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[PC] World of Warcraft
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The_Griffin
Nostalgia and Crossovers


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Old May 8, 2006, 11:00 PM Local time: May 8, 2006, 09:00 PM #326 of 1941
Yay... shammy review info.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...p=1#post532462

Only problem is... we got buffs WHERE WE DIDN'T WANT THEM.

Still have to spend 10 points to get Mana Tide (which is STILL a 31 point talent, DESPITE Druids AND Mages getting their mana regen talent as a trainable skill), no real viability in healing (I would've really liked a non-totem HoT like Renew, but noooooo), and... our elemental trees got buffed to the point where we'll probably be about equal with Hunters and Warlocks in PVP.

Yippee.

Only problem is, that unless we're willing to spend 50 gold and respec every time we go on a raid, we won't be able to use the spiffy new PVP abilities because we're going to be pigeonholed into Restoration, which is STILL FUCKING GIMP IN SOLO AND PVP.

And to think that yesterday, I was optimistic about being able to raid without being relegated into the role of a sub-par buffer. =\

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Last edited by The_Griffin; May 8, 2006 at 11:09 PM.
Masanda
Warwick who?


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Old May 8, 2006, 11:10 PM Local time: May 8, 2006, 10:10 PM #327 of 1941
You've got a windfury totem... shut up.

I'd kill for alliance to get that.

FELIPE NO
Zio
I'm so cool, I got my own castle.


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Old May 8, 2006, 11:16 PM Local time: May 8, 2006, 11:16 PM #328 of 1941
I don't see anything wrong with that review, and I play horde. I even think shammies can be overpowered atleast from a PVP perspective and I'm on thier side but I only have experence in dueling shammies... Regardless...

Sword spec + hand of justice + wind fury totem = I'm a happy camper in PVP and PVE. I get so many hits off, if only I had that one blade that as well gave me an extra hit, that's a shitload of extra hits.

Shammies don't get a role in raids because they are either healing or a very good offensive.

Look, I've seen shammies use thier shocks and heal in MC and etc. Such as frost in MC and etc.

Hey, look when you crit with spells you have a better chance to crit with melee for the time being. Frost crit + then beat them down with your weapon.


http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...e&T=918906&P=2

And then how come the mages ARE STILL GRIPING. Jesus christ, I don't know why people are blizzcon plus everywhere bitch about the mage. The mage is a powerful SUPPORT PERSON. It was NOT MENT to be a soloing class. Sorry it might just be me but come on!

I've seen many mages both horde and alliance just ream people and also about thier talents, thier class is especially based on talents/equips.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?
Originally Posted by Zio
Heh, heh, heh. Now, now. That's the expression I want to see! A face filled with pain and anguish, begging fearfully for help, a face quivering with anger! Go, on! Get angry! Suffer! Be sad! That would truly be the ultimate offering to me and my great god!

Last edited by Zio; May 8, 2006 at 11:22 PM.
The_Griffin
Nostalgia and Crossovers


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Old May 9, 2006, 01:49 AM Local time: May 8, 2006, 11:49 PM #329 of 1941
Originally Posted by Masanda
You've got a windfury totem... shut up.

I'd kill for alliance to get that.
And I'd kill for our totems to:

a) buff the entire raid,
b) move with the shaman,
c) last a half hour longer than they do while costing less,
d) provide class-specific buffs instead of "okay, here's a Tranquil Air Totem, MT and healbot."

One totem (which also faces the problems inherent in every totem: only buffs group, costs ass-tons of mana, lasts all of 2 minutes, and is stationary, rendering it useless in fights where you move around a lot) does not fix the entire system. =\

Jam it back in, in the dark.
Six Machine
Let's have activities!


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Old May 9, 2006, 09:38 AM Local time: May 9, 2006, 07:38 AM #330 of 1941
Paladin buffs > Shaman totems. Fights like the Twin Emps or C'Thun are fun examples of how poorly thought out totems were.

There's nowhere I can't reach.
immp
Hortus Ortus Vinco


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Old May 9, 2006, 12:13 PM #331 of 1941
Anyone know where to download this video ---> http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5088/4116772yv.jpg
with the new ally race?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 9, 2006, 12:23 PM #332 of 1941
HRM... not Draenei? or is that... what the fuck is that?!!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

immp
Hortus Ortus Vinco


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Old May 9, 2006, 12:31 PM #333 of 1941
its the eradar ...same race as archemond or whatever O_o...as big as taurens! probably cant be rogues

I was speaking idiomatically.
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 9, 2006, 12:52 PM #334 of 1941
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8278/4116784fb.jpg

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

immp
Hortus Ortus Vinco


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Old May 9, 2006, 12:56 PM #335 of 1941
Ya I kinda want that video.

