We had a great time (as you can probably hear), and you can listen to the show right on Massively. WoW Insider covers WoW, but Massively covers all MMOs, so if you're also a fan of Guild Wars or LotRO or Warhammer, check them out. And if you're a Turpster fan (who isn't, really?), you can also see him every week in his video series over there, called TurpsterVision. Thanks to Zenke and Schuster for letting us run amuck on their podcast -we'll have to return the favor on the WoW Insider Show soon.
Miss hearing Turpster and I on the same podcast? I do too -I think our show has definitely come into its own, but at this point, there's just a scheduling conflict keeping us apart (Turpster's new show is recorded at exactly the same time as ours). Worry not, however, because whenever we can, we'll try to podcast together, and here's your first chance to hear us again: Michael Zenke and Shawn Schuster of our sister site's Massively Speaking podcast invited both of us on to sit down and talk about the Wrath release with them.
It was a lot of fun -we talked about the Wrath launch and how it went, and then went on to hit on some of the most important new features for MMO fans in general, and how Blizzard has really done some great work with the new expansion (while also simultaneously borrowing from other developers). And we confronted the topic of whether there was enough content in Wrath at all, and whether it was a bad thing that all the PvE instances have already been cleared. And finally we talked about the future of WoW, and where we might be headed next.
Speaking on Massively
Death Knight Disease Design contest
I'm terrible at design, but maybe there are some budding designers out there with some kickass ideas. If you win, not only do you get your ideas included in the Runes addon, but you will pick up a free 60 day gamecard as well. Hit up their dev thread if you have questions about how the mod works -hopefully we'll see some creative entries here when the times come to vote for a winner next month.
DeathKnight.info is having a Death Knight Disease Design contest (say that three times fast) -they're working on putting together a disease-timer addon for you former slaves of the Lich King, but they need a little design help with it. What you've got to do is take the graphic above (you should probably take the one off of their site, just to be safe, because it's got to be a certain size), and design a way to use it as a disease timer -it's got to show all the info you'll need in an addon, and it's got to "look awesome," too.
Tags: death knight
General chat and Living
But Northrend has been different -I didn't want the inane chatter, the constant stream of questions (sometimes answered, usually not), and the occasional desperate requests. I wanted to be in Northrend by myself, more or less, and explore the world as if I wasn't on the same server as thousands of people. And it's been worthwhile, for the most part -while I've dived back in there once or twice just to check and see if certain quests are bugged for anyone else, I've mostly stayed out of there, and I think it's made the game better.
Some of you will probably think I'm late to the game -you may have removed the General channel on day one, and the Trade and World Defense channels along with it (I'm keeping the Trade channel, though -when I am in cities, I kind of appreciate the bustling back and forth, and I've found a few deals in there). For the moment, though, I appreciate a quieter Northrend. No General for me, thanks.
I have a confession to make: all the whining, questions, and confusion that's been in General chat for the last few days? I haven't heard any of it. As soon as I logged in after the expansion, I typed "/leave general" and strangely enough, haven't looked back. I usually enjoy General -it reminds me that I'm not playing a singleplayer game, and most of the comments there, while not really the smartest, are at least pretty entertaining. I figured if you're going to play a game with other people, you might as well give them the opportunity to talk with you.
Clear of all raid encounters
It's certainly true that we keep hearing about how easy Wrath is, or how it's somehow been "dumbed down." I'm a firm believer that you can only brush aside so much smoke before you have to admit there's a fire somewhere. So, yeah, the game is probably easier than it used to be. But I think it's more fair to say that end-game content is more accessible than simply "easy." We've seen the desire for accesibility repeated in phrases like Ghostcrawler's "Bring the player, not the class." It's repeated when Blizzard considered moving away from class forums into role forums.
I think the issue, here, is one of pacing and intent. Is Blizzard creating a game meant for someone who constantly strives to be a total completionist? How much weight do they place on the race-to-completion when they build content? What portion of players actually "raid competitively?" We know Karazhan was among the most visited instances in the game, even if it eventually became simple farming material for many. What conclusions has Blizzard drawn from that instance's success?
These are the questions that make debating the topic of Wrath's "easy mode" so difficult. We don't have a firm knowledgebase to be able to advance ideas. Is Wrath easy because it's meant to be an entry level for everyone, or is it easy simply because we haven't seen Ulduar yet? It's impossible to have a real answer, but Zarhym does promise that Blizzard is watching the situation.
Wrath of the Lich King has been out for a week. In that time, we've had the world's first level 80, the first complete and total clear of all raid encounters, and what seems like a billion "realm firsts." That didn't take long, did it? So, Tevri from Shandris dropped by the forums to question whether Wrath "is too easy."
Zarhym showed up, in his classic witty manner. He points out that the folks who're doing this immediate clearing are, in general, the same folks who've done every raid encounter in WoW for like . . . ever. In a sense, they're pretty high on the "pro" scale. (For the record, they are 25 people out of 11 million subscribers. Certainly, others have done the content by now, but it would take 110,000 people having completed the raid to say even 1% has "beat the game." ) Zarhym also cautions about relying on "truthiness" to judge the content -which is to say, going with your intuition when the facts are still out.
The friends of continent
I've heard a few people hating on how many old world NPCs you run into in Northrend, complaining that Blizzard is just recycling old content. I quite seriously disagree in this case. Seeing NPCs progress in the world alongside us gives a much greater feeling of the world being a story, and as we go up in level, the world moves forward. I like it a lot, and I hope it continues into the next expansion, too.
We have an old gallery sitting around of some of the returning faces you'll see in Northrend, so you can check it out if you want. Be warned, there are some minor spoilers inside.
We're waist deep in the content of Wrath by now, and despite the newness of the strange land, it all feels so familiar, too. Not only have we gone back to the gothic (yet sparkly) style of Old Azeroth, but we've been followed to Northrend by a whole lot of old friends.
I've been having a lot of fun bumping into ‘old' NPCs and quest givers that I've helping out on my journey from 10 to 60, or 61 to 70. They add a real sense of progression and continuity to the world. I solved their problems years ago, and that's allowed them to move on in life, for better or for worse. It's also strangely heartwarming to see people I did quests for so long ago, like a little slice of nostalgia.
The realm first achievements in wotlk
On a few realms, Blizzard ended up giving some of the awards to multiple players, resulting in the ingame mail you see above. We're not sure if it's because they all hit within a certain time period, or whether Blizzard's servers weren't working correctly, but as you can see, they say the issue is fixed for now. If you did rush to be the first on a server, you can be satisfied that you're the only one.
Apparently there have been some mistakes made in the realm-first achievements being given out. You've probably seen these (Blizzard apparently broadcasts them across the realms) -when someone hits level 80 or finishes a profession first, they attain a feat of strength achievement. They don't get the original titles, but they do get credit for getting their first.
Preview of issue #13
Varian Wrynn talking to Varian Wrynn #2 is just a silly, piss-poor way or trying to drag character development out of him. Come on now. He can't talk to another character about his past? He needs to talk to himself? Oh no, it can't be an inner monologue, either! You know what we need? Two Varians so they can be emo together. Come on. Varian Wrynn has the potential to be a really engaging character, but this writing make me cringe. I don't care if the clone turns out to have some totally super awesome twist in the end, this is still terrible.
If you've been following the World of Warcraft comic, you might be pleased to hear the official WoW website posted a preview of issue #13 last night. After reading it, if you're like me, you'll be dramatically less pleased. Maybe you'll enjoy it, but I personally have no idea how much longer I'll keep reading this thing. The comic was never really good good, it was corny good, which is sometimes exactly what you're looking for. It's quickly falling out of corny good into bad.
Interview with Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime
They ask about an iPhone app, and Morhaime says Blizzard is working on connecting mobile devices up to the game, but he also specifically says they're not looking at a stand-alone app. So maybe a mobile version of the Armory? I'd love to see an iPhone app, as we've said before, with mail or auction house functionality, but maybe Blizzard doesn't see the majority of their audience on the iPhone anyway. Then again, their Mac guys always need something to do.
MTV's Multiplayer blog has an interview with Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime (who is apparently sitting pretty with the elven ladies after last week's big expansion launch). He says that he sees no end to the expansions -Blizzard has told us before that as long as they have ideas (and players), they'll keep making content for this game. He also says that they're happy with the subscription model in the United States -although we'd imagine that both of those things might get rethought if Blizzard's subscription numbers were going the other way. For now, though, while things are headed up, Morhaime sounds pretty happy with the way things are.
