wrath
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Breakfast Topic: What is your favorite part of Wrath?
My guildchat is filled with "this quest is my favorite part of Northrend so far" or "I love Old Kingdom" or other effusions about loot, zones, etc. It's fun listening to all of my guildies enthuse about their favorite things and knowing that I'm not alone in finding WoW more fun than ever to play.My favorite part of Wrath of the Lich King is anything having to do with Death Knights. I love Ebon Hold and all of the Death Knight beginning quests and my ghoul and Desecration and and and... Well, I could go on about it forever (though I'd rather be playing mine). I even think it's fun that Outland has been infested by Death Knights and the players who want to gank them. And, of course, I love Siouxsie.What is your favorite part of of Wrath so far? Have you completed a must-do quest? Is there a new instance that you particularly like? Do you have a new item that is your absolute favorite? Feel free to squee in the comments below.
Robin Torres11.18.2008
CrossOver Games supports Wrath of the Lich King
If you're a Linux user worried whether you can play Wrath on your preferred operating system, there's some good news for you. CodeWeaver has confirmed that their CrossOver Games system-compatability product will continue to support World of Warcraft, even if your account includes Wrath of the Lich King. You don't even have to upgrade to a new CrossOver build. The current 7.10 version will run Wrath "just peachy," says CodeWeaver's COO John Parshall. According to the press release we recieved from CodeWeaver, Parshall apparantly did most of the Wrath "testing" himself. "I played well into my mid-70s on several of my characters," said Parshall. Like 99% of the WoW population, the COO also played a Death Knight to about level 60. So, you can rest confidently knowing your Death Grip is totally okay with Linux. The press release obviously didn't say whether he tanked or not, but I'm going to assume a Linux guru has the skills to pay the bills, as it were. CrossOver's web site does warn that there may be a few small problems, but that the game runs smoothly and exceedingly well. It comes just shy of running "flawlessly." Given that the COO of the company seems to be a devoted fan, you can assume that any serious problems will be worked out soon enough.
Michael Gray11.17.2008
15-year-old collapses after playing Wrath for hours on no sleep or food
Reader Danny sent us this article from Holland Sweden, where apparently (a rough translation of the piece, thanks to Google, is after the break), a young boy of 15 was taken to the hospital after collapsing while playing Wrath of the Lich King. He reportedly had played the game for fifteen hours straight, and because he'd only gotten two hours of sleep and had almost nothing to eat the entire time, felt cramps and apparently collapsed from exhaustion.Obviously, it's a stretch to blame this on the game -- doing anything for 15 hours straight with no sleep or food won't be good for your health. There were millions of people who played this very same game this weekend (some probably even for the same amount of time or more) and had no problems at all -- they realize that to stay healthy, you take breaks, get sleep, and eat healthy. But this kid (and his parents) didn't do things correctly, and as a result, he ended up in the hospital.Hopefully the kid's all right, and the parents have learned their lesson: they have decided to limit his time in front of the computer, which is exactly what they should do if he can't limit it himself. The article ends by saying that "teenagers" around the world are playing the new expansion, except that the average age of gamers is now up to just under 30, and the average World of Warcraft player is actually older than that. Fortunately, the vast majority of them know how to enjoy the game and stay safe and healthy at the same time.
