Project Lore

A new season of PvP is upon us! Along with all the great new armor for arena players, there is a lot of gear you can get without ever stepping foot into the arena. The entire Deadly Gladiator set is available for honor only, and many pieces can be attained in the Vault of Archavon. The chart below should be a handy reference for what pieces you can pick up. Its sorted first by rating required, with the first dozen or so not requiring any rating. This means you can get them from just doing battlegrounds. The "honor required" and "arena required" columns are non-exclusive; that is, a piece with an entry in both columns means that you must pay both the honor and arena points cost. For some pieces, you have a choice as to whether to use just honor or honor and arena points. Those options are listed in the "option two" columns. The VoA column shows the pieces that drop in the Vault of Archavon, with E25 standing for 25-man Emalon, K10 standing for Koralon 10-man, and K25 standing for Koralon 25-man.

Item	Rating Required	Honor Required	Arena Required	VoA	Option Two: Honor	Option Two: Arena
Deadly Gladiator's Idol/Libram/etc	0	15300	0
Deadly Gladiator's Gloves	0	31600	0		7200	200
Furious Gladiator's Wrists	0	31600	0	E25/K10
Deadly Gladiator's Shoulders	0	31600	0		9600	275
Furious Gladiator's Necklace	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Rings	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Cloak	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Deadly Gladiator's Legs	0	49600	0		12000	350
Deadly Gladiator's Tunic	0	49600	0		12000	350
Deadly Gladiator's Helm	0	49600	0		12000	350
Furious Gladiator's Belt	0	49600	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Boots	0	49600	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's PvP Trinket	0	49600	0
Furious Gladiator's Idol/Libram/etc	700	6400	350
Furious Gladiator's Gloves	800	7200	400	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Legs	900	12000	700	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Tunic	1000	12000	700
Furious Gladiator's Helm	1100	12000	700
Relentless Gladiator's Wrists	1200	39400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Belt	1250	62000	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Boots	1300	62000	0	K25
Furious Gladiator's Shoulders	1350	9600	550
Relentless Gladiator's Gloves	1400	0	1300	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Neck	1450	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Rings	1500	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Legs	1550	0	2150	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Tunic	1600	0	2150
Relentless Gladiator's Battlemaster Trinket	1650	62000	0
Relentless Gladiator's Cloak	1750	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Weapons/OH/Wands (Tier 1)	1800	15000+	1100+
Relentless Gladiator's Helm	1900	0	2150
Relentless Gladiator's Shoulders	2000	0	1750
Relentless Gladiator's Weapons/OH/Wands (Tier 2)	2200	0	1245+
Relentless Gladiator's Tabard	2350	0	500

What are you going for this season?

Click to read more ...

I've had a ton to keep my busy in WoW since dinging level 80 a couple of weeks ago. There's rep to grind, daily heroics to run and farming of the ToC to be had (building up my purple collection FTW). But on the side when I have a few moments (or hours) to spare, I've taken up exploring Azeroth. Perhaps it's not something that most players would have at the top of their priority list after hitting 80, but so far for me it's been a bit of a nostalgic way to re-visit the old world, run through parts I've never seen before, and earn some achievements in the process. Plus, now we have an even more compelling reason. With the imminent destruction of Azeroth in the Cataclysm, this could be the last time I see some of these zones before they are changed forever. Sure, I'll likely visit Orgrimmar and UC, but the surrounding areas? Probably not. And we still don't know what the expansion will mean for exploration achievements - if a zone is completely altered to the point of being split in two (I'm thinking Barrens), will the old exploration achievements be locked? The same could be said for questing in the Old World, but that's for a later conquest. Maybe there will be some middle ground on the issues, but I'd rather not take my chances. Anyhow, back on point. I started out in Kalimdor, from good ol' Durotar, where I had neglected to uncover Kolkar Crag. Then it was west to the grasslands of the Barrens, where my Zhevra visited her long-lost cousin. I worked my way west and then to the north, finishing off a couple of uncovered areas in each zone of Thousand Needles, Feralas, Mulgore, Desolace, Azshara, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Felwood and Winterspring (and /love-ing every critter I see along the way). One of the high points: running into a pack of Worgen hiding out in Ashenvale and beating up on a few of them (good practice for future PvP fun). There also was Moonglade and Dark Shore, neither of which I had stepped foot in before. So far, I've finished up 14 of the 20 zones in Kalimdor, but I've still got a long ways to go before hitting that coveted Explorer title. It's easy to forget, when hidden away in the deep corners of Northrend, how vast and diverse Azeroth is. My secret pleasure - I've really enjoyed running into some of those humanoid tribes that you don't see too much of anymore: The Centaurs, Ogres, Furbolgs, Harpies and Wildkin of the world. I suppose Murlocs still are a pretty common sight, but I also made a point to run over top of every single murloc I came across, just to hear their gurgling battle cry while I galloped away. And more fun is yet to be had. I still have more nostalgia to come as I finish up Kalimdor, then head to the Eastern Kingdoms. Has anyone else taken to exploring lately? What about any other achievements that you want to get before the expansion? Don't worry if not - it seems that we'll still have quite a while before it comes out.

