Post-Patch 3.3 Hotfixes announced

It’s a bit strange that Blizzard would apply hotfixes for certain class abilities so soon after the release of the patch. Normally these issues would be addressed before the release, after all that’s what the PTR is for. But alas, here it is. I guess Blizzard saw the data from the live servers and saw that it’s something that really needs to be fixed and not left alone like they probably thought they could do.

There already were a few other hotfixes announced and most of them involved other things like specific items or certain bugs to certain dungeon encounters. Those can be seen in a post by CM Crygil here. A few more recent hotfixes involving class abilities were announced by Ghostcrawler and probably have taken effect already. Rogues, Death Knights and Warlocks are the classes affected by the changes.

Rogues: Hunger for Blood now increases damage by 10% instead of 15%

Ghostcrawler mentions that they wanted to increase the damage of Assassination rogues but in doing so, they overdid it a bit. Hunger for Blood was the candidate for some nerfing since they buffed it before when they wanted to give the tree a damage boost. But now it’s been changed again to lower the damage to what they want it to be.

Death Knights: The shadow portion of Scourge Strike can no longer crit.

The Unholy talent Scourge Strike has a physical damage portion and shadow damage portion. Only the physical damage portion will be able to crit now. At first they wanted both to crit but that proved to be too bursty for PvP and gives too much sustained damage for raids.

Warlocks: Rolling Corruptions no longer use the initial haste value indefinitely

This problem sounds familiar and I actually thought this would have been fixed by now. This same thing became an issue for Druids rolling lifebloom indefinitely to maintain any buff that was used in the first cast like a healing increase trinket. Apparently it’s sort of the same issue for corruption and haste, leading to some high damage that Blizzard feels just isn’t right. With the hotfix, the hasted corruption should correct itself within a few ticks after it’s refreshed.

Cataclysm could make some quests feel odd

A while back I mentioned that I was was going to wait for the Cataclysm expansion to make my Shaman alt so that I could be a Goblin. Well I tried waiting for a while but a really big itch to play one combined with an opportunity to play as Alliance on another server with some old friends prompted me to make a Draenei Shaman in that other server. I guess I’ll just have to settle for another class like a Priest or something for that Goblin I want to have.

Anyway, it’s while leveling up that Draenei Shaman that I encountered the famous Alliance quest chain “The Missing Diplomat” and I realized that it did feel quite odd to be doing that quest since it’s outdated, made for before Wrath of the Lich King came out. Everyone familiar with that quest chain knows that the Missing Diplomat isn’t just a diplomat but King Varian Wrynn himself, who oddly enough happens to be standing just a few feet away from the original quest giver. of course back in the day when King Varian was really missing, this quest made sense.

In a similar fashion I can think of something that would feel just as strange when the Cataclysm expansion comes out and it involves Thrall and Garrosh Hellscream. Anyone who plays as Horde probably knows that Thrall is involved with a bunch of quests involving Ragefire Chasm, the search for the Mag’har and even the welcoming of the Death Knights into the Horde. We also know that Garrosh Hellscream will indeed be the new Warchief when Cataclysm comes. Anyone see the problem now?

Garrosh simply can’t take the place of Thrall for some of these things. As new Warchief, would it be Garrosh’s job to welcome the new Death Knights? Somehow I don’t think it’s up his alley considering it’s Thrall’s respect for Tirion Fordring that helped that through, something Garrosh doesn’t seem to have. If it’s still Thrall’s job then where can we find him, since Garrosh is the new Warchief. Even stranger would be the quest involving the finding of the Mag’har because this quest involves Thrall specifically and at this point in time Garrosh is still an impotent leader in Garadar.

I don’t claim that things are going to be inconsistent because the events I’m talking about involve a different period in the game. But i feel like those things I mentioned still need some kind of resolution because it really is going to feel strange to people doing them.

On tanks and other specs and Quel’delar

As I posted yesterday, the patch 3.3 PTR revealed a bunch of cool stuff yesterday including the four Quel’delar blades plus the three maces that you can get by completing the Quel’delar quest chain. Looking at all seven weapons you’ll realize that not all specs are accommodated but all classes can use at least one of them. If you happen to be one of the unlucky specs then too bad for you. The most glaring thing isn’t that all specs aren’t accommodated. I mean sure Elemental Shamans and Boomkin Druids don’t have a weapon that perfectly fits their spec but there’s a healing mace out there that they could opt to use. There isn’t even a dagger for those dagger rogues out there but rogues can use either the attack power mace or one of the Quel’delars. The most glaring thing is that Tanks have pretty much been given the shaft.

