WoW Weekly Report

WoW Weekly Report Message

2008-08-29T03:54:28Z

Issue 2
August 2008

Each week those of you who subscribe to the newsletter will get an exclusive gallery. This week we�ve got six random Wrath of the Lich King images for your perusal. You can click here to view them.

This last week has seen a good deal of hot topic WoW related news. We�re going to maybe see things such as Haircuts, guild calendars, Inscription, the new arenas, the spells and talents, and more before World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King launches. Can you believe it?

Last year we had a major �Before the Storm� patch that gave us a ton of content from WoW: The Burning Crusade. Now we�re looking at even more appetizers before the main meal comes through. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that we�ll have something to chew on way before the expansion comes.

There is September, October, November, and December left in this year. That�s four more months, meaning that if the WoW CM who posted this on the official forums is leading us on the right path, then we�ll probably see this delicious pre-patch in the next month or so. The reason is that the expansion is tentatively scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year and why release the pre-patch just to launch the expansion the next week?

This brings to question though � will the content like Inscription (which will probably be an expansion exclusive feature) be available to everyone or only to those who pre-order? It�d be an amazing incentive to pre-order if you could get the ability to play with many of the features before everyone else does. Knowing the currently pre-order friendly market I would not be surprised.

Enough about the expansion though. The BlizzCon raffle ticket winners were decided. Those of you who failed to win the raffle my sincerest apology goes out to you. There will probably be many, many, many contests from here until then so be sure to enter them all!

One last thing, if you haven�t seen the interview Ten Ton Hammer did with Tom Chilton then click here and take a gander.

See you next week! Email any wrath questions you have to Xerin@TenTonHammer.com

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WoW Weekly Report - BlizzCon Lottery Explosion

2008-08-20T21:33:48Z

Issue 1
August 2008

Welcome back to the World of Warcraft Weekly report here at Ten Ton Hammer. It's been awhile since the last one since - let's face it, there hasn't been much to report on. We're back now that Wrath of the Lich King is powering up and we'll be coming at you each week with the latest WoW news and content here at Ten Ton Hammer.

As a special "gift" to those of you who have subscribed we'll be attempting to get you a newsletter only screenshot gallery. You can email me (Xerin@TenTonHammer.com) to give recommendations on what you'll like to see and I'll deliver. To kick things off this week is a screenshot gallery of New Agamand, a Forsaken city. I'll try to get every screenshot you demand into a new gallery each week or if no one speaks up come with something of my own. Send me questions while you're at it and I'll try to get them answered here in the newsletter, assuming I don't get too many.

Click to view this week's gallery.

This week and the week before have mostly seen the relentless pursuit of the golden tickets. Everyone is scrambling to buy as many choclate bars as they can for the chance to enter Willie Wonka�s Chocolate Factory. Errr, wrong story folks but what I�m going on about is something similar. BlizzCon tickets went on sale and sold out at a lightning fast speed and people are still clambering to get into the lottery in order to get a second chance at buying some. We�re talking a convention that I�ve personally seen and can estimate that there are at least ten to fifteen thousand in attendance.

Those of you who do want to attend are probably already forever banned from this prestigious event. The lottery is just that, a rare chance at winning a trip to be part of something. You�ve got to have a Blizzard Account which is different than a World of Warcraft account. The blizzard account is the account you use to purchase things from the Blizzard store. So if you registered an account with the Blizzard shop before 9 P.M. PDT on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 then you can opt-in. They�ve got 1,500 tickets to give out and no telling how many people want to go.

If you missed registering an account in time or aren�t lucky enough to be chosen in the lottery then there are a few things you can do. DirecTV is offering a pay-per-view event that will be offered live (with reruns I imagine) for a fee. You also get the awesome mount that involves bears and murlocs. What more could you ask for?

