World of Raids News Front page news from WorldofRaids.com http://www.worldofraids.com/index.php Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:13:31 +0000 30 Realm Championships and the future of WoW TCG http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15931-realm-championships-and-the-future-of-wow-tcg/ due to Blizzard and Upper Deck parting ways. It looks like not only is it being kept alive for the foreseeable future, but Blizzard has already found another means of publishing the TCG and they will also be releasing the Wrathgate and Icecrown expansions, as planned, this spring and summer.

What this means is that players will be able to obtain the new mounts being added in patch 3.3.3, the Wooly White Rhino and the Blazing Hippogryph. With this news it could mean that the Celestial Dragon Wyrm and Celestial Horse may be future TCG rewards as well, but we'll have to wait and see whether that's true or not.

Click the spoiler tag to read the official blue post on the topic -- including tournament dates and locations -- found on the new TCG forums (which we'll be adding to the blue tracker as soon as possible).

Spoiler
]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:13:31 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15931-realm-championships-and-the-future-of-wow-tcg/ <![CDATA[Focus: To Val'anyr or Not To Val'anyr]]> http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15918-focus-to-valanyr-or-not-to-valanyr/ Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings saw the light of day. However, Ulduar was released fairly early in Wrath of the Lich King. Val'anyr was buffed from ilevel 239 to ilevel 245 to give it a longer life span, yet with heroic Icecrown Citadel, there will be ilevel 284 weapons to be twisted from Arthas's dead fingers.

All other legendaries have lasted throughout its expansion. Will Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings do the same, or will it get replaced before Cataclysm hits the shelves?

Best by a large margin

The best people to answer this question are the wielders themselves. Ariohn, a paladin from the German guild For the Horde feels that Val'anyr is stronger for his class than for any of the other classes it is available for. "It is the best weapon for the paladin by a large margin compared to other classes," Ariohn says.

Raynie, a paladin from the French guild Wraith, elaborates further on the mace's strength. "It is a little different for a Flash of Light spec where you need a huge amount of spellpower, but at the moment, it is the best weapon for a paladin, a least for a Holy Light oriented one. This weapon is so good because the proc scales with your gear. The more spellpower you have, the more powerful the shield is," Raynie says.

Both Ariohn and Raynie will use their Val'anyrs throughout Icecrown Citadel. However, Ariohn will most likely replace it with the heroic version of Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony. Raynie is not equally impressed by the ilevel 284 weapons. "I'll use this mace at least until the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony and Royal Scepter of Terenas II grant 300 more spellpower than Val'anyr, but this stat isn't very attractive for a paladin because Holy Light already heals for so much," he explains.

The Wraith paladin even sees himself using the legendary in Cataclysm. "I think Blizzard will nerf the proc in patch 4.0 or 4.1 because they don't want players to feel the need to go back into level 80 raids to get the best weapon when everyone will be level 85. Blizzard also wants to increase players' health pool and bring down the mana regeneration so you can't spam Holy Light all night long. So if a tank is going to have more than 100 000 hit points, maybe the spellpower weapons from Cataclysm will become useful for a paladin," he says.

Already replaced

While many questioned the mace's strength for druids, Val'anyr proved to be really strong for them. Yet with Icecrown Citadel, another proc weapon has threatened the legendary. Trauma, especially the ilevel 277 version, also offers a lot more spellpower, a stat that is highly sought after by restoration druids.

"Arguably, Val'anyr is still our best in slot weapon, but it is sort of a toss-up between that and 277 Trauma. I will use it at least until the end of this expansion, not sure how items will work come Cataclysm," says Shibou, restoration druid in the US guild Exodus. The legendary proc equals about 8-10 percent of his healing done, and that is what he would look for in a possible replacement.

Restoration druid in the US guild Vodka, Minizeke, has actually stopped using his legendary exclusively. "I use Val'anyr when I know high burst AoE is coming and the internal cooldown on the proc is up. When high raid damage is incoming, I will swap my Val'anyr for the bubbles and then swap back to Trauma since it has no internal cooldown," he explains.

