Last Friday we announced the possibility of forming the Domination guild on the podcast.  We didn’t get the roaring response we had hoped for, but we do have enough names to give it a shot.

If we had gotten 50 or so alliance folks we might have taken a stab at that, but there were only about 10 of those guys that mailed in.  So the Ally version is going to be simmering on the back burner for a while.  For you horde guys, here’s all the information you need to join us and begin Dominating.

Server Information:

Gavin and I reside on the Fenris realm, which is US, Eastern Time zone, horde side.  Currently several folks from DYS have started new toons on Fenris and are actively leveling.  The first signature on the charter is Rayzerback, congratulations on being the first member of Domination!

Guild Meeting Time:

We will be having a guild meeting this Friday evening from 5pm to 10pm EST in Thunder Bluff on the middle rise at the bonfire meeting area next to Zangen Stonehoof.  Join us to sign the charter, meet your new guild mates and spend a little time getting to know one another.  Lawbringer will be there with Moneybaggins (tauren version) to get things rolling.

What you need to do:

Transfer a toon to Fenris or roll a new toon and get started leveling with the guild.  I know all you Ally guys are sort of out of the loop for now, but you might consider joining us on the other side of the fence.  While Lawbringer and Gavin are up to their necks in the Beta, you’ll be responsible for getting to 70 and stocking the guild bank with everything we need to really Dominate.

Next Step:

Around the 1st of November, Lawbringer should be done with his Beta duties and will be beginning to select class leaders and other positions in the guild.  At that point we will be able to form a much clearer picture of how to structure runs and raids that fit as many people’s schedules as possible.  We will also know exactly what we need to finish stocking the guild bank with glyphs, chants, and the other things that will be necessary going forward.

Professions are important:

Part of Gavin’s system for Domination relies on having toons from all of the professions.  As such, the guild will be no different.  We’ll need a killer jewelcrafter, enchanter, scribe, and of course herbalists, skinners, miners, leatherworkers - in other words a little of everything.  Since it’s going to be all DYS folks there, making gold off the auction house in huge amounts individually is going to change since we will rule Fenris, but we will just Dominate as a group by not having to rely on the AH for the things we need.  Everyone will be expected to contribute a reasonable number of things to the bank on a regular basis.  A whole team of toons with a plan will rule this server on a level you can only imagine.

Casual Players and New Toons:

If you don’t have tons of time, that’s fine.  You’ll still get more done in a good guild than just flying solo and not everyone can be on all the time.  If you are re-rolling for Domination, it will be important that you have several classes in mind in case we get a huge pile of mages or something and need to fill some spots in other classes.  That’s why the meeting on Friday is important, we need to get a clear picture of class distribution and profession expertise so that we can create some balance from day one.

Power PLayers:

Those who are transferring T5 geared toons will be able to start running together as they can before the 1st.  This will give us a good idea of who our class leaders might need to be.  We don’t have much time before wrath, and it’s probably unrealistic to think we could beat the BC content in time.  So the plan is to do whatever gearing is possible between the 1st and the 14th, and then hit it hard in WotLK.  Raid and rep gear from wrath will be a LOT better than BC anyway, so it might not be worth killing ourselves trying to get 30 guys a complete T6 set.

Vent and other things:

We are sourcing a vent server this week.  Tabards will be available Friday, Guild bank tabs will be sponsored by DYS.  We will be posting a complete set of guild guidelines around Nov 1st, the date we have set to begin really Dominating.

A few Rules before we begin:

Although we will have a complete set of guidelines at some point we can sum them all up in just a few sentences here.

• Check your attitude at the door - if you think the world owes you a living you’re better off on your own.  Domination is a punk free zone, and that includes outside of guild relations in public chat.  We simply will not tolerate a bad attitude and have no problem cutting folks who don’t play with a smile.
• Keep your hands to yourself - there will be NO problems wil loot rolls, period.  If there are problems, the person griping will have a difficult time getting a spot in future raids.  A generous attitude will get everyone great gear, a gimme philosophy will just get you booted.  There are plenty of epics to go around and if you are patient and helpful, we will go out of our way to make sure you get yours.  If you’re all about gearing up yourself, then go do it by yourself.
• Treat the guild bank like you do your own bank - Five people can collect an amazing amount of gold and materials - 50 can have basically everything.  If you try to put in more than you take out we will have space problems which is a great problem to have.  Need better chants?  Put a bunch of mats in the bank and everyone will have them.  Just treat the guild bank as you would your own and everything will go smoothly.
• Be an Emmissary - No matter where you go or what you are doing, in guild or out, the same rules apply.  Start a fight in trade chat and you’re on your own.  Yes we want to Dominate, but we will not do it with our mouths.  Giving Domination a bad rap will earn you a quick ticket back to wherever you came from.  If you don’t have something nice to say keep your dang mouth shut - bow to people after you pound them in BG’s, taht sort of thing.  Play honorably and you will be honored, it’s pretty simply and non-negotiable.

