Warcraft Bigger than Countries

World of Warcraft has now officially gone past the 9 millionth subscriber - elevating maker Blizzard into an astronomical position - virtually having a licence to print money.

The size of WoW is now bigger than the 90th ranked country in the world. The size of the World of Warcraft subscriber base is expected to grow rapidly in China now - with Blizzard and Chinese partner The9 ready to release expansion package The Burning Crusade into the country.

The World of Warcraft was released in November 2004 and surely Blizzard must be stunned by its continued popularity - continuing to grow years after release. The expansion packs continue to keep the game interesting and surely Blizzard will continue to release and ship new addons for WoW regularly.

WoW article reference

Zul'Aman Instance - World of Warcraft

A new instance called the Zul'Aman Instance - is being released for the Burning Crusade addon in World of Warcraft.

WoW maker Blizzard paraded many parts of the non-keyed instance. One thing they were proud of was that rather than just having grunts standing around a campfire waiting for PCs to arrive, they changed things so that monsters look like they realistically react to people invading their area. So as Blizzard's character was lead into the area, they spotted a large troll who barked some orders, and sure enough, a bunch of little guys came running at us from around a corner, eager to repel the invaders.

Players will also see changes in the bear mounts the enemies have in the instance. Keeping with the animal theme, there are 4 mid-bosses in the instance before the final fight, and each is a troll merged with a different animal, that they can alter into. The order is bear, dragonhawk, lynx, and eagle. When players finally get to Zul'Jin, he will make use of all four forms in his attempt to wipe out the characters.

World of Warcraft Freak / Retard!

We all know how addictive World of Warcraft can be - I'm sure all of us, spend WAY too much time playing the game we love. (Blizzard loves us being addicted I am sure!)

Anyway, I could resist posting this World of Warcraft YouTube video up. Here we have some little WoW freak or retard or weirdo - whatever you want to call him, going mental over something that has happened in WoW.

I am sure you will be saying: WTF? (Yep, I agree - this World of Warcraft Freak is a worry!) - Don't worry we have referred this guy to our friends at 'Self Help World' a blog to help people like this guy.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post - all about Horde vs Alliance in WoW (Which is better!?)

About Me

About Me: A Total Warcraft Fanatic.

More About Me: Love most PC games (FPS, Strat, MMORPG)

Even More About Me: I wish my wife played PC Games!

Last bit About Me: I'm hoping my daughter is a PC freak like me!

Thanks for reading all about me - enjoy all the WoW information here.

World of Warcraft Tips, DOTA Tips

Horde Power Level 70 Guide

Want a complete manual on how to get your Horde World of Warcraft character pumping? Get your hero to level 70 quickly and don't waste any time.

Click here to check out the Ultimate Horde Leveling Guide

Created by the famous Jonah! who made the original World of Warcraft 1 - 60 guide, this new edition is update for all the latest WoW and Burning Crusade additions.

WoW and South Park

I just caught this hilarious World of Warcraft / South Park video on YouTube and I thought I just had to share it with the readers here at my World of Warcraft Blog.

It features sounds from a South Park ep, modded into WoW characters: Watch and I hope you enjoy:

Arena killing World of Warcraft?

What the hell is hard about the concept that PvP weapons MUST be on par with raid weapons so non-raiders can compete in high level arena play to you people?

Is it the part where raiding doesn't automatically grant you a huge advantage in PvP (though it does, because a Stormherald = you can get 2 pieces of PvP armour ~6 weeks sooner, rating pending).

Is it the part where raiding is not a competitive process, whereas in arena your success is DIRECTLY related to how you can compete with other teams?

You may not be guaranteed the item in raiding, sure, but you do not need it to progress. In PvP the playing field needs to be reasonably equal such that new teams can actually break into the upper ratings without being gear-blocked for so long they never catch up.

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The problem comes from Arena gear being better then raiding gear. It's sad that the arena season 2 feral hammer is better then a staff that drops in Hyjal (which needs it's stats re-done badly).

I find it funny that you think gear doesn't need to get better for raiders to progress also. So you think a kara geared group would stand a chance in BT past Shade and in Hyjal past Kaz'rogal(when the fights actually start getting hard)? The point of raiding gear was to be a bit higher then the gear a non raider gets. Now I do not expect me to be able to roll right over a non raider but its annoying that in PvP people can get gear that is better. And for you to think raiding isn't competitive.... well you obviously never have raided the top end raiding to see how competitive it really is.

