World of Blogcraft

Time Flies - 6.3.2010

2010-06-03T10:20:00.004-04:00

So, it's been about nine and a half months since I last posted anything here on Blogcraft. Somehow, the blog still gets a healthy amount of hits, thanks to all you crazy loyal readers! :p

Time really does fly when you're having fun. This past year has been the best year of my life. The last time I posted on this blog is also about the same time I last logged into WoW to play for real. I don't get paid for posting things here, so it almost became something like a burden to post. I felt like posting here would take me away from my real life, which has been better than ever. Now, if I'd been making money, it'd be a different story (and I do need a job right now *cough, anyone reading this who could use my writing, cough*). Anyways... Now I find myself here, still living life to the fullest, but feeling like I owe the loyal readers some kind of an explanation.

Sometimes I wanted to post. For example, on October 13th, 2009, which was Blogcraft's three year birthday, but I just never did it. I feared going back to a life that wasn't the great life I was currently living. So much has happened with WoW since the last time I posted. Believe me, although it seems like I've been completely wiped off the face of the earth WoW-wise, I've continued to follow the game religiously. There are so many things I could have written about, I just didn't.

Right now, my life is about to begin a transitional period. So, who knows? Maybe I'll start posting again sometime soon, or maybe not. It's not something I can give a definite answer to. I wish I could, but I can't. Only time will tell...

P.S. - I made some damn good predictions. :p

-Matt Graham

WoW: Cataclysm - 8.21.2009

2009-08-21T19:26:00.009-04:00

So, ummm, I guess my "WoW 4.0" series is done with. :p Who am I kidding? Like I was really posting anyways.

So, the plan is to start posting again. Sometimes "the plan" doesn't work out. We'll see what happens.

Oh, by the way, the new expansion for WoW was announced today at BlizzCon 2009. Anyone whose even semi-involved in WoW outside of the actual game probably already knew everything about the game a week ago anyways - thanks to MMO-Champion. Here's some key info for the new WoW: Cataclysm.

What is the story of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm?
While the attention of the Horde and Alliance remained fixed upon Northrend, an ancient evil has been lying dormant within Deephome, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane. Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth, nursing his hatred for the inferior creatures that infest the surface realm...and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deephome will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation. The face of Azeroth is altered forever as the destruction left in Deathwing's wake reshapes the land and reveals secrets long sealed away. Players will be able to re-experience familiar zones across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, rewrought by the cataclysm and filled with new opportunities for adventure.

What are the features of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm?
Some of the new features of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm include:
Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races--the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.
Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.
New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.
More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.
New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.
Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

Why are you revisiting the continents of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor?
As we developed new content and expansions, we learned a lot of techniques to provide players with a better game experience--but the majority of the new content we were creating was for high-level characters only. We felt we could apply the lessons of Outland and Northrend to improve the gameplay experience while leveling in the original two continents. Imagine revisiting a familiar zone like Darkshore only to find Auberdine destroyed by the cataclysm--and then discovering entirely new towns and quests in other parts of the zone. Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms are central to World of Warcraft lore, and we want those areas to remain an important part of the game, not just a place to train or auction. Our goal is to make questing, leveling, and the overall story more fun for new, returning, and existing players. By redesigning areas of the original continents and introducing new content that matches or exceeds the quality of Wrath of the Lich King, we can revitalize the nostalgia and coolness of Azeroth.

How did you decide upon the two new playable races, worgen and goblin?
The community has been requesting to play as the goblins for quite some time now, and we wanted to stick with at least one race that players were very familiar with. This expansion was the perfect time to bring the goblins to the forefront and offer more insight into their past, since the catastrophic events of the expansion really hit close to home. As for the worgen, players have been hoping to be able to learn more about them since Silverpine Forest. This is a great opportunity to explore their lore and the mysteries of the Greymane Wall. The worgen are an aggressive and beastly race, which is something you see often among the Horde races, but is unique among the Alliance races.

Will the two new races have all-new starting experiences?
Yes, we are creating all-new level 1 to 15 starting zones for both races. Players will start their adventures with the worgen in Gilneas, which was sealed off behind the Greymane Wall. Goblin players will start on the Isle of Kezan and then head to the Lost Isles in the South Seas before joining the mainland. Each starting experience will be presented in a fashion similar to the death knight starting area in Wrath of the Lich King, and these starting zones will make extensive use of our new phased-terrain technology.

Which classic zones have been overhauled? What are some examples of changes?
Nearly all of the game’s original zones are being altered to some degree, but the extent of the changes varies by zone. For example, Darkshore is flooded and has been completely redesigned with all new quest hubs. The Barrens have been split in two; one half is for low-level players and the other is for higher-level players. Azshara is now a low-level zone for Horde players and connects directly to Orgrimmar.

Is another Hero class being added to the game?
We are not planning to add a new Hero class in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. For this expansion, it was more appropriate to focus on the two new races, the goblins and worgen. We never intended to include a Hero class in every expansion. As you saw with death knights, adding a new class changes the dynamics of the game dramatically, which is not something we want to do in every expansion. We still have plans to introduce new Hero classes in the future.

Will I be able to use my flying mount in the redesigned Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor?
Yes. While the original Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor weren’t designed for flying mounts, we’re redesigning the continents with flying mounts in mind. However, we’re still determining whether there will be any restrictions on where you will be able to fly, at what level flying will become available, or whether you’ll need to do anything to unlock it. We’ll share more details about this in the future.

Will I need the expansion to be able to experience the Cataclysm changes?
When the Cataclysm occurs, it will occur for all players, whether they have purchased the expansion or not--you will no longer be to play in the original version of Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms. However, certain features such as the new zones, new races, and new level cap will only be accessible to players who purchase the expansion.

Will “phasing” be used more extensively in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm?
Yes. We’ve come up with a number of new, cool ways to using phasing since we introduced it in Wrath of the Lich King, and plan to use it more extensively to change the world as players progress. We are also now able to phase terrain, which players will see in the starting areas for the goblins and worgen. We’re also adding some UI improvements to help determine when another player is in a different “phase” from you.

Will there be any updates to the graphics and changes to the minimum system requirements?
Yes, there will be incremental tweaks and updates to the graphics engine in this expansion. For example, we’ve made improvements to the way that water is rendered. We’ll announce the exact system requirements closer to the expansion’s release.

I might post more info later. But, to be honest, there's enough places out there for info right now. So, I'll probably post commentary instead.

Here's an HD version of the trailer for Cataclysm that was shown at BlizzCon a few hours ago. I anticipate it to become the most popular copy of the trailer on YouTube, just like my video for Wrath. :)

-Matt Graham

01010010 01100101 01110100 01110101 01110010 01101110 - 7.31.2009

2009-07-31T11:54:00.000-04:00

01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100011 01101011 00101110 00100000 01000010 01101100 01101111 01100111 01100011 01110010 01100001 01100110 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100001

00101101 01001101 01100001 01110100 01110100 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101101

WoW 4.0: Part I - 6.1.2009

2009-06-01T21:52:00.005-04:00

Because of time, and because I basically promised a post today in yesterday's post, I'm going to have to deliver this post in separate parts. Basically, it's a rundown of my opinion on the next expansion.

Let me begin by saying that I am completely opposed to the idea that the Emerald Dream will be the focus of the next WoW expansion. Hell, I'm totally against the idea that it'll even ever have its own expansion. But, that's the key there. "Have its own expansion." I'm not saying that the Emerald Dream won't appear in a future WoW expansion, I'm just saying it won't be the focal point. By the way, I don't think that it'll be a "part" of the next expansion either. Maybe the next expansion after the next, when WoW is probably going to be slowing down (but boy, has that prediction been wrong before), but not for a while.

Now, you might be disappointed to hear my prediction because you've heard it a thousand times before. But hey, if you've heard it so many times it must be a a good prediction... right? My prediction is... drumroll please... the Maelstrom/South Seas/Great Sea/Whatever the hell body of water with a giant whirlpool-storm thing in it. It's all the same, and I don't want to hear otherwise. You know what I mean if I mention one or the other. So, we're going to go with "The Maelstrom Expansion". Sound good? Okay.

The areas and zones that would be included in this expansion have been "planned out", in a small sense, for a while. I just think that it would really only make sense if we saw the Maelstrom expansion next. Because I don't think that the Emerald Dream will be its own expansion, I just can't think of of anything else that Blizzard would want to add to the game before something like the Elemental Plane, the Twisting Nether, or other planets having to do with the Burning Legion.

So, changes to Azeroth? Probably. I assume that this would be the best possible expansion for Blizzard to be able to go back and change up a lot of things in Azeroth. Obviously the biggest change would probably be the addition of Gilneas in northern Eastern Kingdoms. That place has just been taunting me for ages. It's like it was supposed to be in the game at the beginning, but Blizzard forgot about it or something. Oh, wait...

Then, other zones like Kul Tiras, and island not far from Gilneas, Kezan, Tel Abim, Zandalar, the Plunder Isles, and the Broken Isles would be added as well. Obviously, the Maelstrom would be the Icecrown type place of this expansion.

Hero classes, instances, mounts, items, etc. are all discussion being saved for a later date.

-Matt Graham

Time - 5.31.2009

2009-05-31T19:01:00.007-04:00

You know what they say? "Better late than never."

I really want to post stuff every single day. I really do. There's just this little thing called "time" that keeps on stopping me from doing so. I've finally realized that this beast cannot be defeated. It's something we all have to live with.

Someone once told me to, "adjust and overcome." Your environment, or your surroundings, may not always be ideal. But, you don't just give up on your dreams because of that, do you? No. You adjust and overcome. This is all new to me, and I'm trying. Trust me, I am.

I know I've said it before and nothing has come of it, but I'm going to go ahead and say it again. I'm going to attempt to post regularly again. I really do miss it. It's just that damn "time" issue.

I always have great ideas for posts in my mind while away from the computer, but I never manage to get the time to write them down.

I'd like to say that June 1st, 2009 will be a whole new beginning for World of Blogcraft. You have no reason to believe me, as I've let you down before, but I really am going to try. Wish me luck!

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft Is Looking For Writers - 4.14.2009

2009-04-14T17:20:00.003-04:00

Some of you may remember Joe Zara. Joe (aka Phoee) was a bleeding edge raider in classic WoW as well as BC. While Sunwell was the top raid instance in the game, right before WotLK, Joe decided to bid farewell to WoW, and Blogcraft too as a result. Joe was known for his great knowledge in the raiding department of WoW; it came from his first hand experience there. Throughout his short time here, he made eleven high quality posts. It might be hard for anyone to live up to new expectations Joe created when he raised the bar.

With that said, I'm looking for someone to help me here. As you can see, as of late, I've been unable to post as frequently as I'd like. So, having another body creating posts alongside myself might help to keep Blogcraft's page more populated with posts.

I'm looking for anyone, preferably age 16+, that has a passion to write and thinks that he/she can bring something new to Blogcraft. I think it'd also be great to get someone, like Joe, that has great knowledge as far as the raiding game goes. I don't post a whole lot about endgame raid encounters because I'm not hardcore with it and I don't feel I'm qualified.

So, if you think that you have what it takes, e-mail me at worldofblogcraft@gmail.com with the following:

1. Your name or online handle. I know that some people don't like having their last name out there, so that's optional.
2. Your age. (This is also optinonal, but it's preferred that you let me know.)
3. Why you want this job.
4. What you plan to bring to Blogcraft.

So, apply now and I'll get back to all the people that follow the criteria. Good luck!

P.S. - Please know that you will not be paid for this job. It's just a fun little side-project next to real life. :D

-Matt Graham

UGH! - 3.29.2009

2009-03-29T17:57:00.002-04:00

UGH! Real life has been so frustrating lately. I really do wish that I could get more time to play WoW and post on Blogcraft, but it's been crazy lately. Things are getting complicated, things are changing, and things are just getting straight up confusing. Whatever happens, I want to assure everyone that Blogcraft is NOT dead. I WILL be returning sometime and I'll get back to posting regularly. I would say that it'll happen sometime soon, but I said the same thing back in January. I'm not making any promises because I don't want to end up looking like a liar, but I will make an effort to getting back to this blog more often. The more I post on this blog, the more it means that my real life is on a clear path, right?

-Matt Graham

BlizzCon 2009 Announced - 2.17.2009

2009-02-17T16:10:00.003-05:00

Could there have been a better day for my return to posting regularly than today?

Earlier today, Blizzard posted a press release on their website announcing yet another BlizzCon event for 2009. As always, the event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The event is fairly far off though. The announced dates are for August 21st and 22nd, so just about six months from now.

Something that I find interesting is that they will be expanding to four convention halls this year. Now, if I remember correctly, it was just last October, at BlizzCon 2008, when Blizzard had to expand to three convention halls, versus the two they had the previous year. It sounds like this event just gets so much bigger every year!

IRVINE, Calif. - February 17, 2008 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon® gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes. In response to the festival’s increasing popularity, this year’s event has been expanded from three convention halls to four.
“We’ve been amazed by the incredible response to each of our previous BlizzCon events,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased to be bringing the convention back to Anaheim this year, and we look forward to this new opportunity to meet Blizzard gamers from around the world.”
BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities throughout the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:

Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
Community contests with great prizes
Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
A silent auction
More exciting activities and attractions to be announced
Further details, including ticket availability and pricing, will be announced on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.

So, here's the big news. I am going to try my best to make BlizzCon 2009 the first BlizzCon event that I attend in person! I also hope to bring you readers the best possible coverage of the event! Now, no promises, but I'll be trying my best!

-Matt Graham

Twitter - 1.30.2009

2009-01-30T11:30:00.001-05:00

Let me begin this post by saying that I will be back soon! My "busy season" ends in just a couple of weeks. I can't wait until I get to return to posting regularly!

Now, I also wanted to bring up something else. For those of you that don't know what Twitter is, it's basically a form of mutual stalking. Okay, so not technically, but kinda. I'm sure most of you out there already know about Twitter though, so I'm not gonna get too in depth. If you have in fact been living under a rock though, just click the following link and mess around on the site; it's really not complex to figure things out at all. So, I decided to start using Twitter a bit. Click this hyperlink to start following me!

P.S. - Woah! First post of 2009!

-Matt Graham

Merry Christmas! - 12.24.2008

2008-12-24T20:42:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you're enjoying the holidays as much as I am! Soon I'll be back to posting regularly! For now, here's a little holiday song!

The Twelve Days Of Warcraft

On the twelfth day of Warcraft, Blizzard gave to me…

Twelve angry murlocs,
Eleven nagas swimming,
Ten priests renewing,
Nine ‘locks-a-sharding,
Eight moonkin dancing,
Seven rogues-a-gankin’,
Six night elves naked,
Five lazy peons…
Four calling nerfs,
Three ranging hunters,
Two exploding sheep,
and a pally in the retribution tree!

-Matt Graham

Hello? Anyone there? - 11.30.2008

2008-11-30T23:54:00.000-05:00

"[...] My resolution for the next year is to attempt to post at least once every other day."

Okay, so it didn't exactly go as planned. Longtime readers of mine will know that usually November to early February is my busy season in which I hardly post anything at all. During those few months, I am literally 100x busier than the other parts of the year. Now, it just so happened that this "busy time" began a month earlier than normal this time. Since mid-October, I've barely been gaming at all, I've not even had a lot of time to talk to/be with friends and family, and I sure as hell haven't been able to post on blogs. I apologize for seemingly disappearing out of nowhere. I'm sure it seemed like to some that I was gone for good. Well, I am not.

I'm going to try and post whenever I get a chance, but there aren't any guarantees that you'll even see the next post before February. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it goes. Life > Internet

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft Turns 2 - 10.13.2008

2008-10-13T20:28:00.003-04:00

Exactly two years ago today, I thought up the idea of doing a blog based on World of Warcraft. I had seen others doing it and it seemed like it could be fun, so I tried it out for myself. The goal was to at least make one post every other day. Well, just by scanning the post calendar to the left you can see that it didn't really turn out that way. :p But, I try. I post when I can. I'm not getting paid for this and site traffic isn't a big deal to me, so my philosophy is, "Why force myself to post? I'll post when it's fun for me to do." I've stuck by that, and I still do. However, even with that said, my resolution for the next year is to attempt to post at least once every other day. I can't make any promises, but I'll see what I can do. If it begins to feel like work instead of fun, I'll stop. There'd be no reason to kill myself over it.

So, that's not all I hope to bring you, the reader. Hopefully, coming really soon, I will be able to reveal a surprise. This "surprise" is not yet set in stone, but I'm working things out. :D

These first two years have been amazing! I'd like to thank all my loyal readers! Now here's to another great year!

-Matt Graham

Here's What Day Two Looks Like - 10.11.2008

2008-10-11T11:45:00.005-04:00

It looks like today is gunna be the good stuff. PvP panel, Raid and Dungeon panel, another Class panel, general Q&A, etc. Sounds great to me! So, here's today's schedule. (Again, keep in mind that all times are EST.)

