Spugnort's

Archive for July, 2008

Thats right, the beta client is available for download right from Blizzard’s own website.  There a couple different links you can use to access it, these are not fake and are not tojans, viruses, or keyloggers.  I stress again they are directly from Blizzard’s website.  Below are the links for download:

US PC Players: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/clients/pc/beta-downloader-enUS.html
US Mac Players: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/clients/mac/beta-downloader-enUS.html

I’m working on some links for the EU players but have been unable to gain access to any of them yet.

The download is going for me right now, and I plan on putting in some time tonight in order to bring you some quality screenshots of items, Acheivement System, professions, etc.

If we are able to we may even release some videos in the coming weeks, but for now we are not in the Beta and will continue to cross our fingers and hope that we are selected just like all of you!!!

Well thats all for now, I just wanted to make sure we got this out to all of you as soon as possible!

As usual plenty of new factors will be added to the game with Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK).  One of my personal favorites is the new Achievement System.  The achievement system is just another way for you to proclaim your characters veteran (or noob if it is applicable) status.  There are many different areas for accomplishment, and each player should find one thing they enjoy to focus on at least.  At this time the areas in World of Waracraft for achievement are:

• General
• Quests
• Exploration
• Player versus Player
• Dungeons and Raids
• Professions
• World Events
• Reputation
• Feats of Strength

As you can see, these accomplishment categories span every aspect of the game, so there is a little something for everyone.

So what is the Acheivement System and exactly how is it going to work you say? When the game launches there will be over 500 individual achievement for players to unlock.  These tasks will range from fun for everyone to truly epic accomplishments taht will take time and devotion.  Completion of some of these will lead to rewards suchs as tabards, titles, or even a noncombat pet.

Most important is the “Feats of Strength” section, as many if not all of these items will have been completed prior to the Wrath of the Lich King Launch.  Things such as becoming “Champion of the Naaru”, “Hand of A’dal”, or completing the Bear Mount run!  This is the last few month’s you can accomplish these tasks, and if you need help as always we have just the guides for you!!!

Spugnort’s Reputation and Keying Guide can help you obtain these titles by leading you every single step of the way with highly detailed information.  Along with Spugnort’s Instance Strategy Guide, which will give you a detailed breakdown of every single bossfight in the game!!!!  Helping you obtain these titles, and your Amani Bear mount run!

To get started you can find the acheivements in a brand new character window.  In this window you will see that you can earn points for completing specific tasks.  The more points you earn, the more accomplished you are…duh!

This system is meant to be a great tool to show off the time and effort you have placed in your chracter, and it should also be a good gauge when it comes to guild recruitment.  Players with many meaningful acheivements will obviously be more highly sought after than those who have done little to nothing in the game.

Overall this should be a great and exciting tool that all players can value!

Now that everyone has had a chance to sift through the Patch notes that were posted yesterday, I thought today I would talk about some of the new items, quests, professions, and talent trees in Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK).

Items

After months of listenting to Blizzard tell us that our hard work in raids would not be wasted, it looks as though they have truly followed through on this promise.

Here is a few items as examples:

 VS.

A quick comparison by numbers (expansion axe versus the Torch):
DPS – Only 91%�
Top End – Only 86%
AP(1str=2AP) – Only 73%
Crit Rating - 113%�
Haste > Hit for 2-handers

So overall the Torch, which is a mid-level Black Temple Item is much better than the entry level blue from the expansion. I like this idea, as more becomes availbale though I would like to see myself replacing som items in the 76-78 range.  With only a few of my items being holdover level 70 epics when I reach level 80, I think this is the same scheme Blizzard is shooting for.

Professions

A couple of things jumped out at me, one it seems blizzard is trying to make the gathering professions a bit more worthwhile.  For example:

This is from skinning and has 6 ranks for 3/6/9/12/15/25 crit rating.  Not much but hey 25 crit rating…is 25 crit rating.  Mining gives stamina per level of 3/5/7/10/20/35, and herbalism doesn’t seem to have anything yet. Extra spirit seems reasonable…for being in touch with nature!

 

Well thats all for tdoay… if I have some time I will get some more up tomorrow!

Well the NDA has been lifted, and tons of information is pouring out to the public.  Some of the most useful, but often boring to read, are the patch notes.  You will find tons of good info here though so read on!

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Beta Test. The list below contains information on the current available content for testing and general information. This information is subject to change. Alpha testers should note that your characters have been temporarily locked out. In a few weeks time, we will unlock these characters and you will be able to continue to level them. Please visit the Beta forums to submit feedback and discuss the expansion development with others.

