5.3 is here, and this week the show is in Extended Maintenance mode, clocking in at over two hours long! Three amazing interviews, two WoW parody songs, and one contest for a month of WoW game time! All that and much more as we countdown to 5.3 going live.

Around the World of 5.3 in 80 seconds- You can find the full patch notes at worldofwarcraft.com or your favorite fansite!

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Podcasts of the Week: Twisted Nether Blogcast

websites: twistednether.net

email: info@twistednether.net

Twitter: @TwistedNether @Fimlys @HydRAWR

Find the show on Stitcher Radio and  iTunes

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Podcast News: Convert to Raid, Gnomes Eye View (NEW), Grand Old Podcast, Azeroth Roundtable, Low Pop WoW, The Starting Zone, Horde For Life, Epic Podcast, Legendary, A Paladin’s Tale, Chaos Portal, Bitter & Salty, WoW Pet Battle Crew, The Instance, GroupQuest, Out of Mana,  30 Minute Cooldown, Cross Realm Podcast, Azeroth Pirate Radio

Keep updated on the World of Podcasts Blizzcon gathering at worldofpodcasts.com or on Twitter @Worldofpodcasts

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extended Maintenance Interviews-

Dave Fennoy, Voice Actor for Vol’jin and much more!
Website- davefennoy.com
Facebook- facebook.com/dave.fennoy
Twitter- @DaveFennoy

SilverLetomi, WoW Parody Song Artist
Facebook- facebook.com/dkletomi
Purevolume- purevolume.com/letomi
Twitter- @SilverLeto
YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/user/SilverLetomi

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CONTEST INFO- Halfway into the show you’ll hear the contest clip being used for your chance to win a month of WoW game time! The deadline to email your entry to RealmPodcast@gmail.com is Sunday, May 26th at noon EDT. Good luck!

Final Segment: Amijade the warlock from warlockery.com shares a story from the fel green days of 5.2.

Thanks to @WoWPodcastQuote for your donation to Realm Maintenance this week!

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

• Wowjuju
• WoW Pet Battle Crew
• Azeroth Roundtable
• Icy Veins  (this interview will be posted and available soon)
• WoW Insider
• Arena Junkies
• Legendary
• Convert to Raid

Realm Maintenance would like to thank Community Manager Zarhym for confirming the information above.

You can find the Patch 5.3 roundup page and all the info about this new content patch right here

• WoW Insider – Lead Systems Designer Greg Street aka Ghostcrawler
• Arena Junkies – Ghostcrawler and PvP Designer Brian Holinka aka Desvin
• Icy Veins – Ghostcrawler and various class designers (questions submitted via email, similar in format to what Totemspot did previously)

In addition, Blizzard Insider interviewed WoW game director Tom Chilton, and you can find that interview by clicking on this link.

Keep an eye on this site to find out more information about upcoming WoW developer interviews as it becomes available!

• WoWJuju (fansite)
• Azeroth Roundtable (podcast)
• WoW Pet Battle Crew (podcast)

Keep an eye on these sites to find their interviews posted as they become available.

Interview information for other members of the dev team will become available in the near future.

If you miss the livestream interview you can still catch the interview as part of Episode #96 of Convert to Raid.

Realm Maintenance will post information on other developer interviews as it becomes available.

Shame on Rho for thinking 5.3 would be out this week. Don’t fret though. Today’s show is a little longer than usual as you’ll hear the entire interview with Sayomara Vesper from Grand Old Podcast. There’s also a WoW podcast gathering at Blizzcon you might want to learn about.

Rolling Restart- You’ve heard it a dozen times this week, so why not hear Rho also tell you that WoW is (not) dying?

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, Manaflask, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, wowprogress.com, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

Watch realm-maintenance.com for news of upcoming fansite interviews with the WoW dev team.

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Podcasts of the Week: Grand Old Podcast

websites: grandoldpodcast.com & rivalcastmedia.com

email: grandoldpodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @grandoldpodcast

Find the show on Stitcher Radio and  iTunes

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Podcast News: Rawrcast, Legendary, Convert to Raid, Tauren Think Tank, The Happy Hour Roundtable (NEW), Call to Auction, Happy Hearthstone, Chaos Portal, Twizzcast, All Things Azeroth, Horde for Life, Epic Questions, Hardcore Casuals (NEW), Horde House, Triumph, 30 Minute Cooldown, Let’s WoW, The Training Dummies, Sheep Moon, WoW Uncensored

Keep updated on the World of Podcasts Blizzcon gathering at worldofpodcasts.com or on Twitter @Worldofpodcasts

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Final Segment: Twitter responses to “What is the first think you’ll do when you log in on Patch 5.3 day?”

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

For the second week in a row Realm Maintenance covers two podcasts in one interview. It’s a light news week, but that’s to be expected when patch 5.3 looms in the distance.

Rolling Restart- The man, the myth, the hair. Rho talks about Josh Allen aka Lore’s hiring by Blizzard Entertainment.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, Manaflask, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

Catching up to 5.3 – http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9601895/Catching_Up_to_53-5_2_2013
Scenario Preview – http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9623680/Patch_53_Scenario_Preview-5_2_2013

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Podcasts of the Week: Middlefinger Podcast / gChat

websites: middlefingerpodcast.com & gchatpodcast.com

email: middlefingerpodcast@gmail.com gchatpodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @middlefingerbil @diabloceto @middlefingerjoe @woundednogin

Find the shows on Stitcher Radio and  iTunes

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Podcast News: Megacode (healingspec.com), Legendary, Conspiracy Craft, Grand Old Podcast, GroupQuest, Follow the Leader, Horde for Life, Power Word: Gold, But Wait! There’s Lore

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Final Segment: Rho recommends a WoW Insider article with plenty of links to WoW lore resources

http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/02/a-fresh-look-at-world-of-warcraft-lore-resources/

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

This week Rho interviews one podcaster about two Warcraft themed shows. 5.3 isn’t far away, and this week you’ll also learn exactly what is planned for the 5.3 extended maintenance episode.

Rolling Restart- It’s the end of an era in progression raiding as the US guild Exodus disbands. Rho shares his thoughts.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, Manaflask, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

Live Developer Q&A wrapup- http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/3226-Live-Developer-Q-A-Patch-5-2-and-Beyond

WoWhead Children’s Week guide- http://www.wowhead.com/news=212280/childrens-week-2013-guide-april-29-may-6

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Podcasts of the Week: WoW Pet Battle Crew / Happy Hearthstone

website: http://gamediplomat.com/
Twitter: @jaugustine
Find the shows on iTunes

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Podcast News: A Paladin’s Tale, Nonmail’s Nutz, Press Y Podcast (NEW), 5 WoW Things, All Things Azeroth, Low Pop WoW, Rigarmorty’s Blight Night, Girls Gone WoW, Chaos Portal, The Mana Cooler, Twisted Nether Blogcast, Warcraft Well Read, This Week in Blizz, 30 Minute Cooldown, GroupQuest, Azeroth Pirate Radio, Ready Check.

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Final Segment: Kelvin wonders what will happen when Rho runs out of podcasts to interview.

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

This week’s show had so many last minute edits due to breaking news it made Rho say “Holy Shatt!”

Listen to the entire episode to catch the latest breaking WoW news, along with an interview with Holy Shatt and all the Podcast News you can eat. (Realm Maintenance recommends against eating news and suggests listening instead.)

Rolling Restart- There’s a Live Q&A happening on Thursday and Rho has some tips on how to ask a question that’s more likely to be answered.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported on the show only reflect the time of recording. Congrats to Blood Legion on their US First victory on Ra-Den 25 player mode.

Current Patch 5.3 PTR Notes- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9135374/53_PTR_Patch_Notes_-_April_22-4_22_2013

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Podcast of the Week: Holy Shatt

website: http://holyshatt.net/
Twitter: @Sigmandis @thexantar
email: holyshattpodcast@gmail.com
Livestream: http://holyshatt.net/

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Podcast News: Twizzcast, The Sundering, 30 Minute Cooldown, Horde House, Fel-tron, Convert to Raid, Tauren Think Tank, Your WoW Money, Casually Casual Cast, Azeroth Roundtable, Call to Auction, Happy Hearthstone, The Starting Zone, Chaos Portal

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Final Segment: Khazou comments on last week’s Rolling Restart

HOTFIX Segment: Breaking news on an update to the 5.3 PTR Notes & hotfixes 5.2 world bosses and acquiring Mogu Runes of Fate.

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

I’ll bring this up on Tuesday’s show briefly, but here’s the entire message

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Good people of Azeroth, lend me your eyes!

We’ll be hosting a live World of Warcraft developer Q&A open to the community on Thursday, April 25 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT. Designers Dave Kosak, Ion Hazzikostas, Brian Holinka, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street will be available to field your questions about Mists of Pandaria gameplay and design, patch 5.2 and beyond. This will be a moderated chat on the Cover it Live platform hosted on the front page of our official site. Community managers Bashiok, Crithto, Daxxarri, Rygarius, and I will be there to filter your submissions for the developers.

We receive thousands of questions each time we host these events, so please be patient with us and bear in mind that we won’t get to every question. You can help by keeping your inquiries concise and focused on one topic per entry. Submissions that are well over 200 characters, or contain multiple questions on an array of topics, are much less likely to receive responses. We want to cover as much ground as possible and appreciate your assistance in helping us to achieve that.

We look forward to chatting with you on Thursday!

About the Panelists

Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer
As Blizzard Entertainment’s lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, Dave Kosak oversees the development of all quest content for the game and its expansions, as well as contributing to the overall fiction of the game world.

Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment, Kosak was a co-founder and original creative director of GameSpy.

Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer
As lead encounter designer on the World of Warcraft® team, Ion Hazzikostas’s primary responsibility is overseeing the creation of the game’s dungeon and raid content. Hazzikostas joined Blizzard Entertainment in the summer of 2008 as a game designer, and his responsibilities have included raid boss design and implementation, class design and balancing, and maintaining the World of Warcraft achievement system. Prior to arriving at Blizzard, he worked as an attorney at a law firm in Washington, DC.

In his spare time, Hazzikostas enjoys exploring Southern California in search of craft beer. Having grown up in New York City, he is a lifelong Yankees fan.

Brian Holinka, Senior PvP Game Designer
As a senior game designer on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft® team, Brian Holinka focuses exclusively on continuing to make the World of Warcraft PvP experience enjoyable for all of its players. Holinka works with the systems and content teams to create a balanced competitive environment with exciting rewards and diverse content.

Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment in 2012, Holinka worked on the multiplayer components of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Homefront, and Frontlines: Fuel of War. Holinka got his start in the game industry moonlighting on the “Desert Combat” mod for Battlefield 1942 while serving as a Captain in the United States Air Force.

Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer
As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s lead content designer for World of Warcraft®, Cory Stockton is responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of all exterior zones, dungeons, Battlegrounds, Arenas, and cities. He is also involved with many other aspects of the game, such as dungeon scripting and the Pet Battle System.

Stockton started at Blizzard Entertainment in June 2005 as lead dungeon designer before transitioning to his current role. Prior to his arrival, he was a lead designer on the Ratchet & Clank series and also contributed extensively to the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series.

In his spare time, Stockton plays games extensively, and enjoys collecting classic consoles and games. He holds an associate’s degree in computer animation from the Art Institute of Phoenix.

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer
As the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft®, Greg Street is one of the two lead designers on the team that reports to the Game Director. He leads a team that is in charge of World of Warcraft class, item and tradeskill design. He and his team also design the user interface for the game and handle all of the various combat calculations and number tuning.

With Blizzcon ticket sales dates rapidly approaching, I’m as ready as I can be.

Hotel room is reserved. I’ve scouted flight info. I have the funds for the hotel, airfare, and the tickets.

That said, I’m writing this because I am looking for help in getting to Blizzcon… just not in the way you may have expected.

I will say this again: THIS IS NOT A POST ASKING FOR DONATIONS.

While personally I don’t care if other people ask for donations or do fundraising for Blizzcon, ultimately I decided that’s not going to be how I do things. Finances for the trip will be tight, but its doable. Doable enough that if it comes to it I may even consider the charity dinner Blizzcon ticket if April 24th and 27th don’t pan out.

But with your help, I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that last chance point.

This request is going out to any of you out there whom I’ve had some connection with in the past. In other words, I’m specifically looking for podcasters from other shows or people in the community that I’ve talked to a decent bit. If you’re an everyday listener and we’ve never had a dialogue before, don’t worry about this request. Reason for that being I’d like this to go down with someone who I know I can put some degree of trust in, and vice versa.

Like many of you I will be at my computer frantically hitting F5 and praying to the internet and RNG gods to be fortunate enough in the queue. The problem is… right now I just have me, myself, and I in terms of getting in the queue. I don’t have many connections outside of the community that are able to be at a computer to also try to get in line to claim a ticket.

If you are already planning to purchase Blizzcon tickets on April 24th (and Apr 27th should I not get one on the 24th) and have the capability to buy one more than you need for yourself and your friends, I would appreciate it if you could purchase an extra ticket for which I can promptly pay you for.

A couple of caveats about this though should be made clear:

1. There is a reasonable chance that multiple people may end up being able to buy an extra ticket. I’m only looking for a ticket for myself so should more than one person have a ticket available, I’m basically going to make arrangements with whomever I speak to first, so long as I know that person well enough. That said, don’t attempt to buy an extra ticket for this unless you know of others you might be able to sell/give the ticket to should I no longer need one. I don’t want you to be stuck with a spare ticket and out of $175. 
2. I’d appreciate it if you contact me via Twitter or email beforehand to let me know if you plan to try to get this extra ticket. This way I know who I’m dealing with potentially in advance and I can make sure we follow one another on Twitter (or have each other’s Skype info) so that I can communicate with you during the time of the sale itself.

It’s been a dream of mine for several years to go to Blizzcon. In the past, finances simply weren’t there for it. This is the first year that I know I can afford it and plan a budget for it.

My motives and reasons for going to Blizzcon are admittedly selfish ones. It’s Blizzcon! I’m not going to make any claims or promises that the primary reason for going is “for the community.” Don’t get me wrong, I definitely plan to meet as many of you as I can, and should I be able to get press privileges at Blizzcon I’ll put that to good use… but I want to go this Blizzcon for myself first, and the rest of you after that.

That may turn some of you off from helping, but I believe in being honest and real about this. I won’t think any less of anyone who just chuckles at this post and moves on.

In reality, I’m guessing that a very small handful of you will be contacting me about this out of all those who read this post. That’s okay and I expect that. I’m simply looking to improve my odds. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate your support as always, whether you’re a podcaster or a podcastee.

Patch 5.3 continues to grow and develop on the PTR. This week’s show touches on patch news, world firsts, podcast criticism, and an interview with two of the hosts from The Starting Zone.

Rolling Restart- Rho dishes out all the info he knows about Heroic Scenarios, and explains why the future of 5-man dungeons may be questionable.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported on the show only reflect the time of recording. Congrats to Method on their World First Ra-den victory!

Current Patch 5.3 PTR Notes- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9135374/53_PTR_Patch_Notes_-_April_15-4_15_2013

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Podcast of the Week: The Starting Zone

website: http://www.thestartingzone.com/
Twitter: @thestartingzone
Facebook: facebook.com/thestartingzone
email:
Livestream: http://livestream.com/thestartingzone
Find this show on iTunes!

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Podcast News: 30 Minute Cooldown, GroupQuest, Girls Gone WoW, Conspiracy Craft (NEW), The Weekly Marmot, The Addicted, Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas, Darkmoon Herald, Follow the Leader, Horde For Life, Convert to Raid, The Azeroth Perspective, Let’s WoW, Tauren Think Tank, The Sundering, WoW Uncensored, Blizzplanet- Week in Warcraft, Twizzcast

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extra Segment: “Big Steve” critiques a WoW podcast critic

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

Blizzcon sales are almost here, and Rho’s not the only one with something to say about fundraising for it or a number of other issues. Take a seat at the Azeroth Roundtable for an episode of Realm Maintenance that’s a little more critical than most, but ends on a couple of good notes.

Rolling Restart- Blizzcon sales and reaction to those being critical of fundraisers and donaters.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported on the show only reflect the time of recording. Congrats to Blood Legion for downing Heroic Lei-Shen following the recording of this show.

Battle Pet Accuracy article: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9425567/Pet_Battle_Accuracy_Changes_in_Patch_53-4_4_2013

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Podcast of the Week: Azeroth Roundtable

website: http://www.azerothroundtable.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @AzerothRT @AlTheMage @Revendawn
email: azerothroundtable@gmail.com
Livestream: http://www.twitch.tv/azerothrt
Find this show on iTunes!

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Podcast News: Epic Podcast, Spare Parts, Ctrl Alt WoW, Juuno and Pixie (NEW), Legendary, The Training Dummies, Power Word: Gold, Twizzcast, Casually Casual Cast, GroupQuest, Warcraft Less Traveled, Heals & Headshots, Grand Old Podcast, Earthen Ring LORE, 30 Minute Cooldown, Tauren Think Tank, Hearthcast

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extra Segment: Rho gets a Hearthy, and Richard Harlow asks for your help.
Follow Richard on Twitter @DemonicRic

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

Music used for this week’s Podcast of the Week segment contains music from “Truth of the Legend” by Kevin McLeoud and you can find more of his music at incompetech.com

Yes, Monday’s show was a joke! And now we move on! On this week’s REAL show the 5 WoW Things podcast turns 100, 5.3 datamining continues, and a listener is looking for some PvP action, podcast style.

Rolling Restart- Tri-spec data files are just an experiment. Rho ponders if the experiment goes deeper than Ghostcrawler states.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported on the show only reflect the time of recording. Congrats to Blood Legion for downing Heroic Lei-Shen following the recording of this show.

Patch 5.3 PvP blog: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9331806/PvP_Gear_in_Patch_53-3_25_2013

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Podcast of the Week: 5 WoW Things

website: http://www.5wowthings.com/
Twitter: @thebiggameover @Janaelle5 @5wowthings
email: fivewowthings@yahoo.com
Livestream: http://www.twitch.tv/5wowthings
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Leetsauced, The Instance, All Things Azeroth, Warcraft Trolls, Arcanum of Azeroth, Azeroth Roundtable (NEW), The Converted, Call to Auction, GroupQuest, Epic Podcast, Out of Mana, 30 Minute Cooldown, A Question of Gluttony, Sheep Moon, Stopcast, The Sundering.

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extra Segment: Voicemail from a listener trying to hunt down PvP podcast content.

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your show news and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

Season 2 of Realm Maintenance starts off with some incredible news that will forever change the MMO landscape, and your host covers the State of the Game.

New season, familiar format, same great content. Let’s do this!

NOTE: Since April Fool’s Day is pretty much over, I’m clearly marking this as a joke episode.

Yes, the silence from 8 minutes to near the end of the show was intentional.

Episode #33 will be up at the usual time. No joke.

Here’s the full version of the Horde House interview from this week’s show!

As always you can find all of the longer versions of the interviews you hear on Realm Maintenance on the Extended Interviews page! Don’t forget that you can always get to this page from the top menu of the site as well.

Thanks for all of the feedback you’ve sent in regarding the length of the show! Currently the poll indicates that more people enjoy the format as it is though plenty wouldn’t mind it being a little longer.

This week there’s so much to talk about that Rho wonders if it’s time for a format change. You can give your opinion after listening to a Horde House interview, plenty of podcast news, and another last-minute “Hotfixes” segment at the end of the show!

Rolling Restart- Patch 5.3 is arriving on the PTR. Rho explains how this new patch may make a drastic impact on your PvE or PvP play going forward.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported on the show only reflect the time of recording.

Patch 5.3 PTR Notes: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9135374/53_PTR_Patch_Notes-3_22_2013

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Podcast of the Week: Horde House

website: http://www.hordehouse.com/
Twitter: @hordehouse
email: hordehousepodcast@gmail.com
Livestream: http://www.vognetwork.com/live/
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Arcanum of Azeroth Horders, GroupQuest, Grand Old Podcast, Darkmoon Herald, Heathstone Cast(NEW), All Things Azeroth, Bitter & Salty, Epic Questions Podcast, Legendary, A Paladin’s Tale, Warcraft Trolls, WoWphiles, Your WoW Money, 5 WoW Things.

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extra Segment: Email from an aspiring podcaster

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Hotfix Segment: 5.3 datamining & podcast news for Hearthcast and The Happy Hearthstone(NEW)

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

This week Rho talks to Wolf and Pitango from My Epic Heals and introduces listeners to the #WoWp5 movement started by WoW podcaster Ian Bergin.

Rolling Restart- Will low pop realms ever be able to bring down Oondasta and Nalak after a recent looting hotfix?

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

NOTE: Raid progression is updated at wowprogress.com and the standings reported of the show only reflect the time of recording.

Latest Hotfixes: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8953693/Patch_52_Hotfixes_March_15-3_15_2013

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Podcast of the Week: My Epic Heals

website: http://www.myepicheals.com/
Twitter: @MyEpicHeals @Wolfshade @AdobeAid @TheEade @cic_cast
email: myepicheals@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Team Waffle Podcast, Convert to Raid Too(NEW), The Converted(NEW), Azeroth Pirate Radio(NEW), Call to Auction, Vote2kick, Horde House, Darkmoon Herald, Ready Check(NEW), Low Pop WoW, The Mana Cooler, Rawrcast.

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Extra Segment: Interview with Ian Bergin, creator of #WoWp5
Take the #WoWP5 Challenge at http://www.apaladinstale.com/?p=136

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

The interview in its entirety can be found soon at twizzcast.com. The following is a paraphrased portion of what was said in the interview.

• Major systems changes wouldn’t be done unless they thought it was important. The right thing to do in an expansion is 30% new 30% old and 30% old stuff that’s evolved a bit.
• They don’t want the second character to take as long as the first but it should take some investment of time to level and gear.
• Trinkets are tested by devs through both actual in-game testing and simulations, along with PTR data to determine the proper numbers.
• LFR is a real step in gearing for raiding following heroic dungeon content. Their hope is in 5.2 and subsequent tiers that won’t be the issue. Normal mode gear from previous tiers should be enough to go into the next tier at Normal mode.
• They don’t want to make an ability that guarantees someone a raid spot. Further the more cooldowns added overall, the greater the challenge placed on encounter designers.
• They are investigating ways to allow people transfer all of their characters from one realm to another as one way to handle the issue of low pop realms.
• Status of 5.3 – It will be another small patch like 5.1. It may happen “sooner than players are expecting.” 5.4 will be another big patch. They hope the smaller patch with new content will help reinvigorate players.
• “Enjoy all the dinosaurs.” – Ghostcrawler
• “All we are is dust in the wind.” – CM Zarhym

This week Rho asks EpicInsanity and Elizabella some Epic Questions about their podcast. More dev interviews are in the pipeline, two podcasts join EGO Networks, and much more!

Rho briefly explains in the Rolling Restart why your sub-90 alts and corpse runs in Pandaria will remain grounded for some time to come.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

WHOOPS! : The item level requirement for Throne of Thunder Raid Finder is 480 and -not- 490. That’s what happens when Rho doesn’t catch a typo on his show notes. Sorry!

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Podcast of the Week: Epic Questions

website: http://www.epicquestionspodcast.com/
Twitter: @Epic_Questions @Epic_Insanity @The_Elizabella
email: epicquestionspodcast@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Call to Auction, Twizzcast, Arcanum of Azeroth Roundtable, 30 Minute Cooldown, The Azeroth Perspective, The Training Dummies, gChat, Grand Old Podcast, Rawrcast, All Things Azeroth, GroupQuest, Hearthcast, Azeroth Pirate Radio(NEW), The Sundering, WoW Life Coach(NEW), WoW Uncensored, Tauren Think Tank, Something Suggestive, Twisted Nether Blogcast.

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Rho closes out the show by sharing his thoughts and frustration with the looting mechanics behind the tome which starts the Warlock green fire questline.

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Take the #WoWP5 Challenge at http://www.apaladinstale.com/?p=136

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance is hosted and sponsored by Safe Shark Hosting. Go to safesharkhosting.com to learn about their affordable blog and podcast hosting services.

Welcome to the extended, critical, happy Patch 5.2 launch spectacular!

This episode is over two and a half hours long to give you something to listen to during any possible extended realm maintenance this week. It’s a perfect opportunity to do a proper Convert to Raid interview along with a couple of bonus interviews with members of the extended WoW community. Enjoy the show!

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Podcast of the Week: Convert to Raid

website: http://converttoraid.com/
Twitter: @ConverttoRaid @PatKrane @The_Koltrane @the_solarflair
email: converttoraid@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

This is the full interview, divided into four parts during the show! The interview will be added to the archive next week.

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As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

Official patch 5.2 Round-Up page: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8713870/

Podcast News Segment #1: 30 Minute Cooldown, All Things Azeroth, Bitter & Salty, Crafting Azeroth, Arcanum of Azeroth Roundtable, Epic Questions Podcast, WoW Pet Battle Crew, Tauren Think Tank, GroupQuest, 5 WoW Things, My Epic Heals

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Bonus Interview #1: Sha of Happiness

website: shaofhappiness.org
Twitter: @ShaofHappiness
email: shaofhappiness@gmail.com

Catch the Sha of Happiness on Episode 46 of Darkmoon Herald later this week!

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Be sure to check out the developer interviews featured on The Instance, Twizzcast, Epic Podcast, and Legendary!

Podcast News Segment #2: Battle Pets with Alludra & Kephas, Casually Casual Cast, The Cross-Realm (NEW), Darkmoon Herald, Earthen Ring LORE Podcast, Follow the Leader, Twizzcast, Team Waffle Cast, WoW in the Morning, Warcraft Well Read

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

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Bonus Interview #2: Suzushiiro from Big Crits

website: bigcrits.com
Twitter: @bigcrits @suzushiiro
YouTube: youtube.com/bigcritsguild

Congrats to Big Crits for defeating Heroic Sha of Fear following the recording of this interview!

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Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

asparagus

Update (2/28 6:30pm) : The official interview round up page has been posted and can be found by clicking here!

But that’s not all I’m posting about today. I’m pretty sure 5.2 is dropping next week. So, with that in mind, check out a taste of what you’ll hear during the special extended episode of Realm Maintenance when 5.2 drops!

World of Warcast is back with weekly episodes, and Rho spends time with hosts Mike and Eric. Podcast News is full as always, including information on upcoming Developer interviews.

Rho briefly explains in the Rolling Restart why the final countdown to 5.2 has begun.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: World of Warcast

website: http://www.worldofwarcast.com/
Twitter: @worldofwarcast @starmike @ericrice
email: worldofwarcast@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Horde For Life, Low Pop WoW, 5 WoW Things, Let’s WoW (NEW), The Sundering, GroupQuest, Twizzcast, Caverns of Lore, But Wait, There’s Lore!, gChat, Tauren Think Tank, Your WoW Money, Warcraft Trolls, The Weekly Marmot, Convert to Raid, The Instance, Legendary, Epic Podcast.

Complete information on all 5.2 developer interviews can be found on realm-maintenance.com.

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Learn more about Auphonic

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Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

There will be a mix of audio interviews, text interviews, and transcripts.

You can find a round-up of all of the currently posted interviews by visiting the official WoW site here!

The following is a list of developers and sites currently lined up for interviews this week, as confirmed by Community Manager Zarhym. Realm Maintenance will update this post should there be any additions or changes to this information.

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Hend and Hotpox from The Training Dummies

The interview has been edited only for quality, and all questions and answers have been retained for this version. Thanks to Jan from Something Suggestive for her editing work.

All aboard the 5.2 hype train! This week Rho interviews The Training Dummies, introduces two new WoW podcasts, and asks members of the community what their plans are for the maintenance before 5.2 drops.

