Guide to Rogue stats for new raiders

Wrath's first true raid instances come in the form of a level 60 raid instance put in the microwave for 20 levels and served with a side of dragons. Don't get me wrong; I love the retouched Naxxramas. I never got to experience all of the fights against Kel'Thuzad's minions before they relocated to Northrend, so being able to re-enter the citadel of death and slay some undead is a welcome opportunity.

If you search for "naxx 60 rogue gear guide" I'm sure you'll find a bunch of articles that recommend you sport at least 8/8 Bloodfang and maybe a weapon or two from Ahn'Qiraj. Times have changed, and so have the gear requirements. There are a few magic numbers that every Rogue wants to shoot for. After the cut I'll detail these vital stats and explain why they're so important to us.

Key Stats:
Gear designed for assassins like us can have a variety of stats. Haste rating and armor penetration are among the fringe stats that are simple DPS increases without any sort of "cap" to achieve. Agility and its base components of attack power and critical strike rating are always awesome; but again there is no magic bullet when balancing these numbers. The two stats that you WILL want to focus on when you choose your gear for Naxx are hit rating and expertise rating.

As has been the case since level 1, increasing your chance to hit (or inversely reducing your chance to miss) are the purest ways for a Rogue to increase his or her damage. Hit and expertise scale with every other stat, making them the obvious candidates for gems and enchants until you've reached their caps. Let's talk about the current hit caps that a Rogue will face.

Hit rating:
While Adrine of Cenarion Circle has compiled a great (and thankfully stickied) post containing all of the hit cap numbers for Rogues at 80, I'll go over the key values from that thread. Any Rogue PvE build must contain Precision. Every value that I give for the rest of this article will assume that you have 5/5 Precision in your build, regardless of whether you are HaT, Combat, or HfB Mutilate.

A raiding Rogue with Precision will be shooting for 99 hit rating as a bare minimum from gear (66 if you're playing with a Draenei). This is ensures that all of your yellow (special) attacks will hit (provided you are also at the expertise cap) and is easily achieved with a few +hit gems and possibly a precision enchant to your gloves. Reaching the Yellow Hit Cap (YHC) is crucial for maintaining your rotations.

The next hit cap that a Rogue will shoot for is 315 hit rating (237 with a Moonkin or Shadowpriest, and 210 with a Draenei as well). This is referred to as the Poison Hit Cap (PHC). At this point, bosses will no longer be able to resist your poisons, which is another huge DPS increase. Hit rating now works on both melee attacks as well as spells (which our poisons are considered to be). Reaching the PHC should be your primary focus once you've reached the YHC and the Expertise Cap (EC).

White Hit Cap:
The White Hit Cap (WHC) was a stat that Rogues would previously shoot for in vanilla WoW and TBC, specifically due to the fact that such a large portion of a Combat Rogue's damage came from white (auto) attacks. Now that Mutilate and HaT are in vogue, as well as the fact that poisons now make up a significant portion of our damage, reaching the WHC is not only irrelevant: it's nearly impossible without gimping your other offensive stats.

Expertise rating:
Expertise reduces your target's chance to dodge or parry your attacks. While I have been heralding this as an amazingly underrated stat, raiding Rogues have been ensuring that they reach its cap, the EC. Bosses can still dodge attacks coming from behind them, and so by removing their chance to dodge from behind, you again ensure that all of your attacks land as planned. The amount needed to remove a boss' chance to dodge from behind is 26 Expertise, or 214 Expertise Rating (Humans will have slightly reduced amounts required). This should be your first priority once reaching the YHC.

Putting it together:
To summarize, a Rogue's priority for stat caps should be: YHC (minimum to even run a raid or heroic), EC (well-rounded Rogue), and finally the PHC (raider status). After reaching all of these plateaus, it becomes time to start gemming for pure DPS stats and focusing on increasing your attack power and critical strike chance. Until you reach the EC, your gems and enchants should all be hit or expertise (where applicable). The value of hit rating and expertise rating trump all other stats before you reach the YHC and EC.

While reaching some of these stats may seem difficult, there are a few key items that will allow you to reach these caps very quickly. For example, combining the BoE Chain Gang Legguards and the easily acquired Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood (I talked about this earlier), you've already reached the YHC from just two items. Similarly, the BoE crafted Trollwoven Spaulders and Girdle will get you well over 25% of the way to the EC and are very nice pieces of gear in their own right. I'm still using mine!

Theorycraft it anyway:
While the advice given in this column will apply to most Rogues and most pieces of gear, there are still a few caveats. If you are upgrading from a level 75 blue stacked with hit rating to a level 80 epic with no hit rating whatsoever, it still may be beneficial to wear the epic anyway. While below the YHC/EC/PHC the value of hit and expertise are very high; but sometimes not high enough to offset the difference between a blue and an epic. Put both pieces into a spreadsheet and see which comes out with a greater damage increase.

Conclusion:
You may be seeing a lot of our brothers and sisters of the shadows advertising in Dalaran that they are "hit capped" and looking for a raid. In reality, as it's impossible to reach the WHC realistically, they're likely talking about the YHC or the PHC; and which tier they're at makes a big difference. Once you've reached the YHC and EC, you'll be ready to raid full time. Next week I'll be covering the gear that you can use to reach these caps and to ensure you are prepared for Kel'thuzad and his acolytes.

Gearing your Balance Druid at 80

Greetings, fellow Druids, and welcome to another installment on Wrath gear at 80, and this week it's the boomkins' turn. Next week I'm going to tackle Bear gear at 80; Dan O'Halloran will take care of our Cat colleagues.

As a number of people have observed, it's tougher to get +hit-capped pre-raid in leather as opposed to cloth, so you're going to find an awful lot of cloth on the list. I realize this represents a new and exciting development in the history of moonkin itemization. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. That's French for "We're screwed."

Supplementary reading:

• Elitist Jerks' threads on Balance trinkets, Moonkin DPS spreadsheet, general issues, and Balance talents and specs.

• Gray Matter on necessary stats at 80 and raiding moonkin gear.
  

• As a note here concerning the recent news on Improved Faerie Fire (in a nutshell, you'll get the 3% crit no matter whose FF is up on a target, even a feral's), Gray Matter on why the talent's worth taking, and Macbook on the raid circumstances in which it might not be.

As with our previous entry on pre-raid Restoration gear at 80, these guides assume that you do not presently have access to either 10-man or 25-man raids.

If you've read the Restoration piece, you'll be familiar with how I'm organizing gear for these guides, but for the sake of reference:

Best overall: If there's one piece that's just better than anything else you can get, I'll have it listed here. Most of these will cost you Emblems of Heroism or a truckload of gold, however.

Best drop/s: Self-explanatory, the best (typically heroic) 5-man drops you can get.

Best quest piece: Also self-explanatory, but fair warning -- if you're looking to get most of your pieces outside of 5-mans, many of the quests rewarding the best pieces are linked to dungeons (usually normal) or group quests.

Best faction piece: If a quartermaster offers a usable piece, it'll be here. You'll get convenience at the cost of having to deal with pieces that are usually a dog's breakfast of caster stats, though.

Runner-up: This is kind of a catch-all term for good, usable, or even excellent pieces you can get by other means. If there's a blue or epic BoE piece floating around the AH, or a workhorse 5-man drop you can also use, it'll be here. Some of the pieces in the runner-up slot may seem odd for inclusion there (e.g. epics like raid BoE's), but as far as I'm concerned, if it's going to cost you a metric ton of gold to get them, they are firmly optional. You do not need to be equipped in full epics to raid as long as you're not lazy about enchants and gems.

Enchant: Just in case you have any gold left after gearing up. You won't, but it's nice to dream!

With respect to item weight, I'm prioritizing +hit, then +spellpower, +haste, then +crit, in accordance with balance theorycraft concerning maximum-DPS builds.

HEAD

Best drop: Battlemap Hide Helm, off Prince Keleseth in heroic Utgarde Keep.

Best quest piece: Cowl of the Vindictive Captive, from the quest Vengeance Be Mine! in Utgarde Pinnacle if you're hit-capped. If you're not, use The Argent Skullcap, from the quest The Crusaders' Pinnacle.

Best faction piece: Helm of the Majestic Stag, available at honored with the Kirin Tor. This is really not a Balance piece, but it's the only helm you'll be able to get from a faction if all else fails.

Runner-up: Hat of Wintry Doom, a BoE piece from Tailoring.

Enchant: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries, available at revered with the Kirin Tor.

Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. Some prefer the Ember Skyflare, however.


NECK

Best overall: Encircling Burnished Gold Chains, available for 25 emblems of heroism.

Best drop: Necklace of Taldaram, from Prince Taldaram in heroic Old Kingdom.

Best quest piece: Emeline's Locket, from the quest The Admiral Revealed in Icecrown.

Best faction piece: n/a. You're out of luck here.

Runner-up: Titanium Spellshock Necklace, a Jewelcrafting BoE.

SHOULDERS

Best drop: Spaulders of Krystallus, from Krystallus in heroic Halls of Stone.