Keep in mind that Lawbringer and Gavin will not be around a whole lot until after the 1st.  But we didn’t want to wait until after that to begin.  That gives you all two weeks to show us what you can do, and work on earning a leadership spot.  Show us you can do it in the Domination way.  We’ll be listening to all of you when we’re back from our Beta hunting trip and reputation will go a long way with us.  We’ve spent the last two years building reputation with all of our readers, it’s your turn to spend a couple of weeks doing the same thing.

So this is your chance.  Get in there and start leveling that new toon, or transefer your uber leet Dominator.  Between the 24th and the 1st, you’ll be getting to know your guildies, stocking the bank and then we’ll get some raids in before wrath.  Once Wrath goes live, it’s all about hitting 80 and then spanking Arthas like the little jerk he is.  That’s where the teamwork really begins as we help each other go and Dominate WotLK.

So join Moneybaggins on Fenris this Friday evening in Thunder Bluff to sign the Domination guild charter and let’s get this guild in gear.  This is your big break to roll with a great crew, later on we’re going to be extremely picky.  Join up, and let’s go Dominate!

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178 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

It’s that time of the week again.  Well, actually it’s a day late, but you’ll just have to live with it.  Post your questions in the thread below and Gavin and Moneybagguns will asnswer some of them in the friday podcast.

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62 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

This week on the Domination podcast Gavin and Moneybagguns have a lot of ground to cover.  listen in while they talk about the new patch, Inscription, and answer a whole pile of questions from our readers.  They also have a special request for listener feedback.  Hit the play button below to listen, or you can download the entire show.

 

 Domination Podcast Episode 1 [25:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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73 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

With the hundreds of new developments we’re all swamped with concerning the patch it’s a little tough to know where to start.

Inscription is a bit of a mess on about half the servers.  Fortunately there is always a way to make a good profit and you just go where the money is.  On Fenris the competition is just silly (50 pages of glyphs as I write this), but we just went back to selling herbs to all the alchemists and scribes and are making a killing there.  Cornered the market for minor glyphs and that works well.  Watching prices rise today now for majors as the herbs dry up, so it’s just a matter of staying on top of things as the market moves.

The servers were an even bigger mess.  So much for leveling inscription in an hour (or doing anything else really).  Still getting “World Server Down” messages today.  The PTR stress test didn’t turn out all that hot I suppose.

But perhaps the one thing driving most of us the nuttiest is the fact that mods are just dead.  Almost none of the legacy things we’ve used will ever work again.  There were so many changes to the UI that I eventually had to turn everything but AADV (the version that is supposed to work with 3.0) off just to get to where I could live with all the error messages from one mod.  And it just gets worse from there.

ACE is gone.  The updater and all the mods hosted there have been taken down never to return.  So much for automatic updates from maybe the best and most trustworthy source.  So we’ve had lots of comments from everyone struggling to know what to do about mods.

The good news is that mods are being updated as you read this.  The bad news is that there is not a system that even comes close to replacing ACE.  So you really have two choices at this time - go with the few you can’t live without or try out the Curse system.  Neither one is exciting me in any way.

If you’ve always downloaded your mods one at a time then Curse will work for you.  If you only run a few mods then it’s not that bad to go over to Curse or Wowinterface and just grab what you want.   The only problem is that a TON of mods will just never be updated again.  Many mod programmers have just thrown up their hands at having to completely reprogram everything with every single patch and finally called last straw.

So now you’re stuck with trying to find mods that work to replace what you had that do similar things.  What a zoo.  One bag (one of my favorites) is non-existent.  The replacement I got is awful.  It does weird stuff and I don’t feel like spending the hours it will take to figure it out.

For the second option that will auto update your mods the only game left in town is the curse downloader.  It does an AWESOME job of updating mods, but finding them is terrible.  Plus, you will have to eventually pay for the downloading service.  I’m not averse to paying for good service, but this one is so inferior to ACE I’m not sure I will be able to justify the expense.

