Curse

World of Warcraft Anniversary Interview: The Creation of a Raid Dungeon

Kody — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:38:38 GMT

As I promised in the interview with Greg Street and Cory Stockton, here's a look inside the creation process of a dungeon like Ulduar. It's cool to have a better idea of what each dungeon goes through before players get their hands on it, and even some insight into the way the dungeons and encounters are designed!

Walk us through the creation of a raid instance like Ulduar. When do your various teams come into play, and how much influence do they have on tasks they're not directly involved in during the creation process?

Cory: As far as the kickoff goes for Ulduar... Ulduar was something we were working on all through Northrend, and we kind of realized that we had the content we wanted to ship it. Then we're sitting there with Ulduar, so we had some time to go back to it and beef it up from what we originally had planned for Ulduar.

We kick off, you know... brainstorming names, story, we have Alex Afrasiabi telling us the background, what we need to get across to players. So we kick off there, and it comes to a level design phase where we lay everything out in 2D. You've probably seen this at BlizzCon; we use these 2D illustrator maps to plan the layout of the whole dungeon, figure out where the bosses are gonna be, what we're gonna do.

From that point we talk about it more, decide we like what we have and start building it in 3D in what we call a "block out." The block out is just a really basic 3D form of the dungeon that we can run around in and see what the first stage is like. With Ignis, we knew how the fight was gonna be with the water pools on the side, how far we wanted players to have to drag the adds into the pool.

So in an instance like that, we're able to lay out all of that in 2D to get a sense of feel for units of measure, and then we get it into the basic 3D form and we can actually go in and spawn him, you know we didn't have his model done yet right, but we could spawn him there and get a feel for if there needs to be any changes before we get the final art going. We do that individually for everything in the whole place to lay it out, figure out how much space we need for the fights.

From there we get the encounter team involved. The encounter team comes in and we have meetings on the actual fights individually, and at the same time the art team begins working on final art. Those two work side-by-side from there until the end of the dungeon, or the production time, whatever that might be. Some dungeons that are smaller, we can kick out in two-to-three months, but something like Ulduar that's huge can take more time -- up to four-to-five months.

And during that time, they're working on the fights in Stranglethorn Arena spawning Razorscale there, fighting him, getting it down for how it's gonna play out and what he does while the art is being built for that room. As things start coming in, we'll start putting things together... we'll start placing the creatures in the actual instance and do internal testing.

Everything goes through testing here, we have a QA team that does that, but we test everything ourselves in 10-man form with the encounter guys, Greg is in on that, Tom Chilton, Alex Afrasiabi, all of us. So we go through as players and get a feel for it. From there it's just tuning, we get feedback after every session and work on tuning everything.

Then it goes on to Greg's team where the item art is getting hooked up, filling out the achievements, which all of those falls under Greg's team.

So could an item guy go up to the encounter guys and say "Hey, I have this awesome idea for a boss fight," or a class designer say "This room would look really awesome with a pink elephant ghost hovering near the ceiling."

[Greg Street laughs]

Cory: Oh 100%.

Greg: We're super collaborative here, our offices are full of very open people and we're talking to each other a lot. If someone gets this crazy idea about something and champions it can often get it into the game.

Cory: A lot of times we'll see a model come in from art and they'll end up creating a weapon the creature is holding and one of the item guys will say "oh I want to drop that," and at that point a task will go in, the artist goes in and rips the weapon out of the creature's hands, scales it down to fit the races in the game and we'll actually use that as a weapon.

Like with Razorscale when we saw his model we decided we wanted to get a mount for that. We had no idea until the art came in for him, and we saw it, and it looked so good we decided we had to get it in as a mount. So a lot of times things just happen... we try to plan as much as we can, but sometimes we end up getting things, and we all play this game just like anyone else. So there's a lot of things like that, that come out even though we didn't start with it planned and using it makes it feel so much better.

Whooaaaa

Exxoz — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:55:37 GMT

Whooaaaa awsome weekend of gaming :D 40 - 50 with my pala , some new gear dissapointingly not much but what can ya do. :D ive never EVER had a better char than the pala to do bg with! its awsome and it will probably become my new main when i get to 80 with it here is the current char sheet:

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonmaw&n=Belfwarr

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Bienvenue

druimanthys — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:02:34 GMT

Salut tt le monde ^^

Bienvenue sur le BLog de l'arbre Blanc ^^

Anarchy Online Gets A Face-Lift!

