titles
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Ambassador title was added per player request
We asked for more titles, and darned if Blizzard didn't give them to us. Just in case you missed it over the weekend, there are tons of new titles in the latest beta build that all revolve around Achievements and Feats of Strength, from titles for the first people to level to 80 (and 450 in professions) to titles for obscure reputations and even holidays and fishing. Blizzard really delivered on the title front -- no matter what you do in game, odds are there is a title for you to aim for.And here's the best part: this is a direct result of reader requests. Zach linked to this the other day, but he forgot to point out that when Tigole posted that the Ambassador title (for earning Exalted with all five core city factions for Alliance or Horde) was coming to the game, it was in direct response to a player asking for it.Kudos to Blizzard not only for fulfilling their promise to have lots and lots of titles for players to choose from, but for doing it in a way that came straight from players themselves. These seem so simple to implement, we're glad Blizzard is being generous with them.
Ask a Beta Tester: Draenei, titles, and more glyph discussion
It's that time again, folks. Let's get this party started with Gary's question...Any new storylines for the Draenei?I haven't seen any major representation for them throughout Northrend, no massive plots just focusing on them, but they do have a presence and they are right there alongside the Alliance and the Argent Crusade. In some of the early quests, you do some unraveling of a cultist plot, and it's the Draenei fueling the investigation. Apparently thousands of years of the Legion trying to infiltrate your ranks makes you pretty good at sniffing out spies. A lot of their quests are that sort of thing, lending support to the Alliance rather than leading the charge like they did in Outland.There are a few other quests that show that the Draenei are starting to grow accustomed to Azeroth, and are settling into a calmer life there. They're not fleeing exiles anymore. Azeroth is home to a lot of them these days, so they'll fight Azeroth's fight, and some of them just plain want to live life. Explore and go on whimsical adventures like the rest of us.Jake asked... Are Prot Paladins having less downtime now with the buff to Blessing of Sanctuary?
Breakfast Topic: Titles! Titles! Titles!
The latest Beta build had a slew of new titles for players to drool over. Of course, most of them were exactly that... titles to drool over but not obtain since most of them were rewards for being the first to Level 80 or first to skill up to 450. Technically, there can actually be more than one person who is 'first' as there's a one minute window when the Feat of Strength is accomplished. Still not very forgiving, and not exactly very casual and quite contrary to the "we want players to enjoy Northrend and not skip content" mantra Blizzard has been repeating as a justification for not having flying mounts for the first seven levels in the expansion.What do you guys think of the new titles? Frankly, I think a lot of them are pretty darn cool. But seriously, in all likelihood, these first-to-Level-80 characters will have little to no experience of Northrend. Your realm's first Archmage is likely to have no standing with the Kirin-Tor, for example. The first Paladin to Level 80, your realm's so-called Crusader, will most probably have grinded and not actually done any quests for the Argent Crusade. Perhaps Blizzard will have some retroactive titles, such as Conqueror / Justicar or even Scarab Lord, which wasn't implemented until after most AQ gates had been opened. What're your thoughts on the new titles?
[UPDATED] New titles for Wrath
Blizzard promised us more titles and boy, it looks like they're going to deliver. WotLK Information Wiki and MMO Champion have dug up some information on what appears to be a plethora of new titles. Unfortunately, most of the them are Feats of Strength that can only be obtained by one person ever per server. Daunting? Most certainly. But what are titles if they aren't special?First off, though, there are a handful of titles available to more than just one person. 'Arena Master' is obtained by everyone who completes the Arena Achievements. It's not quite a Feat of Strength, but there aren't too many players who will obtain a Rating of 2200 in all three brackets. Of all the Achievements required to unlock the title, those three are about the toughest ones and if you're capable of hitting 2200 in all three brackets, the rest should be cake.One title that sounds pretty cool is 'The Hallowed', which is obtained by completing all 18 Hallow's End Achievements, the hardest of which might just be obtaining the rare Sinister Squashling. Then there's 'The Diplomat', which many players will already receive at the launch of Beta -- it simply requires getting to Exalted with Timbermaw Hold, Sporeggar, and the Kurenai or Mag'har. Obsessive questers will eventually achieve 'The Seeker' after completing a whopping 3000 quests. Finally, there's the odd and quirky 'Salty' which can be obtained by completing all the Fishing Achievements. This is a pretty tough one that has some difficult feats like getting Mr. Pinchy, fishing up Gah'zranka in Zul'Gurub and The Lurker Below in Serpenshrine Cavern, and winning the Fishing extravaganza in Stranglethorn Vale. Pretty tough feats just to be called Salty! After the jump, we'll take a look at all the titles that only one person can get.[UPDATE] Tigole supposedly confirms the existence of an Ambassador <Name> title for players who achieve Exalted reputation with all 5 racial factions of the Horde and Alliance. It's a nice little nod to old school players out there.
