Features List: Patch 1.9: The Gates of Ahn’Qiraj

Submitted by Alex Tabony on 22 December, 2005 - 7:45 pm

World of Warcraft Patch 1.9 Features

  • Ahn'Qiraj

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons - the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon. As players delve deeper into the mysteries of Ahn'Qiraj, they will discover revelations of the Silithid infestation and their shadowy masters, the Qiraji. Players will have to complete a world event of massive proportions before they can open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on their realm.

--More high level content that I will not see.

  • New Armor Models

Many high-level class armor sets are receiving a complete graphical overhaul!

--Always welcome.

  • Linked Auction Houses

Planned for launch in patch 1.9, players will discover that they can buy and sell goods with greater effectiveness using the highly anticipated Linked Auction House System. Horde players will find that the Auction Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the same pool of player-created auctions. Similarly, Alliance players will find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay will all be linked for players of both factions to access. In addition, the "Looking for Group" and "Trade" channels have been unified among the corresponding cities, meaning you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in Stormwind!

--This is a great change!

  • Multiple Battlegrounds Queues

Players will be able to enter multiple battleground queues! No longer must you make the hard decision of which queue to join -- when queued for all three, you can join the first one available or hold out for that special Battleground you're really seeking. You can also be in the queue for a battleground while inside a different battleground.

--If this leads to shorter wait times, good. We'll see.

  • Raid Dungeons

In 1.9, the way raid timers are handled will undergo a significant change. The new system will have all instances reset at a certain server time, regardless of when you were actually saved to the instance. The reset times are as follows:

* Molten Core: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance.
* Blackwing Lair: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
* Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40-man): Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
* Onyxia: Every 5 Days
* Zul'Gurub: Every 3 Days
* Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20-man): Every 3 Days

The resets, if not during weekly maintenance, are planned to occur during off-hours when the least amount of raids are active. We plan on implementing a calendar of sorts on the website to help you better plan out your particular raid schedule. There are many reasons why this particular approach was chosen; we've gone over a multitude of options and felt that this change would be best in the long run.

As the reset time approaches, if you are in the instance, you will be informed of the impending reset every hour on the hour. 15 minutes before the reset, the reminders become more frequent; once the reset time is reached, all players in the instance will be ported to their bind point. You can access your saved raid status at any time via /raidinfo, and you will be informed of your status regarding an instance when you zone into the dungeon.

We know that this change is a major one for raiding guilds; we've done our utmost to make the reset times as convenient as possible for the majority of our players. All saved instances will be reset when 1.9 goes live to accommodate this change.

--If this dramatically improves stability then I think people will be happy. However... we'll see.

  • Timbermaw Hold 1.9 Reputations Rewards Preview

We're constantly updating our Reputation Reward pages and wanted to provide you with a special preview of what's in store next patch for players friendly through exalted with the Timbermaw Hold Faction. Check it out here.

  • Paladin Talent Update

Have you been curious about the changes concerning Paladin talents in the upcoming content patch? Wonder no longer! In this interactive preview of the changes, you can view the progression, read up on the new abilities and enhancements within the various trees, and experiment with new builds!

--To augment their skills, Paladins will now have an "insta-kill" skill. j/k :)

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Monkeys Smarter than Humans

Submitted by Alex Tabony on 14 December, 2005 - 7:44 pm

In a few years, I plan to explain this experience to Charlotte. I want her to know what I now know. That it's O.K. to lose to the chimps. In fact, it may be what makes us uniquely human.

Um, yeah.

And I for one welcome our new chimp overlords.

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To SOA and Beyond. What and Why SOA.

Submitted by Alex Tabony on 12 December, 2005 - 7:43 pm

Ok, first thing first. SOA = S.O.A. = Service oriented architecture.

Next question.

    • What is SOA?

    Service oriented architecture is the idea of how loosely coupled software components communicate with one another to get a job done.

    Although this idea can be applied in a variety of ways and at a variety of levels, typically people mean things like "a web application that uses REST or SOAP" or "a news aggregator collecting data through RSS (xml)".

    The common factor with SOA is the use of standardized communication protocols.

    • Why use SOA?

    If SOA is essentially just the use of a standardized communication protocol then each service in the system can change as long as it continues to communicate in the same way without disrupting the entire system. That is each specific piece of software can be switched for a different one and the overall system will continue to function in the same way.

    Example: A software system uses 3 components to get a job done. Each of these 3 components communicate with one another using a common standardized communication protocol.

    It is determined that one of the components from vendor X is not as efficient as a competing product vendor Y. It is decided to replace the components from vendor X with the product from vendor Y.

    The component can be replaced without changing either of the other original 2 components since the new component communicates in the same way as the old less efficient one did.

    In this idealized case we can see the use of a standardized communication protocol and loosely coupled components allow us to mix and match components to improve the overall system.

    With a more traditional non SOA this sort of change would have been much more difficult to accomplish.

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    Thousand-hand Bodhisattva Dance

    Submitted by Alex Tabony on 5 December, 2005 - 7:43 pm

    This is an amazing video.

    This is called the Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance. Its performed by 21 deaf girls and boys from Chinas Disabled Peoples Performing Art Troupe.

    Thousand-hand Bodhisattva Dance Pic

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