Amongst all the posts I’ve read through, I really can’t find a whole lot that is constructive, so here’s a few reasons why these server first titles are a bad idea.

I was approached by a family member who also played the game that were very excited. The title for both their race and class being first to 80 were a big thing to them. They loved the titles, and I asked them if they realized what would be involved in getting them, and that unless they played an unhealthy amount, they wouldn’t be getting them. They said that didn’t matter, and that they would probably do it, forgetting school, work, and all else in order to achieve these titles. (after some time talking, I told them it wouldn’t be worth it, and I believe I convinced them.

When I heard about the titles at first, I myself was considering taking unhealthy amounts of time off school and work just to get the Arch Druid title, but then told myself better.

I play on an RP server, where many people like these titles for the in character implications. Many friends were also psyched about the titles, and while some know better than to spend unhealthy amounts of time on a unique in game title that they may or may not get. I’m not sure whether or not some of them are smart enough to not skip school/work to attain said title.

So here’s the lowdown. These titles are going to encourage various things, and none of them are good.

1. Skipping school, work, and real life in general. It may only take a week or two, but anyone with a serious commitment in any aspect of their life can know how hard it is to catch back up. Not only are some people going to be willing to go to lengths as drastic as skipping real life, some will – to get the extra edge – skip even sleeping, which is more unhealthy than either of the two above mentioned. These titles encourage this behavior.

2. Leveling services. This probably won’t be widely used, but I can still see it happening. Paying a service to speedily level your character for the title. It’s not impossible, and I know Blizzard discourages this kind of thing as well.

3. Account sharing. What’s even easier than skipping school, work, and sleep? Convincing a friend to level your character for you in rotations. Having been around MMO’s and WoW a long time, I know how much this is discouraged, yet these titles again are encouraging this type of behavior.

The titles are a neat idea, but in their current form the implementation is poor. The titles denote a degree of power and respect (for anyone that is concerned with Lore) and in all actuality, these titles may or may not denote such a thing. Many people may even look upon them and jeer, knowing how some of the people undertook attaining the titles. They will simply mean whoever invested the most time at the release of the expansion.

Keep the achievements in. Server first to 80, server first <Race> to 80, Server first <Class> to 80, leave those all in so that they can be inspected on feats of strength.

Make it so that the Supreme title is awarded for all who attain such feats, regardless of class or race server first. Make it so that server firsts still hold some ability to show off their achievements, but make it so that they don’t carry such character defining titles as Prophet or Champion of Elune.

Award <Class> and <Race> titles to people who reach level 80 within a certain deadline. Make these titles special, so that one person can realistically only achieve 1, maybe 2 level 80s per account in the time period if they really push hard. Say getting to 80 two weeks after the release of the expansion. Make them somewhat unique to obtain so that they’ll still be special. A big thing is that the Race and Class titles are special titles that go with a lot of characters on RP realms.

So this is something I got to thinking about due to 3.0’s pre-WotLK announcement. How about the idea of introducing Death Knights at the same time and only being able to enable said Death Knight with a pre-order code for Wrath of the Lich King, giving players a chance to get to 70 on their Death Knight prior to the expansion’s release, and do whatever else they so desire.

It would certainly allow for time to catch professions up to 375, and would prevent guilds from being delayed on starting progression by as much as a week due to players re-rolling as Death Knights still leveling.

Edit: Alternatively since someone in IRC pointed out ever so eloquently that this seems like a marketing scheme, I suppose it could follow the same rules as the other Lich King content; unlocked for those who have TBC activated.

I’m waiting for dinner, so I’ll post this lol.

This is just my opinion so far after 6 days. Feel free to comment/flame, it won’t bother me.

1. Graphics: 8.5/10

Very epic landscapes in scale, but I still see quite a few templates that are present in pre-bc, which is mildly annoying. Borean “Boring” Tundra, as well as Dragonblight, may be epic, but sure are dreary. Blizzard should have aimed more towards “dark” environments than dreary for dragonblight. The instances are well done, and have a good feel to them.

2. Quests: 7/10

A few really nice ones (magic carpet ride, bombing, tanks, dragon rides) and some lore related ones, but otherwise they follow the typical scheme, which isn’t bad, but it isn’t exciting either.

