Project Lore

Edit: Direct Link to Battle.net Mobile Authenticator on iTunes App Store WoWInsider is reporting that the rumored iPhone Authenticator App is now available for free download on the App Store. I quickly grabbed my iPhone and did a quick search for "Blizzard" on the App store and a scrolled towards the bottom, revealing that it was indeed available for no charge! iPhone users will have to convert their WoW accounts to Battle.net in order to take advantage, but the App is a great alternative for those who haven't been able to find the $6.50 Authenticators due to the constant Sold Out status on the Blizzard store. This should also help relieve some of those supply issues as most users who have the ability will likely choose to use the iPhone over an extra device to carry. The description of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator on the iPhone App Store is:

Do you play World of Warcraft using a Battle.net account? Protect the account with the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for you iPhone, an optional tool that offers an additional layer of security to help prevent unauthorized account access. The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator gives you the security of two-factor authentication. Each time you log in to a Battle.net account, you'll use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator to generate a unique one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. Log in with both and you can rest easy knowing that the account is more secure against unauthorized access.

Now, since installing the program, I haven't been able to find it again on the App Store. Also, many users seem to be having problems finding it in other regions like the UK and Canada. Anyone out there able to get the App installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch? For now, I'll hang on to my key fob, but I may soon be able to get rid of it since I'll always have my phone on me. Of course, that also means I'll have to keep the iPhone charged.

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We know Blizzard is developing a third expansion for World of Warcraft. We know they're developing Diablo III, Starcraft II, and a nameless next-gen MMO. As it turns out, they're also developing a fifth project that will use a completely new engine built from scratch. Silicon Alley Insider reported on a post on DIII.net as they discovered a few job listings filed under "Unannounced Project," which is a different category from the "Next-Gen MMO" that has been used for Blizzards upcoming unnamed MMO. A couple of days later, there was confirmation that the job listings were for a game that had previously not been mentioned:

The job openings mentioned in this newspost is indeed a brand-new game that has not been mentioned before. 1. This brand-new game is not a World of Warcraft expansion, and it is not related to the Next-Gen MMO. 2. In the present, the brand-new game is using the World of Warcraft engine merely for testing purposes. 3. The Client Software Engineer job opening is to hire the person that will have the responsibility to develop an engine from scratch for this game.  This new engine will be built depending on the skill and interest of the person hired for this position. Whether this game is based on the three major franchises (Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo) or a new IP, that remains unknown.

Blizzard has expressed plenty of interest in starting a new franchise, so it wouldn't be too surprising to learn that this new project was completely unrelated to their other works. On the flip side, it would be interesting to see a new Warcraft-related game. What could it possibly be? What are your thoughts? Excited at the prospect of new Blizzard games every year? Nervous that Blizzard may be spreading itself too thin? Silicon Alley Insider sees it as a great new revenue stream for Activision. I just can't wait to see what else Blizzard has up its sleeve.

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Whether or not you find it productive to spend time on the Public Test Realm, it is usually pretty interesting to at least hear about what Blizzard has in store for the future of World of Warcraft. MMO-Champion once again delivers on that front by looking at the latest build of Patch 3.1 on the PTR. With their all-seeing eyes, they've discovered some significant (and not so significant) class and profession changes, new mounts including a turtle, and a plethora of Ulduar Achievements. While the list of class changes is somewhat short, there are some very interesting ones. Paladins have had a few talents rearranged, Death Knights have a slew of changes, and other classes get some minor tweaks, but the the most interesting to me are for Shamans, especially elemental ones which are mostly aimed at PvP. Check them all out on MMO-Champion. The new mounts mentioned sound fun, but I mostly just want the turtle:

• Blue Skeletal Warhorse - Summons and dismisses a rideable Blue Skeletal Warhorse. This is a very fast mount.
• White Kodo - Summons and dismisses a rideable White Kodo.
• Venomhide Ravasaur - Summons and dismisses a rideable Venomhide Ravasaur. This is a very fast mount.
• Coralshell Turtle - Summons and dismisses a rideable Coralshell Turtle. This is a very fast mount, both on land and in water.

