The voice acting could use some tightening up and the pace kicked up a little faster. There are a few awkward pauses played for laughs, but I wasn't certain it was a purposeful awkward pause or just an honest-to-Elune awkward pause. Still, that kind of feedback is almost universal; faster pace, tighter soundtrack. The same could be said for nearly every movie ever made, so Griffter's on the right track.
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 email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Tags: featured, griffter, guide-to-machinima, machinima, malfurion-and-sylvanas, movies, ow-machinima, slightly-impressive, world-of-warcraft-movies, world-of-warcraft-videos, wow-created-movies, wow-fan-movies, wow-guide, wow-machinima-guide, wow-movie-guide, wow-movies, wow-video-guide, wow-videos
Sunday, March 31, 2013
WoW Moviewatch: Malfurion and Sylvanas: Episode 2
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The Queue: Unbearable
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Chen jokes worst jokes.
dmezrahy asked:
Is it illegal to sell your WoW (or Battle.net) account?
It's not illegal in the strictest sense -- that is, there's no actual law against it -- but it is against the End-User License Agreement, which Blizzard requires you to legally agree to before you play the game. Some EULAs have been held up in court before as legally binding, but it's not like you'd go to jail if the cops found out you sold your WoW account. Blizzard would have to take action against you.
Dope_Danny asked:
So i've gotten 4 sigils of power for the legendary from lfr, but i wondered, since its a quest item and not on the loot table can you run lfr more than once to try and get more for the 10 total? or does it lock those out when the loot tables also locked out?
The sigils require that you loot the boss, which you can't do more than once a week.
Morgy asked:
Can I still get the Netherwing Drake? Is it still the same long grind?
You sure can. It's not so bad now -- the spawn rate of eggs was increased and (obviously) the mobs you fight will be no real challenge at 90.
forkezan12 asked:
Is there going to be a Hallow's End Guide for 2012?
There already is!
zengarzombolt11 asked:
is it logical to think that the pandarens that chose to join horde or alliance are minority?
i think the pandaren that came from the wandering isle is like less than 10% of the whole pandarens population.
Yeah, that's a safe assumption. Most of the pandaren on Pandaria are more focused on other things, like wanting to protect their homeland, than rushing off to join a foreign faction. That's why the Wandering Isle was a nice out.
Broleap asked:
whole, 2%, 1%, or skim? Or soy, for that matter
I drink 2% but I've never had a particular reason for it.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em! Tags: featured, guide, qa, question-and-answer, wow-answers, wow-daily-answers, wow-daily-questions, wow-guide, wow-player-questions, wow-q-and-a, wow-questionsFiled under: The QueueVengeance hotfixes explained
If you've never played a tank and are unaware of Vengeance, it's a tanking-specific ability that causes you to gain attack power equal to 2% of the damage taken from an enemy. Vengeance, therefore, makes a tank's attacks more powerful based on what's hitting them. This helps with threat generation, and gives tanks a way to keep aggro when faced with big-hitting DPS trying (intentionally or otherwise) to pull mobs off them. Vengeance has caused some discussion, granting tanks with huge chunks of attack power whenever people hit them in PvP, which was fixed a while back during Cataclysm. There have been a few changes to Vengeance lately, which have been causing a little confusion, so Blizzard Blue Daxxarri has stepped in to alleviate players' concerns.
DaxxarriThere has been some confusion about the recent changes to Vengeance that we'd like to clear up. Two things have changed with Vengeance lately: Oct 8 - Vengeance should now ramp up more quickly. Avoidance will now grant Vengeance based on the average damage of the avoided NPC auto-attack, instead of just refreshing existing Vengeance. This does not apply to enemy special attacks.
There should be an addition to this: Vengeance was also reduced by 10% at the time that hotfix was noted. We apologize for that being missed in the patch notes. Vengeance now accrues at a rate of 1.8% of damage taken, down from 2.0%.
Oct 16 - Fixed an issue with the way that Vengeance is calculated that could cause very large but infrequent spikes of damage to grant much more than the intended amount of Vengeance.
Based on the hits a tank takes, Vengeance attempts to predict what 50% of average Vengeance for that level of incoming damage will be, and bumps the tank straight to that level. However, it previously based that calculation on a 1.5 second attack speed. It now bases the calculation on the enemy's auto attack speed for auto attacks, and a 60 second interval for special attacks.
Tanks will still get the expected amount of Vengeance from the damage taken. This change just means that the first hit from a slow-attacking boss will bump Vengeance straight up to the expected amount.
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.Tags: featured, hotfixes, vengeance, vengeance-calculation, vengeance-hotfixes, wow-hotfix, wow-hotfixesFiled under: Hotfixes, Mists of Pandaria
Friday, March 29, 2013
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Sometimes, you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future.
EVE Online player loses tiny ship worth over $6,000EVE Online is well known for its sandbox gameplay and ruthless citizens, with monumental kills and record-breaking scams popping up year after year. Earlier this week, player "stewie Zanjoahir" reportedly lost over 213,000,000,000 ISK when he tried to transport a huge cache of valuable blueprints in a tiny, unfitted frigate. Through EVE's currency conversion, that's worth about $6,422.50 US.
League of Legends finals get some serious viewershipIf you're a League of Legends fan, odds are good you know all about the championships that took place recently. If you're not, however, you might be wondering whether or not this was really a big deal or just something the fans are fixated on. Turns out that it was kind of a big deal after all, as Riot Games has revealed that the live coverage of the finals was watched by over 8 million individuals, including more than 2 million from Korea.
Massively's hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Onlinehe Elder Scrolls Online has caused quite a clamor since it was first revealed back in May. MMO gamers are deeply divided about TESO, and some vocal potential players are most displeased to see the venerable sandbox world of Tamriel being reduced to yet another themepark MMO experience, but is that actually the case? Massively takes the game hands-on to find out!
Massively's week in reviewDon't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.Tags: eve, eve-online, featured, league-of-legends, massively, mmo-roundup, teso, the-elder-scrolls-onlineFiled under: MMO Roundup
The Light and How to Swing It: "Control" and the new tank gearing paradigm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. I admit, I'm a bit of a jerk to have dropped the bomb that I did in my last column, regarding the new gearing paradigm described by Theck recently. It really is a huge shift for us and how we choose to gear ourselves, and I admit it is disconcerting at first glance. However, I assure you, it's based on solid theorycrafting and will allow you to tune your damage profile to something that will not only make your job easier, but your healers' as well.
Why so much hit and expertise?
So, as I explained in the last column, your gearing priorities will be the hit and hard (yes, hard) expertise cap, then focus on either haste or mastery, depending on taste (more on that ahead). Your dump/reforge-from stats will, sadly, be avoidance.
With regards to hit and expertise, the reason you want the maximum of both is due to the workings of our active mitigation system. In order to generate holy power, we need to hit things. Crusader Strike and Judgment must all connect to allow us to stack the good stuff (Avenger's Shield procs just need to be cast to build holy power). And thus, the more steady and guaranteed our holy power generation (HPG) is, the more reliably we can hit Shield of the Righteous and get its buff up.
The idea is that the more often you have up Shield of the Righteous, the more often you will be able to cut incoming physical damage by 30%, which can have a very positive effect on eliminating damage spikes. And while hard-capping expertise may seem extreme, it serves the same purpose as hit and expertise soft-cap in the pursuit of the spike-reduction goal. As Theck said in his first post on this subject,
The real eye-opener here is what expertise does to the large spikes [in the sim]. ... Stacking expertise up to hard cap dropped the frequency of [the largest damage-taken-per-second] spike events by a factor of 10 or more, down to 0.02% or less [compared to soft-capping].With expertise hard capped (along with hit capped), your HPG attacks cannot be dodged, blocked, or parried, and you are guaranteed the maximum uptime on your Shield of the Righteous buff. What follows is the best protection against the most deadly spikes that you can reasonably manage outside of the wishes-based strategy of going with avoidance gearing.
