Daelo and Ghostcrawler discuss the Lich King

The latest edition of Blizzard Insider, Blizzard's very sporadic email newsletter (and no relation to our old name, WoW Insider) has been released. Issue 32 features a note that the Starcraft II: WIngs of Liberty site has been revamped, blurbs about the mobile Authenticator and the Armory app, and some calls to buy their merchandise.

More interesting for WoW fans, though, is an interview with Scott Mercer (Daelo), WoW's lead encounter designer, and Greg Street (Ghostcrawler), a crab who needs no introduction. They discussed the arc of Arthas and the Lich King from Warcraft II through World of Warcraft (congratulations again to Blood Legion on their 10-man world-first).

Please note that here there be spoilers for some details about the Arthas fight, so stay away if you want it all to be a surprise.

The interview is fairly short, and a nice read if you have a few minutes. Here are my summary notes, though:

• In Warcraft III, a big part of Arthas's role (design-wise) was to be the bridge between the human and undead campaigns. However, they didn't always know how big a deal he was going to be in the ongoing story of the Warcraft universe.


• If you were around for the beginning of Wrath, you likely remember the developers talking about how they wanted Arthas to be a very real, direct presence for all players in this expansion, as opposed to Illidan's remoteness in Burning Crusade. Well, apparently they think it "worked very well," and "will likely adopt this approach for other villains in the future." I have mixed feelings about it myself -- I think it slightly cheapens the villian to have him running around in half the instances in the game. Overall I like it this way better than the BC way, but they could tone it down a bit.


• One of the interesting things about the Icecrown Citadel raid is that the bosses all have a reason to be there. They're not just standing around. "Putricide heads up R&D" for the lich king, and so on.


• I'm sure this information is out there for the finding right now, but apparently the Lich King fight takes place at the Frozen Throne at the very top of Icecrown, and falling off the tower is "a real danger." Also, Frostmourne is "a core mechanic of the fight itself."


• The story behind the Lich King's big sack o' weapons: "The main idea is that the Lich King has an inventory of weapons that he has stolen and corrupted throughout his reign. These weapons originally belonged to characters like King Terenas, Antonidas, Sylvanas, and Muradin Bronzebeard." Awesome.

And finally, the devs tell us that the in-game event that kicks off Cataclysm will be "at least as big as the zombie invasion that kicked off the Wrath of the Lich King." I can't wait!

Patch 3.2.2 Hunters see changes to Bestial Wrath

Ghostcrawler has reached into his mysterious bags of tricks and drew out the Hunter card once again it seems. Last week we discussed the recent change to Armor Penetration. While we all agree that it is a nerf to Marksman Hunters and will reduce their DPS. The jury is still out on whether it is a game mechanics correction (which I tend to believe) or some evil plot to cause Hunters to spend more gold.

Well the changes continued to happen. Last Thursday we heard more from Ghostcrawler regarding a new change that will be hitting Beast Master Hunters in Patch 3.2.2. The interesting thing about this recent change is it is both a buff and a nerf. To help explain what I mean let's take a closer look at how Ghostcrawler explained the change on the Damage Dealing Forums.

"Since the changes seem to be causing confusion, here is the new tooltip.

'Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.'

The tooltip doesn't say this, but it now breaks all forms of CC that a PvP trinket would break (including Cyclone, Sap, etc.).

'Increases all damage you deal by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.'

So the changes are:
Duration lowered.
Passive hunter damage buff added.
Now breaks all forms of CC (whatever a PvP trinket breaks, including Sap and Cyclone)."

So let's compare that to what we have today with Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within:

Bestial Wrath says, "Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed."

The Beast Within now says, "When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed."

So what's changed?

First we notice that the Bestial Wrath's duration of the pet's additional damage is down from 18 to 10 seconds. Next we notice that the decrease of The Beast Within's duration from 18 seconds to 10. So I'll admit that change is a nerf. There's an 8 second reduction in the amount of time Hunters and their pets can do some serious face ripping of their opponent. That's going to hurt the Beast Cleave teams in PvP and Arena for sure.

But then let's look at the positive side of things, the buffs.

Taking a look first at something that Ghostcrawler states is not in the tooltip, but is in the game mechanics. The Beast Within will break all forms of CC. This will include Sap and Cyclone. That's got to be something to look forward to in PvP, right? It might be considered a waste to some, but consider it an extra PvP trinket. Get Sapped by a nasty Rogue, pop your trinket. Then if you get Cycloned, pop BW and then you get to just take out all your frustration on that overstuffed furry chicken called a Moonkin Druid. And if the PvP-ers don't think that this is a buff, I know several PvE players that will love the idea of having an ability to break CC and get right back to pounding out massive DPS.

The next good thing to come out is kind of hidden in there. Because of the effect now being part of Besital Wrath, it seems if your pet gets killed in the middle of the battle, you may not lose the Hunter buff. At first I thought I was the only one with this understanding, but then I came across this post by Pike of Aspect of the Hare explaining the exact same thing. Now if that is what Ghostcrawler meant by the passive Hunter buff, then this will be a great way to get BM back into the raiding scene again.

Basically, I think I agree with Ghostcrawler on this one. PvP Duration is a nerf, and will do serious harm to the Beast Cleave arena teams. However the change seems to be balanced out by the PvE buffs to Hunter damage and the ability to break all forms of CC. So tell me, what do you think? Agree? Disagree?

The new character experience in Cataclysm

As you know, the Cataclysm is going to bring major changes to the whole world of Azeroth. There will only be 5 new zones for leveling above 80 and one new zone for each new race -- the rest of the work they're doing involves changing the old zones, bringing them up to the standards of zones in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, adding new quests that are more appropriate to the current timeline, and completely rebuilding the areas that just didn't work so well.

You are also probably aware that this is a much-needed improvement. The 1 - 60 leveling process (except for the draenei or blood elf starting areas) has long been fraught with serious flaws. Going through it the first time wasn't so bad, since exploring everything felt so new, but doing it the third and fourth times meant sheer boredom. I remember many times going to a zone, completing many or all of the quests there, and leaving without ever feeling as though I had really "been" there. Except for a few real gems, quests mostly involved spending a lot of time running long distances in order to kill more nameless bad guys -- they felt more like pest control than adventure. Just being there seemed to remove me from the story of Azeroth, and dump me in some other world where there was nothing important happening. Vast stretches of land on the Azeroth map meant absolutely nothing to me as a roleplayer: no character, no story, no meaning.

Gaining experience

Getting to Outland, however, opened a new chapter, even if you had done the quests there before and new there was nothing new to see, they still felt like an actual "experience" of some kind. They flowed more in the manner of an actual story, and by the time you finished a zone, Hellfire Peninsula for example, you felt as though you had "been to Hellfire" and done what people do there. You didn't just deliver messages, kill a few monsters that happened to be lurking in and around nearby caves, and pick up random objects from the ground lying near yet another set of nondescript ruins -- you could exorcise a possessed comrade, make first contact with a lost orcish clan, or uncover the horrifying story behind the Path of Glory. Most of the quests involved you in the area so much that it began to feel like a real environment where things actually happened.

And of course, ever since Wrath was released, players keep coming back to the death knight starting area over and over again, partly because the phasing and storytelling were so nice, but also because it was structured so nicely -- every advancement in the quest line was a natural part of an overarching experience that had a beginning, middle and end, and nothing left you feeling as though you were doing a whole lot of running around for no real purpose. Even if you now the story by heart, you know you're progressing through something that defines your character, not just running errands.

And that is exactly what we have always hoped the rest of the world could be like. If the Cataclysm expansion lives up to our expectations, then perhaps all of Azeroth will be as engaging as Outland and Northrend have been.

Return of the Alt

Of course the whole point of making the old Azeroth new again is so that we can create new characters to enjoy it with. Many roleplayers are already altoholics -- not all of them of course, but lots of them have way too many character ideas. Often we don't like sitting in one skin for too long, and we may even have a whole troupe of characters with all manner of interconnections who interact with our guild members and friends in different ways. Often each of our guildmates has such characters too, and... well, it all gets very complicated.

I, too, started down this path some time ago, but I have since restrained myself to just a few of my favorite characters, usually spread out on multiple servers so that I can have more diverse experiences with each one of them. Until news broke of the Cataclysm, I had completely given up leveling any new character from scratch, no matter how much I wanted to roleplay them. I tried restricting my new characters to death knights, since they can skip most of the old world, but that has also limited my creativity somewhat.

But now that is about to change. Not only will I be eager to try out new goblin and worgen characters, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up trying some other combination as well. Undoubtedly that is one of Blizzard's main motivations behind the new races, the new class combinations, and the revamp of Azeroth as a whole -- they want the process of going from 1 to the level cap to be one we can enjoy many times over.

Alt epidemic threat level: Orange

However, some might argue that roleplayers generally have too many characters already, and adding more is only going to make the roleplaying environment worse. The main problem with having lots of alts is that it can be so hard to keep track of them all. It's easy to get confused about which alt belongs to which of your friends unless you are in a dedicated RP guild and keep current with all the latest stories going on in your group. If, like me, you've been forced to take breaks for a while, it can be very disorienting to come back to your old guild and not recognize many of the new names there, because old friends have gone and made new characters while you were away. With all the new characters people will be making when Cataclysm comes around, roleplayers will have to pay close attention to avoid getting confused.

Another downside to having so many characters is that it's hard to find time to give them all the time they may deserve. I know from experience how starting even just one new character makes it easy to neglect the old ones, and for roleplayers that can mean neglecting all the relationships those characters have developed as well. Once a character is gone for too long, it's not easy to bring him or her back into the roleplayers' milieu once again -- you get a feeling that everyone around you has moved on, while this character has remained stagnant. You may try to think of reasons to explain their long absence, but often these feel rather flat, more like excuses than actual stories.

