The Lords of Nordrassil

Patch 3.3 is here at last and we have now begun to run the new Icecrown Citadel instances and to confront the Lich King. However I for one had missed the trailer that sets the scene until I spotted it in an article commending the story-telling in Wrath of the Lich King on Gamers With Jobs

The Fall of the Lich King trailer is an epic introduction to the new Icecrown Citadel instances, featuring the Lich King, Frostmourne and the army of heroes gathering outside the Citadel seeking justice.

The trailer is available on youtube (and can be switched into HD mode), or for download from the official World of Warcraft website.

This weekend is Blizzcon, hotbed of major announcements. And as expected, the big news this year is the announcement of the next WoW expansion – The Cataclysm.

The latest details are on the new Cataclysm website, although I’ve taken the liberty of reposting some of the highlights below:

• Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races–the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
• Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.
• Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.
• New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj’ir beneath the sea.
• More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.
• New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.
• Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
• New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
• Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
• Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

Sounds pretty good to me – the idea of changes to Azeroth and visiting old questing areas sounds like a lot of fun and a nice change from the ‘new continent’ rountine. Only having 5 new levels seems like a plan too – maybe it will help them to get the next expansion out a bit quicker?

The new guild advancement feature sounds interesting too – I’m looking forward to hearing more about how that’s going to work.

BRK – the owner of the wow blog that launched all other wow blogs and who taught hunters how to play – has decided with great sadness to call it a day.

TJ has created an awesome video tribute: while you’re there check out the rest of the site – the archive of information, tips and movies is amazing. And don’t forget to stop for a laugh at the Airman Howell stories.

/salute

Patch 3.0.2 – the precursor to Wrath of the Lich King – is due today.

Wow-Insider has a good summary of the coming changes. I’ve summarised the most interesting changes in the list below:

• New talent trees and new skills.  You can now spec down to the new 51 point talents leading to some seriously unbalanced talent trees
• New profession – inscription
• Like many recent games, unlockable achievements are being added – 5 of which can be attained before WotLK.
• World changes in Azeroth.  I won’t say much more for the un-spoiled, but take a look around North West Stormwind and also out into Hillsbrad near the Lordamere Internment Camp
• Calendar added to the UI – hopefully this will be the end of needing to use the GEM addon – dependent on the quality of the group features in the new functionality.
• Haircuts.  Although this old dwarf wants to know if they’ve got any magic hair restorer – otherwise a haircut won’t be much use!
• For the PVP fans – new arenas – Dalaran & Orgrimmar
• In game threat-meter – again this may be the end of a popular addon – this time Omen, but again depends on the quality of the replacement
• More bag space!  – vanity pets, mounts, badges of justice and battleground marks no longer use up bag space (/hooray)

Patch 2.4 is coming soon. The test patch notes are now available, revealing some of what is on the way (all subject to change of course). Summarised below are the main features at this point:

• Sunwell Isle which includes a new level 70 five man instance and a 25 man raid.
• New daily quests as part of the attack on the Isle of Quel’Danas, to confront Kael’thas and the Legion at the Sunwell.
• Keepers of Time npc in Shattrath providing easy access to the Caverns of Time
• When you repec your talent tree you no longer have to relearn trainable ranks of talent-granted spells
• Mana regen changed so that as intellect rises, more mana is regenerated per spirit point
• Spell haste reduces global cooldown on spells to a 1 second minimum
• Warlock’s Ritual of Summoning can be used to summon players into instances (that they match the level requirements for)
• In battlegrounds, diminishing returns on honour for kills is being removed – honour will now be calculated correctly straightaway.
• Bad news for fans of the Fires of Skettis daily quest: Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.

Lately, there have been a number of posts detailing account hack horrors, most notably BRK’s guild bank being cleared out twice in the same day and a similarly traumatic account hack incident for Gun Loving Dwarf Chick’s guild.

So in the spirit of new years resolutions and all that, it is probably a good time to highlight Altitis’ guide to improving your account security. I don’t fully agree with all of the points, but if you read the post and also the comments below and apply some common-sense all should be well with the world.

In particular, I’d expand on step 7, that installing addons is generally fine, so long as you download the .zip file and extract it to the addons directory (as per the Lords site addon instructions). Running .exe files or installers can be dangerous and you’re advised to be confident of the origin of the package before running these. People do use WowAce updater and I’ve suggested the use of WUU previously, but just be careful and apply some common sense.

Other points Altitis makes are essential for anyone who owns a PC connected to the internet regardless of whether they play World of Warcraft or not, most notably:

• Get a firewall e.g. Free ZoneAlarm
• Get antivirus software e.g. Free AVG
• Get an ad-ware cleaner e.g. Free Ad-Aware

Season 3 of the arena has arrived, bringing bigger and better rewards. One upshot of this is that the rewards from season 1 are now available for purchase with honour and battleground tokens.

I’ve summarised below the rewards and honor / marks needed. This was sourced from MMO Champion, check out their post on arena rewards for full details.

