Walk of a Sentinel Video

I just found this video:

Walk of a Sentinel


It says a lot for a PVP video (which I don't normally like) that I would recommend it. It's well done, good quality, good editing and it moves fast.

Orphanisms

Children's Week

Blizzard added a new Children's Week page which describes the basic locations you have to take the Orphans to. This event is scheduled to last to the 16th. Here are the notes I've taken on it, mostly from the Blizzard page, Thottbot and my own experiences (today I ran through it to get each of the different pets).

	Alliance	Horde
Phase 1 Get Starter Quest	Go to the Human Orphanage - Located in one of the free standing buildings in Cathedral Square in Stormwind.	Go to the Orc Orphanage - Located in the Valley of Honor in a building to the left of the mining trainer.
	Starter Quest Link on Thottbot	Starter Quest Link on Thottbot
Phase 2 Sightseeing (Get 650 xp for each.)	Take your Orphan to see 3 Sites: The bank in Darnassus The lighthouse in Westfall (Off South Shores of Westfall) The StoneWrought Dam in Loch Modan (North Border of The Loch)	Take your Orphan to see 3 Sites: Mor'shan Rampart (Northern Barrens) Lordaeron Throne Room (In one of the front rooms to the Undercity) The Docks of Ratchet (Barrens)
Phase 3 Making Memories (Get 650 xp for each.)	Get him a Strawberry Ice Cream (Sold in stacks of five but you only need 1). Available in Stormwind in front of the bank (temporary vendor) Get Jaina Proudmoore's Authograph in Theramore (Top of central tower in town)	Get him a Strawberry Ice Cream (Sold in stacks of five but you only need 1). Available in Orgrimmar by the bank. Get Cairne Bloodhoof's Hoofprint in Thunder Bluff
Phase 4 Take your Orphan Home (1,650 xp plus Pet Reward)	Return the Orphan to the Orphanage

Pet Rewards (Select One):

• Rat Cage (aka "Whiskers")
• Piglet's Collar (aka "Mr. Wiggles")
• Turtle Box (aka "Speedy")
• 5 Gold

Now for the real test as I try to run my new Priest (still level 10) through it!

Draenei!

Well, a computer with an internet connection jumped in front of me. Let me tell you how tough it is to go a week with no internet connection. I should've made a t-shirt that said "I'm AFK - tell me what's going on at E3!"

So the first thing I do upon finding this PC is scoot over to Blizzard and there it was, the Draenei are the new Alliance Race. And frankly, they look pretty freaking cool. And proud. In a good way.

For me WoW needs something to reenergize it. I've been reading about Spore in USA today (don't you read that too when you travel?) and I started dallying with the thought of playing different games. Then I saw an article for Seed (anyone know much about this MMORPG?). Sorry, WoW, I'm thinking of cheating on you. But maybe the Burning Crusade will do it. The new races will be fun to experiment with.

So here are some links I'm going to come back and read more in depth once I'm home:

Wowinsider.com points to a New York Times article and has some great screenshots with an interview with a Senior Producer at Blizzard.

Screenshots from the floor of E3 via wowvault.ign.com

The worldofwar.net E3 portal

Update: More Articles referenced on the Blizzard Website

tentonhammer Hits the Burning Crusade

Gamespot's Burning Crusade Impressions

Joystiq Hands On

Gamespy Article

That's about all I have time for. Family thinks I'm getting bottled water. ;)

California Here I Come!

Tomorrow I'll be headed to California for a work conference and a little vacation. So unless a computer jumps in front of me with an internet connection I won't be able to post until I get back the week of the 15th.

In the meantime here's a video to tide you over:

Wish Upon a Paladin

Dark Legacy Comics

If you liked the comic featured in this first "Honorable Mention" in the WoW Comic contest then check out more of them here: Dark Legacy Comics. It's been a favorite of mine and I'm glad to see it get some recognition.

One of my favorite: Idle Animations.