Soul Shards and Ritual of Summoning
Essentially, the new RoS will create a meeting stone-like object. It'll still take two players in addition to the Warlock, as well as one shard, but once the ritual has been cast, the stone can be re-used to summon as many people as desired within its five minute duration, and that summoning action will merely require any two players, just like a meeting stone. You can also summon multiple people simultaneously, and all just for one shard. You won't be able to summon in situations where you currently can't (Netherstorm, battlegrounds, in combat), but this will make summoning much easier, quicker, and less shard-intensive. A great idea.Soul Shards: love them or hate them, they're iconic of the Warlock class. Most choose to hate them, but I think locks are just full of hate in general and need to vent it somewhere. Along with a tantalizing note about "exciting changes to how soul shards might work," European CM Vaneck has just let us know that one common shard-based ability, Ritual of Summoning, is going to be changed Before the 3.1/Ulduar Patch (a promise I'm seeing a lot of lately; we can only hope that patch is soon).
That most things the Forsaken
This...bothered me, the sheer callousness of it, to the point where I really wondered for the first time if I were playing the right faction (although I got over it when I logged to my Dwarf and spent an hour being directed to kill the people who'd wound up rebuilding Stormwind for free). A more charitable person might shrug and say that Agmar is simply a character in the mold of Gregory House, M.D. -you can be a good person without necessarily being a nice one -but still. That kind of sucked.
A lot of people playing Horde will cite Message From the West as being a sort of epistolary counterpart to this quest, and it's very true that Saurfang's letter washes away a lot of the unpleasantness you've probably dealt with while leveling (as does Saurfang's conversation with Garrosh Hellscream in Warsong Hold; hang around them until you see it). There's a lot of infighting over what truly constitutes the soul of the Horde. I can only hope that Saurfang's concern prevails over Agmar's indifference.
There are a few quests I've done so far that have really made me squirm. I play Horde, and you just know that most things the Forsaken are wrapped up in are going to be kind of dodgy. A lot of our early questing in Northrend concerns the Apothecary Society's attempts to find a Scourge-specific plague (...right), and that doesn't end particularly well. I can sort of accept that, because the quest series skates a thin moral line between plausible deniability on the character's part as to the apothecaries' true intentions, and what actually ends up happening. But there's one quest in particular that has nothing to do with the apothecaries that really gave me pause. It's actually one that has an Alliance equivalent as well, although it ends somewhat differently there.
If you're not that far into Dragonblight quests and don't want to be spoiled, I'm putting it behind the cut.
The quest is A Letter for Home, and if you're doing or you've done the questlines in Dragonblight concerning the Moonrest Gardens (most of which are identical regardless of your faction), eventually you'll run across a drop from an important leader amongst the Blue Dragonflight forces. The Alliance will get Captain Malin's Letter; the Horde will get Lieutenant Ta'zinni's Letter.
Both letters have been written by people (the former a human, the latter a troll) who were blackmailed into service for the Blue Dragonflight under threat of harm to their families, but are secretly working to destroy the dragons' efforts from within. You kill the turncoats and then you get the letter drop explaining this sad state of affairs, and decide to take it to your local commander to see if there's anything that can be done for this person's family.
Now, Overlord Agmar, the guy who's running the eponymous Agmar's Hammer for the Horde in Dragonblight, is no bowl of chuckles under ordinary circumstances. He's slightly stressed and utterly disgusted by three other traitors running around the area. He is one of the most unsentimental and least forgiving NPC's you will find in the entire game. As far as he is concerned, you are a member of the Horde. You are aware of the problems that the Horde (and, he will grudgingly admit, the Alliance) faces in Northrend; if you weren't, you wouldn't be here. You will do your job and you will do it to the best of your ability, aware of all the things that ride on it, and he will not pity or accept cowardice, hesitation, or -God help you -betrayal, because you do not have the luxury of thinking only of yourself.
Faction scarves in world of warcraft
One way to keep warm this season is by adorning these 100% hand-crafted scarves sold in Wingo's Crochet Shop. Each scarf is reversible and is perfect for the coming winter. She currently has both Alliance and Horde scarves in stock.
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.
Though some of you may not have made it outside since the release of Wrath of the Lich King, I assure you that in some places the weather is quite cold.
Upper Deck is offering a break on shipping
The sale inexplicably ends on November 21st, which by my calculations is tomorrow, so get your order in fast. But seriously, someone needs to teach Upper Deck how to have a holiday sale -who buys all their gifts by Thanksgiving? Maybe we'll see a better sale on Black Friday.
Blizzplanet's got the news that Upper Deck is offering a break on shipping in the next 24 hours, so if you've been thinking of picking up any WoW TCG-related items for a friend, now's the time to do it.
It's a pretty terrible deal though -you've got to order $50 worth of stuff to get the free shipping, and at Upper Deck's official prices, you're probably just better running out to a hobby store and picking the things up yourself. But who knows. Maybe there's one of you in Alaska who have wanted to buy tons of stuff from UDE without paying shipping, but don't have a hobby store for miles around -if so, you're in luck.
The 6th episode of BlizzCast was posted
Starcraft and Diablo fans will find the gameplay information in this BlizzCast more interesting than people who are exclusively WoW players. As always, BlizzCast is available for download through the official website (EU has it as well), iTunes, or you can read the transcript right on their website.
The 6th episode of BlizzCast was posted today, and though it contains very little WoW-specific information, the podcast still contains a ton of information general Blizzard fans would like to hear. When listening to it, keep in mind that it wasn't recorded in the last few days or anything like that, it's a few weeks old at least. They mention Wrath of the Lich King still being in beta testing and Sylvanas' custom model hadn't yet been implemented, for example.
Their guests this time around are Lead Tools Programmer Monte Krol, Senior Art Director Samwise Didier, Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder, and senior artist for Diablo III Anthony Rivero. That lineup of guests really offers up a cool look at the early design and development of Blizzard games, and the guests actually offer a little insight into just how you can start working for Blizzard yourselves. They also have another installment of their Q&A portion with various developers.
Hunters need Agility and Warriors need Strength
Defense comes first -defense rating, for tanks, allows you to make sure that bosses can't crit you. Each class has its own defense cap, and the cap has changed from 70 to 80, so you'll have to keep an eye out for your own cap when you get that far. Block is next -a high Block rating means you're pushing other attack options off the table when you're hit, so that when something does hit you, you block the damage on it. Both of those stats are mainly for tanks -other classes, who aren't getting hit, won't have to worry about them at all.
But Hit and Expertise you will have to worry about if you're DPS -Hit will make sure that you don't miss your target (the fewer misses you have, the higher your DPS), and Expertise makes sure that those hits don't become dodges or parries. This is tough stuff, and it shows up much earlier in Wrath, it seems, than it did in Burning Crusade, But the good news is that there's a lot of help around -Honor's Code offers a great overview for what everything means, and from there, you can search our site or others for what you need to know about each stat and how it works with your class.Honor's Code has a great post up about the secondary gear stats that often get overlooked in favor of the main attributes. Everyone knows that Hunters need Agility and Warriors need Strength, but after that, things tend to get a little fuzzy -just what does Expertise or Hit do for you? HC breaks it down from a Pally perspective, but what they say about these stats is helpful for any class that has to deal with attacking the bad guys.
Play in two different endgame guilds
Too many government officials (both Democrat and Republican, this isn't partisan at all) suffer from the "series of tubes" mentality -they are being asked to regulate and coordinate things that they don't understand at all. But getting guys like Kevin Werbach in there, no matter what your political affiliation, is a great step forward for all of us gamers -we'll have people behind the regulatory wheel who know how important and wonderful virtual worlds like Azeroth can be.
Waltermonkey on Livejournal actually uncovered the guy's Armory profile (and has some great insight), and yes, though I'm sure some of the comments below will be about how you'd never be able to run a transition team AND get to level 80 at the same time, Werbach's been playing recently -while he's still only level 70, he's actually got the Jenkins title. We've got a Resto Shaman helping run the FCC -how awesome is that?
I've had a political dream for a while now that I think all of us WoW players can agree on: someday, I hope, we will have a President in the White House that plays videogames. We're not quite there yet, but we're closer -apparently, Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player, and has played in two different endgame guilds, including Joi Ito's famous We Know guild. This is a guy who knows all about the communities that these MMOs create, and just how awesome it is to run through Karazhan, or grind PvP for a Merciless Gladiator weapon...and he's been selected by the incoming President of the United States to run the FCC. That's beautiful.