Mike Schramm11.17.2008
WoW Insider Show Episode 64: Wrath of the Launch King
This past week on our podcast, Wrath was the topic -- getting it, playing it, loving it, hating it. Our own co-lead Dan O'Halloran and rogue blogger Chase Christian joined us, and we talked Wrath of the Lich King. Dan was at the midnight launch in Anaheim, so we asked him about that -- not only were there about 2000 people (and 100 Blizzard employees there), but there was a bubble sword and a hot dog-on-a-stick stand, so listen in for that. And we talked about what the starting zones were like (including two don't-miss quests in Howling Fjord) and our main annoyances with the game so far (none of which include, surprisingly, lag -- despite the queues, Blizzard has really kept the game alive).And we answered emails, including whether a listener should play through his Warlock or Death Knight, and the perils of going after Mr. Pinchy. Don't forget, if you'd like to send us email, the address is theshow AT wow.com -- drop a note, and you might hear it live on the show next Saturday, which we'll stream right on our Ustream page.And finally, we're back up and running at full steam -- as of right now, every way you need to listen to the show should be completely fixed and functioning. So if you've got iTunes, head over to our iTunes page to subscribe to the show and make sure to leave a review while you're there. Or, you can even listen to the show right over there on our sidebar -- you'll get a new show there every Monday.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Mike Schramm11.17.2008
Ask A Beta Tester: AABT's greatest hits, part 1
Yep, we've shocked the ol' column back to gasping life. The good kind of reanimation, though, not the kind you're probably killing in Northrend.Wow, this took ages. We got a lot of standout questions while doing Ask A Beta Tester, and I went through all of them trying to pick out the best, funniest, most helpful, or most unintentionally prescient among them. To be perfectly frank, we had so many that I started splitting them into separate articles. I've eliminated the questions that I expect readers will probably have answered for themselves at this point (e.g. Death Knight starting faction reputation) but kept all of the questions that I'm pretty sure are still relevant to the first week of gameplay in Wrath. I've also made a few additions and updates based on what we saw both in the beta and now on the live realms. I hope you guys enjoy reading these as much as we did answering them.I'm going to start off with the earliest series of questions that Elizabeth Harper and Alex Ziebart took in July and August. To round out the rest of AABT's best in the next few days, we'll keep moving through August, September, October, and up to the very end of AABT.
Allison Robert11.17.2008
Breakfast Topic: Realm (in)stability
In general I've been pleasantly surprised at how stable my own realm has been since the launch. Yes, we've had queues, restarts, lag, and yes, we've also had an insanely annoying subgroup of people with absolutely no scruples over stealing quest spawns (to be fair, this isn't Blizzard's fault, unless you count their refusal to allow us to kill members of our own faction. I have been sorely tempted over the last few days). But in general, play has been pretty trouble-free apart from the crowds you'd expect at all the usual quest hubs, and the response to the expansion has been universally positive from everyone to whom I've spoken. Wrath, at least on my own realm, has gone live to a very happy and excited bunch of players.But with a look at WoW Insider's inbox, I'm not sure it's worked out that way for everyone. We've seen a spate of recent complaints about server crashes and giant queues, and this weekend we've gotten a lot of them from people playing on Oceanic servers particularly (one of our readers, James Flannery, wrote in to tell us about an Oceanic server queue that went from 86 to 161 minutes during the half hour that he'd already been waiting). While in general I think it's safe to say that Wrath's launch went much more smoothly than Burning Crusade's did, I'm not sure everyone's benefited despite Blizzard's efforts. Possibly it's a function of Wrath being even more popular than anticipated in certain regions. If you play on multiple servers, which realm(s) seem to be doing best and worst? Have queue times (if they existed) and server lag improved for you?
Allison Robert11.17.2008
Breakfast Topic: What did you level first?
