Waldonnis

The size is probably due to a large amount of artwork being included as well. Stormwind Harbour, for instance, has a significant amount of models that are likely to be in there. Some of the minor artwork tweaks may be coming as well (vial icon changes, all of the inks/pigments and parchment types for inscription, and so forth), along with the alterations to the minimap textures for the new structures. There *might* be an audio track or two in there also, but I'm not sure if SW Harbour shares the same music as the city proper.

I was just looking at some news about that as well. *sighs* I unlocked the thread I had locked earlier as well, since things look to be more under control now. I'll keep an eyeball on the beta section for more...after my nap

They got around it. I just deleted several pages worth of "replies" in one of the beta threads and locked a thread temporarily since more were being added faster than I could delete them.

Sylvanas has gotten no less than three makeovers in a matter of weeks...but I do like the final product (they were all great, actually). I was hoping that ol' Vari would look less...monochromatic...and finally got my wish. Again, quite pleased. "Human"? High elf, thankyouverymuch I sure hope nobody bought her high elf disguise, though...she's friggin huge compared to other high elves. There's no way that she could have lifters that high in those boots. Now if they'd only make Krasus look less dorky. You'd think with his status, he'd at least look like less of an embarrassment. Oh, and I will say this much about Alexstrasza in her natural form...they really did her justice, both in size and "spectacle".

Not a chance in hell of that happening. Evocation is a channeled spell for mages and is as prone to interrupt as ever. It also screams "counterspell/spell lock/kick/breathe on me" since you can see the animation from space (not terribly useful in PvP...dying is a far better mana replenishment technique in BGs and you have to pole hump in Arena to pull it off there). There's no point to making it able to be dispelled nor would it really do jack to change it otherwise regarding damage (we do zero damage because we are unable to cast at all while chanelling it). It had some limited synergy going on, but yeah, it's not nearly as useful as they make it sound for group healing, especially given the cooldown on the ability itself, which makes it entirely unspammable to begin with. I think they were more talking about how "fire and forget" it was and that it could be chained with HL to be more useful in group healing situations. Personally, that whole combo *is* interesting, but just smacks of "we don't know what else to do, so try this out". Once a few folks started doing Arena, they realised it wasn't exactly what they had in mind...and thus, it started getting the "special treatment". Sadly, I think this is one case where the designers built a trap, then fell into it: if they improve paladins more on an AoE healing front, they run the risk of diminishing the strengths that other healers have over paladins (which cost them a bit in efficiency)...vs. being stuck with a "broken spec" with paladins still unable to cope with AoE damage situations making them the easy sit choice for raid encounters. I don't envy the designers on this one, but they created the quandry they're in now. No way! It was like the cutest. pet. ever! Yep, I'm sad to see that go...they were adorable.

My thoughts over the last few builds that have gone up on the beta server can best be summed up by saying: Yay, boo, grrr, wtf??, interesting, that's strange, makes some sense, *facepalm*, and it's about time. Playing almost every class in the game at cap level offers a unique perspective and makes things look less "nerfish" when you view the compensating controls going on with other classes or via game mechanics changes. That being said, I'm somewhat boggled by some of the changes that nearly gut the effectiveness of several talent trees (and even some entire classes). Holy paladins, already in a really bad situation with scaling and mana regen woes, got a nice one-two combo donkey-punch/uppercut...but no comparable reduction in spirit-based regen for priests/druids (and resto shaman seem to have gotten a tiny buff in the regen department). This coming along with a marked increase in haste gear in Wrath...seriously, do they really WANT us all to be ret? Maybe it's time for me to try out another spec finally. I knew about (and agree with) the JotW change, at least...a certain holy/ret spec in beta was basically never out of mana (EVER), which was obviously too good and made them unkillable healing machines. I still look at the holy tree wondering why anyone would really, really want to invest in the later talents...still looking...still looking... Don't get me started on mages...I could go on for pages. I will say that they took the only fun ability that fire was getting and made it unfun (while still costing a buttload of mana). And deep freeze was a bit wacky powerful with damage, but oh how I will miss three-shotting well-geared DKs with it Oh, and arcane......yeah. Oh, and Perthes, don't QQ too much about AotV being changed to reduce your damage...take a look at mage's evocation some time and consider the cooldown and the fact that we do ZERO dps while gaining only a portion of our mana bar back (and that's just one class' example, others exist as well). I really don't like some of the hunter changes (understatement), but think some of the others are interesting once I tried them out. Things often look a lot less useful than they are when written out descriptively any way.