3. Music: 9/10

The music is a lot better than before. Bravo.

4. Class balance: 4/10

This is before PvP has been balanced, so this may seem a bit unfair. It’s probably not the final verdict for balance, but of course, it is terrible now. Paladins, mages, and death knights op, rogue abilities not working, shaman abilities not working, etc. Blizzard has a lot of work to do.

5. Playability- 6/10

It takes a very long time to level, and without flying mounts, the zones that are 2x bigger than anything in outland or bc takes a VERY long time to get across.

Overall rating- 7.5/10

It’s looking better than before, with some of the new things being promised by Blizzard, but I expect that they won’t get it perfect (who does?), and it will end up being slightly better than BC. At any rate, I certainly enjoy the style better than BC, which is important. The immensity of the zone is pretty nice too, and the professions are looking much better than before.

So, I had some free time to just run around some of the higher level zones tonight, and I have to say, WOW, they look beautiful. The zones feel very large and alive, and each one has a distinct atmosphere. I was thinking back to TBC and wondering why it feels like the zones are so much larger than prior zones, and I came to the conclusion that it is primarily for one reason: flight and more specifically, flying mounts.

Back when TBC came out, I was very excited about the prospect of flying. It seems like a lot of fun and a very cool thing to do. I rushed to 70 and had enough gold to buy epic flight form straight up. And yes, it was a lot of fun, it was very cool. I haven’t ever really thought much about it since, but going to Northrend and being forced to trek around again has made me think about it. And after having thought about it, I sincerely believe that flight is a very bad thing for WoW.

Flight GREATLY diminishes the sense of size and involvement in the world. Flight also practically removes interaction between players. Flight also provides no real benefits, other than expediency or convenience. However, I fervently believe that this convenience is not worth what has turned into such a massive cost for the player.

Please, I urge you strongly to reconsider flight in Northrend. It was a fun experiment for Outland, but I think that overall it makes the game world smaller, and just greatly reduces interaction between players on many levels. There is a chance to fix this mistake in Northrend. I hope that the developers can reflect on the idea of flight, and its end value to players. I think that this game would be better without flight.

It’s good to know that, whatever changes in the World of Warcraft, be it talents or raids, or pets or mounts, or anything else, there’ll always be people that take the game too darn seriously. And when they do, that’s usually when Guildwatch shows up, mostly, let’s admit it, to point and laugh.

Oh, but we also praise those who get things done, too. It’s all in this week’s Guildwatch, as usual — check behind the link below for drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. Patch 3.0.2 is here, Wrath is just around the corner, and Guildwatch continues to cover the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of guilds.

DRAMA

·         Epic World PvP: Serenity and Downfall on Gorgonnash joined forces with others like people from Restless Souls, Oblivion, Final Code, and other assorted randoms, and led a gigantic campaign against the Horde cities on the server — their real target was Orgrimmar (and Thrall), but they sent 15 man teams up against the other cities as well just to distract the Horde. They crushed Thrall, and then the 15 at Thunder Bluff took out Cairn, so they all teamed up at Undercity to finish off Sylvannas. Very awesome. We can only hope the Horde is regrouping and planning a counterattack worthy of a fight like that one.

·         Pkpkgankyounow on Dalvengyr (who I believe we’ve written about before) had a little ‘glaive drama — Ironhide is the raid leader, Sugsug is his brother, Cashi is another Rogue in the guild who’s been dedicated for a long time. Warglaive drops, Sugsug gets it from Ironhide, the end. Cashi, we hear, left the guild soon after. Nepotism much?

·         Chaotic Good dropped Thrall on Durotan, but they didn’t do it during PRIME TIME HOURS, so apparently it didn’t count. Wait, what? War happens 24/7 — if you can’t defend the leader of the Horde at all times, then you can’t defend him at all.

·         Quo Vadis on Onyxia is supposed to be the worst guild ever, but not for the reason you think it is. Wait, did you think it was because they kicked Shazow? Because if so, you’re right.

