Scott Andrews
Articles by Scott Andrews
WoW Archivist: It's a secret to everybody -- the Linken quest line
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? In the original version of Un'goro Crater, players with a penchant for exploration and a keen eye could find a mysterious quest near a small pond. The first players to find it had no idea that they were embarking on one of vanilla's most epic and celebrated quest lines, and one of Blizzard's most elaborate easter eggs. The chain was a tribute to many of the key moments and tropes in the beloved Legend of Zelda series. It took you up and down Kalimdor multiple times to solve puzzles, forge magical weapons, face deadly enemies, and ultimately find the legendary Triforce Golden Flame. Sadly, the Cataclysm erased the Linken quest line and it can no longer be completed. Let's relive the glory that was. Wreck it, raft Finding this quest early in vanilla was not simple. No quest took you to this area. No floating exclamation point marked it back then, either. To begin the quest line, you had to spot a clickable object called A Wrecked Raft. The raft gave you the quest It's a Secret to Everybody. The quest name referenced the original Legend of Zelda game. An enemy moblin would sometimes offer you rupees, presumably in exchange for keeping their help a secret (to everybody). Once you found the hidden quest from the raft, you were faced with another mystery. The quest text read, A destroyed raft rests along the shoreline. Considering this is only a small pond, it is not clear as to how it ended up here, although looking at the trees tells you that the water level may not be constant. Perhaps a little exploration in the area might uncover more clues...
Officers' Quarters: Thundering up to 25
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Lately Blizzard has been moving toward making 25-man raids more rewarding again. They've already done so in Asia. Elsewhere, they are trying something new with Thunderforged items, which will drop more frequently in larger raids. Time will tell if this is enough to save 25s. In the meantime, some guilds, like the one in the email below, are thinking about making the leap from 10s. Hello Scott! Very long time reader - first time writer! I love this blog - you have given some really awesome advice, and now I'm looking for some myself, oh wise one! I'm a GL of a 10 man raiding guild. I've seen guilds fall apart around me, and I've seen guilds hold strong through the past 6 months. I'm proud to say that my 2 year old guild is doing fantastic. So, what's the problem? We're doing perhaps a little *too* well. We've been getting applicants without having been actively recruiting. We've brought in some great members. We rarely turn applicants away - if they seem like a great fit, we work with them to give them the opportunity to raid with us. We run two 10-man groups, but with new members coming in that want to raid, we're having to sit people. Now there are rumblings and whispers about running 25s.
Officers' Quarters: 7 tips for becoming an officer
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. So you've been reading Officers' Quarters for years and you're curious about this whole leadership thing, but you don't know how to go about getting the attention of the existing officers. This week, a player follows up on a previous OQ column to ask how she can get promoted. I've got seven pieces of advice for her, but first, the email: Hey there Scott! Awhile ago, I wrote you about starting my own guild with a few family members, and you advised me to stay in my current guild and work my way up to officer. After reading your advice, I have a few follow-up questions. My main concern is how to go about becoming an officer. I don't want to necessarily just blurt out "hey, I wanna be an officer", because if I were the GL, I'd think that the person who said that was demanding the position. However, if I don't say anything, how will the GL know I'm interested? Like I said, I know I'm not owed anything. I really love the guild I'm in and have lots of ways I'd like to see the guild improve. Any advice you can give would be great. Thanks, Guilded Warrior
WoW Archivist: Many memes, handle it
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Last week, Archivist celebrated the Ulduar raid, including Thorim's famous IN THE MOUNTAINS speech -- one of Wrath's most memorable memes. In its eight years, World of Warcraft and its players have spawned dozens of memes. Today, Archivist remembers some of the best and most enduring. If you've ever wondered where some of these memes come from, read on! The earliest memes WoW memes began almost instantly after the game's release. One of the first was Mankrik's wife. For an early Horde quest in the Barrens, the orc Mankrik sent you to locate her. His directions were rather vague, so many players had trouble locating her. It didn't help that she wasn't an upright and alive NPC, but rather a dead body laying on the ground -- killed by marauding quilboars. Confused players asked where they could find her in the zone's chat. Many, many players. Because the massive zone spanned 15 levels, everyone leveling through it saw that same question asked over and over again. It got to the point where people would ask just to troll the chat channel. The quest is no longer in the game, but players can now visit her grave near Grol'dom Farm. Trolling Barrens chat became something of a hobby for early players. Many in the Horde didn't know about the other leveling zones across the ocean. Some who did ran up against the ongoing Tarren Mill/Southshore lagfest wars and took the first boat back to Kalimdor. The combination of a captive audience and a high saturation of new players made the Barrens the perfect zone to troll. In time, Barrens chat became its own meme, even inspiring T shirts.
Officers' Quarters: All star team
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. This week, a raid leader faces a difficult decision: stay with his current guild or join the hottest raid team on the realm. (FYI, this email is from mid November so adjust your progression expectations accordingly.) Hello, I am in a conundrum and require some help. I am a Raid Leader for a guild, and have been since early Dragon Soul for this guild (2 years in total). our team has always gotten content down, just took a long while to due so, usually to low numbers and unskilled players and poor attendance. We have been progressing through Mogu'Shan Vaults and Heart of Fear with some pace, just getting Zor'lok and Will of the Emperor this Thursday on Normal. Now i am one to play to the utmost caliber, pushing the limits of my class (Blood DK) with both mitigation and damage, even ranking on all bosses killed aside from Elegon. Now here's where my issue is, a guild on the server that was just recently formed and stomped 6/6 MSV and 4/6 HoF in 1 week has asked me to tank for them.
Officers' Quarters: An overhealing intervention
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Healing can be a tricky thing to evaluate, but crazy overhealing combined with mana problems makes for an easy diagnosis. This week, an officer wonders how she can approach the problem in a guild where constructive criticism isn't always welcome. Hi Scott: I am an officer and raid healer in a casual raiding guild that has a 10-man team attempting current content. We aren't progressing fast ... but everyone feels good about where we are. Except for me. Don't get me wrong. I am never frustrated with the group as a whole for our attempts. Most of us are parents with full time jobs and there are only a few who have the time to even hit VP cap during the week. Some are (rightfully) terrified of LFR. But almost everyone gives 110 percent. My issue is with my co-healer, who handles tank healing. This person is a good sport and a good player. They contribute to raid materials, are always willing to help gear folks, and they are always at raid on time and ready – three big wins in any officer's book. The issue is that they are a really bad healer. They are constantly overhealing encounters by 20 to 60 percent of total healing and are out of mana before the encounter is half over – after cooldowns. They are always on the top of the healing charts, but their effective healing (total healing minus overhealing) is way low.
WoW Archivist: The triumph and tragedy of Ulduar
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? With patch 5.2 on the PTR, everyone is talking about Mists' next tier of raiding content. If the buzz seems more intense than usual, it might be because of the hints that Ghostcrawler and others at Blizzard have dropped comparing the Throne of Thunder to Wrath's Ulduar raid. Perhaps it's too soon to revisit Ulduar in an Archivist column. After all, the raid went live less than four years ago. I don't care. I want to talk about how amazing this place was, how Blizzard still managed to screw up such a good thing, and why we should all be excited for an Ulduar-style raid in 5.2. Put the rose-colored glasses away here, folks. You don't need them -- Ulduar really was that fantastic.
Officers' Quarters: 3 resolutions to improve your guild in 2013
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. If your guild has been struggling during the last weeks of 2012, now is the time to take steps that ensure a better 2013. Here are three ways you could get the New Year started off right. 1. Add fresh blood to the officer ranks. Are your current officers pushing themselves too hard? Or are they doing barely anything at all? If so, then it's high time you took a look at what needs to be done around the guild and who's actually doing it. You may have some lame-duck officers who shouldn't be officers anymore, and some hard-working regular members who deserve a promotion. Adding new officers -- and/or culling useless ones -- can energize your leadership corps. Having more hands to man the ship can spread the work around and ease burnout symptoms. New officers also means new ideas that can spark new guild activities or better approaches to old ones. New officers can also inject some much-needed enthusiasm as they seek to make their mark and prove to the vets that they are worthy of the rank. If your guild has been stagnating lately, a new officer or two can liven things up.
Officers' Quarters: Three questions from a raid leader
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Today's email comes from a raid leader with three different questions regarding raid comps, bank mats, and problem raiders. Let's jump right into it! Hello Scott, I am currently a high officer in a a new 25 raiding guild, MT and fairly new raid leader. ... Recently, after a pug for MV, 4 new raiders decided to join our roster, enabling for us to have a full raid group. The issue comes then, in to parts: Since the problems we've had finding raiders, we were "forced" to take those 4 new guild mates, making a core group not as efficient due to lack of variety, therefore buffs, abilities, cooldowns, etc. How inconvenient truely is this composition with repeated classes? Furthermore, I would ask you for advice on how to encourage members to contribute with mats, Golden Lotus for example, to the gbank such as other raiding comodities? Nevertheless, the main reason I was willing to write to you, is the fact that we have two of those new raiders too close-minded.
WoW Archivist: WoW's zaniest merchandise
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? With only five shopping days left until the Feast of Winter Veil, it is officially holiday crunch time. To inspire you in your shopping goals or maybe point out the perfect gift for that special raider in your life, WoW Archivist presents the zaniest WoW-themed real-world merchandise of all time. Strange swag Every BlizzCon has its swag bag, but 2008's edition, celebrating the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, has to be the zaniest ever. In addition to Diablo III "sinamints," a can of "zerg creep" goop, and a pandaren beer cozy, the bag included an inflatable Frostmourne or an inflatable "Bubble Hearth Beach Ball." The latter is a Divinely Shielded dwarf using an uninterruptable hearthstone -- in beach ball form. The bag also included a package of tissues labeled "QQ noob," masks of Azeroth's races (reminiscent of the Hallow's End in-game versions), and a Frostmourne keychain. The keychain is notable for its several outward-facing spikes. It takes falling on your keys to a whole new level of pain. The full-size Frostmourne replica is more dangerous, but you're also not carrying it around in your pocket mere centimeters from your genitals. Or are you?
Officers' Quarters: Mandate disaster
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. In our quest to keep our guilds healthy, officers can sometimes become overzealous. This week, a guild leader tries a bit too hard to get some recruiting help from her officers. ... I paid to move a guild we started on an RP PVP realm from there to an RP PVE realm, which is where we are now. Initially I took the GM slot with two co-gm's and two officers out the gates. Since then we've grown a little and recruited two class officers to help out. Things were going great ... but the guild has been faltering, failing a little, even. To try and bolster ranks and get things going, we three gm's decided to hold a series of meetings to get input and feedback, as well as to make it known our intentions for the guild ... The first meeting was just the three of us. We decided on several issues as a group after discussing them. We changed some policies, and made a decision to require a little more involvement from our officers, be it recruitment, activity on the guild forums, active roleplay, etc. We really weren't going to ask for a lot, just some help here and there. We realized they had work or school they dealt with, sometimes both, but then so did we. ... All in all, the meeting was a hit! I really felt things were going to be working better and the guild was going to thrive because of these new changes.
Officers' Quarters: Too much Stormstout ale
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Adult raiders are free to enjoy a few adult beverages while they raid. This week, a guild leader wonders what to do when a raider has a few too many and ruins a night of raiding. (He also asks about raid scheduling, which isn't nearly as interesting, but we'll talk about it anyway.) Hi Scott, Yes, it's me again, Apocalyptic GM, sorry to be bothering you again, but you did such a good job last time of giving advice, that i felt the need to come to you again, especially now that two further large problems have arisen within my guild. Firstly, the issue of raiding days. Currently i work shifts of 4 on 4 off at night time, which means i am only available for every 4 out of 8 days. We raided fine with this for the last 6 months ... but recently there has been some descent among the ranks, and complaints that people aren't happy with the current raiding days set up, and this hampering our time raiding. Now I could easily change to a fixed raiding days, but that would leave me frequently absent from raids, which is not something i would prefer. And this leaves me in a pickle as to what to do. As guild master and raid leader I feel I should be able to set up raids to suit me, but then I also feel I should better accomodate my guild.
