Project Lore

OMG Patch Today!

The new content patch hits the live servers today. Players can download the patch by running the World of Warcraft launcher. The patch for OSX clocks in at 40.5MB, and the Windows counterpart is likely comparable. Patch 3.2.2 is a mixed bag for me. Fan of Knives is receiving a huge 30% damage nerf and it no longer receives the interrupt effect from Throwing Specialization. This means my days of sweeping the DPS are likely over on multi-target fights, and fights like Yogg-Saron and Faction Champions are going to be much harder. I may no longer keep a combat spec since a lot of the benefits of slow weapons like axes and swords are gone with FoK losing a lot of its utility. No ones likes getting nerfed, but perhaps its for the best. Additionally, I've just started on the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline, and who knows if killing Onyxia in her new level 80 version will still give me the quest item? On the bright side, Envenom and Master Poisoner got some pretty good buffs, so Rogue single-target DPS should see a few hundred DPS increase for Mutilate specs. Heirloom items that give an XP boost now affect Battleground experience, and everyone will see daily Battleground quests regardless of level, so my Death Knight should be seeing level 80 even sooner. Not to mention, I'm very excited to try out the new Onyxia! It is still uncertain if the new level 80 Onyxia will be raidable tonight. She could not be spawned yet like Emalon, or her addition by not occur until November to coincide with WoW's 5th Anniversary. I'm ready to start farming her for that awesome 310% move speed mount Brood of Onyxia to add to my collection. Here are the notes for the live realms: The Brood Mother Returns After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled (Heartbourne's note: Really Blizzard, run a spell-check on the patch notes!) from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns stronger than before to commemorate World of Warcraft's five-year anniversary.

• Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25-player modes.
• Adjusted for modern raiding, but with the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother still in effect, including the horrors of her Deep Breaths!
• Onyxia will now drop level 80 item versions of some classic loot items from the level 60 encounter.
• Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers

General

• Armor Penetration Rating: The amount of armor penetration gained per point of this rating has been reduced by 12%.

PvP Battlegrounds

• Players level 11 and higher will now always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knight

• Pets - Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Blood

• Heart Strike: Secondary targets of Heart Strike now take half as much damage.
• Subversion: Now also increases the critical strike chance of Scourge Strike by 3/6/9%.
• Vampiric Blood: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and duration reduced to 10 seconds.

Frost

• Threat of Thassarian now also causes Rune Strike to use both weapons when dual-wielding.
• Unbreakable Armor: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and changed back to granting 25% additional armor while active instead of flat damage reduction based on armor. The amount of strength granted has been reduced to 10%.
• Frost Presence: The damage reduction granted by this ability has been increased from 5% to 8%.

Unholy

• Bone Shield: This ability now has 3 charges instead of 4. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
• Dirge: This talent no longer grants additional runic power from using Obliterate.

Druid Balance

• Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
• Typhoon: The daze duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Feral Combat

• Infected Wounds: The debuff generated by this talent no longer stacks and instead causes the full effect with a single application.
• Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid's finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Hunter Beast Mastery

• The Beast Within: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds. In addition, hunters with this talent will do 10% additional damage at all times.
• Bestial Wrath: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds.

Mage Arcane

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Arcane Missiles: Casting this spell while both Missile Barrage and Clearcasting are active will cause only Missile Barrage to be consumed.
• Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. This talent no longer has a chance to be triggered when spells miss.

Fire

• Combustion: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of Fire spells by 50% while it is active. In addition, Living Bomb periodic ticks will no longer interact with the count or the charges on the talent.

Paladin Protection

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Ardent Defender: This talent now reduces damage taken below 35% health by 7/13/20% instead of 10/20/30%.
• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
• Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
• Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin's strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin's stamina.

Retribution

• Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.
• Seal of Corruption and Seal of Vengeance: These seals will now only use the debuff stacks generated by the attacking paladin to determine the damage done by the seal and by the judgement.

