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In-game fixes for December 9th
Blizzard poster Bornakk announced a whole batch of hotfixes and updates to issues that cropped up after the launch of Patch 3.3 earlier this evening. A few of the juicier fixes are just below, and you can find the rest behind the cut. Do note that some of these changes will require a server restart to kick in. Running up the ramp at the end of the 3rd encounter in Halls of Reflection will no longer disconnect players. Onyxia has settled down and is once again killable and flying in the proper areas during phase 2. Bosses no longer respawn in the new Frozen Halls 5 player dungeon after being defeated.
The single greatest thing that has ever happened in this game
And I think it's gonna be a long long time 'Til touch-down brings me round again to find I'm not the bare they think I am at home Oh, no no no I'm a ROCKET BARE Rocket bare! Bottom full of boom out here alone! Hats off to Tree Bark Jacket for capturing this utterly magnificent video from Icecrown's gunship battle encounter, and a plea to any and all developers reading this; you can never go wrong combining lolbares with explosives. Or rocket launchers. Or laser gun-sights with auto-lock targeting on the rogue who just stole our new tanking belt.
Icecrown Citadel gated progression update
We were all a little baffled at the discovery of a 28 day delay in Icecrown Citadel before the second 'wing' of the instance unlocked. A whole month? That's a really long time, and if it were 28 days between every 'wing' opening, we wouldn't be facing Arthas until early April. Raiders wouldn't even have access to hard modes until shortly after that. That was not a particularly pleasing discovery. Luckily, Daelo has hit the forums to tell us that it's not going to be that way between every wing. The first wing has an extra long delay because of the holidays, and each of them afterwards will be faster. He also adds some details about an increased number of attempts on the end bosses: In other news, the initial number of attempts to defeat the major bosses at the end of each wing of Icecrown Citadel has been increased by 5. This means you'll have 10 attempts for Professor Putricide, 15 attempts when The Crimson Halls are available, then 20 when the Frostwing Halls becomes attackable. Overall, it's good news. I know all of my raiders will be relieved to hear things will speed up again after the holidays.
Encrypted Text: Rogue gear guide for patch 3.3
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about all of the new gear you can find in patch 3.3. Patch 3.3 descended upon us rather quickly, bringing all of the new patch notes to fruition. It even brought extended maintenance and instance server outages in its wake. You can read more of WoW.com's coverage of 3.3 in our comprehensive guide. I was lucky enough to survive the instability long enough to run the new 5 man's, and they're a ton of fun. I've talked about the changes that rogues can expect, with Combat seeing a nice boost via the Deadly Poison change, and Mutilate is sitting pretty with Murder and the DP change putting it in sole possession of first place. Hopefully you've got a pair of daggers lying around. If you don't, have no fear! Blizzard has put in a ton of new rogue loot, and really pulled out all of the stops. Read on for a list of all the gear you'll be able to acquire in these first few weeks of our final confrontation against the Lich King.
Lichborne: Patch 3.3 Roundup for Death Knights
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW.com's weekly Death Knight column, where your host, Daniel Whitcomb, continues to be caught in a bad romance with Unholy DPS. So we're back on the scene after a lazy and luxurious extended Thanksgiving holiday, and just in time for patch 3.3. Death Knights got their fair share of changes, some minor bug fixes and some rather large adjustments, including, of course, the obligatory complete rebalancing of unholy DPS. That said, with 3.3 the last major patch before Cataclysm, we can hope for some normalcy with the whole issue. Or we can expect Patch 3.3.1, either way. Regardless, since we're just starting out on patch 3.3, now's a good time to run down what patch 3.3 means for us, including a postmortem on the latest unholy DPS changes, and some advice on what to do with yourself in patch 3.3. Read on.
Additional instances cannot be launched, please find something else to do.
After a long bit of extended maintenance last night for patch 3.3, and after fighting with add-ons and general instability, many players were greeted with a familiar and disappointing message from sever. Additional instances cannot be launched, please try again later. Heads exploded, babies cried, and anarchy ensued as people once again saw this dreaded error. We've been told for months that the cross-server instances and other solutions were supposed to fix this, that they would be the salvation to all our problems. Not so. At least, not yet. We are told by our sources that the central problem likely lies in there being too many players attempting to run instances. Before, if you had a server-wide instance capacity of say 1,000 instances open at any one time, you now have a battlegroup-wide instance capacity of over 10,000 instances open at any one time (just making these numbers up for the sake of argument here). Last night, in the rush to try out the new dungeon finder and cross-server mechanics, the battlegroup-wide instance capacity was reached and destroyed in a blink of an eye. You had literally tens of thousands of people running instances in each battlegroup, entirely overwhelming the system.
