WotLK Profession Specific Bonus Perks Summary

Blizzard will be continuing the trend of giving each profession it’s own perk with special abilities and BoP enchants, item enhancements, and items.  Here is a summary of what we know so far:

Alchemy Profession Bonus Perks

- Mixology
- WotLK Flasks get 32 itemization points, elixirs get 16 points. Doubles duration on all flasks and elixirs.
- Using WotLK Flasks, gives 37 spellpower, 64 attack power, 13 MP5, or 320 health
- Crazy Alchemist’s Potion
- Alchemists can still transmute items on a daily cooldown
- Endless Mana Potion, Endless Healing Potion, and Endless Rejuvenation Potion
- Indestructible Alchemist’s Stone, Mercurial Alchemist’s Stone, and Mighty Alchemist’s Stone
- Alchemy discoveries are on a weekly cooldown - Northrend Alchemy Research - Spell - World of Warcraft

Leatherworking Profession Bonus Perks

- New WotLK drums are not in the spell database at the moment Current drums are unusable at level 80.
- Reduced cost on leg armor - does not give a special bonus
- Fur Lining - Enchantment on bracers. - fur lining - Wowhead Search - Gives a large stat boost over the equivalent enchant (+40 spell damage, +82 attack power). There’s also a stamina one for 90 stamina, but no stamina enchant yet. There is also resistances for fur linings, for an additional 60 resists.

Skinning Profession Bonus Perks

- Master of Anatomy - Spell - World of Warcraft

Mining Profession Bonus Perks

- Toughness - Spell - World of Warcraft

Herbalism Profession Bonus Perks

- Fire Leaf
- Fire Seed
- Lifeblood - Spell - World of Warcraft

Enchanting Profession Bonus Perks

- Enchant Ring - Assault - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Enchant Ring - Stamina - Spell - World of Warcraft

Jewelcrafting Profession Bonus Perks

- Dragon’s Eye gems - dragon’s eye - Wowhead Search
- A Jewelcrafter can have up to three Dragon’s Eye gems equipped. They can be the same or different. They act like every color of gem for socket bonuses and metagems.
- Ruby Hare, Emerald Board, Sapphire Owl, Twilight Serpent, and Monarch Crab
- Gem Perfection - Spell - World of Warcraft — A chance to craft green-quality gems into slightly better cuts. The gems produced will be in between uncommon and rare in stats.
- Jewelcrafting has its own set of dailies, with which rare gem recipes (5 tokens), metagem recipes (8 tokens), and Dragon’s Eyes (1 token) can be purchased. - Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Token

Inscription Profession Bonus Perks

- Shoulder enchants - master inscription - Wowhead Search - Effectively a bonus of +37 spell power, 64 attack power, or 32 dodge rating over the epic version
- Tarot cards - can make cards to get items from the Darkmoon Faire.  Implementation not yet known
- Inscription discoveries are on a daily cooldown - Northrend Inscription Research - Spell - World of Warcraft and Minor Inscription Research

Tailoring Profession Bonus Perks

- Lightweave Embroidery - Spell - World of Warcraft - 50% proc rate with 45 second cooldown
- Swordguard Embroidery - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Darkglow Embroidery - Spell - World of Warcraft - 35% proc rate with 75 second cooldown
- Four epic flying carpets and one regular version - carpet - Wowhead Search - acts exactly like a mount - Swift Flying Carpet
- Frostweave Net
- Reduced cost for spellthreads on armor
- Three transmutable cloths - Spellweave, Moonshroud - Spell - World of Warcraft , and Ebonweave - Spell - World of Warcraft
- A Guide to Northern Cloth Scavenging

Engineering Profession Bonus Perks

- Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Hyperspeed Accelerators - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Flexweave Underlay - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Nitro Boosts - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Belt-Clipped Spynoculars - Spell - World of Warcraft
- Various goggles - Armored Titanium Goggle, Charged Titanium Specs, Electroflux Sight Enhancers, Greensight Gogs, Truesight Ice Enhancers, Visage Liquification Goggles, and Weakness Specrtalizers
- Bombs and decoys - Explosive Decoy, Saronite Bomb, Cobalt Frag Bomb, and Goblin Thermal Sapper Charge
- Gnomish Army Knife
- Trinkets - Gnomish Lightning Generator, Noise Machine, and Sonic Booster
- Portable mailbox and vendor - MOLL-E and Scrapbot Construction Kit
- Wormhole: Gadgetzan Group portal to Gadgetzan