Hoping for more titles, from both achievements and rep
Reader Bo sent us an interesting idea. Like many players, has done the Bloodsail grind -- he's killed many, many goblins in Booty Bay, and ascended to the highest ranks of the Bloodsail pirates, letting him have a Bloodsail Admiral's Hat, and the parrot that comes with it. And now, as of Wrath of the Lich King, there's even an achievement for doing the quest for the hat. But that's not enough for Bo and his fellow pirates -- they're lobbying hard on the forums for Blizzard to grant a title as well.As cool as a title like "The Dread Pirate" would be, we're not sure whether Blizzard really needs to pass out any more rewards for the Bloodsails (you want something besides a hat and an achievement?). But it will be interesting to see just how titles and other little rewards come into play with achievements. We know that more titles are coming into the game, and since it's super easy to change those titles, you'd think Blizzard was going to give out plenty. "The Dread Pirate" or "Admiral" is not beyond the realm of possibility, to be sure.I'm still rooting for something like "Boar-killer" or something even sillier -- special titles for folks who have completed all the quests in BRD once upon a time, or a special note for people who have made the switch from Aldor to Scryer. Bloodsail reputation might not be the right place to start putting rewards, but considering all this stuff Blizzard has us tracking, here's hoping we'll see a few obscure titles find their way above players' heads.
Arena Junkies looks at some Gladiator statistics
You have to be real careful about how you put together statistics. As Gregg Easterbrook said, "Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything." So, grain of salt, people. That being said, Arena Junkies has put up a pretty interesting compilation of numbers. They took a look at their (fairly substantial) membership, and figured out the approximate class makeup of each Arena season's Gladiators. The results aren't exactly a surprise, which supports the analysis's validity. Warlocks -- once the Arena juggernaut to the sounds of much QQ -- have lost 8% of their dominance in the Gladiator ranks. By comparison, Rogues have picked up 6.5%. Druids are the big winners, though. Only 7.5% of Season 1's gladiators were druids, compared to 16% of Season 3's. And yeah. There's a lot of metagame interpretation that could be done regarding these numbers. Melee have slowly risen in power over the span of three seasons, and Paladins -- once the bubbling unstoppable -- have really dropped in performance. Druids used to be unremarkable, but now the "science" of Line-of-Sight and Mobility has taken the day. Arena Junkies promise to further update their analysis when the Hall of Fame is updated for Season 3. But I agree with Tyveris: I think the current sample is indicative, and we're not going to see any huge differences between these numbers and those.
Arena titles have not yet reset with Season 4 (UPDATED)
Servers are coming back up, but it seems there's a bit of oddity about the end of season awards from Season 3. We've received reports that folks who should not have retained previous titles (Challenger, Rival, Gladiator, etc.) still have the honorary available. In theory, these titles were supposed to reset, and if you didn't re-earn the title in Season 3, you'd lose what you had from Season 2. That seems not to have happened.We don't know if this is a bug or a surprise gift from Blizzard, but it's probably a safe bet that it's a bug they'll be squishing. It seems cruel to the hopefuls who may think they have a title, only to lose it if this gets corrected. But, we'll see what Blizzard does. At least Season 4 has started, and everyone will have the opportunity to try again.Edit: While we realize that, per posting from Eyonix, new titles wouldn't be granted until next week, it had previously seemed that the title stripping would still happen at the end of Season 3.