Click to read more ...

Painful Picture Taken From Kidsdomain.com Ever since leaving the school yard, I've almost entirely lost track of time.  My life is no longer book-ended from one test, project or boring subject to another.  We've got our own deadlines here in the "real world," but they don't stress me out to the extent that school deadlines used to.  I just want to let all of you school goers, be you in K-12, a university or graduate school, that I feel for you.  At the same time I am incredibly glad that you are back in your version of the daily grind. It's not the misery loves company mantra either.  It's the simple fact that with everyone returning to school, and even office workers returning from vacations, the servers are particularly free of gathering competition during a wide swath of time.  Example, over the course of an hour or so Solidsagart was able to gather roughly a half dozen stacks of Tiger Lily, Goldclover and Adder's Tongue.  Scoring herself a fistful of Frost Lotus in the process.  Even more shocking is that I wasn't actively looking for herbs.  I just picked the weeds as I went about my leveling business. After pocketing months worth of raiding weeds - don't forget, I am casual - I decided to see if the situation was a fluke of Sagart's good fortune, or something that Solidsamm could capitalize on.  After making the rounds across Icecrown it became clear, not a fluke.  Both toons where damn near trapped in an endless run around their respected zones.  From node to node they scurried, picking and chipping, reaping hundreds, if not thousands, of gold in materials.  All while you were at the first day of courses - always the worst day - or staring at a giant load of papers in your inbox. I was lucky enough to repeat the rounds over the last few days.  Lucky for two reasons.  First, it's only a matter of time before everyone gets back into their routines.  Allowing those with easy access to WoW time to login between meetings or during breaks.  Secondly, I also have a working routine, and actually playing WoW during the middle of the day isn't part of it.  The only reason I was able to do it these last few days is that I was hit with the PAX POX.  I may have been riding your return to school a little hard, but at least you weren't aching, sweating, and, well, let's just say allergic to eating and drinking, for four days.  On the up side, I did lose almost 10 pounds.  The Flu - Diet Craze of 2009. Anyone else manage to reap the benefits of empty servers?  If you haven't yet, you may want to try soon, because I doubt the lands will be as barren after next week.  Fear not raiders, the Ruiner of Guilds is almost gone!

Click to read more ...

Blue Stew is a new semi-daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. PvPvPvE Would you look at this pair of winners... In one thread, Paladin extraordinaire, Feanorion, wonders:

"why are PvE concerns being trumped by the concerns of such a miniscule portion of the subscriber population? "

And in another, posted the same day, Fireweed puts on her frowny-face:

"Since the Illidan kill in TBC I swore I would not touch PvE ever, ever again. It's mind numbing, forces you to deal with people you never want to deal with on your free time, it requires way too much dedication in the scene/too many people and to stay in a guild that is capable to handle it and so forth... What I really enjoy about this game is arena, even some random battlegrounds here and there with a small group."

This, friends, is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the average complainer's mentality towards the game : "I don't like it, so it shouldn't be there!" I've said time and time again that I'm not particularly in favor of PvP, at least not to its extremes, but that's the way I prefer to play. I'm not going to outright deny the ways in which other people might have fun. But the fact of the matter is that if any decisions to change the underlying structure of Warcraft, it would be based on an entirely different group altogether, as Ghostcrawler so handily points out:

"If you expect us to balance around the most popular way to play the game, then you'd see most of our changes aimed at low level alts and very few end-game raiding tanking changes. "

I think we all get so caught up in the endgame, that we forget most people who subscribe to WoW simply enjoy tooling around, by themselves, or with a couple of close friends, in the lower levels of the game. These are the people that like to level up over a week, not a couple of hours. And these are the people that enjoy picking herbs just because they enjoy picking herbs, not because they need to make flasks for the next raid. And that's why I think Cataclysm is going to be such a big hit with the community. It refocuses the game on these types of players without entirely forgetting those at the level cap. You see, WoW is a lot like this scrum-diddly-umptious cake... (image courtesy of http://www.mmmmbrains.com/blogg/) But even ignoring this group of players, can't we just all accept that PvP and PvE are integral parts of the game? I used to be a nay-sayer, too, but I've long since learned that both styles are like two delicious flavors coming together to make World of Warcraft just as enjoyable as a tasty little peanut butter cup! Ghostcrawler explains in a seperate thread why you will never see them split:

"Internal consistency for belief in the game world is part of it. Just keeping complexity down is another part of it. We don't want to see every spell or talent have two tooltips and players having to keep all of that straight. It just feels like two games with one art set at that point, which isn't what we're going for."

Please Explain Argent Tournament Reset Seems like the Faction Change service includes everything but the kitchen sink. Or, in this case, Argent Tournament progress. Kisirani gives a simple enough answer:

"I'm responding to this thread because it's written in a calm and concise manner, so thank you for that. Simply put, while it was not a decision we enjoyed making, due to the way the Argent Tournament functions it was not feasible on a technical level to properly switch progress between factions. I am sorry we were unable to offer a better solution."

I wish he would've expanded a bit more on that, but then again, that's due to my own curiosity. I'm always intrigued to know how the game is built, how its underlying systems are structured to allow certain things and not others. While I have no way of being specific myself, I imagine it's the case of simply coding, or constructing, the Argent Tournament in a certain way at a time before the requirements for the Faction Change service were fully laid out, leaving the two aspects of the game incompatible with each other. So for those of you still considering a Faction Change, please keep this in mind. You'll have to do the Argent Tournament all over again (though, presumably, the earned reputation with each home city will remain intact, even if the quest progress doesn't). And for those of you who already did, without realizing this caveat, I'm sorry! That's potentially months worth of daily work down the drain! Earthen Power Nerf: Overkill Oh, it's the weekend. I'll throw you guys one more bone to look over! This one's for the Enhancement Shamans out there, in response to the most recent PTR patch update, which makes changes to the way in which Earthen Power works, potentially affecting their performance in Arena teams:

"The 3.2.2 PTR change to earthen power will be crippling to Enhancement Shaman, I am not saying that this talent isn't a bit too powerful, but granting the shaman short term immunity to movement impairing effects is not the issue, the issue is it granting the shamans team mates the immunity. Removing the immunity from the shaman themselves will do nothing but cripple a spec that has just recently regained viability, without showing any form of dominance, except as a part of a counter RMP team in one tournament, a tournament which doesn't well reflect the state of play on live (nothing over item level 213)... I would propose that if you feel earthen power is overly powerful, you remove the snare immunity from allied targets, but leave it on the shaman, else we will see a return enhancement shaman being unable to stick to a target. We already suffer greatly from a lack of controllable damage, reliance on long cooldowns (bloodlust/heroism, spirit wolves), and inability to kill healers. Returning Enhancement Shaman an easy to kite class will severely undermine everything you have done to give us arena viability."

Ghostcrawler explains that they favored Ghost Wolf as a reducer of movement-impairing effects instead:

"We think Earthen Power and the Ghost Wolf change were trying to solve the same problem. Together they felt like overkill to us, and we thought the Ghost Wolf change was more interesting so we kept that one. Your mileage may vary and I would be surprised if many shaman agreed since they were the target of the nerf."

Alright, folks! Have a fantastic weekend, but don't forget to respond and let us know what you think about all of these different subjects before you do!

Click to read more ...

And I thought the possible announcement of in-game prizes was an exciting enough reason to start following Warcraft on Twitter! Not but a few minutes ago was a new, tantalizing hook posted to the game's page, and it says the following:

The mysteries of the Abyssal Maw are starting to take shape… #WoW

What we currently know of the Abyssal Maw. Just when you thought it was over, they reel you back in! But what could this really mean? For the uninitiated, the Abyssal Maw is the Plane of the Water Elementals, which we recently learned we'd be visiting in the next expansion. As yet, we only know of one portal to the alternate dimension, a swirling whirlpool in the center of the new zone, Vashj'ir. We also know that it will contain at least two leveling dungeons for 80-85 level players. So, does that mean we might be learning more about this unexplored area in the very near future? The Abyssal Maw was highlighted heavily in various panels at Blizzcon, perhaps indicating that it is one of the pieces of fresh, high-level content that's the furthest along in development. And that means it may also be the first that we get an extensive preview of. It hasn't even been a month since the expansion's reveal, and yet the time seems ripe for Blizzard to start peeling back the veil on Cataclysm little by little. Very little else can be gleaned from this brief tease, and there's no way that we can confirm at the moment if anything is true. After all, there's always the possibility that this might pertain to the comic series or the TCG,  but we'll keep our eyes glued to Twitter for any further information, which we will no doubt bring to the rest of you! Speculation is always fun, though. Readers, what do you think this strange message might mean?

Click to read more ...

Blue Stew is a new semi-daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. Yesterday was 9/9/09, guys and gals. An important date in history, and not only for its numerical symmetry! If you hadn't heard yet, it was the day that The Beatles made their triumphant return (as if they could ever, truly, go away). Not only was The Beatles: Rock Band released, but so was the entire remastered album collection. It also marked the 10-year anniversary of the Dreamcast console, arguably the gaming console with the most concentrated amount of awesome in the history of the medium. It didn't last very long, but it really blazed some trails while it did. So what about the forums? Well, they're still kind of reeling from the long weekend, sadly, but there's at least one indication it's back on the road to recovery: Ghostcrawler is posting again! And, thanks to some data-mined PTR patch notes, he's got a helluva Hunter problem to deal with... Bestial Wrath Change Flies from your glaive! According to the new PTR build, the BM Hunter skill "Bestial Wrath" is undergoing some modifications. This "last ditch" technique is being reduced to from 18 seconds to 10. It's companion skill, "The Beast Within," is getting a similar reduction, but now also increases the Hunter's damage by 10% for the duration. It seems as though the primary justification for this change is as follows (according to Ghostcrawler):

"It should be no surprise to anyone who has been on these boards for long that we're trying to chill out abilities that convey offensive and defensive bonuses with the same button press. At the same time, BM damage was a little low and too dependent on the pet. With this change, hopefully, Bestial Wrath becomes more of a defensive ability while taking Beast Within will boost hunter (and just the hunter) damage at all times."

Of course, this change is based mostly on the class' Arena performance. Not specifically that they're good or bad (according to many, Hunters have been nearly shut out from Arena teams altogether), but rather that this particular skill doesn't fit in with Blizzard's philosophy on how Arena should work. In and of itself, it may be one of the Hunter's most powerful PvP abilities, but leaving it alone simply due to poor overall class performance is not fixing the problem. That's to say you don't give a diabetic kid a candy bar just to make him feel better. The way I understand it, Blizzard just doesn't want Hunters relying on "Bestial Wrath" so much, and more positive changes that could offset this nerf, and bring up BM-spec DPS and utility in other ways, will come later. Besides, GC let slip that, even though it's not on the new tooltip yet, "Bestial Wrath" also breaks CC when activated. Let's remember, folks, that this is all still on the PTR. These things aren't final and who knows if they'll even make it to the live servers. Nonetheless, that didn't stop the forums from exploding with complaints. Morobir can't remember where he left his keys and is planning on suing the car company for making such hard-to-find keys. It turns out he simply can't stand that 10% of the population that can go anywhere they want anytime they want just because they have such an easy time staying organized! He rages on the "Bestial Wrath" subject as such:

"Thanks. Thanks so much for basing all your balancing decisions on a stupid mini-game that 90% of WoW players don't play and don't care about. Now that you've nerfed my spec. into the ground I can go into battlegrounds and get completely destroyed while everyone counters all 10 seconds of my Bestial Wrath. That will be so much fun. I could go in untalented and not do much worse."

Now, I am not the most preeminent Arena player in the game. In fact, I've admitted before that I have next to no experience with it. And you know why? Because it's quite involved, it takes a lot of effort to gear up and learn different sorts of strategies in order to compete. A stupid little mini-game, I think not! Even if I'm not a fan, I can see that much. But I honestly expected such complaints to come from someone who favors PvE combat, not a fellow PvP player. Methinks Morobir doesn't quite understand the more flexible nature of Battlegrounds, and Ghostcrawler seems to agree:

"Most of the PvP discussions in these forums tend to focus on Arena balance because frankly that's what most of the participants here seem interested in discussing. If I had to guess, it's because you are constantly running into BG situations in which class balance makes very little difference, say the other team was smarter with how they handled the flags. Or maybe you just plain went up against 20 opponents at once, in which even our most naive posters don't really expect their 51-point talent or whatever to be able to save them... Perhaps Arenas just shine a harsher light on class balance than do BGs."

