Project Lore

[caption id="attachment_9182" align="alignright" width="300" caption="So much fuss over one little sword..."][/caption] A.K.A. "Blizzard Doesn't Know What To Do With The Battered Hilt." Almost all of the changes in this round of fixes revolves around equalizing the availability of everyone's new favorite trash drop. First, players had a high chance of obtaining the Hilt, and when it wasn't being used to actually procure Quel'Delar through the quest chain, it was going for beaucoups bucks on the Auction House. Then Blizzard nerfed the drop rate, but that just caused people to farm the weak skeleton mobs found in the beginning of the Pit of Saron. Now, the drop rate has been bumped up again, but epics can no longer drop from said mobs:

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted. To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677858456&sid=1 12/15/09

• Quel’Delar in now unique equip.
• Naxxramas can now be cleared in any order for the Immortal and Undying achievements.
• The drop rate for the Battered Hilt has been increased.
• The Skeletal Slave in the Pit of Saron has had the ability to drop the Battered Hilt and other random drop epics removed.

So is this the end of the Battered Hilt saga? It's hard to tell, but here's what Zarhym has to say about the tweaks:

Based on feedback we’ve been provided by players, we’d like to make you aware of a couple of changes we are applying to Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls via in-game fixes. Firstly, we are increasing the drop rate of the Battered Hilt in all three wings of this Heroic five-player dungeon. We have seen a great deal of discussion about this item’s chance of dropping since the release of patch 3.3.0 and agree that it is currently too low. As a result, players should find greater accessibility to this item while running these dungeons, or while trading with other players who have it. In light of this change, we are also removing the chance for the Battered Hilt or any other epic item to drop from the Skeletal Slaves in the Pit of Saron. The need to “farm” these creatures for the Battered Hilt should be reduced by our first in-game fix and will no longer result in a chance for epic loot or Battered Hilts. You’re welcome to discuss these changes in this thread and provide us with any additional feedback you may have. Please refrain from creating additional threads about these in-game fixes at this time.

All I know is that I've already gotten a Quel'Delar for my Shaman, Nuggnuts, and I'm pretty happy with it. I have yet to try and farm the Hilt, and even if I did, I see the market for them tanking very quickly (and it already sort of has). Have any of you actually pursued this means of income, and what kind of luck did you have doing so?

In commemoration of  the release of the final major content patch of Wrath of the Lich King, we've decided to stroll down memory lane to generate some of our own Top 10 lists. So between now and the probably still somewhat distant release of Cataclysm, we'll be taking a look back at the best (and worst) that WotLK brought to World of Warcraft. Let's start out with a fun one: The top 10 best boss battlecries (5-man dungeon edition). We have yet to see all that Icecrown Citadel has to offer in this category, so we can save the 10- and 25-man edition for another time. Let's get rolling.

10. "Soft, vulnerable shells. Brief, fragile lives. You can not escape the curse of flesh!" Oh, those cuddly vrykul have such a way with words. These ones were uttered by Sjonnir The Ironshaper in the Halls of Stone.

9. "The master surveyed his kingdom and found it... lacking. His judgment was swift and without mercy: DEATH TO ALL!" The first new dungeon makes its appearance on my list. Marwyn in the Halls of Reflection takes all of the Lich King's murderous malice and sums it up well. Out of all bosses here, he seemingly takes a LOT of pleasure out of killing, also telling players things like "Death is all that you will find here!" and "I saw the same look in his eyes when he died. Terenas could hardly believe it. Hahahaha!"

8. "I have witnessed the rise and fall of empires. The birth and extinction of entire species. Over countless millennia the foolishness of mortals has remained the only constant. Your presence here confirms this. My master has shown me the future, and you have no place in it. Azeroth will be reborn in darkness. Yogg-Saron shall be released! The Pantheon shall fall!" The somewhat long-winded Loken in the Halls of Lighting shows his eloquent side with a nice soliloquy. Perhaps he should have put that misguided passion into the heroes of Azeroth.

7. "Tiny creatures under feet, you bring Garfrost something good to eat!" If you haven't been to the Pit of Saron yet, make sure you go soon and pay Forgemaster Garfrost a visit. I like him because he seems not so much evil -- just hungry, enslaved and stupid. Upon bashing his own food sources (which would be you) with a boulder, he yells in disdain, "That one maybe not so good to eat now. Stupid Garfrost! BAD! BAD!"

