Monthly Archives: August 2009

Phasing seems to be Blizzard’s new favorite toy. It’s being used be more and more as we progress through Wrath. From the Wrathgate to those annoying out of body/spirit quests in Zul’Drak, phasing is changing how we see Azeroth itself. But it strikes me there’s once area where phasing should sometimes be used and isn’t: bosses. Specifically I mean the big guys … Kil’Jaeden, Illidan, Loken, Yoggy, Algalon and, of course, Arthas himself. The logic here is simple, these are bosses key to game lore and killing them not only takes an enormous amount of effort (or in the case of Kil’Jaeden, banishing him back to where ever he came from) but it also has an effect on the world itself. Think of the impacts the events of the Sunwell had – phasing was never implemented there, and definitely should have been once Wrath was released. Now I know you will be thinking: “Why should we only kill a boss once?” I’m not suggesting that once you kill the Lich King, for example, you are locked out of killing him again. Rather that his death triggers a change in Azeroth – which is where the phasing comes in. Icecrown Citadel could collapse or be recycled by other NPCs, such as the Ebon Blade. Once this

Being honored ingame with an NPC or an item is, I think we can all agree, the height of player cool. Not that this will ever happen to me, mind you. Realistically, the only thing I expect to get from Blizzard is a letter bomb, or possibly a bloodstained horse head for going live with that article on the Death Grip bug, and perhaps I deserve it. To this day I feel kind of bad, or at least I do until I remember my guild leader’s Death Knight sending a goblin NPC flying off the dock, and then I laugh and laugh, and realize that I am a terrible person who should probably be locked up somewhere. It’s fun to wonder, though, and I’ve settled on two wishes. The first would be making my beloved main into a Thunder Bluff NPC among the Druid trainers, kitted in full Tier 6 with an Origin of Nightmares. She would be friend and counselor to all young Druids and full of unsolicited advice for them, most of it incorrect. The second, less dignified, and perhaps more realistic legacy I would leave to the game is a series of cow-shaped impact craters at the bottom of various Northrend cliffs and in Crystalsong under the Dalaran sewers’ exit pipe, in tribute to the several falling deaths incurred while mindlessly jumping from heights without the

According to the in-game announcement, there will be two hours of maintenance tomorrow August 6th on all realms. The maintenance announcement has changed throughout the evening, but seems to have settled on this downtime. The downtime will happen from 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT and last until 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 a.m. EDT. This of course assumes that there’ll be no extended super-fracken-duper maintenance put on top of that. And we know just how much Blizzard loves to increase their maintenance periods. If there is you’ll hear it here. While the maintenance is going on, you can check out WoW.com’s Guide to Patch 3.2 and read up on all the things you missed, or think you missed. There is also the beginnings of a list of bug fixes; a list that’s sure to grow over the coming days.

After a brief break in the month of July, WoW.com’s Guild of the Month contest is back! What does that mean? Well, if you think your guild is the best of the best, let us know and you could win a raid pack gift certificate for use at Warcraft.Swagdog.com, where you can pick up custom guild apparel for members of your guild! What do you need to do to enter? It’s simple: You nominate your guild by sending us a short (no longer than 200 words) summary of why you think your guild is the best out there. Tell us why you think your guild is so unique! What sort of guild are you? What do you do together? What sets you apart from all of the other guilds out there? Please send all submissions to contests@wow.com! At the end of the month, we’ll pick a winner from those entries and profile them here on the site. Keep in mind, that means if you like your obscurity and don’t want to be profiled, you might not want to enter. You must be 18+ to win, and the contest is open to both US and non-Quebecois Canadian readers. Please submit your entry with an email address you check regularly, as we’ll be contacting you via email if you win. All entries must be submitted by August 31st or they will be disqualified. For the full official rules, click