Holyssa

*points*

Pretty bunny lady!

But yea, a DKP wipe is a good thing, if not creating an entirely new table for Ulduar alone.

- It's all new. And there's probably a TON of it. Fourteen bosses in what's supposeably WoW's toughest nut to crack yet will make for lots of DKP number munching.

- It discourages hoarding. If the first boss drops a super awesome ranged weapon shaped like a shark with a laser-cannon strapped to it's face, many ranged folks stuck in the hole pit crater black hole will be crying seeing it go to one of the melee that have everything they need from prior content.

Yes I know this raid "isn't about gear" but I was also told "this raid isn't about progression" so I'd like to officially ask... wtf is this raid about then?

Puppies and candy canes! Oh, the name Pink Speckled Dust should still be our new title. Karrock's T-rex will be our mascot.

Sigh, The first encounter looks to be vehicle based. I wish blizzards would remove vehicle based raid/instance stuff, as it still tends to be buggy, and just annoying in general.

I dunno. When I heard it'd be entirely vehicle-based, this is what I imagined the tank's thoughts to be:

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p1/ulduar.xml

Spoilers galore, including info on how the "Hard Mode" stuff works. Oodles of lore too. The US page can't be far behind.

...oh, can you spot the pun somewhere in this article? Here's a hint:

http://correctopinion.files.wordpress.com/.../08/voltron.jpg

Haha bottom of the barrel for you!

It puts the DKP in the pit or else it gets the volcano again!

Formula: Enchant Weapon - Potency

I'm looking for a kind enchanter who can apply this to a 1H weapon (I have all the mats). I've asked a few people in the guild already, but this is a rare sucker that very few seem to possess, and is a world drop from Outland.

"Why not just get Greater/Superior Potency, noobwaffle?"

Because Potency is +20 Strength. This (for a tanking paladin or warrior) provides block value (more aggro from shield abilities & extra mitigation), increased white damage, and roughly 40 spellpower with the right talents. Other Potency spells are but a flat spell power boost and don't offer the mitigation bonus this does.

Seems like good rules to me, and I wholeheartedly agree on skipping the Sunday night for the time being. We easily proved last night that we can plow through the current content in just under two nights, and Sundays can give folks breathing room to do other things until the big U finally opens to the public.

That kill shot would make the perfect "Where's Waldo?" puzzle.

Great job folks, even if we did win by the skin of our teeth. I luv one-shots

...oh, one last thing:

"Malygos yells: I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

Dual Talent Spec Q&A:

I underlined some key bits...some very good info besides the usual "STFU and wait for the test realm".

Nethaera: What is dual speccing?

Ghostcrawler: Dual speccing is the ability to save two separate talent specs, glyphs, and action bars.

Nethaera: Why are we allowing players to dual spec after all this time?

Ghostcrawler: We really felt like this was a great way to increase the flexibility available to players and encourage them to take part in more aspects of the game. To use just one example, some players like to participate in both raids and Arenas, which is awesome behavior that we want to promote. But, there are some talents which are more useful in one part of the game than another. Currently, players have to pay respec costs and go through the process of setting up the desired talent spec and action bars whenever they switch.

The new system makes this a much more logical process, saving on time and cost and allowing players to easily move from one aspect of the game to another.

Nethaera: Who will be able to use it?

Ghostcrawler: Players who have reached the maximum level will be able to set up dual specs.

Nethaera: Why do players need to be max level in order to do this?

Ghostcrawler: We didn’t want to burden lower-level players with extra complexity as they’re working to level up and learn their class. But if the feature proves popular we might consider expanding it.

Nethaera: How will you be able to set up a dual spec?

Ghostcrawler:Players will be able to visit their trainer and pay a one-time fee to be able to use it.

Nethaera: How do you switch between specs?

