Warcraft Gold Guide Reviews» Warcraft Gold Guide Reviews & More http://www.goldguidereviewz.com Warcraft Gold Guide Reviews Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:24:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The Art of War(craft): Tol Barad field report from the beta http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-tol-barad-field-report-from-the-beta/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-tol-barad-field-report-from-the-beta/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:11:39 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-tol-barad-field-report-from-the-beta/ via WoW.com by

Zach, who writes the weekly PvP column The Art of War(craft), is having the time of his life in the Cataclysm beta now that they’ve enabled testing of the new battlegrounds. He logs out in Tol Barad and is constantly in queue for Twin Peaks and the Battle for Gilneas. Now if only those other battlegrounds would actually open up for a game or two …

The latest beta patch had a lot of goodies from the obvious, such as new talents, to the subtle, like changed items. The most interesting news for me, of course, was that Twin Peaks and Tol Barad are finally open for testing. I didn’t have much luck getting into a Twin Peaks game even after hours of being in queue, but I did manage to get more than my fair share of Tol Barad battles. Granted, it was far from massive — neither side barely managed more than two parties, let alone a full raid — but it was easy enough to learn how everything works.

Today we’ll dive right into Tol Barad, from the landscape to the gameplay to other random notes about the new world PvP zone. The isles of Tol Barad’s actual geographical location is a bit curious at the moment. From the games panel at last year’s BlizzCon, the developers showed a map where Tol Barad was in a body of water west of Khaz Modan, south of the Hillsbrad Foothills and east of Gilneas. The current Cataclysm beta map isn’t the same, although there are two small islands west of Gilneas and north of Vashj’ir that could represent Tol Barad. There is currently no physical means to go to or leave Tol Barad — players must enter by queuing for the battle and leave through other means such as a hearthstone. The zone currently does not permit flight, even between battles.

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The Art of War(craft): Tol Barad field report from the beta originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-tol-barad-field-report-from-the-beta/feed/ 0 World of Warcraft Tap Chat now available http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/world-of-warcraft-tap-chat-now-available/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/world-of-warcraft-tap-chat-now-available/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:20:05 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/world-of-warcraft-tap-chat-now-available/ via WoW.com by

The World of Warcraft Tap Chat, or The Gaming Peripheral Formerly Known As Voice Tap, is now available. Essentially, it’s a hotkey for your foot — or some other appendage other than your fingers. Designed primarily as a push-to-talk button to pair with the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft headset to allow players to devote their hands to the game, this USB device can just as easily be assigned a macro or as a hotkey. This means players can actually assign the Tap Chat to an ability like Hammer of Justice, to add a realistic feeling of crushing your opponents underfoot.

Players willing to spring $29.99 for the edge of one additional button — notably a non-hand-activated one — can head over to the Creative or Blizzard online stores, where the World of Warcraft Tap Chat is exclusively available. Although sold out at the Blizzard store as of this writing (barely a week after it was made available), players who manage to get their hands (or foot) on the product also get exclusive World of Warcraft logo lenses that can be used to customize their matching World of Warcraft headset.

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World of Warcraft Tap Chat now available originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/world-of-warcraft-tap-chat-now-available/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): Surviving battleground PUGs http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-surviving-battleground-pugs/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-surviving-battleground-pugs/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:16:53 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-surviving-battleground-pugs/ via WoW.com by

Zach has always been a Kobe Bryant fan, ever since his rookie year and even through those air balls he took in game 5 of the first round of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz in 1997. In fact, it was those three air balls that convinced Zach that Kobe was his favorite basketball player ever. Because taking those shots took guts. And taking those shots eventually resulted in Kobe’s hitting game-winner after game-winner many years later. Zach also writes about the battlegrounds, and this is his cue to tell you that if you keep trying and you have guts, you just might become the Kobe Bryant of WoW PvP. All right, probably not — but it’s an inspiring thought, anyway.

