With deathwing on the horizon players dive into what's to come. Now granted it is a bit away from X-pack time and Arthas has yet to appear. But most are all a buzz about Old world being torn apart by lava and fire, level cap to 85 and flying mounts in Old world. Some very big changes and im sure more to come. But the biggest thing I am excited about is that Blizzard is creating new story line. Deathwing was presumed dead in the last warcraft book series "The Demon Soul". Now he will rise again and for players this most certainly will be no picnic. But before the fire will be a cold day Arthas is coming soon be prepared!
Sep 15, 2009
Deathwing Comes!
May 23, 2009
Under Development Update!
Blizzard has announced new plans for the future of new content. They have posted they are working on new 5, 10, 25 man instance, a new BG and more dailies! Here is the list posted on their main site:
- The Argent Tournament Expands: With the help of Azeroth’s heroes, the Argent Crusade will finish the Argent Coliseum just in time to call for all brave citizens to prepare for battle with the Lich King. New dailies, rewards, and more will be available at the Argent Tournament grounds to lure adventurers into the coliseum.
- Crusaders Coliseum: In order to prepare for a siege on Icecrown Citadel, players will be called by the Argent Crusade to test their mettle in the coliseum. 5-player, 10-player, and 25-player challenges await inside.
- New Battleground Isle of Conquest: a new large-scale siege Battleground, will be open. The Horde and Alliance will battle head-to-head for control of strategic resources to lay siege to the keeps of their opponents.
- New Arena Season Season 7: will officially start, paving the way for all-new items and challenges.
May 22, 2009
Q&A w/ Jederus and the WOWenomics Team!
Ever curious about the economy of WoW? Or try to figure out why blizzard charges so much for certain in game items? Well I went and sought out the WoWenomics team to do a little Q&A with them. Anyone who wants the nuts and bolts of the WoW gold game should visit WoWenomics blog site. Having said that I fired some questions their way and Jederus answered the calling, this is what was said:
Slash Nerf: How does the cost of certain things such as expensive flying mount training, cold weather flying and dual specing provide any kind of gold balance on a warcraft realm? And does this cause more to sell on auction house then are actually buying?
Jederus: Expensive but highly desired skills and items serve to remove gold from the game by acting as gold sinks. A gold sink, by design, helps keep the server’s economy in check by giving players something to spend their money on. Gold sinks can be something as mundane as repair costs or as profound as a 20,000 gold mount. As far as the desire for these items causing more AH activity goes, it’s hard to say what each person does to meet the gold cost for an item they desire. Sure, many players use the AH and of the ones that do, many sell more than they buy. That said, there are also players that dislike using the AH and prefer using the daily quest system as their primary path to riches.
Slash Nerf: In your opinion(s) has blizzard's cracking down on gold farming and buying died down significantly since BC? And how had this impacted the state of all realm AH's?
Jederus: I would say that Blizzard is not pursuing gold farmers and sellers and more or less than during Burning Crusade. We still see gold advertisements because people are still buying gold and it is cheap for the sellers to advertise so their cost to benefit ratio fits the mechanic of sending spam. I should add that Blizzard could certainly be more aggressive in getting rid of gold sellers but these aggressive tactics might involve more thorough investigations and account bans. Both the manpower for the investigation and the loss of revenue for the company from issuing bans could hurt Blizzard’s bottom line and, as a for profit corporation, this is not something they are interested in doing.
Slash Nerf: Alot of players are rather uniformed of profitability of cooking and fishing. What is your stance on these professions for gold?
Jederus: Both the cooking and fishing professions are fantastic moneymakers. Put together they are even more powerful. The interesting thing about these professions is that they don’t take up a regular profession slot so, in a sense, they are a free skill. Some people make more gold from these free skills then they do from their regular skills. Glacial salmon is one example of this. On most servers this fish goes for approximately 35 gold per stack. This is often higher than the going rate for a stack of Saronite Ore, high level skinned leather or many types of herbs on those same servers and each of these takes about the same amount of time to farm. In cases where the fish is not selling well, simply use cooking to turn the fish into a more profitable consumable and profit on that end. Dragonfin Filet and the Fish Feast are excellent examples of items that increase greatly in value when cooked.