That a no-go for you? Want to see it live? Well you can stay tuned to Ten Ton Hammer and we might have a contest in the future. I have no authority to say if we will or won�t, but if I were to guess I would say that there would be a good chance of it. Even if we don�t host a contest for BlizzCon tickets then we�ll be there covering the event and bringing back all of the details that you want.

Remember that BlizzCon this year is going to be big and it�s going to be full of information and games. Those of you who are avid World of Warcraft gamers are probably already ready to hear more about Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 and let�s not even mention the rumor about the unannounced MMORPG that Blizzard may or may not be announcing.

Those of you who enjoyed Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy may want to look out for Warcraft: Legends. I enjoyed the three Sunwell Trilogy books and am looking forward to picking up a copy of Legends in the near future. �If you�re interested in manga then it�s something to look out for.

In a little bit of off-beat news, Blizzard has pretty much dominated the PC sales market. We all know that PC gaming is a staggering industry that is only being kept alive with console ports and steam but right now Blizzard holds five of the top ten best selling games for the first week of August. Topping the charts is the World of Warcraft Battlechest and the other four are WoW: The Burning Crusade, Diablo Battle Chest, World of Warcraft, and the Warcraft III Battlechest. Special thanks to WorldofWar.net for telling the Internet about this.

We will see you next week. Be sure to get any of your beta questions and screenshot requests off to me at Xerin@TenTonHammer.com.

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WoW Weekly Report - Fury of the Patch

2008-03-27T07:20:38Z

Issue 12
Thursday, March 27th 2008

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

This week we do something special and list the hotfixes from the Blizzard hotfix thread from the official forums with the 2.4 hotfixes.

This thread will remain updated throughout the week of March 24 - March 30 with any notable hotfixes.

Hotfixes applied and active:

Players are no longer able to accept the quests "Blood for Blood" and "Blast the Gateway" without first completing "The Missing Magistrix"

Felblood Initiate respawn rate significantly increased

This thread will remain updated throughout the week of March 24 - March 30 with any notable hotfixes.

Hotfixes applied and active:

Players are no longer able to accept the quests "Blood for Blood" and "Blast the Gateway" without first completing "The Missing Magistrix"

Felblood Initiate respawn rate significantly increased

Veneratus the Many now spawns correctly

The Horde Spirit Healers in Alterac Valley will once again teleport Horde players to a different graveyard if the current once gets captured by Alliance.

Welcome to the eleventh issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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This Tuesday we seen the launch of Patch 2.4 and it came with a huge bang. If you haven�t already downloaded it we�ve got it available right here for download along with the full patch notes for this patch. Do you need to know how it affects your class? Well we�ve got that info too. We�ve also got a primer on the Sunwell Isle as well that you can check out here.

Not enough for you? We�ll keep checking back as we have a few guides lined up for the new content in case you need a little extra help getting through everything.

Patch 2.4 has been giving the servers a little bit of a headache. Some battlegroups have found their entire battleground servers going down getting players stuck in it, many are advised to clear their WTF folder if they have problems loading into the Sunwell Isle, PvP servers are full of combat in the Sunwell Isle, and there are various weird problems coming up here and there on various servers. Not to mention a few NPCs in Shattrath who were moved up a level causing some players to go insane trying to find them.

Launching a patch on a game this size is a major undertaking and the fact that the problems are more of inconveniences rather than out and out major flaws shows the dedication Blizzard has to this game. When you�re patching so much content over so many servers and affecting so many accounts then you�re bound to run into trouble. However, most of the trouble is with minor stability problems over actual game breaking problems like broken XP or players having their items deleted or other problems that plague other games.

With the release of patch 2.4 we�ve got the registration for the upcoming tournament open now. If you�re interested in participating in the tournament then register now! You can click here to head over to the registration page.

With all of this talk about patch 2.4 there may be a small thing in the news that may have been overlooked by some. That�s the launch of a Latin American version of the game. Well, more specifically a version of the game in Spanish. World of Warcraft continues to break further and further into the market and the world and with this new launch it�s going even deeper.

