Rogues are the masters of stealth and surprise. Capable of sneaking up on to their victims and dealing massive amounts of damage in a very short time, a well geared and played Rogue can compete with the best of the DPS classes.  Today we will talk about the highest damage output build for a Mutilate (assassination) rogue using the best in slot gear from prior to patch 3.3. Disclaimer: This is a build from patch 3.22, in 3.3 with the new rupture-less  cycle this is subject to change. Ok, seeing as this is 3.3 and all this spec is slightly dated, however it is still more than capable of pumping out some completely dominating dps.

Gear

Example Gear Patch 3.3

The Build:

Assassination Rogue Build

Glyphs

Major

• Hunger For Blood
• Rupture (the build shows tricks of the trade glyph – your choice)
• Mutilate

Minor

• Your choice in the minor glyph category; whatever floats your boat baby.

Priorities:

Make sure hunger for blood doesn’t drop off and Slice and dice is maintained by envenom. Poisons: main-hand Instant Poison, Offhand Deadly Poison.

The rotation:

1. Garrote
2. Start Hunger for blood
3. Start Slice and Dice
4. Mutilate to 4 or 5 combo points
5. Envenom
6. Mutilate to 4 or 5 combo points
7. Rupture
8 Go to step 4

Being that this example is for a target that’s not moving, ie your not chasing it around or moving constantly to avoid those nasty void zones, etc. You simply sneak up behind your target, Garrote for the initial bleed and first Combo point, start up Hunger for blood and slice and dice. After that its Mutilate to 4 or 5 combo points (Depending on how much time is left on your slice and dice you may want to envenom before rupture in order to get a full 20 sec duration), Rupture, Mutilate some more, Envenom which also conveniently refreshes your slice and dice, and back to Mutilate. Be sure to refresh Hunger for Blood before it drops off, and don’t let rupture drop off.  In a Raid scenario where you have multiple classes with bleeds on the target you may opt to skip garrote. Mutilate for some quick combo points, start up slice and dice, and Hunger for blood, then jump right into the rotation.

With the best in slot gear the dps for this build can turn out a whopping 10,204 avg dps, or a theoretical maximum dps of 11,052! Take that mages.

22 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Interesting Items In The Next Patch

We recently put up a page for the Patch WoW links at Blizz. But we also want to give you some more insights incase you don’t go into patch notes like some folks (and you know who you are). So here are the more interesting tidbits coming from the current PTR notes.

Titansteel bars will no longer have a cooldown, expect prices to drop a bit since supply will be able to more adequetly match demand. The same thing applies to Moonshroud, Spellweave and Ebonweave – no more cooldowns on those.

Random dungeons have been such a hit that the concept is moving into the Battlegrounds. Using this system will give you extra honor equivalent to 30 kills the first time through each day and an extra 15 for further BG’s the same day. Since honor per kill is being doubled, that’s going to mean a lot more honor in random BG’s than queueing for specific battles. Marks of honor for specific battles are also being removed, we can only assume that those items which required marks will now be purchased with honor instead.

the deserter debuff for bailing on a random dungeon has been increased to 30 minutes. leaving a random party for any reason will trigger this debuff, which overwrites the usual 15 minute debuff. This will prevent some of the goonery for instances like Occulus, where people leave the second they see where they are. Honestly, just make the run mon.

For holiday bosses, you can now queue for the encounter without having to do the prequel quests each year. As long as you’ve done the boss before at least once you can just queue up random and go spank them.

But the big one is that those worthless Frozen orbs will now actually be useful for more than just vendoring. A new NPC is being added in Dalaran that will convert your Frozen orbs to other items. Here is the list of what he sells in exchange for frozen orbs (consider this to be currently accurate but Blizz has been knows to change their mind at the last minute).  You can see the (current) list of items Frozo is selling at the link below.

Items you can get from Frozo the Renowned

Frost Lotus for a Runed Orb – that’s going to help some.  It’s also going to raise the value of the orbs a bit and lower values for certain eternals.  Since only one orb drops per heroic, there shouldn’t be a huge change in Ah prices for the items above, but beware the first week or two while everyone blows through all their extra orbs they might have sitting around.