Slash Nerf: Have too many people abandoned certain professions causing other players to florish with their unliked profession(s)?
Jederus: That’s an interesting question. I’m a firm believer that all professions have profit potential. I do think that one of the best opportunities to make gold in the game is in exploiting niche markets. That is, if you are crafting something that everyone else is not you can set supply, and thus prices, at whatever level you can sell your goods at. Even with popular professions there are ways to exploit this mechanic. All too often crafters get caught up with only making and selling the highest-level items within their professions. This results in fierce competition and can be discouraging. Overlooked are lower-level niche items like an Engineer’s Gyrochronatom (used for, amongst other things, a Badlands quest) or an Alchemist’s Frost Oil, which is used in two quests and the crafting of several non-alchemy items.
Slash Nerf: Some dont choose a main profession and just gather herbs and mine nodes. Is this a good move to make gold?
Jederus: This is a fantastic move to make gold. Focusing on straight farming skills actually increases your money in two ways. The obvious way is that you are now able to gather twice as many items as you normally would. The less obvious way this specialization makes gold is that you are no longer spending gold for recipes and recipe training, crafting materials and junk items to skill up. So, you are both making more and saving more. Unless you’re going to work hard to find your unique niche in crafting, farming is the way to go speaking in a strictly profit sense.
Slash Nerf: Here at Slash Nerf I like to start a trend with knowing what "Nerf" you like to see either in or out of game! So all bets are off here. What Nerf if you got 1 would you ask for?
Jederus & WoWenomics team: Hmmm, I put this one to the WoWenomics team and there were all sorts of ideas flying around: nerf the official WoW forums, nerf commercials, nerf bosses and work in general, nerf the prices at Starbucks. However, after much heated discussion, I think we came to agree that family aggro during our play time was the one thing most in need of a nerf (just don’t tell the wife okay?).
I like to thank the entire WoWenomics crew and Jederus for taking the time to answer. They are no doubt one of the top if not the top provider of WoW gold and economy info out there. So go check them out! Happy farming!
May 18, 2009
No New Mounts! Beware of Scam!
No those offers of a new mount in whispers are not true... they are scammers and all should know better. If there is anything official be sure to check blizzards main site or many of the various big fan sites. Scammers prey on those that may not be up to speed or less knowledgable about the game. So therefore it is up to us as a WoW community to keep those less informed, informed about current scams or loggers. The more we discourage these interwebz "terrorists" the less likely they will stick around for long. Goodluck in game everyone and scammer beware!
May 13, 2009
Zarhym Burns Down the Rumor Mill
Ever see those posts where someone goes into a rant about Blizzard and what direction they are going? Then you sit there and think to yourself what they are basing all their "conspiracy theory's" on... Well blue poster Zarhym had read enough and began to give the "Facts" of the state of Blizzard and WoW. The following are quotes from Zarhym and we will call him M.informed:
M.informed:
" So it's looking more and more like blizzard is spreading out achievements and making changes to the game so that achievements/goals take longer."
Zarhym:
" It's difficult to believe you'd have this view if you had played extensively at level 60. The content has become nothing but more accessible over the years for a wider range of players. "
****** Warning Rumor Mill INC!**********
M.informed:
" Rumor is they will not be making any more expansions for WoW. "
Zarhym:
" Rumors are fascinating, given that they don't need a shred of evidence in support of their basis to spread like a wild fire. In fact, in the past we've provided nothing but evidence -- vague though it may be -- that would contradict such a rumor. "
****Would you like some mustard for that foot?*****
M.informed:
" I've heard that they are focusing on other projects. If this is true you can expect more of this, and less customer service/content. At this point they can just sit back and add some new arena/pvp gear every4-6 months and that's it. "
Zarhym:
" This a common misconception. Such a misconception requires nothing but assumptions and misinformation to hold water. We have completely independent art and development teams for each project on which Blizzard Entertainment is working. Sure, people switch positions and may move to other projects from time to time. This is common practice in any company, whether or not the company develops games. But if a position is vacated, it is filled. You may have seen earlier this year that Jeff Kaplan, former game director for World of Warcraft, announced he would be leaving his position to begin work on the new, unannounced MMO. Tom Chilton stepped up to fill his role on the World of Warcraft development team. We're never short on talent and our teams are constantly growing. There's absolutely no reason or evidence to support the theory that we've shifted focus away from the Warcraft franchise. I'm surrounded by employees in this building working hard every day that can attest to this, were they not too busy working on a prioritized list of new content for this game to speak directly. "
*** How that other foot taste?****
M.informed:
" People are saying that there is another MMO in the works at Blizzard. Seriously, if there was, they would be advertising it already. "
*** He is seriouz peoplez, I wouldnt lie****
Zarhym:
" We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it's a shell of a game thus far. We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this. "
At this point you get the jist that Blizzard is not abandoning WoW and that guys like M.informed are everywhere so ignore the rumor mill. Hopefully this "factual" dose of reality to M.informed will have him thinking twice before posting up some heresay rumor garbage. But from all this atleast go away knowing they are not abandoning anything. Blizzard is still working on content and have no plans of just ditching WoW.
