Project Lore

Wrath of the Lich King sought to even out the playing field of PvE and PvP benefits that players receive from knowing a profession. It was nigh required to have a leatherworker's drums in the endgame of Burning Crusade, and Engineers found many a trick to "exploit" in battlegrounds. Many professions, like Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Tailoring, had several BoP items that were some of the best gear you could get, making these professions a huge boon to some classes that put them way ahead of characters that didn't pick the "right" profession. Blizzard evened this out with a whole host of abilities for the professions. They made sure every profession provided a benefit to both PvE and PvP gameplay in a way that was useful to every class. These changes were applied in patch 3.0.2, and many of these benefits are available to both low-level characters and high-level ones. If you are a little rusty on who gets what, take a moment to review:

Profession	Main Gameplay Benefits
Alchemy	Mixology (PvE), Endless Healing Potion (PvP)
Blacksmithing	Socket Bracer, Socket Gloves
Enchanting	Enchant Rings (Stamina, Spellpower, AP)
Engineering	Hand enhancements (Rockets, Haste)
Leatherworking	Leg Enchancements (Resists, AP, Stam)
Tailoring	Leg and Cloak Enchancements (Spellpower, Holy Damage, Melee Haste)
Jewelcrafting	Special Gems, Trinkets (Resilience, Strength, MP5)
Inscription	Shoulder Enchants (AP, Spell Power, Dodge)
Herbalism	Lifeblood
Mining	Toughness
Skinning	Master of Anatomy

Engineering didn't get as much love in terms of PvE/PvP viability. The engineering benefit was the ability to add "gadgets" to your gear that essentially enchant your gear with different abilities. Most of these did not positively effect endgame PvE or PvP gameplay. For example, you couldn't get your cloak enchanted if you wanted Flexweave Underlay. And forget about your Icewalker enchant if you plan on using Nitro Boosts. In 3.1, Engineers get a little bonus that provides them with a comparable bonus to other professions. Blue poster Zarhym recently rounded up the changes in 3.1 for engineers:

• Added a new Reticulated Armor Webbing engineering enchant that increases the armor on plate gloves.
• Added a new Springy Arachnoweave engineering enchant that grants passive spell power in addition to turning your cloak into a parachute.
• Flexweave Underlay now grants passive agility in addition to its normal effect.
• Nitro Boosts now grant passive critical strike rating in addition to their speed boost.

The list may not be conclusive and is subject to change over the course of the public testing process. Its still not enough to sell me. I'm eyeing replacing herbalism with something a little more effective (maybe skinning?) for that extra boost for my rogue DPS.

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Whether or not you find it productive to spend time on the Public Test Realm, it is usually pretty interesting to at least hear about what Blizzard has in store for the future of World of Warcraft. MMO-Champion once again delivers on that front by looking at the latest build of Patch 3.1 on the PTR. With their all-seeing eyes, they've discovered some significant (and not so significant) class and profession changes, new mounts including a turtle, and a plethora of Ulduar Achievements. While the list of class changes is somewhat short, there are some very interesting ones. Paladins have had a few talents rearranged, Death Knights have a slew of changes, and other classes get some minor tweaks, but the the most interesting to me are for Shamans, especially elemental ones which are mostly aimed at PvP. Check them all out on MMO-Champion. The new mounts mentioned sound fun, but I mostly just want the turtle:

• Blue Skeletal Warhorse - Summons and dismisses a rideable Blue Skeletal Warhorse. This is a very fast mount.
• White Kodo - Summons and dismisses a rideable White Kodo.
• Venomhide Ravasaur - Summons and dismisses a rideable Venomhide Ravasaur. This is a very fast mount.
• Coralshell Turtle - Summons and dismisses a rideable Coralshell Turtle. This is a very fast mount, both on land and in water.