On the other hand, maybe this tendency to drift from character to character rather than try to maintain many alts is a good one; in fiction, after all, character's stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. Perhaps the characters we roleplay should go through these stages as well, so that we keep things fresh for ourselves.

Whatever we do, the question of new characters, whether they are alts or new mains, is one that will affect roleplayers now more than ever. Cataclysm will surely shake up the roleplaying world as much as it does everything else. We must choose which new characters to conjure up, which ones to kill off in a blaze of glory, and which ones to simply ignore as they fade away from memory, lost to the clouds of time.

World of WarCrafts: My Lich King Pony

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by contacting our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) -- not-for-profit work only, please.

Heat got you down? Summer raid attendance and progression wilting? Have a case of the midsummer doldrums? Sometimes, it's good to start out your week with something a little, err, different. Cue this week's World of WarCrafts project, combining the runes of Frostmourne and the power of the Lich King with ... My Little Pony.

If you're suddenly humming "one of these things is not like the other," we'd suspect you've perked up and are catching on fast. That's the reaction we suspect most people have when confronted by the frosty terror of My Lich King Pony from Rosenrot of Nazgrel-US. "I love crafting and WoW," Rosenrot writes, "and when I was a little girl, I loved My Little Pony. I wanted to combine my past and current loves into one really cool project!"

Here's how Rosenrot pulled it off: "It started out as a white pony with purple hair. I ripped out the hair and scrubbed off the paint. Then I dyed the pony with fabric dye. The eyes and the Frostmourne runes are painted on with acrylic paint. I also re-haired the pony with two shades of blue.

"The spike on the pony's face is steel labret jewelry. For the saddle, I made chain mail out of small jump rings and added skull charms. The saddle is permanently attached with wire."

Click into our My Lich King Pony gallery, below, to see more views of the little guy. We'll leave you with the immortal words of Cookie Monster – we figure you're ready for a few cookies after all this sweetness!

BlizzCast episode 9 released

BlizzCast #9 was released very recently, and it's quite short this time around, only about 11 minutes long. It's short because it only covers one thing. It contains Chris Metzen reading the prologue to Arthas: Rise of the Lich King.

The prologue is centered primarily on the native races in Northrend and how they react to the unnatural storms brought on by the Lich King's inner turmoil; the Tuskarr through community and the Taunka through defiance. We also see the exact nature of that turmoil, catching a glimpse of just how much of Arthas is left in there (or Ner'zhul for that matter), and we see it all to the tune of Metzen's sultry voice.

This book has definitely had more hype around it than any other Warcraft novel, and I'm curious if this will be the case with their books from now on or if Arthas is getting special treatment. Like I've said before, this is already my favorite of the Warcraft novels, but is this sort of hype necessary? Maybe they're just excited about it, and that's all there is to it. Who knows? I suppose we'll find out if this is par for the course once they're ready to put out that Malfurion novel.

WotLK 3.1.0 Profession Changes - UPDATED

Patch 3.1.0 is now available on the PTR downloader. Below you can find the list of changes related to professions.

March 14, 2009 - The post is updated with all of the latest changes.

Alchemy

• Blackmouth Oil and Fire Oil no longer require a vial.
  
• Increased the health granted by the Flask of Stoneblood.
  
• The Mercurial Stone is no longer required as a tool for alchemists. It is instead a green quality bind-on-equip trinket.
  
• Elixir of Greater Spellpower now grants spell power to all schools of magic.
  
• The Crazy Alchemist Potion is now correctly increased by Alchemist Stones.
  
• You can now sometimes find Alchemist's Caches from bosses in Ulduar. Only players with an Alchemy skill of 425 or higher can loot these secret caches.

Blacksmithing

• Most of the recipes in the 1-300 skill range of blacksmithing have had their stats updated to be more useful.
  
• Added a new recipe for the Titansteel Spellblade.
  
• Titanium Plating now reduces the duration of disarm effects by 50% as well as increasing your block value.
  
• Added a new recipe for the Titansteel Spellblade, an epic one-handed caster dagger, available from trainers.
  
• Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.

Cooking

• Grub now sells the Dig Rat Stew recipe to players who completed the quest.
  
• Prospector Khazgorm, found in Bael Modan in southern Barrens, now sells the recipe for Dig Rat Stew to the Alliance.
  
• A new recipe has been added to cooking trainers for making Black Jelly, using several Borean Man 'O War as ingredients. While it looks disgusting, it restores more health and mana than the highest level food.
  
• Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!
  
• Ingredients such as Spices, Apples, and the like have been removed from most cooking recipes.
  
• Players no longer need to complete the Clamlette Surprise quest to gain Artisan cooking. The quest now offers the unique recipe, Clamlette Magnifique. If you already completed the quest, you can visit Dirge Quickcleave in Gadgetzan to learn this recipe (for free).
  
• Several Northrend recipes were given greater skill up ranges to make it easier to reach 450 cooking skill.
  
• You no longer need to learn cooking from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

Enchanting

• Added a recipe for enchanting staves with spell power.
  
• Greatly increased the drop rate of recipes found in pre-Lich King dungeons and raids.
  
• Several recipes in the 250-300 skill range have been rebalanced, and the reagent requirements have been reduced.
  
• Some enchants now have level restrictions. Note: the enchant is never removed from the item to which it's applied, however, the player no longer receives its benefit until they reach the required level. Any enchants modified in this way have had their tooltips updated.
  
• The enchanting interface now correctly sorts grey recipes by skill difficulty.

Engineering

• Added a new Reticulated Armor Webbing engineering enchant that increases the armor on plate gloves.
  
• Added a new Springy Arachnoweave engineering enchant that grants passive spell power in addition to turning your cloak into a parachute.
  
• Flexweave Underlay now grants passive agility in addition to its normal effect.
  
• Nitro Boosts now grant passive critical strike rating in addition to their speed boost.
  
• Nitro Boosts now make you drop PVP flags when used, as well as preventing you from picking them up while the effect is active.

Fishing

• A new (and very rare) special mount can now be caught from Northrend fishing pools.
  
• A new clam, the Giant Darkwater Clam, can be obtained by fishing in Wintergrasp. This mighty clam has a greatly increased chance to drop pearls, and yields up to five times the regular amount of clam meat.
  
• New fishing dailies are now offered from Marcia Chase in Dalaran City!
  
• Players are no longer required to do the Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme quest to gain Artisan fishing. The quest now offers a special superior-quality fishing pole instead. If you already completed the quest, you can visit Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh to receive this new fishing pole.
  
• The time needed to catch fish has been reduced.
  
• You can now fish anywhere, regardless of skill. Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains, but you are likely to catch worthless junk in areas that are too difficult for your skill.
  
• You can now fish in Wintergrasp, and the fishin' is good!
  
• You no longer need to learn fishing from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

Gathering Skills

• Toughness, Master of Anatomy, and Lifeblood now have level requirements equal to the level required for the corresponding skill rank: Apprentice (1), Journeyman (1), Expert (10), Artisan (25), Master (40), Grand Master (55).
  
• You can no longer fail when Mining, Herbing, and Skinning.

Inscription

• Added a recipe to trainers for creating a level 70 superior-quality off-hand item.
  
• Added a recipe for creating a different level 70 superior-quality off-hand item. Scribes will find the recipe is dropped from residents of Silverbrook.
  
• Added around 50 new glyph recipes. These new recipes can be obtained from Books of Glyph Mastery found as world drops on Northrend monsters. Reading a Book of Glyph Mastery randomly discovers one of the newly-added recipes.
  
• Glyph icons have been updated so it is easy to distinguish between classes.
  
• Players will now learn 3 recipes the very first time they perform Northrend Inscription Research. This does not apply to players who have already discovered recipes from Northrend Inscription Research (sorry).

Herbalism

• Find Herbs no longer tracks Glowcaps.
  
• Northrend herbs now yield more herbs on average.
  
• The herbalism requirement for gathering Tiger Lily has been reduced to 375.
  
• The time it takes to gather herbs has been reduced.

Jewelcrafting

• Added a new recipe to cut black diamonds.
  
• Added a recipe for Shifting Twilight Opal to the daily jewelcrafting vendor.
  
• Added recipes for superior-quality PVP rings and necklaces to Northrend jewelcrafting trainers.

Leatherworking

• Shadowskin Gloves and Dusky Boots no longer require Shadowcat Hide to create, but instead require an equal quantity of Shadow Silk. Shadowcat Hides can no longer be obtained from skinning.
  
• Added a recipe for combining Borean Leather Scraps into Borean Leather. You can still use Borean Scraps from your inventory to combine them.
  
• Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.
  
• Several lower-level items crafted by leatherworkers have received major changes to make them more appealing.

Mining

• Northrend deposits now despawn 1 minute after mining them. This change was made to speed up respawning when nodes were partially looted.

Tailoring

• Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.
  
• Added recipes for superior-quality PVP cloaks to Northrend tailoring trainers.
  
• The Lightweave tailoring enchant now sometimes grants a temporary spell power bonus instead of dealing direct damage to your target.
  
• Several lower-level items crafted by tailors have received major changes to make them more appealing.

Fan-made WoW Draenei Barbie

Reader Amanda S sent us this picture of a WoW Draenei Barbie (that is a Draenei, right? Not a Night Elf? Oh yeah -- check the hooves) she says she and a friend made when they were bored. It's not the most involved craft we've ever seen, but it looks pretty good and it's an interesting idea: make Warcraft characters out of existing dolls, rather than completely from scratch. GI Joe would probably be perfect for putting together a figure of the new King Wrynn.