That�s it for the news this week! Enjoy the Sunwell Isle and all of the other goodies that 2.4 brought about. Stay tuned for some interesting patch 2.4 related guides here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

Got a friend starting the game? Show them our Guide on Avoiding Scams. It's useful, especially for anyone out there who isn't Internet savvy.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report - Frostmourne Hungers

2008-03-19T09:21:36Z

Issue 11
Wednesday, March 19th, 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

Fury of the Sunwell Preview!
Bornakk:Brace yourself for the Fury of the Sunwell, the next content patch for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. You've traveled through the Dark Portal and braved the perils of Outland. You've faced off against the might of the Burning Legion itself and prevailed. Now, the journey that began with the arrival of the draenei on Azeroth and the blood elves' inclusion into the Horde is about to come full circle as a mighty army gathers to purge evil from one of Azeroth's most important loci of power: the ancient, magical Sunwell.

Catch a sneak peek at the upcoming patch on our Fury of the Sunwell preview page. This preview includes a brand-new gameplay trailer, an official patch wallpaper, a new piece of Sunwell lore, and more.

Link
Do not quote keyloggers, fools
Timbal: Seriously though, please don't quote keyloggers. It just puts more at risk and makes the clean-up take longer. No one likes a long clean-up.

Welcome to the eleventh issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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Something that has caught my eye this last week was the Frostmourne replica sword available for sale. For just 379 usd you could own the sword that (for the most part) corrupted Arthas and will more than likely be the best, shiniest, and coolest weapon in the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This is a pretty cool collector�s item and is on sale now.

Speaking of Frostmourne, here is some food for thought. With the upcoming expansion we�re going to be getting Death Knights which are basically corrupted Paladins. Paladins are immune to the undead plague because they�re covered completely in the light which resists all of the evil of the world. Paladins who went into the border areas (where the plague was going on) would try to help people but would be ostracized for being immune (jealousy and whatnot). They then are basically tired of being hated, the Lich King offers something better, and then they pick-up a runeblade and become a Death Knight.

Now, in the upcoming expansion, we�re told that every race can become a Death Knight. This brings about some problems. Fallen Paladins would have to be Humans and Dwarves, the only two races who have ever been Paladins. We could throw in Blood Elves somehow if you wanted to link them to it somehow.

Night Elves couldn�t become Paladins because they do not touch the Light. Night Elf Priests pull their power from Elune. The undead can�t touch the light, Undead Priests pull their power from the Shadow which then touches the Light. Paladins require 100% connection with the Light with nothing of the Shadow touching them.

Draenei Paladins are possible and their race has issues with pride, but we�ve little to no information about them being able to abandon their conviction for the light.

So that leaves us with a problem. How can any race become a Death Knight? The only possible reasoning is that anyone who picks up a runeblade can become a Death Knight. Baron Rivendare was a wealthy landowner who is now a Death Knight, so that gives us a little bit of a possibility.

It�s interesting to think about how the lore for the upcoming expansion will work out. We�ve been given some newer environment updates by Blizzard recently and to be honest I can�t wait. Hopefully in the coming weeks more news from the expansion will come out giving us more to think about!

This week Blizzard updated their under development page for patch 2.4. In the updated lore it's confirmed that The Sunwell Trilogy will be playing a role in the upcoming patch. Anveena is a character from the 3 part manga series published by Tokyopop.

It's good to see an outside medium come inwards into World of Warcraft. Many players wondered if they would use the lore provided by the comic in the Sunwell Isle and now we have confirmation. Good stuff!

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report Message

2008-03-12T02:03:45Z

Issue 10
Monday, March 11th, 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

Re: WOTLK going to be VISTA only?! PLZ NO!
I'm not quite sure what to say about this. We haven't released any information about specific system requirements for the next expansion.

