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Phat Loot Phriday: Jedoga's Greatring
Last week, I asked what you all wanted to see here, and the answer I heard most was "leveling upgrades through Northrend." So we're going husky (around size 72-79) for a while -- here's a nice attack ring from an instance that levelers will probably be hitting up this weekend.Name: Jedoga's Greatring (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Rare Ring (Unique-Equipped, which means that you can only wear one at a time)Damage/Speed: N/A%Gallery-33600%
Mike Schramm11.21.2008
The Light and How to Swing It: Starting zone upgrades in Northrend
Did you pack well enough for the cold? Allie gave great advice on some basic things we need while we're in Northrend, like food and other consumables. Depending on your level of progression or gear, your approach to questing or leveling out here will vary quite a bit. For well-geared players, it'll be a breeze to go through most of the zones as gear of item level 146 and beyond (Tier 6 / Season 3) will last a fair bit past Level 75 or so.While the bare attributes on those items such as Intellect or Strength will often be superior to most quest rewards, other statistics will begin to fall behind such as Hit, Crit, or even Haste as we level and the ratings we need for those to scale become bigger. Here is where lesser geared players get a bit of a helping hand. The plate greens of Northrend, as well as the occasional blues are loaded with Hit, Haste, and other important stats. If you're going to Northrend dressed in blues or even item level 120-123 epics, you'll be able to quickly replace pieces that have scale appropriately with your level. In the end, it will all even out.
Zach Yonzon11.16.2008
The Sacred Artifact and Wrath's immersion factor
We posted about this quest months and months ago, but of course now it's available on the live realms -- in the Utgarde Catacombs, which turns out not to be an instance but just a non-instanced quest area, there is a quest to retrive a "sacred artifact" of the Argent Dawn, which is basically a must-do quest for anyone that's a fan of the, err.. "bashringer," if you know what I mean. It's simple, so there's not much to spoil, but yeah, just a few quests in to Wrath, you're already wandering around epic lore territory.And odds are that you've met the main guest of the expansion already as well -- I bumped into him during a walk through the spirit world in Wyrmskull Village, and he wasn't very nice to me already (and frankly, I saw a side of him I've never seen before -- having identifed myself as a Shaman for so long, it was extremely interesting to see him do the same). Blizzard promised from the beginning that we'd meet and greet with the lore heavyweights early on, and they weren't kidding -- we're right in the mix from the time we step off the boat.I love it -- without getting too spoilery, what else is worth seeing in these starting zones? We almost got Keristrasza down last night in The Nexus, and it's almost hard to remember those days when it took 40 players to take down a dragon -- even solo and five man players get to do epic stuff nowadays. What have you done already?
Mike Schramm11.14.2008
Armory going down for Wrath updates
Crygil posted early this morning that the Armory will be going down at 6 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. EST to prepare it for Wrath of the Lich King. The Armory will be down for approximately eight hours.He doesn't go into specifics about what will be updated, but we have some good guesses at what we could see included: Achievement listings Wrath of the Lich King items New reputations Faster character data updates Crygil also mentions that all the character data will be reset. This means that you have to log into your character to repopulate the Armory information on it. This is important if you have seldom played alts yet still refer to the armory data, or if you are currently applying to a guild that requires armory information.We'll have more concrete information on what this update brings after it's complete, sometime around 2 p.m. PST.
Adam Holisky11.06.2008
Ask a Beta Tester: More on phasing and starter zones
Welcome back to Ask a Beta Tester on this Maintenance Day Tuesday. Let's get started right away with webrunner's question... Have you seen any interesting/fun usable gear with cool procs or use abilities, or is it just stats, stats, stats till the Tauren come home?There are plenty of trinkets with this sort of thing, but not weapons or robes or anything like that. Trinkets are much more common as quest rewards in Wrath than they were before, and you get a pretty wide range of effects. On weapons, it's all stats of various flavors.
Alex Ziebart11.04.2008
Path of a Hero lets you blog your character
Reader Aaron sent us a link to his new site called Path of a Hero earlier this week, and it's an interesting little endeavor. Basically, you just punch in your realm and character, and then you can add entries to your character page by putting in a screenshot. The system itself also grabs your stats from the Armory, and puts it all in a nice readable format, so what you end up with is basically a blog/timeline of what your character has been up to lately.You can even follow your friends (or create rivalries with other players), and you can check "gear scores" as well, so you can track your and others' progress over time. And the whole thing is actually controlled with a slider interface with a cool fade animation -- if you update often, you can watch your character grow from level 1 up to 70 and beyond.The only issue with the site seems to be that it's a little shakey -- it takes a while to deal with all of that data, and I wouldn't be surprised (even on a Saturday like today) if we bring the site down by linking it for you readers. But it is a good idea, and if Aaron can make sure it scales well (and maybe throw a few ads in there, just to make sure his work pays off a bit), it could turn out to be a nice place to keep track of what your character's path has been like so far.
