Project Lore

What? So soon?! With the Lich King Hard Mode the only remaining unconquered content in Icecrown Citadel (well, for the guilds at the tip of the top, anyway), it may not be that big of a surprise.

Nonetheless, my ears perked up when I heard that WoW-Europe had recently activated their Patch Test Realm forum again, indicating that a new testing phase may be on the way.

Do keep in mind that, despite the curiosity of these events, there is no official indication that anything is about to happen. In fact, Wryxian emphasizes that the PTR is not currently live in one of his posts on the forum:

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The smoke is starting to clear from all the changes in patches 3.1 and 3.1.1, and players are figuring out how all the class changes have affected preferred talent specs and accompanying glyphs. Also, with the recent addition of dual spec, there are a lot of players out there who've recently been looking into the best builds for different aspects of gameplay. So there was plenty to consider with the patches, and thankfully we have a lot of tools out there for figuring out which builds we like best. When I was trying to figure out how to spec for my foray in the arena tournament, I used the WoWWiki page for rogue builds, found the PvP spec I liked best, then figured out how to gear up based on my new talents. But there are downsides to that route - posters don't always have the best insight into which builds are best, and there's a whole array to choose from, each with slightly different tweaks. Now I'm all for personalizing your character based on your own preferences and playing style. But when thinking about completely switching your specs (or adding a dual spec), sometimes it's good to go for the tried and true specs to start off with, then figure out what changes you want to make from there. I think the best tool out there for this is TalentChic.com, and the recently added sister site, GlyphChic. Here's how it works:

"To find the most popular talent builds, the system scans both the US and EU WoW armory sites to find the talent points chosen by characters. It then sorts those according class, spec and playstyle and collates the results... We continually scan the armory and update the popularity score of the most popular builds hourly. "

Just by looking at the TalentChic home page, we can see that the overall most popular builds among "the best players" who are included in the calculation are:

1. Elemental Shaman 57/14/0
2. Restoration Shaman 0/16/55
3. Fire Mage 0/53/18
4. Combat Rogue 15/51/5 (And coincidentally, also the spec I'm working my main toward)
5. Shadow Priest 13/0/58

But the interesting part is when you use the site's filters to break down the popularity of a build according to class and find out specifics. As of my writing this, the top 10 most popular Death Knight builds are either Frost or Unholy, with Blood only making the list at number 11. You also can sort the list according to specific talent trees. The top four builds for hunters, for example, are minor variations on a survival spec.  But you also can look specifically at the beast mastery tree to see that among those specs, several different versions of a 53/11/7 build are the most prominent. And if you want to watch and see how any patch changes affect the popularity of builds, you can sign up to get updates when a specific page on the site changes. Currently, the site is updated based on how players have rebuilt their specs that were reset with patch 3.1 and again with 3.1.1. The sister web site, GlyphChic, operates very similarly. You choose your specific considerations, and the site reguritates useful stats back at you. Among players who also use my favored combat spec, for example, the most popular major glyphs are of sinister strike, rupture and slice and dice, while the favored minor glyphs are of blurred speed, vanish and safe fall. The site's been around since the talent respec that came with 3.0.2, and the WoW community continues to be a little smarter because of it. So for anyone who hasn't checked it out yet or who hasn't been back since last Tuesday, definitely take a look. You may find yourself surprised, entertained or at least more informed.

