World of Warcraft

You know it figures as soon as I make a post about information not coming fast enough…Blizzard releases an entire presentation on what we should expect in the coming expansion! You can check out all the nitty gritty details here, but I’ll post the highlights for those who don’t feel like reading through it all…

General

* All 25 man raids in Wrath will also be available to complete with 10 players. This is so that more players will get to see end game content (Even the Arthas encounter will be available as a 10 man raid).
* There will be completely different loot tables for the two different raid types. They will also be on separate cool downs, so players could fight in both the 10 man and 25 man raid on the same day if they wish.
* The mounts available to buy in Wrath will probably be able to take passengers. These mounts will also work in the old world (Provided they are land mounts), so players can give low-level characters a ride! The new mounts will also be slightly faster, around the speed of the Armored Netherdrakes.
* All 5-man instances in Northrend will feature Heroic modes, and the loot tables for the 2 modes will be totally separate. Heroic dungeons will have their own “Tier” of armor completely unique to that level dungeon.

Death Knights

* Death Knights will be available to players who have a character level 55+ on the same realm. There is no other requirement at this time.
* Players are allowed 1 Death Knight per realm that they have a level 55+ character on.
* Death Knights will be “born” in a floating Necropolis over the Eastern Plaguelands, similar to Naxxramas.
* Death Knights will start at level 55.
* A Death Knight’s starting armor will be a mixture of green and blue quality items. The first few quests that they encounter will provide upgrades to these starting items, and these upgrades will be armor specific to Death Knights.
* Death Knights can dual wield.
* One Death Knight spell is Raise Dead, which converts a fallen unit into a ghoul for a time to serve the Death Knight, similar to a Hunter’s pet. If the spell is used on a fallen friendly player, the player will be presented with an option box similar to a resurrection message, and if they accept, they will take control of the ghoul and will be able to use its abilities for the period of time that it is active. This can work as a sort-of battle res, and Chilton stated it may be available in Arenas.

Northrend

* Northrend is Huge. It is larger than Outland by a couple of zones, and some of the zones in Northrend are bigger than the largest zone in Outland.

It’s tough waiting for a game you’re excited about. I almost wish I didn’t know something was being released until the day before it happened. Think about it. When you’re going to the movies and you see the trailer for the next Batman (or whatever piques your interest) and you get all psyched and excited only to get hit with the release date…

“Coming in (sometime over a year from now)”

Wonderful.

Blizzard, for it’s part, has been no better. I want to play Starcraft 2, but who knows how long until that game comes to fruition. Worse still is the newest expansion for World of Warcaft, Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard has been very tight-lipped about what exactly we’ll see when the game is released. They’ve trickled out information here and there, but nothing of real substance. The forums seem to be a place to vent their frustration about them being so tight-lipped. Neth, a Blizzard CM, had this cryptic response:

“The great thing about vapor is that at some point it condenses and becomes rain. The rain then falls and nourishes that which it falls on. It takes time for it to happen, but it does happen. Signs point to clouds forming in the sky, but you never can tell when they will let loose the rain…”

So it appears that there is a large amount of information waiting on the horizon, but they’re not at liberty to discuss the details. Whatever it is, it better be good, because as Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part.

Having a priest horde-side and loving it, I’m always curious to see what bad things players have to say about the class. I tend to be a “glass is half full” kinda guy, so class shortcomings are often a source of entertainment for me. If someone says “X specs sucks and can’t raid” I will go out of my way to spec say, discipline, and take it in to see how it holds up. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I run through and say “well it worked..but yes, not exactly optimal.” Improvements can and should be suggested to help developer’s understand class issues. What issues do players bring to the table for priests? Let’s see…

There you have it, from my own priest’s view as well as a variety of responses on the class feedback thread. Priests do need a bit of love and have a few glaring issues (holy talents!) but all in all they are still a total blast to play. Maybe if I was a min-max kind of player I wouldn’t like them so much…good thing I’m not.

With the increasing amount of MMOs on the horizon, there’s been a lot of buzz concerning games that will dethrone WoW as the ultimate MMORPG experience. Personally I think that Warcraft is a bit of a unique entity that will not be so easily toppled. You have to take into consideration that before World of Warcraft was released most Massively Multiplayer games were happy to have a couple hundred thousand players at most. Warcraft is fast approaching 11 million. This isn’t to say that the game is perfect or that newer games won’t take a small bite out of the playerbase, just that I don’t think anything is going to shoot past it in the near future. That said, I think it’s always worth shopping around for new games. This is especially true given the fact that I’ve never had more than one MMO account at any given time. What’s coming up soon? Let’s see….