But we do like the dress and the shoulders -- nice job. Whenever Blizzard figures out how to do player housing, we can put her in a dream house as well.

Got a WoW-related craft that you'd like to share? We'd love to see it -- send us a tip through the tipline and we'll check it out.

Did Resilience fail in Wrath?

I'm sure that one good question has been running through the minds of a lot of PvP players is if Resilience is worth it. The trend early on in Arena Season 5 was the predominance of burst, keeping matches fast and putting the worth of Resilience under the microscope. Blizzard has repeatedly said that Resilience would make a difference, but the truth is, this only applies to higher levels of Arena play where players have access to the best Resilience gear. Because of the high item budget of Resilience, most players won't feel its impact with only a few items.

Ghostcrawler chimes in with Blizzard's analysis of how this happened in Wrath of the Lich King. He explains how PvE content was made very accessible, thus giving many players access to powerful gear (or weapons) while introductory PvP gear came much later and was difficult to get. This resulted in players entering Arenas with low life and no resilience -- you can probably imagine how that turned out. It didn't help that classes were dealing too much burst to begin with, which led to class changes through several patches. A final point he mentions is how BC granted a lot of Stamina that wasn't replicated in Wrath, which made players "feel a little fragile initially".

Ghostcrawler prefaced his post by saying that Blizzard increased the budget of Resilience -- which means it eats up a lot more item points for a lot less bang -- because PvP gear in The Burning Crusade was too attractive. This "forced a lot of players to feel like they were supposed to head to the Arena," in order to be competitive. Ironically, this isn't any different now despite the different tiers of PvP gear available. The best gear is still only accessible through Arenas.

This is the problem. Unless you compete in high level Arena play, you're unlikely to feel the benefits of full Resilience. You simply won't have access to the necessary gear, specially in the current environment where it takes a whopping 82 Resilience Rating per 1% of Resilience. For casual PvPers -- and even though Blizzard never quite acknowledges them, always considering Arena play as their baseline -- PvP will always be a burst affair.

The addition of a set bonus to the crafted PvP sets is a case of too little, too late. It's a good move, but by the time Patch 3.1 rolls around, it will be time for Season 6 and anyone wearing the crafted PvP sets to Arenas are gimping themselves. One important point that Ghostcrawler made is Blizzard is considering launching the next Arena season at the same time as the first tier of the next raid content, which should help narrow the gap between PvE and PvP gear acquisition.

Resilience didn't exactly fail in Wrath. It just didn't get to players on time. Many players are slowly feeling the effects of toned down burst as well as healer dominance (once again). Particularly in high rated Arenas, it has become rather difficult to burst anything down. Healers are essential to comps and with the Tournament Realms granting access to the best Arena gear, players will be able to feel the difference. Current gear is still a ways off from the Resilience soft cap, but it's getting there. Season 6 is just around the corner, after all.

WoW: Who would win in a writer cage match?

So today in the Queue I want to ask you: who would win in a writer cage match?
Alex Ziebart or Mike Sacco?

Also, I'd like to thank all of you who left questions not about the crazy delicious Hawaiian Pizza yesterday. You gave me something to work with!

Blinger asked...

"Will the emblems of Heroism be really useless now? If there is no more badge gear I need, have plenty of Frozen Orbs I can throw a stick at, is there going to be any point in me ever doing the current Wrath heroics again other than just to help out mates all of which are in the same boat anyway? Or will it be likely that there will be some form of Heroism to Valor exchange?"


They will probably be useless. However I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to introduce new gear you can buy with them. Save up a few hundred and buy one nice big fat weapon. That's really the only thing I can see happening.

Steve left a comment suggesting that those badges be used to eventually make things like spell thread and other crafted items, mainly through the purchase of frozen orbs. I would whole heartedly agree with that.

Jeff asked...

"Is there any way to track all the places you have explored/haven't explored beyond just the areas needed to complete the exploration achievements and uncover the region maps?"

No, at least not yet. Blizzard has hinted at them including such functionality at some point in the future. If you really want to be sure you visited every area in the map, go through and just run up and down each zone, moving over a yard or two every time you go loop around. You'll end up hitting every spot. It'll take you a long time, but that's the only way I can think of doing it.

Ulduar Raid

Summary
Ulduar Raid - Ulduar will be a raid in upcoming patch 3.1. Ulduar will drop tier 8 armor sets as well as additional loot.

It has been confirmed that Ulduar is the next step in progression after The Eye of Eternity.

Ulduar is located at the northernmost point of Northrend in the Storm Peaks, and is only accessible to players with a flying mount.

Lore
With Uldum and Uldaman, there is a third base of the Titans named Ulduar. A fourth location, Maraudon, is the location of Terramok, an ancient titan vault. A fifth location, a storage facility, is located under Bael Modan. Ulduar is located at The Storm Peaks of Northrend. It is controlled by storm giants, and their minions the crystal golems.

Ulduar is a mysterious subterranean realm of ice and stone. This is the storm giants’ stronghold, but they didn’t build it. It is a Titan city — it matches the design of the two temples in Northrend, and other ruins dwarves have found elsewhere (And like Uldum and Uldaman, its name starts with “Uld”). It’s an amazing place but one would never know it from the outside, because it’s completely hidden. The exterior looks like the other peaks: a jumble of rock and ice cut at angles only nature would have produced. The entrance is well-hidden and heavily guarded by crystalline golems, but a clever individual can sneak inside.

Inside, Ulduar is a profusion of tunnels and stairs and balconies. The entire place appears to be carved out of a massive cave, and many of the levels are natural ledges. It has the feeling, as if nature were improved upon rather than replaced or recreated. The surfaces are a strange mix of smooth and unaltered stone and ice, as when a master sculptor works in stone and lets the material’s natural texture add depth and beauty. It shows where the dwarves got their skill in stonework, but judging by Ulduar they're still a long way from matching their creators.

The giants themselves are so few in number one can wander the halls without ever meeting one — which is probably for the best, since no one is supposed to gain entrance. The giants are a dying race desperately avoiding their fate. They seem to think another race will vanquish them some day, and so they hide here rather than girding for battle. They are too frightened to battle the Scourge, but apparently they hate it. Ulduar is likely a treasure trove of information on the Titans and their activities.

WotLK nominated for BAFTA

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been nominated for yet another award -- this time, Wrath has received a nod for Best Game of the Year by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Videogame awards. UK residents can vote for the game right now over on their site, and a nice set of prizes, including a big TV, a Playstation 3, and copies of all ten nominated games going to one lucky voter. Voting is closed on March 9th, and the winners should be announced soon after that.

And in case you've been wondering about the AIAS nominations we mentioned a little while ago, Blizzard is going about 33%. While they did win the award for best MMO game of the year (beating out Warhammer Online), Wrath of the Lich King lost its other two categories -- Left 4 Dead was awarded Best Computer Game, and Metal Gear Solid 4 won for Best Music over the Lich King's silky tones.

Guess you can't win them all. But considering that the second expansion of a years-old MMO is still garnering honors, Blizzard has nothing to be ashamed of.

WoW Master of Alterac Valley

It's Alterac Valley weekend once again, and although you can't currently use the Alterac Valley Marks of Honor for anything other than old world rewards right now, the Battleground still remains one of the best places to farm Honor. In case you're hitting up the frozen valley this weekend, here's a handy guide that should help you through the Achievements you need to get Master of Alterac Valley.

Alterac Valley Veteran
Win 100 games. I don't know about you, but I personally don't enjoy Alterac Valley enough to slog through the number of games required to win 100 times. That's probably because of my Battlegroup, where I find myself losing more than I win. Like all veteran Achievements, this really is just a matter of time, and the only real problem is finding yourself on the losing faction -- which tends to be a trend in many Battlegroups unlike other maps, which are largely symmetrical. Alterac Valley is asymmetrical, so a Battlegroup with a faction that knows how to take advantage of the asymmetry will tend to win most of the time. I'll peg this one at hard, and I think some of you will agree.
Difficulty: Hard

Alterac Grave Robber
This is ridiculously easy because it doesn't require you to actually capture or convert the flag, just tag it. During the course of one game, there'll be many opportunities for you to do so. Snowfall Graveyard, the uncontrolled graveyard at the start of the game, is an excellent target that can be taken over and over.
Difficulty: Easy

Tower Defense
Retake 50 Towers. This isn't quite as easy as taking graveyards, as smart opponents will always leave defenders at a tower to protect the flag until the tower is destroyed. Most of the time, you'll need some assistance, who in turn will also try to retake the tower. Tower defense also works with a four minute timer, so there isn't a lot of room to keep trying if you die to the tower's defenders. Fortunately, it also happens that many players are idiots who tend to leave towers undefended or just leave one person to do the job. With these two extremes in mind, it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish over time.
Difficulty: Moderate

Loyal Defender
Kill 50 players in your General's room. Since this is counted over time, this isn't too hard to do. Simply defend every now and then, preferably with some help, and you're guaranteed to rack up some Honorable Kills by your General's side. In all likelihood, your General will be doing the killing for you, too. This Achievement can be unlocked with a few games, whether you win or lose.
Difficulty: Easy

Everything Counts
Win while controlling both mines. This is another easy task as many players tend to ignore the mines. Over the course of 100 games, you're certain to get this Achievement. You can make it easier by capturing one or two mines yourself, or mentioning it casually in Battleground chat where some players will take the cue and do the job for you.
Difficulty: Easy