Steelspine Faceguard drops

One of our regular readers and contributors, DJ / Kalgar of WoW fame - has recently got his hands on this juicy drop in WoW. (The item drop was in karazhan)

The Steelspine Faceguard has some amazing stats to it - check out the full range of info on the Steelspine Faceguard:

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28671

Tell us about your recent decent drops - comment to this post with the info

WoW Glider Bot

A piece of software I used to use some time ago - was WoW Glider.

A very well coded piece of software, that lets you create a World of Warcraft 'bot'.

This bot allows you to set your WoW account on autopilot and play WoW for you while you are at work, away from home or anywhere really.

It's fairly simple to setup, it's cheap to register the software - the only catch is that Blizzard frown upon bot use and spend every minute trying to catch bot users.

So it's with some caution that you should use the software WoWGlider - but some of the advantages are huge.

Not only can you 'level faster' - but you can use Wow Glider to farm for Gold for you (then possibly sell at auction or use for yourself) - you can use Wow Glider to automatically fish or perform tasks for you that also make money.

So if you use the bot wisely and don't over do it, it can prove very handy.

Give it a try, there is a demo version available - visit: www.wowglider.com

WoW Gold Tips and Experiments

I stumbled on another WoW blog today and thought, well maybe I should tell everyone about it.

This WoW blog is dedicated to gold farming and other experiments! OOooooooh

I may be advertising my competitors here - but the Blog has some good unique info and I thought well what the heck. From one WoW player to another:

WoW Tips and Tricks Click Here

Just click above to visit and I hope you get some decent information!

Regards,
WoW Team

Blizzard to sell Gold direct in WoW

Blizzard with the latest patch now looks to combat gold vendors by selling gold and epic items direct in game.

In a move that may annoy some faithful WoW users - Blizzard will try and pinch more money from its users on top of monthly subscriptions.

Read the full Blizzard / World of Warcraft Article Here:

http://www.dailygaming.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=208

WoW Guides Thottbot - Cheating?

If you are interested in using World of Warcraft Guides to help you through the game play, you can find these in many places throughout the internet. Some of them will be free, while others will cost a small fee, but all will have one thing in common - they are written by keen gaming enthusiasts eager to share their knowledge of the game with you.

So are these World of Warcraft Guides considered Cheats?

Not everyone believes so. In general terms, these guides provide the player with detailed descriptions of how to get through various parts of the game, how to get the most out of a character, or how to improve on a skill.

The purpose of a World of Warcraft Guide is to help you through the many lands, quests and towns of Warcraft in a legitimate way without having to resort to blatant cheats like hacks, mods, exploits or external software. These more blatant cheats are heavily frowned upon by most players because of the unfair advantage they provide to those who use them. In contrast however, guides are seen as a more acceptable way of providing less experienced players with some handy advice to help them get more out of the game.Because these guides are written by experienced practitioners of the game, you get to take advantage of their first hand experience and knowledge. If you are stuck on a certain level, or struggling to get the most out of your character, chances are there is a gamer out there who has been through the same frustrations and is now willing to share what they know with you.

If you really want to get ahead and enjoy the game more, then using the advice in the World of Warcraft Guides will help you to progress much easier than you ever thought possible.You can find World of Warcraft Guides for almost any area of the game you can imagine. Some will concentrate on a specific topic like how to get gold, or how to master a specific character or profession. Others will provide detail on a variety of general topics such as tips and tricks for beginners, the easiest way to make it through the lands, why guilds can be your secret weapons, how to level up faster and so on.

There are so many to choose from, and they are so easy to find - you are spoilt for choice.

The easiest way to find these guides is simply by searching on the term "World of Warcraft Guides".

This will bring up a variety of sites for you to browse through until you find the type of guide or subject that you are interested in. Some people may also call these guides walkthroughs, so if you are having trouble finding what you want then try searching on the term World of Warcraft Walkthrough. So, when it really comes down to it, are these World of Warcraft Guides cheats, or are they just one enthusiastic player sharing their knowledge with another!

Advertising inside WoW

Talk this week that Blizzard the makers and maintainers of World of Warcraft could throw the doors open to advertising companies to setup 'banners' and similar advertising techniques inside the WoW game.

Its an interesting concept, where companies for example Nike Shoes could have 'Nike Elf Boots' with their logo and title in the game, or taverns could advertise 'real world' beer types.

It could prove a massive money spinner for Blizzard (even on top of the money they make monthly with World of Warcraft) - the question is will it annoy WoW users? Will the advertising ruin the experience?

As WoW reaches middle age, it could be the spike in interest that Blizzard wants - the next few months will be interesting to see what develops.

