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Lichborne: Final notes on patch 5.3 and a legendary shortcut
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. By the time you read this, patch 5.3 should be on live servers. We've already written a couple columns on what patch 5.3 will mean for death knights, but as always, things change on the PTR. With that in mind, this week we'll take a final look at patch 5.3 for death knights and what you can expect and do once the servers are back up (if they aren't already). I also have a couple notes on completing Wrathion's legendary quest line for death knights.
Patch 5.3 PTR: The Kor'kron are taking over
Wowhead posted a short recap of this recently, and of course we had to go and check it out. The Kor'kron, for those who aren't aware, are effectively the Horde Warchief's bodyguards, his secret police, only, they're not so secret these days. Our lore experts clarified for me that, although they're now loyal to Garrosh, they were brought in by Thrall, to keep the Warchief free to do his chiefly things. And now, presumably at Garrosh's behest, they're branching out into invading territories all over Kalimdor. On the PTR, currently at least, the Kor'kron are at their most active in the Northern and Southern Barrens. There, you can find settlements, like the ones pictured above, along with a host of other Kor'kron incursions into this once relatively peaceful area. There are elite mobs, marked on the map by red crosses, which need at least three people to take down, and apparently drop Latent Kor'kron items. At this point, the elites don't seem to tap to anyone, as far as the loot goes at least, but there's also the distinct possibility that I've just been unlucky. You can also have a blast just killing the Kor'kron, although they rarely drop anything at all, let alone anything of use. There are Kor'kron Motivators and other elite mobs within the camps on occasion, too, who drop high quality items. But for me, the most exciting part of the Kor'kron invasion of the Barrens is the caravans.
Addon Spotlight: 6 ways to prepare your UI and addons for patch 5.0.4
We've all heard the news: It's begun. Patch 5.0.4 is on its way in just under two weeks. I'm really excited, and I hope you are too! But what I'm not that excited about is the almost inevitable addon carnage that will ensue. You know how it is -- you have your setup just perfect, you've nipped and tucked and tweaked and coded, and it's running beautifully. Then those crafty folk at Blizzard go and release an expansion, and it all goes Pete Tong, as we say in Essex. (We mean "wrong," by the way; I'm slowly educating you all in the ways of English idiom!) It's not Blizzard's fault. All the broken elements are things they're improving, and we love them for doing so. And it's not the addon developers' fault either. They're doing sterling work bringing everything up to date. It's just that things change. But there are steps you can take to prepare for this, so that the transition between Cataclysm's twilight days and Mists of Pandaria is as easy as possible.
Mortal Kombat's latest patch solves desynchronization errors, makes balance changes
As we've discussed before, fighting games make use of a language unique to the genre: Terms like "OTG" and "yomi" are common across the pantheon of games that populate the modern fighting scene. Within that universal language, however, are several distinct and established dialects, each centered around a different title or series. For instance, in Mortal Kombat's vernacular, there is no word more offensive or infuriating than "desynchronization." The desynchronization error, a plague upon both systems that was eventually quarantined to Xbox Live, caused matches to disconnect after selecting specific DLC costumes, alternate costumes, and default costumes. Thankfully though, the latest patch pushed by NetherRealm Studios seems to have finally cured the pandemic: we tested Scorpion's Klassic Kostume DLC and encountered zero errors, which is a massive improvement over the one-hundred percent guaranteed desynch rate associated with the costume previously. The patch also provides some desperately needed mechanical tweaks and balancing adjustments, and while many of those changes are undocumented, you can peep a list of the important stuff after the break. Fight!
