Project Lore

Patch 3.2 is finally available on the PTR, which means that players will be able to find out all sorts of fun information about what changes lay ahead for us. Most of the changes are covered in the patch notes, but MMO-Champion found a bunch of new achievements to go along with the new patch. I, as an achievement whore, am very excited about these new (pointless) goals. Browsing through the list of achievements, they come out in a few different categories, covering the 10- and 25-player versions of the Crusader's Colloseum along with their heroic modes, Isle of Conquest (the brand new battleground), Koralon (the new Vault boss), and Pilgrim's Bounty and Pirate Day/Day of the dead. Wait, Pilgrim's Bounty? Pirate Day? Day of the Dead? New world events! Since Pirate Day and Day of the Dead only have one achievement listed for each of them, I'd assume they'll occur for only one day and have minimal impact on the world for their duration. But Pilgrim's Bounty raises my excitement level! There are a number of fun looking achievements to go along with the new holiday that I'll assume will take place over Thanksgiving week. For those of you unaware, Thanksgiving takes place on the fourth Thursday of every November in the United States. Of course, Blizzard could always adopt the Canadian version, which takes place on the second Monday of October each year. The only question I have is whether or not we'll have to participate in this new world event to get our Violet Proto Drakes from the Long Strange Trip achievement. If it's anything like the new and improved Noblegarden, then we will. I'm OK with that, but I'm sure some of the other players hoping to get that 310% mount might get upset. In addition to those new holiday achievements, there are a few new Feats of Strength, which hint at some more free pets for logging in. A Jade Tiger sounds like fun! What are your thoughts on these new achievements? Anything in particular draw your interest? What about the new world event? Can't wait or sick of holidays?

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Blizzard has updated their website with some background information and screenshots regarding the new raids coming in patch 3.2. While I'm not a huge PvE fan, I am a big lore fan. My issue with PvE raids is having to dedicate so much fixed time to play every week and having to trudge through trash and wipes. This opinion may be an artifact of being on the cutting edge of content in vanilla WoW; I'm aware that instances and raids are much shorter than they used to be. The Crusader's Coliseum instances are described as similar to the Ring of Blood style questlines, where players fight a series of bosses in succession. This sounds a lot more fun than fighting through trash. A lot of players groan when they hear Ring of Blood, but I really enjoy those style of fights. The twist on this is that there are 2 dungeons, a 10 man and a 25 man, each with a Normal and Heroic difficulty setting. The normal mode does not seem to have any "hard modes", so that guilds that have cleared a raid don't have to choose between clearing an instance and getting gear or progression. Once you finish the normal mode, you can proceed to the Heroic mode. On the heroic version, hard modes may be in play, and the main feature is a new take on the whole "Immortal" achievement that's been haunting us since Naxxramas. Heroic mode has a fixed number of attempts you can make, and every time you wipe, that number is decremented. Once you run out, you are locked out. The less you wipe, the better your loot. Blizzard has released some details on a few of the bosses:

Beasts: Your first challenge will pit you against a group of terrifying beasts the Argent Crusade captured in Northrend, including (but not limited to) a magnataur and not one, but two jormungar wyrms. Scourge: Some call the lieutenants of the Lich King fearsome creatures made of pure nightmare, which is doubtlessly a fitting description. How the Argent Crusade managed to capture these fiends remains a mystery; what's less mystifying is your fate should you fail to overcome this challenge.

As far as lore goes, this seems very contrived. Take a read of their introduction to the Crusader's Colliseum:

The time to strike at the heart of the Scourge is drawing close. Clouds blanket the skies of Azeroth and heroes gather beneath battle-worn banners in preparation for the coming storm. They say that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. It is this hope that drives the men and women of the Argent Crusade: hope that the Light will see them through these trying times, hope that good will triumph over evil, hope that a hero blessed by the Light will come forth to put an end to the Lich King's dark reign. So the Argent Crusade has sent out the call, a call to arms for all heroes far and wide, to meet at the very doorstep of the Lich King's domain and to prove their might in a tournament the likes of which Azeroth has never seen. Of course, a tournament such as this needs a fitting stage. A place where potential candidates are tested to the limits of exhaustion. A place where heroes... become champions. A place called the Crusaders' Coliseum.

I imagine if the United States armed forces captured prisoners of war and had their fun beating them up we wouldn't fare any better in combat. Fighting monsters on the Lich King's doorstep seems so silly. The new Coliseum itself looks pretty cool. Are you a fan of this new style of no-trash, multi-mode raids, or do you want the standard version of dungeon-based gameplay?

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Wintergrasp barely got a mention in the first draft of the patch 3.2 notes, but the outdoor PvP zone will in fact see some major changes in the new patch. The updated patch notes show the following changes: To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.

• Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
• Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins.
• The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.
• Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.
• Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.
• The queue will accept up to 100 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 200 players at a time.

There are several major implications of these changes. First and most obviously, servers with a large discrepancies in faction populations should have more balanced fights. Blizzard's original strategy to combat population imbalances in Wintergrasp was to adjust the Tenacity buff, but even with 20 Tenacity stacks, the server-side and client-side lag made gameplay difficult, and CC spells like stuns overwhelmed the underdogs. Tenacity is (presumably) not going well, and I think the mechanic will remain useful and should be expanded to Battlegrounds. One hundred players on each side is still a huge number; that's two and a half raids on each side if the battle is full. Horde players on the Proudmoore sever occasionally need a second raid, but I doubt we often break 100. The Alliance, on the other hand, well outnumber us, and getting capped at 100 will increase the Horde's chance of victory significantly. Most Horde players on Proudmoore don't even try to defend Wintergrasp as the Alliance almost always captures it. Since 3.1, Archavon's Log reports that the Horde has defended Wintergrasp 7 times and captured it 303 times, while the Alliance has defended 673 times and captured it 302 times. This is almost certainly a product of sheer numbers in this case. It is unclear if the queue will try to put players in at the same rate between factions; that is, in battles where only 20 players of one faction show up, the other faction's numbers will be limited. I've never played Wintergrasp on a low population server, but I imagine if they implement this change, it will be well appreciated. Gear checks, like the ones used in Battleground queues, could also be implemented to ensure that the factions have similar numbers of well geared and not-so-well geared players. They already select against lower level players, and they have the infrastructure to do gear selection from their Battleground code anyway. I think this could be valuable as well; Battlegrounds with similarly geared players is more fun, and they already showing wants to match similiar players in PvP, such as matching twinks with twinks. Another major implication is where players will be when Wintergrasp is starting. You can almost always see people huddling around where the portal will open before attacking Wintergrasp. Now, those players can queue, go do other things, then get ported to Wintergrasp when it starts. This will be especially handy for Battlegrounds, especially if you are on a server that is likely to have a wait to get into Wintergrasp. It will be interesting to see where players who aren't queued get teleport to if they attempt to enter Wintergrasp; perhaps they will get a debuff warning like when you fly into a no fly zone then sent to Dalaran near the Wintergrasp portal. Its a sort of a reinstatement of "ghetto hearth", where you get a free "teleport". I wouldn't be surprised if these "Battlemasters" become queues like the battlegrounds and you are returned to where you entered from after the battle. Additionally, with the teleport in place for the start of the battle, where will it place players? Its very strategically valuable to get positioned at a Workshop before the battle starts to capture it or start churning out vehicles. There are many unanswered questions, and I'm sure we'll hear more once the PTR is up. Are these changes necessary to balance Wintergrasp, or is capping it taking away from its original purpose? Will you be angry if you are doing your fishing daily and get kicked out of Wintergrasp?

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Good lord.  You do a post on just recently announced content and the day it goes live Blizzard drops a cavalcade of new information on the WoW playing populace.  I don't know about you, but when this much information comes out at once I tend to become overwhelmed.   Sure, there isn't much to digest rogue-wise (yay Axes! </sarcasm> Daggers fo' lyfe yo!), or even priest-wise, so that cuts out most of the critical thinking that goes into patch notes for me.  With nothing to QQ about I have been focusing on the little gems and locating overlooked modifications. For example, the ability to level in battlegrounds (via quests, not killing people, which would be cooler) is one hot tamale.  It's also a feature that has been requested for some time.  When this was originally discovered pre-patch notes, people were worried about the state of twinking.  Well, Blizzard has all those level 19 rogues in VanCleef gear covered with the power to turn off XP gain.  That feature is simply huge and goes well beyond twinking to "classic" servers.  While not exactly the same as a vanilla or TBC locked server, turning off your XP gain can enable nostalgic gamers to level a character to 60, or 70, and play as if it were 2004, or 2007!  In the end I think this is a great solution to the classic server problem.  It enables those rosey-eyed gamers to (almost) get what they want, but doesn't cost Blizzard much of anything. My fellow vanity pet collectors are likely rejoicing over the new critters we can add to our stables.  It isn't just a token addition either.  Sure, the Argent Tournament has another one, and you can go the cheesy way and purchase one from Breanni, but the true nuts will be out in Un'Goro, Stranglethorn Vale and numerous other areas farming the pets from elite raptors across Azeroth.  A total of 8 vanity pets have been added to the game (not including Argent Tournament rewards).  Pet owners aren't the only players getting some dinosaur action.  Horde players can pick up a poisonous Ravasaur mount from the trainer in Un'Goro.  Yes, the mount is Horde only. We also have more profession changes.  The biggest one that I came across was the change to potion stacking.  No longer will raiders have to dedicate a full bag to their assorted potions, as they will now stack to a respectable amount, 20.  Of course I foresee most raiders filling their bags with stacks of 20 anyways, crazy blocks that they are.  In Cooking we have the tweak to the Chef's Hat.  The fashionable cookware not only makes you looks good, no to mention dedicated to the art of cuisine, but enables Wolfgang Puck impersonators to cook faster.  I'll be picking up one of these bad boys for that utility.  Still no concrete data on the "increase benefits" to the Engineering goodies though, but it's nice to see that Potion Injectors give an added 25% benefit when used by a tinkerer.  Gas cloud discovery is being moved to the Mote Extractor and off the Goggles.  What the hell took so long? Call of the Crusade is shaping up to be a nice patch.  It may not have an ostentatious sized raid like Secrets of Ulduar, but it does have a copious collection of changes.  What diamonds in the rough have you most excited?  Perhaps actual (epic) diamonds?  Maybe the bloating of the Dalaran Sewers Arena map?

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Patch 3.2 is bringing sweeping changes to all sorts of PvP. Blizzard has been trying to push arenas to give WoW an "e-sport" status, perhaps hoping to follow their Starcraft model for longevity. As such, patch 3.2 is bringing major changes to PvP to extend the meta-game of arenas, notably hitting the issues that Ghostcrawler outlined. The first major change to note is the resilience mechanic. Resilience's major selling point has been reducing the chance that the player will be critically hit and reducing the damage players receive from critical strikes. Its lesser benefits include reducing the effect of mana-drains and the damage done by DoTs. Now, instead of only applying to DoTs, the damage mitigation applies to all damage done by players. This is a huge buff to resilience. Most players don't even notice a survivability difference from having resilience until they are at at least 500 resilience, and don't even think you will be effective unless you have at least 800 in this season. However, with all the stats you have to "sacrifice" by using PvP gear instead of PvE gear, many players go into arenas with tier 8 and clean house by bursting down the other teams with no problem. With this resilience change, Blizzard doesn't have to worry so much about itemizing resilience to take less of an item's allocated stats. Players will see much higher returns from resilience much earlier on, and resilience will become much more valuable in arenas, to the point of trumping every other stat. Expect price hikes on resilience gems! Another implication of this is higher survivability overall. Its a subtle nerf to RMP (rogue/mage/priest) in 3v3 as well as as cleave teams (teams that focus on damage rather than survivability). RMP has dominated the 3v3 bracket for quite awhile now and its hardest matchup has been defensive teams with good survivability. The viability of cleave and RMP teams is going to tank, and it its viability is always going to fluctuate proportionally to the survivability vs. damage trade-off. The second huge change to arenas is the change to the 2v2 bracket. The new tier of gladiator gear will require ratings in either 3v3 or 5v5, not 2v2. Your 2v2 rating can still be used to purchase furious gladiator stuff going into season 7, but if you can break 1500, you are going to need a 3v3 or 5v5 to get the new gear. Casual arena players who can't break 1500 won't care, but 2200+ players that have all of the furious gladiator gear already probably won't bother too much with 2v2. For those players or those who can play 3v3 or 5v5 as well as 2v2, the only reason to 2v2 is if their 3v3 and 5v5 can't net them things like the Gladiator title and Frost Wyrm. With less serious competition in the 2v2 bracket, I predict that 2v2 ratings will be easier to get in season 7, and arenas will continue to be more accessible. Blizzard has been trying very hard to push 3v3 and 5v5 since everyone is so concerned with 2v2, such as with the 3v3 and 5v5 rating buffs. Its difficult enough to balance classes to work in both PvP and PvE, let alone battlegrounds, 2v2, and the larger arena teams. This officially gives them an alibi to not have to balance 2v2 as carefully and make some sacrifices to 2v2 balance in order to ensure that the top tier of players playing in 3v3 and 5v5 have the best experience possible. The maps have also gotten some tweaks. The two new arenas in Wrath have been considered to be terrible, gimmicky, buggy, and random by the majority of the player base. They are even disabled for some tournament play. Dalaran sewers is getting a little bit of love. Its getting 25% bigger and the LoSing (line of sight-ing) on the crates is being adjusted. Mounts are also now usable in this arena. This gives this map more room to breathe and a better mechanic for LoSing instead of those tiny crates that are too close to the edge. Ruins of Lordaeron has had some terrain issues fixed with the tomb in the middle, and a couple of gravestones have been added for LoSing, while the starting alcoves have been removed (I wonder where players start after this change...). Finally, lets not forget the profession changes. Alchemy has a whole new mechanic and all the professions are getting buffed. Is this the best patch for arenas yet, or could you care less?

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There are lots of surprises here. Check out the PvP changes and battleground changes. General Construction of the Crusaders' Coliseum is complete. Testing not yet available. New raid Normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders' Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (Normal), 25-player (Normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers. Trial of the Champion 5-player (Normal and Heroic mode) dungeon. Daily quest added to the Heroic daily dungeon quest giver. Trial of the Crusader 10 and 25-player (Normal mode) raid dungeon. Trial of the Grand Crusader 10 and 25-player (Heroic mode) raid dungeon. Crusaders' Tribute: Active on Heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated. Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style Battleground is now available for testing. Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80. Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles. Capture the Docks, Airship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy's base. Capture the Oil Derrick or Cobalt Mine for their resources to garner reinforcements and a steady flow of bonus honor. To claim victory, bust through the enemy's keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted. The Argent Tournament Expands All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount, and new heirloom items. All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts, and a new pet. Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Black Knight, he makes his astonishing return to the tournament. Wait, didn't you kill him? New druid art for cat and bear forms has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms. Portals from Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been added leading players to the Stair of Destiny at the Dark Portal. Once there, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath. A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar. The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes to Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar. Northrend Children's Week has arrived in Dalaran! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District. Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process. PvP

• Arenas
  • The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5-player team rating. Rating requirements from 2-player teams can still be used to purchase the previous season of gear.
    • Dalaran Sewers
      • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
      • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
      • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
    • Ruins of Lordaeron
      • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
      • Two line-of-sight tombstones have been added to the slime pool on the southern side of the map.
      • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
• Battlegrounds
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
  • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
  • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
  • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
  • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
  • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  • Arathi Basin
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Eye of the Storm
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  • Warsong Gulch
    • There is a now a 20-minute timer on this Battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.

Races: General

• Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
• Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.

Emblem System Changes

• Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
• Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
• The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
• New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.

Mounts

• The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
• Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
• Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
• In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
• Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.

Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%. 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. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed. Classes: General All pets now receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums. Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech). Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3-second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects. Death Knights Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.

• Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 50% per disease.
• Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.
• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
• Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.
• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
• Talents
  • Blood
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
  • Frost
    • Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. 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.
    • Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    • Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
    • Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
  • Unholy
    • Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
    • Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
    • Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
    • Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Druids

• Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
• Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
• Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
• Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Talents
  • Balance
    • Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
    • Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30-second cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
    • Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
  • Restoration
    • Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
    • Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Deterrence now has a new visual spell effect.
• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
• Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.
• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
  • Survival
    • Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
• Pets
  • Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.
• Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3-second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.
• Talents
  • Fire
    • Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 1% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.

Paladins

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when the target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target's armor.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal-over-time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Talents
  • Holy
    • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
    • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
    • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
  • Protection
    • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
  • Retribution
    • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
    • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown.
    • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage. Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.
• Talents
  • Discipline
    • Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
  • Holy
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.

Rogues

• After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
• Talents
  • Combat
    • Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
  • Subtlety
    • Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.

Shaman

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
• Talents
  • Enhancement
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman's attack power, down from 30%.
  • Restoration
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman's Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman's health.
    • Nature's Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman's maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    • Nature's Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

Warlocks

• Banish: Effect will now be cancelled if Banish is recast on a banished target.
• Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes
• Talents
  • Affliction
    • Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
    • Demonology
      • Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
    • Destruction
      • Empowered Imp: The warlock's critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
      • Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Fury
    • Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.

User Interface

• Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Casting bars under a target's portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
• Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
• Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
• Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player's world map.
• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.
• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Quests The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison. Achievements

• A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.
• Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

• Alchemy
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or strength for 1 hour and is usable in Arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in Arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
• • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
• Cooking
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  • Chef's Hat is now superior-quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward Crate, Barrel, or Spice Bag from the cooking dailies.
• Enchanting
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
• Engineering
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical units.
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  • Doubled the duration on Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  • Increased the passive bonus provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  • Spynocular belt enchantment changed to a Brassbolt Rebreather, allowing engineers to breathe underwater.
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  • Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fishing
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
• Herbalism
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
• Inscription
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven't yet obtained Mangle. Inscribers can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  • Master's Inscriptions increased.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Dragon's Eye gems stat bonuses increased.
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter's tokens.
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    • Alchemy transmutations
    • Purchased with honor
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
• Leatherworking
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to Leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  • Fur Lining values increased.
• Mining
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
• Skinning
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
• Tailoring
  • Embroideries improved.

Items

• Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade Arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King Arena seasons.
• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
  • Druids
    • Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
  • Paladins
    • Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
  • Rogues
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
  • Warlocks
    • Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
  • Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.
  • Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

Dungeons and Raids

• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and heroic modes for both 10 and 25-player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.
• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  • Vehicles (drakes) used in these instances now scale with item level.
• Ulduar
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players.
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a tooltip issue with Pandora's Plea.
• Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes ("of the Bear") have had their stat values increased significantly.
• The leatherworking item Guardian Gloves is now correctly marked as uncommon quality.
• Hunter
  • All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
  • Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
  • Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
  • The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
  • T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
• Priest
  • The heal from Glyph of Power Word: Shield can now cause Divine Aegis.
  • Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
• Shaman
  • Fixed a bug where Frostbrand Weapon (Rank 9) was not scaling properly with a shaman's spell power.

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Normally when Blizzard starts releasing this much information on a patch in such a short time frame it means that the patch is on the horizon.  I'd be pretty shocked if Call of the Crusade came out so soon after Ulduar, but Blizzard has to battle with Summer somehow.  After all most guilds are still working on their first clear of the Titan and Old God happy fun zone.  Getting behind on our raiding won't stop us from absorbing all the new information though! As we already knew, the coliseum will be completed when Patch 3.2, an update that basically revolves around the Argent Crusade, is launched.  The additional details that Bornakk gave us yesterday are the interesting morsels.

• A new "epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters".  The new raid will also contain an interesting property, the raid will sport four difficulty levels, 10- and 25-man normal and 10- and 25-man heroic.  Did I read that right, we get one boss per week?  Or are my reading comprehension skills shot from lack of sleep?
• Crusader's Tribute - The tribute system is an attempt to reward the best players for their consistency.  The setup "will limit players on the number of attempts they get in the Coliseum each week."  The less attempts you need to clear, the more rewards you can reap.  Utterly fail and you get nothing.  Better be sure to have well-oiled, well-geared, alert and sober members in the runs.
• New 5-man dungeon with three encounters.  Each encounter will reward a Champion's Seal.
• New tier of armor and weapons.  The phat loot will be modeled with Alliance- and Horde-specific themes.

The added difficulties are nice, but I fear having to farm four different raids for gear.  Hopefully Blizzard realizes how annoying that will be, and distributes the gear accordingly.  At first I thought that the lockout mechanic was rather annoying, but if they do plan on releasing Call of the Crusade soon, then the small amount of content combined with the lockout period would allow players to keep Ulduar as their main target, and head over to the Coliseum for a quick fix of loot and change of scenery.  I would equate it to a lengthier Malygos, better loot, but not the focus. I like the Crusader's Tribute idea, but I am sure I will get annoyed with the mechanic once a healer disconnects on the pull.  But in theory, rewarding for skill and dedication is a good way to go.  All things considered, the Coliseum definitely follows the same design philosophy as Argent Tournament, solo gameplay.  Allow me to finish.  Although you need buddies to help you through the raids and dungeons, I'd wager that it'll all be over quickly which means it should be PUG friendly.  Also, I haven't read anything on the raid's difficulty. I can't help but wonder what is going to be the lore behind the area.  I mean are these encounters just to challenge our skills for the upcoming conflict with Arthas, or did some nefarious organization infiltrate the Coliseum and set up shop?  I'm sure many of you don't care about the storyline aspect, but I need more than just loot. Do you raid leaders already have A and B groups in mind for the Coliseum Tribute runs?  Think the new content will be ezmode, or another small step up in difficulty? Let's not forget the other, more Argent Tournament-based, Patch 3.2 details that Amatera detailed earlier this week, and Heartbourne's profession changes.

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Patch 3.2 is going to be a doozy. Epic gems are going to be introduced, and this will change the game considerably. The gems are acquired in four ways. You can either have a Grand Master Alchemist transmute them (its unknown how this will be learned or what the materials will be), prospect them from Titanium Ore, or buy them using honor or Embelm of Heroism. It is likely that designs for cuts and maybe the gems themselves will drop in the 3.2 raid, the Argent Coliseum. This will impact the game in several ways. Emblems of Heroism are going to be valuable again, so start farming your heroics and Naxxramas. Save up your honor points and Titanium Ore. If you know an alchemist, make good friends with them. Everyone and their dog will want to socket every last piece of their gear with these epic gems. Existing gems will likely plummet in value. With sockets becoming more valuable for stats, the sockets given by Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves give more stats than the benefits from other professions. What is Blizzard to do? The answer is rework many professions buffs entirely!  Just as I was about to give up Herbalism for Engineering, they finally put a lot of the profession's PvP and PvE buffs on equal footing. Since players have more stats all around, they are giving out more stats in profession buffs to make them relatively as desirable.

• Alchemy gets 3 major changes. First off, the effects of Mixology have been increased. This is likely more stats from each flask. For PvPers, an elixir called Flask of the North will be added, which will give you either spell power, attack power, or strength, and is usable in arenas. It is bought with honor and not consumed. It is unclear if this will be usable outside of arenas. Finally, Endless Healing/Mana Potions will no longer be usable in arenas and their restorative effects will be increased.
• Blacksmithing will remain the same; the sockets from Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves are now much more valuable.
• Enchanting's ring enchants will get better.
• The following Engineering item enhancements will get better: Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing.
• Herbalist's Lifeblood will scale with maximum health and does more healing overall. It is also removed from the GCD.
• Scribes will have increased benefits from shoulder inscriptions.
• Dragon's Eye cuts will get better.
• Fur Linings will get better.
• Toughness gives more stamina
• Master of Anatomy gives more critical strike rating
• Tailoring embroideries will be improved.

I may still drop Herbalism for Engineering, as those Pyro Rockets are way too sweet. But with the addition of the Argent Squire buffs, things like portable mailbox from Engineering seems less fun. Are you all going to change your professions around?

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This former Tuskarr-inhabited island has been turned into a staging ground by the Vrykul. With so many new details about Patch 3.2 trickling out of Blizzard lately, it surely won't be too long before we see it pop up on the PTR! This time, they're letting us know a little bit more about what to expect from the expanded Argent Tournament. There's plenty to get excited about for those that have worn themselves out on the existing dailies, Paladin players, and even fans of the Black Knight. Two entirely new quest hubs have been added to the event. One lies within a Cult of the Damned camp that's just been set up to spy on the Crusade's activities (does this mean you'll be able to work for the bad guys in some capacity?), and the other takes place on a sizable island just off the coast that Sea Vrykul have claimed as their own. Remember those guys in Borean Tundra who made everything so misty? Well, they're back to pester you again and they're apparently attacking the Sunreavers' ships, which occupy the waters between the coast and the island. More quests will be available for those that have already achieved notoriety in the Tournament, itself. Those who are exalted with the Silver Covenant or Sunreavers will gain access to three new (randomized) dailies through which they will be able to earn more seals. New rewards have, of course, been added for you to spend your hard-earned seals on including tabards and two new mounts (one flying and one ground) representative of either faction, and a vanity pet called the Shimmering Wyrmling which will be available to players of both sides. For the true Argent Tournament Obsessives, the ones who have achieved the Crusader title already, even more quests and rewards will open up. Yet another new line of dailies will appear (at least two will reward seals), but the things you can purchase are even more exciting! There will be new heirloom goodies to send to your alts, an Argent Crusade Banner and Tabard (the latter of which has the ability to transport you directly to the Tournament from anywhere), and an upgraded squire who comes with his own summonable mount. It has a reported eight-hour cooldown, but the upgraded squire can serve as either a bank, vendor, or mailbox! Likewise, Paladins who are tired of their old Charger can trade it in for a fresh, new Argent Crusade-themed one. Blizzard also reports that the terrible Black Knight will make his triumphant return. What, you thought you killed him? Is this the true face of the Black Knight?! Pfft! That was only a flesh wound! For those that have run themselves ragged on the Argent Tournament, it seems like there is a whole lot of new stuff to look forward to. With so many dailies, there's no doubt it'll become the "go-to" place for anyone looking to earn some extra gold to foot the repair bills they get from the included instances! And for those that haven't bothered with it yet, there's no sign of them getting rid of any of the old quests (aside, perhaps, from the coliseum-building ones offered by the goblins out front) any time soon. Full notes can be be perused at your leisure here. Chime in below, readers. What do you think of all the new additions to the Argent Tournament? Does the amount of dailies make your head spin, like it does mine?

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I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it looks like one of the greatest points of contention regarding the recently announced mount changes for 3.2 will continue to upset players of WoW. In comments both on my post here at Project Lore and on the official WoW forums, posters have begrudged the major price dips for mounts because they had to pay so much more when they bought their mounts. Some have gone so far as to suggest (or demand, in some cases) that Blizzard refund their in-game gold. Not surprisingly, blue poster Zarhym has responded to these requests in a couple of different places in the forums. After the complaints started rolling in Wednesday, he said:

"We have no plans of offering in-game gold refunds on item costs to compensate for this content change, as has always been our policy."

Later on,  in an individual thread asking for refunds, he expanded on that point:

"It's truly a great thing that online gaming has expanded to the point where a game can grow and evolve over time with new content. As a gaming company, we can look back with hind sight and make changes to update older content within the context of everything that has come since. Several times over this has led to price adjustments in a number of areas, and we do not reimburse items or money due to changes in content. There are simply too many variables and too many changes each content patch to attempt to compensate anyone who's been negatively affected by a change."

Now this doesn't seem like a hugely unexpected revelation. As he said, I can't think of any other time that Blizzard has made any overarching gold refunds for in-game price adjustments. I'm also not sure that anything has ever decreased in price across-the-board this drastically before, but I can't say for sure. But still, this has been a major point that has players up in arms, and it probably will continue to be controversial. I predict that all the hoopla will die down once patch 3.2 comes out (whenever that is - it may still be awhile), and people start getting cheap-ass mounts for their level 20 alts. Plus, all those other changes that also are planned for 3.2! Personally, I can't wait. One thing I'm still undecided on - what's the verdict for all of you who are on the verge of buying your mount? Do you wait for the patch, however long that may be? Or do you shovel out the cash so you can get the benefit of faster travel now? And if you do, will you QQ about it?

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