DoranM — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:22:04 GMT

Funcom has told us that they're working on updating Anarchy Online with an improved 3D engine! It's still very early but they've decided to share a few screenshots with us!

Before and after screenshots:

WoW Dev Interview: The Heart and Souls of Icecrown Citadel

Kody — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:06:34 GMT

It looks like World of Raids wasn't the only one interviewing Greg Street and Cory Stockton this week! Blizzard's community team sat down with them and grilled them on Icecrown Citadel, including their philosophies behind the dungeon and more. Check it out below!

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

To shed some light into the chilly gloom of Icecrown Citadel, we sat down to talk about the decision-making process behind Wrath of the Lich King's ultimate dungeon, the World of Warcraft team's design philosophy, and the dangers that lurk in the heart of Arthas's stronghold.

Check out the resulting interview to learn more: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/icecrown-interview.xml

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

With the final battle against the Lich King just on the horizon, Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Lead Systems Designer Greg Street discuss what awaits players inside Icecrown Citadel and offer a glimpse at the design process behind Wrath of the Lich King's ultimate raid and dungeon encounters.

What were you looking forward to most about developing Icecrown Citadel?

Cory: I think the most exciting thing about developing Icecrown Citadel was just knowing that we were working on the final chapter of the Northrend expansion, and that we'd really be able to give players that ultimate sense of completion of the storyline. Arthas is a huge character in Warcraft lore, so we took a lot of pride in making this the best experience we possibly could.

Icecrown and the Frozen Throne are important parts of the world of Azeroth and have quite a bit of history, especially for longtime Warcraft players. How do you convey the significance of these places and the events that took place there in design?

Cory: History was a large factor in the design of Icecrown Citadel from the very beginning. When we first sat down to discuss the layout of the raid itself, we immediately went back to Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne to think about how the spire from the ending cinematic could be translated into World of Warcraft. We decided to actually build Icecrown Citadel around the original spire to pull players even more into the storyline. This kind of thinking carried on throughout the entire design process.

Greg: We want Icecrown to be an epic experience from top to bottom, and that includes the loot you get. We're not going to shower players in items -- well, more than we already do -- but we do want to make sure the items are sufficiently powerful so that they're upgrades for all of our players.

Is there an existing model in World of Warcraft for Icecrown Citadel's itemization or style of play? What lessons that you'd learned from earlier projects wound up being applied to Icecrown Citadel?

Greg: The nice thing about Icecrown Citadel from an itemization perspective is that we have lots of bosses. That's something of a relief coming from the Crusaders' Coliseum, where we had only five bosses. For Icecrown, we can afford to have multiple options for a particular slot -- say a healing leather bracer or a melee trinket -- and even itemize some of the more unusual pieces. We have a pretty effective system for figuring out who is going to drop what to make sure that an individual boss will be interesting to a variety of players in terms of loot. Most of our lessons learned are in the realm of what differences there should be between 10- and 25-player itemization, the role of tradeskill recipes, and what kinds of items to place with badge vendors.

Cory: I think we learn lessons from every raid that we do. We didn't model Icecrown specifically after any of our previous raids, but you can definitely see influences. For example, we have a winged structure in Icecrown that players will remember from Naxxramas. Another example of an influence would be the teleporters from Ulduar. We know that players really loved that concept, so we brought it back in Icecrown.

Can you talk a little about how artists and designers on the team collaborated on the creation of Icecrown Citadel?

Cory: The design and art teams worked extremely closely throughout the entire development process. The biggest single influence on the look and the layout of the dungeon comes from our concept art, and there was no shortage of that for Icecrown Citadel. Once we locked down the layout, we were able to get to work on the final art extremely quickly thanks to the existing style we'd developed for the Icecrown zone. We really wanted the players to feel connected to the environment, but we wanted to make sure it still had an amazing look. Oftentimes, these two things are hard to mix, but in this case, I think we've been able to pull off an amazing dungeon from both the art and design standpoint.

What sorts of new loot and item abilities will we see in Icecrown?

Greg: There are three main sources of loot for Icecrown: the bosses themselves, the Emblem of Frost badge vendors, and a new faction, the Ashen Verdict, that will provide suitable rewards as well, particularly at the Exalted level.

As far as the items themselves go, we want them to feel epic. In addition to having favorable optimization, we also want to try a lot of experiments to make the items feel cool and unique. We are going to try to do a lot of weapon procs, for instance, which is something we haven't done much since the original World of Warcraft.

When you set out to itemize "sister" areas -- like the Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid, or Halls of Stone, Halls of Lightning, and Ulduar -- do you take any steps to make loot from these places feel similar?

