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The Daily Quest: Patch 3.2 Madness
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Runeforge Gossip isn't very happy with the recent Death Knight Q&A. I am a Paladin... has an initial reaction to Paladins on the Patch 3.2 PTR. Banana Shoulders takes a great look at Epic Gems and Jewelcrafting in Patch 3.2. Matticus thinks the emblem changes in Patch 3.2 are great. Mystic Chicanery talks about the add-on Power Auras. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Light and How to Swing It: Patch 3.2 and the Paladin
Ok, we've got quite a bit of information on Patch 3.2 now, and even though this major content patch isn't introducing too many new things to the class, it does shake it up a bit. Nothing too big, but it should keep everyone on their toes. But first we'll talk about one thing that isn't related to class skills or nerfs or anything like that... first I'd like to encourage everyone to get chummy with the Argent dudes. Do their mind-numbing daily quests and all that, get the Crusader title if you want... and along the way collect 100 Champion's Seals. According to the PTR, the new Paladin-exclusive Argent Charger is available on the Tournament Grounds for a mere one hundred seals. Of course, Blizzard is also giving away Tier 9 gear for free during the testing phase, so that cost could still change. Still, here's that pony that Ghostcrawler promised all of us. It's a fitting item for an entire faction run by Paladins, right? Anyway, enjoy that pony because not everything in Patch 3.2 is as nice a ride.
Patch 3.2 PTR Isle of Conquest upcoming changes
I hope everybody's been having fun on the PTR. I know Matt's been having a grand time in Patch 3.2's new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest. Thanks to all the players who have been airship-dropping, flag-capturing, glaive-thrower-riding, and general-killing, Blizzard has announced that they will be making some changes to the Isle of Conquest in the next iteration of the PTR build. The changes are as follows: Increased all the gates' health from 300,000 to 600,000. Increased the reinforcement count from 200 to 400. Significantly increased the health and damage of the keep generals. Reduced effect range of the siege damage caused by Seaforium. Both the player damage and the siege damage caused should be 10 yards now. The Huge Seaforium piles will now despawn for 20 seconds once looted. Glaive Thrower - Reduced the cooldown of Blade Salvo from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Glaive Thrower - Reduced movement speed. Demolisher - The Hurl Boulder and Ram effects no longer share a cooldown. Keep Cannons - Fixed a bug that was causing them to do much more damage than intended. Keep Cannons - Can now be repaired once they are destroyed by clicking on them. This repair process takes 8 seconds and can be interrupted, similar to capturing a PvP objective. Siege Engine - Significantly Increased health. Zarhym thanks all the players for their invaluable input and encourage further testing and continued feedback on the PTR. The Battleground looks like a whole lot of fun, and the changes should lengthen the considerably short matches. See you guys on the battlefield... as soon as I get this blasted client patch to download, that is...Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Scattered Shots: A deeper look into the Patch 3.2 Hunter changes
Welcome to Scattered Shots. I am Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from The Hunting Lodge and I'll be your tour guide each Thursday as we explore what makes our Hunters tick and how we can make them better. Man, this has been a busy week for us Hunters or what? With each passing day it is becoming more and more evident that Patch 3.2 is on its way. Of course we have to remember that "on its way" to Blizzard could mean anything tomorrow to a few months. With that in mind, it is probably a good idea to take another deeper look at the proposed Patch 3.2 Hunter changes and see how they might impact both the PvE and PvP game.
Patch 3.2 PTR: Koralon the Flame Watcher impressions
The Public Test Realm for Patch 3.2 is in full swing, and even though the Argent Coliseum isn't available for testing just yet, there's a brand-new wing in Wintergrasp's Vault of Archavon housing a brand-new giant to beat up. Enter Koralon, the Flame Watcher. He's a stout fellow, and you probably recognize his model, which he shares with Volkhan from Halls of Lightning and Ignis from Ulduar, replete with crotch-pot. And as you may have also guessed, he uses fire spells and abilities. He doesn't currently drop loot on the PTR, though I assume the distribution will be much the same as it is with Emalon -- two or so pieces of Tier 9 gear along with a lion's share of PVP items. Impressions and strategy after the jump.
