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PvP for PvE on the PTR
The changes just keep on coming, and at the oddest times too. The following was just unlocked on the patch 2.4 PTR: Arena gear is now obtainable in exchange for PvE tokens. According to World of Raids, Tier 4 tokens will get you season 1 gear, T5/6 will get you season 2, and the new Sunwell T6 tokens will get you Vindicator gear. You can also, apparently, exchange Badges of Justice for "all PvP gear," as pictured.What does this change signify? Yet again, Blizz is trying to open up progression. Whether this is in advance of Wrath, when this all will be relatively meaningless, or simply in response to continuing pressure for advancement from players, this is probably a change that will be lauded by those who don't already have what it gives. If you've got this arena gear already, it might seem unfair that people can get it through alternate paths, and maybe it is. But I like that Blizz keeps trying to make it easier to be versatile in the game, to not just have to devote yourself to either PvE or PvP. Players being able to take advantage of all the game has to offer is key to its continued success.
What you need to know about WoW patch 2.4: Sunwell Isle
The new WoW patch 2.4 is already up on the Public Test Realms, and we're here to help players parse all the changes coming in 2.4 as well as what's new in Sunwell Isle content. Check out the patch notes and highlights below plus a compendium of new items and other changes after the break. PATCH NOTES: 2.4 Patch notes are upThe Sunwell Isle is now available for play. This area includes a new quest hub and 5-player and 25-player instances. Join the Shattered Sun Offensive in shutting down Kael'thas' nefarious operations. This new force is comprised by both the Aldor and Scryers and is led by the Naaru. Players will take part in claiming Sun's Reach and setting up a larger base of operation to stop Kael'thas and the Legion. PATCH NOTES HIGHLIGHTS:What you really want to know about the patch 2.4 notes Yeah yeah, the full patch notes are a good read, but why read those when we can pull the good stuff out? Here's what we thought was big in patch 2.4. Gallery: Patch 2.4 Sunwell Isle
Breakfast Topic: Gearing up for the patch
With all the buzz about patch 2.4 notes and the public test realm it's time to start gearing up for the Sunwell Plateau. Those brave enough to enter the newest high end raid will be getting a shot at some pretty awesome loot. Many players are chomping at the bit to see the new end-game content and add to their repertoire of daily quests. The patch will feature a brand-spanking-new 25-person instance that finishes off the Burning Crusade raid progression. The new instance will prove more challenging than the Black Temple. Players should be adorned in Tier 6 gear, and can expect better drops including the legendary Thor'idal, the Stars' Fury. Even after the patch goes live, it will take some time for guilds to unlock the final bosses. The first three bosses will be available to all adventurers, but players will have to perform daily quests for Shattered Sun reputation before the last three bosses become available. Are you ready for the new challenge? If you're interested in seeing the end game content, but not in a raiding guild, be sure to check WoW Insider's GuildWatch. Our Mike Schramm regularly serves up information on guild progression and recruiting. If you're currently in a raiding guild how is your guild preparing for the new raid content?
Shattered Sun Offensive reputation loot revealed
With the PTR up and running, information is pouring in faster than ever. The Shattered Sun Offensive's reputation vendor is ready for perusal, and World of Raids has already delivered a screenshot of the full loot list. The tabard looks like it's going to be a favorite for a lot of people, looking more elaborate than possibly any current player-wearable tabard. But looking good aside, what about the loot? Will it make you better, harder, faster, stronger? Let's find out after the break.
The Daily Grind: Do item databases make raiding more fun?
Today we're featuring a topic that was actually sent into us by one of our readers. Scott wrote us a few days ago and wanted to know about a practice that's been in place for a while now -- that of item databases. He wondered if people thought it would be half as fun to raid if we didn't know what the loot was. Would we still be interested in putting in the time and the effort if there were no accurate listings of loot somewhere, or mods that showed us what items were available at a click of a button? So as he put it to us, we ask you -- do "spoiler" sites make the game more fun for you? Or would you prefer to have absolutely no idea about loot? Do you even really care, or is it about the thrill of utterly destroying a mob that used to stomp you into jelly, faster and faster until you're through a raid instance before dinner?
