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    Spencer Callaghan

    Spencer Callaghan

    Spencer is a writer/journalist who writes for a small community newspaper in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada. Besides blogging for WoW Insider, he maintains a blog dedicated to the trails and tribulations of his favourite NHL team, the Ottawa Senators, at called The Senturion. When not writing or working he can be found on the Argent Dawn server trying to find a raid with his 60 hunter, mage or warrior.

  • Burning Crusade FAQ update

    Blizzard has posted an update to the Burning Crusade FAQ adding some new questions and answers to the list.Most of the updates center around things such as raids and dungeons. Questions answered include: Will there be anymore 40 man raids? Answer, no. Will existing raid encounters have their caps decreased? Answer, no. And, will the current reset timers on raids be changed? Again, no.A few interesting tidbits include some info on the difficulty settings for dungeons in the expansion. According to the FAQ all dungeons will have a normal and heroic difficulty setting. In order to unlock the heroic level of a dungeon, players will need to be level 70 and achieve other as-of-yet-unnamed objectives. The difficulty settings will only apply to non-raid dungeons.The FAQ also hints at a world event to open the Dark Portal and relays a little trash talk from Illidan: Will it be possible to kill Illidan in the Burning Crusade? Illidan doesn't think so. As a matter of fact, he's probably thinking about destroying your character for simply entertaining the thought.

  • Blizz unbans Cedega users

    Good news for users of Cedega who were banned by Blizzard a week ago for using what was reported as a hack. Cedaga is a program that allows Linux users to run World of Warcraft on their machines.Linux Lookup is reporting that Blizzard has apparently lifted the ban on these players saying they were inadvertently caught up in the mass expulsion.After working with TransGaming (the makers of Cedega) Blizzard was able to resolve the situation and restore the accounts.Players who had their accounts suspended will receive a two week credit for their trouble.

  • World of Wiicraft?

    For the past few months one of the most common requests by WoW players is to have the game ported to the Xbox 360, but with the launch of Nintendo's much hyped new system, what about WoW on Wii?Imagine how much fun it would be to smash Orcs and carve up Murlocs in your living room the your Wiimote acting as the Sword of a Thousand Truths.It would certainly lead to a resurgence in fishing around Azeroth as apparently the new Zelda game has implemented the mechanics quite well.Of course I would likely need to cover my living room in bubble wrap to protect my home from total destruction as swords and maces start flying around the room.Nintendo's Wii is known for its lower graphical standards which melds perfectly with WoW's low system specs.So who else would would relish the thought of getting out of their chair and turning WoW into an even more interactive experience?

  • Do MMOs have a bad rap?

    With all the mainstream media coverage WoW is garnering, from South Park to the New York Times, it is easy to come to the conclusion that MMOs are rising in popularity and societal acceptance.However, as an interesting article in Terra Nova argues, perhaps the WoW phenomenon is the exception and not the rule.The article looks at some of the negative aspects of the MMO brand identity and examines why some people, even hardcore gamers, are still turned off by the genre.From tales of people keeling over from all night gaming sessions to support groups like Everquest Widows , there are many negative connotations related to MMOs that may stagnate their growth.The nature of MMOs also leads some people to think of them more as a chore than something fun. I mean really, how many people think rep grinding is fun?So is WoW the beginning of a tide of greater acceptance for the MMO genre or is it simply a one hit wonder that cannot escape the stereotypes of the caffeine-riddled, all-night gamer who rarely sees the sun?

  • More hunter changes revealed!

