World of Raids

Late last night Blood Legion released their kill video of the Lich King.  I would have had it up earlier but we're in the middle of migrating the site over from vBulletin to new forums, so I was hoping to wait until everyone could comment on it.  At any rate, this is the 10-player normal version of the encounter, and does not include the inside of Frostmourne due to no one frapsing being sent in.

Ensidia of EU-Tarren Mill defeated the 25-player version of the Lich King today (or tonight if you're in Europe).  It looks like their Rogues were using Saronite Bombs however, which was hotfixed shortly thereafter due to apparently making the encounter far easier than intended, according to Daelo.

*Update*

Yes it seems this bug does relate to our kill. We had no idea that our Rogues using Saronite Bombs in their rotation (as they always do) was causing it and thusly it occured every try we did. Short version, we're not going to stop trying the boss when all we are doing is playing our normal game. It would be nice if these kinds of things, much the same as Holy Wrath on Anub, were tested before release.

It does make the fight easier, but we are 100% sure it would have died either way. It only affects one of the easier phases.

As a side note this only occured in 25 man.

Ling King Encounter Hotfix - Disabling Saronite Bombs

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

We just made a hotfix that disables the siege damage dealt by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge. The siege damage of the bombs was causing the Frozen Throne platform to rebuild, which greatly decreases the difficulty of the encounter.

We'll reenable the siege damage in a later update when the issue with the Frozen Throne is fixed.

Quote from: Ensidia (Source)

Well as the topic says we managed to kill 25 man Lich King also today. The Cinematic really is impressive and overall the role play aspect is enjoyable and adds a lot to the fight

So next week the real challenge begins with Heroics beginning and we can't wait to get our teeth into those. Hopefully we will manage to kill the Lich King with our alt raid in Normal but the DPS requirements seem quite high!

Loot (Full Lich King Loot Table)

• Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand
• Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas

Recent In-Game Fixes

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

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

2/3

• Blood Queen Lana’thel will now begin her flight phase a little earlier in 25 player mode, Vampiric Bite is no longer mitigated by armor, and the damage of Vampiric Bite has been reduced.
• Toravon will not be affected appropriately by Area-of-Effect damage spells.
• The Frost Orb corpses in the Toravon encounter will now despawn faster.
• Players who are dead will now get credit as intended when defeating the Valithira Dreamwalker encounter.
• Players can no longer zone in while the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter is active.
• Anti Magic Shell no longer resets the Mystic Buffet stacks in the Sindragosa encounter.
• The Val’kyr in the Lich King encounter are no longer affected by Death Grip and will head to ledges faster.

The latest Blizzard Insider newsletter released recently and with it came an interview with Scott "Daelo" Mercer and Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about Arthas, the Lich King, and the stories leading up to the Fall of the Lich King content patch.  Check it out below!

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Arthas! The blood of your father... of your people... demands justice! Come forth, coward, and answer for your crimes!

Highlord Bolvar Fordragon

In the Fall of the Lich King content update (patch 3.3), Arthas Menethil, one of the most sinister and iconic antagonists of the Warcraft universe, concludes his tragic tale in a final confrontation with the Horde and Alliance.

To gain more insight into this epic moment in Warcraft history, the Insider sat down with World of Warcraft Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer and Lead Systems Designer Greg Street. Read on to learn more about how Arthas evolved, how his fall from the Light influenced the history of Azeroth, and how the end of his tragic character arc could shape the game going forward.

What was the inspiration for the character of Arthas? Was he originally intended to be such a central figure in the Warcraft universe, or did his role evolve as the story developed?

Scott Mercer: Early on in the development of Warcraft III, we knew the game would be about heroes leading their armies into battle. We initially created Arthas as one of those leaders, so we knew from the beginning he would be central to the storyline. Arthas starts the game as a young paladin of the human armies and then, after his fall from grace, he leads the undead through the Scourge campaign. His transformation is the bridge connecting the human and the undead campaigns, and he continues to serve as a villain in the other campaigns as well.

Despite Arthas's importance in Warcraft III, we weren't initially sure just how big of an effect he would ultimately have on Azeroth. A lot of his storylines -- such as his battle with Illidan and his inadvertent creation of the entire Forsaken faction -- didn't really take shape until Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, or even much later on in World of Warcraft.

Greg Street: Also, it bears mentioning that the Lich King and Arthas are actually two separate entities. The Lich King is the lingering spirit of the orcish shaman Ner'zhul. Ner'zhul originally started the demonic invasions in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. So, in a sense, the entity that players know as the Lich King has been around for a long time, even long before Arthas was born, and has had an even larger hand in shaping the ongoing history of the Warcraft universe.

How did the Lich King's centrality to the concept of the expansion shape its development?

Scott Mercer: After The Burning Crusade, we realized that Illidan had appeared many times in the concept art and the other material surrounding the expansion, but very few players ever actually saw him in the game itself. To most heroes, Illidan was a bit like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; he was an omnipresent evil that they would hear about, but never actually meet in a face-to-face confrontation.

When development began on Wrath of the Lich King, we knew we wanted the players to have a more personal connection with the Lich King than they did with Illidan, even if it was an antagonistic relationship. So we started designing quests and instances in which we could show the Lich King to the players, even have him interact with or hamper them on their quests, like in Utgarde Pinnacle or Howling Fjord.

In addition to the Lich King himself, we also referenced the events from Warcraft III many times in the content of Northrend. Players can see the wrecks of the Alliance ships that Arthas set ablaze during Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. They can also find the altar upon which Arthas first discovered Frostmourne. And of course there's the Culling of Stratholme, the Caverns of Time instance that allows players to relive the moment Arthas first began to adopt his zealous "ends-justify-the-means" attitude, which ultimately lead to him becoming a death knight. We deliberately built these aspects into Wrath of the Lich King to help remind players who Arthas is and where he came from, which we hope makes his character that much more vivid in players' minds.

Overall, we think this new direction for the portrayal of the expansion's main villain worked very well in Wrath of the Lich King, and we will likely adopt this approach for other villains in the future.

The Fall of the Lich King content update is the culmination of Wrath of the Lich King. Was it daunting to try to create an encounter that topped all of the expansion's previous epic encounters?

Scott Mercer: Encounter brainstorms rarely begin with the idea of topping previous encounters. Instead, they start with a discussion about finding the best way to portray a particular character or idea. In this case, the initial discussions revolved around how to best convey the Fall of the Lich King via a raid dungeon. Of course, we're always experimenting with new tools and ideas, especially when it comes to designing encounters, so a lot of what may be perceived as "topping" of previous encounters is actually a byproduct of what we learned through the course of our experimentation. That said, the Fall of the Lich King is going to be epic, even by World of Warcraft's standards, so get ready for a world-altering finale.

From a gameplay standpoint, how do the other raid encounters in Icecrown Citadel build up to the final Lich King event? Do any raid encounters stand out in particular as the prelude to the Lich King?

Greg Street: One of the things I've enjoyed about the evolution of Icecrown Citadel is the way the art and the encounters in the dungeon come together to portray a fully functional enemy stronghold. No boss in Icecrown Citadel is just standing around, waiting for players to kick in the door. Instead, they all have a reason to be there and a vital role to play in the Lich King's army. As the players progress through Icecrown, they are attacking the leaders in charge of the various day-to-day operations of the Scourge. There's the Soul Forge in charge of "recruitment" and Professor Putricide who heads up R&D.... And that's pretty much what Icecrown progression is all about, attacking the Scourge's operational strength as you move higher and higher up the chain of command before finally confronting the Lich King himself.

