WoW.com reports that her Portable Hole, which is a 3000g 24 slot bag, is currently available for sale in the patch 3.3 PTR. According to the Warcraft twitter page, Haris Pilton is perusing her new winter collection of pouches and bags, confirming what WoW.com reported. basically the Portable Hole is the new “Gigantique” Bag, another nice money sink for those people with lots of money and in need of a slightly bigger bag.

Now if only Blizzard picked a better name for this bag considering the reputation of said famous socialite…

Post from: WOW Obsessed

quest log

Basically this new Quest Tracker feature will change the current user interface to be more helpful to players when doing quests. To put things simply, it will pretty much be the game’s built in version of the Quest Helper addon that a lot of players have been using. Right now the default UI will only show you the quest log and the progress of said quest (how many more creatures you need to kill, items to gather etc) and show if you completed everything you need to turn the quest in. The new Quest Tracker will be able to show you a lot more than that, making questing a lot easier for players.

Below is a comprehensive list of things that the Quest Tracker will be able to do taken from the PTR patch notes. But the basic thing is that this feature will be able to help you with your quests by showing you where to go on the map for whatever quest you need to do. If you’re in a particular zone where you have quests to be done, it will also show you all the quests that you can do in that zone using a numerical system from your quest log. The days of having to keep looking at your enlarged map while questing should be gone with the new shrunken map feature.

Quest Tracker entry from the patch 3.3 PTR notes:

# Players can now track quest objectives on the map (‘M’ key).
# Quest Log

* A Show Map button has been added to the Quest Log. Selecting a quest and pressing this button will open the map for the zone in which the quest objective is located displaying the associated area of interest. Any other active quests in a player’s Quest Log for that zone will also be displayed.

# Map

* The map interface has been separated into four separate panes: a map pane (left), a pane listing active quest names for the zone being viewed (right), a pane listing the full quest text for any highlighted quest (bottom left), and a pane listing the quest rewards for any highlighted quest (bottom right).
* All active quests listed in the right pane for the zone being viewed on the map will be assigned a number. These numbers will be displayed on the map according to the areas of interest for each quest.
* Highlighting a quest name in the right pane will highlight the corresponding area of interest on the map in the left pane, show its quest text in the lower left pane, and list the quest rewards in the lower right pane.
* Given that some quest objectives can be achieved in multiple locations within a given zone, highlighting such a quest will highlight an area of interest closest in proximity to the character’s current location.
* This feature can be disabled by un-checking the Show Quest Objectives box in the bottom right corner of the new map interface, restoring the map to its standard full-screen display.
* Clicking on the arrow in the top right corner of the new map interface will hide all but the map pane, bringing the map out of full-screen mode and allowing players to leave it open while navigating a zone or engaging in combat.

# Objectives Tracking

* This frame has been improved to offer new functionality and can be used with the new shrunken map option.
* The Objectives frame is now docked below the mini-map next to the right 2 action bars and will track up to 12 quests for a zone.
* Numbers have been added next to each quest name and objective corresponding with those areas of interest displayed on the map.
* If a quest objective has been completed, the number will be replaced with a yellow question mark symbol.
* The arrow button in the top right corner of the Objectives frame can be used to toggle between minimizing and maximizing the quest objective display.

# Quest Difficulty Tracking

* This feature is off by default and can be enabled in the Objectives window from the Interface Options menu. Turning this feature on will color-code all quest names displayed in the map interface according to difficulty (grey, green, yellow, orange, and red).

Post from: WOW Obsessed

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.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

icecrown citadel

Lead Encounter Designer Daelo announced in the WoW US forums that today October 15 will be the start of the Icecrown Citadel raid testing in the PTR. Testing will start for the two US PTR’s at 4 pm PDT/7 pm EDT. For now only the first boss Lord Marrowgar, the monstrosity created from the bones of the Undead, will be available for testing. Testing for EU PTR’s has yet to be announced.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

marking in groups

As it is now, only the leader of the whole group can mark targets. Since it’s now usually the tank who marks the targets, this creates a problem when the group leader isn’t the tank. That person would normally have to pass leadership to the tank eventually (or at least whoever is marking). Of course for running 5 mans this might not be much of a big deal especially when the players are an experienced and well geared but could be a big deal for groups with some inexperienced players.