There are other games coming out of course, but the two listed above are the most widely talked about. I tire of people judging games that haven’t been released or are still in BETA. I’m more of a “I’ll reserve judgment” kinda guy, ya know? I understand that a brand new game will not and never will run as polished and clean as a game that’s been out for years. I’m more than happy to cut these newcomers some slack, which right now is a horrible memory leak in AoC and lackluster game play in WAR. Fix it and impress.

That’s right, it’s children’s week again and it’s time for you to step up to the plate and temporarily adopt an orphan of your choice! It’s particularly exciting for me since I’ve never done the children’s week event before, but I fully intend to this year. While I was kinda hoping to be able to take my orphan into glorious battle, that doesn’t appear to be possible.

From what I understand the whole process is pretty simple. Kid’s like to explore, so you’ll be leading them around various parts of Azeroth and/or Outland in the hope that the experience will make their lives a little less miserable. After all if you’re stuck at the oprhanage all day life can get pretty boring. Here’s where you’ll be taking them around Azeroth

* The bank in Darnassus (Alliance)
* The lighthouse in Westfall (Alliance)
* Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore (Alliance)
* Mor’shan Rampart (Horde)
* Lordaeron Throne Room (Horde)
* Cairne Bloodhoof in Thunder Bluff (Horde)

That’s not all though, Orphans in Outland need to see the world too! Here’s what they’d like to see:

# The Dark Portal
# The Exodar (Alliance)
# Silvermoon City (Horde)
# Caverns of Time

So what’s in it for you? Well if you’re looking for a sword of oprhan-awesomeness, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. You can, however, find some nice non-combat pets that are fairly humorous and entertaining. Everything from a rat and turtle to outland creatures like *ahem* Willy. A full list of the pets can be found here.

Ever since the very first legendary weapon was introduced from the Molten Core, players have wondered about the role of legendary items. Extraordinarily rare and powerful, and requiring a tremendous amount of time and effort to produce, you’ll usually see someone sitting around Ironforge wielding these from one of the “hardcore” raiding guilds. Since then, however, much of the game has changed, and the legendary weapon’s power greatly diminishes as time goes on.

This of course led to the question: why?

Many players felt that the items were so difficult and time consuming to attain that they should be purposely allowed to retain value even as the power of items inflates with expansions and other means of progression. Suggestions included a weapon upgrade quest that would lead a legendary weapon to be on par with top-quality level 70 gear now, for example. A Blizzard CM, Eyonix, was quick to shoot the idea down:

“Obtaining a legendary item is certainly a special and rare accomplishment, and one that I’ve yet to achieve. With that being said, we don’t want someone to get any item in the game and never have to replace it. Like all items, legendaries are meant to have their limit of power and players are meant to eventually find a potential improvement.

We currently have no plans to change our design philosophy and allow these items to be upgraded.”

From a lore perspective it’s a little disheartening, I’ll admit. Weapons like the Twin Blades of Azzinoth deserve a place of power, but unfortunately it doesn’t mesh well with game balance. All weapons of any type or quality will eventually be replaced, it’s simply the way in which these things work in MMOs. We’ll no doubt see the addition of new legendary weapons with the new expansion to replace the old. Personally I hope Frostmourne doesn’t show up since..all things considered..it devours a person’s soul..so as soon as someone picks it up they should lose control of their character forever. Obviously I don’t see that happening!

In case you weren’t aware, the above picture is Bobby Kotick, the man who engineered a raid turn around of Activision which, at the time, was essentially a failing game studio. Since his taking of the reins the company has flourished and in a recent display of just how far it’s come, Activision merged with Vivendi’s game division (That includes Blizzard).

Many players have wondered what the merger will mean for not only World of Warcraft but all future games made by the firm. Some undoubtedly are wary of the fact that other mergers of this kind tend to kill the heart and soul of the game studio and make them another faceless facet of a large corporation. Electronic Arts, the biggest gaming firm out there, is downright infamous for said tactics.

With this in mind, a recent interview with Kotick revealed some insight into what direction Activision will take it’s partnership with Blizzard. Here are the important takeaways from the interview:

I take it that in the Vivendi merger, you were most interested in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

We started hearing the rumors of how profitable that was. My guys kept telling me about the business, and I didn’t believe it. But we realized that this is not just a game. It’s a social network with a lot of elements, and people rely on the game for a lot more than just entertainment. It wasn’t the kind of thing that something else would come along and displace.

