Big News Of The Week

It Just Got Real

Blizzard implemented World Of Warcraft version 3.3.5 this week, laying the groundwork for the opening of the Ruby Sanctum dungeon – but not yet making that raid instance available to players – and suddenly and irrevocably changing the nature of the game and every game Blizzard produces from now on… with the new Blizzard Real_ID system. What seemed like a trifle throughout the discussion of it over the last few months has generated more talk and debate this week than anything we’ve seen in a long time. Of course, it’s designed to generate talk, since it’s a communications system.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Is There A New Trio For The Win?
For years in 3v3 arena PvP in WoW, the trio of choice has been Rogue, Mage and Priest. The combination of the rogue’s ability to surprise attack with overwhelming stuns and damage, while the priest and mage focus all crowd control on keeping their focus target from being healed… has reigned supreme. That is, until this years’ Arena Tournament, which concluded open play this week.

Don’t Miss The Midsummer Fire Festival!
Even if you completed every quest and every achievement attached to the Midsummer Fire Festival last year, a lot of it has reset for you for this year, and we’re halfway through its’ two week duration, so there’s no time to lose.

Town Cryer

Liam G. writes: I am graduating in about a week and am also in a raiding guild. I have missed many raids lately due to RL schedule conflicts and my raid group says that if i do not show up for the next raid then i will be kicked from the guild but i have graduation that night. I could skip the Dance afterward and raid but it would disappoint my RL friends.

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Step right up and get your heirlooms!

This is the seventh in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

You might have thought we’d save this one for last, since purchasing heirloom items will only take a few minutes of your time, but the fact is that heirlooms are relatively expensive. They run between 40 and 65 dungeon badges each, or between 60 and 95 Champion’s Seals from the Argent Tournament each, so it’s going to take some time to acquire, say, five of them for your up and coming hunter.

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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Big News Of The Week

C’est La Vie, That’s Just The Way It Goes

Like many possible changes to the game that have never reached full implementation, Blizzard announced last week that two of their proposed changes to the game with the Cataclysm expansion have met the cutting room floor. Specifically, linear guild talents and the Path of the Titans. For various reasons, Blizzard has decided to dismiss them from Cataclysm, and said so, and was met with a lot of… feedback… as a result.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Some Glyphs Are Too Small, And Some Are Too Big

At the Blizzard press conference last week, they announced the concept of “medium glyphs”, by which a third tier of glyphs may give you many more options in Cataclysm. Furthermore, Blizzard proposed a couple of *very* interesting changes: a list of all the glyphs you have to choose from in your UI, and glyphs that stick around for you once you’ve acquired them.

The Guild Talents Thing Isn’t All Bad News

Tom Chilton asked some very difficult questions about guild talents as Blizzard announced the scrapping of such. We don’t have a direct quote, but it was a series of questions that explained why guild talents were problematic. Can only the guild leader pick the talents? Do you allow guilds to re-spec? Who pays for it? How do you give all the players in the guild a sense of being involved? This gave way to his demonstration of a better plan: guild leveling.

Town Cryer

We love good calls!

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

It’s Red And You Sit On It

This is the sixth in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm. Be a hero! Be able to prove it! Finish the achievement “Glory Of The Hero“!

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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Big News Of The Week

Blizzard Sells Out Tickets For Blizzcon, So They’re Available Everywhere

Last week in two rapid-fire sales events, Blizzard sold tens of thousands of tickets to Blizzcon 2010 in October. The tickets were in such high demand by potential attendees and, more likely, speculators, that they can properly be considered to have sold out in 5 to 10 seconds after each sale was started. Such is the way of things nowadays. But the tickets are temporarily transferable, so speculators have flooded the web with offers.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard Gives Us A Peek At Some Talent Trees

Four of the ten classes got a preview this week, as Blizzard put out prospective talent trees for the post-Cataclysm druid, shaman, rogue and priest.