Can you give us any teasers about the final Lich King encounter from a gameplay standpoint? How difficult will he be? Any insight into how his skills and powers from Warcraft III will carry over into the final Lich King raid event?

Scott Mercer: We're going to keep those cards close to the vest, as players will be toe-to-toe with the Lich King soon enough, but I can say that he will pose the greatest challenge yet found in World of Warcraft. Beyond that, I can only share a few additional details. The battle against the Lich King takes place at the top of Icecrown Citadel where the Frozen Throne protrudes from the citadel's tallest tower. Throughout the fight, players will have an epic view of Icecrown Glacier, and falling off the tower will be a real danger, especially as the fight progresses. Also, I'll just say that Frostmourne serves as more than just a weapon wielded by the Lich King during the encounter; it will actually provide a core mechanic of the fight itself, a mechanic which we hope will resonate strongly with all players -- especially the lore buffs.

The rest, you'll have to see for yourself.

Let's talk loot: what kinds of rewards await players strong enough to bring down the Lich King?

Greg Street: Well, with great challenge comes great reward. So, in addition to the usual stuff, the Lich King is also going to drop some epic weapons that have a higher item level than any other item in Icecrown Citadel. We're hoping to have something for every character class in this bag, but note that this is just our current goal, not a promise. The main idea is that the Lich King has an inventory of weapons that he has stolen and corrupted throughout his reign. These weapons originally belonged to characters like King Terenas, Antonidas, Sylvanas, and Muradin Bronzebeard. In addition to the corrupted weapons, we're also planning to have Arthas's undead mount, Invincible, drop each time the Lich King is defeated in 25-player Heroic mode. Also, once the Lich King is finally defeated, there will be an in-game cut scene, similar in size and scope to the Wrath Gate cut scene.

The title "Fall of the Lich King" suggests the end of an era. Can you give us any teasers for what next awaits the denizens of Azeroth?

Scott Mercer:: Players have been gearing up to fight the Lich King for a long time and it's definitely the end of an era, but it's by no means the end of World of Warcraft. We've already begun to hint at an in-game event surround the upcoming Cataclysm expansion that will be at least as big as the zombie invasion that kicked off the Wrath of the Lich King. Players already know that the Barrens are getting cut in half by a volcanic chasm, so we'll have to show you how that happens. The Cataclysm in-game event will probably hit in a patch before the actual expansion goes live. We're still figuring out the details, but whatever happens, it will be felt throughout the entire world, and it'll be just the beginning of the reign of Deathwing.

World of Raids Maintenance Notice

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that at 10PM PST tonight we will be taking the forums offline to migrate to new forum software.  This is a major backend change, so the current forums will be set to read-only during the downtime.  The ETA for the forums becoming available again for posts is currently unknown, but it could last up to a day.

It's possible Guild Recruitment may need to remain offline for a bit while we make optimizations to it due to how tightly integrated it is with the vBulletin login system, but we'll work on getting it back up as soon as possible.

(Update by Alexia at 8PM PST) New user registrations will be turned off at 8PM PST/10PM CST in anticipation of the switch over. If you did not validate your email address on a newly registered account before the software migration you will need to either log in with your Curse credentials or register a new Curse account.

When the site comes back up you can look forward to the following:

• Faster load times: Invision Power scales much better with larger communities than vBulletin does.
• Curse ID integration: You'll now be able to log in with your Curse.com login information, allowing you to log in (and remain logged in) to all of our websites that support it with a single username and password.
  • If your email address on your Curse account matches your World of Raids account, it will automatically hook the two together and log you in.  If not, you'll need to set up a Curse.com account with a matching email address.
• Reputation system: You'll be able to give members positive or negative reputation for threads they create.  I'm considering doing more with this system in the future, but need to analyze how it can be exploited.  For now I'm considering special titles at certain levels, avatars, etc.
• Guide section: Improvements here as well.  There are now main pages for each category that list all of the guides for that category.  There are some issues with the display of certain guides which I'll be working on getting fixed.

I will be creating a bug report thread in the feedback section once we're done migrating the site over to Invision Power.  It's important to note that the layout of the website will not be changing for the most part.

Coming Soon

The 3.3, Cataclysm and the Guild Recruitment sections will be back up very soon.  Along with those sections we'll be reinstating the image gallery.  Beyond that there are a few cool new features in the works, as well as further improvements to Guild Recruitment.

10-player Lich King Kills

Three guilds managed to defeat the Lich King on 10-player mode so far.  This encounter looks to be extremely challenging from the live streams yesterday and is very worthy of news mention of kills, even on normal mode.

Congratulations to Blood Legion of US-Illidan on the only US kill, and Ensidia of EU-Tarren Mill and For the Horde of EU-Nazjatar on two European kills.

25-player Sindragosa Video - Uncut With Ventrilo

Big thanks to Riot Act of US-Anetheron for once again putting together an uncut Sindragosa video including their Ventrilo!  Be sure to watch the video in 720p if it's not already using that format.  You can also watch it on YouTube if you prefer.

Icecrown Weekly Raid Quests

3.3.2 also unlocked the Icecrown portion of the 3.3 Weekly Raid Quests, offering up a random quest during your clear each week that will reward you with Sack of Frosty Treasures -- a container that holds 5 Emblems of Frost, a bit of gold, and a chance at epic gems or a random BoE-264 epic.

There are 10-player and 25-player versions of these quests and both format's quest can be done each week so get to Icecrown Citadel while the loot is still cool (no pun intended)!

The full loot tables for the Lich King are available on the armory and Wowhead!  One interesting note is that it looks like Invincible's Reins will be 100% droprate from 25-player heroic.

25-player Heroic Item Type Slot Role  Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings  Axe  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy  Mace  One-Hand  Tank  Royal Scepter of Terenas II  Mace  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / MP5  Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General  Polearm  Two-Hand  Phys. DPS  Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony  Sword  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand  Sword  Two-Hand  Strength DPS  Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas  Staff  Two-Hand  Spell / Crit / Spirit  Heaven's Fall, Kryss of a Thousand Lies  Dagger  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas  Crossbow  Ranged  Phys. DPS  Invincible's Reins  Mount  None  Riding / Flying Mount 25-player Normal Item Type Slot Role  Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings  Axe  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy  Mace  One-Hand  Tank  Royal Scepter of Terenas II  Mace  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / MP5  Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General  Polearm  Two-Hand  Phys. DPS  Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony  Sword  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand  Sword  Two-Hand  Strength DPS  Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas  Staff  Two-Hand  Spell / Crit / Spirit  Heaven's Fall, Kryss of a Thousand Lies  Dagger  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas  Crossbow  Ranged  Phys. DPS 10-player Heroic Item Type Slot Role  Troggbane, Axe of the Frostborn King  Axe  One-Hand  Tank  Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer  Mace  One-Hand  Spell / Crit / MP5  Warmace of Menethil  Mace  Two-Hand  Strength DPS  Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love  Staff  Two-Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Tainted Twig of Nordrassil  Staff  Two-Hand  Phys. DPS  Pugius, Fist of Defiance  Fist Weapon  Main Hand  Phys. DPS  Stormfury, Black Blade of the Betrayer  Dagger  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King  Dagger  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Windrunner's Heartseeker  Crossbow  Ranged  Phys. DPS 10-player Normal Item Type Slot Role  Troggbane, Axe of the Frostborn King  Axe  One-Hand  Tank  Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer  Mace  One-Hand  Spell / Crit / MP5  Warmace of Menethil  Mace  Two-Hand  Strength DPS  Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love  Staff  Two-Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Tainted Twig of Nordrassil  Staff  Two-Hand  Phys. DPS  Pugius, Fist of Defiance  Fist Weapon  Main Hand  Phys. DPS  Stormfury, Black Blade of the Betrayer  Dagger  One-Hand  Phys. DPS  Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King  Dagger  Main Hand  Spell / Crit / Haste  Windrunner's Heartseeker  Crossbow  Ranged  Phys. DPS

Today Blizzard announced the next major feature for the World of Warcraft Armory.  It's one many players have been requesting or dreaming of for quite some time: the ability to access and take advantage of Auction House functionality outside of the game -- either through the WoWArmory.com website or via the iPhone and iPod Touch applications.

