WoW Patch 3.2 brings two more heirloom weapons

We were all aflutter over the news of the new Heirloom chest pieces that give you an extra 10% XP, but we somehow forgot to mention the two new heirloom weapons. The Venerable Mass of McGowan and the Repurposed Lava Dredger are the two new heirloom weapons we'll be getting in patch 3.2, and sticking with the theme of the other heirlooms thus far, you'll recognize them instantly if you're an old school player.

These two items are probably aimed at filling gaps in Heirloom itemization that left people like Enhancement Shaman and Feral Druids without a swank weapon to level up with. Naturally, other classes can use these if they want, but those two class/spec combinations really had no good options to work with.

I'm particularly pleased to see the Mass of McGowan being brought back. I don't know if it was the same on all servers, but on my particular server, that thing was largely believed to be a myth for the longest time. You see, the Mass only drops off of mobs that are level 60 or higher. Before they finished implementing Silithus, there were no non-elite level 60 mobs out in the world that you would just kill at random throughout your day. The only place you could find this thing was usually in raids. I'm sure my server had plenty more of them, but the only one I was actively aware of was one being used by the main tank of a Horde raiding guild. It had more mystique surrounding it than most of today's epics.

They just don't make blues like that these days. Le sigh!

Arena Season 6 details revealed

Blizzard Europe poster Ancilorn posted the lowdown on Arena Season 6 (Bornakk posted the same on the US forums), which is slated to begin at around the same time that Patch 3.1 is released. There will be some key changes to this season, the biggest of which will be that all teams will start at 0 rating instead of the traditional 1500. This way, players will generally have an upward progression throughout the season before plateauing at their estimated skill level.

Another change is that Blizzard has reevaluated the item requirements, feeling that many of them were too difficult to obtain. The lowest rating requirement for an item is currently set at 1250, which may seem low but considering players will be progressing from 0, that's a 1250 point spread. In Season 5, the lowest rating requirement is 1615, which is a mere 115 points from the starting point of 1500. It remains to be seen how much of the continually changing Arena system will award points and how easy or hard it will be to move upwards from 0. More details on the ratings after the jump.


As with WoW Season 5, all teams below 1500 will still earn points as though their team's rating was at 1500, allowing players to accumulate a decent amount of Arena Points while working their way to the required ratings. The current matchmaking system will still attempt to match teams against opponents at the same skill level, but the matchmaking rating will be transparent, appearing at the end of a match to give players an idea of where they are at. Hopefully these changes spark renewed interest in Arenas, which have seen its numbers decline sharply in Season 5.

Ancilorn listed the following items and expected rating requirements:

NO RATINGS REQUIRED
Hateful Gloves
Hateful Legs
Hateful Chest
Hateful Helm
Hateful Shoulders
Hateful Ring
Hateful Trinket

Deadly Bracer
Deadly Belt
Deadly Boots
Deadly Neck
Deadly Ring
Deadly Cape
Deadly Trinket

(Ancilorn didn't specify how these items would be purchased, although it's likely that the aforementioned gear will be available through Honor points)

RATINGS REQUIRED
1250+: Deadly Relics/Idols/Librams/Totems
1300+: Deadly Gloves
1350+: Deadly Legs
1400+: Deadly Chest
1450+: Deadly Helm
1500+: Deadly Shoulders

1400+: Furious Bracer*
1450+: Furious Belt*
1500+: Furious Boots*
1550+: Furious Neck*
1600+: Furious Gloves
1650+: Furious Ring*
1700+: Furious Legs
1750+: Furious Chest
1800+: Furious Trinket*
1850+: Furious Weapon
1900+: Furious Helm
1950+: Furious Wands/Relics/etc
2000+: Furious Cloak*
2050+: Furious Shoulders
2200+: 2nd Tier Furious Weapon
2300+: Furious Tabard

*purchased with Honor

Depending on how easy it is to move from 0 to 1250, this change can either be good or bad. Curiously, Deadly Gladiator weapons do not appear on the list but there appears to be a first tier of Furious Weapons obtainable at a formerly modest 1850. What's more significant is that there appears to be a second tier of Arena Season 6 weapons available at 2200, with shoulders available at 2050. Hopefully the second tier of weapons 'evolve' from the first tier and aren't mere recolors. Traditionally, the shoulders have had the steepest requirement among the Arena PvP items, but a 2200 requirement -- an extremely prohibitive rating in any season -- now gives something truly functional and not just for show. On the other hand, the "awesome-looking" tabard that Kalgan promised is still at 2300, and only players at Gladiator-level of play will obtain it.