Remember that the bane of a tank's existence in a raid environment is going to be spikes. Big hits mean that your healers need to go into panic-mode and bomb you with their larger, more expensive heals, which will make it harder for them to make it to the end of the fight with their mana bar intact. Smaller hits over time are far more manageable. Likewise, you are far more likely to die from ill-timed spikes in a short period of time than you are from what has been called a "trickle death" (death by a thousand cuts, so to speak) over a longer period of time/over the course of the fight. In short, total damage reduction is not the way to go.
Ultimately, the name of the game for both you and your healers should be spike prevention. That is the road to more effective survivability.
Haste, really?
I agree, this sounds insane after multiple expansion packs of not even thinking hypothetically about that stat. However, Mists of Pandaria changed that when we were given access to Sanctity of Battle, which allows haste to modify the cooldown on Judgement and Crusader Strike, our two non-proc HPG abilities. As such, the more haste you have, the faster you can hit those buttons and generate holy power.
One of the benefits of having enough haste, that Theck sees, is being able to cover more hits with Shield of the Righteous (since you'll be able to use it more often). As he writes,
To clarify that thought: thanks to all that expertise, our HP flow is very steady, so we know we'll reliably get a SotR off at fairly regular intervals. For example, let's say we cast SotR to cover the first swing in our 5-swing period. With enough haste we're guaranteed to cover the last one as well. Note that [time between ShoRs] for the exp/haste set is around 6.7 seconds, fast enough that it will definitely cover both the first and last swings in a 7.5-second period. On the other hand, the exp/mastery set only gets SotR off every 7.3 seconds. There will be some variance on that due to CS/J clashes, so there will still be some events where we can only cover one swing of the five-swing period.He goes on to debate the value between favoring haste or favoring mastery (as those two stats are roughly equivalent). Mastery is better at the 80% spikes in his sims, while haste is better at the 90% spikes -- though, we're talking about probabilities of .3% to .01% here -- it's nonzero, but still noticeable.
The tie-breaker, however, is with regards to DPS. Haste is one of our best damage/threat stats, and if you're the kind of person who cares about your damage output while tanking (or raids in a setting where tank DPS can be a factor) then you will probably find value in choosing haste over mastery. At high Vengeance levels, haste is our best DPS stat after hit and expertise. Not to mention more haste means more Seal of Insight procs, as well as more Sacred Shield absorbs.
So, when it comes to choosing between haste and mastery, your choices are essentially a little extra survivability (.3% more) against the nearly-worst spikes or a little extra survivability (.01% more) against the worst spikes and a chunk of extra DPS. Personally, I think I'll be going for haste.
Is this really worth it for someone not doing heroic raids?
I would argue that it is. If you're doing any degree of raiding, you should care about your damage profile. Even in 10man raids (which I run), I want to be as easy to heal as humanly possible. I want to minimize spikes so that healers don't have to burn through their mana bringing me back from the edge of oblivion. No matter what format of raiding you engage in (aside from perhaps LFR?), you can eat a dangerous spike. This control style of gearing help mitigate that.
It's critical to note that the key to all of this is, as the name implies, control. You need to have control over your rotation, always generating holy power when an ability to do so is available. If you don't think you are doing the rotation optimally, this is not the ideal gearing strategy for you.
Nevertheless, in the end, isn't this all what tanks should care about most? Dealing with and lessening the absolute worst-case scenarios? Our stock and trade should always be cutting off any corner-cases like it's a sheet of paper on the Galactica. Anything you can do to bring your survivability more under your own control is an excellent and worthy goal.
The Light and How to Swing It shows paladin tanks how to take on the dark times brought by Cataclysm. Try out our four tips for upping your combat table coverage, find out how to increase threat without sacrificing survivability, and learn how to manage the latest version of Holy Shield. Tags: featured, guide-to-paladins, guide-to-pallies, guide-to-pallys, Haste, paladin-guide, paladin-info, paladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-it, paladin-talents, pally-guide, pally-info, pally-talents, protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-it, wow-paladin, wow-paladin-info, wow-paladins, wow-pally, wow-pally-info
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Quest for Pandaria part 3 now available
You know, of all the things I mourned about Cataclysm, I think highest on the list would have to be the fate of the tol'vir. Despite being a fascinating race in their own right, one that was absolutely ripe for potential, their story was overshadowed by yet another jaunt with Harrison Jones. It was disappointing, particularly because the end of the tol'vir story arc was so open-ended. What happened after the war was completed? What of the tol'vir now? Quest for Pandaria attempts to answer a few of those questions in its latest installment as Chen Stormstout and his niece Li Li continue their search for the lost continent. Upon heading to the sandy deserts of Uldum, both Chen and Li Li come face to face with the aftermath of the tol'vir war -- and deal with the consequences of the fallout in their own way. It's another small glimpse of the elusive tol'vir race, this time illustrated through the eyes of complete strangers to tol'vir society.
And it's also another well placed step towards rounding out Chen's character. I love Chen Stormstout, and I love the direction they're taking him. This is the third chapter to the four-part story written by Sarah Pine, and I think it's my favorite so far. You can take a look at the chapter in its entirety in the Expanded Universe section of Blizzard's official website.
Tags: blizzard-entertainment, blizzard-short-stories, chen-stormstout, garrosh-heart-of-war, global-writing-contest, in-the-shadow-of-the-sun, li-li-stormstout, lore, pearl-of-pandaria, quest-for-pandaria, sarah-pine, shen-zin-su, short-story, tolvir, uldum, world-of-warcraft, wow, wow-short-storiesFiled under: Lore, Mists of Pandaria
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Officers' Quarters: Leading as a teen
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. How young is too young to lead a guild? What do you do when your guild doesn't even know your true age? This week, a teen guild leader wonders how long he can keep things going.
Hi Scott.
I'm a fifteen year old teenager who loved Wow. A couple of months ago I joined this guild, it was a level three guild full of nice,social players. I loved the guild as it had a brilliant atmosphere. I joined there raid team and rose through the ranks to become an officer.
In August, I took two weeks off and when I returned the two guild leaders were absent. Neither of them had been online in a few days and members were leaving the guild.
So, I took over the guild and have begun rebuilding it. It is now a level 10 guild with nearly a full raid team. But, I am worried about a few things surrounding my leadership.
Hi, YAGL. First of all, I salute you for stepping up when the previous leaders disappeared. Taking over a guild is not an easy thing to do under any circumstances. When a guild is failing and leaderless, it is doubly difficult. It sounds like not only did you keep the guild alive, but you've managed to turn it around into a successful raiding guild. So, first and foremost, pat yourself on the back for that.As I have said, I'm only fifteen. None of my guild mates know my true age.
I also lead our raid team but as I am only fifteen I have no proper access to financial resources to rent a server for Ventrillo. And on top of all that I do not hold the rank of Guild Master as the old GM never promoted anyone. I am waiting till he's gone ninety days so I can officially take over.
My main question is, at my age how can I properly and fairly run this guild and get players interested in a raising guild who does not even have Ventrillo?
Please help!
Sincerely,
A young, anxious Guild leader.
Internet anonymity
The beauty and the curse of the Internet is that we're all, to some degree, anonymous. The beauty is that we can judge others based on their actions and not their appearance, race, or even in some cases gender. The curse is that people feel like they can get away with things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
In your case, anonymity has worked in your favor. Would they have followed you from the beginning if they knew your real age? I really can't say. The important thing, however, is that they are following you now. That has nothing to do with your age and everything to do with your actions.
Time to come clean
Now that you've had success as a leader, it's time to tell them. One way or another, people will eventually find out. You don't want to lie to them, and if you don't come clean, then sooner or later you will have to. They know the unfortunate circumstances that led to your promotion to guild leader, and I'm sure they are all grateful to you for keeping things together.
It doesn't have to be a big deal, and it shouldn't be at this point. Don't let anyone make it into one. Keep the focus of the discussion on your success as a leader, not on your age. You stepped up when no one else would -- don't forget that.
