WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.

So Patch 3.2 is out.

What does this mean for warriors?

Well, there will be a very slight upturn in DPS with the change of the Armored to the Teeth talent, and tanking warriors will see some changes to how Dodge and Parry work, as well as changes to items that have Block Value. In general, warrior tanks should see minimal changes (perhaps a slight increase in their overall damage dealt with the buff to Devastate, although the changes to how Shield Slam works might end up capping that ability's damage and threat down the line) and DPS warriors will probably barely notice.

Briefly let's cover the changes to Dodge and Parry - while they're not warrior specific, warrior tanks should still be aware of them. Basically, both the amount of Agility (which will have a negligible effect on warriors) and the amount of Dodge Rating (which will have more of an effect) necessary per point of Dodge has increased by 15%, while the amount of Parry Rating per point of Parry has increased by 8%. What this means is, your current dodge rating will drop in 3.2, your parry rating will go up to match it, although not massively so. It's a slight rebalance meant to make Block more appealing overall. (Thanks to the folks who caught that I flipped the parry change over. I blame Mondays, even though it's Tuesday.)

Continue reading World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Warrior Guide

Filed under: Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Warrior Guide originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.

With patch 3.2 here, it looks like Warlocks can officially start celebrating. It seems like its been far too long since we've seen a patch which has more pros than cons in it. Of course, it's also true that Warlocks aren't going to see quite as many changes as most other classes will. Not even enough to warrant any real changes in the popular talent builds. However, among the changes we are getting are several which can only be described as buffs, and for that we can be thankful. Since we do have so few changes which really affect us in a meaningful way, we may as well go over them one by one.

Continue reading World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Warlock Guide

Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Warlock Guide originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today we continue our class Q&A series with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and the development team, in which we're
taking a look at each class and answering some of the top questions brought forward by their communities. Next up, we
take a look at the most asked questions from the warlock class and find out more about the design philosophy behind
this class, the expectations for the class, and what may lie in store for it in the future.

Be sure to read the new Q&A.

WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.

There are two major changes coming to shamans in 3.2, one of which is a universal change (the addition of the new totem interface) that will affect all shamans, and the other primarily for one spec, restoration. There are other changes as well, however. Base range of all shock spells is being increased to 25 yards from 20, all shamans will now have approximately 7% more health, and our bread and butter interrupt will no longer be Earth Shock, but the redesigned Wind Shock, now named Wind Shear.

We'll break down the changes after that mean ol' jump.

Continue reading World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Shaman Guide

Filed under: Shaman, Patches, News items

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Shaman Guide originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.

As I've been saying for quite some time, Rogues are in a pretty good place in WoW right now. We're competitive in the arena and battleground scene, and our PvE DPS is definitely at the level we should expect as a pure DPS class. With the upcoming nerfs to some of our biggest rivals (Feral Druids in particular), Patch 3.2 will simply be more of the same for the Rogue class.

We've got 3 viable specs for PvE progression (though HaT is underused), and Combat has seen a rebirth in the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets via the potency of Fan of Knives, Blade Flurry, and Killing Spree for AoE pressure and massive application of poisons to all targets. The only real change coming in 3.2 will be our new capacity for wielding Axes. I don't know about you, but I've already got two Axes enchanted and ready to go!

Continue reading World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Rogue Guide

Filed under: Rogue, Patches, Classes, (Rogue) Encrypted Text

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Rogue Guide originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The class Q&A series continues with Rogue, the stabbiest class. Look for a more complete analysis later; for now, here's a quick summary, with the full Q&A after the cut. Priest is now the only class left, but don't despair, my clerical friends - I'm sure they saved the best for last. I hope.

• Rogues are for DPS. Historically, they have been "selfish" - little group utility. Right now they have better utility and synergy.
• They've always been strong in PvP, because of stealth, stun, and burst.
• The devs are happy with the way the combo point/finisher system is working right now.
• A proposed solution for Vanish! "...Vanish puts you in stealth for 1 second minimum no matter what else happens."
• Hunger for Blood is meant to boost PvE damage without doing much for PvP, and as such it works, but is boring. Changes are in store for the long run. They want it to be more reactive, and also put it back into PvP.
• They would like to make Subtlety competitive in PvE, but if they make it too good players will all switch to it because of the utility. Long-term, some Sub utility might become core, or some damage from other trees might become core so the choice is utility vs utility (not utility vs damage).
• Rogues underperform in dungeons, as a consequence of scaling so well in raids. If you're not doing good DPS in raids, "the problem exists between the chair and the keyboard."
• Rogues are too survivable when they can use all their tricks on one target, and too squishy when they can't. Long-term, they want to move some survivability to passive abilities.
• Combat Daggers is dead because Blizzard thinks that it was clunky and unfun.
• Don't expect more class-specific content any time soon - they would like to do it, but it's low on the priority list.