Excellent work tonight, everyone! We did far better than I had expected and am very happy with the progress that the raid made Maube's right about reading up, and this goes double for tanks. Al'ar is a very interesting fight tanking-wise with some really rapid taunts required as well as some major alertness on everyone's part...it's not one that you want to be surprised by or one that's easily explained so READ UP. Void Reaver is also a little tougher since they changed him but only if you're not on your toes (boss mods no longer do the work of your own eyeballs). In all, he is as easy as everyone claims overall, but the fight does have some tricks to it. Again, read up. It never hurts to be too prepared either, so don't just stop there...read up on Solarian as well. You're probably safe to avoid reading about Kael'thas...FOR NOW. If you want, read up on that one and check out the video that Tamzin made (it's friggin awesome). It's a five-phase fight, so it's really overwhelming at first, but cake once you see it all unfold. As always, definitely seeking more than one place for info is recommended (I personally read three different spots at least: EJ forums, Bosskillers, and Wowwiki). I'll link the Wowwiki spots here for each boss, though: Al'ar Void Reaver High Astromancer Solarian Kael'thas Sunstrider Oh, and download and install SolarianAlarm...it works WELL.

I'm going to stop posting the build notes and bug lists. With so much changing rapidly and a bit of this going to PTR, it's almost not worth the effort. The beta is coming to a close soonish, so most of the changes will be minor from this point on anyway

I think they're trying the "Hey look, it's Elvis!" distraction technique with the new human racial. So far, most of the debate has been about comparing it to Will of the Forsaken, when it really shouldn't be about that at all. I'm frankly surprised that the gnomes haven't tossed a fit over this one, or any of the other Alliance races...and I won't even talk about orcs and other Horde races that should be going bananas. I'm on the fence with the racial on its own. It seems awfully powerful, but not because of the racial on its own, but simply because it completely replaces the need for a PvP trinket....freeing up that slot for something that could be much more powerful. Will of the Forsaken's lack of a shared cooldown in comparison doesn't totally replace a trinket, as it does nothing to snares or roots, making a trinket still pretty much mandatory for PvP (albeit less important than for other races). Now here's the kicker for me...just how many racials do (or should) humans get anyway? I do understand that the sting from the Perception nerf is still tender, but geez. Meanwhile, I continue to stare at Underwater Breathing and wonder when, if ever, will that come in handy post-expansion....

I'm not sure that I understand the direction that they're taking retribution or holy specs. It seems like they're trying to make ret more capable of healing in 5-mans and Arena, but let's get real...ret paladins won't even heal themselves most of the time, so what's the point. Mana efficiency for ret is looking a bit better than before, though, which is good and I'm happy to see that moving in a reasonable direction (if they can get the numbers/abilities worked out). As for holy...ugh. It's almost like the talents are being balanced from a "middle-tier" gear standpoint again with very little in the way of "new fun stuff". Holy has always been bloated with talents that really didn't do anything for a paladin's issue's with mana regen (which is the worst-scaling of any healing class), or were so situational that they weren't really valuable (Divine Illumination, Light's Grace post-libram nerf, etc.). I was hoping to see some new dynamics that way, since quite a bit of the class got a retooling mechanically, but it's still not looking good overall. I think what disappoints me most of all about the holy talents is that there continues to be so much crap packed into the tree that it still seems like I have to put points into other trees. If I want to heal, I don't want to see really good-looking, and fun talents in retribution...I want to see them in holy. Ret fans will likely sink tons of points into ret, same with prot fans...holy will end up with some wacky hybrid spec and still won't have the points available to grab "the good stuff" to make healing more interesting or powerful. Instead, they'll end up doing what we've done up until this point: drop points in situational talents that we may use a few times per month or only in PvP (e.g. Blessed Life and such in TBC). Oh, and for the love of Thrall, WTB reverting the Illumination change. While I know for a fact that it wouldn't solve the scaling problems, it would at least make crit more interesting again stat-wise.

It's about as final as it can get at this time. Of course, they could still delay, but it's announced at this point, so it's worth posting.