Best quest piece: Mantle of the Flesh Giant, from the quest The Flesh Giant Champion in Icecrown. If you prefer +crit to +haste, use Shoulderpads of the Adventurer, from the quest Halls of Stone in (where else?) Halls of Stone.

Best faction piece: n/a. Another dead slot.

Runner-up: Dark Runic Mantle, a BoE drop from heroic Halls of Stone, or Purehorn Spaulders, a Leatherworking BoE.

Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Storm, available at exalted with the Sons of Hodir, unless you're a level 400+ Inscriptionist and have access to Master's Inscription of the Storm.

Garona's return to Azeroth

Apparently DC first announced this last October, but it's the first I've heard of it: Garona Halforcen is coming back to World of Warcraft. Garona has been a fan favorite character ever since the early RTS games -- she's a half-orc Rogue who originally assassinated King Llane of the Alliance (under one of Medivh's spells and working unintentionally for the Shadow Council). But she's been MIA for a while -- until now. DC's next World of Warcraft comic, number 18, has Garona reappearing in Azeroth, supposedly working with the Twilight's Hammer, and possibly even secretly aligned with the Scourge.

Not necessarily an auspicious re-entrance, but with Garona, just like Jack Bauer, you never know who she's really working for or why. Blizzard has always made it clear that they were going to have her appear in World of Warcraft -- early in the beta, she was actually the leader of the Rogue Ravenholdt faction, though she was later removed from the manor there. The DC comic drops on April 15, and it wouldn't be a surprise to finally see everyone's favorite half-orc rogue in the game sometime after that.

How Patch 3.0.8 will change PvP

When Patch 3.0.8 kicks in today, which some people speculate, World of Warcraft PvP is going to change quite a bit. Class balance changes are going to take effect, particularly to Death Knights who are downright incredible right now. While some people couldn't care less about PvP nowadays, specially in the pursuit of epics -- you're better off going into Naxxramas, the new source of welfare epics -- others have a newfound love for it, thanks to the incredibly fun Wintergrasp. The changes aren't massive, but they are balancing ones and will be better for the game overall.

The most obvious PvP changes will be to Wintergrasp, where a number of things were changed to improve gameplay. The first major change is the way Wintergrasp Marks of Honor, currently useless, will become usable to purchase Wintergrasp Commendations as well as new epic items. This is a great thing which further encourages participation in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp itself. There are also impactful changes to the game mechanics that should see control of the zone shift more often and greatly favors offense. Let's take a look at those changes after the jump.

• Wintergrasp PvP vehicles have had their health increased.


• Wintergrasp Tower cannons have had their health increased.


• The Wintergrasp Fortress Exterior walls have had their health increased.


• The Fortress Keep door now has had its health decreased.


• The Orb is now instantly clickable.


• Elementals should now always despawn when the battle begins.


• Wintergrasp now extends further south so that more revenants can be reached.


• There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant.


• Players will be eligible for participation rewards after two honorable kills.


• Players will receive increased honor with increased rank.


• Players will receive additional Marks of Honor at Corporal or higher rank.


• Players will receive corporal rank at 5 honorable kills instead of two.


• Tenacity effect has been lowered. Now improving your health, healing, and health regen by 18% (Old - 25%) and increasing your damage dealt by 14%. (Old - 18%)

The changes work both ways, with the health increase to vehicles, cannons, and exterior walls more or less evened out for offense or defense. On the other hand, the drastic change is to the weakening of the Fortress Keep door and how the Titan Relic (the Orb) is instantly clickable, similar to the one in Strand of the Ancients. This is huge. This pretty much guarantees that the game is won as soon as the Keep doors are broken through, and that's become easier, as well. It will no longer be possible to stall the game by AoEing the inner sanctum and preventing the ten-second tag.

The Wintergrasp game timer was hotfixed a few weeks back to last only thirty minutes, down from the original forty. This put pressure on the offense, making it somewhat easier for defenders to retain control Wintergrasp. Obviously, the zone is intended to change sides frequently, which Patch 3.0.8 seems to guarantee. The danger I see is that if it gets to the point that Wintergrasp Fortress becomes indefensible, players will stop playing and only zone in during offense, where they're guaranteed a win. Fewer people will bother to defend because nobody wants to fight a losing battle.

Speaking of losing battles, why was Tenacity nerfed? I don't understand that at all. Tenacity is fine. The players complaining about Tenacity are the ones who try to solo players with like ten stacks of Tenacity. The idea is to gang up on a player with Tenacity because you have the numbers. Use your crowd control. A player with 60,000 hp won't be able to do anything if he's stunned or feared. At any rate, that change doesn't help the cause of defense, whom I suspect will have lower numbers thanks to the ease by which offense can win the game now.

The revision of ranks means that players must actually participate in the battle in order to get the full benefits. As soon as you get into a game, start killing. It's that simple. The earlier you get into a game, the more Honor you'll accrue as the bonus Honor is considerable at higher ranks. The removal of elementals at the start of a match is a sensible one, since they simply get in the way, specially that bugged water elemental on top of the Broken Ring Graveyard.

Small things such as the change to the Essence of Wintergrasp icon, making it easier to differentiate from Replenishment, for example, are simple changes that let us know that Blizzard truly pays attention to detail. The buff will also correctly apply (or disappear) when control of the zone changes while players are inside an instance.

Overall these are interesting changes to Wintergrasp, mostly geared towards faster gameplay and frequent change of control. The tower buffs I mentioned in my guide to the battle of Wintergrasp should kick in, so we should see more fighting in the Southern part of the map and Wintergrasp Ranger should actually be achievable now. Now if only players would actually stay mounted...

layin' it old school

Upcoming Raids
Zul'Gurub (Farm)
Ahn'Qiraj (20) (Farm)
Molten Core (10/10 Farm)
Blackwing Lair (2/8)
Onyxia (Farm)
Azuregos (Farm)

ZG (Farm)? Blackwing Lair (2/8)?! LOL wut?!? We've written before about players who love to chow down on some good, old-fashioned retro WoW content, avidly mixing original instances with the latest hotness from Wrath. Heralds of Yore from Smolderthorn takes that idea to the next level: not only do they specialize in old-school content, they do it as intended – at level 60.

Why would a guild put two entire game expansions on /ignore? Hearken back to the days of "vanilla WoW" with 15 Minutes of Fame and Heralds of Yore, after the break.

Main character Blotter
Guild Heralds of Yore
Server Smolderthorn
WoW player since 2006
Games played pre-WoW Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, Guild Wars
Games played besides WoW There are other games?

15 Minutes of Fame: Blotter, tell us about the appeal of focusing on legacy content. What's the draw?
Blotter: To me, the expansions that were released by Blizzard in no way met my expectations that I had for them. First and foremost, PvP (which is one of my favorite aspects of WoW) is a lot worse off. The implementation of resilience ratings has ruined PvP, in my opinion. To me, it seems Blizzard has increased everything too much: higher levels, bigger crits, bigger health, bigger mana, etc., etc. I think they should have left us at level 60 and released more and more content.

Also, the instances are much nicer at 60. AQ is one of my favorite places in the entire World of Warcraft. I do not feel The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King have delivered as creative of content. Hell, Naxxramas was so great Molten Core right after it came out, they were lucky to clear the Firelords. The game has become a little too watered down.

So how long has HoY been raiding level 60 content?
HoY started as Nova in September 2007 and became Heralds Of Yore in November 2007. A small break was taken when patch 3.0 released, due to people going inactive (from us) for their once-again bigger crits and more health.

So do HoY members have BC and Wrath installed -- or is that strictly forbidden?
You have to be on a non-BC account. It keeps people from leveling up from raids, shows that the member is actually serious about raiding pre-BC content and is just an all-around safeguard to not have people level. It is hard to tell if people aren't on vanilla accounts. We go on the honor system.

Are most of your members already familiar with the legacy content?
I would say around 80% of all HoY members raided level 60 content pre-BC. We do have a few people joining who have not experienced pre-BC before, and we also have members who have only experienced pre-BC content. Currently, we run about 25 people in 40-man raids. We struggle with many of the encounters, though, due to low numbers.

Have you yourself played through BC content? What about Wrath?
Yes, I have extensively played BC and Wrath. I did not quit playing these expansions after a few short weeks. I was in a top raiding guild on my server and had everything going for me, at 80 especially -- I just did not enjoy the experience.

Do you see a faster learning curve in raids because most players have more WoW and overall gaming experience than when this early content was first being played?
I do. Also, the new talents and DPS increases make the fights easier to do with fewer numbers. That helps us a lot.

Now that Naxx-40 is no longer available, what will be your ultimate achievement? The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj?
We are currently progressing through Blackwing Lair, so I guess that is our short-term goal -- but for long-term, yes, it is AQ-40. Even though we no longer have Naxx to raid, AQ-40 and BWL are still plenty of great pre-BC content.

