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WoW Patch 3.3.3 Honor and PvP Changes

There’s a lot going down in Patch 3.3.3 I haven’t really covered so far in regards to PvP and specifically my favorite feature – Battlegrounds. All of this is in preparation of the massive PvP overhaul coming in Cataclysm with a heavier emphasis on Battlegrounds.

Tokens are being removed from the game, if you have tokens (the currency you get when you win or lose any BG) you’ll be able to turn those in now for a minor chunk of honor, which is a good thing I guess since there are some players out there with thousands of marks of honor.

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Posted by Spooner | 9 Comments

What Cataclysm’s stat changes mean to me…

There are plenty of posts out there that sum it all up for classes but I could give a rat’s ass about the lesser classes.

Let’s talk about Warrior and Rogue.

I officially hate my Paladin and he’s pretty much been shelved until further notice. Which means I’m not logging on him for shit until well after Cataclysm.

So these stat changes I wrote about earlier are bringing a whole new dynamic to the game as we know it, so WTF now?

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Posted by Spooner | 6 Comments

Pre-Cataclsym: We retake Gnomer & Echo Isles

It’s all very sketchy here because the information comes from MMOC and their digging into the Patch 3.3.3 and subsequent 3.3.3a or 3.3.4 patch but it’s safe to say, Gnomes are getting their city back and Trolls are getting their own city.

Even if it’s not a full blown metropolis here’s the deal.

The Horde:

We know Thrall won’t be in charge anymore and if he is, Garrosh is going to be the 2nd in command over Vol’jin and will essentially rule the roost. Probably because Thrall is slated to be the next Guardian of Tirisfal like Medivh was before him. So we know Orgrimmar is being rebuild and refitted with iron and steel and all the Forsaken and Trolls are being kicked out per the info gleamed in Blizzcon and other Catacylsm intel.

There are a bunch of quests involving helping Trolls recruit an army and fly missions over the Echo Isles in Durotar and then take it over. Sen’jin villiage will no longer just be a joke area to buy raptor mounts and it’ll probably now expand all the way into the islands and the Trolls will have a legit hub or port town. Makes sense too having a port town there for the whole Horde Navy and Goblin stuff going on.

The Alliance:

• Gnomecoming King – You assisted High Tinker Mekkatorque and the Gnomeregan Exiles in the recapture of Gnomeregan’s surface.
• Gnomecoming Queen – You assisted High Tinker Mekkatorque and the Gnomeregan Exiles in the recapture of Gnomeregan’s surface.

Gnomes need to take their city back. The deeper parts of the city are still irradiated like Chernobyl and so you can’t live there, that leaves it open to become A HEROIC DUNGEON FOR LEVEL 85’s MAYBE!? but at least we’re going to retake the surface of the city. So that’s the entire area in Dun Morogh with the leper gnomes and the entire sub-zone area after the elevator and so forth before ever entering the instance portal. At the same time we can argue that this new area is going to provide an outlet for the overworld like an airport or a new subway-tram system and even Gnomer the dungeon can be refitted for level 10-15 players like Ragefire Chasm is in Orgrimmar!

We could end up seeing a lot more humans in Ironforge, Worgen in Stormwind, and Gnomes in their own city now! I’m pretty fucking excited for all of this and I hope you guys leave your comments.

Potentially Pre Cataclysm Event

• Motivate – Motivates a Gnome Citizen to enlist. / 20 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
• Place Poster – Place a warning poster near one of the green markers in the Valley of Strength. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Place Poster – Place a warning poster near a green marker in Stormwind. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Cult Disguise – Disguise yourself as a member of the new Orgrimmar doomsday cult. / Instant
• Doomsday Messenger – Wear a large board emblazoned with a message about the impending end of the world. / Instant
• Hydrodynamic Flippers – Swim speed increased by 200%. / Instant
• Brilliant Tactics – For Gnomeregan! / 80 yd range, Instant
• Boon of the Loa – For the Darkspear! / 80 yd range, Instant
• Gnomeregan Overcloak – Right Click to don a cosmetic cloak. Will cover the appearance but not the effect of any existing cloak. / Instant, 1 sec cooldown
• Orgrimmar Overcloak – Right Click to don a cosmetic cloak. Will cover the appearance but not the effect of any existing cloak. / Instant, 1 sec cooldown
• Attune – Attune the captured frog to Vanira’s sight at Vanira’s Sentry Totem. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Frogs Away! – Toss one of Vanira’s attuned frogs at one of the illuminated locations on the Echo Isles. Only works when riding a bat. / 100 yd range, Instant
• Vol’jin’s War Drums – Play Vol’jin’s War Drums to recruit Troll Citizens to the cause of retaking the / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast

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Posted by Spooner | 9 Comments

No Sanctuary Towns in Cataclysm

A while ago the topic of some buzz on this site was my ranting that the visceral warfare in WoW had become really bland if not completely extinct and the majority of the game was being centered around carebear PvE content with little to no support for themed PvP in battlegrounds or messy and fun world PvP.

