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Phat Loot Phriday: Star's Tears
"Water?" I hear you asking. How could plain old mana water be Phat Loot? But this is no ordinary water, my friends -- it's also known as Cheater's Juice. This, dear readers, is Arena water.Name: Star's Tears (Thottbot, Wowhead)Type: Common ConsumableDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: Requires level 65. On drinking, restores 7200 mana over 30 seconds. Which isn't that great -- you can get this water from any Mage, right? But this water doesn't come from a Mage, and that's what's so special about it. It's the cheapest vendor water you can buy -- just 25s and two (that's right, two) Honor points per 5, in stacks of 20. Just one BG will earn you enough to not worry about the Honor points, and overall, you'll save money (probably even cheaper than that Mage you're tipping every time you log in) every time you buy it. And, as Arena players all know, this is the only non-Mage water usable in the Arenas. As the tooltip says, it's "carefully extracted for warfare use," so Arena players who can duck out of combat (Hunters, for example, can Feign Death out of combat and drink) can get back some mana fast even without a Mage in the group. Plus, as all Warcraft players (and bloggers) know, tears are the tastiest drink of all. Mmmmm tears. QQ moar pls. How to Get It: This tasty drink is just a vendor away -- you've got to run to the Officer Accessories Quartermaster in each capital city to pick up your couple of stacks. That's Brave Stonehide in Orgrimmar, and Master Sargeant Biggins in Stormwind City. Give them your money and a couple of Honor points, and the drink is yours. Who needs Mages anyway?Getting Rid of It: You could, um, drink it? Otherwise, you can sell it back to the vendor for 1s 25c, which is suprising -- these are the tears of stars, people! Famous people cried their eyes out just so you could have these!
Forum post of the day: Vicarious' legend
That was odd. I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of hunters suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. -Matticus var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Worst_Guild_Leader_ever_in_the_history_of_World_of_Warcraft'; It was inevitable, it had to happen. Someday, the legendary bow, Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury would be handed over to a Rogue. It so happens this fantastic weapon dropped to the Vicarious guild of Area 52. Analogkid was awarded the bow in the company of two Hunters. Needless to say the Hunters are upset, and the post brought about an outcry from many posters along with a considerable amount of drama. Many believe that this bow belongs in the hands of Hunters, regardless of the situation.
Blizzard confirms retroactive achievements, when possible
Ever since achievements were announced, the question I've heard the most from players has been about whether what they've already done will count. I attemped to answer this with a little bit of speculation last week, and today Tigole has basically confirmed what we'd already said: that where possible, Blizzard will award achievements retroactively.As we said last week, things like reputations and quests are easy to track -- other than dailies, you can't do the same quest twice, so it's easy for Blizzard to know, since day one, which quests you've done. And if a quest takes you to kill, say Onyxia, and you've completed it, then obviously you've got the achievement. Where it gets a little fuzzier is if you haven't done that quest, but you have killed Onyxia -- Blizzard probably doesn't even know yet if they'll do things like look for specific loot from certain bosses in a character's history, or if they'll extrapolate things even farther -- if you're Exalted with Hydraxian Waterlords, does that mean you've cleared MC?But Tigole does say that Blizzard is making a conscious decision to be as inclusive as possible on these old achievements -- whenever they can, they'll reward credit rather than making you go back to redo old content. That's a good choice -- it does mean that a few people will get angry for not getting the achievement because they killed the boss but didn't do the quest, but the alternative, awarding no retroactive achievements at all, would be even more frustrating.
Guildwatch: Giving out epic gems to scrubs
It's strange how just one little action or one little phrase can completely unravel a whole guild ingame. Of course, you could argue that guilds are ad hoc organizations anyway, and that it shouldn't be surprising that it doesn't take much to knock down a house of cards built only through text on a screen. But for a lot of people, their guildies are good friends and fellow players, and yet one misplaced phrase or piece of loot given out the wrong way can make those ties snap right apart.There's plenty of that in this week's Guildwatch, along with better news (downings from around the realms), and your chance to get in on some of those weak ties (recruiting notices). Click the link below to see the 'Watch, and send your tips to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Because as weak as these ad hoc ties may be, they're still worth having.
Officers' Quarters: Spawning grounds
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, especially after the Wrath of the Lich King beta went live last week. In many cases, hardcore raiding guilds just aren't making the Big Push anymore. Many have simply disbanded. Prior to the expansion, there really isn't much reason for raiders to keep going at the same pace, unless there's still content they haven't seen. So what are all these raiders doing in the meantime? Some, much like salmon, are instinctively returning to the ancestral casual guilds where they first spawned. But should those guilds take them back? This week's e-mail asks exactly that.Hello Scott:I am a high ranking officer in a casual raiding guild on Khadgar.Recently several top raiding guilds on my server are dissolving. Our guild is a casual raiding guild that are slowly progressing in SSC. We received several requests from former guild member that express interest in coming back into the guild. Most of them said they miss the friendly and fun environment our guild provides while still doing decent raiding.