Priest Shadow

• Improved Spirit Tap: Mind Flay periodic critical strikes now have a 50% chance to trigger this talent.
• Twisted Faith now grants spell power equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of spirit, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.

Rogue

• Envenom's scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.

Assassination

• Master Poisoner: No longer increases the Deadly Poison application rate following a successful Envenom and instead now provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.

Combat

• Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.

Subtlety

• Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Shaman

• Cleansing Totem: No longer pulses instantly when dropped.
• Flame Shock: The duration of all ranks has been increased by 6 seconds.
• Lava Burst: This ability no longer ever consumes a Flame Shock debuff off of the target.

Elemental Combat

• Shamanism: Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.

Enhancement

• Earthen Power: No longer causes Earthbind to pulse a persistent snare immunity aura. It does still remove snares from allies as an instant pulse, but there is no lingering immunity. Earthen Power now also brings Earth Shock's melee attack speed reduction up to -15%/-20% (with 1 or 2 points in it, respectively).

Warrior Arms

• Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Protection

• Critical Block: This talent now grants a 20/40/60% chance to block double the normal amount instead of 10/20/30%.

Dungeons & Raids Shadowfang Keep

• Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Ulduar

• Increased the cooldown on Immortal Guardians' Drain Life ability in the Yogg-Saron encounter.

Achievements

• The Achievement "Iron, Dwarf Medium Rare (25 player)" now requires 25 kills, down from 50.
• The Frostwolf Howler and Stormpike Battle Charger Achievements will now be awarded when a player learns the respective mount spells.

Professions

• The blacksmiths of Orgrimmar grew tired of running to the rear of the city to craft items and have installed a new anvil & forge at the General Store in the Valley of Strength.

Engineering

• The Mind Amplification Dish no longer changes the appearance of your helmet.

Inscription

• Added a recipe for Runescroll of Fortitude. This item grants a stamina buff equal to the highest rank of Power Word: Fortitude (untalented) to all players in the raid. The effect of this runescroll is exclusive with other stamina scrolls and Power Word: Fortitude.

Leatherworking

• Added a recipe for Drums of Forgotten Kings. These drums increase all stats by 8% for all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.
• Added a recipe for Drums of the Wild. These drums grant a buff equal to the highest rank of Mark of the Wild (untalented) to all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Mark of the Wild.

Items

• The Black Heart: This item's animation has been changed and no longer resembles Hand of Protection.
• Death Knight Tier-9 Tanking 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now decreases the cooldown on Vampiric Blood, Unbreakable Armor, and Bone Shield by 10 seconds instead of 20.
• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold's Rejuvenating Broach.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.
• Relics: All buffs provided by relics (idols, librams, totems and sigils) now share an exclusive category such that gaining a buff from one of these items will remove all other buffs gained from items in this category.
• Totem of Quaking Earth: Attack power value increased to 400.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Bone Shield: This glyph now grants 1 additional charge instead of 2.
• Glyph of Flame Shock: Redesigned. This glyph now makes Flame Shock periodic damage able to be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
• Glyph of Scourge Strike: Redesigned. This glyph now causes Scourge Strike to extend the duration of Frost Fever and Blood Plague by 3 seconds each time Scourge Strike is used on a target, up to a maximum of 9 seconds.
• Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 10 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now increases the armor gained from Unbreakable Armor by 20%.
• Glyph of Vampiric Blood: The glyph now increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 5 seconds instead of 10.

User Interface Battleground Queuing

• Players may now only queue for no more than two Battlegrounds at a time.
• The dialog box for entering a Battleground match has been changed to reflect the following options: "Enter Battle," "Leave Queue," and "Minimize."
• The time a player has to enter a battle when selected has been reduced to 40 seconds when not already in a Battleground and 20 seconds when in a Battleground.
• Players already in a Battleground can now choose "Enter Battle" for a new Battleground under any circumstance (i.e. while dead, in combat, falling, etc.).
• A new Battleground will not launch until the maximum number of players on each side are in the queue (i.e. 40 players per side for Alterac Valley).
• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.