How did the deal happen?

We made an offer. It was more than we’d ever offered for anything—billions, almost equal to our own market value. And Vivendi said, “We’d really like not just to sell you the business but actually to become your partner.”

I would of course take this with a grain of salt, as any company describes a deal it’s made in favorable terms and wouldn’t ever come out and say “we plan to fire most of the original team and do our own thing.” However Kotick is a unique individual, and given his successes in other areas of the industry, it’s entirely possible that this may be a good move for Blizzard after all.

Being an ongoing player of an MMO often leaves you wondering what’s next for the game. After all, even the average player has put a relatively significant amount of time into developing their character, and knowing the game’s direction is important because you’d like to know whether you approve or not of the upcoming changes. This is especially true given the number of “wow killer” MMOs that are soon to be released such as Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. Personally I doubt that either of these are ready to take on Warcraft yet, but they may leech some of the playerbase, to be sure. Being an avid fan of the Warhammer Universe, I’m excited to at least try the game out.

Unfortunately Blizzard has been somewhat tight lipped as to what the expansion really has in store for us. We’ve heard some tidbits about new monsters, dungeons, and of course the new “hero” class, the Death Knight, but the nitty gritty has thus far been kept away from public view. The most recent interview (found here) does help to shed some light on Wrath of the Lich King’s upcoming release. Here are some of my favorite parts, in no particular order:

“We now feel that the main villains of The Burning Crusade could have been a little more visible from the moment you entered Outland. For example, players could go all the way to level 70 without catching a glimpse of their nemeses. In Wrath of the Lich King, we’re going to engage players in the conflict with the primary antagonist from the beginning. By giving them Arthas as a clearly visible arch-enemy to focus on, we also create a stronger sense of purpose and a narrative pull that will continue to increase as the player progresses.”

“The method of transportation we settled on is a giant turtle with a deck mounted on top of its shell, very much like the turtles from Warcraft II. It’s simple, effective, grounded in Warcraft lore, but it’s also one of those light moments that are so important to create the iconic Warcraft feel.”

“There’s a story arc that ties all the zones of the expansion together, and the snow becomes a visual component of this common theme. The relatively green and “temperate” starting areas will be fairly densely populated, but as the story progresses we expect players to get more spread out.”

A more involved story line is definitely something I’d be interested in! I’ve always liked to think that the World of Warcraft Universe is more about developing the game’s (and your own) storyline as much as it is the “epix.” Here’s to hoping, eh?

Since it was first taken advantage of, a wide complaint by players concerning the arena was teams getting a high rating, gathering all of the latest season gear, and then selling the team off to players in greens and blues for gold. From where I stand, it completely goes against the spirit in which arena pvp was designed.

In a recent interview at gamespy, however, Blizzard Developer Tom Chilton insinuated that the company will be taking action soon. You can read the whole interview here, but I’ll cut and post the meat of it for this post:

GameSpy: Have you looked internally at the distribution of players doing arenas on the live realm, separating those who are playing competitively with those selling teams or just tanking games to get gear?

Tom Chilton: We don’t really have any way of knowing that. We can’t distinguish what the intent of a given player is, whether they consider themselves to be competitive or whether they’re just doing it for the gear or whatever. Certainly as far as players who are trying to exploit the system through loopholes, we have some changes coming in a patch just a few weeks away where we’ll close a lot of those loopholes.

GameSpy: Are you able to talk about those changes yet?

Tom Chilton: Not just yet.

GameSpy: But we can expect the changes will be targeted at the point-selling teams.

Tom Chilton: Point selling, personal rating selling.

GameSpy: The two big things that players seem like they’re against are the point-selling teams, since you can face highly skilled and geared players at even the low ratings, and those who bring alts or friends on a team to tank a team so that they can then get a high personal rating on the real team.

Tom Chilton: Exactly, that’s what we’ll be addressing.

Personally, I’m elated to here this news. While I’m not what you would say a “hardcore” competitor in the arenas, I am a competitive person and firmly believe that the best players deserve to be at the top with the accolades, not whoever has the most money.

Things have been fairly quiet today, albeit with some venom over on the forums. Apparently, some realms were unexpectedly down yesterday for a number of hours. On top of that these realms also have to go through the usual scheduled maintenance today! Neither of these events would’ve affected me since I work through the day, but I can empathize with those players who work different hours and get stuck with maintenance when they are free. When I worked a 4 day work week (10 hour days) I would sometimes have Tuesdays off, and I hated not being able to roll out of bed, put on coffee, and relax for a bit with some WoW.