In this week’s Rolling Restart, Rho comments on the change of heart by the dev team regarding Valor Points going into 5.2.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: The Training Dummies

website: http://www.thetrainingdummies.com/
Twitter: @TrainingDummies @robcopeland @Hend_Horderlies
email: theshow@thetrainingdummies.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com later this week!

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Podcast News: Epic Podcast, Low Pop WoW (NEW), Vote2Kick, Emerald Dream, Warcraft Trolls, Sheep Moon, Holy Shatt, The AIE Podcast, Azeroth After Hours (NEW), Crafting Azeroth, Twizzcast, WoW in the Morning.

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Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

The following is taken direct from their email to Realm Maintenance and other podcasts. Whether you’re a podcaster or a podcastee I encourage you to mark your calendars and support this event when it comes around in several weeks.

If you’re part of a WoW podcast feel free to mention this event on your show as well as it does nothing but benefit a great charity and spread some love to both the WoW and SC2 community.

We would like to share with you that Epic Podcast will be doing a 24hr
live stream to raise money for Child’s Play from 10am Central time
Saturday April 6 until 10am Central time Sunday April 7.  The event
will be streamed live at twitch.tv/epicpodcast.

As far as content for the stream, we have a lot in the works.
However, some of it depends on participation from the community.  We
plan on fun runs through LFR with as many viewers as possible,
leveling some alts, perhaps some PvP, holding a pet battle tournament
as well as a Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm tournament, Starcraft 2
arcade matches, killing demons in Diablo 3, and slaying more demons
and zombies in The Secret World and possibly more (seriously, we have
24 hours to fill, it’s likely we’ll end up doing any number of
things).  We’d like to include as many people from the community as we
can in these events, playing with/against them as possible.

We encourage players to not be intimidated by the Starcraft tournament
as we intend it to be lower level play with no pressure (no pros
here).  Besides, it’s fun and it’s for charity!  Lig and Medi will be
casting the event and they’ve never done that before, so having never
played in a tournament is no excuse!

For the tournament events, we’re planning on giving away a MoP
collector’s edition, J!nx gift certificates, a Vampiric Batling Battle
Pet, Pet store mounts and pets, TCG loot codes, WoW game time,
donating to the charity on the winners’ behalf and possibly more!

We’d appreciate any promotion you could provide, and would welcome you
to join us on the stream, or preferably in game(s), during the event.

We’ll be releasing more information, as well as a schedule of events,
via our podcast, website, email and twitter as we approach the date of
the stream.  In the mean time, interested players can email
epicpodcast+hotsrules@gmail.com for Starcraft and
epicpodcast+petsrules@gmail.com for Pet Battles to get a rundown on
the rules we plan on using for the tournaments.

Thank you  for your time!

Lignar and Medicakes
Epic Podcast
epicpodcast.com
@epic_podcast

About Child’s Play (summarized from http://www.childsplaycharity.org/about):

Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to improving the
lives of children with toys and games in a network of over 70
hospitals worldwide. Over the years, the community has answered the
call and come together to raise millions of dollars.

Child’s Play works in two ways. With the help of hospital staff, we
set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, books, and other fun
stuff for kids.  By clicking on a hospital on the map on the charity’s
site, donors can view a wish list for that hospital and send a gift.

Child’s Play also receives cash donations throughout the year. With
those cash donations, we purchase new consoles, peripherals, games,
and more for hospitals and therapy facilities. These donations allow
for children to enjoy age-appropriate entertainment, interact with
their peers, friends, and family, and can provide vital distraction
from an otherwise generally unpleasant experience.

More information can be found at their site:
http://www.childsplaycharity.org

6 months and still going strong! This week Rho encourages you to get out and vote… on a blue post poll. Girls Gone WoW is the Podcast of the Week, and some last minute news on Monday requires some post-show hotfixes. Listen to the ENTIRE podcast or you’ll miss out!

In this week’s Rolling Restart, Rho brings up a post by Community Manager Zarhym that seeks player feedback on how interviews should be conducted with the dev team.

The post can be found here- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7855695533

Realm Maintenance encourages you to read this post in its entirety and vote on the attatched poll. Support the WoW podcasting community with your own words!

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: Girls Gone WoW

website: http://girlsgonewow.net
Twitter: @GGWShow @Lumineus @Ottahz @Silkyraven @GGWRoboto
email: sil@girlsgonewow.net
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at girlsgonewow.net as a future episode of the show! This interview will be archived at realm-maintenance.com a week after the show has aired.

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Podcast News: Blessing of Frost, Crafting Azeroth, GroupQuest, The Starting Zone, Twisted Nether Blogcast, Blizzplanet Weekly, The Instance, Hearthcast, Darkmoon Herald, GKick, Convert to Raid, Emerald Dream, Rawrcast, Grand Old Podcast.

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HOTFIXES?!

After the usual end of the show, Rho is back with breaking WoW news and a little more podcast news.

Post mentioned in this segment- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8608452/Preparing_to_Kill_a_King-2_11_2013
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Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Alludra and Kephas from Battle Pets with Alludra & Kephas

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Deededee from Sheep Moon

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

It’s Episode #25 and Rho is back this week to give you a double dose of Realm Maintenance. Two interviews for the price of one? Sold!

5.2 PTR adds a “wipe buff” to Raid Finder, and Rho ponders how necessary it is in the Rolling Restart.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week #1: Battle Pets with Alludra & Kephas

website: http://battlepet.net
Twitter: @Alludra_AIE @TheKephas
email: wowbattlepets@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com when it’s posted later in the week!

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Podcast of the Week #2: Sheep Moon

website: http://sheepmoon.com
Twitter: @sheep_moon @kolemsai
email: sheepmoonblog@gmail.com
livestream: twitch.tv/sheepmoon
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com when it’s posted later in the week!

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Podcast News: The Starting Zone, Mega Minute, Out of Mana, Bitter and Salty, Something Suggestive, Eviscerated Gaming Podcast, gchat & Middlefinger podcasts, Arcanum Roundtable, Leveling Azeroth, Vote2kick, Hearthcast, World of Warcast, All Things Azeroth, Warcraft Well Read, Obscurecast, Group Quest, GKick.

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Congratulations to the winner of last week’s contest! Keep listening to Realm Maintenance to learn about contests from all over the WoW podcasting community!

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Anatomy of a podcast: realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg10.mp3

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Twizz, Twig, and Reb from Twizzcast!

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

January keeps on delivering brand new WoW podcasts, and this week Rho introduces you to a few more of them following his interview with the hosts of Twizzcast. Did we mention you could win a code for a month of WoW game time too?

The Rolling Restart deals with how plenty of people in the raiding community are thunderstruck by the revelations of Thunderforged drops, including why Rho is concerned about it for reasons aside from the 10 vs. 25 raid size debate.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: Twizzcast

website: http://twizzcast.com
Twitter: @Twizzcast @TwizzleTank @TwiggyKT @TankThatReb
email: twizzcast@gmail.com
YouTube: youtube.com/twizzcast & youtube.com/TankThatReb
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

Catch the full version of the interview at realm-maintenance.com when it’s posted on Wednesday!

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Podcast News: The Addicted, Liquid WoW, Call to Auction, 30 Minute Cooldown, Tauren Think Tank, Clockwork Riot Litecast, Convert to Raid, Level 90 Undead Rogue (NEW), Outlandish, Your WoW Money, Group Quest, WoW Pet Battle Crew (NEW), Emerald Dream Podcast (NEW), Moonwell Dancers (NEW), Something Suggestive.

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Want to win a free month of WoW game time? Listen to the show for details!
Note: The Twitter hashtag to enter is #realm25

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Meagan and Ward of the Warcraft Trolls podcast!

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

It’s time meet some Warcraft Trolls in a tribe of their own this week as Rho continues to bring you the latest WoW podcast news, including a big announcement from Convert to Raid and a couple of listener emails.

The Rolling Restart addresses the lack of flying in the new areas introduce in 5.2. Is flying good for World of Warcraft?

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

Recent articles on the official WoW site mentioned in this week’s news segment-

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8445111/Developer_Watercooler_Encounter_Tuning_by_Watcher-1_17_2013

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8397168/PvP_Gear_in_52_and_Beyond-1_17_2013

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Podcast of the Week: Warcraft Trolls

website: http://www.trollcasts.com/category/warcrafttrolls/
Twitter: @MeaganTC @Wardisatwit
email: wctrolls@gmail.com
Find this show on Stitcher and iTunes!

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Podcast News: Training Dummies, A Question of Gluttony, Chaos Portal Podcast, Ctrl Alt WoW, Bind on Equip, Caverns of Lore, Rawrcast, Epic Questions, GroupQuest, Slash 2, WoW in the Morning, Grand Old Podcast, Tauren Think Tank, Casually Casual Cast, Sheep Moon, Darkmoon Herald, Team Waffle Cast, Convert to Raid

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Thanks to Snupsen and Khazou for their emails this week. You too can have your email read and answered on the show!

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

Catch Rho as a guest host of Ctrl Alt WoW and Arcanum Roundtable this week!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Molsan and Slainte of the Bitter and Salty podcast!

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

A new year continues to bring brand-new WoW podcasts. The Catch of the Day… er, Podcast of the Week is Bitter & Salty, and Molsan from that podcast tells Rho when Blizzcon 2013 will happen (unoficially, of course.)

Check out the new Podcast Livestream Guide at realm-maintenance.com/liveguide to find when your favorite WoW podcast records their show!

The Rolling Restart addresses the removal of the Item Upgrade NPC in planned for 5.2 and why Rho thinks that may be a bit too extreme a move.

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWhead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

WoWhead’s recent 5.2 PTR update articles

http://www.wowhead.com/news=209883/5-2-ptr-new-legendary-and-isle-of-giants-quests-zandalari-rare-spawns

http://www.wowhead.com/news=209945/5-2-ptr-new-elite-and-and-collectible-battle-pets

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Podcast of the Week: Bitter & Salty

website: http://bitterandsalty.com
Twitter: @Molsan @SaltySlainte @bitterandsalty
email: podcast@bitterandsalty.com

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Podcast News: WoWphiles, A Paladin’s Tale (new), Vote2Kick, Out of Mana (new), Twizzcast, Your WoW Moneycast (new), Tauren Think Tank, Warcraft Lounge, Epic Podcast, The Geek Domain, Convert to Raid, Horde House.

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow Rho on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 3pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Here’s the full version of the interview I had with Jeppy of WoWcast!

As always with these extended versions very little editing is done, so pardon any pauses or such that might come up!

You can find this page always at realm-maintenance.com/liveguide or by clicking the “Podcast Livestream Guide” button at the top menu.

This is a work in progress but is fairly comprehensive. I’ll be updating the guide on a regular basis as I receive more info.

Enjoy!

This week the show kicks off the new year with news on three new WoW podcasts and Rho interviews Jeppy to discuss a new beginning for the WoWcast show itself.

The Rolling Restart tackles the question of whether or not we’re getting a new raiding tier “too soon.”

Catch the official patch 5.2 teaser trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb2bTUVREus

As always the show takes you Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: WoWcast

website: http://thewowcast.com
Twitter: @WoWcast @eljeppy
email: mail@thewowcast.com

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Podcast News: The Instance, Epic Questions, Stopcast, WoW in the Morning, Rawrcast, Warcraft Well Read, Chaos Portal Podcast, All Things Azeroth, Horde For Life, Hunting Party Podcast, Team Waffle Podcast, The Starting Zone, Sheep Moon, GroupQuest, The Mana Cooler, Legendary.

Are you part of a WoW podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Leave a voicemail for the show by clicking on the “Send Voicemail” box located on the right side of realm-maintenance.com!

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

As I mentioned in the intro to that show, some shows were picked for milestones while others were chosen somewhat randomly. There are a number of podcasts I was unable to cover due to limiting myself to one podcast per week. If your favorite show wasn’t listed don’t be offended. Odds are I’ve made a point to include them on next year’s Yearly Maintenance (yep, I’m that crazy.)

Many of you sent in requests for which specific podcasts and episode numbers I used for Yearly Maintenance. The following is the list of those clips in the order that they were heard on Yearly Maintenance.

I hope you have a great new year and I’m looking forward to giving you more podcast info in the months ahead.

-Rho

Yearly Maintenance included clips from these WoW podcasts: 

• GroupQuest #52
•  Middlefinger Podcast 38
• Horde For Life #29
• Girls Gone WoW #41
• Something Suggestive #1
• Blessing of Frost #50
• Outlandish #182
• Hearthcast #107
• Rawrcast #150
• Rigarmorty’s Blight Night #1
• Earthen Ring L.O.R.E. #11
• Darkmoon Herald #1
• Legendary #70
• 5 WoW Things #52
• Liquid WoW 54
• My Epic Heals #27
• Holy Shatt #34
• Clockwork Riot Lite Cast #1
• Stopcast #93
• AIE Podcast #100
• Weekly Marmot #134
• The Azeroth Perspective #1
• WoW Insider #246
• gChat #1
• Horde House Ep. 65
• Call to Auction #29
• Crafting Azeroth #1
• Convert to Raid #52
• Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas #1
• The Mana Cooler #150
• Gkick #49
• Obscurecast Season 4 Episode 19
• Realm Maintenance #0
• Warcraft Less Travelled #73
• Eviscerated Gaming Podcast #16
• WoWphiles #62
• Twizzcast #22
• Grand Old Podcast #64
• Arcanum of Azeroth #25
• Caverns of Lore #0
• The Sundering #100
• Hunting Party Podcast #148
• Tauren Think Tank #25
• All Things Azeroth #317
• Bind on Equip #187
• The Lorewalkers #1
• 30 Minute Cooldown #6
• Instance #300
• Epic Podcast #100
• Bitter & Salty #11
• Warcraft Trolls #17
• Ctrl Alt WoW #300

For the location of these shows use the Podcast Directory button at the top menu.

Happy New Year from Realm Maintenance! Enjoy this four hour marathon show of clips from 52 different WoW podcasts as we take a trip from Week 1 to Week 52 of 2012.

The show will return to its regular format next week!

The clips contained in this special are the creative property of those podcasts, and no copyright infringement is intended. This compilation has been put together to promote the included podcasts and WoW podcasting in general.

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

No Easter Egg outside of the show… but if you listen to the entire episode you may have at a Soul of the Aspects pet code! (NA realms only)

A very small taste of what’s coming on Tuesday. Here’s the intro for Episode #20 – Yearly Maintenance.

Show will be up at 11:59pm Eastern time on Dec. 31… when the countdown ends, the new year and Yearly Maintenance begins.

By the way, don’t be surprised if I sneak another contest into this marathon show.

Until then, have a safe weekend and New Year’s Eve!

Happy Holidays from Realm Maintenance! This week the show gives you a feast of holiday wishes from podcasters, bloggers, and YouTubers from around the community as Rho interviews Ctrl Alt WoW which celebrates 300 episodes and 6 years of podcasting this week!

The Rolling Restart and Around the WoW in 80 Seconds covers just a taste of what 5.2 will have to offer on the PTR in January.

Official patch 5.2 PTR notes can be found at http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8226552/Patch_52_PTR_Patch_Note_Preview-12_21_2012

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for these segments.

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Podcast of the Week: Ctrl Alt WoW

website: http://ctrlaltwow.com
Twitter: @CtrlAltWoW @Aprillian @Ashayo @eljeppy @Tedra64
email: ctrlaltwow@gmail.com

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Podcast News: Twizzcast, Warcraft Lounge, The Instance, Legendary, Leveling Azeroth, Bind on Equip, Power Word: Gold, All Things Azeroth, The Training Dummies, Convert to Raid, Double O Podcast, Tauren Think Tank, Rawrcast, Stopcast

Catch Episode #20 of Realm Maintenance on January 1, 2013 for the “Yearly Maintenance” special!

Special thanks to those behind the three dozen different submissions for this week’s holiday special!

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Just because it’s Winter Veil doesn’t mean the show can’t have an easter egg… or is it Winter Veil Egg Nog?
Anyways… if you want a chuckle and want to hear all the voices in Rho’s head, go here:
realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg_nog.mp3

For every show you have made or listened to in the WoW podcast community.

For every show of trust.

For every opportunity given to a guy who was just someone that plays World of Warcraft… and still is.

For every moment of fellowship.

For every post read, every comment made, every message retweeted.

For making my holiday season amazing by doing what you do best and inspiring me to do the same.

Episode 19 is dedicated to you.

Merry Christmas, and all the best for the new year,
-Brian
aka Rho

Here’s the full version of the interview I conducted with Rewt and Freckleface from Hearthcast!

As always with these extended versions only minimal editing is done, so pardon any awkward pauses or such that might come up!

Realm Maintenance will be releasing another show on Tuesday, December 25th. Not even Xmas can stop Realm Maintenance!

If you have time between today and Monday at noon Pacific, I would be forever grateful if you could send me a sound clip wishing listeners a happy holiday season. Word it however you wish, I’m not picky though I would appreciate it being kept clean!  

Please send your submission in mp3 format to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. I’d prefer no background music as I’ll likely add my own in when I produce the show.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and putting up with my blatant solicitation and Happy Holidays!

- Rho 

This week Rho casually talks about the Stoppies and interviews Rewt and Freckleface from the podcast for the casual WoW player known as Hearthcast.

If you’re interested in the Brawler’s Guild check out WoWhead’s guide at: wowhead.com/news=208937/patch-5-1-brawlers-guild-guide

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts in the aftermath of Stoppies nominations and voting.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8091053/51_and_Beyond_Developer_Q__As-12_10_2012

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Customer Support Q&A Recap: http://us.battle.net//wow/en/blog/8134379

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Podcast of the Week: Hearthcast

website: http://hearthcast.com
Twitter: @hearthcast
email: contribute@hearthcast.com

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Podcast News: The Azeroth Perspective, Regression, Stunlocked, Stopcast, Follow the Leader, Tauren Think Tank, Holy Shatt, The Training Dummies, Convert to Raid, Group Quest, Twisted Nether Blogcast/Twizzcast

Catch Episode #20 of Realm Maintenance on January 1, 2013 for the “Yearly Maintenance” special!

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

The fleets have made landfall, and it’s time to find out why Rich Fisher is Horde for Life. Somewhere in the process it starts raining Cinder Kittens, and the Stoppies nominees are announced.

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts following last week’s interviews with the WoW dev team.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8091053/51_and_Beyond_Developer_Q__As-12_10_2012

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Today’s fast patch info: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8091050/World_of_Warcraft_Fast_Patch_510A_Notes-12_10_2012
Recent Hotfixes can be found here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7922045/Patch_51_Hotfixes_-_December_3-12_5_2012

Learn about Lissanna’s crowdfunding endeavor toward autism research at restokin.com

Podcast of the Week: Horde For Life

website: http://hordeforlife.com
Twitter: @HFLPodcast
email: hordeforlifepodcast@gmail.com

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Podcast News: Tauren Think Tank, Chaos Portal Podcast, Darkmoon Herald, Convert to Raid, Sheep Moon Week in Review, ClockworkRiot LiteCast, Team Waffle Podcast, Grand Old Podcast, Twizzcast, Girls Gone WoW, GroupQuest, Arcanum of Azeroth, The Training Dummies, Something Suggestive.

For more information on the Stoppies, go to http://realm-maintenance.com/stoppies-2012

Catch Episode #20 of Realm Maintenance on January 1, 2013 for the “Yearly Maintenance” special!

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

The nominees for Best Podcast include Convert to Raid, Darkmoon Herald, Girls Gone WoW, Slash 2, Stopcast, Sundering, and Ventchat. Congratulations to those podcasts and good luck this week as votes are sent in.

Click on the Stoppies 2012 button at the top menu to find out more, including the link to click on to go vote for the Stoppies. As I mentioned previously, these are not all of the categories for the Stoppies and there are a number of other categories that can be comical or just off-color in nature, with a few of the categories containing mature content.

First off, before saying anything else I want to thank J, Mike, and Bryter for all the work they’ve put into the Stoppies both last year and this year. It takes a fair deal of time to do something like this and I appreciate that effort. I have been and will continue to be a supporter of what they’re doing.

Now… it’s time to give my thoughts and observations about all of this, which I only decided to do at the last minute given the feedback and messages I’ve seen in the first hours of voting.

The Stoppies is a WoW Podcast Awards show that while on paper is an excellent idea, has some extreme challenges to overcome if it’s to be recognized and respected by the majority of the WoW podcasting and listener community. One could also ask the question of whether or not the Stoppies need to have that level of recognition to begin with.

I’ve seen responses that some people aren’t happy with the inclusion of the categories that are far less “serious” or important compared to categories like Best Podcast, Best Format, Best Voice, and so on. A number of people see those other categories in a negative light, and in some cases it has caused listeners I know of to decide to abstain from voting.

Are those categories a bad thing? Is it wrong to have an awards show where you vote for who the Worst is in something or anything similar?

On its own… no. I think there’s definitely a place for those awards, and I think there’s an audience and community those awards are designed for. There are plenty of people out there who can understand that those awards don’t necessarily have much value if any.

They’re a source of comedy and entertainment, and ideally if you’re nominated for an award that roasts you then you should be able to laugh at yourself. And some of us can laugh at ourselves easily. I personally consider myself one of those people. If I was nominated for Worst Voice, I could chuckle with it and live with it.

That said, there are those of us who have difficulty with that, and there are podcasters and podcast listeners out there that have trouble respecting a WoW podcast awards show when the good is mixed with the bad or even the ugly.

I think the hosts of Stopcast have had nothing but the best of intentions when it comes to the Stoppies. The Stoppies are there for fun. At the same time they’re also trying to give recognition to some great shows out there, while playfully jabbing at others. It’s kind of like combining the Oscars with the Razzies, which is an awards show which does nothing but award the Worst in movies.

When I talked to them on last week’s show they made that point clear, stating they’re trying to have some fun with the categories and they certainly can’t be blamed for misleading people on what the Stoppies are about.

So a couple of questions remain after all of this: Does the community want something different? Should there be a set of awards designed to be independent from the Stoppies that does nothing but give recognition and props? It’s food for thought, to be sure. These questions don’t need to be answered right away, and in the future I can guarantee I’ll be talking with the guys at Stopcast and discussing the possibility of two separate entities of podcast awards that can separately praise and roast your favorite WoW shows and hosts.

In the meantime, enjoy what’s out there right now, and vote for the Stoppies, foo.

As promised, here’s the full interview with WoWmartiean from wowmartiean.com

You can find his YouTube page and anything and everything else through that new hub site.

As always, these full interviews are done with very minimal editing or post production. The main reason for this is due to personal time constraints, though I also think it’s interesting for you guys to hear how things can change from the initial interview to what you hear on the show.

As promised, here’s the full interview with J, Mike, and Bryter from Stopcast podcast.

Check out the Stoppies page on this site by clicking the Stoppies 2012 button at the top menu.

As always, these full interviews are done with very minimal editing or post production. The main reason for this is due to personal time constraints, though I also think it’s interesting for you guys to hear how things can change from the initial interview to what you hear on the show.

As promised, here’s the full interview with Kevin and Apsana from the Darkmoon Herald podcast.

As always, these full interviews are done with very minimal editing or post production. The main reason for this is due to personal time constraints, though I also think it’s interesting for you guys to hear how things can change from the initial interview to what you hear on the show.

That said I did borrow some of Darkmoon Herald’s sound clips for a special session of Dunk Tank Trivia.

Enjoy the interview, and check out Darkmoon Herald #35 this week, which kicks off with an interview of WoW Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak!

Interviews will be conducted over the next two days so you can expect these sites and shows to make announcements when their content is posted.

Scheduled interviews include:

• Tom Chilton, Game Director via Arena Junkies
• Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer via Convert to Raid and MethodWoW
• Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer via Darkmoon Herald and Wowhead
• Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer via Curse Entertainment and Warcraft Pets
• Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, Lead Systems Designer via All Things Azeroth, Legendary, and WoWjuju
• Cory Stockton & Dave Kosak (joint interview) via WoW Insider

Thanks to Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym for providing this information!

With both the Darkmoon Faire and Stoppies nominations in full swing, Realm Maintenance interviews the hosts of the Darkmoon Herald and Stopcast.

The Rolling Restart covers the recent changes to the timing of daily and weekly events on North American realms.

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Recent Hotfixes can be found here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7922045/Patch_51_Hotfixes_-_December_3-12_3_2012

Podcast of the Week #1: Darkmoon Herald

website: http://darkmoonherald.com
Twitter: @DarkmoonHerald @KevinOldScratch @apsana
email: podcast@darkmoonherald.com

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Podcast News: Convert to Raid, Darkmoon Herald, All Things Azeroth, Legendary, Group Quest, Arcanum of Azeroth, Outlandish Podcast, Eviscerated Gaming Podcast, Epic Podcast, Holy Shatt, Warcraft Trolls, 30 Minute Cooldown, Blessing of Frost.

Check back at realm-maintenance.com later in the week to find out where to find more developer interviews as information on them becomes available.

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Podcast of the Week #2: Stopcast

website: http://stopcast.net
Twitter: @J_Stopcast @Mike_Stopcast @Bryterside
email: stopcast@gmail.com

For more information on the Stoppies, go to http://realm-maintenance.com/stoppies-2012 or bit.ly/Stoppies

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

It’s time for the Extended Maintenance so Blizzard doesn’t have to. This show clocks in at almost 2 hours and is dedicated to all hosts and listeners, past and present of The Instance, which hits Episode #300 on Nov. 30th.

The Rolling Restart explains why this show is being done, and why Rho is not ashamed to be a fanboy of The Instance.

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The Instance Segment Creator Roundtable

Thanks to Barb, HuntsTheWind, and Kephas for participating in the roundtable segment at the start of the show.

Follow all three on Twitter at @MissMulgra, @HuntsTheWind, and @TheKephas

—————–

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Thanks to wowprogress.com for the invaluable data collected there!

5.1 Patch notes can be found here- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7922040/51_Landfall_Patch_Notes-11_27_2012

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Podcast of the Week : The Instance

website: http://theinstance.net
Twitter: @instanceshow @williedills @scottjohnson @The_T
email: theinstance@gmail.com

Thanks to Dills for being on the show this week!

Special thanks to Matthew Oxley for his amazing music featured on The Instance and used for this episode. Find more of his work at matthewoxley.com.

Thanks also to Sayomara from Grand Old Podcast for contributing some questions for this interview.

Feel free to send your congratulatory messages to the show this week!

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Podcast News: Horde for Life, Casually Casual Cast, Regression, All Things Azeroth, Tauren Think Tank, Bitter and Salty, Sheep Moon Week In Review, Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas

SC2: Heart of the Swarm beta are still being given away. There’s a few left so check out the live chat of a WoW podcast and Rho may drop one there!

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Special Community Interview: WoWmartiean

Find Joe’s site at wowmartiean.com, the new central hub for his YouTube content, upcoming podcast, and much more!

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Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Take part in the Stoppies, an annual WoW podcast awards show! Read the post on realm-maintenance.com for more information on how to nominate your favorite podcasters and shows.

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

The Stoppies is at its core an awards show for WoW podcasts created and run by the crew of Stopcast.

There’s a large number of categories for these awards. While a good number of them are comical in nature, the first bunch of the awards covers categories such as Best Podcast, Best Guest, Best Production, and so on.

As a fan of WoW podcasts in general I’m a strong supporter of these awards. There’s no prize behind them. No trophies. Just some recognition and e-props to the podcasts out there putting out some great content.

I encourage all of you to send in your nominations over the next two weeks. While many of the categories could be considered explicit or satirical, I’m going to ask you guys to at the very least focus on the first eight categories.

The page with all of the categories can be found HERE (warning: some explicit content)

If you just want to participate in the “Best of” part for nominations, that’s fine too.

