WoW Happenings

PTR 3.1.0 - Patch Notes

2009-02-24T05:07:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

PTR 3.1.0 - Patch Notes

via MMO-Champion - World of Warcraft Guides and Raid Strategies - News by boubouille@mmo-champion.com on 2/23/09

Patch 3.1.0 is now available on the PTR downloader, this post will be updated a lot in the next few hours. Stay tuned.

Update 10:40 CEST - The Dual Talent Spec skill costs 1000 gold!
Update 10:15 CEST - New crafted items added

Alchemy - Elixir of Minor Accuracy
Blacksmithing - Battlelord's Plate Boots, Belt of the Titans, Indestructible Plate Girdle, Plate Girdle of Righteousness, Spiked Deathdealers, Titansteel Spellblade, Treads of Destiny
Enchanting - Enchant Boots - Lesser Accuracy, Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower, Enchant Staff - Spellpower, High-Powered Flashlight
Jewelcrafting - Amulet of True Sight, Prismatic Black Diamond
Leatherworking - Belt of Arctic Life, Belt of Dragons, Blue Belt of Chaos, Boots of Living Scale, Boots of Wintry Endurance, Death-warmed Belt, Footpads of Silence, Lightning Grounded Boots
Tailoring - Cord of White Dawn, Sash of Ancient Power, Savior's Slippers, Spellslinger's Slippers, Spidersilk Drape

Update 09:30 CEST - Added undocumented changes / spell comparison for all classes.
Update 07:35 CEST - Talent Calculator is now up to date. Please note that the stats of the spells here are taken directly from the game files and might be different from the official patch notes.
Update 07:25 CEST - Patch Notes now available in German, French and Spanish
Update 07:15 CEST - Added new monster models.

Val'anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings
According to this spell, a new atiesh-like legendary item will be available from the game and will most likely be a mace.

62812 : Forming Val'anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings -- Combines 40 Fragments of Val'anyr to form the Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr.

Ulduar
Sound files included in the patch give a few more details on Ulduar ... It seems that we'll see multiple wings here, and even a tram!

base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\ULduarRaid_StormwindWing.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_EngineRoom.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_General.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_LichKingWing.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_PlanetariumHallway.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_Tram.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_Wyrmrest_Temple.wav
base\Sound\Ambience\WMOAmbience\UlduarRaid_Yogg_Saron_BrainRoom.wav

New monster models
New models have been added to the game, read the filename for more details.

[img]http://sta...

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to MMO-Champion - World of Warcraft Guides and Raid Strategies - News using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Sometimes, 20% > 30%

2009-02-15T05:48:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Sometimes, 20% > 30%

via TankingTips.com by Veneretio on 2/14/09

One of the most interesting aspects of customizing one's Warrior these days is Major Glyph selection. Glyph of Blocking has established itself as the strongest of all of them with Glyph of Revenge close behind. What makes Major Glyph selection so interesting though is that the 3rd Major Glyph is very open.

The Usual Suspects

Glyph of Heroic Strike, Glyph of Devastate and Glyph of Sunder Armor have appeared to be the most popular 3rd Major Glyph choices thus far, but I suspect that Glyph of Cleaving has gained a certain following after it was improved as well.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The Title Glyph

As many of you have certainly guessed by now, the title is talking about Glyph of Last Stand. Not a terribly popular choice as one might suspect from a Glyph that nerfs the potency of one of our most important abilities. However, sometimes frequency trumps ferocity. When would that be?

Malygos.

As many of you have found out and are finding out, Malygos, represents one of the most challenging pieces of content for us at this time. If you've just started working on him, I can imagine that your healers have had a rude awakening as have you yourself in how quickly he's capable of killing a tank. And, that's where Glyph of Last Stand kicks in.

After Malygos' Vortex is one of the most stressful times on the healers as they're trying to quickly get their barings while you position the dragon. Glyph of Last Stand allows you to help. By having it as your 3rd Major Glyph, you'll be able to use it after the 1st and 3rd Vortexes. Thus, allowing you to execute the following sequence of events:

After Vortex 1: Last Stand + Shield Block
After Vortex 2: Shield Wall + Shield Block
After Vortex 3: Last Stand + Shield Block

Using this strategy, you'll give your healers the most time possible following a Vortex to position themselves and get the heals flowing consistently on you again.

But, what if a Spark hits Malygos?

There's nothing saying you have to stick unwaveringly to the plan. If a Spark hits Malygos, you should use either Last Stand or Shield Wall. (likely only 1 of the 2 will be up at the time given following the above) As always, be sure to let the healers know you've done this. That being said, if a Spark is frequently hitting Malygos, you simply aren't going to be able to get out of Phase 1 quick enough to win the fight.

I shouldn't have to use Last Stand though

That's probably one of the dumbest things I read. Thankfully, it's on a rather infrequent basis. Even worse still, however, I see some that don't even feel the need to spec into Last Stand. Frankly, if you think this way and you scoff at the Malygos strategy listed above, you're doing a disservice to yourself and to your guild.

If you die and you have not used ALL of your cooldowns, it is your fault.

Now, I'm not saying one can always know when the appropriate time to use Last Stand and Shield Wall is, but not knowing does not absolve you. It's still your fault if you didn't use them. I'm sure many of you have died to Malygos' Breath after a Spark hit him or you've died after a Vortex and you've blamed it on the DPSers or the Healers, but ultimately, you could have helped. You could have done something and you didn't.

…and in the case of preparing for the Malygos fight, you could even have used Glyph of Last Stand. So, Last Stand being on cooldown doesn't relinquish you of guilt either.

Spec for the fight, Gear for the fight, Glyph for the fight.

Or, make excuses… blame others… learn nothing…

…and Die on the fight.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to TankingTips.com using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Best in Slot for Resto Druid

2009-02-03T06:33:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Best in Slot for Resto Druid

via World of Matticus by Sydera on 2/3/09

I see the question of what items are actually best-in-slot for one class or another come up time and again on forums and blogs alike. These lists can come in pretty handy. Of course, at the current difficulty of content, you don't really need your best-in-slot, but without something to strive for, where would we be?

I have worked to keep this list mostly leather, but where there's a cloth contender I've tried to mention it as well. My criteria of judgment are purely the relative stats of the item. The item level serves me as a guide, but is never a consideration in its own right.

Head

Valorous Dreamwalker Headpiece, from Kel'Thuzad 25

This helm, featuring both Spirit and Mp5, is most certainly the best piece in our tier set–it's a shame, though, that there are other good headpieces as well.

Hood of Rationality, from Malygos 25

If your loot rules allow you to pick up some cloth, here's a piece to consider.

Headpiece of Reconciliation, from Sartharion 25, 2 Drakes

This should be our best-in-slot, but right now it isn't. It's a level 226 item, but the stats don't match expectations. It could be corrected in the future, but I'm not holding my breath.

Neck

Necklace of the Glittering Chamber, from Malygos 10

Shoulder

Spaulders of Catatonia, from Malygos 25

These shoulders have the best stats, but be careful. If Nourish is in your rotation at all, you will want to keep your 4 pc bonus. If not, have at it with the non-set pieces

Valorous Dreamwalker Spaulders, from Loatheb 25

This item is well-balanced and very useful for filling out the set bonus. However, it's clearly inferior to the Spaulders of Catatonia.

Cloak

Cape of the Unworthy Wizard, from Kel'Thuzad 25

There's no argument here. This cloak is far out ahead of its competitors, a must-have if you can get it.