Mail System Auto-Complete Feature

• The inline auto-complete feature for the mail system has been added back into the game. The mail system will now have both the pre- and post-3.2.0 auto-complete features available.
• Added a label to notify players that the Tab key will allow players to navigate through the character names listed via the auto-complete feature.

For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114 Bug Fixes

• Coliseum Trinkets: Some spells that should have triggered these trinkets will now trigger them (such as Holy Nova and Fel Armor).
• Death Knight Tier-9 DPS 4-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for disease damage ticks to be critical strikes.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Set Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Lightweave Embroidery: This tailoring item enhancement will no longer trigger from the periodic healing granted by the warlock spell Fel Armor.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.
• Paladin Tier-9 DPS 2-Piece Set Bonus: Now grants the correct chance for Righteous Vengeance ticks to be critical strikes.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected a typo in the tooltip.
• Val'anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: Healing from Prayer of Mending now triggers the shield from this item. In addition, a bug was corrected which would cause the shield points to be overwritten rather than stack up as intended.

Death Knight

• Rune of Razorice: The frost vulnerability granted by this enchantment will now increase the damage done by Frost Fever as intended.

Druid

• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.

Hunter

• Master's Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Trap Mastery's (Survival) tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.

Mage

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.

Paladin

• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.

Priest

• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 will now work with Holy Nova.
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield now correctly uses the Priest's spell critical chance instead of the target's.

Rogue

• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Honor Among Thieves: This talent will now work properly again if two rogues with different ranks of the talent are in the same party.

Shaman

• Grounding Totem will now properly protect against the Death Grip spell.
• Lava Burst can no longer deal critical damage to targets who are immune to critical strikes (due to, e.g. Roar of Sacrifice, Blessed Resilience).
• Lightning Shield: This spell will no longer set off some trinkets when it is cast.
• Stoneclaw Totem's pulses will no longer break stealth on nearby hostile units.
• Thunderstorm and Shamanistic Rage can no longer be used while Frozen, Cycloned, Sapped, or Incapacitated.

Warlock

• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Fel Armor: This spell was unable to set off trinkets and other effects. That has been corrected.
• When using Shadowbolt or Incinerate while having Backlash and Backdraft active, only Backlash will now be properly consumed.

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With all the well-deserved hoopla regarding BlizzCon and WoW Cataclysm over the past few weeks, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of the user interface changes we saw implemented nearly a month ago, in Patch 3.2, now that we've had time for the content to sink in a bit. It seemed that while many of us were excited to see these changes made, a large number of players also were concerned that the changes would make the game too easy, or even dumbed-down. This always seems to be a difficult line that Blizzard must walk when making content changes - and players aren't always happy with the results. Now that we've had a month to adjust to the changes, let's take another look at some of what was implemented:

• How about that auto-complete for character names while in chat, for mail, etc? It certainly simplifies chats and invites, especially for those toons with special characters in their names.
• I'm a fan of the casting bars that now show under target nameplates. It makes timing interrupts considerably easier. But I suppose that also could be considered a bad thing if I was the one being interrupted.
• The double-paned questlog makes viewing quests a bit easier - I basically already had this through the DoubleWide addon, but now it's built in to the standard WoW UI.
• Automatic item comparisons per armor slot and the ease of seeing vendor sell prices also are a welcome addition in my book, but also both are similar to the addons RatingBuster and Auctioneer.
• Druids now can see their mana bars when shape-shifted. Sounds handy.
• Have you found it helpful to have the item level on tooltips? I'll admit, this one I haven't done much with yet.
• Another useful addition - options menus now display an exclamation when they have new features.
• Remember all of those Quest helper additions that were on the 3.2 PTR patch notes? The ones that probably were the most widely debated for their simplification of questing? Well as we've all probably figured out by now, those never made it onto the regular servers. But it should be interesting to see if they were scrapped altogether or if they'll make another appearance in a later patch.