In other news, I also came across a fairly humorous comic, Noobz Online. You can read that right here.

World of Raids has reported that the new season 4 shoulders will now require a rating of 2200, as per the image below:

That pretty much puts them out of reach for me. I started with no resilience at all, and so have been getting blasted for quite awhile in the arena, but have slowly gained a solid setup through battlegrounds and the trickling arena points. Whilst I’m sure I could maybe get up to 17-1800, I doubt I’ll ever hit the 2200 mark. I’d be curious to see what Blizzard’s line of thinking was when making this change…if it is in does end up going live anyway. Seems rather excessive to limit the gear to the very tippy top tier. But maybe that’s just one of the trappings of success, eh?

Slightly old news, but I thought it worth mentioning that today is the last day to submit your chance to win a brand new set of Warcraft TCG cards. Even if you don’t play the game, the nether rocket (an ultra rare card) alone would make it worth your while! How’s it work? Read on..

The premise is surprisingly simple. Just follow the link here and send them a 10 word short story. It’s really NOT as easy as it sounds. Trying to put together a story of 10 words or less doesn’t really seem like a story at all. If you’re in need of inspiration, some rather hilarious examples are provided by the Penny Arcade guys.

In other news, with the impending release of Warcraft’s latest expansion, many players are interested in getting in on the ground floor, aka the beta. If you’ve ever wondered just how they go about deciding who’s in and out (I’ve gotten lucky in this regard, and did manage to get into Warcraft’s original Beta, Warhammer Online I was not so lucky….), Neth over at Blizzard shed some light on the subject for us:

“We print up sheets of paper with people’s account names on it and then hang them up on a big wall. We then put on blindfolds and get out the darts. Sometimes it gets a bit dangerous if someone tries to get fancy and spins the person throwing the darts, but it seems to work…

Or, for a more serious answer, it’s largely random. We do our best to make sure we have a good mix of players. I’ve seen it before where one friend has posted on the forum about another friend who got in but they didn’t and why didn’t they when their friend is the one that only plays casually and they (the op) are the one that is hardcore. We’re not looking to pick one demographic to help do the testing. We look for a good mixture of people with different play styles and interests. It gives a decent snapshot of what issues need fixed or tweaked prior to release.”

There you go! I hope my name gets hit.. though with 10 million players, that would be the biggest dartboard of all time.

The introduction of the arena system has been a controversial subject ever since it was first released. In part because many players perceive it as an “easier” way to obtain gear, and also because much of the game’s balance changes for classes have been primarily driven by how said class performs in an arena setting. Personally I think arenas are fun for what they are. I don’t go in expecting a flawless, perfectly balanced fight. No MMO will be able to offer that to you.

The problem that many competitors in the arena are seeing, however, has nothing to do with class changes, balance or anything like that. Instead the topic of the day is exploitation. Many higher-rated arena players are selling their ratings to lesser-geared players and essentially power-leveling their way to arena gear. The practice has begun to be more widespread of late, prompting a bit of an outrage from the average player. Blizzard hasn’t announced any specific changes to combat this problem as of yet, though I hope we see a solution in the near future.

This is particularly painful to the teams at mid-ratings, who fight, claw and scratch their way through each week, only to get steamrolled by a team wearing full season 3. Blizzard has stated this is not an intentional mechanic, but hasn’t gone so far as to say it’s illegal yet. I’ve always enjoyed arenas quite a bit myself, and it’s a pity to see the system taken advantage of in this way. I experienced the problem first hand on my warlock who, after breaking a rating of 1600, began to see teams that quite simply didn’t belong in that bracket. We were forced to eat quite a few losses before we came up against an evenly matched team.

An example of this can be found .

Beware, my fellow, players, the nerf bat could be coming to a class near you next patch! Some changes are being made to select classes to tone down or modify the effectiveness of various abilities. There are some buffs mixed in as well of course! I’ve been digging through the forums and official patch notes to find out what’s in store for me (and you!) come 2.4.

DISCLAIMER: These are not confirmed changes as they are still in test!

Druids

* Empowered Rejuvenation: This talent now properly affects the final heal from Lifebloom.
* Gift of Nature: This talent now properly affects the healing from Tranquility.
* Insect Swarm: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
* Lifebloom: the healing coefficient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of Mind Control.
* Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0 second.
* Many shapeshift form tooltips have been updated to be consistent with each other.
* Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent and reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
* Nurturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% while in Cat form.
* Swipe: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.

