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Patch 4.3 hotfixes for Dec. 2
Hotfixes are in for Dec. 2, with the expected fix to the Raid Finder exploit that was causing incredibly fast gear-ups for players who queued over and over. Raid Finder loot should now work in its intended fashion. Dragon Soul and the three new 5-man dungeons also got some quick fixes for a few annoying bugs. Hit the jump for the full list of hotfixes.
Shifting Perspectives: Patch 4.3 gear list for balance druids
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or requests for something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or on Twitter @murmursofadruid. Hail, druids, and welcome to the wondrous world of a new patch! This patch didn't hold much for us in the ways of personal meat. We got a wicked-awesome new Hurricane animation and a neat new Wrath one as well, but otherwise, things trudge along as normal with our lot. That's perfectly dandy in my book. We're still going along strong as a solid DPS choice, and things are good. This week I'm dedicating to gearing ourselves up in all of that lovely new content that has just been released. Whether you're a dungeoneer or a hardcore raider, there's tons of new loot to look at, and that's exactly that we're going to do. As a side note, I do have to say that I am super-excited about having patch 4.3. The content so far has been gloriously fun, and though I'm sure I'll change my mind once I've done enough of these heroics to last a lifetime (as with the troll versions of last patch), I'm content to make do with what we have. Let's get to work, shall we?
The Light and How to Swing It: 3 things tankadins need to know
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. Patch 4.3 is upon us, and the Hour of Twilight has come. Once more, it falls to us rugged men and women of plate-covered action to strap on our Bulwarks of Azzinoth (because, seriously, what other shield would you transmogrify to?) and march into the fray. Deathwing's assault on Azeroth is coming to a head, and to make sure we're ready for the challenges beyond, we need to be as prepared as possible. 4.3 is a pretty tame patch when it comes to class changes -- no nerfs or buffs galore ... my kind of patch. Nonetheless, there are three key things you need to know about the patch to bring your absolute best to the table. Let's dig in.
Healing Morchok and Warlord Zon'ozz
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. A new month and a new patch means new raid bosses to learn! It means new mechanics to learn, new players to work with (for some of you) and new challenges. I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say most of us were getting a little ... burned out on Firelands. The opening bosses should present a nice warmup for the rest of the instance. We'll start with quick healing setups for Morchok and Warlord Zon'ozz. The Raid Finder iteration of these bosses shouldn't be a problem for you if you already have a history of raiding. Normal versions might present a bit of a step up.
WoW Insider's guide to Morchok
Ready Check helps you prepare yourself and your raid for the bosses that simply require killing. Check back with Ready Check each week for the latest pointers on killing adds, not standing in fire, and hoping for loot that won't drop. Questions, comments, or something you would like to see? Email me at tyler@wowinsider or message me on Twitter @murmursofadruid. Greetings raiders, and welcome to WoW Insider's raid boss strategy guides! With the release of 4.3 and the new Dragon Soul raid, we're finally onto the last bastion of evil in this expansion. Finally we are given the chance to face down Deathwing himself and end his destructive madness. Before we can reach this cataclysmic destroyer, though, we'll first have to break the siege upon Wyrmrest Temple and battle our way through the most powerful minions the Destroyer has in his arsenal. The first of this is Morchok, a giant earth elemental that is assaulting the front gates, as it were, of the Temple itself. Although not challenging for the first encounter of the raid, this pile of rocks isn't going down without a fight. Are you prepared to break yourselves upon his body? (Oh, wait ... that's a different encounter, isn't it?)
Fan revision gives patch 4.3 trailer added pop
The patch 4.3 trailer, shown above, was a decent enough trailer. It showed all the villains we'd see in the patch, plus a little gameplay. But to many players, it seemed to be missing something, and the common protest was that it had no voice work at all. Given the number of cinematics included in the Dragon Soul raid, perhaps it was decided it didn't need any. Still, the consensus seems to be that the trailer needed a little pop. After all, it's the trailer for the biggest patch of the expansion -- it ought to have a punch to it, shouldn't it? That's what YouTube user theopeneyes thought, too -- and so he embarked on a mission that took him through the various voiceovers in the 4.3 patch. After finding enough suitable material, he took a trailer that was pretty good and made it pretty amazing. Check out the result after the break.
