Project Lore

Despite the fact that the official patch notes clearly state that the Forge of Souls would be the first wing of the new 5-man Icecrown Citadel instance available for exploring, players on the test server can only currently access the the second wing, Pit of Saron. Even if it does seem a bit odd to kick off testing with the middle of this epic story instead of the beginning, I was still hungry for any bone Blizzard was going to throw us, so I gathered up a war party and ventured deep into the unfortunately-acronymed dungeon. If you're not afraid of spoilers (and there will be some), continue reading below! A word of warning to those who might seek entrance to the Pit of Saron before I begin: while the servers themselves seem to have been largely stabilized, many characters are having trouble seeing the instance portals. This appears to be a bug associated with phased content, meaning that anyone who has completed certain Icecrown quests (the exact culprits haven't been nailed down just yet) will not be able to see, let alone use, them. In that case, you'll have to either transfer another, less developed character, use a premade, or hope there's a Warlock in the group that can summon you in. I, for instance, have been stuck using my under-geared Elemental Shaman, Nuggnuts, instead my pimped out Rogue, Amatera. This will no doubt be fixed in upcoming builds, but those are the only options for now. If you're not cool with that, feel free to join the rest of the players out there using the dungeon's abbreviation as a fun pejorative for describing their current experience! That aside, let's get on with it! The first thing I noticed when I entered the Pit is that the bulk of it consists of a wide-open outdoor area. This means two things: mounts and the ability to skip trash. There also may be some choice regarding which order you tackle the first two bosses in. The dungeon map for Pit of Saron. The second thing I noticed was the big, bad frostwyrm called Rimefang hovering overhead, with Scourgelord Tyrannus, the mine's overseer in the saddle. After taking a few steps in, Lady Sylvanas appeared from the portal behind us (well, if you're Horde, she will), with two of her Dark Rangers, and a small battalion of troops in tow. The redshirts of the group charged right for Tyrannus, who clearly doesn't like people interfering with his operations. A little bit of the old Darth Vader stranglehold and they all dropped to the ground, dead. Tyrannus flew off, leaving the remainder of his undead minions for us to deal with.

Sylvanas' forces attempt to crush Tyrannus...

...and are subsquently destroyed. From here, the path split off to the left or the right around the eponymous Pit, where tired slaves are busy digging out Saronite while a giant, floating skull watches from above. Each one leads to a different boss encounter, and as I mentioned before, it doesn't seem particularly important which you decide to fight first. We chose to go to the right, which included offing some giant skeletons, necrolytes, and vrykul -- in other words, the usual Icecrown rogue's gallery. *The* Pit of Saron Along the way, just passing by slaves working the ore freed them, and they had all sorts of reactions to their saviors, from just plain old running away to thinking that they're hallucinating when they first saw you. It adds a nice little touch to the proceedings. Eventually, we reached the platform where Forgemaster Garfrost resided, who was essentially a giant vrykul crossed with an abomination. He looks a lot like the Pustulent Horrors you might see wandering around Mord'rether, but with a sack of giant Saronite boulders on his back, which he evidently thought was a good idea to toss at us during the fight. His other primary ability seems to be an AoE pulse that stacks a debuff on you, increasing Frost damage taken. This means you'll need to take him down quickly before it builds up and his regular attacks start doing too much to handle. Garfrost's ugly mug. Though we downed him on the first attempt, I won't say it went cleanly. I was killed due to one of the boss' ranged attacks and so were the Hunter and Resto Druid (aka the healer), leaving the two Paladins in our group to finish the job (I should mention here that loot hasn't been implemented yet, on trash or bosses). A previously enslaved Orc named Gorkun Ironskull appeared to retake the forge, along with all the other laborers we had previously relieved of their bonds. He promised that they would take the opportunity to gear up and help us in our final assault. After rezzing everyone and buffing back up, we traversed the Northern edge of the Pit towards the second boss, a corrupted leper gnome named Krick and his hideous companion/mount, Ick. This wasn't a particularly hard fight either, but it was fun and definitely tested our movement skills. For a majority of the encounter, Ick tossed globs of slime, which created poisonous, green pools on the ground where they landed. These came slowly and were easy to dodge. But at some point during the fight, Krick decided that it simply wasn't doing the job on its own and started conjuring time bombs on the ground. Represented by expanding, purple domes, they started popping up all over the place and quickly became difficult to completely avoid. All the while, Ick continued to throw bolts of his fetid bile at the party, dealing direct damage this time. Unfortunately, I bit the dust again, but we still managed to pull off a victory on our first attempt. Krick gets throttled by Sylvanas. Sylvanas appeared to take the vile gnome's life, but before he perished, he let slip that the Lich King's blade, Frostmourne, could be found in the 3rd wing of the instance, the Halls of Reflection. Sylvanas questioned Krick's admission, citing that she thought Arthas always had it by his side, but he continued to insist that he was telling the truth. With the second boss down, Tyrannus showed his ugly mug once again. He taunted us from the skies, provoking us to burst through the ranks of his most powerful undead lackeys and challenge him on the platform above. Several more powerful packs of trash stood before us on the slope, five or six to a number. Trash on the way to Tyrannus. Hey, look! A cave! Embarassingly, we wiped on the first set, but picked back up and made it through the rest more or less unscathed. The cliffside eventually lead to a cave, which I can now admit is probably my favorite part of the dungeon. The trash inside isn't terribly difficult, but you'll have to fight them through falling blocks of ice. If you've ever fought Hodir in Ulduar, you should already be familiar with this mechanic, as glowing blue circles on the ground will show you where icicles are about to drop. This looks awfully familiar... On the other side of the cave we met Tyrannus for the final time. He had nowhere left to run or hide. Gorkun and his men appeared to back us up, distracting the Scourgelord's undead army so that we could face him and his frostwyrm alone... In the interest of at least keeping some things a secret, I'll end my recount of the events here. As for what I thought of it when it all was said and done? Well, if you were expecting a challenge, I don't think you'll find it here. The Pit of Saron, at least, isn't much more difficult than any of the other Heroic 5-man dungeons out there. But it does flow better, and the integrated story elements allow the instance to have a sort of "rhythm" you just don't get in other parts of the game. With each boss down, you feel like you're actively working towards an end goal instead of just more loot, and the inclusion of important NPCs like Sylvanas adds some extra fun, even if you never fight directly by her side. I'm reminded somewhat of the dungeons in Lord of the Rings Online, and I hope that, at least in terms of pushing the narrative, this is a path Blizzard continues to tread in the future. Facing down Tyrannus, once and for all!