Hunter

* Equipping a thrown weapon while in the middle of an Auto-Shot will no longer cause animation issues.
* Casting Flare while in any way not visible, will no longer cause your flare to be invisible to other players.
* Hunter’s Mark: Hunters with Improved Hunter’s Mark will now properly overwrite Hunter’s Mark cast by Hunters without the talent.
* Improved Mend Pet now has a 50/100% chance to remove one Curse, Disease, Magic, or Poison effect, up from 15/50%.
* Multi-Shot: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* The stamina tooltip for hunter pets will now display the proper health increase.
* Track spells will now persist after death.
* Hunters will no longer spin around if they cast Aimed Shot or Steady Shot while facing away from their target.

Mages

* Arcane Explosion: The damage cap for area of effect damage on this spell has been increased by approximately 50%.
* Arcane Fortitude now increases your armor by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect, up from 50%.
* Blink, Slow, and Spellsteal have all had their mana cost reduced.
* Improved Blink: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Blink. Instead, it increases the chance for all attacks to miss the Mage by 25% for 2/4 sec after Blink is cast.
* Using low ranks of Fire Ward and Frost Ward spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Frostbite: When a frost spell is reflected back at a Mage, it is now possible for the Mage to suffer from the Frostbite effect.
* Ice Barrier: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Icy Veins no longer stacks with Bloodlust, Heroism, or Power Infusion.
* Icy Veins no longer increases the chance your chilling effects will Freeze the target, but now increases the chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting any spell by 100%.
* Improved FireWard has become Molten Shields.
* Mana Shield: This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage’s bonus to spell damage as an additional effect.
* New Talent: Molten Shields will cause your Fire Ward to have a 10/20% chance to reflect Fire spells while active. In addition, your Molten Armor has a 50/100% chance to affect ranged and spell attacks.
* Permafrost: This talent will now correctly increase the movement slowing effect of frost Armor instead of the attack speed slowing effect.
* Spellsteal will no longer overwrite a longer duration buff.

Paladins

* Avenger’s Shield, Holy Shield and Holy Shock: Casting lower ranks of these spells is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Avenger’s Shield: This ability will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. I.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* Crusader Strike: This ability will no longer refresh the Healing Way buff from the Shaman talent.
* Divine Illumination: The mana energize from this talent no longer has a chance to set off other triggered effects.
* Holy Shock: The healing, damage, and mana cost of this spell have all been increased.
* Judgment of the Crusader: It is no longer possible to have icons for two different ranks of Judgment of the Crusader appear at the same time when judged by multiple Paladins.
* Judgment of Wisdom: Some abilities (such as Frostbolt) were not triggering the mana energize effect from this spell. This has now been fixed.
* Resistance Auras: It is no longer possible for two Paladins in the same party to make it appear that players have two of the same resistance aura active.
* Righteous Defense: This spell will now always be castable on friendly npcs.
* Seal of Blood: This ability will no longer cause spell pushback for the Paladin with this seal active.
* Sense Undead- Now persists after death.
* Turn Undead(Rank 3):This spell has been reworked and has been renamed to “Turn Evil”. It will now work on Demons in addition to Undead. Turn Evil is subject to diminishing returns, and lasts 10 seconds in PvP.

Priests

* Chastise no longer disorients the target, but now is instant cast and roots the target for 2 seconds.
* Fear Ward is now usable while in Shadow form.
* Focused Will now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
* Inner Focus: Chastise now benefits from Inner Focus. In addition, Starshards no longer consumes Inner Focus.
* Mass Dispel now affects a maximum of 10 targets, increased from 5.
* Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts for 15 seconds.This will not stack with other haste effects, such as Heroism, Bloodlust, or Icy Veins.
* Power Word: Shield: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Prayer of Mending: This spell will now fade from players who leave or enter an instance, change continents, or exit the game.
* Reflective Shield: The reflective damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control effects which break on taking damage.
* Shadowguard: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.
* Silent Resolve:This talent now affects Surge of Light, Power Infusion, Inspiration, Spirit Tap, Blackout, Levitate, Shackle Undead, Touch of Weakness, Hex of Weakness, and Symbol of Hope.
* Touch of Weakness: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.It will also function properly even when the Priest with Touch of Weakness on is silenced or stunned.
* Vampiric Touch: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.

