Posted on August 31st, 2009 by admin
There’s been quite a burst of blue posts on the official forums post-BlizzCon; some by World Event Designer Kisirani talking about lore and the post-Cataclysm world, some by Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler talking about new game systems coming with 4.0, and some by the Community Managers, providing slightly less meaty morsels of information. It’s not all chaff from the CMs, though — there’s some wheat in there.
Bornakk, for example, stopped by a thread asking about how heirloom items will work post-80 in Cataclysm. He said that there are no plans to extend the experience bonus they give past level 80, though there may eventually be new heirlooms available to help bridge that gap. That’s not surprising, really — if they were extended, heirlooms would essentially be mandatory for the people racing to get to 85 first, and that’s a situation Blizzard would like to avoid.
Interestingly, he also noted that it’s “unlikely” that heirlooms won’t work on Worgen or Goblin characters, which is admittedly a relief, seeing how I just bought a set of them for my Worgen Warrior. Battle Howl, anyone?
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 24th, 2009 by admin
In an interview over at Slashdot, J. Allen Brack, Lead Producer of WoW, spoke about the Battle.net conversion that’s going on and how it will apply to WoW. One of the more important things he said was:
We have optional Battle.net conversion right now, but that will be mandatory at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Many people have done the conversion already, and many speculated and inferred from past Blizzard comments that the conversion would eventually become mandatory. But now it looks like it’s going to be, and that date is in the “not-too-distant future.”
The conversion process is relatively straight forward, and can be started by visiting your account management page. There have been times when Battle.net enabled accounts were not able to get into the game due to authentication issues, but those seem to be diminishing.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on any additional announcements concerning the upcoming mandatory conversion
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 17th, 2009 by admin
Creative Labs posted a teaser flash video on their Sound Blaster site today; though to what they’re announcing or counting down is currently unknown, we can definitely see that it’s WoW-related, given the Horde crest in the center of the screen, and the Lament of the Highborne playing in the background.
Now, normally this wouldn’t be very interesting, but when brightness and contrast are adjusted on the image’s background, two distinct maps appear. The first is what is clearly Azshara on the left side of the image, and the second is the peninsula of Gilneas on the right side.
So why is this interesting? Well, those are the starting zones that the leaked Cataclysm information states are for the new races coming with the expansion.
It seems that the zones are in the spotlight a bit too much for it to be a coincidence. It very well could be an announcement meant to be timed with BlizzCon, or it could just be that the maps typically surround the Maelstrom and thus their positioning makes sense with the swirling Maelstrom graphic in the center.
We’ll see what Creative has to say when the teaser ticks down some more!
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 13th, 2009 by admin
Over here at WoW.com, we’re pretty stoked about the new Onyxia fight, which was why, despite the fact that it came in a somewhat trollish thread, I was pretty happy to see Zarhym drop a few hints about the Onyxia encounter and the drop rate of the new 310% speed Brood of Onyxia mount.
He reveals that they aren’t going back to the 4-instance heroic and normal setup of the Coliseum, instead just having plain old 10 man and 25 man normal modes. In addition, the mount will have an equal chance to drop from both encounters, so you have a chance at it no matter what your preferred raid size.
That said, you probably shouldn’t expect to just waltz in and get your whole raid outfitted in matching black drakes. The mount drops one at a time, and the drop rate is pretty low. Think pre-nerf Baron Rivendare’s Deathcharger mount low. As Zarhym puts it: “One day I will have it, though as soon as I loot it I’ll probably be struck by lightning on a sunny day and attacked by a shark, all while in the presumed comfort of my living quarters.”
That said, don’t get too put out either way. It sounds like Zarhym hasn’t ruled out the possibility of
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 10th, 2009 by admin
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold. This is the most important addon you will ever find in your entire World of Warcraft career: Iron Chef.
4 Haelz has some tips for Resto Druids looking to tackle the Northrend Beasts in the new raid zone.
And for you Hunters, OutDPS has a guide for you, too.
Too Many Annas has posted the first place winner of the A Midsummer Night’s RP writing contest.
Into esports? Then check out the details for MLG’s upcoming World of Warcraft tourney in Dallas.
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 7th, 2009 by admin
Can’t make it to BlizzCon but still want to check out Blizzard’s latest offerings? Blizzard has appeared on the list of sponsors for Penny Arcade’s PAX convention, which takes place later this year on September 4-6, 2009 in Seattle, Washington. PAX is a great time and a ton of fun — I went a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. In addition to a terrific lineup of geeky musicians and demo panels from game developers, they always have a nice open floor full of the latest games to check out and play. And since PAX will be going down after BlizzCon (which takes place in two weeks), if you go, you’ll likely have a chance to check out whatever Blizzard wants to put on display, be that Starcraft II or Diablo 3, or, you know… anything else they might announce.
Plus, tickets to PAX are cheaper and even easier to get than BlizzCon tickets anyway, not to mention that you’ll be seeing way more games and companies than just Blizzard. In fact, why am I going to BlizzCon again? I’d almost rather go to PAX this year. I’d love to see Freezepop!
Oh, right, I can’t miss our legendary meetup (wait until you guys see the giveaways we have
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »
Posted on August 3rd, 2009 by admin
The Sons of the Storm is a kind of artists’ collective connected with Blizzard — they’re responsible for the majority of the concept and game art coming out of Blizzard, from the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series. They count Samwise Didier and Chris Metzen in their ranks, along with many of Blizzard’s most popular artists. And apparently their ranks are growing — on their latest website update, they have posted a new group picture, along with a mysterious “eighth son” that they say they will introduce sometime later, possibly months after BlizzCon. From left on the picture above, you can see Samwise Dider, Chris Metzen, René Koiter, Travis Thammer, Glenn Rane, Peter Lee, Mark Gibbons, and the Eighth Son, who a commenter over at Blizzplanet speculates may be Wei Wang.
Speaking of BlizzCon, the Sons site also says that all of the seven current sons will be signing at the convention, so be sure to bring your TCG cards, Warcraft novels, art books and anything else these guys may have worked on. We’re sure there’ll be a line, but if you’re willing to brave the wait, you might get to meet some of the most creative
Filed under: World of Warcraft | No Comments »