Indeed, it seems rare that changes to a single skill are going to drastically affect your performance in a Battleground. There are simply too many other factors to consider, from the macro (how did your whole team do) to the micro (were your key skills on cooldown?). Arena matches don't last nearly as long, and you're probably going to find yourself using skills like "Bestial Wrath" only once over the duration. Unless Morobir is one of those "special" people who run around worrying solely about their DPS and Honor Kills instead of actually helping their team capture points and win. Hunters may able to rely on themselves in the wild, but in the middle of a war, they better learn some teamwork! Anyway, I think that's quite enough for this edition of Blue Stew. Sure, I only covered one subject today, but it's an awfully meaty one, and it's most certainly the topic du jour on the official forums. I'd really like to see the Hunters chime in on this one. I might've gone a little harsh on Mr. Morobir there, but I know there are a lot more level-headed folks out there that can perhaps clarify just how they think they'll be affected by the changes to "Bestial Wrath." The floor is yours!

Click to read more ...

A Look At A Trio Of Upcoming MMORPGs In a role reversal from this past E3, Activision decided to sit out the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo, allowing Blizzard - a developer that had a convention dedicated to themselves two weeks ago - to attend the show.  As you might expect the big B didn't hold anything back at BlizzCon.  Blizzard's modest space at PAX was used to showcase the company's upcoming trio of titles by allowing thousands of fans the chance to stand in lengthy lines.  Sound familiar? Since Blizzard didn't offer us anything new - you can check out our Worgen or Goblin thoughts or the entire BlizzCon 2009 archive - I decided to mosey around PAX.  During my trip around the plague infested Washington Convention Center I managed to spend some quality time with a pair of upcoming MMORPGs, and some cozy time with the developers for a third. Global Agenda - I didn't actually remember the name Global Agenda until I heard the company's barker - the shoutcaster on the microphone - drop the line "Global Agenda - the game with No Elves."  It was then that I remembered the hilarious teaser video, to bad the title's name didn't stick with me. Global Agenda can easily be described as a Team Fortress 2 MMORPG, but there is more to it than that.  The game features four distinct classes, Robotic (engineer), Medic (healer), Recon (stealth), Assault (tank), customizable payloads and skill trees, multiple objectives per map, multiple map types, PvE, PvP, a "raid" system, loot, crafting Alliances/Agencies (guilds), and other staples of the MMORPG genre.  Unfortunately the things that set it apart from our familiar grounds are still being worked out. Much of my prodding for details on aspects like guild battles, PvE play, and meta game mechanics were unanswered, glossed over or deflected. A Hi-Rez Studios rep did explain that the company is working on the core gameplay mechanics before polishing off the final details.  As far as I can tell the gameplay mechanics are well polished, so I can't wait to hear about the features that set Global Agenda apart from the rest of the pack. Global Agenda is expected to launch by the end of 2009 for an undisclosed subscription rate.  Hit the link above to apply for the upcoming Open Beta. Star Trek Online - Being a bit of a Star Trek fan - yes, nerd all over - I have been following Star Trek Online's development for some time, mostly because of the drama.  I was ecstatic when Cryptic took over the development, not because I have been a huge fan of past work, but because I knew I could trust the company to actually release something. The development team had both aspects of the game on display, ship-to-ship and Away Team combat, and both looked fantastic.  Graphically the game isn't much different than the just released Champions Online, but the two titles vary dramatically in playstyles.  Your standard earth-based battles are done entirely in squads, when grouping with other players or not.  Being the Captain of a ship means you are never alone.  That goes for outer space combat as well, where you Bridge Commanders offer access to special abilities during those hairy moments. Combat for both modes is very Star Trek-ish.  Away team skirmishes thrust players, along with the separately trained bridge commanders, into the thick of battle, guns blazing and/or judo chops flying.  Ship combat is complete with forward and rear arsenals with overlapping fields of fire.  It may seem like a small detail, but being able to unleash three weapons at once upon a Bird of Prey causing it to explode, and then the ship's warp core taking out the downed bird's wingmen (wingklingon?) is not something to scoff at.  In fact, it is a downright badass tactical move.  Impress your friends! The twin demos only showed off the title's combat mechanics, but the handy developer did chat me up about the title's other offerings.  Like Champions Online, Star Trek Online will come with tons of character creation options, to the point that you can make your own alien.  Players will be able to customize each ship they command, and select which bridge commander they chose to take on board.  If a commander doesn't quite fit all your needs then he can be used as a teacher, training the officers you are more comfortable with in his or her expertise.  Lastly, I was told about the mission structure.  Quests will come in all flavors, but the pinnacle will be "episodes."  These quest chains will have players traveling all over the sectors, encountering nasty beasts, wayward wanderers, contemplating the Prime Directive and other minor philosophical issues in 30-45 minute chains.  These can be interrupted and returned to later, in case you are wondering. As surprised as I was by Global Agenda, Star Trek Online shocked me even more.  It's shaping up to be an incredibly attractive and deep sci-fi MMORPG with trade, economics, politics, PvP, PvE, space combat and ground combat.  Consider yourself an MMORPG player and a Star Trek buff?  Then prepare yourself for STO's early 2010 release. Cryptic is also taking beta applications. Star Wars: The Old Republic - This is the MMORPG that I have probably been following the most (but not full force by any means), and yet we know very little about it.  PAX 2009's live demonstrations of The Old Republic didn't really change that either.  The three cheery, well spoken and well rehearsed developers went over the basics of the title, timeline, setting, fully voiced, before diving into anything new. BioWare thankfully didn't stick to rehashing old trailers and highlighting old news.  We got our first taste of the Trooper class in action, a first look at higher level combat and a glimpse at force powers in use by a Sith Warrior (dual wield!).  All of the action played out exactly as one might expect these iconic Star Wars characters to battle.  Troopers used a collection of munitions to take out groups of bad guys, including fire bombs and sticky grenades, mixed in with old-fashioned blasting.  The Sith Warrior was able to parry and deflect incoming laser fire passively, and in fluid animation, while tossing out Force Chokes and Force Lightning to anyone stupid enough to come nearby.  We also learned that we "will not see one duplicate mission."  The two factions do not share certain quests, and neither do the classes.  Sounds like a lot of story, and voice acting, is being fleshed out.  And perhaps the biggest revelation, "The Old Republic will have /dance." BioWare continues to keep many aspects of TOR close to its collective chest, yet what we do know still draws questions.  What does the party UI look like (none was shown during the group session demoed)?  Will we be able to skip through the chat dialogue, in party and out of party?  And, will BioWare's demo team stop dieing during presentations?  Nevertheless, TOR remains one of a few AAA MMORPG titles coming...eventually. There were a few more MMORPGs on display in some fashion, but these are the only three that I spent a considerable amount of time on.  Each title had it's own charm, and I'd love to play all three at least a titch.  If only we had 28 hour days. Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming MMORPG offerings? Which one might pull you away from WoW?