Badges of Justice topple the Black Temple
According to Drysc, the Sunwell Plateau will bring new badge loot to a vendor near you. Its too early to say what these items will be, but Drysc says the items are going to be Black Temple quality.This definitely has ups and downs. In my opinion, it really seems like the devs are eager to make their past dungeons obsolete. Dumping the old world raids with the launch of the Burning Crusade made a lot of sense, but rendering most of the pre-Sunwell content obsolete with badge gear within the same chapter of the game seems a little strange to me. Even if the vendor was in the raid zone itself, giving a wider selection of gear to those who have cleared Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, that would only lead to those with a plethora of badges paying for a raid ID for vendor access.Of course, this could be a very good thing for people sitting on many, many badges from Karazhan and are trying to gear up for Wrath of the Lich King levelling. Black Temple loot in exchange for a few Kara runs? Sure, I'll take that!
The best of WoW Insider: January 26 - February 2nd, 2008
The Joystiq network is host to the best place on the 'net to get all the World of Warcraft news you can handle, and then some: our own WoW Insider delivers a daily dose of the best Azerothian news you can find, in convenient blog format. Whether it's brand new info on the upcoming patch 2.4, what WoW's community managers have delivered in their precious blue words on the forums recently, or just the latest insider news from around the community itself, WoW Insider's got you covered. Here's our most popular stories of the past week, right here on Joystiq (sure, you could type "wowinsider.com" into your address bar and see what all the fuss is about, but why bother when we package this stuff so conveniently for you?). And yes, should you feel the need to post a comment that you don't care about WoW, we choose to remind you: haters to the left.
WoW Insider Show Episode 23: Mojo and other popular loot
This show no longer exists. Nothing to see here.
Phat Loot Phriday: Crystal Charge
Going back to just hefty loot today, since we've been doing high end stuff for a few weeks now. This is a non-engineer explosive that packs about as big a punch as you're going to get.Name: Crystal Charge (Wowhead, Thottbot, MMODB) Type: ConsumableDamage/Speed: N/A (See below)Abilities: Use: Inflicts 383 to 517 fire damage in a three yard radius. Does not require an engineer to throw, although it is consumable. And I'll make another extreme statement (even though, like I said last week, you wily commenters usually prove me wrong): this is the most damaging non-Engineer thrown consumable. The Essence of Eranikus actually does more damage over time, but it's a trinket, and this is the highest damage non-Engineer grenade that I could find. And, dear readers, I actually went into the game and did a little playtesting with this stuff just for you. Unfortunately, I have to report that it does not add spell damage (I wasn't surprised by that, but I can confirm that it doesn't). But it does in fact crit-- I had one of my charges break 575. And I also used it on multiple targets, so if you can fit more than one thing in the (small) 3 yard radius, you can hit them all with ~400+ fire damage. How to Get It: As you may have guessed, it's part of the Un'Goro Crystals setup. To start collecting and using crystals, you have to do the chain offered by J.D. Collie at Marshal's Refuge there. He'll show you how to get the crystals and the spires you'll need to take them to. And once you've finished all his Fedex-ing (it's easy enough to do if you're leveling through Un'Goro around the early 50s anyway), you'll be able to get a quest from the Northern Spire itself called Crystal Charge.That quest requires that you grab 10 Red Power Crystals and 10 Yellow Power Crystals from the deposits around Un'Goro. Bring those back (or just bring them along-- you don't need the quest to collect the crystals, and you might even find them on the AH if someone on your server is trying to clean out their bags), and you'll get 6 Crystal Charges for each turn-in of 10.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 10s. While the Power Crystals themselves are BoE (or at least not soulbound), the Charges are BoP, so sell them or use them.
What are heroics for?
