A small update has been deployed this morning — patch 3.3.3a. The file is only about five megs, and we don’t know a whole lot about what it does. Speculation is that it allows PPC users to play the game again, although we can’t verify that right now (I’m sure some of you can, hint hint).
The patch notes are supposed to be up in the Bug Reporting Forums, however nothing is there. The patch notes provided with the patch are as follows:
Patch 3.3.3a——————————————————————————–
World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.3a
——————————————————————————–
We are updating World of Warcraft with a minor bug fix patch. For updated
information regarding the changes made in this patch, please visit the
official Bug Report forum at:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=10023
gmaxwell World of Warcraft
We are very happy to announce that Choose My Adventure is returning to WoW.com. Previously, Alex Ziebart leveled Turpen according to the whims of readers. This time around, we have added even more reader participation and interaction:
We will have many adventurers: Many of the staff will be having readers choose their adventures. We’ll offer weekly polls and have you decide how we’ll level that week. It came from the Blog will be our home: Our characters will all be Horde and are being created and played on Zangarmarsh (U.S.). We will post our play schedules: You will be able to join us on our adventures, as we will post the times we will be playing. You may have seen Shawn Schuster do this over on our sister site, Massively. More will be joining us, but we will begin with the following adventurers:
Adam Holisky: Adammentat, a Tauren Druid with aspirations toward tanking.
Michael Gray: Grayfield, a very sociable Tauren Hunter.
Castiglione World of Warcraft
A heads-up for our Mac users, although there’s a good chance you’ve already been painfully aware of this if you play on one of the affected systems — patch 3.3.3 has been causing major issues for some PowerPC and Tiger users, which have (hopefully) been fixed by the mini-patch 3.3.3a.
S4d1K — 3.3.3 Known Issues for Mac playersWe are aware of 2 critical bugs that are affecting users with specific configurations.
#1 PowerPC G4/G5 users get disconnected after login.
#2 Users with a MacBook Pro GeForce 8600M and 10.4.11 crashes after entering the world.
We are very sorry and we are working on these issues and hope to fix them as soon as possible.
UPDATE 5:10pm:
We have a fix for both issues but it will require a client patch. We don’t have an ETA for now.
UPDATE 3/24 12:15pm:
We are currently testing a patch. We want to make sure that we do not break the game for another group of people. We are doing everything to release this patch as soon as possible.
Castille World of Warcraft
This evening we have another round of in-game hotfixes that were applied separate from the minor patch this morning. Bornakk posted them in the official forums as follows:
Bornakk – In-game fixesThe Endless Healing Potion is no longer usable in arenas as intended. Warlocks using a lower rank of Life Tap will receive a reduced benefit from their shadow spell power. The damage done by the cannons in the gunship encounter in Icecrown Citadel has been increased and the rate at which their heat decays has been reduced. In Alterac Valley, the buffs that the Generals get from the Warmasters and Marshals now grant them negative enemy dodge. This means they will now ignore some of their target’s total dodge percentage. The base health of the Generals has been increased and the buff also grants a slightly increased amount of damage and health. The cheese items in Dalaran as well as the Kvaldir Berserkers in Icecrown will once again respawn at a faster rate. The window that comes up when talking to an NPC should no longer close on its own. Some changes to the battleground queuing system have been made to improve performance and group queuing. The timer for when the next battle in Wintergrasp will occur should no long disappear
Castille World of Warcraft
While speaking about Cryptic Studios, the company’s chief operating officer Jack Emmert revealed that its latest game, Star Trek Online, has more than 100,000 subscribers.
Emmert revealed the figure during an interview with The Big Freaking Podcast, while talking about the game’s reception when it launched last month.
Despite the huge IP, or maybe because of it, the game didn’t live up to many fans’ expectations, as reflected by the number of subscribers; 100K might sound alright, but when you consider Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are barely getting by with a rumoured 300K each, STO’s numbers must be a concern for Cryptic.
