Apocolypse Dawn

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

I'm using that picture of a Sea Mouse in The Queue today for a few reasons. First, it's disgusting and I can't wait to see all the comments. Second, this is the stuff Ghostcrawler dealt with before he was in video games. Knowing that makes one understand why he has such a sarcastic take on trolls.

So let's get into it.

Phil asked...

"Where do babies come from?"

Continue reading The Queue: Ghostcrawler promised me a Sea Mouse

Filed under: The Queue

The Queue: Ghostcrawler promised me a Sea Mouse originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of managing her totems, Naiara of <Dissonance> on Earthen Ring is seeking a new path in life. "Ever since I won the roll on the gas mask I knew I must put my evil plan in motion!" she writes. "Never fear, this is just an ordinary mad scientist ... but this is no ordinary mad scientist! With the proper equipment, and access to Professor Putricide's laboratory, Naiara is poised to spearhead the Tauren Warlock class!"

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Around Azeroth: The taurlock originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3.3 - Jepetto's new toys!
Jepettoy Joybuzz in Dalaran will sell 3 more items in 3.3.3! Your favorite toymaker added the following to his inventory:

• Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot 50 (Companion Pet)


• Blue Crashin' Trashin' Racer Controller 40


• Tiny Blue Ragdoll 10

Blue posts

Masteries Cap
It's possible you will only get the benefit of the tree in which you've spent the most points, or will only get the benefit from say 50 points maximum with the bonus chosen from the tree with the most points in it. We'll have to see when the talent trees are more finalized and we start to figure out build strategies.

Overall, the goal is to spend points as you want, and not feel penalized for spending into another tree or feel like you have to game things by spending more points than you want in your tree. Remember these passive bonuses are designed to give you flexibility, not lock you into anything. (Source)

[...] Imagine you spend 55 points in Retribution, so you get the maximum passive talent tree bonuses from that tree. Your remaining points you can spend where you want, in Retribution, Protection or Holy. It does discourage some kind of true hybrid build where you go partway down multiple trees, but we aren't really trying to support those, and they aren't very popular today.

The flexibility comes (hopefully) in having more discretionary points that you can spend on talents you like, rather than sacrificing raw damage, healing or tanking to do so. (Source)

Mastery/Talent system and new players
It's designed partially with new players in mind. It will be much harder to have a truly terrible talent spec because you won't be able to help but be reasonably good at your chosen role.

The mastery stat itself won't show up until high level, and even when it does, you should have more confidence that it's a stat you want instead of say trying to figure out the percent of your damage that is physical damage to calculate if armor pen is good for you or not.

I admit that adding passive bonuses at all to talent trees complicates the talent feature slightly. We hope to make up for that by there being less paranoia about picking "the wrong" spec. The wrong spec might only be a slight loss instead of a tragic loss. As a point of comparison, dual-spec complicates talents a little, but overall we think it was good for the game. (Source)

Mastery bonus distribution
To answer your question -- and this applies to all classes. the first two mastery stats are gained by placing points into a given talent tree (and wearing the gear intended for your class, e.g. leather for druids). This will allow us to remove many of the talents that always felt mandatory, especially at the min-max level, and allow room for customization.

When we begin revealing specific class information, (such as new spells and abilities, and the talent tree revamp) -- the posts we've made thus far, will make much more sense. I feel, players should look at the stat/system changes, as well as this mastery post as a "piece of a puzzle" -- and ask questions, provide feedback, but understand that until more information is released, it's not possible to see the whole of the picture. (Source)

Masteries Q&A
# 1. 28/28/20 spec. Does mastery on gear affect both highest trees or give no benefit at all?
Mastery on gear gives you one bonus. That bonus is the third passive (the unique one) in the tree in which you’ve spent the most points. In the examples we gave, those are Absorption, Radiance and Runic Power generation.

# 2. How are ferals and Dks as tanks working with mastery system in place? Are they to care about it for threat or do they have separate bonuses.
Ferals will have passive bonuses that say Cat: melee damage done, Bear: damage reduction. For death knights we have a different plan in mind that we’re not quite ready to discuss. DKs are undergoing some slight changes so they aren’t so GCD constrained and are less limited by rune cooldowns.

# 3. How are the non-pure classes going to be balanced against those with a full 76 point passive benefit? Balance, enhancement(not so much), shadow, feral, ele, resto, holy and Ret all have this issue.
Assume you only get the passive bonuses for the tree in which you’ve spent the most points, and there is a ceiling per tree (which could be something like 51-55 talent points). If you spend more points than that in a tree you still get the benefits of the talent. If you spend points in another tree, you are benefiting from those talents instead. Unless you try to make say a 40 / 36 / 0 build, you shouldn’t be losing passive bonuses.

If you turn level 10 and spend 1 point in Discipline, you are now a Disc priest. You receive the Disc talent tree passive bonuses and mastery rating on gear benefits your Disc passive bonus (Absorption). If you reach level 85 and have 70 points in Disc and 6 in Holy, you are still a Disc priest and the same rules apply. If you change your build to 51 Disc / 20 Holy / 5 Shadow, you are still a Disc priest.