The advent of the arena has single handedly caused a world of problems for this game and if anything, has proven to be the black mark that will last forever on the permanent flawless record of WoW. Between that and the FUBAR Wintergrasp, the hopes of actual PvP outside of a pretty little playpen were all but broken.

Here is some good news coming out of CM Zarhym:

No sanctuary city in Cataclysm
We don’t have plans for a sanctuary city in the likes of Shattrath or Dalaran for Cataclysm. For the most part players will be working out of their current faction capitals to keep in the spirit of bringing life back to the old world Azeroth.

That bodes well for a return to faction pride where you’ll just about never interact with the enemy players unless you’re laying them out on the field of battle. That seems to fit very well with the direction Warcraft is heading which is back towards its roots of the Horde locked in very brutal combat against the Alliance and both sides trying to conquer territory and snuff the other out.

Cataclysm Dungeons
We’ve learned a lot from our Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. I think you can expect us to approach Cataclysm dungeons with some new ideas, especially taking into consideration the Dungeon Finder. This system has drastically changed the way dungeons are run and we want to make sure future dungeons are designed with this in consideration.

This is another change I’m excited for since it seems that the new dungeon finder (which is awesome) is making running a 5man instance into more of a game than some drawn out epic adventure. There’s plenty adventuring to go around, you don’t need to make every instance into a massively deep lore hole with heavy dramatic overtones. Deep and rich lore can be found all over Azeroth in many different places and after a while it becomes too saturated and get boring just like a lot of other RPG games out there that seem to be extremely full of themselves.

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Looking Forward for 2010

Well I’ve just about recovered from the Holidays, there’s this migraine that won’t go away and the taste of something dead in my throat but other than that and the massive summit of trash outside on the curb – it’s been a pretty awesome Christmas. We’re very close to the New Year and if only by comparison 2010 is looking to be a Golden Age of Awesome compared to the living nightmare of 2009. Sure this year has had some pretty amazing times but thus far the stress has outweighed the good by a vast margin. So what do you have to look forward to for Spooncraft in 2010? Well half of that relies on you.

The following is a list of all the titles and feature you know 100% will be coming up in 2010 and of that you’ve got my word:

Starcraft 2 – Yes friend the Beta test is imminent and I’m hoping that beta key I submitted damn near 6 months ago is going to rock me in. According to the magic 8-ball it seems that you’re going to get a lot of footage from the Beta event as I record tons of HD gameplay video.

Bioshock 2 – When this Feb. release hits my desktop you’ll see a lot of story spoilers as well as competitive multiplayer videos. Not to mention I’ll be gone for a few days as I bleed my eyes out soaking up every pixel of this soon to be masterpiece.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – The prospect of playing as a Worgen got me back into the vortex of WoW. I’m actually rally enjoying myself right now as compared to ever before and I have to attest half of that to playing a new class I’ve never touched before (Rogue) and the other half to playing more casually (which means I’m not raiding yet nor plan to for a while) and I’m back on the Alliance with my original crew of cohorts.

APB – If and when this is released expect me to touch some on the game and more than likely buy it and report regular news and other updates. If it turns out to be another Aion flop then it’ll drop off my radar but somehow I doubt that anything can live down to those standards.

The Daily Fap – This feature isn’t going away at all and if anything it’s frequency will be ramped up to a more weekly offering.

Diablo 3 – As always any news and content I can score will be posted here but keep in mind the game is most likely not going to even hit a Beta test until 2011, but we’ll see. I’m still holding a candle for this as my ultimate sequel next to Starcraft.

Blizzcon 2010 – As always if they have one and regardless of where they have one

That about does it for 100% guaranteed games I’ll be playing and features you’ll see. I’m on the fence about Star Wars: The Old Republic simply because the choose your own adventure style of gaming that Bioware loves isn’t something I jive with typically. I personally much prefer to be along for the ride and have it be an amazing and incredible one instead of being forced to pick and choose the little nuances in the story, I think that’s a job for the writer not the player. Unless of course you’re playing Little Big Planet.

So leave a comment or two or ten and list the things you want to see in 2010. What are you most excited about for this coming year and the turn of the decade? The new Metroid game? The new Castlevania title? Dante’s Inferno? Startrek Online? New tech? There’s a ton of new and exciting things coming in the next 12 months, what can’t you wait to experience?

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