Patch 3.2: Trial of the Crusader impressions

Without much fanfare, Patch 3.2's new 5-man instance, the Trial of the Crusader, opened on the PTR tonight. Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, AKA Daelo, noted that the instance is still a work in progress and that there would undoubtedly be bugs in the encounters.

I immediately assembled a crack team of terrible players, including uneducated elemental shaman Sneep of Horde Mal'ganis US, betraying his faction and playing a draenei; my obligatory hunter girlfriend; my dead-weight editor and prot paladin Alex Ziebart; and probably the worst druid raid leader I've ever had in my current guild, Talid.

Making sure our shoes were velcroed properly, we boldly went where champions tread. On Normal difficulty, of course.

Upon entering the instance, though, our hearts sank when we realized that there were mountable Argent Warhorses along the walls. "No!", we cried. "Anything but jousting!"

But our cries went unheard. That is, until Daelo popped into General chat to let everyone know that mounts were only used in one encounter. Dodged THAT bullet!

And so we mounted up on the Warhorses and spoke to the Silver Covenant herald, Arelas Brightstar, to begin our challenge.


THE FACTION CHAMPIONS

Arelas began a long RP introduction, wherein we were each lauded by our respective factions and buttered up. He then introduced the opposite faction's Champions, chosen at random from the five possible, who proceeded to walk incredibly slowly into the Coliseum. The whole thing took much, much longer than it needed to, even for the first try at the instance, and I hope that you have the option of skipping it or Blizzard shortens it eventually.

Our Champion team was blood elf Mage Eressea Dawnsinger, tauren Shaman Runok Wildmane, and forsaken Rogue Deathstalker Visceri.

Once everyone was introduced, each Champion sent their Valiants, a pack of three single-Defend-stacked riders, at us. They were easily dispatched, and once all three packs were defeated, the Champions rushed at us simultaneously.

Just like in the jousting dailies, you have Attack, Shield-Breaker, Charge, and Defend at your disposal. When you defeat an enemy Champion, they're knocked off their horses. Once off their horses, they will attempt to run and grab a new mount. This can be prevented by running them over with your mount, Trampling them.

Now, at this point in the encounter's testing phase, you the player can jump off of your current horse and onto a new one at any time, restoring your health to full. I'm unsure if this is intended or not, but I think it might be, given how much damage you can take if all three Champions decide to target you. Regardless, that's how we took them out, despite numerous crashes involving being dismounted (or dying). We would run and grab a new horse from the walls if our health got low.

The Champions knocked permanently off their mounts, they regrouped as a three-man party. We dismounted and engaged them. Eressea was armed with Fireballs and Blast Waves; Runok was their healer, using Healing Waves and other Shaman spells; and Visceri used poisons and other rogue moves. They were dispatched without much difficulty (thought it should be noted we were all in nearly full Tier 8 armor and this was Normal difficulty).

We received one item level 200 epic (the same item level as Naxx 10 or heroic dungeons), and Emblem of Conquest, and a Champion's Seal for completing the first challenge.

THE ARGENT REPS

Your second encounter will be, as described in my datamining post, either Argent Confessor Paletress or Eadric the Pure. Our specific encounter was with the Confessor.

She spawned in a number of add waves, made up of priests and paladins and, of all things, Lightwells. After the waves were defeated, Paletress engaged us personally. She's got a very soft and motherly voice, along with an arsenal of Smites.

At about 25%, she summoned in one of our deepest, darkest memories -- this one was a Memory of Lucifron. To our disappointment, the Lucifron encounter was a Lucifron encounter in model only, since it appears that no matter who's summoned in, from Algalon to Hogger, they all use the same set of moves. Snake-dude used a magic debuff and an AOE fear on us. Once Lucifron was downed, Paletress came back in at full health and engaged us again, and she was quickly dispatched.

We received two item level 200 epics, an Emblem of Conquest, and a Champion's Seal for completing the first challenge.

THE BLACK KNIGHT

Arelas Brightstar was unfortunate enough to notice the Black Knight flying into the Coliseum on his bone gryphon. The Black Knight immediately force-choked him and killed him, raised him as a ghoul, and monologued at us.

The first phase of the fight saw the Knight using a variety of Death Knight moves, using his newly-risen ghoul to attack us as well. It was a fairly simple tank-and-spank. Once defeated, he rose again as a skeleton, telling us his rotting flesh was "just getting in the way".

This time, Skele-Knight used Army of the Dead and summoned in a whole bunch of Risen Champions, who would periodically explode for massive damage. Upon killing the Knight again, he rose as a ghost, saying he didn't need bones to best us.

Ecto-Knight then cast a debuff on us that increased our magic damage taken over time, periodically using an AOE or a directed debuff that drastically increased damage taken.

Upon the Black Knight's permanent defeat, we received two item level 200 epics, an Emblem of Conquest, and a Champion's Seal.

IMPRESSIONS

Despite the numerous crashing bugs we encountered, sure to be resolved prior to the instance's official launch, we had a good time in the dungeon. It should be a fine challenge for players of the appropriate level and a great source of shards, badges, and Seals for those who completely outgear it.

Thoughts:

? The RP introduction dragged on for far too long, and after a wipe we had to listen to the whole thing again. It needs to be shortened or skippable.

? Another vehicle fight. >:0

? You can graveyard zerg every fight in this dungeon, which may not be intended, especially given the short path between the graveyard and the Coliseum.

? It was pretty disappointing to see that the much-touted "Heroic old-world bosses" were nothing but shadowform models of said bosses without any of their signature moves. I guess that's partially my fault for building them up without full information, but it's still disappointing.

? The variety of encounters was fun -- having different Champions and Argent reps each time should bring a little spice to your daily runs.

? The loot is well-itemized and a pleasant surprise given that even the Normal mode drops epics.

We'll keep you up to date on new rumblings regarding this short, fun instance. We've got an ongoing gallery of our collected loot up for you right here.

WoW Val'anyr being scaled up in patch 3.2

In an unexpected turn of events, the latest patch 3.2 build on the PTR is giving Val'anyr a buff, and something of a nerf to accompany it. If you didn't see it in the official notes, here's the detail regarding Val'anyr before I dig into it:

Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item's stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val'anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur. Well, now! What is this? Blizzard scaling up a Legendary? Unheard of... until now! You could call it a pleasant surprise, but it's more pleasant than surprising. Val'anyr's raw stats were never very impressive. In fact, when the weapon stats were first revealed, a lot of people were rather underwhelmed! The proc is downright incredible, enough to give it more longevity than you'd ever expect, but the stats themselves were only a bit better than other weapons you found in Ulduar. Considering the weapon is a Legendary, that's more than a little bit odd. Legendaries are often (but not always) heads and tails above the competition in their tier of gear stat-wise. I could be completely off-base, but I'm pretty sure that's what they're trying to fix. A legendary weapon shouldn't last you forever (or even an entire expansion), but it should probably last you at least half a tier of raiding, shouldn't it?

Like I said though, the proc is incredible, so you would be keeping the weapon around for that, not for its stats. Which is what the nerf portion of the Val'anyr change addresses. Once healing weapons have finally outpaced Val'anyr, what most players would have ended up doing is equip Val'anyr until Blessing of the Ancient Kings has procced and expired, switch in your other weapons while the proc's inner cooldown passes, then throw Val'anyr back on when the proc is able to be used again. That sounds like a hassle, but you can bet your dupa that Healers would jump through those hoops to make the most out of the proc. There are still healers that use the Scarab Brooch on certain fights, and Val'anyr's proc is almost a straight lift of that.

