Project Lore

With all the well-deserved hoopla regarding BlizzCon and WoW Cataclysm over the past few weeks, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of the user interface changes we saw implemented nearly a month ago, in Patch 3.2, now that we've had time for the content to sink in a bit. It seemed that while many of us were excited to see these changes made, a large number of players also were concerned that the changes would make the game too easy, or even dumbed-down. This always seems to be a difficult line that Blizzard must walk when making content changes - and players aren't always happy with the results. Now that we've had a month to adjust to the changes, let's take another look at some of what was implemented:

• How about that auto-complete for character names while in chat, for mail, etc? It certainly simplifies chats and invites, especially for those toons with special characters in their names.
• I'm a fan of the casting bars that now show under target nameplates. It makes timing interrupts considerably easier. But I suppose that also could be considered a bad thing if I was the one being interrupted.
• The double-paned questlog makes viewing quests a bit easier - I basically already had this through the DoubleWide addon, but now it's built in to the standard WoW UI.
• Automatic item comparisons per armor slot and the ease of seeing vendor sell prices also are a welcome addition in my book, but also both are similar to the addons RatingBuster and Auctioneer.
• Druids now can see their mana bars when shape-shifted. Sounds handy.
• Have you found it helpful to have the item level on tooltips? I'll admit, this one I haven't done much with yet.
• Another useful addition - options menus now display an exclamation when they have new features.
• Remember all of those Quest helper additions that were on the 3.2 PTR patch notes? The ones that probably were the most widely debated for their simplification of questing? Well as we've all probably figured out by now, those never made it onto the regular servers. But it should be interesting to see if they were scrapped altogether or if they'll make another appearance in a later patch.

So in retrospect, now that we've had some time to adjust to all these changes, what do you guys think? Are you happy with what Blizzard has brought? Perhaps now couldn't live without some of the changes? They may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but I always think that the UI changes can bring so much to the game in their functionality. I also would say that first starting out on the game can be a bit intimidating. I would argue that many of these changes simplify aspects of the game that wouldn't necessarily affect the actual gameplay, but moreso the ease of getting around the interface and learning how to play. Perhaps Blizzard's looking to expand its market... or perhaps I'm just trying to make something out of nothing. What do you think?

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With 3.2 once again the game has received a fresh coat of paint, and we have a whole list new things to do. Personally I have enjoyed getting back into heroics, trying new raid content, and earning some coin on the new dailies.

Clearly most of the new content involves the Argent Tournament, and all of the instances and quests surrounding it. So far one of my favorite activities has been collecting champion seals and saving up for all of the new toys they have introduced.

While in 3.1 there were plenty of gear and pets we could buy, with 3.2 Blizzard has dramatically increased the rate at which we can get the seals, as well and introduced some amazing rewards.

For me the first thing I bought as soon as I got that Crusader title was the Argent Crusade Tabard. Despite having the Tabard of the Achiever, I have never really been a big fan of tabards. That is, of course, unless they do something for me besides just looking stylish. Well, this one does, and it is amazing. Every 30 minutes you can teleport yourself directly to the Argent Tournament grounds. For me this is something infinitely useful, and something that I am doing several times a day.

Say I have a few extra minutes to knock out some quick dailies, I just port straight to the quest hub and get them down. Then say I am running late to a raid, I can port there again and be zoned in before summons even go out. The point is that the Argent Tournament Grounds are where EVERYTHING is going on in this patch, and getting there instantly is amazingly useful. I would suggest you guys pick this one up as soon as you can.

Beyond that, the Argent Pony Bridal is another game changer that should be at the top of any serious players priority list. This will transform your squire into more than a fun vanity pet. It will allow him to act as a banker, vendor, or mailbox once every 4 hours. You can only imagine the hundreds of scenarios where this will come in handy. Bags filling up while questing, forgetting your offset during a raid, or mailing yourself consumable from an alt. The list goes on.

Personally there are a few other rewards I have my eye on, although they do start to take a turn toward vanity items at this point. For me I am getting the Argent Charger very soon, for no other reason that I love the idea of a Paladin only mount, there are also tons of pets, mounts, tabards, and trinkets to collect.

Regardless of what you are after I think Blizzard has done a great job of giving us some carrots to go after that are not just standard gear. What do you guys think? Any new in-game items that you are chasing after?

