Insider Trader: Northern Engineering highlights

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. Engineering has seen many changes over the past year, and Wrath of the Lich King brought even more. Today, Insider Trader is taking a look at some of the highlights of the profession to help you set goals and plan ahead with your leveling. This by no means covers every schematic, and instead looks at the big ticket items and new innovations, including stylish, if somewhat controversial, new modes of transportation, consolidations to save bag space, and more.

 

Widespread connectivity issues abound today

Users of Comcast and Verizon are experiencing technical difficulties today in their connectivity to the game. They are experiencing this in both connecting to the actual game, and then maintaining a good connection once in the game. Blue poster Claudiog is seeking more information from the community on the technical support forums. In particular he's looking for traceroutes from affected users. Head over to their forums (ignoring their own ads) and help them out if you're struck with these issues. Some users are stating that the Los Angeles datacenters are the culprits for the connectivity issues. However we want to caution users that Blizzard has made no official statement about their datacenters.

 

The Queue: High Elves, great race or greatest race?

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. I have to admit, there were one idea brought up in the comments yesterday that I'm completely in support of: Kael'thas returning as a Lich. Hell. Yes. Not aligned with the Scourge, but self-fueled and up to his own machinations again. Kael'thas has been one of my favorite villains, watching his fall into desperation through WCIII and The Burning Crusade. Lich Kael would own so hard. That's enough of that, though. On with the questions! Leprakahn asked... I remember reading during Wrath beta that at the end of inscription scribes were going to get a 7th glyph slot, what happened to that? Did it get scrapped completely or will it come with a later patch? Continue reading The Queue: High Elves, great race or greatest race?

 

[1:Local]: Perspectives on WoW past, present and future

Reader comments - ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one!) and add your own thoughts - unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk. We don't miss that at all This Breakfast Topic, which looked back at the little annoyances we're not sorry have gone the way of the dodo, included plenty of nostalgia for the epic-length Alterac Valleys of old. Players claimed to have hated them back then - but they seem to miss them now that they're a thing of the past. A number of readers pegged a different annoyance that early WoW players remember with chagrin. "One of the things I remember with the least amount of fondness is unconnected flight paths," noted lightningjynx. "There wasn't the clicking a destination halfway across the world and going to do something productive while you waited. No, you had to stare at your character flying to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, unless you had all the flight path times memorized and played that way." "Wow, yeah, I had forgotten about that," agreed MadScientist17. "Had to try to remember which flight points went where." We agree, too - but ultimately, we think Veil has the pointiest point: "Definitely don't miss old Andorhal. That place was an f'ing death trap."

 

Forum post of the day: I don't see any ads

I don't have to say that folks are annoyed with Blizzard's new advertisements on the official forums. The forums today are filled with threads complaining about everything from their presence to their content. Lure of Eradar suggested using Adblock Plus and Remove It Permanantly in Firefox to ditch the ads. After loading the first addon, you must subscribe to a list appropriate to your region. The second addon gets rid of the grey frame left where the ad was. The original poster gave us handy dandy instructions on how to use it: Load a random thread on the WoW forums, any will do. See that annoying grey frame? Right click on the frame. Go to RIP Advanced. First choose "Remove from this Domain" Go to RIP Advanced again, Next click "Remove all similar parent items." The entire process took less than three minutes and my forums look just like they did before. For the most part we should be used to online advertising. You can just ignore them, but if you're really that annoyed by it do something about it. I also won't hear the objection that you don't use Firefox. You should. I'd check into how to remove ads for IE, but I'm not willing to load Exploder on either of my computers. Thanks to Lure and everyone else who offered similar simple solutions. If only there were an addon to block the trolls, we'd be all set.

 

