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WoW TCG UPDATE

Through the Dark Portal
Fans of Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft Trading Card Game should be on the lookout for a new expansion set that is scheduled for release in April. Aptly titled WoW TCG: Through the Dark Portal , the new expansion set’s storyline is concurrent with the one found in the The Burning Crusade expansion for PC and Mac, pitting the allied Outland and Azeroth forces against the dreaded Burning Legion. Featuring 15 game cards per pack, Through the Dark Portal allows you to play as your favorite class and race, including the newly added Draenei and Blood Elves.

Through the Dark Portal also features original new artwork and three new Loot Cards. Each Loot Card is uniquely coded and can be used to upgrade cosmetic features for your WoW toon. Specialized UDE Points cards will be available in each booster pack, and you can enter these codes online for special premiums such as promotional items, character upgrades for your WoW toon or other special WoW: TCG cards.

CONFESSIONS OF A RAIDER, VOL. 1

Raiding is a big part of World of Warcraft for many players. Being able to see the hardest content that Blizzard’s programmers can throw at you and coming through it successfully is the main focus for a lot of hardcore raiding guilds. This month I talked to one of the raiders from my own server, and sat down for a quick Q&A session.

Q: How long have you been raiding?

A: I n WoW ? Umm, about a year and a half. I’ve raided in other MMO games, though, for a bit longer than that.

Q: What is the appeal to raiding? Why do it?

A: There’s a bunch of things that I like about raiding. Some people raid just for the loot, some do it for bragging rights and some people raid just to see areas that they’ve never seen before. I raid for a few different reasons. First, I like playing with my friends. There is just something fun about getting together with a group of people that you can just mess around with and work together with to solve puzzles. There’s a teamwork concept that comes heavily into play, and I’ve always liked working together with others to get things done. Being able to do that in a video game is pretty cool. I also like to raid to see new areas and monsters. The folks at Blizzard have an amazing group of people working on churning out this new content, and it would be a shame if people aren’t able to witness it firsthand. I feel sorry for all of those people that never got to see something like the Vaelastrasz encounter, with all of the neat dialogue and everything.

Q: Have you made any friends through raiding?

A: Yes, I’ve made some very good friends while raiding. Some of them I’ve met in real life and become good friends with. We have a lot of players in our raid that have been around for a bit, and we know each other pretty well. We razz each other a lot, tease each other at times. It’s all in good fun.

Q: What about enemies?

A: Well, there are players that have some…personality traits that may rub people the wrong way at times. I mean, obviously, you run into these people in real life while doing normal everyday things, but they exist in WoW as well. I haven’t really made any enemies that I know of, ha ha, but I’m sure that there are some people out there that may not like me. I am pretty open and friendly, and I like helping people so it doesn’t happen too often. You have to develop a thick skin when raiding, because if you suck at playing your class, many guilds will replace you. You have to be able to take constructive criticism and be open to suggestions for improving your abilities. Many people don’t like that and might get pissed off and develop enemies that way. Or there just might be times when people have clashing personalities and can’t work well together, which might lead to them being enemies. Oh wait...we were talking about Alliance? Ha ha.

Q: Do you ever get tired of raiding?

A: Sometimes. I work a full-time job that requires me to do work [after hours] at times, so there have been schedule conflicts. here are times when I get home from work and I just want to sleep or watch TV, and I can’t because I know we have a raid that day, and my friends are counting on me to show up. There are times when it feels like a second job. Like when our raiding schedule got really heavy and we were raiding five or six days a week.

Q: What do you do when you aren’t raiding?

A: I am running other instances, trying to gear up. There are a lot of new pieces of gear that were added in with The Burning Crusade , which means I have my work cut out for me. I’m always looking for ways to upgrade my gear so I can do more damage and be more of an asset to our raid. If I’m not doing that, I am usually helping my guildmates get quests done or helping them run instances, or running around trying to farm materials in preparation for the next raid.

Q: Have you heard of the “50 DKP Minus” guy? Do these people actually exist, or was that for comic relief?

A: Ha ha, that was pretty funny. I mean, I feel sorry for some people that have to raid with that kind of person as a raid leader. But if he gets results, then what can you do? I’m sure our raid leader gets upset at us from time to time for screwing around during raids, or when we wipe for three or four hours straight and don’t make any progress. I don’t think people would respond well to that kind of outburst, though, honestly. People need to realize that this is still a video game, and it’s meant to be fun, and there are people controlling those characters on the other side of the screen. Yelling at people isn’t a good way to solve problems and usually doesn’t yield good results. But yeah, those people do exist. I’ve heard some stories about other raid leaders from people on our server, and they weren’t good!

Q: I’ve heard lots of people complaining about the drop rates of certain items during raids. Do you have any experience with this?

A: A little. It took friggin’ seven months to complete my Tier One Raid Set. I had everything but my breastplate and it just wouldn’t drop. We saw one Tier One breastplate drop previously, but it went to another player, then we didn’t see another for about three or four months. We were killing Ragnaros in Molten Core for months, and only had three two-handed weapons drop and two pairs of the Warlock Tier Two Raid Set pants [drop]. It’s random luck, really; some guilds are really lucky with drops and some just aren’t.

Q: So what is your raiding schedule like now? What is your guild up to?

A: Well, like many other guilds we are trying to get back into the swing of things. The Burning Crusade ’s release made a lot of us change focus from raiding to hitting Level 70, but now we are starting to slowly get back to where we were before. We’re working our way through Karazhan now and are trying to get keyed for Serpentshrine and Mt. Hyjal. We only have one set raiding day right now, but I’m sure it will pick up soon as more people reach Level 70 and start getting keyed for new dungeons. There are a few other guilds on our server that are already busting through most of the new content, and we’re anxious to get there too, so we might have to step it up a bit soon.

