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.

src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/farmwipe.gif"
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. 

First
and foremost, OMG with a capital F. This report brought to you by a
newly frozen over netherworld - players will be able to change factions
- yes Horde to Alliance. See href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1">Blue
Notes and my thoughts below.
This is huge. As in game changer, cats living with dogs type game
changer.



For those of us with alt-itis or its even more painful
main-changer-itis, the newly announced ease of gear gathering should
come as a welcome addition. With Emblems of Conquest becoming the
Kleenex of facial tissue, we should all be able to gear up an alt and
make them a main in record time. The noise you hear is the hard core
raiders losing their minds after the gear they spent weeks getting can
now be found in every box of Cracker Jacks. Lich King has no gear grind
comparatively speaking, so this is a good thing.



Guild banned for Yogg+0 (meaning Zero Watcher) exploit. Apparently
Exodus found a way to make Phase 3 a little easier, but they forgot
that the cameras are always rolling. Zing, that has to hurt. Moral of
this story, don't exploit Yogg he has good bodyguards. The exploit has
been hotfixed so that little loophole has been closed.



 

style="font-weight: bold;">Singing with the Blue
Notes

This week's
memorable blue posts:

href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1">Change
my shorts, that is a big surprise!

This is absolutely out of left field. Nethaera has announced that
players will be able to change factions at some point. Unfathomable is
all I could come up with.



href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/15/18031199669-upcoming-engineering-changes.html">Putting
the Ring in Engineering

Zarhym explains why Engineering is getting a huge boost (on the PTR,
we'll see how much makes it to the live servers). Engineering has never
been a big draw, even with mecho-hogs, so maybe, just maybe my lowly
engineer will see a reason to ramp up.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/70551">BOP now
means Bring On Purples

Another very nice change is the system for allowing raid loot to be
redistributed for a period of two hours to other players in the same
raid ID. The reduction in GM tickets on Tuesdays alone will pay for any
coding this required.

 
 

style="width: 250px; height: 50px;"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/mishapsmayhem.gif"
alt="Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem">

I'm still reeling from href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1">today's
announcement
that we most likely will be able to move our characters from Horde to
Alliance and vice versa. I rarely say never, but I believe the first
time I heard someone discuss this idea, I said, "No way, they would
never do that." See how well my crystal ball works.



My first thought was, which characters am I swapping? I have so many
characters from level 40-70 on both Horde and Alliance that I could
fairly easily round up one of every class on both sides and get them
all to end game without too much difficulty. Why would I do that
though? So many possibilities. What isn't discussed is the cost, my
guess is $25. It's a high enough number like a realm change, but if
they go any higher I'd bet they wouldn't get many takers.



The next thought is Why? Why should I change over a character from
Horde to Alliance? The BC and WotLK factions are available to each side
for the most part and there is almost complete symmetry for Major City
Rep, etc. Do I finally bring that Mage over from the Horde that hasn't
seen the light of day in years, or do I take that Human Paladin and
make him a pretty boy that laughs funny (Blood Elf)?



Enough about me, let's ask why Blizzard would do this. Blizzard is
pulling out a lot of stops these days. Their community communication is
flowing like a runaway fire hydrant where it once was a dripping
faucet. Then there is the easing of difficulty; the ease of leveling
with lower mount requirements, the ease of getting gear through
Emblems. Something is going on. Either Blizzard doesn't like what it is
seeing with it's internal number crunching and player participation, or
they are trying to sink their claws in deeper so we don't start looking
at Aion, or Jumpgate: Evolution or the other games rolling out.



There is a third theory, Blizzard always throws the baby out with the
bathwater whenever a new expansion is deployed. In Medeor terms, this
means that Blizzard just chucks all restrictions and makes the game and
loot very accessible when they are just about done with it. Remember
how easy it was to get gear right before Lich King shipped? They don't
care about giving out the loot because it will all be moot soon anyway.
Loot or Moot, there is no way they are going to deliver an expansion
anytime soon, so we can probably dismiss this.



The PTR is so full of changes that the news gets crazier and crazier,
are we sure this isn't April first? Now there is news that raid lockout
timers can be extended, and there will be universal loot tokens that
drop from the Coliseum bosses. Lots of this can and probably will
change prior to going live, but Patch 3.2 may be named the
Call of the
Crusade but it might be known as the Camp of Confusion, there is almost
too much to absorb and attempt to reconcile the impacts. In this
math-heavy game, the number of variables is going up exponentially.



So far I like what I'm reading and seeing on the PTR, but is it too
much of a good thing - are we at the buffet in Vegas with the piles of
shrimp? I always hurt myself there. At first it's great, but after a
while I have a headache and slide into a food coma. I'm almost feeling
numb to the volume of changes. Will this many opportunities just bring
me to a point of paralysis - what do I do first? Do I move that Horde
or Alliance character? Do I level up Engineering? Do I go back to the
tournament that I abandoned after one week? Do I just raid and blow
through Heroics to pick up Emblems?



Granted, none of this is on the Live server so it doesn't truly matter,
but some of it if not all of it will make their way to the live server.
I already feel myself falling behind and it's not even deployed yet.



"Just keep swimming." Dori, from Finding Nemo.



Am I way off base, or am I on to something? Are you going to move
characters to the other faction? Is the Call of the Crusade too much?
Or is it not enough? Share href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=43965">your
thoughts on our forum.



Until next
week, have fun and thanks for reading,

Medeor href="http://wow.tentonhammer.com/">