Category: mmo-champion

Cooldowns

• Ebonweave, Moonshroud and Spellweave no longer have a transmutation cooldown.
• Smelt Titansteel no longer has a transmutation cooldown.
• Glacial Bag now has a 7 days cooldown.

Blacksmithing

• Battlelord's Plate Boots – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6.
• Belt of the Titans – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6.
• Indestructible Plate Girdle – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6
• Plate Girdle of Righteousness – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6
• Spiked Deathdealers – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6
• Treads of Destiny – Titansteel Bar x 5, Runed Orb x 6

Enchanting

• Enchant Weapon – Executioner addition has been updated with "Only one instance of this effect can be active at a time."

Leatherworking

• Belt of Arctic Life – Heavy Borean Leather x 4, Arctic Fur x 3, Runed Orb x 6
• Belt of Dragons – Arctic Fur x 3, Icy Dragonscale x 20, Runed Orb x 6
• Blue Belt of Chaos – Arctic Fur x 3, Nerubian Chitin x 20, Runed Orb x 6
• Boots of Living Scale – Arctic Fur x 3, Jormungar Scale x 20, Runed Orb x 6
• Boots of Wintry Endurance – Arctic Fur x 3, Icy Dragonscale x 20, Runed Orb x 6
• Death-warmed Belt – Arctic Fur x 3, Eternal Shadow x 4, Runed Orb x 6
• Footpads of Silence – Arctic Fur x 3, Eternal Shadow x 2, Runed Orb x 6
• Lightning Grounded Boots – Arctic Fur x 3, Icy Dragonscale x 20, Runed Orb x 6

Tailoring

• Cord of the White Dawn – Moonshroud x 8, Runed Orb x 6
• Sash of Ancient Power – Spellweave x 4, Ebonweave x 4, Runed Orb x 6
• Savior's Slippers – Moonshroud x 8, Runed Orb x 6
• Spellslinger's Slippers – Spellweave x 4, Ebonweave x 4, Runed Orb x 6

Random dungeon 15 minute vote kick limit gone in 3.3.3
It's not mentioned in the notes, but the Vote Kick option no longer has a 15-minute cooldown. Enjoy. (Source)

Vote kick reason in 3.3.3
This might not answer your question — which may or may not have been rhetorical anyway — but we did find that a lot people were clicking "Yes" on the Vote Kick alert, then later asking, "why did we kick that guy?" The idea is to make the person who wants to kick someone from the group give everyone else a reason. If the reason is silly or defamatory, a surprising number of people could very well reject it.

While many people are quick to take into account all of the worst possible scenarios with any presented changes to the game, we find that those cases are typically the minor fringe cases once the changes are put in action. The patch notes are out and the speculation is brimming, but let's see how things turn out before clenching our crystal balls, shall we? (Source)

Seasonal bosses only accessible through the Dungeon Finder in 3.3.3
Yes, the Dungeon Finder must be used. The interface will have a separate selection for special World Event bosses in dungeons. If players zone into the dungeon without using the Dungeon Finder, the bosses will not be there. (Source)

On-Proc Talents changed to Auras in 3.3.3
We made those changes for a few reasons.

Basically, they are balanced around more-or-less 100% uptime now. We think talents of the variety when X crits, now you can do Y are cool, but these auras really weren't in that category anymore. They were just cute ways of getting a passive buff up. Nobody tended to think Leader of the Pack was boring because it was just on all the time.

Removing the constant application and removal of these buffs (through both the passive aura and the range increase) might improve performance a tiny bit, will clean out your combat logs (which actually improves performance too), and reduce the UI and in some cases spell effect spam, which might make combat a little more easier to understand.

There are some auras where location on the battlefield is supposed to matter, such as totems, the imp, shouts, and paladin auras. Those didn't change. ([url=http://blue.mmo-champio…

New Mounts

• Wooly White Rhino – Summons and dismisses a rideable White Wooly Kodo.  This is a very fast mount.
• Blazing Hippogryph – Summons and dismisses a rideable Blazing Hippogryph.  This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.