So here’s what I’ve done.  I pared down to a list of just 10-12 things I can’t do without for now and will be a little patient with the rest of it.  None of the bar mods work right now and that is the one that’s killing me the most.  The five Blizz bars just don’t cut it for a shaman with all those totems to manage.  I can’t imagine how rough it is for druids.  Basically this means I have to relearn how to do a lot of things and that’s going to set me back a bit.

When you go to curse or Wowinterface looking for mods, pretty much anything updated on the 15th will work fairly well.  So perhaps the best thing to do is just update the few things that you love and toss the rest for a while.  There are so many cool new things to play with in the game that I didn’t want to spend 50 hours clanking around with mods, so to heck with most of them.

And, there is not really anyone to complain to.  Blizz isn’t responsible for messing everything up while trying to make their game the best it can be.  Sometimes that means changing things.  You can’t scream at the mod guys, they are all doing it for free.  But frankly after this I wish there were a few of them that would just go commercial and let me throw some money at them to keep things up to date and smooth.  But that’s not going to happen in the age of the freetard programmer.

You see, the more we demand free programming that represents hundreds of hours worth of work, the more we have to live with complete fiascoes like this.  There’s an old story that always comes to my mind in these situations.

A guy goes into a repair shop and sees a sign that reads: Fast, Cheap, Good - pick any two!  You can have it fast and cheap, but it won’t be very good.  You can have it Cheap and good, but it won’t be fast.  You can have it good and fast, but it won’t be cheap.

So, since it’s going to be cheap, and you need it to be good, you better believe the mod problems are NOT going to fixed very fast.  You’re talking about thousands of normal people out there with normal lives who have to earn a living somehow and they will get around to it when they get around to it.

In the meantime, drop the things you use that you can do without, update with the things that are available from the two remaining sources, and then sit back and wait for the rest.  That’s just the way it is.  We’re all going to have to let skill alone work for a while.  But cheer up, everyone else is in the same boat you’re in.  So keep bailing, and let your superior knowledge of the game continue to keep you Dominating!

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51 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

On September 18th, Blizzard announced the release date for WotLK.  We made sure that every one of you knew that and even hinted that we were working on a special deal for you.  We know it’s been a bit longer than we all would have liked, but your chance to grab the expansion pack has finally come.

Not only have we arranged special pricing, we’re also going to let you in on a little secret we’ve been using for more than a year now when it comes to WoW.  Gavin, Lawbringer, and several of our other writers all have multiple accounts, and we know a lot of you do as well.  The real pain in starting a new account is getting all the keys you need, but those days are over, and you won’t have to pay Blizz prices ever again.

So where do we get our CD Keys? Off Gamers.  OffGamers has been supplying a wide variety of products to the MMORPG gaming world since 2001.  Now, they’ve got more than 70 game titles and 6 years of excellent customer service record under their belts.  They are the best at what they do, and our favorite is game keys.

(Ed. note: While we buy our CD keys from Offgamers, we do not condone, endorse, or recommend that you EVER buy gold or items from ANY online source, including OffGamers. This violates Blizzard’s TOS and will get you banned.)

To start a new account you would normally have to go buy a boxed set or purchase your keys from Blizz at the WoW website.  But we just hate paying retail for keys.  For the last year, Lawbringer and other staff members have been relying on OffGamers for their WoW keys.  There are several sweet advantages to this.

First, by purchasing your keys from OffGamers, you will get them at a discount.  When you’ve made as many account as we have, saving close to 10 bucks on just getting your keys is really nice.  Normally it would cost you $19.99 for your regular WoW key, and $29.99 for the BC key.  (Thinking into the future any new accounts created after WotLK would also need a WotLK key, probably another $39.99.)  That’s almost $50 bucks right now to start a new account you can actually use for RaF or anything very useful.

If you were to get those same keys from OffGamers you could nab the regular WoW key for just $18.03 and the BC key for $22.59 for a total of just $40.62!  We’ve saved enough in CD key fees by buying them from Offgamers to basically make another account for free compared to what we would have paid Blizz.

The other cool thing is that even though you could get your keys for lower prices by buying discounted box sets, you would also have to pay for shipping and then wait for them to arrive.  That’s for the birds, we live in an instant world and I want my stuff now.  Offgamers offers the same instant key delivery right to your email for free.

