Wrath of the Lich King: September 2008 Archives

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!

I figured that since there is so much yummy goodness in the beta, I would start a small series of top 5s, just to give you short roundups from my beta testing experiences. The first one I want to tackle, of course, it the top 5 Paladin spells I have learned so far in the beta.

Divine Storm - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards.  The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
This spell right now is #2 in my rotation on the beta, right after Crusader Strike. While the DPS of this ability can be sweet, especially when it procs, the soloing bonus of that 20% can be amazing to see. I now almost always pull 2 - 3 mobs in order to maximize the benefits.

Judgement of the Wise - Your Judgement spells have a 100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second, and to immediately grant you 20% of your maximum mana.
This is commonly known among the paladins I talk to as a mana battery. Every 10 seconds, as long as I have a Seal up, I can replenish, at level 75, about 1500 mana using Judgement of Wisdom. With Global Cooldown and the other spells in my rotation, it is rare that I am not at least 85% mana as long as I do not forget to judge. In fact, I more often find myself low on health than low on mana. I am considering testing this with Judgement of Light, just to get a small heal in here and there.

Repentance - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage caused will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
This ability is what I usually use for the 4th mob I pull. If I know my Divine Storm won't hit everyone, being limited to 3 an all, I will usually repentance one of the enemies, and pull the other 3 far enough away. Often by the time the 1 minute is up, I am done with his friends and ready to take him on. Long overdue improvement to this spell.

Art of War - Increases the critical strike damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 20% and when these abilities critically hit your next Flash of Light spell becomes instant cast.
This ability was already pretty sweet with the recent improvements to the Flash of Light component. I have not yet tried the Flash of Light side, due to repeated crashes from the beta client, but I will be deliberately watching for the buff and seeing if it is as useful as I suspect.

Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 10 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50%.
This is one of the many in a new class of spell I call a MoT(Mana over Time) spells that have crept into the game in the Wrath of the Lich King. This is one of those 'Oh crap, I have no mana' spells, since judgements cost mana, and while it feels like the regen of mana takes forever, in no time you have at least enough for Holy Shield or a last hoorah spell to try to eek out victory.


While these are merely the best I found, there was at least another 5 I could find in the changed spells list of the Wrath beta. Yes, most of these are Retribution, but that's what I play. If you are Holy or Protection specced and want to give me your top 5, let me know in the comments and I will be happy to post them as a guest entry on this blog, or even link to your own. Keep reading for the next in the list of Top 5s from the beta and live game!

Ok, so this is not quite the equivalent of the Fire Sale in Die Hard, but for those of you who were not around before BC launched, this is not uncommon. Now that we know exactly how long we have until the new expansion comes out, which you can see right on the front page of this blog courtesy of Aurdon over at isheepthings.com, people are selling off anything they don't need long term ont he working theory that on November 12th at 11:59 it will all be pretty much worthless.

Epic gems for 100g or less. Rare gems that are not Talasites nearing the 10g mark and dropping fast. Netherweave Cloth going for 1g a stack. Rare metals dropping under 50s each! Herbs going for 60-100g a stack! Wait... what? Oh, yeah, Herbs are the only things not on sale, because everyone and their uncle will be rolling a Scribe come the 3.0.2 patch and will need roughly one thousand herbs each to get from 1 to 300, and an unknown quantity to get from 300 to 375 in preparation for Wrath.

So, my friends, my readers, run to your nearest location for the fire sale is still in progress at an Auction House near you!

The Tentative release date leaked by WoW Head and Thottbot was confirmed this morning when Blizzard Entertainment announced the release date for the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which will hit stores on November 13, 2008, just 10 days shy of the 4th birthday of World of Warcraft. Blizzard also released information on the Collector's Edition of the expansion, which will include:

• World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King on DVD-ROM. 
• The 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
• An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD * The official soundtrack CD
• A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
• Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion™ starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector's Edition.

While we now have a date, we also know how long we have to prepare. You can make a lot of gold in 2 months. You can also now preorder your copy and soon a Collector's Edition at many retailers. Enjoy!

I first saw word of this from this post on Twitter by WoW Insider author Eliah Hecht. Matt quickly reposted, followed by me. The url in the post points to this post by Eliah on WoW Insider. The summary of the story is that WoW Head, my favorite game info database site, as well as their sister site Thottbot, have what is tantamount to an announcement that Wrath of the Lich King will release on November 13, 2008.