The Alterac Blitz
Win in 6 minutes. Now this is hard. The only way to win in six minutes is to rush the General, complete with all his lieutenants. This means you will have adds, as well as a General who has higher health and hits harder than usual. You will also not have control of the nearest Graveyard, which means that players who die during this rush will spawn all the way back at the starting point. This means you will have one and only one shot of doing this every game, and you're unlikely to do it with a PUG. You will need a well-geared tank, dedicated healers, and enough crazy DPS to burn the General down before he or his lackeys start wiping you. Throw in the monkeywrench of enemy players trying to be Loyal Defenders, and you've got your work cut out for you.
Difficulty: Hard

The Sickly Gazelle
Kill someone in the Field of Strife before they dismount. Ah, yes, one of my favorite Achievements ever. This Achievement was put in the game to prevent players from trying to escape combat while staying mounted in Alterac Valley. Yet many players still stubbornly stay mounted, making things a lot easier. Note that you do not need to make the killing blow in order to get this, so hanging out at the Field of Strife will eventually lead to this Achievement.
Difficulty: Easy

Frostwolf Perfection / Stormpike Perfection
Win without losing your towers or captain. Here's another difficult one, albeit quite doable with a PUG. The idea is to simply play solid defense. As long as you luck out on a group that's dedicated to keeping all your resources alive, it usually will translate to a win. I won't go so far as to say that you'll get this eventually in 100 games, but with a concerted effort, it's certainly within reach. Because towers can be retaken, the only resource you'll need to protect with more tenacity is your captain.
Difficulty: Hard

Alterac Valley All-Star
In one game, assault and defend a graveyard and tower, and kill someone in the Field of Strife. This is a really fun Achievement where a lot of things can go awry. While it's conceivably easier to assault a graveyard and tower (simply take the first ones you get to), it's a little trickier to get them back. Having a teleporting trinket will help you here, so hope some enemies ninja the towers or graveyards near your base. One of the more conscious efforts on this list of Achievements.
Difficulty: Hard

Frostwolf Howler / Stormpike Battle Charger
Obtain an Alterac Valley mount. This is a retroactive Achievement, so players who already had the mount before 3.0 get this automatically. Otherwise, these can be purchased with 50 Alterac Valley Marks of Honor, which you'll pick up along the way to 100 wins. Since there's nothing else you can do with the marks at the moment, it's pretty much a no-brainer. Besides, both mounts look pretty pimp.
Difficulty: Easy

Hero of the Frostwolf Clan / Hero of the Stormpike Guard
Get exalted with the Frostwolf Clan or Stormpike Guard. Compared to either Arathi Basin or Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley reputation is ridiculously easy. Many old school players will get this retroactively, but newer players have nothing to worry about. Killing the enemy General alone is worth 389 Reputation, Captains give 125 Reputation, destroying a tower is worth 64 Reputation, and killing players is worth 1 Reputation each.

There are also numerous repeatable quests such as turn-ins of hides or armor scraps, as well as guards who grant 5 Reputation until you hit Revered. To top it all off, bonus Reputation is awarded at the end of a match for certain conditions such as having a Captain still up (125 Reputation) or towers destroyed (25 Reputation each). So while other Battleground reputations are a pain to grind, Alterac Valley reputation rises whether you win or lose, making every game relatively worthwhile.
Difficulty: Easy

To the Looter Go the Spoils
Loot an Autographed Picture of Foror & Tigule. This is probably this meta-Achievement's equivalent of Be Mine!, as it's completely random. The gray item is also the zone's rarest drop, making looting it purely a matter of luck. The idea is to loot everything including enemy players and hope for the best. Note that the Achievement calls for it to be actually looted, so even though the item isn't soulbound, it cannot be traded or bought off the Auction House to get the Achievement. Good luck!
Difficulty: Hard

The Master of Alterac Valley is part of the Battlemaster meta-Achievement, and requires a bit of dedication to do in comparison to some other Battleground metas. The difficulty also lies in the fact that it's harder to form a premade for Alterac Valley considering it's a 40-man Battleground. That said, the Honor gain from Alterac Valley is pretty considerable, making this Battleground grind often worth it.

WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Druid glyphs

Personally the change I'm still plotzing over most in relation to 3.1 is the sheer locational chutzpah of the Argent Tournament. I'm not sure I understand why the northern portion of Icecrown is considered an appropriate spot. It's like seeing some Milwaukee strip-mall developer parachute into the middle of Mordor and exclaim over the retail and tourist opportunities within a 100-yard radius of Sauron's eye. What does the Scourge think about this tournament? Did they get a cut of the concession stand's profits as a means of buying their cooperation? Who else was bribed in order to make this happen? These are all questions to which I think we deserve answers.

Anyway, I seem to be one of the unlucky souls doomed to disconnect every 10 minutes from the PTR (although I'm not anywhere near Dalaran), but I'm sure it'll get fixed. One minor suggestion for all those Druids porting to Moonglade in order to pick up dual-specs immediately; have 1,000g in hand before you do so. As we all know, getting into Moonglade is rather easy. Getting out of Moonglade tends to be rather more time-consuming unless you're willing to burn your hearth in a world newly free of ghetto-hearthing.

Some of the undocumented changes we've actually already talked about, so if you don't see something here but missed our first article, you should find them here.

UNDOCUMENTED CHANGES

FAERIE FIRE and FERAL FAERIE FIRE: Now decreases armor by 5% (previously decreased armor by a set amount).

It's (probably) a buff against more heavily-armored bosses, a nerf against less heavily-armored bosses, but otherwise falls in lockstep with changes to armor-reduction skills elsewhere. To what effect this will be seen versus present or Tier 8 bosses, I'm not sure -- outside of the 10% buff to boss armor in the beta as a means of nerfing physical DPS classes, I actually have no idea what kind of armor current bosses are rocking, and of course nobody knows what Ulduar's going to be like in this respect.

SAVAGE ROAR: Changed to increase physical damage done by 30% (previously increased attack power by 40%).

This I'd like to test as soon as possible, provided the PTR server cooperates. If I had to make a call right now, I would say you won't see much of a change at the moment, but it trends toward a long-term buff if it isn't already a short-term buff. It says a great deal about how badly Cat DPS scales with attack power that in raids you may need three times the AP of a pure physical DPS even to think about competing with them.

Between this and what we've already noted concerning the new Primal Gore talent, strength is not necessarily your best buddy anymore. I would expect to be gemming for agility and agility/hit if I were you, which is what we were doing in BC anyway, and (as Kalon notes) means there's a little more overlap now between Bear and Cat gems and enchants.

MAIM: Now a Stun effect instead of an Incapacitate.

The first thing I thought of while reading this was that Mages can Blink out of stuns but can't Blink out of incapacitates, and that this is definitely a nerf versus the ubiquitous Frost Mage in arena. Beyond that, it's also a nerf to Feral CC in forms anyway, as changing Maim to a stun now means it shares diminishing returns with Pounce and Bash. However, while classes can use damage-reducing abilities while stunned (think: Barkskin), Maim may also last the full duration now before DR before breaking. Feral in arena right now is doing better than any other Druid spec, so...yeah. Consider this an effort to try to stop the lolmelee juggernaut in arena right now, even if we're not necessarily the worst offenders.

(NEW ABILITY) SAVAGE DEFENSE: Each time you deal a melee critical strike, you gain Savage Defense, reducing the damage taken from the next physical attack that strikes you by 25% of your attack power.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Now increases your armor contribution from cloth and leather items in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 11/22/33% (previously 22/44/66%).

I'm yoking these because you really can't discuss one without discussing the other. Much ink has been spilled...well, pixels abused, anyway, discussing the upcoming changes to how Bears mitigate damage. On most boss fights you're not likely to notice much of a difference outside of the universally-cited Patchwerk OT model. You and your healers are likely to notice much more of a difference on trash, as each crit now functions as a version of block, and the lack of block was one of the underlying (though not articulated) reasons behind healer complaints concerning Bear tanks in heroics. One of the things that makes Warriors and Paladins easier to heal against smaller, faster hits is block, which is greatly lessens or outright negates damage from this source. With decent gear it's almost impossible not to land a crit by Swiping 3+ mobs, so this is a pretty big buff to the ease of healing Bears who are multi-mob tanking, particularly if the shields stack.

But the Bear high-armor model was one of the things that made them take more predictable damage versus heavy-hitting raid bosses. Again, on most bosses this isn't going to wind up mattering much in overall damage taken, but the armor nerf does mean that unshielded hits that do land are going to be felt more and seem more "spiky." Minimizing the frequency of this means you'll be looking for more agility, +hit, and +crit, on top of getting as much attack power as possible to get bigger shields. Getting more mitigation from offensively-oriented stats may also solve some of the current issues with bear threat if people re-gear accordingly.

Savage Defense isn't yet live on the PTR (this has been confirmed as a bug) so I have no idea if it stacks or not, and I'm also not sure if you gain rage through a shielded attack. I'll have information on this as soon as a new build gets patched.

Otherwise, I can't say I'm looking forward to Maexxna or Sartharion 3D with Shadron's acolyte and/or Vesperon's acolyte up (for which most tanks will stop attacking Sartharion entirely), but situations where the tank either can't attack or is incapacitated should be pretty rare.

PREDATORY STRIKES: Now increases now includes Moonkin Form in its effect.

Out of curiosity, does anyone running a Balance build even have this talent?

IMPROVED REGROWTH renamed NATURE'S BOUNTY: Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 5/10/15/20/25% (previously increased just Regrowth crit by 10/20/30/40/50%).

