Looking Back On Another Year of WoW - 12.31.2006

Well, World of Warcraft began 2006 with a bang. On the 3rd of January, patch 1.9 (The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj) was released. This patch brought the still popular AQ20 and AQ40. This patch also brought linked auction houses, multi-queued battlegrounds, shard bags, the Paladin talent review, a modified Zul'Gurub, and the guild recruitment channel. This patch was a great way to bring in the new year of WoW. Then, on the 28th of March, came the patch that everyone got excited about. Patch 1.10 (Storms of Azeroth). "Storms of Azeroth" brought weather effects to the world of Azeroth, the tier 0.5 armor, and the priest talent review.
On June 20th, 2006, Blizzard released Patch 1.11 (Shadow of the Necropolis). This was one of the most anticipated patches yet. "Shadow of the Necropolis" brought us the still fresh Naxxramas raid dungeon. Along with this massive dungeon, the players received shaman and mage talent reviews.
The 22nd of August brought the "flop" patch of the year - Patch 1.12, or "Drums of War". Along with boring world PvP additions, Blizzard added the failed rogue talent review. The only real good thing that came out of this patch was the cross-realm battlegrounds.
Not even a month ago, on December 5th, 2006, Blizzard released their pre-expansion patch, patch 2.0.1 - "Before the Storm". This patch brought in a new Looking For Group interface tool, new talents for all classes, a revamped honor system, and the arenas. This patch made is much easier for the casual player to receive [Epic]s.

So, as you can all see, WoW has changed significantly over the past year. With the Burning Crusade coming in half a month, what changes can we expect in 2007? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

-Punchline

Punchline: Part 1 - 10.22.2006

Punchline is my Gnome Rogue. It's been a long journey with him. I never thought I would reach 60, and neither did any of my friends (real life and in-game). I eventually did hit 60, but I'm still pretty "nOOby". My gear isn't very good at all. I was really excited to hear about how casuals could obtain good gear in patch 2.0, so I began right away. Unfortunately, I didn't start my PvPing until after the 30% honor reduction, but that's okay because today I got my GM Longsword!! I was very excited when I received it. Now, I am going for the epic gear and then eventually my off-hand swiftblade. So, leading my guild (First Blood) as the leader and armed with my longsword and Dal'Rend's off-hand, I will post updates on Punchline's progress every Friday.

-Punchline

2.0.3 PTR's Are Up - 12.21.2006

Well, this came as a bit of an unexpected surprise, but the PTR's for patch 2.0.3 are now up.

Drysc stated,

" The Public Test Realms are now live with the 2.0.3 patch!

This patch test carries a unique and significant difference over previous PTRs as we’re testing a post-expansion realm environment. Current Closed Beta testers will be able to access the public 2.0.3 PTR as “expansion owners” and will continue to have access to expansion content. Players not currently in the Closed Beta will be present and testing as “non-expansion players”, and will only be allowed access to non-expansion content. Along with testing the changes and updates made in the 2.0.3 patch, we will also be testing how an expansion realm will operate with both expansion and non-expansion players present.

As always we appreciate your involvement, testing, and feedback.

You can begin participating by downloading the client and copying your characters to the PTRs through the following link: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ptr/

Please be sure to visit the Test Realm forum for more information and to post feedback, bug reports, and discussions: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11572"


More info on the PTR's coming soon!!

-Punchline

Blogger Loves WoW? - 12.21.2006

Blogger loves WoW? Well, apparently so... This little bit of a page can be found on your Blogger "dashboard" if you own a blog. Would you rather play WoW than go to Hawaii? :p

-Punchline

Blogcraft's New Home - 12.21.2006

Welcome to World of Blogcraft's new home. All of the old posts from the old blog have been transferred over - and some of the old posts were updated with new content. So take a look around, and if you feel like you want to donate to Blogcraft, go right ahead by clicking the new donate button in the top left area of the blog's home.