And in an beautiful tribute to Office Space: New Changes

Allakhazam Purchase and Blizzard at E3

Two interesting news stories I read this morning. Here are the links and some excerpts:

IGE buys Allakhazam.com. For me, it was worth knowing that the web address might change. (Particularly since when I first tried to find it I put the "h" in the wrong place and navigated to a less savory website because I spelled it wrong.)

"Reaction from the Allakhazam community (which is relocating to the more spelling-friendly Zam, has been less than enthusiastic. The backlash comes in the form of forum posters frustrated with Allakhazam's decision to "sell out" to the company that parents the most real enemy that some people think MMOs face - gold farming."

"You know my stand on gold selling. Before agreeing to anything like this, I wanted to make sure that there would be no interaction between those divisions and that I would have complete control over the new network, including the sites that used to be part of ogaming. So this means that the Ogaming sites and Thottbot have been split off of IGE and into our network and no longer have any connection with them." "

Blizzard at E3 - In a post about how we won't hear any Diablo 3 news, the article says instead Blizzard will be focusing on the Burning Crusade.

Blizzard has no plans to show Diablo 3 at the conference, as they had told IGN editorial in the past. The developer is focusing all of their energy towards promotion of the first World of Warcraft expansion -- The Burning Crusade -- and will save any announcements they may or may not have planned for a later date.

Children's Week Dates

Children's Week Dates:
The other night I emailed the error to the worldofwarcraft.com webmaster that the Children's Week dates looked wrong.

One location said the event would run next week and another said it was running now. Judging by the fact that I went and got the quest, I figured the one that was wrong was the one that said it wasn't until next week.

Wrong. Check out the updated Events Page:

May 1, 2005
(Said May 1-8)

May 2, 2005
(Now it says May 9-16)

And now you can no longer start the quest:

Surprisingly, though, I can still whistle up the orphan on the one character I had who took the quest.

So, bottom line? (1) I am apparently a date crasher. And (2) Children's Week isn't until Next Week. (But ask me again tomorrow, the answer might change.)

2006-May Events

From the Events Calendar for May:

Children's Week **See Note Below**

Darkmoon Faire (Mulgore) May 9 - May 16

Call to Arms: Alterac Valley! May 12 - May 15

Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch! May 19 - May 22

Call to Arms: Arathi Basin! May 26 - May 29

During a Call to Arms, emmissaries from that Battleground will be found in the major cities, and honor/faction rewards for performing objectives in that battleground are increased.

**Children's Week**

Well this is another booboo in dates in the Event Calendar. Children's week on the Events Calendar says it starts next week (May 9 - May 16).

However, the Children's Week section of the "In-game-events" page says it's running now (May 1 - May 8th).

Which is it? Apparently the latter because it's running NOW.

I used the link at the bottom of the Events/Calendar page to "Report Page Error." Hopefully that'll get this fixed up.

Of further interest is the fact that Noblegarden now says "April 16" as the calendar date(s). BIG change from what was previously posted as running for a month!
See the history of date problems here and here.

Tip Parade - Reading the Bar

One day we were out trying to kill some pirate boss in the lower decks of his ship but there were players who would kite this boss once and somehow hide and let other players (in this case us) finish him off. (I think they put a ranged shot on him and while the boss made his way around the walls to the player, he would first encounter us who thought one of our party had hit him and would gleefully kill him off and then wonder why no one could loot him.)

Durn taught me something that day that really helped. He pointed out that once a mob has been attacked by anyone who is NOT IN YOUR PARTY, his bar changes from Red or Yellow to grey. Sure enough, that boss's bar was grey and we couldn't get the credit we needed.

It was hard to picture what he was talking about at first so here are some pic's to explain.

Red or Yellow Bar = No one has attacked this Enemy yet:

Grey Bar = Someone (not you or your party) has already attacked this Enemy and will get credit for its kill:

Note - this holds in a PVE environment and you'll notice that PVP targets may show differently.