So in retrospect, now that we've had some time to adjust to all these changes, what do you guys think? Are you happy with what Blizzard has brought? Perhaps now couldn't live without some of the changes? They may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but I always think that the UI changes can bring so much to the game in their functionality. I also would say that first starting out on the game can be a bit intimidating. I would argue that many of these changes simplify aspects of the game that wouldn't necessarily affect the actual gameplay, but moreso the ease of getting around the interface and learning how to play. Perhaps Blizzard's looking to expand its market... or perhaps I'm just trying to make something out of nothing. What do you think?

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Anub'arak is not pleased

In what may or may not be a grand coincidence, there are going to be major PvE and PvP occurrences after this weeks server resets on Tuesday. The final boss of Trial of the Crusader (ToC), Anub'arak, will be available to fight, allowing players to unlock the Heroic difficulty setting for the raid. In addition, the seventh season of the Arena will be starting, handing out Frost Wyrms and titles to the most skilled combatants and bringing in a new tier of PvP gear. The events were likely made to coincide to avoid what happened with previous seasons, where it was easier to gear up in raids than it was to in PvP and players played in PvE gear. For those unaware, Trial of the Crusader comes in 10 man and 25 man versions. Each week since patch 3.2 launched, a new encounter has been added, and Anub'arak will be the fifth. If at least one player in the raid has completed either the 10 or 25 player versions, their raid can enter the Trial of the Grand Crusader by setting the raid difficulty to heroic. It is unknown if the bosses are any different at this point in this mode, but I imagine that they must be much harder than their regular versions. The raid will have 50 attempts to clear the instance, that is, if the raid wipes more than 50 times, they are locked out of the instance. If the raid can complete the instance without wiping too many times, they will get a chest with loot that is better the less that they wiped. Its a new take on the Undying style of achievement. In addition, because Season 7 is starting, Koralon the Flame Watcher will be spawned in the Vault of Archavon to drop some Season 7 loot. The loot table is not yet confirmed. In addition, the achievement Earth, Wind, and Fire will now be obtainable. I've been thinking about different strategies for this, and I'm still not sure on how it could be possible, especially on 10 man. We will have more details on this on Tuesday. We may see a minor patch on Tuesday in case some of these things were not implemented in the very early patch 3.2, and we may even see patch 3.2.2 live on Tuesday.

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The patch 3.2.2 notes have been updated in a post by Zarhym. Check them out below and scroll down for my highlights and more: General

• The Brood Mother Returns
  • After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.
    • Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
    • Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
    • Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
    • Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Battlegrounds
  • Players level 11 and higher will always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knights

• Pets
  • Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
    • Typhoon: The knockback distance from this spell has been increased to match Thunderstorm and the range of the ability has been reduced to 10 yards.
  • Feral Combat
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid’s finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

Paladins

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
    • Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
    • Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina.
  • Retribution
    • Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.

Rogues

• Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
• Talents
  • Assassination
    • Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
  • Combat
    • Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
  • Subtlety
    • Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Arms
    • Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Dungeons & Raids

• Shadowfang Keep
  • Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Items

• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach.
• Glyphs
  • Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
  • Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 20 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.

User Interface

• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Bug Fixes

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.
• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.
• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 now work with Holy Nova.
• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Master’;s Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Trap Mastery: Tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.
• Val’anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: This item’s special bonus now works properly with Prayer of Mending and the heal-over-time effect triggered by Flash of Light cast on Sacred Shield targets.
• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.

In addition to the patch notes, the following achievements have been observed in both 10 and 25 player modes for the Onyxia raid:

• Onyxia's Lair: Defeat Onyxia
• More Dots!: Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes.
• Many Whelps! Handle It!: Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her.
• She Deep Breaths More: Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from Deep Breath.

