This weeks PUGcast is brought to you by our glorious sponsors Guildlaunch and Elodar (stepping up again! Cheers!)
(This weeks intro music was written by Threat Signal)
PUGcast is now live! Join us at 12:30 am EST on UStream!
Azeroth News Tonight Why does Blizzard hate 10 man guilds?(source)
- As we are wont to do at the Azeroth News Tonight news desk our typical blue post following has dug up a few gems. The first being the complaint that Blizzard hates 10 man guilds, with the argument that you cannot have nice things unless you are in a 25 man guild. I'm pretty sure that this time last expansion there were a grand total of 2 10 man raid instances. The very fact that everything has a 10 man mode should be good enough. Should you want a legendary item? Of course. Do you deserve one? No, not really...
Warriors need consecrate! (source)
- In a huge thread about warriors, Ghostcrawler stepped in to reveal some of the insights to tanking. The current issue seems to be that Paladins and Deathknights are head and shoulders above everyone else in regards to aoe tanking. Warriors and Feral Druids to have a legitimate gripe there. GC made the statement (which I fully endorse) that buffing tanks aoe capabilities isn't the fix, and that Blizzard is going to try to make CC relevant again. When's the last time you saw someone sheeped outside of PvP? Exactly... It's time people...
What's in a trinket?(source)
- I love the fact that all of our news segments come from people complaining. Unfortunately it seems that all these type of questions are the ones that spurn blue responses and give us the good material, so we'll take it. The question is that finding a good pair of trinkets is overly difficult, and Bornakk explained that the trinket slot is now where your pieces of glory (along with weapons to some degree) reside, for better or worse....
Tier 10 tanking armor, needs more armor! (source)
- Zarhym weighed in on the tanking armor for plate wearers, as it's getting a bit of an overhaul. Apparently there wasn't enough armor for the meatshields which has now been rectified, all of this at the expense of the avoidance stats on the gear. Some pieces lost defense, others dodge, but overall this is a buff... It's all greek to me though.
Arena Season 8 Fashion Show (source)
- Poor, poor rogues... First your tier 10 armor puts a bag over your head, now the newest arena season makes you a walking dildo... Possibly karma for keeping me stunlocked through dailies, right? Hunters also... it's a pretty poor showing... As far as the winners... Your mages and warlocks, those gear sets are pretty badass across the board.
Tory Grey is back!!
- Apparently a gold spammer caught Tory's wrath, check out all the gory details...
As of Yet unnamed discussions! Which style of heroics do you prefer, Wrath or burning crusade style?]
- Jeg, Drae go over their thoughts, and pick out yours as well!
Jeg's Debt Report
- We'll give Wemb a reprieve this time, but he's on the clock now! That's right wemb, we saw the twitter... you're back in town... The current totals:
Jeg - Done!
Wemb - 1800
This weeks PUGcast is brought to you by our glorious sponsors Guildlaunch and Elodar (stepping up again! Cheers!)
(This weeks intro music was written by Threat Signal)
PUGcast is now live! Join us at 12:30 am EST on UStream!
Azeroth News Tonight OMG... Think of the pallies! (source)
- Well, there's yet another wing of ICC, and apparently discipline priests and holy paladins are being devauled by have damage auras in raids. You'd think that this would strike a chord with me, but really, it's completely unfounded. Sure Holy Paladins and Discipline priests will lag behind when it comes to raid healing, but that's why there are druids, shaman and holy priests to fill that void... sorry you can't have it all.
Ghostcrawler: If PVP healing is OP... we'll nerf it! (source)
- One concerning thing to crop up this week is the buff to resilience to try and change the pvp landscape away from burst damage. The effect of resilience on damage taken and crit damage taken has been doubled. Blizzard was quick to add the caveat that if the changes made healing too valuable they had already built a "PVP only" change to bring it back down. Hats off to them if they pull it off... or they shall rue the day they nerf my PVE healing again... /shakefist
Blizzard COO Paul Sams and Rob Pardo interview (source)
- Two of Blizzard's executive team sit down and go deep into their revolutionary design philosophy and the love 'em or hate 'em style of "It will be released when it's ready". Even with the Activision merger and the Kotick effect, this interview makes a strong case that at least thus far, Blizzard isn't changing in this regard.
12 million subscribers? Mere child's play (source)
- Mike Morhaime has some interesting thoughts as well. The first isn't too much of a shocker, but apparently, Blizzard has nothing planned beyond Cataclysm and as Morhaime says "they probably shouldn't". The more interesting bit is that Morhaime isn't very impressed by the 12 million subscribers. All the people just getting the internet, just getting broadband, or those that will be getting broadband are all potential future addicts. This leaves me wondering when the maternity ward will be handing out gift baskets with a free 10 day trial.