The Daily Grind: should your gear determine your look?
There's a story from City of Heroes of how a veteran player, who'd chosen bright and shiny medieval-style armor for his character, mercilessly teased a newbie by boasting of how he'd gotten the armor in an epic loot drop. As any CoX player knows, your costume has nothing to do with your powers. Although powers can cause obligatory aura effects, such as a fiery glow, and some powers give you a weapon, the character's physical appearance is almost entirely up to the player.By contrast, games that involve gear (such as WoW and AoC) give you the chance to show off the uber loot you've gone to the trouble of getting. The plus side is that everyone can see your cool stuff; the downside is that the very coolest stuff tends to be worn by everyone who can get it, resulting in hordes of people who look much the same. The best gear for any given stage of the game isn't guaranteed to be what you'd like to wear, appearance-wise. You either have to compromise your character's looks or their abilities. Even gear-centric games tend to let you make some concessions, such as making your helmet invisible. Would you like to see more changes along these lines? Would a piece of uber gear still count for as much if people couldn't recognise it? Is it simple common sense to have your gear determine how you look, or is that an outmoded game concept that should be abandoned in favor of optimum customization?
UDE Tabards delayed until August
If you remember way back to the end of June, we told you about the new tabards available for purchase using your UDE points from the WoW Trading Card Game. At the time, Upper Deck said the new tabards would be included with patch 2.4.3. Well, 2.4.3 is here, but the tabards are sadly not. According to UDE_Patrick, the plan for releasing the tabards is now a little different. The first tabard will be available on August 1st, and each additional tabard will be added one at a time over "several months." He doesn't really specify why this change has been made, or even which tabard will be first. Some of us will obviously be disapponted (like tipster Donna, who already has ample points to pick up one for her, and one for her boyfriend). Some of us will have a little more time to pick up more points in before the release, and maybe score some of the cool loot cards from the new set.
Officers' Quarters: Pointing fingers
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.In an online environment where people rarely, if ever, come face-to-face, it can be quite easy for misunderstandings to occur. Ninety percent of the time, these misunderstandings happen because someone makes an assumption about another player's intentions based on something they did or said. In those circumstances, who is to blame: the person who didn't make their communication or intentions clear, or the person who jumped to conclusions? In my opinion, both share fault, but pointing fingers gets us nowhere. This week's e-mail is a good example:I was just booted from a guild and I have a question about the circumstance. I took an enchanting recipe from the guild recipe tab and learned it. They accidentally put it into the wrong tab, so instead of the private tab they put it into the open guild tab. I apparently wasn't supposed to have it and was booted. Now I have a guild harassing me and demanding I replace the pattern. I would like to but it won't get me back into the guild but it might hurt my chances for getting into another guild. What should i do and is it really my fault?
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite loot system?
Loot. As a raider, it is both boon and bane to us. If you're in a guild that has a system you can agree with, then loot can be a wonderful thing. However, if not, loot can often destroy morale and even take entire raiding guilds under. We've all heard stories of the inevitable blow-up that occurs after the piece someone's been after forever goes to someone who just joined the guild. That said, as we know we have lots and lots of people with quite a bit of MMOG experience out there, we thought we'd ask you what loot systems you prefer for raiding? Do you still think the oldest is best, and like to run with DKP (Dragon Kill Points), or are you all about the roll and distribute. Perhaps you prefer one of the other systems like Suicide Kings, which goes down a list that moves based on who attends and doesn't loot (thus heading for the top) versus those who attend and loot (who land at the bottom). We're curious what you think is best for keeping raid looting "fair."
