The new World of Warcraft expansion has officially been announced today at Gamescon. Titled World of Warcraft: Legion, players head to The Broken Isles after Gul’dan brings back Illidan and delves into the Tomb of Sargeras. With the level cap raised to 110, players can expect several changes to World of Warcraft including a new class and a new honor system. Continue reading
Earlier today I was dying to find out information about the new achievements and rewards that were being introduced with Mists of Pandaria. Having found nothing easy to shift through, I decided to collect as much information on this topic as I could in one place, then make it easy to shift through. Here you go!
No, this isn’t another dig at @Rayfyst from @theSundering podcast even though that’s always a fun time for me. Simply put, I wanted to express how much I really, really LOVE the account wide achievements, mounts and pets that were implemented in patch 5.0.4.
Anyone who listens to my podcast knows I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since Vanilla. Over all that time, I’ve had one main toon, my paladin Janaelle who currently resides on the server Twisting Nether. That’s not to say I don’t have alts; my shaman Luthvien was my main raiding toon during Cata, my DK Orest was my main pvp toon during Cata, and for the last quarter of BC I played a warlock when my guild exploded with healers. Always, though, I’ve been drawn back to my paladin to take names, kick ass, and gather EVERYTHING of Jan. I hoarded items, clothes, crafting mats, achievements, mounts, and pets all on that one toon. After so much work was put into her, so many hours, such a high play time value, why would I ever waist all that time spent and choose a new main? I had invested in Janaelle.
Thanks to patch 5.0.4, I am now invested in my entire account! All my achievements (well most of them) from her are shown on all my other toons. All the mounts, pets, etc. that I’ve gathered can be shown off on any of the four servers I currently inhabit. No longer will I feel like an alt is lacking because all that time, all those accomplishments, can’t be seen. No longer will I feel like one of those “Oh, I’ve done that but can’t prove it” jackasses. GG Blizzard.
Oh, and Ray, you’re not a special pony. Hmm, guess I lied.
The time has finally come to experience patch 5.0.0 and the beginning of Mists of Pandaria. I just pre-ordered my collectors edition of the game and now get to experience part of it this coming week as the patch hits (probably) Tuesday. So get ready to update your add ons and find out if your graphics card can handle MoP!
In case you were living under a rock, here’s the run down of what we get to look forward to: Continue reading
Ashes of Al’ar mount
Those pissed that they can no longer be special ponies with the addition of account wide mounts and achievements in World of Warcraft have something new to fear – The Black Market Auction House. The new Black Market AH allows players to bid on special items that are not sold by NPCs, like the above Ashes of Al’ar mount. Other items that have been seen are the Reins of the Blazing Drake, Swift White Hawkstrider, and Riding Turtle.
It’s not just mounts that will be sold, though. The picture (below) posted by MMO-champion suggests there will be pets, crafting recipes and the long lost Tier 3 armor sets. If you were looking to transmog your gear into these gorgeous sets, you no longer have to wait for them to be added to the Dark Moon Faire, though hopefully they still will be. There’s also speculation that even more items that are no longer obtainable will be reintroduced into the game this way like the Zul Garub tiger and raptor mounts, the Ulduar black and plagued proto-drakes, or the batling pet from the Wrath release event.
But who’s responsible for this madness? Madam Goya, who makes her home at the Tavern of the Mists in the Veiled Stair, which is north of the Valley of the Four Winds. Wrathion is chilling with her, but I’m not sure if that means anything.
Only time will tell if Blizzard/Activision has made a smart play with this new Auction House, but one thing’s for sure, all of those who farmed up a ton of gold and want something to spend it on will finally have a place to dump their cash. Maybe inflation will go down on the regular Auction House now?
I will now have Caramelldansen stuck in my head all damn day and that’s a good thing! I love this song, the bits of the Pandaren female dance that copy it crack me up, and I can’t wait to see people mimicking it at the next Blizzcon. One problem: Now this race is even more ditzy and spazzy. Oh well – *bursts into dance*
Here’s the original speedy cakes remix of Caramelldansen (the only good version!) for those of you who missed the meme several years ago:
The Pandaren male dance isn’t as interesting as the female’s, but that’s because I can’t recognize where it’s from. If you do, please toss it in the comments below for me. Also, is it just me, or is he grimacing the whole time? That face is terrible, but I love the freeze.
Update: Thanks to Bryter from the Stopcast podcast commenting below, the Pandaren male dance is from LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem. Handy-dandy embed:
When I tell people I RP (role play for the uninformed), I usually get several reactions: trolling, confusion (wtf is that?), amusement, and intrigue. Of those who think my hobby is interesting, a few always comment, “I would get into that but I don’t know how/don’t have the time.” To you, here’s how and let me remind you, there is always time.