Perhaps the only Tank that can use one of these weapons is the Death Knight tank. They use two handers for tanking anyway so this isn’t that big a deal for them. The bigger issue is that every other tank doesn’t get to share with the fun. If you’re a tank, you’ll be doing the Quel’delar quest chain for your off spec and that’s just sad. CM Bornakk has this to say about the situation:

We don’t feel there is a need for it? We aimed to make sure that every class had something to gain from the Quel’Delar series, but that doesn’t mean every spec of every class. Could a tank use the one handed dps version of Quel’Delar? Yes, it may give them more threat. Is this ideal for surviving while tanking? No, but there are other items available for that. Source

I somehow feel what Bornakk is trying to say. If the Argent Tournament rewards don’t even include a proper healing mace for holy pallies and resto shammies then we probably shouldn’t expect better for the Quel’delar. Sure the seven weapons seem to be very accommodating. It’s just that having something this epic and leaving out a whole role doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth. Even the Argent Tournament rewards, lacking a bit in coverage for specs, managed to get a tanking Axe out. So while Bornakk has a point, it still feels like a whole bunch of bull excrement to me.

Developers announce Chill of the Throne

Lead Encounter Designer Daelo announced something earlier involving the Icecrown Citadel coming out in patch 3.3 that is causing a lot of debate and whining especially within the tank community. The developers are implementing a spell in the Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon called Chill of the Throne which will affect every creature inside the raid. Chill of the Throne will allow these creatures to ignore 20% of it’s melee target’s dodge chance. So if you normally have 30% chance to dodge, you’ll only have 10% inside the Icecrown Citadel.

Before going into the issue itself, I just find it quite interesting because this whole thing looks like a way to show how badass the Lich King is and adding to the whole epic difficulty feel of the place but the devs said that it was something they didn’t have to do if not for something you would originally think would be the reason. According to Ghostcrawler, they didn’t anticipate that they would add more gear tiers because of the heroic modes so their avoidance numbers are messed up. He also said that Cataclsym will better handle the avoidance numbers.

So players have actually seen this before with a buff that mobs in the Sunwell Plateau had called Sunwell Radiance. According to them they would want tanks to take a constant stream of damage over time but having high avoidance numbers would make their incoming damage more spiky than the raid would want. They would want healers to better plan their heals and for tanks to better react to incoming damage using cooldowns.

I have to be honest. I don’t tank and only have a very limited knowledge of all this technical stuff concerning tanking stats. This reasoning actually sounds to me like it’s actually better for the raid that tank avoidance is getting nerfed. That doesn’t sound right to me any way I look at it. It makes more sense to me if they just said that “we want the place to be badass so we’re nerfing your tanks”.

Right or wrong, there’s now a debate going in the forums about how this change will affect the avoidance tanks as opposed to the mitigation tanks. All tanks are affected by this of course but it seems like druids and death knights who rely a lot on avoidance (death knights need to dodge or parry to get a rune strike going, which is one of their threat increasing tools) are going to be affected more than the paladins and warriors. Others say that there really won’t be a big difference and that druids might even come out ok because of their high health pool levels.

Whatever the right answer is, this announcement surely is causing a ruckus in the tanking community and I’m sure it will add to the epic difficult benefiting a raid dungeon like the Icecrown Citadel and a boss like the Lich King.

Race Change Service Now Available

When the Faction Change service was announced a little way back, Blizzard announced that they were also going to make a race change service available soon after. Well that soon has finally arrived as Blizzard announced the availability of their Race Change service.

It actually didn’t take much thinking that a race change service would make sense especially after Blizzard allowed faction switching. Switching factions is more of a leap than switching races within the same faction. In a way race switching was possible even before but it involved switching factions then paying for another one later on when the service is available again but this time choosing a different race like going from an Undead warlock to a Human Warlock then an Orc Warlock. That being said, I was actually a bit surprised that this service actually came out before patch 3.3’s release.

Basically the mechanics of the race change service has similarities to the faction transfer except that of course since you aren’t switching factions, a lot of things aren’t affected. The service costs $25 per transaction and is different and separate from a faction transfer so you cannot change factions using this service. Characters at least level 10 are eligible for this service, except for Death Knights who need to be level 60. This service also includes a name change and a re-customization as part of the package but this is purely optional. You can change your race every three days.

After purchasing a race change you’ll need to be logged out of the character involved for at least 30 minutes. When the change has been completed, necessary reputations will be changed accordingly but things like achievements, honor points, arena points, mounts, titles, non combat pets and such similar things will not be affected by this process.