General

• The continent of Northrend is now available! To travel there, visit one of four transportation masters in either Orgrimmar, Undercity, Stormwind Harbor,or Menethil Harbor.
• The floating magical city of Dalaran is now available!
• The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance.
• The all new Achievement System has been implemented.
• Transportation between Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra can be found at the Tuskarr villages in those zones.
• The level cap is currently set to 77.
• Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
• Spellpower:
  • All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant “increased spell damage and healing” such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
  • For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
  • Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.
• NPC Transportation Locations
  • Horde:
    • Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)
    • Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)
  • Alliance:
    • Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Howling Fjord)
    • Stormwind Harbor to Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)

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One of the most anticipated games of 2008 isn’t Wrath of the Lich King, and its not the already released Age of Conan.  It is Warhammer Online, which has been delayed multiple times and really reworked from the ground up by EA Mythic.

This game is going to solely based on masive multiplayer PvP action, in clan versus clan and even World (read server) versus server embattlement.  To a PvP lover such as myself, I love an ever changing battle, one that is not scripted, and requires players to make smart decisions with catlike reflexes. Warhammer seems to fit this bill quite nicely.

This is a game type that Blizzard has never been able to commit to with World of Warcraft, as the game is mired in PvE content… which I have also come to love over time.  However no game has tantalized my senses as much as Warhammer, they have been teasing me for a year and half with this game… and the payoff is close at hand finally.

However, lets not diminish the fact that I love the Arenas in World of Warcraft, in fact you can see much of my expertise at work with Spugnort’s PvP Guide… thats if you are one of the few who don’t already have a copy!

I had delayed taking action after hearing that players who purchase the Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition would get guaranteed access to the upcoming open beta.  Finally yesterday I went in search of a copy… only to find that they were all sold out at the major retailers listed on the Warhammer website.

After a diligent search I did find a copy for myself.  This has only been available for Pre-order for a mere week, and with an exorbitant cost over and above the normal game of an extra $40.  So its easy to see I am not the only one very excited about this game.

Players will most likely flock to Warhammer, just as they did with Age of Conan… in fact I would venture to guess that Warhammer will break AoC’s record of first month sales!

 

Thats all for today…now I wait patiently for September and a Warhammer Beta ticket!!!

Ok, so I know it’s a little early to be judging the newly announced Diablo III as it will likely not be released for a couple of years.  That being said, the trailers, gameplay videos and screenshots Blizzard has released have many hardcore Diablo fans scratching their heads and wondering what Blizzard is thinking?!?

I know when I was glued to my screen watching the trailer and the gameplay video I thought the graphics were really nice, some think they are perhaps a little too nice.  We all remember our beloved Diablo being gritty and realistic with most of the game set in dark and dismal dungeons in which you could only see as much as your character’s light radius would allow, the rest was a mystery!  The released screenshots and videos for Diablo III, however give us a look into a much more polished environment with brighter colors and smooth textures, not really indicative of a world which has been battling the forces of hell for decades. 

But, because the videos contain merely a small glimpse of a pre-alpha release version of this much anticipated sequel, I will turn my attention to the concept art.  Most of what I find there seems to very closely match the images conjured up in my head when I think of Diablo.  They are raw, creepy and dark.  Also as far as pure unabashed gore, it doesn’t get much better than monsters biting the heads off players! 

The thing I think we would all like the developers to keep in mind is that WoW and Diablo are two very different games with very different concepts and storylines.  Many hardcore fans are concerned that due to the massive worldwide success of WoW they will lose site of the tradition of Diablo and make it too much of a mirror image of WoW.  Some people are so upset about it they have started a petition to show Blizzard people disagree with their artistic choices thus far which now has nearly 50,000 signatures (some of which are duplicates, I’m sure).  I guess if this is what you need to do to pass the time then more power to you!  I, however will sit back and relax and wait for Blizzard to deliver yet another amazing game which I will thoroughly enjoy sinking endless hours of my time into, after all they seem to be pros at that!   

 

We have recently started work on our World of Warcraft Horde Leveling Guide. This guide should round out the product offering we have to include most facets of gameplay in WoW. The character development is being documented by our staff using a Tauren Hunter. We will also include documentation for the Undead, Blood Elf, and Orc/Troll starting zones once we get the initial quest lines done to the point where all of the races converge (typically the Barrens).

If you have any comments or suggestions about what you would like to see in the guide, let us know. We are striving to create a complete yet easy to follow guide and your feedback helps.

