jewelcrafting
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The state of Engineering in 3.1
In case you missed the memo, the short list of changes to the Engineering profession that have been posted for patch 3.1 are all you are going to get come patch day, like it or not. Bornakk confirmed that Blizzard feels that the "perks work out" compared to what other professions offer, and that they "have no changes planned at this time."The relevant forum thread has grown to over 1300 replies and more than 50,000 views, suggesting that while Blizz might be satisfied, much of the Engineering community is not. In fact, many are threatening to drop the profession and take up Jewelcrafting, which is something I hear about a lot. Of course, if your profession is really, honestly inferior to all others, then why is everyone trading up to the same one? Pass through the break for a list of the upcoming changes, the major gripes, and a comparison of Engineering to other professions in order to put this all into perspective.
Level requirements changed on some enchants, items
Ishh over at Twinkinfo has some pretty big news for lower-level players: the enchants, librams, and even jewelcrafting trinkets that used to work for almost everybody ingame have gained a few level requirements on the PTR. Twinks especially love these items, as they can be used to give big buffs to even low-level players, but Blizzard isn't down with that any more, apparently. Even applied enchants and Leatherworking leg armor will apparently stop working if this change goes out to the live realms -- they have pictures, as you can see, of enchanted stats turning red due to level requirements.Most of the time, when Blizzard makes changes like this, they aren't actually targeted at twinks -- they're just designed to keep the game from becoming extremely easy at a given level (I'm still bummed that my Leatherworking drums have no effect after level 70). But obviously twinks are affected by these changes, and as you can see from the comments on that post, they're not very happy with having even more limits placed on how they can buff up.But then again, as I said a little while ago, twinks have always dealt just fine with limits. Twinkinfo has a poll up on what twinks will do if these changes go live, and the majority of votes say that they'll just keep twinking. They've gone around level restrictions before -- a few more won't be the end of the world.
Several hotfixes now live
I caught this a bit late, but Bornakk wrote into the Service Status forums Wednesday night to provide a list of hotfixes concerning Jewelcrafting, Shamans, Rogues, and Death Knights that have been applied to the live realms: Icy Prisms are now unique; they cannot be mailed but can still be traded. The Rogue ability Mutilate now does its appropriate damage based on talents. Raise Dead now properly detects the presence of Corpse Dust in your inventory. The Glyph of Windfury Weapon will not apply additional attack power. A Grounding Totem is now properly destroyed even if the grounded spell did not do damage. Tremor Totem now properly pulses every 3 seconds. Crippling Poison now has a PvP duration of 10 seconds. Wound Poison now has a PvP duration of 10 seconds.
Jewelcrafting's flawed design
I don't know about you, but I think Jewelcrafting is the absolute worst Profession in the game right now. Back in The Burning Crusade, Blizzard made the awful mistake of having key leveling recipes as BoE world drops, making it extremely expensive to purchase the necessary designs just to level the Profession. In Wrath of the Lich King, they avoided the same mistake by making virtually all designs purchasable through a vendor.Great news, right? Not really. Actually, it downright sucks. Why? Because most patterns, sold by the cleverly named Tiffany Cartier, aren't purchasable with Gold. Jewelcrafters use Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Tokens to purchase designs. The trouble is, the tokens are soulbound and are a reward from doing the Jewelcrafting daily quest. Unfortunately, you can only do the daily once per day. With designs going anywhere from 2-6 Jewelcrafter's Tokens apiece, it takes at least two days to pick up a new design. While Jewelcrafters won't need to purchase all the designs -- some are BoP gems that don't benefit the player's class -- it will take over 170 days just to purchase all 62 patterns that she sells. There's something seriously wrong there.
Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 spell and ability review
Before continuing to read on, you may wish to refer back to part 1 of the Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 overview. Part 2 will cover many basics including mana management, healing spells, gem questions, and glyphs. It is a very strong bet that patch 3.0.2 patch will activate on Tuesday. For the Priests that are still raiding (I feel like I'm the only one), find out what you need to know after the jump!
