Warcraft Experience

Eyonix from Blizzard shed some concerns in regard to Zul’Gurub enchantments…

While it’s not completely in-line with your dream parody, I do believe that you’ll be happy to hear that in the next patch, the Dire Maul Librams will no longer be a requirement for the Zul’Gurub enchantments. Instead, a new item drop from either Bloodlord Mandokir or Jin’do the Hexxer, along with the class appropriate Voodoo doll will be all that is necessary, making these enchants much more accessible to players.

We do plan to incorporate additional use for the Librams, but the specifics are yet to be determined.

Thanks

Blizzard have released details of their next mini-release. They are also using the public test realms for this release.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.10.2

General

* Guild Recruitment channel functionality has been improved to be turned off for players already in guilds, and turned on for players not in guilds by default.
* Fixed a bug which caused players to drop from combat after destroying a totem.
* Fixed a soft-lock bug that occurred under certain conditions when players were near ships, zeppelins, elevators, and the Deeprun Tram.

Mages

* Arcane Power: This aura will no longer stack with Power Infusion. If you use it, Arcane Power’s aura will replace Power Infusion’s aura.

Paladins

* Holy Shock will now be guaranteed to crit when used offensively while Divine Favor is active.
* Eye for an Eye will now properly produce its damage effect on the attacking caster.

Priests

* Inner Fire: Rank 3 will no longer have charges consumed when Power Word: Shield is active.
* Power Infusion: This aura will no longer stack with Arcane Power. If you attempt to cast it on someone with Arcane Power, the spell will fail.
* Starshards: Ranks 1 and 2 inadvertently received too much bonus from spell damage, while Rank 7 received no bonus from spell damage. Each of those ranks are now fixed to receive the correct bonus.

Rogues

* Fixed a bug which prevented Vanish from working properly under certain conditions.
* Seal Fate will now correctly provide a bonus combat point upon landing a critical strike.

Warlocks

* Improved Shadow Bolt will now proc properly after landing a critical strike with Shadow Bolt.

Warriors

* Rage generated from Unbridled Wrath and Shield Specialization will now display properly in the combat log.

Mac

* Fixed a client crash caused by weather effects when running OS 10.3.9.

World Environment

* Players should no longer become dismounted while riding through certain areas of the Undercity.
* Fixed a number of clipping issues and awkward turns discovered throughout various chained flight paths.
* Certain creatures in Eastern Plaguelands weren’t providing reputation gain with the Argent Dawn. This has been fixed.

Click here for the full article.

You have all seen the small bits of helpful text displayed in-game during a loading screen, called tips. We’re looking for more! We want to see what you think would be helpful for other players to know. It can be how to carry out a specific function, information about a basic feature or option, or other information that can assist new players. This is a great opportunity to contribute something to help everyone! ~ Drysc

Make sure you all contribute some ideas, to help allow some variety when we log in from now on from the loading tips!

Gamasutra reports that Blizzard is currently re-evaluating their Chinese partner, The9.

In an intriguingly cryptic press release, World Of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it “is currently actively exploring and discussing cooperation opportunities and further expansion of its business with local potential partners for mainland China”, implying that it may be evaluating other partners than current Chinese distributor The9.

In fact, Blizzard’s statement also indicated that it has invited The9 to negotiate in a bid to distribute the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and to discuss its release in mainland China, which is currently planned for next year.

Since it seems as if it would not be possible for different companies to manage the original WoW and its expansion, a switch of distributor for both may possibly be on the cards, though Blizzard’s formal statement simply commented that further details on distribution will be “revealed at a later date”.

It’s notable that The9 has come under criticism in recent weeks for “widespread delays of over an hour when logging into the game”, and “complete server outages that disrupted the endgame of a large-scale raid involving nearly 1,000 players”, no doubt partly due to the extreme popularity of the game in China, one of the reasons that the official playerbase for Blizzard’s PC MMO has swelled past 6 million so swiftly.

This seven-minute video by WoW alliance guild “Serenity Now” documents an act of extreme griefing. In the video, members of the guild crash a solemn funeral event in which members of a rival guild were paying respects to the avatar of a guild member that had recently died of a stroke.

Result: many hurt feelings, best summarized in the quote that leads this article.

World of Warcraft, Shadowbane, Everquest, The Sims Online, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, you name it, there’s one word that unites all players of massively multiplayer games: drama.

No matter what the game, players will find a way to create conflicts that transcend the usual (and trite) Orc vs. Human or Mage vs. Warrior conflict that’s been baked into the games by designers.

See the video.

I’ve spent a rousing time taking my 4 year old niece and her parents to an Easter Egg hunt, dinner at my parents house (complete with another Easter Egg hunt) on Saturday and will soon be heading off to my future-in-laws for more good times and food eating.

I hope all you have a pleasant Easter and enjoy those chocolate bunnies!

Eurogamer reports that Blizzard is once again clearing house, and this time they mean business. From the article: “Blizzard has banned more than 5400 World of Warcraft players from the game for good as part of plans to clamp down on gold farming and cheating in general. A further 10,700 accounts have been suspended for ‘participating in activities that violate the game’s Terms of Use,
including using third-party programs to farm gold and items.’”

Now if only we could get Blizzard to toss the hammer at something that is even more annoying - like not being able to login for several days each week as they fix problems they introduced with the weekly maintenance. May I suggest firing your entire maintenance crew and starting fresh?

Blizzard Entertainment has unleashed more information about The Burning Crusade, the upcoming first expansion for the ever popular World of Warcraft. A new bestiary reveals four new types of monsters players will face once they’ve installed the expansion: Ethereals, Fleshbeasts, Forest Trolls, and Gronn.

The Burning Crusade will introduce a whole new world and many new dungeons to the game. A multitude of strange, wondrous and terrifying creatures inhabit these wild, untamed lands. This page contains a few of the many new monsters that make up the vast and varied bestiary of the Burning Crusade. From arcane thieves to savage demigods, from nightmares of the ancient past to magnificent beasts never seen before, they all can be discovered in Outland and the still unexplored lands of Azeroth.

To learn more about the new creatures click on the link below.

Burning Crusade Beasties