The beta servers for Wrath of the Lich King are down , ladies and gents. That's because they are about to unleash a new build, and you bet this is but the calm before the storm.

As rumor would have it, based on the Gamona video interview at Leipzig earlier today, the level cap will be raised to 80. We cannot know for sure until the servers go back up. The downtime is expected to run for about six to eight hours, which started at 2:30PM PST.

• Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic

Source: wow.qj.net

Wrath of the Lich King pre-release patch coming soon
The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for Blizzard's much-loved World of Warcraft is all ready to invade the PC gaming world by storm. But before that, a new content patch is in order.

Says Blizzard, you can expect this patch to arrive in the coming weeks, and this is quite akin to what Blizz did prior to the release of The Burning Crusade.

This patch for WotLK essentially caters to the bridging of the current game content with the expansion. Gotta keep it all in the family, you know. As expected, there are, of course, exciting changes and additions, the most prominent of which are the following:

• New class spells and talents
• Stormwind Harbor
• Barbershops in capital cities
• Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
• Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
• Guild calendar
• Hunter pet skill revamp
• New profession: Inscription

Do take note, though, that this is by no means the final list, so we're betting we'll be seeing some more stuff thrown our way before the patch comes out. Or if not, well, we can always check it out ourselves, right?

Oh, and do take heed, particularly all Burning Crusade players. You guys will be able to select Inscription as one of the two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. On the release of WotLK, those who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue their leveling in Inscription, as well as other professions, even beyond 375.

Watch out for the full patch notes! They're coming very soon.

• WotLK beta servers down for new build; level cap to be raised?
• Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic
  

Source: wow.qj.net

First, Mount up and run to firing range of Emeriss. Fire a shot and run like hell towards the enemy raid, try to get right in the middle of them. Once you're there, let him kill you. (Make sure it's him that kills you, not a player. A mushroom will grow on your corpse and deal damage to all players around you. When I did this it caused a chain reaction which killed about 1/4 of their Raid. Needless to say, you'll get camped for doing this, so have an escape route.

Beast Mastery

• Focused Fire (Tier 2) - Updated stats/description: All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2 while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities by 10/20 while Kill Command is active. (was the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability).
• Pathfinding (Tier 3) - Updated stats/description: Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8 , and increases your speed while mounted by 5/10 . The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects. (old version: Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8 )
• Masters Call (Tier 3) replaced with Aspect Mastery.
• Aspect Mastery moved from Tier 10 to Tier 3, and changed to 1 rank: Increases the mana returned from your Aspect of the Viper by 10 , reduces the damage done to you while in Aspect of the Monkey by 10 and increases the attack power bonus gained with Aspect of the Hawk by 50 .
• Spirit Bond (Tier 5) - Updated stats/description: While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1/2 of total health every 10 sec and increases healing done to you and your pet by 5/10 . (old version did not have the increase healing part).
• Animal Handler (Tier 6) - Updated stats/description: Increases your pet's chance to hit by 2/4 and reduces the cooldown of your Master's Call ability by 5/10 sec.
• New Tier 10 Talent - Seperation Anxiety: When your pet is greater than 20 yards from you or is out of line of sight of you, its damage is increased by 2/4/6/8/10 , and when you and your pet are within 20 yards of each other, you and you pet's movement speed is increased by 2/4/6/8/10 .

Marksmanship

• Improved Stings (Tier 4) - Changed from five levels to three, stats changed: Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10/20/30 and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 10/20/30 . In addition, reduces the chance Stings will be dispelled by 10/20/30 .
• Trueshot Aura now affects the whole raid. Rapid Recuperation (Tier - Updated description: Reduces the mana and focust cost of all shots and abilities by you and your pet by 20/40/60 while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain mana equal to 50/100/150 of the damage you do under the effect of Rapid Killing over 6 sec.
• Marked for Death (Tier 10) - Updated stats/description: Increases the damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 2/4/6/8/10 , on the marked targets, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Kill Shot or Chimera Shot by 2/4/6/8/10 .
• Chimera Shot (Tier 11) - Updated stats/description: You deal 125 weapon damage (was 150 ), refreshing the current Sting (old version consumed the current Sting) on your target and triggering an effect. Serpent Sting unchanged. Viper Sting - Instantly restores mana to you equal to 60 of the total amount drained by your Viper Sting. Scorpid Sting - Attempts to Disarm the target for 10 sec. This effect cannot occuer more than once per 1 minute.

