Project Lore

For a brief period today, the World of Warcraft Armory showcased several new features before they were quickly pulled down again. According to MMO-Champion, this update was live for about an hour, meaning that Blizzard was either testing the new additions or someone on their end simply hit the wrong button. A news post accompanying the update was also available, detailing the new features, and indicating that they may appear sometime after the new year (perhaps January 5th, with the next wing of Icecrown Citadel?):

3D Model Viewer: The 3D model viewer displays a character as he or she appears in-game. You can pan and zoom the camera, play animations, and save a default pose (for characters on the logged-in account) that will display for all visitors to the profile. Refer to the Character Sheet FAQ for more details. Character Activity Feeds: Each character's activity feed shows the most recent in-game actions of the character that can be recorded by the Armory. These include achievements, boss kills, item acquisitions, and more. Character feeds can be customized using our customization tool, then exported as RSS feeds to your RSS reader of choice. Refer to the Character Feed FAQ for more details. Player Calendar Feeds: Another new Armory tool allows you to export in-game player calendar data to calendar applications such as Outlook, or to online calendars such as Google Calendar. The tool can aggregate up to five characters on your account in a single feed, and is automatically synched with the characters' in-game player calendars. Refer to the Calendar Feed FAQ for more details. Character Profiles: Character profiles have been redesigned to accomodate these new features and with the goal of improving usability and clarity, such as the Gear List view for a character's items.

These sounds like some fantastic changes, bringing WoW's comprehensive web-based character profiles closer to those of, say, Bungie's HALO community. At this rate, one might wonder how long it is before  Blizzard starts nicking ideas off of third party sites and features things like gearscore evaluators and more detailed progression monitors! But if none of these upcoming tweaks float your boat, there's still a good reason to visit the Armory these days anyway: they now feature loot tables for the entirety of Icecrown Citadel aside from whatever drops off of the Lich King (since his fight has not been externally tested or revealed in any form yet). So, do any of you readers plan on using these upcoming features? I think I might make use of the Character Activity feed if I can do something like, say, link it to my Twitter account, lest I become too annoying to those who follow me!

There were significant changes regarding factions in patch 3.3. There was the addition of the Ashen Verdict, an alliance between the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Argent Crusade. Players gain reputation mainly by killing bosses and trash in the Icecrown Citadel raid. The benefits of doing this include a ring that is upgradable at higher reputation levels. The rings have recently been data-mined by MMO-Champion:

Spec	Friendly (251)	Honored (259)	Revered (268)	Exalted (277)
Tank	Ashen Band of Courage	Greater Courage	Unmatched Courage	Endless Courage
Phys.DPS	Ashen Band of Vengeance	Greater Vengeance	Unmatched Vengeance	Endless Vengeance
Spell DPS	Ashen Band of Destruction	Greater Destruction	Unmatched Destruction	Endless Destruction
Healing	Ashen Band of Wisdom	Greater Wisdom	Unmatched Wisdom	Endless Wisdom

Death Knights, Paladins, and Warriors friendly with the Ashen Verdict can begin the questline that allows them to obtain Shadowmourne, the new legendary axe. Of course, only a few players will actually be able to obtain Shadowmourne due to its high cost and the requirements of gathering rare shards from Icecrown Citadel bosses and other expensive materials. Various professions have learnable recipes that can be purchased Primordial Saronite, the new Crusader Orb-type item. Additionally, players that grind all the way to exalted earn the achievement Ashen Verdict. There are no dailies; the only way to grind reputation is to raid Icecrown Citadel. There are some other significant reputation changes besides the addition of the Ashen Verdict. Perhaps the biggest change is that commendation badges are purchasable with Emblems of Triumph. You can pick up a one-time use item that increases your reputation with either The Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, Wyrmrest Accord, or Sons of Hodir by 520 from your local Emblem of Triumph vendor. Those Sons of Hodir shoulder enchants are now BoA and can be sent to alts, so you if you want exalted with them purely for the shoulder enchants, you only need to do it on one character. Additionally, all of those reputations plus the Horde Expedition and the Alliance Vanguard have had their gains increased by 30%. One major undocumented change is that level 80 dungeons and all Wrath heroics now give reputation with the Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard when not wearing a tabard, as opposed to the Warsong Offensive or Valiance Expedition prior to patch 3.3. This means that its much easier to get exalted this those factions. Gaining reputation with those factions also gives reputation to all of their subfactions, such as The Taunka, The Hand of Vengeance, Warsong Offensive, and The Sunreavers (and Alliance equivalents). Anyone got The Exalted yet?