Lastly, more and more new achievements are being implemented. With Ulduar being a huge instance with 14 bosses and 11 "hard modes," there were bound to be a ton of them, and the list doesn't even look to be comprehensive as there are no Heroic mode achievements included. Keep in mind that many of the numbers are placeholders and will likely be changed before 3.1 goes live. ***Also beware that the achievement details may spoil some content!***

• The Siege of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Siege area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Antechamber of Ulduar (Defeat the bosses of The Antechamber area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Keepers of Ulduar (Defeat the Keeper bosses of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Descent into Madness (Defeat the bosses of The Descent into Madness area of Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Secrets of Ulduar (Defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Unbroken (Defeat Flame Leviathan on the first try without anyone repairing their vehicle on Normal Difficulty.)
• Three Car Garage (Defeat Flame Leviathan while in each of the following vehicles on Normal Difficulty.)
• Take Out Those Turrets (Destroy a Flame Leviathan Defense Turret on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shutout (Defeat Flame Leviathan without causing a System Shutdown on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Bombardment (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 1 Orbital Defense System active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbital Devastation (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 2 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nuked from Orbit (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 3 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• Orbit-uary (Defeat Flame Leviathan with 4 Orbital Defense Systems active on Normal Difficulty.)
• A Quick Shave (Defeat Razorscale without allowing her to fly into the air more than once on Normal Difficulty.)
• Minimal Casualties (Defeat Razorscale without any friendly NPCs dying during the fight on Normal Difficulty.)
• Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare (Defeat 1000 Iron Dwarves with Razorscale's Flame Breath within 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shattered (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master while shattering 77 Iron Constructs within 5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Hot Pocket (Survive being thrown into Ignis the Furnace Master's crucible on Normal Difficulty.)
• Stokin' the Furnace (Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master in 2 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Engineering (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Scrapbots (Defeat 1000 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Normal Difficulty.)
• Nerf Dark Bombs (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Dark Bomb on Normal Difficulty.)
• Must Deconstruct Faster (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 20.5 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Heartbreaker (Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim (Defeat the Iron Council with Runemaster Molgeim as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir (Defeat the Iron Council with Stormcaller Brundir as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Choose You, Steelbreaker (Defeat the Iron Council with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• But I'm on Your Side (Defeat the Iron Council while under the effect of a Steel Boot Flask on Normal Difficulty.)
• Can't Do That While Stunned (Defeat the Iron Council without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to cast Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Normal Difficulty.)
• Overload Overlord (Defeat the Iron Council without any raid member being struck by Overload on Normal Difficulty.)
• With Open Arms (Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Normal Difficulty.)
• Disarmed (Destroy both of Kologarn's arms within 12 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Normal Difficulty.)
• If Looks Could Kill (Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eye Beams on Normal Difficulty.)
• Rubble and Roll (Defeat Kologarn with 6000 Rubble creatures alive on Normal Difficulty.)
• Cheese the Freeze (Defeat Hodir without any raid member being hit by Flash Freeze on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Have the Coolest Friends (Defeat Hodir without any friendly NPC dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Cold in Here (Defeat Hodir without any raid member having more than 3 stacks of Biting Cold on Normal Difficulty.)
• Staying Buffed All Winter (Possess the effects of Toasty Fire, Storm Power and Starlight at the same time on Normal Difficulty.)
• Don't Stand in the Lightning (Defeat Thorim without being affected by Lightning Charge on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Take You All On (Defeat Thorim, the Ancient Rune Giant and the Rune Colossus on Normal Difficulty.)
• Who Needs Bloodlust? (Defeat Thorim while under the effect of Aura of Celerity on Normal Difficulty.)
• Siffed (Force Thorim to enter the arena and defeat him while Sif is present on Normal Difficulty.)
• Lumberjacked (Defeat Elder Brightleaf, Elder Ironbranch and Elder Stonebark within 2 seconds of each other on Normal Difficulty.)
• Con-speed-atory (Defeat Freya within 2 minutes of engaging a creature in the Conservatory of Life on Normal Difficulty.)
• Deforestation (Defeat 2 Ancient Water Spirits, 2 Storm Lashers and 2 Snaplashers within 120 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Getting Back to Nature (Defeat Freya while she is affected by Attuned to Nature on Normal Difficulty.)
• Mind the Mines (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid triggering a Proximity Mine on Normal Difficulty.)
• Strike Out (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Rocket Strike on Normal Difficulty.)
• A-bomb-inable (Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Bomb Bot on Normal Difficulty.)
• Set Up Us the Bomb (Complete the following Mimiron achievements on Normal Difficulty.)
• I'll Form the Head! (Force Mimiron to combine the parts of his greatest creation within 20 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• Shadowdodger (Defeat General Vezax without any raid member being hit by Shadow Crash on Normal Difficulty.)
• I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning (Defeat General Vezax without being affected by Saronite Vapors on Normal Difficulty.)
• Never Stand Near the Faceless Dude (Defeat General Vezax without allowing him to regain health from Mark of the Faceless on Normal Difficulty.)
• Crazy Cat Lady (Defeat Auriaya while doing something cool on Normal Difficulty.)
• Supermassive (Defeat Algalon the Observer while destroying 4 Black Holes within 10 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• Observed (Defeat Algalon the Observer on Normal Difficulty.)
• He Feeds On Your Tears (Defeat Algalon the Observer without any raid member dying on Normal Difficulty.)
• She's Not Bad for an Old God (/Kiss Sara in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty.)
• Drive Me Crazy (Defeat Yogg-Saron without any raid member going insane on Normal Difficulty.)
• He's Not Getting Any Older (Defeat Yogg-Saron within 22 minutes on Normal Difficulty.)
• They're Coming Out of the Walls (Defeat 200 Guardians of Yogg-Saron within 12 seconds on Normal Difficulty.)
• In His House He Waits Dreaming (Experience all 5 visions of Yogg-Saron's mind on Normal Difficulty.)
• The Undying, Part Two (Within one raid lockout period, defeat every boss in Ulduar on Normal Difficulty without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters.)

