Wrath of the Lich King Class Information

Over the weekend at the World Wide Invitationals Blizzard sat down for a bit of Q and A with the fans that went out to see the event. As a result, additional information was added to the growing archive of Wrath of the Lich King archive and even more was verified.

Death Knight

• People playing a Death Knights will see the original voice of their race slightly modified to make it sound more … Death Knight-ish.
• Tanks will be interchangeable in 5-man dungeons but tanks will have a speciality in 25-man raids. Death Knights will be best against casters and shouldn’t be too far behind on other encounters.

Rogue

• Dagger specialization will be improved for rogues in Wrath of the Lich King.
• Rogues will get a talent called “Fan of Knives”, an AoE ability allowing them to attack all enemies within a short range. It will be some kind of “emergency” ability and you won’t be able to spam it.
• Sap will now work on more targets, humanoids, beasts, dragonkins, demons. “Anything with a skull and a brain inside of it”.

Warlock

• There isn’t any plan to change the soul shard farming as it’s part of the class, but an “emergency soul shard” ability might be added.
• Demonic Circle will allow warlocks to scribe a circle in the ground to teleport to it later with another spell.
• The 51-Point demonogy talent is a Demon-Form, this will allow you cast AOE Shadowbolts

Druid

• There will be a new model for the Druid’s Dire Bear form and the Dire Cat form will be introduced.
• Nourish will be a new healing spell, healing for more hit points for each HoT effect on the target.
• There isn’t any plan to change cyclone

Paladin

• Retribution paladins will share their itemization with Death Knights and Warriors. Their group utility will be increased by making them more efficient DPS-wise.
• Retribution paladins itemization will be moved to the same item as Warriors/Death Knights
• A new reactive healing spell will be added - Hand of Purity.
• Paladin’s short-term-blessings no longer overwrite long-term-blessings.

Warrior

• The plan is to improve the warrior specs to make sure that DPS warriors would be able to tank a little, while protection warriors would be able to DPS slightly more with new abilities like Shockwave.
• Titan’s Grip is a new Fury talent and allows warriors to wear 2 hand weapons with a single hand.
• Protection Warriors are getting a spell called “Shockwave” allowing them to damage and stun all the monsters in front of them.
• Bladestorm will be a new Arms talent whirlwinding all enemies in range every x seconds for a few seconds.

Raids & Dungeons

• Sunwell Plateau is the last content patch before the expansion release.
• There isn’t any plan to nerf Kil’jaeden right now, he’s intended to be the last boss before the expansion and is meant to be hard.
• Raiding armor sets and PvP rewards sets will look different and won’t share the same model anymore in Wrath of the Lich King.
• Uldum was on the original list of dungeons to be added to Wrath of the Lich King but right now it’s still unsure if we’ll see it or not.

PvP

• Raiding armor sets and PvP rewards sets will look different and won’t share the same model anymore in Wrath of the Lich King.

Professions

• Inscription trading skill is intended to be for both casters and melees, inscriptions benefits every class. The current plan is to use herbalism as the primary gathering profession.

Source: Blizzard Staff at Worldwide Invitationals Class and and Q & A Panels.

The Violet Eye Reputation Guide

The Violet Eye is the reputation associated with the 10-man raid instance, Karazhan. Being it’s the first 10-man instance in the Burning Crusade, chances are you’ll be spending plenty of time there. There is a host of great items, patterns, and other rewards you can attain from this faction.

How do I gain reputation with The Violet Eye?
Gaining reputation with the Violet Eye is very straight forward, kill trash mobs and kill the bosses inside of Karazhan. In addition to kill the monsters inside the dungeon you can also complete the few quest chains associated with the dungeon. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you’re looking at it) most of the quest objectives and starting locations are right outside of Karazhan itself.

The first quest you’ll pick up is your ring quest. There are 4 quests, one for each class of ring: healer, damage caster, melee dps, and tank. Each quest has 4 tier of rings you’ll be rewarded with as you gain reputation.