Ghostcrawler: Players will be able to switch between their talent specs by visiting any Lexicon of Power provided they’ve paid for the ability to have a secondary spec. Lexicons of Power will be available in major cities, and inscribers will also be able to create a new item that summons one. Anyone can purchase this item, but it requires a ritual of several players to summon it for use by the party. It’s similar to a repair bot in that it will exist in the world for a short duration. It’s important to keep in mind that you will not be able to switch specs while in combat or Arenas. While you won’t be able to switch your spec without the Lexicon, you will still be able to look at your secondary spec whenever you want to.

Nethaera: Will solo players have the ability to switch their specs outside of the cities or will they still need to visit a Lexicon of Power?

Ghostcrawler: Solo players will still need to go into the city to visit the Lexicon of Power to switch their talent spec or will need to get together with other players to summon one in.

Nethaera: Is the item that allows you to summon a Lexicon of Power reusable, or is it used up?

Ghostcrawler: We haven’t made a final decision on that yet, and will be evaluating how it works on the PTR.

Nethaera: Can I respec only one of my talent sets, or will I need to respec them both if I reset one?

Ghostcrawler: When you reset your talents, it will look at the spec you currently have in use as the talent set you want to change.

Nethaera: Will you be able to switch gear easily to match your spec?

Ghostcrawler: At the same time we implement dual specs, we will also be setting up a gear system. The feature is called “Gear Manager.” It can also be used to just swap weapons or trinkets or put on that tuxedo to strut around town. It will not automatically switch your gear when you change your talent spec, but it will allow for an easy gear change between them. The feature may not be fully functional immediately in the PTR, but we’ll have more information to share about it before too much longer.

Nethaera: What about hunters? Often their pet talents are set up to match the talents of the hunter. Will they be able to switch their pet specs as well?

Ghostcrawler: We will wipe the pet talents. However we are going to remove the respec cost for pet talents so that players won’t feel like they need to jump through an additional hoop to respec their pet. In addition, we are going to provide hunters a new core ability to let them remotely access their stable on a long cooldown. This way if their exotic pet heads off to the stable, they will be able to get a different pet. We hope to be able to discuss this new spell in more detail when we get a little further along.

Nethaera: Will you be able to change your Glyphs as well?

Ghostcrawler: Glyphs will be tied to each talent spec so that if you switch between them, so too will the Glyphs. You’ll notice the UI will have changed a little bit so that the Glyph panes show up alongside the Talent panes now that they are associated.

Nethaera: What about hotbars? Will players be able to save them for the talent spec they’re running?

Ghostcrawler: Yes, you will be able to save hotbars and use them with your talent specs. It just saves your bars at the same time as it saves the glyphs and talents. If you want to switch to your other action bar, you will need to change specs.

Nethaera: Is there a way for players to choose their talents without them being saved? Currently, once you spend your talent point, it’s spent unless you pay the respec cost again.

Ghostcrawler: With the dual spec feature, we are going to allow players who respec to configure all their talents before they get saved. They will be able to allocate the points, then choose if they want to use that as their spec, rather than needing to carefully diagram out their talents ahead of time. This will allow players a little more freedom when deciding on the talents they want to pick and avoid costly mistakes.

Nethaera: Will players be confined to only setting up two specs?

Ghostcrawler:We will be launching the feature with just two specs, but depending on how we feel it works out, we might consider additional specs in the future.

Nethaera: When can players expect to try out dual specs?

Ghostcrawler: Players will be able to try out the dual spec system on the Public Test Realms when they are made available. This has been a pretty big project with a lot of people working toward making it a reality in the game. We’ll definitely be watching the feedback and looking for ways of making sure the system works the way we all envisioned it to.

Oh my. As if Darkmoon cards didn't make Scribes popular as it is, this is gonna be the icing on the cake. Sucks that you gotta go into town still, but eh...can't have EVERYTHING at the palm of your hands (unless you multibox and magically summon the "Lexicon"). Very good news for BM Hunters too that are afraid of losing their massive epeen animal exotic-pet. I hope they can get the kinks out for lower level players, cause seeing everyone simply go DPS and fly by 1-70 is just...blah.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...62341&sid=1

I dunno if anyone is bats enough to repeat this, but a voidwalker tanked Sarth+3 (10-man) for the first 50% of the fight. Details inside. This made me chuckle, because the raid's star player happened to be some quiet blue creature from the dark beyond

Still want that Violet Proto-Drake? Well, another seasonal event is here, which means Blizzard has work for you to do. Blargh!

