WoW Insider

Wrath of the Lich King has been out for a week. In that time, we've had the world's first level 80, the first complete and total clear of all raid encounters, and what seems like a billion "realm firsts." That didn't take long, did it? So, Tevri from Shandris dropped by the forums to question whether Wrath "is too easy."

Zarhym showed up, in his classic witty manner. He points out that the folks who're doing this immediate clearing are, in general, the same folks who've done every raid encounter in WoW for like . . . ever. In a sense, they're pretty high on the "pro" scale. (For the record, they are 25 people out of 11 million subscribers. Certainly, others have done the content by now, but it would take 110,000 people having completed the raid to say even 1% has "beat the game." ) Zarhym also cautions about relying on "truthiness" to judge the content -- which is to say, going with your intuition when the facts are still out.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Forums

We're waist deep in the content of Wrath by now, and despite the newness of the strange land, it all feels so familiar, too. Not only have we gone back to the gothic (yet sparkly) style of Old Azeroth, but we've been followed to Northrend by a whole lot of old friends.

I've been having a lot of fun bumping into 'old' NPCs and quest givers that I've helping out on my journey from 10 to 60, or 61 to 70. They add a real sense of progression and continuity to the world. I solved their problems years ago, and that's allowed them to move on in life, for better or for worse. It's also strangely heartwarming to see people I did quests for so long ago, like a little slice of nostalgia.

I've heard a few people hating on how many old world NPCs you run into in Northrend, complaining that Blizzard is just recycling old content. I quite seriously disagree in this case. Seeing NPCs progress in the world alongside us gives a much greater feeling of the world being a story, and as we go up in level, the world moves forward. I like it a lot, and I hope it continues into the next expansion, too.

We have an old gallery sitting around of some of the returning faces you'll see in Northrend, so you can check it out if you want. Be warned, there are some minor spoilers inside.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King

Apparently there have been some mistakes made in the realm-first achievements being given out. You've probably seen these (Blizzard apparently broadcasts them across the realms) -- when someone hits level 80 or finishes a profession first, they attain a feat of strength achievement. They don't get the original titles, but they do get credit for getting their first.

But on a few realms, Blizzard ended up giving some of the awards to multiple players, resulting in the ingame mail you see above. We're not sure if it's because they all hit within a certain time period, or whether Blizzard's servers weren't working correctly, but as you can see, they say the issue is fixed for now. If you did rush to be the first on a server, you can be satisfied that you're the only one.

Thanks, Penny!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Quests, Leveling, Achievements

If you've been following the World of Warcraft comic, you might be pleased to hear the official WoW website posted a preview of issue #13 last night. After reading it, if you're like me, you'll be dramatically less pleased. Maybe you'll enjoy it, but I personally have no idea how much longer I'll keep reading this thing. The comic was never really good good, it was corny good, which is sometimes exactly what you're looking for. It's quickly falling out of corny good into bad.

Varian Wrynn talking to Varian Wrynn #2 is just a silly, piss-poor way or trying to drag character development out of him. Come on now. He can't talk to another character about his past? He needs to talk to himself? Oh no, it can't be an inner monologue, either! You know what we need? Two Varians so they can be emo together. Come on. Varian Wrynn has the potential to be a really engaging character, but this writing make me cringe. I don't care if the clone turns out to have some totally super awesome twist in the end, this is still terrible.

Oh, and if I see one more character thrust their chest to the sky in a futile attempt to look powerful and noble I am going to stab myself in the eyeballs. Gah. It's so bad it hurts. It feels like we're in the early 90s again.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Comics

MTV's Multiplayer blog has an interview with Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime (who is apparently sitting pretty with the elven ladies after last week's big expansion launch). He says that he sees no end to the expansions -- Blizzard has told us before that as long as they have ideas (and players), they'll keep making content for this game. He also says that they're happy with the subscription model in the United States -- although we'd imagine that both of those things might get rethought if Blizzard's subscription numbers were going the other way. For now, though, while things are headed up, Morhaime sounds pretty happy with the way things are.