Since there has been confusion in the past as to what each fight is about and what the boss can do, I'm posting links here to each of the remaining boss's Wowwiki entries (we already know Hydross and Lurker). NOTE: The strategies listed in there are only SOME of possible strategies, so don't treat them like they're written in stone. I'm just linking these so that people can be more familiar with the fight mechanics. Leotheras the Blind Morogrim Tidewalker Fathom-Lord Karathress Lady Vashj If you look at the bottom of each of those pages, you'll also find further links to sites like Bosskillers, which often have videos from various class perspectives and such (Tamzin videos are highly recommended). I highly recommend that people do research in advance (and as much as possible) to make these fights not only less confusing, but less of a time sink. We've got a lot of ground to cover still. Also, don't get too wrapped up in the Lady Vashj description quite yet. The fight requires a ton of coordination, is long and involved, and there are simpler ways to explain it. I only linked it for the sake of being complete. On the plus side, the Leo kill last night was really, really good. Very well done, everyone! I saw some confusion when it came time to reposition on Tidewalker (see the above links if you were confused!) that we need to resolve for next week. I also mentioned to Kargoch that rotating him a tad so you melee folks have an easier time during the bubble phase..he'll explain positioning next week so you guys know how he's going to face the big guy. Please, for the love of Thrall, do not attack him from the front...I saw at least one person do this on our best attempt. He hits like a truck already, so parry-haste isn't something we want (just means more damage on Kargoch and strain on the healers during a very rough time). Side note: Going back and forth in this thread about how vague or exact instructions should be is counter-productive. The above links should answer most, if not all, of the common questions. Positioning and such is fluid in many fights from here on out, so expect some level of "do your best". The best tip I can give is to always be mindful of your surroundings. I know we joke about "don't stand in bad stuff", but it's not really a joke. Lots of things WILL kill a healer (or anyone else) that is too busy tunneling on something and ignoring what's going on around them. This not only means moving out of some bad effect that's down already, but also avoiding things that are about to happen....so stay on your toes and keep an eyeball on those timers. As I'm so fond of saying, your dps/healing drops to 0 when you're dead, so don't die.

General: TONS of talent changes to all classes, so talent points were refunded completely. Be sure to spec before heading out looking for action and adventure! All changes to racial abilities and bonuses have been introduced. (Fall of Humanity was not included, sadly). Storm Peaks has been re-re-re-re-opened and is available for questing. Icecrown has been re-opened and is available for questing. New "beam" graphics have been added for many channeled spells (e.g. Mind Flay, Drain Soul, etc.). Mounting in major cities is working properly again. PvP "blue-quality" gear has been named finally and is now "Savage Gladiator's" gear. Note: Several of the items have no graphics currently) PvP "epic-quality" Arena gear has been named finally and is now "Hateful Gladiator's" gear. New icons have been added to the Calendar feature that make it easier to differentiate events. Battleground tokens are now displayed and stored in the Tokens pane. The previous display bug with Badge of Justice counts has been fixed as well. Linking and clicking names in chat frames is working properly again...kinda. Dalaran: Some friendly Dalaran Wizards are around the city now. Ask them for directions if you're lost or looking for something in particular. The Well of Dooooooom is now surrounded by a gigantic pit (this should only be in the bugs post, but it's funny so I mentioned it here too). Breanni received a shipment of Happy Pet Snacks and is selling them at a reasonable price. Make your companion happy by feeding him or her a tasty Happy Pet Snack! There's a suspicious looking gnome diver in one of the fish tanks in Breanni's Shop... Stabled pets and horses have taken up residence around Breanni's shop (decoration is good). A new version of the Violet Hold quest is offered by Rhonin that actually includes entering the Violet Hold with an objective (the previous version was just complete enough to offer a key, but had no objective to kill anything inside). Guards are now positioned outside of the doors to the Violet