So the buff and nerf go hand in hand here. The buff is to give the weapon some longevity through Tier 9, and the nerf is a measure to make sure it's not being used forever. Or at least if it is being used forever, you're making an active choice to do so. You don't get to pair the proc with a weapon that has better stats. You use it, or you don't. I suspect Healers will be using it right through the end of Wrath of the Lich King, and possibly beyond. But when we're hitting the endgame of the next expansion, Healers probably won't forego the stats on a level 90 epic weapon for the Val'anyr proc, except in extreme circumstances. If you could use both in tandem, level 90 healers would be going back to Ulduar every single week to churn out a Val'anyr to pair up with their Godshammer of Godhealing from Nazjatar or whatever crazy place we end up visiting in the next expansion.

For those interested, here are the stat increases we'll be seeing on the weapon:

3 more Stamina 3 more Intellect 34 more Spell Power 3 more Critical Strike Rating 3 more Haste Rating And that brings the weapon up to an ilevel of 245, up from 239. That takes it from slightly-above-ulduar to being on par with Coliseum loot, sans 25-man hard mode.

Do MMOs need to be more accessible to disabled people?

Last week, a blind friend of mine decided to get herself addicted to WoW. We re-rolled characters on a different realm and are slowly leveling. I'm not a fan of leveling but suddenly looking at a basic UI, a new set of icons and an unfamiliar map has reminded me how scary WoW can be for a visually impaired person. The same applies to every other MMO from EVE (which is especially terrifying due to a lack of a humanoid avatar) to Second Life and I often think MMOs should come with the option of an in-game white can or a service animal. I suppose the one perk is you can't run into people and if you do fall off a cliff and die, you get to rez at the nearest graveyard.

I can't help but wonder that there is still a lot games companies need to do in order to make MMOs much more accessible to all kinds of disabled people. I would love to have icons which double in size when you mouse over them, icons on the map, much larger text sizes for the chat box and a radar circle on the floor to tell you how close until you aggro something hostile. For some kinds of disabled gamers, MMOs can offer freedom from their disability and a chance to distance themselves from their everyday lives but for others - usually visually related disabilities - MMOs can range from passable to appalling. So come on readers, do you have a disability that affects your life? Do you play MMOs? How do you find the experience? Do you wish your chosen MMO had more options for people with a specific disability? How would you alter your MMO to make it easier and more comfortable to play.

WoW PTR 3.2 Trial of the Crusader

No more rants about not having access to the Coliseum dungeons folks. Get ready to tackle the PTR tomorrow evening. Blizzard has a testing schedule. It seems we won’t experience the whole dungeon at first. They want to test specific bosses to adjust their damage, find bugs, etc. Make sure to get your best gems and enchants in advance to fight at your max potential. Make sure to get back for videos of these scheduled events.

Blizzard Quote:
Here’s the current schedule for Trial of the Crusader PTR testing:

On the North American test realms:

Lord Jaraxxus - Thursday Night, July 9, starting at 7pm EDT/4pm PDT.

On the European test realms:

Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane - Thursday Night, July 9, starting at 19:00 CEST.

Note that only the 10 Player and 25 Player difficulties will be available on PTR. The Heroic versions will not be available. If you are usually part of raids that easily crushes Ulduar Hard Modes, you should find the non-Heroic difficulties to be not difficult.

Koralon the Flame Watcher is also available to be tested in the Vault of Archavon depending on PTR Wintergrasp status.

Test Patchwerks (Tank and DPS versions) will also be available in the Argent Coliseum during similar times to other bosses. Instead of the previous tank test patchwerk that increased melee damage over time, the 3.2 tank test patchwerk will just hit VERY hard (as hard as Algalon) all the time to allow for more lengthy sustained tank parses. We’re always interested in seeing combat logs and parses for all raid testing on the PTR, but especially test patchwerk logs. These are extremely helpful to our class team.

This schedule could change at a moment’s notice due to server, bug, or patch status. I’ll try to keep everyone informed as much as possible. The Trial of the Crusader and the bosses to be tested will remain also open a variable length of time. How long they stay open depends upon a host of factors including designer availability, bug status, etc. These bosses are very much a work in progress, and this is a test server.


Quick Trial of the Crusader FAQ:

Q) Where’s all the trash?
A) There isn’t any in this raid zone. Really.

Q) Where’s the loot?
A) Loot is present on the bosses, but note that many of the items do not have final art.

Q) What about achievements?
A) Most of them are not fully implemented yet.

Q) What about the Trial of the Champion (ie the 5 player dungeon)?
A) This will see more extended testing later in the PTR cycle.

Pre-Naxx WoW Hunter Gear

Unless you have a nice guild chances are you will have to gear up before you can being raiding with them. There are a lot of items out there that a hunter can use, but choosing the best can at times be difficult. In this guide I will advise you to pick up some gear which will help you get raid spots.

Head

King Dred's Helm This is a great piece of gear and there is only two better from Naxx 10. It drops from King Dred in Drak'Tharon Keep Heroic.

Plunderer's Helmet This drops from Invagar the Plunderer in Utgarde Keep Heroic. This is a good head because it is the only one pre-raid that has a meta slot. (Excluding PvP)

Shoulder

Massive Pauldrons of the JormungarDrops from Gortek Palehoof in Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic.

Spauldrons of the Black Arrow These require revered with Knight's of the Ebon Blade and also require you to have unlocked the Shadow Vault.

Chest

Aviary Guardsman's Hauberk This is a zone drop from Drak'Tharon Keep Heroic, luckily it is BOE and you can normally pick it up from the auction house relatively cheap.

Hauberk of Arcane Wrath This drops from Anomalus in Nexus Heroic

Hands

Handgrips of the Savage Emissary These drop from Cyanigosa in Violet Hold Heroic

Grips of the Beast God These drop from Gal'Darah in Gundrak Heroic.

Wrists

Eaglebane Bracers These are made by Leatherworkers and require 40 Icy Dragonscales. They are incredibly cheap for how good they are. These are arguably better than most of the Naxx drops too.

Giantmaim Bracers These are also made by Leatherworkers but are more expensive than the Eaglebane ones. This may be better if you are hitcapped.

Waist

Sovereign's Belt This drops from King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic.

Belt of Tassled Lanterns This is a zone drop from Gundrak Heroic. It is BOE so check the auction house for it.

Legs

Giantmaim Legguards These are made by Leatherworkers and may set you back a couple of hundred gold.

Leggings of the Stone Halls These drop from Sjonnir The Ironshaper in Halls of Stone Heroic.

Feet

Dragon Slayer's Sabatons These drop from Keristrasza in Nexus Heroic

Boots of Twinkling Stars These require exalted with Kirin Tor and so aren't too desirable.

Neck

Titanium Impact Choker This is made by Jewelcrafters and is quite expensive.

Pendant of the Outcast Hero This costs 25 Emblems of Heroism.

Rings

The Prospector's Prize Drops from Krystallus in Heroic Stones of Hall. This is only good if you are under the hit cap.

Titanium Impact Band Like the necklace, made by Jewelcrafters and is fairly expensive.

Ring of Scarlet Shadows Made by Jewelcrafters.

Mobius Band Drops from Chrono Lord Epoch in Heroic Culling of Stratholme.

Trinkets

Darkmoon Card: Greatness As the name suggests this is a great trinket, comes from handing in the nobles deck to the Darmoon Faire, however it costs a couple of thousand gold. The 90 intellect version is good too.

Incisor Fragment Drops from King Dred in Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep.

Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood Drops from Keristrasza in Nexus Heroic.

Mirror of Truth A great trinket, costs 40 emblems of heroism. 10% proc and so the more crit you have the more often it will proc. The buff lasts for 10 seconds and has a 30 second internal cooldown.

I hope that this helps you gear up for raids!

Deal Damage as a Shadow Priest

No doubt in the course of leveling you settled upon a pretty solid way to grind your way through mob after mob. Shadow priests are particularly good at moving from one enemy to another quickly and with little downtime thanks to DoTs, and you probably felt pretty slick as you worked your way to 80. Once you hit the endgame, however, it's time to start working on maximizing your spellcasting to do the most damage possible in any given situation. More damage makes you a better asset to your group, will get you invited more often, and ensures you're able to gear yourself up!