I’m kicking myself now for finally vendoring about 60 of them, but you might be able to snag a few cheap stack off the AH before this change goes live.  There are also some class changes you’ll want to take a look at.  Once again DK’s are getting the most fiddling while most other classes remain fairly static.

It’s not what we would call a Dominating patch, but Frozo and the random battlegrounds will be a nice couple of changes.

18 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Change Of Pace Build For Mages In Patch 3.3

When all you’ve got is a two button rotation, things can get a little dull.  And at least with the build below you can go right from leveling directly to raiding for at least part of the time.  You might still want to go arcane on Boss fights, but the frost spec has a little more utility on trash.  It’s an idea anyway.  I actually keep this frost spec on my mage for doing dailies and just random 1v1 killings.  In the long run it’s not going to rival the top DPS builds, but it can keep you from going completely numb in the brain from face-rolling arcane.  You can see our Arcane spec here: Arcane Mage Build.

Gearing Example

Frost Mage Gear Early Patch 3.3

Talent Build

Frost Mage Talents For Patch 3.3

Glyphs

Major

• Frostbolt
• Water Elemental
• Molten Armor

Minor

• Your choice – has no impact on DPS so suit yourself

Priorities

1. Flask = Frost Wyrm
2. Food = Fish Feast
3. Water Elemental
4. Arcane Brilliance
5. Focus Magic
6. Counterspell (Spell Interrupt)
7. Icy Veins
8. Mana Gem
9. Speed Potion
10. Deep Freeze
11. Frostbolt (when Target is frozen)
12. Fireball (when Brain Freeze is up)
13. Cold Snap
14. Mirror Image
15. Frostbolt
16. Evocation
17. Ice Lance (when Target is frozen)
18. Fire Blast (when moving)
19. Ice Lance (when moving)

Damage Sources

When you are leveling you might drop a few points into Frosbite, Imp. Blizzard and permafrost, but its not really necessary.  Once you get the perma pet you blow stuff up so fast that slowing them down is a little bit of overkill.  It’s about 1,00 DPS less than arcane, but should have more utility for trash pulls, and more buttons to push on Bosses, although using this for progression kills is hardly recommended.  But if you are looking for a change of pace from time to time as an off spec, this frost build is about as Dominating as it gets outside of Arcane.

10 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Affliction Warlock Spec For Patch 3.3

Although all three trees for Warlocks have good DPS builds (over 10k DPS) the following Affliction build is between 250-500 higher than the rest in patch 3.3.  As with all of these builds, remember that they come from the Wowikki Simulationcraft engine, so any anger can be taken out on the engine itself – we are just the messenger.  With that being said, you might find that this build definately helps your DPS.

Gear

Best In Slot Affliction Warlock

Remember, at this point in patch 3.3 we have yet to see all of ICC and there are no heroic modes open yet.  So best-in-slot is still a mix of ToC, T9 and T10 gear.  Once ICC opens completely and heroic modes are available, you can expect plenty of changes to the gear you see above.

Talent Build

Tier 9 Tier 10 Affliction Lock

Glyphs

Major

• Curse of Agony
• Haunt
• Life Tap

Minor

• Whatever floats your boat

Priorities

• Flask = Frost Wyrm
• Food = Fish Feast
• Spell Stone
• Fel Armor
• Pet = Felhunter
• Life Tap
• Potion = Wild Magic
• Haunt
• Corruption
• Curse of Agony
• Unstable Affliction
• Drain Soul (when target health less than 25%)
• Shadow Bolt
• Life Tap (When Mana is under 20%)

Remember, the list above is NOT a rotation, it is a priority list, which means that you will use whatever is the highest on the list whenever it is available (not on cool-down) with certain conditionals, of course.  Master affliction locks will help you out in the thread below for more insight into rotations.

Damage Sources

You may also have noticed that the best-in-slot gear is min/maxxed with Tailoring and Enchanting.  That combo of professions is almost impossible to beat for caster DPS toons.  You will also note that while you may never see most of the gear from 25 heroic ToC (until it is not best-in-slot any longer) you can get a good idea about which pieces of Tier set pieces to use and what should be off set.  In the case of this lock, you can feel comfortable using all five set pieces.

