The first thing you do when you spawn outside the gates of Orgrimmar is run in and see what they’ve done to your home. The scooped plaza of the once-ramshackle desert town is changed forever. The low-slung bank is now a menacing, fortified tower studded with black iron from which the zeppelins fly around the world; the surrounding architecture has gone from tumbledown to terrifying.

This is the new old World of Warcraft that will arrive with the MMO’s third expansion pack, Cataclysm. Areas careworn to a comforting familiarity over five years of play have been ruptured by the apocalyptic arrival of the black dragon Deathwing on the mortal plane. Adventuring and society across the original 60 levels have been reshaped by political upheaval in the wake of the successful but costly war against Arthas in last expansion Wrath of the Lich King. Nothing will ever be the same again.

Blizzard unveiled its plan to overhaul the “old world” of Azeroth, as well as add new areas taking players up to a raised level cap of 85, in immense detail at BlizzCon last year. Today, we’re at the company’s Orange County compound south of LA for a fairly nuts-and-bolts update: the headlines are the scrapping of the Paths of the Titans customisation system, more detail on the new guild levelling and Achaeology profession, structural changes to player-versus-player and raiding, and a streamlining and reorganisation of character progression across every class.

Thousand Needles: flooded.

But we’ll deal with all that later, because the next thing you do is summon your flying mount and take to the skies for a view of Orgrimmar – ultimately, of the whole of Azeroth – you’ve never had before outside of the set flight paths. You can now fly everywhere, and although some of the geometry’s a bit crude up here, it’s still liberating. It’s also a great way to survey the damage.

Over in western Durotar, the network of canyons that were once home to a bunch of thunder lizards and a particularly annoying goblin are flooded. Crossing into the Barrens, the Crossroads are as they ever were, but then there’s an ugly scar across the land and in the new Southern Barrens – now a level 30 up zone for both Horde and Alliance – Camp Taurajo is in flames, Mulgore’s locked away behind an imposing gate, there’s a brooding new Orc camp and the land is riven and scarred and tangled with vegetation. There’s just so much more stuff everywhere.

Stormwind’s park district has been obliterated by Deathwing. It’s just a smouldering black scar.

Further south, Thousand Needles is flooded too, the original canyon zone now deep underwater, save the bluff-top villages clinging to their pillars of rock. Sinister Twilight’s Hammer architecture has sprung up on the clifftops (the cult, instrumental to the main Cataclysm storyline, will crop up throughout the 1-60 levelling experience as well as 80-85). The salt flats have become a lake where a giant Goblin barge, besieged by pirates, dredges and prepares to resume (boat) racing with the Gnomes.

It goes on. Tanaris is half gone under the sea. Desolace’s grey wasteland harbours a riot of green regeneration and a Cenarion moonwell at its middle. The Stonetalon Mountains are almost unrecognisable. A volcano has erupted in the middle of Ashenvale forest, and Horde siege machines surround and intimidate the Night Elf encampments; new Horde Warchief Garrosh, war hero of Northrend and less peaceable than Thrall, wants to end Orgrimmar’s poverty and is happy to rape the sacred forest of its resources to that end. Azshara, dumped from beautiful but barely functional mid-level zone to a starter area for the Goblins, has been rudely scrawled over with elevated roadways for rocket-cars, and is dominated by a comically large cannon.

Long exposure photography is an intriguing photographic technique that involves slowing a camera’s shutter speed, thereby allowing light more time to strike the film. The technique often produces otherworldly images in which there is a sharp contrast between stationary and moving objects — perhaps you have seen long exposure photos of cars at night, their headlights melting into long streaks of color. Because long exposure photography often reveals hidden patterns, its applications can go far beyond generating simple eye candy.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to do research on interactive digital media (read: video games) at the University of Rochester, and I thought it might be fun to try some long exposure photography within my favorite game, World of Warcraft. Rather than do real long exposure photography, however (difficult when one has no camera!), I optged to emulate the effect using video clips captured with Fraps and processed with a program called Exposure. Both of these programs have free versions available.

Gallery: Long-exposure WoWtography
Fan of KnivesConsecrationDummyLoot meDeeprun TramCelestial Steed

I started out with some “artistic” shots, of course. A rogue’s Fan of Knives became an enormous pinwheel, a paladin’s Consecration transformed into a supernova, and a quick bout against a training dummy could only be described as a small-scale nuclear explosion. The training dummy shot made me realize how many visual cues the player is bombarded with every second and how quickly the player must process this information.

Player patterns revealed!

I next turned the “lens” towards other players. Long exposure shots revealed that despite the open and spacious nature of WoW’s cities, players remained in very small areas of interest and traveled on very tight channels. Players wasted nary a step as they beelined between the auction houses, mailboxes and banks (“Time is money, friend!”). I wonder how many players would be able to draw a map of every mailbox and reagent vendor but would have difficulty describing the intervening architecture!

