Archive for October, 2009


Raid Warning Episode #21

Rusty from the Slash 2 Podcast guest hosts RW as we discuss the latest info coming out of the Public Test Realm. Also on the ticket, we debate a closed PTR, “spoilers” coming from data mining patches, Festergut and Rotface get their round of testing, Tier 10 armor previews that’ll probably make you cry, and how to be a complete ass and create fake stories about Cataclysm! Grab your favorite malt liquor beverage and join Rusty and Seven on what’s likely to be an inebriated journey through this weeks happenings in World of Warcraft.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week’s sponsors: GameFly, Blockbuster Total Access and Skype
(All sponsorship money goes to the beer and bandwidth fund!)

Special Guests:
Rusty from Slash 2 www.slash2podcast.com

Show Notes:

MMO Has “Spoiler” Video of Frostmourne area
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/(spoiler)-icecrown-citadel-frostmourne-area/

Festergut and Rotface Live Testing Videos
Cuties Only guild of Kil’jaeden videos
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/ptr-build-10623-items-rotface-festergut-videos/

Tier 10: Pally and Priest Armor
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/patch-3-3-ptr-notes-update-1020/

Tier 10: Warlock and Mage Armor
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/tier-10-mage-and-warlock-preview/

New Titles:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/titles-season-8-weapon-blue-posts/

Cataclysm To Be Last Expansion?
http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-10-21/20091021174902000.shtml

Special Thanks:

Whatisboom www.whatisboom.com
Valeska www.twitter.com/djvaleska

Intro Song:

“Seeth” by Fleshfield

http://www.flesh-field.com/


Beer of the Week:
“Wildcat” by Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company
www.fallsbrew.com
Beer Advocate: A-
ABV: 6.6%


Follow Raid Warning on Twitter:
RaidWarning

Let us know what you think about some of the new show changes and segments. Feel free to send comments, suggestions, news articles or hate mail to RaidWarningPodcast@Gmail.com.

According to MMO News, Jeff Kaplan in a recent interview with Games.de mentions that Cataclysm will be the last expansion in the World of Warcraft series. He goes on to say that content will be delivered in a completely different way, one that “in terms of games design, it’s a revolution.”   Yes its already been dubbed rumor, and who knows how credible the sources actually are, but it does bring up some interesting questions. With recent interviews mentioning that WoW could go another 10 years, and the conversion of all accounts to Battle.net, does Blizzard have a content delivery system or “patch to play” concept up their sleeve?

MMO News has just updated the article stating that it was intended as a joke by the original author. Still an interesting concept even if it is a hoax in regards to its application in WoW.

Does The Public Test Realm Ruin New Content?

With the Patch 3.3 PTR going strong, players have been diving in to check out the new dungeons and raids, as well as uncovering all sorts of new content and spoilers. From the new armor sets, to the ending of Icecrown, sites have been digging up all sorts of new information. However, for some of us, a new PTR begins a period of dodging popular news sites and covering our ears when our friends try to tell us about the latest and greatest. It’s hard to not come across at least some lore spoilers while surfing your favorite WoW sites.

I may be among the minority, but I hate that the Test Realm is public. For me it ruins the new content. I do not want to know what happens at the end of Icecrown, or what strategy I need to finish all the 5-mans before the patch is even released. It takes away from that new patch smell when you know most of what is going to happen before patch day. I understand the need for testing but does it really need to be open to everyone? News sites even go one step further and data mine the patch looking for new things to drive traffic to their sites. They often dig up things Blizzard did not intend to release yet. Being able to check out the latest tier sets or learning about new spell changes is great, figuring out how to one shot the latest dungeons or seeing the death sequence for Arthas is not. I want to earn that right. I want the challenge of figuring out strats for each boss, not just watch a you tube video released even before the patch goes live. It cheapens the accomplishment in my book.