Nature's bounty, now with less bounty! This is a giant buff to Nourish and a giant nerf to Regrowth, and I'm not sure how I feel about the latter. A 50%+ crit rate on Regrowth was basically the only thing that made Living Seed a viable talent. Now, whether it was worth taking is another argument, but a high crit rate on Regrowth was the only thing that made Living Seed even possible in the first place for a HoT-oriented healer.

What comes to mind most when looking at this is wondering what Ulduar itemization is going to be like. It's possible that there's a lot of leather +spellpower and +crit gear coming up that would have made a glyphed Regrowth one of the most insanely overpowered spells of all time. Because there's some bleed-through between Balance and Restoration gear right now, Restos have become accustomed to seeing +crit pop up fairly regularly even on their tier set, and the scaling of that on Tier 8 gear in addition to raid buffs might have made not critting on a Regrowth almost impossible. So, while it's a nerf, it'll allow Resto to scale better with +crit, although it's kind of a pain that we don't get any other bonuses from crit like Priests and Shamans do -- and for Restos without access to raid gear with heavy stat allocation toward +crit, the Regrowth nerf is a just a flat-out nerf, period.

Between Nature's Bounty and Glyph of Nourish (see below), I would also expect to be using Nourish a bit more frequently, and Living Seed's getting a substantial buff, so eh.

INTENSITY: Now allows 17/33/50% of mana regeneration to continue while casting (previously 10/20/30%).

Seems like a buff on the outside, but Spirit's being heavily nerfed to reduce the Oo5s mana regeneration. I'll actually have an article coming on this soon because this is a pretty damn big change for Priests and Druids who are used to relying on the 5-second rule. This will additionally have an effect on Balance, so stay tuned.

NEW AND ALTERED GLYPHS

GLYPH OF REBIRTH: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health. (Old: Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.)

This is a substantial improvement on the current glyph, but whether or not you'll find it useful is going to depend on your individual circumstances. A Druid of any spec in a competitive raiding guild may find themselves called upon to Rebirth as much as possible in order to keep attempts at progression content going. Of course, we don't know what the fights in Ulduar are going to be like, but if we see predictable raid damage on the level of, say, Sapphiron or Kel'Thuzad, the glyph will make it substantially safer to battle-rez someone without losing them to AoE a moment after.

GLYPH OF STARFALL: Reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 90 sec. (Old: Increases the duration of Starfall by 2 sec).

Eh. Starfall right now is... not that great, and one of the most routinely ignored talents in a PvE Balance build. Now that it no longer has a chance to proc stuns, it's also not quite as useful (and by useful, I mean overpowered) in PvP. However, it is extremely useful as a damage ability that's essentially fire-and-forget while you've got melee on you. How useful is the reduced cooldown? How long do your arena matches typically last? Probably worth picking up if you're Balance for arena.

GLYPH OF BERSERK (NEW): Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 seconds.

Hrm. That's pretty nice for both Bear and Cat, especially because one of the Bear's weaknesses as a tank is a lack of burst AoE threat outside of Berserk. It should also provide a nice DPS boost for kitties.

GLYPH OF WILD GROWTH (NEW): Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.

This is similar to existing glyphs for Shamans and Priests increasing the number of targets healed by Chain Heal and Circle of Healing respectively. It's a welcome addition to a Resto Druid's arsenal, especially if you're typically on raid healing duty. If you do mostly 5-man content, you can safely consider this glyph superfluous, as Wild Growth already hits up to 5 people.

GLYPH OF NOURISH (NEW): Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.

Between this, recent buffs, and the change to Improved Regrowth, they are really pushing Nourish as more of a main-line healing spell. I'm going to have to dig out my calculator soon and try to see how much closer this gets Nourish to a glyphed Regrowth assuming HoT's already present on the target. At the moment, I'm not sure whether this stacks with the Tier 7 4-piece set bonus.

GLYPH OF SAVAGE ROAR (NEW): Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 6% bonus damage done.

Interesting. This, Glyph of Rip, and Glyph of Berserk are going to be the three required Cat glyphs for maximum DPS builds, particularly if you've got an Arms Warrior in your raid applying Trauma (removing the need to Mangle), but it is a sign that Bear and Cat builds and damage are moving farther and farther apart.

GLYPH OF TYPHOON (NEW): Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 seconds.

Another glyph that seems intended for Balance PvP, but probably a bit more useful than Glyph of Starfall.

GLYPH OF BARKSKIN (NEW): Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.

This and the new Improved Barkskin talent in the Restoration tree seem aimed at shoring up Resto's abysmal performance so far in Wrath arena (saw that coming!), although the glyph can obviously be put to good use for anyone's PvP sec. 1% crit reduction is worth an extra 75 resilience at 80. This might be helpful until you get resilience-capped (if that's going to be possible without horribly gimping yourself in Season 6 gear, of course).

Dual spec Q&A with Ghostcrawler

Nethaera has posted an interview with Ghostcrawler about one of the hottest anticipated features coming to the game: the dual spec system. Players have asked for the ability to switch between two specs for a long time, and GC has finally laid out some real information about how it might work. Some of the interview we've heard before (that glyphs and hotbars will be saved, and so on), but there are quite a few bombshells:

• You'll have to be max level to use the dual spec system, and you'll have to pay a one-time fee (not yet specified) to the trainer to use it.
  
• Blizzard has apparently cemented how it will work: you'll need to be at a Lexicon of Power to change out your spec, or Inscribers will be able to make one (maybe reusable, maybe not) that will be summonable by "a ritual of several players" (no number given yet).
  
• Respeccing will change only one set, so if you want to respec both specs, you'll have to pay twice.
  
• We'll be getting a "Gear Manager" that will let us quickly and easily change out gear, either for the two specs or just to "strut around town." (This is the official Itemrack we've heard about.)
  
• Hunters will be able to respec their pets at will, and they will get a new long cooldown ability that will let them remotely access their stables.
  
• Players who respec will be able to configure their talents before they are saved.
  
• And while the system is starting with two specs, Blizzard is considering adding more in the future.

Wow. GC says we'll see this on the PTR when it's ready to go (which sounds to us like the patch 3.1 PTR, but no guarantees there, either). Unfortunately, not all of this will be out right away (the Gear Manager specifically is marked as "not quite ready"), but it sounds like Blizzard is aiming to go all out with the dual spec feature and make sure everyone gets what they want.

WoW Patch 3.1 notes leaked

Somebody says there are the official patch notes for WoW 3.1 from an early internal build. And WoW Insider are talking whether Those WoW Patch 3.1 legit or not.

WoW 3.1 Patch Notes

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.1.0

The Mysteries of Ulduar

For many years, the ancient titan city of Ulduar has been a home to the Storm Giants of Northrend, where they have remained hidden from the Lich King and his Scourge Army. Recently, Ulduar has been taken over by the Iron Dwarves, who are being lead by a mysterious entity that is becoming a growing threat to Northrend and the rest of Azeroth.

Brann Bronzebeard and the Explorer's League have setup a new camp in The Storm Peaks in order to serve as a base of operations for the Ulduar investigations. Chester Copperpot and his goons, longtime enemies of the Explorer's League, also have a vested interest in Ulduar.

The Ruby Sanctum

For thousands of years, the Chamber of Aspects was used as a secret meeting place for the five great Dragon Aspects. Since the formation of the Wyrmrest Accord and the war on Malygos, the portals leading to the dragonflight sanctuaries remained dormant...until now. Trouble has arisen within the Red Dragonflight's Ruby Sanctum! Queen Alexstrasza and the Red Dragonflight are seeking able bodied adventurers to find out what lies within.

General

• Ulduar is now available in both Heroic and Normal Difficulty, players can find this raid dungeon in The Storm Peaks.

• The Ruby Sanctum is now available in both Heroic and Normal Difficulty, players can find this raid dungeon in the Dragonblight, beneath Wyrmrest Temple in the Chamber of Aspects.

• The Nexus War Continues! The Blue Dragonflight is attempting to harness the energy surrounding Crystalsong Forest. The Silver Covenant and The Sunreavers are preparing for a full offensive, but they need your help! Many new daily quests are available at Windrunner's Overlook (Alliance) and Sunreaver's Command (Horde).

• Dual Talent Specialization: Players can now visit their class trainers to learn a second Specialization. Specializations may be switched at any time as long as the player is not in combat, this will also change your character's Glyphs, Action Bars and Talents. Specialization options can be found in the talent menu.

• Potency Rating: Haste Rating, Armor Penetration Rating and Spell Penetration have been merged into a single stat. Each percent of Potency will decrease the enemy's spell resistances and armor; it will also increase the player's cast speed and melee attack speed.

• Replenishment: Now grants 0.5% of base mana every second and can effect up to 25 raid members.

• A new bank slot is now available for purchase!

Achievements

• Removed "Brew of the Year" as criteria for the "Brewmaster" meta achievement.

• The number of cooking recipes needed for the "Chef De Cuisine" achievement has been lowered to 150.

• Several Dungeon & Raid Achievements related to The Ruby Sanctum and Ulduar have been added!

• Several World Event Achievements related to Noble Garden have been added!

PvP

• Battlegrounds

o Players may now accumulate up to 100,000 Honor Points and 7500 Arena Points.

o Players can now queue up for Battlegrounds anywhere in the world! New queuing options are available in the PvP menu.

o Players can now queue up for all 5 battlegrounds at once.

o Reputation gains from winning battles in Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin have been significantly increased.

o Alterac Valley Marks of Honor, Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor and Arathi Basin Marks of Honor may now be exchanged for reputation gains with their associated factions.

o Lake Wintergrasp

 The Battle for Lake Wintergrasp will now occur every 2 hours.