Phat Loot Phriday: Hypnotist's Watch
The post about trash and trinkets earlier this week reminded me of this item that we've never covered on PLP before. It's very class specific (hence the "trash and trinkets" argument), but for the right situation, it's pretty useful.Name: Hypnotist's Watch (Wowhead, Thottbot, Goblin Workshop)Type: Uncommon TrinketDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: Use: Reduces your threat to enemy targets within 30 yards, making them less likely to attack you. Cooldown of five minutes, which means you're meant to use it a little less than every other fight -- usually only in situations where you need it. A two-minute trinket is meant to be used more often obviously (and you already know by now that you should be using trinkets as much as possible, right?), but this one is a little more special. Most people say it reduces threat by about 720, which isn't much (and there are a few other trinkets floating around that will do more). But this one is super easy to get, and in a few situations, 720 threat is all you need. Like which situations? Pets, mostly -- Warlocks or Hunters who accidentally pull aggro off their pets while leveling can pop this one and sent mobs back to their mini-tanks. DPS Warriors and Rogues can also use it as a preventative measure in instances, though in most cases there, you'll want to stick to DPS trinkets and rely on your usual threat management abilities to keep things controlled. This trinket is more for when you want to mess around solo, not when you're in a group and other people are depending on you. And one more thing: this trinket drops threat, but doesn't erase it. It won't make you lose aggro completely, like Vanish or Feign Death -- all it does is drop the threat numbers, and someone else (or your pet) has to be there to pick the mob up. How to Get It: This is husky loot today -- most of the items we've done the past few weeks are hardcore endgame raiding items, so here's one everyone can get. Everyone that can navigate Hellfire Peninsula, that is -- you'll want to talk to "Screaming" Screed Luckhead, who is one of the goblins near the wrecked Zepplin in the southwest part of the peninsula. He'll have you do a quest to pick up zepplin pieces, and then run you far south to the Warp Fields, where you'll have to kill Voidwalkers and steal their essence (of course, this is right near the Ravager nests down there, and near the Human ghosts area, so you'll probably want to chain quests by this point).Do the Voidwalker thing (the quest is called "Voidwalkers Gone Wild" -- cute), and then bring the essences back to Luckhead to claim your trinket.Getting Rid of It: By level 68, there are a few other threat trinkets which will serve you better, and by then hopefully you've learned how to control your threat anyway and have a much better DPS or utility trinket to use. This one will disenchant into an Arcane Dust, a Lesser Planar Essence, or a small chance of a Small Prismatic Shard, and will sell to vendors for 74s 64c. You are getting very sleepy...
Guildwatch: It's not stealing, it's a ninja
That's Alyxandria of All That Remains on Sisters of Elune, professing the opinion that the stuff her guildies stole from Just a Game on the same server isn't being given back. Apparently taking a bunch of stuff out of the guild bank and then /gquitting doesn't count as stealing -- we'll leave you all to decide the morality there.For our part, we don't judge, we just report on all the guild drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. If you've got some, feel free to send us a tip, anonymous as you'd like, at wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Whether it's a particularly interesting screenshot of chat (as above), or an all out hilarious forum thread, or just news that your guild has downed a boss they've never downed before, please let us know, and you can see it here next week.
WoW Insider Weekly
We post a lot of stuff here at WoW Insider, and chances are that you missed some of our weekly features. But don't fret it -- here are our top weekly features from the last seven days, so if you missed them the first time around, we're here to make sure that doesn't happen again. Raid Rx: Analyzing your healers, part 3Marcie Knox continues her series on how to get the most of your healers during a raid. Officers' Quarters: Cracking the whipHow to keep your guild rolling all the way up through the expansion. Ask WoW Insider: When to gem and enchantOur readers sound off on the best time to take advantage of getting your gear min-maxed with gems and enchants. Spiritual Guidance: Seven tips to prepare your Priest for WrathMatt "Matticus" Low gives you a nice checklist for getting your Priest ready to head up to Northrend. More of our great weekly content after the break.
Video of the new TCG loot in action
Last week we told you about the new loot Upper Deck was launching a new expansion to WoW TCG. We even showed you pictures of what the cool new stuff will like for Patch 2.4.3. Well, now you can see these juicy tidbits in action with our movie of them. You'll see us testing The Path of Illidan, trailing green felfire from our footsteps while running, jumping and even dancing. We've also got video of a few cross-faction D.I.S.C.O. parties gettin' down and funky, with the music and sparkly lights. It was dance fever! Then it was time to try out the Ethereal Soul-trader. He announces himself as if your life is finally complete and follows you around very dutifully. Enjoy the movie - Adam, Zach, and I sure enjoyed making it for you!
5 loot ranking sites to check out
I am often flummoxed when trying to decide which piece of loot to take from a quest or to purchase for an upgrade. I end up doing math on index cards or, if I'm really desperate, cranking out Excel and going for full-on geekery. Sometimes, though, this seems like way too much trouble and I will probably end up dumping the thing soon anyway. Although the Armory offers a "find an upgrade" tool, it's simply a list of items with stats. I still end up doing the math. So I went searching for some easier ways to figure out my next best loot options and here I share them with you. Kaliban's Class Loot Lists - Probably considered the gold standard of loot resource sites. Choose your class and then slice and dice until you find your perfect match. I found loot for level 68+. Loot Rank - Lets you enter complex stat requirements and weight the stats you like best. It seems targeted to endgame players for the most part. Lootzor - Lets you choose any level gear and even normal instance gear. Weighted stats. ShadowPanther - Rogues R us. Breaks down recommendations by every category imaginable. Druid Wiki - Recommendations for druids of all specs, including a section called "Must have quest rewards."
