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Tenris Mirkblood will only be around for "approximately 10 days," says Tigole
So by now, you've probably heard of Tenris Mirkblood, the Blood Elven vampire boss in Karazhan who is surprisingly generous with his loot, dropping a Vampire Batling for everyone in the raid as well as a very sweet axe by both the musical and weaponry related terms -- Although only one of those, unfortunately. Tigole answered a few questions about this boss in a recent post on the forums. Tenris will only be around for about 10 days, which is why he's so generous with the bat pets, and the axe is the only other item on his loot table, if you don't count the Badges of Justice. So what this means, first of all, is that if you haven't managed to get a group to go beat him down, you'll want to do it soon or lose your chance at a pretty cool pet and a pretty cool -- if rather weak -- novelty trinket. In addition, if you weren't lucky enough to win the roll on the Arcanite Ripper on your first try, it looks like you'll only have one more chance at it. Sacrifices to the gods of dice and/or the Gods of Metal, whichever you subscribe to, are recommended.
Zombie incubation time halved to five minutes
Well well well. Don't have a full ten minutes to turn yourself into the Undead? As a few tipsters have noticed, the incubation time for the plague has dropped in half to just five minutes -- click a crate (of which there are suddenly plenty around, whoever put those out there) or kill a roach, and five minutes later you're a member of the walking undead.I thought it was going to take a while for this whole thing to play out, but things seem to be moving pretty quickly. Blizzard likes to drop new patches and holidays, it seems, on Friday night/Saturday morning (so weekend players can experience them), so keep your eyes open in Azeroth this evening -- we might finally find out just what this zombie business is all about.Zombies have entered the World of Warcraft in the Wrath of the Lich King world event! Check out our tips for eating brains, our zombie night gallery, or see Blizzard's official zombie infestation guide. They live! Braaiiiiinnnssss!
Meet Tenris Mirkblood, a new Kara boss, possibly for the Scourge event
Our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has done some more digging in the datafiles of the beta realms, and pulled out a brand new boss in Karazhan of all places. Meet Prince Tenris Mirkblood of the San'layn, a group of elven princes aligned with none other than The Lich King himself. He's not live on active servers at all -- again, Boubouille dug this up from beta realm files, so we may never actually see Tenris in game.But there are a few quests surrounding the boss as well -- for more on how he might be included in the game during the world event (including possible spoilers), hit the link below.
One Shots: Zombies everywhere!
As you've no doubt seen, 'tis the season for zombies! City of Heroes has its Zombie Invasion event already running, and now World of Warcraft has followed suit with their own version -- the zombie plague. Unlike the previous scourge invasion, now players can get a plague that turns them into shambling zombies. Of course, several of the team here have been checking it out and having a blast, as has today's One Shots submitter, Nymik from Karazhan (EU). Nymik sent in this screenshot he snagged of the throne room, noting that "unfortunately Thrall cannot receive the plague... but the rest of the room can." We figure that's because Thrall is right up there with Chuck Norris in terms of being a bad ass. Have you got any awesome screenshots of the destruction of Goldshire, Brill, or just you and your friends running around and having fun as zombies? If so, we want those screenshots! Just send them in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name/server/guild and a quick description of the action. We'll post them out here for everyone to check out. (And we promise we won't eat your brains.) %Gallery-9798%
Tips for eating brains
I had a ton of fun on the servers last night running around and eating as many brains as I can. As I'm a huge fan of zombies in all their forms, Blizzard's world event hit the mark for me, and so, I've spent my every minute as a zombie plotting how the living undead just might take over the world. Here's a few tips for making sure the zombie apocalypse really does shake the world.Strength in numbers: This one's obvious by now, but you need to be with other zombies to really do any damage. You can convert NPCs, but not very quickly unless they're low level, and low level zombies drop relatively fast. It's far better to convert players (usually by listening in for anyone who wants to be a zombie, and then inviting them to a zombie party off the beaten path). But the key is to wait until you've got a good group -- any zombies that go shambling off by themselves are going to get quickly overtaken by NPC guards or overzealous Paladins.More tips after the break.
Zombies in Azeroth: A night of terror
There is a slowly growing chaos on the realms right now -- in the far reaches of Outland and even Azeroth, things are as normal, but slowly a plague creeps across the land. Westfall has fallen on many servers, and even our greatest leaders have become infected themselves, and the hordes continue to grow and lurch in search of living flesh.Below you can see the sights of tonight's Zombie invasion. Someone has put some curious infested crates in Booty Bay, and as a result, Azeroth's population, NPCs and players alike, are slowly becoming something even worse than dead. If you've got some great screenshots of tonight's festivities, send them in to our tip line -- we'll be adding to this gallery of the zombie world event in the days to come... assuming we live that long. %Gallery-35140%
Things are only going to get worse
Kisirani, who no doubt is laughing with maniacal glee right now, says that if you're worried that the zombies might not overtake the world, don't -- things are going to get worse. When a player complains that the buff is easily dispellable, the world event designer jokes that "it sure does seem containable, doesn't it?"It kind of does... for now. But keep in mind that we haven't actually seen Arthas yet (and technically, we don't even know this is him -- it might just be, you know, a mistake in shipping or somethitng like that). Clearly, the Argent Dawn can handle this little "event," and none of us need to worry.Sure. Just keep thinking that. Meanwhile, more zombies have started appearing all over the world. Mind if I chew on your skull for a bit?%Gallery-35140%
WoW Moviewatch: The Ironforge Plague
Those of you who weren't playing World of Warcraft back in September of 2005 have probably never seen this footage or heard the extremely entertaining story that goes along with it. That September, Blizzard rolled out the 1.7 patch, which included a brand new raid dungeon called Zul'Gurub. And the final boss of Zul'Gurub was Hakkar, the Blood God and the Soulflayer. (A very challenging fight, until you figure out the trick to it.) And when Hakkar died, he left raiders with a parting present -- a damage over time debuff called Corrupted Blood, which did a reasonable, though not entirely deadly, amount of damage to any players present.As far as Blizzard's design was concerned, this should have been it. However, Blizzard overlooked a minor issue -- pets could get Corrupted Blood. And pets could be dismissed while they had the debuff and then re-summoned into crowded areas. (The debuff was short-lived -- so even if a player hearthed while under its effect, they wouldn't make it before it wore off. But when pets were dismissed, the debuff's duration was conveniently paused until they were re-summoned.) And the really fun part is that Corrupted Blood would spread to any nearby players. So, by this method, a few days in mid-September were spoiled for many a player in Azeroth, as Hakkar's plague went through the land, repeatedly infecting and killing players in major cities, while GMs tried to quarantine infected players and Blizzard scrambled for a hotfix.Previously on Moviewatch...
Gaming plague sweeps South Korea, at least 1 million infected
First SARS, then bird flu, and now video games. In the past three years, South Korea has been a hotbed for the contemporary world's most deadly plagues.Despite government intervention, an estimated 1 million South Koreans exhibit symptoms of the most severe stages of the gaming virus, forcing many to drop out of school or quit their jobs. Some are so sick they can barely eat or maintain an appropriate level of personal hygiene. In 2005, at least seven individuals fell victim to the disease, and according to a recent survey, 6 out of 10 South Koreans, ages 9 to 39, show signs of infection.Some speculate that the gaming plague has found a home in South Korea due to the country's fascination with new technology, a government policy that encourages the internet as an engine for economic growth, and a prevalence of urban, high-rise apartment blocks that make broadband networks commercially viable. It is not known at this time, to what extent, the video game virus has spread beyond South Korean borders. Here in the US, the threat level remains 'orange.'
