Post Blizzcon cooldown

Oh come on did you really think I was going to write and article before Blizzcon hit use full in the face with awesomeness. No way.

So lets cover it all in beautiful chronological order. This day last week we were all shocked awh’d and basically scared out of our little pink boxers when the Cataclysm full cinematic was released. Everyone has seen this at this stage. It’s freaking  awesome and possibly the best trailer I have seen this year even beating The legend of the Guardians trailer. Got to love the birds people. What the trailer has brought with it is a villain which up until now we knew was mad and bad and really pissed off but in the trailer we now know he wants us dead and not just a nice dead but a dead as you can possibly be dead with burning as well. The final shot of Deathwing on the gates of Stormwind. Well come on its wow for a reason people. I cannot wait for this game and especially this villain after just completing all 3 War of the Ancients books and am geeking out more than ever. Collectors Edition Cataclysm you shall be mine.

Next up we can see that Cataclysm is getting polished and ready to ship as there is a lot of testing going on for the raid encounters to make them great. there are a good few videos out there of these encounters but the ones i found most enjoyable were here and here. The encounters look amazing and as a warrior tank I say bring it on big guys see what a human can really do.

Then as with every year there was a silence. Nothing happening nothing being talked about until that is Blizzcon happened just 2 days ago. Yes the nearly annual event kicked off with Chris the man Metzen talking about what it is to be Geek and what it means to him and Blizzard to have us as fans. This was a major PR prop by Blizzard to basically say that the company is ours. We control if they make money and it want to make games and expansions which are the best possible and sometimes that feels like too long a time. But quick is not always best and I for one am happy to have this franchise still in the hands of the people it belongs truly too. THE FANS.

Now speaking of this Mike Morhime announced that there will be a second charity pet going in game this year for Child’s Play which will be a Moonkin Hatchling. Cannot wait to see what this looks like and again it is for a good cause so i probably will pay out for it this one time. The only other big announcement was the last Diablo 3 class the demon hunter and area battles. Diablo is looking badass.

The big info came as usual from the quests and lore panel with Chris Metzen and the big one seems to be that Thrall shall be the new aspect of Earth taking over from Deathwing. This is huge as what it basically means is Thrall is the main character along with Deathwing this expansion. Expect  a lot of Horde times and expect it to be epic story as always.  We also got the name of the new old god this expansion which is Nezoth/Ni’zoth.  Kalecgos will be the new blue aspect. Thrall and Jaina will never get green fever for each other.

We found out from the raids and dungeons panel that a lot of old world dungeons are getting a face lift and nip tuck also. with whole sections of some dungeons getting the chop. This is welcome news for new level players as the long Ulduam runs are going bye-bye thank old gods. Plus we’re getting 2D maps for each dungeon was the first step. Detailed boss info will be added to the map, including loot, lore, and abilities! 3D Portrait of the bosses will be available.

but by far the biggest news came from the art panel weirdly enough where we finally got to see the Worgen in-game cut scene which you can see below and also we got the final version of the World of Warcraft Cataclysm login screen and OH MY GOD W.O.W is truly wow and will leave you with that scene.

Enjoy

What patches means to you.

hey guys and welcome back.

So lots to talk about this week including some Blizzcon related stuff which has everyone in a buzz so lets just drive straight into those murky waters of the well of eternity and see what stuff we can pull up.

So as everyone knows by now patch 4.0 dropped this week with a wealth of changes to talk about. First off we have the new water mechanics which personally i think have been long long overdue. The reflection system is inch perfect and for such a minor aesthetic change it does add that sweet little kiss back into the game especially in Northrend or the harbour in Stormwind.

We also had some class changes. Well i say some there was a major upheaval in classes in patch 4.0. not to go into too much detail as all the information can be found at mmo champion anyways but to pick out a couple that i have noticed so far being the warrior and warlock changes. Firstly warlock now don’t need to use bag spaces to carry soul shards. Yahoo we all say and again it’s a change that took too long coming. There is also no cost now for summoning voidwalkers or demons of the like as you now have a talent called Master Summoner which if maxed out costs no mana to summon them. Blizz FTW on the warlocks so far. Of course my undead warlock is only level 25 at the moment so will have to wait a long time to see what they like at max level and hoping they are just as cool.

Warriors also have some changes in the way of rage normalization and so far i have not played much around with my max level warrior tank as my internet has decided to give me extremely high latency in instances which i am looking into but when i get the change to i will write-up a nice post on how this has effected warriors for all you guys.

We have seen parts of cataclysm starting to appear in the UI as well this patch with new look interfaces for not just professions but also talents and your spell book. Must say i really like these changes as it makes it much easier for you to find what you want and also gives you more options in the professions section along with a button to link to a specific chat section E.G if you wanted to link your blacksmithing Eternal Belt Buckle.

