Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums

In a response to concerns on the forums about warrior rage generation, Bornakk replies that the formula is working fine - it’s just using different numbers than the players who tested it. Two of the more interesting parts of his statement were as follows:

• n the formulas people are using, there is a constant value which is labeled as ‘c’. At some point in the past, someone calculated a formula for determining c based on their level and that formula is not correct past level 70 as this value needs retuning from time to time like when a new expansion comes out. The value listed for c is 320.6 when it is actually 453.3.
• Some of the testing was done with ungeared characters hitting for very small amounts. There is a component to the calculation we haven’t previously mentioned that will make the rage gained from those attacks sometimes not match the formula. Basically, the normal formula is Rage = (7.5d/c+f*s)/2. However, that result can never be larger than (7.5d/c)*2. This essentially means that very low damage attacks have a limit on how much they can be averaged up by the f*s component of the equation.

It seems odd to me that this change to ‘c’ was left hidden for so long and only came to light following the changes to warriors in 3.1: one possibly explanation would be that rage generation via damage before the nerfs was good enough to obscure the issue. Nevertheless since I posted about the issue this week, I felt obligated to mention Bornakk’s explanation of the discrepancy.

Bornakk clarifies rage generation formulas originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 30 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Lore, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King, Rumors

For a while now I’ve been mulling over points raised by Daniel in his much-discussed article, “Why Varian Wrynn Is Right,” and we’ve received a number of requests to address the issue from the Horde’s point of view. Well…this article isn’t going to do that. It started off that way, and then I realized that Varian’s personal issues and the Horde’s approach to the problem are really two entirely separate matters. At some point in the future, I’d like to examine the Horde’s take on the newly-resurgent antagonism between the factions, because it’s not something I can adequately address here without turning this into a 10,000-word tract.

Today, we’re going to deal almost exclusively with Varian and his share of responsibility for the current mess. I’m a little ambivalent over Blizzard’s decision to include most of the backstory and explanations for Varian’s behavior in a comic series, because I think it’s one of the factors that’s resulted the character’s being poorly received by most players. Choosing to include so much of his characterization out of the game in a product most players will never read necessarily impacts how Varian’s motives are going to be evaluated. If all you’ve got to go on is what you see of the king from ingame events…he doesn’t look so great. This isn’t a defense of Varian so much as a commentary on the somewhat inconsistent approach to his character that’s resulted. I haven’t read each of the comics, but I’m familiar with the storyline, and this article doesn’t assume that you need to have read the out-of-game books or comics in order to follow the argument.

Continue reading Why Varian Wrynn is a fool (and why it may not matter)

Why Varian Wrynn is a fool (and why it may not matter) originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 27 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Wrath of the Lich King, Account Security, Europe

Here in Europe, we’ve been waiting patiently, watching as the Americans frolic with their shiny new Battle.net merged WoW accounts. Blizzard have just updated the news section of the European site with a welcome announcement. European players will now be able to finally merge their Battle.net and World of Warcraft accounts into one shiny new entity.

The process takes about a minute and, after a cool sound effect, you’ll see Wrath of the Lich King appear in your games section. The only thing you need to remember is you will need to put in the email address associated with your Battle.net account in the WoW login screen rather than your user name. So, without further ado, go forth and merge!

WoW and Battle.net merge now available in Europe originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 27 May 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King

I know for sure we’ve mentioned this on the podcast (in the ever-more-popular Turpster’s Tips feature), but I’m not sure we’ve ever explicitly mentioned it on the site before, and this post from WoW Ladies is a great reminder to do so: next time you’re checking out your character screen, try holding Alt as you mouse over the various loots you’re wearing. You’ll get a little popup with all of the gear in your bags that corresponds to that slot — a (mostly) undocumented feature that showed up in patch 3.1 along with all of the other UI improvements.

In fact, that’s probably why this is just sneaking around now — there were a lot of nice tweaks back then, and this one slipped through the cracks. Of course, now that the official Equipment Manager is in the game (you have clicked that checkbox in the Interface options to enable it, right?), you might not need to worry about switching your gear manually anyway. But just in case you haven’t seen the Alt function on your character screen yet, there you go.

Tip: Show possible slot gear on character screen originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 26 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Bosses, RP, NPCs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, Rumors

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Wrathgate in-game event.

So Callouse of Vashj posted a theory on the General Forums that is so elegant that I’m sort of ashamed I didn’t think of it myself. At the Wrathgate, we know that Arthas absorbed the soul of Saurfang the Younger into his sword. Evidence also points to the idea that he stole Bolvar Fordragon’s body. This has lead to rampant speculation that we will eventually fight one or both as thralls of the Lich King.

But Callouse posits that we may end up seeing one and both at once. That is, we’ll see Saurfang the Younger’s soul in Bolvar’s body.

