the-burning-crusade
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Burning Crusade mounts: Talbuk
In a recent post about mounts in the Burning Crusade, there were screenshots of the Talbuk, a mount listed, interestingly, as of "neutral" faction. And my curiosity about what that meant has finally been appeased by Aofto, who tells us this is a reward for reaching exalted with your respective city in Nagrand -- and provides plenty of screenshots of the mount itself. Nifty!
The truth about combat stats in the expansion
Eyonix presents us with the raw numbers behind combat ratings in the expansion -- both for level 60s and level 70s. The various combat ratings will replace percentage-based bonuses and different amounts of each will apply to different amounts of various things, depending on level. Specifically, we now know the following...At level 60... Weapon Skill Rating: 2.5 rating grants 1 weapon skill Hit Rating: 10 rating grants 1% hit chance Spell Hit Rating: 8 rating grants 1% spell hit chance Critical Strike Rating: 14 rating grants 1% critical strike chance Spell Critical Strike Rating: 14 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance Haste Rating: 10 rating 1% haste Spell Haste Rating: 10 rating grants 1% spell haste Defense Skill Rating: 1.5 rating grants 1 defense skill (And for every 25 defense, you gain 1% dodge, 1% parry, 1% block chance, 1% decreased chance to be hit, 1% decreased chance to be critically hit.) Dodge Rating: 12 rating grants 1% dodge Parry Rating: 20 rating grants 1% parry Block Rating: 5 rating grants 1% block chance Resilience Rating: 25 rating grants 1% resilience (Which reduces your chance to be critically hit by 1% and reduces the damage of criticals by 2%) At level 70... Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 weapon skill Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% haste Spell Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% spell haste Defense Skill Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance Parry Rating: 31.5 rating grants 1% parry Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes
Inside the Caverns of Time
Most of us can't get there yet, but Vhell has posted an excellent writeup of the instance on the Curse Gaming forums. It sounds and looks like a lot of fun -- an exciting romp through Warcraft history, with plenty of good loot rewards along the way. However, Vhell did notice the downside of the zone:First thing that I noticed after zoning in is that I was suddenly ugly. Not only that, but a human! I know that I'm bald and everything, but human? That's just an insult to my character. Everyone in the group becomes afflicted by a buff that switches their race to a more appropriate one to the instance.
More BC talent updates
I'm not sure how I missed out on these recent talent changes when they were posted, but here they are nevertheless. Blizzard is really twisting my arm here to try to get me back to playing a warlock again, but we also have a paladin and priest change.Warlock Demonic Sacrifice - Felguard effect now restores 2% mana every 6 sec. (changed from 2% every 4 sec.) in addition to the 10% damage increase. Master Demonologist - Felguard effect tooltip corrected to increase damage by 1/2/3/4/5% and resistances by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 per level. Unholy Power - Now also "...increases all Shadow and Fire damage you cause by 1/2/3/4/5%." Paladin Seal of Blood - Additional weapon damage increased to 40%, from 30%. Priest Vampiric Touch - Rank 3 now costs 425 mana.
Burning Crusade priest talent review
When I saw the first-released Burning Crusade talents, I was very impressed. Looking from a healer's perspective, I envied the paladin's new holy tree (and determined to roll a Horde paladin when the expansion arrived). And the warlock changes (I have a retired level 60 warlock) made me want to dust off my warlock and start raiding with it again. So I had high expectations -- and the initial talent release disappointed me. However, Blizzard has more recently released some revisions to the priest talent trees which are somewhat more interesting, and at least make me stop to think before deciding I should immediately reroll. (I have already reserved the character name "Rerolled" on my realm for my paladin-to-be, just in case.) Read on for talent-by-talent impressions...
Yet more BC talent updates
They just don't stop, do they? Today's changes make me wonder why I ever stopped playing my warlock (they keep getting better and better!) and also provide a number of interesting rogue changes. I've included the main part of the changes below, but edited out some minor details about updated graphics and the like, so check Nethaera's post if you want every last bit of possible information.Warlock Improved Firestone - Renamed "Master Conjuror". Now "Increases the bonus Fire damage from Firestones and the Firestone effect by 15/30% and increases the spell critical strike rating bonus of your Spellstone by 15/30%." Improved Spellstone - Removed, replaced with "Demonic Knowledge". (NEW) Demonic Knowledge - 3 ranks. "Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 5/10/15% of the total of your active demon's Stamina plus Intellect." Demonic Resilience - Now "Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee and spells by 1/2/3% and reduces all damage your summoned demon takes by 5/10/15%." Fel Intellect - Now "Increases the Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 5/10/15% and increases your maximum mana by 1/2/3%." Fel Stamina - Now "Increases the Stamina of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 5/10/15% and increases your maximum health by 1/2/3%." Demonic Sacrifice - Added effect for Felguard: "Felguard: Increases your Shadow damage by 10% and restores 2% of total mana every 4 sec." Master Demonologist - Added effect for Felguard: "Felguard - Increases all damage caused by 5% and all resistances by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 per level." Rogue Disembowel - Removed. (NEW) Envenom - Replaces Disembowel. Two ranks and is available at level 62. "Finishing move that consumes your Deadly Poison doses on the target and deals instant poison damage. One dose is consumed for each combo point." Vitality - Now "Increases your total Stamina by 2/4% and your total Agility by 1/2%." Surprise Attacks - Changed to 8% from 5%. Cheat Death - Now 3 ranks for 10/20/30% chance. Sinister Calling - Now "Increases your total Agility by 3/6/9/12/15%." Cloak of Shadows - Now "Instantly removes all existing harmful spell effects and increases your chance to resist all spells by 90% for 5 sec." Warrior Endless Rage - Description changed: "You generate 25% more rage from damage dealt." Blood Frenzy - Description changed: "Your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all melee damage caused to that target by 2/4%." Hunter Combat Experience - Now "Increases your total Agility by 1/2% and your total Intellect by 3/6%."
New LFG interface announced
We saw some leaked screenshots not too long ago, but now we have official news of an interesting new LFG interface. And, if we're lucky, players might actually use it. Via this new interface panel, you can select what sort of things you might be wanting to group for, and other players can use the same interface to find folks interested in grouping for the same activities. Tobold also gives some information on this system in the first of his Burning Crusade journal entries, in which he notes that most players still seem to shout out for players via the old LFG line. Hopefully by the time the expansion is released, we'll see a whole slew of players making use of this feature.
Burning Crusade profession updates
Some of this has been categorized as rumor before, but now there's official word on some updates for existing professions. All crafting professions can expect new recipes and all gathering professions can expect new types of item to gather, but there are a few interesting tidbits mentioned as well. Alchemy will have specializations that will occasionally allow the player two create two of their specialization's items. (Potions, elixirs, and transmutations.) Blacksmiths will be given powerful bind on pickup items for their specialization. These items will be upgradable to keep up with the blacksmith's progression in the game. (Nope, there are no further details on this yet.) Enchantments now seem to have a minimum level requirement (based on the sample enchants being shown) and there will be new enchants for rings in the game. Engineers are promised "many new and intense gadgets" but I'm not personally impressed by any of the previewed items. Herbalists can expect to find plant-based monsters beyond the Dark Portal from which a trained herbalist will be able to harvest herbs, much like a skinner skins beasts. Jewelcrafting will, as we know, allow for the creation of necklaces, rings, trinkets, and socketable gems. If you match the color of the gems to the color of the sockets on a socketed item, you'll receive an additional bonus from them. Leatherworking will offer more high-end armor options, with claims of viable crafted gear to help you venture into end-game dungeons. Miners will also find some creatures of the Outlands to yield harvestable minerals when killed. Tailoring is set to have its own specializations, though there's no announcement on what these will be, the specializations will allow the creation of multiple items occasionally, like alchemy. Most interesting, however, are the tailor-made (and tailoring skill required to use) nets that can be used to capture targets for several seconds. [Thanks, Bonemouse!]
The Burning Crusade: Level 1 - 5
For those poor souls not lucky enough to be in the beta (myself included!), I ran into this movie on Google video showing a Blood Elf wandering the starting zone and leveling from 1 to 5 to give us a taste of what to expect. At over 18 minutes long, it's not for the faint of heart and if you're anything like me you'll keep trying to click things on the video screen long before it's over.
More BC screenshots than you can shake a stick at!
Browsing the World of Raids forums I ran across these links to hundreds of screenshots taken from the Burning Crusade beta test. Huzzah for its lack of an NDA! So... if you've got a lot of free time on your hands, head over and check out gallery 1 and gallery 2.
You knew this was coming...
Reader Nelson sends in this screenshot showing that in the Burning Crusade, yes, you will be able to wield the infamous Sword of a Thousand Truths. Just like the South Park kids. Of course, the screenshot could be faked, but if so the image looks awfully clean to me.
More jewelcrafting rumors
Because just one set of rumored items just isn't enough, today I bring you even more possibly real, possibly fake, jewelcrafting items. Noggyh on the World of Raids forums has posted a list of some very interesting new trinkets, necklaces, and rings. And, wow, some of these things look awfully nice. (Which probably just means they'll take ten of each of the rarest jewels to craft, I assume.) Chance on spell hit to restore 128-173 mana to the bearer? Looks like I'm going to be adding several new trinkets to my collection...
Jewelcrafting items
Last week we made a post about what sorts of benefits various gems could provide when inserted into socketed items (all rumor, of course), but a jewelcrafter will be able to do more than simply cut gems for socketing. Jewelcrafters will also be able to create necklaces, rings, and trinkets -- and if this list on World of Raids is right, some other armor slots, as well. All of the items have interesting effects, and all I have to say is Truesilver Boar ftw! Read on if you don't feel up to scrolling through all of World of Raids' profession information to find jewelcrafting.
Official hunter talents released!
You heard correctly -- we have official news on hunter talents and spells. (I'm linking them via the European site, because the US site seems to be swamped right now.) These talents seem very similar to what we saw leaked last week, even including the odd "snake trap" ability. (Let the "snakes on a..." jokes begin!) And, before you ask -- yes, that is a legitimate screenshot from the website.
Burning Crusade mounts
BCspy.de.vu presents us with these lovely photographs of various mounts we'll be seeing in the Burning Crusade. For normal mounts, we have the Draenei's elephant-like Elekk, the Blood Elf's Cockatrices, a specially colored Paladin Warhorse for the Blood Elf, and the ram-like (only taller) Talbuk. For flying mounts, we have Gyphons for the alliance and Wyverns for the horde, as well as the (presumably more rare) Netherdrakes and Pheonixes. There's still no news about how to get any of these mounts (the Talbuk are especially mysterious -- they are listed as neutral mounts, and are obviously not of the flying sort, which makes them somewhat unusual), but they're great eye-candy -- so click on and enjoy!
Breakfast Topic: Addon changes in the Burning Crusade
The recent announcement of major addon changes coming with the release of the Burning Crusade has caused an uproar on the official forums. Many applaud it -- saying it stops lazy or skill-less players from playing the game on easy mode. But many also decry the changes -- saying that it only serves to increase the portion of the game that is tedious and dull. So this morning's question is this -- which side are you on? Are you glad to see decursive go? Or will you miss it? (For my own part, I'm worried -- I have to yell often enough at the mages to decurse the main tank even when they do have decursive. How will I ever teach them to target-and-decurse when I can't even get them to one-click decurse?!)
Rumored jewelcrafting abilities
I'm not sure whether I can classify this one as a rumor, since it doesn't come with the requisite blurry screenshot. And while there's no verification to any of these gem abilities, they're certainly interesting if true -- providing a wide range of small buffs that will be interesting to see in different combinations on items. Blizzard's own jewelcrafting information suggests that items will have a a varying number of sockets and that some sockets will be specific to certain types of gems (you'll get a bonus ability for socketing them with the appropriate type of gem). Read on for the specific gem abilities.
Rumored hunter pet abilities
These new pet abilities on the Curse Gaming forums, if accurate, sound pretty darned awesome. As to their accuracy, several posters have noted that some of these abilities have been in the game (not available to players, but in the game) since beta, but never usable -- and that the final release of pet skills gave pets completely new abilities. To this, original poster Celebrimor notes that, in the Alpha release, these abilities now scale up to level 70, meaning they've at least been updated. (And why update them if not to make use of them in-game?) So are they real or just someone's idea of a bad joke? Read on and see what you think.
Priests & racial abilities
Priests are an unusual class -- the only class in the game to have class spess that are restricted to specific races. This has long been the source of complaints, as some racial abilities are immensely useful (such as a Dwarf's Fear Ward, which prevents its target from being feared and can make a number of raid situations easier), while others aren't worth putting on even a tertiary hotbar (such as a Human's Feedback, which restores mana to the priest on melee hit -- melee priest ftw!). As a long time priest, my biggest question about the coming expansion is this: what sort of class racials will Draenei and Blood Elf priests have? Well, CM Eyonix has provided me with a partial answer -- saying that the new races will receive one existing and one brand new racial skill. (Hmm, does the Blood Elves' new racial start with "fear" and end with "ward"? If so I'm already well on my way to having a third priest on my account!)
Another set of possible hunter talents
We're getting close to the end of these Burning Crusade talent rumors -- as all sources are predicting official hunter talents out soon. However, they're not out yet, and that means just one thing: more hunter talent rumors! I am tempted to put some faith in this set of rumors, which come from poster Anders on the Curse Gaming forums, as we've gotten interesting information from him before that's later proven accurate. The talents are interesting and some rather odd (threat reduction? increased RAP by 25% of intellect), but with some of the talents I've seen previewed thus far for other classes, these would not surprise me. And if they're wrong? Well, we'll see in the next few days. Read on for the full text of the possible talents.