 After winning a Wintergrasp Match all players of the opposite faction will be teleported to their respective faction's camp.

 Many optimizations have been made to the Lake Wintergrasp zone, players should experience significantly less visual latency when fighting in densely populated areas.

o Strand of the Ancients

 Players carrying Seaforium charges cannot exceed 100% run speed.

 Seaforium charges now take more time to disarm.

 Turrets now deal slightly more damage to vehicles.

 The honor gained while fighting in the Strand of the Ancients has been slightly increased.

Death Knights

• Icebound Fortitude now scales much better with defense (50% at 540 defense).

• Shadow of Death: Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes.

• Death Grip: Cooldown reduced by 10 seconds.

• New Spell: Unholy Grip, 20 Runic Power, 3 min cooldown – Harnesses the unholy energy that surrounds and binds all matter, drawling all targets within a 30 yard radius towards the death knight and forcing all enemies to attack the death knight for 6 sec.

• Unholy Command: Reduces the cooldown of your Unholy Grip ability by 15/30 seconds.

• Magic Suppression: Also causes your Anti-Magic Shell to restore runic power equal to 3%/6%/9%/12%/15% of the damage absorbed.

• Obliterate: No longer consumes diseases.

• Merciless Combat: All abilities now deal 10%/20% additional damage to targets below 35% health.

• Annihilation: Increases critical strike chance of all weapons, spells and abilities by 1%/2%/3% and reduces the amount of spell damage taken when in frost presence by an additional 1%/2%/3%.

• Heart Strike: Can now hit up to 4 targets.

• Will of the Necropolis: Now reduces damage that would take you below 35% health by 10%/20%/30%.

• Bloody Vengeance: This effect now stacks up to 5 times.

• Desecration: Damage bonus now applies to other death knights.

• Virulence: Now grants both melee and spell hit.

• Unholy Blight is once again considered a disease.

Druids

• Shapeshifting no longer costs mana, but there is now a 3 second cooldown.

• Wild Growth: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Entangling Roots: No longer deals damage.

• Swipe: This ability has been reworked; it will now hit all targets within a 5 yard radius of the druid. Damage dealt by Swipe has also been slightly increased.

• Infected Wounds: Swipe can now trigger this ability.

• Berserk: Also reduces the rage cost of all your Bear Form abilities by 50%.

• Master Shapeshifter: Bear Form – Reduces all damage taken by 2%.

• Improved Regrowth: Critical strike chance reduced to 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Living Spirit: Also reduces the chance that all of your heal over time abilities will be dispelled by 5%/10%/15%.

• Empowered Touch: Healing bonus increased to 25%/50%.

• Gift of the Earthmother: Also reduces the cooldown of your Nature's Swiftness by 6/12/18/24/30 seconds.

• Improved Faerie Fire: Now grants melee and spell hit.

• Lunar Guidance: Spell power bonus increased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Force of Nature: Treants summoned by this spell are now immune to area of effect spells. They may now also cast Moonfire and Rejuvenation.

• Owlkin Frenzy: Your attacks now have a chance to trigger frenzy.





Hunters

• Mortal Shots: Critical strike damage bonus increased to 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%.

• Kindred Spirits: Now increases pet's damage by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20%.

• T.N.T: Stun chance reduced to 3%/6%/9%.

• Arcane Shot: Base damage increased slightly.

• Steady Shot: Base damage increased slightly.

• Ferocious Inspiration: Increases the damage dealt by Arcane shot by 5%/10%/15%.

• Aspect of the Dragonhawk: Dodge chance reduced to 10%, attack power bonus increased to 330.

• Aspect of the Monkey: Dodge chance reduced to 10%

• Beastial Wrath: Duration increased to 20 seconds.

• The Beast Within: Duration increased to 20 seconds.

• Cobra Strikes: Also increases the damage dealt by you and your pet by 2%/4%/6%.

• Readiness: Now works with Beastial Wrath.

• Chimera Shot: Mana cost reduced.

• Silencing Shot: Now interrupts the enemy's spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 8 sec.

• Disengage: Mana cost removed.

• Explosive Shot: Deals a small amount of damage to targets within 5 yards.

• Pets

o Exotic pets have had their health increased slightly.

o Exotic pets can no longer be dodged or parried.

o Most boss abilities will no effect pets.



Mages

• Conjure Mana Gem (Rank 6) now restores 4200 to 4400 mana.

• Torment of the Weak: Damage bonus reduced to 3%/7%/10%.

• Student of the Mind: The amount of Spirit granted has been increased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Netherwind Presence: Spell haste bonus reduced to 1%/2%/3%. Also reduces the mana cost of all Arcane spells by 4%/7%/10%.

• Spellsteal: The maximum duration of stolen buffs increased to 3 minutes.

• Molten Fury: Damage bonus increased to 10%/20%.

• Combustion now increases the critical strike chance of all fire spells by 25%. Lasts 20 sec.

• Burnout: Removed penalty on spell critical strikes.

• Ignite: Now deals its damage over 6 seconds.

• Living Bomb: Will now explode upon the target's death.

• Fiery Payback: Damage reduction increased to 12%/25%.

• Shatter: Critical strike chance increased to 20%/40%/60%.

• Improved Frostbolt: Also reduces the global cooldown of your Ice Lance spell by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.

• Cone of Cold: Damage for all ranks increased significantly.

• Improved Cone of Cold: Increases the radius of your Cone of Cold ability by 5/10 yards.

• Frozen Core: Spell damage reduction now requires Frost Armor to be active. Also increases all frost damage dealt by 1%/2%/3%.

• Brain Freeze: Can now trigger a free Fireball of Pyroblast.

• Empowered Frostbolt: Critical strike chance increased to 3%/6%.

• Deep Freeze: Can now be used on targets with a movement slowing effect.



Paladins

• All paladin auras are now off the global cooldown.

• Divine Plea: Now scales with spell haste, cooldown increased to 2 minutes, healing penalty removed.

• Enlightened Judgements: Chance to hit increased by 3%/6%.

• Holy Shock: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice: Duration increased to 30 seconds.

• Infusion of Light: Also has a 10%/20% chance to finish the cooldown of your Holy Shock spell.

• Healing Light: Also increases the amount healed by your Judgement of Light.

• Beacon of Light: Will now transfer 100% of all healing done to the beacon, instead of just effective healing.

• Judgements of the Wise: Now grants 30% of base mana if the Judgement crits.

• Crusader Strike: Now Instantly causes 125% weapon damage as holy damage and increases all holy damage done to the target by 2% for 6 seconds, stacks up to 5 times.

• Exorcism can now be cast on any target.

• Righteous Vengeance: Now triggered by Seal of Command, Seal of the Martyr and Seal of Blood critical strikes.

• Sheath of Light: Heal over time effect reduced to 8 seconds.

• Hammer of the Righteous: Gains a small benefit from your attack power.

• Holy Shield: Whenever Holy Shield is active, all spell damage taken is reduced by 2%.

• Divine Guardian has been moved down to Tier 3.

• New Talent: Improved Divine Guardian – Increases the damage absorbed by Divine Guardian by 10%/20%.



Priests

• Surge of Light: Also reduces the cast time of your next Greater Heal by 0.5 seconds.

• Circle of Healing: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Divine Providence: No longer reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending Spell, but now increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%.

• Mass Dispel: No longer has a target limit.

• Misery: Now grants melee and spell hit.

• Renew: Mana cost reduced slightly.

• Greater Heal: Mana cost reduced slightly, cast time reduced by to 2.5 seconds.

• Divine Fury: No longer reduces the cast time of Greater Heal, but increases the critical strike chance of Greater Heal, Penance and Flash Heal by 1$/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Test of Faith: Also increases the duration of your Guardian Spirit spell by 1/2/3 seconds.

• Desperate Prayer: Instantly restores 30% of the caster's health and reduces all damage taken by 30% for the next 5 seconds.

• Divine Aegis: The absorption effect can now stack up to 3 times.

• Penance: Channeling this spell will give the priest 3% additional chance to crit for the next 5 seconds.

• Reflective Shield: Also decreases the chance that your Power Word: Shield can be dispelled by 15%/30%/45%.

• Mental Strength: Also increases armor contribution from items by 5%/10%/15%.

• Mind Melt: Critical strike chance increased by 3%/6%.

• Blackout: Mind Sear can no longer proc this stun effect.

• Twisted Faith: Damage bonus for Mind Flay and Mind Blast now requires the target to be afflicted by Vampiric Touch.

• Improved Shadow Word: Pain: Now increases damage by 5%/10%.



Rogues

• Adrenaline Rush is now available to all Rogues at Level 30.

• New Talent: Focused Combat, 25 Energy, 3 min cooldown – When activated, the rogue goes into a focused state of combat, increasing all damage done by 30%, changing targets will cancel this effect. Lasts 15 sec.

• Envenom: Damage for all ranks increased slightly.

• Expose Armor: Now reduces the enemy's armor by a percent value instead of a flat value.

• Improved Expose Armor: No longer reduces the energy cost of Expose Armor. Now increases the armor reduced by 2%/4%.

• Tricks of the Trade: Duration reduced to 5 seconds.

• Prey on the Weak: Critical strike damage now increased by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Close Quarters Combat: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all weapons.

• Kick: Damage dealt significantly increased.

• Throwing Specialization: Also increases damage dealt by Fan of Knives by 15%/30%.

• Surprise Attacks: Damage bonus increased to 15%.

• Savage Combat: Now increases attack power by 4%/8%.