Ammo controversy in 3.3 already
Patch 3.3 is only barely out on the live realms, and already, there's a controversy with the new epic ammo recipes. Lassirra says that hunters are concerned that the requirements to make the ammo are just too high. Blizzard had promised to make getting epic ammo easier, and this still has the requirement of having a high level engineer, with the extra charge of requiring a Goblin engie for the bullets, and a Gnomish engie for the arrows. And even after you find a 450 Engineer in the right spec, you still have to get a couple of Crystallized Shadow or Earth together. That doesn't sound "easier" to me, either. Let's not forget, however, that this is cutting edge (no pun intended) ammo -- this isn't the kind of vendor junk you just fire while leveling. It's a 30 point DPS gain from the previous high level ammo, and that kind of increase probably does justify a little tougher requirement to make. Of course, it'll probably work out so that other classes get that increase normally through their itemization, but that's just the way it works for hunters. If you want the new ammo, you'll have to find an friendly engie of the right spec with the right skill Honored with the new Ashen Verdict faction, and then keep them supplied with as much Crystallized Earth and Shadow as you can find.
Second wing of Icecrown Citadel to open in 28 days
Already, a number of guilds have cleared out the first bosses in the lower areas of Icecrown Citadel. After taking down the Deathbringer, talking to your friendly faction hero yields some information as to when the doors will open. In Trial of the Crusader, one new boss opened every week. In Icecrown Citadel, it seems like they're increasing the time between gates. As reported by Stratfu, the next area will open in 28 days (which is expected to be the Plagueworks containing Festergut, Rotface, and Professor Putricide). January 5th is the target date for the next set of bosses. At the rate we're going (28 days between gates), we won't see Arthas until April. 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.
Patch 3.3 known issues
Patch 3.3 obviously is having its share of bugs, some more severe than others. People are reporting inability to zone into instances, often times met either with the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched" error or just flat out lagging out so long that they're ported back to Dalaran or wherever the system decides to drop them, entirely unable to enter the instance. Some of the issues have been addressed, some haven't. Blizzard has released the first part of the list of known issues with patch 3.3. It will be expanding in the future, so don't get too upset when you don't see a bug on it. Remember that it typically takes a couple days for a patch to get all its kinks worked out. Just hang tight, enjoy some some lore and trailer action, and things will be fixed before you know it. The full list of known issues after the break.
Patch 3.3: Fall of the Lich King Trailer
Blizzard has finally released the official trailer for Patch 3.3: Fall of the Lich King. You can view it over on their site right now, or just enjoy it via the YouTube video embedded above. The Blizzard site is extremely slow right now, so we recommend just watching it here. The trailer sends chills down your spine, especially if you've been paying attention to the lore of Warcraft since the RTS games back in the 90's and early 2000's. It shows a certain very important figure in Arthas' life, letting him know the Fall of the Lich King is bound to take place. For additional information about the lore in this patch, check out our article on the Lore of Patch 3.3. To see more of the dungeons and have a bit more of the story explained to you, check out vodka's trailer. We understand that the YouTube trailer might be taking some time to load. There's a lot of people trying to access everything at once, and most internet services are getting bogged down. WoW.com is on AOL webservers, so we should be fine, but other sites, include Blizzard's sites, are not able to handle the load as well.
Patch 3.3: Raid Browser Guide
While dungeons are going for that new-fangled cross-realm fad, the raid system is staying old school by keeping raiding local to your own realm. However, that isn't to say they're behind the times. Patch 3.3 brings a fresh look for the looking for raid tool called the Raid Browser. While we have covered it in its infancy on the PTR, we figured another look wouldn't hurt. So, I present to you, the new and improved World of Warcraft Raid Browser (now with more usefulness). %Gallery-79819% 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.
Corehound Pups in the mail with patch 3.3 [Updated]
My level 23 Gnome Warrior, whom I have not logged onto in years, got a Corehound Pup in the mail after the servers came back up. He is as adorable as a corehound pup could possibly be. But why did I get him? What's he for? It appears that several other staff members have gotten the pups in the mail. Some characters have them, some don't. There doesn't seem to by any rhyme or reason behind which characters get them. We are researching this further, of course, and will keep you up to date. No word from Blizzard yet about this, however. Did you get a Corehound Pup, too? Video Update 5:25pm: Video above and screenshot is after the break. Update 4:39pm: Blizzard confirmed that the Corehound Pup pet is for Authenticator users. Updated: He (they?) throws a bone in the air and catches it, rolls over and digs a hole in the ground.
Patch 3.3 Icecrown Citadel raid boss information and resources
Patch 3.3 is out! With the release of Icecrown, WoW.com aims to help prepare you with the long journey through the Frozen Throne. In this post, you'll find general information about the various bosses along with the strategies to take them down. There are 13 bosses in Icecrown. The first four bosses in the Lower Spire will be accessible the moment the patch goes live. The rest of the instance will gradually open up later on. Certain encounters will have limited attempts, but you won't have to worry about them later on. Lastly, attunements are not required to enter Icecrown Citadel on normal mode.