These additional changes were also listed: New Pets •    Core Hound Pup - Right Click to summon and dismiss your core hound pup. •    Gryphon Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your gryphon hatchling. •    Wind Rider Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your wind rider cub. •    Zipao Tiger - Right Click to summon and dismiss your zipao tiger. •    Pandaren Monk - Right Click to summon and dismiss your pandaren monk. New Mounts •    Onyxian Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Onyxian Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend. Enchanting •    Abyssal Shatter - Disenchants an abyss crystal into greater cosmic essence or infinite dust. Inscription •    Runescroll of Stamina - Snowfall Ink, Resilient Parchment x 5 - Increases Stamina by 165 for all party and raid members for 1 hr. Leatherworking •    Drums of Forgotten Kings - Heavy Borean Leather x 8, Icy Dragonscale x 8 - Gives all members of the raid or group the Blessing of Forgotten Kings, increasing total stats by 8% for 30 min. •    Drums of the Wild - Heavy Borean Leather x 4, Jormungar Scale x 20 - Gives the Gift of the Wild to all party and raid members, increasing armor by 750, all attributes by 37 and all resistances by 54 for 1 hr. Druid Balance •    Moonkin Form now reduces the damage taken while stunned by 15%. Feral •    Predatory Strikes now has an additional effect - In addition, your finishing moves have a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. become an instant cast spell. Hunter Survival •    Trap Mastery now increases the number of snakes summoned by Snake Trap by 2/4/6. (Down from 3/6/9) Mage Arcane •    Arcane Blast has been changed, Each time you cast Arcane Blast the mana cost of the spell is increases by 175% (down from 200%). It now stacks up to 4 times (up from 3) and lasts 6 sec (down from 10 sec) •    Missile Barrage now has a 8/16/12/24/32/40% to proc from Arcane Blast instead of 4/8/12/16/20%. Proc % from other spells remains unchanged. Paladin Protection •    Righteous Fury now increases the threat generated by your Holy spells by 80%. (Down from 90%) •    Judgements of the Just now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 5/10 sec. (Down from 10/20 sec) •    Touched by the Light now increases your spell power by an amount equal to 20/40/60% of your Strength. (Old - 10/20/30% of your Stamina) •    Blessing of Sanctuary now increases strength and stamina by 10% instead of just increasing stamina. Retribution •    Seal of Command now has an additional effect - When used with attacks or abilities that strike a single target, this additional Holy damage will strike up to 2 additional targets. Rogue Combat •    Fan of Knives now causes 105% weapon damage with daggers (down from 150%) and 70% weapon damage with all other weapons. (Down from 100%) •    Throwing Specialization no longer affects Fan of Knives. Assassination •    Master Poisoner now has an additional effect - gives Envenom a 33/66/100% chance to not consume Deadly Poison. Warrior Arms •    Sword Specialization now gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after hitting your target with your Sword. (Up from 1/2/3/4/5%) Whew! That's a lot of changes! This will be a doozy of a patch. Here are my favorite points (beside the Onyxia stuff):

• All players, regardless of level, will be able to get a daily battleground quest. This is an important step to making PvP popular and viable for leveling for non-max level characters.
• The buff to Envenom and Master Poisoner will make me switch back to Assassination. It puts it back in line with Combat.
• Pandaren Monk pet? This could be the first step to seeing Pandaren in the game!
• Abyssal Shatter will help maintain the value of Abyss Crystals and is a welcome addition.
• The new Leatherworking drums make it less important to have a Druid/Paladin in your raid for MotW/Blessings.
• Is the runescroll a new raid buff, or is there already one for stamina? Could this perhaps not stack with the Imp buff?

What do you think about patch 3.2.2?