·         The Broken House on Sisters of Elune just recently celebrated their first anniversary as a guild — they say they had some ups and downs as a guild, but they’re glad to be an RP guild that’s still standing after twelve months. Here’s to many more!

·         Dishonorable Assassins on Daggerspine had just invited a newbie to their guild, and he was singing whatever rap he was hearing in guild chat, including references to women and drugs that they didn’t really appreciate. And so when they decided that they didn’t really want him around any more, they came up with a pretty creative way to make him leave. (This link should be fixed now, sorry about that.)

·         Unfortunately, the forums are down thanks to the patch today, so forum drama is hard to come by this week. But when they come back up, we hear this thread (about a member of Crucifix on EU Kilrogg getting kicked) has the goods. We’ll be back here when the forums come back, so look for more then.

DOWNED

·         Dyers Eve on Tanaris-A, really feeling the pressure before the patch, stepped up and dropped Kael’thas to pick up their titles. Grats!

·         Demise of Burning Blade downed Kil’Jaden for a server first.

·         Blades of Light and Ninth Alliance (Sentinels-A) downed Najj on the second pull of their first time into BT. Supremus also got dropped later in the week. Nice job.

·         Reborn of EU Spinebreaker cleared out the Black Temple on their first night of tries. Mount Hyjal is also clear, so they finished off almost all the content they wanted to before the patch.

·         Reservoir Dogs on EU Lightbringer are lately working on trying to get some bodies together for ZA, but they recently dropped Hex Lord (with the help of another guild). They’re recruiting now for WotLK — average age of the guild is around 30, so if you’re mature and looking to take the game seriously while still having a great time, look them up.

·         Serkequendi, a casual raiding guild, have finally moved from farming MH to seriously tackling BT: Supremus, Shade of Akama and Teron Gorefiend have all fallen in quick succession in the last 2 weeks, despite many of the key guild members, including the GL, being “on holiday” ’till WotLK. Very nice.

·         Cause and Effect on EU Bloodhoof has downed M’uru — we hear it was hard, there was crying, and even some drama, but they eventually toppled him. Which leaves only KJ, and they say their goal before Wrath is to drop KJ for a server first. Good luck!

·         Ruined on EU Anachronos entered Black Temple in May and are working on Illidan now after having toppled the Illidari Council, so we’re putting him on notice. Good luck to everyone there, including Seonid (a.k.a. JJ, but don’t ask), Hatsya and Grimlor.

·         Bloodrite on Thorium Brotherhood has downed Eredar Twins. M’uru attempts are going well, but likely didn’t get the giant wind chime before 3.0.2 — a few of them were off at BlizzCon.

·         Judge on EU Alonsus is a “casual” guild (if you believe three nights of raiding a week is casual — I’d say not) and they’ve just downed Illidan. They’re passing on Sunwell, so next up is Wrath! Also, they want to call us at WoW Insider out — we’ve said in the past that Pallys couldn’t tank Illidan, but they proved us wrong.

·         Misery on Onyxia-H downed Archi and has killed him twice now The guild has only been around for 3-4 weeks and is already established as one of the top raiding guilds on the server. Grats!

·         Shoguns of Kalimdor on Whisperwind rolled 3/4 TK in one night, including Lurker and Tidewalke guild-first kills. They’ve got momentum and hope to do well at level 80 endgame also — recruiting Mages, Resto Druids, and Enhancement Shaman.

·         Edge of Insanity on Bloodhoof has downed Felmyst, and continue to work towards KJ before Wrath. They’re recruiting Druids of all types and Resto Shamans for both pre-expansion progression and post-expansion leveling and raiding, and will take all classes if you’re worth it.

·         Eastern Raiders dropped the Reliquary of Souls last week. They also went to play with Mother Shahraz, but only got her to 80% before people got too tired.

·         Relentless of Bladefist has been successful at running not one but two 25 man groups for the past four months and they’re working on dropping Illidan. He’s on notice, go to!

·         Fighting Polygon Team on Barthilas finally downed Netherspite after half a year (!) of unlucky voidzones and Ret Pallys jumping in the red beam. They’ve progressed past him but Netherspite was always their “pet peeve.” Good job getting him down.