Next, you can get 60 day time cards for just $26.93, which is a discount of 2 bucks a month off of your recurring fees.  Since I have 4 accounts (I know it’s ridiculous) the time cards save me almost $10 bucks a month - that’s $120 a year!

But it doesn’t end there.  We have also negotiated with OffGamers to offer you 5% off every WoW purchase you make at their sit.  That means not only WotLK keys, but also your regular keys and time cards as well.

Now, we are especially excited about using OffGamers for WotLK.  At precisely midnight on November 14th we will all be getting our WoW keys and downloading the expansion instantly.  No waiting in line at the store to grab a boxed set and then having to drive home to install the thing from disk.  No waiting for the mail to come later that day - we’ll be some of the very first to take our toons to Northrend and begin our Domination of the expansion 12-18 hours before everyone else!

It’s a much better way to get WotLK.  You could be the first to level 80.  By the time everyone else even logs in, you can be rocking your way toward 73!  For us, there is simply no other way to get cd keys, and when it comes to the WotLK it gives us a Dominating advantage over everyone else, plus we get a nifty discount to boot!

By using the links we’ve made below, you can pre-order your WotLK keys right this minute, and have them in your mailbox the minute the expansion goes live.  By using the special Dominate Your Server discount code, you will get an even better deal!

The Special Discount Code is - DYS092008

Using the links below for US and EU WotLK pre-orders and entering the code above will get you the US version of WotLK for just $36.85, and the EU version for a mere $46.07!  That’s 3 and 4 bucks off (respectively) of the retail prices, and still no shipping fees and instant key delivery on xpac release day.  Now that’s a great deal!

Reserve Your WotLK Key Right Now Using The Links Below

Now you can understand why we took the time to help those of you with download issues to get those matters cleaned up right away.  You sure don’t want to be waiting 9 hours for your WotLK copy to download, although we can’t help you much if you are on a bad connection.  We just can’t fix everything!

One little housekeeping note here.  By ordering today, you will have plenty of time to take care of any purchase verification details.  With your first order from OffGamers, one of their customer service reps will need to contact you for verification purposes.  It’s industry standard practice and means that OffGamers takes every necessary step to protect themselves from thieves.  It really makes me feel all warm and gushy.  By reducing fraud, they can keep their prices low which is always a plus in my book.  But you don’t want to dilly-dally and wait until the 13th.  Get your order and verification done right away so there’s nothing standing in the way of your instant keys and downloads on the 14th.

There’s only one catch in this whole thing.  For those of you who live in countries outside of the US or Europe, you’ll have to be sure that you play on a US or EU server.  From what we understand, servers are linked to regions, and there will be no keys available for servers on the 14th other than US and EU.  We certainly wanted to be able to cater to every single one of you, and we tried, but you’ll just have to blame it on Blizz.  There is simply nothing we can do about it.  (If anyone knows of any tips on this please comment below). With that being said, you can live anywhere in the world and use the keys from OffGamers on any account that plays on a US or EU server.

Another Option For The Worry Warts

Now, if you somehow just feel the undeniable urge to wait for the mail to run, you simply cannot live without the disk (WotLK will only ship on DVD - just so you know) or if you can’t quite bring yourself to use Offgamers for whatever reason, we’ve also included the links to get WotLK from Amazon as well.  Amazon is doing release day shipping, which means you will get it as soon as your UPS guy can ring your doorbell on the 14th.

Amazon is also one of the few places where you can reasonably hope to get the collector’s edition.  Currently the collector’s set is sold out, but amazon will be one of the few sources that might get more.  Also, this only applies to US customers, so even the Europe folks will have to find another vendor.  The Collector’s edition comes with some pretty sweet additions over the regular boxed set including a pet.  If you are vanity oriented, you might consider grabbing one if you get lucky enough to be around if they get a few more.

Regardless of which method you choose, we certainly hope you’ll take advantage of getting your pre-order done right away.  We’ve got a lot more to tell you over the next few weeks about WotLK and you’re not going to want to waste a minute of play time in your quest to really Dominate!

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89 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Inscription is the new profession coming to WotLK. This will not be something that is optional for player enhancement; everyone will be using it in one way or another.

The common reason players will be subjugated to inscription is the need for glyphs. Glyphs are the main feature of inscription and what they do is power the player in certain abilities depending on what glyphs they decide to get.

