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No plans to tweak the current raid dungeons after BC release
After our rather lengthy discussions the past couple of days about the viability of the current raid dungeons come the BC expansion, I thought you guys would be interested in this post from Tigole, that I discovered via Tobold (which he in turn snagged from Blue Tracker).To sum it up...there will be no major changes to the current endgame raid dungeons whatsoever come the Burning Crusade release. No new loot tables, no adjusting of current loot, no new caps and no new timers. Nada. Tigole hopes some players will be able to experience them for the first time with the new level caps,and others will be happy that they will be spared their umpteenth MC run. However, he does mention the possibility exists in the future for the raid instances to be overhauled, but that is not on the agenda anytime soon.In a sense, I am disappointed, but at the same time I would much rather have them working on the new BC content (and getting it into our hands ASAP) than spend time re-balancing C'Thun and redoing his loot table for a group of 70s or 65s or whatever. But he does leave the door open just a crack, so maybe those dungeons will be redone at a point when the new BC content starts to become old hat. Heck, maybe a patch eight months down the road will turn those raid dungeons into really awesome 25 mans, or maybe even 10 or 5 mans. That would certainly be interesting. What do you guys think? Are you a little disappointed? Or could you care less about the old stuff?Oh! I almost forgot...for a lighter look at the current raid loot vs. new BC gear debate, check out our friends over at Not Addicted.
Breakfast Topic: Your Dream Gear
Ocelot Eyes in the WoW ladies LJ group has a dream-- and it is to dual wield Thekal and Arlokk's Grasps, two uber looking fist weapons that drop from the bosses in ZG. There's the gear we're all working towards right now on quests or drops-- and then there's the dream gear we all want.Sure, we'd all love to be walking around in Tier 3 (and for my little Gnome warrior, that's exactly what I would love to see him in), but for each one of us, there's probably some gear that just fits with what we want our characters to be. For my Shaman, it's the Tier 0 shoulders, the Pauldrons of Elements. Yeah, it'd be nice to have the Tier 1 shoulders (my guild is working through MC, and it's likely that I'll get them before long, to go with a few other Earthfury pieces I've already picked up), but the Elements, with those little hooky things, just seem like the perfect shoulders for my Shaman. Just seeing those on other characters was one of the reasons I rolled Shaman, and so even if I get better stuff, I just have to have them.Likewise, on my Priest I'm already determined to jump the hoops for Benediction / Anathema-- it's a tough (and long) quest, but that's just so the right weapon for my Priest, especially since I plan to keep her shadow specced. And I sent my rogue on many, many more runs through Deadmines than I needed to, just because I wanted to have the Defias Leather set early on.So spit it out-- what's your dream gear? What's that one piece or that one set of armor that you just have to have?
Quest items disappear when abandoning quests
I noticed this last night when I was clearing out one of my quest logs-- 1.12.1 added "functionality" that destroyed your quest items when abandoning the related quest.Which is great when it works the way its meant to-- I'm always annoyed when I find a "Scrap of Paper" taking up a slot in my bags at 55 from a quest I'd abandoned twenty levels ago. But according to what players are saying, the destruction is a little on the greedy side-- it'll even destroy items you've picked up for the quest, i.e. if you've looted Arugal's head and then abandon the quest, bye bye to your head. And I haven't yet heard what might happen on normally non-quest items-- if you have 6 stacks of runecloth in your inventory and a quest requires 3 pieces, will you lose everything when you abandon it?It doesn't help, then, that this is mentioned in association with "curbing experience hoarding." A lot of players have already put quite a bit of work into saving up turn-ins and otherwise to quicken the route to 61, simply because they weren't told before this that it wouldn't be allowed. And especially if this "functionality" causes people to lose things they don't deserve to lose (or just plain want to keep), the fact that Blizzard did it (in only part, admittedly) to slow down player progression might be pouring salt in the wound (did they even put an "item destruction imminent" warning in the abandon confirm?). At any rate, be careful with your quest items when abandoning. Anyone tried trading them to a friend and back while you press "Abandon"?