Recently a couple of my guild mates ran Heroic Underbog with a few pug members. Life was good, they made it up to the first boss, Hungarfen, and got him. The odd part happens with the loot. A rogue could have used the Boggspine Knuckles that the boss dropped. However a friendly lock decided that this was a badges run, and not a gearing one. He decided that instead of passing on the item, he was going to need all blue items and shard them. Lo and behold, the lock did just that. Anger ensued, and instead of moving on happy, everyone left quite mad. Now of course, this sounds like just another pug horror story. What makes it different from that is this lock actually went on to defend his actions, and really stood by his convictions. My first reaction is to balk at this, and say this is never acceptable. However thinking a little beyond that, I've got to wondering if this is a practice that perhaps happens elsewhere. Perhaps this guy is from a different server with a different culture, where heroics are just meant for badges and gear gets auto-sent to the DE factory.So my question to you, WoW Insider readers, does this kind of thing happen legitimately anywhere else, or is this just another case of another bad pug story?
Getting your loot priorities straight
Every successful guild that I've ever seen has some sort of loot distribution system. Whether it's a major DKP system with a dozen small caveats, or a slow moving loot council, some way, some how, all guilds get the job done handing out every day loot in a fair manner. But there comes a time, a dark and evil time, a time when brothers and sisters fight against each other, cats and dogs live together, and all things foul spill forth from the bowels of the Earth. There comes a time when special loot priorities come into effect.Many, many guilds have broken up over this. I've nearly been in a few myself. Back in the days of pre-bc, the first major loot drama came in Molten Core over the Hunter's ability Tranquil Shot. While now a days there are not really any single items that makes people fight tooth and nail over, there are a few bosses that drop some important equipment that might only be killed a few times.
My loots, let me show you them
After another night spent raiding and ultimately losing the roll for some highly sought-after piece of gear for the umpteenth time, have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "Isn't there a better way they could do this?" The answer, if Stropp of Stropp's World is to be believed, may have been found by those crazy folks at Flagship Studios. Mythos, their new Diablo-killer, will be using a loot system that guarantees all players will be rewarded for their contributions to a battle. Upon slaying a foe, each player will have a separate loot screen from which they can pick up their reward. There's no rolling, no ninjaing, and (god willing) no whining.Stropp himself wonders whether this sort of system could be adopted by other mainstream MMOs as a way to eliminate all the drama that normally surrounds the whole looting process. To me the issue seems fairly straight-forward. In a more casual game like Mythos, where the gear is really secondary to the experience, a loot system that equitably distributes loot is the easiest way to keep gamers geared and happy. But when it comes to more serious MMOs like WoW or EQ2, the gear is really an end to itself. If ever player got an epic every time they did a raid encounter, people would have finished out the content months ago. Still, it's an interest thought that'll get you thinking about how future MMOs could improve the process.
Phat Loot Phriday: Galgann's Fireblaster
As you may have heard, I've been playing my old Hunter quite a bit lately, and she's got this baby still sitting in her bank. And while this is definitely not an endgame item, it still stands up as a great midgame ranged weapon (and one of the few good reasons to go into Uldaman).Name: Galgann's Fireblaster (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: Rare GunDamage/Speed: 56-106 / 2.60 (31.2 DPS)Abilities: Chance to strike your ranged target with a fire blast for 12-18 damage. This procs fairly often-- players have it at around 20% of the time. It's not a huge add, but at a point where most ranged weapons are just ranged weapons, it's pretty nice. And this gun, to me, is what Warcraft firearms should be all about-- a huge musket with a little steampunk feeling, and lots of explosions. This could be my favorite standard, workhorse gun in the game. How to Get It: Straight off of Galgann Firehammer himself. He's a dwarf in one of the digs of Uldaman, the instance everybody loves to hate. The good news is that he's right near the side entrance to the instance, so it's pretty easy to duck in (you'll have to have someone sneak in and open the door for you, or just clear to the side), kill him enough to get this gun (droprate is about 15-20%, and it seems to me to be even higher than that), and then get out, bypassing all those annoying troggs at the end of the instance.And it's an excellent gun for the level once you get it, too-- unless you can find the old Boomstick lying around, this gun will easily last you for up to 10 levels, from the early forties till level 50.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 1g 66s 81c, and disenchants into a Large Radiant Shard.
