Recently in Wrath of the Lich King Category

Today we have 38 days until we can begin hopping on boats and zepplins to travel to Northrend and begin the much touted Death Knight Starting Experience. I thought I would go over a few things that you, me, or anyone can do to pass the next 38 rotations of our big blue marble.

Farm Herbs - With the new Inscription profession coming in the patch that is expected to go live in 9 days, there are a multitude of herbs that you can gather, even if you are a level 70 and fresh to herbalism. If you want to check out the numbers of herbs you may need to get a character up to 375, the level that you will be able to learn up to before the actual expansion.

Farm Ore - Once you have all the herbs you want, you may want to think a bit on the professions your Death Knight, if you choose to make one, will have. Mine will be going Incription/Weaponsmith, since the Death Knight's most noticeable piece of gear is his blade. I would look into the burn rate on materials for the profession, including the steps needed to become a Weaponsmith, then begin gathering those materials up to power to 375 Blacksmithing as early as possible into Wrath.

Prepare for Achievements - There are hundreds of achievements coming in Wrath, and while some will have to wait for the expansion to go live, there are plenty of Achievements you can begin working on now, like exploration, professional, and more. You can go to dungeons, go to NPCs, or just wait for 3.0.2 to be live and start /love'ing the critters in your life.

Grind Rep - There are a number of reputation Achievements in the expansion that rely on reputations, and some of those even award titles. If you are a druid, you might find the Guardian of Cenarius to be one destined for your To Do list, and with the huge leaps in rep for the Encrypted Twilight Texts, you can get the rare Exalted Cenarion Circle part done in no time, assuming you are 70.

Obtain the Impossible - When 3.0.2 hits, there are several raid based rewards that will no longer be available, so why not spend some time now shooting for them? Champion of the Naaru, Hand of Ad'al, and the Amani Warbear are all going bye bye, for those who do not have them, once the new patch goes live, so I encourage you to go for them with all you have, if that is your wish.

There you have it, folks, a short list among many things you can do to pass your time for the next 38 days, that is if you are not participating in one election or another, working your ass off to earn the time off to play Wrath, or just, ya know, taking a break and trying out the competition while they are still around. What are you doing for the next 38 days?

I was looking over my gear on the different 70s I have, after a productive set of Kara runs, one of which saw my Druid get Staff of Infinite Mysteries, and the other saw my Draenei Paladin, Telaan, get Gorehowl. Before these drops, I already knew I would have a fair bit of my current gear on all but my Hunter when I hit 75, since Medros has only replaced a few pieces of gear by his current level of 76 on the beta. The one thing which has always perplexed me is comparing raw stats to proc stats. For instance, a trinket that gives me XX stamina, XX strength, and XX to crit, versus something like my Skyguard Silver Cross and Darkmoon Card: Crusade. Which would be better? At what point is the new hotness good enough to replace the old and busted?

Another thing that has been throwing me for a loop as I leveled Medros through beta, id the seeming change in 'Ret' gear. Oh, and yes, he is the only one I have actually leveled, as I do not see a need to spend all my time leveling all my 70s to 80 in a world that will be gone in 40 days. I have noticed a lot of gear I am told is 'Ret' gear(or melee DPS plate gear) has Armor Penetration, and while I am told this was scattered on items from Burning Crusade, I cannot recall it being this prevalent on gear, and I also do not know how to equate it to my Burning Crusade gear, which all have what I call the TBC standards, strength, stamina, attack, crit, and hit. How do I account for this new stat when I am choosing gear, and by sticking to the old stats, am I losing out on awesome gear?

I guess what I am asking is whether there is a site that ranks or explains these stats and how the equate to TBC thinking? I have been playing in the TBC world for 2 years, and I just don't know how to make the switch. Anyone have thoughts? Are there conversions that have you stuck? Let me know in the comments and maybe we can all get some help and clarification for our playtime!

So we look to have a date for the upcoming 3.0.2 patch, which will bring in some of the features of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, so I thought I would give you the lowdown on the stuff that will make it into 3.0.2 based on the latest PTR builds, what you have to wait until the expansion for, and what won't be in until much later on.