Now I do need to point out that we have no confirmation of this on the WoW site as yet, though Malgayne from WoW Head says it is legit and suggests the time was set for midnight, and the admin who released it is 3 hours ahead of Blizzard in Irvine, CA. What does this mean? I think we will have 3.0.2 within 7 days either way of Blizzcon. I think we will have a CE announcement, if not at the time of the official announcement of the date, within days. I think.... that midnight PST can't come soon enough!

[Update 1: The Customer Service forums are the first to get a blue response, though it remains inconclusive.]

I was working on my Inscription in the beta, and I thought to myself that leveling a gathering profession from 1 to 450 will be a horrible pain in my arse. This is the basis of this article. I feel that the lack of pre leveled professions for Death Knights will leave them as a default dual crafting profession class.

While the gathering from 1-300 will give a Death Knight a chance to explore the old world, a good thing due to the World Explorer achievement and title, I do not think that the majority of Death Knights will want to spend their valuable Wrath time going from Elwynn, to Westfall, to Darkshire, to Stranglethorn, all in search of the elusive dot on the mini map.

No, I think that those of us with at least a herbalist, or whatever gathering profession compliments our chosen crafting profession, will skip that grind and just pre gather, or gather for our Death Knights. I know I have pre gathered over 400 herbs for my Death Knight, who will be named Connroe. I am planning right now to make him a Scribe/Blacksmith combo, with potential leanings toward Weaponsmithing since so much of what a Death Knight is, lies in their runeforged weapon.

I am curious if I am the only one who plans to take this route? I was planning to take Traluun into Inscription when 3.0.2 came out, and I may still when I have a better idea of what the guildies are doing, but I know for sure that Connroe will be my go to character for long term inscription needs. I do not plan to have Connroe go into any gathering. I have learned how painful power leveling my herbalism will be if I decided to go that route. It has taken me 3 weeks to hit 300 and that is on a nearly barren realm. Trying to level herbalism within 3 months of Wrath will indeed be a painful thing to do.

What professions do you plan to take on your death dealer? Will you make your Death Knight a dual crafting toon? Are you already gathering in preparations? Let me know in the comments how you plan to proceed with your Death Knight when Wrath descends upon us all! 

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Suddenly, seemingly out of no where, Connroe begins to feel a tugging sensation, and suddenly finds the snow vanishing and the dirt beneath him turned into hard wooden floors. Connroe feels a warm fire nearby, and looks around him at a building that looks like a church in design, but a command center in that there are many people here in armor and carrying brutal weapons. Weapons which instantly get turned toward the Death Knight appearing in their midst.

"Stop!" Medros yells as he appears a second later, trying to pull his comrades back from the planned slaughter of their enemy. "He is no enemy, he is my brother."

Some of the soldiers lower their weapons, but not all of them as Medros is pulled into a heated discussion in the corner. Connroe is given meagre bits of food to eat and a bowl of warmed water to clean off his mud covered face, his eyes rarely leaving his brother other than to ensure the razor sharp blades have not gotten close enough to kill in one movement. As he begins to feel more human, if that was still possible, Connroe feels a warmth come over him that has nothing to do with the fire, the food, or the water.

"What is this..." the Death Knight mutters as the feeling extends over his body, a feeling he both knows and finds utterly unfamiliar.

"What did you say, death dealer?" a voice from across the room calls.

Connroe looks up and sees a heavily armored Paladin glaring at him, waiting for an answer. "I feel... something... I am not sure what, but it is something I have never felt before."

He looks up at Medros, a look of wonderment on his face as he realizes he has felt this before. "Durnholde..."

"What about that place? It is only rubble now after the Orcs brought it to the ground!" The older Paladin remarks.

"My brother was at that battle, Lord Fordring. I am told it was where he first met Prin.... the Lich King. Go on, Conn," Medros states.

Waiting for the older Paladin to give his authorization, Connroe begins to tell his story as the soldiers and Paladins look on intently. He tells of his orders to go to Stratholme, of finding Muradin in Northrend, of the battle with the undead, of the battle with Mal'Ganis and the fall of Arthas, and lastly of his fall into the service of the Lich King.

"I have become a trusted Death Knight, or had become until Med pulled me here, wherever I am, in service of the Lich King. I was about to be promoted into higher service," Connroe adds.