Jedogas Greatring
Name: Jedoga's Greatring
Type: Rare Ring (Unique-Equipped, which means that you can only wear one at a time)
Damage/Speed: N/A
Jedoga is apparently a Twlight's Hammer Cultist (those folks from Silithus) who has wandered down into the Old Kingdom to work for...something of very ancient and evil origin down there. Drop her, and hope this ring drops. If it does, fight off all the other melee rolling on it, and bingo, you've got a ring that should last you right up until 80.
Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 4g 50s 99c (ouch, which is cheap -apparently vendors have become grubby since we all moved up to Northrend), or disenchants into a Small Dream Shard. You will, as I said, probably replace it before level 80, but until then, see how it shines!
Abilities:
+22 Agility, +48 Stamina, which means this is probably an upgrade from level 70 gear. As we said the other day, greens aren't upgrading very well, but most blues will usually help you out, and unless you already had rings up above SSC and TK, this one will likely replace yours. Improves crit strike rating by 18, which isn't actually a lot -it's almost 1% at level 70, but even less at level 80. Still the ring also increases attack power by 62, which is pretty nice for a ring. And of course as with all of these leveling items, you'll replace this one eventually (here's an awesome ring from Heroic Gun'Drak). But for leveling, this is a nice ring for Rogues, Hunters, or even some Fury Warriors. How to Get It: Drops from Jedoga Shadowseeker, the third boss in Ahn'kahet, an instance that I'm planning to run this weekend, and you probably are as well. Alex loves the last boss, and I really enjoyed the other Azjol-Nerub instance, so I'm excited to try this one.
the Frenzyheart Tribe and The Oracles
I'm convinced that this situation in Sholazar Basin isn't to be determined by which faction you like more, but which faction you hate less. The two warring factions are The Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe. The Oracles are a group of fully sentient, ‘intelligent' gorlocs (a step up in murloc evolution) that unknowingly worship the Titans. The Frenzyheart Tribe are a tribe of wolvar (little wolverine men) and they're fairly new to Sholazar Basin. They're huge jerks that do jerk things and steal gorloc land like jerks. The gorlocs do have big, annoyingly floppy tongues though, so I guess it's justified.
Throughout the lifespan of Ask a Beta Tester (now The Queue), people have asked if there are any factions like the Aldor and Scryers. Are there two factions like that, you get to pick one or the other? The answer is yes, but they don't play as big of a role. They're less prime players of the expansion, and more lolcat comedy relief.
To start gaining reputation with one of these two factions, you're going to be doing some heavy duty questing in Sholazar Basin. You'll want to be at least level 76, because that's when you can get the quest Where in the World is Hemet Nesingwary? Yep! Old man Hemet, him again. You'll get this quest in Dalaran from Archmage Pentarus, who will send you to Hemet's camp (sort of), and that's where you're going to be questing for awhile. Talk to the crew, do what they ask you to do, eventually you'll be sent to a pretty little spot called River's Heart.
If you're looking to be an Oracle in the end, do not worry. Do this quest, and the entire quest chain. You'll be gaining Frenzyheart reputation and losing Oracle reputation, that's okay. Don't panic. You know how the Aldor/Scryer situation felt sort of...random? You didn't really know the full extent of their backstory and intentions until after you made your choice? You sort of flipped a coin to make your decision unless there was a rep reward you found on Wowhead you really liked? Yeah, they fixed that here.
This questline is very long and introduces you to both the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles. You learn a lot about each of them, and you get an opportunity to see what their Quartermasters have to offer. At the very end of the quest chain is when you're finally faced with your choice. It's actually a very, very cool ending that I don't want to spoil, so I"ll just leave you with this: If you screw up your choice in the heat of the moment, don't turn in the quest. Just do it over again and choose the other side.
At River's Heart you'll find a Human chickadee by the name of Tamara Wobblesprocket. Yes, Wobblesprocket. I think she hooked up with the Gnome standing a few feet away from her. Go ahead and vomit for a few minutes before you go on. Done? Excellent. Okay, Tamara Wobblesprocket offers the quest The Part-time Hunter. Go find your prey, and when you do you'll find a Frenzyheart nearby that offers you the opportunity of a lifetime: Be a slave to some badger-dudes!
Store your ale in a WoW stein
We kid -at $80, these things better be nice, and they probably are -each one, we're told, is handcrafted and made of "fine grain stoneware," whatever that is. The company says that the North American sales have been very good so far, and that a few people have even bought them for wedding or groomsmen gifts. Because nothing starts a marriage off right quite like a WoW stein, yeah?Still, Europeans, if you've been waiting to get your hands on one, now's your chance. Cheers!
Good news, EU players -now you can store your ale in a WoW stein also. 3 Point Entertainment, the group responsible for making those official World of Warcraft beer steins, has announced that they are now selling the steins overseas as well, meaning that even EU players can spend $80 on a cup that won't even fit in your cup-holder.
reputation and Factions in Wrath of the Lich King
Championing
Championing was the term used at the Worldwide Invitational this past year to describe the reputation gain system used throughout dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King. Essentially, in level 80 dungeons and Heroics (not raids), your reputation gained is not determined by the dungeon, but rather what faction's tabard you're wearing. You can start buying these tabards at Friendly, and while you're wearing that tabard, all rep gains in a dungeon will go toward that faction. If you're not wearing any tabard at all, the reputation defaults to the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition. If you want rep with one of those two, simply don't wear a tabard. Sub-80 Wrath dungeons give you no reputation at all.
Note that not all factions have this option, so you can't use dungeons to raise all of your reputations. Some of them you'll need to do through questing or whatever else they offer. Only the following factions can be ‘championed':
The Argent Crusade The Ebon Blade The Kirin Tor The Wyrmrest Accord FAQ
Q: Are there any turn-ins like you had to do for the Aldor and Scryer?
A: Not to that extent, no. The only time this comes into play is something more akin to Netherwing Eggs, a rare drop that the faction will happily take if you happen to stumple upon one. No grinding out thousands of Marks of the Lich King or whatever.
Q: Yo, what's up with the Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe? How do I start doing Oracle quests?
A: I said I would get to that later.
Q: Wait, I only get reputation in level 80 dungeons? Wha?
A: That's right, until you start running those, all of your rep gains are going to come from quests. Technically you can go into the ‘level 80 dungeons' prior to level 80, and you probably will. Level 78 characters will likely be doing places like Gundrak and Halls of Lightning, and those are considered ‘level 80 dungeons.' It's not a hard and fast rule but it's close enough. All Heroics are considered level 80 dungeons as well.
Factions
The Horde and the Alliance each get a set of factions: The Horde Expedition and the Alliance Vanguard. These are a bit unusual, because those two primary factions have four other secondary factions. For the most part, those secondary factions don't have any rewards of their own. As you gain reputation with the sub-factions, your overall Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard reputation goes up, and that determines your rewards. Why did they do it that way? I don't know, but they did!
The Sunreavers and The Silver Covenant are an extra-special case, because they're currently almost entirely unused, along with Crystalsong Forest where they have their base camps. I fully expect to see these two used more in a future content patch, like Ogri'la and Skettis were implemented after The Burning Crusade's release.
A list of factions and where to find their quartermasters is below.
Horde Expedition (Warsong Hold/Vengeance Landing)
The Hand of Vengeance Warsong Offensive The Taunka The Sunreavers Alliance Vanguard (Valgarde/Valiance Keep)
Valiance Expedition
Explorers' League The Frostborn The Silver Covenant Neutral Forces
The Kalu'ak (Mo'aki Harbor, Dragonblight/Kamagua, Howling Fjord)
The Frenzyheart Tribe (Frenzyheart Hill, Sholazar Basin)
The Oracles (Rainspeaker Canopy, Sholazar Basin)
The Sons of Hodir (Dun Niffelem, Storm Peaks)
Wyrmrest Accord (Wrymrest Keep, Dragonblight)
Kirin Tor (Violet Citadel, Dalaran)
Argent Crusade (Argent Vanguard, Icecrown)
Knights of the Ebon Blade (Shadow Vault, Icecrown) Take note that you can't access all of these quartermasters right away. Some, such as the Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir quartermaster, require a bit of questing to unlock. In the case of the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles, you can only access one of the two, but we'll get to that later.
Tags: wrath of the Lich King
The browser and social networking service
As lots of commenters said on our last post, this isn't really an ingame browser, it's more of an overlay that lets you browse while playing the game. And all it really does is save you the couple of minutes it would take to tab out and check your own browser (or just run WoW in a windowed mode, and use both at the same time).