Chest

Valorous Dreamwalker Robe, from 4 Horsemen 25

I'm a big advocate of wearing leather while I can, and this item is quite good. I also like my set bonuses, even though I don't get much out of the boost to Nourish.

Blanketing Robes of Snow, from Malygos 25

If your guild gets enough of these to outfit the priests, by all means, add this to your set.

Bracers

Unsullied Cuffs, from Sartharion 2D

These may be cloth, but they are my runaway favorite, much better than our leather options.

Bands of the Great Tree, From Emblems of Valor

These bracers are probably the best in leather, but they are not significantly different from the more easily accessible Swarm Bindings, from Anub'Rekan 25. I wouldn't spend the emblems for them myself.

Hands

Valorous Dreamwalker Handguards, Sartharion 25

There's no contest here. This is a nice, balanced item that will help you get your bonuses.

Waist

Unravelling Strands of Sanity, from Malygos 25

I was very lucky to pick up this little beauty on our second Malygos kill. There's no doubt about it–this belt is by far the best.

Legs

Valorous Dreamwalker Leggings, from Thaddius 25

Once again, the tier piece isn't strictly ideal in terms of stats, but that has more to do with it being introductory gear than with it being the "wrong" piece to wear. I use these quite happily.

Leggings of Mortal Arrogance from Kel'Thuzad 25.

I like the stat allocation pretty well on these leggings. They're better for priests than druids, though, and you should by all means let your clothies–maybe even dps–have them first.

Feet

Rainey's Chewed Boots

Get these boots with your Emblems of Valor and never worry about it again. They are the runaway winner in this category.

Fingers

Lost Jewel, Naxx 25 shared loot

The Spirit makes this item a good bet. I'm personally going for Spirit on both rings, but your budget may vary.

Band of Channeled Magic, Emblems of Valor

This item gets points for spirit and accessibility. A must-have.

Arguably, the real best in slot is the Loop of the Kirin Tor, but I'm never going to have 8,000g for a marginal upgrade.

Trinkets

Je'Tze's Bell, BoE world drop

I love everything about this item except its price. I saw one last night on Ner'zhul that had big up to 5,000. I don't have that much total gold across all my toons. Here's hoping I get lucky with a trash drop.

Forethought Talisman, Naxx 25 shared loot.

This one packs a huge spellpower punch, and the proc, while lackluster, will give me an extra 3,000 or so effective heals per fight.

As for other trinkets–the Spirit-World Glass is something I really want to pick up for myself just in case changes are made to mana regen. I like the idea of the Illustration of the Dragon Soul and the Majestic Dragon Figurine, though there's probably a bit of a learning curve to keeping the effect up as much as possible.

Weapon

Torch of Holy Fire, Kel'Thuzad 25

This one is a no-brainer, but good luck getting it. This is a very hot ticket item in almost every guild.

Off Hand

Urn of Lost Memories, Naxx 25 shared loot.

Idol

Idol of Lush Moss, Emblems of Valor

There's no real choice here. Lifebloom may be nerfed, but we still need it.

Set Bonuses

Make sure that you get your 2 pc T7.5 set bonus. You will continue to depend on your Lifebloom, particularly if you ever heal tanks. 4 pc T7 gives enough of a bonus to Nourish to make it your most efficient heal on a target who already has all your other hots, i.e., a tank. However, the 4 pc isn't strictly necessary. You have plenty of mana regen for this level, and a less efficient Nourish won't hurt at all. Efficiency will only be in play in a harder dungeon (Ulduar) or if the mana regen formula should be changed. If it's only a factor in Ulduar, you probably won't hang onto 4pc T7 for long anyway–you'll be replacing it with T8.

Final Note: Introductory Gear

Remember, no matter how good your T7 gear is, we're still in the first tier of Wrath content. If you look over the Resto druid items, there are many items with "wasted" stats like crit and haste. Don't pull your leaves out over it. At this point, there are no real best in slots. Je'Tze's Bell comes the closest, but even that may be replaced in Ulduar. I'm hoping that when we do start getting some T8 upgrades, the stats actually come closer to ideal.

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

Best in Slot for Resto Druid

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to World of Matticus using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

For the Resto Shaman: Settling the Crit vs Haste Discussion

2009-01-29T05:34:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

For the Resto Shaman: Settling the Crit vs Haste Discussion

via World of Matticus by Matticus on 1/28/09

This is a guest post from Lodur, a Resto Shaman who set up an experiment to determine what is better: Haste or Crit. The experiment consisted of two relatively equally geared Resto Shamans with slight variances in haste and crit thrown into a full clear Heroic Naxxramas.

Round 1

Lodur from Zul'jin here again. Today I'd like to talk a little bit on the topic of Crit versus Haste. This has been a hotly debated topic among the shaman community since patch 3.0 dropped on us giving us all kinds of goodies. Specs have been proposed and gear has been compared using every measuring stick imaginable. The arguments are all over the Internet, and you can find them on all sorts of forums and websites. Right now though I'd like to take a look at some key points for each camp that have recently been brought up in my guild's Shaman Class forums.

Pro Crit:

Bigger heals = less heals needed
Allows for increased rate in procs in key talents such as Improved Water Shield,and Ancestral Awakening.
Takes full advantage of the fix to Earth Shield which now has a crit change equal to the caster and not the recipient of the shield
Allows for Increased performance of preventative healing
Allows for greater single target healing efficiency

Pro Haste:

Allows for lower casting time for Chain Heal which is a shamans most efficient heal (5.23 heal per mana)
Allows for a greater number of spell casts which will allow key talents such as, Ancestral Awakening, Tidal Waves, and Healing Way to proc more often on more targets
Allows for Increased performance in "twitch" or reactive healing
Allows for greater group healing efficiency, while giving the passive regen of a Glyphed Water Shield time to restore mana.
Allows for quicker application of Earth Living Weapon so as to proc to more targets

To further understand these points we can look at the talents and abilities so you can begin to see where each is coming from.

Talents / abilities Described:

Ancestral Awakening: When you critically heal with your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave or Riptide you summon an Ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest percentage health friendly party or raid target within 40 yards for 30% of the amount healed. This may not seem like much but this adds up over time. It normally clocks in at around 1% of your total healing output.

Improved Water Shield: You have a 100% chance to instantly consume a Water Shield Orb when you gain a critical effect from your Healing Wave or Riptide spells, and a 60% chance when you gain a critical effect from your Lesser Healing Wave spell. This is helpful with mana regen especially if your find your MP5 or raid replenishment lacking.
Healing Way:Your Healing Wave spells have a 100% chance to increase the effect of subsequent Healing Wave spells on that target by 18% for 15 sec. This turns your 15,000 Healing Wave crit into something that creeps up to around 20,000 and with the change to the talent applying the full bonus on once cast of Healing Wave, it has found it's way into many rotation.
Earthliving:Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by 150 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional 652 over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes. 20% meaning 1 out of every 5 heals will land a hot on a target. Using a Glyphed Chain Heal means 4 targets per heal. A 652 HoT doesn't seem like much but it adds up over time.

Practical Application:

Someone once said me to "Lodur, I hear what you're saying but I need to see the numbers." So after a lengthy discussion with another shaman in our guild we decided to give it a go. I would continue to stack haste (Hello, My name's Lodur, and I'm a haste junkie) and they (I wont use their name simply because I don't exactly have their permission to post their toon details on the interwebs and I'm respectful like that) would stack crit and change spec and see what numbers we got.

