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Wrath 101: Level 70 PvP gear
If you were looking forward to getting gear upgrades through Honor at Level 70 when Wrath of the Lich King finally arrives in a few days, you probably shouldn't hold your breath. I know I advised doing a lot of PvP, but I meant that you should be keeping all that Honor for Level 80 rewards. Blizzard has stated that Season 3 rewards will not be available for Honor points, and that Brutal Gladiator items will retain their ratings requirement. Zarhym explains that there are no plans to make Season 3 gear available through the Honor system because there will no longer be any new rewards for Arenas at Level 70. Since all Honor gear available through vendors are two seasons old, all current Level 70 rewards will remain as they are. In another post, Wryxian explained that the personal ratings requirements for Brutal Gladiator gear will also stay in place, pointing out that the gear will last well through the Northrend leveling experience. To that end, Blizzard intends for the gear to be "somewhat limited in availability."
EU premade Beta characters now available
Wryxian announced yesterday that EU players may now begin enjoying premade characters on the beta servers. These premades, unlike their US counterparts, are available to be placed on regular beta servers – not just special premade-only ones.They are still in PvP gear. They have no special PvE gear. However they are still good for doing instances and what not. The only catch is that you'll notice some standard differences in the way the class behaves (mana regen, hit/miss, defense, etc...).EU players can access the premades by going to the site where they originally copied their character over to the beta and select to copy over a "template" character.
Mind Flay gets bigger crits, better beams
The class designers have filtered out a little more information regarding our Mind Flay upgrades, and it's very pleasant to hear. In addition to the higher coefficient on Mind Flay and gaining an ability to crit, Shadow Power will give Mind Flay 100% bonus damage crits, rather than the baseline 50%. This is very good news, because 50% crits just don't cut it anymore. Almost everybody has 100% bonus crit damage via talents, and not having the option to spec that way is quite a hurdle when you're trying to be competitive. Very good news indeed.In less game changing but still exciting news, Mind Flay and other beam-type spells (Drain Life, Drain Soul, etc) will be getting a graphical overhaul. Perhaps they'll be more like Penance's fancy missiles? Or maybe they'll just be more of a beam than "behold my blue/green/purple/yellow squiggly line of doom!" Either way, I'm happy to hear it. I'm a firm believer in 'shinier is better.'
Macros saved to server instead of computer in Wrath
Wrath Beta tester Tiwo came across a welcome change when logging into her account on a different computer from normal. The macros she wrote and saved on the original machine were now available on the second machine. She posted to the EU Beta forums in thanks, and Wryxian confirmed the change was real. Macros are now saved as part of your account information, and will be available across any machine you play in. This is pretty awesome good news. Some playstyles can use a beastly number of macros, and I'm not sure I'd be a quarter as effective on my Hunter without the beloved shot rotation macro. I've been known to change my Arena macros on the fly, customizing what exactly I want to have happen according to bracket. Since I carry a laptop around, whenever I use that machine instead of my desktop, I have to rewrite and update everything. Usually, I end up playing without my beloved macros (or at least the current version of them). It might be a small quality of life upgrade, but it's one that I'm pretty happy to hear about.
Scholomance to be revisited?
Everybody's favorite trash bin, Scholomance, might be getting a revisit by Blizzard. Late last week, CM Wryxian posted on the WoW Europe forums asking players for their thoughts on the expansion, and since then, people have given it a general thumbs up -- while Scholo has always had issues with too much trash in too cramped quarters (in fact, it was already revamped a few times to be tuned down -- it used to be a 10 man raid equal in difficulty to UBRS), players still frequent it, and they have really enjoyed the fact that it was a branching dungeon that had some pretty cool lore associated with it -- the story of Darkmaster Gandling and his school of Necromancy (and all the hot teachers there) is a good one.Of course, what Blizzard might do with the instance, we have no idea -- at this point, it's soloable at 70, but it still does provide a great source of Argent Dawn rep, and there are actually a few epics dropping in there now. Maybe they'll revamp it like Naxx, or it'll be the first "old world" instance to be given a Heroic setting? Or maybe Blizzard is asking players what they think about the instance because they're thinking of cutting it -- in order to introduce some new leveling content in the Plaguelands. The fact that they're asking about it at all means that there must be something in store for Gandling's old school, but what that is, we have no idea.