Blacksmithing Profession Bonus Perks

- Smelt Titansteel - Spell - World of Warcraft (20 hour cooldown transmute)
- Socket Gloves - Spell - World of Warcraft and Socket Bracers - Spell - World of Warcraft

WotLK Northrend Daily Quests & Profession Token System

As many of you may have expected there are going to be a host of new daily quests in Northrend once wrath of the lich king releases. Just like with the burning crusade’s daily quests these will have a variety of awards, including:

• Reputation
• Gold
• Items
• Patterns
• New Token System

Daily Quests Token System for Professions

Now before we get into all these new daily quests let’s talk about the new token system. In order to really do anything with your professions up to this point you had to.

1. Grind reputation to buy patterns
2. Farm / purchase very rare patterns
3. Join a raiding guild and be fortunate enough to be given rare patterns

These were really the only ways you could get any long duration use out of your profession, but blizzard is chaging this random success factor quite a bit. In the expansion many professions will have daily quests associated with them, these daily quests will award you a specific token for that professions. These tokens may then be turned in for various patterns, formulas, schematics, etc.

Profession Daily Quests

A few of these new profession daily quests have already been revealed.

Cooking Daily Quests

Once you train grand master cooking you’ll get a set of base line cooking recipes, these recipes use a variety of fish and meat that you’ll get in Northrend. In addition to these baseline recipes you also have the option of acquiring the upgraded versions of these recipes.

You can get these improved cooking recipes by completing the cooking daily quest, which will award you 1 Dalaran Cooking Award. You can turn in 3 of these to get 1 new recipe.

Jewelcrafting Daily Quests

After completling the daily jewelcrafting quest you will be awarded 1 dalaran jewelcrafter’s trophy. These tokens may be turned in for various gems and designs.

• 1 Token = Uncut Jewelcrafter’s BoP Gem
• 2 Tokens = Low Level Designs
• 5 Tokens = High Level Designs
• 8 Tokens = Meta Designs

I really think this is a great change, it will create a very interesting dynamic as far as supply and demand are concerned with designs amongst jewelcrafters. I’m very interested to see how this system is adapted for the remainder of the professions, but overall I feel it’s a great and welcome change.

Other Daily Quests

Quite honestly, none of the other daily quests were really all that exciting. So far only a handful of the new Northren dailies have been implemented. Most of which are designed around the time honored formula of collecting X of some item or killing X of what ever mob, you know the drill. That said, the group of daily quests located around Venture Bay in the Grizzly Hills does look pretty awesome.

There are 4 total daily quests here, of which include objectives such as…

• Slaying Goblins
• Killing player’s the opposing faction
• Taking down the opposing faction’s captain

Ideally this area will become the location of some really good world PvP. Genreally when there’s gold + pvp glory in the same area it’s going to be good times for all. On top of the 15g you get for every quest here you also receive 10 venture coins for every quest. These coins be turned in for various PvP’ish items, check out the full list of venture coin item rewards here.

New WotLK Alchemy Transmutes, Diamond and Eternal Transmute Lists

Well, it was only a matter of time before we finally started seeing some of the new wotlk alchemy transmutes. And not surprisingly these are almost an exact continuation of transmutations seen in the Burning Crusade, very creative with the names blizzard.

• Transmute: Earthsiege Diamond: Transmute the element of fire and gems into a Earthsiege Diamond.
  
• Transmute: Skyflare Diamond: Transmute the element of air and gems into a Skyflare Diamond.
• Transmute: Eternal Might: Transmute Air, Earth, Fire and Water Eternals into an Eternal Might
  

In addition to the diamond transmutes we also have the new big commodity item of the expansion, eternals. Eternals in WotLK are basically the same thing as primals in Burning Crusade.

• Eternal Water
• Eternal Earth
• Eternal Fire
• Eternal Shadow
• Eternal Life
• Eternal Air

Here’s the list of all the eternal transmutes coming up in WotLK.

