This post will be updated in a few hours with the remaining news for today, the season 3 gear rating requirements in season 4 are definitely a good reason to post early.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Over at the World of Warcraft forums, gamer Freakitiki raised the issue of buffs while playing on the tournament test realm. Apparently, once a mage spell-steals a buff, it can't be purged anymore.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

The Gnomes are revolting on the official forums! Also, some of them are mad. Lead by Gnomium of the Aggramar server, they are demanding that they be included in the opening cinematic for WoTLK. It is certainly true that they haven't really had their chance in the sun for the past 2 major cinematics, although to be fair, the Trolls didn't get much more than a quick flash across the screen. Still, I can get behind this, and not just because I like my ankles non-bitten. Give them some Gnomish love, eh Blizzard? Maybe even let one use an engineering trinket without backfiring! Or, you know, just give us a tableau of Lake Wintergrasp with Gnomes being loaded into catapults and flung at the advancing Horde, either way.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

While raid parties in World of Warcraft tend to bring a guild closer together by going through the thick and thin of killing high end bosses, this particular scene of the Kudzu guild "in action" goes above and beyond the call of duty.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

I've been leveling a few Draenei alts off and on and finally figured out just why it is that I keep rolling the damn things in addition to my beloved Tauren; their starting quests rock. You wake from stasis, meet the locals, save a princess, make early ties to the Alliance and find out why there's a good reason the some of 'em won't trust you right off the bat, discover nefarious deeds afoot, fight a dragon, and then save your people and get a cool tabard. "Find your way back to the Outland, Hero of Argus," Exarch Admetius tells you, in a nice preview of things to come, and Velen has a good lore moment with you shortly afterwards.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman. He's recently started to plumb the depths of SSC with his 0/21/40 build and bragging about 8k shadow bolts.

The internet is a beautiful thing. It gives everybody a voice and an easily accessible goldmine of human ingenuity and intelligence. (It is also a repository of human scum and stupidity, but we're not going there today.) As a warlock player, there are TONS of resources out there that you can use to improve your game. Unfortunately many of these resources are scattered far and wide - and it takes a certain deftness with search engines to separate the wheat from the chaff, or simply to find what fits your playstyle.

[Expand 17 Paragraphs]

When I first decided to roll a Paladin, I had no interest in healing or tanking. I rolled one back in the days before Burning Crusade, back in the heyday of the Reck Bomb. The idea of having what seemed essentially like a Warrior who had access to spells and could self-heal was extremely enticing. I've also had a fascination with the Paladin ever since I played Final Fantasy IV (released here in the States as Final Fantasy II). I've had a Paladin in every game I ever played where it was possible to have one.

I used paladins to great effect when I played Warcraft 2, and as anyone who's ever played Warcraft 3 can tell you, paladins were central to the story (Arthas Menethil, better known these days as The Lich King, started out as a Paladin of the Silver Hand under Uther the Lightbringer, the original Paladin). Oddly enough, when I started playing WoW back in June of 2005, my first character wasn't a Paladin (I rolled Horde, and thus couldn't). However, as soon as I started playing as Alliance on a different server, I created one immediately.

[Expand 1 Paragraphs]

Community Manager Thundgot has announced that Blizzard Europe will be offering free character migration from March 19 to 25. Players from the highest populated PvP realms can now transfer to the lowest ones in World of Warcraft.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Machinimaker Baron Soosdon (you've seen his work here multiple times before) has been hired as a community manager over at Machinima.com. His first order of business as a CM seems to be to create some exclusive movies, "a series of some sort for starters." He'll also apparently be handling other WoW-related machinima content, and he asks for ideas about contests as well, so we can probably look for those, too.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Thundgot, the undead European CM, announced today that there are a few free character transfers amongst realms that will be starting today, and go through March 25th.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

There is a mechanic in game that we are all aware of, and one that exists for a good reason: when we attack a mob, we get the mob's loot. That's the mechanic. If you're solo grinding mobs out in Shadowmoon Valley for some Primal Fire, you want to be sure you're the only one that can get the loot. The same goes for groups – if you're grouping and killing Murmur in Shadow Labs, you want to be sure that everyone is going to get his pretty blues.

But what if the mechanics of the boss fight dictate that you won't hit the boss? In fact, what if successfully killing the boss means that you have to stand on the opposite end of the playing field the whole time? You don't hit the boss, you don't get the loot – but you've done everything right. In this, the game mechanic does not represent fair play, nor does it encourage success. In fact, the mechanics are a complete contradiction of each other.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

If you've been playing Blizzard's World of Warcraft for some time now, you may have noticed that the Community Managers don't really give out a lot of definitive information regarding the game's patches while it is under development.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]

We haven't seen much inside the doors of Blizzard HQ, but just recently they've apparently started letting the press in -- first we had that OC Register look on the inside, and now this, a little video shoot inside Blizzard's on-campus museum. And sure, the museum is cool and all (it's got all the licensed material, concept art from all the games, and even a copy of Starcraft that actually went into space), but am I the only one that would kind of rather see the Warcraft-themed cafeteria and the employee gym. I've already seen the Warcraft board game -- bring on the places that we can't go!

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Here's some fun news for our TCG players. Upper Deck reveals a new March of the Legion Tour coming to various North American hobby stores this month. WoW TCG team members will be coming to the stores and playing against all comers at sealed deck tournaments at each stop. Anyone who beats one of these "Legionnaires" will win a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt. Everyone who stops by will get Weeble extended art card (I approve of cute Gnome Warrior chicks, but how is she a protector if she's dual wielding? Learn to use a shield, newb).

