Project Lore

With the first part of Icecrown Citadel open today, not only did we get to preview and test the first boss (Lord Marrowgar), we also had access to a new vendor inside the palace, itself. Mott Sercer is a Quartermaster for the new faction, "The Ashen Verdict," and he stands just to the right of the entrance when you zone in. It's not entirely clear if he'll be the person to go to for things like Tier or badge gear, but he currently offers a drool-worthy collection of crafting patterns. While the gear you can create doesn't have stats yet (aside from armor and item level), it's almost assured they'll be things people want as soon as possible.

Please note that to purchase a recipe, you'll need to have a certain level of reputation with Ashen Verdict and an item called Primordial Saronite, which likely drops off of bosses or trash inside the instance (perhaps ICC's equivalent of Crusader/Runed Orbs?) . Below, I've listed each pattern and its material requirements:

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Earlier we took a look at some the gear design philosophy of Blizzard and saw some armor that was introduced in 3.0 and that will be added in 3.1. We looked at the "Lost Vanquishers" (sans Druid): Rogue, Death Knight, and Mage. Today we are going to check out what the "Lost Protectors" have: Hunter, Shaman, and Warrior. Thanks to MMO-Champion for the screenshots of Ulduar gear and Season 6. More consistent and high resolution imagery will be added once patch 3.1 hits the live realms. Scroll down to see the sets and click the images for larger views. The first three Gladiator's sets of Wrath seem to be just recolorings, but they do seem to be getting more fancy with season 6's Furious Gladiator's sets. Of these three classes, I think hunters have the best looking PvP gear. The green scales on the Furious Gladiator's set look pretty cool. Shaman's shoulders in PvE have always been cool. Some people despised the dungeon set 1 shaman shoulders, but I loved them. When Blizzard had finally added skins in for the end game items so that they looked cooler than twill, it became a great symbol of progress for me. Now, the shaman shoulders are just ridiculously cool. The glowing orbs and meteorites chained to the armor are far more epic than any other shoulders. Hunter and warrior armor is honestly boring to me. It doesn't have as much flair as it should. What do you guys think? Are shaman's shoulders over the top or just epic and which class looks best? Hunter PvP PvE Shaman PvP PvE Warrior PvP PvE

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Many players have been griping that the gear they have seen on their first five levels towards 80 have not been good enough. Generally speaking, these players are decked out with Tier 5/Season 3 gear, or better. Heck, one of my characters has a combination of heroic/Karazhan/Season 2 and their set is still going strong. Blizzard Poster Bornakk even addressed the lack of upgrades by stating that those with concerns should "keep leveling and keep instancing, you'll find upgrades soon enough. :)" The flip side to this discussion is that this is exactly the opposite situation from The Burning Crusade's release. After TBC went live, people who had been raiding for the previous two years realized that their gear was being replaced by early quest rewards and instances. Mind you, these players had the best gear available in the game, making them feel that all their hard work was pointless. The reversal of fortunes is not perfect, but I feel it is a much better way to go than the itemization from The Burning Crusade. However, it remains to be seen if Blizzard made the end-game stuff difficult enough to force players to upgrade. While TwentyFifthNovember has now beaten all of Wrath, the hardest way possible, they are the best of the best. Many other guilds are now tackling endgame heroics with their Sunwell gear, and blowing them away. Hopefully they have upgrades available to them, and need them to complete the end-game raids. It remains to be seen. While I have been complaining the majority of this post, that isn't my only point. Many of you out there are in the same boat as me, seeing quest reward after quest reward being wasted because you can't use it. In the interest of helping with your personal economy, I have another gold creating tip for you. If the quest reward isn't a solid upgrade then buy the plate or weapon reward and just vendor it. As tanks know, plate gear costs way more to repair, but on the flip side, sells much higher than Cloth or Leather. The Auctioneer Suite used to be able to tell you exactly how much things would vendor for on mouseover, but the last version I grabbed does not have the updated information. It will likely be updated soon, if it hasn't been already in an alpha release. So for the players out there complaining about not getting upgrades, perhaps this is Blizzard's way of handing you 1000 gold for the Cold Weather Flying fee. Seriously, if you do 300 quests with item rewards on your way to 80, average 4 gold per vendor, you'll bank 1200 gold. Remember, the harder it is, the better it sells.

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