Minizeke is not too happy about the legendary already getting replaced. To him, both 277 Trauma and Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas are better weapons. "It is depressing, because every other legendary in the game has lasted until the next expansion. But people are kidding themselves if they think Val'anyr is still best in slot. I think the only class that would benefit from it till Cataclysm is paladin, since spellpower is not that big an issue for them," he says.

A bit wasted

Priests are somewhat special as they are the only class with two different healing specs. Out of all healers, raid healing discipline priests probably benefit the least from the legendary. Val'anyr does not proc off Power Word: Shield, and with high ilevel weapons available, a discipline priest loses out on a lot of spellpower by using the legendary. Even when tank healing, a disc priest won't be able to push out the sheer numbers that a holy paladin can.

"I think for discipline, Val'anyr is a bit wasted. It still doesn't work with the Power Word: Shield glyph, it did for a day and that's when Blizzard had a bug with shields crashing servers," says Lawliepop from the US guild Blood Legion.

For holy, she thinks the weapon is a lot stronger. "It can be effective in many fights. I like the way Blizzard has toyed with regard to weapons having unique procs. If there was a very good or interesting proc, I would switch. But obviously, the numbers would have to be reasonably close for that to happen," she says.

Priest blogger Matticus, who plays the priest Mallet in the US guild Conquest, likes his Val'anyr a lot. "I intend to use it until the end of this expansion and for as long as possible into the next one. As holy, it creates a large number of shields in a short time capable of protecting players from any raid wide damage effects, or at least mitigate some of it. I would need a replacement weapon that is vastly superior to it to consider switching it. Even then, I would rather have any healer weapons go to everyone else first," he says.

Unquestionably good

Interestingly enough, it seems significantly harder to find shaman healers wielding Val'anyr than finding any of the other classes. Going through guild list after guild list, very few restoration shamans use the legendary. "Shamans were probably the weakest healers when the maces were being handed out," says Dox. He plays a restoration shaman in the US guild Gentlemens Club.

Gentlemens Club actually has two shamans with Val'anyr. Both Dox and his guildmate Melna feel that the mace is stronger on a holy paladin than on a shaman, as the paladin can keep the shield up at max value on a main tank for the entire duration of the proc. Though they also feel it is strong for shamans. "It is unquestionably good, but the shield it gives is hard to measure as far as usefulness in a raid situation. One of the best benefits is that other group members with the mace can help stack the shield," says Melna.

He thinks he will use Val'anyr for the rest of this expansion. To replace it, he would need an item with enough spellpower or other stats to outweigh the value of the proc. "Blizzard may also add an item with a better proc. Trauma is in the game at the moment, but the proc on that item seems to be a lot worse than the one on Val'anyr," he says.

Dox agrees that Trauma isn't worth it. However, he thinks he might replace his legendary once the Lich King is dead in heroic 25-man mode. "As soon as heroic Lich King weapons are available, it is probably time to upgrade. The increased stats of 284 items will probably overpower the proc."]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:15:57 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15918-focus-to-valanyr-or-not-to-valanyr/ An Assault on Two Fronts - Pre-Cataclysm Events http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15912-an-assault-on-two-fronts-pre-cataclysm-events/
Most interesting is the URL for the preview pages. Patch 3.3 previews had 3p3 in them, but these have 3p9 in them. While Blizzard has stated that 3.3 is the last major content patch of Wrath of the Lich King, perhaps this means we'll see multiple content patches leading up to Cataclysm rather than one large patch the month before the expansion releases.

Quote

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
High Tinker Mekkatorque, betrayed by Mekgineer Thermaplugg and forced to flee the irradiated city of Gnomeregan with the few of his fellow gnomes who managed to survive, is preparing to reclaim his once glorious city. Meanwhile, in distant Durotar, Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls is determined to exact revenge upon the witch doctor Zalazane for dividing the Darkspears and seizing the land bestowed to them by Thrall: the Echo Isles. Read more about the ongoing struggles of the gnomes and the trolls... and their plans to seek redemption.

gnomes= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml
trolls= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml


High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque: The Liberation of Gnomeregan

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Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
Gelbin Mekkatorque is known as much for his technical brilliance as he is for his just leadership of the gnomes. In addition to being elected high tinker, the most prominent rank in gnomish society, Gelbin proved himself to be an inventor without equal by leading the construction of the Deeprun Tram, which links Stormwind and Ironforge. Yet all of the high tinker's achievements have been overshadowed by one catastrophic event that occurred under his rule: the fall of Gnomeregan.