WoW Archivist: The keys to content
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Keys in WoW have come in many forms. Some hang around our neck. Some hide in belts. Others open aircraft hangars or other, very special places. Some let us pretend to be rogues. Some never made it to the live game. Some we eat or play with. Some help us get the mail or reach new heights. We find some in unexpected places. A few are just trash. This column is not about those keys. This is about the keys that used to be a Big Deal. The keys that people went to extraordinary lengths to obtain. The keys that put you on everyone's friends list. The keys to content. Literal gates Today, content is rarely locked. Players take it for granted that when a new dungeon or raid goes live, they will have immediate access. For the first half of WoW's history, however, this was not the case at all. Vanilla WoW locked away virtually all of its end-game content. Raids required attunement, which means that every single person in your raid had to complete a certain quest line. Keys worked differently. Content that required a key wasn't gated according to some arbitrary release schedule, such as the Heart of Fear -- but by actual gates.
Officers' Quarters: My rant about raid roles
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. It's been a long time since my last rant, but I read something today that really irked me, and now I feel compelled to write this column. I don't want to quote the email because the person involved asked a question that had nothing to do with this topic, and he was really just an innocent bystander getting hit with the shrapnel of a raid team willfully blowing itself up. The part of his email that set me off was essentially this: "Our realm has very few healers, and we haven't been able to recruit one for months. As a result, our raid team is disbanding, and the raiders are going their separate ways. Our guild might lose every single officer except me." To this I respond: What a bunch of selfish jerks.
WoW Archivist: 2.1 Patch Notes part 2
World of Warcraft patch 2.1 (continued) Additional Profession Changes You can now unspecialize in tailoring and alchemy, and then select a new specialization. This is a repeatable choice, but costs gold each time. Skinning higher level creatures will give more leather; you will no longer get a single leather scrap. Reduced the time required to skin. Gathering skills no longer fail when you have reached the maximum skill possible. The Stoneforged Claymore model has been updated. Fel Iron Bars now have an icon unique from Felsteel Bars. Felsteel Bars are now good quality (green items). The Tailoring recipe Ebon Shadowbag no longer drops from Spirit Walkers. Profession recipes that had 24 hour or longer cooldowns, have had their cooldowns reduced by 1 hour. Added Warped Flesh to high level warpstalkers. Alliance Cooks can now purchase the Mok'Nathal Shortrib and Crunchy Serpent recipes at Toshley's Station. Monsters will now attack players who are mining mineral nodes near to them, even if they didn't notice them previously. Golden Spellthread and Runic Spellthread have been slightly improved. Enchant Weapon- Major Spellpower enchant has been stolen from the Razaani spell thieves by the Bash'ir spell thieves. The Bash'ir are more likely to have the recipe than the Razaani previously did, however. Imbued Netherweave Tunic and Robe recipes are vendor purchased so are now white instead of blue. The location of many of the Outland mineral nodes have been adjusted both to put them in locations that are more traveled and to make them more likely to be near creatures. Essences (Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Living) have had their drop rates significantly increased. Also Outland creatures that dropped motes will now have a chance of dropping essences as well. Materials required to make the Blacksmithing Adamantite plate armor have been reduced. Motes of Shadow now primarily drop from void creatures and have beenremoved from nearly all demons. Void Crystals maximum stack size increased to 20 from 10. Quest You can now interact with wanted posters while mounted. Grishnath Orbs can no longer be interacted with unless the character is on the quest, Exorcising the Trees. The Ammen Vale quest, Rescue the Survivors! is now properly flagged as draenei-only. Non-draenei who have this quest in their log should abandon it. Fixed a grammatical error in the quest, The Ring of Mmmrrrggglll. The quest, Defiling Uther's Tomb no longer has a time limit attached to it. The level for the Hellfire Peninsula quest, Natural Remedies hasbeen dropped from 64 to 63. The Shadowy Disguise for the quest, Who Are They? can no longer be gained while shapeshifted. Adjusted a few Restless Bones piles in the Bone Wastes so that they were not under the ground. Fixed an issue with the quest, Sabotage the Warp-Gate!, which would sometimes fail the escort as it began. The Blade's Edge Mountains quest, On Spirit's Wings is no longer shareable. Fixed some typos in the quest, Reunion. Completing the Horde quest, Reunion, will now auto-launch the next quest in the series, On Spirit's Wings. Directions to the Bloodmaul Camp are now included in the quest, The Smallest Creatures. The Horde version of the quest, Gorgrom the Dragon-Eater is no longer shareable. Completing the Horde version of the quest Gorgrom the Dragon-Eater will now auto-launch the quest, Prisoner of the Bladespire. Directions to Gruul's Lair are now included in the quest, Prisoner of the Bladespire. The Scrap Reaver X6000 from the quest, You, Robot, no longer has its Repair ability. Matron Varah of Mok'Nathal Village no longer offers the quest, Understanding the Mok'Nathal. Now, only Leoroxx has that distinction, as was intended. Minimap arrow for the quest, Report to the Allerian Post fixed. Whispers of the Raven God: Understanding Ravenspeech will now hit players at range. Bash'ir Landing and Razaan's Landing in Blade's Edge Mountains have been significantly expanded to support questing. Skettis in Terokkar Forest has had some adjustments to support questing. Millhouse Manastorm will now only award players credit for completing the Trial of the Naaru: Tenacity upon the death of Harbinger Skyriss and only ONCE. Players will no longer receive credit through a gossip option on Millhouse. Goliathon, involved in the Natural Remedies quest, is now level 63. Goliathon Shardlings are now level 60-61. Uvuros in Shadowmoon Valley has had its powers and abilities reduced. The Brain Damage buff given from Ethereum Essences now lasts 60 seconds. Ethereum Relay corpses will now be viewable and lootable without having to be under the influence of Brain Damage. The quests Trouble at Auchindoun, The Codex of Blood, Into the Heart of the Labyrinth, Find Spy To'gun, and The Soul Devices, have had their minimum level reduced to 68. The drop rate for Rotten Arakkoa Eggs used in the quest Of Thistleheads and Eggs... has been increased. The Cipher of Damnation - Borak's Charge, has had its recommended players increased to 4. Ruul the Darkener has had his hit points and abilities slightly adjusted to make him not as punishing. The questline, Zuluhed the Whacked now requires that players kill Zuluhed as part of the completion criteria. The Charred Bone Fragment for the quest Digging Up the Past is now on a quicker respawn timer. Sunfury Disguise pieces are now flagged as multi-drop. The Enraged Wraiths that spawn during the Eversong quest Powering Our Defenses have been scaled back in difficulty. Fengus' Ferocity,Mol'dar's Moxie,Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer, Slip'kik's Savvy and Spirit of Zandalar these buffs will no longer work on targets over level 63. Of Thistleheads and Eggs: The Rotting Putresence debuff gained during this quest is now correctly considered a stun, and effects which remove stuns will remove it. Shizz Work: The Stanky debuff will no longer cause some procs to trigger. Void Crystals maximum stack size has been increased to 20 from 10. Zephyrium Capacitorium: This interactable object now makes a player immune to all attacks and spells while it is operating on them. Reduced the number of Black Dragonscales required for the warlock mount quest. Reputation Players will experience diminished gains in reputation from killing outdoor mobs while in raids larger than five players. Scout's Arrow reputation requirement for Cenarion Expedition has been moved to friendly. Warden's Arrow minimum level has been changed to 68. Coilfang Armaments will now drop from heroic difficulty Slave Pens. New title of Justicar is now available for Alliance players exalted with Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch factions. New title of Conqueror is now available for Horde players exalted with Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch factions. An option is available at Exalted with the Violet Eye to turn in faction ring along with gold for a different exalted-level faction ring. Dungeons and Raids Sounds and voice-overs have been added to all Outland dungeons and raid zones. All 25 man raid bosses who drop set tokens will now drop an additional token. Lightsworn Vindicators outside the Black Temple will no longer attack players who are Hostile with the Aldor. Creatures will no longer Cleave targets that aren't in front of them. Silence spell duration has been changed from 6 to 5 seconds. Polymorph spell duration has been changed from 20 seconds to 8 seconds. Hooked Net spell duration changed from 10 to 6 seconds. Electrified Net spell duration changed from 10 to 6 seconds. Net spell duration changed from 10 to 6 seconds. Creatures will no longer perform Sweeping Strikes. Creature versions of Hamstring now deal 20% of the creature's normal melee damage, and is no longer tied to the creature's normal swings. Creature versions of Wing Clip now deal 20% of the creature's normal melee damage. Many humanoid Heroic creatures that are marked as uncharmable can now be seduced by a Warlock's Succubus pet. There is now a control panel to control the waterfall that blocks the entrance to Coilfang Raid to allow people stuck on the other side of the waterfall to leave. Mortog Steamhead standing outside of the Coilfang dungeons will repair armor and weapons as well as sell various items to those exalted with the Cenarion Expedition. Mortog will now trade players Cenarion healing and mana salves for Coilfang Armaments. These potions only work inside the Coilfang dungeon and raid zones. Most dungeon boss creatures will no longer slow their movement speed when they are wounded. Arcanist Xorith of the Scryers and Haldor the Compulsive of the Aldor will sell specialized flasks only usable in raid zones to players who are exalted with Cenarion Expedition: the Sha'tar and the Scryers or the Aldor (respectively). The flasks will only be purchasable with tokens obtained from creatures in Tempest Keep: The Eye, The Serpentshrine, and The Black Temple. The Domination spell can no longer choose pets as valid targets. Gruul is now more likely to use his Hurtful Strike and Ground Slam abilities on players instead of Cave-In. Hellfire Citadel:Ramparts Bonechewer Destroyers now has a 2 second melee round time and will no longer Knock Away and wipe the target's threat on Heroic. Bonechewer Evokers now attack slower. Bleeding Hollow Scryer's Fear extended the repeat cooldown so the ability will happen less frequently. Bonechewer Raveners on Heroic, damage has been reduced and will now attack slower. The Liquid Fire damage radius graphic has been slightly altered to align more properly with damage; and damage has been significantly reduced in Heroic difficulty. Omor the Unscarred's Treacherous Bane ability on Heroic will now have the correct damage listed on the tooltip. The damage has also been reduced in Heroic. Changed the graphic to be more noticeable. Added a 2 second cast time to Omor the Unscarred's Treacherous Aura and Treacherous Bane abilities. Vazruden's Revenge damage has been raised on Heroic difficulty. Nazan now emotes before landing. Nazan now has a slight delay before fireballing after breathing fire while landed. Vazruden's Warn Horn is now present in Hellfire Ramparts. It can be used to call Vazruden back if he leaves the instance between wipes. Hellfire Citadel: Blood Furnace Shadowmoon Adepts on Heroic now double attack instead of triple attack on occasion. Laughing Skull Legionnaire no longer uses the Sweeping Strikes ability. Shadowmoon Technician's Silence spell is used less frequently. Laughing Skull Warden will stay engaged with his main target on Heroic difficulty. The Maker's Exploding Beaker damage and knockback radii have changed for consistency to both be 8 yards. The Maker's Exploding Beaker damage has been increased on Heroic difficulty. Shadowmoon Technician's Throw Dynamite ability damage has been increased. Nascent Fel Orc will Dual Wield properly now. Keli'dan the Breaker's Shadow Bolt Volley has had both its damage and range increased Shadowmoon Channeler's Mark of Shadow will have a longer delay before being cast at the start of the fight and now does more damage. Felguard Annihilators and Felguard Brutes will now do less damage. Hellfire Citadel: Magtheridon's Lair Hellfire Warders have been significantly reduced in difficulty. Hellfire Channeler's Shadow Bolt Volley has been made much more easy to interrupt. The melee damage of Burning Abyssals has been significantly reduced. Hellfire Citadel: Shattered Halls The Resist Shadow buff cast by Shadowmoon Acolytes will be dispelled from players if they leave the dungeon. Shattered Hand Reavers will do less damage in Heroic difficulty. The Uppercut used by the Shattered Hand Reaver now has a smaller combat range. Rabid Warhounds on Heroic will now do less damage. Shattered Hand Houndmaster's Impaling bolt damage and movement impairing effects have been increased. Warbringer O'mrogg now applies a smaller amount of threat to the target of his Beatdown ability and will now correctly disable his Burning Maul ability after a wipe. Warbringer O'mrogg and Warchief Kargath Bladefist can be seen from a farther distance. Warchief Kargath Bladefist can now travel slightly farther during Blade Dance. Coilfang: The Slave Pens Coilfang Defenders are only found in pairs while in Heroic difficulty. Wastewalker Slaves will now be more difficult in Heroic difficulty. Coilfang Defenders in Heroic difficulty no longer dual