Below is a list of Article headlines from WOW Insider. This are used on our main page and updated daily. Each article contains links back to WOWinsider, which allow you to view the whole article
pathC:\HostingSpaces\kcykmeec\highlandwarriorsguild.com\wwwroot\admin\xml\wow-insider-25-08-2008.xmlHybrid Theory: Yet another spell power discussion - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST
Continue reading Hybrid Theory: Yet another spell power discussion
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Addon Spotlight: Minimalist - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EST
Welcome to this week's Addon Spotlight, where I'm going to pay tribute to your feedback by giving an official thank-you to you all for turning me on to Minimalist. Basically, this addon does everything I've been using multiple addons to accomplish in one simple package, with a memory footprint even Tekkub would be proud of. (I think, he gets pretty fired up about wasted resources.)
Alright, back to Minimalist, the addon that makes a bunch of little adjustments, helping to clean up the some-times cluttered default UI. It provides a way to automate some simple commands and remove some unwanted knick-knacks. (Actionbar chickens, begone!) The good news is that this is an Ace addon and there is already a Wrath-compliant version for those of you in the Beta.
Continue reading Addon Spotlight: Minimalist
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Wrath in pictures for your weekend - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST
The Borean Tundra The Borean Tundra, accessed from either the Orgrimmar zeppelin tower or the Stormwind Harbor, is one of two starter zones in Northrend. The Tundra houses Valiance Keep, Warsong Hold, D.E.H.T.A. the Coldarra (home of the Blue Dragonflight) and much more. | |
The Howling Fjord The Howling Fjord is the second of the two Northrend starter zones, accessed via Menethil Harbor or the Tirisfal zeppelin towers. The Howling Fjord is home to Valgarde, the Forsaken's Vengeance Landing, the Vrykul fortress Utgarde, and the Ember Clutch. | |
Continue reading Wrath in pictures for your weekend
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Ask a Lore Nerd: Books, boats and Blood Knights - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST
Continue reading Ask a Lore Nerd: Books, boats and Blood Knights
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WoW Insider on WIUX's Canoodle Strudel this evening - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EST
Canoodle Strudel is a radio show about gaming, hosted on Indiana University's WIUX radio station (they're the ones who put together all of these custom Soul Caliber IV videogame characters), and the guys there have kindly invited WoW Insider on their show tonight. I'll be on the phone with them from Chicago to talk gaming, World of Warcraft, MMOs in general, and all the big news out of Wrath of the Lich King starting tonight at midnight Eastern.
It should be a good time -- even if you're not in Bloomington, Indiana, there is a live stream on their website that plays really well in iTunes, so if you're awake around midnight this evening (finishing up those dailies or farming those last few motes), feel free to tune in and check it out. We're not sure if they can do call-ins, but even if not, you can always send us a tip with a suggestion of what you'd like to hear and I'll do my best to get it on the air.
The show starts around midnight on the East Coast (and goes pretty late, I believe), but if you're up for some late night Sunday Warcraft discussion, definitely tune in.
Update: Time zone fixed.
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WoW Moviewatch: Horde vs. Alliance - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST
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Around Azeroth: Test tube world - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EST
Beta tester Landon has stumbled upon a secret in one of the Titan-centric areas of Storm Peaks -- an entire galaxy. This miniverse is holed up inside what appears to be one of those giant test tubes that aliens use to hold people in suspended animation in bad b-movies and that Simpsons Halloween special where they kidnapped the presidential candidates.
What does it contain? Is it a parallel universe? A split in the giant Trousers of Time, where the Burning Legion won at Mount Hyjal and now rules Azeroth? Is it the galaxy of Azeroth, encased forever inside itself? Or is it the most terrifying thing of all; our very own Milky Way? Landon, you fool! What have you discovered? No, don't log out! You'll destroy us all! Just play WoW for all of eternity. It's a small price to pay for not dooming existence.
This image came to us straight from the Wrath of the Lich King beta -- and we'd love to have your beta screenshots, too! If you have anything our readers might like, beta or not, sharing it is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. And please, no sunsets.
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Sunday Morning Funnies: Just a few Centaur feet - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EST
Another Sunday is passing, and with it, summer break. Soon, raids will pick back up, we'll see a return to relatively child-free hours on the servers, and the weather will start to cool off. Here are this week's funnies, to help you stay in a summery spirit.
Humor
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Breakfast Topic: How would you do the Wrath cinematic? - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST
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The Colosseum: Maimage of Korgath, Vengeful Gladiator - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EST
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.
Maimage, a Warrior on Korgath, is one of the many high-ranked players competing in the Arena Junkie's Olympic contest. He's sitting right now on the team AJOlympics at 2321. Maimage is one of few, the proud -- the Vengeful Gladiators. Like many such players, however, he also has a fairly high alt priest named Maimgler, hovering around the 2K rating mark.
