Newslist For MMOValue

Yes, that’s right, all of them. You’ve probably heard about this already (we’re a little late to the party, just because it seemed a little fishy to us at first), but a player in Taiwan has an Armory profile that claims he (or she, though the character is a male tauren druid) has achieved all 986 achievements available in the current version of World of Warcraft. That’s everything, from Loremaster, to all the ToGC Tributes, to the Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday rewards, even Insane in the Membrane. If there’s something you can do in WoW, this guy seems to have done it. He hasn’t finished this year’s Winter’s Veil achievement yet (it’s not actually possible until the 15th), but he has done a PvP achievement twice, apparently, so he’s still 986/986.

I’m still a little doubtful: as you can see above, the Feats of Strength bar looks like it’s empty, but this guy actually has lots of Feats done as well, including all of the realm first feats (including First Aid, and Leatherworking, all within days of each other). It just doesn’t seem possible that one character could do all of that. But it all seems to check out, so we’ll give him his due: Congratulations, “Littlegray” of Wrathbringer. And just in case you hadn’t heard: there are other games to play.

Update: I thought Insane in the Membrane was an achievement, but it is actually a Feat, and he does not have it. Thanks commenters for the clarification.

Kiuperli World of Warcraft achievements, Odds and ends

3 Point Entertainment (makers of the official World of Warcraft steins) has released a brand new stein, modeled after the epic Brewfest mug the Tankard o’ Terror. As you can see above, this beauty of a brewholder is much different from the other mugs — it’s made to look exactly like the ingame item, even though that means it’s more angled than curved and a little bit primitive-looking. It’s also a huge piece of stoneware, standing over nine inches tall and weighing four pounds. I don’t know that you’d ever want to drink anything out of it, but I guess, fittingly for a tanking tankard, if you hit someone over the head with it, they’d feel it.

Alex will be able to tell us what that’s like, as he’s already got one ordered. This mug is also much cheaper than the other mugs — it’s only $39.99 (as if “only” was a fitting adjective for a purchase like this), which means that 3 Point has probably heard your complaining here in our comments sections and decided to offer up a lower price point option. I won’t be going for this one, but the idea of replicating Azerothian cookery in real-life is intriguing. I might buy a Cookie’s Tenderizer if I had the chance.

Catalans World of Warcraft Blizzard, Humor, Making money, Odds and ends

The Twisted Nether folks have been a huge part of the WoW community for a while now — I finally got to meet both Fimlys and Nibuca in person at the last BlizzCon, and of course we’ve mentioned them and their work here on the site before. They’ve recently announced another big project, in coordination with Stompalina over at Rawrcast and our own Eddie “Brigwyn” Carrington, author of the Scattered Shots column and curator of The Hunting Lodge, and it sounds exciting. Azeroth United is an “Internet media community” centered around World of Warcraft, so it’ll be a hub for sharing news and support around not just bloggers, but all WoW-related fansites and online resources.

It sounds like their first project will be a large-scale charity drive, much like the Children’s Week auction that Brigwyn put together earlier this year. More news on that, we’re told, is coming soon, and we’ll keep our ears open to see what they’re up to. We’ve seen the power of the Warcraft community before, both in making a difference with donations and and uniting under a common flag, so a project like this is sure to be fun to watch. Stay tuned for more when we hear it.

Koeningsmark World of Warcraft Blizzard, Fan stuff, Odds and ends

Xella has a great post over at WoW LJ about keybindings, and it got me thinking. I play with what I thought was the “standard” way — with the left hand sitting on the home fingers of Shift, A, W, D, and the spacebar, and then jumping up to the 1-6 (or further down the number line if necessary, though truth be told, I usually mouse-click those when I have the time to do so) to hit various abilities. But xella does it very differently — she maps her fingers to the top abilities keys, using only her ring finger for movement. I would probably never have come up with that on my own (my habits come directly from FPS games, where the 1-6 keys are mostly for weapon switching, something you don’t do quite as often as casting abilities), but it does make a lot of sense, even if xella says her ring finger, with all of those movement motions, is getting somewhat worn out.

And then she hits on something else I’ve been dealing with lately, too: changing what you’ve got. Setting up your keybinds is one thing, but actually changing them can be tougher.

For instance, my Hunter has always had Hunter’s Mark attached to the 5 key — that was the easiest and quickest place for me to put it when I was setting things up, and so I’ve trained myself, whenever I am about to start shooting a target, to smash the 5 key and move on. But I have Arcane Shot sitting on the 6, and Explosive Shot (when I’m in that spec) sitting on the 4. That can cause problems, as you might have guessed: reach up to mark a target before the fight, accidentally hit the Arcane Shot, and then I get labeled as a noob for pulling early (probably a deserved title for many reasons, but still). So I decided to switch the mark away from there, and put it somewhere else more out of the way.

But instinctively, as I’ve been hitting 5 for Hunter’s Mark for so long, I would reach up and hit 5 again whenever I entered combat — I had a lot of trouble retraining my reflexes to hit something else. I only really tried to change for about an hour, but at that point I had to run off to a raid, and rather than making mistakes during a raid setting, I just went ahead and moved the keys back.