6. "We fought back da Scourge. What chance joo be thinkin' JOO got?" Gundrak's Moorabi has a point. And a sexy accent. And he gives you a HELL of a time as you try for that stupid-luck achievement Less-Rabi. But he'll die in the end.

5. "You spoiled my grand entrance, rat. Did you honestly think that an agent of the Lich King would be bested on the field of your pathetic little tournament? I've come to finish my task. This farce ends -- here!" Perhaps it's not so much the Black Knight's words that put him on my list, but the mini-event in which he flies in and disrupts the Trial of the Champion. Plus, if you've done any of the Argent Tournament quests, there's some pretty intriguing lore that leads up to his death.

4. "Your heartbeat is music to my ears... I am nowhere. I am everywhere. I am the watcher, unseen." In Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom, Prince Taldaram's vampiric ways and flame sphere ability are annoying. But he invokes the calm and collected exterior of a proper blood-drinker when addressing his enemies.

3. "You invade my home and then dare to challenge me? I will tear the hearts from your chests and offer them as gifts to the death god! Rualg nja gaborr." Another vrykul appears on the list! This time it's King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle, who wants to rip you apart more than any other. His violent nature continues as he screams, "Ranulf of the Screaming Abyss, snuff these maggots with darkest night!"

2. "I'LL PAINT MY FACE WITH YOUR BLOOD!!" Utguard Keep's Ingvar the Plunderer, yet another vrykul, tells us about his creative plans for our entrails. This also has become a great battlecry among guildies (as popularized by Scott Johnson of The Instance) and is just a fun thing to yell at random crowds in Dalaran. It would have been atop my list if not for the appearance of the Lich King in Halls of Reflection. (SPOILERS AHEAD!)

1. "There is no escape! Succumb to the chill of the grave! Another dead end..." How could the Lich King NOT be at the top of the list? This first time you face him in HoR, you’re mostly just running away. But his confident yet totally pissed off manner of steadily following your retreat is terrifying. No, you will not down the Lich King in a 5-man dungeon. You can only run away. A fitting lead up to the battle ahead at Icecrown Citadel, and yet another way for Blizzard to up the tension factor for the climax of WotLK. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say at the very end.

[caption id="attachment_9158" align="alignright" width="227" caption="Hot elves like it on top."][/caption] I talk about World of Warcraft a lot.  I'll discuss it at parties, gatherings, business meetings, anywhere that I believe it's reasonable to mention or interject.  I may hide it from my girlfriend, but I, for some odd reason, don't mind bringing it up with complete strangers or colleagues.  For every person that's interested, or at least feigns interest, I get one that asks "Why do you play that [adjective] game."  Sometimes they are misinformed, sometimes they are disenfranchised players and others are fans of other MMORPGs.  No matter what their background is I hit them with the same five reasons. Social: I play this game because other people play this game.  Any MMOG isn't worth its collection of 1s and 0s without a stable community, something WoW has in spades.  That isn't to say that I am just sticking with the comfortable bandwagon. WoW's community has connected me with countless longtime friends that I've remained chummy with inside and outside the game.  No other game in my long thumb-based career has approached the amount of comradery that WoW has delivered.  And it's a great place to keep up on your Internet memes. Story: Illidan's release, the Night Elf love triangle, Rexxar, Archimonde, The World Tree, Shifting Sands, corruptions, Gnomeregan's collapse, dragons, and the murders of heads of state, these stories are what pulled me to Azeroth.  If it wasn't for the numerous branching, continuing and ever increasing storylines I may not have come back to WoW.  I knew I could just read about the content as it was deployed and discovered, but experiencing it in the RTS series left such an impression on me that I felt I had to kill Illidan myself to really experience it.  Nothing delivers Blizzard's stories better than being in the middle of them. Challenge and Encounters: I play video games on the hardest default setting for a reason, I like the challenge.  Unfortunately, its isn't something that is exclusive to WoW, so challenge is lower on the list because it's easily replaceable.  Any one of the dozens of quality games that come out a year will offer an alternative to downing the latest boss or soloing something that isn't supposed to be soloed.  At least it (some) challenge does remain in WoW, unlike many of today's games.  That being said, the encounters themselves, rather than the difficulty they pose, is quiet an attraction itself.  Again, the aspect is marred, because even a fantastic encounter like Herald Volazj loses its luster once it is on farm. Cost of Entertainment: Many people balk at a monthly fee, but it it turns out to be a relatively cheap form of entertainment.  Seriously, WoW pays for itself. Time Invested: This isn't a reason to play, but a reason that keeps me playing.  I've already invested many days in WoW, spent hundreds of dollars on the game and its extended universe, and what feels like eons on lore, number-crunching and writing.  I feel that I am time committed to continue playing until the other reasons I play fail to keep my attention. What brought you to World of Warcraft initially.  And more importantly, what keeps you coming back for more?