Here’s what you do:

Copy this list, put the name of the podcast or person you’re nominating next to it, and email the nominations to stopcast@gmail.com

• Best Podcast
• Best Ensemble Cast
• Best Solo Podcaster
• Best Supporting Podcaster
• Best Format
• Best Guest
• Best Production
• Best Live Show

Remember, send these nominations to stopcast@gmail.com, not to me.

Nominate who you feel deserves it. Of course, I’ll be happy if myself or any of my work is nominated, but I’m not begging for it. I’m still a new kid on the block here folks.

Nominations will be accepted for two weeks, followed by one week of voting. The Stoppies Awards show will be recorded on Dec. 17th.

Please show your support for these awards and the WoW podcasting community by participating, even if it’s just in the eight categories I mentioned here. And hey, if you want to nominate for every category, go for it! Who knows, maybe I’ll win the award for Sexiest Voice….!

… nah.

This segment originally aired during Episode 32 of Something Suggestive.

If you have questions or feedback about this segment email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

If you have questions or feedback about this segment email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

There’s plenty to be thankful for this week as the show serves up a feast of WoW podcast news with a GKick interview to wash it down.

The Rolling Restart covers the Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm release date announcement and the Baneling pet that can be obtained in WoW from purchasing the Digital Deluxe edition.

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

WoWhead Pilgrim’s Bounty Guide- http://www.wowhead.com/news=208337/pilgrims-bounty-november-18-november-25-guide

Podcast of the Week : GKick / GQuick

website: http://gkick.net
Twitter: @GKickNetwork @GKickPerry @GKick_Tor @GKickHya @Alicara_ @PetBattleLeague
email: pr@gkick.net

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Podcast News: All Things Azeroth, Twizzcast, Fel-tron, GroupQuest, Warcraft Less Travelled, Caverns of Lore, A Question of Gluttony, WoWcast, Arcanum of Azeroth Roundtable, AIE Podcast, Tauren Think Tank, The Addicted, The Weekly Marmot, Heals and Headshots, The Chaos Portal, The Sundering, The Hunting Party, The Training Dummies

Listen for details on how you can win a beta key to the SC2: Heart of the Swarm beta!

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

Sometimes, Rho is full of fail. Here, have an egg with your Thanksgiving episode!

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg8.mp3

This segment originally aired during Episode 31 of Something Suggestive.

This segment originally aired during Episode 30 of Something Suggestive.

It’s an epic show with an epic amount of podcast news and an Epic Podcast featured this week!

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts on the new “Fansites & Other Resources” post on the General Discussion forum.

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Podcast of the Week : Epic Podcast

website: http://epicpodcast.com
Twitter: @Lignar @Medicakes @epic_podcast
email: epicpodcast@gmail.com

Epic Podcast records live Wednesdays at 9pm Eastern.
—————-

Podcast News: Tauren Think Tank, Vote2Kick, Twizzcast, Double O Podcast, 30 Minute Cooldown, The Sundering, Stopcast, Middle Finger Podcast, Grand Old Podcast, Hearthcast

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

You can also find Rho as a co-host of All Things Azeroth every week. Find the show at allthingsazeroth.com

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Realm Maintenance invites you to check the WoW podcast subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/wowpodcasts

This is the full interview with Jan of Something Suggestive.

If there are certain podcasters you’d be interested in me interviewing, send in your own suggestions (see what I did there?) to RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Mists of Pandailya? Don’t be fooled by what the title suggests, though you can find out why the title is there as this week the show suggests Something Suggestive as the Podcast of the Week!

The Rolling Restart covers the entry barrier to the Brawler’s Guild.

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Dev Watercooler Blog: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7702178/

Podcast of the Week : Something Suggestive

website: http://somethingsuggestive.com
Twitter: @Jangasm
email: somethingsuggestive@yahoo.com

Something Suggestive #30 is available right now!
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Podcast News: Girls Gone WoW, Warcraft Trolls, GQuick/GKick, The Lorewalkers, WoWphiles, Rawrcast, Darkmoon Herald, The Mana Cooler, gChat, Convert to Raid

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

This segment originally aired during Episode 29 of Something Suggestive.

With a little help from Moogyver from Spare Parts, Rho and the Achieveatron are reunited in time for the world event of Hallow’s End.

Listen to Episode 30 of Something Suggestive as Rho and the Achieveatron go to market.

This is from Convert to Raid #68, essentially marking the start of the second “season” of the segment as it changes focus to dealing with specific raid encounters.

If you have questions or feedback about this segment email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

This is the full 30+ minute long interview with Josh Allen aka Lore of Legendary.

Congratulations to Gamebreaker TV and Legendary on reaching the 100 episode milestone this week!

Apologies for the less than stellar audio quality. A backup recording had to be used for this post.

Episode 11 is a Legendary show in more ways than once as Rho interviews Josh Allen aka Lore from Tankspot, and a big announcement is made.

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s reaction to the 2 week delay of Terrace of the Endless Spring.

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Podcast of the Week : Legendary

Congratulations on reaching 100 episodes this week!

website: http://www.gamebreaker.tv/legendary-show-page/
Twitter: @gamebreakertv @devolore
email: submit@gamebreaker.tv

The Weekly Marmot and PST can be found at- http://www.youtube.com/user/ZAMOfficial
More content from Lore also available at- http://www.youtube.com/user/devomorph

Catch the full interview on realm-maintenance.com starting Wednesday! You’ll learn more about the evolution of Tankspot, and Josh’s thoughts on the first month of Mists of Pandaria.
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Podcast News: Arcanum of Azeroth, Team Waffle Podcast, The Training Dummies, My Epic Heals, Stopcast, Hearthcast, Ventchat, Eviscerated Gaming Podcast, Rigarmorty’s Blight Night

Best wishes to Shade as she departs All Things Azeroth this week
For more on the big announcement in this show, go to the “Realm Status : All Things” article on realm-maintenance.com

Catch Rho as a guest host on The Sundering #103

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Maybe Remghar of the TTT was too trusting when he left the door open to his house last Saturday. What happens when Rho sneaks in, Ghostface mask and all?
Happy Halloween from Realm Maintenance and Tauren Think Tank!

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg7.mp3

I knew this day was coming a short time before everyone else found out. Following episode #315 Medros and I had a chat on Skype that felt like it lasted an hour even though it took only 5 minutes.

I couldn’t believe what I heard when he asked me to be a co-host of the show. To be honest it’s still a bit surreal to me that this is actually happening.

Four months ago I was just a novice WoW and Diablo 3 blogger who loved podcasts and wanted to do something a little different with my blog. The changes that have come since then and the opportunities I’ve been given have been truly remarkable.

I won’t be the only new host on the show. Right now we’re still in the works of figuring that all out. I’m in agreement with Medros that the show could use a third voice as it moves forward, and you’ll see that at the very least in the form of guest hosts such as WoW machinima artist and former podcaster Nananea who will be on the Nov. 5th episode.

With All Things Azeroth recording on Monday nights, does that mean Realm Maintenance is in any jeopardy of delays or worse? Not at all.

So here’s a bit of what happens behind the scenes. I tend to write the “script” for the show on Sundays. By that point I’ve already recorded and edited the interview portion of the show which is half the battle right there. When 3pm Eastern comes on Monday, I check for last minute edits to make due to breaking news or such, and then record and edit the show. By the time All Things Azeroth is in pre-show I have Realm Maintenance ready to publish just after midnight Eastern time.

If anything, working on Realm Maintenance helps a ton in preparing for any other show I might be on. All the news I comb through and the podcasts I listen to in the past week help give me some more insight as to what’s going on in the community. Outside of the couple of hours of recording the show and perhaps researching a trivia question to ask, it’s not really much extra work on my part to co-host.

Will All Things Azeroth be the same as it has been? Absolutely not, that’s really just impossible in my opinion. I’m not Shade, and I could never replace what she brought to the show. What I can do is do my best to bring an equal level of energy and passion for World of Warcraft in my own way.

I look forward to this new chapter, and I invite all of you to come along for the ride.

This is from Convert to Raid #67, essentially marking the start of the second “season” of the segment as it changes focus to dealing with specific raid encounters.

I’m not sure just yet if there will be a new segment each and every week as I might try to pace the segment to come a week after CtR’s coverage of a boss encounter during their segment. We’ll see how it all goes.

If you have questions or feedback about this segment email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

This segment originally aired during Episode 28 of Something Suggestive.

With the Achieveatron still offline, Rho finds a stand-in sidekick in “Cheevo” the Personal World Destroyer.

Pet battles are the center of discussion this time, and if you want some quick achievement points in the new system, look no further than here!

Listen to Episode 29 of Something Suggestive for a very special Achieveatron.

This is the full 30+ minute long interview with Rem and Jules of the Tauren Think Tank.

There’s no recorded intro from me this week as I’m a little under the weather, but fret not, I’ll be back in action very soon.

There’s information here that the co-hosts have never really gone into on the show before and I was very happy with how the interview turned out.

Check out Episode #25 of their show which is out this week and you can learn how to win a Winged Guardian mount.

Next week is going to be big for so many reasons. There’s a big announcement coming, and I look forward to sharing it with all of you.

It’s been a relatively slow news week. Time to take a dunk into the Tauren Think Tank!

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts on manaflask.com’s interviews with Method and Paragon. Is Method the better guild, or does DREAM Paragon’s 10-man World First put that claim to rest?

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

This week’s Podcast of the Week is Tauren Think Tank

website: taurenthinktank.com
Twitter: @TaurenThinkTank @JulesRPG @Remghar
email: questions@taurenthinktank.com

Catch the full interview on realm-maintenance.com starting Wednesday! You’ll hear interesting facts about the show that Rem and Jules have never mentioned before.
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Podcast News: All Things Azeroth, BlizzGONE, Middle Finger Podcast, Grand Old Podcast, 5 WoW Things, Hunting Party Podcast, Triumph, The Training Dummies

Catch Rho as a guest host on Arcanum of Azeroth #28

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

No eggs this week, though I expect we’ll definitely find something next Tuesday!

Welcome to a new installment of the Achieveatron. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?!

With Something Suggestive back from hiatus, these segments are back underway… but all is not happiness and rainbows for Rho when the activation of Mists of Pandaria overloads the Achieveatron’s circuits.

Nevertheless, there are achievements to hunt, and Rho talks about how you can snag some quick achievements in the new scenario system.

The story of the Achieveatron upgrade continues over the next two segments so keep your eyes here or on Something Suggestive for future episodes!

This is the full 30+ minute long interview with Stompalina and Hafrot of the Rawrcast show.

Rawrcast was one of the first shows I started listening to when I was exposed to WoW podcasts. I love the chemistry of the show, the interaction with the live chat audience, and the fact that when all is said and done, they do what they want.

Next week Tauren Think Tank will be my guests on the show. See you Tuesday!

Rho interviews the hosts of Rawrcast in the wake of 5.1 being released on the PTR.

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts on the potential spoilers contained with datamined sound files in 5.1. Don’t worry, no specific spoilers will be mentioned!

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

Hotfixes can be found at http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7207170
Windsong and Elemental Force information can be found at http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6893549789

This week’s Podcast of the Week is Rawrcast

website: rawrcast.com
Twitter: @Rawrcast @Stompalina @Hafrot
email: hugesack@rawrcast.com

Catch the full uncensored interview on realm-maintenance.com starting Wednesday!
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Podcast News: Bind on Equip, Group Quest, Eviscerated Gaming Podcast, Blizzgone 2012 (The Instance/Convert To Raid), WoW Uncensored, Liquid WoW Podcast, Twisted Nether Blogcast

Catch Rho as a guest host on The Sundering #101 and Something Suggestive #27

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
and you don’t mess around with Rho’s favorite Xmas movie.
(Bleeps ahoy!)

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg6.mp3

(from The Sundering #101)

This is from Convert to Raid #65, concluding the 3 part series on Raid Preparation and bringing Season 1 of The Dojo to a close.

Don’t worry though, The Dojo won’t be gone for long. In just a couple of weeks the segment shifts gears as Season 2 discusses the differences between specific encounters on Raid Finder and Normal mode.

While I hadn’t mentioned the site when I originally recorded this segment, I also recommend going to pardeuxraids.com for raid strategy.

You can expect to hear The Dojo return with Convert to Raid 67 or 68.

If you have questions or feedback about this segment email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

This is from Convert to Raid #64, continuing my 3-part series of segments discussing how to prepare for Normal mode content.

This is the full 47 minute long interview with Ceraphus, Rayfyst, and Xia of The Sundering.

While 95% of this interview is clean, there are a select few points where there is some explicit language. Funny enough, two of those instances were from myself. Consider yourself warned.

I have interviews for the next few weeks already set up, and I think you’re gonna like them. Rawrcast will be on next week with the full interview here again on Wednesday.

You may have noticed the top menu now has an Interviews button. By Thursday or Friday that page will be ready to go, and you’ll be able to find my full interviews from previous weeks archived there for ease of access.

Thanks again for your support of the show. If there’s a show you’d love for me to get an interview with feel free to leave me feedback and I’ll do what I can if the interest is there.

Speaking of interviews, I encourage all of you to check out Grand Old Podcast if you haven’t done so already. Sayomara has a ton of great interviews with podcasters past and present there.

This is from Convert to Raid #63, starting a 3 segment series on tips for preparing for Normal mode raiding in Mists of Pandaria. This was produced days before the launch of the expansion.

Breaking a bit from my usual routine, the following two parts will be posted here on Thursday and Friday.

The Sundering #100 and news on several new WoW podcasts are the highlight of this week’s Realm Maintenance.

The Rolling Restart covers Rho’s thoughts on the reputation grind in Mists of Pandaria. Do more changes need to be made?

As always the show goes around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds. Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

This week’s Podcast of the Week is The Sundering

website: thesundering.net
Twitter: @TheSundering
email: thesunderingpodcast@gmail.com

Catch the full uncensored interview on realm-maintenance.com starting Wednesday!
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Podcast News: Caverns of Lore, Convert to Raid, 30 Minute Cooldown, Tauren Think Tank, The Elusive Brew, Twizzcast, Bitter and Salty, Darkmoon Herald (EGO Networks Roundtable)

Having trouble finding The Elusive Brew? Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4obPGRaitkI

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

In a parallel universe, the Podcast of the Week interview went horribly wrong and Rho calls The Sundering to talk about it while congratulating them on 100 episodes. Sounds like an easter egg to me!

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg5.mp3

Sorry for the delay in posting this. Pandaria’s had me distracted just a bit!

This is from Convert to Raid #62 and briefly introduces new raiders to some of the more popular addons for raiding.

Dojo #8-10 is a three-part series covering the basic of preparing for raid encounters, and all three segments will be posted next week starting on Wednesday.

After that The Dojo will be on a short hiatus for a couple of weeks from Convert to Raid but will return in late October/early November as the segment shifts focus to describe the differences between LFR and Normal on specific raid encounters.

Enjoy!

The following is the entire interview with Rigarmorty of Rigarmorty’s Blight Night. This interview is just a little longer than the show version, though does provide a bit more information on what podcasts Rigarmorty listens to and just why the podcast has an explicit tag even when the show is mostly clean most of the time.

Speaking of which, if you love these interviews you’ll love next week’s extended interview with the hosts of The Sundering. What you hear on next Tuesday’s show will only be about 10 or so minutes out of a 47 minute interview. That full interview will be on the site about a week from today.

Have a good weekend!

The show rolls on as realms go through rolling restarts one week after the release of Mists of Pandaria.

The Rolling Restart: Rho’s first impressions of Mists of Pandaria.

Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Hotfixes for Mists of Pandaria can be found at-

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7207170/Patch_505_Hotfixes_-9_28_2012

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: An interview with Rigarmorty of Rigarmorty’s Blight Night

website: rigarmorty.blogspot.com
Twitter: @Rigarmorty
email: rigarmorty@gmail.com

—————-

Podcast News: Tauren Think Tank, Twizzcast, Arcanum of Azeroth, Video Game Outsiders, Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas, Warcraft Trolls

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

No easter egg this week. (No, really, I mean it!) But there are plenty to be found in Pandaria!

The following is the entire interview with Medros of All Things Azeroth. The full interview was my largest interview yet, and there’s plenty of interesting bits to hear that weren’t fully covered in Ep. #6.

As with all my extended interviews, this interview is included with little to no editing. You have been warned

Enjoy!

The following is the entire interview with Kevin and Breja of Crafting Azeroth. There was quite a lot that was left out of the edited version, including a fair bit of talk on the impact of cross realm zones as it applies to crafting.

The extended All Things Azeroth interview will be up on Friday.

Enjoy!

The Mists have parted. Welcome to Pandaria and an extended episode of Realm Maintenance!

The Rolling Restart: The ability to “Appear Offline” is on the horizon.

Check the recent Realm Status article on realm-maintenance.com to find links to all of last week’s Blizzard developer interviews

Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2932-Best-Buy-Developer-Q-A

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

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Podcast of the Week Part 1: An interview with Breja and Kevin of the Crafting Azeroth podcast.

website: craftingazeroth.podbean.com
Twitter: @The_Breja @BKCrafting
email: craftingazeroth@gmail.com

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Podcast News: 5 WoW Things, Horde House, The Sundering, Power Word: Gold, Vote2Kick, Epic Podcast, GroupQuest

Hear more of Rho when he guests on Twizzcast, Blessing of Frost, and Holy Shatt

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

—————-

Thanks to Alludra for allowing the show to host #53 of her Alludra’s Pets podcast segment!

Realm Maintenance asks “Why do you listen to WoW podcasts?” Thanks to all who replied!

Podcast of the Week Part 2: An interview with Medros of All Things Azeroth.

website: allthingsazeroth.com
Twitter: @AllThingsAz @Medros @Shadesogrey
email: show@allthingsazeroth.com
Hotline: 1-785-282-9695

Thanks to Skolnick for allowing the show to play a segment from Warcraft Less Travelled

Congrats to all who won a Pandaren Monk pet in last week’s contests! Watch for the next contest on Episode #10

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

A special thanks to Blizzard Entertainment for the majority of this show’s music content. You can listen to all of this music in the Mists of Pandaria Soundtrack found in the Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition.

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Achieveatron isn’t back just yet… I’m afraid it got hacked not too long ago.

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg4.mp3

You may have noticed there are interviews with Blizzard Devs all over the place. The interviews can be found not just on popular WoW fansites and podcasts, but even a few YouTube channels as well.

Here’s your guide to finding all twelve interviews. Special thanks to Community Manager Zarhym for providing this information!

Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer

• WoWhead
• But Wait! There’s Lore!
• WoW Insider

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer

• Wowcrendor
• ArenaJunkies
• Blizzplanet

Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer

• Tankspot
• Convert To Raid (interview to be published on episode #63)
• Twizzcast (episode #22)

Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer

• MMO-Champion
• OMFGaming
• The Instance (episode #292)

The following is the entire interview with Majik and Kurn from Blessing of Frost. This interview ran about 15 minutes, which was edited for time to fit with my show’s normal format.

Enjoy the interview, and check out Blessing of Frost #70 when I end up being their guest.

A special bit of thanks to Lissanna of restokin.com for giving permission to use her article on loot systems from a few years ago.

To be honest not much has changed since then when it comes to loot systems used in Normal and Heroic raids so give it a read if you want more information. I think the only regret I had on this Dojo segment is not mentioning Suicide Kings, as that system has become increasingly popular in 10-man groups from my observations.

Listen to the latest Convert to Raid for Dojo #7, which will be archived here in a few days.

In other segment news, the Achieveatron will be back with the next episode of Something Suggestive, which should be up in the next week!

Watermarks appear, Theramore falls, the show is blessed by frost, and Pandaren Monk pets are on the loose in this week’s show.

The Rolling Restart: Digital watermarks have been found in WoW screenshots. Should you be worried?

http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-general/375573-looking-inside-your-screenshots.html

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Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Reddit AMA Recap from last week http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7207171

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: Realm Maintenance interviews Kurn and Majik from Blessing of Frost.

Check realm-maintenance.com on Wednesday for the full length interview!

website: blessingoffrost.com
Twitter: @kurnmogh @majjity
email: podcast@blessingoffrost.com

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Podcast News: Crafting Azeroth, Twizzcast, Horde For Life, Grand Old Podcast, Sheep Moon Week In Review, GroupQuest, The Azeroth Perspective, Arcanum of Azeroth

Hear more of Rho when he guests on Horde For Life, 5 WoW Things, Rawrcast, All Things Azeroth, and Grand Old Podcast.

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Hear my thoughts on the Theramore scenario after the normal “end” of the show.

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Hashtag? Pandahunt.

Word continues to spread about the podcast, and over the past couple of weeks that shows no sign of stopping.

I’ve been a guest for episodes of Grand Old Podcast, 5 WoW Things, and Horde For Life. Rawrcast invited me to guest tomorrow. It looks like Holy Shatt will have me on a week from tomorrow…

Oh, and All Things Azeroth invited me to come on the show on Monday and fill in for Shade.

… this is the part where I pick my jaw up off the floor.

To say these last couple of weeks have been surreal is an understatement. It’s humbling, amazing, and confounding all at the same time… and words can’t really express my gratitude for how well the podcast is being accepted by many in the WoW podcast community.

Maybe it’s a self-esteem issue or something, I don’t know. I’m ecstatic but at the same time I keep wondering if I’ve earned this recognition and respect too quickly. I guess there’s really no sense dwelling on that. You folks like what I’m doing and I’ll keep doing it.

Segment Searching

On the Podcast Directory page you’ll notice I have a section for podcast segment makers. I just recently added Arashi’s Pets of Warcraft segment to the list.

I know I’m missing quite a few out there. If there’s one you know of that’s not on the list please email me at RealmPodcast@gmail.com.

The Madness is Over

Thanks to If Looks Could Kill, a raid team composed of AIE dignitas members (some of whom are hosts of My Epic Heals) I was able to defeat the Heroic Madness of Deathwing encounter prior to MoP. Yes, it was nerfed seven ways to Sunday, but I’m okay with that. I’m hardcasual… and defeating the final boss on the hardest difficulty this late is about where I would expect myself to be.

Going forward it looks like I’ll probably be a standby/backup on ILCK on my warlock. My “main” raider may actually be a healer this time around for all I know.

Sunday night the group takes a crack at Heroic Ragnaros. Should be interesting!

Easter Eggs

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’ve included a link at the end of the show notes of episodes #3 and #4. You can expect more random shenanigans like this in the future. And remember,  just because the link may not be in the show notes next time doesn’t mean the easter egg isn’t where you would think it would be.

Background Blues

The background for this blog is fine and all… but I’d love to upgrade it to something better. Get in touch with me if you have a better idea for a background. If you create something of your own that I end up using I’ll definitely try to find a way to show my appreciation!

Networks and Neutrality

Earlier this week I received an email from a podcast network asking me if I would like to have Realm Maintenance fly under their banner. Needless to say I was flattered by the invitation. Not much later I sent a reply thanking the network and declining to join up.

Don’t get me wrong… I think at some point in the future being part of a podcast production company/network would be healthy for the show’s continued lifespan. Right now though I’m still trying to make first contact with a number of podcasts, and for the time being I don’t want there to be any impression that Realm Maintenance shows favoritism to one show or network over another.

True, I do mention some podcasts much more frequently than others, but there are reasons for that. Some podcasts send me submissions for Podcast News on a frequent basis. Others just have plenty of things going on with their show every week.

Of course, there are podcasts I personally like more than others, and podcasts that may not be my own cup of tea. That said, my own preferences will never prevent any WoW-related podcast from having the opportunity to promote their show.

That’s how it is now, and that’s how it will always be, even if I the show is part of a network down the line.

That’s all for this week’s Realm Status. Podcast appearances, real life, and prep for MoP has kept me fairly busy so I haven’t done as much actual WoW blogging as I’d like. You’ll likely see this change a week or two into Mists.

Thanks as always for reading and feel free to leave feedback here.

The following is the entire interview with Jason and Modem from WoWphiles which was edited down in Realm Maintenance #4 to keep the show within my general standards for length.

A lot was said that you didn’t catch in RM#4, so enjoy the entire interview.

Also, I apologize in advance for my superb interview skills! I repeat myself a few times… do some um’s and ah’s and so on. It’s definitely a learning process for me and as I do more interviews I’m sure the overall quality will improve.

Please feel free to send any feedback to RealmPodcast@gmail.com or comment here!

This week’s episode is packed full of podcast news from old contests resurfacing to contests aplenty!

The Rolling Restart: Greg Street aka @Ghostcrawler has his claws all over Twitter.

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Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Ask Creative Development Round 3: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6489940501

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: Realm Maintenance interviews Jason and Modem from the WoWphiles podcast who have returned from a one and a half year hiatus!

Check realm-maintenance.com on Wednesday for the full length interview!

website: wowphiles.com
Twitter: @WoWphiles
email: podcast@wowphiles.com

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Podcast News: All Things Azeroth, My Epic Heals, The Training Dummies, Double O Podcast, Grand Old Podcast, Darkmoon Herald, WoW Insider Show, The Azeroth Perspective, Rawrcast, The Instance, Twisted Nether Blogcast,

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

I asked on Twitter “Why do you listen to WoW podcasts?” Those answers will be read on a future episode. Thank you to those who contributed!

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

What happens when Rho is bored? Maybe he tries to impersonate Grand Apothecary Putress…

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg2.mp3

For new raiders to the Normal raiding experience, researching a boss encounter can be a new concept. Not everyone studies raid encounter guides or watches strategy videos on YouTube.

While The Dojo recommends such studies, a new raider can always start with the in-game resource of the Dungeon and Raid Journal. It should be noted that as of 5.0.4 all of the encounters in MoP are already in the journal. It’s never too late to start reading up on MoP encounters to be that much more prepared when the raids are opened.

You’ll want to look over the Mogu’shan Vaults, as that will be the only raid open a week or two after Mists is released.

Listen to Dojo #6 on Episode #61 of Convert to Raid!

Where is the Achieveatron?

Something Suggestive is taking just a bit of a break right now. Real life happens, and Jan is kickin’ butt on the workfront, so the next show’s been delayed for a bit. It will be back, and when it is the Achieveatron will be back with it.

I want to be… close to the very best, like some people have been before…

I’m quite excited about the Pet Battle system in Mists and not afraid to admit it. I probably won’t touch on it a whole lot right away as my focus will be on getting Rho the warlock and Rho the monk to level 90 asap, but in the meantime I’ll be checking a number of podcasts and websites that are full of information on all things Pet Battles.

For web pages, check out the Alt: ernative Minipets Database and WarcfraftPets. Also check out Cymre’s blog at Bubbles of Mischief which covers pets and plenty more.

For podcasts, check out Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas, a great podcast that focus on the system. There’s also a few podcasts doing pet battle segments and I’ll have those documented in the near future as well.

Rho, Rho, Rho your guest, gently down the stream (internet stream, get it?!)

A few podcasts have contacted me to hang out with them for an episode and I’m honored to have been given the chance. In the coming weeks you may run into me on Grand Old Podcast, Horde For Life,  5 WoW Things, Holy Shatt, and Rawrcast. I’m excited and nervous at the same time about these opportunities, and I hope you enjoy those episodes when they go up. If other show appearances pop up down the line I’ll mention them in a future Realm Status article.

Making First Contact

By this point there’s only a handful of active podcasts left that I haven’t listened to at least one episode of yet, and I’m still working hard to make contact with the hosts/producers of all the shows out there. You might notice the Podcast Directory has some podcasts listed in italics, and some that are not.

It’s mostly a reminder for myself, but the italicized shows are podcasts that I’ve been able to reach via email, Twitter, or otherwise. If you’re a fan or part of one of the shows not in italics on that list, feel free to help me get connected with it! I have an ambitious project in the works for the end of the year and I really want to be able to get in touch with all of the podcasts in the list by November for that project to work.

I do have emails for everyone, but Gmail has this horrible tendency to send my emails into spam folders, which is annoying to say the least.