• Transmute: Eternal Air to Water
• Transmute: Eternal Fire to Water
• Transmute: Eternal Air to Earth
• Transmute: Eternal Earth to Air
• Transmute: Eternal Earth to Shadow
• Transmute: Eternal Fire to Life
• Transmute: Eternal Life to Fire
• Transmute: Eternal Life to Shadow
• Transmute: Eternal Shadow to Earth
• Transmute: Eternal Shadow to Life
• Transmute: Eternal Water to Air
• Transmute: Eternal Water to Fire

It’s great to finally see the new transmutes, but I’m really interested to see if they are going to offer alchemy something more. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great profession, but it’s always just been somewhat bland as far as crafting professions are concerned. Hopefully we’ll see some extra additions in the coming weeks.

Mage / Rogue 2v2 Arena Strategy

Mage / Rogue has been around for a long time, and one of the most popular dual dps cookie cutters around. That said, novices beware this comp is no walk in the park. Your success relies on good communication between you and your partner, also keeping a cool head. This setup has the potential to rob you of your sanity if you don’t relax.

Rogue Talent Spec

Take a standard 20/0/41 Shadowstep spec. If you’re looking for the point break down, check out Zuggy’s rogue arena specs guide.

Mage Talent Specs

I highly recommend a 17/0/44 deep frost, but some may prefer a full 61-point frost build. I’ve found Imp CS really helpful though. Make sure to check out Zuggy’s full guide on mage talent builds for further information.

Trinket Selection

The rogue will probably want to run with a Battlemaster’s Trinket, the mage might want to aswell but my partner prefers an offensive trinket so it really comes down to what you think you’ll benefit most from. In the end it’s your personal preference. I like the idea of having the battlemaster’s so you have a few final seconds to pull together a win.

Gear/Gems

PVE gear is in no way required or even really wanted. True that your damage output is important, but you’ll be running CC trains so it’s more about control than damage really. Gem offensively rogues, while mages might want to gem for some stam and resil, while keeping spell damage at a good amount. Don’t run into a match without atleast 10k health.

Weaknesses

Much like any other dual dps team there is little to no room for error. You mess up your CC, your goose could..and probably will be cooked in a matter of seconds.

Other advice

Take a look at this 2v2 guide for mages by Orichi.

Mage /Rogue Arena Match-ups:

• Warlock / Priest
• Warlock / Rogue
• Paladin / Warrior
• Druid / Warrior

Updated WotLK Patch Notes - Build 8788

Another major wrath of the lich king patch update today. Once again I’m in a state of “wow…”. We all knew there were going to be some huge upgrades coming for WotLK, but just looking at the new gems and new profession items I think it’s going to be bigger than I imagined.

Among the class changes the death knight just becomes increasingly more and more of an interesting class. More than anything else it’s awesome to see Blizzard build a class from the ground up, and we’re all here to watch. Just the sheer utility of the class makes it a desirable addition to both raiding and pvp types alike.

Don’t believe, check out this recent post made by my friends over at DeathKnight.info. All Death Knight groups? You Bet!

General

• Downranking change via blue poster. Source
• Almost every class specific spell had their mana cost changed, they now have a % instead of a flat amount. This is base mana cost, not total modified by int cost.

Blacksmithing

• New Weapon Chain: Titanium Weapon Chain
• The 1 handed epic weapons have been buffed

1. Titansteel Bonecrusher
2. Titansteel Destroyer
3. Titansteel Guardian

Jewelcrafting

• Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Token can be used in Dalaran to buy jewelcrafting designs, you get these tokens from your professions daily quests.
• 18 New Epic Gems added to the game. (note: I couldn’t get an item link for all of these, but here’s the screenshot of them, courtesy of WoR.com. WotLK Gems)

1. Bright Dragon’s Eye
2. Solid Dragon’s Eye

Tailoring

• 3 New Cloths: Ebonweave, Moonshroud, Spellweave
• New Bags: Frostweave Bag, Abyssal Bag, Glacial Bag, Mysterious Bag
• New “Crowd Control” Item: Frostweave Net
• Brilliant Spellthread, Sapphire Spellthread
• Master’s Spellthread: Permanently embroiders your pants with master’s spellthread, increasing spell power by 50 and Stamina by 30.
• Sanctified Spellthread: Permanently embroiders your pants with sanctified spellthread, increasing spell power by 50 and Spirit by 20.

Quests

• The rewards for the Amphitheater of Anguish questline (similar to Ring of Blood) have been added to the game.

