Dyack admitted to trying out WoW for nearly a month when he told himself, "You know, I've got to stop this". He then came the conclusion that compared to EVE Online, the latter had more depth in terms of content and gameplay. Here's a quote from Dyack regarding his opinion on the Sci-Fi MMO game:

I was really, really big into EVE Online. I love EVE Online, and actually for me personally I actually think it s a better game. I know it s a lot harder core, but the depth of it s unparalleled and I love it. But I have to stop, force myself to stop playing those games because it takes so much time.

He was also relieved about finally finishing the development for Too Human. He said that this meant he now has time to play games of all sorts. Anyway, that apparently is his two cents regarding what he considers the better MMO title.

• Video: Denis Dyack talks about Too Human, the value of game storylines
• EA Mythic GM says Warhammer won't be a WoW Killer

Source: wow.qj.net

Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic
Heads up, World of Warcraft gamers! As promised, Blizzard has released the opining cinematic of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion at the Leipzig Games Convention! I can't express just how awesome it is, so why don't you see for yourselves? Watch the video below.

Aside from the movie, Blizzard will also host a Q&A portion, playable demos, and a forum at the convention. We'll be sure to let you know if anything new comes out of the event. Enough dilly-dally though, here's the movie, enjoy!

Related Articles:

• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Blizzard confirms showcase at Leipzig Games Convention 2008

Source: wow.qj.net

It's actually much easier than you think, and something that you may actually never have thought of.

I don't remember where I heard this, but it WORKS VERY WELL.

What you want to do is first head to felwood which is east of Darkshore.

Here you will find Withered Protectors: http://www.thottbot.com/?n=6474
and Warpwood Shredders: http://www.thottbot.com/?n=6486

The protectors have, according to thottbot, a 3% chance of dropping major healing potions, but I found it to be more in the range of 10%.
On my server (Skullcrusher) one major healing potion sells on the AH for 1g.

In addition to dropping potions, they also drop high-level herbs that can sell on the AH for ~ 10g for a stack of 20.

Another way to make good money……ENGINEERING.

This is actually pretty simple:
High lvl explosives.

People actually buy things such as:
Small Bronze Bomb http://www.thotbott.com/?i=5418 for a good amount of money, way more than the mats cost on the AH.
Also: Heavy Dynamite http://www.thotbott.com/?i=5421

The mats for these are relatively inexpensive, and the bombs and dynamite sell fast! (On my server anyways). People buy the dynamite for extra dps, and the bombs for stunning people.

All you do is buy a stack of 20 wool cloth, which seems to have skyrocketed to about 1g the past couple of months and a stack of 20 stones. Make that blasting powder and enjoy!

You can usually make about a 5-6g profit on the dynamite/bombs after being sold on the AH.

I made ~ 1000g in a week

Perfect Group: A tank and he must be a warrior (palys on the alliance can also), a healer and a hybrid or two hybrids. crowd control. and DPS.
notice I didnt tell you what classes to pick aside tank because it doesnt matter its the make up not the class. You cant do an instance without a tank, i.e. warrior/paly (98% of the time I know some of you and myself have used other classes, my favorite is a mage tank). No heals= your dead. No DPS=healer OOM and your dead.

Now specifically I will go into every class minus a paly because I have not played one at end game to knwo what exactly they do.

Warrior: Tank. 1h and a shield is a must. 5 in tactical mastery is a must (if you plan on end game content and not pvp you need 5 there). You will pull 99% of the time. Not only that you are the leader. You are the first one into battle and the last one out. You have to save everyones butt from mobs and tank all of them. Key skills: sunder armor, stack 5 up immediately and keep using it if possible. hamstring if you can. taunt and mocking blow are important. shield bash as well on casters. You should be able to tank at least 3 mobs with ease, yes 3 mobs. Your pulls are crucial to minimal mobs being attracted. Your pulls should be at max range (that you can get) and so the pulled mob attracts the minimal amount of adds with him. Don't ever worry about your health until you are around 15%-20% then either pop a potion or your last stand (if you have it). Trust your healer(s) and worry about keeping the aggro.

Rogue: Before I tell you your job…you better have your lockpicking maxed out. Nothing worse than having a rogue in a group and he cant pick the locked chest. Your main job is DPS. Use your feint whenever it refreshes. A caster pulls aggro off the tank gouge, do whatever you can for him to get on you to then give the tank time to turn and get him. You should NEVER have aggro on you.

