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Patch 3.3 PTR: Quel'delar weapons revealed [Updated]
We've been waiting to see the end rewards for Patch 3.3's Quel'delar questline, purported to be capable weapons, and it looks like this latest build revealed the stats for all of the weapon's incarnations. Swords: Quel'Delar, Ferocity of the Scorned Quel'Delar, Cunning of the Shadows Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind Quel'Delar, Might of the Faithful And if you can't use swords, you can turn Quel'delar in for: Maces: Cudgel of Furious Justice Hammer of Purified Flame Lightborn Spire The stats are pretty good, actually! Not a bad reward at all. No tanking sword, though. Weird! 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 Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Guildwatch: The waiting game
More and more guilds are becoming just like Zen, above -- they're downing Anub in Trial of the Crusader, and then wondering just what's next? The answer, of course, is Icecrown, but even our best estimates have that release a month away still. Not that anyone's blaming Blizzard yet -- quite a few guilds are still working on hard modes, and more people are worried just what'll happen after Icecrown (though I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard still has a few cards up their sleeve for that one). But still, at this point, guilds are reaching their limits, and we're starting to see the calm before the storm of raiding in patch 3.3. That doesn't mean Guildwatch isn't busy -- we've got the usual downed, drama, and recruiting notices from around the realms. And if your guild is still active, be sure to tell us about it: send a tip to guildwatch@wow.com, and you'll see it here in the future. Read on for more.
Icecrown Citadel testing schedule for Nov. 11-14
Good news, everyone! Blizzard just posted the updated schedule for Icecrown Citadel encounter testing on the Patch 3.3 PTR. Looks like the US gets first crack at taking down Saurfang Jr., while the EU gets the exclusive on reenacting a Spin Doctors song. The full schedule is listed below. Bear in mind that testing times are subject to change with or without notice due to build changes, PTR stability, capricious developer whims, and So You Think You Can Dance results. EU Servers Thursday, November 12 at 19:30 CET – Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Rotface Friday, November 13 at 19:30 CET – Blood Princes, Professor Putricide Saturday, November 14 at 19:30 CET – Lord Marrowgar US Servers Wednesday, November 11 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Lord Marrowgar, Festergut Thursday, November 12 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Deathbringer Saurfang Friday, November 13 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Icecrown Gunship Battle Saturday, November 14 at 4PM EST / 1 PM PST – Sindragosa 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 Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
The best of WoW.com: October 27 - November 3, 2009
That right there's a big ugly frost dragon named Sindragosa, and with the newest patch headed to the World of Warcraft (we expect it sometime this December), we'll be bringing her down. It won't be easy, but then again, WoW players have Joystiq's own WoW.com to guide them. You can read all about that fight, the new patch, and other popular stories in the World of Warcraft on our weekly roundup after the break.
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%
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%
Breakfast Topic: Looking ahead to patch 3.3
There's another new build on the PTR, which means we're one step closer to seeing the new patch 3.3 drop. And while of course Icecrown probably holds its place as the biggest feature of the new patch, there's a whole slew of other changes to look ahead to, from updated achievements and a new faction to run, a brand new LFG interface with cross-realm instances, the Kalu'ak fishing derby, speeded-up Northrend reputation grinds, and lots of other things. Man oh man this patch is building up to be quite the event. So the question today is: what are you most looking forward to? Personally, I remain a fan of the 5-man instances -- I've already run two of them on the PTR, but fighting enemies co-op in a small group like that is really why I play the game. And of course cross-realm LFG will probably be a big part of the excitement for me as well. While I do expect there to be a few issues, hopefully it'll make jumping into a group as quick and easy as possible. And I'm looking forward to that fishing tournament, too -- the last one was a good idea, but hopefully a new implementation will help freshen things up. What are you looking forward to in patch 3.3? 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: New and updated achievements on the PTR
There's been a few achievements that have been added in the latest patch 3.3 build. As you can guess, taking down the Lich King has its rewards. If you manage to defeat Arthas in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player heroic mode, you will henceforth earn the title "Bane of the Fallen King." A new faction for you to earn reputation with will be established as well. The Ashen Verdict, if you manage to earn exalted with them, will grant you a title reward that adds "Of the Ashen Verdict." No serious details yet on how to grind out rep, but when I was on the PTR clearing trash to Festergut, I noticed I was gaining Ashen Verdict reputation by killing various mobs. They're similar to the rates players earned rep with when working through Black Temple for the Ashtongue. Arena players have a new title and a Frostwyrm pet to look forward to for season 8. Good luck on earning the Wrathful Gladiator title! The players who are more into battlegrounds will be experiencing change as well. The achievements to gain exalted with Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley factions have been removed from their Meta-Achievements. You'll gain special titles if you manage to reach exalted with the factions at least. Glory of the Hero Meta-Achievement has been slightly changed. The Party's Over achievement which involves killing Prince Taldaram on Heroic with under 5 people is no longer part of that particular meta. Although, personally I don't think it's that difficult to take out that boss with 4 players. Lastly, in case you missed the news earlier, Master Angler of Stranglethorn has been changed. It will be changed to Master Angler of Azeroth instead. You can gain this achievement by winning the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. 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: Shadowmourne spell details
Everyone's favorite* dataminer, Boubouille of MMO-Champion, brings us more details on the upcoming legendary axe Shadowmourne this evening. I'm going to keep this intro brief, because I know many of you don't want to be spoiled at all regarding the stats of this item or the means of acquisition (that link is a spoiler, FYI). If you do want to know what the effects of this new legendary might be, read on behind the cut. If you don't? Skip the rest of this post.