"Perhaps you can yet be of service, but to us instead. We have ways of travel and communication which your King cannot monitor or control. If you will tell us what you know, we can prepare more effective counter attacks to the invasions and attacks on our people by the scourge, assuming you are willing to betray your master to help your people, your true people that is," Fordring inquires.

Connroe ponders the offer for a short time, the people around him tensing for attack if he declines. He looks up into his brothers eyes, and begins to speak.

"I am horrified by what I did in service to that monster. He made me infect everything from elderly people to children with his plague, just so he would raise more abominations for his army. I need to begin paying for the crimes I have committed on my people, and the other people of this world. I will serve your..." he looks to Medros for help.

"Order, Connroe, the Order of the Silver Hand, reformed," Medros answers.

"Your Order, and I will tell you where I am sent, and of my missions in his service. Know, Lord Fordring, that if you do not counter the attacks I tell you about, more may die, more WILL die in the name of the Lich king. I may even have to land the killing blow in order to ensure I remain in his trust. Do you understand this?" Connroe demands.

"More than you know, son, more than you know. Many of my own men will die fighting that... Monster. We will one day bring down that king and his throne in Northrend. For now, we need to arrange for your return undetected and for the tools of your betrayal to be located within your reach. For now, my men can lower their blades, for your brother gives his word that you are still an honorable man." Lord Fordring states before giving orders quickly to several of the soldiers nearby. 

I have a few friends in the European region who were in late alpha and early beta, and they all had a chance to see more phases of the expansion than I have in it's testing, so they have a unique perspective on the coming content than I do. This is a benefit when I am trying to research for writing on this blog. They were also invaluable when I got my beta invite. They were the folks I took my 'where's Dalaran' type questions to in my early beta days.

So when I made my temp DK, Isen, I was first excited to start First Aid at 270, then angered when they told me that no other professions get that boost, likely for the worries about having power leveled profession skills that could be exploited. While I can see this point, begrudgingly, I am still as little aggravated that I have had to, and will need to in live realms when Wrath launches, level my herbalism and Inscription from point 1. It looks really silly, seen to the the left, a level 58 master of slaughter and mayhem Death Knight picking Peacebloom in Elwynn Forest.

Now that I have tried out the Blood tree a bit, I decided when the last build gave me a talent reset I would go Unholy with some influence from this post on DeathKnight.info that said that Death Knights can now be a full use pet class. I do like me a pet class, but I would like to request, officially, that Blizzard give me a way to pretty up my Ghoul, who looks like he's falling to pieces. Flesheater is nice and all, but I am a little worried that a bone or key muscle may drop to the ground at a key time in a fight. Oh, and Blizzard? If this is my perma-pet, can I get the same one every time? kthnxbai!

So the 8926 beta build came out last night, with the 3.0.1 background downloader starting up today, so of course there is news and data mining and opinions aplenty. I figured I may as well give you my highlights from the new beta build. There are a few low lights too, sadly, but this is beta and things are always changing.

The first thing I need to mention is Heirlooms. I believe it was at the Invitational in Paris when we first heard of the possibility of an account bound object, instead of character bound, and now we have them. In the new build Blizzard has introduced Heirlooms, items that will be bound within your account, currently bought with the Naxx tokens, that can be sent within your account. The other good thing is that these items scale with the toon, so you can send your new level 1 Warrior an item, and it will continue to improve in stats as the character gets higher in the ranks.

I assume there will be heirlooms for each type, like a Melee DPS for each of leather, mail, and plate in end game, caster for all levels, and so on, and this way you ensure that the various classes still get proper gear for their needs. So far we have weapons, trinkets, and shoulders, though I would assume more will come in time. Also, while MMO Champion has model viewer made shots of many Heirloom items, there is no word yet on whether those items will look as awesome on a level 1 as they will on a level 80 character.

You may have heard of the changes promised to racials, and those changes did hit this build, though some have already been altered from the promised looks. Fall of Humanity, a feign death like ability, was remove before the build went live, and I can imagine the Night Elf Shadowmeld, which now works in combat, is also in live, or will in the next build. Humanity will be getting a new racial, "Every Man for Himself": Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.(I have confirmed that Fall of Humanity is not on the live beta realms)

And not we have Paladins. Ret and Prot Paladins got lots of love this build, though since I know Ret best, I will fill you in. Many of our talents got redone, from Art of War to Diving Storm, Judgment of the Wise to Crusade. Overall I think our changes were an improvement, with the added benefit of a full power Blessing of Kings coming with only 5 points spent in the Protection tree. From my playing I am so far loving the build, and might actually document this one if it lasts past the next build.