Patch 4.3 changes make leveling fishing a breeze
Do you loathe leveling the fishing profession? Can't stand spending hours casting in pools? According to El over at El's Professions, there was a change put through in patch 4.3 that nobody noticed, one that will make your plight a little easier. In patch 4.3, the number of catches required to level fishing from 1 to 525 has been roughly halved. In addition, the number of catches per skill point above 300 fishing and especially above 450 also seems to have had an adjustment -- one point of skill can take between one and 13 casts to gain. El has put together a new skill-up table over on El's Extreme Anglin', but be warned, the pattern may not be fully understood just yet. El is welcoming any observations over on the El's Extreme Anglin' forums for fishing enthusiasts. At any rate, if you've been putting off picking up your fishing pole and finishing off those skill points, now would be an excellent time to start fishing! Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Patch 4.3 pets, mounts and collectibles
Blizzard has just posted a comprehensive list of the new pets, mounts, and collectibles available in patch 4.3. Everything from raiding to the new Darkmoon Faire Island is included, as well as the new holiday mounts that will be purchased with holiday currency. The holiday mounts are a departure from the luck-based rolls and one-a-day bags from holiday bosses, which will most likely be well received by the playerbase. Check out the full list of patch 4.3 pets, mounts, and collectibles on the WoW community website. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Cross-realm Real ID Battlegrounds now available
If you like Battlegrounds and you like friends, there's important news for you. As of patch 4.3, you can form a party and queue for a Battleground with your Real ID friends just as if you were queueing up for a random dungeon. There are some restrictions, of course. Kaivax - Cross-Realm Real-ID BG grouping is now available A few reminders about this -- You're going to see the limitations as you do in Looking-For-Dungeon and Looking-For-Raid. You can't invite Real-ID friends to a raid. If you have Real-ID friends in your group, you can't convert to a raid. source It's not surprising that the tech works the same as the Dungeon Finder and the Raid Finder. While I'd love to see that get expanded so that you can form a raid with friends on your Real ID list, for now, it's still a nice development for those of us who have managed to scatter our friends hither and yon across the servers. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Watch Cataclysm's ending cinematic
SPOILER ALERT: MMO-Champion has datamined the final cinematic of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, showing the fate of Azeroth, the dragon aspects, and more. If you do not want to be spoiled on the video that plays once the Madness of Deathwing encounter is defeated, do not hit the jump for the video. Again: spoiler alert! The video after the jump contains spoilers for the ending of Cataclysm.
Patch 4.3's mounts and how to get them
The World of Warcraft Armory has been updated with new data on the various mounts added to the game with patch 4.3. This data includes confirmation of drop locations. At least two new mounts are being added to in-game holidays, as well as the reveal of the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider meta achievement. Other mounts, like Experiment 12-B, are now confirmed rare drops off of the Ultraxion encounter in Dragon Soul. Blazing Drake and the Life-Binder's Handmaiden drop from the Madness of Deathwing encounter on normal and heroic difficulties respectively. Experiment 12-B is a rare drop from Ultraxion on normal or heroic mode. It appears to be a chromatic drake mount with a purple hue. Swift Lovebird will be bought from the Love is in the Air holiday vendor for 270 Love Tokens. It looks like a pink tallstrider. Swift Springstrider is purchased from the Noblegarden holiday vendors for 500 chocolates. It looks like a white tallstrider. Twilight Harbinger will be the mount reward for the Dragon Soul meta achievement, Glory of the Dragon Soul raider. As more mount information becomes available, we'll keep you updated. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Dragon Soul: Siege of Wyrmrest raid bosses explained in 5 seconds
You've no doubt already braved the Raid Finder, Blizzard's new system for getting players into raiding with a new lower difficulty on Dragon Soul. Players from all walks of WoW life will now be able to participate in the epic raid encounter to take down Deathwing once and for all. Even with the new lower raid difficulty, it's good to go in with some knowledge. Reading your Dungeon Journal is a good start, but here are some quick tips on the first four bosses in the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple wing of the Dragon Soul raid. Here are some quick facts to remember about the Raid Finder: No lockouts. Participating in the Raid Finder will not lock you out from doing the raid on 10- or 25-man with your guild or group. You only get to roll on loot once per boss per week. You can fight bosses multiple times but are only eligible for loot on the first kill. 250 valor points for completing the raid wing. Two tanks, six healers, 17 DPSers are needed for a Raid Finder raid. You can queue up in Raid Finder with your Real ID friends across servers.
Encrypted Text: Turning murder into legendaries
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Patch 4.3 is now live, and with it comes plenty of new additions. You can spend your time playing games at the newly revamped Darkmoon Faire, or you can play dress-up by transmogrifying your old tier sets. The developers buckled down and cranked out three new dungeons, complete with a plethora of new gear and valor point options. The new dungeons are also bristling with new lore moments and plot exposition, giving us insight into Deathwing's madness. But you're not here for that. You're not reading this post because you can't wait to hear what fashion style I'll be transmogging to. (A pirate, FYI.) You couldn't care less about tossing rings or commanding tonks on Darkmoon Island. Dungeon guides can wait. If you're as black-blooded as I am, then there's only one thing on your mind: Who does a rogue have to kill around here to get a pair of legendary daggers?
Patch 4.3: Watch Dragon Soul's cinematics
Spoiler alert: If you would rather check out these cinematics in game during the Dragon Soul raid, avoid clicking after the jump. The Dragon Soul raid is finally here, and Deathwing's time is up. Now that brave heroes have thwarted Murazond's plans in the future, reclaimed the Dragon Soul artifact in the past, and escorted Thrall to Wyrmrest Temple in the present, it's time to put that bad boy to use. There are a total of four cinematics in the Dragon Soul raid, most of them 10- to 20-second transitional movies you get to watch as the action ramps up and Deathwing gets a face full of Dragon Soul. Hit the jump for the three cinematics that are currently available to watch. We still have not seen the final cinematic, presumably Deathwing's ultimate demise, as of the writing of this article. Hopefully we will have it soon enough. Spoiler alert: Do not hit the jump unless you want to be spoiled on these cinematics.