13 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Marksmanship Build Back At The Top In Patch 3.3

We’re not really sure why Blizz does this from time to time.  Back in tBC Marksmanship hunters were all the rage, with the odd BM hunter holding on to his leveling days until they finally gave up and joined the Marks crowd at some point.  At the beginning of WotLK it was the BM guys who had their Devilsaurs stomping around shaking screens in everyone’s face.  Then, finally, Survival hunters have been the flavor of the last six months or so (a spec I always wanted to play in tBC – when I was still allowed to play a DPS toon).

That all changed in the last patch, and we’re back to Marksmanship as the top DPS spec again.  The Wikki Simulationcraft engine lists four builds for DPS potential:

• Beast Mastery at 9725 DPS
• Survival at 10920 DPS
• Marksmanship at 10964 DPS
• Marksmanship at 11084 DPS

So BM has definitely been relegated to leveling duty once again, which may be because everyone else simply hates the BM pets in a raid.  The other builds are separated by by just 164 DPS, so it certainly doesn’t man Survival is dead by any means, but if all you care about is beating everyone in a raid in DPS, you’re probably going to want that 11k DPS build giving you every possible advantage.

Remember that this build is based on the Simcraft engine, but what what we’ve been able to tell from testing in multiple classes and specs – the engine just doesn’t lie.  My Shaman now hardly ever uses Chain Lightning, and my Mage pushes like 2 buttons.  And it works better than just making things up as you go along.  But, there will always be subtleties in every priority list that our readers will point out in the thread below the post, so ask questions if you have them and the experts will come to you.  And yes, we’ll try to make sure they are nice to the nubs.

Gear

Here is the best in slot hunter gear for T9T10 in Patch 3.3; at least it’s best in slot based on current content and what someone could possibly have at this point.  That doesn’t mean you could run out and get all this gear in a week, or even a month, but it should give you an idea what you should be (cough) shooting for.

Tier 9 Tier 10 Hunter

Talent Build

Patch 3.3 Marksmanship Hunter Spec Build

Glyphs

Major

• Glyph of Serpent Sting
• Glyph of Aimed Shot
• Glyph of Steady Shot

Minor

• Mend Pet
• Feign Death

Priorities

• Flask = Endless Rage
• Food = Hearty Rhino
• Hunter’s Mark
• Pet (Wolf)
• Trueshot Aura
• Aspect of the Hawk
• Serpent Sting
• Rapid Fire
• Kill Command
• Aimed Shot
• (wait for Chimera Shot if Cooldown on Chimera is less than .25 sec.)
• Chimera Shot
• Kill Shot
• Readiness
• Steady Shot

That’s all there is to it.  Kill command when you can, and then Aimed Shot at the top of the list.  Follow Aimed with Chimera and Kill Shot when it becomes available.  If not, pop readiness and then do steady shot.  So it’s really just Aimed shot, Chimera Shot, Steady Shot – Aimed Shot (Chimera Shot if cool-down is up), Steady Shot – Aimed Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Shot, Steady Shot.  And you pop cooldowns for rapid fire and readiness when they are available, although you’ll want to wait on the readiness cool-down until after you’ve used both Chimera and Kill shot so they refresh for the next run through the list.

Damage Sources

Pawn Scales

This pawn scale is a little rough, since the engine didn’t spit this out and we had to build it manually, but it should be as close as you could hope for without the programming help.

( Pawn: v1: “Marksmanship”: Intellect=0.519, CritRating=0.893, Agility=1.444, HitRating=0.236, ArmorPenetration=1.116, HasteRating=0.124, Ap=2.837, GemQualityLevel=81 )

So for those of you who played Marks back in the tBC days, now is your chance to go back to your roots.  For everyone else, there at least is a very viable option to Survival builds, although BM is a good 1,300 DPS behind.  I was a big fan of Survival being the top spec, not that the guild will ever let me play a hunter, but it gave me a warm and squishy feeling deep down.  But no matter if a hunter was your first toon, or just another in a long line, this Marksmanship spec will help you Dominate.