An interesting thing to note about this new service, as it's being called by Blizzard, is that portions of it will be premium-only -- details of which are still to be announced.  This looks like we could be seeing the first monthly fee-based Armory feature coming to light.

Check out the announcement below, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we've been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they're not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.

While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we're designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what's available in-game. Players have been requesting -- and we've been hoping to implement -- a feature like this for a long time, and we're excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.

This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don't have an exact release date yet. It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. We'll have more info to share with you here and at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as we get closer to release.

Patch 3.3.2 Notes

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.2

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/

Dungeons & Raids

• Icecrown Citadel
  • Frostwing Halls, the final stronghold of the Scourge and their Lich King, has been added.
• Halls of Stone
  • Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.
• The Forge of Souls
  • The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
  • The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.
• The Nexus
  • Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.
• The Old Kingdom
  • Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn’Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
  • Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
  • Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.
• Pit of Saron
  • Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress.
• Utgarde Pinnacle
  • Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
  • Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.
• Vault of Archavon
  • Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault’s giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats.
• The Violet Hold
  • The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.

PvP

• All healing abilities (including items such as potions) will be decreased in effectiveness by 10% when in Battlegrounds, Arenas, or Wintergrasp.
• Arenas
  • Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Earth and Moon: This talent now increases the druid’s spell damage by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

Shamans

• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Shamanism: This talent now provides 4/8/12/16/20% extra spell damage to Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, up from 3/6/9/12/15%, and 5/10/15/20/25% to Lava Burst, up from 4/8/12/16/20%.

Warlocks

• Talents
  • Affliction
    • Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application.
  • Demonology
    • Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.
  • Destruction
    • Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell’s total damage, up from 20%.
    • Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
    • Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Protection
    • Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same.
    • Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage.
    • Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%.
    • Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.

User Interface

• The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder.
• Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check.
• Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game.

Items

• New strength-based melee DPS rings are now available from representatives of the Ashen Verdict.
• Tier-9 Sets: The Aspirant vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds have worked out a deal with merchants in Dalaran so that all item level 232 set pieces will now be available on armor vendors in the city. Set pieces which require trophies will still be available for purchase only from vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds.
• Tier-10 Balance Druid 4-Piece Bonus: Fixed a bug to allow for this bonus to properly trigger.
• Tier-10 Elemental Shaman 4-Piece Set Bonus: Redesigned. Successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.
• Tier-10 Tank Sets: The gloves and chest pieces for warrior, death knight, and paladin tanks have had their stats adjusted slightly to provide additional armor value.
• Tier-10 Warlock 4-Piece Bonus: This bonus should now correctly be applied to the warlock’s pet.

Technical Support

• The cvar ‘processAffinityMask’ controls which CPU cores are available for the World of Warcraft client to use. Previously the game client was limited to 2 cores as a default which players could override in the configuration file. In the past this provided a performance boost on some CPUs and operating systems. We have identified several systems that are experiencing severe performance issues with this restriction and have removed it. Players who would like to restore the old behavior can do so by updating the Config.WTF file by adding: SET processAffinityMask "3".

This week patch 3.3.2 is going live, which means the Frostwing Hall and Frozen Throne are unlocked, introducing the final encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa and the Lich King.  It also means you can now fully complete Shadowmourne... after a bit of farming, of course!

PvP Healing Change

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

Patch 3.3.2 is bringing about a change to the way healing functions in Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Wintergrasp. We have applied a debuff to all players in these zones which will decrease the effectiveness of all forms of healing by 10%. This includes heals from items such as Healthstones and potions, however, it will not affect defensive shields or auras. This change is being made to balance the effectiveness of healing against the recent buff we made to the damage reduction component provided by resilience. Rest assured that we will be closely monitoring the effects both the healing and resilience changes have on Battleground, Wintergrasp, and Arena PvP game play to ensure that fights last a reasonable amount of time without overtly skewing the effectiveness of any class, role, or team combination.

The official patch 3.3.2 notes can be found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22748761862&sid=1

Shadowmourne

After finishing A Feast of Souls you should now be up to Frost Infusion.  To complete this quest simply take four hits from her Frost Breath frontal attack and then successfully kill her.  After completing that you will reach The Splintered Throne, which requires you to collect 50 Shadowfrost Shards from the bosses in Icecrown Citadel.  Turning in The Splintered Throne will bring you to the next step in the series: Shadowmourne... -- the final quest before obtaining your legendary weapon, Shadowmourne.

After completing the quest series Darion Mograine then offers you The Lich King's Last Stand, which seems to only be for lore purposes and to give you a bit of extra gold.

The Lich King

This section will be updated with encounter details once the servers are up.  For now I'm going to avoid posting a list of abilities since they may not be accurate.

What is known about the Lich King at the moment is he will drop Invincible on 25-player difficulty and that there's a cinematic after defeating him.

Sindragosa

Highlights

This encounter has three phases; she begins on the ground but will take off into the air from time to time to drop a Frost Bomb similar to Sapphiron.  She will also cast Ice Tomb on four random targets in 25-player; hide behind them to block line of sight on the Frost Bomb.

At 30% she no longer takes off into the air, but she will begin using a few new skills and will target random players with Ice Tomb every so often.  Consider 30% the soft enrage.  Be sure to damage the Ice Tombs while she's in the air, but don't kill them too early or you'll be hit by the bomb.

• Phase 1 Abilities (Ground)
  • Blistering Cold
  • Cleave
  • Frost Aura
  • Frost Breath
  • Icy Grip
  • Unchained Magic
    • Triggers Instability on your spell casts when affected.
  • Permeating Chill
    • Chance to trigger Chilled to the Bone on your melee attacks when affected.
  • Tail Smash
• Phase 2 Abilities (Air)
  • Frost Beacon
  • Frost Bomb
  • Ice Tomb
• Phase 3 Abilities (30% Health)
  • Blistering Cold
  • Cleave
  • Frost Aura
  • Frost Beacon
  • Frost Breath
  • Ice Tomb
  • Icy Grip
  • Mystic Buffet
  • Unchained Magic
    • Triggers Instability on your spell casts when affected.
  • Permeating Chill
    
    • Chance to trigger Chilled to the Bone on your melee attacks when affected.
  • Tail Smash

Video Vodka PTR

Valithria Dreamwalker

Highlights

Valithria starts at 50% health and the objective is for players to heal her to full.  This is accomplished through player heal spells.  While you do this adds spawn and rush you to try and stop you from healing her and to deal damage to her.  The adds spawn progressively faster as the fight goes on, so it's important to have a good mix of DPS to keep the adds down, as well as healers to heal Valithria.

