It's been 4 years and 2 days since WoW first launched, and Blizzard celebrated their 4th Anniversary in style giving folks who logged on a Feat of Strength Achievement, and an Account bound non combat pet, the "Blizzard Baby Bear". It's a nice touch, I think. If you've been playing since the release, you've given Blizzard $720 bucks (Assuming you paid $15/month, and not some other deal). With that in mind...do you feel you've gotten your money's worth out of Blizzard? I haven't given them $720 personally, but I have given them pretty close to that amount. Looking back and thinking about it...I've gotten my money's worth.

 Ghostcrawler addresses that "AoE fun times" with a short post detailing a couple changes to Shaman, Druids ,and Rogues. 

 With the xpack has come a bunch of new materials to harvest. Of course, there are going to be ninja's and the like who wait for someone to clear out a pat and take the node. At worst, they pretend ignorance that you were going for the node, at worst they mock you some and thank you for taking the pat for them before heading off. Is there some way to deal with these kinds of folks? A debuff of some sort is suggested (can't mine/herb for the next 15m?) but...how would you apply it. How would it the game know if someone was a ninja or not? Is there some way to 'fix' this, or is it just groan and move on?

 Wow is serious business, and this xpack means business. There are a ton of mobs to kill, plagues to spread or defeat, undead everywhere, but there's got to be some time for fun somewhere, right? There are a lot of funny things in this xpack, if you know where to look.

Does torturing someone make you a bit queasy inside? How about helping to make a plague designed to kill whatever it comes into contact with? Does someone else's callous reaction to a mistake you may have made hurt? Are you ok with slaughtering untold numbers in your quest for what you feel is right?What about the helpless, those who ask for mercy, don't fight back? Is it alright to kill them?

Morality issues are cropping up with renewed vigor in Wrath. There is a vocal minority who feel that Blizzard has gone too far now, asking the above of it's players. Have they? There are many sides to this argument, with folks saying that it's an adult game for adult players, so thank god for a little mature content. Or how come someone has been able to hack and slash through untold numbers of enemies for whatever reason, but when it comes to torturing some information out of someone, that's not ok? Some folks say that as long as the person you are attacking can attack back, then it's ok. Some roleplayers are having a lot of issued with the new Death Knight starting zone, and some of the things asked of you there.

It's a moral grey area, of sorts. It's been said that the PC's are being taken down the same path offered Arthas himself. What would you do to save those who you love and care about, or what would you do to save the world from evil? Still others say that Blizzard is just running out of quest ideas and is now trying to shock it's player base. Some folks are quite up in arms about this, what they feel they are being forced to do by Blizzard, while others say that it's just a game and if, for some unknown reason, doing a quest in a game for adults makes you feel uneasy, that you should either not do the quest, or just log off and find a 'softer' game more suited to your tastes. Some folks say that this is just a game, and it's not like they can fling fireballs around, drain souls, shoot with nearly unerring accuracy or take ears for trophies out of the game, while others really empathize with what their characters are/have to do in the game.

Personally...I can't see where all the fuss is. But then, I don't really empathize with my toon. I'm playing to be around the friends I've made and see a great storyline unfold. I enjoy getting into complex fights, and seeing how the world of Azeroth is developing. When I did the torture quest, I blew through it without really a second thought, as I saw where and how it fit into the picture of the overall story. Azeroth is a world at war with a madman who's driving goal is to see everyone dead so he can resurrect them from the dead to serve him. I could see doing whatever is needed to stop him, and worrying about whether or not you could sleep at night when the threat is over.

So...what do you think? Has Blizzard gone too far? Are they trying to give us the “Arthas' experience”? Are they running out of ideas? Is the darker direction you may have seen in WoW driving you from the game? Is this “just” a game, and what we do/how we act doesn't matter?

