The Second WotLK Leak(?) - 4.22.2008

There isn't a whole lot to say about the following video. It pretty much speaks for itself. However, we could lay down some speculation.

The first thing I thought of was the possibility that, in order to summon Arthas to kill him, a raid must return the Frostmourne to him. There's a bunch of lore stuff involved there though and I'm not going to get into it.

The second thing I thought of was that maybe this video is showing someone becoming the Death Knight class. I could see it. Roll a character, watch a small gameplay cinematic, and then appear at the Frozen Throne ready to touch the Frostmourne and become a Death Knight.

The third thing I thought was that this could just be a bunch of bullcrap that was filmed on a private server.

Whatever the video was about, it was weird. Very, very cool, but weird. The title of this post included a question mark because I can't confirm as to whether this is an actual leak or not. I honestly don't know what it is... >.>

WoW Epee of lich king
Uploaded by yersi

I also wanted to post the following video. I don't think that it's necessarily new, but it shows some cool WotLK content. The video is of a rogue running through Utgarde, the first 5-man dungeon in WotLK. It was taken at GenCon 2007.



-Matt Graham

The First WotLK Leak - 4.20.2008

ALL PICTURES MAY BE VIEWED THROUGH THIS HYPERLINK TO FLICKR!

So, the first real WotLK leak has been released via MMO-Champion forums. The leak contains various screenshots. (Please note: The "leaked" hairstyle and map screenshots in the hyperlinked thread have been deemed fake.)

The screenshot descriptions are for "WotLK Leak 1" through "WotLK Leak 9".

WotLK Leak 1 The first screenshot shows our brave Tauren Leaker fighting an epic... wolf? Okay Blizzard, when is this gunna end? A heroic looking Tauren like that should NOT be fighting wolves so he can bring their intestines back to some Orc trying to make stew. However, the environment does look really nice. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it'll be enough to distract me when I'm busy gutting wolves for about the fourteenth time.

WotLK Leak 2 The second screenshot, in all it's glaring glory, gives me much more hope towards the environments. The environments in WotLK are somethings that I really want to see well developed. I remember how Northrend was one of my favorite areas in Warcraft III just because of the land itself. The architecture as well is lookin' very nice in this shot.

WotLK Leak 3 I love this third screenshot. It just seems like a really refreshing change in the usually lay-of-the-land and architecture. This is most likely one of the first few cities in one of the two new zones. Imagine it as the Honor Hold, or in this case, the Thrallmar of Wrath of the Lich King.

WotLK Leak 4 A little better quality for the fourth picture in the leak. This shot shows some cool sky effects that it looks like Blizzard learned from in Burning Crusade. However, these effects seem lower to the ground making it feel more alive and interactive. It think that's a very large step in the right direction. I just can't get over how much I love the feel of the zone in this picture. That small thing in the mid-left of the shot looks somewhat like a Moonkin, but I could be wrong and I hope to God I am. Hell, it might not even be a mob!

WotLK Leak 5 More mobs that we've seen time and time again... Lovely. It's a good thing that those trees look so amazing, but this still doesn't look too good. Replace those trees with some snowy trees from the current WoW in there and you'd think this is Dun Morogh or Alterac Valley.

WotLK Leak 6 Screenshot number six is a picture of our Tauren adventurer accepting a quest. Nothing big, really. If only we could read the quest text...

WotLK Leak 7 I like shot number seven. It shows some more interesting mobs than we saw previously. They aren't amazingly awesome and I don't know what the hell they are, but there are better than what we've seen.

WotLK Leak 8 Ingvar the Plunderer. He's a boss in the Vrykul instance, Utgarde Catacombs. He's a level 72 elite, so I don't imagine that he'll be too difficult. I wish we could have seen his loot. :(

WotLK Leak 9 And the last picture just shows a Gnome discovering Utgarde Keep. Nothing monumental.

That's it for now. It's too bad that the "screenshots" were in such poor quality. Whoever took them had to use their camera to do so because apparently Blizzard watches every button you push in Alpha and completely disables the ability to take screenshots.

