Project Lore

There's a few well-known lucky rollers in my guild, and let's just say I'm not one of them. Sure, I get my fair share of loot, but oftentimes it's by default (that is, no one else wants said loot). When it comes to my guild's 10-man groups, we don't use an intricate loot system -- we're all pretty fair people. Roll if you want something. If it's a bigger upgrade for someone else in the group, take that into consideration. And if you've already won several pieces of loot in a night, consider sitting out a roll. It's not a system that works for PUGs or guilds that don't share a sense of camaraderie, but it's great for my guild.

When it comes to 25-man loot, we usually use Suicide Kings (more on that in a later post). But this past weekend we were just having fun running some random stuff. I asked who wanted to run Onyxia since we hadn't done much dragon-slaying in awhile, and off we went. We wiped once when we tried it out with a 20-man group, then we filled the rest of those slots with friends of friends, and decided to just go with straight-up rolls for gear.

We got her down right away, and none of us were expecting the drop of all drops -- Reins of the Onyxian Drake. It was the first time that any of us had seen it drop. And thank goodness the raid leader had set it to master looter, because it's definitely one of those items that someone might deem worthy of a ninja.

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Tuesday night is 10-man night for TRG, and we're about to do some 10-man instances including Onyxia, Trial of the Crusader, and Trial of the Grand Crusader. If you haven't caught the new Onyxia, be sure to tune in and see her as she dies... again. Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be running through the 25-man version of the same instances. We run these on Wednesday, Thursday, and Mondays. If you miss tomorrow's, check those other nights at the same times. As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

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The first thing we did upon entering Onyxia's Lair for the first time in several years was wipe. Foolishly, after pulling the first trash mob, the tank managed to grab the attention of a second. Having walked down the slope, and farther into the cave, this left him out of our healers' line of sight. Our token meat shield soon found himself added to Onyxia's collection of floor rugs, which meant that the rest of us were quickly picked off one by one. Ahh yes, having my face cratered by Lair trash! Just like old times! It stung even harder when the quick jaunt back to the entrance was met with another death. I guess those Warders weren't quite done with us yet after our Hunter attempted to Feign Death and, for one reason or another, failed at doing so. The affair made me doubly sour, though I couldn't blame him for his actions. After all, as a Rogue, I would've Vanished if I hadn't been next in line for a beating after the tank. It turned out, though, that we'd just run into some bad luck. To use a common phrase, raiding Onyxia's Lair at 80 was like trying to ride a bike again: you never truly forget. Regardless, that first time you get back on the seat and grab the handle bars, your ride is going to be a little shaky. Promptly enough, we cleared out the remainder of the trash and found ourselves at the gaping maw of the dastardly dragon's inner sanctum. After briefly recapping the encounter for those who hadn't done the fight in a very long time (or ever), we breached the brood mother's den. The first thing that struck me off right off the bat was how claustrophobic the room felt. I always remembered it being gigantic and, with 10 people instead of 40, it should have seemed even roomier than it did. Memories are weird that way, I guess. They tend to become exaggerated or warped over time and raiding experiences are, apparently, no exception. And so the fight unfolded in ways that it never did when it was a part of vanilla end-game content. Sure, we wiped once, after failing to assign a tank to one pack of whelps during Phase 2 (you know, the one where she flies around in the air), and then losing a couple of people to her first Deep Breath (which, contrary to popular opinion, she did not seem to do more often!), but we caught on quickly and downed Onyxia on the second attempt without a single death. A well-placed Tremor Totem completely nullified her Bellowing Roar ability in Phase 3, making it only slightly harder than Phase 1.  The only new twist seemed to be the inclusion of a new add, the Onyxian Lair Guard, which spawns every so often. To tell the truth, I'm not sure what this says about the encounter. It surely couldn't have always been this easy, as I distinctly recall spending hours in here on certain nights way back when. Angry Raid Leader will forever remind us of how frustrating the encounter can be. Sure the old girl hits a little harder, has a few more hit points, and adds can quickly get out of control if you don't burn them down, but it's nothing unmanageable. This isn't Hard Mode Mimiron, after all. Maybe we've all just gotten better as players? That's always a possibility, but if the Onyxia was over-tuned at Level 60, I'd argue that she's under-tuned at Level 80. Let's not forget that the reintroduction of Onyxia is more of a love letter to the old raid than a legitimate addition to current-tier raiding, and that Blizzard probably wants as many players to be able to access it as possible. What once was a barrier is now a gateway. On the whole, though, I think it's easier to make sense of the encounter because it's fundamentally less chaotic. Running a raid in the old days meant wrangling thirty-nine other people, making sure that they were always where they were supposed to be and that they could ably side-step the Deep Breaths or stay off the cracks in the floor when an Eruption was pending. The more bodies there are in the room, the greater the chance of someone being knocked into the whelps, as well. Part of me really wanted Onyxia to come back and show modern raiders what a really, truly tough encounter could bring to the table. That may not have happened, but I'm still grateful for the chance to revisit one of the premiere raids in the game. It was great seeing some of that old loot drop again, too. Our first foray into the Level 80 version of Onyxia's Lair didn't leave us with a mount, but we did nab a Gleaming Quel'Serrar and I'm looking forward to nabbing the Enlarged Onyxia Hide Bag one of these days. It may not be as difficult or imposing as my memories would have be believe, but in the end, I think it'll find a spot in our weekly rotation of raids, at least until the gear is completely outclassed by the next tier of content. Have any of you had the chance to go toe-to-claw with the revamped version of Onyxia? We'd love to know what you think and whether or not it lives up to the legend!