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There has been tons of talk about 3.1, Ulduar, and the public test realms lately. So for the first time ever I have transferred my character over the PTR to look around. While I know that test realms are intended to, well, test the upcoming content, we all know that is not people's primarily motivation for going over there. The reason many players go is to get a leg up on the competition when it comes to raiding, research new abilities, and make sure they know exactly what changes they are going to make to their character when the patch hits the live realms. I have enjoyed being able to see the dual spec mechanic in person, am liking the built in outfitter functionality, and being the first to see things like the Argent Tournament has certainly been interesting. One thing I noticed is that there are certain people who seem to spend A LOT of time on the PTR. I have never been able to relate to this. Perhaps it's the same reason I have never been super excited about being a beta tester. For me there is a feeling that the time you spend is all for not. There is a certain impending doom knowing that as soon as Blizzard decides that their testing is finished everything will go away in the blink of an eye. So what is the point in investing the time? Any gear that drops from those Ulduar bosses is not yours to keep, any money you make from crafting new profession recipes is as good as gone, and any achievements you earn won't mean much when the server is cleared. Of course, the very hardcore raiding guilds are busy mastering boss strats so that they can knock out the world firsts, and there may be a few generous souls who want to help report every bug they see, but for the rest of you - what is the motivation? Isn't your time better spent on something you can keep (virtually)? I applaud you who are there to help Blizzard work out bugs, but for the rest of you, are you having fun?

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When a hunter happens upon a Spirit Beast in Sholazar Basin, the reaction is usually sublime and controlled; decorum is maintained at all times. Like this: "WWAAAAAAAHHHH IT'S MY SPIRIT BEEEEEEEEAST!!!" And then they gather their composure... and spittle-shriek again. Of course, this usually only happens once in a hunter's life as the Spirit Beast in Sholazar Basin is extremely elusive. Well guess what we did today: "WWAAAAAAAHHHH IT'S MY NEW SPIRIT BEEEEEEEEAST!!!" Blizzard has come through with a little-mentioned rumor, that a new Spirit Beast would be introduced. Now, in the latest version of the PTR, this rumor is a reality. Gondria has arrived.

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Before Burning Crusade hit the shelves, the raiding scene was very different. Raiding guilds would quickly abandon earlier raids like Molten Core once most items were being disenchanted and they wanted to spend more time progressing through new content. Since there was no value in running an easy raid and well-established guilds could just as easily run harder instances with a few ungeared players in their 40 man raid group to gear them up faster, Molten Core and all the level 60 dungeons fell into oblivion. Blizzard sought to change this in Burning Crusade. First, they introduced heroic dungeons, which offered all of the new 5-man dungeons with better gear drops and more difficult mobs. Additionally, all heroics dropped Badges of Justice, which were exchangeable for gear that was on par with raid gear. As more content as released, they wanted to keep heroics relevant. The solution was to add even better rewards for badges at the requirement of many more badges. Eventually, as Karazhan and Zul'Aman became PUGed more often than arranged, they added badges to them so that they stayed relevant to veteran players. Badge gear on par with some of the best raid drops would cost on the order of 150 badges, equaling dozens of heroics for a single piece, but players continued to run heroics. In WotLK, Blizzard adjusted this system slightly. With the introduction of achievements, heroics would have "hard modes", which would make heroics relevant and difficult to even seasoned players. Every raid has the same system as well, with a normal "10 man" version and a heroic "25 man" version. More importantly, Blizzard introduced a multiple tiered "badge" system. Heroics and the easiest raids, Naxxramas and Vault of Archavon, drop the first tier of badges, called Emblems of Heroism. These are exchangeable for entry-level raid gear. Harder raids drop Emblems of Valor, which are exchangeable for better raid gear. It was inadvertently announced in a post about PvP that a new tier of emblems is to be introduced in patch 3.1: Emblems of Conquest. One of the announcements that startled some players was that Ulduar would drop Emblems of Valor on normal mode and Emblems of Conquest on Heroic mode. The reason this didn't sit well with some players is that they view Ulduar on the same level of difficulty as existing raid content. Most players agree that raid content is much easier than it was in Burning Crusade and earlier and want it to be more difficult. The hardcore raiders have no use for Emblems of Heroism and their Emblems of Valor are looking to be barely useful already, and with the introduction of Emblems of Conquest and heroic Ulduar, Emblems of Valor will likely be less valued than ever. A common request is that emblems should be exchangeable at some fixed rate. For example, an emblem of valor could be bought with 5 emblems of heroism. Blizzard does not want to implement this because they want players who want better gear to play harder instances rather than farm easy ones. They don't want raiding to be a grind. Perhaps a better solution is to make existing emblem gear cheaper as new content is released. Then, that shiny 50 emblem sword might cost 20 emblems instead of 50 in later patches, and you've had an incentive to run a few heroics instead of just getting the next tier up. Another problem is the distinction of PvP gear. Right now, raiders can buy PvP gear with emblems. Without even setting foot in a battleground or arena, they can buy some of the best PvP gear in the game. While PvE players should have access to PvP gear, it shouldn't be that easy to obtain. Rating requirements might be required in patch 3.1 for the best PvP gear, even if you buy with emblems. The main reason emblems are important as far as a mechanic is that they mark which raids are on what "tier". Here is a list of what raids drop what kinds of emblems. Dungeons in the same grouping have similar drops.

Emblem of Heroism	Naxxramas (normal)	Used for Heirloom items, iLevel 200 items, Savage Gladiator
	Vault of Archavon (normal)
	Obsidian Sanctum (normal)
	Eye of Eternity (normal)
Emblem of Valor	Naxxramas (heroic)	Used for iLevel 213 items, Hateful Gladiator
	Vault of Archavon (heroic)
	Obsidian Sanctum (heroic)
	Eye of Eternity (heroic)
	Ulduar (normal)
Emblem of Conquest	Ulduar (heroic)	Used for the next tier of raid drops, Deadly Gladiator

I personally think that this is a good design philosophy. I didn't get to see most of Black Temple or Sunwell because I couldn't spend enough time playing to raid that much. With all of the content being accessible in normal mode to all players but still having rewarding hard modes, the greatest amount of players are satisfied. What do you think? Is the emblem system working? Should 10-man content stay easy and 25-man be made hard or should everything be made difficult?