1.5 PM - 2.5 PM: WoW PvP Panel (and DVD Production)
3 PM - 4 PM - WoW Raids and Dungeons Panel
4.5 PM - 5.5 PM - WoW Q&A (and The Guild)
6 PM - 7 PM - WoW Class Panel Part 2

Also, like yesterday, the WoW Arena tournaments and open gaming stations will be going on all day.

The events above are hyperlinked to audio streams from WoW Radio. If you click on the event during its running time, you'll be directed to the event via audio. Enjoy!

-Matt Graham

Finally! Some Confirmation! - 10.10.2008

2008-10-10T14:58:00.003-04:00

MMO-Champion is reporting that, "Blizzard's "secret project" confirmed to be a new MMO with a brand new universe, but we won't hear anything about it before a while."

Interesting...

Meanwhile, the WoW UI Panel is starting now. Have a listen!

-Matt Graham

Here it is... Wizard? - 10.10.2008

2008-10-10T14:03:00.004-04:00

The opening ceremony was only about 20-25 minutes, as opposed to Blizzard's usual hour long ones. The usual "big" announcement at this BlizzCon was the Wizard class for Diablo III. This was kind of expected. :(

-Matt Graham

Get Ready! - 10.10.2008

2008-10-10T13:40:00.002-04:00

With BlizzCon starting in just 10 minutes, I thought I'd link you all to some sites that I have tabbed in Firefox, ready to be spammed with F5.

WoW Insider - Of course you gotta have the WoW Insider locked a loaded!
MMO-Champion - Seemingly not as great BlizzCon coverage as last year, but, like WoW Insider, you always gotta have MMO-Champion ready.
World of War - WorldOfWar.Net is liveblogging the event, so it should be pretty good.
Twitter - Following Patrick, Scott Johnson, etc.
The Geek Media - Leto and I will be bringing you the news!
WoW Radio - WoW Radio promises quality audio streaming from the BlizzCon floor. Currently 10 minutes remain beofore the event begins and no streams are up, so we'll have to see what happens. If they do manage to deliver, it should be good.

Now, of course, Blogcraft should be the first tab in your browser. ;p

-Matt Graham

T-Minus Two Hours - 10.10.2008

2008-10-10T11:41:00.002-04:00

Just over two hours remain until the beginning of the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim. Here's the schedule for today that you, as a WoW player, don't want to miss! (All times are in EST!)

2 PM - 3 PM: Opening Ceremony
3 PM - 4 PM: WoW UI Panel Discussion
4.5 PM - 5.5 PM: WoW Class Panel Discussion
6 PM - 7 PM: WoW Art
9 PM - 12 PM: Contests (Machinima, Costume, Dance, /Silly, etc.)

WoW Arena tournaments and open gaming stations will be going on all day during both days as well.

I'll be AFK for a few hours in the evening, but every other minute of today and tomorrow, I'll be getting constant updates and feeding you all with news and info!

-Matt Graham

1 Day 'Till BlizzCon 2008 - 10.9.2008

2008-10-09T10:48:00.005-04:00

Well, I'm back from my short, unannounced hiatus just in time for BlizzCon 2008! I apologize to everyone that may have been disappointed with me going AFK unannounced. The past month has been crazy busy. But, I'm now back, and hopefully I'm here to stay.

So, what do you guys think the big announcement will be at BlizzCon this year? At each of the past two BlizzCon events, '05 and '07, a new expansion for WoW was announced. However, it just doesn't seem like it'd make sense for Blizzard to do the same this year because we don't even have Wrath of the Lich King yet! While I'd love for the "Big Announcement" to be WoW-related, it appears as though it won't be this time. Now, what else could it be then, you ask? The only thing that I can think of for a possible big announcement is a new MMO for the Starcraft or Diablo universes, or for a new IP (intellectual property). If I remember correctly, after the announcement of Diablo III at the last Worldwide Invitational, the only remaining unannounced project, that we are aware of, is Blizzard's "next-gen MMO".

I gotta say, this has to be the first BlizzCon that Blizzard has really kept under wraps. All the big announcements from their events (including WWI's) seem to be leaked a few day ahead of time. Now, with the convention starting in about 24 hours from now, we have ZERO knowledge of what will be seen at BlizzCon (besides, of course, the game panels and demo stations that are always announced ahead of time).

I guess it's also possible that there won't be a "Big Announcement" this time, but I just can't picture Blizzard leaving the players hanging like that.

-Matt Graham

WotLK Is Coming 11.13.2008 - 9.15.2008

2008-09-15T16:36:00.002-04:00

'Nuff said.

-Matt Graham

WotLK Beta Journal Entry #1 - 9.13.2008

2008-09-13T23:03:00.009-04:00

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE WRATH OF THE LICH KING BETA!

So, the first thing I did with the Wrath of the Lich King beta was roll a Death Knight. Here is just about everything that I did in the starting zone and beyond in great detail. Enjoy!

After a short cutscene describing Death Knights and Acherus, I first spawned in the necropolis with the Lich King right in front of my face. Beginning with no weapon, I talk to the Lich King who then directs me to Instructor Razuvious. Razuvious then tells me of the importance of a runeblade to a Death Knight. After a few quests, I receive my first runeblade and runeforging skills. I'm then told to test my skills on some prisoners. A bit later, I return to the Lich King who orders me to look through the Eye of Acherus and scout out the below Scarlet Crusade town of New Avalon. After the scouting trip, I go to Mograine who points me towards Scourge Commander Thalanor who was found hovering above the ground on a Scourge Gryphon. I'm told to take a Scourge Gryphon taxi down to Death's Breach where I can find Prince Valanar.

Once in Death's Breach, I have a chance to do a few side quests, such as the quest that grants me my Deathcharger mount. So, after doing a few of those quests, I'm told to hide in a box of ore by the mine. There, I'm taken by a Scarlet Crusade peasant to a harbor where they are loading ore. The area is covered with hundred of member of the Scarlet Crusade, but because of my disguise, I make it onto a ship without anyone noticing. Then, I jump out of the box I was in and grab a hold of a canon. I fire upon the spawns of crusaders on the beach until I kill 100 of them. I then call on a Scourge Gryphon to take me safely back to Death's Breach.

After my victories at Death's Breach, Valanar orders me to see Mograine in Acherus. Immediately, Mograine send me back to Valanar at Death's Breach. This is the first time I experience phasing (instancing without actually going through an instance), or at least the first time I notice it happening. Valanar is found on a platform in front of about 25 Death Knights who are bowing to him. Salanar, another lead Death Knight at Death's Breach, is now right next to him to right of his platform. Further on, I notice that Havenshire, a Scarlet Crusade town right next to Death's Breach, is now in flames and ruins and Gothik the Harvester is patrolling around. Moving on, I find Noth the Plaguebringer hanging out in a pumpkin patch asking me to help him prepare a cauldron. Adjacent to the pumpkin patch is the Crypt of Remembrance, and there I speak to Prince Keleseth and Baron Rivendare who both gave me quests. While I was there, I should have spoken to Baron Rivendare about the annoying times he's given my main.

The next group of quests takes place in New Avalon, a city infested with the Scarlet Crusade. I'm sent to kill citizens, as well as crusaders and the mayor, and I also have to pick a few things up. The citizens just stand there scared shitless when they see me, and the crusaders don't have too much health, so I took them down fast. The mayor himself is basically just as easy as a regular crusader. After that, Prince Keleseth sends me out to receive information from crusaders regarding the "Crimson Dawn".

After that, I visit a small tavern that the Death Knight's have taken over in New Avalon. I'm sent to the main hold in New Avalon to do a few quests there before I'm then told to meet up with a group of Death Knight's at a nearby chapel. The band of Death Knights has destroyed that chapel and found a Scarlet Crusade prison nearby full of members of the Argent Dawn. I, being a male Human, am ordered to kill a female Human who happened to be an old friend of mine. She tries to save me, but the Lich King's powers are too much - I kill her right then and there.

Next, I'm sent to kill a courier and get his belongings. Using what he dropped, I disguise myself as a member of the Scarlet Crusade to receive information from someone at the harbor. After returning to the tavern, a portal back to Acherus is opened for me. I step through and speak to Mograine about my findings. Mograine tells me to speak to the Lich King - this time he's at Death's Breach.

This time at Death's Breach, the Lich King is up high on a platform with Prince Valanar and Prince Keleseth on each side of him. The Lich King provides me with a horn that calls a Frost Wyrm for me to ride into battle with. On the back of the Frost Wyrm, I'm commanded to deliver the final blow to the Scarlet Crusade of New Avalon. After I finished off New Avalon, the Lich King provides me with the last piece of the full second set of Death Knight gear and then orders me to go through a cave behind him and into the Noxious Glade. From there, I went to the Browman Mill and prepared for the final battle against Light's Hope Chapel.

I really don't want to give too much away. The end of the final battle is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in WoW. To try and tell you the basics of it without giving away the whole thing, Mograine and the rest of the Knights of the Ebon Blade are betrayed by Arthas as he basically calls them his pawns used only to get to Tirion Fordring and his men, Mograine passes the Ashbringer to Fordring, and Fordring then announces an alliance of the Silver Hand and the Argent Dawn - creating the Argent Crusade. As the Knights of the Ebon Blade are betrayed by Arthas, they too, sort of "unofficially", join the alliance as a part of the Argent Crusade.

After the battle and conversation between factions, I create a Death Gate back to Acherus. There, Mograine commands me and the other Death Knights to team up and kill the remaining Scourge in the Ebon Hold, including Patchwerk. Upon returning to Mograine when the deed is done, he reminds me of my past as a hero of the Alliance. Mograine tells me that Tirion Fordring gave him a letter that is to be delivered to King Varian Wrynn in Stormwind. As I was once a member of the Alliance, Mograine orders me to take the portal behind him to Stormwind and deliver the letter myself.

Upon entering Stormwind, the guards and civilians throw rotten fruit at me, spit on me, and call me names. After reaching the King of Stormwind, we speak for a brief moment and come to an agreement of an alliance between the Death Knights and the forces of good, against the Lich King. There ends the beginning quest chain for the Death Knight hero class.

I gotta say, the Death Knight starting area might be the best thing I've ever experience in WoW. I'll probably write a follow-up post to this one that will be specifically my opinion on the awesomeness of the Death Knight starting zone. If I get around to it, it'll be out within the next couple of days.

-Matt Graham

Finally... - 9.10.2008

2008-09-10T20:30:00.004-04:00

No, I'm not dead. I just haven't been playing WoW a whole lot and I've been pissy because I haven't gotten into the WotLK beta, however, that all changes now...

I AM SO EXCITED! I JUST got my beta invitation in my e-mail box and I started downloading the client within a minute of seeing "Inbox (1)".

I gotta say, I haven't been this excited about something in a long time. I cannot wait to give you guys some awesome reviews from my experiences in beta! Honestly, I never expected to get a beta invite after it had been this long without getting one, so I never planned anything for the blog if I got in. With that said, I quickly decided that I'll probably do a day-by-day journal type of thing, while alternating the characters I play quite often.

Expect the first article sometime in the late afternoon tomorrow or on Friday night!

-Matt Graham

The WotLK Crapematic - 8.21.2008

2008-08-21T16:43:00.008-04:00

What crap. I mean, ya it looks pretty and sounds great, but Blizzard cinematics always do.

This is one of the most boring cinematics I've ever seen Blizzard put out. They should be embarrassed by it. We don't need to see Arthas in every minute of every Blizzard cinematic. We know his story, we don't need to hear it yet again. Where were new player abilities in the cinematic? Where were the Death Knights (besides Arthas of course)? Where was the catch phrase?

Where were there any varieties of races and classes? I only saw three things. Arthas/Lich King (wow, haven't seen that before), a Frost Wyrm (okay, so that was new and kinda cool), and a horde of generic Scourge soldiers (BORING).

I wanted to see a few Death Knight's fighting Nerubians in Azjol-Nerub as they make their way to Anub'arak. I wanted to see an Orc Warrior utilizing Titan's Grip. I wanted to see Tirion Fordring wielding the Ashbringer and leading a charge of Paladins into a demon infested area. etc.

It just seems to me that Blizzard looked at everything that we like in the cinematics and took it out.

My final grade? 4/10 King Terenas' monologue "saved" it from being a complete pile of crap.

-Matt Graham

WotLK Cinematic in 3 Days - 8.18.2008

2008-08-18T14:35:00.003-04:00

WoW Insider is reporting that they are getting reports (>.<) that the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic will be premiering at the Leipzig Gaming Convention on August 21st at 1:00 PM. That's in 3 days and almost two months earlier than most people expected; most thought that we'd see it at BlizzCon. What a great way for Blizzard to steal the spotlight so they can hold it for two months before it shines on them again!

For one, this is pretty awesome. It's a very unexpected surprise - something that we don't usually see with Blizzard. Also, this makes room for more announcements concerning WoW at BlizzCon.

Hopefully Gnome will finally make an appearance! :D

-Matt Graham

WoW Movie of the Year - 8.12.2008

2008-08-12T22:51:00.003-04:00

The following embedded machinima is called "Born Again Ret". It's by a Holy Paladin turned Retribution named Lakez. It has my vote for "WoW Movie of the Year". And yes, I had to check and make sure that Tales of the Past III was released back in 2007 before I made that statement.

Born again Ret from Lakez Coffy on Vimeo.

-Matt Graham

Past "WoW Killers" - 8.9.2008

2008-08-09T14:42:00.005-04:00

Wow. They sure were off.

"Out of all the upcoming MMOs, Dungeons and Dragons Online stands the best chance of being able to go head-to-head with World of Warcraft. D&D is not just a popular franchise but it is the father of all RPGs, will actually provide stories, and will innovate the industry with extremely deep game play."

"Look for [Lord of the Rings Online] to easily surpass Star Wars Galaxies if it captures the magic of the franchise[,] but it will probably not be a genre-buster like Dungeons and Dragons Online."

"[Auto Assault] should provide plenty of excitement and carve out a nice little nice as a car combat MMO."

"[RF Online is a] Sci-fi/fantasy MMO that is sure to turn heads when it is released due to the awesome looking robot battle units that you can control and jaw-dropping graphics. The blend of fantasy and sci-fi has a little bit of a Japanese cartoon feel to it that should set RF Online apart from other major games in the genre."

"Without question, a pirate MMO[, Pirates of the Burning Sea,] is a welcome change since fantasy and sci-fi seem to be done to death these days. Who wouldn't want to sail the high seas looking for adventures, ship battles, and stealing booty. Look for this one to be a leader in the non-fantasy niche."

"Not only is Conan a large entertainment franchise, but it also should make a great MMO with its gritty and barbaric world. How brutal will the world be? You start out alone until you are strong enough to survive in the massive part of the game. Believe or not, but this game may actually do better than Lord of the Rings Online. In fact, Age of Conan has the second best chance of being a rival to WoW after D&D online."

Possible Killers Ranked by Potential Impact

Dungeons and Dragons Online
Age of Conan
Huxley
RF Online
Lord of the Rings Online
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Auto Assault
SUN

Wow...

-Matt Graham

/AFK - 8.1.2008

2008-08-01T14:19:00.000-04:00

I'm gone until Wednesday night. See ya!

-Matt Graham

BFD Sucks... - 7.31.2008

2008-07-31T15:07:00.004-04:00

Because I'm STILL not in the WotLK beta, I just don't have anything to post about. Lucky for you guys, I had such a terrible experience in WoW last night that I decided to post about it.

So, I joined a group for BFD last night because I knew it had some good Warrior drops (I was on my Warrior) and I had a quest with a reward of a nice shield. I had only run it once before on another character - which is weird for me because I LOVE running instances - so it felt like a new experience to me.

It all began with the realization that it might take a little while to begin the instance because out of the five in the group, only one was already in Kalimdor. Whatever, right? It'll just be an extra 15 minutes at the most to wait for a summon. Wrong. None of the other 4 had Menethil, Loch Modan, OR Astranaar flight paths. Joy.

Almost one hour later, I arrived at the meeting stone for BFD. Me and the other guy there summoned the 3 other group members. We jumped down into the instance and finally made our way to the portal. There first thing I saw was a lot of non-aggro mobs. Like in ZF, all these mobs ever do is cause groups trouble. The second someone casts any AoE, the group of mobs that you're currently fighting could go from 3 to 6 - in which case a wipe is very possible. These mobs, elite mobs, have absolutely no purpose to be in instances. Now, we never wiped because of these mobs, but we came very close when I accidentally clicked Thunder Clap when tanking the first boss - who is surrounded by about 10 non-aggro mobs.

