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The Daily Quest: Burning out

by Elizabeth Harper on Jun 24th 2010 (1 hour ago)

Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.

It seems to happen to everyone at some point or another: the game's no longer as exciting as it used to be, and your logins become sporadic and finally vanish entirely. At WoW.com we love World of Warcraft as much as anyone -- but once in a while, everyone needs a break. Even from their favorite game. Today, a few posts on the subject of burnout.

Achtung Panzercow discusses the dreaded b-word. Since this blog post has been gathering dust in my "links to use in The Daily Quest" list for a while and Panzercow is still blogging about WoW, it can only be assumed that burnout has come and gone. Or perhaps come and gone and come and gone. Or perhaps... well, you get the idea.
Mana Obscura talks about battling burnout.
Moar HPS! talks about trying to stay interested.

Any tips on escaping WoW burnout to share with us? Leave 'em in the comments!

Filed under: The Daily Quest

Patch 3.3.5's Out of Storage error

by Anne Stickney on Jun 24th 2010 (2 hours ago)

While some players are happily playing with the new features included in Patch 3.3.5, many others are unable to do so due to problems that cause the game to crash. Blizzard has noted this situation and is working diligently on a fix to this problem. In the meantime, a thread on the Technical Support forums addresses this issue and what players can do to make the game playable again. The issue appears to pop up as an Out of Storage error for players running World of Warcraft on a 64-bit OS. What can you do while waiting for a fix? Simple -- turn down your graphics settings. Blue poster Datth had the following suggestions to make:

Datth

Extremely low view distance settings (177 vs 1277) is more than enough to compensate for the extra memory being used in this patch by a few factors. A lot of people are able to get by with setting View Distance from max to about halfway using that alone. Using d3d9ex mode (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843232&sid=1) can shave off another ~100-200MB from what it's currently doing right now too.

source

Blizzard hopes to have the game fully functional for all players at any level of graphics quality soon; however, there is no ETA currently on when this fix will occur. Keep an eye on the thread in the Technical Support forums, as they are sure to post more information as they learn more about the errors.

Filed under: Bugs, Blizzard, News items

Cataclysm screenshot of the day

by Alex Ziebart on Jun 24th 2010 (3 hours ago)

The latest Cataclysm screenshot from Blizzard is shown above, featuring one of the first officially released looks at the Twilight Highlands. It's good to know grass rooftops are going to be back in style this fall.

If you've missed any of the previous Cataclysm screenshots of the day or you want to see a high-res version of today's screenshot, check out the gallery below.

Gallery: Cataclysm Daily Screenshots

Filed under: Cataclysm

For Gnomeregan! Who's your daddy?

by Robin Torres on Jun 24th 2010 (4 hours ago)

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in-game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on Shadow Council (US-RP-A).

Hey! It's Peenk! Remember me? I'm toning down my dialect again so that I am more easily understood. I have been informed that leaders should try to ... ah whatever. BORING. Anyway, I'd like to know a bit about your families. Who are your parents? Are they alive? Do they support the cause? Do they support you? Where are they? Are these enough questions? Do you want more? How about beer? Yeah, I know you want that.

Filed under: RP

The Art of War(craft): Assembling your dream team

by Zach Yonzon on Jun 24th 2010 (5 hours ago)

Zach wanted to time this article with the NBA Finals, but alas, shoddy internet had other plans.

Well, so much for PvP guilds, huh? That's good news for everyone, I think. That means I no longer have to put up a separate battleground-specific guild and break away from my more pacifistic friends who prefer dungeons and raids. Scrapping guild talent trees and currency just might turn out for the better and it's good that Blizzard decided to drop the bomb sooner rather than later. Perhaps if they'd told us that about the dance studio back before Wrath was released, we wouldn't still be whining about it. At least this way, we can set our expectations accordingly. Blizzard didn't reveal much about the Path of the Titans, so it doesn't feel like such a big loss. It was a cool, curious concept, but now we can keep our focus back on the basics.