Twinked-out NPCs in patch 3.2 thrill twinks
As expected, the twink enthusiasts over at TwinkInfo are supremely excited about that experience switch coming in patch 3.2 -- not only are they finally getting to stop XP gains on demand, but Blizzard has given them their own little easter egg in the game. We already knew the two NPCs with the switch for each faction were called Behsten in Stormwin and Slahtz in Orgrimmar (get it? "Best in slots?"), but now that the PTR is open, they've discovered something else: the NPCs themselves are twinked out with classic Rogue twink gear. From the Blackened Defias Chest to the Feet of the Lynx (and dual Assassin's Blades with Lifestealing), Blizzard went all out on these guys. As Drayner says, the only thing missing is a 'chanted Fishing Hat.Not everybody is big on twinking -- lots of people think it's annoying to duck into the BGs for the first time and get rolled by an alt who's got a lot of money and time behind them. Fortunately, though, this XP change will not only legitimize twinking even more, but it'll get it out of our way as well, as players with XP turned off will only face other players with XP turned off (other twinks, essentially). Throw in that it's something twinks have been asking for a long time, and it's a win-win for everybody.Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Class Q&A: Death Knight
Third in the class Q&A series is Death Knight. I thought it was going to be Warlocks, but I guess plans change. So far Shaman and Mage have been covered, and in each post the Ghostcrawler has been talking about the developer vision for the class past and future, as well as answering popular questions from the forums. What do they have to say about WoW's first hero class? Read on. Introducing a new class to a game that didn't really have an empty niche was tricky, but they think they have succeeded - "perhaps too well." They like that there's a lot of room for variation in player skill. In patch 3.2, they wanted to reduce DK AoE and defensive cooldowns, which they definitely did. The resource system (runes and runic power) is a large part of what makes Death Knights unique. They also have a lot of medium-length cooldown (able to be used a few times per fight), and there's a lot of skill involved in knowing when to use them. DKs are also especially well-rounded, with a lot of versatility and a lot of tricks, which makes them at risk for being over-powered in PvP.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Patch 3.2 wish list
What to say about patch 3.2 so far? One of the dangers of writing about the PTR in general is the possibility that, as you are typing out what you want to say, a brand new PTR patch is dropping. To some degree this would be a welcome circumstance even though it would erase what I'm writing about now, because the current PTR has nothing for warriors. Well, okay, not nothing. They buffed Armored to the Teeth slightly. On the PTR it grants 1/2/3 AP per 108 armor, as opposed to on live, where it takes 180 armor for that same benefit. Why 108? Maybe because it was easy to swap the 8 and the 0. Honestly, I couldn't tell you. The amount of AP you get from the talent isn't tremendous, but anything's better than nothing I suppose.Also, the block value changes are in (I tested them out yesterday), and, well, they fail even as a band aid fix to the problem of block performance: sure, you deal more threat to trash pulls and take less damage from them, but as far as bosses are concerned, block is still lackluster as a 'oh I don't want to die' stat. You can now block up to between 3 and 4k of a 22 to 25k hit, I'm not exactly breaking out the party hats. Especially when you'd have to stack the heck out of the stat to get even that much out of it.And man, as nice as the T9 tanking set is in terms of pure stats and bonuses, you will not want to give up that T8 4 piece set bonus with the straight up 20% magic damage reduction for it. 10 seconds of 20% magic damage reduction? You simply can't undersell how awesome that is for tanking big spike damage bosses in Wrath raids. It's pretty much the only thing that keeps warrior tanks viable against DK's and druid tanks for those fights.