Around the time of the Third War, an ancient menace known as the troggs surfaced in Gnomeregan from the depths of Azeroth. This barbaric race, thought to have been unintentionally released during the Uldaman excavation, crushed the gnomes' defenses and became entrenched in the lower sections of the city. Gelbin, for all his genius, was at a loss for a way to eradicate the savage invaders until his chief advisor, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg, proposed that they inundate Gnomeregan with toxic radiation.

Confident in Thermaplugg's radical plan, Mekkatorque gave the order to irradiate the city. This bold move worked at first: toxic radiation spread throughout Gnomeregan and momentarily stopped the troggs' incursion. Soon, however, it was evident that the radiation was killing gnomes as well as troggs. In the end, nearly eighty percent of the gnomish race died, and many of those who survived were mutated into deranged leper gnomes. To add to the tragedy, the troggs then resumed their assault on the city.

Mekkatorque and the healthy survivors evacuated Gnomeregan and were taken in by the dwarves of neighboring Ironforge, but Thermaplugg disappeared. The high tinker later learned troubling news that his former advisor had seized control of the toxic gnomish city and instated himself as its twisted overlord. Much to Mekkatorque's shock, he also discovered that Thermaplugg had secretly desired the office of high tinker and might have been previously aware of or even complicit in the trogg invasion.

The immense loss of life at Gnomeregan weighed heavy on Mekkatorque's shoulders, and in his fury he ordered the death of Thermaplugg. A band of heroes took up the mission and returned with a tale of victory, but after analyzing the claim, Mekkatorque realized that the mechanized overlord defeated in the depths of the city was likely nothing more than a cleverly engineered facsimile of Thermaplugg.

Aware that defeating his nemesis would require a more robust approach, Mekkatorque labored over strategies to retake his city. His tireless brainstorming recently paid off with Operation: Gnomeregan, a brilliant multi-phased assault plan to liberate the gnomish capital and bring the real Thermaplugg to justice. With the operation set to begin, resourceful gnomes such as "Doc" Cogspin, Captain Tread Sparknozzle, and Drill Sergeant Steamcrank have been overseeing preparations and fine-tuning new technology that will be vital to the offensive.

Meanwhile, Mekkatorque has begun rounding up all able-bodied gnomes to join in the attack, and his call to arms has also been heard by other members of the Alliance. The gnomes' techno-savvy has been vital in past conflicts, and many Alliance heroes are likely to join the offensive to recapture the extraordinary inventions within the fallen city. For Mekkatorque, however, his plan goes beyond just reacquiring lost technology. The retaking of Gnomeregan will determine his legacy in history, either as the high tinker who lost the gnomes' beloved capital, or the one who reestablished it as the center of innovation on Azeroth.

Operation: Gnomeregan is now.


Vol'jin: The Glory of the Darkspears

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Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
Most of Azeroth's savage trolls are infamous for their extreme hatred of other races, but the Darkspear tribe and its leader, Vol'jin, are an exception. Over the years, the Darkspears have proven to be invaluable members of the Horde. Vol'jin in particular is known to offer strategic advice to Warchief Thrall on a regular basis, and the cunning troll played a role in retaking the Undercity after it was overthrown by the rebel forces of Varimathras and Putress.

Yet for all of the tribe's accomplishments, the Darkspears are still plagued by a tragic history of exile. Long ago they were driven from Stranglethorn Vale's mainland by the more powerful trolls of the Gurubashi empire and then settled on a remote island. The Darkspears later sought refuge with the Horde when their isle was destroyed by a mysterious sea witch, and Thrall granted the trolls new lands on the Echo Isles off the coast of Durotar. Aside from a brief exodus when Daelin Proudmoore's fleet arrived to hunt down orcs, the Darkspears enjoyed relative stability until one of their own, Zalazane, drove his brethren from their latest home.

The witch doctor Zalazane had been one of the tribe's leading mystical instructors when he was inexplicably driven to insanity by the powers under his control. Utilizing dark magic, he enslaved many of his fellow tribespeople and amassed an army of mindless Darkspear trolls. Fearing that all of his tribe would come under Zalazane's sway, Vol'jin ordered the remaining free Darkspears to abandon the Echo Isles.