We also all knew that the stats changes were coming this patch along with the new mastery system and so we can say a big good-bye to MP5, defense, spell ranks (auto updated per level now) and weapon skill. Again this is another welcome change to a system that was desperately to complicated and didn’t explain clearly enough why you needed these stats.

See we just half way now. told ya there was lots to talk about 🙂

The new patch has also introduced the new flexible raid lock out system. A more concise post on this can be found here by Blizzard on the forums but in essence starting with ICC and Ruby Sanctum you can not complete for example Lord marrowgar on 25 man normal and then go and do up to as far as you want on 10 man content. For sake of argument we will say to Sindragosa and then hit the Lich King on 25 if you so wish. Any explanation i will give on this will not explain this perfectly but in essence it is a cool change and one many many players will find extremely helpful in see all the content in the game that they would have otherwise missed out on due to being in a bad pug or just not having the time to raid or missing a scheduled raid night.

Introduced into the game for the first time also in the reforging vendors. Which these do is they allow you to swap 40% of any of the secondary stats of an item (mostly ratings) for another secondary stat. Reforging is done by NPCs in Capital Cities, ask a guard if you want to know where they are! This is a nice feature and one i can see Blizzard opening up possibly even further for item customization. How about changing the colors on items or even changing the item itself to look like previous tier gear if you had a favorite. The possibilities for this are amazing and something we all hope Blizzard expands on in game soon.

We also have the emblems going the way of the doo doo this patch and the intro of justice points. basically your Justice Points total will be equal to (Emblems of Triumph + Emblems of Frost ) * 2.75.  There was a great post on the forums explaining this new system and how it works for raids and dungeons going forward and I for one am so happy that they have gotten rid of the emblem system and gone just a much more simple and easy to understand points system. It is not a huge revamp but is one that will definitely be of benefit to the game moving forward in the years to come. Read the post on justice points here.

and finally on patch 4.0 we have got glyphs. Glyphs will now be separated into three different tiers: minor, major, and prime.  This system rocks rocks. Now glyphs are permanent spells and once you buy them from the auction house or scribe then they are available to you to mix and match when ever you so desire. Again another great post on this new system in the forums here. Being a warrior tank i know how much it could cost me on buying glyphs for situational encounters. especially in ICC but this new system has made that task so much easier and one i know tanks are going to love .

Now that all the patch 4.0 news is covered lets look at some more news. Blizzcon baby is a week away and this week we found out the headline act. Yes none other than the writers of the greatest song in the world and it’s tribute song as they forgot the greatest song in the worlds lyrics. The one and only Tenacious D. Yes you heard Jack Black (Year One, Kung Foo Panda etc ) and Kyle Gass (the other guy from Tenacious D and the pick of Destiny) are coming to rock Blizzcon like Ozzy did before them. What a perfect choice for a band for such a great event. Seriously who else could top these guys except maybe a 2 hour (TBFKA level 80 Tauren Cheiftans). With the Direct TV package this is going to be an awesome event and thank god i still have holidays to take in work as they are now booked for this amazing event.

This sunday the first cataclysm TV spot shall be going live in America during the Dallas Cowboys versus Minnesota Vikings NFL game on Fox. Game starts at 4:15 PM EDT, 1:15 PM PDT . I am sure within a few minutes of the TV spot going live it will be all over Youtube so all you EU and Ozzie gamers keep and eye out and lets see what a peak at the cataclysm cinematic is going to look like. We know it will be epic but i want it now as Veruca Salt would say.

Well that’s it from me for this week. Hope you enjoyed this especially long post today. Chat next week.

Prepare to get Ruby

Hey guys

Well today the patch notes for 3.3.5 went live on the forums. This patch will see the intro of the Ruby Sanctuum to the live realms which will be the new 10 and 25 man instance in the Wrymrest Temple in Dragonblight. This time the Black dragonflight is taking on the blue to help aid their master Deathwings entrance to the world.

Also in addition to the new instance we have the new chat features getting tested. Whispering someone will now appear as a seperate chat window if selected and can be tabbed also much like windows live messenger. Must say great idea Blizz as this means you will never miss out on your private messages.

The new Battle.net Real ID system is also getting tested with it implementation looking imminent. You will be able to add or decline yor Battle.net friends and also broadcast messages to your friends from inside Warcraft. This feature is what was promised with cross game chat at Blizzcon and personnally I cannot wait to be able to chat to the guys in different games and get our groups going.

Full notes below:

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

• The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, is now available for testing! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.
• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

User Interface

• Chat Frame
  • Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose the Pop Out Chat option. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
    
    
    • Using the Pop Out Chat option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
    • Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
  • Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
  • Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
  • The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
• Friends List
  
  
  • A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
  • In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
  • A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
  • Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
  • A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster’s Real ID information in each friend’s list.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Wanna be a warrior tank?