I will give Blizzard credit, they have done things to curb this trend. By only allowing limited testing of bosses across different countries and changing some of the fights when they go live, they have eliminated some of the head start guilds get by spending time on the PTR. I think more needs to be done, especially when it comes to the data mining of spoilers. Possibly limit the number of testers and have them under a NDA, or holding back parts of the patch file that contain spoilers. I’m sure may people will tell me to quit whining, but I am sure there is a segment of the community that is annoyed by all the spoilers. What is your take? Do you enjoy the PTR or would you prefer to see the content for the first time on the live servers?

Blizzard has just announced via their Official Twitter account that they are testing increases in Northrend Faction Reputation Gains on the PTR. They have not given anymore details, but one can probably assume that this means that the amount of reputation gained from quests and dailies will be increased. There also hasn’t been any word on if this will effect the Argent Tournament factions either. As is per usual this will probably spark a debate between those who feel cheated after doing it the hard way, and those who think its time to allow more casual players and alts time to catch up. What do you think?

Raid Warning Episode #20

Sandeep Parikh (“Zaboo” of The Guild) joins in on the festivities and talks about what’s happening with his  hit web series, The Legend of Neil!  Also guest host Leech from This Is Outcasted gives stops by to keep Seven and Brian on topic… quite unsuccessfully.  This week we talk about the latest developments with patch 3.3, who’s behind the World of Warcraft movie, Brian talks Hallow’s End, and Seven makes guests uneasy with brand new pop quizzes. Oh… its all downhill as usual.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week’s sponsors: GameFly, Blockbuster Total Access and Skype
(All sponsorship money goes to the beer and bandwidth fund!)

Special Guests:
Sandeep Parikh (The Guild, The Legend of Neil) www.legendofneil.com
Leech from This Is Outcasted  blog.thisisoutcasted.com

Show Notes:

Vivendi to sell of NBC to fund Activision Blizzard?
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/13/vivendi-comcast-ge-business-media-nbc.html

Blizzard to require all accounts converted to Battle.net by Nov 11th (get a free penguin)

http://www.examiner.com/x-15961-Charleston-MMORPG-Examiner~y2009m10d13-World-of-Warcraft-to-require-Battlenet-merge-by-November-11

Sam Raimi Plans “Faithful” World of Warcraft Movie
http://www.mtv.com/videos/movies/444948/sam-raimi-talks-world-of-warcraft-movie.jhtml
written by Robert Rodat of Saving Private Ryan and Patriot

Major Character Updates:
Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner get Bio Updates for Icecrown Lore

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/characters.xml

Tier 10 Armor HD Shots from PTR (Rogues win)
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/tier-10-multi-race-hd-screenshots/

Tier 10 Armor Set Bonuses
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/tier-10-set-bonuses-updated-blue-posts/

Racial Totems in 3.3
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/patch-3-3-totems-ah-guide-part-3-comics/

Icecrown Citadel Video Preview: The Spire
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/icecrown-citadel-video-preview/

Icecrown Citadel Video Preview: Forge of Souls
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/forge-of-souls-cairne-bloodhoof-blue-posts/

Blue Notes
Land Mounts Are Useless
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/29/20444817643-land-mounts-vastly-usless.html

Special Thanks:

Brigwyn  www.brigwyn.com

Intro Song:

“Wind Me Up” by The Epoxies
www.theepoxies.com


Beer of the Week:
“Industrial IPA” by Diamond Knot Brewing Co.
www.diamondknot.com
Beer Advocate: A-
ABV: 7.9%


Follow Raid Warning on Twitter:
RaidWarning

Let us know what you think about some of the new show changes and segments. Feel free to send comments, suggestions, news articles or hate mail to RaidWarningPodcast@Gmail.com.

The Achievement Whore: Hallow’s End

Welcome to the first edition of The Achievement Whore. In this column we will do our best to feed your need for E-peen stimulation by helping you accrue more pointless achievement points than that other guy living in his mom’s basement. This time around we are going to be covering the upcoming Hallow’s End Holiday Event. The event runs from October 18th to November 2nd. It is a good thing you get a couple of weeks because some of the achievements are going to rely on our friend RNG to complete. So let’s get started:

Trick or Treat!
You get this achievement simply by going to an inn and trick or treating the inn keeper. Just make sure to have your parents check the candy for needles.