Continuing on, while fighting naga after naga, we tried to avoid dying by running out of breath. It's not like we're idiots for almost dying because of that, it's just that we aren't use to having to pay attention to that extra hassle in an instance. This caused us the most trouble when fighting the boss Old Serra'kis, a Loch Ness Monster look-alike who lives in an underfreakingwater cave that you have to completely leave to regain your breath. My breath ran out while tanking and if it weren't for some lucky heals, we would have wiped.

A little bit before the encounter with Old Serra'kis, we fought Lorguss Jett, who is supposed to be a boss - according to WoWWiki. Guess what he dropped? Some Wool Cloth. Possibly the WORST boss drops in the entire freaking game.

Immediately after Old Serra'kis I left the instance - because I had to go somewhere, but that's besides the point. So, I didn't get the shield, and I'm not going to get it. I will never step into BFD, Blizzard's worst instance, ever again.

Believe it or not, I actually had a lot more to say about BFD regarding line of sight issues, overused frost nova, etc. Unfortunately, my nerd rage made me forget some stuff. >.>

/end rant

-Matt Graham

Vimeo To Ban “Game Videos” - 7.23.2008

2008-07-23T12:59:00.002-04:00

After Stage 6 shut down, Vimeo became the best choice for streaming gaming videos. That' gunna change very soon. Starting September 1st, Vimeo will no longer allow "game videos" on their website. Blake Whitman wrote the post on the Vimeo blog.

"The Vimeo staff has decided that we are no longer going to allow gaming videos on Vimeo. Specifically, we are no longer going to allow game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, fraps, or any other video gaming videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game. Videos falling into this category will be subject to deletion as of September 1st; new videos of this type will be removed."

This is pretty big news. Vimeo was definitely my favorite choice to watch HD gaming videos. Oh well, I felt the same way when Stage 6 was shutting down. I'm sure a new site will pop up soon for us to use.

-Matt Graham

WotLK Beta Forums Open - 7.18.2008

2008-07-18T00:35:00.003-04:00

The WotLK Beta Forums are now viewable by everyone! Enjoy!

-Matt Graham

Goodbye, NDA! - 7.17.2008

2008-07-17T23:53:00.008-04:00

The WotLK NDA is officially out the window! MMO-Champion is preparing to feed us with MASSIVE amounts of WotLK information. Boubouille has begun by posting the Borean Tundra page - but that's just the beginning!

UPDATE: Boubouille's Howling Fjord page is now up as well!
UPDATE 2: The Grizzly Hills page is now up.
UPDATE 3: The Dragonblight page is now up.
UPDATE 4: Boubouille now has a page up for the instance called The Nexus.
UPDATE 5: Boubouille posted a great HD video of Utgarde Keep.

WotLK Preview - Utgarde Keep from Boubouille on Vimeo.

-Matt Graham

Wrath of the Lich King Beta Patch Notes - 7.17.2008

2008-07-17T23:45:00.002-04:00

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Beta

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Beta Test. The list below contains information on the current available content for testing and general information. This information is subject to change. Alpha testers should note that your characters have been temporarily locked out. In a few weeks time, we will unlock these characters and you will be able to continue to level them. Please visit the Beta forums to submit feedback and discuss the expansion development with others.

General

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

The floating magical city of Dalaran is now available!

The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance.

The all new Achievement System has been implemented.

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

The level cap is currently set to 77.

Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.

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 increased spell damage and healing 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 from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.

NPC Transportation Locations

Horde:
- Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)
- Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)
Alliance:
- Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Howling Fjord)
- Stormwind Harbor to Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)

Known Issues

The current patch notes are incomplete, but will be more progressively more comprehensive in each patch.

World Environment Zones

The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills, Sholazar Basin, and Zul'Drak.

Dungeons

The following dungeons are available for testing:

Howling Fjord: Utgarde Keep (70-72)
Borean Tundra: The Nexus (70-72)
Dragonblight: Azjol-Nerub (72-74)
Grizzly Hills: DrakTharon Keep (74-76)
Storm Peaks: The Halls of Stone (77-79)

Classes

All Classes are available for play. Spells and talents will be available for testing past 70.

The Death Knight Hero class is now available for play.

Death Knights will now start with 0 talent points at level 55.
Creating a new Death Knight will start you at level 55 in Eastern Plaguelands.
The Death Knight start zone, Acherus, the Ebon Hold, is fully implemented and is located in the Eastern area of Eastern Plaguelands.

Druid

Brambles (Balance): Now increases the damage done by your Treants, and also damage caused from your Treants and Barkskin has a 5/10/15% chance to Daze the target for 3 sec.

Celestial Focus (Balance): The stun proc now works with Starfall.

Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors.

Faerie Fire (Feral): Now an 11-point talent, down from being a 21-point talent.

Feral Charge (Feral) is now a 21-point talent, up from being a 11-point talent.

Feral Charge (Feral): Can now be used in Cat form.

Feral Instinct (Feral) no longer increases threat generated in Bear form, but now increases damage done by your Swipe ability by 5/10/15%.

Focused Starlight (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Force of Nature (Balance): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.

Hurricane: No longer has a cooldown (was 1 minute).

Improved Faerie Fire (Feral): Now also works with spell hit, in addition to ranged and melee hit %.

Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration): Now a 2-point talent, down from a 5-point talent.

Improved Tranquility (Restoration): Now also reduces the cooldown of your Tranquility spell by 25/50%.

Mangle (Feral): Now increases the damage done by Maul in addition to Shred.

Moonglow (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Moonkin Form (Balance) no longer increases your attack power or causes you to regenerate mana off melee attacks, but now has a chance to cause you to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.

Nature's Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish.

Nature's Grace (Balance): Now also reduces the global cooldown of your Wrath spell by 50% while in effect.

Nature's Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors.

Nature's Reach (Balance): Now also reduces threat generated by Balance spells by 15/30%.

New Spell: Revive - Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. (Ranks 1-7 added)

Omen of Clarity (Restoration): Now a passive spell. Now also works for spells (healing and damage). Proc rate is roughly 6% with a 10 second internal cooldown.

Primal Tenacity (Feral) now reduces damage while stunned by 5/10/15%, and reduces the duration of fear effects by 5/10/15%.

Remove Curse can now be used in Tree of Life form.

Soothe Animal can now be used on Dragonkin as well as Beasts.

Soothe Animal is now instant cast.

Subtlety (Restoration): Now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 2, up from Tier 3. Also now only reduced threat for Restoration spells, and reduces the chance that your healing over time spells (Lifebloom, Regrowth and Rejuvenation) will be dispelled, rather than all Druid spells. Threat management for Balance can now be found in the Balance tree, within Nature's Reach.

Survival of the Fittest (Feral): Increased to 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

The mana regeneration penalty when in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form and Cat Form has been removed.

Tranquil Spirit (Restoration) now also includes Nourish.

Tree of Life (Restoration): 30% snare penalty has been removed.

Tree of Life (Restoration): Can now cast Dispel Curse.

Tree of Life (Restoration): You can now cast all Restoration spells (Healing Touch) in the form, but Tree of Life now only reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Flourish) by 20%.

Vengeance (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Hunter

All pet families now have one unique ability. New abilities have been added for families such as bears and sporebats.

Aspects now no longer cost mana.

Avoidance, Dash / Dive and Cobra Reflexes are now pet talents instead of pet skills.

Bite now has no cooldown, does the same damage and costs the same Focus as Claw, so works as a Focus dump.

Clever Traps (Survival) has been renamed "Trap Mastery."

Concussive Barrage (Marksmanship) - Can now proc from Volley attacks.

Deterrence (Survival) - Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, and now also increases your chance to resist spells by 60%. Now has a new spell effect.

Every hunter pet can learn Growl, Cower and either Bite or Claw (never both).

Hunter pets can now learn talents in one of three trees depending on family. Pets gain talent points starting at level 20 and earn an extra talent point every 4 levels.

If a hunter tames a pet that is more than five levels beneath than the hunter's level, then the pet jumps to five levels beneath than the hunter's level.

Improved Feign Death (Survival): Now also reduces damage taken during Feign Death by 15/30%.

Loyalty, Training Points and the hunter Beast Training button no longer exist. Hunter pets can now learn all skills at their level. They will get new ranks automatically as they gain levels.

Master Tactician (Survival) - Chance to proc increased to 10%, up from 6%.

Monster Slaying (Survival) and Humanoid Slaying (Survival) has been combined into "Improved Tracking".

New Talent - Improved Tracking (Survival) - Increases all damage done to targets that are being tracked 1/2/3/4/5%.

Steady Shot now uses ammo. In result, its bonus damage has been slightly reduced. Players can notice a damage increase based upon what ammo they use.

Surefooted (Survival) now reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 10/20/30% (instead of resist % chance).

Trap Mastery (Survival) has been removed.

Mage

Arcane Focus (Arcane) is now 3 ranks and increases chance to hit and reduces mana cost of Arcane spells by 1/2/3%.

Counterspell now costs 9% of base mana.

Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Invisibility now makes the caster invisible after 3 seconds, reduced from 5 seconds.

Magic Attunement (Arcane) now also increases the range of your Arcane spells by 3/6 yards.

Polymorph now costs 12% of base mana.

Portal spells now cost 18% of base mana.

Prismatic Cloak (Arcane) now also reduces the fade time of Invisibility by 1/2 seconds.

Slow Fall now costs 6% of base mana.

Teleport spells now cost 9% of base mana.

Paladin

All Auras now affect all party and raid members within the area of effect.

Anticipation (Protection) moved to tier 1, now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Avenger's Shield (Protection) cast time reduced to .5 seconds, duration increased to 10 seconds.

Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forebearance, damage increase reduced to 20%, now increases healing done by 20%.

Blessing of Freedom renamed Hand of Freedom. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Light and Greater Blessing of Light removed. Their effects have been folded into all relevant abilities.

Blessing of Protection renamed Hand of Protection. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. All ranks now cost 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Sacrifice renamed Hand of Sacrifice, is now only 1 rank and transfers 20% of the damage taken to the caster, duration reduced to 12 seconds, cooldown increased to 2 minutes. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Salvation renamed Hand of Salvation, now reduces total threat on the target by 2% per second for 10 seconds while also reducing all damage and healing done by 10%. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Conviction (Retribution) now increases critical chance with all spells and melee attacks.

Divine Intellect (Holy) moved to tier 2, increases total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Divine Intervention cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.

Divine Protection and Divine Shield now cost 3% of base mana.

Divine Purpose (Retribution) now reduces chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 1/2/3%.

Divine Strength (Holy) moved to tier 1 in the Protection tree.

Greater Blessing of Salvation removed.

Hammer of Justice now costs 3% of base mana.

Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health.

Healing Light (Holy) moved to tier 2.

Holy Shield (Protection) cooldown reduced to 8 seconds.

Holy Shock (Holy) range changed to 20/40 yards when used on enemies/friends respectively, cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.

Holy Wrath is now instant cast, causes a 3 second stun, cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, radius reduced to 10 yards.

Illumination (Holy) moved to tier 3.

Improved Concentration Aura (Protection) moved to the Holy tree.

Improved Concentration Aura moved from the Protection tree to tier 4 in the Holy tree.

Improved Devotion Aura (Protection) moved to tier 4, reduced to 3 ranks, now increases armor of Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases all healing done to units affected by Devotion Aura by 1/2/3%.

Improved Hammer of Justice (Protection) now reduces cooldwon by 10/20/30 secs.

Improved Righteous Fury (Protection) threat bonus folded into base spell, talent still reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.

Improved Sanctity Aura (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Retribution, now causes all units affected by Retribution Aura to cause 2% more damage.

Improved Seal of Righteousness (Holy) moved to tier 1, renamed XXX, now affects Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption.

Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) renamed Heart of the Crusader and the effects now apply to all Judgement spells.

Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).

Lay on Hands no longer drains all mana, cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.

Pure of Heart (Holy) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces duration of Curse and Disease effects by 25/50%.

Redoubt (Protection) moved to tier 2.

Repentance (Retribution) mana cost changed to 9% of base, duration increased to 1 minute (10 second PvP duration), now usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.

Retribution Aura damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power.

Righteous Fury now increases threat caused by Holy damage by 90%.

Sanctified Light (Holy) now also increases the critical chance of Holy Shock.

Sanctity Aura (Retribution) removed.

Seal of Justice/Judgement reduced to 1 rank with all the effects of the previous rank 2, the Judgement effect no longer prevents Fear.

Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.

Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds.

Spiritual Focus (Holy) moved to tier 1.

Stoicism (Protection) moved to tier 2, now reduces duration of Stun effects by 10/20/30% and reduces chance your spells will be resisted by 10/20/30%.

Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3.

Turn Undead (ranks 1 and 2) removed. Turn Evil now granted at level 24, mana cost changed to 9% of base.

Unyielding Faith (Holy) moved to tier 2.

Priest

Circle of Healing (Holy): Now works on any targets in the caster's raid, and is now a "smart" heal and chooses the lowest health targets to heal first within it's range. Also now has a 6 second cooldown. Also no longer will heal summoned Snakes from Hunter's Snake Trap.

Enlightenment (Discipline): Now also gives 1% spell damage and 1% heal per point.

Focused Will (Discipline): Now increases healing effects on you by 3/4/5%, down from 4/7/10%.

Force of Will (Discipline): This talent now increases your spell damage by a flat amount, rather than increasing your spells by a %. (Now increases school %, rather than selected spells damage %). In other words, your spell damage gained from this talent is now reflected on your character sheet, rather than the skill tool-tips.

Holy Fire: Cast time reduced to to 2 seconds, down from 3.5. Damage increased roughly 60%. Duration for the damage over time effect reduced to 7 seconds, down from 10. Holy Fire now has a 10 second cooldown.

Improved Inner Fire (Discipline) - Now also increases the bonus healing on your Inner Fire spell by 10/20/30%.

Improved Shadow Word: Pain (Shadow) - Now increases damage done by your Shadow Word: Pain by 5/10%, but no longer increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain.

Levitate now costs 3% of base mana.

Lightwell (Holy): Cast time reduced to .5 sec, down from 1.5 sec. Charges increased to 10, up from 5. Now breaks from any attack that hits you for 30% or more of your total health. Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5.

Mind Control now has only one rank and costs 12% of base mana.

Mind Soothe now has only one rank, costs 6% of base mana and has no max target level.

Mind Vision now costs 3% of base mana.

New Talent: Improved Spirit Tap (Shadow) - Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a 50% bonus to your Spirit after gaining a critical effect chance from your Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death spells. For the duration, your mana will regenreate at a 25% rate while casting. Lasts 8 sec.

New Talent: Twin Faiths (Discipline) - Increases your damage and healing by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Pain Suppression (Discipline): Cooldown increased to 3 minutes, up from 2.

Power Infusion (Discipline): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.

Psychic Scream now costs 15% of base mana.

Searing Light (Holy): Now also increases the damage of your Holy Nova and Penance spells.

Shackle Undead now costs 9% of base mana.

Shadow Focus (Shadow): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5. Now also reduces the mana cost of your Shadow spells by 2/4/6%.

Shadow Resilience (Shadow): Now reduces physical damage taken by 2/4%, but no longer reduces the chance to be critically hit by spells.

Shadowform (Shadow): Now has an innate 30% threat reduction. Now has a shapeshift UI.

Silent Resolve (Discipline): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5 points.

Spirit Tap (Shadow) - Talent reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Now also leads into "Improved Spirit Tap"

Wand Specialization (Discipline) has been removed.

Rogue

Blade Twisting (Combat) now cause all damaging melee attacks to have a 10% chance to daze for 4/8 seconds.

Deadened Nerves (Assassination) now reduces all damage taken by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Fleet Footed (Assassination) now reduces duration of movement impairing effects by 25/50% rather than increasing resist chance.

Gouge is now only 1 rank and causes damage based on attack power.

Kick is now only 1 rank and no longer causes damage.

Nerves of Steel (Combat) now reduces the duration of all Stun and Fear effects by 15/30%.

Pick Lock and Disarm Trap no longer require Thieve's Tools.

Premeditation (Subtlety) duration increased to 20 seconds.

Riposte (Combat) now slows the target's melee attacks by 20% instead of disarming them.

Setup (Subtlety) chance to gain a combo point increased to 33/66/100%.

Vanish no longer requires the reagent Flash Powder.

Vile Poisons (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage of poisons and Eviscerate by 7/14/20% and increases dispel resistance by 10/20/30%.

Shaman

All totems are now considered on the "Physical" school, and no longer magical spells.

Ancestral Knowledge (Enhancement): Now increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%, instead of increasing your total Mana by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Call of Flame (Elemental): Now also increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by 2/4/6%.

Call of Thunder (Elemental) now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder spell.

Concussion (Elemental) now increases the damage of your Thunder and Lava Burst spells.

Convection (Elemental) is now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Now lowers the mana cost of Thunder and Lava Burst.