Click here to see the complete Race Change FAQ.

Who’s Lava Man?

Data mining the game files every time a patch is in the PTR is a great way to find out cool things Blizzard has in store for us. It’s the way we got a hint that Worgen and Goblins were the new races for the next expansion. MMO Champion has been doing this for as long as I can remember and they have another surprise for us.

MMO Champion was able to uncover a new character model called the Lava Man which can be seen by following this link. It looks like a stony looking character wearing some pieces of plate armor and is partially on fire just like he’s made of molten rock or lava that’s cooled a bit.

Right now we don’t know the significance of this Lava Man but guesses point to something cool if it were actually true. Seeing as the final major content patch is already on the way and already is in the PTR, it doesn’t make sense to add something trivial to the story. It’s then safe to assume the Lava Man’s purpose should be pretty important.

It’s been several patches since the fate of both Saurfang the Younger and Bolvar Fordragon has become unknown after the events at the Wrathgate and this patch should reveal what their fate really has become. The Icecrown Citadel preview spoke of the most powerful Death Knight of the Lich King and it could very well be Saurfang the Younger. If this is true, Bolvar Fordragon’s exact fate is still up in the air… or is it?

A bug that allowed players to understand Draconic revealed that the Dragon Queen Alexstasza has big plans for the Bolvar. The Lava Man fits well with something that the Red Dragons have something to do with since fire is their element, as shown by how they set fire to the meatwagons of the Putress and the other traitorous Forsaken in the Wrathgate cinematic. If this is true, this also answers how the Dragon Queen could somehow lend a helping hand in the Lich King’s defeat.

For now all we can do is wait and see what will happen and also see at how cool the Lava Man looks.

Icecrown Citadel Raid Preview Released

Just the other day Blizzard released information about the Frozen Halls, which is the 5 man dungeon within the Icecrown Citadel grounds coming out in patch 3.3. Based on the descriptions, the whole thing looks pretty epic especially for a 5 man dungeon. Epic is something expected for the raid dungeon, which we now know will be called the Frozen Throne. but based on the information that was just released it seems like it could be even more interesting and epic even for raid standards – something befitting someone like the Lich King considering the player cap restrictions.

The Frozen Throne will have the usual 10 and 25 man versions but each of the 12 encounters can be done in heroic mode if the raid chooses. Switching between difficulties can be done using a simple new interface. The gear that drops from the 10 man version is at item level 251, while item level 264 is for the 10 man heroic and the 25 man normal. The 25 man heroic encounters will drop item level 277 gear.

Just like the Frozen Halls 5 man dungeon has you fighting alongside Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner, the Frozen throne raid has you accompany heroes like Tirion Fordring, High Overlord Saurfang, Varian Wrynn, Muradin Bronzebeard and Darion Mograine. I wonder if that’s an incomplete list since Thrall and Garrosh Hellscream weren’t mentioned, among other people. The Argent crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade forged an alliance to form the Ashen Verdict. I wonder if this will result in another faction to gain rep with just like the Shattered Sun Offensive resulting from the alliance between the Scryers and the Aldor in TBC. Read more

Deathwing and interaction with players

We have yet to see patch 3.3 which will bring us the final installment of the Wrath of the Lich King story but we can already say with conviction that Blizzard has learned from their lesson with Illidan in The Burning Crusade. In TBC, only a small percentage of the players really got to see Illidan and also the bigger baddie Kil’jaeden because you had to be a raider to see them and how they fit in with the whole story. In Wrath of the Lich King, players get to see the Lich King in various stages of the leveling process through Northrend. The earliest I know of is a quest in Gjalerbron in Howling Fjord but even earlier if you’re a Death Knight.

CM Zarhym mentions that they want something similar for Deathwing in the Cataclysm expansion. They want characters leveling through the changed Azeroth (whether it be the 1-55 or 78-85 zones) to know who Deathwing is and his history. After all, it’s only right for players to know more about the guy who altered Azeroth’s landscape forever. In this sense he’s more badass than the Lich King and after reading a bit about his story it seems like he could be a more interesting foe. Being an ancient figure in the Warcraft lore, it’s quite a shame that the average WoW player probably doesn’t know as much about such a powerful being as he/she does the Lich King (as I said I had to do more reading to know more about Deathwing).