So, that's the first WotLK leak and it came on 4/20. Could it actually be fake? Maybe we're all just too high to tell...

UPDATE: A Death Knight and Login Screen leak have now been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 2: Two new talents/abilities for Shamans (possibly fake) and Warriors have been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 3: You can now Digg this article!

-Matt Graham

The Race Is On - 4.16.2008

So, this past week has seen an epic battle take place over which PvE Guilds could be the first few to kill the Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateau - the latest boss fight to be unleashed from behind their protective gate.

Expectations were high, dedication was higher, but not to any particular amount of surprise from the community, Nihilum went in and claimed their World 1st on the day after the gate opened, with SK-Gaming a few hours behind with the World 2nd.

Again, European Guilds swoop in and steal kills from underneath US noses, a topic much discussed and argued about on the Nihilum forum.

Leaving the drama aside and just looking at the fight statistics, only 33 Guilds worldwide managed to down the Eredar Twins this reset - quite a low number. I can say from personal experience that a big congratulations must go out to all of them - this fight is very tough.

What annoyed me in some ways were the amount of videos popping up incredibly quickly of the fight, especially SK-Gaming who released theirs not 3 days after the gate was open. Is it really necessary to release kill movies that soon and generally spoil the encounter for the masses? I suppose it could be argued that if people don't want to spoil it for themselves they shouldn't watch the movie, but there's always a level of competition that will persuade many into getting as much information as possible.

It will be another interesting race for M'uru, who we expect to be released next reset. Will the kill order be the same? Certainly Nihilum and SK-Gaming are looking strong for World 1st and 2nd positions.

In other news, most realms now are enjoying the fruits of their daily grinds with the Badge of Justice Vendor that has opened up business on the Isle of Quel'Danas. In many cases the items that can be obtained from this vendor easily outmatch Tier 5 equivalents - so get grinding for those badges, people! I myself purchased a rather nifty ring which I am pleased with, and my alts are now looking quite ready to raid some Tier 6 instances - rawr!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

New Posts Coming! - 4.13.2008

Hey guys! Sorry about not posting anything for a while, but both Joe and I have been really busy! I'll be posting more very soon! :)

P.S. - Just a few minutes ago, I noticed that Blogcraft received a pretty good spike of hits. I don't really know where these are coming from, but if anyone knows, please comment this post because I'd like to thank whoever may have linked Blogcraft!

-Matt Graham

BlizzCon 2008 - 4.1.2008

Ah, BlizzCon... Two days of pure fun and joy for gamers - especially for WoW fans/players. So far, every BlizzCon has come with a lot of new information regarding WoW expansions.

In October of 2005, we were told of the first WoW expansion, the Burning Crusade. Blizzard had already made so much progress on the game, that at the convention, people were able to demo the Blood Elf starting area. However, it somehow took them another year and then some to release the damn game.

In 2007, Blizzard announced Wrath of the Lich King, the upcoming second expansion to Azeroth. Convention attendees were able to demo Blizzard's upcoming RTS, Starcraft II. For us at home, we were graced by the frustrating streaming of the convention. I mean, seriously, why would you stream video of an empty room instead of going to the panel discussions?! Also, why would you cut to the lame arena fights during the few times that we were able to actually view the damn panels?! *Takes a deep breath.* Anyways...

BlizzCon 2008. It's been a question as to if it will be happening or not ever since the doors to BlizzCon 2007 closed and I will leave you with information making you question it no longer.

BlizzCon 2008 will take place on October 10th and 11th, 2008.

What can we expect there? Well, the WWI in Paris, France is coming up soon. I assume that at that event Blizzard will announce information regarding their "Team 3 Project". So, what does this have to do with BlizzCon 2008? Well, if my above assumption is true, I'd then guess that BlizzCon 2008 will be almost solely focused on that game and WotLK. I believe that Starcraft II will be out before October comes and WotLK will almost be ready to go after we find out the last bit of new information that Blizzard will announce to us about the expansion at BlizzCon 2008.