# 4. Hybrids who use spells not improved by their spec on occasion such as heals or the extra lava burst are feeling that their non-specced spells are going to be extremely weak as compared to now.
They are weak now and the intent is to keep them that way. We aren’t trying to nerf them any more than they are today. If we want to make sure Resto shaman can do big Lava Bursts, we’ll give them a talent or something to make that happen. We don’t want Resto shaman to Lava Burst anywhere on the scale of an Elemental shaman. Again, how they perform today is pretty much the target for where we want to end up.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Runic Power boost through Frost masteries
I know it's hard to get a feel for the design when you can't see the complete picture, but talent trees are changing for Cataclysm. As Eyonix referenced above, we are changing the DK rune mechanic a little so that you aren't so GCD constrained. This in turn will give us a chance to rebalance how much runic power Frost gets. Remember that in many cases we are pulling talents out of the trees and giving them to you as passive bonuses. In general if you see a passive talent tree bonus and think to yourself "Hmm, that doesn't sound very good for me," then it's probably because we haven't revealed the changes that lead to that being attractive to you. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Shockwave vs. Thunder Clap
Shockwave is technically a ranged attack, like a hunter shot. This means it's treated like an attack (and not a spell) for purposes of what you want but can't be dodged or parried. (I believe ranged attacks can be blocked, but I can't honestly remember off the top of my head.) The Shockwave treatment might be the right way to go for Thunder Clap. Thunder Clap is currently a spell that hits for physical damage and can't be dispelled. The distinction among spell, melee and ranged attack (or persistent auras like Consecrate) is a largely technical one that doesn't always encompass unusual abilities well.  (Source)

Thunder Clap in 3.3.3
I think we're likely to make Thunder Clap a ranged attack (like Shockwave) for 3.3.3. This will let it get 20...

Update - The first part of Patch 3.3.3 is now available on the background downloader. As a reminder, the patch will NOT be deployed on live servers this week, this is just the background downloader.

Mastery System Preview

Here’s how the system works: As you spend points in a given talent tree, you’ll receive three different passive bonuses specific to that tree. The first bonus will increase your damage, healing, or survivability, depending on the intended role of the tree. The second bonus will be related to a stat commonly found on gear desirable to you, such as Haste or Crit. The third bonus will be the most interesting, as it will provide an effect completely unique to that tree -- meaning there will be 30 different bonuses of this nature in the game. This third bonus is the one that will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (level 80 to 85) gear.

One of our primary goals with Mastery is to give players more flexibility to choose fun or utility-oriented talents rather than make them feel obligated to pick up “mandatory” but uninteresting talents, such as passive damage or healing. (For examples of the kinds of powerful but boring talents we’re talking about, take a look at the talent tier just above the 51-point talent in many of the existing trees.) In a sense, Mastery makes it so every talent in (just for example) a rogue tree essentially has an invisible additional bullet point that says “???and increases your damage by X%.” This way, if you choose a talent like Elusiveness (which reduces your chance to be detected while stealthed) or Fleet Footed (which affects movement), you won’t feel like you’re giving up damage in exchange for utility.

There will still be talents that boost damage, of course, but those talents will also affect the way you play. For example, you can still expect to see talents like Improved Frostbolt, which reduces the cast time of the Frostbolt spell; it increases DPS, but it also affects the mage’s rotation. Piercing Ice, however, is just “6% more damage” and is the kind of talent we’re trying to eliminate by implementing the Mastery system.

As we get closer to Cataclysm’s release, we’ll go into more detail about the changes coming for each class, including individual talent-tree adjustments and how Mastery will affect them. In the meantime, here are a few examples to demonstrate the three kinds of passive bonuses we described above. Please keep in mind that we're still working on this system, and the handful of examples we're providing here are, of course, subject to change.

Holy Priest
For each talent point spent in the Holy tree, the priest also gets:

• Healing – Improves your healing by X%.


• Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent from the Discipline tree, which many Holy priests consider to be a “must-have.” Regeneration will also probably be determined by whether you are in or out of combat, and not the “five-second rule.


• Radiance – Adds a heal-over-time effect to direct heals, such as Flash Heal. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.

Discipline Priest
For each talent point spent in the Discipline tree, the priest also gets:

• Healing – Improves your healing by X%.


• Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent.


• Absorption – Improves the amount of damage absorbed by spells such as Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.

Frost Death Knight
For each talent point spent in the Frost tree, the death knight also gets:

• Damage – Improves your melee and spell damage by X%.


• Haste – Improves your melee Haste by Y%. This might allow us to remove some of the Haste in the Icy Talons line of talents.


• Runic Power – Improves the rate of runic power generated by abilities. While all death knights want runic power, Frost death knights would generally have more runic power than Blood or Unholy death knights (who would receive a different benefit from their respective trees). An Unholy death knight who sub-specs into Frost would still be able to benefit from this bonus, though because they’re investing fewer talent points, they’d benefit to a smaller degree. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.

