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WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Release Date Announced
Mini-Geek and many others tipped news that Blizzard has announced the release date for Wrath of the Lich King , World of Warcraft's second expansion. It will be in stores on November 13th in the US and Europe. They've also released details about the contents of the Collector's Edition. Wrath will be preceded by a large content patch, which will expand the talent trees and include many of the gameplay changes set for the expansion (including the consolidation of spell damage and healing into 'spellpower,' achievements, and a new profession). The patch was installed on the public test realm yesterday, and the current patch notes are available.
* "It'll be more of the same."
* "You can never win an MMORPG. It's a never-ending treadmill."
* "Thank God I got off that crack a year ago."
* "It won't be as good as Eve/Warhammer/etc."
* "Blizzard isn't going to get another one of my dollars after that DMCA bullshit."
* "I'm waiting for Diablo 3/StarCraft 2."
* "I hate PC games. Console games rule."
I think I've covered the major ones. On that note, I have my copy on preorder.
I'm a part of the beta right now, as well as a few friends and guildmates. Sure, there are bugs now given that it's beta, and I don't expect it to be bug-free at release, but... given how many fundamental things are broken right now (continents crashing regularly, critical talents for some class builds not working, etc), I wonder how they plan to have this out in less than two months.
Then again, I'm a sucker, so I'll be buying it anyway.
Burning Crusade was a great add-on, and I expect that this new one will be just as good. Sure, some people will complain that they have to buy content AND pay a monthly fee, but I only have to buy it once. If they skimped on the content I'd be upset too, but they don't. I'll get far more playing time out of this add-on than I have gotten out of any other recent game purchase.
you insensitive clod, now what are we supposed to talk about?
-- Sig under construction...
* "It won't be as good as Eve/Warhammer/etc."
Uh, I've been playing etc online for like a week. That game was crap. Eve/WAR maybe, but etc, never.
Of Code And Men
* "You can never win an MMORPG. It's a never-ending treadmill."
Yeah, but my doctor says I need the exercise.
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
"Zug Zug and Welcome to Northrend! To help with the landing efforts, we're going to need you to kill 12 iceboars, 8 frost basilisks, and 10 snow buzzards!"
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
Test Patch Notes Disclaimer: The test realm patch notes only apply to features that exist on the public test realms. We provide these patch notes to players who wish to know what features and changes exist in the test environment in order to more effectively test these features.
To learn more about the Public Test Realm, visit our Test Realm Page.
World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.4.3
The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html
General
* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World's End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.
Druids
* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.
Hunters
* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet's Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.
Mages
* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
Paladins
* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.
Priests
* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.
Rogues
* Cheat Death: This talent has be
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
WoW is like a treadmill that makes you fatter.
"On that note, I'm a total fucking loser."
Fixed that for you.
That "fixed that for you" thing is getting really, really old. I know the best you can do is ape other people's wit, but at least let the old guard die.
"LOL, loser."
Anybody who uses LOL in a forum that doesn't limit responses to the length of a cellular text message is most certainly a loser.
Just think of how pathetically sad it would be if there was a insanely long uncut movie of your retarded ass sitting there for day after day after day after day wasting your useless life away in front of the absolute bottom of the barrel/mass market/Brittany Spears of MMORPGs, WoW.
LOL, loser.
Versus say...trolling slashdot all day?
"19.99 + 29.99 + 29.99 = 79.97 so that gets you WoW, WoW:BC, WoW:WOTLK November 23, 2004 - November 23, 2008 @14.99 per mon = 719.52 for 4 years $799.49 grand total. Yeah, I mean that's a totally reasonable price for 1 game and 2 expansions.... or not."
Or you could look at it this way. The add-on will cost you about what... 3.9% of what you've paid so far?
I said that if you play WoW the add-on is a good deal, and it is. You're arguing that WoW itself isn't a good deal. You might believe that, but that's not what I said.
For further reference: Straw Man
Then embrace sheer joy in the starting zone with interesting game play, a good storyline and the pleasant experience of phasing.
Then set foot into Outland, feel your heart sink as you realize that you and thousands of others exactly like you have to do the grind to 70 in same content you've been playing for the last year, while all your friends tell you how great Northrend is.
Every gnome in the game get ready to get your pink mohawk! ...buncha sheep. At least I'm not bitter.
-fragbait
PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General
- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells. /spit off of the towers. .5 secs each to the cast time.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received fr
These are the Proper 3.0.2 patch notes...
PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General
- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells. /spit off of the towers. .5 secs each to the cast time.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive mo
How many of these announcements are being made before, not at, blizzcon, and how they all line up to be made within days of Warhammer Online's release. While it's normal to try and steal the spotlight from a competitor, this does seem awfully reactionary by Blizzard's normal standards of pr.
The price of pressing and packaging discs is negligible, especially with the economy of scale that they're operating on. They're guaranteed sales to retail chains by the hundreds of thousands; a massive, lump sale like that looks a lot better on the spreadsheets than a steady trickle of downloads, and moves the strain of demand off their servers and network.
Our friends at ManaPotions.com would beg to differ.
Yep, and we all have mod points today somehow... but seriously... I'm starting to wonder if the only people getting mod points and zealots and trolls...
Help test the
Hmmm, I got modpoints today, I play WoW, *and* I'm a zealot and a troll - yup, it's an evil conspiracy!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Anybody who uses LOL in a forum that doesn't limit responses to the length of a cellular text message is most certainly a loser.
