Latest News

Addonwatch - Cartographer 3

A well-known mod maker Ckknight, the author of popular addons such as Cartographer, Pitbull, FuBar (+plugins), just released a brand new version of the addon Cartographer; called Cartographer 3.

This is a map addon for World of Warcraft that replaces the map and offers shiny features.

The idea is for it to work very much like Google Maps, only in-game.

This mod is still in early beta, but it has great potential and the author is actively developing it.

Tom "Kalgan" Chilton Talks Arena with Gotfrag

Yesterday, Gotfrag published an interview with Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, Lead Game Designer for Blizzard, where they talk about Arena. However the interview is pretty empty for info addicts like us.

Snippets:

• We are continuing to explore spectator options for viewing Arena game.

• We're looking to add new Arenas for Wrath of the Lich King that may be a bit different from the current Arena environments, but we're not ready to go into specifics just yet.

Rogue Arena Teams

Another helpful post by Slorkuz, and this time it's about rogue.

Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)

I believe that rogues in 2v2 have a variety of viable combinations. Before entering into a debate on what partner you should chose though, I want to note that in my opinion, coordination and synergy between yourself and your partner is more, if not the most, important to gaining a winning result.

When you start playing with a new partner, I firmly believe that there is an "adaptation" process where you must first learn to combine your different play styles into one cohesive strategy. Allow me to use an example with Rogues; One Rogue might be a very "aggressive" player and charge out in hopes to get the jump on a target before they get "set up" or perhaps catch an enemy stealther off guard and get the opener. Another Rogue might have a more defensive play style and prefer to wait it out a little bit and perhaps capitalize on your opposing team getting impatient by catching an enemy player in the wrong location at the wrong time.

While both of these forms of "rogue play styles" can and does work very effectively if executed correctly, they carry a requirement of significantly different expectations to their team mates' approach and play style.

This kind of adaptation and team synergy carries over to every team composition, albeit arguably some more than others. Coordinating crowd controls, offensive bursts and positioning in the arena are the keys to functioning successfully as a team.

Personally, when doing arenas, I prefer to discuss with my partner possible matchups and what kind of "game plan" we should execute prior to entering. Then, later, if we encounter a setup or set of plays that left us with a loss, we often sit back and think/talk about what went wrong and what we can do to counter what just happened to us.

That being said;

For 2v2s as a Rogue I believe some of the most common setups are as follows:

Rogue/Restoration Druid

Combining the mobility and control of a Rogue with the survivability and utility of of a restoration Druid, this composition can be very effective while executed correctly. Between Cyclone, Sap, Blind, Roots and feral abilities on the druid's account such as feral charge and bash, a well coordinated set of plays can present your opponents with a tough choice; trinket a Blind in order to heal while risking getting charged/bashed, or eat the blind and hope their partner can stay alive by own merits for the duration of the CC.

Rogue/Discipline Priest

What discipline priests lack in terms of mobility, they make up for in terms of utility and synergy with a Rogue partner. Fears, mana burns, instant heals/shields and both offensive and defensive dispels couple very well with a Rogue's control abilities. A well executed priest fear on an opposing healer while their partner is low health (fear gets trinketed) followed by a Blind by the rogue and subsequently an optional Vanish->Sap can leave the lowhealth target without heals for a healthy duration allowing an opportunity to finish him off.

Rogue/Warlock

This team relies on the tactic "kill before being killed". Between the utilities and CC's of both classes and improved stealth detection from the warlocks felhunter, this combination allows the rogue to very often get the opener on a stealthed target. Add a warlock's survivability to the mix while executing some well timed CC combinations (fear->blind->vanish/sap), this formation is considered one of the most potent "double dps" 2v2 teams.

Rogue/Mage

Similiar to a Rogue/Warlock setup in the sense that this is a 2dps team requiring a quick kill, both classes have an arsenal of CC and survival abilities if they get jumped. The spike damage of a Mage "Shatter Combo" and a Rogue stunlock with damage, this composition can be particularly lethal if the crit numbers are high.