Someone kinda had a theory explaining why a demon race would be part of the alliance.

"Blizzard's April Fools joke wasnt a total joke.

I've seen the grabs of the E3 video, and the starting area clearly looks like Mt. Hyjal.
My theory: After the wisps all owned Archimonde, they absorbed part of his power/energy/form/whatever. This overwhelming power transformed the wisps, giving them mortal form again in the shape of an Eredar. However, since they have the souls of elves, they arent evil and are accepted into the Alliance on this fact.
This idea fits right in with the Blizzcon statement where Metzen said "At first you will go "HUH?" then go "Oh, that makes sense". "

How ya doing, buddy?
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 9, 2006, 01:06 PM #336 of 1941
I like how people are saying it's Draenei like it's fact. All because of that article in that one gaming magazine. It looks more like Eradar/The Broken than Draenei, but everyone is like "OMG WE DUN NO WUT UNCORRUPTED DRAENEI LUK LIK KEKEKEKEKE~"

http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Drakonid.jpg ??

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?


Last edited by dagget; May 9, 2006 at 01:19 PM.
immp
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Old May 9, 2006, 01:26 PM #337 of 1941
They said they were giving the allies a cool race. Draenei -> not cool. Eredar -> very cool.
Eredar warrior ftw!

Jam it back in, in the dark.
Kaelin
Sworn Protector


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Old May 9, 2006, 02:26 PM #338 of 1941
Originally Posted by The_Griffin
Only problem is, that unless we're willing to spend 50 gold and respec every time we go on a raid, we won't be able to use the spiffy new PVP abilities because we're going to be pigeonholed into Restoration, which is STILL FUCKING GIMP IN SOLO AND PVP.
Welcome to a situation similar to a Holy Priest. While Holy Priest's have an easier time soloing since 1.10, it still isn't very fun, or mana efficient. I suggest you roll an alt specifically for your soloing or pvp purposes and keep your shaman for pve. It's what I've done, and it's a lot more enjoyable than trying to have one character be everything for the different playstyles in the game.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thank you Guest for the kickass signature!
Jessykins
Burnt out on dealing with mortals


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Old May 9, 2006, 02:48 PM Local time: May 9, 2006, 12:48 PM #339 of 1941
Originally Posted by dagget
Boss in BWL as well as the last boss of the tier 0.5 armor quests.

Also I have no idea what you are complaining about as a holy priest. I have been coming up against holy/discipline priests in pvp and being hit for 1k+ crits on smite and Soulfire or whatever it's called.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Last edited by Jessykins; May 9, 2006 at 02:58 PM.
dagget
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Old May 9, 2006, 02:56 PM #340 of 1941
Boss in BWL as well as the last boss of the tier 0.5 armor quests.
kk I just saw some pictures and shit, so I dunno.


Some Tier 3 sets:

http://i3.tinypic.com/xm76m0.jpg (Priest--->Drood--->Warrior)

Warlock: http://img359.imageshack.us/my.php?i...aker0177ms.jpg

Rogue: http://img359.imageshack.us/my.php?i...aker0169vp.jpg

Mage: http://209.221.152.78/gallery/displa...album=25&pos=2


Rogue looks AWESOME. Hell it may even inspire me to think about joining a damn high end DKP guild to get.

that's all for now.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?


Last edited by dagget; May 9, 2006 at 03:45 PM.
Six Machine
Let's have activities!


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Old May 9, 2006, 03:56 PM Local time: May 9, 2006, 01:56 PM #341 of 1941
The Alliance race looks like it could either be non-mutated Draenei or Eradar. If those are indeed Eradar they would have to be explained exactly like the random guy guessed. That race is very evil and several stories tall. The supposed Alliance race in those pictures fits neither of those.

I was speaking idiomatically.
immp
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Old May 9, 2006, 04:51 PM #342 of 1941
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 9, 2006, 04:57 PM #343 of 1941
Yeah I saw those. Looks like they'll be able to be paladins or something, according to what people who've commented on that second picture have said.

Which means Blood Elves may be shaman. (IF ANY OF THIS IS TRUE)

ORPHAN WEEK IS BACK!

