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Breakfast Topic: Phattest Northrend loot
Yeah, it's not Friday, I know. But seeing how easy it is to get loot in Northrend, I've been thinking about all the sweet loot we've been getting so far. A Rogue who joined our Guild run last night for the first time in 25-man Naxxramas got an epic from almost every boss we downed, ending up with him getting an epic upgrade in five slots in one run. It was like Christmas came early. On the other hand, a Paladin in plate like my character has to compete with all the newfangled Death Knights. Still, I managed to finagle a Shoulderguards of the Undaunted in that run, a piece with enough +Hit that it helped free up some of my gem slots and enchants for other things.Overall, we had such a great run last night that about a third of the raid got upgrades. How about you? What's the phattest loot you've gotten so far? With the PvP items now available, I'm fairly certain some of you picked up some sweet Hateful Gladiator gear. I made sure to pick up my Medallion of the Horde before anything else, so that was pretty phat for me. What cool epic did you get this week? If you don't have an epic yet, I'm sure you've got more than a few blues. What cool thing did you purchase or dropped for you recently? With so much easy loot going around in Northrend, I'm curious to know what everybody's gotten so far.
Ask WoW Insider: The new look of Northrend
Most of the time here on Ask WoW Insider, we ask ethical questions of you, the readers, or sometimes we'll ask what you think of certain game mechanics. But this time, we've got an aesthetic question instead, from reader Lindelan.Let me say first that Wrath is awesome!! I LOVE it! One of my favorite things is the way they designed the new armor. That being said, one thing that has absolutely started to drive me crazy is the lack of diversity in armor! I can understand having the same models while leveling, however the fact that level 80 blues look just like the blues I got at 71 is just plain lazy! Has anyone else noticed this, and do you guys think Blizzard will step it up in the future? LindelanThis is an interesting issue -- Blizzard got some flak in Outland for the gear being a bit too colorful. "Clown" was a word that was used pretty often, thanks to all the glowing and neon extras that came on our gear last expansion. And in Northrend, we fortunately haven't had that problem: the gear looks a little more badass, made up of dark steel and leather with pointy and ragged spikes on it.But have we gone too far the other way? Does all of the gear look the same now? Personally, I just miss my Hunter's mail kilt from the Argent Dawn world event rewards, but I think the gear has been much better looking in Northrend. I'm just happy none of it is pink, so if I have to choose between dark blue or straight black, that's a choice I'm happy to make. What do you think?Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Blood Pact: Haste gear for Warlocks in Northrend
It took a long time, but I finally made it to 80. How have you been working on your Warlock in Northrend? Unlike some Warlocks, it took me quite a while to get into that leveling groove. The good news is, it looks like Nymh proved that SL/SL isn't quite dead yet. The Frenchman used a variation of the spec to grind mobs in Grizzly Hills. Of course, he had a pocket healer just to make it work, but at least we know we can level with it. In fact, Nymh said it would have taken him 40 hours with SL/SL instead of 26. That would've been slacking.The good thing about slow leveling is that we can actually look at blue upgrades for our Warlocks. Taking the time to level means we can actually go out of my way to look for items that I can use all the way to 80 instead of getting to 80 in a head-spinning two days in my Level 70 gear. If you're one of those who still haven't hit 80 yet, here's a short guide to good blue upgrades while leveling up. You'll encounter a lot of blue cloth gear while leveling, so I've compiled gear according to key statistics, particularly Haste and Crit, which will be two of the more interesting features we'll look for in our gear. Today we'll take a look at Haste, one of the best raiding stats for us in the game.
Majority of player base does not have a level 80 character
Vaneras on the EU forums this morning responded to some criticism that everyone is already 80, etc... He makes a few interesting points.First, he notes that they have internal numbers that the majority of players don't yet have a level 80 character. This might be a known or assumed fact by some, but for many of us it's interesting to hear Blizzard extrapolate on the issue.Vaneras goes on to point out an important tidbit – don't assume just because all your friends are 80 that everyone else is as well. People that play all the time tend to gravitate towards other people that play all the time, and folks that only log on once or twice a week gravitate towards each other as well.This means that just because everyone on your friends list is 80 doesn't mean the whole server is yet. I know that for myself nearly everyone's main is either 80 or high 70s now, and most have alts quickly getting up there in level too.But then I'm reminded of my brother, who just dinged 77 a couple days ago.This is also good to know as it means battlegrounds and Wintergrasp will be filling up more as a greater number of folks ding. That's only going to lead to more fun for everyone.
Is it Thursday yet?