Oh, and one more thing...(since Steve didn't do one) we are getting some peaks at the coming build that will be next, and one of the things that Blizzard is clear on is that Riding Crops and all the other mount speed boosters will be gone at the least by 70. They were going to make them enchantements, but then they made all mounts learned spells and the boosters just became a pain to fix. I am not sure I feel they are less of a pain pre 70, but Blizz seems to be working out other speed boosting abilities so we will have to see what will come to pass. Take care!

I have a lot to do. I am collecting herbs for my guild, as well as for myself. I am debating furiously with myself about inscription and my lowbie hunter, Traluun, and trying to still get in time for job hunting, writing, beta testing, and have a small semblance of a social life. So it is with this in mind that I ask you, my readers, what do you think my priorities should be.

The reason this came up is that in conjunction with the recent beta build 8905, Blizzard's reps have posted feedback requests for all of the currently open dungeons in the beta, from Utgarde Keep to Naxxramas in both 10 and 25 man versions, and I realized that even with Med not even at 74 yet, I have not hit a single instance. Not even a one. I got my starter Death Knight through the old Starting Experience and into Inscription/Herbalism professions, worked a fair bit on Med's blacksmithing, and a bit on Arita's Northrend herbalism and alchemy, but I haven't *done* much in the beta.

Sure, I have moved and been doing renovations, and I haven't had the unregulated time I would like to be working on the beta and live realms. I also find it really hard to go from Medros, level 73 ret Paladin with awesome abilities and the capability to take down the mobs with ease, to Medros, level 70 Paladin, or even Telaan, Level 70 Paladin, or even still Traluun, level 45 Hunter. It's a bit of a shock, you know? A big change in the game and the world.

So, as my readers, I come to you, playtime in hand, and ask for your advice. Do you want more Wrath prep info as I push through the live realms to gather needed materials for the Inscription profession coming in 3.0.2, or should I spend more time on the beta realms, digging through the lore, the stories, and the experiences to give you all a better insight into what awaits us in the wonderful continent of Northrend, from gorlocs and proto drakes to dragon aspects and scarlet lackies? Sound off in the comments!

I thought I would bring you all a few of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath beta as of build 8905, which launched Friday, September 5th, 2008. Please remember that this is still beta level content and there is a lot more than can, and will be done in the beta before all is said and done.

Mount on, Mount off - Mounting in cities like Ironforge and Stormwind, currently fine to do on live realms, is back off on the beta realms. I am not sure the cause of this, but I did notice after leaving Dalaran that there is a debuff about flying in Dalaran that did remain, and this could well be the cause of this mounting issues in other cities. I am not sure how many, or which Horde cities currently allow riding, though I do recall an time when many Horde complained about a difference of classifications. If this is still limited in most Horde cities, this could also have an effect on city mounting.

Return to the end - So my little DK, Isen, who is just a testing, screenshot, and exploration toon, not the DK I plan to make on the beta realms for actual play testing, has been advised to return to the Ebon Hold by this post, virtual ! and all, to 'complete' the Death Knight starting experience. What happened when I did was interesting, even if all it truly showed me was that the Starting Experience will be a mess on launch and that the experience should bring most players to 58 when they complete the experience as it is in this build.

To the right you will see a sample of the treatment my Death Knight got in Stormwind upon being sent there at the end of the current experience. I did not, sadly, have the foresight to check in on the cities before hitting a Death Gate back to the hold. What I found when I got there, though, was quite an interesting site. First the lag issues. Holy crap! It was taking about 30-90 seconds for any action to be registered in the game. There was Death Grips going off all over the place, with mobs sometimes being lassoed around from one end of the area to the next. I saw mobs which did not show the tag for them until just before they got their killing blow.

The idea by what I understood was that all of this occurs after the now legendary fight at Light's Hope Chapel. This is the former end of the experience where Tirion Fordring not only kicks the ass of the entire scourge forces, but redeems Darion Morgraine and wounds the Lich King enough to send his tail between his legs. Well, there was always one issue that could never be accounted for. While Darion and all the Player Death Knights are redeemed and brought to the realization of their horrific actions, there was a lot of Lich King loyalists back on Acherus. This step, where you get to fight Patchwerk, the boss from Naxx, and take out the last remnants of the Lich King's forces on Acherus, is the second to last step for your Death Knight.