The Patch - We know we will see the Barbershop feature in the patch, giving us the chance to finally change those hairstyles we've had for up to four years. Achievements will make it in, so while a few will wait for many of the Achievements that require Northrend to complete, we can get many of our desired achievements out of the way before we slag through the lengthy install process for the expansion. Inscription will be active, which is surprising a lot of people since Jewelcrafting was not available unless you had the expansion. A feature we will see that has many of my character's banks rejoicing is the Pets/Mounts tab, which will be in for the patch. Thousands of vanity pets will soon find a new home!

Hunters will get to customize their pets in a new talent style of ability system, with the old system of training points going the way of the Ghost Wolf. Hunters will also get Exotic pets, so expect to see Devilsaurs, Rhinos, Chimeras and Worms in your local bank. Stormwind Harbor will finally open up, and King Varian Wrynn will return to Stormwind, bringing a new era to the land of Azeroth. The patch will bring in new UI features like the Calendar system, built in threat meter, and many new emotes.

In the way of combat we will also be seeing several stat changes. Hit, Crit, and Haste will affect Melee and Spell attacks, while Spell Damage and Healing stats will be unified into a universal Spell Power, meaning more gear can be shared between the various casting classes. Lastly on this section, channeling and casting interrupts are changing, with any hits after the second no longer interrupting or stopping a cast bar, though I believe full spell interrupts like Kick and Counterspell will still work as usual. As you can tell, the patch will be bringing some big things for all players of the game.

The Expansion - As big as the patch is, the expansion is even bigger. Of course we get to travel to Northrend, which can be accessed from boats in either Stormwind Harbor or Menethil Harbor. There is also the leveling to 80 thing, which is a pretty important expansion-only feature to mention. From my travels in beta, this is going to be an area that is well worth the time to buy the expansion for. The mobs are interesting, and often unique. The zones are huge, and each has many quest hubs. Medros, one of my Paladins, has gone through all of Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, and part of Grizzly Hills before he hit 76.

I am in Sholazar Basin, have left a bunch of unfinished quests in Grizzly Hills, and I have yet to enter any Northrend instances. I haven't even touched quests in Zul'Drak, Crystalsong(quests Not Yet Implemented), Storm Peaks, or Icecrown. I feel it is quite possible Medros could ding 80 without even touching the top two zones, and on Live it would be even easier with guildies to run dungeons with. No need to worry, folks, there will be no lack of things to do when Wrath hits, even beyond the 80 Ding.

With reaching 80, you immediately have the chance to hop into the 10 man Naxxramas dungeon, which is followed by the 25 man, and the other three Raid dungeons, The Nexus, Eye of Eternity, and Ulduar. According to Blizzard's reps, you should be able to enter Naxx 10 man with just the quest and dungeon gear you have when you hit 80 or shortly thereafter, and the gear progresses naturally from there. While Icecrown Glacier the raid will not be in at launch, it should launch in 3.1, which can be expected a couple months into 2009.

While we have not seen any sign yet of the Dance studios, the Death Knight is definitely the biggest thing not yet listed, and it will require the expansion to create one. You too get to go through the Starting Experience, likely the first example of the implemented phasing technology Blizzard has made a huge deal of that most people will see. You will be able to Death Grip people from vast distances, summon ghouls from the bones of friends and enemies, and ride and walk on water using the Path of Frost ability given to our friends of the Ebon Blade.

Of course we have the little stuff, like new profession abilities, discovery for many crafters, and so on, not to mention the excitement of the culmination of 2 years of Blizzard's efforts. So while there is no doubt plenty to get excited about in patch 3.0.2 when it hits, expected to be on Octber 14th, there is yet more to get pumped about in Wrath of the Lich King, on store shelves, and online, November 13th.

I first heard this analysis from WoW Insider, and while it is connecting two possibly unrelated dots, I have to agree. Yesterday Eyonix posted on the General forums that the current season of Arena's would be ending when the new patch hit, since the new talents and abilities would lead to an unfair playing field compared to the rest of the season. This makes sense, if for no other reason than because Blizzard will likely still be fine tuning the classes after this patch goes live.

Today, in a not unexpected turn of events, Nethaera posted on the forums that not only would the Arena season be ending soon, which we knew, but that it is expected to end on the 14th of October, the Tuesday after Blizzcon. The date may change, of course, but at this point we can almost certainly expect to see the WoW realms go nuts on the 14th, with mods breaking, players respecccing, and so on as the day wears on. I am very excited to see this patch, and eager to take my experiences from beta and apply them to the live game!