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My long-awaited vacation has finally arrived. And one of the top items on my priority list (although I'm sot sure yet whether it will happen) is playing more WoW and getting a feel for all the 3.1 patch changes. The only problem: I'm more than 800 miles from home and in a much different atmosphere than usual. Here, there's no permanent desk setup, which isn't a huge deal since I normally play on my laptop anyway. It's just a bit less comfortable playing from a hard, wood chair than in my much softer desk chair. But since I need my mouse accessible, I can't exactly sink into a couch. I wish I would have remembered to bring my lapdesk - that would have solved that issue beautifully. Thankfully, latency isn't much of an issue. The DSL here versus cable back home both have me hovering at about 200 ms. But I doubt we'd have enough bandwidth here to run two (or three) windows of WoW simultaneously. Needless to say, my escapades with dual-boxing have temporarily halted. I'm just glad I'm not staying with someone who still runs dialup! So it's not quite the same as back home, but I'm able to squeeze in a bit of WoW in between fun vacation-esque stuff. Enough to feed the addiction. For any of you all looking to leave town for spring break or whatever reason and still hope to get in some gaming on a laptop you can travel with, I recommend: find a comfortable spot - bring a lapdesk (do as I say, not as I do). Don't forget your mouse - touchpads are incredibly difficult to use in-game. And if you have anything like a Zboard that you can fit in your luggage, bring it along, too. Even if you can't fit your entire desktop, a keyboard doesn't take up a ton of space. Of course, if you CAN bring a more powerful desktop, that also would be nice. Though it may limit your options for a spot to play. And no matter what the case, remember: You're on vacation! Don't forget to run some RL quests for fun, too! So what's your WoW routine while on vacation - do you still find the time to squeeze in some playtime? And do you have any more tips to offer for those traveling?

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Dungeon maps? Yes, please!

While my game was patching this afternoon, I took a look through WoW's official Patch Notes on 3.1. We've already been talking a lot about some of the larger ticket items including Ulduar and related achievements, dual spec, armor upgrades, profession changes and the unfortunate delay of Equipment Manager. Now, there's a WHOLE lot more that we'll undoubtedly be combing over in the coming days and weeks, but until then let's take a look at some of the other random details from the Secrets of Ulduar page and the patch notes that jumped out at me. My aim for this first round up is to detail what will affect all of us, as opposed to the specific. The convenience factor:

• All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
• Players will now be able to queue for battlegrounds from any location. Leaving a battleground will return you to the location from which you entered.
• Applying a glyph no longer requires a Lexicon of Power. The same rules for switching between dual talent specializations now apply to switching glyphs and cannot be performed while in combat, Battlegrounds (except when Preparation is up), or Arenas (no exceptions).

Class changes:

• Death Knights have a TON of changes that will take some time to readjust. Some spells got buffed, some got nerfed. With time, we'll see what the overall affect is. If I had to guess, it may be an overall nerf.
• Druids, hunters, paladins, priests, shamans and warlocks also are seeing substantial class changes.
• Mages and warriors will see some changes but not as many.
• Rogues, my specialty, may possibly be getting an overall buff. A couple of skills got debuffed, but not by a ton. /hopeful! What I'm looking forward to most -- Killing Spree: Now also increases all damage done by the rogue while active by 20%.

Professions: cooking:

• A new recipe has been added to cooking trainers for making Black Jelly, using several Borean Man 'O War as ingredients. While it looks disgusting, it restores more health and mana than the highest level food.
• Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!
• Ingredients such as Spices, Apples, and the like have been removed from most cooking recipes.
• Several Northrend recipes were given greater skill up ranges to make it easier to reach 450 cooking skill.
• You no longer need to learn cooking from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

And for the all-important First Aid:

• You no longer need to complete the “Triage” quest to attain Artisan First Aid. Instead you can learn the Artisan skill from the trainers in the capital cities.
• You no longer need to learn First Aid from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

And Fishing:

• A new (and very rare) special mount can now be caught from Northrend fishing pools (hmmm, what could it be?).
• The time needed to catch fish has been reduced.
• You can now fish anywhere, regardless of skill. Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains, but you are likely to catch worthless junk in areas that are too difficult for your skill.
• You no longer need to learn fishing from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

The only bummer for me on professions, and this is of my own doing, comes from Leatherworking:

• Added a recipe for combining Borean Leather Scraps into Borean Leather. You can still use Borean Scraps from your inventory to combine them. (I JUST combined a TON of these without the recipe, and hence got no levels for it. Sadness!)

Dungeons:

• New dungeon maps have been added for all Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. (YAAAAAAAY!!)

User Interface:

• New Advanced features for quest tracking are now available. Players will need to activate this option within the Interface panel.
• Several new options for increased graphics such as Video Mode Ultra, higher Shadow Quality detail and new high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets.
• Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible.
• Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold.
• The calendar now supports a guild-wide sign-up sheet, allowing the event organizer to invite his or her entire guild.
• Class roles (i.e. damage, tanking, healing) have been added to the Looking For Group feature. Class roles will be displayed when sorting through the Looking For More section.
• Quest and Achievement tracking are now combined in a new Objectives Tracking window. Advanced features can be activated from the Objectives Options panel.
• On-Use items will display in the Objectives Tracking when tracking a quest that uses them. No more searching through your bags for that on-use quest item!
• Health and Fuel/Ammo bars have been added to the vehicle interface whenever operating a vehicle.
• The mini-map has been optimized for better performance. Displays for vehicles, class colors, and off-map pings have been added as well.