As for the Ventrilo situation, part of being honest with your guild can be to ask for help getting a server set up. Also, there are free alternatives to Vent, such as Mumble, Xfire, and Vivox.
Voice chat isn't 100% essential for raiding, but it is an incredibly powerful tool to have at your disposal. It can mean the difference between a wipe and a bonus roll button.
Teen leaders
If your guildmates can't look past your age, that isn't your problem -- it's theirs. History is full of amazing people who accomplished great things as teens: Joan of Arc and Alexander the Great were teenage military leaders. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was 19, and Bill Gates founded Microsoft at the same age. Louis Braille invented his system at 15. It's not impossible for a teenager to make a great guild leader, or to do anything else (legal) they put their mind to.
In this case, you've proven you can handle the job. You deserve to keep it and you deserve the respect of your guildmates. Don't hide who you are just to make them feel more comfortable.
/salute
Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, teen, teen-guild-leader, teen-leader, teen-officer, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership
Patch 5.0.5 Hotfixes for October 19
Everyone loves the hotfix gnome. He signals the arrival of more of the hottest of fixes, and has a fabulously pink beard. He's heated up yet another bunch of hotfixes for us all, and if you missed the last batch, check them out. Today's hotfixes (that we believe have been active since the 19th, but have just been announce today) include:
Hunters can no longer carry battleground flags while stealthed with CamouflagePlayers that have been defeated by the Headless Horseman can now use the Looking For Dungeon interface to return for another attempt.Digging up a find while practicing Archaeology will now continue to grant skill points past 50.Wyrmhorn Turtles are no longer quite so prolific. Poor things.Hit the break for all the hotfixes! Wyrmhorn Turtles aren't quite so prolific there either.Blizzard EntertainmentOctober 19 General Digging up a find while practicing Archaeology will now continue to grant skill points past 50.Hallow's End festivities and decorations, including candy buckets, have spread to Refuge Point and Zouchin Village.layers that have been defeated by the Headless Horseman can now use the Looking For Dungeon interface to return for another attempt.
Classes Hunter - It is no longer possible to carry a Battleground flag while using Camouflage.Paladin - Light's Hammer can no longer be used while Hexed.
Creatures Wyrmhorn Turtles are no longer quite so prolific.
Pet Battles The pet ability Takedown now deals 10% less damage.The pet ability Chew now deals 50% less damage.Quests Players that have not completed "Battle Helm of the Thunder King" can now slay Bloodtip, Wulon, Huo-Shang, and Gochao.Zhao-Jin the Bloodletter should now always spawn correctly for the "Battle Helm of the Thunder King" quest.Dungeons & Raids
Scarlet Monastery The Pulsing Pumpkin and Pumpkin Fiends that accompany the Headless Horseman are now appropriately powerful foes.
Mogu'shan Vaults
Gara'jal the Spiritbinder - Smoke Bombs cast by Rogues will no longer prevent Gara'jal's Voodoo Doll effect from displaying on afflicted players.Will of the Emperor -Fixed an issue that could cause Qin-xi and Jan-xi to sometimes become unreponsive.
Bug Fixes Players will now only earn credit toward the achievement Listen to the Drunk Fish when harvesting the high yield crop of the day forecasted by Jogu the Drunk.Voodoo Piles in Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub wil no longer incorrectly grant skill in Archaeology.The Ghost Iron vein beneath Serenity Falls in the Jade Forest has dematerialized.Fixed an issue that could allow new Pandarens from leaving the Wandering Isle prior to selecting a Faction to support.Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: breaking, featured, hotfixes, mists, mists-of-pandaria, patch-5.0.5, wow-hotfix, wow-hotfixes
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Blizzard talks Shadows of the Horde, other projects at NYCC
Blizzard took the opportunity at the New York Comic-Con this week to announce a slew of projects including the eagerly anticipated novel Shadows of the Horde by Michael A. Stackpole, featuring Vol'jin, chief of the Darkspear trolls and unofficial Horde 'loyal opposition' to Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. Now we have details on the various projects from the official site, and they're pretty tantalizing. In addition to learning more about Shadows of the Horde (bad stuff happens to Vol'jin, I can say that much without spoilers) we also learned more about other upcoming books and eBooks, such as the World of Warcraft Tribute: Art Book, produced by UDON, the collected Diablo III: Heroes Rise, Darkness Falls eBook that gathers all the class short stories from the Diablo III website (the Barbarian one was really good), and Richard Knaak's upcoming Dawn of the Aspects eBook dealing with the history of the Dragonflights and their fate in the post-Cataclysm world.
Definitely go check it out.
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.Tags: Diablo-III, michael-a-stackpole, mists-of-pandaria, new-york-comic-con, new-york-comic-con-2012, richard-knaak, UDON, VoljinFiled under: Blizzard, News items, Lore, Mists of Pandaria
Monday, March 25, 2013
Around Azeroth: King of the rodents
Human minions, I have called you here today to explain my evil plan for virmin world domination. I've successfully infiltrated the castle and deposed the insolent Wrynn, who as we speak is laboring in the carrot mines. My next step is a tunnel into the Trias cheese shop, which has vital strategic deliciousness. Then, finally, we'll seize the granaries and turn them over to state control. Today Stormwind, tomorrow the world! (Thanks to submitter Mark for the screenshot!)
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ssFiled under: Around AzerothSunday, March 24, 2013
Lichborne: Mogu'shan Vaults loot for death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.It's actually more important than ever to know what loot drops from what bosses in raids in Mists. This is because, if you've been collecting Elder Charms of Good Fortune, you'll have the option when a boss dies to spend one for a chance at extra loot. Knowing what loot is available means you can be better informed when you spend coins. With that in mind, let's take a quick look at the bosses of Mogu'shan Vaults and figure out if their loot is worth spending charms on.
This analysis is made on the basis of the normal 25-man raid drops. If you are running raid finder, many valor point choices may pull ahead because of superior item level. On the other hand, you do have a highly limited number of valor points due to the 1000 per week cap, so in some cases you may want to "settle" for the raid drop so you can use your valor points to buy something else. In addition, DPS will want to maintain 7.5% hit and 7.5% expertise at the raid level. This can usually be accomplished via reforging, but there may be times you take an "inferior" piece of gear to hit one of those caps.