A couple other things to note: Currently, we’re not planning to retrofit the Mastery stat onto current level-80 gear when we roll out the stat-system changes prior to Cataclysm’s release. However, Mastery will begin appearing on select quest and dungeon items. You will also gain a small amount of Mastery by wearing gear of your intended armor type (such as plate for paladins). For players with dual specs, when you change between your two chosen specs, the Mastery bonuses and the benefit you receive from the Mastery stat on gear will adjust automatically based on your new spec.

We’ll have more details to share about these and other changes we’re making in Cataclysm in the future, and we’ll do our best to answer your questions about the Mastery system here on the forums. For information on many of the stat changes being made in Cataclysm, please check out our earlier update at -

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1

The successful digital-distribution service will bring titles like Left 4 Dead and the upcoming Portal 2 to Apple's computers for the first time.

Stripped-down gameplay built around a unique battle system can't save this monotonous, linear affair. In the end, striking visuals and an excellent score aren't enough to paper over the game's gutted role-playing frame.

Late last night Blood Legion released their kill video of the Lich King.  I would have had it up earlier but we're in the middle of migrating the site over from vBulletin to new forums, so I was hoping to wait until everyone could comment on it.  At any rate, this is the 10-player normal version of the encounter, and does not include the inside of Frostmourne due to no one frapsing being sent in.

Ensidia of EU-Tarren Mill defeated the 25-player version of the Lich King today (or tonight if you're in Europe).  It looks like their Rogues were using Saronite Bombs however, which was hotfixed shortly thereafter due to apparently making the encounter far easier than intended, according to Daelo.

*Update*

Yes it seems this bug does relate to our kill. We had no idea that our Rogues using Saronite Bombs in their rotation (as they always do) was causing it and thusly it occured every try we did. Short version, we're not going to stop trying the boss when all we are doing is playing our normal game. It would be nice if these kinds of things, much the same as Holy Wrath on Anub, were tested before release.

It does make the fight easier, but we are 100% sure it would have died either way. It only affects one of the easier phases.

As a side note this only occured in 25 man.

Ling King Encounter Hotfix - Disabling Saronite Bombs

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

We just made a hotfix that disables the siege damage dealt by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge. The siege damage of the bombs was causing the Frozen Throne platform to rebuild, which greatly decreases the difficulty of the encounter.

We'll reenable the siege damage in a later update when the issue with the Frozen Throne is fixed.

Quote from: Ensidia (Source)

Well as the topic says we managed to kill 25 man Lich King also today. The Cinematic really is impressive and overall the role play aspect is enjoyable and adds a lot to the fight

So next week the real challenge begins with Heroics beginning and we can't wait to get our teeth into those. Hopefully we will manage to kill the Lich King with our alt raid in Normal but the DPS requirements seem quite high!

Loot (Full Lich King Loot Table)

• Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand


• Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas

Recent In-Game Fixes

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

2/3

• Blood Queen Lana’thel will now begin her flight phase a little earlier in 25 player mode, Vampiric Bite is no longer mitigated by armor, and the damage of Vampiric Bite has been reduced.


• Toravon will not be affected appropriately by Area-of-Effect damage spells.


• The Frost Orb corpses in the Toravon encounter will now despawn faster.


• Players who are dead will now get credit as intended when defeating the Valithira Dreamwalker encounter.


• Players can no longer zone in while the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter is active.


• Anti Magic Shell no longer resets the Mystic Buffet stacks in the Sindragosa encounter.


• The Val’kyr in the Lich King encounter are no longer affected by Death Grip and will head to ledges faster.

The latest Blizzard Insider newsletter released recently and with it came an interview with Scott "Daelo" Mercer and Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about Arthas, the Lich King, and the stories leading up to the Fall of the Lich King content patch.  Check it out below!

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Arthas! The blood of your father... of your people... demands justice! Come forth, coward, and answer for your crimes!

Highlord Bolvar Fordragon

In the Fall of the Lich King content update (patch 3.3), Arthas Menethil, one of the most sinister and iconic antagonists of the Warcraft universe, concludes his tragic tale in a final confrontation with the Horde and Alliance.

To gain more insight into this epic moment in Warcraft history, the Insider sat down with World of Warcraft Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer and Lead Systems Designer Greg Street. Read on to learn more about how Arthas evolved, how his fall from the Light influenced the history of Azeroth, and how the end of his tragic character arc could shape the game going forward.

What was the inspiration for the character of Arthas? Was he originally intended to be such a central figure in the Warcraft universe, or did his role evolve as the story developed?

Scott Mercer: Early on in the development of Warcraft III, we knew the game would be about heroes leading their armies into battle. We initially created Arthas as one of those leaders, so we knew from the beginning he would be central to the storyline. Arthas starts the game as a young paladin of the human armies and then, after his fall from grace, he leads the undead through the Scourge campaign. His transformation is the bridge connecting the human and the undead campaigns, and he continues to serve as a villain in the other campaigns as well.

Despite Arthas's importance in Warcraft III, we weren't initially sure just how big of an effect he would ultimately have on Azeroth. A lot of his storylines -- such as his battle with Illidan and his inadvertent creation of the entire Forsaken faction -- didn't really take shape until Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, or even much later on in World of Warcraft.