My final long exposure exercise involved doing a shot of myself leveling a mage from level 1 to level 2. I had no idea what to expect, and I was surprised when the shot revealed my apparent habit of “lining up” the enemies I was about to attack in the upper-right quadrant of my screen. I had never noticed this habit before, despite many hundreds of hours of play. It appeared that I was transferring my own right-handedness to my character! I suspect that I am not the only one who does this, and I am interested to know if others in the community find themselves playing “handedly.”

I think that long exposure photography (or at least, a technique designed to simulate it) has the potential to reveal some interesting things about World of Warcraft. I am excited to see what the members of the WoW.com community can do with these tools. Farewell, and happy shooting!

Let us know what you’re playing this weekend, and what you do to beat the heat … and the plague.

Allison Robert (@AllisonRobert): More of the beta — and a highly expensive experiment on my copied main to test something concerning cat DPS. Ordinarily I’m one of the more tight-fisted players out there, but there’s a lovely sense of financial freedom on the beta/PTR, where you can throw wads of cash at everything and not regret it in the morning. As for playing while sick, it depends on the nature of the illness. If I’m really not feeling well, I usually don’t want to be near a computer at all; if it’s something minor, I enjoy 5-mans and herbing.

Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey): I’ll be working on various achievements this weekend, nothing too major — and writing as always, of course. As for WoW when I’m sick … well, it depends on how sick I am. I don’t get sick often, so when I do I generally don’t want to do anything at all, WoW included. If I’m a little sniffly? Probably something mindless like herb farming.

Amy Schley (@wowlawbringer): As one of the few on staff who hasn’t gotten into the beta, I’ll have to settle for running randoms and seeing if I can get into a PUG. Resto shaman, name is Russian for space goat, looking for raid. As for playing sick, I normally can’t. If I’m so sick to make a difference, it’s bad enough I can’t really play at all. That said, if I want to try, I’ll grab the hunter and his bear and play, confident that the bear will keep me alive enough.

Brian Wood (@frostheimwhu): Working more on a hunter video project and playing with my new moonlight strobes down in the studio. Illness usually just means that I play more poorly, though I can usually tolerate doing dull grinds when sick since my mind isn’t really there, anyway.

Basil Berntsen (@outdps): How do I WoW when I’m sick? Harder.

C. Christian Moore (@thearenaguy): This weekend, I’ll be able to get back to WoW from a two-month hiatus. I got into Cataclysm beta maybe two weeks ago, so that should eat up a large portion of my time. I haven’t been sick in four or five years, so I wouldn’t know how to answer the bonus question. Yay, I just realized the power of my immune system.

Chase Christian (@madsushi): I’m going to be working on getting some of my guys their Infusion quests done in ICC-25 this weekend and probably poking around in EVE some (just trying it out). As for playing sick, I usually resort to more typing and less yelling over Vent, though there’s still plenty of yelling.

Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb): I’m moving at the end of the month, so I’m hoping to get a head start on cleaning and packing this weekend. I’ll also be doing some Cataclysm testing. This time, it’s blood tank leveling through Vashj’ir, I think. As far as playing while sick? Honestly, if I’m sick enough that I can’t really concentrate, I’ll probably just log off and try to sleep it off. If I can’t sleep or I’m not feeling that bad, it’s usually game on as normal. I can play through the pain, Coach! Just put me in!

Dawn Moore (@dawnwow): Seems I’ve always got something (as I do right now), so I’ve become quite a pro at raiding while ill. I only raid when sick, mind you. I figure it’s more of an obligation activity than anything else. Dailies take a back seat when I’m under the weather, and I definitely don’t BG or arena because with PvP, the alertness and communication needs to be there. For raiding, though, a laptop is what makes it possible, especially when you’ve got a fever so high you can’t sit up. You just have to swap between rest and play. I’ll sit up a little and be fully attentive during a boss, then take all of loot and trash to lay back and rest. I’ll take an oral anesthetic spray or lozenge so I can respond in Vent when necessary. Lots of water nearby is a must. After raid is called, go back to sleep! If you’re going to push yourself to keep with your raid schedule, you have to compensate for it by resting.

Eli Khoury (@Jagoex): For me, it’ll be lots of Markus Shulz, DJ Tiësto and any other euphoria-inducing music that I can get my hands on. Yeah, I know they are not games, but they’re still so totally worth playing all weekend long. When I’m sick, I don’t WoW — I watch movies instead.

Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen): This weekend I’m brushing up on my 16-bit skills with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. It’s the best $10 you’ll spend all month. If you’re too cheap, get the demo and just abuse the hell out of your free level. Go ahead. Do it. When I’m sick … I dunno, I play pretty much the same as I do when I’m healthy. Just a lot more, because I’m home from work. Unless I’m, like, really sick. In which case I overdose on cough syrup, lay on my couch and have really messed-up dreams about light patterns and Pokémon.

Gregg Reece: I usually hop over to my pet projects when I’m sick. It might be a fresh paladin on a new server or a random alt I decided to play. This weekend I’m hoping to get more beta time. I’m also hoping that a new patch drops so I can play with the re-re-re-re-re-redesign of Holy Shield.

Joe Perez (@Lodurzj): Apartment hunting, and if I have some time, getting in some Cataclysm beta and some SC2 multiplayer. This past week I was actually sick, and as far as gaming while sick, I sucked it up and went to all my guild’s raids. I just happened to log immediately after and crash hard. Unless it is really bad, that is generally what I do. Hot tea, Gatorade and sinus meds make for a loopy yet very fun raid officer sometimes

Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra): I’m actually knee-deep in cosplayers this weekend, as I’m attending a con as a vendor. I’ve got some important Cataclysm stuff to do, so I’ll see if I can squeeze that in as well. As for gaming when I’m sick? I proceed as normal, although I take a keen interest in questing. I avoid randoms and raids and just take my time exploring and absorbing delicious, delicious lore.

Lisa Poisso (@emused): Cataclysm beta newbie areas for posts for WoW.com, plus exploring other Cataclysm nooks and crannies with my priest. When I’m sick, I run little errands (gathering herbs, fishing and cooking dailies, auction house sales) that make me feel productive and calm and in control while distracting me from the blech. Doesn’t everyone do that?

Matt Low (@matticus): It’s game day! I’ll be playing at one of the Magic: The Gathering tournaments. Some Cataclysm beta will be in order. And Starcraft 2. WTB 2s partner. Why isn’t this called WRUWatching? The Expendables comes out this weekend, doesn’t it?

Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo): I have no idea what the weekend brings. A little WoW, a little RnR and general internety things. Working on my personal website, too. I need to get my resume and CV up on the real webernets.

Matthew Rossi (@matthewwrossi): Working on heroic LK, doing some beta and hopefully spending some downtime reconnecting with my tauren warrior before Cataclysm. I actually have chronic head and hand pain that I just play through. There’s a large ganglion cyst on my right hand that makes using a mouse difficult, which I just have to ignore to tank. If you’re curious. It’s actually somewhat larger now and impedes my right hand’s mobility quite a bit, but I compensate by being a surly bastard.

Matt Sampson (@binkenstein): Too much to write, not enough time to do it in (unless I completely stop playing WoW, but I’ve got to have priorities). Pondering having a long weekend when Civ V is released.

Michael Gray (@writegray): I’m playing the “make the floor level” game including some cement patch. As for sick? I’ve never been sick with nothing that didn’t need more cowbell.

Rich Maloy (@stoneybaby): No quality time with the girlfriend this weekend … she’s busy. But that gives me more time to work on Big Crits (week 10 released on Friday). When I’m sick, I usually just mute my mic and go about my raiding. Only occassionally do I cancel my sign-up, and that only happens with a migraine.

Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel): Cataclysm. I want to play all the new race/class combos. Does that make me sick? Perhaps I only play WoW when I’m sick. Hmm … Well, when I’m physically ill, I pick up a low-level alt and saunter around. Sometimes I craft and sometimes I explore and sometimes I quest. Then, I fall asleep in my comfy chair and wake up with a crick in my neck and a dead hero. Or an endless elevator ride. Or one of those people sitting right at the end of a flight path, names all jumbling together. Yeah. Good times.

Engineering has long been the redheaded stepchild of WoW professions, taken only because players were interested in it or (later) because raids needed repair bots. Before Wrath, it had never really played a prominent role in raiding apart from that, which I always thought was a bit sad. It had (and has, I would argue) the potential to be the most interesting and amusing profession due to the wide variety of class abilities its gadgets can mimic, and it was a tad bothersome that it was so expensive and irritating to level with so few returns at the level cap. Engineering was the profession you’d reserve for a pampered alt you’d play for fun; your main wound up taking something, anything else.

And then engineers got motorcycles.

It’s Azeroth. Magic and swords rule the day. Transport is effected by way of wyverns, gryphons or giant dragons. Motorcycles are a vaguely steampunkish but nonetheless distinct “Wait, what?” moment when you pass them in the street. And they’re expensive!

Like we care? They’re cool.

9. Going Down?

Yes, this is a total throwaway achievement that I am somewhat ashamed to include. It doesn’t reward you with anything beyond 10 points, and it literally exists only to give you a reason to throw yourself off a wall, cliff or hill in the hopes of surviving the fall. Yes, certain classes (ahem, paladins) can completely cheese it.