Path of the Violet Assassin

• Violet Signet - Friendly
  
• Violet Signet - Honored
• Violet Signet - Revered
• Violet Signet of the Master Assassin - Exalted

Path of the Violet Mage

• Violet Signet - Friendly
• Violet Signet - Honored
• Violet Signet - Revered
• Violet Signet of the Archmage - Exalted

Path of the Violet Protector

• Violet Signet - Friendly
• Violet Signet - Honored
• Violet Signet - Revered
• Violet Signet of the Great Protector - Exalted

Path of the Violet Restorer

• Violet Signet - Friendly
• Violet Signet - Honored
• Violet Signet - Revered
• Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer - Exalted

The Violet Eye Item Rewards:
Inscription of Endurance - Requires Honored Reputation
Mysterious Arrow - Requires Revered Reputation
Mysterious Shell - Requires Revered Reputation

The Violet Alchemy Recipes:
Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Wonder - Requires Honored Reputation

The Violet Eye Blacksmithing Patterns:
Plans: Iceguard Breastplate - Requires Honored Reputation
Plans: Iceguard Helm - Requires Honored Reputation
Plans: Iceguard Leggings - Requires Revered Reputation

The Violet Eye Jewelcrafting Designs:
Design: The Frozen Eye - Requires Honored Reputation

The Violet Eye Enchanting Formulas:
Formula: Enchant Weapon - Greater Agility - Requires Exalted Reputation

The Violet Eye Leatherworking Pattern:
Pattern: Shadowprowler’s Chestguard - Requires Revered Reputation
Pattern: Cloak of Darkness - Requires Exalted Reputation

Aldor vs. Scryer Comparison Guide

One of the first major decisions you’ll have to make after entering the Outlands is your choice of the Aldor or Scryer faction. The various items, enchantments, quests, and other rewards will play a huge factor in your choice. And believe me, it’s important you choose correctly the first time.

So let’s get right down to it. There are many rewards available from each faction, for this comparison I am going to detail all of the big hitters from each faction.

Aldor Shoulder Enchants:
Greater Inscription of Warding
Greater Inscription of Vengeance
Greater Inscription of Faith
Greater Inscription of Discipline

Scryer Shoulder Enchants:
Greater Inscription of the Blade
Greater Inscription of the Knight
Greater Inscription of the Oracle
Greater Inscription of the Orb

Now, statistically speaking the shoulder enchants provide the same benefit. For this one it really comes down to personal preference. In all honesty I think most players make a much bigger deal about the shoulder enchant differences than can really be made.

Shattered Sun Offensive Rewards:
Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen
Shattered Sun Pendant of Might
Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve
Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration

While all of these necklaces are better than many blue rewards, the big hitters are for healers, specifically aldor. The proc on restoration neck provides a direct heal on your current target for just over 600…good, yes, but for aldor it gives a +220 healing buff for 10 seconds. From a PvE perspective this is simply amazing, and I’d argue it’s the best neck outside of Sunwell loot.

If you’re a healer this neck is reason enough to choose Aldor, and generally speaking the Aldor procs are superior to the Scryers. As all of the aldor procs provide buffs (the scyrer provide instant procs), meaning the aldor procs scale much better with gear.

Scryer Tailoring Pattern Rewards:
Mystical Spellthread
Runic Spellthread

Aldor Tailoring Pattern Rewards:
Silver Spellthread
Golden Spellthread

This may or may not be a deal breaker for you. As aldor you’ve got the better healing leg enchants, as scryer you’ve got the superior damage. Once again, I wouldn’t determine your reputation choice based on tailoring patterns alone, but they will play a factor in your decision.

Aldor vs. Scryer Reputation Rewards Comparison:
Obviously I haven’t listed off every single item available from each of these respective factions. The above items I have listed are the ones that I consider to the biggest factors in your decision. While many of the other rewards and items will have short term influence on your decision the above items will be long lasting.