New Pets

• Frigid Frostling – Right Click to summon and dismiss your Frigid Frostling.
• Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot – Right Click to summon and dismiss your wind-up Clockwork Rocket Bot.

Ruby Sanctum Loot

• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Melee Trinket – When you deal damage you have a chance to gain 1304 attack power for 15 sec. (Piercing Twilight)
• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Heroic Melee Trinket – When you deal damage you have a chance to gain 1472 attack power for 15 sec. (Piercing Twilight)
• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Nuker Trinket – Your damaging spells have a chance to grant 763 spell power for 15 sec. (Twilight Flames)
• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Heroic Nuker Trinket – Your damaging spells have a chance to grant 861 spell power for 15 sec. (Twilight Flames)
• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Tank Trinket – Melee attacks which reduce you below 35% health cause you to gain 4401 health for 10 sec.  Cannot occur more than once every 30 sec. (Scaly Fortitude)
• Item – Chamber of Aspects 25 Heroic Tank Trinket – Melee attacks which reduce you below 35% health cause you to gain 4968 health for 10 sec.  Cannot occur more than once every 30 sec. (Scaly Fortitude)
• Eyes of Twilight – Each time your direct healing spells heal a target you cause the target of your heal to heal themselves and friends within 10 yards for 356 each sec for 6 sec. (Twilight Renewal)
• Eyes of Twilight – Each time your direct healing spells heal a target you cause the target of your heal to heal themselves and friends within 10 yards for 402 each sec for 6 sec. (Twilight Renewal)

Potentially Pre Cataclysm Event

• Motivate – Motivates a Gnome Citizen to enlist. / 20 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
• Place Poster – Place a warning poster near one of the green markers in the Valley of Strength. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Place Poster – Place a warning poster near a green marker in Stormwind. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Cult Disguise – Disguise yourself as a member of the new Orgrimmar doomsday cult. / Instant
• Doomsday Messenger – Wear a large board emblazoned with a message about the impending end of the world. / Instant
• Hydrodynamic Flippers – Swim speed increased by 200%. / Instant
• Brilliant Tactics – For Gnomeregan! / 80 yd range, Instant
• Boon of the Loa – For the Darkspear! / 80 yd range, Instant
• Gnomeregan Overcloak – Right Click to don a cosmetic cloak. Will cover the appearance but not the effect of any existing cloak. / Instant, 1 sec cooldown
• Orgrimmar Overcloak – Right Click to don a cosmetic cloak. Will cover the appearance but not the effect of any existing cloak. / Instant, 1 sec cooldown
• Attune – Attune the captured frog to Vanira's sight at Vanira's Sentry Totem. / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast
• Frogs Away! – Toss one of Vanira's attuned frogs at one of the illuminated locations on the Echo Isles. Only works when riding a bat. / 100 yd range, Instant
• Vol'jin's War Drums – Play Vol'jin's War Drums to recruit Troll Citizens to the cause of retaking the / 10 yd range, 1 sec cast

• Number 2. The lieutenants are sub-bosses which will each drop an Emblem of Frost. Halion is the main boss. While the activation of Heroic difficulty is different from the Obsidian Sanctum, the overall raid format for the Ruby Sanctum is very comparable.
• You're likely to find some random pieces of armor on par with Lich King loot, similar to the items Onyxia dropped while Trial of the Crusader was the top-tier raid…

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.3

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General

• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the 50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50% experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds, players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience awarded in either case.

