Posted on November 30th, 2009 by admin
MMO Champion has dug up a few more animations for the already popular Perky Pug pet, which you will be able to obtain in patch 3.3 by running pickup groups with random players (the current guess on the pet is running with 100 random players, but of course we won’t know for sure until it appears on the live realms). The first few animations in this video just look like the Pug has been tweaked a bit (looks to me like that weird leg thing got fixed), but the last animation is definitely new. MMOC suggests you might not want the pet any more after you see it doing this, but I guess Blizzard wanted to go for realism.
Personally, I’m still going for it. Dogs are dogs, and I’m going to be running with the new LFG system (actually, according to the last patch notes, it’s called the “Dungeon Finder system” now) anyway, so I might as well go all out and get a vanity pet and the “Patient” title along with all of the other good stuff you usually get from running a ton of heroics. Perky Pug, here I come!
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Posted on November 26th, 2009 by admin
Blizzard is offering, via email, select inactive accounts the chance to return to the game with free seven days worth of game time. These emails are what appears to be a special unannounced promotion for those that have left Azeroth, coinciding with the five year anniversary of WoW.
We can confirm these emails are legitimate, the links and headers all point back to blizzard.com servers. And indeed a blue over in the Customer Service forums has more or less confirmed that it’s legit.
These kinds of promotions are not all that uncommon in the MMO world. Several companies that have MMOs of varying degrees of success have offered them in the past — they’re a nice way to get some old players back and make them feel like part of the community again.
We want to be sure we’re clear: it appears these emails are not going to all unsubscribed accounts. If you have an unsubscribed account, don’t count on getting one; right now it looks like it’s just random chance whether or not you’ll get some free game time.
Thanks to AishaLove for the help!
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Posted on November 23rd, 2009 by admin
In celebration of today ushering in five years of WoW, let’s take a step away from traditional Moviewatch material and look at some early alpha and beta footage from Stormwind and Ironforge.
The footage is quite astounding when you watch it. You’ll notice that there are entire sections of both cities which have changed dramatically, and indeed Ironforge itself was nearly entirely revamped to remove the “second level” from it. You can see remnants of the second level of Ironforge today in that there are some oddly placed balconies and doors — it all looks normal to us now, but when you watch the video you can see that it looks much more natural the way it was.
The “internet consensus” is that alpha Ironforge was changed because people were getting themselves lost all the time in it — something which isn’t very good for a starting city. However as far as I can tell that never came out of published comments from a WoW designer, so take it with a grain of salt.
And yes, before some you inevitably ask, Patches of Yesteryear will be returning this week — although we’ll only be running it once every other week due to
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Posted on November 19th, 2009 by admin
Welcome back to Know Your Lore, WoW.com’s column about the story behind the game we all play.
Put simply, the Knights of the Ebon Blade are traitors to the Scourge. Like the Forsaken, they’ve broken free of the grasp of the Lich King due to the intercession of an external source – Sylvanas and the Forsaken escaped the Lich King’s grasp when he was weakened due to the crack in the Frozen Throne and had to recall Arthas to Northrend, while the Knights were more autonomous than the average Scourge and regained their freedom following the events at Light’s Hope Chapel. At LHC, the Knights were freed due to the actions of their Highlord, Darion Mograine.
If you played through the events of the Death Knight starting area, you already have a basic idea of the origins of the order, especially if you ran around Acherus reading books like I did. Some are funny, some are meaningful, and from them we can glean certain information about the history of the order before the events leading up to its break from the Lich King. If you’ve read the Ashbringer comic series, you’re of course informed of some of this anyway. But there’s still devils in
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Posted on November 16th, 2009 by admin
In the late fall, packs of land sharks are often found migrating across Kalimdor, wreaking havoc wherever they go. This trio of land sharks became lost among the bluffs while trying to deliver a Candygram to Cairne Bloodhoof. Luckily for the old tauren, they ran into one of their only natural enemies — the feral druid. Bears and cats like fish, and there’s a big fire right there to roast it over. Sure, there’s nothing in the world that can make shark taste good, but at least the integrity of the food chain is preserved for another day. (Thanks to Velia of <Kindread> on Kel’Thuzad for the screenshot!)
Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.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
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Posted on November 12th, 2009 by admin
Patch 3.3 has been out on the PTR for about a month and a half now, and we’ve seen a ton of changes that will significantly alter the way the game is played. Everything from the cross-server LFG system, to the highly anticipated confrontation with Arthas.
The sheer amount of content is hard for anyone to keep up with, and we’ve been steadily updating the WoW.com Guide to Patch 3.3 with everything we’ve written about the patch (over 200 articles now). Today we did a larger update, sorting through things a bit more and including all our galleries of new content and user interface enhancements.
Check out the guide for all your patch 3.3 goodness, and be sure to keep an eye on WoW.com as the last major content patch of Wrath of the Lich King develops!
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Posted on November 9th, 2009 by admin
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers’ Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
Much as I’ve done with Patch 3.2 and other major patches in the past, I’d like to examine what 3.3 will mean for officers. All major patches require some forethought and adjustment, and this one just happens to be a doozy!
Icecrown Citadel
The ultimate raid of this expansion, Icecrown Citadel is poised to be one of the most exciting raids that Blizzard has ever released. As such, I can virtually guarantee you’ll have long-lost players coming out of the woodwork to get back into the raiding scene for a chance to face off with the Lich King. Make sure you review your guild’s policies for inviting players to raids to make sure that slots will be awarded in a way that’s as fair as possible while still giving your raid a solid chance at success.
One debate that’s sure to rage among officers and raid leaders this time around is whether to extend lockouts until you beat the zone and unlock the hard mode toggle or to reset the instance each week to farm the early bosses. I’m still not sure how my guild is going to handle this.
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Posted on November 5th, 2009 by admin
Why are you introducing this service?
The Pet Store provides a new way for players to obtain unique companion pets outside of the game, which is something that has been requested by many players who enjoy World of Warcraft’s non-combat companions.
Will more companions be available for purchase in the future?
We plan to add more pets to the Pet Store in the near future. Keep an eye on the official World of Warcraft website and the online Blizzard Store for details.
Where can I go to purchase these pets?
You can purchase these in-game companions by visiting this link or heading to the online Blizzard Store, where you’ll find the Pet Store pets under the Collectibles tab.
Will I be able to acquire these Pet Store pets by questing, through holidays, on in-game vendors, or by any other in-game methods?
No. Pets purchasable through the Pet Store will not be obtainable through quests or other in-game means — they’re only available through the online Blizzard Store.
How do I redeem a Pet Store pet once it’s been purchased from the Blizzard Store?
After you purchase the pet, you’ll receive a code that can then be redeemed on any World of Warcraft
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Posted on November 2nd, 2009 by admin
After downing Kel’Thuzad on the Day of the Dead, Lichblade of Bladefist-EU saw a job opening in the Scourge Lieutenant department and applied. His new desk chair is a little big, and having to wear that skull mask all the time is hell on his hairstyle, but he figures that all jobs have their downsides.
Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.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, Val’kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.
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Posted on October 28th, 2009 by admin
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com’s look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes — from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you’d like to hear more about.
Tales of players who succeed at WoW despite disabilities (physical disabilities, mental issues, you name it) always attract a certain amount of fascination. How is it that we can spend so much worry and effort grinding trivial hurdles while disabled players are taking care of business in situations that would Alt+F4 most of us? Worry is one thing you won’t hear much of from Quadilious, a quadriplegic player (yes, quadriplegic — you read that correctly) who’s into progression raiding (yes, progression raiding — you’re still reading things correctly) in ToC-25 Heroic and Ulduar hard modes.
Ever have one of those days when you wish your in-game struggles and real-life hurdles seemed a little less daunting? Have a good dose of perspective — Quad certainly does.
Main character Quadilious
Guild Forthright
Server US Sisters of Elune-H
15 Minutes of Fame: Quadilious, let’s start off by explaining to
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