Project Lore

I accomplished two different tasks at the same time this weekend. First and foremost, I put my new Mutilate build to the test in an actual raid setting. That is assuming one believes Karazhan, post Patch 3.0.2 nerf, can be called a raid.   I enjoyed the new build, and it performed nicely, managed to take second in overall DPS.  Thus, I will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. Along with that accomplishment came the second achievement, tackling the Invasion boss, Tenris Mirkblood.

New content is always a good thing, such as the recently closed Hallow's End, but new bosses are even better. Headless Horseman is cool and all, but a tad last year. I managed to get a PUG together for Karazhan just a few days before Mirkblood and his sect of Lich King worshiping elves disappear. Seeing as it was a PUG, it wasn't all fun and games. I brought along my Refer-a-Friend partner, a Resto Druid that hit 70 just a few hours before, and even a Mage who hit 70 not even 20 minutes before zoning in. With all these undergeared players you'd think we would have wiped a lot. Thankfully, we didn't.  On the flip side we did get hit with crappy overall DPS, causing the raid to take nearly four hours.

Our first attempt at Tenris was a messy one. The tank didn't realize that opening the door would pull him, causing the fight to start with most of the players still getting mana, and myself still going over the strategy. Although we were completely unprepared we managed to bring him close to 50% before the off tank backed into some of the hall mobs we hadn't cleared. The second attempt was much worse, thanks to a Warrior who was leaving the raid, pulling

the half-blood prince to cause us to wipe a second time. The joy of PUGing.

Finally, attempt three we decided to do things right. We went with the common strategy of kiting Tenris around the ring, as myself and the green-geared Mage screamed at people to stop DPS on Blood Mirror. A few trips around the hallway and he was dead, with no deaths to Blood Mirror or the Sanguine Spirit's explosion. The use of Blood Mirror especially touched me because I loved Spirit Walkers in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, which have essentially the same ability. The Demonology Warlocks out there should be appreciative, and jealous of it, because Tenris' visual effect is much cooler. All in all, I enjoyed the encounter as a whole, its design, the lore and the link into the Scourge Invasion. Just wish I could wield the Arcanite Ripper...

Now if only Blizzard would confirm that Tenris is indeed a nod to Harry Potter.

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Okay, this is something that everyone is allowed to be angry at, casual, hardcore, Auction House nuts, everyone.  Maintenance day.  Thankfully, I actually have something to do on this day of reduced playtime.  In my effort to head over to Karazhan and Tenris Mirkblood yesterday, I realized that I have not logged into my Rogue with a purpose, for some time.  Poor Solidsamm has been relegated to the role of bandage machine in recent weeks. The main issue with this is that Solidsamm had never had his talents redone for Patch 3.0.2.  Gasp!  How the hell can one raid without spending those precious talent points.  Instead of being “that guy” in the raid that largely does nothing, I informed the leader of my plight and kindly allowed a replacement.    What a nice guy I am.  I then spent the next hour or so pining over my talent spec and have finally come up with a base spec that I will fine tune after some raiding. The current specialization is built around daggers and will change to a more level friendly build when Wrath launches in a few weeks.  For now, raiding, instancing and damage is all that I really care about.  At the same time, I decided that I wanted to try something new.  Out with the old Combat Daggers build I was using, and in with the new Mutilate build that uses 3.0.2's Turn the Tables talent. The build is pretty cookie cutter, but I will try a moving a few points around to see what can maximize my damage, if anything.  The current setup focuses on energy conservation and creation and is heavily reliant on poisons, namely Deadly Poison.  I threw in that point of Vigor mainly for farming purposes.  Which I do plenty of.  I will have to get used to using Seal Fate again, as well as another new talent, Hunger for Blood.  My combo point rotation will change, from Gouge/Backstab, to a Mutilate heavy rotation capped off with Slice and Dice or Envenom.  In the end, a whole bunch of new buttons, that are bound to a collection of new abilities, will be pressed.  It'll be almost as different as leveling a Priest! What do you PvE-focused Rogues out there think?  Have you guys tried Mutilate yet?  Am I the only person attached to his daggers?  As for the rest of you, did you take the opportunity to try something fresh like I am about to?  Hopefully my toon won't revolt on me for ignoring him for weeks...

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Wow.  What a mess the Echoes of Doom patch has been.  I do not know about the rest of you, but I have had a hell of a time with the latest content patch.  Blizzard Entertainment warned us that the maintenance would be extended, but my main server experienced over 12 hours of down time. Then it was hit with shoddy performance when the realm finally came up.  In fairness, I would rather take the downtime now, than when all the new content from Wrath of the Lich King goes live.  Of course, that is the exact reason Blizzard does these patches ahead of time, to work out the kinks. My server being down was only half the battle though.  I don't think I have mentioned this before, but I actually play World of Warcraft on three separate computers.  Keeping the WoW installations on the myriad of computers I have is difficult enough for common play (no, I don't want to carry around my WoW installation on an external harddrive).  So you can imagine how annoying it is to go through the motions of patching and reinstalling addons on three computers for a major content patch.  Tools like  the BLASC Client can only do so much. My two Windows XP boxes patched up nicely, although I had to transfer the patch from one box to the other because a download was corrupt.  Thankfully, Blizzard's repair tool managed to revert the MMORPG to 2.0.0 rather than having to reinstall everything.  Things went smoothly after that. My Windows Vista 64-bit box has been, and continues to be, a bit more difficult though.  I have the User Access Controls disabled - because they suck - and still get harassed by Blizzard's installer telling me to move the files to a public directory.  I told it to do what it wants and it failed to copy data from the original installation location into the public area.  I figured it was a PEBKAC issue and tried again, this time not moving the files.  Failed again with much the same error, unable to copy data. I then did a whole bunch of dumb things like copied the patch files into the installation folder, ran it as administrator, ran it as administrator while on one foot and ran it as administrator while I played The Witcher.  At this point I was worried about the installation as a whole, thinking that the failures may just cause a chain reaction of destruction.  Double-clicked the repair tool (as admin, while I prayed to Pagan gods) and got reverted to 2.0.0 on the Vista box. It took me awhile, but I finally gave up in frustration and began to download a new copy of the patch.  Hours later, in fact, it ended up being early this morning, it completed and installed correctly.  Looks like I was blaming Vista for another corrupted download.  Sorry Microsoft! Things are up and running on all of my computers now, and I have begun taking a hard look at which specs to select for my Rogue and Priest.  I think I am going to roll with a healer Priest from now until level 80, so that should be different.  How did the conversion to the Wrath of the Lich King's launch screen - which rocks by the way - go for all of you?

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Late yesterday afternoon the Player Test Realms were finally closed, marking the end of testing for patch 3.0.2.  At the same time, players were met with the typical “Breaking News” window at the login screen.  The latest in “Breaking News” was a message telling everyone that maintenance would be longer than normal.  Gee, what could possibly make maintenance longer than normal.  Oh, I know, Blizzard Entertainment is finally putting the Echoes of Doom patch live!

Just because we can't play World of Warcraft right now doesn't mean we should put it out of our minds.  There is plenty to worry about and do while waiting for Blizzard's techies to finish their job.  Hopefully most of you managed to empty out your inventories and cash out while you could.  If not, be sure to do so right away.  I expect that once the servers go live, the market will start its steady decline on those soon-to-be-replaced items.  The patch may make many items relatively worthless, but it will also allow many players to get some epic quality gems on the cheap.

Thanks to the removal of BoP and unique-equipped tags on PvP gems, those epic stones can soon be purchased by your PvP-dominating main and socketed into your whimpy alt's gear.  The change in PvP items – initially added because Blizzard was going to wipe Honor points and Battleground marks – is just one of the cavalcade of changes coming with Echoes of Doom.  There is another thing you can do, put on your reading glasses and hit up the latest official PTR patch notes for 3.0.2.

Done reading that ridiculous amount of class changes?  Well, then it is time to go lay out your new spec for your main and handful of alts.  I am actually still working on that myself, although I am kind of stuck with dagger builds for the moment.

Last but not least, and this one is often torture, it is time to start collecting 3.0.2 ready addons.  Many addons will be broken with the launch of 3.0.2, so updates will surely be needed for a handful of your mods.  The most popular mods have already been updated for the beta of Wrath of the Lich King itself, and therefore work fine in 3.0.2.  WoWWiki has a comprehensive list, complete with funny little icons, to keep us informed.  Most of my favorite addons are ready such as the Auctioneer suite, FuBar and tons of its plugins, Bejeweled, Itemrack, Rating Buster.  Some of my other favorites are in limbo right now, including the popular BankItems, AutoBar and Omen Threat Meter.  To make matters a little less time consuming, you may want to install the BLASC Client, which will keep your mods up-to-date via WoWAce's database.

Oh, and how could we forget the Achievements.  Which ones are you shooting for on day one?

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BlizzCon has come and gone, but that doesn't mean I have been able to absorb the insane amount of information to come from the event. Tons of information and yet Blizzard Entertainment had a bit of a lackluster announcement to make this year – as it wasn't a new game. Instead we got news such as the unveiling of the third class for Diablo III, the Wizard, and the splitting of StarCraft II into three games.

I know this isn't ProjectStarCraft but I need a soapbox for a minute. What the crap is this? Blizzard claims that the main reasoning behind the trilogy is cost, stating that StarCraft II has become a far larger project compared to the first game. Thus, they have split the title into three editions, the “full” game will focus on the Terran campaign and be titled Wings of Liberty. Then we will have the Zerg title, Heart of the Swarm, followed by the Protoss' Legacy of the Void.

In fairness, Rob Pardo stated that the second and third games will feature fleshed out campaigns, featuring 26-30 missions each. He comments that the second two titles should be viewed as expansion packs, rather than the rest of StarCraft II. Pardo states “we really want them to feel like stand-alone products.” Personally, Blizzard didn't divulge enough information about the second and third releases to keep me happy. If the additions are full-fledged expansions like Relic Entertainment's Dawn of War expansions, which went so far as to add a new campaigns, new races and units, then I will gladly pay full expansion price. If Blizzard only delivers campaigns for the focused race, then I feel like we may end up paying ~$100 for a single game.  Time will tell as more information comes out.

Diablo and StarCraft aside, Blizzard hit us with plenty of World of Warcraft information. As I mentioned, I am still digesting it all, but have been excited by numerous headlines:

• Patch 3.1 is already completed and will be the first content patch for Wrath. It will feature Ulduar raid instance.
• Patch 3.2 is in the works and will feature an unknown instance.
• Patch 3.3, the last patch for Wrath, will feature the Icecrown Citadel, Arthas and resolve the Ashbringer story.
• Dual-Talent spec will allow players to switch between specs without going back to a trainer. Specs can be switched between raid pulls, but not during Arena matches.
• Blizzard will be trying to create raids that are more accessible than Sunwell Plateau. Meaning, they believe it is too difficult.
• Toying with the idea of awarding XP for PvP.
• Battlegrounds are supposed to be brought back to the forefront of PvP.
• Queuing to Battlegrounds and Arenas from anywhere in the world coming.
• Strand of the Ancients, the upcoming Wrath Battleground, bumped to 15v15 with double the siege weapons.
• Unrelated to WoW – Blizzard confirmed their upcoming MMO is a brand-new universe.

Echoes of Doom (Patch 3.0.2) is coming soon, are you ready for the changes?! Hit the recommended sites to the right for further details and coverage of BlizzCon 2008.

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No, not the Amani War Bear. That will be going the way of the Dodo once the Echoes of Doom patch hits. For your information, the patch previously known as 3.0.2. is rumored to be going live next Tuesday, October 14. So if you do want the mount, then get to work because it will no longer be obtainable after that.

When Tigole first announced the upcoming removal of the Amani War Bear, players (well, most players) were distraught at losing such an exclusive and prized item. To hold off the storm of anger Tigole promised that Wrath would offer another bear, a Polar Bear. As we know, that bear is going to be given away this weekend as part of the BlizzCon 2008 goodie bag.

Fear not bear-lovers, for you have another chance at scoring a bulky mount that shows off your dedication to World of Warcraft. Upper Deck Entertainment announced the new loot cards for the Drums of War TCG expansion and the Rare card unlocks a pissed off bear mount!

• Slashdance (Super Common) – This card is the new Piccolo of the Flaming Fire, and as such, will get abused to hell and back. Unlike the Piccolo, which forces everyone around you to dance, the Slashdance card will give you a targetable consumable known as the Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.. When thrown, all those in its radius will break out into the international language of dance.
• Owned! (Uncommon) – Surely this will be bound to keys or added to macros worldwide. What is a teabagging and spitting macro without a little flag taunting in the mix? Owned! will grant the lucky gamer with a flag which can be staked into a fallen opponent. Said flag sports a large thumbs-down icon, allowing all to know who you just ganked.
• The Red Bearon (Rare) – This is the one most of the readers are here for. The Red Bearon will grant players with the newest mount (pictured above) to grace the lands of Azeroth. Being a Rare card the mount should be somewhat exclusive, not to mention incredibly pricey on eBay. The angry beast will come in both a normal and epic variety.

Personally, I do not play the WoW TCG, but I do pick up a few packs here and there when I see them. Mainly I make the purchases because I enjoy the artwork and want to support the team behind the game. The lure of the awesome loot cards certainly helps. Damn cross-branding.

The Drums of War expansion pack will hit retail stores on October 28th.  So when you go to pick up Guitar Hero World Tour, Red Alert 3 and Fallout 3 you might as well grab a few packs.

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The first major raid instance to be added to World of Warcraft is getting modified once again. The encounter with Onyxia will not be changed but the process to get to her will. Blizzard Poster Valnoth updated the community via the beta forums that the attunement requirements for Onyxia's Lair will finally be lifted. Valnoth failed to mention when the change would go live – patch 3.0.2 or Wrath's launch – but did give us a good reason for the change. The modification has been made due to lore presented in Wrath that will see the return of King Wyrnn to Stormwind. With Onyxia's, Black Temple's and Karazhan's attunement processes removed, the next two oldest raid instances take over as the most annoying. Once the change is made, Blackwing Lair and Molten Core will have the longest attunement processes in the game (although longer ones may be added later). It should be noted that this is actually a temporary change. Blizzard plans on reinstating Onyxia's attunement process by adjusting the questline to fit with the Wrath timeline. However, those changes will not be made in time for Wrath's launch. I have been doing Onyxia on and off for a few months in an attempt to get all my main characters an assortment of cheap 18 slot bags. But the removal of the attunement process will allow a few more of my characters to get the bags without going through that incredibly long process. If anyone else out there needs some 18 slot bags on the cheap that isn't already attuned, make sure you start grinding them during this window of opportunity. My question to you is, do you think she will Deep Breath more after the change?

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A few things happened this weekend that have me worried about my PvE excursions for the week. As you can see by our chilly site, Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Wrath is officially set to launch November 13, just shy of two months from now. Why does the launch of the second expansion have me worried? Simple. With a new expansion coming so soon, many players will go into a coma of sorts. Most will simply cut back on their playtime.   Perhaps in a squirrel like effort to store it up for Wrath's inevitable push to level 80. Then there are the players who will no longer see a point in putting the time in, when any activity they pursue will change drastically in a months time. Especially when the change will make all those efforts fruitless. Many guilds will take a break from their normal schedules and perform some house cleaning as they wait for the new content. The launch of patch 3.0.2 – which hit the PTR this weekend as well – will keep many people interested but I doubt my guild will be performing any Karazhan badge runs again. That is one half of the battle though.  So what was the other thing that has me worried about my PvE plans? Well, a little game called Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has gone live. The game isn't actually out until September 18th but Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts have a head start program if you pre-order the title. If you ordered the Collector's Edition, one of the bonuses is getting the server to yourself for two days.   That started on Sunday morning.  Then the people who pre-ordered the normal edition join you for two days before the game launches to everyone. I know many of my guild mates are interested in WAR, so if they aren't put off by the closeness of Wrath then they may head there to check out the title. Blizzard's recent timing of various announcements - a new round of beta keys, PTR character copying enabled and official release date – are an obvious diversion tactic from WAR as well. Thinking about it further I am not worried about raiding anymore.  Now I am just hoping my main's guild still exists two months from now.

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As you may or may not have noticed, our home page is looking a little cooler (get it?). Included in that look is a key piece of information. In Stores 11/13/08. That's right, Wrath of the Lich King will be available at retail stores on November 13, 2008. How close was that to your guess? That means we've got approximately two months (or less, depending on when patch 3.0.2 is released) to do what we need to do before starting on the epic quest to level 80. After that, Outland is going to be empty except for Death Knights and dual boxers. Is that enough time for you? Are you excited or dreading it? Remember to stay tuned to Project Lore for more videos from the Wrath of the Lich King beta in Utgarde Keep!

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Mmm, finally Rogues have received a nice blue post from Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Poster Gamnin updated the stabbing community on changes they can expect to see in the near future. Gamnin admits that these are changes that are currently being worked on, as well as future goals. Therefore, some of these changes may not come for some time. Nevertheless, many of them have me in a twitter. Got me in a twitter:

• Removal of numerous reagents (Thieves’ Tools, Flash Powder).
• Poison skill removed – poisons available via vendors.
• Level 75 unannounced ability designed and teased as adding group utility.
• Fist weapon spec merged with dagger spec.
• Mace Specialization will now grant armor penetration when using a mace.

Much hotness:

• Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes on Evasion, Sprint, Vanish.
• Subtlety Tier 1 redesigned to be more attractive
• Fewer dagger specifics talents in subtlety to allow more diverse build options
• Hunger for Blood will remove any harmful physical effects. No longer just Bleed or Magic.

I have always fancied the dagger specialization more, just because I felt that it required more “skill”. In actuality, it just requires that you move around a lot more (and have more patience) but I will keep telling myself that that equals skill. Unfortunately, raiders have claimed that dagger builds were doing less DPS than the other specs for some time, a statement which Blizzard owned up to.  With that in mind, the merger of maces into the dagger spec and armor penetration instead of a stun proc make maces much more attractive to me.  Maybe it is time to give up my trusty blades? The removal of the poison skill makes sense, as it was simply as waste of time to create them so often. On top of that, its not like it was difficult to do or troublesome to locate the materials. For those reasons, the switch to a vendor item makes a lot of sense. But seeing as I never carried around poison mats, just a few stacks of crafted poisons, I don't see how it will help bag space. As for the hotness changes?  I did not note that Cloak of Shadows' cooldown is being raised to two minutes since I was focusing on the good.  But that makes the changes to Hunger for Blood look more enticing for the PvP players out there.  And should I make that jump to maces, it is nice to know that Blizzard will try to make the subtlety tree a viable option. Be sure to check out the blue post though. Gamnin mentions a lot of other changes and future additions that I did not touch upon.  Sadly, there wasn't enough to convince me that daggers will be taking over as highest DPS again – and I feel they should be the highest.

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