[WoRBot]

UPDATE: Upcoming Warlock Summoning Change

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)

As we have mentioned, we are discussing some exciting changes to how soul shards might work. This is not an announcement of an overhaul to that system, but it will make shard use slightly less painful.

When a warlock casts Ritual of Summoning, instead of creating a portal, they will summon a new creation similar to a dungeon meeting stone. It will cost one shard to create this item. Then, anyone in the warlock’s party or raid can use the “meeting stone” to summon other members of the group. For example, once the warlock summons the stone, then party members B and C could summon D without the warlock’s direct involvement, and most importantly without requiring additional shards. You will be able to bring the rest of a 25-person raid quickly (since you can summon folks simultaneously), for the cost of a single shard, and with less clicking on the part of the lock.

The “meeting stone” will last 5 minutes with a 5 minute cooldown. It will not be usable in areas where summoning is currently restricted, such as battlegrounds or in combat. Creating the stone still requires 2 people in addition to the warlock. Summoning actual party members only requires 2 people.

This change will be in for the next patch, which will occur before the 3.1 Ulduar content patch.

Wrath of the Lich King Shatters 1-day Sales

 

Quote from: Blizzard

After a fun-filled launch night at thousands of midnight openings and a week for everyone to begin exploring the mysteries of Northrend, we're pleased to be able to share the first sales results for Wrath of the Lich King. In its first 24 hours of availability, the expansion sold over 2.8 million copies to become the new fastest-selling PC game of all time, eclipsing the previous record of nearly 2.4 million set by The Burning Crusade. For full details, check out the official announcement.

We'd like to extend our thanks to everyone in the global World of Warcraft community, whose enthusiasm has made this possible.

Did you contribute to the 2.8 million copies purchased on day one?  If so, did you go to the midnight openings around the world to celebrate its launch?  We'd love to hear your experience of it if you did, so feel free to comment!

[crazy00eyes]

Yep, I bought mine at midnight, at the Walmart across the street from my apartment complex in Reno. I thought I'd have to go to the across town, but even this small Walmart had it and there was a line of people already waiting when I arrived at midnight.

[Tom Phoenix]

While I bought it on day one, I was unable to go to the midnight opening as I had university that day. Beacuse of that, I had to go get my copy in the afternoon. Nevertheless, I was lucky to have ended early that day so I was able to play WotLK.

EDIT: Anyway, no suprise WotLK beat BC in sales on day one. More people then ever before anticipated this expansion.

[weenietot]

I went to a local Gamestop inside a mall and waited. About 20 people there when I got there at 10pm. The entertainment was provided by "The Loremaster" (as we called him). Your typical stereotypical egg shaped mother's-basement kind of nerd who knew everything about the game (and made it a point to correct anyone even remotely wrong) yet eventually admitted to never even getting past Karazhan. At midnight, we were in and out of there as fast as possible.

[Modulate]

I went to a midnight opening and had pre-ordered a regular WOTLK just incase I couldn't get there for a collector's edition, at a electronic store in Canada called Futureshop. I read on the FS forums that people we're lining up at like 5:45 and I couldn't get off work until 7. I made it there around 7:40 and not a soul was standing in line. It was freezing outisde about 5 degrees celsius so I went inside until they closed at 9. I then waited in line from 9-12. They had a contest going at every FS location that whomever dressed up in the best WoW costume would win a 100$ gift certificate. While we waited in line a few employee's came out to smoke and I was talking with a few telling them how early i'd been there and whatnot. Around 10:30 the manager came out and said he might have some good news for me. He then walked to the back of each line (one for pre-order one for non-preorder) and came back to me and said that no one was in a costume and that if no one showed up by 11:30 I would win for being here the longest. 11:30 rolled around and no one showed up in a costume so I won! I basically got the collector's edition for free. What a great night!

[jynxycat]

WoRBot said:

News of a summoning change coming for Warlocks,

People have been annoyed since the Warlock class has existed on day one about the usage of shards. They helped out in BC with health stones, it only took them a few years to get summoning worked out too ?

There were so many well written ideas posted on the Warlock forums since the Molten Core days, but basically Blizzard said "F U", and brushed them off because no changes were needed according to them.

And here we are.