Mike Schramm11.01.2008
Reminder: Now's the time to get your necrotic runes
No matter what you call those big floating pyramids above Azeroth, right now is the right time to chase them down and kill the Scourge hanging around beneath them. If you don't have epic gloves or shoulders on right now, odds are that you could use the upgrades from the Argent Dawn, and while the necropoli were completely camped early on in the event, things have died down a bit now, especially in the off-prime hours. I was able to pick up my 30 runes earlier this week, and when I got lucky on a leggings drop (I love that my Hunter is in a mail kilt-y thing now), I picked up two nice new epics, a cool tabard and an achievement.We don't know exactly when this stuff is all ending -- it might be soon, or it might run right up to the Wrath release, but either way, now is probably the time to play it safe and pick up your runes. Look on your map for the purple skulls when they spawn and make a beeline for the zone when you see them, keep an eye around the zone as you fly in where the necro might be, and with most people already having nabbed all the runes they need, the pickings are probably about as good as they're going to get. You'll have a tougher time nabbing the rare spawns that drop the legs and the chest, but if you just want to nab some runes for the various Argent Dawn rewards, it'll go fast.Now if I could just get people to stop camping my fish pools until I get Mr. Pinchy...
Mike Schramm10.31.2008
Phat Loot Phriday: Goblin Rocket Launcher
Just another good reason to be an engineer.Name: Goblin Rocket Launcher (Wowhead, Thottbot, Crafter's Tome)Type: Rare Engineering TrinketDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: +45 Stamina, which marks this thing as a PvP trinket, basically. On use: Fires a powerful rocket at the enemy that does 906 to 1440 damage and stuns them for 3 seconds. Which is as awesome as it sounds -- the rocket blasts out of the gun, flies with a firey trail towards the target and then boom. It can also crit, and we're told it's affected by haste and crit, so the better your specs, the better it'll do. There's a big five second cast, however, so it's better to use this either when enemies are just coming into range, or when they're leaving it. It does also generate threat, so theoretically it could be used as a pulling tool. The two-minute cooldown would make that hard to do often (not to mention that anyone tanking endgame probably wouldn't want to waste a trinket slot with this), but if you want to pull with flash, there you go. There is one drawback -- firing it will do a quick knockdown on you, so you'll need a second or two to get up. Hitting this thing under pressure is a bad idea. But if you've got one more enemy to tag and aren't getting hit yourself, it's a very nice ranged attack. It's a fun little toy, too. There's no limit on how many time you fire it (just the cooldown), so you can hit it every two minutes for some extra ranged damage. How to Get It: As you might imagine for something this awesome, the requirements are going to be big. You'll need engineering 350 to make equip and use it, and you'll need to be a Goblin engineer (the recipe just comes from Goblin engineering trainers in the Barrens and Tanaris). You ready for the entire recipes list? Broken down into their component parts, you'll need 120 Adamantite Ore, six Khorium Ore, 24 Fel Iron Ore, eight Eternium Ore, two Thorium Ore, two Arcane Crystals (which means two Arcanite Transmutes), two Ironweb Spider Silk, seventy Motes of Fire, and sixty Motes of Earth. So either you'll be grinding out quite a bit, or you'll be spending a goodly amount on the AH for all that stuff.But get it all together, make the Rocket Launcher, and start shooting, Tex.Getting Rid of It: This is pretty much an item you keep, even if just for kicks. Vendors will only give you 2g 25s for it. It is BoE, so you can try to sell it on the AH, but considering the grocery list of mats you'll need to buy or otherwise find, and the high requirements to actually use the thing, it's very, very unlikely you'll find a market willing to pay what it's worth. Sell Mechanical Squirrels instead.%Gallery-33600%
Mike Schramm10.24.2008
Wrath lockboxes appear in Karazhan
We did a run through Karazhan last night, and not one but two of these popped up -- Froststeel Lockboxes apparently require 375 Lockpicking (the current limit is 350), and so we have no idea what this might hold. The Ashbringer? Frostmourne? It's Wrath gear for sure, but it could be anything!No, only joking -- of course it's probably just some Northrend green vendor trash (although item level 73... that might be pretty good). Too bad we won't know until someone hits level 75, as lockpicking's general skill formula is five times whatever your level is. But apparently the last patch added at least some higher level loot to the world drop tables -- any of you seen any Wrath greens or other gear randomly drop yet?