I can only hope that one day a pre-BC server is opened, so I can once again enter the fortress of the great lich Kel'thuzad. And if you know anyone at Blizzard, can you please send them a nasty note saying Blotter wants Naxx back! I think it was a huge mistake to eliminate content that they put in the game at 60. It is a stupid move to make something, then move it to Northrend. This eliminated such a large chunk of the game they developed. For what reason? In my opinion, pure laziness, greediness -- or both. But it does leave a void for retro raiders like myself, knowing that I can never wear my Frostfire, but I can see 80s running in it all day.

Do any of your players have access to BC- or Wrath-era items?
BC and Wrath items are not allowed in our raids. When you enter PvP Battlegrounds or do PuGs, you can wear whatever you want. During raids, though, all gear must be pre-BC. Enchant rules have become rather lax due to the gold many members have spent on their enchants, but players are encouraged to use all pre-BC enchants on all items they receive in HoY raids.

How can interested players best get in touch to find out more?
You can visit our web site or you can watch the BC content video I made. It will show you the epicness of pre-BC content!

Late last night as we prepared this feature for posting, we received a last, brief missive from Blotter: "Broodlord Lashlayer down!" Grats, guys, and may your raid groups fill with a full 40.

World of Warcraft 3.0.8 Patch Notes

We've got the patch notes for the official version of patch 3.0.8 after the break. Patch 3.0.8 will be the first patch to the game after Blizzard's record breaking second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

In addition to the patch notes, we have a full page dedicated to the various in-depth analyses we've done of the changes. In the next few days stay tuned for more updates as the patch is processed.

Take a look after the break for everything that is and isn't there. And remember that while there are a few bugs in the patch we already know about, there are likely to be more. We'll get all the latest news about the patch up as it happens.

Updated at 5:12 a.m. EST: For those of you asking for confirmation, the following is the opening announcement from the EU version of WoW: "Weekly Maintenance, 21/01. This Wednesday there will be an extended maintenance to apply patch 3.0.8. Please note that all European realms will be offline from 3:00 until 11:00, Paris time (CET)."

Enjoy the patch!

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.0.8

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

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

General

• Players may now create death knights on any realm once they reach level 55.


• Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.


• Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night Elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You're not seeing things.


• Racial Resistances: These can now be mitigated against by gaining additional chance to hit.


• Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.


• All Silence spells now have diminishing returns. This includes: Arcane Torrent, Garrote silence effect, Improved Counterspell effect, Improved Kick effect, Silence, Gag Order, Silencing Shot, Spell Lock, and Strangulate.


• Dispel Resist talents have changed to protect only beneficial spells and damage over time effects.


• Shield Wall, Barkskin, Guardian Spirit, and Divine Protection are now off the Global Cooldown.


• A new mailbox is now available at the Crows Tavern in the Dalaran Sewers.


• We have added over 60 new graveyards to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.


• The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at a bonus 75% speed.


• Reputation rewarded for killing mobs will no longer automatically deprecate. This means trivial mobs will continue to give out their full amounts of reputation on kill for the majority of cases in the game (level 70 creatures in Stratholme, for example, will continue to award the full amount of rep to level 80 players seeking to boost their Argent Dawn faction).


• World of Warcraft now supports 3-D imaging. Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/GeForce_3D_Vision_Main.html for more information.

Achievements

• The Loremaster of Kalimdor Achievement has had its quest amount reduced.


• The Perma-Peddle Achievement is no longer a part of the "Fool for Love" meta-achievement.


• The Winds of the North (Horde) has had its requirements changed. This achievement is now earned by getting Exalted with the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition.

PvP

• Vehicles can now be affected by most player spells, except CC, snares and roots.


• Arenas
  
  
  
  • Arena rating requirements for all Deadly Gladiator's Arena items have been reduced by 100.
  
  
  • All rage and runic power are set to 0 when an Arena begins and the preparation period is over.
  
  
  • Ring of Valor: The small pillars will now rise immediately once the arena begins.
  
  
  
  


• Battlegrounds
  
  
  
  • Lake Wintergrasp
    
    
    
    • Wintergrasp Commendations can now also be purchased for the low low price of 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor. Players can visit their respective Wintergrasp vendors and put those Marks of Honor to use!
    
    
    • Wintergrasp PvP vehicles have had their health increased.
    
    
    • Wintergrasp Tower cannons have had their health increased.
    
    
    • The Wintergrasp Fortress Exterior walls have had their health increased.
    
    
    • The Fortress Keep door now has had its health decreased.
    
    
    • The Orb is now instantly clickable.
    
    
    • Elementals should now always despawn when the battle begins.
    
    
    • Wintergrasp now extends further south so that more revenants can be reached.
    
    
    • There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant.
    
    
    • Players will be eligible for participation rewards after two honorable kills.
    
    
    • Players will receive increased honor with increased rank.
    
    
    • Players will receive additional Marks of Honor at Corporal or higher rank.
    
    
    • Players will receive corporal rank at 5 honorable kills instead of two.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Strand of the Ancients
    
    
    
    • Antipersonnel Turrets will now gain vehicle immunities, use falloff damage, and damage increased to 4000 + 200 per level to compensate for falloff.
    
    
    • The Strand of the Ancients Demolisher has had its health increased.
    
    
    • The Strand of the Ancients tower cannon has had its health increased.
    
    
    • Seaforium charges have been moved closer to the graveyards on the 2nd tier.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  Death Knights

  
  
  
  
  • All multi-rune abilities generate 15 runic power.
  
  
  • Anti-Magic Shell: The cooldown has been lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec.
  
  
  • Anti-Magic Zone: This ability's duration has been cut to 10 seconds.
  
  
  • Blood Aura now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
  
  
  • Blood Presence now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
  
  
  • Bloody Strikes will receive extra bonus damage from Pestilence.
  
  
  • Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%.
  
  
  • Corpse Explosion: Damage increased substantially, added 5 sec. cooldown, and changed cost to 40 runic power.
  
  
  • Dark Command: Range increased to 30 yards.
  
  
  • Death Pact now grants 40% instead of 20% healing.
  
  
  • Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%.
  
  
  • Heart Strike no longer has a haste debuff but will now be able to strike two targets.
  
  
  • Horn of Winter now has no cost and grants 10 runic power in addition to its stat buff, but has a 20 second cooldown.
  
  
  • Howling Blast: Cooldown removed.
  
  
  • Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher).
  
  
  • Killing Machine: Instead of a chance to be triggered on critical strike, this talent now has a chance to be triggered on each swing based on the swing time of the weapon (slow weapons more likely, fast weapons less likely).
  
  
  • Mark of Blood: The total amount of healing this can grant is now capped based on a percentage of standard creature health at the target's level.
  
  
  • Night of the Dead now grants 40/70% passive area spell avoidance to your pet in addition to its current effects.
  
  
  • Outbreak will no longer receive bonus damage from pestilence. The bonus from Plague Strike and Blood Boil has been increased slightly.
  
  
  • Pestilence no longer has a 10 seconds cooldown.
  
  
  • Raise Dead has now been split into two spells:
    
    
    
    • Raise Dead now raises a ghoul or pet ghoul (if talented). Requires corpse dust if no humanoid corpse is nearby.
    
    
    • Raise Ally now raises a fallen party member as a ghoul and has no reagent. Available at level 72. This should now last for 4 minutes.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (two-handed only) now grants 25 Defense and 2% Stamina.
  
  
  • Rune Strike: Damage decreased from 200% to 150% but threat increased to 150% from 100%.
  
  
  • Shadow of Death: The duration has been changed from 45 seconds to 25 secondsseconds and now has a 15 minute cooldown.
  
  
  • Summon Gargoyle: Damage dealt by the Gargoyle reduced by approximately 20% and maximum duration cut to 30 seconds.
  
  
  • Unholy Blight had had its cost reduced from 60 to 40 runic power.
  
  
  • Wandering Plague will now properly reset after being castand now considers the resilience of the target in determining its chance to be triggered.
  
  
  • Vampiric Blood (DK) changed from 20% health / 50% healing to 15 % health / 35% healing.
  
  
  • Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded. It no longer affects the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell and retains the current damage reduction bonus.
  
  
  
  

  Druids

  
  
  
  
  • Aquatic Form is now available from druid trainers at level 16.
  
  
  • Celestial Focus (Balance) no longer includes Starfall.
  
  
  • Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
  
  
  • Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
  
  
  • Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
  
  
  • Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
  
  
  • King of the Jungle - The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
  
  
  • Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
  
  
  • Nature's Grace - Now also effects Revive.
  
  
  • Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
  
  
  • Polearms: Now trainable by Druids.
  
  
  • Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
  
  
  • Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
  
  
  • Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
  
  
  • Starfall: Instead of canceling shapeshifting, now cancels on shapeshifting into an animal form.
  
  
  • Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
  
  
  • Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
  
  
  • Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.
  
  
  
  

  Hunters

  
  
  
  
  • Hunter Aspects are now off the Global Cooldown again. They still have a shared 1 second cooldown.
  
  
  • All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
  
  
  • Arcane Shot: Mana cost lowered to match the cost of Steady Shot.
  
  
  • Aspect of the Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
  
  
  • Call of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only the Hunter and their own pet.
  
  
  • Deterrence: Design changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to "deflect" spells coming from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking. Lasts 5 seconds and has a 90 second cooldown.
  