Our topic for today comes from one of our readers, Grindal. He (she? Sorry!) wrote in suggesting we ask all of you a question. What did you level first? Did you level your main right away? Did you try out an alt in Northrend? Did you roll a Death Knight? Heck, is your new Death Knight your new main?Personally, I went straight to my main. No questions about it. I hit the Howling Fjord and started questing like crazy. Eventually I rolled my Death Knight with the name I had been reserving for months now, but I didn't really play it at all. I just wanted to start accumulating rest. That's about all I did on all of my alts, actually. I made sure my 70s were in inns. That's it. Beyond that, it's been all Shadow Priest all the time. I was lucky in that I got into Northrend a little bit ahead of the crowds, so I'm usually a zone ahead of most people. I just finished the Dragonblight last night just as the masses rolled in, and now I have the Grizzly Hills more or less to myself. Once people start flooding that zone, I'll be over in Zul'Drak.How are things going for all of you?%Poll-22482%
Alex Ziebart11.16.2008
Arcane Brilliance: Leveling your Mage through Northrend
Each week, Arcane Brilliance rounds up all of the quest mobs in an area, gathers them all up into a giant, tagged, frozen gaggle, then AoEs them to death while everybody else has to watch and wait for the respawn. Just kidding, Arcane Brilliance doesn't actually do that at all. Why? Because that would make Arcane Brilliance a selfish jerk. I'm not even making a joke here. I'm saying in thinly veiled code to that Gnome Frost Mage in Gjalerbron yesterday, "you, sir, are a selfish jerk." Ok, so maybe the code isn't even thinly veiled. Maybe it isn't even a code, exactly. All I know is that one of these days, I hope you forget how much mana you have, and run out right when you've gathered an extremely large group of quest mobs, and that those quest mobs then surround you and tear you limb from Gnomish limb while you mash your Ice Block button in vain. Jerk.So, apparently an expansion came out, or something? Seriously, what are you doing here, reading this? I'm going to assume that you're trapped at work or something. Don't despair! There's still time for you to cultivate a nice, wet, contagious-sounding cough, something that can only be cured by a bit of time off, spent nursing yourself back to health in front of your computer, killing zombified murlocs and getting sea-lions to mate with each other. Not that we don't want you here, of course. We here at WoW Insider appreciate every second you choose to spend here. But holy crap, Wrath of the Lich King is awesome.Follow me after the break, and we'll discuss the process of leveling in this strange new continent, list a few leveling builds, and just generally blabber on about how awesome everything is.
Christian Belt11.15.2008
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?
Mike Schramm11.14.2008
And the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 is...
Nymh, Human Warlock of the EU server Drek'thar (and the real-world country of France) became the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 by working with an out-of-group Priest to spam area-of-effect attacks against rapidly-spawning mid-70s mobs, inspired by the technique of another World of Warcraft Warlock player named Jynxx, who eloquently explained the concept in a video (Note: probably won't make much sense if you're not a WoW addict already).Time from 70 to 80: 27 hours.Nymh did a lot of research and trial-and-error exploration of options in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test in order to be ready for the gauntlet after the EU launch, which of course came a little bit before the North American one. We'll note that the first-to-level-70-after-launch trophy went to another French player last year. Vive la France, no?[Via WoW Insider]
Samuel Axon11.14.2008
A look at World of Warcraft's unique characteristics
With Wrath of the Lich King imminent, we thought it would be a good idea to take a short look at just what has made and continues to make World of Warcraft so different than many other MMOs and whether or not it still retains that oh-so-different sheen. After four years of being pretty much the biggest dog in the yard, does World of Warcraft still bring new ideas to the table? Click below to find out what we think.
Kyle Horner11.14.2008What level are you?
I think it's safe to say a good chunk of us have been able to play Wrath at least a little bit by now. What do you think? How's your leveling going? I managed to hit level 72 yesterday before I retired for the night, and while I'm not leveling as quickly as I'd like, I've deemed my progress acceptable. I did some pretty serious beta testing during the Wrath beta, so I've quested through every single Northrend zone already.While I love the content and don't really mind doing it a second time, I'll admit that Nymh's accomplishment makes me a little jealous. At least that way if I could finish up with my main in a day or two, I could go right into my alts (who I didn't get to play much in the beta) until my friends caught up. It'd make things feel a little more new to me than they are. That's not really something I'm able to do though, so level 72 it is. I'm going to aim for a level a day, and if I manage something at least close to that I'll be happy. Do we have anyone nearing 80, or in the high-70s reading WoW Insider this morning? My server has a few already, so it wouldn't surprise me much at all!
Alex Ziebart11.14.2008
The Daily Grind: How you likin' that Death Knight?
Alright, boys and girls, you've had a day to play around with your Death Knights. Sure, it's a bit early to make any definitive judgments, but what are your first impressions? We've been hearing glowing (wink) reviews of the Death Knight starting experience from our colleagues, and we'd tell you what we think, but eh, we're too busy playing right now.For those of you who actually have to, y'know, work this morning -- that is to say, for whom work doesn't include include playing World of Warcraft (you poor souls) -- go ahead and sneak in your impressions when your boss isn't looking. Unless you took a few personal days for the launch, in which case you're surely lost to the ice wastes for now, and we'll see you in a few days when you return for pizza and other supplies.
