Blizzard’s new Dungeon System is a pretty huge overhaul of the social and gameplay experience of getting an instance group together, and we’re all pretty excited about it here. On top of the hassle-free daily random dungeon selection and the great new matchmaking features, you even get teleported to the random dungeon.
But as it turns out, there’s even more cool stuff hiding below the surface. If you’re like me, chances are good you’ve spent a day or two chain-running heroics to gear up an alt or to get instant gratification on that badge item you want. The issue with chaining heroics at this point in time is that eventually you hit a wall: do instances you hate (Oculus) or stop running instances because of your 24-hour heroic lockouts.
Well, in patch 3.3, everything’s a-changin’. While heroic lockouts aren’t going away, they will not affect your random dungeon selections. What this means is that if you and four guildies do a timed Culling of Stratholme run, and then you join the queue for a random heroic, you may be assigned Culling of Stratholme a second — or third, or fourth — time, depending on your luck, as your random dungeon. And you’ll get two extra Emblems of Triumph for completing the random dungeon each time, even if you’ve run the dungeon already that day. The only way that your lockout will affect you is that you cannot create a group with /invite for that same dungeon again that day.
Basically, as long as you’re choosing the Random Dungeon option, you can run as many heroics as you want, every day.
With increased rewards for, easier access to, and the trivialization of lockouts for heroics, Patch 3.3 is the perfect time to dust off that neglected level 80 alt of yours and take him or her on a tour of Northrend’s most dangerous places.
Castiglione World of Warcraft instances
Recently two different movies have included their own versions of the world famous Leeroy Jenkins video in their DVD extras. Year One is the first – the video, which you can watch after the link below, isn’t a perfect reproduction, but it is funny to see Vinnie Jones and the other actors (including McLovin as Leeroy) try to wrap all of the WoW jargon and nonsense jokes from the original into their idea of a scene that makes sense.
There’s another Leeroy Jenkins related extra on the Monsters vs. Aliens DVD – this one’s just a set of storyboards, but it does feature the voice cast, including Kiefer Sutherland and Seth Rogen, doing their own little version of the scene. It’s not quite as faithful as the Year One version, but it does feature Rogen doing the Leeroy yell, and that’s worth watching by itself. You can watch that video after the break as well.
Both are worth a chuckle – it’s wild to see a meme like Leeroy sneak out into mainstream media.
MMOvalue World of Warcraft
The expected race change feature is now active on the Account Management page, at least on the US realms. One of our writers has gone through with the change, and it appears to be working. The charge is $25, five dollars less than the faction change feature released a while ago, and includes a full customization — gender, name, and appearance if you choose to do them. The race changes do not include the new class combinations yet — we’ll probably have to wait until Cataclysm at least before those become available. It’s not live on the EU realms yet either, as of this writing.
There is also an extended FAQ, which we’ve posted after the break. This is something that we mostly never expected to happen, right up until Blizzard started saying that it would just a while ago. So at this point, once you roll a character, you’re now able to (for an additional charge) change everything about it save for the actual class. It seems unlikely that Blizzard would ever let that happen (given that classes are the fundamental basis of a roleplaying game), but of course we’ve learned to never say never with them.
Update: We’ve now received official blue confirmation that it is intended to be active. Enjoy, everyone!
Castille World of Warcraft Account Security
Daelo has posted this week’s raid testing schedule for the patch 3.3 PTR, and we’re going to get more looks at what the Icecrown raid has in store for us:
US Servers
Monday, October 26 at 7PM EDT / 4PM PDT – Festergut
Wednesday, October 28 at 7PM EDT / 4PM PDT – Icecrown Gunship Battle
Thursday, October 29 at 7PM EDT / 4PM PDT – Sindragosa
Friday, October 30 at 7PM EDT / 4 PM PDT – Valithria Dreamwalker
EU Servers
Tuesday, October 27 at 19:30 CEST – Lord Marrowgar
Wednesday, October 28 at 19:30 CEST – Lady Deathwhisper
Thursday, October 29 at 19:30 CEST – Professor Putricide
Friday, October 30 at 19:30 CEST – Rotface
A little bit of analysis about the schedule after the break.
MMOvalue World of Warcraft PTR3.3
Backhand of Justice has an interesting post up about something we’ve considered for a long time: who will overtake World of Warcraft. Way back before this year started, game developers were challenged to come up with an MMO that could take on WoW’s influence and popularity, and while there have certainly been some interesting MMOs announced and released (Star Wars: The Old Republic, which isn’t out yet, and Aion, which is, are probably most in the forefront at the moment), it just hasn’t happened. WoW is still the juggernaut it’s been for almost the full five years, and with Cataclysm coming in 2010, that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
So now, two months from the end of 2009, let’s just say it: it’s not possible. World of Warcraft is an aberration, an extremely well-made game that happened to be in just the right time and place (the casual game explosion, the adoption of MMOs and subscription model gaming, the “mainstreaming” of fantasy/sci-fi geekiness) to become an uber megahit. In short, game developers simply can’t recreate WoW, at least not on purpose. As BoJ says, that doesn’t mean they can’t try — there are certainly lots of original and interesting games and MMOs out there, and it’s completely possible to be an MMO that isn’t WoW-sized and be successful. But as for the actual question of beating WoW and its worldwide audience, game developers have pretty much moved on.