• Abilities
  • Column of Frost
  • Emerald Vigor
  • Summon Nightmare Portal
• Blazing Skeleton (Add)
  • Fireball
  • Lay Waste
• Blistering Zombie (Add)
  • Acid Burst
  • Corrosion
• Gluttonous Abomination (Add)
  • Gut Spray
  • Spawns several Rot Worms on death.  Rot Worms hit for 4-5k damage each on plate wearers.
• Risen Archmage (Add)
  • Corruption
  • Frostbolt Volley
  • Mana Void
• Suppresser (Add)
  • 6 of these spawn per wave of adds and will cast Suppression on Valithria.

Video Cuties Only PTR

World of Warcraft Headset Preorder Now Available

The Creative World of Warcraft headsets are now available for preorder.  It's available as wireless for $159.99 USD and wired for $119.99 USD.  Check out the feature set below, direct from Creative Labs, or visit http://www.soundblaster.com/worldofwarcraft/welcome.aspx for more details.

Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset Features

• Two sets of interchangeable headset lenses with 16 million color LEDs, featuring Horde and Alliance artwork
• Custom World of Warcraft-themed voice  presets that allow you to alter the way you sound to other players
• Interface software designed to look and feel similar to the in-game interface
• Advanced uncompressed wireless technology
• THX TruStudio PC™ audio technology -- the result of years of collective experience and research by Creative and THX, which delivers the fullest audio experience for games, movies and music
• Works on PC and Mac
• Cushioned earpads and light, flexible headband reduce listening fatigue during intensive gaming
• Rechargeable battery, recharges even while in use

HD Warlock Wallpapers

Aphroditi posted this over the weekend on the forums and I wanted to bring some attention to these awesome Warlock wallpapers.  There is a large selection to choose from -- 16 total as of this post -- with background colors themed similar to the three Warlock talent specs.  Check out a couple of them below, or visit Felfire.com for all of them!

There were a handful of interesting posts yesterday.  Read on for all of them!

3.3.2 on February 2nd

This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone since the Lich King unlocks this coming week, but Blizzard announced extended maintenance which pretty much signals patch.

Quote from: Enthati (Source)

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, February 2nd. Maintenance will begin at 3:00 AM PST and conclude at approximately 11:00 AM PST. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience.

Trinket and Itemization Philosophy

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

Our raid item philosophy has evolved a lot since vanilla. The tier sets were once considered a badge of honor. Someone stalking around (or mailbox afking) with their full set bonus might as well have been sporting a legendary item. These days, we virtually guarantee that any player with an interest in raiding is going to be able to complete at least the lowest level version of their set with just a minimal level of persistence. This ultimately serves as a powerful reward mechanism and is in line with our philosophy of letting more players actually see the content.

This design though also has its risks. One of the big ones is that item progression becomes very predictable and deterministic. Imagine (just as an example) a model where all bosses drop emblems and every item you want is for sale. That may sound cool for a few weeks, until you hit the point that without any kind of random element to progression that you can calculate to the day/week at which you will finish gearing up your character. The excitement of what the boss drops would be gone and we feel this would end up making the purpose of clearing new content very underwhelming.

Trinkets are really the one item (weapons are to a lesser extent) that we use to try and capture that old slot machine feel from the classic Molten Core days. Yes, completely random loot with huge loot tables can be frustrating but we are pretty far from being completely random these days. Trinkets however are still somewhat random, they can be hard to acquire, and there is often a lot of competition for them.

Trinkets are also tricky to design because we don’t want them to be just a pile of stats like other items. We generally want them to be unique by having a random proc or an on-use ability or something similar. These types of things are always trickier to balance, but this is also what makes them interesting. We also don’t necessarily want every trinket to be a guaranteed upgrade just because the item level is higher. Knowing what works or doesn’t work for your particular character and play style is one of the ways players have to demonstrate their mastery of the game.

There are some aspects of trinkets for which we think we can do better. For example, it’s annoying when a superior item is on a lower tier of content to where you feel like you have to argue with your guild to go back and farm easy bosses or run a 10 player version when everyone else wants to do 25. Many of the trinkets probably represent too big a dps (or equivalent) jump given how difficult it can be to acquire them. It’s also easy for us to fall into a rut of offering basically the same one every time (often because we know players like it) rather than experimenting with different things. We like to try new things to keep gear interesting for players as we know some have been evaluating trinkets for over five years now.

We also probably just need to drop more of them. That doesn’t mean they should be trivial to acquire, but when say a caster only has 2 good options in Ulduar and 1 requires a hard mode, then there is going to be ton of competition when they do drop. We know it’s rough when the trinket you have been wanting finally drops and you have to roll against 10 other people for it. Having more trinkets would mean more variety, which means players may want different ones and ultimately will be a little more different from their friends/guildmates.

New Account Security Awareness Webpage

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

Protecting the citizens of Azeroth is extremely important to us. Our new Battle.net Account Security Awareness page ( http://us.battle.net/security/ ) provides helpful advice on what you can do to safeguard your computer, how to spot scams, info on the adverse effects of buying gold, ( http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20565929403&sid=1 ) and tried-and-true methods to help prevent account compromises.

Printwarcraft.com Poster Contest

We have a contest of our own coming next week as well!

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

Create a great-looking custom print and you could win a gift code to use on Printwarcraft.com! Show us your creativity by visiting the Printwarcraft.com site, creating your own unique poster of your character, and submitting it. One winner will be chosen each week during the month of February to win a $10 gift code. After the fourth week, we’ll be choosing one entry each as our grand prize, second place, and third place winners for even more prizes. Find out more on our contest page. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/10-01-printwar/index.html

Blue Posts

Patchwerk style fights (Source)

Outside of this being a troll post, I just want to say that fights like Patchwerk have their place but in the grand scheme of things can get really boring really fast. Once it becomes easy to defeat the encounter is more like a mini-boss that just had a lot of health. There are some nice dps-races in Icecrown Citadel like Deathbringer Saurfang (for melee at least) and Festergut but these still require some raid awareness depending on what is going on which is more challenging and more fun in the end.

Death Knight

Balancing DK ranged skills (Source)

It really just comes down to our not wanting death knights to be a ranged class. It is a melee class. Now they have some great ranged tools and some ranged spells, not unlike say an Enhancement shaman who throws out the occasional Lightning Bolt. There's nothing wrong with that. It's only when the DK strategy shifts to favoring ranged attacks too much that we make adjustments. The DK that runs around and does nothing but Icy Touch or Howling Blast or Death Coil feels like a rogue who forgoes combo points and openers and everything just to spam Fan of Knives and nothing else. It would probably even be okay if Death Coil was the largest component of damage, so long as you had to use your melee attacks to set that up first.

Warlock

4-piece Tier-10 (Source)

There is a bug where the pet is not always receiving the damage bonus from the 4PT10 warlock set. We are going to fix it.

The issue of having to recast Corruption in order to benefit from the proc is a much harder problem to solve. We might be able to do something, but we can't promise a good solution there. It is just the nature of the way rolling dots work. You gain the benefit of whatever crit you on when you cast the spell, but aren't going to gain the benefit from procs that occur later on.

