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WoW Insider Weekly News Update for Jan. 13, 2012
The WoW Insider Weekly News Update is your source for all the biggest stories from the past week wrapped up in a neat little video package. Mathew McCurley hosts your quick look at this week's biggest news. If you haven't already subscribed to the WoW Insider YouTube channel, you should! News this week: 64-bit client is available for testing. Check out what this means for many players. Cross-realm raids are coming in patch 4.3.2. The Scroll of Resurrection is temporarily unavailable. "Guide dog" players help a blind man experience raid encounters.
The Queue: The serviceman and the "guide dog"
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Seriously, guys, if you didn't read Lisa's article yesterday about the British Army serviceman who lost his eyes in combat and still raids with the help of his guildmates and his "seeing-eye dog" death knight friend, you really should right now. Glorfindan asked: is blizzard ok with guild buying/selling. With in game gold I mean. And will they enforce the deal if one side doesnt? I'm asking cuz my brother is thinkin of buying one and I couldnt find anything on Blizz's page. I'm assuming they are as there are adds on the forums for it, but I wanted to be sure As guilds are technically the property of the guild leader, yes, it's allowable to buy them with in-game gold. Just make sure the transaction is documented with in-game chat so GMs can help you out if something goes awry.
How could tanking design be changed?
Tanking is designed around holding threat and using abilities to stay alive. The current paradigm, wherein tanks work hard to passively gear themselves for predictable incoming damage in order to make healing them easier, has its drawbacks. Tanks usually ignore stats that contribute to threat generation (to a degree that baseline threat generation has repeatedly been increased, currently sitting at five times damage dealt by the tank), which has led to the discussion of active mitigation in the tank design of Mists of Pandaria. The goal is to make tanks desire threat generation stats such as hit and expertise by making them not just threat stats, but also to tie them into survivability. By making threat gen stats also generate resources that are used to actively mitigate incoming damage, the goal is to make tanks want those stats, rather than simply aiming as close to complete coverage of the combat table as they can get, reducing incoming damage to something as reliable and easily anticipated by healers as possible. Tanks currently value dodge, parry, and their mastery stats well over any potential threat generation from hit and expertise. Since we've already seen quite a bit of the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator, we know that design of the new tanking system is probably fairly well advanced. We also know that the monk, another tank/DPS/healing hybrid class, will be debuting with the expansion. Therefore, it's worthwhile to examine tanking changes that could be implemented, even to stretch our vision of tanking significantly past where it is now and most likely past where it will go in Mists.
Patch 4.3.2 PTR official patch notes
Patch 4.3.2 is going to be a relatively minor patch, with one or two big changes -- the 64-bit game client we mentioned earlier today and the cross-realm Raid Finder feature. This is not a content patch, it's a patch with new features (rather than new dungeons or raids). That said, there's still a handful of class changes also going live with patch 4.3.2, and the official patch notes posted earlier today helpfully point them all out. In the Raid Finder, players can no longer win multiple copies of the same item on a single roll. Vengeance will no longer be triggered by taking damage from other players. Hunters, Aspect of the Hawk will now grant roughly 35% more attack power. Priests, Mass Dispel should now be working correctly and prefer dispelling targets that have magic affects that can actually be dispelled.
Patch 4.3 hotfixes for January 9, 2012
It's been a while since we've seen a hotfix announcement, but now that the holidays are over, the hotfixes are back in full swing. Today's list is a short one with no class changes, but it does include some much-needed Darkmoon Faire fixes as well as adjustments to instances and raids. Darkmoon items The Captured Journal and The Enemy's Insignia should now be able to be completed, even if they've been turned in in previous months. Darkmoon Tonks and Darkmoon Zeppelins will no longer become a Horde Balloon after faction-switching from Alliance to Horde. The proc damage from the Vial of Shadows trinket should now be increased by ranged attack power for hunters. Killing bosses in a guild group while using the Dungeon Finder should now award guild reputation and experience. Follow after the break for the full list of hotfixes.
The Queue: Catbed.jpg
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. This is a picture of my roommates' cat playing on my new bedding. Enjoy. Exogenesis asked: I've started a new project, which involves sort of writing a story about my character's levelling process, from her eyes. I chose a draenei, due to a unique prospect, but I'm a little confused - in Ammen Vale, when you hand the blood elf plans to Vindicator Aldar, he says that the blood elves followed them there. Followed them from where? Draenor? I thought blood elves didn't go there until after the draenei left? Kael'thas and his blood elf followers were in Outland after the Third War; they went there with Illidan and Vashj. They took over Tempest Keep, which was the main draenei "ship," and began takeovers of Keep's four satellite ships (the Arcatraz, the Botanica, the Mechanar, and the Exodar). The draenei escaped Outland by flying the Exodar through the Twisting Nether, but blood elf saboteurs caused the ship to crash on Azeroth.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The state of the class
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. So, as of right now, at least for warriors, the following things can be said. Warriors are still competitive as tanks. Two issues that are of concern for warrior tanks is that reaching total coverage for the combat table requires more work than, say, paladins (it's still doable) and once you reach it, stamina becomes far more potent than avoidance, and the tier 13 four set bonus basically puts you in an unenviable position of having to save your Shield Wall (a personal cooldown) to try and cover group damage. In general, warrior cooldowns are lackluster in comparison to other classes. Arms is king of PvE DPS for warriors. It's not really because arms got better, but fury got a lot worse. Mastery is still lackluster for fury (bad for SMF, slightly less bad for TG), hit is still way too hard to cap, and the nerf to Dual-Wield Specialization combined with the fix to the Deep Wounds bug has hammered fury fairly hard. In all cases, Gurthalak is basically the Band-Aid that keeps warriors viable as DPS. If you don't have one, you're doing less DPS even if you have a weapon with competitive stats. I'd replace a heroic Zoid's or Skullstealer with a Raid Finder Gurthalak and consider myself lucky. PvP isn't a lot of fun on a warrior right now. We lack real survivability buttons outside of Shield Wall (which needs a macro to work due to stance switching unless you're prot) and don't put out enough damage or debuffs to stay competitive in the Dragonwrath/Fangs of the Father universe that is PvP right now. (I know, right now it's far more likely the rogue merely has stage 2 daggers. Those are enough.)
Arcane Brilliance: Gearing your mage up for the Raid Finder in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week we discuss some ways to make sure your mage's wardrobe is filled with only the prettiest dresses, most mysterious cowls, sparkliest wands, and ... er, staffiest staves. Patch 4.3 has been with us for a good solid month now, and I sincerely hope that by now we've all escorted our mages through a good portion of the new content it offers. As all the best patches do, 4.3 has ushered in a fresh tier of gear and a new progression hierarchy to follow in getting said gear. Best of all, we have a whole new gearing tool to play with in the Raid Finder. If you happen to be one of those mages who looks at his item level and finds it still languishing somewhere below the minimum requirements to join the battle to vanquish Deathwing, I believe a gearing guide is in order. Without further preamble, I present Arcane Brilliance's Handy Guide to Shiny Things, patch 4.3 edition.
The Queue: The League
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. If you're not watching this show, you really, really should be. Get caught up on Netflix. You don't need to know anything about football to enjoy it. mtsadowski asked: Why are all the Night Elf demon hunters blindfolded? I remember there was one in Nagrand and then there's Illidan. What's the deal with the blindfold? Demon hunters blind themselves to gain access to spectral sight, which allows them to track demons, undead, and other baddies. If I remember correctly, Illidan's case is different, because as the first demon hunter, his eyes were actually burned out by Sargeras to gain the sight. Newer demon hunters perform a ritual that imitates the original action, though obviously not to as great an effect as Illidan.
Permanent price cuts to WoW expansions in the EU
Blizzard has just announced permanent price cuts to the Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions in the EU for 2012. What seems to be a push for easier accessibility to WoW, Wrath now costs only €19.99, down from €34.99 and Cataclysm is now €29.99, down from €34.99. Whether or not these deals are coming to the United States is not known at this time, but I can't really understand why they wouldn't. Getting your WoW account up to date has never been cheaper, and Blizzard is making sure the barrier to entry is as low as possible for new players. Permanent price cuts for WoW expansions in 2012 Great news for all Blizzard fans! From today, our latest games are available at retail and on the Blizzard Store at new, permanently low prices. You can now get Wrath of the Lich King for a mere €19.99 and Cataclysm for just €29.99. There's never been a better time to grab the games you might have missed out on before. Just click here and celebrate the New Year by taking advantage of our new reduced prices. Still don´t have World of Warcraft? Now you can get the full game and all expansions for cheaper than ever before. Want to check out StarCraft II? If you haven't yet taken advantage of our great new price for StarCraft II, you can click here to get yours right away! source Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into 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!
Raid Finder loot rules changing in patch 4.3.2
Zarhym hit the forums to respond to posts discussing the problems and concerns with the current loot system in the Raid Finder. The Raid Finder loot system currently grants a bonus on need roles to classes that could use the item the best, allowing the right loot to go to the right classes. The loot system also does not currently account for whether a player has the item already equipped or has already won the same item on the same boss, resulting in one player winning two of the same item. Coming up in patch 4.3.2, it will no longer be possible to win two of the same item from the same boss. New loot rules coming so quickly seems to be indicative of Blizzard's position on the Raid Finder and its rules -- fluidity is a good thing. With the Raid Finder, more people are seeing raid content then ever, and these players need a different set of rules and a varied approach opposed to classic raiding. As time goes on, you'll be sure to see more tuning to the Raid Finder rules. Hit the jump for the full post.
New Eye of the Legion, Demon Hunter's Aspect are WoW TCG items
Thanks to @Proenix00 on Twitter, we now know that the new Eye of the Legion pet and cosmetic item Demon Hunter's Aspect are rewards from the WoW TCG. Datamined from the new patch 4.3.2 files, these new items have been fueling some talk as to whether Mists of Pandaria would include more Legion-inspired antics or if the launch events leading up to the new expansion would be demonic in nature. The Feldrake mount does not appear in the list of items in the screenshot we have, but it could be possible that the Feldrake mount will get subbed in. We do not yet know which TCG expansion that these items will be available in and whether or not the Feldrake is the equivalent to the Timewalkers Mount that is labelled [DNT] in the screenshot above. Hopefully, it will all be revealed to us soon. The Timewalkers Mount sounds to me like it might be more akin to the new chromatic dragon mount models found in the previous patch. At this point, we do not have concrete details. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into 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!
The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution and the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! Now that everyone has seen plenty of Dragon Soul, I think it's perfect time for a raid guide! In all seriousness, I've always enjoyed looking up other strat ideas and little tidbits of useful information on things that I had already been doing, and there are still plenty of people out there who are either just starting Dragon Soul due to holiday schedules or something similar, so there we go! This week we will take a look at the first four bosses of Dragon Soul: Morchok, Warlord Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping, and Hagara the Stormbinder. Morchok He looks intimidating, but really he's just one big rocky pushover. For the majority of the fight, all you need to focus on is avoiding AoE damage and hitting the boss. In terms of positioning, most strats call for the DPS and healers to stack up at max melee range so that Morchok can focus his extra Stomp damage on your tanks and not you. Therefore, when you see Crusader Strike light up, don't go any further in.
Lichborne: Siege of Wyrmrest Raid Finder advice for the death knight
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. Once you've finished the new patch 4.3 dungeons and gained a bit of loot from them, you may ask yourself: What's next? One of the most obvious answers is the Raid Finder tool. You'll get better loot and faster valor point gain, as well as some starting experience in the raid game if you ever get the desire or chance to join an organized raiding group. Still, the idea of heading into a raid (even a simple one) can be a little daunting, so today I'd like to help allay your fears by giving you a quick look at the first of the Raid Finder scenarios, the Siege of Wyrmrest. Before we get into the boss strategies, though, there are a few things you should get down. Make sure your gear's good enough. If you can, get it gemmed (with strength gems) and enchanted. While you can head into Raid Finder as low as ilevel 372, don't be afraid to pick up an extra piece of gear or two from the heroic dungeons. A good weapon upgrade, for example, will do wonders for your DPS. If you can afford them, consider grabbing some consumables. A Flask of Steelskin and some Lavascale Minestrone for tanks or a Flask of Titanic Strength and some Beer-Basted Crocolisk for DPS will put your performance at the next level, and for a good group, you'll only need one flask to face the whole dungeon. Morchok's easy enough that sometimes I save the flask until we engage the second boss, just to make sure it stretches. Follow your raid leader. A raid is only as good as its raid leader and its members' abilities to follow their raid leaders' instructions, even in Raid Finder. Use these boss strategies, but defer to your raid leader where you can. They don't always know what they're doing, but in Raid Finder, sometimes that doesn't matter; either way, the more everyone works together, the easier things become. Don't Panic and don't get uptight. This is a pickup group, so things will go wrong and people will randomly drop between groups. Just stay loose, have fun, and be prepared to wait a bit for replacements in between each boss. Griping just makes it less fun for everyone.
Don't forget WoW Insider's guide to the Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is in full swing again, from now until Jan. 7. The event has run into some issues this month, but it's still a grand ol' time overall. Many of you are still working on your Darkmoon Faire achievements, however, and others still have yet to step onto the new Darkmoon Island at all. So what can you do at the Faire? What games are there to play? What achievements can you earn? All of those questions and more are answered in our Guide to the new Darkmoon Faire. Don't miss it.
The Queue: Happy New Year
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. A big thank-you to all of our readers and friends for your love and support in 2011. Happy new year, and may 2012 bring you great joy and Asian-themed epics! Jack Spicer asked: When you send emails to users, like for example to say that they've won a 12 days of Christmas prize, what address would the email come from? I want to make sure that I'm not blocking your email communications. The winners of our Winter Veil giveaways will most likely be contacted either from alexziebart at gmail dot com or alex at wowinsider dot com.
Totem Talk: 2011 in review for elemental shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. Josh Myers once only tackled the hard questions about enhancement but has recently expanded his sphere of responsibility to all shaman DPS specs. (And no, two-handed enhancement is still never coming back.) It's hard for me to believe that Cataclysm has only been out for slightly over one year, especially given how we're already on the last raid of the expansion. It's been a turbulent year for the shaman class, and elemental as a spec is no exception. Between legendaries, highly fluctuating DPS, and more tweaks to AoE then I care to count, elemental has had more than its fair share of ups and downs this year. Tier 11: The lows Elemental was not a strong DPS class in the first tier of Cataclysm raiding. Fights like heroic Halfus, Maloriak, and Sinestra brought our lack of competitive AoE damage into the limelight, while Cho'gall, Conclave of Wind, and Ascendant Council all highlighted how elemental's mobile DPS was terribly low. With Unleash Elements and shocks being our only mobile cast -- not to mention low levels of haste that left us with terribly slow Lightning Bolt casts -- and we really struggled to pump out respectable numbers on any fight that wasn't Patchwerk-esque.
The Queue: Big bugs
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. No, not ... not that kind of bug. The other kind. Rhuarc asked: Quick question for readers and writers of the Queue... What's your favorite (harmless/non-game-breaking) bug in game? I'm talking about the silly little bugs that have no effect at all on the game itself, but manage to elicit a chuckle or even a full on "lol" from you when they happen? Honestly, my favorite bug isn't recent at all, and I'm not even sure it exists anymore. It's from launch-era WoW, and it went a little something like this: If you jammed on your strafe keys, moving back and forth mostly in place, you could get your character to stay in one frame of their strafing animation while you moved, and it persisted until you jumped. You could slide around the room like you were ice skating. It was fun. I think it was client-side only, so nearby adventurers couldn't see it, but I could, and it was fun. My second-favorite bug is easily, easily the Booty Bay Death Grip Wormhole.
Big stakes and the end of an expansion
Guys, I don't know if you know this, but we have just pried the elementium plates off of the back of a dragon so big 25 people can stand on him. After that, we killed the mutant kaiju version of him, who was so big his head alone was bigger than us and four other giant dragons. I'm sorry, but you have to be 50 kinds of jaded to not enjoy this. One of the things I've really enjoyed about patch 4.3 and the Dragon Soul raid is how it unabashedly throws massive, crazy, world-ending doomsday events at you. Between fending off not one but two faceless ones from within bloated abominations, balking an ancient earth elemental giant at the base of Wyrmrest Temple, and defeating Ultraxion and then taking on Deathwing himself, the fights feel enormous. The stakes are huge, and while the supposed saviors of Azeroth spend a lot of time thinking really hard at a McGuffin, we step the heck up. Whether you are hitting it via Raid Finder, attending your weekly 10-man hardcore raid, or participating as a member of a casual 25-man raid alliance (or anything in between), in terms of pure aesthetics, Dragon Soul is a very satisfying raid in terms of pure scope and sweep.
The Queue: Post-Winter Veil recovery
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today's edition of The Queue is going to be another short one. Right on the heels of the holiday, there weren't a whole lot of questions to work with. But that means all of you will ask plenty of wonderful questions today so we can get back on track tomorrow, right? Right! beruchan13 asked: don't you think there's just too many red gem slots in the new tier of gear? I understand red slots make gear feel more powerful, but red slots are also for almost every class, with maybe the exception of tanks, the most boring slot since there's no choice to be made, your primary stat goes there, period. With so many red slots it starts to feel like a gold sink rather than an upgrade, as well as driving the price of red gems up the roof.
