Holyssa

First off: very good job on finally sending Anub'arak (25) to spider heaven! Spider pride >8<

Second: I'm posting links to Yogg strats again. This is merely for our replacements/new faces, because as Uggy stated: this is a B*TCH to explain verbally without eating precious raid time.

The above is Zu's portal assignment pic. The old post has the names of folks that are no longer with us (*COUGH*Heiliger*COUGH), so I rescued it from the old thread for him to list assignments again.

Bosskillers:

http://www.bosskillers.com/cgi-bin/bbguild...mp;guide_id=688

TankSpot:

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f206/49663-...yogg-saron.html

^ Will need a decent connection for this one. LOTS of movies, and notes from StratFu.

Wowwiki:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Yogg-Saron_(tactics)

Guess what? More movies (scroll way down). Also lists the history of nerfs/buffs/changes the multi-mouthed one underwent over time.

Wowhead Entry:

http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33288

More or less a condensed version of the Wowwiki link. Comments are useless, unless you wanna read some decent lore/non-tactical theorycrafting.

^ You laugh, you lose. Real life Yogg-Saron footage!

The Brood Mother of the Black flight dared to challenge the Horde a second time. Revenge is a dish best served cold, folks...and what better way to quell all those Deep Breaths with a bit of dragon slaying?

Congratulations Crushers!!

Have to say, I was not expecting this. I didn't think they'd let it loose until October.

I'm guessing Blizzard did this to counter the launch of Aion this week. It's no Icecrown Citadel, but it's enough to make the old-school WoW folk very excited and give them something "new" to farm.

Oh, hotfix fun:

* The Faction Champions encounter in the normal 10-player and normal 25-player Trial of the Crusader instances have had a number of spells and abilities altered which should result in less overall damage.

* The Anub'arak encounter has been changed on all difficulties. Anub’arak now attacks faster, the Nerubian Burrowers should hit a little harder, and their Expose Weakness ability now caps at 9 stacks.

* Some season 7 arena weapons will now have a socket.

* Threat of Thassarian will now properly halve the damage of Rune Strike for the off-hand strike.

* Soulstone Resurrection now fades upon entering raid combat if the character who cast it is not present.

* The Idle/Inactive debuff is now cleared upon round switches in Strand of the Ancients.

* The Mistress of Pain will now target more accurately in the 25 man Heroic Jaraxxus encounter.

* The damage of Hunter’s Volley ability has been increased (See Kailand's post).

Like a bad Dragonball Z villain, Onyxia returns! The patch isn't very large in terms of file size, but there's a lot of neat content (pets, Super Ony, new gear, class changes, etc).

Mirrors: http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_mirrors

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.2.2

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

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

The Brood Mother Returns

After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns stronger than before to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.

* Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25-player modes.

* Adjusted for modern raiding, but with the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother still in effect, including the horrors of her Deep Breaths!

* Onyxia will now drop level 80 item versions of some classic loot items from the level 60 encounter.

* Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.

General

* Armor Penetration Rating: The amount of armor penetration gained per point of this rating has been reduced by 12%.

* Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

Battlegrounds

* Players level 11 and higher will now always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knight

Pets

* Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Blood

* Heart Strike: Secondary targets of Heart Strike now take half as much damage.

* Subversion: Now also increases the critical strike chance of Scourge Strike by 3/6/9%.

* Vampiric Blood: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and duration reduced to 10 seconds.

Frost

* Threat of Thassarian now also causes Rune Strike to use both weapons when dual-wielding.

* Unbreakable Armor: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and changed back to granting 25% additional armor while active instead of flat damage reduction based on armor. The amount of strength granted has been reduced to 10%.

* Frost Presence: The damage reduction granted by this ability has been increased from 5% to 8%.

Unholy

* Bone Shield: This ability now has 3 charges instead of 4. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute.

* Dirge: This talent no longer grants additional runic power from using Obliterate.

Druid

Balance

* Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.

* Typhoon: The daze duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Feral Combat

* Infected Wounds: The debuff generated by this talent no longer stacks and instead causes the full effect with a single application.

* Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid’s finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Hunter

Beast Mastery

* The Beast Within: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds. In addition, hunters with this talent will do 10% additional damage at all times.

* Bestial Wrath: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds.

Mage

Arcane

* Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.

* Arcane Missiles: Casting this spell while both Missile Barrage and Clearcasting are active will cause only Missile Barrage to be consumed.

* Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. This talent no longer has a chance to be triggered when spells miss.

Fire

Combustion: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of Fire spells by 50% while it is active. In addition, Living Bomb periodic ticks will no longer interact with the count or the charges on the talent.

Paladin

Protection

* Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.

* Ardent Defender: This talent now reduces damage taken below 35% health by 7/13/20% instead of 10/20/30%.

* Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.

* Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.

* Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina.

Retribution

* Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.

* Seal of Corruption and Seal of Vengeance: These seals will now only use the debuff stacks generated by the attacking paladin to determine the damage done by the seal and by the judgement.