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In case you missed it the first time, Onyxia, the fearsome black dragon that was among many people's first introduction to raiding, will be re-released in patch 3.2.2 as a 10-man and 25-man level 80 instance. The encounter will be slightly modified to be put on par with the difficulty of recent raids. The 40-man level 60 version will no longer be accessible. Perhaps the best part of this are the new rewards. Anyone who logs in (within a three week time frame) for WoW's 5th anniversary will get an Onyxia Whelpling pet, likely BoA like the Baby Blizzard Bear from last year's anniversary. The pet attempts to Deep Breath occasionally, but usually fails and blows out smoke rings. The loot table from Onyxia includes the following:

• A 310% movement speed mount modeled after Onyxia called an Onyxia Broodling.
• Re-tuned items with similar skins to original gear, including the tier 2 helms.

Zarhym broke the news earlier this month with the following post:

She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch. This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again. Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet. We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!

Deep Breath will be more random, and there will be lots of whelps. We will also need more DoTs. Check out the awesome mount you have a chance at:

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Patch 3.2.2 has hit the PTR, and there is some surprising new data that has been data-mined. It appears that there are a bunch of new race/class combination, though it is unclear if these will actually be playable. It may just be for NPCs. The list is as follows:

• Human Hunter
• Orc Mage
• Night Elf Mage
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Dwarf Shaman
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Gnome Priest
• Troll Druid

I think this may well be true. I totally predicted both Tauren Paladins and Dwarf Shaman in an earlier Proverb article, and it could totally be viable. Check out the full article for my justification. In other news, a new quest has appeared on the PTR for the Alliance that parallels the new quest that Horde players gained in patch 3.2. In it, a dialogue occurs between a Highborne Night Elf and a sentinel. The Highborne, Archmage Mordent Evenshade, requests an audience with Tyrande: Archmage Mordent Evenshade looks over the moonwell with a sigh. Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Calm yourself, Sentinel. I do not seek to use it. I am merely... remembering. Sentinel Stillbough says: Recalling your treachery? Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Enough. I have been apart from this for centuries. The well within this temple may be a pale spectre of the Well of Eternity, but it still holds the same... beauty. Purity. Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: I had forgtten. Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: I do not believe admiration and wistful thoughts are against the societal norm. Sentinel Stillbough says: Watch yourself, Highborne. Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: You were the one who challenged me for merely looking. I still await my audience with Tyrande. Sentinel Stillbough says: In good time. It may be that we see Highborne Night Elves as Mages, Wildhammer Dwarves as Shaman, and light-following former-Druid Taurens as Paladins in the near future. Is this awesome, or really awesome?

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Patch 3.2 Executing.... Whenever Blizzard decides to lay a patch on us I hold my breath.  Sure, I want the bounty of content, but sometimes that isn't all we receive.  Oftentimes we'll be stuck at login screens, the World Server will be down, our add-ons will cease to work, or worse, fail to do their jobs appropriately.  And that's just some of the "features" that we hope to see on a Tuesday evening.  More painful are the Slowsky approved download speeds, constant reboots, authentication problems, massive lag, or lag spikes, and the realization that nothing is going to be accomplished till Wednesday.  Think I am being a bit dramatic?  Then allow me to refresh your memory of Patch 3.0.8. I was as excited as anyone for Call of the Crusade (the game can never have too many 5-mans), but I had my reservations about the patch actually going live.  Boy have I never been so glad to eat my words before. Blizzard delivered the patch with only slightly extended downtime.  While I didn't login till a few hours after my server returned from dead, I was greeted with a stable, normal latency experience the entire night.  It didn't matter if I was running around the generally packed Dalaran or the newly flooded Argent Tournament grounds.  It was all entirely playable on Magtheridon (NA).  The post-patch trauma has been so negligible that I've been able to run through the dailies, grab a level and change on Solidsagart and tackle the new dungeon (repeatedly), along with some heroics.  And that was just on Tuesday! To round out the objectiveness of the post I should point out that it hasn't been all roses.  Roughly half of my add-ons were broke (and some remain unfixed by authors too busy with content) by Patch 3.2.  I've encountered the Trial of the Crusade opening encounter bug (is there an accepted name for it?) roughly half of my attempts.  Last, but not least, is the ninja change to Malygos, I doubt it's a bug, that gave our raid a bit of pause.  The big blue dragon's Vortex drops players off far farther from their original location than ever before.  And no, I still haven't kill the crazed warmonger. I heard there was something up with Kel'Thuzad, but haven't come across the lich recently.  Has anyone experienced anything wonky with that encounter?  How stable has your server been since patch day?  Have you been able to chain those heroics? All things considered I believe Call of the Crusade was the most expertly executed patch in recent memory.  Certainly since Wrath of the Lich King's launch back in November.  Dare we assume Blizzard is finally getting the hang of the patch spiel?!