Q: Any suggestions to those players looking to start a raid?

A: Find out who the big raiding guilds are on your server and let them know you are interested. Most guilds have an application process where they screen people for raiding to make sure you can cut the mustard. Group with those players as much as possible, learn everything you can about your class and just strive to do the best that you can. If things don’t work out, don’t give up; look for like-minded players and form your own guild!

Q: Any closing remarks about raiding?

A: Raiding is fun, but it’s not necessarily a picnic. We are really lucky to be able to put together a decent group of players that can work well enough together to defeat content, because most of the game’s populace will never get to experience that. I remember running around and being Level 60 with all of my shiny purples, and seeing so many people that were still wearing blues and greens and feeling…bad for them. There are so many players that don’t have the opportunity to raid and might not ever get to see the inside of Naxxramas, or see the ghosts dancing in the ballroom in Karazhan. I just hope that these players do eventually get a chance to see those things. Maybe Blizz will add some sort of client-side program one day where people can go back and check out all of those things for themselves.

10 PRODUCTIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PASS THE TIME IN WoW

1) Increase Weapon Skills

Weapon Skills are very important for melee classes, and with the new maximum character level of 70, your character’s maximum Weapon Skill will also increase. If your Weapon Skills aren’t maxed out yet, now would be a good time to get it done. A quick way to max out your skills is to get a cheap, lowerlevel weapon of whatever skill you need and head over to the Auchindoun area in Terokkar forest. Find the Shadow Labyrinth entrance and wait outside of the instance; an endless stream of Cabal Agents will spawn and battle the Lower City Operatives outside. It’s almost impossible for you to draw agro here, so feel free to whale on them to your heart’s content.

2) Help Strangers

World of Warcraft is a group game, and you will meet many people along the way. Take the time to help out those random people you see doing quests, toss a heal to random people in need or tank an instance for some lower-level folks. Show new players around, take them to various flight points or walk them through a dungeon. You’d be surprised how many people will appreciate simple gestures and may even be there to help you out later on.

3) Finish Easy Quests

If you can manage, try to allocate a certain amount of time to completing some of the easier quests in your quest log. Barring group quests, raid quests or attunement quests, most quests can be completed in a relatively short amount of time and with a small amount of effort. Not only will you get the satisfaction of completing a quest and learning more about the intricate storyline concerning certain WoW events, but you’ll also earn gold, items or reputation for your troubles.

4) Level Your Alternate Character(s)

Everyone has alternate characters, or even multiple alternate characters. If you get bored or need to take a break from the rat race, take some pleasure in playing your alternate toons for a bit. Many changes might have been made to the class since the last time you played it, so take some time to refamiliarize yourself with it. Complete some quests for gold for your main toon, try out a different Talent build or revisit some old dungeons with a different character.

5) Farm Gold or Materials

Money makes the world go ‘round and everyone could always use a few extra copper pieces. Gold for your Swift Green flying mount isn’t going to just fall out of the sky, so you are probably going to spend a fair amount of time killing creatures for cash. Humanoid creatures are by far the best creatures to kill for gold, as they have a very high chance of dropping coins and cloth, along with unusable gray “vendor” items. Caster-type mobs tend to have fewer hit points and armor than most other types of creatures, so find a nice spot with several of these mobs and rack up the kills.

With all of the new craftable items in the game, players will need a large number of materials (herbs, ore, Motes or Primals of a specific substance) to increase their skill levels. Help out your friends, guildmates or yourself by trying to acquire some of these materials. Likewise, selling certain types of items at your faction’s Auction House can also be fairly lucrative if you aren’t using the materials yourself. Don’t be a jerk and price-gouge people, though; you might be making a bad name for yourself without your knowledge.

6) Clean Out Your Bank

By now you’ve probably earned a ton of new items, trinkets, rings and whatever else, and they’re probably clogging up your inventory and your bank slots. Cleaning out your stash and selling unused items or items that you don’t need will net you a lot of cash. Don’t be afraid to sell your old epics along the way; just make sure you won’t ever use them again. As you continue to play, you will need that space for new and better items.

7) Increase Tradecrafting Skills

You’ll probably have to devote a large amount of time to this, as trying to increase your trade skills takes a large amount of materials. Concentrate on a single “yellow” or “orange” item in your crafting list, usually one that requires the least amount of materials, and make one of them at a time. Also try advertising what you can craft in the local Trade channel—you might find someone who is looking for a specific item that you can make and increase your skill.

8) Increase Faction Reputation

Reputation grinds can be a bit of a pain and may be boring at times, but at higher levels, certain factions give you some nice rewards for your efforts. Take a day to research the easiest way to grind out reputation with the appropriate faction and get to it. Dungeon crawls are great for gaining reputation, but some factions require numerous turn-ins of specific tokens; find the creatures that have the highest drop rate for these tokens, bring a few stacks of food and water and spend some time acquainting them with your weapons.

9) Play Hide ‘n’ Seek in Your Favorite City

Although this may not seem productive, it can be lots of fun and is a great camaraderie-building tool. Larger capital cities such as Orgrimmar and Stormwind are the best places to play, as there is more room to run around and hide. Standard rules apply, but there are a few rules that you might want to follow to make things a bit more even: No flying mounts allowed, no shrinking devices (Noggenfogger) allowed, no wall-jumping or terrain exploiting and no moving once you have found your hiding spot. Rogues and Druids in Cat Form are allowed to participate, but only if they agree not to use Stealth or Prowl.

10) Role-play on a Non-role-playing Server

OK, this isn’t too productive, but it’s still fun to do. This really tends to creep people out sometimes in non-role-playing realms, so do this at your own discretion. For some really good times, try pretending that you have amnesia and don’t know who or where you are; it works best in the general chat channel or in your guild’s chat channel.