Continue reading Bolfang and the future of the Horde and the Alliance

Bolfang and the future of the Horde and the Alliance originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 23 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Patches, News items, Wrath of the Lich King

Hot on the heels of the Under Development page for Patch 3.2, we received a few more tidbits of information from Community Manager Zarhym, responding to posts on the official forums. In bold are the players’ questions.

The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there?

Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic.

The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it’s WG combined with AB?

If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists.

Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won’t be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won’t see Icecrown till April/May next year probably.

Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated?

I was expecting most of this information, and I’m glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a Ring of Blood-style event were confirmed. This isn’t really an avenue Blizzard has used for a raid before. The hinting that 3.2 will come a lot sooner than we think is also comforting — since it means that 3.3 and Icecrown are even closer.

I’ll have a speculation post about what we can expect in the Coliseum soon. Until then, keep your eyes peeled — we’ll update you as soon as we get any more news!

More information on 3.2 release date, Coliseum, new Battleground originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 May 2009 19:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King

Sometimes denial works for you, and I think that’s why I like this forum thread so much. It’s full of nostalgia for a simpler time, when PvP meant going to Southshore and murdering some Alliance, when the encounters in Molten Core were the most epic thing in the game, and speaking of epics, when seeing a player outfitted with all purples meant that they’d be raiding for weeks with 39 other people. This thread willingly looks back and sees things not as they were, but as we remember them: super fun, refreshing, and completely empty of the problems and quibbles we have to deal with today.

Of course, Azeroth’s past wasn’t really like that. It was hell organizing 40 people to do one boss, much less a whole night of raiding, and if the organization didn’t get you, the server lag and disconnects would. Southshore and Crossroads PvP made for great stories, but in actuality, it was really just a zerg fest, and no one actually won, it was really just everyone throwing away their nights because there was nothing better to do. And epics — well, it was actually pretty cool when epic gear meant something. But boy was it disappointing when you went whole weeks of raiding without getting any loot at all, without even a Badge of Justice for your efforts. Or when you had to disenchant a tier piece because the Paladin set dropped yet again.

Do we want to go back to those days? Probably not — while there are definitely some good things about them, there were all kinds of issues that have since been solved (and that many of the nostalgists tend to forget about). But every once in a while, it’s nice to look back through rose-colored glasses and remember when.

Old Azeroth through rose-colored glasses originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Instances, Expansions, Raiding, Bosses, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements

WoW has been in a state of flux in China lately, with the9 failing to gain approval from the government to publish Wrath of the Lich King, which in turn may or may not have lead to Blizzard licensing the operation of WoW in China to Netease instead.

In the midst of all this, it has been the players stuck in the middle, their play availability up in the air, stuck killing Kil’jaedan over and over and over as they wait for Northrend with bated breath. That said, there’s still been a few players who have taken matters into their own hands.

Continue reading Chinese guild heads to Taiwan, kills Mimiron on hard mode

Chinese guild heads to Taiwan, kills Mimiron on hard mode originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 16 May 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Instances, Expansions, Raiding, Bosses, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements

WoW has been in a state of flux in China lately, with the9 failing to gain approval from the government to publish Wrath of the Lich King, which in turn may or may not have lead to Blizzard licensing the operation of WoW in China to Netease instead.

In the midst of all this, it has been the players stuck in the middle, their play availability up in the air, stuck killing Kil’jaedan over and over and over as they wait for Northrend with bated breath. That said, there’s still been a few players who have taken matters into their own hands.

Continue reading Chinese guild heads to Taiwan, kills Mimiron on hard mode

Chinese guild heads to Taiwan, kills Mimiron on hard mode originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 16 May 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions, Bosses, Wrath of the Lich King

Kinless Chronicles talks about something I think Blizzard has done exceptionally well with the latest expansion: “equalized content.” Their story is about taking control of a Blightblood to finish off Drakuru, but there are countless examples of this in Northrend, from the last fight of Drak’theron to the encounter in Eye of Eternity with Malygos. World of Warcraft (and MMOs in general) has always been about levels and gear — get better gear or level up, and you can cast more spells, swing an axe harder, and move on to more epic encounters. But Blizzard’s “equalizing content” means that gear isn’t always an issue — by putting you in control of something else, whether that be a mind-controlled Troll or a siege vehicle, you can have extremely epic encounters without worrying about whether you’re powerful enough for them or not. The limiter becomes not gear but skill (and/or the knowledge of how to use those skills).

Obviously they can’t do nothing but equalized content, otherwise we’re all just playing the same game (and, under pressure from players, they’ve even moved on to a mix of both, where gear does affect how you play in a vehicle). But Blizzard has really hit on something brilliant with what we’re calling “equalized content” here, and used in a balanced way, it can allow players of all kinds of different skill levels to do even more epic things than they’d normally be able to do.

Blizzard’s success with equalizing content originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 15 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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