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Guildwatch: "Enjoy the Soviet Union"
Oh my -- we've heard about undercutting prices on the AH before (and everyone knows that when you get undercut on the AH, you just buy the lower sales and bring them back up to your prices), but I don't think I've ever seen someone get quite so angry about it. Blueroot was just chugging along, selling Runecloth at what his Auctioneer claimed it should be, and all of a sudden Crunkya showed up, angry that he'd been undercut so much and had to invest so much money in someone that was clearly an Obama voter. Wait, what? Yeah, we're not sure how he got there either, but you can see the result above. Lots more drama, as well as downed and recruiting news, in this week's Guildwatch, which starts up right after the break below. If you have a tip for us, from your guild or just a guild you've been following on your realm, please do take a second and email us about it at guildwatch@wow.com. We get a lot of tips and it takes a lot of time to sift through them, but as long as you make it look like what you see below (keep it short and sweet, include all necessary guild info), you'll see it here.
Guildwatch: "My laywer is processing a subpoena"
Isn't weird how, though they always promise there's a lawsuit or a subpeona on the way, it never actually appears in the mail? I've made my share of people angry in game (though not on purpose, never on purpose), and it's amazing how many players have cousins who happen to be lawyers or attorneys, ready to sue for the smallest thing at a moment's notice. If you all ever do get sued for something you do in-game, be sure to let us know -- it'd be a pretty historic case.In the meantime, you can always let us know about any drama, downed, or recruiting news you see on the forums or ingame -- just drop us a note at guildwatch@wow.com. Hit the link below to read what we've got on offer this week.
WoW Moviewatch: Ulduar: The Movie 3/3
It was only a few weeks ago when the second installment Ulduar: The Movie (also known as Ulduar: Defiance) hit the streets. Artraira didn't leave us hanging, though, and has just released the third and final installment, titled Ulduar: The Movie - Part 3/3. This closing video maintains the same epic feel and smooth presentation as the rest of the series.There's a small piece of me that regrets the finish of Ulduar: The Movie. It's kept me excited during its entire run, even though I've clearly seen all the fights before. Artraira's attention to framing and unparalleled sense of pacing made Ulduar: The Movie one of the best PvE films I've seen. While some critics might call the series simply "boss fight videos," I think that Artraira has filmed the entire Ulduar experience in a way that gets the feel and importance of the instance through to people who have never stepped foot in it. A year from now, when we're all off chasing Deathwing, someone's going to ask "What was that Ulduar thing about?" Ulduar: The Movie is definitely where you should send them. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
When to move up to the next raid
I like this post over at Tank Like a Girl that raises the question of just when your guild should make the big step to move on up the raiding ranks. Just last night, my very casual guild headed into Ulduar for the first time, and even though we'd never been in there before (we've been doing Naxx, OS, and EoE with some regularity, though when I say we're casual, I mean we're really casual), I think we did it at exactly the right time. We made it up to Kologarn -- enough to know that we didn't go in too early (and come out empty-handed, unable to down any bosses) or too late (and breeze through the place).Now obviously, every guild is in a different place raiding-wise (and most guilds are way ahead of ours, I know), and TLaG is dealing with a different dilemma: whether to take down Yogg-Saron before moving on to ToC or not. And in her case, she's got the added "gotta catch 'em all" thinking. But it's a tough thing as a raid leader -- you don't want to move on past content you know you can do eventually, and progression always beckons. In the end, you've got to figure out what's best for the guild. And of course, the content's not going anywhere -- if you can't drop a certain boss this week, there's always the next raid reset.
Guildwatch: Redemption
Many whelps! Handle it! Oh wait, you did. In the Wake on Zul'jin (as you can see in the video above) was just one of the many guilds to take down Onyxia since she returned to the game in a more powerful form, and while obviously there wasn't much new to this fight, most guilds give it a thumbs up: it was a little old-school raiding taste in a new-school difficulty level. Not that it's too hard (c'mon, it's Onyxia), but it's nice to see the fight pretty faithfully recreated. Makes you wish for more, doesn't it?Lots more raid downings, and of course the usual drama and recruitment notices in this week's Guildwatch. If you've got a tip for us about your guild or just one you saw on the forums, please send it along to guildwatch@wow.com, and please do your best to make it look like the ones below -- if you send us five pages on the entire history of your guild, it probably won't show up here. Read on for more.