Have a bowl of copy-pasta, and use this list o'stuff to tackle this holiday's tasks. Click the blue text for Wowhead linkage. Some of this stuff does require Northrend dungeon hopping:

Heartmender

Use the Unbestowed Friendship Bracelets on 20 players affected by the Heartbroken debuff. You can find the bracelets inside the Gift of Adorations you get when you offer a Love Token to a guard in capital cities.

Nation of Adoration

Get a Gift of Adoration from each capital city.

Tokens are bought from Innkeepers during the event. Giving a token to a guard will affect you with the Adored debuff and will reward you with a Gift of Adorations. This won't work all the time, you can also get the Heartbroken debuff and in this case you just won't get anything. You can cancel the Heartbroken debuff with a Unbestowed Friendship Bracelets ... Which is the whole point of the achievement! Just make other players happy!

(Holy's Note: A GIFT of Adoration comes from named NPCs, like Craven Dok in Orgrimmar's Drag. PLEDGES come from guards, and only if you lack the Adored debuff.

To save travel time, you can do this Achievement by speaking to NPCs of different factions while in the same city. For example: Bounty Hunter Kolark in Orgrimmar will give you credit for Thunder Bluff and the occasional Freshly Picked Flower for his city's gift set, allowing you to still run about Orgrimmar to finish up other sets.

Flirt with Disaster

Drink enough alcohol to be completely smashed, buy a Perfume Bottle from the closest Innkeeper selling it, and use your Bouquet of Red Roses or Bouquet of Ebon Roses on either Sraaz (IF pie selling gnome) or Jeremiah Payson (the roach-selling dude in UC) depending on your faction.

Nearest and Dearest

Buy some Perfume or Cologne along with a few Love Tokens and complete the Dangerous Love questline depending on your faction. They're simple delivery quests and you shouldn't have any problem with that.

Sweet Tooth

Eat a Buttermilk Delight, Dark Desire, Sweet Surprise and a Very Berry Cream. All these items are found in the Box of Chocolate contained in Gifts of Adorations and Pledge of Adoration. If you plan to do the other achievements this one won't be a problem as you'll have plenty of them available.

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Obtain a Bouquet of Red Roses or Bouquet of Ebon Roses. (Holy's Note: You only need one of these flowers, thank god)

*The Bouquet of Red Roses is gone for good. Blizzard confirms this very retarded change: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...amp;pageNo=3#47

*The Bouquet of Ebon Roses is found on Maiden of Grief (Halls of Stone), Prince Keleseth (Utgarde Keep,) and Prince Taldaram (Ahn'kahet). (Holy's Note: Just farm Keleseth on Normal, reset, and try again for your friends. Be careful not to hit the 5-reset per-hour dungeon lockout!)

Shafted!

Use Silver Shafted Arrow on 10 players, once again you can find this item in the Gifts of Adorations and Pledge of Adoration and it should be pretty easy to have enough of them to complete the achievement. If you really need more arrows you can also complete the Alliance Gift Collection/Horde Gift Collection and complete the quest to get 5 extra arrows but it's going to waste a LOT of your time.

Lonely?

Join someone for a picnic in Dalaran! This will require a Romantic Picnic Basket, this is a rare drop from Gifts of Adorations and Pledges of Adoration. If you're not lucky with drop rates, you can still find someone with the basket and share a picnic with him/her to complete your achievement.

The Rocket's Pink Glare

Shoot off 10 Love Rockets in 20 seconds or less. This is another easy achievement, you can find the rockets in Gifts of Adorations and Pledges of Adoration.