World of Warcrafts: Crimson Serpent
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Behold the Crimson Serpent Figurine. This real world trinket probably won't give you any additional stamina or intellect, and the increase to magic power is debatable. But it is guaranteed never to go limp in your time of need and there's no pesky 2 minute cool-down. Just don't whip it out in an inappropriate setting like work or school.Here is what you will need: Porcelain Clay Acrylic Paint (Red & Black) Paint Brushes Krylon Crystal Clear Glaze Toothpick Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-33326%
Cutting a more perfect gem
WoW's crafting system has always been relatively straightforward. Collect mats, press button, receive item. This lies in contrast to crafting systems from other games, which may contain mini-games, convoluted learning systems, or varying levels of success in production. In WoW, you can't even fail at making something; if you can make it at all, every attempt will result in an item, and they're all the same (aside from some recipes with random enchants. This fits in with WoW being on the simple side for MMOs (simple to learn, that is; often difficult to master). Jewelcrafting in LK is going to shake that up a little bit. There will be a quest available to jewelcrafters that gives them a chance to craft a "perfect" version of an uncommon-quality gem when cutting it. For the first time, it's possible to have a critical success from crafting in WoW. It looks like the perfect versions of gems are positioned precisely between the uncommon and rare versions of a cut, in terms of stats. For instance: Delicate Bloodstone: +12 agility Perfect Delicate Bloodstone: +14 agility Delicate Scarlet Ruby: +16 agility Delicate Cardinal Ruby: +20 agility So far, Gem Perfection appears to work only on uncommon-level gems, not on rares or epics. I also don't know what the chance is of cutting a perfect gem instead of a regular one. It's a nice change, and a little something extra for cutting those buckets of green gems on the way from 375 to 450. Would you like to see more critical successes in other crafting professions?
Wrath in pictures for your weekend
If you tend to be a strictly weekend-centric WoW Insider reader, you may have missed some of the best stuff to come out of the Wrath beta thus far: the eye candy! Class updates, mechanics changes, pfft, who needs that stuff? No no my friends, me, I'm all about the shinies. Okay, and I like all of that other stuff, too. Luckily, we have a little bit of everything, and in case you did miss our eye candy, let's take a look back at some of it, shall we? Be warned, however, that most of these galleries contain some minor spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled, be careful! The Borean TundraThe Borean Tundra, accessed from either the Orgrimmar zeppelin tower or the Stormwind Harbor, is one of two starter zones in Northrend. The Tundra houses Valiance Keep, Warsong Hold, D.E.H.T.A. the Coldarra (home of the Blue Dragonflight) and much more. The Howling FjordThe Howling Fjord is the second of the two Northrend starter zones, accessed via Menethil Harbor or the Tirisfal zeppelin towers. The Howling Fjord is home to Valgarde, the Forsaken's Vengeance Landing, the Vrykul fortress Utgarde, and the Ember Clutch.
More JC info from the beta
Last time we met to talk about Jewelcrafting in Wrath, I only knew the names of the various uncommon and rare gems. Now I have the names of the epic gems too, as well as values for the cuts. The epics are called: Red: Cardinal Ruby Yellow: King's Amber Blue: Majestic Zircon Purple: Dreadstone Orange: Flawless Ametrine Green: Eye of Zul More cool names, in this blogger's opinion. Except Cardinal Ruby – that sounds a little "blah" to me. Which is not to say I won't socket them, of course; that +parry rating cut that looks quite tasty for a Death Knight tank.
Gems in Wrath
The crafting professions may not yet be implemented in the Wrath of the Lich King beta, but we do get to see their mats. I'm not sure how much we can figure out from them. I do, however, really like some of the names, especially for the gems. It looks like we'll have the same gem system as in BC, with six colors (three primary and three secondary) and one uncommon and one rare gem for each Epic gems have, understandably, not been unveiled yet, and common gems have made no appearance. Here are the names we have:
'Tis the Season 4 making money
Eyonix made a lot of players happy the other day by announcing the start of Season 4. It's something that a lot of players have been waiting for, even planning for. Some players will be making the mad rush to accumulate Arena and Honor points. Within the first week of the new season, players who have stashed away the maximum 5,000 Arena points will be able to purchase anywhere from two to three pieces of Brutal Gladiator gear, provided they achieve the required personal ratings.For other players such as those who have only recently dinged 70 or those new to the PvP scene, the 75,000 maximum Honor -- or whatever Honor they have stashed away -- will likely be used to purchase Merciless Gladiator gear when it goes on sale. More seasoned players will use the Honor to purchase Guardian gear to round out their equipment slots. When Season 4 starts, players will be strutting around Azeroth in brand spanking new gear. For a select few, these players will look like walking piles of Gold. New Arena seasons flood the community with enchant-worthy, gem-hungry gear like no other event.
