TheBurningCrusade
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Burning Crusade skill updates
Well, I'd say "update," really, since the priest racial abilities, now officially confirmed, were already known from beta reports. What is new, however, is some major changes to the Warlock's spellstone. Not sure what a spellstone is? Well, that's understandable -- at present, they're conjered off-hand items that provide a spell crit bonus and can be consumed to absorb magical damage and remove all magical effects from the user. This later was always problematic, as it would remove negative effects, but also wipe high-mana cost buffs like Demon Armor (which costs 1580 mana to cast at level 60). The fact that they were off-hand meant that you couldn't use them with any of the wide array of nice caster staffs -- but they'll now be equipped in the wand slot rather than the off-hand slot. Beyond that, its effect has also been changed -- now it removes all harmful magical effects. And instead of being consumed on use, it has a 3 minute cooldown. I'd say these are pretty solid changes, which will mean my warlock will be seeing a lot more spellstone usage in the future![Note: Linking the European site because the US site seems to be offline this afternoon.]
Burning Crusade release date confirmed
The push back to a January release was disappointing to say the least. And many forum posters have been speculating -- if it were pushed back once, couldn't it be pushed back again? Well, Nethaera says no. Replying to a post citing a January 16the release date (via a European press release), Nethaera says, "This is a solid date. It will not be pushed back." Considering Blizzard's usual reluctance to say anything concrete, I tend to believe them when they do. (Naivete, perhaps.)[Thanks, Yz and Tom!]
Please bear with us...
There really is a story -- perhaps even a funny one, behind all of these awful puns. Occupants of the Hellfire Penninsula in the Outlands, the Fel Reaver is a terrifying sight -- level 70 elites that easily take down lone players in one or two hits. The ground shakes as it approaches and it makes a sound like a train -- but as of the last beta patch, their huge and ominous forms were replaced. With grizzly bear models. As you can imagine, much hilarity has ensued. In the form of countless "bear" related puns...[Thanks, Mordiceius]
Expansion blacksmithing items
In the most recent professions preview, Blizzard mentioned epic blacksmithing gear that would be upgradable -- it would improve as you progressed through the game rather than being quickly replaced by dungeon drops. Of course, no details were provided at the time. However, the dedicated folks on the World of Raids forums have rounded up some screenshots from the blacksmithing trainer in the beta -- showing what the blacksmith to be can expect from the expansion. There appear to be one-handed and two-handed options for each weapon type, as well as a mail and plate set of armor for the armorsmiths. (My question: where's the gear for a caster style paladin?)
Around Azeroth: The crypts of Karazhan
Reader Matt sends in this, one of the creepiest shots of Azeroth I've seen. (And beyond "creepy" I can't come up with any good words to describe it.) It is the interior of the crypts of Karazhan, dungeon to be opened with the Burning Crusade. Not officially opened, but some people will always find ways...Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
World PvP in the Burning Crusade: Nagrand
World of Raids has a great preview of Nagrand -- covering both the gear you can get there and how to get it. The zone sounds to be a PvP playground -- though obtaining gear there will require both PvE and PvP work within the zone. The rewards are nice blues (with a single epic jewel) that seem to be not too difficult to obtain, at least not compared to current PvP gear standards. They are purchased with tokens, one type of token acquired from killing opponents in PvP within the zone (one Halaa battle token per kill) and the other type acquired by killing NPC opponents within the zone (Crystal Powder, which drops from NPCs, is turned in for Halaa research tokens). The gear itself costs between 20 to 40 of the battle tokens as well as 1 or 2 research tokens (requiring 20 to 40 Crystal Powder), with the epic costing 500 battle tokens. So I'd imagine that a few hours of PvP could well result in several pieces of gear, if you were after it. To access buy gear and obtain the research tokens, your faction must have access to the neutral city of Halaa in the center of the zone. To do this, you must kill off all the guards and occupy the city -- a "bomb run" to slaughter the guards shown in the video above. Such fun!
New battleground stats in the Burning Crusade
This isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but is an interesting new quirk in the expansion's battleground stats screen. As you can see in the screenshot above, in addition to the usual information on killing blows, deaths, honorable kills, and bonus honor, there's also data on damage done and healing done -- providing us with with an interesting new perspective on battleground participation. I like it!P.s.: The link from this story goes to a German site with a slightly larger screenshot -- I don't know much German, except that clicking "schliessen" in the upper right will close those pop-up ads.