Rogues

* Abilities that can be used while stealthed, without breaking stealth, can now be cast without breaking Vanish when used at the same time.
* Cheat Death: A combat log message will now show when this ability activates and now has an animation.. It will now almost always be accurate in displaying the amount of damage done to a rogue when under the effects of Cheat Death.
* Improved Backstab is now called Puncturing Wounds.
* Puncturing Wounds increases your critical strike chance with Backstab by 10/20/30%, and the critical strike chance with your Mutilate ability by 5/10/15%.
* Improved Sprint: This ability will now always remove Entangling Roots.
* Sap mechanic changed from “Incapacitate” to “Sap”. This will allow more humanoids that were previously immune to Sap to be vulnerable to Sap, but still immune to Gouge. Note that anything that removed Sap previously will still remove Sap after the change.
* Vanish: This ability will no longer sometimes cause the UI to display Shadowmeld as active when it has been cancelled.

Shaman

* Call of Thunder: (Rank 5) now gives 5% critical strike chance.
* Chain Lightning: This ability will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half, and charges reduced from 10 to 6.
* Elemental Focus: This buff will no longer be removed when Shamanistic Focus is triggered.
* Flametongue Weapon: Having different ranks of this enchantment cast on two different weapons will no longer cause the enchantments to trigger multiple times per swing.
* Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
* The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
* Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
* Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
* Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
* Stormstrike has a new icon.
* Totem timer icons will now show up under your player portrait when you cast totem spells. Right-clicking a totem timer icon will destroy that totem.
* Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement slowing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
* Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
* The Shaman spell Fire Nova Totem will no longer sometimes detonate without doing any damage.

Warlocks

* Blood Pact now has a tooltip.
* Demonic Knowledge: This buff will no longer remain on enslaved demons when Enslave Demon is removed. It will now increase your spell damage by an amount equal to 4/8/12%, down from 5/10/15%.
* Demonic Sacrifice: Now works properly in sanctuary regions (such as Shattrath City and the Stair of Destiny).
* Emberstorm now also reduces the cast time of your incinerate spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.
* Felguard Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. ie. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* Nether Protection: The buff from this talent will no longer interrupt capturing PvP flags and bases.
* Pyroclasm: This talent now works correctly again with Rain of Fire.
* Ritual of Summoning can be used to summon players into instances if they meet the instance requirements.
* Sense Demon now persists after death.
* Shadow Ward: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.

Warriors

* Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
* Endless Rage will now give the correct amount of rage as intended from damage dealt by a Warrior.
* Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.
* Stances: It is no longer possible to accidentally change into a stance you are already in via macros (resulting in a global cooldown and loss of rage).
* Whirlwind: Critical strikes with the off-hand weapon from this ability can now trigger Flurry and Rampage.
* Flurry will properly refresh if a crit occurs with 1 charge left.
* Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been itching to find out exactly how the Arena World Tournament is going to end up. Blizzard has created an interesting new avenue of competition, but some roadblocks remain to success. One of those roadblocks is figuring out what items should be allowed and what should not.

This is particularly important because you want to give participants a certain amount of flexibility, such as the ability to mix in some raid gear with PvP gear to allow an optimal combination of damage and defense. This means that players can load out their team in a wider variety of gear, making game play more exciting and interesting!

Here’s the full list of items that will be available to tournament participants.

As you can see, the item list is very extensive! Drops from allover the game will be available for use, and I’m excited to see what combinations of trinkets/armor/accessories teams will suit up with to attain victory. Not only do you have a ton of accessories and addons like spellthread and armor kits, you’ll also be able to use the latest and greatest enchantments as well! Heck I may even throw together a team myself and see how we do! I’m sure there will be a number of common combinations in 3v3s, but personally I like to root for the underdog.

What about you, readers? Is there any specific class/gear combination that you think will be particularly successful for the upcoming tournament? Do you happen to see any items that you believe shouldn’t be allowed? I’m always interested in hearing feedback, so feel free to drop me a line!

I’m not entirely sure why, but a good number of players seem to want a “vanilla” Warcraft server. By this of course I mean no expansion, capped at 60, no 51 point talents, etc. etc. I’m not sure if this is driven by nostalgia (let’s face it, you can’t really emulate the first time you login to WoW everytime), or the disdain for recent developments (namely arenas). Whatever the reason, it appears that Blizzard put the idea under consideration, but decided against implementing it:

“We were at one time internally discussing the possibility fairly seriously, but the long term interest in continued play on them couldn’t justify the extremely large amount of development and support resources it would take to implement and maintain them. We’d effectively be developing and supporting two different games.”

So there you have it. Apparently the resources needed to establish a classic server would be too much of a hassle for Blizzard to implement. Personally I wouldn’t be interested anyway, but hey, that’s just me.