If you’re looking for additional information on the items available from each reputation or how to most efficiently level each faction check out these other helpful guides.

Scryer Reputation Guide
Aldor Reputation Guide

Arena Season 4

As I write this we are ETA 90 minutes from launch of season 4, and with it comes a whole new season of exciting arena combat, pvp videos, new teams, specs, gear, team setups and much much more!

I’m not going to lie, I haven’t been this excited for an arena season launch since season 1, and I’m sure there are plenty who are sharing in my excitement.

That said, if you’re reading this then you’ve come searching information, and ZugGaming.com has got you covered. Below I’ve listed all my recent articles, news, and guides relating to season 4.

Hopefully they’ll be just what you’re looking for.

New Season 4 Items
Season 4 Arena Weapons
Season 4 Arena Armor
Season 4 Honor Items

Other Season 4 Resources
Season 4 Rating Requirements
Arena Season 4 Check List

Patch Information
Patch 2.4.3 - Won’t launch with season 4, but should be released 2-4 weeks from today.

Complete Arena Guides
Ready to start a new arena team? ZugGaming has got you covered!
Rogue / Priest 2v2 Arena Guide - By Zuggy
Shadow Priest / Rogue 2v2 Arena Guide - By S-Scythe
Druid / Warrior 2v2 Arena Guide - By Neurotik
Rogue / Warlock 2v2 Arena Strategy - By Zuggy
Rogue / Druid 2v2 Arena Strategy - By Zuggy
Rogue / Mage / Priest 3v3 Arena Strategy - By Zuggy
Rogue / Warrior / Druid 3v3 Arena Strategy - By Zuggy

Happy season 4 and let the games begin!

Priest / Rogue vs. Shadow Priest / Warlock 2v2 Arena Strategy

Yet again, not the most popular combo these days, but it still pops up every once and a while. The strategy here isn’t too complicated, open on the priest and just punish him. The only really important thing to remember here is to save your cloak for when your priest is really controlled.

Between all the fears, death coil, silence, and spell lock your priest is going to be hurting for casting time. You’ll want to try and save it to clear as many DoTs as you can and also keep yourself alive until your priest can cast again.

As the priest your best bet is going to be spamming instants every time you aren’t controlled. Prayer of mending, shield, renew are all important, all the while attempting to stay out of line of sight as much as possible to avoid other controlling spells.

Can’t get enough arena strategy? Check out the complete priest / rogue 2v2 arena guide!

Rogue Arena Macro Suggestions

This post is in response to a question I received from a fellow rogue. I hope the contents of the answers I provide will assist other players who have similar questions.

Rogue Arena Macro Question…
I was just wondering what macros you find particularly useful in arenas as a rogue. I am by no means an expert in the arena setting, but I would like to be better. My wife is a holy priest, and I’d like to get better in the 2v2 setting with her, and you seem to be pretty up on what to do with a rogue+disc/holy priest.

I recently found a few posts in other places that gave me a direction for useful macros such as macroing stealth with sinister strike or hemo (depending on my current build) so that I stealth automatically if I get out of combat as I catch up with my target for another opener. I tried to macro vanish -> sap together last night, but it doesn’t seem to want to work so I thought I’d ask you what macros you find particularly good and use yourself.

Rogue Arena Macro Answers…
I’m a big fan of focus macros, if you aren’t already using a focus frame you should definitely start. It really makes it much easier to land kicks, blind, and gouges in the heat of battle.

Here’s a few of the focus macros I’m currently using. (on a side note, in order to setup a focus frame you need to have the hotkey bound in the keybindings options, it’s called “focus target”, you then may also want to get a unit frame mod with a focus frame addon to help manage the targets).

/cast [target=focus] blind

/cast [target=focus] gouge

/cast [target=focus] kick

/cast [target=focus] shadowstep

Here’s the mashable start attack macro I use.