41 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

The Cat Is Back In Patch 3.3

Not that kitties were all that bad in the last patch, mind you, but with 3.3 they are pushing mages and rogues for top DPS.  At a max of 11,094 single target DPS that is a mere fraction behind the Arcane spec mage build.  Now, feral druids have a tendency to be fairly gear dependent and the priority list may hurt your eyes for a while until you get the hang of it, but once you get some 245 (and up) set pieces and wrap your brain around your skills and when to use them you should be able to maybe even shut up that arrogant rogue in your guild.

Gear

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14717965

Talent Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14717965#talents

Glyphs

Major

• Savage Roar
• Rip
• Shred

Minor

• The Wild
• Unburdened Rebirth
• Dash

As is the case with most builds, the minor glyphs are mostly up to you since none of them figure into direct DPS in any way.  So if you are in love with something else feel free to use it, but these are pretty typical.  And yes, we know there is no glyph of Mangle in there, we’ll explain below.

Priorities

This build doesn’t use Mangle, and although it only removes one thing from the priority list, it does make the list a little less complex.  Keep in mind we said “a little.”  It’s not nearly as bad as some DK lists with internalized rotations inside the list, but there are some conditionals you have to bear in mind.  Check the thread below this post for input from the folks who do this all the time for more nuts and bolts.  And remember, this is NOT a rotation, so things may seem a little out of order.  It’s a priority list, so get that straight before you complain.

• Flask = Endless Rage
• Food = Hearty Rhino
• Form = Cat
• Maim (interrupt)
• Faeire Fire
• Tigers Fury (when energy is less than 40)
• Berserk (when energy is less than 90)
• Savage Roar (without SR buff)
• Savage Roar (With 5 combo points on target and Rip has more than 6 seconds left)
• Shred (to extend Rip when Rip has less than 4 seconds)
• Rip (when at 5 combo points to debuff target)
• Ferocious Bite (when combo points are at max and target has less than 6 seconds to die)
• Ferocious Bite (at 5 combo points and rip has more than 10 seconds left)
• Rake (unless the target will die in less than ten seconds)
• Shred (if you have more than 70 energy)
• Shred (when Omen of Clarity procs)
• Shred (when combo points are below 4 and rip has less than 3 seconds left)
• Shred (if the target will die in less than ten seconds)
• Shred (if Berserk is still active)

Damage Sources

Now, the first few days we had this up Law got ripped more than – ok I won’t use the cheesy game reference.  But I’m not past correcting mistakes.  I only VERY occasionally play cat form on my druid and his gear isn’t anything like uber.  So I made some huge mistakes trying to read the priority list and extrapolate.

The next problem is that there are a number of VERY good players out there who tend to develop a diety complex after a while.  In other words, they will scream the word moron at each other while sane folks wrinkle their brows.  SO – we’re going to let all the cat form demi-gods inform you of the rotation you should be using in the thread below.  Just keep in mind that when they disagree with each other it will turn into something like an elitist jerks thread – basically- long, boring and mostly flaming.

The last issue is that people have huge issues with change.  According to the wikki simulcraft engine, this build and priority list WITHOUT using Mangle does 214 more DPS than a mangle rotation.  Yes, I know that Mangle increases your bleed damage by 30% and that anyone who doesn’t use mangle should be shot in the face repeatedly and the pooped on once dead.  But if you’re not one of THOSE players who absolutely pwns the game like Mr. T and really did make Blizz invent the night elf mohawk class, you might – just might, consider experimenting with a rotation that doesn’t use mangle.  It will either work a little better for you, a lot better, or it will be worse and you can go back to doing what you know best.

But, we will post the Mangle build in a few days as promised in the previous version of this post.  Remember, the information above comes from the wikki engine here: http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/SampleOutputT9T10Druid so don’t call Law a moron, you can blast whoever ran the numbers.  Just be sure to run your OWN numbers in the engine and give everyone a link to it so we all know you hung the sun and the moon in a subjective way.

Since the first post was such an unfortunate debaucle, I reset the thread so you don’t have to wade through my mess first to get to the guys doing the rotation explanations.

4 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Frost Tree Blood Presence Build Tops Charts In 3.3

Every now and then, a patch makes a big change to a class.  You don’t always see the changes coming, and it often takes people a while to adjust.  With a theoretical maximum of 9923 – this build rivals even mages for chart topping Domination

Gear

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=18133075

Since the build at simcraft didn’t contain the Pawn scales for this profile, you’ll just have to make do with looking for the best-in-slot gear from the profile itself.