Survival

• New Tier 2 Talent - T.N.T: Your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Explosive Shot have a 5/10/15 chance to stun targets for 2 secs when they deal damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your Explosive Shot and Explosive Trap by 5/10/15 .
• New Tier 4 Talent - Lock and Load: You have a 33/66/100 chance when you trap a target and a 5/10/15 when you Sting a target to cause your next 3 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo.
• New Tier 5 Talent - Hunter vs. Wild: Increases you and your pet's attack power and ranged attack power equal to 10/20/30 of your total Stamina.
• Clever Traps (Tier 3) has been removed.
• Deterrence is gone, and Deflection is now required for Counterattack.
• Deflection moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and changed from five ranks to three (2/4/6 ).
• Trap Mastery moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3. Description is not finished yet.
• Survival Instincts moved from Tier 5 to Tier 2.
• Improved Feign Death renamed to Survival Tactics and moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3: It now reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by 2/4 sec. (instead of reducing the damage you take during feign death by 15/30).
• Survivalist (Tier 3) - Updated description: Increases your Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10 . (old version: Increases total health by 2/4/6/8/10 )
• Surefooted (Tier 4): It now reduces duration on movement impairing effects by 16/25/50 .
• Wyvern Sting (Tier 7) range increased from 5-35yd to 4-41yd. Nature dot duration reduced from 12 sec to 6 sec.
• Potent Venom renamed Noxius Stings (Tier 8): If Wyver Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting 16/25/50 of the duration remaining, and increases all damage done by you on target afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 1/2/3 .
• Readiness (Tier 9) cooldown lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Hunting Party (Tier 10) - Updated stats/description: Your Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot critical strikes have a 20/40/60/80/100 chance to restore 2 mana, 10 energy, 4 rage or 10 Runic Power to all members of your party. The cooldown of this talent has been removed.
• Explosive Shot (Tier 11) range increased from 5-35yd to 4-41yd, and it now does 416-486 damage and then 104-121 fire damage to all enemies within 5 yards of the target every second for 2 seconds.

• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King beta talent calculator released

Source: wow.qj.net

However, running parallel to Hideo Kojima's statement yesterday (about MGS4 being impossible for the Xbox 360 because the game wasn't designed for the 360 in the first place), J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton of Blizzard both agree that WoW was always intended to be played on the PC.

In a recent interview with Videogamer, they both reiterated the fact that WoW won't be heading for consoles.

Brack says that WoW was "designed to have a keyboard and a mouse" and that the controls are really - to use Kojima's word from yesterday - optimized for a PC control scheme. Brack continues: "If you think about mapping those controls and all those different type of buttons that you have to a console without a keyboard for chatting, it's a very challenging proposition."

Chilton, likewise, explained that it's not a worthwhile endeavor to bring WoW to consoles;

It's really not that we have anything against consoles," Chilton said. "I mean we love console games also. And I'm sure there will be a successful MMO sometime on a console. So it has nothing to do with that. It's just more like a square peg round hole thing for our game. It just wasn't designed with that in mind.

But then… when Videogamer raised the point that Funcom will be bringing their Age of Conan to the Xbox 360 - and that they've got some technology to map the keyboard buttons to a 360 controller - Chilton simply replies that he thinks that WoW wouldn't be "a very good experience playing like that."

While the PS3 has the upcoming Wireless Keypad, and the 360 its Chatpad, they aren't all that big, y'know. As Brack said, it'll be a very challenging experience indeed.

• Blizzard's take on MMOs for consoles; no WoW for consoles
• Kojima: stop asking for an MGS4 Xbox 360 port already
• Square Enix stock shares rise after FF13 Xbox 360 reveal
• Leipzig: new PS3 Wireless Keypad announced
• Xbox 360 Messenger Kit now going for only US 19.99

Source: wow.qj.net

Warcraft Characters app for iPhone gets new update
If you want to pull up some quick information about your World of Warcraft character (or anyone else's for that matter), why don't you try browsing for it on your iPhone. I'm not talking about the WoW Armory. There's a quicker way for you to do that - on the new and updated version of the Warcraft Characters app for the iPhone.