MMO MMOnkey: The greed game
Take a look at the world around you.Tell me, why is there so much need?Because of greed.Because of greed. Damien Dempsey, "Celtic Tiger"(From the album Seize the Day) Greed. Countries go to war so that the powerful can take land, gold, oil from the weak, can kill them and take their stuff. Greed. The richest 1% of the population of the United States control over 30% of the country's wealth as they clamor for and are given massive tax cuts by the government while, by the government's own estimates, roughly 12.5% of its citizens live in poverty. Greed. Corporate executives with multimillion dollar salaries lie, cheat, steal and commit fraud as they gut their companies and destroy the jobs, lives, retirement funds and futures of their employees. Greed. No matter how much they have, they want more. No matter how little you have, they want more. Greed. It infests our countries, our governments, our corporations and businesses. It infests our favorite MMOs.
Guildwatch: His name is Rob Parkins
Whatever you do, don't get Rob Parkins angry. That's the lesson Nucholza learned when he watched a Warlock named Adriyel die to a double pull, and then nabbed one of the mobs (and the Fel Lotus it dropped) away. The good news is, Rob Parkins isn't for sale: Nucholza's account never did get "scrubbed." But be careful whose loot you gank -- you never know who's first cousins with Rob Parkins.That bit of funny drama and more, all after the break in this week's Guildwatch. And don't forget that your tips help fuel our column -- send in drama, downed, and recruiting notices (and make sure to include your guild and server, as in "US Cenarius-A") to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Whether it's your guild's proud downing, or a rival guild's juicy drama on their forums, send it to us so we can all enjoy it!
Ask WoW Insider: /roll abuse?
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week Urdunai writes in:Hey WoW Insider, This week I have a question about rolling, as in /roll, and the proper use of it. I was recently on a run of Zul'Farrak with my Shaman, a guildmate Fury Warrior, a Healadin, and a Tankadin. The 2 *adins were dating or some such, I'm not sure but it's important to the story. The run had been going really well, and everyone was being very polite on loot drops. Whenever a Blue item would drop everyone would pass and we would discuss it. This is generally not a practice I approve of (The Need and Greed buttons are there for a reason, blizzard was nice enough to provide them) but that was the group's consensus so I kept my mouth shut and did it.
Making/Money: MUDflation IG vs. IRL
We have tackled the subject of mudflation tangentially a few times of late. It seems to have suddenly become the economic buzzword of MMOs. We have all experienced it. We have come to expect, if not accept, it as part of the games we love to play. And though Wikipedia, in its infinite wisdom, has dubbed it an in-game only phenomenon, I posit a different approach to looking at this occurrence. Mudflation is an immediate devaluation of previously owned items due to the gain or release of newly available items. This is not unlike technological advance in that the release of the latest new toy makes all others somewhat obsolete. The differences here are the perceived need for the item, the amount of devaluation, and the time frame in which this occurs.
Forum Post of the Day: To each according to his need
It seems the vast majority of drama we've heard regarding guild banks comes from ninja schemes and disgruntled members. Vaela of Hyjal expressed her exasperation with guild banks in the Guild Relations forum. She feels that there is an imbalance between players who donate resources to the guild bank and those who make the most withdrawals. The original poster asked for suggestions on systems to fairly distribute guild bank resources. The responses focused on cooperation and reciprocity with the guild bank. The purpose of the guild bank is to fun the guild's activities and exchange objects of value. In the end, the system comes off as a communist type of public ownership arrangement, as opposed to the free trade system that rules the auction house. To quote Karl Marx, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Communism as we've known it has largely failed, most likely because people don't fully buy into the system.
EVE Evolved: EVE Online PvP vs Age of Conan PvP
Before I started playing Age of Conan, I had a very strict mindset on how a PvP MMO should and shouldn't work. From my experiences in EVE Online, I was convinced that good open world PvP was not possible with a level system or exotic gear. I was pleasantly surprised to find that although these games are worlds apart, their PvP styles both work and are both fun. In this article, I compare and contrast my PvP experiences so far in Age of Conan with those in EVE Online.Open world PvP:One of the main features of both EVE and Age of Conan is an open world PvP scheme that allows players to attack each other anywhere within reason. Age of Conan achieves this scheme by designating certain zones as PvP areas. These areas contain the monsters and quest targets required to level up, making players to put themselves at risk to reap the rewards of levelling up quickly. Towns and the areas around them are designated safe areas where PvP is physically impossible.Read on as I discuss important PvP issues ranging from death penalty and group gameplay to equipment types and game server model.
