Specializing and You!

Why should you specialize?

Because you don’t have time to do everything! I could end the article here, but you might be disappointed.  Specializing in WoW is quite possibly the only chance a “casual” player has at accomplishing anything other than some Halloween candy and maybe holiday fruity cake. The point is there are two main ways to go here, three if you enjoy wreeking havoc on the in game economy.  However, I intend on briefly discussing PVP and PVE here and then will later write guides to help all the students, married to someone who doesn’t play wow, works five jobs, and has twenty-seven kids person(small exaggeration).

PvP

Player vs Player, Pwnzor vs Pwnzee, Nub vs n00b, call it what you will, but it is all we gamers have in the way of excising some sort of force and power over another person. In WoW PvP comes in the form of Battlegrounds, World PvP(ganking until WOTLK), and the amazing Arena.  The beautiful thing about BG’s and Arena is that each helps the other.  A player needs gear from both, experience from both, and bragging rights from both so play both.  The PvP forums will become your closest ally other than maybe your fellow teammate or energy drink.  After memorizing every forum post about your preferred class, a player must practice!

Practicing is where every PvPer casual or hardcore gets his edge and his ability to pwn nubs. However, it’s never enough to just play and play and play, a player must learn, observe, and understand why they lose a match and even why they win matches.  It’s true a person may lose since their gear is lame and Mr and Mrs Season 4 just slapped the *#%! out of them, but most of the time it’s because they had no idea what to do against the combo they faced and just assume it was a fluke or the other classes are OP.  ….STOP….BREATHE….Start recording your games, start doing Arena and BG’s when you would normally waste time playing on the AH.  Lastly unless some other portion of the game is requires your attention PRACTICE! You are a casual gamer and an hour to you is a month to the hardcore.

PvE

Player vs Environment, or Player vs WORLD, OK I don’t have fun titles for this, but just the same READ THE FORUMS! Yet again gear from PvE is made for PvE, so if a player wants to raid then raid.  No One logged into to BC one day and went to Black Temple with level 70 greens and lived. Blizzard has made phenomenal improvements on game progression.  Please do 5-Mans, Then Heroics, Then 10’s and then the 25 MAN RAID! Oddly enough they increase in difficulty as the gear gets better.

Final Note

In case you didn’t notice the same steps apply on each area, practice, do the events/games, and read the forums.  However, you may have not noticed the part where I discussed wasting your time and gold on Epics in the AH, reading about nerfs and who is OP, jumping around IF or UC spamming trade chat, or even trying to be amazing at everything.  THATS BECAUSE I DIDN”T MENTION IT SO DON’T DO IT!

Thank You

Bill Tripod(aka Kohrin 70 Warrior-Uther)

PvE to PvP Paid Transfers Now Available!

This change really has been a long time coming and for the first time ever all PvE players will have the option of transfering their characters to a PvP server. Blizzard formalized this change earlier today with this brief posting.

Providing a smooth and enjoyable experience for all players is always a priority for us, and we are continually re-evaluating our policies and programs to do so. As the state of the game has matured substantially since the inception of Paid Character Transfers, we will now be allowing PvE-to-PvP transfers on a full-time basis to provide players with more mobility and freedom to easily play with their friends.

Keep in mind that all of the other standard cooldowns and restrictions will continue to apply; we’re just opening the option to transfer characters on Normal realms to Player-vs.-Player realms. Please review the Paid Character Transfer FAQ if you have any questions on how this service works.

You can use this service at any time by visiting your Account Management page and selecting the “Paid Character Transfer” button. (source)

The timing of this change doesn’t really suprise me, it’s very clear Blizzard is looking to grow the game’s population to new lengths as the expansion approaches. This change makes it just that much easier for players to simply pick up the game, leveling a character and immediatly begin playing with their friends. Good stuff!

Wrath of the Lich King Achievements System

One of the most interesting new features coming out of the for Wrath of the Lich king is the achievements system. The new achievements tab will appear on your character screen and will serve as a permanent marker to your in-game accomplishments when other people inspect you.

Achievements vary dramatically, some are incredibly easy and can be completed in a few minutes, while others may require weeks or months for you to complete all the tasks associated with the task.

WoW Achievement Categories

Feats of Strength

Feats of Strength represent the past glories of Azeroth, and as such, players will find them very difficult — if not impossible — to earn. They’re worth no points, and unlike normal achievements, unearned Feats are not displayed in the achievements interface. Feats include old-world player-vs.-player ranks, obtaining rare mounts, special titles, and more. Feats of Strength will be awarded retroactively (that is, they’ll be immediately granted to your character if you qualify) since many of them will be impossible to earn in Wrath of the Lich King.

Player vs. Player

These include accomplishments related to arena, battlegrounds, and other world PvP scenarios. Here’s a few just for example.

• Arena Hot streak – win 10 arena matches in a row
• Alterac Valley All Star – capture towers, graveyards, and kill the enemy leader all in one game
• City Defender – kill 50 players in your faction’s capital cities

Dungeons and Raids

• Kill X dungeon boss – every boss, event, dungeon, etc. will have a achievement associated with it

Professions

• Advancing to each new tier of your professions will function as it’s own achievement

Quests

• Quest-based achievements include completing a certain number of quests and completing specific quest lines. This category contains zone-specific subcategories.

Events

• All seasonal events will have associated achievements, mid summer, brewfest, christmas, etc

World Exploration

• You earn achievements by exploring each zone

Reputation

• attaining exalted reputation with each faction

General

• This category could be better summed up as “stupid shit”. These achievements are things like a hair cut, give a /hug, falling off the great lift, etc.