Hold. Archmage Timear, located just outside of the Violet Hold, now offers a daily quest to enter a random Northrend instance at normal difficulty (non-heroic daily). Archmage Lan'dalock, also located just outside of the Violet Hold, now offers a daily quest to enter a random Northrend instance at heroic difficulty (heroic daily). You can now summon and land flying mounts on Krasus' Landing without receiving any debuff. Many of the small fixtures in Dalaran (various stoves and such) are starting to be tagged and will likely be usable soon. Magistrix Lambriese has appeared in the Horde area of Dalaran and sells various items in exchange for Emblems of Heroism (WotLK equivalent to Badges of Justice). These items are apparently bound to the account, as well as scale with level (1-80, and still in testing). Magister Braseal, near Magistrix Lambriese, also sells different items in exchange for Emblems of Valor (likely will drop in raids). Tier gear vendors are scattered around the city, in their respective armour type shops (Clothier's shop has cloth gear, and so forth). Zones: Storm Peaks: ...has been reopened...for the 900th time. Many quests have been finished and itemisation appears more complete than in past builds. [*]Icecrown: ...has been reopened...again. [*]Sholazar Basin: The Frenzyheart and Oracles now only offer one daily quest per day instead of several. Discovery of the Lost Lands area is now properly credited towards the zone exploration achievement. [*]Crystalsong Forest: The flight master at Sunreaver's Command (and the dirty Alliance area) are now working and learnable as flight points. There are still no quests that I've been able to locate in the zone at this time. Achievements: Several new achievements have been added to the General category, some involving the sampling of various foods and drinks. Loremaster achievements have gotten some tweaking, but it's minor. New categories have been added to the Dungeons and Raids category, breaking down WotLK heroics, non-heroics, raids, and "heroic raids" (the 25-man versions of raiding content). Each subheading has its own set of achievements now so that they're not all lumped together under Lich King any longer. Cooking has a new achievement for learning 25 cooking recipes (achieving this unlocks further quantity goals; my DK doesn't cook, so I haven't seen the others yet). Fishing offers seperate achievements for Old Crafty and Old Ironjaw now. Neither are required for the Accomplished Angler achievement. Most of the "NYI" temporary achievements for First Aid were removed (they were silly anyway). Many new (and very funny) achievements were added for the in-game seasonal events. "Realm First" Feats of Strength achievements that do not grant titles no longer indicate that they do. The fishing achievement "Old Man Barlowned" now properly detects credit for completing each of Barlo's fishing dailies in the past. The fishing achievement "Northrend Angler" can be completed now that Moonglow Cuttlefish Schools have been introduced. All of the previously NYI exploration achievements have been implemented and the related title/tabard rewards are working. *is now titled as Verissi the Explorer" Professions: General:Eternals now have new icons! Yay, I can finally tell them apart from primals! [*]Tailoring: LOTS of new patterns are available on Grand Master Tailor trainers, including epic cloth items. A tailoring "perk" has been added that gives the tailor a chance to find additional cloth on Northrend humanoids. It's obtained via a "click-through" quest and requires 5g to learn (but awards experience, oddly enough). Most of the craftable tailoring items are now itemised. [*]Inscription: Inscription has a new icon (I hated that feather). Inks have new icons and they're nice! [*]Cooking: The recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake is also now available from Misensi for 10 Dalaran Cooking Awards. [*]Fishing: Moonglow Cuttlefish Schools are finally appearing offshore. [*]Engineering: Tinkers are working properly again (finally can use my haste tinker again). [*]First Aid: The amount of cloth required to make Frostweave and Heavy Frostweave Bandages has been reduced again to 1 and 2, respectively. Classes: General:Some rather large "adjustments" (most call them OMGNERFZ) have been made to all classes. All complaints should be registered in the appropriate class forums. [*]Mage: Deep Freeze duration has been reduced, as has the damage. Frost Nova once again appears to break after one critical strike. Mages don't seem to benefit from the mana replenishment effect of their own water elemental if they have the talent Improved Water Elemental (not sure if this is intended or a bug yet).