1. De-Raged Waraxe (2h Axe)
2. Wodin’s Second-Best Shanker (1h Dagger)
3. Icied Barbed Spear (Polearm)
4. Chilly Slobberknocker (Staff
5. Screw-Sprung Fixer-Upper (Main Hand Mace)
6. Crimson Cranium Crusher (1h Mace)

Death Knight
Blood

• Bloodworms: 3/3 Your weapon hits have a 12% chance to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed. (Healing amount remains the same)
• Sudden Doom now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).

Frost

• Chains of Ice cooldown has been removed.
• Icy Talons description changed: You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever (old: your Icy Touch), so that when their melee speed is reduced, yours increases by 20% for the next 20 sec.
• Lichborne cooldown lowered from 5 minutes to 1 minute. Duration reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Aneurysm has been removed.
• Endless Winter has been reworked and moved to Aneurysm’s position, it now requires Chillblains: Your Chains of Ice has a 50/100% chance to cause Frost Fever and the cost of your Mind Freeze is reduced to 20/0 runic power.
• Frigid Dreadplate changed: Enemies who hit you in melee have a 30/60/100% chance to become unsettled, decreasing their chance to hit for 5% for the next 12 sec. (old: decreasing their attack speed)
• Runic Power Mastery stats changed: Scaling runic power abilities behave as if you had an additional 20% runic power. (old: 2% runic power)
• Acclimation now affects the whole raid.

Unholy

• Anti-Magic Shell: Runic Power cost increased from 10 RP to 20 RP.
• Morbidity moved to Tier 1 in unholy
• Virulence moved to Tier 2 in unholy
• Blood-Caked Blade: Your autoattacks have a 5/10/15% chance to cause Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 50% weapon damage times the number of your diseases on the target. (Was 60%)
• Night of the Dead: Hitting a target with Plague Strike or Scourge Strike reduces the cooldown of your next Raise Dead and your next Army of the Dead by 30 sec / 1 min. This effect stacks up to 5 times. (was bugged to be 1 min for both ranks)
• Desecration range component increased from 2 yards to 7 yards around the target.

Druid
Feral

• Savage Roar: Attack power increased from 25% to 35%.

Hunter
Beast Mastery

• Animal Handler (Beast Mastery): No longer increases speed while mounted, but now reduces the cooldown of your Master’s Call ability by 5/10 sec.
• Beastial Swiftness is now a pet talent tree talent, and has been removed from the Beast Mastery Hunter tree.
• New Talent - Aspect Mastery (Beast Mastery)
• Pathfinding (Beast Mastery): Now also increases the movement speed while mounted by 5/10%.
• Spirit Bond (Beast Mastery): Also increases healing done to you and your pet by 5/10%.

Mage
Arcane

• Torment of the Weak description changed: All damage you cause to Ensared targets is increased by 2/4/6%. (old version: All damage done to slowed targets is increased by 2/4/6%.)

Fire

• New Frostfire Bolt animation.

Frost

• Fingers of Frost description/duration changed: Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect, which treat your Frost spells cast on the target as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 4 sec. (old version: Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect, which treat your next 2 Frost spells cast on the target as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 10 sec.)

Paladin
Protection

• Stoicism (Protection) moved to tier 2, now reduces duration of Stun effects by 10/20/30% and reduces chance your spells will be resisted by 10/20/30%.
• Divine Shield wording change: Protects the paladin from all damage and spells for 12 sec, but increases the time between his or her attacks (old: your attacks) by 100%. Once protected, the target cannot be made invulnerable by Divine Shield, Divine Protection or Hand of Protection again for 3 min.

Priest

• No Talent changes.

Rogue

• No Talent changes.

Shaman
No Talent changes.

Warlock
Affliction

• Improved Felhunter description changed: Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 100/200% (old: 50/100%) of the damage done by it’s Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter’s Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.
• Dark Pact: Drains 700 of your summoned demon’s Mana, returning 200% (old: 100%) to you.
• Haunt description changed: You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing 645 to 754 Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% (old: 0%) for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 20% of all damage done to the target.

Warrior
No Talent changes.

Patch 2.4.3 Notes Live Today!

Well, today’s the big day…WoW patch 2.4.3 is now live! You can check out the complete patch notes below, though I’ve listed some of the more notable features up top for all you lazy people.

New Arena Gems
You can now purchase epic gems with arena points. Also, don’t forget…these gems are NOT unique, they are just like the gems from badges / BT / hyjal. So you can use as many as you want.