But there are a probably a few users out there who would find it really useful. Downtime is the main issue I can think of (though lots of my downtime is filled lately with the Bejeweled addon anyway). But if you've been waiting for a solid, standalone ingame browser to come along (complete with Flash support, which makes it easy to pull up Hulu or Pandora while playing), Rogue is it.Behold the power of WoW Insider -GotGame told us about their browser and social networking service a little while ago, and we were so much more fascinated with the browser part of their app that they split it off. And here it is: Rogue is what they're calling their ingame browser application -you can download it for free from the site, and after a quick install, you can open up a browser in any PC game.
Armory Arena Calculator
Blizzard just added two new features to the armory page. One of them is the browser plugin I was talking about yesterday. Apparently they made a plugin not only for Firefox but for Internet Explorer and Opera as well. You can find that in this link.
The other feature is the arena calculator. This isn't the first arena calculator around. But this one is the official one. It's also easier to use. It shows you how many points you'll get for the week given your rating for all arena categories. It will also show you how long it will take you to get a certain arena item you want given your current rating and how many arena points you currently have. As I said, this isn't the first of it's kind but this is the clearest and easiest to use. The information is straightforward and it doesn't leave me confused.
WoW Patch 2.2
The much awaited patch 2.2 seems to be on its way in just a few hours. The Public Test Realms have closed down and server maintenance started early. Those are the signs of a new patch. Patch 2.2 is known for the voice chat patch wherein select realms will allow their players to really hear other people's voices. Programs like Ventrilo and Teamspeak will not be the only venues to hear our WoW friends' voices now! 2.2 is also known for the option to report people who AFK in battlegrounds - a much needed and awaited option.
Here is a link to the most recent PTR patch notes. As we all know, nothing is final until the patch is released but here's to have an idea. Here are the other entries I find quite interesting:
General
Aww. Them troll mages and shaman would hate that berserk nerf but good thing pets are feeling the love.
PvP
Oooh. More love for people who play in smaller arena teams like myself.
Paladins
About time!
World Environment
The buff for the old world factions isn't really big but for those people who are leveling up and want to get some stuff from these guys, it's a nice to know it's going to be easier to get rep. The better news is that we finally get loot from killing those annoying monstrous kaliri. At some point there's no escaping them so it should at least be some reward for showing them who's boss. Good news!
There are other entries I did not list but as I said I only featured the ones I thought were interesting. What entries do you find interesting?
Update: the official 2.2 patch notes can be found here
WoW Armory Firefox Plugin
There seems to be a Firefox plugin for everything nowadays and I guess that's what makes Firefox an awesome browser. Ever felt like you needed a plugin for the WoW armory page to make all your armory browsing easier and more accessible? Well, apparently it's on the way!
It's actually being worked on at the moment, keep an eye on the armory page. It should be going up within a day or two.
Drsyc, Blizzard Poster. WoW Community Site
I guess that's something cool and convenient we can look forward to soon.
60-70 in 23 Hours!
I still remember when the Burning Crusade expansion first came out there was huge news of someone who leveled from 60 to 70 really really quickly. It took him just 28 hours to get all the way to 70. This was such a big deal because it normally took the rest of us a few weeks to do the job. Personally, it took me a little more than a month. Well this guy’s record just got beaten by a Chinese player named “SilverDragon” from the guild
One side of me says congratulations for breaking the record. It truly is a huge feat that I really can’t imagine someone doing. It’s just crazy! This brings me to what my other side thinks about this feat. This is plain and simply a very dumb thing to do. First of all the game wasn’t designed so that you get from 60-70 in a little more than a day. It’s designed so that you can enjoy the content leveling your way to 70 at a much slower pace. I can say that while it took me longer than others to hit 70, it was fun because the leveling process in new zones doing new quests is fun. Of course there’s also the more obvious reason why this feat is stupid. Treasure your health! Don’t compromise it because of a game just to set a record!
Click on image to enlarge
No Classic Realms
The Burning Crusade expansion has made playing WoW a lot harder than it used to be. Catering to your professions and your crafted gear is much harder now with all the business of primals and nethers. Being able to do the first raid dungeon requires a ridiculous multi step keying process. Being able to heroic 5 man dungeons needs revered status with the appropriate faction, a feat that could take casual gamers a long time to do. I can go on a bit longer ranting about these things but if you leveled to 70, you know what I'm talking about.
This makes you nostalgic for the old days when you didn't need to do much to get attuned for Molten Core and Blackwing lair. You didn't need to get keyed to do raid zones like Zul'Gurub and AQ20. The old content was the "good old days" and there were suggestions for Classic realms where people could not experience content beyond Naxxramas (and for sure this means the level cap will be stuck at 60). The Blizzard poster Vaneras has this to say about the idea.
The idea for having classic realms is not a new one… People have suggested or requested that Vanilla WoW realms should be opened, where the level cap is 60 and there is no content beyond Naxx.
We recognize the fact that some people prefer the pre-expansion content over the current content and as a result would like to revel in nostalgia, however the developers are planning to keep the game moving forward as they want the game to continue progressing and evolving.
There are no plans for classic realms at this point in time, so you should not expect to see the opening of such realms with the launch of WotLK.
wow.europe.com
While I too remember the good old days, it's time to live in the present. Besides, the gear and the money is much better in the Outlands! Also, by dropping the level cap to 60 once again for these realms means no new spells and abilities and 10 less talent points to invest in!
Wrath of the Lich King Forums
Have a question about the next expansion Wrath of the Lich King? Want to talk about Death Knights? Want to discuss everything about Northrend? It's still far away until it comes out but I'm sure all of us want to know more about the next expansion. I'm sure all of us have their own ideas about new spells and talents classes will have on the way to level 80. Well, there's a new forum for everything Wrath of the Lich King! Go visit it now here for WoW US and here for WoW EU!
Sha'tari Skyguard Tips
I remember getting excited about these guys when the announcement came. Skettis, a place high above the Terokkar Forest that needed a flying mount to get to and for level 70's to quest in - that seemed really great to me. When it came out it wasn't exactly what I hoped but it still is a neat place to quest.
Aside from gaining reputation to gain access to some of the rewards the Shat'ari Skyguard have to offer, Skettis is actually more famous as one of the locations where a level 70 can do daily quests to earn more gold for that epic flying mount or for those materials for that crafted epic gear or anything whatsoever. Ogri'la in Blade's Edge Mountains is another place where the Sha'tari Skyguard can be found though that's really more the home of the ogres that stay there.
I admit I don't know everything about the Sha'tari Skyguard so the tips released on the WoW Community Site was helpful in finding out more about this faction. I'm sure if you're looking for more information about them, those tips will be very helpful. And remember to steer clear of those pesky monstrous kaliris while doing your quests in Skettis!
The Argent Tournament Cometh!
Just when we thought that patch 3.1 was just all about Ulduar, Dual Specs and the coming class changes, Blizzard has given us a surprise that looks kinda fun - The Argent Tournament. According to Blizzard poster Wryxian, the Argent Tournament is a world event coming in patch 3.1 which will be found in Icecrown. It will host the following features:
* The ability to prove your worth to a capital city of your choosing through our new mounted combat system (still in development)
* New daily quests to construct the great Argent Crusade coliseum for glorious battles to come
* All new rewards - new items, titles, banners, tabards, pets, mounts, and more
* All new achievements
* Many more festivities, and more to come in future content updates!
source
In another thread in the official forums, Blizzard poster Zarhym mentioned that the Argent Tournament is a permanent event and is not a pvp related thing despite the mention of a coliseum that's going to be built. He mentioned that it's also going to be instanced.
To me this is starting to look like something very familiar to us. A permanent event that makes us do daily quests to complete a coliseum and gain some sort of "reputation" to earn rewards - sounds like the Isle of Quel'danas and the several phases helping the Shattered Sun Offensive to take over the whole island. The addition of events and festivities inside the coliseum is a new thing though and still has me wondering what kind of thing Blizzard is thinking of. The logic is that since this isn't a PvP related thing, the coliseum should be some sort of PvE thing. My guess is that it could be anything from a sort of ring of blood type fight to maybe even a venue of short raid boss encounters. Your guess is as good as mine at this point since it's so vague. Anyway, the coliseum itself won't be available at patch 3.1 so we'll have more time to speculate.
MMO Champion has a list and screen shots of the things you can get from the Argent Tournament and they look pretty cool. Check it out here.
I Thought They Were On Our Side…
With the next major patch coming which will include the dual talent spec feature and also quite a number of changes for all classes, the main feature of this upcoming patch will be the Ulduar raid dungeon release.Blizzard poster Daelo announced that the Ulduar raid dungeon will begin PTR testing soon and that some boss encounters will be available during the test.