Guildwatch: Have a nice day baddie
I live a good part of my life on the Internet -- I work on the Internet, and throughout the years, I've learned to play quite a bit on the Internet. So I realize that once I post something everyone can see, it's not necessarily mine any more -- once I share it with the public at large, I can't really lay much claim to it being mine and mine alone. That said, I understand Ravenmeow's problem above -- Deathlymorg of Endless Fury on Nagrand purportedly stole her tips off of her guild's website and reposted them (without credit, we assume) on his own. Sure, they were on the Internet, and nothing you really post on the Internet, especially in a forum, can ever be locked down again. But I see the complaint, especially when Deathlymorg isn't even the least bit grateful for the information, not to mention that he is pretty condescending to boot.That drama and much more in this week's Guildwatch (which you really shouldn't go reposting in full on your guild's forums, but hey, can I really stop you?), along with the usual downed and recruiting notices as well. To share something from your guild (or a bit of drama you've noticed elsewhere), send us an email at guildwatch@wow.com. Read on for more.
WoW Moviewatch: Ulduar: The Movie 2/3
Atraira has released the second installment of Ulduar: The Movie. Like the first episode, Ulduar: The Movie 2/3 features a sprawling series of fights. Each moment illustrates a fundamental experience in Ulduar.What I enjoy most about Atraira's series is that these movies do such a wonderful job conveying the vital themes and core of Ulduar itself. While I won't say watching these movies is just as good as actually going on the raids, Atraira is doing a lot to "brige the gap" between people who have gone to Ulduar, and people who can't actually attend the raids. Atraira is keeping that second group of folks in the loop, so that they don't miss out on the lore and fun-to-watch boss fights.Atraira's soundtrack continues to be well chosen for each fight. This quality of work is incredibly awesome. I can't wait to see the final episode. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Guildwatch: Beware of tourists
This Guildwatch is running a bit late, and apologies for that -- your narrator is slightly out of pocket lately, and clamboring as quickly as possible to get back in. But the guilds featured in today's GW have no such problems -- they are rolling through content like nobody's business. From Yoggy (above) to all the modes of ToC, it's a downstravaganza in Azeroth lately.Drama and recruiting notices after the break as well. If you want to see your guild (or a sweet forum thread full of drama -- please make sure it's guild-related, no random ninja whining) right here next week, send us an email at guildwatch@wow.com. Hit the link below to read on.
Raid Rx: 14 patch 3.2 trinkets to check out
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. It's been a while since I looked at trinkets. What options are there available since then? Yes, the linked article goes to the Priest column on trinkets. Not every healer's going to use them. But truth be told, there aren't that many new options for healers in the current game since Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader opened up. Let's look at everything available since Malygos. So what do we have to work with?
Phat Loot Phriday: Insanity's Grip
Hey, how about a fist weapon? Isn't "fist weapon" a weird name? We don't call them "sword weapons" or "stabby weapons," right? It's Phat Loot Phriday! On a Phasaturday!Name: Insanity's Grip (Wowhead, WoWDB, Thottbot)Type: Epic Main Hand Fist WeaponDamage/Speed: 372 - 558 / 2.60 (178.8 DPS)Attributes: +52 Agility, +51 Stamina +1736 Feral attack power, if you're of the feral persuasion Improves crit strike rating by 34, expertise by 25, and attack power by 80 %Gallery-33600%
Guildwatch: It was my friend
Of course the issue is supposed to be fixed now, but after getting booted off their mains in Ulduar, Dark Haven on Baelgun had had enough, and made a dancing line of cows to display their displeasure. Pretty funny.Lots more guild shenigans in this week's Guildwatch as usual, including some drama (both good and bad), some downed news, and some recruiting posts. Tune in after the break below to see what's going on around the servers. And if you have a tip, from your guild or something you saw on the forums, send it along to us at guildwatch@wow.com. Thanks!
GuildOx implements 10-man strict rankings
GuildOx sends an email to tell us that they've set up 10-man strict ratings on their guild progression website. They've always offered 10-man ratings, though a lot of guilds run both 10- and 25-man content, and it's not quite legit to stack the "10-man only" guilds up against the guilds who occasionally do 25-man content (and thus have chances at better gear, no matter how much of a difference it makes). Hence, enter the "10-man strict" ratings -- these are guilds who have not run any 25-man content, according to a set of criteria that GuildOx has put together?What is that criteria? You won't be allowed to earn any Coliseum normal kills or Ulduar 25 hard-mode kills. You are still allowed to PuG those fights, though the limit is 10 players over time, or five in the same fight (in other words, if 10 players of your guild accomplish a kill in 25-man Coliseum, or five of them do it in the same raid, you're off the 10-man strict list). That's designed to make sure that the list stays as clean as possible. You'll have to watch recruits, too -- anyone who enters your guild with a certain achievement has it counted towards that total of 10 players as well. All the other info you need to know about the listings are over in their FAQ. Players may find other ways around the limit (there is, of course, higher level gear now available from Emblems that 10-player guilds are still able to get), but for now, that's where GuildOx is putting the limit, so if you want to stay on the list, follow their rules. Good luck to all of the strictly 10-man guilds out there.