The Savior of Hallow’s End
This achievement can be completed at any of the starting area villages. There will be an Orphan Matron that will give you a quest to Stop the Fires! A lower level version of The Headless Horseman will appear periodically to burn the village. Everyone in the area will have to work together to put out the fires using water buckets obtained at a pool near the matron. If you successfully put out the fires, The Horseman will attack and will need to be killed, which is jokingly easy for high level toons. Upon his death you can turn in the quest and complete the achievement. Not that we will ever condone shady dealings, but you can just camp at the local inn and test your luck logging on at a time its been done and just turn in the quest.

Check Your Head
For this one, you must first obtain Weighted Jack-o’-Lanterns from The Headless Horseman or a Crudely Wrapped Gift. You must then place one on the head of one character of each race. Be careful because if they already have the buff you will not get credit and lose your Jack-o’-Lantern. This is cake for 80′s as they can just head to Dalaran. It is going to be a bit tougher if you are lower level. If your able to get to Shat that is the next best bet. If not, you will find yourself touring enemy territory to complete this one.

G.N.E.R.D. Rage
This achievement requires that you get 50 honorable kills while under the influence of the G.N.E.R.D buff.  This buff in obtained by consuming G.N.E.R.Ds which can be obtained from Handfuls of Candy. The Handfuls of Candy can be obtained from candy buckets throughout the world. So if you are doing the event for the first time you should gain enough to do this achievement. The buff from G.N.E.R.D.s lasts 30 minutes but does not last through death. So, you should take a decent amount of them to complete this. It is easiest to do this in a battleground. I suggest AV as there are always a lot of people dying. Since you only need to get a honorable kill, and not a killing blow, this should go fairly quickly if you are in the middle of the action.

Out With It
To obtain this achievement you simply need to consume enough Tricky Treats to cause your toon to vomit like a sorority girl during rush week. It usually takes about 3-5 of these eaten in a row to cause the effect. Tricky Treats have a 1 day duration and are available from candy buckets or killing the Headless Horseman. Again, another pretty simple achievement, especially if you are doing the event for the first time. Just a word of warning to Survival Hunters; last year if you had the Sniper Training Talent you were immune to the Upset Tummy effect and unable to complete this without unlearning your talents. No word on whether or not this has been fixed for this year.

The Mask Task
This is a very easy achievement. All you need to do is obtain one of the flimsy masks that are given by the inn keepers treat bags. You should come across these fairly easily while doing your trick or treating.

That Sparkling Smile
This achievement is obtained from using a Tooth Pick. These are obtained in soul bound stacks of 10 from trick or treating at inns. You will obtain the Sparkling Smile buff upon their use as well as remove those annoying bits of Gnome stuck in your molars.

Sinister Calling
This is where random number generation rears its ugly head. You must obtain both a Sinister Squashling Pet and a Hallow Helm. You can get these either as a drop from the Headless Horseman or from trick or treating. Blizzard has increased the drop rate on these so it should not be too bad. This is one of those cases where without a bit of luck you are going to need to log on several days to get these. Especially since you will be rolling against other players on the drops.

Bring Me The Head Of… Oh Wait
This one is straight forward, head to the Graveyard area of Scarlet Monastery. As with the other holiday bosses he can only be summoned once a day per person. Excluding tricks using alts, you will be able to fight him 5 times a day. You only need to kill him once for the achievement, but if you need the pet, helm, and/or mount you will be killing him far more times.

Rotten Hallow
There is both an Alliance and Horde version of this achievement. For the Alliance version you must complete The Power of Pine and Crashing the Wickerman Festival. Both quests are given by Seargent Hartman in Southshore. The Power of Pine will require you clean up stink bombs left by the Horde in Southshore. Crashing the Wikerman will require you travel north to Undercity and get close enough to the Wickerman to complete the quest. Both are pretty easy, just be prepared for a bit of impromptu PVP.