Contests Galore

Realm Maintenance #4 will mention a whopping five podcast contests during Podcast News, so be sure to listen this Tuesday! A week later on #5 you’ll find out about a Realm Maintenance contest to celebrate the upcoming release of Mists of Pandaria.

Podcast of the Week Interview: Extended Edition on Wednesday

The interview I did for the upcoming Podcast of the Week segment was long, but I expected it might be. Double the co-hosts means double the answers after all. You’ll hear an edited version on Episode #4, but I’ll post the entire uncut interview here on the site on Wednesday for those who want to hear everything… including me fumbling with my words :p

That’s it for this week’s Realm Status. In the meanwhile, I leave you with Rho getting down with his demons, Old God gear and all, as caught by Jan from Something Suggestive.

Dance, demons! Dance! credit: @Jangasm

This is the final part of the three segment primer on raid abbreviations and other terms. Your feedback is always appreciated if you feel anything important was missed on this segment for Convert to Raid.

Some people may wonder about my raiding background. Well, I’m certainly no bleeding edge raider. In general I’ve usually found myself taking on final bosses and Heroic content about 2-3 months after they’ve been downed by the front of the pack. I’ve been a raid leader for a 10 man group in the past, and might consider doing so again if the stars align, though I’m perfectly happy right now with just relearning all things Warlock.

I had a humbling experience this past week when I found myself on the bottom of the meters on Heroic Madness. Mind you, this was my absolute first time on Heroic Madness, but still it’s never a great feeling when you see yourself doing damage below tanks and feel like you’re putting strain on the backs of your fellow raiders that are carrying you.

That said, even a teacher in The Dojo continues to learn lessons from raiding after having participated in it for years. I was too hard on myself this week, and even when it comes to raiding, this is still just a game. Everyone is going to have that bad night or “off” raid where nothing seems to work out right.

Accepting responsibility for poor performance is one thing. Placing the frustration aside, taking a breath, and making an effort to correct what went wrong is another.

You can expect these words in one form or another to be part of a future Dojo lesson.

Dojo #5 will be archived in just a couple of days. Thanks for listening!

Podcast of the Week goes interview-style as Realm Maintenance covers the news and podcasts that have followed in the wake of patch 5.0.4.

The Rolling Restart: My reactions on 5.0.4… including everything I’ve liked and the one thing I haven’t.

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Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and WoWHead for their news articles which were used as research for this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: Realm Maintenance interviews Salem, one co-host of Arcanum of Azeroth.

Twitter: @arcanumpodcast

email: arcanumpodcast@gmail.com

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Podcast News: The Training Dummies, Blessing of Frost, WoW Uncensored, GroupQuest, Girls Gone WoW/Darkmoon Herald, All Things Azeroth, Tauren Think Tank/Convert to Raid/My Epic Heals via the Signals Media All Star Network.

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RealmPodcast@gmail.com

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Browsing the Forum: The showed posed the question “What would you change about WoW post 5.0.4?” and some of you on Twitter answered.

Keep an eye on @RealmPodcast during the week for the next question!

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Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW and follow the show @RealmPodcast

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RealmPodcast@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

What happens when Rho is bored? Maybe an easter egg…

http://realm-maintenance.com/mp3/easter_egg.mp3

Being the achievement junkie that I am, I figured guild achievements shouldn’t be left out when it comes to the Achieveatron. With 5.0.4 coming out it seemed like a fine time to preview some of the guild achievements to shoot for when MoP is live.

I’m very excited about the slew of new achievements added for the taking. This segment’s lifespan depends on it after all!

Listen to Achieveatron #6 when it debuts on the next episode of Something Suggestive.

As a quick reminder, Realm Maintenance’s new official email is RealmPodcast@gmail.com and you can follow the show on Twitter @RealmPodcast or follow my personal Twitter account @RhoWoW.

The new official email is RealmPodcast@gmail.com and you can follow on Twitter @RealmPodcast

I’ll still be using my RhoWoW@gmail.com email for my Achieveatron and Dojo segments and you can still email me there if you want to.

I’ll also be using my @RhoWoW Twitter regularly going forward in addition to @RealmPodcast. The main difference here is @RealmPodcast will solely do two things:

1) Tweet about realm-maintenance.com and Realm Maintenance Podcast content.

2) RT tweets from other podcasts when new shows go up.

So if you’re involved with a WoW podcast of your own its very important that you make sure I’m following your show. I’ve followed most of the podcasts that I know Twitter info for.

This change is primarily to make it a bit more listener and podcaster friendly to contact me. “RhoWoW” isn’t as easy to spell when sounded out on a podcast while “RealmPodcast” is.

More content is on the way this weekend. Dojo #3 is archived and another Achieveatron will be archived tomorrow. I’ll likely have another blog article up on Saturday, and then of course this coming Tuesday we’ll move ahead with Realm Maintenance #3.

Thank you everyone for supporting the show and sending in your feedback. I’m glad to see people are enjoying the format and content of both the site and the podcast.

This is part 2 of a three part series of Dojo segments on raid terminology and abbreviations. I had originally planned for this subject to be handled in 2 segments but there is just too much to handle to cover even the basics in 4 minutes.

Part 3 can be heard this week as part of Convert to Raid Episode #59. Enjoy!

We’re only at Episode #2, but I’ll say it anyway. Welcome to a special patch day edition of Realm Maintenance!

We’ll go around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds, put the spotlight on the Podcast of the Week, cover some podcast news, and much much more. You’ll understand soon enough.

The Rolling Restart: 5.0.4 is here, and Blizzard patch notes seem just a bit too boring for this podcast, so I’ve taken The Godmother’s version of the notes from http://www.alternative-blog.net/ instead.

Want the actual scoop from Blizzard on 5.0.4? Go to http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7045643/504_Survival_Guide-8_24_2012

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Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, Wowhead, and ArenaJunkies for their news articles which were touched on in this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: Auction House Junkies

Twitter: @ahjunkies

email: auctionhousejunkies@live.com

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Podcast News: News for Convert to Raid, The Hunting Party, Girls Gone WoW, Hearthcast, Darkmoon Herald, and Stopcast.

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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Listener email: “Where’s PST and The Weekly Marmot?”

Thank you Palladium for your question!

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Extended Maintenance?! Yep, we even do that here.

Extended Maintenance Podcast Spotlights: The Mana Cooler, Ctrl Alt WoW, and Darkmoon Herald.

Thanks to all who participated on Twitter for the question asked on Monday!

Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RhoWoW@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

This segment introduced a couple of twists to the Achieveatron segment.

First, the Achieveatron truly had a voice of its own. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out I voice the Achieveatron. Drop the pitch 20%, add in some robotic quality goodness and Rho’s partner in point hunting becomes available as needed to be a bit more vocal. You’ll see me use this in future episodes also.

Second, please note that this archive contains the entire segment as heard on Something Suggestive #25, which includes a now expired contest. This was Jan’s first real milestone episode and I was happy to donate a Moonkin Hatchling pet to be used as a contest prize. This contest of course is now over, but you never know when something may happen like this in the future on Achieveatron or elsewhere. Keep your ears open!

Special thanks to El’s Anglin, a great resource for all things Fishing in WoW!

While I’m not playing the game anywhere near as much as I was in its first week of release, I’ve found my return to the world of Sanctuary to be a mostly pleasant one.

When I knew the patch was days away, I did something drastic with my one and only Level 60 character.

I didn’t delete her, but I did sell off and give away almost every piece of gear I had on her and in my stash. The only things I kept were gems, crafting materials, and her bow. Everything else? Gone at blowout prices. Items I paid a pretty penny for were listed for 1,000 gold and sold for various amounts of cash.

The release of 1.0.4 to me feels almost like a reboot to the game at the endgame level. My demon hunter Elisa started 1.0.4 all the way back at New Tristram on Hell Difficulty and with nothing at first but the bow on her back slaughtered her way to Act 4. At that point I had to spend a while finding some suitable pieces of gear before moving back to the lovely difficulty of Inferno.

My dps at this point is far down from where it was before my self-imposed reset of sorts, but I have to say I’m having more fun in Inferno Act 1 than I did previously. Some elements have been made a bit more forgiving. I’m using abilities I wouldn’t have bothered to try in the past. I’m not dying anywhere near as much as I used to, although I still have to play smart to keep the repair bills reasonable.

Oh, and no more enrage or heal to full for elites? Thank you Blizzard.

No more Invulnerable Minions? I love you.

Improved Auction House? Thank the High Heavens!

My lore rantings aside, I’ve always felt Diablo 3 isn’t a bad game, and with the release of this patch they’ve taken a large step in the right direction to make it far better. I do admit I’m concerned if this is too little too late for the majority of players that bought the game though. A friend of mine in one of my guilds on WoW is determined not to install or play Diablo III ever again, and I know she’s not alone.

Diablo 3 won’t be going anywhere though. Heck, they’re still supporting Diablo 2 after all these years, so even if the number of players for D3 is much smaller than they originally hoped for, you can expect it will still be there to play years from now.

The next content patch will bring us PvP content, more AH improvements, and perhaps even some more endgame content. In the meantime, I’ll be grinding paragon levels now and again when I need a break from WoW (though with MoP coming out in a few weeks who knows how often that will be).

Since I’ve shifted my blog to follow the WoW podcasting community, I might as well send a shout out to a Diablo 3 podcast called Shattered Soulstone. I’ve listened to them since Episode #1, and the hosts are a fun bunch to listen to. Just don’t believe Nevik if he ever sings high praise of Maghda.

Never Maghda. Never.

Realm Maintenance #1 is now live!

Welcome to the first official episode of the Realm Maintenance!

Episode #1, published on August 21, 2012

The Rolling Restart: The MoP Cinematic was released last week and I have a few thoughts about it.

Click here to read Anne Stickney’s article on the cinematic at WoW Insider

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Around the WoW in 80 Seconds: One week of WoW News in 80 seconds.

Thanks to Battle.net, MMO-Champion, WoW Insider, and Wowhead for their news articles which were touched on in this segment.

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Podcast of the Week: Grand Old Podcast

Twitter: @Grandoldpodcast Email: grandoldpodcast@gmail.com

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Podcast News: News for WoW Uncensored, Something Suggestive, Legendary, The Sundering, World of Warcast, and Twizzcast.

The Sundering’s “Take Us With You” contest: http://thesundering.net/contest/

The Sundering’s UStream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thesundering

Are you part of a podcast and want your news mentioned here? Email RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Realm Maintenance is here to promote your podcast and special events as a service to the WoW podcast community.

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#LFQ (Looking For Questions) : An occasional Q&A segment.

Thank you @Medros for your question!

Click here to check out Dawnforge Productions.

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Follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW

Questions, comments or submissions can be sent to RhoWoW@gmail.com. All submissions received by Monday 2pm Eastern will be read and considered for the next podcast.

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The next three Dojo segments will go over basic raiding abbreviations and terminology that most raiders are familiar with.  The Dojo is all about teaching new raiders seeking more than just LFR content. Having a base knowledge of these terms can go a long way to understanding how some of the encounters work.

Part 2 can be heard this week as part of Convert to Raid Episode #58. Enjoy!

Thanks to the podcasters that have sent replies to the mass email I sent to all active WoW podcasts out there. If you’re part of a WoW podcast and your show did not receive such an email from me in the past week, please get in touch with me and I’ll try to get it out to you (some people have said the email ended up in their spam folders.)

Realm Maintenance #0 and my guest host stint on Group Quest #79 made a couple of points clear in regards to where I’m at right now in podcasting. I’m alright when it comes to going off a pre-written script, but when it comes to freestyle instant reactions I still have to work some “ums” and pauses out of the system.  For the time being I’m going to stay on the training wheels so to speak and gradually work myself off fully written scripts once I’m more comfortable.

I also felt a little embarassed when I decided to name the quick news segment “Hotfixes.” I mean, sure when you have almost 60 WoW podcasts out there it’s hard to not copy names for segments… but I unwittingly borrowed a segment name from Blessing of Frost, one of the podcasts I’ve listened to fairly regularly. Needless to say, “Hofixes” won’t be called that from #1 going forward. “Around the World of Warcraft in 80 Seconds” is a long segment name, but it works for me.

It’s possible that on some weeks, the Realm Maintenance podcast might run a little shorter than I’d want it to. To help fix that problem, I’m looking for your questions on anything and everything to do with World of Warcraft and WoW podcasts.

If you’d like to submit a question for this segment you can do it one of two ways. You can email your question to RhoWoW@gmail.com (please put LFQ in the title so I know the mail is for that segment) or you can respond to my requests on Twitter when I put them out there. I’ll probably ask you to use #LFQ in your tweet to make it easier to find your questions.

Again, the questions can be about WoW, WoW podcasts, or even questions about myself personally though please try to tie it into WoW and/or podcasting in one form or another if you can.

On heavy news weeks the segment might be put on hold to keep the show within the 12 minute time limit I’m aiming for. On weeks that are extremely light on news and LFQ questions I may take the time to give listeners a Weekly Quest in the form of a question that you can answer on Twitter or via email.

Realm Maintenance is a podcast for the WoW and WoW podcasting community and I can’t think of any better way to show that by including you in the show.

Watch for the next Dojo segment to appear in the archives on Monday, followed by Realm Maintenance #1 after 12:01 am Eastern on Tuesday!

I found the article interesting. Naturally there are points that I personally agree and disagree on. With so many people playing the game, it would be crazy to have one person behind the entire raid design of course. We each have our own interpretations of what is good for the raiding game and what isn’t.

That doesn’t stop me from giving my own vision of how I’d design raids though. This is just how I’d handle raid design. Some like their eggs sunny side up. Me, I’m more a scrambled kind of person.

Comments here are always welcomed, and I won’t fault you at all for disagreeing with anything I mention here. Since this is more or less a response to The Grumpy Elf’s article, I’ll format my vision in a similar manner.

1. Raid Finder remains. Eliminate “Heroic” mode in name alone. 

Raid Finder has its place in WoW, and based on previous success I can’t see removing this. The “Heroic” mode can be removed in name alone, and harder challenges can be given via elective modes.

2. One lockout. Goodbye 25 man. Hello 20 man.

Encounters would be designed for 10 man or 20 man raids. By trimming 5 players off, some of the math and mechanics of the raid encounters will be easier to adjust. Number of 20 man loot drops would flat-out be double of 10 man drops.

3. 12 bosses per tier minimum.

Small raids have their place in the game, so long as the raid is not the only raid in that tier of content. Multiple small raids provide different environments and make raiding less monotonous. Large, single epic raids can certainly be done also, and I would have at least one tier per expansion cycle that features a single epic raid of 12 encounters or more.

4. Meaningful Trash

If you’ve read The Grumpy Elf’s article by now, suffice to say I agree with him 100% here. A balance can be found between too much and not enough trash. I would only add that trash that introduce some mechanics of the upcoming boss are definitely encouraged.

5. Trash Drops

The idea of trash dropping a BoE token that can be traded for BoP items is intriguing. This would give the potential for rewards to raiders that have all the gear they need already. Could Justice/Valor be retooled somehow around this?

6. Boss Drops

I think boss drops are fine using the system found in Mists of Pandaria, with the option to get additional individual shots at loot using Charms of Good Fortune. Perhaps the final boss of a raid can drop a guaranteed Charm to be used at a later time.

7. Elective Modes

A return to Ulduar raid design in providing additional layers of challenge. Not all bosses need the elective mode treatment, but at least half of the raid tier’s encounters should. Having an Algalon or Sinestra type encounter only accessible by those who can complete all previous elective modes isn’t a bad idea.

8. 3 or more levels of challenge.

This goes hand in hand with keeping LFR and using elective modes. There would be the LFR version, the “normal” version, and elective difficulty for some encounters. Multiple layers of elective challenges for one encounter is fine, but should be used carefully to keep dev and testing time reasonable.

9. Many Achievements

Yes, yes, and yes. I loved Ulduar. I love achievements. This isn’t a bad thing.

10. No Nerfs to Elective Modes, Ever.

Making “normal” mode encounters progressively easier over time is fine and I’ve never had a problem with this. I’m by no means a cutting edge raider, and I doubt I ever will be. That said, I think the integrity of the most challenging mode should be kept intact throughout the duration of the expansion. Feats of Strength for beating hard modes without a debuff is great and all, but just keeping the hard stuff hard isn’t bad either. That said, I would daresay that the hardest elective modes might need to be tuned a bit higher than current heroics are tuned.

That’s what my vision of raid design would be, and it’s only one vision.

LFR was arguably one of the most successful systems Blizzard added to World of Warcraft. Content and areas that a minority of players got to participate in were opened up to millions more who sought the environment of a raid without the strict challenge and skill requirements needed to complete it.

Raid Finder is good for the prolonged health of the game, and in my opinion it came at the right time. For better or worse, it just seems like WoW is a broad, more casual, “starter” MMO for those just getting into the MMORPG experience. As the game’s initial audience gets older, many players move on to other games, whether they are MMO games or not. As new players of a wide range of ages comes in, the game naturally had to adapt to be more welcoming and forgiving to new players.

I don’t think we’ll ever see the removal of LFR now that it has shown itself to be such a success. However, if I was running the controls, I’d eliminate the designation of a “Heroic” mode for raids.

The Ulduar raid in my opinion was the pinnacle of WoW raiding, and a big part of this can be attributed to the mechanisms that were place directly in the encounter to make the battle harder than it normally was.

Different levels of gear would still be necessary. While it would be possible to eliminate the “Heroic” tag from item drops, there needs to be an incentive for completing harder versions of encounters beyond just mounts and achievements. One of the driving points of participating in an MMO is progression, and progression through the improvement of your stats via gear or otherwise is the simplest way to do it.

If all gear is kept at one level per tier, then the majority of players would avoid the challenge of the hardest encounters. Why spend weeks wiping to the hardest encounter for the same drops as completing them on a Raid Finder or “Normal” difficulty? This becomes even more clear when you consider that lower difficulties would almost guarantee drops being given to the raid while wiping on difficult encounters could lead to nothing but repair costs for the week.

Whether you create a Heroic mode, or add in elective modes, the encounters would still require time for design and testing each level of challenge.

Each expansion shows us some evolution in raid design from the dev team. In this first tier we will see one encounter with an “Elite” elective mode added. I hope we see more of a return to elective modes, though I have to say I personally don’t care for “Heroic” and “Elite” tags on items. I’m not sure there’s a solution for that though without devoting more time on art assets for entirely different drops for hard modes.

I would love to see this topic become something like the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic of the week, and I invite and encourage fellow bloggers out there to write your own views. We each look at raiding through different sets of eyes, and perhaps Blizzard might benefit from reading the words you put out there.

Feel free to comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

No WoW YouTube video has been as viewed  as the Leeroy Jenkins video. The Onyxia Wipe Animation video is certainly up there though (Warning: If you’ve never seen this it contains explicit language and is certainly NSFW)

Both of these videos were so popular with Blizzard that achievements based on them were worked in during Wrath of the Lich King. I took some of the cleaner parts from the dialogue and worked them into the third segment of Achieveatron.

You’ll probably notice the very last clip is briefly censored. That’s intentional for here as any content I directly produce on the site will be kept clean, though it’s left uncensored in the Something Suggestive version.

I have no problem with explicit WoW podcasts or segments at all. I mean, hello? Something Suggestive is explicit and that’s not going to change. If you’re going to put content out there, I don’t believe you should feel constrained by what the “average” listener is going to think, and that’s certainly a subjective issue anyhow.

If you want to cast clean, cast clean. If you want to cast dirty, then by all means cast dirty. The internet is huge, and there’s an audience for anything you put out there.

Regardless, Realm Maintenance has no intention of discriminating podcasts based on the explicitness of their content. I may add warnings, but that’s just being responsible and to be honest most podcasts put out those warnings themselves anyhow.

Speech over. Enjoy the clip, and feedback is always welcomed! Check back here tomorrow for an article about raiding and what I would do if I was the dev behind the curtain.

Realm Maintenance is a short bite-sized podcast meant to cover the week in WoW and WoW podcasts, with a little extra time given to the top news story of the week and one podcast featured as my Podcast of the Week.

The goal is to keep the cast between 8 and 12 minutes long, produced on Monday and available on this site early Tuesday morning a bit before realms go down.

This pilot episode was mostly recorded off a rough script. I went freestyle during the “Rolling Restart” news segment as an experiment more than anything else. Definitely room for refinement and improvement there.

I’m a huge fan of the WoW soundtrack and love using sections of the music in my productions. Since this is a stand alone production and not a segment I made sure to credit Blizzard for that audio. A small bit of thanks to Blessing of Frost, whose ending I essentially borrowed and altered to work at the end of the microcast.

If you want to promote your cast for FREE on this show, then email away! As long as I can work everything within a 12 minute show, you’re good.

This microcast isn’t meant to be mine alone. It’s for players and podcasters alike. I still have plenty of podcasts on my directory that I haven’t listened to an episode of, but I’m working on that. I look forward to getting to know podcasters past, present, and future through my time on this adventure.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening. Feedback and comments on the format of the show are very much appreciated.

-Rho

Episode #0

Rolling Restart
Comments on the Blizzard hack and why a physical authenticator’s not a bad idea as a backup.

Hotfixes

Around the World of Warcraft in 80 seconds or less!

Podcast of the Week
Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas
Website: battlepet.net
Twitter: @Alludra_AIE and @TheKephas

Podcast News

Update Complete/Outro

Email the show at RhoWoW@gmail.com

Twitter: @RhoWoW

Welcome to the first segment of The Dojo. If you’re new to raiding or looking for something more than what LFR has to offer, then these lessons are definitely for you.

This first segment was aired on Episode 56 of Convert to Raid. The second segment can be heard on Episode 57 which should be out later today.

Each podcast has its own rules and standards for segments. For Convert to Raid it’s requested that submissions be kept to two minutes or less. It’s been a challenge to stay within that limit, but a challenge I’ve gladly accepted all the same. You’ll see over the course of this series that some lessons will just end up requiring more than one segment to cover everything, and that’s not a bad thing.

“Time to Vent” however is a self-contained lesson. It explains exactly what Vent and Mumble are, where to find them, and why having these applications is beneficial to raiding.

I hope you enjoy the series and as always your feedback is appreciated.

The second Achieveatron segment was produced a few weeks ago, before we knew of the exact release date for Mists of Pandaria. I’ve tried to keep in the habit of being three to four weeks ahead on content, in case real life limits my time to work on making a segment on any given week

When MoP’s release date became known, I had to make an edit to reflect it. With 5.0 now on the Background Downloader, cross realm zones are literally just days away. I suggest putting more of a focus on these achievements if you’re interested in them.

This segment sees an ever so slight tweak to the intro, adding in an all too familiar sound when the Achieveatron is brought online.

Thanks again to Allison Robert at WoW Insider for her articles on Bloody Rare and Frostbitten, which were used as resource material for this segment.

Don’t forget that segment #3 can be listened to now if you check out Something Suggestive Episode 24 which just went up last night.

Your feedback is always appreciated. Enjoy!

As is typical with raiding, members come and members go. Our raid comp from Icecrown Citadel changed so drastically that by the time we were halfway into Firelands, only 3 of the original raiders were still active. Real life happens, and Filletofish couldn’t be around as often anymore. For the second half of Firelands and the first half of Dragon Soul I was doing my best to keep things together.

We didn’t do half bad. We weren’t cutting edge, but we were happy with our progression for the most part. All Firelands normal mode bosses were downed prior to the nerf except for Ragnaros. We went 3/7 Heroic in Firelands before Dragon Soul went live.

We cleared normal Dragon Soul with relative ease, scoring our first normal Madness kill just prior to the 5% debuff. That’s when it happened.

Our progression hit a brick wall. Heroic Morchok went down without too much difficulty, but pushing further just didn’t seem to happen. Our raid comp changed from week to week because random people would be unavailable. Interest in the encounters in general just sank.

It also didn’t help that I had finally burnt out. I ran out of gas, and eventually I handed the reins to the GM of our Lightbringer guild, who did a fine job in keeping us together until we finally decided to go on hiatus several weeks ago. Although I moved my warlock since then to a new guild and realm altogether, I’ll still be raiding with The Golden Elm with either a Resto Shaman or a Mistweaver Monk in MoP.

Even in a smaller group, leading a raid can be a time-consuming and thankless task. People lead raids for different reasons. Some do it for the challenge. Others for recognition, maybe a better shot at scoring those legendaries. Some do it because no one else really wants to. Other players will lead a raid because while they may not be the very best in their role, they feel they can make up for that by contributing to the performance of the raid in other ways.

For me, it was honestly a bit of all of the above. I’ve never been an amazing powerhouse of a warlock. I know the basics of the specs and the rotations. I do alright, but Vodka or Method won’t be looking for me anytime soon. I chose to lead because I wanted to pull my weight and earn my spot in the raid however I could.

Mists of Pandaria is quickly approaching, and I find myself wondering if I want to follow, or lead… or possibly both.

With Rho, I feel that now is as good a time as any to become a better player. With warlocks going through so many changes, the playing field is relatively levelled as we start our way into Tier 14. If I can step up my game to being in the top 33% of average warlock dps for raid encounters, I’ll consider that mission accomplished. I don’t care if I’m #2 or #5 on my team’s Recount. I’ll be satisfied if I’m showing myself to be productive as a warlock raider.

That said, I don’t feel I could dedicate myself to performing better while leading a raid at the same time. My performance faltered some in Firelands and Dragon Soul because as a raid leader I was paying attention to so many things that did not have to do with what I was doing directly in an encounter. My attention was diverted, and my mental bandwidth could only handle doing so many things at a time at a certain level of quality. That’s not a terrible thing necessarily, but this isn’t what I want for Rho in Mists.

At the same time, I discovered that I loved healing in Cataclysm. I had never played a healer until I went that direction with Magmafist, whom originally was supposed to be my first stab at melee dps with Enhancement. Healing was fun, different, and surprisingly enough not as stressful as dps to me. I’ll definitely be raiding as a healer in Mists, and I think I could raid lead as a healer without losing too much efficiency.

When it comes down to deciding to lead a raid, there are questions to ask yourself. Can you handle the responsibility? Will you find it enjoyable, even knowing the many obstacles and potential for drama that could exist? Do you want to lead, or are you just having difficulty finding a group that you’re a good fit in?

I’m looking forward to raiding in Mists of Pandaria. I haven’t quite yet found a raid team to call home on Earthen Ring, but that should hopefully be resolved in not too long. As for my Lightbringer toons, it’s never too early to start planning…

Rather than spend a few hundred words on describing the last cinematic, let’s do something different. I’ll meet you back here below the video.

Ohhhh boy. Where do I begin?

Whose bright idea was it to pick up Diablo’s corpse and toss him/her/it overboard? If any of you watched the animated short that Blizzard released just before D3 came out, you might remember there was supposedly something significant about the blood of Diablo ending up on the archangels when Imperius decided to slay him. I’m pretty sure tossing Diablo off the arch couldn’t have been all too clean an act. For that matter, Diablo’s blood is probably all over the Nephalem too from the fight.

Why did they just let the Black Soulstone fall without destroying it? Back in Diablo 2 you had to destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo to truly be rid of them, or so we thought.

The Black Soulstone over the course of the game collects the souls of all the demon lords. The whole plan was to contain every one of them in the stone then destroy the soulstone to ultimately be rid of them all. How the hell (pun intended) is Diablo, the Prime Evil, cast down forever?

Whoa, wait a minute. Back up. Notice those words? Listen to the video again for those first 25 seconds. Diablo was cast down. That’s a bit different from saying Diablo is utterly destroyed forever. Now that’s a bit interesting, though I’m not sure what it means.

I digress though. I don’t believe Tyrael, the player character, or the others of the Angiris Council are ignorant enough to just let the soulstone go. Are we to assume that not a single one of them thought the soulstone wouldn’t rematerialize upon Diablo’s death? That seems like a stretch to me.