Fistful of Love

Use a Handful of Rose Petals or your Bouquet of Red Roses / Bouquet of Ebon Roses on each of the race/class combination. Handful of Petals are found in Gifts of Adorations and Pledges of Adoration.

(Holy's Note: The ebon bouquet is bugged and is not giving credit for this when used on specific targets. If you have a red bouquet from last year however, it seems to work okay...)

Be Mine!

Use the Bag of Candies found in Gifts of Adorations and Pledges of Adoration to create each of the hearts listed.

I Pitied the Fool

Obtain a Love Fool from a Gifts of Adorations or Pledges of Adoration and use it in the specified locations. Once the Love Fool is on the ground just target it and do a /pity emote.

(Holy's Note: You don't have to own your own Fool doll. Just /pity a friend's and you should get credit. Locations for the lazy:

-Naxxramas (Zone in, can't do this by the summoning stone)

-Wintergrasp (not sure if you need to be in the fort or general area. Both should work fine though.)

-CoT: Old Stratholme

-Arathi Basin Blacksmith

-Gurubashi Arena (STV))

....oh, you only have until February 16th to do all this stuff.

By Eyonix:

In our 3.1.0 class updates post, we had announced plans to remove consumable ammunition from the game upon the release of the next major content patch. Our original plans were to change ammunition so that hunters would no longer need to utilize bag space, while adding some new functionality that would continue to make ammunition a compelling element of gameplay. Unfortunately, this intended change will not be completely ready in time for patch 3.1.0.

We still fully intend to move forward with this change when the additional functionality becomes available, and for 3.1.0 we still intend to remove the need for pouches/quivers by greatly increasing the stack sizes on arrows and bullets, and the haste bonus from the bags will be preserved in another fashion. We’ll be sure to inform our players with further updates once they become available.

*E.T. voice* Ouuuuuuuuuch.

I will break both his hands if he gives you her my space account....exposing her to you would corrupt her for life, I would have to send her to therapy

No more heals for you

Aww man, who's gonna do the Motivational Arnold Yell now?! Please don't suggest Orcala do it. >.>

In all seriousness, thanks for all you've done to help Bar, even with all the bullcrap & responsibility that comes with being raid lead, we've done darn good for ourselves. Get RL sorted out, and keep on face-planting wherever you may raid.

Happy Birthday Xeno!

*kicks the forum for disabling smileys*

A well deserved buff to BM hunters... although I agree with holy, WTF spell casting speed nerfs?!?

*COUGH*Arena*COUGH*. A lot of paladin, shaman & priest QQing probably resulted from this, yet I'm surprised it hasn't been done long ago, much like the warrior rage-conservation changes (supposeably) coming in 3.1.

I'm even more surprised they dented Mutilate's damage, although it's hard to tell if it's a loss or gain with SnD and HfB's modifications. I don't know much about Arena numbers these days, but if it has anything to do with rogues in too many top teams, this doesn't come as a surprise. Rather than improve the survival of the other classes, they point the finger at a class that's already on the Endangered Wildlife list next to Warlocks

Hm...upon looking at the mage changes, perhaps the

Totally out of the blue, as if it jumped you from behind out of some dark corner, right? I figure I'd post this in case any Crushers ask "zomg, what did teh patch do?!"

http://a.wirebrain.de/wow/ so far has the only patch mirrors, but I'm sure WoWwiki will have em up too in a bit.

Druid

* Ferocious Bite: This ability now only uses up to 30 energy in addition to its base cost.

Hunter

* Kindred Spirits (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet damage at max rank.

* Serpent’s Swiftness (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet attack speed at max rank.

Pets

* Lava Breath now reduces the target's casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.

* Poison Spit now reduces the target's casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.

Mage

* Arcane Power now increases damage and mana cost by 10%, cooldown reduced to 1 minute. (Note: The spell is actually different in game and increases damage and mana costs by 20% with a 2 minutes cooldown. However it would probably be better to wait until servers are online to confirm that.)

