World of Warcraft : Wrath of the Lich King

Attach An Authenticator, Get a Core Hound Pup!

Kody — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:04:54 GMT

If you've been looking for a reason to add an authenticator to your account beyond the extra security it provides, now you have one. When you attach an authenticator to your account, you'll receive a Core Hound Pup on any current and future characters on that Battle.net account! Thanks to Athrynn of Might for the in-game screenshots below.

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

The Core Hound Pup is a gift for anyone using an authenticator (attached to an account) whether it's the physical authenticator or the mobile authenticator. Anyone who attaches an authenticator will also receive this lovable new pet. Think of it as your own personal guard dog.

World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 Recap

Kody — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:10:15 GMT

Patch 3.3 is live this week, so check out the content sections below for everything going into the patch.

3.3 Patch Notes
Icecrown Citadel - Encounters: Raid Access Progression, Chill of the Throne, Tanking, and You!
Icecrown Citadel - Items: Shadowmourne, Quel'Delar, Icecrown Raid Tier-10 Armor Sets, Icecrown Raid Recipe Stats
General - Items: New Kirin Tor Rings, Icecrown Dungeon 5-player Armor
Reputations: The Ashen Verdict
Weekly Raid Quests
New Achievements
Dungeon Finder
Quest Tracker
Kalu'ak Fishing Derby
Cross-Faction Bind on Account Mailing

World of Warcraft Anniversary Interview: The Creation of a Raid Dungeon

Kody — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:38:38 GMT

As I promised in the interview with Greg Street and Cory Stockton, here's a look inside the creation process of a dungeon like Ulduar. It's cool to have a better idea of what each dungeon goes through before players get their hands on it, and even some insight into the way the dungeons and encounters are designed!

Walk us through the creation of a raid instance like Ulduar. When do your various teams come into play, and how much influence do they have on tasks they're not directly involved in during the creation process?

Cory: As far as the kickoff goes for Ulduar... Ulduar was something we were working on all through Northrend, and we kind of realized that we had the content we wanted to ship it. Then we're sitting there with Ulduar, so we had some time to go back to it and beef it up from what we originally had planned for Ulduar.

We kick off, you know... brainstorming names, story, we have Alex Afrasiabi telling us the background, what we need to get across to players. So we kick off there, and it comes to a level design phase where we lay everything out in 2D. You've probably seen this at BlizzCon; we use these 2D illustrator maps to plan the layout of the whole dungeon, figure out where the bosses are gonna be, what we're gonna do.

From that point we talk about it more, decide we like what we have and start building it in 3D in what we call a "block out." The block out is just a really basic 3D form of the dungeon that we can run around in and see what the first stage is like. With Ignis, we knew how the fight was gonna be with the water pools on the side, how far we wanted players to have to drag the adds into the pool.

So in an instance like that, we're able to lay out all of that in 2D to get a sense of feel for units of measure, and then we get it into the basic 3D form and we can actually go in and spawn him, you know we didn't have his model done yet right, but we could spawn him there and get a feel for if there needs to be any changes before we get the final art going. We do that individually for everything in the whole place to lay it out, figure out how much space we need for the fights.

From there we get the encounter team involved. The encounter team comes in and we have meetings on the actual fights individually, and at the same time the art team begins working on final art. Those two work side-by-side from there until the end of the dungeon, or the production time, whatever that might be. Some dungeons that are smaller, we can kick out in two-to-three months, but something like Ulduar that's huge can take more time -- up to four-to-five months.

And during that time, they're working on the fights in Stranglethorn Arena spawning Razorscale there, fighting him, getting it down for how it's gonna play out and what he does while the art is being built for that room. As things start coming in, we'll start putting things together... we'll start placing the creatures in the actual instance and do internal testing.

Everything goes through testing here, we have a QA team that does that, but we test everything ourselves in 10-man form with the encounter guys, Greg is in on that, Tom Chilton, Alex Afrasiabi, all of us. So we go through as players and get a feel for it. From there it's just tuning, we get feedback after every session and work on tuning everything.

Then it goes on to Greg's team where the item art is getting hooked up, filling out the achievements, which all of those falls under Greg's team.

So could an item guy go up to the encounter guys and say "Hey, I have this awesome idea for a boss fight," or a class designer say "This room would look really awesome with a pink elephant ghost hovering near the ceiling."

[Greg Street laughs]

Cory: Oh 100%.

Greg: We're super collaborative here, our offices are full of very open people and we're talking to each other a lot. If someone gets this crazy idea about something and champions it can often get it into the game.

Cory: A lot of times we'll see a model come in from art and they'll end up creating a weapon the creature is holding and one of the item guys will say "oh I want to drop that," and at that point a task will go in, the artist goes in and rips the weapon out of the creature's hands, scales it down to fit the races in the game and we'll actually use that as a weapon.

Like with Razorscale when we saw his model we decided we wanted to get a mount for that. We had no idea until the art came in for him, and we saw it, and it looked so good we decided we had to get it in as a mount. So a lot of times things just happen... we try to plan as much as we can, but sometimes we end up getting things, and we all play this game just like anyone else. So there's a lot of things like that, that come out even though we didn't start with it planned and using it makes it feel so much better.

WoW Dev Interview: The Heart and Souls of Icecrown Citadel

Kody — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:06:34 GMT

It looks like World of Raids wasn't the only one interviewing Greg Street and Cory Stockton this week! Blizzard's community team sat down with them and grilled them on Icecrown Citadel, including their philosophies behind the dungeon and more. Check it out below!

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

To shed some light into the chilly gloom of Icecrown Citadel, we sat down to talk about the decision-making process behind Wrath of the Lich King's ultimate dungeon, the World of Warcraft team's design philosophy, and the dangers that lurk in the heart of Arthas's stronghold.

Check out the resulting interview to learn more: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/icecrown-interview.xml

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

With the final battle against the Lich King just on the horizon, Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Lead Systems Designer Greg Street discuss what awaits players inside Icecrown Citadel and offer a glimpse at the design process behind Wrath of the Lich King's ultimate raid and dungeon encounters.

What were you looking forward to most about developing Icecrown Citadel?

Cory: I think the most exciting thing about developing Icecrown Citadel was just knowing that we were working on the final chapter of the Northrend expansion, and that we'd really be able to give players that ultimate sense of completion of the storyline. Arthas is a huge character in Warcraft lore, so we took a lot of pride in making this the best experience we possibly could.

Icecrown and the Frozen Throne are important parts of the world of Azeroth and have quite a bit of history, especially for longtime Warcraft players. How do you convey the significance of these places and the events that took place there in design?

Cory: History was a large factor in the design of Icecrown Citadel from the very beginning. When we first sat down to discuss the layout of the raid itself, we immediately went back to Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne to think about how the spire from the ending cinematic could be translated into World of Warcraft. We decided to actually build Icecrown Citadel around the original spire to pull players even more into the storyline. This kind of thinking carried on throughout the entire design process.

Greg: We want Icecrown to be an epic experience from top to bottom, and that includes the loot you get. We're not going to shower players in items -- well, more than we already do -- but we do want to make sure the items are sufficiently powerful so that they're upgrades for all of our players.

Is there an existing model in World of Warcraft for Icecrown Citadel's itemization or style of play? What lessons that you'd learned from earlier projects wound up being applied to Icecrown Citadel?

Greg: The nice thing about Icecrown Citadel from an itemization perspective is that we have lots of bosses. That's something of a relief coming from the Crusaders' Coliseum, where we had only five bosses. For Icecrown, we can afford to have multiple options for a particular slot -- say a healing leather bracer or a melee trinket -- and even itemize some of the more unusual pieces. We have a pretty effective system for figuring out who is going to drop what to make sure that an individual boss will be interesting to a variety of players in terms of loot. Most of our lessons learned are in the realm of what differences there should be between 10- and 25-player itemization, the role of tradeskill recipes, and what kinds of items to place with badge vendors.

Cory: I think we learn lessons from every raid that we do. We didn't model Icecrown specifically after any of our previous raids, but you can definitely see influences. For example, we have a winged structure in Icecrown that players will remember from Naxxramas. Another example of an influence would be the teleporters from Ulduar. We know that players really loved that concept, so we brought it back in Icecrown.

Can you talk a little about how artists and designers on the team collaborated on the creation of Icecrown Citadel?

Cory: The design and art teams worked extremely closely throughout the entire development process. The biggest single influence on the look and the layout of the dungeon comes from our concept art, and there was no shortage of that for Icecrown Citadel. Once we locked down the layout, we were able to get to work on the final art extremely quickly thanks to the existing style we'd developed for the Icecrown zone. We really wanted the players to feel connected to the environment, but we wanted to make sure it still had an amazing look. Oftentimes, these two things are hard to mix, but in this case, I think we've been able to pull off an amazing dungeon from both the art and design standpoint.

What sorts of new loot and item abilities will we see in Icecrown?

Greg: There are three main sources of loot for Icecrown: the bosses themselves, the Emblem of Frost badge vendors, and a new faction, the Ashen Verdict, that will provide suitable rewards as well, particularly at the Exalted level.

As far as the items themselves go, we want them to feel epic. In addition to having favorable optimization, we also want to try a lot of experiments to make the items feel cool and unique. We are going to try to do a lot of weapon procs, for instance, which is something we haven't done much since the original World of Warcraft.

When you set out to itemize "sister" areas -- like the Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid, or Halls of Stone, Halls of Lightning, and Ulduar -- do you take any steps to make loot from these places feel similar?

Greg: Absolutely. We approach that on two fronts: the art and the names. When we did the Halls of Stone and Lightning, we hadn't completed the Ulduar raid yet, so the items there didn't necessarily have Titan-influenced art models for us to use. We are doing the Icecrown dungeon at the same time as the raid, and it's a style we already know pretty well, from Naxxramas and even the Warcraft RTS games.

Naming is something we've had a lot of fun with. There's a ton of lore to draw from for Icecrown loot and it has a very strong "kit." World of Warcraft players know to associate the Scourge with spiders, bats, and cultists along with more traditional forms of undead, like skeletons and liches.

Do you itemize Icecrown's "trash" -- the enemies between bosses -- differently from elites elsewhere in the world elsewhere?

Greg: We make sure there is epic trash loot -- specific items that only drop from trash. It helps keep players interested between bosses. However, we aren't doing Heroic trash, just Heroic bosses, so there won't be unique trash loot for Heroic versions of the 10- and 25-player versions of the raid. We try to construct the trash in such a way that it isn't trivial to go farm the first pull or whatever in hopes that an epic drops. We make our raids more accessible now in general, so I'm not sure the motivation is there to try stunts like that the way it once was. We want players who have raided so far in Wrath of the Lich King to be able to actually fight the Lich King, so chances are a lot of raiders will have plenty of opportunities to gear up. Now, the Heroics are another story -- those will be as challenging as they were in Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader, and the items will likewise be even better.

What have you done to make the tier-10 sets feel like a meaningful advancement from tier 8 and tier 9? How do they visually represent Icecrown's lore and history?

Greg: Not only do we want them to be a meaningful advancement, but we want them to feel really awesome. This is Arthas loot you're talking about. We started by spending a lot of time on the concept art to make sure it tied into the type of creatures you'll encounter and the whole Icecrown art "kit" in general. For example, the rogue tier-10 set has a strong geist look to it, while the hunter set has strong Nerubian elements, and the mage set looks a lot like the Blood Princes. You can see the Icecrown look and feel in a lot of pieces, which itself drew strongly from the Lich King's original helmet. Look for lots of blue, ice, skulls, and spikes.

We have also spent a lot longer on the set bonuses than we usually do. It's important that they feel awesome for every class and spec. Going back to the Crusaders' Coliseum, part of the challenge we made for ourselves was to create an instance that didn't require as much time or resources as Ulduar to develop, yet was still cool. We had set bonuses for the tier-9 gear, but they were often simple -- more crit on a common ability was a typical one. For tier 10, we're really going for set bonuses that change your game up a little. At the very least, you should want to change your rotation a little, though this is easier with some classes than others.

If you had something like a mission statement or a slogan for itemizing Icecrown, what would it be?

Greg: Epic. Cool things. Proc'y stuff.

Seriously, that's our mission statement. One of the risks of itemization is making things feel too formulaic. We know that when we step outside the bounds too much, players can have a bad reaction to it, like, "Why does my gear for this tier suck?" It's easy to fall into the trap of making the new gear feel just like the last gear with 20 more stat points. That is the exact design approach we use for the PvP gear, and left unchecked, it would be easy to go the same direction with the PvE gear as well. We're trying not to do that. We think we owe it to Icecrown for the gear to be memorable, but that means we're going to take a few chances.

