Project Lore

SK-Gaming announced yesterday that the guild is splitting up.  No, no, the guild isn't dieing by any means but splitting into two distinct guilds, a PvE and PvP guild.  First, let me hit you guys with some details. The organization actually started way back in 1997 with the Quake franchise.  Later, the team transitioned to Counterstrike, where they received most of their fame, and has lived on in all things competitive gaming since.  The company runs various teams for numerous games including Counterstrike, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft.  SK-Gaming has been a part of World of Warcraft for only a few months, since they teamed up with Curse shortly before the launch of Sunwell Plateau.  So, now you know some background on the team. The break-up is more than name only.  There will not be a SK-Gaming PvP guild and PvE guild.  Instead the teams will be completely separate, as the SK-Gaming brand wants to focus solely on e-Sports titles, of which they consider WoW's Arena ladder to be one of them. The decision speaks a lot for Blizzard's e-Sports hopes and the ability to manage two vastly diverse playing styles.  It should be pretty apparent that WoW is now an accepted e-Sports franchise.  I mean with millions of dollars in prize money being offered by various tournaments, how could you disagree?  It also should show just how drastically different the gear, playstyles, management and mindset need to be for players to be that hardcore in both aspects of WoW. For their part, the Curse/SK-Gaming PvE guild was the most dominate in Sunwell, with a combined five world first kills including Kil'jaeden.  So it isn't like the team wasn't working out.  They likely just did not feel comfortable surrounded by all the e-Sports guys, as it was reportedly their decision to leave.  There is also the issue with content generation.  How is a sponsored company like SK-Gaming supposed to keep people coming back after the newest PvE content is cleared?  There are things  they could do like training videos (we have that covered) or joke raiding videos, but that may not keep their members happy.  Perhaps that is why they have reformed under the new banner of “Put Your Name Here” and continue on with their previous benefactors, Curse Gaming and World of Raids. What does this mean for PvE?  Probably nothing.  Guilds, including the "splinter" PvE guild, will still race for world first kills, content will get cleared and then another dull period will ensue.  Same old, same old.  Life will go on, but as recocered hardcore raider, the changes interest me nonetheless.

Click to read more ...

A few things happened this weekend that have me worried about my PvE excursions for the week. As you can see by our chilly site, Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Wrath is officially set to launch November 13, just shy of two months from now. Why does the launch of the second expansion have me worried? Simple. With a new expansion coming so soon, many players will go into a coma of sorts. Most will simply cut back on their playtime.   Perhaps in a squirrel like effort to store it up for Wrath's inevitable push to level 80. Then there are the players who will no longer see a point in putting the time in, when any activity they pursue will change drastically in a months time. Especially when the change will make all those efforts fruitless. Many guilds will take a break from their normal schedules and perform some house cleaning as they wait for the new content. The launch of patch 3.0.2 – which hit the PTR this weekend as well – will keep many people interested but I doubt my guild will be performing any Karazhan badge runs again. That is one half of the battle though.  So what was the other thing that has me worried about my PvE plans? Well, a little game called Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has gone live. The game isn't actually out until September 18th but Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts have a head start program if you pre-order the title. If you ordered the Collector's Edition, one of the bonuses is getting the server to yourself for two days.   That started on Sunday morning.  Then the people who pre-ordered the normal edition join you for two days before the game launches to everyone. I know many of my guild mates are interested in WAR, so if they aren't put off by the closeness of Wrath then they may head there to check out the title. Blizzard's recent timing of various announcements - a new round of beta keys, PTR character copying enabled and official release date – are an obvious diversion tactic from WAR as well. Thinking about it further I am not worried about raiding anymore.  Now I am just hoping my main's guild still exists two months from now.

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 ...

Some more details have been coming out about the pre-Wrath of the Lich King content patch. As you know, the upcoming patch will act as a “bridging” patch. What this means is that Blizzard will use patch 3.0.2 to introduce a chunk of the Wrath changes, before Wrath is launched. This is the same thing Blizzard did with patch 2.0.1, introducing some aspects of The Burning Crusade into vanilla World of Warcraft. That addition came just a little over a month before TBC's release. Eyonix mentioned as part of patch 3.0.2's announcement that the notes would be coming shortly. However they still have not been posted. Nevertheless, Blizzard has posted additional information through alternative means. First we have a promise from Bornakk that the game won't be broken by the patch. I still remember the horror of “Assault on Blackwing Lair” or patch 1.6.0. I never wanted to use add-ons again after how long it took for all of my add-ons to be repaired, and then the time it took to go find them.  One by one.  Thankfully, we have tools like BLASC now. Bornakk also mentions that the patch should arrive “in the coming weeks”. To back up that statement the PTR forums have been wiped. An act that always happens shortly before a new patch is tested. Zarhym brought us the first list of detailed changes yesterday, the long promised changes to raid buffs/debuffs and stacking. The changes are drastic and the post is long, so it is worth the read for the hardcore PvE players out there. The Summation:

• Most buffs/debuffs will be raid-wide (ie Warrior shouts, Shaman totems).
• All buffs are categorized in one or more of 30 categories. Most categories have only a few buffs in them.
• Buffs from the same categories will not stack, with the most powerful buff taking precedence
• Mana regeneration buffs to be assigned to 10 players with the least mana
• Numerous existing buffs and debuffs have been reworked for the new system

Blizzard hopes that the changes will allow raiders to bring whomever is available to a raid – within reason - instead of requiring a concrete template be filled. Zarhym noted that Blizzard will be fine tuning the system and changes as needed based on internal testing and community feedback. So start the feedback process.

Click to read more ...

Great... Season 4 is here, along with a new patch which I am sure to rant about tomorrow, but for now let's all remain focused: Season 4 gear. There has always been two basic games in WoW: kill monsters or kill players, more commonly known as PvE or PvP. And Blizzard has done their best to keep the gear rewards for both sides of this dynamic as balanced as possible... mostly. With Season 4 gear PvP seems to have stepped up a little bit, namely you have to do arena to get the best PvP gear. Period. Usually you could do AV until your eye's bleed or until your voice shriveled into oblivion from screaming at the screen 'cuz most people have no freakin' idea what to do in battlegrounds. But still, with the right combination of battleground weekends, and if you were lucky, a few premades along the way, within a few months ( yes, MONTHS ) you could have a decent set of PvP gear suitable to get your ass kicked just a little less in all those battlegrounds you just spent your life doing. ( Anyone else see the futility of this? ) But now, not only do you have to do all of that all over again to get honor points and marks and new Season 4 gear, you have to have a personal arena rating to get certain items. Holy crap! Okay, yes, I have four of five vengeful pieces. I also have some other fun PvP gear, but those damn shoulders keep alluding me. That personal rating was just to much of a personal time commitment to get - all freakin' weekend trying to wack people, figure out their possible tactics against me and hoping to get a lucky crit off now and again to fry someone just to move my personal rating up 17 points. Damn it sucked. And I guess it will again. Oh well... I'm off to arena...

Click to read more ...

Okay, okay. Sorry. Geez... Stop your cryin' and belly achein' for crap sakes! All you frost mages who think I'm not showin you luv or that I'm bashing on you or your talent tree need to take a freakin' chill pill. Maybe you have a talent for that or something... Yeah, yeah. I know. Frost mages can do damage and it's how you play your class and your spell sequence that determines your mana management and that a frost mage is incredibly effective against A'lar and... blah, blah, blah. Hush! listen up here peeps. The point is this: fire mages still kick ass in raid situations. Period. I'm not saying frost or arcane can't kick ass. I'm just sayin fire mages kick ass. Okay. The water elemental is nice in PvP and yes ice barrier is a very cool spell. I have seen some rockin' frost mages in AV kick the crap out of buckets of people with that frost nova and ice lance. And yes, yes, I know that ice block was originally your talent tree and for that one I thank you. But my whole point with talking about fire mages before is that some people have the misperception that only frost mages are good for raiding and end-game content. That is pure bull$hiT. I certainly can, and I have seen other fire mages, decimate instances left and right, utterly destroying clusters of mobs with a few well-placed arcane blasts and dragon's breath. But this is what get's me agitated: I've actually had people tell me that their guild doesn't want fire mages because they pull too much aggro or lack DPS or suck at killin raid bosses. What f'kn morons! Those issues are with the person playing the game, not the game itself. Got get Omen2 and Deadly Boss Mods to clear half of that crap up. So once and for all, so as to quell this brewin storm twix fire, frost and arcane mages I may have inadvertently started, the real bottom line is this: we mages have CC, we have great DPS, we have remove curse, AI and can drop enough tables to feed an entire raid. Frost is great for PvP. Fire is great for PvE. Arcane can one shot just about anything their level. All are doable for killin mobs in BT, Hyjal and Sun Well and will continue to be in WotLK. Face it: If you rolled a mage, people want your DPS.

Click to read more ...