Rewards for completing it:

Choice of:

A pig pet. (Named Mr. Wiggles)
a turtle pet (named Speedy)
A rat pet (named Mr. Whiskers)
a bag containing 5g. Description reads: For those who like telling children there's no such thing as Great Father Winter"

edit: legendary thread in which I've tributed to: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...&T=8221933&P=1 add more! It's all funny cause every single thing is true. :P

FELIPE NO


Last edited by dagget; May 9, 2006 at 08:57 PM.
Spike
Good Chocobo


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Old May 9, 2006, 10:48 PM Local time: May 9, 2006, 08:48 PM #344 of 1941
The new Alliance race seem to be wisps in Eredar form. Woot! Eredar is my home server! Read on for details.

Quote:
"As the thunderous steps of Archimonde's army approached the summit of Mount Hyjal, all hope seemed lost. The camps of Jaina Proudmoore and the Warchief Thrall were overrun, and the forces of Archdruid Malfurian Stormrage were fighting for their life.

Then, the moment feared by all those fighting for the fate of Azeroth arrived. The Night Elf army was overrun, and the great Eredar warlock, destroyer of countless worlds, arrogantly marched to the World Tree. With flames surging in his eyes, he grasped the trunk with one vile claw... and the entire summit was shattered in a burst of brilliant, white light.

When the radiance faded, nothing remained of Archimonde but a charred skeleton, resting in the branches of the fatally-damaged Nordrassil. Malfurion, Jaina, and Thrall emerged from hiding; it was all an elaborate trap designed by Malfurion to take advantage of the demon's arrogance. In his lust for the World Tree's power, he did not notice the gathering flock of wisps take their positions around him and detonate themselves in a torrent of nature's fury.

With their commander gone, the remainder of the Burning Legion's army was cast into disarray. Malfurion and his companions escaped from the summit of Mount Hyjal, and the remaining Night Elves silently reflected upon the sacrifices of their Wisp companions.

Yet, the spirits of the Wisps lived on. Floating invisibly throughout Mount Hyjal and nearby Felwood, they began to slowly intertwine with the demons that had taken up residence there. Almost imperceptively their presence began to twist the forms and minds of the local Satyrs and other foul, demonic creatures.

Now, a handful of these creatures have been transformed in mind and body; they have the thoughts of the Night Elf spirits coarsing through their veins, yet their bodies mutated to take the form of the last creature the Wisps had made contact with -- the Eredar warlock, Archimonde.

Ashamed of their foul appearance, these creatures took into hiding beneath the roots of the shattered World Tree, Nordrassil. Despite their attempts to hide themselves from the outside world, they found themselves under constant seige from the demons who came to view them as abominations.

Now, with their very existance threatened, these Eredar -- demon in form, Night Elf in mind -- have made an impassioned plea to join the Alliance."
So I guess the April Fools joke wasn't entirely false.

Most amazing jew boots
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 10, 2006, 10:28 AM #345 of 1941
NYT article confirmed it being Draenei. Of course with E3 haven't started yet (officially, anyway), who knows.

Originally Posted by New York Times
Today, as the video game industry gathers here for E3, the top annual game convention, those players will start getting answers. In the biggest piece of news, Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the game, plans to announce that in the expansion, to be called The Burning Crusade, players will be able to join an otherworldly species called the Draenei.

Much of the storyline in World of Warcraft, which now has more than 6 million paying subscribers worldwide, revolves around the strife between two competing factions, the Alliance and the Horde. Players can join either side of the fantasy conflict; the Alliance includes races like human, dwarves and gnomes, while the Horde includes orcs, trolls and the undead.

Blizzard announced last year that in the expansion it would add a new race called the Blood Elves to the Horde, but the identity of the new Alliance race has been a closely-guarded secret until today. On Web message boards, players have spilled hundreds of thousands of words debating what the new Alliance race would be.

In the Burning Crusade, much of the action will take place on a planet called Draenor. The Draenei are the remnants of a once-thriving culture there that was mostly destroyed by orcs after the orcs were corrupted by the demons of the Burning Legion — the big bad guys in the game, who oppose both the Alliance and the Horde.

In a twist, the Draenei are descended from the same demonic race, the Eredar, that produced some of Warcraft’s most fearsome foes, like the demon Archimonde.

“Lots of players have wanted to play demons, and Draenei are the closest you can get to looking like an Eredar,” Jeff Kaplan, one of the game’s top designers, said in an interview. “They have these cool forehead features, and one of the customization features is switching around these facial features and the tendrils hanging beneath the chin and so on.”

In addition to being able to test-play the Draenei, attendees at the convention this week, formally known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, will get their first peek at the Nether Drakes, which are among several flying beasts that players will be able to mount in Burning Crusade.

Attendees will also be able to try out Naxxramas, the next big dungeon in the game, which is expected to be added free next month.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/te...in&oref=slogin

Jam it back in, in the dark.