General: Clicking the world map to zoom into a zone is still not functioning. The "Fall of Humanity" racial has apparently not been implemented at this time and is not showing up in humans' spell books. A new racial is already slated to replace it, as well as alter Shadowmeld for night elves. Many PvP and tier items (especially death knight items) have no graphics or icons at all. Some companion pets (and possibly mounts) are remain in inventory after learning them. Tier gear from the 25-man "heroic" raids shows that it's from the 10-man versions of those raids. Final itemisation is probably not finished on these, as they also don't have new artwork yet. Dalaran: There is a visible pit around the well near the bank closest to the Horde area of town. Many items around the city, such as stoves and such, are not usable at this time. Items on the Emblems of Heroism/Valor vendors are not properly itemised or level-restricted (some show 1-80 as a level requirement). The lack of a level restriction is intended, as they are scaling items that are account-bound. Achievements: Many of the UI elements on the Achievements pane are still not aligned properly when expanded. Instances: Serpentshrine Cavern:The waterfall is still not dissipating, so entry to SSC is impossible.

I wanted to start putting together a generic FAQ for the guild about the expansion that can be reposted/moved to the Base Camp on release day. Feel free to reply with comments and things to add Happy Birthday! I'll be editing this main post as I work through the replies and come up with more stuff to add. Also, once I get the bulk of the info down, I'll be rewriting the phrasing to make it more "in character"...kinda like a post I did for TBC's release that was in the forum of an interview by a goblin correspondent With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, many questions are certain to come up over and over...and over. To help everyone, those of us in beta decided to put together this Frequently Asked Questions list to help ease the transition and assist our Clan (and friends who stop by). General Expansion Information: At what level should I go to Northrend? Northrend is designed for characters that are level 68 or above. While you could probably get away with being there prior to that (and may even be able to kill some of the things there), most of the starting quests will not be available to you. How do I get to Northrend? New zepellin towers have been erected outside of Undercity and Orgrimmar, each taking you to one of the two "introductory" zones in Northrend. The zepellin tower oustide of Undercity is next to the existing tower and will carry you to Howling Fjord. The tower outside of Orgrimmar is west of the entrance (as you exit Orgrimmar, go to your right) and will carry you to Borean Tundra. Note that the Orgrimmar tower is in the opposite direction and quite far away from the existing tower. Two starter zones? Which do I pick? Do I have to do them both? To ease the strain on everyone, Blizzard was kind enough to make two different starter zones in Northrend. Each has its own terrain, quest flavour, and even different types of enemies compared to the other. Neither is "better" than the other, so it doesn't matter which you decide to go to. Also, you are not required to do both at all if you choose not to. The level curve is designed around the completion of only one of them. I noticed that there were instances in both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. Can I do both or does my choice of starter zones affect which I can do? There are indeed two instances designed for 70-72 players. The Nexus, located in the Coldarra section of Borean Tundra, and Utgarde Keep in Howling Fjord. While quests involving those instances are confined to their respective zones, you are not restricted at all from running both if you choose. Where do I go after I finish Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord? Your final quests in each will lead you into Dragonblight. After that, just go where the quests take you How about my professions? Are the trainers for those in both Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra? Yes, each of the two zones has trainers for all of the professions that can teach the new "Grand Master" level skills and recipes, including secondary professions. Not all of the trainers may be located in the initial areas of Vengeance Landing and Warsong Hold, though, so you may have to poke around the zones' towns to find them. What happened to my healing gear? My bonus healing number is lousy! All healing gear was converted to "spell power", and the healing spells adjusted to provide the same (if not slightly better) healing amounts that you saw previously. What this means is that while your bonus healing number may be lower, your heals should be the same as they were. A nice side-effect to this is that your healing gear is likely better than most of the old "spell damage" gear that you may have kept around for solo times and questing. Dalaran Information: I've heard a lot about Dalaran. Isn't that supposed to be in the Alterac Mountains? What is it and how do I get there? Dalaran is the home to the Kirin Tor, a group of powerful mages. It was previously located in the Alterac Mountains, protected by a magic dome, but the threat from the Lich King forced the Kirin Tor to relocate the city to Northrend (and set aside their isolationist ways) in order to help fight the Lich King's growing power. The city is now floating above Crystalsong Forest in Northrend. Access to Dalaran is restricted to players that have completed a quest line in Dragonblight, usually at level 74. Mages get a personal teleport spell at 71, but they do not get a portal spell for the city until level 74. Getting into Dalaran prior to completing the entry quest requires a mage portal or a warlock summon. Are there trainers in Dalaran? Portals to the cities too? What exactly is in that floating city? There are no class trainers in Dalaran except for mage trainers. Being an organisation of mages, it was natural that they would help instruct other mages, but they don't have any other class trainers in their ranks. There are, however, portals to all of the major cities (including Shattrath) located within the city. There are trainers for all professions though (as well as their respective specialties) located in Dalaran for easy access. One personal favour that I do ask is that players not pester level 74 mages for portals. There's no reason to rush to get to Dalaran and you will have access quickly enough anyway. Death Knight Information: How do death knights work? Do I have to start at level one again? Any player that has a level 55+ character can create a death knight, but can only create one per realm. Death Knights begin their "lives" at level 55 and have a rather unique (and very fun) starting area. Unlike other classes, all death knights begin in the same starter area regardless of race selection. Starting at level 55 sounds great, but why aren't I just started at 58 so I can go into Outlands? Do I have to deal with the Plaguelands and Silithus again? Death knights may begin at 55, but by the time you complete the starting quest lines, a new death knight should be level 58 and ready for Outlands (complete with a really nice set of armour that's on par with tier 2-3). So let me get this straight, I have to do Outlands again? That will take forever... Actually, it shouldn't. The experience required to gain levels 60-70 has been reduced and should allow for much faster progression into Northrend for death knights. My personal observation was that most death knights hit level 68 and were ready for Northrend midway through Blade's Edge Mountains or even Nagrand questing. Death knights are supposed to be able to tank, but I can't use shields? How does that work? Death knights are designed to not require shields, and get some abilities and benefits to make up for not being able to use one. It may seem strange at first, but seeing (or being) a death knight tanking with a big two-handed weapon or dual-wielding will become more common before you know it. I see that death knights have spells. Do they need spell power gear too? While death knights do have spells and a portion of their damage comes from magical effects, spell power gear does nothing for a death knight. All death knight spell damage is tied to their attack power and strength.