* Arcane Power and Presence of Mind now share a category cooldown. Arcane Power causes a 15 second cooldown. Presence of Mind, once consumed, causes a 1.5 second cooldown.

* Arcane Flows now reduces the cooldown of Presence of Mind, Arcane Power and Invisibility by 15/30%.

* Presence of Mind: The cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes, (down from 3.)

* Slow (Arcane): now increases cast time by 30%, down from 60%.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Arcane Missiles -- Increases the critical strike damage bonus of Arcane Missiles by 25%. (Old - Increases the range of Arcane Missiles by 5 yards.)

* Glyph of Mana Gem -- Increases the mana recieved from using a mana gem by 40%. (Up from 10%)

* Glyph of Arcane Blast -- Increases the damage from your Arcane Blast buff by 3%. (Down from 5%)

Paladin

* The duration on all Seals has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer dispelled.

* Divine Plea: The amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50% (up from 20%) but the effect can no longer be dispelled.

* Sanctified Seals: This talent no longer affects dispel resistance, but continues to affect crit chance.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Holy Light -- Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 8 yards of the initial target. (Down from 20 yards, Tooltip text fix, was already hotfixed to 8 yards in game)

* Glyph of Seal of Righteousness -- Increases the damage done by Seal of Righteousness by 10%. (Old - Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.)

Priest

* Inner Fire duration has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer dispelled.

Rogue

* Hunger for Blood (Assassination): Now increases damage 5% per stack, (up from 3%.)

* Mind Numbing Poison now reduces cast time by 30%, down from 60%.

* Mutilate damage will now do 20% increased damage against poisoned targets, down from 50%.

* Slice and Dice: This ability now increases melee attack speed by 40%, up from 30%.

Shaman

Glyphs

* Glyph of Windfury Weapon -- Increases the chance per swing for Windfury Weapon to trigger by 2%. (Down from 5%)

Warlock

* Curse of Tongues: Now increases the casting time of all spells by 25% (Rank 1) and 30% (Rank 2), down from 50% and 60%.

Dungeons and Raids

The Obsidian Sanctum

Changed the color of the fissure in the Obsidian Sanctum to be more visually distinct.

User Interface

* The “GM wishes to speak with you” alert/button, at the top of the screen, has been changed so that addons do not obscure it.

* A clickable chat message has been added that duplicates the GM alert/button.

* When a GM wishes to speak with you the Help Request minibar button will glow.

* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum .

Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue where players using nVidia 3D glasses were unable to see spell cooldowns.

* Fixed a software mouse cursor bug that was causing the mouse curser to disappear from view when over certain UI elements.

* Fixed a player movement error in which other players were appearing to move erratically when traveling beside them.

Non-dispellable Seals...with half-hour durations...someone pinch me. Very nice PvE mana saver, although I'll probably wind up refreshing them every few seconds anyways out of habit >.<

And WTF @ the Curse of Tongues/spell slowing nerfs.

BLARGHLFLAGHCK!!! Due to Blizzard's technology displaying steaming amounts of fail (again), Classic Crap Friday's AQ40 trip will be delayed till next Friday, February 13th.

/angrytableflip

My, Eyonix has been a busy little beaver whelp. Three posts over the past day or so have given a peak at what's to come with the big Ulduar patch in terms of class changes. Some of them look sexcellent.

I combined all 3 posts into one big one. Oh, bear in mind - these may or may not make it into the final patch build when it hits in the next millennium or so.

Priest

* Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.

* Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).

* Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.

* Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.

* Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.

* Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.

* We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

Rogue

* Hunger for Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.

* Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.

* Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.

* Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.

* Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.

* Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.

Shaman

* Chain Lightning – now jumps to 4 targets but does less damage. We wanted to make the distinction between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning more clear.

* Storm, Earth and Fire – this talent now increases all damage done by Flame Shock, not just periodic damage.

* Spirit Weapons – now reduces all threat, not just melee threat.

