TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Northrend Here We Come

Do you often find yourself daydreaming of Northrend, the new continent appearing in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King? Well do we have a treat for you! We've got a ton of new screenshots from the highly anticipated expansion to the most popular MMOG out there! Zul'Drak, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, and more are here at Ten Ton Hammer for your viewing pleasure. Head on over and take a look at the upcoming expansion's new zones and while you're here be sure to stick around for more coverage of Wrath of the Lich King like our exclusive preview of the Death Knight class or the latest news about upcoming raids and instances.

• WoW: Brand New Wrath of the Lich King Images!

Down in the Valley

Alterac Valley is a confusing place, especially with all the changes that Blizzard keeps implementing in an effort to balance it out for both factions. So while you may know the basic rules and understand the ideas behind how it works, the tactics and strategies to actually win may elude you. That's where Byron "Messiah" Mudry steps up the the plate this week, with a new section for our Alterac Valley guide that looks at the basic strategies and tactics that will allow you to win in the valley.

While on defense your job is basically to slow the enemy down as much as possible. You will not be expected to win the game, as you will be severely out numbered. You can however fear, trap, slow, mind control, polymorph and use every other crowd control or debuff you have to slow the opponent and frustrate them.

• WoW: Alterac Valley Tactics

I Want to Be Left Alone!

While it may sound like an odd combination, there are many in the MMO game world who prefer solo play to the social efforts of guilds and friends. While their motivations might be hard to explain they are becoming a larger voice in the industry and even social players who rarely solo are joining them. Will Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning provide them enough content? Ten Ton Hammer looks at what we know so far.

Now an interesting phrase stands out in that quote and no it isn't the Soccer reference because we know no one plays Soccer in America. Tricking you into making friends seems like an odd way to present a mechanic but it's subtle and brilliant in nature. What they essentially had in mind here was that you'd show up to help assault a city, a Keep, or play a scenario and the classical Esprit De Corps would kick in prompting new friends and allies in the war. In addition to this, it's a well known fact that Creative Director Paul Barnett has a preference for solo play and has no problems letting people know that. With that in mind it seems very likely he has been providing his input about this playstyle.

• Warhammer Online Op/Ed: Flying Solo

Save the Drama for your Mama

With Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures launch just over the horizon, the barbarians are at the gate. Literally! Anticipation is growing and new discussion is flooding the forums daily. The community has been heavily discussing new topics and old with countless new threads. With all the renewed discussion taking place it can be a challenging job to find that good discussion or one great nugget of information as you sift through a sea of dramatic posts and endless rants. Let Ten Ton Hammer do it for you. This week we take a look at some of the top threads and best discussion in the Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures community.

Open beta is here, AoC Ten Ton Hammer releases class and quest information, Voting polls for server names, Lost in Hyboria, what has martuk done now? All this and more in this week's Border Kingdom Cryer.

• AoC: Border Kingdom Cryer 05/08/2008

I'm for the All-Cleric Group

Game play within Vanguard: Saga of Heroes generally encourages not only grouping, but also gathering a traditional group of tank, healer, crowd control, and nukers. Non-traditional groups have proven they can do well in the past, so Dalmarus has brought the topic to its extreme in an effort to see just which class has got what it takes to ignore all others.

A single Blood Mage by itself is a force to be reckoned with. Now imagine a full group of six Blood Mages working in unison. Yeah, I shivered for a moment too.

• Vanguard Poll: Party of Conformity: Healers

Watching the Official Forums...Like the Eye of Sauron

This weeks Lord of The Rings Online Troll Report talks about housing, instances, crafting and all the subjects you care about but were too afraid of the official LotRO forums to uncover yourself. Never fear! We've got all the buzz from the Lord of The Rings forums right here.

• Lord of The Rings Online Weekly Troll Report 5/9/08

A Brotherhood of Eight-Legged Things

It seems we at Ten Ton Hammer aren't the only ones eagerly anticipating the launch of Age of Conan. There seems to be quite a few Clans out there that are just as psyched as we are, and this week William "JoBildo" Murphy had the pleasure to sit down and interview one of them. Brotherhood of the Spider bares it all for the community in true Barbara Walters fashion. Check it out!

Our EQ1 division has been the top guild on The Rathe server for over 7 years, the WoW division has been stomping Illidan's face since July 2007 and the Vanguard team has been serving up world wide firsts on everything in sight on Xeth since release. When we say our goal in AoC is to be #1, that isn't just empty talk; we have to live up to our other team's accomplishments.

AoC: Clan Interview and Showcase - Brotherhood of the Spider

• Interview 
• Showcase

It's Just Like Popeye and Spinach!

When you create your first character you look at cooking and probably think, Why would I want to cook; I'll just buy what I need. Many casual players, never see the obvious and cheap benefits to cooking their own food. That's where this guide by Byron "Messiah" Mudry takes over. It looks at all the best high level food and the benefits (or buffs) that it provides to the player. Many player's don't even realize the wealth of extra stats and abilities that they are passing up, simply by ignoring buff food.

Stamina buff foods are the most common type of buff food around. Once you reach the Outlands the buffs are fairly substantial and the two main ones that you will be getting are +20 Stamina/+20 Spirit and +30 Stamina/+20 Spirit.

The most common, easiest and cheapest to get is the 20/20 buff food. You can gain this from the following five foods: Buzzard Bites, Feltail Delight, Clam Bars, Talbuk Steak and Mok'Nathal Shortribs. Of these foods the easiest to get are the Feltail Delight and Talbuk Steak.

• WoW: Buff Food Guide

Quest for the Gold

Many people know how to make Gold in World of Warcraft: it's a matter of completing quests and farming monsters in order to rake in some cash. However, many do it less than optimally, or simply don't know what they're capable of obtaining each day if they devote a few hours to questing. With this guide, we aim to show you how to best spend your time in order to make the most gold in the least time possible.

Daily Quests generally yield anywhere from 8 gold to 14 gold, depending on the complexity of the Quest and the location of the same. A great start for your day is within the Isle of Quel'danas - this zone has the most daily quests in the game and all require different simple tasks around the island.

• WoW: Guide to Optimizing your Daily Quest Revenue

Welcome to the 826th Edition of Loading...

[In memory of the heroes that we have lost. ]

Erling Ellingsen of Age of Conan gets personal in an interview, Previews of Wrath of the Lich King and the Death Knight get posted, five mistakes that Hillary Clinton made and more, today in Loading...