Last edited by dagget; May 10, 2006 at 10:39 AM.
Spike
Good Chocobo


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Old May 10, 2006, 11:17 AM Local time: May 10, 2006, 09:17 AM #346 of 1941
Ah woops. Sorry for the misinformation.

There's nowhere I can't reach.
dagget
Spoot


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Old May 10, 2006, 01:09 PM #347 of 1941
Jeff Kaplan Interview

Quote:
Seth Schiesel, video-game reporter for The Times, spoke recently with Jeff Kaplan, a lead designer at Blizzard Entertainment for World of Warcraft, about the company’s plans for an expansion of the game, to be called The Burning Crusade. Fans of the game will eat up the details he offers, but others may find the conversation baffling. Sorry, we aren't providing a glossary.

Q. Why were the Draenei the right choice for the Alliance expansion race?

A. It was the right choice for a number of reasons; it wasn’t just one factor. One of the main reasons is that the expansion mostly takes place in the Outlands. The Outlands were formerly the land of Draenor, the orcs’ homeworld. It was this nice peaceful planet at one time and then it was corrupted. In the story of the Draenei they were a very pure and good race aligned with The Light, sort of this holy representation.

Q. What classes will be available to the Draenei?

A. Warrior, Priest, Paladin, Mage and Hunter. We might change that, however, maybe add or remove a class.

Q. Tell us about the physical appearance of the Draenei.

A. Well, the Draenei share a heritage with one of the major enemies in Warcraft, Archimonde. They are both descended from the Eredar. Lots of players have wanted to play demons, and Draenei are the closest you can get to looking like an Eredar. They have these cool forehead features, and one of the customization features is switching around these facial features and the tendrils hanging beneath the chin and so on.

Q. A lot of players speculated that you would create an “ugly” race for the Alliance to balance out the “beautiful” Blood Elves for the Horde in order to help balance out the overall faction balance in the game. Is that so?

A. I’ve heard that a lot, that we would make an ugly Alliance race to make more people play Horde. But we can’t tank a race. We can’t say, “Let’s make it ugly so people won’t play it.” We want to make everything in this game as cool as possible. Our goal is to make something that people want to spend hours and hours playing.

But the artists’ take on the Draenei was very interesting. If you look at the silhouettes of the night elves, dwarves, humans and gnomes, they really wanted to create an interesting profile of the Draenei so that in a group shot you would have this big beefy guy on their side, which they didn’t have before. The Horde obviously had that with the Tauren, and the Alliance knew the fear of having this big Tauren running up to them with the big head and the big feet and so on, and we wanted to give that sense of intimidation to the other side.

Q. What is the core game mechanic that you most wanted to change or add in the expansion?

A. The flying mounts are a great example of something we wanted to add. The first time we watched someone get on a gryphon for a taxi ride, we had people saying “That’s so cool” and just watching it. And then two minutes later the comment was, “Man, we gotta make it so you can fly wherever you want.” And the problem was that the way the world was built, the old Azeroth and Kalimdor continents, in terms of the technical limitations it would totally break the world to be able to have flyable mounts in terms of how the art is constructed.

Q. What do you mean? Can you give an example?

A. Stormwind City is the best and easiest example. So Stormwind looks beautiful, but there are a lot of optical tricks and illusions about the city, like some of the spires are fake; they seem to be sitting there but they are actually off in the distance standing in null space. And the way the city is portaled, which is what they do in 3D Studio Max, so that when you’re in the bank it’s not rendering the Cathedral of Light or something, there are a lot of tricks involved. When you fly over Stormwind you think you see the whole city but actually a lot of the city clips out on you. A lot of what you think you see is actually a façade on the hill and there’s no interior space behind it. But then when you land and you’re down on the ground, it feels like you really are running into the keep.

Q. So if you could fly freely over that land it would look disjointed, like when you could get behind Kazzak’s area in the Tainted Scar before that was fixed?

A. Exactly. There are lots of areas that look like that and we don’t want the players to see that. So that’s why we can’t allow flying mounts in the old areas of the world. But now that we’re making new areas, we can build them to support being able to fly anywhere you want. And now it doesn’t just have to be transportation. Now we can make it so you’re opening up new areas and new content based on whether you have the capability to fly.

Q. Now that the game has been out for about 18 months, and given the size of the player base, for how long do you expect the “original” low-level World of Warcraft content to continue to attract new players?