I don’t really care. It’s funny and, for that matter, fun to do. The sheer length of the comment thread on Wowhead itself is amusing; people have put a ridiculous amount of thought into this one achievement. You can also get Ultimate Triage immediately after — two achievements for the price of one! Not too shabby.

8. For the Alliance! or For the Horde!

The cool thing about this achievement is that, for the organizational nightmare it represents for the raid leader, it’s never not fun. Being in a huge pack of charging players with a common purpose really brings home the “massively multiplayer” sense of the game. This is all the more true because you spend most of the achievement in hostile territory attempting — and hopefully succeeding — to take down a faction’s highest authority. For a short period of time, you’re part of a mercenary force conducting a systematic invasion and defeat of enemy cities’ seat of government. The amount of travel the achievement requires and the need to protect the raid is part of the fun. While you may be able to kill one or two leaders in more inconvenient spots without fanfare, your enemies’ city chat will be abuzz over the raid, and they’ve usually got a decent idea over where you’re going next. That behavior is one that players even try to exploit by planting spies in city chat on opposite faction characters to send them in the wrong direction — but once you’ve got three leaders down, there’s no doubt over the next target.

Which faction leaders players choose to defend during For the Alliance! and For the Horde! raids is a pretty decent guide to their popularity. I’m among the Horde players who will rush to defend Thrall and Cairne, for example, but as far as I’m concerned, Sylvanas is on her own.

And when Garrosh takes over? I’d be surprised if Alliance players weren’t being escorted to the new Orgrimmar throne room on a near-daily basis.

7. World Explorer

Azeroth is an incredibly expansive world, home to a multitude of different environments and geographic features, but chances are pretty good that you missed a lot of it while leveling up. Not only has the leveling experience been hugely shortened, the Alliance and Horde also don’t see too much of each other for a while. A player who’s intimately familiar with, say, Elwynn Forest and Westfall probably won’t clap eyes on their Horde equivalents until their level 30s to 40s, and vice versa. You may even make it to the level cap without a character setting foot in half the game’s zones.

As a new player leveling in Mulgore, I remember very well what it was like to be sent to The Barrens for the first time, trying to make sense of the directions (this was well before quest objectives were added to the map) while staying on the road as instructed. I crossed the border into the Barrens and suddenly realized that this world was huge; that when NPCs said to go north or go east, they didn’t necessarily mean that you’d find what you were looking for within a short walk.

World Explorer recaptures a little of that sense, I think, and Brann Bronzebeard will even send you a rather attractive tabard once you’ve seen all of Northrend.

6. Mr. Pinchy’s Magical Crawdad Box

Like a not-inconsiderable number of achievements that I otherwise consider entertaining, there’s a hint of evil to this one. I’m more than happy to admit that it actually took me the better part of a year during The Burning Crusade to fish up a Mr. Pinchy pet. Because I tanked my way through BC raids and was always in need of more stamina food, I fished up the Highland Mixed Schools in Terokkar Forest on a near-daily basis. Over a year’s time I only managed to get five Mr. Pinchys, and my reward was invariably more heartbreak; I got combat pets I didn’t need (well, that’s not entirely true; I did have one helpful Mr. Pinchy who assisted with an Illidan kill), a Furious Mr. Pinchy on occasion, or potions with which, as an alchemist, I was already well stocked. It wasn’t until the second “wish” on the fifth Mr. Pinchy that I finally got the pet.

So yes, this achievement is a bit evil; my main is living proof. But I think Mr. Pinchy is one of Blizzard’s more engaging little additions to the game. It’s a tiny part of a profession that the developers had been struggling to improve for a while, it doesn’t contribute anything to gameplay, and there is no compelling lore reason for it to exist. It’s just a little bit of magic locked away in a historically overlooked portion of the game and one more reason why Azeroth pretty much rules. Each expansion concerns giant, world-ending political events into which your character is inevitably swept … but if you want to, there are a few lakes in a far-flung corner of the world where you can fish up a magical, wish-granting lobster!

Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler’s latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we’ll keep you informed.

The Daily Blues, in which Ghostcrawler says “Ding. Ding.”

Table of Contents

* Ghostcrawler

* Other

* StarCraft II / Diablo III / Activision-Blizzard News

Ghostcrawler

Ghostcrawler — AoE threat

But this isn’t even about that. This is about AoE tanking. Ghostcrawler said they were going to scale back the aoe capabilities so that it would be more like Warriors and Naxx. I want to know what happened to that goal.

That’s still the goal. I guess I’m unclear of what part of the paladin preview you took to mean that we’re keeping the same or even enhancing the ability for paladins to AE tank.

We tried to stay away from numbers as much as possible in the previews, except to give you a vague sense of the intent for some of the new abilities in terms of whether something has a short cooldown or a long cooldown.