Talent Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=18133075#talents

Glyphs

Major

• Frost Strike
• Obliterate
• Disease

Minor

• Horn of Winter
• Pestilence
• Raise Dead

Runes

• Rune of the Fallen Crusader – Main Hand
• Rune of Razorice – Off Hand

This is one case where the minor glyphs are as much a part of the build as the Major glyphs.  Having the Horn of Winter glyph moves the horn of winter ability to the bottom of the priority list, although you will want horn of winter up before the pull for obvious reasons.  We’ve also included the rune forging choices for each weapon to bring the entire thing in line with the build.

Priorities

• Blood Presence
• Flask = Endless Rage
• Food = Dragonfin Filet
• Auto Attack
• Raise Dead
• Icy Touch
• Plague Strike
• Pestilence
• Howling Blast
• Deathchill
• Obliterate
• Blood Strike
• Blood Strike/Death Strike
• Frost Strike
• Empower Rune Weapon
• Howling Blast
• Horn of Winter

You can see that although this is quite a bit more complex than the Arcane mage priority list, it’s nothing compared to something from the Blood build rotations you’ve seen in the past.  As you look at the chart below you get a good feel for just how easy this can be.  Your mele weapon white swings do a big chunk of your DPS, so after you hit Empower Rune Weapon you can just wait for the Howling Blast cooldown, hit it and then start back with Icy Touch.  Just be sure to throw in a raise dead whenever you can.

We know that the temptation is to mash buttons like a fiend, but it is really hard to argue with the numbers here.  There are other DK DPS builds in the Starfox file with Priority lists that include internalized rotations – in more than one spot.  If I want to think that hard about what I’m doing I’ll go engineer a bridge or something.  The great thing about this build is that the priority list is simple and it does ridiculous DPS.

Damage Sources

Obviously the fellow who built this profile doesn’t go in for Pawn scales (you might not use them either) so you’ll have to live without them in this case. Considering that this build should handily beat any other DK build for DPS and it has a painfully simple rotation (yes I know we’re not calling it a rotation any more) for a DK, you just might find yourself falling in love with beating almost everyone but rogues and mages (and the odd feral druid who knows what they are doing) while Dominating with this build.

19 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Death Knights get quite a few changes in patch 3.3 and I want to go over some of them with you.  As of this writting these are the changes. Mind you, I have not gone into to much detail because it could all change as of patch day!! We are at your mercy Blizzard.

• Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Ok now this change seems like nothing really happened, if you consider what they really did. The main thing I see with it though is it means Army of the Dead will be ready for every boss in a dungeon or raid when combined with Night of the Dead.

• Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas. Has anyone ever used this besides me?

When I used it, the player got so angry with me I thought he was going to hunt me down and hurt me. He cursed so much and so loud I think I actually heard him from hundreds of miles away. Also make sure that the person you use it on knows what is going to happen.

• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.

Finally Blizzard has listened and helped the Death Knights that want to tank. The added defence and Stamina will help alot.

• Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.

Now this also will help the tanking ability and improve the ability to hold aggro.

Talent Changes
Unholy

• Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 2/4 minutes, down from 5/10 minutes.

This will definitly be a help to the unholy build.

• Scourge Strike: Redesigned. The base ability now deals 50% weapon damage plus an additional amount as physical damage. However, for each disease the death knight has on the target, the target will take additional shadow damage equal to 25% of the physical damage done.

It  was needed to boost Unholy build to the level of the Blood build.  With this change it is like Heart Strike for the Unholy build causing lots of damage.

• Unholy Blight: This talent now deals only 10% of Death Coil damage as a damage-over-time effect on the target.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later another nerf but at least this one isn’t to bad.

Glyph Changes

• Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage.

This is the best change of all on the DK changes. An Additional 20% is huge!!

Glyph Fixes

These are some minor fixes to some known to exist bugs and nothing is changed  that affects build.