Glyphs are kind of like gems and enchanting combined. They offer small enchants to certain aspects of a certain class. Unlike gems however, they are placed in their own little fancy UI (user interface), not on equipment or into sockets.

As of now, players can have a total of 6 glyphs (3 major and 3 minor). Major glyphs provide vital enhancement to spells and abilities such as an extra 5 yrd range to ambush or 50% to avoid interruption while casting wrath. Minor glyphs provide small and unique enhancement to spells and abilities such as lowering spell costs or changing an animation.

How glyphs differ from enchanting and gemming is that the enhancements are not a boost to stats. Instead, glyphs provide enhancements to abilities and spells. This is what will make inscription so unique and demanding, every player will need it.

Even at lower level glyphs are available. The number of glyphs able to use are lowered according to levels, as well as the types of glyphs used. Here is a list of what players should expect at what level:

· Level 1-14: None

· Level 15-29: 1 Major, 1 Minor

· Level 30-44: 2 Major, 2 Minor

· Level 45-59: 2 Major, 2 Minor

· Level 60 and up: 3 Major, 3 Minor

As for what glyphs to get, each glyph is made for a specific ability for a specific class. Here is a list of some glyphs to expect (1 of each class):

Glyph of Lifebloom – Increase the duration of lifebloom by 1 sec

Glyph of Steady Shot – Damage of steady shot increased by 10% when target is effect by serpent sting

Glyph of Death Coil – Increase duration of death coil by .5 seconds

Glyph of Blade Flurry – Reduce energy cost of Blade Flurry by 100%

Glyph of Dispel Magic – When you dispel the target it heals them for 6% of total health

Glyph of Healing Wave – Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the effect when you heal someone else

Glyph of Fireball – Increase initial damage dealt of fireball by 5% but removes the DoT effect

Glyph of Flash of Light – Your flash of light heals 50% less, but also heals for 200% of initial effect over 15 sec

Just these few examples show how powerful glyphs can be. In a way, they are somewhat more of an improved talent point, furthering the specialization of how you want you to be. Glyphs bring a more unique feel of how you play your character.

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22 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Blizzard holidays are never dull in the slightest. Aside from some of the neat and interesting activities they provide, there is usually a temporary boss that can also drop interesting items.

Right now the Brewfest is going on, and if you haven’t participated in the festivities you are missing out. Even if you are a party pooper and do not participate in the activities, there is a certain NPC that will interest you.

Coren Direbrew is out there, trying to ruin the Brewfest, and it is up to you to stop him. Even if you don’t feel up to doing the chain quest, you don’t have to. This holiday boss resides within Blackrock Depths (BRD). Oh yes, time to drag up those fond pre-BC memories.

Even though Coren is pretty far in, it is actually really simple to get there. Once you enter BRD, turn directly to the right. There will be 3 level 70 NPCs guarding these little contraptions. Take them out then right click on the doodles and be on your way.

You will be transported to the bar area in just a few seconds, (quite appropriate considering the theme). Once you land, there will be an NPC with the blue exclamation mark (!) over his head. This is a daily quest, you can fight Coren 1x per person. That means you will be able to fight him 5x per group.

Coren is fairly simple, not as easy as a regular boss, but just under the heroic level. Once you get the daily quest, talk to Coren and the battle will start.

There are a couple of things to watch out for. First off, there are additional mobs. Depending on how well geared your group is, you can literally ignore these. Having a paladin tank helps. If not, take them out, they are just regular mobs.

Coren has two abilities; the first is a whirlwind which deals a nice chunk of damage and also disarms melee ranged targets. This whirlwind is very slow and easy to avoid, so all melee classes be sure to evade this.

The second ability is this drill that will come up from the ground. Although this is harder to avoid at first, be sure to move once it comes up. Along with damage, the drill will pop the target back.

Coren also will spawn a female dwarf (Ursula or llsa Direbrew). These chicks can be kind of annoying. They will stun a target for 6 seconds from “Brewmaiden’s Stun” and also have another ability called “Barrelled,” which will disorient and slow the target for 8 seconds. This is troublesome for healers and can even cause a wipe.

The females are elite mobs, so they take a while to kill. It is actually wise to ignore both of them completely, focus dps on Coren and make sure your healer isn’t taking damage from adds. Follow these simple steps, along with avoiding his whirlwind, and you’ll be saving the Brewfest festival with ease.

