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Spiritual Guidance: Patch 3.3 priest gear and changes
Every week (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a UI and addons blog for WoW. With patch 3.3 very close on the horizon, I figured now might be a good time to go over the few changes priests will be seeing. I'm also going to provide a list of possible juicy items for you to look forward to from the Icecrown Citadel raid, the Icecrown dungeons and the Emblem of Frost vendor. After all, you can't look to take down Arthas without sporting some new threads, right?
Patch 3.3 PTR: Queen Lana'thel impressions
I was originally not planning on heading into the patch 3.3 Icecrown testing that was scheduled for Friday on the PTR. Luckily, earlier in the week, I found out my afternoon classes were canceled. Sweet, right? Show time! So on Friday, we fought Queen Lana'thel and she completely mopped the floor with us and used us to clean her chamber. %Gallery-76227%
Patch 3.3 PTR: Deathbringer Saurfang impressions
I hate this fight with a passion. I really hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it. Words cannot express the frustration. We're talking keyboard smashing levels here. With regards to the other bosses I've participated in up to this point, this is the only encounter so far where I felt absolutely helpless and at a loss as to what to do. With more time on the other encounters, I'm confident that we would've been able to get those ones down. But Saurfang? Not only did it feel like I was beating my head on a wall repeatedly, we weren't making much head way with the different tactics we were trying. It's like running up an escalator that's going down. Sure you feel like you're working and exerting effort, but you're not going anywhere fast. In an effort to lighten the tone of today's patch 3.3 PTR impressions, I will list some facts that we discovered about Saurfang. Just for fun, of course. %Gallery-76227%
Patch 3.3: Lord Marrowgar and Chill of the Throne impressions
The next wave of Icecrown Citadel testing began today. A new patch 3.3 build was uploaded just hours before testing was scheduled to begin. Tonight, we'd take on Lord Marrowgar and Festergut. Raid loot had been implemented so we were anxious to see what some of the drops would be like. Not only that, today marked the first time Chill of the Throne would be active on the PTRs. Players could tackle the raid content to determine how it felt. My thoughts on Chill of the Throne will come after the break and after I finish my Lord Marrowgar impressions. %Gallery-76227%
Icecrown Citadel testing for this weekend
Come, my tan-faced children. Follow well in order! Get your weapons ready! Because Icecrown Citadel raid testing is back on track for both the US and EU, according to Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, AKA Daelo. His post on the official forums has scheduled the following encounters for testing on the Patch 3.3 PTR, barring any unforeseen difficulties, including build changes, server status, or capricious developer whims. US Servers Friday, November 6 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Valithria Dreamwalker Saturday, November 7 at 4PM EST / 1PM PST – Icecrown Gunship Battle EU Servers Friday, November 6 at 19:30 CET – Lady Deathwhisper Saturday, November 7 at 19:30 CET – Professor Putricide And be sure to let us know if you catch a glimpse of that legendary sharp-edged axe, pioneers, o pioneers! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Valithria Dreamwalker impressions
I have never been more excited about a boss in my life -- especially from a healer perspective! I do believe this is the first time an encounter has been introduced where DPS doesn't play a primary role in beating an encounter. The spotlight is on the healers! I'll elaborate more after the break as the mechanics for this are very interesting and are of high relevance for healers. %Gallery-76227%
Patch 3.3 PTR: Sindragosa impressions
Sindragosa. Her very name strikes fear into the hearts of mortals. This once majestic dragon was a former member of the blue flight. In fact, she was a consort of Malygos. Sindragosa was available for testing earlier this evening and she'll be another boss in the upcoming patch 3.3 Icecrown raid. If she looks familiar, you might've seen her in the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic. It's the same dragon that Arthas summoned. Of the two encounters I've seen so far, Sindragosa has proven to be the most fun to heal in Icecrown. I'll tell you what you can expect when your raid faces her behind the cut below. Also, our Icecrown gallery has been updated with more Sindragosa screenshots. %Gallery-76227%
Chill of the Throne: Dodge nerfed 20% in Icecrown Citadel
In patch 3.3 Blizzard is implementing a 20% dodge reduction via a spell that will be present in Icecrown Citadel's raid called Chill of the Throne. As Daelo points out, if your tank had 30% dodge, he now has 10%. They are doing this in order to negate the spike damage that's become prevalent in raids lately. So while dodge will be nerfed, the ceiling on damage given to a tank will likely decrease. This will in turn, at least theoretically, make healing more about strategy (applying HoTs and planning heals) and less reactive (twitch response to apply the biggest heal at exactly the right time). This is interesting to note as it's a move towards the Cataclysm way of tanking, as has been explained by Ghostcrawler: less avoidance on tanks, less spike damage, and thus requiring smaller heals. Daelo's and Ghostcrawler's full statements after the break. This post is currently being edited.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Gunship battle impressions
I'm on a boat! That was the first thing that came to mind as I entered Icecrown for today's Gunship encounter that will be coming in patch 3.3. It was another fun fight against those foul Horde forces although there were a few slight bugs in the mix. Unfortunately, we weren't able to complete it because the Alliance cannons just didn't seemed to be working properly. The goblins must have sabotaged it. Either that or someone forgot to reload them. I added some screenshots of the event into the Icecrown gallery. Anyway, it's time to grab your sword and fight the Horde! %Gallery-76227%
Patch 3.3 PTR: Festergut impressions
I cleared out the tail end of my afternoon in the hopes of getting a glimpse at the latest raid boss to be tested in the patch 3.3 PTR. Festergut was open for testing on North American servers while the European servers had Rotface. There were some issues with Rotface earlier in the day (namely that the 25 man version of Rotface had health that was meant for the 10 man). Anyway, I managed to get in a few attempts on Festergut here while playing on my priest. First, let's talk trash. %Gallery-76227%
Intermedia Cable Communications launches HDTV in India
Don't look now, but it seems that even more of India's population will have access to a sliver of HD programming. Intermedia Cable Communication, which is Pune's dominant MSO servicing some 40,000 homes, has launched five HD networks for its subscribers to enjoy. Unfortunately, the release doesn't mention what those channels are, but we are told that customers can expect to catch the Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (hosted in Delhi, India) to be aired in high-def. As for future plans, the provider is hoping to lure even more high-definition content to its carriage system, and in the meantime, it's looking to dole out as many HD STBs as possible in its service area.[Thanks, Zaid]
Visions of Global Justice
This coming Wednesday, 19 March, the USC Network Culture Project will feature the work of thirteen talented virtual world artists on the theme of justice, all specifically created for this event to celebrate the International Criminal Court. The artists involved are a talented set indeed from visual, audio and performance fields: Tuna Oddfellow, AM Radio, Pavig Lok, Tooter Claxton, Juria Yoshikawa, Dancoyote Antonelli, Filthy Fluno, elros Tuominen, Chance Abattoir, Adam Ramona, Josina Burgess, Velazquez Bonetto, and Junivers Stockholm.