Priest

Shadow

* Improved Spirit Tap: Mind Flay periodic critical strikes now have a 50% chance to trigger this talent.

* Twisted Faith now grants spell power equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of spirit, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.

Rogue

* Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.

* Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.

Assassination

* Master Poisoner: No longer increases the Deadly Poison application rate following a successful Envenom and instead now provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.

Combat

* Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.

Subtlety

* Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Shaman

* Cleansing Totem: No longer pulses instantly when dropped.

* Flame Shock: The duration of all ranks has been increased by 6 seconds.

* Lava Burst: This ability no longer ever consumes a Flame Shock debuff off of the target.

Elemental Combat

* Shamanism: Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.

Enhancement

* Earthen Power: No longer causes Earthbind to pulse a persistent snare immunity aura. It does still remove snares from allies as an instant pulse, but there is no lingering immunity. Earthen Power now also brings Earth Shock’s melee attack speed reduction up to -15%/-20% (with 1 or 2 points in it, respectively).

Warrior

Arms

* Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Protection

* Critical Block: This talent now grants a 20/40/60% chance to block double the normal amount instead of 10/20/30%.

Dungeons & Raids

Shadowfang Keep

* Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Ulduar

* Increased the cooldown on Immortal Guardians' Drain Life ability in the Yogg-Saron encounter.

Achievements

* The Achievement "Iron, Dwarf Medium Rare (25 player)" now requires 25 kills, down from 50.

* The Frostwolf Howler and Stormpike Battle Charger Achievements will now be awarded when a player learns the respective mount spells.

Professions

* The blacksmiths of Orgrimmar grew tired of running to the rear of the city to craft items and have installed a new anvil & forge at the General Store in the Valley of Strength.

Engineering

* The Mind Amplification Dish no longer changes the appearance of your helmet.

Inscription

* Added a recipe for Runescroll of Fortitude. This item grants a stamina buff equal to the highest rank of Power Word: Fortitude (untalented) to all players in the raid. The effect of this runescroll is exclusive with other stamina scrolls and Power Word: Fortitude.

Leatherworking

* Added a recipe for Drums of Forgotten Kings. These drums increase all stats by 8% for all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.

* Added a recipe for Drums of the Wild. These drums grant a buff equal to the highest rank of Mark of the Wild (untalented) to all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Mark of the Wild.

Items

* The Black Heart: This item’s animation has been changed and no longer resembles Hand of Protection.

* Death Knight Tier-9 Tanking 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now decreases the cooldown on Vampiric Blood, Unbreakable Armor, and Bone Shield by 10 seconds instead of 20.

* Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach.

* Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.

* Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.

* Relics: All buffs provided by relics (idols, librams, totems and sigils) now share an exclusive category such that gaining a buff from one of these items will remove all other buffs gained from items in this category.

* Totem of Quaking Earth: Attack power value increased to 400.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Bone Shield: This glyph now grants 1 additional charge instead of 2.

* Glyph of Flame Shock: Redesigned. This glyph now makes Flame Shock periodic damage able to be critical strikes.

* Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.

* Glyph of Scourge Strike: Redesigned. This glyph now causes Scourge Strike to extend the duration of Frost Fever and Blood Plague by 3 seconds each time Scourge Strike is used on a target, up to a maximum of 9 seconds.

* Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 10 yards in addition to its current effects.

* Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now increases the armor gained from Unbreakable Armor by 20%.

* Glyph of Vampiric Blood: The glyph now increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 5 seconds instead of 10.

User Interface

Battleground Queuing

* Players may now only queue for no more than two Battlegrounds at a time.

* The dialog box for entering a Battleground match has been changed to reflect the following options: “Enter Battle,” “Leave Queue,” and “Minimize.”

* The time a player has to enter a battle when selected has been reduced to 40 seconds when not already in a Battleground and 20 seconds when in a Battleground.

* Players already in a Battleground can now choose “Enter Battle” for a new Battleground under any circumstance (i.e. while dead, in combat, falling, etc.).

* A new Battleground will not launch until the maximum number of players on each side are in the queue (i.e. 40 players per side for Alterac Valley).

* The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.

Mail System Auto-Complete Feature

* The inline auto-complete feature for the mail system has been added back into the game. The mail system will now have both the pre- and post-3.2.0 auto-complete features available.

* Added a label to notify players that the Tab key will allow players to navigate through the character names listed via the auto-complete feature.

For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.ht...p;forumId=11114

Bug Fixes

* Coliseum Trinkets: Some spells that should have triggered these trinkets will now trigger them (such as Holy Nova and Fel Armor).

* Death Knight Tier-9 DPS 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for disease damage ticks to be critical strikes.

* Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Set Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.

* Lightweave Embroidery: This tailoring item enhancement will no longer trigger from the periodic healing granted by the warlock spell Fel Armor.

* Mote of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.

* Paladin Tier-9 DPS 2-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for Righteous Vengeance ticks to be critical strikes.