Soul Shards in Cataclysm (Source)

Ideally we design it so that you don't need a way to get them back in combat. We think that makes the shards feel more like cooldowns than something you do every time they are on cooldown. (Example: you generally save Heroism / Bloodlust for the best time to use it, not the first available time to use it.) It is definitely possible though that a lock could feel janked if they used their last shard just as a bunch of adds joined the fight or whatever. In that case we might have to add some kind of Evocation-like ability to get the shards back in emergencies.

In a very pure, possibly unrealistic sense, though we'd love to see 3 shards per fight with some kind of cooldown in between the use of each. I mean non-trivial fights here. Maybe you use 1 shard on raid trash and no shards while killing a mob for a quest while leveling.

Where would your main character retire?

Not really an informative thread, but something fun the blue posters joined in on.  I especially like Crygil's post; he's so evil!  What zone would your main character retire in after your looting and pillaging of the world's evils are done?

Quote from: Liessa (Source)

Which zone would they choose ?

Junatami - Resto/Boomkin Druid - Nagrand, no doubts about it.

Site Updates

Very soon we're going to be migrating to new forum software on World of Raids.  For the most part nothing will change visually, but a whole lot is changing on the backend.  After we're done with this I'll be doing another recruiting drive for content writers (opinion articles, guides, etc) so if you want to get a headstart you can email me.

Another nice thing about the migration is that you'll be able to tie your World of Raids account to a Curse.com account, allowing you to stay logged in across all of our network sites that support Curse Authentication.

Plate DPS Classes Using Mail/Leather

Very interesting blue posts last night that I missed!  Bornakk posted as reminder about the stat changes in Cataclysm, but that wasn't the most interesting part.  Blizzard will also be providing incentives for using the armor designed for your class.  These are unknown at the moment, and it could be anything from talent bonuses to some kind of scaling mechanic built into items, but it should be a fun topic to discuss and speculate on!

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

I wanted to address some of the points that have been brought up in this thread so far.

The original post was directed at the plate wearers because a mail-based class who is wearing leather going into Cataclysm won’t be at the same disadvantage as a plate-based class who is wearing leather or mail will be.

For an enhancement shaman or hunter, the mail will lose its Intellect, but the physical dps mail and leather will both have Agility that enhancement shaman and hunters want. However, we are also going to offer a small additional incentive for characters to wear “their” armor so it will encourage shaman and hunters to wear mail over leather, balance druids to want leather over cloth, holy paladins to prefer plate, etc.

We realize everyone will have lots of questions about what will happen to their gear, and we will eventually share all of that with you. We just wanted to post this reminder for plate wearers who are currently after leather and/or mail items to let them they will really not want it when we convert to the next expansion.

Part of the Cataclysm re-itemization will be to change all of the old (pre-Wrath of the Lich King) items, which will include doing things like actually having low level balance druid leather or holy paladin plate.

Ghostcrawler joins in (Source)

If you are focused on Icecrown progression right now, as you probably should be, then pick whatever gear makes the most sense for your character. All we wanted to point out is that once we get closer to Cataclysm, all of your gear is going to change. In most cases, a good piece will still be good for you. In the dps warrior, paladin and DK case, the now +Agility leather and mail you might be wearing will be bad for you. If you plan to keep raiding after the conversion, that might be a problem. If you planned to use your Icecrown gear to help you level in Cataclysm, that might be a problem. It's just a public service announcement for players who might not be familiar with the Catalcysm stats plan.

---

If you are gearing up for Cataclysm though, I would not suggest plate wearers investing in leather and mail. If getting leather and mail help you beat the bad man with the big sword, then go for it. I posted this mostly in response to tin-foil-hat-wearers above who speculated we were trying to nerf warrior dps or change social norms or whatever by suggesting they stop rolling on leather.

This all may seem perfectly obvious to you, but I promise you we will still see plenty of "you pulled the rug out from under me" posts, which is why we are starting early with the information campaign. :)

Recent Performance Issues on the Thrall Realm

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

We appreciate players’ patience while we worked to resolve stability issues that have affected the Thrall realm. We recently implemented some hardware changes intended to restore the realm to its expected level of performance and have been monitoring the realm closely since then. We’ve been pleased to see major stability improvements over the last week, and we will continue to monitor the realm to ensure players are having a good play experience. We understand the frustration players have expressed following these issues, and if we have any additional updates for the Thrall community, we will add them to this thread.

Blue Posts

Why is Invincible only available to 25-player raids? (Source)

Blizzard loves 10-person content guilds just as much as we love 25-person content guilds. The reason for having this mount in the 25-person Lich King encounter has to do with maintaining the proper distribution of such awesomeness. If it were available in the 10-person encounter as well, it may be come too prolific and lose some of its initial unique qualities.

Talent changes in Cataclysm (Source)

I was going to bump this to the General forum, but I think the talent tree comment is worth addressing in the role forums, since it applies to class design.

1) We are changing talent trees, in some cases substantially. The major focus is pruning out boring but valuable talents that passively increase say damage or healing.

2) A secondary focus is to fix the clunky areas (e.g. warlocks having two conflicting range increasing talents). We're not going to remove old favorites or radically change the focus of the trees. You will definitely have to rethink your builds however.

3) Because you earn passive bonuses just for spending points in the tree, those fun, niche or utility talents won't seem as expensive as they do today. We want to create a lot more choices where you are choosing utility vs. utility. We want to see far more "cookie cutter" build guides that say "Spend the last 5-10 points where you want."

4) In some cases, trees will flat out get new abilities. These are in addition to the new level 81+ abilities.

5) You will get 5 additional talent points for the new levels.

6) We are not deepening the trees. This actually unlocks some interesting opportunities. For the first time, you can reach a 51 point talent and a 21 point talent in another tree.

I'll also add that for Lich King we just brought Naxxramas back and adjusted the bosses for 10 and 25 raid sizes. The Cataclysm raids are new content with new maps and new bosses. We're just trying to hit the nostalgia button with mentioning old foes like Ragnaros. Ragnaros may be back, but he's not in Molten Core.

Purified Lunar Dust (Source)

It is about 22 spell power under budget, and will be fixed.

Top DPS specs on Professor Putricide (Source)

I think one of the most interesting aspects is to look at those classes where one spec is generally perceived to be "the best."

For rogues, locks and hunters there are some players who choose the "second" spec even at a presumed dps loss. For mages, nearly all go Arcane even though Fire's damage really isn't that bad. (What I mean is that I don't think you can argue Combat, Survival and Destruction all trump Fire to explain why there are more of those specs on this fight). In all four cases, the third spec is pretty dead. (We'll assume the Demo locks are mostly there for DP, which as I've said before is not ideal).

Keep the encounter in mind, too. Putricide is a fight where standing still is heavily penalized, yet healing is also not as much of a bottleneck as is damage. We see a lot of groups have a healer go dps for example, which might boost e.g. the Elemental and Shadow numbers just for this fight.

Death Knight

Death Knight tank representation (Source)

There are still plenty of DK tanks in Icecrown.

The death knight was a new class with a lot of cool abilities, lore and a great starting experience. It doesn't surprise me at all that a lot of players flocked to them. When it turned out they were overpowered in dps, PvP and tanking early on in Lich King, that probably encouraged more players to pick them up or stick with them. So it's natural that the numbers have evened out a bit more, but there are still plenty of DKs and they seem to be doing just fine tanking Icecrown. We'll see if things look different when the hard modes unlock and if DKs (of appropriate gear and skill) struggle on those fights, we'll buff them.

We don't balance around representation. We do take notice when populations suddenly shift, but that hasn't happened in this case.

