Apparently if you want to authenticate your game tonight, you’ll be out of luck. At least for the time being. Authentication? Logging in? Who needs that? There has been some conflicting information out there. According to Bornakk, all the issues have been resolved. However, according to Billtesdes the authentication issues are being investigated. Judging by the number of you sending in tips to WoW Insider, I’d say things are definitely broken at the moment. We’ll update this post when more information is available. Update: This issue is apparently fixed.

Ensidia, the European super-guild that resulted from the merger of SK-Gaming and Nihilum last year, has just made the world first kill of the 10-man version of Algalon, Ulduar’s true final boss. Algalon is only accessible after completing every other hard mode in Ulduar, and guilds are only given 60 minutes per week of attempts on him. 25-man Algalon has not yet been killed. For details on the loot, see Ensidia’s announcement; there’s some great stuff there. Mek, from Ensidia, had this to say about the fight: “It’s a pretty intense fight but not quite as hard as Blizzard made it out to be. The 1 hour timer is the real challenge since you must do a perfect attempt within it.” Of course, I think “not quite as hard” for Ensidia is probably a pretty good challenge for the rest of us mortals. Congratulations, Ensidia!

Reader Kongzai sent us a tip this morning that the recently revealed loot cards for the next TCG expansion Fields of Honor are available for testing on the PTR. He hotfotted it down to Booty Bay and reports that it is indeed possible to sample the latest loot using the same codes as in previous PTR tests. All you need to do is enter the following when prompted by Landro: 1111 for the Path of Cenarius 2222 for the Ogre Pinata 3333 for the Magic Rooster Egg (aka El Pollo Grande) Kongzai was also able to shed a little more information on the loot itself. He reports that Path of Cenarius is the common item, coming in stacks of 100 and lasts for five minutes. The Ogre Pinata is, as I predicted, BoP and thirty minute cooldown. He comes with 5000 HP and, when destroyed, leaves a stack of gumballs in his wake which grant a buff that makes you blow bubbles. Awesome. He

We were just talking about this on the podcast last night — Turpster’s tip a week or so ago was that going for the Crusader title in the Argent Tournament actually puts you at a disadvantage, because if you keep from turning in the last Valiant quest for the achievement, you don’t lock off having the ability to do both Valiant and Champion quests together, thus, as you can see in the thread, earning an extra 36 gold a day, which adds up to 1000g a month. After you earn the ability to represent every city, you can’t do the Valiant quests any more (instead, you have to earn city reputation through the Champion’s Writ, which costs you 10g from the opposite reward). In short, right now, if you’re leveling through the AT quests, stay away from the Crusader achievement until you have all of the city reputations covered, and all the

The current Achievement system is extensive, and growing. While many seem to exist just to give you a small pat on the back, others push you into new content, silly stunts, and wacky doings. Which achievement gives you the most pride? There’s a lively discussion on the forums about the matter, and we’d like to continue it here. It seems like a simple question, but when I began pondering my answer, I wasn’t sure what to choose. I’m proud that I have completed every meta achievement leading up to What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been, so far this year. I’m not sure if that should count yet, considering there are still plenty of chances to fumble the whole thing. I believe that I will settle on Twilight Assist. Sarth with a drake or more up is definitely the hardest content currently in the game. Although we haven’t managed two

The login server has announced that Blizzard is aware of some authentication server problems going around tonight. It didn’t seem very widespread when the notice first went up, but we’ve been gradually getting more reports of it as the night has gone on. Oddly, I was able to log into WoW when the notice was first posted, but I can’t anymore. I wasn’t doing anything important, so I decided to check it out and sure thing, it was time for a ride on the failboat. I’m also stuck on a loading screen while trying to test out the Iron Council on the PTR, so I’m currently riding on a Cruise Failboat. How decadent! If we get any other updates before the authentication server starts working again, we’ll be sure to keep you all posted. Edit: Welp, it works again. Go forth and play! Edit: Welp, it (mostly) works again. Go forth and play