Wrath 101: Attunement & Gating in patch 3.3
There are a lot of questions out there about how gating in Icecrown Citadel will work, and how attunement to the 5-man instances will function. We've collected some of the most common questions and put them in an F.A.Q. format for you to look at. After the break we'll answer them, or you can click on the links to be immediately taken to the answer. How do you define gated content? What content is gated in patch 3.3? Can I do heroic Icecrown right away? How long until Icecrown Citadel is completely open? When will I be able to fight Arthas? What content requires attunement in patch 3.3? I'm still confused about the 5-man attunement, can you phrase it another way? Will the Dungeon Finder let me ignore attunement (or other requirements)? What quest chains do I need to do to get access to the heroic version of the Icecrown Citadel raids? What quest chains do I need to do to get access to the normal or heroic version of the 5-man Frozen Halls dungeons?
Patch 3.3: How to find the Frozen Halls
The information in the video above might seem terribly obvious to you. How hard could it be to find the new 5-man instances? There's banners all over the place, and it's lit up like a landing strip! It must be easy to find! Yeah, you would think that, but our experience on the PTR disagrees. For every one person that can find the instances, there are thirty who can't. This video here? Consider it a gift to you that actually know how to get there. Instead of needing to explain it to every single guild member of yours begging for directions, just point them toward this video. You'll mock me now, but you'll thank me later. Trust me. You will. 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.
Frozen Halls 5-man dungeon attunement walkthrough
The new 5-man dungeon complex in patch 3.3, The Frozen Halls, has three instances: The Forge of Souls Pit of Saron Halls of Reflection The Pit of Saron and the Halls of Reflection require attunement. In this walkthrough we'll guide you along each quest you need to do in order to be attuned properly. Please note that this information is based off the PTR version of patch 3.3. Things may have changed slightly since its live release. We'll update the post as necessary.
Patch 3.3: The Dungeon Finder Guide
Patch 3.3 is here and the old looking for group interface is now gone. The old heroic dailies? Gone. The reputation dungeon daily? Gone. The achievements for doing all of those dailies are now Feats of Strength, because if you didn't have them before, you'll never have them now. In their place, we get the ability to queue for dungeons in much the same way that you normally queue for battlegrounds. We get the ability to almost instantaneously have our group put together and be teleported directly inside the instance. For those of you who just recently hit 80, there is no crazy GearScore requirements (thank the Earth Mother), no insane dps requirement, and no achievement checking. It removes all of those things that really stink about trying to find a group to get gear from heroics. Let's take a better look at this new feature.
The Lore of Patch 3.3
In many ways Wrath of the Lich King can be considered the logical conclusion of one of WarCraft's major story lines. Arthas, the evil sovereign of the scourge, will meet his doom in Icecrown Citadel. Each Wrath patch up until now has lead to this defining moment -- the face off between Arthas and the players representing the next generation of heroes of Azeroth. Who will win? What happens after Arthas is defeated? Is Arthas defeated? These questions lend themselves to a spectacular conclusion to a great tale. In The Lore of Patch 3.3, Michael Sacco, Alex Ziebart, and I will take a look at all the various plots, characters, and environments that lead up to this grand confrontation with the Lich King. You'll want to know this story. You'll want to know this lore. For when you finally face off against the wielder of the Frostmourne, you'll know why you're going toe-to-toe against him, and why your fate can make or break the very face of Azeroth. This article, while containing essential lore, also contains heavy spoilers. Do not proceed if that bothers you.
Patch 3.3 compatible addons
With patch 3.3 just hours away, we thought it might be nice to do a quick list of major addons that have already been updated to give you something to do while waiting for the servers to come back up, then waiting in the login queue, and then waiting for Dalaran to load. You've got a good fifteen minutes worth of downtime just trying to get out of Dalaran. Oh, and don't forget to set your game client to load out of date addons to cover all of the ones that haven't updated yet.
WoW.com's Guide to patch 3.3
With the release of patch 3.3 we can now begin the final assault on Arthas and the Icecrown Citadel. Players will march forth sounding the cry of battle as they go up against the final foes of Wrath of Lich King. As each day passes and each boss falls (and each gate opens), Arthas is one step closer to becoming history. But Icecrown Citadel and the Frozen Throne isn't the only thing patch 3.3 brings. We've seen perhaps the most significant revamp to instance running ever with the introduction of cross-server instances in the new Dungeon Finder system. In addition, there have been numerous changes elsewhere in game that players are raving over. The sheer amount of content is hard for anyone to keep up with, and we've been steadily updating the WoW.com Guide to Patch 3.3 with everything we've written about the patch (over 250 articles now). As you venture out into this new patch, head back to the guide for everything you need to know. Just watch out for Frostmourne, you don't want it to steal your soul. Read the Patch 3.3 Guide >>
