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Issues with the realm first achievements
Apparently there have been some mistakes made in the realm-first achievements being given out. You've probably seen these (Blizzard apparently broadcasts them across the realms) -- when someone hits level 80 or finishes a profession first, they attain a feat of strength achievement. They don't get the original titles, but they do get credit for getting their first.But on a few realms, Blizzard ended up giving some of the awards to multiple players, resulting in the ingame mail you see above. We're not sure if it's because they all hit within a certain time period, or whether Blizzard's servers weren't working correctly, but as you can see, they say the issue is fixed for now. If you did rush to be the first on a server, you can be satisfied that you're the only one.Thanks, Penny!
Encrypted Text: On our way to the top, part 1
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking experience of leveling from 70 to 80 in Northrend.Blizzard recently announced that December 16th would be the official start date of Arena Season 5. At just over 1 month from the launch of WotLK, it sounds like it's their expectation that a large number of players will be at the level cap and ready to PvP when the Season hits. While the numbers may make it seem like a daunting task, leveling in Northrend is easier than ever before. Rogues have it pretty good when it comes to questing and grinding. We're finely tuned killing machines with the defensive capabilities to prevent unnecessary deaths and the offensive capabilities to turn those Group quests into solo outings. I've been fielding several questions from other Rogues about where to level, questing tips, and gear choices. After the cut, I'll break down the first couple levels of the trek to 80 and share what I've learned so far.
The best of WoW Insider: November 11-18, 2008
Wrath of the Lich King is open for business. The game's second expansion showed up on store shelves last week, and Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider has been covering (and playing) it ever since. Whether you're a Northrend newbie or have been playing since beta started, odds are there's news you need on our site. Check our most popular links below, and keep up on the blog itself as you level up to 80. The Lich King awaits -- we're here to make sure you're ready. News Bug rewards free and discounted PvP gearRight before the expansion, Blizzard made a mistake, and ended up giving out some good gear (and then taking it away again). Nymh of EU Drek'thar first to level 80Just about a day after the expansion was released, we had our first level 80 character. World first level 80 Death KnightAnd later in the weekend, someone took a Death Knight to level 80 (quite a feat -- they had to go from level 55). TwentyFifthNovember clears all Wrath PvE contentAnd just to complete the trilogy of content-clearing feats, a merged superguild also stepped up and cleared all the endgame content over the weekend. Fifteen-year-old collapses after playing Wrath for hours on no sleep or foodThis just in: avoiding sleep or food is not healthy. Features The Wrath of the Lich King Death Knight roundupEverything you ever wanted to know about the game's new Hero class. The Queue: Yes, this is what we call it nowSince the beta is over, our Ask a Beta Tester column undergoes a name change, but still answers all of your questions about the game and how it plays. Wrath 101: How to get to Northrend and where to go once you get thereLost looking for the new content. Here's help. And also check our Alliance and Horde flight point guides. Wrath profession goodiesThere's a whole new swatch of profession items to make out there, so we've got tips on where to begin. Wrath of the Lich King: Midnight approachesWe were at midnight launches all over the country, and we brought back pictures and stories from fans of all kinds.
WoW Insider speaks with Nymh, world first level 80
Wrath of the Lich King has only been live for a little under a week, and already players are tearing through its many challenges. Blizzard once said that players have a voracious appetite for new content, as soon as something is released they need to start on something else. Wrath has really driven that point home.The first of many firsts was Nymh, world first player to level 80. WoW Insider had an opportunity to talk to him directly about his journey to level 80, and just what inspired it. Read on to see what he (and we) had to say!
Ready Check: Preparing for Wrath raiding
Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we venture into new (well, sort of) territory...While many people are taking a leisurely stroll towards 80, seeing the sights and exploring all the new content, there's a sizeable contingent of players racing to get to the level cap as soon as possible so the real fun can begin. Many of these are aiming to raid immediately, but there's a lot of catching up to do before our WotLK endgame knowledge matches the depth of its TBC counterpart.So if you are planning to raid early on, and are wondering about gear, preparation and whether you should buy that mammoth or not, we're here to help.
Bat boy steals Wrath
Bat Boy, everyone's favorite tabloid freak, has gotten in on the Wrath of the Lich King fervor -- unfortunately, he's too young (and creepy) to actually earn money, so instead he reportedly (reported by the Weekly World News, of course, your number one source for Bat Boy news) scared a Warcraft fan, causing him to drop his copy, and sending Bat Boy off to Northrend to level up to 80 with the rest of us. You can add "stealing the expansion" to the list of crimes Bat Boy's already perpetrated.Bat Boy could not be reached for comment for this story, which is too bad -- we really wanted to know what class the West Virginia legend plays (is that an Undead Warlock on the screen? And why doesn't he have any skills on his action bars?), and whether he started in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra.Thanks, JPM!
World first Level 80 Death Knight?
A screenshot and a quick Armory check shows that Dessembrae of Mazrigos-EU is quite possibly the world's first Level 80 Death Knight. Unless proven otherwise, Dessembrae earned the feat at around 19:00 CET. Deathknight.info, the resource for all things Death Knight, reports the achievement after making a call-out to all Death Knight enthusiasts. It appears that Dessembrae overtook Arello, whose Death Knight reportedly hit 70 ahead of everyone else. It's quite apparent that the early launch of the game in European realms proved to be too much of a hurdle for US realm-based players as most major achievements were obtained by European players such as the first player to Level 80, and even the mastery of all current PvE content. With most world first and realm first Achievements getting snapped up, it looks as though it'll soon be time for most players to settle into a more comfortable groove. That is, um, maybe actually enjoying the scenery.
And the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 is...
Nymh, Human Warlock of the EU server Drek'thar (and the real-world country of France) became the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 by working with an out-of-group Priest to spam area-of-effect attacks against rapidly-spawning mid-70s mobs, inspired by the technique of another World of Warcraft Warlock player named Jynxx, who eloquently explained the concept in a video (Note: probably won't make much sense if you're not a WoW addict already).Time from 70 to 80: 27 hours.Nymh did a lot of research and trial-and-error exploration of options in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test in order to be ready for the gauntlet after the EU launch, which of course came a little bit before the North American one. We'll note that the first-to-level-70-after-launch trophy went to another French player last year. Vive la France, no?[Via WoW Insider]
What level are you?
I think it's safe to say a good chunk of us have been able to play Wrath at least a little bit by now. What do you think? How's your leveling going? I managed to hit level 72 yesterday before I retired for the night, and while I'm not leveling as quickly as I'd like, I've deemed my progress acceptable. I did some pretty serious beta testing during the Wrath beta, so I've quested through every single Northrend zone already.While I love the content and don't really mind doing it a second time, I'll admit that Nymh's accomplishment makes me a little jealous. At least that way if I could finish up with my main in a day or two, I could go right into my alts (who I didn't get to play much in the beta) until my friends caught up. It'd make things feel a little more new to me than they are. That's not really something I'm able to do though, so level 72 it is. I'm going to aim for a level a day, and if I manage something at least close to that I'll be happy. Do we have anyone nearing 80, or in the high-70s reading WoW Insider this morning? My server has a few already, so it wouldn't surprise me much at all!
First level 70 Death Knight on the realms
Odds are, I'd say, that we'll see our first level 80 sometime this afternoon (and probably in Europe, since they got a little bit of a time zone head start) -- we've had reports come in from one very obnoxious Paladin, but his claims to level 80 aren't actually true. But in the meantime, here's the first level 70 Death Knight we've heard of: Arello of Raptors Open Doors on Shattered Hand dinged 70 as a Death Knight in Northrend's New Agamand. The Armory doesn't have his character in yet, but this seems credible to us.We're not sure he's the absolute first, though, just the first we've heard of -- anyone else have proof of a Death Knight at 70 already? And we'll keep an eye out for (credible) claims of level 80 firsts -- the run from level 60 to 70 took about 28 hours the first time around, so unless Blizzard did things a lot different, we'll probably see it sometime today.
Xfire's WotLK "Race to 80" contest registration extended until tomorrow
Ready! Set! Grind!The folks at Xfire have announced a 2-day extension to their "Race to 80" contest for the upcoming World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This contest will reward the first player to hit level 80 in Blizzard's newest WoW expansion, with a high-end gaming PC as the grand prize.Haven't heard of this contest yet? Head on over to their official rules page to check out all the info you'll need and register before tomorrow for a chance at the grand prize. Not only will this be an exciting event for the contestants, but Xfire members will actually be able to watch the race, listen to the shoutcast and discuss the race in their dedicated chat rooms as it all unfolds.