A. I think it will always draw in new players. This game in the early levels is so enjoyable and rewarding and fun. There are players who still have never played WoW before who can drop into Northshire Abbey and really enjoy it. At the same time, we’ve added totally new newbie areas for the Blood Elves and Draenei so veterans can have a new low-level experience. But it’s not like we’re pocketing the Blood Elves and Draenei in their own areas and they’re locked out of the rest of the game. After level 20 or so we very quickly start breadcrumbing them all over the world and integrating them with the rest of the quests. One of the big fears we had was that if we added these cool new areas, the rest of your old world is empty all of a sudden. That’s something we talked about four and five years ago. So we wanted to make sure that the old areas stayed relevant, and we’re filling them in with things like the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.

Q. Why not add any new low-level instances like Deadmines?

A. Stuff like the Deadmines and Wailing Caverns is extremely popular and gets a lot of use. But at the same time people skip over and pass that content extremely fast and they never go back. So there’s not a lot of bang for our buck in those dungeons. And Draenei and Blood Elves will be able to do those dungeons anyway. If we put the time into making another Deadmines, it would mean one less instance at level 60 or something when you need it to level up.

But you raise an important point in that we want low-level players to really feel invested in the world and not feel like they’re off killing rats or something. So for example we have a new area called Deatholme and it’s in sort of the Blood Elf version of Westfall, like the level 10 to 20 zone. And when you get to the final encounter area in Deatholme it’s this staging base where Arthas and his Scourge army got ready to march through Quel’Thalas straight through Silvermoon City to the Sunwell. So you have this crazy Scourge base with banshees and all these big building models and stuff like you see in Eastern Plaguelands, but its only level 19 and 20 elite mobs. So even though it’s not instanced, it will have that epic dungeony feel to it.

And in that sense Deatholme is actually more epic than Stratholme; Deatholme comes after Stratholme in the storyline. The point is that we don’t want to rob low-level characters of having that content. Even at those levels we want to give you some big meaty story content that makes you feel like the hero.

Q. Looking at the high-end raid content, were there significant changes in class roles you wanted to make? [I mentioned that my guild is working on C’Thun, the final boss in the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.]

A. Well, 40-man content in particular is very challenging to tune correctly. The more people there are, the harder it is to tune because there are so many more variables. But we do like changing up class roles. You mentioned the C’Thun encounter and I think the coolest part of that encounter is that there is no concept of main tanking in the first part.

Sure, you need to tank the giant tentacles in phase two, but in the first part it’s bouncing around from a mage to a rogue to a warrior and everyone needs to perform as a team. And then in the second part we change it up again and go back to reinforcing those traditional class roles of tanking and healing. So I mention C’Thun as something I’m proud of in terms of changing up class roles, but we have to remember that people like playing certain classes for a reason. As much as we like mixing things up, we have to remember to come back and reinforce those traditional roles as well.

Q. How has your concept of itemization changed since the game launched?

A. We sure have been learning from our mistakes. I think that itemization is something that’s never perfected. The key is just to learn from your mistakes and avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. We’ve really embraced the psychological impact of the color of the items in the game. What I mean is that we can see according to all our formulas and spreadsheets and so on what an item is really worth and we can see a blue item and a purple item and see that they’re the same power, but there is a huge difference in the reaction from players if it’s purple versus if it’s blue and that’s been a very interesting thing to observe psychologically.

Also we’ve learned a lot about resist gear. It was a huge mistake to put nature resist gear on bosses that required nature resist to kill and that was a straight-up flub on our part. So we’ve learned things like that. We’ve also gotten a bit more creative in our itemization. Like with the Tier 3 armor sets, they do have eight-piece set bonuses, but there are actually nine pieces in each set. [The ninth piece is a ring.] So now you can break up your set a bit and still get the eight-piece bonus.

Q. So for the Tier 3 sets, is Naxxramas a token system or are there straight-up drops?

A. It is a token system but a refined token system. In Ahn’Qiraj and Zul’Gurub we realized we made a bad mistake with itemization. Token systems can be good and reputation systems can be very useful, but combining token systems with reputation requirements is not necessarily a good design decision, or at least it wasn’t with ZG and AQ. For example, ZG was supposed to be a stepping stone into raiding. So you take a guild that has little experience and they go into ZG and for a new group, it’s going to take them a few tries to down the first boss, Venoxis. And they finally kill Venoxis and what do they get? Probably one blue item and then this token item. But even using that token item might require Honored reputation, and so they feel like they’re not being rewarded.

Instead for that first boss we need to be saying, “Good job! Here’s two good items.” Instead they get something like a purple Hakkari item that only makes blue shoulders, and then only if they have Honored rep. I had that happen to me on one of my characters and I was like, “This is just broken.” So we realize things like that and we’re moving to fix them.

Q. It’s great to hear that you realize the issues like this that really frustrate players. But why can’t you fix them faster?