I think it's best to take what your friend has said with a grain of salt and wait until we are further along to talk about system requirements.

Keep in mind too that we have always tried to do our best to both advance the development of the game as well as balance the system requirements necessary so as to make the game as available to as many people as possible. We're not changing that philosophy. :)
Most Bloodthirsty Violent Race/Tribe in WoW?
Worgen imo

For the simple fact that they were summoned to Azeroth and possess no underlying goal, no directive, no plan of dominance or assembly. A killing machine with no reason to do so wins for bloodthirst/violence in my eyes.

Even the magical prowess of the Kirin Tor was unable to keep them under control. They exist only to kill, maim and disembowel those they come across. Arugal only managed to remain among them, placing himself as a dominant (dubbed Father) figure in their pack, but even if he hadn't been dispatched by adventurers I'm sure the Arugal-Worgen relationship was headed toward the same end.

The only thing keeping them from recognition is probably that they don't exist at varying (and high-end) player levels, which obviously can't be accurately used as a "power" comparison when dealing in lore terms.
Sunwell Raid instance still closed
The Sunwell Raid instance on the PTR is still closed for public testing at this time. Check back here for updates on future testing opportunities during this week.

Welcome to the tenth issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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You may have noticed a quiet around WoW at Ten Ton Hammer. That quiet was the quiet before the storm. We took some time off to work on our new site with a complete redesign. If you haven�t seen it yet then visit:

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow

Don't worry, your old urls are still the same. They'll automatically redirect for you so you don't have to edit your bookmarks or anything. Here is a list of neat new things with the new site!

The search function has been upgraded and will find everything on our site that is related to the search term.
Performance upgrades means it loads faster and is easier on your browser to render with the latest technology.
A complete site redesign with colors that easier on the eyes and a much more appealing/newer visual style.
Content delivery is done in a more defined manner. No longer is it flanked on both sides by bars and empty space. It�s contained on the right side, where your eyes first start reading, with nothing interrupting your view.
The latest features scroll bar shows you what�s new now and is in a compressed space.
The latest news and our latest content are separated so you don�t have to wade through all of the awesome new guides to find out what�s new with WoW.
Our site map is gone, along with sidebars, but the new top navigation can get you what you�re looking for when you want to find it. Not looking for a guide? That information is tucked away under the �Guide� header at the top so you don�t have to see a massive list of guides just to find an editorial or read the news. If you are looking for a guide then just click the guide tab and there you are! A clean, neat, and organized list of guides so you can find what you want when you want.

Our site hosts so many guides that there isn�t anything that we shouldn�t have a guide on. If there is something we don�t have a guide on and you�re curious if we can make one then don�t be afraid to email me at xerin@tentonhammer.com with your ideas!

With our site out of the way we�ve got a lot going on in the WoW community. For instance, patch 2.4 has seen loads and loads of drama and controversy. The Warlock nerf and then the unnerf has driven the Warlock community literally insane as they figure out if they either need to prepare to change out their gear and specs or if they can sit content with no changes coming. Not to mention the upcoming content unlocking being game wide instead of just locally on one server.

If you want to read more about 2.4 then look at our 2.4 Preview, an editorial on 2.4, and the Sunwell Isle preview.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report Message

2008-02-12T19:08:12Z

Issue 10
Tuesday, February 12th 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

[BUG] Drinking Water
Hortus: Hi Matthan,

This is an intentional change to how drinking works. The amount of mana regenerated now ramps up, so you will see little or no mana regen the first few seconds and then it will increase as the duration continues.

It appears this change did not make it into these patch notes, I'll see about getting it added to future notes.
AV lag, Blizzard - WTF?
Drysc : It appears the Reckoning and Cyclone cross-realm battleground servers are experiencing some issues. It's currently being investigated.