  
  • Explosive Shot: Damage increased substantially, and additional scaling added to compensate Survival Hunters for the decrease in power of Steady Shot. No longer deals damage to secondary targets.
  
  
  • Ferocious Inspiration: This talent now also increase the damage the Hunter does with Arcane Shot by 3/6/9%.
  
  
  • Improved Tracking(Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
  
  
  • Kill Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
  
  
  • Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
  
  
  • Lock and Load: Now has a 30 second cooldown.
  
  
  • Readiness: No longer resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
  
  
  • Steady Shot: Now gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
  
  
  • Serpent's Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
  
  
  • Tranquilizing Shot (Hunter): Cooldown increased to 8 sec, up from 6. Mana cost reduced to 8%, down from 12%.
  
  
  • Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
  
  
  • Viper Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
  
  
  • Volley: The damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack power scaling).
  
  
  • Pets
    
    
    
    • All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
    
    
    • The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Poison (Scorpid) has been lowered.
    
    
    • Rake: This hunter pet ability has had its damage adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
    
    
    • Scorpid Poison: No longer stacks. The damage has been adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
    
    
    • Spirit Strike (hunter pet ability) now has an initial attack (which can crit) and then a single dot. Damage overall is higher.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  Mages

  
  
  
  
  • Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.
  
  
  • Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.
  
  
  • Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.
  
  
  • Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.
  
  
  • Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 25/40/50%.
  
  
  • Incanter's Absorption: The amount of spell damage a Mage can gain from this ability is now capped at 5% of the mage's health.
  
  
  • Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.
  
  
  • Slow Fall is now castable on others.
  
  
  • Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).
  
  
  
  

  Paladins

  
  
  
  
  • Avenging Wrath: Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Avenging Wrath cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other anymore. Forbearance removed from Avenging Wrath.
  
  
  • Divine Protection: The penalty has been removed.
  
  
  • Divine Shield: The penalty has been changed so that all damage done is reduced by 50% in place of an attack speed penalty.
  
  
  • Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It's a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.
  
  
  • Judgements of the Pure: This Holy talent now increases the damage done by Seals and Judgements.
  
  
  • Judgement of Wisdom: Now returns a percentage of base mana instead of a percentage of max mana.
  
  
  • Sacred Duty: Interaction with Divine Shield and Divine Protection removed, but stamina bonus increased.
  
  
  
  

  Priests

  
  
  
  
  • Abolish Disease and Cure Disease can now be cast while in Shadowform.
  
  
  • Holy: Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.
  
  
  • Levitate is now castable on others.
  
  
  • Mana Burn: Now burns a percentage of maximum mana.
  
  
  • Shadow
    
    
    
    • Shadowform: You can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting.
    
    
    • Vampiric Embrace- Mana cost of this spell has been removed.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  Rogues

  
  
  
  
  • Cheap Shot: This ability no longer has diminishing returns against anything other than itself.
  
  
  • Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
  
  
  • Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.
  
  
  • Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.
  
  
  
  

  Shaman

  
  
  
  
  • All shaman talent points have been refunded. Please visit your trainer to learn spells and abilities.
  
  
  • Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
  
  
  • Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
  
  
  • Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
  
  
  • Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
  
  
  • Mental Quickness and Static Shock have switched positions in the talent tree.
  
  
  • Mental Quickness: Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.
  
  
  • Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
  
  
  • Tremor Totem's duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
  
  
  • Elemental
    
    
    
    • Elemental Oath: In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
    
    
    • Elemental Mastery: Redesigned. Now increases the Shaman's critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains at 3 minutes.
    
    
    • Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
    
    
    • Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
    
    
    • New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
    
    
    • Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and it's talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
    
    
    • Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  Warlocks

  
  
  
  
  • Curse of Agony will now scale better when used with the Glyph of Curse of Agony. Ticks beyond the original duration will do 33% more damage than the ticks that preceded them. i.e. 74 -> 145 -> 217 -> 290.
  
  
  • Demon Armor and Demon Skin: Armor increased by approximately 120%.
  
  
  • Demonic Circle: The teleport now clears all snare effects.
  
  
  • Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
  
  
  • Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
  
  
  • Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.
  
  
  
  

  Warriors

  
  
  
  
  • Bloodthirst: Charges have been decreased to 3, but the effect has been raised to 1% per charge.
  
  
  • Fury: Bloodsurge: Now has a chance to trigger from any hit with Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst, or Whirlwind.
  
  
  • Fury:Titan's Grip: The hit chance penalty has been removed.
  
  
  • Sudden Death: The amount of rage spent on an Execute while Sudden Death is active is now capped at 30 rage. Improved Execute and the Glyph of Execute will still increase the damage done by increasing the amount of rage able to be converted into damage.
  
  
  • Taunt: Range increased to 30 yards.
  
  
  
  

  Professions

  
  
  
  
  • Alchemy
    
    
    
    • All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create.
    
    
    • The Cooldown on Transmute: Titanium has been reduced to 1 day, and the materials required have been simplified.
    
    
    • Reduced the cooldown on Northrend Alchemy Research from 7 days to 3 days.
    
    
    • The chance to discover a Northrend transmutation has been increased.
    
    
    • Changed the Crazy Alchemist Potion so it always gives health and mana. It also grants the benefit of another random potion effect.
    
    
    • Potion of Nightmares functionality changed. You can now move to interrupt the effect, and damage taken is no longer increased while you are under the effects of this potion.
    
    
    • Added a new recipe for Ethereal Oil to grand master alchemy trainers.
    
    
    • You can now discover a recipe for the Elixir of Water Walking with Northrend Alchemy Research.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Blacksmithing
    
    
    
    • Reduced the spell power on the Titansteel Guardian to bring it in line with its item level.
    
    
    • Increased the material requirements to make high level frost resistance gear created with blacksmithing.
    
    
    • Increased the materials required to make several recipes that require cobalt.
    
    
    • Added a new recipe for shield reinforcements that increases the block value of shields.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Cooking
    
    
    
    • A recipe has been added for Kungaloosh. You can learn this recipe from an NPC in the Dalaran sewers once you have completed the quest 'The Taste Test' in Sholazar Basin.
    
    
    • A recipe for the incredible Fish Feast can now be purchased for Dalaran Cooking Awards.
    
    
    • Succulent Orca Stew and Shoveltusk Soup have been removed from the requirements for any cooking achievements as they will not be added to the game.
    
    
    • A new recipe for Worg Tartare is now available for purchase with Dalaran Cooking Awards. This delicacy imbues hit rating and Stamina upon those brave enough to eat it.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Enchanting
    
    
    
    • Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them.
    
    
    • Increased the Fire damage inflicted by the Icebreaker weapon enchantment.
    
    
    • Reduced the armor penalty granted by the Berserking weapon enchantment.
    
    
    • Increased the amount of healing from the Lifeward enchantment.
    
    
    • Increased the amount of damage caused by the Icebreaker enchantment.
    
    
    • Added a new recipe to enchant bracers with Stamina. You can buy this recipe from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Engineering
    
    
    
    • Engineers may now be able to properly engineer Centrifuge Constructs.
    
    
    • Reduced the cooldown and increased the duration of the effect for Hyperspeed Accelerators.
    
    
    • Added a new recipe for epic plate spell power goggles.
    
    
    • Weakness Spectralizers are now usable by druids.
    
    
    • The Saronite Bomb recipe now creates a lot more bombs for the same material cost. While this breakthrough was discovered by goblins, all engineers can take advantage of it.
    
    
    • Gnomish Lightning Generator has had its cast time and cooldown reduced.
    
    
    • The engineering Scrapbot can now repair.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Inscription
    
    
    
    • Jessica Sellers, a new vendor in the Dalaran inscription shop, will sell most inscription inks for the cost of one Ink of the Sea. She also sells Snowfall Ink for multiple Inks of the Sea.
    
    
    • A new recipe for Glyph of Arcane Blast has been added to Master and Grand Master Inscription trainers.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Jewelcrafting
    
    
    
    • Added a new recipe to convert a frozen orb and some green quality gems into several superior quality gems.
    
    
    • Reduced the spell power granted by the use effect of the Figurine – Twilight Serpent, but reduced the cooldown significantly.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Leatherworking
    
    
    
    • Iceborne Belt pattern skill up range has been increased to the correct range.
    
    
    • The epic leg armor patches now require a Frozen Orb in addition to their other materials.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Mining
    
    
    
    • Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.
    
    
    • Weakened Giants and Iron Rune Sentinels can now be correctly mined.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Skinning
    
    
    
    • Increased the critical strike rating granted by ranks 5 and 6 of Master of Anatomy.
    
    
    • Carrion Fleshstrippers are now skinnable.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Tailoring
    
    
    
    • Reduced the cloth required to make a Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.
    
    
    • Simplified the materials required for Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread.
    
    
    • Reduced the eternals required to make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread, but increased the number of Iceweb Spider Silk.
    
    
    • Greatly reduced the materials required to make the self-only tailoring leg enchants (Master's Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread), but these recipes no longer grant any skill gains.
    
    
    • Reduced the training cost for the normal Flying Carpet.
    