The Art of War(craft): The limbo season
Welcome to the most worthless Season ever. This Arena period, not technically a season because there are no associated rewards, is a season in limbo. The end-of-season rewards for Season 4 have been handed out -- incorrectly in some cases -- and there is no scheduled end to the current one with no new gear will be released for Level 70 players. Unlike in the past, this season has an indefinite end for Level 70 players and no foreseeable continuity with future Arena Seasons which will be focused on Level 80 play. Ironically, this is also the best season for a lot of players to catch up on their Arena gear. For one thing, the top Arena players no longer have anything to play for. Most have already gotten full Brutal Gladiator sets, their titles and / or mounts, and have no incentive to continue participating in Arenas. Because Arena points are wiped the moment a character levels to 71, players who have all the gear have no point in accumulating it. Because there are no end-of-season rewards, ratings don't mean anything. Lastly, dedicated Arena players typically use one season to gear up for the next. Because the next stage of meaningful competitive play is at Level 80, this makes the current season's gear useless for future Arena PvP.
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?
How long before level 80?
Otrebla asks a good question on the forums: how long, do you think, will it take before we see our first level 80 character? He wasn't around during the BC launch, but I was, and you could literally watch people level in the /who -- a few hours after launch, I saw some 64s pop up, and maybe 36 hours or so after the game's midnight release, I did a "/who level 70," and sure enough, there were a few names floating around in there.Of course, the level 80 titles have been removed, so there's not any real ingame need to rush to level 80, but people will of course do it anyway. Odds are that within the first day after release, we'll see a few level 80s floating around, and I'd imagine that all of the various realms will have at least one or two level 80s within the first few days. The fastest people will do it with the help of their guildies (or saved quest items), but there'll probably be a few people who will just go nuts and get it done all on their own.I won't be one of them, and I'm sure there are plenty of players like me, who are more interested in seeing the content rather than reaching the next highest level as fast as possible (and that's exactly what Zarhym recommends as well). A few people will race to 80, no question, but the vast majority of people playing will likely be taking their sweet time.
Premade beta toons available again -- for real
After the false alarm a few days ago, premade characters are available for copy to the US Wrath beta PvP realm Murmur. (Apparently, the realm was called "Murmer" up until a few hours ago. I guess Blizzard decided on a last minute spell check.) I have firsthand knowledge that the character copy now works because I copied three toons this morning and less than two hours later they are now playable. If you have a beta key and you want to play on the PvP server, keep in mind a few things: You can only choose all Horde or all Alliance toons because it's a PvP server. You can copy up to three level 80 characters, stacked with top-notch PvP gear. This server is designed to test Wintergrasp. Other PvE areas like Azeroth and Outland may not be available for play on this server. If you like Night Elves, you're stuck playing a Druid. Dwarves, on the other hand, get a choice of three classes (Hunter, Priest, or Warrior). Every other race gets two classes each. Right now the wait time is only a couple of hours. It will get longer as more people copy toons. So go over there ASAP. Commenters have (sad to say, rightly) accused me of a US bias in my posts so I did some extra research on the this topic for our EU readers. The EU servers do not have premade templates available because -- at the moment, at least -- there is no Murmur-equivalent beta realm available to them. Sorry, folks. We'll keep you posted if that changes.