Greg: Absolutely. We approach that on two fronts: the art and the names. When we did the Halls of Stone and Lightning, we hadn't completed the Ulduar raid yet, so the items there didn't necessarily have Titan-influenced art models for us to use. We are doing the Icecrown dungeon at the same time as the raid, and it's a style we already know pretty well, from Naxxramas and even the Warcraft RTS games.

Naming is something we've had a lot of fun with. There's a ton of lore to draw from for Icecrown loot and it has a very strong "kit." World of Warcraft players know to associate the Scourge with spiders, bats, and cultists along with more traditional forms of undead, like skeletons and liches.

Do you itemize Icecrown's "trash" -- the enemies between bosses -- differently from elites elsewhere in the world elsewhere?

Greg: We make sure there is epic trash loot -- specific items that only drop from trash. It helps keep players interested between bosses. However, we aren't doing Heroic trash, just Heroic bosses, so there won't be unique trash loot for Heroic versions of the 10- and 25-player versions of the raid. We try to construct the trash in such a way that it isn't trivial to go farm the first pull or whatever in hopes that an epic drops. We make our raids more accessible now in general, so I'm not sure the motivation is there to try stunts like that the way it once was. We want players who have raided so far in Wrath of the Lich King to be able to actually fight the Lich King, so chances are a lot of raiders will have plenty of opportunities to gear up. Now, the Heroics are another story -- those will be as challenging as they were in Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader, and the items will likewise be even better.

What have you done to make the tier-10 sets feel like a meaningful advancement from tier 8 and tier 9? How do they visually represent Icecrown's lore and history?

Greg: Not only do we want them to be a meaningful advancement, but we want them to feel really awesome. This is Arthas loot you're talking about. We started by spending a lot of time on the concept art to make sure it tied into the type of creatures you'll encounter and the whole Icecrown art "kit" in general. For example, the rogue tier-10 set has a strong geist look to it, while the hunter set has strong Nerubian elements, and the mage set looks a lot like the Blood Princes. You can see the Icecrown look and feel in a lot of pieces, which itself drew strongly from the Lich King's original helmet. Look for lots of blue, ice, skulls, and spikes.

We have also spent a lot longer on the set bonuses than we usually do. It's important that they feel awesome for every class and spec. Going back to the Crusaders' Coliseum, part of the challenge we made for ourselves was to create an instance that didn't require as much time or resources as Ulduar to develop, yet was still cool. We had set bonuses for the tier-9 gear, but they were often simple -- more crit on a common ability was a typical one. For tier 10, we're really going for set bonuses that change your game up a little. At the very least, you should want to change your rotation a little, though this is easier with some classes than others.

If you had something like a mission statement or a slogan for itemizing Icecrown, what would it be?

Greg: Epic. Cool things. Proc'y stuff.

Seriously, that's our mission statement. One of the risks of itemization is making things feel too formulaic. We know that when we step outside the bounds too much, players can have a bad reaction to it, like, "Why does my gear for this tier suck?" It's easy to fall into the trap of making the new gear feel just like the last gear with 20 more stat points. That is the exact design approach we use for the PvP gear, and left unchecked, it would be easy to go the same direction with the PvE gear as well. We're trying not to do that. We think we owe it to Icecrown for the gear to be memorable, but that means we're going to take a few chances.

Can you talk about any of the new mechanics we'll see in the raid?

Cory: One of the coolest new things we're doing in Icecrown is the gunship air battle. Players will be able to board their respective faction's gunship and then take to the air for a battle to the top of the citadel. They'll be fighting on the decks as well as using vehicles' cannon emplacements. If you're really daring, you can put on a goblin rocket pack and propel yourself back and forth between the two battling gunships. Needless to say, this will be a type of encounter that our players have never experienced before.

Icecrown Citadel's structure is extremely vertical -- what challenges does that present from a layout perspective?

Cory: Well, we knew from the start that the layout was going to be vertical, just due to the nature of the original spire. There are a number of things that we're doing to help players get around and not get lost. We're using elevators, teleporters, and even gunships to get players where they need to go in the dungeon. We are also going to have an in-game map with full support for all floors -- that should help too.

Icecrown is the last major raid and dungeon before the release of Cataclysm -- how has that affected the design?