Samuel Axon11.14.2008
Breakfast Topic: What Northrend zone did you begin in and why?
After the Midnight Launch, I rushed home with my precious Collector's Edition, installed, patched and made a Death Knight. I'm not ready to play my DK yet, but I wanted to reserve the name and get her resting. Then I put my druid on a zeppelin and went to Northrend.I didn't research the best starting zone for my class. I didn't even think about where the zeppelin might be taking me. I just randomly chose the Undercity portal from Shattrath and went from there. So here I am in the Howling Fjord. From a Tauren perspective, I'm not sure how I feel about doing chores for the Forsaken. Ah well, we're all in this together, right?Where did you begin your Northrend questing? Did you research your decision, choose randomly or follow the pack?
Robin Torres11.14.2008
World of WarCrafts: Color the Wendigo
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Between the high possibility of servers going down, potential queues, or just general lack of mobs to kill because of the massive influx of Northrend nubs you're probably going to have some downtime. Yeah, you could probably join in with the Barrens Chat-esque Chuck Norris jokes that will inevitably plague the general channels of the two starter zones, or you could bust out the Crayolas and color this awesome Wendigo.Here is what you will need: White Cardstock Printer Colors (Pencils, Crayons, Markers, etc.) Scissors Glue Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-36756% Want to print the step-by-step instructions? Copy and paste the instructions below.
Shelbi Roach11.13.2008
Wrath of the Lich King 101
The much-anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion has arrived for World of Warcraft, and may well be one of the most popular expansions we've ever seen in the MMO industry. That said, WoW players may find themselves a bit overwhelmed by their unfamiliar surroundings. Fortunately, our friends over at our sister site WoW Insider have been tearing into WotLK, and put together a series of guides called "Wrath 101." The WoW Insider guides will give you an in-depth look at the Wrath expansion's geography, and help you to find your way around. We've rounded up the entire guide series and assembled them for you here. Enjoy, and keep watching Massively for our ongoing news and features focusing on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Wrath 101: How to get to Northrend and where to go once you're thereHow 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. Wrath 101: Level 70 PvP gearIf you were looking forward to getting gear upgrades through Honor at Level 70 when Wrath of the Lich King finally arrives in a few days, you probably shouldn't hold your breath. I know I advised doing a lot of PvP, but I meant that you should be keeping all that Honor for Level 80 rewards. Wrath 101: Getting from Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord and vice versaOne of the questions frequently asked is which zone will you be leveling in first? A large majority of players will pick Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord. Why not both? Wrath 101: Alliance flight paths in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and DragonblightWe'll all be storming the (figurative) gates of Northrend, in one of two zones: Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. The zones are pretty large, but fortunately, they're replete with flight paths. Wrath 101: Horde flight paths in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and DragonblightPreviously, we covered the Alliance flight paths of the first three zones in Northrend. Now it's the Horde's turn.
James Egan11.13.2008
Massively's Wrath of the Lich King roundup
Some of the Massively team is excited about the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King... so much so that they've apparently come down sick and aren't working today. That's going around. Fortunately a few of us here survived this rash of contagion, that clearly has nothing to do with WoW, and are here to bring you news and views related to WotLK. To that end, we've collected some of our best stories related to Wrath of the Lich King all in one place. And if you're one of our readers who had to call in sick today due to illness, we're hoping you get well soon. Unboxing the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's EditionIt can't have escaped your notice that the release of Wrath of the Lich King is upon us, and if it has let me be among the first to welcome you to Planet Earth. Here at Massively, we have a metric tonne of Wrath-related content lined up for you, starting with a look inside the Collector's Edition box. Anti-Aliased: Mourning FrostmourneThe word on everyone's lips this month is "Arthas" as we're approaching the release of the Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion pack for World of Warcraft. Ok, so now that the boring introductory sentence is out of the way, let's talk about what is on everyone's minds -- Frostmourne. Lich King begins assault on Azeroth, starting with OrgrimmarWorld of Warcraft players are experiencing a world event leading up to the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. No, it's not another invasion of flesh-craving zombies -- but it's just as cool. A WoW burnout's guide to Wrath of the Lich KingDoes Wrath of the Lich King, the second World of Warcraft expansion, have enough new, interesting and worthwhile content to give longtime burnout players a reason to come back again? What about players who've recently hung up their Azerothian hat? Anti-Aliased: Killing the auctioneers is a perfect reason to go to NorthrendGoing to Northrend has always been something that bugged me. It's a land that's literally a boat trip away, and no one's set foot on it or even mentioned it since Arthas went bonkers and started living up there.
