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Ulduar testing schedule for March 11th-15th
We dropped the ball a little bit by failing to post about this week's Ulduar testing schedule yesterday when Daelo posted it to the official forums, but that's alright. We didn't miss much. Last night was just more Hodir testing. The rest of the week should prove more interesting, because they're re-testing a couple of bosses that were pretty widely considered much too easy, like Ignis the Furnace Master, which I hear received a little extra testing last night for some reason. Again, both the US and EU realms are getting their own testing schedule.North American realms: Wednesday, 3/11 (today), 4 PM PDT: Mimiron Thursday, 3/12, 4 PM PDT: Ignis the Furnace Master Friday, 3/13, 4 PM PDT: XT-002 Deconstructor Saturday, 3/14, 4PM PDT: Kologarn Sunday, 3/15, 11 AM PDT: Flame Leviathan European realms: Wednesday, 3/11, 19:00 CET: Auriaya Thursday, 3/12, 19:00 CET: Mimiron Friday, 3/13, 19:00 CET: Thorim Saturday, 3/14, 19:00 CET: General Vezax Sunday, 3/15, 19:00 CET: Flame Leviathan I don't believe we've seen anything about Auriaya yet, so that's what I'm looking forward to the most. We haven't seen much of Mimiron either, but we already know he's just another mechagnome. Gotta say, not a fan of the mechagnomes.%Gallery-45995%
Watch Ulduar's Hodir live on the Patch 3.1 PTR
Streaming live video by UstreamSymbolic Logic of Area 52 is streaming their live Hodir raid tonight via the Patch 3.1 PTR. You can check them out above and at their UStream page.You can read more about this patch at WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1 (including the latest patch notes), and read some impressions of Ulduar fights. We've also covered the initial release of Hodir last week.
This week's Ulduar testing schedule
Daelo, our cloth-wrapped lead encounter designer, has just posted the schedule for which bosses will be tested in Ulduar on the 3.1 PTR this week. As you may be aware, they're not opening all bosses for testing at once (at least, not yet), and bosses are up only during certain hours, to let the devs watch players (try to) beat them. This week, here's the schedule for the North American realms: Tonight, Tuesday 3/3, starting at 4 PM PST now: Flame Leviathan, the (in-)famous vehicle boss. Only the 10-man version should be tested, as the 25-man one is "not properly tuned." I'm really curious to see how this fight is going to work out. Wednesday, 3/4, starting at 4 PM PST: Ignis the Furnace Maker. Thursday, 3/5, starting 4 PM PST: Hodir. And for the European realms: Wednesday, 4/3, 1 AM CET: Flame Leviathan, 10-man only. Thursday, 5/3, 7 PM CET: Thorim. Friday, 6/3, 7 PM CET: Freya. Thorim on Thursday, Freya on friday? I think they did that on purpose. Daelo also promises that General Vezax and Razorscale will be soon available for European testers, and XT-002 Deconstructor for US testers. Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
The Queue: Genn, you're such a jerk
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Be warned that the very end of today's edition of The Queue contains minor spoilers for the upcoming Ulduar raid zone. Everything is perfectly safe until the very last question, and even then the spoilers are very minor. Minor as in it describes a couple of the bosses found within the zone. It doesn't give away any story or plot. If you want your experience to remain pure, stop at the last question. If you don't care so much about knowing who you'll see in Ulduar, it's perfectly safe.I warn because I love.mindor asked...What is the deal with the Greymane wall in Silverpine forest? Is there an old raid set in there? What is on the other side of that monstrous wall?
PTR quests show hard-mode progression, Ulduar storyline, Val'anyr
We've been wondering for a while how exactly the Ulduar storyline plays out in 3.1; this may seem a bit silly or lorelol, given how much time is going to be spent running the instance itself or its myriad of raid bosses and hard modes, but I like to know what's driving me to complete an instance beyond phatty purpz.You can obviously infer a lot from the instance itself and the names of each respective room, but for those seeking a little more information, Wowhead's PTR page has you covered. There were a few quests added in this most recent PTR build that give us tantalizing bits of Ulduar storyline and show Blizzard's intention to create clear progressions -- not only in the 10- and 25-man versions of Ulduar, but a reward and progression path for those blazing a trail in the hard mode versions of each instance. A fine notion indeed. Oh, and if you wanted to know just how to forge that new legendary mace... This writeup will be spoiler-heavy! If you don't wish to know anything about the secrets that lie within Ulduar, don't click the link below. You've been warned.
Ulduar on the 3.1 PTR: Hodir
Last night was an exciting night -- the first night of Ulduar encounter testing on the 3.1 PTR. Lead Encounter Designer Daelo, a.k.a. Scott Mercer, was on hand to open up the instance portal and guide us to our intended boss (the only boss in the instance for that night) -- Hodir. I've talked about Hodir a few times; he was featured in my Ulduar boss speculation post (and I was right), and I went through some of his datamined abilities a few days ago. Getting to finally test the encounter was exhilarating, and getting back into the process of learning a strat by hitting the ground running was something to which I've been looking forward for a long time. I brought my Elune guildies and a deadweight coworker with me for a 10-man attempt. This writeup will be spoiler-heavy. If you don't wish to know anything about this fight, don't click below. You've been warned.