–

That new instant attack for prot paladins that does aoe damage and blind? And to be blunt, sounds superior to heroic leap for aoe tanking in every capacity?

That attack could have a 10 min cooldown. I’m pretty sure we didn’t specify in the preview, so I’m not sure how you’d decide it’s better or worse in any situation. Maybe it has a 5 sec cooldown but we nerfed the threat generation from Holy damage so severely that paladins are utterly dependent on it now. I just don’t think we gave you the information necessary to draw that conclusion, and this is partially why we didn’t provide that information.

Any elaboration on how you intend to separate the single-target and AoE tanking niches? I’d be happy with even vague generalizations, though I would understand if you preferred to avoid saying anything that might get used as a forum bludgeon later.

No, it’s not really that. We just have a couple of different avenues we’re exploring and we didn’t want to have say models A, B and C in different large paragraphs. The ideas just need a little more time to bake.

And I’m not entirely sure how you’re using “niches” but I am talking about wanting Prot paladins to use slightly different rotations against single targets than against groups. The addition of Crusader Strike (and maybe Holy Shock?) alone start to provide that.

GC said AOE threat being normalized between tanks > Previews don’t make this extremely clear > GC also said the previews are just previews > there must be more coming down the line to make the first two observations align!

Ding. Ding.

Ghostcrawler — Death Knights in 3.3.3

I would speculate that this is an effect of perception. DKs felt / were perceived as weak for quite a time during the TOC era, which translates into people moving away from playing their DKs and into something else.

I think perception is huge in these matters, much greater than most players give it credit. WoW players generally really, really hate to be wrong. What I mean is, they don’t want to think that they made a bad choice in their character class, their gearing or their talent choice. In WoW it’s somehow less embarrassing to fail at something than it is to be caught being wrong.

“You wiped on heroic Saurfang? Yeah he can be hard. You had a paladin healing the raid? What, are you crazy? I don’t care if it worked for you. It’s just wrong. Ugh, and look at your glyphs.” As a result, rather than basing decisions on noticing empirically whether something does or does not make a difference, many players would much rather someone tell them the right or wrong way to do something.

So we see the level 40 mage that I saw in Dalaran last night, spamming trade chat asking whether Fire or Arcane does more damage. (Answer: Dude, it doesn’t matter if you’re level 40 and probably doesn’t matter if you’re level 85 unless you’re going into a really tough Arena match or talking about heroic raid bosses.)

I think players switch tanks sometimes when they think the forums are telling them that they’re using the weakest main tank. “Well, I want to plan for success, so clearly I need a different tank,” even when in reality that choice probably affects their chance for success very little. Switching tanks might give them a 3% greater chance of success. Not standing in fires might give them a 30% greater chance of success.

Likewise, I think players sometimes drift off to an alt when their class or spec gets nerfed, just because it sucks to get nerfed and they feel somehow less potent knowing that they were nerfed, even if the effect was imperceptible for them.

Perception.

The only logical reason then to bring about tank representation balance (assuming that this should be the goal of Blizzard) is to disproportionately make DK tanking attractive over Warriors and Paladins.

It’s not a goal for us. There are a lot of things that can affect representation. Balance is definitely one, but as I mentioned above so is perception, and then you have tradition, play style (what’s fun to play), utility when not tanking (including healing, but also dps and even PvP) and even art. It’s complicated.

Now if you see a sudden shift in populations, then there might be something happening that you need to pay attention to. Something happened to upset the inertia and drive player behaviors in a certain way. It could be a lot of things. It could be perception. But it could be an actual survival of the fittest deal where raids using one class struggle and those using another class succeed, so gradually you see the latter increase over time. It’s hard to separate out all of the various causes for behavior like that, but it’s probably good to take notice when they do.

Other

Zarhym — Have a sensible discussion about the changes

Now that you’ve gotten all of that vitriol and panic out of your system Orokusaki, feel free to come back when you’re ready to have some sort of sensible discussion. If this is the manner you feel to be most effective for voicing your concerns, I can confirm that reading your posts will be low on our priority list.

Nethaera — Paladin pet class?

DONT MAKE ME A PET CLASS..

Granted. You will not be given a pet.

Please reread my previous post in which I explain that this is not a pet, there is no pet bar, and it’s life is but a temporary thing while it aids you.

There also seems to be some confusion about Critical Healing Effect which simply means a critical heal can do more than 150%. (Think of talents like Ruin for warlocks.) We wanted to keep some of the feel of Holy paladins getting big critical heals and caring about crit in general. This mechanic wouldn’t really have worked in Wrath of the Lich King because big crits just translated into overhealing. In Cataclysm that shouldn’t be the case.

