Wrath of the Lich King Beta News & More 2.4 Stuff

Wrath of the Lich King: BETA CLOSE!
Blizzard changed a few of its Wrath of the Lich King Beta sites from 404: Not Found to 403: Forbidden this week. If you want to check for yourself see http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/ and http://beta.wow-europe.com/. It definitely looks like blizzard is getting ready to launch the expansion public beta testing soon, so get ready to fill out your applications and support why you should be selected!

Wrath of the Lich King: Epics vs. Greens
It was confirmed this week, that upon players reaching level 80 or even sooner that even the highest level epics will begin to be replaced by green quality items. It is Blizzard's intention to relevel the playing field with the expansion and give players just entering the game the same competitiveness as that of the hardcore raiders from Burning Crusade. However there will be no major stat changes like that of Stamina in Burning Crusade, so players may not see items getting replaced in the first few quests in Northrend, as they did with quests in Burning Crusade.

World of Warcraft in Latin America
Blizzard has decided to expand its customer base to users in Latin America, and they have hired and designated a team for it's sole development and support. For more information on this topic you can see the FAQ they posted earlier in the week: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5720423121&sid=2.

List of Known Issues with Patch 2.4
Hortus also listed all the known issues within the current state of WoW, you can view them here. The most notable bugs are with the Kalecgos fight, where he casts the Revitalize spell on targets with no mana, and with Zul'jin who will melee targets of Claw Rage or Lynx Rush meaning certain death for cloth wearers. You can expect this entire list of bugs to be fixed soon.

Keyboard Issues when using Avast 4.8
World of Warcraft players using the Anti-Virus program Avast are seeing keyboard control issues during game play. Most of this comes in the form of severe lag between keystrokes and actual movement or spell cast in game. Blizzard is working on resolving this issue as quickly as possible.

UICentral Addon Copyright Infringement
It was discovered this week that the WoW addon UICentral was using a cracked section of a Java application. They are requesting that all users of the addon please uninstall the addon in order to give complete compliance to the original copyright. For more information see the post on WorldofWar.net.

Still no Sunwell Plateau Gates Open
Blizzard has yet to open any of the gates to the last three bosses of Sunwell Plateau, and no information has been released on when they expect they will open either. For now the only bosses players can access are Kalecgos, Brutallus, and Felmyst who have all been killed already by multiple guilds. I would think you will see at least one gate open soon, possibly even during maintenance this week.

WoW Patch 2.4 released on Public Test Realms

With the awaited release of patch 2.4 to the Public Test Realms, Blizzard has again unveiled tons of new game content, factions, daily quests, and dungeons. Here's what can be found in the patch:

• All 25-man Raid Attunements Lifted - Black Temple and Mount Hyjal are now available to all players of level 70. Much like when Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep attunements were lifted, players who have completed the attunements will be given a special title, "The Hand of A'dal". This title will be a very prestigious title for a long time to come, as many players will never defeat both Vashj and Kael'thas. This was done to help guilds who are trying to push through Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, this way they do not have to key all their new players every week!
  
• Sunwell Isle - This is a completely new region found Just north of Silvermoon City. All level 70 players will be able to fly there from the flight path outside Silvermoon City. Upon reaching Sunwell Isle players will be able to begin the individual and server wide reputation grind. In order to open up certain portions of Sunwell Isle to all players on the server, the server as a whole will need to complete goals.
  
• Magister's Terrace - The new 5 man dungeon actually offers epic quality loot on REGULAR mode, not even heroic. Kael'thas is the last boss in regular mode and he drops Karazhan quality loot. The Kael'thas fight is actually scripted much like the fight in Tempest Keep, so all players will now get to experience this epic battle (I won't tell you so I don't spoil it!). This is another great addition Blizzard has made for players not able to devote a raiding schedule to the game, they will finally be able to gear up and compete with those who do!
  
• Sunwell Plateau - The new 25-man raid instance meant for players who have cleared Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, but there is no attunement so anyone reaching level 70 will be able to access this instance. The final 3 pieces of the T6 set will drop in this instance, they include belt, boots, and bracers. Loot lists are forming for these instances rapidly as the first two bosses were killed last night on the PTR.
  
• New Battleground Repeatable Quest - You will need to turn in 1 Alterac Valley Mark of Honor, 1Arathi Basin Mark of Honor, 1 Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor, and 1 Eye of the Storm Mark of Honor for this quest. You will gain an additional 314 Honor Points for each and every turn-in, and this can be done indefinitely and does not count as a daily quest! This is another great way for characters to gain extra honor and keep all those Marks of Honor from polluting your mailbox!
  
• Reputation Based PvP Sets - Upon reaching level 70 players will now be able to purchase Rare quality items for PvP action if they have the proper reputation requirements. Legs, Helm, and Chest will require revered reputation and the shoulders and gloves require honored reputation. The best part about these new sets is the ability to once against stack 35 resilience set bonuses (with gladiator gear and these sets), as all the 2 piece bonuses for these sets is 35 resilience. This should be a great help to all players just trying to get their start in PvP action, and should give you a better chance at surviving while trying to earn honor points for your Gladiator gear!
  

Great stuff to keep us busy while waiting on the next expansion: Wrath of the Lich King.

May 2008 be a Great World of Warcraft Year!

Hello fellow WoW:ers,

Back from a long vacation I hope You all had as great Christmas & New Year holiday as I had.

We all eagerly await the next WoW Expansion Wrath of the Lich king, sadly Blizzard has still not given an official release date which mean that it's probably months away. My guess would be summer 2008.