Hey guys

Rav here again. Yes I did steal the image from wow.com also 🙂 hope they don’t mind

So you wanna be a warrior tank then get your butt over to Wow.com and check out possibly the best break down you will find on the net today for tanking. This guide gives you a lot of the details that you will need to know and aspire to become an efficient warrior tank at end game or Hc’s or and raids at the moment.

The guide looks at not just stats but talents and rotation and touches on gems. Must say I learned some things from ready this so you all should pop over and check it out. BTW Rossi if you’re reading this I am stealing that talent spec lol.

Have fun guys and also prepare for a new podcast coming very soon with some surprises.

Defense and why it must go.

Today seems like Ghostcrawler day here on Warriors Rage and we don’t just get 1 post but 2 about our wonderful class. This time Ghostcrawler fixes his gaze with impending destruction on Defense for tanks. He gives us an insight as to why this must go and for the most part I agree with him.

On the official forums a posters asks : “If tanks get to do away with defense juggling, cant DPS get a break on this too? Maybe not a complete shut out but maybe every class gets a talent to make it easier so we can stack what we need and not what we have to have”

Quite an interesting response after the BREAK

Warrior Tips : Dungeon Finder

Well Patch 3.3 has been here for a week now and we have all seen major changes in the game since it hit us in the face last Wednesday. But nothing has been more talked about than the new Dungeon Finder system.

What this system has basically done is changed the way we run dungeons and also the way we run them with PUG groups. Now for a warrior this has been either the best thing in the world or a long long waiting list. As a tanking warrior this has been a god send for us as it takes on average 5 seconds for any tank in the game to get into a group. This is simply due to the sheer amount of DPS in the game. For DPS warriors it has seen a bit more of a wait as there are plenty more people queuing as well. Lets have a look at some tips for this new system that both specs should use.

Read article after the Break

The Patch day guide

Ok so Patch 3.3 is upon us on Wednesday night and most of us know what to expect from this major content patch. lets run them down.

Icecrown Citedal opens to battle Arthus

3 new 5 man dungeons

New Looking for Dungeon system

New Emblems of Frost

New gear and much more.

The best coverage I have seen for this patch comes from Wow.com and you can see their guide to patch 3.3 here. Go check it out as it covers all classes and all the new things in the final patch of Wrath of the Lich King.

Enjoy at lets hope we don’t have too much patch problems.

Happy Birthday WoW

Happy Birthday World of Warcraft.

Yes this day 5 years ago(in the US) World of Warcraft was released upon the world and the world went wow. As I have been playing the game for 2 years I cannot comment on the previous 3 years but I have seen original footage of Stormwind and Ironforge on Wow.com and on other sites and you can see just how much the game has changed in the past 5 years.

We have got a lot to look forward to in the next year including Cataclysm and more than likely patch 4.1 also. There are a lot of new changes coming in Patch 3.3 and all in all the game seems to be keeping up the amazing space that it started with all those years ago and attracting more and more players everyday.

Long live War, Long live Warcraft. Grab your sword and fight the Horde.

3 Days Grace

Well after a little time off (and a trip to Dublin) we are back and with an interesting question. Just how much are you looking forward to patch 3.3??

With this being the biggest content patch in a while and us all gearing and ramping up for the 3 new 5 man instances (Forge of Souls, Halls of  Reflection and The Pit of Saron) and of course our (possible) final showdown with the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel I know that I am very excited about it and also all the changes that are happening with the LFG system and much more.

But Do you feel the wait is too long??? With the patch possibly out next week or not even a month away we still don’t know when we will make the King meet his faith.  So the question at hand is what do you think of the new patch and all the changes? Is it something you could wait for or is it just Cataclysm that the developers should be looking at?

Let us know is the comments section below.

Coming Soon – Eddie “Brigwyn” Carrington

Good weekend all.

Well one of the most fun and interesting things about writing a blog is the fact that you get to tell others what you think and actually get feedback and one of the people who has helped in the setting up of this blog is Eddie “Brigwyn” Carrington. Now you may know Brigwyn from the world famous WoW.com and also his own blog with Andy “Daewin” Dino called The Hunting Lodge.

Brigwn is probably remembered as the guy who roles a new Hunter and deletes his old character every time he reaches 80. Yes he is just that nuts but that’s why we like him. This is your chance to ask Brigwyn whatever questions come to mind. We shall be selecting the best 25 and putting them to him in an interview to be posted on the 1st of December. All questions must be clean (well somewhat) and must be in by 25th November 2009.

Please send all questions to The Warriors Rage Email

Happy interigating.