Slorkuz — New Fan Art

Today we feature some of Kivapo’s artwork with a piece entitled: Old Shaman! Take a moment to check out this ancient, yet powerful, defender of the ancestors!

We’re always looking for new fan art and if you’re an artist, you can submit your work to us here. We update the Gallery regularly and encourage you to check regularly to see what new and talented submissions are on display.

Gut, abgedeckt bei wird die Geek-Savant, die er ist, die Jonathan Coulton Still Alive. Wird der WoW-Kultur-Savant, die er ist, PIF nahm die JoCo Abdeckung und in eine World of Warcraft Machinima verwandelt. (Es gibt viele Verweise auf die ursprünglichen Portal-Spiel im Video, aber, so dass diese Version nicht vollständig vom seine Wurzeln gelöst ist.)

Wie alle von der PIF-Videos, Still Alive–ist JoCo Version eine Menge Spaß. PIF ist eine großartige Arbeit, die Erfassung der Spaß und Humor von JoCo des ursprünglichen Musik. Um ganz zu schweigen, sind seine Fähigkeiten Animation ständig wachsenden und immer beeindruckend.

Bearbeiten: JoCo schrieb das ursprüngliche Lied Sie. Still Alive wurde von einem weiblichen Künstler am Ende des Spiels durchgeführt. Dieses Lied ist dann, die Version von JoCo ausgeführt. “Cover” ist ein hart Wort, verwenden Sie dazu so ich es zu klären wollte.

Willkommen Sie zurück in die Warteschlange, die WoW.com tägliche Q&A-Spalte in dem das WoW.com-Team Ihre Fragen zu World of Warcraft beantwortet. Mike Sacco werden heute ihren Host.

Ich bin müde, Leute. Hier ist Ihre Queue.
D-Back gefragt…

“Was ist mit AAFL geschehen? Ist Sacco nun aufgrund von seinem neuen Editor-Titel und neue Shammy-Spalte slacking ausschalten? Ich genoss die AAFL-Artikel.”

Bitten Sie eine Faction-Leader für ernsthafte, kommenden Back Dienstag ist. Vol’Jin wird der führende Anbieter von Lizenzinhaber Fraktion sein. E-Mail-Ihre Fragen zu sacco@wow.com, Betreffzeile “AAFL”.

Luke gefragt…

“Gibt es eine Beschränkung auf die Häufigkeit, mit der ein Zeichen von den Toten durch Lich King gestiegen sein kann? Ich bitte wegen der Blood Prince Rat Begegnung in Icecrown Zitadelle. Prince Keleseth wurde bereits Untote, wenn Sie ihn in Utgarde Keep gekämpft. Damit das bedeutet, dass würde er bereits von den Toten vor gestiegen worden.

Mir scheint die Grenze ist… bis Blizzard es Wert ist für alle das Zeichen gemolken hat.”

Gut, waren alle of Blood-Princes High/Blutelfen in Ihrem vorherigen Leben. Es gibt keine “Leben” San’layn.

–Dieses Argument mit meiner Gilde der anderen Nacht – hatte ich ganz zu schweigen von sind wir in die Hochburg der ein Kerl, deren Anspruch auf Ruhm Menschen von den Toten erhöhen wird. Ich glaube nicht, dass es Unterbrechungen werden aus Design, jemanden zu haben, die Sie vor dem getötet haben wieder erneut geschaltet.
Babaloo gefragt…

“Warum nicht wir nur gehen Sie zurück zum Stratholme in die Kinderbett und nur töten Arthas? Ich weiß, es würde einige parallele Universum oder etwas machen, aber es nicht sinnvoll in erster Linie um zurückzugehen rechtzeitig zu helfen, etwas geschehen die Art und Weise, wie es gemeint hat, geschehen, was bedeuten würde, wir haben würde, hätte es in erster Linie, aber wie ein Ereignis kann, die in der Vergangenheit nur geschehen durch Sache stattfanden, die in Zukunft geschehen, die ein Paradox erstellt? ”

Die Höhlen der Zeit Instanzen Zeit “Taschen”–sind die Bronze-Drachenschwarm hat dieser Momente in der Zeit um zu verhindern, dass die echte Zeitachse ändern enthalten, aber die Auswirkungen sind nur vorübergehend. Wenn die Infinite Drachenschwarm gelungen ist, um Ihre Mission–töten Arthas, erfüllen würde z. B.–dann die Zeitachse für immer verändert werden.

Als, warum wir Arthas töten nicht ist die allgemeine Idee, die während seiner Aktionen in Stratholme abscheulich waren, wenn er hatte nicht die Stadt endgültig gelöscht, und dann die Pest durch die östlichen Königreiche viel, würde viel schneller verteilt haben als. Es ist viel aus dem Grund, dass wir Medivh in der schwarzen Morast–, schützen wenn er hatte nie die Orcs durch das dunkle Portal beschworen, dann die neue Horde nie haben wurde gegründet würde und der Brennenden Legion nie haben wurde auf Azeroth besiegt würde.