Items:

• Loot from clams now stacks correctly! (Thank the Azeroth heavens)
• Changed the icon for Succulent Clam Meat so it doesn't look quite as disgusting. Now 100% more succulent!
• A whole ton of glyph changes.
• Three new mounts are available from Horde mount vendors, equalizing the number of purchasable normal and epic mounts: the Black Wolf, the White Kodo, and the Black Skeletal Horse (in Orgrimmar, Bloodhoof Village, and Brill respectively).
• Hearthstone: Cooldown has been reduced to 30 minutes down from 60 minutes. (!!)Bug Fixes - there's a bunch for all the classes, some items and some race-related. Good stuff to make your game play a more enjoyable experience.

For the full notes, check WoW's patch notes page, and keep checking back with Project Lore as we wrap our heads around all these changes!

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Earlier we took a look at some the gear design philosophy of Blizzard and saw some armor that was introduced in 3.0 and that will be added in 3.1. We looked at the "Lost Vanquishers" (sans Druid): Rogue, Death Knight, and Mage. Today we are going to check out what the "Lost Protectors" have: Hunter, Shaman, and Warrior. Thanks to MMO-Champion for the screenshots of Ulduar gear and Season 6. More consistent and high resolution imagery will be added once patch 3.1 hits the live realms. Scroll down to see the sets and click the images for larger views. The first three Gladiator's sets of Wrath seem to be just recolorings, but they do seem to be getting more fancy with season 6's Furious Gladiator's sets. Of these three classes, I think hunters have the best looking PvP gear. The green scales on the Furious Gladiator's set look pretty cool. Shaman's shoulders in PvE have always been cool. Some people despised the dungeon set 1 shaman shoulders, but I loved them. When Blizzard had finally added skins in for the end game items so that they looked cooler than twill, it became a great symbol of progress for me. Now, the shaman shoulders are just ridiculously cool. The glowing orbs and meteorites chained to the armor are far more epic than any other shoulders. Hunter and warrior armor is honestly boring to me. It doesn't have as much flair as it should. What do you guys think? Are shaman's shoulders over the top or just epic and which class looks best? Hunter PvP PvE Shaman PvP PvE Warrior PvP PvE

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I always wondered about how Blizzard would handle armor designs as new content as released. As players are able to get more and more powerful and fight progressively nefarious enemies, how could armor sets get progressively more epic to reflect the power of the wielders? Thrall is beginning to look less and less cool comparatively. I thought tier 2's Bloodfang was far cooler than anything until tier 5 for rogues. The Burning Crusade armor sets had quite a few very bizarre armor sets as Blizzard designer's were reaching to try to make things as epic as possible. They definitely had the theme of Burning Crusade, drawing on the ideas of "lasers! pew pew" used in the nether-themed places and Draenei. The mighty morphing pally rangers will never be forgotten! The Wrath sets definitely have a distinctive look as well. The tier 7 sets are nigh direct copies of tier 3 since tier 3 was obtained in Naxxramas, which was revamped and moved to Northrend, but the non-tier pieces have had a very satisfying Nordic look that was a little shocking coming from the highly colored and crazy Burning Crusade world. Tier 8 continues this trend, with the items being highly influenced by the Titan architecture and carrying a very "new" look. Some players complained that the new PvP sets were too bland. Blue poster Zarhym told players:

The look of the sets will improve as the seasons continue. If we started the first sets of PvP gear with asteroids orbiting the shoulders, in a couple seasons you'd be wearing Thrall on your head... Under the current design philosophy, the idea is that in PvE you're killing very rare and challenging creatures of Azeroth, while in PvP you're receiving gear from the crafters (so to speak) of your faction to get you battle-ready. Chances are you're going to be given the gear that'll get the job done rather than the gear that has to be constructed entirely out of the nipples of a 7,000 year-old dragon.

