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Daily Column

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First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we now show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

  1. Age of Conan - 200 BPM
  2. World of Warcraft - 49 BPM
  3. Lord of the Rings Online - 20 BPM
  4. EverQuest 2 - 16 BPM
  5. Lineage 2 - 15 BPM
  6. EVE Online - 14 BPM
  7. Warhammer Online - 11 BPM
  8. Vanguard - 10 BPM
  9. Guild Wars - 9 BPM
  10. Tabula Rasa - 9 BPM

Information worth reading first, then on to my column. Jeff, Garrett and Padma rocked the house at New York Comic Con last weekend. They conducted interviews. They moderated panels and they captured more video than Paris Hilton's last boyfriend. No video from the event (Comic Con, not the Paris incident) is more entertaining than the Warhammer Online presentation by Josh Drescher, Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett. See what I did there Josh? You got first billing.

The rest of the column is right from the hip. It may offend younger viewers, includes coarse language and scenes of violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

The discussion surrounding the subscriber system versus the free-to-play system isn't going to vanish any day soon. It has been beaten up and down the development border so many times that the custom guys just wave and nod as it passes. I expect to see at least one article about it each day, usually written by a person who thinks that they could develop a game better than the people who are paid to do so. If only the author could break out of their current career choice, sticking flyers under your windshield wiper, to fix the games that the current crop of developers were making.

I expect some things. I don't expect others, like the uproar over the price of the Age of Conan box and the monthly subscription fee. First I get notified that this guy is bitching about the price.

"Well, today, the pricing model for Age of Conan has been released and it is not pretty. While the game looks great, its $60 release price is more than a bit strange considering that even World of Warcraft has not commanded a price of $10 over the normal PC game price. The monthly fee does not get any better as it will be $14.99 a month to play this game.

While I like the premise of mashing a single player section and the overall MMORPG section, and it has the violence that has always made the Conan novels and movies, great entertainment. But to ask someone to front out $60, and then another $15 a month for a game that has not even proven itself in the tough to crack MMORPG market is just plain crazy."

Exhibit A: EBGames.com - $49.99

I could find more evidence that the price isn't $60, but quite frankly if you came here to be educated or bombarded with facts then you came to the wrong place. The fact , grammar and valuable insight door exits to the left.

Anyone can make a mistake. I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong. I accept this guy's apology. I applaud this girl's opinion.

I can't wrap my head around the bitching and moaning over the $15 a month subscription fee. I don't understand it. You can't make me understand it. If you aren't willing to pay $15 for an entire month of entertainment then you are a cheapskate. I called you out. You are outed! You probably recycle the sandwich bags in your kids' lunches and scrape the fallen toothpaste from the sink back into the tube. You might even reuse toilet paper.

You can't even argue the value of a title that gives you updated content, a social environment and enjoyment for only $15 a month. It costs you more than that to run your computer for a day or to post a blog complaining about the price. Throw an old hat out by the train station, hold a sign that says "I don't have $0.50 a day" and before you know it, you will have enough to pay for AoC each month.

There are lots of good free-to-play games out there. They aren't comparable to AoC. Here's a list. Apples and oranges folks. Please don't mix them up. We segregate our fruit here at Ten Ton Hammer, just like we segregate those that complain about $0.50 a day to play a MMOG.

On to happier topics shall we? If you don't play WoW, scroll down a bit.

The World of Warcraft team released the patch notes for update 2.4.2.

"Hunter

  • Dire Ravens in Blade's Edge Mountains now tameable.
  • Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5.)

Mages

  • Talent: Improved Blink (Arcane) now reduces chance to be hit by 13/25% and the duration of Rank 1 has been increased to 4 seconds.
  • Completing the quest "Arcane Refreshment" will now properly teach the spell Conjure Water (Rank 7).

PvP

  • Arenas
    • If a character's personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
    • If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team's rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.

Professions

  • All 23-hour profession cooldowns are now 20-hour cooldowns.
  • All 4-day cooldowns are now 3 days, 20 hours.
  • Enchanting
    • Removed the cooldown from Void Shatter.
    • Void Shatter recipe now correctly requires 375 enchanting.
  • Engineering
    • The Engineering supply item Delicate Copper Wire will now properly fit into engineering bags.
  • Jewelcrafting
    • Brilliant Glass no longer requires a forge.
    • Brilliant Glass now has a small chance to make an epic gem.
    • Quick Dawnstone, Reckless Noble Topaz, Forceful Talasite are now all available at the Quel'danas gem vendor.
  • Leatherworking
    • Completing the quest "The Journey Has Just Begun" will now properly teach how to make an Onyxia Scale Cloak.
    • Greatly reduced the reagent cost for Glove Reinforcements. Also reduced the skill gain range slightly.