Earth's Grasp (Elemental) is now a tier-1 talent, up from tier-2.

Elemental Detestation (Elemental) is now a tier-2 talent, up from tier-4.

Elemental Focus (Restoration): Now also can proc off Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave, and can be used on all healing spells.

Elemental Fury (Elemental) now requires Elemental Focus as a pre-requisite

Elemental Precision (Elemental): Chance to hit reduced to 1/2/3% from 2/4/6%, but threat reduction increased to 10/20/30% up from 4/7/10%.

Enhancing (Enhancement) Totems is now a Tier 1 talent, up from Tier-2.

Flametongue Totem is now a flat spell damage totem. All ranks have been modified.

Frostbrand's snare effect has been increased to 50%, up from 25%.

Ghost Wolf's mana cost is now 13% base.

Grace of Air Totem has been removed. (Agility has been rolled over into Strength of Earth Totem)

Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.

Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Elemental Shields, and is in Tier-1.

New ranks have been added of Water Shield, starting at level 20. (Level 20, 27, 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69)

New Spell: Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by x and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additionaly over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.

New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect.

New Talent: Elemental Shields (Enhancement): Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 5/10/15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 5/10/15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 5/10/15%.

New Talent: Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) - Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.

Rockbiter ranks 5 through 9 have been removed. Windfury Weapon is intended to replace Rockbiter at level 30.

Shapeshifting will no longer cancel Water Walking.

Shield Specialization (Enhancement) - Now a 2-point talent, and increases the chance to block with attacks by 10/20%, and increases the amount blocked by 5/10%.

Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.

Storm Reach (Elemental): Now also increases the radius of your Thunder spell by 10/20%.

Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility.

Tranquil Air Totem has been removed. (Threat is being addressed by modifications to the base threat of players and/or "baked" into tanking abilities.)

Unleashed Rage is now raid wide.

Windfury Totem is now a flat 20% melee haste totem. All ranks have been modified.

Windwall Totem has been removed.

Wrath of Air is now a flat 10% spell haste totem.

Warlock

Aftermath (Destruction) - Now a 2-point talent, down from 5.

All demon abilities and spells will automatically be learned as pets gain levels. Demon Master trainers will be removed.

Blood Pact now works raid-wide (not just in party).

Cataclysm (Destruction) - Now also increases your chance to hit with Destruction spells by 1% per point.

Curse of Recklessness will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).

Dark Pact: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects.

Demon Armor - Now increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%, but no longer has in-combat health regeneration.

Demon Skin, Demon Armor and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Fel Armor - Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.

Fel Stamina (Demonology) has been merged with Fel Intellect into Fel Vitality.

Howl of Terror now costs 15% of base mana.

Improved Curse of Weakness (Affliction) is now "Frailty" - Increases the amount of attack power reduced by your Curse of Weakness spell by 10/20%, and increases the amount of armor reduced by your Curse of Recklessness by 10/20%.

Improved Enslave Demon (Demonology) is now a Tier 5 talent, up from Tier 4.

Improved Lash of Pain (Destruction) and Improved Firebolt (Destruction) have been merged into one talent, Demonic Power.

Improved Shadow Bolt (Destruction) - Now increases damage by your next Shadow damage spells by 3/6/9/12/15%, down from 4/8/12/16/20%.

Mana Feed: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects.

Master Demonologist Felguard (Demonology) - Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist Imp (Demonology) - Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist Succubus (Demonology) - Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.

New Talent: Demonic Empowerment (Demonology) - Grants your Summoned Demon power for a short time.

New Talent: Eradication (Affliction) - Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Curse of Agony ticks have a 5/10/15% chance to increase your spell haste by 20% for 8 sec. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.

New Talent: Molten Core (Destruction) - Your Shadow spells and damage over time effects have a 5/10/15% chance to increase the damage of your Fire spells by 10% for 6 sec.

Pyroclasm (Destruction) - Now also includes Conflagrate.

Shadowfury (Destruction) - Can now be cast while moving. Stun duration increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.

Soul Link (Demonology) is now an 11-point talent (used to be a 31-point talent), but the 5% bonus damage from this talent has been removed. In addition, the damage absorbed by Soul Link is now 15%, down from 20%.

Soul Siphon (Affliction): Now also increases the damage of your Drain Soul.

Suppression (Affliction) is now a 3-point talent, down from 5. Now increases your chance to hit with Affliction spells by 1/2/3%, down from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Unstable Affliction (Affliction): Silence effect reduced to 3 seconds, down from 5.

Warrior

Anticipation (Protection) now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%, moved to tier 2.

Challenging Shout cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.

Death Wish (Fury) no longer makes you immune to Fear effects.

Death Wish and Sweeping Strikes have swapped locations in their respective talent trees.

Defensive Stance now increases threat by 45%.

Defiance (Protection) removed, replaced by Incite and moved to a new location on tier 2.

Hamstring now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.

Improved Bloodrage (Protection) now increases rage generation of both the instant and over-time effects by 25/50%.

Improved Disarm (Protection) now reduces the cooldown of Disarm and Shield Break by 5/10/15 seconds and increases damage taken by disarmed targets by 4/7/10%.

Improved Shield Block (Protection) now has 2 ranks and reduces cooldown of Shield Block by 5/10 secs. It no longer increases the number of blocks.

Iron Will (Arms) now has only 3 ranks, reducing the duration of Stun and Charm effects by 10/20/30%.

Last Stand (Protection) cooldown reduced to 6 minutes.

Mace Specialization (Arms) can no longer trigger more than once per 6 seconds.

Mocking Blow now only has one rank and causes weapon damage, cooldown reduced to 1 min and can now be used in Defensive Stance.

Overpower now only has one rank and no longer causes any bonus damage (i.e. weapon damage only).

Poleaxe Specialization (Arms) now also increases critical damage done by Axes and Polearms by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Pummel now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.

Shield Bash now only has one rank and will cause damage based on a % of AP.

Shield Block now increases chance to block and amount blocked by 100% for the next attack. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds.

Shield Slam is now available to all warriors, starting at level 40.

Shield Specialization (Protection) moved to Tier 1, now increases rage by 2 on a successful block.

Sword Specialization (Arms) can no longer trigger more than once per 6 seconds.

Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3.

Professions

The following tradeskills are available to train up to 425: First Aid, Herbalism, Mining, Skinning, Enchanting, and Leatherworking.

User Interface

The /cower emote now has an animation.

Macros and key bindings are now saved server-side so there is no longer a need to reconfigure them when logging in using another computer.

Shift-clicking to loot mail: You can now hold Shift and click on mail in your inbox to automatically loot any items and gold without opening the mail. This default behavior can be changed via Auto Loot Mail in the Interface Options (Controls).

Combat Log Changes:

The combat log now differentiates between a spell failure due to resistance and spell failure due to missing the target. Where once both events reported as a resist; a spell missing the target is now reported as a miss.
Overhealing is now reported in the combat log.
When a source of damage is entirely prevented (by a shield block, a full resist, or a damage shield like Power Word:Shield, the prevented amount will now be displayed.

-Matt Graham

Achievements - 7.17.2008

2008-07-17T13:38:00.002-04:00

Achievements are now official! They will be coming with WotLK.

I'll post more about it later. Just wanted to point it out for now.

-Matt Graham

The Joyous Honor Grind - 7.16.2008

2008-07-16T15:37:00.008-04:00

I gotta be honest. I'm playing WoW EXTREMELY casual right now. Basically, I'm just playing while I wait for Warhammer Online and/or Wrath of the Lich King. I'm pretty much just doing the honor grind in the battlegrounds trying to obtain my season 2 gear, that's all. I'm currently sporting 3/5 of the set with only the leggings and the gloves to go; I'll probably be getting the leggings tonight because I have all the marks and I'm only 2k honor away.

I don't really hate the honor grind like most people, it just feels very robotic. I'm just doing it to either hold me over until WAR comes out or so I can grind through the beginning WotLK content quicker than I did with BC.

There hasn't been anything to post about recently - WoW-wise at least, my WAR blog is kickin'. Or, maybe I just haven't felt like it. Who knows? I'm just waiting for the Fall season to come to I'll know where I'll be for hopefully the next few years - be it WAR or WoW and it's expansions.

Is the end near?

-Matt Graham

Busy Week - 7.9.2008

2008-07-09T17:24:00.003-04:00

This has been, and will continue to be, a busy week for me. Sorry for not posting recently, but I probably won't be back to posting until this weekend.

-Matt Graham

I Opted-In! - 7.3.2008

2008-07-03T15:04:00.003-04:00

Hurry and visit your account management page now! You can opt-in for a chance to get into the Wrath of the Lich King beta like me! Now, you are not guaranteed a spot, but you might as well sign up, right?

Nobody knows when beta will actually start, but it sure seems like it'll be soon. My guess is late July/early August.

I was never in the original WoW or Burning Crusade beta, but I hope that I get into this one!

-Matt Graham

Stay Tuned... - 7.3.2008

2008-07-03T12:48:00.005-04:00

Prepare to opt-in for the Wrath of the Lich King beta...

Stay tuned...

"Super soon"...

-Matt Graham

The New Runescape In HD - 7.3.2008

2008-07-03T11:20:00.003-04:00

Before there was WoW, Runescape was my game. I loved it! I played it all the time. It's a really fun game, there is no doubt about it. However, being a simple browser game played with a Java client, it has become the butt of many MMO jokes. Even though I no longer play the game, I still (and always will) root for it - I want to see it do well.

For the first time is a LONG time, the Runescape graphics have been upgraded - as well as the main website itself. It's not a small upgrade either, on the contrary, it's HUGE! That's not all, though! The game is now playable in full screen! Now you may get the true MMO feel when playing! I may just have to load up my old character to check this out!

The below video is from Jagex. You may watch it here, but I recommened watching it on YouTube in HD.

-Matt Graham

The Mystery Ends - 6.29.2008

2008-06-29T15:20:00.003-04:00

So, the mystery of the splash screen has ended. The new game is Diablo III. Thanks to my awesome ISP, I have been unable to post for the past few days - perfect timing, eh? So, I was wrong. I disagreed with the community, and was proven wrong. I should have learned this long ago with Blizzard, but you always have to believe what the community says. They are always right when it comes to saying what Blizzard will be announcing: Draenei, WotLK, Diablo III, etc.

Now, let me throw out my opinion on Diablo III. I could get flamed for this, but it's my blog so I don't care. :p In my eyes, the day of the "helicopter-view" RPG is dead. It's just plain dead. I don't want to see it anymore. It's slightly understandable with Diablo III because that's the "style", but sometimes gameplay must change to stay with the times. Let me just say that I CAN handle this type of gameplay on one condition. If this game shows up on the Xbox 360 with character movement via joystick, I WILL play it, but if it doesn't, I won't go near this game. I don't wanna sit at my computer, staring at at the top of my character's head, while spamming (and possibly breaking) my mouse button.

There you have it. Besides this post, I probably won't be covering Diablo III very much.

-Matt Graham

The Mystery Continues - 6.26.2008

2008-06-26T15:12:00.003-04:00

The mystery of the splash page continues! Over at MMO-Champion, the original discussion is now at a MASSIVE 122 PAGES!

The splash has changed over the past few days, but it hasn't been worth posting again until now. You can see that the ice is being broken through and it seems like a small pair of eyes are now visible, but who knows. DiabloII.Net has already reported that they have confirmation, from a reliable source in the industry, that Diablo III will be announced at the World Wide Invitational on Saturday. I don't really know what to believe right now. Knowing Blizzard, something probably has been leaked, meaning that D3 would be announced. However, my gut feeling is that we won't be seeing D3 yet, if ever - but I've been wrong before. I'd like to see a new MMO. I'm not sure if I'd leave WoW or WAR for it, but it's always nice following new MMOs. Whatever it is, I'm sure that it'll be amazing. Blizzard has yet to disappoint me with a game.

-Matt Graham

The Mystery of the Splash Page - 6.23.2008

2008-06-23T16:51:00.006-04:00

Most people probably now know about the mysterious splash page that has been spurring much conversation. Originally, it appeared only on the main Blizzard website, but now it seems to be on all Blizzard websites, including the main WoW site.

Basically, it's a big picture of ice - that's it. Some people are noticing "hidden" runes and pictures in the ice, but I don't really think it means anything - it's just coincidence. The main discussion seems to be a Diablo announcement vs. a WotLK announcement for the release date or beta. Now, my personal opinion is that it is an announcement for WotLK, but it's not for something as small as the beta and it's too far away for an actual release date (for Blizzard anyway). I think we'll be seeing a HUGE announcement for WotLK: another new hero class, another new profession, something completely new, etc.

Now, there is always the possibility of it being for a new franchise. However, I don't see Blizzard doing that right now because it could potentially take hype away from Starcraft II and WotLK. Plus, it's a picture of ICE for goodness' sake!

-Matt Graham

World of Workcraft - 6.22.2008

2008-06-22T09:06:00.006-04:00

The below video is one of the better machinimas I've seen for a while. The basic story is a bunch of dragon-slaying heroes in Azeroth who enjoy coming home to "World of Workcraft" every night - paying 15 gold a month to play! While you might think that the concept is fairly simple and not extremely creative, the way it's carried out is pretty amazing. I HIGHLY recommend watching this anytime you want a good laugh.

UPDATE: I was not able to embed the video. Alternatively, you can watch it by going to this link.

-Matt Graham

Bloghammer Online - 6.20.2008

2008-06-20T21:35:00.005-04:00

Well, Blizzard isn't the only one expanding.

I'd like to introduce you all to Bloghammer Online - my new Warhammer Online blog! Yes, my new obsession for WAR is true. It's kind of a weird situation though because the game isn't even out yet. I know that WoW won't be dying anytime soon, so I'll always have something to write about here on Blogcraft, but if Paul Barnett and the rest of EA Mythic end up screwing up, Bloghammer is out of commission. However, I'm gunna roll the dice on this one. I've never felt so good about a game before (besides WoW and it's expansions), so I really do think that this game will find its place in the always growing MMO world.

A perfect world (for players, definitely not developers) would be where WoW and WAR can coexist with 10 million subscribers each - at least for me anyways - but I think that's out of the question. There seems to be only room for one dominating MMO and I don't doubt that it'll be WoW for many years to come. My hope is that, well, WAR is a good game, but also that WAR can maintain a healthy population of committed players.

So, jump across the pond that is the internet, and visit my new blog about WAR, Bloghammer. Until the release, you'll probably find posts that are very similar to any of my posts about WoW expansions before release. I hope you enjoy!

-Matt Graham

The Beginning of the End...? - 6.19.2008

2008-06-19T00:23:00.008-04:00

After my short-lived case of burnout from WoW two weeks ago, I ended up coming back and casually leveled my Dwarf Paladin from 36 to 40 in Dustwallow Marsh (and some STV). However, just days later I am once again sick of WoW. Possibly my new found distaste for WoW was created by my "discovery" of Warhammer Online.

A few months ago, I was one of the people that wanted to yell "FAIL!" every time they hear about Warhammer Online. My basic though of Warhammer Online was WoW with slightly more advanced PvP but WoW's PvE minus anything good. But really, in the end, even if it does end up being very similar to WoW, why is that really so bad? If WoW is amazingly fun, then why would a copy with new "skins" for different races, classes, and environments be any different? It wouldn't.

This is not the first time I've felt a lot of hype for another MMO, Age of Conan being the most recent, but it is definitely the most prolific. I honestly hope that this isn't the beginning of the end of my WoW career, but I am feeling different than I ever have before when taking a "break" from WoW. However, until I physically get my hands on WAR, I won't make any huge judgments, good or bad - so don't expect any absolute WoW > WAR or WAR >WoW posts for a while. :p

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft Asks: What do you wanna hear in a WoW podcast? - 6.10.2008

2008-06-10T08:45:00.001-04:00

"Blogcraft Asks" is a new feature here on Blogcraft in which I ask the readers a question that they may comment about on this post. Before we get into the question, I would also like a special picture for this feature to put on the blog; So, if you are talented at making cool graphics and want to help out Blogcraft, send a "Blogcraft Asks" graphic to worldofblogcraft@gmail.com . If there are more than one entry, I'll pick the graphic I like the most. Don't worry though! Even if your graphic is not selected, you will be credited for your contribution! Okay, so now on to the question!

What do you wanna hear when listening to a WoW podcast? (Specific features or segments, discussions, etc.?)

I look forward to your comments on this post!

P.S. - This question is very important, so I hope you get a chance to answer!

-Matt Graham

Kil'Jaeden, The Deceiver - 6.7.2008

2008-06-07T10:30:00.004-04:00

The final boss of The Burning Crusade (probably) has been defeated. Rejoice young ones; go forth into the streets and make merry with vast quantities of mead. Or alternatively, read my article! Either is good.