A. We can only make changes so quickly and we can only make them so responsibly. Even when we change one small thing it can break something way on the other side of the game, so we have to be careful. And then you add the fact that we’re in China, Taiwan, Europe, Korea, and we have to patch all those regions in the same week, it gets pretty complex. People would like us to just instantly fix stuff, but we’re not always able to do that.

Q. Speaking of patching things simultaneously, there was a big controversy a couple weeks ago when you hotfixed C’Thun. With the time change and so on, European realms had like a half-day before their instances reset after the hotfix while North American guilds mostly had to clear AQ all over again to take advantage of the change. As a result, Europe downed C’Thun before the top U.S. guilds and a lot of people thought you did it on purpose.

A. That’s one of the great conspiracy theories of all time. I’m fascinated by that. I happened to be on vacation the week before, when there was all this drama on the forums about C’Thun and Ouro. We just happened to put the hotfix in the pipeline on Monday morning and it just happened to go live Monday night. I wasn’t even thinking about the instance reset. We didn’t even put two and two together until afterwards. So no, it wasn’t on purpose to hurt the North American guilds.

Q. Describe the different play styles that are supposed to be represented by the Paladin and Shaman and how they are supposed to balance each other out.

A. I don’t think that paladins and shamans are supposed to explicitly balance each other out. They are supposed to be different, and frankly at some perverse level I think it’s good that there’s this animosity. It adds to the immersiveness because the Horde are supposed to have a special hatred for paladins and the Alliance is supposed to really hate shamans. The paladin was always supposed to be this holy warrior in plate armor, very much a support class, though one that could tank in a pinch, and they most certainly can. The shaman is a more offensive caster who wears chain armor, centered around his totems. But when I play Horde I hate paladins. It’s like I could never kill them and it seems so futile.

Q. So is that you talking on the Nefarian class calls?

A. No that’s not me. I think that might actually be Chris Metzen [Blizzard’s vice president for creative development].

Q. What can you say about new Player vs. Player content?

A. We don’t have a lot of details to talk about right now, but the really important thing is that there are major PvP changes coming. We recognize that there are major problems with the honor system currently. In particular we’re not content with it being so time-focused. But there will be significant changes coming, and there will be world objectives. Now that we’re building new zones from scratch, with the Burning Crusade zones we can make specific locations in our zones reserved for PvP, and maybe taking over certain objectives will give one side or another a persistent bonus like access to an additional graveyard.

Q. Can you give an example?

A. Well we’re not going to do this in particular, but imagine if that tower between Tarren Mill and Southshore was a PvP objective of some sort, all the time. And the key is to do that in a lot of places and not just have one place where everyone shows up all the time and crashes the server.

Q. Can you walk me through some of the high-level instances in Burning Crusade? We already know about Karazhan and Hellfire Citadel, and I guess the final dungeon where Illidan hangs out is the Black Temple, yes?

A. Right, and then there’s Tempest Keep, which is sort of right before the Black Temple, and that’s where you’ll find Kael’Thas Sunstrider. Tempest Keep is one main building and three smaller satellite buildings floating off it. That’s all off the tip of an area called Netherstorm.

And then there’s Coilfang Reservoir, which is a slightly lower level instance, and that houses Lady Vashj. Coilfang Reservoir is in an area called Zangar Marsh and you’ll obviously find a lot of naga in there. It’s not a totally underwater instance, but parts of it are sort of underwater, kind of like the Sunken Temple. That has a raid part in addition to five-man parts to it. In that sense Coilfang is a bit like Hellfire Citadel, where you have two 5-man wings that are what I call level-up content: a level 58 to 60 wing and a level 60 to 62 wing. Then you have a level 70 five-man wing and then Magtheridon’s Lair, which is a quick 40-man raid like Onyxia.

Q. Overall, what percentage of level 60 players do you think have killed Ragnaros?

A. I don’t have firm statistics, but my gut feeling is around 25 percent.

Q. And what about Nefarian?

A. From the gut, I’d say maybe 15 percent.

Q. Shifting from Burning Crusade to the next big content patch, can you describe the progression you have in mind from Ahn’Qiraj to Naxxramas?

A. Well with Naxxramas we’re tuning it really to be the hardest raid dungeon out there. The number of people who have killed Ragnaros and so on is just going to keep getting larger and larger, so we really want Naxxramas to be at the top end and make it extremely challenging. With AQ we had a different design approach. With AQ we wanted the beginning to be approachable for Molten Core guilds but then we wanted a brick wall in Huhuran and the Twin Emperors where those guilds would realize they would have to leave and come back when they were a bit more experienced. With Naxxramas the shift in difficulty from the very first encounter to the very last encounter is much narrower. But the easiest encounter in Naxxramas should be around Twin Emperors level.