Greg Street: Also, it bears mentioning that the Lich King and Arthas are actually two separate entities. The Lich King is the lingering spirit of the orcish shaman Ner'zhul. Ner'zhul originally started the demonic invasions in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. So, in a sense, the entity that players know as the Lich King has been around for a long time, even long before Arthas was born, and has had an even larger hand in shaping the ongoing history of the Warcraft universe.

How did the Lich King's centrality to the concept of the expansion shape its development?

Scott Mercer: After The Burning Crusade, we realized that Illidan had appeared many times in the concept art and the other material surrounding the expansion, but very few players ever actually saw him in the game itself. To most heroes, Illidan was a bit like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; he was an omnipresent evil that they would hear about, but never actually meet in a face-to-face confrontation.

When development began on Wrath of the Lich King, we knew we wanted the players to have a more personal connection with the Lich King than they did with Illidan, even if it was an antagonistic relationship. So we started designing quests and instances in which we could show the Lich King to the players, even have him interact with or hamper them on their quests, like in Utgarde Pinnacle or Howling Fjord.

In addition to the Lich King himself, we also referenced the events from Warcraft III many times in the content of Northrend. Players can see the wrecks of the Alliance ships that Arthas set ablaze during Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. They can also find the altar upon which Arthas first discovered Frostmourne. And of course there's the Culling of Stratholme, the Caverns of Time instance that allows players to relive the moment Arthas first began to adopt his zealous "ends-justify-the-means" attitude, which ultimately lead to him becoming a death knight. We deliberately built these aspects into Wrath of the Lich King to help remind players who Arthas is and where he came from, which we hope makes his character that much more vivid in players' minds.

Overall, we think this new direction for the portrayal of the expansion's main villain worked very well in Wrath of the Lich King, and we will likely adopt this approach for other villains in the future.

The Fall of the Lich King content update is the culmination of Wrath of the Lich King. Was it daunting to try to create an encounter that topped all of the expansion's previous epic encounters?

Scott Mercer: Encounter brainstorms rarely begin with the idea of topping previous encounters. Instead, they start with a discussion about finding the best way to portray a particular character or idea. In this case, the initial discussions revolved around how to best convey the Fall of the Lich King via a raid dungeon. Of course, we're always experimenting with new tools and ideas, especially when it comes to designing encounters, so a lot of what may be perceived as "topping" of previous encounters is actually a byproduct of what we learned through the course of our experimentation. That said, the Fall of the Lich King is going to be epic, even by World of Warcraft's standards, so get ready for a world-altering finale.

From a gameplay standpoint, how do the other raid encounters in Icecrown Citadel build up to the final Lich King event? Do any raid encounters stand out in particular as the prelude to the Lich King?

Greg Street: One of the things I've enjoyed about the evolution of Icecrown Citadel is the way the art and the encounters in the dungeon come together to portray a fully functional enemy stronghold. No boss in Icecrown Citadel is just standing around, waiting for players to kick in the door. Instead, they all have a reason to be there and a vital role to play in the Lich King's army. As the players progress through Icecrown, they are attacking the leaders in charge of the various day-to-day operations of the Scourge. There's the Soul Forge in charge of "recruitment" and Professor Putricide who heads up R&D.... And that's pretty much what Icecrown progression is all about, attacking the Scourge's operational strength as you move higher and higher up the chain of command before finally confronting the Lich King himself.

Can you give us any teasers about the final Lich King encounter from a gameplay standpoint? How difficult will he be? Any insight into how his skills and powers from Warcraft III will carry over into the final Lich King raid event?

Scott Mercer: We're going to keep those cards close to the vest, as players will be toe-to-toe with the Lich King soon enough, but I can say that he will pose the greatest challenge yet found in World of Warcraft. Beyond that, I can only share a few additional details. The battle against the Lich King takes place at the top of Icecrown Citadel where the Frozen Throne protrudes from the citadel's tallest tower. Throughout the fight, players will have an epic view of Icecrown Glacier, and falling off the tower will be a real danger, especially as the fight progresses. Also, I'll just say that Frostmourne serves as more than just a weapon wielded by the Lich King during the encounter; it will actually provide a core mechanic of the fight itself, a mechanic which we hope will resonate strongly with all players -- especially the lore buffs.

The rest, you'll have to see for yourself.

Let's talk loot: what kinds of rewards await players strong enough to bring down the Lich King?

Greg Street: Well, with great challenge comes great reward. So, in addition to the usual stuff, the Lich King is also going to drop some epic weapons that have a higher item level than any other item in Icecrown Citadel. We're hoping to have something for every character class in this bag, but note that this is just our current goal, not a promise. The main idea is that the Lich King has an inventory of weapons that he has stolen and corrupted throughout his reign. These weapons originally belonged to characters like King Terenas, Antonidas, Sylvanas, and Muradin Bronzebeard. In addition to the corrupted weapons, we're also planning to have Arthas's undead mount, Invincible, drop each time the Lich King is defeated in 25-player Heroic mode. Also, once the Lich King is finally defeated, there will be an in-game cut scene, similar in size and scope to the Wrath Gate cut scene.

The title "Fall of the Lich King" suggests the end of an era. Can you give us any teasers for what next awaits the denizens of Azeroth?