Where does the Black Soulstone end up? I have to imagine this is an obvious plot thread to be picked up on in the expansion. More about that shortly.

If Tyrael remains mortal, what happens when he dies? Some questions will likely forever go unanswered and left to us to ponder. This is one of them. If and when there is more content in the Diablo universe, it is likely that Tyrael will be the most likely candidate to be the “Deckard Cain” for the hero character.

If Tyrael now stands as the mortal Archangel of Wisdom, who represents Justice? Justice may have been met this day, but I’m not one to believe that the world of Sanctuary no longer needs an avatar of justice. When Auriel the archangel of Hope was in jeopardy it was made clear that the High Heavens wouldn’t be the same without her. Justice needs to be filled by someone. Is that the future of the player character? Time will tell, possibly.

If Angels and men will stand together, what does Imperius have to say about that? Imperius was not too fond of Nephalem. I doubt he’s all too ready to forgive them even after the fall of Diablo. Many members of the High Heavens were lost during Act IV, a horrid battle which Imperius directly lays the blame on the Nephalem. Will Imperius go rogue, like Malthael before him?

… has Malthael gone rogue? The former Archangel of Wisdom broke off from the Angiris Council following the destruction of the worldstone in Diablo 2. According to what lore there exists on him, Malthael was able to see all things when he sat on the Council. If he still retains this power, that could prove interesting for what lies ahead.

But what exactly is coming next? You can bet on an expansion. Though they have not outright announced that an expansion will be coming out, Blizzard release history and some vague words from Blizzard devs and executive pretty much place the odds of an expansion at 99%. The story has several loose ends that haven’t been touched on.

We currently don’t know the whereabout of Adria, the Black Soulstone, or Malthael. Adria and Malthael could both be potential antagonists in the story to come.

There’s the possibility, albeit slim, that the spirits of Leah and Deckard Cain still have a role to play. Will there be redemption and peace for Leah? She wasn’t like her father who became corrupted by Diablo over time. Her body was violated and forcefully taken as the host of the Prime Evil. This didn’t sit well with some people, and perhaps this point will be revisited.

As I mentioned before, I doubt Imperius has forgiven the Nephalem. For those of you who, like me, wanted a chance to go toe to toe with the Archangel of Valor, there may still be hope.

Who would the final boss of Diablo 3′s expansion be? If you’re well read on the lore, you could probably draw the same conclusion I did. While Diablo attempted to take his place as the Prime Evil, it should be noted that the Greater and Lesser Evils at one point were all part of one being. The absolute embodiment of all evil. The seven-headed dragon known as Tathamet. It was Tathamet that birthed the Great Evils while his body became the foundation for the Burning Hells.

How do you take things up a notch after defeating the Prime Evil? You go after the First Evil. I have a feeling this is where the Black Soulstone’s continued existence will come into play. A series of events, likely including action from Adria, Malthael, and/or Imperius, will lead way to a rebirth of Tathamet in some new form.

Until then, this series and my opinions on the story have reached an end. I’ve said this before and I’ll continue to say it… Diablo 3 was a fun game. It had its flaws, but the game itself was an above average piece of work and I enjoyed grinding from 1 to 60.

The endgame needs work, and Blizzard knows this. Inferno and itemization need tweaks, and Blizzard is also aware of that. For the game to have the shelf life of its predecessor, much work will need to be done.

The journey in the story was frustrating for me. Loopholes, gaps in logic, wacky portal magic, weak motives, unnecessary motives, and poorly presented antagonists lurked at every corner. It was as much of a challenge putting those things aside to get to the end as it was to defeat the minions of the Burning Hells themselves.

I’m not giving up hope for the expansion. The story could still be redeemed through what happens next.

To Be Continued… “when it’s ready.”

What do you think? Leave a comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Listener segments for Convert to Raid are featured at the end of the podcast, but please listen to the rest of the show if you haven’t checked them out yet. CtR is one of the best produced WoW casts out there and it’s an honor to have content featured there.

Shortly after recording the first few segments of Achieveatron, I had an itch to do more.  The challenge I had before me was to create a segment that was as unique as possible. If I was going to do a second series, it should try to break new ground.

I tossed an idea to Convert to Raid host and producer Pat Krane, aka Zhug, for what I called at the time “Convert to Normal.” The segment would focus on explaining to players who only raided LFR content what the differences were between the mechanics of a boss in LFR and its Normal mode counterpart. With Mists of Pandaria several weeks away, this felt like the kind of content that could be very helpful to players who just got into raiding recently with LFR and had a desire for more in the next tier.

Zhug fleshed out the idea. If we’re going to educate new raiders, why not really get down to the basics? LFR raiders may not necessarily know all the raiding terminology out there. Loot systems are considerably different from simply rolling Need/Greed. Further, players planning to step their game up may not know about all of the resources out there that raiders and raid leaders make use of regularly.

These were great points. The plan changed to deal with these basics until MoP was released, then spend several weeks on the original idea I had on explaining LFR and Normal mode mechanic changes.

The only problem at this point was the segment lacked soul. I needed a theme, in terms of music and name, to really give this segment life and flavor. As Zhug told me in an email, “Convert to Normal” sounded like a psychology segment.

How about “Shifting Gears?” Nah… sounds like an Engineering bit.

The idea hit me in the face while listening to some new Mists of Pandaria music from a recent beta patch. The word “dojo” screamed out and me and I took the ball and ran with it.

The rest is history, and I’m happy to have two very different segments up and running. Like Achieveatron, archived segments of The Dojo will appear on my audio segment page a week or two after it’s been aired. You’ll want to listen to the podcasts to catch new content when it debuts.

So in the span of a few weeks I’ve gone from podcast fanboy to podcast segment producer for two pieces of work. My blog has evolved, and I’m doing my best to keep track of all the WoW podcasts and segment producers out there. It’s been a fun ride and it’s just getting started.

I wonder what could possibly happen in the next couple of weeks…

To Be Continued

Every journey has a beginning. My journey into audio production for podcasts begins here.

This is Achieveatron Segment #1 : The Argent Achiever, as heard on Something Suggestive Episode 22. Episode 23 is already out with the second segment. Do check out Jan’s site if you haven’t yet!

This was my very first work on producing a podcast segment. You might notice subtle changes to the quality and content here and there as the series continues and I become more comfortable and acquainted with the software and equipment.

A week or two after my segments appear on their respective podcasts I’ll publish them here. You can also find an archive of all published Achieveatron segments by clicking the “Rho’s Audio Segments” tab above.

Your feedback is always appreciated. Enjoy!

“I wish MoP would get here already.”

Don’t be surprised if you’ve read this before somewhere else in someone else’s words. It’s perfectly natural.

World of Warcraft is nearing eight years old. Over those past years we’ve all had our share of good times and not so pleasant ones. Our lives in the game and outside of it have gone through a number of changes. For most of us, I feel it’s safe to say we are not the same people we were when we logged in to our first level 1 character.

In a game as diverse as WoW, you’ll find people play the game for different reasons. Some love PvP content. Others seek the challenge of cutting edge raid content. You could be an achievement hunter. Collecting rare pets and mounts might be your favorite activity.

Maybe you’re  just someone who thinks the idea of making a Level 1 Blood Elf male run through the streets of Orgrimmar in nothing but a pink tabard with four dozen others of the same mind is just outrageous fun. This actually happened last night by the way. I helped protect them.

A screenshot from AIE’s “Running of the Bronies” on 8/3/2012
credit: Natvilcius of AIE

This game and your enjoyment in it is what you make of it. I can not stress this enough. You can’t always count on others to make the game fun for you. Don’t get me wrong, it helps a lot when other players commit their time to make something fun happen in the game. Just keep in mind that if you have the initiative, you could be the one making the magic happen.

All of this said, I will admit it can be a challenge to do that at this time in the expansion cycle. Friends you enjoy playing with have stopped showing up. Raid attendance is down. Killing Skadi for the 143rd time to see no Blue Proto Drake drop can make a little part of you die inside.

Being bored isn’t fun, and we go down this road at the same point in the expansion cycle every time.

So, what’s the solution? Complain on the forums that Blizzard isn’t working hard enough to give you your $15/month worth of fun? That won’t be very productive or helpful. Trust me, Blizzard knows you want more content, and there’s a mountain of it coming our way in less than 2 months.

While this may be common sense, it doesn’t hurt to suggest the following ideas for what to do in the meantime if you’re not having fun in WoW.

• Try a new class. To take it a step further, if you’ve only played Horde, try an Alliance character or vice versa.
• Broaden your horizons. Give the PvP content a shot if you’re tired of killing murlocs. Go after achievements found in raids that have long since passed by if you’re tired of Warsong Gulch.
• Start farming gold now so you have plenty of it for Mists of Pandaria. In a way this is an early form of progression in the expansion content that’s available to you if you choose. I hear that new Yak mount with the reforger is fairly pricey.
• Quit WoW for until MoP (or 5.0) goes live.

Yep, I just said that.

“Baby I know we’ve been through some hard times but you and I, we can make this work.”

It’s okay to leave WoW for a while. Really, it is. If you’re bored with the game and the other ideas I mentioned just don’t appeal to you, then move on. Blizzard won’t be hurt. They won’t call you back in the middle of the night trying to win your heart back. Not yet at least. That phone call is coming on September 25.

If you don’t want to look for something different in game to do, I strongly feel that you should cancel your sub to WoW if you’re not enjoying the content or the lack thereof. There’s two reasons for that.

First, as consumers of Blizzard’s content we speak with our wallets. If they see numbers drop, it will motivate them to change to counter that development. Losing 1.1 million subscribers isn’t a drop in the bucket to them, and you can be assured they’ll continue to work hard to change that trend… whether it means new content for WoW or a whole new MMO down the line that will be the new standard that everyone tries to match.

Second, by getting involved in other games you’re allowing other games to grow and flourish. This not only results in other game companies being able to deliver engaging content. It also gives Blizzard and game developers everywhere insight to what people want when gaming.

If you let yourself just do the same old thing and throw your money away without feeling good about it, how will anyone else know you want something different from what you have right now?

Go play other games. Try Guild Wars 2 if you want. Play some Diablo 3 or Skyrim. Hell, there’s even things to do that don’t involve a computer or video game console that can be fun.

I’m not immune to the end of expansion blues either. I stopped seriously raiding in Dragon Soul some time ago. I don’t play as much as I have in months past, but my enjoyment in the game of late has been pretty spectacular. I’m involved with a great guild that’s unbelievably experiencing growth during this time. I’m farming up mats and gold to make items that I end up giving away because I just like being able to help people out.

I’m not saying you should follow my lead. I realized I wasn’t having fun, and I took actions to change that. It’s worked so far. If it wasn’t for this lull in content, then Realm Maintenance or the podcast segments I’m producing may have never come to pass.

Friends and community make the game ten times better than it is, there’s no doubt about it. However, when it comes to having fun it has to begin with you.

“A rolling stone gathers no moss” – Publilius Syrus

One of the largest features of this site is to showcase WoW podcasts, and those who produce segments for the podcasts.

The Podcast Directory button at the top of the page will take you to a growing list which is a work in progress. I’ll be putting in links over the course of the next couple of days.

While I may love my podcasts, I don’t have the time to listen to everything out there every week. This is where your help can come in!

If you produce a WoW podcast and/or a podcast segment that is not on the list, please feel free to send an email to RhoWoW@gmail.com. Let me know the name of the podcast or segment, and provide a link to where listeners can find you.

I want this to be the most comprehensive list of podcast information out there.

Whether your content is one minute long per episode or three hours, I’d love to add you to the directory.

More to come…

A few months later, words can’t describe enough how true this is, but I’ll try.

On August 2, the members of AIE gather to honor the memory of the players who are no longer among us. This doesn’t just occur in the World of Warcraft. From Rift, to The Old Republic, to Eve, and beyond this ceremony is held. It’s a tradition that I feel may be truly unique amongst player communities, in terms of scale if not in spirit.

On Vent those who gathered got to hear some words from the leaders and founders of the community. As someone who is relatively very new to the fold, their words touched me and spoke volumes.

I love the World of Warcraft, but through this event tonight my appreciation for it has grown tenfold, and not because of game mechanics, new flashy content, achievements, mounts, or anything like that.

I’m making connections, slowly but surely, with individuals and personalities that are so caring, thoughtful, and genuine.

I am one of thousands who are part of a legacy inspired by the vision of the founders of AIE, at least one of whom is no longer with us. I’m honored to be a part of that legacy. I hope I can do what I can to promote the vision of the community further.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, but a number of factors have led to me retiring the “World of Rho” blog name and go for something a bit more mainstream and catchy.

This site will be undergoing some serious remodeling over the next few days as I figure out a theme, widgets, and other gizmos I want here to give this space the color it needs.

What is Realm Maintenance?

Realm Maintenance is a blog containing content on World of Warcraft and beyond. It will also be a home to the new podcast segment content I’ve started producing for Something Suggestive and future projects as well.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I said I’d probably never do a solo podcast anytime soon? Yeah… um… let’s just say that may or may not have changed. If (and it’s a fairly big if at the moment) I plan to do anything longer than the segments I’m producing right now, then you can expect the name of the show to be called… what else? “Realm Maintenance.”

Catchphrase? Sure… how about: “Bringing you what’s up and what’s down in the World of Warcraft.”

Right now this growing hobby of mine has quite a bit of inertia, and a good deal of it is thanks to people like Jan at somethingsuggestive.com, several of the WoW podcasts I listen to weekly, and my new host for my blog, Safe Shark Hosting.

So, please pardon my dust and watch this space in the coming days.

The World of Rho is down for Realm Maintenance, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

- Imperius, Archangel of Valor, Act IV

Indeed, what has been wrought? We’ve slain ghosts and ghouls, banished hellish demonic brutes to parts unknown, all in the cause of being rid of the lords of the Burning Hells once and for all.

However, to borrow from World of Warcraft a moment, in Act IV we find that the events of Diablo II were “merely a setback.” Is it a surprise that Diablo returns in Diablo 3? Of course not. If anything I was surprised it took until the very end of Act III for the big reveal.

We begin the final chapter of this journey in a realm we haven’t seen before. The High Heavens itself was a perfect setting for the climax of the game. The corruption that pervades the realm is communicated well. You feel like the primal forces of light and darkness are battling one another with every step you take in your quest to hunt down the Lord of Terror, now the Prime Evil.

After dispatching Diablo’s first henchdemon, Iskatu, the Big Bad shows his inner Azmodan and reveals to us that henchdemon number two has the Archangel of Hope. We shortly meet Ithereal, the Archangel of Fate who tells us the exact same thing. So… why did Diablo have to say anything? Was that there to subtly communicate to us that the tendencies of Azmodan are now his own as well? It’s as good an explanation as any I suppose.

Ithereal explains that while he is the keeper of the Scroll of Fate, the nephalem is not in the scroll. Thus, it’s possible that the nephalem can change fate. I have to admit, after having finished Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning shortly before Diablo III’s release, this plot point made me shake my head. For those of you who haven’t played it, the hero in that game is known as the Fateless One, and while the fates of everyone in the land are known to those who can read fate, the Fateless One is the exception to the rule. It was odd to see this aspect brought up in two games released so close together.

No time for chit chat though, it’s off to rescue the damsel in distress archangel since freeing her will give the forces of the High Heavens hope again, figuratively and literally.

Rakanoth is eventually dealt with (that boss is such a $#@!ing cheater, but I digress) and Auriel is released from her shadowy bonds. Diablo warned Rakanoth that if he failed that his fate would be the same as Iskatu and his brothers’. Huh? Isn’t Diablo one and the same as his brothers right now? Don’t get me wrong, I think we know what he meant… it’s just that dialogue was unnecessary and confusing.

I don’t think the primary antagonist in a story has to be overly wordy or provide so much exposition. It’s a common trait for “big bads” and while it works for stories directed at a younger audience, I think the audience this game is intended for deserved an Azmodan and Diablo (and Belial) that were more cerebral.

Our next step is sealing two Hell Rifts… because those are the only portals through which everything in the Burning Hells is pouring through to invade the High Heavens. More portal magic, and this portal magic is confusing for exactly the opposite reason as Act 1. If Diablo has the power to open direct portals into Heaven and Hell now, how would sealing off two of them stop him from opening future ones. Yes, Auriel mentions her blessing will help the nephalem to seal the rifts, but is her blessing more powerful than the combined might of seven demon lords in one form? It certainly wasn’t the case when she got captured.

Our journey continues onward and upward, when we’re stopped once again by Imperius. At this point I figured there was no avoiding having to fight Imperius if we were to face Diablo. Imperius is an overzealous representative of one side of the eternal war, and it would have been amazing to fight both Heaven and Hell to reach the end of the game.

That wouldn’t be the case though. After a brief how do you do to Diablo 2 boss Izual, we meet Imperius one final time. I was ready to take him on. I was the nephalem, and he was in the way. Imperius had to be put in his place for the greater good.

Thus, seconds later Imperius is put in his place by Diablo Ex Machina corrupting the Crystal Arch, causing all angels to fall to their knees powerless.

What? Did that really happen? This act is blazing by compared to the three acts before it. Heck, we face our first sub-boss before killing hardly anything else in Act IV. So here we get to Imperius, ready for an epic boss battle and just like that it’s time to go straight to Diablo. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 gold.

This one part of Act IV left me feeling more cheated and upset than anything else in the whole entire story. It was the figurative straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I had put up with so much poor storytelling up to this point to reach some sort of payoff. The battle with Imperius would have been a great payoff. It never happened.

I closed my eyes a moment, took a breath, and proceeded to the Crystal Arch to fight Diablo. Oh look, the Templar is conveniently trapped. Of course he is.

Three attempts later, Diablo is defeated. That’s it. Game over. I win. Yay… I guess.

Of course we know it’s not as simple as that. There are all matters of loose ends, and the epilogue of Diablo 3 itself to talk about. Next week I’ll wrap up my thoughts on Diablo 3 by talking about the end of the beginning, and what might await us in the inevitable expansion pack(s) to come.

What do you think? Leave a comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes on the blog next week for the conclusion to this series!

@Josefbjork : @ChrisMetzen Do you play WoW yourself?

What follows is a chain reaction of WoW community responses that I had the pleasure of being a part of.

@ChrisMetzen : “@Josefbjork: @ChrisMetzen Do you play WoW yourself?” Less since Molten Front – but I’m psyched for Pandaria! More adventurer than ‘raider’.

@Shadesogrey : @ChrisMetzen Now I’m wondering what the heck class you play XD

@Medros : @Shadesogrey @chrismetzen I assume shaman…

At that point I throw my two cents in.

@RhoWoW : @Medros Perhaps even an Orc Shaman? Nah, I bet @ChrisMetzen is a closet Gnome Warrior.

Did I expect a response from Metzen? Nope. To be honest, I was on a long shot hoping for a response from Turpster from the Instance podcast. How about we go for a Daily Double?

@Medros : @RhoWoW @chrismetzen ohhhh you did not just go there! I mean we all know Samwise is the closet gnome… But Mr. Metzen?

@ChrisMetzen : “@RhoWoW: @Medros Perhaps even an Orc Shaman? Nah, I bet@ChrisMetzen is a closet Gnome Warrior.” Mains are A pally and H Druid!

@ScottJohnson @The_T @ChrisMetzen @RhoWoW @Medros if by no shame, you mean ALL the shame, then I agree.

@KevinOldScratch : @restokin @ChrisMetzen @RhoWoW @Medros Love my Worgan and Tauren druids!!! Troll Shaman has been my main for many years though

For my first crack at doing this kind of content, I feel Something Suggestive is a perfect fit. The podcast is relatively new compared to longer established productions, and the content is both casual and informative. Everything has a beginning, and this is where I felt was the best place to begin. A big thank you to the host, Jan, for giving me the opportunity to spread my wings.

Something Suggestive is a podcast that covers WoW news, the life of a casual gamer in WoW, a spotlight on transmogrification, and random morsels of goodness in the form of a random Twitter Q&A segment. The podcast does have an explicit tag so do keep that in mind when you choose where to listen to it. As for my segments, they won’t be explicit. Well, “Segment #3″ is explicit at the end, but it’s worth it. You’ll get to hear that in about two weeks time.

The “Achieveatron” segment follows in the path of similar styled segments that feature an achievement or group of achievements. I’m very aware I’m not breaking new ground, but I’m giving my own personal spin by taking the whole range of achievements in the game and figuratively throwing a dart at the board. You’ll get a little bit of everything here, which is what one would expect from someone who calls himself “hardcasual.”

The series is a work in progress, and marks the real beginning of my adventures in audio production. Outside of a $70 microphone, I’m using Audacity and recording my content in my office/game room at home, which currently lacks any significant forms of sound dampening and what not. I won’t dare claim that what I produce is professional, but it is produced with a passion for the World of Warcraft and the nerd points I love to accumulate.

Is this a stepping stone to more? That’s yet to be seen. I’ve actually started work on developing a second segment for another podcast. More to come on that project soon.

After having spent about a week and a half wading into this deep vast pool I’ve found the water a little deep but not uncomfortable. I could see myself doing more, in time. An actual podcast? A guest stint somewhere? Maybe. This is only Week 1 though… plenty of time to discover my voice and improve.

“Alternative measure commencing. Calculating force parameters…” 

– Void “Loot” Reaver, Tempest Keep

When thinking of a name for the segment, I began browsing through all the achievements I had earned. Not too long into searching I came across Achieveatron, earned in Blackwing Descent. Seeing the picture representing the achievement I envisioned my warlock capturing one of the Omnitron Defense System units, reprogramming it with a mix of Gnomish, Goblin, and Void Reaver technology, and transforming it into the embodiment of achievement hunting itself. That’s pretty impressive since Rho the warlock doesn’t technically possess Engineering skill right now…

A bit dramatic and cheesy? Absolutely! What’s a segment without flavor?

As of this article, four segments are recorded, with a couple more on their way to being produced this week. The intro and outro might evolve over time based on feedback that I get, though I plan to keep the vocals of the Void Reaver and the general flavor the same.

In the near future I’ll also start posting the audio clips here on World of Rho, though I’ll likely wait a week or two after the segment has aired on Something Suggestive before posting.

I’m excited to be presenting this content, and if the segment inspires even one player to grab some more points, then it’s all worth it.

To every podcast, every podcaster, and every segment creator I’ve had the pleasure of listening to… thank you. There’s too many to list without missing someone. Suffice to say the community you all have introduced me to through your work has motivated me to create, share, and build upon such a rich landscape of words, laughs, and more.

I’ve created a Twitter account for the segment @Achieveatron. There you’ll find the crazy robot himself occasionally speaking some long words and technical mumbo jumbo about the segments and those I interact with. I do love the cheese. Feel free to follow.

As always, you can email me your questions, comments, or suggestions at RhoWoW@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @RhoWoW.

Until next time…

“Systems….shutting….down….”

– Achieveatron, Rho’s fictional partner in catching them all and being “on points.”

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

After defeating Belial, The Lord of Lies who couldn’t lie his way out of a paper bag, the player character and caravan head to the cold, battle-worn landscape of Arreat Crater.

Tyrael requests the hero to light the signal fires to rally the troops and let them know that salvation has arrived. Huh? Did these soldiers get a memo saying “If the fires are lit, then the slayer of Belial is here?” That seems a bit of a stretch, but alright.

I get that this quest is an indirect homage to the lighting of the beacons in Return of the King. I just feel like there’s one or two lines of dialogue missing to convey the importance of lighting the beacons. Am I being too picky? Probably. More than anything though I feel I’m ranting about this small point because it shows that while the artwork and background of Arreat Crater is highly detailed and conveys the atmosphere of war, the story feels like it lacks that same kind of attention to detail.

Meanwhile, Leah is struggling with containing the six lords of the Burning Hells trapped inside the Black Soulstone. Hello Foreshadowing, nice to meet you. I’m Rho. Foreshadowing isn’t bad, but I don’t think this much of it was necessary. I mean, if she has trouble containing six… what will the struggle of seven demon lords do to her?

Speaking of Demon Lord #7… Azmodan decides to show his face to us right away. Yes, apparently he has the power to see anywhere he wants to see. Nice demon magic for sure. Such a power should give Azmodan an amazing tactical advantage, being the superior general that he is right?

Nope. Not so much. If I had Azmodan’s ”sight beyond sight” I would have sent everything I had against the Nephalem right then and there. Why doesn’t he do this? The only mildly reasonable answer I can think of can be summed up in one word.

Pride.

Azmodan is the Lord of Sin, and perhaps he was meant to be the embodiment of Pride more than anything. We see other creatures representing other deadly sins throughout Act 3, predominately with Ghom representing Gluttony and Cydea representing Lust. Is Azmodan so proud and overconfident that he wouldn’t even bother using his abilities of foresight to tip the scales in his favor? That’s what I’m forced to believe if I’m going to accept Azmodan to be the villain the game wants us to believe he is.

So the signal fires are lit, the catapults are raised. What’s next? Oh no… there’s a breach in the keep!

I’m really scratching my head about this one. Bastion Keep looks like it must surely have several breaches, not just one. Further, we known Azmodan has winged servants of his that are carrying soldiers to their doom. We’ve seen enormous demons the size of big rig trucks spew out more demonic soldiers from their gaping maws.

My point is… what the heck has kept Bastion Keep so well defended that it only has one troubling breach, and even then, why haven’t Azmodan’s forces just focused their assault on the front gates, or even the side of the keep? The forces of the Burning Hells far outweigh the thousand soldiers stationed here. The math and the logic don’t add up.

I know, I know… it’s fantasy. It’s a game. It’s fun. Stop being a party pooper, right? Like I said when I started this series, I think the game mechanically is decent and fun (auction house woes aside of course.) Perhaps my expectations for the story were too high. I wasn’t expecting a Shakespearean masterpiece, but I was hoping for a story that didn’t feel like some random episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Fast forward to the death of the Siegebreaker. Oh, hello Adria. Fancy portal magic you got there. Did you learn that trick with Maghda in Witch School? As convenient as the Town Portal is for players, the story sure likes to use portals for the other characters as well. Is there anything inherently wrong with this? I guess not, though it begs the question of why much of the travelling in the game is done on foot if portal magic is apparently available and convenient enough to make it unnecessary.

Cydea was an amusing sub boss. She had a little personality. Nothing too deep, just enough to make you remember her, and that’s fine. Cydea was perhaps the best part about Act 3′s story. I don’t know how something so wrong could feel so right, but it did.

I’m not going to talk about Azmodan’s defeat in detail, because there isn’t anything to tell. He was a baddie. He taunted. He boasted. He got angry. He died. It’s a close call in trying to figure out which demon lord in this game was the best developed one, or the most compelling. Perhaps because neither Belial or Azmodan felt developed or compelling at all.

And so my readers we arrive at the climax to Act 3. The betrayal. The big reveal. The “oh S#!%” moment of the game when the big D makes his… her… its entrance on stage.

I so wanted Adria to be the host for Diablo. I was really praying it wasn’t Leah. I had seen pictures before the game released of a “feminine” structured Lord of Terror, so a small portion of Diablo’s identity was spoiled. Many players predicted Leah would be the host. I was counting on Blizzard to surprise us, to show us suckers that we were dead wrong…

… and I was disappointed again. Instead, Adria is whisked away to be a plot device in the expansion. How convenient.

Leah’s death and change into Diablo felt so wrong. She wasn’t a corrupted soul like her father before her or the Dark Wanderer. She was an innocent, trying to do the right thing. She was following the path of a noble and dedicated follower of the forces of light in Deckard Cain. If the writers’ intent was to disgust me with the way Leah’s body and soul were taken advantage of, then they succeeded.

I didn’t find Leah being Diablo interesting, exciting, or surprising. I just found it disgusting.