Druid: Off healing and off dps. Your some of your damage spell sparingly. Use your rejuvanation on anyone taking damage, don't bother going into feral form. If aggro is on you go dire bear and off tank it until the MT gets it off you. Don't use abilities to raise your threat even higher. Your Innervate and combat rez are to be used in two situations. 1. All hell broke loose and 2-3 sets of adds come and you lose your priest or MT then rez them and get heals on tank ASAP, dont on the priest to let him drink. Or your priest is OOM and you still need to deal with 3+ mobs at full health with nasty adds. 2. On final boss For the most part you shouldnt have to. They are "oh ****" abilities.

Mage: Crowd control. dont bother using any damage spells until at earliest 80% of the mobs health. Just wand once the tank has taken 5%-10% of the mobs health to ensure your first damage you do does not pull the aggro of the tank. Conserve your mana until earliest 60% Health of the mob then NUKE. Mana dump and knock the mobs out.

Warlock: Use your DOTS and dont start shadow bolting until 60%. Your DOTs rarely pull aggro because the threat you gain is like renew of a priest…over time. Crowd control as needed. Lifetap to gain mana your healers will heal you.

Shaman: If I see one more cowboy shaman thinking he can DPS in an instnace, I think I just might go to alliance and deal with the 12 year old night elf noobs. Your job, support heal as needed. Always heal yourself. If a priest drops a shield on you its your queue to heal yourself. Drop totems that are useful. Mana totem is a MUST. Why are our casters going OOM when you can regen it for them. Heal totems are nice too. Get rid of debuffs with your totem and spells. And Offtank for the casters especially your main healer. Your main healer pulls aggro you are on it until the tank gets it off.

Hunters: Dps once the mob is at 85% health. If I ever see you melee…..I think I might just try to find you in RL and shoot you. On mana mobs yours your sting that drains mana. Main thing just keep a sting up and keep your autoshoot with occasional arcane shot and aimed shot(if you have it) up. Crowd control with your traps. Also use your scatter shot (if you have it) on a mob that a cloth wearer pulled to save his ass. And if you ever bitch about healing on yourself……Roll a warrior. Have you ever heard of feign death? Use it its your friend.

Priest: This is writing with the shadow priest in mind as well. Keep renews up on anyone taking damage at all times. Occasional flash heal here and there. If you can time it correctly use your greater heal on your MT if he wont die. Also make sure you ask what stance your MT is going in. If its defensive DO NOT preshield. Any other stance do so. Try to stay outside the 5sec rule to regen mana. If everyone is doing their job right you wont ever go OOM. OOM on a priest means people are not doing their job. Shadow priest…. go shadow, screw what they say. If they dont want you let them kick you out, if they dont they know they need you. DPS with vampiric up, and it will heal very well. People start taking hard hits, shield them. If your MT in low around 35%-40% health get out of shadow form and flash heal him a couple times then go back to mind flaying. Its easier with a hybrid or another priest as well. Then you will not have to get out of shadow form.

If you are geared properly and have the right stats you can 5 man almost anything. You have to know the instance. If you plan on 5 manning an instance like UD Strat preepics what do you need? I did it the other day. It was a level 60 warrior as tank. a level 60 druid (jack of all trades and master of none). a level 60 discipline/holy priest. myself a level 59 shadow priest and a level 60 mage. We had 3 forms of crowd control and 3 forms of healing. Not only that we had great DPS. We didnt wipe but we did have a few deaths because we were going too slow and the pats respawned. Once we picked up the speed we shredded thru everything.

Now for that example we knew we could 5 man it because on adds we had two priests to shackle and a mage to sheep. a tank to take 3 mobs. and a druid that was healing and semi dps and if needed could off tank. our mage could of course aoe and we had two forms of couterspell/silence on caster mobs. and 3 guys in the group that could slow down mobs speed. We focused on one mob at a time killed it and went on the next.

Tahts a big key. The initial pull by the tank might bringa total of 3 mobs. If you can CC one your are dealing with 2 now. What happens on the pull is when they are coming after the tank, whoever CC does it. Now 2 are after your tank. You let him build aggro. HIs job is to start to sunder the first mob at least 3 times then move to the next and apply 5 sunders thats where you wait until he gets the mob to the X amount of health before you "assist". Learn to target your tank and press "F" to assist him. that feature targets the mob the tank or whomever you clicked on has targeted. Occasionally thru the first mob the tank should switch over to the other mob just to apply another sunder or two quickly just to make sure he maintains that mobs aggro.

That should be enough info for you guys. If you have anymore questions feel free to respond. Thank you for your time.

The main Brewfest festivals will begin this September 20 and will run all the way until October 4. The venues for the Horde and Alliance factions will be held at Orgrimmar and Ironforge respectively. You also can expect smaller beer gardens to be set up in all the other main cities across the game world.

Classic events such as Ram Racing and the Barkers Quest will be making a comeback, although veteran drinkers can also expect a few new events to pop up during this time. Belbi Quikswitch and Blix Fixwidget will also be offering a new set of Brewfest prizes for any tokens you win during these special events.

Whether you choose Thunderbrew, Barleybrew, or the Ogres as the poison of you choice, it's all good clean fun during the upcoming Brewfest event. Keep an eye on this spot for more updates regarding the World of Warcraft event.

• Blizzard releases new beer steins, comes in Horde or Alliance flavors
• Grab a cold one in WoW's Brewfest commercial video

Source: wow.qj.net

BlizzCon opt-in lottery ticket system goes live
If you were lucky enough to register a Blizzard account before August 12 (despite Blizzard's website being plagued by massive downtimes), then you're in for more luck! It's just been announced that the opt-in lotteries are now open.

The lottery period starts today, Wednesday, August 20, and will be ending on August 24, 11:59 P.M., PDT. All you have to do is log on to the Blizzard Account Management page any time within the lottery period. By the end of which, 1500 accounts will be picked out from the bunch and be awarded with a chance to get two tickets to the BlizzCon event.

Be advised that simply logging on will already give you a chance to be one of those lucky 1500 winners to be picked out. And since you're already logged on at that time, it might be best to double check your contact information too and update it if necessary.

• Blizzard selling 3,000 additional BlizzCon tickets
• BlizzCon 2008 tickets sold out

Source: wow.qj.net

The lottery period starts today, Wednesday, August 20, and will be ending on August 24, 11:59 P.M., PDT. All you have to do is log on to the Blizzard Account Management page any time within the lottery period. By the end of which, 1500 accounts will be picked out from the bunch and be awarded with a chance to get two tickets to the BlizzCon event.

Be advised that simply logging on will already give you a chance to be one of those lucky 1500 winners to be picked out. And since you're already logged on at that time, it might be best to double check your contact information too and update it if necessary.

• Blizzard selling 3,000 additional BlizzCon tickets
• BlizzCon 2008 tickets sold out

Source: wow.qj.net

Blizzard: WoW for PS3, 360 is a 'square peg, round hole thing'
Apparently, some people are still thinking of the viability of having World of Warcraft on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Well, it's one of the most successful MMORPGs of all-time, so maybe porting it over to other platforms is a good thing, for financial reasons (if you're following Square Enix's line of thought).

However, running parallel to Hideo Kojima's statement yesterday (about MGS4 being impossible for the Xbox 360 because the game wasn't designed for the 360 in the first place), J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton of Blizzard both agree that WoW was always intended to be played on the PC.

In a recent interview with Videogamer, they both reiterated the fact that WoW won't be heading for consoles.

Brack says that WoW was "designed to have a keyboard and a mouse" and that the controls are really - to use Kojima's word from yesterday - optimized for a PC control scheme. Brack continues: "If you think about mapping those controls and all those different type of buttons that you have to a console without a keyboard for chatting, it's a very challenging proposition."

Chilton, likewise, explained that it's not a worthwhile endeavor to bring WoW to consoles;

It's really not that we have anything against consoles," Chilton said. "I mean we love console games also. And I'm sure there will be a successful MMO sometime on a console. So it has nothing to do with that. It's just more like a square peg round hole thing for our game. It just wasn't designed with that in mind.

But then… when Videogamer raised the point that Funcom will be bringing their Age of Conan to the Xbox 360 - and that they've got some technology to map the keyboard buttons to a 360 controller - Chilton simply replies that he thinks that WoW wouldn't be "a very good experience playing like that."

While the PS3 has the upcoming Wireless Keypad, and the 360 its Chatpad, they aren't all that big, y'know. As Brack said, it'll be a very challenging experience indeed.

• Blizzard's take on MMOs for consoles; no WoW for consoles
• Kojima: stop asking for an MGS4 Xbox 360 port already
• Square Enix stock shares rise after FF13 Xbox 360 reveal
• Leipzig: new PS3 Wireless Keypad announced
• Xbox 360 Messenger Kit now going for only US 19.99

Source: wow.qj.net

My personal favorite are the promotional figures for Lego Batman made up entirely of Lego blocks. Several major booths worth of noting is the not-little-but-big LittleBigPlanet booth, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Mirror's Edge. You can see who else is coming to the show by clicking on the pics below.

For more pics from the site, follow the source link below. As expected, there's no sign of Nintendo, who has decided to go on a roadshow rather than join the rest of the group.

Related Articles:

• Nintendo to skip this year's Leipzig Games Convention
  
• Acclaim Chief Creative Officer: E3 is broken and an embarrassment
• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Age of Conan DirectX10 features to be revealed at Leipzig

Source: wow.qj.net

Wrath of the Lich King Talent Calculator: upcoming Hunter changes

Blizzard recently updated the Wrath of the Lich King's Talent calculator, which revealed numerous changes and adjustments to the Hunter class. Here's hoping we see these changes implemented soon. Here are the changes:

Beast Mastery

• Focused Fire (Tier 2) - Updated stats/description: All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2 while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities by 10/20 while Kill Command is active. (was the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability).
• Pathfinding (Tier 3) - Updated stats/description: Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8 , and increases your speed while mounted by 5/10 . The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects. (old version: Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8 )
• Masters Call (Tier 3) replaced with Aspect Mastery.
• Aspect Mastery moved from Tier 10 to Tier 3, and changed to 1 rank: Increases the mana returned from your Aspect of the Viper by 10 , reduces the damage done to you while in Aspect of the Monkey by 10 and increases the attack power bonus gained with Aspect of the Hawk by 50 .
• Spirit Bond (Tier 5) - Updated stats/description: While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1/2 of total health every 10 sec and increases healing done to you and your pet by 5/10 . (old version did not have the increase healing part).
• Animal Handler (Tier 6) - Updated stats/description: Increases your pet's chance to hit by 2/4 and reduces the cooldown of your Master's Call ability by 5/10 sec.
• New Tier 10 Talent - Seperation Anxiety: When your pet is greater than 20 yards from you or is out of line of sight of you, its damage is increased by 2/4/6/8/10 , and when you and your pet are within 20 yards of each other, you and you pet's movement speed is increased by 2/4/6/8/10 .

Marksmanship

• Improved Stings (Tier 4) - Changed from five levels to three, stats changed: Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10/20/30 and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 10/20/30 . In addition, reduces the chance Stings will be dispelled by 10/20/30 .
• Trueshot Aura now affects the whole raid. Rapid Recuperation (Tier - Updated description: Reduces the mana and focust cost of all shots and abilities by you and your pet by 20/40/60 while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain mana equal to 50/100/150 of the damage you do under the effect of Rapid Killing over 6 sec.
• Marked for Death (Tier 10) - Updated stats/description: Increases the damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 2/4/6/8/10 , on the marked targets, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Kill Shot or Chimera Shot by 2/4/6/8/10 .
• Chimera Shot (Tier 11) - Updated stats/description: You deal 125 weapon damage (was 150 ), refreshing the current Sting (old version consumed the current Sting) on your target and triggering an effect. Serpent Sting unchanged. Viper Sting - Instantly restores mana to you equal to 60 of the total amount drained by your Viper Sting. Scorpid Sting - Attempts to Disarm the target for 10 sec. This effect cannot occuer more than once per 1 minute.

Survival

• New Tier 2 Talent - T.N.T: Your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Explosive Shot have a 5/10/15 chance to stun targets for 2 secs when they deal damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your Explosive Shot and Explosive Trap by 5/10/15 .
• New Tier 4 Talent - Lock and Load: You have a 33/66/100 chance when you trap a target and a 5/10/15 when you Sting a target to cause your next 3 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo.
• New Tier 5 Talent - Hunter vs. Wild: Increases you and your pet's attack power and ranged attack power equal to 10/20/30 of your total Stamina.
• Clever Traps (Tier 3) has been removed.
• Deterrence is gone, and Deflection is now required for Counterattack.
• Deflection moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and changed from five ranks to three (2/4/6 ).
• Trap Mastery moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3. Description is not finished yet.
• Survival Instincts moved from Tier 5 to Tier 2.
• Improved Feign Death renamed to Survival Tactics and moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3: It now reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by 2/4 sec. (instead of reducing the damage you take during feign death by 15/30).
• Survivalist (Tier 3) - Updated description: Increases your Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10 . (old version: Increases total health by 2/4/6/8/10 )
• Surefooted (Tier 4): It now reduces duration on movement impairing effects by 16/25/50 .
• Wyvern Sting (Tier 7) range increased from 5-35yd to 4-41yd. Nature dot duration reduced from 12 sec to 6 sec.
• Potent Venom renamed Noxius Stings (Tier 8): If Wyver Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting 16/25/50 of the duration remaining, and increases all damage done by you on target afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 1/2/3 .
• Readiness (Tier 9) cooldown lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Hunting Party (Tier 10) - Updated stats/description: Your Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot critical strikes have a 20/40/60/80/100 chance to restore 2 mana, 10 energy, 4 rage or 10 Runic Power to all members of your party. The cooldown of this talent has been removed.
• Explosive Shot (Tier 11) range increased from 5-35yd to 4-41yd, and it now does 416-486 damage and then 104-121 fire damage to all enemies within 5 yards of the target every second for 2 seconds.

• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King beta talent calculator released

Source: wow.qj.net

While it is expected that leveling is a lot harder at this point, the steep slope the new leveling curve introduces can be quite daunting for even veteran World of Warcraft players. It is still a point of contention whether Blizzard will adjust this curve in the future or simply introduce other game balancing methods to draw out the grind.

The expansion does introduce two new starting points for players to suitably level their characters for the area. However, having players clear through them just to level up kind of defeats the whole purpose of creating them in the first place.

We'll be sure to keep an eye on any new updates regarding this matter as soon as we get them. In the meantime, check out our other WotLK articles through the links we've provided below.

• WotLK beta changes: mounts get the OK in Booty Bay
• Wrath of the Lich King: Everything you need to know, part 1

Source: wow.qj.net

My personal favorite are the promotional figures for Lego Batman made up entirely of Lego blocks. Several major booths worth of noting is the not-little-but-big LittleBigPlanet booth, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Mirror's Edge. You can see who else is coming to the show by clicking on the pics below.

For more pics from the site, follow the source link below. As expected, there's no sign of Nintendo, who has decided to go on a roadshow rather than join the rest of the group.

Related Articles:

• Nintendo to skip this year's Leipzig Games Convention
  
• Acclaim Chief Creative Officer: E3 is broken and an embarrassment
• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Age of Conan DirectX10 features to be revealed at Leipzig

Source: wow.qj.net

Blizzard: WoW for PS3, 360 is a 'square peg, round hole thing'
Apparently, some people are still thinking of the viability of having World of Warcraft on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Well, it's one of the most successful MMORPGs of all-time, so maybe porting it over to other platforms is a good thing, for financial reasons (if you're following Square Enix's line of thought).

However, running parallel to Hideo Kojima's statement yesterday (about MGS4 being impossible for the Xbox 360 because the game wasn't designed for the 360 in the first place), J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton of Blizzard both agree that WoW was always intended to be played on the PC.

In a recent interview with Videogamer, they both reiterated the fact that WoW won't be heading for consoles.

Brack says that WoW was "designed to have a keyboard and a mouse" and that the controls are really - to use Kojima's word from yesterday - optimized for a PC control scheme. Brack continues: "If you think about mapping those controls and all those different type of buttons that you have to a console without a keyboard for chatting, it's a very challenging proposition."

Chilton, likewise, explained that it's not a worthwhile endeavor to bring WoW to consoles;

It's really not that we have anything against consoles," Chilton said. "I mean we love console games also. And I'm sure there will be a successful MMO sometime on a console. So it has nothing to do with that. It's just more like a square peg round hole thing for our game. It just wasn't designed with that in mind.

But then… when Videogamer raised the point that Funcom will be bringing their Age of Conan to the Xbox 360 - and that they've got some technology to map the keyboard buttons to a 360 controller - Chilton simply replies that he thinks that WoW wouldn't be "a very good experience playing like that."

While the PS3 has the upcoming Wireless Keypad, and the 360 its Chatpad, they aren't all that big, y'know. As Brack said, it'll be a very challenging experience indeed.

• Blizzard's take on MMOs for consoles; no WoW for consoles
• Kojima: stop asking for an MGS4 Xbox 360 port already
• Square Enix stock shares rise after FF13 Xbox 360 reveal
• Leipzig: new PS3 Wireless Keypad announced
• Xbox 360 Messenger Kit now going for only US 19.99

Source: wow.qj.net