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It was the Friday after patch day, and my buddies in our small guild were itching to try out some of the new 3.2 content. Considering there were five of us online, we thought the best place to start would be besting the Black Knight in the new 5-player dungeon, Trial of the Champion, in the Crusaders' Coliseum. Here's the lineup: Warrior tank, Paladin DPS, Warlock DPS, Shaman Healer - all level 80s, and my lonely level 79 Rogue. I'll be the first to admit that we weren't super-well prepared for this dungeon, even on normal mode. One of us had never jousted before, and I'm still getting used to the shield-break, charge and thrust rotation while mounted with a lance. So I was a little unsure of what we were getting ourselves into when the dungeon began and we had to mount up and face several waves of javelin-wielding champions. But the strategy was pretty straight-forward: focus on one at a time until they are dismounted, then trample them to prevent them from getting back up. Then it's on to the hand-to-hand combat. Once through this set, you go on to encounters with several more argent trash followed by a nice fight with either Eadric the Pure or Argent Confessor Paletress. It was Eadric for us. Not the smoothest of kills; he's a bit tricky right at first before the tank picks up aggro, and even after that has an annoying Vengeance buff causing him to crit often. But we kept on him and took him out. Well, took him down to 1 HP, anyway. Then he ran away, like the bitch he his, but not before throwing in his loot chest. Thanks. Finally, on to the main event: The Black Knight.  From what I can gather from the Project Lore forums, it appears that several of us here already have tried out this new dungeon, but if you haven't and dislike spoilers you may want to stop reading here! This guy doesn't like to stay dead - he comes at you in three phases. And that's where my relatively inexperienced group wiped several times before we got the hang of things. The Black Knight starts out as a forsaken, then a skeleton and finally a wraith. Probably the most trouble we experienced was in the second phase when he started summoning an exploding Army of Dead. We talked through a couple of possible strategies - kiting the Black Knight to avoid the trash Ghoul Explosion, or throw some nice AoEs to kill the ghouls before they explode all over you. Neither of those seemed to be working for us, so we instead just ignored the jerks and focused all of our attention on the main battle at hand. It worked. When we downed the Black Knight in that form and saw the ghouls channeling their explodey spell, we just ran away. From there, the boss enters wraith form, this time without any adds. He consistently casts Marked for Death on his enemies, which increases their magical damage two fold, and can make things sticky if you drag out the fight too long. Each DPSer pulled out all the stops at this point, and finally the Black Knight was downed... for good this time. The best part: My very first purple item (/dance), and a pretty darn good one at that, at least for a 5-man on normal difficulty. Now I just have to finish off my last half-level to 80 so I can equip this beauty - Uruka's Band of Zeal. Overall, I'd say the coliseum is about what I expected. Granted, I haven't checked out Trial of the Crusader yet (beyond watching Juggy and the TRS Guild take it on), but got a decent preview of that through the smaller battle. It's pretty short and to-the-point, which to some may be a disappointment. Others say they've felt underwhelmed by the small scale of the coliseum itself. And I can see that point. But as for me, I was happy with it, and plan to keep running it to get more loots! Hopefully next time, it'll go a bit smoother! Any of you who have tried out the Crusaders' Coliseum so far? What are your impressions of either instance?

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It's been about four months since the last one, but the latest edition of the Blizzcast, Blizzard Entertainment's official podcast, has finally arrived! The good news (at least for our readers) is that it focuses exclusively on the World of Warcraft, namely the events of Patch 3.2. The bad news? It's all stuff that we've more or less heard before (and it's a bit on the short side to boot, clocking in around 22 1/2 minutes). Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to expand upon your knowledge of all the new content. Remember, knowledge is half the battle! Episode 10 is hosted by WoW Community Team member Zarhym and his guests are Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer and Senior Game Designer Dave Maldonado. Topics covered include the new 5-man instance and raid zones, dailies associated with the Argent Tournament, the questionable mortality of the Black Knight, and even the new Battleground, Isle of Conquest. Likewise, they go out of their way to show you how all of the 3.2-related gameplay elements are incorporated into the lore. It's all capped off with some brief talk about how pumped up they are to be attending Blizzcon. Unfortunately, there are no specific details about what they will or will not be showing beyond the fact that they are pants-wettingly excited to unveil something (to quote Mercer: "We’re of course showing off a lot of really, really, REALLY cool stuff"). It certainly wouldn't be Blizzcon without some really cool WoW-related stuff, now would it? If you care to listen to or download Episode 10, head on over to the official page of the Blizzcast. A full transcription is also available for those who would rather just skim the contents. Once you're done listening, come on back here and discuss! Any interesting points you'd like to comment on? Did you learn something? Or was it just boring? Would it be better if they had teased us with forthcoming content or a more extensive Blizzcon preview? Chime in below.