For the Horde version you must complete both Rotten Eggs and Ruined Kegs as well as Stinking Up Southshore from Darkcaller Yanka outside Undercity. The first quest requires you place rotten eggs in a keg in Southshore. The second quest requires that you place 3 stink bombs in Southshore. Also an easy quest as both can be completed in the same area. As above, prepare for a bit of PVP.

The Masquerade
This one is probably the most boring and tedious of the Hallow’s End Achievements. You must have all the costume wands used on you. You can not use ones on yourself, and costumes granted from the Random Wand do not count. You will find yourself trading and buying costumes in capital cities to finish this one. Just bring patience and some gold.

Tricks and Treats of Azeroth
This is a meta achievement within the Hallow’s End Meta Achievement, and there is a Horde and Alliance version of the Achievement. It will require you to visit various inns in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outland. As per usual, this is easy if you are max level. It gets harder the lower you get and/or if you do not have all the flight points. Visit these links to see where exactly you need to go:
Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor (Alliance)
Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance)
Tricks and Treats of Outland (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Outland (Alliance)

Hallowed Be Thy Name
If you complete all the achievements above you will be granted the Hallowed Be Thy Name achievement and the title “The Hallowed”. Plus you will be one step closer to your flamboyantly-colored Violet Proto-Drake.

A Mask For All Occassions
This achievement is not required for the meta. It requires that you obtain all the flimsy masks that drop from the bags of candy. This is just time-consuming and requires a lot of luck, which is probably why Blizzard removed it from the meta-achievement. Do not be surprised if you do not finish this one.

That is it for this installment of The Achievement Whore. If you have any suggestions for a future installment or just want to correct any mistakes we inevitably made in a previous column, send us an e-mail.


Raid Warning Episode #19

This week we’re joined by Hafrot and Stompalina of the Rawrcast Podcast (www.rawrcast.com), as we grab a few beers and talk guild politics. Also on the plate this week, Blizzard unveils a sneak peek at the new Tier 10 armor sets, a preview of Icecrown Citadel lands hits the net, and the latest info on the World of Warcraft movie (we’re talking title here people). This week’s Priest class segment brought to you by Matticus of World of Matticus. And of course we talk beer, furries, wangicorns, and vicious squirrel eating owls. Did someone mention mung?

We’re just that kind of podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week’s sponsors: GameFly, Blockbuster Total Access and Skype
(All sponsorship money goes to the beer and bandwidth fund!)

Special Guest: Hafrot and Stompalina from Rawrcast (http://www.rawrcast.com)
Show Notes:

Tier 10 Armor Preview
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/tier10sneak.html

Blizzard Previews Icecrown Citadel
http://www.raidwarning.net/?p=1334
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/icecrown-raid.xml

Warcraft Movie Gets Title, Release Date
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803096/news#ni1053504

Patch 3.3 Highlights
http://www.raidwarning.net/?p=1309

The Price of Being a Goon
http://outlandbound.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/the-price-of-being-a-goon/

Special Thanks:

Hafrot and Stompalina  http://www.rawrcast.com
Matticus  http://www.worldofmatticus.com
Fathalpert from Malygos
Figren

Intro Song:
“Switchback” by Celldweller
http://www.celldweller.com/


Beer of the Week:
“Night Owl” Pumpkin Ale by Elysian Brewing Company
http://www.elysianbrewing.com
Beer Advocate: B+
ABV: 6.1%


Follow Raid Warning on Twitter:
RaidWarning

Let us know what you think about some of the new show changes and segments. Feel free to send comments, suggestions, news articles or hate mail to RaidWarningPodcast@Gmail.com.

Blizzard Sneak Peek: Tier 10 Armor Sets Unveiled

Blizzard has started a new page unveiling the latest Tier 10 armor sets to come out of the Icecrown Citadel, to be launched in patch 3.3. Currently only the Death Knight, Druid, Hunter and Warrior looks are available. More sets will be announced and pictures updated as PTR info is released.

Make sure you click through on the high res versions to see some horde variants and different angles.