Today, we'll discuss how to form our battleground dream team. Unlike battleground PUGs where we're beggars taking scraps -- figuratively, of course -- we can actually choose whom to bring in our battleground premades. For a guild to earn achievements or XP, roughly 75% of the team has to belong to the same guild. It's still unclear as to whether rated battlegrounds will function identically to arenas, where teams have set rosters at any given time ... although in that scenario, guild recruitment seems like an easier way to assemble teams.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Addon Spotlight: Community Choice 2

by Mathew McCurley on Jun 24th 2010 (6 hours ago)

Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience -- the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same! This week, the community's voice has been heard again, and addon suggestions are raining from the sky.

Welcome to another exciting addition of Addon Spotlight! This week, we head back to the inbox to check out what the community thinks the WoW community at large should know about, if you already weren't aware of some of these excellent addons. We run the gamut today, from action bar and encounter mod replacements to helping you get you and your army of alts ready for the coming Cataclysm. Let's take a look at what your peers wanted you to see.

Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight

Raid Rx: Healing the Lich King

by Matt Low on Jun 24th 2010 (7 hours ago)

Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related.

Welcome to the end boss. It is possible to heal through Arthas with a less than ideal composition -- my first kill with 25 players was done without the presence of any holy paladins. If your guild is still struggling with it and the issue might be from the healing side of things, maybe I can help you out here with some additional pointers. If you're not quite sure about the overall mechanics of the encounter, refer to Kinasthesia's awesome tutorial videos: Part 1 and Part 2.

Filed under: Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)

Scattered Shots: Hunter loot in Ruby Sanctum

by Brian Wood on Jun 24th 2010 (8 hours ago)

Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week, Frostheim uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Got hunter questions? Feel free to email Frostheim.

Patch 3.3.5 is live, and it won't be long now before the Ruby Sanctum opens, giving us yet another dragon to kill and another chest overflowing with nothing but hunter loot. Like a good hunter, I've been poking through the Ruby Sanctum loot lists and doing some paper napkin math to decide exactly what drops I'm going to want to keep safely out of the hands of dirty rogues.

Now, the loot lists we have access to may not be complete. I want to stress this. I really, really hope they're not, because, all joking aside, the hunter loot selection is grim as all heck. I'm seeing three hunter drops from 25-man, which is fine. But in 10-man I'm only seeing one hunter drop, and it's probably not going to be used by any hunter -- basically no hunter loot in the 10-man version. On the bright side, awesome new trinket!

Join me after the cut as we take a look at what kind of worthwhile loot (i.e. hunter loot) Ruby Sanctum has to offer.

Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

The Queue: Patching syndrome

by Adam Holisky on Jun 24th 2010 (9 hours ago)

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

I'm submitting a new disease to the books. It's called "Patching Syndrome." It's where people think something has changed because of the patch even though it hasn't.

That hair style you just discovered last night? It's always been there. Patch 3.3.5 had nothing to do with it.

Pwnzoar asked ...

"Originally, back before Burning Crusade, I remember them announcing that there were going to be racial flying mounts, similar to how we have racial ground mounts. Coupled with that, I remember pictures of an undead dragon that was going to be the Undead flying mount, and it looked epic. Why did they decide to switch that out and go with flying mounts for faction?"

Filed under: The Queue

WoW Moviewatch: CBC Montage

by Michael Gray on Jun 24th 2010 (10 hours ago)

Work Warning: There's some naughty language, references to sexual activity, and a bit of Wayne's World-esque shenanigans.

There's been machinima created as guild advertisements and event advertisements. There's been machinima created as in-jokes for guilds, or nice little send-offs of a group's raiding progress. The CBC Montage, however, is the first machinima episodic news update for a guild that I can recall seeing.

Creating by the Mooing Druid for her guild, Crimson Blood Clan, the CBC Montage does several things. First, it introduces new members to the family. Second, it allows the guild to spotlight a particular member. Lastly, the additional clips and sections give the guild an opportunity to have fun together, and create something they can all enjoy.

If you have the time and know-how to do something like this, I have to imagine what a wonderful tool this kind of well produced news reel would be to any guild. My hat's off to the Mooing Druid. The CBC Montage is awesome.

Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

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