Here at WoW Insider we pay pretty close attention to what the blues say. They often come out with the latest information on what's happening behind the scenes at Blizzard. Blues, overall, have a lot of power over the game and the forums. Some can outright ban you, refund your items, or do whatever else their GM/Community Manager powers let them. Yesterday however Zarhym revealed a new power.The power of time control."Is it Thursday yet?" some forum poster asks."Yes!" replies Zarhym.Taking back what he said he soon replies, "Update: I'm being told this is not correct. Sorry :(" The deflated moans of millions of nerds around the word can be heard. For a fleeting moment it appeared that Zarhym used his power of time control for good.Nethaera eventually jumps in to put a freeze on overly ambitious Zarhym. Apologizing outright for the confusion, she insists that Thursday will be coming soon. But then something amazing happens. Something so brilliant, so revolutionary, so game changing that it will shake the world! The blues figure out the secret to time travel!
Patch 2.3 and you: Et cetera edition
With the bonanza of upcoming changes coming out, there are a few categories that don't have enough changes to merit posts of their own. These are their stories. We're adding new relics to support all talent trees in patch 2.3 for Shaman, Paladins and Druids. In addition, (not that this will sweep you off your feet), most of the arena-system relics have been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention. (Eyonix) Those who completed the [Tempest Keep] attunement process will have access to the title "Champion of the Naaru". Also, the plan is to hard-cap it at 70, meaning you can't go back at 80 and "cheese" the title. (Eyonix) We're looking into potential improvements for earth shield, and even lightning shield (Eyonix) Fear Ward will be available to all priests at level 20, but there are some changes in addition. Current plans are to reduce duration to 3 minutes, and increase the cooldown to 3 minutes.To give the dwarves and draenei something else to even it out, they'll see a new ability called Chastise (also given at level 20) which will cause holy damage and incapacitate the target for 2 seconds. (Drysc) Yay! Fear Ward for all! Racials are still a stupid idea, in my opinion, but this takes some of the sting out of them. A new title, and some new relics are both very welcome; the current relics are in many ways a bit silly.
Confirmed: Enhancement Shaman buffs for 2.3
Back at Blizzcon, some improvements were previewed for Enhancement shammies that were going to go in "a future patch". It has become apparent as things progress that this patch is probably going to be 2.3, and now we have confirmation of that from Eyonix. Specifically, the details he confirmed for patch 2.3 are as follows: Shamanistic rage will also reduces all damage taken by 30% for the duration of the ability (30 seconds), in addition to its current effect Spirit Weapons will also reduce melee threat by a total of 30% rather than 15% (source) There will be changes that benfefit [sic] the elemental and restoration shaman as well. And yes, more enchancement improvements are absolutely going into patch 2.3. (source) Yes, all shaman will be able to equip 2-handed axes and maces (proper training required of course), without having to spend a talent. In it's place, a seemingly solid replacement talent called elemental focus. Basically, what it offers is this -- after landing a melee critical strike, you'll enter a "focused state". The focused state will reduce the mana cost of your next shock spell by 60%. (source) There is some confusion over whether Spirit Weapons' threat reduction affects yellow damage; Eyonix reports that extensive internal testing shows that it affects white damage and Stormstrike and Windfury procs. He also promises to drop in on a thread discussing Elemental improvements, so keep an eye out for that.
New flight paths and graveyards
The 2.1 news just keeps coming. As well as boatloads of profession changes and new Darkmoon cards, now there is information on two new graveyards and some new flight points and flight paths:New Graveyards Two new graveyards have been added to Blade's Edge Mountains. New Flypaths New flight points: Felwood, Emerald Sanctuary (Both) Ashenvale, Forest Song (Alliance) New flight paths: Stormwind <-> Thorium Point Grom'gol Base Camp <-> Flame Crest Ratchet <-> Gadgetzan, Astranaar, Brackenwall Village Brackenwall Village <-> Ratchet, Camp Taurajo, Freewind Post Thunderbluff <-> Zoram'gar Outpost Evergrove <-> Toshley's Station Honor Hold <-> Shattrath In addition, many flight paths have been adjusted to be shorter, faster flights. I must say, I'm pretty apathetic about flight paths these days. Now that I have my epic flying mount, it's easier just to aim myself towards my destination, fly high, hit runlock, and go AFK. No finding a flight master, no fee, and I can go anywhere. Epic mounts: the only way to fly. Still, these improvements are great for anyone that doesn't yet have the epic, including of course my eight zillion alts. And the new paths and points are all long overdue (very long, for the Azeroth ones).
