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Patch 4.3: Shaman tier 13 armor revealed
Continuing with the trend of patch 4.3 tier 13 previews, today shaman get to see what their upcoming tier set looks like. As with the warrior, warlock, and druid sets before it, the shaman set is incredibly detailed. In fact, I'd highly suggest checking out the full-size image in the gallery below to get a closer look at it. The set is called Spiritwalker's Vestments -- pretty aptly named. Blizzard Entertainment The best shaman sets are a mix of the animal and the elemental. This tier combines huge wolf-skull shoulder pads, bone fetishes, and fur with glowing shards of amber crystal. The entire set is lashed together with lengths of rope and heavily stitched leather, which lends the set a savage bearing. source So what do you think? I like it, myself -- so far, tier 13 seems to be embracing the heart of what makes a class. Warriors have battle-hardened armor taken from their greatest kill, warlocks embrace the dark and tainted magics through robes reminiscent of the Old Gods, druids literally wear nature, and now shaman are a hail to the primal days of shaman past. It definitely makes me curious as to what's next. %Gallery-133830%
Patch 4.3: Druid tier 13 armor revealed
So far, the final raid of Cataclysm looks like it is shaping up to be one of the most epic tiers of content we have experienced yet. Warriors and warlocks have gotten previews of their new armor sets coming in patch 4.3, as well as associated transmogrification-centric retrospectives on their previous armor iterations. Druids, your time is now. Sadly, the armor set does not yet have its associated name. We originally surmised that the druid armor would be based on the green dragon aspect Ysera, as the warrior tier was based on an aspect. Looks like we were wrong-ish. Druid tier 13 looks great, somewhat inspired by the world tree Nordrassil, and I'm sure all of the resto druids who actually get to see it most of the time will be very, very happy. I cannot wait to see what it looks like on a Troll, to be honest. %Gallery-133474% Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're talking about the stuff I now pledge to spend all my waking moments and most of my sleeping ones farming outdated content to obtain: old mage armor. So what's this I hear about some newfangled patchamajigger? Transmogrifica-hoochawhatsit? Whachama-void storage? You kids and your crazy doodads and gizmos. There's a buttload of info being released about patch 4.3, but the following literally leaped from the web page as I was reading it, plunged through my widening eye sockets and jacked directly into the pleasure centers of my brain: Patch 4.3 will be bringing us at least two massively important customization options. We will be able to replace the look of our current gear with the look of any other mage gear we possess. We will also have new storage space in which to store all of that gear. There are more details, and you should go read about them if you haven't already. But what we really need to discuss here is how we can best start doing what I'm positive we all desperately want to be doing right this very second: hunting for sweet-looking gear sets. I don't know about you, but I am going to transmogrify every single bit of my tier 12 set the very instant it is possible for me to do so. I will log out on patch night in front of the spot where the transmogrifier guy is going to spawn; then when the servers come back up, I will log in and shove my gold in his pockets as forcefully as I can, so that I don't have to look like a stupid mage candle any longer than absolutely necessary. But the questions I'm asking myself between that magical moment and this one are these: Which gear set do I want to replace it with, and what can I do right this moment to get that gear set in my inventory and ready to deploy the moment such a deployment becomes possible? Click through to see me attempt to answer my own questions.
Patch 4.2: Shaman and warlock tier 12 sets revealed
Building on their previews from last week, Blizzard has released sneak peeks at two more tier 12 sets: shaman and warlock. The warlock set is pretty clearly based on Firelands boss Beth'tilac, the gargantuan fire spider queen; the shaman set is a little more general but you can definitely see influences from old Ragnaros gear like the Crown of Destruction. Besides, we all know that the best shaman sets are ones where chains and exploding rocks are involved, so chalk this one up as a win for patch 4.2. Check out the warlock set after the cut, and be sure to check out our full tier 12 gallery below. %Gallery-122557%
Patch 4.2: Druid tier 12 revealed, new tier armor information and models
Wowhead has put up some excellent shots of the previously unseen druid tier 12 armor set called Obsidium Arborweave, as well as new information about the names of other classes' tier 12 sets. Also, we were anxiously awaiting the new molten giant model -- and lo and behold, it is awesome and is definitely the source of inspiration for the warrior tier 12 set.