Of course what everyone wants to know is what goodies Coren will drop. The answer is trinkets, lots of trinkets. There is a trinket for every necessity and an ‘extra’ one that is really fit for everyone. There is also an epic dagger called “Direbrew’s Shanker,” which looks like a broken glass bottle when equipped.

The trinkets compliment each spec: healing done, spell damage, attack power, block value, and then two stamina trinkets that can be used once every ten minutes. The two stamina trinkets either summon a brewmaiden who will smite your foes, or a brewmaiden who will bolster your party’s vigor.

The dagger is nice since the stats offer AP, agility, and stamina. It is a slow speed, 2.0, which is actually pretty rare. They are not unique so two can be wielded for those mutilate rogues out there. I enchanted one of mine with 7 weapon damage just to see if the glow would be seen and it did.

The equipment is on par with Karazhan epics, which is really nice for how easily they are obtained. Aside from the items that are used in battle there are, of course, some Brewfest items related to the whole theme.

A rare trinket which is dropped, called “Direbrew’s Remote,” will allow the party to teleport to the Grim Guzzler (where Direbrew is). This isn’t all that special, but more of a convenience for the festival. I wonder if it will still work when this is all over.

The last thing is really great for you rare mount collectors. There is a low drop percentage for the party to obtain either a Brewfest Kodo or a Brewfest Ram, a great way to compliment your character while running around naked in the Brewfest festival. (Role-playing?)

Holidays are always interesting in the World of Warcraft; it really does spice up the game.

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19 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

For those of you who already know the technical issues surrounding port forwarding this will be old hat.  But we recently had a guy comment that his 1.5 Mb connection was taking days to download patches.  So for you folks who are having serious downloading issues we thought it would be good to cover some basics and give you links to resources that will help you get your download speeds up to par with your connection.

Unless you are on dial-up, you should be able to grab patches and even full downloads in under and hour or two if you have your network ports properly configured.  In other words, if you are on any sort of DSL or Cable connection, problems with your download speed in relation to WoW stuff is not a matter of your connection, but something on your machine.

Now, we’re not going to be able to tell you exactly how to do this for Mac machines since I don’t currently have one to test with, but I may have to grab one and do an update for those later.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you’re trying to fix.  Most people will get the message “Your computer appears to be behind a firewall.”  If you are getting any other message, just check out the link below to find the specific message you are getting from the Blizz Technical Support FAQ page.

Blizzard FAQ

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21275&categoryId=2316&parentCategoryId=&pageNumber=1

If you are getting this next specific message, you can use the link below for slow download speeds.  Most of the time slow speeds will be due to two factors that you can fix pretty easily once you know what to do.

Slow Download Speeds

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21065

In both of the scenarios we will deal with below, the problem is normally that the Blizz servers are having trouble talking to your system because something is in the way.  The two problem areas are in firewalls and routers.  In order to give Blizzard clean access to your computer you will need to make a path for them by opening some specific ports so that communication between your machine and Blizz doesn’t have something clogging up the process.

A big portion of the time, you windows users will be able to just open up ports on the internal Windows Firewall and that should do the trick.  Now, if you get the message about “it appears you are behind a firewall” don’t make the mistake of thinking that turning the firewall OFF will fix this.  Actually, turning the firewall off will usually make it worse, since it puts your entire internal network into the internet equivalent of safe mode.  Instead of only restricting certain things the way the firewall was designed to do, it will just restrict everything.  So turning it off won’t do you any good.

It’s really simple to open ports for WoW and anything else, you can check out the article at Blizzard here:

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21072

The other place you can get all gummed up is in your router if you are using one.  Routers can be particularly tricky because they are all different, there are thousands of them and some have internal firewalls that will also need to be dealt with.  Even though Blizzard has a little bit about working with routers to get ports open, there is a much better place to get the instructions you need.

Portforward.com is a massive database of highly specific information and guides on opening ports in almost any situation.  They have virtually every router ever made in their list, and if you can follow the links like breadcrumbs they will lead you to a pictorial walk-through of opening ports on YOUR router for WoW (and hundreds of other applications).  Talk about highly specific!  They also will help you deal with firewalls and their list of firewalls includes a much longer list than the Blizz page if you can’t find yours there.

Firewalls

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/firewalling/routerindex.htm

Routers

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

By using the tools above you should be able to get the proper ports and port ranges open to allow your downloads to flow much faster.  For those of you who may get Beta invites it’s going to take your downloads from several days to just a few hours.  If you lose your WoW file or something this will save you a ton of download time.  you can see from my download screen I was on pace to be able to download the entire up-to-date game client in about 4 hours (it would probably be less than that, but not bad).