/startattack
/cast Hemorrhage(Rank 4)

just replace hemo with what ever your current main attack is

Here’s a macro I use for shadowstep

/cast Premeditation
/stopcasting
/cast Cheap Shot

Check out my full guide here, rogue macro guide

Season 4 Arena Gear

This post is in response to a question I received regarding season 4 arena gear. It has been posted here to assist other players who may have similar questions in the future.

Arena Gear Question…
When the season 4 gear bcomes available will there be new replacements for the vindicator belt, boots, bracers and neck? With alot of honor points stored up, I wouldn’t want to waste them on vindicator.

Arena Gear Answer…
When season 4 comes out all the current honor gear will be replaced with the new season’s item, I believe the new sets are called “Brutal Gladiator’s…”.

I wouldn’t worry too much about honor points, with as easy as honor is to farm now without diminishing returns and season 4 still probably 6-8 weeks out, we got some time.

Agility vs. AP Gems

This post is in response to a question I received from a fellow arena player. I’ve posted it here as a reference for future players who may encounter a similar question.

Rogue Arena Gem Question…
Recently ive wondered if its better to stack agility (8agi) gems or attack power (16ap) gems. I have seen some rogues with one or the other, and now im not sure which is more beneficial. If anyone knows or can recommend something, please do!

Rogue Arena Gems Answers…
Zuggy’s Response:

Personally, I’m a fan of the attack power gems. Simply because stacking AP gives you a direct increase in damage on every hit. Greater AP = Greater damage.

Agility gives you ap / armor / crit / dodge…and while some rogues find this school of thought appealing, it’s just not for me. I don’t really care about defensive stats and crit is simply a chance to do additional damage.

The only way you could really justify all agility gems would if you were a fully committed sub rogue. Otherwise, I still think you should stack AP gems instead.

S-Scythe’s Response:

I prefer AP simply because I play more than one spec for PVP. I play Shadowstep and Combat so AP serves use for both of these specs. Whereas Agility really only benefits the 15% bonus of a Shadowstep spec. So if you only utilize a shadowstep spec in pvp I’d definitely say go for it, but if you change up specs for different teams AP is your optimal choice.

Diggu’s Response:

This is a question that doesn’t have a straight-forward answer imo. I like Zug’s comment about the different specs. I personally enchant/gem for Agility (if it’s not a hit gem) for PvE. Assuming you’re Combat PvE spec, the Agi (according to Elitist Jerks spreadsheets and others) maximizes your dps.

For PvP most of what I have seen is AP gemming. I seem to remember a lot of our top PvP rogues on Manno used to gem Agi back before/during S1, but now that everyone in Arena has 400+ resil, they all have AP gems.

Locking Down Warrior as Rogue

This post is in response to a question I received from a fellow rogue. It’s been posted here in the hope that it’s contents may be of assistance to other players who have similar questions.

Arena Strategy Questions…
Hey Zug, I’ve asked you questions here and there in the past, and there’s a few more that I’d like you to answer. My priest and I hit our highest rating of 2091 about two weeks ago, and since then have struggled a bit.

The warrior/healer teams that we seemed to have no trouble with have been really giving us a hard time. I find that in nearly all cases the warrior is sticking onto my priest, and I have a hard time keeping him locked down. They can break out of gouge, and I’m wondering if I should use my blind on the warr. (I feel like I should)

Another team, although rare, which we seemed to have no hope of beating, was the hunter/priest teams. Getting on the priest is out of the question, as doing that caused my priest to go OOM within a minute. We try to kill the pet, but when we can’t keep pressure on the hunter, my priest gets drained hard.

Is 41/20 the best priest spec?

Arena Strategy Answer…

As far as your first question is concerned, I find that it really is more of a 2 part solution. Generally speaking you are going to be sticking to the warrior the entire time, making it as difficult as possible to get both position and line of sight on your priest.

However, your priest needs to be very aware of both your position and the warrior’s position. He needs to constantly reposition himself in order to allow you to do your job easier.