May 11, 2009
The Epic Blame Continues.....
WoWmatrix speaks out! So here we are again, and in what some see as desperate attempt to save face others see a controversy. I will try to remain as neutral as possible while that facts continue to emerge. But when one party contradicts the other it's hard to not take a side. So WoWmatrix fired a shot back and was quoted saying the following:
" When we launched WowMatrix (the cross-site updater application), we made a post at WowAce’s ‘Updater’ forum (note: WowAce which was subsequently acquired by Curse), and when we kindly suggested the possibility of hosting their AddOns on our servers to help with the bandwidth, the WowAce administrator promptly rejected the idea publicly.
Read more...This, coupled with the fact that at the time, WowAce provided an RSS feed containing direct download links to the AddOns, made it clear to us that they would very much prefer that our updater download directly from their servers, and not from our own (which is the exact opposite of what they would like now). "
So basically stating that curse is the ones whom rejected them even before the new curse client was talked about. They further stated the following:
" We were the ones who approached both Curse and WoWInterface with beneficial proposals many months ago. We are probably still the only AddOn updater to have done this. Our proposals included all 3 of the following:
a) Making regular financial contributions to cover bandwidth usage by our updater.
b) Technical implementations to reduce such bandwidth usage by third party updaters such as WowMatrix.
c) Additional exposure within our software to drive more traffic to their sites, thereby increasing their revenue and user base.
WoWInterface completely ignored the proposal, while Curse rejected the proposal on the spot, while making threats and trying to buy us out for cheap instead, so as to get rid of us completely. Instead of taking the time to negotiate on our proposal, they were trying very hard to negotiate on the price of the buyout instead. It was an insult to ourselves and to our users. It is clear that both Curse and WoWInterface are more concerned about their own profits than working with us to help better serve the gaming community. "
So this begs the question WoWmatrix... If you've tried over and over to make a deal. Then Curse calls you out and says "you" are the ones who rejected their offer. Why did it take so long to get this reply? Saving face? Or did you feel that your fans deserved an answer? Make no mistake the only that truly know are those at the forefront of this addon war.
May 9, 2009
Gone Fishing....
Wanted to take the time to create an article on my personal favorite gold maker... fishing! Yeah I'm sure most don't think it profitable. But if you check AH on daily basis and see a lack of certain fish that can be made into buff food, you can pocket some good gold for your time. No fighting over nodes or roaming for hours collecting mats. All thats required is location of the type of fish you want. Now I suggest if you don't have cooking profession as of yet to get it, can be very useful in making some buff food to sell on AH. There are many good reasons to level fishing, so let me list some reason's why fishing is beneficial:
1. Fishing for raid buff food- Why not? You will be better prepared for a raid and who knows you might fish up enough to make some extra to put on the AH.
2. Turtle Mount- New turtle mount can be fished up that yields 60% swim speed boost. No brainer there.
3. Fishing Extravaganza- Event where fishing pools appear everywhere along the coast north of Booty Bay. Rare fish can be caught to turn in for fishing stat gear. If you win you can choose between [Hook of the Master Angler][Arcanite Fishing Pole]. To ensure you dont mess up set your hearth to Booty Bay, this makes it easier once you have 40 fish to be the first back to claim the prize. Only one person per week can win.
