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Warhammer Online Producer's Letter teases 1.3.5 improvements

2010-06-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Mythic producer Carrie Gouskos steps up to rally the troops behind a few juicy, if tantalizingly vague, quality of life improvements coming in the warhammer 1.3.5 patch. Take my hand, Dorothy, for it's dyes, scenarios, Marauders and minimaps, oh my!

Following Warhammer Online's patch 1.3.4, the team has kept a close eye on the PvP scenarios, and while they are happy overall, the plague of player /AFK's have taken their toll. Carrie promises that they are "actively investigating a solution for this problem." She also highlighted the improved communication efforts of the team, as seen on the official Dev Discussions forum.

Small but attractive improvements are in store for WAR's 1.3.5 patch, including a sharper look for armor dyes, "gutters" for the minimap to show off-map objective directions, and dual wielding for the mutated Marauder class.

These are, of course, not the extent of 1.3.5's additions and changes to the game, which Carrie is quick to point out: "Obviously this doesn't include any information about the massive city changes; those are too extensive to detail here." She closes by urging guilds to stay tuned to the forums for possible selection to testing their 100% RvR Driven City experience.

For those interested in trying out WAR, the path has never been smoother: not only is there an unlimited trial up to level 10, but Mythic recently removed the cost of the game's purchase.

Warhammer Online: Easier Subscription Anounced

2010-05-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Mythic Entertainment today announced that subscribing to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is even easier with the introduction of the new one-step upgrade method for the critically acclaimed MMORPG (WAR). The new process allows endless free trial players the ability to upgrade to the full version of WAR simply by subscribing.Players who subscribe through the WAR free trial will not be required to purchase the retail version of the game.
(Existing retail codes are still valid for 30 days of game time for new accounts.)
Players can join the WAR endless free trial and experience the new user journey, all of the intense Realm vs. Realm action and subscribe to the full version of WAR by visiting: http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

Upgrade from trial to full version of game requires a monthly paid subscription. Euala, EA online terms conditions and service updates can be found at http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

WoW Cataclysm tanking cooldown feedback wanted

2010-03-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Nethaera hit the forums this morning, asking for feedback from tanks around the globe. Ghostcrawler has been having a lively discussion with tanks (most specifically protection warriors) recently, and now they seem to be formalizing the discussion for the wider audience.

Nethaera

We're currently working on the tanking cooldowns for tanks in Cataclysm. We're interested in feedback from the community on what makes cooldowns fun and useful. For example, what is the sweet spot in cooldown duration between an ability with such a short cooldown that you must mash it constantly versus an ability with such a long cooldown? Which current abilities are fun? Putting aside any rose-colored glasses, were there cooldowns in Burning Crusade or classic WoW that you miss in Lich King? What, in your minds, should the role be for talents and glyphs. For example, if glyphs shouldn't reduce cooldowns, what can they do?

source

Nethaera goes on to remind people that this thread isn't the place for balance discussions necessarily, and certainly not a place to debate who's overpowered. This feedback also won't dictate exactly what the developers will do, it will simply help them make the right decisions. Do you have an opinion? Then head on over to the forums and make it known! Politely, of course.

WoW Raid buffs for great justice

2010-03-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Last week, we talked about the core buffs just about every raid needs to get by. I included the 3% damage buff provided by some folks like retribution paladins. While ample raids get by without that buff, it's so straightforward that I felt it merited inclusion. It affects physical DPS characters, tanks, and magical DPS characters all alike, so is fairly universal.

Of course, I didn't mention a lot of other obvious buffs like Arcane Intellect. While I'll certainly admit I can't recall having been on a raid in while without that buff, I'm pretty sure at least a few 10-man groups have gone without a mage. But that's why, this week, we're picking up the remainder of the raid buffs that provide so much synergy for raids.

As Brian Wood pointed out, raid buffs are some of the most drastic increases available in raid performance. Every class's power soars while under the effects of raid buffs (and while their targets are getting debuffed), and it's this synergy that makes raids successful. That's by design: Blizzard wants us to be exponentially more powerful while grouping with other players. The power of two players in a group is greater than the sum of their parts.

With all that in mind, let's jump behind the cut and start going down the other important raid buffs.

Offensive and Stat Buffs

Agility and Strength

At this point in the expansion, everyone's been under the effects of Horn of Winter. What's less commonly known is that if a shaman has put points into Enhancing Totems, their Strength of Earth totem is actually a little more powerful by about 23 points of Strength and Agility. Caster classes obviously won't get much bang from an Agility/Strength buff, but any physical-based class (including tanks) will love it.

But since you can't swing a stick without banging it off a half-dozen death knights, you can always be assured of having the Agility/Strength buff.

Attack Power (Raw)

In what seems like an elegant design to me, warriors provide Battle Shout and paladins provide Blessing of Might. Both can (and probably should) be improved with talent points, but the only real difference is that a warrior has to proactively keep Battle Shout active. A paladin can cast Blessing of Might, and then forget about it for a half hour. If you have one paladin and one warrior, you might want to have the warrior go for Commanding Shout instead. Blessing of Might does have the advantage of not having to be near the warrior when the buff is cast, but Battle Shout has ample range that it should affect everyone who needs it.

Attack Power Increase (Percentile)

There are three methods to increase your raid's attack power by 10%. Blood death knights have Abomination's Might, marksman hunters have Trueshot Aura, and enhancement shaman have Unleashed Rage. 10% attack power can turn into a lot of damage for folks who are already stacking that stat, but it's important to remember that it's not a percentage increase to your damage. It affects attack power, which then affects damage. It also, obviously, does nothing for casters.

Critical Strike Chance

You have two sources of physical critical strike chance. The first is from feral druids. Leader of the Pack provides a 5% critical strike buff, as well as a bit of healing if specced all the way into Improved Leader of the Pack. Rampage does the same, although it doesn't have the healing benefit.

There are two sources of spell critical strike chance. Balance druids provide Moonkin Aura, which buffs spell critical strike chance by 5%. Shaman are the source of the second spell critical strike chance with their Elemental Oath.

Haste (Universal)

There are two auras which provide 3% haste to characters. One is (like so many buffs) from retribution paladins, earned via the Swift Retribution talent. The other is from the masters of the laser-beams. Moonkin can provide 3% haste from Improved Moonkin Form.

Haste (Specific)

Death knights who are specced a bit into the frost tree can give their raid Improved Icy Talons. The buff is a little tricky to maintain right now, thought there's some welcome changes coming in patch 3.3.3. Shaman can do similar with Windfury Totem, although it'll take additional talent points to make it as effective as Improved Icy Talons. Both of these two effect specifically buffs melee haste.

If you're looking for spell haste, there's only one real source. That's the shaman's Wrath of Air Totem.

Intellect and Spirit

The mage's Arcane Intellect is the standard intellect buff. Warlocks with a Fel Hound also sport Fel Intelligence, which also provides Spirit. Fel Intelligence's spirit does not stack with Divine Spirit, though. If you're short a priest and mage, warlocks can cover both with Fel Intelligence.

Damage Improvement (Spell)

The spell damage buffs are a little odd. The tooltips for them all read a little differently, but they don't stack. Your three buffs for increasing spell damage are Demonic Pact, Flametongue Totem, and Totem of Wrath. Ultimately, most people are using the warlock's Demonic Pact nowadays, since they have enough innate spellpower to make its percentile increase superior to the shaman buffs.

And you can't forget the Ebon Plague, brought to you by unholy death knights, which allows for 13% more spell damage. Earth and Moon does something similar. However, both the items are techinically debuffs less than buffs. (We'll do debuffs in another column.)

Incoming Damage Reduction (Physical)

Ancestral Healing (shaman) and Inspiration (priests) both reduce physical damage taken by the target of a critical heal by 10%. (Inspiration is admittedly a little more specific about which heal spells will create the effect.) These abilities will proc almost non-stop, although they won't stack with each other. A 10% damage reduction will move a boss's attack from being worth 10,000 points of damage to a mere 9,000. Hey, it might not sound like a huge amount, but every little bit counts.

Incoming Damage Reduction (Universal)

There are three buffs that provide a universal damage reduction of 3%. These are the protection warrior's Vigilance, the protection paladin's Blessing of Sanctuary, and the discipline priest's Renewed Hope spell. Of the three, Blessing of Sanctuary is the lowest maintenance, since Vigilance can't be be used on the tank who casts it.

Healing or Health Buffs

Healing Received

The Tree of Life is not only a shapeshift form for druids, but it also provides a 6% buff to everyone's healing received. Improved Devotion Aura will do the same.

Mana Regeneration

Mana regeneration is a little different than Replenishment. While replenishment provides an amount of mana based on your total mana pool, mana regeneration provides a flat amount of mana per second. The two sources of this "tick-based" mana regeneration are the paladin's Blessing of Wisdom and the shaman's Mana Spring totem.

Raw Health

There are only two sources of raw health. Commanding Shout and Blood Pact. Commanding Shout is more effective, but it requires more active maintenance by the warrior, and might cost you the benefit of Battle Shout.

Unique Snowflake

Bloodlust/Heroism

One of the iconic abilities of shaman, the Bloodlust and Heroism buff probably does more to vastly ramp your raid's damage than anything else. It lasts 40 seconds, and increases melee, ranged, and casting speed by 30%. While you can only benefit from Bloodlust once every 10 minutes (barring death removing the Sated debuff). Bloodlust has been the subject of a little bit of controversy, since it can solely be found with shaman and is so darn powerful.

WoW: Gurubashi Beatdown is today

2010-03-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Join in the Gurubashi Beatdown today with It came from the Blog!

When: Saturday, March 20th at 5:30pm EDT (2:30pm PDT, 3:30pm realm time) and the mixer will be at 5pm EDT.
Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar, Zangarmarsh U.S.
Who: Any Horde DK that is free from Arthas or any other level 55 and above Horde character.
What: After chatting it up with the WoW.com staffers, we will travel to the Gurubashi Arena and participate in some PvP games of my own devising.

If you want to know why not EU or Alliance or any other question, it is probably answered in our FAQ.

We hope to see you there!

Final Fantasy XIII Breaks Franchise Sales Record

2010-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Even despite some controversy, Final Fantasy XIII is selling well. Square Enix sent word today that the RPG has sold more than a million units in North America, in the five days following its March 9 launch. This makes it set the record for the best first-week sales in Final Fantasy history, which is no small feat considering the pedigree. The name still carries a lot of weight, even as the game is facing some negative feedback based on its departure from the traditional tropes of Japanese RPGs.

The news comes on the heels of last week's announcement that the company had shipped 3 million units to North America and Europe alone, helping the series as a whole cross 96 million units. The game is still readily available in stores and Square is shipping to retailers, so we should see a strong showing in the March NPD data. We may even find a tight race between it and PS3-exclusive God of War 3 for the month's top seller.

No new WoW accounts in China

2010-02-09T06:53:00.001-08:00

Reuters reports that Netease, the company that operates WoW in China, has stopped accepting new accounts and has reapplied to GAPP (General Administration of Press and Publication) for permission to release The Burning Crusade. The article does not mention if this was voluntary, or if this was part of the ruling that was scheduled to be handed down in January.

For those unfamiliar with this story, Netease was told to cease WoW operations last year by GAPP and the Chinese Ministry of Culture stepped in and contradicted the ruling. Netease has continued taking new accounts until now, while waiting for the decision of these governmental bodies. Assuming Netease can finally get approval to release The Burning Crusade, they will still need to apply for permission to release Wrath of the Lich King. At this rate, the rest of the world will get Cataclysm before mainland China sees Northrend.

The timing of this is unfortunate, considering that Lunar Festival begins next week. Lunar Festival is based on Chinese New Year.

We'll keep you posted as this seemingly never-ending drama continues.

[via Joystiq]

Shield spell effectiveness reduced in PvP

2010-02-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

After the recent changes to resilience and the reduction of healing in PvP, we now move on to spells that prevent damage entirely. Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield are also being affected, having their effectiveness in Arenas, Wintergrasp and Battlegrounds reduced by 10%. Bornakk broke the news to the forums, which responded about as you might expect, with people who rely on those mechanics frustrated and those who have to try and kill people using them jubilant. I know, I was shocked too.

I'm kind of on the fence about this change. On the one hand, man, as a warrior I hate beating on a shield in PvP. Hate hate hate. It does seem odd to me that we moved resilience to reduce all incoming damage and then reduced all healing to match, though. It seems somewhat like a complicated way to do nothing at all. As someone who sometimes goes resto on my shaman for PvP, I don't really look forward to having my heals heal for less, especially since it's a penalty that will hit me immediately while farming up honor for PvP gear to get resilience will take me time, time my healing will have been adversely affected throughout. How about you? Happy or unhappy about the latest changes in PvP?

Bornakk says:

After further observations of the recent changes made to resilience and healing in PvP, we have made an additional change via an in-game fix so that the PvP healing debuff in Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Wintergrasp now also lowers the effectiveness of Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield by 10%. The majority of other strong shields or damage absorption mechanics are already affected by the healing change, so we feel this new adjustment is an appropriate step in balancing the effects of resilience versus healing. The ultimate goal is to find a better median between PvP encounters feeling too quick from burst damage, or too long from heals, shields, and absorption effects. We will continue to monitor the way these changes play out and let you know if we feel any further changes are needed. As always, feedback based on your PvP experience with these new changes is welcome.

WoW Warriors: Fury 101

2010-02-05T16:59:00.000-08:00

Protection warriors are the tanks of the warrior class, the guys who stand up there and bang on their shields and bang their shields into things ranging the gamut from large horrible squamous tentacle monsters in Old Kingdom to giant walking bone piles in ICC. And that's fine: somebody has to keep the monsters and bosses of the game focused on a hard target so the rest of us can kill it. It's good to see prot warriors alongside bears, walking corpses and daisy picking fancylads doing the tank job. (I kid you paladins because my heart is black and full of envy.) It's good that there are warrior tanks.

But that's not you, is it? You haven't read this far because you want to tank. If you did, you'd have clicked that link and been on your merry way. You don't want to tank. You don't want to stand up front and keep monsters attention focused like some kind of giant nursery school teacher for the horrors of Azeroth. No, you don't want to tank.

You want to kill things. You want to rip them into bloody gobbets and leave their ruined, looted corpses in your wake. You want to wear two huge weapons crossed on your back and reach up to draw them forth as soon as things get ugly, which can't come soon enough in your opinion. You want to get on up there and rip things heads clean off. You're the kind of person who thinks Grom Hellscream had a good idea but didn't go far enough with it.

Come right this way. Fury is the spec for you.

1. What is fury?
Fury is the "grrrargargsgarg DIE DIE DIE DIE" spec. It's the spec Blizzard described in the Class Q&A last year as "screaming barbarians in woad" and that still remains the best way to think of the spec. For in game examples of warriors who seem to embody the fury playstyle, both Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream fit the bill. (Sorry, guys, Saurfang is arms. We all know this to be true.) Fury warriors can offtank in a pinch or even tank a five man, but they're not designed to be tanking in raids. The spec is designed at present to equip two huge weapons and smash them into things.

It's refreshingly simple in concept, really.

2. What are the benefits of fury?

Well, do you like two handed weapons?

What about hitting things with two handed weapons?

In all sincerity, fury is as simple and pure as it gets. Get two big weapons. Hit things with them. If this sounds fun to you, then congratulations, fury is the only spec in the game that can allow you to dual wield two handed weapons. Since fury is a warrior spec, it's dependent not on mana, energy or runes/runic power, but rather on rage, a resource that scales as damage increases. The harder your white hits (any attack that doesn't require use of a special ability, also known as 'auto attacks') the more rage they generate. The more rage you have, the more you can do since most warrior special attacks (also known as 'yellow hits' because their damage is reported in yellow colored text) cost rage. Fury, in essence, feeds on itself: the more you do the more you can do.

Plus, we look ridiculously cool. Go ahead, try and say we don't.

That's what I thought.

3. What about drawbacks?
Fury has a few. First off, few talent trees are so thoroughly dominated by their 51 point talent as fury is by Titan's Grip. If you are a fury warrior, you're taking Titan's Grip: there's no reason to do so otherwise, even with repeated nerfs the talent is always a DPS increase over any other possible fury build. Secondly, I think it's fair to say that absolutely no spec in the game is as ridiculously depending on absolutely rigidly specific gear selection to get the ultimate best performance. While it's true that a prot warrior in bad gear can't tank at all while a fury in bad gear can DPS poorly without instantly dying, the margin for error in fury gearing to get the highest possible DPS is exceedingly small. Finally, DPS warriors in general and fury warriors in particular are remarkably fragile for a DPS class that wears plate. While you can talent and glyph for slightly higher survivability, such choices always come at a cost to DPS, and since DPS is what fury is all about, it's a hard tradeoff to make. In general, survivability/regen talents and/or glyphs are better suited to the leveling process than they are to endgame.
4. What stats do fury warriors like?
Generally, fury are looking for stats that allow them to kill things.

Strength. This is raw smashing (or chopping or cutting) power. Strength converts to Attack Power which adds directly to weapon damage per second (or DPS). The talent Improved Berserker Stance adds another 20% of your total Strength when you are in Berserker Stance. 1 Str = 2 AP for a warrior.

Hit Rating. Since fury warriors dual wield, they require hit rating to reduce the chance that they will miss an attack. We talked about Hit and Expertise back in 2009 for DPS warriors. I've generally changed my mind about the Precision talent since then, but the basic argument that we need 263 hit rating (without Precision) to push yellow attacks off of the miss table is still sound. Precision gives 3% chance to hit with melee weapons and is basically always worth the points, since minus the Draenei racial or any hit debuffs your chance to miss with white hits is 27% against a level 83 boss. (Raid bosses are skull level, effectively always three levels above a player.) With Precision, you only need 163 hit rating to effectively hit 8% for specials.

Armor Penetration. As you get better and better gear it becomes easier to reach what is known as the hard ArP cap (currently 1399 ArP rating if I'm doing the math right): most leveling fury warriors don't need to concern themselves with ArP at all, it only becomes a viable stat once you begin accumulating Tier 9 or better gear. It's easier to start working towards the soft ArP cap (roughly 50% armor reduction, 699.5 rating) which in combination with an ArP proc trinket like the Grim Toll, Mjolnir Runestone or Needle-Encrusted Scorption will reduce armor to very close to 100%.

Expertise. Expertise is the stat that diminishes the chance a mob will dodge or parry you. Mobs in WoW can dodge when you are behind them (players cannot) but cannot parry unless they are facing you. Expertise, unlike hit, has no talent in the fury tree to help warriors cap it. Also unlike hit, it's easier for a fury warrior to completely cap out the effective value of expertise. After 26 expertise there is no effective value to any further points in the stat. (My fury set is 1 point over, which is effectively wasted expertise. However, it's better to be over than low, if those are your only two options.) 26 expertise is 214 expertise rating. You do not need to gear for the hard cap of 56 expertise as a fury warrior. (That hard cap pushes parries off of the table as well, but since as a DPS warrior you should always be behind the boss or mobs, there's no value to pursuing more expertise.)

Critical Strike Rating. Really, crit never gets bad. It's good to hit harder. White critical hits will generate more rage, allowing you to use more special abilities. You don't want to stack crit above all else, but neither can you ever really 'cap' crit: the more, the better. Plus, it activates Flurry.

Stamina is neither to be courted nor shunned. Armor Value helps your attack power from talents like Armored to the Teeth, but it's not worth going specifically after. The talent just exists to keep warriors out of leather or mail. Similarly, defense, dodge, parry and block are of no interest to you. You're not a tank. You can pinch hit for a few seconds or tank content you outgear, but don't go confusing fury warriors for dedicated tanks. Avoid tanking stats for your DPS set, although by all means, collect a tank set and use it to tank. We're hybrids, after all, and since you'll be paying the hybrid tax on your DPS you might as well get some hybrid benefits too.

Stat weighting depends greatly on the level of gear you're in. Leveling gear and blues from 70 to 80 instances just won't have a lot of ArP, and will be low on expertise as well. As you gear up, however, ArP and expertise will be easier to acquire. Generally your best DPS stats are ArP over Strength over Crit over hit over exp, especially once you have 26 expertise. You simply never need any more expertise than that.

5. To level a fury

So far we've talked about the stats you want, but how do you go about leveling as fury? For starters, keep it simple: trying to collect ArP on you leveling gear will just frustrate you. You won't have Titan's Grip until level 60 (if you take all of your points in fury to that point) so you'll level with either a 2h weapon or two 1h weapons. Focus on strength, then crit, then stam (stam is useful for leveling because it makes it harder for you to die). "Of the bear' and "of the beast' are probably your best bets for leveling greens. Also keep in mind your relative fragility compared to a tank: you're not going to be able to soak up nearly as much damage, especially when you lack in gear. The heirloom plate shoulders, chest, and 2h axe are all good choices for a fury warrior (and you can always get a second 2h once you have Titan's Grip).

The better your leveling gear is and the more you work on keeping it up to date, the easier it is to level as fury. Consider the Bloodthirst glyph as soon as you can get it, because the self heal is very useful for leveling. Make sure to keep potions, food and first aid ready.

This is a level 70 build aimed at soloing and grinding quests which is also viable for dungeon finder groups. It takes Blood Craze in order to improve survivability (you'd likely have at least Bloodthirst glyphed as well for more health regeneration). This level 80 build is aimed at providing the raid with maximized versions of Battle or Commanding Shout for the longest duration possible (so glyphs would be chosen to amplify one of those two shouts) as well as longer durations on Demoralizing Shout. This variant is instead focused on maximum benefit from the Demo Shout debuff. You could easily move points around for Furious Attacks and Heroic Fury to increase PvP viability or for raid utility.

As a fury warrior you probably won't bother with protection talents when it's almost mandatory to go at least up to Two-Handed Weapon Specialization in arms. Since you'll have to spend at least 15 points to get there, you're most likely going for Impale and Deep Wounds as well: how you get there doesn't matter all that much, although it's not like Improved Heroic Strike is going to hurt your rage dumping any. While fury is hardly the most popular PvP spec for warriors, if you're going to PvP as fury you might as well get Iron Will. Otherwise, I'd recommend Tactical Mastery to make stance switching easier, although as fury you won't have to do that very often. (TM also makes offtanking when necessary easier for a fury warrior.)

6. Fury Talent Overview

There are a lot of talents in fury and of course everyone will have different talents they like. I'll go over those I think are particularly interesting or useful, but as always, your own opinions may differ. I'll be mentioning them in the order that they become available on the tree: the more points it costs to get to a talent, the later it will appear on the list. It would take more points than you probably can afford to spend and get the generally accepted necessary arms talents to buy all of these.

Amored To The Teeth: The developers want you wearing plate, so they have given you this talent (also very attractive for prot warriors speccing into fury) to make the plate give you something useful.

Booming Voice: Shouts last longer, shouts reach more targets. Since it's right there in the first tier it's pretty easy to justify picking it up.

Cruelty: For five points, you get 5% crit independent of gear. It doesn't decay as you level, meaning that every time you get a level and the amount of critical strike rating you need for 1% crit goes up, this talent is inflated in value. Think of how much itemization 5% chance to crit is worth at level 80.

Piercing Howl: Do you want to have to switch stances to hamstring, or would you rather be able to just yell and daze them long enough to get that killing blow in? PH is good when soloing and grinding, in PvP, and on any instance or raid fight with a lot of adds that can be slowed and kited.

Improved Cleave: This, when combined with the Glyph of Cleaving, is a lot of damage in AoE situations.

Dual Wield Specialization: You're going to be dual wielding a set of 2h weapons. You want your offhand to hit harder. It stacks with damage from Two-Hand Weapon Specialization.

Precision: The white hit cap not counting things like draenei racials is close to 880 hit rating. You're never going to get there, but it means that Precision is never a bad talent.

Death Wish: 20% more damage dealt, 5% more damage taken. Pretty much a must have, just try not to use it when standing in fire, or acid, or fire acid or whatever they're making the floor exude this boss.

Flurry: You attack faster, generate more rage, and do more damage within the same time frame. Always get this.

Intensify Rage: Shorter cooldowns for various important DPS abiliies.

Bloodthirst: Your main instant attack as fury, every four seconds, calculated off of attack power, small self heal that can be increased with glyph for leveling. A necessary talent.

Improved Whirlwind: More damage for your main AoE ability, which is also your secondary instant attack (glyphed, whirlwind fires every 8 seconds, meaning that your standard rotation will be BT - BT - WW). Another must have talent.

Furious Attacks: Useful for PvP or fights with healing that needs to be reduced, FA is unfortunately only a chance to apply, only applies on white hits, and must be stacked to 2 to be as effective as the Mortal Strike debuff. In the end, it's a pale second, but if you intend to PvP as fury you'll almost have to accept that.

Improved Berserker Stance: At the full five point investment, it's an extra 20% strength and a 10% threat reduction (the only threat reduction fury warriors have available) - you have no choice but to take this talent.

Heroic Fury: A fun and useful talent, good for PvP or for mobility fights where an extra intercept makes getting back into DPS range much, much easier. It's one point, but that may be 1 point you just don't have to spare. (I always try and pick it up, but others are not so enthused.)

Rampage: If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'll have a feral in your raid comp, you can skip this. If there's any chance you won't have one, it's worth picking up. Keep in mind it's inferior to Leader of the Pack.

Bloodsurge: Without this ability, you should never touch Slam in your damage rotation. With it, Slam as soon as it procs as long as you have the rage.

Unending Fury: More damage from your big three rotation abilities.

Titan's Grip: Let's not waste our time pretending. You're going to take Titan's Grip. You know it, I know it, and the two 2h weapons you're going to smash into everything that moves, they know it too. They're already calling your name. TG, even with the damage reduction, is a huge DPS increase.

You'll notice that several talents I recommended taking like Imp Demo Shout and Commanding Presence are not on this list. That's because I don't like them. That doesn't mean they aren't useful for raids or that you shouldn't take them, but they're boring and I hope they're revised or even removed and replaced by mastery in Cataclysm. Several other talents like Enrage, Unbridled Wrath, Improved Execute or Blood Frenzy need some work before I'll recommend them for more than a leveling spec. (Enrage is basically a great leveling or PvP talent, ~~and is nerfed even in PvP by resilience - ironically, the more resilience and thus survivability you have as a PvP warrior the less you'll like Enrage~~. I've been at this game too long. Enrage used to require you to be critically hit. Enrage is still not really worth it for most DPS builds, since the goal is not to be hit, but with splash damage you may find it useful.)

7. Fury rotation

Unlike protection last week, fury actually has a pretty standard rotation. You'll use Bloodthirst every 4 seconds, Whirlwind every 8 seconds (glyphed, of course) and Slam every time Bloodsurge procs and makes it an instant attack. While you're working on this rotation, you'll most likely weave in Sunder Armor (if there's no protection warrior tanking), Heroic Strike to burn rage if you're high (any rage generated past 100 rage is effectively wasted, so it's always to your benefit to try and stay below 75 rage as a guideline) or Cleave if you're in a multi-mob pull. You also may be expected to keep Demoralizing Shout on a boss, or Commanding or Battle shout up for the group.

You should use your DPS cooldowns (Death Wish, Recklessness) every time they're up as long as you can be sure that you won't waste some or all of their duration by having to move. (Many modern boss encounters feature a lot of movement and are not considered 'warrior DPS friendly') Bloodrage should be used if a long period of rage starvation (three or more white swings missing) causes you to be unable to keep up with your rotation. Major glyphs for fury are almost certainly going to include Cleaving and Whirlwind and Heroic Strike is a popular third choice. Minor glyphs often include Command, Battle or Bloodrage.

You'll gem for whatever stats your gear is short on to make caps at first, then once you have sufficient hit and expertise on gear to no longer need to gem for it, you'll most likely switch to ArP as much as you can. Your meta gem will probably be the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond, with a Nightmare's Tear and one of the purple or green gems with stamina and a desirable stat (again, most likely ArP or crit) to make the meta's requirements.

Next week, we'll discuss arms, and then wrap up our 101 series with gearing, gemming, glyphing and enchanting in detail.

Ready Check: Professor Putricide

2010-02-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Professor Putricide is the final boss in the Plagueworks. He's kind of the R&D guy for the Lich King's slime armies. If you recall from fighting Rotface, Putricide is the guy who's constantly screaming about what good news it is that the slime is working again. Frankly, I'm mostly motivated to kill the guy to get him to shut up about the slime.

Putricide is a movement fight. There's a lot of mechanics that will require your raid to rapidly swap targets (to kill adds), and then not-stand-in-stuff. (Most of the stuff you'll not be standing in is one variety of slime or another.) It's not really much of a coordination fight, per se, because your tanks are probably pretty well-versed in swapping aggro back and forth. However, Putricide is going to put to the test your raid's ability to get on an add quickly. And not stand in stuff.

Let's take a look behind the jump and talk about the fight in more detail.

For your 10-man raid makeup, you'll be aiming for two tanks. You'll want either two or three healers, with the rest of your raid being DPS characters. Whether you need two or three healers will depend on how sturdy your tanks are, as well as how awesome your raid healing is -- use your best judgement here. In 25-man, you'll need 2 off-tanks, and about twice as many healers. One of your off-tanks are going to have a special challenge in this fight, as he or she will have to pilot an abomination.

There are three basic phases to the Putricide fight. You get into the second phase when the Professor is at 80% health. The third phase begins at 35%. When the phases turn over, you'll get hit with Tear Gas, which will stun your entire raid while Putricide makes a dive for his chemical table.

As soon as the first phase starts, have your off-tank run directly for the table and immediately take over the Mutated Abomination. You do that by right clicking the table. The abomination is going to put out constant damage to the raid via Mutated Transformation, but the Abomination's ability to eat slime will make up for that detriment.

Throughout the fight, Putricide will lob ooze out to the raid. The Slime Puddles are bad news, doing significant damage to anyone who has the misfortune of standing in them. (So, don't stand in the ooze.) The Abomination has the ability to eat the slime puddles, which will both provide power to the Abomination and decrease the size of the puddles. If the puddles grow too large, then your raid won't have anywhere to safely stand. Every time the Mutated Abomination eats a slime, it'll pick up the Energy required to fuel Regurgitate Ooze, which will slow down the two adds that appear.

While in first two phases, Professor Putricide will summon two different types of adds. The raid warning will call out an Unstable Experiment when it's time for the add to appear. This happens about once every 40 seconds. The two types of adds are Volatile Ooze and Gas Cloud. The Oozes appear in the north portion of the room, where they leak from the ooze tank. Gas Clouds appear on the opposite side in the south. Both adds will choose a target and crawl towards it. They each have different special affects they place on their victim, and then an explosion they do if they reach that victim. If they're not killed before they explode, they will choose another target and start their attack routine all over again.

Volatile Oozes will spawn, focusing on a target and rooting that raid member in place. (The root effect is called Volatile Ooze Adhesive, and isn't just a clever name.) If the Volatile Ooze reaches the raid member, it will explode in a Ooze Eruption. The eruption will not only deal massive damage to anyone standing near it, but it will also knock everyone around the room. That includes knocking some folks into the Slime Puddles. So, it's important to burn Volatile Oozes down as soon as they appear, long before they manage to reach their target. If the Ooze does reach its target, however, the explosion is split evenly between everyone within range. If you're not getting the Ooze down in time, try and have the raid stack on the target instead, so as to evenly spread out the damage.

Gas Clouds will also focus on a single target, but they don't root like the Volatile Ooze. Instead, Gas Clouds put a 10-stack of Gaseous Bloat on its target. The Bloat will inflict damage on the target, while steadily dropping off on of its stacks every few seconds. If it reaches its target, the Gas Cloud will explode to deal damage to the entire raid. Obviously, it's best to burn down the Gas Cloud just as quickly as you burn down the Volatile ooze.

When Putricide hits 80%, he will drop that Tear Gas we talked about and enter Phase Two. He runs back to his desk and grows two tentacles. (I feel like I should make an anime joke here, but I'll skip it.) Putricide will start shooting Malleable Goo at random raid members. Anyone who stands in the area where the Malleable Goo lands will take huge damage, and receives a slowing debuff which will increase their casting and attack time by 200%. Goo will generally attack ranged targets first, but will target melee if there is no ranged target to affect. This is really the only completely new trick for the second phase, but everything from phase one will continue.

He'll also drop a Choking Gas bomb in between Malleable Goo attempts. They explode for truly massive damage, and should be avoided when you see them land. The tank should kite Putricide away from the area they land in, and melee should be careful not to stand in them.

When Putricide hits 35%, he'll hit your raid with Tear Gas, and then go mutate again. The third phases grants Professor Putricide Mutated Strength, which increases his damage and attack speed by 50%. When you attack Putricide, he'll put Mutated Plague on your tank. This plague inflict damage to everyone in your raid. At this point, your tanks will have to taunt-swap Putricide so that the Mutated Plague stacks never get too high that your healers can't handle the raid damage. You don't want to swap too often, however, because Putricide is healed every time the Mutated Plague drops off a tank. (For about 3% of his damage.) For 25 man, you'll need three tanks to make sure the plague doesn't get out of control, while you'll only need 2 for 10 man.

Phase three continues with the Gas Bombs and Malleable Goo, but no more Volatile Oozes or Gas Clouds will spawn. You won't have the abomination in the third phase, which is where you get the extra tank to handle swapping Putricide around. The Slime Puddles will still continue to grow, however, so you want to lean on the DPS in this third phase. Without the Mutated Abomination, the growing Slime Puddle will eventually overrun your raid.

In summary, here is the flow of the fight. Your main tank pulls Putricide, while one of your off tanks pilots an abomination. When adds appear, kill the adds. The abomination should be eating slime off the floor to give your raid safe places to stand, and placing its slowing effect on the adds. When you get to the second phase, don't stand where Malleable Goo is going to land. Continue to burn, steady like the beating drum. When the third phase happens, blow all your cooldowns, and burn him down as quickly as possible. If you stay too long in phase three, you'll have no place safe to stand. Good hunting!

Most popular WoW Armory crafter gear

2010-01-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

So, let's take a look behind the jump and talk about what the most popular crafter gear is for each profession.

Gems

The most popular gem on the Armory is the Runed Scarlet Ruby. (I'll pause a moment for all your dramatic gasps of shock.) It's almost three times as popular as any other gem cut, presumably because the +19 Spell Power gem is worthwhile to the largest cross-section of characters: any spell caster. (Strength gems only really work out for the three plate-wearing classes, for example, while the rest of the physical types tend to rock raw Attack Power.) A close second to the Runed Scarlet Ruby, according to WoWPopular itself, is the Runed Cardinal Ruby. The epic level pattern is probably slightly less popular because the epic gems are more difficult to come by. There will be proportionally more alts and dusty characters wearing the old blue-quality gem.

The next most popular gems are the Solid cuts of either the Sky Sapphire or the Majestic Zircon. The Sky Sapphire is actually much more popular, but I'm guessing it's for similar reasons as the Scarlet Ruby. It's cheap and easy to get compared to the only slightly better Majestic Zircon. This +Stamina gem probably ranks so high because every tank wants as much Stamina as possible . . . and so do many PvP players. The cross-section makes Stamina a very attractive gem stat. (I guess it'd only be completely useless to those players who never, ever die and are somehow nearly immortal. Note that I'm not advocating Stamina over your usual powergame stats, I'm just saying it's not total slop. Dead rogues do no damage.)

The third most popular gem is the Bold Scarlet Ruby. If you got the materials sitting around, expect its epic counterpart -- the Bold Cardinal Ruby -- to go for similar big bucks.While I pointed above that only three plate classes get the big benefit from Strength. But those three classes are immensely popular. So the sheer raw number of people playing death knights, warriors, and paladins drive the demand for these three gems up through the roof.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmiths get a little lucky in their crafted gear choices, since they get to make everyone's weapon. Healers, DPS, and tanks can all find some good stuff from the blacksmithing trade. Still, I bet you can guess the single most popular blacksmithing item still to this very day, right?

If you guessed the Titansteel Guardian, you win yourself a prize. It can service all the healing classes, as well as providing DPS items for all of their casting DPS specs. It goes both ways, you see. Other than that, the next two popular items for blacksmiths are the Tempered Titansteel Helm and the Spiked Titansteel Helm. I think these two items are so popular because of the relative difficulty of picking up a hat until you have sufficient Emblems of Frost, and folks want the quick headstart on gear. (Get what I did there?) The Spiked hat does have a lot of tasty hit rating, as well, which will make it serviceable to plate DPS classes for a very long time.

All of these items are still good for bootstrapping someone into a raid, and they're relatively quickly and easily made for the cost of their materials. That kind of longevity is going to keep these items relevant, even in the current Icecrown Citadel environment.

Leatherworking and Tailoring

Leatherworking and Tailoring both have the same benefit: they provide relevant enchants to even the very highest tier of gear, so they haven't dropped off in value at all. I already talked about these items a great deal a few weeks ago, and I don't want to rehash that territory. Check out What to sell, what to sell.

Inscription

In a radical change from normal operating procedure, there are a few very clear winners for most popular glyphs on the Armory. According to The Crafter's Tome, the four most popular glyphs on the Armory are Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth, Glyph of Raise Dead, Glyph of Horn of Winter, and Glyph of Levitate. So there we go. If you're a master of Inscription, you have a good target for the four most popular glyphs to list on the Auction House.

Engineering

Engineering only has so many saleable materials, two of which are the obvious Icecrown arrows and bullets. The Armor Plated Combat Shotgun is still amazingly popular on Armory characters, as is the Heartseeker Scope. While hunters don't seem to still be the default character class for new players or farming characters, they're still very popular. These crafted staples of hunter gear are still valuable to folks who aren't rocking raid gear.

Explanations for Popularity

The first and obvious example for why many of these items are still so popular has to do with the nature of alts and alting. While you want your secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary characters to be in viable, feasible gear, you're not going to go hilt-deep in trying to equip them with the very best items. And there are so many hours in the day!

So if you want a fresh-to-80 character to be viable without running a bunch of old instances and raids, crafted gear can still give you a quick jog up. If you list a Destroyer on the Auction House for 900 gold, for example, that's not a lot of cash to someone who just wants to get their brand new death knight viable as fast as possible.

Secondly, it's easy to forget that there are millions of players in WoW. This could be hard to believe for many of us, but there are people who don't like raids or instances. For those folks, these crafted items will be the best gear they'll see in Wrath. While it might be below an Icecrown raider's preferred iLevel, it's all still pretty awesome to someone who'll barely see the inside of 5-man isntances.

The Crafter's Tome and WoWPopular for the data!

Ghostcrawler on hunter ammo replacement

2010-01-25T03:27:00.000-08:00

As you may recall, Blizzard announced their intent to get rid of consumable ammo in Patch 3.1, only to withdraw the change a short time later, with the promise of reimplementing it at a nebulous later date. Now, it's been more or less assumed that said later date is Cataclysm itself, or at least Patch 4.0.

In a general forum post created to discuss ammo replacements, Ghostcrawler piped in to remind us that the only change announced for Cataclysm was the removal of ammo, with nothing else yet decided (or, more accurately, announced). While he did acknowledge the possibility of adding in new situational ammo, he did observe that the hassle of collecting and swapping different ammo types might grow old pretty quickly, especially for a class like the hunter that already needs to push a lot of buttons to play at peak potential, in addition to already having a pet to manage.
I do see some wisdom in Ghostcrawler's words. As someone who played a hunter relatively extensively during Burning Crusade and has recently begun leveling that hunter again via random dungeons, I can attest that we do have a lot to juggle if we want to put out a respectable level of DPS or PvP utility. One more thing to worry about could conceivably get a little bit tiresome.

That said, I'm a hybrid player at heart. I played a druid when I first started playing, and I play a death knight as my main now, and in both cases, I always keep a set of gear upgraded and ready for all their respective roles. Those sets include relics. I have my tanking relics and my DPS relics already. If ammo become a similar "relic" system, it might not be so bad. Being able to spice up your shooting with some procs from an ammo relic would be a great way to add a little bit of fun to the system without making it overwhelmingly unmanageable.

Of course, if they just take out ammo altogether and roll the extra DPS back into the base weapon damage, I wouldn't complain too much either. My engineer will be sort of sad that one more source of cash flow is gone, but then again, raw materials sometimes sell for more anyway.

Spiritual Guidance: ICC-10 gear guide for holy and discipline priests

2010-01-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

Hey ladies! Hey fellas! You know you're doin' good 'cause they're jealous *Pop-Pop* And they only hate ya 'cause you're a go-getter *Pop-Pop* Pop ya collar - Don't let 'em sweat 'cha! *POP* No clue what I'm talking about? Trust me, it's better that way. Though, if you don't know why I'm talking about popped collars, let me direct you to the picture above. It would seem popped collars are all the rage in Icecrown Citadel. I don't know what Blizzard was thinking with this, especially for priests. If anything, warlocks and mages are the frat boys of WoW. Or paladins. Well, whatever it is, this week I'll be talking about loot drops in Icecrown Citadel.

But first, a story.

The other day, I was in 10-man ICC with my guild and a Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl dropped. At the time I was playing my new Alliance priest, and the helm was a significant upgrade from the Onyxia 10 helm that I was wearing. We'd been running with the default need over greed system all night, so I just hit need and went on my merry way, exploring Deathbringer Saurfang's platform for the first time. It seems you Alliance folk don't get a repair vendor (that I could find) after the Saurfang fight like the Horde do, but I guess this is the trade off for having a much shorter story sequence before the encounter. Anyway, a few moments later, while I was bouncing around inside the Skybreaker, the rolls went out and I won the helm with a 99. The only person who had rolled and lost against me was a mage.

That's when the conflict started.

Well, at least the internal conflict. No one actually said anything about it, and since the raid was called for the night I was free to go stand on some crates in Stormwind while I performed my interior monologue for some rats. You see, I have always held the idea that when faced with an equal upgrade, a DPS should get loot before a healer.

Of course, this is a frequently disputed idea. Some players believe that if you gear your healers first they will have the equipment necessary to heal the raid through difficult progression. Other players, like myself, argue that if you gear your DPS first, you can blast your way through the content and the healers won't need as much gear since they won't need to endure such long encounters.

The way I see it, DPS don't have ceilings the way healers do. What I mean by a ceiling is that there is a finite amount of healing you can do simply because your raid members only have so much health, and there is only so much damage. Even if the damage is constantly incoming, you will only be able to heal so much before you're overhealing. For DPS though, there is no ceiling, just a finish line with a dead boss and shiny treasure. The sky is the limit. And yes, I know about that one encounter -- I'm not changing my argument for one fight that gimmicks you into stacking paladins.

The other reason is a bit more subjective but deals with much the same ideology. Imagine that a progression encounter is a hill. The kill is at the peak and your raid is trying to climb up to it. When you get to that peak by killing the boss you find out there are two paths. The DPS go to the left, which leads up another hill, while the healers go to the right where there are changing rooms for them to suit up in their swim attire and play on a Slip 'n' Slide for the next 6 months. I hope that analogy wasn't too convoluted... Basically what I'm saying is that after you kill a boss there is really no more work for the healers to do. Each week after the first kill, the encounter will constantly get easier and easier to heal. Meanwhile the DPS can keep going up and push the bar a little higher, making the fights shorter and the clearing of the content for the 20th time more bearable.

Now let's go back to my priest though, since I mentioned a conflict. After my navel gazing above you'd think there wouldn't have been a conflict. I would have just passed the helm to my mage buddy and gone on my way. Except as I said, this priest is a new character. She has six, level 200 blue items on and while the upgrade from a 232 helm to a 251 helm isn't that big, I have so much heroic gear on my character that it would have helped get me closer to the gear level the rest of my guild's healers are currently at. So for once, an upgrade going to a healer over a DPS made sense. What would you have done?

While that mulls over, let's go ahead and look at the drops in ICC. For today, I'll just be examining the 10-man drops since that's what we've been talking about. Later this week, you can expect a write up on the 25-man drops, as well as their badge and crafted competition. I will also be discussing my thoughts on tier at that time. Now, without further ado:

Back

Heartsick Mender's Cape -- 10-man Prince Valanar -- This is a great cloak for any healer. Priests of either spec can look to this if they do not plan on buying a badge cloak (Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky and Drape of the Violet Tower) or venturing into 25-man ICC.

Chest

Bloodsoul Raiment -- 10-man Prince Valanar -- Depending on how you feel about tier, this may be an acceptable 251 upgrade for holy priests. Compared to the 251 tier 10 there is less spirit and spellpower on these robes, but the addition gem slot levels the difference.

Robes of Azure Downfall -- 10-man Sindragosa -- [Disclaimer: This item can't be confirmed as a drop until the fight goes live!] Again, if you're not going for tier bonuses, this is is a fine choice. Disc priests who are avoiding spirit like the plague can look to this if they do not want to save their badges for the Meteor Chaser's Raiment.

Feet

Pale Corpse Boots -- 10-man Prince Valanar -- These boots with spirit are more ideal for holy, but if you don't plan on raiding 25-man plague wing for Plague Scientist's Boots, there is no drop or crafted option for disc priests.

Finger

Signet of Putrefaction -- 10-man Festergut -- The mp5 will create less competition for this ring. It is suitable for both holy and disc.

Cerise Coiled Ring -- 10-man Prince Valanar -- A nice throughput ring for either spec priest. The tooltip doesn't show a socket bonus, but a commenter on WoW Head states it as being 5 spellpower.

Hands

Gloves of Broken Fingers -- 10-man Rotface -- Much like the Bloodsoul Raiment, this piece is about on par with the 251 tier 10. If you want your tier bonuses, you can skip these, but if you don't they're not bad. The 264 badge vendor gloves (Gloves of Ambivalence and Gloves of False Gestures) offer better itemization options for disc priests, though.

Head

Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl -- 10-man Deathbringer's Cache -- Just like other gear pieces with a tier alternative, this is a nice choice if you don't care about set bonuses. If you value haste over crit, this is better in raw stats than the tier. Also, again, is the helm that dropped for me in the story. As you can see it doesn't have the best itemization for disc due to the spirit.

Cowl of Malefic Repose -- 10-man Blood-Queen Lana'thel -- If you don't want tier, this is the option for disc priests or holy priests who want throughput over regen.

Legs

Kilt of Untreated Wounds -- 10-man Festergut -- These are a fantastic leg option for priests of either spec. Compared to the tier 10, you gain both crit and an extra gem slot in exchange for the loss of spirit and set bonuses.

Leggings of the Refracted Mind -- 10-man Valithria Dreamwalker -- [Disclaimer: This item can't be confirmed as a drop until the fight goes live!] If you're a holy priest, these are a comparable stand in for 251 tier 10. There is less spirit on these legs, and no additional spellpower, but the extra gem socket makes up for it. The socket bonus can't be confirmed until the fight goes live, unfortunately.

Main Hand

Midnight Sun -- 10-man Gunship Armory -- Good for either holy or disc. It is nearly identical to the Lockjaw, but take in mind that paladin healers can't use daggers, so you might want to shoot for this one to be nice to any paladin healers you might run with. Both options will look equally cool on your hip, though, in my opinion.

Lockjaw -- 10-man Rotface -- Basically the Midnight Sun, in mace form. You get a bit more haste for a little less intellect and mp5. This is suitable for both holy and disc.

Neck

Soulcleave Pendant -- 10-man Deathbringer's Cache -- Great throughput neck for any caster. There are many neck options in 25-man ICC as well, so everyone should find something that works for them.

Choker of Filthy Diamonds -- 10-man Rotface -- This neck will work for either disc or holy.

Shoulders

Bloodstained Surgeon's Shoulderguards -- 10-man Festergut -- Compared to the Crimson Acolyte Shoulderpads, the additional socket doesn't make up for the differences in stats and tier bonuses, unless you are trying to socket one type of stat. These will save you the badges that you'd need to spend on tier, however.

Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads -- Zone Drop -- There are confirmation comments that these BoE, 264 shoulders drop in 10-man ICC off trash, but not enough to be certain. If they do, these are going to be your best choice if you don't intend to raid 25-man content. There are currently no shoulder options without spirit, so disc will want these shoulders if they're not going for tier.

Trinket

Sliver of Pure Ice -- 10-man Lord Marrowgar -- I know that use effect trinkets are never as popular, but this one isn't too bad given the spellpower on it. The mana regen works out to 67mp5 over 2 minutes, more or less depending on how long your encounters last.

Two-Hand

Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff -- 10-man Deathbringer's Cache -- This is a great staff for a holy priest. The spirit doesn't make it ideal for disc, but if you desperately need a weapon upgrade then this should be easily farmable. Unfortunately, the 25-man staff off Blood-Queen Lana'thel is the same way: lots of spirit. I suspect that if there is going to be a throughput staff in ICC it will drop from Arthas. One more thing as a note: the spellpower on this staff is the same as the Midnight Sun and Lockjaw. With the current off-hands in ICC, staff-wielders will be straggling behind rather significantly if the staff spellpower enchant doesn't get a considerable buff.

Waist

Cord of the Patronizing Practitioner -- 10-man Lord Marrowgar -- The spirit on this belt will make disc priests want to avoid it. Holy shouldn't have any problems with it though.

Cauterized Cord -- 10-man Professor Putricide -- This throughput belt is ideal for either spec priest, as well as all other cloth wearing casters.

Wand

Lana'thel's Bloody Nail -- 10-man Blood-Queen Lana'thel -- If you will not be raiding 25-man ICC, this is your only wand option in 10-man. That means priests of either spec can take this without hesitation.

Wrists

Bracers of Dark Blessings -- 10-man Lady Deathwhisper -- These bracers are a tiny step above the crafted 245 bracers (Royal Moonshroud Bracers and Bejeweled Wizards Bracers). If you didn't ever get those bracers made, this is an option, but they will be better for holy priests due to the spirit. Notice that there is even more spirit from the socket bonus.

With this list I hope you will find some convenience in deciding what gear you'll be looking for in ICC. Remember to check back later this week for a 25-man version.

Now, back to my story: I ended up whispering my guild mate and having him come pick up the helm in exchange for a port to Dalaran. (What? My hearth was on cooldown.) I figured that, despite all my blue gear, in the long run that little bit of DPS would help out my raid more than me. Also, since I play disc in raids the itemization on the helm was better for him than me, because he can utilize the spirit for crit in combat. To further help me swallow the loss of such a pretty piece of gear (okay, not really, the popped collars are ridiculous) the mage was very appreciative, which made me feel very warm and fuzzy inside. He even whispered me after an hour of heroics to let me know it was a big upgrade for him. Granted, I didn't ask how much a big upgrade was to him, but I don't think that matters.

So why did I tell you this story? Because I wanted ~~to force feed you more of my hippie healing philosophy, suckers!~~ to give you all some food for thought. Again, what would you have done? What is your philosophy on who should get gear first? If you have a differing and constructive opinion I'd like to see them in the comments. Consider this open forum week at Spiritual Guidance. Make it good!

The Colosseum: Bearzerk, rogue of Mannoroth

2010-01-25T03:21:00.000-08:00

Gladiator Bearzerk of US-Mannoroth won't be wearing his gladiator title much longer -- he'll be upgrading to Relentless Gladiator! Our rogue interviewee today is team captain of a rogue-mage-priest composition named A B C that was able to go on a victory streak and get the coveted title on the last day of the season.

Read on after the break to see what Bearzerk had to say!
WoW.com: Who are your teammates?
Bearzerk: My teammates in season seven were Nobodyseven (mage) and Lfv (priest).
WoW.com: What's your general plan against other 3v3s?
Bearzerk: Usually, our general plan for 3's is to make clutch switches. When we get a kill, the opposing team doesn't expect it at all. However, at times we do train a single target when a switch is unnecessary.
WoW.com: What challenges does your team have?
Bearzerk: I think our team honestly doesn't have any challenges since we've played together more. When we first started the team it took us a bit to get along and get strats/coordination and play styles down -- which got us off to a very bad start. We've progressed over time to play nearly at the top of our game.
WoW.com: You mentioned that your 3v3 team "got off to a very bad start" -- why didn't you stop playing when you were doing poorly?
Bearzerk: At times I thought we would not play anymore at the start. I'd have to say our team stayed together because Nobodyseven would influence us to keep going and that we'd only get better. Apparently, it worked out for the best.
WoW.com: What's your opening strategy?
Bearzerk: Opening strategy for us mainly depends on what map it is and how the opposing team is positioned. If we get Ring of Valor, sometimes I will be able to get a Sap -- but we don't depend on it. On that map, our mage usually opens with a Frost Nova into a Psychic Scream from the priest. Any other map we usually know what we'll do and when we'll switch.
WoW.com: How do you work out target designation and swaps?
Bearzerk: Since we all know when to call a good switch, over time we've learned to listen to each other. It will be a good switch any time it is called. If a switch is called at a wrong time, the person calling switch will go back to our main target. At times we will call to fully dispel someone and make an easy switch to clinch the win depending on what setup our opponents are playing.
WoW.com: What signals that you need to radically change strategy midmatch? (And how do you accomplish that change?)
Bearzerk: Symbols we mainly look for is:

Someone is not dying for whatever reason.
Need to change the crowd control because of diminishing returns, or if the crowd control will be broken at the time.
Need to peel off of my mage or priest or even the need for my teammates to peel off of me at times.
Someone is fully dispelled and our target is not dying.

WoW.com: Do you have favorite classes to kill on the opposing team?
Bearzerk: I'd have to say my favorite class to kill is rogue, not sure why I just like to. Another two would have to be mages and shamans. We had numerous games this season where my mage would not do any damage. In those games, if he did any damage, it was very little -- and I would end up soloing the opponent. This happens with other classes but rarely compared to these three.
WoW.com: What spec do you play? What advantages does that spec provide you that others do not?
Bearzerk: I play 44/4/23 assassination. I feel this spec gives the best damage I've tried of all specs thus far. I spec into Focused Attacks and gear for agility. I'm up to 46.03% crit unbuffed so my energy shoots up really fast for top damage.
WoW.com: Why did you choose to play rogue-mage-priest over other possible compositions?
Bearzerk: To be honest, I transferred to play with Nobodyseven as we have known each other for some time. We ended up getting lucky to have a great priest like Lfv. As a team, we became closer over time which kept us together more than any other players I have played with before.
WoW.com: How do you schedule your playtime? Do you try to play at times when lots of teams are queueing up?
Bearzerk: Our playtime was scheduled around my raids mainly, and when Lfv wanted to queue! We took a very long break from December 21st to January 18th (which was the final day of the season). Nobodyseven went on vacation and my computer was infected for three weeks. Luckily, I got it fixed on January 17th and was able to play the next day. My internet went down Tuesday (the 19th) from no payment as well! We were very lucky!
WoW.com: How does it feel to be a Relentless Gladiator?
Bearzerk: Almost makes up for not getting glad in season four or five for team hopping!
WoW.com: What are you trying to improve?
Bearzerk: I'd like to keep improving my win-loss ratios to the best of my ability.
WoW.com: What did you think of season seven in terms of balance?
Bearzerk: In terms of balance, I think it was the best in Wrath of the Lich King thus far -- besides protection warriors.
WoW.com: What do you think about the resilience changes for season eight? Do you think it's the right move?
Bearzerk: I think resilience changes will be a good move. I do think it is the right move as I hate losing to teams like death knight + warrior that don't do anything but Charge and Bladestorm -- they land kills without Mortal Striking anything. However, I believe they should take off the 47 minute timer for each arena game.
WoW.com: Will certain classes be affected more than others?
Bearzerk: I do not think certain classes will be effected more than others. They will just have to find new strategies to land a kill, mainly by draining mana and cooldowns.
WoW.com: What's the biggest thing that differentiates a good player from a great player?
Bearzerk: I believe what differentiates a good player from a greater player is:

Knowing what to do and when to do it.

Quickness of abilities.

Knowing your position and role in the game.

WoW.com: What's your advice to players who might be wanting to pick up arenas for the first time?
Bearzerk: My advice would be to watch PvP videos (I am looking into making one before expansion)! Also, duel classes to learn abilities and when your opponents would possibly use those abilities.
WoW.com: Thank you so much for giving us a great interview Bearzerk -- is there anything else you'd like to say?
Bearzerk: Looking forward to another great season and hope to get rank 1 in all brackets.

Bobby Kotick didn't think Blizzard was worth $7 million in '96

2010-01-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked at something new on the auction house and thought "Who would pay a thousand gold for that," only to find that months later the item has skyrocketed in price and you missed a golden opportunity to pick it up on the cheap? Activision kingpin Bobby Kotick might make the same analogy. If he played video games, I mean.

The Escapist clued us in to this little story: back in 1995, Kotick was eating lunch with some folks from Davidson & Associates, and they told him that they had just bought up-and-coming software developer Blizzard Entertainment for the tidy sum of seven million dollars -- a number that a baffled Kotick believed to be ridiculous. At the time, Blizzard's claim to fame was Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans, and ... that's pretty much it, save for a few one-off games like Blackthorne and The Lost Vikings. Kotick called them nothing more than a "contract developer" and remarked that they weren't worth seven million bucks.

Of course, later that year, Blizzard released Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, which catapulted them into gaming history forever. Thirteen years later, in 2008, Kotick (and Activision) paid seven billion dollars to acquire Blizzard. For those not into mathematics, that's one thousand times more than what Davidson & Associates paid.

Well, he was right about one thing. They definitely weren't worth seven million bucks. He just didn't know how right he was at the time.

WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03

2010-01-22T11:04:00.000-08:00

WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03

It's been a while since we've looked at the wonderful series, I'm MT. The series has obviously progressed pretty well, and the characters continue to be heartfelt and adorable. The animation style is still fun to watch, and our hero now seems to have levelled up into the twenties.

The opening segment for I am MT - Season2 - EP03 is absolutely fantastic. The call out to the Super Mario games is an inspired choice, since it calls out to the roots of gamers everywhere. I even found the final gag to be pretty amusing, since it still exemplifies the slapstick humor of the main character.

Watching the video, I was pleased to see the new, wide variety of characters that have been added to the show. There's a new troll, of course, but you also get to see the author's interpretation of the Alliance as well. I am MT - Season 2 - EP03 is a fairly long movie, clocking in at about a half hour. But if you've got the time to check it out, I think you'll find it worth it.

Click here to see it for yourself. WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03

WoW, Casually: Instance leveling guide

2010-01-17T02:20:00.001-08:00

Before the Dungeon Finder Tool, leveling through instances just wasn't possible for those of us with limited playtime unless we had 4 friends with similar schedules and an appropriate selection of classes. But now, we can take advantage of the speedy XP, better gear and grouping practice.

More importantly, dungeons are fun. In order to research this guide, I dusted off a level 18 paladin I hadn't played for at least 2 years. I picked up skills that were new since the last time she trained, redid her talents and tested the Dungeon Finder waters. It was an absolute blast running through Deadmines with an appropriately leveled group. I've also had a great time leveling a priest in her 30s and a mage in her 60s using the Dungeon Finder. If you too want to try some instance leveling (and I bet most of you already have), here are some tips to make the most of it:

Set aside uninterrupted playtime

The great thing about soloing is that you never have to worry about interruptions bothering anyone else but you. And if you have close friends or understanding guildies, you can usually impose on them with non-emergency AFKs as needed. But if you're going to PUG it up using Dungeon Finder, you should make arrangements to only be interrupted if absolutely necessary. Captain Obvious says it's inconsiderate to do otherwise. If you're a parent, I find that after bedtime is great.

Primetime is Dungeontime

If you wait until your server is quiet to queue up, you'll probably find your options limited and the queues long. So I highly recommend recording your favorite shows so that you can dungeon crawl when everyone else is.

Plan to spend around an hour

In general, old world instances are much longer than the 5 mans we run in Northrend. Of course, there are exceptions such as Scarlet Monastery Graveyard, which is an easy 15 minute run. Also, you may end up in a dungeon in which your whole group is unfamiliar and/or can't remember. And there's a lot to be said for enjoying the scenery instead of just rushing through.

Be a healer or tank

If you really don't like playing either role, don't take this advice. Playing WoW should be fun. However, if you do enjoy being a meatshield or playing whack-a-mole, then you will find your waiting time much more reasonable than queueing as DPS -- possibly even as instantaneous as it is at 80. Of course, some people queue as tank and then expect someone else to actually do the work. That's just stupid, since runs only go smoothly if everyone performs their role correctly. But I'm sure you all know that. Also, make sure you understand the basics of your class in your chosen role and have the appropriate gear for it at that level.

Get the quests

I have solo or duo leveled most of my characters previous to Patch 3.3 and therefore am used to just dropping the quests requiring instances. But now I seek them out. The quest rewards for dungeon quests are often better than the drops inside and are usually better than nondungeon quest rewards. And, of course, there is the nice chunk of XP you get for turning in quests. Picking up quests isn't always possible for every dungeon, particularly for the ones that are located in enemy cities. And some are hard to find. The really nice PUGgers share their quests at the beginning of dungeon runs... if they have a chance before the tank starts pulling.

Prepare your bags

Visit your bank, shop at vendors, mail to your bank alt and otherwise empty your bags of everything you don't need for the run. Then make sure you stock up on food, drink, bandages, potions, reagents and anything else you will need for a run or two. Make sure to repair and restock inbetween queuing. You can only trade conjured items across realms, so your groupies won't be able to help you if you're missing required items and you don't have a mage.

Start young

You can start using the Dungeon Finder tool at level 15. I don't know if I'd recommend starting that early -- level 18 might make the dungeons go a bit easier. When you sign up for a random dungeon, you will be put in a group of similarly leveled people in an appropriate instance.

Stay till the end

Defeating the main boss for the dungeon will give you achievements, great gear drops and most importantly, an XP bonus and The Satchel of Helpful Goods. Unlike the heroic dailies at max level where the best goodies only drop once a day, the satchel will drop every time you complete a random dungeon while leveling. The satchel contains sweet, delicious gear that is usually better than anything else you can get at your level. Even at lower levels, you get a pretty blue item to drape on your bod.

Don't stay till the end

The satchel and valuable playtime is not worth it if you're stuck with jerks and/or idiots. The players blaming everyone else for wipes are usually the ones who are causing them. And the ones who are ridiculously rude from the outset will not improve during the run. You'll enjoy your play session much more if you are questing while working off the Dungeon Debuff than if you are putting up with That Guy. I once stuck with a run where the "leader" made a rape comment in the first few seconds of my zoning in. Dumb move. I should have put him on ignore and scarpered. The funsuckers only win if you let them, so degroup from the jerks and don't look back.

Need everything you want

I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but it really reduces your stress and makes the runs go faster. In the lower levels, classes can need on armor that is lower than theirs. So hunters can need on cloth -- that they'll never use. And some of them will. If you are there at the beginning of the run, suggest a Need Everything loot system for speed purposes. If you aren't there at the beginning or forget to communicate, I recommend you make a quick gear comparison by holding down the shift key while you mouseover the dropped loot. Then Need it if it's an upgrade. Need every pattern for your professions too. If something drops that you can use and will equip right away, but you don't win it, just ask if the winner will wear it. You can trade dropped gear from the current instance and conjured items across realms but nothing else. To reduce drama, equip new gear right away.

Don't degroup from good groups

If you still have time in your play session and your group was a good one, don't degroup at the end. Speak up quickly and suggest requeueing together. You'll still get the satchel at the end because the group began as random. The only problem is when one of you outlevels the others, then the leader won't be able to requeue until the higher level leaves.

Have fun!

If you are stuck in a level where you get the same dungeon over and over along with everyone else you are PUGging with then the runs are going to be speedy blurs. But if it's your first time in a dungeon on your current character, announce that at the beginning. It shouldn't be difficult to find others who are willing to take it slow-ish to really enjoy the experience. My PUG and I had a blast in Deadmines even though we wiped a couple times and we got lost running back. A couple impatient DPSers dropped group because we weren't speedy enough, but they were instantly replaced. (That's another reason being a tank or healer is best.)

When you spend an evening playing with the Dungeon Finder Tool, you are going to find that the leveling will be fast and furious. You may even want to macro a "Grats" emote for all the groupies who are dinging with you. Also, the Gearscore/Recount elitism that happens at endgame is nonexistent while leveling, making the whole experience more relaxing. (It seems that many of you have found that the elitism is still going on in leveling instances. How disappointing.) And at the end of the session, you'll find your more advanced character sporting sweet new armor, weapons and a bulging pocket of gold. Now go forth and dungeon crawl!

The Frozen Throne is now in Icecrown (sort of)

2010-01-17T02:19:00.001-08:00

We took notice of this in an earlier edition of the Queue, but I thought this little bit of news merited its own article for the benefit of lore junkies, raid leaders, or anyone who just might have missed it. After being asked a question over where Angrathar was really located in the larger Icecrown raid complex, I flew out to no-man's-land of southern Icecrown/northwestern Dragonblight and tried to get a good handle on the architecture. While doing so, I noticed a new and extremely tall spire nestled in the mountain range past the Wrath Gate and flew over to investigate. At the top of a saronite spire is huge chunk of misty ice capped by a flat surface with a black design vaguely reminiscent of the one on the Lordaeron throne room (although for all I know this is entirely unintended). From above, it bears a startling resemblance to an image datamined by Boubouille some time ago that was guessed to be the location of the eventual fight with the Lich King -- and I think this exterior "set" could be quite useful for any raid attempting to work on positioning once details of the fight become known. Curiously enough, the Throne itself doesn't appear to be present in-game at the moment, but that might change soon.

Beware of WoW Armory phishing scams

2010-01-17T02:17:00.000-08:00

First things first: the correct address for the WoW Armory is wowarmory.com. Bookmark it. Memorize it. But don't ever, ever search for it again. We've talked before about how misspelling searches can get you into trouble. But even if you spell WoW Armory correctly when Googling, the first sponsored site that shows up is a phishing site -- and it's a really good one.

Update 1:10pm: Google seems to have removed the site from their sponsored listing in the short time since I wrote this post. Kudos! Nonetheless, there are and will be more sites using the same technique, so the warning remains valid.

Do not go to the following site: armory-worldofwarcnaft.com/wowarmory/, it is evil. Notice the n in warcnaft? You may not when you are clicking on it in your search page or when it shows up in your address bar. And that's what they are counting on. Because the rest of the site looks authentic. When you type in what you want to search for, you get asked for your Battle.net info. Then, no matter what you type in, it gives you a password error. (I typed in profanity. It was fun.) They have stolen all of the elements of the actual Blizzard pages, so that if you want your login page in other languages, just a click of the button will get you there. But don't. It's evil.

So let's say you do fall for this (many people are) and you don't have an authenticator... The next time you log into WoW, there will be an authenticator on your account. You'll have to call up Blizzard Support, convince them you are you, and work with them to get your account back. And the whole time you're doing it, someone is fondling your characters, hocking your bank contents and disenchanting your gear. They may even use your good name to scam someone else.

Please double check where you are anytime a site asks you for your account information. These social engineers are clever, so your safest best is not to search at all for official WoW pages. Just go to WorldofWarcraft.com and navigate to where you need to go.

And please, please, please get an authenticator, either in keyfob form or via your mobile. The pet is adorable and the added layer of security is relaxing. Don't wait for the possibility of them shipping with Cataclysm. Get one now and play in safety.

[Thanks to all those who sent this in.]

Better pet scaling promised in Cataclysm

2010-01-17T02:15:00.000-08:00

Hunters and warlocks were given something to look forward to during the Blizzard developer chat on twitter this evening. The question was asked: "You mentioned pet scaling being added for patch 3.3 but due to time constraints, was delayed. Will this be in the next patch?" This is something that has been mentioned throughout the course of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and hasn't been implemented yet. The reason? It is a fairly complicated procedure.

We'll try to do what we can. Technically it's just more challenging than you might think. For Cataclysm, we have on our list that 100% of stats scale. If they don't then certain stats just won't be as valuable for pet classes. At the very least, we can do stuff like convert your X into damage for the pet so every stat is valuable. Getting everyone to scale with every stat better is a major goal for the class team for Cataclysm.

With hunters, warlocks, and unholy death knights, there are a lot of talents and glyphs that affect the scaling of stats to your pet. If you allow certain stats to scale too well, you suddenly unbalance the class. If the stat scales poorly, then the class falls in the other direction. Every talent and ability that taps into these has to be checked to make sure it doesn't throw things out of whack. Considerations on diminishing returns on certain stats scaling would also need to be checked. Overall, there is a lot of number crunching and statistical analysis involved in trying to find the right balance between all of the knobs that they need to adjust. However, the frustration of out-gearing your pet will hopefully be behind us either in an upcoming patch or (more realistically) when Cataclysm hits.

Shifting Perspectives: The druid of 2009

2010-01-12T09:12:00.002-08:00

Lines composed more than 3,000 miles from Tintern Abbey, by someone who hated Wordsworth and thought he was a self-obsessed little prick, but managed to conceal this from her professor long enough to book it from the class with an A, and this is a run-on sentence just like the title of the original poem, which is what we call Irony.

One year has past; one year, with the length
Of one long winter! and again I lean
My head -- back, against the perch of chair and post
And snarf the Robitussin down. -- Once again
Do I behold the druid class in all its glory
That with the benefit of dual-specs allows
Me to be incompetent in more ways than simply one.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, in the glow lent by the laptop, and try to keep
My editors from killing me. The column, it is late.

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again. Allie is sick, druids are thriving, and 2010 is upon us like the rear axel of a pickup truck on an icy road with a "Guns don't kill people, I do" bumper sticker. It's time to revisit the Year That Was, keeping in mind that the author of this article is so blitzed on cold medication that an entertaining afternoon was spent delightedly watching the screensaver.

Balance

Balance had a promising beginning as Wrath revved up, helped in no small part by a talented stun from Starfall via Celestial Focus that was utterly amazing in PvP. For once in our miserable little lives, we could actually keep something away from us. This had all the joy of playing a Frost mage without the bothersome rigmarole of actually leveling one and having to devote a portion of one's day to complaining about being a Frost mage. It was Very Fun, and as such, it was nerfed.

You learn to expect these things. Anything too enjoyable should be looked upon sorrowfully, because we know it will not last. Druids in World of Warcraft have an inherently better grasp of the fleeting nature of life and human happiness -- that transitory glimpse, the distant, flickering corner of one's brain possessed by the terrible comprehension that we are as leaves upon the wind. Sic transit gloria m-- f^&# me, is this all the cough syrup we have in the house?

Where was I? Like it matters. At any rate, Balance had a good start out of the gate, so much so that I was surprised at the end of 2008 to think it had the best prospects of any druid spec. Feral was getting yanked around like a kid in the middle of divorce proceedings, and Restos were rerolling paladins en masse after getting fed up with being two-shot by death knights, so perhaps we could all be forgiven for thinking that the world had gone a little crazy.

But then there was Eclipse. Nobody knew quite what to make of it, apart from the fact that it blew the old Burning Crusade rotation to bits -- or at least, it was supposed to. Cool animation? Check. Made the rotation more interesting? Check. A pain in the ass on movement-dependent fights, half of its proc not really worth using at the time, too much of Balance DPS ultimately dependent on something with a looming +haste cap issue? Check, check, check, and check.

No, Mr. Barkeeper, I was not signaling for mine. You leave that there.

Eclipse was undeniably a significant improvement to Balance DPS, but its status as a proc-within-a-proc made it difficult, if not impossible, to get the most out of it when you really needed, except by chance alone. Was it going to be up during Bloodlust/Heroism? Would it proc right before Thaddius switched your charges or you had to run to avoid a Flame Wall? There wasn't an answer to either of these questions, and frustrated Balance players everywhere watched a huge portion of their potential damage vanish down the gullet of something completely beyond their control. Wildly inconsistent performance (as Gray Matter noted at the time) is not something that raid leaders are terribly overfond of accommodating, and players had limited means of regaining lost damage in other ways.

So Eclipse -- the proc, the cooldown, and tier bonuses reliant on it -- has been tinkered with pretty much the length of the year, and Balance is still in an iffy spot. Any dispassionate observer would admit the issues affecting the spec are pretty much immune to a quick fix, more particularly with how +haste interacts with Wrath/Nature's Grace, and the looming +crit cap on Starfire in Tier 10 content. The easiest way to deal with both would be to nerf Balance talents to the point where gear doesn't add a set of increasingly problematic stats to the moonkin arsenal, but I think we can all agree that deliberately making things worse in order to let existing gear solve the problem is an uninspiring solution. Beyond that, the two primary nukes -- Wrath and Starfire -- don't really do different things, as Ghostcrawler himself observed. The former is faster but travels to the target; the latter is slower but hits immediately. They also have different colors. That's it. There is no ancillary benefit to the use of either beyond switching them up for different Eclipse procs now that that the individual cooldowns have been decoupled.

So what does 2010 hold in store for the laserchicken contingent? I wouldn't be surprised to see Balance mechanics get an overhaul in the run-up to Cataclysm, because as things stand now, we will always be among the first victims of stat inflation, and Eclipse -- while more "reliable" in the sense that you can better predict when it's likely to be triggered -- still isn't a controllable damage boost along the lines of Icy Veins or Metamorphosis.

I have grown dangerously coherent. There may have been actual analysis in this portion.

This will not stand.

Neither can I, but that's why I'm writing this from bed with a cold compress now.

Man forced to choose between his wife and his orc

2010-01-12T09:12:00.001-08:00

The Scottish Sun reports that a Scottish man made the news for having to choose between his wife and his orc. 42-year old Robert Cushnie was the proud owner of a life-sized World of Warcraft Thrall statue, one of several that Vivendi commissioned from Studio Oxmox to promote Warcraft III (along with a Night Elf female statue). The telecommunications manager scored the 185cm. tall statue when a toy store in nearby Falkirk closed down six years ago.

Much to the dismay of geeks everywhere, Cushnie's wife Dee wasn't comfortable sharing her home with a green-skinned orc and threatened to move back to her Canadian homeland if her husband didn't ditch the Horde Warchief. His wife reportedly said that there was "no room for (the orc) in our life," and Cushnie prudently chose Dee, whom he married in February 2009, over the huge statue. "I just don't like it," Dee said, "I'm only 5ft 3in, so it towers over me, which is quite creepy."

The statue was adopted by a couple in Aberdeen, Michael Thomson, 61, and his wife, Patricia, 55, who report that their 16-year old granddaughter is thrilled with the acquisition. "We wanted him because he's so unusual," said Patricia. Robert and Dee will move to Canada later this month sans the orc. "I'll miss him," Cushnie said, "but I'm glad he's gone to a good home." As this little episode proves, not even the most badass orc can mess with marital bliss!

Prot Warrior nerf details

2010-01-12T09:09:00.002-08:00

Protection spec warriors, did you enjoy being able to charge out of roots and snares to get back to the boss fast? Well, thanks to PvP, you won't be able to do that anymore. What else won't you be able to do? Well, if you've been stacking block value in PvE content, first off, I kind of don't get you. Seriously, except for very specific gimmicky fights, why would you stack block value? (I said value, not rating, and I also said gimmicky fights so don't bring up Heroic Anub) But if you have been... perhaps you have a block value set for totally destroying adds or something... then get ready for a Shield Slam nerf. They're 'testing that one internally' which, if you remember how horrible the Rage Normalization changes went in early BC, always works.

Honestly, neither of these are huge gamebreakers. I liked that Warbringer cleared roots and snares for me when I was tanking, and I barely even noticed it in PvP: it was like a free self-cast Hand of Freedom. As for nerfing Shield Slam, well, like I said I don't stack block value so a lower block value cap on the ability wouldn't really affect me. Irritate me? Yes, it will do that. But it isn't a game breaker either. Of course, since as the commenters mentioned yesterday prot PvP warriors don't stack shield block value at all (I know you guys don't read my posts, Blizzard, but if for some reason someone is, look at all that ArP. Look at all that lack of block value. It is ArP that drives the prot PvP damage machine. ArP, not block value. Just thought I'd mention that) then I fail to see any point to the change either.

So there we have it: Warbringer gets changed and Shield Slam might get changed which is like taking a club away from a guy who is shooting people.

Spider-Man 4 delayed, possibly impacting Warcraft movie

2010-01-12T09:09:00.001-08:00

The latest buzz out of Hollywood is that the fourth installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise has hit a snag. Director Sam Raimi is apparently in the midst of some major creative differences with Sony Pictures executives over the script and the villain lineup. A little bit of drama in Hollywood is nothing new, of course, but in this case its become bad enough to delay the movie, with the May 6th, 2011 release date now in serious doubt.

But what does this have to do with WoW, you ask? As you may recall, Raimi has also been tapped by Blizzard to direct the upcoming Warcraft movie. While the Warcraft movie is still in the very early stages of production, to the point where we have almost no idea of the details beyond the fact that Sam Raimi is the director, the fact remains that you need a director to make a decent movie.

So now that Sam Raimi is tied up with script disputes in Spider-Man 4, what happens with the Warcraft movie? As you might imagine, rumors and speculation abound. Gamespot believes that this will simply push the Warcraft movie back a few more months, as current scuttlebutt suggests the Spider-Man movie will be pushed back to Summer 2011. Blizzplanet's Medievaldragon is a bit more hopeful, suggesting that Raimi will perhaps decide to work on Warcraft instead while Spider-Man 4's script is rewritten to solve the dispute.

Part of the problem with speculating too much on all of this is that we still know so little about the Warcraft movie itself. All we can really say for sure is that Sam Raimi will direct it and Legendary Pictures will produce it. We've heard only the vaguest rumors of a script, and certainly there's been only very basic rumors on casting news. In this vein, I actually think that speaks better for Gamespot's theory than Medievaldragon's. If the other pieces are not in place, Sam Raimi won't have anything to direct, after all. For all we know, they haven't even slated actual shooting to begin yet. Besides, Sony's probably not going to let Spider-Man sink so easily. Raimi's probably going to be tied up for a while.

Still, regardless of all that, you know I'm all for Raimi dropping the Spider-Man movie and heading into the Warcraft movie. Don't get me wrong, Spider-Man was a boyhood hero and all, but I'm more of a Lantern man these days, and I'll give up either for some good old fashioned Humans vs. Orcs.

Regardless of what happens, stay tuned here. The minute all this Warcraft movie buzz consolidates into something solid, you'll hear about it on WoW.com.

Rumor: Sam Raimi's next project is the Warcraft movie

2010-01-12T09:07:00.001-08:00

According to Ain't It Cool News, Sam Raimi's next project will be the Warcraft movie. This follows on yesterday's announcement that Spider-Man 4 is canceled, and that Raimi is done with the Spider-Man franchise. The Spider-Man movie series is going to undergo a reboot (yes, already) with entirely new cast and crew, which means Raimi is free to work on other projects.

If AICN's sources are correct and Raimi is going to be working on the Warcraft movie next, this is great news for the movie. While it is probably still a few years away from release, the fact that he's focusing on it now is a good indication the project is moving forward in the right direction.

AICN points out that with the success of Avatar the time is ripe for creating immersive virtual worlds, and you'd be hard pressed to find a more immersive world than Warcraft. Although lets all hope that the Warcraft movie doesn't become a cheap rip off of Avatar -- but with Raimi at the helm it's likely in safe hands.

Upcoming Adjustments announced for Old Kingdom, Nexus, Culling of Stratholme

2010-01-12T03:08:00.001-08:00

Zarhym popped into one of the many official forum topics complaining about the seemingly inordinate amount of times Old Kingdom pops on the Dungeon Finder to offer some welcome news for exhausted dungeon runners: Old Kingdom and Nexus alike will be receiving some adjustments meant to bring the dungeons in line with other Wrath heroics.

Old Kingdom will receive the most changes. Elder Nadox will spawn only one Ahn'Kahar Guardian and Jedoga Shadowseeker will ascend only once in their respective encounters. In addition, some static trash groups will be removed, while some roaming groups will have their paths altered. He stressed that these changes are not meant to make the dungeon easier, but rather to make it a slightly quicker run, more in line with other heroics. He also acknowledged that the dungeon finder made the daily quest associated with the dungeon somewhat complicated to obtain and turn in, and while the dev team would like to fix it, they still haven't found a satisfactory solution.

Later in the thread, he announced a similar change to Nexus, namely that Anomalus will use his Create Rift ability much less often. Finally, he revealed that a "quick start" option for the Culling of Stratholme is in the works, but will likely not be ready for the next minor patch due to the complicated scripting required.

All of these changes, I am sure, will cause great joy among the badge running crowd. I admit I never disliked the lore of the Culling of Stratholme instance, but after the first 10 times, you know, it loses some of the lustre. This also makes me wonder which dungeon is next. It seems like Halls of Stone is really the only dungeon left that still has a problem with people dropping group. I'm guessing we might see a reduction of the time to victory on the Tribunal of Ages event, and possibly a pruning of the trash before Krystallus and Maiden of Grief to give more incentive to grab them.

Regardless, there's no word on when these changes will be implemented, but all the same, they should be welcome. Stay tuned for any more news on this stealthily announced "minor patch" as we hear it.

WoW Icecrown Citadel introduction quests

2009-12-14T03:31:00.000-08:00

It's not technically an attunement, but there is a series of quests that guide you through the introductory 5 Player Dungeons surrounding Icecrown Citadel. You don't have to do these dungeons to get into the normal versions of Icecrown, but it sure brings a lot to the experience. I guess, in a sense, you can think of it as a simplified attunement.

Additionally, the gear that drops from these first three instances will go a long way towards catching up people to the ICC raid. In my raid, we call this "bootstrapping." There's a bunch of reasons you might need to bootstrap folks: a tank rotation, new people, meteor crashing into the planet, what have you.

As you do the quest, you'll enter (and do battle in):

The Forge of Souls

The Pit of Saron, and

The Halls of Reflection

So, let's take a look at these three instances and how to blur through them.

(Note: I'll be mostly talking about the Horde version of the quest chain. However, there's an Alliance version as well, and I'll try and point it out along the way. Yes, I know - I'm horribly Horde biased, after an entire couple months being a Belf, compared to my four years of being a Human.)

You can pick up the breadcrumb quest in Dalaran, which instructs you to rush to Icecrown Citadel. This first quest is for The Forge of Souls, and sends you to meet Sylvanas or Jaina. You can either get there by manually hoofing it to the Citadel, or you can use the handy-dandy Dungeon Finder tools to teleport you there. I've not been in a group yet who doesn't use the teleport.

Once you've spoken to your faction-appropriate person, your first job will be to take down Bronjahm.

The Forge of Souls

The Forge of Souls looks like it's going to be a complicated maze, but most of that is just backdrop. If you stick to the path, it's pretty tough to get lost. You'll have a small variety of trash along the way, but nothing too troublesome. Keep to the main rule: Kill the one in the dress first. Most of the trash should just be handled by killing casters first, then melee mobs.

Bronjahm

Bronjahm is the "Godfather of Souls." (His name is a mangled "James Brown" in reverse. Get it?) He's a caster-type boss with two distinct phases.

In the first phase, Bronjahm will create Corrupted Soul Fragments. They spawn on top of a random player. (What's happening here is that he's separating soul fragments from your character. As if you didn't have enough reasons to kill him.) Keep those soul fragments from reaching Bronjahm -- if they do, they'll heal him.

In the second phase, the boss will stat using Soulstorm. If you're on the edges of the platform, you'll take significant damage and be slowed. The way to avoid this effect is to move very close to the boss. (Hunters will need to keep a minimum range to attack, but they'll be safe at that minimum distance.)

Devourer of Souls

The Devourer of Souls is the second and last boss in the Forge. He has three tricks for which you should be prepared. First, he'll use Mirrored Soul. While linked with a player, damage taken by the Devourer will be shared to the targeted player. It's best to back off DPS during this time, and let the effect fade.

Second, the Devourer will Unleash Souls. A handful of ghosts will appear around the platform. While their damage isn't individually meaningful, if you have several of the critters pile up on you -- move. After this second phase, the Devourer will move on to Wailing Souls. It's basically an energy blast that sweeps around 90 degrees -- again, try not to stand in it.

Once you've downed the Devourer, you'll see Sylvanas (or Jaina) again, who will ask you to go into the Pit of Saron. There's a portal right behind where you killed the Devourer, and you can step through it into the Pit.

Part2

WOW Patch 3.3 and the Arena

2009-12-14T03:27:00.000-08:00

There have been no immediate changes to the Arena directly due to patch 3.3. Okay, well, that's not entirely true, but the changes to the Arena are mostly change by implication. Nonetheless, there's enough little things that will affect the gladiators that it's worth spending a little time examining.

Probably the biggest change we've been hearing about is that you can now pick up Arena points from doing your daily battleground quest. At 25 Arena points per daily, It's not a huge amount of points. If you're already a very highly rated arena team, then you're probably not going to get a large amount of use from an extra 175 points a week. What the extra arena points do successfully, however, is promote a reason for battleground-players to try out the Arena.

While they could use the Arena point to pick up extra Honor points, it's not like those have ever been hard to come by. Instead, these new Arena points will hopefully tantalize those who haven't tried the Arena in Wrath of the Lich King. If that does happen, it will lead to some amount of inflation in Arena ratings. That would provide some relief to teams who are struggling to get a little higher, as well as introduce new players to our favorite e-sport.

Take a look behind the cut to see what else might be changing.

Icecrown Citadel

One of the easily overlooked effects of patch 3.3 is the introduction of the Icecrown Citadel. While the 5-man dungeons and raid do not directly provide any Resilience gear, the new source of advancement will certainly be seen in the Arena. Some of the super-sweet trinkets will definitely make their way into the Arena, and non-raiding gladiators are already concerned about having to face down Shadowmourne.

More importantly, however, is that PvPers who have an Arena Rating less than 1800 will finally have the opportunity to upgrade their weapons. Since the 5-man dungeons offer sweet weapons, like the Tyrannical Beheader, we're finally going to see retribution paladins and death knights sporting something other than the Edge of Ruin.

And though it's subtle, hunters finally have new ammunition with which to pewpew in PvP. While there's a little bit of argument about these new projectiles, you're certain to see hunters using them in the Arena.

AMG, pets get resilience!

C. Christian Moore covered this best, but it's worth mentioning again that pets finally get resilience. That probably won't make the strategy of "zerg down the ghoul" any less common in the Arena than it is now, but it will certainly help out those hunters and warlocks who rely on their pets for significant abilities.

Again, pets won't become unstoppable juggernauts, single-handedly cleaving through your team like an angry, angry kitty hurricane. This change will, however, mean that opponents need to take a little more time in deciding to waste their GCDs on a pet.

Arena Set Bonuses

The 2-piece bonus of all the Arena sets has been changed to provide 100 resilience as well as either 29 spell power or 50 attack power. The 4-piece bonus is remaining exactly the same, although it will now also provide an additional 88 spell or 100 attack power.

I'm not quite sure what spurred this bonus, although I certainly appreciate it in much the same fashion I would appreciate any buff. I suspect that it is somewhat meant to make PvP gear slightly more viable in PvE. While PvP gear isn't likely to return to the age of Season 2's "welfare epics," PvP gear is still some of the most "soloable" gear in the game. However, until now, it's had absolutely no application in the PvE game.

The 4-piece bonus, especially, will help provide a reason for rarely-tunneled classes to stick to their four-piece sets. Classes like retribution paladins, for example, might wear almost entirely PvE gear into the Arena. Why not? Because of their innate survivability and their iconic bubble, many 3v3 teams will leave the Ret to be killed last. However, with the little extra attack juice fueling their attacks now, that Ret might choose to stick for their 4-piece PvP set.

Mages

With the addition of Glyph of Eternal Water, you're going to see a lot more mage pets cruising in the Arena. They'd already been a significant anchor in the Mage's Arena toolbox, but this additional glyphs means they're going to be out all the time. In a sense, the glyph truly means that there are four pet classes available to rock the Arena world. (The other three, of course, are Death Knights, Hunters, and Warlocks, in alphabetical order.)

The Glyph does strip the Water Elemental of their Freeze ability. The jury's still out on whether or not that ability loss is going to be sufficient to convince Arena mages not to go for the permanent pet. I guess the decision will come down to whether the mage wants the pet to consistently be adding to DPS, or if the mage wants the pet to put out a little extra crowd control.

Class Changes

There's obviously been an entire bevy of class changes and balances. For discussion of most of those, I'd recommend checking out C. Christian Moore's breakdown of the patch 3.3 class changes.

Death Knights and Druids should check out part 1 of Blood Sport: Patch 3.3. Hunters, Mages, and and Paladins should read part 2. Warlocks and Preists are talked about in part 3.

The season isn't over

The last, big news about patch 3.3's effect on the Arena is a subtle one. It's an issue of omission. This is to say that the Arena season isn't over. There was no reset simply because patch 3.3 did not end the current Arena season.

That means that all of the changes -- new PvE gear, class changers, Arena points -- are all going to have an effect on the current ranks of gladiators. The season that they end will not be the same season that they started. It's too early to say whether the new weapons and gear will really changes things all that much, but there's going to at least be some mix up.

It would be a stretch to say that Blizzard wanted to let these changes affect the Arena directly because they were meant to provide some kind of fix. But I do rejoice for those battleground players who felt the Arena was out of their reach without honor weapons. With weapons coming from the Icecrown Citadel being fairly equal to 1800 level weapons, this gives them an opportunity to get into the Arena and get their hands dirty.

Good luck out, there, folks.

Patch 3.3 Icecrown Citadel raid boss information and resources

2009-12-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Patch 3.3 is out! With the release of Icecrown, WoW.com aims to help prepare you with the long journey through the Frozen Throne. In this post, you'll find general information about the various bosses along with the strategies to take them down.

There are 13 bosses in Icecrown. The first four bosses in the Lower Spire will be accessible the moment the patch goes live. The rest of the instance will gradually open up later on. Certain encounters will have limited attempts, but you won't have to worry about them later on.

Lastly, attunements are not required to enter Icecrown Citadel on normal mode.
Here's the full list of bosses that will be within Icecrown. Not all of them will be immediately available. Keep reading for a quick encounter breakdown along with links to additional resources.

The Lower Spire

Lord Marrowgar Lady Deathwhisper Icecrown Gunship Battle Deathbringer Saurfang

Plagueworks

Rotface* Festergut* Professor Putricide* Crimson Hall

Blood Princes* Blood-Queen Lana'thel* Frostwing Halls

Valithria Dreamwalker* Sindragosa* The Frozen Throne

Lich king* * = Not Available

Lord Marrowgar
After wading through various skeletons of all sizes, you'll come across this giant cacophony of floating bones. This introductory boss will set the tone for the rest of the instance. Yeah he's the first boss and all that, but don't take him lightly.

Breakdown: Marrowgar is a two phase encounter. Consider it a tank and spank fight. You'll need 3 tanks to equally distribute his Saber Lash. Watch out for the Coldflames and Bone Spike Graveyards! Coldflames will have to be dodged as the lines streak toward players. Players who are hit with a Bone Spike will need to be broken out of by other players as they will be unable to move (and the impaled player loses 10% of their health every second). On the second phase of Marrowgar, turn tail and run like a mad man to avoid Bone Storm! If you get drilled, you'll be bleeding out for the next 15 seconds. Once the Bone Storm phase is over, it's back to phase 1 and avoiding Coldflames.

Pro tip: Melee players can avoid fires if they stand within his hit box.

Additional information

WoW.com impressions Stratfu: Videos and detailed strategy WoWWiki MMO Champion: Known Marrowgar 25 man and 10 man loot

Lady Deathwhisper
You'll approach Lady Deathwhisper in a chamber behind where your raid took down Lord Marrowgar. All I can say is she looks kind of Lich-y. For the lore junkies, Lady Deathwhisper is also the Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned.

Breakdown: Veterans of the game will remember Mu'ru and that's what the fight will be like in a nutshell.

Phase 1: Lady Deathwhisper starts the fight as immobile with a Mana Shield surrounding her. Your goal is to break open her Mana Shield. At this time, various mobs will spawn on both sides of the room and start attacking the raid. Cult Adherents are immune to magical damage (so assign melee onto them) but they can be Shackled. The rest of the adds will need to be grabbed by tanks and AoE'd down. If there is no trash to worry about, focus back on Lady Deathwhisper and break her shield down.

Other abilities by Deathwhisper include Death and Decay (it's bright green) and Mind Control (Polymorph them).

Phase 2: This phase begins when her Mana Shield is broken. At this point, Lady Deathwhisper is now free and can be picked up by a tank. Be careful as the tank is going to get blasted by an extremely powerful Frostbolt which can be interrupted. Other tanks will need to be careful and be prepared to switch as Touch of Insignificance will drop the current tank's threat.

Watch out for Vengeful Spirits that will spawn and chase random players around. If they catch up to them, they will explode and deal potentially lethal damage.

Pro tip: Ranged players can interrupt Frostbolt if there's a Death and Decay on top of Lady Deathwhisper.

Additional information

Stratfu: Videos and detailed strategy WoWWiki: Overview MMO Champion: Known Deathwhisper 25 man and 10 man loot

Icecrown Gunship Battle
Of all the encounters available, this is by far a personal favourite of mine. Vehicular mechanics come into play here again except players won't exactly be driving or flying anything. Some of your raiders will need to man the guns. The objective here is to shoot down the opposing gunship from the sky as you break for the upper levels of Icecrown Citadel.

Breakdown: The Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer will be squaring off in an aerial dual. Your gunship will have several deck guns that can be controlled by a few members of your raid. The gunners need to open fire on the opposing gunship.

At the same time, the opposing faction will have their own mages that will encase your guns in blocks of ice rendering them unable to fire. It's up to you to send a strike team over with equippable jet packs (they're shirts) to shut down the mages. Take out their Rocketeers as they're the ones that will be returning fire with their own rockets on to your gunship.

Not only that, your ship will be boarded by opposing faction forces and they have to be cleared out by the group of players that are holding down the fort.

Pro tip: The guys that board your ship do a Bladestorm. Keep some ranged close by and make sure these guys get tanked away as they can demolish a raid pretty quickly.

Additional information

WoW.com impressions Stratfu: Videos and detailed strategy WoWWiki MMO Champion: Known Gunship 25 man and 10 man loot

Deathbringer Saurfang
Once you've shot down the other faction's gunship, the doors to the upper levels will open and Deathbringer Saurfang will emerge. He has been reincarnated as one of Arthas' servants and stands between your raid and the rest of the instance. All those legends and myths you've heard about him?

They're true.

Breakdown: Jokes aside, contrary to popular legend, he is defeatable.

The Deathbringer will gain something called Blood Power through a number of mechanics. Ranged players need to spread out due to an AoE he does called Blood Nova. Saurfang gains 2 Blood Power per person affected by it.

Your tanks will need to taunt off each other the moment the current one gains Rune of Blood. Otherwise, Saurfang will continue gaining Blood Power per melee hit on the player affected by Rune of Blood.

He summons Blood Beasts and every melee hit they perform results in a gain of 3 Blood Power. This is every melee hit per Blood Beast. These guys need to be kited and DPS'd. Your job is to destroy them before they can hit the player who has threat on them. Use whatever you can to freeze them in place or slow them down. Knock back effects like Thunderstorm or Typhoon will do the job.

Additional information

WoW.com impressions Stratfu: Videos and detailed strategy WoWWiki MMO Champion: Known Saurfang 25 man and 10 man loot More bosses will be added as they become released for players to experience.

http://www.wow.com/2009/12/08/patch-3-3-icecrown-citadel-raid-boss-informaiton-and-resources/#continued

Corehound Pups in the mail with patch 3.3 [Updated]

2009-12-09T03:29:00.000-08:00

My level 23 Gnome Warrior, whom I have not logged onto in years, got a Corehound Pup in the mail after the servers came back up. He is as adorable as a corehound pup could possibly be. But why did I get him? What's he for?

It appears that several other staff members have gotten the pups in the mail. Some characters have them, some don't. There doesn't seem to by any rhyme or reason behind which characters get them.

We are researching this further, of course, and will keep you up to date. No word from Blizzard yet about this, however.

Did you get a Corehound Pup, too?

Video Update 5:25pm: Video above and screenshot is after the break.
Update 4:39pm: Blizzard confirmed that the Corehound Pup pet is for Authenticator users.
Updated: He (they?) throws a bone in the air and catches it, rolls over and digs a hole in the ground.

WoW Patch 3.3 known issues

2009-12-09T03:26:00.000-08:00

WoW Patch 3.3 obviously is having its share of bugs, some more severe than others. People are reporting inability to zone into instances, often times met either with the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched" error or just flat out lagging out so long that they're ported back to Dalaran or wherever the system decides to drop them, entirely unable to enter the instance.

Some of the issues have been addressed, some haven't.

Blizzard has released the first part of the list of known issues with patch 3.3. It will be expanding in the future, so don't get too upset when you don't see a bug on it. Remember that it typically takes a couple days for a patch to get all its kinks worked out. Just hang tight, enjoy some some lore and trailer action, and things will be fixed before you know it.

The full list of known issues after the break.

Known issues from Eyonix:

General Issues

Logging out inside a battleground and logging back in after the BG is completed will cause characters to be unable to queue using the Looking for Dungeon System.

Spamming the Auto Attack button causes the character to play the attack animation even though no actual attack is done.

Dungeons & Raids

Escape from Durnhold - At the end of the Escape from Durnholde instance Erozion teleports you back to Caverns of Time rather than where you entered the instance from.

Halls of Reflection - Player will get disconnected when running up the ramp to the ship.

Quests
Horde players do not receive a parachute when the Kor'kron Troop Transport is destroyed during the quest, "Assault by Air".

Classes

Druid
While swimming in Cat form or Travel form players nameplates are clipping through their model.

Mage
Mage Summon Water Elemental does not fully function as a permanent pet when glyphed with Glyph of Eternal Water.

Paladin
Avenging Wrath and self cast Lay on Hands cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other.

UI

The dungeon finder visual UI will sometimes display inaccurate class archetype counts.

The group "guide" is called "Party Leader" in chat.

Second wing of Icecrown Citadel to open in 28 days

2009-12-09T03:24:00.000-08:00

Already, a number of guilds have cleared out the first bosses in the lower areas of Icecrown Citadel.
http://www.wow.com/2009/12/08/patch-3-3-icecrown-citadel-raid-boss-informaiton-and-resources/

After taking down the Deathbringer, talking to your friendly faction hero yields some information as to when the doors will open. In Trial of the Crusader, one new boss opened every week. In Icecrown Citadel, it seems like they're increasing the time between gates. The next area will open in 28 days (which is expected to be the Plagueworks containing Festergut, Rotface, and Professor Putricide).

January 5th is the target date for the next set of bosses.

At the rate we're going (28 days between gates), we won't see Arthas until April.

WoW Patch 3.3 priest gear and changes

2009-12-07T03:36:00.000-08:00

With wow patch 3.3 very close on the horizon, I figured now might be a good time to go over the few changes priests will be seeing. I'm also going to provide a list of possible juicy items for you to look forward to from the Icecrown Citadel raid, the Icecrown dungeons and the Emblem of Frost vendor. After all, you can't look to take down Arthas without sporting some new threads, right?

Let's start off with the class priest changes.

Divine Hymn: Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes (currently at 10 minutes). This was largely done to help ensure that certain cooldowns would become available faster when working on encounters with limited attempts. In other words, it sucked that Trial of the Grand Crusader attempts would last for about 3 minutes or so before a wipe was called. Another 7 minutes would be needed before the cooldowns were free again. This will help reduce the down time.

Power Word: Shield: You can cast this on non-raid and party targets who are friendly. Now you can keep Varian alive a little bit longer when Horde are beating him down.

That's it for the healing changes. What about for our shadow guys? Shadow priests will be seeing some DPS increases for sure with these changes:

Improved Devouring Plague: The spell dishes out 10/20/30% of it's periodic effect damage instantly (Currently does 5/10/15%).

Mind Flay: Increases the range of Mind Flay to 30 yards (Currently at 20). The other difference is that the Glyph of Mind Flay doesn't provide the range increase since it's already included in the base spell now. Instead, the new Glyph of Mind Flay increases the damage done by Mind Flay by an additional 10% when the target has Shadow Word: Pain.

Shadowform: The talent affects Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch to see benefits from your haste rating. The period length and duration will be reduced by haste and the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of your base mana. This is a great help in case priests need to switch in and out of forms for specific reasons (like firing off a few heals during an intense part of an encounter).

Vampiric Embrace: The ability provides a 30 minute buff to the priest that cannot be dispelled (Currently is a debuff applied on targets that can be removed). The healing generated will result from single-target shadow damage spells only.

Our Shadowfiend has seen some changes.

Avoidance (passive ability) : Damage taken from area-of-effect spells and abilities are reduced by 90% but it no longer applies to AoE caused by players.

Priest upgrades from the new heroic 5 mans

Well, this is it. patch 3.3 is expected to be the last major content patch before Cataclysm comes out and there's a ton of gear for us from Icecrown.

Although none of these have any gem sockets in them, you might wish to consider Prelate's Snowshoes (Tyrannus in Pit of Saron on heroic), Braid of Salt and Fire (Ick in Pit of Saron on heroic), or Strip of Remorse (Chest from Halls of Reflection on heroic). Of the two belts, you probably want the Strip if you're Discipline. Mord'rethar Robes (Devourer of Souls in Forge of Souls on heroic) and the Suspiciously Soft Gloves (Marwyn in Halls of Reflection on heroic) do not have haste on them but have a decent amount of critical strike rating.

I wonder what makes them so suspiciously soft.

Looking for some weapons? Surgeon's Needle is a decent dagger from Forgemaster Garfrost (Pit of Saron). Pair it up with the Shriveled Heart from the chest that is offered in the Halls of Reflection.

For trinkets, there's the Ephemeral Snowflake which drops from Marwyn. The unique component of the trinket is that when you heal a target with one of your spells, you gain 11 mana. Just think about that for a sec. The 11 mana kicks in whenever a Renew ticks. It happens when your Circle of Healing heals 5 different targets. I'm not sure if it will still grant the mana if your targets are at full health. The on use effect is a hefty 464 haste rating which lasts 20 seconds. I suppose you could cycle it with Power Infusion during high stress situations.

Priest raiding loot

Even though the instance is gated, there's still some great drops from the early bosses. For instance, look at the Althor's Abacus trinket which has a chance on heal to cause another nearby friendly target to be instantly healed for 5550 - 6450. The extra 179 spellpower from it is handy. Even better? It drops from the Gunship encounter which means it'll be accessible from the start. Out of the 10 mans, there's the Sliver of Pure Ice which seems really lackluster (it's like a mana potion every 2 minutes).

Need a new neck? Bone Sentinel's Amulet is available if you get lucky with Lord Marrowgar. Holiday's Grace will have to wait until the plague wing with Festergut is opened up. For the Shadow Priests, there's always Amulet of the Silent Eulogy (off of the Gunship encounter).

There's several choices when it comes to rings. Remember that the Ashen Verdict will award you with their own reputation rings that will increase in quality based on your standing with them. Otherwise, I would pair the Ashen Band of Wisdom with either Ring of Rapid Ascent (Gunship Battle) or Marrowgar's Frigid Eye (Lord Marrowgar).

For weapons, there's a nice assortment to select from. Frozen Bonespike will be available immediately from Lord Marrowgar. Feel free to pair that up with Shadow Silk Spindle. The other option is a nifty little mace called Trauma. Every time you heal a target, there's a chance the target of your heal will heal themselves and friends within 10 yards for 217 each second for 6 seconds. From the 10 mans, start off with Midnight Sun (Gunship battle) or Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff.

Crystal Spire of Karabor version 2? I think so!

There's also the Corpse-Impaling Spike for wands (but you'll fighting with the other DPS casters for that as well).

Since we Priests like our tier sets and our haste, there's the Plague Scientist's Boots. These will come later though since the boots drop from Festergut. Incidentally enough, the Crushing Coldwraith Belt seems to have the exact same stats as the boots. Holy Priests will want to consider the Lingering Illness later on (also from Festergut). The only wrist upgrades will be Death Surgeon's Sleeves (Rotface 25) and Bracers of Dark Blessings (Lady Deathwhisper on 10s).

Among cloaks, there are two choices: Frostbinder's Shredded Cape (Valithria Dreamwalker who comes later on and won't be immediately accessible) and Greatcloak of the Turned Champion (The Deathbringer who is available).

Priest tier gear

Our tier stuff is going to be the last items we wear for the rest of the expansion.

Crimson Acolyte Gloves - 60 Emblems of Frost Crimson Acolyte Hood - 95 Emblems of Frost Crimson Acolyte Leggings - 95 Emblems of Frost Crimson Acolyte Robe - 95 Emblems of Frost Crimson Acolyte Shoulderpads - 60 Emblems of Frost What about the craftable stuff?

You can make the following legs and boots with these Ashen Verdict recipes:

Pattern: Leggings of Woven Death Pattern: Deathfrost Boots Pattern: Lightweave Leggings Pattern: Sandals of Consecration Whatever you do, I wouldn't advise crafting the legs. You're most likely going to replace them with tier anyway. Go for the boots if you're unlucky with boot drops (but don't purchase the Primordial Saronite to craft it, just rely on drops and hope your guild is generous).

Not much is known about the heroic gear at this time. Some items have been discovered but you can expect them to be slightly higher up versions of the normal raiding loot.

Good luck in there!

Icecrown Citadel Raid Access Progression

2009-12-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

This doesn't come as a huge surprise since Ghostcrawler let slip of it in our interview with him, but check out the planned progression for raid access in Icecrown Citadel below.

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

WoW 5th Anniversary Giveaway: 3 Tiny mount loot codes

2009-11-28T02:40:00.000-08:00

It's day three of our World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary giveaway extravaganza and we're celebrating it by giving away 3 codes to Scourgewar TCG deck loot card, Tiny. This summons a mini mount that doesn't increase your run speed, but, well, it looks damn funny. Draenei on a pony? Tauren on a raptor? 50 charges of fun in every code!

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment in this post by Thursday, November 26th, 12pm ET (noon). That's it. Limit one entry per person and make sure you're registered with a valid email address. We'll be choosing three winners randomly from the entrants and contact them via email after the close of the contest. Note that we won't be emailing the code to the winners until mid-December when it is made available to us by the fine people at Upper Deck.

Pics of the mounts in action after the jump!

EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks so much for participating!

Pilgrim's Bounty FAQ

2009-11-23T03:38:00.000-08:00

Around the feast areas, at least on my own server, I've seen the same questions keep popping up about the new holiday, Pilgrim's Bounty. I thought it might be helpful to try answering them here. By necessity, these are a little general; if you want a closer look at getting the holiday achievements, please read our updated guide to Pilgrim's Bounty achievements.

Help! Where do I go to get started?

Go to any of your faction's major cities and find the feasting area. For Alliance, head to Stormwind, Ironforge, or Darnassus: for Horde, head to Orgrimmar, Undercity, or Thunder Bluff. While you can start the holiday in either the Exodar or Silvermoon, it's a little faster to start in any of the "classic" cities because you don't pick up any quests in their BC counterparts.

Where are the feasting areas located?

Alliance

Ironforge: directly outside the main gates to the city.
Stormwind: directly outside the main gates to the city.
The Exodar: directly outside the main entrance to the city.
Darnassus: in the small courtyard directly west of the city gates (where the training dummies are located).

On PvE servers, Horde players will not get flagged visiting the tables at Ironforge and Stormwind for Pilgrim's Peril. You will get flagged at the Darnassus and Exodar tables.

Horde

Orgrimmar: directly outside the main entrance to the city.
Thunder Bluff: directly below the western elevators.
Silvermoon: across the road from the main entrance to the city.
Undercity: above the city in the ruins of Lordaeron courtyard.

On PvE servers, Alliance players will not get flagged visiting the tables at Silvermoon or Orgrimmar for Pilgrim's Peril. You will get flagged visiting the tables at Thunder Bluff and Undercity.

Where do I get the recipes I need to cook?

Any Pilgrim's Bounty vendor in any city will sell you the Bountiful Cookbook, a collection that contains all 5 Pilgrim's Bounty recipes you'll need.

What Cooking skill do I need?

In order to cook all 5 recipes you will need to have at least 330 280 Cooking.

Where do I get all the ingredients for these recipes?

All of the ingredients you'll need (with the exception of the Wild Turkey) are sold by Pilgrim's Bounty vendors located in the feast areas of each city.

Sweet potatoes = Darnassus (Alliance) or Thunder Bluff (Horde)
Cranberries = Ironforge (Alliance) or Orgrimmar (Horde)
Pumpkins = Stormwind (Alliance) or Undercity (Horde)
Wild Turkey = Elwynn Forest or Tirisfal Glades, a 100% drop from the Wild Turkey mobs that spawn during the holiday.
Spice Bread ingredients = any Pilgrim's Bounty or regular Cooking vendor
Honey = any Pilgrim's Bounty vendor
Autumnal Herbs = any Pilgrim's Bounty vendor

The daily quests and the non-daily questline will take you to all of these cities anyway, so you don't need to worry about making a special trip.

Where do I get the Pilgrim clothing and Turkey Shooter I need for achievements?

They're rewards from the 5 Cooking dailies you can do during the holiday. Compared to the clothing you needed to buy for the Midsummer fire festival and Brewfest, they're absurdly easy to get.

Help! The table isn't working!

We've received complaints about the Stormwind and Undercity tables bugging out, and I've observed the same issue with the Undercity tables on my realm (and Alex Ziebart's had the same problem with the Stormwind tables). I don't yet know whether there's a particular Stormwind table that works, but I found that the table directly north of the UC Pilgrim's Bounty vendor worked OK. If you've hit a table where all of the "eating" options are dark and you get an error message trying to pass a dish, it's not you -- it's bugged. Try all of the other tables.

How on earth do these tables work?

Each of the five chairs around the table is a vehicle, and specific to one of the dishes; if you mouseover them, you'll see them labeled the Turkey Chair, or the Sweet Potato Chair, etc. Sit at one, and the following options will pop up on your UI:

#1 is passing a dish, so if you're sitting at, say, the Turkey Chair, #1 will be passing the turkey. #2 is eating turkey. #3 is eating cranberries. #4 is eating stuffing. #5 is eating sweet potatoes. #6 is eating pie. All of the options you currently have available will be brightly lit (and if you're sitting in the Turkey chair, eating turkey will always be available, and so on and so forth); any option you don't have available will be grayed out. For example, in the above screenshot, I'm sitting in the Cranberry chair, so #1 allows me to pass cranberries to other players at the table. Other players seated at my table have passed me turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes, and I can eat cranberries anytime I want because that's the chair I'm in, but no one has passed me pie, so that option isn't lit. In order to get pie, I need to ask the person sitting in the Pie chair to pass me some, or get up and sit in the Pie chair when it becomes available.

For "FOOD FIGHT!", it doesn't matter which chair you pick, but you will need another player to be sitting at the table. Target the player and use the first option; instead of passing them the dish, you'll bonk them over the head with it.

For Sharing is Caring, you'll need to sit at each chair and pass each dish.

For Pilgrim's Paunch, you need to go to each capital city, sit at a table, and eat each food item 5 times. It doesn't matter whether you do this by being passed dishes or getting up and sitting at each table.

For Pilgrim's Peril, you don't need to worry about passing or eating dishes -- you just need to sit at an enemy table and that's enough.

How many turkeys do I need to kill for The Turkinator?

40. Make a /tar Wild Turkey macro and run around Elwynn or Tirisfal spamming it. The nearest mob will light up, so head over, kill it, loot, spam the macro, and keep going until you get the achievement. Each turkey kill will give you a 30-second buff called Turkey Hunter, and you can't let this drop for the achievement. So essentially each kill gives you another 30 seconds to find and kill another turkey until you've amassed 40. If there are a lot of people out hunting turkeys, try to wait for a slower period or find a slightly less popular hunting spot.

These cover the most commonly-asked questions I've seen in my own server's chat channels, but if you have any others, please drop them in the comments below and we'll try to answer them!

The sudden popularity of GDKP

2009-11-23T03:37:00.000-08:00

We've been seeing this GDKP thing sneak up on the forums and elsewhere a lot lately, and while Scott has mentioned it (in a somewhat disparaging way, in fact), we haven't really taken a good look at it yet. So let's do so. GDKP stands for Gold DKP, which is kind of a mishmash of acronyms. DKP, or Dragon Kill Points, are a very popular way of determining loot division in a raid -- the concept dates back to earlier MMOs, and involves players earning points per boss kill that they can then spend on gear. We've talked about other DKP systems before. But rather than awarding loot based on arbitrary points, Gold DKP, as you may have guessed, instead gives loot to the player willing to pay the most gold... to the other players in the raid.

The way it works is this: You go into an instance, say Naxx, and everyone knows ahead of time that it is a "GDKP run," or a "gold run," or a "cash run." You down the first boss, and Webbed Death drops. The master looter then takes bids of gold on the item (this can be done via public chat or via an addon), and whoever bids the most gold gets the item. The person who wins then pays that amount of gold (some raids have minimum bids of, say, 100g) to "the pot," and the raid moves on. Another boss drops, another item drops -- usually all items, including recipes and mats, are auctioned off -- and another high bid goes into "the pot." Then, at the end of the raid, the pot is evenly split among all members. Everybody who joined in on the raid gets an even share of the bidded gold, including people who got no items, or the Mr. Moneybags who won them all.

Interesting, no? It helps nearly every kind of character, from the people who don't need any of the gear but will willingly run instances for gold, to the people who don't have too much gear (newly 80 alts), but have plenty of gold to spend. And generally, the concepts of main spec or off-spec are completely ignored -- the item always just goes to the highest bidder. Anytime someone outbids you for an item, it just raises the amount of gold that you'll walk away with at the end, so theoretically, everybody wins.

There are issues, of course. Generally, because this kind of payoff attracts poorly geared but rich characters, raidleaders have to balance out who's in the raid, and if someone isn't pulling their weight, people are often asked to leave (if you suck, you get kicked, and can lose your pot). And of course, anytime gold becomes the only factor in getting gear, then you get into the point where people are encouraged to cheat and buy gold, not only breaking Blizzard's terms of service, but supporting the same system that's gotten so many players hacked in the past. It's naive to assume that everyone who shows up to a gold run with gobs of cash did so with money they earned themselves, so some players don't support this DKP system just for that reason.

Still, it's a fascinating, completely player-created idea, and especially when you're running with people you can trust and who have handled these raids before (generally, you want to go on a raid with someone who knows what they're doing, and fortunately, "good" GDKP raidleaders tend to get reputations for doing it right), there's a lot of potential to either pick up some nice gear or make a lot of money/badges/etc. We'll have to keep an eye on GDKP in the future (and Blizzard will probably do the same), because it's definitely growing in popularity -- odds are that there's a regular GDKP run on your server already, if not very soon.

Blood Pact: Patch 3.3 raid build roundup

2009-11-17T07:16:00.001-08:00

With patch 3.3 looking evermore imminent and the changes to warlock talents and spells seeming to have settled down, it's a good time to take a look at what we can expect from the next expansion. This isn't going to be a review of the fights and encounters in Icecrown -- though I'm sure we'll get to that at some point -- this is a look at how our various raiding builds have changed.

I've already reported on most of them as they hit the PTR in previous articles, so I'm not going to dwell on the changes themselves. You can read up on this detail here, here, here and here. I wouldn't say that lock talents are broken at the moment but it certainly seems as if we're left little option when it comes to raiding. You have destruction for damage and a demonology bi... err... buff spec. The overriding impression I have looking at the patch 3.3 changes is that there will be more choice to play the spec you like. Something we've not had for a very long time.

After the break I'll list the changes from the patch notes for reference and then we'll get down to how that shakes out.

Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Affliction
Improved Felhunter: This talent now also reduces the cooldown on the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 2/4 seconds. Pandemic: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of the felhunter's Shadow Bite spell by 100%. Shadow Mastery: This talent now also increases the damage done by the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 3/6/9/12/15%. Demonology
Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadow Bolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards. Demonic Pact: This talent now also increases the warlock's spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. Molten Core: Redesigned. This talent now increases the duration of Immolate by 3/6/9 seconds and provides a 4/8/12% chance to gain the Molten Core effect when Corruption deals damage. The Molten Core effect empowers the next 3 Incinerate or Soul Fire spells cast within 15 seconds (Incinerate: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and reduces cast time by 10/20/30%; Soul Fire: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and increases critical strike chance by 5/10/15%). Molten Core now has a new spell effect. Destruction
Conflagrate: Redesigned. This talent now consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 9 seconds of Immolate or 8 seconds of Shadowflame, and causes additional damage over 3 seconds equal to 3 seconds of Immolate or 2 seconds of Shadowflame. In addition, the periodic damage of Conflagrate is capable of critically striking the afflicted target. Ruin: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of the imp's Firebolt spell by 100%. Pets
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Doomguard/Infernal: These pets now innately have Avoidance like all other warlock pets. Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Shadow Bite: This pet ability now provides 15% increased damage for each of the warlock's damage-over-time effects on the target. Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn. Glyphs
Glyph of Life Tap: The effect of this glyph now has a chance of activating when Dark Pact is used. Glyph of Quick Decay: This glyph allows for the warlock's haste to reduce the time between periodic damage effects of Corruption. Bug Fixes
Curse of the Elements: Rank 4 has been increased to 11%, up from 10%. Drain Soul: This spell now deals 4 times the normal damage for all ranks. Previously it was only ranks 6 and above. Glyph of Conflagrate: Now updates the tooltip of Conflagrate to remove reference to Conflagrate removing an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target. Glyph of Siphon Life: This glyph will now modify the tooltip on Siphon Life correctly. Glyph of Unending Breath: Now updates the tooltip on Unending Breath to indicate it increases swim speed. Hellfire: Dealing damage to another player with this ability will now put the Warlock in combat. Improved Shadow Bolt: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets. Suffering (Voidwalker): Ranks 5-8 had the incorrect taunt radius of 5 yards and have all been adjusted to a 10-yard radius. That's quite a bit to scroll through but there are possibly more, and more significant changes to locks than any other class. The first thing I want to do is look at how their theoretical maximum DPS values compare, before and after the patch. I've drawn heavily on the work done by the SimulationCraft guys so many thanks to them. You can read a lot of detail in the SimulationCraft Elitist Jerks forum thread for warlocks. These simulations have been run using the best gear for that spec that is currently available in the game. They have been tweaked so that the optimum rotations and buffs are used. They are also modeled on a static, Patchwerk-style fight. This brings out some very high numbers so don't be dismayed if you aren't seeing your DPS reach these values, what we really want to focus on here are the relative differences between the maximum values of each build.

So, I've grabbed the figures from the SimulationCraft output and put them all into a handy chart. This includes the ten builds simulated which accounts for the main ones used today as well as those that deliver more DPS under the patch 3.3 changes. The builds in the chart are:

Affliction

A1: 55/00/16
A2: 53/00/18 using a Doomguard
A3: 53/00/18 without the Doomguard

Destruction

D1: 00/13/58
D2: 03/13/55

Demonology

d1: 00/56/15 with 3 points in Molten Core
d2: 00/56/15 with Demonic Empowerment
d3: 03/52/16

Hybrid

H1: 00/40/31
H2: 00/41/30

Each bar on the chart has two shades -- the darker being the DPS simulation result under current live mechanics and the total bar height representing the DPS with the changes for patch 3.3.

I'm sure one of the first things people will notice is that an affliction build now has the highest DPS once again. This will bring a smile to many as I believe this is a spec dear to a lot of locks. Specifically in that you will notice that using a Doomguard is no longer worthwhile. This is primarily due to that buffs that the Felhunter has received. I know a lot of people liked to have a reason to bring the big-fella along but for me the retirement of the Doomguard is great news. Builds A2 and A3 are the old style with points in Demonic Power to buff the Succubus. Both of these can be scrapped for the new (A1) build which drops these two points into Improved Felhunter instead. Obviously to go along with all that it's the Felpuppy that should be raiding along side you. The rotation remains exactly the same but the Glyph of Curse of Agony has been swapped out for the new Glyph of Quick Decay.

Fans of Destruction builds should not be downheartened by losing the top spot, frankly the difference is negligible. If you enjoy Destro more and can play it better you will perform better with it in raids. I'm not predicting a huge migration of all end-game raiders over to Affliction as we saw with Destro. The changes to Conflag were the big news for the Destro build and it seemed that all told the spec was getting both a buff and a nerf. This seems to ring true in the simulation with just a slight increase in DPS for both builds.

Demonology has seen some significant tweaking and buffing through the patch testing. This has resulted in (to my mind) some very nice changes -- if somewhat complicated mechanics. You need an instruction manual more than a tooltip to understand how Molten Core is going to work. The upshot is primarily more damage when you cast Soul Fire. It does not make Incinerate worth casting over Shadow Bolt except for the three buffed casts when MC procs. Decimation now triggers from Soul Fire and lasts for a set time. This removes the fiddly Shadow Bolt weaving now employed during the execute phase (target below 35% health).

Demonology is still looking low on personal DPS but this is to be expected. Demonic Pact is still by far the best spell power buff out there and while it has been stated that the devs want demo locks to be taken for their own DPS and not just a buff I can't see that happening until Demonic pact is reigned in somewhat. It is nice to see that the personal damage has been increased though; it did feel like it was slipping too far behind. One thing that might prove me wrong here is the spell damage bonus Demonic Pact will receive -- if this scales well through tier ten, Demo could rise up through the charts.

We see another nail being driven into the coffin lid of warlock hybrid builds in patch 3.3. Currently in live they produce DPS figures a bit below average, the changes incoming see them slip to the bottom of the table. This coupled with the almost complete lack of raid utility (in comparison) makes them pretty useless. I don't know how to feel about that. Hybrid builds are odd beasts and while I like their oddity (and certainly enjoyed playing 00/41/30 in Naxx) it always feels a shame not to be using the juicy talents lurking at the bottom of a talent tree.

On a final note:

I don't usually read Arcane Brilliance (I hear it talks about mages a lot), but I know some people that look at it from time to time. I've been told that in the last installment, Mr Belt requested pictures of mages. It seems he is having somewhat of a hard time coming up with ideas for the title image. It occurred to me that Blood Pact readers might well have quite a collection of pictures of mages and that he might appreciate seeing them. Remember, keep UI and nameplates off and send them to arcanebrilliancepics@yahoo.com, you can also copy in bloodpactpics@googlemail.com and I'll see if we can showcase some of them.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Shadow Word: Pain not affected by haste

2009-11-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

We heard a little while back from Ghostcrawler that haste would soon affect Heal-over-Time (HoT) and Damage-over-Time (DoT) spells, and sure enough, soon after that, Shadow Priests -- who use DoTs all the time -- saw a nice buff. But of course this is the PTR, and everything is subject to change, and so last weekend, Blizzard removed Shadow Word: Pain from that equation -- right now, it's not affected by haste at all. GC says that sure enough, Blizzard thought shadow priest DPS was too high with all of their DoTs given a boost, so SW:P got the boot (for now -- remember, this is all still on PTR).

Misery, my go-to shadow priest, has some good insight on the change, and says that sure, if shadow priest DPS was too high, it was too high. But it's too bad that Shadow Word: Pain had to take the nerf, especially since you get it so early on in the class and it's such an iconic spell for the spec. The reason these guys are so happy about the hasted DoTs is that DoTs as cast don't really scale with your gear -- they just sort of do their damage on their own. When haste got put into the equation, shadow priests became happy that they could go after more haste to increase the DoT part of the damage. They could tailor the spec and spells the way they wanted to use them.

Patch 3.3: Quel'delar caster mace hastened

2009-11-14T18:55:00.001-08:00

Ah, Quel'delar -- the Patch 3.3 questline with rewards for everybody. Well, everybody except tanks. And elemental shamans. And shadow priests, and moonkin, and mutilate rogues, and you get the idea. While the caster sword is itemized very well for DPS casters -- and can be used by two of them -- the mace version is loaded with MP5, which is patently useless for them. A lot of healers don't even really need it on their weapon.

Well, Blizzard may not have caved to tanks or rogues, but they certainly caved to DPS casters, as Bornakk indicates that the MP5 on the Hammer of Purified Flame is being converted to haste to better match Quel'delar, Lens of the Mind. As an elemental shaman in dire need of replacing his Aesuga, I appreciate that!

Then again, this makes it even more odd that sword-and-board tanks are still left out in the cold in this questline. I suppose there's still time before the patch for Blizzard to make the change, but it looks like they're not going that route. Oh well, tanks. There's always dual-spec.

Patch 3.3: Blizzard previews new quest tracking UI

2009-11-14T18:54:00.001-08:00

Looks like the newly-renamed Dungeon Finder isn't the only new UI feature we have to look forward to in Patch 3.3 -- Blizzard just released an official preview of its new Quest Tracking feature, and it looks great. It seems to have a number of the features that ZorbaTHut's great QuestHelper addon does, which follows Blizzard's pattern of poaching the best third-party UIs for use in the stock UI.

Our UI whiz Gregg Reece covered the feature briefly last week, based on what was active on the PTR. For those who haven't fiddled with it, new additions to the UI include:

Enhanced World Map: The large world map is now separated into four active panes. Quests are automatically tracked on the map and listed to its side. The quest log entry for the selected quest is located below the map.

Areas of Interest: Shows what area on the map your quest's points of interest can be found, represented with a blue polygon. If mobs populate a large area, the map will indicate it. If you need to find one specific doodad, that'll be on there too. If there are multiple spawn areas for a mob or doodad, the map will automatically locate the one closest to you.

Pop-out Map: Players can utilize a smaller zone map outside of the normal full-screen map to track progress and get their bearings.

Better Tracking: Tracked quests outside the map will now indicate your progress with a number for items found or mobs killed and will indicate whether you've already completed it.

And more! The main thing I notice is missing (so far) is the arrow that indicates where you should head next on the World Map, like QuestHelper or Carbonite, but who knows if that'll even make it in.

Blizzard says that the new UI will work with nearly every quest in the game, regardless of type. You can check out the official preview here. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/newquestui.xml

WoW Absolute beginners' guide to Arathi Basin

2009-11-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote up a basic look at the Battlegrounds for all the new players who don't know anything about it. From the looks of it, Blizzard expects an influx of new players, too, so newbies will always be on the lookout for 'For Dummies'-type information. Because we're such awesome folks over here at WoW.com, we're ready to oblige. Last week we answered some basic questions about the game's first Battleground, Warsong Gulch. This week, we'll answer some beginner's questions about Arathi Basin, the next Battleground leveling players are eligible to enter. Hit the Read More button to, you know, read more.

ARATHI BASIN

What is Arathi Basin?
Arathi Basin is a resource accumulation Battleground with 15 players on each side. The goal is to gather 1600 resource points (2,000 points prior to Patch 3.2), with the first team to reach that number winning the match and ending the game. There are five resource nodeswhich can be controlled by capturing the associated, nearby flag -- an 8-second channel (formerly 10 seconds) action similar to opening a chest (you'll see a progress bar). Once a flag is tagged, teams must protect it for one minute until it comes under their control. The one minute window allows opposing teams to recapture a tagged flag.

The rate at which resources are gained depend on the number of resource nodes that a team controls -- the more nodes, the faster resources are accumulated. Capturing all five bases guarantee a rapid gain of resources and can be difficult or impossible to overcome if allowed to continue uncontested for a certain period of time. Players also gain honor and reputation according to the resources gained, so teams that win the match get the maximum bonus honor while teams that lose have varying levels of honor gain. It is virtually impossible to have a tied game of Arathi Basin.

The five nodes are the Farm, Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, Gold Mine, and Stables. The Farm is nearest to the Defiler's Den, the Southeastern part of the map where the Horde contingent spawns. The Stable is on the Northwestern part close to Trollbane Hall, where Alliance players start the game. The Lumber Mill is situated to the central West of the map, with the notable geographic feature of being atop a small cliff. It's always fun there. At the center of the map is an island where the Blacksmith is, and slightly Northeast to it would be the Gold Mine.

So, what's the deal with this place?
The physical entrances to Arathi Basin (not that you need them anymore) are located in Hammerfall and Refuge Pointe in the Arathi Highlands. In customarily nebulous fashion, Arathi Basin is supposedly such a resource-rich land that members of the League of Arathor and the unfairly villainous-sounding Defilers constantly clash over it. We can only assume that there's a lot of gold there, as well as some lumber, and a fair amount of livestock. And boy, do the Alliance and Horde forces need their livestock.

What's in it for me?
Unfortunately, none of the gold found inside the gold mine. Aside from honor, though, players get brownie points with the League of Arathor and the Defilers, Alliance players earning the Knight of Arathor and Horde players getting The Defiler Achievements. Either one grants another 10 Achievement points to brag about. Other Achievements can also be pursued if you get some more experience playing the Battleground. If you're not into those things, there's always those Arathi Basin Marks of Honor -- three for those on the winning team, one for those on the losing side -- which you'll need to purchase gear or turn-in in your quest for more honor. And everybody loves more honor.

Cool, I'm sold. What's next?
While Warsong Gulch opens up to players as early as Level 10, Arathi Basin has a slightly higher requirement. It's about perfect, too, since Level 20 is when players can get mounts. Considering players need to get from one node to another in the most expedient fashion, mounts are a good thing. The brackets for Arathi Basin are as follows:

20–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 70–79 80 As with all Battlegrounds, players would do well to be on the higher side of the level bracket in order to better appreciate the Battleground experience. That said, even lower level characters can contribute greatly by keeping their eyes open and alerting their teams to incoming enemies. The Battleground is also bigger than Warsong Gulch, so it's quite possible to avoid too much combat, particularly by keeping guard in relatively quiet nodes.

Let me at 'em! Uh... what do I do?
Easy, fella! My first suggestion would be to get a mount. You'll need one. Fortunately, players can now get mounts at Level 20 since Patch 3.2 worked it in. In the old days, players ran on foot for about twenty levels in Arathi Basin (when Level 40 was the minimum level to obtain a mount), which made the first two brackets of the Battleground rather unpleasant. Arathi Basin is a game of responsiveness, and the team able to support attacked nodes the fastest will win.

While there are many strategies to winning Arathi Basin, one of the best pieces of advice I can give to new players is to always fight near a flag. Making sure a flag is never left alone and is always protected is highly underrated, even by experienced players. Blizzard has already added an incentive to players to protect the flag with the Honorable Defender buff. This increases the honor gained from killing enemy players by 50% as long as you're within reasonable range of the flag. The only way Blizzard could make the message any clearer would be for them to have 50-foot tall neon signs pointing at the flag saying, "Fight Here!"

This means it's always ill-advised to leave a node unguarded. Resist the urge to go where the fighting is, despite the common lull that can happen when a node isn't being attacked. Sometimes a player's worst enemy in Arathi Basin can be boredom, which can strike those who nobly stay to defend the flag. One of the absolute worst things any player can do in Arathi Basin is to needlessly fight on the roads, which doesn't quite achieve anything.

It also goes without saying that having more nodes is better. While controlling three nodes is a slow and steady way to win the game, there's always the danger of losing a node and having the tide turn. As difficult as it may be to pull off, a five-cap or control of all five nodes is the best way to ensure victory, even if maintained only long enough to gain a sizable lead. For new players, simply providing warm bodies to protect flags and call out incoming enemies is key. Don't be afraid to type in the chat channel by typing /bg and keeping your team informed. Even lowbies can help immensely in this respect.

On to Alterac Valley!
Arathi Basin is a fun, fast-paced game that, if you play it right, might even end up with very little PvP at all. It's actually kind of Zen. After we take a quick look at all the other Battlegrounds (don't hold your breath, we've got four more to go...), we'll look at specific strategies every class can employ in each one. In the meantime, don't be afraid to cause some Battleground mayhem! Next week, we'll take a beginner's look at Alterac Valley.

In a short (but not necessarily sweet) announcement, Zarhym announced on the official forums that the recently opened Blizzard pet store are now regio

2009-11-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

Much as I've done with Patch 3.2 and other major patches in the past, I'd like to examine what 3.3 will mean for officers. All major patches require some forethought and adjustment, and this one just happens to be a doozy!

Icecrown Citadel

The ultimate raid of this expansion, Icecrown Citadel is poised to be one of the most exciting raids that Blizzard has ever released. As such, I can virtually guarantee you'll have long-lost players coming out of the woodwork to get back into the raiding scene for a chance to face off with the Lich King. Make sure you review your guild's policies for inviting players to raids to make sure that slots will be awarded in a way that's as fair as possible while still giving your raid a solid chance at success.

One debate that's sure to rage among officers and raid leaders this time around is whether to extend lockouts until you beat the zone and unlock the hard mode toggle or to reset the instance each week to farm the early bosses. I'm still not sure how my guild is going to handle this. It will certainly depend on how quickly we can clear those first bosses and which bosses present more of a roadblock. If we're clearing quickly, we'll probably keep going until we hit a boss we can't beat. Then we'll reset and farm up more loot and Frost Badges.

Frost Badges and Raiding Quests

Just like with Triumph badges now, everyone will want to stock up on these come 3.3. Prepare for a new round of enthusiasm for Heroic dailies.

Remember, also, that 3.3 will introduce weekly raiding quests that reward 10 Frost Badges. The targets are Sartharion, Malygos, Noth, Razuvious, Patchwerk, Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Ignis, XT-002, Jaraxxus, Anub'Rekhan, and Icecrown's first boss, Marrowgar.

I take issue with Marrowgar being included on this list. If you've cleared him and you don't want to reset Icecrown that week, then you can't complete the quest. The other bosses, with the exception of Anub'Rekhan, should constitute quick 10- to 15-minute clears of bosses that you wouldn't ordinarily go after. I highly recommend running the quicker quests prior to your raids. Clearing one or two easy bosses is a good warmup. Plus, doing them first-thing will encourage people to show up on time if they don't want to PUG the raid quest that week. After all, who knows what sort of shenanigans could go down in a Naxx PUG?

Looking for Group

Welcome back, LFG channel! Hopefully we raid leaders catch on and leave the overtaxed Trade channel alone. With the new LFG interface and cross-server instancing, filling those last slots for raids and Heroics should be easier than ever before. If your guild needs to recruit players, these tools should be a big help in finding people to fill out a group who might be interested in joining your guild afterward. You can even recruit players from other servers this way, if they're willing to pay for the transfer. Just remember: poaching is wrong!

The new system includes a Vote Kick feature. It will no longer be the sole realm of the raid or party leader to decide who's not cutting the mustard. I'm not sure if the leader can also be kicked this way, but please treat your raid or party members with respect and courtesy regardless.

Shorter Cooldowns

Sick of waiting for Rebirth to be available before you try hard mode Anub again? Apparently Blizzard is, too. Many class abilities frequently used in raids are getting a shorter cooldown. The list includes the aforementioned "battle rez," Tranquility, Army of the Dead, Divine Intervention, Divine Hymn, Earth and Fire Elemental Totems, Reincarnation, and Soulstone.

For hard mode fights in particular, it will be reassuring to know that almost all class abilities will be active for every attempt. That will lead to less guesswork in combat and less waiting around between attempts (especially in attempt-limited Coliseum hard modes). Thank you, Blizzard!

Another Legendary

Not much is known about how we'll obtain Shadowmourne at this point, although some associated quests have been discovered (link = spoilers!). One thing is certain, however: This item will cause drama, somehow, somewhere. Don't let your guild succumb to the allure of orange pixels. However this weapon is obtained, use common sense and fairness to decide who should receive it. Communicate your plan ahead of time so that no one is surprised when the first critical item drops. Don't let your guild become the next Vicarious.

Gearing Up Guildies

Post 3.3, gearing up your guildmates will be easier than it's ever been in the lifetime of the game. You'll have Triumph Badges dropping from every boss and Frost Badges from dailies. Then you'll have the three new Icecrown dungeons that will drop Coliseum-level gear. And, of course, Trial of the Champion isn't going anywhere, either. Its items are Ulduar-level gear, but they still beat what drops in other Heroics by a long shot. Runed Orbs and Crusader Orbs should plummet in price, making crafting those items much more affordable. Let's not forget the as-yet-unknown Quel'Delar quest line reward, too! If you're really bored, you will be able to teleport directly to Sapphiron's chamber for a few easy drops. Finally, all of Wrath's factions, especially the despised Sons of Hodir, will have faster reputation gains.

With some luck from our old friend RNG, a player will be able to go from mostly quest greens to mostly epics in a matter of days. Of course, they'll still need more loot to optimize their gear set and work their way up to Icecrown-worthy stats, but it's still way faster than it was to upgrade from greens to epics via Karazhan runs and Badges of Justice back in the day.

Odds and Ends
Gathering guild members around the world will be much easier now that meeting stones will be usable on any player over level 15. I can only assume this is a godsend for RP guilds. Players that are level 10 or below can no longer join raids. If you're planning any guild events that involve level 1 toons, you'll have to either use voice chat, create your own chat channel, or invite them all to your guild in order to communicate. The new fishing derby is Wednesday at 8 p.m. If your raids normally begin at 8, and if the derby only take a few minutes to win or lose, you might consider delaying the start for 10 minutes to allow players to participate. All in all, 3.3 gives officers some incredible new content to run with our guilds, some great new tools, and some much-needed conveniences. What are you most looking forward to?

/salute

Blizzard pet store now regional

2009-11-10T03:44:00.000-08:00

In a short (but not necessarily sweet) announcement, Zarhym announced on the official forums that the recently opened Blizzard pet store are now regional. This means that pets purchased from, say, the European store can only be redeemed on European World of Warcraft accounts. He doesn't go into detail other than to say that pets that have already been purchased from one region and redeemed in another region are not affected by this change.

While it's a curious move on the surface, it effectively restricts players from Europe purchasing their Pandaren Monk and Lil' K.T. from the US store where the pets are cheaper at $10 compared to €10 or £10 in the EU (roughly $15). Interestingly enough, the pets are priced at ₩12,000 in the Korean version of the store, which is about the same price as in the US ($10.3). It's unclear why the European version of the pets -- along with a few other Blizzard store items -- are more expensive, a fact that makes Turpster huff and puff and blow Azerothian houses down.

Obvious business reasons aside, it also creates a minor inconvenience for people who would like to give the pets as gifts to players in other regions. However, considering that many vanity pet codes have been regional in the past, such as those given away during Blizzard special events, it's not a surprising move. Then again, this whole foray into microtransactions was a bit of a surprise, so we've learned to never underestimate those folks from Irvine.
Tags: Blizzard-Pet-Store, Economy, in-game-pets, Lil-KT, microtransaction, Microtransactions, pandaren-monk, Pet-Store, Vanity-Pets

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Europe

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Cataclysm: The exhaustive list of old-world changes (so far)

2009-11-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is coming. Sometime. We're at that point now where BlizzCon has been over for a few months and Blizzard is being pretty stingy with new information in the meantime. It's a definite dry spell, but the same thing happened with Wrath -- and then the Friends and Family Alpha began, and all bets were off.

And while the F&F Alpha for Cataclysm hasn't started yet (believe me, we'd know), that doesn't mean you can't stay informed. There've been bits and pieces of new info released, in PC Gamer magazine, on Twitter, and elsewhere on the internet. And we like to keep track of that! What's come out is mostly new information on what's going to happen to Azeroth. And we just recently decoded this planning map of Cataclysm zones, which is where some information comes from.

So what this article is meant to be is a compendium of all known changes to old-world zones that'll occur in Cataclysm, sorted by continent and zone. We'll update whenever new information is released.

Hit the jump to get caught up!

Disclaimer: Some information may be outdated or incorrect by this stage in Cataclysm's development!

KALIMDOR
Ashenvale
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 20-25.

Increased orc presence in Ashenvale has resulted in severe deforestation around the Warsong Lumber Camp.
Horde forces have begun to move in on Silverwind Refuge.
Astranaar is being assaulted from the air by the Horde. Azshara
Overhaul level: High.
Levels 10-20.

Goblins have claimed Azshara for the Horde and have reshaped the land into a giant Horde symbol.
The mountains have been mostly destroyed by goblin mining.
The goblins have built a city there, linked directly with Orgrimmar. The Barrens
Overhaul level: Moderate (North) to High (South).
North Barrens: 10-20; South Barrens, 30-35.

The Cataclysm has split the Barrens into two separate zones, North and South Barrens.
The two zones are divided by a huge lava fissure.
The Alliance will be moving into South Barrens, setting up camps there.
Some of the Barrens, such as the area around Wailing Caverns, will be lush and verdant due to druidic intervention.
Entryway into Mulgore has been reinforced by the tauren.
Camp Taurajo razed by the Alliance. Darkshore
Overhaul level: High.
Levels 10-20.

Auberdine has been destroyed by tidal waves.
The cataclysm has ravaged much of the zone.
The night elves have retreated to the north end of the zone.
The Horde is encroaching from the south. Desolace
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 30-35.

The cataclysm has cracked a hole in the sea wall, allowing water into the zone.
Some of the zone has regrown due to the water coming back.
The covens in the zone appear to have been partially successful in summoning in Burning Legion demons. Durotar
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 1-10.

Orgrimmar is reinforced with black iron a la Warsong Hold.
Some damage is done to the landscape. Dustwallow Marsh
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 35-40.

Changes unknown at this time. Felwood
Overhaul level: Moderate.
New level range unknown.

Changes unknown at this time. Feralas
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 35-40.

Changes unknown at this time. Moonglade
Overhaul level: Light.
No level range.

Changes, if any, unknown at this time. Mulgore
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 10-20.

Changes unknown at this time. Silithus
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 55-60.

Changes unknown at this time. Stonetalon Mountains
Overhaul level: High.
Levels 25-30.

The goblins have nearly leveled Stonetalon in with their mining operation.
A canyon has been cut through the mountains leading to Ashenvale.
An eruption has caused the Charred Vale to spread even further. Tanaris
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 45-50.

It is now possible to travel to Uldum, the new high-level zone, via Tanaris. Thousand Needles
Overhaul level: High.
Levels 40-45.

The cataclysm has resulted in Thousand Needles completely flooding.
The planning map indicates a new instance in Thousand Needles. Un'Goro Crater
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 50-55.

Changes unknown at this time.
EASTERN KINGDOMS

Alterac Mountains
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 20-25.

Changes unknown at this time. Arathi Highlands
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 25-30.

Changes unknown at this time. Badlands
Overhaul level: High.
New level range unknown.

Heavily affected by Deathwing's emergence. Details unknown. Blasted Lands
Overhaul level: High.
New level range unknown.

Planning map indicates a large overhaul, but changes are unknown. Burning Steppes
Overhaul level: Unknown.
New level range unknown.

Changes unknown at this time. Deadwind Pass
Overhaul level: Unknown.
New level range unknown.

Changes unknown at this time. Dun Morogh
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 1-10.
Changes unknown at this time. Duskwood
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 20-25.

Changes unknown at this time. Eastern Plaguelands
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 40-45, 45-50.

Changes unknown at this time; likely related to the death of Arthas. Elwynn Forest
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 1-10.

Changes unknown at this time. Eversong Woods
Overhaul level: Unknown.
Levels 1-10.

Changes, if any, unknown at this time. Ghostlands
Overhaul level: Unknown.
Levels 10-20.

Changes, if any, unknown at this time. Hillsbrad Foothills
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 20-25.

Southshore lost to tidal waves. Loch Modan
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 10-20.

Changes unknown at this time. Redridge Mountains
Overhaul level: Unknown.
Levels 20-25.

Changes unknown at this time. Searing Gorge
Overhaul level: Unknown.
Levels 45-50.

Changes unknown at this time. Silverpine Forest
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 10-20.
The Greymane Wall has been destroyed, opening the kingdom of Gilneas.
Shadowfang Keep questline getting redesigned for high-level players. Stranglethorn Vale
Overhaul level: High.
New level range unknown.

Blizzard indicated that STV would be one of the most overhauled zones. Swamp of Sorrows
Overhaul level: Moderate.
New level range unknown.

Changes unknown at this time. The Hinterlands
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 30-35.

Changes unknown at this time. Tirisfal Glades
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 1-10.
Changes unknown at this time. Western Plaguelands
Overhaul level: Light.
Levels 35-40.
Changes unknown at this time but likely related to Arthas' death. Westfall
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 10-20.

Changes to Deadmines questline for high-level players. Wetlands
Overhaul level: Moderate.
Levels 20-25.

Heavy landscape changes to the zone due to the emergence of Deathwing.
Passage to Twilight Highlands to the east opened.

WoW Patch 3.3 PTR: Patch Notes updated

2009-11-10T03:39:00.001-08:00

The PTR patch notes for Patch 3.3. have been updated. Some of the significant changes:
Oculus appears to have been significantly nerfed. Obviously, this was done to facilitate easier random PUGs using the new cross-server dungeon system. Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion and Sated from the target. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Lay on Hands: This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself. It will not place Forbearance on others. Bug fixes... 158 of them by my count. It appears that Blizzard isn't done with the changes to Lay on Hands, which should be particularly noteworthy to Paladins everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see LoH go through a few more changes before all is said and done.

The full changes after the break.

Oculus
Many bosses and creatures have had their total health reduced. Several bosses and creatures have had cooldowns on specific abilities increased, effect durations reduced, and damage on some of these abilities reduced. Ring-Lord Conjurers and Sorceresses now hang out in packs of 4 instead of packs of 5. Vehicle scaling on the drakes based on the rider's item level has been increased to make them more powerful. Paladin
Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion and Sated from the target. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Lay on Hands: This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself. It will not place Forbearance on others. Items

Haris Pilton now sells a new 24-slot bag! She has stubbornly decided to remain in Shattrath City, so those interested should seek her out there. Bug Fixes

Items

Ancient Pickled Egg: This item can no longer be triggered by Life Tap. Brutal Hauberk: The tooltip on this item no longer references granting energy (as energy-based classes cannot equip it). Costumes: Various costumes from holidays, items, and quests that previously were cancelled by getting on a mount will now cause an error message when the player attempts to mount instead of cancelling the costume. Carapace of the Old God: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system. Crystalforged Trinket: Can now be refunded at its vendor. Dragonslayer Set: No longer displays a duration on the Nature's Ally buff. Drums of the Forgotten Kings: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations. Drums of the Wild: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations. Eating and Drinking: Eating and drinking are now cancelled and prevented while in a vehicle as a passenger. Figurine: Emerald Owl: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form. Figurine: Talasite Owl: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form. Fire Hardened Hauberk: The tooltip on this item no longer references granting energy (as energy-based classes cannot equip it). Giantstalker Set: No longer displays a duration on the Nature's Ally buff.Glyph of Immolation Trap: Now properly increases damage by 100%. Gul'dan's Regalia Set: Tooltip corrected to indicate increased damage for all pet attacks, not just abilities. Husk of the Old God: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system. Idol of Flaring Growth: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip. Idol of Lunar Fury: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip. Idol of The Corruptor: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip. Insignia of the Alliance: Item level changed to 60. Insignia of the Horde: Item level changed to 60. Level 58 PvP Items: A variety of PvP items with a minimum level of 58 were not being translated properly when a player used the Paid Faction Change service. That has been corrected. Paladin- and shaman-specific items still will not be translated, as there is no opposite version to translate them into. Liadrin's Plate Set: No longer incorrectly reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield. Lightning Capacitor: Combat log tooltip for Electrical Charge updated to include more detailed information. Nightsong Regalia Set: The bonus to Rejuvenation from this set will now work properly with the Idol of Rejuvenation equipped. In addition, the instant heal provided now has a correct combat log tooltip. Noggenfogger Elixir: Players shrunk while under the effects of this item will now be able to mount. Quel'dorei Channeling Rod: Spelling error corrected. Quel'dorei Sash: Spelling error corrected. Quel'dorei Guard: Spelling error corrected. Qiraji Bindings of Command: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system. Qiraji Bindings of Dominance: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system. Reclaimed Shadowstrike: No longer has a cooldown to create Reclaimed Thunderstrike. Reinforced Shadowstrike: No longer has a cooldown to create Reinforced Thunderstrike. Reins of the Swift Frostsaber: The mount learned from this item no longer triggers a global cooldown. Runescroll of Fortitude: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations. Seaspray Albatross: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form. Sigil of Virulence: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip. Solace of the Defeated: Can no longer be triggered by spells with a base cost of 0. Solace of the Fallen: Can no longer be triggered by spells with a base cost of 0. Spirit of Eskhandar Set: This set no longer requires Eskhandar's Collar to complete (that item can no longer be acquired). Swift Horde Wolf: The mount learned from this item no longer triggers a global cooldown. The Egg of Mortal Essence: This item can no longer be triggered by Life Tap. Tier 2 Helmets: Looting these items from Nefarion in Blackwing Lair will no longer trigger the Onyxia's Lair (level 60) Feat of Strength achievement. Totem of Quaking Earth: This totem will no longer sometimes grant unintended bonus healing. Turalyon's Plate Set: No longer incorrectly reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield. Veklor';s Diadem: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system. Warmth of Forgiveness: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form. Windrunner Set: The set bonus which grants Greatness to the hunter's pet will no longer spuriously show the hunter also gaining that buff. Worldbreaker Garb Set: The Electrified effect caused by this set now has detailed combat log tooltips. Racial Abilities

Arcane Torrent: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs. Every Man for Himself: Disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger this ability. Classes

Death Knights

Bloody Strikes: Now properly increases the damage displayed in the tooltips of Blood Strike and Heart Strike. Bone Shield: Tooltip corrected to indicate the player has the correct number of bones. Chains of Ice: This ability will no longer appear to land on targets which are immune. Desecration: The debuff from this ability will no longer sometimes appear as if it were cast by someone else. In addition, the visual and snare from this ability will now both dissipate at the same time. Further, this talent will now respect snare immunities, and no longer sometimes snare immune targets. Frost Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time. Glyph of Bone Shield: Now updates the number of charges in the Bone Shield tooltip. Glyph of Dark Death: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil. In addition, its own tooltip has been clarified to indicate it also applies to healing from Death Coil. Glyph of Death's Embrace: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil to indicate runic power is refunded. Glyph of Heart Strike: Now updates the tooltip on Heart Strike to indicate Heart Strike applies a movement snare. Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Now updates the tooltip on Icebound Fortitude to show increased damage reduction. Glyph of Plague Strike: Now updates the damage shown in Plague Strike's tooltip. Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now updates the tooltip on Unbreakable Armor. Tooltip on glyph modified to make its effect more clear as well. Master of Ghouls: Tooltip typo corrected. Night of the Dead: Tooltip typo corrected. Obliterate: This ability will no longer sometimes fail to do additional damage based on diseases on the target. Raise Ally: While this spell is active on a target, they will not be sent to the graveyard, prematurely ending the spell. Strangulate: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs. Taste of Blood: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip. Unholy Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time. Druids

Glyph of Hurricane: Now modifies the spell tooltip on Hurricane to indicate the spell also applies a movement slowing effect. Hurricane: When cast from Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, this spell will now channel properly instead of stopping the channel as soon as the shapeshift is cancelled. Infected Wounds: This ability is no longer considered to be in the magical defense category; therefore spell hit no longer applies to its activation. Tooltip error corrected. Nature's Grace: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it will not be activated from periodic spell critical strikes. Swipe (Bear): Tooltip corrected to display 8 yard range. Hunters

Concussive Barrage: This ability is no longer subject to spell reflects. Explosive Trap: The damage from this trap will now scale properly with the hunter's attack power. Glyph of Immolation Trap: Now properly increases damage by 100%. In addition, this glyph will now modify the tooltip of Immolation Trap correctly. Glyph of Mending: This glyph will now modify the amount healed in the tooltip on Mend Pet. Point of No Escape: This ability no longer stacks and now only functions for the hunter. Roar of Sacrifice: Corrected tooltip error. Silencing Shot: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs. Volley: The tooltip for this ability will now update properly from haste. Mages

Arcane Concentration: The interaction of this talent with Arcane Missiles has been restructured. Instead of an Arcane Missiles cast triggering the talent, each missile has an independent (but reduced) chance to trigger this talent. In addition, the talent will no longer sometimes be triggered from misses by Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast, and Blizzard. Blast Wave: Tooltip typo corrected. Blizzard: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Also fixed a bug where some trinkets were not triggered by this spell. Cone of Cold: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Dalaran Intellect: Mages will now be properly blocked from casting this spell when the target has a more powerful version of the buff. Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time. Frost Nova: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Frostbolt: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Glyph of Mirror Image: Now updates the tooltip on Mirror Image to show 4 images are summoned. Ignite: Now correctly benefits from the dispel resistance granted by the Arcane Subtlety talent. Ice Lance: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Improved Scorch: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets. Mirror Image: The mirror images summoned will no longer sometimes appear as shades before taking on the appearance of the casting mage. Prismatic Cloak: Rank three of this talent will now properly modify the tooltip on Invisibility to indicate the effect is instant. Slow Fall: This spell can now activate trinkets that can trigger from casting a helpful spell. Winter';s Chill: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets. Paladins

Aura Mastery: The animation for this ability will no longer be extra bright when used with Concentration Aura active. Beacon of Light: The effect of this ability will no longer sometimes continue past the duration of its buff. In addition, the duration when used with the Glyph of Beacon of light will now correctly be 1.5 minutes. Finally, the tooltip was corrected to indicate benefitting targets must be in the paladin's party or raid. Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. Blessing of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects. Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength. Devotion Aura: When in a party with another paladin using a different rank of this ability, it is no longer possible to see two different Devotion Aura icons displayed as buffs. Divine Sacrifice: This ability now properly counts all damage transferred against its limit, instead of not counting some damage. Greater Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. Greater Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength. Guardian's Favor: Corrected a tooltip error in rank 1 of this ability. Hand of Freedom: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the druid spell Cyclone. In addition, disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger casting this on oneself. Hand of Reckoning: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability. Hand of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects. Heart of the Crusader: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff. Judgements of the Just: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff. Judgement of Righteousness: The damage from this ability will no longer sometimes increase when the paladin's agility increases (only occurred with low strength and high agility). Judgement of Wisdom: Corrected incorrect information in the combat log tooltip. Seal of Corruption: Tooltip corrected to list the actual amount of damage done instead of a higher number. Priests

Glyph of Power Word: Shield: The heal caused by this glyph will now correctly use the casting priest's critical strike chance instead of the target's. Inspiration: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it also functions with Prayer of Mending. Levitate: This spell can now activate trinkets that can trigger from casting a helpful spell. Mind Flay: The rank 1 tooltip has been corrected to indicate the accurate damage and snare effect. In addition, this ability will now work correctly with [target=focus] and [target=mouseover] macros. Prayer of Mending: Inspiration and Divine Aegis can no longer be incorrectly triggered by this spell for priests who do not have those talents. Silence: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs. Spirit Tap: This talent can no longer be triggered by the death of the priest's Jewelcrafter Stone Statues. Rogues

Ambush: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Backstab: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Deadly Poison: Another rogue using a higher rank of this poison will no longer prevent the lower rank Deadly Poison from being applied to the target. Eviscerate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Glyph of Rupture: Now updates the duration on Rupture's tooltip. Killing Spree: Entering a vehicle will now cause this ability to halt, and attempting to use it while on a vehicle will result in an error message. Mutilate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. In addition, the damage from this ability can now be blocked. Sinister Strike: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Slice and Dice: Improved Slice and Dice and Glyph of Slice and Dice now update the duration of this ability. Throwing Specialization: Deadly Throw will no longer cause multiple spell interruption combat log entries when used with this talent. Shamans

Glyph of Earthliving Weapon: Now updates the tooltip for Earthliving Weapon. Mana Tide Totem: The tooltip on this spell will now be modified properly by the Glyph of Mana Tide Totem. Thunderstorm: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the Druid spell Cyclone. Warlocks

Curse of the Elements: Rank 4 has been increased to 11%, up from 10%. Drain Soul: This spell now deals 4 times the normal damage for all ranks. Previously it was only ranks 6 and above. Glyph of Conflagrate: Now updates the tooltip of Conflagrate to remove reference to Conflagrate removing an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target. Glyph of Siphon Life: This glyph will now modify the tooltip on Siphon Life correctly. Glyph of Unending Breath: Now updates the tooltip on Unending Breath to indicate it increases swim speed. Hellfire: Dealing damage to another player with this ability will now put the Warlock in combat. Improved Shadow Bolt: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets. Soul Link: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects. Suffering (Voidwalker): Ranks 5-8 had the incorrect taunt radius of 5 yards and have all been adjusted to a 10-yard radius. Warriors

Blood Frenzy: This debuff is no longer considered a Bleed effect that can be removed separately from the actual Bleed effect which caused it. Bloodrage: Tooltip now adjusts to show effect of Anger Management on this ability. Glyph of Cleaving: Now updates the tooltip of Cleave to show that more targets are struck by the ability. Glyph of Hamstring: Now updates the tooltip of Hamstring to indicate it has a chance to immobilize. Glyph of Vigilance: Now updates the tooltip on Vigilance to show that more threat is transferred. Mocking Blow: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability. Rampage: Rampage now behaves correctly as an Enrage effect when interacting with the Enraged Regeneration ability. Recklessness: Heroic Throw and Shattering Throw will now benefit from this ability and consume charges of this ability. In addition, Recklessness now behaves correctly as an Enrage effect when interacting with the Enraged Regeneration ability. Sudden Death: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip. Sweeping Strikes: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip. Vigilance: The threat transfer granted by this ability will now reactivate when Tricks of the Trade or Misdirection cast by the Vigilance target expires. Warbringer: Tooltip typo corrected. Game Systems

Target Effects: When this UI feature is activated, Fear, Silence, Frostbolt, and Hamstring will all now display text over the target's head indicating what type of effect has been applied.

Tier 10 armor set gallery

2009-11-10T03:38:00.000-08:00

Blizzard finally released the last of its Tier 10 sneak peeks, the long-awaited shaman set, and it did not disappoint. Now that all of the waiting is over -- at least, the waiting for sneak peeks -- we've assembled a gallery of the Tier 10 sets for all classes.

It looks like Blizzard really took their time on these sets. Some I may not like as much as others, design-wise, but they all have top-notch texture work and attention to detail. Check out the wool pattern on the shaman set, or the fiery brands on the warrior set, or the two-toed hunter boots. A lot of the sets are adorned with moving parts, too, like the druid shoulders, which snap and bite periodically. And most of them follow a very cohesive theme -- "stuff we've seen in Wrath up to this point." The warrior set should immediately remind you of King Ymiron, the rogue set is, well, a geist, and the death knight set might as well be called "Arthas Jr."

So, check out what you've got coming in Patch 3.3. With the new Dungeon System, a week or so of heroics will get you a full set of Tier 9 gear and get you all set to face Arthas, if you're up for it.

The WoW comic leading into Cataclysm (spoilers)

2009-11-10T03:37:00.000-08:00

The Wrath storyline factored heavily into the official WoW comics, albeit slightly late, and continues to do so with the release of the upcoming Thassarian manga. And now it looks like it's headed on a collision course with the storyline to Cataclysm! Ogre-turned-Liefeldian-monstrosity Cho'gall recites a prophecy in the latest issue related heavily to the Old Gods, Mary Sue shamagadin Med'an, and the Elemental Planes. BlizzPlanet has a pretty good writeup of what the prophecy could mean and its consequences down the road, but I'll give you a brief summary here, too.

Of course, I'll toss it after the jump for those inclined to avoid spoilers. Ready?

Cho'gall, empowered by C'Thun, says that when the child of three worlds, Med'an, becomes "of Light" -- dies, in the vernacular -- then the barrier between the Elemental Planes and terrestrial Azeroth will shatter and they'll begin to merge. Well, we certainly know that the merger (or, more fittingly, hostile takeover) happens, so it stands to reason that Med'an will die. I figured Deathwing just did it himself, but I guess there's more to it. It could also lend credence to the rumor that Thrall becomes the new Guardian of Tirisfal, despite Med'an's recent infusion of Guardian power.

Let me get on my soapbox for just a minute here.

To be frank, I like the concept of Med'an -- a mixed-breed in a world where the most we usually get are the result of Rhonin's apparently irresistible charms to elven women -- but the execution of the character has been just awful so far. A character that can use every kind of magic. who happens to be the son of two Warcraft II heroes! How wonderful. That certainly makes everyone else obsolete.

So, no, I wouldn't mourn the loss of Med'an in the way he's been presented so far, especially if it means that someone whose character has been completely assassinated in Wrath -- our favorite Son of Durotan -- can come back to the forefront and be an actual leader... even if it's not just for the Horde anymore.

But this is a consistent issue with the WoW comic, in my opinion -- uneven characterization, exclusive storylines that aren't really that engaging to begin with but still affect the game world, and new characters that act like we've known them forever. Add to that the increasingly unattractive art in the book, like Garrosh's tiny, tiny head and "shoulders" that make up roughly half his body -- I know I already used the word Liefeldian, but I really want to use it again -- and it equals out to sizable difficulty in enjoying the series at all, either in art or story. But the comic is also the only way to experience these storylines in the expanded universe.

So here's what Blizzard can do for us: Avoid confining important storylines to just the comics or novels. We encountered this with Sartharion and the Obsidian Sanctum -- players actually did have a legitimate reason for killing him, but most players have no idea what that reason is. And that's because it was contained in Night of the Dragon, a novel, and never once mentioned in-game. Not in a quest, not in gossip text, nothing. And any player who doesn't read the comics has no idea why Varian Wrynn is back as King of Stormwind or why he's so angry at the Horde. All we need is something in the game.

For Cataclysm, there's so much fantastic backstory behind Deathwing and the Cataclysm itself that it'd be a true shame to have a huge driving force behind it stuck in comic book land. Let's hope that Blizzard feels the same way.

WoW launcher and downloader causing validation errors [Updated]

2009-11-10T03:31:00.000-08:00

I and many tipsters have encountered some issues tonight when trying to launch the game.

Here's what we know:

The Launcher is downloading something small. It is taking much longer than the 2 minutes estimated. Sometimes the download fails. Once the "something" has been downloaded, some are getting "unable to validate game version". Constant attempts to log in appear to make the error go away. There is no indication of what has been downloaded. Here's what we don't know: What was downloaded.

We will update you as soon as we know anything.

Please note: There is no indication patch 3.3 is dropping. NONE.

Update 8:55pm: Blizzard says that the downloading issues are due to "prime time" and gives some advice in this link, mostly suggesting to wait.

Update 8:44pm: Blizzard is calling this a "Tools Patch" and saying that "Safe Mode with Networking" is solving some people's problems. Obviously the issues are not fixed.

Update 8:30pm: Blizzard says they have fixed the issues. Anyone still having problems should take the steps outlined in this link.

Hallow's End was exactly random enough

2009-11-04T03:42:00.001-08:00

Now that Hallow's End is over for another year, it's time to settle up. We already asked whether you got what you wanted, but according to the informal polls (and the feedback I've been hearing), quite a few people didn't actually get everything they were trying for. As we mentioned on the podcast the other week, many people who said they did everything they could probably didn't (did you really go trick-or-treating every hour of every day during the holiday?), but it's not too far a stretch to suggest that maybe the drop rates for some of the hardest items to get (the Horseman's helm and the Sinister Squashling pet seem to be the toughest, though I heard a lot of stories about hard-to-find toothpicks, too) are a little bit lower than they should be for fairness.

Not so, says Bornakk -- he said while the holiday was ongoing that the drop rates were fine, and now that it's over, he says they're still fine. That doesn't mean Blizzard won't change it for next year, but it does mean that they don't have any current plans to change the holiday at all. "The randomness," as he says, "can win sometimes."

Our condolences if you were trying for an item and didn't get it -- even on a 50/50 coin flip, there's still a chance to see one side 1000 times in a row. We sincerely mean this one: better luck next year.

Print Warcraft opens its doors

2009-11-04T03:41:00.003-08:00

The newest in Blizzard's ever-expanding line of customizable merchandise, Print Warcraft just opened its doors to the public. Like FigurePrints, the site allows you to create merchandise based on your in-game characters, this time art like posters and prints.

While we've been having a bit difficulty accessing the site, likely due to launch-day growing pains, we know that the service allows a ton of customization options. Start by selecting your character, realm, and print size. Then choose from a number of templates, borders, backgrounds, character poses, pets, and more! The prices range from $17.99 for a 12x18 print to $29.99 USD for a 40x27 poster.

If you're actually able to place an order, please let us know how it comes out when you get it in the mail! If the price is right and so is the quality, it might be a decent Winter Veil gift to deck somebody's walls with. Or yours.

Curse Client v4 now in open beta

2009-11-04T03:41:00.001-08:00

Curse has recently released version 4 of their addon client to open beta.http://www.curse.com/articles/curse-en-news/599024.aspx This is a major overhaul from their current client both in looks and functionality. It adds features such as change logs, settings backup, addon package creation, and a healthy dose of added security.

While it still does have some features only available to premium users, it is much less nagging about the process than their v3 client is known to be. Adamar (PC version) and Kaelten (Mac version as well as the addon OneBag) are the developers behind this new version and have been working with ckknight to help integrate some of its features into WoWAce.com and CurseForge addon development sites (both of which are owned by Curse Gaming). This allows players to report bugs via the new client and have them show up as support tickets in the addon sites for the developers to track and work with.

We've put together a couple quick galleries of what both the Mac (thanks Mike!) and PC versions of the new client look like as well as delving into some of the cool new features that are available with premium membership.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Patch notes updated

2009-11-04T03:39:00.000-08:00

The official patch notes on the forums have been updated for an incoming PTR build. We've got the addition of arena points to high level battlegrounds as well as class changes for mages, death knights, paladins, shaman, and warlock.

Some of the major points coming out of this iteration of the patch notes include:

Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character's minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone. All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards. Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas. Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance. The new notes after the break.

General:
Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character's minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone. Battlegrounds:
All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards. Wintergrasp
You must now have the following ranks to build or pilot siege vehicles:
Rank 2: Build/pilot Catapults. Rank 3: Build/pilot Demolishers. Rank 3: Build/pilot Siege Engines. Death Knights:
Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas. Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%. Mages:
Fingers of Frost: This talent now triggers immediately on casting a spell rather than being delayed until the spell strikes the target. Paladins:
Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent. Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance. Sacred Shield: Reverted back to the live realm version. Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin's Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds. Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds. Shamans:
Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Warlocks:
Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. UI:

Group Disenchanting Option: In addition to rolling Need or Greed on items, players now have the option to elect for an item to be disenchanted if an enchanter of the appropriate skill level is in the group. Disenchant works exactly like Greed except if a player wins the Greed roll, they will receive the disenchanted materials instead. Players who choose Need will always win the item and will always beat those that choose Greed or Disenchant.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Meeting Stones for all

2009-11-04T03:38:00.000-08:00

Great news for players of all classes and levels (well, levels above 15)! In the latest official patch notes update for the Patch 3.3 PTR, Blizzard added the following line:

Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character's minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

Now that's a change that's been a long time coming. Ever tried to get your level 80 guildie to Deadmines to help you carve a bloody swath straight to Van Cleef? It's a pain! Ever tried to get your lowbie to a high-level zone without a portal? Also a pain! This completely removes the restrictions on using or activating summoning stones so long as you're above level 15.

Now you'll be able to bring whoever you want to any dungeon summoning stone with just two people. A fantastic quality-of-life change, very likely added to ensure that interest in rerolling remains steady until Cataclysm comes out, but who cares? I'll take it! Who wants to run me through ZF?

--

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

http://wow.com/guide-to-patch-3-3

All the World's a Stage: The voices of every race and class speak in RP

2009-11-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

All the World's a Stage has been a voice for roleplaying in WoW for over two years now. I didn't quite realize it at the time, but the article entitled "So you want to be a bad guy" was just about at the 2 year mark for this column! To celebrate belatedly, today we'll review some of the other websites about roleplaying in WoW out there. If you like All the World's a Stage, you'll probably enjoy these as well.

In addition, you will find that some of these websites have similar, but unique pages with information about roleplaying the various races and classes of Azeroth. So for those of you who would like to have a reference to all these articles in a single place, I've collected them all together in one list at the end of the article. This list includes my own articles, as well as those of all the other websites I'm about to mention which follow on the same theme.

Blogatelle

The first blog on my list is Blogatelle, started by my one of my friends I met through roleplaying in the game. Even though this blog itself is discontinued, there's lots of good stuff to read there. Probably most notable on the site are the "Play Files," in-depth articles about each of the playable races from a roleplayer's point of view. They're similar to my own "So you want to be..." articles on each race, except that they focus more on the way the different races view one another instead of the history and lore behind each one.

In addition to the Play Files, Blogatelle did a series called "Do it Different," about which was also like another part of my "So you want to be..." series on each class, except that instead of trying to focus on some of the basic things every roleplayer of each class ought to know as I did, they focused on how to try and break the stereotypes that people often got into when they played these classes. Again, scroll down to the end of the article to see a list of specific links for your race and class.

RP Made Simple

Another great website for WoW roleplaying is the famous "RP Made Simple" blog, which has a great approach to roleplaying that really does make it seem simple! If you're a beginner roleplayer looking for inspiration or guidance, definitely have a look at his RP Survival Guide, a collection of articles written just for you, to help you get familiar with all the basic ideas and terminology of roleplaying. There's also a series of introduction articles about each race in this guide, which gives more basic factual information, as well as lots of links to other sources (including some of my own articles) where you can find out more.

He also has some more advanced stuff in there, such as his "What's Lore Got to Do With It?" post, and especially his "Tinkering With Abilities," post, in which he almost makes a new class by combining Rogue abilities with Gnomish Engineering technologies, and coming out with something really clever on the other end, the Gearmaster!

Compass Studies

A new addition to the WoW blogosphere was added just this summer, Compass Studies features a combination of everything from personal thoughts about roleplaying to in-depth tutorials on how to use the latest greatest roleplaying addon, to in-character fiction by the author of the blog.

One article that caught my attention talked about how to avoid becoming a Mary Sue, which is really its own sort of half-demonic/half-vampiric disease that can catch you unawares and cause you to suck attention out of other people at every opportunity. I wrote about the same thing, and it was neat to see Compass Studies' point of view on the matter. To be more accurate, her (or his?) article is actually about how to recover from the Mary Sue disease once you've already been seduced by it without even knowing, and it has lots of good guidelines.

RoleCraft

Jim H. Moreno is another roleplaying blogger who's been around even longer than I have. I originally contacted him way back when I was thinking about writing All the World's a Stage in order to get some other opinions about all those questions I had running around in my head. He was writing his Wordpress blog RoleCraft for a long time until he got hired to write a column of the same name on the Warcry network. His column started out mostly about WoW, but now covers topics related to roleplaying in any MMORPG.

Jim has written not one, but two articles about other WoW roleplaying websites out there, with some good links in there, some of which I haven't seen before. He's written a critique of the way Blizzard handles roleplaying in WoW, how to run instances and roleplay at the same time (here was my take on the same topic), and covered all manner of other topics as well. Have a look and see what you like.

Dramatis Personae

Another site about roleplaying which I've always liked, and which I felt had a lot in common with my own interests, was Dramatis Personae. Their articles about the various races and classes of Azeroth were what inspired me to do my own series on the topic. They have a forum you can join also, which has a lot of great people and ideas in it.

The Race/Class Information List

As I promised, here is a collection of links to lots of different articles about the various races and classes of WoW, by each of the various authors mentioned above:

Alliance

Humans: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Dwarves: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Gnomes: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Night Elves: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Draenei: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Horde

Orcs: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Tauren: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Trolls: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Undead: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Blood Elves: [All the World's a Stage, part 1 & part 2] - Blogatelle - RP Made Simple - Dramatis Personae Classes

Death Knight: All the World's a Stage - [Blogatelle, conjecture & considered] - RP Made Simple Druid: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - Dramatis Personae Hunter: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - Dramatis Personae Mage: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - Dramatis Personae Paladin: [All the World's a Stage (see also: Blood Elves)] - Blogatelle - Dramatis Personae Priest: All the World's a Stage - [Blogatelle, Holy & Shadow & Discipline] - Dramatis Personae Rogue: [All the World's a Stage (Horde & Alliance)] - [Blogatelle, part 1 & part 2] - Dramatis Personae Shaman: [All the World's a Stage, part 1 & part 2] - [Blogatelle, part 1 & part 2] - Dramatis Personae Warlock: All the World's a Stage - Blogatelle - Dramatis Personae Warrior: [All the World's a Stage, Alliance & Horde] - [Blogatelle, part 1 & part 2] - Dramatis Personae
Tradeskills:
(As far as I know, the only in-depth coverage of roleplaying tradeskills is what we have in this column)

Mining Herbalism Skinning Alchemy Blacksmithing Engineering Leatherworking Tailoring Enchanting Jewelcrafting Inscription

China's GAPP halts WoW review, calls collecting subscriptions "illegal behavior"

2009-11-03T04:41:00.000-08:00

Just when NetEase was finally getting back to business in China (they were even planning for a Wrath release next month), they hit a huge snag: China's General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) office has apparently halted their review of the game and told the company to stop collecting subscriptions and signing up new subscribers. They've also passed on the company's application to go into business, and have called the new subscription signups "illegal behavior," threatening even suspension of the company's Internet service.

We're not sure what happens from here -- an official from the country's Ministry of Culture has also said that the suspension of the review is "not appropriate," especially since the content under review had already been approved while the game was being run by The9, which may mean that it will be overturned just as quickly as it went down (and the game will be back in business before long). On the other hand, Netease may have jumped the gun -- they've been collecting subscriptions for a while, which they apparently weren't supposed to do without official GAPP approval (and we've heard before that GAPP might just want to delay the release of foreign games as long as possible). We'll keep an eye on the issue -- most analysts are saying that despite the threats, this is just another roadbump for NetEase, and they should still be back to collecting payments for the game soon.

Update: Stranger and stranger -- NetEase has released a statement saying they've gotten no official word from GAPP outside of the official press release. When you consider that along with the Ministry of Culture's comments, it seems that the government isn't quite sure whether they're approving the content or not.

Lichborne: Elementary death knight macros

2009-10-29T04:45:00.000-07:00

As you approach the end game of WoW, one thing you may find out quickly is that the proper use of macros is a great way to take your game to the next level. Sometimes they streamline moves, other times they allow you to perform actions that would be otherwise impossible. Death knights are definitely no exception, and though we'd be here all week if I went through all the ins and out of macro theory, or even death knight macro theory, I figure right now is still a good time to get you started.

Let's look at a few basic essential macros for the various roles and trees of the class.
DPS and PvP

One of the most basic DPS macros for a death knight is the burst macro, in which you get yourself as buffed as possible before unleashing your devastating last attack. Here's one for Unholy:
#showtooltip Summon Gargoyle
/use 10
/use 13
/use 14
/use Potion of Speed
/cast Summon Gargoyle
This macro starts out by using your gloves (slot 10 being your glove slot). If you're an engineer, this is useful since you'll hopefully have some Hyperspeed Accelerators attached to your gloves. 13 and 14 are the trinket slots, so if you have anything usable on those trinkets, it'll be put to use. One warning here is that the glove enchants and most trinket enchants do apparently have a shared cool down of a few seconds, so you may have to choose one or the other if you're an engineer and your trinkets have on use abilities. I've just put all three in the macro for easier reference.

With that out of the way, the macro moves on to chug a potion of speed, then summon a Gargoyle. Since Summon Gargoyle is the only action in the macro that's on the GCD, it all works out. Also, since Summon Gargoyle acts as a pet and bases its stats off yours at the time of cast, having all those extra buffs on helps it out immensely. Of course, the downside to this macro is that you'll be chugging speed potions like a maniac, so consider that if you want to tweak it for your own personal use.
#showtooltip Dancing Rune Weapon
/use 10
/use 13
/use 14
/use Potion of Speed
/cast [target=player] Hysteria
/cast [target=player] Dancing Rune Weapon
Here's a similar macro for a Blood death knight which works under essentially the same principles as the above Unholy macro, with the same cautions and drawbacks, but substituting a few Blood specific talents. The [target=player] assures the mentioned buffs are cast on yourself. And yes, there is a reason we stick it on Dancing Rune Weapon, too. Dancing Rune Weapon, as it turns out, actually shows up in front of the target it's cast on. If you cast it on yourself, it will show up with you, behind the enemy (assuming you're back there like you should be in most group DPS situations).
#showtooltip Howling Blast
/cast Deathchill
/cast Howling Blast

Since Frost doesn't have a big old pet to summon, they're a little bit out of the loop here, but if you absolutely can't wait to get a Killing Machine proc lined up, you can always use the above macro for a nice bit of critical AE damage.
#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] Mind Freeze
This is a pretty basic macro for when you're on interrupt duty on one monster but need to DPS another. If you have a good caller or a good addon, you can keep an eye out for the cast and use this macro to quickly interrupt it without breaking your focus on your main target. Of course, the disadvantage here is that you still have to be in melee range of the other target.
#showtooltip Hysteria
/cast [target=playername] Hysteria
This is a pretty basic macro. If you're Blood and your raid has dictated Hysteria should go to another DPSer, you can set this up by replacing "playername" with the name of your Hysteria target so you can quickly cast it without using sight of the enemy.
#showtooltip Leap
/cast [target=playername] Leap
/petstay
If you're an Unholy death knight, this tooltip will send your Ghoul out of danger. Simply change the player name to a ranged DPS or healer who you know is standing back out of harm's way. This probably won't be as useful in PvE anymore since Night of the Dead has pretty uber AE protection, but it could still save it in a PvP situation for sure.

Tank

#showtooltip Ability
/cast Ability
/cast !Rune Strike
This idea is pretty straightforward. Rune Strike is good. Rune Strike is cheap. Rune Strike does lots of damage and threat. But it's also sort of a pain to watch for the extra button to light up so you can press it. Luckily, since Rune Strike isn't on the global cool down, you can easily throw it on a macro. Pick an ability (and plug it into the macro where "Ability" is currently) you'll be weaving into your rotation constantly, and you should be able to grab Rune Strike pretty consistently. Just be aware that it can theoretically leave you short of RP when you really need it for Icebound Fortitude or Anti-Magic Shell.

It's worth noting that the above macro can also be modified by engineer DPSers for easy casting of some rockets. Just replace the Rune Strike cast with a "/use 10" to set off your gloves.
#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/stopcasting
/cast Bone Shield
This macro can be used for Unbreakable Armor in the Frost tree as well. The idea here is to use your defensive talented cool down without breaking your rotation. Casting Blood Tap can help you keep the rotation going while still getting your defense on.
Moving on with macros

Now, it's worth noting that we're just scratching the surface. Once you get a better understanding of macro theory, you can create focus, key modifiers, and other such macros that offer a whole new world of bar space saving. One word of caution, though: Stay away from cast sequence macros. It may be tempting to create a lazy one button rotation macro, but that lazy one button rotation macro can't account for fight movement, adapting to changing combat situations, or using other abilities in emergencies. You will see better DPS in almost any basic fight by sticking with multiple buttons. Save combination macros for spells that really do work well together.

Either way, a good macro makeover is a great way to get ready for Patch 3.3. Arthas won't know what hit him -- mostly because he'll be too busy trying to decipher macro code, but hey. Take them where you can get them.

Shifting Perspectives: A 3.3 miscellany

2009-10-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

This week's column is going to be a little bit of a grab bag in much the same way that our patch 3.1 miscellany post was, because there have been a few changes on the PTR recently that we haven't yet discussed.

Before we get any farther, I'd also like to give a shout-out to our readers and commenters on last week's column, "The disappearance of the bear." I was a little antsy over how it was going to be received (lengthy articles on what's going wrong with a spec can get derailed into QQ-fests pretty easily, and that wasn't my intent), but was heartened to see so much quality discussion. One of the things I realized after reading through the comments was that Blizzard may actually have succeeded a little too well in their quest to make tanking more attractive and fun to the average player. WoW's four tanking classes (warrior, paladin, druid, and death knight) comprise 4 of the 5 most popular classes in the game right now. As I've written previously, the druid functions as the proverbial canary in the coal mine as a harbinger of class balance concerns, and with each of the game's plate classes numbering among the most played at 80, it's impossible for this not to have an impact on druid spec choice.

Anyway. For the moment, we are going to turn away from this rather depressing situation, and concern ourselves with what's going on in patch 3.3.

What are the current patch notes?

As always, the most recent version of the PTR patch notes can be found here on Blizzard's PTR page. The only recent change that's been omitted (I think) is that the most recent build includes the following change:

Gift of the Earthmother: Now also reduces the base cooldown on your Lifebloom spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.

More on this in just a bit (and yes, that's in addition to the existing GotE change that's a flat 2/4/6/8/10% improvement to spell +haste).

What the hell is going on with Rejuvenation?

(As an aside, I shouldn't have laughed at Nailer's take on this from the EJ forums, but I did: "Well, there is nothing left from Lifebloom to nerf, so we saw it coming.")

The max-rank Rejuvenation was first the target of a bug-fix, which was really a nerf, then it was un-nerfed, but it's kind of still nerfed because of the changes to Gift of the Earthmother...and..../scribbles and starts over again.

Right. In the first patch 3.3 PTR build, Blizzard had corrected a bug (that has apparently existed for the duration of Wrath) where rank 15 Rejuvenation was healing for a base 15 seconds instead of the normal 12. Problem is, that's partly what's powered Restoration's amazing raid-healing capacity, and players were not happy that the "bug fix" constituted a 20% nerf to the existing spell. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth and threats to defenestrate later, Blizzard changed the duration back to a base 15 seconds but is still tinkering with Gift of the Earthmother. Per Ghostcrawler, this has a lot less to do with Rejuvenation itself than it does to do with the cumulative effect of both the Rejuvenation nerf and the GotE changes being too harsh on Resto, and they didn't want that.

So the answer to "What the hell is going on with Rejuvenation?" is -- nothing, at least for the moment. It's the exact same "bugged" spell, healing for the same amount for the same duration for the same mana cost on both the live realms and the current PTR build. But this still leaves Rejuv in a place where the developers have acknowledged it's healing for too much and too long. Don't be surprised if we see a Rejuv nerf in either patch 4.0 (the Cataclysm content patch) or shortly after Cataclysm goes live.

OK, so what's up with Gift of the Earthmother?

Nerfsville, baby. Well, sort of. As Ghostcrawler observed, upcoming changes aren't really meant to be a nerf: "(They're) aimed at not making haste such a wonky stat for Resto." The deal with Gift of the Earthmother is that, as gear has improved over the duration of Wrath, +haste has become steadily less and less useful because we were already shaving 20% off the base GCD of three frequently-cast spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Wild Growth). Gift of the Earthmother on the live realms is worth close to 1,000 +haste rating for these abilities. Because there's no way to get below a 1-second GCD, this meant that most of the +haste and/or +haste procs on trinkets and gear were largely wasted itemization on three very commonly-used spells in both PvE and PvP.

So what does the Gift of the Earthmother change do to our existing spells?

Dreambound Druid had a great article on precisely this right here that you should read, but as a means of shorthanding everything:

If it's not currently affected by GotE (e.g. Regrowth, Nourish), it's going to get faster.

If it is currently affected by GotE (e.g. LB, Rejuv, and WG), it's going to get slower (less so for Lifebloom). +Haste effects will, however, be significantly more useful for all three.

Regrowth is likely to be the big winner of the GotE changes. Although it's still unlikely to replace either Rejuvenation as a raid heal or Nourish as a spot heal, it'll be possible at existing levels of gear, talents, and a few raid buffs to get its cast time close to (and even less than) the base cast time for Nourish (i.e. 1.5 seconds). Nourish, in a very surprising development with absolutely no precedent whatsoever, gets a nice buff as well. I was ready to say that Rejuvenation was going to be the big loser even though we'll still be using it, but then there's this new glyph...

Do tell.

Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation. 'Nuff said.

However, I can't be the only person who finds it funny that so many Restos will happily slot in a glyph that, despite its benefits, functionally accomplishes the exact same Rejuv duration penalty that people were so terrified of with the initial Rejuv "bug fix." Lissanna's done some testing if you want a look at how the glyph currently functions on the PTR.

Wait a minute. Isn't +haste an equally screwy stat for Balance?

Yes, which the developers aren't happy about. Any moonkin with halfway-decent gear is likely to be haste-capped for the Wrath portion of his/her rotation, which creates the exact same problem Restoration currently experiences with Gift of the Earthmother, except much, much worse. Being haste-capped on a spell that's essentially 40-ish% of a Balance player's normal rotation creates two issues: a). a UI issue, because you can't queue a spell while it's on the GCD, and b). a gear issue, because +haste is frickin' everywhere and most of it is completely wasted on one of Balance's two main nukes. In another touch of irony, Starfire (the other main nuke) does great with +haste, to the point where all the +haste on early Wrath gear was enormously prejudiced toward the use of a lunar rotation before the patch 3.2 Eclipse change.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/27/shifting-perspectives-a-3-3-miscellany-part-2/

PTR Patch 3.3: Patch notes updated

2009-10-29T04:39:00.000-07:00

The PTR Patch 3.3 notes have been updated, including major changes about the new Looking For Group / Looking For Raid / "Dungeon System". The entire changes after the break.

Some major highlights (although you should really read everything after the break, all of it is very important):
Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained. Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes. The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated. Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item. Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player's current level. LFG channel has returned to being a realm-wide channel accessible in any city! The full update to the patch notes after the break.

General
Will of the Forsaken now shares a 45-second cooldown with similar effects, including the Medallion of the Horde, Titan-Forged runes, Insignia of the Horde, etc. Druid

Predatory Strikes: The Predatory Swiftness buff from this talent now has an 8-second duration. Paladin
Sacred Shield: The damage absorption effect from this ability now triggers only once every 30 seconds. Infusion of Light: This talent now also reduces the cooldown on the effect of Sacred Shield by 12/24 seconds. Divine Guardian: This talent no longer increases the amount of damage transferred to the paladin from Divine Sacrifice. Instead it causes all raid and party members to take 10/20% reduced damage while Divine Sacrifice is active. In addition, the duration has been changed to 6 seconds, however the effect does not terminate when Divine Sacrifice is removed before its full duration. User Interface - Dungeon System

This feature has replaced the Looking For Group tool and provides all-new dungeon party creation functionality. Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members. Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance. Players can choose the Random Dungeon option.
The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day. The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day. Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time. Daily Heroic and normal dungeon quests have been removed. These quests have been replaced with weekly raid quests (see the "Quests" section for details). Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes. Random Dungeon rewards will be placed in each player's inventory automatically upon completion of the dungeon (final boss killed). A pop-up notification will display any rewards earned through the Dungeon System. Instead of choosing a random dungeon, players can also choose specific dungeons appropriate for their level range. Multiple instances can be selected at one time. The feature no longer limits the choice to look for only 3 dungeon groups at one time. Pick-Up Groups
Cross-realm instances are now available and use an improved matchmaking system to assist players in looking for additional party members. As with Battlegrounds, the realms in each Battlegroup are connected. As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement. Players also need to meet the requirements for dungeons that require attunement, such as keys or quests. If a player does not meet the requirements for a particular dungeon, a lock icon will be displayed next to that dungeon. Hovering over this icon will display the requirements which have not been met. Only conjured items and loot dropped in a dungeon for which other party members are eligible can be traded between players from different realms. A Vote Kick feature will be available in the event a member of a party is not performing to the expectations of the other members. Players who leave the group prematurely are subject to a Deserter debuff preventing them from using the Dungeon System tool for 15 minutes. If an existing group loses a member, the leader will be asked if he or she wants to continue the dungeon. Choosing to continue will automatically place the group back into the Dungeon System queue. A Player will not be placed in a group with people on his or her Ignore list. Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained. The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated.
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item. Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player's current level. Looking For Raid

There is a new Looking For Raid option available to players that can be accessed via the Raid Information screen in the interface or by typing "/LFR."
Players will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group. While browsing LFR players may sort the list ascending or descending by left-clicking the following headers: Name, Level, Class, Tank Role, Healer Role, and Damage Role. The crown is the Leader Role (representing a raid group with 2 or more people). Players can left-click on this header to sort the list with groups at the top or at the bottom. Hovering over players listed in LFR will display their name, class, level, roles and comments. Hovering over a raid/group will display the leader's name, the raid information (number of people the raid), comments, if there are any bosses dead (and which ones), and if there are any friends from your Friends list or ignored players from your Ignore list in the raid group. LFG Channel

The Looking For Group chat channel has returned and can be accessed in all major cities (similar to the Trade chat channel) without the use of the Dungeon system interface. Players may only be queued or listed in one of the following systems at a time: Dungeons, LFR, Battlegrounds, or Arenas. Ignore List: The amount of characters a person can ignore has been increased to 50. In addition, players on other realms can be placed on the Ignore list. Reputation
Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Items

Sceptor of Celebras: Since this item is no longer needed as a key, Celebras will no longer give one out to a player who loses it. The item can now be sold or disenchanted as normal.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Ghostcrawler explains Paladin changes

2009-10-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

You know how it goes. Blizzard nerfs Paladins, Paladins shake their heads in disbelief, then break out the pitchforks and scream bloody murder for a bit, beg Blizzard not to push through with the changes, and eventually run home and cry into My Little Pony sheets and staining pink underwear. Sure enough, when the recent PTR patch notes hinted at nerfs to the Paladin class, the pitchfork-wielding and bloody murder-screaming ensued. We're now about to enter the stage of bargaining. It's still on the PTR, after all. For those wondering what the bed-wetting ruckus is all about, Sacred Shield was nerfed to proc only once every 30 seconds (essentially proccing only once every cast of the spell unless augmented with talents), Aura Mastery was nerfed to 6 seconds down from 10, and Lay on Hands is being primed to be uncastable on one's self.

Ghostcrawler said that he didn't "want to promise (they) won't change the spell for 3.3," but that players also shouldn't "worry too much on the Lay on Hands change at this point" since it didn't make it to the latest PTR build. He explains in the forums that Paladins are no longer just a support class (as they were for quite a long time), but that all the abilities over time have contributed to making the class feel like a "one-man army" that is able to play offensively, defensively, and essentially take on more challenges without having to change stances, forms, or even specs. In a rather snippy response to a troll crying (with My Little Pony blanket in hand) in the forums, Ghostcrawler simply said, "Dear OP, Bye. Hugs, GC."

Discussing the Sacred Shield change as soon as we got wind of it, I argued to the WoW.com team that it was a Retribution PvP nerf more than anything, and a push for Holy to use it more in its focused healing kit. Although it does hurt Paladin tanks, Ghostcrawler states that Blizzard's "overall goal is to make Ret less tanky." Guess what? Retribution only really "tanks" in PvP, where the repeated nerfs to the spec's burst has altered its playstyle to become one about survivability. With the nerf to Sacred Shield and the planned nerf to Lay on Hands, that survivability diminishes massively.

With retribution burst nerfed to the proverbial ground, and survivability seemingly about to fall on its face, there's still no sign of the much asked for PvP utility to compensate for the removal of burst (Paladins never got out of the bargaining stage, apparently). It had gotten to the point that protection had become a much more viable, fun, and admittedly OP spec to PvP with, necessitating some nerfs to the protection tree which continue with Patch 3.3. This includes the possible nerf to Lay on Hands (put down those pitchforks, people, the nerf isn't even live on the PTR yet) which would be, to put it bluntly, stinky and messy as Murloc poop.

The good news is that, again, this is still just the PTR. Things can still change, and this is why it's being tested. The hope is that Lay on Hands will come out of it unscathed, but again, Ghostcrawler didn't promise anything (no more promises from the crab!). If I were to venture a guess, the iconic spell will likely still get nerfed to a degree. Stay tuned to the PTR and WoW.com, and hold on to your pink undies.

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Cooldowns

2009-10-23T18:51:00.001-07:00

Every week Matthew Rossi slaves in his kitchen over a hot stove, primarily because he needs something to nosh on while composing The Care and Feeding of Warriors, WoW.com's column about warriors. Also, he's chained to the stove. No no, don't ask, it's a long story.

Cooldowns. Those abilities that provide a sizable benefit to a character when used, but cannot simply be used over and over again due to a time-based limitation on their use. As far as I know, every class has a few. For warriors, being a two role hybrid, cooldowns can be further broken up into tanking and DPS related, with some overlap (the famous and oft-neglected Retaliation comes to mind as a cooldown that can be used in either role to some extent).and it's often the most basic and yet most easily overlooked aspect of warrior gameplay.

While for a DPS, cooldowns are useful and even can be said to be required for top performance, for a tanking warrior's cooldowns only grow in importance the more cutting edge the content becomes. Wrath of the Lich King stands out, a year or so into its development cycle, as having shifted tanking away from a process of gearing to either survive or completely avoid big spiky damage in the form of critical hits/crushing blows to a process of gearing to survive big spiky damage through stamina and, more often, cooldown usage. Whether it be Gormok the Impaler's Impale, Onyxia's combination of Wing Buffet, Cleave and Fire Breath, or Mimiron's Plasma Blast, you as a tank will often be called to do anything in your power to make healing you through massive amounts of damage easier. Sometimes, it won't be enough.

So let's talk about cooldowns.

The first (and some will say most obvious) rule for proper use of cooldowns is knowing that yes, you should be ready to use them. A friend of mine recently came to me with an issue he was having with a warrior tank in his raids (I was still DPS but was preparing to move back to tanking myself) - the problem as he laid it out to me was, this warrior tank was easily the most difficult to heal of any of their raid's tanks. The DK and druid tanks were fine, but the warrior was an absolute pain to keep alive. So I agreed to go over their logs of the fights and after a few minutes I noticed some irregularities. On Auriaya, a fight which has not only the boss but four adds that each hit harder if they're in proximity to each other, I saw something... or rather, I failed to see it.

On the entire fight, the warrior didn't use Shield Block once. Didn't use Last Stand once. Didn't use Shield Wall. I went and armoried his tanking gear and saw a Heart of Iron equipped: it never got used. In short, he didn't use either of the two big cooldowns, he didn't even use the mini-cooldown of Shield Block or his trinket. A cursory scan of other fights revealed the same kind of problem: rarely would he use Shield Block, almost never did he use Last Stand, and Shield Wall got use once in an entire night of raiding Ulduar. And it wasn't even on Mimiron, it was on a trash pull before him.

Whether you're tanking or DPS, the first thing you need to do as a warrior is learn what your cooldowns are, how often they're up, how long they take to be usable again once popped, and when the best time to use them is. You do not want to be popping Bladestorm when there's one mob left in a trash pull, especially when there's another trash pull coming it would provide better AoE DPS for. You don't want to hit Death Wish while you're offtanking a mob who does a lot of incoming damage. (This is even more true for Recklessness.) This also means moving past the mindset (which older warriors often feel more than ones who have just taken up the class) that you should save your big three linked cooldowns. I feel your pain, guys, but those times are gone. Recklessness, Retaliation and Shield Wall aren't linked anymore. They're not on 30 minute cooldowns that are mutually exclusive, so if you pop Shield Wall for this one boss you won't have all three for 30 minutes. Those days are gone, and we need to leave them dead and buried. Cooldowns are meant to be used.

The second (almost as obvious to some, but still bears stating) rule is, don't take what I just said to mean you should pop Shield Wall immediately as soon as it comes off cooldown. It's okay if you tank an entire heroic and never use Shield Wall once if it never once needed to be used. If the healers are already complaining that you're not taking enough damage to be worth healing, it's fine to focus your attention elsewhere and not worry about popping Last Stand as soon as you can. This is especially true if you know or suspect that harder content is coming. Furthermore, it's useful (especially in the era of tanking we find ourselves inhabiting where cooldowns are as short as every two minutes because they often need to be used that often) to learn exactly when to use a cooldown and how often to do so. On a fight like heroic Twin Val'kyr, you may end up having to use a cooldown to eat a vortex rather than switching colors depending on your overall strategy, and if this is the case, you may have to eat two vortex back to back because the RNG is a hideous gap-toothed maw that chortles and giggles as you try and escape the onrushing truck that is bearing down upon you. It drools, too. So it's okay to not use all of your possible cooldowns at once: you probably don't need Shield Wall and Last Stand at the same time. Space them out.

As DPS, you're less interested in using your cooldowns to keep from dying and more interested in using them to make other things die. Still, it's probably the case that you don't need to pop Recklessness and Death Wish at the exact same moment. This is less crucial depending on an overall DPS strategy: it might in fact reward you to use them both at once, especially if you'll have the rage to really take advantage of reck with a solid BT/Whirlwind/Slam combo or a nice Sweeping Strikes while Overpower and Execute are lighting up, followed by a timely Bladestorm into a lot of mobs faces.

Also, please don't forget about trinkets with on use abilities. These are effectively bonus cooldowns. By using my Heart of Iron and Satrina's Impeding Scarab at the same time, I basically have a third cooldown period I can use after Shield Wall and Last Stand. With the glyphs I have for each ability, using these two trinkets in this manner usually gives me enough leeway that one of my other two major cooldowns will have come up at the very least. Shield Block, although only really awesome if you have 4 piece T8, is still up every forty seconds as well to help act as a mini cooldown so don't forget you have it. (The problem with using Shield Block in this way however is that, frankly, it's a better threat move at this point than a damage reduction, at least on bosses who often don't even hit that hard or often physically but who do a devastating move that can't be blocked. On trash, Shield Block can help Damage Shield as well as keep you from taking a lot of damage.)