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Project Lore bloggers have been all over speculation over the last few months. iTZKoopa has been talking about the possibilities in the next expansion, and our posts about lore are certainly not devoid of our own theories. pixiestixy has also had her fair share of wacky ideas. As far myself, way back, just after the release of patch 3.1, I wrote about what we might expect in patch 3.2, which was just released today. How well did my crazy speculation hold up? My first prediction is that this patch would not contain a major raid instance. This was largely wrong, but not completely off. The Crusader's Coliseum instances do not contain trash, and bring a new model for raids that is more friendly to non-hardcore raiders. In that sense, I was not far off the mark. In fact, many of our bloggers consider the new style of raiding to hardly be raiding at all. Blizzard probably wants to get as many players ready for the final battle with Arthas in patch 3.3 as possible. Do you consider Crusader's Coliseum to be a major raid instance, or is it just to appease the progression raiders with something to do until patch 3.3? Where I was really spot on was the topic of PvP. A new battleground was indeed introduced, and it is an epic 40 versus 40 battleground. The battleground system was updated heavily, with some small mechanic changes and increased honor when battling near objectives. Wintergrasp was indeed largely reworked with a limit on players, a queue, and auto-forming raids. The Horde versus Alliance theme is being pushed, and we will likely see some major Horde versus Alliance take place with the final encounter with Arthas. Now, crazy ideas for patch 3.3 are a-brewing in my head. What do you think? What do you want to see in patch 3.3 along with the fall of Arthas?

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Just now, Blizzard's official Call of the Crusade page was updated to include the Patch 3.2 Trailer along with a summary of what the latest content patch brings to World of Warcraft. The trailer shows brief clips of a bunch of different boss encounters in both the 5-man instance and the new raid instance. Unfortunately, it doesn't include nearly as much lore or even any dialogue like the Patch 3.1 Secrets of Ulduar Trailer did. I suppose it is at least a bone thrown our way in order to hold us off for just a couple more hours before the realms come up, but I wish there was that little bit of back story besides, "The Argent Crusade calls and the players answer." It may have just been a last minute highlight reel from the PTR to appeal to those who wanted a trailer for 3.2, but given the quality of both Wrathgate and the 3.1 trailer, I am pretty disappointed. Other than the trailer, there's also a nice desktop background available for download to show off the latest and greatest content in WoW. What are your thoughts on the short video that Blizzard published?

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This morning while trying to login (fruitlessly, of course), I ran into a small error that seems to be pretty common. The WoW Launcher would download Patch 3.2, but would then give an error, "Failure to Apply Patch," or "Unable to Apply Patch." After trying the repair utility, a quick search reveals the steps to fix the problem:

• Go to the folder where WoW is installed. I find the easiest way to get there is simply right clicking the shortcut I use to launch WoW and choosing "Open File Location"
• Right Click on Launcher.exe
• Choose Run as Administrator
• If a UAC window pops up, choose continue
• Let the patching commence

I know this issue caused me some frustration during the time we are all waiting for the latest version of WoW to become active, so I hope this helps you out! Anyone else have any issues or solutions for the newest patch?

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