I was looking for a single phrase I could use to sum up this fight, and indeed the whole Sunwell instance, and whilst I came across many excellent choices; I think I will have to settle upon 'Short and Sweet'. It has a fairly nice ring to it, for starters, but it also expresses my feelings about Sunwell, and Kil'Jaeden, rather nicely.

Allow me to explain; the 'Short' obviously refers to the small number of bosses within the Sunwell, only 6 encounters are actually available to raid. In comparison to the last raid instance of Vanilla WoW, Naxxramas, which had a lovely 15 encounters, this is somewhat annoying. Top guilds can potentially clear the place in a few hours; hardly a fitting end to a superb expansion. Which leads me to believe there is more in store for the TBC raider, regardless of what Blizzard suggests. Secondly, it is a somewhat opinionated description of the Kil'Jaeden fight itself - I won't go into specifics, but i was hoping for a +15 minute epic encounter the likes of which raiders had never seen. Whilst there's no denying the encounter itself is very challenging, it can easily be done in under 11 minutes. I'm sure that sounds fairly long for many of you, but personally, I was hoping for something a bit more strenuous.

'Sweet' of course can be used to describe all the encounters within the Sunwell. All of them are particularly demanding for what they require from the raid group; unlike say, Shade of Akama in Black Temple, which you can pretty much AFK on these days. This demand for skilled play from the whole group is definitely what raiders have been looking for, and a special mention must go to M'uru and Kil'Jaeden, both very difficult boss fights. Kil'Jaeden specifically requires that special combination of spatial awareness and skill that separates the truly exceptional player from the good one. And for that I am glad; it is a testament to each guild that has downed him thus far.

Speaking of, the 'Epic Battle' between Nihilum and SK-Gaming was brought to a close on the 25th of May, with SK-Gaming clinching the world 1st with ease. A well deserved kill, SK has been following in the shadow of Nihilum (back when they were Curse/MyM) for a long while now, and it's refreshing to see them take pole position for once. Nihilum is still a force to be reckoned with of course, taking the world 3rd, after Method.

Will direct your attention to WoWProgress again for the most accurate Sunwell leading guild list, and also this nifty new feature - Detective, which basically tracks server transfers to and from your server. No more hiding behind another name!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to Blogcraft. I've decided to stop writing as I'm not planning to be raiding in the next expansion, and therefore wouldn't have much to write about! Would like to say thank you to Matt for letting me blog with him, and I hope Blogcraft lives on for many years to come. Best wishes to all readers, Joe.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Goodbye and Thanks, Joe - 6.6.2008

2008-06-06T10:06:00.005-04:00

Joe Zara (Phoee) will be making his final post on Blogcraft tomorrow. The high end raider has decided that he has played enough of WoW - and he doesn't plan to return with WotLK. For him, it's time to leave Azeroth, but his legacy is not leaving with him. Joe is one of the more successful WoW players I've have contact with in my life - he's a raider in the world top 10 guild, Inner Sanctum. So, if you gunna go out, I guess it is the best time to do so. :p

I'd like to thank Joe for everything he's done for Blogcraft. He's been with the blog since last November and has put out 11 quality posts pertaining to the "hardcore" side of WoW. He brought a whole other dimension to the blog, and I can't thank him enough for that.

Good luck in your future endeavors, Joe!

P.S. - I know that you didn't really want me making a "goodbye post", but I just had to. >.<

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft Asks: What are the top five things you love most about WoW? - 6.5.2008

2008-06-05T09:24:00.006-04:00

"Blogcraft Asks" is a new feature here on Blogcraft in which I ask the readers a question that they may comment about on this post. Before we get into the question, I would also like a special picture for this feature to put on the blog; So, if you are talented at making cool graphics and want to help out Blogcraft, send a "Blogcraft Asks" graphic to worldofblogcraft@gmail.com . If there are more than one entry, I'll pick the graphic I like the most. Don't worry though! Even if your graphic is not selected, you will be credited for your contribution! Okay, so now on to the question!

What are the top five things that you love most about World of Warcraft?

Here is my personal list:
1. Lore
2. Environments (Zones)
3. World PvP With Friends
4. Leveling Alts
5. Reaching Max Level

I look forward to your comments on this post!

-Matt Graham

Burnout - 6.5.2008

2008-06-05T09:20:00.001-04:00

No, this post is not about a crazy, arcade-style racing game - although it could be.

I'm currently suffering from burnout in WoW. It's as simple as that. I haven't played WoW since maybe a week and a half before my recent vacation. The WoW posting isn't going to stop - I just simply won't be logging on for a while.

I'm going to take this time away from WoW to take care of some things in the real world, as well as casually game on my Xbox 360. Yesterday, I downloaded Fable from the Xbox Live Marketplace in the "Xbox Originals" section. I had never played Fable before, but I always wanted to. So, now I'll casually work my way through that, and when I finish, I hope to buy Pyschonauts through the same system - another game I have never played, but always wanted to.

So, that, and posting here on Blogcraft, is what I'll probably be doing for a little while. Hopefully WoW will feel very fresh and new when I get back to playing it in the future.

-Matt Graham

I'm Baaack - 6.4.2008

2008-06-04T18:02:00.001-04:00

While I had a great trip, I'm happy to be back home. There truly is no place quite like home. Also, I'm no longer sick. So, everything is pretty great right now. =D

Expect some new posts coming soon!

-Matt Graham

AFK - 5.23.2008

2008-05-23T17:03:00.002-04:00

Beginning tomorrow, I'll be out of town for 10 days with no computer. Possibly the worst timing ever for such a long trip, right? I'm still recovering from my virus and the WotLK news is still pouring out. Oh well - you win some, you lose some.

Plus, I guess wouldn't wanna be on the computer all the time during vacation anyways.

So, I'll see you all soon!

-Matt Graham

Championship Gaming Series - 5.23.2008

2008-05-23T16:45:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday, I was contacted by the Championship Gaming Series, informing me of their upcoming 3v3 arena tournament. The top 1,000 arena teams from North America and Europe will compete June 9-22, and the top two teams will travel to Los Angeles on July 19 for the CGS World Final and a grand prize of $50,000!

LOS ANGELES – May 21, 2008 – Championship Gaming Series™ (CGS), the only worldwide professional video gaming league, announced its second annual World of Warcraft® Arena Championship, an invitational Arena tournament that will feature the top 1,000 Arena teams from North America and Europe in independent open-ladder competition from June 9 to June 22, 2008. The two highest-ranked teams from each region will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to battle against each other to determine the top team from Europe and North America and fight for their share of $50,000 in prize money. The final match between the North American champion team and the European champion team will be streamed live from Los Angeles, Saturday, July 19 at thecgs.com. The top finisher will be crowned CGS World of Warcraft Arena Champion and receive US$25,000.

The CGS World of Warcraft Arena Tournament will follow the same 3v3 rule set and competition structure used in Blizzard Entertainment®’s 2008 Arena Tournament. The top 1,000 eligible teams participating in that tournament will be invited to register for the 2008 CGS World of Warcraft Arena Championship. All players will be provided with tournament-specific accounts which allow access to the CGS Tournament Realm, created specifically for the competition. Players will have access to the same gear and configuration options used for the Blizzard Entertainment 2008 Arena Tournament.

Visit the official website of the Championship Gaming Series for more information!

PLEASE NOTE: The CGS wasn't inviting me to participate in their tournament (I suck at arenas), they just wanted me to post this for them to let more people know about it.

-Matt Graham

I Got Owned - 5.21.2008

2008-05-21T10:59:00.003-04:00

On Monday I woke up feeling a little warm with a temperature of 98.9°F. That's not very far off from the normal 98.6°F, but I could feel something going wrong. Later that day, I found myself winding up with a temperature of 104°F. So, I did what anyone else would do - I went to the doctor. I was diagnosed with the Flu, which, for the most part, isn't very serious.

I'm telling you this because I want to apologize for not being able to make any good posts in the past three days. So many amazing WotLK leaks came up since Monday, but I haven't been able to bring them to you because of this damn virus. Sorry, guys! Hopefully I'll be better soon and be able to bring you some great WoW news!

P.S. - Please forgive me if some of the wording in this post is weird. The fever has caused me to be really confused.

-Matt Graham

WotLK Leak Compilation - 5.18.2008

2008-05-18T11:45:00.005-04:00

I'm continuing to build my compilation of all the WotLK leaks I've seen thus far. There are currently two main sets, or albums: 1st WotLK Leak - 4.20.2008 and 2nd WotLK Leak - 5.17.2008. The albums are always growing as the internet produces more leaks.

The 2nd album will be updated with leaks throughout the next few days before I add a 3rd album with new leaks.

The current flow of leakage is said to have happened because the Friends and Family Alpha testing for WotLK began very recently.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: I added a cool new picture of weapon loots in WotLK to the compilation.

-Matt Graham

The Fourth WotLK Leak - 5.17.2008

2008-05-17T21:05:00.011-04:00

So, according to MMO-Champion, the WotLK Friends and Family Alpha Testing phase has officially begun. Well, it didn't take long for a few leaks to surface...

The picture to the left is, apparently, the Northrend world map. At first sight, I thought to myself, "Wow. This is overly plain." Then, I quickly searched Google images for a map of Outland only to find out that, it too, is actually very plain. After that, I searched for a map of the Eastern Kingdoms only to see that it deserves to be crowned the king of all plainness. I dunno why I expected such a detailed world map, but that's just what I thought about a first glance. And now, I've finally noticed how much I've been rambling on about something that doesn't really matter - so I'll stop.

The second leaked picture is, supposedly, the loading screen for Azjol-Nerub. Not a whole lot to say here besides the fact that it could be better. I mean seriously Blizzard, this is all you could come up with for something as big and important as Azjol-Nerub? I know that's a silly thing to say, but WoW is the top MMO and you, Blizzard, should treat it as such in every way possible if you want to stay at the top. Now, obviously Blizzard could change it before WotLK releases, but I don't see it happening.

Unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot leaked right away here and what was leaked was very random - *cough, Azjol-Nerub loading screen, cough*. However, I don't think it'll be too long before we see a bunch of new leaks.

UPDATE: Polar Bear mount FTW! I fine it kinda strange though... Most polar bears that I've seen in my life weren't black. Although, I've never seen one in real life so maybe pictures and TV lied. Some people are very skilled with Photoshop nowadays, you know. :P

UPDATE 2: The following is a transcript from the sound files from WotLK. I remember the lines from Warcraft III, so either this is a lie by the "leaker", or it's recycled lines - possibly for a Caverns of Time instance? Please God of WoW, PLEASE let this be for a CoT instance! It would be so awesome!

Arthas: Glad you could make it, Uther.
Uther: Watch your tone with me boy. You may be the prince but I'm still your superior as a Paladin.
Arthas: As if I could forget. Listen Uther, there's something about the plague you should know.
Arthas: Oh no, we're too late! These people have all been infected. They may look fine now, but it's just a matter of time before they turn into the undead!
Uther: What?!
Arthas: This entire city must be purged.
Uther: How can you even consider that? There's got to be some other way!
Arthas: Dammit, Uther! As your future king, I order you to purge this city.
Uther: You are not my king yet boy, nor would I obey that command even if you were!
Arthas: Then I must consider this an act of treason.
Uther: Treason?! Have you lost your mind Arthas?
Arthas: Have I? Lord Uther, by my right of succession and the sovereignty of my crown, I hereby relieve you from your command and suspend your Paladins from service.
Jaina: Arthas... You can't just...
Arthas: It's done. Those of you who have the will to save this land follow me - the rest of you, get out of my sight.
Uther: You've just crossed a terrible threshold, Arthas.
Arthas: Jaina...
Jaina: I'm sorry Arthas, I can't let you do this.

UPDATE 3: The Frostmourne altar's model.

-Matt Graham

"Death & ...Oh." - 5.16.2008

2008-05-16T06:48:00.002-04:00

Arguably the best U.S. raiding guild, Death and Taxes, has officially disbanded.

This story hits close to home for me. I've always been a fan of DnT. I've always rooted for them in their endeavors towards world first boss kills - something they were very good at.

The guild originally started on the Shattered Hand server which happened to be the same server in which I first rolled on. When the transfers to Korgath from Shattered Hand, Warsong, and Skullcrusher (?) opened up two summers ago, I transferred - as did DnT. It's been nice following DnT's progress first hand since the beginning. I've really enjoyed following the guild and I thank them for their contributions to WoW and specifically Korgath - which now, even without DnT, is still arguably the best U.S. raiding server.

Thank you, Death and Taxes, and good luck in your future endeavors.

-Matt Graham

G4 WotLK Preview - 5.15.2008

2008-05-15T19:35:00.005-04:00

Over the past two years, my love of G4 has consistently dwindled. However, this doesn't mean that they can't produce a good segment every now and again.

In the below video, a blonde Morgan Webb, of X-Play, interviews my favorite designer Jeffy K, as well as J. Allen Brack, about Wrath of the Lich King. It's short and sweet, but worth a watch.

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft's Not-So-April-Fool's "Joke" - 5.12.2008

2008-05-12T16:03:00.007-04:00

On April 1st, 2008, I posted a blog entry entitled "BlizzCon 2008 - 4.1.2008". In that entry, I stated that BlizzCon 2008 would happen and would take place on October 10th and 11th. Well, I was spot on.

Today, Blizzard came out with a press release announcing BlizzCon 2008 for October 10th and 11th. As usual, the event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California; however, this year BlizzCon is expanding from two convention halls to three.

Just make me the speculation king now. :D

P.S. - WTB [BlizzCon Tix]

-Matt Graham

The Might of M'uru - 5.12.2008

2008-05-12T15:54:00.003-04:00

What an intense couple of weeks it has been for raiding guilds. With M'uru's gate open, raidgroups dove upon him like starving dogs upon a raw steak. And, much to their surprise, they were thrown aside. M'uru fought back!

Blizzard has truly outdone themselves on this encounter - the 5th boss of Sunwell Plateau. It is by far the hardest encounter of The Burning Crusade so far, and rightly so. The intricate strategy and high skill level needed to defeat this boss has resulted in only 6 guilds worldwide killing him to date. That's 12 raiding days. This boss makes the Eredar Twins look like those mischevious little kids next door who keep ringing your doorbell and running away. M'uru wouldn't hesitate to blow them away with his rocket launcher of doom, he's that badass.

With such a difficult encounter, one may expect cries of outrage from the raiding community. But (aside from the typical 1st day whine on US Raids+Dungeons forum), raiders are eating up this boss fight. Finally Blizzard has responded to the hardcore raiders and given them an encounter the likes of which hasn't been seen in this expansion.

Focus was on Nihilum and SK-Gaming, as ever, as to who would take world 1st. This time around, SK took the pole position, downing M'uru on the 4th of May, a good 2 days clear of the next nearest guild. Nihilum have responded with apathy, not even caring about the kill having missed the world 1st. I would go so far as to presume they are concocting some devious plan in order to down Kil'Jaeden first and secure their title as the world's top guild.

If you are interested in seeing how guilds worldwide are doing, WoWProgress.Com seems to be the most accurate and up to date for guild rankings, and also full of other tidbits of information regarding the guilds listed.

Next week some 2.4.2 discussion - it's on PTR and it will be on Live soon, bringing with it Large Prismatics for all! Woot!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Wrath of the Lich King Preview [Part 3] - 5.11.2008

2008-05-11T10:35:00.004-04:00

Boubouille has posted the third part of his "Wrath of the Lich King Preview", and wow, it is awesome!

Part 3 offers some great information about the lay of the land in Northrend, as well as professions, raids and dungeons, Death Knights, and Patch 2.5 stuff.

Something that I really found interesting:

The mounts available to buy in Wrath will probably be able to take passengers. These mounts will also work in the old world (Provided they are land mounts), so players can give low-level characters a ride! The new mounts will also be slightly faster, around the speed of the Armored Netherdrakes.
We're not sure if that will be available from the start but one of the ideas is to give the players new mounts they can buy and allow these new mounts to be available for passengers.

Check it out whenever you get a chance!

P.S. - Happy Mother's Day!

-Matt Graham

Wrath of the Lich King Preview [Part 1 and 2] - 5.9.2008

2008-05-09T16:16:00.005-04:00

An insane amount of new Wrath of the Lich King information was released this morning via a variety of websites. I may post about some specific things sometimes, but I'm not going to bother posting all the information because Boubouille, from MMO-Champion, has created an awesome compilation of all the news. Check it out A.S.A.P. It truly is amazing!

Wrath of the Lich King 10 Minutes Trailer from Boubouille on Vimeo.

Make sure to turn HD ON when watching the above video!

-Matt Graham

The Third WotLK Leak - 5.3.2008

2008-05-03T20:33:00.000-04:00

Well, it appears as though the "third" WotLK leak is here.