With Patch 3.3 out, all most of us can think of going forward is the release of Cataclysm, but according to a new interview with the folks over at WorldofWar.de, Tom Chilton has more or less confirmed that we will see just one more round of additions before the expansion hits:

WorldofWar.de: Will there be another patch before Cataclysm or do you even plan to release a new raid boss? Tom Chilton: We do expect that there will be a new patch before the new expansion, although we don’t expect it to be like a typical numbered patch like 3.4 or 3.5. This could include balance changes, it could potentially include new features, depending on once the BattleNet-Features come online, maybe it could implement some of these. There’s even the possibility for a new raid boss, but it’s too early to say for sure.

So if it's not 3.4, then what will it be? 4.0 is likely to be the patch which introduces the re-made version of Azeroth, as well as many of the other universal changes undoubtedly coming with Cataclysm. Therefore, I think we can expect to see something along the lines of a "Patch 3.3.2," for the reasons cited by Chilton above. Assuming Battle.net 2.0 gets up and running before the expansion, then there will most certainly need to be a patch which adds that functionality to World of Warcraft, and we knew there would have to be a world event connecting Wrath with the events that come after its conclusion, we just didn't realize when. As for the possibility of a new raid boss, I'm going to go ahead and assume that it might be the final addition to Vault of Archavon (which would provide the necessary dungeon symmetry, pleasing obsessive-compulsive types). But if I really wanted to go out on a limb, perhaps another portal opening up under Wyrmrest Temple? Blizzard has stated they have no current plans for the space, but as we've witnessed, what they said publicly months ago doesn't serve as a a good indicator of what they might currently be doing behind the scenes. The rest of the interview is worth reading, though it offers little new information other than the reveal above. I do like that Chilton anticipates the game being around for many years to come ("Personally I would be surprised if World of Warcraft wasn’t still around another five years from now," in his own words). With the influential, but far less popular Everquest releasing its sixteenth expansion today, I don't think I'd be surprised to still be playing WoW well into my thirties, either. I'd like to thank WorldofWar.de, a German site, for providing us with a convenient English version of the interview which you can, once again, read in its entirety here. After looking it over, come back here and tell us what you expect (or rather, want) to see in a final, pre-expansion content patch.

[caption id="attachment_9164" align="alignright" width="216" caption="Greatfather Winter awaits your tankard of bovine extract and sugary baked goods!"][/caption] What do meat-filled tubes, bosses wearing red woolen caps, and crazy, old bearded dudes leaving suspicious packages under the shedding carcass of a dying pine have in common? The Feast of Winter Veil, that's what! And it starts today! Aside from simply admiring the jolly decorations strung up around the world's capitol cities, there's plenty of other things to keep you busy until the Christmas-themed holiday ends on January 2nd. The first thing to do is head to your faction's event nexus, which will either be Orgrimmar or Ironforge. Why not Stormwind? It may have something to do with the Alliance version of Greatfather Winter being a dwarf, but otherwise it's anyone's guess. There you should be able to pick up several short quest lines associated with the event, as well as purchase holiday goods and recipes from the nearby vendors. You'll have to wait until December 25th for the presents under the trees to become active and, therefore, complete some of the achievements associated with Winter Veil. Speaking of achievements, here's a full list of what to look for, in both meta- and non-meta- flavors. Winter Veil Meta-Achievements You must complete the following goals in order to obtain the Merrymaker achievement necessary for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been:

• On Metzen! -- Save Metzen the Reindeer.
• Scrooge -- Throw a snowball at (Cairne Bloodhoof/King Magni Bronzebeard) during the Feast of Winter Veil.
• 'Tis The Season -- During the Feast of Winter Veil, wear 3 pieces of winter clothing and eat Graccu's Mince Meat Fruitcake.
• Let It Snow -- During the Feat of Winter Veil, use a Handful of Snowflkaes on each of the race/class combinations listed below (Orc Death Knight, Tauren Shaman, Undead Rogue, Gnome Mage, Blood Elf Warlock, Human Warrior, Night Elf Druid, Troll Hunter, Dwarf Paladin, Draenei Priest).
• The Winter Veil Gourmet -- During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your culinary expertise to produce a Gingerbread Cookie, Egg Nog, and Hot Apple Cider.
• A Frosty Shake -- During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your Winter Veil Disguise kit to become a snowmand and then dance with another snowman in Dalaran.
• With A Little Helper From My Friends -- Earn 50 honorable kills as a Little Helper from the Winter Wondervolt machine.
• Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la -- Complete the Bomb Them Again! quest while mounted on a flying reindeer during the Feast of Winter Veil.
• Simply Abominable -- Complete the quest to retrieve Smokywood Pastures' stolen treats and receive a Smokywood Pastures' Thank You.
• Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's -- Use Mistletoe on the "Brothers" during the Feast of Winter Veil (Alliance: Brother Nimetz in Stranglethorn Vale, Brother Wilhelm in Goldshire, Brother Kristoff in Stormwind, Brother Karman in Theramore, Brother Joshua in Stormwing, Brother Crowley in Stormwind, Brother Cassius in Stormwind, Brother Benjamin in Stormwind, Brother Anton in Nijel's Point; Horde: Brother Malach in Undercity, Durkot Wolfbrother in Warsong Hold, Brother Keltan in Icecrown).
• He Knows If You've Been Naughty -- Open one of the presents underneath the Winter Veil tree once they are available.

Winter Veil Non-Meta Achievements These achievements can be earned at your leisure and do not count towards the meta. You will only receive achievement points for completing them.

• Crashin' & Thrashin' -- Gain 25 crashes with your Crashin' Thrashin' Racer during the feast of Winter Veil.
• BB King -- Pelt the enemy leaders listed below (Horde: High Tinker Mekkatorque, King Magni Bronzebeard, King Varian Wrynn, Prophet Velen, Tyrande Whisperwind; Alliance: Carine Bloodhoof, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, Lor'themar Theron, Thrall, Vol'Jin).

A few notes on these achievements real quick. Yes, the Horde version of Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's only has three brothers, but Alliance players should realize that at least half of theirs are in the same general area (Stormwind). You may recall that BB King is the one goal that kept a Taiwanese player from legitimately obtaining all achievement points in the game (sans those introduced with Patch 3.3). Considering its name, BB King may be associated with a new present obtained during the event, likely a toy rifle in the fashion of A Christmas Story's Red Ryder BB Gun. This means that Crashin' & Thrashin' is impossible to complete now unless you got one last year and happen to find other people willing to crash theirs into yours. Considering the limited availability of the items, these are the only two Winter Veil achievements not part of the meta. Enough yapping! I better get cracking on these achievements as Winter Veil is one of the two remaining holidays I haven't completed yet (the other being Love Is In The Air). Stay tuned to Project Lore as I'm sure I (and all the other regular bloggers) will be happy to provide you with strategies and share their holiday stories in due time. Meanwhile, let's hear about yours! Tell us about your experiences with Winter Veils past and what you plan on doing this year!

Another round of small fixes is being delivered this week. Expect to see this sort of thing continue until Blizzard is relatively happy with the way players are responding to the new encounters and content. Even with two months of extensive testing, both on the PTR and internally, nothing quite compares to the experience of 10 million+ subjects!

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted. To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677858456&sid=1 12/14/09

• In Ulduar, the Salvaged Demolisher’s Hurl Boulder ability will now properly ignite tar.
• Vault of Archavon bosses are again able to be hit by area of effect abilities.
• The trinket Ephemeral Snowflake will now be triggered by all healing spells.
• The players’ Gunship will now appropriately dock after achieving victory.
• Lord Marrowgar will now do significantly less melee damage in both the 10 player normal and 10 player heroic difficulty.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Chains of Ice is no longer limited to a single target. In addition, when Chains of Ice is used on a snare immune target with Everlasting Winter talented, it will once again apply Frost Fever.

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Druids will now be able to shapeshift out of a spell-reflected Entangling Roots spell.

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Everlasting Affliction can now refresh the duration of Corruption on a target when the Warlock casts Shadow Bolt. This talent also refreshes the duration of Corruption with Drain Life and Haunt.