Trotz der relativ langsam News-Woche wir hatten einen guten WoW Insider anzeigen Podcast dieses Samstag, mit Projekt macht Schriftsteller Tim “Heartbourne” Tusing und Jimmy “DJTyrant” Blocksom beenden durch Ihre einzigartige Perspektive auf Reader bieten e-Mails, der Woche Top Geschichten, und dass zu wenig, etwa, einmal zu sprechen. Wir haben diskutiert SAM Raimi neugefundenen Freiheit, auf der Warcraft-Film, den Blizzard-Dev-Chat auf Twitter, warum Tauren Paladine wirklich sind, die nicht, und eine Vielzahl von anderen Themen zu arbeiten.

Wie immer,  Ihre e-Mail-Adresse auf der Luft, beantwortet zu haben, e-Mail-können und wenn Sie haben alle Gäste, die Sie auf der Show sehen möchten (oder Sie einem Gast zu sein möchten!) Sie erhalten einen Laderaum von uns die gleiche Weise.

Wie Sie heute bereits gehört haben, sind morgen früh wir mit einer Erfüllungsperiode von 3: 00 Uhr PST bis 11: 00 Uhr PST getroffen werden. Während wir sind nicht erwartet, einen Patch morgen (das nächste Woche), morgigen Wartung die Eröffnung von einem anderen Flügel des Icecrown Zitadelle, die Hallen Crimson alle geht davon aus, wie geplant herald.

Crimson-Hallen hebt die San’layn die Untoten Blut elfischen Lieutenants der Lich-King. Wir werden gegen Blood Princes Valanar, Keleseth und Taldaram als geschlossene Einheit als die erste Boss konfrontiert werden aus vor dem nach unten die Lana’thel Blood Königin. Kenntnisse über diese Begegnungen ist derzeit äußerst begrenzt, aber Sie können unsere Eindrücke der Begegnung Blood Königin Auschecken, wie es auf die PTR-war.

Die Eröffnung eines neuen Flügels bedeutet auch wir 5 Weitere Versuche die großen Bosse in der Zone (Deathbringer Saurfang, Professor Putricide und die Königin Blood) erhalten werden, die uns auf insgesamt 15 bringt.

This week, ABO blood Pact looks at the demon bad-boys of our companions. When you think through the various warlock minions it’s common to consider their usefulness. This is especially true of non-warlocks and raid leaders. Everyone knows that imp for his range of DPS, health bonus and constant grumbling, the felhunter for annoying casters, voidwalker for tanking, felguard for pure DPS and the succubus for, well, dying a lot in the Black Temple. This week though we look at two minions that are best known for killing people and causing trouble in towns and villages: the infernal and the doomguard.

Anyone who has been playing the game for some time probably remembers at least one occasion where a bored warlock has decided that they have nothing better to do than annoy low-level members of their own faction by setting one of these guys as loose. If not then you’ve almost certainly Inseln|Ilhas stories. It’s these stories that, even though this chaos, which is no longer possible, make others look at locks with much suspicion and locks sigh for the old days.

Infernal

A favorite from the Warcraft RTS games, this guy is partly responsible for many of the players selecting their first warlock. He appeared on the original WoW cinematic looking all ‘ ard and then climbing a tower to eat a mage. Those who quest in Desolace in their 30s encounter them in a pleasantly demonic zone. We also find them causing much disruption when we first arrive in Shadowmoon Valley. Strangely though, many locks (www.tenemosunplan.com) license to do the quest to summon their own. I expect this is related to their general construction of lack of utility, but it probably also has something to do with being available at the same time as the felguard talent.

Level 50 is a busy time for warlocks; you have your mind on changing talent build to get the felguard (as recommended by typical leveling guides), you have your Sunken Temple quest to think about (always worth doing at 50) and you have the infernal to learn to summon. Luckily for us the troll and infernal quests come from the same awesome little imp. Impsy can be found with “stood beside his less interesting ‘ master ‘ (Niby the Almighty) in Felwood, just North of the Bloodvenom in 1977. In case you were wondering, Yes, Niby does make a return in Icecrown Citadel, where he will sell you your tier 10 gear.

The Infernal quest line starts with Niby but all he does is tell you to assessmenttalk to his imp. Impsy ¿òåñ in turn send you off to gather three items that drop from demons in Felwood, Azshara and the Blasted Lands. He’ll turn these into a Fel Fire with which you can reignite Kroshius, then you nip off to resurrect and subsequently kill Kroshius. This shouldn’t be too tricky as he’s no longer an elite, he used to be pretty hard to solo or would require a group to kill. Bring back his core, watch a funny skit involving a chicken and receive an off-hand item and the ability to cast Inferno. You can actually learn the spell from a book that drops in Blackrock Spire but the drop rate isn’t great and why would you want to avoid visiting Impsy?