Rogue/Rogue

Also a popular 2dps formation currently, this team composition relies mostly on one thing; Getting the opener on your opponents and controling the fight. If either of the two rogues gets jumped/cc'ed off the bat, it can be hard to recover and pull of a win. Coordinating stuns and CC's is also an important part of this team's strengths. An example is having one Rogue unload a 5pt Kidney in anticipation that the target will trinket while the second rogue holds back ready to re-apply (albeit diminished duration) second stun. Coordinating interupts is also key to this combination.

---

I am sure that there are other setups that can be effective, but I will leave the elaboration on those up to other players. Again, I would like to reiterate my opinion that the most important points to being successful in the arenas is communication, team synergy and executing a plan together.

I hope my opinions and suggestions have been helpful

Daily Blue

Don't expect an additional profession slot in WotLK (src)

We have no current plans to add another main profession slot to characters in Wrath of the Lich King.

PVP, Raid, Non-Raid Progression in WotLK (src)

We are making the raid dungeons have the 10 and 25 person sizes so that it is not nearly as limited as before though as a lot more people can get involved in 10 person raids. We don't plan to remove the concept of raiding from the game though as that sounds like what you are looking for. There will be 5 person dungeons with their heroic versions available as in the past and they should be a lot of fun if that is the content that fits your play best.

Worldwide Invitational and BlizzCon (src)

"Worldwide Invitational" relates to the tournaments being held for StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft. An invitational is the style of choosing the participants, where they don't necessarily compete in preliminary rounds, but are hand picked to compete solely at the event.

While some contests for wwi may be restricted to EU residents only, our own BlizzCon is planned to have a similar set of contests from previous BlizzCon years and likely similar rules and restrictions. Keep an eye on the BlizzCon site for contest announcements and rules/restrictions as they become available.

New Fan Art Wallpaper - Kil'jaeden

The well-established Deus Vox is the first US guild to down Kil'jaeden, congratulations to them.

Their loot:

• Hand of the Deceiver

• Sunflare

• Borderland Paingrips

• Helm of Burning Righteousness -> Helm of Uther's Resolve

Four KJ kills and no legendary bow yet.

If you want to check out the full loot table of Kil'jaeden, it's here.

Raid Setup:

Druid: Lamissa (feral), Melador (resto)

Hunter: Takamuri, Traplol

Mage: Rakuno

Paladin: Maddeath, Slawnik (retri)

Priest: Cochice (shadow), Fariel, Gilg, Nusaku (shadow)

Rogue: Ohhnoes, Gnogue, Borot

Shaman: Rootzo, Draenorm, Ichie (resto), Sorva (resto), Traneth (resto)

SK-Gaming managed to defeat Kil'jaeden today at 1:27 am CET, congratulations for their world first kill, Kil'jaeden is the final boss of the Burning Crusade expansion.

Their loot:

• Hand of the Deceiver

• Hammer of Sanctification

• Thalassian Ranger Gauntlets

• Cover of Ursol the Wise -> Cover of Ursoc the Mighty

If you want to check out the full loot table of Kil'jaeden, it's here.

Raid Setup:

Druid: Sammyjankis

Hunter: Munken | Valandu | Hunex

Mage: Gazz

Paladin: Mackelina | Fenira

Priest: Pmastah | Diomache | Narilka | Tohrazer

Rogue: Zkygge | Krematoria | Ikku

5 person dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King (src)

We are currently planning to keep the 5 person dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King fairly short in length, but with a boost to their overall epicness - the preview we have of The Nexus is a great example of this.

The more vast and sprawling dungeons will be found in the raid dungeons which more players will be able to experience with the changes to the setup.

Death Knight creation (src)

This is correct, if a server is not yet open to transfers, then you need a level 55 on that server to create a Death Knight . At this point in time, we don't have any further limitations on the creation. As always, I like to give a caveat that this could change if we feel it's necessary.

The boat and zeppelin crews are still not back (src)

There were issues with the boat and zeppelin crews that were adversely affecting their functionality. While we'd like to add them back in at some point in time, it won't happen until we feel that issue will no longer affect their functionality. We'd like to see the crews back at their stations though in the future if we can.