First when you get into RP, and this goes for any game setting, you need to know the lore. It won’t matter how good a roleplayer you are, if you don’t know the very basics of the game you’re playing, you’re going to make an ass of yourself. Now, this isn’t to say you need to know that Arthas had a sister, or the specific lineage of Mograine, but you had better know that Arthas was the Lich King and he was once the crown prince of Lordaeron. You should also know that in the wide world of Azeroth (that’s the name of WoW’s main planet), it is not commonly known that Bolvar is the new Lich King, but that is on the more obscure edge of necessary lore knowledge.
Here’s some links to either refresh or inform your memory:
One thing to remember: There is always someone who knows more lore than you do. Always. So if you get corrected, just absorb the information and move on. Maybe toss out a thank you, but don’t get butt hurt over it. RP’ers are a bitchy bunch, but when it comes to lore, we just want to help each other learn. If you are interested in learning more than the bare bones of the world (something I recommend) check out WoW Insider’s Know Your Lore posts. These guys have a ton of interesting articles and tid-bits about World of Warcraft’s history and characters in easy to read formats.
Maybe this isn’t enough, though. Maybe you need to know something that isn’t easy to find because you want to do something different with your character. Don’t fret, this is common and the forums are the place to go for this. My RP server has it’s own RP forum (Linked in the Twisting Nether Gazette picture at the top of this blog) and we have two sections dedicated to RP and Lore questions. Just last week we had a player wanting to roll a new character who had to wear a gas mask all the time. Why? Continue reading
My shaman, Luthvien
I love transmogging. Besides no longer needing to carry around RP gear, I can raid in gear that actually matches! Finally! After several other MMOs implemented similar systems (Aion, Rift) Word of Warcraft patched their game to allow players to change the appearance of their gear.
While not everyone uses the transmog system, others are changing their gear’s appearance weekly. There’s even a controversy which developed over auction house prices soaring for popular, low level gear choices. Basically, a few entrepreneurial players put BoE greens up and are charging 300-1000 gold per piece. Some players think this is outrageous and are pretty peeved that they can no longer purchase cheap gear to augment their leveling process. Certainly I feel their pain; the outfit on my shaman there cost 3000 gold because I picked it up this month, well after the selling of transmog pieces became popular. The belt alone cost 1500g.
But you probably knew all about that. What you may not have known, is that because there are so many different sets and ways to customize your gear now, a new kind of blog has sprung up. These show off the sets the blogger has made and explain how other players can also get their hands on the sets. Some are sexy, some badass, others silly, and a few even mimic major lore characters. Even WoWhead got in on the action, creating a section of their site to see full gear sets easily. Continue reading
of·fend
Cause to feel upset, annoyed, or resentful.
A person who indulges in hypocrisy.
The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense.
Definitions for those who decide to argue with me in the comments. Let’s be at least on the same page to start out with.
For those World of Warcraft players living under a rock, there was a large “scandal” involving Blizzard and a character named Jii Firepaw. He said some shit and it made people upset, so blizzard changed it. I didn’t care. I didn’t care it was offensive and I didn’t care that it was changed to be less offensive. What I do care about is the backlash to these women’s opinion; the people who were offended that they were offended.
As always when a minority speaks out, whether that be transgender, homosexuals or feminists, those more concerned with their own comfort than the message being presented flipped their shit. Messages like the following popped up everywhere:
I see some of these same players tweeting that someone harassed them in RL while walking down the street, at work, said something rude, made a grab at them, etc. I have never personally done this, nor ever witnessed any male or female in my presence ever do anything beyond give a “check them out” look. I bet if I merely walked by some of these people perhaps held the door for them and said “Hi, nice day isn’t it” they’d scream “PERV WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO MARGINALIZE ME?!” Um, I was being nice and making conversation…but ok.
I figure I know a good thing or three about paladins, having spent the last seven years playing one, so I’m taking the time to write down my thoughts on the new talent tree. Exact numbers haven’t been released yet, but the general gist of the abilities has been out for a while now and beta testers have been screwing around with most of the abilities. I’m still not sure how much I like the new system, but if it really does make balancing easier than I’ll be all for it. Anything to make the days of “Fuck class X and their OP shit, I quit” over and done with.
Tier 1
The first tier opens at level 15 and is a choice between three different speed buffs. Speed of Light is the fastest, a 70% increase for eight seconds on a one minute cool down. Long Arm of the Law is next with a 45% increase for 3 seconds upon a successful Judgement strike. The last is Pursuit of Justice and is similar to the current talent in the Retribution tree, giving a solid 10% movement speed buff at all times and an extra 10% per charge of Holy Power.
Speed of Light looks like it will have the most benefit in PvE situations for Retribution and Holy Paladins. This will get them from point A to point B, maximizing their DPS when changing targets or allowing them to get to dying comrades faster. I can see Protection Paladins also finding this talent selection useful for the same reasons, but the flat 10% movement speed buff at all times will always be the best bet for tanks for positioning during boss fights. Long Arm of the Law will be the choice for Ret and Prot in PvE, allowing incremental speed buffs instead of relying on the one minute cool down to catch up to kiting classes. Holy Paladins should take a closer look at Continue reading
Spec into Misdirect 