wield with their shields. Rokmar the Crackler will now only apply Grievous Wound to his current target. The maximum range of Quagmirran's Poison Bolt Volley has been increased and the spell now ignores line of sight. The damage over time component also is now fully affected by a player's nature resistance. Coilfang Defenders should come in no more than a 2 pulls in Slave Pens on Heroic Difficulty. The 2 Myrmidon, 1 Sorceress, 1 Slavehandler pull has been changed to a 2 Myrmidon pull. Naturalist Bite is now level 70 in Heroic difficulty Slave Pens. Coilfang: The Underbog Underbat in Heroic difficulty damage has been reduced. Underbog Lurker in Heroic difficulty damage has been reduced. Wild Growth on the Underbog Lurkers has been fixed. Underbog Lurkers will now have a slight delay before using the Coral Cut ability on a target. Murkblood Oracles and Murkblood Healers now have more mana. The Murkblood Spearmen's Throw ability does more damage in Heroicdifficulty. Lykul Wasp and Lykul Stinger melee damage has been reduced. Underbog Lords have had their damage reduced. The Black Stalker's Spore Strider Summon should happen at more regular intervals and be less random. Coilfang: Steamvault Coilfang Oracles, Coilfang Sirens and Coilfang Sorceresses now have more mana. Coilfang Engineer damage has been increased in Heroic difficulty. Coilfang Engineer Throw Bomb ability damage has been increased and will throw more frequently. Steam Surger damage damage has been significantly reduced. Tidal Surger damage has been slightly reduced in Heroic difficulty. The Bog Overlord's Trample has been changed to be a 50 yard radius effect, but now does decreased damage and will be used less frequently in both heroic and normal difficulty. Coilfang Siren's Fear now has a 1 second cast time and no longer removes all threat from feared players. Coilfang: Serpentshrine Cavern The creatures that lead up to Hydross the Unstable and creatures at the six pumping stations are now on a 2 hour respawn instead of 45 minutes. Slight changes on most creatures have been made including: aggro range changed to 30 yards detect, 15 yard call for help and hitpoints reduced. (Boss specific adds are not affected by this hitpoint reduction.) Slightly reduced the number of creatures from the cavern entrance. Modified the patrol patterns of some of the murlocs in Morogrim's room to make them easier to pull. Non-boss creatures in Serpentshrine will now no longer respawn if the nearby boss has been killed, and should not respawn while in combat with the boss in question. Fixed an issue with Hydross where you would kill him and he would instead change into his alternate form with 1 health. The Mark of Hydross and Mark of Corruption debuffs can now affect the increases of the nature or frost damage taken up to 500%. Refreshing Mist now correctly restores health. Fixed an exploit related to Leotheras' Consuming Madness spell. Lady Vashj can no longer use the ability Persuasion. Toxic Spores no longer deal damage upon impact. Tidewalker Lurkers no longer call for help from other nearby creatures. Greyheart Technicians are now much easier to kill, and deal less damage. Coilfang Priestesses may now be polymorphed. Coilfang Priestess' Holy Fire spell now deals Holy damage, and the damage dealt by the spell has been lowered. Morogrim Tidewalker's Earthquake no longer obeys line of sight restrictions Creatures in the Serpentshrine now have a chance to drop Coilfang Armaments. Hydross the Unstable's Vile Sludge spell will no longer hit pets. Hydross the Unstable's melee damage has been reduced. The spawns of Hydross have fewer hit points. The Coilfang Frenzy now does increased melee damage, but Scalding Water damage has been decreased. Leotheras the Blind's Chaos Blast radius has been significantly reduced, which will allow additional melee to damage Leotheras while he is in metamorphosis form. Leotheras the Blind will now also spend less time whirlwinding before shifting into his metamorphosis form. Leotheras the Blind's hit points have been reduced. Inner Demons are now slightly easier to kill and deal less damage. Serpentshrine Lurkers are now banishable and fearable, and no longer create mushrooms so quickly. Morogrim Tidewalker has been moved to a more central location in his room. Hydross the Unstable's hit points have been slightly reduced. Colossus Ragers have had their health reduced significantly. Auchindoun: Mana-Tombs Ethereal Sorcerer's in Heroic difficulty will summon Arcane Fiends less frequently. The Dark Shell of Pandemonious is now more visibly noticeable when cast. The duration has been lowered from 8 to 6 seconds for Heroic difficulty. Ethereal Priests, Ethereal Sorcerors, Spellbinders, and Theurgists now have more mana. Nexus-Prince Shaffar's will now summon Ethereal Beacon at a more regular interval. Auchindoun: Auchenai Crypts Angered and Raging Skeletons have had their movement speed decreased on Heroic difficulty. Avatar of the Martyred's Mortal Strike damage has been reduced. Shirrak the Dead Watcher's Fiery Blast damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Raging Souls will now correctly despawn after casting their Rage spell on Heroic difficulty. Auchindoun: Sethekk Halls Sethekk Guard's damage has been greatly reduced. Sethekk Ravenguard's damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Darkweaver Syth's aggro radius has been increased, and he can now see through both stealth and invisibility. Sethekk Oracle's Arcane Lightning damage reduced and it will be cast less frequently. Sethekk Oracles, Sethekk Shamans, Cobalt Serpents, and Time-Lost Scryers in Normal difficulty now have mor mana. Sethekk Prophets, Time-Lost Controllers, and Time-Lost Shadowmages in both difficultys now have more mana. Added a 1 second cast time to the Spell Reflection ability of the Sethekk Initiates. Note that this is an ability and not a spell, and as such the ability can not be interrupted via counterspell, kick, and other interrupts. The Arcane Destruction buff cast by Sethekk Scryers when mind controlled or spell-steal is used, will now be automatically dispelled when a player leaves the instance. Sethekk Talon Lords now wield a scimitar and shield instead of a polearm. Time-Lost Shadowmage will now be able to cast Curse of the Dark Talon spell more than once. Talon King Ikiss on Heroic difficulty has been significantly reworked. He now has a point blank area of effect slow spell, increased damage on the Arcane volley , increased damage on the Arcane Explosion, and reduced the frequency on his Polymorph. Talon King Ikiss is more obvious when he is about to cast Arcane Explosion. Auchindoun: Shadow Labyrinth The Shadow Defense spell cast by a Cabal Acolyte when mind controlled or spell-steal is used, will now be automatically dispelled when a player leaves the instance. Fel Overseer's Mortal Strike in Heroic difficulty now deals less damage. Malicious Instructor, Cabal Cultist, Cabal Assassin, Cabal Fanatic and Blackheart the Inciter have all had their damage reduced in Heroic difficulty. Cabal Cultist's damage has been reduced in Heroic difficulty changed. The damage dealt by Murmur's Thundering Storm is now increased properly by Resonance. Reduced the number of creatures in Shadow Labyrinth. Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde The Durnholde Mage's Polymorph spell will be cast less frequently. Infinite Slayer's Mortal Strike damage has been reduced. Lieutenant Drake's melee speed has been slowed slightly and damage reduced. Captain Skarloc's Consecration ability and melee damage has been increased on Heroic difficulty. He will now take damage properly when he dispels Unstable Affliction. Infinite Defiler's Curse of Infinity on Heroic difficulty has been renamed to Bane of Infinity, since the effect is not removable as a curse. The Human Illusion spell will now interact correctly with Shadowform and Druid shapeshifts. Caverns of Time: Opening of the Dark Portal Temporus' Spell Reflection ability on Heroic difficulty now has a duration of 6 instead of 8 seconds. Temporus may no longer be disarmed. Chrono Lord Deja's Time Lapse may no longer be reflected. Karazhan Prince Malchezaar's door will now close when his encounter begins. Prince Malchezaar's aggro range has been reduced. Romulo's Daring spell now increases haste and damage by 35% instead of 50%. Romulo's Poisoned Thrust will now be used less frequently. Backward Lunge damage has been decreased. The Deadly Swathe now operates based on the new creature cleave rule when engaging Romulo. Fixed an issue where if Romulo or Julianne were killed in the final phase and the raid then died, the dead actor would not despawn, forcing players to soft reset the instance to fix things. Blinding Passion will now only hit players. Immunity effects such as Ice Block will no longer remove the secondary effects of being Little Red Riding Hood. Fixed a bug that was causing Maiden of Virtue's Repentance to hit her current target. Ethereal Thieves and Spellfilchers in the upper floors have been retuned slightly. Terestian Illhoof will no longer sacrifice his primary target. Terestian Illhoof will now wait longer before resurrecting his imp, Kil'rek. Terestian Illhoof's Imps have had their hitpoints reduced slightly. Spectral Guest melee damage per second has been slightly reduced. Shade of Aran's conjured elementals now despawn when he is defeated. Nether Protection will no longer cause Flame Wreath to detonate. Netherspite correctly puts the raid into combat and is no longer affected by immolate and other forms of vertex coloring. Roar is now susceptible to Horror effects. The Rolling Pin of the Ghostly Baker will now only deal damage to one target. Shade of Aran's conjured elementals now have significantly less health. Shade of Aran's Blizzard should now be more visible and its duration has been reduced. Shade of Aran's Flame Wreath should completely ignore pets, summons, guardians and mind-controlled NPCs. Shade of Aran's Door should no longer lock if he dies while drinking. Shade of Aran's respawn region should properly shut down if he dies while drinking. Shade of Aran will no longer cast Dragon's Breath. Netherspite's room now has a door that locks when the encounter begins. Netherspite's Nether Burn and Nether Breath will now ignore line of sight. Netherspite will no longer cast Nether Burn while crazed. The arcane creatures that spawn in the Menagerie will now respawn less frequently. Phantom Valets and Ghostly Stewards are now larger to make them stand out a bit more from the other residents of the tower. Skeletal Ushers can now be affected by Shackle Undead. Syphoners and Mana Feeders have been substantially reduced in hit points, and the Syphoner's melee damage has also been reduced. Redemption of the Fallen will now correctly summon a lvl 70 creature. Karazhan Tomes Wrath of the Titans will no longer gain the full effect from +dmg gear Torment of the Worgen will now deal additional shadow damage when it procs (previously it did not work and did not log) Legacy of the Mountain King remains unchanged. Dark Screechers should no longer chain-cast Sonic Burst. Negatron's Earthquake will now play correctly. Tempest Keep The hitpoints of all non-boss mobs has been reduced. The boss specific adds should not be affected by this change. Creatures in Tempest Keep: The Eye, The Arcatraz, The Mechanar, The Botanica all have a chance at dropping health and mana potions that will only function inside the Tempest Keep raid and dungeon instances. The damage dealt by Novice Astromancers and Apprentice Star Scryers has been greatly reduced. Crystalcore Sentinels no longer Trample. The range of Crimson Hand Battle Mage's Frost Bolt Volley has been increased. Astromancers and Astromancer Lords no longer use the Blast Wave ability, and the range of their Fireball Volley spells has been increased. The damage over time and radius of the Star Scryer's Starfall spell has been reduced. Arcane Resistance will prove much more effective against High Astromancer Solarian's spells. High Astromancer Solarian now summons fewer Solarian agents, and the Solarium Agents now deal less damage. The Al'ar encounter has been significantly reworked. Her movement around the room will now be more predictable, Al'ar's hit points have been reduced, and killing the Embers of Al'ar will now be both much more possible and more rewarding to the raid. High Astromancer Solarian's hit points have been greatly reduced. Reduced the radius of Fragmentation Bombs in Tempest Keep to better match their visual. Tempest Keep: The Botanica Bloodwarder Protector's Crystal Strike may now be dodged and parried. Tempest-Forge Peacekeepers now deal Physical melee damage instead of Arcane, and now longer perform the Arcane Blast ability on Heroic difficulty. The duration of Vial of Poison has been reduced significantly. Greater Frayer's do more damage in Heroic difficulty. Nethervine Reapers and Inciters' damage has been reduced in Heroic difficulty. Thorngrin the Tender's damage has been reduced in Heroic difficulty. Mutate Fleshlasher's damage has bene reduced in Heroic difficulty. The Sunseeker Gene-Splicer's Death & Decay will occur less frequently and the damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Mutate Fear-Shrieker and Mutate Horror hit points are reduced Warp Splinter's Arcane Volley damage has been reduced on Heroic. The Bloodwarder Protector's involved in the fight with the Mutate Horror's and Mutate Fear-Shrieker's in The Botanica no longer remain at 1 health and will properly be killed. Tempest Keep: The Mechanar Bloodwarder Physicians now have more mana. Nethermancer Sepethrea will no longer break nearby players' stealth when engaged. Tempest Keep: The Arcatraz Protean Nightmare,and Arcatraz Defenders damage has been reduced in Heroic difficulty. There are less Arcatraz Sentinel corpses in the dungeon. Zereketh the Unbound's Seed of Corruption will not knock players back as far. Zereketh's melee damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Zereketh's Shadow Nova and the Death Watcher's Death Blast damage has been reduced.. The Arcatraz Sentinel's Energy Discharge damage has been reduced. Negaton Screamer and Negatron Warp-Master melee damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Eredar Deathbringer's Diminish Soul damage has been reduced. Eredar Soul-Eater's Soul Chill damage has been significantly reduced. Skulking Witch's Chastise ability damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. The Unbound Devastator will no longer be able to use the Devastate and Deafening Roar abilities at the same time. A small shared cooldown has been added to both abilities. Ethereum Wave-Casters, Ethereum Life-Binder, and Gargantuan Abyssal melee damage has been reduced on Heroic difficulty. Unchained Doombringer's War Stomp now deals less damage. Harbinger Skyriss's Mind Rend will be used less frequently and the damage has been reduced. Harbinger Skyriss's Domination duration has been changed to 6 seconds. Harbinger Skyriss's Mana Burn drain has been reduced on Heroic. Akkiris Lightning-Waker's Lightning Discharge damage has been reduced on Heroic. There are fewer Protean Nightmares roaming the halls. User Interface Players will now be able to access the Looking For Group Channel by joining the Looking For Group/Looking for More tool. Using abilities and casting spells that cannot be used while mounted will now auto-dismount players as needed. This can be disabled by turning off the auto-dismount option in the UI options. Spells that have reagent costs will show the number of uses left in the lower right corner of the action icon, just like consumable items on the action bar. Holding down the shift key while mousing over an equippable item that you can use will now show you the tooltip for the item you currently have equipped in that slot as well (much like how the auction house currently works). The network performance meter now shows framerate and how much memory AddOns are using. You can socket items while in flight. When consuming reagents or using items on the action bar, smaller stacks will be used before larger stacks. Players who feign death no longer appear dead to party and raid members and friendly spells will not be interrupted. Sending item links with invalid enchantments will disconnect you. Equippable items displayed as quest rewards will always show you the tooltip of the item you are currently wearing in that slot. The area of interest while on a flight path is farther along the path instead of in front of you. Your current target will now display all of the duration based spells that you have cast on them with cooldown rings so you will know how much longer they will last. Very useful for warlock damage over time spells and druid healing over time spells as well as many others. Raid Windows now remember their position in the gamefield between sessions. A Main tank and Main assist window have been added to the raid UI that can be pulled out into the gamefield. These windows automatically show the main tank/main assist's target by default. Profession UI now has a search field. Text that is entered into the search field searches against item names, reagent names and item levels (if you include a level). For instance you can type Peace into the search field to see all of your recipes that use Peacebloom, or type in 20-30 to see all of you level 20-30 recipes. This search field only appears once you have more than 75 skill in your profession. Profession UI now has a checkbox that allows you to search by only items that you have the materials to make. Active corpses or objects (ones with loot on them) now can be selected and looted, even if they are underneath another corpse that does not have loot on it. While flying or swimming the 'X' key will now make you move down. Hunter Pets now display their spell damage bonus on the pet pane. The actual effect will nearly always be less than the bonus listed as it depends on the bonus coefficient of the spell the pet is using. Hunters now have a UI option Auto Attack/Auto Shot that if turned off means that the hunter will not automatically switch between ranged attack and melee attack difficulty when the range changes. Party members will no longer see a hunter who is feigning death as actually dead. Shamans are now a darker blue in the raid UI so they have a more distinct color. Items that have additional armor on them higher than standard for an item of that quality and level will have the armor value displayed in green. Gems are now searchable in the Auction House under the heading of Gem with the gems then broken up by color so you can search for all gems of a specific color. When items are being put up for sale on the Auction House, if the item you are putting up for bid is the same item and quantity as the previous item you put up for bid, it will automatically fill in the price and buyout for you with your previous price. The 'Status Bar Text' option in the interface options UI will now display numeric values for all party members health/mana bars in addition to your own. Raid and Battleground chat options have been added to the chat button that is attached to the chat log. New Tips of the day have been added. You can now link recipes into chat. If you have chat input open and you shift-click on one of your recipes in your profession UI then it will put a link to that recipe with the reagents it requires to make into chat. Raid assistants can now start a ready check. You can now display the amount of healing you do to a target in the gamefield. This option can be turned on with the Healing option in the floating combat text section of interface options. The Auction House now has a reset button that will reset all fields you have entered to allow you to quickly try a different search. Movement now interrupts the usage of the Evergrove Wand. Casting beneficial spells while using the Overseer Disguise will now drop the disguise. The Overseer Disguise now has a 1 second casting time, and can no longer be activated while in combat. The Triangulation Device from the Triangulation Point quests in Netherstorm will no longer allow the character to see Ethereum Relays. The directional indicators on the minimap for the towns have been added in Outlands. Searches in the auction house for French, German, and Spanish now do character swapping for some accented characters to yield better results. There is now a Rotate Minimap feature. You can now enable target of target in raid windows New interface option: Open Loot Window at Mouse New interface option: Disable Lua Errors You now see the season stats instead of weekly stats for arena teams when you inspect another player Guild names now appear in player tooltips Stackable items retrieved from mail will automatically stack in your inventory You are now able to right click a player name to report them to GMs. User Interface Scripting Macro Features: New conditional [flyable] which is true if you're in a location where you could use a flying mount You can use %f in chat text to refer to your focus, the same way %t or %n refers to your target. Added macro option support for /dismount Macros containing conditionals will automatically update their visual feedback as appropriate during play. show and #showtooltip can be given conditionals and will update dynamically show and #showtooltip can be given a slot number, to display the appropriate feedback for that slot Added bag and slot number support to: /castsequence, /cast, /castrandom, /use, /userandom, /equip, /equipslot New slash command /cancelform The /equip command can take item identifiers specified as item: : e.g. /equip [modifier:alt] item:25640 You can provide several conditional clauses for a single action, which will be performed if any of the clauses evaluates to true. e.g. /cast [target=target,help,nodead] [target=targettarget,help,nodead] [target=player] Flash of Light For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum World Environment Two new graveyards have been added to Blade's Edge Mountains. Wandering NPCs will turn to face you more quickly when you interact with them. The Fel Cannons in Outland should no longer be falling thru the terrain. Obsidian Elementals are now correctly immune to bleed effects. The casting of the Sun Shield spell used by Firewing Warlocks will now show up in the combat log. Void Baron Galaxis will no longer despawn 10 seconds after death. Uvuros now moves considerably faster than before. Arch Mage Xintor now has pickpocket loot. Auchenai Crypts: Creatures here will no longer occasionally drop aquatic-oriented items, Fish Scales, etc. Boulderfist Warrior: Mages can now Blink when stunned by this creature. In addition, its Shoulder Charge ability now has a minimum range. Dark Worg: This creature no longer drops cash. Dragonhawks: Some of these creatures were unskinnable. Almost all are now skinnable. Exception: Feral Dragonhawk Hatchlings. Dust Howler: This creature's Howling Dust ability is now correctly removed by Cloak of Shadows. Earthcaller Ryga, Eclipsion Cavalier,Eclipsion Soldier,Vyral the Vile, Eclipsion Spellbinder,Gan'arg Sapper,Grillok Darkeye, Hand of Kargath, Mag'har Grunt, Unliving Caretaker, Unyielding Sorcerer,Worg Master Kruush, Z'kral, Blacktalon the Savage and Debilitated Mag'har Grunt all now have pickpocket loot. Fel Cannons: These creatures now drop loot. Krellack can now be skinned. Lady Shav'rar: Druid shapeshifting now breaks the creature's freeze affect. Mana Wraith: This creature is no longer immune to the hunter pet ability Warp. Mennu: The boss's healing ward totem will no longer trigger kill procs when killed. Mosh'ogg Witch Doctor: The Ward of Laze totems summoned by this creature can no longer be destroyed by area attacks. Motes of Mana: Several water-themed creatures were dropping Motes of Mana; they now drop Motes of Water. Murkblood Scavengers: The cash dropped by these creatures has been drastically reduced. Rockflayers: All creatures of this type now have pickpocket loot. Scarshield Spellbinder: The fire resist buff from this creature will no longer work on targets over level 63. Skettis Arakkoa: These creatures will now drop Arakkoa Feathers as intended. Unbound Devastator: The disarm from this creature now fails against disarm-immune targets. Throne Hound: This creature now has elite-quality loot. Throne of Kil'jaeden: Elite creatures in this area now drop elite-quality loot. Veil Lithic Arakoa: These creatures will now drop Arakkoa Feathers as intended. Area 52: Added a guard near an exploitable dead zone in town. A new flightmaster has been added to Forest Song in Ashenvale. New flight points have been added Felwood, Emerald Sanctuary (Both) Ashenvale, Forest Song (Alliance) New flight paths added Stormwind <-> Thorium Point Grom'gol Base Camp <-> Flame Crest Ratchet <-> Gadgetzan, Astranaar, Brackenwall Village Brackenwall Village <-> Ratchet, Camp Taurajo, Freewind Post Thunderbluff <-> Zoram'gar Outpost Evergrove <-> Toshley's Station Honor Hold <-> Shattrath Many flight paths have been adjusted to be shorter, faster flights. Several flight paths which clipped through objects have been adjusted. An Inn and mailbox have been added to Evergrove in Blades Edge Mountains. A Forge and Anvil has been added to Cosmowrench in Netherstorm. Improved combat movement for flying creatures. Apothecary Azethen, Ryathen the Somber, Arcanist Calesthris Dawnstar, Magister Duskwither, Tethik, Darnassian Protector, and Groggeroc no longer get loot sparkles when killed. Antilus the Soarer: This creature can now be skinned. Mac Added 'maxfps' game variable, when set to a non-zero value it will limit the game's frame rate when the game is the frontmost application or full screen. Also added 'maxfpsbk' game variable, when set to a non-zero value it will limit the game's frame rate when the game is not in the foreground. Each of these variables can be left set to '0' which disables them, or an integer value representing the desired frame rate limit. Bug Fixes Fixed a crash in the client. (From separate patch release a week later) Nazan in the Hellfire Ramparts is no longer affected by Disarm. Tainted Cores in Serpentshrine Cavern are now unique. Fixed several combat log issues where certain types of damage were not being reported. Many quests were incorrectly shareable even when items were necessary for accepting the quest. These quests are no longer shareable. Fixed an error where the G15 Keyboard LCD screen will sometimes not display the correct battleground name when Alt+Tabbing back into World of Warcraft. Fixed some sound errors in which some sounds were either repeating or were not playing properly. Fixed many locations in which players had been getting stuck. Fixed an issue in which gnomes were unable to surface properly after being underwater. Fixed various graphical errors. Coral Sharks will no longer attack players standing at the edge of the docks high above the water on Theramore Isle. The bleed effect from the druid ability Pounce will now properly apply to targets who are immune to stun. The Exodar Peacekeeper guards will now give the correct directions to the auction house. Fixed an error where tauren males and gnomes were unable to gain the benefit of drinking water when in areas of shallow and deep water. Fixed an error where some characters appeared to be drinking while standing up. The target Spell Cooldown Timer has been improved. Using Tome of Conjure Water IX on another Mage will no longer teach that Mage Conjure Water (Rank 9). The quest item Felsworn Gas Mask is no longer sellable. Thorngrin the Tender will no longer Sacrifice totems and pets. The game will now end properly in the Eye of the Storm Battleground if you cap the flag and it puts you over 2000 resources. Fixed an issue where creatures who were killed would disappear before ever becoming a lootable corpse. Stoneclaw Totem,rank 3, will now pulse correctly. General Vorpal in the Shadow Labyrinth will no longer evade when standing on a particular spot. The Dragon, Vhel'Khur, will no longer evade when pulled in Shadowmoon Valley. Players will no longer crash out of the game when resizing the game window with the Auction House menu open. Shattrath City Peacekeepers will now attack players who attack others from a distance. The Burnoose of Shifting Ages can now be disenchanted. Adjusted many quest rewards for better consistency. Zoning into an expansion dungeon and changing the difficulty at the same time will no longer cause players to disconnect. If a player is casting a spell when the debuff Shadow of Death fades from them, they will no longer die when the spell completes. Fixed many interface graphical errors. Force-quitting or crashing out of the WoW client while taxiing across zone boundaries can no longer cause the player to be locked out of zone-specific chat channels. Player pets can no longer attack PvP players while not being flagged for PvP. In battlegrounds, pets with a damage over time spell will no longer continue to attack the caster after Resurrection. There is now a message telling players that the replacement for their final Violet Signets will cost 100 gold. Fixed an issue where quest items were remaining in a player's inventory even after abandoning the quest. Fixed several raid UI errors. In the Black Morass, gnomes are now able to run through the water like other races. Male gnome /cheer animation is no longer incomplete. Numerous performance optimizations have been made across all platforms. Performance improvements for systems without vertex shaders enabled. Proper recognition of SSE support for Pentium III has been implemented resulting in improved performance on this platform. The Warrior ability Spell Reflection can no longer be used if a shield is unequipped. Players will no longer be able to use Charge types of abilities to port the user up to flying-mounted characters. Players can no longer be feared when using the Zephyrium Capacitorium during the Test Flight quests out of Toshley's Station. source