NRL News

World of Warcraft Stats (Wow Stats)

For regular WoW players a good source of information from Blizzard is the following section of the World of Warcraft Website:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/toplist/buttons.html

In this part of the WoW website you will get access to following statistics:

* Most Auctioned WoW Items
* Most Crafted WoW Items
* Most Dangerous WoW NPCs
* Most Gathered Items in WoW
* Most Looted Items in WoW
* Most Completed Quests in WoW

All these are handy little stats, and can let serious World of Warcraft players know whats going on in the game all the time. Updated regularly, make sure you bookmark the above WoW stats page from Blizzard.

WoW - The "Daze" Mechanic

We’ve looked into the "Daze mechanic" more and more to provide detailed information on how the mechanic functions - this will now hopefully explain some of the werid things and minor discrepancies that WoW players notice when running away from mobs and regularly being affected by “Daze”. It’s a big World of Warcraft topic that’s now been brought up heaps since the release of the game, and trying our hand at explaining it in a bit more detail was something that we thought was very important to help WoW players better know how it affects each of them.

First a big explanation on how the daze mechanic works. The chance to be dazed in WoW is determined a lot by the character’s base defense ratings (as compared to the mobs actual level), or technically speaking the defense of the hero / character versus the attack skill of the enemy mob (which is always maxed out at [5 x mob level]). A high level 70 mob would have an attack of like 350 when compared to a level 70’s hero / character defense rating of 350. The base chance is around 20% and this actually lowers or raises based on the overall difference between player defense and mob attack, to a minimum of 0% chance, or maximum of 40% chance.

This total formula is really in fact altered to have a lot lower chance to "daze characters" below the level 30 mark. Then the chance for a level 1 character to be "dazed" by an equal level mob is now less than 1%, and the overall chance then scales up to level 30 where it reaches the base 20% mark (assuming that an equal mob level vs defense at all times). This is to allow the players / heros still learning the game to avoid certain death as they may still not be accustomed to the game or how their character’s power compares to the mobs. As an example of this reduction for heros / characters under the level 30 mark, a level 10 hero / player would have an approximate 7% chance to be "dazed" against an equal level mob group. This lowered chance for the characters under 30 is more than likely the largest contributor in players comparing low-level characters to their level 70’s and then assuming a change was made in the expansion to increase the daze level.

Other important factors that may give a sense that the daze is occurring more and more often may include the lack of actual level 60 ranked mobs that are roaming throughout the leveling or questing areas in Azeroth, when compared to the large amount of level 70 (and higher) mobs roaming throughout Outland. As it’s based on probability there’s a good chance that you will run into streaks where you’re dazed more or less often. Aside from keeping a maxed defense rating the best thing you can do to keep from being dazed is to simply avoid the aggro radius of mobs you don’t intend to fight.

The actual WoW code has been looked over many times, and it’s a very plainly set comparison of mob to player. We find that the perceived increase to being dazed is a perception that is mainly influenced by some or all of the explanations above, and other variables. Through our WoW testing we’ve confirmed that the code is working properly, and all tests performed showed the chance to be dazed was well within what was expected.

Now that the game mechanic has been explained a bit better, and further testing has gone in to at least fact checking that we are within the realm of acceptable probability, we turn to the function of the daze mechanic and why it’s even in the game. The most basic explanation is that we want it to be scary to run near or through a group of monsters. Players should be avoiding them if they don’t want to engage in combat, and not running through or within aggro range without consequence. A cautious and more alert player is less likely to be dazed than one who is haphazard and careless. We certainly support more thoughtful and careful approaches to combat situations or travel routes, and we find the daze mechanic performing as expected in helping to encourage it.

NRL News

Raid Attunements for SSC and TK Dropped

In a massively random WoW post, user Tigole said that you will no longer be needing to do the attunement quests in WoW to enter Tempest Keep or the Serpent Shrine.

After a hell of a lot of thought and deliberation, Blizzard decided to remove the attunement requirements in World of Warcraft to enter Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye. While many of our attunements in the Burning Crusade have actually been good progression checks, a few other attunements have really turned out to cause unnecessary stress on the guilds either doing the content or attempting to actually do the content. With the Black Temple and Battle for Mount Hyjal thriving, we also want to encourage (rather than stop) newer guilds and the raid groups to attempt Serpentshrine and TK. We are also going to leave all the current attunement quests in the WoW game so that all players can still engage in the biggest challenge and the lore of those quests should they choose to. Possibly at a later point, we will be considering adding a final reward step to those quests as well (that way those who have already finished them would not miss out on an all *new* reward).

This is fairly big news and pretty shocking WoW news at that.