According to BioWare, its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will need at least one million subscribers per month just to break even.
Last month, Cryptic made a press release announcing that it had over one million registered accounts following the launch of STO. What a shame not many of them actually subscribed to the game.
Castille Star Trek Online
BlizzCon 2010 has been officially announced! The convention will run October 22nd and October 23rd at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. This was as we previously reported back at the beginning of February.
Despite the very sparse information available from Blizzard, we do know at least one thing — Jay Mohr will be hosting again. Ticketing information is not available yet, and we don’t expect it to be for some time. What this says about the release date of Cataclysm is also anyone’s guess. We don’t have any solid information on that at this time.
BlizzCon 2010 AnnouncedIf you’ve been holding your breath waiting to find out when and where the next BlizzCon would be held, then… you’ve probably passed out by now. But if you’ve just been patiently watching for an announcement, then we’ve got good news for you: BlizzCon will be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday, October 22 through Saturday, October 23! Just as in years past, BlizzCon 2010 will feature an exciting mix of discussion panels, tournaments, hands-on gameplay, contests, and much more. Check out the announcement press release, and keep an eye on www.blizzcon.com in the months ahead for further details, including ticketing information.
Kocherberg World of Warcraft
As of patch 3.3.3, some people have noticed that some of their level 70 gear is now missing gems and enchants — they’ve simply up and disappeared. It only appears to be affecting gear and equipment acquired prior to Wrath, so level 80′s shouldn’t have too much to worry about — but for leveling alts, or mains that are taking their time, it’s definitely a concern. This has been reported, and there is a blue response on the issue:
BornakkThere is currently an issue that we are aware of where gems and enchantments are missing from items that had them before we released patch 3.3.3 this week. This appears to be affecting some equipment that was acquired before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. We are planning to resolve this during the next maintenance on Tuesday, March 30th, and recommend that you do not try to gem or re-gem any of this gear until after that time. We will provide further updates if this situation changes.
Castille World of Warcraft
…The great feast of Noblegarden has long been celebrated by the races of the Alliance and recently adopted by those of the Horde. On this joyous day, it is customary for the nobles and lords from each race to hide coins, candy, and the occasional treasures within special eggs painted to look like wildflowers. These eggs are then scattered around the major cities for the citizenry to find. From heroes to commoners, and everyone in between – the feast of Noblegarden is meant to bring communities together to share the joy of life and friendship..
Noblegarden is an Easter event that takes place around April, where players search for colored eggs hidden around the different starting zones.
The egg hunt is on! The towns of Azeroth and their immediate environs have been liberally sprinkled with Noblegarden eggs for players to collect in a ravenous frenzy — er, in the spirit of sharing. These eggs contain treats fit for commoners and kings alike — mostly, they contain delicious Noblegarden chocolate.
Every so often, a Noblegarden egg will contain something besides chocolate, as a variety of special items are also hidden inside. These special items include seasonal clothing, special prizes, and more. However, if you’re not fortunate enough to find the prize you want, you can still purchase them from special vendors located in towns. The currency for these prizes? Noblegarden chocolate, of course!
Read more…
Castillans World of Warcraft
BlizzCon 2010! Anaheim! October! Players are buzzing about the new announcement, and already making travel plans — but what can a person expect to see at BlizzCon? What kind of stuff is there to talk about? Last year’s BlizzCon was all about Cataclysm — a trailer, playable demos of the new races, lore information, and of course the usual cavalcade of costumes and dance routines. Here’s a quick roundup of what you missed at last year’s BlizzCon, to give you an idea of what to expect this time around:
Pre-show guides and activities:
Preparing for BlizzCon — a quick pre-con checklist Guide to BlizzCon 2009 The goody bag! The WoW.com meetup, including the cast of The Guild The BlizzCon 2009 show floor The official program World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
BlizzCon 2009 Official Cataclysm FAQ Cataclysm Concept Art
New Zones video Goblin backstory and zone info
Cataclysm map Cataclysm: the story so far Worgen and Goblin starting areas Cataclysm dungeons World of Warcraft: Cataclysm trailer
Information on new classes, abilities, and other interesting changes:
Class Discussion live blog
Mastery system and talent trees Archaeology and Path of the Titans Path of the Titans explained Rated Battlegrounds Other entertainment:
World of Warcraft Art Panel The Art Gallery The Guild panel live blog BlizzCon 2009 Dance and soundalike contest videos BlizzCon 2009 Costumes — check out both the video and the gallery of the costume contest!