Vol'jin's Darkspears settled in nearby Sen'jin Village, which they have since used as a staging point to attack Zalazane. Over the years, members of the Horde looking to test their worth have braved the Echo Isles to confront Zalazane, and many of them even returned victorious with his severed head. These victories, however, proved to be nothing more than an illusion created by the twisted witch doctor's dark magic. Days after these trophies were taken to Sen'jin Village, they reverted to their true forms: painted rocks and coconuts adorned with wooden tusks, or even the heads of Zalazane's enslaved trolls.

Despite these setbacks and his preoccupation with advising Thrall on Horde-related matters, Vol'jin has spent considerable time formulating a strategy to recapture the Echo Isles. Now he believes that the time to strike at Zalazane has come. As the Darkspear leader and his close allies Vanira and Champion Uru'zin await approval of their plan from the ancestral spirits, they have begun rounding up new troll recruits and staging reconnaissance missions to learn about Zalazane's minions.

Yet Vol'jin's trolls are short on forces, and the enslaved Darkspears on the Echo Isles outnumber them. The Darkspears are well-known for being among Azeroth's bravest combatants, however, and fortunately many non-trolls have expressed interest in assisting Vol'jin, perhaps hoping that restoring the Echo Isles will eventually bolster the Horde's strength.

Vol'jin is also aware of the strategic importance that a Darkspear homeland offers his allies, but he is motivated by more personal reasons. Zalazane's betrayal was an affront against Vol'jin's dream of a better life for his tribe, a destiny that his late father, Sen'jin, envisioned years ago. Only by retaking the Echo Isles will Vol'jin be able to honor his father and at long last secure a permanent homeland for the long-exiled Darkspear tribe.
]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:47:35 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15912-an-assault-on-two-fronts-pre-cataclysm-events/ <![CDATA[Ensidia Transfers to Lightning's Blade]]> http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15911-ensidia-transfers-to-lightnings-blade/ newspost on their official website, top guild Ensidia announces that they are transferring off the trouble-ridden server Tarren Mill. Their target destination is Lightning's Blade, currently the server of another top guild - Paragon.

"The reasoning for this is simple. We have lost so many tries in 25-man and 10-man raiding that it has gone beyond a joke," Ensidia guild leader mek writes in the official statement.

Ensidia originally resided on the Magtheridon server, which had been plagued by lag for years. After losing the world first heroic Anub'arak kill in Trial of the Grand Crusader, the guild took a free server migration to Tarren Mill back in September to hopefully get rid of the problems.

Unfortunately, Tarren Mill brought with it a new set of issues. Several weeks ago, the server became unplayable. Part of the problem appeared to be someone griefing it with a macro, although according to mek, part of it was also due to bad hardware. Lately, it had become so bad that players were unable to stay in a raid without constant disconnects at any time of the day.

With the world first Lich King heroic kill still up for grabs, Ensidia has decided to move to Lightning's Blade. "(...)if it is us being griefed or if we are to move server and yet again have problems, then we want to be on the same server as our main competition so that they are equally affected," reads the official statement.

Paragon officer Baltha says he totally understands why Ensidia is moving server. At the same time, he hopes the move won't affect his guild. "I heard Tarren Mill was pretty much unplayable during busy hours, and I hope that won't happen here. Griefing is total bullsh*t," he says.

Baltha doesn't think the server transfer will affect the Lich King race on their part. Lightning's Blade has its share of lag during peak hours, but Paragon has found their way to get around that. "We lost some tries to lag, but that's WoW. We can use our tries when the server is not lagging, and we love to raid early mornings!" he says.

The Paragon mage does not have any predictions for the race. "I don't like to be too arrogant, so let's just say the best one will win. Though I would like to add that Tun said in his interview that "Stars, Paragon, Premonition, etc are all overrated." It is kind of funny that they do this now, and recognise us as main competition."]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:09:14 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15911-ensidia-transfers-to-lightnings-blade/ World First Shadowmourne - Juggernaut http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15905-world-first-shadowmourne-juggernaut/ Juggernaut became the first guild to complete Shadowmourne, giving the axe to Modk, a Death Knight.