About Arena Exploits (src)

We're keeping an eye on the new queue mechanics for exploits, but there is some critical information missing from this example. If the two players in question had not been exploiting, what rating would they be capable of maintaining? The Elo system doesn't actually rely on same-rating matchups to work, meaning if you're only skilled enough to maintain a 1800 rating, but you play 1600 rated opponents all day and night, you'll still hang around the 1800 rating mark regardless.

So, in the example, the exploit should only work if the players in question were 1850 quality players anyways, in which case their exploit didn't actually change their chances to get 1850 (or reduce on average the number of games they'd have to play to get there), it only changed who they played against to get there.

The exploit would only work if you were able to consistently play against opponents that were actually worse than their rating said they were. So, for example, if players at 1500 rating on average were actually worse than 1500, than it might work. However, if anything I think players feel that playing 1500 rated matchups is just as likely (if not more likely), to put you up against a team that is actually much better than 1500, in which case this exploit is hurting your chances more than helping. This only becomes more true the more players attempt to use this tactic (since more high-rated players would actually be queuing at lower ratings).

Arena Tournament First Qualification Round Concludes (src)

After several weeks of fierce competition, the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament's first qualification round has come to an end. Registration for the second qualification round is now open, and you can check out the phase schedule for it. To register for the tournament or for more information, please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Thank you to all of the participants and good luck to everyone in the second qualifier!

US - Forum Reorganization (src)

Thanks everyone for your patience as we shifted things around a bit. Just a quick run-down of changes we made:

Aside from the "crucial" forums such as Customer Service and Tech Support, everything that isn't in a sub-category has been alphabetized. "Non-critical" forums such as SCII and WotLK forums are left at the bottom.

The Guild Recruitment forum has been split into an Alliance and Horde variation, I would fully expect traffic to increase substantially for a bit while people rush to get their ads up, but it should slow back down after a while.

There's a new "Gameplay Discussion" subsection which now houses the Dungeon & Raid, PvP, Professions, and Quest forums. Possibilities exist for other forums to be added to this subsection in the future, but for now we think its pretty solid.

The drop down menu (the thing in the upper left of every forum) reflects all of these changes, and should hopefully provide a clearer and more logical separation.

In addition, the "WoW" prefix has been removed from all forums as everyone should already be aware they're looking through forums related to World of Warcraft.

22/05 The New and Improved Gadgetzan Times (src)

While the opening of the Dark Portal and the scandalous return of Kael’thas to the Sunwell Plateau might have been good for adventurers all over Azeroth, they haven’t been good for the goblins at the Gadgetzan Times. Known for their interest in all things explosive, there has been a significant shortage of reliable, sensible goblins to report on the events and news for this illustrious newspaper. When crisis looms, goblins get creative, and when the first ‘all-purpose automated author’ self-destructed, there was only one solution - call in the experts.

 read more »

The loot table of Kil'jaeden has been activated on live servers.

Check out the live stats:

Weapons

• Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury (162.8 DPS)
• Crux of the Apocalypse
• Sunflare
• Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei
• Apolyon, the Soul-Render
• Hand of the Deceiver (new)
• Hammer of Sanctification (new)

Armors

• Handguards of Defiled Worlds (new)
• Dark Conjuror's Collar (new)
• Coif of Alleria (new)
• Thalassian Ranger Gauntlets (new)
• Borderland Paingrips (new)
• Cowl of Light's Purity -> Helm of Arcane Purity
• Duplicitous Guise -> Mask of the Fury Hunter
• Cover of Ursol the Wise -> Cover of Ursoc the Mighty
• Cowl of Gul'dan -> Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul
• Crown of Anasterian -> Crown of Dath'Remar
• Helm of Burning Righteousness -> Helm of Uther's Resolve

Misc

Quick preview of the Kil'jaeden encounter. Thanks to Death Wish for the pictures and video.

Sunwell Plateau - Third Gate is Now Open

The last and third gate of Sunwell Plateau just unlocked on US realms, opening the path to Kil'jaeden.

In case you wonder why some links are missing, Blizzard contacted us and requested we remove the content covered by NDA.

Daily Blue

Arena Rating Calculation Clarification (src)

There has been some confusion regarding the changes to Arena Team and Personal rating calculations in patch 2.4.2 for those players with 100% participation on their team so we’d like to clarify how the system works now.