Unlike some other classes, shadow priests don't have a set rotation of spells they want to cast in a specific order. The cooldown of Mind Blast and the varying timers on your DoTs mean you have to work with a priority system to make sure you've got everything up that needs to be up. The general rule of thumb is thus: Vampiric Touch > Devouring Plague > Mind Bast > Mind Flay, as long as Shadow Word: Pain is always up and being refreshed by Mind Flay via Pain and Suffering. That means, if you notice Vampiric Touch is going to fall off in the next 1.5 seconds, begin casting a new one; if VT is up and Devouring Plague is off cooldown, cast that; if both DoTs are up and Mind Blast is off cooldown, cast that; and if all your DoTs are on the mob and MB is on cooldown, use Mind Flay until one of those is not true. That is the basis of your single target DPS. It can take some getting used to, so practice getting maximum uptime on all of your spells on a training dummy in a capital city!

For heavy AoE situations, Mind Sear is your obvious choice. It's a very powerful AoE spell when there are a lot of mobs for it to hit. In small situations, such as two, three, or sometimes four enemies, it can be more efficient damage to put up Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain on all of the mobs, and keep both of those DoTs up as long as you can, filling in spare time between refreshing with Mind Blasts and Mind Flays.

Shadow priests can definitely take some getting used to, but they're a very satisfying class when it all clicks. With practice, you can keep up a near perfect single target damage rotation on one mob while juggling DoTs on multiple adds. It's somewhat tricky to handle, but the end result is a lot of damage and a group impressed with your ability. Still, the core of any damage dealing class is understanding how to do the highest damage they can to a single target, and the best way to do that is practice. Hit up those dummies, learn your priorities, and you'll be topping meters in no time!

Farming Relics Of WoW Ulduar

The Sons Of Hodir the place for the best shoulder enchants and some pretty cool Ice Mammoth mounts, you can complete the daily or quests or hand in relics of Ulduar. Relic's are similar to the
BC rep items for the Aldor or Scryers.
Once you have complete the starting quest chain from K3 and become neutral with The Sons Of Hodir you can turn these relics into Lillehoff the quartermaster (66,61). A lot of 10 will give you 250 rep (275 for human), they stack in 200's. There are always lots of people farming these and selling them on AH for a good profit.


I've been testing various location in the Storm Peaks, looking for areas with best drop rate, fastest re-spawn time and quiet little spots. The figures give are relics per hour and the gold you would make by vendoring/auctioning the other drops at lowest price.

1. Snowdrift Plains ( 32,48)
Relics 48
Gold 163

In Between the various Iron Dwarf settlements here a nice strip of plain white snow, littered with Stromriders and some jonmungar. There are quests around here people running through but generally avoiding these mobs, by the time you run from the start (34,47) to the end of the snow (28,40) the mobs will have re-spawned at the start.

2. Frostfield Lake (70,60)
Relics 68
Gold 107

Next to Dun Nifflem a frozen lake, the only mob here is Brittle Revenants. There is a daily quest for Sons OF Hodir here but they re-spawn very fast, there were other player here the whole time I was killing these and I never ran out of mobs to kill, got agro whilst eating/drinking move off the lake and into the snow for full feeding.

3. Terrace Of The Makers (36,40)
Relics 59
Gold 92

The only thing up here is library guardians, I did not see anything useful drop from these just grey vendor items. There are a lot of mobs here and the quests here involve getting information out of the data cells and blowing up the stone chunks, other people here are more interested in that than killing the mobs.

4.Narvins Cradle (31,48)
Relics 73
Gold 165

There 3 parts to running here, there is an outer ring on the snow, a stepped down ring and the various levels going up around the Colosus.
I started by killing the outer ring, killing all of the inner ring and going up 2 levels Waiting for downstairs to re-spawn. You don't want to spend too much time up on the platforms as there is a lot of walking/flying between each mob, the bottom bit is more concentrated and lots can be pulled without moving.

Fjorn's Anvil Seams to be the most populated farming area, I went there and tried to kill the Seathing Revenant's but there was too much competition another 6 players all after the same mobs. I will return when its quieter, and bring some more relic farming spots.

WoW Darkmoon Faire

Darkmoon Faire returned this week, i popped along to hand over my prisms deck. Knew the 2 vendors here were good but had not checked out there new wares for wrath.
Proffessor Thaddeus Paleo and Lhara

These are the best vendor's in the game, over 1 hour i logged in and out and bought;
Frost lotus 4g
Artic fur 12g
3 Runic health potions 2g40s each
2 Talandra's Rose 30s
1 Icethorn 80s
2 Deadnettle 30s
3 Adder's tongue 50s
1 goldclover 30s
and a random assortment of leathers, motes and old world herbs.

This willl sell for 100gold more than what i bought it for, not bad for an hour of doing nothing excpet vendor buying. Before Wrath the spawn rate at these vendor's was poor seamed like it has been improved. Two of the 3 sites that darkmoon turns up at are easy accesible for a lvl 1 character. Give it bag space and some gold and occasionally log on and see what the vendor has, won't take long and easy gold.

New WoW 5 - man?

Yes, that's me, the handsome draenei shaman up there with the irresistible moustache. Despite the bugs with the encounters on the Patch 3.2 PTR, my party had a fun time in the Trial of the Crusader, the new 5-man normal and Heroic dungeon in the Crusader's Coliseum.

We were a bit surprised to discover that each boss in the Normal version of the instance drops one or more very well-itemized item level 200 epics (heroics/Naxx 10-level gear) and the Heroic version drops item level 213 epics (Naxx 25-level gear, non-Sapph/KT), as shown in our loot gallery. And this is on top of the healthy number of Conquest badges and Champion's Seals you get for running it!

If things stay the way they are, this instance will be the absolute best place to gear out your fresh-to-80 alts, a godsend for those who need shards, and an amazing source of Conquest badges and Champion's Seals for those desiring specific rewards.

With this information in mind, are you looking forward to the Trial of the Champion? Were you already? Does the new information about drops help sway you? After seeing pictures and video of my shaman in action, Is your only point of contention not being able to run the instance with me personally? I'm sorry, ladies, there's only so much of me to go around here.

WoW Raiding spec for Hunter pets

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me, finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories (Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival. It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid. This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds. What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the 51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me, finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories (Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival. It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid. This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds. What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the 51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me, finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories (Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival. It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid. This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds. What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the 51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

That wraps up this issue of Scattered Shots. Does your raiding spec look like this? Do you have any recommendations or changes for the readers? If so, I know I would love to hear them and am sure our readers would also.

BlizzCon Movie, Original Song, Fan Art contests open for registration

Blizzard has opened up registration for their Movie, Original Song, and Fan Art contests, and you can register for those along all over on their registration page (the Costume, Sound-alike, and Dance contests are also there, but it looks like they're not up for registration yet). These things are always a lot of fun, and it seems like every year, the bar goes even higher -- there's always a costume that just really impresses with the amount of work that went into it. Of course, don't let that stop you from entering: Sound-Alikes are always really funny and pretty easy to do, and I believe Original Song is a new category this year, so it's probably wide open in terms of what people will come up with. Come to think of it, we've actually got a song that might go in there...

Registration ends on the 24th of July for the current contests, so make sure to get your entries in now if you've got a movie, song, or a piece of fan art you think Blizzard might like. And there are some nice prizes -- looks like the grand prize in each contest is an Alienware laptop, with Razer and Nvidia gear and Adobe software filling out the rest of the places. Sign up now -- we can't wait to see what you guys bring to show off at the convention in August.