If the warrior is just relentless to get to the priest then this really opens you up to drop bombs on the warrior. Position yourself on his back and just lay into. Beyond that, just use everything within your power…including blind if necessary to prevent that warrior from getting on your priest.

Then again, even if he does get on your priest you’ve got reflective shield going for you, further increasing the damage output.

As far as hunter / priest goes…well, it’s just a rough match man. It’s so far one sided in their favor that even winning 1 out of every 10 of these matches is a good ratio. Our typical strategy just revolves around a gig strategy on the hunter with a lot of very early CC on the druid.

It’s very fast paced and risky, but it’s still the best strategy we’ve come up with at this point.

Combat vs. Shadowstep Arena Spec

This post is in response to a question I received from a fellow rogue. It’s posted here in the event other rogues encounter similar questions.

Rogue Arena Questions…
I started with shadowstep and for the longest time loved it. After playing arenas for a few weeks as combat when I go back to shadowstep it feels like its much harder to kill geared players. Currently, my gear is all season 2/3 and my weapons are maces.

What am I missing?

Perhaps im missing something, but with a geared paladin or shaman spamming heals in shadowstep spec most of my energy is used kicking or kidney shotting to stop him from healing. Thus reducing in barely enough energy to hemo. If I focus on the healers partner, even with cyclone (from my partner) the shadowstep build seems hard to override the healing ability of the healer.

My partner (druid) and I can win most of these games but it always ends in one of the other team running out of mana. With combat spec, we can time a 3 cyclone cycle from the druid with my adrenaline rush when my target is 50-60 percent and its almost guarenteed to kill him.

Except for 5s, I am having a hard time seeing how anyone can feel a shadowstep build is superior, even though its 4 times more popular than combat maces.

Even when I am shadowstep, its not hard to stay on target enough to justify the points in the talent tree. The extra stats are great +attack pwer and agility but I still do way less damage, so to what benefit?

Rogue Arena Strategy Answers..

It’s hard to judge without really watching a match all the way through. Generally speaking I would guess it just comes down to managing your energy consumption a bit better.

One of the big strengths of combat spec is the raw damage output, while shs doesn’t have quite as good of output it’s still solid. But you absolutely must keep your slice and dice up, without it you’re really going to have difficult time taking out healers.

In my experience when fighting healers virtually 100% of my energy goes to stopping heals, because I know if I can get ahead briefly I can immediately send the healer into a panic mode situation.

So I basically open up, get a slice and dice going with my initial CPs then just play the position game making certain to always stop the healer.

Here’s the interrupt sequence I use.
1) kick
2) KS
3) gouge
4) vanish / CS
5/ blind

preferably I’d rather not get to 4 and 5, but If it means stopping a heal in a clutch situation it’s something I have to do.

Additionally you might enlist the help of your druid here to help stop heals. You can very easily just cyclone one target, go through all your rogue CC…kick, into, ks, into gouge…then you switch targets, pressure the other guy with just good auto attacks, get another slice and dice going.

Meanwhile your druid is putting a 3 cyclone combo on your previous target. Once DRs are up on the cyclones you can switch back to your previous targets, now you’ve got a SND cooking, hopefully full energy and all your CDs.

I would say with virtually any rogue spec keeping a constant slice and dice up is an absolute must. There just is no better use of energy or combo points.

Even though you don’t have imp. snd and not as much +hit, it’s still an insane amount of damage. Consider the fact that your rupture does…well just using round numbers let’s say 2000 damage over it’s duration.

If you get just 4-5 extra attacks you’ve probably already exceeded the damage of your rupture. Toss a trinket + mongoose proc on that…you’ve got some serious white damage coming out.

About the only time I think rupture is the better finisher is vs. a defensive stance warrior / feral spec’d bear druid / protection paladin.

Similarly the only time I really use expose as shs is vs. priests and some warlocks.

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