Return of the PTR

If you are anything like me, you have been following the 3.3 patch news with great anticipation and interest, as they have began to flood through from wow.com and mmo-champion - people hard at work data mining and exploring what is currently available in the test realms.

So far, the most interesting news have come from both Blizzard themselves, in the form a Frozen Halls info page, and mmo-champion data miners, whom have been able to discover some very interesting updates. The first and foremost of course, is the Icecrown Citadel. Anyone who has flown around it a few times realized a long time ago that it will be very expansive. The structure alone is impressive and massive.

So far we know that the citadel with not only host the new raid, with the Lich King as the final boss, but will also contain a new dungeon, with both normal and heroic version, and a total of three different wings; in order the Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection. You must complete them in sequence to gain access to the last one and contain a lot of interesting new aspects.

So naturally when I saw people on general channel, looking for likeminded adventurers and explorers I just had to jump at the chance. We entered the Pit of Saron, whether or not because they had already done the first wing or if it was the only one currently enabled, I cannot say. But the first time stepping inside the citadel was very exciting. Essentially, we have two objectives; free as many slaves as possible and also kill the bosses.

The second boss Ick, which after falling to us gave up a startling revelation, Frostmourne currently resides alone, in the Halls of Reflection. Whether it will be just an event or possible a boss encounter, remains to be seen but opens the possibility that the way to defeat the Lich King is by taking away his most dangerous weapon.

Like all dungeons, normal and heroic alike, tanking the instance was heavy on the aoe side. You can switch to blood on bosses if you prefer but all and all, was a very standard issue tankwise. The bosses themselves do a lot of burst damage and had very little actual technicalities to overcome. Tyrannus at the very end had some twists to provide, but seems we encounter either a bug or another disabled feature, because once we quickly downed him, the first was suddenly over.

Why is this odd? Because Tyrannus first presents himself on the back of a frostwyrm and on such an occasion, you would expect to fight both the two-legged and four-legged counterparts. Our encounter however started with Tyrannus coming down and ended when he fell.

We had no luck investigating any possible loot because nothing was dropped, but odds are high this will change quickly, once the loot tables are finished and enabled. Mmo-champions did report an interesting set of new daily quests though, or rather, weekly quests. I managed to confirm them with the usual daily quest giver. Exactly like the old Wintergrasp quests, these can be completed only once a week, but instead provide x10 Emblems of Frost.

Also, instead of heroics, the quests are completed in raid instances. These range from Naxxramas to Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader. Basically just like the previous heroic dailies, you have to kill a boss to complete the quest. I could not locate a vendor that currently accepts the new emblems but I am prepared to speculate they have to do with new gear. A new set of tier gear?

Personally, I am voting against a new tier set. It takes our all the fun out of, the otherwise exciting gear, when you have to struggle to change it every damn patch. But time will tell. For now, will continue to follow the blogsphere and explore the PTR. Will keep my readers informed.

How to win PvP

I did not link this video originally when I first saw it but now, looking back, I just have to. It is the most accurate and hilarious representation PvP in World of Warcraft I have ever seen. Definitely worth watching. Enjoy.

Good Will

During my every morning routine visit to wow.com, something oddly unconventional caught my eye; Doing something nice for other players. Makes you think back and just how rare this sort of thing is in the modern World of Warcraft. Aye, it is not as bad as it first seems, but the simple truth is that large portion of players find it stimulating to jerk off at other people, safe behind the impenetrable shield of anonymity.

What is worse, it is everywhere; both general and trade channels, battlegrounds, raids, guilds, and even random people you meet outside an instance. The recent moments, for me personally was when I was waiting for a friend of mine to come out Caverns of Time, standing outside the instance where a friendly level 80 warlock threw "noob" at me for being below level 60.

Any of my readers happen to be working on a doctorate for psychology? I am pretty sure this sort of gratification disorder, the need to jump on other people for no good reason, other than that their moms held them too tight or not tight enough would just fascinate you shrink types.

But of course, after some reflection, we can gladly conclude that while their numbers are high, they do not make up the whole of the gamer population. There are lots of friendly and decent people around. True, I have to say that although I hold myself to this group, I do not practice the kind of open charity as the person described in the news post.

The reason for that is that while those of us, who enjoy helping others, do not do it very often or to total strangers only out of the goodness in our hearts, is that most newbies are not nearly as grateful for the help you offer. Several exemplary cases come to mind, one being that after you do help out, maybe pull extra mats from your bank and make some toys for someone, they tend to get too used to it.

The end result is that they continue to whisper you for more help; can you help me with this quest, where can I find A or C, and if you can loan them some more gold for a new piece of armor. That is just not right and incredibly infuriating. Another winning case is when you polite tell someone you cannot take them to your pug because of their shabby gear.

Aye, it does suck to be turned down but all willingness to give you tips and hints where to get better upgrades wash away when you start throwing "fuck you" and "shit yourself" at me for trying to help you. We have all been there, in that position. The difference is, we worked hard and got out of it, without the need for drama.

Some part of the problem itself, I believe is inherent in the game itself and what it represents. A common problem with kids these days is that they spend so much time online and in the virtual world that they totally lack social skills. They do not know how to communicate with the common bloke and the game itself promotes an environment where they do not even have to.

This is the big reason why I refuse to give into using much of the WoW slang that exists in the game, because it was invented by socially awkward 14 year olds. I choose to hold on to my persona and will not sink into the pit hole of lame idiots who hardly know how to spell xenophobe.