There’s few beings in the World of Warcraft that, when stumbled upon, make the player run away screaming in terror. Not so much because they look dangerous or like they might hurt you. But moreso because they are so, so ugly that it hurts your eyes, makes you want to vomit and leaves you wondering, “WHY??”

This is unfortunately what I am facing right now as I work through the end quests of Deepholm involving the lovely lady Therazane, and it got me thinking — could she be, perhaps, the ugliest being ever to grace the lands of Azeroth? Read on to find out where she stands among the  Top 10.

Yes, my friends, these are the fuglies of Azeroth. And while we may disagree on the rankings I assigned, I’m relatively certain that we all can at least agree on one thing: these dudes are not pretty.

10. Eck the Ferocious (Gorloc)

This side-boss in Gundrak not only has a name that makes me think of phlegm getting caught in my throat (not pleasant), but also has attacks that leave you bearing his stenchy, slimy grossness. His spit attack leaves an  hour-long debuff on toons that makes them smell “ferocious.” Ew. Although the smaller gorlocs that players encounter in Northrend are slightly less rank, they bear many of the same nasty traits as Eck here, which makes grinding reputation on their behalf that much more unbearable.

9. Hogger (Gnoll)

The king of killing newbs in a starting zone near you (ie Elwynn Forest), Hogger’s sight is worse that his bite. That hunchback with bristles of unkempt hair; that giant nose with flaring nostrils; that snarling mouth dripping with globs of drool (undoubtedly as he imagines eating you with his pack of ugly friends).

It’s all too much for some low-levels to bear. I don’t blame them; I might also just turn around and run if I saw this creature staring me down. And I would agree for most gnolls in general — not the prettiest of beasts. Continue Reading

One seemingly small change coming soon in Patch 4.0.6 has been stirring up a lot of debate.

The removal of the requirement that a player must discover a dungeon’s entrance before they may queue for it from the dungeon finder has a lot of people flustered.

And I can see why. Back in May when WoW developers announced that this requirement would be coming in Cataclysm, most players seemed pleased. There were a lot of positives to consider.

The requirement would encourage exploration of new zones and therefore the questing and lore that encompass the areas around them; players would be more likely to know the way from the spirit healer back to the dungeon entrance, in the case of an untimely wipe; and the dungeon finder would potentially have fewer players joining randoms for dungeons that they had never before encountered.

But along with those positives also came scheming for how the new system could be used to a player’s benefit.

All around the WoW community, as the news spread, one other potential benefit of the system became obvious — players could use the system to opt out of the dungeons that weren’t as quick or easy as they would like; that didn’t have the rewards they were looking for; or that, for whatever reason, they didn’t want to encounter. By simply not discovering those locations, a player would never have to worry about entering a less than ideal dungeon again. They could eliminate the potential of an Oculus 2.0. — or, in this case, The Stonecore.

Sure, why not? Why not optimize fun levels while playing? I’ll tell you why. Continue Reading

An ancient, extraterrestrial race sweeps across the universe, destroying and consuming worlds until they finally come upon the one whose children are capable of and willing to fight back. After some infighting amongst these beings, a serpentine god of death is banished to the elemental planes while a magical barrier is erected to keep the rest of the malcontents back. Years later, a crack in this shield is created and the nefarious deity is released upon the world once again, bringing the rest of the elemental lords and their minions with them. An all-out assault is made against its peoples, whose differing views on how to deal with the problem create deep socio-cultural chasms between said schools of thought. One side — devoted servants of the benevolent gods that seem to have abandoned them. The other — techno-shamanic nomads who would rather save the world no matter what the cost than wait for the heavens to intervene.

Sure, the details and names might be different, but the story of Rift, at its core, sounds remarkably familiar. I noticed during the most recent phase of Beta (and my first) that the similarities did not end with the lore. Turning once again to my favorite archetype — the Rogue — I felt myself slip into the gameplay like a silky-skinned hand into a tailor-made glove. My first two abilities? “Savage Strike” and “Final Blow,” complete with a regenerating energy system and combo points.

However, to obsess over Rift‘s derivations would be to completely miss the things that cause it to stand out. For instance, my Rogue played like a World of Warcraft Rogue because I chose the role that most closely mimicked it. The game really only has four “classes,” but by the end of the starting zone, you’ll have picked three of seven potential “souls” that effectively form your talent trees. Some are more conventional, while others feel fresh, and you’ll eventually get the option to swap souls out for the ones you missed. What seems like a routine skill system at first becomes something insanely — and uncharacteristically — flexible for the genre. Continue Reading

Previously, we looked at some features the Dungeon Finder could benefit from. This time, we’ll muse about how players qualify for queueing for difficult dungeons.

For Cataclysm dungeons, the game calculates an “average item level” (also called iLvl) for your character, and you may not be able certain dungeons unless your gear is powerful enough. Additionally, players must discover the dungeons actual location in the world to be able to queue for them. If players form their own groups, they can enter at will, but they must satisfy these requirements to queue for the dungeons. In Burning Crusade (before the dungeon finder tool existed), players had to complete long quest lines that took them through difficult dungeons and raids in order to access harder ones. Additionally, in order to access the heroic modes of the dungeons, players had to buy “keys” for the dungeon that required high reputation with a linked faction that nigh guaranteed that they had run the dungeon many times on regular mode. Wrath of the Lich King introduced the minimum iLvl idea when the dungeon finder was introduced, making the hardest dungeons require a higher iLvl.

One of the main problems is how the iLvl value is calculated. The system looks at all of your characters equipped items and all of the gear your character is capable of wearing in your bags. From that, it takes the highest iLvl item for each slot and calculates the average. This is the iLvl associated with your character. This system has three major flaws:

1. Players have an incentive to roll on items that aren’t actually better for them that increase their iLvl.
2. Players can “cheat” the system by obtaining BoE items and not equipping them.
3. iLvl is not an accurate representation of a player’s abilities.

The first item needs little explanation. Mages can use daggers, so why wouldn’t a mage roll on a powerful dagger that they won’t ever use, but that would increase their iLvl? Most players would consider it rude to take the dagger if there was a class that could actually benefit from the dagger in the group, but there is a clear benefit for the mage to take it if increases his average iLvl: he can queue for more dungeons. It can be tempting to be a “ninja”; you technically “need” the item in order to queue for better dungeons, right?
Continue Reading