·         Genesis is the first Horde-side guild on EU Blade’s Edge to get the Amani War Bear. Good thing, too, because after the patch today, it’s gone forever. Are they the only ones on the server to get it?

·         Months Behind is still raiding Sunwell, and they nabbed their first Eredar Twins kill this past week, and then went back in and did it again after the reset. They’re still recruiting, too, anyone who wants to see Illidan and Sunwell dropped before Wrath.

·         Crimson Chaos of Hakkar-A finished off Gruul’s Lair. Second try, first time in the instance for over half the raid. Nice job.

·         Phoenix Fury on Blackhand-H was short Warlock tanks for Illidan this week so they ended up going with a Hunter tank for Phase 4. And it worked — they one-shotted him. “Look for more Hunter tanks in the weeks to come!” they say. “Talk about being resourceful!”

·         Conclave of Sin, a Horde guild on Area 52, downed the Illidari Council, making them 8/9 in Black Temple with every intention of taking on Illidan very soon. They are also 4/5 in Mount Hyjal, and they’re putting Archi on notice.

·         Wild West, a Leftovers charter on Silver Hand-A has downed Reliquary of Souls, and, after just our first two nights of attempts and mere days before the patch, took out Kael’thas Sunstrider, getting more than a dozen of our members their Hand of A’dal titles. Grats!

·         Artifact on Ursin downed Vashj and KT, finishing up the push right before the patch. Most of the raid picked up their Hand of A’dal title before they couldn’t any more.

·         The Renamed of Argent Dawn downed Kil’jaden this week. Rock on.

·         Khaos of EU Bronze Dragonflight brought down Gruul this past week — they say lots of other players have passed them in progression, but that don’t matter here at GW. We’re down with every down.

·         Demise of Dath’remar has downed M’uru/Entropius for a server first. They’re also recruiting for Wrath — check the site for more info.

·         Epoch on EU Bronze Dragonflight-A have dropped Prince Kael’thas — that makes them guild number 10 on the server. Plus, they sent along a video or it didn’t happen.

·         Kharma on Kul Tiras-H completed the ZA timed run in 42 minutes, securing an Amani War Bear mount just before it became unavailable forever. There wasn’t any Tier 6 in the raid, either, so it was all skill. Rock on — and grats to Riizenette for picking up the bear with a random 100 roll.

·         Endless Fury on the Oceanic Realm Nagrand had to drop Kil’jaeden last week — they aren’t able to raid on Tuesdays, thanks to the patch, so this was it. They had a bunch of wipes already, and one more try — a few people even hearthed to go grab some extra consumables for that extra boost. And finally, with just about 20 minutes left, they finished him off before 3.0.2 dropped. Grats!

·         Magic & Mayhem on Echo Isles-A, downed Kael for the first time earlier this week. Vashj got dropped last week, and they were trying to get ‘er done before the patch — finished him off on the 3rd attempt. They then went to one-shot Rage Winterchill and Vashj, just to pick up the attunements. Way to go.

·         Shinsei (Kilrogg-A) downed Illidan for the first time this week, just a few hours before the servers went down for patch 3.0. They were all very excited and relieved, they say, to drop him before the switch to 3.0 talent trees and mechanics. Grats!

·         Deus Invictus, one of the oldest standing guilds on the Gorefiend server, finally got prepared the night before patch 3.0.2, and dropped Illidan. They’re recruiting knowledgeable and dedicated players for WotLK.

RECRUITING

·         Martyr is a newly forming guild on the Bleeding Hollow server — they’re looking to form up a small, tight-knit group to raid 10 and 25 mans in Wrath. They’re in “open” recruitment, but are selective based on applicants.

·         The Ancient Lords of Terenas-A is now recruiting all levels/all classes. They are a casual adult guild that goes into Kara, TK, and SSC weekly, and occasionally runs PvP premades. They’re run by a member-elected leadership committee — if you’re interested in joining, apply on their website.

·         Warriors of Shadowdale on Stormrage was formed in July and have been rolling so far — on their first trip into Karazhan they almost cleared the whole thing. They’re seeking any class that actively plays and wants to push for BC and WotLK endgame content.