Cranius music available on Amazon
Cranius has built one heck of a reputation as a World of Warcraft fan songwriter. His music and video credits include Big Blue Dress and the incredibly moving Darrowshire. This year, he (and machinimator partner Legs) achieved the first place prize at the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest for their every-man video, Don't Make Me Get My Main.All this background makes it awesome to point out that Cranius has released his music through Amazon, all collected on an album titled Big Blue Dress. The album is pretty cheap, coming in under $5.00. It includes downloads of Big Blue Dress, Darrowshire, and The Lament of Captain Placeholder, as well as his new pieces, Happy Place and Don't Make Me Get My Main. The only piece I felt was missing was Ulduar, but I can think of a few reasons it didn't appear.At the cheap price, it's nice to be able to throw a little support at an artist who's brought so much music to the community. He's not been alone in this, of course, as both Oxhorn and Myndflame have released their music in one form or another. I think it's a wonderful opportunity, and something I support wholeheartedly. I obviously have purchased it, and am playing it on my computer even now.
Officers' Quarters: Guild leader loot rage
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.This week's e-mail describes a fairly typical loot drama situation. What makes it unique is that it involves the guild leader, who did not handle the issue very well at all, as you will see. As officers, we have to be very careful about how we handle loot for our own characters. We have to set the example for how we'd like our members to deal with loot issues. Let's look at the e-mail first. Then I'll talk about what this guild leader should have done differently. Hello -- I have written to you before regarding an attendance issue in the guild I was in. Your response was very timely and incredibly helpful -- once 3.2 hit we made raids happen a lot quicker. Recently, we made an adventure into Ulduar. We did very well for a small guild and got up to Thorim in one night. After a few wipes, one person had to leave and was replaced with a new person. We made the decision to have the new person switch to his DPS spec and had one of our existing DPS go to a tank spec. We downed him that attempt (which was awesome). I was the Master Looter, so I opened up the chest and a Tier token dropped, along with the epic mace Legacy of Thunder. The DPS who had switched to tank was a Warrior, and the mace was a huge upgrade for him. I said in raid, "Roll for Legacy". The Warrior rolled and a Paladin, the guild master, rolled against him. The Warrior won the roll, so I gave the item to him. The GM whispered me a message along the lines of "way to do loot". I didn't think too much of his comment, and logged off for the night.
Insider Trader: Gadgets for the modern Engineer
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Engineering has quite a few useful tools in addition to their famous repertoire of toys, but not every player knows how to make the most of them. There are many reasons for this, including: Not being informed on the latest improvements. Consumables may be less cost-prohibitive, for example, than the last time you checked. Believing the "Engineering is useless" hype that lingers from darker days, and feeling creatively blocked after an expensive and tedious leveling process. Being an irrational yet strangely normal cooldown and consumable saving individual. Awkward Zombie illustrates the latter nicely, and we've talked about stingy cooldown use in the past. This week, Insider Trader is going to discuss a handful of the Engineering tools that you really should be using to the fullest, and why.