Can you talk about any of the new mechanics we'll see in the raid?

Cory: One of the coolest new things we're doing in Icecrown is the gunship air battle. Players will be able to board their respective faction's gunship and then take to the air for a battle to the top of the citadel. They'll be fighting on the decks as well as using vehicles' cannon emplacements. If you're really daring, you can put on a goblin rocket pack and propel yourself back and forth between the two battling gunships. Needless to say, this will be a type of encounter that our players have never experienced before.

Icecrown Citadel's structure is extremely vertical -- what challenges does that present from a layout perspective?

Cory: Well, we knew from the start that the layout was going to be vertical, just due to the nature of the original spire. There are a number of things that we're doing to help players get around and not get lost. We're using elevators, teleporters, and even gunships to get players where they need to go in the dungeon. We are also going to have an in-game map with full support for all floors -- that should help too.

Icecrown is the last major raid and dungeon before the release of Cataclysm -- how has that affected the design?

Greg: The major challenge from an itemization perspective is that the items have to last basically until Cataclysm. That means we can't afford to give them away too quickly, but they also need to feel powerful enough that players are motivated to keep trying for them. On the other hand, the really fun thing about doing a final raid tier is how it unties your hands. We can afford to make these items great because nothing needs to follow on their heels. It's cool to be able to optimize the items very well, because it's okay if players don't want to replace these items for a long time.

Cory: We are really pushing as hard as we can to deliver the most epic experience possible. We know that our players have been waiting for this for a long time, and we plan to deliver. Everyone should expect to see this sort of storytelling and attention to detail in Cataclysm as well. I think we are always striving to pull the people who play our game into the storyline and really give them an explanation for why they're there. It won't be too long before they'll get a chance to bring the pain to Deathwing!

Thanks, both of you - we're looking forward to playing through Icecrown Citadel after patch 3.3 is released!

Shadowmourne Discovered

Kody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:54:11 GMT

Shadowmourne has been discovered on the 3.3 PTR! Apparently certain devs (or maybe GMs) had it equipped during the encounter testing tonight. Also don't forget to check out the Shadowmourne preview. Thanks to Might for tipping me off on this. Click through on the image for a shot of the model too.

Icecrown Citadel Raid Access Progression

Kody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:49:58 GMT

This doesn't come as a huge surprise since Ghostcrawler let slip of it in our interview with him, but check out the planned progression for raid access in Icecrown Citadel below.

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

Legendary Weapon Preview: Shadowmourne

Kody — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:26:00 GMT

This looks like it will shape up to be the most interesting legendary quest ever added to the game. It should be a lot of fun for players to take part in when 3.3 goes live! Here's the official preview of Shadowmourne, the next legendary weapon being added to World of Warcraft:

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Before beginning his reign as the Lich King, Prince Arthas Menethil was first a servant, ruled by a sword he believed was the key to saving his people - the runeblade Frostmourne. Finding and claiming the blade among the frozen wastes of Northrend was an odyssey unto itself, and the search cost the prince his mentor, his relationship with his subjects, and his humanity. It cost the living of Azeroth far more.

With a tight grip on the blade that he traded his life for, Arthas ravaged the kingdom of Lordaeron and broke free from the control of the Burning Legion. By the time the former prince ascended as the leader of the Scourge, Frostmourne was already glutted with the souls of the numberless dead who dared to oppose him.

Now, Arthas has become so inseparable from his weapon that the sword's likeness has even found its way into the architecture of his fortress, Icecrown Citadel. Its hilt is never far from his hands; its ghostly whispers constantly ring in his ears. Frostmourne, as much as the Lich King, is the ruler of Northrend.

To challenge that rule, mighty heroes will need to follow more closely in Arthas's path than ever before.

In a relentless quest to arm the forces of the living against the Scourge, Darion Mograine has formed the Ashen Verdict, a union between the most skilled craftsmen of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. Though the peerless paladins of the Crusade wield the power of the Light, and their leader clutches Ashbringer, a few of Mograine's dark warriors have begun to question their hopes for victory.

These death knights insist that the Ashbringer and the skills of the Argent Crusaders, though potent, aren't enough to best Frostmourne alone. They swear that Darion Mograine has long been quietly aware of another legendary blade - one that could be the key to defeating the Lich King and cleansing Northrend... But it doesn't exist yet.

For the moment, the weapon is a formless idea, with no more killing power than an angry thought. When it is spoken of, it is spoken of quietly, and the Highlord has a habit of silencing those who discuss it in public.

But the hope of an artifact to rival Frostmourne is strong within the minds of the Ebon Blade. Just its name inspires the furnaces to burn late into the night, the bellows to pump air, and the darker half of the Verdict's smiths to swing their hammers until their fingers fail. While other craftsmen crafters lean over whetstones and gather pitted blades by the hundreds, these few dream of a single weapon to end the war for Northrend.

Shadowmourne... A great two-handed axe fit for a giant, born of sacred and corrupt powers, host of a thousand dead souls and able to be wielded only by the most stalwart armsmasters of Azeroth. Its creation seems nearly impossible; and yet, the rumors do not cease.

Some smiths claim that Shadowmourne must be nothing more than an ordinary axe, honed to unparalleled perfection, while others would shape it from a weapon of immense import in the world. Mograine, when he can be convinced to speak of it at all, is said to believe that only the hammer of Arthas himself will provide a worthy model - but such absurd ambition is just the beginning of Shadowmourne's creation.

To contain the energies that dance across its cold edges, Shadowmourne must be hewn from piles of impure Saronite: the hardened blood of the Old God, Yogg-Saron, treated only by master metal-shapers.

To fuel its power to kill, it is vital that Shadowmourne be drenched in the souls of the most potent servants of the Scourge as they are slain, one by one, with the unfinished blade.

To help break through the Lich King's armor, Shadowmourne is to be adorned with fragments of the Frozen Throne, originally crafted by Kil'Jaeden out of ice from the Twisting Nether.

Only with these mighty components, it's said, can Shadowmourne be finished. And, yet, even if the axe could be completed, questions and fears remain. Is forging the souls of the deceased into a weapon treated withblood and the essence of the Twisting Nether truly any different from the crafting of the Scourge's runeblades?

Who is to say that the Lich King wouldn't simply annihilate - or control - the maker for their impudence in mimicking his most treasured possession? If Arthas, one of the most dedicated knights of his age, lost his humanity to the whispers of Frostmourne, might Shadowmourne bring the same doom and misery tothe living as its sister blade?

