World of Warcraft 4

Filed under: Items, Breakfast topics

One of the nice things about WoW is that it allows you a variety of choices for your character. You really aren’t pigeon holed into one thing or another. There are some cases in the upper echelons of the game and theory crafting where one weapon or armor choice becomes superior - but that’s only if you want to take the game to such a level.

And even then, min-maxing to that extent isn’t really necessary to be successful in raiding anymore.

I’ve come across this in my play recently. My weapon of choice (and hence the forever awesome Christopher Walken music video attached to this article).

As a Shaman I have a choice of various slow 1H weapons, giving a variety of different stats that I’d like to have. When entering the starting zones of Wrath I can pretty much find any combination that I want to fit my needs. As a protection Warrior I’ve found the same thing, even at times finding it more advantageous to use a DPS based weapon over a Def based weapon.

For the Shaman (which I need to point out is just my favorite alt at the moment) my weapon of choice has shifted away from slow maces to whatever sexy fist weapon I can pick up. The DPS output is roughly the same, if not better in some cases, and I just like the way it looks.

Yes, I said it. And I’ll take the beating that’s about to begin.

Continue reading Breakfast Topic: What’s your weapon of choice?

Breakfast Topic: What’s your weapon of choice? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

Historically, druids are the animal-loving hippies of Azeroth. They’re the kind of class that would nurse baby squirrels back to health, lovingly release them into the wild, and then cry when they’re instakilled by a level 7 rogue looking for ruined leather scraps. This is understandable when you consider that at any given moment, the druid is likely to be an animal of some sort. But sometimes they go too far.

For example, as Melinda of Eitrigg is trying to explain to her companion in this retro screenshot, one should not attempt to resurrect the giant helldog that your group of forty people has just spent the last ten minutes killing. Yes, Magmadar’s cute, but it’s really better for him to be humanely euthanized by our swords and frostbolts than to spend all his time locked up in this cavern. In doggy hell, he’ll be able to run and jump and play and devour souls in the fresh air. He would not make a good pet if rezzed. Do you want to clean up the lawn after that thing?

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, double-mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

Around Azeroth: Spay and neuter your helldogs originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

The folks over at CVG picked up an interesting note on our Activision-Blizzard overlords’ 2008 fiscals. According to Arvind Bhatia, World of Warcraft probably generated 30 cents out of each 60 cents per share of earnings. Put another way, that’s about $400 million for shares at the end of the fiscal year ending this past December.

Now, this is kind of the best guess of Mr. Bhatia, who works under the firm Sterne Agee. (And they certainly have a reputation that says we could probably believe them.) But even without Sterne Agee’s reputation, a little back-of-the-envelope math shows that his analysis probably bears fruit. We already know that WoW has 11.5 million subscribers. At $15 dollars a pop per month, you’re already looking at $172 million each month. But we know that a lot of folks have discount plans, and the charge isn’t the same across the globe. I can easily believe a $400 million yearly earning from subscriptions, and am actually surprised it’s not higher.

Of course, Bhatia has recently lowered some of his other estimates for ATVI, and warns that the consensus estimates predicting $5.2 billion in revenue are probably too high. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, this does say that World of Warcraft is doing just fine. We can feel free to threaten to quit over the latest nerf, the lights’re going to stay on while we’re out the door.

WoW generates half of Acti-Blizz earnings originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch

And now for something completely different, a comedic short titled Wrath Shorts 11 - Rather Be Playing DS by Apt-T Productions. You might remember them from a short time ago as the same guys who did Frank and Beans and Dude, Where’s My Mount? Or, maybe not. These guys are doing a lot of neat short-and-sweet joke reels, and their style is really growing on me.

I can’t really talk a lot about the plot of “Rather Be Playing DS,” because the movie is really short. (”Wrath Shorts” isn’t just a clever title, you see.) To sum up, Healer and Tank argue about stepping into an instance. Tank’s nervous because of the healer’s past performance. There’s a punchline, and comedic justice is served.

Okay, the graphics aren’t fancy. The soundtrack isn’t rocketing rolling metal. But, this is a perfect example of “all things come together.” Whether you find the jokes funny or not, I think everything in the mis en scene comes together just right for short’s formula. Anything more involved than its current graphics would probably distract from the jokes. I did happen to laugh, and I look forward to the next installments.

[Via Machinima.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ..