Wrath Beta keys sent out to BlizzCon and WWI code holders
Numerous reports are coming in that the Wrath Beta keys are making their way to players now. Attendees of last year's BlizzCon in Anaheim, California, and the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France, received a card with a code for a "future Blizzard title" as part of their goody bags. Wryxian confirmed over at the official forums that the said title was Wrath of the Lich King and urged everyone to register their codes immediately. Players who do so will be prompted to enter the codes from the cards as well as their e-mail address, as Beta access information is sent through e-mail. Reader Phi mentions that it doesn't matter when the codes were claimed. She registered her code right after BlizzCon last year while her boyfriend registered only yesterday after Blizzard's announcement, and both received their keys today. If you're one of the lucky few who attended either Blizzard event or managed to snag a beta code through other channels like eBay, registering the code should see you receiving invites in the mail. WoW Insider's Elizabeth Harper, who attended both, received two invites to the Beta eight minutes apart from each other. The official e-mail from prompts players to follow the step-by-step instructions over at Blizzard's official Beta page. Thanks to everyone who tipped this in!
Mounts and small pets will take no bag space in Wrath
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Mounts_and_pets_out_of_inventory_in_Wrath'; Many players love to collect vanity pets and mounts, and in Wrath there will even be Achievements for collecting certain numbers of them. Which raises the problem of bank space – after all, we only have so many slots, and we're already using a lot of them for extra reagents, crafting items, consumables, resist sets, and so forth. So how are we supposed to find the space to store 75 vanity pets? Fortunately, Blizzard has come up with a solution. Come Wrath, mounts and vanity pets will be learned as spells, CM Wryxian has just announced. The items that currently summon pets/mounts, like Sprite Darter Egg or Ashes of Al'ar, will serve to teach us the spells, at which point the item will disappear from your inventory and the spells will be found in your spellbook for all time (bindable to hotkeys like any other spell if you want). This should make collectors very happy: collect all you can now, and they won't take any space whatsoever once you learn them. Be sure to check out WarcraftPets for help on how to find them (that site's creator was recently honored with an in-game NPC). And everyone will gain at least two more inventory slots that are currently devoted to their ground and flying mounts (except people whose mounts are already summonable, i.e. paladins, warlocks, and druids). Excellent move, Blizz; this is even better than the vanity pet bags people have been asking for.
BlizzCon 2007 Beta codes will be used for Wrath
EU CM Wryxian has good news for everyone who attended BlizzCon last year (or just bought the beta key cards off of eBay): the codes given out last year will be used for the Wrath of the Lich King beta. Wryx says if you've got a code, register it immediately, and then do what everyone else is doing -- wait for the beta email to show up.To tell the truth, I'm a little disappointed. I've got a beta key from BlizzCon, but I've already signed up for the Wrath beta through the usual channels. Of course, we still don't know how this works -- maybe those with a key will be given access before those who just signed up randomly, but it sure seems like everybody will get in eventually. Which means that even if you didn't get a key at BlizzCon, you'll still get into the beta anyway. I thought that Blizzard would have treated those who came out to their event a little better (and, at the very least, been a lot clearer about how registration for the beta is working -- are they making it up as they go along?).But on the other hand, the open registration just means more people will get into the beta, and I don't have a problem with that -- the more the merrier. As always, the problem with Blizzard is communication -- it's fine if they want to keep which beta these WWI or BlizzCon keys are for a secret, but when the beta registration actually starts, they should make a plan, stick with it, and let all of us would-be beta testers in on what it is.
More leaks from the Alpha forums on Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights
Deathknight.info has just posted another batch of info from the Alpha forums, this time with Wryxian and Slorkuz talking about Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights. Primarily, they focus on the tanking abilities of Death Knights and Warriors and delve into some possible improvements to the Shaman Enhancement tree in WoTLK, including possible new talents: Shamans Enhancement Shamans, says Wryxian, will probably see further review. It looks like a lot of the new Enhancement talents will see some changes as well: Weapon Specialization (which gives special abilities based on which weapon type the Shaman uses) will likely be removed Improved Shamanistic Rage (which made Shamans using SR immune to all movement impairing effects and stuns at 2 points) will also probably be removed. Wryxian mentioned a possible replacement for Weapon Specialization: Each melee critical hit would give a stacking buff that reduces cast time by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds. That would mean that at 5 stacks, you'd get a free instant cast spell. Feral Spirit, the 51 point enhancement ability that summons ghost wolves to aid the Shaman, may be getting a second look as well. For Enhancement DPS, they hope that totems and shocks make up for the lack of melee abilities to keep it interesting, though they may consider a new melee move for Shamans as well. In addition, he promises new totem changes soon. Read on for some juicy information on Warriors, Death Knights, and Blizzard's vision for tanking in WoTLK.