The Stone Guard Beads of the Mogu'shi, with dodge and expertise, are a relatively low quality tank neck option for blood death knights. You are probably better off getting the Durable Necklace of the Golden Lotus (from this exalted faction quest) if you can hold out while you grind the reputation to unlock it.Star-Stealer Waistguard is the other tank drop here. It's got dodge and mastery, and is probably about the best tank belt you're going to get until some of the newer raids open up.Jasper Clawfeet are your DPS drop option here. Unfortunately, critical strike and mastery is probably about the most lackluster secondary stat combination you can get for death knight DPS. That said, the gem slot does push them over Tankiss Warstompers as far as boots go.Feng the Accursed Bracers of Six Oxen are your tank option here. Dodge and parry certainly isn't the worst combination you can get, and you can always reforge the dodge into mastery. Battle Shadow Bracers have more parry, but they also have hit rating and an inferior amount of strength, so there's probably better stuff to spend your VP on.Cloak of Peacock Feathers features critical strike and expertise rating, making it fair to middling for unholy and two-handed frost, and a little less tempting to dual wield frost. Of course, the VP option, Cloak of the Dark Disciple, is possibly a little worst, so this is another case where you take what you get or wait for the Heart of Fear drop.Nullification Greathelm, with haste and critical strike, is actually a very solid drop for DPS death knights. It's better than your VP option, and probably worth spending a charm to get.Gara'jal the Spiritbinder Sollerets of Spirit Spliting are your tank boots. Mastery is always welcome on tank gear, and the dodge can be reforged as needed.Soulgrasp Choker features both hit and haste rating, making it about the best you could hope for for a DPS drop, no matter what your spec. That said, If you're absolutely overloaded on hit rating, you may want to buy Bloodseeker's Solitaire with your VP. Otherwise, stick with the Soulgrasp.Bonded Soul Bracers are your DPS bracer option, and with haste and expertise, are pretty hard to beat for the slot.The Spirit Kings
Shoulderguards of the Unflanked are the tank shoulder drop here. Parry and hit rating aren't an optimal secondary stat combination, but you can reforge the hit to mastery and still have a solid pair of tanks shoulders. Besides, the VP shoulders, Shoulders of Autumnlight, have dodge and expertise, which is really even worse.Breastplate of the King's Guard has haste and mastery, making it a very solid DPS chest piece. If you need hit and expertise, you can pick up the VP option, Dawnblade's Chestguard, instead, but if not, this will do pretty solidly for just about any DPS death knight. Unholy and two-handed frost, of course, will want to reforge the mastery.Elegon Elegion the Fanged Crescent is an epic one-handed strength weapon. If you're a dual wielder, save a charm for this. It's the best weapon you'll get until Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring open up.Starshatter is the epic two-handed drop here. Reforge the critical strike to haste (unless you're overloaded on expertise) and you're good to go. Essentially, Elegon is probably sure bet to spend a coin on if no other boss in this dungeon is, at least until you have your weapons.Band of Bursting Novas is a tank ring, but dodge and expertise make it second rate. You may want to hold out for drops from later raids.Starcrusher Gauntlets offer hit and haste, making them a very good DPS drop. In addition, the gem slot pushes it firmly over your VP option.Vial of Dragon's Blood is a trinket that offers mastery and a chance to proc some dodge rating. The solid amount of mastery is a definite plus, though the value is somewhat diminished by the randomness of the proc, and the fact it uses our weakest defense stat.Will of the Emperor
Chestguard of Eternal Vigilance features expertise and parry rating. You can make it work if you reforge the expertise to mastery, of course. It is once again, better than the VP option if nothing else.Jang-xi's Devastating Legplates offer haste and hit rating, making them some top tier DPS legs, especially once you take the two sockets into account. You'll want to grab these.Lei Shin's Final Orders come with innate haste rating and a proc that grants a burst of strength, making this an amazing trinket for any DPS death knight. It's another one you'll want to get your hands on for sure.Trash mob drops
Jade Warlord Figurine has stamina and mastery on use, making it a solidly good tank trinket.Jade Charioteer Figurine offers strength and haste on use, bringing the number of amazing death knight DPS trinkets in the vaults up to two.
Learn the ropes of endgame play with WoW Insider's DK 101 guide. Make yourself invaluable to your raid group with Mind Freeze and other interrupts, gear up with pre-heroic DPS gear or pre-heroic tank gear, and plot your path to tier 11/valor point DPS gear.
Tags: Band-of-Bursting-Novas, Beads-of-the-Mogushi, blood-death-knight-lichborne, Bonded-Soul-Bracers, Bracers-of-Six-Oxen, Breastplate-of-the-Kings-Guard, cent, Chestguard-of-Eternal-Vigilance, Cloak-of-Peacock-Feathers, death-knight-blood-lichborne, death-knight-frost-lichborne, death-knight-gear, death-knight-gear-guide, death-knight-guide, death-knight-info, death-knight-raid-gear, death-knight-raid-guide, death-knight-talents, death-knight-unholy-lichborne, dk-guide, dk-info, dk-talents, Durable-Necklace-of-the-Golden-Lotus, elder-charm-of-good-fortune, Elegion-the-Fanged-Cres, Elegon, featured, Feng-the-Accursed, frost-death-knight-lichborne, Garajal-the-Spiritbinder, gear-guide, guide-to-death-knights, Jade-Charioteer-Figurine, Jade-Warlord, Jade-Warlord-Figurine, Jangxis-Devastating-Legplates, Jasper-Clawfeet, Lei-Shins-Final-Orders, mogu-shan-vault, mogu-shan-vaults, mogushan-vault, mogushan-vaults-gear, mogushan-vaults-gear-guide, Nullification-Greathelm, Shoulderguards-of-the-Unflanked, Sollerets-of-Spirit-Splitting, Soulgrasp-Choker, Starcrusher-Gauntlets, Starshatter, StarStealer-Waistguard, The-Spirit-Kings, The-Stone-Guard, unholy-death-knight-lichborne, Vial-of-Dragons-Blood, Will-of-the-Emperor, wow-death-knight, wow-dk
Patch 5.1 PTR: New Gryphon and Wyvern Models
It appears from the video that all the models of the basic faction mounts will be updated with patch 5.1, with these new models replacing the basic wyvern and gryphon, the swift wyvern and gryphon. There is also a new mount variety being introduced: the Grand Armored Gryphon and the Grand Armored Wyvern. These are the heavily armored models in the video, and require artisan riding.
Inevitably, there will be players who prefer the old models, so it will be interesting to see if they are just replaced, or kept around somehow for those players' delectation. It's really exciting to see that Blizzard is working on these models, as it bodes well for other model updates including, if we dare to dream it, character models!
Of course, character models, with the vast variety of animations and clothing and the like will take far longer to complete than a few wyverns and gryphons. But nonetheless, any model updates are usually welcome!Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: 5.1, new-gryphon, new-gryphon-model, new-wyvern, new-wyvern-model, patch-5.1, Patch-5.1-ptr
Saturday, March 23, 2013
The Queue: Glory to the Alliance
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Stop making a mess of our flags, you jerks.
BlazeNor asked:
With this farming aspect added to the game that seem to be done with phasing, do you think this could open the door to housing? For example allowing players to own a piece of land and building on it though reputation and dailies.
I absolutely do think it could lead to that, yeah. I think our farm in Mists of Pandaria is Blizzard's testing ground for player housing. The question has always been, if they give us player housing, what do you do there? Do you just retire after a hard day of questing, make some popcorn, and watch some TV in your house in Stormwind? No, that's boring. They won't just give us a room to put up some paintings or whatever and leave it at that. They would want player housing to be an activity, something with goals and objectives. Our tiny little farm in Valley of the Four Winds is a good example of housing being an actual activity -- to get something for your farm, you need to work towards it, you have to earn it. It's a great start. They're seeing what works and what doesn't.
I could totally see them building on the Mists of Pandaria model and doing something like ... we're on whatever continent or planet comes next, and the Alliance (or Horde) entrusts you with a newly established, totally ramshackle stronghold. You need to improve its fortifications, make friends with local warlords or mercenaries, recruit officers, and bling out your throne room. That would be way more epic than an apartment in Old Town. Though the roleplayer in me thinks an apartment in Old Town would be pretty sweet, too.
Alexander1 asked:
Does anyone else think that the mogu are going to make the two big statues in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms come to life at some point?
I doubt it, but it would be totally awesome. Also, your name is awful. Sorry, bro.
(If you were offended by that, check the byline on this article.)
violetarrows asked:
I'm not a raider, so is there anything I can do with the Lesser Charms of Good Fortune? And if not, will simply not taking the quest again ensure I don't pick up any more to clutter my bags?
You get the charms regardless of whether you have the quest or not. If you think you will never, ever use the charms, you can just throw them away. I'd make sure to keep at least a few of the Elder Charms of Good Fortune around, though. I don't raid much either, but I use them whenever I join a Sha of Anger group, because why not? You could always do a quickie LFR run once a week just to use them, too. If you're doing daily quests, you might as well get the full benefit of it.
Kherova asked:
When I handed in a quest for Hallow's End I received reputation for the Tushui. They are listed in the reputation tab as a part of the Alliance. Never heard of them, did I miss anything??
The Tushui are the pandaren that have joined the Alliance.
@xvkarbear asked:
Now that the honeymoon phase is wearing off and people are 90 and raiding, how do you think the expansion is going so far?