Mage

Best talent spec for raids (Source)

Some of you Fire mages are having too much fun ranting in this thread instead of focusing on what I was actually saying. :)

Is Arcane generally above Fire? Yes. The difference may only be 10% though, and Fire is still above many damage specs. Is Arcane so much higher than Fire than Marks is to Survival? Not really. Yet we see more Survival hunters (in this particular data set on one boss) than we do Fire mages. Clearly more is going on that players just gravitating towards whichever spec does the most damage. (The key word is "just." Players definitely like specs that deliver the most damage, but that does not appear to be the sole governing concern in this case.)

There are a lot of things contributing to Arcane beating other mages. Incanter's Absorption is probably way too good in conjunction with kind Disc priests. Arcane benefits a lot on movement fights like PP. Arcane benefits a lot from using those Innervates that the Fire mage can't really use and the healers (for the moment at least) don't really need. As Lhivera points out, Frost can do decent (not stellar) given the chance, but fights like Marrowgar really exploit (in a bad way) Frost's relative lack of pushback resistance.

We'd like to get the mages closer together, and that's something we're still going to work on. ("Wait until Cataclysm" is something snarky players like to say more than we do.) What we don't want to do is suddenly catapult Frost up ahead of Arcane such that every mage feels like they have to change... again. Close, without going over, is kind of the mantra at this stage. :)

Reminder: Battlecry Mosaic

Nethaera asked us to remind everyone that the Battlecry Mosaic is still going strong with more than 10,000 photos submitted so far.  With awesome unlocks like the Invincible music, it doesn't hurt to submit a photo of your own!

Details on the Battlecry Mosaic (Source)

The World of Warcraft Battlecry Mosaic has reached its half-way point, with 10,000 photos of gamers from all over the world. Be sure to check out the latest additions as well as a piece of epic in-game music that is part of the encounter with Arthas in Icecrown Citadel: 'Invincible'. It's not over yet, though. We still need more of your entries showing off your Horde or Alliance pride. Every 1,000 photos you send us will reveal another part of the mosaic and additional Warcraft artwork. When the full mosaic is revealed, your combined efforts will unlock an epic, exclusive piece of World of Warcraft art as a final reward.

Head over to the Battlecry photo mosaic page ( http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wowanniversary/battlecry/ )to view the mosaic in progress, and keep those photos coming! ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/form/battlecrymosaic.html )

Check out our updated special Battlecry Gallery. ( http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/battlecry-gallery.html#18 )

We're very excited to share with our community the opportunity to join the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Closed beta for PC!  We've been given 5,000 beta keys by EA and DICE for their upcoming first person shooter, and the best news for the PC community is that it will have dedicated servers!  The key giveaway is currently open to Curse Premium members who are residents of the United States, but stay tuned for additional availability.

If you've been frustrated with the matchmaking systems in other recent games, then this is the game that returns the community feeling for PC players.  Not only that, this game takes team play to a whole new level thanks to new squad-only game modes and multiplayer mechanics like the Destruction 2.0 system.  With character progression as you complete objectives and score kills, along with achievements and a wide variety of multiplayer maps, this game is sure to be a fun addition to the first person shooter genre.

Get your beta key here

Beta Details

Below are the details for the beta that this key giveaway grants access to!

• Beta Duration: Begins January 28th, 2010 and ends February 25th, 2010
• Map: Port Valdez
• Supported Players: 32
• Game Mode: Rush
• Environment: Snow
• Theme: Vehicle and Infantry

Port Valdez Backstory

The battle for Port Valdez is fought alongside the waterline towards a great oil industrial landscape in the Alaskan mountains. Using basically everything they’ve got the Russian forces are launching an airborne assault to knock out the oil industries in the area. In their arsenal there are Main Battle Tanks as well as fast-moving Quad Bikes and mobile armored AA. It’s a vehicle focused battle, but with plenty of infantry combat.

Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer

Key Features

• 8 Huge Multiplayer Maps.  Each with a different tactical and gameplay focus and set across a variety of environments.
• Ultimate Online Vehicle Warfare!  15 land, sea and air vehicles, each with a tactical advantage during play.  Race into action with the ATV or rain death from above in the UH-60 transport helicopter with its 2 side-mounted rail guns.
• All-new Squad Gameplay.  Team up with 3 other players and fight together to unlock special awards and achievements in 2 squad-specific game modes.
• Destruction 2.0.  Take down entire buildings, create firepoints in cover to blow it up entirely!  In Battlefield Bad Company™ 2 there will be no place to hide!
• 'Play It Your Way' experiment and refine your ideal combat style with 4 character classes (medic, assault, recon and engineer), 15000+ kit variations, 46 weapons (200 different customization opportunities), 15 gadgets and 13 character specializations.
• Awards and Achievements, combat efficiency and performance is rewarded with special awards such as pins, stars and insignias which contribute to unlocking 50 ranks.

About Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield Bad Company™ 2 brings the spectacular Battlefield gameplay to the forefront of next-gen consoles and PC - featuring best-in-class vehicular combat set across a wide range of huge sandbox maps each with a different tactical focus.

New vehicles like the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and the UH-60 transport helicopter allow for all-new multiplayer tactics in the warzone, extensive fine-tuning ensures that this will be the most realistic vehicle combat experience to date.

Tactical destruction is taken to new heights with the updated DICE ‘Frostbite’ engine. Players can now take down entire buildings or create their own vantage points by blasting holes through cover, thereby delivering a unique dynamic experience in every match.

Players can also compete in 4-player teams in 2 exclusive squad-only game modes, fighting together to unlock exclusive team awards and achievements. Spawn on your squad to get straight into the action, and use gadgets such as the tracer dart in-conjunction with the RPG to devastating effect.

Excellence in the battlefield is rewarded with an extensive range of pins, insignias and stars to unlock along with 50 dedicated ranks to achieve.

Variety also extends into the range of customizable kits weapons and vehicles available. With 4 distinct character classes, and weapons, gadgets and specializations players have over 15000 kit variations to discover and master players will be able to fine-tune their preferred fighting style to give them the edge in combat.

All of these features combine to deliver spectacular and unpredictable action moments found nowhere else in a modern warfare experience.

The game also sees the return of the B Company squad in a more mature and intense single player experience where the stakes are higher than ever.

The official preview for Invincible, a new mount dropped in 25-player Icecrown Citadel, is now availble on the official website!  If you missed it at the end of last week, be sure to check out the Invincible music, which will also be involved in the Icecrown Citadel raid instance.

The mare Brightmane gave birth to Invincible as a young Prince Arthas watched with rapt attention.

In the years following Invincible's birth, the horse and Arthas formed a bond that carried them across the warring nations of Azeroth, through the icy grip of death, and into the throes of battle.

The stallion's coiled muscles were made for speed, and Arthas often felt that his mount flew rather than galloped across the countryside. With the slightest touch of his heel, Arthas was able to convey his directions, and Invincible obeyed without question or hesitation.

It was Invincible's unfaltering faith in his master that inevitably led to the stallion's death and unholy rebirth. On a cold winter afternoon as snow was blanketing the ground, Arthas was desperate to get away from the city even if it meant riding through harsh and unforgiving weather. Once outside, Arthas guided Invincible over a familiar jump, but the stallion slipped on slick ice, and the fall shattered his forelegs. With no way to save his companion, Arthas was forced to give Invincible a merciful death, and the prince carried that guilt with him for a very long time.