Bold Ornate Ruby - Cost: 800 arena points
Smooth Ornate Dawnstone - Cost: 800 arena points
Insirbed Ornate Topaz - Cost: 800 arena points
Runed Ornate Ruby - Cost: 800 arena points
Gleaming Ornate Dawnstone - Cost: 800 arena points
Potent Ornate Topaz - Cost: 800 arena points

New Patch 2.4.3 Items
Well, with every expansion you’ve got to have the economy in mind…as such Blizzard released the official money sink items! So for all you people with more gold than cents (hilarious pun) you’ll have plenty of crap to buy for your character.

“Gigantique” Bag - 1200g
Gold Eternium Band - 3000g
Noble’s Elementium Signet - 2400g
Ruby Shades - 2000g
Sapphire Pinky Ring - 600g

General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha’tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

Druids

* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

Hunters

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet’s Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

Mages

* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Paladins

* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Priests

* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.

Rogues

* Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue’s health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.
* Sinister Calling now increases damage to Backstab and Hemorrhage by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Shaman

* Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
* Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.

Warlocks

* Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
* Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
* Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
* Demon Skin, Demon Armor, and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
* Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
* Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
* Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

Warrior

* Revenge: Ranks 1-5 of this ability now have damage ranges instead of fixed damage values (like ranks 6-8.)

PvP

* The time available to accept the option to “Enter Battle” for a battleground has been reduced to 1 minute and 20 seconds (previously 2 minutes) in order ot give each side more time to get a full complement of players before the battle begins.
* The Warsong Gulch flag can no longer be picked up at the same time as a flag is capped.
* Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite can no longer be used in the arena. These no longer have a failure chance.
* Zoning into an instance on a PvE realm will now drop your PvP flag.

Professions

* Alchemy
o Philosopher’s Stone now requires 200 Alchemy.
* Cooking
o Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.
* Jewelcrafting
o Activated beneficial effects from jewelcrafting trinkets can no longer be dispelled.
* Mining
o Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.
* Tailoring
o Removed the cooldown from regular Mooncloth.
o Herb bags can now hold Un’goro Soil and Evergreen Pouches.
o Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.
o New Tailoring patterns are available from Haughty Modiste in Steamwheedle Port, Tanaris: Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.

Quests

* Bhag’thera now spawns at a normal quest spawn rate.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, phased characters will not be able to see non-phased character AoE effects and vice-versa.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, pets gaining/losing phase status will now properly break off combat from unphased/phased opponents.

Dungeons and Raids

* Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.
* Magister’s Terrace
o The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
o Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
o Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
o Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
o Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
o Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
o Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.
* Sunwell Plateau
o Creatures in the area around Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash will no longer spawn while the twins are in combat.
o M’uru, Entropius, Shadowsword Berserkers and Shadowsword Fury Mages have all had their health decreased.
Kil’jaeden Encounter
+ Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil’jaeden’s Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
+ Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil’jaeden.
+ Sinister Reflections are now interruptible.
+ Sinister Reflections on Hunters now use normal Wing Clip instead of Improved Wing Clip.
+ Kil’jaeden will now wait slightly longer before casting Flame Darts after casting Darkness of a Thousand Souls.

Items

* Bow of the Verdant Keeper’s Aim: This item’s triggered effect no longer breaks the effect of Scatter Shot.
* Brutal Gladiator’s Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
* Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again…without attacking people in the arena. Well… they’ll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean.
* The Eredar Twins will now award the same items regardless of which order they are killed in.
* Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)
* Pendant of the Violet Eye: This item will again work correctly with Holy Light and Flash of Light.
* Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.
* Thori’dal, the Star’s Fury is now Unique as intended.
* Vengeful Gladiator’s Baton of Light: This item now appears in the correct position on the vendor list.