* Unleashed Rage – reduced to 2 ranks, now also increases your critical strike chance with melee attacks by 1/2%.

* Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.

* We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.

Warlock

* Improved Shadow Bolt – this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).

* Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)

* Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.

* Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.

* Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell

* Consume Shadows – this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.

* Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication, Suppression, and Pandemic.

* Additional new talents have been added.

Druid

* Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

* Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.

* Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.

* Thorns and Nature’s Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.

* Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form.

* Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.

* We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in cat form.

Warrior

* Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.

* You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.

* Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.

* Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.

* We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.

* We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.

Mage

* Improved Water Elemental – this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).

* We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice Lance “Shatter combos” in PvE.

* We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.

* We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Paladin

* Blessing of Kings – this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.

* Exorcism – this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn’t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.

* Shield of the Templar now causes your Avenger’s Shield and Shield of the Righteousness to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of the Righteousness.

* Ardent Defender, Improved Hammer of Justice, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and more have had their ranks reduced.

* Guarded by the Light – no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh Divine Plea duration.

* Judgements of the Just – now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by 0.5/1 second.

Hunter

* Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

* A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.

* Hunting Party – this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.

* Piercing Shots – this talent has been changed. Your Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.

* Sniper Training – this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.

* We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Death Knight

* Gargoyle and Unholy Blight have swapped talent positions. Gargoyle’s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.

* Pestilence – this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. Blood Boil is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.

* Unbreakable Armor now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.

* The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as Endless Winter are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.

* Sudden Doom – this talent now procs a Death Coil rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans’ Lightning Overload.

* Magic Suppression and Blood of the North have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.

* Blood Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.

Upon reading the paladin changes, all I gotta say is...

Baseline Kings? Exorcism being useful? Shield of the Righteousness actually behaving like a real shield bash? I think I need to lay down.

Hm...if I am reading right, Hunters only have to buy 1 bullet/arrow type and never have to refill again?

Baseline Spirit for priests is nice, but I can't help but wonder if it's due to all the mana-regen changes coming up.

f I still lack DPS... it's Holy's fault for making me do the dishes.

Dammit, my tanking capability has decreased by 5%....Orcala, I need a sammich! *tiredly tries to roll face across the keyboard*

I'll have to give up my afk addiction I guess...

(vºДº)>

Give up being...AFK?!

Who are you? What happened to the woman I love?!

Happy Birthday!! To celebrate, here's a LOLCat

It's still WAY too early to start conjecture on Ulduar, so let's keep any comments about what the "requirements" will be out of the discussion entirely.

A-freakin'-men. You can't even brush by the official site without hearing the U word and the mass of the elitist maggots trying to discourage folks from even going near the place, when Blizzard hasn't said much besides "stop QQing, we promised it'd be super-duper hard!". And even then, I have my doubts on it's difficulty with the pace that people are getting geared up at.

Honestly, I keep hearing how "boring Naxx is" from some people, so why don't they just sit instead of "some people"? If they're so bored, then here's an idea: STOP GOING. Some of us don't care for the drama or hearing how tired people are of an instance every five minutes...we're actually interested in being there. Problem solved?

This drives me bats. If people are bored, why are they even raiding? I come to these runs week after week to hang with my guildies, experience epic lulz, point & laugh at epic fails, get wasted off of Tizzy's bunnies, and just have an overall good time, not whimper about the action. The drama only falls on deaf ears. Yea, it's the same ol' content each week, but how is it any different than the past? It's all part of playing a game with no ending, folks. Get used to it, and make the most of it with the folks you play with I say. The problem is only going to slowly resurface when Ulduar (dammit, I said it) hits anyway. *hurls squeaky toy at Orcala*

We're not a bunch of monkeys filling slots. We're people who have set aside time in our lives to be there because we look at our raid members as members of a family working together for the whole group, not just the needs of the few.

But mama, I swore I saw a monkey in our raid last week! It had a big pink bubble that was this huge! +==O_o==+

Reformatting and Restoring that whole computer to get rid of any keylogger posiblities on that system.