Years later, after the Lich King granted Arthas necromantic powers, Arthas returned to the grave where he had buried Invincible and raised his loyal servant into undeath. It was in this dark act that Arthas felt a sense of purpose. He believed that Invincible's death was not an accident; rather, it was essential to Arthas's destiny.

Invincible was not bred to be a warhorse, but after he was brought back from the dead and made immune to hunger, pain, and exhaustion, he became the perfect steed for Arthas. Now the skeletal charger stalks Icecrown Citadel, ever at the ready to serve his beloved master.

Arthas and Invincible were as one until parted by the stallion's untimely death. Now, they are rejoined in death through the power of the Lich King and pose a fearsome sight for all who gaze upon them. Only the power of the heroes of Azeroth can part them once more.

In order to attain such a steed, one must conquer Icecrown Citadel and face the Lich King on Heroic difficulty. Perhaps you will be the lucky individual to obtain the most coveted of mounts -- the Invincible Charger. This reward awaits those who are brave enough to tempt fate and face the full wrath of the Lich King!

The season 8 armor preview is now available on the official website!  Be sure to click through for larger previews.

Death Knight Druid Hunter Warrior Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock

Epic Crafting: Gunship Battle

A very interesting read, especially if you like to learn more about the way the development team designs raid encounters!

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

As the confrontation with the Lich King draws nearer, fire erupts in the skies above Icecrown Citadel. Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer, the flag-flying gunships of the Alliance and Horde, clash near Deathbringer's Rise -- but it wasn’t too long ago that they were just ideas on paper. Read on to find out how our development team built this airborne assault: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/gunship-battle.xml

Deadly Fireworks: Building Icecrown Citadel's Gunship Battle

The frozen earth of Icecrown roils with throngs of the undead Scourge, reanimated bodies so numerous that there are few physical locations where the Horde and the Alliance can build their camps and strongholds. Instead, the defenders of Azeroth take to the sky.

Two gunships, the Skybreaker of the Alliance and Orgrim's Hammer, named for the former Warchief of the Horde, patrol the skies of Icecrown. Early in the campaign against the Lich King, these grand vessels were used to scout overland terrain, where they frequently came into open conflict with each other, brightening the skies with their cannon fire.

Now, in the wake of the Argent Tournament, the enemies of the Scourge have finally gathered to lay siege to Icecrown Citadel. With the fortress nearly impenetrable on land and the spires of the citadel touching the sky at their peaks, it's become clear to the leaders of both the Horde and the Alliance that an aerial assault, spearheaded by these two gunships, is the only way to infiltrate Arthas's stronghold.

Two prominent warriors have stepped forward to lead the attack: Muradin Bronzebeard of the Alliance and High Overlord Saurfang of the Horde. Both seek to defeat the Lich King and spare the living from another plague -- but there are other, more personal stakes for these heroes. Saurfang seeks to uncover the fate of his son, whose body was lost at the battle of the Wrath Gate, while Muradin, bearing the weight of Arthas's atrocities, seeks justice, closure, and possibly even redemption for his former student.

And yet, even with their noble goals, there will be no shared glory for the Alliance and the Horde in this attack. The dock atop Icecrown Citadel is only big enough for one ship. Halfway up the spires, the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer are fated to clash again in a storm of gunfire, swinging blades, and bellowing warriors. Foremost in this mayhem are the combat crews, veteran heroes who've already begun the assault on Icecrown and who will fight to the last for a chance at Arthas -- heroes like you.

In this article, the World of Warcraft development team discusses the inception and construction of one of Icecrown Citadel's most frantic and epic raid encounters. Take your eyes off the sky -- just for a moment -- and read on.

Bringing the Fight to Life

Creating the gunship battle in Icecrown Citadel was a unique and exciting challenge for the World of Warcraft team. For quite some time, we've heard requests from players who wished to see ship-to-ship combat realized in the game. Since Icecrown Glacier doesn't have much in the way of flowing water, we opted to use the gunships, which were already a major fixture of the Icecrown zone, to bring that idea to life. In the battle, players take on the role of the combat crew for their faction's ship: either the Skybreaker on the Alliance side, helmed by Muradin Bronzebeard, or Orgrim's Hammer on the Horde side, helmed by High Overlord Saurfang. With their own weapons, the ships' guns, and a strong, coordinated plan of attack, raiders struggle to knock the enemy faction's gunship out of the sky and ascend to the peak of Icecrown Citadel.

When we began work on the gunship battle, we knew that we wanted the idea of "controlled chaos" to be central to every second of the fight between the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer. Rather than making the encounter a traditional single-target "wear down" or "tank 'n' spank" battle, we took steps to make sure that the heroes who serve as their ship's combat crew would be constantly engaged -- moving, fighting, and dealing with a high volume of visual and spatial inputs.

Our design discussion started with a talk about victory conditions. We planned a straightforward main objective: to win the fight, the enemy gunship must be defeated before it takes down the players' gunship. Beyond this straightforward objective, we made it a point to include ongoing mini-objectives in order to keep the pace of the fight continually frantic.

"Defeating" a gunship with spells and swords alone wasn't something we felt would be appropriate for a high-flying, bombastic encounter like this one, so we decided that damage to both gunships would come from an ongoing exchange of cannon fire, and players would man the deck-mounted cannons of their gunship to try and take down the enemy. We supplemented the ship-to-ship exchange by including enemy artillery to blast back at the players -- riflemen or axe throwers would attempt to take down the players with their ranged weapons, while heavier artillery would launch rockets and mortars at the gunship.

Though we wanted the battle to look and feel furious, there was a danger that our continued artillery barrage would cause the screen to become cluttered with arcing shells. To combat this, we made our cannon shells, rockets, and mortars telegraph where they were likely to land with an "impact icon." This would encourage dodging and allow detonations to be deliberately avoided, adding another layer of frenzied movement to the encounter...and that's even before the cannons get shut down.

Rather than force some players to only manage their cannons throughout the entire battle, we opted to keep players moving by temporarily deactivating the cannons' ability to deal damage to the enemy ship. After the hull of the enemy ship takes severe damage, an enemy mage encases players' cannons in a block of ice. In order to defrost their cannons and stay in the fight, players must defeat the mage...who stands protected dozens of feet away on the deck of the enemy gunship. This interruption in players' damage provided us with one of our most exciting opportunities to keep building "controlled chaos" into the fight.

From our earliest discussions, we wanted to make sure that a way of boarding enemy ships, a classic element of ship-to-ship combat in pirate and fantasy fiction, made its way into the final gunship encounter. Swinging across ropes or using a grappling hook on an airship as it spiraled upwards through the sky seemed likely to send every member of the combat crew falling to their doom -- but we needed a means for players to move between the ships in order to let them pursue the enemy mage and make the fight feel cinematic.

To emphasize the danger and chaos of the encounter, we ultimately decided that participants in the battle would use goblin rocket packs to travel back and forth between the gunships. Goblin craftsmanship is notorious for being unreliable, and sending first-time rocketeers careening between ships with thousands of feet of open sky beneath them was our way of ratcheting up the tension and keeping the battlefield constantly shifting. The packs can also be used for offensive positioning. When a member of the crew lands from a rocket jump, the rocket pack deals damage and provides a slowing debuff to nearby enemies.

We knew that players would use their rocket packs to reach the enemy mage on the deck of the opposing gunship, but we wanted to put a few additional obstacles in their path. First is the enemy leader -- Muradin or Saurfang -- a dangerous melee powerhouse. Each leader defends the deck of his ship when players rocket over and must be held at bay while the players simultaneously face off against the enemy mage and combat crew.