There’s A New Starcraft 2 Commercial

It just debuted during the NBA Finals basketball game, and has subsequently been posted here. According to Blizzard, The thirty-second spot features voice-overs from two iconic characters in StarCraft II, and is cut from the pre-rendered cinematic sequences found throughout the game.

Town Cryer

Samuel writes: Scott and Randy if you guys are such good friends why do you guys not raid with each other?

Dominic D. writes: I visited http://www.auctioneeraddon.com/ today to see a front page post indicating that the administrator is in danger of not being able to host his website anymore due to financial concerns. He is calling for donations and sponsorships to help keep it alive, citing that his server bills are $800/month. I just wanted to drop a line to your show, because I feel that Auctioneer is the best addon anyone can have, and I don’t want to see it go away.

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

You Want Me To Do What?

This is the fifth in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

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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Big News Of The Week

WoW Is Back On Deck

Blizzard’s spin-off company Cryptozoic released their first set in the WoW Trading Card Game this week, and it’s called Wrathgate.  You can read all about it in three parts here, here and here.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

It’s The Eve Of Ruby Sanctum

Public Test Realm testers have been looking at the quickly forthcoming Ruby Sanctum patch to World Of Warcraft. The Ruby Sanctum is the gathering place for the red dragonflight, and it’s about to be attacked by the black dragonflight in their nefarious plot to enable Deathwing’s return.

Town Cryer

Andy from London writes: Do you guys think that Blizzard should really change the DK starting level to 65? The DK starting zone was amazingly fun with lots of set-pieces and backstory to explain how you became free of the Lich King. However there is a big sense of disconnect from this story when you step into Outland to fight Illidan, which makes absolutely no sense for a Death Knight to do. Wouldn’t it be better to finish the DK starting area at level 68 instead of level 58?

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Round Round Get Around, You Get Around

This is the fourth in our limited series, where we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

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

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

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Big News Of The Week

Money Money Money Money. Money!

In two mostly unrelated moves this week, Blizzard announced the upcoming sale of tickets for Blizzcon 2010, and they released the beta version of their long-rumored remote auction house application. The tickets are going to cost you $150 each, while the auction house application is going to cost you $150 over a period of about 4.2 years.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard Is Taking AVR Out!

Over on the UI And Macros forum, Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok called out his opponent for the world championship: The relatively new mod AVR. Bashiok said

“This is a notice that we’re making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.”

Town Cryer

Cassi C. writes: I have a tight raid schedule and real life schedule and sometimes they overlap each other without warning. For example: I am a student still and things such as reports, projects, and work in general come up without warning along with a raid that i signed up for earlier. I cant decide what to do! Do i blow off the raid to do my work or do i wait till late at night to start/do my work? If i blow off the raid then i have a chance to get screamed at or kicked from guild or even uninvited from raids, however, if i delay my work i could get a bad grade and be screamed at, yet again.

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Five Big Dungeons For You

It’s time to start working on something that is going to take some coordination to pull off before Cataclysm, and that is the Classic Raider achievement.

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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Big News Of The Week

Blizzard Wants You! Well, Maybe Someone Like You.

That big game shop named for a snowstorm this week announced the imminent arrival of their closed beta test for the third expansion to World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The beta will be via invite only through Battle.net, and Blizzard has not yet announced an exact start date, but we have some ideas.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard Professes Interest In Your Chosen Jobs

There is so much to talk about on this topic that it fills our entire Rumors And Scuttlebutt segment this week. In a huge post, Blizzard admitted to finishing their analysis of professions in WoW for Cataclysm, and shared some of their notes. It arrived as a forum post by Wryxian, who said

While the Cataclysm updates to many of the professions are still deep in development, we wanted to share some of the work that’s been going on, as well as a high-level look at any lessons learned or changes to their underlying philosophies during the design process. Please be aware that not all professions have the same extent of information available right now, but each is receiving the same love and attention as the next.