[caption id="attachment_9020" align="alignright" width="317" caption="Obviously You Need Droves Of Bugs. Large Bugs."][/caption] This week saw the not-so-surprising launch of the Fall of the Lich King.  Coinciding with its release was the not-so-surprising downtime of my main's archaic server, Magtheridon-US.  The one upside to the lengthy instability was that I managed to tackle most of my patch day goals.  Solidsamm is in a new guild, my AH alt has already made hundreds of gold (surprisingly, Rhino Meat was in huge demand and became my best seller), I touched up on some lore during the patching process, and only one of my add-ons was outright broken.  Even though I managed to get the basics done, I was still meet with plenty of personal downtime.  During these uninteresting stretches of time I began to wonder what makes a patch memorable. Surely, Patch 3.0 was an entertaining patch.  Even though it had some people at odds with the zombiefication of the Azerothian nation and broke damn near every add-on, it reinvigorated the community.  It brought people to World of Warcraft in droves, new and old players.  It reintroduced people to long forgotten lore and rekindled our interest with the fallen Lordaeron.  Most importantly, it introduced us to something different, the new zombie gameplay mechanic, even if it was only for a short time. So what is it that makes a patch "good?"  Is it being able to play on launch day?  Not having to upgrade our add-ons?  The ability to bring in new players, while tempting the old?  Does a good patch extend beyond the direct mode of digital interaction?  Will it lead us to expand our knowledge of Azeroth, or just introduce us to new dungeons, raids and experiences? For me, nothing has come close to touching Patch v1.9, The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, that just so happened to answer all of the above questions with emphatic "yes."  It fascinated players months before its release thanks to the lengthy quest that preceded it.  It redesigned an entire zone, introduced the Old Gods to the world for the first time, opened two new raids, featured numerous factions and had the most epic serverwide event to grace World of Warcraft.  The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj had me go to sleep at 2:00AM, only to wake up at 7:00 AM to be a part of the gate ceremony, scripted event and celebration.  That is something I'll never forget. Fall of the Lich King certainly has a lot going for it right now, but I don't know if Arthas' death will be able to overcome the unforgettable server event that had players, and factions, working together on for months.  What's your favorite patch so far, and why?

Along with all the new content that each of the major WoW content patches brings, it seems that Blizzard also is putting more and more emphasis lately on players continuing to enjoy and benefit from the older content, as well. Patch 3.3 continues along this tradition in a very big way. First, we've got the implementation of Frost badges for the newest, shiniest vendor-bought gear yet. But it'll take a while for even the best-geared players to gather enough of those to actually redeem them. Then, there's the upgraded emblem drops from heroics. Instead of Emblems of Conquest, now all heroic dungeons completed through the new Daily Random Dungeon finder will drop two Emblems of Triumph. In case you missed it in those long and detailed patch notes, here's exactly how the new system works:

• The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day.
• The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day.
• Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time.

So that means, if someone were to go absolutely ALL OUT in one day and complete all 16 heroic dungeons (including the three new ones) plus one random regular dungeon, here's what they'd get.

• 2 Emblems of Frost for that first random heroic.
• 30 Emblems of Triumph for the remaining 15 random heroics.
• 2 more Emblems of Triumph for the first regular random daily.
• And all that's in addition to one emblem you get per EACH of the 60 heroic bosses.
• Add it up, and that's 92 Emblems of Triumph just for running random dungeons. In one day!
• ...Then, have someone else start forming groups so you can bypass the dungeon lockout period (I wonder if that'll get fixed...)