Phat Loot Phriday: Deathcharger's Reins
Oh, yes. The Phattest of the Phat. The most enviable of the enviable loots. All accounts we've read say that there will be a ton of new, sweet mounts in Burning Crusade, available from almost all the different types of gameplay. But no matter what you'll be able to take to the air with, on the ground, this extremely, hopelessly rare mount will probably still reign supreme.Name: Deathcharger's ReinsType: Epic MountAbilities: Summons and dismisses Baron Rivendare's (the wacky emo boss at the end of UD Stratholme) Deathcharger mount. This is a very fast mount (meaning it's got 100% speed bonus, just like normal epic mounts) Look at this thing! It's all glowy! And what is it? A horse with horns? A gazelle? A very scary looking, death gazelle? Whatever it is, it's rideable by all races, even Tauren. Even those hardcore raiders decked out in 8/8 9/9* Tier 3 will turn their head and /nod when you ride by on this baby. A few people who are lucky enough to have it say they don't like to ride it all the time, just because they get so many tells about it. Guilds have broken up over the looting of this thing. It's an instant status symbol, and yet it's really just a sign that 1) you can make it to the end of Strat (big deal), and 2) you're very, very, very lucky. How to Get It: So how lucky do you have to be after you make your way through Stratholme and down the good Baron Rivendare? Most places that track that stuff say it's .1% drop rate, but I think it's because that number is the lowest their system can go. One source even puts the drop rate at a staggeringly low "2 in 15,553" (that's .0001% for those of you non-math geeks)-- how that's calculated, I don't know, but I'd wouldn't be surprised if it's true. I've been running Baron quite a bit lately (trying to get my warrior's legs and the Runeblade, a very phat and rare item on its own), but I don't guess I'll ever come close to seeing this thing come up for grabs. If you see it drop, roll Need. Period. Don't argue, and don't let anyone tell you different-- some player will argue that if you already have an epic mount, you should pass on this, but you can tell them Phat Loot Phriday doesn't agree. It's out there-- a few of them have been seen on the various servers. But if it shows up, consider yourself one of the very, very small and lucky few.Oh, and as of 1.12.1, you'll now also need the Journeyman riding skill to hop on this baby. So if you don't have that already, you'll still have to pay 900g (less with rep) to use it. Of course, if that's not worth it, feel free to invite me into Strat if everyone in your group passes...Auction Price: Of course it's BOP, and as usual anyone that sells this should probably just go ahead and uninstall WoW, because you're never going to see a random drop this good again. A vendor will give you 2g 50s for it, but I sincerely hope that's never happened.*Thanks Eliah, good luck with Raggy.
World of collectorcraft
Redra asks a fun question over on the forums: What items have you saved throughout the game as souvenirs?Not everyone plays the game as a packrat, but sometimes you come across an item you just can't bear to give up. For me, it was probably Lil Timmy's Peashooter-- I came across it early on in Deadmines with my warrior, and used it to pull all the way up to level 60. Of course, on my first raid, our MT checked me out, and the next day I had a gun in my mailbox with some Stamina and Strength on it. I thanked him and equipped the new gun, but felt a little pang of sorrow saying goodbye to my Peashooter-- in fact, it's still sitting in the bank.There are some good ones in the thread, too-- Severed Night Elf Heads (from a previous iteration of AV), holiday items (I don't think my warrior has ever actually used that food horn, but I always have it with me just in case), early epics and set pieces, and quest leftovers. My shaman still has a charge or two left on his Mechanical Yeti-- I keep saving it thinking that someday we'll be in a raid fighting Raggy or Nef, we'll start to wipe, and my summoning the yeti will be the final straw we need to take the guy down. So what do you have taking up valuable inventory space that you can't bear to part with?
Atiesh spawns legendary Andonisus, Reaper of Souls
Well, Risen's guild website is back up after the beating it recieved when they crafted the worldfirst of Atiesh, and it appears this new Legendary staff is even cooler than previously thought. Not only does it have some crazy stats worth of a Legendary item, and not only can it open a portal directly to the previously unseen zone of Karazhan, but apparently this thing even spawns Legendary items of its own.Paladinsucks has a picture of a sword called Andonisus, Reaper of Souls, which is supposedly a brand new Legendary mainhand sword that makes Thunderfury look like a pointy piece of metal. But there's a catch-- the sword is supposed to be a conjured item (via a usage of Atiesh) that only works in Stratholme, and only for 10 minutes (or 15? or until logout?). Risen's forum has lots of people asking about Andonisus, but not a lot of answers-- one post suggests it can only be spawned during one boss fight, and another forum says it only spawns for the server first of Atiesh.Sounds awesome, but it would be great to have some solid information on this one. Anyone from Risen want to give us the dirt? Send us a tip on the sidebar and I'll update as we hear about it.Update: Unfortunately, from what we're hearing in the comments, Andonisus only shows up during a specially summoned boss in Stratholme that you only fight during the crafting of Atiesh. And then, it only hangs around for ten minutes. Pretty limited usage, so don't bother working this one into any of your gear builds. But it is still sweet.
The joys of cat shopping
When I first hit level 60, I was poor. Training up a multitude of new skills and working on my equipment left me living life with nary a gold coin in my pocket for weeks, but like many other level 60s, I decided I wanted an epic mount. Although I'm still saving runecloth for a cross-racial mount, for now I've gone the traditional route and upgraded to the next brand of saber, as I'm a night elf.Getting the epic mount has been the culmination of weeks of half-formed ambition and several days of single-minded determination. Grinding and farming with the sole purpose of cash (although I tried to get reputation along the way) has almost burnt me out on solo play, especially on the night elf in question. However, when I rush across the landscape faster than ever before, running and jumping from the sheer joy of a speed increase, it all seems worth it.