With this change in patch 3.3, anybody can mark targets without the group leader having to give the leadership. This could be a good thing especially for raids when marking is needed for enemy targets of marking friendly targets like yourself and fellow raid members. But this could also cause some problems especially for PuG groups or at least members who mess around and cause distractions to the group by putting marks on targets that shouldn’t be marked. Since anybody can mark come the patch, don’t be surprised to suddenly see a skull on your head coming out of nowhere.

As usual you can see the latest PTR patch notes here.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

Cairne Bloodhoof

According to MMO Champion, Blizzard is preparing to add a few changes to the Patch 3.3 PTR that will basically make Baine Bloodhoof assume the title of High Chieftain, which his father Cairne currently holds. Even quests that Cairne used to handle will now be in the hands of the young Baine.

This move lends some credence to the rumor that Cairne Bloodhoof will be seen as a traitor by Garrosh and kills him and then Baine assumes the new leadership role. At least that last part is going to happen. There’s still a chance that Cairne could die by the time Cataclysm comes out but this piece of news also gives some hope to those people who don’t want Cairne to die. Maybe this just means Cairne steps down. We’ll just have to see what will happen.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

Varimathras

Blue poster Kisirani did say that a replacement would be made available by patch 3.3. This announcement caused some stir because he gave out a clue that this replacement would be a “B”, causing some people to speculate about who this “B” would be.

With patch 3.3 currently in the PTR, we finally know who this “B” is and it’s not Nathanos Blightcaller, Bolvar or Balnazzar as some people speculated. Apparently, after the events at the Wrathgate and the Battle for Undercity some of the Kor’kron were stationed in the Undercity and Varimathras’ replacement is their captain Bragor Bloodfist. The Kor’kron in Undercity also replaced all the Abomination guards as shown in this screenshot from World of Raids.

While this is an interesting change especially since finally Varimthras will have a replacement, it’s a bit bit sad to see the Abomination guards gone from Undercity. Those Abominations gave the place a great Forsaken feel and losing them could make the place look less cool.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

ToC interiot

Basically what they found out was a new nifty looking dagger called the Black Knight’s Rondel that you get from the Black Knight in heroic ToC. With the Black Knight’s loot table getting an addition, does this mean that there’s more than just that dagger? If so then is it for both heroic and normal mode? Are the other bosses getting a loot table update too? Well we really won’t know the answer to these questions until we see (or don’t see, for that matter) more loot getting added in the PTR. Hopefully we’ll all get a pleasant surprise!

Post from: WOW Obsessed

Onyxia's Lair

As was announced, Blizzard is bringing back the Onyxia raid dungeon and retuning it for 10/25 man raiding instead of the original 40 man one. It has been made 100% clear that this will be a level 80 raid and therefore, being a permanent update, the level 60 version will no longer exist when patch 3.2.2 is released. They will be changing the encounter a bit to fit a 10/25 man setting but the same mechanics that made the encounter awesome will still be retained. Also the loot drops will be updated for level 80 but will keep the original designs. In fact CM Bornakk mentioned that the Quel’serrar will continue to exist in one form or another. This implies that Blizzard is going to make an item drop available that reuses the same design.

One odd thought came to my mind after getting the confirmation that this will indeed be a level 80 raid. If the level 60 version of Onyxia will no longer exist, the tier 2 set as it is now will no longer be a completable set for people who want to collect it after the patch. Sure you’ll be able to get the updated gear using the same model but it’s not the real tier 2 helm and it won’t be the full set.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

quest log

Unfortunately this Quest Helper feature will not be making it for Patch 3.2 as it was removed from the PTR. It’s a bit sad because this feature would really help a lot of players and hopefully stop noobish players from asking about a certain quest when reading the quest log would answer their question. I don’t mind helping people out but they should at least do everything they can to help themselves before asking other people’s help. This would also have given players who don’t use the help of coordinate mods more help in doing quests and finding things.

It’s only logical to think that the feature isn’t ready. The Equipment Manager feature was supposed to come out in patch 3.1 but came out in a minor patch after it because it wasn’t ready. I’m assuming the same happened for the Quest Helper. Anyway, it’s better for it to come out late but ready than to come out early but bugged.

Post from: WOW Obsessed