Happy Birthday! (a little warrior-y change from my normal dancing line b-day post)

I saw a rather funny thread on the beta forum titled "Warcraft Elections '08" that called for people to post what slogans and platforms they could come up with if the various leaders in Warcraft were running for office. I got to thinking that we have some creative folks here, so I wanted to repost the original post here and see what we could come up with. I abhor bringing real world politics and election talk to our little escape from reality here, so keep that stuff out of my thread! Happy Birthday! Here's the original post, by Greeven (Northrend):

Here's my breakdown of what I think are the most troublesome/significant to me, although I've yet to put feedback in the official thread: Forsaken: The race that took the biggest hit were the Forsaken. On the obvious front, we are getting the lowest resistance percentage (1%?? COME ON) and getting our "can be proactive" WotF racial changed to a reactive-only ability. What hasn't been mentioned is that we also are getting an indirect nerf to the usability of Underwater Breathing, due to the increased underwater survival times being introduced in Wrath. What good is the extra time when any other race can stay underwater for five minutes already? I'm a bit miffed at the combination of changes, personally, that leaves us with nothing to be excited about....all of our racials are basically diminished, some to the point of "awful". Trolls: FINALLY something that looks interesting. I never minded berzerking, but the costs associated with it made it relatively worthless in the past. The snare duration reduction should make it more interesting in PvP, but has limited value for some classes (mages in particular). I'd still like to see trolls get something else or they'll continue to wear the "if you want to see bad racials, look at trolls" target. Tauren: Big hit on health boosts for the poor Tauren. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but it does even the playing field a bit when it comes to tank selection. I buy the nature resist thing, but not sure how "useful" this is in the grand scheme. Orcs: Stun resists are going away, so the duration reduction was expected. Orcs continue to have good, well-rounded racials for both PvE and PvP. Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent makes more sense now and at least it will be useful for something other than a silence. Overall, it's a very strong racial when used properly (if it's not resisted like it usually is). Mana tap was a waste of a GCD anyway, in my opinion, so good riddance. I'm still not sure how I feel about the 2%, though...omni-school resistances (especially 2%) make it a favourable race choice from a number of perspectives, and also severely diminishes the resists given to the other races that only get one school's worth. Humans: Humans are crying about the loss of the old Perception and the joke that is "Fall of Humanity". They continue to play the "Hey look, it's Elvis" distraction game about the reputation gain bonus, though. I can't say that I blame them about Fall or their age-old "spirit boost", but Perception was pretty game-breaking in PvP (useless in PvE). Honestly, humans seem to get a relative TON of racial boosts and I just can't understand why outside of the lore angle...and yet, they continue to clamour for more. Draenei: Draenei, with their "single-most powerful racial in the game PvE-wise", continue to baffle me. They keep asking for more and getting it. With Gift scaling now, I have to wonder why anyone would choose another race if they want to PvE as Alliance. All of this, plus they get an extra 1% shadow resist over Forsaken...while having a scaling heal AND party-wide hit benefit? Seriously, who in their right mind thought that was a good idea from a balance perspective? Night Elf: 2% passive avoidance? Well, we all know which race will be tanking in Wrath for Alliance raids. Again, I have to ask "WTF were you thinking?", especially after intentionally eliminating the Horde-side tanking racial gap between Tauren and the other Horde races. I'm less concerned with the 3% resist, but when combined with a significant passive avoidance boost, the combo in some nature-heavy instances is just too good to be glazed over. Gnomes and Dwarves: I'm indifferent...none of the changes listed was bad or anything really significant (although I'm pleased the dwarves got a bone tossed to them with some melee weapon expertise).

Northrend's recipient of the "Realm First! Grand Master Angler" is none other than...Verissi! Apparently the achievements are not retroactive, since I *know* there was another person to hit 450 before the achievement was active, but this shouldn't be an issue on live servers. It still indicated that a title reward was given, but I did not receive a title...which I was thankful to see, actually. I submitted a bug that the title reward text should be removed.

I'm not a fan of requiring raiding as part of the criteria for any lore-related (or even loosely lore-tied) title, personally, although reputations and other rather long-to-achieve criteria wouldn't be a bad idea. The reason for this is that lore-related titles shouldn't be easy to get, but also shouldn't force players into playstyles they don't want any part of or don't have a circle of friends large enough to achieve. Extensive criteria is good, but anything that would force someone like me into Arena or an Arena-junky into raiding just to achieve something tied to lore is just unfun. I do wish they'd give some basic titles available to anyone, some of which were previously given for server firsts, like "The Forsaken" for Forsaken players. Part of the reason that people go for titles is because they like to have some flair for their characters or at least want to fit in somehow amidst the sea of Hands/Champions. Some very basic titles would also allow for a little extra roleplay flavour and aren't uncommon in other games (LotRO has titles that progressively advance as you gain strength or accomplish certain goals, as an example). More titles were added in this latest build, so we'll see what gaps there are once those sink in...