Not that I would recommend trying to cram all that into one day, but I'm sure someone out there is going to do it, if it hasn't been done already. Here's what I do recommend: It seems that love it or hate it, the emblem system probably is going to stick around for a while. So if there's still Triumph gear that you need, or reputation that you need to grind (also purchasable with Triumph badges), you may as well take advantage. Chain up random heroics whenever you have a free 30-45 minutes in game. Especially if you're pairing that with continuing regular 10- and 25-man ToC, Onyxia and VoA runs, they'll add up pretty quickly. My personal goal is to get that full PvP set. I wasn't really planning on it, but I'm not going to let my emblems go to waste, either. Got the helm, just 250 badges to go! As for my remaining Conquest badges, I'm downgrading them all to buy gems for my new gear. Sad in a way, but it works. Anyone else planning to stock up on Triumph badges now that they're easier to come by?

[caption id="attachment_9044" align="alignright" width="299" caption="So Long, And Thanks For All The Bleeds"][/caption] One of the thing's that has drawn me to healing is that the role offers many tactical decisions.  Spamming this or that ability is fine in the short term, but if an encounter is going to last more than a minute I need to be more mana conscious.  Ghostcrawler recently said that this would become more of an issue in Cataclysm, a decision I cheered.  Rogues are a different cup of tea. A Mutilate rogue's (slightly modified for Patch 3.3, rock a Fan of Knives or a Tricks of the Trade glyph in the last spot) rotation has become even more basic thanks to Patch 3.3 and its blatant disregard for the Rupture ability.  There's simply nothing to think about as far as finishers go, just spam Envenom.  A Rupture-less rotation was possible for Combat rogues previously, but it required quality gear and a high amount of ArPen.  For most players it was a theoretical possibility, not a practical one.  Now everyone and their brother (who's a Paladin) can increase their DPS by ignoring another finisher. Frankly, the removal of Rupture from the normal raiding rotation (you may need a 1-point Rupture to apply Hunger for Blood) annoys me.  Obviously, I can still chose to use the bleed out of principal, but I'd be drastically reducing my DPS.  That's something I tend to avoid.  Until Blizzard comes in and nerfs the Mutilate build - you better believe it's going to get normalized to Combat's output - I am forced to return to the old days of 11112.  Only now it's more like 112 thanks to extra combo points from crits. I don't want to complain about the small modification to my rotation making the game easier, but when tactical decisions are removed I don't know how else to describe it.  Now the only timer I need to watch is HfB's. I'm sure there are many rogues out there wondering exactly what they should be doing in Patch 3.3.  That discussion is outside of my rant, but here's a good ElitistJerks thread detailing the basic mechanics for today's rogue, and another with an incredibly complex spreadsheet. Quick tip for Mutilate rogues Your new rotation after getting Hunger for Blood and Slice and Dice up is: Mutilate (to 4 or 5 points hard) then Envenom.  Rinse and repeat.

[caption id="attachment_6419" align="alignright" width="259" caption="Depressed and alone, Onyxia seeks refuge at the top of her Lair and the bottom of a bottle of Jack."][/caption] No matter how many bugs Blizzard attempts to squash during the testing period (and it's a lengthy list, already), some are going to slip through. There's just nothing you can do about it with a game of this size and complexity. As a result, expect to see plenty of small tweaks applied to the game over the next few weeks, perhaps even nerfs to Icecrown Citadel bosses. The first of those updates has already been unleashed on the servers, and typically, they concern a lot of the new content. Things such as reducing the drop rate of Epic items in the 5-man dungeons of the Frozen Halls or fixing the problems with bosses respawning and players disconnecting towards the end of the chase sequence in Halls of Reflection. But if there's one thing that definitely needed the attention, it was Onyxia. And, thankfully, she got it. Perhaps jealous of all the attention being given to the new bosses in the game, Onyxia decided she was going to pitch a hissy fit and defiantly stay in Phase 2, unwilling to come down or be killed. My guild encountered this unfortunate bug and I've heard tales from around the internet of many others encountering the same issue, as well. So good news, everyone, it's been dealt with! Here is the full list of tweaks for 12/9/09, including giving the old dragoness her meds:

• Onyxia has settled down and is once again killable and flying in the proper areas during phase 2.
• Icetouched Earthragers casting Avalanche now deals appropriate damage.
• The quest “Keeping the Enemy at Bay” is now completable.
• Totems are no longer targeted by chain effects as intended.
• The Death Knight chest piece, Scourgelord Chestguard, has been updated to reflect appropriate tanking statistics.
• Emblem of Triumph quartermasters now exchanges one Emblem of Conquest for one Emblem of Triumph.
• The NPC Usuri Brightcoin in Dalaran now exchanges one Emblem of Triumph for one Emblem of Frost.
• Bosses no longer respawn in the new Frozen Halls 5 player dungeon after being defeated.
• Scourgelord Tyrannus now heals to full when the encounter begins.
• The chance for epic items to drop off trash mobs in the Icecrown Citadel raid dungeons has been reduced.
• The chance for epic items to drop off trash mobs in the Frozen Halls 5 player dungeons has been reduced.
• Running up the ramp at the end of the 3rd encounter in Halls of Reflection will no longer disconnect players. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843673&sid=1
• Trading soulbound items will no longer make them appear as lost. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723842445&sid=1
• Improved Counterspell now triggers Burning Determination as intended.
• The Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch daily quest is now properly offered to players of all levels.
• The quest “No Mercy for the Merciless” can now be completed as intended.

Likewise, there's been an interesting development on the Icecrown Citadel progression front. You may recall that we figured out that the next section of the dungeon, The Plagueworks, would be released in 28 days (now 26, I believe) on January 5th. Blizzard has confirmed this date, though they also verified that the reason for such a long wait was, in fact, the holidays and assured us it wouldn't be that long the next time. It also seems as though the number of attempts allowed on the primary bosses of each wing (not including the Storming the Citadel section we currently have access to) has been bumped up by five.  That's to say that instead of getting 5 for Professor Putricide, 10 for Blood Queen Lana'Thel, and 15 for the Frostwing Halls, we'll now get 10, then 15, then 20. Hopefully it'll reduce the QQing when people start getting rolled on these bosses.

[caption id="attachment_9027" align="alignright" width="580" caption="By Contest I Mean Fun With The RNG"][/caption] Remember when I went to PAX and played a little game called Global Agenda?  You'll recall that I enjoyed the game thoroughly.  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at just how polished and finished the game felt all those months ago.  I've been following the title since then, seeking answers to the questions I originally had, while attempting to score myself beta access.  I have done one better.  I've not only scored myself beta access, but access for a good number of PL readers! If you're interested in shooting me in the face - honestly, why wouldn't you be? - then here's your chance.

• Go to http://www.globalagendagame.com.
• Use referral code "ProjectLore-GABETA" (without the quotes) when registering.
• If you've already registered, simply login, go to "My Account," then go to the Beta Registration tab and update your Referral Code to "ProjectLore-GABETA".

Cross your fingers and hope you're one of the lucky ones.  If you are, you'll receive the pertinent from Hi-Rez Studios tomorrow (Thursday) evening.  That should give you enough time to look over details to the game, select a character, create a payload and download all the necessary files for the Weekend Beta. Good luck, and I'll see you in hell.  Or maybe I'll be healing you to victory.