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Patch 3.2 gets weird

Another week, another series of patch notes to leave me scratching my head and saying "Seriously? This is what we're doing, nerfing the crap out of agility for tanking? Did dodge rating steal somebody's lunch money as a kid? And Shield Block, I trusted you." It's strange to feel betrayed by a core tanking ability. I get why they're nerfing it, since they're increasing the amount of Block value on gear that has to double it's current values, I've already heard Prot warriors and paladins contemplating putting together BV sets for PvP and this change will keep warriors from using SB to get hideous crits in PvP with Shield Slam. At least I think that's the reasoning: I can't believe that anyone was actually worried about Prot Warriors' DPS while tanking in PvE content being too high after the change for 10 seconds out of every 40. Even if Protection Warriors put on every single piece of Block value gear imaginable, that 10 seconds of double damage with Shield Slam would still leave them at the absolute bottom of the tanking basement in terms of damage dealt while tanking.

The agility change is a near non-issue for almost all Warrior tanks: maybe you had Agility as your cape enchant or a few AGI gems, but for the most part Warriors don't stack Agility as tanks. However, since Dodge is at the moment probably the best stat a warrior can stack, the Dodge rating changes will sting quite a bit. (I am aware they're more like a hammer to the back of the head for Druids, but even so.)

Let us look at the specific changes (both Warrior and general) that stood out to me from the most recent patch notes. First we'll look at the changes from the general items section.

Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of Dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of Dodge a player has with 0 Agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their Dodge percentage vary a small amount. Block Value: The amount of bonus Block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base Block value on shields or Block value derived from Strength. On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to Block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their Block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus. Dodge Rating: The amount of Dodge rating required per percentage of Dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes Dodge rating and Parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry Rating: The amount of Parry rating required per percentage of Parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes Dodge rating and Parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than Dodge. The Block value changes we were already familiar with, of course. I do get that they want Parry and Dodge to be roughly equivalent in terms of their effectiveness to tanks and they have to take gear inflation into account, but man, I was not expecting it. Perhaps this just shows how out of touch with tanking I actually am. I do find it interesting that Block rating alone escaped being reduced but with them buffing Block value it would be kind of surreal to nerf the least desirable tanking stat. Perhaps it's Block rating's unique status as half a tanking variable (neither Dodge nor Parry have a rating to determine whether or not they happen and then a value to determine how effective they are as Block does) that spared it the chopping block, or perhaps the changes are meant to bring both Dodge and Parry in line with Block's effectiveness or lack thereof.

Since both Dodges and Parries effectively negate a melee attack (you take no damage on a successful Parry or Dodge) while Blocks only reduce an incoming attack's damage by the Block value of the tank in question (this can reduce an attack to zero, making high Block rating/Block value sets shockingly good against trash pulls and shockingly bad against mobs that hit for more than, say, 4 to 5k damage with an attack) maybe reducing both Dodge and Parry in this way is the only way to equalize them with Block. I guess nerfing every other tanking stat is one way to make Block more comparatively attractive.

Now let's look at the specific changes to warriors.


Warriors

Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged. Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented. Shield Block: Shield Slam no longer benefits from the increased block value granted by this ability. However, while Shield Block is active, Shield Slam generates 100% additional threat Talents
Fury Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor. Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text. Protection
Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%. Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block. Well, the Bloodrage change is good and long overdue. With full talents, we're looking at 40 Rage from the ability, good for both DPS and tanking. The Execute change angers me, although it's a non issue for Arms (for the most part) one of the things I liked about execute was being able to wait a couple of seconds to build rage while a boss ticked down to 20%, then hit Recklessness and the crit for an obscene amount three times in a row. Is it really going to change the way I, or most DPS warriors, play? Not really. It's better DPS to spread your executes out into your normal rotation than it is to just spam the ability and if you're an Arms warrior this is exactly how Sudden Death works anyway, so the only time you'd even notice a change is when the boss enters what is currently called 'Execute range' and in the future will be called "Great, I have to weave another instant attack into my rotation" range. (I kid, it's not like you could spam Execute before.)

The Shield Block change irritates me. Just leave the damage on it! It's not going to make Prot Warriors the kings of DPS among the tanks! Adding a static threat modifier to compensate for the damage loss just irks me. Yes, you read right, it irks me! It's necessary to compensate warrior tanks for the threat they'll be losing, but there's no good reason outside of some theoretical case of stacking every possible block value item and going to Wintergrasp with it where the damage from SB/Shield Slam was going to be that great anyway. So what if a prot warrior occasionally shield slams for 10k (I'm deliberately overstating this) in a battleground, when the rest of the time he's plinking along for 2 to 3k? I just find the idea of lowering prot warrior DPS while tanking, or at all really to be absurd. Is it just against the rules of the game for warriors to hurt things now?

The Devastate and Shield Spec changes are both good. More damage, more rage, good for tanking. Anything that allows a prot warrior tank to put out more damage while tanking I can get behind.

I hopped on test and did a heroic Nexus run last night to test the Bloodsurge change and it was spotty: despite having combat text turned on, I didn't get many Bloodsurge notifications at all. It didn't actually hurt my DPS that much, but I'd like to see this change go live working properly since at present I have to use power auras to inform me of a bloodsurge proc. Armored to the Teeth we already knew about, and it's a solid 200 or so AP for me, but I'm in all plate at this point anyway.

All in all, the changes go from confusing to maddening to somewhat positive to somewhat negative, it's a roller coaster but not one of those really fancy ones at the good theme parks, more of an older one built really close to a flume where you get splashed a lot. Honestly, I still feel hurt by what Shield Block has done, and that's ridiculous, I know Shield Block isn't a sapient being that can actually betray me and yet how could you do this to me, Shield Block? Next week, I get some tissues and eat some brownie ice cream while holding a picture of the Shield Block icon during a montage of all the times I pushed the Shield Block button set to the music of Zamfir, master of the pan flute. (Yes, okay, the Shield Block change is not that big a deal, just go with it.)

Two Bosses Enter: Anub'Arak vs. Elder Nadox

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

INSECTS! We're getting close to the end of our first bracket of bosses for this season of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves, featuring five-man bosses from Wrath of the Lich King. (We're sure you can all guess who's in the last fight of the bracket, just as we're sure you can all guess by how large of a landslide he'll win.) Last week's tussle with King Dred and Jedoga Shadowseeker went down with a chomp and a gulp, leaving us with two more player favorites for the week ahead: Anub'Arak from Azjol-Nerub versus Elder Nadox of Anh'kahet: The Old Kingdom.

Remember the basic ground rules:

Assume that the opponents and their minions share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output. This deathmatch takes place in neutral territory. All the usual minions will be available to each boss. Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter. Focus on the three S's: style, story and scale.
It's minions versus minions in this buggy battle. Join us after the break to cast your vote for who you think will emerge this week's victor.

Anub'Arak
I was king of this empire once, long ago. In life I stood as champion. In death I returned as conqueror. Now I protect the kingdom once more. Ironic, yes?

Anub'Arak, the former king of Azjol-Nerub, was among the Nerubians slaughtered in the War of the Spider and later raised as Undead by Ner'zhul the Lich King to do his bidding. Read the extensive lore page on Anub'Arak to learn more about his background.

Anub'Arak's battle strategy includes truly relentless tactics. Besides wreaking havoc with vicious attacks and environmental damage, he swarms opponents with protective Locusts and nettling Carrion Beetles. He periodically burrows underground, besieging opponents with packs of summoned minions.

Carrion Beetles Locust Swarm Impale Pound Anub'ar Assassin
Backstab Anub'ar Darter
Dart Anub'ar Guardian
Strike Sunder Armor Anub'ar Venomancers
Poison Bolt Poison Bolt Volley
Learn more about Anub'Arak's strategies, and review comments from players who've battled him.

Elder Nadox
The young must not grow hungry ... Shhhad ak kereeesshh chak-k-k!

Elder Nadox, an Undead Nerubian vizier in Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, is a servant of the Lich King.

Elder Nadox is also known for being a challenging opponent. He periodically summons minions during battle. Chief among each group is an Ahn'kahar Guardian, who emanates an aura that causes Elder Nadox and the other minions to become immune to damage. Immunity is removed only when the Guardian is killed. In this deathmatch, you can assume that Anub'Arak is aware of this situation.