Phat Loot Phriday: Delicious Chocolate Cake
Seeing as food has been on our minds this week at WoW Insider (with both the new Well Fed Buff column and Maureen's World of WarCrafts), I figured we'd give the foodies in the audience something to pine for this week. Expect more big pointy sharp things only available from late game raids next week.Name: Delicious Chocolate CakeType: FoodDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: "If you spend at least 5 seconds eating, you will become Very Happy for 1 hour." What does Very Happy mean? Nothing, except that you get a buff that lasts for one hour. Does the buff do anything? Nope, nothing percievable. Does it at least kick off a negative debuff? Nope. Does it replace one of your current buffs? Nope. Is there any reason to eat this cake at all, besides that it gives you a useless Happy buff? Of course! It's cake! If you are the kind of person who leaves comments on a Phat Loot post complaining that a useless piece of food is not Phat Loot, go eat some of this cake. Hopefully it will make you Very Happy, and then we'll all be that way. How to Get It: This recipe is actually new in 2.3-- it's a reward hidden in the food given to you by the cooking daily quests in Shattrath. When you finish the daily quest, you get Crates of Meat and Barrels of Fish, and this recipe, which is BoP, will be randomly hidden in one of those from time to time.And despite coming from a high level daily quest, the cake is actually only level 1, so it's pretty easy to make: you need your Simple Flour (8), 4 Ice Cold Milk, some Mild Spices (4), 8 Small Eggs, a whole Flask of Port (yowza! you can get those from most of the bartenders in the major cities), and 3 Mageroyal. Which means that there is apparently no chocolate in this cake at all, and that means that, even though I shudder to say it (as much as I like Portal, I think the meme died about a week ago), the cake is indeed a lie.But it is tasty. And who doesn't want a Very Happy buff?Getting Rid of It: A vendor will give you 1s 25c for it, but a better option would be to just go around passing them out, or give them away to guildies as birthday presents for the next year. I've heard rumors that people don't know what they are, and that they've been selling on the AH for hundreds of gold, but if you were unlucky enough to sell out for one of these, just remember that there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake.
Wowhead adds new item links
My favorite database site has recently added a new feature to their item listings. When you look an item up on Wowhead.com, you'll notice a new link to the right of the item's name which says "Get in-game item link". When you click on it, a new window will pop open with some highlighted text. Simply copy the text into your in-game chat window and hit enter. You'll be given an in-game item link for the equipment you looked up on Wowhead, so you can check yourself out in the dressing room or pass the info on to another player.This is certainly a cool feature and one I'll probably play around with quite a bit. This may allow me to do away with some of the item database addons I currently use in-game. I'm already alt-tabbing out to read Wowhead all the time, so it won't be much hassle at all to copy their links into the game when necessary.Will you be using this feature at all? What do you think about it?
Addon Spotlight: WhoDrop
Lots of us have encountered those wide-eyed and eager WoW players who walk up to anyone with epic gear and say, "WoW! Where'd you get that? That's uber-cool lol!" We may even be that sort of player from time to time, if we see a piece of gear we think looks really wonderful or seems particularly useful. WhoDrop answers that question for you before you even ask. Whenever you inspect another player (I'm using Examiner for that in the screenshot above), WhoDrop will insert a line at the bottom of the tooltip for each item you examine, telling you where exactly that item can be found. It'll tell you which boss drops it, whether it's crafted or not, or even how many Honor or Arena points it'll cost you to buy. Another addon which has a similar function is called Mendeleev, but I found that it overloaded me with too much information, so I went with WhoDrop instead. (Incidentally, the other two tooltip-info addons prominent in this screenshot are RatingBuster, with the stats, and Auctioneer, with the price information.)Additionally, if you're approaching a certain boss fight, grinding a certain reputation, or PvPing for certain rewards, WhoDrop also features an expandable list of the items you can get from these various sources. It was also recently updated to include the Arena Season 3 gear, so you can now drool over that any time you wish. If you want a prettier interface just for looking at boss drops and such, you might consider AtlasLoot, which has most the same information and is easier to browse through (but it has no tooltip info -- you'll still need WhoDrop for that). AtlasLoot is a plugin for Atlas maps, which can help if you ever get lost in instances.You can get WhoDrop at IncGamers, but I prefer to get mine direct from wowace.com, and keep it up-to-date with the WoW Ace Updater for the Mac.