Scott Mercer:: Players have been gearing up to fight the Lich King for a long time and it's definitely the end of an era, but it's by no means the end of World of Warcraft. We've already begun to hint at an in-game event surround the upcoming Cataclysm expansion that will be at least as big as the zombie invasion that kicked off the Wrath of the Lich King. Players already know that the Barrens are getting cut in half by a volcanic chasm, so we'll have to show you how that happens. The Cataclysm in-game event will probably hit in a patch before the actual expansion goes live. We're still figuring out the details, but whatever happens, it will be felt throughout the entire world, and it'll be just the beginning of the reign of Deathwing.

World of Raids Maintenance Notice

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that at 10PM PST tonight we will be taking the forums offline to migrate to new forum software.  This is a major backend change, so the current forums will be set to read-only during the downtime.  The ETA for the forums becoming available again for posts is currently unknown, but it could last up to a day.

It's possible Guild Recruitment may need to remain offline for a bit while we make optimizations to it due to how tightly integrated it is with the vBulletin login system, but we'll work on getting it back up as soon as possible.

(Update by Alexia at 8PM PST) New user registrations will be turned off at 8PM PST/10PM CST in anticipation of the switch over.

If you did not validate your email address on a newly registered account before the software migration you will need to either log in with your Curse credentials or register a new Curse account.

When the site comes back up you can look forward to the following:

• Faster load times: Invision Power scales much better with larger communities than vBulletin does.


• Curse ID integration: You'll now be able to log in with your Curse.com login information, allowing you to log in (and remain logged in) to all of our websites that support it with a single username and password.
  
  
  
  • If your email address on your Curse account matches your World of Raids account, it will automatically hook the two together and log you in.  If not, you'll need to set up a Curse.com account with a matching email address.
  
  
  
  


• Reputation system: You'll be able to give members positive or negative reputation for threads they create.  I'm considering doing more with this system in the future, but need to analyze how it can be exploited.  For now I'm considering special titles at certain levels, avatars, etc.


• Guide section: Improvements here as well.  There are now main pages for each category that list all of the guides for that category.  There are some issues with the display of certain guides which I'll be working on getting fixed.

I will be creating a bug report thread in the feedback section once we're done migrating the site over to Invision Power.  It's important to note that the layout of the website will not be changing for the most part.

Coming Soon

The 3.3, Cataclysm and the Guild Recruitment sections will be back up very soon.  Along with those sections we'll be reinstating the image gallery.  Beyond that there are a few cool new features in the works, as well as further improvements to Guild Recruitment.

10-player Lich King Kills

Three guilds managed to defeat the Lich King on 10-player mode so far.  This encounter looks to be extremely challenging from the live streams yesterday and is very worthy of news mention of kills, even on normal mode.

Congratulations to Blood Legion of US-Illidan on the only US kill, and Ensidia of EU-Tarren Mill and For the Horde of EU-Nazjatar on two European kills.

25-player Sindragosa Video - Uncut With Ventrilo

Big thanks to Riot Act of US-Anetheron for once again putting together an uncut Sindragosa video including their Ventrilo!  Be sure to watch the video in 720p if it's not already using that format.  You can also watch it on YouTube if you prefer.

Icecrown Weekly Raid Quests

3.3.2 also unlocked the Icecrown portion of the 3.3 Weekly Raid Quests, offering up a random quest during your clear each week that will reward you with Sack of Frosty Treasures -- a container that holds 5 Emblems of Frost, a bit of gold, and a chance at epic gems or a random BoE-264 epic.

There are 10-player and 25-player versions of these quests and both format's quest can be done each week so get to Icecrown Citadel while the loot is still cool (no pun intended)!

The full loot tables for the Lich King are available on the armory and Wowhead!  One interesting note is that it looks like Invincible's Reins will be 100% droprate from 25-player heroic.

Stay tuned for more details on this as the day progresses.  For now, here are some live streams of the Lich King encounter!  If you'd like yours added to the front page, join us in IRC and let me know!  If you're having trouble viewing the streams, press play / pause a few times.  Livestream/Xfire streams suck and I'm sorry for that.

Today Blizzard announced the next major feature for the World of Warcraft Armory.  It's one many players have been requesting or dreaming of for quite some time: the ability to access and take advantage of Auction House functionality outside of the game -- either through the WoWArmory.com website or via the iPhone and iPod Touch applications.

An interesting thing to note about this new service, as it's being called by Blizzard, is that portions of it will be premium-only -- details of which are still to be announced.  This looks like we could be seeing the first monthly fee-based Armory feature coming to light.

Check out the announcement below, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we've been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they're not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.

While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we're designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what's available in-game. Players have been requesting -- and we've been hoping to implement -- a feature like this for a long time, and we're excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.

This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don't have an exact release date yet. It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. We'll have more info to share with you here and at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as we get closer to release.

Patch 3.3.2 Notes

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.2

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Dungeons & Raids

• Icecrown Citadel
  
  
  
  • Frostwing Halls, the final stronghold of the Scourge and their Lich King, has been added.
  
