Apocalypse Now!

The End is Nigh!

You have no chance to survive make your time!

…

So, yeah. 4.0.3a has dropped and brought with it the much anticipated doom of Azeroth. In the space of a few moments (plus or minus for the excruciatingly long download) everything that we had come to know and love about WoW was suddenly turned on its ear.

There are new quests replacing the old ones, the areas we’ve been acquainted with have been razed and burned. Not to mention all the class and ability upheavals. Seriously, I never thought I’d see the day when no one really wanted a heal spec priest! Tanks seem to be the en vogue class, especially prot spec since the healers are effectively worthless right now. Warlocks got some nerfing too. In fact, everything doing with elements seems to have taken a distinct nose dive. Makes sense, given the lore behind the expansion. Elementals have been in a state of disarray ever since the fall of the Lich King. No one has been able to explain their behavior, and now that Deathwing has come back it all falls into place.

So, it seems just about everyone has their nerfs to deal with, and tanks are the way to go if you’re going to buy wow account. Only question is, do it now or wait until a little after the expansion so that you can try one of the new races?

See, I’ve actually be waffling on this. Yes, there will be a degree of danger associated with buying something after the drop. Blizzard is known for their strict enforcement of them being the only one to provide anything WoW related. Just ask anyone who’s formed a classic server how forgiving Blizzard is about them horning in on corporate turf. It gets ugly in a hurry. Can’t think of one that’s survived more than a year, really.

I think I will buy myself a new Worgen if the opportunity presents itself. They should be easy to prot spec and I’d really like to put it through its paces. I’ll try goblins later. Too much like gnomes for my liking.

Anywho, keep an eye out for scammers. They’re really starting to get active. I found no fewer than 10 new ones today alone. And stay away from Craigslist. It’s even worse there.

Yeah, I’ve been a little jumpy lately about the whole expansion thing. It’s hard not to be seeing as Blizzard has a history of doing the impossible. After all no one thought that the Chinese farmers could be caught, but they got nailed many, many patches ago. The folks in Blizzards dev department have only gotten more sophisticated since then.

So I’m a little nervous about buying an account after the expansion releases. Oh, I’m sure that really well established sites like Toonstorm won’t be affected in the least. They have tried and true policies in place that will help keep us safe from marauding GMs. And if something does change for the worse, they’ll be smart enough to stop sales temporarily until they find a way around the whole thing. Even Real ID hasn’t slowed them down any, and that’s supposedly fool proof.

I’m just feeling like if you’re going to buy wow account, I would do so before expansion day, just in case. No sense running the risk of being in the spotlight unless absolutely necessary.

Another thing that always makes me twitch around expansion time is the sheer number of scammers that crawl out of the woodwork. Yeah, there are always a few out there snaring the unsuspecting fool with their empty promises of $30 accounts. Poorly worded Craigslist ads still exist with nothing to protect the buyer but their delusions about the decency of humankind.

I really need to start watching happier TV shows. Discovery and History are turning me into more of a nut than I was before.

Anyway, expansions seem to bring out the worst elements of the internet business racket. They crawl out of their holes like cockroaches and fall upon us en masse. Search for accounts to buy and you’ll be flooded with horribly worded sites offering amazing accounts, some of which are impossible (who ever heard of a gnome mage with an assassination build?) all carrying items that any seasoned player knows doesn’t exist. The Fork of Horripilation is from a different game entirely, people! Pay closer attention!

Then, about a month after duping everyone they can, the sites just disappear. Try to get to them again and you’ll only get messages about bills not being paid, or, if you’re really lucky, a 404.

Seriously, just stick with known sites like Toonstorm around that time.

Today we’re putting on our paranoid conspiracy theorist hat and taking a different look at the upcoming expansion release.

There isn’t much to talk about right now in WoW news other than Cataclysm because it’s going to be the next real change. And they’re making it into a doozy, too. Complete overhaul of Azeroth, even down to the original areas. And there’s no turning back, either. If you start a new toon the Cataclysm has still happened and you’ll be running those initial quests in post-apocalyptic wasteland. Mad Max, eat your heart out.

While everyone is excited about this, not to mention the raised level cap and all of the fun new stuff to be done with the new character classes, I think folks in our little community are overlooking something very important.

We all remember just what happened when 3.1 launched and the Chinese gold farmers and their patrons were caught. That was ugly. Real ugly. Since then Blizzard has done an awful lot to keep folks like that from coming back in the game and shifting the power balance.