Also, if you're tanking an AoE pack, it can really be useful to throw a Retaliation up just as you charge into them. The initial counterattack provides just an added extra bit of aggro, and every little bit helps when your DPS consists of a ret pally who hits Divine Storm the second you look at a mob and a DK who thinks the Death and Decay button has an 'I win' sticker on it.

Again, these guidelines may seem simple, but like many simple things, they're often lost on us, so especially if you're new to DPS or tanking on a warrior try and keep your cooldowns in mind.

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 1-10

2009-10-22T04:46:00.001-07:00

So, after reading the list of pros and cons, you've committed to starting your new rogue. This is a proud day for the brotherhood of assassins, as we welcome a new member into our fold. You will learn to embrace the shadows and your adrenaline will spike after your first kill. You will learn to hide your tracks and strike fear into your enemies.

Before you're ready to slay dragons and assassinate high-profile targets, you've got a lot of learning to do. Rogues can be a complex class, with our nearly limitless bag of tricks and a playstyle that is uniquely our own. You must learn how to use your techniques effectively, and how to maximize your damage output while staying alive. The journey from a young rogue to a powerful assassin begins today.

I'll assume you've read the first article of this series, and you've chosen a great name and customized your new character to your liking. You're thrown right into combat upon logging in, with the goal of killing some variety of low level beasts. You'll be presented with two abilities: Sinister Strike, and Eviscerate. Your basic attack structure will revolve around using Sinister Strike to do damage to a mob, and using Eviscerate when you have built up a few Combo Points.

Combat will be mostly boring for the first few levels, as your attack structure and rotation will be the same for quite some time. The idea of building combo points and then releasing them via a finishing move is a core rogue mechanic, and so building combo points and then using them will be your method for killing just about everything. The only variety comes in how you build the combo points and what you choose to use for your finishing attack. This is a great time to set your key bindings for your basic moves, so that they become second nature as you begin your journey to level 80.

Combo Points & Finishers:
The combo point -> finisher cycle will be what dictates the pacing of a rogue attack sequence. If you were to stack combo points using Sinister Strike, and then finish with Eviscerate, you would have to wait around 30 seconds before your Eviscerate is ready. Knowing when your enemy will die is key to your ability use decision-making. If your enemy will die in 4 seconds, there's no point in saving your combo points: use them immediately so that you don't lose your investment. I suggest TimeToDie as one of your first addons. It's great for knowing how long your enemy will be alive so you can choose whether or not to use a finisher or continue building combo points.

As far as starting gear goes, there's really not many options. Most won't have any stats on it, and if it does, you don't really have much variety or any choices. Try to pick up as much leather as possible (for the higher armor class) and anything with Agility, Strength, or Stamina (in that order). The suffixes of perfect rogue gear are "of the Monkey" or "of the Tiger". Your stat selection will matter more at later levels, but right now, be happy with whatever you can find. Do not buy any gear from the vendors, as it is not worth it.

Level 2:
After completing your first quest, you'll be asked to go visit your friendly rogue trainer. He'll have a new spell for you: Stealth! While Stealth may seem fun, you actually don't have any Stealth-only moves at this level, and so it is mostly used for sneaking around. However, you'll want to be killing almost everything you see for experience, and so you won't spend much time in Stealth at all.

Level 4:
At level 4, you'll be eligible for two brand new moves. One is a personal favorite: Pick Pocket. This is your first move you can perform in stealth, and it allows you to steal some copper or items from your enemies. While leveling up, I would suggest using Pick Pocket as often as possible to ensure you always have some gold available for training new abilities or buying reagents. The second move you acquire is Backstab, which will unfortunately not even warrant a position on your hot bar. It's a largely useless move currently, with no Backstab spec being viable anywhere.

Level 6:
Level 6 brings an update to Sinister Strike which should make it fairly more potent, and our first defensive ability: Gouge. Gouge is one of the most underused of rogue techniques. Use this if you are being attacked by two mobs, as you can effectively knock one out of the fight. Use this if you need to run away, as it will give you a fairly big head start, or if you need to use a bandage. It's a great ability that should find its way to one of your hotkeys. Try using it as often as possible to get used to its nuances.

Level 8:
Level 8 brings another update to a base ability, making Eviscerate do more damage. You also pick up Evasion, which is the first powerful rogue CD you'll acquire. At lower levels, nearly all mobs are melee attacks, and so this will make you nigh immune to their attacks for 15 seconds. This is great for taking out elite or group quest bosses, and for mistake pulls where you end up with more mobs attacking you than you'd like. It's key to remember that you can only dodge an attack if you are facing your enemy, so this does nothing for you if you are running away from a fight. Use Evasion every time it's available, as the longer that Evasion is sitting "ready", the more time it is being wasted.

Level 10:
Finally, upon reaching level 10, you receive quite a few new abilities. Blizzard tends to stagger abilities every 10 levels (for 1-60, at least) and so every 10 levels you will see a major playstyle shift. This time, you receive another Stealth-only move of Sap, which is the rogue's best form of crowd control. It can allow you to solo groups by Sapping one of the mobs and then killing the other quickly. We also receive another infamous cooldown, Sprint. This one is more for escaping fights than for staying to rumble. If you think you can win, use Evasion and tough it out. If you're sure that you'll be defeated, use Sprint to escape from combat. There's no shame in sneaking up and taking a second shot at your prey.

Finally, you'll receive Slice and Dice. This is a staple of rogue DPS, and you should bind it to a key that you can reach easily. Attacking 20% faster will have you doing a ton more damage, and will become even more useful when you gain the ability to apply poisons to your weapons. If you're in combat, you should try to keep Slice and Dice up at all times, especially when fighting multiple targets. If you finish every fight by dumping your combo points into Slice and Dice, you'll be able to keep it up between targets, and you'll hop from mob to mob with great ease. You don't always need to save up 5 combo points before using Slice and Dice, usually 2-3 combo points is enough to keep it active for an entire fight.

While you're on your way to level 10, you'll have questions like "what speed should my weapons be?" I would suggest reading up on the basics of rogue axioms. The short answer is that any gear you use will be fine while leveling, and that you shouldn't worry terribly about min/maxing while on your way to 80. The key suggestions I can provide would be to use the best equipment available to you at the time, and focus on your abilities instead of your gear. A well-played rogue can often defeat a well-geared rogue, and the lower levels are an even greater example of this.

Conclusion:
Once you've reached level 10, you've started to get some of the meaty rogue abilities that you'll be using all the way until level 80. Next week I will be covering a larger range of leveling, complete with a few choice rogue quests and some of our great new abilities and tricks to try out while experimenting with the rogue class. Please post any tips you have for a rogue between the levels of 1-10, or any tricks that you have to share for those just starting a new rogue.

Blizzard explains delay in Race Change service

2009-10-22T04:45:00.001-07:00

Zarhym responded to a thread on the official forums started by, of all things, a troll. The poster wrote accusing Blizzard of lying about paid race changes being still in development, pointing out that faction change enabled racial changes, as well. Zarhym calmly explained that "the conversion tables for changing races within one's own faction are completely different from the faction change service." This means that there's a separate development time for it.

He also reminds everyone that "the only thing better than offering a service people want is making sure that service works when people want it." It's pretty much standard operating procedure for Blizzard, a company notorious for pushing back releases in favor of getting things right. It's interesting to note that Blizzard introduced faction changes ahead of race changes, perhaps because the former addresses more player concerns while the latter is merely a customization preference.

There's also a chance that Blizzard will allow the new race-class combos leading up to the Cataclysm, which would be perfect timing for the paid race change service, anyway. I was looking forward to swapping my Blood Elf Death Knight into an Orc, but since the announcement, I've been drooling over the prospect of an Undead Hunter -- a race-class combo I've wanted to play since I first launched the game. I've waited this long, I guess a little more of Soon won't hurt.

Patch 3.3 PTR: More diabolical Warlock changes

2009-10-22T04:43:00.002-07:00

On the WoW Insider Show a few weeks back I made a comment about a lack of patch 3.3 warlock changes. Now I'm not saying that it had anything to do with it, but we have seen an awful lot of changes since then. I've posted three previous articles covering some fairly significant changes to our spells, talents and pets (as well as our clothes) and here we are with a fourth.

The balancing of the different trees continues with one change to each. I'll start with destruction as it's one that a lot of people were anxious about.

Conflagrate: Redesigned. This talent now consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 9 seconds of Immolate or 8 seconds of Shadowflame, and causes additional damage over 3 seconds equal to 3 seconds of Immolate or 2 seconds of Shadowflame. In addition, the periodic damage of Conflagrate is capable of critically striking the afflicted target.

This ability had previously changed to move a portion of its damage from the initial hit to a subsequent DoT (in the case of Immolate). The concern raised was that this is a damage reduction as the DoT couldn't crit. Now that they have added a crit mechanic to this DoT, the damage imbalance has been somewhat redressed, though a few questions are outstanding.

1. Does the amount of increased damage from criticals increase for this DoT with points in Ruin?

If not then this means the damage drop from the mechanic currently in live is only half compensated for by this change.

2. Will the DoTs have the same crit chance as the direct damage portion of Conflagrate
Fire and Brimstone increases the crit chance of the direct damage portion by 25%, if this is not shared by the DoT portion then this means the DoT is still not making up for the loss to the direct damage.

3. If the Conflagrate DoTs do crit, will they trigger Pyroclasm?

If so then you have four chances to proc the effect for each cast of Conflag.
More testing will undoubtedly be done over the coming week to answer these questions and fine tune the numbers. Whatever the result this is a damage increase for destruction, albeit one that is redressing a prior nerf.

Next we see a change for affliction:

Shadow Mastery: This talent now also increases the damage done by the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 3/6/9/12/15%. This is a pure buff to affliction damage, though nothing major. Five points in Shadow Mastery is a standard part of affliction, and so is the felhunter under patch 3.3. This means you will always have the 15% damage increase on Shadow Bite. That's about an 8.5% buff to felhunter damage and just under 1% to your total damage.

Finally, for demonology, Molten Core has changed once again:

Molten Core: Redesigned. This talent now increases the duration of Immolate by 3/6/9 seconds and provides a 4/8/12% chance to gain the Molten Core effect when Corruption deals damage. The Molten Core effect empowers the next 3 Incinerate or Soul Fire spells cast within 15 seconds (Incinerate: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and reduces cast time by 10/20/30%; Soul Fire: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and increases critical strike chance by 5/10/15%). Molten Core now has a new spell effect. So what's new? First off there's a change to Immolate, adding 3/6/9 seconds to the DoT. This is a buff to the damage-per-cast-time of the spell but reduces the total damage done by the spell (assuming you don't refresh/clip it). This is interesting for hybrid builds from a 'rotation' point of view as it will require less casts of Immolate to maintain the ability to cast Conflagrate.

Another change is that the effect will now only trigger from Corruption; so no more procs from Shadow Bolt or CoA. This is likely to cause a reduction in MC uptime, especially during the execute phase. Also, interestingly, the Glyph of Quick Decay might become more viable for builds using Molten Core.

The third change is to the duration of the Molten Core effect. Previously this was a flat 12 seconds, which could be refreshed. Now it's for the next three casts of either Incinerate or Soul Fire within 15 seconds. This is a reduction in the number of casts one proc will empower but it will depend on the proc-rate as to whether this is a reduction in the number of empowered casts in a fight. Since that proc-rate is going down it does look like there will be less casts under the effect of MC.

That's not all though, the effect that Molten Core has upon your casts has changed dramatically. Incinerate used to have up to 15% extra damage but now has 18% extra damage and 30% reduced cast time. Soul Fire used to have 10% extra damage but now also has 18% damage increase as well as a 15% extra critical strike chance. This is a huge buff to these abilities, though is offset by the reduction in the number of times they will be buffed.

The changes to Molten Core make it a very complicated but interesting talent. It's likely to mean a change to the standard builds that use it -- to have all three talent points invested in it, probably at the cost of Demonic Empowerment. It is also likely to change the demonology build rotations so that when Molten Core is active Incinerate is cast instead of the normal Shadow Bolt (except where the boss is below 35%, in which case Soul Fire).

One final thing; I forgot to mention previously:

Glyph of Life Tap: The effect of this glyph now has a chance of activating when Dark Pact is used. With the felhunter back in the affliction game Dark Pact is more attractive but I still don't think it's as good as Life Tap when you have a healer on hand (and very often a lot of AoE healing). Also, why it only has a chance of triggering the effect I do not know. This seems like an attempt to get affliction locks to use the ability more but it doesn't seem to go far enough. Maybe we'll see more changes in this area before the patch goes live.

Patch 3.3 PTR: New LFG interface

2009-10-22T04:43:00.001-07:00

In the latest build of the PTR, Blizzard has included the new Looking for Group interface they've got in the works. As they had announced in at BlizzCon, the recent fix for the "Additional Instances" errors that were plaguing us a few months ago also adds the ability for them to allow cross-realm LFG. A new feature usually means a new interface and the trend proves true. It incorporates a lot of the long asked for features as well as removes several older features from the panel.

They've taken the current system that allows you to select your available roles (healer, tank, or dps) as well as select if you're willing to lead the instance. One thing that should help out is the ability to earn emblems as well as gold for doing just a completely random pug each day. While some of you might be groaning at this thought, they are willing to reimburse you for the inconvenience with 68G for completing a random level 80 heroic. This money scales based on how much of your party is random and how much is premade. The less random your party is the lower the cash return.

It's still early in the PTR and several features, like the ability to use the LFG panel to look for a raid, don't appear to be completely finished yet. I've included a gallery of what the new interface looks like thus far.

Icecrown and Hallow's End edition

2009-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday morning and happy Hallow's End, everyone. That's right, WoW's coolest holiday's in full swing. Or is when the servers are up. If you're going after the Hallowed title, we have a Hallow's End achievement guide for you. If you're thinking of going after everyone's favorite cackling headless holiday boss, we have a guide to the new Headless Horseman loot. Of course, maybe you just want to do some good old fashioned trick or treating. We have something for that too.

Of course, while the revelry continues on live servers, the testing continues on the test servers, and there's been quite a bit of activity.

The icecrown raid has now seen some testing, and we have a list of abilities and achievements for the first boss, Lord Marrowgar. On the raid lore front -- don't click these next couple links unless you want to be spoiled -- we have animation for the Lich King himself and news of Bolvar Fordragon.

There's also speedier reputation grinds coming, as well as bind on account status for the Sons of Hodir shoulder enchantments. We may also be able to transfer bind on account items between factions. Also, leatherworkers will be glad to know that Arctic Fur is now purchasable, and aspiring Loremasters will finally get a list of their completed quests to help their search.

Of course, what with the 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime, you'll have time to read all of the above and more, I'm sure. With that in mind, here's a few more choice tidbits from the past week for your approval:

Hot News and Features

If you've already signed up for Battle.net, be sure to grab Mr. Chilly!
You still have time to get in on our latest Creative WoW headset giveaway.
The Patch 3.3 PTR soldiers on with new builds and new information. Here's some of the latest stuff from the newest build. Have you followed the official Warcraft twitter yet? If not, you may be missing out. Take a sneak peek at the Death Knight manga. Congratulations to Armed Forces, September's Guild of the Month. The WoW devs will be taking questions live on twitter.
Class News and Guides

Shadow priests got some sweet buffs in Patch 3.3. Warlocks got some changes in the latest Patch 3.3 PTR build as well, and a look at their tier 10 gear.
Totem Talk rounds up the shaman Patch 3.3 PTR changes..
Mages got a simplified Scorch and a buffed Elemental in the latest PTR build, among other things. Arcane Brilliance also has a more in-depth look at the Patch 3.3 changes for Mages thus far.
The Light And How to Swing It looks at the latest news from the Patch 3.3 PTR on paladin Tier 10. Encrypted Text starts from scratch with rogue character creation. Rossi's Warrior is getting back to where he once belonged. Rossi also thinks Whirlwind may need to go.
Items, Professions, PvP, and More

Here's some raiding UI news: Lowbie Raids are gone, everyone gets to place marks, and in general, chaos chaos and anarachy reign in Patch 3.3.
WoW Rookie discusses making time for raiding. Ready Check takes on the Twin Val'kyr. Ghostcrawler has some clarification on the removal of armor penetration.=
Odds and Ends

15 Minutes of Fame sits down with WoW, Eh? Cartoonist Cadistra. Deathwing comes to life in this fan's sculpture. Episode 7 of Season 3 of The Guild is up.

Raid Rx: Healing heroic Lord Jaraxxus

2009-10-21T08:42:00.001-07:00

This is the second boss in Trial of the Crusader. After you healed through the gate bosses that comprise the Northrend Beasts, Lord Jaraxxus is the next step.

My raid group managed to get this demon lord down this past week. We got the 10-man version down several weeks ago but the 25-man version eluded us for some time. Compared to Northrend Beasts, this boss should feel relatively easier. Your raid will spend less time learning Lord Jaraxxus than the previous boss.

Let's check out the healing side of things, shall we?

Setting up

Your healing group should consist of 6 players. 2 tank healers will suffice. Big plus if you have 2 holy priests or other AoE type healers.

When you're getting into position, direct your healers to cover the room as much as possible. Ideally your healers should be spaced out evenly from each other in a circle around the center. If each player can be covered by at least 2 or more healers, your raid will be in excellent shape.

Things to watch for

Incinerate Flesh: You thought this debuff was a pain on normal mode for healing. It becomes even more dangerous. If it goes off during normal mode, it's easily healable. Healers can cover the damage. On heroic, it's just about a guaranteed wipe when Burning Inferno lands. On normal, 60000 damage has to be healed up. On heroic, that amount increases to 85000. Priests, if their health was already low to begin with when they get this debuff, drop a shield on them to prevent any instant gibs while they get healed up to full.

Legion Flame: This green trail of heat can surprise even the most seasoned of healers. I confess I was exhibited signs of tunnel vision while healing. In one of the earlier attempts, I was roasted alive. Don't let this happen to you!

No one likes barbequed dwarves, right?

Space yourselves out to avoid Fel Lightning. You can eat a 2nd or 3rd jump from a Fel Lightning and still live. In other words, you should be safe standing next to 1 other person if there's no room around you due to fires on the ground.

Touch of Jaraxxus is a DoT that will be applied on random players. It's also going to hit nearby players around them with Curse of the Nether (which is also a DoT). The damage that both abilities do are negligible. That being said, druids should dispel them when they have an opportunity.

Strong communication will play a large role in dealing with the above debuffs. Your healers should be talking to teach other. it keeps everyone focused and on task. It alerts healers as to which raid healer is healing which player.

Optionally, you can designate a player to call out debuffs on your raiders. Unfortunately, the problem with this is that by the time the other player hears the command, it may already be too late for them. it all depends on latency and reaction time.

Handling the Mistress

When the first portal appears, throw a DoT or an instant damage spell on it. If you can, do some DPS until the raid starts taking damage. You might be able to squeeze in a few seconds of DPS time before you're called back to healing.

Raid DPS has to be high enough so that the raid gets no more than 1 mistress. If you get more than 1 early on, I'd suggest wiping it and trying again.

Mistress Kiss: Something new that healers may not be accustomed to is this debuff. If a healer gets it, the next spell they case gets interrupted. Not only that, the school of magic the interrupted spell belongs to gets locked out for several seconds.

For example, if I cast Greater Heal while having Mistress Kiss, the heal gets interrupted and my Holy spells are locked out.

Ways to combat this:

Priests: Cast Mind Control to trigger the interrupt into locking out the shadow school. Shamans: Lava Burst can do the same thing. Paladins: Nothing. Druids: Stick to instants. I believe Starfire is a different school than most druid healing spells. Using instant spells will not trigger a school lock out. Feel free to cast spells like Renew or Holy Shock if you've been kissed.

In the event mages are busy shooting up volcanoes or portals, resto shamans should be prepared to Purge Jaraxxus of Nether Power.

It's also possible to fake out the kiss by casting a spell and then immediately stopcasting it. It takes a bit of practice, but it's possible. What ends up happening is your spell gets cancelled and the debuff wears off, but you have free access to the spell school.

Dealing with Infernals

Infernals aren't a big deal individually. It's when they happen to come together and start pulsing where players can drop. I've seen my entire melee team fall over in seconds when multiple infernals converged. Try to add what DPS you can to the volcano when it spawns.

Holy Paladins will be a big asset when dealing with infernals. Their Aura Mastery and Divine Sacrifice should help mitigate enough damage to keep the raid alive long enough while the infernals are doing their blasting AoE. Make sure one of the Paladins have Fire Resistance aura active!

Consider setting up Divine Sacrifice and Aura Mastery rotations among the Holy Paladins. Priests can help on subsequent infernal phases with Divine Hymn.

If you're interested in some benchmarks, the norm for first time guilds is surviving through 4 portal phases and 4 infernal volcano phases.

Congratulations! Your reward for getting heroic Jaraxxus down is heroic Faction Champions! My guild is currently working on that. Once we get these guys down, I'll post some extra pointers and tips in a future column.

Patch 3.3 PTR: A little extra XP bonus

2009-10-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

The sneaky database over at MMO-Champion has uncovered a little spell/aura/attribute hidden in the patch 3.3 PTR files that hints at some extra XP from future versions of heirloom gear. Currently, with two pieces of heirloom gear, you can get up to a 20% bonus (the chest and shoulders each give a stackable 10%, while heirloom weapons give nothing). But this Heirloom Experience Bonus +5% "spell" grants an extra 5% experience, so it could be that in the future, we'll see pieces of heirloom gear that have an extra bit of bonus on them -- maybe gloves, cloak, or a belt -- that will bring the total bonus XP up to 25%.

There's no base level or other identifying information on this attribute (we call it a "spell," but really, given its information in the game, it seems like a gear-specific ability), so we can assume that it'll be a full 1-80 bonus, just like the current heirloom gear in the game. Unfortunately, we haven't actually uncovered any new heirloom items yet, so we have no idea if this stuff will show up in patch 3.3 or the expansion. And of course, just because the bonus applies from 1-80 doesn't mean the gear can be worn that whole time -- it sure seems like Blizzard wouldn't necessarily want Worgen and Goblin alts speeding past Cataclysm lowbie content. But we'll see -- in the meantime, look for a little extra heirloom power, coming soon.

Thanks, Gene!

Download WoW Cartographer - World of Warcraft Addon

2009-10-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Download WoW Cartographer - World of Warcraft Addon

The WOW Cartographer Addon is a simple framework for better handling the world map. Allows you to add notes on the world map, it lets you see the maps of instances and this WOW addon it even allows you to see the battlegrounds from outside of the zone.Download the WOW Cartographer Addon and enjoy playing World of Warcraft.

Website: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/

Cartographer Information

The Cartographer is an addon that allows is based off of Ace2 and other Ace communities. It gives you the ability to view battlegrounds that are outside of the zone, add coordinates, shows unexplored areas of the map, gives your group a specified color so you can find them on the map, shows levels of zones, automatically tracks herbs and minerals, and allows you to add boss notes, instance notes, and map notes. Quest Helper, Quest and QuestObjectives can be used in conjunction with the Cartographer addon. This addon was developed by ckknight.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Target marking, the end of lowbie raids, and other UI tweaks

2009-10-17T02:58:00.000-07:00

There are quite a few interesting UI tweaks in the latest build on the patch 3.3 PTR. First up, Blizzard seems to be making quite a few changes that aim at streamlining current frustrations: the Ignore list is set to 50 different entries (to match the Friends list), XP earned in a quest will show up in the rewards section on the quest log, and not only can any member of the raid now mark targets, but instant quest text is now turned on by default for all players. The last two changes are somewhat questionable -- cynics that we are here at WoW.com, we can see raiders in PuGs messing around with raid marks "for the lulz," which could be frustrating for raid leaders. Then again, it'll be much easier than the current situation of having to set up a marker as raid leader or assistant. Instant quest text, too, seems like a choice by Blizzard to step away from the immersiveness of having quest text write itself across the window, but then again, who doesn't have it set on instant already, and Blizzard has already admitted quests aren't that immersive anyway.

There is another issue, though, that may be worth Blizzard's reconsideration before bringing all of these changes live.

Blizzard also snuck a seemingly inconspicuous note in the latest patch update: "Players below level 10 may not join raids." That may seem like it's directed at gold-sellers who use lowbie toons to cause a nuisance, but actually, our friend Darias on Perenolde (who helps run all of those Sleeper Cartel parties you occasionally hear about) has a problem: lowbie raids are how most player-run events are done. And leaving pre level-10 characters out of the picture puts a damper on any visitors who might show up to an event and want direction.

I'm not sure what Blizzard is trying to hit on with that change, but the evidence, as presented by players in this forum thread, seems overwhelmingly in favor of leaving lowbie raids in the game. There are probably other ways to go about chatting (you can create custom chat channels, with passwords if necessary), but especially for guiding players during player-run races, having a raid complete with healing bars and raiding markers is really the way to go. We'll have to see if Blizzard agrees and leaves the change off the live realms.

The Hallow's End Horseman will be ready for you

2009-10-17T02:57:00.001-07:00

We've been getting a few queries from you readers lately about the upcoming Hallow's End holiday (it starts this Sunday) and what's new, but honestly, we haven't heard anything solid yet. You can assume that the usual festivities will be happening, so you can definitely plan to run the Horseman and go around getting your candy, but if anything else is new, we haven't heard it for sure yet. There is one tidbit -- Bornakk has confirmed that, like Coren Direbrew, the Horseman will be set for level 80s. And we can assume that means that there will be some new loot to obtain as well. But other than that, anything else that goes down for Hallow's End this year will be a surprise.

Not that we won't tell you about it -- of course we'll have coverage up as soon as we see anything new, and if you need help getting any of the achievements or quests done, we'll have help for you there, too. Just a few days left until our favorite holiday in the game -- can't wait!
Tags: achievements, bornakk, halloween, halloween-achievements, hallows-end, hallows-end-2009, hallows-end-achievements, headless-horseman, horseman, wow-achievements, wow-halloween, wow-hallows-end, wow-hallows-end-2009, wow-headless-horseman, wow-horseman, wow-quests

Totem Talk: Patch 3.3 PTR Roundup Madness

2009-10-17T02:56:00.000-07:00

Before I say anything else, let me reassure elemental shamans, your Tier 10 relic is going to have haste instead of crit. Coming from someone who is at best a middling elemental shaman, even I knew that crit isn't terribly compelling to a spec that can force a crit whenever it wants. We covered the relics the other day, but I wanted to make sure to go over that change in case anyone was scratching their head at a crit totem for a spec that doesn't really need it anymore.

Yesterday's changes on the PTR weren't terribly expansive, so let's reproduce the relevant ones here.

Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes). Relics
Elemental - Your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells grant 73 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. (We now know this will be haste for 30 seconds.)
Enhancement - Your Stormstrike ability grant 146 attack power rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. Restoration - Your Riptide spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

First, we'll discuss the Reincarnation change. While I find the tone of a lot of the comments to be deplorably aggressive (frankly, we as a class tend to go ape on the forums) I can't argue with the point being made: reducing Reincarnation to a 50 minute cooldown from 60, and having the talent shave at most another 20 minutes off of it, ends up with a 30 minute cooldown that is twice as long as any other such ability. That being said, Ghostcrawler's point here is perfectly valid: as soon as Reincarnation is usable every fight, it will be used every fight. Heck, we use ankh's in Heroic TotC (probably wouldn't have gotten our Twins kill without them) to get a DPS or healer up as soon as it's relatively safe to do so. Why wouldn't you? Reincarnation is dependable: you know you'll have it no matter what if a shaman dies. Still, I don't think anyone talents for it (I know I don't) - perhaps we would if it could get the cooldown to 15 minutes, perhaps we wouldn't.

The comment linked to above also makes an interesting point (that's completely unrelated to patch 3.3 except that now's as good a time as any to fix it) that the orc Blood Fury racial is useless for Resto Shamans, and only Resto Shamans, out of every other spec/class an orc can possibly play. (And since orc mages will most likely receive the exact same version that warlocks do now, that will continue into Cataclysm unless fixed.) Since I play an orc shaman and I'm incredibly selfish, I'm hoping this will be fixed and it will simply add AP and Spell Power for shamans in the future. It's not a major issue, but it vexes me. Since we're running around getting new totems for trolls and orcs (and incoming new totems for dwarves even though they won't even be in the game for a while) it seems like a good time to buff Blood Fury.

We mentioned Fire Nova Totem becoming an aura emitted by any fire totem when it was first announced, and one of the big concerns from commenters was that this seemed better for enhancement, with their up-close fighting style, than elemental who stay in the back casting spells. Since then I've gotten the chance to run Pit of Saron with Tristan from the Extremists podcast as well as transfer my orc over, and I have to say, both Tristan's comments and my own experience bear out that you'll use the totem as AoE about as much as any other caster. It's as if you had Arcane Explosion but you could drop it and then run away from where it was going to be. The tank on each run was so solid that it's hard to tell how much threat the totem aura puts out: mobs didn't seem to be running to one shot it, but that could be a consequence of a massive aggro lead. At any rate, the damage felt competitive for AoE, it's certainly not terribly hard to get the totem into range of an AoE pack, and at least I am looking forward to seeing it on live.

Okay, now let's talk about those relics again.

The elemental one would have been frankly terrible as crit. As haste, especially with a 30 second duration and the ability to stack three times, it's better. But does it really wow you enough to cast aside your Totem of Electrifying Winds? It will really depend on a comparison of uptime, ultimately. Does the three stack (219 haste) build up fast enough and stay up long enough to be better than a flat 200 haste? This is simply a question that will have to wait until someone gets one and does some tests. At least you have more options on how you might proc the new totem's effects, and that's something.

The new enhancement totem is even less impressive until we know proc rate and uptime. The Totem of Quaking Earth just seems like it will give you more AP (even a three stack of the 146 AP from the new totem will be, when fully stacked, 438 AP, just barely above the Quaking Earth, and you need to get it stacked) so again, we're talking about how long it will take to proc. (For the moment, let's just pretend that some theorycrafters aren't already saying the ToEW is better for single target enhancement damage than the Quaking Earth, as that kind of discussion is going to complicate this even more.) I'm hopeful the enhancement totem will also see a 30 second duration as the elemental one has.

The resto totem has a similar problem: it just doesn't seem all that much better than the T9 level Totem of Calming Tides. The exact same issues with duration, stacking and uptime: if you're going to have the buff start off so much smaller and stack up, it really has to stack faster. Once we see these in action we'll know more.

Next week, either back to leveling or (hopefully) more discussion of patch 3.3 and shamans, with a side possibility of talking about shamans in TotC/TotGC.

Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 11-20

2009-10-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

So, your mage is leveling nicely. You've wandered out of the starting area and into the wider zone beyond, done a bunch of quests, learned a rudimentary spell rotation (Frostbolt-->Fireball-->Fireball-->Fireball-->Conjure Water-->Drink) and now you've gone and hit level 10. This is a milestone for a number of reasons:

The mage staff quest we talked about two weeks ago.
You can now begin doing PvP in an actual battleground against players in your level bracket (as opposed to doing PvP against bored 12-year-olds who think it's fun to run around the starting areas with their level 80 death knights ganking lowbies).
Your first talent point!
Let's discuss the second two of these three things before we move forward.

PvP as a leveling mage

Patch 3.2 brought us a number of changes, but none altered the leveling landscape so much as battleground experience. It is now possible to level from 10 to 80 entirely through PvP, without completing a single quest, killing a single mob, visiting a single new zone, or conquering a single instanced dungeon. I wouldn't advise it, but it's possible.

The first battleground that you can visit is a place called Warsong Gulch, physically located between the northern border of the Barrens and the southern border of Ashenvale. Not that you have to actually go there to fight in this battleground. The moment you hit level 10, you can immediately begin queuing for WSG from anywhere, while doing anything, simply by clicking on the PvP button on your hotbar and selecting the battlegrounds tab. Depending on the battlegroup your server is in, you may have to wait a few minutes to get into a match, but once you're in, you can PvP to your heart's content, gaining honor and marks as well as a healthy amount of experience.

If you're looking for the fastest way to gain levels, keep looking. PvP simply isn't going to produce the amount of experience you can gain from efficient questing and mob-killing. I'm not saying it's terrible, but there are better ways to gain experience quickly. Still, leveling through PvP certainly has its share of perks. Because I like lists, here's one to help you decide if PvP is the leveling route for you.