* Shard of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.

* Val’anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: Healing from Prayer of Mending now triggers the shield from this item. In addition, a bug was corrected which would cause the shield points to be overwritten rather than stack up as intended.

Death Knight

* Rune of Razorice: The frost vulnerability granted by this enchantment will now increase the damage done by Frost Fever as intended.

Druid

* Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.

Hunter

* Master's Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.

* Trap Mastery’s (Survival) tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.

Mage

* Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.

Paladin

* Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.

Priest

* Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 will now work with Holy Nova.

* Glyph of Power Word: Shield now correctly uses the Priest’s spell critical chance instead of the target’s.

Rogue

* Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.

* Honor Among Thieves: This talent will now work properly again if two rogues with different ranks of the talent are in the same party.

Shaman

* Grounding Totem will now properly protect against the Death Grip spell.

* Lava Burst can no longer deal critical damage to targets who are immune to critical strikes (due to, e.g. Roar of Sacrifice, Blessed Resilience).

* Lightning Shield: This spell will no longer set off some trinkets when it is cast.

* Stoneclaw Totem's pulses will no longer break stealth on nearby hostile units.

* Thunderstorm and Shamanistic Rage can no longer be used while Frozen, Cycloned, Sapped, or Incapacitated.

Warlock

* Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.

* Fel Armor: This spell was unable to set off trinkets and other effects. That has been corrected.

* When using Shadowbolt or Incinerate while having Backlash and Backdraft active, only Backlash will now be properly consumed.

This was to be a night away from colosseums, Old Gods, and crazed Scourge. Kailand and his rowdy team looked to the dwelling beneath Wyrmrest, seeking a rematch with the furious Twilight Drakes. We got it, and as a result? We got even!

Congrats to all, and grats Holyssa on winning the first of what is hopefully many drakes for our team!

*pulls herself from the pile of dead Immortal Guardians*

Woogah! 10-man or not, this is still a feat to be happy about.

*falls down dead after all that crazy tanking*

BRB, hospital. x_x

Like everyone suggested to us, get that authenticator if you haven't already. Sadly it seems to be a necessity these days.

http://www.blizzard.com/store/search.xml?q=authenticator

^ The best $6.50 (not counting S&H lol) you'll ever spend. As tedious as having a 3rd login prompt can be, it'll provide an extra sense of security. Blizzard should just buck up & toss one in every Battle Chest/Cataclysm/etc box.

There's also the Mobile authenticators for iPhone/iPod Touch, but I cannot vouch for them since I own neither.

Now, if he were a PROT pally, he'd run around using Avenger's Shield with the school lunch trays, and casting Hammer of the Righteous with a spoon. If he were a Holy pally, he'd just shine a flashlight on 'em and toss bacon at everyone. Kids these days!

Sooooo...Holy played mad scientist, tried out this new thing, and decided to share the results.

Took my ol' human main from moons long ago, and made it a Hordie. I began the process at 6:00AM EST, and finally got the email to unlock her around 6:45PM, despite the confirmation page saying the process may take "several days". Perhaps the news has not circulated enough yet, and the line isn't all that big.

Wow. The new gnome-brains diet really worked! Her thighs have never looked better. But I digress. So far, it seems to have been picture perfect in the conversion process. Although I did notice a few (minor) nuisances:

- Argent Tournament progress gets wiped (Blizzard stated this already...but my mage never did that stuff, so I didn't panic). Maybe they will fix this once they find a programmer insane enough to convert all that crap

- Some items based on faction achievements got duplicated. For example: the Black War Bear from For the Horde/Alliance. It probably counts the achievement twice as it switches the Faction Leader kill credit.

- Certain items from Alliance-only quests survive the change. Junglewalker Sandals were sitting in my bank much to my surprise, considering it's a boot model unavailable to Horde by normal means. Maybe other items like Dartol's Rod will convert, since it's a quest item that can be kept even if you abandon the chain?

- Some mount conversions may not be perfect. I know for a fact that Uly had a yellow Qiraji Battle Tank, because my raid lead at the time pre-assigned us all colors till 40 people each had a bug. This morning, I was welcomed by a GREEN one O_o

- You keep "classic" PvP titles. Ever wanted to see a High Warlord Blood Elf or Grand Marshal squidface? Keep your eyes peeled around towns (although it's definitely not me, as I'm only a Senior Sergeant lol)!

- Faction specific quest progress got wiped CLEAN. Ulyssa (as a human) had the Northrend quest achievements for all zones except Icecrown. I flew into Howling Fjord last night to find countless yellow "!" icons.

What does this mean? A L80 Alliance character can milk Northrend clean of quests from 70 -> 80, convert, then do all the Horde ones from 70 -> 80 for a farkton of gold, not to mention greens that can be sold or DE'd for free dust. Then there's also the nice boost in Horde Expedition faction from this, as well as overall quests done for the 3k quest achievement. Very nifty, and I'm sure gold farmers will find a way to exploit this soon enough...

