Project Lore

With the first part of Icecrown Citadel open today, not only did we get to preview and test the first boss (Lord Marrowgar), we also had access to a new vendor inside the palace, itself. Mott Sercer is a Quartermaster for the new faction, "The Ashen Verdict," and he stands just to the right of the entrance when you zone in. It's not entirely clear if he'll be the person to go to for things like Tier or badge gear, but he currently offers a drool-worthy collection of crafting patterns. While the gear you can create doesn't have stats yet (aside from armor and item level), it's almost assured they'll be things people want as soon as possible.

Please note that to purchase a recipe, you'll need to have a certain level of reputation with Ashen Verdict and an item called Primordial Saronite, which likely drops off of bosses or trash inside the instance (perhaps ICC's equivalent of Crusader/Runed Orbs?) . Below, I've listed each pattern and its material requirements:

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Patch 3.1 was replete with major changes from small class mechanics to large scale raids. I have found myself appreciating the smaller changes of patch 3.1 as much as the game changing things like dual specs and Ulduar. A change that was very timely for me was the ability to take flight paths over Wintergrasp. Originally you could not fly to your faction's Wintergrasp flight point, only out of it, and thus you could not fly "through" the flight point, making flights from Dalaran to River's Heart a real pain, as you had to fly up through Icecrown and take an 8 minute tour of west Northrend just to access your Oracle or Frenzyheart dailies. Using a flying mount was right out as well, as flying mounts are not permitted in Wintergrasp. Now that you can fly to Wintergrasp, you can fly through it, making it a quick 3 minute trip on the flight path from Dalaran to River's Heart and shortening most trips significantly. I usually just use my flying mount instead of flight paths as I don't want to have to calculate where the nearest flight path is to my destination and epic flying mounts are just as fast. This major change gives me a reason to use flight paths again and saves me a lot of time. The removal of the requirement of flint and tinder to make a simple campfire is another convenient change. Instead of walking all the way back to the Sunreaver's Sanctuary in Dalaran or to a bonfire in Orgrimmar, I can simply make a fire without having to waste bag spaces on mats. It allows me to get my cooking done easily, and some people use it for the minor spirit buff to boot! Its another huge time saver. One of the most annoying thing about crossing rivers in WoW was jumping in, getting dismounted, swimming for 3 seconds, getting on the other side, and remounting. Now mounts can swim! They do so at your swim speed (unless you have the illustrious turtle), but not having to remount saves those precious few seconds when crossing rivers or lakes. Thanks Blizzard! The Argent Tournament was a major change, but giving me dailies I actually want to do in this location tied together a convenient path for effectively doing dailies. From that location in northeast Icecrown, its easy to jump to Storm Peaks for Sons of Hodir dailies or hop over to Sholazar basin for Oracle/Frenzyheart dailies. The "find this sword" daily and the fishing daily also send you to some other convenient locations that make doing dailies like the Kalu'ak ones less out of the way. It really ties together Northrend as a whole by making more locations relevant for dailies instead of a bunch of disjoint regions. Finally, polishing off those professions should be much easier now. Cooking is theoretically easier to level to 450 with more recipes giving skill-ups longer. Training that required books for fishing, first aid, and cooking now can be done at trainers, and low level fishing has been fleshed out. Stats on lower items have been adjusted, like Leatherworking's Tough Scorpid set which now gives Agility and Stamina instead of Agility and Spirit, and the Turtle Scale set which now gives stamina, intellect, and spell power instead of stamina, intellect and spirit. Materials were tweaked to make low level items easier to make. Its now much more attractive to level professions at low levels. What are your favorite "non-spotlighted" changes of patch 3.1?