Here is my question for you, friends, when will the Wrath lead up events begin, and what would you like to see happen?

I have been spending a bit of my time on the secondary professions in beta for my now level 76 Paladin, and I had a few observations. First, I hope to god they fix the horrible state of First Aid. Instead of making the manual for the Heavy Frostweave Bandage a vendor item, they have made it a drop, and a pretty rare one at that. I think this is a big mistake, and forces people to run dungeons, and with no in game indication of where to get it, many players might miss it completely, and therefore suffer in their professions.

As far as cooking, I love the daily cooking available from 70 in Dalaran, and that they are pretty straight forward. The Dalaran Cooking Award is awesome, and will allow many players to get the usually rarer recipes. Also, I love the fact that the stats boosted by recipes is a lot more numerous, with many more stats options for food buffs. The only problem is that you seem to learn some recipes at 350, but by 380 or so they are green, with nothing new until 400, which is all of the cooking award ones, and they are already green when you learn them, least the ones I have bought. Hope this improves, with recipes a little more spread out.

The last of the secondaries is Fishing. Medros was already 375, and had a nice stockpile of the Sharpened Fish Hook. These, make no doubt, are required for fishing in Northrend. I do not recall if I needed them for fishing in Borean, but by the time I hit Sholazar I was about 400 and it needed 430 to even cast. The good thing is that fish per point is different now. Fishing in Dragonblight was about 6 or 7 fish per point, but Sholazar was 3 or 4 catches per point. I do not know if they changed the skills for fishing, or if they just made it less mind numbingly boring, but I had no problem getting to 420, which is where Med is now, off just catching the Nettlefish I needed for my 400 cooking, 20 of those fish taking me 5 points to 400.

I would say that of the 3 professions, I found fishing has taken the most steps in progress, while as of build 8982 the cooking and first aid were annoying and pointless to even continue. I hope that tonight's 9014 and beyond make all three of the secondary professions more useful and worthwhile.

I have noticed while reading the latest Blue Posts that we are beginning to see a list of stuff mentioned at Blizzcon '07 and WWI '08 that I noted that has been added to the 'Not at ship' list. So far I am noticing new Druid form art, already changed from a promised Dire Cat Form, will now not happen until after Wrath ships. I would note they don't seem to be doing it half assed, which is nice, but this makes me wonder if some of the data mined Minor Gyphs that would have changed the look of cat form will actually make it into the game at launch. This also makes me wonder how many minor glyphs, if any, will actually ship, since I am not yet seeing any in beta and only a handful of potential minor glyphs data mined.

We also know now that the former 11 point talent, Trap Mastery, will now be a 41 point talent and is currently broken. Something that saddens me more, though, is that Koraa has stated that the talent will not be improved before Wrath ships, instead getting some changes 'in a future patch', which could mean 3.1, 3.5, or somewhere in between. Add on to this that the shaman ability Riptide will not ship with proper sound and animations, causing complaints from Shamans that caused Tigole, a Dev, to ban at least two players last weekend.

We already knew that Icecrown Citadel would not be in Wrath on the 13th of November, as they have stated all along that it will be in an early 3.x content patch, but I have to wonder what else will change to 'will not ship'. Will many of the minor glyphs change? I would imagine, based on the blue post, that any texture changes to the Druid forms will not be there, so no polar bear tanks in Wrath. Don't get me wrong, I love the level of detail they are aiming for because the Swift Flight Form, for druids at least, looked absolutely awesome, but I just wish that they would stick to their guns on some of the promised coolness.

When I began working on this post, I will admit, the only thing I had was the Druid skin thing, but this post on WoW Insider brought several more issues to my attention. Zach Yonzon, the author of the post, points out, and rightly so, that this is not the usual 'When it's Ready' we get from Blizzard. This has the feel of an expansion being pushed out on a deadline that simply must be met. Is this the result of Activision Blizzard? Devs banning people for complaints that are more plentiful than mosquitoes in July? Titles shipping come hell or high water by a certain date, unfinished or not? I think the poll on WoW Insider says it all about what the fans think, with a 2:1 ratio of folks who want the expansion When it IS ready, versus on the date that was set.

Do you know of anything else that has been stated as 'not when shipped'? Dance Studios? Dual Specs? Dire Cat Form? What features of the game do you fear are at the high probability of being put off to a later patch? Let me know in the comments of the blog here at From the Abbey to Outlands!