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.

Tier 8 Ulduar weapon models previewed

3.1 and wow ulduar weapons are coming soon. No doubt a lot of you have been looking forward to seeing what your reward for hacking apart a variety of priceless Titan artifacts and servants of the Old Gods would be. MMO-Champion, as always, has your back! They've released a preview for the weapon and accessory models that'll be in Ulduar, and they look fantastic. The theme of the instance seems to carry through into all of its gear, and I'm going to love just how good my guild and I will look after a bit of time in there.

The image above is a paladin holding one of the wow ulduar weapons shields and the much-touted Val'anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings, and that's just the tip of the iceberg from MMOC, who promises a video of it in action very soon.

Bear in mind these are still tentative models and the art may change, but even then, what are you waiting for? Santa won't get mad if you peek. Go go go!

WoW Legendary Weapon

Do you get that MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Darry Huskey provides us with this piece of lore talking about the wow legendary weapon, WoW Frostmourne.

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, ten million bleary eyes have turned to Northrend. With it has come the wait, as legions of Horde and Alliance warriors prepare for the inevitable confrontation with Arthas, Lich King of the Scourge, and his hungering runeblade, WoW Frostmourne.

Frostmourne made its first appearances in Warcraft III, and the WoW Legendary Weapon has captured the imaginations of millions of players around the world. Since the release of the game, there was one item that was near the top of everyone's collection list. Today, we take a closer look at the sword.

None amongst the living of Azeroth know the weapon's true origins. The dreadlord Tichondrius claimed that Frostmourne was forged by Ner'zhul, the malevolent spirit that would eventually fuse with the soul of Prince Arthas Menethil or Lordaeron. However, this story is contradicted by Ner'zhul's own account.

WoW Frostmourne is what most would classify as a "bastard sword", being a hand-and-a-half sword. Its blade glows an eerie blue, and frost clings to the edge. Brightly shining runes run from the handguard half-way down the blade. The handguard is fashioned of silver metal into the shape of a horned skull.

The runeblade weaves power over souls, both those of its victims and those of its wielder. Any that would claim the sword would find themselves enthralled by the will of the Lich King, taken by its power, as Frostmourne took Arthas. Those slain by the sword find their very life essence devoured by Frostmourne's magic, their energy used to fuel the wielder. Combined with his enchanted armor, Frostmourne transforms the Lich King into a force of destruction that few men, if any, would ever have hope of defeating.

The runeblade was pushed out of the Frozen Throne by Ner'zhul to be used as a tool in his plot to possess the body of a human host. Together with the dreadlord Mal'Ganis, Ner'zhul drove Arthas, heir to the throne of the human kingdom of Lordaeron, to his breaking point by targeting the prince's subjects with the Scourge plague. At the cusp of madness, Arthas brought genocide to his own people at Stratholme, having convinced himself that he would rather see his subjects die at his hand than to rise again as servants of the Lich King. Mal'Ganis, having brought the plague to Stratholme, fled from the city to Northrend, luring Arthas to that frozen shore.

After arriving in Northrend, Arthas stumbled across an old friend, the dwarf Muradin Bronzebeard. Muradin had been seeking Frostmourne when Arthas arrived. The dwarf shared his knowledge of WoW Frostmourne with the human prince, and together the two sought out the runeblade. After defeating Frostmourne's guardians, the sword was within their reach. At the final moment, Muradin warned Arthas against taking up the WoW Legendary Weapon, having read for himself the inscription carved into the dais beneath the sword :
"Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit."

Arthas, desperate for the power to save his subjects, did not heed Muradin's warning. In the end, Frostmourne's allure proved to be too much for the young prince. Within a short time after claiming the runeblade, Frostmourne had stolen Arthas's soul completely, corrupting the paladin and re-making him as a death knight of the Lich King.

It was with Frostmourne that Arthas struck down his father, King Terenas of Lordaeron. The runeblade gave Arthas the power to assault the high elven city of Quel'thalas, defeating the ranger Sylvanas Windrunner and reanimating her as the Banshee Queen. In Northrend, Frostmourne ressurrected the spirit of the fallen blue dragon Sapphiron, forming the dragon as a frost wyrm. The runeblade cut deep into the ancient demon hunter Illidan Stormrage, leaving him for dead at the base of the Frozen Throne. Whatever the weapon's origins, it is indeed an artifact of immense power, capable of awe-inspiring displays.