·         We Have Jobs on Illidan-A (winner of this week’s Best Guild Name) are looking for Resto Druids, Rogues, BM Hunters, Mages, Shamans (all specs), and Warlocks. The guild raids twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you’re looking for a casual end-game guild with an older age group (yes it’s possible, they’re 5/9 BT at the moment) then they might be the match for you. If you’re wondering why they don’t raid more, it’s because… they have jobs.

·         Symbol of Aggression, Frostmane-H, is looking for a Raid Leader and Raiders to help organize/lead a “Casual” raiding core into the expansion. They’re a large (250+ members, 40+ 70s), established, casual, family friendly guild, with a no vulgar chat policy. If you are a mature, casual player, looking for WoTLK raiding opportunities, SoA may be the guild for you.

·         Almost Farm Status is a Horse side guild on the Auchindoun server comprised of newer and older members of WoW with people of many different gaming backgrounds and experience. They welcome all who wish to join up — right now they’re laying low, but come Wrath, they’re rolling as fast as possible towards a server first Naxx Kel’Thuzad kill. Currently, they are accepting all classes, yes, even hunters.

·         Birkana of Hellscream is recruiting — they’re a relaxed Horde guild looking for chill, friendly, and fun-seeking people to add to the ranks. Slowly building a core raiding group and hoping to hit Kara before WotLK makes it obsolete. All races, classes, levels and experience welcome, asshats and Gnome-lovers need not apply.

·         The Last Hope of Argent Dawn are looking for mature players who are looking for a great time and a casual raiding environment in Wrath. Their raids are laid back but efficient, and they will be focusing on casual progression with a core group through Northrend. All classes and specs welcome, as long as you’re someone who is looking to have a good time playing and willing to contribute to the success of the guild’s objectives.

·         Legion of Doom on EU Ghostlands-A are preparing a Night Shift Team to Raid between 23:00-02:00 ST. Ventrilo server available for raids. Focus on 10 mans and progression in WotLK. They say they value the person first and gear second. Both must be decent.

·         Oceania is a cross-guild raid on Feathermoon-H — they cater to players from the Pacific Rim (Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand), as well as night owl Americans and some Europeans that got lost and ended up on our server anyway. The core of the raid is formed by the Dawn Vigil and Spoony Bards guilds, but they really have an average of 6-7 guilds represented. Oh, and they just killed Illidan the other day, too.

·         War Ensemble of Silver Hand is recruiting. They are a group of re-rolls and transfers looking to make early progress in Wrath. No specific class needs, but the usual tanks and heals are always a plus.

·         Attack The Darkness of Norgannon-US is recruiting for Wrath of the Lich King. They are looking for skilled players who will be in it for the long haul. Class is irrelevant. They say they want teammates, not mercenaries.

My very first pet was a bat. As soon as my white-haired Troll turned Level 11, I hied off to Tirisfal Glades and sought out Ressan the Needler, one of only two tameable all-white bats in the game. Of course, some people mistook him for those semi-albino bats found in the Eastern Plaguelands, but true pet connoisseurs knew better. Even when Hunters started turning to those 1.0 speed bats from Zul’Gurub, I stuck to my white bat. All pets were eventually normalized but now in the Echoes of Doom, each pet has its own ability, making our choices of pets even more special and important.

In Patch 3.0.2, all bats now have Sonic Blast as their unique, bat-exclusive ability. It’s a 2 second stun with negligible damage on a one-minute cooldown. As far as Hunter pet abilities go, Sonic Blast is pretty run-of-the-mill and isn’t significantly great to merit taming a bat for. It pales in comparison to the Ravage skill of Ravagers, for example, which is on a 40-second cooldown. Ravage is melee range ability while Sonic Blast has 20 yards — an irrelevant bonus considering our pets are almost always at melee range. It’s only a little better for chasing and stunning, but otherwise, I would much rather have it available every 40 seconds than have some extra range.

