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Yogg-Saron, Old God of Death speculation
One of the things that caught my eye in the Ulduar preview that was posted awhile ago is the description of Yogg-Saron. The flavor text describes him as 'the Old God of death.' Considering our big target in this expansion, the Lich King, that's extremely interesting.Wrath of the Lich King has heavily hinted at some sort of connection between Yogg-Saron and the Scourge, though we never quite find out what it is. The Scourge make heavy use of Saronite, an ore with Yogg-Saron himself as its origin. When the Alliance investigates this ore in the Dragonblight, they discover the Scourge says Yogg-Saron's name with some degree of hate and contempt.A lot of people fear there's a "puppet of the master" thing surrounding the Lich King, that he's not actually his own power, he belongs to Yogg-Saron. I find this unlikely for one really big reason: The Scourge hates Yogg-Saron, and everybody else that we've run into that have fallen under Yogg-Saron's will either love him utterly or serve him faithfully. If you go to the Saronite Mines in Icecrown and do the quest Slaves to Saronite, you see just how faithful some of his servants become once they've been controlled. If Yogg-Saron were controlling the Lich King, we'd see a very different Scourge.
Insider Trader: Your livelihood after patch 3.1
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Although patch 3.1 is still a few months from going live, it is already shaping up to be a positive force on the professions front. So far, we've been made aware of the following changes: Two new Engineering enchants (attn: tanks and spell power users). An engineered bind on equip blue trinket. A +hit elixir for the level 19 twink community. A deliciously ridiculous number of new glyphs, along with glyph changes. New Blacksmithing bind on equip epics covering spell plate, dps plate and tanking plate, as well as a spell dagger. New juicy, expensive enchants. Finally, a productive use for Black Diamonds. A new Jewelcrafting trinket. Lots of new Leatherworking goodies. Several Tailoring items, including a 32-slot herbing bag. Many current recipes, including Old World and Outland ones, are being rebalanced and updated. For details and analysis, follow me through the break. Keep in mind that these are subject to change, and that we will likely see even more developments in the future.
Patch 3.1 PTR Patch Notes update
The official patch notes have been updated for the Patch 3.1 PTR. You can see a complete list of changes after the break, or take a look at the fully updated notes.This update is much more substantial than the one we posted a couple nights ago. Nonetheless, it has been added to our Patch 3.1 patch notes archive. Via the archive you can also view other iterations of the patch notes to see how things have changed.As always, these notes should be considered incomplete (it's in bold because we can't say it enough). A number of things that are on the PTR are not reflected in the patch notes, and several things that will eventually be on the PTR aren't in the notes either (many of the class changes, for example).Check out WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1 for more information.
Patch 3.1 PTR Patch Notes: Build 9626 v2 and Build 9637
These notes are for PTR Build #9626. These patch notes might be out of date. These notes reflect an update of the official Blizzard PTR notes.Build #9626 was released on February 25th, 2009 around 12:00 a.m. EST. These notes were released on February 27th, 2009 around 5:30 p.m. EST.These notes are also current for PTR Build #9637.You can find the latest PTR Patch 3.1 Patch Notes at the main patch notes post. You can find an archival listing of all patch notes via WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1.
Patch 3.1 PTR Patch Notes: Build 9626
These notes are for PTR Build #9626. These patch notes might be out of date.Build #9626 was released on February 25th, 2009 around 12:00 a.m. EST.You can find the latest PTR Patch 3.1 Patch Notes at the main patch notes post. You can find an archival listing of all patch notes via WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1.
Patch 3.1 PTR Patch Notes: Build 9614
This allows the deathknight to keep the healing from damage done bonus of Blood Presence in any presence, and increases healing received while in Blood Presence. Blood-Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise. Bloody Strikes now increases Blood Boil damage instead of Pestilence.
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Build 9626 Patch Notes Changes
A new Patch 3.1 PTR build is out tonight, build #9626. This build adds some changes and brings a few undocumented changes into their proper documented status. And with this new build, we're going to try something new here at WoW Insider. Each time the patch notes change, we'll bring you a listing of significant changes to them.What's a significant change? Non-grammatical, there are grammar and spelling errors in the patch notes. While people might like to make fun of them, they're not of any consequence. Non-contextual, sometimes the context of a note changes but doesn't really make any difference. Something like a Shield Bash change moved from the Arms tree (where it was mistakenly placed) to the Protection tree (where it belongs). Non-formatting, often times the format of the patch notes will change. This includes things like using ":" or "-" in the appropriate places. These don't concern us. Sometimes the new changes to the patch notes will just be undocumented things becoming documented. But that's important to know too. So after the break you'll see our first go at this. A complete list of the changes from the initial Patch 3.1 PTR build to PTR build #9626. You can also view the fully updated notes, and view an archive of previous iterations of the patch notes.Enjoy!
New Ulduar video from Blizzard
Ulduar is here, and Blizzard has released a new video you can watch above. We see new mobs and animations, get a look at Freya and some vehicle combat, and see some absolutely stunning interiors of the new raid zone.The video lasts just under 2 minutes, and is worth your time to take a look. There is also some Blizzard music along with it, so be sure to have your sound turned up a bit. You can download high resolution versions of the video from Blizzard.Perhaps the coolest thing in the video is around the 1:20 mark where we see a new tram style monorail (cue the Simpson's song). There are also very interesting stain glass like windows shown at the end.Ulduar represents the latest in Blizzard's dungeon making and artistic design, and by the looks of it they're poised to create one helluva masterpiece.For more coverage of Patch 3.1 and Ulduar, check out WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1.
Technical issues in Dalaran makes the PTR nearly unplayable
So you're on the PTR wanting to enjoy all the gooey goodness that is Patch 3.1. You have this urge to go to Dalaran. I mean, it's so pretty right? And there's a bank there, and your hearth stone is probably set to their as well if you don't have a Ring of the Kirin Tor.Wrong. Move.There are hundreds of reports coming in from around the net going up on the official Blizzard forums, tons coming into the WoW Insider Tip Line, and the problem has been experienced by every staff member here that's been on the PTR.You can move no more than a few dozen paces in Dalaran without there being a critical error that causes WoW to crash.There were some early reported rumors that the problem is linked exclusively to ATI video cards, but I can say beyond a doubt that such is not the case – I have an nVidia GeForce GTX 260 I'm getting crashed every few minutes while in Dalaran.
Patch 3.1 PTR Roundup
The release of the Patch 3.1 PTR yesterday was, well, huge. There was a constant stream of information coming in from midnight when the PTR dropped until about 9 p.m. when things finally quieted down a bit. We had over 40 posts yesterday dealing with the patch content – and that's a lot. About three day's worth.One big resources that you can use to help keep track of everything is the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1. We're keeping that up-to-date with all the latest posts and patch information we have. It's one gigantic index of 3.1 goodness, complete with gooey Ulduar yum-yums.The other thing that will help keep all this information in an easy to use place is to take a look after the break where we've got some organization to the posts that was yesterday's chaos. Have a question about the Argent Tournament? Well hey lookie there, we have two posts with lots of information.More after the break!
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR: Death Knight glyphs and undocumented changes
When they said the 3.1 PTR patch notes were incomplete, they weren't kidding. The undocumented changes that have been discovered make the patch notes look like a sketch. But I'm not complaining; it's nice to have actual numbers to go with phrases like "damage increased" or "ranks reduced." So here I'm going to run through the undocumented changes we know about, as well as the new glyphs, and give some reactions. Everything in the official patch notes was covered by Daniel Whitcomb, so I won't be replicating his work here; go ahead and read that first.
Full Tier 8 armor sets beginning to emerge [Updatedx2]
We're starting to see full Tier 8 sets emerge from folks around the web. Many thanks to everyone who's sent us images in!We've compiled what we have in a gallery below. Obviously we'll be adding more to it over the next hours / days as we get more pictures and what not.The druid armor looks particularly cool I think, and is featured on the image above. Click it for a higher resolution image.The warrior set reminds me of Tier 5 from SSC/TK, and I do not like that. Not one bit. But... at least it's not the Paladin Tier 4 set.We'll let you know when we have more sets in for your eyes to enjoy!Update: Shaman Tier 8 gear added.Updatex2: All classes Tier 8 gear added and concept art as well. Big shout out to MMO-Champion for providing the new shots. Click here for first shot of new gallery entries. %Gallery-45769% Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
New PTR announcements [Updated]
A couple of new things about the Patch 3.1 PTR this morning for you all. Dual specs, character copying, premades, downloading, vendors, and PTR release; it's like our own version of lions and tigers and bears, oh my!Premade Characters No plans to have them be available. This doesn't completely rule them out, but Blizzard is usually pretty upfront with us if they're going to allow us to make some premade characters. Dual Spec is not finalized There is a lot of QQ already about dual specs and how they will work. We've seen everyone under the sun now tell us that the system isn't finalized. That means that the level 80 requirement for dual specs is still the way it'll be, but that could change in a heartbeat.
PTR closes, after patch is released
Today the PTRs have closed their doors, officially ending the testing phase of patch 3.0.8. And while there will be some crying folks who say things like "This patch is broke, and they're testing it on live," well, there are some good tissues to be had.It's also good to note that the PTR closed after, not before, the patch was released. Many people, both our readers and several people on staff, use the PTR's status as a barometer for when the patch will come out. And while often its closure heralds in a new patch, it is now evident that its activeness does not mean a patch is not coming. An important point to be had