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The High Inquisitor is a new regular column at Project Lore that seeks answers to the greatest mysteries of Azeroth. Each week, the inquisitor will attack a previously unanswered question and attempt to explain the unknown. But she won't rest until all plausible explanations are explored. The best, most probable comment(s) will be highlighted with the next edition's inquisition.

They're the drunken, boorish, muscular, axe-wielding, long-bearded, mining, vertically-challenged characters of Azeroth. And did I mention that their accent suggests they're Scottish? Yup, I'm clearly talking about dwarves. And my question is simple - why? Just when did dwarves become such a type-casted caricature? Not just in World of Warcraft, but dwarves in a multitude of modern pop culture references seem to share a few key elements: beer, rocks and a hardy, bearded musculature. If you want to blame someone, let's go directly to the source - Norse mythology. The dvergar, as they were called, were significant nature spirits associated with rocks and the earth. Although they weren't described as short beings until much later, the dwarves even in this rendition are master crafters, especially in the sculpting of metals. Somewhat ironically, when exposed to sunlight, the Norse dwarves would turn to stone and die. The pop-culture version of the dwarf took a drastic turn thanks to JRR Tolkien and his iconic The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. The stocky, touchy, easy to anger incarnation this time also explained dwarves as merrymen miners who loved a good drink and would willingly take on someone much larger than them in a fight. We see this version of the character commonly referenced in the modern fantasy genre, including in WoW (especially recently in Brewfest). And this certainly wouldn't be the last time that LOTR may have been used as inspiration for WoW. In the Warcraft lore, dwarves originated from the Earthen, who are guardians of living stone. After the implosion of the Well of Eternity, the shocked earthen went into a state of hibernation within the titan cities of Uldum, Uldaman and Ulduar. Nearly 8,000 years later, they awoke with softened skin and diminished powers over stone. Some migrated to Dun Morogh and built Ironforge. So, that's that. But there's still the remaining question of the Scottish accent. In the Lord of the Rings books, the dwarves were described as having a language that would more closely resemble African tongues. On the other hand, the LOTR movies adopted the Scottish convention, solidifying it into all of our minds as the proper language for dwarves. Perhaps one explanation for the accent could come from English folklore surrounding Duergar. These short, trouser- and hat-wearing tricksters would appear bearing torches at night to lead travelers astray into bogs. This story originated in Northern England, along the border with - ding ding - Scotland. Or, perhaps, someone just decided to portray a dwarf with a Scottish accent, and it stuck. So, perhaps it's the accent that's the biggest mystery of all. But WoW dwarves just wouldn't be the same if they didn't proclaim, while rolling those RRRs and charming the listener, "I don't have a drinking problem. I drink. I get drunk. I fall down. No problem!" So here's where you guys come in. What do you think of the accepted portrait of dwarves - does it work for you? Or would you rather see more originality instead of stereotyped characters? Oh, and don't forget to find me a good reason why dwarves are Scottish. The best answer(s) will be featured in the next edition. 3...2...1... GO!