• Glyph of Bone Shield: Now updates the number of charges in the Bone Shield tooltip.
  Glyph of Dark Death: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil. In addition, its own tooltip has been clarified to indicate it also applies to healing from Death Coil.
  Glyph of Death’s Embrace: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil to indicate runic power is refunded.
  Glyph of Heart Strike: Now updates the tooltip on Heart Strike to indicate Heart Strike applies a movement snare.
  Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Now updates the tooltip on Icebound Fortitude to show increased damage reduction.
  Glyph of Plague Strike: Now updates the damage shown in Plague Strike’s tooltip.
  Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now updates the tooltip on Unbreakable Armor. Tooltip on glyph modified to make its effect more clear as well.

Class Changes Mainly just corrections and do not affect gameplay.

• Bloody Strikes: Now properly increases the damage displayed in the tooltips of Blood Strike and Heart Strike.
• Bone Shield: Tooltip corrected to indicate the player has the correct number of bones.
• Chains of Ice: This ability will no longer appear to land on targets which are immune.
• Desecration: The debuff from this ability will no longer sometimes appear as if it were cast by someone else. In addition, the visual and snare from this ability will now both dissipate at the same time. Further, this talent will now respect snare immunities, and no longer sometimes snare immune targets.
• Frost Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.
• Master of Ghouls: Tooltip typo corrected.
• Night of the Dead: Tooltip typo corrected.
• Obliterate: This ability will no longer sometimes fail to do additional damage based on diseases on the target.
• Raise Ally: While this spell is active on a target, they will not be sent to the graveyard, prematurely ending the spell.
• Strangulate: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
• Taste of Blood: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip.
• Unholy Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.

Bottom line here folks, Unholy is getting a big buff, big enough that it just may rival Blood in terms of DPS and  possibly  Frost for Tanking. All this while blood retains the status quo. Blizzard made great efforts to balance the trees out in one of the biggest updates any class has ever received in a single patch.

3 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Hello, Gustava here again. I’m currently testing the PTR ver 3.3 Fall of the Lich King part of the Wrath expansion. I will be previewing user interface in this artice of stuff i’ve seen in the PTR. I will be going over the new  things on the PTR I think the people like to know and other things I find cool.

In Game tips

Remember back when you created your first character and it seemed like everything you do would make that little box with a question mark pop up at the bottom of your screen and demand your attention? Well, Blizzard has decided that their in-game tips are not quite as helpful as they should be. How could new players know that converting their small and innocent party into a raid would stop them from gaining quest credit? Or how would they learn that elite monsters and quests usually require more than one person to overcome? So they pretty much tripled (rough estimation) the number of tips they have – and made them prettier too.

what about fire

Wrath Reputation  Increase (from patch notes)

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.
• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.
• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

The 30% more rep in Heroics is a great move by Blizzard now you can get a lot of rep and emblems to gear your new 80’s faster. We all hate grinding rep for the Sons of Hodir for the 56th time this rep increase will make a lot easier and less like a chore. But the thing I really like is the BoA Shoulder and Head enchant. This simply means that you’re getting Raid-level enchants as soon as you hit 80 (assuming you can afford them) as long as you’ve done it at least once on any of your other 80s. Add to that a new upgradeable ring (like the old violet eye one in BC) will make every trash mob rep in Icerown as rewarding as the trash drops themselves.

New fishing event: Kalu’ak  fishing derby

Tired of getting ganked in Stranglethorn Vale for the weekly fishing contest? Well worry no more as our favourite walking walruses, the Kalu’ak, are hosting their own fishing tournament in Northrend every Wednesday. Elder Clearwater is going to hang out in Dalaran for exactly one hour and wait for a Blacktip Shark that you have to catch and return to him. The event starts at 8:00 PM on Wednesday. During the contest all fishing in Northrend is free of trash. Don’t worry though as even if you don’t end up being the champion angler,
you’ll still receive a reward just for turning the shark in. On an achievement related note, the master of strangle achievement has been changed to Master Angler of Azeroth. Winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza or the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby will be enough to meet the requirements for the achievement. Also winners can win a rare heirloom(BoA) ring or a pair of boots that warps you to Booty Bay every 30 minutes (Yet another hearth-type product).