Q. And what about the itemization in Naxxramas? Will we have to farm the earlier parts over and over again in order be able to get through the later parts?

A. Well the items in Naxxramas are pretty amazing. They are as good as they get in World of Warcraft. If you look at the jump in quality over existing gear it is pretty shocking. So I wouldn’t say that we want people to have to farm over and over again. By the time they figure out how to beat a given encounter, they should be geared enough. And on resist gear we’ve learned our lesson. There is purple frost resist gear coming your way.

Q. And will we hear more about Ashbringer soon?

A. You are definitely going to hear more about Ashbringer in patch 1.11. The story continues, though I can’t claim to say that it ends. It’s a good continuation though.

Q. What about legendary caster items?

A. A caster legendary is in the game and ready to go for patch 1.11.

Q. In terms of the progression from Naxxramas into the Burning Crusade later this year, do you want Kel’Thuzad [the final boss in Naxxramas] to still be alive by the time the expansion comes out?

A. Definitely not. If he’s not dead in four or six months or whatever, then something is wrong and we need to take a look at the encounter. Conversely, he could die the day we patch it in. You hope that doesn’t happen, but you never know.

Q. Are we going to need to kill Kel’Thuzad in order to open the Dark Portal?

A. No. It wouldn’t be fair to impose pre-Burning Crusade requirements in order to open Burning Crusade content. When the expansion goes live, there are a lot of people who don’t want to raid and never want to raid and we can’t have them depending on raiders in order to open the Dark Portal.

Q. So does that mean the Dark Portal will open automatically by itself?

A. We haven’t decided. We have a few ideas and we are vehemently debating that with each other currently.

Q. In terms of how Burning Crusade players will be able to handle older content, how many level 70 characters, for example, do you think it will take to kill Ragnaros?

A. I’m not sure because we’re actually about to start testing on that, but I would guess 10 to 15.

Q. To wrap up, give us the big thought on what you’re trying to achieve with the Burning Crusade.

A. My biggest hope is that for fans of World of Warcraft, the Burning Crusade will be the only game that’s better than World of Warcraft. Our biggest goal with it is to ensure that there is a lot of content that caters to everyone’s play style. We have a lot of people with a lot of different ways of playing the game, and we want everyone to feel like they’re getting what they need.


This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The_Griffin
Nostalgia and Crossovers


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Old May 10, 2006, 02:16 PM Local time: May 10, 2006, 12:16 PM #348 of 1941
Holy Shit.

Easiest encounters in Naxx about the difficulty of Twin Emps?

OI.

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dagget
Spoot


Member 72

Level 36.40

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Old May 10, 2006, 10:10 PM #349 of 1941
http://www.malicesb.net/wapnew/tier-3.php

tier 3 armor sets.

Dreadnaught Stats:

Dreadnaught Battlegear: 0/9 (warrior)
Dreadnaught Bracer
Dreadnaught Breastplate
Dreadnaught Gauntlets
Dreadnaught Waistguard
Dreadnaught Helmet
Dreadnaught Legplates
Dreadnaught Pauldrons
Dreadnaught Sabatons
Ring of the Dreadnaught

(2) Set: increases the damage done by your Revenge ability by 75.
(4) Set: Improves your chance to hit with taunt and challenging shout by 5%
(6) Set: Improves your chance to hit with Sunder Armor, Heroic Strike, Revenge and Shield Slam by 5%
(8) Set: When your health drops below 20%, for the next 5 seconds healing spells cast on you help you to Cheat Death, increasing healing done by up to 160.


The Earthshatter: Shaman
Earthshatter Boots
Earthshatter Girdle
Earthshatter Handguards
Earthshatter Headpiece
Earthshatter Legguards
Earthshatter Spaulders
Earthshatter Tunic
Earthshatter Wristguards
Ring of the Earthshatterer

(2) Set: Reduces mana cost of your totem spells by 12%
(4) Set: Increases the mana gained by your mana spring totems by 25%
(6) Tiyr healing wave spells have a chance to imbue your target with Totemic Power
(8) Set: Your lightning shield spell also grants you 15 mana/5 secs while active
Totemic Power:
Healers: +20 Mana per 5 sec.
Mages & Warlocks: +45~ Spell Damage
Warriors: +400 Armor
Rogues: +60~ Attack Power.