Premades now available in Wrath beta
The option was just opened up to create premade level 80 characters on the LK beta realms. Up till now in the beta premades had not been available, and we don't know exactly what kind of gear they'll have, but my guess would be blues. None of the high-end content has been implemented yet as far as I know; however, Daelo did say that Naxxramas, the first raid, will be open "soon" in both 10- and 25-man editions, and will have loot in. So hopefully we'll be able to see just what they're planning on doing for the different gear in 10s and 25s. If you're in the beta, you're eligible for three premades, so get cracking if you want to play in the deep end.[Thanks, Kenzi]
Realm first level 80 titles removed
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/First_to_level_80_titles_removed_from_WotLK'; The Feats of Strength for realm-firsts have been raising some controversy for a little while now. Briefly, the worry is that it only rewards people who are willing and able to either play 24 hours a day from when Wrath is released to when they reach their goal, or share their account with friends and play in shifts. Either way, it's not really a measure of skill or accomplishment so much as a measure of who's got a lot of uninterrupted time on their hands. There is additional worry that playing for 24+ hours straight is just not healthy, and Blizzard probably doesn't want people rushing through the content either. So it is with some pleasure that I report that the titles for the feats of strength for realm-first level 80 with each class, for first 80 on each realm, and for first to 450 in the various professions are being removed. The title for realm-first Northrend Vanguard (achieve exalted with various factions) is also getting removed. Note that the Feats of Strength themselves are still in – the game still keeps track of who got to 80 first, and will tell you if it's you – but there's no longer a title to show off for other players. This is an interesting compromise; the feat is still noted, but there's much less incentive to do it now. Finally, Tigole notes that the realm-first boss kills will still give titles, which is as it should be in my book. Given raid lockouts, you couldn't raid 24/7 even if you wanted to, so this is more of an indication of skill. One interesting alternative, for those who still want titles like this to be in the game, is presented on Blessing of Kings. Basically, the suggestion is that the titles should be given to those who take the least time /played to get from 70 to 80. This would mean you'd have to optimize your playing in a different way, and it would also mean you could lose the title if someone outdoes you in the future, which I see as a plus (though some here at WoW Insider vigorously disagree with me). Edit: on second thought, I agree that this is probably not a great idea. Hopefully they'll come up with some kind of very long questline for each class or something.
Skill Mastery: Army of the Dead
Ever since we first heard about the spell, I have been without a doubt drooling over Army of the Dead. This level 80 Death Knight spell allows you to summon an army to your beck and call. In specific, it's a 6 second channel spell that summons several weak undead to taunt and fight your enemies. In addition, you take less damage equal to your dodge plus parry chance. It costs one of each basic rune type, and has a 10 minute 20 minute cooldown (You see how swiftly things change in the Beta?). You can see the spell in action above (video found on Deathknight.info). You may notice some problems. For example, some the ghouls stand around and do nothing. In addition, the damage reduction on channeling does not seem to be working. Still, it's pretty cool seeing all those ghouls decend on the enemy, even if they are lowbie scarlets.
Spiritual Guidance: Holy talents - Did we get the shaft in Wrath?
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Matt scored a beta key and busied himself speccing and respeccing his Priest multiple times. This week, he takes time off to answer an important question about the Holy tree: Is it worth getting excited over? Generally, the new Holy Priests' talents in WotLK beta seem pretty underwhelming. Compare the flashy things some classes are getting, and take a look at Holy Priests... did we really need a THIRD talent to increase healing of some spells by 10%? Especially since the second one (Empowered Healing) was nerfed to always be weaker then the first one (Spiritual Healing). Yet another +healing talent for a different set of spells just smells like "we needed a talent to fill this spot and had absolutely no ideas." The way it looks right now, I expect that I'll be healing pretty much exactly the same way at 80 as I am right now - except without down ranking. So, how about it, WI? Has anything really changed for Holy Priest healing? The short answer would be no.
Level 80 and other major new highlights from the Beta [Updated]
Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan posted several new changes that are appearing in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta tonight. The highlights include: Level cap raised to 80. Less XP required for 70 to 80* Storm Peaks zone available, Icecrown unavailable. Follow dungeons available: Halls of Lightning Halls of Stone Caverns of Time: Stratholme The Occulus Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic Nexus Tigole also notes that premade characters will be made available at a later date on a different server. It looks like they'll actually be doing this now. More changes and analysis of the latest Beta patch to come throughout the evening. Stay tuned.*We did some rough calculations. Daniel's Hunter was approximately 50% of the way through level 70. His hunter is now 60% of the way through level 70. Thus, the XP required to level was reduced by approximately 20%. These are just rough estimates, and no official word on the percentage has came out yet.Update 11:49 p.m. EDT: Zarhym has said that patch notes are still being compiled. We'll have them up as soon as Blizzard releases them.