Mike Schramm10.18.2008
Phat Loot Phriday: Swiftsteel Bludgeon
Haven't done a Mace in a while, and there are surprisingly few melee maces floating around nowadays. Since Shamans can't wield swords, most of the really high end maces have spellpower on them. But here's one that's meant for cracking heads.Name: Swiftsteel Bludgeon (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDigger)Type: Epic One-hand MaceDamage/Speed: 105-196 / 1.50 (100.3 DPS)Abilities: Improves hit rating by 19, improves haste by 27, and increases attack power by 40. This isn't a weapon at the top of anybody's game (especially with the nerf to maces wielded by Rogues in 3.0.2). But it is good as a stopgap, especially for Fury Warriors in the offhand slot trying to spam Execute and needing a fast weapon to do so (at 1.50, this is definitely a fast weapon). But don't get too angry, commenters -- there are definitely plenty of other weapons to use at this level and above. The only reason you'd really jump on this one is if you're melee DPS in need of a nice Epic mace in Black Temple, and you're not first in line to grab any of the really great ones that come from the bosses. Not everybody gets to wield Warglaives or the Syphon, not right away. How to Get It: Drops from Black Temple trash, and seriously, have you been in there after the patch yet? It's a free-for-all. Blizzard's big solution to having no one see the endgame was to nerf it to oblivion before Wrath so everyone could get in there and get all of the Epic looting out of their system.So round up 24 friends (you'll still need to be at least a little epic before you go in there, don't skimp on the SSC and TK runs), head into BT, and loot the place for all it's worth. Eventually, this one will drop, and if you're a melee-er who needs a mace, win the roll and it's yours. Of course, you can expect it to be replaced in Northrend eventually, but who cares? An epic is an epic, right?Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, sells for 14g 1s 84c. Too bad you can't melt it down -- putting all your money into swiftsteel might actually be a pretty good idea in this economy.%Gallery-33600%
Mike Schramm10.17.2008
Mounts and Vanity Pets in Patch 3.0.2
One of the coolest changes in Patch 3.0.2 is the way mounts and vanity pets work. Done as a way to save bag space, this is great news for collectors and might even spur other players to start collecting, too. On live servers, pets and mounts summoned through the use of an item. When tomorrow's patch goes live, these pets and mounts will become consumable, single-charge items that teach you a spell to summon the relevant pet or mount. The pet or mount will then disappear from your inventory. Don't panic, those simply become spells that you will be able to access through your Character panel. There's a tab there labeled 'Pets', which will contain two sub-tabs called 'Companions' and 'Mounts'. Selected pets and mounts will be previewed in the window, and you can easily drag your pet and mount spells to your hotbars. Pets are instant cast spells that can be cast while moving and activate the GCD. You can create macros and key bindings for pets and mounts just as you would any other spell. %Gallery-34349%
Zach Yonzon10.13.2008
Blood Sport: Everything Savage, Hateful, and Deadly
I realize now that the debate about Arenas will never end. A lot of you don't like it -- this is apparently the wrong blog site to enthuse about it. But the fact is that Arenas are a big part of the World of Warcraft today. Some would say too big, but I personally think it fits its niche rather nicely. There's a lot of room for debate on this, and reading through everyone's comments in past columns, it's easy to see that there won't be any resolution to it. Well, we're not talking about that today. This column is for people who like Arenas. If you're not a big fan of the format, you can skip right to the end of the column and post your well thought-out arguments about it (a lot of you are very impassioned about the matter, and I'm greatly impressed) or you can skip to another post as we've got a lot of good reads elsewhere around the site. No, this column is for those Arena freaks, the guys who get giddy when the queue pops up and get an adrenaline rush when the gates open. The next Arena season is going to be fun. We'll have ten more levels to slog through and a lot of experimentation to do before we settle on a PvP groove and find out which specs and playstyles actually work for us. At the end of it all, when we finally hit Level 80, a new era of Arenas will begin and there'll actually be three tiers of gear to reward every level of play. For anyone who's ever stepped foot into an Arena and liked it, it promises to be the best season yet.
