Project Lore

The new patch, 3.1.2, is now live on all realms. We have been covering what would be in this patch for awhile, and it's great to see some of our long-lost favorite features implemented, like the equipment manager. Check out the full patch notes. Here are my selected highlights from the new patch: Equipment Manager- When enabled from the Interface Options menu, this feature will allow players to store sets of equipment, easily swap between saved sets using hotkeys, and pull items directly from backpacks or bank slots (must be at the bank to equip inventory from the bank). I'm not quite sold on the equipment manager. I use Outfitter for all of my gear management and it's very robust. It automagically equips my lance when I enter the Argent Tournament grounds and puts on my PvP gear when I enter a battleground, arena, or Wintergrasp. I can also throw all my PvP gear in the bank when I'm going to raid for bag space and integrates beautifully with Fishingbuddy. The Blizzard implementation of interface components are generally not as good as player-developed addons (as evidenced as Omen versus in-game threat manager as well as all the interface mods from everything from the auction house to unit frames). We'll see how much this breaks Outfitter and whether it will replace it for most players. New art textures have been added for Argent Tournament mounts. Any mounts already purchased from the Argent Tournament vendors will be updated automatically. Argent Tournament mounts with the old textures will still be available for purchase from the Argent Tournament vendors for a small Champion's Seal and gold cost (standard faction requirements apply). Not only does this mean new, pretty mounts, but also that there are 5 more mounts, and cheap mounts at that! Five Champion's Seals is nothing, and 500g minus the 20% exalted discount is a mere 400g per mount. I might start seriously trying for that dragonhawk mount. Vehicle health and damage output in Strand of the Ancients and Lake Wintergrasp now scale with the item level of the operator's gear. Power scaling is now 1% damage and 1% health per average item level. Thank god! If only they implemented this on Oculus and the Eye of Eternity, then I would be perfectly happy with vehicle combat. Vehicles don't get tenacity, and this makes my average 7-8 tenacity buff in Wintergrasp pointless for actually doing objectives relevant to victory. Now that vehicles scale up with gear, there is a better incentive for getting gear for Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients. All Lake Wintergrasp daily quests have been changed to a weekly format. The honor and Stone Keeper's Shards rewarded for completing these quests have been increased to compensate. There are a few reasons why this is a good idea. First off, it should be noted that the honor rewarded from Wintergrasp on a whole has been nerfed to try to encourage people to do other battlegrounds. On the flip side, they changed the dailies to weeklies with much more honor and Stone Keeper's Shards. This means that there is less of an incentive to play Wintergrasp at every moments it's up, and instead encourages players to play it a few times per week. Hopefully this decreases the plague of Wintergrasp lag. Additionally, they won't take up one of the 25 daily quests you can do every day, meaning that overall the amount of gold and whatnot I can get each week has increased! What changes are you excited about?

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In an effort to reduce lag by reducing the number of players who are in Wintergrasp at one time, the daily quests in the zone, such as No Mercy for the Merciless, Slay them all!, and Defend the Siege will only be converted into a new weekly quest format in an upcoming patch. Honor and Stone Keeper Shard rewards are said to be increased, though the gold reward doesn't seem to be affected. MMO-Champion is reporting that certain quests are giving 20 Stone Keeper Shards each, but the current reward is showing 10, so we will have to wait and see how things unfold. There are a couple of known issues with the new weekly format, specifically the quest showing up as a yellow exclamation point instead of a blue one and the quests not showing up after the reset until the player moves out of line of sight of the NPC who gives it. I am not sure how much this change is going to affect the numbe of players who go into Wintergrasp during each fight, as most of the people I know go in for Marks of Wintergrasp or so they can go into the Vault of Archavon afterwards, and not necessarily for the quests. , the quests are a nice bonus, and the new format may actually increase the amount of honor and shards that many players get who don't usually finish the dailies every day, like me. What do you guys think? Is it going to affect you at all, or will you still go into WG every time you get the chance?

