Alex Ziebart
Milwaukee, WI - http://www.alexziebart.com/
When not writing for WoW Insider or his personal projects, Alex is most often found playing WoW Alliance-side on the Cenarion Circle server.
The Queue: Shoo map, don't bother me
by Alex Ziebart 
on Feb 9th 2010 (6 hours ago)
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
Today's introduction video is something... special. Since people got a kick out of what I liked to call the Worst Video Ever, I figured I'd let you all see another misadventure is moviemaking from Sunday morning. One of my early attempts at recording the Love is in the Air boss went poorly, to say the least. Alternate title to the above video: When Addons Attack
Jaena Vashj asked...
"I was leveling my death knight in Dragonblight the other day and notice Ysera in the Emerald Dragonshrine. Didn't think much of her till I got closer and I noticed she was on top on this statue of a figure, what is this thing and why is it so special to Ysera?"
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Icecrown Citadel normal modes no longer limited by attempts
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 8th 2010 (1 day ago)
After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode.A very interesting development, and I'm curious why they decided to lift the attempts system from normal modes entirely. Is it due to a relatively low number of guilds actually killing these bosses right now, or is there some other reason?
We will continue to monitor developments in Icecrown Citadel in the future, especially since the Heroic difficulty has been unlocked by a significant number of raids.
Filed under: Raiding
In-game fixes for February 3rd
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 3rd 2010 (6 days ago)
- Blood Queen Lana'thel will now begin her flight phase a little earlier in 25 player mode, Vampiric Bite is no longer mitigated by armor, and the damage of Vampiric Bite has been reduced.
- Toravon will now be affected appropriately by Area-of-Effect damage spells.
- The Frost Orb corpses in the Toravon encounter will now despawn faster.
Filed under: Bugs
Saronite Bombs and similar items disabled [Updated]
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 3rd 2010 (6 days ago)
We just made a hotfix that disables the siege damage dealt by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge. The siege damage of the bombs was causing the Frozen Throne platform to rebuild, which greatly decreases the difficulty of the encounter.It is a longstanding tradition for end bosses to be exploited in the most hilariously awful of ways, so seeing something like this isn't all that surprising. Here's hoping nothing else like it crops up.
We'll reenable the siege damage in a later update when the issue with the Frozen Throne is fixed.
Update: Ensidia has released a statement regarding their use of this bug.
Update, take 2: Ensidia's raiding crew has received a 72-hour ban from the game (as well as loss of loot and achievements) for using Saronite Bombs to "bypass The Lich King fight mechanics."
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Ensidia scores world first 25-man Lich King kill [Updated]
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 3rd 2010 (6 days ago)
WoW raiding is a bit strange these days, because this kill is actually just the beginning of the road. Now we get to watch the hard modes, which is likely to take quite a bit longer. That's our hope, at least. Will Ensidia walk away with hard mode Lich King as well, or will a group of underdogs come from behind? Will Stars show up in the spotlight again? Only time will tell.
Update: Ensidia's raiders have received a 72-hour ban from the game for "abuse of in-game mechanics or glitches with intent to exploit or cheat in World of Warcraft." A hotfix was applied last night to prevent the use of Saronite Bombs (which Ensidia used) in the encounter and Ensidia's loot and achievements have been removed. So that world first? Still up for grabs.
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
BlizzCon 2010 tentatively scheduled for late October [Updated x2]
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 3rd 2010 (6 days ago)
Just moments ago, we received an email from a reader notifying us that BlizzCon has been scheduled for October 22nd and 23rd at the Anaheim Convention Center. That's a Friday and a Saturday, which are historically the days of the week BlizzCon has run. As you can see above, the convention is indeed on the convention center's events calendar. We have confirmed with the Anaheim Convention Center that this booking is legit and is "99.9% confirmed," but I wouldn't run and arrange any travel plans just yet considering Las Vegas Convention Center confirmed that booking, too.
We're reaching out to Blizzard for comment, and we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything else.
Update: The listing has been removed from the convention center's events calendar, but it's preserved in the screenshot above. We will continue to keep an eye on the situation and will make updates as necessary.
Update 2: Blizzard responded to our inquiry about the Anaheim Convention Center listing with this: "Blizzard Entertainment has not announced any details about the next BlizzCon. We recommend that players refrain from making any BlizzCon-related travel plans at this time."
We're reaching out to Blizzard for comment, and we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything else.
Update: The listing has been removed from the convention center's events calendar, but it's preserved in the screenshot above. We will continue to keep an eye on the situation and will make updates as necessary.
Update 2: Blizzard responded to our inquiry about the Anaheim Convention Center listing with this: "Blizzard Entertainment has not announced any details about the next BlizzCon. We recommend that players refrain from making any BlizzCon-related travel plans at this time."
Filed under: BlizzCon
Blood Legion scores world first Lich King kill
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 3rd 2010 (6 days ago)
Before everyone jumps to conclusions and bemoans WoW being easy mode, keep in mind this is only the normal mode of the 10-man difficulty. Blood Legion is a high end 25-man guild, so this kill was not what you would call "pure." A kill this quickly doesn't mean the encounter was trivial, because if that were the case we'd have seen many more kills last night. It simply means Blood Legion had an edge, to say the least.
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Enigma's Lich King encounter livestream
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 2nd 2010 (7 days ago)
The embed has been placed behind the cut, because there are autoplay issues happening. The last thing we want is the stream starting up automatically for people that don't want to see it. As a note, if the video is not playing correctly for you, just hit pause and then play again. If that doesn't work, refresh.
Update: They've ended the stream. That's all, folks!
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King
Patch 3.3.2: Season 8 gear listing
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 2nd 2010 (7 days ago)
Of course, if you're only interested in what the armor looks like, we have you covered there. You can head back to our Season 8 preview, or simply check out the gallery below.
Filed under: PvP
The Queue: Again and again
by Alex Ziebart on Feb 2nd 2010 (7 days ago)
In this edition of The Queue, we answer a couple of new questions, and a couple of questions that we've answered approximately seventeen thousand times. Okay, not that many, but it certainly feels it. Hopefully between the new and the old there's something for everyone.
cactusham asked...
"Can Horde queue up for Stockades and Deadmines, and can Alliance queue up for Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns?"