Without knowing the answers to these questions, who would be bold enough to try and wield it?

World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 - Quel'Delar: The Sister Blade

Kody — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:59:04 GMT

Quel'Delar: The Sister Blade

Blizzard has revealed the story behind Quel'Delar, a new weapon introduced in patch 3.3 through a series of quests heavily related to the High Elves prior to the fall of Quel'Thalas at the hands of Arthas Menethil and Icecrown Citadel itself. Even the dragons play a part in this quest series, so it's going to be quite epic.

Oh, and did I mention that it's a 5-player quest series? Don't forget to check out our Quel'Delar quest preview and the Quel'Delar quest videos as well if you want to find out more before this goes live.

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

In ages past the great Dragon Aspects worked alongside the night elves to forge powerful prismatic blades that could be used to thwart any evil that came into the world. One of these weapons, Quel'Serrar, was recently unearthed. Another will soon be found...

In the upcoming content patch the sister blade, Quel'Delar, will be obtainable by players. If you want to know more, take a glimpse into this weapon's tragic past and where the quest to re-forge it will begin.

Link: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/queldelar.xml

Story of Quel'Delar

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

In ages past the great Dragon Aspects worked alongside the night elves to forge powerful prismatic blades that could be used to thwart any evil that came into the world. They would become known as the blades of Quel'Serrar. One of these blades, which had become lost in time, was recently unearthed again by brave heroes of Azeroth. Now rediscovered, Quel'Serrar is revered once more as a mighty tool of raw power.

Its sister blade, however, has not been seen for many years...

The sword known as Quel'Delar was held by the group of kaldorei who would eventully become the high elves, and it was handed down from generation to generation. Most recently Quel'Delar was wielded by the valiant high elven warrior Thalorien Dawnseeker. Thalorien fought tirelessly in the Troll Wars to defend his beloved home of Silvermoon, the Sunwell, and all of Quel'Thalas. When the Scourge swept through the lands during the Third War, Thalorien was among the last lines of defense for the Sunwell. Despite the sword's power, he was ultimately slain by the overwhelming might of Arthas and his legendary runeblade, Frostmourne. Quel'Delar was thought to be lost forever.

Following the destruction of their homeland, the determined blood elves began to regroup and rebuild. It was during this time that the battle-hardened warrior Lana'thel stumbled upon Quel'Delar, and soon afterward the greatest opportunity to use the blade presented itself: Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider raised an army and combined forces with Illidan Stormrage, who led them north to Icecrown on a mission to destroy the Lich King. Lana'thel readily followed her prince with one thought in mind -- revenge against the Scourge -- but only tragedy awaited her.

In the icy hills of Northrend, Arthas ultimately defeated Illidan and Kael'thas, and the expedition's few survivors were scattered across the frozen wastes. One by one the Lich King sought out those who had challenged him, and Lana'thel found herself cornered. Using Quel'Delar, she struck at him with all her might... but Frostmourne's evil powers overwhelmed her. Through his blade, the Lich King chose Lana'thel to serve him in undeath as queen of the San'layn, a group responsible for overseeing the Scourge's operations across Azeroth.

Queen Lana'thel eagerly carried out her new duties, but every time she looked at her blade, maddening anger would swell within her as she remembered her former life. She could not afford such distractions, and with a scream that echoed throughout Icecrown, she shattered Quel'Delar and flung the fractured pieces as far as she could.

Now...

The champions of the Alliance and the Horde who confront the Lich King's armies have but a slim chance of finding the pieces of this fabled blade. If they succeed, the heroes can embark on an epic adventure to re-forge Quel'Delar. They will require the strongest materials and a source of great power to make this shattered blade into the fearsome weapon it once was. Several classes can use Quel'Delar, and the sword can fit several different play styles. For any class that is unable to wield it, however, the Sunreaver blood elves and the Silver Covenant high elves will gladly take this relic of their history in exchange for a usable weapon.

The search begins soon...

3.2 PTR Patch Notes - Build 10116

Kody — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:46:08 GMT

3.2 Patch Notes - Build 10116

The 3.2 PTR patch notes have been updated again. Below is a list of what's new / changed.

PvP

Arenas

Ring of Valor

The flame wall has been removed.

Wintergrasp

Against the Odds: This achievement has been removed and converted to a Feat of Strength.

Raids and Dungeons

Ulduar

An Immortal Guardian targeted for Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter will now become a 'Marked Immortal Guardian' while targeted.

Crusher Tentacles in the Yogg-Saron encounter spawn a little slower in 25-player mode allowing a bit more time for players to clear out the Illusion room.

Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter now targets a maximum of three Immortal Guardians in 25-player mode.

Yogg-Saron's health has been reduced by 20% in the final stage of his 25-player mode.

Items: General

Items with Triggered Effects: These items generally have cooldowns on how often they can be triggered. Those cooldowns are now triggered each time the item is equipped (example: A trinket has a 45-second cooldown on an effect triggered by player attacks; when a player equips that item, the effect will be unable to be triggered for the first 45 seconds it is worn).

Paladin

Crusader Aura: This ability now also grants its flying speed increase to a druid’s Flight Form and Swift Flight Form.

Shaman

A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems. The naming scheme of the spells to summon the different totem sets has been changed to make it less confusing for players:

Call of Fire (Totem Bar 1, the first one gained at level 30) is now named Call of the Elements.

Call of Water (Totem Bar 2) is now named Call of the Ancestors.

Call of Fire (Totem Bar 3) is now named Call of the Spirits.

Call of Earth (the spell to recall all summoned totems) is now named Totemic Recall.

Warlock

Talents

Destruction

Improved Shadow Bolt: Redesigned slightly. Instead of a 100% chance to apply a 1/2/3/4/5% critical strike increase on the target, it now has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply a 5% critical strike increase.

Warrior

Talents

Protection

Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.

Bug Fixes (Some of these may not be new; posting entire list because there are a LOT of new things)

Death Knights

Anti-Magic Shell: The tooltip for this ability will now reflect modifications from the Magic Suppression talent.

Blood-Caked Blade: The damage from this talent is no longer normalized to weapon speed.

Chilblains: Icy Clutch can no longer miss when Frost Fever hits, however, when Frost Fever is dispelled Icy Clutch will also be dispelled.

Dancing Rune Weapon: The rune weapon will no longer cast Corpse Explosion.

Desecration: No longer causes unnecessary combat logging.

