Archive for March, 2010
Know Your Lore: The Draenei
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under Archimond, Sargeras, draenei, draenor, eredar, featured, guide, guide-to-lore, kiljaeden, kure, lore, lore-guide, naaru, outland, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, velen, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping
I love the draenei. Ever since their incorporation into World of Warcraft I’ve been fond of our indigo skinned (well, colors range from a light whitish-blue to an almost black), tentacle bearded, cloven hooved dimension exile friends. Yes, I’m aware that Chris Metzen had to take some heat for having contradicted his own backstory (and isn’t it fascinating how the guy who wrote the original story can still be lambasted for having ‘gotten it wrong‘? Truly, fandom is wondrous strange.) but to my eyes, having a chance to play one of the draenei is worth all the handwaving. Their history as it has been incorporated into the game is one that I find equal parts tragic, epic and inspiring. Not many races in the universe can be said to have survived the personal attentions of Kil’jaeden the Deceiver for tens of thousands of years. Even now, after the near total genocide of the orcish Horde, the draenei endure.
They have a slight problem with steering Naaru dimensional ships, though. They’ve crashed two, by my current count, one becoming the mountain Oshu’gun (ironically one of the orcs most sacred sites before they fell to darkness and corruption is a crashed Naaru vessel) and the most recent being the Exodar section of the Naaru fortress seized by Kael’Thas Sunstrider and renamed Tempest Keep.
So who are the draenei? Well, for that we need to go back more than 25,000 years. Luckily, this talking dog and small child happen to have a wayback machine and no means to prevent me from stealing it from them. Hopefully Nozdormu doesn’t find out.
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Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore
Know Your Lore: The Draenei originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Pimp My Profile: Dyskograf, Mutilate rogue
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under emblem-of-frost-gear, facebookfeed, gear-guide, glyph-guide, guide, heroic-gear, mut-rogue, mut-rotation, mute-rogue, mutilate, mutilate-rogue, mutilate-rotation, pimp-my-profile, pmp, rogue-gear, rogue-glyphs, rogue-guide, rogue-talents, talent-guide
Welcome to Pimp My Profile, the column in which the WoW.com staff turns zeroes into heroes. Don’t think you’re performing where you should be? Not sure how your class/spec is supposed to be gearing up? E-mail us with your Armory link, and you might be next to receive our help!
I am using the only viable (at the moment) Mutilate-Envenom spamming build. I throw HfB every time it goes off, pooling my energy a little, just to make sure I’ll get two Mutilates in one Envenom buff. And yes, SnD is there all fight long. The problem is, the highest one i’ve ever got from it was 4k DPS only. As I find these numbers very poor – I make a place for your tweakin advices!-
Dyskograf
Dyskograf, it’s your lucky day, because WoW.com is going to Pimp Your Profile! While I won’t be able to put a mount on your mount so you can ride while you ride, I will be able to give you some character planning tips that will have you moving towards the top of the DPS charts in no time flat!
Continue reading Pimp My Profile: Dyskograf, Mutilate rogue
Filed under: Rogue, Pimp My Profile
Pimp My Profile: Dyskograf, Mutilate rogue originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Two Bosses Enter: Grand Champions gang up on Marwyn; Eadric faces Lich King
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under arthas, eadric, eadric-the-pure, featured, halls-of-reflection, lich-king, lore, marwyn, toc, trial-of-the-champion, wow-boss, wow-boss-battle, wow-bosses, wow-lore
Two Bosses Enter … but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com’s series of fantasy death matches. It’s a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large — and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let’s get ready to rumble!
Last week’s matchup between Marwyn and the entire ToC PvP Champions team was a good set-up for this week’s deathmatch between Eadric the Pure and the Lich King (5-man version). It’s all about balance. Yes, lore comes into play. But inside the Thunderdome, lore isn’t the only factor. Every point must be balanced against the others.
