Project Lore

There once was a time when earning a badge meant slogging through a 5-man dungeon over the span of a couple hours, or spending an entire night on downing two or three bosses in a raid. And it was a really long haul towards the next piece of gear. Not to mention that there was only one type of badge, so you knew exactly where to spend it and how many you would need when you got there. In an effort to equalize the playerbase, Blizzard has expanded on this idea several times in Wrath of the Lich King, first introducing a new set of badges for each tier of content, and then, in 3.2, making their acquisition even easier by handing them for just about anything remotely dungeon-related.

BlizzCon Entry Pass: the hardest badge to earn of all!

What once took weeks could take a matter of days, especially if you've got a group of people capable of running Trial of the Crusader in all its forms. Some in the community have cried foul, myself included, but even I can admit that its only because I've been around the block a few times. I've seen the gear grind at its worst, and it's all too tempting to look down my nose at the people who've only picked up the game more recently, and yell at them in my shrill old man voice, "Why, back in my day...!"

And also like a confused geriatric, keeping all the different badges (and how you can get them) straight sometimes makes my head spin. It's bad enough that (excluding Badges of Justice from Burning Crusade) we have four different kinds, but to obtain Tier 9.5 equipment, you need to pair them up with trophies you can only get from 25-man ToC.

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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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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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Whew, long walk! Glad I brought some snacks! I was recently told by our readers (several times, and with gusto), that if I'm so damn tired of raid content, why don't I go try out one of the other multitude of things to do in WoW? Well, I'll have you know that leveling alts, as banal as it can be at times, is one of my hobbies, and this post is proof positive! Allow me to take you on the mystical journey of a mage's life from a mana-limp bolt-slinger to face-wrecking powerhouse. Geez, that's a lot of hyphens. Now, let me throw out a couple warnings before I continue. I know I'm new around these parts, and there's a good chance this stuff has been covered before, but I do hope you enjoy my, er... unique slant on things. The other issue, which stems from the same basic problem, is that my mage is actually already level 38. Ideally, I would've liked to start this article at square one, but I'm not about to reverse all my progress just for that. So what I want to do is talk about what I've learned so far. I started off, like all Trolls, in the Valley of Trials. I tend to play a Troll whenever I get the chance; they're pretty awesome, and since they're the least played race in the game, I'm always up for increasing the server population. Drawback? Lack of shoes. I'll never have cool-looking kicks. The beginning levels were easy enough, especially since I suited Forcekin (yes, that's his name) up with a couple heirloom pieces: [Tattered Dreadmist Mantle] [Discerning Eye of the Beast] But even with the buffs these items provided, it was evident early on that mana would be a problem. I'd always heard that about mages and dreaded dealing with it myself. At 38, I'm happy to admit that things are improving, but prepare to grind out your first thirty-or-so levels like a sloth on Sunday. Taking a time-out to drink and eat after every pull or two really put a damper on my motivation (and its even more annoying when you have to stock up every time you log on), but I kept reminding myself that one day I'd be popping crits like a bag of Orville Redenbacher and destroying mobs before they even get within spitting range. A pleasant surprise came from how well my mage was able to take his lumps (when the enemies do manage to close in on you). Ice Armor, Mana Shield, Elemental Wards, and even Dampen Magic can take you far when spells like Polymorph and Frost Nova fail to keep the baddies at bay. And, of course, there's always Blink for getting your keister just out of harm's way. Indeed, the mage's repertoire of mitigation and avoidance skills is first-class. I chose to level as Frost spec in order to take advantage of the slow-down effects, and they've served me well so far, but I was initially disappointed in the lack of damage being dealt. For me, leveling an alt is a race to the top, so I often don't bother with group quests or dungeon runs unless it happens to be with a fellow guildie or I find myself in the right place at the right time. So, aside from the heirloom equipment, I've had very little to increase my crit chance -- no blues, no enchants, and I haven't even slotted any glyphs yet. But in my early 30s, I decided to go back and look at what Frost had to offer and found a magic combination I'm surprised I didn't see at first. I specced out of Cold Snap (boy was that a mistake at this level) and put a few points into the first-tier talent Frostbite. Combine that with Shatter, and you've got a 15% chance to increase your crit against a target by a full 50% when both talents are maxed out! This also applies to any other time a mob might be frozen, as with Frost Nova. Really nothing like flash freezing a bunch of mobs as you proceed to rain down some icy armageddon in the form of Blizzard. This probably seems like grade school for any mage in the know, but things really started picking up for me at that point. It even helped with my chronic mana problems! More crits per point of mana = less mana spent. Math is not my strong point, but even I can dig that brand of algebra. So, I'd have to say I'm in a pretty good spot with my frosty mage wonder. Being able to skirt around hapless mobs whilst nuking them in the face is getting to be pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, I'm at that part of the game where, at least for a Horde player, there's a lot of running around to do. I have yet to make the long journey to Badlands or Swamp of Sorrows and I've still got a boatload of quests in Stranglethorn to complete. Not to mention that Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Feralas are all on the horizon. And all my mage trainers want me to hotfoot it to Duskwallow Marsh for some reason! But, hey, that's where a Mage truly shines. Portals anyone? I'd like to continue updating everyone on my progress, if you'll have me, but in the meantime, I'm curious as to what kinds of experiences Project Lore readers have had leveling their own mages. Did you make any of the same stupid mistakes I did? Attempt to level as a different spec? Find the constant picnicking too much of a hassle or did the crazy damage co-efficients see you through to the end?

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Okay, okay. Sorry. Geez... Stop your cryin' and belly achein' for crap sakes! All you frost mages who think I'm not showin you luv or that I'm bashing on you or your talent tree need to take a freakin' chill pill. Maybe you have a talent for that or something... Yeah, yeah. I know. Frost mages can do damage and it's how you play your class and your spell sequence that determines your mana management and that a frost mage is incredibly effective against A'lar and... blah, blah, blah. Hush! listen up here peeps. The point is this: fire mages still kick ass in raid situations. Period. I'm not saying frost or arcane can't kick ass. I'm just sayin fire mages kick ass. Okay. The water elemental is nice in PvP and yes ice barrier is a very cool spell. I have seen some rockin' frost mages in AV kick the crap out of buckets of people with that frost nova and ice lance. And yes, yes, I know that ice block was originally your talent tree and for that one I thank you. But my whole point with talking about fire mages before is that some people have the misperception that only frost mages are good for raiding and end-game content. That is pure bull$hiT. I certainly can, and I have seen other fire mages, decimate instances left and right, utterly destroying clusters of mobs with a few well-placed arcane blasts and dragon's breath. But this is what get's me agitated: I've actually had people tell me that their guild doesn't want fire mages because they pull too much aggro or lack DPS or suck at killin raid bosses. What f'kn morons! Those issues are with the person playing the game, not the game itself. Got get Omen2 and Deadly Boss Mods to clear half of that crap up. So once and for all, so as to quell this brewin storm twix fire, frost and arcane mages I may have inadvertently started, the real bottom line is this: we mages have CC, we have great DPS, we have remove curse, AI and can drop enough tables to feed an entire raid. Frost is great for PvP. Fire is great for PvE. Arcane can one shot just about anything their level. All are doable for killin mobs in BT, Hyjal and Sun Well and will continue to be in WotLK. Face it: If you rolled a mage, people want your DPS.

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