-Punchline

'Twas The Night Before BC - 12.20.2006

Scrann of Earthen Ring made a great post today on the WoW forums. Sometimes you are lucky to find a good post on the WoW forums, but it isn't so often that you find a creative post. The following is Scrann's Warcraft version of "The Night Before Christmas". (It is fairly long.)

'Twas the night before BC, and in World of Warcraft Not a creature would /stir, /sing, /dance, /silly, or /laugh The servers were hung, all instancing ceased In hopes the expansion would soon be released

The children were nustled all snug in their beds (Only orcs; no young tauren, trolls, or undeads) And I, in my warlord's gear, from PvP Had just trekked to the inn for some rested XP

When out by the bank there arose such dissent I wondered if Blizzard started a world event I went into cat form, to ensure my good health If demons were invading, I was gonna be stealthed

The moon didn't light up the boring old dirt (C'mon, some Ogrimmar snow couldn't hurt!) When what should I see, out there on the streets? Twas a musclebound orc, and a mess of elites!

He was giving out buffs, which were awesome but brief I knew in a moment it was the warchief Was he giving a quest, or was this an illusion? He started to /yell as we watched in confusion

"Come raiders, and twinkers, and casuals too! Come on PvPers, get out of your queue! To the top of the bank, to the top of the wall! You can dash, you can mount, you can even slowfall!"

He jumped on the mailbox, to give rise to himself I feared for a moment he'd become a night elf But he did not /dance, or remove all his gear So we all gathered round, and we lent him our ear

And then, on the bank, I heard from the roof The prancing of two dozen large tauren hoofs As I drew in my head, visions of taurens prancing I was distracted by a female elf dancing

She was dressed in all epics, from her helm to her rings They spat fire and did other impressive things A bundle of loot she had flung on her back And a two handed sword with a proc-cleave attack

Her eyes, how they twinkled! Her body, so thin! She had golden hair, and odd, peach-colored skin! Her droll little mouth was drawn up in a sneer, As if immune to poly, stunlock, root, and fear

We all drew our weapons, and I readied my claws I'd enjoy tasting elf blood dripping from my jaws But Thrall raised his hammer, and let out a fierce growl We all hesitated, hit by his piercing howl

"Her kind," he claimed, "are not our enemies! They don't hide in shadows, they don't even hug trees! They all hate alliance, and see them as noobs! Even if, like alliance, kids will stare at her... monitor tubes." *ahem*

But from out in the crowd, came a shout, "She's no ally! You can tell from her int-based plate she's a pally! Her hotbar has bubbles and hearthstones adjacent! You've brought us a target, we won't be complacent!"

"But you see," the elf said, her voice calm and malicious, "I may have found the light, but I find it delicious. We stole from their gods!" She screamed while she glowered. "To mock claims that shamans are so overpowered!"

"But where," I responded, "Did you get all your loot?" "My chestpiece has less stats than one of your boots!" She took out her hearthstone, and started to laugh, As she showed me that it was now set to Shattrath

"I got them in Outland, just as you will. In a month your new set is as useless as twill. The Blasted Lands is where to bring this Horde You know, when you levelled, that zone you ignored?"

"It's a land of new quests, and wonderous gifts, Of casual conent, and paradigm shifts. So come to the portal, if you'll continue playing, And take on 'You are not prepared!' as your saying!"

She bubbled and hearthed, in true pally fashion, But in her wake I had found a new passion In this new land I'd find epic apparel Perhaps I would even find something for feral!

Thrall raised his hammer, and looked nearly immortal Then he jumped on his mount and rode for the Dark Portal But I heard him exclaim, as we rode to our fate "I hope when we get there, it will be release date!"'

The original thread can be found here.

-Punchline

WoW: After The Crusade - 12.20.2006

January 16th, 2007… Ah, I just can’t wait. It’ll be lagfest ‘07 in Blasted Lands - that is assuming the game will be up and running. But what happens after that? I don’t mean January 17th, I mean in the months after that; after we have seen everything that the Burning Crusade brings to the table. Well, Blizzard has come out and stated that their goal is to release one expansion a year. (You can find the post here.) By an expansion, they obviously mean new lands, new instances, new abilities, and possibly new races/classes. But what could those be? Well, we know that the Northrend expansion will come sometime, whether it is the next expansion or not, it IS coming. A trip to Northrend would mean a fight against the Lich King. Now, the following is all my opinion and none of it was confirmed - ever.

