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Live
Blizzard's New Explorers' League Journal of WoW News Goodness!
Blizzard have just posted the first of a great news summary that will (hopefully) become a staple feature of their
brand spankin' new site's
blog. This new feature, the
Explorers' League Journal
, explores (hah!) Blizzard's latest developments and other important news from the World of Warcraft.
What I like the most about this new blog is that it spotlights not only blog articles (such as their recent post regarding the
Elemental Invasion
) but it also features links to important threads made by Blizzard posters on their own World of Warcraft Official Forums. Check it out!
Well met, travelers! Welcome to the first entry in our ongoing Explorers' League Journal. Together, we'll embark on frequent journeys through the fascinating World of Warcraft community and investigate the latest developments and topics of interest being discussed throughout the lands. It wouldn't be a proper start without drawing your attention to the exciting live preview and impending official launch of the brand-new World of Wa
Live
Battle.net Dial-In Authenticator
Blizzard announced a new tool today for security conscious people: the
Battle.net Dial-In Authenticator
. For those who don't have access to a smart phone capable of running the authenticator software, or those unable to get a token authenicator, users will be able to sign up for this new service. It's free and (currently) only available to U.S. Residents. How it works is pretty simple: you will authorize a specific phone number and make a phone call to verify it. After that every time something unusual happens with your account, such as logging in from a foreign location, you will be required to make a phone call from the registered phone number and enter your pin which will provide you with a single use security code much like the normal authenticators.
You can read more about the Dial-In Authenticator on
Blizzard's Support Site
.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&tag=dialinauth&rhtml=true
Live
Moonkin Hatchlings & Lil' Ragnaros Preview
Note
: The latest Beta build introduced an interesting uncategorized spell -
Moonkin Hatchling Passive
. Its effect is to cast
Moonkin Hatchling Flower
once every 3 minutes, which in turn summons
Wild Flower
. Just sayin'...
Remember the
Moonkin Hatchling
(
Moonkin Egg
) Blizzard announced back during BlizzCon? Well, they are not here yet, but we have a sneak preview on the brand new community site. One of the cool things about this new pet is that is has different models for Alliance and Horde players - just like the Moonkin Form is different for the two factions. Oh, and they are oh-sooo-cute, and I am not one to buy this cuteness stuff easily!
Also, the
Lil' Ragnaros
pet also made it into the preview, and let me tell ya - it is
hot
!
Check out the images below and the official announcement after the break:
Horde Moonkin Hatch
Live
Level Selector In Talent Calc
Just another little awesome bonus feature—you can now
select your level
in the talent calculator!
Just click on the level listed at the top of the talent calculator, and a dialog box will pop up asking you what level you'd like. Once you select a level, the talent calculator will be constrained to only the number of talent points that level character has available.
Give it a try and see!
http://www.wowhead.com/talent
Live
Wowhead User Survey—Win an Xbox/PS3/Wii
So one of the most common complaints we get—or any website gets, for that matter—is about the ads. We don't like it when annoying, obnoxious, irrelevant ads are showing our pages. We don't like "Shoot the Duck" any more than you do.
We want you to be seeing ads for products you actually care about: awesome games, movies, computer equipment, and so on. We have a pretty good idea what sort of ads you want to see. But in order to get those ads up on the site, we need to prove it!
In light of this fact, we've put this little survey together! It asks a bunch of questions about what games you like to play, what movies you like to watch, what sort of gear you like to buy, and so on—so we can prove to our advertisers that our audience knows their gear. And as a thank you for filling it out, we're giving everybody who participates a chance to win
their choice of an Xbox 360, PS3, or a Wii.
So click on through! It takes about 5 minutes to fill out. Wowhead shows fewer annoying ads, and maybe you walk away with a new game console. What do you say?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WOWHEAD
Remem
Live
Elemental Invasion Phase 2 is Here!
Seems sometime this morning Blizzard flipped the switch and began
Phase 2
of the
Elemental Invasion
! While helping the Earthen Ring fight against the elementals, you will find several new quests in both Ironforge and Orgrimmar.
Phase 2: November 8 - November ???