New tabards are all the rage
I play on a number of servers, and a fashion is spreading through them -- players are donning new tabards everywhere from Ahn'Qiraj to Zul'Gurub. The two items, Tabard of the Argent Dawn (left) and Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade, surfaced in the last patch.The Argent Dawn tabard is obtainable as a result of the invasion event. Initially, you have to take ten Necrotic Runes to the Argent Quartermaster at Light's Hope Chapel. Finishing this quest will activate an Argent Quartermaster, and you can then trade more Necrotic Runes for items like mana potions and Consecrated Sharpening Stones (+AP against undead). For ten runes, the tabard is yours. I found this tedious to solo, but when grouped with a mage and a couple of others the runes flow heavily.
Virtua Fighter 5 only for PS3 next spring
There was a time when Virtua Fighter 5 was considered a strong candidate for an arcade port to the Xbox 360, but that multiplatform hope's been dashed with the official announcement that VF5 will appear only on PS3 in the spring of 2007. Sega's technical fighter is a Sony exclusive once more.While home-console online play remains doubtful at this point, next-gen PlayStation owners can now securely look forward to facing off as El Blaze and Eileen (the new luchador and monkey kung-fu artist, respectively) along with the other 15 fighters, decked out in all sorts of items purchased in the in-game store with prize money earned through in-game matches.VF5 will support up to 720p HD resolution and will be featured in game footage in the SEGA booth at E3 (South Hall, Booth #946) later this week.[Thanks, Matt; also via Joystiq]
Apple's special deals section filled to brim, hemmoraging iPods
While I was pondering whether the introduction of Remote Desktop 3 was worthy of shutting down the Apple Store this morning, C.K. pointed out that Apple also updated their Special Deals section. A lot. I can't remember the last time I've had to scroll this much on a page in the Apple Store. It looks like they have refurbished items from almost every one of their products except the MacBook Pro, but they're highlighting the iPod mini with their Special Deals graphic (pictured) almost as if to say "go on iPod mini. 'Git!"I'd try linking Apple's Special Deals section, but I know that always gets wonky. Plus, the tips I've found like Ars Technica's don't cover linking a section, so all you get is a link to the Apple Store. You're on your own for the rest of the way.
Quicksilver's "Comma Trick"
Today I fall even more deeply in love with Quicksilver, as I have discovered yet another incredibly useful and productive trick from a 43 Folders tutorial. This easy tip, loosely called "the comma trick," allows you first to find more than one item with Quicksilver, then apply an action to all of those items. If you're wondering why or how this could be useful, consider a couple scenarios: You can find multiple bookmarks (as many as you want, as far as I can tell) and open them all in tabs (as long as your browser does the tabs thing). You could find a file, chose Quicksilver's "send immediately" action and then find multiple people from your address book to send that same file to - all without ever touching an actual email compose window. This trick's usefulness boggles my mind, and all you really have to do is hit the comma key in order to chose multiple items. Check out the 43 Folders tutorial for the full deets on how this trick works, then feel free to take a break from being amazed.
Create the items you've always longed for
After that authentic feel? This WoW item creator allows you to input a variety of stats and create your own epics, although the results are unfortunately limited to the Internet and won't appear in-game. You too can make Chuck Norris jokes via an innovative new medium!I'm English, and have no clue who Chuck Norris is. Fortunately the Chuck Norris phenomenon has only brushed Europe -- I can play for days without seeing his name bandied about. Like WoW itself, however, it'll undoubtedly have Europe in its grip before long.[via pasta and vinegar, which has links to some Chuck Norris items and even a Chuck Norris Fact Generator addon]
Got the blues?
I admit I've fallen prey to it myself; the lure of the coveted blue or purple item. They have long, fancy names, they're usually very ornate, and they have multiple stat bonuses...most of the time.But they're also hard to come by, and ridiculously expensive...at least at the auction houses I usually frequent. And, I've noticed on more than one occasion, they're really not all that much better than some green items of the same level. Sure, they might have one or two extra bonuses, but is that really worth a markup of several hundred (or thousand) gold, when you can get an item that's very nearly as nice for just a couple of gold...or less?I have hung onto some blue items for longer than I would have been able to wear a comparable green one, but the money I spent on the blue items was still probably more than I would have spent just upgrading the item once or twice, and I've had a few green pieces of gear that have served me better & longer than some blues. Of course, there are exceptions, and there are other ways to get gear other than buying it at the auction house, but still...in these instances, is the color really worth the cash?