As with every new build, servers are very unstable for several days. General: Storm Peaks is reopened! Server stability is iffy as a result Icecrown is finally open and available for questing! Chilly the penguin, a new companion pet, has been introduced and mailed to all characters *cheers* He's ADORABLE. Talent points have been refunded for many, if not all classes. Please remember to spec before heading out to adventure! Experience required to level continues to be adjusted and should be slightly lower now. Video and sound settings have been added to the Options window, and enhanced a bit. Honour and Arena points have been added to the Tokens pane under a new "PvP" section. The bug that allowed a player to go "At War" with an entire heading has been fixed. Dalaran: Guild banks in the main banks finally work again. Breanni has a new item to sell, a Pet Grooming Kit. Buy one and make your companion pet shine! Flying mounts can be called on Krasus Landing for leaving/entering the city. Hira Snowdawn, a Cold Weather Flying trainer, has been added on Krasus Landing. The cost for the ability is 950g. Unknown if this replaces the existing quest line in Sholazar that rewarded the same ability. Tattered Training Dummies have been added to the Sewers. These dummies are level 80 and intended to simulate level 80 mobs armour-wise. Rhonin now gives a quest that involves entrance to Violet Hold. Heroic Training Dummies have been added to the Sewers as well. These dummies are level 83 and intended to simulate raid bosses. Professions: Cooking: Misensi, a cooking supplier, has been added to Dalaran and carries recipes that can be purchased with the cooking daily rewards (the recipes were removed from Arille Azuregaze and given to Misensi instead). Cooking dailies have been fixed and can be completed now. Many of the new cookable foods have new icons. Chilled Meat, as well as some of the other previously-not-dropping meat ingredients are now dropping from animals around Northrend. A new recipe has been added to Grand Master Cooking trainers: Dalaran Clam Chowder (60 AP, 35 spell power, and 40 stamina for 1hr). Dalaran Cooking Awards are stored in the Token pane rather than a player's inventory (great space-saver!). [*]Inscription: Master and Grand Master ranks are available to be trained. Pigments have new icons, so they don't looking like enchanting materials now. [*]Alchemy: Two new potions have been added to the trainer (health and mana). They seem to be specifically for Arena use and require a certain Alchemy level to use. This also leaves the question: can potions other than these still be used in Arenas? There is much outrage over this, but we'll see if it sticks... [*]Engineering: Crafting ammunition now creates a stack of 200 instead of just one of that type of ammo. Achievements: A tabard reward has been added for the Explore Northrend achievement. New "Loremaster" achievements have been added, as well as a title and tabard, for completing a certain number of quests in each of the continents. Wintergrasp has a set of achievements associated with it now, although they all remain NYI. Several new (and funny) cooking achievements have been added. Many title rewards have been added for the seasonal events, including Brewmaster, Flame Keeper, and several others. Server firsts seem to be announced everywhere...I hit 450 fishing and got the Realm First...followed by a HUGE amount of whispers of "gratz!" In a way, I wish I hadn't, since I know El from El's Extreme Anglin' was definitely the first 450 angler on Northrend before this build. Realm Firsts are apparently broadcast server-wide. I got tons of whispers from all over the server immediately afterwards. Zones: Storm Peaks: ...has been reopened and is available for questing. Has been closed again. [*]Icecrown: ...is finally open! Has been closed again. [*]Crystalsong Forest: Mobs have been added to Crystalsong Forest. Some are not so friendly, others are fairly harmless. [*]The North Sea (Northrend): This odd zone off the coast of Sholazar Basin (as well as Icecrown, and possibly Storm Peaks) is now tagged as flyable. [*]Zul'Drak: The quest "Sabotage" can once again be completed. Classes: Death Knight: Many Death Knight abilities have received (rather large) damage adjustments. New quests have been added to Ebon Hold to bridge the 57-58 experience gap and add more flavour to the experience. NPCs in faction capitals will now jeer, verbally harrass, and throw fruit at death knights to show their displeasure at the actions of the death knight while they were in the service of the Lich King. [*]Mage: The final rank of Arcane Intellect has been added (thankfully). The final rank of Ritual of Refreshment has been added (again, thankfully). Misread the spell given, and the new one... Conjure Refreshment has been added, which combines the top rank of Conjure Food and Water into a spell that conjures a stack of 20 "mana biscuit-like" items that replenish health and mana (15k/12960 from top-rank Rank 2). A new spell, Mirror Image has been introduced. It looks interesting [*]Rogue: LOTS of changes, including the previously discussed changes to the class abilities and talents. Poisons are finally available on the poison vendors.