4. For Achievements- Many achievements available for those seasoned anglers! Plus getting off hand equipable fish gives you bragging rights!
5. Get away from it all- Find a spot and just post up and chit chat with whomever! Gives some relief from the stresses of raiding and farming for stuff. You may be surprised that this actually helps.
So go on and jump into the WoW angler world and enjoy some good old holesome fishing! Goodluck to all and happy fishing!
May 6, 2009
Blogger at work!
Blog being revamped! No new posts until new look in in place... stay tuned!
May 2, 2009
Update of World Firsts: US & EU
(Click image to expand) Image from worldofraids.com
Gratz to all on the list. very well done. I don't expect for most hard mode firsts to be available for too long.
Blue Post: On Druid/ Rogue DR not shared
(Click for clear/larger image)
Basically stating that they want more druid/rogue combos in 2v2. They do not and for the time being will not share DR with cyclone/blind. So gave that combo more time with CC abilities. So try it out sounds like a good deal. Also as a side note on a down side blind/fear do share DR ... can't win em all. Happy pwning!
[2.Trade]: Dummy LF DPS!
So you go use spreadsheets and get a base line of where your DPS should be at, but where to test it? Hrmm if there was only a big chuck of wood to test it on. Like one that was on par with level 80 NPC's and 83 raid bosses... Wait! There is! So for reasons beyond my realm of knowledge some don't use this nice in game DPS utility. So here I am to explain good uses for target dummies.
Practice makes perfect-
You might sit there and wonder why your DPS always seems off or you really can't put together a great rotation. First and foremost read up on your class, there is tons and tons of info on rotations out there. Second, go practice these rotations on target dummies. OMG the CONCEPT! Instead of just hitting random spells and abilities try to actually cap your DPS with the gear you have . To do so I suggest using Recount mod, once in-game set your self 5-7 min intervals of solid dps on the dummy. After which record the data you collected, then reset recount and try again. Try different rotations until you get to what you conclude as the best DPS rotation for you. Could you imagine if even 50% of Rogues out there actually tried practicing maxing DPS and getting good rotations?... scary thought.
Spreadsheet DPS v.s. In-game DPS-
So if you do spreadsheets you have a baseline by the math numbers of what you abilities up times are and what your overall DPS could be against certain bosses( Not taking into account some DPS loss for repositioning during fight ..blah blah.). Ablility up times show a percentage of during the fight how long abilities remain active and what amount of total damage it accounts for. All these numbers can be crunched and fine tuned, but execution is key so again hit the dummies and use recount/swstats to find out what your certain ability outputs and DoT time/dmg. Yeah I could go further into detail but finding out on your own is much more satisfying and its nothing that hasnt been cover already over at Elitist Jerks . So hopefully this info proves useful on your journey to becoming even better at DPS.
May 1, 2009
Roguecraft Spreadsheets Tutorial: Round 1...FIGHT!
I figured it be a good idea to go over some spreadsheets for those that may be unaware of their purpose or have no idea where to begin understanding them. For starters the best program for viewing them is Excel and OpenOffice. There might be other ways to view these but from my experience others may not let you view drop down menus. Click here for Roguecraft spreadsheet , it can be a bit to soak in at first but once mastered is a valuable tool. The first tab at the bottom in version updates explaining what exactly they put in or changed. The next tab will be Talents & setting shown here(Click image for full size):
( Click for clear/large image)
As you can see column C is where you would input your talent point data. Column D shows max allow points for that talent. I suggest trying various spec's to see how it may affect your Total DPS at the top of the page. All on the right hand side in column I and J you can enter in other data about your toon. Also this has baseline data for your DPS target, so I suggest you look up content your currently clearing and pick a boss. Look up said bosses stats and enter them in the according boxes. Next will be the Gear spreadsheet shown here(Click for larger image):
(Click for clear/large image)
As you can see in the image that there are drop down menu's for each equipment slot. As well as gem and enchant boxes for each of the slots. So if you had a gem or an enchant on the item in that slot then you select the enchant from a drop down list next to the enchant box for corresponding piece of gear, same goes for the gem selection boxes. Down the rows will show you realated info to the gear. This is the perfect sheet to compare what you have now to what you might want to replace it with to see how it would affect your DPS. WoooHoooo! No more asking in trade chat if [Big Bronze Knife]or [Harpy Skinner] is better or not (Simply example). Other tabs like Buffs, Cooldowns, DPS and Cycles are tabs you can adjust according to what you feel is best. They take sometime to learn but in time once you master using these sheets you no doubt will further hone your DPS and rogue skill. Hope this was informative and now go forth and unleash hell, we are rogues hear us ROAR!!!!! /meow
It's Raining Tea Bags!