    On top of the already announced hunter talents and spells (Elizabeth beat me to them as I was in a Baron run) WoW developer Kalgan has been quite busy on the official hunter forums filling in some of the details of the several changes to hunter mechanics and stats.The most significant change was already leaked to WoW Insider a few weeks ago, that being the change to hunter itemization that sees 1 point of agility give 1 point of attack power rather then the previous 2.Here are the rest of the changes straight from Kalgan's post:1. Traps are now on a 30 sec cooldown, but can be used in combat (you no longer need to feign/trap). 2. When feign death is resisted, you are still reduced to 0 threat for any targets that did not resist feign death (although if any creature resists the feign, you won't be taken completely out of combat, you'll still be on the creature group's target list). 3. Attack Power and Crit related changes: a. Hunters now get 1 AP per Agility rather than 2. This change helps us provide more interesting stat distributions on hunter items. Previously, Hunters valued Agi significantly above any other stat, such that it was extremely difficult for us to create variety among Hunter items. For example, before this change, we could have spent 1 stat point on an item to give you either 2 AP or 1 Agi (which gave 2 AP along with a small bonus to crit and a small bonus to dodge... clearly the better choice). However, several changes have been made along with this change in order to offset the AP loss. b. Hunters now get significantly more crit per point of Agility than before (about 33agi/crit at level 60). c. Hunters now get more dodge per point of Agility than before (about 20agi/dodge at lvl 60). d. Ranged weapons have had their damage values significantly increased (and consequently the weapon's dps)... this also helps make weapon upgrades feel more meaningful for Hunters than it did previously (along with the other changes, this change is retroactive). e. Most Hunter equipment has been updated to have a better distribution between +Attack Power bonuses and Agility. 4. Aimed Shot related changes: a. Aimed Shot now resets the Hunter's shot timer. This talent was always intended to be an "opening" shot, and not something that would be woven between shots. However, since Aimed Shot became such a core element for Hunter DPS, we didn't want to make this change until we were prepared to make several other changes to increase hunter DPS to offset it. Fortunately, this means that some of the odd side effects of the old Aimed Shot are no longer relevant, such as requiring hunters to use extremely slow weapons to maximize their DPS (weapons slow enough to be able to use Aimed Shot in between auto shots) b. Arcane Shot now does substantially more damage than it did before, and scales with AP. c. Steady Shot has been introduced as a core ability in the expansion, and provides much the same kind of gameplay as Aimed Shot did in the past (a shot you weave in between your normal shots), but to a much more managable degree (since it's a 1.5 sec shot, it doesn't require as slow of a weapon to take advantage of, and doesn't require to stand still for as long). 5. Other note: Wyvern Sting may now be used in combat.EDIT: Kalgan also posted a word about the leaked pet skills. Apparently, as has been suggested before, the rumoured skills have been in the WoW database since launch and are not intended for use. The real pet skills will be released at a later date.

  • BC Hunter talent confirmation?

    Well the evidence is starting to stack up in support of the earlier leaked Burning Crusade alpha hunter talents.An intrepid alpha tester sent us this image which shows the apparent hunter talents which just so happen to match up perfectly with the earlier leak we received.Seeing as how the talents are imminently going to released it would lend some credibility to these leaks as they would likely be in the alpha test already.It seems as though virtually all the class talents were successfully leaked before they were released so the timing on this one seems about right. No word on new skills or pets in this image however.This grumpy hunter certainly hopes the official ones are released with a quickness as my 57 warrior is starting to look mighty attractive as my new main.[Thanks izzo]

  • Burning Crusade collector's edition unveiled

    For those of you for whom a simple box and CD just won't adequately express your love for a game, Blizzard announced today the details of the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition.The Collectors Edition will feature: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade on both CD and DVD World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Behind-the-Scenes DVD The Art of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Hardcover Art Book Exclusive In-Game Pet: Netherwhelp Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Starter Packs, plus Exclusive Cards Map of Outland Mouse Pad World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Soundtrack CD The behind the scenes DVD will feature more than two hours of developer interviews, commentary, trailers, cinematics from the game, and, if weren't able to make it to California, footage from the panel discussions at BlizzCon.If you are interested in getting into the WoW trading card game, two TCG starter packs, one for you and one for a friend will be in the Collector's edition to get you properly hooked in the physical world as you are already in the virtual one.And of course the pièce de resistance for any gamer, the exclusive in-game pet, the netherwhelp, which is apparently the love child of the nether drake flying mount that you will be soon grinding for hours to obtain.Pricing and availability of the Collector's Edition were not released, but finalizing the details of what will go in the box might just be a sign that the expansion pack is close to finished.Now if they would only send me my beta invite.

  • How do you cheat?