New BC information quietly posted [Updated]
Stealth buffs seem so silly to me. Why would they want to sneak in good stuff without announcing it? But there's a new section in the Burning Crusade spells page for every class giving information on spells obtained from talents, and it contains some interesting info that's not matched by the talent calculator. (Maybe these are just typos?)More than one commenter has noted the pet abilities were linked from the main page. So, less than stealthy... However, with the flakey uptime of the main page, lack of forum post announcement, and lack of mirrored information on the (occasionally more reliable) European page, I didn't see the announcement until, obviously, after posting this.Specifically, on the priest's page, I see the following changes (okay, they're not all buffs): Pain Suppression: Now has a 30 yard range -- suggesting it's targetable. Circle of Healing: Now has a super exciting 3 minute cooldown. Vampiric Touch: Now instant cast. Nethaera has confirmed that these changes were a mistake -- the talent calculator's version is accurate. (In other news, my priest is back on retirement status.) On the warlock's page, there's a great new listing of Felguard abilities: Demonic Frenzy, Requires Level 56, Passive: The Felguard's damaging melee attacks cause a demonic frenzy, increasing attack power by 5% for 10 sec. This effect can stack up to 10 times. Avoidance, Requires Level 60, Passive: Increases your chance to avoid area of effect attacks by an additional 50%. Anguish, Requires Level 50, 90 Mana, 5 yd range, Instant cast, 5 sec cooldown: Taunts the creature, increasing the chance that it will attack the Felguard. Cleave, Rank 1, Requires Level 50, 295 Mana, 5 yd range, Instant cast, 6 sec cooldown: A sweeping attack that does your weapon damage plus 32 to the target and his nearest ally. (Rank 2: 295 Mana, plus 50 damage; Rank 3: 295 Mana, plus 78 damage) Intercept, Rank 1, Requires Level 52, 145 Mana, 8-25 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown: Charge an enemy, causing 65 damage and stunning it for 3 sec. (Rank 2: 160 Mana, 85 damage; Rank 3: 195 Mana, 105 damage) On the mage's page, there's a new listing of water elemental abilities: Waterbolt, Requires Level 50, 224 Mana, 35 yd range, 2.5 sec cast: Deals 486 to 558 Frost damage to the target. Frost Nova, Requires Level 50, 313 Mana, 35 yd range, Instant cast, 25 sec cooldown: Blasts enemies in a 8 yard radius for 114 to 126 Frost damage and freezes them in place for up to 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Update: Update on "stealth" status of changes, update on the legitimacy of the priest changes, and added water elemental info.
Hey! Update your info!
I know, when you log on to the game those first messages tend to fly by so fast that you might not notice them at all. But these yellow text messages tend to be important... unlike the nonsense that's likely to come after. Yellow text informs us of emergency reboots and these login messages usually informative of things so important that everyone needs to see them. But this one? It tells us to make sure our contact information is up to date -- you know, in case they need to contact us. Now, I know I'm getting dangerously close to the realm of conspiracy theory, but why would Blizzard need to contact us? And why would anything be important enough to make an in-game alert to advise us to update our contact information? The obvious answer to me is beta invites -- though I may just have Burning Crusade on the brain. It would not at all surprise me, however, to see the beta opened up to a larger and larger pool of players as the expansion release nears, giving Blizzard a heavier stress test of the Outlands zones. Of course, this may not actually be a sign of that. Maybe Blizzard just thinks it's really important to update your account information.
Burning Crusade Talent Updates
They just keep coming. Today's changes focus on the shaman, with several tweaks for their elemental and enhancement trees. I don't find these changes awe-inspiring, but they aren't bad news, either. Parry - Renamed Spirit Weapons. Now "Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks and reduces the threat generated by your melee attacks by 15%." Mental Quickness - Moved to Unleashed Rage position. Unleashed Rage - Moved to Dual Wield Specialization position. Dual Wield Specialization - Moved to Mental Quickness position, reduced to 3 ranks for 2/4/6% hit chance. Still requires Dual Wield. Totem of Wrath - Now "...increases the chance to hit and critically hit with spells by 3% to all..." Elemental Precision - Now "Increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost and Nature spells by 1/2/3% and reduces the threat caused by Fire, Frost and Nature spells by 4/7/10%."
A later release means... more beta invites?