Tablets of the Earth
/
Tablets of Fire
Go to the harbor / zeppelin tower and talk to the quest NPC there. A short event will begin, where you - imbued with the powers of the Tablets - need to use your new abilities to fight various elemental attackers off. Remember, use water to counter fire, air to counter earth, and fire to counter water. After the event is over loot the tablets and turn the quest in.
Subduing the Elements
/
Subduing the Elements
Open the
Earthen Ring Supplies
and loot
Elemental Sapta
&
Cleansing Totem
. Drinking the Septa will allow you to see the spirits, and using the totem near them will subdue them. You can find the Agitated Earth / Fire Spirits all over Ironforge and Orgrimmar.
You can check out al
Live
Preview of New World of Warcraft Site
Blizzard has just launched a preview of the
new World of Warcraft Community Site
!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/
As some of you may know, our own founder
Skosiris
is now a part of Blizzard's web development team, so we can't help but feel a little bit of pride in this new site.
The blue post describing the preview is up
here
. Check out the description:
Many exciting changes are coming to World of Warcraft with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, both in-game and out. We're excited to offer you an early look at the new World of Warcraft community site, which will soon become the prime gathering spot and source of information for players on the web. You can read more about the transition from our existing website to the new one in our original announcement.
As you’re exploring your future home, keep in mind that this is a live preview, and not all of the new features are ready quite yet. We want your feedback about the look and feel of the new site, so while you're browsing, we enco
Live
Cataclysm: Updated Combat Resurrection Design
Zarhym just posted a rather interesting announcement: in Cataclysm raiders will only be allowed
one use of Rebirth or Soulstone in 10-player encounters.
In 25-player raid encounters, you will be able to use a maximum of
3 resurrections
. There is no equivalent of a "Sated" debuff to track how many times you have resurrected.
What is everyone's opinion on this? Do you think it's better for raiders or worse?
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 13241) New Models & Icons!
A new beta build is here and as usual we have another new batch of models and icons for your perusal. One of the
BIG THINGS
in this build is the *drum roll* Worgen Druid's
Travel Form
! Hopefully we will have a video for this up in the near future, so be on the lookout for that! Other than that awesomely sexy model for druids there are several other models, such as a Corrupted Cho'gall and even more weapons and shields that you will most likely see in the raid dungeons at level 85.
In the icon department we have updated icons for many different gem types and some new dungeon armor icons. There are even new icons for
Moonkin Hatchling
(both Tauren and Night Elf flavors) and
Lil' Ragnaros
.
Edit: For those of you who prefer YouTube, or who have trouble with our modelviewer, we've added a YouTube video!
You can check out all these models and icons after the break!
Live
Region Wide Battlegroup Matchmaking Update
Bashiok has just posted an update showing the current progress on
Region-Wide Battlegroup Matchmaking
.
Phase 2 was implemented today—in this phase Whirlwind, Emberstorm, Vengeance and Bloodlust are now all linked for Battleground queues. Whirlwind and Emberstorm are now also linked in the Dungeon Finder queue. The same thing is true of Stormstrike, Nightfall and Retaliation. In the final phase all battlegroups for the Dungeon Finder will be linked together by their physical location.
You can read the original announcement after the break!
Live
Ghostcrawler Interview on The Escapist
John Funk over at the Escapist is a friend of mine, so when he posted an interview he did with Ghostcrawler, I figured I'd give him a shout out here.
It's an interesting interview—he gives thoughts on WoW's business model, the balance problems in patch 4.0.1, and a lot more. Check it out below!
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/8279-BlizzCon-2010-Cataclysm-and-the-Future-of-WoW
Live
The Days Before Cataclysm
I've been itching to post a blog about the different events that will take place in the 5-6 weeks before the release of Cataclysm, but Zarhym beat me to it! Since I can't really shed any more light than he did, I will summarize his post and then just give you the blue. Basically the plan from here until December 7 is:
Patch 4.0.1
: The Twilight's Cult & The Elemental Invasion events take place.
Patch 4.0.3
: All of the Cataclysm data is being introduced to your installation folder, no changes to the actual in-game experience (other than some balance issues possibly).
Patch 4.0.3a
(a.k.a. The Shattering): Deathwing emerges from Deepholm, and boy, is he mad! Azeroth shatters and takes on the shape all those Cataclysm maps and guides have been teasing you with.