To the left, you can see a photograph of the box art for the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition. The art really isn't a whole lot different than the Burning Crusade Collector's Edition. Now, it could be a photoshopped picture - the collector's edition would be an obvious choice to try an fake over the regular edition's box art (Blizzard has a thing for character's faces). However, even if this is a faked creation, I really don't think it will be any different from the actual box art.

Well, there isn't a whole lot to post on this, so I'll leave you with that. Just enjoy pondering over the awesomeness of what will be the Wrath of the Lich King.

-Matt Graham

Heh... - 4.22.2008

2008-04-22T17:06:00.002-04:00

I love the "reason".

So, what is this now? Like account number three, four...?

-Matt Graham

The Second WotLK Leak(?) - 4.22.2008

2008-04-22T16:01:00.010-04:00

There isn't a whole lot to say about the following video. It pretty much speaks for itself. However, we could lay down some speculation.

The first thing I thought of was the possibility that, in order to summon Arthas to kill him, a raid must return the Frostmourne to him. There's a bunch of lore stuff involved there though and I'm not going to get into it.

The second thing I thought of was that maybe this video is showing someone becoming the Death Knight class. I could see it. Roll a character, watch a small gameplay cinematic, and then appear at the Frozen Throne ready to touch the Frostmourne and become a Death Knight.

The third thing I thought was that this could just be a bunch of bullcrap that was filmed on a private server.

Whatever the video was about, it was weird. Very, very cool, but weird. The title of this post included a question mark because I can't confirm as to whether this is an actual leak or not. I honestly don't know what it is... >.>

WoW Epee of lich king
Uploaded by yersi

I also wanted to post the following video. I don't think that it's necessarily new, but it shows some cool WotLK content. The video is of a rogue running through Utgarde, the first 5-man dungeon in WotLK. It was taken at GenCon 2007.

-Matt Graham

The First WotLK Leak - 4.20.2008

2008-04-20T19:24:00.025-04:00

ALL PICTURES MAY BE VIEWED THROUGH THIS HYPERLINK TO FLICKR!

So, the first real WotLK leak has been released via MMO-Champion forums. The leak contains various screenshots. (Please note: The "leaked" hairstyle and map screenshots in the hyperlinked thread have been deemed fake.)

The screenshot descriptions are for "WotLK Leak 1" through "WotLK Leak 9".

WotLK Leak 1 The first screenshot shows our brave Tauren Leaker fighting an epic... wolf? Okay Blizzard, when is this gunna end? A heroic looking Tauren like that should NOT be fighting wolves so he can bring their intestines back to some Orc trying to make stew. However, the environment does look really nice. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it'll be enough to distract me when I'm busy gutting wolves for about the fourteenth time.

WotLK Leak 2 The second screenshot, in all it's glaring glory, gives me much more hope towards the environments. The environments in WotLK are somethings that I really want to see well developed. I remember how Northrend was one of my favorite areas in Warcraft III just because of the land itself. The architecture as well is lookin' very nice in this shot.

WotLK Leak 3 I love this third screenshot. It just seems like a really refreshing change in the usually lay-of-the-land and architecture. This is most likely one of the first few cities in one of the two new zones. Imagine it as the Honor Hold, or in this case, the Thrallmar of Wrath of the Lich King.

WotLK Leak 4 A little better quality for the fourth picture in the leak. This shot shows some cool sky effects that it looks like Blizzard learned from in Burning Crusade. However, these effects seem lower to the ground making it feel more alive and interactive. It think that's a very large step in the right direction. I just can't get over how much I love the feel of the zone in this picture. That small thing in the mid-left of the shot looks somewhat like a Moonkin, but I could be wrong and I hope to God I am. Hell, it might not even be a mob!

WotLK Leak 5 More mobs that we've seen time and time again... Lovely. It's a good thing that those trees look so amazing, but this still doesn't look too good. Replace those trees with some snowy trees from the current WoW in there and you'd think this is Dun Morogh or Alterac Valley.

WotLK Leak 6 Screenshot number six is a picture of our Tauren adventurer accepting a quest. Nothing big, really. If only we could read the quest text...

WotLK Leak 7 I like shot number seven. It shows some more interesting mobs than we saw previously. They aren't amazingly awesome and I don't know what the hell they are, but there are better than what we've seen.

WotLK Leak 8 Ingvar the Plunderer. He's a boss in the Vrykul instance, Utgarde Catacombs. He's a level 72 elite, so I don't imagine that he'll be too difficult. I wish we could have seen his loot. :(

WotLK Leak 9 And the last picture just shows a Gnome discovering Utgarde Keep. Nothing monumental.

That's it for now. It's too bad that the "screenshots" were in such poor quality. Whoever took them had to use their camera to do so because apparently Blizzard watches every button you push in Alpha and completely disables the ability to take screenshots.

So, that's the first WotLK leak and it came on 4/20. Could it actually be fake? Maybe we're all just too high to tell...

UPDATE: A Death Knight and Login Screen leak have now been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 2: Two new talents/abilities for Shamans (possibly fake) and Warriors have been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 3: You can now Digg this article!

-Matt Graham

The Race Is On - 4.16.2008

2008-04-16T16:07:00.003-04:00

So, this past week has seen an epic battle take place over which PvE Guilds could be the first few to kill the Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateau - the latest boss fight to be unleashed from behind their protective gate.

Expectations were high, dedication was higher, but not to any particular amount of surprise from the community, Nihilum went in and claimed their World 1st on the day after the gate opened, with SK-Gaming a few hours behind with the World 2nd.

Again, European Guilds swoop in and steal kills from underneath US noses, a topic much discussed and argued about on the Nihilum forum.

Leaving the drama aside and just looking at the fight statistics, only 33 Guilds worldwide managed to down the Eredar Twins this reset - quite a low number. I can say from personal experience that a big congratulations must go out to all of them - this fight is very tough.

What annoyed me in some ways were the amount of videos popping up incredibly quickly of the fight, especially SK-Gaming who released theirs not 3 days after the gate was open. Is it really necessary to release kill movies that soon and generally spoil the encounter for the masses? I suppose it could be argued that if people don't want to spoil it for themselves they shouldn't watch the movie, but there's always a level of competition that will persuade many into getting as much information as possible.

It will be another interesting race for M'uru, who we expect to be released next reset. Will the kill order be the same? Certainly Nihilum and SK-Gaming are looking strong for World 1st and 2nd positions.

In other news, most realms now are enjoying the fruits of their daily grinds with the Badge of Justice Vendor that has opened up business on the Isle of Quel'Danas. In many cases the items that can be obtained from this vendor easily outmatch Tier 5 equivalents - so get grinding for those badges, people! I myself purchased a rather nifty ring which I am pleased with, and my alts are now looking quite ready to raid some Tier 6 instances - rawr!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

New Posts Coming! - 4.13.2008

2008-04-13T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! Sorry about not posting anything for a while, but both Joe and I have been really busy! I'll be posting more very soon! :)

P.S. - Just a few minutes ago, I noticed that Blogcraft received a pretty good spike of hits. I don't really know where these are coming from, but if anyone knows, please comment this post because I'd like to thank whoever may have linked Blogcraft!

-Matt Graham

BlizzCon 2008 - 4.1.2008

2008-04-01T17:07:00.004-04:00

Ah, BlizzCon... Two days of pure fun and joy for gamers - especially for WoW fans/players. So far, every BlizzCon has come with a lot of new information regarding WoW expansions.

In October of 2005, we were told of the first WoW expansion, the Burning Crusade. Blizzard had already made so much progress on the game, that at the convention, people were able to demo the Blood Elf starting area. However, it somehow took them another year and then some to release the damn game.

In 2007, Blizzard announced Wrath of the Lich King, the upcoming second expansion to Azeroth. Convention attendees were able to demo Blizzard's upcoming RTS, Starcraft II. For us at home, we were graced by the frustrating streaming of the convention. I mean, seriously, why would you stream video of an empty room instead of going to the panel discussions?! Also, why would you cut to the lame arena fights during the few times that we were able to actually view the damn panels?! *Takes a deep breath.* Anyways...

BlizzCon 2008. It's been a question as to if it will be happening or not ever since the doors to BlizzCon 2007 closed and I will leave you with information making you question it no longer.

BlizzCon 2008 will take place on October 10th and 11th, 2008.

What can we expect there? Well, the WWI in Paris, France is coming up soon. I assume that at that event Blizzard will announce information regarding their "Team 3 Project". So, what does this have to do with BlizzCon 2008? Well, if my above assumption is true, I'd then guess that BlizzCon 2008 will be almost solely focused on that game and WotLK. I believe that Starcraft II will be out before October comes and WotLK will almost be ready to go after we find out the last bit of new information that Blizzard will announce to us about the expansion at BlizzCon 2008.

Hopefully I'll be going this year. It's almost not even that I want to go just because I've always wanted to and that I love Blizzard games, but I wanna go because if I ever watch streaming video like I did for the last BlizzCon again, I can't be responsible for how I'll physically interact with other people (including myself).

-Matt Graham

The Best and Worst April Fools Joke. Ever. - 4.1.2008

2008-04-01T16:24:00.002-04:00

If I may, I'd like to break away from all the WoW-ness for a second.

Until today, I would never have known that both the best and the worst April Fools joke ever would be, well, the same joke.

Today, IGN posted a fake movie trailer for "The Legend of Zelda" movie. Zelda fans like myself know that it has been stated that there will never be a Zelda movie because Nintendo simply doesn't want it to happen, so it's obviously a joke. Now, how is it the best and worst joke at the same time? Well, it's the best because I've never seen anything quite like it, production-wise, to end up simply as a joke that will be forgotten and never brought up unless it happens to be around April 1st. It's the worst because IGN is a bunch of pricks who have officially made me hate them for making me a sad panda, knowing that I'll never be able to see this movie.

Damn you, IGN!

-Matt Graham

April 1st Came 23 Minutes Early in Europe - 3.31.2008

2008-03-31T20:03:00.008-04:00

At 11:37 PM on March 31st, somewhere in Europe (Sweden?), Kungen made a post on the official Nihilum website that the guild will be breaking up and that most of the members will be quitting.

"If you think you’re freaking hilarious (you’re not) and are thinking TOO LONG DIDN’T READ, let me sum it up for you. Nihilum is finished and most of us have quit. Bye.

It’s been a 3 year roller coaster ride. We have enjoyed ourselves, sometimes. But all good things must come to an end and all that. I think we have reached a point where enough is enough. There is only so much your face can take after repeatedly smashing it against a wall. It seems like we are fighting a multi-million dollar company whose sole purpose is to destroy every last bit of fun hardcore guilds can have. We’re a bunch of fishies swimming against the current. A rare breed of little fishies that don’t want everything given to them on a plate and are happy when they accomplish something that is a challenge.

It all really comes down to the state of the PVE game at the moment. It’s something that totally contradicts our reason for existence. We always try to use every single advantage given to us. And thus we are forced to “test” PTR content just to stay ahead or keep on par with other guilds. This is ridiculous, we should not be testing anything, an internal testing team should. Oh how incredibly awesome it would be to zone into and new instance and not have a CLUE what bosses exist, or what tactics to use to kill them, or what gear will drop.

I think the Sunwell gate “idea” was the final blow. Why bother trying to compete for world firsts if the leading guild has to twiddle their thumbs waiting for the next stage to be open, watching everyone and his mother catch up. Why bother race to the finish line when it’s only Kil’jaeden that matters? It’s like a four hundred meter race where everyone has to stop and wait for the last guy every hundred meters. It’s unreasonable, and makes me not want to bother. And when everyone in the guild has that mentality, it collapses.

“Make some positive suggestions instead of whining blah blah”
We are not the company with infinite resources and the best creative and design team gaming has to offer, we don’t need to come up with anything, we are useless bums living in our parents basements remember?

So what will happen to Nihilum?
Some of us will go, some of us will stay and play the casual game it’s become. But eventually you will see us make a comeback in a new game. Thanks to the fans. We pretended those level 1 whispers didn’t matter. But they made our days! We screenshotted every one, every single one! And we look at our screenshot folder on lonely days to cheer us up. Thanks to the sponsors that believed in us. We had such big plans coming for the website and the community...a pity really :(.
Goodbye cruel world...

...of Warcraft.
P.S “Activision Blizzard” doesn’t make sense."

April Fools, everyone!

No, but seriously, I don't care if this post was "technically made on the 31st of March". Blizzard did the same thing with the Wisp's joke in 2006. It's a joke, people! There is NO WAY that Nihilum will be leaving WoW - at least not right now. There is still too much for them to do between the Sunwell and WotLK. Besides, Nihilum leaving WoW and going to a different game would be like Jim Carrey leaving the comedy genre and doing dramas. It just wouldn't happen and if it did it'd be a complete disaster. Oh, wait...

Even if I'm completely retarded and they actually are "breaking up", my guess is that another incarnation of the guild will appear with some of the old members.

-Matt Graham

Busting Down Kil'Jaeden's Door - 3.29.2008

2008-03-29T10:08:00.007-04:00

Hawt diggedy dawg, we have a new patch! Writhe in irrevocable joy fellow WoW players; for new content is upon us! Servers are bustling to complete the endless stream of dailies to unlock the new features of Quel'Danas - I found a rather nifty progress page for Europeans (looks like there's an American version as well, fear not) and it all feels rather AQ gateish. Pardon my involuntary transformation of 'gate' into an adjective, but it sounds good dagnabbit!

Anyway, raiders have been bustling to kill bosses in the new 25 man instance, Sunwell Plateau. I can say from my own experience that the boss fights are very challenging and a welcoming breath of fresh air from Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. Oh wait, I mean Mount Badgel and Badge Temple - for the badges are also upon us! Everywhere you look mobs are dropping Badges of Justice like there's no tomorrow. I found one in my daily quest reward today as well, staring back at me like some grotesque blue child molester. These things are everywhere....

I'm wandering off the point somewhat, apologies. Heading back to the Sunwell, we can see a number of guilds have already half cleared the place; notably SK-Gaming, also known as Meet Your Makers, formerly known as Curse. If these guys sell out any more we're gonna have a hard time keeping track of them. Anyways, they managed to down the third boss within 5 hours of Sunwell being open. This doesn't mean the instance is easy, nor does it mean SK-Gaming is a bunch of spectacularly accomplished individuals who we should all offer to wash their cars with our testicles; it is worth noting that this guild also killed the first 3 bosses on the PTRs, so the boss fights weren't exactly new to them. However it is still a great achievement, so congratulations to them. With the gate openings now normalised across all servers the real test of prowess will surely be Kil'Jaeden himself, who no-one outside of Blizzard has tested. The first guild to down him will have proven themselves particularly skilled.

If anyone wants an actual accurate list of who's killed what when in EU and US, SK-Gaming's list is by far the most accurate list to date; various other sites are not reliable at the current time.

I would also like to point out at this time, with a certain air of snobbery and foolish pride, that EU guilds have consistently beaten US guilds to the kills even though you Yanks had the headstart. Both SK-Gaming and Inner Sanctum cleared the instance on the first day they had it available to raid, whilst US guilds dawdled, possibly searching for the mystical Ben & Jerry's Melted Fried Mars Bar ice cream that was rumoured to be hiding within the depths of the Sunwell, mmmm... Actually I think I'd dawdle if that ice cream came into view, sounds digustingly delicious.

But enough of my patriotism or Europeatism (today truly is a good day to be making up words). I do hope you are all enjoying the new features of the patch, and scurrying about like little beavers to complete the phases and open up that armory because I want my Epic Gems! Ya know? :)

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Ding, 70! - 3.25.2008

2008-03-25T08:20:00.009-04:00

So, I finally hit level 70 on my original character, Punchline the Gnome Rogue.

The night the Burning Crusade released, I drove home as fast as I could (maybe a little too fast) and threw the disks into my drive. As I had it installing, I planned exactly what I was going to do to achieve level 70 as fast as possible. Well, it didn't go exactly as planned...

I got to level 62 that very night by running instances at the Hellfire Citadel. It was so great! Everything was so new and there wasn't one single person on the server that was max level yet - everyone had an equal chance to become great players again! New environments, new items, new quests, new mobs (well, new skins of old mobs), etc.! It was so fun! And then, I visited Zangarmarsh...

I cannot even begin to explain how much I hate that zone. I don't know what it is because the quests aren't really that different there from the other zones, but I just can't stand it there. I thought that I would just truck through it, but that didn't exactly happen...

I'm what you could call an "altoholic". I'm constantly rolling up new characters. However, I didn't expect that I would quit Punchline for an alt so close to level 70. But, it just so happened that I hated Zangarmarsh so much that I decided to quit Punchline forever at level 64 and reroll. Besides, I hated rogues! Before recently, I honestly never completely understood the class. I always played it incorrectly.