Thus I chased after the Prime Evil through the hellgate into the High Heavens…. not because I wanted to slay Diablo “once and for all.”

I just wanted to end this awful story, praying for a miracle in Act 4 that somehow my thoughts and feelings would be changed when it was all over.

What do you think? Leave a comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes on the blog next week for more.

Over the last couple of months I had my fun with Diablo 3, got my money’s worth and started complaining about the story. Meanwhile, I was collecting a nice chunk of Battle.net balance by selling pixels for outrageous prices. Alright, not really outrageous when you compare what I made to what others did. Still, $100 of “Blizzard bucks” wasn’t bad. No real interest in changing it to actual cash via PayPal, especially since you can’t do that if your cell phone is prepaid rather than a contract phone.

So what do I decide to do with the money? Spend a heap of it and bring Rho from the Alliance on one realm and into the Horde on another. Now my warlock can take pride (or agony) in being the butt of blood elf jokes as he hunts for achievements amongst the members of Alea Iacta Est. I’ve also created and levelled a Tauren paladin up to level 80 and plan to hit 85 in time for MoP’s release.

Most of you know all of this already. The biggest change you might not know is… I’m buying a new microphone. A Blue Snowball to be exact.

That might not seem like a big deal, unless you knew I plan to use that microphone to help get into the WoW podcasting community. Well, just a tiny bit. I don’t have any big dreams or aspirations of doing my own weekly hour+ WoW podcast. Right now I feel that space is pretty saturated. Doing a segment though is another thing entirely.

I’m not doing it for fame, money, or even attention… okay -maybe- a little attention. Mostly though I’ve decided to do this because it’s an extension of my love and time I’ve given to this crazy game that has enthralled thousands and captured the wallets of millions.

I’ve spoken with a relatively new podcaster about developing a segment and things look promising. Check out Something Suggestive, a great casual WoW podcast by Jan, and keep your ears open in a few weeks for the start of something exciting.

There are a ton of podcasts out there that I would be remiss to not list, and thank, for what they’ve done for me. In addition to being entertaining and informative, these podcasts have helped inspire me to awkwardly step out into the WoW podcast landscape and say hello. In alphabetical order those would be:

• All Things Azeroth
• Bifactional
• Blessing of Frost
• Convert To Raid
• Ctrl Alt WoW
• Darkmoon Herald
• Group Quest
• The Instance
• Legendary
• The Mana Cooler
• Rawrcast
• Something Suggestive
• Tauren Think Tank
• Twizzcast
• Warcraft Less Travelled
• WoW Insider

To all those behind the production of these podcasts, thank you. Your passion for the World of Warcraft makes impressions on more people than you might realize, and I’m one of them. Perhaps someday down the road I’ll have the honor and privilege of lending my voice and thoughts to any of these casts.

Look up any of the above podcasts on iTunes if you haven’t given them a listen yet. They are all five-star productions in my book in their own ways.

I’m currently giving pet battles in MoP a lot of testing, even through all the bugs that come with it. So far I’m loving this addition to the game when it works right. You can expect me to chronicle my journey to be the best, like someone ever was, in future articles.

The lull between expansions is drawing to a close. The mists are parting, and my itch to create new content for myself and others is waiting to be scratched.

Don’t be surprised if this page looks different several times over the next couple of months as I’m finally taking a stab at giving the page some character and color.

If you have any questions, comments, or recipes for great chicken lo mein you can email them to RhoWoW@gmail.com

“I had to follow him. From that moment we travelled… east. Always… into the east.” -Marius, Diablo 2

Act 2 takes place in Lut Gholein. Wait, what? Didn’t we do this before? Oh, it’s called Caldeum now. Got it.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but can’t we try a little harder to not have Diablo 3 flow like its predecessor? Diablo 2 goes from Tristram, to the desert in the East, to the jungle, to Hell, and finally to Mount Arreat. Diablo 3 goes from Tristram, to the desert in the East (and the adjoining jungle), to a Hell–ish Arreat, and lastly the High Heavens.

With the exception of the final act, the environments and the path in which we encounter them just feels annoyingly repetitive. I’m not looking for Demons in Space, mind you. I get the feeling that this chain of scenery was very intentional. While also a continuation of a story, Diablo 3 feels like a retelling of a story for the current generation of gamer. Given the much larger and broader player base for the game, I understand why they would feel the need to tell the story this way. It’s just a personal annoyance.

Act 2 begins with seeking revenge on Maghda, the architect of Deckard Cain’s demise. The chase isn’t woven with any real twists or turns. Just… lots of hidden footprints.

So then we get to fight Maghda and end her reign of evil. Fight begins. Fight ends. Butterfly lady is toast. That’s it kids. Nothing else to see here. Deckard Cain is avenged… I guess.

Something about the chase, the buildup, and the defeat of Maghda doesn’t feel great. This part of Act 2 felt too flat. What I think might have been missing here is some more interaction between Leah and Maghda prior to her demise. Planting seeds of the fate to come for Leah… or perhaps more exposition about where Adria has been before we actually encounter here. This is an awkward part of the story because there’s just not a lot of story presented in the early chapters of the act.

Things get far more interesting after the first encounter with the child Emperor followed by the discovery and rescue of Adria. What’s great about Adria is you can discover she’s probably not all you think she is if you engage in some extra conversation with her. The Templar certainly doesn’t trust her. I feel that there should have been a bit more tension shown between the player character and Adria though. Here we are allying ourselves with a witch, and not one of the butterfly kind either. Not everything here adds up, and that’s apparent from fairly early on…

… just like it’s apparent that the child emperor is Belial.

This is the Lord of Lies? I mean, was anyone… anyone surpised that the Emperor was Belial? The player character wasn’t, and neither was I. I’m pretty sure you weren’t either.

Then there’s Zoltun Kulle. A dark Horadric mage gone wrong, brought back to life by our exploits, only to be killed again a few minutes after rebirth. Um… okay. So, here was yet another potential spot to introduce an adversary for later in the story and the book is closed on him before you can get the echo of his incessant laughter out of your ears. As annoying as his laugh was, Kulle was a far more interesting character than Maghda, and deserved more exposure and development in the story. After all, he was the creator of the Black Soulstone itself. He showed that there existed a darker side to the arts of the Horadrim, and this had so much potential and room to be explored.

Nah, let’s just kick him to the side and move on to the next loot pinata, good Ol’ Honest Belial.

I can’t take credit for this next bit. I read a forum thread several weeks ago about how the plot of Diablo 3 could have been improved. One poster suggested that Belial’s illusions of the child Emperor could have been just as cheesy and transparent… leading the player character to the inevitable confrontation at the palace. However, when the player character kills Belial, it would then be revealed that the past few minutes had been an illusion… a hallucination of sorts, and now the dead body of the young, very mortal, Emperor lies at the player character’s feet. Belial succeeds in learning about the Black Soulstone, and has turned a nation of Sanctuary against the player character in the process. The actual confrontation with Belial could then be saved for later in the game, or even the expansion.

That would have been a very intriguing twist and one I wished had been canon. Like it or not though, Belial is just a very bad liar in Diablo 3. I’ve been told both Belial and Azmodan are nothing like the way they’re portrayed in the novel “The Order,” and I really need to get my hands on that book sometime soon.

The three primary adversaries in Act 2 were as shallow as the desert wastes of the east that we travelled through. Yet, there could have been so much more done with Maghda, Kulle, and Belial. Had either of these three been given more time, development, and care in Act 2 they could have been great villains. Instead, they’re just boxes we’ve checked off as we make our way to Arreat Crater, and the forces of the Lord of Sin.

What do you think? Leave a comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes on the blog next week for more.

Rho is dead. Long live Rho… For the Horde!

I’ve taken Rho the warlock out of Lightbringer-US, and brought him over to the Earthen Ring-US realm. For the past two months I’ve been levelling a Tauren paladin named Orihn in the AIE salus guild. After several weeks of playing and interacting and taking time to see if AIE is right for me, I’ve decided it’s right for Orihn and right for Rho the warlock.

I’ll still have a presence on Lightbringer. In fact, it’s not a goodbye from the realm more so as it is a new chapter of sorts. I’m keeping characters there in the same guild. “Rho” will be brought back on that realm as a monk once MoP goes live.

There’s plenty of reasons as to why I’m making the change, but when it comes down to it there are two major points which allowed me to feel comfortable in making the change to begin with.

Account wide achievements, pets, and mounts are the number one reason. Once this is live in MoP, I could be playing a monk, shaman, my warlock, or whatever and they will all share most of the same perks I’ve accumulated over the several years I’ve played WoW. Rather than feeling “stuck” to a character because of the vanity and progression marks, I’ll be free to play what I want and have it all be there. Warlocks will be the new hotness in MoP next to Monks… but even if the reinvention of Warlocks is a failure it doesn’t mean everything I’ve earned on Rho the warlock will be put on a shelf and never to be seen again.

Secondly, the Battle.net balance I accumulated from selling virtual goods in Diablo 3 has entirely paid for this transfer. I would have never dreamed of spending $55 out of my wallet to make this happen. Whatever gripes I may have about Diablo 3′s story and Inferno mode aside… without Diablo 3 this wouldn’t have happened.

I want to thank The Golden Elm of Lightbringer-US for being such a great guild and community of players. This isn’t goodbye by a longshot. You helped me achieve legendary feats in the game and I’ve established several great friendships. You still have my shaman, and my rogue, and my axe… er… my monk!

I also want to thank Alea Iacta Est on Earthen Ring-US for opening its doors and welcoming me into another amazing community of people. The journey here has just begun.

To Be Continued….

The following blog articles over the next couple of weeks contain my opinion and commentary on the plot of the storyline. Feel free to disagree. In fact, any comments you have are more than appreciated. You might be able to shed some light on something I’m not seeing from my point of view.

So in the words of Deckard Cain (1996-2012) … stay a while, and listen.

The opening cinematic is a feast for the eyes and sets the stage well. In retrospect, Deckard Cain’s survivability in the face of certain doom seems amazing at the very start of the game. Something large and fiery falls from the heavens and leaps a gaping hole of flame and rubble in its wake, descending into depth of the old cathedral. Leah, who was right next to Cain, survives. Cain’s whereabouts are unknown…

Wait, unknown? I’m sorry, if I turned around and saw a huge fiery pit of doom that was left behind by a freaking meteor, I would naturally think Cain didn’t survive. Leah tells your player that Cain was blasted into the depths of the cathedral.

Now, I understand that rescuing Deckard Cain is motivation for questing forward, but each of the heroes came to Tristram to investigate the falling star to begin with. I would argue that it wasn’t even necessary to put Cain in jeopardy at this part of the story, especially when you contrast it to his eventual demise.

Leah is an interesting character, and I find she is interpreted a dozen ways when people critique the story. Some people seem to think she flip-flops, or changes her attitude and opinion on the dark times before them too quickly. Let’s be clear about something. Leah believes in skeletons. She believes in zombies. She even believes in demons from the very get go. What confuses people is that she simply refuses to believe that the “end days” are upon the world, based on the fact that horrific things have occurred before and the people of Sanctuary have endured. The failing in the story here is that I think this point isn’t made clear enough for people to understand.

I do think that having Leah talk about opening an inn someday was… way off topic. I’ll chalk it up to her trying to distract herself from the gloom and doom of her journey.

The Stranger’s identity wasn’t much of a mystery to me from the moment I discovered him, but that’s simply because I caught the hint from the opening cinematic. “Justice shall fall from the heavens.” I thought this was actually rather clever to plant that hint so early.

The leader of the Coven, Maghda, was one of the first elements of the story that really didn’t sit right with me. This is a witch in the world of Sanctuary? Someone dressed up in purple and green, looking like the cousin of insert Disney villain here? The Dark Faerie Queen of the Butterflies is not the kind of image I envision when thinking of a witch in Sanctuary. Compare Maghda to Adria later in the story and you see two entirely different interpretations of a Sanctuary witch. If there had been some more lore or background on Maghda that explained her rise to power, her magics, her ties to Belial, and more then I think I would have a different opinion of her. As it is, she’s an overly colorful yet generic villain that gets way too much screen time in the story.

Moving on… we’re about to recover the third shard of the Stranger’s sword when all of a sudden… wait, what the heck just happened here?

So Maghda and some of her cronies magically travelled to New Tristram without being spotted by the guards or anyone else. They had a way to teleport directly into Deckard Cain’s house and lucked out that both Cain and the Stranger were there. Leah getting trapped herself isn’t as big a deal. New Tristram is not in flames or under siege. Everyone outside is clueless of the coven’s presence in the dead center of the town. Mind you, this is a town that has fended off hundreds of walking dead from within and without for weeks. Meh…

If you’ve followed my advice, from Twitter or earlier posts you may have checked out the most recent episode of Shattered Soulstone. At the end, the hosts go over an email I sent them regarding several points in the story, including the death of Deckard Cain. Nevik made an interesting point that it may have not been Maghda’s magic that killed Cain, but rather the power that surged from Leah in her outburst. That’s a fair point I hadn’t considered. Maghda wanted Cain to reforge the sword, and she wouldn’t have tried to kill him before that act was done. Once Maghda and those left in the room have taken the fury of Leah’s chaotic power, she concedes Cain and decides to take the Stranger with her by dragging him down some dark portal.

Here’s where I’m lost though. If Maghda has this amazing teleport and portal magic that could let her cronies get where they need to go… why did she not take Cain and the Stranger with her before Leah even showed up. Heck, why not send Leah somewhere else where she can be held captive and the potential for her unleashed rage can be kept in check far away from Maghda and her current plans?

In my opinion, Cain’s death was executed poorly. It does drive the plot further. It gives a reason for the hero to continue on into Act 2 beyond just fighting the forces of Belial. But shouldn’t fighting the forces of Belial be enough?

The beginning and the end of Act 1 uses Deckard Cain as motivation when it wasn’t necessary. Cain’s end was at hand. I knew this would likely happen when I first started playing Diablo 3. I just feel that it came too soon in the story, and at a time where its impact is not needed to push the forces of light further into their conflict with the last lords of the Burning Hells.

What do you think? Leave a comment here or email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes on the blog for the next article on Act 2′s story woes.

Not setting a schedule because you know how real life can be… though I’m fairly sure you’ll see at least one or two posts within a week.

As an appetizer, check out the Shattered Soulstone podcast on iTunes or shatteredsoulstone.com . The end of the podcast includes an email from myself to the podcast explaining just some of the story elements that I was not too fond of. Be warned, there’s a ton of spoilers so if you haven’t beaten Normal mode yet keep away from it for a bit.

To Be Continued…

For the past several weeks I’ve been lost in the realm of Sanctuary, hunting demons with a bow and arrow. With the help of my bat companion and the strong will of Kormac the Templar, I’ve defeated the forces of the Burning Hells multiple times. I’ve encountered treasure unimaginable, a whimsical land of ponies and rainbows, and creatures with abilities and powers that made the Lord of Terror seem like child’s play.

It’s been mostly fun. Mostly. It’s almost time to move on though, and it’s bittersweet. I thought I would be playing this game for much, much longer than I’ll end up playing it. Am I rage quitting due to all the changes from the last patch? Not really. I’ve just reached that point where I’m ready to move on. Diablo 3 did not ensnare me like its predecessor did so many years ago. I’m older, maybe a bit more mature (big maybe), and my taste in gaming I think has evolved more than I realized. But it’s not only that. Diablo 3 is both everything and nothing like the legendary game before it.

I’ve had fun playing the game, there’s no doubt about it. It’s been a nice change of pace from other games.

The always online bit didn’t sit well with me for one reason only; hardcore mode. With gameplay being subject to possible lag spikes at any corner it becomes entirely undesirable to play Hardcore mode. You can’t kill what you can’t see. In a game where fast reactions can make the difference between life and death you just can not have lag spikes added to the mix. With Hardcore items and economy being entirely separate from the normal mode economy I have to wonder why they couldn’t just make Hardcore an offline only mode.

Oh, right. The hardcore auction house.

The skill system in Diablo 3 is at first glance rich and diverse. You could go with “optimal” builds or if you’re feeling up to something a little crazy you could go with an aberrant build. For instance, I went through a good part of the game without using a ranged weapon on my Demon Hunter. I wanted her to be more a master of traps and devices, and there were skills and runes that made it work. My demon hunter played through all of Hell throwing grenades while setting down spike traps and caltrops. Should I get cornered, my Grenadier ability let me go out with a satisfying bang that took out my foes with them. My aberrant build was full of finesse, flavor, and fun…

…until Inferno.

Inferno punishes aberrant builds harshly, and that was disappointing. I found that if I didn’t have Smoke Screen available I wouldn’t have a chance. Not only that… sometimes two or three smoke screens in a row weren’t enough. That led to me using Preparation to get more discipline. Goodbye caltrops, goodbye Sentry. My crafty trapper had to take up a bow and arrow and kite her way to victory.

I was still failing hard in my first few days in Inferno. I spent about a week farming Act 3 & 4 in Hell difficulty only to find upgrades were practically nowhere to be found. It was frustrating. What was I going to do?

Oh, right. The auction house.

With the help of the auction house I got the gear needed to kill them before they killed me. I didn’t stack attack speed like most demon hunters did, and I’m glad I didn’t. To me it was as simple as this; would I rather kill things in two to three fast shots or one stronger shot? I guess that’s why the IAS nerf didn’t bother me too much.

Speaking of which, 1.03 didn’t bother me as much as it did the majority of the community. Did I die a lot? Sure. Did I lose dps? Some, but not a ton. Did the higher repair costs bug me? A little, but I had some luck on my side by finding a few legendary pieces of gear which sold altogether for about seven million gold…

… on the auction house.

Do you kind of see where I’m going here? Diablo 3 is everything and nothing like Diablo 2 because of the existence of the auction house. I’m not even talking about the real money one. The auction house has had a more profound impact on the game than any other element.

Did I use crafters much? Nope. The auction house had items that were effective and cheaper than random gambles made at the blacksmith. Gems were cheaper to buy than they were to make all the way up to Inferno, and the only way to progress beyond Star quality gems was to be extremely lucky or use the Auction House to buy the expensive gem pattern you wanted.

Gearing up my character was not a slow, steady climb like it was in Diablo 2. The auction house gave me access to instant upgrades in the stats I specifically sought after. While I needed that gear to do as well as I did in Inferno, I have to admit that the access to instant upgrades like that is a huge factor in why I feel like I’ve played enough of the game for now. My progression has stopped at Act 2, and I’ll tell you what… it’s not due to gear. Inferno Act 2 requires skill and reflexes that I don’t think I have… and the repair costs in the land of 1.03 don’t do anything to encourage me to work harder on it.

I would have reached this point eventually… but without the auction house I think it would have taken much longer to reach this point.

We were told not too long ago that you would have the same chance to find a legendary item in a barrel or on a monster. The devs felt this was important to the experience, and they’re right.

So, 1.03 happened and all of those words got stepped on and covered in dirt. Chests don’t get the benefits of magic find? Really? I understand barrels, pots, logs and such… but treasure chests? Why is this happening? It’s happening because everyone has quick and easy access to magic find gear sets that would have taken much longer to put together had the auction house not existed. We are creatures of habit, and one of our greatest habits is to find the path of least resistance. If someone can use the Auction House to stack their magic find to improve their chances to find treasures on objects that won’t kill them, then they’ll do it.

As a result, the 1.03 changes to finding loot off of objects kills one of the fundamental parts of this style of game. Why take the time to explore every nook and cranny when there’s far less incentive to?

You know what though? All said, I still had fun playing this game, and I imagine I’ll revisit it every now and then to see if the iteration from the devs has done anything to improve the experience. I thought I would stay in Sanctuary longer but it’s not the end of the world. I see Mists of Pandaria raid testing is coming up after all.

Diablo 3 was worth every penny I paid for it. Yep. Every penny. Zero. By enrolling in the WoW Annual Pass program I got Diablo 3 for free. In retrospect I’m glad it worked out that way. I think I’d be a bit more irritated with the game if I paid sixty dollars for it. As a “free” game I don’t feel too angry or betrayed by how the gameplay turned out far different from my expectations.

If there’s anything I’m angry about in regards to Diablo 3 it’s not the auction house. It’s the… topic of the email I’m about to write to a certain dazed and confused wizard.

In the wake of patch 1.03 to Diablo 3, the host of the Shattered Soulstone podcast posted a blog on his personal experiences in Inferno. Check out his blog at neviksnotebook.com. Be sure to check out the Shattered Soulstone podcast also on iTunes or shatteredsoulstone.com. Who knows, in a future podcast you may even find out what I hated most about Diablo 3. If the email doesn’t pop up there you’ll get to see it here soon. What I hate most about Diablo 3 really deserves its own post.

A couple of weeks ago I had mentioned a few new posts I was going to put up over the next several days. Then Diablo 3 released and captured me. It’s amazing how fast time can pass while in that game, and I haven’t had too many free hours to play to begin with.

Right now between D3 and work and all other things real life, I haven’t had much time to play WoW. Even my late night raiding group finally disbanded due to just a general lack of interest.

Are things all gloom and doom for my time in WoW? Not at all, but I can say without a doubt that we have reached “The Lull.”

It’s that time between the end of the current expansion and the beginning of the next one. Burnout is high, activity is low, and people in general are just doing other things right now.

One lesson I was given about writing blog posts is to never feel “forced” to write something. Doing articles on a weekly or daily basis is great and all, but if there’s no real inspiration driving you it’s going to show in the quality of your work.

That being said, I’m going to take a bit more time off from blogging. During the interim I may retool the design on this site and rethink how I want to handle it. I imagine you’ll see me back to blogging once 5.0 (the patch prior to the expansion) is live. I may surprise you folks with a random blog between now and then if something strikes me.

Consider these first twenty or so posts a beta test of sorts for what this blog will be about.

World of Rho will be back… when it’s ready.

If you wish to chat or game with me in Diablo 3 you can add my battletag Rho#1846.

As always you can email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com

Thank you to those of you who have taken your time to see a bit of the world, Azerothian and otherwise, through my eyes and words.

See you Soon(tm)

Tier 13 brought us to the culmination of the Cataclysm storyline in the Dragon Soul raid. In the same vein as Icecrown Citadel, the release was of this final raid came with three 5 man dungeons which helped set the stage for the final confrontation. In truth, I would say the Hour of Twilight dungeons did an even better job of setting up the raid than the final Lich King 5-mans did in setting up ICC.

The Dragon Soul raid feels like a natural continuation in the story following the death of Archbishop Benedictus in Hour of Twilight. I still feel the Firelands raid had better setup with quests and dailies that took place in the Firelands themselves, but Dragon Soul lore has a strong showing and there’s no finger-pointing to be made here.

Dragon Soul does something that I really can’t remember any raid doing before, with Ulduar perhaps being one exception. Dragon Soul encounters take place in multiple environments with different colors and themes. We’re all over the place in this raid, from the inside of the Old Gods’ maws to the Eye of Eternity to a gunship flight to the Maelstrom itself.

I feel that this was almost an experiment in raid design. How will players react to a raid where a story is told spanning more than just one locale? It was an interesting change of pace. I don’t think I would want to see this done too frequently, but it does add one more tool to the kit in creating a more diverse set of raids.

My greatest disappointment with the color and visuals in the raid would have to be Blackhorn and Spine of Deathwing. The cloud background was very plain and uninspired. It felt like we were on a large stage in a theatre where behind us was a curtain with clouds painted on it. Cataclysm showed us that dynamic cloud effects are possible. I have to wonder why the cloud effects we saw in the Skywall areas of Uldum couldn’t be applied to those two encounters.

Blackhorn’s encounter could have been made more visually impressive with additional background objects. More drakes perhaps? As for Spine, I think the inability to really see Deathwing roll breaks the immersion. If you’re going to hype up a fight on the back of a giant dragon flying through the sky, then the visuals should add to the hype.

Seeing nothing but clouds is boring. Couldn’t we have seen the flight from Northrend to the Maelstrom. Given, most of this flight would be over water but at least the initial portion could have shown us leaving the land behind while on the airship, or seeing the Maelstrom approaching once we made it to the third plate of the Spine.

Layout wise Dragon Soul is primarily a tunnel instance. If you’ve read my previous posts you know my general feeling on those. In this instance however I think the tunnel instance formula isn’t as large of a problem, and that’s primarily due to the dynamic progression of the encounter and the multiple different locations that encounters take place. While the raid is a tunnel instance, it doesn’t “feel” like one as much.

I find it amusing that in an expansion where a great deal of old content was revisited, the final raid would involve old location content that was revisited. We’ve been to the front of Wyrmrest Temple. We’ve been inside the maw of an Old God (if you quested in Twilight Highlands.) We’ve been to the Eye of Eternity and fought on an airship.

Fighting on Deathwing’s back was different, but I kind of felt it lacked the punch it should have had primarily because of just how centralized the fight was. I think a fight that could have involved moving from one part of his body to another would have been more impressive. The Maelstrom backdrop was fine and a fine place to end everything where it began.

In terms of difficulty, I’d have to say the raid felt easier than I expected it to be. I think that might be due to how geared we were. It was the first tier that my raid team actually progressed a fair bit into heroic content the tier before. We went 5/8 on Normal on our first week. Each encounter after that took a couple of weeks, and I feel we downed Madness on Normal in a fair amount time considering how little our group raids compared to most.

Heroic encounters were challenging, and still are. I don’t think I’ll be 8/8 on Heroic before Mists, and that’s fine. I still think it’s not necessary to buff players or nerf bosses over time in Heroic content. I understand that Blizzard wants us to see all the content, but really, heroic content for the most part involves bigger numbers and one to three additional mechanics.

Dragon Soul wasn’t the best raid I think Blizzard has created, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. The team continued to try new things, break new ground, and provide encounters that are fresh and engaging. If my biggest gripe on the raid is about some painted cloud backdrops on two encounters, that’s not the end of the world.

No, the end of the world takes place in a little over twelve hours when I vanish from Azeroth from a few days and moonlight as a Demon Hunter in Sanctuary. It will be a welcome change of pace, and by the time I’m done there Mists of Pandaria raids on beta shouldn’t be too far away.

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

@matticus: CROSS REALM ZONES. http://ow.ly/aPKti

Jaw drops. Mouse clicks, and this week’s article gets put on hold for a bit.

My first reaction to this as I read the details was one of joy. Low levelling zones would no longer feel so desolate. Real ID invites possible. Similar system to cross-realm raiding and battlegrounds. Rainbows.

Ok, no rainbows… but still, this looks promising.

Like many WoW players, I gave Star Wars: The Old Republic a shot. The storyline was great. What felt off about SWTOR was how “empty” the levelling zones felt at times. Mind you I started playing a couple of weeks behind the initial rush. Being along had its advantages when it came to waiting for quest target mobs to pop, but otherwise the levelling experience for me felt very single-player.

Cross-realm zones is the answer to this problem and I greatly approve. It creates the solution to the problem of the MMO experience feeling less massive in the early game. That’s great, sure… but here’s something to consider.

Why would I group in a low-level zone with players on other realms, let alone my own?

Confused what I would ask that? We group up for dungeons, battlegrounds, and LFR. We’ll be grouping for Scenarios when those go live in MoP. So why wouldn’t questing lend itself to the same habits?

Simply, because group quests were removed from the vast majority of the questing experience. If I’m not mistaken, there simply are no group quests in Cataclysm 1-60 content. I’m pretty sure group quests have also been tweaked to be single player quests in Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King zones.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on this change. It doesn’t harm the average player’s quality of life much while levelling. It’s just that besides seeing more general activity in a levelling zone, it doesn’t do much to improve it either.

Let’s look at both sides of the coin here. How will cross-realm zones truly change how we play?