I personally like this idea. It used to be that my PvP sets would be a mish-mash of pieces from various sets and didn't look very cool. Now, it blends together much more nicely. You can check out all the new armor sets for both PvP and PvE gear on MMO champion. Additionally, you can read more about the Frost Wyrm mount reward in season 5 and more discussion on PvP rewards. Check out the first part of our gallery comparing the tier 8 and tier 7 sets along with all the Wrath Gladiator sets. Today, we feature the classes of the "Lost Vanquisher": Rogue, Death Knight, and Mage. Druid's sets are not done yet, so they will be featured later. Thanks to MMO Champion for the renderings of the sets from the PTR. Note that the unreleased armor sets are still subject to change. Rogue Mage Death Knight The Death Knight's "Valorous Darkruned Battlegear" appears to be the same as Darion Mograine's armor. Very cool! Rogue's PvP sets are boring. They look like a themed grey set. I've got to say, the tier pieces look great though. Mage's tier 7 looks more like druid gear with the moose horns, but the tier 8 looks decent. What do you guys think? Is the current philosophy of PvP gear's look good, and are the PvE tier sets maintaining a good look?

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Wrath of the Lich King sought to even out the playing field of PvE and PvP benefits that players receive from knowing a profession. It was nigh required to have a leatherworker's drums in the endgame of Burning Crusade, and Engineers found many a trick to "exploit" in battlegrounds. Many professions, like Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Tailoring, had several BoP items that were some of the best gear you could get, making these professions a huge boon to some classes that put them way ahead of characters that didn't pick the "right" profession. Blizzard evened this out with a whole host of abilities for the professions. They made sure every profession provided a benefit to both PvE and PvP gameplay in a way that was useful to every class. These changes were applied in patch 3.0.2, and many of these benefits are available to both low-level characters and high-level ones. If you are a little rusty on who gets what, take a moment to review:

Profession	Main Gameplay Benefits
Alchemy	Mixology (PvE), Endless Healing Potion (PvP)
Blacksmithing	Socket Bracer, Socket Gloves
Enchanting	Enchant Rings (Stamina, Spellpower, AP)
Engineering	Hand enhancements (Rockets, Haste)
Leatherworking	Leg Enchancements (Resists, AP, Stam)
Tailoring	Leg and Cloak Enchancements (Spellpower, Holy Damage, Melee Haste)
Jewelcrafting	Special Gems, Trinkets (Resilience, Strength, MP5)
Inscription	Shoulder Enchants (AP, Spell Power, Dodge)
Herbalism	Lifeblood
Mining	Toughness
Skinning	Master of Anatomy

Engineering didn't get as much love in terms of PvE/PvP viability. The engineering benefit was the ability to add "gadgets" to your gear that essentially enchant your gear with different abilities. Most of these did not positively effect endgame PvE or PvP gameplay. For example, you couldn't get your cloak enchanted if you wanted Flexweave Underlay. And forget about your Icewalker enchant if you plan on using Nitro Boosts. In 3.1, Engineers get a little bonus that provides them with a comparable bonus to other professions. Blue poster Zarhym recently rounded up the changes in 3.1 for engineers:

• Added a new Reticulated Armor Webbing engineering enchant that increases the armor on plate gloves.
• Added a new Springy Arachnoweave engineering enchant that grants passive spell power in addition to turning your cloak into a parachute.
• Flexweave Underlay now grants passive agility in addition to its normal effect.
• Nitro Boosts now grant passive critical strike rating in addition to their speed boost.

The list may not be conclusive and is subject to change over the course of the public testing process. Its still not enough to sell me. I'm eyeing replacing herbalism with something a little more effective (maybe skinning?) for that extra boost for my rogue DPS.