We caught up with him, as we tend to do, and Maim was helpful in supplying some insight about the way the Arena works. Check out what he had to say after the cut. Since he's more experienced with his Warrior, his answers are mostly focused on that class. That makes him the first Warrior for the Colosseum, and his answers contrast interestingly with previous week's speakers.
Continue reading The Colosseum: Maimage of Korgath, Vengeful Gladiator
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Lichborne: On Blood leveling and Beta - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST
So here's yet another example of how mutable Death Knights are at the moment: This week, I decided to spec Blood all week and make a genuine effort to learn all the ins and outs I could so that I could bring you a good solid overview of Blood for this weekend's column.
Then build 8820 came along, and Blood, while having the same basic mechanics, got a rather big hit to its health regeneration and DPS abilities, and I'm left trying to figure out the extent of the damages. In the end, I don't think Blood was horribly nerfed in this build, but it might have been slightly overnerfed.
Continue reading Lichborne: On Blood leveling and Beta
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Beta Shadow concerns - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EST
A Dwarf Priest is one of my very favorite WoW blogs. The author writes about exactly one topic - Priests - and she does it very well. So when she says that Shadow Priests are "on the endangered list" in Wrath, I think there's probably some truth to that. The core argument is that Shadow Priests' utility is not at the point it was once at (group mana regen is not unique any more; Shadow is not as important for raid synergy), but their DPS has not (yet) been increased accordingly.
One reason why Shadow's DPS is low has to do with spell coefficients. You know how items with +damage or +healing (or now spell power) always say "adds up to [however much] damage"? The coefficient on a spell is what determines exactly how much is applied. Generally it's based on cast times - Greater Heal gets 86% of +healing applied, while Flash Heal only gets 43% - but there are exceptions for spells with added effects, such as Mind Flay and its snare.
Continue reading Beta Shadow concerns
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Wowhead Beta key contest cancelled - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST
Wowhead has put up an announcement this afternoon that the beta key contest they were running has been cancelled. The announcement tells us that the distribution of the keys were exploited. Though there is no official word on what exactly the exploitation was, there is some unconfirmed talk about the beta keys being ebayed.
This is most unfortunate for those wishing to participate. Malgayne, the "Voice of Wowhead," does go on to say however that the remaining prizes will be given away using a different method soon. We'll get any more news up on this as soon as it becomes available.
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Arcane Brilliance: Glyph-hanger - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST
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Insider Trader: Faction recipes for jewelcrafters, part two - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EST
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.
For the past several weeks, Insider Trader has been examining the recipes that craftsmen can acquire from factions by earning reputation with them.
So far, we've covered:
Continue reading Insider Trader: Faction recipes for jewelcrafters, part two
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GC on raid stacking - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST
Raid composition is going to change in Wrath of the Lich King. A certain part of this is obvious and inevitable: they're adding a new class. But there is another major factor that's changing. Currently, buffs and synergy are a large part of the reason you might choose to bring one class over another. Shamans' awesome Bloodlust/Heroism, for instance, and their Windfury Totem, has made it often a good idea to bring many Shamans to a 25-man raid, and almost mandatory to have at least one. Similarly, the fact that Warlocks synergize quite well with each other (Warlocks cause other Warlocks to do more damage), due to effects like that of Improved Shadow Bolt, has contributed to Mages being much less favored for Sunwell Plateau.
How is this going to change in Wrath? Ghostcrawler made another rather long post yesterday on raid stacking, and this is the essence of what he said:
The ultimate goal of this is to cause raid leaders to want to bring players they like, or good players, and not feel like they have to bring certain classes to get certain buffs and debuffs; and also to help class balance. Of course, they recognize that certain guilds are going to strictly min/max in any case, but the idea is that the benefits of a few classes shouldn't be so overwhelming that you feel like you have to bring five of them.
It's an interesting move. Assuming they execute it well, and preserve class uniqueness and utility (as they are promising to do), I think it will be very good for the game. And as this is still beta, and they are actively collecting and implementing feedback, if it doesn't work well right now they'll have time to fix it. The Wrath development team seems (thankfully) much more responsive to feedback than the Burning Crusade dev team was.
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Wrath sound files point to world event - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EST
Continue reading Wrath sound files point to world event
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Blizzard C&Ds iPhone Armory app - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EST
Well, maybe they're writing their own. Legions of WoW fans would certainly love to have a little bit of the game to carry around in their pockets, whether it's mobile auctions or just an Armory viewer. I've certainly installed an Armory viewing app already, and I just got my iPhone three days ago. Anyway, the only way I can make sense out of Blizzard bothering to put a stop to this little development project is if they want their own software to be the only iPhone Armory browser out there. Or it could also be because they don't like someone else making money off their game - $0.99 isn't much, but it's something, and as far as I know the free Warcraft Characters app is still in the clear. I prefer to believe it's a sign of a Blizzard iPhone project in the works, though.
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WoW Insider Show live this afternoon - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:30:00 EST
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WoW Moviewatch: WoW 3K - Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST
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