End of Season 3 reward requirements
Season 4 starts next week. As a result, this coming weekend is going to be a gladiatorial weekend for many folks, fighting to get their Arena rating high enough to score end of season rewards. Blizzard has posted (on both US and EU forums) a reiteration of the criteria to be considered for those rewards -- they look pretty much the same as they have before. The requirements for a team to be considered for end of season rewards are: The team must have played at least 20 games during the season. The team must have at least one player that has played in 20% or more of the total games for that team. Players on a team that qualifies for consideration, must do the below to be counted: The player must have played in 20% or more of the total games for that team The player must have a Personal Rating that is not more than 100 points lower than the Team Rating (your Personal Rating may be higher, however). So, there it is. If you want to be considered for one of the coveted Arena titles, you must meet the above criteria. Good luck!
Taxidermists and their creations in the World of Warcraft
The author of "Warcraft and Other Hooha" read on the Lord of the Rings Online's site that there are taxidermists in game who will mount and show off your kills, and wondered why the same thing wasn't going on in Azeroth. It seems silly at first, but there's actually a lot of precedent -- they collected all the current taxidermy in Warcraft, and the case is pretty convincing. Clearly someone is stuffing and mounting animals in Azeroth.Of course, as in LotRO, this is a feature that would go hand-in-hand with player housing, so we shouldn't expect to see one until we've gotten the other (and odds are that we won't see player housing anytime soon, though guild housing is another story). Not everybody would want dead animals adorning their walls (Druids probably wouldn't appreciate having that bear around), but what better way is there for you to show off what you've taken down out in the wild?[Via Mania]
Breakfast Topic: Horray for n00bies
We have a policy of not using much gamer slang here on WoW Insider. I'm feeling a little naughty today, so I'm going to take this opportunity to break the rules. N00b is on the list of words we generally avoid. It refers to players who should have learned the mechanics of the game, but continue to make stupid mistakes. We are surrounded by n00bs from the Hunter who consistently tab targets to the Shaman that utterly refuses to use Totems. We've all been subjected to the annoying Murloc game where people spam trade chat with movie titles with Murloc replacing one of the words. I find this behavior to be somewhat juvenile and nearly completely asinine. I never participate in the trade chat spam, but like I said, I'm feeling naughty. I propose we go to town with the word n00b. I'll start: 2001: A n00b Odyssey Charlie and the n00b Factory Plan n00b from Outer Space Indiana Jones and the Temple of n00b. Alright, it's your turn! /e defiantly accepts her punishment and saunters down to the torture chambers in the basement of the WoW Insider headquarters.
Breakfast Topic: A waste of money
Aysel is a little ashamed about spending 1000g on a title, though she shouldn't be -- "of the Shattered Sun" is as honorable a title as any other, and if you've got the money to get it, more power to you (though her suggestion that her guildies call her AOTSS is pretty funny).But I like her other question better: what's the dumbest thing you've ever spent a bunch of ingame gold on? My waste of money is probably more of a mistake than an actual embarrassment -- I remember spending a good 100g to outfit my level 40 Mage in the shiniest stuff I could find on the AH, including a couple of world drops and the whole shabang. I had in mind that I was going to take her all the way to 70 -- and then I think I never played her again. What a waste.I'm sure you all have better stories, though -- ever accidentally dropped a lot of cash on something you couldn't actually use, or splurge on an item that was a little silly, just so you could have it? What's the most money you've ever wasted on anything in the game, and what did you buy?
