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How Adam got his loot back
About a week and a half ago I reported on an experience I had in Mount Hyjal while fighting Azgalor. While the fight went fine and we did him in one try, I wasn't on Azgalor's threat list and thus did not get any loot. I wasn't on the threat table because I had to tank some spawned demons up and away from the rest of the raid. It was a rather nice conflict of game mechanics.This all happened on Tuesday, March 18th. By Saturday, March 22nd, I had the two shiny pieces of loot that were coming to me: Glory of the Defender and Onslaught Handguards. Specialist Game Master Skelend had sent me the items, along with a form letter apologizing for the issues we experienced in game. I was quite happy to see this resolved. I was even more pleased that it was resolved quickly and did not take a few weeks; as many people, both those of you who left comments and friends of mine that I talked to, said it would.So what are we doing to make sure this never happens again? Well for one thing, all the melee is hitting the boss now with a ranged weapon after the tank gets a couple hits in. That's pretty much all we can do to assure this problem doesn't pop up again for us. Despite a few enquires I've made, there is no word from Blizzard if they've fixed this. I suspect that one day it'll just be hotfixed without much fanfare.All in all, not a terrible experience when something went wrong. Quick and quality support from Blizzard.
Maximum stamina
If you want to live through any boss fight as a tank, the one thing that you need above all else is health. Stamina, which gives ten health for every one point of stamina, is by far the most important stat that a tank needs in order to do their job well. No matter if you have reached the armor and defense cap, or if you're producing more threat than your DPS can keep up with, you won't live for a lick if you don't have enough health.Defining minimum health is an important concept in end game raiding and groups. For most instances, a minimum of 10,000 to 11,000 unbuffed is needed. This will at least let you take a few blows from a boss before dying, hopefully enough blows that the healer will be able to get off a few heals on you. For more entry level raiding environments, it's necessary to have unbuffed health between 11,000 and 12,000. If you've got 11,500 hit points going into Kara, you'll probably be able to reach 13,000 health fully raid buffed. This will let you survive a good portion of Kara, which means you can get more gear, which begets more health in the long run.
Free Tier 6 with purchase of shaman!
One thing I love about patches is the ridiculous bugs that come along -- and this one is a doozy. The shaman Tier 6 vendor in Mount Hyjal is now selling the restoration Tier 6, Skyshatter Raiment, for the low, low price of 0 tokens and 0 gold. Of course, you have to be attuned to Mount Hyjal to take advantage of this deal, which requires you to be a fairly progressed raider already -- but enough people have been picking them up to necessitate an immediate Blizzard response. Drysc warned shammies last night that they would be going to "great lengths" to track down the Tier 6, and would destroy any enchants or gems on the ill-gotten gear. Of course, the thread turns into shamans complaining about their class, but there are some good questions: what about people who buy and re-buy the sets and disenchant them into Void Crystals for the AH? Will this ruin the enchanting economy? What about guilds that can suddenly progress due to an infusion of incredibly well-geared shamans? Is this the literal definition of welfare epics? Some people are asking Blizzard to bring the servers down until this is fixed, but that seems unlikely. What do you think Blizzard should do about this?
Tier 6 on Blizzard's game guide
Just in case you haven't seen them yet (and you probably have, because you are a knowledgeable WoW Insider reader), Blizzard has added the Tier 6 armor sets to their game guide.It's an easy little interface, and you can very easily see any of the armor sets (and all of their variants, which makes me think that it might be cool if the different spec variants actually looked, y'know, different) on any race, and even any gender of your choice. Gaze at the beauty of the Skyshatter set! Be in awe of the Warlock's Malefic armor! And puzzle why Paladins got yet another strange-looking armor set. Blizzard should just put ballerina gowns on them next time and be done with it.
Tier 6 in motion
By now, you've probably seen the Tier 6 shots (if not, you've got to read Elizabeth's great critiques of them all), but here they are in all of their full-motion glory. Yes, even the Warlock (lol) set. Don't watch this if you're not into spoilers, especially because there's a little surprise at the end... Was it just me, or did the Paladin set just look like weird flat spikes before? Here, you can see it's actually glowy. And it's awesome to see the eyes on the Hunter set blink, although I think that if I ever did get my Hunter to the point where he could wear and obtain those shoulders, all that blinking would annoy me after a while. The Mage's head just looks all pointy. But oh yes, that Shaman set does look awesome. You hear that, guild? We've got to get to the Black Temple... it will be mine.
Mr. Stormrage's Worst-Dressed List, 2007
Tier 6 is out and about on the forums, so it's time for everyone to do their best Joan Rivers imitations (especially the undead, who are halfway there already) and critique the sets. Boubouille has been nice enough to link us to all the Tier 6 skins in his massive 2.1.0 info collection, so I'll be using his skins as the basis for the criticism. Ready to get bitchy? Let's go!
PTR notes: Massive 2.1 roundup at MMO-Champion
The internets have generally been going crazy over 2.1 information every since the PTRs went live, with us being no exception. So if you've lost track of all the new information that's come out, I don't blame you. Fortunately, MMO-Champion has come to the rescue again, with this massive infodump full of pretty much everything we know about 2.1 so far. There's not very much new information, but here's what he has that I hadn't seen before: New loading screens Black Temple screenshots (lots) A couple gear pieces filed under Northrend New gems This as well as T6 graphics for all classes (like the Warlock set pictured above, which is in this blogger's opinion the greatest tier set ever, graphics-wise), new engineering stuff, rep rewards, and pretty much everything else that you're probably curious about, so go look it over. Do you think the wings on the Warlock set are functional? And kudos, Boubouille, I know how much work these things can be to put together.
Your favorite WoW Insider posts this month
By a show of hands (and by hands we mean clicks), you've voted on your favorite posts on WoW Insider for the month of March. Here's the list of the top trafficked posts this month: In Death and Taxes, pallies heal and priests DPS (vampiric embrace FTW!) Who can resist delicious Hordecake? Leaked 2.1.0 patch notes? (zomg FAKE!) Food on the flying mount wing (warning: cute cat video enclosed) Tier 6 names and bonuses -- 'cuz we all want the Professor Plums. Use the Armory to find WoW's worst player because they're sure to make your sorry ass look halfway decent. Blue Notes: Seduction, Pet Health, and Old Hillsbrad -- because "seduction" is always a popular search term. Instance griefing not against the ToS? -- a) we don't need Blizzard to tell us that PuGs suck; b) couldn't there be a more elegant solution to this? Leveling build for a Retribution Paladin -- because Retnoobs need love too. Armory + Signature Generator = AWESOME! (note that the original server was crushed by the teeming hordes (see what we did there?) clogging the intertubes, but the original URL will redirect you to the new signature generator). And to level our fishing skills -- any other posts from this month you particularly enjoyed that you wouldn't want your WoW-loving comrades to miss?
Blizzard updates Under Development page
For the first time since before the Burning Crusade was released, Blizzard have updated their Under Development page to tell us that the Black Temple is going to be opened soon, and will contain Tier 6 armor. We knew it was going to be opened eventually, given that the physical edifice is already in the game, and even the instance portal (though it tells you that the instance isn't available yet), but this probably means it'll be in the next content patch. Here's Blizz's text:Originally founded as a Draenei temple, this plot has been conquered and despoiled many times throughout the history of Outland, removing any spiritual grace it may have once held. The Black Temple has been the stage of the Orc Horde's blood curse, a fortress for the then-mortal Ner'zhul, and a prime staging ground for the Burning Legion's campaign of destruction. Most recently, it has been claimed as home by Illidan, where he and his minions make their bid for power over the remnants of the shattered planet. Now, it is up to you to face the malefic forces of Illidan and his minions in hopes of freeing Outland from chaos and tyranny.Black Temple is a 25-person raid dungeon located in Shadowmoon Valley. Explore an ancient site steeped in Warcraft lore Gain access to more than a hundred new rare and epic items, including tier-6 armor sets Choose your path through a nonlinear level-70 raid dungeon, as you make your way to... Face Illidan himself! I'm interested to learn more about the nonlinearity of this place, although it probably just means that you don't have to do all the bosses. Also, note that we almost certainly won't be able to destroy Illidan -- Blizz have hinted that he's too powerful to be destroyed by mere level 70s. The usual guess is that it'll go something like the Majordomo Executus fight in MC. And the stats on T4 and T5 are already pretty crazy -- anyone have any info on what T6 is like?