As I understand it, the Death Knight change isn't so much a buff as it is a fix for something that was nerfed pre-3.3. Still, I'm sure players of the class will welcome the change. It's kind of sad to see 10-man Marrowgar getting nerfed so early, though. Is anyone really having that much trouble with the fight? The main complaint I've heard is that it's possible for a tank to get killed very quickly if one of the healers gets spiked at the wrong time, but just as well, plenty of guilds seem to be getting through the fight just fine. Let us know if you've encountered any problems with the fight!

WoW Cataclysm is probably still a long way off. But I know the very first thing that many of us will do upon picking up that glorious next expansion already is decided: we'll roll either a Goblin or Worgen, depending on our faction of choice and possibly also which we like better aesthetically. But for many of us, we already have a legion of options for doing just that: Roll a new toon. Pick a new race and class combination that you've never tried before. Run all the quests and dungeons that you've skipped over in the past. Actually read through the quests so you get a feel for what you're fighting for. I'm sure there's going to be a few of us who can say they've rolled each race or each class at least once. But have you truly played through each one well enough to learn their homeland? As iTZKooPA detailed a bit back, he's got a group together who all rolled classes they've never played and are running low-level instances together. I happen to play the warlock in that group, and let me agree with him: So far, it's been a blast. If you're going to do something similar, you should do it now. As we've been informed, the Cataclysm is going to cause huge changes and upheavals within Azeroth. Some starting areas may get completely revamped not only in their looks, but also in their quests and the level of monsters within. What better way to really experience the full effect of all those changes than by better getting to know what Azeroth is like before those changes come? Perhaps this little reminder of what's to come will get you motivated: So, anyone else thinking of rolling anew before the new content comes out? I suspect we'll all be enthralled with Patch 3.3 before long. But in what likely will be a long stretch between that content and the release of Cataclysm, think of rolling something completely new. For me, I think I'll choose a gnome mage and better get to know that Alliance side that I'm always picking on!

Outside of the new dungeons, the most talked about aspect of Fall of the Lich King has to be the revamped LFG system.  Combined with the new daily heroic setup, the Dungeon Finder feature has been a raving success, changing the way that millions of players participate in World of Warcraft.  By that I mean wasting far less time trying to find groups.  Saving time is simply awesome, but should it be taken a step further?  Should the realm walls come down altogether by means of cross-server pre-made functionality? Pre-mades already exist for the PvE players out there, we simply know them as guild runs.  I'm sure many players have already found capable tanks, DPS and healers from the Dungeon Finder that they'd love to continue to play with.  My raid leader has already passed an olive branch to a few players from other realms, going so far as to tempt them with phat loots to make the leap to our realm.  Okay fine, our guild.  None of them have bit - the IRL cost always being the excuse - but if a cross-realm pre-made option existed, then the players who want to play together could. [caption id="attachment_9135" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Pre-Mades would certainly taste better than Midtownlunch.com's dish"][/caption] The ever touchy issue of PvE and PvP balancing rears its ugly head here as well.  PvP pre-mades have been the bane of non pre-mades since the beginning of time.  Pre-made groups hardly ever lose in PvP, to the point that beating one is a joyous, often told occasion.  If the same scenario from PvE land, the gathering of the best and most complimenting players in one group, were to become the standard in the competitive gameplay side of WoW, then the outsiders would cry foul.  However, it'd be easily repeated by either side.  Plus, being a part of an epic cross-server pre-made vs. cross-server pre-made battle royale would be the closest thing to real war for many participants. As it stands now the walls have already crumbled.  The segregation between servers is more of a fence than a wall.  We can speak with these foreigners.  We can easily find out what's going on over there.  We can judge whether or not the grass is truly greener.  We've already been given a taste of what a closer community can accomplish.  Now we just need the ability to organize our microchasm of a Battlegroup into a far-reaching server to maximize our time spent in game. Hopefully when Blizzard finally implements the @name based friendlist (allowing us to friend a player, not a player's character) we'll see cross-server pre-mades become a reality. Sure, it'll lower one of Blizzard's lines of income, server transfers, but the company always stated that the fee is there to prevent abuse first, and cover overhead second.  And, the company will still have transfers outside of Battlegroups to nickel and dime us with.

