Day of the Dead

Blizzard's went out of their way to add more holiday/seasonal type events. Earlier this year we saw Pirate's Day, with it's own achievement. November 1 and 2, we'll see the introduction of Day of the Dead. It's on Blizzard's Official Event Calendar. What we don't know is where is this Catrina that we need to dance with? It seems to be a reference to Día de los Muertos, which is a Central American holiday to honor dead relatives. One thing is for sure, we'll all be looking for Catrina come November 1^st. Who can miss out on an achievement called Dead Man's Party?!

Vault of Archavon – Toravon the Ice Watcher

With the introduction of patch 3.3 and Arena season 8, a new boss will make an appearance in the Vault of Archavon. Enter Toravon the Ice Watcher. Following with the same themes of the other VoA bosses, this is an ice giant. The abilities haven't yet been gleaned. It's pretty safe speculation that this boss will drop tier 10 pieces, and with his introduction, the emblems in the 25 man version will change to Emblems of Frost, with the 10 version dropping Emblems of Triumph. You're probably wondering where are they going to fit in this boss? They've added a new wing. See the map below for clarification. WoWWiki.com is my source for most of this information so stay tuned to that site as 3.3 and Arena Season 8 approach!

How safe is your character?

As you develop your character, you spend a lot of time getting achievements, reputation, pets, and all those shiny epics. In a blink of an eye, it can all be removed. Sad as it is, hacking is a common thing in WoW. You see good players with geared toons get hacked frequently. You log in to find your toon someplace you didn’t leave him/her. The toon is naked, stripped, your banks are empty, and your guild bank has been violated. You get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach… and you get angry. Can it be recovered? Yes, but it’s iffy if you will get everything back exactly the same. Since the guild itself has seen a handful of members hacked, it brings up a solid issue of security. Personally, I’ve never been hacked, but just the thought sends my stomach quivering in anxiety. With the recent influx of victims, I think a brief overview of the topic is warranted.

How did it happen?

Well, there are varieties methods at the hackers’ disposal but below are the most commonly used ones:

Keylogger: A keylogger or keystroke loggers are pieces of software which sit in memory, capturing your keystrokes when you enter the game, the Blizzard account, or Blizzard forum web sites. A keylogger program does not require physical access to the user's computer. It can be downloaded on purpose by someone who wants to monitor activity on a particular computer or it can be downloaded unwittingly as spyware and executed as part of a rootkit or remote administration (RAT)Trojan horse. A keylogger program typically consists of two files that get installed in the same directory: a dynamic link library (DLL) file (which does all the recording) and an executable file (.EXE) that installs the DLL file and triggers it to work. The keylogger program records each keystroke the user types and uploads the information over the Internet periodically to whoever installed the program. (Source)

Phishing: A phishing web site (sometimes called a "spoofed" site) tries to steal your account password or other confidential information by tricking you into believing you're on a legitimate web site. You can even land on a phishing site by mistyping a URL (web address). Is that web site legitimate? Don't be fooled by a site that looks real. It's easy for phishers to create web sites that look like the genuine article, complete with the logos and other graphics of a trusted web site. Important: If you're at all unsure about a web site, do not sign in. The safest thing to do is to close and then reopen your browser, and then type the URL into your browser's Address bar. Typing the correct URL is the best way to be sure you're not redirected to a spoofed site. Phishers are becoming more and more sophisticated in designing their phony web sites. There's no surefire way to know if you're on a phishing site, but here's some hints that can help you distinguish a real web site from a phishing site. (Source)

The Friend (Not!): This is the person that you were leveling with and felt safe- or this is the leveling service you used. You shared your password with this person, and now, either this person is no longer your friend, or the service you paid for is up and you never changed your password after sharing it. This is a simple avoidable situation – don’t share your username/password. It also is advisable to use a strong password, something that cannot be guessed by people that may know you well. It’s best to be greater than 8 alphanumeric in length, a combination of upper and lowercase characters and numbers. Another good practice is to use a different username/password for any Warcraft sites you may belong to and frequent.

The Best Prevention

Buy an authenticator: the cost is about the same as an Extra Value Meal – a whooping $6.50 – and this will provide you with two-factor authentication. Not only your user name and password, but a generated password that expires in 60 seconds. How does it work? After you enter your normal username/password, you will get a dialog for the authenticator generated code- get a code by pushing the button (unless you have a mobile application of it), enter it and you’re protected. The catch is you need to keep it safe because while you can recover your account should you lose it, it isn’t easy. It requires a phone call to Blizzard’s Billing and Account services to verify lots of information. You can order an authenticator from the Blizzard Store or you can purchase the mobile application (it’s available for several phones) at Blizzard’s Mobile Store. If you do decide to purchase an authenticator, you should write down the serial code and keep it in a safe place (wallet, etc).