The Daily Quest: A little DPS, a few Dailies and a whole lot of Kung Fu fighting
Though there is great news coming out of the PTR Patch 3.1, life goes on for us mortals playing on the live servers. Here's some interesting WoW-related posts from around the interwebs to keep you going. How do you pump up for Arenas? Out of Mana loves herself a little kung fu fighting music. She has embedded two excellent videos that use the song in entertaining ways (one of which is above.) Zaltu at One Rogue's Journey looks into the math behind the DPS ring Signet of Edward the Odd. Is it worth the high cost on the AH? Click and find out. The Armory Data Mine site looks at the increase and decrease in the popularity of different classes since Wrath launch. Some surprises in there (drop in Hunters), but then again not so much (popularity of DKs.) Matticus of World of Matticus posts his impressions of the first run on the Udluar raid boss Hodir last night on the PTR. Another great post on World of Matticus, Wrath Dailies for Healers for those holier than thou types that don't want to get their hands dirty, but still need a steady stream of income. Those heals don't come for free, people.
Ulduar testing schedule now available
Forget what Blizzard said about not having a testing schedule. That was just to throw you off the trail. Daelo just announced on the forums that some Ulduar bosses are going to be available for testing very soon. And by soon I mean within the next hour. Here's what Daelo had to say:On the North American test realmsHodir - Thursday night, February 26, starting at 7pm EST/4pm PST.Iron Council - Friday night, February 27, starting at 7pm EST/4pm PSTOn the European test realmsThorim - Friday night, February 27, starting at 7pm CET.Freya - Friday night, February 28, starting at 7pm CET.That means that Hodir will be available to fight in less than an hour in North American realms. The Iron Council will be available tomorrow. On the other side of the globe, the Europeans can have a shot at Thorim and Freya. This surprise testing comes right after Blizzard told everyone to stop asking about a raid schedule. Well, there you have it. Note that this will be bare bones testing of the bosses... there will be no trash, no loot, and no Achievements. It's just the boss in order for Blizzard to tune the encounter. Get to the PTR now and form your raids!NOTE: According to Blizzard, "To get to Hodir from the front of Ulduar, travel all the way through the exterior section headed straight until you teleport into the interior section. Go up the stairs, over the temporary bridge, then Hodir's wing is to your right. The walls of his wing are ice covered and he's at the end." Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
Datamined Ulduar boss information, with analysis
Yes, yes, we know you're curious about what the Ulduar boss encounters will be like, loyal readers. With 14 bosses, 11 hard modes, and an optional heroic boss, we wonder, too! We'll be able to test some of these encounters on the 3.1 PTR soon, but there are, of course, those of us who just can't wait to know anything about what's going on in Ulduar. Luckily, ever-resourceful players and dataminers have acquired information about spells and abilities related to bosses in Ulduar from the 3.1 PTR files. There's a lot of of stuff in here -- some of it may make it into the live game, some may not, and some may be related to vehicles or other sundries involved with encounters. I'm going to go into detailed analysis of those encounters for which detailed spells exist. It goes without saying that these will be huge spoilers to anyone who doesn't want their Ulduar experience to be anything but pure, so don't read past the jump if you don't want to know!
Who's the boss (in Ulduar)?
All this talk of 3.1 we've been seeing lately is fantastic! Class and talent changes everywhere, dual-spec announcements (see? I told you!), it's all great stuff. For me, though, the big draw of 3.1 is -- read my lips -- one new dungeon! I know, I know, raids is raids, but I'm getting pretty tired of Naxx, and I want a nice long raid to sink my teeth into. New strats to learn! Setting a course through uncharted territory! Wiping because we don't know the fight yet! I'm just so excited. Of course, the one thing we haven't found out about Ulduar yet is who the heck we're killing for their purples! Being a reasonable man who reads his quest text, though, I've been able to divine the identities of a few personalities we're likely to encounter. The Ulduar screenshots from beta, with their diverse wings and amazing architecture, also hint to these same folks. They'll be involved, and I'll put good gold on it. Who's ready to rumble?
Know Your Lore: The Sons of Hodir
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Alex Ziebart brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? Leave a comment below! This week, the role of Alex Ziebart will be played by Matthew Rossi.Hi. You may remember me from not finishing the KYL on Thrall. Well, since this week our Alex Ziebart has to take a small breather, I'm filling in for him as part of our "Hey, I finished that post you didn't so you owe me, and also the pictures are back from the developer and I'd hate to have to post them to the website" arrangement. Alex informed me as he handed over the package in that park, just before my trained snipers totally failed me, that this week would be discussing the Sons of Hodir from a lore perspective. Since until such time as Agent Deathwolf tracks him down and retrieves the microfilm I have no choice, that will be the topic of today's post.Since I happen to be exalted twice with these guys, it seems a fair enough question to ask who they are and where they come from. So far, we have fragments of the story, but not the whole picture as yet. If it even needs to be said at this late point, I will be dropping spoilers for Storm Peaks quests like they were remarkably heavy antiques that you asked me to help you move into your new apartment on the 17th floor and I wanted to make sure you never asked again.