Posted Image


Congratulations to both the guild and Modk on completing this awesome item!]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:07:07 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15905-world-first-shadowmourne-juggernaut/ Through The Scope - Paragon http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15898-through-the-scope-paragon/ Through The Scope - Paragon Interview

First off, let me introduce myself as a new member of the WoR content team! My name is Tazmac, and I play a level 80 Dwarf Hunter on the Turalyon EU server, and in this series of guides I will be talking to some of the top hunters from various PvE and PvP backgrounds, in an attempt to inform and help other hunters improve their game! In my first piece, Kruf and Shaylee from Paragon [EU Lightning's Blade] have been kind enough to give an interview for WoR. For those of you who don’t know, Paragon have spent the last few months trampling Arthas and his merry band of undead nasties underfoot, achieving numerous World First kills, including the 25 man version of the Lich King and the 10 man version of Heroic Lich King.

The Interview

Tazmac - Hi guys, thanks for joining us. Why don't you start by introducing yourselves to the readers of Worldofraids.com?
Kruf – I'm Kruf and I've been playing a hunter since I started WoW in August 2006. Originally played alliance on Ravencrest in a bunch of semi-casual guilds until I joined Kawk Herders (later known as Servants of the Kawk and Underground Kosmonavts). Rerolled horde on Lightning's Blade to join Paragon last summer after Underground Kosmonavts started falling apart.
Shaylee - I am Shaylee, troll female hunter, started wow in EU beta back in 2005(?), played on Stormscale in vanilla, Stormreaver in TBC and now on Lightning's Blade in WOTLK, previous guilds until joining Paragon are Nolby Pride, Mannel and Sauna, and this character has been my main since the beginning of my wow career.

Tazmac – Now, as many people are aware, Paragon got World First kills on a number of Icecrown bosses, including both 25 man normal and 10 man heroic Lich King. How have you both found ICC Normal and Heroic modes? Are they enjoyable? And what are your opinions on the difficulty level of both 10 and 25 man Icecrown Citadel?
Kruf – The difficulty level of ICC has been a bit too low in my opinion. Right now, there are only three ‘hard’ encounters, and they are Professor Putricide, Sindragosa and the Lich King himself.
Shaylee – ICC normal modes are very easy, but I suppose that was to be expected... ICC hardmodes are much more challenging than hardmodes in ToC, which is good. Some of the bosses could use something "new" to them instead of just increased damage/hp but overall it's much less boring to farm ICC than farming ToC.
Kruf – However, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the instance, I just wish there was more challenging encounters available. An example is the gunship battle – the heroic mode is not much different to the normal one.

Tazmac – As you are performing to some of the highest levels of any hunters currently playing PvE content, if you had to give someone three tips for improving their dps and raid survivability, what would they be?
Kruf – The most important things for a raiding hunter to take into account are the correct priority rotation [Kill Shot, Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot keeping serpent up with Chimera for MM and Kill Shot, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot for Surv, whilst keeping serpent up], minimizing movement to reduce auto shot dps loss and correct gear choices.
Shaylee – In relation to gear choices, ARP is the way to go as an MM hunter. At ICC gear levels, the highest dps spec is always going to be MM [the theoretical difference between MM and Survival in best in slot gear is around 1500, in favor of MM] so stacking ARP is important. Your ultimate goal should always be hard capping ARP at 1400. Like Kruf said, you should concentrate on your rotation [do not use a fixed rotation] and you should always be doing something instead of just waiting for a cool-down to get ready, which basically means shooting steady shots.
Kruf – By far the most important thing as a hunter is to never stop casting – this means using all your instant cast shots during movement. Even if you accidentally cast one steady shot to many when Chimera comes off GCD, you're not losing as much dps as not casting for one second.

Tazmac - In relation to ARP, at what point do you think you should start gemming for ARP instead of agility?
Kruf – Once you have a 264 weapon or higher, you should aim to start gemming for Armour Penetration when you can get over 900 with gems. Any time before that, it's technically higher dps to gem for agility.