The adjustment to a team’s personal rating can vary based on the average personal rating of the other team while team ratings will always adjust based directly on the team rating of the other team. If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating. Adjustments to your personal rating are based on the ratings by which the opposing team was queued.

• If the opposing team was queued based on their team rating, your personal rating will be adjusted based on their team rating. • If the opposing team was queued based on their average personal rating, your personal rating will be adjusted based on their average personal rating.

Example:

• Team A has a rating of 1550. Team B has a rating of 1750. • Team A has an average personal rating of 1520 for the members participating in the match. Team B has an average personal rating of 1490 for the members participating in the match. • Team A wins. Team A’s team rating is adjusted based off of a win over Team B’s team rating of 1750. • All members of Team A have their personal ratings adjusted based off of a win over Team B’s average personal rating of 1490 but it will be a smaller gain when compared to the rating their team got.

This change promotes having teams compete against players who’s ratings statistically match up best against them. In turn this will help provide the most competitive environment possible in the Arena.

Death Knights and character slots (src)

We don’t plan to add another character slot with the introduction of the Death Knight, which means that you would have to either delete or transfer a character, if you wish to roll a Death Knight on a realm that already has 10 characters on it.

Tanking spots in WotLK (src)

It would be rather silly to think that the Death Knight will make other classes obsolete, because that is really not the case. The Death Knight will bring its own flavour and style to the game, but at the same time it will be able to share roles with some of the existing classes. We have seen quite a few posts recently saying that there are too few tanks to go around, posts that claim that it takes forever to find a tank for PUGs or that guild progression is being slowed down due to shortage of tanks. By adding another potential tank to the mix, the Death Knight should most surely be considered a helpful addition to the game instead of a threatening one. I don't think Warriors will have anything to worry about in WotLK, because they will not be replaced by the Death Knight. Warriors will still be needed in groups and guilds, as they have always been, and they will still be great tanks. This also holds true for Druids and Paladins by the way.

US Tournament Realms Stats

With the end of the qualifying phase fast approaching, Vhairi has rescanned the US TR armoury data. He has only shown the 3v3 chart. He will re-scan the US and EU armouries as we approach the end of season 3.

US TR class performance as of 18th May 2008

TR Performance Comparison 18th May vs 18th April

The following chart show how the class has changed since the 18th April stats, e.g. if a Class was 100% in April and it is now 150% then it will have seen a 50% gain, if it has gone from 100% to 50% Then it will be a -50% gain.

The9 Suspends WoW Operations for 3 Days of Mourning for the Earthquake Tragedy in Southeast China

The9 Limited Suspends Game Operations for 3 Days of Mourning for the Earthquake Tragedy in Southeast China

It seems Wrath of the Lich King finally entered into the Friends & Family Alpha phase, and the patch notes have been leaked.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Friends and Family Alpha

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Friends and Family Alpha. The list below contains information on the current available content available for testing and general information. This information is subject to change.

General

• The continent of Northrend is now available! To travel there, visit one of four transportation masters in either Orgrimmar, Undercity, Theramore,or Menethil Harbor.

• Transportation between Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra can be found at the Tuskarr villages in those zones.

• NPC Transportation Locations

Horde:

Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)

Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)

Alliance:

Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Holwing Fjord)

Theramore Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)

World Environment Zones

• The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills

Dungeons

• The following dungeons are available for testing:

Howling Fjord: Utgarde Keep (70-72)

Howling Fjord: Utgarde Pinnacle (80)

Borean Tundra: The Nexus (70-72)

Grizzly Hills: Drak’Tharon Keep (74-76)

Classes

• All Classes are available for play. Spells and talents will be available for testing past 70 for the following classes: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

• The Death Knight Hero class is now available for play.

Creating a new Death Knight will start you at level 55 in Eastern Plaguelands.

 read more »

There might be a second update today if we are not too lazy.