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I'm sure most everyone who's gotten through the WotLK content can relate. You've been in Northrend for a while and cruising through the journey to level 80. And finally, one of those landmarks that you've been waiting for -  Level 77: the level you become eligible to train Cold Weather Flying. And if you play it right, it's also a transition to some quick leveling. I've been questing in Northrend since level 68, so I skipped over expert and artisan riding that became available at level 70. But regardless, flying has been something I've really been looking forward to. Leading up to hitting 77, I had been questing in Zul'Drak, then headed back to Borean Tundra to catch some quests I missed earlier. When I dinged, I headed straight away to Dalaran and paid a visit to Hira Snowdawn at Krasus' Landing to buy the skills, and Dama Wildmane in Shadowmoon Valley to pick up my swift purple wind rider. About 7,000 gold later, I was ready to fly. The only problem? It takes some getting used to. I summoned the wyvern and started off with a jump. Flight practice. I tried aiming for the top of a tower in Shadowmoon Valley, and started the flying climp up. Much, much faster than I anticipated, I had overshot the roof and was hovering above it. I changed tactics and decided to aim with the mouse. Just like swimming. I aimed again, and touched down on the tower. Not too bad. I got the hang of getting around, but still am perfecting the art of picking out the perfect spot to touch down when near mobs. And running off the side of a cliff still makes my stomach flop over as I expect to start falling. But the wind rider's got my back. For now, the act of flying is still somewhat of a luxury for me because it's still so new. But I know soon enough, it'll become just another aspect of the game that I take for granted - that's the natural course of things. I remember how paying for my first trip between flight paths also seemed pretty magical, and quickly was only a means to get around. Especially with all the changes to mounts coming for patch 3.2, it seemed the appropriate time to reminisce a bit about the thrill of first flight. Do you all remember your first jaunt on a flying mount?

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You now can add another significant mount change to the ones already announced for Patch 3.2. Earlier this week, Wow.com discovered a nifty new item on the Public Test Realm. The Tome of Cold Weather Flight, a bind to account item, teaches Cold Weather Flying at level 68. Blue poster Zarhym confirmed the upcoming addition in a thread that linked to the post, and he also elaborated a bit on how the tome will work:

Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process. Please note this feature is not yet in the newest version of the public test realm patch notes updated today. The item and its functionality are subject to change during the testing process.

So this clears up one thing: You only will be able to get the Tome of Cold Weather Flying once you've already gotten at least one character to level 80. This is something I can get behind, knowing that players will (hopefully) be able to fully appreciate all the wonderful lore in the Northrend area before plowing through the content as quickly as you'll be able to on a flying mount. In subsequent posts, Zarhym responded to questions about whether an alt would still have to buy the flying skill if they have a tome:

You just have to buy the tome. The cost for the player is the same. It just means if you have an alt and can afford it, you can get yourself flying in Northrend by level 68. ...The tome costs 1,000 gold. It is not meant to bypass the cost of the training, but only to allow for level 80 players with alts the ability to fly in Northrend once they arrive at level 68. It's a small perk for those who have reached level 80 and like leveling new races or classes. :)

I still have a couple of questions that I haven't seen answered, and likely won't be answered until we see how it works when Patch 3.2 goes live to all realms (things may change by then anyways, since the PTR is subject to change). Mostly - if this is BtA, but a players has level 80 characters of both factions, are they required to choose only one faction to use this new ability (since it only can be sent to players on same realm, same faction)? Or, since the tome is consumed when used, perhaps that means that we'll be able to buy the item multiple times, but only have one active at any one time? It'll be interesting to see how this one unfolds. I've heard a lot of complaints from players about what they see as nerfs to a lot of the WoW content coming in 3.2. So what do you guys think - would you consider this a nerf, or does the fact that you have to have a level 80 to get the tome help negate that? Personally, I'm a long distance away from having an alt to level 68. But I'd be all for taking advantage of the change once that time comes.

