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. 

Blizzcon Tickets, need I say more?

Yeah I do. The great Blizzcon debacle of 2009 started and ended in record time, only none of us knew as we sat there watching the swirly updating thing. Why did they increase the buying option to 5 tickets per purchaser? This should be called the eBay special. Real people had no shot at going as I'm certain the eBayers were sitting on a huge internet pipe buying 5 tickets a piece. I have no idea how many they sold, but let's say it's 15-20,000. That means that 3,000 to 4,000 people got to buy tickets. I was ten seconds late hitting the refresh button and I was in the 14,000 range. Oh well, there may be a next year.

The good news is that I don't have to try and find a hotel in prime season. I'll keep telling myself how lucky I am.  

Joy of revenge.

Rolling through the old dungeons has become quite the pastime for us. Not only are we going after achievements, but completing the 45 minute Baron run in 15 minutes is just plain fun. The last time, I asked the Baron why he is still slumming it in Strat instead of hanging out in Naxx, he said "Here I get some peace and quiet usually, and by the way, I'm not dropping the mount."

There is always fun to be had, but you need to load up with the right mindset an remember how badly the old world bosses used to lay the smackdown on us. Zul'Aman is good for a few laughs and I don't seem to tire of pulling half of Molten Core simultaneously.

Just remember, if you go to Blackwing Lair, make sure you bring a Rogue, those  pesky slowing traps are a real pain.
   

We've probably beaten Blizzcon about the head and shoulders enough, so I won't belabor the point except to say "I knew it." Let's face it though, there is no good way to offer 11+ million players a feasible way to get 20,000 tickets and please everyone in the process. I'm in favor of whichever process is sure to grant me a ticket, is that so wrong?

Poscards from Ulduar:
More than 50 guilds have defeated Yogg-Saron (a lot more than 50, but that's as high as I can count). One guild has now defeated Algalon in the ten man encounter. For those not in the know, Algalon is the boss that is unlocked after you defeat the other bosses in hard mode (at least the bosses that have a hard mode). Once you open the opportunity to go after Algalon, you have 60 minutes to complete the encounter. So let's recap - you have to beat the hard mode bosses (and the others) and then you get a window of opportunity to take down Algalon. How long until Heroic Algalon drops to the mighty Ensidia.

If you are not familiar with Endisia, they are the guild that was formed from two top European guilds (SK Gaming and Nihilum) last year just before Wrath launched. They are the pointy end of the spear when it comes to knocking out content. If they have completed the ten man version but not the heroic version, I think it's safe to say that the content is not too easy. Or we could say that Blizzard is using the clock to beat guilds by only allowing a sixty minute window of opportunity. Of course Mimiron has only been dropped on hard mode twice so far too.

The blue posters have been lighting up discussions about Armor Penetration. Just when we thought we had Resilience figured out, they had to throw in a new stat like Armor Penetration. It sounds fairly straight forward which can mean only one thing, I don't fully understand it. So do I stack Armor Penetration, Resilience or Advil? And why would they add a stat that shares the acronym with Attack Power? "Hey, I need more AP" "Which one?" "Whatever drops out of DM." "Deadmines or Dire Maul?" "Sorry I meant we need BM." "Black Morass or a Beast Master Hunter?" " No, no, we need more MC." "Oh brother, Mind Control, Molten Core or Master Conjurer?" "Never mind, I'm tired of this BS." "Blacksmithing? Mace, Sword or Axe?"

I can't imagine starting the game today and trying to decipher all of the acronyms. Four and a half years is fertile ground for a lot of truncated speech patterns. I am glad that I've kept up with most of it. I still get lost when the kids go into text-speech, but then I'm just old.

Speaking of unrelated, Blizzard announced that their upcoming MMOG is a new intellectual property, and won't be one of the three current franchises. Not surprising, but this also means that we won't see anything about anything for a really long time. I've given up on ever seeing another Blizzard game launching, I will be collecting social security by then. Maybe it will be an iPhone space shooter. And maybe it won't. That's about as deep as we can speculate at this point.

Can you keep up with the whippersnappers and their blazing texting? Is your guild one of those working on the hard modes to get to Algalon or are you still completing the "easy" modes? What do you think will be Blizzard's next MMOG? Stop by and let me know on our forums.

Until next week, have fun and thanks for reading,
Medeor