All numbers are without totems or self buffs, and not including Earthliving Weapon. These also do not take into account trinkets like Egg of Mortal Essence . Both of us were present for all four wings of Naxx and we were both tasked with Raid / OT healing at the same time in order to keep things as consistent as possible.

(And before anyone says quality of player or anything silly like that it should be noted that me and Shaman 2 are consistently within a stones throw of eachother every raid and both have been doing this for a long time!)

Let's look at what some numbers produce, looking at builds and stats first. All gear is at the item level of i200 and i213. This is without totems, weapon buffs, food or raid buffs. Both shamans used the same Glyphs for the run. Glyph of Chain heal, Glyph of Water Mastery, Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave and Glyph of Water Shield

The Stats

	Lodur	Shaman 2
Spec	Spec here (Excludes Improved Water Shield in favor of Healing Way)	Spec here (Inclusion of Thundering Strikes over Enhancing Totems )
Intellect	1010	983
Haste	419 (14%)	262 (8%)
Crit	19%	31%
Spellpower	1952	1936

As you can see the stats are fairly close, differing mainly in their haste and crit rating. So lets take a look and see what the end result of the run was number wise.

The Results

	Lodur	Shaman 2
Total Healing	5328335	5089956
Water Shield	60813	64400
Earthliving	444686	311665
Ancestral Awakening	75251	67245
Average Crit	24%	34%
Overhealing	40%	40%

Wow. Pretty close there! Now that's overall for the entire raid night. So as everything averages out at the end they wind up being pretty similar. We can break this down a bit further and look at some of the individual fights to look for strenghts and weaknesses for each. Lets pull out two boss kills here.

Maxxena:

Lodur: Total Healing Done: 68,068
Shaman 2: Total Healing Done: 123,953

Damn, got almost doubled on that fight! The strong single target heals allowed for Shaman 2 to top off tanks and webbed people in one gulp causing my quicker heals to move on over into overhealing.

Heigan the Unclean:

Lodur: Total Healing Done: 222,257
Shaman 2: Total Healing Done: 109,780

Haste won that round! The faster group heals and lesser healing waves allowed for me to top people off quicker while diseases were cleansed.

The trade off between bosses carries on from there with Crit winning on Loatheb and Haste winning on Patchwerk. The two have fights where they will always shine slightly brighter then the other, but overall they perform to roughly the same output.

The Conclusion

It is, in the opinion of this shaman, so close that the difference really boils down to playstyle.

Both ways work! If you have a preference roll with it. Gearing for both is very easy. There's haste on just about everything and what mail spell power pieces don't have haste normally have a ton of crit (yes I know it can be argued that its elemental gear but it still works for healing all the same).

There will always be fights that are slightly tougher for your then if you had more haste rather then a ton of crit, but thats true about everything in the game. The synergy between the two is also noticeable. Fights where a hastened Healing Wave can keep Healing Way up so that the crit spec can land a huge, huge heal will always be there.

Well that's it for round one of haste vs crit. Round 2 will be after 3.1 drops and Ulduar is available. Until next time, happy healing.

Image courtesy of Aurik

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

For the Resto Shaman: Settling the Crit vs Haste Discussion

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to World of Matticus using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

At least, 41% of Tanks aren’t Heroic Striking enough.

2009-01-27T05:09:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

At least, 41% of Tanks aren’t Heroic Striking enough.

via TankingTips.com by Veneretio on 1/26/09

…and this doesn't include the tanks that are level 8. This is you guys. Yup, you.

In my most recent poll, more than 500 of you let me know how you use Heroic Strike and I'm not going to lie, the results were a little surprising.

The Clickers, 20%

1 in 5 tanks click Heroic Strike. That's a lot guys and gals and that's not a good thing. There's 2 cases with this, one's bad and one's ugly.

a) The Bad Case

You have your main rotation of Shield Slam, Revenge, Concussion Blow, Shockwave and Devastate all bound to keys. This allows you to utilize your left hand to do your proper rotation and allows you to use your right hand with the mouse to click Heroic Strike whenever your rage gets too high. This can work… until you have to move. I bet you don't use Heroic Strike at all when you move. You probably have never maintained Heroic Strike usage while using a cooldown either.

b) The Ugly Case

You click your main rotation and you click Heroic Strike. There's just no possible way you can move fast enough. You're going to be lucky to keep up with your main rotation even. Basically, if you manage to somewhat pull off your main rotation, you'll end up never using Heroic Strike. If you manage to Heroic Strike effective, you'll screw up your main rotation massively. It's lose-lose and it's even worse once you have to move around.

Macro Men, 15%

As a former member of the Macro Men, I can say confidently that you're lazy and if you don't know it, you do now. Heroic Strike lands whenever your weapon swings. Your weapon does not swing at the same time that you do your main rotation. If you're using a Macro, you're missing numerous opportunities to dump rage. You're also making it impossible to use Heroic Strike by itself.

Why would I want to just Heroic Strike?

For bosses that spawn adds. Once you've got a massive threat lead, you can just start spamming Heroic Strike around the time the adds are expected. This will allow you to have your global cooldown free to Thunder Clap or Shockwave immediately once the adds spawn ensuring no one gets hit. The fact that the current content allows DPSers to "take a hit" is no excuse.

I'm no User, 6%

Heroic Strike is a massive amount of your threat/damage especially in today's world of High Rage situations, not using it is doing a gross disservice to your team as you're greatly hindering your own personal dps as well as your groups ability to go all out on their own dps due to low threat. If you're not using Heroic Strike and struggling with threat, now you know why. If you're new to the world of Heroic Strike, try reading this oldie, but goodie: Heroic Strike, more than a Rage Dump.

Wheelers, 6%

Hello my fellow siblings, how are you enjoying the world of Wheeling? This is where I sit currently with my Heroic Strike usage. I'm finding it to be quite effective especially when I have to maintain my regular rotation + Heroic Strike + move + talk on vent. Is it ideal though? I'm not certain. Currently, I bind Heroic Strike to wheel up and Cleave to wheel down and I've definitely noticed that I'll occasionally Cleave instead of Heroic Strike due to miss-wheeling. This is a problem.

So, what are you going to do?

I'm going to bind it to a key as well and go back to the key as my primary Heroic Strike button. In the past, I've always bound Heroic Strike to a key and I've prided myself on being very good at utilizing it and it's because it was bound to a key that I could accomplish this. I still will be using Heroic Strike on my wheel as well since I find it very useful for good Heroic Strike usage while Strafing and Tabbing, but unfortunately, the wheel alone is not enough. Random Cleaves are simply unacceptable for standard tanking.

The Kings of the Key-dom, 53%

Pat yourself on the back, you're doing it right. Now granted, I'm assuming you have your Heroic Strike key in some meaningful area that you can constantly spam easily while moving or talking and maintain your regular rotation at the same time. If you've bound Heroic Strike to Shift-1 and Shield Slam to 1… then you're doing it wrong. If you've bound Heroic Strike to something unreachable like F12, then you're doing it wrong, too.

Adequate isn't Enough

It's true, we play in a world right now that allows us to be sloppy. I guarantee there's someone that doesn't use Heroic Strike that's progressed farther than I have and as a result, has got a whole lot better gear than me too. The Main Tank of your guild could be this person too. That doesn't make it right. If you're clicking, macroing or not even using Heroic Strike… then you're simply not Heroic Striking enough. If you're wheeling Heroic Strike, you may want to consider Binding it to a key like me because unless you've got Heroic Strike bound to Wheel up and Wheel down, you're probably making mistakes too.