Four bosses were listed for the upcoming PTR testing and what I saw shocked quite a bit and maybe you guys too. Three of the names are very familiar to anyone who has been around doing the quests and they presented themselves to be on our side or least have ties to doing so. According to Daelo, the following will be Ulduar bosses: Freya, Thorim, Hodir, and Iron Council.
Freya
You encounter the Avatar of Freya in Sholazar Basin where she sends you off to do some quests and eventually to use the secret weapon, the Etymidian to battle some elite scourge baddies. After this you'd think she's on your side. Or maybe it's because it's just her avatar so the real deal has managed to have an issue with us heroes. We'll find out the story soon.
Thorim
Thorim became pretty convincing to get you to help him defeat his deceptive brother Loken. After his capture at the hands of his brother, that was the last we heard of him or his dragon. We managed to own Loken in the Halls of Lightning but apparently our problem with this family isn't over. I thought that we'd see more of Thorim in Ulduar but as a friend not a foe. Has the deception of his brother passed on to him too or is he being made to fight us heroes against his will? We'll find out soon enough.
Hodir
We don't know much about this guy but we do know that there's a friendly faction in the game named the Sons of Hodir. They give us cool shoulder enchants and even a cool mammoth mounts. So why does their creator hate us heroes? We'll soon find out.
So as you can see, I'm pretty confused. The story in Storm Peaks seemed quite complicated to me already and this just makes me even more confused.
Blizzard Offers New Character Re-Customization Service For WoW
Players got their first taste of character re-customization way back when they introduced the paid name change feature. Then with patch 3.02, the patch that gave us the pre-expansion features like the new talents, more character re customization came in the form of the Barber Shop feature where players could get a "Shave and a Haircut" for a small amount of in game currency.
The new Character Re-Customization feature allows players to change all aspects of their character associated with cosmetics determined by that player's race and class and he can throw in a name change as well if desired. This means that the player can change everything about his/her character from skin color, face, to even that character's gender! This means that every aesthetic change is now available for players to change. It's not surprising though that changing the race and class is not allowed. Still though, this is a great step forward for players who are no longer pleased with his/her character's appearance and you get all that for a flat rate of $15 (minus applicable taxes).
Just like the paid name change before, the usual still applies. This is not a way to get off someone's ignore list. You will be updated on people's friends lists and all auctions and mail associated with that character before the change will still be directed to you. You can read the FAQ on this matter here.
This is a really nice feature to offer to allow players to really re-customize things about their character they want to change. The most surprising change for me is the fact that it allows gender changes. I actually rerolled my level 52 female undead warlock to a blood elf before since I didn't like the way undead females looked. If this feature was available back then, I might have considered using it to change to a male undead since that was fine with me. I'm sure a lot of players out there will find this feature pretty useful.
Initial Patch 3.08 PTR Notes Released
It's been about a month already since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has been released so it's a nice time to start talking about the next major patch that is in the works. Patch 3.08 is already in the public test realm and it offers to give quite a number of changes to every aspect of the game from PvE to PvP, professions, class changes and the like - as is the norm in every similar big patch that comes out.
there's no point in tackling every single change that is listed since that's what the patch notes are for. If you want to see the complete notes, you can always find the latest here. The following are what I feel are the simpler but also big changes in the notes.
Bonus armor
Bonus armor will no longer be multiplied by talents and by effects of bear form/dire bear form and frost presence
No more racial mount restrictions
There used to be restirctions to certain races using certain mounts like Taurens couldn't ride the Blood Elf Hawkstrider. Now they can!
Tapping
All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped. If I'm correct, this is the answer to a problem warlocks and other DoT users had when having to wait for their DoT's to tick to tap targets. Now simply casting the DoT on your target will immediately tap it.
Wild Growth and Circle of Healing Cooldown
A 6 second cooldown has been placed on the druid Wild Growth spell and the priest Circle of Healing spell. these spells weren't meant to be spammed apparently.
Slow Fall and Levitate
The mage Slow Fall spell and the priest Levitate can be cast on other players.
Ritual of Summoning
Instead of a summon, the ritual of summoning creates an item like a portable meeting stone which other group members can use to summon the rest of the group.
Feast Of The Winter Veil Here!
The Hallow's End world event a few months ago was the first ever to world event to make use of the Achievements feature but is finally time to have another one. The Feast of the Winter Veil is here and it should be more fun than ever because of two things, Achievements and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
The snow balls, the goblin device that turns us into gnomish Great-Father Winter helpers, the presents, mistletoe - these are all the nice extras that makes this holiday an interesting one. Just these things make the holiday fun and if you include the achievemtns and the many quests one can do at this time, it's even more fun.
One of the things that gave me a laugh when the Achievements feature came out was Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's since it's a nice pun on the famous saying. After looking at the difference between the Horde and Alliance version of that Achievement, I feel like the Horde sort of got the shaft here. The Alliance have to visit more people but it's all in Azeroth so a lot of people can do this easily at lower levels (as low as the 30's in fact). In fact, most are in Stormwind City. The Horde version only requires 3 people but that requirement to visit someone in Icecrown means that you need to be at least 77 to complete it. Other achievements are also fun like PvP as a Little Helper or throwing a snowball at Cairne Bloodhoof or Magni Bronzebeard.
Happy Feast of the Winter Veil and I hope you enjoy!
More Patch 2.4 News From Jeff Kaplan Interview
As we wait for the coming of patch 2.3.2, it's nice for us WoW players to have more news about the next big patch 2.4. Patch 2.4 is interesting and much awaited because it will contain the 25 man raid harder than Black Temple and Hyjal and thus probably the most difficult content until the Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes out. This claim is made even more concrete by the Blue response by Eyonix on the WoW website that there most probably won't be a patch 2.5. World of Raids shares this exciting information with us!
The Swedish magazine Level has published an interview with Jepp Kaplan (Tigole) on the upcoming patch 2.4 and its main content: the Sunwell Plateau. In an earlier interview we learned the patch might arrive in 2007 on the PTR! The most important bits from the article are (thanks to WoWinsider for the translation):
* Sunwell Isle is a new zone, north of Silvermoon City
* The 5-man wing of the instances is called Magister's Terrace featuring normal and heroic difficulty
* The raid wing is called Sunwell Plateau, players can fight 6 raidbosses [sic] here and the one of the main stories of Burning Crusade continues here
* Outside the instances there will be lots of quests (daily quests too), wrapping up the story of Tempest Keep
* The questhub [sic] of the zone will be interactive, as players complete quests, the activity in the town will increase more and more, eventually growing into a big town, similar to how Silithus prepared for the Qiraji war, on a smaller scale though
* The quests and instances introduce a new faction called "Shattered Sun Offensive", the Aldors and Scryers unite under this name to stop Kael'thas from summoning Kil'Jaeden (upd)
* One of the bosses in the Magister's Terrace will be Kael'thas, whose story continues the Verdant Sphere quest. He'll have a large green crystal attached to his chest ^^
* Kil'jaeden will be featured in the 25-man instance, and the EPICness of the fight will be on par with Illidan's. There are 5 more bosses: Brutalicus, a pit lord; Kalecgos, the blue dragon from the Sunwell Trilogy (who is enslaved by Kil'jaeden); a Fel Dragon; female Eredar twins; and a Dark Naaru!
* The raidinstance [sic] is designed for players with Tier 6 equipment and it will be slightly more difficulty than Black Temple (upd)
* There won't be a Tier 7 raidset, however there are sets in the loottables [sic] (upd)
* The raidinstance doesn't have an attunement requirement, but players of the entire realm must complete a certain amount of daily quests on the Sunwell Isle, to unlock the last 3 bosses (upd)
* Patch 2.4 will raise the limit of daily quests from 10 to 25, to encourage more players to visit them regularly
* Lots of PVP balancing to come in the patch
* Blizzard has big plans to increase the e-sport acceptance of the Arena games
While I most probably won't see the new 25 man content in the Sunwell Isle the way my guild is progressing through the TBC raid content, it's a nice way to keep the guy who have killed Illidan already a new thing to look forward to. I also like that there will be a new 5 man dungeon and more daily quests and daily quest slots for the people like me can't. Having a new faction called the Shattered Sun Offensive should mean new reputation rewards and I guess a new heroic key to obtain. I'm excited to see what kind of new loot you can get from their reputation and from the bosses inside the 5 man dungeon on both normal and heroic modes.
I wonder what kind of pvp balancing Blizzard has in mind for this patch and what exactly Tigole meant when he mentioned something about Arena battlegrounds gaining more e-sport acceptance.