Blizzard allowed players a sneak peak at the design process when they revealed statistics for the sword during the lore panel of BlizzCon 2007, though they admitted that the prototype had run into some problems and wouldn't see the live servers in that incarnation. The developers have acknowledged plans to incorporate the sword as a player weapon, but only time will tell what powers that item will have.

WoW Frostmourne has proven to be so popular amongst the fanbase that in early 2008, Blizzard announced a partnership with replica weapons merchant Epic Weapons to create life-sized, limited edition replicas of the sword. One of the first replicas in the production line was sold at auction for a staggering twenty thousand dollars.

Arthas's runeblade belongs amongst a select group of artifacts within the world of Azeroth that have taken on a life of their own, attracting fan followings, though it hasn't yet achieved the sort of cult status that would see it spammed in trade chat over and over, like another nefarious golden weapon that shall remain nameless. Though we may have to wait some months to see the sword make its debut within the game, for many, the wait will be well worth it, and the day they acquire WoW Frostmourne for their own will be a day they will remember for time to come.

Crafted Death Knight tanking weapons removed from PTR

One of the initial changes in patch 3.0.8 was the inclusion of Death Knight tanking weapons that could be crafted by a high level Blacksmith. As of the latest 3.0.8 PTR update, these have been removed. And all indication is that they'll stay removed.

Ghostcrawler doesn't want Death Knights to hang onto the weapons throughout their time in Wrath of the Lich King, which is apparently what Blizzard is afraid will happen. The other issue with providing 2H tanking weapons was that Blizzard would have needed to start itemizing (putting tanking stats on and crafting gear for) 2H tanking weapons overall, and that's something they didn't want to do.

The Ghost also points out that the new sigil and runeforge enchant should be enough to get the Death Knight defense up to where it needs to be.

Howling Blast and other patch 3.0.8 follies

Yeah, I definitely have to put out a mea culpa here. Alas, Lichborne is a little bit late again. I have a valid excuse, I swear. It involved a flaming plum pudding, a flailing geist, and a sudden snowstorm at the Shadow Vault over in Icecrown. But after an emergency eye transplant by a Forsaken Death Knight who used to be a member of the RAS, I'm back in the saddle and this week's column is only a few days late.

Anyhow, this week I thought I'd take a look at the deeper implications and meanings behind some of the Death Knight changes coming our way in 3.0.8. Our newest Mike has summarized and analysed quite a few of them, but I have just a few more things I want to say, especially about a new change that was added in a recent PTR update.


The "New Skins"

First off, though, we've been getting a few questions about this here at WoW Insider's Ebon Hold division news desk, so I thought I'd set the record straight. That line about new skins and looks for Death Knights was a mistake. There are new skins for Death Knights, but, as you know since you saw our gallery back during beta, those have been in for a while, and were available for all new Death Knights when Wrath released.

The note went in because Blizzard has been fiddling around with ways to make the skins easier to find and use. Right now, some of the skins refuse to show up all the time or only show up if paired with a specific skin color, so it's harder to get to them. But until they get a more elegant solution or find a better way to express it in the patch notes, they've already removed it from the newest version of the notes.

So no, Blizzard doesn't really owe you 15 bucks to change your skin, the options were there all along. Still, if you want to see what you might have missed (I've done this myself), you should be able to head to the character creation screen, choose a Death Knight of your race and class, and play around with skins to decide whether it's worth it to drop 15 bucks just to look a bit deader or meaner. Honestly, in the case of some of the skins, like those of the Human female or either gender of Blood Elf (the first person who says "but Blood Elves only have one gender" is going to get smacked, I'm warning you now), I do think it may be worth it. They get some awesome looks.

Defense Weapons

So coming our way in 3.0.8, we have 2-handed tanking weapons made with Blacksmithing. Unfortunately, they're also bind on pickup. This has quite a few serious tank Death Knights already scrambling to level their smithing so that they can grab these babies come 3.0.8 and kiss their defense woes goodbye.