Zarhym also mentions that while they want players to feel more involved with Deathwing’s story, it will be in a much different way than the Lich King. He won’t be as directly involved as the Lich King who appears in front of the players many many times. If you think about it, it kinda makes sense because there aren’t as many circumstances where you could fit a badass dragon in various areas of the leveling process. It probably would seem shocking to see Deathwing in all his power as you quest through the lands. as Zarhym puts it, “your jaw will turn to molten liquid before it could drop to the floor”. That’s definitely not the feeling we get when we see the Lich King face to face.

I’m excited about this. We finally see some of the dragon aspects in the game like Malygos and Alexstrasza in WoTLK and also the whole thing with Wyrmrest Accord and even a sneak peak at Deathwing’s Twilight Dragons. It’s actually the perfect thing to set up the Cataclysm. And we finally get to see the guy hiding in Grim Batol after all these years!

Paid Faction Transfer Service Now Available

Blizzard shocked the World of Warcraft community when they announced that they will be offering a paid faction transfer service. It was something that a lot of players have been asking for so that they can play with friends in the other faction or would just want a change of scenery. But it was also something that a lot of people considered a bridge Blizzard never cross.

Well it’s been announced and players have been resigned to it and just when everyone seems to have mellowed down about this issue, Blizzard shocks the community a bit more by releasing the service sooner than what a lot of people expected. You look at the forums right now and you’ll see that a lot of people expected this by cataclysm or at least by patch 3.3, not now.

Yes the paid faction transfer service is here and you can see the FAQ about this through this link. here are a few basic things to know about the faction transfer.

# The service will cost $30 per transaction (not including any applicable taxes)
# This service will be available to characters level 10 and above. Death Knights will have to reach level 60 before they can switch factions.
# When the faction change is complete, the character can choose any race from the other faction that is available to that character’s class. (no blood elf paladins turning into gnome paladins, sorry)
# 60 days after purchasing a faction change, you’re eligible to purchase another one. If you switch back to your original faction (meaning paying for another one), you can choose any race available to your class and not just your original race.
# Everything not related to your faction will be unchanged by this process. Those that are faction related could be changed or even removed. check the FAQ for more details.
# An example of the above: All Argent Tournament reputation will be reset by availing of this service.

Goblin and Worgen Racials

Last weekend’s Blizzcon ‘09 saw the announcement of the Cataclysm expansion and instead of a new class like Wrath of the Lich King’s Death Knight, Blizzard decided to go the way of The Burning Crusade to release a pair of new playable races. It’s been rumored for a while now that the Goblin and Worgen races would be new races for the expansion because of the Goblin and Worgen Halloween masks that were discovered from data mining game files. At the time it seemed like strange choices for new races but turns out that they were indeed the new races as announced.

A while back I made a list of possible racials for the Goblin and the Worgen assuming for a second that they were the new races. well now they are the new races and the real racials are listed below (Taken from WoW Wiki). These were apparently announced already at Blizzcon and I missed it for a few days due to its relatively low key status. For people like me who still haven’t seen them, here are the real Goblin and Worgen racials. I have to say that while I didn’t get any of the racials smack on with my speculations before, some of the ideas have manifested themselves in some other way.

GOBLIN| source

Playable classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Hunter, Mage, Warlock

Racials:

Rocket Jump – instant – 2 min cooldown
Activate your rocket belt to jump up to 20 yards.

Rocket Barrage – instant – 2 min cooldown (shared with Rocket Jump)
Fire your belt rockets at an enemy within 30 yards.

Time is money – passive
Cash in on a 1% increase to attack and casting speed.

Best Deals Anywhere – passive
Best possible gold discount, regardless of reputation.

Pack Hobgoblin – instant – 30 min cooldown
Calls in your personal servant, allowing you bank access every 30 min.

Better Living Through Chemistry – passive
Alchemy skill +15, your potions give more health/mana.

WORGEN| source

Playable classes: Druid, Death Knight, Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Priest, Hunter, Warrior

Racials:

Viciousness (Passive)
Increase damage by 1%.

Abberation (Passive)
Reduced duration on Curses and Diseases used against you by 15%.

Flayer (Passive)
Skinning skill +15, skinning speed increase, no knife required.

Darkflight – instant – 3 min cooldown
Activate your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 6 sec.

Two Forms – instant – 1.5 sec cooldown
Transform into your currently inactive form.

Worgen will be able to switch between human form and worgen form while out of combat using the two forms ability. Entering combat in human form will automaticlaly shift you to worgen.

Don’t you think that with goblins and worgen having 6 racials and the others only having 4, this could be a sign that the other races could get at least 2 more cool racials to match up to them? It’s definitely a thought to ponder.

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