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Patch 3.1 was replete with major changes from small class mechanics to large scale raids. I have found myself appreciating the smaller changes of patch 3.1 as much as the game changing things like dual specs and Ulduar. A change that was very timely for me was the ability to take flight paths over Wintergrasp. Originally you could not fly to your faction's Wintergrasp flight point, only out of it, and thus you could not fly "through" the flight point, making flights from Dalaran to River's Heart a real pain, as you had to fly up through Icecrown and take an 8 minute tour of west Northrend just to access your Oracle or Frenzyheart dailies. Using a flying mount was right out as well, as flying mounts are not permitted in Wintergrasp. Now that you can fly to Wintergrasp, you can fly through it, making it a quick 3 minute trip on the flight path from Dalaran to River's Heart and shortening most trips significantly. I usually just use my flying mount instead of flight paths as I don't want to have to calculate where the nearest flight path is to my destination and epic flying mounts are just as fast. This major change gives me a reason to use flight paths again and saves me a lot of time. The removal of the requirement of flint and tinder to make a simple campfire is another convenient change. Instead of walking all the way back to the Sunreaver's Sanctuary in Dalaran or to a bonfire in Orgrimmar, I can simply make a fire without having to waste bag spaces on mats. It allows me to get my cooking done easily, and some people use it for the minor spirit buff to boot! Its another huge time saver. One of the most annoying thing about crossing rivers in WoW was jumping in, getting dismounted, swimming for 3 seconds, getting on the other side, and remounting. Now mounts can swim! They do so at your swim speed (unless you have the illustrious turtle), but not having to remount saves those precious few seconds when crossing rivers or lakes. Thanks Blizzard! The Argent Tournament was a major change, but giving me dailies I actually want to do in this location tied together a convenient path for effectively doing dailies. From that location in northeast Icecrown, its easy to jump to Storm Peaks for Sons of Hodir dailies or hop over to Sholazar basin for Oracle/Frenzyheart dailies. The "find this sword" daily and the fishing daily also send you to some other convenient locations that make doing dailies like the Kalu'ak ones less out of the way. It really ties together Northrend as a whole by making more locations relevant for dailies instead of a bunch of disjoint regions. Finally, polishing off those professions should be much easier now. Cooking is theoretically easier to level to 450 with more recipes giving skill-ups longer. Training that required books for fishing, first aid, and cooking now can be done at trainers, and low level fishing has been fleshed out. Stats on lower items have been adjusted, like Leatherworking's Tough Scorpid set which now gives Agility and Stamina instead of Agility and Spirit, and the Turtle Scale set which now gives stamina, intellect, and spell power instead of stamina, intellect and spirit. Materials were tweaked to make low level items easier to make. Its now much more attractive to level professions at low levels. What are your favorite "non-spotlighted" changes of patch 3.1?

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Whether you just thinking of dabbling in PvP or a hardcore arena player, its nice to have a good outline of all the different ways you can get PvP gear. This usually changes from season to season, but if you haven't gotten any PvP gear yet, then your best bets are crafted gear or the Savage Gladiator set. The first introduction to PvP you get in the 70-80 level range are the crafted PvP sets. These are BoE and wearable at 78. They are cheap and have good all around stats, including some resilience for PvP. The Savage Gladiator's set is undoubtedly better, but for the price, this can't be beat. It also has more pieces than Savage Gladiator. I'd recommend picking it up before jumping into battlegrounds at 80. Rogue/Feral Druid - "Eviscerator's" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item links. Total materials: 8 Eternal Air, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 450 Agility, 449 Stamina, 299 Critical Strike Rating, 300 Resilience Eviscerator's Bindings Eviscerator's Chestguard Eviscerator's Facemask Eviscerator's Gauntlets Eviscerator's Legguards Eviscerator's Shoulderpads Eviscerator's Treads Eviscerator's Waistguard Druid - "Overcast" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Water, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 300 Intellect, 450 Stamina, 299 Spirit, 527 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Overcast Belt Overcast Boots Overcast Bracers Overcast Chestguard Overcast Handwraps Overcast Headguard Overcast Leggings Overcast Spaulders Mage/Warlock/Priest - "Frostsavage" - crafted by Tailors. Learned from Tailoring trainers in Dalaran and Horde/Alliance entry towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 27 Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 33 Crystallized Fire, 33 Crystallized Earth, 16 Eternium Thread Total stats: 300 Intellect, 450 Stamina, 299 Critical Strike Rating, 527 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Frostsavage Belt Frostsavage Boots Frostsavage Bracers Frostsavage Cowl Frostsavage Gloves Frostsavage Leggings Frostsavage Robe Frostsavage Shoulders Hunters/Enhancement Shaman - "Swiftarrow" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Air, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 300 Agility, 450 Stamina, 299 Intellect, 598 AP, 297 Critical Strike Rating, 299 Resilience Swiftarrow Belt Swiftarrow Boots Swiftarrow Bracers Swiftarrow Gauntlets Swiftarrow Hauberk Swiftarrow Helm Swiftarrow Leggings Swiftarrow Shoulderguards Restoration/Elemental Shaman - "Stormhide" - crafted by Leatherworkers of skill 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Learned from patterns sold by Braeg Soutbeard for 3 Heavy Borean Leathers each. If a Leatherworker doesn't know the recipe, offer them the required Heavy Borean leather to learn how to make it. Materials are included in the item link. Total materials: 8 Eternal Water, 84 Heavy Borean Leather Total stats: 120 MP5, 448 Stamina, 300 Intellect, 526 Spell Power, 300 Resilience Stormhide Belt Stormhide Crown Stormhide Grips Stormhide Hauberk Stormhide Legguards Stormhide Shoulders Stormhide Stompers Stormhide Wristguards Warrior/Death Knight - "Savage Saronite" - Crafted by Blacksmiths at a skill level of 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Taught by all Grand Master Blacksmiths in Dalaran, starting towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, among others. Total materials: 2 Eternal Air, 2 Eternal Shadow, 2 Eternal Water, 1 Eternal Fire, 1 Eternal Earth, 102 Saronite Bar Total stats: 559 Stamina, 380 Strength, 340 Critical Strike Rating, 360 Resilience Savage Saronite Bracers Savage Saronite Gaunlets Savage Saronite Hauberk Savage Saronite Legplates Savage Saronite Pauldrons Savage Saronite Skullshield Savage Saronite Waistguard Savage Saronite Walkers Paladin - "Ornate Saronite" - Crafted by Blacksmiths at a skill level of 420 for some pieces and 425 for the rest. Taught by all Grand Master Blacksmiths in Dalaran, starting towns in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, among others. Total materials: 2 Eternal Air, 2 Eternal Shadow, 2 Eternal Water, 1 Eternal Fire, 1 Eternal Earth, 102 Saronite Bar Total stats: 36 MP5 87 Intellect, 567 Stamina, 44 Strength, 139 Critical Strike Rating, 355 Resilience Rating Ornate Saronite Bracers Ornate Saronite Gaunlets Ornate Saronite Hauberk Ornate Saronite Legplates Ornate Saronite Pauldrons Ornate Saronite Skullshield Ornate Saronite Waistguards Ornate Saronite Walkers Later on we'll look at the next level of PvP gear, the Savage Gladiator Set, and beyond!