Heroics take too long these days (source)
- Here is a wonderful, coherent discussion topic worthy of everyone's time. Apparently, this mouth breather believes that heroics should be streamlined even further and in doing so, allowing everyone to get their "hard earned" frost emblems. Of course the post is eloquently denied, but it does pose the question. Perhaps you should get emblems for stepping into the heroic queue, or the bosses are actually just pieces of gear laying of the floor for you to pick up... Sounds good right?
WoW is killing ... Porn? (source)
- So we all know the internet is for porn, right? Right!? Well, the porn industry doesn't seem to think so. After the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas the top 5 reasons why the porn industry is dying were unveiled. The only one of note in the MMO world? Well, the entire genre is apparently a reason why porn is going downhill. People spend too much of their time online playing these "MMOs" instead of perusing pornography... what a world...
Interview with Hypknotoad
- Hypknotoad, of "The Addicted" fame gets down and dirty about his hatred for healers, and the underlying insecurities that cause it.
As of Yet unnamed discussions! What is the worst experience or player you've had to deal with thus far?]
- Jeg, Drae go over their thoughts, and pick out yours as well!
Jeg's Debt Report
- With Wemb still unable to fend for himself Jeg trots across the finish line, and puts up the 800 gold remaining to claim the debt repayment race. His prize? Not having his legs broken... loan shark style. The current totals:
Jeg - Done!
Wemb - 1800
This weeks PUGcast is brought to you by our glorious sponsors Guildlaunch
(This weeks intro music was written by Threat Signal)
PUGcast is now live! Join us at 12:30 am EST on UStream!
Azeroth News Tonight More Heroics! More Nerfs!
- Aside from the Oculus, more of the heroics were the victim of "nerfs". I use quotes because they aren't really nerfs because the content isn't challenging. This is more of an effort to speed runs up. Now I don't know that this is necessarily a bad thing, but is this really what we need? Anomalus in heroic nexus, was anyone really worried about it? Blizz does deserve credit though because waiting through the intro to Culling of Strathome needs some work.
OMG: Why buff Putricide /tear
- Valnoth stepped in to wade through the swell of tears when it was learned that the damage in the 25 man Professor Putricide encounter had been increased. According to Valnoth, this was merely a bug fix that needed to be addressed. The burning question I have is this: Since when is not killing a boss the first time you see them a reason for nerfs? Grow up people, working for epics is not a bad thing...
A Cataclysmic view on PVP
- We got the first glimpse of what PVP in Cataclysm is going to entail. With all the complaints that arenas are all about burst damage Blizzard is shooting for larger health pools. Is this a novel concept, no, but the implementation should shake the ground of PVP on its head. With larger health pools "bursting" opponents should no longer be an option. To quote Zarhym "In PvP, you'll ideally see more players in a wounded state, and they can eventually be worn down rather than blown up in a couple of global cooldowns." Sounds good, let's make it happen.
The new armory is unleashed
- The upgraded armory is now live and it looks great. The three dimensional picture of your toon is spot on, and the ability to strike a "pose" for the world to see is equally well done. Along with the calendar integration and RSS feeds all of this feels like unneeded fluff, but we'll take it.
Need a new phone? How about play Starcraft?
- The new Nokia n900 phone has an emulator that will let you play Starcraft and Warcraft 2 with the touch screen. Will this be embraced by blizzard? Probably not, but it has my vote, who needs twitter when you can be enjoying some old school goodness.
Epic Raids with Vendor Trash
- Omecin is back! And this week he has a long awaited showdown with Thrall
As of Yet unnamed discussions! [Have you ever traded frost emblems in for triumph (or the highest tier for a lower one)?]
- Jeg, Drae go over their thoughts, and pick out yours as well!
Jeg's Debt Report
- Wemb left for a well earned vacation with a 500 gold deposit to even the score, but Jeg placed a stranglehold on the contest dropping 1000!
The current totals:
Jeg - 800
Wemb - 1800
This weeks PUGcast is brought to you by our glorious sponsors Guildlaunch, and Elodar!
(This weeks intro music was written by Threat Signal)
PUGcast is now live! Join us at 12:30 am EST on UStream!
Azeroth News Tonight -(With a dash of ranting)
Sweeping changes to Oculus
- Do you still need a reason to run the dungeon? Not rewarding enough to stay despite the 15 minute "timeout" if you leave early? Fear not, Blizzard is now offering you a chance at mount, along with a gem bag to everyone just for finishing the dungeon.
The second wing of ICC has been released
- The next wing of Icecrown has been unleashed, and already people are firing up the QQ storm. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Try running a boss more than once before you label it unbeatable and scream for nerfs. Remember having to work at a boss? It makes it all the sweeter when you finally take them down.
Wow.com: Tabloids are awesome
- I can't ruin the rant, catch Jeg's opinion on all this in the show.
As of Yet unnamed discussions! [Play a Blizzard Developer, and steal something from another game]
- Jeg, Drae go over their thoughts, and pick out yours as well!
Jeg's Debt Report
- Jeg and Wemb went head to head this week, and both crossed another 500 gold off of their ledgers!
The current totals:
Jeg - 1800
Wemb - 2300