Overall, Blizzard seems to have done their homework with the Faction Change system, despite it coming out unusually quick. I honestly expected this to hit circa 3.2.2 given how complicated it seemed. Bravo, code monkeys!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...81652&sid=1

The new World of Warcraft Faction Change service is now live. As we mentioned previously, [ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...79410&sid=1 ] we’ve been in the process of developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance for a fee. After purchasing a Faction Change for a character, a player can choose any race of the opposite faction that is compatible with the character’s class. For more information on the Faction Change service, please read the FAQ, [ http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml...S&tag=FCFAQ ] or visit the Faction Change page [ https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/fac...ange-intro.html ] to get started.

Based on further community feedback, we have also decided to offer a race change service in the future. Players who choose to switch races will be able to change their race within their same faction and class. Additional details will be released at a future date.

Obviously, you need to log in with your WoW account/authenticator to see the Faction Change page.

And one monster-sized FAQ:

What is the Faction Change service?

Our Faction Change service is designed to allow existing characters the opportunity to change their designated faction (from Horde to Alliance or Alliance to Horde).

How do I begin the Faction Change process?

To begin the Faction Change process, please visit the Account Management page, select the Faction Change option, and carefully follow the instructions provided.

How much does this service cost?

Each Faction Change costs $30.00 USD (not including applicable taxes). This covers a single Faction Change for a single character.

Is this service taxed? If so, how can I tell if my purchase will be taxed?

Players in select states in the U.S. may be subject to taxation when using our Faction Change service. This list includes, but is not limited to:

- New Mexico

- Texas

Can I change multiple characters' factions at once?

No. The Faction Change service only allows one change per transaction. If you would like to change multiple characters' factions, you will need to pay for each one separately.

At what level can I change a character's faction?

Characters level 10 and above are eligible for a Faction Change.

Will PvP realm restrictions prevent me from changing a character's faction?

No. PvP realms no longer possess any faction-based restrictions. You may now play Horde and Alliance characters on any realm you wish.

Will this service allow me to customize a character and select a different name once its faction has been changed?

Yes. Each Faction Change purchase will also provide the target character with an included re-customization and optional name change.

When I change factions, can I select any race for the character?

You may select any race of the new faction provided that it is available for the character's class.

Does that mean I can use this service to change the character back to its original faction?

Absolutely; however, this will require purchasing another Faction Change.

When I change a character back to its original faction, can I select any new race?

Yes. As noted previously, though, you will only be able to select a race that is available to the character's class.

Will I be able to select Cataclysm races and class combinations for a character once they're available in game?

Details are not available at this time. As development continues, though, we hope to provide more information.

How often can I change a character's faction?

You may change a character's faction every 60 days.

What happens after I initiate a Faction Change?

Once your payment has processed and after you have remained logged out of the game for at least 30 minutes, you will see a new button to the left of the character's name upon next login. Clicking on this button will allow you to select the character's new faction and race, as well as customize the character's look and name. These steps will greatly resemble the character creation process.

To complete the Faction Change, press the button labeled "Click to change your character's faction" and confirm your selections. If you do not wish to change the character's faction immediately, you may do so at a later time.

What will happen to the character's old name?

If you opt to change the character's name, the name will be locked from use on the realm for 90 days. You are not required to change the character's name, though; this is simply an option we provide included with the Faction Change.

What will happen to the character's equipment when I change its faction?

Equipment which is not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific equipment, however, will be automatically exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific equipment and their cross-faction equivalents here.

**Please note that neither enchants nor socketed gems will be affected by an exchange.**

Will the rest of the inventory (materials, alternate currency, etc) be affected in any way?

As with equipment, items which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific items will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific items here.

What will happen to the character's mounts when I change its faction?

Mounts which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific mounts will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific mounts and their equivalents here.

What will happen to the character's non-combat pets when I change its faction?

Non-combat pets will not be affected by this process and will be available once the character's faction change completes. This even includes faction-specific non-combat pets.

What will happen to the character's achievements when I change its faction?

Achievements which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific achievements will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific achievements and their equivalents here.

What will happen to the character's titles when I change its faction?

Titles which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific titles will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific titles and their equivalents here.

What will happen to the character's reputation levels when I change its faction?

Upon changing factions, the reputation level associated with the character's previous race will become the reputation level of the new race. All other racial reputations will be converted according to the following chart:

Orc (Orgrimmar) ↔ Human (Stormwind)

Tauren (Thunder Bluff) ↔ Gnome (Gnomeregan Exiles)

Undead (The Undercity) ↔ Night Elf (Darnassus)

Troll (Sen'jin) ↔ Dwarf (Ironforge)

Blood Elf (Silvermoon) ↔ Draenei (The Exodar)

Additional faction-specific reputations will be converted into their cross-faction equivalents (if a cross-faction equivalent exists). You can view a full list of qualifying faction-specific reputations and their equivalents here.