Well, Nethaera didn't phrase it quite in that way, but she did confirm that there are still opportunities to get a beta invite. While Blizzcon attendees and beta contest winners have guaranteed entry, there are still invites for players who were neither. Nethaera advises us to keep an eye on fan sites and Blizzard's own site for possible information on how to get yourself into the beta test -- though, no, she can't tell you when you might expect to see anything.
5-player epics confirmed in the expansion
In a post on the beta forums, Tigole has confirmed that we will see epic drops in 5-player dungeons on "hard" mode. Level 70 dungeons on "hard" will have epic loot tables and lower level dungeons on "hard" will have level 70 loot tables. Of course, without solid information (yet!) on what drops and where, raid dungeons may still be contain the very best items -- but for now you can look forward to finding some very nice gear without gathering more than 5 other players. Anti-social folks like myself are no doubt rejoicing at this very moment.[Thanks, Chris!]
Burning Crusade mounts: Talbuk
In a recent post about mounts in the Burning Crusade, there were screenshots of the Talbuk, a mount listed, interestingly, as of "neutral" faction. And my curiosity about what that meant has finally been appeased by Aofto, who tells us this is a reward for reaching exalted with your respective city in Nagrand -- and provides plenty of screenshots of the mount itself. Nifty!
The truth about combat stats in the expansion
Eyonix presents us with the raw numbers behind combat ratings in the expansion -- both for level 60s and level 70s. The various combat ratings will replace percentage-based bonuses and different amounts of each will apply to different amounts of various things, depending on level. Specifically, we now know the following...At level 60... Weapon Skill Rating: 2.5 rating grants 1 weapon skill Hit Rating: 10 rating grants 1% hit chance Spell Hit Rating: 8 rating grants 1% spell hit chance Critical Strike Rating: 14 rating grants 1% critical strike chance Spell Critical Strike Rating: 14 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance Haste Rating: 10 rating 1% haste Spell Haste Rating: 10 rating grants 1% spell haste Defense Skill Rating: 1.5 rating grants 1 defense skill (And for every 25 defense, you gain 1% dodge, 1% parry, 1% block chance, 1% decreased chance to be hit, 1% decreased chance to be critically hit.) Dodge Rating: 12 rating grants 1% dodge Parry Rating: 20 rating grants 1% parry Block Rating: 5 rating grants 1% block chance Resilience Rating: 25 rating grants 1% resilience (Which reduces your chance to be critically hit by 1% and reduces the damage of criticals by 2%) At level 70... Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 weapon skill Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% haste Spell Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% spell haste Defense Skill Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance Parry Rating: 31.5 rating grants 1% parry Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes
Inside the Caverns of Time
Most of us can't get there yet, but Vhell has posted an excellent writeup of the instance on the Curse Gaming forums. It sounds and looks like a lot of fun -- an exciting romp through Warcraft history, with plenty of good loot rewards along the way. However, Vhell did notice the downside of the zone:First thing that I noticed after zoning in is that I was suddenly ugly. Not only that, but a human! I know that I'm bald and everything, but human? That's just an insult to my character. Everyone in the group becomes afflicted by a buff that switches their race to a more appropriate one to the instance.
More BC talent updates
I'm not sure how I missed out on these recent talent changes when they were posted, but here they are nevertheless. Blizzard is really twisting my arm here to try to get me back to playing a warlock again, but we also have a paladin and priest change.Warlock Demonic Sacrifice - Felguard effect now restores 2% mana every 6 sec. (changed from 2% every 4 sec.) in addition to the 10% damage increase. Master Demonologist - Felguard effect tooltip corrected to increase damage by 1/2/3/4/5% and resistances by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 per level. Unholy Power - Now also "...increases all Shadow and Fire damage you cause by 1/2/3/4/5%." Paladin Seal of Blood - Additional weapon damage increased to 40%, from 30%. Priest Vampiric Touch - Rank 3 now costs 425 mana.
Burning Crusade priest talent review
When I saw the first-released Burning Crusade talents, I was very impressed. Looking from a healer's perspective, I envied the paladin's new holy tree (and determined to roll a Horde paladin when the expansion arrived). And the warlock changes (I have a retired level 60 warlock) made me want to dust off my warlock and start raiding with it again. So I had high expectations -- and the initial talent release disappointed me. However, Blizzard has more recently released some revisions to the priest talent trees which are somewhat more interesting, and at least make me stop to think before deciding I should immediately reroll. (I have already reserved the character name "Rerolled" on my realm for my paladin-to-be, just in case.) Read on for talent-by-talent impressions...