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Whether you just thinking of dabbling in PvP or a hardcore arena player, its nice to have a good outline of all the different ways you can get PvP gear. This usually changes from season to season, but if you haven't gotten any PvP gear yet, then your best bets are crafted gear or the Savage Gladiator set. The first introduction to PvP you get in the 70-80 level range are the crafted PvP sets. These are BoE and wearable at 78. They are cheap and have good all around stats, including some resilience for PvP. The Savage Gladiator's set is undoubtedly better, but for the price, this can't be beat. It also has more pieces than Savage Gladiator. I'd recommend picking it up before jumping into battlegrounds at 80. Rogue/Feral Druid - "Eviscerator's" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item links. Total materials: 8 Eternal Air, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 450 Agility, 449 Stamina, 299 Critical Strike Rating, 300 Resilience Eviscerator's Bindings Eviscerator's Chestguard Eviscerator's Facemask Eviscerator's Gauntlets Eviscerator's Legguards Eviscerator's Shoulderpads Eviscerator's Treads Eviscerator's Waistguard Druid - "Overcast" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Water, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 300 Intellect, 450 Stamina, 299 Spirit, 527 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Overcast Belt Overcast Boots Overcast Bracers Overcast Chestguard Overcast Handwraps Overcast Headguard Overcast Leggings Overcast Spaulders Mage/Warlock/Priest - "Frostsavage" - crafted by Tailors. Learned from Tailoring trainers in Dalaran and Horde/Alliance entry towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 27 Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 33 Crystallized Fire, 33 Crystallized Earth, 16 Eternium Thread Total stats: 300 Intellect, 450 Stamina, 299 Critical Strike Rating, 527 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Frostsavage Belt Frostsavage Boots Frostsavage Bracers Frostsavage Cowl Frostsavage Gloves Frostsavage Leggings Frostsavage Robe Frostsavage Shoulders Hunters/Enhancement Shaman - "Swiftarrow" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Air, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 300 Agility, 450 Stamina, 299 Intellect, 598 AP, 297 Critical Strike Rating, 299 Resilience Swiftarrow Belt Swiftarrow Boots Swiftarrow Bracers Swiftarrow Gauntlets Swiftarrow Hauberk Swiftarrow Helm Swiftarrow Leggings Swiftarrow Shoulderguards Restoration/Elemental Shaman - "Stormhide" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Water, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 120 MP5, 448 Stamina, 300 Intellect, 526 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Stormhide Belt Stormhide Crown Stormhide Grips Stormhide Hauberk Stormhide Legguards Stormhide Shoulders Stormhide Stompers Stormhide Wristguards Warrior/Death Knight - "Savage Saronite" - Crafted by Blacksmiths at a skill level of 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Taught by all Grand Master Blacksmiths in Dalaran, starting towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, among others. Total materials: 2 Eternal Air, 2 Eternal Shadow, 2 Eternal Water, 1 Eternal Fire, 1 Eternal Earth, 102 Saronite Bar Total stats: 559 Stamina, 380 Strength, 340 Critical Strike Rating, 360 Resilience Savage Saronite Bracers Savage Saronite Gaunlets Savage Saronite Hauberk Savage Saronite Legplates Savage Saronite Pauldrons Savage Saronite Skullshield Savage Saronite Waistguard Savage Saronite Walkers Paladin - "Ornate Saronite" - Crafted by Blacksmiths at a skill level of 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Taught by all Grand Master Blacksmiths in Dalaran, starting towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, among others. Total materials: 2 Eternal Air, 2 Eternal Shadow, 2 Eternal Water, 1 Eternal Fire, 1 Eternal Earth, 102 Saronite Bar Total stats: 36 MP5 87 Intellect, 567 Stamina, 44 Strength, 139 Critical Strike Rating, 355 Resilience Rating Ornate Saronite Bracers Ornate Saronite Gaunlets Ornate Saronite Hauberk Ornate Saronite Legplates Ornate Saronite Pauldrons Ornate Saronite Skullshield Ornate Saronite Waistguards Ornate Saronite Walkers Later on we'll look at the next level of PvP gear, the Savage Gladiator Set, and beyond!

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How do you choose your professions? If you just want to make money, clearly there is a general consensus that taking a couple of gathering professions such as mining and skinning would be best. Just head out for a little while, gather up some materials, and sell them. No sinking money into leveling, no rare recipes to find, no investing in mats to make something and hoping it sells. However, if you want to make your character as effective as possible in battles, it will probably cost you a bit of cash. All of the crafting professions have a few items that can only be used by characters with the right profession, but some are better than others. A couple of the nice ones are engineering for goggles, leatherworking for drums, enchanting for ring enchants, and alchemy and jewelcrafting for trinkets. Let's say you decide ring enchants and drums are best to make your character top the dps charts. How are you going to make that profit? Doing enchants and making armor kits will only make you so much money, especially if you have to buy mats. So, now you have to make an alt in order to provide mats and make a little more money. But don't you want to make your alt as uber as your main? I guess that's just something you'll have to decide for yourself.

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