I presume that if I gave it more time, I would eventually learn the difference (we humans are nothing if not adaptable), but I was definitely surprised to see just how ingrained my reflexes were with the key presses. xella says she wants to change as well, and most people recommend what I would do (and what I’ll probably have to do if I really want to change) — just take the time to practice and re-learn the keys. It’s interesting that we can change keybindings in seconds, but especially if we’ve built up experience over time, it’s much harder to change the way we move.

Castres World of Warcraft Hardware, Odds and ends

So the convention is over, Blizzard has shown all (or at least most — there are still secrets, we’re sure) of their cards, and the next expansion will involve the return of Deathwing and a completely remade Azeroth. Goblins will be in there as the Horde race, but as for the original speculation of the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream, well… It remains to be seen exactly how those will tie in to what we heard about at BlizzCon.

The biggest hint I saw at the Emerald Dream in the last year was the fact that Blizzard is going to release a “Stormrage” novel — that would hint that good old Malfurion Stormrage and his kin would be spotlighted in the near future. Richard Knaak says the novel is set in the present, so something is going on for sure. Even though Deathwing is going to be the big bad this time around, something’s still cooking with Stormrage.

Which actually makes sense. If we’re going to get looks at Deepholm (the elemental plane of Earth, where Deathwing has been lying dormant recently) and The Firelands, as well as Skywall and the Abyssal Maw (the Fire, Air, and Water planes, respectively), that could mean they’re going to open up Azeroth’s other planes as well, with the Emerald Dream among them. The return of Deathwing would undoubtedly bring the other Aspects to bear, and Ysera would definitely be among those. In the opening ceremony last weekend, Metzen dismissed the Emerald Dream as “rumors and speculation,” but the upcoming Stormrage novel still hints we still might see the Emerald Dream sometime soon.

Castres World of Warcraft Blizzard, blizzcon, Cataclysm, Odds and ends

As part of the latest issue of WIRED magazine and to tie in with the release of war movie Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt has contributed his thoughts to a section in the magazine on how to deal with everything from Google-stalking to WoW.

The idea of this seems to be updating social rules for the twenty-first century (and not make you look like a jackass). He’s responsible for the ‘Ask a Bastard’ sections which feature fun photography and answers life’s insanely important questions, like what to do with your WoW wife if you suspect she is, in fact, a he.

Pitt suggests the following should you suspect your ‘wife’ (night elf, blood elf or even human, I doubt it matters on the specifics) is actually a guy. Yes, he’s playing the fidelity card: Should you confront the individual? “Absolutely not. If it’s good, don’t check under the hood. I say, love her with everything you’ve got. I mean, she’s your wife, man!”

What I want to know is, does Pitt play WoW and is his advice based on real experience? Somehow I see him as an Orc …

Kiuperli World of Warcraft News items, Odds and ends

Steelseries, who you may remember from such releases as the Zboard and the official World of Warcraft mouse, has teamed up with Upper Deck, Bradygames and J!NX to give away four Ultimate World of Warcraft Prize Packs during April, that’s one each week. The best part is it’s really simple to enter: all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to add them as a fan on Facebook.

The list of loot is actually quite impressive and includes:

World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse
SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Wrath of the Lich King Keyset
Zboard Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries 5C Limited Edition Mouse Pad (featuring everyone’s favourite Frost Wyrm Sindragosa)
SteelSeries Qck Limited Edition Mouse Pad (featuring the Lich King)
Wrath of the Lich King Strategy Guide
World of Warcraft Atlas Set
$100 World of Warcraft Apparel Gift Certificate
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game – Drums of War 2 Player Starter Set
World of Warcraft Miniatures Core Set Booster
One again, it’s open to everyone, and all you have to do is click here and add them as a fan.

As contests go, it’s an easy one to enter and you stand the chance to win a lot of cool swag. I particularly like the rather old school atlases (which have recently been updated) and are perfect for RPers who would rather consult an oversized tome of knowledge while the Drums of War starter deck holds the somewhat small chance of winning precious in-game loot.

But before you rush off, starry eyed at the prospect of some loot, don’t forget we’re also running a Fan Art competition with Steelseries! Don’t forget to enter as the closing date of April 20th is creeping ever closer.

Castiglione World of Warcraft brady-games, News items, Odds and ends

MMO Champion has posted all of the in-game maps for the new Northrend dungeons. We’d heard a while back that they’d be added in, and though there was no mention of them in the 3.1 patch notes, sure enough, they’re out on the PTR.

They obviously use the same style as all of the other in-game maps, with labels of each area and concept art of the dungeon itself behind each layout. But here’s something we didn’t expect: each map has a skull placed where the bosses are, so with just a glance at the map you can see where the big bad guys are found. Right now, obviously, we know where they all are, but that will be interesting when maps of future instances become available.

And right now, on the world map, areas get drawn in as you discover them, but we’d guess that these maps will be opened up as soon as you enter the instance (you don’t discover parts of an instance, you discover the whole thing). It’ll be interesting to see, next time we explore some new instanced content, just how these maps can affect gameplay.

Kins World of Warcraft Blizzard, bosses, Expansions, Odds and ends, ptr, raiding, raids, wow-ptr