Tazmac - Do you feel that hunters are at or close to the place they should be in regards to utility?
Shaylee - Personally, I don't think we need more utility skills right now. The change made to misdirection was really good, we have deterrence, disengage, distracting shot and masters call, amongst other things. People should really master the use of those before asking for something else.

Tazmac - With all the talk about BM being a viable spec on various Warcraft forums, do you think it is currently a spec that would merit a raid spot?
Kruf – At the moment, not really, but it does depend on the guild perspective. If you are happy with sub-par performance in comparison to MM, then it's an acceptable spec, but I personally expect everyone to perform to their best, and I don't see the point in choosing an inferior spec when you're raiding.
Shaylee – Exactly. BM hasn't been a viable spec since the huge nerf it received.
Kurf – That being said, with BiS gear, BM damage is probably about as good as Survival's, but MM is still way ahead. If you want to be BM for grinding, 5mans, roleplay or whatever, then get dualspec, but when you're in a raid with me, I expect you to be trying as hard as you can and that includes having the right spec etc.

Tazmac – What are your top three favorite raid encounters ever?
Kurf – Mmm, that's a tough one. Without too much thought, I'd say Yogg zero watchers, Putricide Hardmode and Kil’Jaeden.
Shaylee – I've gotta say Onyxia, Archimonde and Yogg zero watchers. However, this isn't because of great features and mechanics, but because they have meant something to me as a WoW player. This is the only MMO I've ever played and Onyxia was the first big raid encounter for me, so killing her felt really epic. Archimonde and Hyjal overall was something I really enjoyed, and Yogg + 0 is a really tough encounter where hunters play a central role.

Tazmac – Finally, are you looking forward to Cataclysm?
Kruf – Mostly, yes. Though I do have some mixed feelings in regards to the mana -> focus change and the overhaul and simplification to stats. It's nice that the game becomes easier for more casual players, but it would be nice to keep a degree of difficulty in there too. Also, there's a huge risk of making the classes imbalanced with major changes like these, and I don't want to see hunters lacking in representation in world first kills.
Shalyee – I pretty much agree with what Kruf said.
Kruf – Then again, it goes both ways. It would be really nice if balance was as good as it is now in PvE, as this is probably the most balanced the game has ever been for the dps classes.

Tazmac - Thanks a lot for joining us and sharing your knowledge! Be sure to check back for the next installment, as I will be talking to one of the top rated arena hunters in the world!

Below is the official video of Paragon's World First kill of heroic mode Professor Putricide! Remember to head over to http://paragon-wow.com where there is a hunter discussion forum. As Shaylee says, 'feel free to ask anything, we don't know everything but we know quite a lot =D.'



Special thanks goes to Core Of The Alliance [Turalyon], Fears [Turalyon], Minazuki [Moonglade] and all of Paragon [Lightning's Blade] for their help in preparing this article!]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:59:49 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15898-through-the-scope-paragon/ First Look: Lich King Heroic - Inside Frostmourne http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15893-first-look-lich-king-heroic-inside-frostmourne/ Immersion we have some of the first video footage of the inside of Frostmourne during the Lich King encounter on heroic difficulty. This is easily one of the hardest encounters in the game to date, and rightfully so given who it is. While many have been frustrated with the difficulty of Wrath of the Lich King's content, I think it's safe to say that the Lich King himself is more than worthy of being considered challenging.



Not enough to satisfy the hunger? Well then here's a full video from Italian guild Adrenaline, thanks to Lakratøs. It's the 10-player version of the Lich King encounter, and while these videos have been posted before, it's incredibly well done and mixes in a lot of lore elements from not only WoW itself but Warcraft as a whole, as well as some fairly intense and epic music. If you want more than just a simple kill video then this is one worth watching.



]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:09:02 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15893-first-look-lich-king-heroic-inside-frostmourne/ Patch 3.3.3 PTR Notes Updated Build 11685 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15883-patch-333-ptr-notes-updated-build-11685/ Sorry to bump down Kultcher's Building a Better Raid: The Raid of the Future Part II but this just came in.

The PTR notes have been updated again today. There were no new models or textures in today's patch but the build is labeled as the Release candidate meaning the patch should come next week.



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Classes
Death Knight
  • Talents
    • Frost
      • Icy Talons: Fixed a numerical value error for rank 2 of this talent

Items
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Now always grants at least 40% damage reduction.