And already, there is a ton of news.Many of us stood in lines, waiting for our copies. Others just sauntered into the stores at some point and were able to score copies. Which is an interesting debate. Is it worth it to pre-order your copy? Not a single person who didn't pre-order had a problem getting a copy, and some even got their hands on Collector's Editions, which, as a pre-orderer, I couldn't do. So, it begins to beg the question, is pre-ordering worth it for a major release?

 Wrath hasn't been out that long...and already all the PvE content has been beaten. The super uber guild (who haven't even released their super uber name yet) that has been formed out of both Nihilum and SK-Gaming has already (2-4 days into the xpack) beaten everything there is to offer on the PvE end. Yes, in 3 days they leveled to 80 and blew all the raid content away. This is going to do nothing but spark up the casual vs hardcore argument big time. While they are paid to play WoW (must be nice) they have kind of shot themselves in the foot here. There's now nothing really for them to do for how long? It took 2 years to get WotLK out, and the next xpack is probably about as many years on the horizon. Sure there will be content patchs. They already have a list of some of what's coming. But...still, that's not much for them. If they can do this, that fast, will anything patched in be of a challenge, unless it's 'broken' when patched in? This is...quite the time in WoW. Folks can say that they knew Naxx as it's a recycled instance, or that the challenges for the truly hardcore lie in the undermanning Achievements. But if TBC was "way too hard" and excluded the casual players, has/will WotLK swing the other way, and open the door for anyone in a pug to go in and beat up major content? And, while the hardcore are a 'smaller' player base, if this is the case, Blizz will likely lose them somewhere before they can 'toughen'  things up again enouigh for them. So...where IS WotLK  heading?

 Robin Torres asks "What's your favorite part of WotLK so far?" and I think that's a good question. I find myself reveling in the 'newness' of it all. New places to go and see, new things to do, new quests to quest, new gear to Dressing Room and look at, and just so much to see and do. How about you? What's your favorite part so far?

 The world's first level 80, an EU warlock named Nymh, (No, not the movie maker of the same name) talks about what he's done. Thing is, and this came up last xpack too, but, while the method he used isn't really 'cheating', is it 'fair'? Basically, he'd tag mobs, and his friends would kill them, so he'd get the xp without the same kind of work of someone doing it 'solo'. It's not nearly as bad as those who have several people level the same toon up, but does it really 'count'?

 Mike Schramm deals with a question all of us likely have (or have our own answer to) that we've had to deal with in the last few days. What's the proper protocol for tapping a camped mob? How do you know what order folks showed up for? Does it matter? Just FFA and whoever scores the tap 'wins'? How do you deal with this kind of situation nicely?

 How are folks' realms holding up? Aside from the massive queues (with reports up to 1900 people on some) how are things? I have found that my realm is pretty stable and secure. There are a few odd hiccups, and there is some more lag than usual (of course) but all in all, the realm is doing pretty well for being a popular and original one. Memory may have blurred it, but this seems a lot better than the TBC launch. So, what's going on, on your realms?

The biggest news is,of course, that it's a mere couple days to the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. Everyone is focused on doing those last few quests. Making those last few raid pushes. Hitting those last few BG's or Arenas. It's coming, and it's huge!

 To start it off, I extend congratulations to the Terenas branch of Lurkers, who put down Illidan just in time for the xpack! They were even given a MH Warglaive for their troubles.

 There is a new world event taking place, as both Orgrimmar and Stormwind are under attack by Frost Wryms and Abominations. The various faction leaders are busy repelling the attacks, and the event is quite something to watch. Head off to Orgrimmar or Stormwind Harbor to check it out.

PvP Gear in Wrath takes an interesting turn. It looks like S3 will not be available for honor, and S4 will be keeping it's ratings requirements.  It's a move to keep such gear at a limited availablity as you will 'get better gear levelling to 80." An interesting move on Blizzards part, I think. PvP tends to come specially itemized for PvP. Is Blizzard saying that questing items will have that sort of requirement, or that everyone will hit 80 in PvE gear, and be on a level, controlable playing field?