Speculating at the patch 3.3 release date
All right. Nethaera says that Blizzard can't actually tell us the patch release date before it's out, because they don't want to be wrong. Fortunately, sites like ours don't have any such compunctions, so we're free to speculate on when we might finally see this patch on the live realms. Note that I said speculate -- this is not a guarantee, and we have no secret knowledge save lots and lots of experience at watching Blizzard create, test and release content. Don't use any dates we mention here to plan any vacations from work or family events -- as anyone who's ever tried to log in and do anything significant on patch day will tell you, you're going to be disappointed. And we don't want the patch to come early anyway, so Blizzard can delay as much as they want to. Anyone who complains otherwise has to go into the Octagon with Rossi. That said, testing is moving relatively smoothly on the PTRs, and lots of the content seems like it's pretty well put together. We aren't nearly done with testing yet, though -- we haven't seen most of the Icecrown raid, and we're still waiting on Halls of Reflection, the 5-man where we'll face Arthas. Gear still needs to go into the game and be tuned. There are around 15 different bosses and encounters in Icecrown (that we know of), and if Blizzard continues on the schedule of testing one or two per week, we're looking at six to eight more weeks of testing for just that content. The PTR itself went up just under a month ago, and it seems that we've got at least a month or, likely, more of testing and updating to be done.
The Queue: Naptime
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's (almost) daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I'm going to kick off today's edition of The Queue with a question for you, the reader. It's a gravely important question, so read carefully! What should I order from the local Chinese joint for dinner tonight? Should I go with my usual, shameful choice of orange chicken? Or should I go a spicier route and go for the Kung Pao? Heck, maybe I should bring a little variety to the table with a Pu Pu Platter? Help me, WoW.com! Sindrow asked... "Remember how faction switching caused all AT progress to be wiped? Is it safe to say that race change will not have similar effects, since everything is occurring within the same faction? Can you guys think of *any* negative result of a race change?"
Icecrown Gunship testing cancelled (Update: for the EU)
Excited to jump in on the Icecrown Gunship battle today on the PTR? Too bad -- Daelo has posted on the forums that due to instance server issues, today's testing has been canceled. He posted that on the EU forums, so we're not sure if that means it's also canceled on the North American realms, but we'll presume so. If we hear otherwise (as this is the PTR, all testing and data is subject to change at a moment's notice), we'll let you know. As for what this means for the testing cycle, probably nothing at all -- delays and changes are pretty standard for the test realm, and even as they said in the original announcement, bosses can go up and down whenever the devs want. I do think we will see the gunship battle tested on the PTR at some point, though -- it seems like one of the more complicated encounters in the instance, and Blizzard will surely want to put it under a microscope sometime before the patch goes live. Update: Apparently the gunship battle is live right now (4:40pm Pacific) on the test realm. If you want to see what it's like, get yourself a raid and head on in.
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%
Patch 3.3 PTR: Lord Marrowgar abilities and achievements
Lord Marrowgar is on the PTR tonight, and he's already been downed by a number of groups and guilds. Remember, however, that this is the test realm so there's a good chance the boss is undertuned and will be a bit harder come patch 3.3. Or not, Lord Marrowgar (who has less health than someone like Lord Jaraxxus) may just end up being a 'gimme' boss to ease you into progression. Either way, don't read too much into his difficulty tonight.Even if he's not perfectly tuned yet, the testing has given us some idea of how his fight will go. His notable abilities are... Whirlwind - Just what you would expect, a physical damage AOE. When it lands, it also applies a DoT. Lord Marrowgar will announce the ability before he uses it, so your melee will want to get out of the way so they don't get hit with the bleed. Saber Lash - Seasoned raiders will know this ability well. It's an incredibly powerful melee strike that splits its damage across three targets (on 25-man, two targets on 10-man) so you'll want all of your tanks standing together. That way, nobody gets 1-shot by it. Coldflame - A line of (cold) fire spawns, and you must not stand in it. Do not stand in the fire. Seriously, people. Bone Spike Graveyard - Lord Marrowgar throws a bone spike in a chosen direction, and anybody directly in the line of fire will be impaled. The rest of the raid will need to DPS down the spike to free impaled players. It can be avoided, and it will not hit targets being hit with Saber Lash.
Spiritual Guidance: Priest tier 10 examined
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. Tier 10 stuff is here! Okay, that shot above is tier 9. But we don't know what the tier 10 stuff looks like yet so I had to pick something! The tier 10 bonuses for healing Priests have recently been updated. We'll compare the before and after versions. They're expected to only be obtainable in Icecrown in patch 3.3.
WoW Insider Show Episode 111: Ninja werewolf
Good times on the WoW Insider Show last Saturday -- even though Turpster was AFK for the week, we had a packed show, with Matthew Rossi, Chase Christian, and Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington all jumping on to share some opinions. We talked about the new instances already testing over on the PTR, as well as what we'll find in Icecrown (we kept the story spoilers out of it, though we did talk about some bosses and their abilities). And we hit up the character selection and creation screens and chatted about what might be better on those.Email was also answered, and we even heard from a fan that the Ustream app will even work over just a plain Edge network connection, so if you've got an iPhone or iPod touch, there's no reason that you can't listen live on the show every Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern. Meanwhile, enjoy the show this week, and oh yeah: there's only a little bit of time left to put in nominations for the Podcast Awards, so if you feel the inclination, please put us in for your People's Choice and Gaming podcast nominations over there. Thanks! Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
New official Jaina and Sylvanas character bios
Blizzard continues to leak out the official information about Icecrown (the raid, as you know, coming in patch 3.3), this time updating their Under Development site with official bios for Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner, two ladies (one living, one not-so-much) that will likely have a large role in the fight against Arthas Menethil, better known as The Lich King.Sylvanas, you'll remember, featured in the Lament of the Highborne video early on in BC, where the story of her death and resurrection at Arthas' hands made it clear she's got unfinished business with the onetime-paladin turned Lord of the Scourge. And Jaina... well, Jaina's had a front row seat to Arthas' undoing -- they were childhood friends who looked like they were headed towards being more than friends, until Arthas found a big bad sword that turned him into a big baddie. It's going to be awesome seeing all of these storylines start meeting up together in The Frozen Halls and the raid beyond -- we can't wait.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Blizzard unveils Tier 10
Blizzard seems to be heading off the data-mining race by showcasing the Tier 10 armor sets in their own little page. While not all of the class armor is available for viewing, the gallery shows more than what is currently available through other World of Warcraft news sites -- a change of pace from the days where data-mined previews are king. Instead, Blizzard makes it easy for players to see what's in store for them in Icecrown.Currently, the Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, and Warrior tier armor sets are available for viewing. The Death Knight armor set is different from the Warrior's, which indicates a return to class-based armor models. But wait... what's this? The Warrior armor seems to preview two colors of armor -- one blue worn by a dwarf, and a red version worn by an orc. Does this indicate that even though the armor models will be class-based, the coloration will be different according to faction? That would be an interesting way to address the question of class- and faction-based armor design. A look at the Druid armor set reveals very minor color differences between the Tauren and Night Elf versions, however. Stay tuned to WoW.com for more Tier 10 updates! For now, sate yourselves with the Tier 10 gallery below. %Gallery-75005% 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.
The best of WoW.com: September 29 - October 6, 2009
Things are hopping as usual over in Azeroth, and Joystiq sister site WoW.com is jumping in time with the tune. Patch 3.3 is being tested, and from what we know so far, it'll bring a new raid, new 5-mans, and possibly the end of the story of Arthas Menethil (a.k.a. The Lich King himself). Want to learn more? Read on! News World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 PTR patch notesHere's what Blizzard has put in the new patch so far. Blizzard releases details on Icecrown CitadelOfficial details on what the new raids and instances will be like. Cataclysm starting zone lore and other new details revealedHints on what we'll find in the starting zones of the new races. And boy do they sound fun. Patch 3.3 PTR: New Tauren skins foundA new look for the cow people in patch 3.3. Patch 3.3 PTR: New weekly quests to do while raidingThe new patch will bring with it more rewards for raiders who go after certain bosses. Features Patch 3.3 PTR: Pit of Saron first impressionsOur bloggers headed into the new instance, and survived long enough to come back with these impressions. Patch 3.3 PTR: Undocumented paladin changesPally changes on the PTR so far. Scattered Shots: Patch 3.3, what's on the horizon for huntersLooking ahead to what's in store for ranged DPS. Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR changes for magesBlink is fixed? Go figure! Patch 3.3 PTR: Undocumented druid changesUpdates for shapeshifters from the latest public test realm.