Welcome to the second issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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This week has been full of surprises in the World of Warcraft community. The first bit of major news is that the test notes for patch 2.4 are now up and are full of changes that should help improve gameplay, remove various aggravations, and makes a ton of positive changes. Some players, of course, have found some changes in regards to Paladin gear to be kinda �meh� or unsatisfactory, but as a whole the patch is absolutely fabulous in all regards.

We�ve got two holidays going on at the same time. Love is in the Air, the Valentine�s Day spinoff is currently ongoing while the Lunar Festival continues. If you look over to the side you�ll see links to all of our guides which includes two very detailed guides all about these two events.

Speaking of Valentine�s Day, Blizzard has unleashed a new commercial for everyone to enjoy. I found it quite comical and well worth the watch. You can read the news about it right here.

The 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide International will be held in Paris this year. If you�re a really big Blizzard fan then begin making plans to head out to Paris now since a trip from North America to Paris isn�t something that can be done overnight without massive expense. Read more about it.

A WoW miniature game is set to launch this fall. I�m not a big table top gamer so I�ve little clue how impressive this really is, but with Blizzard�s license you�ve got to know that it�s going to be good. Read more.

In this last week Blizzard has been nominated for the �Outstanding Pre-Rendred Visuals in a Video Game� for the introduction cinematic to WoW: The Burning Crusade. Not only that but they received accolades at the 2008 D.I.C.E. gaming conference where Mike Morhaime was inducted into their Hall of Fame and TBC was chosen as the MMOG of the Year.

With the news out of the way let us discuss patch 2.4. One of the major community upsets in this patch is the removal of attunement to some of the more difficult instances causing many players wanting to �purchase� a raid spot in order to attend the raid and loot one specific item if it drops. Strong raiding guilds can often carry one person into a raid if they�re able to successfully farm a boss so it�s not unreasonable that lower equipped/skilled players may soon be walking around with difficult to obtain gear. We�ll see how this plays out in the long run and personally I don�t think it�s that big of a deal.

Next up is Kael�thas�s loot. He drops a ring with 19 Stamina, 14 intellect, Red Socket (3 stam), Improves Spell Haste by 14, and healing 48/damage 16 with the phrase �Azerothian diamonds are eternal.� The phrase at the bottom almost makes up for Kael�thas�s final death being him overly corrupted by magic.

A change in 2.4 that isn�t listed in the patch notes is that drinking doesn�t restore your mana at even increments. For the first few seconds you�ll regain no mana and then shortly afterwards you�ll begin gaining increasing amounts. This change mostly affects people who attempt to drink in the arena since you�ll no longer be able to drink for 5 seconds and get a good bit of mana back. Water will still restore the same amount of mana, just has to charge up.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report - Love is in the Air

2008-02-05T12:11:24Z

Issue 9
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

Endless Rage buffed?!
Bornakk: The fix in 2.4 should have Endless Rage provide significantly more rage.
Crit rate as Fury
Bornakk: While I agree there is no exact number to shoot for in crit, in 2.4 we plan to make the off-hand weapon critical hits from Whirlwind trigger Flurry and Rampage which should improve damage a bit.
Mage Buffs in 2.4?
Eyonix: I do know that in patch 2.4 players can only carry 80 of your delicious conjured manna biscuits at one time. As a result, you should experience less banquet-creating frustration. Sorry, the spell icon will remain the same and not look any more new or unique.

Welcome to the second issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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It�s now February and that means it�s time for �Love is in the Air�. If you�re not aware, February 11^th officially kicks off World of Warcraft�s Valentine�s Day holiday. It�ll run from the 11^th to the 15^th. There are some very interesting activities to participate in like exchanging valentines with innkeepers, various useful chocolates that provide decent buffs, Valentine�s Day only pets, and a few quests. So remember that the 11^th starts the event and it�ll last for four days.

The Under Development page has been updated over at worldofwarcraft.com. It now provides some more information on the upcoming patch 2.4. Most of it we know already (the Sunwell instance, daily quests getting increased, etc.) but at least this has been confirmed for 2.4. One of the upcoming features I like the most is allowing players to obtain some PvP rewards through PvE. That�ll really help get more and more new players interesting into PvP.