    Whether you are stuck on quest, lost or curious about dungeon drops, online resources on WoW are everywhere.Some people consider using resources such as Thottbot to figure out a quest to be cheating. Personally, I will usually run through a quest the first time without looking it up and only look for help if I can't figure it out on my own in a reasonable amount of time.There are a few well-known sites that are common among WoW players.Thottbot: I have found Thottbot to have some of the best information but it does have its flaws. Quite often the site is busy or down and when it does work I find it very slow. Thottbot's search system also isn't the greatest, you can't search for the middle word of a quest name or item name, you must use the first word of words in order to get the proper results. Searches bring up a humongous list of hits most of which are irrelevant to what you are looking for and it can take a while to find what you are looking for...but it is there, somewhere.I find often Thottbot has a lot of clutter as well, invalid or old entries show up in searches, a symptom of the fact it has been around since beta.Another issue with Thottbot is its ownership. Thottbot is owned by gold selling company IGE brining up some ethical issues if you don't want to support these kinds of activities.Allakhazam: This site has a much better look and UI, has almost as much information of Thottbot and usually works when Thottbot doesn't. The search is also much better, allowing you to search based on parts of a phrase, even from the middle. Example: searching for "a-me" in Allakhazam brings up the quest "Chasing A-Me 01" as it should, as well as the NPC A-Me 01, no other clutter or entries. In Thottbot you get dozens of entries that you must scan through before finding the right quest.Like Thottbot, Allakhazam is also owned by IGE, it was bought out last year, apparently IGE is considering plans to consolidated the services. If you don't want to support gold sellers Allakhazam is out too.WoWhead: A relative newcomer on the block, WoWhead just left beta status a few weeks ago. The interface, design and UI are miles ahead of the competition. Being a newcomer, WoWhead doesn't have an extensive database such as Thottbot, but it is growing everyday and will have entries for all but the most obscure searches. Being new, WoWhead has the advantage of less clutter from out-of-date or obsolete entries. WoWhead also has a built in talent calculator including the new Burning Crusade talents. Searches on WoWhead are handled much better with a tabbed interface that categorizes results (quests, items, skills, etc.). I find that WoWhead still has issues with bringing up too much information, unlike Allakhazam, searching for "a-me" brought up hundreds of results, although they are easier to sift through, it did not put "Chasing A-Me 01" at the top.WoWhead is owned by IGN, not to be confused with IGE, IGN is a well known video game news and information site owned by Fox Interactive Media Inc., therefore you can ease your conscience as you are not supporting gold-sellers.Personally, I have been turned off Thottbot lately, I had used it since beta but the interface, clutter and unreliability of the site have led me over to WoWhead. I find WoWhead's user experience to be easier on the eyes, the database is really coming along, and I can sleep easy knowing I am not supporting gold-sellers.So which online WoW resource do you use? Does the support of gold-selling influence your decision?

  • Another day, more BC news!

    Some big news for hunters, priests, druids and warlocks in the Burning Crusade.WoW CM Eyonix let drop a few interesting new tidbits about the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion. First, in the expansion HoT spells will be stackable, meaning three priests can cast renew on single tank at the same time, makes you wonder how hard the raid bosses are going to be in BC.And even more exciting, Eyonix says that hunter and warlock pets will be scalable in the expansion, meaning they will gain stats as their master levels and be able to get a boost through itemization.The pet news might help ease the minds of the hunter community who have been on edge due to the length of time it has been taking to release their talents and skills and the news about a possible change to how hunter stats are calculated.I must say, once a hunter hits 60 his pet is pretty much left behind in terms of usefulness, this change will definitely make pets a viable option again./me pets his worg Ishnu