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With rumors swirling about the incoming Patch 3.2.2's release date, last night I took some time away from Brewfest festivities to squeeze in a final encounter with Onyxia, in her classic form. I was hoping this would serve as inspiration of sorts for others to go battle her as well before the patch, but as we heard this morning it looks like the update is now underway. As early as tonight, a freshly angry Onyxia awaits those brave enough to enter her lair. Although I've seen plenty of videos and heard players brag about soloing the once epic brood mother, I wasn't confident that I'd be able to take her on alone in my squishy leather gear. So I rounded up a couple of guildies who also were keen to battle Ony, and together we headed for her lair in southern Dustwallow Marsh. The three of us - rogue, warrior and paladin - sneaked in through the gate and easily tore through a few trash dragonkin. I felt almost guilty as we rounded a corner into her nest and found her sleeping peacefully. But not guilty enough. She awoke with a fiery vengeance, ready to lay a team of 40 adventurers to waste with a single Deep Breath. Instead, she found just us three, 20 levels higher than she, and geared with equipment and spells far beyond those she once knew. Regardless, she put up a good fight. Most of her fire attacks practically bounced off the plate armor of the paladin while I threw DPS from the side. When her whelps came, spamming Fan of Knives worked handily. More ranged DPS would have come in handy when she took to the air, and the three of us ran around puzzled about how to get her down before her fireballs took us out. I was a fraction away from dying several times before we finally pulled her back within melee reach. The warrior was not so lucky; he took the brunt of fireball damage and reached his end. As Onyxia died, we each picked off a ton of loot. The little achievement whore inside me also was thrilled to get Onyxia's Lair, even though I've heard it will no longer be required for the Classic Raider achievement. But there will be new achievements! Plus a new pet whelpling and updated loot! Not nearly as troublesome as she was in her hayday, but still a beast to be reckoned with, Onyxia soon will be back at the forefront of glorious encounters. I don't know about you guys, but I am revved up to have this battle be returned to its nostalgic difficulty. With any luck, Onyxia will be back up and ready to really shine tonight. Who else plans to pay her a visit?

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OMG Patch Today!

The new content patch hits the live servers today. Players can download the patch by running the World of Warcraft launcher. The patch for OSX clocks in at 40.5MB, and the Windows counterpart is likely comparable. Patch 3.2.2 is a mixed bag for me. Fan of Knives is receiving a huge 30% damage nerf and it no longer receives the interrupt effect from Throwing Specialization. This means my days of sweeping the DPS are likely over on multi-target fights, and fights like Yogg-Saron and Faction Champions are going to be much harder. I may no longer keep a combat spec since a lot of the benefits of slow weapons like axes and swords are gone with FoK losing a lot of its utility. No ones likes getting nerfed, but perhaps its for the best. Additionally, I've just started on the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline, and who knows if killing Onyxia in her new level 80 version will still give me the quest item? On the bright side, Envenom and Master Poisoner got some pretty good buffs, so Rogue single-target DPS should see a few hundred DPS increase for Mutilate specs. Heirloom items that give an XP boost now affect Battleground experience, and everyone will see daily Battleground quests regardless of level, so my Death Knight should be seeing level 80 even sooner. Not to mention, I'm very excited to try out the new Onyxia! It is still uncertain if the new level 80 Onyxia will be raidable tonight. She could not be spawned yet like Emalon, or her addition by not occur until November to coincide with WoW's 5th Anniversary. I'm ready to start farming her for that awesome 310% move speed mount Brood of Onyxia to add to my collection. Here are the notes for the live realms: The Brood Mother Returns After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled (Heartbourne's note: Really Blizzard, run a spell-check on the patch notes!) from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns stronger than before to commemorate World of Warcraft's five-year anniversary.

• Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25-player modes.
• Adjusted for modern raiding, but with the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother still in effect, including the horrors of her Deep Breaths!
• Onyxia will now drop level 80 item versions of some classic loot items from the level 60 encounter.
• Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers

General

• Armor Penetration Rating: The amount of armor penetration gained per point of this rating has been reduced by 12%.

PvP Battlegrounds

• Players level 11 and higher will now always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knight

• Pets - Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Blood

• Heart Strike: Secondary targets of Heart Strike now take half as much damage.
• Subversion: Now also increases the critical strike chance of Scourge Strike by 3/6/9%.
• Vampiric Blood: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and duration reduced to 10 seconds.

Frost

• Threat of Thassarian now also causes Rune Strike to use both weapons when dual-wielding.
• Unbreakable Armor: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and changed back to granting 25% additional armor while active instead of flat damage reduction based on armor. The amount of strength granted has been reduced to 10%.
• Frost Presence: The damage reduction granted by this ability has been increased from 5% to 8%.

Unholy

• Bone Shield: This ability now has 3 charges instead of 4. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
• Dirge: This talent no longer grants additional runic power from using Obliterate.

Druid Balance

• Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
• Typhoon: The daze duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Feral Combat

• Infected Wounds: The debuff generated by this talent no longer stacks and instead causes the full effect with a single application.
• Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid's finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Hunter Beast Mastery

• The Beast Within: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds. In addition, hunters with this talent will do 10% additional damage at all times.
• Bestial Wrath: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds.

Mage Arcane

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Arcane Missiles: Casting this spell while both Missile Barrage and Clearcasting are active will cause only Missile Barrage to be consumed.
• Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. This talent no longer has a chance to be triggered when spells miss.

Fire

• Combustion: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of Fire spells by 50% while it is active. In addition, Living Bomb periodic ticks will no longer interact with the count or the charges on the talent.

Paladin Protection

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Ardent Defender: This talent now reduces damage taken below 35% health by 7/13/20% instead of 10/20/30%.
• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
• Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
• Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin's strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin's stamina.

Retribution

• Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.
• Seal of Corruption and Seal of Vengeance: These seals will now only use the debuff stacks generated by the attacking paladin to determine the damage done by the seal and by the judgement.

Priest Shadow

• Improved Spirit Tap: Mind Flay periodic critical strikes now have a 50% chance to trigger this talent.
• Twisted Faith now grants spell power equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of spirit, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.

Rogue

• Envenom's scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.

Assassination

• Master Poisoner: No longer increases the Deadly Poison application rate following a successful Envenom and instead now provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.

Combat

• Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.

Subtlety

• Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Shaman

• Cleansing Totem: No longer pulses instantly when dropped.
• Flame Shock: The duration of all ranks has been increased by 6 seconds.
• Lava Burst: This ability no longer ever consumes a Flame Shock debuff off of the target.

Elemental Combat

• Shamanism: Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.

Enhancement

• Earthen Power: No longer causes Earthbind to pulse a persistent snare immunity aura. It does still remove snares from allies as an instant pulse, but there is no lingering immunity. Earthen Power now also brings Earth Shock's melee attack speed reduction up to -15%/-20% (with 1 or 2 points in it, respectively).

Warrior Arms

• Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Protection

• Critical Block: This talent now grants a 20/40/60% chance to block double the normal amount instead of 10/20/30%.

Dungeons & Raids Shadowfang Keep

• Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Ulduar

• Increased the cooldown on Immortal Guardians' Drain Life ability in the Yogg-Saron encounter.

