Illidan Entraped	Harnessing Quanta

If you're interested in using them as Wallpaper, be sure to drop me a line, or post it in the comments, and I'll make higher resolution renders available!

Do you have interesting quality art? Send it in!

Many player argue that the new system does nothing to improve the quality of PvP, that all the system does is encourage players to team together and gangbang loners trying to quest, the very antithesis of honour. However, supporters argue that there has been a positive effect, and now everyone is raiding for items.

Meanwhile Blizzard employees preach to give the system more time... but we know that first impressions always matter. So, what has the new honor system affected you? Be sure to vote!

What level is your main World of Warcraft Character?
60	286	22%
50-59	200	16%
40-49	210	16%
30-39	165	13%
20-29	95	7%
1-20	57	4%
Don't play WoW	274	21%
TOTAL	1287	100 %	..

Looks like now 5 month into the game, even casual players have begun hitting the 60 mark. In fact, out of all the people who play the game, over a quarter at capped and nearly half will be near the cap. What this means is that Blizzard will really need to release their high end content fast! Before players start to lose interest...

As Solid Dynamite is a Level 30 item, this change appears ridiculous, for runecloths does not drop till Level 50. Closer inspection shows that when Blizzard introduced Dense Dynamite in the newest patch, they accidentally modified Solid Dynamite to require to the same ingredients.

Given that many Goblin Engineering items required Solid Dynamite, and you need 20 of them to become a goblin engineer (A Level 37 quest), something is very wrong... we hope Blizzard fixed this pronto. Till then, choose Gnomish Engineering.

Due to problems with the patch yesterday Blizzard were forced to take down the servers for two hours. Every player will receive an extra 24 hours as compensation. This time will be applied on April 27.

Richard Knaak and Chris Metzen (Renowned Blizzard Novel writer and Head of the Blizzard Developer respectively) will be making special appearance at the following places:

o      April 23, 2005 The LA Times Festival of Books this weekend at 1:00 PM

o      April 24, 2005 4501 E. Carson St. #104, Long Beach, CA - Pulp Fiction at 3:00P.M.

o      April 27, 2005 771 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA - Golden Apple Comics at 5:00P.M.

If you're a big fan I hope you're able to make it.

And lastly the first manga in the Warcraft series.

Follow the adventures of Kalec, a blue dragon in human form, and Anveena, a maiden with mysterious powers, as they quest to save the High Elven kingdom from the forces of the Undead Scourge.

Interested in the Warcraft Universe? This book is available here!

You can download a movie documentary of what happened here. (90 mb).

1. The Sims 2 University (Electronic Arts)
2. World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
3. The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts)
4. Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal)
5. The Sims Deluxe (Electronic Arts)
6. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Ubisoft)
7. Halo: Combat Evolved (Microsoft)
8. Galaxy Of Games 350 JC (eGames)
9. Brothers in Arms: Road To Hill 30 (Ubisoft)
10. Zoo Tycoon 2 (Microsoft)

On the bright side the under development page has been updated. It has information on what their working on... Battlegrounds looks very close... so close you can taste it if you stick out your tongue.

Last but not least if you happen to be a Hunter you may notice your damage is significantly lower than before (if you're on the test server). This seems to be because previously ranged attacks weren’t heavily affected by defense. Recent changes have made defense work differently and attacks are being more frequently dodged and parried. The developers are looking into this and it's rumored theirs going to be a defense nerf to compensate (Defense not Armor).

• Hunter's Bow
• Hunter's Staff
• Hunter's Quiver

Not bad, too bad the staff is for Hunters only.... my Shaman would love it.

 Mages in WoW differ greatly from mages in other games....they are rather a weak class compared to other classes whereis mages in other games blast away for amazing amounts of damadge, mages in wow dont do as much. Going back to beta to look at the mage, the current mage is but a shadow of its former self. Back in beta the mage was a god, literally. Invisible and bonecrushing nukes allowed the mage class to take down 7 of 9 classes with 1 combo while being invisible....since then things have changed. The class is rather weak in 1 on 1 combat compared to other classes, but if you know what you are doing you will have the edge to win even the most imbalanced match ups.

So far, detailed strategies have being written against Rogues, Hunters and Warriors. Do give it a read.

On a side note, my recent inactivity is due to my move to the University of Queensland as a PhD student in quantum computation. Expect a range of updates to follow shortly, as internet access is stablised!

So what's occuring on the test servers? Well a brief trip there, and here's what I have noticed

• Rogues are consitantly doing 2000 damage with their ambush due to the fact that abilities new scale with attack power. Honor kills are currently unsurpassed by groups of 4-5 Rogue gank squads.
• Shaman is not that badly affected by the nerf, though many of opted to switch to Rockbiter from Windfury.

More later!

Another World of Warcraft patch is on its way... and already available in a test server near you. Key additions include:

• There is now a regular event in Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale. Every three hours starting at midnight, a pirate with too much treasure on his hands will drop a chest in the center of the arena. Whoever can open the chest first gets the contents
• The PVP Honor System
• Mana regeneration only stops after a spell is casted, rather than when it begins casting, improving effects of Spirit.
• Frost Shock, Cone of Cold, Entangling Roots, Frost Nova now all have diminishing returns.
• Blood Fury - Now increases base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds. When it fades base melee attack power is reduced by 25% for 45 seconds. It may actually be useful... well kind of.
• Windfury - Fixed a bug that caused an additional attack beyond what was intended. In addition, fixed a bug that caused the next normal melee attack to happen sooner than intended... Shamans may feel the hurt.
• Free Epic Paladin and Warlock mounts added.
• Items in Scholomance and Stratholm upgraded.

Check out the entire list here.

The latest World of Warcraft patch introduced a number of new features, meeting stones being one of the most celebrated by Blizzard. Yet, as many of us have noticed, these stones are really not that useful!

Eveything seemed to be working, an icon appeared on my screen, signifying the stone for helping me look for a group. I stood there a while, no effect, and decided to go grind some of the elite ogres.

20 Minutes later, the 58 SHaman shows up, and presumably activates the meeting stone. He proceeds to run circles around the stone, spamming LFG in the channel.... Another 20 minutes later, the Meeting Stone finally found a group for me, and BAM, the genius stone has decided that me and the 58 SHaman, all 2 of us, should group up for Dire Maul!

Read the rest here.

Easter Bunnies are rare amounts, rideable by all races except Tauren. The rational for this exclusion, as state by Blizzard, is that Taurens have been able to ride any other race's mounts. In particular, the epic mount dropped by the Baron in Stratholm is not available for Tauren, and hence niether is the Easter bunny.

The few players lucky enough to have found this mount report that when riding it, their game model shrinks to a size comparable to that of the easter bunny. Meanwhile, the Easter Bunny is approximately the twice the size of a normal rabbit critter. As such, Easter bunnies make perfect mounts for ganking people, as anyone riding them becomes as annoying tiny as a gnome.

East Bunnies are unique drops, and are limited to one per realm.

A brilliant idea.