  • More rumoured BC hunter talents/skills

    [Disclaimer: Don't shoot the messenger, I know these may be fake.]My quest to find hunter talents and skills from the Burning Crusade Alpha test continues unabated as I was directed to this post on Gamefaqs via the official WoW hunter forums.The big news in this rumour is a complete revamp of hunter itemization and stats. Apparently in the BC Alpha test hunters now only receive 1 point of ranged attack power per point of agi instead of 2, as well the agi/crit ratio for hunters has been lowered to approximately 33. To compensate for these changes all ranged weapons will have their dps value boosted by 10%.To go along with these changes the method by which crit and hit stats will be calculated is changing as well. Crit % and hit % are being changed to crit rating and hit rating, this change is being done to prevent current items like Blackhand's Breath, which has a 2% crit increase on it, from being used at higher levels. Items will now have a crit rating which will be cumulative in value, not a percentage. (similar to the way the agi/crit ratio works) making items scale better at higher levels.The hunter talents and skills look not too bad (again assuming they are real), I particularly like the Stampede skill as well as the Frozen Arrow skill.The fundamental changes to how hunter stats are determined may cause (who am I kidding , will cause) an uproar amongst hunters, but if the changes allow Blizzard to properly itemize hunter gear it will be a good change over the long term.Again, I will provide the disclaimer that these may very well be fake, but I just can't resist a good rumour and I am getting a little worried by the time it is taking Blizz to get the hunter info out.Full details after the break.

  • BC Priest talent/spell preview

    OK this time it is for real.Blizzard has officially posted a preview of the Burning Crusade priest talents and spells, leaving only Druids and Hunters to cry themselves to sleep at night.The spell and talent previews are available on the Burning Crusade site and as always are only preliminary and subject to change through testing, blah, blah, blah.Interesting to note that yet another class will now have access to a pet of some kind as the shadow spell Shades of Darkness summons 3 shades to fight alongside the priest.

  • New official Burning Crusade lore round-up

    Blizzard has posted an interesting round-up of the back story and lore surrounding the Burning Crusade as well as the two new races on the official WoW site.The post called "The Burning Crusade: The Story So Far" gives a detailed summary of what has transpired in Azeroth over the past few years during WoW's time frame and provides a good background on the history of Draenor/Outland as well as the two new races that have joined the battle, the Draenei and the Blood Elves.Nothing really new in the post, but it takes a bunch of the bits and pieces scattered around the site and the forums and puts them into an easy to read package. Worth a read for WoW lore enthusiasts.

  • In-game memorial for Steve Irwin

    We have all heard the chatter over the trade and LFG channels – and on those IRL media sources like TV and newspapers too – about the death of Crocodile Hunter and Australian treasure Steve Irwin.Some players over on Frostwolf server have decided to hold an in-game memorial to the Australian icon and plans are underway via the official WoW forums.There is some debate as to whether or not the memorial should be held at the Zoram Strand in Ashenvale or Dustwallow Marsh, where there are an abundance of crocs to be found. It is important to note that Frostwolf is a PvP server, raising the possibility that the solemn event could turn into a gankfest if a few jerks decide to be...well jerks.Final details about date and time have yet to be finalized but you can visit the Frostwolf realm forum to find out more.

  • Some BC hunter love...maybe.

    [Warning: I know these are likely BS but just in case they aren't]Mere days after I whined about hunters not getting any Burning Crusade details (I whine about hunters a lot) comes this post on the official WoW Hunter forum with some supposed leaked hunter talents.The hunter community seems to be calling BS on these, but they are good fodder for discussion anyway.There are no details on new pet abilities or skills other than the 41 point Beast Mastery talent Call for Aid, but at this point I am so starved for details I will read anything.I'll post the details after the break.

  • Still no hunter BC talent/skill love

    With every other class either having their skill and talent info released or leaked, poor hunters are left as the only class with absolutely nothing to go on.What scares me the most is that two more classes are confirmed to be getting some sort of pet (mage water elemental through talents and the shaman earth and fire elementals through skills) and, from the various leaks coming out, it is possible that druids (summon treant) and priests (champions) might be getting a sidekick as well.Where does all this leave the hunter pet? As it is hunter pets are virtually useless in endgame raids, most raid leaders will insta-kick you just for bringing them out. With other classes getting pets of some sort, Blizz is going to have to seriously rethink the purpose of hunter pets. Are they simply extra dps? A DoT that needs to be fed and dies in about 20 seconds. Or are they meant to have more functionality that increases their worth during high-end content.The 8/8 Cryptstalker set bonus is evidence that Blizzard doesn't think to highly (or much at all) of hunter pets.For 59 levels my pet was my sidekick and essential to my success, however the minute you hit 60 your pet gets left behind even though you learned your class with him at you side.So is the delay in releasing hunter Burning Crusade info scaring some people out there or do you have confidence Blizz is just holding back a pleasant surprise in store for hunters?