Quests

  • The categories for the quests "Wanted: Sisters of Torment" and "Wanted: The Signet Ring of Prince Kael'thas" have been fixed to now properly read as Magister's Terrace.
  • The Shadowy Disguise will no longer be applied to druids while they are in Moonkin or Tree of Life form for the quests "Who Are They?"
  • Jailor Eston and Jailor Marlgen for the quest "The Rescue" should now respawn more frequently.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Black Temple
    • Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid group wipes during his death speech.
  • Karazhan
    • Nightbane's Charred Earth ability will now properly deal Fire damage.
  • Magister's Terrace
    • Vexallus is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
    • Kael'thas is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
    • Wretched Skulkers, Wretched Husks, and Wretched Bruisers will now reset properly.
    • Sunblade Imps will now reset properly.
    • The doors in Heroic Magister's Terrace will no longer respawn after a soft reset if a boss has already been killed.
  • Sunwell Plateau
    • Hellfire will no longer remove Dark Touched in the Eredar Twins encounter.
  • Tempest Keep: The Eye
    • Void Reaver's Arcane orbs now generate combat log entries.

Items

  • Arcane Charges now deal arcane damage.
  • Abilities and trinkets that trigger after killing an opponent that gives experience or honor will no longer activate after killing mobs during bombing quests.
  • Battlecast's Garb should now properly grant pushback resistance in addition to interrupt resistance.
  • Borderland Fortress Grips have had their stats updated.
  • Botanist's Gloves of Growth have had their texture corrected.
  • Bow of Searing Arrows and Red Whelp Gloves will no longer break crowd control effects.
  • The Cloak of Swift Mending now has a level requirement (70).
  • Goblin Jumper Cables are no longer a trinket item.
  • Items that enchant other items no longer have tradeskill requirements (Mithril Spurs, Shield Spikes, Weapon Chains, etc.).
  • The Helm of Fire has had its casting range reduced.
  • The Magic Candle has had its casting range reduced.
  • Many items sold by Consortium vendors are now bind on pick up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design: Thick Golden Draenite.
  • Many items sold by Aldor reputation vendors are now bind on pick up: Design: Gleaming Golden Draenite, Design: Royal Shadow Draenite.
  • Many items sold by the Shattered Sun quartermaster are now bind on pick up: Naaru Ration, Design: Ember Skyfire Diamond.
  • The Lower City reputation item, Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Resistance, is now bind on pick up.
  • Most Main-Hand weapons are now One-Hand weapons.
  • Naturalist's Preserving Cinch have had their stats updated
  • Reins of the Black War Elekk spell and buff now correspond to the item name
  • Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite now properly share the same cooldown.
  • The Romantic Picnic Basket will now display the blanket properly.
  • The socket bonus modifiers of some items will now properly display the bonus healing.
  • The reduced cooldown of Shaman Nature's Swiftness provided by the 4 piece set bonus from the Seer's Ringmail Battlegear PvP armor will now apply properly.
  • The Skyshatter Helmet's gem socket bonus will now properly reflect the plus damage in the tooltip.
  • Shadowsong Panther will no longer prematurely despawn.
  • Talasite Owl: This trinket will now properly restore full mana as described.
  • Troll Male off-hand items are now the same size as the main hand item.
  • Tauren weapons while sheathed have had their graphic readjusted to their pre-patch (2.4.0) state.
  • The Winterfall Firewater buff is no longer dispellable.

User Interface

  • Black Lotus will now show up under the Herb subcategory in the auction house.
  • Primal Nethers will now show up under the Materials subcategory in the auction house.
  • Mailboxes can now be tracked on the minimap.
  • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

  • Creature versions of the Polymorph spell no longer heal the affected target.
  • The dragons in Blade's Edge Mountains will no longer instantly knock you off your mount.