    • Glyph of Scourge: Now reduces the cast time of Shackle Undead by 1 second, up from 0.5 seconds.

    • Glyph of Deadly Throw: Now increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 20%, up from 10%.

    • Glyph of Expose Armor: Now increases the duration of Expose Armor by 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

    • Glyph of Feint: Now reduces the energy cost of Feint by 20, up from 10.

  • Priest Tier-10 4-Piece Healing Set Bonus: Redesigned (again). This bonus now increases the effectiveness of the caster's Power Word: Shield by 5% and Circle of Healing by 10%.

Dungeons & Raids
    Icecrown Citadel
    • Blood-Queen Lana'thel: Pact of the Darkfallen now applies damage twice as often, but for half the damage. This change will make the removal of the spell a bit more responsive.
    • Icecrown Raid Buff: Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn now provide their bonuses to player pet health and damage, as well as the absorption amounts of Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield.
]]> Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:59:31 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15883-patch-333-ptr-notes-updated-build-11685/ Building a Better Raid: The Raid of the Future, Part II http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15881-building-a-better-raid-the-raid-of-the-future-part-ii/ The 10/25 Split

No matter your personal opinions on the issue, you have to admit that Wrath of the Lich King raiding has been an unparalleled success from a numbers perspective. Even before the buff, the number of players who set foot in Icecrown Citadel was in the hundreds of thousands, rather than the hundreds that saw Naxxramas in its original incarnation. That’s a huge step forward.

Despite the impending exodus that the hard-core raiders are always threatening to make (and sometimes actually making), raiding in WoW is in a good place going into Cataclysm. There are still a couple of key problems that Blizzard needs to solve retain their crown as the kings of PvE. One of the two big ones is difficulty scaling – the difficulty spread between normal and hard modes often creates a big gap between the Paragons and Ensidias of the world and the completely casual guilds that leaves the “mid-core” guilds kinda stranded. That’s an issue I want to touch on again in the future. The second problem is the 10- vs. 25-player raiding dilemma, which is what we’ll be talking about today.

The Problem


You might be saying to yourself, “What’s the problem? 10 mans are great!” and well, you’d be mostly right. The introduction of proper 10-man raiding has opened a lot of doors for smaller and more casually minded guilds as well as players who simply prefer a tighter raid size wherein their individual contributions mean more.

The problem comes from Blizzard’s own stated intent: that 10-mans and 25-mans are meant to be separate and independent paths of progression. It’s a great idea in theory, but as always, the devil is in the details and sometimes 10-mans just get the shaft.

First of all, there’s the loot issue. 25-man raids simply yield better (higher level) loot. Blizzard’s reasoning for this is that it’s a reward for the additional logistical and managerial overhead required to organize a 25-man raid. Speaking as someone who has organized both types on countless occasions, frankly I agree. While on the one hand having 15 extra players means each player has to shoulder less responsibility, it also means 15 extra players that can mess things up. We're not just talking about standing in fires, here – it can be tough enough to find 10 more DPS who can pull the 7k+ DPS needed for Festergut.

The bigger concern, I’d argue, is in the way that 25-mans can spill over into 10s. 25-man raiders essentially get to “double dip” by running both 10- and 25-man versions of an instance each week, reaping more loot, more emblems, more rep, and more experience with the fights. 10-man guilds simply cannot do this. Also problematic is the fact that 25-man raiders can step into 10s with their improved gear and basically steamroll the place, essentially stealing world-firsts from 10-man strict guilds that really have to work at them. Some of these disparities have led to 10-mans being considered a sort of “raiding lite” that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Even for 25-man raiders, this whole paradigm can be a problem. How many guilds run both 10s and 25s each week because they really, really want to? I’d wager that a lot of guilds out there run both 10s and 25s because it’s just an easy way to get more emblems and loot. This is at least part of the reason that WotLK has brought on so much “instance fatigue.”

Solutions?


How can Blizzard solve these issues? They’ve sort of half-supported 10-man strict guilds with achievements like “A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity” already. To start with, these achievements need to be present every tier. I’d go so far as to say that players should not get credit toward any serious 10-man achievements if they’re wearing too many pieces (say 4+) of gear that come from any 25-man instance, even the previous tier’s. I’m sure you guys will love that idea.