WoW Moviewatch: Ulduar: Defiance
Slaytanic pointed out to us yesterday that Atraira has released the first installment of the new movie titled Ulduar: Defiance. The video is an interesting, cinematic look at the boss fights in Ulduar. Atraira, of course, is the machinimator who created the WoW video for Lonely Island's Boombox. We were pretty excited about the trailer, so it was awesome to see the movie make a release.The basic idea behind Ulduar: Defiance seems to be that a Paladin is plagued by dreams about the home of the Titans. Gathering up 24 of her closest friends and allies, she then proceeds to kick some butt in Ulduar. The music and camera work for the fight scenes are all very well done, and I found myself incredibly motivated by listening to Atraira's soundtrack.What really stood out about this video, however, was actually the opening dream portion. Atraira did an amazing job of filming a Scourge attack on Lordaeron. It was a brilliant, creative opening sequence. After such a strong start, the various boss-kill scenes weren't quite as impressive. Don't get me wrong -- it was still fun and I'll be watching it again. But, wow, Atraira really knocked that opening dream sequence out of the park. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Ready Check: Yogg-Saron
Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This is the show stopper. The big guy, the final countdown. Yogg-Saron is the last normal boss in Ulduar. (The only other dude is a freaky guy made from stars. Let's stick to the Old Gods here.) Yogg-Saron is the second Old God raid boss in the game, and shares an important dynamic with his predecessor: in-order to kill Yogg-Saron, you have to go inside him and fight a vital organ. Pretty freaky, huh?Yogg-Saron is actually my favorite fight thematically. Perhaps as a purposeful shout-out to game mechanics from the Call of Cthulu, your raid members will have to manage a buff called Sanity. That dynamic was a signature, revolutionary aspect of the tabletop game, and Blizzard uses it very similarly in this boss fight. At least, I hope it's purposeful. It's possible they were simply inspired by Lovecraft's stories the same way that tabletop designers were. Still, I prefer my little world where those guys threw some dice and stared at their SAN score.Anyway, let's get to talking about the boss fight.
Breakfast Topic: What secret weapon lies within Uldum?
Looking ahead beyond Icecrown Citadel, one of the zones that intrigue me the most has been around for an extremely long time. In Cataclysm, we're going to finally gain the chance to explore the area. I'm referring to Uldum of course. Somewhere behind its gates, we'll be given the task of discovering and then securing the super weapon in order to keep it away from the hands (claws?) of Deathwing and from the Horde (or Alliance). So here's the 64,000 gold question. What on Azeroth could possibly be so powerful to attract even Deathwing's attention? Think about it. He's one of the most powerful beings on the planet that's still alive. Granted he's lost his sanity a long time ago, but he seems lucid enough to go after something that can help amplify his power even further. My idea? Well we know the Titans were involved in the creation of Ulduar and Uldum. Not only that, but they were responsible for landscaping all of Azeroth. So what if the weapon behind Uldum isn't really a weapon but more of a giant landscaping tool capable of flattening mountains or making really deep holes? Or maybe it's a weapon similar to the one shown in my favorite science fiction TV show (which is no longer on the air) that has the ability to either create life or destroy it by reshaping their molecular structure? (Hint: Jaffa! Kree!) We will be assaulting the Halls of Origination after all. Or maybe it's a whole swackload of caged murlocs with giant "lazers" attached to their bodies. Bad movie references aside, anyone else out there the least bit curious about what we'll be going after in the future? Or what we're keeping away from Deathwing? What could it be?
Guildwatch: "ur name is remembered"
Boyd of Order of the Oak was tooling around Storm Peaks on the Shadowsong server when he saw a pile of dead rhinos and swooped done to skin them. No sooner did he do that than he noticed a little AFK Mage of Riders of the Apocalypse sitting there, and when the person got back from AFK, as you can see above, they were quite angry. Quite angry indeed. Over two Rhino skins. We wonder whose reputation was hurt worse by this little transaction.Many more drama stories in this week's Guildwatch, which we apologize is a little bit late thanks to the BlizzCon aftermath here on the site. But worry not -- we've got your drama, your downed, and even your recruiting news. Sorry you didn't get it earlier, but maybe it'll be a little pick-me-up this late in the week. Want to send us a tip? Please do? Email it to guildwatch@wow.com!
Speeding up Trial of the Champion
Trial of the Champion, the latest dungeon, has quickly become a popular daily destination. It's no wonder why; in under half an hour, with little difficulty, you can begin outfitting your character(s) with epics of Ulduar quality!At first, I wasn't sure if I agreed with Blizzard's decision to start handing out welfare epics again. Surely we can't be that close to the next expansion, Cataclysm!Then I realized how easily I could now gear one of my alts, which was something previously impossible to me. Being a main healer, I knew I would never have the opportunity to bring an alt to a raid, so my favorites have not even hit 80 yet. Now that I know I could get them Ulduar-ready in such a short time, I have renewed interest in leveling them. I can also see why Blizzard would want to help players gear up at this point in time. In Burning Crusade, so few people got to see Sunwell and experience what the expansion was all about, that this time around, they seem to be gunning for the general raiding population to reach Arthas (Icecrown Citadel). Having accepted this acceleration in "progress," I was left with one major qualm. The introduction to Trial of the Champion, which must be endured each run, is way too long. Unbearably long. Go and make a triple-decker sandwich long. Then a few guildmates and I discovered that there is indeed a way to hasten the process.