Cinemassively: Teh n00b Song
It's the day after Thanksgiving, commonly known as Black Friday. Today is not unlike your typical day in World of Warcraft. Americans scour the sale ads online and in print, and strategize how they're going to get their loot.Olibith's Machinima interpretation of "Teh n00b Song", by Pure Pwnage, is the perfect theme for the day. A poor n00b thinks he can just kill wolves in peace, but teh_pwnerer has other plans for him. As little Fyapowa is taunted mercilessly, he tries to fight back, but to no avail. As you're kicking and punching your way to better deals, think of Fyapowa and teh_pwnerer. Were you the n00b or the pwner today? As a fair warning, the pwner gets his just deserts in the end!
All the World's a Stage: Raiding and RP don't mix, or do they? -- A question of continuity.
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.The Warcraft storyline is part of a great tradition of fantasy literature, and, as with any form of storytelling, the entire span of WoW lore involves a series of events and changes. Arthas wasn't always the Lich King, Illidan used to be able to wear shoes, and your character was once a little child, with no spells or epic weapons at all. All these things fit together in a single story universe, in which the progressive changes taking place in the story made the world what it is today.But what is it today? Is Illidan now dead or alive? Is VanCleef dead or alive, for that matter? As a gaming environment, any boss you kill today has to be there for me to kill tomorrow. The WoW game world needs to remain basically unchangeable -- but over time this can stifle a roleplayer's sense of immersion in its narrative. To illustrate the impact this sort of immutability has on storytelling, let us take a page from a certain fantasy story you might have read, and see how it might work as a WoW raid instance.Welcome to Mines of Moria! This raid instance will reset in 6 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes.[Raidleader] [Gandalf]: Beware! There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world. Follow my glowing staff! [Raidleader] [Gandalf]: ... and um... get ready to pull that first group of orcs. Kill order is skull, x, circle... Gimli, can you offtank that cave troll?
BoE Epic throwing weapon pickpocketed
Pickpocketing is one of my favorite things about the Rogue class. It adds some nice texture and a bit of extra cash to my grinding routine, keeps me stocked in Super Healing Potions and Flash Powder, and best of all, I can easily macro it along with my opening attack (usually Cheap Shot), so it doesn't even require an additional keystroke:/cast Pick Pocket/cast Cheap ShotNow, according to a few different reports around the official forums, there's a new reason to pick those pockets: epics.The BoE epic throwing weapon Spinesever was, allegedly, found in a lockbox picked from a random mob in Shadowmoon Valley. There seems to be some debate over whether it's real or not, but it is on Thottbot, and it looks believable enough. Edit: it's real. It does have rather high stats, and is probably the best throwing weapon in the game. I wonder what the skin looks like. What do you think? Is there a better throwing weapon out there? And how much do you think this is worth? People are suggesting that this is considerably over-budget; I don't know the item level formulas well enough to verify that claim -- can any of you?[Thanks, Gonçalo]
Ye olde loot drama
Andrek posted an interesting thought on the forums: remember loot drama? Sure, there's still loot drama floating around-- as long as there is more players than loot at each boss drop, there will always be loot drama. And maybe this is just nostalgia rearing its ugly head, but it seems like Andrek is right-- Molten Core was home to far more loot drama (Rogue weapon! No, Warrior weapon! No, Hunter weap!) than Outland's raids have been.There's a few reasons for this. As players note later in the thread, Blizzard is much, much better at itemization now than they were back when we were raiding Ragnaros. And we're all in 10 and 25 man groups rather than 40 man-- fewer people means fewer arguments about who gets what. Not to mention that there's so much more loot now (and so many more ways to get it), that even if you lose that roll to a Hunter, you still get Heroic badges to turn in, or you've still got your Arena rating to count on.It seems like loot actually means a little less now than it used to, and that's a great change. It's too bad that the old "hunter weapon" joke might actually be becoming obsolete, but less loot drama means more fun, and no guildleader will argue with that one.