Mac

  • Fixed a bug causing ATI kernel panics; all spell effects should now be visible.
  • Weather effects are again visible on systems with ATI 2x00 graphics such as aluminum iMac.
  • Fixed a bug that precluded use of the FireWire iSight microphone with voice chat.
  • Symlinks can be used again for Interface and WTF folders and subfolders.
  • Cinematics playback is working again.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where secondary sound effects would not work with the Use Hardware option enabled in the Sound options of the User Interface.
  • Fixed an issue where attempting to use some instant cast spells with Auto-Dismount in Flight checked in the interface would fail.
  • Items that have multiple charges will now properly display the amount of charges.
  • Fixed an issue where chain damage spells were chaining to critters.
  • Female Draenei horns will now correctly protrude through certain plate helms.
  • The Vengeful Gladiator's Rifle will now play the proper sound when used.
  • The Cursed Vision of Sargeras now gives the buff, "Sense Demons" which can be canceled normally. Additionally hunters and druids are able to track two things at once while using the item.
  • It is no longer possible for pets to get stuck in place after exiting the Spectral Realm in the Kalecgos encounter.
  • Blood Elf Priest: Consume Magic will now require the buff to be active in order to work properly.
  • Undead and Blood Elf Priest: Touch of Weakness will now properly reduce the melee damage of the attacker.
  • Fixed an issue where some spells had extraneous Floating Combat Text messages when using the Auras option
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes debuff icons on a target did not scale properly to indicate the spells had been cast by you.
  • The hunter pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power
  • Druid Talent- Primal Fury (Rank 2) will now be properly unlearned when it is untalented.
  • Druid Talent (Restoration)- Natural Perfection will no longer proc by normal melee attacks.
  • Mage Spell - Molten Armor will now do damage while a damage absorption shield is active.
  • Mage Spell - Noxious Breath (Ysondre) will no longer cause Arcane Missiles to only damage on the first volley
  • Mage Spell- Fixed an issue that was causing a pink hue to appear when a mage would phase out via Invisibility.
  • Paladin Talent: Crusader Strike (Retribution) will now properly receive a damage increase from Seal of The Crusader
  • Paladin healing spells used in castsequence macros are now properly completing the cast sequence when a rank is not specified.
  • The Paladin talent Precision (Ranks 1-3) will no longer improperly display daggers and staves as a weapon class in the tooltip.
  • Paladins that already have Apprentice Riding skill can now properly learn Summon Warhorse from the trainer.
  • Priest Talent- Power Infusion will now consume the correct amount of mana when cast on yourself.
  • The rogue talent Mutilate (Assassination) will no longer incorrectly appear multiple times in the combat log when used.
  • Shaman Talent: Frostbrand (Enhancement) Rank 6 will now properly do more damage than Rank 5.
  • Warlock Spell- Drain Soul will no longer continue to do damage to another player after they have died.
  • Ritual of Souls (Warlock) and Ritual of Refreshment (Mage) will no longer be placed on cooldown without having completed the summon
  • Priest Spell: Power Word: Shield now has the correct sound associated with it and can no longer be heard from large distances.
  • Priest Spell: Fear Ward will no longer be consumed while under the effects of cyclone.
  • Looting a boss while a player is outside of the instance will no longer cause the corpse to despawn in 2 minutes if the player still has loot on the corpse.
  • Whirlwind now has the correct sound associated with it."

That's a hefty patch. Let's look at what is important.

  • Dire Ravens in Blade's Edge Mountains now tameable.
    Because hunters don't have enough pets that block LOS while thrashing your eardrums with their screeching.
  • The Romantic Picnic Basket will now display the blanket properly.
    Hubbah, hubbah.
  • Mailboxes can now be tracked on the minimap.
    Making the kill 12 mailboxes quest much easier.
  • Female Draenei horns will now correctly protrude through certain plate helms.
    But, not correctly through other "certain" plate helms.

I rambled, now it's your turn.

Pricing, patches and panels . The The Loading... forums await you.

Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

--

13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 217 in April! 969 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today



Ten Ton Hammer @ NY ComicCon 08

Images/Video

Op/Eds

Interviews

Contests

Guides

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to

  1. Interview with the 38 Studios team
  2. MMOG Developer Panel - Part 1
  3. MMOG Developer Panel - Part 2
  4. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Ed @ NYC ComicCon
  5. Lord of the Rings Online: Book 13 'Hands On' Preview
  6. Warhammer Online: (Video) Dir. of Community Relations Bob Mull
  7. Stargate Worlds: FireSky's Joe Ybarra, Part 2
  8. Stargate Worlds: FireSky's Joe Ybarra
  9. Lord of the Rings Online: Exclusive Book 13 Video, Part 2
  10. Lord of the Rings Online: Exclusive Book 13 Preview Video

Real World News

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com. Thanks to Phil Comeau for doing the heavy lifting with the links, headlines and taglines!

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Dissecting and distilling the game industry since 1994. Lover of family time, youth hockey, eSports, and the game industry in general.

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