Project Lore: All Things World of Warcraft

Patches are always such hard work. When I head that Secrets of Ulduar was coming this Tuesday, I instantly budgeted extra time into my game playing schedule. The catch was that it wouldn't be used for actually playing World of Warcraft. All the changes to the MMORPG's core mechanics meant that I would need to do a whole lot of research to perfect my toons. Sure, I could have done some ahead of time by using the PTR information, but I hate conducting experiments based on unfinalized data. Over the past 48+ hours, I have spent every free moment I had to check on spec, gear, gem, and enchant changes. There was also that Dual Spec thing to consider. Who would have thought that a game could be so overwhelming sometimes?

Rogue Tips

I know I try to be a bit general on my tips, but things are going to have to be granular for the time being. Perhaps Hearthbourne or Pixiestixy can weigh in with specific Combat/Subtley advice, because I will be focusing on the changes to Mutilate (although some tips are applicable across the board), and what the poison loving rogues need to know to keep their DPS rocking. Let's start off with the basics, the re-tweaked Mutilate spec, which really isn't that different from pre-v3.1. The main points of contention are the selection of Close Quarters Combat over Turn the Tables, and your Major Glyphs. From the theorycrafting I have been privy to, CQC will lend an approximate .6% increase in damage over TtT. A drastically simplified explanation is that CQC will always grant you 3% critical strike increase, while TtT only adds its 6% critical strike buff to combo point generating moves, under certain circumstance, and for a limited time. The randomness of TtT's benefits happen to be its downfall. I've seen a few different setups for Glyphs, but to me, HfB, Mutilate and Rupture are the best choices for raiding rogues. Sure, Garrote is nice, but you should be using Rupture far more frequently. Envenom and Feint are useless since you can get that stack of poisons up in no time, and you always have Vanish. I am tempted to give Fan of Knives a go in the future. I do a fair amount of overall damage with my AOE spell (I hate the new graphic), so adding 20% to it may be worth it, even if FoK is incredibly situational. Outside of our spec, the most important thing to be aware of are the changes to poisons. First off, our Deadly Poisons now generate 12% of their damage from our Attack Power, up from 8%. The game changer for us is that poisons are no longer simply chance to apply. As of Tuesday they are now under the procs-per-minute frequency model. That modification nerfs the previous bread and butter of fast daggers because they can no longer apply more poisons than their slower counterparts. Due to the change, Mutilate rogues should go back to slow main hand daggers in order to maximize the damage of Mutilate. However, don't toss that speedy blade to a vendor just yet. Fast daggers are still recommended in your offhand for Deadly Poison applications (Instant Poison should now be on your MH weapon) and Focused Attacks. What about gems and enchants you ask? Assuming that you have meet the hit cap and expertise cap, you should put your gems towards agility and your enchants towards attack power. Feel free to leave additional tips! Pooled knowledge is a good thing. Enjoy smashing faces.

In Need Of Priest Tips

I may come off as a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to rogues (or at least my spec), but I have been playing the class since beta. On the flip side, I have only been seriously playing a priest since I signed up a friend for the Refer-A-Friend promotion. My spacegoat remains at level 70, but I have slowly, very slowly, been leveling her. With Dual Spec now available, I foresee her hitting level 80 in the near future thanks to her new achievement. This is where you priests come in, I need help with my specs yet again. I've settled on this Shadow-based build for leveling (obviously). On the healing side of the tree I went with a regen-heavy Holy spec that is very close to the spec Solidsagart rolled with pre-v3.1. The healing spec is currently for 5-man, but will need to be tweaked for raids down the road. Any and all pointers are appreciated. On a more general note, Naxxramas was completely playable last night. Assuming we can get Naxxramas done in two days next week, we should be venturing into Ulduar. I've also started my Argent Tournament dailies, expect a report on that next week. How's the patch treating you now?

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What I Expected and Didn't Expect In Patch 3.1

Posted by

iTZKooPA on

Thursday, April 16, 2009 -

27 Comments Tags:

Ulduar,

yogg-saron first kill

Almost 48 hours since the release of Patch 3.1 and there are still many, many issues to be ironed out. Players across the greater Internet are reporting numerous snags that are consistent with all of Blizzard's content patches. Dead or laggy servers, extended extended maintenance, busted spells, broken talents, castrated add-ons, un-updated add-ons interfering with general WoW play, disconnected instance servers, the works. As Ivnication stated in the Secrets of Ulduar post, even if Blizzard had a perfect patch, it'd be unlikely that we would have been able to raid efficiently on Wednesday, let alone Tuesday, due to the massive amount of changes.