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Overstacking

When coming into a new spec and role, one of the things you find yourself doing at first is making constant small adjustments. Part of this is simply the nature of the beast. You've been a PvP arms warrior for most of TBC, for example, but now you're a raiding Arms DPS warrior and you need different things from your spec, which in addition is pretty significantly changed from what it was at level 70. Or you were a tank for the original endgame, but stepped away for a while and then came back in time to level to 70 just before the expansion, and are now looking at what you need to do to get ready to tank 10 man raids for your small guild, and are realizing that the leveling prot spec you were using isn't quite up to it. Or you could be fury again after tanking for over a year and you realize that your spec has points in all the wrong places and you have too much hit and not enough crit or AP on your gear. Not that I'd know what that was like. Okay, so I do. In fairness to me, it's not like I intended to be sitting at 550 hit rating and once I stopped and looked at the upgrades I've recently acquired, I realized that I'd gone overboard on hit to the detriment of crit and AP. It's true that the white hit cap for fury is somewhere around 950 hit rating but I'm easily over the 361 or so you need for specials while dual wielding. Assuming that the miss chance for special attacks is 9%, and not 8%, as I've been hearing lately - if it's 8% now, which seems fairly well tested and proved by this point, then you can shift how much hit I need with TG down the table. Once they drop the 5% penalty on specials, you can drop it even further. So while making that soft hit cap on special attacks is very important, you can do it with roughly half the hit rating I've accidentally collected. What I need now is crit and AP. Not related to any of this, but check out this post from the EJ forums and boggle at the significance of passive haste somehow adding hit. Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Overstacking

 

Epic 2h Tanking Weapons from Blacksmithing

From our friends at MMO-Champion, we get this news: there will be two new tanking weapons from Blacksmithing, both of them 2h weapons. The Titansteel Deflector and Titansteel Defender will allow new DK's just gearing for raiding at 80 to craft themselves a spiffy 2h with enough defense or parry to help them out without making an instance drop useless for other classes. I admit I'm eyeing the Titansteel Defender for my fury warrior's OT set, but it's clearly made with DK's in mind. They even re-use the models for the starting DK weapons, which is fine by me, those are some hot weapons. However, does this mean any serious DK tank has to be a blacksmith now? These are listed at BoP weapons, which would mean you'd have to be a smith to get one. But then again, one of the two is listed as a sword yet certainly looks like an axe, so it's possible that we'll see these go BoE, which would mean that I'd probably set up shop as a DK tank's weapon supplier. Here's to hoping.

 

Blizzard adds advertising to the official forums

Blizzard has added two advertising bars to their official forum pages, one on the top and one banner along the side. And it's got players concerned -- there's a large forum thread growing even bigger by the minute right now. The main complaints seem to revolve around a few issues: the design breaks the forum layout for some users, the ads are possibly a security risk (they aren't hosted by Blizzard -- more on that in a second), and of course the issue that we're paying every month to be able to look at ads on the forums. Continue reading Blizzard adds advertising to the official forums

 

Around Azeroth: A failure to plan

Summoning is one of those tasks that tends to be a lot more difficult in practice than it is in theory. Someone always moves at a critical moment, or goes AFK to get a sandwich, or falls off the edge of the building while searching for the stone. (Hellfire Citadel, I'm looking at you for that last one.) But Ewaromir of <Accepted> on Bronzebeard-EU has managed to create a new problem: the Air Portal. Try shifting out of flight form before clicking next time, Ewaromir. Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, double-mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Gallery: Around Azeroth

 

Breakfast topic: Forgive and forget?

Wrath has been out for about a month now. We were excited about the game, but boy were we angry. We had restarts, extended maintenance, server queues, and whole host of other anomalies. Blizzard's solution was to address as many issues as they could and give us each three days of credit. There are still problems with random disconnects, server lag, and some other bugs. There's still work to be done, but it's getting better. The one thing that I'm still very frustrated with is the evade issue. This seems to happen to me far more frequently than it did pre-Wrath. I hate it when a mob resets just as it would die, particularly when it's an elite. It always reminds me of Jester diving below the hard deck. I have nothing to do but try to kill the mob again or move on to another one that's (hopefully) not evading. Over all though, I'm happy with Wrath of the Lich King. There are some dreadful quests, but some awesome ones as well. A lot of things are reused, but many are new as well. I'm over being mad and back to enjoying the game. But Blizz, if you're reading: please stop the mobs from bugging out and going home. Now readers, it's your turn: Do you forgive Blizzard yet? What will it take to make you happy with WoW?