Faction neutral reputations will not be affected by this process, and faction-specific reputations which do not possess an equivalent will be lost.

What will happen to the character's quests when I change its faction?

Quests which are active in the character's log at the time of the Faction Change will be cleared and all quest items associated with these quests will be destroyed.

With this, completed quests that are considered faction-specific will be removed from the list of completed quests and no longer count towards any running "quests completed" totals. Should you ever elect to change back to the original faction, the original list of completed quests will be restored. Completed quests that are considered faction-neutral or possess a cross-faction equivalent will be unaffected or automatically exchanged without any detriment to the quest completed totals.

What will happen to the character's flight paths when I change its faction?

All flight points associated with the character will be reset and you will receive a new list of flight points which are appropriate for the level and new faction.

What will happen to the character's "Friends" and "Ignore" lists when I change its faction?

The character's "Friends" and "Ignore" lists will be reset following a Faction Change.

What will happen to the character's Guild and Arena team(s)?

The character will not be affiliated with any Guild or Arena team following a Faction Change. Guild and Arena team tabards will be removed and Arena team ratings will be reset as a result. If the character is a Guild Master, you will not be able to perform a Faction Change.

What will happen to the character's honor and Arena points?

Any honor points, Marks of Honor, and lifetime honorable kills will not be affected by this process. Earned Arena points will carry over, as well; however, any pending Arena points accrued after the last maintenance period, but before your Faction Change is initiated, may be lost.

What will happen to the character's mail and auctions?

Active mail and auction items will prevent a character from Faction Changing, so please be sure to pull all mail from the mailbox and take down any auction items prior to initiating the Faction Change process. These items will be handled as normal inventory.

Is there a gold limit for Faction Changes?

Yes. Characters possessing too much gold for their designated level bracket will not be eligible for a Faction Change. Please use the following table as reference.

Level 10 to 30: 300 gold

Level 31 to 50: 1000 gold

Level 51 to 69: 5000 gold

Level 70 to 80: 20000 gold

Where will the character be located after the Faction Change is complete?

Once the Faction Change is complete, the character will be moved to the capital city of its new race.

What will happen to the character's Armory profile?

Once you have completed the Faction Change process, the character's Armory profile will be updated to reflect any faction, racial, gender, or name changes. Please note that our Armory system is still in beta at this time, so the character's profile may not immediately display the updated information.

Will this service share a cooldown with the Character Transfer, Character Name Change, or Character Re-Customization services?

No. The Faction Change service will not share its cooldown with any of these services.

Can I use this service to change race on my existing faction?

No. We will be releasing a Race Change service in the near future for this purpose.

Will this service share a cooldown with the Race Change service?

Yes.

Can I purchase a Faction Change for a character that has a pending Name Change or Re-Customization or is in the process of being transferred?

No. Before you may initiate a Faction Change for a character, please complete any pending Name Changes, Re-Customizations, or Transfers. These pending transactions will prevent you from initiating a Faction Change.

When will I be charged for the character's Faction Change?

You will be charged immediately upon pressing the confirmation button on the Faction Change page.

Is there any way to cancel a Faction Change while the process is pending?

Because your payment method will be charged immediately upon confirmation, you will be unable to cancel the process once you have pressed the confirmation button and the Faction Change process is underway.

Is there any way to reverse a Faction Change once it's completed?

No. Once a Faction Change is done, it is permanent. You may, however, purchase another Faction Change to switch back to the original faction once the service cooldown time has elapsed.

For a list of stuff that gets converted (mounts, etc), see this list:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faction-change/index.xml

Note that it may not be complete...though it appears very thorough. I can't imagine how much their code monkeys had to go through to get the kinks out of all this crap. Maybe NOW they can dedicate more energy into un-borking instance servers!

Azjol'nerub was merely a setback! Grats guys!

((pic sucks, but I was in a rush lol))

Any other good pvp pets out there with interrupts/stuns?

Not all are stuns/interrupts, but..

Bats (Sonic Blast, 2 second stun)

Ravager (Ravage, 2 second stun)

Owls/Birds of Prey (Snatch, a 6 second disarm. Might help on the warrior/pally/DK)

Nether Ray (Nether Shock interrupt)

I got most of these from http://www.wow-petopia.com/html/skills/skills.html, which is bound to have a few more ideas.

Been doing some reading on the Faction Champs. For Science and Tankspot has a short thread with tips, but I picked out some tips/reminders we can keep in mind for later:

- Dispell EVERYTHING. Not sure if our locks had them out among the madness, but a Felhound may be of use here seeing as it's a pseudo-PvP fight.

- If we go with the burn 1 healer at a time strat (usually the druid): Keep any and all interrupters on the other two at all times, saving stuns and abilities for when spells are about to be cast. Much like Reliquary and Vezax, interrupters need to communicate when cooldowns are up. Even Cyclone will be of use here..anything to lock down the free healers. Putting all our eggs into one basket/assigning them to one target will just leave other mobs free to wreak havoc.