Roleplaying Renaissance via BattleTag or Real ID: This will make it easier to enjoy the levelling experience with friends and family who may not have their characters on your realm. Outside of current tier raiding and interacting in the capital cities, it would be possible to do almost anything in the game with the players you want to play with.

Let’s take this a step further. There’s a niche section of the player base that not only plays on RP realms, but actually roleplay their characters too! Who’d have thought?! Now, imagine a multi-realm roleplaying community that uses Battletags to form groups (or even raids) to participate in roleplayed activities outside of capital cities. There’s potential here for a renaissance in RP.

Hm. I do feel bad for any realms linked to Moon Guard’s Goldshire zone though. Yikes.

World PvP: While I do participate in an occasional random BG, I’m not a huge participant in PvP. I wasn’t around during the “good ol’ days” of WoW when Tarren Mill vs. Southshore was the talk of the town. Quite a few people miss the days of abundant World PvP. Wintergrasp and Tol Barad just don’t quite do it. They’re glorified battlegrounds more than anything.

With cross realm zones, this changes. Areas like Tol Barad, Wintergrasp, and whatever comes in MoP will no longer have a faction imbalance should Blizzard put the technology in those zones. Great change. For PvP realms, this is a huge plus.

As a far more experienced blogger stated on his Twitter feed:

@matticus : Cross realm zones means more lowbies to gank…. right?! =D

(by the way Matt, if you’re reading this I swear I didn’t know about the name of your blog before I started mine, honest!)

This change certainly ramps up the risk and adventure for PvP realms. Will Level 85 (or 90) escorts be vital to surviving the levelling experience? Possibly. Fortunately players will have more resources to pull help from.

On a quick aside, I’m curious how zone wide chat channels will work here. Will they be limited to realm, or will all realms “connected” to a common zone share the zone chat channel. Food for thought.

World Bosses: I did just mention that group quests are a thing of the past. PvE gameplay does receive an interesting bonus from cross realm play though. While new world bosses have only been announced for Mists of Pandaria zones, this change makes the possibility of engaging world bosses in any zone, old or new, more viable.

Should Blizzard decide to throw a new world boss in an older zone, the word will spread faster to a larger pool of players that the boss is up, setting the stage for epic encounters where players from several realms can take on challenging content.

For all we know, this technology might be used in the MoP levelling zones to make fighting those world bosses a more accessible task once the majority of players have finished bringing their mains to Level 90.

Node Gathering: This is one subject that will have to be watched closely. I can only imagine the QQ on the forums from people who get their node “ninja’d” from someone from another realm. This isn’t really a big deal for PvP realms, as you have a course of action available should you wish to punish that miner who just got the ore with your name written on it in gold letters. Seriously though, for PvE realms I could see this becoming a point that the ever vigilant “vocal minority” complains about. We’ll just have to wait and see. Grab your popcorn.

What I’ve touched on is only the tip of the iceberg. This news is only an hour old as of posting this. I look forward to seeing what develops from here.

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Tier 12 raiding brought us to the elemental plane of fire, home of Ragnaros the Firelord. In my opinion Firelands was the overall best raid in Cataclysm. Dragon Soul did a couple of things better, and Tier 11 had its highlights also, but looking at the whole package I’d say Firelands was the most enjoyable raid to progress through. Mind you I just said progress through. Not farm for weeks and weeks into Dragon Soul to complete a legendary staff on 10 man.

If you wanted lore and a build-up to the confrontation with Ragnaros, you got it in spades. Ragnaros’ ultimate defeat has been building up since the days of “vanilla” raiding when groups of two-score raiders had defeated him too soon.

Mount Hyjal was an amazing zone in how it told a progressive story of the battle fought between Ragnaros’ forces and the defenders of Hyjal, leading up to an early confrontation with Ragnaros at the end of the epic quest chain. Just when you think that’s all the build up there is, we get introduced to the Molten Front dailies, taking the fight to the firelord’s doorstep while learning more about the secondary characters in the battle on both sides.

I felt motivated to defeat Ragnaros. I’d even go so far as to say that Ragnaros could have been a decent boss to vanquish to end the expansion, keeping the Deathwing build-up growing with time. Alysrazor and Majordomo Staghelm’s ties to earlier questing in Hyjal were well placed. I don’t demand that we have lore and quests for every boss vanquished in a raid… but it’s nice to see a couple of bosses besides the last one and say to yourself…

“You! I remember you… in the mountains…”

… or something like that.

I’ve rambled enough about the best part of the raid design. Now on to the worst of it. The color and theme of Firelands was very singular. There was fire, lots of fire. You want reds, oranges, and charred earth? You got it. You want lava? You got it. You want anything else? Sorry friend, this is the elemental plane of fire.

Was I expecting rainbows, robots, flowers, and penguins in the Firelands? Of course not. See, the biggest problem isn’t that Firelands was nothing but red and orange fire everywhere. The problem was that this was our only raid in the tier. Unfortunately, Firelands became a victim in this regard to its success in every other factor of raid design. With Blizzard spending so much time on making Firelands as great as possible, it became the only raid presented in the tier. Some of you may recall the Abyssal Maw was supposed to include a raid encounter at the same time as Firelands, but was ditched due to its supposed plainness and lack of development time in contrast.

I feel that if we had been given even a small 3 or 4 boss raid to complement the Firelands the tier as a whole would have felt that much better and may have even rivaled tier 8 as one of the best raiding tiers in the game. Firelands by its nature had to be nearly monochromatic and that’s fine. Having nothing to compliment it and contrast with it made it feel like that much more of a grind when you’re only seeing red for months of raiding.

The layout of the Firelands was excellent. Raiders had a choice of which order to vanquish the first four bosses. Choice is a great thing. This was not your typical tunnel instance until you got near the climax of the raid, and that’s just fine. Yes there was a lot of trash. Blizzard scaled it down somewhat after time to much approval from the player base. Personally I didn’t mind the trash level being where it was at the start though. Honestly, it was less trash than Karazhan, Serpentshrine, or Black Temple. The environment was well constructed and while there were hints of Molten Core it didn’t feel like Molten Core 2.0 to me.

The difficulty of the encounters were reasonable with two exceptions. Lord Rhyolith was a very unique encounter from a technical standpoint. When you’re breaking new ground with raid mechanics you’re bound to come across elements that feel less natural or more random than others. With Rhyolith, it became a point of great frustration for fellow raiders in my team. For weeks turning Rhyolith was aggravating. This boss could have likely used more polish time in development.

Majordomo Staghelm is my second point of contention when it comes to difficulty. Staghelm felt less like the right hand man of Ragnaros and more like the skinny doorman of a motel who couldn’t bounce a 20-year-old from a night club on his best day. While Staghelm’s difficulty was below the mark, I did love how Blizzard created an encounter that let the raiders entirely decide when and how to handle phase changes. This is a wonderful design area to touch upon and I hope we see more encounters like it in future raid tiers.

(Insert my QQ about grinding for the Legendary staff in a 10 man group and not obtaining it til a day before we killed Madness of Deathwing here.)

Seriously though, while I didn’t care for the weeks and weeks we had to revisit Firelands when it was old content, I am nonetheless grateful that Blizzard gave 10 man raid teams the opportunity to obtain the item. That’s all I’ll say about it since I know the issue has been beaten to death more than Hogger.

Next week I’ll catch up to the here and now with Dragon Soul and finish off the series. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please feel free email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Bastion of Twilight

Bastion of Twilight is the only raid instance in Tier 11 where there is some build-up to the confrontation with the last boss. Cho’gal had a presence during the Cataclysm launch event and players who quested through the entirety of Twilight Highlands also caught a few glimpses of the Twilight Hammer’s leader.

So props to creative for weaving this boss into the story better than they did with the other “big bads.” However, I feel that Cho’gal was used too soon. This was the big bad of the cult that worshipped Deathwing. It’s the kind of figure that would have made a great kill in the last or next to last raiding tier. As a result of his early demise, we end up eventually having to defeat the traitorous Archbishop Benedictus in what seemed an empty encounter in the Hour of Twilight 5-man. Benedictus would have made a better end boss in this entry tier. The placement and use of Sinestra felt alright, though I’m left wondering what happened between her cameo in Burning Crusade and her Cataclysm encounter.

The colors and theme of the Twilight’s Hammer is prevalent throughout the entire raid, and you get the feeling you are in an enemy stronghold, rather than just a crazy black dragon’s sideshow of experiments. Blizzard had plenty of art assets from questing that they were able to reuse here with decent success.

What was uninspiring was the general layout. The Bastion of Twilight raid is what I’d call a tunnel instance. Tunnel instances are raids or dungeons where there is only one linear path from start to end with boss encounters placed along the way. To be fair, most instances these days are tunnel instances, and Blizzard has mentioned before that the change in raid design philosophy was made to make traversing the instance a faster, simpler affair.

I personally hate tunnel instances. They limit what can be done to present a sense of depth and scale with interior raids. Outdoor raids can workaround the problem with plenty of eye candy placed in the background (take the exterior of Wyrmrest Temple at the start of Dragon Soul for instance.)

When it comes to the difficulty of the encounters, I have only one small thing to nitpick. Mr. Halfus Wyrmbreaker, I choose you. Having a boss with mechanics that change on a weekly basis is interesting and innovative. Having that boss be your entry boss for an instance is frustrating. Every week in order to get further into the Cho’gal’s lair you would have to relearn the Halfus fight and make adjustments based on which dragons were active. This sounds like a fine gateway encounter to place before the final boss. When placed at the start, the encounter lends itself to drastically slowing progression on anything after it.

Now, it’s very possible this was intentional and not seen as much of an issue since players who had trouble with Halfus could always work on the other raids. From what I’ve read we’re going to see another raid boss in Mists of Pandaria entry raiding with random elements. I hope it’s placed a little further back than Halfus was.

Throne of the Four Winds

Alright, Al’akir the Elemental Lord of Wind. Boy, I was waiting to down this guy since… since… um… since his name was mentioned two or three times in Uldum! Yeah!  Not every final boss needs a ton of build-up, but Al’akir should have had some more treatment in my opinion.

Visually this short raid is also one of the most impressive ones to look at. I really wish Blizzard had done more with the Skywall. It’s a sharp contrast from the dark corridors of the other instances, which is nothing but a good thing. The elemental plane of air deserved more screen time than it received, but that’s crying over spilt milk.

Layout wise there’s not much that can be said when you’re dealing with such a limited number of encounters. Having to leap across clouds to get from one platform to another in the council fight was a nice touch. Blizzard also delivered by incorporating a three-dimensional element in a raid encounter that really demanded it. Flight in a raid encounter is something I think should be used sparingly, but it works well here in the battle against the Windlord.

Difficulty wise, the instance felt just about right. Council was clearable early on, and Al’akir had the challenge level one would expect from a final boss with multiple phases. Oddly enough, I would say I enjoyed Throne of the Four Winds more than the other two instances, which is probably why in comparison I have less to rant about it.

Tier 11 provided variety and options throughout the three raids. Had there not been three raids, I would have easily been more frustrated with the placement of some of the earlier encounters in each. As a hardcasual raider, I would say the tier was a decent challenge. The lore-nerd in me regrets the lack of ties to the Cataclysm storyline when it comes to Blackwing Descent and Throne of the Four Winds.

Blizzard would solve that one particular problem and do it right in tier 12. Next week I’ll look back at the Firelands, and the weeks and weeks and weeks of Dragonwrath grinding it entailed.

In these articles I’m going to examine each raid in terms of several factors and I plan to keep the format the same throughout the series.

Blackwing Descent

Blackwing Lair was merely a setback! Sorry, had to say it. Part of Cataclysm’s overall theme was reinventing the world of Azeroth, revisiting areas and lore of the past and showing how it has progressed over the past several years in the fiction. As such, it was to be expected that we would see bosses and elements of the past brought back.

That said I was disappointed that there was a severe lack of lore explaining not only how Nefarian came back, but also what happened in the story to catch our attention of his presence and decide to take him out once and for all. To the best of my recollection no quest lines throughout the levelling progress refer to Nefarian or any of the minor characters introduced to us as bosses in the raid.

Some of you may find this nitpicking, and to a degree I won’t argue that, but it’s been my opinion that raids are made more epic when there’s a buildup to that final encounter with the last boss. Icecrown Citadel is the biggest example of this payoff. Zul’Aman and Obsidian Sanctum are on the other side of the spectrum.

For those who just care about cool fights and purples, lore and buildup will be very low in importance. I’m a lore nerd though, and the lore and storyline to me are initially just as important as the final boss kill.

Blackwing Descent is supposed to evoke memories of Blackwing Lair in terms of ambiance, and the instance succeeds in doing so with the color scheme and backdrop. Dead dragons can be seen, victims of Nefarian’s experiments which are continued by his assistant Maloriak. Trash mobs resembled some of what had been encountered in the past. The tribute to the Black Iron Dwarf lords of Vanilla was a nice touch.

The layout of the raid however felt very awkward and unnatural. This place didn’t feel like it served an actual purpose as part of Nefarian’s stronghold, even though when you first enter this instance, Nefarian mentions this place is the home of some of the best (or worst) of his experiments.

While it was nice to have some options on the order in which to take on the 3rd-5th bosses of the instance, one had to wonder just what Magmaw was doing that kept the heroes from progressing further into the stronghold. The Omnitron Defense System in concept made perfect sense as an entry boss, regardless of the initial complexity to the encounter.

Once you get past the first gate and ride down the Elevator Boss, you witness a big circular room with chambers on the North, West, and East sides. Sound familiar? It should… that’s similar to the layout of Icecrown Citadel once you get past Saurfang. It was a bit disappointing and uninspiring to be honest.

Chimaeron and Atramades make sense being where they are in the raid. Maloriak’s place in the raid felt a bit off to me though.

Personally I would have moved Magmaw to Maloriak’s chamber. This would make the Defense System a singular entry encounter which makes sense as the “gatekeepers” of the sanctum. Magmaw is better explained as an experiment gone bad rather than just some random magma worm giving Nefarian a headache.Maloriak himself would make more sense as the penultimate boss encounter to the instance, accessible only after all the creations were disposed of.

With that tweak alone I think the entire raid’s flow and layout would have made much more sense in terms of progression in a storyline sense.

As for the general difficulty and progression of the raid, this was just something that failed from the get go. There’s nothing wrong with encounters being hard or taking multiple weeks to learn in my opinion. There is something wrong though when one of the first two raid encounters is far more complex than anything else in the raid outside of Nefarian’s battle itself. Omnitron Defense System was a neat encounter and full of gimmicks. Had it been the first boss encounter of the last tier of raiding in an expansion I would absolutely say “job well done.” Being where it was though it provided a swift kick in the jaw to a large group of raiders.

I’m not saying the fight should have been removed or toned down, mind you. It just felt out-of-place in terms of where it was in the instance when you’re talking about difficulty progression… which is frustrating since from a lore and layout perspective it was perfect in its placement.

I don’t have much to say on the Nefarian encounter. It was a tough fight, and a rewarding one. Heck I didn’t even mind seeing Onyxia again. At least I knew how Onyxia had her head reattached.

I originally planned to do the whole tier in one day but I’m running a little wordy by my standards already. Expect to see Bastion of Twilight and Throne of the Four Winds this weekend.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestion about this or other posts feel free to write to me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

It may be unfair, but whenever a new raid is released I tend to measure it up against Ulduar, which in my opinion was the most enjoyable and well designed raid that I had experienced when the content was current. Cataclysm raiding in comparison doesn’t feel like it’s inspired the level of awe and wonder from me that the Tier 8 raid had.

If I were the sum up each tier in two sentences or less, it would go something like this:

While Tier 11 provided us with a variety of locales and themes, the internal design of the two largest raids felt very inspired by Icecrown Citadel. Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent felt less like raids in terms of layout and more like what you would see in a 5-man dungeon.

The Firelands ”outdoor” raid in tier 12 was the exact opposite in terms of layout and the flow of the instance felt very reminiscent of raids in previous expansions. Unfortunately, when the only raid in a tier involves adventuring in a single elemental plane, the color scheme can grow wearisome after months of raiding.

Dragon Soul was a unique, yet mostly linear raid which provides multiple, albeit in some cases reused, visual backdrops for its raid encounters. That said, the tier left myself and others wondering why the epic Well of Eternity 5-man dungeon wasn’t made into a second raid for the tier.

Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be delving a bit deeper into each Cataclysm raid tier and what feelings it evoked from me as I went from progression to farm status on them. I’ll mostly be talking about the design, layout, and themes of the raids. The boss encounters themselves and their difficulty are more a matter of execution, and while I may touch on specific fights briefly that won’t be the focus. The tier 11 article will come out tomorrow, and I’ll follow-up with the other tiers weekly.

I hope you find them an interesting raid and feel free to share your own opinions on Cataclysm raiding by leaving a comment or sending your emails to RhoWoW@gmail.com.

In the meantime, I’ve been dabbling in other games. Three were mentioned a few days ago. Here’s the rest of the bunch:

World of Warcraft : Mists of Pandaria

I’ve been fairly selective in what parts of the Beta I’m testing. Right now I’m going to stay focused on warlock gameplay and the Pet Battle System.

Plenty of other people are doing the level grind and reporting bugs for quests. Personally I’d like to witness the quests firsthand spoiler-free once the expansion goes live.

The Demonology changes in MoP are extreme and the spec feels entirely different from the Cataclysm iteration. This is not only a good thing, but a marvelous thing. Right now I think the primary “complaint” I have is that a lot of the new abilities and talents feel very situational. This isn’t a bad thing mind you, but I feel like I’d be pressing more of these abilities if the spec had to do something crazy like… I don’t know… tank. Warlock tanking? I must be nuts.

Starcraft II : Wings of Liberty

I love Warcraft and Starcraft. Funny thing is I don’t play much beyond the single player campaign. I probably watch eSports coverage of Starcraft 2 matches twenty times more than I actually participate in matches. Competitive play is a bit intimidating. It seems like you need very quick reflexes, not to mention the ability to multi-task and plan ahead.

One can only play the single player campaign so many times though. I may start playing against other players soon. I’m just hoping I’m not part of the 1% that gets absolutely steamrolled before I even launch my first attack.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

I’ve played every Final Fantasy game ever made thus far except for Theatrhythm (don’t even ask what that is, you don’t want to know.) I’ve even played Mystic Quest, much to my regret.

I think I’m one of a minority that actually liked FF XIII. Yes, it was absurdly linear. Yes, the lack of optional content outside of monster hunting was lazy on Square Enix’s part. Yes, I too hated the voice of Vanille. Overall though, I enjoyed the story and my time spent playing the game. It was a no-brainer for me to pick up this direct sequel to the game.

Right now I’m working on side quests and optional content, trying to collect all the fragments that I can. I’ve seen the main ending, and without spoiling too much I have to say I’m not too upset about how it ended. Strange. I was furious about how Mass Effect 3 ended. This game? Not so much.

I’m looking forward to May 15th when Diablo 3 consumes my soul for the next couple of months. By the time I’ve crawled out of that fiery pit of dungeon crawling I’m sure Pandaria will await.

Is there an RPG I haven’t mentioned that you think I should give a shot? Leave a comment here or on Twitter @RhoWoW. You can also email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

I don’t think Mists of Pandaria is boring or bad. If anything I’m impressed by the visuals contained in those thirty minutes. I found myself stopping for two reasons. First, I realized that this is content I wanted to experience at release, and not be spoiled by it ahead of time. Second, I just didn’t feel like playing WoW.

Should I be concerned by the second reason? I don’t know. I do know that I’ve had this attitude about an MMO before. I felt this way both in Ultima Online and Final Fantasy XI shortly before I left for greener pastures. I’ve also felt this way during this same time a few months before Cataclysm was released.

That most recent time I simply took a break from the game. I would pop in maybe once or twice a week for a half hour or so just to say hello and then be out in a blink. This went on til patch 4.0. Once 4.0 was out and the new race/class changes were in, I spent a good couple of weeks leveling my one and only alt, a dwarf shaman known as Magmafist.

In my last article I mentioned a few other games that I had been playing to occupy my time, and there’s more still to come. I’m still left wondering how I truly feel about WoW right now. I don’t think I’m ready to “move on.” Actually, I know I’m not… but for the time being I can truly say that I have no desire to play either my warlock or shaman. I just feel like I’ve finished reading a decent book, but I have no interest in reading the same exact story again while waiting for the next book in the series to come out.

From day one of my adventures in Azeroth I’ve played Alliance characters. When reading blogs and listening to podcasts, I’ve noticed that for the most part these writers and podcasters are “For the Horde.”

That, along with the fact that the majority of my long-term friends in the game have gone inactive has left me considering crossing realm and faction borders for a new experience.

I will say that I think I’m leaning toward playing a class that has at least one melee dps spec, so that rules out Hunters, Mages, and Priests. I’d say that Death Knight sounds intriguing, but considering I’m probably going to play on an RP realm I’m not entirely sure if I would be able to roleplay a Death Knight in a believable way.

Yes, yes, I know trying to RP even on RP realms is a daunting task, but again I’m looking to do something different this time around. Going back to my roots and actually trying to roleplay this alt in-character would be a nice change of pace.

So I’ve narrowed classes down to Druid, Paladin, Rogue, or Warrior. As far as race goes I could probably make any race work, with Forsaken being a bit of a stretch for reasons similar to roleplaying a Death Knight.

To those of you reading this blog, I’m asking for your opinions and advice. Taking what I’ve written above, what would you suggest for a new alt on a new realm? Also, for those of you in the know, where do I stand a better chance at finding a Horde roleplaying community?

Feel free to reply with a comment, a tweet to @RhoWoW, or an email to RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Coming Wednesday: “In Other Worlds : Mists of Starcraft XIII-2″

Instead, I figured I would write about something that interests and excites me right now. Rather than level an alt, I find other games are drawing my attention even long after their release. Each game does it’s own share of things right and wrong. One of these games is still a month away from actual release if we’re to believe the official announcement.

In no particular order here’s what I’m also playing right now in the aftermath of Cataclysm.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Voted Game of the Year in 2011 and I couldn’t agree more. What I love the most about this game is that each player’s personal journey through Skyrim is unique. Most of us who have played have retrieved the Golden Claw, climbed the 7,000 Steps, and yelled at the screen as our companions don’t get the hint that we want them to move out of the way. However, it’s those random moments where you’re in the right place at the right time to witness or create something special that really makes the game.

This game made me feel nostalgic for Ultima VII (both parts). The environment, the ability to interact with the environment, and the sheer scale of the game won me over. Mind you, I hadn’t played an Elder Scrolls game until Skyrim.

I play Skyrim probably twice a week now. I’ve completed the main questline and right now I’m just enjoying exploring every square mile of the land. I’ve been surprised more times than I can count by what I would stumble upon by chance. I’ll save my favorite Skyrim adventure for another time.

Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning

A number of my friends often make comparisons to God of War and Fable when I bring up this game. I haven’t played any of the God of War series. I can sort of see some of the Fable parallels. Moreover, I look at this game as part Skyrim, part Diablo, part arcade scrolling fighting game, and 100% fun.

While there definitely are Skyrim-esque elements to the game throughout, I would have to say these two games are entirely different beasts. For me, comparing Skyrim to Reckoning is like comparing my favorite Chinese food dine-in restauraunt to my favorite fast food chain. Both places serve delicious food, but there’s a time and place for each.

What I like the most about Reckoning though to date is the DLC. Legend of Dead Kel gives more bang for your buck than most DLC out there for other games. The games next DLC, Teeth of Naros, aims to please in a similar way.

I just wish they’d raise the level cap.

Diablo 3 Beta

The past couple of days I finally got to taste test one of the most anticipated games of the year. I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this one. So far, I’m loving every bit of the opening experience. Graphics are crisp, gameplay is familiar and innovative at the same time, and the game excels at bringing the atmosphere of Sanctuary to life.

After playing Monk, Wizard, and Demon Hunter I find myself most fond of the latter. I find myself gravitating toward “darker” heroes and heroines of late when there’s a choice. I’m happy to see that you don’t need an expensive gaming rig to get decent frames per second out of the game too.

One more month, friends. One more month.

Later this week I’ll talk about three other games I’m dabbling in to pass the time away, including the Mists of Pandaria Beta.

The results have been a mixed bag of success and failure. Further, I’m not sure if I’m “doing it right,” which means I’m probably not doing it right.after enough repetition it becomes natural.

In my current setup, I have my primary spells set to key-binds on my number pad. My WASD keys are

Learning to raid on keybinds is almost like learning to type for the first time. It’s clunky and awkward but used for strafe and movement, while the left and right arrow keys are used for turning.

Yes, I said it. I’m turning with arrow keys. I know this is a “bad thing.” I’m not sure how to avoid it right now though. The simple answer is to turn with the mouse, but if my right hand is occupied with spells and the left hand handles primary movement, that means no casting while turning with the mouse.

My spells aren’t key-bound to the left side primarily because it didn’t feel as natural compared to the number pad when I tried both sets.

Those woes aside, my dps was noticeably improved when I tried out my new key-binds on Training Dummy 2.0, otherwise known as Looking For Raid. I was #1 or #2 in dps each time. I suppose that should be somewhat expected at item level 397. Most people stop running LFR if they’re fully decked out in Normal mode raid gear. It also helps, or perhaps hurts, that there’s far less movement required in LFR versions of encounters compare to Normal and Heroic.

Last night I ran with the 10 man late night group from my guild. It was my first chance to see just how much I’ve improved by switching to keybinds over clicks. The results, sadly, were not what I hoped for.

All encounters were run on Normal mode to make sure our rogue could get as many shadowy gems as possible. More on that later. Normal Morchok went horribly. My brain isn’t used to the gear shifting that has to be done when moving.

Zon’ozz and Ultraxion were my best performances by far, and much of that has to do with how little you have to move on those fights.

Blackhorn? Abysmal. Tab targetting is awful on that fight. I’m used to picking up my targets with clicks and it felt like I was much faster getting dps on that way. It didn’t help that I still feel like a chicken with my head cut off in general for that fight. When you’ve become used to doing a certain rotation of spells for long enough, the whole trick of multi-DoTing becomes challenging. It’s practically dps-ing in a different language as far as my brain is concerned.

Overall I did about as well in the raid as I would do back in my clicking days. My stationary dps was much higher, but my dps in encounters where heave movement and/or target switching was that much worse.

It’s only been a week, yet I can’t help but feel a bit down about my performance.

On top of that, I’m not sure how I feel about the current state of my raiding. We just did a full Normal clear so we could be done with it in one night in two hours. The main reason we haven’t worked on Heroics lately is because at one night a week working on a heroic can potentially slow down our rogue’s progress on his daggers.

I’ve been here before, on the other side of the equation when my group continued to run Firelands in 4.3 to help me complete Dragonwrath in 10 man content. Progression or achievements get put on the back burner when you have a restricted amount of time to raid.

At two nights a week this wouldn’t be an issue. Six hours is plenty of time right now to work on heroic progression. Three to four hours on progression, the rest on clearing Normal. At one night however, with only three hours that doesn’t leave much room to push further.

I have to be honest, I’m not currently engaged or motivated when it comes to clearing Normal content. It gets worse when I see that my performance isn’t terrible but nothing to be giddy about.

Then there’s Beta. I joined the 250,000 additional Annual Pass holders who were let into the MoP beta this week. Playing around with the warlock specs there I can truthfully say it is an entirely different beast from what I know now as a warlock.

This brings up a few questions. Is it worth it to continue playing my warlock right now? Would my time be better spent learning the new revised warlock specs so that I’m already playing them the proper way when Mists releases? Should I even raid Dragon Soul anymore if heroic progression appears to be on the backest of backburners?

There’s still much to consider over the next week or two. Presently I do think I will be shelving Rho for a while. At the very least, I’ll be switching Rho from Demonology to Affliction and playing beta as Demo/Destro. At least that way I won’t be faced with conflicting rotations and playstyles when playing on beta as opposed to normal play.