Berserk Brood Plague Brood Rage Ahn'kahar Swarmer
Sprint Ahn'kahar Guardian
Sprint
Learn more about Elder Nadox's strategies, and review comments from players who've battled him.

The smackdown
As usual, you should assume that overall, the foes share similar levels, health pools, overall damage output and neutral territory. As noted, Anub'Arak will be aware of the need to kill the Ahn'kahar Guardians in order to remove the periodic damage immunity of Elder Nadox and his minions.

Who will survive the swarms of Undead insects to emerge the victor in this week's boss deathmatch? Cast your vote below – and don't forget to come up with a convincing scenario in the comments that will sway other readers to support your outcome.

WOW Class Patch 3.2 Q&A: Paladin

Once again, it's time for a Class Q&A with Ghostcrawler! Today Paladins get their chance to shine (previously: Shaman, Mage, Death Knight, Warlock).

As with the other Q&As, this one starts with a bit on what the idea is behind paladins, with a glance at their history and at their present.

In the beginning: paladins were a "defensive buffing class...buffs were pretty much the entire reason you'd want to group with a paladin." End-game classic WoW: paladins were healers only. BC: paladins could tank, but were still mostly OTs. Wrath: "finally embraced all three specs." Paladins still have several unique facets: bubbles, strong dispels, plate armor as a healer, and the Seal and Judgment system.

Itemization: so far in Wrath, MP5 wasn't particularly valuable, and they claim it wasn't inteded to be. They still think MP5 is undervalued right now, though, hence the buffs coming to it in patch 3.2. They also think Int/Crit based mana regen is a bit out of control, and furthermore than in patch 3.2, some Holy pallies might look into taking Haste.

At this point they drop a hint that is interesting for all caster classes: they're considering collapsing MP5 and Spirit into one stat. This is for the farther future, though.

Paladins can expect to see "other interesting healing spells" later on, but not in 3.2, and don't expect "something that looks like Prayer of Healing or Wild Growth." Flash of Light should be more valuable now with the Sacred Shield changes, and the Beacon changes should make paladins "an exceptional dual target healer" (is that a valuable role?).

Ret PvE DPS is too low right now; they're buffing it with the new Seal of Vengeance/Corruption. SoV is aimed towards boss fights, since it works best once the pally gets five stacks up; Seal of Command is for short PvP or PvE fights.

The change to Exorcism (adding a cast time) means Rets have to pay a bit more attention to their rotation - you want to use Exorcism with Art of War procs, most of the time. To compensate for the nerf to Prot that his change brings, they also buffed Hand of Reckoning.

On the topic of Avenging Wrath and possible dispel immunity ("possible but not probable"), they mention again that they want to redo the entire dispelling system. One method they suggest is to give defensive magic dispelling to all healers, but prevent offensive dispelling entirely, or at least for most buffs.

They would like to add a "stand-alone interrupt" to pallies, although they need to get Ret burst down a bit still first before giving them more tools. As far as escape and gap-closer abilities, Judgment of Justice is meant to be pallies' gap-closer.

Finally, they would like to make Librams visible on the Paladin models, but this might take a while. The same goes for Shaman totems and Hunter quivers (but I thought they were getting rid of quivers).

Is it just me, or is this Q&A even fluffier and more content-free than the ones we've gotten so far? I guess they just don't have a lot of Paladin news to talk about that we haven't already seen in the patch 3.2 notes.

SWAPS loot system offers another WoW DKP option

I'm finding myself really fascinated with loot systems lately -- the old DKP is pretty good, but even that has drama, and it seems like there's a lot of interesting ideas going around about how to evenly and fairly distribute loot amongst a group of people. OutDPS has a writeup about a loot system called SWAPS. Instead of sending "points" off into the void, you actually "give" your spent points to everyone else in the raid. You start out with 1,000 free points (though those are distributed over time, to prevent new players from having tons of points early on) and then when an item comes up, everyone bids on it: the highest bid gets the item and the points they bid are spread around to the rest of the raiders. In other words, if someone in a 10-man raid bids 500 points and wins an item, those 500 points are distributed evenly amongst the other nine raiders. While the winner loses the 500 points they spent, everyone else gets a bonus 56 points. The person winning the item "pays" for the privilege of taking it by beefing up everyone else's point totals.

It is probably not a perfect system (there's no way to reward points for anything other than loot dropping, for one thing, and while some people have modified the rules to create a separate bidding pool for class items, the basic system doesn't cover class or offspec items), but it does solve a lot of the questions of fairness, and it keeps everything pretty above-board: if you are low on points, the only reason would be that either you just started raiding, or that you've just spent a lot of points on an item. There's an addon, of course, and it will give you all sorts of reports and updates on where all of your raiders are at in the system. If you've been poking around for a DKP system that is based on being open and fair, it might be worth trying out in your guild.

TurpsterVision: Northrend Children's Week

First up a bit of housekeeping; thanks to all of you who took part in last week's contest -- over 500 of you! A winner has been chosen via the highly technical method of a /random in-game roll. Sorry to the others of you who didn't win this time, but who knows, maybe in the future we'll have another giveaway on TurpsterVision!
This week we take a trip on the PTR and experience the new Northrend Children's Week, doing the impossible and completing both sides of the event to show you what is on offer. Lesley Smith posted about the event before and we even put up a handy gallery if you would like to take a closer look at some of the quest text.
The quest I talked about in Sholazar Basin is Reclamation part of a chain started by the Avatar of Freya. We've since discovered that the Oracle's quest to go through the Waygate does not require this quest and in fact opens the Waygate for later use – but you should all totally do this quest if you haven't already, it's too much fun!
On the live realms we will only be able to complete this quest for one of the children each year and in my mind there is no question which orphan I will choose...
I can has aged yolk?
Before I get back to the PTR I'll have to show you something that made me smile while questing and confirmed Roo as the greatest orphan ever to set foot in WoW Cheats!

Patch 3.2's raid extension feature clarified

About a week and a half ago, we spotted the new raid lockout extension feature on the patch 3.2
PTR. It's not until this morning that Blizzard (specifically Eyonix and Vaneras) officially
announced that the feature was coming, along with some clarified details.
The details are mostly what we expected: Extending your lockout will let it roll over into the
next lockout period, consuming your instance ID for that day (in the case of heroics) or week (in
the case of raids). You can extend your lockout more than once, probably indefinitely, but Eyonix
wasn't specific on how many times you can do it in a row. I assume indefinitely. The extension is
also on a per-person basis, meaning if you PUG someone into your 25man run, they can't screw you
by extending their lockout. That also means it's not a raid leader decision. At least, not
mechanically. It's up to the individual to click that extension button.
The extension system really wouldn't make sense any other way, so this is all pretty expected.
While your raid leader will certainly have some sway over what your raid group does from week to
week when in an progression guild, it shouldn't surprise anybody that Blizzard hasn't put your
raid IDs solely in the hands of the raid leaders. That would be abused in the most epic way
possible. Get a jerk of a raid leader in a PUG, kiss your Archavon ID goodbye for the rest of
eternity because the guy keeps pushing the extend button? Yeah, no thanks. I think we're all glad
that the decision is made by the individuals.
I eagerly await the inevitable, "Oooops, I 'accidentally' extended my raid timer" excuses from
raiders that want a week off and don't have the guts to be honest about it. Those sorts of things
are the best!
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WoW Edition released as a standalone download

There's Peggle the original PC game, Peggle the XBLA game, Peggle the iPhone game, Peggle: Steam
edition, and Peggle the WoW addon, and so when I heard rumblings of "Peggle: WoW edition," I just
figured people were talking about one of the many, many already-released versions of PopCap's
popular Plinko-inspired pasttime. But no -- the folks at PopCap have released another version of
Peggle: Peggle World of Warcraft edition is a standalone, free (PC-only) download that allows you
to play a WoW-related version completely outside of World of Warcraft.
All that make sense? It sounds like PopCap realized that there was a call for a brand new version
of Peggle (including new stages, WoW-related backgrounds, and even a secret easter egg between
Arthas and Bjorn the unicorn) that was different enough to stand as its own PC game, so they
worked their coding magic and put it all together into a downloadable standalone. And much to the
lament of Mac gamers everywhere, it's PC-only.
But then again, it's free, it's Peggle, and so if you haven't gotten your Peggle fix through any
of the aforementioned channels yet, here's the hit you've been waiting for. If you do the math
(and chart the number of Peggle versions over time), we're pretty sure that, soon, all games will
be Peggle. And strangely enough, we're kind of OK with that. Peggle is really fun.
wow cheats

Testing of Crusader's Coliseum starts tomorrow

I was just bemoaning that we haven't gotten a chance to see patch 3.2's new raid content yet. It

looks like that chance will come sooner than I expected: Testing of Crusader's Coliseum tomorrow

night!