Horn of Winter: Learning rank 2 of this ability caused players to unlearn rank 1, such that it no longer appears in their spellbook. It is now possible to relearn that rank, and death knights will no longer “forget” rank 1 when they learn rank 2.

Lichborne: The buff from this ability can now be cancelled.

Raise Ally: Using the Gnaw ability while under the effects of this spell will now initiate auto-attack. In addition, the damage done has been changed from a flat value to a percentage of weapon damage.

Raise Dead: This spell will no longer give two errors when the casting player lacks the reagent to cast it.

Rune of Razorice: Each death knight can now have his or her own copy of this debuff on the target.

Rune of Spellbreaking: Tooltip now indicates the effect from this enchantment does not stack with other effects which reduce the duration of Silence effects (including not stacking with a second copy of this enchantment). In addition, now reduces damage from Holy spells.

Rune of Spellshattering: Now reduces damage from Holy spells.

Summon Gargoyle: Corrected the inaccurate tooltip which claimed a Gargoyle could last up to 40 seconds, when in fact 30 seconds has always been the maximum.

Rune of Razorice: Corrected a bug where this applied to frost damage done by others.

Druids

Bash: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.

Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form: Mana energizes that occur while in these forms will now appear in the combat log and floating combat text.

Cyclone: Victims of Cyclone can no longer receive healing from health drain effects such as Devouring Plague while they are affected by Cyclone.

Dash: Druids who have not learned Track Humanoids will now retain the benefit of Dash while shifting out of and back into Cat Form.

Druids should no longer be removed from a form after using any engineered bombs.

Maim: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.

Natural Perfection: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.

Nature's Grasp: This talent will no longer be triggered spuriously by some ranged abilities such as Heroic Throw.

Hunters

All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.

Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.

Furious Howl: Ranks 1-5 will no longer give slightly more attack power than is listed in their tooltips.

Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.

Roar of Sacrifice: Damage transferred to pet is now considered Nature damage.

The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.

T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.

Mages

Arcane Instability: Tooltip reworded to clarify design intent.

Burning Determination: Some Silence and Interrupt effects that did not trigger this talent will now trigger it properly, including Bash, Hammer of Justice, Shield of the Templar, Garrote and Gag Order.

Combustion: Fire spell misses will no longer trigger this talent.

Conjure Refreshment: Rank 1 food will no longer overwrite the drink buff from rank 2 food.

Fireball: Periodic damage from this spell can no longer trigger Combustion.

Living Bomb: Periodic critical strikes from this ability can now trigger Ignite and Hot Streak.

Mirror Image: The mirror images will no longer complete casts of Frostbolt on targets which are Polymorphed at the time their Frostbolt channel finishes.

Molten Armor: Critical strikes from the effect on this armor will no longer trigger Ignite.

Paladins

Auras: Any paladin aura active at the time of the paladin’s death now automatically reactivates when the paladin returns to life.

Beacon of Light: Multiple paladins can now have this buff active on the same target. In addition, the beacon target will no longer lose the buff while under the effects of Cyclone or Banish.

Blessing of Sanctuary: This talent and Vigilance will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.

Exorcism: Now properly has a 100% chance to be a critical strike when cast on death knights using Lichborne.

Eye for an Eye: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes. In addition, the tooltip incorrectly stated that 20% damage is reflected, when it is actually 10%. Tooltip fixed.

Hammer of Justice: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.

Hand of Sacrifice: Casting this spell on a target with Divine Sacrifice active will now generate an error message instead of wasting the cooldown.

Heart of the Crusader: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.

Holy Shield: It is no longer possible to have two ranks of this ability active at the same time.

Judgements: All paladin judgements are now properly considered as melee attacks that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried. Previously Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice and Seal of Righteousness would cause the judgement to be considered a ranged attack.

Judgement of the Just: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.

Judgement of Vengeance: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.

Judgement of Corruption: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.

Pursuit of Justice: This talent will no longer sometimes be deactivated when leaving a battleground.

Sacred Shield: This buff will no longer have any effect if the target is another player engaged in a duel. In addition, the heal from this buff will no longer cause the paladin to stand, and it is no longer possible for two paladins to both have the spell active on one target.

Priests

Blessed Resilience: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.

Divine Aegis: This talent will now work properly if the priest moves out of range of his or her target as the effect is resolving.

Divine Hymn: This spell now works correctly with the trinket Illustration of the Dragon Soul. Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.

Mass Dispel: This spell now triggers some types of trinkets it did not trigger before (such as Flow of Knowledge).

Mind Flay: This spell will now work correctly with [target=focus] macros.

Pain Suppression: No longer can be cast while under the effects of Incapacitate or Cyclone.

Rogues

Honor Among Thieves: Periodic critical strikes now grant combo points for rogues with this talent.

Killing Spree: Error message when no targets are in range has been changed to “Out of Range”.

Master of Subtlety: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.

Overkill: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.

Shiv: Deadly Poison will now apply properly when Shiv is the attack used to break a Gouge.

Tricks of the Trade: Using this ability on a target affected by Cyclone or Banish will no longer place the ability on permanent cooldown and will instead give an error message.

Turn the Tables: Rank 2 of this talent will now work properly with raid members, and not just party members.

Shamans

Elemental Devastation: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.

Elemental Focus: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.

Elemental Oath: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.

Flametongue Weapon: Fixed tooltip error.

Frostbrand Weapon: Fixed a bug where rank 9 was not scaling properly with a shaman’s spell power.

Warlocks

Demonic Circle: The visual for this spell should now despawn when the warlock dies or when the warlock otherwise loses the aura that allows transport to the circle.

Immolate and Unstable Affliction: All ranks of these two spells will now overwrite each other.

Improved Imp: Each time an Imp is summoned it will recast Blood Pact (if autocast is on), forcing it to benefit from this talent, even if the Imp was not summoned at the time the talent was learned.

Warriors

Berserker Rage: Tooltip clarified to indicate this ability breaks existing Fear, Sap, and Incapacitate effects.

Bladestorm: Now properly removes the Snare effect of Desecration in all cases.

Blood Craze: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.

Execute: Focused Rage and the Dreadnaught Battlegear set bonus will now properly reduce the cost of Execute.

Slam: The combat log tooltip will no longer list which rank of Slam was used. Previously it incorrectly listed rank 8 for all ranks of Slam.

Vigilance: This talent and Blessing of Sanctuary will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.