As it stands now, I have let the issue go by the wayside. Better to shrug it off than pull my hair out while screaming about my paying customer status. During the intermittent server problems I spent most of my time leveling my priest's professions and, preparing her for her incoming second spec. Since I wasn't doing anything of consequence, I allowed my eyes and mind to roam and came across a collection of unexpected things. First and foremost, Magtheridon was playable by late Tuesday evening. Being an original server, I expected it to be utterly destroyed by its high population, so I was taken aback by its playability.

I did my best to keep up on the patch notes and all the upcoming stuff in Wrath's first content patch, but a lot of small tweaks managed to slip by me. It takes enough time to digest the class changes, let alone all of the other stuff listed in the patch notes. It wasn't until I was a few hours into the patch that I began noticing just how many things I missed.

There are a ton of new icons for various spells and talents including Devouring Plague, Cleanse Spirit, Riptide and many others. Even the Essence of Wintergrasp icon has been overhauled with new art.
Along with the addition of maps for the dungeons, Blizzard overhauled the minimap. Our personal guide is far more detailed and allow us to zoom out further than before. A fantastic surprise addition for me.
You no longer need to be near a Lexicon of Power to apply a Glyph. Does that change make the Lexicons completely useless, or do Inscriptors need them for something specific? I haven't rolled one yet so I am not certain. Speaking of Glyphs, how did the old Supply and Demand scale work on your servers? Prices on Magtheridon are up over 200%.
New music courtesy of Ulduar and the Argent Tournament!
"Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!" (emphasis added). That bit from the patch notes just made me laugh, even though I see the bold as a possible slight against the hardcore RPers. Apparently we are all Survivorman. Now I can make my first campfire.

Since most of these dents have been pounded out, it's about time to get working on my new spec, gem and enchants for my pair of toons. Ahh, decisions. What changes have caught you unawares, if any? How bad our your servers acting up? Anyone have a chance to head into Ulduar yet? Bosses have already been downed, some before the first round of hotfixes. As Tom Chilton expected, each and every one of Yogg-Saron's maws have been thoroughly beaten. Nearly all the hardmodes remain undefeated by the best of the best raiding guilds, which means Algalon is still alive and well. Grats on being the first to clear 10-man Ulduar Ensidia.

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Patch 3.1 Titled, Official Trailer Unveiled

Posted by

iTZKooPA on

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 -

22 Comments Tags:

Kil'jaeden,

Ulduar,

extended maintenance,

Anyone who attempted to login this morning realized why the servers were being hit with extended maintenance, it's officially patch

day. I am sure most of your are feeling like the Nintendo 64 kid, as I am, but let's be realistic, I doubt the game will be very playable tonight. My pessimism is based entirely on previous experiences, specifically that whenever a content patch is released, the day of its release is often a wash for a collection of reasons. First and foremost, downloading the patch generally takes longer than the maintenance itself, then we must often update all of our add-ons. And forget about raiding, most of my guildmates - past and present - don't bother to start the download until they get home from work, school or simply wake up. While we can now pre-download most of the content, the majority of us still don't, which guarantees that we won't be ready for the day's raid. But hey, I am not here to QQ, I have accepted these issues as necessary evils to new content.

Rather than complain, I figured we could dive into some of the lore for Secrets of Ulduar. Specifically, the lore presented by the all new trailer. Before reading on, check out the trailer here.

Welcome back. How did you enjoy the machinima? Personally, I thought it was pretty awesome, a far more captivating trailer than the one created for Sunwell Plateau. In fairness, that may just be because I didn't care too much about the Kil'jaeden storyline. That may be part of it, but the bulk is simply how inclusive the lore presented by the Secrets of Ulduar trailer is. In the short clip, we see a collection of some of the most recognizable faces in the Alliance and a pair of big names from the Horde, together. We watch as Brann Bronzebeard narrowly escapes some sick eye lasers. With knowledge of Yogg-Saron's escape in hand, Brann rushes off to Dalaran to warn Jaina, Rhonin and Varian before they are interrupted by Thrall and a very agitated Garrosh Hellscream. Varian and Garrosh quickly go at it, only to be separated by Rhonin. After a promising speech, Varian and Garrosh leave the summit in rage, destroying any hope of the Alliance and Horde working together to take down a far greater evil, Yogg-Saron.

Aside from "who will face Yogg-Saron," the trailer does raise some other interesting notions. Is the Alliance or the Horde even going to support our efforts as they did in the Isle of Quel'Danas - through the Scryer and Aldor - or are we on our own? With Garrosh constantly disobeying Thrall, could he be planning a devious coup? Will Varian ever get over his struggles as Thrall did, or is he to obsessed with his past - which doesn't differ much from the Warchief's - to let it go? Perhaps he just needs to see Garrosh perish? Brann seems scared out of his wits, so I hope the Yogg-Saron fight is pretty epic. At the very least, the trailer should get your pumped up for this new raid!

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