Diminishing returns will be removed from the honor calculations in patch 2.4 as well (although it�s not listed on the Under Development page). This means that you�ll no longer have to get angered when your honor estimates were overestimated and you fall short on getting that piece of gear you had your heart set on. Good stuff!

Vivendi has now reached over ONE BILLION dollars in revenue. That�s just downright amazing! That�s all from World of Warcraft and the various other games Vivendi publishes. With the merger with Activision one can only wonder what the future holds for both companies.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report - Viziers are Inherently Evil

2008-01-29T11:11:46Z

Issue 8
Tuesday, January 29th 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

what happened to the crews of the ships?
Nethaera: We had planned to get them back in recently, however, there were some issues of boats and zeppelins not functioning properly, so they were removed. While we'd still love to be able to get them back on duty, there is no definite eta on when or if this will happen.

Welcome to the eighth issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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The community still slumbers as the buildup to the expansion and the Sunwell Plateau continues to mount. This week though Blizzard decided to give a small treat in the form of a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King bestiary. We�ve got two new monsters to look at and a slew more coming in the upcoming months.

The first one is the Nerubian Vizier. I love the word vizier because no matter the story whenever you hear �vizier� you know that person is evil and most than likely has a plan to conquer the entire world. I�m pretty sure every book or video game should automatically spoiler vizier just to not give away the fact the person is evil. The Nerubian Vizier isn�t exactly good to begin with though. It has apparently already turned evil, if you can say that.

It appears the Nerubians are back and they�re fighting the Scourge. These Viziers are half-humanoid and half-spider meaning that they�re really cool looking and the concept art backs this up. I�m guessing these two legged six armed creepy walky will be inside of the Nerubian themed instances and will be casting spells your way soon.

The other monster we�re introduced to is the Plague Eruptor. Looks like an undead Draenei crossed with an abomination but who am I to judge. From the description it appears that the monster�s goal is to walk around spreading the plague from its rotting skin. Lovely!

You can read about these over at Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary.

Last Tuesday it was announced by Blizzard that WoW has reached over 10 million subscribers worldwide. That�s a massive number for an online video game to reach and is massively record breaking (for a North American developed game). In the years that WoW has been up it has been one wild ride and the rollercoaster keeps on climbing.

The Blizzard highlights this week are very light. There has been very few posts by Blizzard and the majority of them have been in moderating and not news.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at TenTonHammer.

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WoW Weekly Report - The 1st Anniversary of The Burning Crusade

2008-01-22T09:08:18Z

Issue 7
Tuesday, January 22nd 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

More Opera - Less Prince!
Drysc: The need for some amount of randomness was gone over at BlizzCon in the Raid & Dungeons panel, I would recommend looking up some of those shakey-cams on youtube if you've never seen them. Some good insight on design of the encounters.

I would agree that the light-heartedness of the Opera is a really refreshing change, and it was great there's a place for it in Karazhan. In a world of demon-infested castles, dungeons, and dark caves it's not every one you can create such an event and have it fit and make sense. So, I think the Opera event was more a product of location than of the desire to make something a bit more whimsical.

As for Prince Malchezaar and that fight, yeah it's got the whole random thing going on with the infernals. However; you can mitigate the randomness of their drops any number of ways. By being over-geared you can certainly deal with the problems better as they crop up, but then really why are you fighting Prince? You can also track the fall of the infernals, have a barker that's good at watching them and able to anticipate their placement. Or, use one of a couple different placement strategies that make it almost impossible for an infernal to interfere. The last one being the most popular these days I suspect.

Encounters need randomness, as small as miraculously dodging that one hit, all the way up to a fight randomly dropping green meteors on your face. There has to be some amount of randomness, or there's no human element, no need for you and your group to adapt and react, which doesn't make for a fun and engaging fight.

