Project Lore

The new build brings several changes, but we still have to wait for the Halls of Reflection. It looks like that little bit of extra maintenance on the PTR today wasn't just for show, as a new build of 3.3 has been deployed on the test realms. Unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to be quite as substantial as the first two, as there seem to be no new instances to run through. Part of me wonders if they'll just keep Halls of Reflection internal for the duration of the testing period in order to preserve the secrecy of whatever events might transpire there. But that doesn't mean there aren't any new or interesting changes. Here are the updated patch notes:

Druid

• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effect.

Hunter

• Call Stabled Pet: Cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Mage

• Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.

Priest

• Power Word: Shield; This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.
• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.
• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff.

Shaman

• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

Warlock

• Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

User Interface

• Non spell-based tracking now persists through logout.
• Any party member may mark raid targets.
• Users will be warned when their talents are reset due to a new patch.
• “/Settitle” command has been added.
• Instant quest text is on by default.
• “Tentative” status added for calendar responses.
• Players below level 10 may not join raids.
• Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.
• Unit frames added for special encounters.
• Interface element added next to the mini-map to show what dungeon you are in (ex: 10- and 25-player Heroic dungeons marked with a skull).
• Experience earned for a quest will display in the Quest Rewards section.
• Confirmation box added when buying stable slots.
• Macro Changes

Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”. New macro conditionals: “vehicleui” (if the player has a vehicle UI) and “unithasvehicleui” (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI). Character and Creature Nameplates

• The range at which players can see nameplates has been significantly expanded.
• You can no longer see nameplates through objects which block line of sight.

As long as you are able to peer through the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of characters and creatures in that room. Pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.

• Totem nameplates can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.
• Instead of nameplates for large groups of players or creatures trying to sort themselves, they will now overlap. This functionality can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.

Addon Author Changes

• “registerForClicks” added to xml buttons.
• “MouseIsOver” has been converted to a “C” function for increased efficiency (e.g. /dump PlayerFrame:IsMouseOver() ).
• When an addon file is loaded, the addon name and an addon table are passed to the file through ‘…’. The same addon table is passed to every file loaded by a particular TOC file (example at the top of a Lua file: “local addonName, addonTable = …;”.
• “motionScriptsWhileDisabled” attribute added to buttons. This allows “OnEnter”; and “OnLeave”; to fire while the button is disabled.
• “GetFileHeight()” and “GetFileWidth()” added to Texture objects. 0 is returned if no texture file is associated with the texture.
• You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

As you can see, several spells have been redesigned (and I'm personally pretty happy about the reduced cooldown on Rebirth), but some of the most exciting changes are coming to the User Interface. Though allowing anybody in your party to mark targets may seem like trouble waiting to happen for an unruly group, it should be quite beneficial for those that know how to control themselves. It takes some of the sweat of the tank or raid/party leader if other people can be designated to mark targets on the fly. Likewise, I'm glad that they're finally adding a "tentative" option to calender responses. I'm sure we've all had days when we weren't entirely sure we'd be able to make it to a raid or not, and just knowing that much makes organizing them a heckuva lot easier. As for the nameplates? Well, I always have them on, and while I can see a few problems with allowing them to overlap, I think it'll be much less confusing than the current setup which has them bouncing all over the place when there is a large group of mobs to deal with. That makes them extremely hard to individually target with the mouse. You go to click one and its nameplate has just jumped across the screen, and we all know that mis-targeting can, on occasion, lead to rather unfortunate consequences. As a side note, MMO-Champion has revealed that Oswald the Penguin will now once again go by his old name, Mr. Chilly. One might wonder why Blizzard did such a quick one-eighty! This new build is sure to bear more fruit as we continue to explore what it offers, so please stay tuned, and let us know what you think of the changes above!