Battlegrounds

• The Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a random Battleground.
• The Random Battleground option can be found in the Battleground tab of the PvP frame and is only available for level 80 characters at this time.
• If this option is selected, players may not queue for specific Battlegrounds and a random Battleground simultaneously.
• Similar to the Random Dungeon system, players will not know for which Battleground they are chosen when selected from the queue until they zone into the Battleground.
• The Random Battleground option will only allow a group size of 5 players to queue together.
• Bonus rewards will be offered for choosing the Random Battleground option.[ul]
• Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
• Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Daily Battleground quests have been removed in place of the Random Battleground option.
• Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.
• Players with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective faction’s quest givers, including individual marks for those who may have more marks for one Battleground than another.
• Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.
• Whenever a Battleground has the holiday bonus active, it will now be referred to as “Call to Arms” in the Battleground tab and Calendar. In addition, Call to Arms Battleground Honor rewards have been changed.
• Choosing a specific Battleground with the Call to Arms bonus active will yield the exact same rewards as when choosing the Random Battleground option.
• Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
• Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the Call to Arms bonuses. In addition, the rewards for the first victory of the day cannot be earned more than once, regardless of whether or not it is obtained from the Random Battleground system or the Call to Arms Battleground.

Wintergrasp

• The internal balance system now only changes when a faction achieves 2 consecutive defenses after an initial capture of Wintergrasp, up from 1. You can find additional details here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23329393344

Dungeons & Raids
Culling of Stratholme

• Players may now skip the initial introduction dialog to this dungeon once they have completed it at least once.

Classes: General

• Several raid buffs have had their ranges increased to 100 yards, up from 45 yards, to prevent select buffs from repeatedly getting applied and removed during highly mobile encounters. Some buffs, such as paladin auras, totems, shouts and Blood Pact are intentionally meant to have shorter ranges and remain unchanged.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Icy Touch: This ability now causes a very high amount of threat while the death knight is in Frost Presence.
• Rune of Razorice: Now stacks 5 stacks of 2% Frost Vulnerability instead of 10 stacks of 1% Frost Vulnerability. Proc chance changed to 100%.

Blood

• Abomination's Might: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc on certain strikes. Rank 1 is 5% attack power and Rank 2 is 10% attack power. The self strength buff remains unchanged.
• Will of the Necropolis: There is no longer a cooldown on the frequency at which this talent can be activated. In addition, this ability can now also be triggered by damage which deals less than 5% of your health.

Frost

• Endless Winter: No longer causes Frost Fever to be applied by Chains of Ice, but instead grants 2/4% strength. The previous functionality of this talent can now be attained via the Glyph of Chains of Ice.
• Improved Icy Talons: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc. The self haste buff remains unchanged.
• Nerves of Cold Steel: Now increases off-hand damage by 8/16/25%, up from 5/10/15%.
• Unbreakable Armor: The amount of strength granted is now 20%, up from 10%.

Unholy

• Scourge Strike: Now deals 70% weapon damage, plus 12% of physical damage done as shadow damage for each of the death knight's diseases on the target. The net result should be larger strikes with no diseases present, while maximum damage with all diseases applied to the target should stay the same.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Beast Mastery

• Ferocious Inspiration: This ability is now an aura and provides 1/2/3% damage to all party or raid members within 100 yards.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Frostbolt: Spell power scaling on this spell has been increased by approximately 5%.

Arcane

• Arcane Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of critical strikes. The self damage buff remains unchanged.
• Incanter's Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage's health on the spell power buff has been removed.

Fire

• Burning Soul: Threat reduction is now 10/20%, up from 5/10%.

Frost

• Brain Freeze: This talent now allows your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt to be instant and cost no mana. There is a small internal cooldown to keep the Frostfire Bolt from immediately triggering Brain Freeze again.

Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Discipline

• Renewed Hope: now has a 60-second duration, up from 20 seconds, but a 20-second cooldown.

Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Rupture: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes.

Subtlety

• Filthy Tricks: Now Reduces the cooldown by 5/10 seconds and energy cost by 5/10 of Tricks of the Trade, Distract and Shadowstep abilities, and reduces the cooldown of Preparation by 1.5/3 minutes.
• Ghostly Strike: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this a…

In the next minor content patch, we will be making some minor alterations to the way in which the internal balance system for Wintergrasp works in an attempt to better support realms with greater variations in the level of participation between the Alliance and Horde. Since we have never gone into much detail about how this hidden system currently works, we’d like to explain exactly how it will work in the next patch. Keep in mind that, although this information may feel very new to you, the actual changes being made in the patch to the current system are relatively minor.

