So several measures have been undertaken to increase the regularity of which PNT is posted. Hopefully we'll go back to a weekly rotation like it was back when I didn't have to go to class at 9AM on a Tuesday morning. However, Blizzard has been very unhelpful in terms of actually producing any newsworthy items this week.

2.2 Apparently Not Vapourware

Apparently it will come out today! There's even a blue post about it, even though it is, as usual, completely unhelpful.

Also, some 2.2.2 Patchnotes for you. The only thing that matters aside from more Halloween wands (who cares about Brewfest) is this:

That's right. They added things that should have been in the game over at launch. That's okay though, they've taken 3 years of playtesting to confirm that yes, there indeed needs to be a new graveyard in Southern Barrens, a single graveyard does not suffice for Un'Goro and that running to Dalaran questing area from Tarren Mill should be addressed.

You can find most of the other boring information from sites such as MMO Champion or World of Raids. Because really, the other info is pretty boring aside from these snippet:

Why does Blizzard insist on forcing players to actually play their terribly designed battleground? If it wasn't for epic honour gear/gems (the latter of which are mostly garbage anyways) most Arena players wouldn't even bother with the honour system in the first place. I suppose it relieves GMs of sending people tells inquiring them about the "lag situation on the server".

Except Tier 3 was re-used, ever heard of Dungeon Set 3? Oh well, I'm sure plenty of blind WoW players (90% of the subscribed population) just can't wait to see T3 again. Even though it's already in the game in ugly modified form.

• Useless WoW Forums post

Blizzard unveils that everyone, in fact, does not get voice chat.

Basically, Blizzard is afraid that a bunch of mouth-breathing morons (i.e. average WoW player) getting voice chat all at once is going to lead to in-game griefing of epic proportions, so they're limiting access to voice chat to a handful of (unlucky) servers. This way, they can even out the flow of people reporting that someone yelled out the various sexual manoeurvres they'd wish to perform on their mothers.

Yeah right, but it might make pugging "slabs" more enjoyable for the griefer.

• North American Server List
• European Server List

Blizzard creates the retard penal colony

• WoW Forums -> Wrath of the Lich King

Team Fortress 2 is a Great Game

And shame on you if you don't agree with this sentiment because it means you haven't pre-ordered the Orange Box yet.

This Week is "Last Episode of Epic Anime Week"

• Claymore? Check.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann? Check.
• Darker Than Black? Check.
• Seto no Hanayome? Check.

This is going to be a great week.

This Week is also "Halo 3 Week"

Also Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (which is on sale for cheap!). Good luck getting any raiding done.

Amusing Armoury Link of the Week

Here.

To be fair, I tried something like this on the PTR once... and it was absolutely terrible. Apparently trying to be both physical and magical DPS doesn't work after all. You know, Elemental Devastation sounds cool but so does a Prince Albert until you find out what it really is.

But really, the only thing sadder than the fact that this character has S2 Arena Shoulders, is that they put green quality gems in said shoulders.

This week is the week of "Team Fortess 2 and Halo 3 killed my guild".

I tried a slightly similar thing to that Shaman about a month ago. 24/37 spec (or thereabouts) with almost fully Enhancement loot. Woulda be kinda fun if i'd have the gold to resocket all my gems with +Spell Crit. If figured if i could keep ED up for 15% of the time it would be worth it, right??

I may be stupid, but i'm not a masochist. Thus i crossed off the penal colony as quickly as it loaded.

Jack Thompson sets about Halo 3 | The Register

In other news Jack Thompson decides to be stupid again. WHAT IF SPACE ALIENS INVADE MR. THOMPSON! YOU WILL BE THE FIRST PERSON WITH HIS BACK AGAINST THE WALL WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES!

Having personally experienced 95% of the reported crash bugs in the past 24 hours and finally working around them all, I must say that TF2 is a blast to play (in windowed DX8 mode without HDR). Alas, it was still intrusive Real Life and not TF2 that kept me away from raiding Monday

I'm sure many guilds are in the same boat. By the by, nice boat.

Dungeon set 3 didn't look like Tier 3. At least, not for Hunters.

I discussed this last night and Eej is partly right. If you compare the sets several of the "Dungeon Set 3" sets are just Tier 3 with the pretty effects and textures removed.

I.E. Moonglade. You go from t3 looking like mongolian BBQ to d3 looking like turtle power.

I looked more closely using the armor set thing on the WoW site, and I see some similarities in some of the shoulder models, but for the most part they are pretty dissimilar. I certainly wouldn't say that Tier 3 models have been re-used. Maybe "borrowed from," but not re-used.

The reuse was pretty inconsistent between classes. You could find a full set of Judgment for Paladins (t2), or Might for Warriors(t1), or even Beaststalkers for Hunters (dungeon1!). They just reused some of the best (or best loved) graphics for all the classes, it wasn't simply tier 3 reuse across the board. I don't think Shaman T3 made an appearance at all, for instance.

Enhance shaman are going to look awfully stupid in T3 remix. =\

Reused T3 as DS3? Um...no.

