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Widespread server problems tonight [Updated]
We've been getting numerous reports of widespread server outages tonight, apparently mainly focused on the Northrend area.[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]
Scattered Shots is your weekly guide to improving your Hunter skills, brought to you by Jessica "Lassirra" Klein of The Hunter's Mark, covering a variety of Huntery topics. Today, we'll be looking at talent builds for your pets as you level.
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Stay tuned for any changes in the build!
Achievement ChangesDungeons and Raids
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Mania's got an excellent, if longer-than-usual post up about an issue I'm dealing with as well: the need to play, but confusion about just what to do in the game. I've pretty much done everything I want to do on my Hunter -- after a very lucky night the other week, I'm decked out in all the gear I want, I've topped off my professions, and while I do have some reps to grind out yet (I still want a few rep mounts), most everything I want just depends on dailies, and those I can finish in just a few minutes a day. But just like Mania I've still got that itch to play, to explore and advance and progress, with nowhere to go.[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]
For several weeks now we’ve been tracking the prices of Cobalt bars and ore and Saronite bars and ore and dropping these numbers into our spreadsheets. Aside from a slight deflationary movement that we’ve seen with similar items previously, there is really nothing remarkable about these minerals from an economic perspective. Well, maybe one thing: Despite the lower-level availability of Cobalt, Saronite remains the more inexpensive of the two on all three test servers. So that got us wondering, if Cobalt is more readily available, why does it cost more than Saronite?
Our first inclination is that Saronite might be the lesser ore as it is rumored to have been cursed by one of the Old Gods who is believed to have the power to drive men mad. However, being analysts and not mythologists we decided to delve further. We started our research at the end of the supply chain and compared demand for the two metals. Is Cobalt in more demand than Saronite? Put another way, are there more in-game uses for Cobalt than Saronite? WoWhead shows us this is not the case:
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A new build has been deployed on test realms, stay tuned for more changes.
Talent Calculator
The talent calculator has been updated to the latest build.
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Here's an update, albeit slightly unexpected, from The Escapist's big "March Mayhem" tournament that we reported on a little while ago. They were pitting Relic Entertainment up against Activision-Blizzard in a developer vote-down, and apparently, after a tie and a little ballot box stuffing, Relic, not Blizzard, has emerged out on top. Quite an upset in a number of ways -- Relic was seeded #12 in the bracket, and Activision-Blizzard was seeded as number one (the bracket also included Harmonix, Infinity Ward, and another big MMO developer, Mythic). In fact, Relic also went on to beat Harmonix, and is now facing Bioware for a spot in the final matchup.[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.
Got adds? This week's Two Bosses Enter has minions a-plenty. Welcome to the ring Ichoron of Violet Hold and Ionar of the Halls of Lightning – and all their summoned minions.
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Okay, when we last left off with the talents and abilities shamans leveling from 70 to 80 will experience, we didn't cover the new spells shamans get: Lava Burst and Hex.
These two spells helped build the new foundation for shamans going forward in Wrath. Lava Burst helped change the way Elemental works (by being able to change the way the class procs its clearcasting and other on critical abilities) and Hex was (and can be argued still is) the long-await Shaman CC ability. We discussed shamans in PvP last week in the upcoming patch 3.1, and I think it's safe to say that both of these abilities (especially Lava Burst) helped prod the class into its new directions, along with the enhancement specific Maelstrom Weapon.
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One of the most interesting things we heard from Jeff Kaplan last week (besides that he agrees the Green Hills quest sucks; won't do that one again) was that quest designers are given only 511 characters (not words) to put their quest text in.[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]
April Fools.
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
Good afternoon, everybody! I apologize for missing yesterday's edition of The Queue, I sort of forgot about it in my rush to get our April Fool's joke pieced together. The entire team got together to bring that little joke to life. Getting it all put together was like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Fun, but it took awhile! Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. If not, oh well! We had a good time bringing it to life.