Achievements

• The Achievement "Iron, Dwarf Medium Rare (25 player)" now requires 25 kills, down from 50.
• The Frostwolf Howler and Stormpike Battle Charger Achievements will now be awarded when a player learns the respective mount spells.

Professions

• The blacksmiths of Orgrimmar grew tired of running to the rear of the city to craft items and have installed a new anvil & forge at the General Store in the Valley of Strength.

Engineering

• The Mind Amplification Dish no longer changes the appearance of your helmet.

Inscription

• Added a recipe for Runescroll of Fortitude. This item grants a stamina buff equal to the highest rank of Power Word: Fortitude (untalented) to all players in the raid. The effect of this runescroll is exclusive with other stamina scrolls and Power Word: Fortitude.

Leatherworking

• Added a recipe for Drums of Forgotten Kings. These drums increase all stats by 8% for all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.
• Added a recipe for Drums of the Wild. These drums grant a buff equal to the highest rank of Mark of the Wild (untalented) to all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Mark of the Wild.

Items

• The Black Heart: This item's animation has been changed and no longer resembles Hand of Protection.
• Death Knight Tier-9 Tanking 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now decreases the cooldown on Vampiric Blood, Unbreakable Armor, and Bone Shield by 10 seconds instead of 20.
• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold's Rejuvenating Broach.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.
• Relics: All buffs provided by relics (idols, librams, totems and sigils) now share an exclusive category such that gaining a buff from one of these items will remove all other buffs gained from items in this category.
• Totem of Quaking Earth: Attack power value increased to 400.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Bone Shield: This glyph now grants 1 additional charge instead of 2.
• Glyph of Flame Shock: Redesigned. This glyph now makes Flame Shock periodic damage able to be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
• Glyph of Scourge Strike: Redesigned. This glyph now causes Scourge Strike to extend the duration of Frost Fever and Blood Plague by 3 seconds each time Scourge Strike is used on a target, up to a maximum of 9 seconds.
• Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 10 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now increases the armor gained from Unbreakable Armor by 20%.
• Glyph of Vampiric Blood: The glyph now increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 5 seconds instead of 10.

User Interface Battleground Queuing

• Players may now only queue for no more than two Battlegrounds at a time.
• The dialog box for entering a Battleground match has been changed to reflect the following options: "Enter Battle," "Leave Queue," and "Minimize."
• The time a player has to enter a battle when selected has been reduced to 40 seconds when not already in a Battleground and 20 seconds when in a Battleground.
• Players already in a Battleground can now choose "Enter Battle" for a new Battleground under any circumstance (i.e. while dead, in combat, falling, etc.).
• A new Battleground will not launch until the maximum number of players on each side are in the queue (i.e. 40 players per side for Alterac Valley).
• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.

Mail System Auto-Complete Feature

• The inline auto-complete feature for the mail system has been added back into the game. The mail system will now have both the pre- and post-3.2.0 auto-complete features available.
• Added a label to notify players that the Tab key will allow players to navigate through the character names listed via the auto-complete feature.

For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114 Bug Fixes

• Coliseum Trinkets: Some spells that should have triggered these trinkets will now trigger them (such as Holy Nova and Fel Armor).
• Death Knight Tier-9 DPS 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for disease damage ticks to be critical strikes.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Set Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Lightweave Embroidery: This tailoring item enhancement will no longer trigger from the periodic healing granted by the warlock spell Fel Armor.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.
• Paladin Tier-9 DPS 2-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for Righteous Vengeance ticks to be critical strikes.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.
• Val'anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: Healing from Prayer of Mending now triggers the shield from this item. In addition, a bug was corrected which would cause the shield points to be overwritten rather than stack up as intended.

Death Knight

• Rune of Razorice: The frost vulnerability granted by this enchantment will now increase the damage done by Frost Fever as intended.

Druid

• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.

Hunter

• Master's Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Trap Mastery's (Survival) tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.

Mage

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.

Paladin

• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.

Priest

• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 will now work with Holy Nova.
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield now correctly uses the Priest's spell critical chance instead of the target's.

Rogue

• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Honor Among Thieves: This talent will now work properly again if two rogues with different ranks of the talent are in the same party.

Shaman

• Grounding Totem will now properly protect against the Death Grip spell.
• Lava Burst can no longer deal critical damage to targets who are immune to critical strikes (due to, e.g. Roar of Sacrifice, Blessed Resilience).
• Lightning Shield: This spell will no longer set off some trinkets when it is cast.
• Stoneclaw Totem's pulses will no longer break stealth on nearby hostile units.
• Thunderstorm and Shamanistic Rage can no longer be used while Frozen, Cycloned, Sapped, or Incapacitated.

Warlock

• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Fel Armor: This spell was unable to set off trinkets and other effects. That has been corrected.
• When using Shadowbolt or Incinerate while having Backlash and Backdraft active, only Backlash will now be properly consumed.

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Ahh, yes. With a new (old) encounter comes new achievements to earn, or fail spectacularly trying to do so. The 5th anniversary version of Onyxia is no exception, and the latest build of 3.2.2 on the test realms brings with it news on just what we can expect in this regard. Deep Breath in all its fearsome glory! The achievements are as follows:

• Onyxia's Lair (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia in 10-player mode.
• More Dots! (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes in 10-player mode.
• Many Whelps! Handle It! (10-man) - Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 10-player mode.
• She Deep Breaths More (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 10-player mode.
• Onyxia's Lair (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia in 25-player mode.
• More Dots! (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes in 25-player mode.
• Many Whelps! Handle It! (25-man) - Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 25-player mode.
• She Deep Breaths More - (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 25-player mode.

You might recognize a few of those phrases from the famous Onyxia Wipe Animation (WARNING: Not to be viewed at work!):

And really, how could Blizzard not reference the video? Not only is it still funny after all these years, it represents all of the memories players have from when Onyxia's Lair was the pinnacle of Vanilla raid content. The flames, the whelps, the wipes! There truly is a little angry raid leader in all of us. Likewise, "She Deep Breaths More" is a nod at the oft-maligned attack she uses when in flight during Phase 2. Players swore that she did it more often (and more randomly) in later patches. The dev team even poked fun at this reaction at the Dungeons and Raids Panel last weekend. When they showed off the tools used to tune boss encounters, the randomization for Onyxia's Deep Breath skill was set a little higher than usual. Some of you might be wondering what's going to happen to the old Level 60 Onyxia's Lair achievement. Well, it's going to be turned into a Feat of Strength once the patch hits, so if you want that particular notch in your belt, I'd get on that as soon as possible. So, what do you readers think of these achievements? Will they be hard to obtain? I think it'll be hard to say until the patch hits and the rest of us have an opportunity to experience the re-tun first hand!

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The patch 3.2.2 notes have been updated in a post by Zarhym. Check them out below and scroll down for my highlights and more: General

• The Brood Mother Returns
  • After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.
    • Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
    • Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
    • Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
    • Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Battlegrounds
  • Players level 11 and higher will always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knights

• Pets
  • Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
    • Typhoon: The knockback distance from this spell has been increased to match Thunderstorm and the range of the ability has been reduced to 10 yards.
  • Feral Combat
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid’s finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

Paladins

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
    • Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
    • Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina.
  • Retribution
    • Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.

Rogues

• Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
• Talents
  • Assassination
    • Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
  • Combat
    • Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
  • Subtlety
    • Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Arms
    • Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Dungeons & Raids

• Shadowfang Keep
  • Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Items

• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach.
• Glyphs
  • Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
  • Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 20 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.

User Interface

• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Bug Fixes

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.
• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.
• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 now work with Holy Nova.
• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Master’;s Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Trap Mastery: Tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.
• Val’anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: This item’s special bonus now works properly with Prayer of Mending and the heal-over-time effect triggered by Flash of Light cast on Sacred Shield targets.
• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.

In addition to the patch notes, the following achievements have been observed in both 10 and 25 player modes for the Onyxia raid:

• Onyxia's Lair: Defeat Onyxia
• More Dots!: Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes.
• Many Whelps! Handle It!: Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her.
• She Deep Breaths More: Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from Deep Breath.

These additional changes were also listed: New Pets •    Core Hound Pup - Right Click to summon and dismiss your core hound pup. •    Gryphon Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your gryphon hatchling. •    Wind Rider Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your wind rider cub. •    Zipao Tiger - Right Click to summon and dismiss your zipao tiger. •    Pandaren Monk - Right Click to summon and dismiss your pandaren monk. New Mounts •    Onyxian Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Onyxian Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend. Enchanting •    Abyssal Shatter - Disenchants an abyss crystal into greater cosmic essence or infinite dust. Inscription •    Runescroll of Stamina - Snowfall Ink, Resilient Parchment x 5 - Increases Stamina by 165 for all party and raid members for 1 hr. Leatherworking •    Drums of Forgotten Kings - Heavy Borean Leather x 8, Icy Dragonscale x 8 - Gives all members of the raid or group the Blessing of Forgotten Kings, increasing total stats by 8% for 30 min. •    Drums of the Wild - Heavy Borean Leather x 4, Jormungar Scale x 20 - Gives the Gift of the Wild to all party and raid members, increasing armor by 750, all attributes by 37 and all resistances by 54 for 1 hr. Druid Balance •    Moonkin Form now reduces the damage taken while stunned by 15%. Feral •    Predatory Strikes now has an additional effect - In addition, your finishing moves have a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. become an instant cast spell. Hunter Survival •    Trap Mastery now increases the number of snakes summoned by Snake Trap by 2/4/6. (Down from 3/6/9) Mage Arcane •    Arcane Blast has been changed, Each time you cast Arcane Blast the mana cost of the spell is increases by 175% (down from 200%). It now stacks up to 4 times (up from 3) and lasts 6 sec (down from 10 sec) •    Missile Barrage now has a 8/16/12/24/32/40% to proc from Arcane Blast instead of 4/8/12/16/20%. Proc % from other spells remains unchanged. Paladin Protection •    Righteous Fury now increases the threat generated by your Holy spells by 80%. (Down from 90%) •    Judgements of the Just now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 5/10 sec. (Down from 10/20 sec) •    Touched by the Light now increases your spell power by an amount equal to 20/40/60% of your Strength. (Old - 10/20/30% of your Stamina) •    Blessing of Sanctuary now increases strength and stamina by 10% instead of just increasing stamina. Retribution •    Seal of Command now has an additional effect - When used with attacks or abilities that strike a single target, this additional Holy damage will strike up to 2 additional targets. Rogue Combat •    Fan of Knives now causes 105% weapon damage with daggers (down from 150%) and 70% weapon damage with all other weapons. (Down from 100%) •    Throwing Specialization no longer affects Fan of Knives. Assassination •    Master Poisoner now has an additional effect - gives Envenom a 33/66/100% chance to not consume Deadly Poison. Warrior Arms •    Sword Specialization now gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after hitting your target with your Sword. (Up from 1/2/3/4/5%) Whew! That's a lot of changes! This will be a doozy of a patch. Here are my favorite points (beside the Onyxia stuff):

• All players, regardless of level, will be able to get a daily battleground quest. This is an important step to making PvP popular and viable for leveling for non-max level characters.
• The buff to Envenom and Master Poisoner will make me switch back to Assassination. It puts it back in line with Combat.
• Pandaren Monk pet? This could be the first step to seeing Pandaren in the game!
• Abyssal Shatter will help maintain the value of Abyss Crystals and is a welcome addition.
• The new Leatherworking drums make it less important to have a Druid/Paladin in your raid for MotW/Blessings.
• Is the runescroll a new raid buff, or is there already one for stamina? Could this perhaps not stack with the Imp buff?

What do you think about patch 3.2.2?

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Grunty Going Nuts Just shy of a year ago I had a gripe.  I know, hard to believe, but I did.  Blizzard had dropped the ball with vanity pets, and I wanted it fixed.  The gist of the ancient article is that the most recent non-combat pets lacked animations.  The beings, the Spirit of Competition and hard to get Archangel Tyrael, would simply be.  No movement and little, if any, interaction.  In the case of the Diablo II buddy (released to attendees alongside the Diablo III announcement) it was a missed opportunity of epic proportions.  Tyrael flat out ignored mini Diablo, his arch nemesis. Blizzard seems to have learned from the mistake.  Grunty, the space traveling Murloc decked out in Tier Terran Marine gear does battle with the Zergling.  The Zergling was part of the Collector's Edition for the original World of Warcraft, so coming across a toon with the insectoid may be difficult.  Given the chance, you should travel to the ends of Azeroth to see this far reaching space battle take place on our humble planet/dimension/time.  Here's the flip side. Even though BlizzCon 2009 attendees didn't get a beta key, or access to the Diablo III beta it seems, at least we have this consolation prize.  Even if it is far more common than any other BlizzCon pet before it. Onyxian Whelping's First Appearence Let us not forget the upcoming fifth anniversary of WoW itself.  Forget a shot at an Onyxia mount, I'm not a masochist.  Even if I was, I'd take a cute companion pet any day of the week.  And that's exactly what the incoming ("sometime in November") Onyxia Whelpling is.  It's animation you ask?  Why the little bugger tries to Deep Breath, what else?  Even cuter is a failed attempt, where rings of smoke billow from its mouth instead. What a magnificent time to be a vanity pet collector.

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As Amatera detailed for us live during BlizzCon, and Heartbourne has expanded upon a bit, too, it looks like we'll be getting a ton of new dungeon and raiding content in the third expansion. Continuing along the same topic, I recorded a bit of the panel at the convention so you all can hear exactly what developers had to say about the new content. And best of all, right here is where you can see a ton of artwork on the new content and several quick sneak peek videos that Blizzard unveiled live Saturday. Cut into three YouTube-sized video portions. Take a look: The video pretty much speaks for itself if you want to watch all the way through the three parts. But here are some of my thoughts on what we saw at this panel:

• Abyssal Maw - Beautiful updated water graphics, lots of pretty underwater colors for this dungeon on the sea floor. I wish the teaser would have shown a bit more! Dueling Naga should be fun. And, it's "something we've never done before."
• Halls of Origination - Looking forward to another 5-player dungeon, and one built by the Titans at that. I'm digging the Egyptian-like concept art and glowing blue-green ceilings. And what about that "secret weapon...?" Sounds interesting.
• Blackrock Caverns - It "reinvents" the fan favorite of Blackrock Spire, which I'm sure a lot of players will really dig. The graphics look promising, with lots of glowing reds and flowing lava.
• IceCrown Citadel and Dungeons - Sounds huge and epic, and I was happy to hear in the Q and A session after the panel that Blizzard is planning to do something special when Arthas goes down... they didn't elaborate, but hinted that we'll see some cinematics. Also, the whole rocket ship scenario with Alliance and Horde battling it out sounds like a lot of fun, and something we haven't seen a lot of in the past. And, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing what Sindragosa brings and how Blizz wraps up all the loose story ends.
• The Firelands - Fighting Ragnaros at his "full strength" (So, what, he'll be the size of a skyscraper?)? Could be intense. Beautiful concept art and the keep has some neat architecture.
• Onyxia - That new Onyxia-inspired mount looks amazing, and the whelpling almost (but not quite) as cute as a baby murloc :). I like the updated loot tables that are based on the original drops. Nostalgic. Watch out for the "little bit" more Deep Breath randomization.

And last but not least, the cross-server LFG sounds like it will be incredibly handy for PUGing. Plus, I'm really looking forward to the prospect of playing with some of my friends on other realms! And we don't even have to wait for Cataclysm; it's hopefully set to come out in patch 3.3. So what does everyone think of all this new content? Sounds like we'll have a lot to keep us busy. This is the last of my video posts covering BlizzCon - I hope you've enjoyed them! There's still a ton of information to comb through, so look for more in the coming weeks.

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In case you missed it the first time, Onyxia, the fearsome black dragon that was among many people's first introduction to raiding, will be re-released in patch 3.2.2 as a 10-man and 25-man level 80 instance. The encounter will be slightly modified to be put on par with the difficulty of recent raids. The 40-man level 60 version will no longer be accessible. Perhaps the best part of this are the new rewards. Anyone who logs in (within a three week time frame) for WoW's 5th anniversary will get an Onyxia Whelpling pet, likely BoA like the Baby Blizzard Bear from last year's anniversary. The pet attempts to Deep Breath occasionally, but usually fails and blows out smoke rings. The loot table from Onyxia includes the following:

• A 310% movement speed mount modeled after Onyxia called an Onyxia Broodling.
• Re-tuned items with similar skins to original gear, including the tier 2 helms.

Zarhym broke the news earlier this month with the following post:

She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch. This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again. Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet. We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!

Deep Breath will be more random, and there will be lots of whelps. We will also need more DoTs. Check out the awesome mount you have a chance at:

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