Each encounter is going to use different mechanics, and not everyone is going to like every mechanic or basis for a fight. Personally I would rather fight Prince than Netherspite just because of my personal experiences. So which of us is right? Which encounter is better or worse? Or should there maybe be a variety so that a dungeon can appeal to a broad spectrum of people, groups, and playstyles?

Welcome to the seventh issue of the WoW Weekly Report!

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Have you seen our newly upgraded WoW database? If not go take a look right now! Our gold free database has tons of new features, a brand new look, and is a precursor to more awesome things that you should look out for in the near future.

Things have remained slow on the official Blizzard news front. The last update to the main site was the sixteenth informing us that The Wrath of the Lich King has reached its first year anniversary and that a free trial has launched. If you�ve yet to upgrade (why not???) or know someone who would like to try WoW and play as a Blood Elf then this is a great opportunity for them.

A lot has happened in this last year. We�ve gone through and explored the Black Temple, revisited tons of landmarks last seen in the RTS game, reached level 70, and a variable cornucopia of delightful experiences were made in the wondrous land of Outland. Even though we�re celebrating anniversary of its launch a year ago we�re nearing the time we bid farewell to the lands of Outland and return once more Azeroth where we�ll face the next big challenge.

We�re supposedly a year or less away from entering the land held by the Lich King and the next big threat to the great lands of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Once more players will be ordering copies of the expansion in mass and trying to push their way through queues attempting to get the first boat there just like a year ago. As we�re still starting this New Year let us look back at the previous year and the enjoyment we had with receiving and playing through current expansion. As time moves forward so do things move into the past. Soon Outland will be a fleeting memory just like the first time you tried to take on Hogger or found yourself lost in the now nearly abandoned Westfall.

If you know someone who has yet to experience the joy of World of Warcraft then consider pointing them to this part of the Blizzard website. The 10 day trial is easy to obtain, quick overnight download for anyone on broadband (or you can just let them borrow your install discs), and is taste at what the game has to offer.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at Ten Ton Hammer.

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WoW Weekly Report - Battleground Participation and Account Suspensions

2008-01-15T09:30:03Z

Issue 6
Tuesday, January 15th, 2007

Are you looking for guides, databases, U.I. mods, and more? WoW - Ten Ton Hammer for all of your WoW needs. You'll find a wealth of game knowledge back over at our site!.

I used to report AFK'ers but now I won't
Drysc: I can assure you that if someone is going to be suspended, and have other actions taken against their account/character, that they are definitive abusers.

If someone is going to the bathroom 30 times a game, 100 games in a row, they may want to cut down on the cranberry juice.

(Of course, those are numbers I made up. We obviously won't be announcing thresholds, etc.).
We Want Player Housing!!!!!! Now!
Drysc: Heh, well skimming through it seems not everyone wants player housing at the moment. Not that we use the forums as a barometer for popular opinion, but anyway...
Player housing is still something that intrigues us. If the place and time are right, and we can add player housing and make it a meaningful addition to the game, make it cool, we'll do so.

Instead of making demands of what you want to see, why not discuss different features? The pros and cons of player housing, what it could add or detract from the game. It's far more pleasant to read.
I used to report AFK'ers but now I won't
Drysc: In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we are currently taking steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Battlegrounds. Starting immediately, we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions and the removal of Honor points and recently acquired Honor rewards, for non-participation in Battleground games.

We are taking action against thousands of accounts immediately, and will continue to monitor these situations and regularly take action against violators. If you encounter a player in a Battleground who is intentionally not participating in the battle for an extended period of time, please help us track the situation and report the player as AFK. For information on how to complete an in-game AFK report, please go here: (linkl). All reports will be thoroughly investigated, and corrective action will only be taken if the violation is confirmed.

Thank you for your support and best of luck to you in all of your games in the Battlegrounds!