Anyway the 2.3 patch offered great additions to the game as:

Mudsprocket - The new goblin town located in Dustwallow Marsh offers an abundance of new quests. This town is a member of the Steamwheedle Cartel, and offers many conveniences including a flight master, an inn, a graveyard, an anvil and forge, and a mailbox. This is a different leveling experience for characters in their 40's who want to change things up a bit.

Zul 'Aman - This 10 man instance located in the Ghostlands requires no attunement, so it's great for those players on a tight time budget. It is designed to be more difficult than Karazhan and also includes better loot! The thing we like most about this area is the availability of the new Hatchet Hills flight path. This flight path is the first of it's kind as it is the only one to connect "classic" Warcraft zones to the zones of the Burning Crusade!

Leveling - As we know, the time to level a character from 20-60 has been significantly decreased since the release of the 2.3 patch. The speed of leveling through those slow low levels is now bearable especially with a leveling guide. The fact that Blizzard are planning to increase the leveling speed of pets in the 2.3.2 patch also sound really great.

Leveling guides which now are up to date for patch 2.3:
Valkor's Gold Making Guide
Joana's 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide
Brian Kopp's 1-70 Alliance Leveling Guide
Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide
Zygor's 1-70 Horde and Alliance Leveling Guides - Try this new great 300 page guide with beautiful ingame functions for a limited discount price.

Here's some of the upcomming 2.4 patch features:

Sunwell Isle

* Sunwell Isle will be located off the coast, north of Silvermoon

* Sunwell Isle will be a major questing hub with a 5-man Normal and Heroic Instance (Magister’s Terrace) and a 25-man raid (Sunwell Plateau). The goal with Sunwell Isle is to close the Burning Crusade storyline before the release of the next expansion.

* There are still a few scenarios left that could be released to provide the players with more content if WotLK gets delayed for any reason.

* At the release of the patch, players will access a small expedition camp where they can start questing. However as the questing progresses, players will expand the camp and make it grow to a small town by retaking building to the enemies (running daily quests mostly). You can consider it as a AQ Gates opening event, the more daily quests that gets done, the faster the whole server will progress.

* The quests will end the Tempest Keep story arc.

* “The Shattered Sun Offensive” will be the new faction of this quest hub. It also seems that Aldor and Scryers will finally start fighting together against the new threat.

* Both 5-man and 25-man dungeons will be accessible from the start, but some bosses will have to be unlocked by running the daily quests (server-wide) and/or leveling your reputation. The 5-man instance will most likely requires Honored reputation with The Shattered Sun Offensive, the first three bosses of the 25-man instance will be accessible from the start, while the three last ones will have to be unlocked through questing.


Sunwell Plateau

* Kael’thas will be one of the boss of the 5-man dungeon, he’s still alive and he’s now got a huge green crystal etched to his chest.

* Kil’jaeden will be the final boss of the 25-man instance. The other bosses include Brutalicus, a giant Pit Lord who has lost his wings, Kalecgos, a blue dragon enslaved by Kil’jaeden, a Fel Dragon, the female Eredar Twins, and a Dark Naaru.

* The 25-man instance will be slightly harder than Black Temple, and is tuned for Tier 6 geared players.

* There will not be any “real” Tier 7 set, but some of the drops will be set pieces (not necessarily class specific). The drops quality will be above T6.

Daily quests

* Patch 2.4 will raise the cap of Daily quests allowed in a day from 10 to 25.

PvP

* Balancing actions will be taken in regard to PvP for certain classes.* Blizzard have large plans for, and they will be aiming to bring it closer to e-sport acceptance.


With this I want to thank you all for being readers of this humble blog and wish you all a happy and prosperous 2008!

/Patrik

Upcoming World of Warcraft patch changes

Blizzard Entertainment has released the patch noted for the upcoming World of Warcraft v2.3. In these patch notes there are several changes which will greatly affect nearly every player. Some of the more notable changes announced include:

• Reduced leveling time from levels 20 to 60! This will be a much welcome change for those of you just starting out or wanting to run up an alt. The decrease in leveling time will be achieved by reducing the overall experience needed between 20 and 60 and by increasing the experience gained from quests from levels 30 to 60.
  


• 1/3 of the plus to healing bonus on healing gear will now apply to spell damage as well. This will allow holy priest and paladins to take part in the offensive portion of a fight when there healing capabilities are not needed. This should also reduce the requirement of having to keep damage gear and well as healing gear on characters that are spec'd specifically for healing.
  


• Vendor discounts will not apply to all reputation levels about neutral. Friendly 5%, Honored 10%, Revered 15% and Exalted will provide a 20% discount. This should help reduce the costs for late game repairs, ammo, and equipment.
  


• New daily quests are being added that will randomly target one of the various battlegrounds. This should help spark some renewed interest in fighting in the various battleground.
  


• Alterac valley is getting a major overhaul. Many changes are being made to the battleground to attempt to make it less of a "speed-run" for the opposing general. The various towers and objective throughout the map should now play a key roll in the ability to win a given match.
  


• Engineers will now be able to create a new, mechanical flying mount!
  


• All of the old-world dungeons (non-expansion pack) have had their loot tables adjusted to provide much better loot. Hopefully this will also add to the ease of leveling new characters in addition to making the gap between old-world and expansion pack item stats a little less drastic (IMO, it would be nice to have your level 60 epics still be worth wearing at level 62 :)
  


• A new, neutral town has been added to Dustwallow Marsh. Hopefully, this will smooth out the gap in available quests for characters in their mid 40's.
  


• A new, level 70, 10 man dungeon is being added to the Ghostlands called Zul'Aman
  

There many, many changes in store including character balance tweaks, item changes, and more. To read a complete list of these changes, you can read the current test-realm release notes at: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html