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FileFront announced its closure last week, and the gaming community mourned its loss. Mourn no more, however! The original owners of FileFront have reacquired it from Ziff Davis Media, and it will be reopening once more. The notice regarding the reopening states very clearly that this is not an April Fool's joke, nor was the original closure. The timing is suspect, but this absolutely was going to happen without their intervention.[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]
The likely reason for the delay is that patch 3.1 won't be ready in time, or at least that Blizzard isn't sure it will be - it would have to ship next Tuesday, April 7, to make it. 3.1 is a massive patch and I'm sure they don't want to rush it. Nethaera did mention in a reply that they are "still doing a little bug dance and squishing a few more before we decide [the patch is] ready to have its coming out party," which may imply that all that's left before the patch is ready is debugging. On the other hand, debugging can take a very long time, so we can't conclude too much from that.
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Good news for those of you that are fans of FileFront's filesharing system. While I reported last week that FileFront would be shutting down, it looks like the original founders of the website have purchased it back from Ziff Davis Media, allowing it to stay open! This is great news for the gaming community, as FileFront has been a staple for file and video sharing for games for over a decade now.
Quote from: FileFront (Source)
FileFront has been acquired by the original founders of the site and will NOT be suspended as previously announced. This is NOT an April Fool's Joke.
After learning about Ziff Davis Media's plan to suspend FileFront at the end of March, the original founders of FileFront made the decision to buy it back from Ziff Davis Media.
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Nethaera just posted a message to announce that the Noblegarden event will be delayed this year. It definitely looks like another confirmation that Patch 3.1 won't hit the live servers before April 14 at least.
Quote from: Nethaera (Source)Many players may have noticed that Noblegarden has been removed from the in-game calendar. While the event is not being removed from the game, it is being delayed slightly and will not occur as originally scheduled on April, 12. We will be implementing this event at a future date, however.
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It looks like 3.1 won't be coming out next week. Expect some more news later today.
Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
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This has been a week with lots of collaborative videos released. A new collaboration just hit the streets, and it's one that I was excited about the second I got the email from Cranius. Yeah, that Cranius. You know, Cranius of the Big Blue Dress? He's gotten together with Summergale and Legs to issue a new music video, called Ulduar. You should already know Summergale from her work in Hard Like Heroic, and Legs is the machinimator who created Route 440. I couldn't expect anything less than greatness from this crew, and greatness is exactly what they delivered.
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April's Brew of the Month has struck, and it's actually pretty fun. Sure, more jokes about bodily functions, but they're acceptable if they're entertaining! This month's definitely qualifies as entertaining. Metok's Bubble Bock is described as being light and uh, bubbly. I suppose you could've guessed that from the name.[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.
Grand Magus Telestra strolled out of the Thunderdome an easy victor this week -- and as reader Kellhouse noted, "P.S. She is also hot." It seems that her heat was convincing to the overwhelming margin of readers who voted for her in this bout against Prince Keleseth of Utgarde Keep.
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All right, that's it. Get out of here. We've put up with death knights, we've put up with moving our base at a moment's notice, but we're not going to put up with our griffons being eaten by your devilsaur. Get out! You're banned from the Argent Vanguard! You and your children and your children's children! For three months.
Thanks to Steve, Steve's devilsaur, and Steve's brother who noticed the size of Steve's devilsaur for this screenshot, which stood out among our many giant pet submissions.
Do you have any unusual, clever, or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
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April Fools' Day came and went, and as expected, a lot of jokes popped up all over the 'Net. Of course, among the jokes we looked forward to (or dreaded, as some of you curmudgeons ranted yesterday) were the World of Warcraft-related jokes. However you might feel about April Fools', I think we all eagerly awaited Blizzard's April Fools' gag, a long-standing tradition. The European World of Warcraft site had theirs -- a Pimp my mount feature -- launch earlier than the North American gag, an RP-ization of the forums and the new Dance Battle System. Not bad, but definitely not their best prank.
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Quote from: Bornakk (Source)Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game.
4/1/09
- The debuff caused by the Rune of Razorice is no longer dispellable.
- The weapon enchants Rune of Razorice and Rune of Lichbane will no longer cause the Killing Machine talent to be triggered more often.
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