Welcome to the sixth issue of the WoW Weekly Report! This week we've got the battleground bannings, a new database, and a podcast from Blizzard to talk about.

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This last week has been abuzz with one major occurrence and that�s the announcement on Blizzard�s official forums that Blizzard will be taking action against people who AFK in the battlegrounds on purpose to gain honor. Within seconds of the posting (on the official forums) the community outrage flooded forth with zeal as the community both shouted their support and their anger at this decision. Following the announcement was a clarification that only people who were obviously AFKing to get honor (and to exploit the system) would be the ones suspended for their misconduct.

However, should players be suspended for abusing mechanics that are built into the game? I'm all for the punishment for the crime, but I think the game should do a better job of preventing it or discouraging it. Blizzard states that you�d need an obvious streak of joining games and getting booted for AFKing to get any action done against you. So you'd have to be trying to do it on purpose. However, there just has to be some other solution than suspending people who try to abuse the system. It�s gotten to the point that action has to be taken (and the punishment is well deserved) but there should be some mechanic to prevent it so that it never has to get to the point that Blizzard has to intervene and players are not tempted to AFK to gain honor.

Adding in the report AFKers option was great but it still requires additional effort for player�s to help police their own gaming world on a frequent basis. I don�t know about you but when I�m playing a game I much rather prefer to play it and not worry about who I need to report for idling about so I can play it on fair and even numbers. There has to be something that Blizzard could do that could fairly determine if someone was AFKing or if their participation just wasn�t as much as others. Perhaps there should be closer graveyards to the action and a 5 minute battle rule where you�re automatically removed from the game should you fail to enter into combat for 5 minutes. If you�re just trying to leech honor then you�re not going to get far if every 4 minutes you have to move to the battle, mark yourself in combat , and then go back to AFKing so you�re not booted at the 5 minute mark automatically by the game.

Let�s face it; if you�re AFK for 5 minutes in AV then you can simply just requeue. No harm, no foul. Better yet why not make the honor awards require a radius? If you�re in the battle and you�re fighting Drek�Thar then you�re obviously going to have to be there near Drek�Thar in order to win the game. If you�re nowhere near the battle then you�re not exactly helping now are you? Well you could be working on Galvangar at the same time, but if he�s engaged then maybe those people should get the rewards to. Someone who is say at the spawn point though isn�t exactly helping out. A simple solution that may inconvenience some but it outright rules out AFKing as a viable way to get honor quickly.

The whole situation seems like it could be handled better by players being more responsible and less people trying to cheat the system and cash in on everyone else�s effort. However, with a game of this size there is no way to rule out a few bad apples are going to ruin the bundle.

If you�d like, there is a thread on our forum to discuss this right here. Feel free to express your joy or outrage at this announcement.

With that out of the way it�s time to announce something exciting. The TenTonHammer Database has finally gotten an upgrade. You can read the news about it here or just head straight to the DB to see it. It�s really easy to use and to me it�s the best gold free database that exists on the Internet. While you�re at it, consider installing the TenTonHammer U.I. mod that allows you to submit data to us.

If you want to discuss the database upgrade feel free to talk about it on our forums.

The last thing to talk about this week is BlizzCast. It�s the new behind the scenes podcast created by the Blizzard developers. It�s loaded on to my Zune right now but I�ve yet to listen, although everyone I know who has listened has said it�s well worth the time if you�re ever interested in hearing from the developers and finding out some of the upcoming features of Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II.

Cool thing about BlizzCast is that they transcribe each episode so you don�t even have to listen to it and you can skip straight to the reading. If you�d like to download episode one, read episode one, or listen to episode one over the Internet then check out this page. While we�re talking podcasts our network runs a pretty excellent one called Game Over. If you�ve got the time give it a listen as well.

That�s about it for this week�s news and headlines. Check in next Tuesday morning for more here at WoW at TenTonHammer.

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