Project Lore

Project Lore had a blast in the Wrath of the Lich King beta this week. They managed to kill the first boss of Utgarde Keep, Prince Keleseth. The guys managed to blow through most of the trash due to their awesomeness, epic gear, and perhaps a few unbalanced talents from the beta. Remember that stuff in the beta is constantly changing! Here's each episode's link in case you missed something: Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.1 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.2 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.3 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.4 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.5 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.6 (Wrap-Up) Some big news has also been coming out of the official site, with PvE to PvP transfers available, a new patch available for downloading, and new Bind to Account items. In addition, we introduced Random Heroes, a new WoW web comic that we'll be bringing to you every week. Also, don't forget to keep trying to find Juggynaut. Send in your images of Juggy wherever you find him. SaintGermain also has more Life Lessons that WoW can teach us all. Lastly, head to the Lore Store to get one of the awesome T-Shirts we have available! Keep up with all of the happenings here with the Episodes RSS feed, the Blog RSS feed, or Twitter, and join our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and MySpace! You can head to our subscribe page to find us on some of your other favorite sites.

Click to read more ...

I already had a nice blog entry written for today but something was announced yesterday that all of you should definitely know about. Well, a few things were announced but Juggynaut already covered the PvE to PvP Paid Transfer news. I am against it, that is my two cents. In lieu of starting a new column this Friday I just had to talk about the so called 'Bind on Account' items, more properly known as Heirloom items. This new development is ripe with awesomeness, even if it is mainly for the alting people out there. Details on the Heirloom or 'Bind to Account' items:

• Purchasable via dungeon tokens (similar to Badges of Justice)
• Can be transferred to characters on your account (ie cannot be traded)
• Only transferable to characters on the same realm
• Items scale with level (see inset picture)
• Scaling will make the item equivalent to a blue item of the characters level
• Heirloom armor will transform based on the character who wears it. Therefore, a level 80 plate piece can be worn by a level 1-39 character who wears mail, but gains the ability to wear plate at level 40.

Future changes:

• Additional Heirloom items aimed at high level alts to come in the future
• Additional ways to earn heirloom items

Best of all this information has been confirmed by Tigole and Verimonde! They even confirm that the goals of the items are to get people to play other classes and support people that love to play alts. Hardcore or casual, I would think that both camps would approve of this move. Don't worry, that blog entry that was bumped for this should return next Friday.

Click to read more ...

Alexis wraps up the first week of Project Lore in Utgarde Keep in the WotLK beta as they come face to face with Prince Keleseth. Alexis also answers some of your questions in this weeks community wrap-up. She's also got a special treat at the end, so watch the whole thing! Alexis also just signed up for twitter, so follow her @syschinslater. Our Subscribe page has links for you to follow Project Lore on your favorite sites. Use the Episodes RSS feed or Twitter to find out when new episodes are out, and join our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and MySpace. The guys are diving deeper into Utgarde Keep while making their way towards the second boss, so check back on Sunday for our schedule next week!

Click to read more ...

How many times have you found out that someone you know plays World of Warcraft? You are enjoy their company and don't really have any connections to your current server, other than your high level character. So, wondering if a transfer is possible, you ask the standard questions: "Horde or Alliance?" and "PvE or PvP?" One of those questions can now be eliminated, as Blizzard has the following update on the main World of Warcraft site:

Providing a smooth and enjoyable experience for all players is always a priority for us, and we are continually re-evaluating our policies and programs to do so. As the state of the game has matured substantially since the inception of Paid Character Transfers, we will now be allowing PvE-to-PvP transfers on a full-time basis to provide players with more mobility and freedom to easily play with their friends.

This is exciting news, though some are sure to be upset that it is possible to level on a carebear server and transfer to a PvP server, avoiding the constant ganking while leveling, then being able to gank once said leveling is complete. Personally, I am happy that more friends will be able to play together without investing the rather large time investment to level one more character. How do you guys feel?

Click to read more ...

Oh sweet jumping Jesus.  Patch 3.0.2 is apparently creeping up on us sooner than I expected.  Blizzard Poster Zarhym announces that the bridging patch is going to be a large one.  Not that we expected anything less, considering the size of the pre-TBC “Before the Storm” patch.  I already touched on some changes that were announced when the patch was first revealed but the news of the impending download calls for an update. For starters, Zarhym warns us that this patch will be big.  So big that the flying skull wants all users to activate their Background Downloader to prepare to download the data that has been finalized.  It is also mentioned that the downloader should be downloading faster in general now.  Seems that they tweaked their torrent system a bit. The process should be enabled shortly. Even though we received the warning, Blizzard has still not added any patch notes to their site.  It's likely we will see some patch notes this week to elaborate on all the known changes. We also have some anecdotal evidence to hint at how soon the patch may be coming.  First off, the PTR forums have been wiped, which usually occurs before a patch heads to them.  I should mention that much of the new stuff has been tested on the beta realms extensively, meaning a PTR session could theoretically be skipped.  Secondly, the Launcher is now displaying a Wrath of the Lich King splashscreen.  Nothing groundbreaking or concrete, but evidence nonetheless. Here is some of the stuff we already know is coming with the new patch:

• Massive alterations to the way raid buffs/debuffs work
• A built in Guild Calendar
• New class spells and talents
• Stormwind Harbor
• Barbershops
• Two new Arenas
• Inscription profession
• Hunter pet changes and additions
• Zul'Aman bears no longer awarded

Get to work on those bear mounts guys.  I will be content with waiting for a Polar Bear though.

Click to read more ...

As promised, here is the next installment of our WoW web comic, Random Heroes, complete with a new polished look and feel. Click for the full version!

Click to read more ...

Hardcore. Casual. Newb – however you spell it. These are all terms that are tossed around a lot in World of Warcraft. Our own glossary defines hardcore as the following, oh wait, we don't have a definition. We do have various incarnations of newb though, newb, newbie, noob. All the definitions are the same, a new player or a derogatory term to “suggest that a player is not very good”. I have never tended to agree with the classic definitions of hardcore and casual gamers though. Just because you spend a lot of time gaming does not make you hardcore in my mind. The flip side is true as well, only playing WoW five hours a week doesn't necessarily make you casual in my book. The labels should not be linked to the time spent on just the game but on the experience as a whole. I was hardcore in the traditional sense before The Burning Crusade hit the live servers. I would eat up any and all information on the game while spending more than a few hours a day in Azeroth. Like many hardcore raiders of vanilla WoW – including most of my guild – I drifted off into the sunset when TBC hit. No longer do I raid multiple times a week, or spend more than three hours in front of the screen commonly. But I still consider myself to be a hardcore player. Why do I consider myself hardcore if I only play the game for a few hours ever other day? Because I still dedicate myself to the experience. I have created long standing goals for the game, I spend massive amounts of time reading the background lore, staying up on the latest happenings in Wrath or the PvP scene.  Oh, and I also write about it.  WoW isn't simply a game for me, or the other hardcore players out there. It is THE game. So if the hardcore make it a part of their life, what would casual be then. Casual players to me are the ones who are in it for the short term gains. Mainly, these are the players who just hop on to kill time or chat with friends. They never bothered with the quest text, they don't knit pick over who the first Death Knight really is, they just play the game for something enjoyable to do. Of course, there is no 'a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square' restriction. A player from the casual group can become hardcore at any time and a hardcore player can become casual just as easily. It is all a matter of how serious you take the game, in my opinion.

Click to read more ...