- Any NPC that can dispell WILL dispell. Even my judgements got picked off at random it seems. With that in mind, would it be worth keeping Unstable Affliction on the main burn target only?

- Confuse enemies with multi-target powers/summons. Army of the Dead, Snake trap, and Mirror Images come to mind, and while they last mere seconds against such strong foes, it buys healers time.

- Killing pet classes (hunter/warlock) will NOT despawn pets. Some strats suggest killing pets FIRST due to their low HP and general annoyance factor. The hunter "cat" generally has less HP than the felpuppy.

- If need be, assign 1 warlock to perma lock-down the tree via juggling Fear/Banish casts. Keep an eye out for Tremor totems: if Fear isnt working even long before diminishes, there's probably one on the field somewhere.

- When in doubt? Fear bomb!

- Little strat a deep-frost mage tried to keep the pally/warrior/DK on lock-down. English obviously isn't this guy's first language, but...:

Here's a nice strat for frost mages to CC one melle for the entire fight.

For this u need to go full frost, get all the abilities that increase chill duration.

Target the Pally, warrior or maybe the DK. I only tested it on the ret pally.

Start by casting polymorh on the pally, try to be far from everyone else, this way its less likely the adds will attack you and your frost novas wont break the other players CC. In all my tries the paladin was in right of the formation. I flanked him to cast the cc.

After the first 9 secs of poly, cast it again, u will have more 5 secs. Meanwhile u cant try to help dpsing the other adds.

When the poly is about to fade, cast frost nova. He wont move and he doesnt use BoP or hand of freedon, he will only cast a ranged ability that will cause 8k dmg. Frost nova have a 8 sec duration, cast deep freeze when it reaches 1 sec. This way he will be cc for another 5 secs. By the time deep freeze fades, the diminish return will also fade.

Start the rotation again, using poly, poly, frost nova, deep freeze. If your frost nova is in CD, cast cone of cold to slow him.

If any other melle attack you, use Ice Block immediately.

With this strat, u wont help much on dps, but will null one of the champions.

We only lost 3 members in this fight, and this was our second night of tries.

- The paladins will cast Hand of Protection on a champion when they have around 30% health. And much like a real pally, they WILL bubble-heal themselves at low life. Priests, beware!

- Kill totems asap. Windfury nearly pwned Holy's face a few times when the warrior suddenly became my new best friend.

- Assign tanks to specific mobs for kiting/stunning/"peeling" duty. Placing Hand of Protection on focus targets will scatter/confuse some NPCs, but keep moving in case they decide to turn around and whack the poor clothie nearby.

- Another poster on Tankspot posted this very nice cheat-sheet on locking down an NPC:

My first post here but I hope it helps someone with utilizing the DR to its fullest on this encounter.

I am not sure to what extent you will suffer from dispels (such as Tremor Totem, Shadow Priest dispel, Retribution Paladin dispel) but if it is not a major issue you can easily lock down two healers for any amount of time.

Depending on your setup you can chose a couple of different ways to do this, these two are just examples I came up with.

If you want to use as few as possible on the lockdown you can use a mage and a warlock (the -1 second off every casted CC is casttime/lag)

00.00 Polymorph (0% DR)

00.09 Polymorph (50% DR)

00.13 Polymorph (75% DR)

00.15 Fear (0% DR)

00.24 Fear (50% DR)

00.28 Fear (75% DR)

00.30 Polymorph (0% DR)

Another example of a complete lockdown on a healer:

00.00 Cheap Shot (0% DR)

00.04 Kidney Shot (0% DR)

00.10 Gouge (0% DR)

00.13 Freezing Arrow (0% DR)

00.22 Fear (0% DR)

00.31 Fear (50% DR)

00.35 Cheap Shot (0% DR)

00.39 Kidney Shot (0% DR)

00.45 Gouge (0% DR)

00.48 Freezing Arrow (0% DR) (Cooldown came off at 00.43)

This chain can be done twice or three times if you have Prep. Remember that if you replace the Fear with a Polymorph instead, you should NOT use the Gouge since it causes a 50% DR on Poly.

So, all in all you can utilize the perfect lockdown from knowing what shares DR.

Gouge/Sap/Polymorph

Howl of Terror/Psychic Scream/Fear/Seduce/Blind/Intimidating Shout/Mind Control

Kidney Shot/Gnaw/Intercept/Charge/Concussion Blow/Shockwave/Hammer of Justice/Maim/Bash

Cheap Shot/Pounce

Hibernate/Freezing Trap/Wyvern Sting

This might be a good time to link the DR Tracker I personally love to use in PvP: DR Tracker

You may have your own methods for tracking DR if you don't want to get that mod. Speaking of diminishing returns...