The full Q&A from Ghostcrawler and friends is below.

Continue reading Class Q&A: Rogue

Filed under: Rogue

Class Q&A: Rogue originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a move that should be a surprise to no one on a major content patch day, Blizzard has announced that all realms will be down until 3PM PDT for database maintenance.

You may have noticed that we've got a lot of patch 3.2 coverage today to keep you busy. Or you could take a peek over at the WoWathon to watch some dramatic readings and support charity.

We'll keep you posted on any other changes to the downtime.

Update 2:50 p.m. PDT: Realms are beginning to come back online.

WoW's Patch 3.2 ushers in the Crusaders' Coliseum, the Isle of Conquest, flying mounts at 60, and much more. WoW.com has all the patch information your Worgen obsessed mind can handle in WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2!

Filed under: Patches, Realm Status, Blizzard, News items

Realm Status: Coming online originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sometimes, big content patches bring some odd quirks (otherwise known as bugs) along with all their goodies. There's a strange one that came along with Patch 3.2 that's recently been pointed out to us - apparently, players on PvP servers are able to create characters of the opposing faction on the same realm. If you play on Normal or RP servers, this wouldn't be anything special. However, PvP servers have always had a particular restriction that prevents players from having characters from both factions on the same realm.

Is this an intended change? It doesn't appear on any patch notes or blue post, so we're not so sure. A change of this magnitude usually merits a Blizzard announcement of some sort. In this case, expect realms to undergo some form of downtime in the near future to address the issue. So if you've ever had words you wanted to share with players of the opposite faction - some invectives or even forbidden love - heck, this is your time to do it. If you want to participate in some arbitrage ala PvE realms, that might be possible, too. Though don't look at me when Blizzard shuts everything down and all your Gold disappears in Steamwheedle limbo.

However, there's also a good chance this is an intended feature - after all, they did announce faction changes, right? Disabling the restriction will allow players to switch factions on PvP realms without any problems. Since Blizzard has broken down traditional barriers in the past - from realm transfers to PvE-to-PvP restrictions - this change isn't out of the realm of possibility. Stay tuned as we learn more!

UPDATE: It's been CONFIRMED. The change is intended! There is no longer a faction restriction on PvP realms in preparation for the faction change service, according to Eyonix over at the official forums.

Thanks to Jon for the heads up!

WoW's Patch 3.2 ushers in the Crusaders' Coliseum, the Isle of Conquest, flying mounts at 60, and much more. WoW.com has all the patch information your Worgen obsessed mind can handle in WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2!

Filed under: Patches, Bugs, News items

Faction restriction on PvP servers lifted [Updated] originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an exciting change to PvP Realm players, you can now have both Horde and Alliance characters on all PvP Realms.

You can read the original post after the jump.

Originally posted by Eyonix here:

As we've already discussed, we’re in the process of developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. To prepare for this new service, we've removed the restriction that prevents players from creating both Horde and Alliance characters on a PvP realm. For more information on our Faction Change service, please visit the following link.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1

Over the course of the Patch 3.2 PTR's lifetime, the WoW.com team probably spent a rather unhealthy amount of time there. Sure, it makes us wonder what the heck is wrong with us, but it pays off for you guys. You've seen the fruits of our labor pretty much all day long, and will continue to. That said, there are a lot of simple things that we haven't put in front of you guys since we originally discussed them. Primarily, our image galleries.

Embedded below are almost all of the galleries we put together for Patch 3.2. Tier set stats, the Isle of Conquest, Children's Week quests, the new Heirlooms, badge gear, and more. Please note, however, that the screenshots were taken on the PTR, so any of the stats you see in the pictures may differ slightly from what went live. Only slightly, however. Enjoy, and don't forget to click through the cut below for the rest of the galleries.

Continue reading Patch 3.2 in pictures

Filed under: Items, Events, News items, Galleries, Battlegrounds

Patch 3.2 in pictures originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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