    
    • Ebonweave now requires the tailor to be in the Maw of Neltharion in Dragonblight to creating it.
    
    
    • Spellweave now requires the tailor to be at the Azure Dragonshrine in Dragonblight when creating it.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  Quests

  
  
  
  
  • The quest, "Scare the Guano Out of Them!" now only requires 10 Darkclaw Guano, down from 15. Also, only the character that scared the bat, or their party, may now loot the guano.
  
  
  • Shoveltusk Meat obtained during the quest; "Shoveltusk Soup Again?" is now correctly flagged as a quest item with no sell price.
  
  
  • During the quest, "Scalps!" you can no longer use Ahunae's Knife to scalp kills that you aren't tapped to.
  
  
  • The path followed by the Har'koa's Kitten during the quest, "I Sense a Disturbance" has been improved.
  
  
  • Westguard Sergeants, Winterhoof Braves, and Ethereal Frostworgs should no longer attempt to attack their opposite faction counterparts unless the character controlling them is first attacked.
  
  
  • Westguard Sergeant and Winterhoof Brave demoralizing shouts will now only affect the Winterskorn Vrykul and worgs at Skorn.
  
  
  • Various fixes to the Queen Angerboda event during the quest, "The Slumbering King".
  
  
  • The daily quest, "Shoot 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from 10.
  
  
  
  

  Dungeons and Raids

  
  
  
  
  • The Obsidian Sanctum
    
    
    
    • Players will now be affected by Twilight Residue when they leave the Twilight Realm. Twilight Residue grants immunity to Fire and Shadow damage for a few seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  User Interface

  
  
  
  
  • Chat frames can now be made "Noninteractive". When in this state, they will ignore all clicks.
  
  
  • Various filters can now be applied to Achievements.
  
  
  • A special UI for chatting with GMs has been added.
  
  
  • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.
  
  
  
  

  Items

  
  
  
  
  • Emblems of Heroism can now be purchased at a 1 to 1 rate using Emblems of Valor.
  
  
  • The Darkmoon Faire exotic vendors have been updated with new items.
  
  
  • Amberglow Signet now correctly grants Hit Rating.
  
  
  • Deadly Gladiator's Refuge has had its 4 piece set bonus changed. It now reduces the cooldown of Swiftmend by 2 seconds.
  
  
  • Deadly Gladiator's Staff has had the Agility and Critical strike rating restored to ratios consistent with other instances of the Gladiator's Staff.
  
  
  • Dreamwalker Battlegear: The Rip bonus is now 4 seconds instead of 3.
  
  
  • Druid Feral Tier 7 Set: The 4 piece bonus now also decreases the cooldown on Tiger's Fury by 3 seconds.
  
  
  • Druid Restoration Tier 7 Set: The Rejuvenation bonus has been changed to affect Lifebloom instead.
  
  
  • Gifts and Pledges of Adoration for the capital cities are now soulbound.
  
  
  • The Flag of Ownership now has only a 60s cooldown to match the 60s duration of the flag.
  
  
  • The following crafted weapons have had their stats adjusted to properly reflect their intended power:
    
    
    
    • Corroded Saronite Edge, Corroded Saronite Woundbringer, Cudgel of Saronite Justice, Furious Saronite Beatstick, Saronite Spellblade, Saronite Shiv, Savage Cobalt Slicer, Notched Cobalt War Axe, Sturdy Cobalt Quickblade, Cobalt Tenderizer
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Living Lashers can now properly be skinned with Herbalism.
  
  
  • Players can now open clams while riding a vehicle, sitting, mounted, stealthed, and invisible.
  
  
  • Reduced the stats on the Savage Cobalt Slicer to match the weapon's level.
  
  
  • Some low-level rogue pvp gloves were accidentally omitted from the patch 3.0.3 update. This has been rectified.
  
  
  • Some neglected creatures in Icecrown have found the contents of their pockets.
  
  
  • Totem of Hex now correctly grants 165 spell power to Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, up from 85.
  
  
  • The white Polar Bear mount is now the proper (larger) size.
  
  
  • Glyphs
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Conflagrate now makes it so your Conflagrate spell no longer consumes the Immolate or Shadowflame spell from the target.
    
    
    • Glyph of Death and Decay has been changed to grant 20% additional damage instead of its current effect.
    
    
    • Glyph of Hammer of Justice: Now increases range by 5 yards instead of increasing stun duration.
    
    
    • Glyph of Invisibility duration has been increased.
    
    
    • Glyph of Deterrence: Now -10 seconds instead of -20.
    
    
    • Glyph of Holy Light now affects friendly targets in a larger radius.
    
    
    • Glyph of Horn of Winter now increases the duration by 60 sec.
    
    
    • Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Now increases the duration of the effect by a fixed amount of 6 seconds.
    
    
    • Glyph of turn evil now also increases the cooldown of your turn evil spell by 8 sec.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

  World Environment

  
  
  
  
  • Incapacitating Shout now has an 8 second duration.
  
  
  • Conquered Soul of the Blightcallers are no longer AE immune.
  
  
  • Corrected a raid emote in Violet Hold to display the proper creature name.
  
  
  • Corrected a redundant aura tooltip for Locust Swarm in Naxxramas.
  
  
  • Several creatures in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas did not have Heroic values for hit points and damage.
  
  
  • Storm Peaks, Grom'arsh Crash Site - Peon Gakra is now an innkeeper and the zeppelin hull, an inn.
  
  
  
  

  Bug Fixes

  
  


• Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.


• Racials
  
  
  
  • Berserking: Can now be used properly while under the affects of Hand of Protection.
  
  
  • Heroic Presence: Now works properly in Ghost Wolf Form.
  
  
  • Shadowmeld: This ability will now properly restore threat when it is cancelled. In addition, it will correctly remove a player from combat if it is active when that player is the last person left alive that the creature hates. This ability is now also unusable while affected by Faerie Fire.
  
  
  • Will of the Forsaken: Using this ability while disoriented would trigger it's cooldown to no affect; it is no longer useable while disoriented.
  
  
  
  


• Classes
  
  
  
  • Death Knights
    
    
    
    • Blood Aura Will now always do the correct amount of healing, based on the actual damage taken of the target.
    
    
    • Blood Caked Blade: Now does the proper damage amount when triggered by an off-hand weapon.
    
    
    • Bloody Strikes: The tooltip for this talent now has correct values.
    
    
    • Butchery: Will now always grant 20 runic power, regardless of the creature type killed.
    
    
    • Chains of Ice: This ability is no longer able to land on death knights who have Anti-Magic Shell active.
    
    
    • Crypt Fever: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. Will also no longer incorrectly increase Death and Decay damage.
    
    
    • Corpse Explosion: Fixed a bug where how much Runic Power the Death Knight had was affecting the damage done, and also increased the damage substantially.
    
    
    • Dancing Rune Blade: The weapon no longer echoes the Raise Dead and Army of the Dead spells. In addition it will now more closely match the master's damage and will cast Rune Strike when its master does.
    
    
    • Death Chill: The effect from this talent will no longer be consumed if Killing Machine is active.
    
    
    • Death Pact: This will no longer cause guards to attack the Death Knight.
    
    
    • Desecration: will no longer break stealth.
    
    
    • Ebon Plague: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. It will no longer stack with Crypt Fever used by another character.
    
    
    • Frost Fever: This talent now works properly when spell reflected.
    
    
    • Gnaw: This ghoul ability is now able to be set on autocast.
    
    
    • Icy Clutch: This will now be applied properly in all cases to targets that gain Frost Fever via the Pestilence ability.
    
    
    • Mark of Blood now works correctly with periodic damage.
    
    
    • Pestilence: The diseases will now spread correctly even when the damage from Pestilence kills the primary target.
    
    
    • Raise Dead no longer puts you in combat when you cast this spell.
    
    
    • Shadow of Death: This ability will no longer cause tracking abilities to become inactive when the death knight becomes a ghoul.
    
    
    • Tundra Stalker (Rank 1) will now work properly on Death and Decay.
    
    
    • Unholy Blight: Will no longer cause spell pushback.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Druids
    
    
    
    • Bear Form: This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
    
    
    • Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    • Maim: Tooltip adjusted to match the duration the ability has always had.
    
    
    • Opening: Opening doors and objects should no longer cause shapeshifted forms to be cancelled.
    
    
    • Rake: The initial damage from this ability is now properly considered bleed damage, and will be increased by Mangle and Trauma.
    
    
    • Savage Fury - Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
    
    
    • Starfall will no longer cause nearby creatures to become hostile for no apparent reason while the Druid is affected by fear effects. In addition, it will no longer pick ambient creatures as targets.
    
    
    • Survival Instincts: The extra health from this ability now persists in all forms, but the ability can only be activated in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form. This prevents the health gain from occurring multiple times if constantly shapeshifting.
    
    
    • Swiftmend: Riptide will no longer cause this ability to light up, and this ability will no longer sometimes consume Earthliving off the target.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Hunters
    
    
    
    • Aspects: All aspects now have a 1 second global cooldown.
    
    
    • Aspect of the Beast: Will now increase Hunter pet attack power by the correct amount.
    