I figured that since the Achievement is quite possible the most asked about feature amongst my audience, I would give you a small peak at the ones I find neat, cool, or otherwise interesting.

1. It's Happy Hour Somewhere - This is cool simply because most of us drink so few beverages, just our normal water for the caster's among us. I would be interested to see how many people can find before they have to rely on the alcoholic beverages in the game, or whether most will simply head there first!
2. Well Read - 42 of the books found throughout the game, this will be one of the most widespread achievements to accomplish spanning from Tirisfal Glades to Tanaris, Northrend to Netherstorm. This is one I would consider worthy of more than 10 points, but I think that is the basic one for those that pretty much anyone can do.
3. Friend or Fowl? - This is one of the neatest, and most insanity causing quests in the new contest. I do not recommend even trying at the base, instead go and try when you get near the Explorer's League camp for the quests there.
4. To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before - This is another well traveled quest, with the idea being that you need to /love to each of these critters. To my knowledge no actual feeling of love must be felt, and no penalty is given if the critter is slaughtered immediately after. Most of the critters can be found in multiple locations, though there are a few with single zone locations. The highest level zone is Zul'Drak, though you can always try to run your way there and /love before you are dinner for the trolls there.
5. What A Long Strange Trip It's Been - There is a different one for each faction, but the general idea is the same. Complete all of the holiday achievements. This will take at least a year to complete, as only a few of the past holiday achievements are noted and each holiday has several of them. Essentially if it results in you getting an item, and you have the item still, it will recognize it. I imagine this will be a great deal of fun come the future holidays, and I am sure that at least a few of the composite achievements have titles.
   

So there you go, a peek at my top 5 neatest achievements in the Wrath beta, and coming Soon™ to a realm near you! What Achievements do you find cool, neat, interestingly named or just plain notable in the listings online? Let me know in the comments, Please!

Wrath is coming. We have 49 days until it arrives. I found out recently that there are many erroneous, outdated, or simply misinformed opinions about what Wrath will bring, and what will be required. I thought I would give you a Top 5 on what I have seen.

1. Death Knight - Death Knight will not require unlocking. They will start at 55. You can make one, with some limitations on new servers, if you have a level 55 on any realm in WoW. You can have one Death Knight per realm. If you are on a PvE, or normal RP server, you can make one of any faction. If you are on PvP, you can only make one on the same faction you have already, following the PvP realm guidelines. With the current state of the Death Knight, you should be at or nearly at 58 by the time you leave the Starting Experience. Lastly, you will need a free character slot on the account you want to make one on.
2. Inscription - Patch 3.0.2, currently on the Public Test Realms, will be debuting the Inscription profession from 1-375. This will not require a Wrath preorder, Wrath confirmation or anything. Anyone can level the profession from 1 to 375, dependent on the normal level per rank requirements of a primary profession. Inscription will require herbs and parchment for the most part, though vials and other sundry items may be needed. The most recent beta build brought in the need to use a Lexicon of Power, found near Inscription trainers, in order to apply glyphs.
3. Flight - You will not be able to fly as soon as you enter Northrend. I know, I know, you paid 1k-5k or more to fly your pretty birds, but Blizzard, as proven when Burning Crusade released, does not want to see all this content they are working their collective asses on to be flushed down the toilet as everyone flies over all the content they spent time crafting meticulously. Blizzard has alternated between a quest, or paying roughly 1,000 gold to enable Cold Weather Flying, but it does not seem finalized on what they will choose as of yet. You cannot fly until level 77.
4. Gear - Many are afraid of one, or both, of the following two things: Gear Reset, where all your old gear is wiped out within a level or two of entering expansion content, and Gear Appearance, where you end up going from looking like a well dressed agent of slaughter, to something more akin a rodeo clown gone bad. Blizzard has taken great pains to make sure these do not happen. Know what stats you want and you will be just fine. Medros, my first played toon in Beta, is currently halfway through 75 and still has most of his Kara level gear, only replacing most of it with awesome quest blues. I think only one piece was replaced by a green, and that was crafter at high level Blacksmithing.
5. Achievements - this is one of the neatest things in the expansion for me, who doesn't Raid or PvP much. There are hundreds of achievements, from the mundane of dinging 10, 20, 30, and so on, to killing 15 Fjord Turkey's in 3 minutes. The 'first on realm' leveling achievements are still there, but the rewards of titles are not in order to stop people bypassing content just to get them. Achievement points, like similar points on other gaming systems, have no value, though some achievements do come with rewards of titles or physical items. Examples are Leading the Calvary(currently 50 mounts and gets you an Albino Drake) and Shop Smart, Shop Pet... Smart(50 vanity pets, rewards a Reeking Pet Carrier). Look for a post or two in the near future about achievements.
   

