A screenshot from a recent (could be any) Alterac Valley, and like always, the Alliance General Vanndar Stormpike calls for a turtle. What a moron.

(For those who are WoW-free, a turtled PVP battleground is 100% defense — either forced or voluntary.)

Here’s some amusing guildnames I’ve collected over the past few months from our PVP battlegrounds. Thanks to these guilds for providing entertainment as we rode into the valley of death.

<Whip Cream Bikini>
<Hanging with my gnomies>
<Lambda Lambda Lambda>
<Queue Me Up Buttercup>
<Not Enough Minerals>
<Clan Redundancy Clan>
<Reagent Vendor>
<Gank You Very Much>
<OMG Who Talked to Domo>
<We Wipe on Trash>
<Nightmare Bunny Rabbits>
<Hanz Wheres My Guild Bank>
<Vicious Space Bees>
<Not Worth Inspecting>
<Diablo is better>
<My GF is letting me play>
<Do My Laundry>
<House of Pwncakes>

mmmm, pwncakes.

NOTE: If you want to add your own nominations in the comments, either use no enclosures on the guildname, or, use the hex codes for less than and greater than symbols. You probably think, “why don’t you just tell us those codes, Foton?” Believe me, I would, but I can’t figure out how to do it without resorting to & l t ; and & g t ; except no spaces, and by the time you’re done with all that nonsense, you’ll wish you hadn’t bothered.

Because, apparently, we are people of very little ambition, my guild spent an hour of our pre-work/school time running the Headless Horseman script in the graveyard wing of the Scarlet Monastery.

Here’s the Pumpkin Shrine where you run the script — level 70s can easily bypass all the trash, except the lone patroller on the way.

Here’s a lucky fellow in Stormwind who scored the epic version of the flying broom, Swift Flying Broom. The tooltip is in error, by the way, you can use your broom many times for the next two weeks.

Additional info:
We four-manned the encounter with a holy paladin tanking — was a mild challenge because of the impaired tankage (plus, our warlock is … let’s say, not so bright). Later, another soon-to-be-late-for-work guildmate (mage) logged on and the 5-man party was E Z mode.

The rings and crappier brooms drop ALOT — the real prizes are the pet squashling and the epic broom, of course.

Details on the encounter and the loot table is on WoWWiki.

We are happy to announce our latest contest, Legendary Tales, inspired by the upcoming Paramount Pictures movie Beowulf. In the style of a graphic novel, tell us your story of overcoming a seemingly insurmountable foe in World of Warcraft. Simply create and submit a screenshot-based photo journal of your in-game exploits, and you could win! Whether you held off the fel orcs of Hellfire Citadel or overcame the chicken scourge of Goldshire, your story should dazzle and amaze.

Five winners will be chosen to receive a one-year subscription to World of Warcraft!

(WoW page for submissions and other details.)

Which sounds lovely, but I doubt very much that this contest was “inspired” by Beowulf, but rather was *paid* by Beowulf. There is a difference.

And I think it would be nice if we just called it like it is instead of pretending the Blizz dudes were “inspired” to create a Beowulf-like contest because it seems like a really cool movie.

Oh how I hope this is just the first of a series.

(Athene’s Blog)

(Screenshot by emailer Brian.)

Site note: AFK Gamer is being moved to a different server over the weekend so if you come here to waste productive working hours and I’m gone: no, I didn’t die and no, you can’t have my stuff. The move should be completed by Monday evening.

P.S. If you’re on my WoW server, I better not see you fishing around Blackwind Lake or it’s ON! You can have Lake Jorune.

Summarized and clipped:

The first notable change was to simply reduce the amount of experience needed each level by approximately 15% between levels 20 and 60. Please note that when the patch is released, characters affected by this change will remain at their current level percentage.

Experience gained for completing quests (on average) between levels 30 and 60 is being increased. The increase becomes more substantial as you make your way towards 60. Additionally, many outdoor elite mobs will become non-elites …

We’ve also added approximately 60 new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. This should help players who find themselves lacking quests in the 30-40 range. The Steamwheedle Cartel is building the new town of Mudsprocket in south-west Dustwallow Marsh, so you’ll have to wait until construction is complete to learn more about these changes.

The level range for most every dungeon is being adjusted so that there is a much smaller range between the level of mobs found early in the dungeon to those found towards the end.

… we’re also upgrading all pre-bc dungeon boss drops to blue quality items.

Faster leveling and more experience is good. Not as easy as buying a character or inheriting one from a retiring player, but there’s something to be said for playing it straight.

(Ya, I went there.)