- From the For Science site:

CC'ing and Dealing with Diminishing Returns

For those unfamiliar with PVP, the following abilities share diminishing returns, so set up a CC rotation:

1. Gouge, Sap, Polymorph, Hungering Cold, Hex, Shackle Undead, Repentance

2. Howl of Terror, Psychic Scream, Fear, Blind, Intimidating Shout, Succubus's Charm (Warlock Succubus)

3. Mind Control, Seduction

4. Kidney Shot, Intercept, Feral Charge, Concussion Blow, Shockwave, Hammer of Justice, Maim, Bash, Gnaw (DK Ghoul)

5. Hibernate, Wyvern Sting

6. Cheap Shot, Pounce

7. Entangling Roots, Frost Nova

8. Death Coil, Psychic Horror

9. Cyclone

10. Entrapment

11. Banish

No Diminishing Return root/snares: Charge (since this is treated as a PVP fight?), Earth Shock, Hamstring, Freezing Trap, Frost Shock

Season 6 is about to end, and Season 7 will be starting up.

"But Holy, Arena is teh suck!"

Perhaps. But there's one other reason to look forward to:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Koralon_the_Flame_Watcher

Ignis's palette-swap pal in the Vault's west tunnel will be up soon for T9 lovin'. Read up on his powers...fairly simple fight. And for good laughs: watch the embedded "tutorial" (they wipe XD )

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...28331&sid=1

Fair warning to our old-school Crushers (*COUGH*): you will crit thy pants upon reading this.

She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who traveled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch.

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!

Holy feck that's cool. I foresee much QQ about L80 whelps eating people.

Guess what? More bugs. This one goes out to folks who are still running Naxx. Found it on MMO-Champ. The encounter is still beat-able if you're careful:

They need to fix Gothik.

I have been raiding for a while, so I am used to adds mysteriously moving through the center gate occasionally during the encounter. Its a small annoyance, but nothing more. Last night however, was something completely different.

Decided to run a Naxx25 PuG as a part of a recruitment campaign. Things were moving along swimmingly until we got to Gothik. The initial pull went smooth and things were fine until about 30 seconds before he teleported. At that point, a couple of DK Cavaliers from the hallway after Gothik came into the dead side of the room. They were in the process of getting that under control when a Vigilant Shade popped into the live side of the room. Immediately after that another trash group from the hallway pulled into the dead side and took to wiping them and ended the attempt completely. Putting it all down to sh*tty luck, we tried again with the same results, at which time I ticketed a GM, explaining what had happened. It was decided that we would go do the other 2 wings (spider and Abom, plague was already done) while we waited for the GM to get back to us.

About an hour and a half later, everything else was done and I had not gotten a response from a GM, and we decided to try and cheat it by grouping everyone on the live side and mana draining Gothik during the add phase. It worked like a charm and we downed Gothik and the rest of Naxx without an issue.

Don't get me wrong, the two wipes and then eventually cheating the encounter were quite a bit of fun, but they do need to fix it.

TLDR: Unless this is fixed via the restarts, expect undead friends/weird gate behavior during Gothik.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...81949&sid=1

8/5/09

* The weapon damage and armor of items dropped in the 5-man Coliseum Heroic version have been updated to match their item level.

* Using Braxley's Backyard Moonshine will no longer trigger the regurgitation animation.

* Wintergrasp Commendation and Commendation of Bravery can no longer be used inside any battlegrounds.

* Kel'Thuzad should no longer cause some players to disconnect during the encounter.

* Reginald Arcfire will no longer grant Horde players access to the Alliance auction house.

* Epic gem recipes are now available from the following vendors in Shattrath:

Kirembri Silvermane (Scryer)

Nemiha (Aldor)

Inessera (Aldor)

* XT-002 Deconstructor will now spawn in fewer adds.

* The Black Knight will now drop a Frozen Orb in heroic difficulty.

* Razorgore can once again be controlled multiple times and defeated appropriately.

It'll be hard to say until after the restarts, but last night XT was NOT fixed. Rape-by-robots FTL.

The dungeon has also experienced even more stealth nerfs/bugs besides XT and Flame Leviathan. See this blog for a list of changes collected from the official WoW forums:

Flame Leviathan

* Seems to be bugged. Doing FL with 2 towers is fine and dandy. But FL still has the 3rd tower buff on him even though there’s only 2 towers up.

* Vehicle targeting reticule looks really good.

* Gnomes have been busy. Enhanced the handling of vehicles. They turn much better.

* Choppers can pick up Pyrite and drop them wherever they like.

XT Deconstructor

* Deconstructor seems to spawn a bajillion ads. Still bugged?

* Now throws Light and Gravity bombs during tantrums.

Thorim

* Chain Lightning only blows up 2 targets. (Holy note: Coulda swore I saw 3 people get struck by lightning when we killed him last night...)

Freya

* Iron roots: You can trinket out of them. You can blink out of them. Hand of freedom. Bring a Shaman with Earthen Power and call it a day. Shapeshifting works. Anything that can get you out of snares will work.