Emblems in 3.3

Bosses in Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and all Heroics will drop Emblems of Triumph. Bosses in the Icecrown Citadel 10- and 25-player dungeons will drop the new Emblems of Frost. Choosing the Random Heroic Dungeon option via the Dungeon Finder (new in content update 3.3) and completing whatever dungeon is selected for you, will award you with two Emblems of Frost the first time you do it (this is in place of the daily Heroic dungeon quests which are being replaced with weekly raid dungeon quests).

Continuing to use the Random Heroic Dungeon option within that same day to complete dungeons will award you with two Emblems of Triumph each time in addition to those dropped in the instances. The random option can also select Heroic dungeons to which you may already be saved, so you can technically do every Heroic dungeon more than once in a day by continuing to use this option.

New Weekly Raid Quests(Npc who did heroic daily quests)

New weekly raid quests have been added to the game! These quests will give you a good reason to run the old raid instances for 5 emblems of Frost and 5 emblems of Triumph each week. Here’s the list for the bosses tnat have a weekly quest kill. One is picked each week for the quest.

• The Obsidian Sanctum/Eye of the Eternity-Sartharion and Malygos
• Naxxramas: Anub’rekhan, Noth the Plaguebringer, Instructor Razuvious and Patchwork.
• Ulduar: Flame Leviathan,Ignis the Furnace Master,Razorscale,and XT-002 Deconstructor
• Crusaders’ Coliseum/Trial of the Crusader: Lord Jaraxxus
• Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar

New Armor Sets in Icecrown Citadel:  Tier 10

The next tier comes out in 3.3 and to earn them is no simple task.

• The first set of T-10 (251)  is bought with Frost emblems costing 405 Emblems for the whole set: 60 frost  emblems each for gloves and shoulders, 95 Frost emblems for head piece, chest plate and leggings.
• The next set is 10.5 Sanctified (263) which you need the first set piece and a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification to upgrade the 10 piece into the 10.5Sanctified piece.
• Same goes for 10 Sanctified heroic(271).The gear is in the ardent verdict camp in the raid.

The sets are modeled after Lich Kings troops , the Ashen Verdict and Faction Heroes.

• Warrior – Ymirjar Lord’s – Elder Saurfang/Muradin Bronzebeard(link)
• Death Knight – Scourgelord – Highlord Darion Mograine(Link)
• Paladin – Lightsworn – Highlord Tirion Fordring(link)
• Shamans – Frost Witch -Vrykul(link)
• Hunters – Ahn’Kahar Blood Hunter – Nerubian Cryptlord(link)
• Rogues – Shadowblade -Geist(link)
• Druids – Freya Lasherweave(there none in Scorge or Verdict)(link)
• Mages – Blood Mage -San’layn Blood Princes(link)
• Warlocks – Dark Coven -Lichs(link)
• Priest – Crimson Acolyte’s -Cultist High Priest (link)

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Well with 3.3 coming out in next week or two Bizzard has pulled all the stops to make it the biggest patch ever.With raids and dungeons for the PvE crowd and a new arena season 8 with Wrathful gear for the PvP crowd. Add to that impoved leveling with quest helper and new in-game tips for those who need to make new toons every day (Alt-a-holics). So whether you do PvE or PvP this patch can provide lots of entertanment for many weeks/months ahead. Wherever you go in the world of Azeroth always remember to Dominate whatever bizzard throws at you.

-Gustava

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Hello, Gustava here, bringing you an important update straight from the PTR 3.3 test servers. In this patch, Blizzard is introducing their brand new Dungeon Finder System. It will revolutionize the way we PuG in World of Warcraft. Here is the breakdown of the new LFG in the coming patch.