I believe that the Northrend expansion will indeed be the second expansion. My guess is that it is released sometime around the summer of 2008. The reason I say that the Northrend expansion will be coming “early” is because I believe that Blizzard will be losing players around this time next year (because of various new MMO’s - Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, etc.), and they will need to come out with something BIG. A Pandaria or Great Sea expansion will not bring retired players back, but the chance to face the Lich King on the other hand, will. At what level will we fight the Lich King? Well, my guess would be at level 85. I would also guess that we won’t see anymore races, but we will see 2 more classes. Now, I am going to take a huge guess here, but I think the name will be “World of Warcraft: Expedition to Northrend”.

P.S. - In 2008, Druids will be the Warlocks of today. :p

-Punchline

World of WiiCraft - 12.20.2006

Pooch, from WiiCast, has posted a new segment to his vlog (video blog). This newest segment shows how you can play WoW with your WiiMote. It was only a matter of time…



-Punchline

Premades Must End - 12.15.2006

So, I’ve been grinding in Arathi Basin for the past two days. I have managed about 85 marks of honor and 8-8.5k honor with my mediocre gear and my guilds premade groups. Once, we even managed a 2000 to 0 win in 6 minutes. Here lies the problem. The problem is that if I wasn’t in a premade group for those two days, I would probably be with 40-50 marks and 4k honor - if that. I am lucky to be in a fairly manageable PvP guild, but my friend, who played in PUGs all day won his BG games only a few times. As much as I am happy to have a good premade available whenever I want, I am against premades. This new honor system was made for casuals to get good gear, but it is a flawed system if they still are not able to obtain gear because their PUGs constantly lose to premades. That is just my opinion. What are your thought? E-mail me at worldofblogcraft@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post!!

-Punchline

I Own The Internet - 12.14.2006

It started out as a mere troll post mocking the other threads on “The Burning Crusade Cinematic Premiere”, but mine was the lucky one that blew up. Now, with over 570 posts, my thread is still going. Check it out!! http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=55819940&postId=557749118&sid=1#0

P.S. - Also, don’t forget to watch the new cinematic for the Burning Crusade!!


UPDATE: I believe the thread is now close to a record high. See, threads are usually closed automatically after 500 posts, but when Drysc (a WoW forum CM) saw the thread’s popularity, he decided to re-open it.

-Punchline

The Twelve Days Of Warcraft - 12.10.2006

wOOt!! A post!!

Here is my Warcraft version of “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”…


The Twelve Days Of Warcraft

On the twelfth day of Warcraft, Blizzard gave to me…

Twelve angry murlocs,
Eleven nagas swimming,
Ten priests renewing,
Nine ‘locks-a-sharding,
Eight moonkin dancing,
Seven rogues-a-gankin’,
Six night elves naked,
Five lazy peons…
Four calling nerfs,
Three ranging hunters,
Two exploding sheep,
and a pally in the retribution tree!

I just posted the last verse of the song so you could see all of it. It would be a bit annoying to post the song in its many parts.

-Punchline

Nagas Gave Me Harpies - 11.19.2006

Hey guys. It’s Punchline here. I guess I owe you an explanation as to what’s going on. Well, the Nagas gave me harpies… Just messin’!! Okay, well I have been really busy lately. I’d like to thank Attm for taking care of WoB (World of Blogcraft) for me while I was gone. Also, the reason he hasn’t posted in forever is because he was in the process of moving. As for me, I’ve been working on a new project called ZOMGcast (www.zomgcast.com), which will be a gaming and tech podcast network coming late December. So, that’s about it. I will start posting regularly again within the next few days.

Thanks for understanding my situation.

P.S. - I was asked this question, “So, Punchline, are you back for good now?” My answer, “Yes, I am. Attm will not be posting anymore (unless he wants to). It’s just me again.”