The last is the utter humiliation of your Death Knight. You are sent through a portal with a letter for your respective faction's leader, Thrall if you are Horde or King Variann Wrynn if you are Alliance. Thrall makes mention of Tirion and his actions written about in 'Of Blood and Honor, where he saves Eitrigg from the hands of the Alliance. Wrynn... well, I guess he's still out of it a bit, cause he just hollers about the salvation of the Death Knights and your banana, spit, and apple attacks, not to mention the verbal abuse cease. The funniest part? The boy, Anduinn Wrynn <King of Stormwind> also spits on you. Yes, there are two kings of Stormwind.

Of Core Hounds and exotic pets - Corehounds, as found in Molton core, Shadowmoon Valley, and other places, look awesome, intimidating, and deadly in their own surroundings, but not so much in the service of a hunter. Also, I am pretty sure the Devilsaur look noticeably smaller this patch. Not having done much with Ameland on beta realms, though, and with the talent reset throwing me for a ride, I am not sure for myself. Anyone with photographic evidence, please email it in!

Unholy Blight Crash: Rank 2 - It seems that not only is Storm Peaks still causing the servers to be as stable as beta patch notes, Icecrown, opened in this patch, is also causing crashing issues. In addition, though, the Death Knight spell Unholy Blight Rank 2 is also said to be causing issues with the servers crashing and has been hotfixed out until the next patch right alongside the Storm Peaks and Icecrown. This makes for interesting flying into or out of Dalaran, as the flight path from any connected point traverses either Storm Peaks or Icecrown, giving you the No Man's Land debuff and sending you back to a Northrend starting area. Fun!

Ch-ch-changes! - Blizzard feels like they are still doing major class balancing with the last patch addressing long lists of changes for Rogues and Warriors, and Ret Paladins and Death Knights both getting a lot of tweaking. As Ghostcrawler put it, they are trying hard to get all of the classes right in their spreadsheets and in game, but it takes time. They are working on it, and this is beta, and in no way is this final.

Is that ice on the mailbox? - Medros was one of my alts lucky enough to receive a Penguin Egg in their mail, which is used to learn the spell to summon this cute little guy you see at left. He is absolutely adorable, and I am sure would look even more so with some of the pet tweaks seen from Breani in Dalaran, like the new pet grooming kit that WoW Insider mentioned over the weekend. I will definitely be heading into the beta realms to see how cute my Chilly looks waddling after the ball chase item from Breani.

Moving on up - Lastly, but related to the Death Knight stuff, I wanted to note how awesome the Stormwind Keep is looking. We now have the return of Variann Wrynn, who is the long lost, and forgetful King of Stormwind, though I am sure his son will one day get his own tag of King removed, perhaps replaced with Prince. I would also love to see Anduinn get a new model, maybe of a slightly older boy. Would be nice world progression. I am curious of what part the Argent Healer NPCs I see all over the place will play in patch 3.0.2 and beyond, but I can assume they have a role in the pre Wrath world events we saw, similar to the pre Burning Crusade events. I can't wait!

There you go, some of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Have something different? Something you want me to check out? Let me know in the comments and I will do my best for the mid week screenshot gallery!

When beta build 8885 went live late last week, there were a whole slew of titles that were put in for Feats of Strength. The feats are one time only, or no longer obtainable goals that are the other side of the achievement feature. Achievements are things you can work toward, things that anyone can obtain with enough work and perseverance. Feats of Strength are no longer obtainable or limited in their ability to obtain, like opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj or hitting 80 first on your server for your class.

With some Feats, there was a title attached, like for the first Death Knight to reach 80 on a realm there was the title of 'of the Ebon Blade', one which any Death Knight would be happy to have. The title aspect of those newly introduced Feats was something of a confusion for many players and beta testers who have been reminded continually that Blizzard wants us to take our time to level 80, not bypass all of the content they worked so hard to design for the adventure of that leveling.