An Orc Hunter. That's what I rerolled as. It was almost refreshing to play through Azeroth yet again because this time it was on the Horde side - the faction that I never played past level 36. It was fun, I really like my hunter. It kinda sucked though, because Punchline is on a PvP server (Korgath), I had to roll my hunter on a completely new server. He was originally on Vashj (PvP), but I later transferred him to Lothar (PvE) to be with friends. The hunter hit 60 two days after the patch with the higher rate of experience gain from level 20-60 came out, so that kinda sucked. It took about 8 days play time to get to 60, so I'm pretty proud of that.

I decided to take a little week long break from WoW after I hit 60 on the hunter. Right when I was about to start playing again, I was told that all my friends had quit WoW. So, now I was a level 60 Orc Hunter on a server that I no longer had friends on and was strange to me. I haven't touched that character since the day my friends told that they had quit...

I decided to give rogues another try. I logged on Punchline and quested in Zangarmarsh for about 10 minutes before I logged off. My friend told me to just skip Zangarmarsh because it wasn't as necessary as I thought it was. So, I went onto Nagrand. It was a little tough for a level 64, but nothing too bad. Some time later I hit level 68.

I no longer hated rogues; however, I did hate Outland and leveling. Those last two levels are tough. But, my friend wanted me to hit 70 so bad that he provided me the incentive that I needed. He was going away for a week and he said that if I hit 70 before he came back, he'd buy my flying mount for me. Done.

Five days later, last night, I hit 70 with a group in Shattered Halls. It didn't feel quite as epic as when I hit 60 back in the day, but it felt pretty damn good.

Now, I can be an altoholic but know that I was still able to manage one character to 70. However, I foresee problems with Wrath of the Lich King...

P.S. - I'd like to thank Wideload, Breticus, Lid, and Redstarquad for that great Shattered Halls group last night. Thanks!

-Matt Graham

New PTR Builds - 3.8.2008

2008-03-08T14:41:00.005-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Blizzard has introduced several new builds onto the patch 2.4 PTR: from new Badge of Justice loots to Lifetap changes (and back again). Many new and somewhat enterprising elements have been added to gameplay all in an effort to get feedback on what the playerbase is wanting.

Some of these changes have been good, some have been bad, depending on your perspective and why you play the game. For me personally, as a PvE raider, the new Sunwell content has been most refreshing and a clear challenge, and similarly the updates to professions such as the new Defense Enchants, the superb new Alchemists Stones (an update long required), and the vast quantity of new Jewelcrafting recipes are making the upcoming patch look like a ray of sunshine in the abysmal dark cloud of re-clearing farm content week after week.

For the PvPers as well, there have been substantial tweaks - the introduction of the Test Tournament Realm (TTR) for starters is a great way for Arena teams to test their potential by choosing whatever gear they desire, along with of course the Season 4 gear previews; all of which is looking pretty tasty.

One thing that really made me feel like Blizzard actually give a rat's arse about balance in arena matches was the post by Kalgan showing the percentages of classes at certain ratings. Clearly Blizzard is at least aware of what's happening and measures have been taken/will be taken to correct it - part of the general rampage for E-Sport acceptance I presume.

On the downside it looks like there is still extensive testing to go. The final boss in Sunwell has yet to be encountered, and the PTR notes are changing, if not daily then fairly frequently, so it's bound to be at least another 2 weeks before this thing hits Live Realms.

But to be honest, I'm much happier seeing things are being tested and tweaked than sitting around on my 2nd or 3rd alt running Steamvaults for the umpteenth time for some damn gem which they've now nerfed anyway. Oh well... :D

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Leap Day Predictions - 2.29.2008

2008-02-29T13:54:00.007-05:00

So, I felt the need to make a post on Leap Day. Leap Day is an occurrence that only happens once every four years, yet nothing really special happens. I never understood why Leap Day isn't recognized as some sort of true holiday, and yet we have April Fool's Day, Talk Like A Pirate Day, Pi Day, etc. It's just another Friday...

However, this Leap Day got me thinking in a weird way. After almost 3 and a half years of life already, will WoW still be around when the next Leap Day comes in 2012?

The way it looks right now, if Wrath of the Lich King was to come out in the Fall of 2008 and the third expansion was to come out sometime close to the second/third quarter of 2010, we would be looking at WoW going to about the first quarter of 2011 - without any patches - and just then becoming stale content. While it's not official, we can assume that there will be at least three expansions over the course of WoW's life. Do I anticipate a fourth expansion? Maybe, but it just doesn't seem very likely in my opinion.

Now, with that, if my off-the-top-of-my-head-calculated predictions are correct, my lack of belief in a fourth expansion, and the fact that content patches would have a hard time carrying a game for an extra year and a few months, then I don't believe we'll be playing WoW on Leap Day 2012 - at least not in the form it's currently in.

I have faith in Blizzard and I love their games, but let's face it, not a whole lot of MMOs in this new generation go strong for eight years.

That's just my two cents on this fine Leap Day.

-Matt Graham

The Way WoW Could Look - 2.28.2008

2008-02-28T20:50:00.007-05:00

What if WoW received a complete graphics overhaul? What would it look like? Well, both Mythology and Jabraltr of the U.S. WoW General forums had an idea.

Mythology started the thread by linking a few of his YouTube videos of WoW characters with sharper graphics (which you can find below) - also later, Jabraltr tried his hand at this graphics manipulation (shown left). Mythology told us that the models are exported from WoW model viewer and all the original textures. He "used [the] same textures as masks under different map types" and "the textures were simply copied from ambient color map, into bump and specular light map, to create the illusion of lighting and shading details on character".

Okay, so I'm gunna be honest, I wouldn't even know where to begin in doing this. All I know is that if a fan of the game who had some extra time was able to do this, then why can't Blizzard?

I guess it all goes back to the fact that Blizzard wants everyone to be able to run their game and have an enjoyable gaming experience. Although, you know, Blizzard, computers have made progress in the past three years.

However, there are more problems with this. While this may seem so awesome and we all want it right now, I have a feeling that if Blizzard ever drastically changed WoW's graphics, we'd all miss the old style. ...But, then again, Blizzard could always make it optional with the click of a button.

Blizzard has stated that there will be some improved graphics in WotLK - hey, we even saw it in the fire in 2.4! - but let's face it, it's not gunna be anything close to a complete overhaul.

So, I'd imagine that you can probably guess what I want to see with the third expansion.

-Matt Graham

New Template - 2.27.2008

2008-02-26T21:49:00.001-05:00

You like?

UPDATE: I made a few changes since yesterday. The white was a bit hard on the eyes. :p

-Matt Graham

A Stroll Along Magister's Terrace - 2.20.2008

2008-02-20T20:30:00.001-05:00

Let me just begin this article with a joyful yelp that 2.4 is finally on the PTR's. I, along with many others, have been fervently digging into the new content and seeing the changes with my own eyes. Well, that is once Blizzard EU sorted their character copy out. And once I could move amongst the throngs of people crowding the new Isle. Oh, and of course once the Sunwell Plateau could be found (it did go missing for a few evenings, rumour has it that it ran away to Moonglade to RP with Molten Core - keep it under your hat though).

But rant over - onto more important things! Magister's Terrace, the latest 5 man instance to grace Azeroth has been well run by yours truly, and I would like to give my opinions on this shiny new instance.

On the face of it I have to say I was fairly impressed as my party ventured inside. The first packs were fairly bog standard, but with the added twist of a Magic Dampening field and a ranged stun that keeps healers alert. This combined with the fairly refreshing Blood Elf architecture (well, I'm guessing it's not as refreshing if you rolled Blood Elf) made for a great first few minutes. The first boss was a slight pushover however and a rather similar encounter to another heroic boss, but no complaints from me so far; the Crack Elves habiting his room were amusing enough. Notice they only hit hard when they 'shoot up', what a charming and accurate depiction of drug use in today's society.

The second boss however was a shock - we went in without having a clue whatsoever and proceeded to wipe quite dramatically. After another wipe we came to realize that the tactic involved was perhaps slightly less complicated than we were assuming; and from that point on we simply nuked him down as fast as possible. Which worked rather better. This is a nice touch for a 5 man instance in my opinion; we see various DPS tests in 25 man raids but in general 5 man bosses have to have a lot more leeway so players in inferior gear can still kill them alongside the Tier 6 clad groups.

The packs on the way to the 3rd boss are probably some of the hardest packs I have encountered outside of pre-nerfed Shattered Halls - multiple casters, multiple healers, seducers; all a rich tapestry of mobs that prove relatively more challenging to defeat than the usual instance trash. And the 3rd boss herself? All I can say is wow - what a fantastic encounter. What better way for Blizzard to force PvE players to PvP; by putting a 5v5 Arena team in an instance! Loved it.

And finally the big man himself. Kael'thas with a sparkly green crystal embedded in his chest. The similarities of the encounter to the boss in Tempest Keep were very apparent, and again I detect a certain choice of Blizzard to try and involve the more casual player in end game content - by at least encountering Kael in this way non-raiders can see some portrait of what 25 man groups experience.

So, all in all a very worthwhile instance. Decent loot, a worthwhile reputation gain from each run, challenging bosses, and interesting trash. The only downside is the long run back should you wipe on 3rd or 4th boss - perhaps removing the invisible wall over the first bridge of the instance would speed this up. I strongly recommend you try the instance out on PTR, or if not as soon as it hits Live - really is quite enjoyable.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

2.4 Patch Notes and PTR - 2.8.2008

2008-02-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to post the patch notes directly onto this page because of space restrictions, but I will point you in the right direction.

Of course, these are the PTR patch notes, so they are subject to change; however, I don't see Blizzard making any game changing modifications to the notes. I think it's safe to say that what you see, is what you get.

So, what do we know about the PTR right now?

As of right now, nobody, besides Blizzard of course, currently knows when the new PTR will open.
It will include Patch 2.4.
There will be NO premade characters.
There will be NO gear vendors.
All battlegrounds and arenas other than Warsong Gulch will be turned off.

-Matt Graham

2.4 Rumblings - 2.7.2008

2008-02-07T22:58:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure many of you have seen, both WorldofRaids and MMO-Champion posted a list of 'Potential Class Changes' yesterday with varying degrees of absurdity contained within.

Not that I'm denying the validity of these 'PCCs' (oh abbreviations just make me smile :D ), it would seem fairly reasonable to me that Blizzard would be increasing Lightwell's effectiveness by a whopping 300%. Because it's just such a good ability that is used frequently in both PvE and PvP environments, and far be it from me to suggest that it is swept quickly under the rug, and replaced with a more useful talent. Suggestions? Well maybe an integrated Santa Hat for all those woeful priests doomed to their Emo Headpieces of the Avatar.

Well as enjoyable as it would be to poke fun at Lightwell until it starts bleeding out of its eyes, I should really move on to some of the more relevant PCCs in case they are actually implemented on the PTRs this week (oh God let it be this week).

Now, I'm no Shaman, but it was my understanding that one of the perks, if not the ONLY perk of elemental spec were those nifty Lightning Overloads that made pretty numbers fill your screen. Surely taking away its ability to crit would be fairly suicidal as far as PvE caster Shamans were concerned. I'm sure this one is going to get dragged back to the quintessential 'Elemental Shamans are overpowered in 5v5' argument, where, admittedly, raping the other team's face with insta Chain Lightning and then getting some magnificent reel of critical numbers directly afterwards might be considered a tad too powerful, but it's just one of those things that you should accept and deal with, no? Like Cyclone.

Bringing me swiftly onto the next PCC; Cyclone range reduced to 20 yards. I have to say the previous week's fake patch notes made me giggle with the introduction of a cooldown on that spell - right. This week's version is slightly more believable albeit late in the day (It's been fine for a year; why change it now? Oh, that's right, the number of whine posts has topped one million, kk). Admittedly the spell is slightly overpowered in PvP and a change is probably a good thing. This reduction to 20 yards is a much better idea than any cooldown - if nothing else it forces the druid closer to the action and makes it harder to run away like a giant pansy. Whoops, I mean like an agile Cheetah.

Upon reflection this post has turned into a whine about changes that aren't even confirmed, but hell, I'm in a whining sort of mood! I won't even touch on the Warlock changes (say goodbye to raid DPS) for fear of getting a sharp jab to my jugular from angry peons. Speaking of which, congratulations to Blizzard for winning their lawsuit against the Peon4Hire goldsellers. Now if you could just take care of the 267,451 other goldselling companies, it would really brighten my day :D .

Just to up the ante of this depressing read; a fast /cheer for good things in 2.4! Spell haste reducing Global Cooldown! Sunwell! Caverns of Time teleporter (it's about time)! Dailies increased to 25!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Phew... - 2.6.2008

2008-02-06T12:58:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have been freed! I've been SUPER busy since November, but now everything is back to normal. Expect some frequent posting from now on - or, at least until next November.

-Matt Graham

Weekly Prediction: WotLK - 1.21.2008

2008-01-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

For my new feature, Weekly Prediction, I'm going to post my predictions for different MMOs (and sometimes console games), mostly pertaining to release dates, every week.

This week, I'm going to make my prediction for the Wrath of the Lich King release date.

THIS POST CONTINUED SOON... Sometime this quarter...

-Matt Graham

Escape From Orgrimmar - 1.2.2008

2008-01-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

After 1.5+ years, Myndflame has released the Illegal Danish 2: Escape From Orgrimmar, the sequel to their famed machinima.

In my opinion, it's 24 minutes of "meh". A huge disappointment for me is that most of what was in the trailer for this machinima did not show up in the end project. This includes the "Do you know who I am?!" (Zinwrath's return) part and the Orgrimmar ambush by the Illegal Danish guild members part of the trailer. Also, there was zero character development and the story was very hard to follow at times. The movie just seemed to be all over the place between numerous attempts at humor in unnecessary places and scenes that never actually needed to be there to help continue the story.

All in all, I'd have to give this a 6 out of 10. Sure the editing and quality was great and it was very creative, but it contained a bunch of filler and it was just a huge disappointment given the time Myndflame had with the project. As an example, I'll keep going back to The Grind, a series by Oblivious Films that was able to pump out 4 amazing machinima films out in one year.

@Myndflame

Although it's very hard to do, the people are going to compare your movie to Tales of the Past III, so live with it.

Ya, it's free entertainment, but when you put yourself out there and have made your name so big you have to expect criticism.

-Matt Graham

Merry Christmas! - 12.25.2007

2007-12-25T20:41:00.000-05:00

Joe Zara and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Have fun!

-Matt Graham

Greatest Guild Leader Ever - 12.24.2007

2007-12-24T13:09:00.000-05:00

Today, Leehotti of the US WoW General Forums made a great thread.

Troxxed, the apparent "Greatest Guild Leader" ever, leads the War Ensemble guild on the Illidan server. From what I've read, he is the biggest ass in the guild; so much so that he now has his own soundboard.

Just though I'd share this little gem with you guys.

P.S. - The soundboard is extremely NSFW!

-Matt Graham

The Sunwell - 12.20.2007

2007-12-21T09:20:00.000-05:00

So, a few days ago, a prominent Swedish magazine interviewed Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) with regards to patch 2.4. As ever, the details he provided were sketchy and not nearly enough in quantity, but I suppose we should be glad for any new information Blizzard divulges.

Perhaps the most pertinent piece of information is the fact that Sunwell will incorporate an 'AQ style' opening event as well as a reputation based system in order to gain entry. The 5 man instance apparently will require Honored reputation in order to gain access, whilst Sunwell Plateau, the 25 man instance, will require a certain level of reputation for players to fight the end bosses of the instance.

Leaving the reputation issue aside for a moment and focusing on the opening event - apparently it will be based on daily quests completed by the server population at large. In my opinion this is a fantastic step up from the antiquated AQ opening event, which required large amounts of materials to open the gates - many of which required hours of grinding in low level areas, and some of which were worth rather more on the Auction House than in the hands of your respective faction. Daily quests are a much better incentive for everyone on the server to participate in: they're relatively quick, they give a reputation reward for the player, and (probably most importantly) they give a monetary reward. In this way I think there will be much less toil involved in opening the Sunwell, and it's something that non-raiders have a decent motivation to be a part of.

However, as good as this 'dailies policy' is, is it perhaps unfair for low population servers - who by definition will have less people doing the daily quests and therefore will not get access to the Sunwell for some time after the larger servers? I suppose Blizzard could instigate a system recognizing lower population servers and make the number of dailies required smaller, but this would be a) hard to set up and b) prone to population shifts making it unfair (i.e from free server transfers).

As always, would love to hear opinion's on this matter.

P.S. - If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly suggest watching Tales of the Past III; I'm not particularly interested in machinima, but this movie is fairly exceptional; if you're into Warcraft lore, you'll no doubt love it.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

'Twas The Hour Before Raid - 12.18.2007

2007-12-18T17:47:00.000-05:00

Today, Rufuscrim from the WoW General Forums posted his WoW version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas; he calls it 'Twas The Hour Before Raid.

