World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Welcome to the latest World of Warcraft newsletter from Ten Ton Hammer. The Overpull, where we gather most of the things we should and a few we probably shouldn't.

In this section we'll look at the hits and misses taking place in the game. This week is full of hits:

Thankfully our Australian WoWers can continue to Farm as Blizzard clarifies their legal standing. 

Another Farm status can be placed on Blizzard's continued free realm transfers to help lighten the load. I'm hearing less squawking about queue times, so either the delays are dropping or people are just tired of screaming.

My casual raiding guild and merry band of jackholes was full of Teh Suck against Grobbulus.  Definitely a wipe times 6 or so. If repairs are less than 100g then it's just a flesh wound.

Paladin farm status on Exorcism if patch 3.1.0 goes through as planned. This is good since the Paladin was so under-powered. Warlocks continue to cry in their beers.

Speaking of Paladin farm status, Patch 3.0.9 should go live during maintenance this week and Paladin seals may last 30 minutes while not being dispellable. Warlocks head to the liquor store as Curse of Tongues gets a nerf.

When was the last time you went to Mauradon or Uldaman? You know why? Because they are some of the most painful instances in the game. Remember trying to get a group together "just to the Enchanting trainer, please?!?!"  Only to get there and get lost. What a pain in the backside.

Much more painful though was the original PvP ranking mechanic. When Battlegrounds (BGs) first launched the rank of a player was based strictly on honor gained. Honor gain was much more nebulous and we had to wait a week to find out how we did. The Alterac Valley AFK/AFCaver followed shortly thereafter. It was physically impossible to rank up without spending tens if not hundreds of hours in the BGs. And the best part was losing rank if your total Honor deteriorated. I'm sure many marriages, jobs and houses were lost due to the old honor system.

Even better was getting a Dishonorable Kill and watching the hard core Honor farmers jump out the window. You know who you are.

   

The information for upcoming patches 3.0.9 and 3.1.0 keeps rolling in so fast it makes my talent calculator hurt. Of course Paladin changes are near and dear to my heart so I'm keenly interested in how those are shaping up. Exorcism on all enemies and Blessing of Kings being trainable are all good news as far as I'm concerned. My only hope is for all other classes to get nerfed "To the ground, baby." Seriously, Paladins deserve all the love they can get due to years of being the eunuchs of damage.

Dual specs and swimming mounts are sure to be big hits when they finally arrive on the live servers, but I'm still not sure it will make life easier. Swimming faster will definitely be better but optimizing my characters for dual spec is going to require some serious theory crafting. I see myself making a real art out of picking the least crappy gear for my off-spec. Oh the joy of purple and green mixing and matching.

The biggest question on most minds is whether or not Blizzard can make up for past patching transgressions. Will the next mid-version patch and subsequent content patch be running smooth on the day of delivery or dead on arrival like 3.0.8? Let's hope that valuable lessons were learned and that enough cuss words were issued in board rooms to prevent future patches from re-living that nightmare.

Speaking of re-living, if the new content and continent of Northrend has you thinking about leveling up another character, make sure you check out our latest and greatest class guides. A lot has changed since you leveled up that Gnome Mage in 2005, so make sure you've got up-to-date information. Remember when Mages had to make stacks of water and food individually for a whole raid and then spend 20 minutes getting their mana back? Ah the good old days.

Have a great week, and look for more patching excitement and miscues galore!

Thanks for reading,
Medeor