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All Dinged Up...Don't Know What To Do. It's common knowledge that many, many, users return to MMOG when a large content patch comes out.  The phenomenon is no different in the lands of Azeroth.  Whenever Blizzard releases major content it is almost always joined by an influx of returning characters, thus a spike in subscription rates and server population.  After a few weeks, or possibly a month or two, things begin to settle back to "normal" and life continues.  Patch v3.3 and the upcoming changes to Azeroth, by way of Cataclysm, may throw a curveball in those assumptions.  We may very well see more of the old world being re-populated by the nostalgic, or late-to-the-party players, eager to taste the untainted lands of old.  Even if it is at a relatively Sonic pace. Modifying leveling times began with the launch of The Burning Crusade, and continues to be tweaked with each of Wrath of the Lich King content patches.  The largest being changes to mount level requirements and prices, and the invention of the wonderful Heirloom Items that can grant up to a 20% bonus to XP gains.  Like the patches before it, Patch 3.3 is shaping up to offer new ways to make getting to the end game a far faster process. Heartbourne posted the full PTR patch notes as soon as they went live.  Below is the subset of changes that directly impact the leveling aspect of WoW:

• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.
• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.
• Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
• Stealth (rogues): This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
• Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.
• Victory Rush (warriors): This ability is now trainable at level 6.

I don't forsee these changes drastically cutting down leveling time as much as previous patches, but they will speed things up.  Health & Mana Regeneration, default equipment and spell mana costs will impact the time it takes to hit level 80 the most.  Has anyone leveled a character to max level recently?  If so, how long does it take these days? I've striven to have a collection of max level characters that could perform the holy trinity (DPS, healing, tanking) myself.  When Cataclysm was initially announced I planned on leveling a tanking class (gave up on my death knight after the starting zone) as a worgen.  Now that we have more early level changes I may join the crowds that are attempting to play through the old world before it disappears forever.  There's also my sneaking suspicion that hitting level 80 now will be faster than after Blackwing Deathwing (edit: dunno how I botched that one) destroys the planet. Anyone else going to take a dip in the old world before it's flushed?

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The Patch Test Realm continues to bear fruit with the addition of new repeatable raid quests to the game. As if you didn't already have enough ways to earn badges, Blizzard is giving you one more! Don't worry, you won't have to do anything fancy, though. I think they more or less speak for themselves:

Lord Marrowgar Must Die!

Lord Jaraxxus Must Die!

XT-002 Deconstructor Must Die!

Ignis the Furnace Master Must Die!

Razorscale Must Die!

Flame Leviathan Must Die!

Malygos Must Die!

Patchwerk Must Die!

Instructor Razuvious Must Die!

Noth the Plaguebringer Must Die!

Anub'Rekhan Must Die!

Sartharion Must Die!

If you still don't get the gist of it, each quest will require you to enter one of Northrend's raid dungeons and melt the face of one of their biggest, baddest bosses. Doing so will reward you with ten -- count 'em, ten -- Emblems of Frost, which are presumably the new currency used to by Tier 10 gear. We don't know a whole lot about how this quests will be handled, but due to the nature of lockout periods and the number of badges being doled out, I think it's logical to assume that you'll only be able to complete one a week. There's also a pretty good chance that the NPC giving them out will do so randomly. Of course, for the majority of guilds, that's going to make some weeks far easier than others! Kill Patchwerk? Well, OK then! To be fair, none of the bosses are particularly tough, and most can be accessed without going to far into their respective raids. You may notice a new face at the top though... Lord Marrowgar? He is, indeed, a new encounter that players will face in Icecrown Citadel. Hopefully we'll get the chance to face him as the testing process rolls on. How about some feedback, readers? Are these quests a convenient way to earn some badges for guilds that might be having trouble with the upcoming raid or just another nerf to the gear system? You could earn 10 top-tier badges just by destroying this guy!