Inferno is one of the few warlock spells that require a reagent (other than a soul shard) so make sure you keep a few of these if you want to cast it. Summoning the infernal is different to your normal minions, rather than casting a long spell you aim a reticule on the ground at which point a meteor will fall from the sky, stun those around and from the crater ¿òåñ rise your infernal. He’s a pretty unsubtle fellow who has no special 60 minutes clash to use and simply clomps up to things and hits them hard. He does have a passive immolation aura and complete immunity to fire spells which can be quite nice in the right situation (should you find yourself surrounded by lots of little guys casting fire spells for example).

After one minute your infernal will simply crumble to ¥ ËÄt. Historically he was enslaved and so when his time came he would break free and attack you or anyone else that annoyed him; this is where he got his bad name.

Doomguard

There is actually two ways to summon a Doomguard. One is to kill something with the curse of Doom, though it has to be something you would get experience for. The easiest things to do this on are elementals and demons as you can cast tobiasacid then Banish them, followed by a rank one Banish; that should keep them busy until the tobiasacid of POPs. A Doomguard summoned in this way is free and will attack you so make sure you are ready to Enslave it.

The other way to summon a Doomguard is through the Ritual of Doom. This also needs a reagent as well as four other people to click the portal. In days gone by the ritual would kill one of the people performing it (no durability loss) but for some reason this was seen to be a bad thing. Now one person only loses some space between words, so no fun there. Once summoned in this way he is automatically enslaved for 15 minutes with no chance of breaking free. After that time inffluence just despawns.

The doomguard is a pretty powerful demon and as such has been used a fair bit by affliction locks. The reason only afflocks have used him is simply because until recently (patch .3discharge) they don’t get any real benefit from their minion. Demonology locks will lose way too much in terms of DPS without their felguard and the same is true of destruction and their imps. Now that felpuppies buff affliction locks nicely the Doomguard has no place in raids once again.

The ritual of Doom spell can also be learned from a book but the drop rate is still not too good, I would recommend the quest chain that will also teach it. You need to go and see Daio the Decrepit in the North of the Tainted Scar (SW Blasted Lands), and pick up the quests The Casing and the decorando’s decorando’s Bindings. The first will require killing mobs in the southern part of Winterspring; this will be easy at 80 but at 60(c) when the quest is available) I strongly recommend you take a friend or two. The second quest requires a trip to Dire Maul, again, at 80 this is easy enough but at 60 you will want a group. The easiest (quickest) way to the mobs you need in the Dim is through the back door in the pavilion with the sad elf. Once you have done these quests you can do Suppression which again is a group ªf¦è at 60. These quests are steeped in warlock-juice and so great fun to do.

The doomguard himself has three bays, 60 minutes clash: War Stomp, Cripple and Rain of Fire. They’re all pretty useful though he doesn’t like using them much himself so you might need to command him to use them when appropriate. He also hits pretty hard and has a massive health and mana pool. He sounds really useful but frankly, with the SH7780 base boards required to summon him, the massive cooldown between uses and the fact that you can’t have any other (more useful) the minion while he is out is what makes him a novelty demon.

Both these guys are, to my mind, in dire need of a revamp for Cataclysm. It seems to me that they were introduced to more from a role-play “wouldn’t this be cool” angle than from any serious attempt to add something to the warlock class they would use. The early development of the Wrath Doomguard utility in raiding was more a failure of any other minion to be worth using rather than any of the great strength of its own and the cooldown meant that you could only use him some of the time. The big problem they suffer from is not benefiting from any of the lock talents. In this respect they behave more like guardians than minions. This isn’t a terrible ªf¦è in its own right but if they aren’t going to behave like our minions then I don’t think they should replace them.

I would like to see these guys used more like the shaman fire elementals. Those moment when you just want to get out a bit more burst, maybe you’re looking at a 1% wipe or a group of AD DS has just broken as loose (many whelps …). Your minion should still be doing their thing but for a short while you ³y³x in the nattliv www.familyguest.com. Not something to use every fight, that would become a boring ‘ rotation’ ªf¦è, but just a little something extra now and then. Remove failing that, you should certainly have your minion returned to you when they despawn and not have to resummon them again. That way the infernal and doomguard could be used mid-fight.

As I’ve said before, I would love to see warlock minions become more diversely used; a minion for a job, not for a talent build. We have learned to reach through into the nether and pull forth diverse demons to do our bidding, demons that are specialists in many circumstances; it’s such a shame to only use one for every job.