I do want to help our rogue finish his legendary, but that’s something I could do on my shaman just as much as my warlock if I work on learning Elemental.

Something needs to change though. That dreaded feeling I remember from the lull between expansions is beginning to surface.

Raid Night articles are about my experiences as a raider and commentary on raiding in general. If you have any advice, comments, or suggestions on anything I’ve mentioned today please feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

I did some research at El’s Anglin’ and decided on a plan of attack. Howling Fjord fishing could provide both a Sea Turtle and a Dark Herring with enough patience. That would kill two birds with one stone. Or rather, kill two fish with one rod. Well, one fish and one turtle. Actually, you don’t kill the tur… I digress.

One hundred casts and change into fishing in the Fjord I’m pleasantly surprised by a quick achievement. The turtle was faster than reported! To this day I know of people who have clocked in several thousand fishing pool casts and not seen the Sea Turtle. What luck!

I had a good feeling about the title. The next six hours I was grinding for an achievement like I never had done before. There are times where I’m big on hunting achievements down, and times when I forget they’re in the game. This was the former taken to the extreme. Guildies could only shake their heads in disbelief as I wiped the drool from my mouth and clicked, clicked, clicked, clicked, clicked, clicked…

Fast forward to January 2011. Over those eighteen months I did several marathon stints of fishing for a Dark Herring. Time and time again it escaped my lure. I actually kept track of the casts each time and at 4,000 casts I was beginning to think I would never see it. In fact, when I hit 4,000 I decided it wasn’t worth wasting any more time on. If given the choice between fishing for a Dark Herring or hearing Sindragosa tell me about how my pathetic magic would betray me, I’d choose the latter because at least I wouldn’t be alone in my foolish misery.

On a whim I did the Stranglethorn contest on January 16, 2011 to see if I would catch any of the rare fish that you could turn in for miscellaneous fishing knickknacks. I don’t know what compelled me to do it, I think I was just bored.

Tastyfish, Tastyfish, Oily Blackmouth, Tastyfish…

Achievement Earned!

Wait, what? What just happened? I don’t even…

A wild Rockhide Strongfish appears! It is super effective! An achievement years in the making ends where it begins at the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. I think I blew up my guild chat with random key mashing, caps lock, and scattered OMGs.

I remember one guildie saying afterwards “oh that’s what happened. I thought you were practicing ret paladin facerolling ”

To this day I still consider the Accomplished Angler one of my top 5 achievements earned in the game. You know an achievement is important to you when you can vividly remember the trials and tribulations that led to claiming it.

To be honest, I think that’s part of the philosophy behind the achievement system being in the game. It’s not all about points and bragging rights. Achievements are virtual trophies. They are reminders of the unique journey that each of us have taken through this game.

The stories that come with those most precious achievements are rewards that have more value than any drop you can get off a boss that would just eventually be rendered obsolete.

World Drop articles are stories about random WoW subjects. Lore, achievements, you name it. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this or future World Drop articles, feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

When I first started this blog I wasn’t sure where it was going. I didn’t have any real direction in mind aside from writing about all things World of Warcraft and other games that capture my attention.

Just like any developing MMO, this blog will go through revisions, weekly updates, and even hotfixes. For example, I renamed the previous “Realm Maintenance” articles to “Life Tap.” Just felt like a better fit for a category dealing with real life, and it helps that it’s warlock themed.

I’m going to use the “Realm Maintenance” title for articles that touch on a mish-mash of things once a week. Answering emails, comments, and any tidbits of WoW-related issues that I don’t want to devote a whole article to.

So what’s happened since the last Raid Night article?

• I provided the inspiration for a twist on the intro for the Convert to Raid podcast. The podcast was recorded on April 1, which should help explain things some.
• I won a Foam Sword Rack for answering trivia correctly during the All Things Azeroth podcast recorded Monday.  The trivia involved the names and factions of the Pandaren leaders in MoP. It took a couple of minutes to dig the info out. Still no beta invite, but that’s fine. I’m in no rush right now.
• I haven’t listened to it yet, but a little birdy told me my “Fel and Foolish Mists of Beta” article may be mentioned on the next Group Quest podcast.
• A tweet of mine regarding guild perks was read during the Darkmoon Herald podcast.

Huh… I really do love podcasts don’t I? There’s another blog topic for another time.

Speaking of Twitter, I imagine some of you know who Wryxian is. He’s a community manager on the EU forums and the individual who brought the hope of green flame to the warlock community not too long ago. As you know, those hopes were dashed not too long after. When I saw Wryxian reply to the warlock writer from WoW Insider I figured I’d take a shot and see if he would reply to little ol’ me. Minutes later, this happened:

Rho (@RhoWoW): I just have a simple question about “green fire.” If a glyph can change other spell effects in beta, why can’t a glyph change fire?

Wryxian (@Frimlin): If your issue is down to trust, then it almost doesn’t matter what our developers say about the matter as you won’t accept it.

Rho: I never said I don’t trust the dev team. My question is a sincere & honest one. There are glyphs in beta which change spell effects.

Rho: I am genuinely curious as to what prevents the coding of a glyph to change warlock spell effects. I’m curious, not bitter

Wryxian: Well, the info they gave was that it wasn’t as easy as it might seem. And I trust them on that. I’m glad you’re not bitter! *phew*

Any reply is better than no reply, and I do appreciate Wryxian responding on Twitter. I really didn’t expect that to happen.

For the record, I mean it when I say I’m not bitter, even with my earlier article implying otherwise. Like I said at the end, beta is beta. Half of the things people see now could be entirely different from what they see when this expansion launches. Taste the soup while it’s cooking, sure… just don’t judge it til it’s done. 

My progress on switching from the evil ways of clicking to keybinds is going well. I’ve been running LFR one or two times each day as training, trying to develop some muscle memory for the demo rotation. My UI could probably use some fine tuning though. I’m also concerned about movement feeling natural, and that’s something I’ll have to wait til Normal mode raids to really get a feel for. Most of the LFR content involves very little moving.

Expect another Raid Night article in about a week. The next article I plan to write will be part 2 behind getting the Salty achievement some time ago, and that should be up Wednesday if all goes well.

Realm Maintenance articles are weekly updates of happenings in the World of Rho. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

Then my guild leader says she’s waiting for a Dragon Soul 25 man to start, and it’s still looking for a couple of ranged dps. I figure it might be interesting to do normal content in 25-man and experience the differences to it all.

Sure, I’m game.

I send a tell to the raid leader. Item level 397 demo warlock with Dragonwrath. 1/8 Heroic DS experience (10 man).

He replies “Sure, I’ll take you.” A moment later I’m in. The raid is full and I was the last piece they needed. The other warlock in the run is happy to know she won’t need to go demo tonight. I then take a careful look at who makes up this raid.

A sense of combined excitement and dread the likes of which I’ve never felt washes over me. Most of these raiders appear to be alts from some of the top rated raiding guilds on Lightbringer, Eternal Reign being the most represented and prolific of the bunch. This guild is World Ranked 125 on wowprogress.com. The second best guild on Lightbringer is World Ranked 1337 (and yes I understand the irony there… they’re leet.)

These may be alts, but I just stepped into the big leagues.

The following two and a half hours were surreal. This group of alts performed better than most raiding groups I’ve ever seen firsthand. We went 4/8 Heroic on Dragon Soul. Thanks to them I got a few new achievements that I thought I wouldn’t see until Mists of Pandaria.

I also received something else. A wake up call.

My dps compared to these people was miserable. I placed somewhere between 10th-16th dps on every encounter, my best performance being 10th on Heroic Ultraxion. Now in my 10 man “hardcasual” group, these numbers I put out were more than reasonable. Here, they were numbers that would have benched me in any serious weekly run. All the same, I was invited to come back next week if I was available.

At the end of the raid, the raid leader and I talked for about a half hour in vent one-to-one. He went over the run from World of Logs with me. Having played a Warlock for a good part of Cata, he was able to point out some of my biggest flaws. It was a humbling experience, but at the same time I was thankful that someone would take so much time to try to help me improve my performance.

Things I learned:

1. I need to stop clicking. Period. It’s holding back my dps and diverting my attention from the encounter too much. This is the big thing. I need to change how I move, how I cast, and only click under the most rare of circumstances. Key bindings need to happen, and I need to set these close to WASD to be efficient.

2. My Immolates need to stop falling off. I need to move Immolate way the heck away from the keys I use most and be better at managing Hand of Gul’dan.

3. Reapplying Corruption right when it falls off isn’t optimal. I should be recasting it within 2 seconds of it falling off.

4. I shouldn’t underestimate Shadowflame’s raw dps when used on 2 or more targets. On some fights I do well on casting this on CD. Other fights I need to better manage my positioning and be more efficient.

While my schedule doesn’t really allow me to raid with the best of the best groups to begin with, I would be so much better if I put in the effort to change these things. In that alt run I was in with Dragonwrath I should be able to be top 7 or better with my gear.

Sure, I could phone it in. I could do what I have been doing all these years and it will get me through normal content and some heroic content. Do I want more? How bad do I want this? Am I motivated enough to reinvent my playstyle and improve in the fundamentals?

Time will tell. For the first time in a while I am feeling an itch I haven’t felt before. I want to improve, and I’ve been given a list of ways I can do that.

It begins with keybinds… where it ends is anyone’s guess. I’ll keep you folks updated as I work on being a better warlock.

My thanks to Alchemoney of Inbound (whom I’m pretty sure has alts in Eternal Reign also) and all those who gave me a shot to see where I am now and where I could be later.

The Mists of Pandaria Beta experience has been eventful for me, which is saying something considering I haven’t even downloaded the beta client yet.

Having a warlock for a main, you can imagine the sparkle of wonder and curiosity that shone in my eyes when I read of this “Glyph of Demon Hunting.” Warlock tanks? No joke? It suddenly made sense why warlocks had so many survivability cooldowns in their talents.

They were instruments. A stepping stone to a much larger plan! It has all led to this… and this time, Blizzard will not interfere!

…or so I thought.

So yeah, this single glyph and the dev team’s stated intent with it has caused more rage and frustration than anything I can remember in the warlock community for some time. I think the last time warlocks as a whole cried this much, they were told that green fire wasn’t technically possible to implement…

…oh wait, that just happened. Again.

Mind you, I’m not all bitter and upset about warlocks in MoP. The changes to Destruction are very intriguing. The talents are mostly fun, and a few of the early cosmetic glyphs  are enjoyable additions.

And hey, Demonology still looks great. The whole mechanic of Demonic Fury and the synergy with Metamorphosis has wonderful potential…

…what’s that? Metamorphosis only does a 10% damage buff now instead of doubling Demonic Fury?

/facepalm

Beta is beta. We’re a long, long way from seeing the final iteration of warlock specs and abilities as they will be at launch. Unfortunately, the immediate disappointments about warlocks seem to be casting a shadow far and wide over everything Blizzard has worked on to breathe new life into the class.

It’s concerning because I fear this bitter first impression will do nothing to bring more players into the warlock community, which is relatively small as it is.

On an aside here, please check out Cynwise’s blogs about the current state of warlocks at cynwise.wordpress.com. It’s a great read and provides a good deal of insight to why warlocks are harder to find these days.

My feelings on not being in the beta are mixed. On one hand, those who are in the beta right now only have access to a portion of everything planned for release. Personally I want to give the Pet Battle System as hard a test drive as possible. Funny considering I like raiding more than anything else in WoW right now.

On the other hand, I’m confused to how Annual Pass people are being brought in. I quote from the Beta FAQ:

“We’ll be inviting Annual Pass holders based on several factors, including how long your World of Warcraft account has been active and when you signed up for the Annual Pass.”

I signed up for the Annual Pass on the day it was announced at Blizzcon. I’ve had an active World of Warcraft account since Zul’Aman was released in Burning Crusade.

As of this posting, 300,000 invites have been sent to the over 1,000,000 people who signed up for the Annual Pass. Not a big deal though, right? Obviously these 300k people are people who also jumped on the Annual Pass the second it was announced and have been playing since Vanilla.

Nope. I know of a half-dozen guildies who are currently in Beta. Two of them signed up for the Annual Pass in February, and one of those two had only been playing since WotLK.

Well, the quote did say “several factors.” I just wish I knew what the other factors were.

Again, I know I’m not missing much. It’s funny really. This totally feels like I’m back in school waiting to be picked for a dodgeball game. It’s just one game. It means nothing in the grand scheme of life. But dangit, you don’t want to be “that guy.” The guy who’s picked last.

Until the time comes, I wish all of you currently in the beta happy gaming. I’ll see you when the mists have parted here.

Meanwhile, I’ll be hunting for some green flame coloring.

There have been some changes though. Our pally tank has gone ret, the hunter turned into a bear, and a wild rogue appeared.

Oh, and I’m not leading the group anymore.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Everyone reaches a point where they eventually need a break. Call it burnout or whatever you like. For myself, I wasn’t tired of raiding. However, the logistics behind trying to keep a stable group together during this dreaded lull before Mists had gotten to me. Further, my dps just wasn’t cutting it on some fights, which I could easily attribute to my attention being diverted by watching everything and everyone in the raid rather than just focusing on my part.

Fortunately my guild leader Elm accepted the task of taking over the reins of the group, which I’m quite thankful for. Raiding the past few weeks has been enjoyable and a hell of a lot less stressful. If you’re a raid leader and you have solid people with you who can lead a raid then I strongly recommend letting them handle things when you start feeling like you’re ready to throw the towel in altogether.

As it is I think I might try my hand at leading again in MoP, but we’ll see. I’m really interested in moving on to a 25 man group to be honest. That is, if 25 man raids exist next expansion. I’m predicting here and now that we’ll be going to a 10/20 man system in MoP.

So yeah, The Button. Last night’s run was our first experience with Heroic Ultraxion. Now on 25-man with the aspect debuff, if you get that one or possibly two people who somehow miss pressing The Button in time, all is not lost.

On 10-man it’s practically Do or Wipe. At least it feels that way after our first batch of attempts on it. It’s surprising what a difference 2 seconds can make when it comes to reaction time on The Button. I would say almost every death we had been from someone getting a 2 second Fading Light.

The Button is your friend. The Button will save you. I know you want to wait to push The Button at the last second… but when you only have two seconds to really push The Button there’s no time to wait.

We wiped to The Button eight times before time demanded we move on. One other change to my raiding is that this group is down to one night a week due to some availability issues. I’m just glad to still be moving forward.

/drclawvoice

I’ll get you next time, Button. Next… time….

On March 14, 1992 I was a sixteen year old only child. For a large number of teenagers in my neck of the woods, the trials and tribulations faced included being “in,” possibly some family drama of some sort, and trying to find a way to add 200 more words to that paper due tomorrow.

On that morning, I discovered my mother, the only parent in my life, had passed away overnight. At 39 years old she had sleep apnea, a sleep disorder involving difficult breathing during sleep. According to the paramedics she had been hours gone before I tried to wake her up.

The day was undoubtedly the most pivotal day in my growth and development, or lack thereof in some ways. I couldn’t grieve or mourn her loss right away. It was only about a year after her passing that I actually broke down about it and shed tears. Instead I chose to immerse myself in extracurricular activities in school. Journalism, Yearbook, student government, band, choir, and drama productions were all forms of escapism for me.

My friends became my family It was also a month after this date that I participated in my first pen & paper AD&D game with my friends. Up to that point, I hadn’t really dabbled too much in RPGs in any form. I was hooked immediately. The sessions allowed me to imagine, create, and most importantly be someone else, somewhere else.

And so the dominoes began to fall in sequence. The pen & paper games led to console and computer single player RPGs and MUDs, which years later led to Ultima Online and the beginning of my MMORPG experience.

I have spent the majority of the past two decades making my own choices. In retrospect I do believe my life would have played out very differently had March 14, 1992 been any ordinary day.

And while I haven’t achieved everything she probably wanted me to achieve, I think I’ve done right by her. I’ve gone 18 years without filing for unemployment. My debts are minimal compared to the average person. I’m a member of management in my workplace, and I maintain a small but solid circle of friends from realms outside of the virtual.

By no means do I consider my life special or unique when it comes to the challenges I have faced. We all have our real life dilemmas, big and small. However, reflecting on that day twenty years ago I can firmly admit that I owe my interest in my virtual adventures to my mother, both in life and in death.

In death, her passing gave me motivation to escape worrying about the real world, for better or worse… but it is more so in -life- that I thank her for placing the cornerstone; in 1983 she somehow managed to afford a Commodore 64 computer for Christmas. The applications and games that even that simple machine could produce caught our fancy and it became as important a part of the home as our television, if not more so. She used the computer for work. I used it for Zork, Ultima, and homework.

In 1985, we both used it for a little online network called Quantum Link, which would eventually be called America Online.

I was an online nerd before online nerds existed in pop culture.

I have no regrets when it comes to who I am now and what my hobbies, loves, and obsessions include. I am the sum total of these experiences, and more. I am a product of my environment, both real and virtual. I am divided from those who prefer hunting, restoring cars, or building models by my ignorance of those pastimes.

When all is said, I am happy with my place in the world and the people I know, and my hardships right now are nothing compared to what millions endure every day.

Thank you Mom. 143

Life Tap articles are stories about my past that hopefully give a little insight to who the player behind Rho is. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

The other day I finally got around to finishing up a fishing achievement I had left alone for some time. The Oceanographer achievement requires you to catch a variety of different fish from Azeroth and Northrend. The catch (no pun intended) though is that the Winter Squid can only be caught during the winter. Shocker, right? With days to go before Spring shows itself, it was time to get fishin’.

An hour later I had a new fishing achievement, and another ten points closer to the 13,000 Club. No, there’s no prize for being in the 13k Club. Just the knowledge that I would be one of about fifty characters on the server to have that many points. Call me crazy. Call me insane. Actually, don’t call me insane. I haven’t obtained that achievement yet, nor do I think I’ll ever bother with it.

Obtaining the Oceanographer achievement made me remember fondly of the day I obtained one of the most challenging achievements in the game. It happened on a Sunday. That’s the only day the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza happens, after all.

In Summer of 2008, before we even had achievements, I participated in the weekly fishing contest for a shot at the fabled Arcanite Fishing Rod. Every week a few dozen or more would line the coast of Stranglethorn to fish up Tastyfish and make a mad dash to Booty Bay when you had enough to turn in.

/oldmanvoice

“In my day, you didn’t have flying mounts to get you from pool to pool all willy nilly fast. You had to ride you land mount and we LOVED it. And hearthstones? Ha! One hour cooldowns, my boy. You use that stone too soon and you’re out of luck later. No recall scrolls, no guild summons. Maybe if you were a shaman you had it easy but no… not me.”

/endoldmanvoice

So in this particular contest, I made a mistake of not only forgetting to set my hearthstone to Booty Bay; I also had used the stone about 20 minutes before the contest began. At this point I had participated in the contest about a dozen times, three months straight, and hadn’t even come close.

The fishing frenzy commenced at the top of the hour, and as I started bringing in my first tastyfish, I noticed I ran into a small string of luck. Not only was I fishing uninterrupted by pool stealers… I had the islands up north all to myself. These islands in particular were normally camped by Level 19 characters with escorts looking to win the contest so they could gear their twinked PvP lowbie character. Not today though.

Now normally when I would do the contest I would just make my way up and down the coast, but staying around the islands was doing it for me. Pools continues to pop in succession, and my tastyfish luck was incredible. Hardly a single oily blackmouth or whatever other fish you scoff at when they show.

Zone chat was abuzz with people updating their counts. 20…24…23 Tastyfish from the other more vocal challengers.

I was at 35 when I heard those comments. The excitement started to grow.

36…37…38 Tastyfish. Then it hit me. I don’t have a teleport to Booty Bay. I need to get my rear in gear and fish up the last couple of Tastyfish on the way to the finish line.

It seemed to take an eternity. Zone chat numbers got closer. I stopped at a pool about halfway to the Bay and got #39. A bit further south and I had #40.

At this point someone in zone chat just announced 38. We were fifteen minutes into the contest and usually the dreaded zone-wide yell of a winner is called in mere moments. I’m racing for Booty Bay, wishing I had that carrot on a stick trinket or anything to get to the finish faster.

The next minute seemed to take forever. I arrive in Booty Bay thinking there’s no way I’m going to win. Someone is going to dash out of the tavern from their hearthstone use and snatch victory.

No announcement yet… did I miss it? Is there a chance?!

I see the npc, click… turn in… and it’s done. I’ve won… somehow I just WON the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza against all odds. You see, I forgot to mention one minor detail about that win.

Before Wrath of the Lich King, I played on dial-up.

Next week I’ll talk about the agonizing hunt for “The One That Didn’t Get Away,” and finally getting the Salty title.

World Drop articles are stories about random WoW subjects. Lore, achievements, you name it. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this or future World Drop articles, feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

With Ultima Online in 1997, I was given the freedom to give the “Kyle” of that world a surname. Thus was born the legacy of Kyle Duskwalker (and no, he wasn’t a vampire.) In those days I fully RP’d my characters, and it was an amazing experience to have that kind of interaction with other roleplayed personas inside a game which was more than simply text.

One of Kyle’s children was given the name “Rho” after the name of a knight in Virtue Village that Kyle had looked up to. I never really played Rho much in UO. At the time he was just an extension of the developing family.

One day in 2003, Rho Duskwalker wandered into a mysterious moongate and left the world of Britannia forever. Little did I know then that “Kyle” would be passing the torch to Rho as my most common alias.

Enter Vana’diel, a land of dragoons, samurai, summoners, and dark knights. At the start, I tried to continue the idea of fully RPing Rho. However, the community and landscape of Final Fantasy XI was just a different beast. My focus shifted from role-playing and move toward establishing strong friendships and enjoying the most challenging gameplay possible…

and casting Refresh and Haste 867,5309 times on other characters. I didn’t mind though. I loved the support role that Rho the Red Mage played. If WoW had a “bard” or other support class when I switched, I would have played it.

After roughly three years and change the game had lost its luster for me. One can only camp King Behemoth, Tiamat, and Nidhogg for so long. By this time, World of Warcraft was a couple of months away from releasing Zul’Aman (the 10-man Burning Crusade incarnation.) A fair number of players from FFXI had moved on to other games. It was practically a coin flip that led me to choose Azeroth as his next landing point.

So began the journey of Rhonyzul the Warlock. Wait, what? Rhonyzul?

For shizzle. Ugh… why did I name him that…

Seriously though, I was irritated to learn that the name “Rho” had already been claimed on the server my friends had gone to. So, following the story of how I explained Rho’s crossover into this brave new world, I had him go by the name of Rho Nyzul after the name of Nyzul Isle… the last place he had been seen.

Lightbringer-US is not a RP realm though, and for the past several years my WoW experience has been similar to FFXI in that regard. I’ve dabbled in RP realms, though it’s difficult to find a realm with a strong community that’s also free from griefing.

Rhonyzul would not be Rhonyzul forever though. On December 30 of last year I was browsing the Armory on Lightbringer and discovered that there was no longer a “Rho” listed there. So on the eve of completing the last portion of the Dragonwrath questline I paid the price to claim the Greek letter as my own.

Whether it’s Rho Duskwalker, Rho the Red Mage, or Rho (Nyzul), the name is one difficult for me to discard. It’s simple, easy to remember, and a piece of nostalgia representing my journey through the MMO gaming experience…

… and eternally the target of a “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” parody.

Life Tap articles are stories about my past that hopefully give a little insight to who the player behind Rho is. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to email me at RhoWoW@gmail.com.

When it comes to all things raiding, the debate over the definitions of “hardcore” and “casual” raiders is one that will never end. Those terms over the past several years have meant different things to different people.

If you raid every night, are you a hardcore raider? What if all the bosses you defeat in those raids are on Normal difficulty?

If you raid only two nights a week and three hours a night, are you a casual raider? What if you’re 2/8 on Heroic Dragon Soul in that group?

Is 25 man more hardcore than 10 man content? If you don’t read Elitist Jerks forums, are you not hardcore?

Everyone has their own definition of hardcore and casual, as do I. However, I wouldn’t label myself one or the other when using my own personal definitions.

When I think of “hardcore,” I think of the cream of the crop; the guilds that are on the bleeding edge of progression that are within the first 100 guilds worldwide to down the final heroic boss of a raid tier.

Doing some rough math, that means I’m talking about somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500 characters. That’s a very select few. Those fortunate enough to be counted amongst those guilds tend to spend a great deal of time raiding, dissecting their character’s performance, min/maxing as much as possible to get every edge they can. These players will usually have great raid awareness and great organization within their raid groups.

By my personal definition (which I’m not saying is the “right” one) that means hundreds of thousands of raiders are not hardcore. That doesn’t mean everyone else is casual though.

The casual raider isn’t what it used to be either. With the advent of the Raid Finder, we now have literally millions of players who have experienced content that only thousands experienced before. Given, most of the encounters are arguably easier than a fair number of heroic boss encounters in Cataclysm.

Right now, I consider “casual” to include a range of players from those who only use LFR to those who are in the bottom two-thirds of raid groups in terms of progression. If you go by GuildOx.com statistics, of the over 53,000 raid groups recorded with a Normal Morchok kill there are 35,000 that have beaten Madness of Deathwing on Normal. While not always the case, by my standards I would say that if you’re not currently on Heroic content, I’d label you a casual raider.

Again, that’s just my definition and I’m not about to lead a movement to define these terms in black and white once and for all time. I define casual and hardcore by general boss progression marks measured against the entire raiding community. Time spent raiding, healing/damage meters, and time spent researching don’t factor into my labelling system, nor do several other factors.

Between the bottom 66% and the top .1% of raiders, there’s a very diverse spectrum of raiders that continue that push to be better than they are now. Amongst those raiders you’ll find those who raid a little and those who raid a lot. You’ll find theorycrafters and achievement hunters, homemakers and college students, altaholics and those who have no idea what a taunt really does.

In my world, these are the Hardcasuals.

If you check my armory (Rho on Lightbringer-US) you’ll see I’m presently 1/8 on Heroic Dragon Soul. Just a bit above the “casual” cut-off, but pushing to get further. What you can’t readily see is that we got our Heroic Morchok kill before the 5% nerf (the raid nerf issue is a topic for another Friday.) Our 10 man group has dealt with ongoing attrition due to real life, loss of interest, and a galaxy far, far away. Every week it’s been some new circumstance (yet another topic for another Friday!)

I raid two nights a week on my main, 3 hours a night. I also participate in a one night a week Dragon Soul raid on my resto shaman alt.

So what am I? I feel I’m more hardcore than a casual raider. I do the research, I strive to improve my dps, raid awareness, and general focus when it comes to whatever content I’m on. I want to get further than I am right now, but by no means do I feel I should be entitled to see all the heroic content conquered by the end of the expansion. I take raiding seriously, but I also have a real life and a job that’s taken even more seriously. I have been a raid leader for about a year (though at present taking a break from leading… yet another topic for another time.)

That’s part of who I am. I am Hardcasual.

Every week I’ll post an article regarding raiding in WoW, whether it’s tales of my own progress or commentary on raiding in general. If you have any raiding topics, questions, or ideas you’d like to see written about, email RhoWoW@gmail.com.

This page is very much a work in progress and a little hobby of mine. I have those of you who have done your own blogs on wordpress to thank for inspiring me to start doing the same (I’m looking at you www.magelymachinations.com)

I’ve been an avid MMO gamer from the heady early days of Ultima Online. From there my travels took me through Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, with some brief stops in Rift and SW:TOR.

This blog will tend to focus on WoW for the time being, though don’t be surprised if you find me babbling on about a single player RPG here and there. Oh, and there’s always those more amusing moments that happen in my (sur)real life that may just be fit to print.

Keep an eye on this space. More to come this weekend.

-Rho