Web Access To The WoW Auction House Is Coming

By Randydeluxe on February 2nd, 2010
Posted In: B - News

Official word from Blizzard today finally confirms the development of a system that has been among the  improvements most-requested by players for years: access to the AH from outside the game itself.  Bornakk posted:

Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we’ve been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they’re not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.

While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we’re designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what’s available in-game. Players have been requesting — and we’ve been hoping to implement — a feature like this for a long time, and we’re excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.

This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don’t have an exact release date yet. It’s important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we’ll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won’t release it until it meets the quality standards that we’ve set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. We’ll have more info to share with you here and at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as we get closer to release.

We’re very excited about this.  You can join in the discussion on The Instance forums here.


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The Instance #176 – The Talented Mr. Ghostcrawler

By Randydeluxe on January 30th, 2010
Posted In: The Podcast

Big News Of The Week

Cataclysm Decisions Are Being Made

That’s not exactly a big secret. Of course Blizzard is working feverishly on the nuts and bolts of the forthcoming third expansion to World Of Warcraft, and regularly making decisions that will affect your entire experience, post-Cataclysm. Nonetheless, our old buddy Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street hit the forums this week to talk a little bit about what’s going on behind their usually closed doors. Specifically, he felt like talking about talents trees.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Battlecry Mosaic Unlocks A Piece Of Music

For the first time since Blizzard started their Battlecry Mosaic project as part of their epic 5th Anniversary celebration, a checkpoint in the progress of revealing the mosaic has unlocked music! It’s an original piece called Invincible, and it is really good.  Also, who was Invincible?

Dude, You’re Getting A Buff

Blizzard CM Zarhym dropped the buff bomb on us this week, with the announcement that the next minor patch is going to bring some substantial changes to your tier 10 set pieces. It’s a big post that starts like this: “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. Similar items crafted or purchased with Emblems of Frost will continue to be very good and will compare favorably to all but the Heroic difficulty boss loot, so you shouldn’t despair if you recently acquired any of those.”

Still No Season 8

At least, that’s what Bornakk said this week, like this:

Information in the next minor content patch is needed to start it and the patch is not out yet.

But We Have All The Armor Sets

That’s right, Blizzard unveiled your Arena Season 8 armor set models this week. And they look… dark.

Town Cryer

William M. writes: I was wondering what you gues thought the best way to break the news to a friend that the guild he raids with is not for you. My good friend recently pulled me into his hardcore raiding guild and the pressure inside the guild is getting to me. Raiders are called names in vent, people are mocked if not specced right and it just feels stressful in general. I would like to leave the guild for a more relaxed enviornment but I dont know how to tell my friend that the people he plays with are jerks.

Drop Of The Week

Filling Those Sockets Is Easy

Yes, we’ve talked about it before, but not enough. It’s the answer to the question “how do I figure out which gem I should buy to put in these empty sockets?” The more you play WoW, the more you obtain gear that comes with holes, and WoW-Gem.com is the place to go. It’s called the WoW Gem Finder, and some players are wary of browsing to it because it sounds like a shady site. Trust us, it is simple, and elegant, and powerful. At WoW-gem.com, you just check off boxes indicating your needs, such as “I’m looking for a yellow gem that has +spell power on it” and BOOP! Your options are listed. And sortable.

Contest!

James Whitehead is back with his second edition of World Of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons, and it’s got a really cool cover. The cover art on this huge tome was created by our very own Scott Johnson! We’ve got one of these to give away, Scott is going to sign it before shipping it to our winner.  Listen to win!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance #175 – Ice Cream Citadel

By Randydeluxe on January 24th, 2010
Posted In: The Podcast

Big News Of The Week

Blood Queen Lana’thel Is Kind Of Spiky

The fabled third wing of Icecrown Citadel – called The Crimson Hall – opened for business this week, bringing the current in-game story back around to focus on the San’layn, those crazy vampire blood elves we’ve been taking out all over Northrend for over a year now, with a culminating encounter with their Queen.  She’s got wings!