The enemy crew themselves provide the second major obstacle: they continue to assault the players' gunship while their own is boarded. Their ongoing attacks provide them with combat experience, which increases their strength and the damage they do to the players' gunship the longer they are ignored. If the players' deck is left insufficiently defended in the assault, enemy forces will hurl burning pitch that does significant damage to the hull and can even set the deck ablaze. Lastly, the enemy's forces are replenished from below deck, resulting in a continuous surge of foes that must be held off even as the players race to unfreeze their cannons and continue their offensive.

The battle rages on until one ship sinks below the horizon.

We're excited we were able to bring the gunship battle to life in patch 3.3, and we hope players enjoy it. It continues Wrath of the Lich King's tradition of epic dungeon brawls while providing a new, different, and exciting challenge on the path to Arthas. Grit your teeth, keep your footing, and watch the air catch fire. We'll see you in the skies over Icecrown.

Stay tuned for more details on this as the day progresses.  For now, here are some live streams of the Lich King encounter!  If you'd like yours added to the front page, join us in IRC and let me know!  If you're having trouble viewing the streams, press play / pause a few times.  Livestream/Xfire streams suck and I'm sorry for that.

Impervious - US-Stormreaver

Riot Act - US-Anetheron

2v2 Arena Titles Issue

It looks like some players were inadvertantly given arena titles for their 2v2 rating, which shouldn't be happening.

Quote from: Eyonix (Source)

Select players in the 2v2 bracket were mistakenly awarded end-of-season awards and titles. This was due to a game bug, and not at all intentional. We will be removing the mistaken awards and titles. For some players this will occur upon logging out. For others we will correct the error on the next maintenance period.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

The Night Elf Mohawk Has Packed Up

I pity the fool who didn't get Mohawk Grenades while they lasted!  Well ok, it was actually kind of annoying at times.

Quote from: Crygil (Source)

You’ve pitied and you’ve been pitied, but the time has come for the Night Elf Mohawk to pack up his Mohawk Grenades and move on. You looked goooood while his visit lasted, Azeroth, but his work here is done...for now.

Blue Posts

Some interesting topics were discussed tonight, especially the fact that Ghostcrawler feels they made mistakes with class balance changes in the 3.x patch cycle.

Tanking Quel'Delar (Source)

We talked about this back when the quest was available on the PTR, but in short, we are not adding a tanking specific weapon to the rewards table for this quest. We did not forget tanks, we just weren't aiming the rewards at them.

Season 8 delay (Source)

Because information in the next minor content patch is needed to start it and the patch is not out yet. Are you pretty comfortable with the new resilience change already?

3.x patch cycle and class balance (Source)

We have made a few mistakes in the 3.X patch cycle where we over-buffed or over-nerfed a spec. Aside from the risk that we'll have to revert some of the changes, it just sucks when say all hunters felt like they had to go Survival or all mages felt like they had to go Arcane. Ideally your spec would be a choice, but we feel like the second best scenario is to not keep changing which spec is on top (especially when that requires you to re-gear, etc.).

Players also tend to have different expectations for dps than we do. It's typical now for anyone who doesn't see their dps at 10,000 (or to see simulation output that suggests 10,000) to assume that something is wrong with their class.

You can't balance content around just the best players (Source)

We believe you can't just balance around the best players. It's possible for a class to be too good among less-skilled players (perhaps because it is easy to play) or too good among highly-skilled players (perhaps because only they can get the full benefit out of it). You need to look at players at a variety of skill levels.

You also have to be very careful trying to correlate population with power. I'm sure there is a correlation, but it might not be a very strong one, at least in PvE. It is probably more true of PvP. In PvE, a lot of other factors can influence population. Most new players to WoW have a pretty good idea of what a warrior or mage is, but may not understand the mechanics or role of a shaman or warlock. Some players just gravitate towards certain mechanics and find others bland or frustrating. Players can make life-long decisions about their class based on things as non-power-gamery as art or possible races.

Where we tend to take notice is if something is really far out of whack. If players are abandoning a class or flocking to a new one, then there might be something going on. If particular classes or specs seem to fall behind in raid representation over time, it's usually in our best interest to at least try and understand why.

Our community, especially the active online component, has become very obsessed with class equality over the course of Lich King. I'm sure some of that is the increasing sophistication and maturity (in the sense of understanding mechanics) of the player base. (Remember, a lot more players are running heroics and especially raids than ever before in WoW's history.) I'm sure another is partially the fault of myself and other developers for being relatively more vocal about our design goals and intent. Overall, I think the community would be healthier if it focused more on boss strategies and less on intra-class competition, but I understand that a competitive streak is something that goes hand in hand with being a hardcore gamer. :)

Blizzard revealed the stats on the new Ashen Verdict strength rings today as well as the updated stats for the tier-10 tank armor!

Ashen Verdict Strength Rings

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

Here are the stats for the strength-based melee DPS rings coming in the next minor patch:

Requires The Ashen Verdict - Friendly

Ashen Band of Might

+91 Stength
+91 Stamina
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 53.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 53.

Requires The Ashen Verdict - Honored

Ashen Band of Greater Might

+98 Stength
+98 Stamina
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 57.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 57.

Requires The Ashen Verdict - Revered

Ashen Band of Unmatched Might

+98 Stength
+98 Stamina
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 57.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 57.
Equip: Chance on hit to increase your attack power by 480 for 10 sec.

Requires The Ashen Verdict - Exalted

Ashen Band of Endless Might

+99 Stength
+107 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +4 Strength
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 59.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 59.
Equip: Chance on hit to increase your attack power by 480 for 10 sec.

Tier-10 Tank Armor Changes

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

Here are examples of how the set pieces will be changing in the next minor patch:

Current Warrior Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Ymirjar Lord's Handguards

1579 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate

2526 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 76.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 68.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 68.

Updated Warrior Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Ymirjar Lord's Handguards

2461 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate

3590 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.

Current Death Knight Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Scourgelord Handguards

1579 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Scourgelord Chestguard

2526 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Strength
Equip: Increases defense rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 76.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.

Updated Death Knight Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Scourgelord Handguards

2461 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Scourgelord Chestguard

3590 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Strength
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.

Current Paladin Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Lightsworn Handguards

1579 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Lightsworn Chestguard

2526 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 76.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.

Updated Paladin Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)

Lightsworn Handguards

2461 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.


Lightsworn Chestguard

3590 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.

EU PvP to PvE Realm Conversion: Vek’nilash

I figured I should make a dedicated news article for this since this is one of the rare times we have seen a server ruleset converted.  Check out the explanation for why below!

Quote from: Wryxian (Source)

As part of our continued efforts to balance the World of Warcraft player population across all realms, we will be converting one of our lower-population European PvP realms -- Vek’nilash -- to a Normal PvE realm. For players on Vek’nilash, we will be offering free Character Moves to alternate PvP realms both before and after the conversion takes place. This will allow us to continue to support healthy communities on the realms and help new players transition easily into the community.

The conversion will take place on February 10, with the Character Moves opening on January 27 and lasting until March 10. Upon being converted to Normal PvE, Vek’nilash will be given the “New Players” flag to ensure an influx of players over the coming weeks.

For any questions, please refer to the main thread in the Vek’nilash realm forum:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=12304662580&sid=1