Town Cryer

Michael Y. writes: I’m a level 80 shaman and my dad is a level 80 paladin. He hit 80 recently, and I’ve started to show him around the world of instances. He only has one set of gear and refuses to go dual-spec. Unfortunately, since he wants to tank, his gear is all tanking gear. I’ve tried to persuade him to get dual-specced, or at least get a set of dps gear, but he doesn’t want to. Normally, I’d just tell him to do it right, or don’t do it at all, but he’s my dad and I want to have a good time with him and for him to have fun too. What should I do?

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Rare Reins

In this, our second in a limited series of suggestions for activities you can undertake this week to prepare for Cataclysm and not miss something that might be going away, we’re highlighting an activity that few have seen through, and may never be possible after 4.0. That is: Farming Baron Rivendare for the Deathcharger’s Reins.

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.

Don’t forget, when you signup for Squarespace, use the code PC at checkout for 10% off the lifetime of your account!

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Big News Of The Week

That’s Right: It Could Kill Everything

This week, Blizzard unveiled the latest in their in-depth examination of content forthcoming in Cataclysm: The Halls of Origination. It is a level-85 five-player dungeon in Uldum, featuring an unparalleled journey through the timeless titan construction and seven unique boss fights. Hidden deep within its halls lies an ancient treasure that, if placed in the wrong hands, could endanger all life on Azeroth!

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Finding Out Who Your Real Friends Are

Blizzard officially announced their long-planned Battle.net Real ID system this week, raising many more questions than were answered on their new service website. As previously stated, the new chat system will allow for cross-game chat in Blizzard games on Battle.net, the ability to see your friends on any character that they’ve created, broadcast announcements, and better see what your friends are doing in-game.

Mandatory Glyphs And Talents Are A Drag

Our good friend the Blizzard Lead Developer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street invaded a thread in the forums on talent frustrations with a quote that buttoned up a really long jacket. Ghostcrawler said:

“We’re stuck in this trap sometimes where players want glyphs and talents to be meaningful but optional. That’s a pretty narrow design space. If we make a talent that affects Shield Wall, then it feels mandatory. If we make no talent that affects Shield Wall, then it feels like the talents aren’t affecting things you actually care about and can become this potentially marginalized aspect of the game. The argument seems to be that if you didn’t have to get Improved Disciplines, that you could get some other potentially juicy talent. True. The same would be true if you didn’t have to get Shockwave or if paladins didn’t have to get Ardent Defender. You need Improved Disciplines, but they need Vindication.

My point is that classes are balanced as part of their entire package. You aren’t balanced at the core level with talents and glyphs thrown on as gravy on top of that. Now we are making an attempt with Cataclysm to give players more options in how they talent. But still if you imagine a talent tree in which every single talent is optional, it’s also hard to imagine how every single talent is interesting or powerful enough.”

Town Cryer

Garrond writes: I’ve been given an invite to the Cataclysm alpha by someone I know who works at Blizzard. You might think this is great for any wow fan, but normally I’m the kind of person who stears well clear of spoilers for any game that I think I’ll play. I try and avoid any intimate details of new content – things like screenshots/videos or leaks about lore. Should I let my normal reluctance to ‘spoil’ new content stop me from jumping in the alpha? Or do you think that as I’ll actually be playing the game, rather than seeing videos or hearing about it, I wont actually be spoiling anything – i’ll be experienceing it first hand months before anyone else?

Joshua H. writes: I haven’t played WoW for a good six months so far, and I know that I’m missing it. But I’m no good at the level 80 content and find myself with nothing to do when I have gone back for a week or so at a time. So my question to you is this: do I go back to WoW before Cataclysm, or after? Is there content that will keep my leveling enjoying self happy, or should I just wait until I can start new characters in a new world?

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

We’re Running Out Of Time

This week on The Instance, we’re taking Drop Of The Week in a unique direction for a while – The Cataclysmic drop for the next few episodes is going to answer the question that we’ve gotten the most for the last few months – “what do I do before the Cataclysm?” Specifically, we’re going to use this series of segments to highlight something that you could do that you may never get to do again. And we’re kicking it off this week with some dungeons.