Looking at just these details makes me more and more excited! What more when even more information comes along!
image source
Mining Will Improvements Soon
Mining is a b*tch to level. That's a generally accepted fact! My highest level miner is only in the low 200's and unfortunately it's my level 52 female undead warlock I shelved so I could re-roll a blood elf one since I just couldn't stand her looks much longer. One thing I hate about mining is that you have to keep picking at the ore to exhaust it. It gets boring and it's too much work. I like herbalism better since you just need to pick the patch once and you're done. But I guess the real problem is once you start mining mithril, an already difficult gathering profession seems to become even more difficult. The devs seem to agree based on this post by the CM Drysc.
Concerning there being some leveling bumps for mining nearing the end of pre-BC, it's planned to be smoothed out along with other professions. Some professions have already seen changes in this regard, and we're certainly planning to continue them so that there's no need to stop leveling, go back and a zone, and do circuits until you're caught up. That really shouldn't be necessary, and yes, tag huer knock offs isn't fun.
In general those changes mean lengthening the amount of time each type of ore would give skill ups, so that you can consistently get skillups or even go a bit beyond where you should be for your level before you have to move on, smoothing the transitions.
Maybe that was really the main issue and spawning some lesser complaints, I don't know, he never came back to post again. source
It's good to replica watches know that mining will be seeing some improvements. Hopefully this change will make mining less of a b*tch to level. Of course I don't mind it maintaining some of it's difficulty especially since it's a great money maker as a knock off watches breitling gathering profession.
image source
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays from WoW Obsessed! If you're still playing during the Holidays, have a nice time in Azeroth and the Outlands!
1-70 In About One Day /played
Do you remember the news about this Chinese guy who leveled from 60 to 70 in 23 hours? Another such speed leveling record has been set but this time it's the race from 1-70. The record is 1 day and 2 hours /played.
World of Raids reports that players named Mineva and Athene from Stormscale-EU realm have achieved this feat together, hitting 60 in just 14 hours and hitting 70 in 1 day and 2 hours /played as seen from the screen shot above. To put things into perspective, my mage got to 60 in about 16 days /played in the pre-TBC days. Even with the leveling improvements that came with patch 2.3, it's a huuuge difference. the fastest I've seen someone go from 1-60 was a friend of mine who did it in 8 days played.
While this is such an unbelievable feat, I repeat what I said when I heard the news about to Chinese guy who went from 60-70 in 23 hours came out. Dudes, get a life and get some sleep!
image taken from world of raids
Thanks to Mineva and Furious, athene.movielol.org
Loot To Be Shared By More Classes/Specs In WoTLK
CM Bornakk brings some news about loot in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal. When there are examples for players to see it should be easier to understand. source
This is nice to hear since certain classes are harder to gear than others and it would be nice to have a wider selection of gear to choose from with the "shared gear". It really does feel like a waste when say a piece of leather gear drops but it's really for Moonkins and there aren't any Moonkins in the group. It's going to be interesting to see what they really mean by this.
Maybe Ret gear could have spell damage and healing too so that shockadins and even prot pallies could use it too or feral gear will also have some amount of spell damage and healing too so that Moonkins and Resto druids could use it. If this is what they mean by "shared gear", what do you think?
Happy Patch 2.4 Day!
Patch 2.4 Fury of the Sunwell is finally with us after so many weeks of speculation. It's supposed to be the last major patch before Wrath of the Lich King comes out. Patch 2.4 is most known as the patch that brings us Magister's Terrace (5 man) and the Sunwell Plateau (25 man) dungeons in the new zone Isle of Quel'danas and progression in the story after the fall of Kael'thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep. The Aldor and the Scryers have agreed to join forces as the Shattered Sun Offensive to deal with Kael'thas' operations in the isle of Quel'danas.
Hope you enjoy all the new stuff the patch brings and have a happy patch day!
As always, the patch notes can be found here.
WoTLK Bestiary Updated: Taunka
The Wrath of the swiss replica watches Lich King Bestiary has been updated once more. In this update, we find a new race of humanoids called the Taunka. This is what is written about them.
This tenacious, stoic race knows all too well the rigors of living in the harsh and often deadly wastes of Northrend. Over time, the taunka - whom many believe to be ancestral cousins of the tauren - have adapted, but only by forcing the land and the elements to yield to their will. The taunka's relationship with nature, unlike that of their tauren brethren, has been one of constant struggle and grim perseverance.
Although the taunka may seem dour or even cold to outsiders, those who come to know them will soon recognize an embattled race of survivors characterized by colossal hearts and unshakable resolve.
So it seems like the Taunka could very well be the long lost ancestral tag huer knock offs tribe related to the Taurens we know. I forgot where I read it but I remember that the WoTLK expansion will explore more into the lore behind the Taurens so this very well could be it. I suspect that we'll see the same type of "connecting with the roots" that Thrall and his orcs had for the Mag'har orc tribe in Nagrand for the Burning Crusade expansion, only this time for the Tauren.
image taken from the WoTLK Beastiary, Worldofwarcraft.com
First Sunwell Gate Open For US Realms
According to MMO-Champion, the first Sunwell Plateau gate Agamath has been opened for US Realms. This means that the boss encounter of Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash, the two Eredar twins, has been unlocked! I know that personally this piece of news doesn't affect me since I don't raid content that far in the end game but it's still a nice piece of news. Since I play in a US server, I'm happy that the US guilds will have a chance at a world first since usually it's the EU guilds that do them. This gate is currently still locked for EU realms based on what I've read.
Click here to see an image of the eredar twins
For those guilds wanting more info about the encounter, the loot and even a video you can check out the World of Raids Sunwell plateau info page on the bosses.
The race is on for US guilds to make a world first! Good luck to whoever gets the honor
Patch 2.4.2 PTR Notes Updated
The Patch 2.4.2 PTR notes have been updated and it looks like we have some minor class changes on the way. As always, you can always find the latest PTR notes here.
For me, the one thing that caught my attention is the change to the hunter's scare beast ability making it instant cast. I'm guessing that this has a serious impact against feral druids in BG's and arena pvp since their feral forms count them as beasts.
Druids
• Talent: Primal Fury (Rank 2) will now be properly unlearned when it is untalented.
• Talent: (Restoration)- Natural Perfection will no longer proc by normal melee attacks.Hunters
• Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.
• Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.
• The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power.
• Scare Beast: The range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and it is now instant cast.Mages
• Polymorph: Mounted creatures will no longer remain mounted while polymorphed.
• Mage Armor no longer reduces the duration of beneficial magic buffs.
• Molten Armor will now do damage while a damage absorption shield is active.Paladins
• Flash of Light and Holy Light will now work properly with castsequence macros.
• Seal of the Crusader: This ability now increases the damage dealt by Crusader Strike by 40%.
• Crusader Strike (Retribution) will now properly receive a damage increase from Seal of The Crusader.
• Talent: Precision (Ranks 1-3) will no longer improperly display daggers and staves as a weapon class in the tooltip.
• Paladins that already have Apprentice Riding skill can now properly learn Summon Warhorse from the trainer.Priests
• Fear Ward will no longer be consumed while under the effects of cyclone.
• Mana Burn: This spell can no longer trigger effects that require the target to be struck with a critical hit.
• Power Word:Shield now has the correct sound associated with it and can no longer be heard from large distances.
• Talent: Power Infusion will now consume the correct amount of mana when cast on yourself.Rogues
• Ability: Blade Flurry: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.
• Talent: Mutilate (Assassination) will no longer incorrectly appear multiple times in the combat log when used.Shaman
• Ability: Frostbrand Weapon: Rank 6 damage has been increased very slightly.Warlocks
• Drain Soul: Channeling of this spell will now always stop when a player target dies.
• Pets: Using a sacrifice effect to kill your own pet will no longer trigger effects that should only occur when killing an enemy.Warrior
• Sweeping Strikes: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.Items
• Brann Bronzebeard’s Lost Letter: This item will no lonber display a damage range in its tooltip.
• Crusader’s Scaled Battlegear: Tooltip spelling corrected.
• Elixir of Demonslaying: This elixir now grants ranged attack power against demons as intended.
• Hazza’rah’s Charm of Healing Haste rating reduced.
• Nightfall now has a chance to fail on targets over level 60.
• Ravager: Judgements will no longer auto-refresh and break the effect from this item while its effect is active.
• Renataki’s Charm of Trickery has had its energy reduced.
• Shard of Azzinoth no longer shares any cooldown with Shaman Elemental totems.
• Shattered Sun Pendant of Might: The triggered effect from this item will no longer break Scattershot or other crowd-controlling affects. The visual on the Scryer version has been updated.