Update: New DPS chest for casters on M'uru - Fel Conquerer Raiments

2.4.2 Hotfixes

Archimonde and Eredar Twins Hotfix (src)

We just implemented a hotfix for all realms that makes Archimonde's doomfires no longer be able to move right through him after they spawn. Their movement should now be much more consistent with the previous patch's behavior, and melee should have a bit easier time dodging the doomfires as a result of the change. There have been other reports of odd behavior in the encounter since the 2.4.2 patch, but this is the only problem we've been able to verify locally. We'll continue to monitor reports of unusual behavior in this encounter, and investigate further as needed.

We also hotfixed a bug in the Eredar Twins encounter that prevent a Hunter's Feign Death ability from working if Lady Sacrolash was alive.

Scare Beast change reverted (src)

That is correct, the 30 yard range will remain. It is only the the instant cast change that was reverted back to a 1.5 second cast time, because it was felt that it was too strong against Feral Druids. The tool tip still says that it is an instant cast though, but please note that this is not correct and will be fixed in a future patch. We realize that some of you may be disappointed that you weren't getting the buff to the ability that you anticipated, but please keep in mind that it's certainly not a nerf. The instant cast change was simply too strong, and as a result, it was reverted back to its original cast time of 1.5 seconds.

Daily Blue

About the M'uru encounter changes (src)

We felt that this change to M'uru's spell interruption would ease some of the frustrations certain classes were having with the encounter.

WotLK: Polar Bear Mount? Probably (src)

Some accomplishments (i.e ZA bear mount) will have a limited time in where you can get them, yes, but generally speaking there are quite few of them in the game. For players who are focused on romping around on a bear, there will be another one in Wrath of the Lich King.

WotLK has bears too? Please give more info?!?!

As Tigole put it, does a polar bear sound cool?

Caster Main Hands changes to One-Hand not intended (src)

Caster weapons were not changed intentionally.

No plans to reduce the reset timer for Karazhan (src)

We currently have no plans to reduce the reset timer for Karazhan. If you need more gear and/or Badges of Justice, there are a number of heroic dungeons to roll through.

No plans to give seal of blood to the Alliance (src)

There are currently no plans for any changes in this regard, but we will of course let you know if it is ever decided to make any such changes.

Multiboxing is a legal action (src)

A games master has already told me that this is a legal action and that he could do nothing about it.

This is correct. It is currently considered a legitimate means of playing multiple accounts.

Worldwide Invitational Machinima Contests Announced! (src)

Movie makers, here comes the chance to show your skills to the world! The 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational machinima contests will offer the opportunity for you to create and submit a new movie demonstrating your imagination and creativity. You can read more information and guidelines here!

Bring your movie-making art into the spotlight for a chance to win great prizes and a ticket for access to both days of the Worldwide Invitational. We will be announcing more details for additional contests during the next few days, so make sure to check back soon if your talents are in dancing, dressing up or creating fan art!

Blizzard Stance on Win Trading

Two days ago, we mentioned the recent surge of blizzard mails received by hundreds of win traders regarding the account bans and gear removal (for win trading), we now have an official answer from Blizzard on that matter:

In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we have taken steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Arena by actioning players who have exploited the Arena system to gain artificial victories to purchase Arena gear. Our support team identified several hundred of the most abusive win traders, and action was taken against those accounts in the form of a 72-hour suspension, as well as removal of all Arena gear purchased in the current season.

We want to emphasize that this action was not taken lightly, and was only done to address the severity of the problem. Win trading goes against the spirit of World of Warcraft and hurts enjoyment of the game for all players who earn their victories by competing in a fair environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken a very firm stance against win trading, and additional in-game updates have been made in today’s patch to limit this abuse. Additionally, we will continue to closely monitor the Arena system for any signs of win trading or other abuse, both through the remainder of the current season and also in future seasons.

If you were among the players actioned for win trading, but feel it was done in error, please contact our account administration team at WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com.

Thank you for your support, and best of luck to you in all of your games in the Arena.

Vivendi earnings statement hints WotLK to be released in 2008

In an earnings statement released yesterday by Vivendi, the company behind Blizzard included some info regarding WotLK release date:

Very good operating achievements were offset by non recurring or calendar impacts: the first quarter of 2007 included notably the successful launch of the first expansion set World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (the second expansion set is anticipated to be released in the second half of 2008) and the favorable settlement of a tax litigation.