Items

Adamantite Scope: Attaching this scope to an item will now cause it to become soulbound as intended.

Badge of the Swarmguard: Will no longer cause a weapon swing animation when it triggers.

Cenarion Set: No longer reduces the (nonexistent) cooldown on Hurricane. Instead, the set bonus increases the damage done by Hurricane by 15%.

Commendation of Bravery: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.

Deadly Gladiator’s Dreadplate: The set bonus will now trigger properly from Crippling Poison.

Death Knight PvP Glove Bonus: The runic power gain no longer appears in the combat log.

Death Knight Tier-7 Set: Fingers of the Damned now has a detailed combat log tooltip.

Frostweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.

Glyphs

Glyph of Beacon of Light: This glyph will no longer grant its duration increase twice when Beacon of Light is cast on self.

Glyph of Corpse Explosion: This glyph will no longer cause the model on target dummies to change.

Glyph of Death Strike: Tooltip typo corrected.

Glyph of Disease: Blood Plague will now last its correct full duration when refreshed by this glyph.

Glyph of Freezing Trap: The effect from this glyph will now log properly.

Glyph of Healing Wave: The heal from this glyph will no longer benefit twice from the Purification talent.

Glyph of Overpower: Fixed a bug where sometimes parries would not trigger the glyph. In addition, this glyph will now only make Overpower available for 6 seconds after a parry, instead of indefinitely.

Glyph of Power World: Shield: The heal from this glyph can now cause Divine Aegis.

Glyph of Shadow: This glyph can now be triggered by critical strikes from periodic damage.

Glyph of Shocking: Fixed tooltip error on Macintosh game client.

Glyph of Shadowflame: The effect from this glyph will now work properly when multiple Warlocks use Shadowflame on the target.

Gnomish Mind Control Cap: Paladins who break the harmful effect from this item by using Divine Shield will now properly gain the Forbearance debuff.

Goblin Dragon Gun: This item will no longer spam the combat log with cast messages.

Heavy Netherweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.

Major Arcane Protection Potion: Vendor price lowered to match other similar potions.

Nightsong Battlegear: The 2-piece set bonus will no longer sometimes be triggered by other periodic damage other than those listed in the tooltip.

Pandora’s Plea: Corrected a tooltip issue.

Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes (“of the Bear”) have had their stat values increased significantly.

Reins of the Icemaw Matriarch: This vehicle will now leave bear footprints instead of barefoot footprints.

Reticulated Armor Webbing: Tooltip corrected to no longer claim that this item only works on plate items.

Saronite Bomb: This item will no longer cause threat against nearby targets just outside the targeting circle.

Scrolls: Scrolls which grant agility, intellect, spirit, strength, or stamina will now report an error message and no longer consume and waste the scroll when the target has a more powerful buff to that stat.

Sif’s Remembrance: Sound and animation added to trinket effect.

Sigil of Arthritic Binding: The bonus damage from this relic is now added after diseases have increased damage by a percentage, instead of after.

Trinkets: Various trinkets which did not work properly with channeled area-of-effect spells will now work with those spells. This includes (but is not limited to) Illustration of the Dragon Soul, Darkmoon Card: Greatness, and Egg of Mortal Essence.

Warrior PvP Glove Bonus: Tooltip reworded slightly.

Wintergrasp Commendation: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.

Professions

Enchant Weapon – Black Magic: This enchantment can now be triggered by some spells it did not previously work with, including Curse of Agony, Blizzard, and Typhoon.

Guardian Gloves: Now correctly marked as uncommon quality.

Events

Hallow's End: Putting out fires for this event will no longer trigger effects from items, talents, and set bonuses.

Noblegarden: Loot windows will no longer periodically close while the looting player is transformed into a rabbit.

PTR Raid and Dungeon Testing (July 16)

Kody — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:11:32 GMT

PTR Raid and Dungeon Testing (July 16)

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

Here's the current schedule for Trial of the Crusader PTR testing:

On all realms:

The Trial of the Champion dungeon will be available shortly after the PTR coming up.

On the North American test realms:

Lord Jaraxxus - Thursday Night, July 16, starting at 7pm EDT. Normal Only.

Northrend Beasts - Friday Night, July 17, starting at 7pm EDT. Normal and Heroic.
Faction Champions - Friday Night, July 17, starting at 7pm EDT. Normal and Heroic.

On the European test realms:

Val'kyr - Friday Night, July 17, starting at 19:00 CEST. Normal and Heroic.
Lord Jaraxxus - Friday Night, July 17, starting at 19:00 CEST. Normal and Heroic.

Anub'arak

- Saturday Night, July 18, starting at 19:00 CEST. Normal and Heroic.

Some of the tests will have multiple bosses and difficulties available for testing, as noted above.

Test Patchwerks (Tank and DPS versions) will also be available in the Argent Coliseum during similar times to other bosses. Instead of the previous

tank test patchwerk that increased melee damage over time, the 3.2 tank test patchwerk will just hit VERY hard (as hard as Algalon) all the time to

allow for more lengthy sustained tank parses. We're always interested in seeing combat logs and parses for all raid testing on the PTR, but

especially test patchwerk logs. These are extremely helpful to our class team.

This schedule could change at a moment's notice due to server, bug, or patch status. I'll try to keep everyone informed as much as possible. The

Trial of the Crusader and the bosses to be tested will remain also open a variable length of time. How long they stay open depends upon a host of

factors including designer availability, bug status, etc. These bosses are very much a work in progress, and this is a test server.

Quick Trial of the Crusader FAQ:

Q) Where's all the trash?
A) There isn't any in this raid zone. Really.

Q) Where's the loot?
A) Loot is present on the bosses, but note that many of the items do not have final art.

Q) What about achievements?
A) Most all of them are implemented now.

3.2 PTR Patch Notes Update - Build 10083

Kody — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:46:12 GMT

3.2 PTR Patch Notes Update

The 3.2 patch notes have been updated again. Changes listed below.

PvP

Arenas

Beginning with season 7, players will no longer have access to the newest season’s weapons or shoulder armor and will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2 bracket alone. Ratings obtained through 3v3 and 5v5 game play will be required for these rewards, while the rest of the newest season’s items will remain available to players in all brackets (standard rating restrictions still apply).

Items: General

Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Death Knight

Talents

Frost

Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.

Druid

Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.

Hunter

Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.

Mage

Mirror Image: Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.

Paladin

Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.

Shaman

Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).

Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.

Talents

Enhancement

Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.