As someone who doesn't do any hardcore raiding anymore, I'm having a blast. It's the most fun I've had since The Burning Crusade. My one big gripe is the Golden Lotus. I don't hate those dailies as much as some people do, but the gating there is fairly obnoxious. I'm not sure I understand the intent of it, besides ensuring players don't try completing the Tillers, the Anglers, the Order of the Cloud Serpent, the Golden Lotus, the Klaxxi, the August Celestials, and the Shado-Pan dailies every single day as soon as they hit 90. It might a precaution to make you take it easy, you can only touch the Celestials and Shado-Pan once you've learned to pace yourself. If that's the case, I feel there are more elegant ways to accomplish that.
There are also some hitches with things such as valor points and the rate at which you accrue them, but that's a numbers issue and not a content issue. The content, I feel, is extremely solid and the best it has been in years.
As for what everyone else thinks ... who knows? We have comments for a reason!
@MuteAssassins asked:
More likely to screw up your LFD: great players with an elitist attitude or bad players with a positive attitude?
Great players with an elitist attitude are more likely to screw up an LFR group, because they can /sit in front of a boss and refuse to participate until you get rid of the "baddies." The baddies themselves will at least try, even if they aren't great at it. Trying to play ball is better than refusing to try at all. Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em! Tags: alliance-orcs, daily-quests, featured, golden-lotus, guide, player-housing, qa, question-and-answer, the-tillers, valor-points, wow-answers, wow-daily-answers, wow-daily-questions, wow-guide, wow-player-questions, wow-q-and-a, wow-questions
Friday, March 22, 2013
Totem Talk: Healing Stone Guard and Feng the Accursed
Anyone who has followed me on Twitter or happened to look at my streams will have likely read some choice words flow from my finger tips based on the first two fights in the current tier of raiding. It's not that they are particularly hard fights, but they are a test of your coordination as a group. There are a ton of elements to the fights, multiple sources of damage at any given point of time, and of course some pretty high damage spikes built in because we just love those.
The good news is that these first two fights in the Mogu'shan Vaults are in reality quite shaman healer friendly. Despite the damage, and the multiple mechanics, our toolkit makes us go-to healers on these first two fights. There are some tricks and helpful hints I can offer you to help squeeze all the healing juice you can in the fight.
Chipping away at the Stone Guard
The first thing that you will notice is that this is a boss encounter involving not one, not two but four boss mobs to contend with! You will notice that there are some similarities between this fight and some other multiple boss mob fights, I'm looking at you here Omnomnom defense force! There are some things to note here that will make the fight a little easier for you. First off all, the fight is very mastery friendly. One of the major damage points is whenever one of the statues Overloads. It deals a massive amount of damage raid wide, and it gets people low enough that your mastery will kick in and cover the healing spread quite a bit. For this reason you may want to make sure that you enter this fight with a healthy helping of mastery to make sure you can get some turbo charged Healing Rain and Healing Stream Totem happening. It sounds like a goofy point to make but most raid strats call for the raid group to be fairly close together because of all the mob switching and taunting that has to go on. This presents a perfect opportunity to let loose the ridiculousness that is resto shaman AoE healing. If you position it correctly you can catch melee and ranged and really push out the healing and to help stabilize the raid after an overload.
Using a Glyph of Riptide is also really handy in this fight. There will be a ton of things that people will have to make minor adjustments to navigate around, this includes yourself. Having that Riptide have no cooldown whatsoever lets you pre-hot if you see any raiders about to stick their feet in bad, and that's a good thing, and something I would highly recommend utilizing. Another tool that I found surprisingly useful in this fight was Totemic Projection. I was really surprised about this, as I've been struggling to find a spot where this talent was useful and I finally found it. There will wind up being quite a number of things on the ground at any given point in time. In more than one occasion I personally found myself cut off from the group due to mechanics and out of position for Spirit Link Totem. With projection however, I was able to drop and move the totem on the fly to save a tank and several DPS from biting it. I was pretty surprised when that talent popped up with a check mark in the useful column, but there you have it. Another surprise MVP is Glyph of Chaining. That 4 second cooldown isn't actually all that bad, but the 100% extra jump distance can be a life safer if you're cut off from your group, or you have a straggler in the raid that you need to keep from visiting the graveyard. Try it out and you'll have a pile of rubble at your feet in no time.
Taking the bite out of Feng
Feng the Accursed just loves to pour out the damage. More than anything else though he is an execution fight, but more so on the tank end of the raider spectrum. Positioning, taunt swapping and using the built in fight mechanics of the Shroud of Reversal and the Nullification Barrier. Your tanks will have their work cut out for them, but even when they execute properly there is a ton of damage to go around. This is another fight that mastery and spirit are in my opinion the best choices for your primary stats. Mastery will help throughout the fight as there are several raid wide damage mechanics that dish out a ton of damage, and spirit because it's a long fight that will have you casting quite frequently making longevity incredibly important. Because Feng is a bit of a long fight, it makes it one where Mana Tide Totem will be welcomed by all healers. If you time it at the end of the first phase, you should have it up again just in time for the third phase, and by then you will likely be needing that extra mana for every one.
In phase one, the Epicenter ability will deal massive amounts of damage to the entire raid when it goes off. The good news is that most raid strats will call for your raid to group up if one of these goes off, making it rime time for an unglyphed Chain Heal and Healing Rain. It's also great to keep your SLT handy just in case you need to throw it down for an epicenter. The good news is that if you have to use your SLT, it will be up again by the time phase 3 rolls around. In phase two, Feng likes to party with fire. He will randomly target a member in the raid and put Wildfire Spark on them, giving them a debuff that when it ticks to zero, drops a bit of fire wherever that player was standing. If you happen to be the lucky recipient of this, instant cast Ghost Wolf will be your best friend. Draw Flame, just like epicenter, will let you take full advantage of your AoE healing and mastery. Phase two is also an awesome time to break out the Glyph of Healing Stream Totem. While it only give the damage reduction to one target, it's still handy.
Phase three is by far my favorite, and the Arcane Velocity he uses is just a metric ton of damage. This phase is the time I suggest activating super shaman healing mode, or combining three of our cooldowns for some massive healing. First, taking our top tier talent choice and using it for Primal Elementalist. Not only are your elementals bigger and meaner, they also get an ability that buffs your healing done by a percentage for as long as they are alive. Extra healing power is always welcome in a high damage phase. Second is to activate Ascendance, which turns us into an elemental lord and lets us replicate and distribute any heal we cast throughout the raid. Spreading that healing love during a velocity is a very good thing. Thirdly is to use Healing Tide Totem. While it only heals the 5 most injured targets, if ascendance is active it still redistributes the healing done copied throughout the entire raid. Combine that with mastery and the buff from your elemental and for the duration of the cooldowns you become a mad god of healing. It works, and it's a great way to anger any paladin healer with you in the phase. Try it out if you haven't already, it is really awesome.
Totem Talk: Restoration lends you advice on healing groups, DK tanks and heroics and mana concerns in today's endgame -- or take a break and look back at the rise of the resto shaman. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful! Tags: featured, guide-to-shamans, resto, restoration, restoration-shaman, restoration-shaman-column, restoration-shaman-totem-talk, shaman-guide, shaman-healing, shaman-info, shaman-restoration-column, shaman-talents, wow-shaman, wow-shaman-info
Patch 5.1 adds new music tracks for Alliance, Horde
Wowhead dug up some of the tracks from the PTR and put them together in a video that's a little over 45 minutes long. Despite the length, it's well worth the listen, as the glorious sounds of Alliance anthems are brought back to life, as well as a darker, more haunting set of refrains for the Horde. Included too are tracks titled "Jaina's Homeland," which are recognizable variations of the Dalaran themes from Wrath of the Lich King.
And if you'd like a little twisted fun, there's a track at the end for the new Darkmoon Faire carousel coming with the next patch, too. It's got that sweet yet slightly off feeling of any good track from a Burton movie. I love the music for Warcraft, and I love that we're getting so many music updates right along with patch updates. I hope we'll be able to purchase these pieces on a secondary soundtrack at some point!