WoW Archivist: 2.1 Patch Notes part 1
World of Warcraft patch 2.1 General The Black Temple is now available for play and Illidan awaits. Are you prepared? The Consortium and Protectorate need your help! Players with Honored or higher reputation with the Consortium should seek out Protectorate Advisor Rahim at the Stormspire in Netherstorm or Commander Ameer at the Protectorate Watch Post in Netherstorm to get a briefing on the most recent nefarious activities of the Ethereum. Skettis is now available. Players will need a flying mount to reach this new area. Nether Drakes are now in the game and can be gained by continuing the Netherwing faction and quest line. Ogri'la is now available. Level 70 players can find this new quest line in Blade's Edge Mountains. Glancing Blows have significantly less of a chance to occur during a player's melee attacks when targets are near the player's level. Magtheridon and Kael'thas now drop items that may be turned in for rewards. Spell Haste: The amount of spell haste rating needed per percentage of haste has been increased substantially. However, spell haste will now affect channeled spells, increasing the rate of their effects and decreasing their total duration. The same amount of damage/healing per casting will occur, but will take less time. Chance to break crowd control from damage: The increased chance for a spell to break from taking a critical strike has been removed. Instead, all targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage. Screenshots captured using the Print Screen key are now saved in JPG format. Inspect distance has been increased to 30 yards (from 10 yards). The amount of parry rating needed to get 1% parry has been reduced by 25%. Many set bonuses did not work properly when combined with an item or enchantment that had the exact same effect at the exact same magnitude. That issue has been corrected on all set bonuses. Taunts: The taunt system has been adjusted so that Warrior Taunt, Druid Growl, and Paladin Righteous Defense will now grant the player the correct amount of threat even when the creature or its target is crowd controlled. Dodge Rating: Low level players now calculate dodge from dodge rating at the same rate as level 34 players. The negative effect of the orc racial ability Blood Fury no longer stacks with other effects that reduce healing (Mortal Strike, Wounding Poison, etc.) Characters can now speak with Orphan Matron Mercy in Shattrath City during Children's Week to mentor a draenei (Alliance) or blood elf (Horde) orphan. Shattrath orphans have a whole new line of sight-seeing requests across both Outland and Azeroth and three new pets to offer to their mentors. PvP Arenas The Ruins of Lordaeron Arena is now available for play. The Shadow Sight buff now allows players to see other stealthed players at a greater range. Battlegrounds The new battleground matchmaking system is now implemented and active. This system allows the battleground to select teams of similar equipment quality and organizational level to battle each other. For now, the system will be very forgiving about creating matchups in order to keep queue times low. However, the parameters will be adjusted as necessary when more organized teams become active in the battlegrounds. Classes Druids The Druid Epic Flight Form is now available through a series of quests. Barkskin now reduces all damage taken, with its duration reduced to 12 seconds and cooldown reduced to 1 minute. The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability can be used while frozen, incapacitated, or cowering in fear. That functionality was already present, but not listed in the tooltip. Bear Form and Dire Bear Form: The bonus health from shapeshifting into these forms will again be removed correctly when shifting out of these forms. Bestial Wrath: The immunity granted by this ability now lasts the full duration of the ability. Bestial Wrath now grants immunity to Cyclone. Cyclone will no longer prevent the immunities from being granted. Celestial Focus: The delay on the stun effect for Starfire has been reduced. Cyclone: This ability will no longer work on hunters with The Beast Within active or hunter pets with Bestial Wrath active. Feral Charge now suppresses all Slowing effects while charging the target. Fixed a data error that caused Swiftmend to generate more threat than intended. Force of Nature: These pets will now come into the game with full health, including that gained from a percentage of their master's stamina. Force of Nature: The Treants summoned by this spell will now correctly attack your target even if it is neutral or non-aggressive. Gift of the Wild, ranks 1 and 2, are now available on trainers. Gift of the Wild: Rank 3 of this ability now has the same range as ranks 1 and 2. Improved Leader of the Pack: This ability will no longer generate threat. Lacerate: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it does initial bleed damage when the ability first lands. Lifebloom: Each additional application of this spell will now include the full bonus from effects which increase healing. The final heal, however, is still unaffected by stacking multiple applications of this spell. Mangle(Bear): Damage increased by 15%, but bonus threat reduced so that overall threat generation will be unchanged. Nature's Grace: This talent is now triggered by Swiftmend and Lifebloom, and is triggered by and affects Cyclone. Nature's Grasp: The mana cost has been removed from all ranks as intended. Omen of Clarity: This spell is no longer castable in Tree of Life Form or Moonkin Form. Prowl will now be broken correctly by damage shields such as Oil of Immolation. Rake: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate the initial damage done is bleed damage. In addition, Rake can now always be re-applied, even when Mangle is active. Shapeshifting will no longer remove the Rotting Putrescence creature debuff. Subtlety (Restoration Talent) now applies to all spells, not just healing spells. Swiftmend: This ability will now be correctly penalized for casting low rank Rejuvenations and Regrowths just as other healing spells are penalized. Swiftmend: The button for this ability will now be greyed out when your current target does not have Rejuvenation or Regrowth. Teleport: Moonglade: This spell is no longer castable in Tree of Life Form. Tree of Life Form: The tooltip has been corrected to indicate Nature's Swiftness and Rebirth are castable in this form. Hunters A new Avoidance ability can now be taught to hunter pets. This effect reduces the damage they take from area of effect spells and abilities. A new Cobra Reflexes ability can now be taught to hunter pets. This effect increases attack speed but reduces damage. Arcane Shot: Casting lower ranks of Arcane Shot than your maximum rank will now reduce the bonus you receive from attack power. Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack: Wand damage will again correctly daze players with this effect active. Clever Traps now affects Snake Trap. Entrapment (Survival): Effect duration reduced to 4 seconds and is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP. Entrapment: The tooltip has been corrected to indicate it works on Snake Trap. Expose Weakness: The chance for this talent to trigger has increased to 33/66/100% chance at 1/2/3 talent points. Ferocious Inspiration: This ability will now trigger Kill Command correctly. Flare cooldown increased to 20 seconds, and duration reduced to 20 seconds. Frenzy: This talent can now trigger from Kill Command. Frost Trap: This trap no longer breaks stealth from its slowing effect. Go for the Throat no longer causes additional threat. Hunter's Mark: This ability now becomes stronger each time the target is struck by a ranged attack. Improved Hunter's Mark: Adjusted the tooltip to indicate this talent only grants melee attack power equal to the base ranged attack power on the Hunter's Mark. Kill Command has been removed from the global cooldown. The shout animation has been removed. Kill Command: This ability will now still work even when your pet is out of your line of sight. Readiness: Now resets the cooldown on Misdirection. Revive Pet: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate the pet returns with a percentage of its base health. It will not get an increased percentage of the bonus health it receives from a percentage of its master's stamina. Scatter Shot: This ability will now trigger Kill Command when it critically strikes. Scorpid Poison: Ranks of this ability now appear in correct order in the pet training window. Survival Instincts now also increase attack power by 2/4%. The quest creature, Death Ravager, is no longer able to be tamed. The Razorfang Ravager can now be tamed. Hunter Mend Pet/Improved Mend Pet Changes: Replaced the current Mend Pet channel spell with an instant cast heal over time. No combat reset, resets global cooldown The mana cost has been reduced and the heal value increased. Duration on Heal Over Time increased to 15 seconds in 3 second increments. Changed the graphic to better represent the Heal Over Time effect on the pet. The Mend Pet heal over time buff is now able to be dispelled. Bonus healing gear will no longer effect Mend Pet. Added a 10% and 20% reduction to the mana cost of Mend Pet in Improved Mend Pet talent (Beast Mastery). Mages Added a new rank of Ice Barrier to mage trainers. Arcane Brilliance, rank 1, is now available from trainers. Arcane Brilliance: Rank 2 of this ability now has the same range as rank 1. Arcane Missiles: Rank 3-11 will now consistently pulse 5 shots of arcane damage. Arcane Missiles: This spell is now affected by Spell Haste. Arctic Winds (Frost Talent) now also increases all Frost damage caused by 1-5%. Cold Snap: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it only resets cooldowns caused by Frost spells. e.g.: Cold Snap will not reset the cooldown caused by Dragon's Breath. Conjure Mana Emerald: This spell now triggers a global cooldown as intended. Counterspell duration reduced to 8 seconds, and the cooldown reduced to 24 seconds. Fixed some data errors that caused Arcane Blast, Ice Lance and Molten Armor to generate more threat than intended. Frostbite effect is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP. Frostbolt: Damage on rank 12 has been increased slightly to ensure it did more damage than rank 11 at all levels. Hypothermia: If this debuff would prevent you from casting a spell on a given target, the button for that ability is now grayed out. Ice Armor: Rank 5 will now still trigger when all damage received is prevented by a damage shield, such as Mana Shield. Ice Block: This ability no longer makes mages immune to Weakened Soul from Power Word: Shield. However, using this ability now causes Hypothermia, making the mage unable to cast Ice Block again for 30 sec. Improved Fire Ward: This talent will now work correctly with rank 6 of Fire Ward. Invisibility: Clarified the tooltip on this ability to indicate any action breaks the invisibility affect. Molten Armor: This ability will no longer be triggered erroneously by some non-melee attacks, such as Feral Faerie Fire. It will also no longer break crowd controlling affects such as Polymorph. Spell Steal: Stolen buffs that affect specific spells from the original target's class will no longer have any effect for the mage. The Arcane Blast debuff can no longer be dispelled. Water Elemental: This pet will now come into the game with full health and mana, including that gained from a percentage of its master's stamina and intellect. Paladins Ardent Defender (Protection Talent) now reduces damage taken by 6-30% when below 35% health. Avenger's Shield no longer has a minimum range. It may be used on any target within 30 yards. Avenger's Shield: The damage portion of this ability will now be applied even if the victim is immune to snare. Blessing of Light: Paladins can now cast this as intended when they have Greater Blessing of Light on themselves. Consecration: Corrected a tooltip typo. Low ranks of this ability being cast by high-level players are now being properly penalized. Divine Shield: This ability no longer removes or prevents the Weakened Soul debuff. Eye for an Eye: Some spells did not trigger Eye for an Eye correctly. That has been fixed. Fixed some data errors that caused Seal of Command and Seal of Blood to generate more threat than intended. Forbearance: It is no longer possible to use a macro to gain the benefit of Avenging Wrath and Divine Shield at the same time. Forbearance: If this debuff would prevent you from casting a spell on a given target, the button for that ability is now grayed out. Greater Blessing of Kings: The cost for this blessing is now twice the cost of Blessing of Kings, instead of a fixed cost of 150. Greater Blessing of Sanctuary 2: The range on this spell was incorrectly set to 30 yards. It has been changed to 40 yards. Greater Blessing of Wisdom 3: The range on this spell was incorrectly set to 30 yards. It has been changed to 40 yards. Hammer of Wrath: Rank 4, damage increased. Illumination: This talent now only gives 50% of the mana cost of the critical heal. It also now returns the correct amount of mana when used with ranks 4 and 5 of Holy Shock. Improved Concentration Aura (Protection Talent) no