A Tribute to Addons is a column featuring new, cool, or useful addons. Send a tweet to @Heartbourne or @Projectlore with your suggestions, or leave a comment. Now that patch 3.3 is live, we finally get that feature we've all been waiting for: the ability to see which quests we have completed. You will need to use an addon that can actually interface with this new API call. Today, we look at two of these: EveryQuest and QuestHelper. Prior to patch 3.3, EveryQuest kept track of what quests you have completed and provided lists and filters to find quests based on different criteria. The drawback was that unless you had been using it since you completed your first quest, its data on your completed quests would only include the ones you completed after its first installation. As of patch 3.3, this is no longer the case. Its got a simple and easy to use feature to import your completed quests from the server. Simply go to your interface settings after installing the addon: EveryQuest now knows all about what quests you have completed. There are a couple things to keep in mind here. Some quests aren't actually "remembered" by the game, especially "breadcrumb" quests. For example, look at the quests that EveryQuests claims I haven't completed in Hellfire Peninsula: I have completed Falcon Watch, but it was a rather inconsequential quest. It simply led me to the town, and the server doesn't count it for the Loremaster achievement or apparently for anything. The quest led me to others, which I completed, and for players who did not complete "Falcon Watch" but completed the subsequent quests would be unable to go back and do "Falcon Watch". As such, the policy for these quests seems to be to simply not recorded them as completed. Everyquest is simple to navigate and great for finding things like what quests you should get before heading into a dungeon. Its become part of my questing repertoire. Most players are familiar with QuestHelper. Its a popular addon that shows quest objectives on the world map and calculates an efficient route to completing several quests at once. One feature that has blossomed in patch 3.3 is the ability to see questgivers on the map. With the integration of what quests you have completed, it has reached a whole new level of utility. Type /qh incomplete to populate your incomplete quests and show the questgivers on your map. The drawback here is the lack of data of prerequisites. There are a lot of quests that are no longer available, like the Ahn'Qiraj war effort, and long, outdated quest chains that most players are uninterested in. With more advanced filtering and data, addons like these could evolve into a whole new level of gameplay assistance. Imagine a QuestHelper that knew if a quest that you turned in led to a new quest, and recommended you turned it in before going into a cave so you could complete multiple quests at the same time. Are you using this new feature to pursue Loremaster?

If you paid the vendors inside of the Icecrown Citadel a visit, you may have been overwhelmed by the amount of new items available. With new patterns and gear being sold across dozens of vendors for Primordial Saronite, Emblem of Frost, Mark of Sanctification, and heroic Marks of Sanctification, it might be a little unclear how to begin obtaining tier 10 gear. There are three levels of tier 10. The nomenclature is a little vague, but there is the entry level iLvl 251 version, the upgraded iLvl 264 version, and the heroic upgraded iLvl 277 version. You might hear these referred to as tier "10.251", "10.264", and "10.277". In order to obtain any piece of tier 10, you need to spend Frost Emblems to buy the entry level 251 version. You can currently obtain Frost Emblems from Icecrown Citadel bosses, the weekly raid quest, and by using the LFG tool to do a random heroic dungeon once a day. For a full set, you will need a total of 405 Frost Emblems. You may want to check out the sets to decide which pieces to get and how desirable the set bonuses actually are:

• Death Knight (DPS / Tank)
• Druid (Restoration / Feral / Moonkin)
• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin (Holy / Tank / Retribution)
• Priest (Healing / Shadow)
• Rogue
• Shaman (Restoration / Elemental / Enhancement)
• Warlock
• Warrior (DPS / Tank)

Head	95
Chest	95
Legs	95
Shoulder	60
Hands	60

When you desire a 10.264 piece, you will need the corresponding 10.251 piece and a Mark of Sanctification corresponding to your class. As long as the mark matches your class, you can use it to upgrade any 10.251 piece. For example, Rogues, Mages, Druids, and Death Knights will need a Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification. There are 3 types of Marks of Sanctification to cover all ten classes, the Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification, Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification, and Protector's Mark of Sanctification. They seem to drop from the final boss of each wing of Icecrown Citadel, and its presumed that they will only drop from the 25-player raid and 10-man heroic "hard mode" version. Trading in the items to upgrade them will likely cause you to lose your gems and enchants on the item. Similarly, the tier 10.277 pieces will require a Heroic Mark of Sanctification and the corresponding tier 10.264 piece. The Heroic Mark of Sanctifications drop from the last bosses in each wing of the heroic version of the 25-man Icecrown raid. Keep in mind that players can only engage in heroic encounters if someone in the raid has defeated Arthas, and as that encounter will not be available for many weeks, it will be awhile before anyone can get any tier 10.277. Have you started saving for tier 10?