The keybound and the converted to keying, remember binding alone doesn't immediately make you better. You still have to press the button. It doesn't do you any good having a key bound to Heroic Strike, if you're unable to use it effectively. So make that key meaningful and pay attention to your rage. It still remains true that if you've got 50+ rage, you should be Heroic Striking until you don't. If you never go below that in an entire fight, then you should literally see zero Swings in your WWStats and All Heroic Strikes.

After all, that's the goal here folks. If it's a high rage situation like Main Tanking Patchwerk, we don't ever want to swing. We want to do a flawless regular rotation and have 100% Heroic Strike usage. And, if you think it doesn't matter… that doesn't make a difference… well the day you walk into Ulduar and wipe at 1% on a brand new boss… I want you to realize that if you're Heroic Striking wrong that you're just as responsible for that wipe as the DPSer that was dead for half the fight.

The time where mediocrity is adequate will not last forever, will you be ready?

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to TankingTips.com using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

EoHs exchangeable for EoVs at 10:1 on the PTR

2009-01-09T09:46:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

EoHs (not) exchangeable for EoVs at 10:1 on the PTR

via WoW Insider by Eliah Hecht on 1/9/09

Filed under: Patches, Items, Raiding

Update: This post is incorrect. Sorry about that. As mentioned in the comments, the actual change is one EoV for one EoH, which makes a lot more sense.

In the latest PTR build, updated tonight, the Emblem of Valor quartermaster will sell you Emblems of Valor (the 25-man raid, ilvl 213 emblems) for the price of ten Emblems of Heroism (10-man/ilvl 200). This is something we talked about way back last summer, when they introduced the idea of having multiple levels of badges; this way, 10-man raiders can eventually get the 25-man gear, it just takes a very long time. One EoV can not be traded back for ten EoHs, by the way.

I do think that exchange rate might be a bit high. The cheapest items (rings and cloaks) cost 25 EoVs, which would be 250 EoHs if you paid for it entirely that way. That's (just under) 16 weeks of full Naxxramas clears. If you've been clearing Naxxramas for 16 weeks, you're probably pretty bored of it and ready to move on to Ulduar (which will hopefully be released by then), at which point any EoH-EoV trade-up is meaningless, because you're not getting EoHs anymore.

Continue reading EoHs (not) exchangeable for EoVs at 10:1 on the PTR

EoHs (not) exchangeable for EoVs at 10:1 on the PTR originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Enchanting changes in patch 3.0.8 -- look for dream shard prices to increase

2009-01-06T06:13:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Enchanting changes in patch 3.0.8

via WoW Economist by Kevin on 1/5/09

As we covered a few weeks ago, some enchanting recipes are being changed in the upcoming patch. Thanks to well-formatted post at MMO-Champion, we've got a much better idea of what's being changed - nearly all the Wrath enchants!

Many of them are having their dust and essence (especially essence) requirements lowered, some have had Dream Shards added or Dream Shards to replace Abyss Crystals. With the additions of two new tanking enchants, we can definitely expect Dream Shard prices to rise - probably double or triple their current cost. I've been stocking up over the last few weeks and I'm already seeing the prices climb from 4-5g each to about 8-9g each. And the increases in price isn't stopping any time soon.

I have not yet heard if the patch is coming during tomorrow's maintanence or not, but it has to be soon. You still have a chance to pick up some more dream shards before the auction house is cleared out and inflation sets in.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Economist using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Enchanting changes in patch 3.0.8

2009-01-05T07:32:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Enchanting changes in patch 3.0.8

via WoW Insider by Alex Ziebart on 1/4/09

Filed under: Enchanting, Patches

The developers have mentioned here and there that they weren't totally happy with Enchanting, as far as materials go. You need too much of it, and it's too rare to support the demand without becoming crazy inflated in price. Patch 3.0.8 was supposed to contain a few changes, and holy cow are there changes.

I assumed the changes would be minor, like more dust coming from every disenchantment, but the MMO-Champion forums has compiled a list that surprises me quite a bit. It actually is a pretty sweeping change, reducing the material costs of a whole load of enchantments. Dust isn't the only thing targeted, they use less materials across the board.

In some cases, the material costs are halved, or more than halved. It's definitely not a small little change to Enchanting, waiting until the patch to enchant your gear will save you hundreds of gold. If you want to play it safe or are just curious, MMO-Champion has the full list for your perusal.

Enchanting changes in patch 3.0.8 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

The Rotation. It’s not as Easy as you think.

2008-12-30T15:50:00.000-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

The Rotation. It’s not as Easy as you think.

via TankingTips.com by admin on 12/30/08

I'm guilty of thinking it was as simple as prioritizing:

Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate

…but, it's not.

The Real Priority System

Shield Slam > Revenge > Concussion Blow > Shockwave > Devastate

…and when you throw in the mix that you many have to renew Battle/Commanding Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap as well which all take precidence over Devastate, it becomes very apparent how little Devastate is part of the threat system now. Which isn't to say you shouldn't get to 5 Sunders as quickly as possible, you definitely should, but it does mean that when it comes to bosses that Devastate just shouldn't be a big part of your rotation.

The Ramifications

It's for this reason that Puncture is currently one of the weakest talents in the Protection tree. You simply don't Devastate enough to justify spending 3 points (or even 1 for that matter) on this talent. On the flip side, however, the desire to Devastate as little as possible makes Glyph of Devastate more appealing than one might have expected for the 3rd Major Glyph slot (behind the Blocking and Revenge Glyphs) as it does doubly duty being useful on both Bosses (allowing you to do your proper rotation sooner) and on Trash.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to TankingTips.com using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Chain Heal Rises as Circle of Healing Falls

2008-12-24T04:49:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Chain Heal Rises as Circle of Healing Falls

via World of Matticus by Matticus on 12/23/08

This is a guest post by Lodur, a blogger from Way of the Totem. Today, he examines the nerf to Circle of Healing, the impact it will have to Resto Shamans and how they may need to compensate.

The patch notes can be found here: PTR Patch Notes!

This is going to be important to us in several ways, not least of which is the change to some of the other classes. I'd like to offer my opinion on it. Let's take a look at priests.

Holy: Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.

This is going to be extremely important to us. The fact that Circle of Healing is getting a 6 second cooldown is huge. My current experience with CoH raiding priests is they blow group healing out of the water. One of our Shadow priests rolled over to Holy to fill a gap for raiding in 25 man Naxx. With no gear change, he was able to blow past me in healing output while maintaining mana. Now I'm not suggesting that we need to be the kings of the roost, nor am I doubting the abilities of this priest, but it was a difference of almost half a million pure healing output over the next closest.

In a normal raid you would find a few percentage difference between the top 4 or 5. maybe 1-2% difference. Between healer in first and second was a whopping 6%. As someone who has poured over stats and combat logs after raids trying to figure out how to keep the tanks up while maintaining the raid's health, let me tell you, that's a lot. The higher the discrepancy between places, the more over-healing there is, the more mana issues during the actual encounter is, and so on.

This "nerf" to CoH to me, is an attempt to try to bring the spell back into line and make healing more consistent. I can't say I didn't see it coming, I do however think 6 seconds is going to be a bit much of a cooldownn, but only time will tell as the PTR is being run. I've been pestering my priests about it, so we'll see what they say. In the meantime it means we should be preparing for another reliable group heal not being as powerful or present as it was before, we should be ready to pick up the slack so to speak.