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Lots of things in WoW require you to wait a certain amount of time or keep track of different events that happen at some point in the future. For example, your spellcloth cooldown can only be done once per 20 hour period, so you might want a reminder about when you can next transmute. Blizzard has helped out with a few of these things. The in game calendar allows you to create reminders and marks special events. The built in clock can be used to set alarms or used as a stopwatch. In patch 3.1, you can see when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin from anywhere in Northrend. For players who want more automated tracking, there are a few different addons I'd like to spotlight. 1. EggTimer. This addon is named for the famous Mysterious Egg, which hatches into one of several great items, like the Green Proto-Drake mount or the Proto-Drake Whelp pet. You can only have one at a time and it takes 7 days to hatch, so to get the most phat loot, you need to go visit Geen every 7 days to get a new one. EggTimer plugs into FuBar and shows you how long you have until your Mysterious Egg hatches. It also tracks Digusting Jar if you decided to ally with the Frenzyheart instead of the Oracles. It can also automatically create calendar events to mark when you should get your new egg. It also tracks Ahn'kahar Watcher's Corpse for the Ahn'kahet timed event and Zorbin's Ultra Shrinker for a level 55 quest. It works across characters. The developer takes suggestions for items to watch and is working on making it a more robust addon. 2. WintergraspFu. This addon is also a FuBar addition. It tracks when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin. If you participated in a recent battle or have been in the Wintergrasp zone, or have talked with the Wintergrasp mages in Dalaran (or heard them yell to get to Wintergrasp), the addon will display the amount of time until the next battle (or estimate based on when past battles ended). Patch 3.1 allows you to see when Wintergrasp will start from anywhere in Northrend, but this addon still gives you a nice display of it and will work anywhere in WoW. It will probably get the time from the map in patch 3.1 whenever you are in Northrend and save it for if you happen to leave to go back to Orgrimmar or Ironforge. 3. CraftTimersFu. This is one of most practical ones. Any tradeskill you have with a cooldown, like Northrend Alchemy Research, Smelt Titansteel, or Spellcloth, can be tracked by this addon. It works across characters and can be configured to show the time to the next available cooldown or the number of cooldowns currently available. Its simple and makes managing multiple character's tradeskills a breeze. 4. FishingBuddy. You might find it weird that I put this on the list, but there is one facet of it that keeps it in my addon collection. The Stranglethorn Vale fishing tournament is every week at 2PM Sunday, and this addon will pop up on Sundays with a display telling you how much time til the tournament starts. Once the tournament starts, it lets you know that it is underway and tells you how many Speckled Tastyfish you've caught. That's all for today. What timer-style addons do you use?

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I hate this thing so much...

One thing I love about video games is their ability to allow me to blow off steam.  When I ran up against an unbeatable bug in one of my computer science projects in college I would turn to video games for relief.  After "Killing Nazis", which meant playing Day of Defeat (pre-Valve), I would return to my task at hand, relieved of stress and with a fresh mind.  More often than not, I would have an epiphany shortly after those breaks, getting me past the frustrations and into new ground.