Released last July on the App Store, the WoW-friendly application now features some interesting and useful additions. Aside from compatibility with Apple's firmware 2.0, the app now allows you to view a character's gear, as well as his or her's reputation status.

In addition, non-US players can now make use of the app since it provides extended compatibility for characters from all other realms, such as those from China, Korea and Taiwan. The only thing missing seems to be the talents list for each character viewed. Otherwise, as a portable Armory, this app definitely does the job quite well.

Warcraft Characters is available on the App Store for free, so go ahead and download a copy. We'll be sure to keep tabs on any further updates regarding this nifty app as soon as we get them.

• Steve Jobs: 60 million App Store downloads and rising, iPhone kill switch exists
• WoW forums: on how regularly the armory is updated

Source: wow.qj.net

The beta servers for Wrath of the Lich King are down , ladies and gents. That's because they are about to unleash a new build, and you bet this is but the calm before the storm.

As rumor would have it, based on the Gamona video interview at Leipzig earlier today, the level cap will be raised to 80. We cannot know for sure until the servers go back up. The downtime is expected to run for about six to eight hours, which started at 2:30PM PST.

• Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic

Source: wow.qj.net

Blizzard's take on MMOs for consoles; no WoW for consoles
In a recent interview with Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton, they squashed every console gamers' hopes of seeing the highly acclaimed MMO, World of Warcraft, boxed neatly inside a console. Also discussed were several other topics regarding the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King, as well as other new content for the game.

Chilton was also rather excited about the new achievement system that they will be introducing soon. It will definitely give players something to strive for and extend their gameplay even further.

When asked about the hardest challenge the developers have encountered so far, Brack answered that the insertion of the new Death Knight class was the biggest hurdle they've faced. However, with the beta phase for WotLK well underway, modifications are still being made to the new character class before its official release with the new expansion.

One of the more interesting things they discussed was Blizzard's take on MMOs made for consoles and social networks. This doesn't necessarily mean gamers should hope for a console version of WoW soon. Brack specifically mentioned while this may work with other MMOs, this setup wouldn't really work with World of Warcraft. I guess this just means we'll just have to play WoW as it was meant to be played: on a PC.

You can view the full interview conducted by play.tm by following the link found below.

• World of Warcraft devs hint at graphical reboot, speak on ten man raids
• Blizzard's J. Brack Allen on the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion

Source: wow.qj.net

While it is expected that leveling is a lot harder at this point, the steep slope the new leveling curve introduces can be quite daunting for even veteran World of Warcraft players. It is still a point of contention whether Blizzard will adjust this curve in the future or simply introduce other game balancing methods to draw out the grind.

The expansion does introduce two new starting points for players to suitably level their characters for the area. However, having players clear through them just to level up kind of defeats the whole purpose of creating them in the first place.

We'll be sure to keep an eye on any new updates regarding this matter as soon as we get them. In the meantime, check out our other WotLK articles through the links we've provided below.

• WotLK beta changes: mounts get the OK in Booty Bay
• Wrath of the Lich King: Everything you need to know, part 1

Source: wow.qj.net

Wrath of the Lich King: video preview of Calendar System
Well World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion is finally going to come out in a few weeks. bet you're looking forward to the pre-release patch that's going to come real soon.

One of the biggest changes in the Wrath of the Lich King is the new Calendar System, which will be offered in the pre-release patch. Here are the features we can expect when the Calendar System gets released:

• Pre-existing events, like holidays and raid lockouts, will be on there by default. You can select what sort of events you want to see on your own calendar.
• Any user can create events viewable to their guild and/or to a user-selectable list of invitees. Events can be of various categories, like "PvP" or "Raid."
• If you send someone an invite, their calendar icon (on the minimap) will flash. They will then be able to RSVP to the event with whether or not they're coming.
• Events to which people have RSVPed show the total number and number of each class; very handy for raids. You can invite people to a party or raid straight from the calendar interface if they're online.

Of course, words just aren't enough sometimes, so here's a video of the calendar system in action. Check back for more updates on World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King.

Related Articles:

• Wrath of the Lich King pre-release patch coming soon
• World of Warcraft: WotLK beta gets a new calendar UI

Source: wow.qj.net