WoW.com

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Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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Filed under: Shaman, Patches, News items

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Much as I've done with Patch 3.2 and other major patches in the past, I'd like to examine what 3.3 will mean for officers. All major patches require some forethought and adjustment, and this one just happens to be a doozy!

Icecrown Citadel

The ultimate raid of this expansion, Icecrown Citadel is poised to be one of the most exciting raids that Blizzard has ever released. As such, I can virtually guarantee you'll have long-lost players coming out of the woodwork to get back into the raiding scene for a chance to face off with the Lich King. Make sure you review your guild's policies for inviting players to raids to make sure that slots will be awarded in a way that's as fair as possible while still giving your raid a solid chance at success.

One debate that's sure to rage among officers and raid leaders this time around is whether to extend lockouts until you beat the zone and unlock the hard mode toggle or to reset the instance each week to farm the early bosses. I'm still not sure how my guild is going to handle this. It will certainly depend on how quickly we can clear those first bosses and which bosses present more of a roadblock. If we're clearing quickly, we'll probably keep going until we hit a boss we can't beat. Then we'll reset and farm up more loot and Frost Badges.

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Filed under: (Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters

WoW Night featuring WIck and Sharm is a new music video from Yumfries. (Whenever I see that name, I always think "Yummm, fries!" I'm not sure if that's the point of the name, though, so I always feel guilty for it.)

This isn't really my kind of music, so I feel unable to adequately review that aspect. I will point out that Sharm (also known as TaintedLore) has always been fantastic in previous performances, so I have to assume the music crew knew what they were doing. This is, of course, another team-up featuring Wick, whom I feel we're starting to get to know as a performer.

The video itself, however, is absolutely astounding. It has a lot of the same composite layering of images and action that we've seen before from Yumfries, but I continue to be fascinated by how the machinimist's skills have grown. Even if the music weren't entertaining, I could be satisfied to turn the audio off and simply watch the complex action happen. The amount of work and inspiration Yumfries puts into these videos really make them works of art, and I always look forward to each new piece.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

IgroMir is Russia's largest gaming convention -- sort of an Eastern European Electronic Entertainment Expo (E5?) -- and Blizzard made an appearance there this week, showing off World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Starcraft II. Besides the demo booths, visitors could look forward to panels with J. Allen Brack (the current WoW head honcho) and Chris Sigaty (SC2 grand poobah), trivia contests with the Russian Blizzard CMs, and goblin/worgen leveling contests.

But, of course, here at WoW.com we're mostly interested in Cataclysm news, so let's get right to it, shall we?

In his Cataclysm panel, Brack touched on two subjects -- Tol Barad, the new outdoor PVP zone/quest hub, and the new guild leveling system. The Tol Barad talk was apparently nothing new, but the guild leveling talk had some good information in it. Not everything discussed here is new, but some of it is, so I'll just reiterate what he said.

After the jump, of course.

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Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Europe, Cataclysm

WoW.com is pleased to announce a new and unique addition to our staff -- Kelly Aarons of WoW, Eh? fame!

Kelly will be joining us each Tuesday morning posting a new comic, in much of the same style as WoW, Eh. Kelly produces some great hand-drawn art, and will no doubt give everyone something to look forward to during those boring maintenance periods.

We've recently interviewed Kelly in our 15 Minutes of Fame segment, which provides a good insight into how she goes about her business. You can see more of Kelly's work over at WoW, Eh? and at her Deviant Art page. She also just won the World of Warcraft: Comic Contest in September.

So check back tomorrow for the first installment, and be sure to give Kelly a warm WoW.com welcome!

Filed under: WoW Insider Business, WoW.com's Weekly Comic

Now that players can jump directly into Burning Crusade content at level 58, Silithus has got to be one of the least-visited places in Azeroth. Long, painful quest lines intended for levels 57+? Random scorpion and worm attacks? Oh, and don't forget the joy of dying in the underground hives and trying to find a place to rez where you're not immediately swarmed by creepy insects. Ick. The only reason to go back there is to grind Cenarion Circle rep, which is what Nephilerin of <Quod Erat Demonstrandum> on Alexstrasza was suffering through when he snapped this screenshot of Ahn'Qiraj. This brings back so many memories. On a related note, anyone know if they've developed that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind brain-wiping procedure yet?

