Mar 9th, 2010

Ask a Faction Leader: Master Mathias Shaw

WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the forsaken, and she shed light on several key issues, including undieting, hunter training, building this city, and bouncing idly. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Master Mathias Shaw, leader of Stormwind's SI:7, covert agents of the crown. Our first reader question... Hello Mathias, Can you describe the feeling you got when you found out that you couldn't beat your granny? Verenor, Warlock - Defias Brotherhood Mathias responds: Gahaha, that's what I like to see! Pullin' no punches, right from the get-go. Hard-hittin' questions.Continue reading Ask a Faction Leader: Master Mathias ShawFiled under: , Ask a Faction Leader: Master Mathias Shaw originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 9th, 2010

Around Azeroth: Dragons in the mist

Deadlylupine of <Face Rollers> on Balnazzar snapped this shot of her drake rising through the mist in Terokkar Forest. "I happened to be flying in lovely Terokkar, and my Nether Drake was just so overwhelmed with light, he had to have a celebratory roar," she wrote. Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here. Gallery: Around AzerothFiled under: Around Azeroth: Dragons in the mist originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 9th, 2010

WoW.com’s Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue!

Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic -- Byron the Tauren Rogue! Our bovine hero has managed to make a getaway -- those poor cows are going to miss oggling that strapping young bull...oh well. Stormwind awaits its unexpected plundering! Check out the full version right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page! You can also check out all the previous pages in the gallery below. Gallery: Byron The Tauren RogueFiled under: WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue! originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 9th, 2010

Breakfast Topic: Favorite names

Our very own Gregg Reece is a new father, which got me thinking about names for babies. Some names are just plain awful, like my poor father-in-law named Hubert. Some names are passed down in families, with varying degrees of suitability -- naming my sister after our great-grandfather probably wouldn't have worked if he hadn't been named Hillary. There are names that leave you with pity for the poor kid saddled such bizarre parents that would inflict such names upon their kids: Kal-el Cage, Apple Paltrow. And then there are names which are just plain awesome: Magnus Magnussen, Harold Bluetooth, Rip Torn. The Warcraft universe is full of names, some strange, some familiar. We have the parody names: Vana Grey, Xiggs Fuselighter (above), Linken. There are the homages to literature: Morgan Stern, the putative author of The Princess Bride, and Commander Falstaav, a joke on Shakespeare's Falstaff. There appear to be family names like Anduin. There are the cultural patterns that allow for easy guessing of an NPC's race -- who's the gnome? Bloodhoof or Mechatorque? So what names from the World of Warcraft would you a) be proud to name your own children, or b) refuse to inflict upon an innocent child? Calia or Jaina wouldn't sound too far out of place in the real world, but I can't imagine meeting a Garrosh or Brann. (Especially, God forbid, a Brann Muffin.) Leave your thoughts! Warning: This is not a raffle to name Gregg's baby, as Lyssa Rhiannon has a name.Filed under: Breakfast Topic: Favorite names originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 9th, 2010

Tuesday Morning Post: Beginning of the end edition

Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! I name this week's post not in a negative sense, but in a sense that it does seem like we've officially started winding down Wrath. Specifically, we recently saw the addition of the first edition of the Icecrown Citadel raid buff. It has started at 5%, but will eventually rise to 30%, allowing more and more people to power through the dungeon and see Arthas fall at their feet. It's the end of an era, but I feel the start of a much better one. Of course, that's not to say we're completely out of Wrath yet. We have at least 2 more patches to go, and Patch 3.3.3 PTR news keeps rolling in, as does tons of other news. You'll have the usual maintenance break from WoW this morning, 5 AM to 11 AM pacific, so you have time to get caught up. As usual, here's our list of some of the major stuff from the past 7 days or so:Continue reading Tuesday Morning Post: Beginning of the end editionFiled under: , Tuesday Morning Post: Beginning of the end edition originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 8th, 2010

WoW Weekly Report – “Microtransaction Revolution” at Ten Ton Hammer

Microtransactions & WoW? Oh no! The World of Warcraft Weekly Report is here this week with all of the latest news. This week we also take a deep look into microtransactions in both WoW and online gaming in general.

Mar 8th, 2010

WoW: Loremaster’s Corner #5: A Steampunk Paradise at Ten Ton Hammer

Did you ever stop to realize how much steampunk is in WoW? World of Warcraft has a lot of steampunk themes and we take a look at them this week in our Loremaster's Corner.