Twas the hour before raid time, and all through the Crew,
Not a player was joining the Warsong Gulch queue;
They finished their transmutes of new Primal Mights
In hopes that the GM would send out invites;
The guildies were herded, all packed into Vent
While links to hot epics kept them on the scent;
And Note in her cat gear, and heal gear on Cam -
Does that new recruit shaman have enough stam?
When out from the leader there came such a chatter;
I asked, "WTF?" to see what was the matter.
Out of the instance I flew with a flash-
Someone had just pulled five groups of trash.
"Run back," said the leader, "don't wait for a rez!"
All but the new shaman do what he says;
He got the boot, and who entered the mix?
A pimpin’ Dwarf Warrior decked out in Tier 6!
I looked for a guild tag and found not an answer:
I knew in an instant he must be a transfer!

More rapid than Nihilum, trash mobs we cleared;
The orders then came that a lesser guild feared:
"Now Bogdon! Now Tuon! Now Rufus and Hathin!
On Trynan! On Darkblaze! On Warrax and Ultrin!
To the top of the healing and DPS meter!
Now pull the boss! Pull the boss! Pull her and beat her!"
As bones from past wipes lay scattered around,
The tank used a charge to help cover some ground;
So up to the end boss' lair, o, they flew
With eyes on the epics, and the new warrior too;
And then, over Vent, I heard some shrill cries,
"I'll @*$& up the healers if the tank dies!!"
As I mashed on the keyboard to Backstab the boss;
The raid quickly suffered its very first loss.
"The new warrior's dead! Oh no! We're so @#&$’ed!"
"Are not!" yelled the GM, "We just got bad luck’ed!
We've battled through worse! We will not relent!
She's already down to sixty percent!"
The DoTs and the heals, they hit and they flew;
Look out! Change it up! She's entered phase two!

The DPS stopped while the tank gained some threat;
(The healers still must have been worried, I bet);
"DPS on!" was the call to attack;
"Hey warlock! Too fast! Soulshatter! Pull back!"
"Twenty percent!" someone shouted with glee;
Better get ready, it's time for phase three!
"She hits so much harder! Blow cooldowns and fight!"
"That was too close! Quick, more Holy Light!"
Three percent! Two percent! One percent! Dead!
The guildies and I went to teabag her head!
"What did she drop?" the raiders all wondered;
The raid leader went to go see what was plundered.
Officers gasp... they're the first ones to see;
Rejoice! They have given an epic to me!
The portals are up, the raiders are gone;
I wonder what enchant that I should put on?

The GM did shout as the mood became lax,
"Good raid, everyone! This guild is teh hax!!"

The names in this poem are people from in Rufuscrim's guild, Strange Brew. Also, the word "Crew" in the first line refers to the guild's nickname, The Brew Crew.

I hope that this gets you all into the Holiday Spirit like it did me.

-Matt Graham

Verne Troyer's Turn - 12.17.2007

2007-12-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

It is rumored that the highly anticipated WoW commercial starring Verne Troyer has appeared during Attack of the Show on G4 about 10 minutes ago. Check back for updates and a YouTube link if this is true.

Links to Commercial
PC Download
Mac Download

-Matt Graham

Lack of Posts - 12.12.2007

2007-12-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Well, some of you may know from last year that November 1st through February 1st is an extremely busy time for me - as it is for everyone. So, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts lately. I just haven't had any time to write anything - the same goes for Joe Zara [Phoee]. Hopefully soon I can return from this holiday season better than ever! Who knows? Maybe I'll even have a few tricks up my sleeve...

-Matt Graham

Vivendi and Activision Merge - 12.2.2007

2007-12-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Fifty-eight minutes ago, it was officially announced that Vivendi (Blizzard's parent company) and Activision merged, creating Activision Blizzard.

Not to worry though people, Vivendi bought Activision. It wasn't Activision buying Vivendi.

Click the hyperlink in this post to find out more. I'd rather not explain all of this business "mumbo-jumbo" this early in the morning. >.>

-Matt Graham

Name Changes - 11.25.2007

2007-11-25T09:10:00.000-05:00

Just a small post from me this week regarding the Name Change option now available for characters - is this not the stupidest thing I have seen Blizzard implement on this game so far? I mean who would be so opaque as to feel that renaming their character would have any influence on how they play or what they experience in game; or indeed have anything to do with their happiness level?

Well, apparently, quite a few people on my friends list! Came online the other day and saw this random person online in my friends list - I promptly thought I'd been keylogged and someone was messing around with my account until the guy messaged me telling me who he was and that he'd changed his name :)

Upon further investigation, most people that are considering this option/have already done it seem to have fairly justifiable reasons for doing so - this probably isn't an issue in the US, but in the EU people seem to want to change their names to avoid being 'labelled' as from a certain nationality; not for racist reasons I'm sure, but to generally escape confusion. For example, two English players I know have changed their names to avoid being stereotyped as Scandinavians - when they chose their names originally they were unaware of that name's significance in other languages - and I'm confident this situation is not uncommon.

So as it turns out there may be at least one viable reason to change your character's name. In my opinion, you need a good one before throwing your money away.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Jungletastic or Tiresome Trolls? - 11.16.2007

2007-11-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

So, who's ventured into Zul'Aman this week? I'm sure a large proportion of you have delved within the troll-infested walls for the first time and found a new marvel of things to tickle your fancy (my personal favourite was actually the 20 slot bag reward from the first quest, heh!).

I'm sure everyone is glad for some new content if nothing else, and a new 10 man raid instance on a 3 day timer is a great bonus for many raiders still bored out of their minds in Karazhan.

But just how long will this excitement last? Is Zul'Aman nothing more than a fleeting distraction for a few weeks? Are the encounters routine and wearisome? Are the trolls beginning to get on your nerves already?

Personally I'm fairly impressed with the instance as a whole; it is undoubtedly quite a bit more challenging than Karazhan - perhaps too much so to be an automatic step up from that level of difficulty, and the boss encounters in general are innovative and require a certain level of focus from a raid group (my favourite being the Lightning Cloud of Akil'zon that determines who is awake in the group).

The one down-side I have noticed so far is the requirement for a precisely balanced raid group in terms of classes. This is shown to be very true at Malacrass with the 4 different types of adds: humanoid, dragonkin, undead, and elemental. If your raid group happened to lack, say, a warlock and a priest, this encounter would become exponentially more difficult since the undead and elemental adds have some very nasty damaging abilities - combined with Malacrass's AOE ability this would more than certainly be a very difficult fight.

It also seems to me to be very finely tuned in terms of healing; for a Tier 4/5 clad raidgroup 3 healers would appear to be the only amount to bring - 2 healers would struggle to outheal the raid damage on various bosses, whilst bringing 4 healers would limit the group to only 4 DPS classes; which would leave the group struggling to down bosses within the enrage timers.

It is probably too soon to declare which I prefer, Karazhan or Zul'Aman, since my 'new content jitters' are still keeping ZA exciting enough to return there as soon as it resets, but overall I think Blizzard have done well with this instance.

Except of course the equipment models. Blizzard what were you thinking?!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

The Seven and the Nerf Bat - 11.10.2007

2007-11-10T22:08:00.000-05:00

Undoubtedly, many of you have seen China's recent first kill of Illidan by 'The Seven'. It took the guild 52 days of progress to clear all content in TBC - that's a little over 7 weeks.

Many people I know have commented on this first kill and it's implications; I personally think it is a remarkable speed in which to do it, if only you consider it from a gear point of view - 7 resets of farming tier 5 dungeons is most likely not enough time to get every raid member geared out comfortably; and as seen in the killshot many of the raid members were indeed wearing their old Tier 3 pieces.

This indeed begs the question - How hard has TBC content been hit by the 'Nerf Bat'?

Just for comparison's sake I looked at Nihilum's kill dates (Nihilum being the number 1 guild in the world in terms of PvE progress). Now if we exclude Karazhan/Gruul/Magtheridon kill dates (which used to be requirements for the Tier 5 dungeons), Nihilum killed Hydross the Unstable on the 16th of February, and defeated Illidan on the 5th of June - an 109 day period; more than double the amount used by the Chinese. Also bear in mind Nihilum would have been gearing up for a full month in TBC prior to this time period, unlike the The Seven.

Now this isn't to say that The Seven 'wtfpwnd' Nihilum; far from it. If you actually look at the Tier 5 and 6 dungeons since Nihilum were making first kills, you could quite easily say that all four instances have been altered in some way to make them easier. Just off the top of my head;

SSC - Trash respawn times changed from 45 minutes to 2 hours and all mob hitpoints reduced by some amount (around 10%).
TK - Trash respawn times changed from 45 minutes to 2 hours, Al'ar encounter significantly reworked, and Solarian encounter significantly reworked.
Hyjal - Trash waves reduced from 12 to 8 and Archimonde's Doomfire ability altered; various other tweaks to his non melee abilities.
BT- Mother Shahraz encounter significantly reworked.

These changes (of which there are many more) have made for a far easier time in TBC in recent weeks then back in Spring 2007; and this is clearly shown by The Seven's complete annihilation of the end-game content in a short space of time, with a significant lack of high end gear (I am going to assume for this article that Nihilum and The Seven's skill levels are on a par).

I guess my actual point of all this rambling is this: Will Blizzard continue to nerf content when it has reached a certain stage in order to appease the more casual gamer? In my opinion this devalues what many top-end guilds spend a large amount of time and energy on; and it seems to me that Blizzard is caving in to the concerns of the casual, rather than rewarding the skilled playerbase.

Will the Nerf Bat swing around and hit Sunwell Plateau (slated to be the final 25 man raid of TBC before the next expansion) in a few months? Only time will tell.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Say Hello To Joe - 11.10.2007

2007-11-10T21:58:00.000-05:00

I have found a new co-writer to help me out here at Blogcraft!

His name is Joe Zara and his character's name is Phoee. He belongs to the EU guild Inner Sanctum who is currently ranked 17th worldwide by WoW Jutsu and Boss Killers. Using his PvE knowledge, Joe has published two popular endgame strategy guides for Teron Gorefiend and Supremus. Now, he plans to bring his overall knowledge of World of Warcraft to Blogcraft.

Joe's first post will be up soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

-Matt Graham

Linked From Tobold - 11.5.2007

2007-11-05T06:36:00.000-05:00

My "Can WoW Be Beaten?" post has been linked on TOBOLD's MMORPG blog in his post entitled "Spoilt rotten by World of Warcraft?"!

This is a great step for Blogcraft! Thanks Tobold! :D

-Matt Graham

Blogcraft Is Hiring A Writer! - 11.2.2007

2007-11-03T20:31:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted Blogcraft to be a blog that updates with new posts constantly. However, that it really difficult for me to do because when I'm busy, I AM BUSY! So, what is my solution? Well, I'm looking for a new writer to join me in writing for the blog.

I'm looking for anyone, age 16+, that has a passion to write and thinks that he/she can bring something new to Blogcraft. Whether you can think of cool new features to write up or just want to get your creative ideas written down, e-mail Blogcraft at worldofblogcraft@gmail.com with:

1. Your name or online handle. I know that some people don't like having their last name out there, so that's optional.
2. Your age.
3. Why you want this job.
4. What you plan to bring to Blogcraft.

So, apply now and I'll get back to all the people that follow my criteria. Good luck!

P.S. - Please know that you will not be paid for this job. It's just a fun little side-project next to real life. :D

-Matt Graham

Can WoW Be Beaten? - 11.2.2007

2007-11-02T17:49:00.000-04:00

The question as to if WoW can be beaten or not seems often too difficult to discuss. I always wonder why though. For me, at least, the answer seems so simple. The answer is that no, World of Warcraft can not and will not be beaten.

I honestly do not think that WoW will ever be out-populated by another subscription-based MMO - ever. Just look at what games we see on the horizon that are worth mentioning: Tabula Rasa (released today), Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Star Trek Online, The Agency, etc.

Let's analyze the small list I provided. I bolded the names of possible competitors of WoW and italicized the games that don't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as WoW.

*Tabula Rasa: Tabula Rasa was released today, so I still included it on the list. Let me sum up the TR beta with one, excuse me, two words. Utter crap. The game play was not smooth AT ALL, and to be quite honest, that was my only huge problem with it. However, it was a BIG problem.
*Warhammer Online: "...And in other news, EA's Mythic Entertainment decided to delay WAR once more - they say this is the last time - to polish it a bit more." I hope they don't polish it so much that the paint begins to wear.
*Age of Conan: I really want this game to be great. I've been watching it for almost two years now - hell, I even did a podcast about it for awhile. However, because of it's M rating and it's low-fantasy setting, I don't think that Age of Conan will come close to beating WoW. I do believe, however, that it can and will be a healthy competitor.
*Pirates of the Burning Sea: Sony Online Entertainment. Well there are other reasons why my love for this game diminished as well, but I thought I'd just simply point out "the SOE reason".
*Star Trek Online: Finally, the Trekkies have a promising game to look forward to. Will Star Trek Online beat WoW's number? Well, because it's a Sci-Fi MMO, no, I don't think it will. Will it come close? Yes. I believe that Star Trek online will be the only MMO to come anywhere close to WoW's numbers.
*The Agency: Sony Online Entertainment... Wait... An SOE game that I'm actually checking out?! Oh my God! Well, while this game is promising many revolutionary things right now, I don't know if it can carry those out or not. Also, being a Sci-Fi MMO hurts itself against its competition.

Notice that I didn't include Guild Wars 2 in the above list. This is because NCSoft has stated that it will be a free-to-play persistent world. If it remains that way, Guild Wars 2 could very likely beat WoW's numbers, but let's just see how long that lasts... When they finally decide to add a subscription-based fee, I won't be able to consider them as any competition.

So, there you have it. The only games on the horizon that I really believe in are Age of Conan and Star Trek Online. Now, don't assume that I'll be in there with the Trekkies, because I sure as hell won't be.

P.S. - You might say that I'm being "stupid" because I'm just taking into account the MMO's on the horizon. Well, I believe that in a year or two we will have reached the high point of MMO's.

-Matt Graham

The Geek Media Donation Drive - 11.2.2007

2007-11-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

The Geek Media will be starting a donation drive for Child's Play Charity on November 1, 2007 and it will last until December 1, 2007. If you aren't familiar with Child's Play you ought to check out their site and get familiar with them. They are a great charity that gives us gamers and geeks a chance to give back to the community. We are setting a goal to raise $4,000 USD for Child's Play. For every $5.00 you donate, you are entered to win a Nintendo Wii. The drawing for the contest will be held on December 1, 2007.

How do you donate? On November 1, 2007 all of the donation buttons on the front page of The Geek Media's website will be changing over from our regular donate buttons. Click on those buttons and donate away. All of the money received from November 1, 2007 - December 1, 2007 will be going to benefit Child's Play Charity!

Click here for the official rules, and click here for the FAQ.

Child's Play is a great charity that has been growing since it started; at first it was one local hospital to prove that gamers really do give back, now there are 38 hospitals you can choose to donate directly to in 5 countries. So even if you don't want a Wii and you can spare even a couple of dollars go to The Geek Media's site and donate!

-Matt Graham

I Apologize - 10.30.31

2007-10-30T17:57:00.000-04:00

I apologize for my lack of posts lately, but real life has been keeping me very busy. Expect more posting coming soon. :)

-Matt Graham

Judge Judy Plays - Oh, Wait... - 10.22.2007

2007-10-22T19:13:00.000-04:00

Today, the popular TV courtroom judge, Judge Judy, said that she has never heard of World of Warcraft. I guess it's no surprise because of her age, but shouldn't judges know about things that 9 million+ people are into? Oh well...

So anyway, some chick kicked her boyfriend out of her house because he played too much WoW - what's new?

And all this time I thought that Judy played a Paladin...

-Matt Graham

Hallow's End Is Here - 10.18.2007

2007-10-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

w00t! It's finally here again, people!

-Matt Graham

365 Days Later - 10.13.2007

2007-10-13T10:47:00.000-04:00

A year ago today I began writing entries on a little Wordpress blog I created, entitled "World of Blogcraft". Today, this Blogger blog spans over 115 entries and generates a healthy amount of traffic. I would like to thank all my readers and friends for supporting Blogcraft! Thanks everyone!

Here's to another great year for the World of Blogcraft! *toasts Brewfest mug*

P.S. - Now, this is only the third time in a year that I've asked this, but since it's the one year anniversary, I'm going to remind everyone. If you scroll down a bit, you'll find a donate button on the left side of the page. The smallest donation can go further than you would believe. This blog has received zero donations so far. I would love to bring out new features for the readers, but it's hard to when you don't receive any donations. Now, please don't look at this as begging, because I'm not trying to. I'm really just reminding you guys that there is a donate button for a reason. :p

-Matt Graham