Wiping – Is it really a waste of time?

Progression.. it's a simple word really. It is measured in WoW terms by a variety of things- achievements, bosses killed, hard modes completed, gear level, reputation level, and the list can go on. It rarely happens over night. It takes effort, planning, and cohesiveness of the group to accomplish things. After all, one person isn't soloing Ulduar. It takes time and attempts to learn the mechanics of fights, and to figure out what strategy needs to be deployed for the group to be successful. Until the entire group understands the mechanics, how it works, what each person's role is and how to perform it to the best of his/her ability – it takes practice. Ever remember that old cliché phrase your mother used to say to you: "Practice makes perfect." Well, it holds true, even in WoW. Of course, it's easier to swallow the cost of learning if the guild bank is paying. At this point, it isn't about the "numbers" of WoW, be it TPS, DPS, or HPS – it is about the execution. Do they factor in? Absolutely- if dps is pulling aggro off the tank, we have to figure out the problem. If we are dying, and we do not know why, we have to figure out the problem. At this point, it's about staying alive (**theme music "staying alive staying alive"**). The numbers are what comes after everyone knows what to do, and we're getting to the point that the numbers are an issue is something else entirely. At that point, we have to work on how fast or how well we kill things.

Can progression be rough? Aside from bad leadership and loot, it's in the top three issues that KILL and CRUMBLE guilds. If you've been around this game long enough, you see blocks in the game. Usually they are put there as gear checks, or strategy/execution checks. Today's World of Warcraft has even created separate modes for "harder" instances – so if you choose to go that route, you can push your skill level. The point is, why settle? If it was easy, would you really want to do it? Isn't part of the satisfaction knowing that you are doing something or you've done something, others haven't? Wiping in Warcraft is a lot like going to the track for practice runs. You'll never win the race if you do not know how the car handles, especially in a pinch or on an unknown track. Just because you have spent a fair amount of time wiping on boss, it doesn't equal you are unable to do this. It means you have to learn what you are doing wrong and correct it. If you are lasting longer, getting to a different point, and learning – then it isn't a waste of time, but rather an conscious effort to succeed. This is really what progression is about.. guilds spent months stuck at different bosses throughout the game – for a variety of reasons. It goes with the territory.

Abyssal Shatter

This is a new enchanting spell that they've put out on the PTR 3.3. It was actually supposed to be released with 3.2's content but for some reason it was left out. It's back on the 3.3 PTR but the interesting thing is that the rumor mill has it being hot patched into live servers, supposedly with Tuesday's maintenance.

The beauty of this is for guilds that have ample supply of these crystals and not enough of the other materials required for enchanting. This recipe is available from an enchanting trainer (or will be when it hits). It takes one Abyss Crystal and will randomly turn it into either Greater Cosmic Essences or Infinite Dusts. I was actually curious as to the ratio. I know for some guilds, their banks are full of crystals, but they may be lacking either of these other two materials- and with some enchants taking between 20-30 Infinite Dusts, it's easy to run low.

I experimented on the PTR with a pre-made character to see exactly how consistent the results were and if it was really worth it. Out of 8 shatters (there's no cool down):

• 4 turned into Greater Cosmic essence - 2 Greater Cosmic essences each shatter - for a total of 8
• 4 turned into Infinite Dust - 8, 7, 15, 10 = for a total of 40, averaging 10 dust per crystal

Depending on server prices, this is probably not a great way to make money, but it is a good way to save some - for guilds and guild members that supply enchanting mats. Also, depending on the economy, it may just be more cost effective to sell the crystal and buy the mats needed.

WoW Economics Article

The link above shows another resource (probably far more indepth with shattering abyss crystals than I've done)

Shattering crystals requires an enchanting skill of 445 and can reportedly yield as many as 18 dusts or 4 essences.

So with that.. and the fact it is already on the EU servers... it will more than likely be this Tuesday.

New Map PTR 3.3

Last night I finally got the client installed. I am still working through what mods will work or not. So far, my challenge has been getting Xperls to work (I may have to switch to a different set of frames-currently I can't see my target). The mods I started with are: bartender 4, xperls, totemtimer, dbm, ora2, and omen.

Of course, Ice Crown has received an overhaul. I flew around trying to find the new 5 mans, and I definitely have a solid idea of where the new raid instance is going to be. This led me to looking at my map. All I can I say is wow. It's changed. I did not have any quest helpers loaded. As you can see they've integrated the quests, with the map. Overall, I believe I do like it. I installed TomTom because I want to see how well it works with this new map. If you click on a quest, the information appears below the map.