longer increases resistance to Interrupt/Silence mechanics, but instead reduces the duration of Interrupt/Silence mechanics by 10/20/30%. Improved Sanctity Aura now increases all damage caused by affected targets by 1/2% and no longer increases healing done to affected targets. Improved Seal of Righteousness: The percentage increase in damage from this talent is now applied after all bonuses from items and effects which increase your spell damage. New Protection Talent added: Improved Holy Shield, 2 ranks: Increases damage caused by Holy Shield by 10/20% and increases the number of charges of Holy Shield by 2/4. One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Protection): Now increases all damage caused by the paladin by 1-5% while a one-handed weapon is equipped. Seal of Blood: This seal will no longer cause additional chances for weapon procs to trigger. Seal of Righteousness: This seal will no longer cause additional chances for weapon procs to trigger. Seal of the Crusader: The rank 7 tooltip has been fixed to read the same as other ranks of this spell. Spiritual Attunement: First-aid generated healing will no longer trigger this ability. However, Lifebloom, Earth Shield, and Improved Leader of the Pack will now trigger it correctly. The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it only works on healing from spells. Spiritual Attunement: Mana is no longer healed if the paladin is at full health. Stoicism (Protection) should now properly affect all magic effects cast by the Paladin and no longer applies double its intended benefit to Blessing of Might and Blessing of Wisdom. Vengeance (Retribution Talent) now increases Holy and Physical damage by 1/2/3/4/5% for 15 seconds following a critical hit, but the effect now stacks up to 3 times. Vindicator Aesom at Blood Watch will now correctly train a full range of paladin spells. Priests Binding Heal: The mana cost has been reduced by 32%. The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it is a low threat spell, which was already the case. Blackout: The delay on the stun effect has been reduced. Circle of Healing (Holy) effect increased. Empowered Healing and Holy Concentration now affect Binding Heal. Focused Power (Discipline) now also increases the chance to hit with Mass Dispel, reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel but no longer increases the damage against feared targets. Holy Fire: The rank 9 tooltip has been corrected to indicate it does Holy damage. Holy Nova: Rank 2 will no longer receive double the intended increase in range from Holy Reach. Mass Dispel mana cost reduced. Mind control no longer has a 100 yard range limitation in instances. Pain Suppression now reduces damage taken by 65% and increases resistance to Dispel mechanics by 65% for the duration. Power Infusion: This ability is now unusable on Rogues or Warriors. Power Word: Shield: The Weakened Soul effect will no longer sometimes be re-applied while zoning with this buff on. Prayer of Fortitude: The range on rank 3 has been changed to match all other ranks of this spell. Prayer of Fortitude, ranks 1 and 2, are now available on trainers. Prayer of Mending: This spell is now affected by Silent Resolve, Amplify Magic, and Dampen Magic. Prayer of Shadow Protection, rank 1, is now available on trainers. Reflective Shield: When this effect is triggered, the priest will no longer be forced to stand up. Shadowfiend: This pet will now come into the game with full health and mana, including that gained from a percentage of its master's stamina and intellect. Shadowfiend: The Shadowfiend will now correctly attack your target even if it is neutral or non-aggressive. Shadowfiend: Increased the Shadowfiend's chance to hit higher level enemies. Shadowguard: The rank 7 tooltip is now consistent with all other ranks of Shadowguard. Shadow Weaving (Shadow): Effect reduced by 1% per rank and Mana Burn will now correctly trigger this talent. Shadow Word: Death: Cooldown increased to 12 sec and will now properly damage the casting Priest when it is reflected. Silent Resolve: Some priest spells were unaffected by this talent. They should now all be affected. Spirit of Redemption and Spiritual Guidance now work while the priest is in Shadowform. Spirit Tap: This ability will no longer be triggered by killing some creature-cast totems. Spiritual Guidance: This talent now works while the Priest is in Shadowform. Surge of Light: Smite spells triggered by this talent will no longer sometimes critically strike. In addition, the free Smite granted will not consume the effect of Inner Focus. Holy Nova heals can now trigger Surge of Light as well. Touch of Weakness: This spell can now activate Surge of Light. Vampiric Touch: This spell now consumes the Inner Focus buff. Weakened Soul: If this debuff would prevent you from casting a spell on a given target, the button for that ability is now grayed out. Rogues Added a new double-attack animation for Mutilate. Added a visual, sound, and combat log message when the Cheat Death talent saves the rogue from death. Blade Twisting: The delay on the daze effect has been reduced. Cloak of Shadows: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability removes hostile effects, rather than dispels them. Cloak of Shadows does not count as a dispel, and will not interact with dispel resistance or effects triggered by dispelling. This ability no longer removes the Weakened Soul debuff. Deadly Throw: This ability will now damage hunters and their pets when they are affected by The Beast Within or Bestial Wrath. Those targets will still be immune to the movement impairing portion of Deadly Throw. Fixed a data error that caused Ghostly Strike and Riposte to generate more threat than intended. Fixed a bug where the Silence effect on Garrote was getting resisted too often. Gouge: This ability will no longer trigger poisons (and thus break itself). Insignia of the Alliance/Horde and Medallion of the Alliance/Horde now remove Fear, Stun and Polymorph effects and no longer remove Charm effects. Improved Sap (Subtlety) renamed Dirty Tricks: Increases the range of your Sap and Blind abilities by 2/4 yards and reduces the energy cost of your Sap and Blind abilities by 25/50%. Increased the frequency and amount of Blinding Powder found in pickpocketed junk boxes. Mutilate: This ability will now always consume the Cold Blood buff when it strikes an opponent. Poisons: The difficulty of dispelling these is now based off the level of the player, not the level of the weapon the poison is applied to. Reduced the reagents required to create most poisons. Remorseless Attacks(Assassination): Hemorrhage added to the buff tooltip. This ability will no longer trigger from killing totems. Rogue poisons no longer have charges. Sap no longer removes you from stealth when used. Shadowstep (Subtlety): The cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds. Stealth will now be broken correctly by damage shield such as Oil of Immolation. Surprise Attacks (Combat): This talent now correctly prevents Envenom from being dodged. Sword Specialization: This ability now grants extra yellow attacks instead of extra white attacks. This change will make Sword Specialization no longer reset the weapon swing timer when it triggers off special attacks, and results in a net increase in damage dealt. Shaman Earth Elemental Totem: This pet will now come into the game with full health, including that gained from a percentage of its master's stamina. Earth Shield: Adjusted the tooltip to indicate this ability works against all types of attacks, not just melee. This ability will also now properly trigger only from taking direct damage effects. Earth Shock: Rank 8 is now properly considered an Interrupt effect for talents and abilities that affect interrupts. Elemental Focus: This talent now reduces the cost of the next damage spell by 60%. It will also now trigger from bonus spells cast by Lightning Overload. Eye of the Storm (Elemental): Clarified the tooltip on this talent to indicate it only works with Shaman spells. Fire Elemental Totem: This pet will now come into the game with full health and mana, including that gained from a percentage of its master's stamina and intellect. It will also now properly get increased stamina from a percentage of its master's stamina. Flametongue Weapon: This effect will no longer trigger while you are disarmed. Frostbrand Weapon: Rank 6 now properly receives increased effect from spell damage bonuses. Healing Focus: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it only works with Shaman spells. e.g.: Does not work with Gift of the Naaru. Healing Way: This talent now correctly modifies the healing done after all bonus effects have been applied. Heroism: Training cost increased to match the cost of Bloodlust. Lightning Shield: Ranks 8 and 9 of this spell now trigger correctly while mounted. Magma Totem: This totem will now correctly do damage on its 10th tick, right before despawning. Mana Spring Totem: Duration increased to 2 minutes. Mana Tide Totem: This totem will no longer sometimes grant mana after it has been destroyed. It will also consistently grant mana 4 times instead of sometimes 3 and sometimes 5. Healing Stream Totem: Duration increased to 2 minutes. Mental Quickness: This talent now correctly reduces the cost of Purge, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Bloodlust, Heroism, Lightning Shield, Cure Poison, and Cure Disease. Nature's Guardian (Restoration): Some spells and abilities did not trigger this talent. That has been fixed. Restorative Totems (Restoration): This talent no longer gives a bonus to a variety of jewelcrafting items. Trainer Animations: All new Shaman abilities will now correctly play the training animation when learned. Water Shield: When a Shaman with this spell active is afflicted with Cyclone, the charge burned will now grant mana. Windfury Weapon: Mixing two different ranks of Windfury Weapon while dual-wielding will no longer increase the number of Windfury Weapon procs. Windfury Weapon: A bug with this spell was making off-hand procs receive less bonus damage than intended. It is now fixed. Warlocks Aftermath: The delay on the daze effect has been reduced. Amplify Curse: This ability is now consumed correctly by a Curse of Doom casting. Conflagrate: The button for this ability will now be greyed out when your current target does not have Immolate. Create Healthstone: These abilities will now be sorted in rank order in your spellbook. Create Spellstone: These abilities will now be sorted in rank order in your spellbook. Curse of the Elements and Curse of Shadow now have a duration of 2 minutes when used on PvP targets. Curse of Tongues now has a 12 second duration when used on PvP targets. Dark Pact: This ability is now unusable while the mana and health of a pet are being adjusted by pet scaling. Death Coil is now is now subject to diminishing returns in the Horror category. Currently, only Death Coil is in this category. Demonic Knowledge: This ability will now work with enslaved demons. Enslave Demon: The health bar and mana bar for enslaved demons will no longer appear to go down when they become enslaved. Felguard: This pet will periodically check to see if you know the talent which allows you to summon it, and die if you do not know the talent. Fixed some data errors that caused Soul Leech and Conflagrate to generate more threat than intended. Improved Drain Soul: This talent will no longer trigger when a creature other than the one you are draining dies. Insignia of the Alliance/Horde and Medallion of the Alliance/Horde now remove Fear, Stun and Slowing effects and no longer remove Charm and Polymorph effects. New art added for Ritual of Souls channeling focus and Soulwell created by the spell. Ritual of Souls no longer consumes a Soul Shard when cast in arenas. Seed of Corruption: This spell will now interact properly with town guards when bystanders are hit by its detonation in a duel. Shadowfury now properly benefits from the Intensity talent. Soulstones: Soulstones can no longer be used on targets not in your party or raid. In addition, the soulstone buff will now be removed if the target or caster leaves the party or raid. Spell Lock (Felhunter) duration reduced to 5 seconds (rank 1) and 6 seconds (rank 2), and cooldown reduced to 24 seconds. Soulwell now plays a sound and visual effect when you create a Healthstone through using it. Soul Link: Adjusted tooltip to explain that the damage transferredto the pet cannot be prevented. The functionality remains unchanged. This ability will now work with enslaved demons. Unholy Power: The tooltip has been corrected to indicate it works with the Imp's Firebolt. Warriors Bloodrage: It is no longer possible to gain extra rage from this ability by using tradeskills to keep you in combat. Charge, Intercept and Intervene now suppress all Slowing effects while charging the target. Charge: This ability will now properly cause the warrior to go into combat with its target. Commanding Shout: This ability now increases your max health, but keeps your percentage health constant. Death Wish and Enrage effects no longer stack. Execute: When used with Sweeping Strikes, ranks 6 and 7 of this ability will no longer cause full damage to secondary targets who are not wounded. Flurry: Ranks 1-4 will no longer trigger from ranged critical strikes. Flurry, Fury Talent, now increases attack speed by 5/10/15/20/25%, reduced from 10/15/20/25/30. Heroic Strike: The rank 10 tooltip now includes specific values for the bonus damage against dazed targets. Improved Hamstring: The delay on the immobilize effect has been reduced. Improved Revenge: Reduced the delay on the stun landing from a successful Revenge. Insignia of the Alliance/Horde and Medallion of the Alliance/Horde now removes Immobilizing, Stun and Polymorph effects and no longer remove Slowing effects. Shield Slam: Rank 3 of this ability no longer gets its cost reduced twice by the Focused Rage talent (Protection). Spell Reflection no longer has a global cooldown. Sweeping Strikes: This ability will no longer be modified erroneously on additional targets by percent modifiers to your damage. Sword Specialization: This ability now grants extra yellow attacks instead of extra white attacks. It also grants rage based on the speed of your weapon. This change will make Sword Specialization no longer reset the weapon swing timer when it triggers