I've gone on and on about the joys of haste, you can see it here For those that don't remember there is a formula we follow to figure out the cast time of your spells and how it's affected by haste. And look, here it is!

Importance of Haste Rating

If you want to spam your chain heals and heal a raid it's time to start looking at your haste gear and to start looking at your glyphs.

First of all you should be shooting for somewhere near 350-400 haste. 340 haste with a Wrath of Air totem will net you a 2.2 second Chain Heal cast time.

Your goal should be around a 2.0s cast time on your chain heal.

This will allow for your Global Cool Down to be up but also allow you to keep a constant stream of CH casting. By using the formula above we see that 2.0 seconds = 820 haste rating, however one must take into account the haste around you in a raid. The trend of almost every raiding guild I've seen has been to include at least one Retribution Paladin, and lets face it, Balance Druids have come a long way since vanilla and have found their way into raids quite frequently.

I'm going to make the assumption that you'll have at least a Ret Paladin. So we can assume you'll have 350ish haste, Wrath of Air totem down and a Ret paladin, your chain heal will be 2.2 seconds. Not bad. If you snag yourself the all holy Egg (which currently does not have a cooldown on the proc) the proc will put you at a 1.9 second cast time. This is good as this thing procs off just about everything. You can see more about the egg proccing in my post here. Now the reason you want to shoot for a 2.0 second cast time is other haste effects. Heroism / Bloodlust give you 30% increase in your casting speed. If you push too much haste, when you use it you will push yourself past your global cooldown timer, causing you to trip over your heals and keeps you from being able to heal effectively.

Glyphs

To go with your haste gear you should also be looking at glyphs. If you are going to be raid healing I have three major suggestions.

Glyph of Water Mastery: Will help keep your mana supply coming in good order (30% counts for a lot more then you would normally assume),
Glyph of Chain Heal: Necessary. The extra target just makes the spell even more effective. This again allows it to claim the title as most mana efficient heal around.
Glyph of Earthliving Weapon This one is a must for a few reasons. First, the Earthliving Weapon ability can proc of any heal, and each target of Chain Heal counts towards it proccing. Second, is the fact that the egg procs off HoT ticks. So, with chain heal delivering Earth Living to everyone and ensuring you have 4 targets and more then likely a HoT up at all times, your egg should be giving you an almost constant 505 haste. Pushing you right at 1.9 - 1.8s chain heals constantly allowing you to keep that raid nice and topped off.

Mana Regen

Now I'm sure many of you are asking "but what about mana regen?"

MP5, the magic shaman stat, is still present. If you are collecting gear based on haste, much of it also comes with a healthy dose of MP5. With that said, it is well within reason to have around 350 haste while still being able to pull off close to 550 mp5 while in combat. Once you reach your haste number, start getting a few pieces with MP5 in spades and everything will be fine.

On the topic of MP5 we do have a change on the horizon that will help with this.

On the PTR currently we see these:

Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.

Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent WOOOOOO.

First, of all lets talk improved Water shield. On a crit of Lesser Healing Wave or Riptide It will consume a charge of water shield, giving you the mana return as if you were hit. This is fine and dandy but in the heat of a battle, there are times you won't be able to give up the Global Cool Down to put it back up instead of healing. A reduction in the proc rate down from 100% is very very good as it allows the orbs to stay up giving use more passive mana regeneration, which will come out to more overall MP5 in the long run.

Second, the change to Healing Way means we only have to plop down one Healing Wave instead of the 3 we normally would have, which means we can conserve that mana and still get the full effect.

Front loading the effect was an amazing move on the part of Blizzard.

That's it for my thoughts on this patch at this time. I'm currently waiting on a response from my priests as far as their input goes on the talent change, but in the meantime, be prepared to step up and fill the gap.

Happy healing!

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

Chain Heal Rises as Circle of Healing Falls

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to World of Matticus using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Blizzard opens up old instances to soloers, changes quest items

2008-12-13T04:24:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Blizzard opens up old instances to soloers, changes quest items

via WoW Insider by Mike Schramm on 12/12/08

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions

Blue poster Daelo has good news for people aiming to solo old instances -- Blizzard has made a few changes to the way keys and unlocks work in the old dungeons, so that you no longer need keys or multiple people to get to the good stuff. The rituals in Blackrock Spire and Uldaman only require one click now, and quintessence (in Molten Core to summon Executus before the Ragnaros fight), the Scepter of Celebras (in Maraudon), and the Mallet of Zul'Farrak (in the ZF, obviously) are no longer needed to do their jobs. Additionally, Nightbane will be accessible in Karazhan without the Blackened Urn.

Some may be disappointed that items we worked so hard for are now pretty much useless, but as you probably know by now, that's the way of things when an expansion hits. The good news, obviously, is that people running through instances solo or with just a few people will be able to hit all the content they couldn't get to before. And if you happen to be running the content, you won't need to worry about whether you left the Mallet in the bank or forgot the Scepter on a Princess run.

And unfortunately, collectors will be left out as well -- most of the items will actually change form into weapons or other useless objects, so even if you have the old items, they won't be usable in the same way. Sure, the Mallet was a pain to get, but it'll be a little sad to see it disappear in the way we know it forever.

Blizzard opens up old instances to soloers, changes quest items originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Mana Tide - To-do List for the Level 80 Resto Shaman.

2008-12-05T13:35:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Guest Post: Mana Tide - To-do List for the Level 80 Resto Shaman.

via World of Matticus by Matticus on 12/5/08

This is a guest post written by Devon.

Prologue

Click the link above fellow totemites, let the rejoicing begin. This position of power ensures Shaman buffs in the future (and hopefully a college football playoff); not even Blizzard can tell this guy "no". Damn government just can't keep its hands off, but in this case I'll keep my trap zipped.

In preparation for the shaman revolution and my PvE aspirations I've compiled a quick gear list and to-do list for the chain healer in all of us. This can, and should, be started at late level 77 and 78. The goal is not to make heroics manageable, but to make you one of the best resto shamans in your guild regardless of your time in Naxx.

Print it out, tack it to your wall, and let it do the thinking for you. You know you want to.

*Steps 0-0.5 are preliminary. The rest should be completed every day until your desired epeen loot level is achieved.

Step 0:

Get your ~~freak~~ spec on.

Before respeccing I suggest getting your Icecrown quest achievement. It will get you the Cannoneer's Morale trinket, Knights of the Ebon Blade rep, and Argent Crusade rep. Searing totem just doesn't kill as fast as ye ol' Stormstrike.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0xxIZxMezVxogkrIRt is my recommendation.

The 16 points in Enhancement are very solid. The following build has the restoration tree must-haves, everything else is just gravy (or filler you pessimists):

Must have talents click here.

Head over to the AH and grab your Glyph of Chain Heal, Water Mastery, Earth Living Weapon, and Water Shield. You should have already had the latter Boudreaux.

This oh-@#^& macro free of charge from elitistjerks.com:

#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness

/stopcasting

/use 13

/use 14

/cast Nature's Swiftness

/Cast Tidal Force

/cast Healing Wave

With this and rip-tide I've had no heroic troubles. This has the over-zealous rogue seal of approval.

Step 0.5

Where the little guy gets his totem.

Grizzly D. Adams will give you Totem of the Bay.

Dis one, it's da best. Get 30 of these.

Step 1

What's with the fat guard standing on the quest giver? Go do your Wyrmrest Dailies everyday until you are Exalted for the Grips of Fierce Pronouncements.

- Drake Hunt at the Nexus. Raelastrasz 33, 34 coords. The harpoon has ridiclous range. If you don't have your flying mount I recommend the western platform.

- Defending Wyrmrest Temple at Wyrmrest Temple. The quest-giver is on the MIDDLE level of the temple. As with all dailies practice makes perfect, but I recommend renew and the sprint (press 4) every time they are up. For those going for time note that it only takes one dot and one flame breath to kill the drakes, pwn and move on. Happy hunting.

- Aces High. See comments here.

Step 2

Knights of the Ebon Blade make me think of emo kids at my high school.

Ebon Blade Dailies everyday until you are Exalted for your Kilt of Dark Mercy.

Icecrown dailies:

Repeatable Quest:

Reading the Bones - First Turn-In 250 rep, thereafter 10 rep per turn-in

Step 3

Troll Pa'troll everyday until Exalted with Argent Dawn for your Signet of Hopeful Light.

The Troll Patrol quest is given in the Argent Stand of Zul'Drak. 3 of them are very easy, the quest form Alchemist Finklestein WOULD be difficult if you didn't have this mod: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/easyserum.aspx

You get a bonus for doing Troll Pa'troll in less than 20 minutes, there should be time to spare using this mod.

Step 4

No moar dailies, so sayeth my sanity.

All in all I spend about 1.5 hours doing dailies. I try to keep my play time at less than three hours a day for personal reasons so another 0.5 - 1.5 hours lets me run an instance or two (good riddance UBRS). In addition to the loot list below I recommend doing the daily regular or daily heroic instances for the reputation and emblems of heroism. Much of the gear you get in this step each day will be a place holder for crafted epics listed in Step 5. Start with the Wyrmrest Tabard since those dailies require longer flights between quests.

VH for Spaulders of the Violet Hold
COT Strat for Soul Preserver (thanks Matticus)
Heroic Lightning Halls for Mail Girdle of the Audient Earth
Heroic UK for Annhylde's Ring
Heroic Nexus for Bands of Channeled Energy, and Amulet of Dazzling Light

Step 5

Ok, I can haz gold now.

As money permits purchase the following items or their respective mats as they show up on the AH:

Revenant's Breastplate (Leatherworking): 12 Heavy Borean Leather, 12 Eternal Water, 1 Frozen Orb

Revenant's Treads (Leatherworking): 10 Heavy Borean Leather, 10 Eternal Water, 1 Frozen Orb

Titansteel Guardian (Blacksmithing) - 6 Saronite Bars, 6 Titansteel Bars, 2 Frozen Orb

I haven't gotten my guardian yet because I'm scurd of handing a stranger that many mats. Guild blacksmith has a wifey, no chance for me there. The two revenant's pieces cost me about 1000 gold, which you should have after all that questing you did RIGHT? Quick aside: Lesser Healing Wave and its associated glyph rocks my healing socks.

Regards,

Devon

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

Guest Post: Mana Tide - To-do List for the Level 80 Resto Shaman.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to World of Matticus using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Ten Things: Wintergrasp

2008-12-04T19:26:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by CJ via Google Reader:

Mooonfire! » Ten Things: Wintergrasp

via frostmage.net on 12/4/08

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to frostmage.net using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Wrath 101: The Sons of Hodir (Shoulder enchants)

2008-12-02T10:28:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by CJ via Google Reader:

Wrath 101: The Sons of Hodir

via WoW Insider by Alex Ziebart on 12/2/08

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Factions, Guides, Wrath of the Lich King

The Sons of Hodir is arguably one of the most important reputations in Wrath of the Lich King due to the items they offer. They're the only faction in Northrend that offers shoulder enchantments for PvE, in rare and epic flavors. Casters? Melee? Healers? Tanks? The Sons of Hodir have all of your shoulder enchants.

The quest chain to completely open up the Sons of Hodir rep grind is long. Really, really long. It's long in the good way, though. It's epic, and part of the chain is quite possibly one of the most fun quests in Wrath, and is as close to God of War as you're going to get in WoW. 'God of War in WoW!?' is what you're probably thinking. My answer to that? Yes. It's freaking awesome.

Continue reading Wrath 101: The Sons of Hodir

Wrath 101: The Sons of Hodir originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

The Badge err… Emblem of Heroism Pick Order from Tanktips

2008-11-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

The Badge err… Emblem of Heroism Pick Order

via TankingTips.com by admin on 11/28/08

Well before we go all crazy with saying who's more important than who, let's take a look at our line up from most to least expensive to purchase with Emblems of Heroism. (These are attainable from Heroics, Daily Heroic Quests and the current 10 man raids)

Chestguard of the Lost Protector - Turns Into (80)
Gloves of the Lost Protector - Turns Into (60)
Valor Medal of the First War (40)
Waistguard of Living Iron (40)
Crygil's Discarded Plate Panel (35)
Chained Military Gorget (25)

1. The Chain

Chained Military Gorget gets the nod as the number 1 pick not only because it's the cheapest, but also because it simply has inadequate competition. Even though there's a number of similar level epic items, none are quite as well itemized for early progression as this one. If you already have made Titanium Earthguard Chain then you may consider pushing this one down on the list, but it is still better, so you'll want to pick up the Gorget regardless. I should also note that you'll still want to grab Medallion of the Disgraced when it crosses your path for a Block Value set. It's not better nor worse than the Emblem neckpiece, just different.

2. The Chest

We jump from the cheapest emblem item to the most expensive with our 2nd choice being Chestguard of the Lost Protector with turns into this. There's only one other similar level epic chestpiece and it's just not as good. (nor as accessible by a long shot) Obviously since this item is attainable via raiding if your guild is within striking distance of Gluth you may consider holding off on picking up this item at all and instead choose to acquire it that way.

3. The Grips

Still at the hefty mark of 60 emblems, Gloves of the Lost Protector ala Heroes' Dreadnaught Handguards get the nod for the 3rd spot even with a lot of other epic quality gloves to choose from. They get this spot because they're simply a whole lot better than the rest and completing the 2 piece T7 set bonus is definitely nothing to scoff at. That being said, these puppies can be acquired via killing Sartharion in 10 man mode and as a result, may move down the list on your priorities if your guild is already consistently killing him. (which with zero drakes up, is fairly easy)

4. The Tube

Coming in at 4th place not because it's especially bad, but simply because it's predecessors are better. Waistguard of Living Iron is an excellent belt with really no other like piece. (You'll still want to get Waistguard of the Tutor down the road though for your Block Value set) While you're making your way down the list though, I implore you to acquire Ancient Aligned Girdle from Anub'arak in Azjol-Nerub until you've got the Emblems to pick up the superior piece.

5. The Toy

The 5th and final (yes, final) piece I'll be recommending you snag is Valor Medal of the First War otherwise known as the big brother of the ubiquitous pocketwatch that we all loved at 70. Due to a more challenging Defense level required to reach uncrittable (540), you won't necessarily be able to use this immediately which is part of the reason it's so far down on the list. Nonetheless, it's a very nice trinket that you should pick up and will certainly utilize once your Defense allows.

The Shield…

Time for the potentially controversial part…

Don't pick up the Shield. Why?