Zach Yonzon10.06.2008
Compare items on Wowhead
Wowhead keeps adding new features, I know. But this is a big one. Last night, while most of us were busy watching the vice-presidential debate, they launched a fairly sophisticated tool for comparing items or sets of items. Basically, you can add any item or set in the database, and group them up however you want (by dragging items between groups), and then compare groups against each other to see what stats you gain and lose on. There are tons of additional features to this tool, and it might be worth reading the instructions to see all of what you can do. Some things I particularly like: You can add stat weighting scales, to see (an estimation of) how good the item is overall for your class and spec. Click the scores to toggle the display format; I like the percentage display particularly, which shows the "best" group as 100% and everything else in terms of that. The "gains" row shows you in short what's different between your groups, by subtracting out all shared stats. All item listings on the site now feature checkboxes that you can use to quickly compare items. Each group has an option to view in 3D, so you can now finally use Wowhead as your dressing room: just create a group of items you want to look at, click the little triangle on the top bar of the group, and select "View in 3D." You can set one group as your "focus" by clicking the little eye icon, which shows all stats relative to that group. I will definitely be making use of this in the future; it's much easier than figuring it out in your head or making a spreadsheet.
Eliah Hecht10.03.2008
Phat Loot Phriday: Heroic Judicator's Chestguard
I'm not sure that we've ever done a plate chest here on the column, and I know for sure that we've never done a Pally chestpiece, so here you go.Name: Heroic Judicator's Chestguard (Wowhead, WowDB, WowProgress)Type: Epic Plate ChestpieceArmor: 1983 Armor (which is as good as it gets on that state for Plate chests)Abilities: +78 Stamina, +22 Intellect Three sockets, two blue and a yellow, with a socket bonus of +6 Stamina. Throw a Facet of Eternity or a Splendid Fire Opal in there. Whoops -- was gemming with a Warrior tank in mind. What do ya'll recommend for gems on this one? Yup, as you've probably already guessed, this is a chest for a tanking Pally. Not only does it have 29 Defense rating and 44 Dodge rating, but there's a damage and healing bonus on there of 60. As Prot Pally chests go, this is about as good as you'll get going into Wrath. And those sockets are super helpful, too -- you can up any of the various caps you're trying to hit, or just throw a little extra frosting on the cake if you're already maxed out. How to Get It: Entropius in the Sunwell Plateau drops this one -- he's actually what M'uru comes back as after you kill him (and as we noted very early on, the two have a similar shape, because they're basically two sides of the same being.So finish off M'uru in his weakened state, take out Entropius before his negative energy, like, really bums you out, man, and hope that this drops at a rate of about 10-15%. And be a Paladin, because seriously, nobody else would want this thing anyway.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, and sells back to vendors for 10g 56s 13c. If you've got a Sunmote, you can take this to Yrma in Quel'danas, and she'll give you a Noble Judicator's Chestguard for it (a Healing version of the same gear). And you might want to think about doing that, since the Death Knights are going to take all your tanking roles, amirite?!?Hey, lookit that! Phat Loot Phriday just recently turned the ripe old age of two by my count, and we've discovered, after two years and over one hundred ingame items, that it might be a good idea to put them all (or at least most of them), in gallery format for you to browse through. So click below to check out past Phat Loot and be sure to come back every Friday for more great gear on a Friday afternoon.%Gallery-33600%
Mike Schramm10.03.2008
Brewfest tip for casters: Get both spell trinkets
If you're like me, you've been madly farming the elusive Great Brewfest Kodo since Brewfest began. Even when I was having a bit of hand trouble, my little dwarf found his way into Blackrock Depths to do beer-laden battle with the big, bad, belligerent brewmaster. But there's an important tip that you should remember while Brewfest continues. The two spell trinkets are both useful to all spell casters (who don't out gear them) after the content patch unifies spell damage and spell healing into Spell Power. Right now, the Dark Iron Smoking Pipe is a spell damage trinket, and the Direbrew Hops is a healing trinket. But in the content patch, both will be turned to spell power -- the Pipe has 43 spell power and 155 on use, the Hops have 44 spell power, 153 on use. Of course, this begs the question about how the Pipe and Hops will compare to other trinkets when the patch hits. Timbal's Focusing Crystal from Heroic Magister's packs 44 spell power. You'll have to decide whether you want an on-use bonus 154ish spell power from the brewfest trinkets, or Timbal's on-use proc for 285 to 475 extra damage. The Hex Shrunken Head from Zul'Aman is a clear upgrade from the Hops and Pipe, since it has more constant spell power and high on-use spell power. Coren's dropped trinkets are equivalent to the 41-Badge trinkets purchaseable from G'eras. The Essence of the Martyr and Icon of the Silver Crescent are both slightly better than either Hops or Pipe since they have 44 spell power, and 158 spell power on use. But for 41 badges each, I'm probably not going to lose any sleep over 5 spell power every 2 minutes. [Thanks Rikitiki for the tip!]