Pros:

Gaining honor and marks as you level will net you some pretty awesome gear (and even mounts!) as you go along, and the honor you accrue will set you in good stead when you do hit max-level. PvP can be incredibly engaging (if you like that sort of thing; WoW PvP is sort of one of those things you either love or hate). For a lot of folks, it certainly beats the sometime tedious PvE level grind. You can queue for battlegrounds while you do other things, jump in when the invite pops up, and then return to whatever else you were doing when the battleground ends. Unless you're one of those pathetic wastes of human tissue who AFK their way through battlegrounds, PvPing your way to 80 will teach you a hell of a lot more about how to play your class (at least the PvP aspects of it) than solo questing will. PvP, done right, demands your attention and almost forces you to learn and improve. In a lot of ways, you'll be a better mage when you hit 80 if you've done some serious PvPing along the way, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Fully sanctioned opportunities to kill warlocks. Also you get to kill warlocks. I may have mentioned it already, but warlock-killing is involved. Cons:

Time consuming. Queues can frequently be long, so if you plan to PvP exclusively to 80, you may well end up wasting quite a bit of time. Matches are much shorter now than they used to be, thanks to hard time-limits and other basic mechanic improvements to the battlegrounds themselves, but you're still looking at spending about 20 minutes or so per match, to get the same amount of experience you can get from doing a quest or two and killing a few mobs along the way. You'll miss out on all the money and items you'd otherwise be picking up by doing the PvE content. PvPing exclusively to 80 is something that's very difficult to do without a higher level character bankrolling you. You get almost no money from PvP, you can't gather materials to advance a tradeskill, and you won't pick up any gear upgrades from quests. You won't learn how to play your mage in a PvE environment. We'll discuss this more later, but I'm a huge proponent of running a few instances on the way to 80. There are things you need to learn from operating within a group dynamic that you simply won't get any sense of in PvP. Lots of dying if your level ends in a number between 0 and 6. Though the problem isn't as severe and unforgiving as it used to be, the difference between, say, a level 10 mage and a level 19 mage is still massive. Especially at lower levels, you'll find yourself being more of a liability to your team than an asset. Also, it's just no fun, getting killed over and over. Once you get to the later levels in a particular bracket (which go in runs of ten, from 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, etc.), you'll have a significantly better time of it. For the first 5-6 levels, though, you're going to experience an unending parade of painful and frequently embarrassing failure, interspersed only occasionally by brief moments of moderate success. Sort of like high school. For these reasons, I suggest a mix. When questing starts to become tedious, or just when the urge strikes you, queue for a battleground, then keep questing while you wait. Picking up the daily battleground quest from the battlemasters in your nearest capital city maximizes your experience gain for the time spent. This way, you're still picking up honor and marks, but you're also still getting a healthy dose of quest rewards, item drops, the occasional instance run, and everything else the PvE game has to offer.

Also, forget the pros and cons. PvP wins because of the whole warlock-killing thing. I don't know why I even bothered to type all that up there.

Your first talent point!

This may not seem like a big deal, but it totally is.

Talent points, and the manner in which you allocate them, determine what kind of mage you will be. This is the moment you take the first step toward your career as a Fire, Frost, or Arcane mage, so I suggest you give it some thought. Decide what school of magic appeals to you and start working toward mastering it.

Having said that, know that you are in no way locking yourself into anything here. You can always change your talent spec at any point, and in fact almost certainly will, multiple times, during the leveling process and beyond. You may find it beneficial to select talents as you level that aren't necessarily the "optimal" talents, but make the leveling process easier and/or more fun, then change to a more efficient spec as you reach end-game. In that spirit, here are a few random pieces of advice:

Don't pick Arcane. It's terrible until the later levels, and then it becomes awesome. Just don't use it while leveling. At low levels, it'll make you feel weak, slow, and awkward, much like middle school gym class did.
Fire is good for pure damage, and Frost is good for control. For now, take one of the two and run with it. Fire is generally considered better from levels 10-40ish, at which point Frost's ability to gather up every mob in the zone and then kill them all at once nudges it into the lead as a leveling spec. Do what you like, I'm just throwing out some conventional group-think here.
With your first few talent points, take either Improved Fireball or Improved Frostbolt. No other talent will help you as consistently and immediately as speeding up your nuke of choice will. If you hate yourself and are going with a low level Arcane spec, go with Arcane Stability, I guess, and may God have mercy upon your soul.
I'll throw out some ongoing talent spec suggestions as we go along, but considering we're already about 1400 words into this behemoth, we'd better get to the leveling guide proper.

Levels 11-12

New spells: Dampen Magic, Slow Fall

New ranks of spells: Fireball (rank 3), Conjure Food (rank 2)

At this point, you should be thinking about moving out into the great wide world beyond your home zone, to a quest hub like Crossroads or Sentinel Hill. Things will get progressively harder, and the levels will come more slowly. Fortunately, you can now conjure slightly more potent bread to assist you on your quest. If you let it harden long enough in your backpack, it can serve as a pretty effective projectile.

I'm lying. You can't actually throw your bread. The good news? You can throw a ball of flame. And at rank 3, that ball of flame will blow things up like it means it. If you're going the Frostbolt route with your talent points, Frostbolt is probably still a better choice for a primary nuke, but if Fire is your spec, open with that Frostbolt to snare your target and then start chucking Fireball after Fireball at it.

Your two new spells are Dampen Magic (which sort of sucks), and Slow Fall (which does not). Dampen Magic gives you a small damage reduction from spells, but also gimps incoming heals. If you're playing solo, there's no reason -- other than that inconvenient extra button press and mana expenditure -- not to keep it up as a third buff. If you're fighting casters, it can take a bit of the sting out of their spellcasts. If you're running with a friend who has heal spells, Dampen Magic is a bad idea. It's really as simple as that. This is one of those spells you'll pick up at the trainer and then promptly forget you have it. It's that mediocre.

Slow Fall, on the other hand, is good, clean fun. Use it any time you see a drop that will get you where you want to go faster than going around will. Also, use it whenever there's a drop. Because it's fun. You'll need to get your hands on some Light Feathers to use as reagents for the spell, but those should be fairly common drops. Kill things like harpies or buzzards to get them. Then leap from great heights and sail down safely as often as possible. You know you want to.

Levels 13-14

New spells: Arcane Explosion

New ranks of spells: Frostbolt (rank 3), Fire Blast (rank 2), Arcane Intellect (rank 2)

Ah, your first AoE. Perfect for any occasion when blowing up just one thing simply won't do. Be warned, though: it will suck your mana pool dry faster than you can say "holy crap where did my mana pool go and why are these four bears eating my face?" Use it prudently.

Frostbolt gets more powerful, meaning it's smart to simply spam it again, especially if you've been using your talent points to lower its cast time. Fire Blast improves as well, and your Arcane Intellect is slightly more intellectual than it previously was.

If you've rolled a Horde-side mage, level 14 is a good level to start trying to find groups for Ragefire Chasm, the lowest-level instance in the game. It resides beneath Orgrimmar, and is the home to some very sweet loot. Here is what you need to know as a low-level mage entering an instance for the first time:

Monsters in instances are "elites," meaning they have far more hit points and hit far harder than normal monsters of the same level. They're designed to provide a challenge for five players, and absolutely slaughter one.

You do not want them to hit you.
There will be a tank in your group. He'll be a warrior, druid, or paladin. You want the monsters to hit him.
If you do too much damage to a monster too quickly, you'll piss the monster off and it'll ignore the tank and come for you. This mean you will probably die, and possibly take the whole group down with you.
If this happens, stop casting.
Your role in an instance is DPS. You're in charge of dealing damage to whatever the tank is fighting. The tank will do his or her best to keep the attention of whatever he or she is fighting focused squarely on him or herself, as opposed to on you, with your cloth armor and squishy innards. If this means you occasionally need to cut back on the Fireballing a bit (and that's exactly what it means), do it. The default UI will tell you when you've ticked the monster off by saying "High Threat" and flashing red and whatnot, but by the time it does so, it's probably too late. I'd encourage picking up a threat-meter add-on and using it liberally. It will keep you up-to-date on how mad the monster is at you in relation to how mad it is at the tank, and paying attention to it will save your life. Omen is a good solid choice, though a quick perusal of WoWCurse or WoWInterface or some similar site will reveal several other viable alternatives.

You may also be asked to fulfill another role: that of crowd control, or CC. Polymorph is one of, if not the single most reliable CC spell in the game, and you will be asked to sheep something if you go into an instance in possession of it. All this means is that you will need to keep one target in whatever group of enemies it is that you are fighting out of commission. You do that by turning them into a sheep and then turning them into a sheep again if the spell wears off or some stupid nub breaks your sheep. Your tank will hopefully mark your sheep targets clearly before the fight begins, so you'll know which mob to do this to. Set your sheep target as your focus by right-clicking its portrait and sheep it after the tank pulls. Then DPS the tank's target while you keep an eye on your sheep target, re-sheeping it as necessary. This is a skill you should perfect as soon as possible.

Levels 15-16

New spells: Flamestrike

New ranks of spells: Arcane Missiles (rank 2)

Flamestrike provides you with another mana-intensive and semi-awkward AoE option. It does quite a bit more damage than Arcane Explosion, but is far more clunky to use. Also, you get a new rank of Arcane Missiles, a spell that remains relatively useless at this level. It uses too much mana and takes too long to cast. It'll be awesome later, but for now, only use it when you get bored of Fireballs or Frostbolts.

Level 15 brings you brand new customization option: glyph slots. You get two to start with, one minor and one major. Your choice of glyphs is entirely up to you, but at low levels I'd recommend glyphing Fireball in that major slot. Not Frostbolt, mind you, since that glyph has a side effect that sucks for a leveling mage: it removes Frostbolt's slowing effect as a trade-off for more damage. The Fireball glyph is a clear damage increase, and unless you absolutely won't using Fireball, is worth picking up. There are certainly other choices, but Fireball is my preference at this level.

Your choice of minor glyph is largely a cosmetic one, so choose whatever suits you. I like the Slow Fall glyph just because it allows me to stop carrying around Light Feathers, but that's just me.

If you happen to be a scribe yourself, you can make your own glyphs, but if not, you'll most likely need to pay a visit to the auction house to procure your glyphs, and some of them can be quite expensive. Save your pennies and do what you can, but don't think it's the end of the world if you simply can't afford the glyph you want yet. At this level, they're a nicety, not a necessity.

Lastly, at level 15 you should be done placing talent points into reducing the speed of Fireball or Frostbolt. If you've chosen to spec Fire, I'd start working on Ignite, which will add a powerful DoT effect to anything you manage to crit with a Fire spell. It's a big damage increase and it's always fun to set things on fire. On the Frost side of things, I'd start investing in Frostbite, which gives you a chance to freeze your target completely every time you hit it with a Frost spell and is one of the bedrock talents for the tree as you go forward. Once you hit level 17, I'd move on to Ice Shards, which will makes your Frost crits do an almost obscene amount of damage. good times. If you're still speccing Arcane at this point, I don't have any advice for you, Do what you want, crazy person. I wash my hands of you.

Levels 17-18

New spells: Amplify Magic, Remove Curse

New ranks of spells: Fireball (rank 4)

Amplify Magic sucks. It has some very niche uses later in the game, but for now, just put it in your spellbook and tell it not to order any pay-per-view or invite any friends over. Remove Curse...removes curses. If you get cursed, use it. Don't forget you have this spell; you'll find it very useful on certain bosses in raids and instances later on. Also, Fireball gets more powerful. That's never a bad thing.

A couple new instance options open up in this level range: Deadmines and Wailing Caverns. Deadmines is worth the trip even for Horde characters, simply because it has pirates. Who doesn't like pirates? Specifically, who doesn't like setting pirates on fire? Put your hands down, pirates. I wasn't talking to you.

Levels 19-20

New spells: Blink, Blizzard, Evocation, Fire Ward, Mana Shield, the various Teleport spells

New ranks of spells: Conjure Water (rank 3), Frost Armor (rank 3), Frostbolt (rank 4), Polymorph (rank 2)

Level 20 may just be the best level in the game. Ok, maybe 80 is better, but not by much. In terms of pure advancement, it's tough to top level 20 for mages. You get a buttload of new and improved spells, you get to start teleporting around willy-nilly, and most of all, you get a pony.

Yes, in one fell swoop, we get one of the best AoE spells in the game in Blizzard, a couple of nice defensive spells in Fire Ward and Mana Shield, the down-time reducing, mana returning, sweetness that is Evocation, and the ability to pop forward twenty yards with the recently improved Blink. As if that wasn't enough, we also get better water to conjure, more armor from Frost Armor, a more powerful Frostbolt, and an update to Polymorph that lengthens its duration from 20 seconds to 30.

To make the level seem like even more of a milestone, we get access to our first three Teleport spells: Stormwind, Ironforge, and Exodar for the Alliance, and Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Silvermoon for the Horde. Welcome to one of the hands-down best parts of being a mage: get-around-ability. We can pop around from city to city without using a hearthstone, and our options only get more numerous as we level. This is extremely helpful in the old world, where a disturbingly large number of quests pop up that send you back and forth to capital cities for no good reason.

Perhaps the best part of level 20, though, is that you can train to use your first mount. This used to happen at level 40. I don't know if you remember that, but it happened. Then after like four years of making us grind our way to 40 before we could be trusted to ride into battle on something faster than our own two feet, Blizzard changed the level requirement to 30. Then about 15 minutes (give or take) later they switched it down even further, to 20. I halfway expect, every time I create a new character, to see them spawn at level 1 already on the back of a spectral raptor or a winged giraffe or something.

Whoo... I need to shut up. As more than one of you pointed out on the last installment of the mage leveling guide: it takes longer to read these columns than it does to actually level your mage ten levels. I don't know if next week will bring levels 21-30 yet or not. If PTR news drops, we may cover that. But if not... bring on the leveling!

Lichborne: Death knight leveling 68-80

2009-10-10T08:56:00.001-07:00

So, death knight. You're through with Outland. You just dinged 68 in Nagrand and want to move on to whiter, snow covered pastures. Maybe those pastures are in Northrend. Maybe those pastures are in Alterac Valley. Either way, let's discuss getting through those final levels and pushing you through to the end game.

Gear

So if you've read our previous Death Knight leveling guide, you may have picked up an upgrade or two. Then again, you may have decided to keep your starting gear because it looks so awesome, which is cool. However, once you hit Northrend, that gear's going to start looking pretty weak. Luckily, you'll have a wealth of quest gear to grab.

You can starting by checking out our Northrend Starting Zone Gear Guide from a while back. If you need a sum up of that, the basics are that Borean Tundra has a great blue 2-handed axe reward, so you should probably quest for that first. After that, Borean Tundra has more straight strength and critical strike rating on its gear, while Howling Fjord has more haste and armor penetration. You can probably level up in either pretty safely, though I went with Howling Fjord simply because I enjoyed the story lines there more. Haste turns out to be good for Unholy, and Armor Penetration for Blood, so the gear there is actually a bit better than it might first appear to the untrained eye.

Once you've kitted yourself out in the basic gear, you should be able to get to level 80 relatively easy, grabbing minor upgrades you go. We'd be here all day if I went over every zone, but there are a few things I can recommend you focus on:

First, do the Wrathgate quest line in Dragonblight. By the time it's over, you'll have a few new blue upgrades a nice trinket in addition to having experienced the best quest line in all of Warcraft. Secondly, do all of the Kalu'ak reputation quests in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Dragonblight. Once you complete those and do a couple rounds of dailies, you'll be at revered, meaning you have a nice new breastplate or two waiting at 76 and a new 2-handed weapon waiting at 78. Thirdly, once you hit level 77, head to Krasus' Landing and take the free taxi to the Argent Tournament. The sooner you start on the dailies, the sooner you can start earning Champion's Seals, which should provide you with some nice weapon and armor upgrades once you hit 80.

Leveling the PvP Way

I thought I should make mention of PvP leveling possibilities since it is the new hotness. While the Patch 3.2.2 adjustments did cool down the gain a bit, you can still get 10-12k experience per a tower burning in Alterac Valley (before heirloom adjustments), so it's at least a good break from questing.

The main thing to remember about leveling as PvP is that unless you're twinked out, you're going to be sort of squishy from around levels 70-75. This means that if possible, you may want to find other ways of helping the offensive than charging headlong into the onrushing Horde. You can keep an eagle eye on flags and interrupt any Horde capturers until the more powerful members of your team can defeat them - one point of damage prevents a flag capture. Also, don't be afraid to use Chains of Ice, Strangulate, and other crowd control and interruption skills to help shut down casters.

Also, you may want to review my PvP tips for death knights. While the specs mentioned are a little outdated, and the tips still refer primarily to level 80s, you should find something in there you can adapt to the situation.

Skill Check: Old Skills

As far as talent trees go, all three can be used successfully for leveling, but a Blood/Unholy build is probably going to be the quickest and easiest to level, with great damage and self-healing. That said, I leveled as Unholy and found the experience enjoyable, and even Frost should be able to muddle through.

Your best bet for leveling quickly is to get a good rotation down. Essentially, you want to get both your diseases up. Then, you want to hit your Frost/Unholy strike (Death Strike for Blood, Scourge Strike for Unholy, Obliterate for Frost), then hit a couple Blood Strikes (or Heart Strikes if you're Blood), followed by your runic power dump. Then, you can start over again. Always make sure your diseases are up, since they will increase the damage of your strikes, and if you use Death Runes in your build, use those to unleash your most powerful runic strike (Heart Strike for Blood, Obliterate for Frost. This used to be Scourge Strike for Unholy, but end game Unholy builds currently eschew Death Runes and just start the whole disease cycle over again).

If you're AEing, the basic idea should be to get down your diseases, use Pestilence to spread them, and then use the remaining three runes for a Death and Decay. This will change a bit depending on your spec and role (for example, if you're DPSing in a group, be careful not to pull aggro off the tank with that DnD), but this method should be fine for solo DPSing up to 80.

Both of the above are very much the basics of rotation, and in the raid and heroic game somethings will change, but these basic methods will get you to 80, at least. Now, let's check on some of the other skills you'll getting as you head toward 80.

New Skills

Rune Strike: While you technically get this at level 67, I feel it's important enough to point out -- you need this skill.

Anti-Magic Shell: This level 68 skill is often overlooked, but it can be very useful both for tanking and DPS. Not only does it take the brunt of magical damage, but it provides extra runic power. If you're fighting magic using enemies and you have the runic power, put this up just before they send a spell your way or cast an AoE that you'll get caught in. Not only will you take a lot less damage, but you'll find yourself with a bit of extra runic power. Good death knights learn to use this well.

Rune of the Fallen Crusader: This comes along at level 70. You should probably head straight back to Ebon Hold, learn it, and apply it to your weapon. It's the undisputed king of enchantments for Blood and Unholy DPS, and even Frost builds will generally use this on their main hand, with Razorice for the offhand.

Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: This one's pretty simple. If you're tanking and having trouble hitting the defense cap, using this enchant (or the one-handed version coming with Patch 3.3). If not, the parry enchant will probably serve you better.

Unholy Presence: If you're an Unholy Death Knight with low haste, you may find this presence useful for fitting in a proper rotation. It's also a easy way to get a quick burst of speed if, say, you're running deep into a dungeon after wiping. For the most part, though, Blood Presence will be the superior DPS presence.

Raise Ally: This is a nice little bonus if you're in the middle of a big battle, an ally has fallen, and the Druid's battle rez is on cooldown. That said, the Ghoul raised with this ability will probably be a bit weak. Still, it's better than nothing.

Empower Rune Weapon: This ability comes along at level 75. It will put all your runes off cooldown and grab you a chunk of runic power. In short, it's the perfect burst ability. In PvP or PvE, if something needs to go down fast, get off your first set of abilities, and while most of your runes are on cooldown and your runic power near depleted, hit this cooldown and lay into your target with a fresh set of strikes. Never underestimate this ability.

Army of the Dead: This level 80 ability can be both a help and hindrance. It's a great emergency button because it not only grants you extra protection while you summon, but the Ghouls taunt, peeling mobs off you and giving you time to bandage or Death Strike. They're also a surprisingly good amount of damage. Of course, they also have a downside. Since they taunt, they can peel off the tank if you're in a group. If a monster is tauntable and needs to be positioned a certain way (such as if he has a frontal cleave or cone AE spell), your ghouls can make life hell for the group, dragging the target all over the place. Take a little time to study your prey, though, and you should be able to determine if Army of the Dead is safe to cast.

Once You Hit 80

Once you hit 80, you know what time it is: Time to gear up again. Luckily, we already have a few good articles for you.

To get an idea of basic tank gear for heroic tanking, check out this article. To get an idea of basic tank gear to start in on Naxxramas, check out this article To get an idea of basic DPS gear to start in on Naxxramas, check out this article. Then understand that all three of the above articles were written before the advent of the 5-man coliseum, and read up on our Coliseum loot articles for tanks and DPS. Your best loot will always come out of the coliseum, at least until Patch 3.3 comes out.
Once you have some gear under your belt (and don't forget to enchant it!), a lot of different options will open up to you. You can choose a tradeskill if you haven't already, or decide on your dual specs. Then it's off to raid, PvP, run dungeons, and do all that other good stuff, and that's when it's time to start hitting the rest of the Lichborne articles. We'll see you at the end game!

We Have a Tabard: Strange bedfellows

2009-10-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Looking for a guild? Well, you can join ours! We have a tabard and everything! Check back for Amanda Dean talking about guilds and guild leadership in We Have a Tabard.

For years Blizzard has claimed that there would be no chance for faction changes. They didn't use the word "never" but they did say there were no plans on doing it. Much has changed since the Blizzard/Activision Merger. Well, the time has come, and what has become of it. I honestly can't tell you if the impact has been good or bad, but there has certainly been an impact.

If I haven't mentioned before, I play Horde. The first night that transfers came out, a number of my friends and guildies swapped characters over from Alliance. Good to see an influx of variety, but much attention turned to leveling forgotten alts. I don't know anyone who has transferred from Horde to Alliance. Given a better opportunity, I'm sure there are plenty who would make the switch.

Faction changes have had an interesting effect on guild on my server. A number of raiders from the top guilds swapped factions and joined forces with the top guilds on the Alliance side. The Alliance guilds have always been front runners in progression and this move has served to make them stronger. That's excellent for them.
On the Horde-side though, we've seen some pretty severe instability. One guild has crumbled and a new guild is rising from it's ashes. It's sad to see empires fall, but it's opened the door for some folks to move up the raiding ranks. I wonder if it's had the opposite effect on the Alliance side of the deal -- if it's bumped good, but not stellar players into a lower raiding bracket.

I've also heard tales of ninja disappearances with name changes and all. For those who play both sides or favor the other, it only stands to believe that these folks took their spoils to the other side. Honestly this behavior isn't really different from server/name transferring with an extra added level of faction complexity.

As for the raiders that merged with Alliance on my server, I don't know if they were compelled to do so by a raid leader. The guild was suffering some persistent personnel issues, and it may have been a good time to regroup under new management. There were many great players left behind. Did they stay due to Horde loyalty? A general distaste for the Alliance? Were they unwilling to pay the transfer fee? I don't know.

I am curious what the effect of race changes will be. As is stands now, it would be unreasonable to ask someone to change race. It would require having someone level up a new character to optimize racial benefits. But once race changes come out I could see raid leaders compelling players to optimize their racials. If a raid leader can ask a blood elf hunter to change from beast mastery to marksman, what's to stop the leader for asking for a switch to orc?

The dust is settling. I believe that the vast majority of transfers happened shortly after they went live. Normality should be restored. In some cases, like my server, it's just a slightly different version of normal.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Icecrown to introduce new hard mode toggles

2009-10-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

There'll be a new way to activate hard modes in Icecrown, according to Bornakk. After the somewhat confusing four modes for the same instance that was introduced in Patch 3.2, which redefined "normal" and "heroic" for 10- and 25-man raids, Blizzard is making it easy for players to toggle hard modes for the bosses in Icecrown. The current plan is to make boss hard mode toggles part of the UI rather than through game mechanics such as in Ulduar. This means that players running Icecrown can switch hard modes on and off for bosses throughout the run. As Bornakk states, players "can switch it back and forth as much as you like. Encounter 1 on hard, 2 on normal, 3 on hard, 4 on normal, etc."

It's also interesting to note that Blizzard plans to scale up the Emblems found in older dungeons to Emblems of Triumph the way Emblems of Conquest are dropped in raids now. Newer, higher version emblems will drop in Icecrown, allowing advanced raiders access to the newest gear. This emblem upgrades will allow players to better catch up on gear and consequently explore Icecrown. Of course, Bornakk reminds everyone of the caveat that "Things can still change."

World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 PTR Patch Notes

2009-10-10T08:40:00.001-07:00

Blizzard has just released the patch notes for the Patch 3.3 PTR. As with all PTR patch notes, please be aware that they are the early stages of the finalized patch notes, and not everything may yet be in them. These notes are particularly shorter than what most would expect, however there are still some juicy goodies.

The PTR is not up yet. You'll hear it here when it is. These notes come a day after the information and pictures of Icecrown were released.

Some of the highlights from the patch notes released thus far:

The Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-player dungeon, is currently available for testing. Additional Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid content will be made available in future test builds Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously. Rogue Vanish: For the first second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability. Shaman Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem. Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster's target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell. Entire patch notes after the break.

This post is currently being edited.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.0

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General

Icecrown Citadel
The Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-player dungeon, is currently available for testing. Additional Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid content will be made available in future test builds. Dazed: Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed. Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process. Classes: General

Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon. Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes. Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player's level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15. Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage. Races: General

Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total. Death Knights

Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune. Talents
Unholy
Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Druids

Pets
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Hunters

Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously. Talents
Beast Mastery
Intimidation: If the hunter's pet is in melee range of its target, the stun from Intimidation will now be applied immediately instead of on the pet's next swing or attack. Pets
Avoidance: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 30/60/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Mages

Talents
Arcane
Arcane Empowerment: This talent now also grants 1/2/3% increased damage done by the mage's party or raid for 10 seconds after the mage gets a critical strike with Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, or Arcane Blast. This effect is exclusive with Ferocious Inspiration and Sanctified Retribution. Pets
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Priests

Pet
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Rogues

Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1. Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed. Vanish: For the first second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability. Shamans

Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem. Talents
Elemental Combat
Improved Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Improved Fire Nova. This talent now provides an additional 10/20% damage to the spell and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 seconds. Warlocks

Pets
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn. Warriors

Victory Rush: This ability is now trainable at level 6. Talents
Protection
Damage Shield: This ability will no longer trigger any chance-on-hit effects from the warrior or the opponent it damages. User Interface

Quest Tracking Feature
This system is currently under development and is not fully functional. Looking For Group System
This feature is undergoing several improvements and is not available for testing at this time. For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum. Graphics

A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). This is currently enabled by default on the public test realms. For more information please visit our Test Realm forum. Professions

Enchanting
Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster's target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell. Items

Glyphs
Death Knights
Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage. Shamans
Glyph of Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Glyph of Fire Nova. This glyph now reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 3 seconds. Bug Fixes

Druids
Rejuvenation: Rank 15 of this spell was providing a 15-second duration. It has been correctly reduced to 12 seconds. Mages
Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time

Patch 3.3: Icecrown raid preview

2009-10-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Blizzard has just released their preview of the Icecrown Citadel raid instance, which will be launching with Patch 3.3. This comes about a week after they released the Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeon preview.

Some of the key pieces of information from the preview:

"Join the legendary heroes Highlord Tirion Fordring, High Overlord Saurfang, Muradin Bronzebeard, Highlord Darion Mograine, and King Varian Wrynn in an epic battle against the Scourge and their master." "Icecrown Citadel features 10- and 25-player versions of the raid dungeon, and each version has 12 encounters. Each encounter can be fought in either normal or Heroic mode, and players can use a new user interface feature to toggle easily between difficulties." "The rewards in the raid dungeon start at item level 251 in the normal mode with 10-player encounters, increase to item level 264 in the Heroic mode mode with 10 players and the normal mode with 25-player encounters, and then finally reach item level 277 in the Heroic mode with 25 players." "...two new forms of abomination in Festergut and Rotface, who currently protect their devious creator, Professor Putricide."
The entire text of the preview after the break.

Gallery: Patch 3.3: Icecrown Raid Preview

From Blizzard's Preview:

All across the lands of Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and Horde first reached the frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward. Now Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge's power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an alliance with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. The strongest combatants of this coalition, along with the champions of the Alliance and Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel.

This dungeon reveals the culminating story events and battles of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Join the legendary heroes Highlord Tirion Fordring, High Overlord Saurfang, Muradin Bronzebeard, Highlord Darion Mograine, and King Varian Wrynn in an epic battle against the Scourge and their master. Icecrown Citadel features 10- and 25-player versions of the raid dungeon, and each version has 12 encounters. Each encounter can be fought in either normal or Heroic mode, and players can use a new user interface feature to toggle easily between difficulties. The rewards in the raid dungeon start at item level 251 in the normal mode with 10-player encounters, increase to item level 264 in the Heroic mode mode with 10 players and the normal mode with 25-player encounters, and then finally reach item level 277 in the Heroic mode with 25 players.

Grand Entrance of the Citadel

After breaching the fortress, players will face a legion of undead guards directed to repel any invaders. Commanding the defenders is Lord Marrowgar, a monstrosity fused together from the bones of the undead. Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned, Lady Deathwhisper is the next opponent. She bolsters the faith of her followers by promising them the opportunity to give eternal service in undeath.

As they continue their ascent, the Alliance and Horde heroes ultimately end up outside of the citadel where their hatred for one another erupts into a battle for dominance over the Rampart of Skulls. Players will join in battle alongside High Overlord Saurfang on the Orgrim's Hammer gunship or Muradin Bronzebeard on The Skybreaker in a unique encounter. Each faction will protect its gunship and try to destroy the other one in a back-and-forth battle to see who is truly worthy of facing the Lich King.

The Lich King's most powerful death knight then stands as the final obstacle for the heroes to enter the upper reaches of the citadel.

The Wings of Icecrown Citadel

After the heroes of the Alliance or Horde defeat the other faction on the gunships and wipe out the creatures near the entrance, players will venture into an area with three separate wings. Here they will face a multitude of terrors that must be vanquished in order to confront the Lich King.

In the Frostwing Halls players will battle alongside the Ashen Verdict and push into the lair of the deadly frost wyrm Sindragosa, who continues to strengthen her brood with the help of Ymirheim's vrykul. Along the way, the heroes will stumble upon Valithria Dreamwalker, a captured green dragon whom the Scourge is using as a test subject for their own ends....

The Plagueworks contains the most twisted experiments ever produced by the Scourge. In this wing players will face two new forms of abomination in Festergut and Rotface, who currently protect their devious creator, Professor Putricide.

The Crimson Hall contains the leaders of the San'layn, undead blood elves who oversee the Scourge's operations throughout Azeroth. The blood-princes Valanar, Keleseth, and Taldaram were raised into undeath by the Lich King to avenge themselves while protecting their blood-queen, Lana'thel.

The Frozen Throne

After clearing all three wings, players will ascend to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver them to their deaths....

WoW: New piece of Direbrew loot enabled

2009-09-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

A new piece of loot has shown up on the live realms today -- one that has all the servers abuzz. For the intrepid adventurers fighting off Coren Direbew they might be rewarded with a Bind on Equip 1H Mace that every budding Enhancement Shaman will want to get their claws on.

The mace is an iLevel 226 item and has a DPS output of 171.5 -- making it on par with the very best 1H weapons out of 25-man Naxx. Full stats are in the picture above.

It looks like, well, a tankard. Just like the other glasses that are in the game. I don't necessarily get why it's "O' Terror," that would sound like it belongs more with the upcoming Hallow's End than Brewfest, but that's just me. Either way it's quite a nice mace that's going to make a lot of Enhancement Shamans happy.

It can also make your wallet a little fatter if you're lucky enough to get it (it does have a low drop rate). They're selling for between 4k to 5k gold. I would suspect that'll decrease substantially in the next few days however. If you really want it and don't want to spend that kind of gold, Brewfest is running for a while still -- you'll have until October 3rd to get your hands on one.

For more Brewfest information, check out our Guide to the 2009 Brewfest Achievements and the rest of the updated level 80 Direbrew loot.

WoW Race changes Coming Soon

2009-09-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

They said WoW Race change wasn't going to happen, but it wouldn't be the first time Blizzard did a 180º on previous announcements. Of course, if we had really bothered to read between the lines, Blizzard wasn't actually saying 'no' to wow race changes -- only that it wouldn't be part of the paid Character Faction Change service. It was in their Faction Change Q&A that Nethaera squashed the idea like an ugly bug. It turns out the folks at Blizzard are shrewder businessmen than we thought, and what Neth's 'no' actually meant was that race change would be a completely different service (which they conveniently didn't mention at the time).

Although wow race changes were confirmed some time back, we received a couple of messages from readers tipping us off to the actual Race Change button being up on the Account Management page, falling under the Paid Services tab. How soon 'Coming Soon!' actually is, we can only guess. It's Blizzard, after all. Besides, WoW Cataclysm promised us new wow races, and it should be interesting to see if Blizzard will allow changing to either a Goblin or a Worgen. It's possible that it won't be allowed at first to encourage players to try out the new starting areas, but Blizzard has been rather surprising as of late. Personally, I can't wait to trade up from Blood Elf pale to Orc green.

Thanks to Ryan and Tuttutt for the heads up!