The brilliance of Brilliant Glass
Patch 2.4.2 just threw the gem market in for a loop. Because Brilliant Glass now has a chance of giving an epic gem, the reagents required for the Jewelcrafting ability became scarce and prices shot through the roof. Uncommon gems which used to rot in players' banks or languish on the Auction Houses started disappearing into the hands of Jewelcrafters and cunning businessmen (sometimes both). Blood Garnets, as nice as they are, never sold for more than 1 Gold apiece, even after Brilliant Glass was introduced. Nowadays, on our server, they're about 10 Gold a pop.And why not? It's almost impossible to catch it on the Auction Houses now since it's pretty much an instant sale. Even prospecting has gotten some love because even destroying Fel Iron Ore has become useful for a chance to get some uncommon (and sometimes rare) gems. The chain reaction of profit continues as Jewelcrafters prospect, get uncommon gems, create Brilliant Glass, and sometimes luck out on an epic gem. The irony is, with most servers now having the alchemy lab on the Isle of Quel'danas now open for business, epic gems are starting to find their way into the market, driving prices down. Crimson Spinels, which many guilds rarely put on sale, used to run as high as 800 to 1,000 Gold on our server. Now they have become among the most commonly bought (for badges) and sold (on the AH) gems, averaging about 300 to 400 Gold. Uncommon gems are now bought as a reagent for Brilliant Glass and almost never cut, driving prices up; while epic gems are becoming more and more available, driving prices down. If you're a Jewelcrafter, don't pass up on the chance to Brilliant Glass every 20 hours! It's a crazy time for Jewelcrafting, but it's never been more fun... or profitable.
Epic gems are 15 Badges after all
Remember a few weeks ago when it was discovered that the Armory was listing the new Badge of Justice-reward epic gems at 10 badges each? Yeah, turns out that was just an Armory bug (which we knew was a possibility). They're 15 Badges after all, as they were on the PTR. The way we know this now is that Proudmoore-US, first in all things Shattered Sun, has done Discovering Your Roots enough times to unlock Shaani, the vendor who sells you the gems. Thanks, Proudmoore! Grinding for knowledge. And everyone else, get on that quest. It's a fun one -- everyone gets a pet so they can pretend they're a hunter for a little while -- and you'll help your server along.Assuming the epic gems sell for around 500 gold, which seems reasonable given the order-of-magnitude increase in price between uncommon and rare gems, this yields a 33 gold per Badge conversion rate (if you buy gems with your Badges and sell the gems; they're not bind-on-pickup). That's right on target in terms of gold per hour. I figure it takes about 20 minutes on average to earn a Badge, which means 100 gold per hour -- pretty much the same rate I make through dailies or grinding. And given that any activity that earns you Badges (i.e. raiding or heroics) gives you a chance at gear as well, it looks like the PvE endgame is fairly rewarding right now.
Professing love for PvP through professions
I wrote up about Leatherworking as the hardcore raider's profession of choice. This is due to one particular item -- the Drums of Battle -- which greatly increases raid efficiency, particularly if the buff can be kept up indefinitely throughout a boss encounter. The item is so raid-beneficial that even cloth-wearers, who cannot equip any leather items, drop more aligned professions such as Tailoring. For Arena PvP, where each stat point counts towards survivability and lethality, there is no better profession than Enchanting and to a lesser degree, Jewelcrafting. Arena players competing at the highest levels have taken up Enchanting purely for the exclusive ring enchantments. A quick inspection of all players rated 2k and above will reveal that most have taken up at least Enchanting and enchanted their rings with the appropriate enchantments.Today I dropped Mining to take up Enchanting after months of internal debate. I know the cost involved and it would break my back to level all the way to 375 for the Enchant Ring - Stats and the Enchant Ring - Healing Power along the way, but if I felt that if I were truly dedicated to Arena play, there simply was no other way. In fact, I'm rather disappointed in myself for having taken this long to take up Enchanting. Embarrassingly, I wasn't hardcore enough. Fortunately, I had informed my wife of this decision weeks ago and she's been generous enough to amass a bunch of Enchanting materials for me to use in skilling up. She even made me a Spellfire Bag. Now the trek begins. I'm not as sold on Jewelcrafting for PvP, however, so I'm keeping my Blacksmithing. I also have an emotional attachment to my Stormherald, even though I know the Season 3 mace is arguably better. But as more and more players run around wielding one of the coolest-looking weapons in the game, thanks to the easy availability of Nether Vortexes, I'm pretty sure my love affair will soon end. Jewelcrafting only has unique-equipped gems with minor stat point benefits so I think I'll pass on it for now. I'm also willing to wager that Wrath of the Lich King holds nice BoP surprises for crafting professions. It feels good to have finally made the jump. At the very least, I can put this silly little racial skill to good use. Enchant Bracer - Minor Health, anyone?
Epic gems dropped to 10 Badges?
Among the many fine things that can be bought with Badges of Justice in this post-2.4 world of ours are epic gems, the same kind that drop in the Black Temple and the Sunwell Plateau. They are sold by Shaani, who appears once your realm reaches phase four, and the uncut, un-BoP gems sell for 15 Badges of Justice each. Or at least, that's what we thought. Sharp-eyed tipster Herid noticed that according to the Armory (screenshot above), the price of the gems is 10 Badges of Justice -- a 33% reduction in price before they even go on sale yet!Of course, this could just be an Armory bug, so I did my level best to check it out for myself, by logging on to Proudmoore, the only server yet to have reached phase four. However, I learned that although Shaani spawns when phase four is activated, she doesn't sell gems until the Alchemy Lab is completed, much like Smith Hauthaa and the Anvil. So I can't confirm this with anything more than the Armory data at the moment. Proudmooreans, get going on Discovering your Roots, so we can uncover the truth of this gem-price-drop rumor.If it's true, Badges of Justice might be worth more gold than we thought, depending on what the price of these epic gems stabilizes at.
PTR Notes: Stones, gems, and models
I already went over what's changed for the classes in the latest PTR build (not much); here's what's new in the items: Mats for the new Alchemist Stones have been reduced. Old mats were Alchemist Stone, 2 Nether Vortices, and 16 primals; new mats are reduced by 10 primals, i.e. Alchemist Stone, 2 Nether Vortices, and 6 primals. Which primal is required varies based on the stone in question: Assassin's = Shadow, Guardian's = Air, Sorcerer's = Fire, Redeemer's = Life. The Philosopher's Stone is now a trinket requiring level 35, and gives +5 to all stats. Jewelcrafters can get patterns for four new epic gem cuts (Reckless Pyrestone, Steady Seaspray Emerald, Quick Lionseye, Forceful Seaspray Emerald) both from the Shattered Sun Offensive at Revered and from the Scale of Sands (the Mount Hyjal faction) at Honored. The models have been changed for Vanir's Right Fist of Brutality, Crossbow of Relentless Strikes (pictured), Vanir's Left Fist of Brutality, Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery, Gavel of Naaru Blessings, Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents, Vengeful Gladiator's Pummeler, and Vengeful Gladiator's Bonecracker; see MMO-Champion for screenshots. It looks like the new Philosopher's Stone is a cool little trinket; I don't remember there being much competition for that slot that early in the game. It's an interesting move to make those cuts available from two factions, and should appease the hardcore types who, presumably, are at least Honored with Scale of Sands by now. Looking at the Primal requirements for the Alchemist Stones, most of those are easy primals, but Air is significantly more expensive. Rogues get it easy. And all those new models look groovy; a good set of changes overall.[via MMO-Champion]
PTR Notes: Undocumented changes
Today a big new build went up on the patch 2.4 PTR, and every change that was in the patch notes was detailed here. However, inevitably, there were some changes that didn't make it to the patch notes, and for that we have the intrepid researchers at MMO-Champion and World of Raids. Here's what they've managed to tease out of the realms: Most of the Tier 6 belts, boots, and bracers found in the Sunwell raid have had their Stamina removed, and other stats increased to compensate. The exception is the Warrior tanking set, Onslaught Armor. Edit: And the Paladin tanking set, Lightbringer Armor. The five epic BoP jewelcrafted trinkets we learned about previously have had patterns added; they're available at the Revered level from the Shattered Sun Offensive quartermaster. In what must be a bug of some sort, rank 1 of the Warlock talent Emberstorm now increases the casting speed of Incinerate by 2%, as well as its previous effect of boosting all fire damage by 2%. Other ranks of the talent are unchanged. That's everything discovered so far. Seen anything else that wasn't mentioned in the new patch notes?
PTR Notes: Miscellaneous changes
In addition to the big change of Nethers not being BoP anymore, some other changes were pushed to the PTR tonight: Commendation of Kael'thas has had its dodge rating bonus reduced from 380 to 152 Five epic trinket jewelcrafting recipes have been added, all with passive benefits and on use effects. See this MMO-Champion screenshot for materials. Crimson Serpent: +33 Int, + 49 Stam, use: +150 damage/healing for 20 sec (2 min cooldown) Empyrean Tortoise: +42 def rating, use: +165 dodge rating for 20 sec (2 min cooldown) Shadowsong Panther: effective stealth level increased by one, +80 attack power, use: +320 attack power for 15 sec (2 min cooldown) Khorium Boar: +84 attack power, use: summon the Khorium Boar to fight for you for 30 sec (5 min cooldown) Seaspray Albatross: +18 mp5, use: restores 900 mana over 12 sec (3 min cooldown) New gem cut: Regal Nightseye, +4 dodge rating, +6 stam, matches red or blue Warlocks' Drain Mana buffed by 50%; top rank now drains 300 mana per second (was 200). But remember that resilience now affects mana drain, to the tune of -20% at 400 resil. Paladins' Holy Shock damage buffed by about 35%, healing buffed by about 75%. Top rank now deals 721-779 damage or heals for 931-987 (was 530-574 damage or 530-574 healing). That's a lot of changes. And now that I look at those numbers, those are big shifts for Drain Mana and Holy Shock. Is anyone now reconsidering those spells? Do you think those buffs will last through testing?[via MMO-Champion]
Jewelcrafting: More than just gems in 2.4!
No, they didn't forget the Jewelers in the new crafted gear. Healers, casters and melee DPS all recieve both a ring and a necklace from Jewelcrafting in 2.4, and the recipes are likely drops in the Sunwell raid zone.The necklaces(which are BoP) all come equipped with a gem slot for further customization, making them a pretty nice prize for end-game Jewelers. The materials on these rings and amulets are pretty hefty though, it won't be an easy task to make them. Everything from Primal Mights to Hardened Khorium Bars to gems from Mount Hyjal and Black Temple are needed to craft these beauties. And let's not forget the Sunmotes for the rings, and the Primal Nethers for the necklaces.As you can see, you'll need to jump through some hoops to get your hands on these, but they seem worth it. If you want to see for yourself, check out the stats and materials after the jump. Thanks again, MMO Champ!
Talasites to be slightly less useless in 2.4
For those of you who like Spell Haste, I have good news! Patch 2.4 is bringing you a few new Jewelcrafting recipes to reduce your Global Cooldown. Noble Topaz, Dawnstones, and our good friends the Talasites all recieve a new cut. Quick Dawnstone - +8 Spell Haste Rating Reckless Noble Topaz - +4 Spell Haste Rating and +5 Spell Damage Forceful Talasite - +4 Spell Haste Rating and +6 Stamina While the effectiveness of Spell Haste is still up for debate, new options for gems are always good. I have a feeling this won't do much to help the Talasite market, the +Stam/Resil cut didn't even help much, but at least it's another use for the things. I'm pretty sure everyone who plays WoW has a stack of them sitting in the bank.Additionally, we have a few new metagems coming our way!