We anticipate the initial content release for this guide within the next 2-3 weeks. Our intention is to release portions of the guide as it is being developed. Anyone purchasing the guide early will receive a discounted price but will still receive all of the updates at no charge. Ideally we would like to release the guide in a 1-30 format followed by an additional update for every 10-15 levels of development from there.

World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3 is being rolled out today during server down time. This patch brings mostly smaller changes and bug fixes, but does introduce a new and massive money sink to hopefully pull some of the gold back out of the WoW economy. Haris Pilton (found in the tavern in the lower city in Shattrath) will be selling 22 slot bags for a meer 1200g each – hope you have been doing your dailies.

That said, there is one change that many players will be pretty excited about. You can now get your 60% mount at level 30 instead of 40! This would make moving about the “old world” much less time consuming during the leveling process. In addition to the experience gains from monster and quests, the decreased travel time will (yet again) speed up the process of leveling an alt or for those new to WoW.

For the full patch notes, please read the rest of the post.

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Magister’s Terrace Complete Instance Strategy

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Trash Mobs

From the Entrance to Selin Fireheart’s Room

When going through the courtyard you can either skirt to the right or left, choose which pack you want to kill and hug that side and you can move past the other pack of Blood Elves.

Sunblade Magister

• Frostbolt
• Arcane Nova – Interrupts casting, healers stay away from these mobs.
• Spell Haste – Stacking buff that increases spell haste by 10% and stacks to 40%. Mages should spell steal this.

These mobs can be tanked without much of a problem as long as caster classes stay out of range of the Arcane Nova and you spell steal the spell haste buff or purge it from them.

Sunblade Blood Knight

• Holy Light
• Seal of Wrath
• Judgment of Wrath

Interrupt casted heals, they can be tanked if needed but a good idea to kill them first or crowd control them if you can.

Sunblade Warlock

• Incinerate
• Immolate

Tank this mob, no need to crowd control it. Immolate can be dispelled.

Sunblade Physician

• Prayer of Mending
• Inject Poison – Poison DoT effect, can be depoisoned.

Should be sheeped or sapped if possible and killed last due to the Prayer of Mending.

Sunblade Mage Guard

• Glaive Throw – Ranged attack jumping to two additional players that deals damage and stuns them for 2 seconds.
• Magic Dampening Field – Cast a field when stood in decreases magical damage taken by 75% but also decrease healing taken by 75%. Stay out of these fields.

First priority to use any crowd control you have. The glaive throw can be quite bothersome if you allow them to stay alive for a while.

Trash in Selin Fireheart’s Room

Wretched Bruiser

• Wretched Strike – Much like mortal strike it decreases healing taken by 50% for 5 seconds.

Crowd control these if possible and kill them last to avoid having 50% healing on the tank while trying to tank 5 or more mobs. Generally there will be two bruisers per trash pack.

Wretched Husk

• Wretched Fireball
• Wretched Frostbolt – Snares for 4 seconds.

Wretched Skulker

• Wretched Stab – Normal Physical Attack.

Selin Fireheart Vexallus

Brightscale Worm

• Energy Infusion – When killed they will give a stacking 1% damage increase to your party and return 150 mana.

If using a paladin tank with a strong AoE group you can pull the entire room and stack the buffs in order to make the boss fight much easier.

Sunblade Keeper

• Shadow Bolt
• Shadow Bolt Volley

There is one of these mobs that paths back and forth through Vexallus’ room in the packs of brightscale worms.

From Vexallus to Priestess Delrissa

While you can simply clear one side of the courtyard it may be a good idea to clear both as the next boss fight can be very chaotic in nature.

Sunblade Sentinel

• Fel Lightning – Chain Lightning that is a green color.

Just make sure your party remains spread out to avoid chaining this spell.

Ethereum Smuggler

• Blink – Moves them to a random member of your party.
• Arcane Explosion – Will chain cast this a few times after blink.

Burn these mobs down fast with focus fire, and make sure your party stays spread out to decrease the damage taken from the Arcane Explosions.

Coilskar Witch

• Frost Arrow
• Forked Lightning – Frontal AoE damage much like that of Lady Vashj’s

Crowd control these mobs if possible otherwise remain spread out to avoid chaining the forked lightning on your entire party.

Sister of Torment

• Lash of Pain
• Deadly Embrace – Similar to a succubus Seduce spell.

These mobs really need to be crowd controlled to avoid having your healer in a Deadly embrace while the tank dies. You can also have a Warlock banish them, and kill them last.

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