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Patches mean different things to different players. For some, it is looking forward to more adventure and exciting things to do. Others might be anticipating changes to their class or getting their hands on a new vanity pet. As GM of a raiding guild, I find it necessary to scrutinize patch notes in search of changes that may impact the way my guild operates. For example, in patch 3.1, they introduced dual specialization. This had an immediate impact in our raids. If we're facing a boss that only requires one tank, then we'll have the other tanks swap to their DPS specs. If we're short a healer, one of our DPS can swap over. Having raid members with well-geared secondary specs became important. In order to encourage our raid members to have well geared offsets, we changed our loot policies to offer gear for offsets at a discount DKP price, assuming no one needed the item for their main spec. Another smaller change in 3.1 was the duration change on flasks from two hours to one. As a result, we now make sure everyone is using their flasks in unison so we can time our breaks for when the flasks run out. As I peruse the patch notes for patch 3.2, there are a few line items that could impact the logistics of raiding. It will be interesting to see how guild officers respond to these changes. One of the first decisions guilds need to make is how will the new raid instance, Crusader's Coliseum, fit into their raiding schedule. While the new dungeon is technically a new tier of raiding, guilds may not remove Ulduar off their schedules immediately, like they did to Naxxramas when 3.1 hit. While the details aren't solid at the moment, it has been posted that the encounters in the Coliseum will be unlocked one at a time at the rate of one per week. Many guilds will still spend a lot of time in Ulduar while the bosses are slowly introduced in the Coliseum. Once all of the tier 9 encounters are open, there are more scheduling decisions to make. The Crusader's Coliseum (aka The Argent Coliseum) has both a normal and heroic version for both 10 and 25 players. The heroic versions of the instance limit players to a number of attempts each week, but open up greater rewards for those who succeed. With that in mind, do you try and take out Ulduar quickly and then spend the remaining time working on the normal version of the new instance? Or do you skip the gobs of easy loot from Ulduar in favor of the new content? How do you balance time spent in normal vs. heroic Coliseum? Interesting questions, indeed. Perhaps the biggest raiding change to be introduced in 3.2 is the extend raid lockout feature. When 3.2 hits, guilds will be able to decide if they want to prevent a raid instance from resetting on a weekly basis. Raid lockouts can be extended for up to an additional week to allow players more time to work on and clear boss encounters. With instances as big as Ulduar, many guilds begin to struggle towards the end of the instance because they run out of time to work on bosses like General Vezax and Yogg-Saron. How will your guild use this exciting feature? Players in 3.2 will have the ability to trade soulbound items with other raid members that are eligible for the loot. This feature grants you a two-hour grace period before the item is permanently bound and will save Blizzard GMs from throngs of in-game tickets from items that are distributed incorrectly. Guilds may decide, however, to use this feature as a time saver during raids. Instead of spending precious flask time distributing loot after each boss kill, the master looter can grab everything and hand it out at specified break periods. Obviously, this is more beneficial when you're clearing a lot of bosses in a night and can get complicated if you frequently have raid members leaving and joining throughout the night, but it is still a nice option to explore. The Call of the Crusade patch will change the way a lot of guild approach raiding. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Which raiding features are you most excited about in 3.2? How is your guild going to approach some of these changes? Share your thoughts and ideas with us.