 

Free realm transfers available for select EU realms

Earlier today, Thundgot of the offiical EU forums announced a couple of free character migrations for EU PvP realms. The transfers are an attempt to move some players from a few overly populated PvP realms to some that could use a little help. These transfers are available from December 17th (yesterday) to December 23rd. The open transfers are: From: Burning Legion, Drak'thul, Sylvanas To: Ahn'Qiraj, Burning Blade, Xavius From: Magtheridon (Horde only) To: Haomarush, Zenedar Continue reading Free realm transfers available for select EU realms

 

Wrath 101: PvP welfare gear

With gear upgrades these days being so easy to come by, I'm not so sure 'welfare epics' is such an accurate term for PvP gear anymore. That said, Arena Season 5 started the other day without so much as a whimper. It kind of crept in quietly, without even a patch to go along with it. I'm sure it's taken a few players by surprise to see so many new PvP gear available from different sources that it can get confusing. I know I wrote about it in an old post, but quite a bit has changed since Beta, and some things don't quite apply. Don't worry, we're here to help you make sense of it all. First of all, in the new PvP rewards system there are three tiers of PvP gear. The Savage Gladiator, Hateful Gladiator, and Deadly Gladiator are equivalent to Level 80 dungeon blues, 10-man raid epics, and 25-man raid epics respectively, with a lot of item points thrown in the way of Resilience and sometimes Stamina. These items aren't the best for PvE, so gear accordingly. You'll be wasting a lot of item points by way of Resilience, so keep in mind that all this new gear is best for your Battleground and Arena pursuits. Continue reading Wrath 101: PvP welfare gear

 

Freezing Arrow and you

Aspect of the Hare has a great post up about "Freezing Arrow for non-Hunters" -- of all of the new Wrath abilities, Freezing Arrow seems right up there with Death Grip as a game changer during instance pulls. But as great as it is (a Hunter can now trap a mob at a distance, which means trapping casters is much, much easier), there are drawbacks that you other group members need to know about, hence AotH's post. First and foremost, chain trapping is out. On a normal trap, a Hunter can lay down a trap early, and get past the extra 10 second cooldown on getting the trap up again, which means they can have another trap pick up the same mob when the first one finishes its duration. But pulling with Freezing Arrow means you can't lay down the trap early, which means that the 10 second cooldown will always be in effect: there will be ten seconds after the trap comes up before the Hunter can Freezing Arrow again. There are loopholes, as AotH says: Resourcefulness can help Survival Hunters with the cooldown a bit, and Readiness means a Hunter can throw out two Arrows in a row (but no more than that). And of course positioning helps a lot -- if a Hunter can lay down a Freezing Arrow early and then kite a mob into it, chain trapping is theoretically possible (though with casters, it's going to be really tough, just because you have to move so much to get them to move after you). But non-Hunters beware: Freezing Arrow is good for trapping a mob for about 20 seconds. After that, you're on your own.

 

Dissidia's ridiculously epic intro movie

Dissidia has graced Japan and it won't be long until the rest of the world will be able to join in. As expected, the CG intro to the Final Fantasy mash-up is epic -- perhaps more so than we could have possibly imagined. Watch all the heroes and villains battle in one super-battle will make any fanboy or girl squeal. Fanfic writers, this is the stuff of legends. Check it out, after the break. Continue reading Dissidia's ridiculously epic intro movie

 

Worldwide PSP releases for the week of December 21

With Christmas just a few days away, we're not surprised to see little to nothing releasing this week. And you know, this dry spell of holiday releases is somewhat of a blessing in disguise, actually. You see, the holiday season isn't about games and gifts; it's about spending time with the family and wishing you'd leave them again soon after. So put down the games (or don't because there are none for PSP) and make sure you make time for the people that matter most. NA Games: No new releases EU Games: No new releases Asian Games: Cherry Blossom Portable DJ Max Portable Emotional Sense - Black Square [First Print Special Package] DJ Max Portable Emotional Sense - Black Square [Quattra Limited Edition] Oretachi no Survival Game Portable Across the ocean in Asia, they're really enjoying the commercial aspect of the season. At least over here, we're shedding materialism and embracing family values. Asia could seriously learn a lot from us.

 

Asian PSN update for the week of 12/15 - 12/21

Star Strike Portable -- aka Super Stardust Portable -- was all that really mattered this past week in Asia as far as downloading off the PS Store is concerned. It has been a pretty uneventful week this time; there are no PSOne titles to be jealous of. Hooray. You can catch the weekly Asian PS Store update every Sunday, while you can still enjoy EU and NA updates every Thursday. For PS3-related content, please check PS3 Fanboy.