The Shield has two relatively easy to obtain competitors that are nearly identical.

Now certainly, if your luck is bad in Stratholme, you can't afford the Shield Wall and you've made it this far down the list by all means take it, but between you and me… let's just hope that's not the case.

…and that's a wrap! Look for the Emblem of Valor pick order in the near future too!

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to TankingTips.com using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King

2008-11-28T07:42:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King

via WoW Insider by Daniel Whitcomb on 11/27/08

Filed under: Hunter, Leatherworking, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Factions, Guides, Wrath of the Lich King, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You didn't think Scattered Shots was taking the day off, did you? Hopefully, there's enough of you who aren't completely zonked out on turkey, ham, or beef to read this.

So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which reputation should I grind first? There's tons of ways to choose, be it roleplaying who your character would align themselves with or choosing the one that's easiest to grind. One of the most popular and most effective though, is pretty simple: Asking yourself which one has the best loot. Today's Scattered Shots will center around that last one.

If you're still not sure how to grind reputation in Northrend, or forgot where the quartermasters are, be sure to check out our Wrath 101 post on reputations, as well as our post on the Wolvar and Oracles of Sholozar Basin. Once you've done that, or if you remember the basics, read on!

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King

Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Four year anniversary pet and feat of strength achievement

2008-11-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Four year anniversary pet and feat of strength achievement

via WoW Insider by Adam Holisky on 11/22/08

Filed under: Blizzard, Achievements

Those of us waking up today and tomorrow will log into Azeroth and find in our mailboxes a little Baby Blizzard Bear non-combat pet. This pet will also give you a feat of strength achievement celebrating World of Warcraft's four years online.

This is a nice little way for Blizzard to thank all of us for spending years in the game. With over 11 million people playing WoW, and Wrath becoming a hit overnight, there's definitely a lot of celebrating to do over at Blizzard HQ.

The little bear that you get looks a like a small version of the BlizzCon Polar Bear Mount those of us lucky enough to attend BlizzCon this year got. It's a perfect traveling companion for you as you adventure around Northrend.

Edit: The pet is active on US, EU, and Oceanic servers.

Thanks to Mangowire for sending us the pics you see below.

Gallery: WoW Anniversary Pet

Four year anniversary pet and feat of strength achievement originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Death Knight creation bug solution

2008-11-12T16:39:00.001-08:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Death Knight creation bug solution

via WoW Insider by Adam Holisky on 11/12/08

Filed under: Bugs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

There is a bug currently affecting the creation of Death Knights after you have installed Wrath of the Lich King.

If you get an error when creating the Death Knight, and you have met the requirements of having a level 55 character on the server in which you're creating the Death Knight, just make a new level 1 character first.

After that character is created, you can then create your Death Knight without any more problems.

I have to wonder how the bug came to be, and why they weren't able to fix it. We probably won't know either of those answers. But at least we have a quick and dirty fix.

Happy Northrending!

Death Knight creation bug solution originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Molten Core now available for download

2008-10-25T07:35:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Molten Core now available for download

via WoW Insider by Michael Gray on 10/25/08

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Humor, Forums

You may remember Blizzard's April Fool's joke this year, a trailer promising the release of a console version of the Molten Core. It was a concept that did so well in the polls, we expected to see it turned into some kind of official mini-game.

An enterprising fan, however, beat them to the punch. The Molten Core ATARI-style game is now available, as posted in the forums. You can download it from Box.net or from Filefront. Design inspiration is credited to Blizzard, of course, but its graphics, programming, and game play are courtesy of Derek Gallant.

With this morning's server restarts, I took the opportunity to fire up this 1 or 2 player raid instance. And, while it probably won't be peeling me away from the zombie invasion, I didn't stop laughing the entire time. Derek's creation allows you to play each of WoW's staple classes, and everything is, indeed, fairly reminiscent of Molten Core. (If you know what you're looking at.)

Good luck!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Guild calendars implemented in the WoW Armory

2008-10-21T08:11:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by CJ via Google Reader:

Guild calendars implemented in the WoW Armory

via WOW Insider by Alex Ziebart on 10/20/08

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Wrath of the Lich King

You all know about the new in-game calendar feature that came with patch 3.0.2, right? Right! The calendar has just been integrated into the Armory as well, and it's really quite cool. By logging into the Armory and clicking on the Guild tab, you can check out all of the events your guild has listed on the calendar via the interwebs. You can Accept and Decline event invitations right from the Armory, but I haven't seen an option to create new ones from there. That's something you'll still need to do in-game.

When I saw this on the official WoW website, I sort of rolled my eyes because the Armory hasn't updated my Shadow Priest's gear or spec in months. How can it possibly keep up with the calendar? I did a little poking around with it, and I was pleasantly surprised. I created a new event in-game on our guild calendar, and it showed up on the Armory about ten minutes later. I accepted the event on my alt on the Armory, and that showed up in-game almost instantly. If the features keeps that kind of stability long term, I will definitely appreciate having it. Little conveniences like this really help the community feel of guilds.

Now to bug people about integrating this into Facebook and the like.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WOW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Blizzard Answers Your Questions, From Blizzcon from slashdot

2008-10-15T14:07:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Blizzard Answers Your Questions, From Blizzcon

via Slashdot by ScuttleMonkey on 10/15/08

Last week we asked you to submit questions for several Blizzard employees on a wide range of issues. Since we undertook the pilgrimage to Blizzcon in person this year, we decided to use the question ideas as a guide rather than an absolute, so that it could be a little more conversational in tone. Below we have included the responses from Chris Sigaty, lead producer on StarCraft II; Jeffrey Kaplan (aka Tigole), game director for World of Warcraft; Leonard Boyarsky, lead world designer on Diablo III; and Paul Sams, Blizzard's COO. One interesting point: Paul Sams indicated in his interview that, with enough interest, Blizzard would be willing to entertain the idea of open sourcing some of their older games. He suggested that if you are interested in this to contact them directly (please be at least semi-coherent and polite). Update 19:00 by SM: Bob Colayco from Blizzard just contacted us to mention that if users wish to leave feedback about open sourcing games, support for Linux, or anything else you would like to express to them, you should do so in the comments section of this story. They plan on perusing the comments below for user feedback and interest, so don't be shy.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Slashdot using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Patch 3.0.2 mirrored at Big Download

2008-10-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Patch 3.0.2 mirrored at Big Download

via WOW Insider by Eliah Hecht on 10/15/08

Filed under: Patches

Many readers are still reporting problems downloading patch 3.0.2, possibly the largest patch WoW has ever received (in terms of both file size and number of changes). The Blizzard Downloader is a clever adaptation of BitTorrent, and while it does a good job of lightening the load on Blizz's servers and distributing the patch files to those of us who are able to forward ports and open firewalls, not everyone is in that position. Some people really just want a straight HTTP download of the patch files.

Fortunately, our sister site Big Download is here to help. They're hosting all the patch files, for both Mac and Windows, BC players and classic. Part of the confusion here is that there were actually two patches yesterday, 3.0.1 and 3.0.2. They must be applied in that order, and then you'll be ready to play. All the instructions are over at Big Download; they'll have you up and running in short order.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WOW Insider using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Q&A: 'World of Warcraft' Lead Producer J. Allen Brack

2008-10-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Q&A: 'World of Warcraft' Lead Producer J. Allen Brack

via Wired Top Stories by Earnest Cavalli on 10/12/08

During Blizzcon Wired chats with with J. Allen Brack, Wow's lead producer, to discuss the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, where the game goes from here, and the title's Deathknight class, an addition many fans see as the latest example in Blizzard's new-found desire to homogenize their once unimpeachable games.