Finally, they ask about an iPhone app, and Morhaime says Blizzard is working on connecting mobile devices up to the game, but he also specifically says they're not looking at a stand-alone app. So maybe a mobile version of the Armory? I'd love to see an iPhone app, as we've said before, with mail or auction house functionality, but maybe Blizzard doesn't see the majority of their audience on the iPhone anyway. Then again, their Mac guys always need something to do...

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King

I'm currently working on leveling my priest right now (78 at the moment), so I haven't played with this ability first-hand, but Rogues get a fun tool to look forward to at level 80: Fan of Knives. This significantly helps address one of Rogues' long-time weakness: AoE damage. Sure, we're great on a single target, but it's very difficult to build up CP and use them effectively on poly-mob pulls, and Blade Flurry only goes so far. Hence FoK, which is well-timed given how much AoE there seems to be in Wrath. It also gives you something to do when you need to be at range, which happens from time to time.

But FoK has a ten-second cooldown, which certainly limits how much you can use it - for now. Ghostcrawler recently popped his crabby head into the Rogue forums to announce that "We think we are going to remove the cooldown of Fan of Knives altogether." Yay! I would assume this is going to be coming in the next patch, which they keep saying is coming before 3.1, the Ulduar patch. Patch 3.0.4 Rogues, now with ten times the knife-fanning action!

And as if that wasn't enough nice news from GC, he also said "in case it gets asked, Feral druids we haven't forgotten about your AE either." Hmmm, I say. I have also faced this issue on my druid in cat form - I don't really want to go Bear to Swipe, because then I run a high risk of pulling off the tank, but cat form has literally nothing that hits more than one target. I wonder what they're going to give us. Any predictions?

Filed under: Druid, Rogue, Patches

It's been a few days, you know how this goes by now. You ask your questions in the comments section below, I answer them in the near future. Got it? Good.

jared.daniels asked...

I just got to level 72 last night and realized that I have five different dailies that I can do in Northrend. Should I bother doing all of those every day, or just focus on the last one that I uncovered? And if I do go back, how long should I do them before I drop them for higher-level dailies?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue

Things You Need is a submission to the machinima category of the 48 Hour Film Project by Stone Falcon Productions, Oblivious Films, and Slashdance. It's a little raucous, and a little rowdy, so your mileage on this film is going to vary according to your taste. It's the story of a down-trodden gnome who encounters a magic shop, gets a tub of magic paint, and hijinks ensue.

I really enjoyed the first part of the film. It was cute, amusing, and the musical portions were pretty darn funny. I loved the shop owner, and the dialogue and play between the two characters. It was lighthearted, fast paced, and totally worth the time. I'm not as sold on the gnome's female companion, created using the magical bucket. She's stereotypically vacuous and unsatisfying for the gnome, who decides to erase her.

There's two schools of thought on this. The first is the obvious concern about the misogyny, the creation of a "perfect" woman, the exploitation of her, and the immediate use of her for base purposes. The other side to that discussion, of course, is that you can interpret the piece as a criticism of that kind of behavior, questioning the motives and character of a man who would do such a thing. Ultimately, though, I don't know if there's a lot to be read into it except a joke, and whether or not you find the joke funny. Like I said, your mileage is going to vary.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, Humor, WoW Moviewatch

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking experience of leveling from 70 to 80 in Northrend.

Blizzard recently announced that December 16th would be the official start date of Arena Season 5. At just over 1 month from the launch of WotLK, it sounds like it's their expectation that a large number of players will be at the level cap and ready to PvP when the Season hits. While the numbers may make it seem like a daunting task, leveling in Northrend is easier than ever before.

Rogues have it pretty good when it comes to questing and grinding. We're finely tuned killing machines with the defensive capabilities to prevent unnecessary deaths and the offensive capabilities to turn those Group quests into solo outings. I've been fielding several questions from other Rogues about where to level, questing tips, and gear choices. After the cut, I'll break down the first couple levels of the trek to 80 and share what I've learned so far.

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Filed under: Rogue, Features, Leveling, Classes, (Rogue) Encrypted Text, Wrath of the Lich King

Well, swing your partner off to the side/Grab that kodo and ride, man, ride
It's your fault the tank just died/Get out of the instance

Through the valley, through the gate/Forward march to meet your fate
Saurfang's daughter is your date/At her dad's insistence

(Thanks to Chris for the shot!)

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Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries