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I took the screen shot above several months ago when I’m pretty sure my old guild was still alive. It was such a funny statement to say by a guildie of mine who happens to play a shadow priest but is also a full time mom in real life. I was just digging through my screen shots just now and found it lying there after all this time. It made me realize how many guild mates and friends I have in the game who are moms and the things they have to go through while playing. While Mother’s Day has long passed, I want to take this opportunity to tip my hat to all moms out there, especially those who play WoW and have to juggle playing with taking care of their kids.
Since I’m in another time zone, I’ve had a lot of time present and past keeping some of my mom friends company as they are forced to stay awake to take care of their kids. They play WoW to keep themselves awake until the wee hours of the morning. They tell me things like how they wish their kid would get to sleep already so they themselves can finally get some sleep.
It really must be a chore to balance these things and still find some time to enjoy playing the game. but they do it every single day!
Now is your chance to possibly be selected to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion beta testing. Blizzard just opened their Opt-in program for the said beta. If you opt in, you will be telling Blizzard that you are interested in participating in the beta, thus putting your account as one of the many that could be randomly chosen. CM Eyonix says more below.
Today we opened the Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In program, which gives players a chance to win an invitation to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta. For The Burning Crusade beta, we randomly invited players from the entire World of Warcraft community. With the Opt-In, our goal is to strengthen the beta-testing process by inviting only those players who have expressed active interest in participating.
Keep in mind that opting in doesn’t guarantee you’ll be selected for the beta. And players who’ve previously been promised beta access through a promotion or contest (such as by purchasing the Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition notebook) don’t need to worry — you’ll still be entered into the beta automatically when the time comes.
To opt in to the Wrath of the Lich King beta, visit the link below:
The screen shot of my mage’s action bars above certainly has me worried for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It’s not only full but it’s there are some spells that I don’t have room for anymore. Granted, I’m using the default UI for now ever since my bongos 2 (action bar addon) conked out on me and I never figured out how to work bongos 3. But the default UI is supposed to be enough since not everyone uses too many addons except say a threat meter (and some people don’t use that either).
With the new spells coming out in the next expansion, I definitely won’t have room for even more spells unless Blizzard redesigns the default UI to have more action bar buttons. It’s going to be really great if they increase it to match the number buttons addons like Bongos are able to provide (more than 100 more buttons). Even if we won’t be able to customize action bars like we could these other addons, having more buttons would certainly be a huge help for all of us in WoTLK.
I have to admit that grinding reputation for the different factions isn’t exactly something I’m known for. In fact, aside from the SSO and the aldor/scryers, both of my 70’s don’t have a single exalted rank for the TBC factions. Maybe it’s because I don’t really do 5 dungeons that often especially since I get most of my badges of justice from raiding Karazhan.
For guys who gain reputation really fast and for guys like me who tend to be slow, the latest planned feature for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion called Championing would be a great help to make the rep grind a lot easier. According to the World Wide Invitational, players will be able to use an item like a tabard to increase the reputation gains for whichever faction it belongs to. If we were to apply this system to the current TBC factions, it would work something like this. Let’s say you’re wearing the Lower City tabard and you’re doing Shadow Labyrinth, you’ll get more lower City rep than you’re supposed to normally get. If you’re wearing the same tabard but you’re doing Mechanar, you’ll get Lower City rep along with the Sha’tar rep you’re getting.
One reason why this feature will be so cool is that you can gain reputation for a faction by doing another dungeon you really want to do or find easier to do instead of forcing yourself to go to that dungeon you don’t really want to do but have to do just because of the rep you need. Currently, I find myself avoiding the Auchindoun dungeons because I don’t really like them. This is why my Lower City rep is pretty low. If I had championing now, I’d still be able to raise my LC rep by doing dungeons I like.
I wonder if championing affects raid dungeons as well? Just imagine if it did and if we had it now, we could raise our rep by raiding Karazhan or something and still get exalted with say the keepers of Time or something. This would definitely be something raiders would love to have.
The World Wide Invitation has just ended recently, giving us players more information to digest about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Most interesting to me are the class changes the developers have planned for all of us. I’m going to comment on some that I feel like eye popping or even just cool below. You can see all the changes that were released at World Of Raids.
Death Knight
Well it’s not a change since these guys will be new. But anyway, as stated before all races can be DK’s. No matter what talent tree they specialize in, the DK will still be able to fulfill both tanking and dps roles. I guess that’s why they changed the descriptions of the trees on the DK page a while back.
Druid
It seems that some of the things that Druids have been asking for will be given to them in the next expansion. Entangling Roots will finally be usable indoors and you can use potions, items and on hit effects while in forms. Combine these with the still mysterious dire cat form and it seems like druids will feel the love in the next expansion. Now if only they can get a real rez spell then druids will have a lot to rejoice about.
Hunter
The pet skill point system will be replaced with a pet talents system. There will be one tree each for dps, tanking and utility. Wow, this means hunters can respec their pets! lol
This seems like a simpler way to deal with pet training, giving a more unified system for all hunters to use no matter what pet they are using.
Mage
Mages will have a new spell called frostfire bolt, which will be weaker than frostbolt or fireball but will end up stonger if the Mage puts talents into both frost and fire. This spell suggests that an elemental build (both fire and frost) will be a strong option as an accepted talent build once again.
Paladin
Paladins will receive a spell called Hand of Purity, which is supposed to be a new reactive healing spell. A new heal? Woohoo!
Priest
The most interesting priest change is the Guardian Spirit talent that basically dies in the place of its target This should be useful as a sort of mini wipe prevention tool. Let’s say put it on the tank to give him a life line in case he takes enough damage to kill him.
Shaman
Shaman totems will affect the whole raid instead of just his party. This means that there will be more totem goodness if there are more than one in the raid. Also flametongue weapon will increase spell damage and rockbiter weapon will be replaced by eartliving weapon which increases healing done.
Rogue
Sap will finally work on more than just humanoids. Based on the “everything that has a brain” statement, I guess that means beasts and maybe undead?
Warlock
Warlocks will have a talent that transforms him into an IIlidan like demon form. I’m guessing it’s the destruction tree since one of the abilities is an AoE shadowbolt.
Warrior
Warriors will have a talent called titan grip, allowing warriors to dual wield 2 handed weapons just like the barbarian of Diablo 2. ZOMG!
I was reading through some of the material about the World Wide Invitational (WWI) in World of Raids when I came across the mention of the dire cat form of Druids for Wrath of the Lich King. It’s still in the planning stages as well as another model for dire bear form but the mention makes one wonder exactly what dire cat form will be.
I haven’t played a druid to high levels yet but based what some people tell me about the situation of the cat druid and the rogue is that they have almost the same dps potential but the rogue is more flexible with his abilities. Rogues can stun, sap and even vanish when he’s in trouble while cat druids can’t. I’ve read of other claims that rogues beat cat dps by a substantial amount. (Someone please tell me which it is).
This leaves a lot of room for speculation about what the dire cat form could be, aside from a model change. Can it mean more damage? Or will it mean more armor or some form of avoiding or mitigating damage? Or will it mean getting a trick or two rogues have for escaping death like a version of vanish or something? My guess is probably as good as good as any one else’s.
At the end of this all, the most important question will have to be answered. Will the dire cat form finally make cat druids a respectable and accepted member of even the most hardcore raiding guilds? If not, then having this improvement won’t really change anything much.
I just came across this video when my brother posted it in his personal blog. It’s a video of someone playing Age of Conan and having fun with his horse. You really need to beware of cliffs in that game. Aren’t you glad this isn’t possible in World of Warcraft? but on the other hand, if it were possible I can definitely think of a lot of wicked scenarios that this would be so funny.