• Fan of Knives: Now causes 75% weapon damage with all weapons.

• Killing Spree: All damage dealt while this ability is active is increased by 20%.



Shaman

• The health of all totems has been increased significantly.

• A new quest is available from all Shaman trainers at level 70!

• Mana Spring Totem now affects all raid and party members, but no longer stacks.

• Ancestral Knowledge: Increases total Intellect by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%.

• Shamanistic Focus: Mana cost reduction increased to 50%.

• Maelstrom Weapon: Cast time reduction now applies to any spell with a cast time.

• Searing Totem: Now receives a small bonus from the shaman's total attack power.

• Mental Dexterity: Also increases critical strike chance of all shock spells by 2%/4%/6%.

• Weapon Mastery: Damage increase reduced to 2%/4%/6%.

• Healing Wave: Base cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds.

• Unleashed Rage: Also reduces the mana cost of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst abilities by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Feral Sprit: The health of the Spirit Wolves summoned by this ability has been increased slightly.

• Improved Healing Wave: Now increases Healing Wave's chance to critically strike by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Lava Lash: Now deals 125% off-hand weapon damage, damage is no longer affected by Flametounge.

• Healing Way: Bonus healing effect reduced to 15%, now effects all shaman healing spells.

• Improved Earth Shield: Your Earth Shield can no longer be dispelled.

• Ancestral Awakening: Range increased to 100 yards.

• Riptide: Heal over time component gains a larger benefit from your spell power.

• Earthliving Weapon: Heal over time component gains a larger benefit from your spell power.

• Lesser Healing Wave: Mana cost reduced slightly.



Warlocks

• Everlasting Affliction: Drain Life, Haunt and Shadow Bolt spells now have a 25% chance to refresh the duration of Corruption and Siphon Life spells on the target.

• Chaos Bolt: Cooldown reduced to 8 seconds, base damage increased slightly. Also pierces through immunity effects such as Divine Shield and Ice Block.

• Pandemic: Now takes into account critical strike debuffs on the target.

• Fire and Brimstone: Immolate spell power bonus now increased by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20%.

• Molten Core: Shadow spells and damage over time effects now have a 10%/20%/30% chance to increase damage done by all Shadow and Fire spells by 10% for 10 sec.

• Pyroclasm: Also gives your Rain of Fire a 5%/10% additional chance to crit.

• Shadowflame: Initial effect now deals fire damage, the damage over time component now deals shadow damage.

• Haunt will now do additional damage for each of the warlock's damage over time effects on the target.

• Improved Demonic Tactics: Increases your summoned demon's critical strike chance by 2%/4%/6%.

• Fel Vitality: Increases maximum stamina and intellect instead of health and mana.

• Demonic Embrace: Stamina bonus reduced to 1%/2%/3%/4%.

• Demonic Resilience: Reduces all damage taken by you and your pet by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Metamorphosis now has a 1 second cast time.

• Demonic Pact: The spell power of all party and raid members is now increased by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20% of your spell damage.

• Pandemic: Now works with Siphon Life.

• Conflagrate: Can now be cast on targets afflicted by Shadowfury.

• Searing Pain: No longer causes a high amount of threat. Damage increased for all ranks.

• Improved Searing Pain: Your damaging Searing Pain spells have a 33%/66%/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 2% and lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.



Warriors

• Bladestorm: Rage cost reduced slightly.

• Whirlwind can now be used in any stance.

• Bloodrage: While active, all damage taken is increased by 10%.

• Sweeping Strikes: Rage cost reduced slightly.

• Death Wish: Duration reduced to 20 seconds, damage bonus increased to 25%.

• Improved Berserker Stance: Increases total Strength by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Bloodsurge: Chance to proc decreased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Rampage: Range increased to 100 yards.

• Shield Wall: Damage reduction reduced to 50%.

• Vigilance: Now transfers 20% of target threat to the warrior, but no longer reduces damage taken.

• Sunder Armor: Now reduces the enemy's armor by a percent value instead of a flat value.

• Intervene: No longer reduces total threat.

• Safeguard: Damage reduction reduced to 10%/20%.

• Improved Defensive Stance: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 5%/10%. Duration of enrage effect reduced to 10 seconds.

• Warbringer: Reduces the rage cost of your Charge, Intercept and Intervene abilities by 100%.

• Critical Block: Chance to block double the amount is now equal to your critical strike chance.

• Devastate: Rank 5 damage increased slightly.





Professions



• Alchemy

o Slightly reduced the materials required to make Flask of the Frost Wyrm, Flask of Stoneblood, Flask of Endless Rage and Flask of Pure Mojo.

o Runic Mana Potions now only require one Lichbloom to make.

o Runic Healing Potions now only require one Icethorn to make.

o The Alchemists of The Sunreavers and The Silver Covenant have created a new, more powerful Alchemist Stone.

o New Alchemy Daily Quests! Visit Alchemist Fendril at Windrunner's Overlook and Alchemist Duros at Sunreaver's Command.

• Inscription

o Several new epic Inscription recipes are available from the Explorer's League Quartermaster and from within Ulduar.

o Glyph of Improved Scorch: Gives your Fireball and Frostfire Bolt spells a 20% chance to refresh the duration of your Improved Scorch effect.

o Glyph of Holy Light: Range increased to 10 yards.

o Glyph of Crusdader Strike: Your Crusader Strike ability now generates 3 applications of the Crusader Strike effect.

o Glyph of Searing Pain: The Improved Searing Pain talent now generates 3 applications of the Improved Searing Pain effect each time Searing Pain is cast.

o New Glyphs may be discovered by performing Minor Inscription Research and Northrend Inscription Research.

o Added Glyph of Holy Shock, Glyph of Greater Heal, Glyph of Chaos Bolt and Glyph of Incinerate have been added to all Grand Master Inscription Trainers.

o Milling now only requires 4 herbs.

• Enchanting

o Powerful new ring enchants can be obtained from within Ulduar.

o Enchanters may now use materials placed in the trade window to enchant other player's equipment.

o Added a new recipe to create spheres that grant spell resistance and fit in any color gem socket.

o Enchant Weapon – Executioner: Now grants Potency rating.

o Enchant Cloak – Speed: Renamed Enchant Cloak – Potency, now grants potency rating.

o Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed: Renamed Enchant Cloak – Greater Potency, now grants potency rating.

o Disenchanting high level epic items may now have a chance to yield an additional Abyss Crystal.

• Engineering

o Mekgineer's Chopper and Mechano Hog no longer require an Elementium-plated Exhaust Pipe to create.

o Plans for a new and improved Scrapbot are rumored to be kept hidden by the Iron Dwarves in The Storm Peaks.

o Several new epic belt patterns have been added to all Grand Master Engineering Trainers.

o Hyperspeed Accelerators now stack with other enchants, duration increased to 15 seconds.

• Blacksmithing

o Several new epic blacksmithing plans have been added to the game, these may be found on various reputation vendors throughout Northrend.

• Mining

o Saronite Deposits will now yield more ore.

o Saronite Deposits can now contain blue quality gems.

• Herbalism

o The drop rate on Frost Lotus has been slightly increased.

o Reduced cast time on the Herbalism skill.

• Cooking

o All cooking daily quests will now give the player a choice of 5 Northern Spices or 5 Baby Spices in addition to a Dalaran Cooking Award.

o A new recipe for Pygmy Delight has been added to all Grand Master Cooking Trainers.

o Many cooking recipes requiring northern spices have had their materials reduced slightly.

• Jewelcrafting

o A new set of more powerful gems can be found by raiding Ulduar. Their stats exceed those of previous gems that could be found.

o Icy Prisms now also have a small chance to contain an epic quality Northrend gem.

o Icy Prisms no longer require a frozen orb, but now require more uncommon quality Northrend gems.

o The Explorer's League has unlocked the secret behind many ancient titan gems. Visit Archaeologist Mezton at the Explorer's League Base Camp to see what you can learn!

o Prospecting now only requires 4 ore.



Dungeons and Raids



• Many creatures in heroic 5 man dungeons have had their hit points increased slightly.

• Players will no longer be teleported out of a raid instance after logging back in.

• The Eye of Eternity

o The damage on Malygos' Vortex has been slightly reduced in both heroic and normal difficulty.

o Players will no longer suffer fall damage when falling from Vortex.

o Pets are no longer affected by Malygos' Arcane Breath.

• The Obsidian Sanctum

o Reduced the effect of Twilight Torment in normal difficulty.

o The duration of Twilight Residue has been increased.



User Interface

• Raid Unit frames have been redesigned and are now completely customizable via interface options.

• Player Unit frames have also been redesigned and are customizable via the interface options.

• Many parts of the default UI can now be moved to any location on your screen.

• The Auction House UI has been changed, players will now see up to 200 auctions per page, more detailed information such as purchase history and average price has been added.

• When zoning into a partially completed raid instance, a confirmation dialogue will appear asking if you want to get saved to the instance.

• The built in threat meter has been expanded upon, it will now show the threat of up to 10 other players in relation to yours.

• There is now an option to display your bank and character inventory as one large bag.

• Players can now track multiple types of resources provided they have the skills required.

• New tips of the day have been added!

• Several new types of currencies have been added to the currency tab.

• Players can now turn in Netherweave Cloth and Frostweave Cloth to increase their standing with all major cities.

• New interface options have been added that will allow you to customize combat log recording.

• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.



Items

• All items that granted haste, armor penetration, or spell penetration have been updated to grant potency rating instead.

• New vendors have been added to The Silver Enclave and Sunreaver's Sanctuary, bring them your Emblems of Honor to trade for items of magnificent quality!