 

Home glitch reveals cute hidden message

Don't you wish you could go to the docks outside your virtual apartment in Home? Well, a clipping glitch lets you do just that. Those that do manage to break through and go outside will find a cute surprise on a placard far away from the apartment. We won't ruin the surprise for you -- it's after the break. [Thanks, Justin!] Continue reading Home glitch reveals cute hidden message

 

Blu-ray releases for the week of December 21st

Let's start things off with a nice deal on the critically acclaimed Band of Brothers, yours for only $37.49. This week's Blu-ray release dates seem to be all over the place: a couple were released today, some will be released on Tuesday and the remainder will be released on Saturday: Theatrical releases: Burn After Reading Death Race The Duchess Eagle Eye Ghost Town The House Bunny Resident Evil: Degeneration The Women Double features: Patriot Games & Sum of All Fears Italian Job & Shooter Coming to America & Trading Places Next & Face Off Spiderwick Chronicles & Nacho Libre The Ruins & Tomb Raider Cloverfield & Sleepy Hollow Payback & We Were Soldiers Drillbit Taylor & Norbit Although Resident Evil: Degeneration takes place within the same universe as the games, this CG movie received the same mixed reviews as the flicks of the live-action trilogy. The Women unites a number of well-known female thespians in a commendable remake of the 1939 classic starring Joan Crawford. Eagle Eye requires a willing suspension of disbelief if you intent to enjoy it, but with the running time at 2 minutes shy of 2 hours, the whole charade simply goes on for too long. Theatrical releases are above, everything else (including TV releases) are after the jump: Continue reading Blu-ray releases for the week of December 21st

 

Whoops! No Red Bull Air Race this year

You may have noticed that the Home launch hasn't exactly gone smoothly. With the Home teams worldwide working on fixes for the numerous server and login issues the content release schedule has been pushed back, as people are now taking their Christmas breaks. What this boils down to is this: Don't expect to see the Red Bull Air Race this year. TedTheDog has stated on the European PlayStation forums that it definitely won't appear in 2008. Though "it really ought to be worth the wait, its really quite impressive and a lot of fun." We've played it and, while it's kind of neat, it's not quite as awesome as it's maybe getting hyped up to be. Still, content is content, and even TedTheDog admits that Home is currently "a little bare." He goes on to say that "we've got some problems to solve, but they'll be solved and we can then move on to running it as the service we all want." In other words, please remain patient for just a little longer. Well, we've waited this long, what's a few more weeks?

 

Worldwide PS3 releases for the week of December 21st

Merry Christmas, Japan! While the Western world grows fat on its own laziness (not to mention a massive amount of Christmas food) Japanese game stores remain open to sell five new great PS3 games. What's that strange smell, you ask? That's our pure, unadulterated jealousy. We really want to play White Knight Chronicles. Here's the release list: US Games No new releases EU Games No new releases Asian Games Alone In The Dark Bioshock Far Cry 2 Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution White Knight Chronicles

 

Sony declares death to the clamshell

Have you ever tried to open one of those annoying plastic containers that so many companies seem to use? Y'know what we're talking about. These nearly indestructible packages hold your favorite toys (like the PlayStation Eye), but required Herculean strength to open. Sony Electronics has declared "death to the clamshell," and we're hoping that means SCE will follow suit as well. You wouldn't want to be like this guy, would you? (Video after the break.) [Via Joystiq]

 

Asian PSN update for the week of 12/15 - 12/21

This past week's updates in Asia were rather satisfying. It's all about the games as Lumines Supernova, Crash Commando and a slew of others graced the digital store. See what else is in stock after the break. You can catch the weekly Asian PS Store update every Sunday, while you can still enjoy EU and NA updates every Thursday. For PSP-related content, please check PSP Fanboy.

 

Wii Warm Up: GHWT vs. Rock Band

What the heck -- let's talk about Guitar Hero all weekend long. Today, we want to compare it with that head-to-head competitor, Rock Band. Before, we had fake band versus fake guitar god, but now the two games are on more of an even footing. If you've played both, do you clearly prefer one over the other, or is one fake set of instruments pretty much like any other? Does it come down to available tracks?