Season 1 Item	Price
Gladiator’s Armor Breastplate	14500 30x
Gladiator’s Armor Gauntlets	10500 20x
Gladiator’s Armor Helm	14500 30x
Gladiator’s Armor Leggings	14500 30x
Gladiator’s Armor Shoulders	11250 20x
[Gladiator's Bonecracker]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Bonegrinder]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Cleaver]	18000 20x
[Gladiator's Decapitator]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Endgame]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Gavel]	25200 20x
[Gladiator's Greatsword]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Hacker]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Idol of Resolve]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Idol of Steadfastness]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Idol of Tenacity]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Left Ripper]	9000 20x
<[Gladiator's Libram of Fortitude]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Libram of Justice]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Libram of Vengeance]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Maul]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Painsaw]	27000 40x
[Gladiator's Pummeler]	18000 20x
[Gladiator's Quickblade]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Reprieve]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Right Ripper]	18000 20x
[Gladiator's Salvation]	25200 20x
[Gladiator's Shanker]	18000 20x
[Gladiator's Shield Wall]	15000 20x
[Gladiator's Shiv]	9000 20x
[Gladiator's Slicer]	18000 20x
[Gladiator's Spellblade]	25200 20x
[Gladiator's Totem of Indomitability]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Totem of Survival]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Totem of the Third Wind]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's Touch of Defeat]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's War Edge]	8000 10x
[Gladiator's War Staff]	27000 40x
[Veteran's Chain Bracers]	9435 20x
[Veteran's Chain Girdle]	14280 40x
[Veteran's Chain Sabatons]	14280 40x
[Veteran's Band of Dominance]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Band of Salvation]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Band of Triumph]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Pendant of Conquest]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Pendant of Dominance]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Pendant of Salvation]	11934 10x
[Veteran's Pendant of Triumph]	11934 10x

Minimum stat requirements for Karazhan were briefly mentioned in last week’s post on Kara Planning, along with an exhortion to check on google for useful information. The idea is that these can then be used as targets when gearing up.

World of Matticus has already put together some starting figures in the Minimum Class Stat Requirements For Karazhan post. This saves much googling for the Lords, so I’ve taken the liberty of re-summarising most of it below for convenience, but please check out Matticus’s blog too; it’s very good Also you may notice I’ve learnt how to spell Karazhan since the previous posts, so Kara is no more

The figures are as Matticus says absolute minimums, so if you can go above, then all the better. Also if people have any updates to these or any more ‘gearing up’ guides, let me know in the comments and I’ll update it.

For lists of suggested pre-Karazhan gear that can be used to help meet these minimum stats, please see the Gearing your level 70 for Karazhan post

• Warrior
  • Tank: 12000 Armor, 12000 hp, 490 defence, 15-30% Dodge/Parry
  • DPS: 1700 AP, 70 hit, 33% crit
• Druid
  • Tank: 415 defence with 3/3 Survival of the Fittest, 12000 hp, 30% Dodge, 20k armor
  • DPS: 600 dmg, 15% crit (caster form), 75 mp/5, 75 hit
  • Healer: +1000 heals, 100 mp/5
• Rogue
  • 1300 – 1400 AP, 90 hit, 20% crit
• Priest
  • Healer: 6000+ health, 7500 mana, +1000 healing, 100 mp5
  • DPS: 6000 mana, +650 dmg, + 3-5% hit
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery: 8000 hp, 6000 mana, 1450 AP, 17.5% crit, 75 hit
  • Marksman: 8000 hp, 6000 mana, 1750 AP, 17.5% crit, 75 hit
• Shaman
  • Resto: 950 – 1000 heals, 110 mp/5, 10% crit
  • Elemental: +500 dmg, 20% crit
  • Enhancement: 1000 – 1200 AP, 20% crit, 8% hit
• Mage
  • +600 dmg, 90 hit, 25% crit, 6000 hp and 7000 mana
• Paladin
  • Tank: 102.5% Total avoidance (dodge/parry/block), 490 defence, 10500 hp, +100-150 dmg
  • Healer: 1000-1200 heals, 80-100 mp/5, 8000-9000 mana, 15-20% holy crit
  • DPS: 1300 AP, 25% spell crit, 7000-8000 HP, >6% hit (in addition to Precision)
• Warlock
  • Affliction: 7000 hp, 6000 mana, +600 dmg, 90 hit
  • Destro/Demon: 7000 hp, 6000 mana, +600 dmg, 90 hit, 20% crit

Patch 2.3 is scheduled for next week (Wed 12th Nov for Europe) according to Drysc at the Wow Forums. So what’s the big fuss about, other than all the addons that I just asked you to install stopping working?

Here’s a quick summary of what 2.3 promises:

• Faster levelling from 20-60 and a new quest hub in dustwallow
• Alterac Valley reworked to stop the rush tactics
• Zul’Aman – a new 10 man raid instance to do once we’ve pwned Kara
• Heroic dungeons can be entered with honoured rep (rather than revered)
• New flight points e.g. Rebel Camp in Stranglethorn to help make that STV grind easier
• ‘Old-world’ instance loot buffed
• Elite mobs outside of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been changed to non-elite
• Healing items now grant 1/3 spell damage too

Full details are on the test realm patch notes; final confirmed details as we get them

The start of a new month means that it’s time to get your free Gems – for those with Consortium rep at least, so don’t forget to head down to Nagrand to collect your handout from Gehze at Aeris landing. At honoured the gems are ok, but a higher rep levels the chance of blues increases and with so many people grinding consortium rep anyway, this is well worth a go. For full details see the story at Wow Insider

Regular WoW news posts is a new idea triggered by something Eth suggested – hope people find them useful.
Cheers – Dur.