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The PTR is abuzz with all sorts of changes right now, at least when people aren't getting disconnected! Through the 30 second gaps of up-time, though, I managed to score a few screenshots of the new quest tracking features that Blizzard's been working on. And guess what? They're integrated right into the World Map! I knew something had to be up when I read this in the patch notes:

Quest Tracking Feature

• This system is currently under development and is not fully functional.

And apparently, this is it: As you can see, your quest log is now integrated into the map screen when you bring it up (though if you prefer the old log, you can still use it by hitting the appropriate icon). Checking a box in the lower-right corner will allow you to actively track objectives on the map. Presumably, the numbers that correspond to quests in the panel on the right while be displayed on the world map where your goal is. Sadly, this must be the part of the system that "is not fully functional" just yet. As for that green box in the upper-right corner? The final graphic obviously hasn't been added just yet, but clicking on it allows you to window the world map, something you couldn't do previously without add-ons like Cartographer. Here's what it looks like: Since the feature is still in development, it's not guaranteed that it will make it to live servers in the form you see it here, but I'm still rather excited by changes like this. If I can log onto the test server for more than a few minutes (I haven't even had enough time to re-allocate my talent points), I'll be sure to bring you more (and, hopefully, some details about the new 5-man dungeon that is currently open for testing). What think you of this feature, good readers?

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As of tonight, Patch 3.3 has gone live on the Public Test Realm. Earlier today, we caught our first glimpse at the latest PTR patch notes, signifying that we knew it would be coming soon. But here it is, just a few hours later, and it's already here! Happy day! The long fight against the Lich King has been arduous, and the final battle has been a long time coming. It seems that we'll all soon get our shot at Arthas. But first - to test out the fights and ensure that they're in good enough condition to release to all. I would expect there will probably be at least 6 to 8 weeks of beta testing before the patch is passed on to everyone, and perhaps there will be drastic changes by then, since nothing on the PTR is ever guaranteed to appear in-game. This is just pure speculation on my part, but perhaps we could see the finalized Patch 3.3 out sometime in January. It seems appropriate, somehow, for the final battle to be played out in the winter (at least for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers). Personally, I can't wait to hear and see more about the new 10- and 25-man raids, and especially the 5-man dungeon at Icecrown Citadel, since I've been having a great time with the 5-man content as of late. And now that I've got a level 80 character, I'm debating whether or not to download the PTR myself... but I'd hate to get attached to any content (or loot!), not to mention Rogue vanish fixes that may never end up on the final version. Oh, decisions. Well, for any of you who are looking into beta testing, here's what Blue Poster Aratil gave as advice on the forums:

Patch 3.3.0 is available for testing on the PTR. We would like to encourage everyone to take time to test this patch and provide feedback on the Test Realm forums. For more information on the PTR, please visit the following threads- Introduction, Installing.

The forums already have jumped alive with excitement, and apparently some at grief that the patch is more than 1.3 GB in size. Hopefully that's an indication that there's LOTS of new content for us to discuss in the coming days and weeks. So, how many of you are going to foray into the PTR?

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Let's face it. Children's Week is a junk holiday. You don't really care about those little ragamuffins, or give a hoot when they want to go meet the local Azerothian celebutante. No, no, no. I know what you're doing this for. I know what you're all about, you dirty, little pet fiend. Don't think you can keep it secret any longer. This is all about swelling your ranks, buffing the size of your own little, private zoo. Your friends and colleagues... they said you needed help, but you struck back and claimed, "Nay! I do this only for the achievements!" But in reality, when nobody is looking, you slink back into your grimy den, whip out your Willy, and cuddle with it for a little while. And then you toss it back into your bag, with the dozens of others who go unloved and unplayed with until one day, you feel the urge again. You make me sick! Don't tell me you wouldn't want to squeeze them right now. But you're not the only one out there, and there are those that seek to enable the uncouth ways of your undesirable population. I speak of Figure Prints, a company you may know from their other self-indulgent endeavour: creating statuettes of your pimped-out in-game avatar. Some time ago, they extended their expertise into the realm of reproducing those adorable little snugglebugs people tote around Dalaran like a chihuahua in a be-dazzked Gigantique purse. The first Series included Speedy the Turtle, Stinker the Skunk, and the Clockwork Rocketbot. The company also sold a version of Murky, the tap-dancing Murloc at this year's BlizzCon. Starting today, with Series 2, you can invest in all your worst Children's Week reward fantasies with real-life versions of Egbert, Sleepy Willy, and Snarly the Baby Crocolisk for only $29.95 a piece (or 74.85 for the entire set). I begrudgingly admit that they are, in fact, somewhat cute. But be aware, that even Figure Prints has their limit. These statuettes will only be offered from now until the end of the month, October 31st. So go ahead, hit the site and click on that order button. I promise, I'll look away. I can't even watch you commit your shameful acts. But let me be clear, vanity pet freaks, if your problem gets any worse, next time... we're going to have an intervention!