Greg: The major challenge from an itemization perspective is that the items have to last basically until Cataclysm. That means we can't afford to give them away too quickly, but they also need to feel powerful enough that players are motivated to keep trying for them. On the other hand, the really fun thing about doing a final raid tier is how it unties your hands. We can afford to make these items great because nothing needs to follow on their heels. It's cool to be able to optimize the items very well, because it's okay if players don't want to replace these items for a long time.

Cory: We are really pushing as hard as we can to deliver the most epic experience possible. We know that our players have been waiting for this for a long time, and we plan to deliver. Everyone should expect to see this sort of storytelling and attention to detail in Cataclysm as well. I think we are always striving to pull the people who play our game into the storyline and really give them an explanation for why they're there. It won't be too long before they'll get a chance to bring the pain to Deathwing!

Thanks, both of you - we're looking forward to playing through Icecrown Citadel after patch 3.3 is released!

WoW Hunter

Zappattta — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:26:41 GMT

WoW Hunter Class is the only ranged weapons Class in the game. Unlike other MMORPG's like Everquest, the Hunter Class in WoW does not have very strong melee. They are specialized almost exclusively for ranged weapons. They also have pets and they can be invaluable to the survival of a Hunter in combat situations because it can be used as a tank. This allows the Hunter to stay out of range of attack, free to use it's ranged weapons without fear of reprisal. Hunters are the only Class that can name and feed their pets. Feeding pets allows the "happiness" attribute to increase which in turn increases the pet's damage ability. WoW Gold Guide

Tickets

egingell — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:16:03 GMT

Why is it so hard for people to follow directions and post tickets instead of comments?

Dungeons and Dragons Online Releases New Drow Screenshots

Browncoat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:15:18 GMT

Turbine's been busy with DDO Unlimited, the new pricing model of Dungeons & Dragons Online that allows players to download the game for free and make purchases of adventure packs, items, and more as optional investments. The good folks at the studio saw fit to send us some screenshots of the Drow race, which you can check out below.

Dragonica Online Thanksgiving Feast Event!

DoranM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:26:34 GMT

Dragonica Online has announced a Thanksgiving Feast event! The event will last from November 17th - November 30th and comes with lots of surprises! To celebrate the harvest season in the land of Dragonica, THQ*ICE has a line-up of special events taking place in Dragonica Online. It's important to stay limber before a large meal and the Stretching Before Stuffing event is the perfect pre-Thanksgiving exercise regimen! Players will enjoy +20% experience gain on November 17th and 18th during evening hours. On Thanksgiving Day itself, the Turkey Run event begins, granting characters +30% experience gain from November 26th until the end of November 27th.

The Thanksgiving Feast features a special holiday souvenir: the Turkey Balloon. This cosmetic item can be earned by participating in one of two events. Thanksgiving Training challenges players to strive to be the best at in-game cooking or eating. gives players the chance to rack up 100 kills in their Monster Count to receive the special balloon.

To learn more about the event or download the game visit Dragonica Online!

Star Trek Online New Screenshots!

DoranM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:24:24 GMT

Star Trek Online has sent us some exclusive screenshots, and will be sending us more every week until launch, highlighting some of the different areas and characters in the game!

Here's a look at 5 never-before-seen screenshots from STO:

Runes of Magic Demon Dragon Lair Going Live Soon!

DoranM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:22:20 GMT

Runes of Magic has announced the release of the Demon Dragon! With the next patch, '2.1.3 - Lair of the Demon Dragon', coming Thursday, November 19th, the Runes of Magic game world will not only be expanded with the twelve man raid dungeon, but the update also includes a reworking of the crafting system and includes the assets for another in-game event. Taborea is inviting everyone to an Autumn Banquet and is rewarding players, with a Thanksgiving festival where all sorts of delicious treats and tasks will be available.

Many high-level players are focused on the exciting adventures which await them in the raid dungeons of Runes of Magic. The 'Liar of the Demon Dragon' is the latest and most difficult challenge that the online role-playing game has offered to date. The powerful demon-possessed flame dragon Gestero, held captive in the Aotulia Volcano, is anything but an easy opponent.

To prepare themselves for combat, players can visit this year's Autumn Banquet, where gift tables have been distributed across the continent and are loaded with food. Daily quests in and around the acquisition of supplies, or gathering resources, complete the event.

The re-worked crafting system, in response to request by the community, will also be implemented in the game with the '2.1.3 - Lair of the Demon Dragon' patch. The new interface is also tuned in terms of user-friendliness, to provide the best possible user experience. Players can now also manufacture items with up to two levels of rarity higher than before.

Additional information on the content update is available on the official Runes of Magic website!

boredness!

Exxoz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:57:53 GMT

Im at school. Bored as HELL.

I wanna go home! 5 cokes waiting :D gaming weekend <3 :D w000tt!!!!

getting my pala up 8 or 9 levels this weekend i think and loads or hc farming with my dk so that i can get valor shoulders for my pala! :D stockade ruins the complete look!

- Exxoz

FFXIVCore.com Editorials - Gobbiebag #3 and "What Type of Gamer Are You?"

DoranM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:11:08 GMT

FFXIVCORE.com has their latest gobbiebag up with another handful of speculative goodness packed within. This time around they answer a question about leveling a crafting class and an adventurer class at the same time and speculate on PvP and death penalties. Check out the full article here.

The site has also posted a rather intersting article that looks at several of the more common types of "gamer categories" and asks you to match yourself against them. The article is up to friendly debate and discussion with members stating their opinions and even adding to the list.

Read the full article here.

Perfect World Announces Rising Tide Expansion!

DoranM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:58 GMT

Perfect World has announced the release of the latest expansion for it's flagship game; Perfect World! The "Rising Tide" expansion is the largest to date, introducing a new race, two new classes, a public quest system and more. Please see below for more details on the expansion and its features.

The new race, the Tideborn, is an aquatic race that has lived under the sea for thousands of years, but is mysteriously appearing in the world!

Here's a look at the trailer for this expansion:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Other exciting features include:

· A New race - "Tideborn"

· Two new classes - the stealth "Assassin" and magic and buff enabled "Psychic"

· New Quests - more than 200 new adventures to complete

· Additional territories for factions to conquer

· Cooperative questing - A new public quest system

· Additional areas to explore - new dungeons with more than 100 new monsters

· More customization - new, upgraded gear and equipment

· New "Recasting" equipment system

· Daily Quests added just for Married Players

· New Fashion Slot-for the hair/hat option

· Newly implemented shared stash system for player accounts

To learn more about this expansion and other Perfect World titles visit: www.perfectworld.com!

Starting of this blog with char sheets!

Exxoz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:28:08 GMT

HI ALL

Im starting off this gaming blog with char sheets for my 3 "main" chars, these three are the ones im focusing my time on atm. Adding updated sheets once a week i guess.

LVL 80 Death Knight DPS - Armory

LVL 80 Death Knight DPS - Wowhead

LVL 40 Paladin TANK - Armory

LVL 40 Paladin TANK - Wowhead

LVL 17 Priest HEALER - Armory

LVL 17 Priest HEALER - Wowhead

The wowhead sheets are a bit out of date , bit better gear on both the low level chars. The Dk one seems alright.

Ok... ill start my gaming day by day thingy with yesterdays gaming since im at school now and cant play wow. Yesterday i did Uldaman with an imba grp with the paladin and got some boots and dinged 40. Finally! 100% <3333 :D

There is probably coming and update post later tonight if i get the time to do some gaming today.

- Exxoz

I can't get anymore addons to work, help?

AnimeDream23 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:33:23 GMT

Hey all! Anyone... I can't get anymore than 1 addon to work on my mac. It's very frustrating and I honestly don't understand it. If I can get one to work by installing manually... why not 3 or 4 like I want? ><

Orginally, I had to create an Interface folder in Macintosh HD/applications/World of Warcraft because for whatever reason, it did not exist. I then made the addons folder inside of it. I downloaded recount manually and then dragged the folder i downloaded into the addons folder. I entered WoW and then VOILA! addon. I then tried dragging another addon into the addons folder and i got nothing. All i can see is recount. I don't get it! Do I have to install all the addons at the same time?

I've read a few threads that say something about unzipping the file, but that makes no sense to me since I didn't have to "unzip" the first one. I would like to get this all to work without having to to pay for a program just for a working addon. Seriously, if it's gonna cost money, I can live with one addon! lol.

Icecrown Citadel Raid Access Progression

Kody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:49:58 GMT

This doesn't come as a huge surprise since Ghostcrawler let slip of it in our interview with him, but check out the planned progression for raid access in Icecrown Citadel below.

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

I'am noobie

johntravolta123 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:09:31 GMT

hello world

Legendary Weapon Preview: Shadowmourne

Kody — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:26:00 GMT

This looks like it will shape up to be the most interesting legendary quest ever added to the game. It should be a lot of fun for players to take part in when 3.3 goes live! Here's the official preview of Shadowmourne, the next legendary weapon being added to World of Warcraft:

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Before beginning his reign as the Lich King, Prince Arthas Menethil was first a servant, ruled by a sword he believed was the key to saving his people - the runeblade Frostmourne. Finding and claiming the blade among the frozen wastes of Northrend was an odyssey unto itself, and the search cost the prince his mentor, his relationship with his subjects, and his humanity. It cost the living of Azeroth far more.

With a tight grip on the blade that he traded his life for, Arthas ravaged the kingdom of Lordaeron and broke free from the control of the Burning Legion. By the time the former prince ascended as the leader of the Scourge, Frostmourne was already glutted with the souls of the numberless dead who dared to oppose him.

Now, Arthas has become so inseparable from his weapon that the sword's likeness has even found its way into the architecture of his fortress, Icecrown Citadel. Its hilt is never far from his hands; its ghostly whispers constantly ring in his ears. Frostmourne, as much as the Lich King, is the ruler of Northrend.

To challenge that rule, mighty heroes will need to follow more closely in Arthas's path than ever before.

In a relentless quest to arm the forces of the living against the Scourge, Darion Mograine has formed the Ashen Verdict, a union between the most skilled craftsmen of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. Though the peerless paladins of the Crusade wield the power of the Light, and their leader clutches Ashbringer, a few of Mograine's dark warriors have begun to question their hopes for victory.

These death knights insist that the Ashbringer and the skills of the Argent Crusaders, though potent, aren't enough to best Frostmourne alone. They swear that Darion Mograine has long been quietly aware of another legendary blade - one that could be the key to defeating the Lich King and cleansing Northrend... But it doesn't exist yet.

For the moment, the weapon is a formless idea, with no more killing power than an angry thought. When it is spoken of, it is spoken of quietly, and the Highlord has a habit of silencing those who discuss it in public.

But the hope of an artifact to rival Frostmourne is strong within the minds of the Ebon Blade. Just its name inspires the furnaces to burn late into the night, the bellows to pump air, and the darker half of the Verdict's smiths to swing their hammers until their fingers fail. While other craftsmen crafters lean over whetstones and gather pitted blades by the hundreds, these few dream of a single weapon to end the war for Northrend.

Shadowmourne... A great two-handed axe fit for a giant, born of sacred and corrupt powers, host of a thousand dead souls and able to be wielded only by the most stalwart armsmasters of Azeroth. Its creation seems nearly impossible; and yet, the rumors do not cease.

Some smiths claim that Shadowmourne must be nothing more than an ordinary axe, honed to unparalleled perfection, while others would shape it from a weapon of immense import in the world. Mograine, when he can be convinced to speak of it at all, is said to believe that only the hammer of Arthas himself will provide a worthy model - but such absurd ambition is just the beginning of Shadowmourne's creation.

To contain the energies that dance across its cold edges, Shadowmourne must be hewn from piles of impure Saronite: the hardened blood of the Old God, Yogg-Saron, treated only by master metal-shapers.

To fuel its power to kill, it is vital that Shadowmourne be drenched in the souls of the most potent servants of the Scourge as they are slain, one by one, with the unfinished blade.

To help break through the Lich King's armor, Shadowmourne is to be adorned with fragments of the Frozen Throne, originally crafted by Kil'Jaeden out of ice from the Twisting Nether.

Only with these mighty components, it's said, can Shadowmourne be finished. And, yet, even if the axe could be completed, questions and fears remain. Is forging the souls of the deceased into a weapon treated withblood and the essence of the Twisting Nether truly any different from the crafting of the Scourge's runeblades?

Who is to say that the Lich King wouldn't simply annihilate - or control - the maker for their impudence in mimicking his most treasured possession? If Arthas, one of the most dedicated knights of his age, lost his humanity to the whispers of Frostmourne, might Shadowmourne bring the same doom and misery tothe living as its sister blade?

Without knowing the answers to these questions, who would be bold enough to try and wield it?

Curse Exclusive Mythologies of Mytheon Podcast!

DoranM — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:11:08 GMT

Mytheon Podcast

True Games and Petroglyph have released another exciting Mytheon podcast today! In this podcast we hear from Amanda Flock and Pat Pannulo on some of the lore and ideas behind Mytheon! Take a listen to the latest podcast from Mathew Anderson, Mytheon community manager, and the Petroglyph team!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Official Trailer

Here's the official trailer for the game:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Mytheon Screenshots

Checkout these Mytheon Screenshots:

For additional details on Mytheon and for continuous updates on the game, please visit: http://www.Mytheongame.com.