    
    • Aspect of the Viper: Beast Lore, Scare Beast, and Tame Beast will no longer trigger mana regeneration from this ability.
    
    
    • Call of the Wild: Now only works on the pet and their own master.
    
    
    • Carrion Feeder: No longer causes extremely large amounts of threat when the pet gains happiness.
    
    
    • Chimera Shot: The secondary effects of this shot will now still be triggered even when the target dies from the ability's damage.
    
    
    • Cower: Now longer shares a cooldown with Growl, but has its own separate cooldown.
    
    
    • Dust Cloud: This pet ability will now be cast by the pet at the target instead of while they are moving toward the target.
    
    
    • Marked for Death: Now works properly for Steady Shot and Glyph of Steady Shot.
    
    
    • Master's Call: Now makes the pet immune to roots and snares for the duration as well, allowing the pet to break roots on the target even when the pet is rooted.
    
    
    • Nether Shock: Pets will now correctly use this ability on all targets, not just mana users.
    
    
    • Noxious Stings: When this talent triggers Wyvern Sting, the Wyvern Sting will now last the proper duration.
    
    
    • Owl's Focus: Free abilities will no longer consume this effect.
    
    
    • Prowl: This ability will no longer sometimes turn autocast on by itself.
    
    
    • Sniper Training: Now increases the damage of Aimed Shot by the correct amount.
    
    
    • Spirit Strike: This pet ability's duration and period have both been reduced to 6 seconds.
    
    
    • Spore Cloud: This ability will now work properly.
    
    
    • Swipe: The tooltip has been adjusted.
    
    
    • Tracking: Entering an arena no longer disables tracking types.
    
    
    • Fixed a bug that allowed Viper's Sting to target death knights. They are now invalid targets.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Mages
    
    
    
    • Arcane Missiles: This spell now only has one chance to trigger Arcane Concentration.
    
    
    • Brain Freeze: This talent can now be triggered by Blizzard.
    
    
    • Burnout: This talent will now properly charge the mage additional mana when Living Bomb causes a critical strike.
    
    
    • Fingers of Frost: This talent can now trigger properly from Frost Armor.
    
    
    • Frost Nova: Will now properly overwrite the effect of Shattered Barrier and of Frostbite.
    
    
    • Icy Veins: The spell pushback reduction from this talent now works on Frostfire Bolt.
    
    
    • Improved Scorch: This talent no longer triggers effects that trigger on casting a spell.
    
    
    • Incanter's Absorption: This talent will now work properly when the mage is sitting.
    
    
    • Living Bomb: Now triggers Ignite when it causes a critical strike. In addition, the final explosion will now still occur even if the mage is affected by a crowd control effect.
    
    
    • Molten Fury: This talent will now interact correctly with Torment the Weak.
    
    
    • Precision: Frostfire Bolt will no longer receive double the intended benefit from this talent.
    
    
    • Spell Power: Now affects the critical strike chance of Blizzard.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Paladins
    
    
    
    • Devotion aura: When mixing two different ranks of this ability in a party, players will no longer sometimes see a spurious second copy of the buff.
    
    
    • Hand of Freedom: Now works properly against the froststorm Breath Hunter pet ability.
    
    
    • Judgement of Blood, Judgement of Command, and Judgement of the Martyr will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    • Judgement of Light: The tooltip has been corrected to remove the implication that it only works on melee attacks.
    
    
    • Judgement of the Wise: The amount of mana gained has been corrected to match the tooltip.
    
    
    • Pure of Heart: This talent will no longer cause Curse of Agony to do more damage than intended.
    
    
    • Repentance: Avenger's Shield no longer breaks Repentance, but unfortunately, Seal of Vengeance and Corruption damage will break it again. This will be corrected in a future patch.
    
    
    • Righteous Vengeance: This talent will now calculate its damage correctly when the damage is absorbed. In addition this ability will no longer cause excessive damage when refreshed on targets with damage reduction effects active.
    
    
    • Seal of Command: The tooltip has been adjusted to show the damage gained from spell power.
    
    
    • Shield of Righteousness now properly shares a cooldown for both ranks.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Priest
    
    
    
    • Dispersion: This ability can no longer be cast while affected by Cyclone; doing so consumed the cooldown to no effect.
    
    
    • Guardian Spirit: It is no longer possible for simultaneous killing blows to trigger the heal from this ability multiple times.
    
    
    • Improved Holy Concentration: The tooltip has been rewritten to indicate that this talent reduces cast time rather than providing haste.
    
    
    • Mind Flay: Fixed a bug with targeting where you would not deal damage if not facing the target while channeling. Also corrected an issue where the damage from this ability was slightly delayed.
    
    
    • Prayer of Mending: Will now only benefit from the healing talents of the priest who cast the original spell.
    
    
    • Rapture: This talent will now correctly return mana for Power Word: Shield based on the caster's mana poll instead of the target's mana pool.
    
    
    • Shadow Weaving: Shadow Word: Death: Will now only apply one copy of this buff per cast.
    
    
    • Shadow Word: Pain now will gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    • Surge of Light: Prayer of Mending will no longer sometimes cause Surge of Light to trigger on Priests who do not have that talent.
    
    
    • Twisted Faith: This talent will no longer sometimes cause Shadow Word: Pain to fail due to a more powerful spell being in effect.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Rogues
    
    
    
    • Envenom: The tooltip values have been corrected to be accurate.
    
    
    • Fan of Knives: All poisons will now trigger correctly when used with this ability.
    
    
    • Honor Among Thieves: The bug where stacking multiple rogues with this talent caused them all to gain additional combo points has been fixed. In addition, it no longer cancels eating and drinking if a party member gains a critical strike while it is active.
    
    
    • Killing Spree: This ability no longer breaks stealth if it fails due to all targets being out of range.
    
    
    • Mutilate: this ability will no longer give poisons on the off-hand weapon two chances to be triggered.
    
    
    • Turn the Tables: This talent no longer generates threat when it triggers.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Shaman
    
    
    
    • Chain Heal: This spell will now give an invalid target error message if the primary target is a totem.
    
    
    • Earth Shield: Now correctly uses the Shaman's own spell critical strike chance to determine the chance of a critical heal.
    
    
    • Elemental Shields was reducing flat physical damage, not a percentage. Now properly reduced by a percentage.
    
    
    • Lava Lash - Fixed a bug which allowed you to use the ability even if you had a shield in offhand. Now requires a 1hand axe, fist or dagger to be able to be used.
    
    
    • Fixed a bug where Thunderstorm (Elemental) was knocking back 15 yards, instead of 20. It should now roughly knockback the correct length of 20 yards.
    
    
    • Magma Totem: Fixed a bug that capped the damage of this ability at too low of a level.
    
    
    • Resistance Totems: Players will no longer see two copies of these buffs when two shamans cast the totems simultaneously.
    
    
    • Spirit Walk: This Feral Spirit ability will now properly clear roots and snares from the Shaman master.
    
    
    • Stoneclaw Totem: The tooltip has been revised to indicate the damage absorb shield also works on the Stoneclaw Totem itself.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Warlock
    
    
    
    • Warlock Pets: Some pets were not properly classified to receive correct creature scaling for Wrath of the Lich King. Their health and damage done will now be higher.
    
    
    • Corruption will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    • Create Healthstone: Attempting to create a healthstone when you already have one no longer consumes mana or triggers the cooldown of this ability.
    
    
    • Demonic Circle: Teleport: the button for this ability will now darken when the Warlock is out of range of the Demonic Circle and will light up when the Warlock is in range.
    
    
    • Demon Power Scaling: Spell power gained from spirit via the Fel Armor ability will now properly affect the scaling of spell power and attack power on summoned demons.
    
    
    • Drain Mana: This spell will no longer cancel when the target's mana poll is low or the caster's mana poll is full. It also now generates a very small amount of threat instead of no threat.
    
    
    • Everlasting Affliction: Will now calculate correct damage values for Corruption when it is refreshed in all cases.
    
    
    • Haunt: Will now gain correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target. In addition, this ability is now limited to a single target as intended. This also now works properly when refreshed on its current target.
    
    
    • Mana Feed: This talent will no longer sometimes fire for warlocks who do not have the talent.
    
    
    • Master Conjuror: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not increase the damage bonuses of Firestones or Spellstones.
    
    
    • Metamorphosis: The bonus armor effect from this ability will now calculate properly and interact correctly with armor buffs and debuffs.
    
    
    • Ritual of Doom: A Doomguard summoned with this spell will now scale properly from its master's stats.
    
    
    • Shadow Embrace: This ability will now create a separate debuff stack for each Warlock with the talent, and each warlock will benefit properly from his or her own debuff.
    
    
    • Soul Siphon: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    • Unstable Affliction: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Warrior
    
    
    
    • Bladestorm: Fixed a bug where sometimes stuns and roots would not be removed properly when this ability is used.
    
    
    • Damage Shield: Rank 1 of this ability now works properly.
    