(source)
New Dungeon Finder System In the upcoming content patch there are many new additions and improvements. Perhaps one of the largest changes is the introduction of the new dungeon finder system. This new system will be available for all dungeons. A “Dungeons” button will replace the Looking For Group feature currently available in-game, and provides additional benefits to those who use it.
Join as a Group or Solo
Much like the current Looking For Group system, players will be able to join the dungeon system and choose the role they would like to fill within groups: Healing, DPS, or Tank. In addition, once roles have been identified, they will be applied to all dungeons chosen. Players will now be able to choose multiple dungeons and will no longer be limited to three. The system has also improved group creation and matchmaking capabilities and will create more balanced groups when assessing the selected roles of players. The LFG channel has been disconnected from the dungeon tool and can be used by anyone in a major city,much like the trade channel currently available.
Cross Realm Instances
When joining the dungeon system as a solo player or with a partial group, additional random players can be found within the same Battlegroup via cross-realm instancing. While the new system offers the ability to group with player from other realms within your Battlegroup, you won’t be able to use this to manually invite specific players to groups.
Instance Teleporting
When you use the dungeon tool to find a dungeon, you’ll get ported to the inside of the dungeon, much like the current Battleground system. When you leave the instance, you will be returned to your previous location. If you need to leave temporarily, such asfor repairs or to purchase reagents, you can teleport back to the dungeon again. This feature can be used both by groups looking for other players and by premade groups of five who use the dungeon tool.
Smarter Group Matching
The new system will now work to match at least one experienced player for the assigned dungeon with less experienced players in the group. It will more carefully match class types, and will more consistently match players of equal levels for the dungeon chosen. The interface will also allow players to see how many players are looking for groups as well as the average wait time of groups that the tool has formed.
Daily Random Dungeons
Players or groups can choose specific dungeons or they can instead take their chances with a random Heroic or random normal dungeon. Picking randomly conveys some additional benefits. If you defeat the final boss in a dungeon, you receive 2 Emblems of Frost for Heroic dungeons and 2 Emblems of Triumph for normal dungeons. In addition, after players have received 2 Emblems of Frost for the first Heroic dungeon they do in a day, they will earn 2 Emblems of Triumph for each additional random Heroic
dungeons in that day. These random rewards replace the current daily dungeon and daily Heroic dungeon quests. The current NPCs who offer those quests will offer weekly repeatable raid quests instead. You can also earn level-appropriate rewards for running random pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons while you are leveling up.
Lovin’ the PUG
Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the dungeon system will receive extra rewards, including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players you group with, the faster you could get your new pet!
Vote Kick
Players who use the system to find additional random members for their party will be afforded a couple of extra conveniences to help them perform well. The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.
Looking for Raid
There will be a new option available to players that can be accessed via the raid information screen in the interface or by typing /lfr. Players will also be able to take part in raid-specific weekly quests and will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.
Need Before Greed Updated
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (for example, plate for paladins). All items will still be available via greed rolls should no member be able to use the item as well as the new disenchant option will be available for all parties.

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This move is yet another great idea from Blizzard to update the LFG option.

To try this out, I leveled a toon to level 23 and I wanted to run Shadowfang Keep. Even today, if I wanted to find a group to do that, I would probably still be in the queue  for days. With this new system, I can queue a group for it. This system will pool all the players from your server’s whole battlegroup, much like the current BGs.This would theoretically allow you to find a group to do Occulus at 3 am … if you were so inclined for whatever reason. When your group is complete, you will be prompted to enter the instance, exactly the same way that BGs work now.

The Looking for Raid interface is just as Good as the LFG interface, only better for guilds who don’t have enough to run their  own full 10-man raid or need a few more to fill a 25 man raid. This is also good for people who run VoA, or OS, or Onyxia since most pug it anyway. It works almost the same as LFG works now but with a little more detail. And I am sure it will be a big help with many smaller guilds that don’t raid often at all.

If nothing else it will entice the newer player to actually experience end-game content. This can lead to other issues such as groups ending up with well-geared “n00bs” that don’t know the fights and cause wipes. This is inevitable and WILL occur, hopefully those who are motivated enough to get geared will also learn the fights.

Now, there will be no more daily heroic quests. I’ve seen many people forget to get the quest or loot the boss after we finsh the dungeon. When 3.3 goes live, if you kill the final boss you automatically get your two Frost Emblems and gold, no muss no fuss. I also like how the new Need Before Greed works so ninjas will not be able to loot-steal gear that’s not their armor type or spec type. Blizzard does it again taking a system no-one really uses now and making it better. I have tried it on the PTR and I am quite impressed by how well it works and I think you will too.

Bottom line: we will ALL be using this new and improved LFG/LFR a lot in the near future and we’ll all Dominate even more because of it.

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