Everyone is hardcore in their own way
David Bowers lightly ribbed me earlier about being too lazy to read quest text. Avid role-player that he is, he considered skipping quest text a capital offense. He went on to tell me about some folks that even made sure to read every readable book or object in the game, like A Steamy Romance Novel or those books lying around in Stratholme. Role-players pride themselves in immersing themselves in game lore and the environment. I don't think I could be so involved or keep in character so well for so long. I thought to myself just how hardcore that was. On the other hand, some people would probably consider my dropping 375 Mining to level up Enchanting just for the ring enchants for PvP to be hardcore. I certainly think what Nihilum did by having a majority of their raiding crew take up Leatherworking just for the Drums of Battle was incredibly hardcore.The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that a lot of people are pretty hardcore in their own way. I mean, my wife continued to raid with us while she was pregnant, healing us through Serpentshrine Cavern while lying down on the bed. She would log on to fill our roster when we were short even though she was bedridden because of doctor's orders. One of her friends in-game who was also pregnant played a Druid and was actually tanking a Heroic 5-man when she felt contractions come on and had to excuse herself midway through the instance. It turned out to be a false alarm, but I think these women are pretty hardcore for playing in their condition.
Blizzard needs to steal character customization Ideas from other MMORPGs
The idea of being able to customize your character's look and feel beyond choosing one of 4 or 5 basic face and hairstyle choices at character creation or upgrading to a new piece of loot is one that's near and dear to me. I'm an RPer, so I like to think of each of my characters as a unique person with unique quirks, ideas, and fashion sense that I can't always express as I'd like to due to the limitations of WoW's mechanics. I've even had some very good friends quit WoW because their characters weren't customizable enough. The idea came to the front of my mind a few weeks back when I was visiting my brother. We played EverQuest together, but when it came time to move on from that game, he (and most of our EQ guild) chose Everquest 2, and I chose WoW. So, of course, he ribs me about it quite often, and since I was visiting, he decided to load up EQ2 and show me what I was "missing." Now to be honest, I'm still a bigger fan of WoW, but that's a subject for a different article. One thing I will say for EQ2 is that I was very impressed with the wider range of options to customize your character and show off your character's accomplishments. There's a few ideas related to character customization from EQ2 and other games that I'd really like Blizzard to continue emulating in future patches and in the WoTLK expansion that I believe would deepen the game experience for me and my friends, and for many other players as well.
LoN: Inquisitor launches today
The third set in the Legends of Norrath digital trading card game, Inquisitor launches today. Since we wrote up our first look last month, we've discovered a few new things. Mostly our unhealthy obsession with loot cards. You see, in every pack of cards you buy, there is a chance to get one card that can be redeemed for an item within EverQuest or EverQuest II. And I don't mean just a souvenir loincloth or a +2 Ring of Useless Stat. I mean shiny things like unique mounts, snazzy cloaks, new titles, new pets and new weapon graphics. Did we mention the shiny?? Loot cards that can be redeemed for EQ and loot cards that can be redeemed for EQ2 are profiled on the official LoN site. If you are looking to get your hands on your own shiny, a weekend LoN: Inquisitor tournament starts today. %Gallery-17086%
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite title
We at WoW Insider like our titles. Mike once made a little rant about how he would've liked to see the return of the old PvP ranks. Having no Blood Elf High Warlords or Draenei Grand Marshals make me a little sad on the inside. Although Bornakk has already stated that they would like to keep titles "rare", it seems like we're getting a few more really cool titles with the juiciest patch to date. For example, even though attunement to the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal will be removed in Patch 2.4, players who have completed the quest line will be honored with the title "Hand of A'dal" just as players who completed the Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep attunement are called "Champion of the Naaru". Some titles are cool, while some are mere remnants of the old world... who among you really wears their "Grunt" or "Private" ranks with pride? Patch 2.4 also promises an awesome title for those who achieve Exalted with the Shattered Sun offensive... and have money to burn. Perhaps the rarest title of all is the "Scarab Lord" which can only be obtained at one point in a server's lifetime, and it's no mean feat. Though there've been humorous suggestions as to what other titles should be made available in the game, what's your favorite title so far? Is it one of your in-game goals? Are you one of the few who managed to reach High Warlord or Grand Marshal? Or are you happy with Champion or Knight-Lieutenant? Personally, I'm trying to grind Conqueror with my Blood Elf although I've got 1,000 gold stashed away because "... of the Shattered Sun" sounds just so gosh-darned cool. What about you?