Here are the key systems in place behind the hidden Wintergrasp advantages and how they will function in the upcoming patch:

• There is an internal tug-of-war scale not visible by players which will shift under specific conditions.
• The scale starts at 0 (neutral) and can move up to 700 points in either direction favoring the Alliance at one end, and Horde at the other.
• This scale is persistent and does not reset to 0 whenever control of Wintergrasp shifts.
• If an attacking force captures Wintergrasp Fortress while under the effects of any of the advantages listed below (400-700 points in their favor), the scale tips 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• If a defending force successfully defends Wintergrasp Fortress two battles in a row, the scale tips 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• Each consecutive successful defense after a faction’s first two consecutive defenses will further tip the scale 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• As a quick example, if the scale is at 0 and the Alliance capture Wintergrasp fortress while attacking, the scale will not move. If the Alliance defend Wintergrasp twice in a row after this, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Horde. Each consecutive defense by the Alliance after this will move the scale 100 points further in favor of the Horde each time, bringing the Horde to 400 points in their favor after one unsuccessful defense and five unsuccessful attacks, a total of six Horde losses in a row.
• As another example, if the scale is at 400 in favor of the Horde and they capture Wintergrasp fortress while attacking, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Alliance. If the Horde defend Wintergrasp twice in a row after this, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Alliance. Each consecutive defense by the Horde after this will move the scale 100 points further in favor of the Alliance each time, bringing the Alliance to 100 points in their favor after one unsuccessful defense and five unsuccessful attacks, a total of six Alliance losses in a row.
• The following advantages are provided at the beginning of the battle for Wintergrasp whenever these corresponding ranges on the scale have been reached:
• 0-300: No advantages granted.
• 400: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring Factory under their control.
• 500: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control.
• 600: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control and gains access to Catapults after earning 1 kill in battle.
• 700: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control and gains access to Catapults, Siege Engines, and Demolishers after earning 1 kill in battle.

As we prepare for the public testing phase of minor content patch 3.3.3, some players might come across information regarding upcoming content that isn't yet available. To avoid any confusion, we'd like to tell you about an exciting new raid dungeon we are working on for content patch 3.3.5.

The Ruby Sanctum

A powerful war party of the Black Dragonflight, led by the fearsome Twilight dragon, Halion, have launched an assault upon the Ruby Sanctum beneath Wyrmrest Temple. By destroying the sanctum, the Black Dragonflight look to crush those that would stand in the way of their master’s reemergence into Azeroth and to ultimately shatter the Wyrmrest Accord – the sacred bond that unites the dragonflights.

The battle that is to come will surely deal a crippling blow to the Red Dragonflight, however, it is up to you to stop this unprecedented offensive and defend the Ruby Sanctum. First you must face the assault of Halion's servants, Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and General Zarithrian, before squaring off against Halion the Twilight Destroyer, a new and deadly force in this realm.

The Ruby Sanctum will feature 10- and 25-player content, Heroic difficulties and all-new rewards! Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to its release.

Making end-level content more approachable has been another big change for the game. It’s easier to get more powerful badge gear, you created the Dungeon Finder tool, etc. I know there’s always been that hardcore versus casual debate that rages on the WOW forums, where some people hate that stuff and some people love it. How do you feel like the general feedback among WOW players has been?

The general feedback has been positive. We definitely plan to keep going in the direction that we’re going right now. We’re really happy with the Dungeon Finder. I’d like to find a way to extend that at the very least to 10-person raids at some point in the future. There are a lot of complexities with making that work, but anything we can do to alleviate the annoyances or pains associated with players having to arrange their own groups would be great. Being able to extend that into raiding would be awesome if we could do it.