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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Big News Of The Week

Cataclysm Details Are In Full Effect

In what can only be perceived as a sign that the beta is imminent, Blizzard dropped a veritable ton of information on us this week regarding the forthcoming third expansion to World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm. We got raiding news, PvP news, new art to look at, and all sorts of new controversies to traverse.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Simplifying The Badges System Is Complicated

Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok broke the ice on possible changes coming to the game in Cataclysm with regard to those bits of currency you earn when you defeat dungeon bosses or win battlegrounds. In the first part of his post on the forums, Bashiok said:

Our primary goal when approaching badges in Cataclysm is to address a lot of the confusion that comes with these currency systems. To that end we’re changing badges to a more straightforward point system, similar to the ones we’ve used for a while for Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Bashiok noted that your path to obtaining PvP gear may change pretty dramatically in Cataclysm, saying:

The Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We’re removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they’re definitely removed for weapons.

This wasn’t enough, and Blizzard Community Manager Bornakk followed up with another post clarifying the situation about weapons:

There will be two tiers of PvP weapons in Cataclysm. The lower tier weapons will correspond in quality to items found in the latest raid tier on normal difficulty and cost only Conquest Points. The higher tier weapons will correspond in quality to items found in the latest raid tier on Heroic difficulty and will have a minimum personal rating requirement in addition to costing Conquest Points. All of the highest-stat PvP armor, including shoulder and head pieces, will cost only Conquest Points and have no rating requirements.

Town Cryer

Jeff H. writes: Besides the barrens and thousands needles, where will be the best places to take pictures before Cataclysm?

Drop Of The Week

Making Pets Easier

This one starts with an e-mail from Russell E., who wrote:

Is there an addon out there that will randomly select a Non Combat Pet for me? How about the same for my mounts?

Why yes there are, Russell, and we’ve got just the suggestion for you and every player in the game.

MiniPet is our favorite mod for summoning a random pet with one key click. It does more than that. But you don’t need a mod. You just need this macro:

/run CallCompanion(“CRITTER”,random(GetNumCompanions(“CRITTER”)))

GoGoMount is our favorite mod for mounting on one key click. It picks the best mount for the situation you’re in, every time.

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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Big News Of The Week

Another Year, Another Arena Tournament

Blizzard announced the 2010 North American arena tournament this week, and put forth nearly the same template as last year, with a few small changes. The arena tournament is a competition based on the Arena System in World of Warcraft. If you register for the tournament, you will be competing on regional tournament servers — separate from the live servers — for an opportunity to advance and play at the live events and win prizes. The cash prize package for the tournament amounts to more than $200,000.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Look All You Want, But Don’t Touch

Would you take a look at that? Blizzard launched a website that robbed millions of people of hours of their lives this week: The Concept Art Gallery. It’s a look back through Blizzard’s artistic history for at least 15 years of color, black and white, pencil, CG, you name it. It’s truly remarkable.

Town Cryer

Magro of Garona writes: I have a farming toon who is an herbalist and a miner. Is there a way to have “Find Herbs” and “Find Minerals” both active at the same time? If not, is there an easy way to switch between the two via key binding or macro?

Leonard S. writes: I am an American high school student on a study abroad scholarship in China. I would love to keep up with your podcasts, but neither the archive.org feed nor the itunes feed work.
Is there any way to get my fix of The Instance from this place?

Drop Of The Week

We Could Do This Every Week

After our Drop Of The Week last week, we got all manner of suggestions for this week, and none of them were so full of win as Pug Checker.com. You want to know at a glance whether or not the healer that you just picked up has ever even run Pit of Saron? Just hit up pugchecker.com, and you can have just the facts, ma’am.

Giveaways Rule!

As we announced on The Instance #185, we’re giving away a 30-day WoW play card this week.  Listen to find out if you won, and listen to find out how you can win the new prize we’re awarding to one lucky listener 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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