There are a few potential solutions to the “double dipping” problem, but none of them are very exciting. If both instances shared a single lockout, that would reduce players’ flexibility – they mightn’t want to run a pickup 10-man for the weekly or VoA and risk getting locked from the 25, making those runs harder to organize. You could perhaps allow each player to run two lockouts per week (either two 10s, two 25s, or one of each), but that just exacerbates the instance fatigue problem and also leads to greater loot inflation.

Perhaps the best solution would be to make running 10-mans not worth it anymore for 25-man raiders. Make it so each unique boss drops only drops Emblems once per week. Once you kill it on 25, it won’t drop Emblems for you on 10 that week, and vice versa. You’d still get the loot and rep, just no Emblems.

Then again, maybe the problem just isn't worth the trouble of fixing with so many lackluster solutions. So what do you think about the 10- vs. 25-man disparities? Are they justified? Do they even need fixing? As a 25-man raider, would you be bummed or excited if there was no reason to run 10s? Can you think of a more elegant way for Blizzard to solve these looming problems for Cataclysm? Sound off in the forums!]]> Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:49:20 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15881-building-a-better-raid-the-raid-of-the-future-part-ii/ Lorewise - Background to the game you play - Episode 2 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15861-lorewise-background-to-the-game-you-play-episode-2/ 18 hour LAN messes with your priorities. Hurray me! If you want to leave me some comments, do so in this thread or on my profile page. Now on with the Lore!

With the current known info about 3.3.3 and 3.3.5 and the pre-Cataclysm events, I thought I’d go into the lore of the Horde and Alliance’s smallest factions.


Episode 2 : For Gnomeregan!

The smallest race in the Alliance, the smartest race on Azeroth, and everyone has an opinion about these guys and gals. But what makes them who they are? Where did they come from? And what is this obsession about all things engineering?

From the recently uncovered Titan information -- by Brann Bronzebeard -- our current day Gnomes were one day Clockwork Robots, the Mechagnomes. They were created by the Titans, but for what reason we have yet to find out. What we do know is that they were afflicted by the Curse of Flesh, along with a lot of other Titan creations at the time. This curse turned them into the fleshy Gnomes we all see today, but for some reason the Gnomes forgot this ever happened.

The best known record of first contact between Dwarves and Gnomes goes back over 200 years. As the story goes, a Dwarven explorer found a small Gnomish settlement, and while the Dwarves only recently invented gunpowder, the Gnomes had a fully automated town with all sorts of gizmos and gadgets around, like Mechanical Chickens. The two races quickly grew into allies and the Dwarves allowed the Gnomes to build their capital city, Gnomeregan, in the foothills of Dun Morogh.

After fighting alongside the other Alliance races during the Second War, the Gnomes decided against sending aid during the Third War. After the war, the Alliance discovered why. Apparently a barbaric menace had risen from the depths of the earth, the Troggs, which was invading Gnomeregan. Knowing that the Burning Legion was the priority for the other races, the Gnomes decided to try and defeat the Troggs on their own.

After weeks of debate on their course of action, Sicco Thermaplugg convinced Gelbin Mekkatorque to deploy a radiation bomb that would wipe out all the Troggs, with minimum casualties to the Gnomes. Had Mekkatorque known the true intent of Thermaplugg, it may have saved their beloved city. Thermaplugg manipulated events in such a way that almost half of the Gnome race died that day, taking more casualties than the Troggs. The Gnomes were forced to abandon their fair city to retreat into Ironforge, taking refuge amongst the Dwarves.

Now that radiation levels are starting to drop, the current king of the Gnomes, High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, is set on retaking much of his city from the malformed Thermaplugg and his Leper Gnomes and Troggs. Are you brave enough to help him out? Will you help the Gnomes retake their grand city completely? And will we ever find out their engineering obsession?

Necessity is the first cousin of invention.
-High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, King of Gnomes


Next week I’ll go into that other small faction, the Darkspear Trolls! So keep up with the lore, you might get wiser.]]> Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:09:09 +0000 http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15861-lorewise-background-to-the-game-you-play-episode-2/