This is why we can't fly in Northrend until level 77, right? Well, yes, that was what they were telling us, but then they put in Feats, which included much coveted titles, for those who did the opposite and rushed to Level 80. The first person to level 80 on a real would automatically get 3 titles, with other classes and races getting some as well. The point was made that these titles only rewarded unhealthy or illegitimate behavior.

Either you medically kepe yourself away for days at a time until you hit 80, or you share your account with others to keep the grind going, essentially working in shifts. Are either of these really fair? I think not. So Blizzard has removed them, realizing the mistake they were making and stepping back from that precipice. I am sure some or all of these titles will make it into the game eventually, but they will no longer be attached to the Feats, making them a sure fire way to induce players to do something they shouldn't.

I want to commend Blizzard for realizing that this was not the way to reward players, that there had to be a better way to convince the playerbase to work toward something. They made a mistake, yes, but they also fixed it, which is a good sign from a company that many of us feel, at times, doesn't listen to us as much as we would like. How do you think that some of the many awesome titles should be implemented to encourage game play, not insanity in order to obtain? Do you think the titles 'Of Argus', 'Crusader', and 'The Lion Hearted' should be obtainable by a small few, or any of those races or classes to whom they apply? Give feedback on this in the comment section below. 

I would like to note first and foremost that the majority of this work was not done by me, instead being the work of better and more knowledgeable people than I. The Wrath Wiki has put up a guide that is intended to get you from 1 to 300 in Inscription. The guide is good, but there were a few places I thought it could use a little help on in instructing those not in the beta on what it will be like leveling your inscription. I hope they don't mind.

First, their number of herbs needed, from what I have seen, seems to be pretty close. I will just point out that at this point in the beta, a lot of glyphs that can be made require the herb Mageroyal. I haven't had a chance to look, but I would guess at the current point of my Death Knight's inscription, about 75% of the glyphs he can make use this particular herb. It's 1 of each level of parchment, an ink, and a Mageroyal.

If that remains, I would advise a minimum of 4 stacks of Mageroyal be used in your leveling of Inscription. That being said, this could change, and they could change some of them to using Swiftthistle or some other herb, with maybe Lotus as their top of tier herb for really special glyphs. Please do note that the guide says the heavy Mageroyal is due to broken mats.

The next thing I wanted to point out was that, currently, glyphs are trained in waves, so while it may be that 17 Glyph of Swipe can get you from 85-100, there will likely be about 7-9 other glyphs you can make to earn those points too. There are not any Death Knight or Warrior glyphs right now in the game, though there may be in the build that follows 8885, which is current as of this writing, so you can learn about 8 class glyphs at each tier, plus the stat scrolls, the different Vellum's, and inks.

While the Scroll of Recall lists making about 60 to get the 25 points, I did not need to make this many myself. I did make that many, as they are super handy little scrolls that act, essentially,l as a 10 minute hearthstone cooldown, so in your time in Northrend and beyond you will no doubt go through a lot of them. Don't be surprised if you find it to be in the hundreds, especially if you have your hearth set to a trainer location and have to go farm up the herbs.

Lastly, I would like to point out that there are at least 4 herbs in each pigment level, and each one in that level of pigment can give the same amount. Some of the herbs can give both a common quality and uncommon quality pigment, and some inks require a little of each kind, so use each pigment wisely. I for one am incredibly excited about the inscription profession, and am already farming herbs for when the 3.0.2 patch hits the live realms, how about you?

Here I am again, answering the many searches that bring folks to this here blog. The first ones I wanted to answer are all the ones related to character names, especially for Death Knights. I have received a lot on how to choose a proper RP name for a Death knight of varying gender and race. The thing about Death Knights, unlike Draenei and Blood Elves, is that they can realistically have any name that their race would find common. If Bob is a name common in your race, then Bob the Death Knight would be fine. For those many looking for Death Knight race images, the Wrath Wiki has just what you need.


new human dance wotlk - Alas we do not have the dance studios in yet, so we have no idea what the new dances look like.

coodinates wrath of the lich addon - I use Mapster, which is all up to date in beta.

retribution paladin outlands - we are ok now, we will be better in wrath. Here's my Ret Paladins Medros and Telaan.

Bulwark of the ancient kings +what gems +retribution Pally - See my previous link to Medros' amory page for what I put in my breastplate.

best hunter spec wrath of the lich king - We do not have enough stability of talents for a best spec for any class.

That's about all we have time for today. See you here tomorrow for more WoW news.