Plagueheart Raiment (Warlock)
Plagueheart Belt
Plagueheart Bindings
Plagueheart Circlet
Plagueheart Gloves
Plagueheart Leggings
Plagueheart Robe
Plagueheart Sandals
Plagueheart Shoulderpads
Plagueheart Ring

(2) Set: Reduces Cooldown and delay on your Curse of Doom by 10 Seconds
(4) Set: Your Shadow Bolts now have a chance to gain Vampirism against targets afflicted by Corruption, healing you for 270-330
(6) Set: Your spell critical hits generate 50% less threat
(8) Reduces Health cost of your Life Tap by 12%

Bonescythe Armor (Rogue)
Bonescythe Bracers
Bonescythe Breastplate
Bonescythe Gauntlets
Bonescythe Helmet
Bonescythe Legplates
Bonescythe Pauldrons
Bonescythe Sabatons
Bonescythe Waistguard
Bonescythe Ring

(2) Set: your normal Melee swings have a chance to invigorate you, healing you for 90-110
(4) set: Your backstab, Sinister Strike and hemmorage critical hits cause you to regain 5 energy
(6) Set: reduces the threat from your Backstab, Sinister Strike, Hemmorage and Eviscerate abilities
(8) set: Your Eviscerate has a chance per combo point to reveal a flaw in your opponents armor, granting a 100% critical hit chance for your next Backstab, Sinister Strike or hemmorage


Vesitments of Faith (Priest)
Belt of Faith
Bindings of Faith
Circlet of Faith
Gloves of Faith
Leggings of Faith
Robe of Faith
Sandals of Faith
Shoulders of Faith
Ring of Faith

(2) Set: Reduces the mana cost of your Renew spell by 12%
(4) Set: On Greater Heal Criticals, your target will gain Armor of Faith, absorbing up to 500 damage
(6) Set: Reduces the threat from your healing spells.
(8) Set: Each spell you cast can trigger an Eiphany, increasing your mana regeneration by 24 for up to 30 sec.

Frostfire Regalia (Mage)
Frostfire Belt
Frostfire Bindings
Frostfire Circlet
Frostfire Gloves
Frostfire Leggings
Frostfire Robe
Frostfire Sandals
Frostfire Shoulderpads
Frostfire Ring

(2) Set: Reduces Cooldown on your Evocation by 1 minute
(4) Set: gives your Mage Armor a chance when struck by a harmful spell to increase resistance against that school of magic by 35 for 30 seconds.
(6) Set: Your Damage spells have a chance to cause your target up to 200 increased damage from subsequent spells
(8) Set: Your damage spells have a chance to displace you, causing the next spell cast to generate no threat.


Redemption Armor (Paladin)
Redemption boots
Redemption Girdle
Redemption Handguards
Redemption Wristguards
Redemption Headpiece
Redemption Legguards
Redemption Spaulders
Redemption Tunic
Ring of Redemption

(2) Set: Increases the amount healed by your Judgement of Light by 20
(4) Set: Reduces cooldown on your Lay on Hands by 12 min.
(6) Set: Your Flash of Light and Holy Light spells have a chance to imbue your target with Holy Power
(8) Set: Your Cleanse spell also heals the target for 100.


Cryptwalker (Hunter)

No image is shown but only the 8 equipped set

(8) Set: Whenever your pet dies (required level 60, 2 minute cooldown) you gain a fear immunity for 15 seconds and a +20% range haste.

Dreamwalker Raiment (Druid)
Dreamwalker Boots
Dreamwalker Girdle
Dreamwalker Handguards
Dreamwalker Headpiece
Dreamwalker Legguards
Dreamwalker Spaulders
Dreamwalker Tunic
Dreamwalker Wristguards
Ring of the Dreamwalker

(2) Set: Your Rejuvenation ticks have a chance to restore 60 mana, 8 energy or 2 rage to your target
(4) Set: Reduces the mana cost of your Healing Touch, Regrowth, Rejuvination and Tranquility spells by 3%
(6) Set: Your initial cast and Regrowth ticks will increase the maximum health of your target by up to 50, stacking up to 7 times
(8) Set: On Healing Touch critical hits, you regain 30% of the mana cost of the spell

I was speaking idiomatically.


Last edited by dagget; May 10, 2006 at 11:39 PM.
Xellos
Loyal Einherjar


Member 2068

Level 20.25

Mar 2006


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Old May 11, 2006, 05:58 PM #350 of 1941
Need you guys for opinions.

Thinking of going fury in the near future, the gear I'll be going for probably you can see in my profile under fury wish list. http://ctprofiles.net/618324

You think this is any good? Not quite sure yet on main hand, might go for nef axe or stick with deathbringer, but the others i'm pretty much sure about.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?


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