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Whether or not you find it productive to spend time on the Public Test Realm, it is usually pretty interesting to at least hear about what Blizzard has in store for the future of World of Warcraft. MMO-Champion once again delivers on that front by looking at the latest build of Patch 3.1 on the PTR. With their all-seeing eyes, they've discovered some significant (and not so significant) class and profession changes, new mounts including a turtle, and a plethora of Ulduar Achievements. While the list of class changes is somewhat short, there are some very interesting ones. Paladins have had a few talents rearranged, Death Knights have a slew of changes, and other classes get some minor tweaks, but the the most interesting to me are for Shamans, especially elemental ones which are mostly aimed at PvP. Check them all out on MMO-Champion. The new mounts mentioned sound fun, but I mostly just want the turtle:

• Blue Skeletal Warhorse - Summons and dismisses a rideable Blue Skeletal Warhorse. This is a very fast mount.
• White Kodo - Summons and dismisses a rideable White Kodo.
• Venomhide Ravasaur - Summons and dismisses a rideable Venomhide Ravasaur. This is a very fast mount.
• Coralshell Turtle - Summons and dismisses a rideable Coralshell Turtle. This is a very fast mount, both on land and in water.

Lastly, more and more new achievements are being implemented. With Ulduar being a huge instance with 14 bosses and 11 "hard modes," there were bound to be a ton of them, and the list doesn't even look to be comprehensive as there are no Heroic mode achievements included. Keep in mind that many of the numbers are placeholders and will likely be changed before 3.1 goes live. ***Also beware that the achievement details may spoil some content!***

• The Siege of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Siege area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Antechamber of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Antechamber area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Keepers of Ulduar (Defeat the Keeper bosses of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Descent into Madness (Defeat the bosses of The Descent into Madness area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Secrets of Ulduar (Defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Unbroken (Defeat Flame Leviathan on the first try without anyone repairing their vehicle on Normal Difficulty.)
• Three Car Garage (Defeat Flame Leviathan while in each of the following vehicles on Normal Difficulty.)
• Take Out Those Turrets (Destroy a Flame Leviathan Defense Turret on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shutout (Defeat Flame Leviathan without causing a System Shutdown on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Bombardment (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 1 Orbital Defense System active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Devastation (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 2 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nuked from Orbit (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 3 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbit-uary (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 4 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• A Quick Shave (Defeat Razorscale without allowing her to fly into the air more than once on Normal Difficulty.)
• Minimal Casualties (Defeat Razorscale without any friendly NPCs dying during the fight on Normal Difficulty.)
• Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare (Defeat 1000 Iron Dwarves with Razorscale's Flame Breath within 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shattered (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master while shattering 77 Iron Constructs within 5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Hot Pocket (Survive being thrown into Ignis the Furnace Master's crucible on Normal Difficulty.)
• Stokin' the Furnace (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master in 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Engineering (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Scrapbots (Defeat 1000 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Dark Bombs (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Dark Bomb on Normal Difficulty.)
• Must Deconstruct Faster (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 20.5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Heartbreaker (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim (Defeat the Iron Council with Runemaster Molgeim as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir (Defeat the Iron Council with Stormcaller Brundir as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Steelbreaker (Defeat the Iron Council with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• But I'm on Your Side (Defeat the Iron Council while under the effect of a Steel Boot Flask on Normal Difficulty.)
• Can't Do That While Stunned (Defeat the Iron Council without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to cast Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Normal Difficulty.)
• Overload Overlord (Defeat the Iron Council without any raid member being struck by Overload on Normal Difficulty.)
• With Open Arms (Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Normal Difficulty.)
• Disarmed (Destroy both of Kologarn's arms within 12 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Normal Difficulty.)
• If Looks Could Kill (Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eye Beams on Normal Difficulty.)
• Rubble and Roll (Defeat Kologarn with 6000 Rubble creatures alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• Cheese the Freeze (Defeat Hodir without any raid member being hit by Flash Freeze on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Have the Coolest Friends (Defeat Hodir without any friendly NPC dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Cold in Here (Defeat Hodir without any raid member having more than 3 stacks of Biting Cold on Normal Difficulty.)
• Staying Buffed All Winter (Possess the effects of Toasty Fire, Storm Power and Starlight at the same time on Normal Difficulty.)
• Don't Stand in the Lightning (Defeat Thorim without being affected by Lightning Charge on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Take You All On (Defeat Thorim, the Ancient Rune Giant and the Rune Colossus on Normal Difficulty.)
• Who Needs Bloodlust? (Defeat Thorim while under the effect of Aura of Celerity on Normal Difficulty.)
• Siffed (Force Thorim to enter the arena and defeat him while Sif is present on Normal Difficulty.)
• Lumberjacked (Defeat Elder Brightleaf, Elder Ironbranch and Elder Stonebark within 2 seconds of each other on Normal Difficulty.)
• Con-speed-atory (Defeat Freya within 2 minutes of engaging a creature in the Conservatory of Life on Normal Difficulty.)
• Deforestation (Defeat 2 Ancient Water Spirits, 2 Storm Lashers and 2 Snaplashers within 120 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Back to Nature (Defeat Freya while she is affected by Attuned to Nature on Normal Difficulty.)
• Mind the Mines (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid triggering a Proximity Mine on Normal Difficulty.)
• Strike Out (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Rocket Strike on Normal Difficulty.)
• A-bomb-inable (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Bomb Bot on Normal Difficulty.)
• Set Up Us the Bomb (Complete the following Mimiron achievements on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Form the Head! (Force Mimiron to combine the parts of his greatest creation within 20 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shadowdodger (Defeat General Vezax without any raid member being hit by Shadow Crash on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning (Defeat General Vezax without being affected by Saronite Vapors on Normal Difficulty.)
• Never Stand Near the Faceless Dude (Defeat General Vezax without allowing him to regain health from Mark of the Faceless on Normal Difficulty.)
• Crazy Cat Lady (Defeat Auriaya while doing something cool on Normal Difficulty.)
• Supermassive (Defeat Algalon the Observer while destroying 4 Black Holes within 10 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Observed (Defeat Algalon the Observer on Normal Difficulty.)
• He Feeds On Your Tears (Defeat Algalon the Observer without any raid member dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• She's Not Bad for an Old God (/Kiss Sara in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Drive Me Crazy (Defeat Yogg-Saron without any raid member going insane on Normal Difficulty.)
• He's Not Getting Any Older (Defeat Yogg-Saron within 22 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• They're Coming Out of the Walls (Defeat 200 Guardians of Yogg-Saron within 12 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• In His House He Waits Dreaming (Experience all 5 visions of Yogg-Saron's mind on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Undying, Part Two (Within one raid lockout period, defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters.)