• Warrior, warlock, paladin, shaman, and mage are not even similar.
• Rogue helm is almost identical, but the rest is different.
• Priest and hunter...minor model differences on a couple of pieces, notably priest shoulders and hunter gloves; otherwise pretty close in terms of models.

Most of the T3 sets haven't been reused, and that includes a couple of the best looking sets - the warrior one being at the top of the list.


Actually, there's a full recolored T1 and T2 set for every class, if memory serves. Fairly complete list here:
Set look alikes - WoWWiki, the Warcraft wiki

Edit: They've done a straight recolor (not retexture) of all T1 and T2. They certainly haven't done that at all for T3.

Hunter dungeon 3 looks vaguely similar at best compared to cryptstalker. The only arguable piece really is the shoulders, and that's still a stretch.

I think the only problem-set as far as recolor is shamans as Malan said. Enhancement shamans look silly in kilts.

I'm going to have to call out all of you art-reuse deniers.

Both Druid (Moonglade and Wastewalker) and Hunter (Beast Lord and Desolation) DS3 looks pretty much like a crappier version of T3. Compare the shoulder graphics (aka the only thing that really differentiates a set from one another) and you'll understand. To be more specific, make them less spikier and throw on crappier textures and that's the only difference. Also look at the helmets; if you put the black fog and red eye glow on Beast Lord/Desolation helms, it would look pretty much like a reskinned Cryptstalker.

Priest DS3 has a simpler version of the T3 shoulders as well as a modified Halo. Mana-Etched is similar in this regard. Rogue DS3 has the mask lifted straight from Bonescythe.

Warrior DS3 is actually just Dreadnaught minus the horns on the helmet and the removal of the top skull pauldron from the shoulders (look at the pauldron beneath the skulls). Mage DS3 is actually Frostfire minus the Frost and the Fire. Look at the helmet graphics and look at the shoulders carefully.

Shaman DS3 has a copy+paste job of the Earthshatterer helm without the eyeglow. The shoulders are brand new, though, which is probably why they actually look good. Finally, Warlock DS3 shares the same hood without the mask as T3.

Sure, most of them have had work done on them to make them look uglier, but the only set that doesn't have a direct link to T3 is the Paladin one. Mainly because Paladin T3 is ugly as sin.

Point still stands, though, as long as you can notice the blatant similarities.

Blizzard really loves their Arcanist. Counting visible pieces only (wrist, legs, feet generally are not visible):

Head: Mage-Collar of the Firestorm/Battlecast Hood/Uni-Mind Headdress*/Collar of Cho'gall/Collar of the Grand Engineer*
Shoulder: Mindrage Pauldrons/Frozen Shadoweave/Mantle of the Mind Flayer*/Mantle of the Elven Kings*
Chest: Bloodfyre Robes of Annihilation/Frozen Shadoweave/Will of Edward the Odd/Robe of the Elder Scribes/Masquerade Gown/Robe of Hateful Echoes*/Vestments of the Sea Witch*
Hands: Soul-Eater's Handwraps/Gauntlets of the Sun King**
Waist: Mage-Fury Girdle/Coldwhisper Cord

* no longer looks like Arcanist
** never seen prior to graphics changes, but very likely

Even still, I don't see how at this point it couldn't take more then a week to crank out new looks.

It's mostly a technical limitation. When there's 100 players standing around the bank each with a different set of gear, the game has a shitload of models and textures to load. All that stuff has to go in a globally accessible file and the more they balloon that file in size the worse you'll see your performance get. Reusing old armor models and textures with different shading values is a major, major way to save memory space and it's been used in games since we moved out of the monochrome era. You also have to consider you're not making armor for one model, you're making it for 20. How many times have we seen armor that looks great on one race that looks horrible on another? Getting a single model that's scalable and can be positioned in the 'normal' spots where that armor connects to look right on every playable race is a tall order.

I don't know how you can call a series where all the fans are hoping the main character dies as painfully as possible "terrible".

There are some kinda-sorta similarities, but that doesn't count. Dreadnaught shoulders are completely different from the DS3 (Dreadnaught's Battlegear - Screenshots - World of Warcraft vs. http://www.wowhead.com/images/screen...ized/29053.jpg). At best you can say they share some common features or that they took T3 and heavily modified it, but whoever originally called you out by saying that there haven't been any retextured T3 was right.

I'll give you the wastewalker/druid t3 shoulders are nearly identical but everything else has been modified so much that you really need to look closely to even recognize that one is the twisted product of the other.

From everything I've heard, a very small portion of the WoW population saw Naxxramas, and thus wore T3. Most of the WoW community probably isn't blind to T3 recolors, but would rather jump at the chance to wear some of them.

You also claim that the warlock D3 was a recolor of T3, it's true they are both hoods with a border around the front but that is where the similarities end.

Sweet jesus, the WotLK forums destroyed my faith in humanity in a record-breaking two seconds.

I feel *awful* for the poor bastard(s) at Blizzard who have to moderate that, if I spent all day looking at 'hay wat lvl will dks be thx' I'd pull a Tseric.