Lastly, more and more new achievements are being implemented. With Ulduar being a huge instance with 14 bosses and 11 "hard modes," there were bound to be a ton of them, and the list doesn't even look to be comprehensive as there are no Heroic mode achievements included. Keep in mind that many of the numbers are placeholders and will likely be changed before 3.1 goes live. ***Also beware that the achievement details may spoil some content!***

• The Siege of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Siege area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Antechamber of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Antechamber area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Keepers of Ulduar (Defeat the Keeper bosses of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Descent into Madness (Defeat the bosses of The Descent into Madness area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Secrets of Ulduar (Defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Unbroken (Defeat Flame Leviathan on the first try without anyone repairing their vehicle on Normal Difficulty.)
• Three Car Garage (Defeat Flame Leviathan while in each of the following vehicles on Normal Difficulty.)
• Take Out Those Turrets (Destroy a Flame Leviathan Defense Turret on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shutout (Defeat Flame Leviathan without causing a System Shutdown on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Bombardment (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 1 Orbital Defense System active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Devastation (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 2 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nuked from Orbit (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 3 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbit-uary (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 4 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• A Quick Shave (Defeat Razorscale without allowing her to fly into the air more than once on Normal Difficulty.)
• Minimal Casualties (Defeat Razorscale without any friendly NPCs dying during the fight on Normal Difficulty.)
• Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare (Defeat 1000 Iron Dwarves with Razorscale's Flame Breath within 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shattered (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master while shattering 77 Iron Constructs within 5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Hot Pocket (Survive being thrown into Ignis the Furnace Master's crucible on Normal Difficulty.)
• Stokin' the Furnace (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master in 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Engineering (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Scrapbots (Defeat 1000 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Dark Bombs (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Dark Bomb on Normal Difficulty.)
• Must Deconstruct Faster (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 20.5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Heartbreaker (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim (Defeat the Iron Council with Runemaster Molgeim as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir (Defeat the Iron Council with Stormcaller Brundir as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Steelbreaker (Defeat the Iron Council with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• But I'm on Your Side (Defeat the Iron Council while under the effect of a Steel Boot Flask on Normal Difficulty.)
• Can't Do That While Stunned (Defeat the Iron Council without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to cast Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Normal Difficulty.)
• Overload Overlord (Defeat the Iron Council without any raid member being struck by Overload on Normal Difficulty.)
• With Open Arms (Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Normal Difficulty.)
• Disarmed (Destroy both of Kologarn's arms within 12 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Normal Difficulty.)
• If Looks Could Kill (Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eye Beams on Normal Difficulty.)
• Rubble and Roll (Defeat Kologarn with 6000 Rubble creatures alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• Cheese the Freeze (Defeat Hodir without any raid member being hit by Flash Freeze on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Have the Coolest Friends (Defeat Hodir without any friendly NPC dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Cold in Here (Defeat Hodir without any raid member having more than 3 stacks of Biting Cold on Normal Difficulty.)
• Staying Buffed All Winter (Possess the effects of Toasty Fire, Storm Power and Starlight at the same time on Normal Difficulty.)
• Don't Stand in the Lightning (Defeat Thorim without being affected by Lightning Charge on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Take You All On (Defeat Thorim, the Ancient Rune Giant and the Rune Colossus on Normal Difficulty.)
• Who Needs Bloodlust? (Defeat Thorim while under the effect of Aura of Celerity on Normal Difficulty.)
• Siffed (Force Thorim to enter the arena and defeat him while Sif is present on Normal Difficulty.)
• Lumberjacked (Defeat Elder Brightleaf, Elder Ironbranch and Elder Stonebark within 2 seconds of each other on Normal Difficulty.)
• Con-speed-atory (Defeat Freya within 2 minutes of engaging a creature in the Conservatory of Life on Normal Difficulty.)
• Deforestation (Defeat 2 Ancient Water Spirits, 2 Storm Lashers and 2 Snaplashers within 120 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Back to Nature (Defeat Freya while she is affected by Attuned to Nature on Normal Difficulty.)
• Mind the Mines (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid triggering a Proximity Mine on Normal Difficulty.)
• Strike Out (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Rocket Strike on Normal Difficulty.)
• A-bomb-inable (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Bomb Bot on Normal Difficulty.)
• Set Up Us the Bomb (Complete the following Mimiron achievements on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Form the Head! (Force Mimiron to combine the parts of his greatest creation within 20 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shadowdodger (Defeat General Vezax without any raid member being hit by Shadow Crash on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning (Defeat General Vezax without being affected by Saronite Vapors on Normal Difficulty.)
• Never Stand Near the Faceless Dude (Defeat General Vezax without allowing him to regain health from Mark of the Faceless on Normal Difficulty.)
• Crazy Cat Lady (Defeat Auriaya while doing something cool on Normal Difficulty.)
• Supermassive (Defeat Algalon the Observer while destroying 4 Black Holes within 10 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Observed (Defeat Algalon the Observer on Normal Difficulty.)
• He Feeds On Your Tears (Defeat Algalon the Observer without any raid member dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• She's Not Bad for an Old God (/Kiss Sara in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Drive Me Crazy (Defeat Yogg-Saron without any raid member going insane on Normal Difficulty.)
• He's Not Getting Any Older (Defeat Yogg-Saron within 22 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• They're Coming Out of the Walls (Defeat 200 Guardians of Yogg-Saron within 12 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• In His House He Waits Dreaming (Experience all 5 visions of Yogg-Saron's mind on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Undying, Part Two (Within one raid lockout period, defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters.)

