Finally, the latest episode of BlizzCast has been released, highlighting Starcraft 2 unit design, from concept to creation with Senior Art Director, Samwise Didier. This episode also takes a look at character creation concepts from Diablo 3. Also, find out what life is like for World of Warcraft Lead Tools Programmer Monte Krol. Last but not least, Bornakk wraps up the episode with questions from the community.

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The first Blizzcore guide has been added to the “Guides” tab!

A terminology guide has been added to the Guides tab, and includes an informative A-Z of phrases and abbreviations you will hear throughout your gameplay.  The introduction for the guide:

Have you ever sat there, clicking away at your mouse, hacking away at those murlocs, wondering what people are talking about when they say, for example, “I’ll go to TP, you go to IW”? You haven’t a clue what they mean, and you go running off to cap a graveyard.  Perhaps it’s that people are asking you if you “Want BT”? You certainly don’t want BT, their internet is terrible.  You haven’t a clue what they mean.  Have no fear, this guide shall save you from these dilemmas, and you will return to the world (of Warcraft) with a whole new vocabulary.

I hope it helps you! If you feel that anything has been left out, send an email to strands@blizzcore.com and I will add it.

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Blizzard have opened a new page on their website containing all of their tournament videos, all on demand.  You can check it out by following the link below (and of course, find out how accurate the Blizzcore coverage was.  Ha ha ha. Ha.)

BlizzCon VOD

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We will be working over the next couple of days to provide information from BlizzCon.  So far in the opening ceremony, there has been a Diablo 3 announcement: a new “Wizard” class announcement, described as a youthful user of primal forces to conquer opponents.  We will be bringing news about this class, and more, later on.

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World Event Titles

• Elder - complete all lunar festival achievements (February)
• The Love Fool - complete all love is in the air achievements (valentines day event)
• Fame Warden / Flame Keeper - complete all midsummer fire festival achievements (last 2 weeks of June)
• Merrymaker - complete all winter veil festival achievements (December)
• Brewmaster - complete all brewfest achievements (September)
• The Hallowed - complete all hallows end achievements (October)
• Matron -complete the orphan event (female)
• Patron - complete the orphan event (male)

General Achievement Titles

• Champion of the Frozen Wastes - Kill all 12 final bosses on heroic mode in addition to the 3 raid bosses in 10 / 25 man instances.
• Seeker - Complete 3000 quests (for reference, I’ve been playing 4 years and I only have completed around 1500 quests)
• Loremaster - Alliance must complete 740 quests in Eastern Kingdoms, 765 in Kalimdor, 568 in Outlands and 760 in Northrend. Horde must complete 580 quests in Eastern Kingdoms, 715 quests in Kalimdor, 685 in Outlands, and 835 in Northrend.
• The Explorer - Explore 100% of all 3 continents.

Faction Achievement Titles

• Ambassador - reach exalted with all 5 capitals of your respective faction.
• The Exalted - reach exalted with 40 factions. There will be a grand total of 65 factions when WotLK is released (…holy money sink!)
• The Diplomat - reach exalted with Timbermaw Hold, the Sporeggar and the Kurenai / the Mag’har.
• Argent Champion - reach exalted with the argent down and the argent crusade.
  
• Guardian of Cenarius - reach exalted with Cenario Circle and Cenarion Expedition.
• Bloodsail Admiral - reach friendly with the Bloodsail Buccaneers and complete the pirate hat quest.

Profession Achievement Titles

• Chef - complete all cooking related achievements. Would it have hurt too think of something more original than chef, maybe like “Expediter.
• Salty - complete all fishing related achievements.

PvP Achievement Titles

• The Flawless Victor - win 10 arena matches in a row above 2000 rating.
• Of the Horde - Kill all 5 alliance faction leaders.
• Of the Alliance - Kill all 5 horde faction leaders.
• Arena Master - complete all arena related achievements.
• Battlemaster - complete all PvP related achievements (includes arena achievements)

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Blizzard has updated their Diablo 3 bestiary with the Dune Thresher. An animation of it along with some lore can be found at the link provided.

After reading the lore, I assume you’ll encounter these in the acts that take place in desert settings and perhaps treading on more solid surfaces instead of sand will reduce your chances of having these guys pop up to attack you.

The Dune Thresher

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The past 15 months have been an interesting time for the mighty fanbase of Blizzard. With the announcements of Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Wrath of the Lich King it seems that everyone has something to look forward to and be excited about.

But one of the most interesting topics of discussion is that of Blizzard’s plans for what they refer to as Battle.net 2.0

With such a large community and millions of players spread across each of their major franchises, Blizzard has decided that one of their best actions they could take would be to create a networking tool that would help bring all of these players together and provide them with a wide array of great new features and resources.

While alot of information regarding Blizzard 2.0 is still under wraps, some of the new features that we know about are…

1. A chat interface that will allow players to communicate with each other while they are playing seperate games. It can be accessed in-game for any Blizzard title.

2. A wide variety of achievements that will be added to all Blizzard games along with improved stat-tracking. Your stats and achievements will be recorded to your account and displayed on your profile for all to see.

3. Friends/Ignore lists and clan support, both with advanced management options.

And many more things such as automated tournaments, improved matchmaking that will be secured against cheating, avatars and other ways to represent yourself, and so on.

Those of you who are familiar with Steam probably know what to expect with this new version of B-net. Exciting? Yes, I’d say so and with Blizzcon 2008 on the horizon and much more information to come I would also say that it is a great time to be a Blizzard fan.

What are some features that YOU would like to see added to Battle.net 2.0? Discuss in our forums!

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