WoW Moviewatch: Wrath Shorts 11 - Rather Be Playing DS originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Warrior, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Humor, Phat Loot Phriday

Some call it the Sun Eater 2.0. We just call it badass.

Name: Red Sword of Courage (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)
Type: Epic Unique-equipped One-hand Sword
Damage/Speed: 160-299 / 1.60 (143.4 DPS)
Abilities:

• +25 Strength, +58 Stamina
• Increases defense rating by 38 and hit rating by 26.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Continue reading Phat Loot Phriday: Red Sword of Courage

Phat Loot Phriday: Red Sword of Courage originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP, Death Knight, The Queue

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Another day, another Queue! Let’s jump right in, hm?

meme asked…

What’s the situation about the aesthetic minor glyphs? Could we see them in a future? What’s the last thing Blizzard told us about them? Are people in the official forums still demanding them?

Continue reading The Queue: Last rites

The Queue: Last rites originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW Social Conventions, Features, [1.Local]

Reader comments - ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

(Baby) Spice, spice, baby Readers seem to have cooked up a satisfying solution to the problem of thoughtless creeps who park their mounts atop summoning stones, flight masters and other necessities, blocking them from use. “LOL, whenever I see a giant Tauren on his Humongous Impressive War Mammoth parked on the Dalaran flight master, it’s Baby Spice to the rescue,” giggles Euphronius. “Nothing more hilarious than seeing him reduced to the size of a Great Dane.” Woof.

Continue reading [1.Local]: Of Baby Spice and free stuff from guys

[1.Local]: Of Baby Spice and free stuff from guys originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, WoW Insider Show

Both Turpster and I have now appeared on Patrick Beja and Shawn Coons’ great How I WoW podcast, so we figured it was only right that we return the favor: on this weekend’s WoW Insider Show, we’re going to welcome both of them on to tell us how they WoW, as well as talk about the biggest stories in Warcraft for the past week, including what’s up with the Lunar Festival, the bugfix patch for the bugfix patch, how best to manage your groups, and what kinds of peripherals we like to use best.

And of course as usual, we’ll be answering your emails and chatting live with listeners during the show. It all starts up at 3:30pm Eastern tomorrow (and if you’re a regular listener, you know I usually come on early to play some music, and we usually stay a little late for the aftershow) over on the Ustream page, or right here on this post — there’s a live feed embedded after the break.

It should be a great show, and I personally hope to finally find out just who won the How I WoW episode battle between Turpster and I — last we checked, Turpster actually had more listens, but my episode of their show had been out for a much shorter time and was rising in listens fast. Tune in tomorrow to find out if I finally beat him or not.

Continue reading Patrick and Shawn from How I WoW on the WoW Insider Show this weekend

Patrick and Shawn from How I WoW on the WoW Insider Show this weekend originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Realm News, News items

Good news everyone!

Thundgot over on the EU forums announced today that there is a new EU PvE server opening named Saurfang. It will be an English based server in the Misery battlegroup.

As with most new servers, migration will not be allowed to it for the first 90 days. That means you can’t transfer your characters there just yet. For now, Death Knight creation is only possible when you have a level 55 character on Saurfang itself. That restriction will be lifted after the 90 days pass.

The realm became open for play just a short time ago, so if you’re in the EU and want some new server goodness, head over there now and get started.

New EU PvE Realm: Saurfang originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact

I’m stubborn. I am. Even though Blizzard have themselves admitted that Affliction’s rotation just might be a little too complex, I insist on sticking with it. Partially because it’s fun and partially because it really does give the highest returns once our gear gets up to par. My gear is slowly starting to improve, and one Valorous Plagueheart piece away from the 4-piece Life Tap spirit bonus which should help quite a bit. The new Ritual of Summoning — which some of my guildies have dubbed the TV from Hell — has impressed everyone and I feel somewhat useful again. Specially if people die during the run to Loatheb’s room.

Let’s for a moment forget that Survival Hunters are in the equation. We do this for our sanity. For now, let’s focus on getting our own performance up to par. The spec I use for raids is a 53/ 0/ 18 as opposed to the more popular 56/ 0/ 15, but I’ve found it gives tremendous returns with just a few talent points allocated in some talents. It’s been difficult, but it’s slowly becoming rewarding. I say slowly because it must be noted that some classes scale better and faster with gear and the raid. Let’s take a quick look at the build right after the jump.

Continue reading Blood Pact: Raiding as Affliction

Blood Pact: Raiding as Affliction originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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