Hopefully I'll be going this year. It's almost not even that I want to go just because I've always wanted to and that I love Blizzard games, but I wanna go because if I ever watch streaming video like I did for the last BlizzCon again, I can't be responsible for how I'll physically interact with other people (including myself).

-Matt Graham

The Best and Worst April Fools Joke. Ever. - 4.1.2008

If I may, I'd like to break away from all the WoW-ness for a second.

Until today, I would never have known that both the best and the worst April Fools joke ever would be, well, the same joke.

Today, IGN posted a fake movie trailer for "The Legend of Zelda" movie. Zelda fans like myself know that it has been stated that there will never be a Zelda movie because Nintendo simply doesn't want it to happen, so it's obviously a joke. Now, how is it the best and worst joke at the same time? Well, it's the best because I've never seen anything quite like it, production-wise, to end up simply as a joke that will be forgotten and never brought up unless it happens to be around April 1st. It's the worst because IGN is a bunch of pricks who have officially made me hate them for making me a sad panda, knowing that I'll never be able to see this movie.

Damn you, IGN!

-Matt Graham

April 1st Came 23 Minutes Early in Europe - 3.31.2008

At 11:37 PM on March 31st, somewhere in Europe (Sweden?), Kungen made a post on the official Nihilum website that the guild will be breaking up and that most of the members will be quitting.

"If you think you’re freaking hilarious (you’re not) and are thinking TOO LONG DIDN’T READ, let me sum it up for you. Nihilum is finished and most of us have quit. Bye.

It’s been a 3 year roller coaster ride. We have enjoyed ourselves, sometimes. But all good things must come to an end and all that. I think we have reached a point where enough is enough. There is only so much your face can take after repeatedly smashing it against a wall. It seems like we are fighting a multi-million dollar company whose sole purpose is to destroy every last bit of fun hardcore guilds can have. We’re a bunch of fishies swimming against the current. A rare breed of little fishies that don’t want everything given to them on a plate and are happy when they accomplish something that is a challenge.

It all really comes down to the state of the PVE game at the moment. It’s something that totally contradicts our reason for existence. We always try to use every single advantage given to us. And thus we are forced to “test” PTR content just to stay ahead or keep on par with other guilds. This is ridiculous, we should not be testing anything, an internal testing team should. Oh how incredibly awesome it would be to zone into and new instance and not have a CLUE what bosses exist, or what tactics to use to kill them, or what gear will drop.

I think the Sunwell gate “idea” was the final blow. Why bother trying to compete for world firsts if the leading guild has to twiddle their thumbs waiting for the next stage to be open, watching everyone and his mother catch up. Why bother race to the finish line when it’s only Kil’jaeden that matters? It’s like a four hundred meter race where everyone has to stop and wait for the last guy every hundred meters. It’s unreasonable, and makes me not want to bother. And when everyone in the guild has that mentality, it collapses.

“Make some positive suggestions instead of whining blah blah”
We are not the company with infinite resources and the best creative and design team gaming has to offer, we don’t need to come up with anything, we are useless bums living in our parents basements remember?

So what will happen to Nihilum?
Some of us will go, some of us will stay and play the casual game it’s become. But eventually you will see us make a comeback in a new game. Thanks to the fans. We pretended those level 1 whispers didn’t matter. But they made our days! We screenshotted every one, every single one! And we look at our screenshot folder on lonely days to cheer us up. Thanks to the sponsors that believed in us. We had such big plans coming for the website and the community...a pity really :(.
Goodbye cruel world...

...of Warcraft.
P.S “Activision Blizzard” doesn’t make sense."

April Fools, everyone!

