Epic jewelcrafting recipes go factional on the PTR, goggles and tier 6 gear also get changes.
has discovered something hiding in the latest patch build: All the epic gem cut recipes from current 25 mans will now be available from the Shattered Sun Offensive at various reputation levels.
While no vendor has been found for them, the most likely candidate would seem be Shaani, one of the new NPCs we mentioned yesterday. In fact, I would call this even further evidence for the likelihood of epic gem transmutes from the lab set up by Mar'nah from the Razorthorn Rise daily, also mentioned in that article. Certainly, if casuals will be able to learn epic gem cuts from a daily grind reputation, it would make sense that they'd also be able to obtain epic gems to cut from somewhere other than the AH. It really does seem like Blizzard is preparing for Wrath of the Lich King with this patch, giving more and more opportunities for the casual player to catch up so they can start the expansion on a much more equal footing with the raiding player than they did for the Burning Crusade.
In other item and trade skill news from the latest build, the new goggles will now require more ingredients to make, mostly extra primals of various types.
Finally, most of the new tier 6 gear had previously been stripped of stamina, but now has it back, though in slightly smaller amounts than before. This should be good news to all those Druid Tanks who were a bit concerned about what use the gear would be for them, at the least.
Oh, and the scaling bug continues to be hilarious.