General: Server stability is awful, as it usually is freshly after a new build. Mounting in major cities has some quirks and may be bugged in some cities/areas of the cities. Keybindings are being reset on logout/disconnections. Some graphics settings are not getting saved either and reset upon logout/disconnections. Many realm-first achievements are still in place but still note a title reward. I got the "Realm First! Grand Master Angler" Feat of Strength achievement this morning... Clicking on the world map to zoom into a zone still does not work. Right-clicking to zoom out does, however. Dalaran: The city itself has been tagged as flyable, but you cannot call a flying mount in most areas within the city. This is likely the first step towards the final plan of not allowing flying within the city, but only allowing take-offs/landings from Krasus' Landing. Mounting in the Sewers has been disabled (again). The Restricted Flight Area debuff obtained in Dalaran or Wintergrasp doesn't seem to go away properly after leaving Dalaran (and triggers some wacky sound effects). Death removes it. Professions: General:Many crafted items are still not itemised. [*]Fishing: Fishing pools are not always showing the swimming fish in their graphics and now sometimes "pulse", making them very difficult to see. The fishing achievement "Northrend Angler" cannot be completed, due to the "Moonglow Cuttlefish School" not being in game yet (per Tigole) [*]Mining: Cobalt bars require one ore per bar, but the description still says they require two. [*]Inscription: Milling Outlands herbs does not yield any pigment at all. [*]Engineering: Tinkerings that are applied to items do not work currently. [*]Cooking: "Recipe: Succulent Orca Stew" still teaches Big Bear Steak Zones: Crystalsong Forest:The flightmaster in the Sunreaver camp is still inactive. Classes: Mage: Newer ranks of Conjure Food and Conjure Water have been removed...not like they worked before anyway. Misread the new spells. Newer ranks have been replaced by Conjure Refreshment.

Tigole finally put the uproar to rest by stating: I'm relieved at this, personally. Not only were most virtually unobtainable by anyone but the most intense multi-boxers or account-sharers, but many were too deeply rooted in lore and meaning to be given so haphazardly to people who would likely be breaking the rules to obtain them ("Arch-druid" was the most frequently cited, as an example). As much as I would've loved to get the special fishing title or engineering title, I just felt that they fostered too much unhealthy competition and would've caused a large amount of animosity towards whomever got them (we won't even talk about people that got them then transferred...). There were also some outstanding issues that couldn't be solved easily, such as time zone differences for release, beta players having an edge over others, and the inevitable "game store employee that gets the game early and has it installed days in advance" scenario.

Good points mentioned so far indeed. Last night was good early on, but kinda fell apart close to and after the split. This is VERY common, so don't let it eat at you. That being said, Maube is definitely right in that DPS was sloppy towards the end of each attempt, and I also count myself in that category. Controlling Leo to the best of our ability is just as important as burning him down at that point, so opening up too early or too hard is Very Not Good. We have precious little time by that point in the fight, and it's definitely difficult to get solid damage on him with his short whirlwind timer...but having him tanked when he's not whirlwinding is priority #1, so let Ascoli get ahold of him before going to town. Demon phase is indeed where a large portion of the damage is done, since we're not interrupted by whirlwinds and the subsequent threat wipes, but we still need to be smacking him around as much as possible in his elven form while also not risking too much to do so. This means ranged can get a few attacks on him during the early part of whirlwind (if he stays in range) and just needs to be very careful not to make the mistake I have in the past: having an arrow/spell in the air when he does his threat wipe. In short, be cautious towards the end of the whirlwind, but the beginning is pretty safe for DPS. Again, though, avoid getting hit with the whirlwind...that bleed SUCKS. On our best attempt, I noticed we took him down by 72% when he had 5mins left on his enrage timer. This means we spent the last 5mins trying to get that last 28%...very lopsided and something we need to all work on (his split speech and pause eat up about 20secs). Once we get more comfy with the fight, we should easily have him down with time left on the enrage. Key thing is to keep the damage coming as evenly and responsibly as possible, while also maintaining control over his positioning and split timing (something Maube and I were talking more about during the raid). Inner demons...are vulnerable to several spell schools and very resistant to others. I saw some healers having problems with theirs and noticed that they were trying to use shadow spells against them...bad idea. The inner demons are highly resistant to shadow damage, but are very vulnerable to holy damage, meaning they take higher-than-normal damage from holy spells. Smite works wonders and pretty much every paladin damage spell works great (including exorcism) and does extra damage. For healers especially, forget your healing assignments when you have your inner demon out...concentrate on that and trust the rest of the healers to cover your target(s) until that's done. Keep up the good work, though. Last night was promising and he's still far from being "farm status"...but we're getting closer

Flare is definitely useful...as long as the hunter uses terrain wisely and doesn't stand in the middle of it and in-range of a shadowstep. Trust me, it may not seem so from the hunter perspective, but I've been thwarted by more flares than I can count, even recently. Anticipating a rogue with a flare is VERY powerful, even in live.