James Egan11.13.2008
Wrath of the Lich King: Priest roundup
Cheer up and be optimistic! Try not to be too worried about the Priest class. True we haven't changed all that much, we are still the most diverse healing class in the game. Even Elizabeth Harper and Phaelia agree that we still remain the best healers (for now). Don't be disheartened! But the challenge starts now. Hitting 80 will be a bit slower for us Holy specced players in comparison to other classes and specs. We can still hold our own against Arthas' minions! So where are we at then? State of the Game For the Priests that have just returned to the game, the biggest change is the fact that Priest racials have been removed. Hymn of Hope, Holy Nova and Devouring Plague are baseline abilities for all Priests . We'll be competing against Mages and Warlocks for gear since the three classes utilize Spirit to an extent. Circle of Healing is now a smart heal which could come with a 6 second cooldown as a penalty. Oh yeah, Prayer of Mending now draws threat for the caster instead of the target. The upside is that you can talent it to reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds with Divine Providence. Talent Trees Desperate Prayer takes up the 11 point talent slot where Holy Nova used to be. Discipline received a near complete overhaul. And guess what? It looks like it could be a raid viable spec! Check out Alex's Shadow Priest overview for a quick refresher. Dispersion: Great talent? Or greatest talent? General Tips A few notable Priest spells were covered in our Skill Mastery columns. Check out Penance and Guardian Spirit. Having fun is the most important thing you can do. If the quest givers or mobs are overloaded, find a few guildies and lock yourselves into Utgarde Keep for a while.
Matt Low11.13.2008
Unboxing the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition
It can't have escaped your notice that the release of Wrath of the Lich King is upon us, and if it has let me be among the first to welcome you to Planet Earth. Here at Massively, we have a metric tonne of Wrath-related content lined up for you, starting with a look inside the Collector's Edition box. We've spoken about the CE before, but this is the first chance we've had a chance to lay hands on it. I won't go into the details of how we got our grubby mitts on it early, but it may involve some obscene and blasphemous rituals conducted in honour of the Great Old Ones. Or a pre-order, take your pick. Read through our Unboxing the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Gallery, enjoy a good look at the contents. We'll even peek inside the Art book, the two March of the Legion TCG starter decks and the Instruction Manual if you're lucky. Take the Tour >> %Gallery-36550%
Craig Withers11.13.2008
Breakfast Topic: So. How's it going?
I'm sort of wondering to myself whether there's any real point to writing a Breakfast Topic this morning. Some of you already have Wrath and have probably spent the last several hours in a caffeine-fueled genial haze exploring Northrend -- or, alternatively, cursing your server's lack of stability and punching holes in nearby walls. Clearly you are in no fit state to be enjoying any breakfast that's not Red Bull or espresso. Some of you, like me, don't yet have Wrath and are anxiously awaiting a delivery or the opening of a store that's stocking it. Many of these folks spent a little time with me, Adam, and Mike in Ustream chat last night and got to witness: a). my first experience with IRC (painful, wasn't it?) and: b). a suspiciously-penned patch note of dubious veracity confirming that Ghostcrawler hates Paladins (see above), and: c). Mike deciding to fish instead of go to Northrend. For a few minutes, anyway.And some of you are comatose WoW Insider staffers whose articles today will be written by your household pets. I don't judge. We're all friends here. But I am madly curious as to what everyone's up to this morning, provided they're awake enough to click options on a poll. What are you up to in the day following Wrath's release?%Poll-22361%
Allison Robert11.13.2008