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There has been tons of talk about 3.1, Ulduar, and the public test realms lately. So for the first time ever I have transferred my character over the PTR to look around. While I know that test realms are intended to, well, test the upcoming content, we all know that is not people's primarily motivation for going over there. The reason many players go is to get a leg up on the competition when it comes to raiding, research new abilities, and make sure they know exactly what changes they are going to make to their character when the patch hits the live realms. I have enjoyed being able to see the dual spec mechanic in person, am liking the built in outfitter functionality, and being the first to see things like the Argent Tournament has certainly been interesting. One thing I noticed is that there are certain people who seem to spend A LOT of time on the PTR. I have never been able to relate to this. Perhaps it's the same reason I have never been super excited about being a beta tester. For me there is a feeling that the time you spend is all for not. There is a certain impending doom knowing that as soon as Blizzard decides that their testing is finished everything will go away in the blink of an eye. So what is the point in investing the time? Any gear that drops from those Ulduar bosses is not yours to keep, any money you make from crafting new profession recipes is as good as gone, and any achievements you earn won't mean much when the server is cleared. Of course, the very hardcore raiding guilds are busy mastering boss strats so that they can knock out the world firsts, and there may be a few generous souls who want to help report every bug they see, but for the rest of you - what is the motivation? Isn't your time better spent on something you can keep (virtually)? I applaud you who are there to help Blizzard work out bugs, but for the rest of you, are you having fun?

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When a hunter happens upon a Spirit Beast in Sholazar Basin, the reaction is usually sublime and controlled; decorum is maintained at all times. Like this: "WWAAAAAAAHHHH IT'S MY SPIRIT BEEEEEEEEAST!!!" And then they gather their composure... and spittle-shriek again. Of course, this usually only happens once in a hunter's life as the Spirit Beast in Sholazar Basin is extremely elusive. Well guess what we did today: "WWAAAAAAAHHHH IT'S MY NEW SPIRIT BEEEEEEEEAST!!!" Blizzard has come through with a little-mentioned rumor, that a new Spirit Beast would be introduced. Now, in the latest version of the PTR, this rumor is a reality. Gondria has arrived.

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