We know this doesn’t have anything to do with playing the game, but you’ll understand why we wanted to cover this in a day or two.  And for everyone who has been living with those 9000 hour downloads this will certainly help you get your patches a ton faster.  The portforward site is a terrific resource - and YES this research site is completly up to date!

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You’re going to get to play with some of the WotLK changes sooner than you think.  For those of you who have been saving up those herbs, your time to profit is almost here.  The public test realm using patch 3.0.2 went live on the PTR Tuesday, which means that the next major patch is just around the corner.

If you don’t read the patch notes, understand that this patch contains so many huge changes that it’s almost an expansion.  Blizzard is going to implement a lot of the changes in WotLK in this patch.  You are going to get all of your training points back since every class has a list of dozens of significant redos.

As a result, there is just no way to comment on all of the class changes at one time.  Even if we broke it down by class it’s going to take a lot of testing and several articles, but you know we’ll get it up here as we play through the new changes.  But there are some things we wanted to cover today, since they apply to everyone.

First, Inscription is going live in this patch to level 375.  That means all your herbs are worth a ton of gold and glyphs are going to be available.  I will try to make sure I get an inscription leveling guide up as soon as I am confident about the progression to 375.  I’ve got a lot of herbs to gather!  You herbalists can expect your services to be in wild demand, so I sure hope you took our advice and powerleveled that profession.

The achievement system will also be implemented.  This interesting panel tracks a whole slew of things you do in the game and represents another kind of ‘ding’ as you accomplish all sorts of things.  There are 749 achievements available in the beta as of today, so if you ever get bored you still have plenty to work on.  A funny one is Friend or Fowl, which requires you to kill 15 turkeys in 3 minutes.

Speaking of achievements, be sure to attend the Pirate’s Day event in Booty Bay on the 19th.  This one time, one day event is sure to land in the world event section of the achievements list so go check it out.

Since I’ve been playing a priest recently (and now have the entire epic PvP honor gear set from all that work) perhaps the most significant changes in the next patch are for casters.  My favorite change has to do with spell cast timer pushbacks and channeling interrupts.

This is going to be a big help for casters vs. mele classes.  The patch notes state that when attempting to cast a spell, the first and second hits will only add .5 seconds to the cast time, and further hits will have no effect!  No more looking at my cast bar and seeing +2.7 sec because some hunter keeps using his instant cast shots on me.  This works nearly the same way for channeled spells in that the first two hits reduce the channeling time by 25%, and further hits have no effect.

Now certainly this doesn’t apply to things that completely interrupt casting like silence, silencing shot, earth shock, shield bash and all those things that just stop casting completely.  But even in PvE, it’s going to make solo survivability for casters a lot easier.  If you’ve ever pulled 4 mobs and not even been able to heal yourself or get a spell of any kind off, this will really be a welcome change.

Next, anything that grants +spell damage or +healing is being consolidated into a single stat called Spell Power.  All gear that grants +healing or +spell damage will now reflect the one stat +spell power.  As a result, your visible bonus healing for healing classes will appear lower, but healing spells will gain more from spell power than damage spells so the net result will be the same.

This is an interesting change that will make gear more usable for all casting classes regardless of whether they are helaers or not.  Healers will always get a bigger buff to their healing spells from spell power, so stacking all that +heal gear will be a thing of the past and respeccing to a damage build will not require a major gear change.

On a lighter note, you will also be able to visit Stormwind harbor, which is pretty impressive.  You can also go see the huge hole in the ground where the purple Dalaran bubble used to be.  Dalaran has already been moved to Northrend as the Kirin Tor make their move.  It turns out that the bubble was more of a complete sphere, so the big hole in the ground might be worth a look.

You will also be able to visit the new barber shops and change the look of your toon if you like.  It seems that they have introduced some new hairstyles for each race, and you can also change your hair color and a few other thing if you like.

And last, but certainly not least the 51 point talent trees will open up as well.  You are going to have new skills to train based on your talents if you so choose, and that means that you’ll have a gob of new tricks to play with.  You can find a link to the patch notes as well as a talent calculator below so you can read about each class and then fiddle with the new talents in the next few days so you have some idea of what you want to try out.