Blizzard tends to pack a lot of information, announcements and entertainment into two days, and this year should be no exception — take a look through what you missed last year, while you’re waiting for more information on this year’s tickets and pricing!
Castro World of Warcraft
ArenaNet has released the third of four slideshows of Guild Wars 2 concept art that was presented at GDC nearly two weeks ago, and all is not lovely and idyllic in the land of Tyria.
This newest video gives us a look at what are presumably Orrian undead, as well as a decaying ship and something huge brandishing a pair of severed heads. The video runs the full spectrum, however, and the architecture, armor art and newborn Sylvari scenes provide a beautiful contrast to some of the older areas. We enjoyed a peek at details of all five playable races, and art ranging from basic creature sketches to some fully fleshed-out areas that are beginning to look familiar to us.
The technical difficulties — now fixed — in part two gave us a new appreciation for the music and sound effects added in, and this round is just as impressive as the last two, and — hey, wait a minute, what was that at the end? Follow along after the jump to see for yourself!
MMOvalue World of Warcraft
A new quest line is coming to Nexon’s super-cute MMO MapleStory. Dragon Master Evan is the story of Evan and his discovery of an egg that hatches to reveal a little onyx dragon, and the adventure is on. In the first quest, Evan and the the newborn dragon begin their journey together by gaining answers to the all-important question: What do dragons eat? Once assured of a full stomach for the dragon, the pair goes on to battle “fiendishly cute and evil monsters” and helping those in need in their quest for glory.
Players will learn more about Evan as the quest line progresses and the character levels up. The dragon companion levels up as well, taking on physical changes and learning new skills as things progress. It’s a fun series, and players will definitely want to give it a try. Take a look at the video on the site, and have fun!
Castille World of Warcraft
A couple months ago we reported on seemingly random earthquakes happening around Azeroth. These earthquakes, it was reckoned, are part of the long buildup to the Cataclysm world event. There were reports initially on the patch 3.3 PTR that mobs called “[DND] Shaker” were visible in Stormwind and other cities. These Shaker mobs are responsible for causing the earthquakes.
Today, WoW.com can report that these mobs are again visible in Stormwind on some servers. We’ve verified that when you view nameplates on mobs (by pressing the V key) and look up around the Stormwind bank, you can see the [DND] Shaker mob, as pictured above. The Shaker mobs are also present in the trade district. When you are able to view the nameplates, you can’t view the actual mob itself — they are invisible / have no form.
We’re not sure how they work. We think they appear at random intervals, as sometimes we can see them and other times we can’t. We also are guessing that they might only be able to be seen on some specific servers — we know they’re on Sisters of Elune and Ner’zhul.
However it’s important to make very clear that other than their appearance and function, we don’t know for sure how they appear.
We’re interested in what others are seeing, on what servers, and under what conditions the mobs are seen. So far our staff has only been able to verify that these mobs are present in Stormwind, however we wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just intermittently visible in other cities.
We know that in Cataclysm Deathwing is going to come back and destroy a lot of old world Azeroth. Entire cities can change, and lands will be torn asunder. These earthquakes appear to be part of the lead up to the event, with Deathwing’s return causing the very land to shake in fear.