  
  
  


• Halls of Stone
  
  
  
  • Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.
  
  
  
  


• The Forge of Souls
  
  
  
  • The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
  
  
  • The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.
  
  
  
  


• The Nexus
  
  
  
  • Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.
  
  
  
  


• The Old Kingdom
  
  
  
  • Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn’Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
  
  
  • Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
  
  
  • Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.
  
  
  
  


• Pit of Saron
  
  
  
  • Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress.
  
  
  
  


• Utgarde Pinnacle
  
  
  
  • Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
  
  
  • Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.
  
  
  
  


• Vault of Archavon
  
  
  
  • Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault’s giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats.
  
  
  
  


• The Violet Hold
  
  
  
  • The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.
  
  
  
  

PvP

• All healing abilities (including items such as potions) will be decreased in effectiveness by 10% when in Battlegrounds, Arenas, or Wintergrasp.


• Arenas
  
  
  
  • Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!
  
  
  
  

Druids

• Talents
  
  
  
  • Balance
    
    
    
    • Earth and Moon: This talent now increases the druid’s spell damage by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Shamans

• Talents
  
  
  
  • Elemental Combat
    
    
    
    • Shamanism: This talent now provides 4/8/12/16/20% extra spell damage to Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, up from 3/6/9/12/15%, and 5/10/15/20/25% to Lava Burst, up from 4/8/12/16/20%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warlocks

• Talents
  
  
  
  • Affliction
    
    
    
    • Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Demonology
    
    
    
    • Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Destruction
    
    
    
    • Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell’s total damage, up from 20%.
    
    
    • Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
    
    
    • Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warriors

• Talents
  
  
  
  • Protection
    
    
    
    • Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same.
    
    
    • Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage.
    
    
    • Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%.
    
    
    • Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

User Interface

• The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder.


• Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check.


• Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game.

Items

• New strength-based melee DPS rings are now available from representatives of the Ashen Verdict.


• Tier-9 Sets: The Aspirant vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds have worked out a deal with merchants in Dalaran so that all item level 232 set pieces will now be available on armor vendors in the city. Set pieces which require trophies will still be available for purchase only from vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds.


• Tier-10 Balance Druid 4-Piece Bonus: Fixed a bug to allow for this bonus to properly trigger.


• Tier-10 Elemental Shaman 4-Piece Set Bonus: Redesigned. Successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.


• Tier-10 Tank Sets: The gloves and chest pieces for warrior, death knight, and paladin tanks have had their stats adjusted slightly to provide additional armor value.


• Tier-10 Warlock 4-Piece Bonus: This bonus should now correctly be applied to the warlock’s pet.

Technical Support

• The cvar ‘processAffinityMask’ controls which CPU cores are available for the World of Warcraft client to use. Previously the game client was limited to 2 cores as a default which players could override in the configuration file. In the past this provided a performance boost on some CPUs and operating systems. We have identified several systems that are experiencing severe performance issues with this restriction and have removed it. Players who would like to restore the old behavior can do so by updating the Config.WTF file by adding: SET processAffinityMask "3".

This week patch 3.3.2 is going live, which means the Frostwing Hall and Frozen Throne are unlocked, introducing the final encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa and the Lich King.  It also means you can now fully complete Shadowmourne... after a bit of farming, of course!

PvP Healing Change

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

Patch 3.3.2 is bringing about a change to the way healing functions in Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Wintergrasp. We have applied a debuff to all players in these zones which will decrease the effectiveness of all forms of healing by 10%. This includes heals from items such as Healthstones and potions, however, it will not affect defensive shields or auras. This change is being made to balance the effectiveness of healing against the recent buff we made to the damage reduction component provided by resilience. Rest assured that we will be closely monitoring the effects both the healing and resilience changes have on Battleground, Wintergrasp, and Arena PvP game play to ensure that fights last a reasonable amount of time without overtly skewing the effectiveness of any class, role, or team combination.

The official patch 3.3.2 notes can be found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22748761862&sid=1

Shadowmourne

After finishing A Feast of Souls you should now be up to Frost Infusion.  To complete this quest simply take four hits from her Frost Breath frontal attack and then successfully kill her.  After completing that you will reach The Splintered Throne, which requires you to collect 50 Shadowfrost Shards from the bosses in Icecrown Citadel.  Turning in The Splintered Throne will bring you to the next step in the series: Shadowmourne... -- the final quest before obtaining your legendary weapon, Shadowmourne.

After completing the quest series Darion Mograine then offers you The Lich King's Last Stand, which seems to only be for lore purposes and to give you a bit of extra gold.

The Lich King

This section will be updated with encounter details once the servers are up.  For now I'm going to avoid posting a list of abilities since they may not be accurate.

What is known about the Lich King at the moment is he will drop Invincible on 25-player difficulty and that there's a cinematic after defeating him.

Sindragosa

Highlights

This encounter has three phases; she begins on the ground but will take off into the air from time to time to drop a Frost Bomb similar to Sapphiron.  She will also cast Ice Tomb on four random targets in 25-player; hide behind them to block line of sight on the Frost Bomb.

