The-Nexus
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City of Steam opens beta doors at 10 p.m. tonight
If you've been eagerly awaiting your chance to get into the browser-based steampunk goodness of City of Steam, your wait is nearly over. Clear your Friday night plans because in just a few hours at 10:00 p.m. EDT, the city of Nexus will be welcoming its new residents. And you won't be needing any early access key, as Mechanist Games is throwing the beta doors open wide for any and all! Returning testers will notice many new features have been added since the closed beta runs, like events, a plethora of new cosmetic items, and more streamlined skill, talent, and crafting systems. And jetpacks -- who can forget the jetpacks! Players will also find over 80 dungeons, over 100 quests, new PvP maps, open Wilderness levels, customizable gear, and more... and that's only to start! The devs have an aggressive release schedule plan of adding new features and content on an almost bi-weekly basis throughout the beta. For more details on what you can expect, check out Massively's hands-on experience as well as the official open beta features list. [Source: Mechanist Games press release]
WoW.com's Guide to the Oculus. Yes, really.
Really, WoW.com? A guide to the Oculus of all things? Over a year after the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, you're doing an Oculus walkthrough? Is that necessary? Boy, I wish it weren't. We're all sick of hearing about this place by now, but of all the instances and raids in the game, this is the one where nobody seems to be sure what to do or where to go. I haven't seen players this confused since Sunwell. All strategy and ability discussion in this guide discuss the heroic version of the Oculus. Beyond the cut below you will find simple strategies for each of the bosses in the Oculus, as well as maps to help you find your way through the environment.
Patch 3.3: The Oculus receives a welcome nerf
Ah, the Oculus. The bane of every PUG's existence since Wrath launch. Not a bad instance, just loaded with too many gimmicks and not exactly friendly to ... less erudite players. But, I mean, I have a bunch of 80s and even I still hate running Oculus. And I would never PUG it in its current state. In fact, upon hearing about the new Dungeon System and its daily random dungeon, I thought "well, bad news if you get Oculus." Well, it looks like all of us are in luck. In the latest Patch 3.3 PTR patch notes update, the Oculus got its very own section! Check this out. Many bosses and creatures have had their total health reduced. Several bosses and creatures have had cooldowns on specific abilities increased, effect durations reduced, and damage on some of these abilities reduced. Ring-Lord Conjurers and Sorceresses now hang out in packs of 4 instead of packs of 5. Vehicle scaling on the drakes based on the rider's item level has been increased to make them more powerful. Heck yes! Smaller trash packs, HP nerfs, and even an increase the drake scaling that they already implemented to make them not as much of a pain in the keister. Will it make people not complete abhor the Oculus? Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. But maybe it'll stop people from willingly giving themselves the Random Dungeon deserter debuff just to get out of the place. Oh, and quick thing. "Oculus" has one C in it. Just the one. Spread the word. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
The OverAchiever: Voyage of the Glory of the Hero
98 out of 100 people at that party would walk over my corpse for free gum. -- "Veronica Mars." Ah, poor Veronica; so young, and yet so...correct. Well, let's not dwell on that for too long, because we've got more heroics to steamroll in pursuit of a badass mount. If you're just joining us or want a quick set of links, here's what we've covered in our Glory of the Hero series so far: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak Part V: Halls of Lightning Part VI: Halls of Stone Let's get cracking. Head west, young player!
Completion rates on Wrath heroics
Yeah, we all know that Oculus kinda sucks, but now we've got some numbers on it -- or, more accurately, Flyv does. One of my feral Druid colleagues has been examining Armory data on completion rates of Wrath heroics (and incidentally took a peek at how long it takes for the average person to go from dinging 80 to a full Naxx clear). The numbers aren't too surprising: heroics that correspond to the earliest Wrath "regular" dungeons -- Violet Hold, Utgarde Keep, and the Nexus -- are far and away the most-completed heroics. Oculus -- and to a lesser extent, Ahn'kahet and Halls of Stone -- languish at 40, 51, and 58% completion rates respectively. Halls of Stone surprises me somewhat, as I really didn't think it was a difficult heroic (outside of running a Druid tank on the Brann Bronzebeard event), but Ahn'kahet is universally cited amongst tanks and healers for LOS issues and nasty damage. And Oculus...well, we've talked about Oculus here before. I still think the concept of the dungeon itself is fantastic, but the moment that one or two embarrassed people in your group admit that it's their first time on the drakes, you know you're in for a long and ugly run.I hope Flyv revisits this data at some point, because I'd love to see how the numbers change over the course of Wrath. With achievements introduced only as BC was ending, we don't really have a good look at how dungeon popularity and completion rates evolved there, and I think the numbers say a lot about the content players prioritize when they get a toon (or multiple toons) to the level cap.
Hunter solos Utgarde Keep
Tribunalx sent us this great video about something that's fallen out of fashion lately: Hunter soloing. Back in the day, when Mend Pet was still affected by plus healing (back when there was plus healing), Hunters would routinely take down Azuregos by themselves, but they've since had to sit on the sidelines while other classes stepped into the solo arena. But now, with Mend Pet and Bestial Wrath glyphs, a Hunter stacking Stamina in PvP gear, the new version of Deterrence, and pets with their own Tenacity talents, Hunter soloing is possible yet again.As Tribunalx says in the video, it's not really easy, and there's a lot you have to keep track of (and Hunters definitely aren't the only class that can do this -- there's probably a Paladin soloing UK and/or a Death Knight out there as well). But it is definitely possible, as you can see above. Maybe we're experiencing a renaissance of Hunter solo possibilities -- next up, The Nexus? Good luck with the Ormorok gauntlet.
The Queue: Genn, you're such a jerk
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Be warned that the very end of today's edition of The Queue contains minor spoilers for the upcoming Ulduar raid zone. Everything is perfectly safe until the very last question, and even then the spoilers are very minor. Minor as in it describes a couple of the bosses found within the zone. It doesn't give away any story or plot. If you want your experience to remain pure, stop at the last question. If you don't care so much about knowing who you'll see in Ulduar, it's perfectly safe.I warn because I love.mindor asked...What is the deal with the Greymane wall in Silverpine forest? Is there an old raid set in there? What is on the other side of that monstrous wall?
The Queue: Sea shanty edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Good afternoon, everyone! I'll waste no time trying desperately to be funny today, we'll just jump into this thing.Carda asked... Which heroic dungeon provides the most rep? Of course, this will probably vary depending on the amount of trash pulled (full clear vs. "just the pats, ma'am"), but accounting for bosses and essential trash pulls, where can I farm to max out my rep as quickly as I can?
Encrypted Text: Guide to Rogue gear for new raiders
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 discuss gearing options for a Rogue who wants to break into the raiding scene.Last week, we looked at what stats are important for a PvE Rogue, and how those stats interact with each other and why they're important. To summarize, hit and expertise ratings are very important until you reach a few key milestones, after which the pure damage options like Agility and Attack Power become more attractive.The key is to be over 99 hit rating (the Yellow Hit Cap - YHC) but under 315 hit rating (the Poison Hit Cap - PHC) and to never be over 214 expertise rating (the Expertise Cap - EC)? If you look in the right places, reaching these numbers becomes fairly simple. Bind on Equip Leatherworking goods, Heroic drops, and reputation rewards will form the core of your gear as a newly 80 Rogue. Let's explore where to find the right type of gear to prepare you for that Naxxramas raid next weekend. Much of this information can be found at Shadow Panther, however I have collected the pieces that specifically sport Hit or Expertise that can be acquired in 5 man Dungeons or below. Remember that the PHC and EC are "caps" and not necessarily goals, and that you shouldn't sacrifice other stats to reach these goals unless you have used a spreadsheet to determine which is the better piece of equipment.
Two Bosses Enter: Keristrasza vs. Cyanigosa
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.We're back! Live from WoW Insider, the Wrath Season of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves. Two Bosses is our series of fantasy death matches between the game's infamous PvE villains. This season, we'll throw into the pit the bosses of Wrath of the Lich King's five-man instances, two by two, until we come up with an ultimate winner. The best part? You determine who wins.The central tenet of a Two Bosses matchup is an assumption that the bosses are of approximately the same level and health and that they're fighting in neutral territory. It's fighting abilities and scale we're debating here – so don't get caught up in actual game mechanics. Consider the flavor each villainous gladiator brings to bear, and cast your vote for who you think would come out on top.Your first match-up in Two Bosses Enter: The Wrath Season -- Keristrasza versus Cyanigosa. Details and your chance to determine the winner, after the break.
Totem Talk: Utgarde Pinnacle, the Oculus, and heroic Utgarde Keep/The Nexus
And we come at last to the conclusion of our big loot rounup for the five mans and heroic five man instances that debuted with Wrath of the Lich King. How appropriate that this shopping list should conclude on Christmas Day. Loot luck bless us, every one!Since it is the holidays, I hope you'll forgive me if I dispense with my usual verbosity and move right into the instances and their loot tables. I will be mentioning leather or even cloth drops if they seem really superior to mail for a specific talent spec, so you'll just have to bear with it. (Believe me, I'd rather focus on mail.)Let's go bust open some piñatas.
Encrypted Text: I roll on caster loot
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 about hit rating and the seeming lack thereof in Northrend gear.After a few all-nighters in a row and a lot of showing up to work very tired, I finally reached level 80 this weekend. After a few victory laps in Dalaran to celebrate my victory over experience points and blue bubbles and Hemet Nesingwary (not for long, I'm sure); the looming realization of level-cap responsibilities started to enter my mind. Reputations, heroics, arena points, and honor – I had a lot of work to do. So, I took my own advice and decided to start some heroics, but not before spec'ing into my PvP mutilate build. I thought about trying out the truly insane DPS of Honor Amongst Thieves builds, but decided to postpone that until I've got some more gear to give it a real trial. Read on to see what I discovered on the way to my first Emblem of Heroism.
Breakfast Topic: Five-man thoughts
We talked about this quickly during yesterday's podcast, but I think most of us have seen most of the instances in Wrath at this point, so we'll ask it here: what do you think of the 5-mans so far?Actually, I should say that I can't quite pass judgment yet -- I haven't visited the Halls of Stone or Lightning yet, and I haven't yet seen The Oculus, which is the instance I was most excited about at launch. But so far, I have to say that Azjol-Nerub is a standout -- not only does it look great, but the fact that it's pretty much all bosses and no trash is a real plus. And having a well-known lore figure to fight at the end doesn't hurt, either.And of course I remain a fan of Utgarde Keep, though I think it'll eventually be like Hellfire Ramparts, in that I'll just have done it so much eventually that it'll lose any charm I have now. What are your first impressions on playing through all the five mans so far?
WoW Insider's guide to the dungeons of Wrath
Still leveling? Looking to do some dungeon runs? Want to know where to go, or where to find your quests? ...No? Oh. Well, okay. You can leave, then. Wait, I think I heard someone say yes! In that case, you might be interested in WoW Insider's guide to the dungeons of Wrath.In the gallery below you'll find a quick guide to all of the 5-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King, in order of the level of the instance. It contains brief descriptions of each dungeon, their level range, and just where to find all of the quests for each of them. I hope it proves useful, and if not, at least some of the pictures are pretty!%Gallery-37974%
Scattered Shots: Wrath of the Lich King starting zone upgrades, Part I
Welcome to Scattered Shots, the weekly Hunter column, now with 100% more Northrend!So you're on the shore in Northrend by now, one hopes, and maybe you're level 71, still tooling around the starting zones, looking for the right quests to do to get some decent gear for yourselves. Now if you've spent a decent amount of time in Tier 4 or better content, or if you decked yourself out in badge gear, I'll be honest, you may not find too many upgrades here. But for people who started their Hunter a little late or didn't quite clear Karazhan before the expansion, there's some very nice stuff here.Let's take a look at the quest rewards of Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra and their attached dungeons, and see what they offer:
The Queue: Cooking, gardening, and Riptides
Welcome to the second edition of The Queue, our new daily Q&A column where we, the WoW Insider team, try to answer your questions about the World of Warcraft. We won't delay getting into things much today, but please note that I'm saving the lore-related questions you've all asked for Ask a Lore Nerd, which will be coming just later today (every Sunday). With that said, let's start with Gristor's question...One comment about the size of Northrend... Finally, please, an answer: Is Northrend bigger than Outland? How much bigger/smaller?It's definitely bigger, but I can't say for sure just how much bigger. The starter zones almost feel twice as large as Hellfire Peninsula was, but I can't say 100% confidently that Howling Fjord is twice as large as Hellfire Peninsula. It's just bigger, and it feels much, much bigger. Northrend feels absolutely massive.
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?
10 easy Northrend achievements
Northrend is finally available, and it seems like everyone is out in full force. There are so many new things to do and see that it might be pleasantly overwhelming at the moment. In order to help you find some direction, I've put together a list of 10 easily attainable achievements that you can earn in the next few days while questing. These are along the way, so you won't have to break your stride. Many can even be achieved today.1. Train one of your professions! A skill of 350 in any of your professions will open up the ability to train Grand Master, which will award you with the achievement, Professional Grand Master. Check out our guide to finding your profession trainers.2. Most level 70s will have at least two professions with a minimum skill of 350 by this point, so why not train them both to Grand Master? This will give you the achievement, Working Day and Night.3. If you have leveled Fishing, First Aid and Cooking to at least 350, and train their Grand Master ranks, you will earn the achievement, Skills to Pay the Bills. If you haven't, but would like to, then check out our guide to leveling Fishing to 375 as well as Cooking to 375. First Aid should be a breeze, as all you need is cloth! Still, should you find yourself at a loss, check out our Guide to Farming Cloth.
Ask A Beta Tester: So long, and thanks for all the fish
Yes, folks, the proverbial fat lady has sung, and this is the last "real" Ask A Beta Tester. Tomorrow we're going to run an AABT that showcases the best, funniest, and most prescient questions we received, and after that -- bowing to popular demand -- the column's going to change gears somewhat and become Ask A Guy (or Girl) Something, or...I dunno, whatever we decide to call it. AAGoGS is cumbersome but oddly endearing, I admit.Deri (among others) asks...At 77, approximately how much money will I have made levelling up through quests?At 77 you'll be eligible to train Cold Weather Flying for 1,000g, which I assume is what this is about. Will you have made that much questing? I'd made...I want to say somewhere in the region of 800g leveling between 70 and 77, but I also tanked and healed a LOT of instance runs, so my quest income was on the low side. So I'd say it's probably going to be very easy to finance Cold Weather Flying just from Northrend quests. If you're occupied with a lot of instance runs, just keep in mind that you'll be leveling proportionately faster than you're making money, though.
Wrath 101: How to get to Northrend and where to go once you get there
How do I get to Northrend?For Alliance, head to the northernmost dock at Stormwind Harbor to get to Borean Tundra or take the boat out of Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands to be dropped off in Howling Fjord.For Horde, the zeppelin in Ogrimmar leads to Borean Tundra and the zeppelin out of Undercity will take you to Howling Fjord.Consider camping out your character at one of these spots the night before launch so you can head right over as soon as you have the expansion loaded on your system.