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

The Developer Chat Delivered

Just after we recorded the last episode of The Instance, Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack and Greg Street answered a bunch of your questions on Twitter. This was the 2nd gathering of such things by them on Twitter, and has been called by many a WoW-blogger far superior to the first…

-Q. If damage and healing is too much per health ratio, then why don’t you have battlegrounds/arenas give a -30% damage/healing debuff?
A. We have been talking about solutions like that. It might feel a bit awkward, but it might also solve the problem and maybe it’s okay in the last season before an expansion to experiment a little bit.

-Q. When we reach level 58 in Cataclysm on Azeroth do we need to go to Outlands or can we continue leveling in Azeroth?
A. You eventually need to do the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content. Azeroth will have a break in content between 60 and 80.

-Q. For those of us who collect tabards and armor sets, do you see a way for us to store and not use our very limited inventory?
A. Yes. We’d like to store them the same way you do titles. In general, we don’t want to punish the packrats out there who just like to collect stuff.

-Q. What will Cataclysm have to offer for solo players?
A. Cataclysm has a ton of new quests both in the new zones and in old familiar areas. There will be just a ton to do. Also if you’re a completionist casual type, one word: Archaeology.

-Q. Can we expect a Canadian style pet for the Olympics this year?
A. I will put in a request today for an epic moose mount, not sure if it will make it in though.

-Q. What’s up with the pineapple wallpaper in Gadgetzan?
A. You will soon see in Cataclysm that goblins have a somewhat inscrutable sense of taste. They also like tropical drinks.

Town Cryer

Meroluk the troll hunter from the Cenarion Circle realm writes: The new LFG tool came at an almost perfect time for me seeing as your first random of the day rewards you with 2 emblems of triumph. By the time I make 80 I should have a small stash saved and was wondering what pieces should be my first purchases with the emblems to get me ready for entry level raiding?

Grandpa of the Anvilmar server and of the Deep Threat guild writes: I was wondering what your views on names were. Do you think names should always be serious or are funny names fine too.

Aesliip of Anvilmar writes: I am greatly interested in the lore of warcraft, and being a writer and a lover of good stories, I am wondering if there any good fan fiction sites out there that I can check out and participate in.

Check these out!

Warcraft stories at Fan Fiction.net
WoWWiki’s list of WoW stories
Even more over at GamerTales

Drop Of The Week

You Aren’t Ignoring People Enough

But it’s not your fault. You’re hindered a bit by limitations in-game on how many people you can ignore, and the LFG tool has introduced you to a whole new world of outlaws that you’d like to never meet again. What to do? The answer is Infinite Ignore.

And a big tip of our hat to J. Davidson, who clued us in to the wonders of Infinite Ignore this week.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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You might wanna check out The Daily Blink

By Scott on January 18th, 2010
Posted In: C - Drops

You guys should check it out. Some clever stuff over at The Daily Blink.


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The Instance #174 –

By Randydeluxe on January 16th, 2010
Posted In: The Podcast

Big News Of The Week

Class Balance Concerns Are Back With A Vengence

Remember those heady days of controversy in WoW, way back in 2005 when warlocks could single-handedly take out entire parties of other players in PvP, and feral druids and paladins were laughed out of town? Well, a sense of nostalgia for class imbalance controversy has overtaken the entire World of Warcraft recently, and this last week saw an eruption in unusually high volume to the shouting. What’s all the shouting about?

Here’s the pre-nerf/buff chart of DPS ranges we discussed in this segment:

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard Returns With Dev Twitter Chat Part 2: The Reckoning

J. Allen Brack and Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street face the World of Warcraft again this evening on Twitter. Since we’re recording a few hours before their public chat – it’s happening today, Friday, January 15, at 5:00 p.m. PST – we could only speculate.  Here is a link to the archived chat.

Mandatory Authentication Feels Kinda Funny

Nick Kolan over at IGN ran an article last week that began with this quote:

Rumors spread on Friday of Blizzard Entertainment’s plans to make their authenticators mandatory, in an apparent attempt to stem the plague of compromised accounts that have Blizzard’s customer service backlogged for days. As of yet there has been no confirmation of the legitimacy of these rumors, but if true, it may prove to be a larger hurdle than most people think.”