There you have it. If you have any other Wrath rumors or features you want the facts on, feel free to post them in the comments. The beta is fun, the expansion will be more so. See you there!

I had a chance last night to head over to Dragonblight and finish up some quests there that were not able to be finished two patches ago due to vanished NPCs, and last patch cause all of Northrend hated my PC, and I got the quest Finality turned in. I helped kill Thel'zan, once again fighting alongside the suddenly arrived Highlord Bolvar Fordragon, late of Stormwind Keep and the now defunct Onyxia key chain. I should point out here that Bolvar actually makes mention of helping him in the Keep, a reference to the Ony fight, which at this point a new comer to WoW post 3.0.2 would never have done, but more on my thoughts on that later.

We defeat Thel'zan, Bolvar says to come see him at Angrathar, then vanishes into the wind. I ride my newly purchased Armored Brown Bear up to Wintergarde, turn the quest in, and take the follow up to(shock!) go to Fordragon Hold at the Wrath Gate. Hope a bird, and I am there, where my good friend Bolvar tells me to go see Alexstrasza, and off I go again, back to Wyrmcrest Temple. I ride to the top after doing the quicky daily, and chat up the Dragon Queen, and she send me off to finish up the mess at Galakrond's Rest, taking out the bad guy there. How a non elite could command an elite Storm Giant, I have no idea.

I have my dragon spew fire, eat scourge, and finish the boss, then head on back to Wyrmcrest. Alexstrasza thanks me for helping save us from this literal mother of all dragons turned Frost Wyrm, and sends us soaring back to Bolvar, quest completed. Then, well, not much happened for me. For what will happen in the release of the game, read on, if you domind some spoilerific good times!

WARNING! WARNING! The rest of this post WILL contain spoilers for MAJOR plots in the Wrath of the Lich King. If you value your element of surprise and joy of discovering new lore, TURN BACK NOW.

The rest of you, read after the jump.

For the last several months, pretty much since we had confirmation of what the Wrath Collector's Edition pet would be, and therefore receiving confirmation there would be a Collector's Edition, I have been calling my local(4 blocks away) EB Games to see if they have the Collector's Edition in their pre order system yet. Well, they hadn't. Until last Tuesday, the 16th. On Monday Blizzard announced that the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will be released on November 13th, and they also formally announced the Collector's Edition.

A lot of my friends, both the cynical Europeans and the frugal Americans, seem to think I am nuts. I may just be. I did, though, wanted to give my reasons why I changed my preorder from the normal Wrath to the Collector's edition. Let's go with the feature list up first:

• DVD of the expansion - I cannot count the number of times I have cursed loosing my original game DVD as I have reinstalled from the 4 disc set, then patched it all the way to current.
• The art book and behind the scenes DVD - Often, when I feel the old game creep in and slowly sadden me, I take out the art book and DVD, then revel in the creative process that went into making this a game I have played for 4 years now.
• The Official Soundtrack - Because I will buy this off iTunes if I don't get it here. I love the music in the beta already!
• Two March of the Legion TCG Starter Decks - Rocket Chicken, Paper Flying Machine Kit, and the Dragon Kite. 'Nough said.
• Map of Northrend Mouse Pad - I might use this for a bit if it's not the hard plastic kind that seems to curl at the sides and becomes unplayable.
• Lastly... Frosty the baby frost wyrm! Yeah, I am a sucker for the pet, and really regretted not getting the TBC CE for the Netherwhelp. I <3 my Panda's, Diablo's, and Zergling's from the original CE, and wish they would bring the three in one back!
  

In the end, I found the original Collector's Edition more than worth the effort to get it, and knew that this year's would be blockbuster. I really look forward to opening my box at 12:01 or 12:30 AM on the 13th and sliding the DVD in, beginning the install of the expansion, and hitting play on the behind the scenes DVD as I hunt the starter decks for a loot card. See you in line!