Patch 4.2 PTR: Warrior tier 12 and recolors
Though it hasn't had an official preview yet, the tier 12 set for warriors is available in the patch 4.2 PTR files, and Wowhead dug it up along with recolors for all of the other already-previewed tier 12 sets. You can even model them on the race and gender of your choice with the 3-D model viewer. If you can't see from the above picture, yes, those are molten giant heads on your shoulders, which is fitting, given the set's name of "Molten Giant Battlegear." When you're done modeling your set on your character of choice, be sure to check out the preliminary tier 12 set bonuses to go along with it. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered
Ask the Devs, Blizzard's developer community question and answer feature, continues with round 5, an in-depth look at achievements detailing the difficulty of changing achievement, making certain rewards account-wide, and whether removed content is ever going to be a part of the game again. Check out the full question and answer session after the break. Quote: Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide? – Larosh (Europe [German]), Eneia & Payasos (Europe [Spanish]), Rageudder & Kellgros (Europe [English]), ??????? (Europe [Russian]), Nyn (North America/ANZ), ?????? (Korea) A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we're having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features. source
Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor questions answered
Ask the Devs, the ongoing, in-depth Q&A series focusing on specific aspects of World of Warcraft, continues with round 4 answers to your questions about weapons and armor. As in the past, the devs hand picked user questions and gave detailed answers, shedding new light on some of the design intricacies that go into creating the World of Warcraft. There are some interesting questions this time around, as always, and even some more interesting answers. Highlights include the need for more armor models, a cool idea about buying quartermaster outfits, the drop rate of the legendary shards for 10- and 25-man raiding, and an interesting fix to prevent players rolling need on items in the random dungeon finder only to throw them up on the auction house. The full Q&A is after the jump.
Patch 3.2 brings universal tier armor tokens
I had concerns when Blizzard first announced the way bosses would be unlocked in Patch 3.2's new raid instance, the Argent Coliseum. Blizzard has announced that while the first boss is available immediately, other bosses will be unlocked week-by-week. It's not the first time an artificial barrier has been put up for raid progression -- hello Sunwell -- so I guess I'm not shocked by it, but progression wasn't really what I was concerned about.In our current raiding system, each boss drops a pre-determined set of loot. Some bosses drop a token which can be turned in for a piece of armor matching that particular slot, and the boss will always drop this same slot token. Thorim will always drop a shoulder token in Ulduar 10, for example. So the issue is, with the Coliseum officially being our new tier of raiding, with gear that far outclasses Ulduar gear, and with the Coliseum bosses being unlocked each week, it means that players could get screwed out of upgrades. Your chestpiece might not be the greatest, so if you were looking forward to upgrading it, you'd be pretty crushed to find out that the T9 chest token only drops off of the final Coliseum boss -- which will only be available (at best) a month or (at worst) several weeks more than that due to RNG. It turns out that Blizzard was thinking the same thing I was. That's why, with 3.2, Coliseum bosses all drop one of three universal armor tokens -- the Regalia of the Grand Protector, Vanquisher, or Conqueror.
Buying your way through raid content
There's a new game in town, and Artirius of the Aerie Peak server has noticed it, and admittedly, so have I. With attunements gone, it is now possible for any level 70 to go in and see tier 5 and 6 content whenever they want. Of course, they don't generally have a prayer of actually downing bosses unless they have 20-24 well geared people to help them out. That's where gold comes in. With a few thousand gold, you can buy your way into a tier 6 group that doesn't need the tier 6 armor and go along for the ride. A few hours later, you come out on the other end with Illidan dead and a few shiny new drops, even if you've never set foot in Karazhan. It's not just people trying to buy these slots in the trade channel either. As Artirius observes, many raid groups are actively soliciting for buyers for their raid slots. On my own server, one Horde group is trading tier 6 runs for large quantities of certain herbs, promising that all but a few select drops will go to the people who buy their slots with stacks of Netherbloom and Ghost Mushrooms. So what's causing this?