Me, I'm sticking with Inscription, not only because I am pretty sure the 540 defense cap is reachable without the weapons, especially once the +25 defense skill +2% stamina Runeforging enchant goes live, but because I am also sure that Blizzard will make them BoE. Blizzard's been all about making a tank's life easier. Warriors, Druids, Paladins, and Death Knights have been getting tools all through the Wrath beta and into live designed to reduce the need for crowd control, make threat easier to get and manage, and so on, all to fix that dreaded tank shortage. Even changes that look like nerfs, such as the Bone Shield and Icebound Fortitude changes, are offset by the Frost Presence buff, which should make us overall take more consistent damage and be easier to heal when we tank.

In addition, they've also been about making professions less about the BoP reward you get at the end and more about personal preference. While you do have a couple BoP holdovers such as engineering goggles, the good stuff is now all BoE, such as the tailoring armor, and blacksmithing DPS weapons such as the Titansteel Destroyer, which back in BC surely would have been an macesmith only weapon. For both of these reasons, suddenly introducing such an effective and near mandatory weapon for Death Knight tanks and making it require grinding what is, in my experience, one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming professions to level, would go against the loot and gameplay philosophies they seem to have espoused so far.

So the other question is, is Blizzard going back on their word with this? I suppose, in the strictest, most nitpicky definition, they sort of are backpedaling, since they have gone on record as saying they had no plans to implement tanking 2-handed weapons. But honestly, saying that you have no plans or don't intend do something isn't the same as saying you'll never do it. Blizzard, after some thought, saw that getting to 540 defense skill for a Death Knight was more difficult than it should be, and chose an outlay of options to ease that path.

What will be interesting to me is to see if they continue this trend. Come Ulduar and later dungeons, will we see +defense and +parry type two-handers dropping, ready for Death Knights and the odd Fury Warrior offtank who refuses to use their second spec for tanking? Or is this purely a stopgap measure to allow a new 80 Death Knight a way to close the defense skill gap until they can get some heroic and raid level gear? I'm leaning toward it being the latter, but we'll see.


Howling Blast and Dual Wielding

So here, to me, is the biggest change that's come along in 3.0.8 is simple: Howling Blast no longer has a cooldown. This change, if it goes live, may single-handedly vault dual wielding to the top of the Death Knight charts, with builds designed to churn out Howling Blasts as quickly as possible dwarfing the damage potential of all other builds.

To get an idea of how this works, check out this Frost-heavy build, or this build which is more Unholy biased. The main point with both these builds is to grab Howling Blast, Killing Machine, either Reaping or Blood of the North for the Death Runes, and as many other skills as you can grab to up your magic damage and/or Howling Blast damage.

With these builds and the new instant cooldown Howling Blast, you can, in theory, unload Frost Fever, spread it with Pestilence, then keep unloading Howling Blasts as fast you can proc Rime and convert Death Runes. You specifically want this build to be dual wielding in order to maximize your number of Killing Machine procs, which is also why you want Unholy as your secondary tree, since Necrosis and Blood Caked Blade are considered essentially mandatory for decent dual wielding DPS.

Now, I don't think this change will last, and Howling Blast will see a cooldown again. Either that, or Killing Machine or Blood Caked Blade will get some sort of internal cooldown nerf just to make sure dual wield Howling Blast builds don't get a smidge on the overpowered side. Blizzard has said very recently that they understand that making Death Knight talents and skills too dual wield friendly would simply result in the complete marginalization of the two-handed playing style (Just as it did for Enhancement Shamans, in fact). Thus, we won't see this build dominate for too long without some adjustments. Admittedly, this may be my strong pro two-hander bias speaking.

If this change does go live though, any serious Death Knight DPSer is going to want to find 2 decent 1-handed weapons and spec into some Frost talents, I'm pretty positive.

Waiting for 3.0.8

Now, mind you, I could be wrong. The defense weapons could go in bind on pickup, and Howling Blast could stay on instant cooldown. My prophecies have been off a bit lately, so it's possible. But for now, I'm not panicking too much about the Death Knight changes, major though they may be. There's still time to see how they shake down. The expansion and the class are still young, and I'm just enjoying the ride. I hope you'll all keep on riding with me, and we'll see where we are on the other side of the patch

Arena Season 5 is out!