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.Tags: alliance, darkmoon-faire, horde, mists-of-pandaria, patch-5.1, patch-5.1-music, Patch-5.1-ptr, soundtrack, world-of-warcraft, world-of-warcraft-music, wow-musicFiled under: News items, Mists of Pandaria
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Blood Pact: Useful addons for raiding warlocks
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill does actually have 100some addon folder things in her Addon Control Panel profile. Laugh all you want; her UI is spacious and pretty to play on. I've been asked several times from either new warlocks or old warlocks who came back to the game about what addons are out there to help a PvE warlock. Recently, it's been through Twitter, which isn't exactly the best place to explain how to get the most out of your UI.
Gear is one important preparation for raiding, and I've set you up with most of those considerations. Knowing your class and spec is another, and I promise, I'll get to that. But a good buff to your spellcasting techniques is a well-done user interface, so let's talk about that.
Buffing the default UI
Do you need 100 addons to raid as a warlock? No.
Can you use the default UI as a raiding warlock? Sure. It might not be recommended, but you are technically able to.
You can use a UI compilation (ElvUI is particularly popular and well-done). You can completely redo your UI using independent addons, like I do. You can raid on something very minimalistic in addon usage like the user interface of Sparkuggz from Method. It's really up to you what addons you "need."
The default UI has gotten better than it used to be. However, it's not the most optimal way to play a warlock, at least for most of us. I do suggest you try an LFR or a dungeon on the default UI, just to see exactly what helps you most in a PvE group combat situation (or if you can play just fine on it!). When I've played on the default UI -- whether it was for beta/PTR or I had to wipe my WTF folder on a dying laptop -- I always came back to a big three of addons I wish I had: A better cast bar that shows channeled ticksA DoT timer that can handle multiple targetsA better buff/debuffs trackerThat's it. I don't need a unit frames mod -- you can move the unit frames now, and the secondary resource tracking isn't too terrible to live with. I don't need a threat mod because the default UI will yell at you once you get close to pulling threat, which I hardly ever do if I'm being intelligent about my DoT spreads. I don't need a damage meter to tell me that I'm fantastic (I already know it). I don't even need a boss mod most times, assuming I can pay attention to the fight instead of zoning out on my rotation.
There's plenty of options out there for each category of addons, and I'll mention several choices. I'm not going to tell you one's better than another, because different people will react differently. I prefer largely visual & symbolic cues myself, with sound cues for occasional warnings, so my UI revolves around what others may regard as pure eye candy.
These addons also overlap in many areas now. You can configure DoT timers and resource bars with a cast bar addon, and you can show buffs and debuffs with just about anything, from buff mods to aura mods to unit frame mods. But I'll name some basics and what I personally use. Please add your favorites in the comments if I don't name them here.
Cast bars The most important part of the cast bar that you'd want in a mod is the latency bar. Usually colored differently from the rest of the bar, this part tells you when you could end your cast before it's technically finished and the game will still register it as going off due to your latency (specifically world latency involves casting and combat).
The minorly important part of cast bars for warlocks is seeing the ticks in a channeled spell like Malefic Grasp or Drain Soul. Since Malefic Grasp is a new spell in the 5.0 game, not all addons (including my cast bar of choice) have updated quite yet for its ticks, but the spell is quick enough that I don't quite care to go hunting for another addon to configure right now. Drain Soul is the main attraction for a channeled tick bar since you're most likely to interrupt that channel than any others.
Quartz is a an old-time favorite and still a solid choice. I switched to Gnosis when one patch Quartz was late on updating, and I've found I like Gnosis's looks and control better than Quartz. AzCastBar is also a lightweight cast bar that I've used before.
DoT timers and buffs
DoT timers come in handy when you are multidotting or when you need a dedicated watcher for your crowd control. You can also use a DoT timer for single-target use, like many do. DoT timers often have a bar format instead of an icon format, where on the bar you'll see the ticks for DoTs, including the modified haste tick periods. Warlocks care about where the last tick of a DoT is because of how DoTs are refreshed and because of Pandemic.
The classic format is bars of DoTs per target you cast on. The more targets you have DoTs on, the more bars you have on your screen. DoTimer and Ellipsis are familiar faces to me, but the most popular addon I hear about or see used is ForteXorcist. I'll also mention the compilation UI ElvUI, since many people also praise ElvUI's timers. NeedToKnow is yet another often talked about DoT timer.
I'll admit, DoT timers and buff/debuff addons overlap quite a lot. Many DoT timer addons can also track procs and buffs on you, but there are still dedicated buff bars out there. DoT timers tend to be configured for specific buffs and debuffs, while a general buff mod will show NPC or vehicle buffs and debuffs, too.
I was a longtime Satrina Buff Frame (SBF) user until Satrina stopped maintaining it and the addon almost died for updates in Cataclysm. A new maintainer has picked the addon back up, but I've since moved on to the fantastic Raven mod. Raven can also function as a DoT timer, and works wonderfully whether you like bars or icons for your buff interface.
Weak Auras or Power AurasI used Power Auras Classic for a long time, and if you prefer PA over WA, that's completely fine because it's still a good addon. I prefer Weak Auras now because of the better GUI grouping I can use and the progression textures that can act almost like a HUD.
There's a wide variety in how you can use your Auras addon. Some people use it simply as a cooldown or buff reminder and don't get into the flashy animations or progression textures. Me? Remember, I like visual cues, and especially moving visual cues get my attention.
I use Weak Auras for my rotation like Disney's Fantasia blends animation and music. (I particularly try for the Toccata and Fugue animation's feel! Abstract but so cool!) Getting one squiggly to appear when I put up Haunt, another when I use Dark Soul, and yet another aura that fades over time when Lightweave procs is part of the fun for me. I also design my Weak Auras together so that they play off each other and interlock to make fun designs.
I'm not quite as pro at manipulating Weak Auras as Kait is, but I am pretty well-versed at making diverse auras with the GUI. I'll eventually get around to sharing my specific Weak Auras on my blog, though it's been requested to do a full column on them. If anyone has any questions about how to make a particular aura, feel free to email me about it.
Boss mods
Pick one. Any one. They all do the same thing.
Of course, if your guild requires a specific one, go with that one. Typically guilds don't require a certain boss mod because it is the "Bestest Bester Best Boss Mod EVAR," but simply so all of their raiders are on the same page with regards to ability timers, available warnings, and updated mods. All the boss mod choices can be configured to do the same essential things; it's really eye & ear candy that distinguishes them.
Some people swear by BigWigs. Personally, I loved Deus Vox Encounters (DXE) back in Icecrown Citadel because I could use different colors for a mob-spawning timer versus a boss ability timer. But I use Deadly Boss Mods now, along with most if not all of my guild. It does the job well enough for me. I can move bars near the focus of my screen (my DoTs) and uncheck spammy warnings ("Yor'sahj has hit the tank with Void Bolt! Again!").
There is an important note about boss mods: you should still be doing the heavy lifting during the boss encounter. The timer bars and warning should benefit you noticeably, not be just background noise.
Your boss mod should work as a light reminder for the encounter's mechanics. Pay attention to the timers to anticipate events -- don't just leave the bars running on your screen because "that's what a boss mod does." Don't wait for your raid leader to call out the name of the Wildfire Spark target on Ventrilo; read the name as your boss mod prints it across your screen. If you find you're not caring about an ability's timer or warning, then get it off your screen.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses. Tags: addon, addons, azcastbar, bigwigs, cast-bar, cast-bar-addon, cast-bars, deadly-boss-mods, dot-timer, dotimer, ellipsis, elvui, featured, fortexorcist, gnosis, guide-to-locks, guide-to-warlocks, lock-guide, lock-info, lock-talents, needtoknow, needtoknow-addon, power-auras, power-auras-classic, quartz, raven, raven-addon, satrina-buff-frame, warlock-guide, warlock-info, warlock-talents, weak-auras, wow-lock, wow-lock-info, wow-locks, wow-warlock, wow-warlock-info, wow-warlocks
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Around Azeroth: In the belly of the bug
"I was doing the quest in Valley of the Four Winds where the giant Mantid breaks through the wall, and I wondered what the inside of the Mantid looked like," writes submitter Ganrokh of Kill Order on Azgalor (US-A). "Turns out that the inside of his model is an invert of his skin. It was as if he was looking back at me! This picture kinda gives me the whole 'I am your overlord' feel." Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ssFiled under: Around AzerothKnow Your Lore: 5 frequently asked Mists lore questions
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Mists of Pandaria contains an utter truckload of new lore. Pandaria has been hidden behind mists for ten thousand years and the elusive pandaren were little more than a myth to most, a rare sighting to others. Because of this, there was little to no record of anything related to the lost continent of Pandaria or its history. And because of that, Pandaria is packed with tons of new stories and information regarding the continent and the races that live upon it.