The past few days, I’ve been thinking about how the design of certain talents of a certain class would look pretty good if it were used by another class in their own way. If you think about it, some talents are already like this - just modifications of talents that already existed. For example isn’t it that the Druid’s Swiftmend, a spell obtained through talents, just a healing twist on the Warlock’s Conflagrate, also a spell obtained through talents? The Paladin’s Holy Guidance talent from the Holy tree is also a twist on the Mage’s Mind Mastery talent from the Arcane tree. I’ve been thinking that there could be more potential in simply taking an existing talent and applying it to another class to fit their class design. I’ve listed a few below. While some ideas could be out of this world, I’m sure some have potential to actually be used in the WoTLK expansion.
Warlock: DoT Form
I was thinking that since druids are the kings of HoT’s and warlocks are the kings of DoTs, perhaps the two get be potential partners in talent recycling. One idea I find amusing is to translate the Tree of Life talent for the use of warlocks. I was thinking of it being in the affliction tree somewhere deep. I’m not really familiar with how exactly end game affliction warlocks work but perhaps there are times when you’re better off just using your DoT’s the whole time if only you could maximize their damage potential. In these situations, the warlock can shift to form that makes use of just DoT’s but while in this form they cost less to cast and do a heck lot more damage!
Healing class (Shaman maybe?): The Healing Arcane Power
Ever been in a situation where you need stronger heals during an encounter and you don’t really care if it’s going to cost you more mana? Let’s say you got the boss down to 5% and you just need some staying power on your heals or the group wipes. This might be the answer! I’m thinking shaman since it sounds consistent with the type of thing a shaman would do with the blood lusts and shamanistic rage and all. Pop the talented ability and the shaman goes off into a healing frenzy!
Paladin: The Healing Ignite
Paladins have always complained about their lack of a heal over time. maybe a talent that can work like the healing version of the mage fire tree talent Ignite could help while not really giving them a true HoT. Basically when the paladin crits on his/her heals the target also gets a HoT equivalent to a percentage of the heal. This won’t make holy paladins the kings of HoT’s but it definitely sounds like a cool idea.
Mage: Spirit of Redemption For More Pwnage!
I’ve always been quite intrigued by the priest Spirit of Redemption talent since it allows them to heal for a while longer even after they die. Imagine if a mage would be able to wreak some havoc even after he falls. You could say that since the mage left behind some arcane residue, he is able to remain active and do some damage for some time even after dying.
What do you think about these ideas? Do you have some ideas of your own? Please share them here.
The Midsummer Festival will be over in just a few more days and I have to admit that it’s not exactly one of my favorite holidays. Having two level 70’s pretty much decked in Karazhan epics, I wasn’t really interested in the Ahune boss in Slave Pens for the festival. I also wasn’t too hot on doing the other quests. I tried doing the juggling quest but it just seems beyond me. But just when I thought that the Midsummer Festival had nothing that would catch my attention I bumped into the Ribbon Dance pole!
It’s really more for people who aren’t level 70 so that they can get the buff that makes them gain experience faster. But the Ribbon Dance pole was just the kind of inane senseless thing I needed to have fun during the Midsummer Festival. It spins you around in circles in such senseless fashion that it appeals to me. The sight of several people spinning around in one location just gives me the giggles to get me through the day!
Some new changes were added to the patch 2.4.3 PTR notes. Among them are the entries below concerning warlocks and mages.
Mage
* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
Warlock
* Demon Skin, Demon Armor, and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
This change is obviously a PvP one and is probably not much of a big deal. It seems strange that these armors can no longer be dispelled since the effects they give are indeed magical. In this sense, there’s not much difference that these armors have with the Inner Fire ability that priests have and yet only the mage and warlock armors have this benefit. Not all armors are mere armor giving effects either since fel armor actually gives the warlock +spell damage and this is something that an opponent would probably want to get rid of.
Perhaps this change is in line with the shaman totem change that was announced some time back wherein the act of dropping totems is in the physical school so even if the shaman is spell locked he can still cast totems. I never really thought of being able to dispel these armors as imbalanced but I’m not really complaining.
As always, the latest PTR patch notes can be found here.
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