Mar 8th, 2010

Patch 3.3.3 background downloader active

The background downloader has gone active tonight with a 77.5 MB partial file for the Patch 3.3.3 patching process. Don't expect the patch to go live tomorrow, of course (if nothing else, scheduled maintenance isn't long enough), but it looks like we may be within a few weeks of some nice new patch goodness, including the rise of DK frost dual wielding, Frozen Orbs, and the abolishment of battleground marks. For a round up of all of the changes, big and small, coming with the patch, be sure to check our Patch 3.3.3 Info page. Patch 3.3.3 brings about small but noteworthy changes to the World of Warcraft. From a faster CoT, to putting those old Frozen Orbs to better use, to changes to the auction house -- there's several things all WoW players need to know. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3.3 will keep you up to date!Filed under: Patch 3.3.3 background downloader active originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 8th, 2010

The Daily Blues

Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler's latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we'll keep you informed. Want fat purps from Ghost? Read on... if you dare. Table of Contents Ghostcrawler Other StarCraft II / Diablo III / Blizzard News Continue reading The Daily BluesFiled under: The Daily Blues originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mar 8th, 2010

Mastery System Preview

Update - The first part of Patch 3.3.3 is now available on the background downloader. As a reminder, the patch will NOT be deployed on live servers this week, this is just the background downloader.Mastery System PreviewQuote from: Eyonix (Source)Last week, we gave you an early look at the changes we’re making to the stat system in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and explained how these changes will ultimately provide players with more interesting gear choices and make stats easier to understand. Today we’d like to go into more detail about a brand-new feature that’s an integral part of this overhaul: the Mastery system, a set of new game mechanics designed to allow players to become better at what makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. With this system, we want to accomplish three things: give players more freedom in how they allocate talent points, simplify some of the “kitchen sinky” talents that try to do too much at once, and add a new stat to high-level gear that makes you better at your chosen role.Here’s how the system works: As you spend points in a given talent tree, you’ll receive three different passive bonuses specific to that tree. The first bonus will increase your damage, healing, or survivability, depending on the intended role of the tree. The second bonus will be related to a stat commonly found on gear desirable to you, such as Haste or Crit. The third bonus will be the most interesting, as it will provide an effect completely unique to that tree -- meaning there will be 30 different bonuses of this nature in the game. This third bonus is the one that will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (level 80 to 85) gear.One of our primary goals with Mastery is to give players more flexibility to choose fun or utility-oriented talents rather than make them feel obligated to pick up “mandatory” but uninteresting talents, such as passive damage or healing. (For examples of the kinds of powerful but boring talents we’re talking about, take a look at the talent tier just above the 51-point talent in many of the existing trees.) In a sense, Mastery makes it so every talent in (just for example) a rogue tree essentially has an invisible additional bullet point that says “???and increases your damage by X%.” This way, if you choose a talent like Elusiveness (which reduces your chance to be detected while stealthed) or Fleet Footed (which affects movement), you won’t feel like you’re giving up damage in exchange for utility.There will still be talents that boost damage, of course, but those talents will also affect the way you play. For example, you can still expect to see talents like Improved Frostbolt, which reduces the cast time of the Frostbolt spell; it increases DPS, but it also affects the mage’s rotation. Piercing Ice, however, is just “6% more damage” and is the kind of talent we’re trying to eliminate by implementing the Mastery system.As we get closer to Cataclysm’s release, we’ll go into more detail about the changes coming for each class, including individual talent-tree adjustments and how Mastery will affect them. In the meantime, here are a few examples to demonstrate the three kinds of passive bonuses we described above. Please keep in mind that we're still working on this system, and the handful of examples we're providing here are, of course, subject to change. Holy PriestFor each talent point spent in the Holy tree, the priest also gets:Healing – Improves your healing by X%.Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent from the Discipline tree, which many Holy priests consider to be a “must-have.” Regeneration will also probably be determined by whether you are in or out of combat, and not the “five-second rule.Radiance – Adds a heal-over-time effect to direct heals, such as Flash Heal. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it. Discipline PriestFor each talent point spent in the Discipline tree, the priest also gets:Healing – Improves your healing by X%.Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent.Absorption – Improves the amount of damage absorbed by spells such as Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it. Frost Death KnightFor each talent point spent in the Frost tree, the death knight also gets:Damage – Improves your melee and spell damage by X%.Haste – Improves your melee Haste by Y%. This might allow us to remove some of the Haste in the Icy Talons line of talents.Runic Power – Improves the rate of runic power generated by abilities. While all death knights want runic power, Frost death knights would generally have more runic power than Blood or Unholy death knights (who would receive a different benefit from their respective trees). An Unholy death knight who sub-specs into Frost would still be able to benefit from this bonus, though because they’re investing fewer talent points, they’d benefit to a smaller degree. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.A couple other things to note: Currently, we’re not planning to retrofit the Mastery stat onto current level-80 gear when we roll out the stat-system changes prior to Cataclysm’s release. However, Mastery will begin appearing on select quest and dungeon items. You will also gain a small amount of Mastery by wearing gear of your intended armor type (such as plate for paladins). For players with dual specs, when you change between your two chosen specs, the Mastery bonuses and the benefit you receive from the Mastery stat on gear will adjust automatically based on your new spec.We’ll have more details to share about these and other changes we’re making in Cataclysm in the future, and we’ll do our best to answer your questions about the Mastery system here on the forums. For information on many of the stat changes being made in Cataclysm, please check out our earlier update at -http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1

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