When you show up for an instance, or even more important a raid, are you prepared? Do you come with mana pots and healing pots? Do you have your food? Did you repair? Well you should have. And that's what I mean - be prepared. If you're going to raid, have your stuff ready. And when you go to a place you don't know, know what your job is and know what skills will come in handy when unexpected stuff shows up. Who hasn't been in a pug or even a guild raid and someone in chat says, 'oops I forgot my... can you summon me back?' geezz ppl. Come to play! When mobs attack, you know what to do, learn what to do, or at least learn what your class is supposed to do: CC, DPS, Heal, Tank, whatever. If you are prepared in knowing what you can do and should do, you will probably live longer in that encounter. Now in RL, it's hard to be prepared all the time, just like those pats that whack you in BT or worse the ninjas in Heroic Shattered Halls. You can be prepared mentally tho. Know that life is random and that stuff pops up and ultimately it's how you react to it that makes the difference. Be prepared as best you can be, for a raid in WoW or for a job interview in RL. Know what you're good at and be willing to get better at it. And most important of all, if you are prepared and know that whatever happens, it will be okay, then you truly are prepared. So... are you prepared?

Click to read more ...

The yearly celebration of all our fallen heroes is upon us! That is right folks, the Harvest Festival started yesterday and will run through Saturday. The Harvest Festival isn't as exciting as some of the other seasonal events, like the Midsummer Fire Festival or Children's Week, but it is worth checking out if you haven't been apart of it previously. I will be bringing my new level 30 character over to Ironforge to crash the festivities and grab some of that free food and drink. After having my fill, my buddy and I will be making our trek out to Western Plaguelands and honoring the first Paladin of the Knights of the Silver Hand, Uther Lightbringer. The quest is an easy one – and worth a lot of XP – but Uther is quite possibly the most deserving of the recognition since it was Arthas, the first Death Knight, that felled him. For the hordies out there, you guys need to head to Ogrimmar for your side of the festival. Your champion is a more complicated individual than the pure of heart Lightbringer. Grommash Hellscream, best friend of Warchief Thrall and drinker of Mannoroth's blood is the target of horde affection. By drinking the blood of the demon, Hellscream aligned the horde with the Burning Legion.  In the end he redeemed himself, but paid the ultimate price to break the curse and free his people. If you wish to lean more about the fallen heroes head over to the Uther Lightbringer or Grom Hellscream WoWWiki pages. Grom is also a feature in two of the Warcraft novels, Warcraft: Lord of the Clans and Rise of the Horde, both by Christie Golden. Uther has not had such treatment.

Click to read more ...

Love it or hate it, the Refer-a-Friend promotion seems to have been a big hit for Blizzard.  I have numerous acquaintances that have either signed up, signed up a friend or signed up themselves.  Surely, they must be getting very close to the 11 million mark with the new marketing scheme?  The benefits – mainly the 300% experience gain, including quest XP – are so high that it made my close friend resubscribe just to level a Hunter for the first time.  Seriously, he had no reason other than “it'll be easy.” Seeing as I was his only remaining friend who still plays World of Warcraft on a regular basis, we decided to link our accounts.  The free month will certainly be worth it so I figured what the heck.  What harm can come of some saved money, and a new level 70 character?  Or two.  Lack of sleep, that's what. My friend came over yesterday to watch the football games and we started questing while the Eagles trounced the Rams.  Then the second game came on...and the third.  It was 3:00 AM and I had to wake up in three hours to get ready for work.  What the hell? How did I let this happen again?  The class may be new to me (never leveled a Priest all the way) but the game isn't.  Why did I get sucked in again? After thinking on it for awhile, I came up with a conclusion.  The reason I got sucked in so entirely was because of the grind.  With the new 300% XP bonus, I was burning through those first 30 levels so fast that the “I will just finish this level” mentality was able to remain viable for much longer than normal. At this rate I should have a level 70 character in under five days played.  That is being a little on the safe side since I am already level 30 with just about a day played.  For those looking to get another character to 70 for Wrath, I highly recommend finding a friend to play with.  Or just /follow on a second computer.  The time you save on leveling is likely worth the two-month subscription fee and purchase of the battlechest. You mount collectors will surely want the Zhevra.  It is meh for me though.

Click to read more ...