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Last week, iTZKooPA touched on the information overload we're seeing with patch 3.2, which now is live on the Public Test Realm. One area that I thought it'd be fun to expand a bit on is the new experience changes related to battlegrounds. Patch notes for the PTR informed us that players now will gain experience for actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds. Pretty neat idea. But here's the kicker: players who don't want to gain XP now will be able to turn it off - both for within battlegrounds and for any other means available in the game. This is a huge change for anyone who enjoys the practice of twinking. In some ways, the practice will become much easier to do. You won't have to rely on your higher level character to provide you with all the best gear available at level 19 (or your preferred twink level) - you also will be able to seek out rare drops and quest rewards without worrying about the XP gains. You'll essentially be able to get all the best gear possible and never level up and out of your battleground bracket. Blizzard comically makes light of this - the NPCs who you pay 10 gold to in order to turn on or off XP gains are named Behsten and Slahtz (Best-in-slots). But it's a give-and-take situation. Players who choose to turn off their XP gains and compete in battlegrounds will only face off against other players who also have turned off their XP. Now, some people will be happy for this change - twinks facing off against other twinks would probably make for a more interesting fight. And non-twinks will no longer be battling against twinked out toons with double the stats. I'm certain there also are those twinks out there who are ticked off that they'll never get to beat down on the other unsuspecting battleground fighters. Perhaps those players will move on to world-wide PvP gankage. A lot of people would argue this change effectively nerfs twinks. And it also might drive up the prices for twink gear. I wonder how many players will exploit the changes by turning off XP just barely into their preferred twink level, then getting all the best gear and turning on the XP again for a limited number of glorious battles against weaklings. Meanwhile, a lot of non-twinks out there are rejoicing. The prospect of entering a battleground may be a lot less intimidating if you are more confident that you'll face off against others in similar gear. Then again, I cringe to think of what this change might do to already-long battleground queues. Another unrelated way in which turning off XP may change the game: Classic raiding and role-playing. Blizzard blue poster Nethaera pointed out that many players may have a purpose for turning off XP entirely separate from twinking. If you cap at level 60 or 70, you can raid to your heart's content in that Vanilla WoW or BC content you love. Or, you could turn off XP until a friend you'd like to play with reaches your level. Or, you may just wish to role-play a character at a particular level. Oh, the possibilities. What does everyone else think that these changes will mean for the twink population? Will you keep your twinks after 3.2? Anyone think you're more likely to create a twink? If I had to guess, I'd predict that the twink population may decrease a bit after these changes. But like many things in life, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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In the upcoming patch, death knights will be the only class to receive a talent point refund because, once again, they are getting an overhaul. Some of these changes are nerfs, some are buffs and others are redesigns of how the spells and abilities function. The death knight community is already analyzing all of the data and surmising why these changes have occurred. Let's explore some of these changes, but keep in mind that all of this is subject to change before this patch goes live.

Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 50% per disease.

This change is creating quite a stir in the death knight community. That's a huge buff to that ability and some folks are speculating that it's a typo and they meant to say "increased by 50% per disease", which would mean it increases from 12.5% to 18.75% per disease and not 50%. If the change does remain as written, then blood strike could replace heart strike in the blood rotation and some of the scourge strikes in the unholy rotation. The blue post found here seems to indicate that it's not a typo, however, it's already been reduced on their latest internal build, which would make it different than the patch notes.

Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.

This is a change for pvp and will probably come as a relief to many hardcore pvpers. However, I don't see DKs making much of a stink over it. Chains of ice is still amazing and has the same basic function.

Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina. Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes. Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes. Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.

Ouch! The death knight tanks take another heavy blow with the nerf bat. In patch 3.1.3 frost presence armor bonus was reduced by 20%. Now we see a 4% nerf to the stamina bonus and the doubling of the cooldown on the death knight's main survival ability. In addition, the armor and stamina talents in the blood and frost trees are also taking a hit. It seems that they are trying to make death knight tanks more like the other tanks. The original design felt like death knights would have more frequent cooldowns to push to offset the fact that they do not have a shield and cannot block. These changes, however, make them feel more like the other tanks and icebound fortitude is now more in line with other tank talents like last stand. If I'm being objective, I think the icebound fortitude change can solve some issues. Recently, my guild took down General Vezax using a paladin main tank. It was a little obnoxious knowing that we could survive the surges of darkness easier if our main tank was a death knight solely because icebound fortitude had a one-minute cooldown. Much of the screaming from the DK tank community seems to revolve around the fact that paladin tanks are getting a decent amount of buffing, including this hard to believe change:

Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

If I'm reading that correctly, that's a passive guardian spirit every two minutes? I'm sure glad my guild often runs with two protection paladins!

Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.

Frost strike hits hard and it was probably viewed as too much burst in pvp especially considering it couldn't be mitigated. The slight reduction of damage is probably going to be a wash considering that blood strike is getting buffed. The blue post here, seems to indicate that the frost dps is being spread out a bit more and not consolidated on just one ability.

Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power. Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.

These are the 51 point talents for blood and unholy specs. The jury seems mixed on these changes. While I'm not sure if it's an overall buff or nerf to the damage of these spells, what I do know is these spells will be a lot easier to use now that they have a fixed runic power cost and duration. Currently, the timing of when you use these abilities can drastically affect the amount of extra dps they give you. Pop them at the wrong time and you have just wasted a precious cooldown. So I'm eager to see these changes in action.

Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.

Dual-wielding used to be one of the top approaches to take for a dps death knight. Recently, however, many of the changes have all but killed it. So in patch 3.2, the dual wielding death knights might make a comeback with this new talent in the frost tree.

Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent. Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.

Interesting. So the current desecration is being split into two separate talents. Desecration is now mostly a pvp ability. The good news is, the infamous desecration graphic will now be much less prominent in pve, which will make most raid leaders happy. However, the speculation is desolation may not be worth taking because the 12 second duration may mean that it is not active at all times with the current rotations. We'll have to see if this new talent gets modified at all before it releases.

Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates. Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.

There isn't much to comment on here. The talent points saved on blood of the north are probably meant to make room for the new dual-wielding talent in frost. The lichborne change makes it more dynamic since you can use it more often, but need to be more exact on the timing.

Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%. Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Last but not least, some big changes to the unholy tree. Scourge Strike is the bread and butter for the unholy DK. The nerf in damage seems partly pvp related. Since scourge strike deals shadow damage, it is not reduced by armor and can be a wrecking ball. Blizzard doesn't seem to like large amounts of burst coming from a single ability. The reduction in damage on scourge strike is offset by the buff to blood strike, which should see more use. This may also be a push for unholy DKs to get more benefit out of armor penetration. Items with armor penetration are rife in Ulduar and currently it's not a stat that does too much for unholy DKs who spend most of their time scourge striking shadow damage. The unholy blight redesign is one of the biggest changes for death knights in this patch. Unholy blight is the signature spell of the unholy tree and the main reason that this spec is normally associated with AOE damage. Well that all changes in 3.2. Unholy blight no longer deals AOE damage at all, in fact, it is not even a spell, it is a passive ability that adds a bleed effect to your death coils. This change really alters the flavor of the unholy death knight and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Don't get me wrong, this change may turn out to be powerful, but I thought it was interesting how each of the three dps specs for death knights felt unique. Blood was the heavy hitting single target crusher, frost seems to be evolving once again as the dual-wielding spec and unholy was the master of AOE damage. Well I guess we'll have to wait and see how unholy feels after the changes go live. In summary, death knights are looking at some tanking nerfs and a reduction to burst and AOE damage in 3.2. On the other hand, some abilities will be easier to use, dual-wielding should be viable again and raid members should no longer die by standing in fires that are obscured by spell effects. What do you think of the death knight changes coming in 3.2? Is there anything you're particularly excited or angry about?

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Content patches often bring class changes of the raw number variety, but rarely do we see mechanics almost completely reinvented. Shamans' lives are about to get a whole lot easier, as Blizzard intends to give them their very own hotbar for totems! The new bar will hang just over the left side of your core action buttons, just like a Warrior's stances or a Paladin's auras, and feature four slots where you can drop totems, one of each element. As there are currently twenty-three totems available to the class, this should help cut down on clutter (assuming you're like me,  and keeping all of them readily available just in case you might find the rare use for most of them). This Shaman might still be alive if he was using the new hotbar! Several other buttons will be available on the hotbar just as soon as you achieve the level needed to learn them. Call of Earth, for example, will replace Totemic Call, while a whole new spell, Call of Fire, will drop all four totems at once. Those Shamans who currently rely on macros to do this will be pleased to know that Call of Fire operates using only one global cooldown, making it even more efficient. Likewise, there are Call of Air and Call of Water spells, which essentially function the same as Call of Fire, but allow you to drop two more (different) sets of totems, so you can queue them up as the situation calls for it. Each of these can be hotkeyed for easy access. A total of eight new buttons on your screen might seem like a lot, but it's certainly better, and more organized, than the alternative. Ultimately, this should eliminate several problems for the class, including resetting your totems after they've been destroyed in PvP combat or quickly moving them to avoid adds while questing or running an instance. I, for one, am happy with these changes. My primary alt is a Shaman, and setting down totems before any given encounter gets to be a pain, to the point of not even bothering for most trash pulls. It should also make tasks like dropping an emergency Cleansing or Tremor Totem more convenient. Overall, it looks like 3.2 may be shaping up to be a bigger release that originally anticipated. What do you guys and gals think? Does this sound like something that would appeal to you, or are you just going to continue sticking with macros? Gives us your feedback below!

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