My question is, what if they institute some sort of new way to detect the buying and selling of accounts? I mean, it isn’t like they couldn’t. Just based on the content we know they have some truly amazing developers out there, and their GMs are top notch. I’m truly afraid that something bad is going to go down when it comes out. Something that makes us more vulnerable to being caught for buying accounts.

That’s why I’m telling you to buy wow accounts now. That way, if something like that does go down, you won’t be caught in the crossfire. Yes, you’ll have to grind your way up to level 85 like the other shlubs, but at least you’ll get to keep the account.

Personally, I’d head over to Toonstorm. They’re still offering the discounts on accounts with alts, and that way you get some variety in there in case you want to change toons every so often. It can save you a bundle, too.

Now, I’m not saying this is going to happen. I don’t have anything to back it up. It’s just one of those little concerns I have whenever there’s an official release. Blizzard hasn’t made it this far by not paying attention to what’s going on. I’m just saying it may be a good idea on the odd chance that it has an effect on us is all.

Futurama’s new season is here!

Wait, wrong blog…

Seriously, though, there is good news out there for us wow players. I just can’t believe that they’re going to keep kicking out new content after putting the Lich King down. The only thing that I can figure is that they’re gearing up for Cataclysm and they need some transition material. It really makes me wonder just how far out the plot arc for Azeroth is planned out. Even if you aren’t into the lore, you really have to appreciate the fact that they can generate this much content on such a regular schedule.

Anyway, the new raid dungeon is call the Ruby Sanctum, and they’ve kept the details limited. I haven’t had a chance to get in there just yet, so I can’t even tell you just what kinds of good stuff that might be in there. Or the dangers that lurk, for that matter. Something tells me it can’t be good.

What it boils down to from the first look can be summed up in one word: dragons. There will be lots of interesting stuff going on, and it’s all about dragons.

The backstory plays out like this: The red dragonflight has been acting as a peacekeeping force in Azeroth for some time now, heading up a group called the Wyrmrest Accord. There have been periods of unrest within the ranks, namely when some twilight dragon eggs were discovered in teh Obsidian Sanctum. This led to some sneaky moves by the red dragonflight which resulted in some humans breaking in, killing Sartharion, and destroying the clutch. Now, the black dragonflight is the type to hold a grudge, and the fact that the Wyrmrest Temple is suddenly very much empty has a lot of people, particularly scaly ones, looking at them very closely. However, it seems unlikely that they have anything to do with it given their limited numbers. Besides, there would have been some sort of warning of an attack, or at least signs of resistance. But there’s no evidence of anything of the sort.

Anyway, sounds intriguing. And even if you don’t care about the lore, there’s bound to be plenty loot to pull from a dragon’s lair. Anyone with a basic knowledge of D&D can tell you that.

If you haven’t yet, I’d recommend that you take your level 80, buy wow accounts if you have to to get one, and check it out.

Honestly, I don’t know how the crew at Blizzard finds time to sleep with all of the stuff that they keep kicking out.

Less than a month after 3.3.2, where they add a whole new chapter to WotLK, they drop another patch creating a whole new aspect to the PvP mode. If you haven’t heard about it yet, they’ve added a new queue to the Battlegrounds called Random. It does just what you’d think it would and dumps you into a random field. That way there’s no time to prep, no time to try and plan a strategy. Obviously the same strategies that you’ve used on those fields before will work just fine, but you’ll have to be ready to respond on the fly for it.

I like the challenge the whole idea presents. The only thing I don’t like is that you have to be level 80 to use it. There are tons of great bonuses for winning in that mode and it kinda bugs me that only the top dogs get to play. Of course, this doesn’t mean anything if you just go and buy wow accounts like I do. It just makes life easier. Plus if you pull an Honorable Kill on any Battleground now, it’s double the Honor points, which means more trinkets for you.

Something else worth mentioning is a little event that you can’t buy wow accounts for. The 2010 WoW Arena Tournament is set to begin in May, and registration is already open. It’s going to be absolutely amazing! The reason bought accounts don’t matter is that you create a level 80 at the time of the tournament and get to deck them out with all of the epic gear you could possibly want. Infinite gold, and the ability to use that gold to buy just about anything you could possibly want, means that you get to build the ultimate toon that you’ve always wanted. Of course, you don’t get to keep it afterwards, but that’s not a big deal. If you win the regional invitationals you get $15,000, and the global invite’s grand prize is $75,000, and that’ll buy you just about anything you could possibly want, including a pimped out account.

So keep these things in mind so that you can take advantage of them. It’s pretty awesome times.