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Outside of boss fights, PvE encounters are rarely challenging. That is, unless you really want them to be. If you've been following my Mage's progress, you'd already know that I'd been traipsing around Stranglethorn Vale for the past few levels. I was 38 then, I'm 41 now. And... still stuck in that balmy, tropical death pit. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm raring to cross the finish! My last round of quests involves the final in the line that Hemet Nesingwary Jr. tasks you with, Big Game Hunter. While all previous missions have requested that you simply go out and depopulate the local fauna, the fanged white tiger Bangalash proves to be a more devious foe. I'd tackled him before on other characters, so I knew that when the wily feline had lost about half of his health, he'd summon a pair of panthers to assist in the beatdown. On top of that, Bangalash is an Elite, which means he packs more of a punch than usual. A clothie like me could be toppled by the mere tickle of his whiskers! I wanted to get this over and done with before I left Stranglethorn, though, and was determined to use the most of my elite wizardry to take him down. The rewards, primarily for Huntards, meant nothing to me (but there was a sweet Achievement -- The Green Hills of Stranglethorn -- to be had upon victory). Setting off from Grom'gol on my Emerald Raptor, I traveled south-east towards the mound that the devilish terror calls home. I often had trouble remembering precisely where it was on other characters (and Nesingwary is of little help), but this time I found it in short order. Just off the road, roughly west of the Ziata'Jal Ruins, if you were curious. As Bangalash stalked the crest of the hill, I went about picking off the mobs, one by one. In the frantic battle to come, I couldn't afford to deal with anymore critters than the ones I knew he'd call to his side. Eventually, it was just me and the cat, mano a gato. I conjured a Mana Gem and refreshed my Ice Armor and Arcane Intellect just to be sure, before sitting down to replenish the mana I'd just spent. After my energizing snack, I backed off as far as I could. Mages are at their best when distant from the enemy, and this fight was no cause for exception. In fact, I was depending on it. The objective, of course, would be to minimize the number of times Bangalash could get close enough to swipe me. It took me far too long to get this shot. We circled eachother like two members of Fight Club ready to bleed. When I hit max range, I let the first Frostbolt fly. His attention immediately turned towards me, a menacing gaze in his eyes even as my chill effect slowed him down. He narrowed the distance, but three casts later (one a crit), and he was at least a thousand health the lesser. A quick Frost Nova was enough to stop him in his tracks. I took this opportunity to toss up a Mana Shield (a decision which I actually would come to regret) and continued my icy assault. By this point, Bangalash had yet to touch me, but he was about to pull his Ace. Two protectors appeared by his side and immediately went in for the kill. With three mobs on my butt, normal spell-casting was an impossible venture. With my Nova on cooldown, I decided to reverse, Blink, and kite them all to the other side of the mound. Another Mana Shield kept me from dying before I could fire off my second Frost Nova. Bam! All three frozen in place, I felt that it this would be good a time to release a Blizzard. The regular crits reduced them all to low health, with Bangalash only several hundred points from death. But suddenly my mana was gone! I clicked on my Mana Agate and a Minor Mana Potion that I still had in my inventory from so long ago. Though a bit was restored, and Lifebloom provided some reprieve, the attacks from all sides were proving too much. I called on the few instant spells I had to clobber the ferocious felines. I was close to death, but so were they! Having used up even my reserve energy, I switched to my wand. Bangalash's health went from around 70 to 29 and then.... a miss! My last ditch effort had failed, and there was no longer any option for preventing the incoming damage. The panthers' final swipes did me in, my troll gurgled with death, and then I found myself in a nearby graveyard. It was time for Round 2! As I ran back to my corpse, I wondered what could possibly have killed my mana so quickly? Despite belly-aching about energy problems in my last post, things had vastly improved since then!  My thoughts quickly ceded as I was face-to-face with Bangalash again. I can't say that my strategy changed a whole lot this time, but I did correct a few of my missteps. First of all, the Mana Agate I had in my inventory was from a lesser rank of the spell and, therefore, restored less MP. Had I only a few more on the first attempt, victory could have been mine. Likewise, I was going to save my Frost Nova for when the adds popped, instead of blowing it right away on the single mob, even if it meant eating a few hits. Thankfully, that didn't prove to be a problem. I managed to completely freeze my foe twice before he even reached me, allowing for several critical Frostbolts to break him down. The panthers, as expected, came out much faster this time and the Nova + Blizzard combo proved equally as effective. They did manage to catch up to me after that, but once again Mana Shield saved my kiester. That is where I noticed my problem. I had overused Mana Shield on my first attempt, and it had completely killed my pool! How could I have been so naive?! I was aware of the spell's effects, but didn't think that they would be so drastic. Nonetheless, I was getting lucky this time, and with my second Frost Nova and a couple of instant spells, Bangalash's corpse lay motionless before me. I was low on health and mana, but not critical. I looted the head and trotted merrily back to Hemet Nesingwary Jr. to complete the quest. The promised Achievement popped up on my screen, and I can report that my victory tasted, very much, of happy. When your average Mage fight consists of Frostbolt spam, it was immensely satisfying for me to use a wider range of my skills on a battle like this. Sure, I could've skipped Bangalash and come back to it many levels later just like I had on other characters, or I could've scouted for partners over chat, but that wouldn't have been any fun! As I push forward into the wilds of the Hinterlands next, I certainly hope that there are opportunities for another good workout. Got to keep those finger muscles nice and loose, after all! How about you folks, though? Ever encountered a non-instance fight that truly taxed your abilities? Was it for fun or did you haphazardly wander into a situation and end up fighting for your life? Let me know whether or not you successfully bested your enemies or met your untimely end!

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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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