Daelo has just posted a testing schedule for Trial of the Crusader (a.k.a. Crusader's Coliseum).

North American realms: Lord Jaraxxus, Thursday, July 9, starting at 7 PM EDT European realms:

Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane, Thursday, July 9, starting at 19:00 CEST Both of these fights

will be available in normal mode (10 or 25) only, not heroic. The new 5-man, Trial of the

Champion, will be open "later in the PTR cycle." Testing of Crusader's Coliseum!


He also notes that Koralon, the new Vault boss, will be up, and you'll be able to access it if

your side has Wintergrasp. Tanking and DPS Patchwerks will make a return. Unlike the patch 3.1 PTR

tanking Patchwerk, this one just hits really hard ("as hard as Algalon"), all the time (instead of

ramping his damage up over time).

Oh, and one more thing: there is, apparently, no trash at all in this raid. Woot? wow cheats

WoW The Patches of Yesteryear: Patch 0.6

Welcome to the first post in our Patches of Yesteryear series. We're going to take a look at old

patch notes (listed after the break) and point out some of the ridiculous, and not so ridiculous

changes that have gone through the game the past five years.

To start off with, let's look at Patch 0.6. This patch was released on April 13th, 2004. That's

about seven months before WoW hit the retail shelves and became a hit. This beta version of WoW

had a few important parts of the game that began their life in this patch:

Scarlet Monastery, the level 30 dungeons near the Undercity Blackfathom Deeps, the cave maze

dungeon out in Kalimdor Druids became available for play You had five states of rested that

affected the gain of your experience gains: well rested, rested, normal, fatigued, and exhausted

Attack Power was introduced Skill points were earned via XP which could "...be spent on

tradeskills, weapon proficiencies or to increase attributes" Tapping a mob was implemented (first

person/group to damage claimed the mob) Guild management system was introduced Mages had a sleep

spell introduced for a short time
The rested state was an interesting design at the beginning. Nowadays, you are either rested or

not. If you're rested, you get double the XP. However back in patch 0.6, the XP was rewarded in

diminishing returns:

Well rested gave 200% of the XP from a mob kill Rested gave between 100% and 200% XP Normal gave

100% XP Fatigued gave 50% XP Exhausted gave 25% XP Yes. You're reading that right. If you played

so much and didn't allow your character to rest you'd enter an exhausted state and earn only 25%

of the XP from a mob. That'd pretty much stop level grinding right there. It took eight hours to

go from exhausted back to well rested. Wow.

The full Patch 0.6 patch notes were as follows:


Weve finally made all of the races available for simultaneous testing in this Alliance & Horde

Phase of our Beta Test. Once the client is downloaded, you will have the option to play all eight

races: Human, Undead, Dwarf, Tauren, Gnome, Orc, Night Elf and Troll. Eight classes will also be

available, as applicable to each race: Druid, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and

Warrior. You read that right, Druids are available!
Weve also added many new features, fixed some broken ones and changed a few things here and there.

So, sit back, start the download and take a moment to scan these lengthy patch notes.




Windows 98/ME Loading Bug
There are three common crash errors affecting the World of Warcraft Beta running on Windows 98/ME

systems.

These are known issues and fixes are currently under development:

If you start the game and your computer locks up immediately.

Solution:


Make a shortcut to wow.exe.

Right click on the shortcut and go to properties.

In the shortcut tab, go to the target line and add the following two switches after the quotes so

that it reads something similar to: "/patchnotes/path to game/wow.exe" -windowed -opengl

Start the game by using this shortcut.

You can select a character at the selection screen and then try to enter the world.
If after rebooting or when running the game for the first time you crash out with the

(FLT_INVALID_OPERATION) error.

Solution:


Make a shortcut to wow.exe.

Right click on the shortcut and go to properties.

In the shortcut tab, go to the target line and add the following two switches after the quotes so

that it reads something similar to: "/patchnotes/path to game/wow.exe" -windowed -opengl

Re-start the game with the shortcut and you should be able to enter the world.
If you are able to select your character but your computer locks 1/4 of the way through loading.

Solution:


Start the game and get to the character selection screen.

When you are at the character selection screen, Alt-Tab out of the game.

You will get a crash

Re-start the game.

Select a character and you should be able to get into the game at this point.
Patching:
Due to heavy changes in the way we store the games data, this push will be of nearly the same size

as your last download. Unfortunately, this means we wont be able to patch this time around, and

instead will ask everyone to download the client again.

If you havent already done so, please check your email as we are re-sending you your

Authentication Key, so you can have it ready for use with the downloader.

Character Hold:
All current characters have been placed on hold at this time. This is due in part to all of the

changes in our low level areas, the new combat system and the addition of the rest state. We feel

that its important to test world advancement from the ground up and we want to take this

opportunity to do so.

Secondly, with the new skill system in place, we want to find a way to convert older characters to

the new system without having to do a character wipe.

Rest State, Inns & Hearthstones:
To broaden and balance some of the gameplay elements, we've incorporated a few new features. One

of them is the Rest State modifier, which gives players a time-limited bonus to combat (PvE)

experience. This frees up time for exploring other aspects of the game without penalty, such as

tradeskilling and social activities, and helps players avoid level-grinding. We've also added

Inns, which serve as a good place to hang up your sword or staff for the night because they confer

special bonuses. Inns also act as home locations, which our third new feature, Hearthstones, take

advantage of. Hearthstones provide a speedy way to travel back to an Inn when you need to take

care of business in town or when you're ready to check in and call it a night. The basics of these

new features are covered below.


Rest State

The Rest state modifier only affects experience earned from killing monsters. It does not affect

experience earned from quest rewards or other experience rewards in the game (such as future PvP

experience rewards).
As players kill monsters and gain experience points, they become increasingly tired. Their rest

level reflects this tiredness in five tiers: well rested, rested, normal, fatigued and exhausted.
Well-rested players receive bonus experience points for killing monsters. Rested players receive a

smaller bonus. At the normal rest level, players receive no bonus experience points for killing

monsters. Fatigued players receive half of the normal experience points from their kills, and when

exhausted they will receive a quarter of normal experience from a kill.
To become well rested and start earning bonus experience from killing monsters again, players must

either log out or rest online at an Inn (see below) for several hours.
Thanks to the comforts of a warm bed and a hearty meal, players who rest or log out at an Inn can

regain energy up to the maximum level: well rested (it takes 8 hours to go from exhausted back to

well rested). Players who log out anywhere else in the world will only regain energy up to the

normal level.
Note that while your character is resting at an Inn, you can play other characters on your

account. The rest state is per character only. Inns


Players can rest or log out at any Inn in the world.
Inns will be located in all major cities and some towns.
Whenever players enter an Inn or log out at an Inn, they will effectively be "resting," which is

indicated by their portrait flashing yellow.
Players can leave an Inn at any time and continue fighting monsters; the experience they gain will

be based on the Rest level that they have rested up to.
If players log out in an Inn, they will be able to instantly exit the game as opposed to having to

wait 20 seconds before exiting.
When players log in to play the next day, their well-rested characters will have slept off the ill

effects of any nasty debuffs from the day before. Hearthstones


Players use Hearthstones (an inventory item) to cast a spell that teleports them back to their