Warrior

Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player’s level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player’s level.

Professions

Engineering

Flying Machine: The level requirement needed to learn how to build and use this machine has been reduced to level 60, down from level 70, and the engineering skill level reduced to 300, down from 350. Material costs reduced.

Items

Tome of Cold Weather Flying: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.

Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item’s stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val’anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

Bug Fixes

Warlock

The visual for Demonic Circle should now despawn when the warlock dies or when the warlock otherwise loses the aura that allows transport to the circle.

Additional 3.2 Wintergrasp Changes

Kody — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:44:04 GMT

In a show of why the PTR truly exists, Blizzard has announced more changes (a few new, some modified from the last announcement) to Lake Wintergrasp in patch 3.2. Make sure to hop on the PTR and give the new Lake Wintergrasp a try if you're able, and then post your feedback on the official PTR forums. For European players, you can find the EU PTR forum here.

Quote from: Dresorull (Source)

In response to some of the feedback we have received about Wintergrasp, I have some brief updates that should be in the next PTR build.

We are changing the max players per side to be 120 to match up with 3 x 40 raid groups. This should be reflected in the next PTR update.

The Wintergrasp timer should now be visible in the map view from all continents, not just while in Northrend.

The time until the next battle is also now shown in the battleground tab of the PVP window.

The initial players for a battle are chosen randomly, it doesn’t matter when or where you queue from.

Higher level players in the queue have priority to be chosen.

Queued players standing in Wintergrasp when the battle starts will only be ported out if they were not chosen to be an initial player.

We greatly appreciate the feedback and bugs that have been received so far from the PTR, and look forward to hearing more throughout this testing phase.

Trial of the Crusader - PTR Testing (July 8)

Kody — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:16:16 GMT

Trial of the Crusader - PTR Testing (July 8)

The testing is about to begin for the new raid instance in 3.2. Make sure to read up on the bosses here beforehand!

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

Here's the current schedule for Trial of the Crusader PTR testing:

On the North American test realms:

Lord Jaraxxus - Thursday Night, July 9, starting at 7pm EDT/4pm PDT.

On the European test realms:

Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane - Thursday Night, July 9, starting at 19:00 CEST.

Note that only the 10 Player and 25 Player difficulties will be available on PTR. The Heroic versions will not be available. If you are usually part of raids that easily crushes Ulduar Hard Modes, you should find the non-Heroic difficulties to be not difficult.

Koralon the Flame Watcher is also available to be tested in the Vault of Archavon depending on PTR Wintergrasp status.

Test Patchwerks (Tank and DPS versions) will also be available in the Argent Coliseum during similar times to other bosses. Instead of the previous tank test patchwerk that increased melee damage over time, the 3.2 tank test patchwerk will just hit VERY hard (as hard as Algalon) all the time to allow for more lengthy sustained tank parses. We're always interested in seeing combat logs and parses for all raid testing on the PTR, but especially test patchwerk logs. These are extremely helpful to our class team.

This schedule could change at a moment's notice due to server, bug, or patch status. I'll try to keep everyone informed as much as possible. The Trial of the Crusader and the bosses to be tested will remain also open a variable length of time. How long they stay open depends upon a host of factors including designer availability, bug status, etc. These bosses are very much a work in progress, and this is a test server.

Quick Trial of the Crusader FAQ:

Q) Where's all the trash?
A) There isn't any in this raid zone. Really.

Q) Where's the loot?
A) Loot is present on the bosses, but note that many of the items do not have final art.

Q) What about achievements?
A) Most of them are not fully implemented yet.

Q) What about the Trial of the Champion (ie the 5 player dungeon)?
A) This will see more extended testing later in the PTR cycle.

Instance Lock Extensions

Kody — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:30:56 GMT

While this was announced in yesterday's PTR patch notes, Eyonix posted a bit more information on the new Instance Lock Extension feature coming in patch 3.2.

Check it out below, and feel free to share your thoughts on this new feature!

Quote from: Eyonix (Source)

In the next patch a new feature will be become available that will give players the option to extend the instance lock, or instance ID of a raid or heroic dungeon. It will be possible to extend an instance lock more than once and each extension will grant an additional amount of time equal to the duration of the original instance lock. In other words, you'd gain 24-hours if you chose to extend the instance lock of a heroic dungeon, whereas you'd gain 7-days by extending the lock on Ulduar. Additionally, extending an instance lock is a choice that's solely up to each individual, and is not controlled by the group's party or raid leader. This new option is being added as a means to allow parties and raids to progress through an instance at their chosen pace, and should prove to be a useful option available when the patch is released.

WoW 3.2 PTR Build 10072

Kody — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:07:14 GMT

3.2 PTR Build 10072 Changes

A new PTR build is being deployed today. Stay tuned for the changes as well as anything once the PTR comes up! It's possible we'll see testing of Crusaders' Coliseum start, so don't forget to refresh your memory with the raid encounter preview.

Achievements

Dungeons & Raids

A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity - In the Trial of the Grand Crusader, reach a Tribute Chest with 50 attempts remaining in 10-player mode, without any raid member ever having equipped, at any point during the boss encounters for that raid lockout, an item more powerful than those obtainable in the 10-player Trial of the Grand Crusader. (Title Reward: Argent Defender)

Earth, Wind & Fire (10 player) - Defeat Archavon the Stone Watcher, Emalon the Storm Watcher, and Koralon the Flame Watcher within 60 seconds of each other in 10-player mode.

Earth, Wind & Fire (25 player) - Defeat Archavon the Stone Watcher, Emalon the Storm Watcher, and Koralon the Flame Watcher within 60 seconds of each other in 25-player mode.

The Trator King (10 player) - Use Pursuing Spikes to kill 25 Swarm Scarabs within 60 seconds in 10-player mode.

The Trator King (25 player) - Use Pursuing Spikes to kill 25 Swarm Scarabs within 60 seconds in 25-player mode.

Three Sixty Pain Spike (10 player) - Defeat Lord Jaraxxus while at least two Mistresses of Pain are alive in 10-player mode.

Three Sixty Pain Spike (25 player) - Defeat Lord Jaraxxus while at least two Mistresses of Pain are alive in 25-player mode.