LOL
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
Actually, most of my friends who play WoW are women, not men.
Think of all the poor hubbies who will be saying "But sweetness, can't I roll a death knight oo?"
To which their wives will say "Step away from my pink-haired Gnome Death Knight or you're sleeping on the couch tonight!"
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
For over a year now we have been grinding reputation, grinding gold, and grinding gear. Tier 4, Tier 5, Tier 6, Sunwell, Endless wipes on Kalecgos... And now, back to square one.
Now with "improved" talents, more level grinding, more rep grinding, special attention to things like _hair cuts_.
Completely ignore things that are really important to some people. A self sustaining economy, a trade system that is GOOD or even marginally good... Those who have played Eve KNOW a good trade skill system, and economy...
Professions that actually make money for the player instead of being an endless pit for us to wastefully throw gold at to the the 2-3 really good items that get replaced in a couple months when we clear Naxx...
I digress... I will buy the expansion, and I will play, and grind, etc. I will not be happy about it. I just cannot leave because there is nothing better yet. When there is, I and may others will just go elsewhere. Why? Because Blizzard is tuning the game to people who only play an hour a day.
Remember when "Epic" meant something? When they didn't just drop from the last boss in a 5 man?
if I were able to see further, it was because I stood on the shoulders of Giants -Newton
My response to the upcoming expansion has been to greatly reduce my time spent playing. It just seems like the current game has lost some of it's charm now that a chunk of new content is on the way. I'm sure that when the expansion hits I'll spend a huge amount of time playing it, but until then I'll focus my spare time on other entertainment options.
You wish. The Chinese leveling service will be taking care of my 4 characters I need to get from 70-80 on my 2 other accounts while I play with my new DK on the third one.
Northrend isn't going to be less crowded, its just going to be a lot less social. When most of the conversations are going to be: "You make me food/waterrr?" and "Ni hao?", you aren't going to have much witty banter. And that's assuming that there aren't whole guilds who have turned on Glider.
Luckily, there's always the Barrens.
Roll a druid. Use the following macro.
/cast Wrath
/y KHAAAAAN
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
I mean, really... "Wrath of the licking"? ...Yeah, I'd like to see that one.
Bow-ties are cool.
I rigged up a "desk" such that I can use my computer while I pedal my stationary bike. (the bike doesn't fit anywhere near my regular desk.) Works pretty well. 300 kcal/day easy just playing WoW. It would even be a decent CV workout if I actually cranked it, instead of the leisurely rate I do.
I'm sure you can do something similar with a treadmill, but first you have to take the boxes off of it and get it out of the basement. Probably wouldn't work with a rowing machine, weight bench or bowflex (but taking the boxes off of those and the drying clothes off the bowflex would be a good start though.)
More music, fewer hits
Wait for the Misc. expansion.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
I think it's probably an emergent property of the nature of the game.
WoW has three advantages that make it uniquely poised to flood slashdot with news. 1) It's monstrously huge. 2) It's online. 3) It's social.
For the first point, it's fairly obvious that having a large player base inherently means you have a lot of people interested in news about the game.
Second, we can assume that everyone who plays the game has a basic modicum of internet skills. All WoW players are potential readers, while the same can not be said of everyone who plays Mario Galaxy.
Third, the social nature of the game further pushes the demographic toward sites such as Slashdot. The people who play WoW don't just want to read about it, they want to talk about it even if it's with people who don't play WoW.
The only other game bearing those three attributes is Spore. Incidentally, the only other game with as much Slashdot coverage is also Spore.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
In a seemingly sleazy move, GameStop has added a $15 "Handling Fee" to the WotLK Collector's Edition. Not a SHIPPING and Handling fee mind you, shipping is extra. This is just straight grafting in the style of:
"Oh HO, it seems some of you WANT this product do you? And we're the only one with the Collector's Edition right now! Weeellp, the box is all the way over there on the shelf and I'm kinda tired... maybe an extra $15 could motivate me to lean over there and get it for you. If you don't, I'm sure someone else will pay extra for the LIMITED SUPPLY of these! You've made the right choice."
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=72700
Yep, and we all have mod points today somehow... but seriously... I'm starting to wonder if the only people getting mod points and zealots and trolls...
Don't forget the zerglings!
CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
I prefer to play "e.g." myself (for example).
"Etc" just goes on, and on...
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Fourth point, with 10 million subs do think Blizzard cares what Mythic does?
Why do people keep saying this? What planet do you live on where company executives and shareholders do not care about their revenues?
Complacency is not a laudable attribute for a company. If they do in fact think "we have 10 million subscribers, what do we care?" then they are setting themselves up for failure. They have other projects in the works that require funding, infrastructure costs, payroll costs, and shareholder expectations to uphold (regardless of them being publicly traded or not). If their revenues go down, they have to answer questions and run the risk of not having the funding to uphold their budget. Do you really think Blizzard doesn't care about that?
Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that 1 million people leave wow for warhammer and cancel their accounts (numbers completely made up). $10/month for each customer, that's $10 million/month gone, $120 million/year. Do you really think they're not going to notice or care about that? I can tell you anyone who's invested with an expectation of return upon that investment is going to care and ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. Wall street has destroyed companies for failing to meet projected earnings by $120 million over a year. I don't see how blizzard is magically immune to that because they make WoW and have 10 million subscribers currently.
Or to make a bad analogy: imagine telling your spouse you got docked 10% of your paycheck for the next year.