Koeningsmark World of Warcraft Blizzard
As some of you have seen, we’ve been covering the new Looking of Group interface coming in patch 3.3. It is going to allow cross-realm queuing for dungeons as well as providing a new interface for your heroic dungeon dailies. As some of you have noticed, this new system does not appear to currently support raid groups. After some digging, we were able to pull up the new raid queue interface and take a look at it.
Above is the raid panel from the new LFG interface (click for full-sized image). Unfortunately, it isn’t actually working at the moment and it isn’t readily accessible in the PTR’s interface. As you can see, the leader role isn’t available at the top, so we currently presume there will be a special interface that the raid leader will get similar to the current “Looking for More” interface on the live realms.
Read more…
Castille World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 PTR
Patch 3.3 has had a lot of awesome small tweaks aimed at improving the starting experience for new characters and new players, likely in preparation for Cataclysm. In addition to streamlining the first few levels, Blizzard has added something else to the latest patch notes: A new tutorial system. According to the patch notes, the tutorial windows will now be larger and contain pictures and other visual cues to better direct new players where to go, what to do, or what buttons to press on the UI. In addition, new tips have been added, and other existing tips will appear at more opportune moments.
With this, we have yet another good example of Blizzard’s preparations going into Cataclysm. Despite having somewhere north of 10 million players, they aren’t resting on their laurels, but are adjusting their game to invite in even more players, making it easier for them to get into the game, and ushering in a new era of the newbie (in a good way) for the expansion.
Mustapha World of Warcraft noobs
There’s been a few achievements that have been added in the latest patch 3.3 build.
As you can guess, taking down the Lich King has its rewards. If you manage to defeat Arthas in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player heroic mode, you will henceforth earn the title “Bane of the Fallen King.”
A new faction for you to earn reputation with will be established as well. The Ashen Verdict, if you manage to earn exalted with them, will grant you a title reward that adds “Of the Ashen Verdict.” No serious details yet on how to grind out rep, but when I was on the PTR clearing trash to Festergut, I noticed I was gaining Ashen Verdict reputation by killing various mobs. They’re similar to the rates players earned rep with when working through Black Temple for the Ashtongue.
Arena players have a new title and a Frostwyrm pet to look forward to for season 8. Good luck on earning the Wrathful Gladiator title!
The players who are more into battlegrounds will be experiencing change as well. The achievements to gain exalted with Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley factions have been removed from their Meta-Achievements. You’ll gain special titles if you manage to reach exalted with the factions at least.
Glory of the Hero Meta-Achievement has been slightly changed. The Party’s Over achievement which involves killing Prince Taldaram on Heroic with under 5 people is no longer part of that particular meta. Although, personally I don’t think it’s that difficult to take out that boss with 4 players.
Lastly, in case you missed the news earlier, Master Angler of Stranglethorn has been changed. It will be changed to Master Angler of Azeroth instead. You can gain this achievement by winning the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.
Kanghi World of Warcraft achievements, News items
There hasn’t been much new news on the Patch 3.3 PTR for us hunters the last couple of weeks. Then all of a sudden in the latest build something intriguing popped up over on MMO-Champion. Shown above, it looks to be a blue glowing ethereal bear. Looking eerily like a bear form spirit beast.
This got me thinking that there are 3 possibilities (okay, I’ll admit there are a lot more than 3). First, Blizzard has been secretly planning on allowing shamans learn a new ability called spirit bear that will finally allow them to tank. Next, maybe night elf druids will be able to Shadowmeld in bear form. Finally, my personal favorite, could this be a new spirit beast?
The idea of a bear form spirit beast isn’t out of the question. So far we’ve had a couple of cat forms and one wolf. Adding a bear form would fit right in with the standard pet forms.
I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out. If it does turn out to be new tamable spirit beast, I’ll call him DeadElvis. If not, maybe this is what a tamed druid will look like after they learn hunter form. Either way, stay tuned and as Patch 3.3 develops we’ll let you know what we find out.
Castro World of Warcraft News items, Rumors
So WOW.com have been doing these Creative contests to give away their shiny new World of Warcraft-branded wireless gaming headsets for a few months now. But if you haven’t won one yet, worry not: today, we’re giving away five headsets to one lucky instance-running group out there, so you can all talk to each other while you’re wiping in Heroic Old Kingdom.
To enter, you’ve got to send us a .JPG-formatted picture (no bigger than 800px please) of your favorite five-man group — you and four friends — to contests@wow.com by 5pm October 29, 2009 (that’s one week from today!). Make sure you put “Creative 5-man contest” in the email subject so WOW.com can recognize what it’s for, and while you can take it wherever and however you want to in-game (or even in real-life!), just make sure there are five people in there. Because one lucky random entry will win five Creative World of Warcraft wireless gaming headsets, one for each member of the group, at a value of $150 each, or $750 total. That’s a lot of headsets! You must also be 18 or older, and live in the United States or Canada excluding Quebec — full official rules can be found right here.