Cataclysm
: Comes out on December 7, and introduces the 80-85 zones and skills, 450-525 professions, Archaeology, goblins & worgen (and everything else not yet introduced).
Zarhym's post is after the break!
Live
Blizzard Homage to Red Shirt Guy
We waited a little while to post this to make sure it wasn't private server shenanigans, but it looks like it's been confirmed—Blizzard has done an homage to the man now known only as
Red Shirt Guy
, not only by restoring
Falstad Wildhammer
to his rightful position as Wildhammer Clan Representative, but he is now joined by an assistant: the
Wildhammer Fact Checker!
The above screenshot is leaked from an internal beta build, but
Alex Afrasiabi has confirmed
that it's real—red shirt and all. As soon as he appears on live servers, we'll have him on our db for comments and screenshots. :)
Congratulations, Red Shirt Guy. I hope Blizzard hires you to check their facts.
Live
Cataclysm Cinematics & Direct Download
Some of you may have heard something about users who use the direct download method of obtaining Cataclysm not getting any cinematics—like the new Cataclysm intro trailer, or Wrathgate-style cinematics.
Thankfully last night Bashiok put everyones fears to rest! He clarified that users will be getting these files, just at a later date closer to the release of Cataclysm. So don't worry! Everything will be fine and we'll have all the cinematics in due time!
You can read the original announcement by Bashiok after the break!
Live
Justice Point Calculations Added to Tooltips
We've added
Justice Points
costs to tooltips in item searches!
Now when you search for items that cost Justice Points, you'll be shown not only the number of Justice Points the item costs, but also the number of boss kills it will take to earn that many points! Just mouse over the number to see our calculations.
Go give it a shot for yourself and see!
http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=qu=4;cr=174;crs=1;crv=0
Live
Elemental Invasion Has Begun!
One of the final Cataclysm pre-launch events has begun! Elementals will now be invading remote outposts — and a few major cities as well! It's your job to fight back and eventually gain a rare Feat of Strength -
Tripping the Rifts
. Along with the invasions, the Twilight Hammer cultists are now stirring up trouble in the most important cities of the Alliance and the Horde - Stormwind and Orgrimmar. The entire event is still in Phase 1 (out of 4), so the danger isn't extreme... but who knows how grim things will become in a week or three?
You can check out our guide on the new events plus some other invasion info in our
Cataclysm Guide
!
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=cataclysm&prelaunch#twilights-cult-elemental-invasion
Live
Worgen Running Wild Mount Video
As many of you already know
Worgen
are not receiving a standard mount in Cataclysm—Instead they are gaining a new ability called
Running Wild
. This spell has a 1.5 second cast time like any other mount in the game, but instead of getting onto a mount the player drops down onto all fours and is able to run at ground mount speed. This ability does scale with your riding skill allowing it to go 60% speed at level 20 and 100% at level 40.
We also have a short video clip of the new ability in action! Check it out below!
Live
Upcoming Tanking Changes
This morning
Nethaera
announced on the official forums some
changes to tanking
we will be seeing in Cataclysm. Currently only Paladins and Warriors are scheduled to have changes. and druids and death knights may need changes as testing progresses further. According to Nethaera block chance is getting too high too quickly and causing abilities like
Shield Block
to behave strangely.
You can read more about the specific changes after the break!
Live
Cataclysm Digital Pre-Sale FAQ
Blizzard has released a short FAQ regarding the digital pre-sale of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm that was announced at BlizzCon. According to the FAQ,
you will only be able to obtain the standard edition of Cataclysm via the digital pre-sale
as the Collector's Edition is not available through this program. In addition,
the pre-sale will only be available in Americas, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia
.
You can check out the full FAQ after the break!
Live
Worgen Female Dance Has Arrived!
In the new beta build that is being released today Blizzard has finally implemented the
female Worgen dance
! The new dance is based on
Poker Face
by Lady Gaga.
We have some animated images of several sections of the dance below, hopefully we will be able to get a video of the new dance up as soon as the servers are back online!
We have a video posted on our YouTube channel at
ZAMOfficial
!
There are also animated .gif versions after the break!
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