The rumor was indeed widespread, and talk of mandatory multi-factor security for WoW was all the rage over this past weekend.

Town Cryer

Links to Everyquest and Lightheaded mods here.

Lau D. writes:

Just wondering your take on this. I am in a great guild and I love it. I do not use add-ons because I don’t want to deal with the risk of using them or the unpleasantness that can result from trying to get an issue resolved with the game because an Add on messed something up. I don’t think there is anything wrong with playing the game as it was made, but it has come up in my guild that some members feel that certain mods and ventrillo should be a requirement for raiding. While I love vent and I understand why people would want mods, I don’t feel this should be the case. It seems wrong to me to require ppl to use add ons. It should be a personal choice, they are suppliments to the game, not part of it. How do you guys feel about this? I know you use a ton so I thought it would be interesting to know.

Drop Of The Week

Poseurs In The Armory!

Blizzard updated the WoW Armory this week with some features that you may want to look into. Specifically, there is now an interactive 3D model viewer built into the WoW Armory. You can see any character in the gear he or she was wearing at logout, complete with correct face, hairstyle and colorings, and get this – you can pose your own character however you like for others to see. The new features include the ability to cycle through animations for your character and see her doing what she does in game, and thoughtfully includes embed code so you can take your character elsewhere on the web!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance #173 – Was It The WoW Decade?

By Randydeluxe on January 8th, 2010
Posted In: The Podcast

Big News Of The Week

Game Of The Decade

That’s right, the voters and editors of Gamasutra ran down the top 12 games of the decade that just ended with a surprising, or not really all that surprising result – World of Warcraft was the #1 game of the decade. They quoted Mario Garcia from Mercury Steam, who said

Reasons? Effectiveness of his design, huge infrastructure, big money spent, number of players, net hours of play, mixed demographics, social influence. Also, for me raised serious questions about the responsibility of developers in how his games affect people’s life and the ethics of using game design technics to keep players spending time in the game. I feel this is going to be a big deal in the coming decades.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Arena Season 7 To End January 19

Finally. According to our most favorite-named Blizzard community manager Bornakk,

We are currently planning to end Arena Season 7 as early as January 19. At that point we will go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It’s very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific titles and/or Relentless Gladiator’s Frostwyrm to refrain from transferring their character to another realm until after Arena Season 7 ends. The following Arena Season will not begin for at least one week after the current season ends. During this time between seasons, all rated matches will be turned off and only skirmishes will be available. When Arena Season 8 begins, all team ratings, personal rating, and arena points will be wiped, but matchmaking rating and honor points will remain.

Throwing Money At The Oculus Problem

And there is, indeed, an Oculus problem. Blizzard community manager Zarhym admitted as much before maintenance this week, saying:

To encourage players not to shy away from the many invigorating adventures to be had in The Oculus, we have applied a change to enhance the rewards players are provided when selected for this dungeon via the Random Heroic option in the Dungeon Finder. Once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated, one loot bag per character will be provided in his chest in addition to the current rewards. Each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake. These fine treasures could be yours should you honor your fellow party members by besting the challenges contained within The Oculus! Keep in mind, however, that these extra loot bags will only be awarded to each party member if Oculus is selected by the Dungeon Finder when players choose the Random Heroic option. In light of this change, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.

Town Cryer

Sylem writes: I am still leveling my character but i realize on your show you often talk about downloadable content for wow that changes the interface among other things to help you play the game. I have none of these things and i wonder if i need them to fully enjoy the game? If so, which ones are vital.

Addons For Dummies here.

Simon B. asked: I recently heard something about a fourth boss in VoA which i really just dissmissed until i looked into my Wintergrasp achievements and found a achevement for this fourth boss i was wondering why i havent seen anything about this from blizzard.

Answer here, sort of.

Drop Of The Week

They Actually Gave Prizes For Food!