User Interface

* The help interface has been simplified dramatically. Players will no longer be required to select a category when opening a GM ticket. In addition, players can use the “Talk to a GM” button to fill out a ticket that requires a GM response or the “Report Issue” button to fill out a ticket that does not require a GM response.
* Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
* Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer’s local time.
* The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds, and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds.
* Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
* Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
* Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
* Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
* You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.
* Invisible players with Hunter’s Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.
* Vendor items now show their Duration in Inventory.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

* Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs may now drop Thick Yeti Fur.
* Skinning any Winterspring Ice Thistle yetis may now result in Thick Yeti Fur.
* Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
* Goblin Weather Machine- Prototype 01-B weather changes will no longer force the affected character to stand.
* Collector’s Edition Pet Redemption NPCs/items/quests have been relocated/modified to/for towns with mailboxes (Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.).
* Young Sporebats and Greater Sporebats in Zangarmarsh now drop Sporebat Eyes for the quest Gathering the Reagents.
* Blacksmithing Supplies vendor and repairer, Blazzle, in Area 52 is now next to the forge and anvil outside the inn.
* Banker Meeda, in Area 52 is now in the…well…the bank, along with a guild vault and guards. The other three Area 52 bankers are still located in the auction-house-turned-bank.
* Wastewander Bandits and Rogues should be more plentiful in the northern parts of Tanaris.

Bug Fixes

* The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
* Gan’arg Analyzers will no longer occasionally become friendly to players.
* Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
* Guild leaders should now be able to properly promote a new guild leader regardless of their range.
* Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
* Hunters: Using an instant ability after Steady Shot will no longer lock out auto shot.
* Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
* Hunters: Concussive shot will now properly have a chance to proc Bow of Searing Arrows.
* Hunters: Scare Beast will now be correctly limited to one target and has had its tooltip updated to display the proper cast time of 1.5 seconds.
* Paladins: Righteous Defense will now properly check for range when a mob is selected.
* Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
* Warlocks: The heal aspect of felhunter Devour Magic will now display in the Combat Log.
* Warlocks: The Succubus will now behave properly while under the effects of Lesser Invisibility.
* Warlocks: Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death. Warlocks will still be able to resurrect with the pet they last summoned (non-sacrificed pets), even if it has since died.
* Using Jewelcrafting figurines will no longer cause scrolling combat text to appear twice.
* Fixed an issue in which shadows were not appearing properly for users with GF4 video chipsets in Open GL mode.
* Corrected an issue in which users with Creative X-FI sound cards would sometimes here a slight popping noise when running.
* Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.
* Corrected an issue where the initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap could not be heard by some players.
* Smelt Hardened Khorium will now properly require a forge instead of an anvil and hammer.
* Hardened Khorium Bars can now be placed properly into Mining bags.
* Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
* The flight from Zul’Aman, Ghostlands to Sun’s Reach Harbor, Isle of Quel’Danas and the flight cost from Emerald Sanctuary, Felwood to Astranaar, Ashenvale will now cost the correct amount of money.
* Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.
* The Figurine- Seaspray Albatross ability will now properly restore the correct amount of mana.
* First Aid bandages can no longer be applied to a player with the Recently Bandaged debuff. An error message of, “Could not activate more than one bandage” will be displayed.
* Corrected the tooltips to read properly for the flight paths from The Stormspire, Toshley’s Station, Blade’s Edge and Area 52.
* Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
* Players will no longer become stuck on the Nimboya’s Laden Pike when driving it into the ground.
* The quest, “Going Going, Guano!” will now have a more consistent level requirement for the dungeon.
* The quest, “Into The Scarlet Monastery” is now available to players of the appropriate level for the instance.
* Blueleaf Tubers can now be properly looted.
* The quest turn-ins for the Ahn’Qiraj war effort now give the appropriate amount of credit for each successful quest turn-in.
* Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove the curse Shrink.
* Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.
* Several items sold by the Consortium reputation vendor Paulsta’ats are now bind on pick-up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design: Thick Golden Draenite.
* It is no longer possible to delete a character that is an arena team captain without first promoting another player to captain.
* Taunts will now properly stick when a target is stunned while being taunted.
* Taking the Druid flight path from Moonglade will no longer dispel buffs.
* Players who die on the Isle of Quel’Danas and release their spirit will no longer be sent to the graveyard in Eversong Woods.
* Disabling some subtypes under the Combat Log Message Types in the Combat Log Config menu will no longer cause main Message Types to be disabled.
* Changes on the Desktop gamma options will now be properly discarded when canceled.
* A message will now appear in the combat log if a debuff is removed by normal melee attacks.
* Moving a quiver from one container slot to an empty container slot will no longer reset the ranged attack speed.
* Fixed an issue where players could have two minimap tracking types active at the same time.
* Corpses with money on them will now be able to be looted even when all party members opt to pass on loot.
* Fixed an issue where ravager pets had all available pet skills.
* Players will no longer receive an error message while receiving money and attempting to send mail to another player.
* It is no longer possible to be in a guild without a Guildmaster.
* Pets will now properly attack mobs when out of phase with the real world.
* Players who have the Apprentice and Journeyman Riding skills trained already will no longer show these as available to train despite having the higher riding skill.
* It is no longer possible to dispel Shattered Sun Pendant buffs.
* Passive pets will no longer attack due to AoE taunt spells.