  • More potential BC priest info

    A poster on the WoW Europe forums claims to have gotten hold of the Burning Crusade priest talent trees.These talents differ form what was leaked earlier, so as always, take them with a grain of salt.In case Blizz takes down the post on their forums, which they likely will, I will post the potential talents after the break.Where oh where are my hunter talents?[Thanks jpc]

  • EU Horde guild Nihilum wipe at 1% on Kel'thuzad

    In our quest to bring you updates on world Naxxramas firsts comes news that European guild Nihilum almost got the big bad lich Kel'thuzad down on their first visit.The EU Magtheridon server horde guild actually got in 4 attempts before Kel'thuzad fled the scene as he has been apt to do lately. The first attempt brought the Lich King's lieutenant down to 52%, the second 22%, followed by two 1% wipes in a row before the boss bugged out and wouldn't return.Although a GM page was answered, apparently Blizz was unwilling or unable to respawn the boss for another attempt.Of course alliance guild Death and Taxes has progressed to Kel'thuzad as well so it looks like it is going to be a race to the wire to see who bags the baddest boss in Azeroth first.Hopefully Blizzard will address this Kel'thuzad bug quickly so we don't end up with another C'Thun situation here where a bug affects the outcome of the race to a world first.[Thanks Hixx]

  • iPod wielding WoW terror suspect speaks

    From my hometown of Ottawa, Canada comes a bizaare story of a WoW player who single-handedly turned a routine fight from Chicago to Ottawa into an international incident...with an iPod.Tim Morgan, a 23-year-old unemployed computer programmer from Oakland, CA, was traveling to Ottawa to visit some fellow guildies from WoW when he accidentally dropped his iPod in the aircraft toilet setting off a chain of events that led him to be interrogated as a possible terrorist.Of course the offending iPod was suspected to be a bomb due to the paranoia that ensued after the London airline scare a few weeks ago.There is a thread on the official WoW boards where Tim discusses his ordeal in greater detail. The most amusing, yet at the same time disturbing, detail was how customs officials grappled with the concept of World of Warcraft and tried to turn Tim's trip to see his fellow guildmates into some sort of creepy sexual predator stalking.My hometown newspaper, the Ottawa Citizen, just published a more detailed interview with Tim today, although it is subscriber only (I hate that).Note to fellow guildies: If you ever come visit me leave your iPods, PSPs and Gameboy DSs at home, and if anyone asks you met me through hockey, not WoW, just don't tell them you are a Leafs fan.

  • New Official WoW forums live

    After months of testing and feedback the new official World or Warcraft forums are now live at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com.The new forums feature updated character avatars, displayed talent builds, easier navigation and menus and increased signature space.The official WoW forums have been a bit of a disgrace for a while now with poor search features, limited customization and a generally cluttered look. From what I have seen from the new forums it looks like WoW may finally have forums that match the game in terms of ease of use and clean design.Right now there seems to be a few bugs to work out still, the forums are slow to load and have already had to be restarted once, but in the end it can't get much worse than the old forums.Let the spamming begin!

  • New BC Interview promises expansion packs once a year

    Blizzard has posted a new Burning Crusade interview with Frank Pearce, Executive Producer of the first WoW expansion and Senior Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment (cheesy mugshot on the right).One interesting tidbit dropped by Pearce is the desire of Blizzard to make expansion packs a yearly occurrence, though given their record on release dates that number will likely be closer to 18 months I'm sure. Pearce also mentions that the frequency of large content patches is likely to be reduced once Burning Crusade is released as they will no longer have a backlog of content and features to put out.Otherwise, there is nothing overly groundbreaking or new about the interview, as it discusses many things already in the public realm such as 25-man raid caps, the move towards more winged dungeons and the viability of current end-game armour in the expansion, but it is still a worthwhile read nonetheless.