest power leveling? How do you maximize your time with your alts?" How would you design your own battleground?"What if you could design your own battleground? What would you do different or better than what is currently in the game?" When is it fair to upgrade an epic?"All DKP ideas aside, when is it fair to upgrade an epic over an epic?" Best healing class"Which class would you roll for a purely healing role? Which would you roll for a powerfully healing hybrid who might want to take on other roles from time to time? Relatedly, which healing class is the worst?" Best DPS class"Which classes can dish out the most DPS and which ones make the least amount of DPS?" Favorite WoW podcasts"There are a ton of WoW-themed podcasts out there now -- which would you recommend? What are your favorites?" Great ding stories"Any fun or interesting stories to tell about hitting the level cap? Or more generally, any memorable or unusual dings at any level?" We see that look in your eye, and we know it means you want to send us questions. Ask WoW Insider needs 'em -- send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com!
Ask WoW Insider: Instance etiquette
It's time once again for Ask WoW Insider to publish one of your questions for the community to answer. Last week we heard a ton of great ding stories, and this week we examine a possible breach of instance etiquette. Pelia on Greymane writes: Last night I was leading a PUG into DM East and about 10 minutes into the instance our mage says "hey guys, i g2g in 20 minutes..." Since we were just starting the instance, I dropped him and instantly started looking for a replacement that would be able to run the whole instance with us. The mage was surprised and said "I said 20 minutes!" Should I have let him stay in our group until he really needed to go? The group had just formed, so I didn't really feel I owed anything to him. Plus I couldn't use the LFG tool/channel if he stayed since we already had 5 people... I figured I owed it to the rest of the group to find a 5th person that was in it for the long haul... Was I being a good leader, or a jerk... or both? What say you, readers -- did the mage commit an instance faux pas? Most of us have rushed to complete a dungeon whilst an exasperated significant other/parent/child/spouse/friend waited for our tardy asses to show up somewhere, but what's an acceptable limit for a "gtg soon!" announcement? Would you go into a dungeon knowing you had to replace a member part way through?Our kingdom for your questions! Please send us what you'd like to know for next week at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Breakfast Topic: The prequel
I know our own Elizabeth Harper had already started re-playing Warcraft III before BlizzCon, and a few days after I came home I reinstalled it (although Bioshock is taking up more of my time lately than anything else-- stupid Big Daddies). But what about you guys-- now that we know Arthas is just around the corner (in relative terms, of course-- this is Blizzard, after all), have you gone back to check out the last RTS game Blizz released?If you've never played it, not only is it an awesome game, but you've probably already guessed from everything we've seen so far that it will be a perfect prequel to what we'll see in Northrend. Sure, if you've already heard all the lore, the whole thing's been spoiled for you, but if you really want to see what happened in Stratholme before we do the new CoT instance, or what all the echoes in the Lordaeron throne room are about, or even why there might be an Old God in Northrend, the game is worth checking out.Are you planning on playing it if you haven't before, or have you already gone through it again lately, in expectation of seeing Arthas again?
Where would you put a new instance?
I was thinking about Zul'Aman the other day, the incoming 10 man dungeon, if for no other reason than it will probably be the next place my guild goes after Kara: we don't really have enough people to do more than the occasional Gruul or Magtheridon PuG's. (I've actually done more SSC PuG's than either of those, amazingly enough. And I died a lot.) Now, I remembered that some folks are unhappy with Zul'Aman being located in a Horde zone, especially on PvP servers. That then got me to thinking about the announcement from Blizzcon that there would be at least one more five man dungeon before the expansion. I'm not sure if that's been changed by the announcement of an 'Old Stratholme' CoT for level 80 or not, but it all combined in my head and I started wondering where, exactly, they should put a new 5 man dungeon?Obviously you'd want to avoid the issues around Zul'Aman by not sticking it in a Horde or Alliance controlled zone, so Stormwind Vault is probably out unless the Horde gets some kind of teleport or back door. That still leaves a lot of zones available to us, though. With the advent of Caverns of Time instances that look like open, outdoor zones why not open up Azshara Crater? It would be nice to have a reason to go there now that Azuregos isn't really a draw anymore, and we haven't had a Night Elf/Naga instance since Blackfathom Deeps.Heck, maybe the entire zone behind the Greymane Wall could be a giant instance. What's up in Gilneas? There's rumors of Worgen infestations, Naga on their shores, undead in the hills... I'd personally love to get a chance to ride into the place and check it out. Maybe Genn Greymane's insane, a puppet of the Naga, or even a giant Worgen sitting on a pile of bones that used to be his own people? Well, okay, probably not. Still, there's plenty of room for a new instance in either Azeroth or Outland... Winterspring, Felwood, Blade's Edge and Nagrand all lack one, and both Winterspring (with the demons of Darkwhisper Gorge) and Nagrand (with Oshu'gun) even have likely places to put one.So where would you want to go adventuring next? Where would you put a new instance, and what would it be?Edited to add: I'm reminded that Gruul's lair is in Blade's Edge. I meant more five man content, but with a raid in there already, maybe Blade's Edge has enough on its plate. Especially with the Ogri'la quests. Still, an ancient Apexis Ruin could always surface.
Zul'Aman screenshots and impressions
We've got some nice eye candy from Zul'Aman for you, including some images of the animal aspect bosses Nalorakk, Akil'Zon (above) and Halazzi. We had a chance to stealth into the instance earlier in the press room, and our initial visual impression of the dungeon can be described in two words: Indiana Jones. Or rather, a cross between Indiana Jones and Zul'Gurub on steroids. A 20-minute "sacrifice" timer started counting down as soon as we zoned in, and at the end of the timer Hex Lord Malacrass's voice yelled across the zone that we had failed in our mission, and that every sacrifice made him stronger. There were a couple of closed doors barring our way from exploring further into the instance, but we were able to get a first-hand look at Nalorakk, the bear avatar boss, and Jan'alai the dragonhawk avatar before being detected and mercilessly pwned by a 4-pack Amani'shi patrol. The interior is incredibly picturesque, with cascading waterfalls, carved stone altars and a lagoon area. Populating the area are a number of elite Amani'shi mobs including Flame Casters, Guardians, Handlers with crocolisk pets, and the good old Beserkers we know and love. Shortly after the zone-in point and down a flight of stairs are a line of Amani'shi troll guards that look like a formidable initial pull -- we're so looking forward to getting 9 of our closest friends together, flexing our bad mojo and making our way through Zul'Aman.%Gallery-5517%
Ten commandments of being in a group
Reader Poga dropped us a line to this article he wrote for his guild about the "ten commandments of being in a group" (perhaps inspired by my ten commandments of dueling). Pretty much every group problem is in here, from stealing aggro to breaking CC to loot whoring.The pulling one is an especially good tip-- decide at the beginning of the run who's going to pull, and then only have that person pull. Can't tell you how many times, someone decided to just pull with an instant spell because they felt like it, and not realizing that another pull was already incoming. And I think the "not wear thy gear in vain" tip is an interesting one, too-- you should putting gems and enchantments on your gear already, just to make your character the best it can be. Seeing it as a way of benefiting the group is a new way of looking at it, but it's true as well.If everyone followed these tips all the time (and even the best tanks I know sometimes forget to wait for mana), we'd all have better groups, whether they be PuGs, good friends, or raids.