No, but seriously, I don't care if this post was "technically made on the 31st of March". Blizzard did the same thing with the Wisp's joke in 2006. It's a joke, people! There is NO WAY that Nihilum will be leaving WoW - at least not right now. There is still too much for them to do between the Sunwell and WotLK. Besides, Nihilum leaving WoW and going to a different game would be like Jim Carrey leaving the comedy genre and doing dramas. It just wouldn't happen and if it did it'd be a complete disaster. Oh, wait...

Even if I'm completely retarded and they actually are "breaking up", my guess is that another incarnation of the guild will appear with some of the old members.

-Matt Graham

Busting Down Kil'Jaeden's Door - 3.29.2008

Hawt diggedy dawg, we have a new patch! Writhe in irrevocable joy fellow WoW players; for new content is upon us! Servers are bustling to complete the endless stream of dailies to unlock the new features of Quel'Danas - I found a rather nifty progress page for Europeans (looks like there's an American version as well, fear not) and it all feels rather AQ gateish. Pardon my involuntary transformation of 'gate' into an adjective, but it sounds good dagnabbit!

Anyway, raiders have been bustling to kill bosses in the new 25 man instance, Sunwell Plateau. I can say from my own experience that the boss fights are very challenging and a welcoming breath of fresh air from Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. Oh wait, I mean Mount Badgel and Badge Temple - for the badges are also upon us! Everywhere you look mobs are dropping Badges of Justice like there's no tomorrow. I found one in my daily quest reward today as well, staring back at me like some grotesque blue child molester. These things are everywhere....

I'm wandering off the point somewhat, apologies. Heading back to the Sunwell, we can see a number of guilds have already half cleared the place; notably SK-Gaming, also known as Meet Your Makers, formerly known as Curse. If these guys sell out any more we're gonna have a hard time keeping track of them. Anyways, they managed to down the third boss within 5 hours of Sunwell being open. This doesn't mean the instance is easy, nor does it mean SK-Gaming is a bunch of spectacularly accomplished individuals who we should all offer to wash their cars with our testicles; it is worth noting that this guild also killed the first 3 bosses on the PTRs, so the boss fights weren't exactly new to them. However it is still a great achievement, so congratulations to them. With the gate openings now normalised across all servers the real test of prowess will surely be Kil'Jaeden himself, who no-one outside of Blizzard has tested. The first guild to down him will have proven themselves particularly skilled.

If anyone wants an actual accurate list of who's killed what when in EU and US, SK-Gaming's list is by far the most accurate list to date; various other sites are not reliable at the current time.

I would also like to point out at this time, with a certain air of snobbery and foolish pride, that EU guilds have consistently beaten US guilds to the kills even though you Yanks had the headstart. Both SK-Gaming and Inner Sanctum cleared the instance on the first day they had it available to raid, whilst US guilds dawdled, possibly searching for the mystical Ben & Jerry's Melted Fried Mars Bar ice cream that was rumoured to be hiding within the depths of the Sunwell, mmmm... Actually I think I'd dawdle if that ice cream came into view, sounds digustingly delicious.

But enough of my patriotism or Europeatism (today truly is a good day to be making up words). I do hope you are all enjoying the new features of the patch, and scurrying about like little beavers to complete the phases and open up that armory because I want my Epic Gems! Ya know? :)

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

Ding, 70! - 3.25.2008

So, I finally hit level 70 on my original character, Punchline the Gnome Rogue.

The night the Burning Crusade released, I drove home as fast as I could (maybe a little too fast) and threw the disks into my drive. As I had it installing, I planned exactly what I was going to do to achieve level 70 as fast as possible. Well, it didn't go exactly as planned...

I got to level 62 that very night by running instances at the Hellfire Citadel. It was so great! Everything was so new and there wasn't one single person on the server that was max level yet - everyone had an equal chance to become great players again! New environments, new items, new quests, new mobs (well, new skins of old mobs), etc.! It was so fun! And then, I visited Zangarmarsh...

I cannot even begin to explain how much I hate that zone. I don't know what it is because the quests aren't really that different there from the other zones, but I just can't stand it there. I thought that I would just truck through it, but that didn't exactly happen...