At 30% she no longer takes off into the air, but she will begin using a few new skills and will target random players with Ice Tomb every so often.  Consider 30% the soft enrage.  Be sure to damage the Ice Tombs while she's in the air, but don't kill them too early or you'll be hit by the bomb.

• Phase 1 Abilities (Ground)
  
  
  
  • Blistering Cold
  
  
  • Cleave
  
  
  • Frost Aura
  
  
  • Frost Breath
  
  
  • Icy Grip
  
  
  • Unchained Magic
    
    
    
    • Triggers Instability on your spell casts when affected.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Permeating Chill
    
    
    
    • Chance to trigger Chilled to the Bone on your melee attacks when affected.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Tail Smash
  
  
  
  


• Phase 2 Abilities (Air)
  
  
  
  • Frost Beacon
  
  
  • Frost Bomb
  
  
  • Ice Tomb
  
  
  
  


• Phase 3 Abilities (30% Health)
  
  
  
  • Blistering Cold
  
  
  • Cleave
  
  
  • Frost Aura
  
  
  • Frost Beacon
  
  
  • Frost Breath
  
  
  • Ice Tomb
  
  
  • Icy Grip
  
  
  • Mystic Buffet
  
  
  • Unchained Magic
    
    
    
    • Triggers Instability on your spell casts when affected.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Permeating Chill
    
    
    
    • Chance to trigger Chilled to the Bone on your melee attacks when affected.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Tail Smash
  
  
  
  

Video

Valithria Dreamwalker

Highlights

Valithria starts at 50% health and the objective is for players to heal her to full.  This is accomplished through player heal spells.  While you do this adds spawn and rush you to try and stop you from healing her and to deal damage to her.  The adds spawn progressively faster as the fight goes on, so it's important to have a good mix of DPS to keep the adds down, as well as healers to heal Valithria.

• Abilities
  
  
  
  • Column of Frost
  
  
  • Emerald Vigor
  
  
  • Summon Nightmare Portal
  
  
  
  


• Blazing Skeleton (Add)
  
  
  
  • Fireball
  
  
  • Lay Waste
  
  
  
  


• Blistering Zombie (Add)
  
  
  
  • Acid Burst
  
  
  • Corrosion
  
  
  
  


• Gluttonous Abomination (Add)
  
  
  
  • Gut Spray
  
  
  • Spawns several Rot Worms on death.  Rot Worms hit for 4-5k damage each on plate wearers.
  
  
  
  


• Risen Archmage (Add)
  
  
  
  • Corruption
  
  
  • Frostbolt Volley
  
  
  • Mana Void
  
  
  
  


• Suppresser (Add)
  
  
  
  • 6 of these spawn per wave of adds and will cast Suppression on Valithria.
  
  
  
  

Video

World of Warcraft Headset Preorder Now Available

The Creative World of Warcraft headsets are now available for preorder.  It's available as wireless for $159.99 USD and wired for $119.99 USD.  Check out the feature set below, direct from Creative Labs, or visit http://www.soundblaster.com/worldofwarcraft/welcome.aspx for more details.

Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset Features

• Two sets of interchangeable headset lenses with 16 million color LEDs, featuring Horde and Alliance artwork


• Custom World of Warcraft-themed voice  presets that allow you to alter the way you sound to other players


• Interface software designed to look and feel similar to the in-game interface


• Advanced uncompressed wireless technology


• THX TruStudio PC™ audio technology -- the result of years of collective experience and research by Creative and THX, which delivers the fullest audio experience for games, movies and music


• Works on PC and Mac


• Cushioned earpads and light, flexible headband reduce listening fatigue during intensive gaming


• Rechargeable battery, recharges even while in use

HD Warlock Wallpapers

Aphroditi posted this over the weekend on the forums and I wanted to bring some attention to these awesome Warlock wallpapers.  There is a large selection to choose from -- 16 total as of this post -- with background colors themed similar to the three Warlock talent specs.  Check out a couple of them below, or visit Felfire.com for all of them!

There were a handful of interesting posts yesterday.  Read on for all of them!

3.3.2 on February 2nd

This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone since the Lich King unlocks this coming week, but Blizzard announced extended maintenance which pretty much signals patch.

Quote from: Enthati (Source)

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, February 2nd. Maintenance will begin at 3:00 AM PST and conclude at approximately 11:00 AM PST. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience.

Trinket and Itemization Philosophy

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

Our raid item philosophy has evolved a lot since vanilla. The tier sets were once considered a badge of honor. Someone stalking around (or mailbox afking) with their full set bonus might as well have been sporting a legendary item. These days, we virtually guarantee that any player with an interest in raiding is going to be able to complete at least the lowest level version of their set with just a minimal level of persistence. This ultimately serves as a powerful reward mechanism and is in line with our philosophy of letting more players actually see the content.

This design though also has its risks. One of the big ones is that item progression becomes very predictable and deterministic. Imagine (just as an example) a model where all bosses drop emblems and every item you want is for sale. That may sound cool for a few weeks, until you hit the point that without any kind of random element to progression that you can calculate to the day/week at which you will finish gearing up your character. The excitement of what the boss drops would be gone and we feel this would end up making the purpose of clearing new content very underwhelming.