off special attacks, and results in a net increase in damage dealt. Victory Rush: The tooltip has been adjusted to calculate the damage it deals correctly, 45% of Attack Power, not 35%. Pets Abilities and items that are triggered when you kill a target are also now triggered when your pet kills a target. Fixed the amount of happiness lost when you dismiss a Nether Ray pet. Voidwalkers will stop while they are consuming shadows. Warlock and Hunter pets will now be automatically dismissed when you summon a mount. These pets will return on dismount. This does not affect pet happiness for Hunters. Warlock and Hunter pets will now be automatically dismissed when you untalent. Items The majority of level 70 epic items have been upgraded to reflect their intended power. Armor: All Burning Crusade items that spent part of their budget on increased armor have been re-evaluated. Some gained additional armor, while others gained other additional bonuses. Common unique items will not drop for you if you already have them in your inventory. Items which start quests you've already completed will show the correct feedback if you try to use them. Heroic difficulty instances end bosses will now always drop an epic item, in addition all bosses in Heroic difficulty instances will have a chance to drop an epic gem! Additional darkmoon cards can now be found on high level outland creatures. They can be turned in to the darkmoon faire to make powerful new darkmoon card trinkets. Look for Lunacy, Storms, Furies and Blessings cards. Serpent-Coil Braid: The bonus spell damage from this trinket is now removed if the trinket is unequipped. Argussian Compass: A bug where this trinket sometimes caused all the damage from an attack to be absorbed has been fixed. Health Regeneration: This effect on random property items has been renamed to Health per 5 sec. Khorium Lockboxes will now drop occasionally off creatures over level 65. Devilsaur Tooth: This item has been reverted to pre-Burning Crusade design, granting an automatic critical strike to your pet's next attack. Nethershard, Ceremonial Kris, Illidari-Bane Mageblade, Summoner's Blade, Thunderlord Scalpel, Vibro Dagger, Vibro Sword, and Revered Mother's Crysknife: These weapons can now only be used in the main hand. The Serpentshrine Shuriken can now be sold to vendors. Xavian Stiletto can now be sold to vendors. Wand of Biting Cold can now be sold to vendors. Bloodseeker now can now be sold to vendors. The Ironscale War Cloak can now be disenchanted. Boots of the Infernal Coven can now be disenchanted. Crown of Endless Knowledge can now be disenchanted. Valanos' Longbow can now be disenchanted. Ravager's Cuffs can now be disenchanted. Deep Core Lantern can now be disenchanted. The Devilshark Cape can now be disenchanted. Demon Hide Spaulders can now be disenchanted. Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow can no longer be disenchanted. Tranquillien Reputation Items: Some of the items on this vendor were disenchantable. They no longer are disenchantable. Gladiator's Endgame can no longer be disenchanted. Corrected a typo in the tooltip of The Hammer of Destiny's proc. Corrected a typo in the tooltip of Anesthetic Poison in regards to the number of charge applied. Malefic Raiment: Corrected a tooltip calculation error. Bangle of Endless Blessings: Fixed tooltip error on Meditation effect. Cataclysm Harness: Fixed a tooltip error on Invigorated effect. Updated the tooltip for Vengeance of the Illidari to clarify that it increases spell damage. Blade of Eternal Darkness: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it only works with direct damage spells. Wushoolay's Charm of Nature: The tooltip has been corrected to indicate it grants spell haste. Corrected a naming inconsistency with Windchanneller's items. Figurine of the Colossus corrected a typo in the tooltip of the buff provided by this item. Marsh Lichen: This food is now considered a fungus. Stromgarde Muenster is now correctly considered cheese for the purposes of feeding pets. Edible Fern now triggers a global cooldown on use. Rumsey Rum, Rumsey Rum Light, Rumsey Rum Dark, Rumsey Rum Black Label, Halaani Whiskey, Gordok Green Grog, Raptor Punch, Stormstout, Trogg Ale, and Thunderbrew Lager: The stat bonuses from these drinks no longer stacks with stamina bonuses from other foods. Felguard Annihilators will now drop the proper loot in Heroic difficulty. Khorium Lockboxes will now contain loot of the appropriate level. Aeonus will now properly drop a Primal Nether in Heroic Difficulty. Coilfang Collaborators will now drop the proper loot in Heroic Difficulty. Demon Hunter Supplicants now drop the proper loot. Auchenai Death-Speakers and Doomsayers will now drop the appropriate loot. Netherstrike armor has had it's socket bonuses changed. PvP Set Bonuses: Set bonuses of 35 resilience rating will now stack correctly if received from two different sets. Alliance Shaman PvP Sets: These sets now have set bonuses as intended. General's Dreadweave Boots: Now available for purchase from the PvP vendor as intended. Assassination Set: The haste bonus from this set will no longer be triggered if your attack does not land on the target. Avatar Regalia Set: Tooltips corrected on the Shadow Word: Pain set bonus to indicate the triggered bonus works on the next spell cast only. The bonus also now correctly affects healing spells. Black Dragonscale Set: The hit rating bonus from this set now stacks properly with hit rating bonuses from other effects. Black Dragon Mail Set: The hit rating and critical strike rating set bonuses from this set will now stack correctly with other sources of those ratings. Cataclysm Harness Set: The cast time reduction to Lesser Healing Wave will now be displayed correctly as 1.5 sec in the Invigorated tooltip. Cenarion Raiment Set: The spell critical strike rating set bonus will now stack properly with other effects that give spell critical strike rating. Defiler's Purpose Set: The critical strike rating from this set bonus will now be applied properly. Defiler's Resolution Set: The critical strike rating from this set will now stack correctly with other bonuses to critical strike rating. Devilsaur Armor Set: The hit rating bonus from this set now stacks properly with hit rating bonuses from other effects. Devilsaur Set: The hit rating set bonus will now stack correctly with hit rating bonuses from other items. Earthfury Set: The set bonus that increases totem radius now works on Wrath of Air Totem. Ebon Netherscale Set: The hit rating bonus from this set will now stack correctly with other hit rating bonuses. Frostfire Set: The 4 piece set bonus now works correctly with rank 4 Mage Armor. Frozen Shadoweave Set: The set bonus from these items will no longer have its tooltip modified by the Vampiric Embrace talent and can no longer cause a critical strike heal. Hallowed Raiment Set: The Binding Heal set bonus on this set has been changed to 30% chance to resist losing casting time off Binding Heal when taking damage. Imbued Netherweave Set: The critical strike rating set bonus now stacks correctly with other effects that grant critical strike rating. Incanter's Set: Corrected precision error in display of cast time reduction in Flamestrike. The actual value is unchanged; it was displaying a rounded-off value before. Justicar Armor Set: The bonus to Seal of Vengeance now functions correctly. Malefic Raiment Set: The set bonus granting heals from periodic spells can longer get critical strikes. Netherblade Set: The set bonus giving a chance to gain combo points on finishers now works correctly with Slice and Dice and Deadly Throw. Overlord's Resolution Set: The dodge rating bonus from this set now stacks correctly with all other dodge rating effects. Voidheart Set: This set bonus will now trigger correctly from all shadow and fire spells. Warbringer Armor Set: The Revenge set bonus will no longer apply an excessive bonus to Heroic Strike. Wyrmhide Set: Adjusted the tooltip on Moonfire cost reduction to indicate it is a reduces by a percentage of the base cost, not the talented cost. Nordrassil Regalia: The Regrowth set bonus will now correctly be consumed by the first casting of Regrowth. Clefthoof Hide Leggings: There were two items with this name. The world drop item has been renamed as Elekk Hide Leggings. Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker: Healing spells and spells which are not critical strikes can now trigger this trinket. Heavenly Inspiration no longer shares a cooldown with other trinkets which temporarily increase spell damage. The Talon of Al'ar: This trinket now applies correctly to Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot. Energized Wristwraps: This item was incorrectly set to superior quality. It has been changed to good quality with the stat bonuses unchanged. Murloc Eggs: These pet-summoning items are now set to superior quality. Swift Flying Mounts: All the swift flying mounts will now display as epic items, rather than superior-quality items. The Twin-Bladed Ripper icon has been changed. The Netherwhelp's Collar now has its own unique icon. The Lightsworn Hammer icon has been changed to a mace icon. Replaced the placeholder art for Zeth'gor Shield and Dragonscale Shield with permanent art. Staff of Prehistoria: A placeholder icon will no longer become visible when creating this staff. Corrected the stats of Girdle of the Endless Pit. Corrected the stats of Supple Leather Boots. Scroll of Strength V will now give the proper stat increase. Corrected many issues with helmets displaying and not displaying hair correctly. The Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight will now properly hide facial hair. Warmaul Helmet: This helmet no longer displays facial hair clipping through the helm. The Citrine Pendant of Golden Healing should now properly work on players of all levels. Removed the level requirement on Battle Scarred Leggings. The Consortium Combatant's Robes level requirement has been removed. The Spellfire and Shadoweave tunics have been changed to robes. Robes of Insight will again correctly have its effect consumed by casting Blink. Masquerade Gown will now be triggered correctly by any spell, not just critical strikes. Adamantite Weight Stones now work on staves and fist weapons. Fel Weightstone now works on fist weapons. Spymaster's Crossbow can now be used by non-hunters. The Azerothian Longbow will now properly display it's firing animation. Halaa Ammo has been reduced in damage and soulbound, but you can carry any number of them. Draenic Light Crossbow now correctly uses arrows and has had it's firing animation corrected. Lead Slug Shotgun: Correct sounds and animations are now attached. Longbeard Rifle now has a gun animation and sound. Dragonbreath Musket, PC-54 Shotgun, Sporting Rifle, and Tauren Runed Musket all now have a gun sound and animation instead of crossbow. The Night Blade: The chance for the effect on this item to trigger has been reduced. The Flarethorn will now display properly when sheathed. Aldor Guardian Rifle will now work correctly. Mag'hari Light Recurve will now work correctly. Ragehammer again grants increased damage instead of attack power. Searing Needle: The damage effect from this item is fixed and now works correctly. Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian: The party aura from these items will now be reapplied correctly when a player logs into the game while already mounted. Hammer of Destiny: The mana restoring effect from this item will now display in the combat log. Earthwarden: Damage when not shapeshifted reduced on this weapon; this was intended to be reduced like other feral weapons, but was overlooked. The Silver Star: This low-level quest reward has been fixed to match the new system for thrown weapons. For technical reasons, all old Silver Stars are now listed as Broken and cannot be used. New ones gained will work correctly. Grunt's Waterskin: This item now has the same effect as Footman's Waterskin. The Decapitator should no longer give an immune message when used on certain creature types. The Discombobulator Ray no longer works on flying targets. Goblin Rocket Launcher: When this item stuns a warrior opponent, it can now trigger Second Wind. Cosmic Infuser: This item now works with Gift of the Naaru and Holy Nova. It does not work with affects which cause a target to heal themselves, Earth Shield, Lifebloom, Prayer of Mending, etc., or which are caused by draining life or vampirism. Health potions and other consumables will no longer trigger it either. Mana Thistle: Picking this herb will no longer case abilities such as Lightning Shield to trigger and burn changes. Nightmare Vine: The poison from picking this herb is now considered Nature damage instead of Physical damage. Pendant of the Violet Eye will no longer trigger from spells with no mana cost. It will also no longer get double procs from some Paladin spells. Pendant of Golden Healing: This item no longer gains benefit from bonus healing effects. Bangle of Endless Blessings will no longer proc off of tradeskills. Bogslayer Bracers now make the proper sound when moved in your inventory. Reduced the Silence and Interrupt reduction provided by Talisman of the Breaker. Band of the Eternal Champion: This item is no longer triggered from being hit by ranged attacks. Band of the Eternal Defender: The effect from this item now only affects the wearer, instead of the whole party. Eye of Gruul has been redesigned to give a chance of healing discount each time a heal is cast. Oculus of the Hidden Eye: The tooltip for this item now specifies the user must kill a creature to gain its benefit. Lesser Rune of Warding: This effect will now continue to work correctly after the target dies and resurrects. Greater Rune of Warding: This effect will now continue to work correctly after the target dies and resurrects. Mark of Conquest: The mana energizing effect from this item now correctly occurs on dealing ranged damage instead of taking it. Glyph of Renewal: The mana regeneration from this enchantment will now stack correctly with all other mana regeneration effects. Libram of Eternal Rest was causing Judgement of the Crusader not to refresh on each hit. That has been fixed. Auslese's Light Channeler: Avenger's Shield will now consume the effect from this item. Hazza'rah's Charm of Healing now provides haste rating as intended, instead of a fixed reduced cast time. Aegis