-Punchline

Burning Crusade: January 16th, 2007 - 10.24.2006

Well, it’s true. The Burning Crusade is being “delayed” until the first month of the new year. Eyonix addressed the issue this morning via forum post.

Stated by Eyonix, “IRVINE, Calif. – Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future.”

In my opinion, this is both good and bad. Obviously, I am disappointed because I was looking forward to playing the expansion during the long holiday break in December. But, on the other hand we now have a stable release date (January 16th, 2007), and I doubt we will have to worry about the expansion “not being ready”.

So, what will be happening to WoW from now until January? A new patch of course!! Some confusion floated around the forums earlier, but it is now all cleared up. There WILL be a new content patch before the expansion, but it WILL NOT be 1.13. On the forums, Tseric claimed it would most likely be named 2.0. This patch will include changes to the honor system, new talents, and new abilities. So, this patch is most likely coming in for the people that won’t be getting the expansion, but it’s also there so that people will be able to get acclimated to the new changes before the expansion airs. Wow. That was a lot of typing. =P

-Attm

Burning Crusade Postponed? - 10.23.2006

Hello all!! Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days, I’ve been gone and it’s been a slow week.

I come back with some sad news. Sources say that The Burning Crusade will most likely be postponed until January 2007. Well, you can’t really call it a delay. I mean, Blizzard Entertainment never stated that it would be released around the holiday season. That was just the assumption by the community.

But, anyways… Vivendi’s Danish department stated the following, “no comment, a press release is due for tomorrow”. So, I guess we will be finding everything out tomorrow. Who knows? We might even get a strong hint, if not the actual date as to when the Burning Crusade is being released.

-Attm

65 Million Boars - 10.20.2006

65 Million Boars is a World of Warcraft comedy blog that was started by “Derek” on October 15th, 2006. It’s a great site to go to after a long day at school/work and just have a laugh about your favorite game, WoW. I totally reccomend that you guys check it out. I got a good amount of laughs, and I’m sure you will too.

Link To 65 Million Boars

-Attm

Hallow's End Is Here!! - 10.18.2006

It’s finally here!! I am so excited!!

So, the first thing I did was log in at Ironforge, and then I flew to Southshore right away. I picked up the two quests available. I didn’t have much time, so I just did the Wickerman quest. I flew to Chillwind Camp and scouted out the Wickerman. Then, I went through Silverpine to get back to Southshore. The first thing that I did when I got back was make Southshore my hearth spot (lol, I love Southshore during Hallow’s End so much), then I turned in the quest, got my 15 candies, and started to play around. I’ve only used two candies so far, but I’ve already had fun. The first one gave me an orange glow and made me as tall as a Human (I’m a Gnome), and the second one turned me into one of those skeleton-looking things with armor. So, comment this post on your Hallow’s End adventures so far!!

-Attm

The New "Looking For Group" - 10.16.2006

Blizzard has officially announced the new “looking for group” interface coming with the release of the Burning Crusade. The new system will be accessible by a new button on the action bar next to the “social” button. After choosing “looking for group” or “looking for more”, a new interface comes up with a dropdown menu that includes:

1. Selecting Dungeon
2. Selecting Raid
3. Selecting Quest
4. Selecting Zone
5. Selecting Battleground

To find more information regarding the new interface, check out Blizzards actual description at this link.

-Attm

Hallow's End - 10.15.2006

Hey everyone!! This is my first post for this blog, so be nice. :p

So, I thought I’d point out that Hallow’s End is beginning really soon. October 18th, to be exact. Personally, I can’t wait because not only is Halloween my favorite holiday in real life, but Hallow’s End is my favorite holiday in WoW. I just love the “spooky” atmosphere and the cool “treats”. The following is directly from the WoW site…

“When the decorations of Hallow’s End light up Azeroth’s cities, you know there’s mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken’s Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs — are you up to the challenge?”

Reading that makes me SO excited! Only 3 days until the event begins! wOOt!!