Yet more BC talent updates
They just don't stop, do they? Today's changes make me wonder why I ever stopped playing my warlock (they keep getting better and better!) and also provide a number of interesting rogue changes. I've included the main part of the changes below, but edited out some minor details about updated graphics and the like, so check Nethaera's post if you want every last bit of possible information.Warlock Improved Firestone - Renamed "Master Conjuror". Now "Increases the bonus Fire damage from Firestones and the Firestone effect by 15/30% and increases the spell critical strike rating bonus of your Spellstone by 15/30%." Improved Spellstone - Removed, replaced with "Demonic Knowledge". (NEW) Demonic Knowledge - 3 ranks. "Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 5/10/15% of the total of your active demon's Stamina plus Intellect." Demonic Resilience - Now "Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee and spells by 1/2/3% and reduces all damage your summoned demon takes by 5/10/15%." Fel Intellect - Now "Increases the Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 5/10/15% and increases your maximum mana by 1/2/3%." Fel Stamina - Now "Increases the Stamina of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 5/10/15% and increases your maximum health by 1/2/3%." Demonic Sacrifice - Added effect for Felguard: "Felguard: Increases your Shadow damage by 10% and restores 2% of total mana every 4 sec." Master Demonologist - Added effect for Felguard: "Felguard - Increases all damage caused by 5% and all resistances by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 per level." Rogue Disembowel - Removed. (NEW) Envenom - Replaces Disembowel. Two ranks and is available at level 62. "Finishing move that consumes your Deadly Poison doses on the target and deals instant poison damage. One dose is consumed for each combo point." Vitality - Now "Increases your total Stamina by 2/4% and your total Agility by 1/2%." Surprise Attacks - Changed to 8% from 5%. Cheat Death - Now 3 ranks for 10/20/30% chance. Sinister Calling - Now "Increases your total Agility by 3/6/9/12/15%." Cloak of Shadows - Now "Instantly removes all existing harmful spell effects and increases your chance to resist all spells by 90% for 5 sec." Warrior Endless Rage - Description changed: "You generate 25% more rage from damage dealt." Blood Frenzy - Description changed: "Your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all melee damage caused to that target by 2/4%." Hunter Combat Experience - Now "Increases your total Agility by 1/2% and your total Intellect by 3/6%."
New LFG interface announced
We saw some leaked screenshots not too long ago, but now we have official news of an interesting new LFG interface. And, if we're lucky, players might actually use it. Via this new interface panel, you can select what sort of things you might be wanting to group for, and other players can use the same interface to find folks interested in grouping for the same activities. Tobold also gives some information on this system in the first of his Burning Crusade journal entries, in which he notes that most players still seem to shout out for players via the old LFG line. Hopefully by the time the expansion is released, we'll see a whole slew of players making use of this feature.
Burning Crusade profession updates
Some of this has been categorized as rumor before, but now there's official word on some updates for existing professions. All crafting professions can expect new recipes and all gathering professions can expect new types of item to gather, but there are a few interesting tidbits mentioned as well. Alchemy will have specializations that will occasionally allow the player two create two of their specialization's items. (Potions, elixirs, and transmutations.) Blacksmiths will be given powerful bind on pickup items for their specialization. These items will be upgradable to keep up with the blacksmith's progression in the game. (Nope, there are no further details on this yet.) Enchantments now seem to have a minimum level requirement (based on the sample enchants being shown) and there will be new enchants for rings in the game. Engineers are promised "many new and intense gadgets" but I'm not personally impressed by any of the previewed items. Herbalists can expect to find plant-based monsters beyond the Dark Portal from which a trained herbalist will be able to harvest herbs, much like a skinner skins beasts. Jewelcrafting will, as we know, allow for the creation of necklaces, rings, trinkets, and socketable gems. If you match the color of the gems to the color of the sockets on a socketed item, you'll receive an additional bonus from them. Leatherworking will offer more high-end armor options, with claims of viable crafted gear to help you venture into end-game dungeons. Miners will also find some creatures of the Outlands to yield harvestable minerals when killed. Tailoring is set to have its own specializations, though there's no announcement on what these will be, the specializations will allow the creation of multiple items occasionally, like alchemy. Most interesting, however, are the tailor-made (and tailoring skill required to use) nets that can be used to capture targets for several seconds. [Thanks, Bonemouse!]