This week, a group of five adventurers — the ToC Grand Champions — made short work of Marwyn (just as your own groups probably do whenever you face Marwyn in a random). Step into the Thunderdome with us after the break, where we’ll hear the judges’ decisions and consider what many of you have been waiting for: the first of many bouts involving some version of the Lich King himself. Oh yes, it’s finally time … And in the words of Dr. Dealgood: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … Dyin’ time’s here.”
Continue reading Two Bosses Enter: Grand Champions gang up on Marwyn; Eadric faces Lich King
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Two Bosses Enter
Two Bosses Enter: Grand Champions gang up on Marwyn; Eadric faces Lich King originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Lichborne: Blood tanking basics
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under class-help, death-knight-guide, death-knight-info, death-knight-talents, dk-guide, dk-info, dk-talents, featured, guide, guide-to-death-knights, talent, talents, world-of-warcraft-class-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, wow-class-guide, wow-class-help, wow-death-knight, wow-dk, wow-guide, wow-talent-guide
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly peek at the world of the death knight. This week, Matt Rossi fills in to talk about tanking on a blood death knight. This is not a 101 post, but an even more basic look.
I run heroics and 10 man raids on my death knight. There’s simply only so much time in the day and I already raid pretty heavily on my warrior, so when I began seriously leveling a death knight I knew I would probably want to play something I felt very comfortable with. And so my flirtation with blood was born. While frost has seen some love in the most recent patch, I’m still not much for the DW DK style, and I’ve never really like the pet management of unholy, so I currently have two blood specs on my DK, a DPS spec and a tanking spec.
What I’ve always loved about blood is its strong self-healing and physical damage based nature. As a blood tank, you end up taking advantage of these aspects of the tree, which provides strong single target threat, good AoE threat and solid cooldowns and survivability. While it doesn’t have the snap AoE threat of a Howling Blast or unholy’s strong group threat, Blood can still tank a group quite effectively with diseases and Heart Strike, while the recent patch 3.3.3 has greatly buffed single target threat for all DK tanks and made Will of the Necropolis far more attractive for the Blood DK tank.
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Filed under: Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Lichborne: Blood tanking basics originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Encrypted Text: My favorite rogue addons
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under best-rogue-addons, class-help, errorfilter, featured, guide, guide-to-rogues, omen, poisoner, poisonswapper, recount, rogue-addon-guide, rogue-addons, rogue-guide, rogue-info, rogue-talents, skada, talent, talents, trickortreat, tricks-of-the-trade, world-of-warcraft-class-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, wow-class-guide, wow-class-help, wow-guide, wow-rogue, wow-rogue-info, wow-rogues, wow-talent-guide
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about my favorite rogue addons, and how to use them to improve your WoW experience.
It’s about time I wrote this guide, as I’m pretty sure I promised it all the way back in fall of 2009. My planned column posting schedule was completely upheaved with the announcement of the patch 3.3 Vanish fix (which ended up being vaporware), and so I never got around to the topic of rogue addons. Luckily for you, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several new addons in the meantime!
Now, I’m going to preface this guide with the disclaimer that I haven’t had the chance to test every rogue mod out there, so if you have a favorite, please post it in the comments. I’m always looking for the best mods out there, and once I’ve found one that solves a particular problem, it can be a while before I go looking to replace them. With ICC becoming a more of a regular farm raid and less of a great unknown, I’ve had more free time to begin my period of self-examination before the next tier of content is released. If you’re looking to add some spice to your rogue experience, try adding a few new addons to the mix!
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Filed under: Rogue, Add-Ons, (Rogue) Encrypted Text
Encrypted Text: My favorite rogue addons originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Classifieds: Fun stuff to do with a dragon
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under facebookfeed, featured, guild, guild-rankings, guild-recruitment, guilds, recruitment, world-of-warcraft-guild-recruitment, world-of-warcraft-guilds, wow-guild-recruitment, wow-guilds
The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on guild happenings, raid progression rankings, player milestones and more. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? E-mail TheClassifieds@wow.com.
Bored between ICC raids? Looking for some fun to pass the time until Cataclysm? Why not three-man Onyxia? Three players from <Under the Influence> and <Alliance Regulators> on US Kul Tiras-A recently took down the 10-man version of the ol’ girl herself. The eloquently named Humandude and his partners in crime, Mastarjuice and Darkdaemon (two paladins and a ‘lock), pulled out the kill in 25 minutes after nine wipes and buffs including scrolls, drums, flasks and their own group buffs.
“Our strat was to have the warlock focus on the big adds while occasionally seeding down the whelps,” Humandude reports. “Consecration and our tank’s Seal of Command DPS tank spec took care of the majority of the adds. Our warlock, after (we killed) the big add, took a few shots at Onyxia and dotted her up, then went back to his focus fire and Seed rotation. On a side note, he was destruction, because we needed replenishment.”
More on the Onyxia take-down plus several other feats of meta-gaming magic, this week’s massive set of Random Acts of Uberness, our new looking for guild section and more, after the break.
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Filed under: The Classifieds
The Classifieds: Fun stuff to do with a dragon originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
WoW Moviewatch: Starcraft in Azeroth
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under Uncategorized
Starcraft in Azeroth was Kakashisan’s entry into Baron Soosdon‘s machinima contest. It’s easy to see how this video is deserving of the prize, a StarCraft 2 beta key. Congratulations to Kakashisan! I know that when I’m in trouble, I’ll be reaching for a little murloc marine.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
WoW Moviewatch: Starcraft in Azeroth originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New scam targets the WoW Launcher
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under account, ancilorn, breaking, facebookfeed, hack, launcher, phishing, security
As you can see from the screenshot above (large version here) the real launcher apparently is replaced with a fake launcher that sends the user to a web site that pretends to be official, asking for subscription information (including answers to secret questions and the original CD-Key) in what is meant to appear as the means to restore a supposedly suspended account. One of the telltale signs that this isn’t legit, besides the very invasive information requested, is the version number in the upper left corner of the screen. We’re way past patch 3.1.1 — however not everyone might know this.
Ancilorn posts confirming that this is not genuine (reiterating that they will never ask for your password in such a manner, and also requesting that such things be sent directly to Blizzard if they happen to you). Goes to show that as security is increased, those looking to breach it become more desperate.
Filed under: News items, Account Security
New scam targets the WoW Launcher originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Around Azeroth: Red rider
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under around-azeroth, aroundazeroth, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss
Our submitter, Shimatsu of Alterac Mountains, managed to snag the Reins of the Twilight Drake from a recent Sarth + 3D run. (Yeah, yeah, old content and all, but it’s still a pretty nice mount.) Looking for something to do after the raid, she flew over the magma-spewing caldera in Wintergrasp and decided it would be a good place for a screenshot of her new pet. Just the location to keep your drake from getting too homesick!
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 Azeroth
Filed under: Around Azeroth
Around Azeroth: Red rider originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
WoW.com on NPR
by WoW.com on Mar.31, 2010, under The-Warcraft-Civilization, Tom-Ashbrook, William-Sims-Bainbridge, bainbridge, elizabeth-harper, facebookfeed, npr, on-point, sociology, wbur, wow-com, wow-sociology
This Tuesday morning while everyone else was lamenting weekly maintenance, I headed down to the local NPR studios to sit in a very quiet, empty studio — and chat about World of Warcraft with illustrious individuals in distant lands on WBUR’s On Point. I joined William Sims Bainbridge (author of The Warcraft Civilization, which is available in stores today) and host Tom Ashbrook for an hour-long discussion on the meaning behind World of Warcraft.
Can we really use events in WoW predict the future? Is WoW the first real afterlife? Is the game world dangerous and addicting — or a great place to connect with friends and co-workers?
If you’re interested in catching our discussion, it’s available for streaming online or you can download it (as well as past and future editions of On Point) as a podcast on iTunes.
Filed under: WoW.com Business
WoW.com on NPR originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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