    
    • Heroic Throw no longer triggers the snare from Mage Frost Armor.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• PvP
  
  
  
  • The Wintergrasp Aura should now properly update in all instances, transferring the buff when the zone control changes.
  
  
  • Arena: Dalaran Sewer: The Flush effect which pushes players out will now also remove the ability to use Demonic Circles summoned during the arena start time.
  
  
  
  


• Items
  


• Idol of the Emerald Queen: This idol was providing greater healing than implied by its tooltip. It has been reduced to correct value.


• Glyph of Ambush: This glyph will now interact correctly with Initiative when Ambush is used outside of combat range.


• Glyph of Charge: The stun from Charge will now work properly when Charge is used with the extra range from this glyph.


• Glyph of Corpse Explosion: Additional explosions from this glyph will no longer consume Unholy Runes.


• Glyph of Rejuvenation: The heal from this glyph is now properly considered a periodic heal.


• Gronstalker Set: The Aspect of Viper bonus from this set has been changed to work correctly with the redesigned Aspect of the Viper.


• Mana Potions: Warriors and Death Knights now receive a correct error message when attempting to use mana potions.


• Scrolls: Buffs from scrolls can now only be overwritten by more powerful scrolls.


• Soul Preserver: This item will now interact correctly with Desperate Prayer, Lay on Hands, Riptide, and Wild Growth.

Minor bugs to appear in patch 3.0.8

Eyonix posted a note about a few minor bugs that will appear when patch 3.0.8 goes live:

1. Ritual of Summoning can only be used once every two minutes.


2. Human females have animation errors when shooting a ranged weapon or using two-handed weapons.
   

Remember that with 3.0.8 Ritual of Summoning will be changed to create a summoning stone. The Warlock will cast Ritual of Summoning, which will drop the stone, which can then be used to summon other party/raid members. We are assuming that it's the actual casting of the spell to summon the stone that can only be used once every two minutes, and not the actual summoning of people.

We'll get some video of the animation errors up on WoW Insider as soon as we can, I'm sure there's some potentially funny stuff there.

And don't bother asking if 3.0.8 is coming tomorrow. While we think it's definitely possible, god only knows what Blizzard will actually do. I give it a 80/20 chance that it drops tomorrow morning.

The state of the Mage

My formative years fell mainly within the late-80's and early 90's, back when Double Dare and Saved by the Bell were a daily afternoon ritual and it was perfectly acceptable to show up to school wearing parachute pants and looking like Brian Austin Green from 90210 (I'd be careful about clicking that last youtube link, the video contained therein quite literally made my brain bleed). My family was...um...frugal, so school shopping was always an exercise in humility.

"But Mom, all the other kids are wearing Bugle Boy and Jordache, why can't I?"

"Everybody else will have a sweet Trapper Keeper, why do I have to get this crappy notebook?"

"My friends get to play Crystalis and Life Force, why am I stuck with Destination Earthstar?"

I know that last one isn't at all related to education, but even while school shopping, my mind was on games. A lot of my best memories involve the Playchoice 10 display at Montgomery Ward.

All of these questions and many more elicited the same response:

"Chris, you shouldn't worry about what other kids have. You can't compare yourself to other people."

Oh Mom, how wrong you were. How very, very wrong.

In World of Warcraft, the late stages of the game revolve around how your class compares to those around you. Your raiding value is determined by how much healing you can muster, how many other classes and specs can out-DPS you, or how well you can hold aggro and mitigate damage. PvP is essentially a caste system so rigid and brutal India would be proud of it. So now that we've had the Lich King around for a solid two months and the classes have begun to settle into their roles, how do Mages stack up? Where do we rate? Can we walk down the cool kids' (Death Knights) hallway? Or are we the nerds, staying in the library at lunch to avoid getting beaten up because we bring Dragonlance novels and issues of Nintendo Power to school? Join me after the jump and we'll discuss where Mages stand.

Raiding

We'll begin with the PvE side of the game. The current end-game raid content is relatively forgiving, so there isn't the same sort of elitist shunning of sub-par DPS classes and specs that went on toward the end of The Burning Crusade. Still, it's already clear which of the various damage dealers you actively want in your raid and which you think twice about bringing along.

There are now four serviceable raiding specs for Mages, and the best of those, from a pure DPS output perspective, is the Frostfire Bolt spec. Arcane Brilliance's guide to this spec specifically and others can be found here and here. There are several variations of this particular build floating around, but all of them involve speccing specifically around maximizing the damage output of Frostfire Bolt, and then spamming it almost exclusively in boss fights. Well-geared Mages with this spec tend to finish fights near the top of DPS meters, usually competitive with Moonkin and Shadow Priests, but well below Warlocks. This is a favorable change from The Burning Crusade, where we'd often find ourselves below Hunters, Rogues, Warriors, Hunter pets, Warlock Imps, Shadowfiends, AFK gold farmers who weren't even in the instance, Mechanical Yetis, Compact Harvest Reapers, and our own Water Elementals. It's good to feel competitive again.

Fire/Arcane builds with Torment the Weak can sometimes out-damage elementalist specs, but only if there happens to be a deep Arcane Mage in the group willing to keep Slow up on the target for the duration of the fight Otherwise, Fire Mages fall well short of the damage output of FFB specs, though they are still capable of generating very solid DPS.

Arcane Mages currently finish fights just above Frost Mages, but this is due to change with the release of patch 3.0.8. The main issue Arcane Mages face right now is managing their mana pools in longer fights, and changes like a shortened cooldown for Evocation--which can be talented down to two minutes after the patch hits--should help to resolve that problem. Arcane DPS is already high (when they have mana), and the new version of Arcane Blast and change to Torment the Weak will only improve that DPS. Damage output aside, in the category of raw, unadulterated fun, Arcane is without peer.

As always, the black sheep of PvE DPS remains the Frost Mage. Still, even Frost Mages are better off now than they were in the previous expansion in comparison to other classes. Though they rank below the other three PvE specs in viability, skilled Frost Mages can hold their own against most hybrid classes, and even some pure DPS classes like Hunters and Rogues. Blizzard appears content to leave Frost as the so-called PvP spec for now, and though that is a sad, sorry state of affairs, no changes are on the horizon.

The relative value of Mages as a class in PvE is higher than it has been since the final days of vanilla WoW. We still bring the single most reliable CC spell in the game to the table (though almost every other class now has their own version of it), and our role as vending/portal machines is still as in-demand as it ever was. We're not yet where a lot of us feel we should be, but we're moving in the right direction. Personally, I won't settle for Mages being anywhere short of the absolute top of the chart, but for now I'm encouraged.

PvP

The options for killing other players in this game are now many and varied. From simple duels outside Orgrimmar to epic siege warfare in Wintergrasp to the structured battleground combat of Arathi Basin to the intense, match-up driven deathmatches of the Arena system, we can now battle each other in almost any manner we prefer.

In previous iterations of this game, Mages had two choices in PvP. Choice number one was "spec Frost." Choice number two was "die a swift and horrible death." While Frost is still absolutely the spec of choice for pure PvP butt-kickery, many are learning to fear and respect the power of a skilled Arcane Mage. Or at least they're learning to accuse us of face-rolling for the win, or to launch silly and vindictive "nerf Mages" campaigns on the official forums. Either way, they're learning something. Sort of.

Well-geared and skilled Frost Mages are still the kings of survivability in PvP settings, though that specific skillset isn't as valuable as it once was, given today's burst-damage-centered Arena combat. Thankfully, the control and burst damage capabilities the Frost tree offers are still quite formidable, especially with the stun of Deep Freeze in the mix. Frost Mages can still match up well in most fights, though Death Knights, Druids, and Rogues are still lethal foes.

Arcane Mages excel at burst damage and mobility, and Arcane Barrage is the single greatest PvP tool in their arsenal, enabling them to move and burst with unmatched efficiency. Instant Invisibility, high spell resistances, and Improved Blink provide a heightened sense of slipperiness that Mages have never had before. Slow is still an incredibly powerful control tool. Arcane Mages are better suited to the open warfare found in Wintergrasp or the various battlegrounds than they are to Arena combat, due to the relative ease with which they are killed in close quarters.

Fire Mages are still low man on the totem pole when it comes to PvP, due to their need to stand still and cast and their low survivability. Like those with Fire builds, Frostfire Mages can pump out impressive DPS if left alone, but take too long to cast to be truly viable in the hectic realm of PvP.

All of this is well and good, but the most important question for me personally is this: how do we stack up against Warlocks?

The answer--and I firmly believe my nightly prayers for the past two years are primarily responsible for this--is pretty well. Arcane Mages especially can generally pump down a Warlock in time to avoid the nasty, curse-ridden deaths we used to endure so often. Mirror Image is a powerful tool against Locks as well, and should be used early in the fight, to spread the Warlock's initial DoTs around to multiple targets and confuse the pet. It's incredibly nice to finally feel superior to the class I've hated for so long and in so many creatively and disturbingly violent ways. You'd almost expect, now that I no longer get killed by Warlocks on a regular basis, that some of my dislike would fade. You'd be wrong. If anything, my vitriol--and the almost religious fervor with which I express it--has increased. I hate Warlocks with a vigor that extends far beyond the boundaries of mere competitive vengefulness. Although...my hate for Death Knights is starting to move into a similar category.