Please note: in addition to emailing us the .jpg picture, you will also need to copy and paste the form below (filled out) into your email — it was put together by our legal department and simply says that you understand and will adhere to the rules of the contest. You need to include the names and e-mail addresses of all five players in your group so that we can contact you all about prizes if you win.
Good luck to everyone who enters — we can’t wait to see what your five-man groups look like! And stay tuned, because we’ve got an even more epic contest planned out soon.
Read more…
Koeningsmark World of Warcraft Contests, instances
A little while ago, 2 am Paris time, servers went down in the EU for emergency maintenance. More specifically, “emergency database maintenance.” They’re estimated to be down until 4 am Paris time, which by my estimate is another hour or so. Should that maintenance be extended any further, we’ll be sure to let you know right here on WoW.com.
Many thanks to our followers on Twitter for alerting us of this downtime, because our European staff members are apparently off doing silly things like sleeping. Thanks a lot, guys. Because of that, I’m now inflicting cultural stereotypes on you all in the form of the picture at the top of this post.
Catelet World of Warcraft europe, Realm Status
The sneaky database over at MMO-Champion has uncovered a little spell/aura/attribute hidden in the patch 3.3 PTR files that hints at some extra XP from future versions of heirloom gear. Currently, with two pieces of heirloom gear, you can get up to a 20% bonus (the chest and shoulders each give a stackable 10%, while heirloom weapons give nothing). But this Heirloom Experience Bonus +5% “spell” grants an extra 5% experience, so it could be that in the future, we’ll see pieces of heirloom gear that have an extra bit of bonus on them — maybe gloves, cloak, or a belt — that will bring the total bonus XP up to 25%.
There’s no base level or other identifying information on this attribute (we call it a “spell,” but really, given its information in the game, it seems like a gear-specific ability), so we can assume that it’ll be a full 1-80 bonus, just like the current heirloom gear in the game. Unfortunately, we haven’t actually uncovered any new heirloom items yet, so we have no idea if this stuff will show up in patch 3.3 or the expansion. And of course, just because the bonus applies from 1-80 doesn’t mean the gear can be worn that whole time — it sure seems like Blizzard wouldn’t necessarily want Worgen and Goblin alts speeding past Cataclysm lowbie content. But we’ll see — in the meantime, look for a little extra heirloom power, coming soon.
Castres World of Warcraft
Over on the WoW LJ community, poster Honem has pointed out something that made me sort of squeal with glee when I first read it: The latest PTR build includes a couple very interesting new functions, as reported by official forum MVP Iriel:
NEW – QueryQuestsCompleted() requests that the server send the client a list of completed quest ids. Once the list is received the QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE event is fired. (There is a limit on how frequently this can be called)
NEW – tbl = GetQuestsCompleted([tbl]) populates a table (creating one if necessary) with the ids of completed quests.
That’s right, you can now get a list of every quest your character has completed. Testers on the MMO Champion forums report that it’s only the quest IDs themselves that get sent, but addons such as Lightheaded and Questhelper, one would assume, can probably take care of the rest as long as they get those quest IDs.
The ability to recall completed quests should be a good boon to mod makers and questers. Those looking to grab Loremaster will appreciate being able to figure out where to head next, and those that have had a handful of quests left for the title and no idea where to find them will finally find some relief. Here’s to all the mod authors already working hard on using these new commands to get us squared away in Patch 3.3. Many a Loremaster will owe you a debt come Cataclysm.
Catalans World of Warcraft achievements, Quests
Aion has a lot of great qualities, although one of the biggest issues in-game towers above pretty much any others: 24/7 in-game GM support. Whether it’s gold spammers, bugs or some issue that goes above and beyond asking for help in guild chat — constant GM support is essential for happy customers.
So you’ll be happy to know it’s coming very soon! At least, according to recent Twitter activities by the community team. As the weeks continue to churn for this newly hatched (at least in the west) MMO, having a quality support team is going to make or break many potential players’ opinions when their hesitant friends ask, Aion“Should I pick up Aion?” Thus, this is good news. Not as good as it actually happening, but very close!
Castro Aion gold-sellers, twitter
We’ve been getting a few queries from you readers lately about the upcoming Hallow’s End holiday (it starts this Sunday) and what’s new, but honestly, we haven’t heard anything solid yet. You can assume that the usual festivities will be happening, so you can definitely plan to run the Horseman and go around getting your candy, but if anything else is new, we haven’t heard it for sure yet. There is one tidbit — Bornakk has confirmed that, like Coren Direbrew, the Horseman will be set for level 80s. And we can assume that means that there will be some new loot to obtain as well. But other than that, anything else that goes down for Hallow’s End this year will be a surprise.
Not that we won’t tell you about it — of course we’ll have coverage up as soon as we see anything new, and if you need help getting any of the achievements or quests done, we’ll have help for you there, too. Just a few days left until our favorite holiday in the game — can’t wait!
Castiglione World of Warcraft