Blizzard announced the winners of their Holiday Cooking Contest on Dec. 23, so you might have missed it, especially if your wife was going into labor at about that time. The winner was “Horde Night Before Winter Veil” by Curt Rapala from Northlake, IL.  It consisted of 100% edible, half chocolate/half yellow sheet cake frosted and covered in fondant blanket, Figurines and decorations sculpted in gum paste and fondant, Headboard and bedposts in gingerbread and candy cane, and a Tree made of frosted rice cereal treats decorated with candy. But that doesn’t spoil the page that we’ve got linked for you in the show notes. Blizzard posted the other nine of their 10 finalists with pictures and descriptions.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The WoW Magazine is looking sweeeet…

By Scott on December 29th, 2009
Posted In: B - News

Click here to jump over and check out some of the spreads and content coming! Is ten bucks per issue too much? I say it depends on the content and the quality, and so far, it sounds awesome. Time will tell. Again, more here.


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The Instance #172 – Ravanna’s Black Box

By Scott on December 22nd, 2009
Posted In: The Podcast

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Big News Of The Week

Everyone Is Talking LFG

The surprise of the holiday season has taken the WoW community into a level of play and discussion that we never anticipated. The cross-realm Looking For Group system launched with patch 3.3 only two weeks ago today has generated more interest and chatter than anything Blizzard has added to the game in years.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

My Kingdom For A Tank!

If there is only one thing that the new cross-realm Looking For Group system has taught us, it is this: There are not as many tanks playing WoW as we wish there were. A DPS character who joins LFG is waiting on a healer and a tank. A healer who joins LFG is waiting on a tank to come along. A tank… waits for no one.

Icecrown Citadel Is Slow Mode

If you’ve not yet gotten your raid team in to Icecrown Citadel, it looks like there is no important rush. According to every rumor we can lay hands on, the next wing of ICC will not open until at least Jan. 7. That means a full four weeks of clearing (or trials at clearing) the first wing of the place, with its four epic boss fights, before you even have a chance to continue.

Town Cryer

Anglachel of the Mug’thol server writes: I recently heard the episode where Randy made the claim that he didn’t know anyone who played a Death Knight tank as their main character, and seeing as I do just that, I thought I’d let you all know that such a thing does indeed exist. Death Knights as a whole seem to be rather hated by the other classes, but I find that for the most part tanks are so hard to come by that they’re loved no matter their class. Besides, no one holds AoE aggro quite like an unholy DK tank, and there’s something distinctly badass about standing toe to toe with a boss like Onyxia and beating on her with a giant two handed weapon. What makes a good DK tank and why do people hate Death Knights?

Drop Of The Week

Your User Interface Is Showing

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A long-time regular poster in The Instance forums named Cyan made a splash a couple of weeks ago with the revelation that he decided to put a lot of effort into producing what has become one of the best-looking UI setups we’ve ever laid eyes on. He’s calling it Coehl UI, and we can’t just keep it to ourselves and the few people who have stumbled across it in a thread in our forums. This thing looks sharp.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

The song featured at the end of the episode is called Epic Winter Veil Fail. The file, other WoW related songs and the Super Number One podcast can be found at supernumberone.libsyn.com.

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The Instance #171 – The Flavor Of The Day Is Dill

By Scott on December 15th, 2009
Posted In: The Podcast

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Big News Of The Week

It’s The Lich King! Run! Run Away!

The “Fall Of The Lich King” patch 3.3 to World Of Warcraft went live this week, bringing nothing resembling a fall of Arthas to the game – yet – but really shook up several aspects of the game, and gave players all over the World (of Warcraft) a lot to do during the holidays and beyond.

Get your new Corehound Authenticator here!

And the new 3.3 Blizzard video here!

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Pure, Tasty, Well-cooked Scuttlebutt

Blizzard launched their Holiday Dessert Contest this week, offering up a collection of Warcraft books to the ten best creators of kitchen confections with Warcraft or Diablo or Starcraft themes.