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Raiding Gear Pt. II

We got half-way through our available raid content last time we talked about raiding gear. Since the next big topic I intend to cover is stances and their current implementation, and since this column is a day late, I decided to finish up the topic before moving into one as controversial as stance penalties. This week we'll talk about armor, rings, trinkets and necklaces for both tanks and DPS in Naxxramas (or Naxxaramas, as my subconscious insists on misspelling it) and then we'll discuss Malygos and what booty he has in store for warriors if there's room.

Before we get going, I wanted to point out that in the most recent PTR patch notes, the change to Sudden Death (where no more than 30 rage is used on a Sudden Death execute) has been implemented, but there is as yet no change to Deep Wounds. This doesn't mean there won't be one, but for now it's not part of the notes, so it's possible any such change won't take place in time for 3.0.8 depending on when that happens. (Basically, if the patch happens this week we're probably clear until 3.1.)

To be honest, I don't like the reasoning for the change, that Deep Wounds damage is too high because it is damage unmitigated by armor, especially since (as many prot warriors reminded me in the column where I first mentioned it) it's used as a source of constant threat by a lot of tanking warriors. Since Deep Wounds puts a DoT on anyone the warrior crits, and tanks have a high crit chance with abilities like Incite, it's not hard for a warrior tank to get Deep Wounds up on a lot of mobs at once and thus keep ticking threat on them even when focusing on other mobs. Any change to Deep Wounds needs to keep this use of the talent in mind. (I went and specced prot for a heroic Utgarde run the other day just to try it out, and it's fantastic threat. It even seems to work when Thunder Clap crits.) We'll definitely be watching how this all plays out.

On to gear!

Naxxramas continued

We covered weapon drops in Naxx last time, so now we'll talk about everything else. There's a lot of everything else in Naxx, as it is where the majority of your gear is coming from in raids at the moment. I mean, there's one boss in Obsidian Sanctum (which can be made to drop slightly more gear if you do it the hard way) and one boss in the Eye of Eternity, and fifteen boss encounters in Naxx. It stands to reason the majority of your gear is here.

There's quite a bit of plate in Naxx, even after we discount all that awful stuff with *yeuch* spell power on it. Since Gluth has a chance to drop anything except gear from Kel or Sapph, he's kind of a 'one-stop shop' post for characters looking to gear up in Naxx. In Naxxramas 10 the tanking plate of interest includes the Abomination Shoulderblades off of Gluth and Patchwerk, the Gauntlets of the Master off of Gluth and Faerlina, the Legplates of Inescapable Death off of Gluth and Loatheb, the Minion Bracers off of darn near every mob in the instance (you know, the minions), the Plague-Impervious Boots off of, you guessed it, Noth the Plaguebringer and yes, Gluth again. The Thane's Tainted Greathelm (a very sweet hat with a meta socket) is available from the Four Horsemen chest and yes, Gluth also drops one. And Instructor Razuvious (and here comes Gluth again, I swear that dog eill eat anything) drops the Waistguard of the Tutor, a very hot tanking belt. Finally, Sapphiron (and not Gluth, just in case I've trained you too well) drops the Massive Skeletal Ribcage.

As for DPS gear in normal Naxx, Gluth vomits up a fair share of that too. Bad dog! I'm just going to mention when he doesn't drop a piece from now on and save us all some time. The Bracers of Lost Sentiments from Faerlina lack in crit, but provide solid hit, expertise and strength for your DPS warrior. The Chestplate of the Risen Soldier has crit, haste, and of course strength, it comes from Noth. The Gauntlets of Combined Strength from Patchwerk are, frankly, a little underwhelming. Gothik, however, drops a heck of a sweet belt for DPS. Sapphiron (and only Sapph, remember) drops the Helm of the Unsubmissive, with a meta socket, a blue socket, hit and haste rating. Finally, Grobbulus drops the Leggings of Innumerable Barbs, which have too many barbs to count apparently. I'm kind of lazy so I just take their word for it.

There are two DPS and one tanking ring of interest in 10 man Naxx - the Deflection Band is a solid tanking piece, the Circle of Death is ideal for DPS warriors, and the Sealing Ring of Grobbulus will serve a DPS warrior. (Strength is generally better than AP for a warrior, due to buffs that scale stats.) Our necklace options are the Amulet of Autopsy from Heigan and the Medallion of the Disgraced from just about everyone for tanks, and the Collar of Dissolution from Anub'Rekhan and Gem of Imprisoned Vassals from head dead man Kel'Thuzad himself. Finally, our DPS will be looking to acquire Loatheb's Shadow if they feel low on crit, while tanks will be giving the Repelling Charge from Thaddius their attention.

In addition to all this, four of the five tokens warriors (and hunters and shamans, of course) can use to purchase their set pieces drop in Naxxramas. Gluth has a chance to drop any piece save for the one Kel'Thuzad drops, the Helm of the Lost Protector. The Chestguard of the Lost Protector is found in the Four Horsemen's chest, Thaddius drops the legs, and Loatheb the spaulders. These can be turned in for either DPS or Tanking options.

This covers 10 man Naxx drops, but what about heroic, you may ask? Well, even if you didn't that's what we're covering next. As before, if it doesn't drop from KT or Sapph, it can also drop from Gluth.

For tanks, we have an assortment of options from heroic Naxx. There's quite a selection here, in fact: the Ablative Chitin Girdle and Bindings of the Hapless Prey from Maexxna, the Fleshless Girdle from Patchwerk, the Bracers of the Unholy Knight from Razuvious, the Breastplate of Tormented Rage from Heigan the Unclean, the Burdened Shoulderplates and Helm of Vital Protection from Gothik (that's a very well rounded hat, too), the Inexorable Sabatons (more strength than stamina on a tanking piece, interesting - with the str and SBV these are clearly threat boots) and Pauldrons of Unnatural Death off of Anub'Rekhan, the Callous-Hearted Gauntlets off of Faerlina, the Chestguard of the Exhausted off of Grobbulus, the Gauntelts of the Disobedient from Noth, the Greaves of Turbulence from Loatheb, the Sabatons of Endurance from Thaddius, and finally the Platehelm of the Great Wyrm from Sapphiron and only Sapphiron. As you can see, the potential for several sets optimized for threat or survival exists in the gear available to tanks in Naxx 25.

DPS need not fear a paucity of gear for their interests, however. It's there, hoo boy is it there. If you're low on expertise Faerlina has the Bracers of the Tyrant for you, while if you'd rather have crit then Gothik has the Bracers of Unrelenting Attack. Maexxna drops the Undiminished Battleplate, a solid hit/expertise chest. while Sapphiron drops the astonishing Breastplate of Frozen Pain. Faerlina drops the Fire-Scorched Greathelm (which you've sene in several screenshots of my warrior, I love this hat) while the Shoulderguards of the Undaunted drop off of trash (in my experience they drop a lot in the Military Quarter). Instructor Razuvious drops the Girdle of Razuvious, as well as the Legplates of Double Strikes. Patchwerk is the source for the Crude Discolored Battlegrips with solid hit and crit. Grobbulus drops the Girdle of Chivalry, Heigan the Iron-Spring Jumpers, and Thaddius the Riveted Abomination Leggings. Anub'Rekhan drops some of the best DPS boots I've yet seen, while Noth drops Armor Pen Shoulders and there's a BoE set of gloves from the Four Horsemen.

There's a variety of rings for warriors in Naxx. First I'm going to mention is the BoE Signet of Edward the Odd. The proc makes it interesting to me, as I'd like to try and build a dedicated haste set and see how valuable I think it is now. Still, this ring is hardly a must have for warriors compared to Ruthlessness or even the Strong-Handed Ring. The Sand-Worn Band is of definite interest to a tanking warrior, but if you're doing fine on defense and the druid tanks have it already Gatekeeper merits your attention as well. That is some solid dodge and hit right there.

Heritage, a solid tanking neck, is apparently dropped by up to five bosses in Naxx. The other tanking option in Naxx 25, Boundless Ambition, only drops from Kel'Thuzad. And the DPS option, Fool's Trial, drops off of the same bosses as Heritage, while Sapphiron drops the Icy Blast Amulet.

Trinkets from Naxx 25 for tanks are the Defender's Code (more of a druid trinket but still usable for a warrior) from a variety of bosses and the Rune of Repulsion (repeat that previous sentence but with Death Knight instead of Druid) from Sapphiron. DPS trinkets are the Bandit's Insignia from Sapphiron and Grim Toll, also from a variety of bosses. I really like that Grim Toll myself. Even with the change to armor pen to a rating that's a lot of armor ignored and the hit is solid.

Finally, the same four tokens for the Valorous tier set drop as did the Heroes tokens in 10 man Naxx. Same bosses and everything, for both DPS and Tanking options.

Okay, that's pretty much Naxx in as small a nutshell as I could manage. Next week we'll either finish this with a look at Malygos and Emblem gear or we'll talk stances and pick this up the week after.