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Most people know by now that I love Achievements. I also love world events. Adding new and interesting things to do during world events and tying them to achievements sounds just great to me. Initially when I saw that Patch 3.1 would add achievements to Noblegarden, I thought that must mean 3.1 will come out before the event, which is currently scheduled for April 12-18. Makes sense right? Well, I was wrong. Kisirani has let us know via blue post that the developers' plan is to simply delay Noblegarden should 3.1 not be ready before then. That makes more sense. What has me excited, though, is that after the patch, Noblegarden will be a true world event, Blizzard style. Looking at the list of Noblegarden Achievments and seeing a hint that egg hunting will be "a wee bit different this year," the event seems like it is going to have much more interactivity than in previous years. Before, players would have to find eggs hidden in the starting areas in hopes of finding a dress. Not a great reward, but something that is good for collectors and roleplayers. According to the achivement list, this year's Noble Gardeners are going to hide eggs, place rabbit ears, plant flowers, find love, and of course eat chocolates as part of the event. As the meta-achievement for Noblegarden is going to be part of the meta-meta-achivement, What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been that rewards a 310% speed Violet Proto-Drake, I'll be ready to hunt down eggs all week long, whenever 3.1 comes out.

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Silicon Alley Insider is reporting today that Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin claims that the idea of scalable virtual worlds with thousands of users is his company's intellectual property, and that Worlds will sue anyone who refuses to license the idea.  Worlds currently has a lawsuit against NCSoft, publisher of such games as City of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars, and Lineage II. Should litigation against NCSoft succeed, Kidrin 'absolutely' plans on moving on to sue MMO industry leaders such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. The patents originally were developed by the Starlight Starbright Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children.  They had the idea of creating Starbright World, a virtual world for the enjoyment of children who may not have been able to interact or explore due to illness. The patents cover an architecture for enabling thousands of users in a 3D space, and Worlds.com now owns the rights to those patents. Of course, I am no lawyer, but the idea of thousands of users in a 3D space sounds like just about every MMO out there right now, save those that linger in two dimensions. Should the courts rule in Worlds.com's favor, it will make such games more expensive due to licensing fees, which may translate into higher costs for you and me.  We'll have to wait this one out and see how things go in the NCSoft case. Check out Silicon Alley Insider for more details.

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Bornakk, blue poster on the official forums, broke the news today that the Glory of the Raider and Heroic Glory of the Raider meta-achievements are going to have their mount rewards removed upon the implementation of Patch 3.1. While the achievements themselves will still be... achieveable, there is no longer a 310% mount rewarded for completing all of the requirements. Of course, players who have already obtained the mounts will keep them. This change will keep the extremely fast mounts limited to those who are either extremely lucky or have the dedication to complete the most difficult challenges that Blizzard sets forth to players at their intended difficulty level. The proto-drakes will be proof that a player was able to complete the achievements without having to get gear from higher tiered raids. It is bad news for players who are more casual WoW players, but makes a lot of sense. It also falls in line with the removal of the Amani War Bear reward from the timed event in Zul'Aman when patch 3.0 went live. Patch 3.0 made many changes to player abilities and lowered the health and damage of level 70 raid bosses, making completion of the event much easier. The silver lining is that MMO-Champion has uncovered a couple of new Proto-Drakes, Ironbound and Rusted that will be added in 3.1 and in my opinion look even cooler than the Black and Plagued ones. They will probably serve the same purpose, only for Ulduar Achievements. What are your thoughts? I for one am in favor of this change. Now I just need to finish off those 10 man achievements!

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There's a new Ulduar preview video, and unlike last time, it's straight from Blizzard. I've embedded it here in HD, but you can also download it in various formats and watch it on Blizzard's site, if you want. Now, this trailer may include some spoilers for those of you who are averse to finding out anything about  Ulduar, but I couldn't help but watch it through a few times. From what the preview shows, the new raid being added in Patch 3.1 looks to be much more diverse than what I had originally thought it might look like. The few mobs that are shown look spectacular, as do many of the rooms that look to be where boss fights will take place. There's a small hint about the controversial vehicular combat included, but still not a ton of details about what will be encountered. What are your thoughts? Are you avoiding all hints of what's inside or can you not get enough info?

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The World of Warcraft forums have been buzzing with activity ever since Patch 3.1 hit the PTR. With a key detail of Dual specs just coming out, there are bound to be complaints of the 1000g cost being too high or too low, but one thread in particular prompted Zarhym to reveal a couple of other new details that have changed since some of the initial information about Dual Spec came out. First, Dual Spec will require level 40, which will please many of those who were upset that it was initially planned to only be available to max level characters. This still may not sit well with those of you who have lower characters, but it seems like a nice middle ground to allow leveling characters to switch between a group spec and a soloing spec easily. Second, there will be no reagent cost to change specs and will be castable whenever a player wants as long as they are out of combat and not in an arena or battleground. This means that not only are scribes not going to make money on the new feature, but players won't need a group to change their spec if they aren't in a major city. From Zarhym:

You literally just click a button, and after a 5 second cast, your specializations, glyphs, and action bars swap. You must be out of combat, and it still cannot be used in battlegrounds or arenas. There is currently no cooldown on the ability to swap specializations though.

This makes me even more excited for the feature. Changing specs will be like mounting up. Anyone worried that the lack of a cooldown may be a problem?

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MMO-Champion has been bringing the thunder this morning with tons of news that has been cascading out of the public test realm. With a build of patch 3.1 live on the PTR, players have been given the first full look at an almost overwhelming number of changes and additions to the World of Warcraft. Big, drool-worthy news for Paladins, Priests, Druids, and Shaman is that a legendary One Handed Mace looks like it will be making its way to those classes' hands eventually. The classes mentioned will have the ability to collect 40 Fragments of Val'anyr and combine them, creating Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr, which begins a quest, eventually rewarding Val'anyr, Gavel of the Ancient Kings. Here's to hoping there's a version which certain enhancement shaman might be able to use. Players have also discovered that inscribed versions of the Kirin Tor rings (the ones that cost 8000g and teleport you to Dalaran) are available for an additional 1000g. These rings will be item level 213 and require the original ring to purchase. Finally, MMO-Champion revealed that new mounts and pets are being added into WoW, including Mimiron's Head, which summons and dismisses a rideable mechanical gnome head! This thing reminds me of Bowser's clown faced aircraft from Super Mario World. A full list of the pets and mounts can be found below. New Pets

