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.
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alt="Now on Farm or That's a Wipe">
In this section we'll look at the hits and misses taking place in the
game.
A big hit is underway in Europe where The Intel Extreme Masters offers
over a quarter of a million dollars for a 3v3 tournament. The usual
Euro suspects will try and farm the competition and in the end we all
win as more media focuses on our game.
PTR
Notes in a nutshell:
Dual Spec: Full of "Teh Win and Farmy Goodness," but at a price!
Class changes: Magic 8 Ball says "Too Soon to Tell"
Druid Bear Armor Reduction: Ouch, wipefest incoming?
Ulduar: So far it looks promising, but I see many wipes until it's on
farm status.
Glyph Changes: Are you kidding me? Talk about a work in progress...
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alt="Caverns of Time">
Ah the good old
days. Some we miss, but most we just
appreciate (for the fact that they're gone!).
Do you remember the original Naxx? Me either, I never got
close to
that place.
Remembering the Druid:
Remember when Druids could only heal and Feral or Balance Druids were
laughed out of raids? Not any more.
Yes, druids had a tough go of it for the first few years. Switching
forms always required he druid to leave a form and turn into a Night
Elf/Tauren before morphing into another form. How many times did druids
get stuck mid-change and out of mana?
Next week, Mages.
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alt="Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem">
This week the WoW gears are turning under full torque. Between the
Intel Extreme Masters 3v3 tournament in Germany and the boatloads of
information from the 3.1 PTR, my head may explode.
First off we have the big 3v3 tournament in Germany. The ESL
(Electronic Sports League) is hosting the Continental Finals Europe
edition this week. The big European names in professional WoW will be
there such
as Nihilum, SK Gaming and Fnatic. The top twelve teams of Europe seem
to be represented but in true old-guy fashion I can't tell how to
pronounce most of them (like aAa nawaK). Come on kids, put some names
in there that marketers and old people can get excited about and leave
the "Cru$hHax1" names on Xbox Live.
The patch that ate Cleveland.
Two things scare me, besides Austin Power's famous "
href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=carnie+folk">carnies,"
I get nervous when Blizzard says: "This upcoming patch will be the
largest one we've ever done with tons of new content and a lot of class
changes." Blizzard's track record for delivering big patches is on par
with
href="http://blog.broadcastengineering.com/brad/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/gilligan.jpg">Gilligan's
ability of getting off the island. I see great server crashes, reboots,
lag, bugs and all of the assorted fun coming at us in big chunks. Prove
me wrong Blizzard, prove me wrong...please.
One patch note that caught my eye was "New high-resolution player
textures for Northrend armor sets have been added." Maybe now we'll
notice some differences in the armor. I was convinced that Northrend
got all of their gear from one assembly line so it all looks the same.
When Blizzard does some graphical touch-ups they are usually pretty
good, so I'm actually looking forward to this one.
Blizzard is apparently going back and reading the forum posts from a
year ago or longer as a lot of housekeeping changes are coming in 3.1
to ease some of the day to day stress of playing WoW (oh yes, so
stressful!). Such as:
will learn how to
swim so we don't have to remount after misjudging the depth or distance
of a stream (I'm looking at you Terokkar Forest).
We'll be able to queue for battlegrounds anywhere in the world. Who can
say that Warhammer wasn't great for us? In an obvious borrowing, we can
now click to enter without using our hearthstones just to queue up for
an hour to get in AV. Which leads me to...
Hearthstones going to 30 minute cooldowns is an interesting change that
has almost no impact on my Shaman (and his 15 minute recall), but may
help alleviate the various work arounds that players have created.
The Outfitter mod has been assimilated as "Gear Manager" so that
players will have a way to better, err....manage their gear. Site
unseen, I'm excited about this as I don't seem to be able to keep my
Outfitter updated worth a hoot. What's the next mod for
assimilation? Questhelper/Carbonite? Speaking of which, I'll be
interested to see this in action " class="blue"> class="blue"> class="blue"> class="blue"> class="blue"> class="blue">New
Advanced features for quest tracking are now available."
Speaking of mods, expect
all of them to break and then if any work you
can be pleasantly surprised.
Is Patch 3.1 all you could ask for? Are you tuning in for the European
Championships?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=41207">Let's
discuss.
Until next week, have fun and thanks for reading,
Medeor
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