• Shifting Naaru Silver: Using this item no longer puts players into combat.
• Silithyst Dust: The bonus from turning this item in no longer works for players above level 63.
• Ten Storms Set: The Chain Heal bonus from this set has been reduced by 5%.
• Wushoolay’s Charm of Nature Haste rating has been reduced.
This list was compiled by World of Raids.
Second Sunwell Gate Opened For US Realms
Just a few weeks ago in the early days of April, the first Sunwell Plateau gate was opened for US realms. This gave access to the Twin Eredars boss encounter. As we prepare to close the month of April, it has been announced that the second gate has been opened as well for US realms. The opening of the second gate gives the players access to the M'uru/Entropius boss encounter. This is the first time players will be able to see M'uru again since his capture by Kael'thas when patch 2.4 came out. I miss the big guy every time I'm in Silvermoon City and don't see him there anymore. But you might know, he has his important part to do in fulfillment of of prophet Velen's prophecy.
World of Raids has some interesting information about the M'uru/Entropius encounter such as Spoilers, Possible loot information, screen shots from the PTR and even the boss' abilities. To see this information, click here.
Good luck to all guilds raiding this content. I guess the race for a world first is on again!
Kalgan Interview At PCGamer Reveals WoTLK Spell Damage Gear Change
According to MMO Champion, the latest PCGamer Magazine in the UK published an interview with Tom Chilton (Kalgan) about WoTLK. This interview revealed something about a change to spell damage gear.
PC Gamer: What else is changing?
Tom Chilton (Kalgan) : We’re also going to be doing away with spell-damage only type gear. We’ll be moving to a system that, as part of your talents, will let players convert healing into spell-damage and vice-versa as part of their talents. That way they can use the exact same gear, but their talents just adapt what it does.” source
What I understand from this is a system that would allow let's say a holy priest and a mage to wear the same gear but through talents, the holy priest will be able to heal well and the mage will be able to dps well. This would certainly allow hybrids to have an easier time in getting gear. A priest wouldn't need to change his gear as he switches from holy to shadow and vice versa or a shaman from resto to elemental and vice versa. I guess this is what Bornakk meant when he said that loot will be shared by more classes/specs in the WoTLK expansion.
While this will certainly make gearing up faster in some cases in the sense that you can roll on gear that would otherwise have been meant for another class/spec, the same reason makes it a bad thing. the fact that that piece of gear is open to more classes/specs makes you have more competition for that piece of gear. But I guess that's better than getting the item drop sharded because no one can use it just because it's for the wrong class/spec.
PvE To PvP Server Transfer Finally Possible! (Sorta)
Ok calm down and don't get too excited. it's not what you think. Yes Blizzard will be making a PvE to PvP server transfer possible but not for all realms. It's actually being done as a drastic measure to keep the faction balance in certain oceanic servers. Here's CM Bornakk for the 411 on this matter.
To address faction imbalance issues on Oceanic PvP realm Thaurissan, we will be offering free character moves for Alliance players only from Oceanic PvE realms Nagrand, Aman’Thul, and Khaz’goroth to this realm. This transfer opportunity will open on Thursday, June 12, and is scheduled to end no later than Thursday, June 19. During this timeframe Paid Character Transfers to Nagrand, Aman’Thul, and Khaz’goroth will be disabled as we focus on resolving the issue at hand. In the event that we meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, transfers may be disabled without prior notice. No additional characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.
Once the transfers open, you can begin the process by visiting the Character Move page. (https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html) source
The faction imbalance in those servers must be really bad for Blizzard to allow this kind of transfer. It certainly is a drastic measure since a PvE to PvP server transfer usually isn't allowed in normal circumstances for fairness. A character who leveled in a PvE server wouldn't have had the annoying issues of getting ganked and therefore had an easier time. But they made the rules so I guess they can break them once in a while if the situation calls for it.
Patch 2.4.3 PTR Notes!
The Patch 2.4.3 PTR notes are out and it has some really interesting changes coming. Probably the most interesting change is that of mounts and mount training. According to the patch notes below, the regular ground mount which is currently available at level 40 will now be pushed down to level 30 and the training will also be cheaper. This move to level 30 also includes the summoned mounts of warlocks and paladins. Other changes are listed below. As always, the latest PTR patch notes can be found here.
General
* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World's End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.Druids
* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.
Hunters
* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet's Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.Paladins
* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.Priests
* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.Rogues
* Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.
Shaman
* Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
* Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.Warlocks
* Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
* Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
* Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
* Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
* Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
* Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.Warrior
* Revenge: Ranks 1-5 of this ability now have damage ranges instead of fixed damage values (like ranks 6-8.)
PvP* The Warsong Gulch flag can no longer be picked up at the same time as a flag is capped.
Professions
* Alchemy
o Philosopher's Stone now requires 200 Alchemy.
* Cooking
o Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.
* Jewelcrafting
o Activated beneficial effects from jewelcrafting trinkets can no longer be dispelled.
* Mining
o Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.
* Tailoring
o Removed the cooldown from regular Mooncloth.
o Herb bags can now hold Un'goro Soil and Evergreen Pouches.
o Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.
o New Tailoring patterns are available from Haughty Modiste in Steamwheedle Port, Tanaris: Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.Quests
* Bhag'thera now spawns at a normal quest spawn rate.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, phased characters will not be able to see non-phased character AoE effects and vice-versa.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, pets gaining/losing phase status will now properly break off combat from unphased/phased opponents.Dungeons and Raids
* Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.
* Magister's Terrace
o The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
o Vexallus and Kael'thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
o Vexallus' damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
o Kael'thas' Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
o Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
o Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
o Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.
* Sunwell Plateau
o Creatures in the area around Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash will no longer spawn while the twins are in combat.
o Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil'jaeden's Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
o Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil'jaeden.
Items* Bow of the Verdant Keeper's Aim: This item's triggered effect no longer breaks the effect of Scatter Shot.
* Brutal Gladiator's Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
* Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again...without attacking people in the arena. Well... they'll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean.
* The Eredar Twins will now award the same items regardless of which order they are killed in.
* Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)
* Pendant of the Violet Eye: This item will again work correctly with Holy Light and Flash of Light.
* Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.
* Thori'dal, the Star's Fury is now Unique as intended.
* Vengeful Gladiator's Baton of Light: This item now appears in the correct position on the vendor list.
User Interface* The help interface has been simplified dramatically. Players will no longer be required to select a category when opening a GM ticket. In addition, players can use the “Talk to a GM” button to fill out a ticket that requires a GM response or the “Report Issue” button to fill out a ticket that does not require a GM response.
* Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
* Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer's local time.
* The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds, and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds.
* Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
* Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
* Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
* Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
* You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.
* Invisible players with Hunter's Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.
* Vendor items now show their Duration in Inventory.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.World Environment
* Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs may now drop Thick Yeti Fur.
* Skinning any Winterspring Ice Thistle yetis may now result in Thick Yeti Fur.
* Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
* Goblin Weather Machine- Prototype 01-B weather changes will no longer force the affected character to stand.
* Collector's Edition Pet Redemption NPCs/items/quests have been relocated/modified to/for towns with mailboxes (Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.).
* Young Sporebats and Greater Sporebats in Zangarmarsh now drop Sporebat Eyes for the quest Gathering the Reagents.
* Blacksmithing Supplies vendor and repairer, Blazzle, in Area 52 is now next to the forge and anvil outside the inn.
* Banker Meeda, in Area 52 is now in the...well...the bank, along with a guild vault and guards. The other three Area 52 bankers are still located in the auction-house-turned-bank.
* Wastewander Bandits and Rogues should be more plentiful in the northern parts of Tanaris.Bug Fixes
* The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
* Gan'arg Analyzers will no longer occasionally become friendly to players.
* Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
* Guild leaders should now be able to properly promote a new guild leader regardless of their range.
* Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
* Hunters: Using an instant ability after Steady Shot will no longer lock out auto shot.
* Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
* Hunters: Concussive shot will now properly have a chance to proc Bow of Searing Arrows.
* Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
* Using Jewelcrafting figurines will no longer cause scrolling combat text to appear twice.
* Fixed an issue in which shadows were not appearing properly for users with GF4 video chipsets in Open GL mode.
* Corrected an issue in which users with Creative X-FI sound cards would sometimes hear a slight popping noise when running.
* Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.
* Corrected an issue where the initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap could not be heard by some players.
* Smelt Hardened Khorium will now properly require a forge instead of an anvil and hammer.
* Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
* Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.
* The Figurine- Seaspray Albatross ability will now properly restore the correct amount of mana.
* First Aid bandages can no longer be applied to a player with the Recently Bandaged debuff. An error message of, "Could not activate more than one bandage" will be displayed.