• Spring Rabbit - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Spring Rabbit.
• Plump Turkey - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Plump Turkey.
• Teldrassil Sproutling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Teldrassil Sproutling.
• Tirisfal Batling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Tirisfal batling.
• Dun Morogh Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Dun Morogh Cub.
• Durotar Scorpion - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Durotar scorpion.
• Alarming Clockbot - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Alarming Clockbot.
• Elwynn Lamb - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Elwynn lamb.
• Mulgore Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Mulgore hatchling.
• Ammen Vale Lashling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Ammen Vale lashling.
• Strand Crawler - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Darkspear Strand crawler.
• Enchanted Broom - Right Click to summon and dismiss your enchanted broom.
• Argent Squire - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Argent Crusade squire.
• Mechanopeep - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Mechanopeep.
• Argent Gruntling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Argent Crusade gruntling.
• Curious Gorloc Hatchling - Right Click to call or shoo away a Curious Gorloc Hatchling.
• Curious Wolvar Pup - Right Click to call or shoo away a Curious Wolvar Pup.
• Gorloc Orphan - Right Click to summon and dismiss the orphan you've agreed to look after for Children's Week.
• Wolvar Orphan - Right Click to summon and dismiss the orphan you've agreed to look after for Children's Week.
• Murkimus the Gladiator - Right Click to summon and dismiss Murkimus the Gladiator.
• Sen'jin Fetish - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Sen'jin fetish.

New Mounts

• Aquatic Riding Ray - Summons and dismisses an Aquatic Riding Ray. This is an aquatic mount.
• Swift Stormwind Steed - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Stormwind Steed. This is a very fast mount.
• Great Azuremyst Elekk - Summons and dismisses a rideable Great Azuremyst Elekk. This is a very fast mount.
• Swift Darnassian Mistsaber - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Darnassian Mistaber. This is a very fast mount.
• Swift Silvermoon Hawkstrider - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Silvermoon Hawkstrider. This is a very fast mount.
• Great Mulgore Kodo - Summons and dismisses a rideable Great Mulgore Kodo. This is a very fast mount.
• Turbostrider - Summons and dismisses a rideable Turbostrider. This is a very fast mount.
• Swift Ironforge Ram - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Ironforge Ram. This is a very fast mount.
• Swift Sen'jin Raptor - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Sen'jin Raptor. This is a very fast mount.
• Forsaken Warhorse - Summons and dismisses a rideable Forsaken Warhorse. This is a very fast mount.
• Swift Orgrimmar Wolf - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Orgrimmar Wolf. This is a very fast mount.

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Taking a gander over at the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm (PTR) site will reveal what many people realized extremely quickly. The PTR Character Copy page is once again live (EU Version Here). What does this mean? Well, Patch 3.1 including certain parts of the new Ulduar raid should be testable soon. We still have no idea when the PTR will actually be available for testing. Some people are speculating as soon as tonight, other have their money on Monday. No official word on an actual time or date has been released, but according to Bornakk, if we have a little patience, we'll see it soon(tm). Unfortunately for many of us, the Character Copy queue filled up in no time flat. It looks like those of us who want to test out some of the new changes or get a sneak peak at Ulduar will have to keep checking back to see if the queue empties out a bit. Right now the average wait time is sitting at 4 days, but hopefully we won't have to wait that long to see the feature re-opened. Last time the PTR Character Copy feature was available, copied characters ended up being deleted and Character Copy was disabled. That was shortly after some of the new 3.1 class changes were announced.  Still, if you manage to get a character copied, I'd say it's worth taking your chances.

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