Yesterday was one of those days.  With my attempt at being more green and lowering my heating cost failing at every turn, I walked away from the half-installed pellet stove defeated and highly annoyed.  Not wanting my foul mood to affect my lovely girlfriend, I sealed myself off in my office/ferret room/gaming haven and booted up WoW for some stress relief.  In Solidsamm's world of Azeroth, everything was smooth as silk. I was greeted with a few hundred gold in the mailbox upon logging into my Auction House alt.  Pretty good start.  After beginning my scan of the AH with Auctioneer I was asked if I would like to provide some DPS for the Vault of Archavon.  I humbly accepted, logged onto Solidsamm and rushed towards Wintergrasp for my first Wrath raid encounter.  Along the way I picked up a stack and change of Saronite, some Titanium and an assortment of crystallized elements. The vault doesn't have much to offer, just another instance in a collection of Wrath's one-boss raids.  After clearing a few trash mobs we walked up to Archavon with noses plugged and began the generic tank-n-spank encounter.  The raid's overall DPS was pretty low - mine being a pitiful 1,900, need more heroics! - but we managed to down the Stone Watcher before his enrage triggered, and with only one death.  I quickly grabbed my Emblems of Heroism and glanced at the item drops to see a piece of leather had dropped and I was the only Rogue in the raid!  Darn, serves me right for checking the armor class instead of the name.  I guess everything wasn't silk. Despite the lack of loot (can't expect epics everyday) my hour of WoW served its purpose.  I got to relax, joke with friends, meet some new people, get asked to join a guild and take out some bad guys.  With just shy of an hour played, my mood had gone from sour to chipper as I headed off to bed.  I <3 video games.

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Fing classic.

Patch v3.0.8 had many of us at ProjectLore a bit excited. Heck, you could get away with calling us downright ecstatic at all the changes the first Wrath of the Lich King patch would bring. We all all had our owns reasons for the anticipation, new achievements, cheaper enchants, one-shot mining, knowing that Dorkins will never stop complaining, it was all there. Blizzard finally dropped the patch on us this Tuesday, but not all was well in the lands of Azeroth. Actually, the whole ordeal has been quite a clusterfrak.

The first major bug to rear its ugly, beady-eyed head was a Death Knight related bug. The non-gameplay issue basically nullified one of the “features” being added by v3.0.8. For many, the ability to make Death Knights on any realm, so long as you had a level 55 character somewhere, was unavailable. Not a big deal, and it didn't affect a majority of the players directly. However, the hotfix forced a series of rolling restarts, the first of many to come.

The next two issues were huge, game changing problems that brought major features of WoW to its knees. A bit more troublesome than some lag and server restarts for sure. Lake Wintergrasp, a highly touted feature for Wrath's release, had a moth in it so bad that it crashed servers or at least Northrend (depending on  reports). I was indirectly informed that Wintergrasp's issue had something to do with zone population. According to the informer, the zone was not stress tested heavily enough on the PTR.  This allowed the bug to sneak into the live code and wreak havoc.

The next major $#*() is far more upsetting than Lake Wintergrasp being disabled. Blizzard silently modified the way Arena matching and rating was calculated in the patch with disastrous results. The modifications allowed teams to shoot up to 2000+ ranking in no time flat. This was caused by the fact that a losing team did not see a reduction in Arena points. Following the Wintergrasp debacle, Blizzard pulled the plug on Arenas as they attempted to correct the bug.

What's worse (to some) is that the developers decided that everything gained during this time frame was “illegitimate.” Do to their stance, the company reset team and personal ratings to pre-weekly maintenance levels, removed all awarded gems, points and enchantments. I for one agree with them on this entirely, but it still sucks when people waste their time.  Kalgan also has a post up that goes into more detail on the rollback.

Hopefully we can have an uneventful weekend after this morning's emergency maintenance “to resolve current In-Game issues,” but at this point who knows. I guess I may have been lucky as none of these bugs really bothered me. I have avoided Wrath PvP so far, as I am still working on my gear.  On my server the Alliance was stuck with the Wintergrasp buff. So that was cool. In fact, my buddy who plays the game for the Arena actually ran some rare instances!

Oh geez, I almost forgot this non-patch related dozy. Despite my best efforts to warn them about the pitfalls of ads on their official forums, Blizzard got a little greedy and did it anyways. As the screenshot shows, an unapproved group of ads slipped through their filtering process. Someone over at Microsoft (who owns the ad provider) is getting canned. At least the banner managed to stay on topic!

Tell me Bastosa, was this the mess you were “so anxious” about?

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