Click to read more ...

Yesterday in 10-mans, we managed to clear all of Trial of the Crusader and then managed to get the tribute chest in Trial of the Grand Crusader on the last possible try. Now that we have some real experience clearing the 10-man version of ToC, tonight The Totally Rad Guild will be trying the 25-man version of the instance tonight... right now! Once we get through Anub'arak (as we did last week), we will be starting on hard modes of the encounters. With just 50 wipes per week to use on the Trial of the Grand Crusader, we'll have some extra stress put on each of our raiders. It will be a lot of fun to see the differences between 10-man and 25-man. Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be continuing our raids, so come back then to see what we have in store next. As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

Click to read more ...

We reported, pre-Blizzcon, that Blizzard had created several new Twitter accounts, each focused on one of the company's key franchises. Some of you started following them instantly, while others maintained their distance from the social networking site wonder what, precisely, it could offer beyond the usual community or news features. Well, so far, the latter would be right. Posts have generally concerned themselves with daily questions, opinion polls, and highlighting the more creative aspects of the Blizzard fandom (things like fan art, stories, and, most recently, papercraft). Though there is an on-going Battlecry contest -- in which fans of the Horde or Alliance update their own accounts with "For the ____!" whenever their side's banner is lifted -- there have yet to be any prizes that you can actually use within the game. But, a recent post on the Warcraft Twitter page hints that might not be the case for long:

We are talking to our licensing department about giving out some#WoW in-game pets/mounts through Twitter. Looks promising. Stay tuned.