Wired.com

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Wired Top Stories using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Speedy Scribe: Power level your Inscription in patch 3.0

2008-10-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Speedy Scribe: Power level your Inscription in patch 3.0

via WoW Economist by Kevin on 10/10/08

The inscription powerleveling guide I've been working on is finally complete! Naturally, there may be a few mistakes, so I urge you to try the guide on the PTR or once 3.0 goes live. If you find something wrong or you have a better route for a certain portion of the guide, feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

At the moment, it's pretty pointless to level inscription past 350 as there are no new recipes for 355 and beyond. The only way to learn new recipes after 350 (and the only way to learn minor glyphs) is through Minor Inscription Research, which has a 20 hour cooldown. Below are the materials required to get to 350 inscription. The pigments come from different sets of herbs, which you can see on Wowhead by clicking each pigment's name.

The following uncommon pigments have a chance to be milled from each set of herbs. With the volume of herbs required for the pigments above, you should have no problem getting these uncommon pigments.

And finally, the parchment below can be bought from the inscription supplies vendors near every inscription trainer.

60x Light Parchment
121x Common Parchment
155x Heavy Parchment
30x Resilient Parchment

Now that you've stuffed your inventory full of materials, let's plow through this guide. I started out at the Ironforge trainer until 300 Inscription, then moved to Honor Hold to finish up. You'll need to make a few trips to and from the bank to mill the herbs and use the pigment, but make sure you mill enough Nether Pigment to bring with you to the Outland to get from 300 to 350 inscription.

18x Ivory Ink to 18 Inscription

18x Alabaster Pigment

18x Scroll of Stamina to 36 Inscription

18x Ivory Ink
18x Light Parchment

21x Moonglow Ink to 55 Inscription

42x Alabaster Pigment

20x Armor Vellum to 75 Inscription

20x Moonglow Ink
20x Light Parchment

20x Midnight Ink to 80 Inscription

40x Dusty Pigment

10x Glyph of Hunter's Mark to 90 Inscription

10x Midnight Ink
10x Light Parchment

10x Glyph of Serpent Sting to 100 Inscription

10x Midnight Ink
10x Light Parchment

67x Lion's Ink to 105 Inscription

134x Golden Pigment

1x Minor Inscription Research to 106 Inscription

1x Moonglow Ink
2x Light Parchment

4x Glyph of Fade to 110 Inscription

4x Lion's Ink
4x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Health Funnel to 115 Inscription

5x Lion's Ink
5x Common Parchment

7x Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey to 122 Inscription

7x Lion's Ink
7x Common Parchment

3x Glyph of Expose Armor to 125 Inscription

6x Lion's Ink
3x Common Parchment

10x Dawnstar Ink to 128 Inscription

10x Burnt Pigment

2x Glyph of Hamstring to 130 Inscription

4x Lion's Ink
2x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Immolation Trap to 135 Inscription

10x Lion's Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Inner Fire to 140 Inscription

10x Lion's Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Sunder Armor to 145 Inscription

10x Lion's Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Strange Tarot to 150 Inscription

10x Dawnstar Ink
5x Lion's Ink
5x Common Parchment

59x Jadefire Ink to 155 Inscription

118x Emerald Pigment

5x Scroll of Stamina III to 160 Inscription

5x Jadefire Ink
10x Common Parchment

5x Scroll of Spirit III to 165 Inscription

5x Jadefire Ink
10x Common Parchment

5x Scroll of Intellect III to 170 Inscription

5x Jadefire Ink
10x Common Parchment

5x Scroll of Strength III to 175 Inscription

5x Jadefire Ink
10x Common Parchment

10x Royal Ink to 176 Inscription

10x Indigo Pigment

4x Scroll of Agility III to 180 Inscription

4x Jadefire Ink
8x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Cleansing to 185 Inscription

10x Jadefire Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Sap to 190 Inscription

10x Jadefire Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Glyph of Revenge to 195 Inscription

10x Jadefire Ink
5x Common Parchment

5x Arcane Tarot to 200 Inscription

10x Royal Ink
5x Jadefire Ink
5x Common Parchment

57x Celestial Ink to 202 Inscription

114x Violet Pigment

12x Scroll of Recall II to 215 Inscription

12x Celestial Ink
12x Common Parchment

5x Scroll of Intellect IV to 220 Inscription

5x Celestial Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Scroll of Strength IV to 225 Inscription

5x Celestial Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Scroll of Agility IV to 230 Inscription

5x Celestial Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Dispel Magic to 235 Inscription

5x Celestial Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Slice and Dice to 240 Inscription

10x Celestial Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Soulstone to 245 Inscription

10x Celestial Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

5x Fiery Ink

5x Ruby Pigment

5x Weapon Vellum II to 250 Inscription

5x Celestial Ink
5x Fiery Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

55x Shimmering Ink to 255 Inscription

110x Silvery Pigment

5x Scroll of Spirit V to 260 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Scroll of Intellect V to 265 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Scroll of Strength V to 270 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Scroll of Agility V to 275 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
10x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Shadowburn to 280 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Icy Touch to 285 Inscription

5x Shimmering Ink
5x Heavy Parchment

25x Glyph of Sprint to 300 Inscription

25x Shimmering Ink
25x Heavy Parchment

65x Ethereal Ink to 305 Inscription

130x Nether Pigment

15x Scroll of Agility VI to 320 Inscription

15x Ethereal Ink
30x Heavy Parchment

5x Glyph of Sweeping Strikes to 325 Inscription

5x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

5x Glyph of Succubus to 330 Inscription

10x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

5x Glyph of Windfury Weapon to 335

10x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

5x Glyph of Arcane Power to 340 Inscription

10x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

5x Glyph of Ambush to 345 Inscription

10x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

5x Glyph of Whirlwind to 350 Inscription

5x Ethereal Ink
5x Resilient Parchment

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to WoW Economist using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Two Tools For Raid Stacking

2008-10-08T15:57:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:

Two Tools For Raid Stacking

via A Dwarf Priest by MK on 10/7/08

The criteria we use to balance classes and specs for raids will be changing in patch 3.0.2 (I wrote a prior post about it here). The number of things to take into consideration makes putting together a raid feel like one of those wacky logic puzzle things.

Here are two tools to aid raid leaders in the complex process of stacking their raid for optimal raid buffs/debuffs.

1. RaidComp

MMO Champion is hosting a browser-based tool where you can drag raid around various classes/specs into raid groups. It looks great for raid planning.

It will let you save compositions to go back to later, too. It's like a talent calculator, but for making raid groups. It's a lot of fun to play around with.

You can check it out here. Instructions about how to use it and a discussion thread about it can be found here.

2. In the Buff

This is an add-on that will actually scan the talents of your raid members and tell you what buff/debuff areas are covered. Just because that disc priest could be specced for Improved Divine Spirit doesn't mean he actually is.

Screenshot courtesy of WowInterface

InTheBuff uses colors to denote if you have the best buffs for a given category. Green is the best. Yellow means that you have a buff affecting that category, but not the best one. Red means that you do not have anything for that category.

This isn't as useful for pre-raid planning, but helpful when actually putting it together as a check that you have the buff/debuff categories covered that you wanted. It will be great for pugs!

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to A Dwarf Priest using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites