Project Lore

There's a crapload of stuff to do in this upcoming patch.  Thanks to Blizzard's shift in patch design, from just high end content to a solid mix of content for all player types, the Call of the Crusade patch has my head spinning.  I hope you have a grasp on the content thanks to our extensive coverage, but that doesn't mean you have a plan for tonight.  I love content, so my plan is already in the works. I'm a realist.  I will be shocked, stunned, stupefied if the servers come up on time.  Let alone coming up and being stable enough to raid, heroic get anything of substance done.  My pessimistic outlook on patching doesn't mean I won't be logging in though.  You damn well better believe I will be spamming the servers next to each and everyone of you.  Downloading the patch is of the utmost importance, but I haven't seen it available anywhere as of the time of this writing.  The first order of business that we should all take care of upon logging in is following Heartbourne's advice, and dumping the old and busted emblems for some new hotness.  With a purse full of Emblems of Conquest I will be able to pick up a few minor upgrades before venturing into the new 5-man and old heroics.  Then Solidsamm will revisit his old stomping ground of the Argent Tournament.  He's heard through the grapevine that there's a lot more to do up there these days.  Not to mention that the Black Knight has been heard calling him out. My little stabbing machine can receive his fair share of upgrades from Conquest and Triumph badges, but its Solidsagart who can benefit the most.  I'll surely get called into heroics and raids during the week, but my main focus is going to be on the priest.  I'd be absolutely stupid to not hit level 80 on my healer ASAP.  With everyone and their brother once again running heroics it'll be incredibly easy to find groups, and fairly easy to collect badges for her.  Much to the hardcore playerbase's chagrin, she'll be geared out the wazoo in no time.  She'll just have to wait until Solidsamm conquers the new 5-man dungeon. Those are the basic starting points for me.  What are you going to do as soon as the servers return to a stable state?  Return to the Argent Tournament grounds for the new dailies and easy money?  Continue working on your pile of Champion's Seals for the mounts and pets?  Go Raptor hunting?  Or are you going to just dive right into one of the four levels of the Argent Coliseum's raid content? As with all patches, I will be rapidly filling my coffers thanks to all the needed materials I have been hording for weeks.  Gnomes love gold almost as much as Goblins.

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With patch 3.2 on the horizon, this will be the last post in the Preparing for Patch 3.2 series. Be sure to check out the posts on Tradeskills and Battlegrounds as well! One thing you should be aware of in patch 3.2 is that all dungeons and raids outside of the Crusader's Coliseum will be dropping Emblems of Conquest. You can buy Emblems of Valor at the cost of 1 Emblem of Conquest, and you can buy Emblems of Heroism at the cost of 1 Emblem of Valor. Emblems of Heroism will still be useful for a variety of things, such as epic gems, heirlooms, and mounts. Emblems of Valor will not be useful; they already buy hardly anything useful. I suggest that if you have any leftover Emblems of Valor or Emblems of Heroism, you start looking saving these for epic gems if you need some cash or other non-gear rewards. Emblems of Conques will be easy to come by, and that sweet BoE bracer you get will not only be easily replaceable in patch 3.2, but also worthless. Who would drop hundreds of gold on gear when you can do a couple dozen heroics or a Naxxramas run in a few hours and get something much better? If you need to gear up for patch 3.2, my suggestion is simple: wait! The patch will be upon us any day now and with Emblems of Conquest being so easily accessible, crafted and BoE gear will bottom out in price, and if you are willing to put in some time, Ulduar 25 level gear will be yours from heroics. In addition to Emblems of Heroism and Valor no longer being accessible, the achievements associated with looting lots of them will be removed and likely made Feats of Strength. If you are a few Emblems away from any of the Emblem-related achievements, go grab them now, before it's too late! What are you doing with your excess emblems, and what is your gear situation for patch 3.2?

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OMG PATCH TOMORROW? Maybe. Probably not

Its Monday morning. Do you know where your patch 3.2 is?

The PTR has been seeing more and more frequent updates, mostly just fixing bugs. It seems most of the design decisions have been made, the major content tested, and the developers are just ironing out the wrinkles. Barring some newly uncovered catastrophe in the patch, we will probably see it on the live realms within the next three weeks. The patch 3.1 trailer came out a week before the patch hit, so if that's any indication, we should be seeing a trailer soon.

In addition, on the official WoW French forum, a blue poster said the patch would be live "next Wednesday", which either means the 5th or the 12th.

5 months elapsed between the release of Wrath and the launch of patch 3.1. Its been about 4 months since patch 3.1 hit the live realms, and players have largely already progressed through the patch 3.1 content. I myself am getting quite antsy. Why do heroics or raids when I can do the same content soon and get better emblems? Why level alts when I'll be able to get a chest heirloom that increases my alts' experience gain by an additional 10%? Why grind Argent Tournament dailies for Champion's Seals when there will lots of new ways to get them in patch 3.2? Why invest in trading now when the market could soon change drastically?

In the mean time, why don't you crack open a good book and kick back until the new patch comes out? There is plenty of lore to read about out there, and WoW will still be here when you get back! Catch up on some of our episodes you may have missed or skipped over, like the mount runs. If you still are drawn to WoW, why not do some more casual stuff, like level up fishing or get some obscure achievements? There will be lots of new content for you to explore in 3.2, so take time now to absorb some of the content you may not return to for awhile.

Are you idling like I am? What will be the first things you do when the patch hits? Jump into the new 5 man dungeon, pimp out your gear with epic gems, or get some new mounts and pets?

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The inability to launch instances this late in Wrath of the Lich King has always been odd to me.  Like many of the people in my guild, and likely a large part of the WoW populace, there is almost no reason for me to enter any 5-man dungeons.  That isn't to say that I don't do it here and there, but my frequency in no way compares to Solidsamm's marathon sessions during the early days of level 80.  I am sure many of you agree (that is until Call of the Crusade drops with its Emblem changes), and yet, just as many of us continue to get the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched" when trying to open an instance.  This is an especially painful message after having just attacked a raid full of Horde. Logic would state that if less people are running dungeons there should be more "room" on the instance servers.  According to Vrakthris it isn't that cut and dry.  But one should never apply logic to system architecture and computer programming.  There are a numbers of reasons why this isn't a one-to-one situation.  For example, if instances are given some sort of weight (5-man = one, 10-man = 2, 25-man = four) depending on how stressful they are on the hosting machine, then the server could theoretically be just as full as ever. Whatever the real design flaw is, it appears that Blizzard's architecture people have found a solution.  According to Wryxian, over on the EU forums, the recent extended maintenance and server restarts are directly related to fixing the instance problem.  Wryxian explains that "each group", presumably each Battlegroup, has to come down not once, but twice for the fix, and that things do not always go smoothly. I haven't located a post that mirrors the undead crocodile's statements on the North American forums, but it's probably safe to assume the same thing is happening here.  After all, my server was down for some extra time this morning, including a reboot during my Drakuru battle (I died!).  With Call of the Crusade's background downloading initiated, the fix may come just in time. I've had to deal with it more and more recently, but the wait hasn't broken my spirits.  Getting a group still remains far more difficult.  How bad has the stubbornness of the instance server been on your realm?

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One of the fundamental things that players should understand about the WoW economy is that there is massive deflation. Items, in general, become less valuable over time as new items are introduced. Players no longer want iLvl 200 or even 213 crafted gear, as well geared players from high level raids can easily carry them through heroics or Naxxramas. As such, materials for crafted gear are less in demand than they once were. Blue gems should lose value once epic gems become accessible. Additionally, once an item is introduced, the players that want it the most will pay ridiculous prices to get it first. Prices lower over time as supply ramps up for non-top tier raiders. In general, its a bad idea to stockpile items. However, understanding how new changes will affect the economy and acting early can lead to huge profits. There are two major changes that will affect the economy in patch 3.2. The first is the introduction of epic gems; the second is that Emblems of Conquest are now obtainable in all pre-Crusader dungeons and raids. We will talk mainly about epic gems for now. Epic gems are obtained in a few different ways. Lets review:

• Alchemy Transmutes
• Icy Prism. You can't save them up now, so don't try
• Prospecting Titanium Ore
• Buying with Honor or Emblems of Heroism

Buying them with Honor and Emblems will probably be very unpopular, as everything will be dropping Emblems of Conquest and players will be eager to grab new gear before they will grab new gems. The other three will have a profound effect on the market. First, lets look at Alchemy transmutes. Most Alchemists are Elixir Masters. As as Alchemist myself, I can vouch for how useful this is. I make dozens of flasks a day, and this generates tons of gold. If I can get a friend to craft my elixirs who is elixir specced, Transmutation Master for myself might be profitable. Since transmutations are on a 20 hour cooldown, its hard to share that ability with anyone, but a group of a few alchemists could have 1 elixir master and all the rest be Transmutation Masters to optimize overall output. I know my guild is organizing something like this. Transmuting an epic gem usually requires a blue gem of the same color as the desired epic gem and a specific Eternal. The following is a list of transmutes as they are now on the PTR:

• Transmute: Flawless Amytrine: Monarch Topaz and Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Cardinal Ruby: Scarlet Ruby and Eternal Fire
• Transmute: Dreadstone: Twilight Opal and Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Eye of Zul: 3 Forest Emerald
• Transmute: King's Amber: Autumn’s Glow and Eternal Life
• Transmute: Majestic Zircon: Sky Sapphire and Eternal Air

The first thing to note is that players will be getting epic gems from a few sources. Players will largely be consuming the same amount of gems overall, as they will have about the same number of sockets. Some of the new recipes require epic gems, but it won't have a huge impact on the market. Since only some portion of the epic gems being consumed use current rare gems as a material means that consumption of rare gems is going to go way down. There will still be a market as the poor man's gem and as reagents for transmutes, but the prices of uncut and cut rare gems should drop significantly. Get rid of any stock that you have. The exception may be Forest Emerald, which requires 3 gems for the transmute. Only time will tell relatively how valuable they will be, but blue gems are used a lot by tanks, so I'm predicting a good market for the epic blue gems and hence Forest Emerald. Also, expect Eternal consumption to go way up with lots of new recipes and the transmutes. Its unclear how often Icy Prism will give epic gems. It will be the only thing keeping Frozen Orbs valuable. It will continue to be the only thing keeping uncommon gems in consumption. There are lots of these in Titanium Ore, so expect them to lose even more value in patch 3.2. We are looking at vendor trash level of value. According to WarcraftEcon's results, they are getting around 6 uncommon gems per prospect, and people will be prospecting a lot to get epic gems. Speaking of prospecting Titanium, this is going to be the game changer. People are stockpiling Titanium now, which may or may not be a good idea. It might be overvalued right now; it's risky to do. However, with rare gems losing demand and rare gems being the result of Titanium prospects as often of epic gems, rare gems should lose a significant amount of value from this alone. The flipside to this is that the value of Saronite and Cobalt should crash, as they will no longer be valuable to prospect. This is going to be a huge window of opportunity for Blacksmiths, who can potentially make lots of BoE stuff and disenchant it. Expect Enchanting supplies to increase in supply in the long run and prices to drop. Finally, note the materials for the new crafted items, including a new orb from the Argent Coliseum: Crusader's Orb. This list was complied by the writers at WarcraftEcon:

• Titansteel Bar
• Saronite Bar
• Arctic Fur
• Heavy Borean Leather
• Icy Dragonscale
• Nerubian Chitin
• Moonshroud
• Spellweave
• Ebonweave
• Crusader Orb
• Various epic gems, Eternals, Enchanting materials
• Deadly Saronite Dirk
• Corroded Saronite Woundbringer

These will probably enjoy a small price boost in the first month or so of patch 3.2. Remember, the first two weeks will be crazy, as everyone will want epic gems and consumption will be through the roof. Expect it to level off within about 6 weeks. What are your plans to profit in patch 3.2?

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Battlegrounds have been much more popular than every other area of PvP. They don't require you to even think about making a group and only a few people there are from the same server, so you can play as bad as you want; those people will never see you again! There are objectives, so you can significantly contribute even if you are not the best at PvP combat. The first thing you should be aware of is the new battleground in patch 3.2, Isle of Conquest. Amatera already posted a great breakdown of the battleground, so go check it out if you are completely unfamiliar with it! This new 40 versus 40 battleground is the first 40 man content we've seen since original WoW's Naxxramas, and fans of Alterac Valley should cheer at its introduction. It seems to be a great way to get honor, and it introduces yet another battleground token. These tokens appear to only be used for the repeatable quest For Great Honor or Concerted Efforts. Currently you can exchange one token from each of the five battlegrounds for 1241 honor. In patch 3.2, you'll need one from all six battlegrounds (Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, and Isle of Conquest), and receive more honor. I'd suggest saving up marks from other battlegrounds, as if you want the next tier of gladiator gear that you want with honor, you are going to want as much honor as possible next season. Speaking of honor, one of the only ways to get the new epic gems in patch 3.2 is to buy them with honor. Its sure to be a goldmine, so if you enjoy battlegrounds and Wintergrasp, you can buy lots of epic gems at just 10,000 honor. You can use them yourself, throw them at your guild and have them love you, or fetch a high price on the auction house. Its like converting honor to gold! If you want ways to stockpile honor for patch 3.2, consider the following methods:

• You can save up to 5 Commendation of Bravery between patches. That will run you 500 arena points from this season and give you 10,000 honor for next season. 500 arena points is just 2 weeks of games regardless of your rating for 3v3 and 5v5 and 3 weeks for 2v2, so get a team together, lose all of your games if you have to, and get some free 3.2 honor!
• Stone Keepers Shards can convert to honor at the price of 30 shards for 2,000 honor. 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor get you 2,000 honor as well, both via Wintergrasp Commendation (which is BoA). There is no hurry to buy these, as you can save these items through to next patch.
• I say it again: Battleground marks! By running Isle of Conquest, if you have lots of other marks stockpiled, you will receive honor at a great rate!

If you are going to be doing any kind of PvP in the patch 3.2, be aware that resilience is much better than it is now. You may want to get more PvP gear if you have been using your PvE gear in battlegrounds. Resilience now reduces all damage received from players. If you are unfamiliar with the change, check out my post about arenas in patch 3.2. The way we fight in battlegrounds may change in patch 3.2 as well. You will receive additional honor if you are in the proximity of a capture point that you can defend in Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, or Isle of Conquest. Hopefully, now players will defend more. This change needs to be propagated to Alterac Valley, and badly. Hopefully this brings the honor gained from these battlegrounds in line with Alterac Valley and Wintergrasp. For Arathi Basin, there are two major changes. First off, capturing a base takes 8 seconds, instead of 10. For rogues, this is amazing. Using Sap on a player incapacitates them for 10 seconds, so there is a great window of opportunity for capturing bases now or forcing players to PvP trinket out of sap. Additionally, objectives should be changing hands a lot faster now. The other major change is that the first team to 1600 resources wins, instead of 2000. This is 20% less time in Arathi Basin, and while this seems like it'll be more fun, also be aware that the achievements like Arathi Basin All-Star may be difficult to do with less time. The reduced time to capture flags might have partially been a response to keep the achievements at the same difficulty level, but they will probably be more difficult with that much less time in Arathi Basin regardless. Here is a list of achievements you might want to grab in AB before the patch hits:

• Arathi Basin All-Star
• Arathi Basin Assassin
• Disgracin' the Basin
• Overly Defensive
• Resilient Victory

Eye of the Storm is getting similar changes, with the flag taking eight seconds to grab as opposed to ten, and the game plays to 1,600 resources instead of 2,000. This makes the flag much more valuable, as the towers will spend "less time" gathering resources over the course of a game. In addition to these implications, these achievements may be much harder:

• Bound for Glory (maybe)
• Stormtrooper (maybe)
• Stormy Assassin

The team that is attacking in Strand of the Ancients is now randomized, theoretically giving Horde players a more "fair" chance at winning the battleground since having fewer overall players gives the attackers an advantage, and there are fewer players at the start of battlegrounds. This means that many of the achievements for both factions may be easier and the battleground may see an increase in popularity, even though its already one of the most popular. Finally, Warsong Gulch has a time limit. The battleground will end after 20 minutes. The team with the most flag captures wins. If its a tie, then the team that got the first flag wins. If noone has captured a flag, its a tie. Its the first time a tie can happen in battlegrounds, and I'm not sure what kind of rewards it'll give. Again, this should change (wise) player behavior. If you are ahead, a "standoff" when both teams are hiding with the flag becomes advantageous to you. Additionally, the first flag capture becomes more valuable, so think about rushing the flag early on in the game. With a shorter game, and games ending before three flag captures, these achievements may be more difficult:

• Frenzied Defender
• Ironman
• Not in My House
• Warsong Gulch Perfection

In summary:

• Save up battleground marks for the next patch so you can get a head-start on honor.
• You want honor next patch for epic gems and better PvP gear.
• Save up Wintergrasp Commendation and Stone Keepers Shard.
• Do the time limited achievements now for Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Warsong Gulch.

What are you going to be doing now to prepare for PvP in patch 3.2?

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Proverb is a column discussing the lore of Warcraft. Comment and let us know what you would like to see in future columns! Many lore-minded players have likely heard about the new Druid quest in patch 3.2 for Horde players. It starts in Dalaran, and it involves a badly injured warrior by the name of Aponi Brightmane who wants to return to fight the Scourge. When players arrive in Thunder Bluff, Aponi speaks with Tahu Sagewind, a Druid. Their conversation touches on the history of Tauren druidism, notably Mu'sha. The full text is provided below, with what I think are the important parts in bold: Aponi Brightmane says: Talk to me, Tahu. Something. Anything! I'm going stir-crazy. Tahu Sagewind laughs softly. Tahu Sagewind says: All right, Aponi. I've enough on my mind to share. Have you ever spoken to the elves of Moonglade? Aponi Brightmane says: Not much. Tahu Sagewind says: The elves speak of a moon goddess, did you know? They put great stock in the light given by the moon. Aponi Brightmane says: Like Mu'sha. Tahu Sagewind says: Just like her. The parallels I've heard are interesting. And it's no secret all druids, Shu'halo and elf alike, can call upon Mu'sha's light. Aponi Brightmane says: Where are you going with this? Tahu Sagewind says: I wonder. Hamuul has guided us well, and I've learned so much from him. The legends sasy that our people were druids when time began... Aponi Brightmane says: I hear the "but" in your voice... Tahu Sagewind says: ...but what Hamuul teaches is what the elves know. The night elves. They put such stock in their moon goddess, as creatures of the night. Aponi Brightmane says: Do you think his teachings are wrong? Tahu Sagewind says: No! No, nothing like that. He is an elder for good reason, sister. Mu'sha is one of the Earthmother's eyes, and she watches over us. That isn't sinister. Tahu Sagewind says: But we're nothing if not people who strive for balance. Our warriors fight only when there is need. Our hunters take only what the tribes require to live, and use all they can when they do. The shaman stand as guide and mediator to the elemental spirits. Tahu Sagewind says: And while we, as druids, are guardians of nature, I wonder if we've overlooked a key aspect of balance in all things. Aponi Brightmane says: So are you going to bring this up to the elder? Tahu Sagewind says: No, no. No need for him to trouble about a student's idle philosophizing while he entertains a friend. Aponi Brightmane says: I suppose so. It's not silly, though, what you said. Tahu Sagewind says: Well, it isn't exactly a new thought, sister. Aponi Brightmane says: I see that thoughtful frown, Tahu. Tahu Sagewind says: Sorry, sister. Its nothing to worry about. Aponi Brightmane says: But something is on your mind, right? Tahu Sagewind says: I'm thinking about the front to the north. The one you're so eager to return to. Aponi Brightmane says: What about it? Tahu Sagewind says: I know I'm counseling patience, Aponi, but I don't like remaining here any more than you do. Times are bleak, and failing to act only makes me worry that my idle hand may have been the one to turn the tide. Tahu Sagewind says: Still... there is balance in all things, even death. I simply hate the concept that such destruction and darkness might be necessary. Aponi Brightmane says: There's a phrase... "Its always darkest before the dawn." The dawn will come, though, Tahu. The sun will rise. The balance will shift back to where it should be. Aponi Brightmane smiles and gestures to the north. Aponi Brightmane says: Even on the glacier itself, the sun manages to peek through the gloom. I have hope, Tahu. I think we'll make it through this, no matter how dire it looks. Aponi Brightmane says: But I'd still rather be there on the front lines helping it happen rather than trying to placate myself with belief. We can't just sit around and hope it happens. Tahu Sagewind says: I know, sister. I know. We'll return to fighting one day. For now, though, maybe it's best to spread the word to others... give them the hope you have. Aponi Brightmane says: And through that hope, strengthen our side in the fight? Tahu Sagewind says: That's the idea. The quest is unfinished and we don't know if it will be extended before patch 3.2 goes live. However, there are LOTS of references to the sun and "a new dawn" in there, even when they aren't talking about An'she. It is generally accepted that Malfurion Stormrage was the first (mortal) Druid, and the druidism that the Tauren speak of that they claim predates Malfurion is false or in a drastically different form from Cenarius' teachings. In fact, the latter might be the case, with the Tauren originally practicing an entirely different form of druidism focused on some form of the light. It could be that An'she and/or Mu'sha (Elune to the night elves) are actually Naaru, and Tauren could come to wield the holy light through the worship of the Earth Mother. Tauren mythology claims that An'she, the goddess of the sun, was an eye of the Earth Mother, ripped out and tossed through the cosmos, perused by the Earth Mother's other eye, the goddess Mu'sha/Elune. We could see all of this develop. Currently the only Horde race capable of being Paladins are blood elves, and it could be that Blizzard would like to expand that to give Horde players more of a choice. The other obvious conclusion would be that a new type of druid may be in the works. Druids already come in many flavors in the Warcraft mythology. Druids of the Sun could be a real possibly, and this could be a new hero class in the expansion. Most players agree that "Arch Druids" would simply be "super Druids" and would leave no room for regular druids in the game. Current druids are "Druids of the Wild" and are focused on shapeshifting, while Druids of the Sun could be something completely new. Blizzard has stated that they don't want new classes to simply be hybrids of other classes. I don't know what precisely a Druid of the Sun would do. They could come up with a whole new resource system outside of mana, like they did with Death Knights, to make the class very unique. In addition, it makes sense for Death Knights to be any race, but most other classes that players theorize about should have race restrictions, so I don't think this idea is too far out. With most players looking to the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream in the theoretical new expansion "Cataclysm", its likely that Night Elf and Druid lore could play a major role. I think either or even both of the conclusions I discussed could happen. As for other races, we could also see Dlood Elf Druids. There were high elf druids prior to the second war who erected the Runestones which hid the elven magic from the Burning Legion, as well as protected Quel'thalas from attack from Arthas during the third war. They wielded the powers of nature through the arcane, and many of them became high elven rangers. Some half-elven druids became more feral and turned into savagekin. The high elven rangers that we raised by the Scourge became Dark Rangers, who turned to shadow magic instead of natural magic for their powers. It seems that some blood elves kept up the practice, such as High Botanist Freywinn and many of the Bloodwarder and Sunseeker blood elves currently (previously?) in the Botanica of Tempest Keep. It could be that from their redeemed light-given powers from M'uru and A'dal and the revelations of the Tauren studying the light, blood elves players could see druidism in their future. The line from the dialog "strengthen our side in the fight" really makes me think this may be the case. As for the Alliance, Wildhammer Dwarves are sort of back in the Alliance with an Alliance friendly base in Aerie Peak as well as their gryphon riders in Outland. Wildhammer dwarves are known to often worship nature and the elements and become druids and Shaman. Allowing Alliance players to create Wildhammer Dwarves of these classes would open up the number of races able to be Druids and Shaman in the Alliance to two, a perfect analog to Blood Elf druids and Tauren Paladins. Finally, perhaps this means we will see the Cenarian Circle join the fight in Icecrown. It would make the Icecrown Citadel fight even more epic. What do you think? Is this a red herring, or are these clues to a bigger development? As the Tauren NPCs say, may the eternal sun shine upon thee!

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With patch 3.2 on the test realms and the Ulduar hype slowly fading, it seems like the live servers are more empty than usual. Not only are there less players overall, but there may be less gold farmers than usual. The game economy on each server is relatively small and sensitive to these temporary changes in player demographics, and right now the shifting player base on at least my server has had some serious effects on the economy. The first thing that I noticed are less raw materials at a higher price. Since there are less players on, there are less players running around doing dailies and quests that lead them to herbs, mining nodes, or dead animals to skin. On the flip side, there are less people spending hours and hours a week raiding than there were with the launch of Ulduar. Thus, the demand for things created by these materials - like elixirs, Ulduar recipes, etc, has also declined. The result is an overall smaller market that is overall easier to manipulate.  With less herbs (especially Frost Lotus) available on the auction house, I'm not able to make quite as many flasks, but they aren't all getting bought either. With less competitors in the market, I have made quite the pretty penny on flasks - though I am selling much less overall. Its a perfect opportunity to expand and explore into other areas. I recently picked up Engineering and I'm going to see how many of these Nesingwary 4000 the market is willing to buy. It makes me wonder how much of am impact gold farmers really have on the market and how many are really out there. Back in the vanilla WoW days, you could hardly walk into Tyr's Hand without seeing a dozen gold farmers gathering cloth and other baubles to sell in the auction house. It might be more subtle these days. Ever see those power-leveling services advertised in trade chat? If they are going through the hassle of advertising in-game, they are getting at least a few people to buy into it, and all those characters at their disposal gives them a great way to farm up cloth and materials while leveling those characters and dump it into the market. Where there's fire, there's smoke. Illegitimate services like power-leveling are likely a sign that gold farmers are still out and about on the realms in some fashion. With a steady supply of raw materials into the market from illegitimate players like gold farmers and hackers, many of the prices we are accustomed to are likely the work of a great supply. We are used to the land of bounty where we can go to the auction house and get almost whatever we want if we are willing to pay a reasonable price. If gold farmers leave the game completely, will this change? How negatively do these types of services actually impact the game? Looking forward, the release of patch 3.2 will bring an influx of players eager to jump back into heroics and all the old raids as well as the new Argent Tournament content. Start preparing now and stock up on potions, elixirs, eternal, and other materials. With epic gems and many new recipes, patch 3.2 will undoubtedly jump-start the WoW economy.

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The PTR datafiles have once again been mined in order to give us a preview of what the newest Arena season has to offer. MMO-Champion has posted screenshots of the latest armor sets available to the top Arena competitors next season, and I have to say, most of it is pretty good looking. In fact, I have no issues with any of the sets except one. The Shaman set has to be one of the ugliest sets I've ever seen. My only hope is that there are some changes coming up for the colors, at the very least. It could be that I am just overly critical of Blizzard's decisions that affect my class, but in my opinion every other class has a nice evolution from the Season 5 and 6 sets with decent looking gear that generally fits the overall feel of the class. I can't say the same about the Shaman set. Blizzard's design philosophy behind arena gear in Wrath of the Lich has been less flashy gear that has been made by the top crafters that gets better as the seasons progress. While the shaman set certainly didn't start out pretty, it seems to be getting worse. Take a look at all of the sets over on MMO-Champion, I'd love to hear if other players (shaman and non-shaman alike) think I'm just being too particular about gear that I probably will never get - especially the helmet and shoulders.

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Blizzard just updated the PTR patch notes to include some changes made in the lastest build of their latest patch, 3.2. Included are some minor but extremely welcomed changes to my class of choice along with a few of the lesser classes. Following are the changes from the previous version of the notes from MMO-Champion:

Arenas

• Beginning with season 7, players will no longer have access to the newest season's weapons or shoulder armor and will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2 bracket alone. Ratings obtained through 3v3 and 5v5 game play will be required for these rewards, while the rest of the newest season's items will remain available to players in all brackets (standard rating restrictions still apply).

Items: General

• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Death Knight

• Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 3/6/10%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.

Druid

• Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.

Hunter

• Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.

Mage

• Mirror Image: Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.

Paladin

• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.

Shaman

• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).
• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.
• Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.

Warrior

• Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.

Engineering

• Flying Machine: The level requirement needed to learn how to build and use this machine has been reduced to level 60, down from level 70, and the engineering skill level reduced to 300, down from 350. Material costs reduced.

Items

• Tome of Cold Weather Flying: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.
• Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item's stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val'anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

As I said, the changes to the way Wind Shock (now Wind Shear) behaves is welcomed in the Shaman community - this change will at the very least allow me to do a full DPS rotation while still concentrating on interrupts, as most other melee classes with interrupts (Rogues, Death Knights, Warriors) are able to do. I can't wait to try it out on Vezax. Additionally, Maelstrom Weapon + Hex should be extremely useful in PvP. The other changes that caught my eye were the Druid Flight Form increasing to 310% if the character has a 310% mount and the Val'anyr upgrade. I can only hope they upgrade with my Headless Horseman's Mount the same as the Swift Flight Form. It would be great to be able to keep flying on it once I get my Violet Proto Drake. The Val'anyr change will at the very least make healers still want to run Ulduar once the patch drops (as if they wouldn't anyway). What do you guys gather from the lastest patch notes?

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