That's right, soon enough, you could be earning in-game content just for participating in the usual Twitter shenanigans. I can tell you from personal experience that it's not a sham, either. I recently won a Starcraft 2 Beta Key through Blizzard's Starcraft Twitter page. Generally, these contests involve little more than "re-tweeting" a phrase or offering up your own thoughts on a given subject. At 140 characters, that's not very hard at all. So what sorts of things might Blizzard actually give out? According to another tweet from yesterday, quite possible pets and mounts normally available only through loot cards:

What types of in-game prizes would you like to see us give on Twitter? Interested in #WoW TCG loot items? Spectral Tiger Mounts maybe?

This is wonderful news for those who have no interest in playing (or spending money) on the Trading Card Game. I wouldn't expect to see anything game-changing to be offered through these contests, but vanity items like Spectral Tiger Mounts, alone, are desirable and rare prizes. Do you think this sort of giveaway might get you to sign up for Twitter if you haven't already? Well, if you do, please make sure to follow Project Lore and myself, as well! We're always keen on having new friends to talk to!

Click to read more ...

All right, it's time to get down to business. We've seen a little gameplay footage of the Goblin and Worgen. We've read first-hand accounts on how each new race plays. We know that Goblins like to blow stuff up and Worgens are still shrouded in mystery. But what real crux of the conversation are we all missing? It must be that we don't know what either new Cataclysm race will do for their /dance. After all, I think we learn a little bit more about what makes each race burn with passion inside by the way they shake it. Plus, with us recently learning that The Old Republic MMO also will have a /dance, Blizz has to step up to the plate again to proclaim its /dance supremacy. On the new Cataclysm forums, there have been a few threads speculating on what dance possibilities lie ahead for WoW. We've also had a few of dance suggestions here on our own forums and on previous Project Lore blog posts. I've taken some of the best suggestions I've seen, added a few of my own wild ideas, and put it all together for us to laugh, and perhaps, cry over. Let the show begin. Worgen male I had to start here, because I've seen so, so many people begging for the Worgen male to dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Now no matter what you think of the man, I think its undeniable that MJ was a dancing genius. But some may question whether "Thriller" is right for the Worgen. After all, the dancers in the videos are more like zombies, and the only wolf-like creature from the video doesn't actually do the dance. Plus, Blizzard could not secure the rights to Micael Jackson's "Billie Jean" for the BlizzCon dance contest, so I wonder if that might inhibit them from any sort of rights required to borrow another of his dances. Regardless, "Thriller" has been performed by inmates and movie stars alike. Perhaps male Worgen are destined to be next up. Another idea from the forums that I had to include, although I'm not so sure it would work. Perhaps for those of us who like to think of the Worgen as no more than cute puppy dogs. Here's the Snoopy dance: Worgen female Next up, the female Worgen, with another obvious but perhaps fitting suggestion. We still only have a loose guess of what the female version of the Worgen will even look like. But many forum posters are betting that she'd look good performing a dance inspired by Shakira's "She Wolf." While I like this option, I think it'd be fun to incorporate a lesser-known option (at least for those of us not from Asia). In the past, Blizzard has borrowed dances from French artist Alizee and Bhangra singer Daler Mehndi - so why not some Korean pop influence next? Here's the super-cute Girls' Generation performing "Gee." Goblin female I haven't seen too many suggestions yet for either male or female Goblin, so these are mostly my own ideas. Knowing the Goblins' stereotypical love of commerce and exchange, why not have the females dance to a song demanding a diamond ring? It's a great dance song with some neat moves, plus it's already been the inspiration for a WoW spoof song. Know what I'm suggesting yet? Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)." Here's a version that includes a preview of what could be the next BlizzCon dance contest. Beyonce not your cup of tea? Here's something a bit more classic. A scene from the movie "Flashdance." Goblin male Do Goblins already have a dance? Well that depends on whether you think this is enough for a full on /dance: If that's not satisfactory enough, I'll suggest an alternative: Soulja Boy's "Superman" dance. The little green Goblins would look fantastic pulling this one off. One final suggestion that I've seen thrown around a ton on the forums should not be taken lightly. This goofy, crazy, seizure-inducing meme could be inspiration for the Goblin male, or really, any of the new characters. Here's some Caramelldansen: Well, there's your list folks. What are your fave options? Did I leave something out that you think would work better? Let me know. This post will serve as a good running list of possibilities - so we can see if any of us predicted correctly once Cataclysm is released!

Click to read more ...