 

DS Daily: Your redesign

With three DS types in existence -- we're including the Phat here, too; can't forget about the original just because these upstarts are hanging around -- you have the potential to build one weird system. If, that is, you combined aspects of all three. If you could, which features would you put into your handheld, and which would you discard? Maybe you don't care much for the DSi's camera, and you want a slightly thicker portable. Maybe you want the camera plus the GBA slot. Maybe instead you like one of the versions just as it is. How would your DS look? Gallery: Nintendo DSi

 

Joystiq: Get to know your Street Fighters

With the final character announced for the console version of Street Fighter IV -- it was Rose, by the way -- the final roster for the anticipated title rounds out to a robust 25 fighters. Looking for a quick guide? The fine folks at Joystiq have compiled a gallery introducing (and in a lot of cases reintroducing) gamers to the entire ragtag list of world fighters. Complete with our usual brand of wit, the gallery features some interesting screenshots like the one above featuring Blanka in a Jungle Adventurer outfit. Jump into the gallery below and get to know your street fighters! Gallery: Street Fighter IV: Character Roster

 

Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars attacks XBLA in 2009

Sure, the Xbox Live Arcade has FPS classics we spent much of our youth playing against others. DOOM, Duke Nukem 3D, Marathon: Durandal ... but the service is still sorely missing a fast-paced action shooter (Sup, Quake?). Thanks to Ubisoft the wait may be over in the form of Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars -- a "fast paced" multiplayer shooter -- hitting the XBLA and PSN in early 09. The upcoming Arcade FPS, developed by Immersion Games, throws players into an arena to do battle with their choice of gunfire and/or telekinetic superpowers. You know, because guns aren't deadly enough these days. Psychokinetic Wars will offer 30 single-player "challenges," three playable characters and four multiplayer modes (Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag and Assault) for up to 16 players. Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars should also change its ridiculous name. Cellfactor is plenty, the rest is just marketing research gone bad. [via Joystiq] Gallery: Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars (PSN, XBLA)

 

Sunday Deals: $50 EndWar bundle and more

This is the last week to finish your holiday shopping, so we figured we'd sift through the Sunday retail ads to find the best Xbox 360 gaming deals. And, wouldn't you know, those deals are conveniently listed below. Best Buy is selling World at War and Force Unleashed for $35, giving out a free $50 gift card with Xbox 360 and controller purchase, selling the GHIII bundle for $50, the EndWar headset bundle for $50, and a whole mess of EA Sports games are on sale from $38 on up. Reward Zone members can also score a free $10 gift card with purchase of Midnight Club: LA. Circuit City is selling EndWar and Web of Shadows for $45 as well as Halo 3 and Madden '09 for $50. At Toys R Us, they're giving away a free 12 month Live subscription with Xbox 360 purchase and selling Golden Axe for $40 which is a part of their Buy 1 Get 1 Half Off sale that also includes Saints Row 2, Smackdown vs. Raw, Web of Shadows, World at War, World Tour, Madagascar 2 and Quantum of Solace. Happy holiday shopping.

 

Video: The Guitar Hero: Metallica trailer

Making an appearance over on Metallica's official web space is a fresh trailer for next year's upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica. A game that is still yet to be officially announced, mentioned or even uttered by the PR folks at Activision. No matter, because Metallica isn't afraid to promote the game as is obvious by the latest trailer. Enjoy the video goods after the break and be sure to ride the lightning in 2009.

 

Street Fighter IV Collector's Edition gets updated

Yesterday, Capcom unveiled some changes made to the Collector's Edition retail packaging of Street Fighter IV. Originally featuring Chun-Li at the ready for a brawl, Capcom had a total change of heart regarding the cover art thanks to fan feedback. "We had a total re-think on our SFIV packaging," Capcom's PR director, Chris Kramer, wrote on the Capcom-Unity blog. "We have opted to drop the initial Chun-Li packfront in favor of Street Fighter IV art director Ikeno-san's amazing Ryu vs. Ken illustration." Priced at $79.99, Street Fighter enthusiasts can expect to enjoy a soundtrack CD, hint book with Udon art and a C. Viper figurine -- but we're still hoping they come to their senses and swap that for Akuma or Ken. Not content with leaving Xbox 360 fanboys out in the standard definition dust, Capcom has confirmed the final piece of collector's swag -- a new 65-minute anime movie, The Ties That Bind -- has been encoded on a special game disc (not a standard DVD) which has allowed creators at Studio 4C to output the film at a native 720p resolution. Finally, Capcom says the collector's edition will also include some "secret additional downloadable content," which GameStop had previously listed as new costumes, but has since revised. [via Joystiq] Gallery: Street Fighter IV