Christian Thoma

The World of Warcraft development team released a new blog post yesterday on Hero Talents, and while it didn't go as in-depth as previous articles it does a nice job of summarizing all 39 flavors of new class fantasies.

There’s a lot happening next week:

The end of ReMists.

The release of the next Guild Wars 2 expansion Janthir Wilds.

Gamescom — Europe’s biggest gaming convention — starts on Tuesday with an opening night show featuring who else but Geoff Keighley.

Oh, and there’s a little thing called The War Within releasing in early access.

So even though I had earmarked this week for in-game cleanup, I knew I had to get out last weekend and take in the sunshine while I still could. So I drove on up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at many places on the Virginia portion south of Roanoke. Mabry Mill (pictured in the header) is one of the more iconic sites on the BRP so it was nice to see the water flowing and the wheel turning. Unfortunately the sun was high up in the sky when I arrived so the picture looks pretty washed out, but that’s ok — it’s a memory, not a piece of artwork. I saw a deer grazing on the side of the road, hawks riding the thermals, and lots of pretty butterflies. It was a nice trip, and hopefully I’ve stored up enough air and sunlight and mountain music to last me these next few weeks.

While I feverishly plan my next trip outdoors, let’s answer some questions!

Next week is the early access launch of The War Within, the latest expansion for World of Warcraft.

The newest expansion for Guild Wars 2 is out later this month, and Janthir Wilds is bringing new maps, the exciting new Homestead feature, and giving all professions the use of the Spear, a weapon previously only available for some professions underwater.

We're two weeks away from The War Within early access and many World of Warcraft players are finishing up their WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria plans while fighting off the Radiant Echoes for gear and collectibles.

World of Warcraft's next expansion The War Within brings the race known as the Earthen to the forefront, with the first two zones largely focusing on their story in Khaz Algar, and adding them as an Allied Race early in the expansion.

Next Monday I complete my fiftieth trip around the sun. This now makes me eligible to use the local senior center or to join the AARP. I of course will do neither of these things (unless the senior center offers a mountain dulcimer course again); to quote the late great Jimmy Buffett a second time this intro: I’m growing older but not up.

I keep going back and forth as to whether I should consider it a big deal; heck knows society and party stores want me to, but I also know they do so out of glee that I’m “over the hill” — but I like to think I’m still climbing. Still, it’d be weird to let it pass by with no comment or introspection, so I’m just going to motivate myself with League of Legends songs and Dylan Thomas poems.

While I do everything I can to rage against the dying of the light, let’s answer some questions!

Getting around in MMO games is always a popular topic of discussion and disagreement, whether we're talking about the arrival of flying mounts in The Burning Crusade or the arrival of Dragonriding Skyriding mounts in Dragonflight.

One of new features arriving alongside Warbands in The War Within prepatch is the ability to directly transfer currency between characters.

The prepatch for The War Within arrived "yesterday" and with it came a lot of neat new features -- especially Warbands.