P.S. - To get you even more excited, check out some screenshots from Hallow’s End here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/imageviewer.html?/community/,images/ingameevents/ongoing/hallowsend/,1,9,http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/ingameevents.html

-Attm

Just Who Plays WoW? - 10.15.2006

An interesting post was brought up today on the WoW forums by Sekhmett from Spirestone.

Sekhmett writes,
“Today I started thinking… who plays Warcraft? Do doctor’s play wow? Do teachers? What’s the age range? I’ve seen kids in like junior high to people who are old enough to be my mother. I’ve heard people say that it is mostly men… and yet there are so many (supposedly) female players.I’m a 25 year old mom who works as a security coordinator for a biotech firm.”

This really got me thinking. So, I jumped a bit around the thread. It was very interesting. Check it out at this link . Also, you can comment this post with “who you are”!!

-Punchline

The Burning Crusade Beta - 10.14.2006

Well, with the Burning Crusade most likely right around the corner (rumors state November 28th), it is obviously currently in the beta phase. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an invite to participate in the beta, but I know many people that did. So, did you? Please comment this post saying you did (along with some fun encounters you’ve had), or you can rant with me about not getting an invite!!

-Punchline

Pros and Cons of the Burning Crusade - 10.13.2006

So, I was trolling the forums as usual, and I found a very interesting thread by Carcass from the Garithos realm. Carcass was invited to the Burning Crusade BETA (unlike me), and since the NDA was lifted, he would like to share a few points about the expansion. He wrote out a nice list of some “pros and cons” of the Burning Crusade.

Carcass writes,
“Pros:
- The Dark Portal is as cool as you thought it would be!!- The Outland is huge, plenty of area to explore.- There is plenty of content, lots of quests.- The story is robust(you will see massive corpses of ‘famous’ lore)- The mobs are very challenging.- Each zone in the Outlands has some type of world PvP objective.- Each new race has many subtle little things that make it cool. (Blood Elves have self sweeping brooms that just wander around cleaning the floors)- Blood Elf racials a mana drain and a silence(well explore this more later)- Loot is plentiful, sockets provide vast flexiblity- Arena has massive potential(need more people in beta since there wasn’t much going on right now)

Cons:
- The flying mounts that are 150% speed are 5000g.- The mob models are basically the same as the rest of WoW’s models with new ’skin textures’.- Lvl 60 basic mobs are difficult, feels like there needs to be balance here.- Sockets are overwhelming. To some that like it simple, these sockets become to much.- Loot is unbalanced. GREENs are better then some of today’s instance EPICS. Example - Lvl 57 GREEN boots that had +19 spell damage AND healing, +19 int, AND + 14 Crit rating(no more Crit %) and the loot dropped off of a basic mob. There were blues linked in our beta guild that were better then Tier 2 Epic loot.- The Mage Water Elemental talent is a big disappointment. It looks basic and doesn’t lat long enough to be of any real help(45 sec)- Mage Invisibility is to short to be really useful- I have this ‘fear’ that once I’ve explored all of the Outland, which will be by the end of this weekend, I’ll be saying ‘that is not enough for me to continue on’. Which leads me into…- It feels like the same grind, better gear, more sockets, more ‘i’m better then you’. Now for some that just want content and care less about better then you, it will last for 2 months and you’ll be done. For those that are gear crazy, it will be endless because of sockets.”

Now, I personally think this list is awesome. It gives a lot of information out to those many unfortunate people who weren’t invited to participate in the Burning Crusade BETA. Thanks Carcass!!

-Punchline

An [Epic] Beginning - 10.13.2006

World of Blogcraft. It was just one of my many ideas, but one of the few ideas of mine to become something. World of Blogcraft will be bringing you breaking news from the world of Azeroth - Fast! When I say fast, I mean it. The minute any news, big or small, is released (or leaked, knowing Blizzard), we’ll be right on top of it. So bookmark this blog and stay tuned because you’ll be getting the first bit of WoW news really soon!!

P.S. - I just noticed that it’s Friday the 13th. Hehe…

P.P.S. - Please send all comments, questions, or feedback to worldofblogcraft@gmail.com . Thanks!!

-Punchline