Castillans World of Warcraft
Gladiators, rejoice! Or at least those of you that participated in the 2009 Arena Tournament — Murkimus, gladiator murloc extraordinaire has been changed as of today’s patch. The pet, which was previously only available on whatever character you used the code with, will now apply to your entire Battle.net account. So if you claimed your Murkimus on one character, be prepared to receive a surprise in the mail on your other characters when you log in. Watch your fingers, that spear is sharp. Here’s the full announcement:
BashiokWith the release of patch 3.3.3 those who received the Murkimus pet for their participation in the 2009 Arena Tournament will notice that the pet is being changed to apply to their entire Battle.net account and all associated World of Warcraft licenses. If you previously claimed a Murkimus code for one character on an account this change will mean that all characters on that account, as well as characters on any other World of Warcraft licenses registered to the same Battle.net account, will receive a Murkimus in their in-game mailboxes.
With this change you’ll finally be able to play any of your characters, stand up defiantly, and exclaim “I’m Murkimus!”
Castille World of Warcraft
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW.com’s weekly look into the world of the death knight. This week, we’re mostly waiting for the cold front to come in, but we got some other stuff we can talk about for sure.
While we’ve all been waiting for Patch 3.3.3 to drop so we can decide if we’re respeccing frost or not, It’s become a pretty slow time in the death knight world. Debates continue on the best frost specs, whether Will of the Necropolis is worth getting now or even makes Blood the best tank spec, and so on and so forth, of course, so it’s not completely quiet, but I’ve said my two cents on most of that before. It occurs to me, though, that I haven’t really taken a good look at the Icecrown 5-mans for loot and opportunities for death knights. So for all my more casual and upcoming death knight friends, this one’s for you.
As with similar loot guides, I’m going to shy away from covering loot that is not specifically itemized for death knights. That means that I will not be covering things that have attack power (with the exception of certain weapons), things that have shield block stats, or weapons that have quick attack speeds. There is, of course, a possibility that something that fulfills one of the three previous parameters will be an upgrade for you anyway, it is true, but between the new stat changes coming with Cataclysm and the fact you’ll eventually upgrade a lot of this stuff with emblem gear, I feel it’s best to focus on the stuff that has the biggest chance of keeping you well equipped for a while.
Read more…
Castillans World of Warcraft
In a perfect world, patch day would be a day when we all get to sit around and do nothing as perfect new content is added to our already expansive world. The reality of the situation is that we live in a harsh, untamed and annoying world filled with Lua errors and user interface masochism. Here are a few quick tips for surviving patch day when it comes to your addons and user interface.
Step 0 – See if any of your addons have a “day of” update. Mod and addon creators have been working with PTR code to, hopefully, make sure their addons come ready to roll with Patch 3.3.3. Step 1 – Enable out of date addons. For minor content patches, most of the code should still be perfectly usable. Many addons will have updates available day one, but to hit the ground running, you’ll want to load your out of date addons if an update isn’t available. Step 2 – Disable any addons giving you Lua errors and make note of those disabled. If addons are still giving you Lua errors that are affecting your gameplay, disable those addons so they do not interact poorly with other code. Check for updates when you can, and remember to re-enable any previously disabled addons. Step 3 – Update DBM/BigWigs/DeusVox. Your raid leaders will thank you. This is especially important for raids that run on Tuesday, so update your raid warning addons early. Don’t be that guy. You know who that guy is. Step 4 – /framestack. An incredibly powerful diagnostic tool is the /framestack command. Typing in this command will bring up an interface window that will display information on any addon or user interface module that the mouse pointer is hovering over. Use /framestack to diagnose user interface problems or to figure out what addon is controlling what portion of your UI. You will save yourself a lot of headaches remembering what the name of the addon was that you use to track your buffs, or what addons are hovering over other, possibly hidden, modules. There you have it. A quick and easy checklist to, hopefully, get you going on patch day without too much hassle. Remember to keep your most important addons up to date, and keep your profiles saved. Happy patch day!
Koeningsmark World of Warcraft