We also have plans to continue making PvP more accessible also. It’s interesting that in Burning Crusade our raiding game was extremely hardcore, and in a lot of ways the PvP was a lot more casual player-friendly. Through the course of Lich King, those have flipped around. A lot of that is just because of the development in our PvE game. We had really aggressive development in solving the problems that we saw in PvE in Burning Crusade as far as making PvE more accessible and easier to get into and more rewarding. Almost simultaneously, PvP either stayed the same or got more hardcore in some ways.

Those flipped roles in Lich King, and we really want to balance them out better than we have before in Cataclysm. We want to continue to advance on that front with PvE, and with PvP we really want to make sure that it feels better-balanced against PvP as far as how much effort it takes to organize stuff and how much reward you get for your time and effort spent.[/b]

For the final question, there’s been some rumors going around and I wanted to clear them up. You guys have wrapped up the main Lich King storyline. Icecrown is out there, which you guys have said is the final major raid for this expansion. But there are some rumors that there might be another content patch of some sort before Cataclysm releases.

That is a possibility. We can’t say for sure at this point, but we are looking into the possibility of having a boss in the Ruby Sanctum, which is another part of Wyrmrest Temple. It’s a little too early to have a lot of details on that, but I wouldn’t characterize it as a huge chunk of content. It’s not a patch 3.4 or anything.

We have several changes planned for Battlegrounds in the next minor content patch and would like to share them with you now. This patch will be available for public testing and we encourage you to participate, queue up and provide some feedback on these changes.

• Firstly, say goodbye to Battleground Marks of Honor. We feel this currency system is a bit outdated and are getting rid of it. Any items which require these marks as currency will have their costs adjusted appropriately to remove this requirement. The quest NPCs will still be available to award players Honor for turning in leftover marks, but this is only to help players clear this expired currency.
• Next, the Battleground holiday weekend will now be denoted as “Call to Arms” in the Battleground tab and Calendar. If you prefer a specific Battleground over all others, look for those words next to its name to determine whether or not you’ll receive bonus Honor. The bonus awards for Call to Arms Battlegrounds have been adjusted.
• Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.

• To bring the rate at which players obtain PvP rewards with Honor more in-line with the rate at which players obtain PvE rewards via the Dungeon Finder, we’ll also be increasing the amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill by 100%. In light of this, the amount of experience provided from an Honorable Kill, and the amount of Honor awarded for completing the Wintergrasp weekly quests, have been reduced by 50%.

  It’s important to note one thing about these 50% decreases. All Honor awarded for completing objectives in Battlegrounds and Wintergrasp is actually based on an Honorable Kill conversion rate. So if you destroy a tower in Alterac Valley for example, the Honor you’re awarded is actually based on a flat number of Honorable Kills. Since Honorable Kills will now award 100% more Honor, completing such objectives will also award more Honor. This is why experience gains based on completing Battleground objectives and Honor awarded from the Wintergrasp quests are being decreased by 50%.

• Now that we hopefully have your attention, we’re pleased to announce the implementation of the Random Battleground system! This system will work virtually the same as the Random Dungeon option in the Dungeon Finder. Players can queue with a group of up to five players for a Random Battleground in the Battleground tab. As with the Random Dungeon option, the Battleground chosen will not be revealed until players zone into the Battleground for which they are selected. The bonus rewards for this system are identical to the updated Call to Arms bonuses.
• Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the effects of the Call to Arms bonuses. In other words, the bonuses do not stack. In addition, if a player has been rewarded 30 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency from either the Random Battleground system, or the Call to Arms Battleground, he or she will be rewarded 15 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency that day for each additional victory. This applies whether the Random Battleground system is used, or the Call to Arms Battleground is chosen specifically, as a player cannot be rewarded the full amount of bonus Honor more than once per day.

All of these features and changes will be available in the next minor patch which should be hitting the public test realms in the near future. Please help us out by testing this system and providing your feedback so we can make some fine-tuning adjustments before the patch's release.

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

02/17

• The drop rate of Frost Lotus, from herbs in Northrend, has been increased by 50%.