Michael Gray09.30.2008
Terminal Tips: Make the Dock spring loaded
Spring-loaded Dock items, just like spring-loaded Finder items, are supposed to save you time by allowing you to drag a file over the folder/icon, hover for a few seconds, and have the application/folder open. Some people like these spring loaded items, while others don't -- with this Terminal "hack," you can either enable or disable this Dock feature. To enable it, open Terminal.app (located in /Applications/Utilities/) and type the following command, pressing enter:defaults write com.apple.dock enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items -boolean YESTo disable spring loaded items, replace the "YES" in the command above with a "NO." Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.
Cory Bohon09.24.2008
Interesting items in the data files
I've been looking through the Wowhead latest additions page, and found some interesting-looking things. Caveat: some of these are probably datamined, we may never see them in game, etc. Still, it's fun to look at. Intravenous Healing Potion. This does the same thing as Mage-summoned Conjured Mana Strudel (except for the whole group), and shares a cooldown with food. Despite the name, I'd say this is not meant to be used in combat. And based on the medical-themed name, I'd say it's probably going to be created via First Aid. Wintergrasp Commendation. Apparently bought with marks from Wintergrasp; the interesting thing here, of course, is that these are bind to account (BtA), so you can effectively PvP on one character and send honor to another. Does this open the door for my much-coveted BtA badge-type tokens? I hope so. Ghostly Skull. This small pet is apparently sold in Dalaran for 40g, and it looks awesome, in my opinion (see screenshot above -- the skull is in the top-left corner). I will be getting one as soon as possible on my DK. Tacky? Maybe. But I don't care. I like that Blizzard is going in a lot of different directions in LK; this really seems like more innovation than it was from classic to BC, from items to class skills to world environment. I'm sure there's more cool stuff that I've overlooked. Have you come across anything interesting, either in the beta or on the various sites?
Eliah Hecht09.23.2008
Tips for taking down Coren Direbrew
Like many players, I was really bummed to hear that the Brewfest mounts had been moved from tickets to the holiday boss -- I was really looking forward to racing those rams for tickets, and I'm not always the best at finding a group for myself. But I ran Direbrew with a full group twice over the weekend, and it's not too bad -- as long as you can five four other people, all "with summons" (which just means, I had to learn, that they haven't done the quest yet that day, so Direbrew will appear in BRD), it's a fairly easy fight. To start it all off, you've got to do the Welcome to Brewfest quest from the guy outside of Orgrimmar or Ironforge, and then pick up the Save Brewfest quest there as well before grabbing a group and heading to BRD.Update: Some people are saying you don't need the starter quests, which is probably true -- there's a quest NPC inside the instance, so probably all you need to do is talk to him. But it is important to not have done the quest already that day -- pickup groups won't take you if you've already summoned him that day, as that means they get one less chance at the loot.
Mike Schramm09.22.2008
Warrior tanking shields in Wrath
Many people are wondering how long their Aldori Legacy Defender or Bulwark of Azzinoth will be lasting them in WotLK. While there will be no definitive answer until the official release of Wrath when items are more or less finalized, we can take a look at the various shield options now and at least get a feel for when they'll be replaced.We'll compare shields by selecting a few key statistics: armor, block value, defense, and stamina. There might be other statistical factors in each shield, however these four values are the major stats that define a shield's power. We also show the strength on the shields which are coming in Wrath, since that attribute will be playing a larger role for the Protection Warrior post patch 3.0.2.Read on after the break for a statistical break down of shield options for the Warrior tank, and why the iconic Bulwark of Azzinoth won't be replaced until at least level 77, if not level 80.
Adam Holisky09.13.2008
Heirloom items are Bind to Account, scale with character level
I've a few alts. Actually, I have enough alts that my Guildmaster has chided me for trying to be a one-man Guild. I often create the alts to help friends level, but there's only so many hours in the day -- I can't really make sure every single alt has valid gear for their level. I'd like to be more effective on level-appropriate runs, but usually these guys are just tramping along on whatever quest gear happens to be available. The new Binds to Account gear is going to be incredibly helpful with that issue. You purchase these items with dungeon tokens (like Badges of Justice), but you can pass them around between characters even after use. (You just can't give them to other account-holders, they're only good for your characters.) Tigole calls these Heirloom items. The really cool thing about them, however, is that they scale with level. You can pick up the Dignified Headmaster's Charge, and use it at level 80. At that level, it gives you 93 Stamina. When your 80 gets an upgrade, pass the Charge down to your level 1 Warlock. For that guy, it'll give only 2 Stamina. The other neat factor about these Heirloom items is that their models are based off beloved old world items. The Dignified Headmaster's Charge, for example, is an item model familiar to those who farmed Darkmaster Gandling. So, we get to see some of the cooler looking items back in play again. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. [Via MMO-Champion]
Michael Gray09.11.2008