This is a big patch for WoW, and you’re going to love all the changes (although there iwll be some initial balance issues that will need to be played through and worked on).  So check out the patch notes for yourself, work with the talent trees and get those herbs harvested/bought and ready to sell!  Oh, and go hang out with the pirates too - this patch is really going to Dominate!

Patch Notes

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

New Talent Trees

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent

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Last night, Blizzard announced the release date for Wrath of the Lich King.  I hope you are ready, because it’s coming sooner than any of us expected here at DYS.  I know you’re itching to know the date, but you’re going to have to pardon me a little hype and buildup here.

While the Beta has been frustrating at times (you notice I didn’t have a picture up for the article about WotLK pets because the new pet classes in the Beta have been bugged for the last 5 days :(  )  it is also the most fun I’ve had with WoW.  Before tBC, everyone had pretty much capped out on the available adventuring, and once that happens the game sort of gets a bit dull because there is nowhere to go that’s new, and nothing really fun to do because you’ve done it all.

The Burning Crusade expansion fed a lot of new and neat things into the game.  You may be taking them all for granted now, but tBC was an awesome expansion to an already good game.  With tBC we got flying mounts, a really well planned continent, dozens of new factions, and cool new mini-games within the game like the daily bombing runs.  All of this added up to a much more interesting and fun experience, even for those people who had completely mastered the original content.

If you thought that tBC was a good expansion, just wait until you see WotLK.  We haven’t written a whole lot about it so far because so much of the new content is in a state of flux.  We just don’t like to post information that turns out to be bogus later on.  You guys expect a certain level of perfection with every single article we post, and (even if you don’t believe it all the time) we really want to deliver above and beyond your expectations.  We truly want everyone to be able to find something in everything we write about or recommend that will help you Dominate.  You may not always agree, but we simply can’t win them all.

Well, the WotLK is dominating.  The first thing that strikes me about the continent of Northrend is that the graphics seem to be better.  Not to sound girly, but it is pretty.  It has such an epic feel and look in every single zone.  It’s not ‘cartoony’ in any way.  Instead it looks like something from a Conan the Barbarian movie.  It’s really visually awesome.

Next, there are some nifty changes to the quest environment.  There is a good flow to everything, but yet still enough different things to do in so many places that it will take you quite a few run-throughs before you start getting bored with the quest chains.  It’s not just - go here, kill this and the odd escort thrown in.  You still have to kill a bazillion things, but you also get to blow up buildings, ride in tanks, borrow dragons - and that’s just in the first level or two.

There are a whole new slew of factions with great rewards, a new profession, glyphs, a whole zone dedicated to constant and total PvP action (think battleground just bigger and no queue), new pets, new talents, new instances, the achievement system, the whole thing is just incredible.

Then there are the class talent changes and additions.  Probably every warrior is going to at least try out Titans Grip, a skill that lets you use two handed weapons in each hand.  It is awesome to see those guys running around with a monster axe in both fists.  So there will be things that nearly everyone tries out in the new trees, and you can be sure that we will give you all the inside scoop on what really works and what is just fluff as we test through all the possibilities in the coming months.

So are you ready for it?  Well, you better get that way pretty quick, because the

WotLK goes live on November 13th!

Which means you need to pre-order pretty soon to ensure you get your copy on time.  If you want to be one of the first guys to hit 80, and have your inscription at 450 in the first few days, rest assured that our leveling guide will send you screaming through Northrend in record time - Dominating everyone else.  We’ll keep you ahead of the learning curve with all the information you need to continue your domination of PvE, PvP, professions, recipes, glyphs, inscription, faction rep, progression, raiding and much, much more in the coming days and weeks even before WotLK debuts on Nov 13th.  But all of that will do you no good at all if you don’t have it to play!

But before you run out and order a copy at the store or hit Amazon to do it online, just know that we are working feverishly to get a special offer for all of you from one of the top online game retailers.  So if you can wait a couple of days we’ll give you a way to pre-order the game that will give you your game key as soon as the WotLK goes live on midnight of the 13th.  You’ll also be able to download the new version without having to wait for your disks to arrive or even wait in line at the store, nothing could be easier.  It will also put you in a position to pop a couple of levels before most people even put their disks in the drive!

So you better get seriously busy whacking out the last few levels to 70 on those alts in the next few weeks, and be sure to check out our WotLK information as we leak it to you here.  We want to take your game to a whole new level in the expansion, and we’re going to help you beat everyone else to the punch.  Look for our special DYS pre-order deal in the next couple of days - and as always, Dominate!

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