Arena Season 4 Check List

Well, with season 3 rapidly approaching it’s end it’s time to start preparing for season 4’s launch on June 24th. From gems to enchants, and honor to arena points, it may take you some time to get everything in order.

Honor / Arena Points
75,000 Honor Points
5,000 Arena Points

Of course, in addition to the points you should already have purchased the new pvp trinket. The extra resilience just makes it that much better, allowing you to get additional offensive stats in other gear slots.

As far as arena gear is concerned, you’ll have to weigh your individual situation. The new rating requirements may make you think twice about what S3 pieces you’d like to purchase prior to S4 starting.

Arena Gems
The gem choices you make are certainly going to depend on your class and spec choices, but generally speaking there are a few definite decisions you can make.

Honor Gems:
Bold Ornate Ruby
Gleaming Ornate Dawnstone
Inscribed Ornate Dawnstone
Potent Ornate Topaz
Runed Ornate Ruby
Smooth Ornate Dawnstone

So if you’re a healer you’re pretty much SOL for these gems, but for everyone else they are a great choice. Don’t forget, they are unique-equip so you can use them in multiple sets of gear instead of having to acquire the gems by other means.

Badge Gems:
Crimson Spinel
Empyrean Sapphire
Lionseye
Pyrestone
Seasrpay Emerald
Shadowsong Amethyst

Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t hear…you can now get BT / Hyjal quality gems for just 15 badges per gem. This may seem a bit high, but when you’re trying to build the perfect set of gear I think it’s worth the price.

PvP Enchants
No question, the biggest money sink of any prep work you’ll have to do for season 4. Furthermore, if you know how to play auction house right, you can really make a killing of this increase in demand. When season 3 began I made 4800 gold in 12 hours, if you want to see numbers like this for yourself when S4 begins make sure to check out my next article.

Back to the enchants though…I strongly STRONGLY encourage you to purchase your materials prior to S4 starting. This will save you vast amounts of time and gold.

Best Professons for Arena

Professions are without a doubt one of the most overlooked aspects of arena and pvp. Too often players are so concerned with gear, enchants, and gems that they completely overlook just how much professions can add.

3. Enchanting
So why enchanting? Simply put, the ring enchants. What we’re looking at here is:

+2 melee damage
+12 spell damage
+20 healing power
+4 all stats

Now, a lot of people just flat out overlook these, or don’t consider them worth dropping one of their current professions for enchanting. For a melee player I can see the argument, +2 melee damage is pretty lackluster and +4 stats isn’t stellar either.

That said, for casters I don’t think there is a better option. +40 healing or +24 damage is just insane.

In addition (though it’s not related to pvp), you have a ton of potential to make some serious gold with the profession. Tuesdays are great for offering your services in Shattrath City, as there are always people needing new enchants for their newest piece of arena gear.

2. Jewelcrafting
With the addition of the badge vendor through Sunwell Island dailies a whole new realm of gem socketing was opened up to the masses.

Beyond the fact that we can all get epic gems cut, any jewelcrafter with a bit of time and gold can have the best gems in the game…

Melee Gems:
+24 Attack Power
+12 Critical Strike Rating

Caster Gems:
+14 Spell Damage
+12 Spell Critical Strike
+26 Healing

Defensive Gems:
+12 Defense Rating
+18 Stamina

Since these gems are BoP you’ll only be able to use a couple of them depending on your spec and class. But even so, this gives you just that extra edge that could be the deciding factor in a game.

In addition, you’ve got various figurine trinkets for each spec and class.

And quite frankly, if spending gold equates additional wins, then I’m more than willing to take on the expenses, and considering how easy it is to farm gold so should you!

1. Engineering
When the burning crusade released I was very disappointed in engineering. They basically destroyed everything that I loved so much about the profession pre-BC.

However, I think we can all say engineering is back and better than ever. While some of the items aren’t really viable for arena, there are a few in particular that really make the profession worth it.