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Since World of Warcraft was released, the hearthstone has been one of the most important items. It allowed characters from level 1 to teleport back to an inn to rest or to a capital city to trade. Since then, the game has changed significantly. Shattrath and Dalaran are wonderful hubs, but they lack auction houses and make it difficult to do business. Thus, the faction capital cities, especially Orgrimmar and Ironforge, stayed populated. However, its not easy to get from the faction capitals back to Dalaran. Most players who aren't mages or shaman rely on their hearthstone to get back to Dalaran. The hour long cooldown on the hearthstone has limited how players use their hearthstones as they might want to save them if they want to return to Dalaran after visiting a capital city. One of the solutions behind this was called "ghetto-hearthing". Since the number of players inside a given instance is limited, if a player is in a group in an instance and gets removed, they are teleported to the hearthstone's homepoint and the cooldown on their hearthstone is reset to one hour. Thus, if you make a group with someone and enter and instance, you will trigger the "ghetto-hearth" upon leaving the group. Players in Orgrimmar could use Ragefire Chasm to ghetto-hearth, and players in Stormwind could use Stockades. If you were out and about adventuring in the world, you could likely find a nearby instance to ghetto-hearth in. Well, patch 3.1 is changing this mechanic. Among other large changes, the "ghetto-hearth" will now take players to the nearest graveyard without resetting their hearthstone, and more importantly, hearthstones will have a 30 minute cooldown. The implications of this are interesting. One of the major convienances of shaman and of mages was easy travel, and this lessens it significantly as now everyone can get around more easily. Scribes and their Scrolls of Recall are also relatively less useful. These scrolls were a major incentive for me to make an scribe. It is unclear if cooldowns on other items like Band of the Kirin Tor or such spells will be changed or left alone. I hope to see them reduced as well to keep their relative usefulness intact.

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Project Lore has been hitting Patch 3.1 pretty hard this week.  It all started on Tuesday when the servers went down for general maintenance.  This allowed Blizzard to pop v3.1 onto the PTR and post the official patch notes.  As the week has rolled past, various bloggers have plugged their thoughts on the big picture, small but exciting details and incremental changes.  Today we will give you hard information on the ninja implementation of the Argent Tournament and a first look at some of the upcoming gear. We didn't get many details when the Argent Tournament was announced on Tuesday.  Basically, all we knew was that it would be organized by the Argent Crusade, and would open up new daily quests with a collection of rewards from gear to mounts.  After much poking and prodding by the community, Blizzard Poster Zarhym laid the groundwork for the tourney .

• The Argent Tournament is a permanent event .  It will not disappear like the Naxxramas/Wrath Invasion or end upon completion like the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj.
• Players will begin working with the Crusade to construct a massive, instanced, none PvP-based, coliseum.  It'll be added in a later patch indefinitely - think Isle of Quel'Danas mechanic.
• The event is currently in Icecrown, but Blizzard is still working on the content.  So it may not be relegated to a single zone.
• The tournament itself will launch with Patch v3.1.  Additional content will be forthcoming in subsequent patches.
• Blizzard has given a reason for such a tournament when a war against the scourge is progressing.  The Crusade believes that their competition will breed the best warriors and filter out those who can lead.  Coupled with that, it unites all contenders behind a single banner and purpose.

Courtesy of MMO-Champion, I present you with the Argent Tournament's collection of banners and tabards.  The gear and mounts can be found individualy in this meta post, but don't get too giddy.  Some of this stuff will cost hundreds of Champion's Seals - the new currency being launched with the tournament. You also may want to take a peak at the Tier 8 weapons and sets that Boubouille and co. have dug up.  Everything looks awesome, so long as you ignore the diamond-shaped 2h sword series and the atrocious Druid set.  My personal aversion to Blizzard's interpretation of daggers continues however.  In my opinion, daggers should be very small blades, not the size of my arm - or SolidSamm's entire body - but they new ones do look cool.  I just wish they were more compact. Can I get an Amen on the Druid set being awful?  I know they are earthy and all, but come on.  That is probably the most ridiculous set of shoulder armor I have ever seen.  On the flip side, I absolutley love the Rogue set.  The helm and the rest of glowing aspects of the collection make it simply badass.  I can't wait to fail at collecting it.  Why a stealth character would want to glow is beyond me though...

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There's a new Ulduar preview video, and unlike last time, it's straight from Blizzard. I've embedded it here in HD, but you can also download it in various formats and watch it on Blizzard's site, if you want. Now, this trailer may include some spoilers for those of you who are averse to finding out anything about  Ulduar, but I couldn't help but watch it through a few times. From what the preview shows, the new raid being added in Patch 3.1 looks to be much more diverse than what I had originally thought it might look like. The few mobs that are shown look spectacular, as do many of the rooms that look to be where boss fights will take place. There's a small hint about the controversial vehicular combat included, but still not a ton of details about what will be encountered. What are your thoughts? Are you avoiding all hints of what's inside or can you not get enough info?

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Big news on the content front, Content Patch 3.1 has hit the Public Test Realms and is now ready for testing.  This isn't entirely shocking, the PTR Character Copy went live on Friday so it was just a matter of time.  Unfortunately, if you didn't get the memo over the weekend then you are out of luck.  As of press time, you can no longer get in the Character Copy queue.  On the flip side, this is Blizzard, so they could open up additional slots at any moment. Once you manage to get on the queue, half the battle is won.  The wait time on the queue has dropped from a few weeks to a few days in the span of hours.  Fear not prospective testers of Ulduar, the controversial Dual Spec and all of those class changes, you should be tearing it up in v3.1 by the end of the week.  Players quicker on the draw than myself have already logged into the the PTR and given us some early information on the unnamed patch's changes. For starters, the poor toons out there better read up on our collection of gold generating posts.  As it stands now, the Dual Spec feature will cost level 80s 1000g to train, which should not be difficult to swing.  The big news of the PTR isn't these small kind of details in my opinion.  That would be reserved for the discovery of a previously unannounced feature, the Argent Tournament. The new world tournament will open up mounted combat to us and a whole lot more.  The super secret Argent Tournament - props to keeping the feature on lockdown this long - will unleash a new set of daily quests for the Argent Crusade, enabling players to score new items, titles, banners, tabards, pets, mounts, all new achievements and more.  Being a bit of a lore nut, I find the tournament a creative way to subtly hint to players that the Crusade is extending its reach into Icecrown , while becoming a powerful faction to the rest of the citizens of Azeroth.  This will make their move against Arthas more progressive - thus, realistic - than just having them pop-up next to the Citadel en masse. I have never been one to go nuts on the PTR.  For starters, I hate spoilers.  Past that, I tend to dislike having abilities or features, getting used to them, and then seeing them ripped away from my grasp when the patch goes live.  Perhaps SolidSamm will spend more time than normal, but I highly doubt it. Anyone lucky enough to get on the PTR already?  Like what you see?  Or, are you stuck waiting like most of us?  What are your thoughts on the new tournament?

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Taking a gander over at the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm (PTR) site will reveal what many people realized extremely quickly. The PTR Character Copy page is once again live (EU Version Here). What does this mean? Well, Patch 3.1 including certain parts of the new Ulduar raid should be testable soon. We still have no idea when the PTR will actually be available for testing. Some people are speculating as soon as tonight, other have their money on Monday. No official word on an actual time or date has been released, but according to Bornakk, if we have a little patience, we'll see it soon(tm). Unfortunately for many of us, the Character Copy queue filled up in no time flat. It looks like those of us who want to test out some of the new changes or get a sneak peak at Ulduar will have to keep checking back to see if the queue empties out a bit. Right now the average wait time is sitting at 4 days, but hopefully we won't have to wait that long to see the feature re-opened. Last time the PTR Character Copy feature was available, copied characters ended up being deleted and Character Copy was disabled. That was shortly after some of the new 3.1 class changes were announced.  Still, if you manage to get a character copied, I'd say it's worth taking your chances.

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