Trinkets are really the one item (weapons are to a lesser extent) that we use to try and capture that old slot machine feel from the classic Molten Core days. Yes, completely random loot with huge loot tables can be frustrating but we are pretty far from being completely random these days. Trinkets however are still somewhat random, they can be hard to acquire, and there is often a lot of competition for them.

Trinkets are also tricky to design because we don’t want them to be just a pile of stats like other items. We generally want them to be unique by having a random proc or an on-use ability or something similar. These types of things are always trickier to balance, but this is also what makes them interesting. We also don’t necessarily want every trinket to be a guaranteed upgrade just because the item level is higher. Knowing what works or doesn’t work for your particular character and play style is one of the ways players have to demonstrate their mastery of the game.

There are some aspects of trinkets for which we think we can do better. For example, it’s annoying when a superior item is on a lower tier of content to where you feel like you have to argue with your guild to go back and farm easy bosses or run a 10 player version when everyone else wants to do 25. Many of the trinkets probably represent too big a dps (or equivalent) jump given how difficult it can be to acquire them. It’s also easy for us to fall into a rut of offering basically the same one every time (often because we know players like it) rather than experimenting with different things. We like to try new things to keep gear interesting for players as we know some have been evaluating trinkets for over five years now.

We also probably just need to drop more of them. That doesn’t mean they should be trivial to acquire, but when say a caster only has 2 good options in Ulduar and 1 requires a hard mode, then there is going to be ton of competition when they do drop. We know it’s rough when the trinket you have been wanting finally drops and you have to roll against 10 other people for it. Having more trinkets would mean more variety, which means players may want different ones and ultimately will be a little more different from their friends/guildmates.

New Account Security Awareness Webpage

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

Protecting the citizens of Azeroth is extremely important to us. Our new Battle.net Account Security Awareness page ( http://us.battle.net/security/ ) provides helpful advice on what you can do to safeguard your computer, how to spot scams, info on the adverse effects of buying gold, ( http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20565929403&sid=1 ) and tried-and-true methods to help prevent account compromises.

Printwarcraft.com Poster Contest

We have a contest of our own coming next week as well!

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

Create a great-looking custom print and you could win a gift code to use on Printwarcraft.com! Show us your creativity by visiting the Printwarcraft.com site, creating your own unique poster of your character, and submitting it. One winner will be chosen each week during the month of February to win a $10 gift code. After the fourth week, we’ll be choosing one entry each as our grand prize, second place, and third place winners for even more prizes. Find out more on our contest page. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/10-01-printwar/index.html

Blue Posts

Patchwerk style fights (Source)

Outside of this being a troll post, I just want to say that fights like Patchwerk have their place but in the grand scheme of things can get really boring really fast. Once it becomes easy to defeat the encounter is more like a mini-boss that just had a lot of health. There are some nice dps-races in Icecrown Citadel like Deathbringer Saurfang (for melee at least) and Festergut but these still require some raid awareness depending on what is going on which is more challenging and more fun in the end.

Death Knight

Balancing DK ranged skills (Source)

It really just comes down to our not wanting death knights to be a ranged class. It is a melee class. Now they have some great ranged tools and some ranged spells, not unlike say an Enhancement shaman who throws out the occasional Lightning Bolt. There's nothing wrong with that. It's only when the DK strategy shifts to favoring ranged attacks too much that we make adjustments. The DK that runs around and does nothing but Icy Touch or Howling Blast or Death Coil feels like a rogue who forgoes combo points and openers and everything just to spam Fan of Knives and nothing else. It would probably even be okay if Death Coil was the largest component of damage, so long as you had to use your melee attacks to set that up first.

Warlock

4-piece Tier-10 (Source)

There is a bug where the pet is not always receiving the damage bonus from the 4PT10 warlock set. We are going to fix it.

The issue of having to recast Corruption in order to benefit from the proc is a much harder problem to solve. We might be able to do something, but we can't promise a good solution there. It is just the nature of the way rolling dots work. You gain the benefit of whatever crit you on when you cast the spell, but aren't going to gain the benefit from procs that occur later on.

Soul Shards in Cataclysm (Source)

Ideally we design it so that you don't need a way to get them back in combat. We think that makes the shards feel more like cooldowns than something you do every time they are on cooldown. (Example: you generally save Heroism / Bloodlust for the best time to use it, not the first available time to use it.) It is definitely possible though that a lock could feel janked if they used their last shard just as a bunch of adds joined the fight or whatever. In that case we might have to add some kind of Evocation-like ability to get the shards back in emergencies.

In a very pure, possibly unrealistic sense, though we'd love to see 3 shards per fight with some kind of cooldown in between the use of each. I mean non-trivial fights here. Maybe you use 1 shard on raid trash and no shards while killing a mob for a quest while leveling.

Where would your main character retire?

Not really an informative thread, but something fun the blue posters joined in on.  I especially like Crygil's post; he's so evil!  What zone would your main character retire in after your looting and pillaging of the world's evils are done?

Quote from: Liessa (Source)

Which zone would they choose ?

Junatami - Resto/Boomkin Druid - Nagrand, no doubts about it.