Ah nothing like a good old tea bag to get your point across. It be to a guildy after he is the only one to die or to a heated rival in Bg's. Whatever your reason they are here to stay as a stamp for failure. Everyone has done it and no one can pass up on a good bag. I mean even recently on TV they had the tea bag protesters marching around with tea bags hanging and taped everywhere. I know I'm not the only damn one that laughed hard at that debacle. So I've decided to name a few of the bags and hope to expand the list with your help! Leave a comment with you tea bag name and description and it might get on the list of bags. So here some basic bags I came up with:
- Dumb death bag- Usually happens to you when you were probably the only one not paying a bit of attention.
-Friendship Bag- Given to those whom others feel bonded to and want to express that close bond by giving the gift that keeps giving.
-CPR Bag- Usually a fast paced up and down bagging in a attempt to resesitate the dead. Also working in comjunction with jumping on the chest.
-Revenge Bag- Given to a heated rival, most times a /spit preceeds the bagging. Most time this cycle of baggings never ceases, rather it increases in number.
-ROFL Bag- Could be a dead guildy, random low level or dead goblin, you don't care your bagging for the sake of laughing like a gitty school girl.
-Drunken Bag- No worries here as the giver of this bag usually misses your face 3 times while attempting this bag. By the time he gets it right you'll be long gone and he'll have to pick bones out of his ass.
-Friendship Bag- Given to those whom others feel bonded to and want to express that close bond by giving the gift that keeps giving.
-CPR Bag- Usually a fast paced up and down bagging in a attempt to resesitate the dead. Also working in comjunction with jumping on the chest.
-Revenge Bag- Given to a heated rival, most times a /spit preceeds the bagging. Most time this cycle of baggings never ceases, rather it increases in number.
-ROFL Bag- Could be a dead guildy, random low level or dead goblin, you don't care your bagging for the sake of laughing like a gitty school girl.
-Drunken Bag- No worries here as the giver of this bag usually misses your face 3 times while attempting this bag. By the time he gets it right you'll be long gone and he'll have to pick bones out of his ass.
Apr 30, 2009
New shiny and raiding... Do you raid tweet?
So now that twitter is catching on like wild fire, I can only wonder in amazement as to how many players are alt tabbing during a raid to update their raid status in a tweet or to check out other peoples tweets. As is afk's werent bad enough now a new shiny play thing in twitter gives yet another reason to alt tab. I like to hear from any and all blog posters on your take as to if it indeed posses as a distraction in raids or if it's no big and useful gadget. I like to doubt it with every fiber in my being but I don't doubt it for a second. Only because of horrid memories of stealth afkers in the days of old.
Curse and WoWMatrix: Shots Fired! Run for cover..err credit cards.
The votes are in and the horse might have moved! Now that this whole curse gaming debacle has come to light, gloves are off and sides have been taken in the WoW community. Their has been strong accusations as of late towards WoW Matrix for stripping donation links off addons. Also it's been said that they, WoW Matrix, have totally stripped the addon of a author entirely. In addition some say Curse was being "robbed" of bandwith. The answer from curse came yesterday with their introduction of the Curse Premium Service @ the price of $2.45 a month. Without going into too much detail it basically offers you faster client downloads, automatic addon updates and first crack at some betas. They also have been working with WoW interface on this debacle and have come to a solution for stopping WoW Matrix from accessing their files...for now. But the question is, was a pay by month service required to offer what WoW Matrix did for free? Granted it's good that the addon author community will get their due credit and a small cut off your monthly service, but is it all a money play? I mean honestly end user agreement states you shouldn't make money off their game... but during an age of addon site wars was their any other choice? Only time and the grand debate will tell.