* Sunbeam visual effect seems to be missing. But the debuff on players is still there. (Holy note: when we did this Tuesday, I saw lasers, but only when the beam was applied to myself)

Mimiron

* Phase 3: Don’t have to place the mines. The player loots it, uses it, and the head will automatically drop down. Mimiron has upgraded to smarter magnets.

General Vezax

* Vezax’s health reduced by 10 million. (Holy note: 23 million is the reported max HP now...OUCH)

* Saronite Animus health reduced by 2.5 million.

* Animus spawns after 6 clouds instead of 8.

Check out more XT lulz I found on Maintankadin.com:

[Archimonde voice] ...IT BURNS!

FYI - I will be out of town all day Sunday (8/9/09), so can't make it to Ulduar-10 or Teph's Alt Naxx run

Great job last night on surviving XT and his army of possessed toys. And yes, this also affects 10-man Ulduar.

Blizz is supposeably working on it. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...=2&sid=1#21

Flame Leviathan is also borked: we left two towers up, yet he was buffed as if Freya's was still active. Grr.

If you want a laugh, here's another guild's movie of said XT-002 "bug": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hptpAYt7mSM. Skip to about 1:50 min in for the fun part.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...91048&sid=1

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

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...79410&sid=1

This doesn't come as much of a surprise if you heard of the new Faction Change service coming. No character limitations = more moneys in Blizzard's pockets, and it should make people who are brave enough to play on PvP realms a lot happier.

OH FECK, I JUST DROPPED A CONTACT!

Ignore what I said about no Extended Maintenance. Don't you just love inevitability?

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...55659&sid=1

The maintenance time has been extended as we continue to work on the databases while applying a new patch. We currently expect all realms to be available for play by approximately 3:00pm PDT. Thank you for your patience.

Quite a few UI code changes in this patch as well, so expect some issues if you're raiding over the next day or two and use more than a few add-ons (you don't want to know how many I have loaded).

I'm more worried about the lack of Extended Maintenance for this patch. I predict server vomits galore, not to mention a sea of QQs from people that cannot get into the Colosseum 5-man due to full instances (since everyone's going to chain-farm Heroics for the new badges).

So what's on everyone's to-do list? I'm gonna...

- Download new addons as I stare at the Authenticating/load screen.

- Prospect the dump-truck load of Titanium Ore I farmed...and blow all the JC tokens on tanky designs >.>

- Pay some raptors a visit in an attempt to boost my lackluster pet collection. The new raptor minipet art brings back fond memories of the Bonk games on TG16...

Here's a list for our pet-crazed Crushers to get a jump-start!

Darting Hatchling - Dart - Dustwallow Marsh

Leaping Hatchling - Takk the Leaper - The Barrens

Obsidian Hatchling - Vendor - Breanni - Dalaran

Razormaw Hatchling - Razormaw Matriarch - Wetlands

Razzashi Hatchling - Razzashi Raptor - Zul'Gurub

- Buy the Paladin-only Tourney charger. Hi-ho silver~!

- Muster the courage to run Occulus now that drakes scale with gear.

- Take a funny picture with "black" Orcala.

- /popcorn as people in public channels QQ over not reading the notes.

- Brainstorm my first actual twink. Yay for freezing XP gains!

http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_mirrors

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/...patchnotes.html

Rawr! See above for 3.2 mirrors.

Also: be wary of where you go to update your addons. Sites have been affected by a new Adobe Flash trojan, and while places like Curse.com have claimed to fix the problem, that doesn't mean it's completely gone from other websites.

http://www.curse.com/articles/curse-en-news/526956.aspx

Recently there were a number of websites compromised due to an Adobe flash player vulnerability. This vulnerability allowed the injection of flash scripts that download keyloggers onto unsuspecting visitors' computers, opening up the potential for the player to be hacked and lose their video game account.

Thursday (7/30/09) Adobe released an update, and it's important for everyone who has Adobe flash player installed to download this patch. If you do not, your computer and video game accounts are at risk.

Find out about the update, or download it and start installing it as soon as you can. You can also use the auto update feature within the flash player if you desire updating through that method.

Please, do this as soon as you can. This vulnerability is very real, and there are people attempting to steal accounts this very moment. Any website you visit until you've updated may be a potential threat to your computer's security.

As an extra precaution, please make sure to run virus scans on your computers to ensure they're clean of threats. The known keylogger files circulating related to this are:

* a.exe

* b.exe

* c.exe

* 6to4ex.dll

There may be variations of these files we don't know about yet, so please if you detect anything else let us know.

Unfortunately, several addon pages on Curse.com were compromised due to a obscure bug in the html sanitization process. We've removed these comments and released an emergency patch to ensure that this does not happen again.

While the Curse Client remained unaffected by the attack it is still very important for all users to to follow the above steps to make sure you're no longer vulnerable to these attacks.

Happy patching! *opens a fridge full of Night Elf heads to feed to his baby Venomhide Ravasaur*