* Corrected the tooltips to read properly for the flight paths from The Stormspire, Toshley's Station, Blade's Edge, and Area 52.
* Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
* Players will no longer become stuck on the Nimboya's Laden Pike when driving it into the ground.
* The quest, "Going Going, Guano!" will now have a more consistent level requirement for the dungeon.
* The quest, "Into The Scarlet Monastery" is now available to players of the appropriate level for the instance.
* Blueleaf Tubers can now be properly looted.
* The quest turn-ins for the Ahn'Qiraj war effort now give the appropriate amount of credit for each successful quest turn-in.
* Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove Shrink.
* Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.
* Several items sold by the Consortium reputation vendor Paulsta'ats are now bind on pick-up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design:Thick Golden Draenite.
* It is no longer possible to delete a character that is an arena team captain without first promoting another player to captain.
* Taunts will now properly stick when a target is stunned while being taunted.
PvE To PvP Paid Character Transfers Now Available
The PvE To PvP character transfer was something a lot of players were asking for since a long time ago but it was something Blizzard just never gave. I actually thought they never will since the service could very well be abused. But alas, it is officially here! PvE to PvP Paid Character Transfers are now available. the FAQ on this matter can be found here.
The reservation behind not allowing this in the past was that PvP servers are different from PvE servers. Players who play in PvP servers will tell you that it can be a bit tough leveling up since there's always that risk of getting ganked by members of the opposing faction. Because of this, certain zones like STV, Hillsbrad Foothills, and others were very risky to quest in at peak hours. I play in a PvE server and I know that it's pretty comforting to know that the Alliance guy standing in front of me waving at my horde alts won't just attack me. I also know that it sucks for your low level alts to meet an enemy level 70 in contested territory.
Because of this, I've always held back on playing on a PvP server, Getting ganked just isn't my style and I prefer to keep my PvP activities in the Battlegrounds and Arena where they belong. With this character transfer service, what's keeping people from leveling up in a PvE server hassle free and then moving to a PvP server when he feels he's better prepared to take on the ganking? Maybe this issue isn't as important as it once was but I feel like this is one thing Blizzard should have held on to. Of course now that the option is available, I'm very sure a lot of players formerly stuck in PvE realms waiting to get out will want to avail of this service.
Wrath Expansion Available On DVD Only
Here's a piece of bad news I just found out about now. Good thing it's just a few days old so the news isn't that stale yet. According to WoW EU CM Vaneras, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion will only be available on DVD for both the regular and the Collector's Edition. This spells bad news for those people who have computers that can only play regular CD's. This would have been bad news for me several months ago since my old computer had a funky DVD drive that would only read DVD's sometimes. Good thing I bought a new computer.
For those people who may have problems with this piece of news, there are a few solutions I can think of. The obvious would be to go out and get yourself a DVD drive before the expansion hits. The other solution is to buy the game, upgrade your account and download the game. I know this service was made available for the Burning Crusade expansion so it's safe to assume the same for WoTLK. The only issue is that it might take some time, maybe a few weeks, before the digital download could be made available.
The nice thing about the game being on DVD is that we don't need to keep track of 4 discs anymore. I hate having to look for all the discs when I have to reinstall the game so this is a big help. Besides, it seems like all the games are coming out on DVD anyway so this is WoW keeping up with the times.
Dual Spec Feature Confirmed
A long time ago, Blizzard was toying around with the idea to have two specs that you can easily switch back and forth. Well, while responding to a forum post about the bloat of the WoTLK druid Balance tree, Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler confirmed that this feature will indeed be implemented but we'll still have to wait for the upcoming Blizzcon (October 10-11) to know the details.
Being able to switch back and forth between two specs (for free is what we're assuming or else there's nothing new) is something that will help everybody but especially the hybrids who change roles all the time. You can be a balance druid one moment and a resto druid a little later. This feature will really complement the spell power gear change since the affected classes won't even need to change their gear to switch between healing and dps. Your healer has to go and you only have dps classes in your guild currently online? That shadow priest can go switch specs and heal for you. This feature will also help players switch from a PvE spec to a PvP spec anytime they need to and without the pain of spending lots of gold for respec costs and having to do dailies just to recover the cost.
My guess is that you'll still have to see your trainer to avail of this feature since switching specs anywhere just seems too easy. You'll probably be asked by the trainer if you want to "save" your current spec so that you can switch back to it with ease when you eventually spec out of it.
Whatever the details, this feature should give you that feeling like you're in the Wrath beta spending one copper for respecs. Sure it's not the same but being able to switch between two specs with ease at no cost sure is close.
Cold Weather Flying Made Trainable, No Longer A Quest
If you didn't know by now, Blizzard won't allow us to use our flying mounts in Northrend until level 77 which is when we can pick up the Cold Weather Flying skill. This is so that we won't simply fly over everything and pass all that wonderful early Northrend content the developers of the game have prepared for us. Blizzard recently implemented a change that made Cold Weather Flying a trainable skill instead of the end of a short quest chain. Great right? Well actually the answer is an absolute NO! CM Vaneras tells us the details of the change that many players absolutely hate:
Cold Weather Flying was indeed a part of a quest line, but we changed it because we felt that it wasn't clear enough where to get it.
This ability will now be purchasable instead, and the 1000 gold cost has been tuned around the amount of gold people will usually have gathered around level 77. At that level we expect you will have more than enough gold to afford getting the Cold Weather Flying ability. source
If you consider what the original quest entailed, I take the quest any day rather than spend a whopping 1000g on this. That's the cost of a whole regular flying mount just to get the skill to use the flying mount you already have.
If the problem is players not being certain exactly where to do it, the solution is to make it clearer not add a huge training cost! Add several npc's all over the place that lead you to where this quest is supposed to be done. Station them at inns and next to flight paths if you have to. I don't care if 1000g is the projected amount of gold a fresh 77 might have, that's still a lot of gold he's going to have to spend on something that was simply quested for.
Curse Reveals Info About Lich King From Community Summit
Curse.com had the great opportunity to sit down with Lead Designers Tom Chilton (Kalgan) and Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) for the Blizzard Community Summit and what they learned may strike you as cool. Looks like the developers have some nice content lined up for us and other ideas that may be implemented after the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
First of all, the major content patches that will come out after the expansion is released have already been lined up. This is similar to TBC when we experienced the release of the Black Temple patch then the Zul'aman patch then finally the Fury of the Sunwell patch that gave us Magister's Terrace, Sunwell Plateau and the entire Isle of Quel'danas. According to Mr. Kaplan, there will be 3 major patches coming out and they are as follows:
Patch 3.1 - release of the patch that will include the Ulduar raid dungeon, availbale on both 10 and 25 man of course.
Patch 3.2 - release of the patch that will bring us a secret surprise raid dungeon (wonder what the surprise is...)
Patch 3.3 - release of the patch that will likely bring us the Icecrown Ciadel
Of course there's still no timetable for when these patches are coming out so we'll just have to wait. Fine with me since right now I'm just anxiously waiting for the expansion to come out.
Other interesting things mentioned in this summit are the following:
Dance studio - not only are new dances coming in a content patch but also the ability to combine dance moves to create your own customized dance.
Guild ratings and achievements - a feature might be added in a future patch where guilds get a rating based on their achievements for both PvE and PvP. I guess this will make it easier for guilds to recruit and players to find guilds using the rating system as a measure of what they want. I really hope this turns out to be something like the guild system in Warhammer Online where guilds actually level up based on its members' accomplishments and are able to get special rewards based on its level.
Whew. That all sounds so cool. All this WoTLK anticipation is making so restless!
Ground Mounts Will Be Usable In Water
Blizzcon 08 is over and it seems like there really wasn't anything explosive that was revealed as far as World of Warcraft is concerned. Sure a few things were given more clarity and a few issues made known to the devs so they could work on it but there was nothing that made you go "WOW!" (pun intended)
But if there was one thing probably qualifies as a new and cool announcement, it's probably the one about ground mounts being usable in water. This means that when you hit the drink with your ground mount, you'll actually stay mounted. Don't you hate it when you're in places like Un'goro Crater or Nagrand that have narrow bodies of water that separate pieces of land just a few steps apart. Getting to the other side of these pieces of land are annoying because the water is deep enough to dismount you so you'll have to mount up again on the other side. This change that will be patched in after the release of Wrath of the Lich King solves this annoyance.
How, you may ask, will your kodo or nightsaber survive under water without breathing? Well just ask hunters how their pets do it. Though this really brings back the funny thought of having to buy a new mount just because your old one died...