[caption id="attachment_8661" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Abominations await your arrival at the Plagueworks in an oddly patient manner."][/caption] Now that Patch 3.3 and Icecrown Citadel have been released, players might be wondering when the next section of the dungeon is set to unlock. Sure, most of us have still only gotten a taste of the first wing, but there are also those that are already itching for more content. You know, players with top tier groups or guilds who went together as a whole onto the PTR to test the content ahead of time (and, subsequently, already know the fights quite well). Apparently, once you defeat Deathbringer Saurfang, you can talk to your faction's NPC (Elder Saurfang or Muradin Bronzebeard, a.k.a. the one you fought the Gunship Battle with) and they'll tell you how many days are left until they get the door down. As of yesterday (December 8th), it was a full four weeks, putting the release of the Plagueworks just after the new year on January 5th. This isn't such a bad thing when you consider that over the next few weeks, many guilds are going to have trouble progressing because of the holidays, so releasing the next piece of content after all that is over is probably a wise idea. But if it's also four weeks between each subsequent wing comes online, then I can see fans getting very antsy (myself included). At that point, we might not see the Lich King or Heroic modes until April at the earliest. It also kind of begs the question: what the hell is the Lich King doing for all that time? Not that it's much of a surprise, I suppose. Arthas has a serious case of Orcus On His Throne (just look at whose picture is cited as an example!). He's been loafing on his icy duff for the past ten years or so, and even since he decided to start assaulting Azeroth again, he's spent the last several months letting heroes gradually encroach on his domain when he clearly had plenty of times to kill them. Now we're taking a month to bust down his back door and he's just going to sit there on the Frozen Throne, pulling an Al Bundy with his hand halfway down his loincloth! So let's hope that this lengthy wait is just a grace period to let the dust settle and allow people to get used to all the new content and features over the holidays so that they can get serious about raiding once 2010 rolls around.

Check it out at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/implemented/3p3.xml. This was a very inspiring trailer. The souls trapped inside Frostmourne seem to be able to interact with the living, so it may be that we see some familiar faces in the battle against Arthas. The flashback scenes from Warcraft III are beautifully rendered in the game engine. This really gets me pumped up to take down Arthas!

At last. In the Fall of the Lich King content update (3.3), the great doors of Icecrown Citadel will be forced open. The mightiest heroes of the Horde and Alliance will confront and finally defeat Arthas, the Lich King -- but the lord of the Scourge will not easily part with his sword, his life, or his frozen kingdom. This update includes an all-new raid and winged five-player dungeon; numerous interface improvements, including detailed quest tracking and instant cross-realm dungeons; scores of new quests and achievements; the epic tier-10 armor sets, and numerous class and system updates. You can find specific info, patch notes, and extensive details on all of the additions below. The price of victory in Northrend grows higher with each passing day. Charge the gates, and bring an end to the wrath of the Lich King!

Have you ever purchased and used one of Blizzard's Account Authenticators? Then you're in for a fun little surprise waiting for you in the mailbox when (or rather, if) you can log into your account today! The company has seen fit to reward those players who have practiced account safety by giving them an exclusive in-game pet called the Core Hound Pup. These little guys look, predictably, like their larger, older brethren what with the two heads and gaping, magma-filled maws. But while they're only an eighth of the size, they're about a hundred times cuter. The Core Hound Pop will periodically roll around on the ground, roll back on their hind legs and beg, and all sorts of other sickeningly sweet activities. It may even be enough to stop you from looting all that Leather in Molten Core! Though there has been no official FAQ released or anything concerning the vanity pet, Nethaera indicates that there is no specific time period for obtaining the pet if you don't have an Authenticator yet:

The Core Hound Pup is a gift for anyone using an authenticator (attached to an account) whether it's the physical authenticator or the mobile authenticator. Anyone who attaches an authenticator will also receive this lovable new pet. Think of it as your own personal guard dog.

Pretty cool, huh? If you're unfamiliar with the device, it can be linked to your Battle.net account and gives you a new code that must be entered every time you log into the account or World of Warcraft. This is supposed to add an extra layer of security so that even if a hacker is able to steal your password, they won't have access to the randomized codes. I'm a bad player and actually haven't bought an Authenticator yet, myself, but I do have an iPod Touch that I might be willing to load the app onto. Is this pet enough for you to finally procure an Authenticator if you don't already have one?