Pay gold, get title
Once upon a time, titles were markers of PvP status. In the old PvP system (before patch 2.0), people who had attained a particular PvP rank had the option of showing it next to their name; I never got past "Captain," but it was fun all the same. With the new PvP system, though, the ability to gain these titles were removed from the game, though as I recall players retained the highest rank they had ever achieved as an optional title. Shortly following this development, Blizzard announced that they intended to expand the title system, giving them out to players for various achievements PvP and PvE alike.
Tigole hits the forums
Tigole has been busy on the forums today, and that always tends to bring out interesting tidbits about the future of our favorite game. While it is certainly not earth-shattering, the most interesting thing that he mentions has to do with the future of the PVP battlemasters. In patch 2.4 these guys will be put on a pedestal, literally. Much like the auctioneers in many cities, the battlemasters will be placed on a raised platform that is inaccessible to players in order to keep people from blocking them with their character's model. He also hints that Wrath will see even better improvements. This is certainly a welcome change to remove a minor annoyance that is sometimes imposed upon us by our fellow players.Other posts hint at the future of guild banks, the title system, and a possible reward for Wrath's Lake Wintergrasp. First of all, he mentions that they're "exploring" the option to allow guild masters to set prices for items in the guild bank. I know in my guild this would be great for the guild leader, since it would probably save him a lot of time in the auction house and also provide an easy solution to those situations where he gets a valuable item and is not sure how to distribute it to the rest of the guild. I imagine that this could be exploited, to an extent, by guild leaders who might suddenly slap a price on everything in the bank rather than allowing free withdrawals, but that would probably fix itself over time as people leave the guild and/or stop donating to the bank.
The Daily Grind: Non-combat titles vs combat titles
I admit it; I'm a title hunter. Way back when I started up City of Heroes, the idea of gathering as many badges as I could seemed like a lot of fun to me. It gave me a plethora of various titles and accolades to choose from at any given time. Later, when the TaxiBots entered the scene, I joined up with their cause. One of the things we had the most success with in regards to player-run events was the Badge tours, whereby people who either didn't know where the badges were, or just didn't feel like hunting them could get teleported from place to place via Recall Friend. We took the badge flavor text and spun outrageous stories based on it, then sent them along to the next person in the route. After approximately 2 minutes, the "fare" (player) would have gained 5-7 new badges, and had a lot of fun listening to us spin tales of bravery and occasionally depravity. Fast forward to WoW and LotRO, and I find myself chasing titles once again, but most of these require combat to gain. It is quite different from the early CoH badges with many available just for walking over a certain area, or finding an easter egg. Is there a better way to do it? Perhaps. But this is what we'd like to ask you about today. Are you also a badge hunter, seeking the next new title? If so, do you prefer yours for combat and feats of prowess, would you rather have them for just finding some "historic" spot that advances the lore, or do you like the idea of a combination of both? Do you think the idea of a non-combat title is just silly? Or do you really just not care about the idea of titles at all?
Under The Hood: The Ouroboros System
In most MMOs, once you hit a certain level, quests from before you hit that level turn useless and defunct. This sort of mechanic keeps players from going back and experiencing old stories because they leveled too fast, and really detracts from the overall feel of a game. What if I wanted to go back and play old quests (World of Warcraft, I'm looking right at you) and get some reward for them? Well, thankfully, City of Heroes/Villains has just implemented the Ouroboros System to allow you to go back and play previous missions you couldn't. But how is this going to affect the industry?
TTH guides you through the Deeds of Evendim
Ten Ton Hammer's series of Deed guides for The Lord of the Rings Online continues with a guide to the Deeds of Evendim. Their guides to the North Downs, Ered Luin, and Angmar were all great, and this one's just as helpful.Titles you can earn in Evendim include Slayer of the Gauredain, Enemy of the Giants, Bane of the Kergrim, Keeper of Mysteries, and more. Of course you can get all sorts of helpful traits as well.Evendim was added to LotRO's world in Book 9 and is home to Annuminas, the former capitol of Arnor (the western sister to Gondor). Now it's populated by all sorts of unpleasant northern terrors such as the Gauredain.