Another cool thing in Patch 3.0.2 is that all pets have talents now. Bats get the Cunning talent tree, and you can learn more about the different talent trees in Daniel’s Scattered Shots. He considers Cunning pets to have the best selection of talents for PvP — which sounds just perfect for me. Notable PvP talents include Boar’s Speed, Dive, Lionhearted, and of course, Bullheaded. A Bat works well with a Beast Mastery Hunter or at least one with Intimidation, allowing two stuns on separate 1-minute timers (or shorter with Longevity).

There are no unique bat skins, the closest one being the all-white Ressan the Needler and the rare spawn Blind Hunter from Razorfen Kraul. Unfortunately, this skin will soon be commonly found in the bats in Zul’Drak in Northrend, making white bats less unique. There are also red bats, brown bats, and pretend-white bats all over Azeroth. With Bestial Wrath, bats can take up a lot of space with their wingspans and are fun and confusing to take into instances with bats since they usually clump together. Confusing my party or raid is one of the most fun complaints I get as a Hunter with a bat pet. If you’re a Hunter with a bat, chances are you like mayhem, anyway. Happy taming!

I got my beta invite from Blizzcon 07 a week ago (?), was very excited to get it, copied toons, and make a death knight, but anyways back to the point. As a long time horde, I suppose I was a bit depressed, by the entrance to Borean Tundra, and Howling Fjord. No events, not much scenery, only good thing was probably the loading screen. I remember once a blue said something along the lines of “Right as we enter Northrend, we’d interact with Arthas” I saw no such thing. Just a Zeppelin heading towards Warsong Hold, then jumping down (because we cant reach the loading dock) Don’t get me wrong though, Northrend looks amazing, and I don’t complain usually complain about anything. This entrance was just…bad.

I also have an Alliance, 70 hunter on the pvp realm. As I zoned in as my alliance to Howling Fjord, the Scenery was completely EPIC! looked Very nice, especially love the penguins ^_^, and i’m wondering, why don’t horde get anything like this? Is just just not NYI for horde, or am I missing something here?

Makes me want to play my alliance more than I play my horde.

I’m not saying Blizzard did a horrible job, I honestly just think that the entrance for horde could have been a lot better…

Please no flaming, this is just an honest mans opinion, I’m sure i’m not the only one who noticed this.

I went to Warsong Hold because I’m a Tauren. I figured I’d go to Vengeance Landing on my Undead Warlock.

I like Borean Tundra for the greater variety of terrain types, enemies, and quests. I also like having 7-12 quests in my log at a time, spread out, that I can do in any order. I like having a log full of quests, and being able to wander around and just find things to kill or retrieve that I have quests already sitting in my log for. The “Oooh, I have a quest for that” surprise.

I also loved the whole mist thing with the Svaldir.

My only complaint with Borean Tundra is how confusing it is to find anything in Warsong Hold. Playing this character since Alpha, I still can’t find all the profession trainers. Heck, I even get turned around a lot trying to get from the zeppelin to the flight master. It’s like Warsong Hold was designed by M.C. Escher.

Diablo III, Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing, and The Lost Vikings 2. What do all of these things have in common? They’re all made by Blizzard, and they’re all playable on the floor of BlizzCon 2008. The last two, however, are hidden in the Retro Arcade area, where Blizzard has set up all of the old games from their past for visitors to experience and play. It’s not a complete display (no Starcraft 64, and Justice League Task Force would have been fun to play), but there are a lot of great titles in there anyway. It’s too bad I’ve got to play Starcraft II for a hands-on later today — I’d kind of rather go play the original again. But that’s not a bad problem to have.

Check out our gallery of the retro arcade, and revisit some old Blizzard favorites.

Fresh from the check-in lines at BlizzCon is our gallery of the all the contents of the goodies bag Blizzard gave us. Some real great things in there: special goo, a free authenticator, the special mount card, a beer bottle cooler, and either an inflatable frostmourne or inflatable bubble hearth beach ball.

Right now WoW Insider staff is outside the convention area, and we’re watching the line to pickup tickets wrap around the building, then inside the building, and then take a couple hundred twists and turns. There is a ton of people here. Looks like everyone wants to pickup their tickets early.

Amazing crowd and amazing goodies. Stay tuned all weekend for more!

After the cut, a breakdown of what’s in there.