More than a few comments on last week’s column made me pause for thought, in particular some responses to my assertion that battleground play is an excellent stress reliever. I have to admit I’ve had more than my fair share of hair-tearing moments in the battlegrounds … I might have made it easier on myself and my blood pressure had I pursued achievements using premades. But I’m a pugger at heart. That’s likely to change when rated battlegrounds debut in Cataclysm, but for the vast majority of my PvP life, I’ve lived and died through PUGs. The glaring exception would be the old school honor grind, when going it alone was tantamount to tanking your weekly ranking.

I think PUGs are awesome. Yes, they can totally drive you nuts and sometimes be a colossal waste of time, but I’ve come to appreciate the wonder in a group of strangers coming together and performing well. There’s a certain satisfaction to be gained from that — I’m sure many of you have found PUGs that just clicked, where everything just worked out and everyone else on the team possessed more than half a brain and a decent grasp of the game. Those instances feel good, don’t they? They happen only on occasion, but when they do, I personally think they make up for the times when I feel I’ve been grouped with, um, complete morons. For today’s column, I’ve prepared a handy guide for you folks that should help you survive the wonderful world of battleground PUGs. After all, between now and Cataclysm, you just might need it.

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The Art of War(craft): Surviving battleground PUGs originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-surviving-battleground-pugs/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): The battlegrounds as a bridge between content http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-battlegrounds-as-a-bridge-between-content/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-battlegrounds-as-a-bridge-between-content/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 08:17:43 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-battlegrounds-as-a-bridge-between-content/ via WoW.com by

Welcome to this week’s installment of The Art of War(craft), a confusingly named column that actually discusses PvP and not, you know, art or crafts. It’s a play on Sun Tzu’s military treatise and predates the Paladin talent The Art of War. Yeah, the column’s been around that long, even before arenas became the new hotness. Soon arenas’ll be the old, busted joint and battlegrounds will be the new hotness. Or just hotness, because the battlegrounds are actually pretty old.

I’ve always believed in the replayability of the battlegrounds. It’s why I’ve always thought they were some of the most valuable content the game has to offer. It’s heartening to see how Blizzard has committed to giving more attention to battleground development in Cataclysm. Moving forward, I think it will only make the game more robust. At this point in the game, as the next expansion looms on the horizon, a feeling of impatience and even boredom pervades the playing community. The upcoming Ruby Sanctum is what I’d call pantawid gutom, a Filipino term that literally means “something that helps one get across hunger” It’s not a real meal, just something to prevent us from starving. The sad thing is, no matter how awesome the Ruby Sanctum will be, it won’t be appreciated as much, because everyone is looking forward to Cataclysm already. Arthas is dead. Bring on the new bad guy.

Right now, it’s a bit of a waiting game. Killing time. Even our WRUP asked a couple of weeks back what people were doing in the time leading up to Cataclysm. I wasn’t able to submit my answer to the bonus question thanks to my email flaming out, but my response would’ve been the same as it always is during the lull between expansions: I hit the battlegrounds. While the rest of the raiding world is waiting for the next big baddie, my true enemy never left — players of the opposing faction. This is why I’m so stoked that Blizzard is ramping up the tension between the two factions in the expansion and bringing back the conflict that’s supposed to be at the core of the game. We needed to be reminded that it’s WARcraft, not cuddle-and-be-chummy-in-neutral-cities-craft. Battlegrounds are a great representation of the ongoing battle between the Alliance and Horde and overall gives Blizzard the most bang for their development buck.

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The Art of War(craft): The battlegrounds as a bridge between content originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 27 May 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-battlegrounds-as-a-bridge-between-content/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): Three kinds of warlocks and how to kill them http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-three-kinds-of-warlocks-and-how-to-kill-them/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-three-kinds-of-warlocks-and-how-to-kill-them/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:55:46 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-three-kinds-of-warlocks-and-how-to-kill-them/ via WoW.com by

Zach brings warmth to your day with a regular weekly dose of good, old-fashioned PvP. Like a comforting hot cup of cocoa with little pink marshmallows in the shape of stars. And battle axes. And skulls.

We’ll take this opportunity in the lull between Cataclysm news to continue our introductory guide to killing this and that. Sure, it’ll be radically different from now and the next expansion, but it should ultimately be useful to help a lot of beginners getting their feet wet (or bloodied) in the Battlegrounds until then. And believe me, the Battlegrounds is where it’s going to be at. So take this opportunity to immerse yourself in the Battleground experience before Cataclysm shakes things up.

We left our guides hanging with an introduction to warlocks and the usual abilities they employ on the battlefield. Today we’ll wrap things up with a closer look at the three specs. The fun thing about Wrath is that Blizzard made an earnest effort to make each warlock spec feel and play differently from each other, going so far as to tailor certain pets to work better with a specific spec. It was in Wrath where felpuppies became affliction warlocks’ best friends, and destruction warlocks were encouraged to hang out with imps. Demonology, as always, had their burly bodyguards. After the jump … how to spot them and, hopefully, squish them.

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The Art of War(craft): Three kinds of warlocks and how to kill them originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-three-kinds-of-warlocks-and-how-to-kill-them/feed/ 0 New Warcraft manga previews available http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/new-warcraft-manga-previews-available/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/new-warcraft-manga-previews-available/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:18:38 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/new-warcraft-manga-previews-available/ via WoW.com by

Warcraft: Shadow Wing, Vol. 1: Dragons of Outland, the new Warcraft manga written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim, now has a preview available online at BlizzPlanet.com. Shadow Wing follows the continuing story of Jorad Mace and the blue dragon Tyrygosa, who parted ways with Kalecgos and Anveena at the end of the Sunwell Trilogy. Jorad and Tyri meet up in Outland — and hopefully the manga explains what the two have been doing out on Celestial Ridge all this time, and how Tyri’s research eventually ties in to Malygos’ efforts up in Northrend.

In addition, there is also a preview available for Warcraft: Mage, the second in the series of class-based books that began with Warcraft: Death Knight. Unlike Death Knight, which detailed the untold story of Thassarian, Warcraft: Mage seems to be taking a different route and telling the story of a character as yet unseen in World of Warcraft. Aodhan is a young man who comes from a lineage of paladins and warriors, but finds himself drawn to an entirely different path. While training to become a mage in Dalaran, Aodhan and the rest of the city abruptly find themselves under siege by Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight. Warcraft: Mage is also written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Ryo Kawakami, who has also done work for the Warcraft: Legends series.

While the manga novels still aren’t available for pre-order, it looks like both novels will be released on June 1, 2010, from TOKYOPOP, and will be available at bookstores across the country.

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New Warcraft manga previews available originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/new-warcraft-manga-previews-available/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): The impact of Cataclysm Class Changes on PvP http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-impact-of-cataclysm-class-changes-on-pvp/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-impact-of-cataclysm-class-changes-on-pvp/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:34:51 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-impact-of-cataclysm-class-changes-on-pvp/ via WoW.com by

Zach has secret plans of weaning his two daughters on a steady diet of PvP videos, tutorials and tournament live streams so that one day, they’ll make their daddy proud when they become fearsome High Warlords under the new Cataclysm PvP system. Of course, one is only two years and the other is barely even a week old so that secret plan … might take a while.

After five years, Blizzard is overhauling the World of Warcraft almost completely, with the physical changes to Azeroth — from the rending of the Barrens to the submersion of Thousand Needles — merely being one part of a major shake-up to the game. Everything is being revisited, including class mechanics, which means class dynamics are going to change a whole lot. That means PvP, the game’s version of rock-paper-scissors, is going to be very different.

Some classes will play differently, such as hunters and warlocks, who get new resource mechanics in focus and soul shards. Others will get tweaks to their resources, such as death knights, whose rune system is receiving a few changes. Character stats will be streamlined, there will be new itemization, and even entirely new game mechanics such as mastery and the Path of the Titans. The recent spate of class previews have given us a insight to the various masteries, but there’s still much to learn about the various Paths. This early into the development of Cataclysm, we should expect that many of the announced plans are bound to change. That said, all of the information we have so far gives us a pretty good idea of where Blizzard is headed with the game. After the break, let’s take stock of all the announcements so far and see how it affects PvP.

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The Art of War(craft): The impact of Cataclysm Class Changes on PvP originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-the-impact-of-cataclysm-class-changes-on-pvp/feed/ 0 Blizzard posts the newest World of Warcraft Battle Plan http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/blizzard-posts-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-battle-plan/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/blizzard-posts-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-battle-plan/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:27:18 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/blizzard-posts-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-battle-plan/ via WoW.com by

A Battle Plan! Been a while since we’ve seen one of these; in fact, the last time Blizzard posted an official Battle Plan was late 2006, and there may be good reason for that. As a whole, Blizzard is much more open now in terms of communicating development philosophies and providing direct answers to questions posed — I blame Ghostcrawler — than they were four years ago.

Given that we’re on the eve of WoW‘s most extensive expansion, though, this is a pretty prime time to catch everybody up on what’s happened thus far since Wrath launched and where Cataclysm is bringing us, and that’s exactly what the Battle Plan does. There’s not a lot at first glance — a small Wrath postmortem, some basic info about the upcoming Ruby Sanctum and Echo Isles/Gnomeregan content — but some closer examination reveals a few interesting tidbits.

  • Cataclysm‘s Kalimdor content is basically finished. “Much of Eastern Kingdoms” is completed.
  • After the upcoming events to retake Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles, all level one gnomes and trolls will start in the newly-reclaimed areas!
  • Database hardware upgrades will be put into place to ensure that the Cataclysm launch goes as smoothly as possible.

The entirety of the Battle Plan post is after the break.

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Blizzard posts the newest World of Warcraft Battle Plan originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/blizzard-posts-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-battle-plan/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting rogues http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-rogues/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-rogues/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:19:51 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-rogues/ via WoW.com by

Uh-oh. Rogues. Those sneaky little bastards could be anywhere. Out of all the classes in the game, there is perhaps no class no more feared for their PvP prowess than rogues. Rogues gain a fearsome reputation by virtue of the nature of the class alone — they can Stealth. Because of rogues, everyone has to literally watch their backs. No place is safe because a rogue can be lying in lurking in some dark corner waiting to strike at the proper time. Through years of leveling in a PvP server, there is no sound in the game more unsettling than the low humming whoosh of a nearby stealthed rogue. In fact, rogue (and by extension, feral druid) stealth is the single biggest reason why I don’t PvP with music on.

And for rogues, it’s all about timing. In the Battlegrounds, it isn’t uncommon to find rogues preying on the weak, those low on life, the defenseless players eating or drinking. They can’t help it. It’s in their nature. The class encourages foul play through Stealth and a wonderful repertoire of attacks from behind. Rogues are at their best when catching their opponents off guard and are extremely capable of doing so. After the jump, we’ll take a closer look at the basic things to expect when fighting a rogue regardless of their spec.

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The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting rogues originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-rogues/feed/ 0 The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting paladins http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-paladins/ http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-paladins/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:14:03 +0000 http://www.goldguidereviewz.com/the-art-of-warcraft-introductory-guide-to-fighting-paladins/ via WoW.com by

Zach writes the weekly Battlegrounds and world PvP column The Art of War(craft). He is also a career Paladin who has played the class in all its iterations in various RPGs. He attempts to live high, live mighty, and live righteously.

Ah, Paladins. Otherwise known as the game’s God-class. Paladins, next to hunters, arguably have the lowest skill to success ratio among all classes in the game. This means that many players with low familiarity with the game can pick up a paladin and play the class with relative ease and have moderate success in the battlegrounds. Retribution paladins, in particular, are so easy to play that it can be addicting. Many players easily get the delusion that they’re good. This is what prompted Blizzard to call out the spec, saying that it is successful in lower Arena brackets but significantly less so against tougher competition.

Paladins also enjoy a significant psychological edge against a lot of players because of their reputation, giving them an advantage even before the fight begins. Well, today we’re focusing on how to fight paladins in our series of guides aimed at teaching players basic strategies against particular classes. We’ve discussed death knights, druids, hunters, and last week, mages. After the jump, we’ll break down a paladin’s strengths, discuss their frequently used skills, and eventually their weaknesses. As fearsome as paladins can be in combat, they suffer from glaring weaknesses, too. As long as you keep those weaknesses in mind, you should fare better against them on the battlefield.

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The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting paladins originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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