• You may now trade 10 Emblems of Heroism for 1 Emblem of Valor, see your faction's Emblem of Heroism vendor!

• Several epic quality items obtained from Heroic instances have had their stats updated to reflect their intended power.

• Damnation: Stats updated to reflect its intended power.

• Greatstaff of the Nexus: Stats updated to reflect its intended power.

• Dying Curse: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Soul of the Dead: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Forge Ember: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Sundial of the Exiled: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Forethought Talisman: Passive spell power reduced, healing over time effect now gains a small benefit from the caster's spell power.

• Frostweave Bag is now a 22 slot bag.

• Glacial Bag is now a 24 slot bag.

• Dragon Hide Bag is now a 24 slot bag, no longer considered unique.



World Environment

• Named NPC's will now respawn at a much quicker rate.

• All beasts in Northrend now have an increased chance to drop Chilled Meat.

• The items involved in Troll Patrol: The Alchemist's Apprentice can now be instantly looted.

• Corrected several herb spawns in Icecrown.

• Herb spawns in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord will now respawn faster.

• NPC's in The Storm Peaks now have a higher chance to drop a Relic of Ulduar.

• Players wishing to increase their standing with the Steamwheadle Cartel should visit Gazlowe in Ratchet.

• Southsea Pirates, Wastewander Bandits and Bloodsail Buccaneers will all now give increased reputation gains.

• Creatures in The Barrens now have an increased chance to drop the recipe for Savory Deviate Delights.



Bug Fixes

• Death Knight: The Lichborne ability will no longer return you to your normal form during the Prophet Tharon'ja encounter in Drak'tharon Keep.

• Death Knight: Blade Barrier will no longer count Death Runes.

• Death Knight: Shadow of Death will no longer cause the player to run back as a ghoul after releasing.

• Death Knight: Lichborne and Fear Ward no longer share a cooldown.

• Paladin: Sacred Shield will now properly gain benefit from the spell power granted by Sheath of Light.

• Paladin: Fixed a bug where Judgements sometimes dealt no damage.

• Paladin: Hammer of Wrath will no longer reset the paladin's swing timer.

• Paladin: Righteous Vengance will no longer break Repentance.

• Mage: Focus Magic will now properly trigger from melee critical strikes.

• Mage: Mage Armor will now properly decrease the duration of magical damage over time effects.

• Warrior: Armored to the Teeth no longer considers Berserking in its armor calculation.

• Warlock: Pandemic will no longer trigger Focus Magic.

• Warlock: Corrected several typos with the Ritual of Summoning Spell.

• Priest: Devouring Plague will no longer be spread by Pestilence.

• Priest: The Surge of Light buff will no longer be consumed upon cast.

• Priest: Fixed a bug where Guardian Spirit will sometimes fail to prevent a killing blow.

• Hunter: Frost Trap now correctly triggers the 30 second cooldown on Lock and Load.

• Hunter: Wyvern Sting's sleep effect will no longer break from area of effect spells.

• Achievements: Corrected the tooltip for "Gotta Go!"

• Players will now appear properly mounted on the Amani War Bear.

• The Alliance Vanguard reputation will now properly count towards total exalted factions.

• Corrected many graphical bugs along the coast of Sholazar Basin.

• When a guild is disbanded, gold will now also be mailed to the Guild Master.

• The Thaddius encounter will no longer generate an extreme amount of latency.

• Elixir of Water Walking will now properly gain a benefit from Mixology.

• Bandit's Insignia: Damage dealt will be properly increased by the target's debuffs.

• Ring of the Fated: Now properly grants potency rating.

• Players will no longer fall through the well in Dalaran without getting teleported to the sewer.

• The forge in K3 will now function properly.

• Players who die during the Prophet Tharon'ja encounter will still receive credit for his death.

• Fixed a typo for the Convention at the Legerdemain daily quest.

• Fixed various bugs in Naxxramas that would cause player to fall through the world.

• Multiple characters can now loot the Heart of Magic from Alexstrasza's Gift (Malygos Encounter)

• Players will no longer randomly get stuck in combat.

Hunter Beast Mastery Talent Tree

For Hunters, Hunter Beast Mastery is regarded as being the best for general leveling and grinding. Your pet becomes a great tank and damage dealer with the various talents in this tree. You can rarely pull aggro off your pet if you are BM specced because of the strong damage-dealing potential your pet receives, this is why this talent tree is considered the best for wow power leveling. You aren't as strong as you could be in Marksmanship and you won't have the combat bonuses to ensure your continued survival in Survivalist. Still this tree is regarded as being useful in PvP, but not as useful in end-game raiding.

Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5 (While Aspect of Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a 10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3/6/9/12/15% for 12 seconds.)
The new IAotH is set up to proc a lot more (twice as much), but also to shoot half the previous speed of 30%. Good for extra damage in the long run and it is possible to have your IAotH procs chain together.

Endurance Training - rank 5/5 (Increases the health of your pets by 2/4/6/8/10% and your total health by 1/2/3/4/5%.)

At 2,000 hit points, your pet would get a bonus of 200 hp while if you had 2,000 hit points, you'd get 100 extra hit points. Some say it is a big help (if you want to grind with your pet doing a lot of the work), not so much if you want to deal the damage. Many consider this a staple anyway.

Focused Fire - rank 2/2 (All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command Ability is increased by 10/20%.)
From what I can gather, this is a small bump in damage output (but helpful to the Kill Command). This looks small but is a big overall DPS addition. This influences all your damaging attacks.

Improved Aspect of the Monkey - rank 3/3 (Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2/4/6%.)

It is very good for a survivalist build, but not as helpful for someone who wants to rely on either their pets or their guns/bows. Not a bad ability any way you look at it, but you might find something better to spend your points on though. It is helpful with your Mongoose Bite proccing.
Thick Hide - rank 3/3 (Increases the Armor Rating of your pets by 7/14/20% and your armor contributions from items by 4/7/10%.)

It helps with damage reduction for your pet and yourself. If your pet has about 2,000 Armor and you also had 2,000 armors, they would get an extra 400 points of Armor while you get an extra 200 points from your own armor thrown into the mix. It is a very good, solid talent.
Improved Revive Pet - rank 2/2 (Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3/6 seconds, mana cost is reduced by 20/40%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15/30%.)

Situational. Can help when overrun & your pet has died (if you don't flee) and in instances. Previous talent returned your pet with twice as many hit points as this one does. Some use, many don't. This is useful in high-level raids, but also some don't use their pets in high-level raids. Your mileage may vary.

Pathfinding - rank 2/2 (Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8%.)

If you like running, this can help a little. It was an increase in speed by 2% compared to the previous version.

Bestial Swiftness - rank 1/1 (Increases the outdoor moving speed of your pets by 30%.)

WotLK PVP And PVE

It was a long time ago that people stood in line outside the game, waiting for the imminent release of Wrath of the Lich King with the other young virgins, desperate for the next installment of their virtual addiction.

Over again and again, you forget how much you hate solo PVE until you actually have to do it. It's not that it was a long, arduous grind- it wasn't. It's the fact that you haven't had to do this grind for over two years and you no longer remember how irritating it was. We noticed that by level 74 no one was bothering to Gank anymore- people were so mind-numbed by the monotony of killing 8 kobolds and collecting 12 bear that they had no time to inclination to engage in world PVP unless you really provoked them. And more often than not that wasn't enough.

Up to now, the 5 man dungeons have been mercifully short, which is a welcome change to the 2+ hour trash-fests of Shadow Lab and the like. They've also been lots of fun in terms of layout, encounters and general feel. Now we have to say that although PVE isn't the favorite aspect of the game, we enjoyed grinding these dungeons much more than grinding the TBC dungeons. The addition of the ability to choose the rep you want to gain was a very good idea and should be expanded upon. One of the complaints is that the gear on normal was pretty lackluster even at 80. We best hope that heroics will provide a better answer.

We did the first actual raiding since the MC days by pugging 25-man Naxx. We'd never been to Naxx, so clearing a few wings before we crashed was way fun. It's inconceivable to think of doing this pre- Wrath of the Lich King. We can't imagine this is what the developers intended though. We the casual hokage, got to experience raid content without having to sacrifice our life in the process. Actually we got to enjoy content we paid for but never got to see- this can't be right. We got believe that Furor and Tigole right now are plotting the assassination of Lord Kalgan (May He Live Forever). Speaking of which, this PVE gear is ridiculous, which brings us to next point.
We are missing the point of PR/TR on arena gear when you can pug cheesy raids and get the same items. We don't want to have to do raid PVE to get PVP gear. Sadly that seems to be the way it's going. To make matters worse, the entry level PVP gear is so bad you're crazy to even go for it as opposed to the heroic/raid gear you can get with emblems. The stats/resilience on the Savage blue PVP set are so bad as to be laughable, which is why we will most likely be tank specced running raids/heroics as time permits to gear up for PVP.

In PVP, it's like playing lolret but without the suck. You don't never worrying about mana. It is able to use Skill of the Forsaken while tunnel visioning Priests/Warlocks. It feels like playing a combination of Rogue and lolret at the same time, but getting so much more fun. We can't wait to play this class in arena even though the gear is terribad and we will be eating dirt left and right to the PVE superstars.

PVP'ing while leveling is loads of fun. The only problem is that it cripples your leveling speed badly while you gain virtually nothing. We don't count honor since it's a joke compared to BGs. The solution is simple. Most of the player kills reward 10K XP a pop, with a 25% DR per target per day. This way world PVP is still fun but now it's not a waste of time.