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.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. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

Yeah, here at the WoW.com high-rise, we were all a little surprised by the announcement of the Pet Store and its microtransactionalized non-combat pets -- but seriously, it's not that big a deal, people. Hitch your bandwagons to that slippery slope fallacy all you want, but pets offer no plausible in-game advantage. The whole experience is roughly equivalent to buying a TCG pet off of eBay, just slightly more convenient and reasonably easier to live with.

Anyway, of course the forums are mad about it, or at least the incredibly vocal minority on the forums is. And they've made post after post about how the Pet Store has completely ruined WoW. Well, official forums MVP Palehoof has a rebuttal, and it's the largest green wall this side of Fenway Park.

If you want a rundown of just how many times WoW has been "ruined" by an addition, deletion, or alteration to the game, you can read Palehoof's post on the official forums.

Filed under: Forum Post of the Day

One of the hottest topics in the past week was Blizzard's foray into the microtransactions game. By announcing the Blizzard pet store, World of Warcraft had officially come on par with other MMOs and online games that sold in-game items for real world money. Our informal survey showed that views on the move were officially split... a good third of our readers would buy the pet, another third didn't plan to, while another full third thought that our world was coming to an end. Well, the World of Warcraft, at least.

At any rate, it looks like the Pet Store is here to stay. Besides, Blizzard has already been hawking in-game services for real money, so it's not as if these vanity pets are any different. I personally don't find anything wrong with these pets, and seeing the number of diminutive liches and kung fu pandas showing up all over Azeroth, it really seems like a lot of other people don't, either.

Blizzard states that these items, similar to the TCG loot cards, are "purely cosmetic and just for fun." They say that they'd be loathe to introduce things that are "detrimental to the game and (detracts) from the gameplay experience for players who choose not to use the service." So that probably means no epic weapons or anything of the sort.

How far does that go, though? Are heirloom items considered detrimental to the game? How about buying levels? Premades? I personally wouldn't mind paying a fair price to skip the painful leveling process (an attitude that might admittedly change during the Cataclysm). What's do you think is next for Blizzard? Armor dyes, perhaps? Vanity outfits such as the complete Brewfest set or gag items such as those found on the TCG? Titles? Now that the microtransactions gate has been opened, how far do you think Blizzard will go?

Filed under: Items, Blizzard, Economy, Breakfast topics

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

Some time ago, I had my first look at Warhammer Online, and wondered if that game treated roleplaying any differently from World of Warcraft. I wrote at some length about the significance of a written warning whenever someone signs up for a roleplaying realm for the first time, but I also noticed that Warhammer actually had another very special feature that could be beneficial for WoW roleplayers, namely the "Tome of Knowledge." Playing around with this a little bit made me think about how Blizzard could make something similar, which would go a long way toward enriching the experience of the game, not only for roleplayers, but for all players. Warhammer's Tome of Knowledge is not without it's flaws, of course -- I can surely imagine a better one for WoW to adopt, but at the moment WoW has nothing at all like it, which is unfortunate.

But what is the Tome of Knowledge? Basically, it's is an in-game database full of all kinds of information you might be interested in. This includes gamey things like achievements, titles, and quests, but also contains a lot of info about the story and lore of the game, such as some history for each major region, descriptions of noteworthy persons, and a bestiary of all the enemies in the game. When you visit an important location, encounter an important questgiver, or defeat a new enemy in battle, information about that entity will appear in your Tome of Knowledge. A little popup will even let you click through to it right away.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, RP, (Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage

Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

In last week's [1.Local], we snarked around a bit about the most common "mistaken identity" emails we receive on the WoW.com news and comments lines -- issues for a video game company, a cable company, an ISP and even a gym. "Looks like we just keep diversifying," observed Eddie Carrington. "I think the next business should we should get into is event planning."

Readers joshed good-naturedly about the idea -- and brought up a popular ongoing request. "Oh man, you guys are starting event planning now?" asked paul. "Finally, been looking for some guys good enough to help with my upcoming 18th. Does the package include Belt giving a speech? 'Cos that would be awesome. xD"

"Anything that includes Mr. Belt giving a speech is bound to be awesome," agreed MusedMoose with a *grin*.

Gentlemen, your wish has been granted: the rare spawn, Archmage Pants himself, made his WoW Insider Show debut this very weekend. If you missed Mr. Belt live on Saturday, keep an eye on WoW.com tomorrow and listen up.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Features, Humor, [1.Local]