Even to someone familiar with lore, that overload of information can be a little overwhelming. We're all starting out at the same point in Pandaria, a point where we know nothing at all. So I find myself frequently getting asked questions about what's going on in this strange new world, and why we're doing what we're doing. As I answered the questions to various friends and guildmates, I thought perhaps I should share the answers to the most frequently asked of these questions with you all.
If Pandaria was shrouded in mists for ten thousand years, what made the mists go away?
Oddly enough, we still don't have the answer to that question. It hasn't been addressed directly. There are those that point out that the cataclysm likely made the mists go away, but this is not the case. In the short story Charge of the Aspects by Matt Burns, Thrall very specifically has a vision of a "mysterious island shrouded in mists." This suggests that at the time of the story, Pandaria was still encased in the odd mists that have blanketed it for thousands of years. This story takes place just before the events of patch 4.3 -- well after the cataclysm occurred.
And to be perfectly honest, we've only got the vaguest of ideas as to how those mists got there in the first place. Part of the lore objects you find scattered around Pandaria tell the tale of the last Emperor of Pandaria, Shaohao. When he rose to power, the Waterspeaker of the Jinyu had a horrific vision of demons and green fire surrounding a great well. It was a vision of the War of the Ancents and the Sundering, and Shaohao knew he had to somehow prevent Pandaria from falling prey to certain disaster.
The tale continues as Shaohao consults with the Jade Serpent, who advises him to divest himself of his burdens and become one with the land in order to save it. At the end of the story, Shaohao does precisely that, his spirit becoming one with the land, Pandaria separating from the rest of the world, and the mists rolling in to hide the continent. We don't know if the tale is true, or how much of the tale is embellishment, but we do know that the mists absolutely were there, and now they are not.
Because this hasn't been directly addressed anywhere in the lore we currently have access to, it's probably one of those important plot points that will rear its head at a later date. There has to be a reason Pandaria decided to be revealed at this precise moment in time, but we have yet to see what that reason was, and how it ties in to the rest of Azeroth.
Why are there trolls in Pandaria? I thought it was hidden away?
The trolls currently invading the north coasts of Pandaria are the Zandalar. They're the original tribe of trolls from thousands upon thousands of years ago -- the tribe predates the night elves. And at some point in history, that tribe was allied with the mogu, although the reasons for this alliance are lost in history. Kalimdor was one continent, and the trolls ruled over much of the continent. Over time, the mighty Zandalar empire split into two; the Amani of the forestlands, and the Gurubashi of the jungles.
But before the Zandalar Empire split, they were apparently allied with the mogu of Pandaria. The mogu have been presented as ruthless, powerful overlords with a firm grasp on stolen Titan technology -- it's easy to see why the Zandalar would consider them formidable allies. The Zandalar tried to help the mogu quash the pandaren rebellion that threatened to crush the Mogu Empire, but they were unsuccessful. Pushed out from what was now pandaren land, the Zandalar were stranded on a remote island after the Sundering, and there they stayed for thousands of years.
But the Zandalar were mostly a mystery to the rest of Azeroth until they made an appearance in vanilla, when Zul'Gurub was introduced as a raid. At that point, it seemed that the Zandalar had Azeroth's best interests at heart. They wanted to quash the rising of Hakkar the Soulflayer, whose tremendous thirst for blood threatened to consume what was left of the Gurubashi Empire. When Hakkar was defeated, it seemed that the Zandalar's plans had come to fruition. But the truth was that this was only the first step in a master plan.
The great troll empires of old were dying out. It was clear to the Zandalar that if they did not unite the scattered tribes of Azeroth, the troll race would soon fall to ruin and possible extinction. The Zandalar representatives called the leaders of the tribes together and plotted out a master plan, one that involved a re-establishment of Zul'Gurub to the south, and Zul'Aman to the north. But these strongholds could not stand against an assault by the other races of Azeroth -- one that was brought together by Vol'jin, leader of the Darkspear.
With their plans in ruin, the Zandalar fell back to reconsider their plans. And though we may know nothing of that old alliance with the mogu, the Zandalar had record of it. When Pandaria was unveiled, the Zandalar discovered a unique opportunity to renew their old alliance with the mogu, and regain the power that they so desperately wanted back. The mogu are working on some mysterious task deep within the heart of Pandaria, using Titan technology, obviously bent on reclaiming the empire they lost -- and the Zandalar are perfectly happy to assist them, in exchange for power of their own.
If the mantid are the enemies of the pandaren, why are we helping them out?
We aren't exactly helping out the mantid -- we're helping the Klaxxi, who are a special group of mantid. The organization known as the Klaxxi are the record-keepers and preservers of mantid history, elders that are completely untouched by the corruption of the sha that has filtered through the Dread Wastes. These guys are old, far older than the rest of the mantid, and they recognize the sha corruption and realize that it has tainted their Empress, causing the unending life cycle of the mantid to be disrupted.
The mantid were not supposed to swarm at this point in history. Essentially, the Empress Shek'zeer has been possessed by the Sha of Fear, and she's willing her subjects to embrace the corruption of the Sha and tearing mantid civilization apart. The Klaxxi recognize what is happening and know that something has to be done, so they've formed a tentative alliance of sorts with us. We're travelers from another land, so we don't have the history with the mantid that the pandaren do.
And the Klaxxi have a secret weapon in their arsenal -- the paragons. These mantid are champions from past eras of mantid history, champions who were preserved in amber at the height of their power and scattered all across the Dread Wastes. Why these paragons were buried is unknown, but it was likely as a defense mechanism for extreme cases just like the one the Klaxxi are dealing with now.
But just because we're helping the Klaxxi out, it doesn't mean that they're our friends. They have one purpose in mind, and one alone -- stopping the Empress and preventing her from destroying mantid civilization. Once that task is accomplished, the Klaxxi may not be so friendly anymore ... and they definitely don't have the best interests of Pandaria at heart. They worship something far older, far deadlier than Titans, and their loyalty remains true to the ancient deity. If push comes to shove and it's a war between Titans and Old Gods, the Klaxxi know where their loyalties lie, and they will not waver from that path.
What are we doing in Mogu'shan Vaults?
In Mogu'shan Vaults, we're launching an expedition of sorts into the ancient mogu ruins, to try and glean more information about what the mogu are up to, given their resurgence in Mists. But the vaults themselves are far from empty, and our meddling unleashes some powerful enemies who have been lost to the annals of time. The Stone Guard are merely guardians protecting the vaults themselves, but Feng the Accursed is another matter altogether.
Long ago, Feng was the caretaker of the vaults, watching over the treasures in the halls and making sure nothing happened to them. But he was caught stealing from the treasures, although some stories say he was framed for the crime. As punishment, he was cursed, his body destroyed -- and his spirit has been roaming the Vaults ever since. Our entry into Mogu'shan Vaults has disturbed this spirit, and we have to defeat him to continue on.
But the next boss is a direct result of the Zandalar invasion mentioned above. Gara'jal the Spiritbinder is a powerful mystic, and the leader of an expedition much like our own. Unlike our own, Gara'jal is seeking powerful artifacts to bring back to his people and use to further their power. The Zandalar were attempting to revive the Thunder King, first emperor of the mogu, so it's likely this expedition was to try and find some artifact to help with that process.
As we traverse deeper into the Vaults, we stumble across a startling revelation -- the vaults aren't quite deserted. And what we thought were mere mogu ruins is in fact some sort of ancient Titan facility, much like the ones located in Ulduar, Uldaman and Uldum. The mogu aren't just warlords bent on domination, they're intelligent enough to have salavaged these Titans devices, and they're using them for some unknown purpose. That purpose is still unclear at the end of the raid, but it's clear that the fight with the mogu is far from over.
Are the stories for the raids for this tier linked together?
Yes and no. While Mogu'shan Vaults stands on its own, the other two raids are very much linked together. The Heart of Fear will lead us deep into the Dread Wastes, into the home of Grand Empress Shek'zeer. Shek'zeer has been driven to madness by the Sha of Fear, and the Klaxxi seek to depose her. Traditionally this task is performed by the successor to the throne, but Shek'zeer's replacement is still far too young to assume this task -- so it's up to us to get rid of the Empress before the mantid swarm destroys Pandaria.
But Shek'zeer is being possessed by the Sha of Fear. And although we might succeed in killing the Empress, the Sha is still out in the world, continuing its campaign of terror. This is what will lead to the last raid of this tier, the Terrace of Endless Spring. The Terrace is a sacred refuge nestled between the Veiled Stair and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. As its name indicates, the place is a paradise of water, the same water that courses through the Vale and all over Pandaria -- the water that has the life-giving properties that make the plants in the Valley of the Four Winds so plentiful.
It's also a sacred haven teeming with life-giving power, and where there is power, the Sha will soon follow. The Terrace has been corrupted by the Sha of Fear, and it's up to us to put an end to its assault. The Sha of Fear is one of the original Sha imprisoned by Emperor Shaohao, and it's an immensely powerful being. It's the physical manifestation of terror, and we must fight it just as Emperor Shaohao did so many years ago. Whether or not we actually kill the Sha, or simply put an end to it and effectively send it back to its prison remains to be seen.
Although sometimes it can be hard to determine the story for raid zones, particularly when raids are focused on killing bosses rather than experiencing lore, it's still worthwhile to pay attention to the events going on around you. In Mogu'shan Vaults, Lorewalker Cho provides a narrative throughout the entire zone that explains what's going on. While we have yet to see the Heart of Fear, it's likely that we'll have more story cues to lead us from boss to boss throughout the raid zone. If you're really interested in the lore that Pandaria has to offer, the best advice I can give is to pay attention. Read the quests you're being sent on, watch the cut scenes you encounter. Listen to whatever conversations happen to be going on around you, read the flavor text on quest items and other relics you happen to find in your travels. Despite the sheer amount of new lore present in Pandaria, Blizzard's done an amazing job wrapping it all up and presenting it in a way that it can be easily absorbed.
For more information on related subjects, please look at these other Know Your Lore entries:Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: featured, guide, guide-to-lore, heart-of-fear, klaxxi, lore, lore-guide, lorewalker-cho, mantid, mists-of-pandaria, mogu, mogushan-vaults, pandaren, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, sha, terrace-of-endless-spring, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping, zandalar
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Breakfast Topic: How old is old enough for WoW?
I'm just going to put this out there. My daughter has, at a ripe old age of 3-months-old, completed all raiding content through Cataclysm. She's even gone back to Karazhan and smacked down that venerable old instance, just for old time's sake. What? Oh, how active did she play? Dad had to handle most of the movement for her, and Dad might also have helped her spam the appropriate spells. But, really, is that so much more help than we're forced to give the occasional Raid Finder member? I mean, really, what raid hasn't had to haul along someone drooling on the keyboard?
Okay, I'm sorry for the Raid Finder dig, it was meant to be a joke. So, all this comedy about my 3-month-old raiding aside, how old is old enough to start playing WoW? The Littlest Gray gets read the Collected Works of Chris Metzen as bedtime stories because Daddy needs to stay up on the lore, but she's a special case. What's the bright line for a kid to fire up their first Pandaren?
Because we all know: they're gonna want to play a panda.Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Breakfast Topic: Single Player or Multiplayer?
I have been thinking a lot about the way the game has shifted since the launch of Mists. Everyone who knows me is sick to the teeth of hearing me banging on about this, so I'm going to bore you with it instead, wonderful readers of WoW Insider. Back when Wowcrendor interviewed Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, the big GC said, amongst other things, that WoW was a multiplayer game. The clue's in the description, too, it's a MMORPG. There's neither an offline nor a single-player mode. Depending on your definition of roleplaying, you can do that or not, but the rest isn't so flexible. Now, I want to establish very firmly before continuing that I really do like Mists as a whole. However, there are several aspects of it which I find intensely frustrating, even annoying. And finally, I've managed to pretty much work out what I think the problem is. Do note, of course, that this is an opinion!
It seems to me that Mists has shifted the focus of WoW more towards single-player content. Leveling via battlegrounds was always rather slow and unreliable as a leveling method, if great fun, but it seems like leveling via dungeons has now become very, very slow in comparison to questing, certainly in the latter half of the 85-90 grind. And the focus on dailies and rep grinding at this part in the expansion, along with the tillers, and the pet battles, all of this seems to be focused on solo content. Yes, there are new raids and new battlegrounds, and new dungeons, and of course challenge modes, but there does seem, to me at least, to have been a shift towards solo gaming.
Now, maybe I'm being oversensitive because I love the group content so much, with PuGs or friends. It's what I play WoW for, it's what I love doing, so when single player content gets in the way of that I get grouchy and write Breakfast Topics!
What about you, though? Do you think I'm being daft? Do you dislike the group content and love the single-player side? Do you just want to be alone? Would you love a single-player version of WoW?
Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topicsFiled under: Breakfast Topics
Monday, March 18, 2013
Breakfast Topic: Has Mists changed your playstyle?
In Mists of Pandaria, the design intention for World of Warcraft is clear: Blizzard wants you playing this game at level 90 (although what you do once you get there is up for grabs). For the first time, a meaty profile of endgame activities makes it truly possible to sustain a non-raiding playstyle at level 90. How long will that be possible? We'll have to wait and see -- but for now, it means your endgame options are more varied than raiding, repeating a handful of dungeons, moving into PvP, or leveling another alt. The whole thing comes as a great relief to me. Knowing that endgame players are smeared across the game world like grape jelly on the kitchen counter after an "I can do this myself, Mommy" sammich gives me permission to choose my own flavor of gameplay without turning my back on Mists' content and features.
Case in point: Last week, when leveling my pandaren was feeling too much like an obligation, I ambled back to a guildless, early Cataclysm-era level 85 character with the idea of focusing on the story rather than opening up content and improving my character like a proper little goal-driven player. I'd made a good running start into Pandaria before it finally occurred to me: Why not relax even more and allow her to become a pseudo-pacifist? It's not like I had to go hardcore and limit my efforts to leveling solely through exploration, herbalism, and archaeology. There's other stuff to do -- new stuff! I could weave pet battles into the mix, and I could even get my farm started right away. Oh, and I'll need some farming togs for that.
Before I knew it, I'd mixed up the perfect blend of activity for this little independent character. It's proving equally as captivating in 15-minutes bites at lunch as it is over a glass of wine and a wandering evening lost in exploration. So here I am, happily embracing an alternative character concept with a low-key playstyle -- and it's all a natural part of the current endgame. I won't be abandoning my more mainstream PvE characters or my roly-poly panda, but this is a pretty enjoyable way to kick back without recusing myself from the current era. I ... I think I'm hooked!
Plenty of players are moving the opposite direction, of course, leaping into raiding for the first time or grouping in instances and scenarios more than ever before. Are you enjoying a new-to-you playstyle in Mists? Is it an alternative to your main character, or has the fresh approach become your new take on WoW? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, playstyle, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Filed under: Breakfast Topics