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It looks like we will see the new patch, patch 3.3, on the public test realms any day now. Check out the current draft of the patch notes: General

• Icecrown Citadel
  • The Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-player dungeon, is currently available for testing.
  • Additional Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid content will be made available in future test builds.
• Dazed: Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Classes: General

• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player's level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.

Races: General

• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.

Death Knights

• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.
• Talents
  • Unholy
    • Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Druids

• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Hunters

• Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously.
• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Intimidation: If the hunter's pet is in melee range of its target, the stun from Intimidation will now be applied immediately instead of on the pet's next swing or attack.
• Pets
  • Avoidance: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 30/60/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Mages

• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Arcane Empowerment: This talent now also grants 1/2/3% increased damage done by the mage's party or raid for 10 seconds after the mage gets a critical strike with Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, or Arcane Blast. This effect is exclusive with Ferocious Inspiration and Sanctified Retribution.
• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Priests

• Pet
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Rogues

• Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
• Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
• Vanish: For the first second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability.

Shamans

• Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Improved Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Improved Fire Nova. This talent now provides an additional 10/20% damage to the spell and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 seconds.

Warlocks

• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
  • Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.

Warriors

• Victory Rush: This ability is now trainable at level 6.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Damage Shield: This ability will no longer trigger any chance-on-hit effects from the warrior or the opponent it damages.

User Interface

• Quest Tracking Feature
  • This system is currently under development and is not fully functional.
• Looking For Group System
  • This feature is undergoing several improvements and is not available for testing at this time.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

• A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). This is currently enabled by default on the public test realms. For more information please visit our Test Realm forum.

Professions

• Enchanting
  • Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster's target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.

Items

• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage.
  • Shamans
    • Glyph of Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Glyph of Fire Nova. This glyph now reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 3 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Druids
  • Rejuvenation: Rank 15 of this spell was providing a 15-second duration. It has been correctly reduced to 12 seconds.
• Mages
  • Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time.

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ZOMG, No Deadly Boss MOBS!? Gkick! Major combat operations in /World of Warcraft have ended.  By dedicating a healthy bit of time before bed, and using my own advice, I was able overcome the horrible lag I was experiencing in all of my World of Warcraft endeavors.  No more 30% drops in framerates, lost DPS or accidental dives off cliffs to large for a gnome to survive.  WoW has returned to normal. Onyxia will rue the day she returned to these lands! There are a few things that I learned during my hour-plus battle.  Most important is that I am absolutely terrible at keeping my add-ons up to date.  The majority of them haven't been updated since the Wrath launch patch (v3.0), or at best v3.1.  I refuse to use the various auto-updating services because of my fear of hackers, unsavory add-on authors and the notion that such a program will clutter my computer.  These ridiculous reasons mean that the blame falls squarely on my shoulders for being lazy.  At least suggestions four and five, after already narrowing things down from 1-3 earlier this week, fixed the problem. In addition to my disorganized /AddOns folder - it in no way reflects the cleanliness of my slop pit house - I came to the realization that I have far too many add-ons.  During my campaign to capture the latest versions of my tools, I cut my add-on list from 49 memory suckers to a slim 26 user interface enhancements.  It wasn't even difficult, no hard decisions made.  Simply, do I use this or not? Here's my list:

• Auctioneer: This add-on is the key to my financial success in World of Warcraft, arguably responsible for the Mo' Money, Mo' Problems column, among many other one-shot posts.  It scans and records data from the Auction House, and automates putting items up for sale at competitive prices.  I roll with the suite, which includes numerous supporting add-ons like BeanCounter, Enchantrix, Informant, and Stubby.  Norganna's add-ons have proven to be so helpful to me that I have even made donations.  Yes, plural.
• AutoBar: An easily customizable and maintainable bar that is populated with all your hot items and abilities, like hearthstones, mounts, potions, food, food with buffs, etc, by default.  I set it up to be a third default action bar, just one with collapsible buttons.  It's proven to be a clutch addition.  Contains class specific bars as well.
• BankItems:  Enables player to look at their bank, their alts' banks, and even the guild banks from anywhere.  Good enough?
• CT_Basic: The CT_Mod team was the first team to create an ubiquitous collection of add-ons.  Some of their tools were so common that they've been enshrined in the Add-On Hall of Fame (Blizzard implementing an add-on's capabilities in the default UI).  CT_Basic is still an incredibly useful package thanks to the CT_MailMod, allowing players to loot their mailbox via a 'Select All' button.  There is a perfect synergy between it and Auctioneer.  I nuke CT_PartyBuffs though.  I used to use CT_RaidAssist when I was a raid leader, but no more.
• CT_ExpenseHistory: A good expansion to the basic CTMod package for the gold nuts like myself.  Tracks your expenses - repairs, reagents, even mail postage - to see where all that gold went.  It's pointless, but I love numbers and finances.
• Fishing Buddy: I used to be huge on fishing, and that's when I fell in love with this mod.  It previously automated almost everything about fishing, but Blizzard disabled some of that functionality.  I continue to use it mainly out of nostalgia, but also for the tracking (numbers!), and easy casting.
• Gatherer: This bad boy records where you've looted gatherable items (mining, herb and even treasure nodes) and displays them on your minimap.  The best part is the ability to share the data with friends, party members and even your guild!  I always kill Gatherer_HUD.  It's a resource hog that offers nothing but fancy visual effects over the normal add-on.
• QuestHelper: What can I say? I like saving time, and it's even more useful after you've already run through the zones on your first toon.  QuestHelper is another mod that has entered the Add-On Hall of Fame due to its ease of use and immense quest database.  There are many imitators, but I've found QH to be the best.
• Recount: Allows me to see my mad deeps, overall damage or how many times I die.  Recount tracks healing and useless stuff like that too.  It doesn't matter how much healing they do, it's never enough and always their fault when someone dies. :p
• RoguePowerBars: You may have noticed that I don't use Deadly Boss Mods (eh GM?). I may have died a few times because of that decision, but I find it to be too informative for my taste.  I mention DBM in this RPB snippet because they effectively do the same thing, scream information at you.  My justification for RPB is that the standard UI is laid out poorly for rogues (and many other classes).  We have so many buffs and debuffs on short timers that need to be kept active for maximum DPS that they really should be in your face.  RPB accomplishes that goal superbly.  I rarely ever lose my spell rotations since I began using it.  That obviously increases my DPS.

Once Solidsagart becomes a raid healer - sometime in November I assume - I'll have to add a few more add-ons to the mix for healing.  I still haven't decided between Grid or Clique, but other then new raid frames I can't really see Solidsagart needing anything special.  Raid frame changes are her version of RoguePowerBars.  I'll likely grab Omen though, something Vanish makes rather pointless.  Anyone have additional selections for either toon? I just realized that only two of my add-ons have anything to do with combat.  Everything else is time saving or money making.  Maybe I need to get my priorities straight so I can nail 15k DPS on a regular basis. The whole downside to nuking all of my add-ons was that I lost all of my macros.  I don't know exactly how that happened, they are supposed to be server side, but it did.  My next task is recreating all of them.  Oh, how I don't look forward to finding the correct icons for everything or remember which abilities had which other abilities bound to them...

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We loves us some Felicia Day here at Project Lore (pixiestixy even got to meet her in person), so we took it as good news that The Guild would finally mark its territory on retail shelves. That's right, you can now go to the store and purchase your very own copy of the Season 1 and Season 2 compilation DVD! Participating retailers at the moment are typical mall chains like FYE, Suncoast, and Coconuts, so you can't walk into your local big-box just yet. That said, I'm sure you'll be able to find it in those locations as well in due time. If you're a fan of The Guild, then you might be wondering what exactly makes this release so special. After all, you could previously order the DVDs through the show's official website, Amazon, or even from the crew directly if you were lucky enough to visit their booth at conventions. Well, to be honest, not a whole lot. The content on the included discs is precisely the same stuff you've seen before. No new extras, commentaries, or menus to sort through. The only changes come in cosmetic form, with new box art featuring the cast in slightly different poses from before surrounded by a gilded frame. There's also a mysterious "Note From Felicia" slipped into the case (which may be enough for some of the more... hardcore fans to obsess over, depending on what that might entail). But hey, you can't go wrong with the convenience of having both seasons in the same box, can you? If you have no idea what The Guild is, then this is a good way to catch up. Sure, you could always just watch the episodes online, but if you end up liking it, you'll probably want to support them with your dollars anyway. For the rest of us, it seems that Episode 5 of Season 3 has been released to MSN, as well.

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