The PvP patch is coming today and starting off the new arena season for World of Warcraft - WoW Arena Season 5. With it comes the delightful addition of PvP armor and weapons that are sure to be on most player's Christmas lists. Still there are some changes to the way things works with the newest arena season. Blizzard has learned a lot about PvP rewards from the previous expansion and they're trying not to repeat any mistakes. In the Burning Crusade they made the season one arena gear a little too powerful compared to the gear from heroics. This sort of resulted in a dead period where people mostly ignored heroic dungeons. It really wasn't until the Badge of Justice loot started to get better that heroics and Karazhan started to see a resurgence in popularity.

This time around it looks like Blizzard is allowing multiple ways of getting the arena gear. Players will be able to use emblems, honor points, and arena points to gear up for their cage matches. Blizzard also seems to be using a more complex tier system this time around. The arena season 5 looks like it will have three tiers to start with. Most likely as new arena seasons are introduced the lowest tier will be dropped.

Main Set Pieces and Weapons (chest, legs, etc)

Tier 1 - Blue Arena Gear (Savage Gladiators)
(Honor and Arena points: No Ratings) or Emblems of Heroism
Equal to the Blue level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons

Tier 2 - Epic Arena Gear (Hateful Gladiators)
(Arena points: Ratings from 1600-1800) or Emblems of Valor
Equal to the Epic level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons

Tier 3 - Epic Arena Gear (Deadly Gladiators)
(Arena points: Ratings in the 1900-2100)
Equal to 25 man raid gear but with more PvP stats (stamina, resilience)


Secondary Set pieces and accessories (bracers, rings, etc)

Tier 1 - Epic Arena Gear (Hateful Gladiators)
(Honor Points: Ratings in the 1600-1800)
Equal to the Epic level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons

Tier 2 - Epic Arena Gear (Deadly Gladiators)
(Honor points: Ratings in the 1900-2100)
Equal to 25 man raid gear but with more PvP stats (stamina, resilience)

I must say that I was not a fan of the introduction of rating requirements to PvP gear. There were too many ways to cheat the early versions of the arena system. Even with rating requirements a lot of players simply bought spots on high end teams or created a smurf team. By the time Blizzard ironed out all the bugs the cheaters were already a couple tiers ahead of most other players. This gear advantage made it impossible to compete fairly and I found myself wandering to other games that promised PvP glory. The same thing could happen again, but not unless a new flaw in the PvP reward system is found. Otherwise I think Blizzard has a fair chance of keeping a static, but somewhat satisfying PvP game going for quite some time.

Wow feral staves no more in patch 3.0.8

So back in another life, when I was a Druid, there was always something that got me a little hot and bothered: Seeing another class with a wow feral weapon. Sometimes it was a Night Elf Hunter running around Hellfire peninsula with an Ursol's Claw, sometimes it was a Gnome Warrior hanging in Shattrath with a Terestian's Stranglestaff.

Whatever it was, it always bothered me a bit. I wondered if they had just taken it because there was no Druid in the group, or if there was some poor feral scrub out there wandering lost and lonely without a wow feral weapon because some guy who couldn't even use all that delicious feral attack power wanted it for the agility or whatever. I have to admit, though, many feral staves are some of the coolest looking items in game, so I wouldn't necessarily blame them for taking one.

After WoW Patch 3.0.8, they'll have even more reason to take them.

MMO-Champion has a list of the new stats for many Northrend-era "feral staves" from the Wow 3.0.8 PTR on their site. As you can see, feral attack power as a statistic is no more. Instead, each staff now has the higher base DPS you'd expect for a solid 2-handed melee weapon of their level, and any strength has been converted to straight up attack power. This is, of course, expected, since we knew Druids were getting the ability to use weapon DPS, but it's interesting that they have completely overhauled the weapons to this degree.

I have to admit, I'm sort of excited. I've always been a fan of a good solid quarterstaff when it comes to medieval and fantasy weaponry, and this change should make these staves a viable gearing choice for a Hunter -- I'd bet that was exactly why the strength on the staves was converted to attack power -- and maybe even a leveling Warrior. Too bad my Death Knight can't use them.

One thing I'll be interested to see is if, in future patches, they continue to make "feral" staves like these, or if ferals will have to use maces, which have fewer class restrictions and thus are more in line with Blizzard's new gearing and loot philosophies. I'm a big fan of staves as viable melee weapons, and even more so a fan of some of the unique, awesome looking staff designs we've seen out of wow feral staves in the past, so I'm hoping they don't go completely extinct in future patches and expansions even with these wow 3.0.8 changes.