Not sure if you had these activated prior to reformatting, but make sure you reinstall AdBlockPlus and NoScript (which may take some configuring) if you use Firefox. Orcala recently found a few devils on her system, and while she says she didn't click on anything dangerous, all it takes is one ad or banner with malicious script to ruin anyone's day.

I know some of the lower level people in my guild are leveling up rather quickly and could actually benifit from some of this old content, should they hit level requirement is there enough space for them to jump in as well?

And I know for sure that even at level 80 there are a select few pieces out of Hyjal/BT that are still good to this day is it possible we will be running those in the not so distant future?

The general idea behind these runs is to tackle the leftover rep grinds and the boss achievements quickly and efficiently for folks who are sick of seeing the unfinished grinds collect dust, not so much for gearing up. I'll welcome more folks easily to boost the raid's numbers, but it's much better if they gain a few levels over the instance's norm (ie - L65+ for the old 40-man stuff) to avoid slowdown via low-level deaths (ever see how fast a L60 T2 tank dies to Princess Huhuran's barf-o-rama volley?), lack of boss knowledge, or loot problems.

And yes - I'd like to do Hyjal/BT because not everyone got to see Illidan or Archie, although I can't say when that will be. Friday we blew through MC/BWL/ZG with a mere 11-12 people, but the L70 stuff still requires just above that to perform decently without struggling. For now I'll be sticking to the old 40-man stuff until more people become interested.

Oh, this Friday will be AQ40. Make bag room for all those bug mounts!

http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcast/archive/episode7.xml

Really long read. Or if you prefer the in-a-nutshell version (from WorldOfRaids.com):

* Blizzard viewed Wrath of the Lich King as a "Coming Home" expansion after testing the boundaries with The Burning Crusade.

* Northrend was actually one of the first areas prototyped during World of Warcraft's original development, and that area eventually became a part of the Northrend you see now.

* Death Knight was not the only hero class Blizzard speced out for the expansion. They also came up with ideas for Necromancer (caster dps) and Rune Master classes (more of a melee, monk-type class). Death Knight fit with the theme though, so they went with that.

* There are around 140 people working on World of Warcraft's development. About 10 of those work specifically on the game's lore and quests, including Lead World Designer -- Alex Afrasiabi.

* Major lesson from TBC: Don’t dump the entire server into Hellfire Peninsula the second the expansion ships.

* Phasing is pretty much entirely intended as a story telling technique, and will likely be used more in the future.

* Wrath Gate, its quest chain, and the cinematic ends "Chapter 1" of Wrath of the Lich King. Chapters 2 and 3 will be introduced in future patches.

* Wrath of the Lich King isn't the "end of the road" as Arthas is but one villain in a pool of many.

* Sargeras and Deathwing were used as examples of future villains, as they're both "still out there."

* Blizzard is using Varian Wrynn to bring back the clash between the Horde and the Alliance. Characters like Garosh Hellscream will also contribute to this.

* Yog-Saron could potentially be directly tied to the Scourge and Lich King, as well as the current plight with the five Dragonflights.

* Yog-Saron's story will not end in Northrend. (They seem to be building him up as the next major villain)

* It's unlikely we'll ever seen Medivh introduced through new story elements, as he's been "played out," Metzen feels.

* Medivh aside, Metzen really likes the story of the Order of Tirisfal and the Guardian concept, so this could be explored more in the future.

* The next "Guardian" may not come from the human species.

* The Order of the Ebon Blade's origin really took off with the Ashbringer comic series.

* The Order of the Ebon Blade and its leaders may play a larger role post-Lich King, once Arthas is defeated.

Hmm...I cannot help but wonder who/what will be waiting for us at the end of Ulduar if they got more in store for Yog-Saron. Can't wait to see what these two new "chapters" will tell in the future. Wrath Gate was cool, but it's hard to shake off the cliffhanger feeling you get as soon as the chain is over