of Preservation: This item will now correctly heal the user; it was showing up in the log, but not increasing actual health. Mystical Skyfire Diamond: The triggering rate on this item has been increased, but it now only reduces the cast time on spells by half; and Warlocks casting Corruption with maximum ranks in Improved Corruption will no longer consume the Focus buff from this gem. Lifegiving Gem: This item will now only increase maximum and current health of the user by 1500. It will not also heal the user for 1500. Enraged Fel Sparks now properly drop Motes of Fire instead of Motes of Shadow. Primal Nethers may now be purchased from G'eras for Badges of Justice. Oracle Belt of Timeless Mystery: The On Use effect changed to On Equip as intended. Abyssal Cloth Slippers: There were two items with this name. The ones from the Burning Crusade have been renamed Abyssal Cloth Footwraps. Updated the General's Leather Boots to properly reflect the Alliance counterpart. Area 52 Defender's Pants: Arcane resistance on this item was unintended and has been removed. Brood Mother Leggings: Now has a spell price and can be worn by non-hunters. Razaani-Buster Leggings: This item can now be sold to a vendor. Mok'Nathal Hero's Pantaloons now has a sell price and can be worn by non-hunters. Enchant Boots - Vitality: The health regeneration from this enchantment will now work in combat. Enchant Weapon- Spellsurge: The mana gained from this enchantment will now show up in the combat log. Malorne Raiment and Malorne Regalia: These sets no longer erroneously apply a reduction in cost to some Druid spells. Cyclone Regalia: The chance for a mana cost reduction to occur has been reduced. Warrior Tier 4 Tanking Set: The Blade Turning Bonus now prevents thecorrect amount of damage, 200. Priest Tier 5 Shadow Set: The Sadist buff will no longer be consumed when casting a spell which does neither damage nor healing. Priest Tier 4 Shadow Set: Mind Flay will now benefit correctly from the 4 piece bonus. Shaman Tier 5 Spell Damage Set: The 4 piece bonus will no longer be triggered by Shocks and Chain Lightning. Professions Alchemy The chance of a discovery occurring while making potions has been substantially increased. Elixirs now stack in two categories, Battle (Offensive) and Guardian (Defensive) Elixirs. You can only have one of each type of Elixir up at a time. As a result Elixirs now stack with class abilities such as Arcane Intellect. Elixirs now stack to 20. Four new defensive elixirs have been added. Two are on trainers, one is in Halaa and one is in Cenarion Expedition. Flask of Petrification can no longer be turned off during its duration, but it now will clear all threat from all monsters for the duration of the effect. Though monsters may reacquire you after the effect ends. Cooldown time on Earthstorm and Skyfire Diamond transmutes has been reduced to 1 day. Invulnerability potions now stop the first 120 damage per hit for 8 seconds, rather than making the imbiber physically immune. The major protection potions made by Alchemy now require more Mana Thistle and vials, but create 5 potions instead of just one. Fel Strength elixirs now work correctly with elixir mastery. Elemental Absorption potions now have a 2 minute duration rather than the 60 min duration they used to have. Alchemy transmute of Heart of Fire to Elemental Fire changed to 15 minute cooldown. Reagent costs and potency of all flasks has been reduced. The cost of Imbued Vials has been reduced. The chance to find a Fel Lotus while picking an herb has been increased. Juju Chill and Juju Ember are now considered Guardian Elixirs and do not stack with other resistance buffs. Juju Flurry is now considered a Battle Elixir and has been converted from haste to haste rating. Ground Scorpok Assay, Juju Might, Juju Power, Lung Juice Cocktail, and R.O.I.D.S are now considered Battle Elixirs. Crystal Force, Crystal Ward,Gizzard Gum, Infallible Mind, Juju Escape, Juju Guile, Sheen of Zanza and Swiftness of Zanza are all now considered Guardian Elixirs. Sheen of Zanza is now considered a Guardian Elixir. Stamina and Spirit bonuses have been reduced to 25. Elixir of Fortitude now correctly displays its name in its buff tooltip. The Alchemist's Stone bonus now works on potions that restore both health and mana. Super Mana Potions now require 2 Dreaming Glory instead of 2 Netherbloom to create. Super Healing Potions now require 2 Netherbloom instead of 2 Dreaming Glory to create. Reduced the number of Stonescale Oil required to make Greater Stoneshield Potions. Reduced the reagents required to make Ironshield Potions. New cauldron recipes can now be discovered when making most major protection potions. Cauldrons can provide an entire raid with a major protection potion. Enchanting Enchant Bracer-Spellpower had its primal costs reduced slightly. Enchanting recipes that increase spell damage now also increase healing as well. The Major Defense Bracer enchantment has been moved from Ethereum Researchers to Ethereum Nullifiers. Engineering 11 new epic goggles have been introduced at 350 engineering skill and are available from the trainer. They range from cloth to plate, and have a variety of stats to appeal to most talent specs. A recipe for Frost Grenades and the Icy Blasting Primers needed to make them are now on engineering trainers. Engineering recipes can now be placed in engineering bags, as can engineer made fireworks. Many engineering recipes will now give skillups for longer than the previously did. An engineering recipe to make Fused Wiring can be found in both Everlook and Shattrath. Engineering Skill required to make the Felsteel Stabilizer, Hardened Adamantite Tube and Khorium Power Core have been reduced slightly. Adamantite Shells now require less adamantite and do slightly more damage. The recipe for Elemental Blasting Powder now gives 4 powder when creating it, though it now requires an additional mote of earth. Engineers now make 3 Smoke Flares instead of just one when they create them. Also Smoke Flares now have a buy/sell price. Seaforium now opens locked chests as well as locked doors. The Consortium Vendor Karaaz now sells the engineering recipe for an Elemental Seaforium Charge if you are revered with them. The Poultryizer has a smaller chance of getting malfunction effects and is now a superior quality item. The Nigh Invulnerability Belt now has a smaller chance of failure. Healing Potion Injectors and Mana Potion Injectors created by engineers now have new icons and the engineering requirement to use them has been reduced. Goblin Rocket Launcher now has a 2 minute cooldown, and had its casting time reduced to 3.5 sec. Gnomish Flame Turret now creates 3 turrets instead of 1. Thorium Tube requirement changed to Fel Iron Casing. Fishing The fishing timer has been reduced from 30 to 20 seconds and it now takes less time to fish. The fishing timer can no longer run through its duration without a fish biting. Fishing has been removed from Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley. Fixed a bug where you could catch 2 fish at once in some zones. You can now fish in Underbog. Jewelcrafting The jewelcrafting UI now has gems split up by color so it is easier to find gems of a specific color to create. A new set of more powerful gems can be found by raiding Hyjal and Black Temple. Their stats exceed those of previous gems that could be found. A number new gem cuts to existing gems have been added to the game. Included among them are a spell hit gem and more multi-stat gems that have attack power on them. Jewelcrafters can make two new melee oriented meta gems. One is found randomly as a world drop and the other sold by the reputation vendor. Thorium Setting only requires 1 thorium bar now. Many Jewelcrafting recipes that required 200-280 skill to learn now have changed/reduced materials required to make them Mithril filigree has a slightly reduced range that it gives skillups. A number of jewelcrafting gems now give skill increases for slightly longer than they used to. Pendant of Blasting and Necklace of Battle will now grant their click effects to players correctly, previously they only worked on characters higher than level 47. Jewelcrafting Onslaught ring thorium cost reduced The vendor value for the raw green gems have been reduced. This willalso make these gems cheaper to put up on the auction house (Blood Garnet, Golden Draenite, etc...) Prospecting now always yields at least 1 gem. Grand Master Jewelcrafters Hamanar (Shattrath City), Jazdalaad (The Stormspire), Kalaen (Thrallmar) and Tatiana (Honor Hold) may teach all levels of Jewelcrafting. The recipe for Figurine - Golden Hare no longer requires a Cut Citrine. It now requires copper bars. Several new recipes that use Jaggal and Shadow Pearls have been added to jewelcrafting trainers. Increased the chance to find blue gems when prospecting. Removed the 1 hour cooldown when cutting diamonds. Reduced the matching requirements for some diamonds. Leatherworking Knothide Armor kits now require less leather to make and give skill increases for longer. Leatherworking made Primalstrike set now has an attack power set bonus rather than a strength set bonus. Additional snakes that drop cobra scales are in the highlands of nagrand as well as in shadowmoon valley. Leatherworker made Drums of Restoration had their health/mana effects reduced slightly. Nethercobra Leg Armor and Nethercleft Leg Armor have been slightly improved. Heavy Clefthoof Boots, Heavy Clefthoof Leggings, and Heavy Clefthoof Vest have had their armor increased at the expense of some stamina and defense rating. Changed the socket bonuses on the Windhawk set to something more appropriate. Herbalism The Dreaming Glory buff now correctly works in combat. Netherbloom no longer causes negative effects, although the positive effects happen less frequently. Additionally, the effects will not replace one another. Nightmare Vine has a reduced chance to poison the herbalist. Nightmare Seed found with herbalism now requires level 60 to use. Underbog Colossus have an increased number of herbs on them when harvested by an herbalist. The 2.1 notes don't remotely fit on one page! Continue to page 2 below. Next Page >>
WoW Archivist: Patch 2.1, The Black Temple
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Blizzard ruined my intro. I was going to talk about how appropriate it was that patch 5.1 included a scenario for warlocks that took them to the Black Temple. Then they pushed it to 5.2. So fine. I'll just fall back to something generic. In terms of sheer content and changes, patch 2.1 was truly massive -- one of WoW's biggest patches of all time. It arrived in May 2007, five months into The Burning Crusade. Let's dive in! Illidan shouts at us in person We were ready, if not perhaps entirely prepared. After an ad campaign and a trailer that prominently featured Illidan, many players expressed disappointment that WoW's first expansion didn't launch with the Black Temple raid. In retrospect, those concerns seem silly today. If anything, the Black Temple released too early in the expansion, forcing Blizzard to add the ultradifficult Sunwell Plateau raid to fill the gap between expansions. The Black Temple was an enormous raid, and one of the game's most beloved. No matter where you went, everything was big and scary. In some areas, even clearing the trash felt epic. Nine bosses populated a vast indoor/outdoor instance. Many of them are still remembered fondly. Supremus and Reliquary of Souls were highly memorable encounters, the latter partly due its unforgiving awareness checks. Teron Gorefiend and Illidan were major lore figures able to be vanquished in WoW for the first time. BT wasn't the only raid that 2.1 introduced, however.
Officers' Quarters: When the old guard returns
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Officers come and go. Real life intervenes, burnout sets in, interest wanes -- these things happen, and officers disappear for months or even years. But sometimes they come back. This week, one officer asks, what then? Hi Scott, I'm officer and raid leader of an intense 2/week 10-man raiding guild that's been running in one shape or another since TBC. Due to some old timers coming back we're now in a situation where our raid consists of 50% officers – and only 3 of them by function. We've always steered closer to adhocracy than bureaucracy, so the title is secondary to most of us – my main concern is that so much communication is now happening within the officer-circle that we're alienating our crucial core raiders for no apparent reason.
WoW Archivist: The pointy end of weapon skills
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Have you ever picked up a real-life sword, axe, or powder rifle and said to yourself, "Yeah, I know exactly how to kill people with this?" Me too -- all the time. I mean, there's only one thing you need to know, right? But in actual reality and not the reality in our heads, we don't have the first clue. Most of our ideas probably come from movies or TV, where the fights are choreographed to be exciting rather than true to historic fighting methods. Why do I bring this up? In vanilla WoW, and for quite a long time afterward, your character couldn't just pick up a new weapon and instantly know how to murder dragons with it. Your character had to learn. Slowly, painfully learn. Let's look back at weapon skills.
Officers' Quarters: 10 tips for successful guild events
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Guild events outside of the usual raiding and PvP activities can help break up the monotony and get people excited about their guild. This week's email comes from an "event officer" who wants to know, how do you get people to show up? I am an officer in my guild, and we have been re-evaluating our roles. I am considering becoming the Social Event Coordinator, and I am looking for some advice to get things started. ... My ideas include scheduling nights to do scenarios/dungeons for achievements, old school raids, and probably a pet battle league once people aren't as focused on gearing up for raids. My questions are: Do you have any suggestions on how to communicate to guildies that aren't around much that these events are being planned? Do you have suggestions on how to determine interest before scheduling? Do you have suggestions on how to encourage participation? Do you have other event ideas that have worked for you?