I'm what you could call an "altoholic". I'm constantly rolling up new characters. However, I didn't expect that I would quit Punchline for an alt so close to level 70. But, it just so happened that I hated Zangarmarsh so much that I decided to quit Punchline forever at level 64 and reroll. Besides, I hated rogues! Before recently, I honestly never completely understood the class. I always played it incorrectly.

An Orc Hunter. That's what I rerolled as. It was almost refreshing to play through Azeroth yet again because this time it was on the Horde side - the faction that I never played past level 36. It was fun, I really like my hunter. It kinda sucked though, because Punchline is on a PvP server (Korgath), I had to roll my hunter on a completely new server. He was originally on Vashj (PvP), but I later transferred him to Lothar (PvE) to be with friends. The hunter hit 60 two days after the patch with the higher rate of experience gain from level 20-60 came out, so that kinda sucked. It took about 8 days play time to get to 60, so I'm pretty proud of that.

I decided to take a little week long break from WoW after I hit 60 on the hunter. Right when I was about to start playing again, I was told that all my friends had quit WoW. So, now I was a level 60 Orc Hunter on a server that I no longer had friends on and was strange to me. I haven't touched that character since the day my friends told that they had quit...

I decided to give rogues another try. I logged on Punchline and quested in Zangarmarsh for about 10 minutes before I logged off. My friend told me to just skip Zangarmarsh because it wasn't as necessary as I thought it was. So, I went onto Nagrand. It was a little tough for a level 64, but nothing too bad. Some time later I hit level 68.

I no longer hated rogues; however, I did hate Outland and leveling. Those last two levels are tough. But, my friend wanted me to hit 70 so bad that he provided me the incentive that I needed. He was going away for a week and he said that if I hit 70 before he came back, he'd buy my flying mount for me. Done.

Five days later, last night, I hit 70 with a group in Shattered Halls. It didn't feel quite as epic as when I hit 60 back in the day, but it felt pretty damn good.

Now, I can be an altoholic but know that I was still able to manage one character to 70. However, I foresee problems with Wrath of the Lich King...

P.S. - I'd like to thank Wideload, Breticus, Lid, and Redstarquad for that great Shattered Halls group last night. Thanks!

-Matt Graham

New PTR Builds - 3.8.2008

Over the past couple of weeks, Blizzard has introduced several new builds onto the patch 2.4 PTR: from new Badge of Justice loots to Lifetap changes (and back again). Many new and somewhat enterprising elements have been added to gameplay all in an effort to get feedback on what the playerbase is wanting.

Some of these changes have been good, some have been bad, depending on your perspective and why you play the game. For me personally, as a PvE raider, the new Sunwell content has been most refreshing and a clear challenge, and similarly the updates to professions such as the new Defense Enchants, the superb new Alchemists Stones (an update long required), and the vast quantity of new Jewelcrafting recipes are making the upcoming patch look like a ray of sunshine in the abysmal dark cloud of re-clearing farm content week after week.

For the PvPers as well, there have been substantial tweaks - the introduction of the Test Tournament Realm (TTR) for starters is a great way for Arena teams to test their potential by choosing whatever gear they desire, along with of course the Season 4 gear previews; all of which is looking pretty tasty.

One thing that really made me feel like Blizzard actually give a rat's arse about balance in arena matches was the post by Kalgan showing the percentages of classes at certain ratings. Clearly Blizzard is at least aware of what's happening and measures have been taken/will be taken to correct it - part of the general rampage for E-Sport acceptance I presume.

On the downside it looks like there is still extensive testing to go. The final boss in Sunwell has yet to be encountered, and the PTR notes are changing, if not daily then fairly frequently, so it's bound to be at least another 2 weeks before this thing hits Live Realms.

But to be honest, I'm much happier seeing things are being tested and tweaked than sitting around on my 2nd or 3rd alt running Steamvaults for the umpteenth time for some damn gem which they've now nerfed anyway. Oh well... :D

-Joe Zara [Phoee]