It sounds like the events should be fun. I'm actually liking the Varimathras card, if only because he's one of my favorite shady characters in WoW lore thus far, and I cannot wait for the day that he assassinates the Dark Lady and uses his loyal pawns, the Deathstalkers and Defilers, to take over the Undercity and rule with an iron fist as the new supreme ruler of Lordaeron. But I digress. Anyway, it look like it should be a good time for all you TCG fans.

[View Remaining 4 Paragraphs]

If you're looking for your next parody fix, the wait is over. The first installment of MMOvie is finally out. However, if you've seen the trailer, I don't think you'll be as impressed by the movie itself.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

A multitude of concerned players have been airing their concern in the World of Warcraft forums. The reason behind this is that they encountered an issue regarding their game versions. It seems that it can't be properly validated.

Given this situation, many created threads in order for Blizzard to address this specific concern. There were a lot of threads in the forums that were posted. In fact, even Blizzard QA Hortus joined  the bandwagon and made his own thread regarding this.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Veronica Belmont of Mahalo Daily had the opportunity to interview Felicia Day (Codex, the healer) and Sandeep Parikh (ZABOO, the warlock) of The Guild at SXSW. The interviewer gives the viewer a picture of how the guild got started and where it will going from here. Sandeep/ZABOO gives us a brief lesson in the true meaning of an online winkie. ;) Take a look at The Guild Drama so far: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6; Episode 7; and a very Guild Christmas. If you like what you see, remember that today is the last day to vote for The Guild on the 2007 YouTube Awards.

Kitara of the Kudzu guild on Underbog has a great story behind this campfire shot:

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Patch 2.4 official webpage: Fury of the Sunwell



[Expand 4 Paragraphs]

Patch 2.4 and Sunwell Plateau official Webpage : Fury of the Sunwell
The official site has been updated with a page dedicated to Patch 2.4 : Fury of the Sunwell here you will find a small writeup about the major features of the patch and a much bigger one about the Sunwell Plateau lore. There is also a new trailer for the Sunwell Plateau instance and a new wallpaper featuring Kael'thas and Kil'jaeden.

• Sunwell Plateau
  
• Sunwell Isle
  
• New Daily Quests
  
• Global Arena Tournament
  
• UI Improvements
  
  

Sunwell Plateau Lore
Quote from: Blizzard (Source)For millennia the mystical pool of energy known as the Sunwell fueled the potent magic of the exiled high elves. The Sunwell's inexhaustible power permeated the elves and infused them with a constant supply of arcane energy. For generations the high elves protected and cherished the well, benefiting from its powers even when outside the borders of their homeland, Quel'Thalas. Although the elves sustained heavy losses in the Troll Wars and the Second War against the Horde, the Sunwell remained secure... until the coming of the Scourge. Without warning the death knight Arthas, a mighty servant of the Lich King, led his undead armies in a merciless attack upon the elven kingdom.

[View Remaining 4 Paragraphs]

It seems that not all operating systems are fully compatible when downloading patches from World of Warcraft. Bambe from the Silver Hand realm posted that he had problems with patching up his client using the Vista OS.

Thankfully Blizzard Technical Support Daath was there to help Bambe out. He said that running the parent program as administrator would it would be passed on to anything that runs under it. To run it for the PTR, the launcher must be run as an administrator and then clicking on Public Test.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Patch 2.4 draws closer every day. Many players were speculating that it was going to be released yesterday (March 18, 2008). Blizzard has promised that the patch is coming soon and the background downloader has appeared. My best guest is that we'll be visiting Sunwell Isle on March 25, 2008.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Welcome once again to Reader WoWspace of the Week! Now I know a lot of people like 'em messy, but as some have noted, we just don't get too many messy ones. It seems like we generally only get them when they're clean. (Of course, you have to wonder if we couldn't market WoWspace participation as an effective office organization tool!) This one comes to us from Aryc Ogre, who didn't send in his character name, server or anything, but his case makes us wonder if he isn't the prot Paladin from this recent Penny Arcade comic. For his story and lots more pictures, be sure to join me after the break!

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]

 

World of Warcraft fans will have some more action figure eye-candy coming their way, once Blizzard and DC Unlimited launches the third series of the World of Warcraft action figures! That's right, we're going to have more WoW love in the form of more exquisitely-crafted action figures. Check out what's included in the third set:

• Blood Elf Paladin: Quin thalan Sunfire 8.5 h
• Dranei Mage: Tamuura 9.5 h
• Undead Rogue: Skeeve Sorrowblade 6.5 h
• Human Priestess: Sister Benedron 7 h


[View Remaining 1 Lists]

Yes, we know the headline is spelled wrong -- that's the joke. (So feel free to make fun of anyone who points out the misspelling in the comments; they're fair game.) In the meantime, the more "rediculous" the guild names, the better for us. Why would you want to name your guild Sentinels of Azeroth when you could name it something like Dont Be That Guy?

In the meantime, click the link below to see all the drama, downed, and recruiting news we got from across the realms this week. And don't forget to send your tips (especially drama -- let us know if you see anything either on your realm's forums or on your guild's forums) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Because not sending your tips to Guildwatch is pretty rediculous, if you ask us.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

 

Now here's something that you don't always see in Azeroth: check out the Mini Chicken of Death, spotted clucking around Toshley's Station. Before you get alarmed, don't: it's actually an unknown player who got the short straw as the transporter malfunctioned, giving it a debuff that probably turned the hapless character into a black chicken.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]