Its' an age old question, one that those who mainly play on a PvE server just can't understand, and what those who play on a PvP server can't seem to explain. "What's the joy in ganking?" Volumes could be written about this, and it seems that you are either for or against it. There doesn't really seem to be a middle ground. But some insight is offered in the 222+ comments that accompany that article. Perhaps some enlightenment will be found there.

 Now, for a topic that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine:Levelling/Questing Addons. That is, addons that direction you to quest drops, areas where the mobs are, even going so far as to put a directional arrow up for the really challenged. The way I look at it is, check the quest out. Read it (not just the summary, the whole thing) and you'll be told where to go, and what to get/do when you get there. Pretty straightforward. I've now been in both betas, and there are some unclear quests out there...but that's what the feedback button was for. I used it liberally. When I needed to. The quests I saw (going through 4 zones) were all pretty straightforward, and if you read the quest, pretty easy. Some of them were a bit trickier, but that was due to the mechanics of the quest, not difficult semantics. In the 4-ish years I've been playing, a quest has only stumped me a handful of times. A quick question in /g cleared it up, too. But there are others who swear by them. That they couldn't level without them. That they do it the 'proper' way on their main, but then use addons to level their alts faster. I do admit that has me a bit boggled...the quests don't change. Once you've done them, you will know what to do on any toon doing that quest.  So, what's your take on levelling/questing addons?

Patch 3.0.3 is launching with tomorrow's maintenance, setting things up more for the WotLK launch happening in a few short days. 

 The PvE vs PvP debate will never end. PvP's an afterthought tacked onto an otherwise great PvE game. PvE is too easy, and if you want real WoW challenges, play against other real life people, not scripted encounters. Personally, I don't think that there'll ever be a solution that'll make even most folks happy about this. But...can PvP and PvE folks co-exist? Can a PvP oriented and focused guild make the cut?

I'm admittedly not a big fan of WoW Machinima movies. Some are pretty good, but for the most part, I don't find them of much interest. However, this one did catch my eye. It's from Lafawnduh and won first prize in Warcraft Movies Shrieking Shorties Contest. It's just a hair over 5 minutes long.

For discussion, I present...Knockbacks. Several things do it now, and several popular spells do it, too. Everyone has an opinion on these, and they are wide and varied. Is the dps gained to the person using the knockback spell worth the dps lost by any/all melee near the target mob? Are folks careful enough to properly use a knockback attack without aggroing more packs of 'friends' in tight instances? Can tanks keep their temper (and aggro) while their mobs are airborne a lot of the time? 

Around Azeroth, a world event was started to herald the coming of the Lich King.Crates and bugs started to appear, and soon folks were turning into zombies. They were then able to attack other PC's and NPC's and infect them in an attempt to spread the plague. It started out taking 10 minutes for someone to turn into a zombie, which was ample time to get to an NPC healer or a PC healer and be cured. As the event wore on, the incubation time was cut in halves, eventually ending up at 30 seconds to zombification, and it was very hard to dispel. The interesting part to this? I've never seen a world event generate as much controversy and divide the populace as much as this one. Zombies were able to attack and 'grief' players just looking to quest, fly or AH a little. Zombied players would eventually die (as you had to keep kiling to live) which would cause a durability hit. Folks with AH alts saw that their alts stood no chance against the zombie horde, while Sunwell geared players found that they were no match for a gang of zombies. Folks who got infected on purpose got upset at folks for cleansing/disinfecting them. Folks who turned into zombies got upset at folks who killed them (prematurely). All in all, this world event seems to have really just polarized the playerbase. While I did see a few folks who claimed to be having fun (I mostly avoided the mess by staying airborne unless I had to land for something) this event really just seemed to piss folks off at each. Interestingly enough, even those who had been proponents at the start were, by the time it was around 1 minute to 30seconds per infection, saying "enough". Luckily, the R.A.S. came to Azeroth's aid and cured the plague. I do have to think that this event will be discussed for some time to come, though.