The Queue: Fun fights
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host for today. I have two experiences to talk about before getting started with the questions and answers for today. The first is my general raid experience with the new content from patch 4.3. Dragon Soul is a pretty fun raid so far. I'm the kind of person who is happy to sacrifice a little bit of manufactured challenge for success and progress, especially in the normal mode fights. Heroics are perfectly fine being super challenging, but as far as normals go, letting guilds that can progress do so is fun. The first four fights in Dragon Soul are fun fights, especially Hagara the Stormbinder. I think she might be one of my new favorite encounters in this entire expansion. The second experience I wanted to discuss was my first Raid Finder adventure. Surprisingly, after weeks of worrying about whether 25 strangers could accomplish the content, I finally found out that it is indeed possible. I had a great time running the first half of Dragon Soul with the random group that I was part of. To be honest, I'm really impressed with the level of difficulty that the Raid Finder setting allows for. If you just want to experience the content and have no aims for more than that, you're solid here. This is a good thing. Questions, then? Sarducci asked: Do you still get locked to heroics if you run them outside the dungeon finder? Like, if we want to run the new five mans as a guild tonight, but some impatient people run them this afternoon, will those people be unable to queue specifically for the new 5-mans due to 24 hour lockouts?
Official Raid Finder Q&A
The Raid Finder is one of the highlight features of patch 4.3, but not all players are entirely clear on its function. What raids can you run? How often can you run them? Who can you run them with? In a World of Warcraft as complex and tiered as the one we have today, these are all valid questions. The World of Warcraft community team has come through for us with a full Raid Finder Q&A detailing both the present and future states of the feature. The Real ID functionality in particular receives important clarification. Raid Finder Q&A Q: Does Raid Finder support Real ID friends? A: With patch 4.3, you can invite Real ID friends to a party and then queue together for the Dragon Soul raid using Raid Finder. You can't, however form a raid with cross-realm Real ID friends before joining the Raid Finder queue. While not currently supported, this is something that we're interested in implementing in a future update. source You can read the full Q&A behind the cut below.
Patch 4.3: Hotfix on the way for Dungeon Finder crashes
The launch of patch 4.3 has been smooth overall, but there's one major exception: The Dungeon Finder has developed a case of narcolepsy. If you've been in the queue for any of the new Hour of Twilight dungeons tonight, chances are good you've noticed the system suffering from crashes with extreme frequency. Good news: There's a fix in the works, and we're likely to see it tonight. Cross your fingers. Bashiok - LFD Tool Down? There's a known issue causing the LFG servers to crash, which is kicking people out of queue. A hotfix is already in production and we expect will be implemented this evening. There's also an issue that's causing long queue times, and again a hotfix is in progress. source Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Blood Pact: Dungeon gearing for warlocks in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid. If I did not know any better, warlocks, I would think that the world was conspiring against me. Last week I had promised that I would be doing a gear list from the newest 5-mans to be released with patch 4.3, but I was deterred by not having access to Wowhead's marvelous PTR site. This week, it's Blizzard itself attempting to knock this train off the tracks by releasing the ability list and talent calculators for Mists of Pandaria. While the talents are important in their own right, nothing from said ability list was really all that shocking; indeed, a majority of it I had predicted rather well in last week's issue. Therefore, despite all attempts to get me to focus otherwise, I will actually be keeping up my promise and providing you with a cleanly laid-out gearing list for the next patch (which should be coming out tomorrow, truth be told). To prevent you from wasting your days farming for an item that you might replace, valor point items will also be listed given that you can earn the currency through 5-man content. Let's be on with the show!
New craftables and valor BoEs for patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. With every new patch comes new opportunity. And when patch 4.3 goes live today, there will be plenty of opportunity in the form of selling new i397 gear. But what's the right route to maximizing your profits? Tailoring snazzy new pants for the fashionable mage? Sewing wristpieces for all those boomkin who are really into leather? Or maybe you're going to trade comfort for fashion and have your blacksmith hammer out a pair of Truegold pants? Let's take a look at all your options, both crafted and BoE.
Weekly News Video Special: Patch 4.3 feature roundup
The WoW Insider Weekly News Update is your source for all the biggest stories from the past week wrapped up in a neat little video package. Mathew McCurley hosts your quick look at this week's biggest news. The WoW Insider Weekly News Update is here with a special episode all about the new features coming to World of Warcraft with the release of patch 4.3: Hour of Twilight. You're not going to want to miss out on any new features when you log in once the servers come back up, so let Mat McCurley remind you about what's happening. Also, check out WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 4.3 to get the most up-to-date patch notes, official feature previews, and more. Happy patch day!
