Blues explain nature of archaeology cooldowns

Several players and Community Manager Lylirra shared some discussion today on the official World of Warcraft forums about the cooldowns of novelty items crafted through the archaeology profession.

In the thread, the original poster suggested that the cooldowns of certain novelty items were too long in comparison to others and that Blizzard should consider fixing the discrepancies. The poster used Pendant of the Scarab Storm and Bones of Transformation as an example, noting that both items have a vanity effect that lasts 20 seconds but a cooldown difference of 90 minutes.

Lylirra responded, explaining that the cooldowns, though seemingly random, were chosen with specific issues in mind. She explains that with the Pendant of the Scarab Storm specifically, developers were concerned that the item's effect might strain certain players' computers.

Archaeology Items' Cooldowns
The current cooldown was chosen deliberately, but I can see why you might think otherwise (100 minutes is kind of strange for a cooldown time).

Anyway, summoning a harem of scarabs can be pretty taxing on some systems, so there were some initial concerns about putting the pendant on a short cooldown. Based on the feedback we've received, though, we're looking into reducing it. We agree that the effect is pretty cool and would be nice to use it more frequently.


Personally, a little lore logic behind the items might be nice as well. How is it that my character can summon a god every 3 minutes, but it takes 10 minutes to round up some sassy dwarven ladies?

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Blues explain nature of archaeology cooldowns originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spiritual Guidance: Ghostcrawler on priests

Every Sunday (and the occasional weekday) Spiritual Guidance offers holy and discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music.

There was a great priest thread on the official World of Warcraft healing forums late last week. The thread caps at 30 pages, then spills into another thread for further discussion. The original post is from a priest who also heals as a druid, and is currently unhappy with the state of priests in Icecrown Citadel. The poster asks for in-depth feedback from other priests with healing alts who are happy with the priest class in ICC.

The thread remains on topic and doesn't get too trolly before Ghostcrawler steps in on page 7 and gives a simple breakdown of how he plays priest. He remains in the thread for quite some time and provides readers with a good insight on how he and Blizzard feel about various aspects of priests at this time. If you missed this thread, I will be summarizing the highlights of what Ghostcrawler said and providing some of my own thoughts and analysis.

Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Ghostcrawler on priests

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Spiritual Guidance: Ghostcrawler on priests originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dungeon Finder tricks and tips

When we last talked about this on the podcast, I said we'd basically have to wait and see how it all worked, but now that players have had their hands on the Dungeon Finder out on the live realms for a while, they're learning a few more tricks and tips about how to use it. As Rohan brings up over on the WoW Ladies LJ, it's easy enough to keep a good player once you've found them through the system: as long as none of you drop group once you're done with an instance, you can go back in and run as many as you want. Unfortunately, you can't friend them yet (hopefully that will show up whenever Battle.net functionality does), but the comments on that post point out that if you both sign up for an unpopular instance at the same time, chances are good you'll end up in the same group together (of course, that requires coordination, but maybe you can set up a time out of game).

More tips and tricks for the new system after the break.

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Dungeon Finder tricks and tips originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PUG with the Blues 2: Electric Pugabloo

If you didn't make it to the party last time, here's your second chance to PUG it up with WoW devs and CMs. Zarhym just announced take two of PUG with the Blues, and it's guaranteed to be a good time.

Just hop onto the Patch 3.3 PTR this Wednesday at 4 PM PST/7 PM EST and put your character into the random heroic Wrath dungeon queue. If you're lucky, you'll get grouped with someone with <GM> before their name and get to run a heroic with a dev!

This could be your only chance to use that funny quip you've been saving for a blue post reply, or to make sure that Ghostcrawler never lives down whatever off-the-cuff comment he made one time that everybody interpreted the way that they wanted. Just make sure to say it while he's busy doing something. Timing is everything.

Oh, and some WoW.com staff will be there too. So get your PTR client patched up and ready to go and let's. Get. Random.

Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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PUG with the Blues 2: Electric Pugabloo originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PUG with the blues today at 7:00 p.m. EST

Want to be cool, yo?

Want to bask in some blue goo?

Want to put yourself in a sticky situation having to heal Ghostcrawler (perhaps, if he shows up)?

Then come and pug with the blues today at 7:00 p.m. EST / 6:00 p.m. CST / 4:00 p.m. PST on the PTR. Blizzard folk will be logging onto the PTR to test out the new dungeon system matching tool that's coming up in patch 3.3. Blizzard has done this kind of event before on beta realms and tournament test realms, and they're always a good time.

WoW.com writers will be there taking some pictures of any antics that develop (we know the blues have a thing for turning people into toads and what not).

Nothing says loving like 10,000 people standing around /yelling "Don't nerf me, bro!"

That's hot.


Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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PUG with the blues today at 7:00 p.m. EST originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update on the Ghostcrawler situation


We reported this weekend on Ghostcrawler's self-imposed break from the forums. The response by the majority of the so-called mature fans was quite negative. Many were furious, and rightfully so in my opinion. It appeared that a key source of information for the community was taking leave. Right on the cusp of the Cataclysm alpha/beta, this would have been a terrible time for that to occur. We'd likely be in the dark about changes until they were discovered on the beta/PTR, and even then there would be little to no definitive philosophical discussion about the reasons behind the new content.

Ghostcrawler was apparently touched by the fan support, which you can see both in our post and the forum thread in the role forums. He's come back out and said that he will only be responding to topics he wants, rather than allowing clamoring forum-goers to push him into responding (or not responding).

This has been evident lately in the Shadow Priest QQ going on. When he doesn't respond to what is clearly inappropriate discourse, people get really angry. They think Blizzard is ignoring them, which isn't the case. The role forums are about discussion between players with Ghostcrawler occasionally appearing to offer some insight. Designers read everything on those forums, blue tagged or not.

His exact words, after the break.

Continue reading Update on the Ghostcrawler situation

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Update on the Ghostcrawler situation originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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