Editorial: Thoughts on the Ensidia ban
by Dawn Moore 
Feb 5th 2010 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Bugs, Guilds, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King
Paragon scores world-first legitimate 25-man Lich King kill
by Michael Sacco Feb 4th 2010 at 7:10PM
Paragon, on the other hand, appears to have completed the encounter in an exploit-free manner and, according to MMO-Champion's Boubouille, did it on their first try. Congratulations go out to Paragon on their clean kill. Now let's see some of those heroic achievements!
Filed under: News items, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Saronite Bombs and similar items disabled [Updated]
by Alex Ziebart Feb 3rd 2010 at 9:10PM
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 Feb 3rd 2010 at 8:25PM
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
Daelo and Ghostcrawler discuss the Lich King
by Eliah Hecht Feb 3rd 2010 at 8:00PM
More interesting for WoW fans, though, is an interview with Scott Mercer (Daelo), WoW's lead encounter designer, and Greg Street (Ghostcrawler), a crab who needs no introduction. They discussed the arc of Arthas and the Lich King from Warcraft II through World of Warcraft (congratulations again to Blood Legion on their 10-man world-first).
Please note that here there be spoilers for some details about the Arthas fight, so stay away if you want it all to be a surprise.
Filed under: Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm
Blood Legion scores world first Lich King kill
by Alex Ziebart Feb 3rd 2010 at 5:25AM
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 Feb 2nd 2010 at 6:20PM
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: Fall of the Lich King sound files
by Alex Ziebart Feb 2nd 2010 at 8:30AM
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Spoilers: Fall of the Lich King cinematic
by Alex Ziebart Feb 1st 2010 at 4:53PM
Be warned, there are incredibly massive spoilers for the end of Icecrown Citadel beyond the cut below, and in the embedded video. We will say no more until you've clicked through. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading right now. Seriously!
Update: The video has been removed due to a copyright claim by Blizzard.
Update: The video has been removed due to a copyright claim by Blizzard.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King
Spiritual Guidance: Food, flasks, and potions
by Dawn Moore Jan 31st 2010 at 7:00PM
I'm the fish girl.
I never wanted it to be this way. I never wanted to be that girl. You know, the fish girl: the woman in the raid who takes it upon herself to make sure all her fellow raiders are eating right by supplying Fish Feast after Fish Feast. Sure, sometimes it's a fish guy (in fact, just the other day my heal captain joked that he had brought Capri Sun and orange slices for the raid) but usually it's a woman. I guess it's a maternal thing, or maybe it's wanting to save time by always going in with max buffs. Whatever it is, I wasn't always like this. In fact, I used to wonder why my raid leader's wife would so willingly spend her feasts on our raid as we wiped all over 3-drake Obsidian Sanctum. I admired her generosity, particularly because I felt they were going to waste on stupid mistakes, and her efforts deserved better.
Then one day, after I had moved onto another guild, I found myself surrounded by raiders who were lacking vital nutrients in their diets. That's how it began: first I was helping with the fishing, then I started spending my own precious spices. The first day I laid a feast in a raid, I felt my feminist side cringe. But before I go off on that tangent, let me clarify that this article isn't about fish (not exclusively anyway), it's about the various consumables available to priest healers.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Wrath of the Lich King
Spiritual Guidance: Paying the hybrid tax
by Fox Van Allen Jan 27th 2010 at 9:00PM
Every Wednesday, Fox Van Allen uses his dark, shadowy powers to take the reins of Spiritual Guidance, causing severe harm to others in the form of large, yellow five-digit numbers. Holy and disc brethren, alike -- come join the dark side before his shadowfiend eats you.
Fact: Priests are pretty much awesome.
It's because we're versatile. We can DPS the living snot out of Lord Marrowgar in shadow, and then change to discipline so we can cover the raid in Power Word: Shields and Renews for Deathbringer Saurfang. Heck, we can even do both. We're just that awesome.
But awesomeness comes at a price, my friends, and that price is called the hybrid tax. It's the term commonly used to explain why our DPS is designed to lag behind that of mages, warlocks, hunters, and rogues -- the pure DPS classes. If you're a jack of all trades, you're supposed to be a master of none.
(It's cool though, they need the handout. It really sucks not being a Priest.)
We can be forgiven, though, for looking at Recount or a World of Logs parse and thinking that whatever the hybrid tax is, it's just way too high. But is it really? Are we finally doing the kind of damage that we should?
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Wrath of the Lich King
We have our pony: Invincible revealed
by Matt Low Jan 27th 2010 at 3:37PM
The Warcraft twitter account just linked to a new page on the official World of Warcraft site regarding Invincible. This stallion served Arthas in life as his mount. Unfortunately, Arthas worked his mount a little too hard and slipped on ice. Arthas had no choice but to give Invincible a merciful death. (You can find more details about the story if you've read Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden.) When Arthas became the Lich King, he visited Invincible's grave and raised him from the dead in order to serve him.
How do you get him?
Oh, it's fairly simple to get. This pony can't get hungry, tired, or feel pain. Great for a Lich King to use when traveling around, right? All you have to do is pry it from Arthas' cold, dead hands. Beat Arthas in Icecrown Citadel on heroic mode, and Invincible will serve you.
But we don't know if everyone in the raid is going to get one (like Ulduar drakes) or if only one mount will drop (akin to killing Sartharion with 3 drakes up or the Mimiron head mount from Yogg-Saron).
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Stats on updated T10 tank plate revealed
by Matthew Rossi Jan 26th 2010 at 6:36PM
This makes me even more happy that I chose to focus on my tier set over offset pieces to get the four piece bonus as soon as possible. It makes these pieces far more attractive when compared to the high armor offset Cataclysm Chestguard and Gauntlers of the Kraken. (the Sanctified 264 versions should have exactly the same armor). I'd like to have seen a little more armor on the pieces, myself, but it's still pretty solid.
Filed under: Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Patch 3.3.2 patch notes on official Korean WoW site
by Michael Sacco Jan 25th 2010 at 7:00PM
Disclaimer: Translation is hard! Some of these notes, especially more complex ones, may be slightly off. We'll post the official English notes when they're posted as well.
Update! Warbringer change clarified (again). Ghostcrawler chimed in about it.
Dungeons and Raids
Icecrown Citadel
- The Frostwing Halls, the last stronghold of the Lich King and the Scourge, has been added, but the Ashen Verdict must break down the door first. (Does this mean we have to wait some additional time to fight Arthas?)
- Brann Bronzebeard has been working out, so he'll run faster during the escort event.
- Devourer of Souls will cast Mirrored Soul less often.
- Trash mob Spell Reflect abilities have been changed. It now has a casting time, and will proc only twice at a rate of 75% instead of 100%.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King
Upcoming tier 10 tank armor stat changes
by Michael Sacco Jan 25th 2010 at 4:40PM
With Icecrown Citadel's unpopular Chill of the Throne debuff, or as we like to call it, "Getting out of Dodge," tanks have had to re-prioritize in terms of avoidance and mitigation stats to the point where tier 10 gear might not be as desirable as Blizzard intended. Thankfully, they appear to have realized this, and change is coming! To tier 10 tank gear, anyway. Blizzard CM Zarhym posted a note on the official forums announcing their plans for said gear:
"We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they're provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces."
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