WoW, Casually: What Patch 3.2 means for casuals
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.Oh my. All of this Patch 3.2 stuff is a bit overwhelming. We'll go over the changes that affect most casual players here, but there is still a lot of info that I won't cover. Many class changes are on the way, as well as a series of Q&As that Blizzard is releasing periodically. Also, the professions are getting some attention. So keep an eye on our Guide to Patch 3.2 for the latest changes that are specific to your character choices. Here is an analysis of the changes that affect most players with limited playtime:
Patch 3.2 PTR Tier 9 set names
Even though Blizzard already said that they'd be introducing a whole new set (or sets) of tier gear, it's still a little overwhelming to see information for Tier 9 gear considering that Tier 8-8.5 has only recently been unleashed with Patch 3.1 and Ulduar. Still, Patch 3.2 looks like some ways off and we can't get too excited about the Call of the Crusade just yet.As soon as the PTR went live yesterday, Alex and Adam scrambled to put together a whopper gallery of Tier 9 gear which might've overwhelmed the whole lot of us who were all too eager to find out what goodies are in store with the new patch. While a lot of things can still change now until the patch goes live, we do know a few things. Check out the Tier 9 sets in the gallery below, which has been re-organized by class and spec (because we love you all that much), and let's take a look at the Tier 9 sets after the jump. %Gallery-66710%
Tier 9 to come in three quality levels
10-man ilvl 25-man Naxx 200 KT, EoE 213 Naxx Ulduar 219 Ulduar hard 226 Ulduar, KT/EoE CC 232 Ulduar weapons 239 Ulduar hard CC hard 245 CC 258 CC hard Well, that answers that question. According to what MMO-Champion has found in the PTR item database, Tier 9 gear from patch 3.2's Crusader's Coliseum raid comes in three different versions for each set (T7 and T8 come in two, from 10- and 25-man). There's one version at ilvl 232, one at 245, and one at 258. This leads to the following loot distribution, I'd guess: 10-man normal (232) < 10-man hard (245) = 25-man normal (245) < 25-man hard (258) Others (such as 10n < 25n < 10h = 25h) are logically possible, but to me, that's the most likely distribution that leads to three different ilvls. It's also the way Ulduar is done with normal and hard modes, apart from some differences in weapon ilvl. Crusader's Coliseum on heroic is a bit different than Ulduar hard modes, though. It seems that when you do a heroic CC raid, you start out with a certain number of attempts (wipes), and the more attempts you have remaining upon defeating the final boss, the better loot you get. So will ilvl 258 gear be contingent upon beating CC-heroic in (say) fewer than half your attempts? I guess we'll have to wait and find out. Of course, the really important question is: what the heck will we call the 3 different sets? T9.0, T9.33, T9.66? Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Encrypted Text: The Lumberjack Rogue
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 VERY tongue-in-cheek about the upcoming addition of Axes to the Rogue arsenal.As it turns out, my cynicism last week was completely unfounded. I had assumed Death Knights would be getting the new weapon skill that Blizzard had thrown up for grabs, and that we'd have yet another class rolling on Fist weapons. However, Rogues were the recipient of this new buff, and we'll now be able to use Axes in the upcoming patch!While many of the old Rogue veterans may put the kibosh on using anything that's not a dagger, I'd like to see us take the opportunity to embrace this change. Orc Rogues will be able to take full advantage of Axe Specialization (which will actually include Fists in 3.2), and it opens up the door to an entirely new playstyle that I like to call 'The Lumberjack'. You'll see what I mean, after the cut.
Isle of Conquest gameplay screenshot gallery
The new Battleground coming with Patch 3.2, the Isle of Conquest, is live on the 3.2 PTR as we speak, and we've been running some games on said Isle to see how it measures up to the current BGs. We're pretty happy with it so far -- it certainly looks great, as you'll be able to tell by checking out the screenshot gallery we've compiled for you. It shows the BG and all its sundry parts in action. We'll keep you up to date with new Isle info as we get it. If you're on the PTR too, then be sure to queue up -- who knows, it might just be one of us you're ganking! %Gallery-66277% Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
The Queue: Judgement of Light & Day
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.Today's music comes from a viewing of Scrubs I was, at the time, forced to watch by the girlfriend Katie. They had this great band playing at the end called The Polyphonic Spree. Today's featured reading music is the aforementioned band performing Light & Day ("Reach for the Sun").It really doesn't have anything to do with anything, but they're hippies and jump around a lot while making some rather cool and unique music. Plus they have this cultish vibe to them. The Leader is good, The Leader is great, we surrender our will as of this date.Hey look! World of Warcraft related things coming up now...Many people asked... "The PTR you download from the official WoW site is still 3.1! How are people getting on the Patch 3.2 PTR?"
Patch 3.2 PTR: New Children's Week quests revealed
Bornakk hinted about this awhile back and we knew what the reward pets were going to be but when this years Children's Week came and went with no new content, a lot of players were a tad disappointed. Well now that the PTR is up in order to test patch 3.2, testers can find the Northrend incarnation of Children's Week in full swing and that means lots of shiny new quests.The new quests see you taking around a Wolvar orphan named Kekek or little Roo of the Oracles to meet certain famous people or visit various landmarks in Northend like Wrymrest Temple, Vordrassil, Dalaran and the Bronze Dragonshrine. You then have to take them to a toy shop in Dalaran and buy them each a gift. If you've ever done the classic or Outland Children's Week quests then you'll know the drill and it still looks like a lot of fun. Check out our gallery below to find out more about what the quests involve. %Gallery-66639% Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Breakfast Topic: Did the Patch 3.2 news bring you back to the Tournament?
As you've probably seen on the site before, I grew bored of the Argent Tournament really fast. I still think the mind-numbing repetition is a pretty big step backwards in their world design thus far, but all of the recent Patch 3.2 news has been making me hopeful that it won't always be the overly repetitive mess I see it as right now. It's driven me back to doing the Tournament quests, even!The fact that the Crusader title and Exalted with the Sunreavers/Silver Covenant are required to take part in the new Argent Tournament solo content is playing a big role in my decision to play through the current dailies again. I stopped doing them just shy of Crusader, with no real intent to go and finish it off. As much as I wanted the title, I really could not bear doing those dailies anymore. One can only joust so much! I'm very much interested in the new content and items though, so with those two goals being the gateways to it, I'm not given much of an option. Crusader or bust. I do not like to bust.
Patch 3.2 PTR: New Heirloom Items Gallery
We've heard these were coming, and now they're here: heirloom chest pieces. We just grabbed these screenshots hot off the patch 3.2 PTR. These are the level 80 versions, of course, but you can get a feel for what each chest has, statwise. You'll notice that the promised 10% experience gain is there on all the pieces, and that they are slightly bugged right now in that each of them has no armor.You'll also notice that the names and graphics, which hearken back to old original WoW gear, mostly match up with existing heirloom shoulders, so you'll even be able to get your newbie all color coordinated and whatnot. Of course, a set bonus would have been nice too, but I'm sure we'll all be able to comfort ourselves with that nice big experience gain boost. The chests currently cost 40 Heroism badges and a bit of gold to buy, although that may change before the patch goes live.%Gallery-66638%
Patch 3.2 PTR unveils Tier 9 sets
Now that the PTR is up, the floodgates have been opened. We're beginning to see a ton of new information about the next major content patch, the Call of the Crusade, including but not limited to the new Tier 9 sets. I know, it's crazy, right? I haven't even completed my Tier 8.5 set and here comes Blizzard dumping all this new gear on my lap. Ok, it's technically not that easy to get the gear but it'll certainly be easier with the new badge loot system. It's the dawn of the casual age of WoW, and Blizzard is taking a huge leap experimenting with dungeon modes.Whatever happens, we players win. So take a gander at pieces of the Tier 9 sets, which are available on the Tournament Grounds on the PTR for a token piece and small change (and purely for testing purposes, Michael Sacco notes that one vendor is giving away tier sets for a song). While there aren't any models for the gear yet -- they're currently using Tier 8+ placeholder graphics -- it's interesting to note that there are two sets of gear for each spec. They're identical items, just named differently for the Horde and the Alliance because, as Blizzard revealed, Patch 3.2 marks the return of faction-specific gear. Even cooler, Blizzard departs from the old tier set naming convention by naming the sets after notable figures in Warcraft lore. Check out all the items in the gallery Alex and Adam painstakingly put together. You know you want to. %Gallery-66640%
Patch 3.2 PTR: Badge of Triumph loot gallery
We've spent a bit of time on the Patch 3.2 PTR compiling images of the new badge loot available with Emblems of Triumph. You'll find the vendors in the usual spot -- by your specific faction's other badge vendors. There's quite an assortment of pieces available, though still no Elemental gear (thanks Blizzard!).As with all PTR foofaraw, the stats, names, and most certainly art for these pieces can and may change by the time Patch 3.2 goes live, so give feedback if you think something's amiss on the Test Realm Forum. For now, drool away at the item level 245 loot. %Gallery-66635%
Patch 3.2 PTR now live
The wait for the new content patch may have just gotten a little shorter! The files for Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, are now available for download from the official site (or any number of other mirrors, at this point), and the PTR realms are up.MMO-Champion and a number of other sites have datamined information from the files, including new achievements, holidays, and names of the Coliseum bosses, which we've compiled for you. We'll keep you updated with any new information we get regarding 3.2, including the current status of the PTR, as events warrant. Get psyched! Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