Feats of Strength

A Tribute to Immortality - In the Trial of the Grand Crusader, reach a Tribute Chest with 50 attempts remaining and without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters in 25-player mode. (Mount Reward: Crusader's Warhorse)

A Tribute to Immortality - In the Trial of the Grand Crusader, reach a Tribute Chest with 50 attempts remaining and without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters in 25-player mode. (Mount Reward: Crusader's Warhorse)

Realm First! Grand Crusader - Participated in the realm first conquest of the Trial of the Grand Crusader with 50 attempts remaining in 25-player mode. (Title Reward: The Grand Crusader)

Tier 9 Set Bonus Changes

Death Knight

Tank

2 piece: Decreases the cooldown on your Dark Command ability by 2.0 sec and increases the damage done by your Blood Strike and Heart Strike abilities by 5%.

Druid

Balance

4 piece: Increases the damage done by your Starfire and Wrath spells by 4%.

Feral

2 piece: Decreases the cooldown on your Growl ability by 2.0 sec, increases the periodic damage done by your Lacerate ability by 5%, and increases the duration of your Rake ability by 3.0 sec.

Paladin

Tank

2 piece: Decreases the cooldown on your Hand of Reckoning ability by 2.0 sec and increases the damage done by your Hammer of the Righteous ability by 5%.

Warrior

Tank

2 piece: Decreases the cooldown on your Taunt ability by 2.0 sec and increases the damage done by your Devastate ability by 5%.

3.2 PTR Patch Notes Updated

PvP

Wintergrasp

Wintergrasp factories can no longer be damaged or destroyed.

Dungeons and Raids

Dungeon and Raid ID extensions

In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend a dungeon or raid ID on an individual basis.

Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.

The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the lockout period by the same amount of time as the original lockout (i.e. extending an Ulduar raid ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning dungeon ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul’Gurub raid ID will add 3 days to the lockout time).

An ID can be extended more than once.

An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended lockout period that would save that player to the instance.

Items: General

Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.

Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.

Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.

Druid

Enrage: This Bear Form ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The armor penalty is unchanged.

Talents

Feral Combat

King of the Jungle: This talent now reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 20/40/60%.

Primal Tenacity: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.

Hunter

Pets

Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown is now 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.

Mage

Talents

Frost

Empowered Frostbolt: Instead of increasing critical strike chance by 2/4%, this talent now reduces the cast time of Frostbolt by 0.1/0.2 seconds.

Permafrost: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also causes the mage’s Chill effects to reduce healing received by the victim by 7/13/20%.

Paladin

Talents

Protection

Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead heal the paladin for up to 10/20/30% of maximum health depending on the paladin’s defense rating (example: a paladin with defense equal to only 5 times his or her level will receive no healing from the talent, while a paladin who is immune to critical strikes from boss creatures through defense will receive the maximum amount).

Guarded by the Light: This talent will no longer cause Divine Plea’s duration to be refreshed by using Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice, or Judgement of Light.

Retribution

Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant. In addition, this talent now provides notification in the floating combat text when it activates.

Priest

Psychic Horror: This spell no longer has an invisible missile, so there is no travel time before the spell takes effect.

Talents

Shadow

Dispersion: Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.

Improved Mind Blast: Redesigned. Now, in addition to reducing the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds, while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 seconds.

Vampiric Touch: The amount of damage done when this spell is dispelled has been doubled.

Shaman

Chain Heal: Jump distance increased by 25% to 12.5 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.

Warlock

Shadowflame: The angle of the cone effect on this ability was inadvertently very small, making it difficult to use. Its cone is now the same size as similar spells, such as Cone of Cold.

Warrior

Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged.

Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.

Shield Block: Shield Slam no longer benefits from the increased block value granted by this ability. However, while Shield Block is active, Shield Slam generates 100% additional threat.

Professions

Engineering

Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look... stylish? This attachment provides a passive bonus of 45 stamina.

Gnomish Engineers and Goblin Engineers can now switch profession specializations for a fee.

The Spynocular belt attachment has been changed to a Frag Belt. The Frag Belt periodically produces a Cobalt Frag Bomb that can be used from the belt every 6 minutes (never runs out!).

World Enlarger: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour.

Items

Glyphs

Paladin

Glyph of Righteous Defense: Now also increases the chance for Hand of Reckoning to hit.

Shaman

Glyph of Healing Wave: The amount of healing the shaman receives is now based on the entire healing amount, including over-healing.

Mage Tier-7 2-Piece Bonus: Now grants 25% additional mana from mana gems, down from 40%.

Bug Fixes

Druid

Druids should no longer be removed from a form after using any engineered bombs.

Class Skills & Talents

Death Knight

Blood

Scent of Blood - Now generates 10 runic power with every hit. (Up from 5)

Frost

Frost Fever - Damage increased by 15%.

Unholy

Blood Plague - Damage increased by 15%.

Druid

Feral

Enrage - Now instantly generates 20 rage, and an additional 10 rage over 10 sec.

King of the Jungle - Now also reduces mana cost of Feral forms by 60%.

Primal Tenacity - Mana cost reduction on Feral forms removed.

Hunter

Beast Mastery

Animal Handler - Expertise bonus changed to increase attack power by 5/10%.

Mage

Fire

Living Bomb - No longer limited to a single target at any given time.

Frost

Cone of Cold - Base mana cost reduced to 25%. (Was 29%)

Empowered Frostbolt - Reduces the cast time of Frostbolt by .1/.2 sec instead of crit chance.

Frostbolt - Base mana cost reduced to 7%. (Was 11%)

Frost Nova - Base mana cost reduced to 7%. (Was 8%)

Frost Ward - Base mana cost reduced to 14%. (Was 16%)

Ice Armor - Base mana cost reduced to 24%. (Was 28%)

Ice Barrier - Base mana cost reduced to 21%. (Was 25%)

Ice Lance - Base mana cost reduced to 6%. (Was 7%)

Permafrost - Now also reduces the target's healing received by 7/13/20%.

Paladin

Protection

Ardent Defender - Changed so the amount the Paladin is healed on "death" is based on Defense, up to a maximum of 10/20/30%.

Priest

Shadow

Devouring Plague - No longer has a cooldown, but can only affect one target at a time.

Dispersion - Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.

Improved Mind Blast - While in Shadowform your Mind Blast has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 sec.

Vampiric Touch - Damage from Vampiric Touch being dispelled increased by 100%.

Warrior

Fury

Execute - The extra rage converted into damage is now capped at 30.

Protection

Blood Rage - Now generates 20 rage. (Was 10)

Shield Block - Block value increase no longer contributes to Shield Slam damage, but now increases threat generated by Shield Slam by 100%.