 Last night, the Lurkers and Avarice Alliance on Stormrage put down Illidan to finish off the T6 content just in time for a couple farm runs before Wrath of the Lich King launches. The Lurkers on Terenas are hot on their heels, having recently put down Kael'thas, and jumped up to 5/9 in Black Temple.

Paladins (more specifically, Ret Paladins) are taking quite a shot on the chin after being at the top of pretty much...well...everything for the last little bit. The nerfbat has swung at them, and it's a pretty solid connect. There are a lot of changes, so we'll have to wait until the dust settles to see what the actual changes are, despite folks saying that they have been nerfed "to the ground". Coming on the heels of the "hunter/physical dps" nerfs/changes as it is, Blizz must have been really unhappy with their damage. I wonder why they didn't do something about it earlier.

 Sanya Thomas returns with her demographics breakdown of WoW, returning some interesting numbers on men and women, and the races, genders, and factions they play. 

 Idiosycrasies. We all have them. Anyone who's spent much time around my main toon in WoW knows that she must have purple things. The more purple things the better. Dragonstalker? All 8 pieces of it. Winterspring Frostsaber? Third on the server (would have been second, but I had to work that weekend). Purple Netherdrake? As soon as I was 70 and able to do the quests. Hair color? Purple. Pet? The purple and black Ravager, of course. So...what is some of your toon quirks?

You can almost always look at instances and see folks doing crazy things, to see if they can. From pulling the entire instance front to back (hello, pallytank) to trying out oddies such as 5 Warlock Heroics. But as everyone knows, Raiding is srs bizniz. Folks wouldn't dream of cutting up there. Folks certainly wouldn't solo Onyxia. Especially not several classes. And raiders would never think of having a Voidwalker almost tank Illidan Stormrage. That kind of thing just doesn't happen. 

In a topic for discussion, the question of whether or not a lvl 70 should be able to create a lvl55 of any class comes up. There are several good sides to this arguement, coming down to Blizzard claiming that part of what makes Death Knights a Hero class is their ability to start at 55. Is there much class learning done at 1-55 anymore? Is someone who's come up from lvl 1 that much of a better player than someone who created their toon at 55? Interesting questions indeed.

 Achievements have hit with a massive splash, and it seems like everyone's got a favorite or twelve they are working on. Personally, I have now fully explored the entire world, and feel that I can rest a bit (There was a lot of old world running involved!). I would like to go back and get all the instance/raid achievements for killing the end bosses, as there are only 3 instances (And they are the 3 high end TBC ones) I've not seen the last boss of killed...but you wouldn't know that looking at my Achievements. I kind of especially wish that the Achievement for killing C'Thun was active on my list...but I do have the screeny to prove it. So...what are your favorites to track down and do? Which do you know you've done but for one reason or another they aren't up there? 

 Now that things for the patch are finally settling down, it's become realized that Raiding sure is easy now. Folks have gotten their UI's back in order, and are now setting about to decimate the TBC bosses as never before. I think that this month of bliss is great, giving folks who were lagging behind for whatever reason a chance to blast ahead, see some content that they wouldn't have otherwise (I'm a huge lore junkie) and get some raiding practice in before things get hard again.

There is new Blizzard news on all three game fronts today. Mostly thanks to BlizzCon happening over the weekend.

Diablo III kicks off the announcement of the Wizard class. Looks to be pretty good here.

It was also announced that StarCraft II would be 3 seperate games. There seems to be some confusion over just HOW this will be done, as I've seen articles that state it'll be one game and two expansion packs, and I've seen articles that say it'll three seperate games (with the same multiplayer abilities in all three games).

In WoW news, Patch 3.0.2 has hit today. This is the "pre-WotLK" patch,  bringing you pretty much everything that is WotLK that isn't Death Knight related, or Northrend. The linked patch notes look a little old to me, as they are missing a few changes, but they are the notes you'll get when your download finishes.

No punches pulled here. Right off the bat, a hot topic...unless you are wearing Fire Resist gear. Several folks are of the mind that resist-based fights need to go the way of the Dodo. This topic heats up quite a bit, and Ghostcrawler even weighs in on it. It's an argument as old as Molten Core. What IS the point of the "X Resist" fight, anyhow? The Dev's see it as a kind of pacing mechanism and way to change the instance/fights up. Most players see them as a PITA and more lost bank space to whatever "Resist du jour" is on the plate. What do you think?

 Lady Sylvanas has FINALLY gotten a unique character model, and it's a real doozy. It's been available for checking out in several formats recently, but she now looks every inch like the Queen of the Forsaken.

I've heard a lot of speculation about what healing will be like in WotLK. What class will be superior, what class will suck. How will no more down ranking effect and change healing? Matt Low writes up a very nice article about his experiences as a priest in the beta. It's a long read, but of particular interest if you are a priest, or play a priest alt a lot.

Kalgan hits the Beta boards, and speaks out on PvP, where it's at, the philosophy behind the current incarnation of it, and where Blizzard sees it going. 

 Bornakk let's us know that the Raid Mobs of TBC are going to do their part come Patch 3.0.2 and take it a bit easier on the players. Several will stop using their OP abilities, and they all consented to a roughly 30% HP reduction. Quite sporting of them, I say. Though, this is a rather impressive change on Blizzard's part. 3.0.2 will introduce huge changes across the board, and would have a huge effect on raiding in general. It's nice to see them recognize this, and go back to look at tuning things so that you can continue to do them until we are distracted by Northrend, or get the itch to steamroll an instance at 80.

There is still not much new news in the way of Diablo III, but they are filling in the Bestiary some. If you can't wait to get your hands on every bit of info, check it out and see what's new.

There is a new crew who's doing custom WoW apparel...and it looks good. 

In some pretty big news, designed to help Warriors and Druids feel a little better, it's let slip that Thunder Clap and Swipe now have no target limit. This is some pretty big news, and a lot of folks are wondering what those skills will "lose" to compensate for them having their target limit removed.

Speaking of tanks, NuurAbSaal starts up a nice topic on the future look OF tanking in WotLK. 

 In a topic designed purely to stir things up it seems, Dan O'Halloran wonders if WoW is getting too simple. Or if that's a good thing. The arguement is that it's getting easier to do everything, which is good. After all, that means that folks are playing the game, not analyzing dps charts or memorizing boss cycle attacks. Or, is the complexity of the game at the high part of it's appeal?

 Groups of Words has an article that is a rather thought provoking read. Game vs. Lore. The addition of the new motorcycle mount has a lot of folks up in arms, though whether for or against it is the question. Some folks think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Others claim it's ruined the game so much for them that they are quitting. Both seem a bit extreme to me. I don't like the bikes (the look or the sound they make), but hey...in a game with a backpack that can hold several full suits of armor and has a spaceship crashing into the planet I'm on, I can allow for some leeway in that there may, just may, be a mortorbike or two tearing around. 

Groups of Words starts us out today with some thoughts on things that are often close to Lurkers hearts, but tend to be a rarity in Blizzard's ranks. A CM who likes to talk about the reasoning behind the developing that's going on. GhostCrawler is pretty much any theorycrafter's best friend, and she's often got a lot to say. Sadly, what she has to say is often lost in the drek of the official fora, but her posts by themselves are good reads.

 I've occasionally thought about a marathon raid day, and have even led a few marathon raids pre-TBC myself. This crew breaks it down though, as to how long it'd take to go from Kara to victory over Kil'Jaeden. They end up with a back end estimate of 25 hours. The folks in the comments point out that it'd actually be done faster than that, as a group that can clear Sunwell (especially in a 1 shot of the bosses) isn't going to need an hour for Gruul.

 While it started out as my announcement post on the release date of Wrath of the Lich King,it has  turned into a discussion on the future of WoW, and where it's heading. What kind of gas it's got left in the tank, who's left to fight, that sort of thing.