Much Ado About The New Hunter Ammo
On the last episode of The Instance, we talked about how engineers would be racing to create the hot new toy for this years Christmas…, I mean… for all the raiding hunter girls and boys to load their bows and guns with. The new Icecrown Citadel faction quartermaster is selling engineering plans for the highest DPS ammo in the game, and the cost is the equivalent of 23 of the new emblems of frost. Sound easy? Well guess what? You can only buy one of them.

Town Cryer

Troy B. who plays on Andorhal writes: Since the new patch came out, I’ve been seeing people with “The Patient” title in their name. How do I get that? Do I have to wait in some queue for a long time or something?

John Z. writes: I play an undead shadow priest on Earthen ring named Jovache (pronounced Joe-vash). I’ve been doing quests I missed in Northrend and I’ve come acorss the need to find Orgrim’s hammer for dailies. My problem with that is it’s constantly on the move. Is there an easy way to find it and if not is there a mod that might help me?

Drop Of The Week

Lich King Royale

Just watch this.

And Giveaway!!  That’s right, we’re giving away not one but two of these beautiful statues, courtesy of Blizzard this week.  Listen to find out who wins!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance #170 – That Panda Punched Me In The Face!

By Randydeluxe on December 2nd, 2009
Posted In: The Podcast

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The Instance is giving away two limited edition Chen Stormstout statues to lucky (and talented) listeners this week.  Listen to win!

Big News Of The Week

Patch 3.3 Is On The Way, Are You Ready?

And what does it really mean to be ready for 3.3, anyhow? Ready or not, it’s coming, and probably coming out this next Tuesday, December 8. That is, unless Blizzard needs one more week to get the change to the game ready. We’re betting on December 8.

So we’ve talked a lot about patch 3.3 for the last couple of months, but we’ve not yet speculated on what players can do to make the most of it when it hits. The usual routine for many players just after patch day is buy-what-I-need-now and worry-about-the-cost-later. Players ofter spend thousands of gold needlessly just after a patch, or lose fortunes speculating the wrong way in the game market. We’ve got some general tips for you that might help.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Darkmoon Faire Las Vegas

That venerable card-game-centric tournament and meet-up that we know and love so much is coming to Sin City this week, and if you can make it, you don’t want to miss this one. It’s a rare chance for players to test their battle hardened army against the best in the game. Each player will bring their army of three and compete against other players’ armies for prizes and fame. The tournament will be run in flights with the top players moving on to the second day playoff on Sunday. The top 8 finishers will ride out of the event with the elusive Spectral Tiger Loot card, and the winner will walk away with an Apple Macbook Pro!

  • The event takes place this weekend, Dec. 4-6 at the Rio.
  • In addition to great prizes and loot cards, Top 16 finishers in the championship will go home with a brand new Ruins of Alterac map.
  • All participants in the Minis Championship events during the weekend get their very own “Mortimer the Malign” mini-statue.
  • Nice prizes in the Gadgetzan challenge.

Town Cryer

Kuam from the Wyrmrest Accord realm writes: Recently I have been playing a Balance druid and I’ve been wondering about haste, the druid has several talents that increase spell haste by X%. if I have no base haste do I gain any thing from this Talent? Logically, no, +1% of 0 is 0, right?

Krista J. writes: Why does everyone automatically assume I’m a guy playing girl toons? … It’s kind of annoying always being a called a dude.

Drop Of The Week

The Pandaren Chen Stormstout Statue

The first pandaren collectible ever! Capturing the elusive (and world-celebrated) Chen Stormstout for the first time in 3D, the Pandaren Brewmaster Deluxe Action Figure is a limited edition, one-of-a-kind Blizzard online store exclusive! This premium-sculpted piece stands at a colossal 8″, features Chen’s signature bamboo Bo staff and Brewmaster’s keg and comes packaged in a 4-color, spot UV collectors window box.
Art Directed by Blizzard Cinematic Creative Director Nick Carpenter. Exquisitely sculpted by Ray Villafane and painstakingly painted by Eddie Wires.

And Giveaway!! That’s right, we’re giving away not one but two of these beautiful statues, courtesy of Blizzard this week.  Listen to win!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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