"home locations." Casting the spell will take a reasonable amount of time, to prevent it from

being used as an escape mechanism from combat.
"Checking in" with an Innkeeper will make that Inn the player's current home location, and the

player's Hearthstone will then take the player back to that Inn (as opposed to any previous home

locations). If the player doesn't have a Hearthstone, the Innkeeper will provide one at no cost.
Because Hearthstones let players quickly return to town, players can easily log off from within an

Inn when they're done playing for the night (or day). If they so choose, players can also use

Hearthstones just to return to town to sell items, trade, or train. However, Hearthstones can only

be used once per hour.
Having home locations in the game will let us incorporate other spells that teleport players to

these locations, such as how Astral Recall worked when we had bind stones. Combat Changes:

Characters have a new combat stat called "Attack Power." Attack Power helps determine melee damage

dealt. The new Attack Power value is displayed in your character sheet as Power. This value is

based on class, level and ability scores. Most classes use strength, but rogues and hunters use a

combination of strength and agility. The main purpose of Attack Power is to provide a more

consistent effect from buffs, regardless of weapon speed. Slow weapons will receive a larger bonus

from your Attack Power than faster weapons which will ultimately balance slow and fast weapons. It

is important to note that most attack bonuses in the game now add to your Attack Power.
The amount of melee damage directly attributed from your weapon has been reduced. Damage is now

more closely connected with class, strength and buffs than before. Your weapons are still very

meaningful but the combat effect you get from using a higher (or lower) level weapon has been

reduced.
Block values have been added to shields. Blocking an attack no longer avoids all of the damage of

an attack. Blocked attacks avoid an amount of damage based on your shield and your character's

strength.
Players will now find it more difficult to fight monsters that are a good deal higher in level

than they are. Player chance to hit and damage ("glancing blows") are reduced while the monster's

chance to hit and damage ("crushing blows") are increased.
Miss, Parry, Block, Dodge, Critical Hit, and "Stun from Behind" all have new formulae for

determining their percentage chance of occurrence.
The effect Spirit has on mana and hit point regeneration has been improved. Spirit affects all

characters' mana and hit point regeneration rates in and out of combat.
Your chance to hit with each weapon when fighting with two weapons has gone down, but the total

hits from both weapons has gone up. Your total damage output when fighting with two weapons should

be higher than fighting with one weapon and a shield, but roughly equal to fighting with a two-

handed weapon.
Off-hand attacks deal of the weapon's designated damage. New Skill System:
The new skill system is in place! Players now earn skill points based on experience points gained

from killing monsters. Earned skill points can be spent on tradeskills, weapon proficiencies or to

increase attributes.

The new skill UI is in place. You will be able to increase your attributes by spending skill

points. Attributes will cost different amounts to increase depending on your class. Attributes

with a green bar are your characters primary attributes and will cost the least, while attributes

displayed with a red bar are less necessary attributes and will be the most expensive.

New Weapon skills will now be purchased with skill points allowing a wider variety of weapons

being available to any given class. Different weapons will have different skill point costs

associated with them.

Finally, tradeskills will still be purchased with skill points. You will still need to buy the

tradeskills at the tradeskill trainer.

Talents Disabled
Some of the talent functionality, like increasing attributes, has been moved to our new skill

system. The rest of the Talent system is being reworked and therefore disabled. Don't worry, you

will get talents back, and they will be even cooler than before!

Monster Claiming
Now the first player or group to damage a monster will "tap" them. When the tapped monster dies,

that player or group will get the experience and loot from the kill. Other players will be able to

tell if a monster is tapped because it's portrait will turn grey. Players are free to help kill

the tapped monster, but they will receive no experience or loot from the kill. Even with help, the

player or group who initially tapped the monster will gain full experience from the kill. In

situations where a much higher level player helped with the kill, some of the experience reward

will be reduced.

Experience Distribution Changes

As players become higher level, they will be able to receive experience from a large range of

monsters. At low levels, you may get experience from monsters 5 levels lower than you, while at

level 60 you will gain experience from monsters 12 levels lower. In the future we will add a user

interface to monster portraits so you will always know which monsters give experience for your

level.

Quest Rewards
Quest rewards are now labeled as Bind on Acquire. Quest rewards can still be equipped or sold to a

merchant, but you will no longer be able to sell or give them to other players. This has been

implemented to deter these items from flooding the game economy.World

Many objects in the world such as buildings, dungeons and cities have undergone a significant data

format change to reduce memory usage, increase render performance and minimize future patch sizes.

Cloaks
Due to popular demand, cloaks have been made visible. This will help players customize their

characters even more than before.

Other Changes:

Death System:

Bodies will start to decompose after a player is resurrected or revived. We are working on some

better art to represent this process.
The corpse retrieval area has increased to 40 yards.
Players that revive will now have 50% health and mana.
Spirit healers are now ghosts and can only be seen by players in ghost form.
Players can no longer use ghost form as a means to travel to far off locations. Having a spirit

healer resurrect you in a graveyard other than the one you appeared at when you died, will always

teleport you back to that initial graveyard.
Players can now use all of the UI in ghost form (i.e. move things around in your backpack, read

your quest log, interact with your spellbook etc.)

Cities/Zones:
Darnassus, Stormwind, Orgrimmar and Undercity have all undergone layout changes.
Swamp of Sorrows, Dustwallow Marsh, Desolace and Badlands are now open and itemized.
Inns have been added to zones throughout the world for resting: Goldshire, Lakeshire, Darkshire,

Kharanos, Thelsamar, Menethil, Southshore, Dolanaar, Auberdine, Astranaar, Razor Hill, Bloodhoof

Village, Crossroads, Ratchet and Booty Bay, Brill, Trisfal, Stonard, Swamp of Sorrows, Theramore,

Dustwallow Marsh and all major cities.
Early versions of our mapping and exploration system are in and working in Elwynn, Teldrassil, Dun

Morogh, Tirisfal Glades, Mulgore and Durotar. More functionality will be added to these maps in

future patches.
Westfall Lumber Mill now has lumberjacks working around it.
Guards in Stormwind now provide directions for those who ask. (Coming soon to all cities.)
Dungeons:

Blackfathom Deeps, a level 20 - 27 dungeon is now opened and itemized in Northern Darkshore.
The Scarlet Monastery, a level 30 - 40 dungeon is now opened and itemized in Trisfal Glades.
The VanCleef encounter and Goblin Foundry in the Deadmines have been retuned.
Creatures located in the Stormwind Stockade now have spells and abilities.
Shadowthread Cave in Teldrassil is expanded and the number of Webwood Spider spawns has been

increased.
We have added acoustic values to various interiors to make them more believable. Example: Echoing

inside of caves.
Guild System:
Guild creation is now in the game as intended, and here is how it works:


Find a Guildmaster NPC in any of the major cities.
Acquire a Guild Charter from the Guildmaster
Add 9 other people to the Guild Charter
Return the Guild Charter to any Guildmaster.
You have a guild!
Tradeskills:

Blacksmithing: Low level dagger added. - Low level weapons now require cloth instead of leather as

a component.
Cooking: Recipes that require fish have been added to the Alliance areas.
Engineering: New recipes added including rocket boots and jumper cables. - Many recipes now

require more cloth and less leather. - The Mechanical Dragonling's level and health have been

reduced.
Fishing: Fishing will now improve faster with use. - The fishing bobber now has a much louder

noise when a fish is hooked.
Herbalism: The names of some herbs have been changed to make them less confusing. - Underground

herbs show up as gray on the minimap so you can tell them apart from above ground herbs. - When

underground, above ground herb nodes will not be visible. - You no longer need to face the herb

node to gather the herbs.
Leatherworking: Nearly 30 new recipes added. - Ingredients for the Toughened Leather Gloves have

changed. - Light hides are no longer required for as many recipes as before.
Mining: Citrine drop rate from iron has been reduced. - Iron has been set to 125 skill as was

originally intended. - Jade drops have been slightly increased. - Underground mines show up as

gray on the minimap so you can tell them apart from above ground mines. - When underground, above

ground mining nodes will not be visible. - You no longer need to face the mining node to gather

the minerals.
Skinning: Skinning a beast will always produce a skin of some quality. - Skill increases and time

to skin have both been reduced. - Some ambient creatures can now be skinned. - You can now right

click a creature that has no loot to skin it.
Tailoring: Thirty new level 25 and above recipes have been added. - Tailoring creation times have

been increased.
General Spells/Abilities:

The ALT key now allows a player to cast a spell on themselves automatically by pressing both the

spell or quick key and ALT at the same time.
When fear wears off, you will no longer keep running.
Helpful actions such as healing and paladin auras no longer extend a creature's pursuit timer.
Druid:

Now available as a character class!
Mage:

Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic are both instant cast.
Frost Armor 3 has been moved to level 20.
Fire Wards 1 and 3 have been moved to levels 20 and 40.
Frost Ward 1 has been moved to level 22.
Conjure Food spells have been moved to levels 6, 12, 22 and 32.
Conjure Water spells have been moved to levels 4, 10, 20 and 30.
Blink has been moved to level 20.
Phantasm has been removed.
Mana Shield now drains 2 mana per hit point absorbed.
New Spell: Sleep is gained at levels 8, 20 and 40. Sleep duration has changed to 20, 30 and 40

seconds.
New Spell: Cone of Cold is gained at levels 26 and 34.
Paladin:

Holy Strike and Crusader Strike are now considered spells and no longer supersede previous

versions.
The damage and mana cost for Holy Strike have both been reduced.
Crusader Strike causes Physical damage, has a damage bonus and has replacements at levels 22 and

34.
The duration and mana cost of Fist of Justice have been reduced, its cooldown time has increased.
Turn Undead's duration, mana cost and cooldown time are reduced. Turn Undead has also been moved

to levels 24 and 36.
The cooldown times for Divine Favor and Divine Shield have increased.
The durations for Divine Favor 2 and Divine Shield 2 have both decreased.
Divine Shield slows the Paladin's attack speed.
The ranges for Purify and Cleanse have increased.
The duration for Seal of Righteousness has increased.
Seal of Protection is only useable on party members.
Seal of Fury has been moved to level 22.
The range for Exorcism has increased.
Priest:

Pacify has been renamed Mind Soothe.
Renew is now an instant cast spell.
Shadow Word Pain will now stack with Corruption.
The casting time has been reduced to 3 seconds for Prayer of Healing.
Sleep spell removed.
Holy Smite has been moved to levels 1, 6, 14, 22, 30 and 38.
New Spell: Shackle Undead is gained at levels 20 and 40.
New Spell: Fade is gained at levels 8, 20, 30 and 40.
New Spell: Flash Heal is gained at levels 20, 26, 32 and 38.
Rogue:

Any damage will cancel the Blind effect.
Cheap Shot no longer requires the Rogue to be behind the target. Its duration has been reduced.
Sap no longer requires the Rogue to be behind the target. Using Sap now breaks stealth and is only

useable on one target at a time. In addition, Sap will not work on a target that is in combat.
Charges on poisoned weapons are now displayed in the weapon tooltip.
Eviscerate damage is no longer based on the equipped weapon and the cooldown has been removed.
The damage and energy cost have both been reduced for Kick. It now has a 75% of working, similar

to other interrupts. The duration has decreased while the cooldown has increased.
The duration and effect of Slice and Dice has increased.
Feint no longer requires the target to be facing you. Detaunt value now scales with level.
Feign Death has been removed.
Gouge now only cancels combat if the Gouge succeeds.
Successfully pick pocketing can now increase the skill.
Dodge will work more frequently than before.
Abilities now cost less energy if they miss or are blocked.
A new stealth command bar has been implemented.
New Ability: Distract is gained at level 24.
Shaman:

Several low-level spells have received a slight mana cost increase.
The mana cost has been reduced and the duration increased for both the Healing Stream and Mana

Font Totems.
Stoneclaw Totem has had its hit points retuned.
Warlock:

Bloodstone has been renamed to Healthstone.
Banish can now only be used on one target at a time and has a 30 minute cooldown.
Corruption will now stack with Shadow Word Pain.
Fear can only be used on one target at a time.
Lash of Pain (Succubus) is now instant and no longer adds weapon damage.
New Spell: (Imp) - Fire Shield gained at levels 15, 25 and 35.
Warrior:

Punishing Blow no longer requires the Warrior to be behind the target.
Defensive Stance and Sundering Strike (Rank 1) have been removed from the trainers. These

abilities are now available through quests.
Bloodrage has been moved to the Savage Combat skill line.
The values for Sundering Strike have been reduced.
The damage for Cleave has been increased.
The damage for Slam has been increased and the cast time reduced.
Slam and Cleave are both now Berserker Stance abilities, as originally intended.
Charge no longer teleports you to the target, but speeds you along a path towards the target.
The duration for Hamstring has decreased.
The cooldown for Pummel has increased.
The duration for Shield Bash has decreased and the cooldown has increased.
Combat:

Disarm will now only disarm weapons and will select the weapon in the off-hand if there is no

weapon in the main hand slot.
Creatures will no longer hurt one another with AE spells unless they are enemies.
Gouge is no longer broken by missed attacks.
Items:

Items only display their required level now.
Minimum level requirements on many items have changed.
Stats only items have changed to reflect the new combat system.
Wands are much faster now.
More random items have been created including off-hand items and necklaces.
Quests:

Gossip will no longer show up as a quest.
Quest con colors have changed slightly: Grey = Trivial; Green = Easy; Yellow = Normal; Orange =

Hard; Red = Very Hard.
Some Mage, Warrior, Shaman, Rogue and Paladin class specific quests have been added.
Existing Paladin and Shaman quests have been tweaked and fixed.
Creatures/Spawns:

Two of Vancleef's Guards have been removed.
Fetid Corpses no longer cast Overwhelming Musk.
The recast time for Skeletal Horrors to cast Terrify has been increased.
Raiding parties are now itemized.
Spawns and camps in Redridge have been tweaked.
Zzarc Vul no longer instantly respawns.
Timberlings will now spawn more often.
Seedlings will now respawn much faster and in greater quantities.
Rockjaw Bonesnappers will spawn more often in the quarry cave.
More Rockjaw Skullthumpers have been added to the quarry.
New Advanced Chat System:

Our new advanced chat system is in its early testing stages. These advanced features are disabled

by default because they are still pretty buggy. For those brave enough to experiment please send

us feedback on your findings!
To utilize this feature, check the "Advanced Chat" checkbox under the Video Options screen.
Advanced Chat customizable features include: Size, Color, Opacity, Chat Channels, Channel Text

Color, Chat Message Types, Message Type Colors and Font Size options.
Bugs:

If you modify your speed before taking a flight, your speed will be correct when you land.
Splitting stacks of inventory items while in flight no longer teleports you to your destination.
You can no longer complete exploration quests while flying.
The collision system has been totally revamped. Players will no longer pass through solid

obstacles or fall through the world.
Cooldown can no longer be reset by logging out and in or by entering an instance zone.
Misc.:

You will no longer automatically sit down while following someone.
Mageweave is now dropping on level 35 and above monsters.
Players can no longer loot or use items while invulnerable.
You will no longer be interrupted while looting when someone initiates a trade with you.
Your loot window will no longer close when other windows open. This will make it impossible for

players to grief by trying to trade while they are mining.