• Rocket Boots Extreme | Rocket Boots Extreme Lite
• T5 / T6 equivalent goggles (depends on accessibility and talent spec)

The two I’ve listed above are just straight up domination for arena, the goggles specifically. With those type of stats and improved stealth detection! That’s just insane.

On top of that you’ve got the Nigh-Invulnerability Belt, sheep trinket, goblin rocket launcher, and a host of grenades and other misc. items.

Rogue / Priest 2v2 Arena Guide (Compiled)

If you’re looking for rogue / disc priest strategy then you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find a complete listing of all of the essential resources you should check out to take your arena team to the next level!

Rogue / Priest Arena Strategies
Rogue / Priest 2v2 Arena Strategy (includes all team vs. team strategies)
Rogue / Priest 2v2 Arena Video (video of myself and my 2s partner, Engage, playing in the 2300 bracket, article includes link to video as well as contextual commentary)

Rogue / Priest Specific Strategies
Druid / Hunter
Druid / Warlock
Druid / Warrior
Druid / Rogue
Mage / Rogue
Mage / Warlock
Paladin / Warlock
Paladin / Warrior
Priest / Rogue
Priest / Warlock
Shadow Priest / Rogue
Shadow Priest / Warlock
Shaman / Warrior
Warlock / Rogue

Rogue / Priest Arena Talent Specs
rogue arena talent specs
priest arena talent specs
Arena Builds Choosing the Right Spec (generic guide)

Rogue / Priest Arena Macros
Rogue Macros Guide
Rogue Focus Macros
Priest Macros Coming Soon!

Individual Forum Questions Answered
Discipline Priest Arena Strategy

Arena Enchants
Rogue Arena Enchant Guide

Arena Gems
Rogue Arena Gem Guide

Arena Gear
Coming Soon!

Arena Gear and Equipment

Hey guys, this is my first addition to Zuggaming and i hope to add more. So lets start with your welfare epics!

Many people may be abused by other apparent “Leet” players about having these welfare epics (gladiators and soon to be Merciless), but i think they are just scared we might beat em!

So with that out of the way i have 5 easy steps to get geared.

1. PvE Gear
When you first hit 70 you should have a few blues and mostly greens, now you may think that this is not the best in the world, but don’t stress. Your current gear should be good enough to enter a few Pug Karazhan raids if your lucky. Many drops in Karazhan can easily upgrade your gear tremendously, even if your gear does not have the “Resilience” or “Stamina” that you may want it doesn’t hurt to have epics to replace your greens and blues. Try to set aside a day each week to pve (such as Karazhan or Daily Heroics).

2. Badge Items and Gear
Don’t waste your badges on nether vortexes or epic gems, even though this can significantly boost your stock of cash it is not worth it. Many trinkets and offhands such as relics,totems and idols cost a few badges and can be a significant upgrade. These trinkets are essential in pve and in many cases pvp. A usual set up of a pvp/arena geared player is that they will carry “Medallion of the Horde” and a Badge Trinket. To achieve these badges you can easily reach around 25 - 30 badges a week just by doing a full karazhan run and the daily heroic.

3. Save, Save, Save!
Since 2.4 hit your pvp marks can now be turned in for honor (1 of each mark = 314 honor). Even though this may sound like a good thing don’t become a slave to the temptation of wasting all your marks, it becomes very frustrating in future knowing you have the honour but you need to grind bg’s all day just to get the marks for that required item. Usually the marks even out anyway, the amount of time needed to grind the marks for your item will usually make up for the honor you need for that item, so unless your mailbox is exploding with 100’s of marks try to resist the temptation of turning in your marks for honor.

4. Arena Points and Gear
Many people in World of Warcraft do not like arena’s, in many cases i can recall myself residing pve and bg’s over constant arena games, but Arena is your friend!! Try to at least get 10 games a week with a friend, even if your team is a 1300 rating 2v2 team it still adds up. If you see that you can nearly afford those S3/soon to be S4 gloves you have always wanted and yet you do not have your Gladiator/soon to be merciless gloves, don’t waste your honor; take time to think and ask yourself is it really worth spending 11250 honor on these gloves when i will soon be replacing them? This allows you to be more efficient with your honor and allows you to gain gear faster!

and finally on to my last point..

5. Read Forums (and ZugGaming.com!) and Learn Your Class
Simply flicking through forums can have a major affect on how you play your class, many forums and dedicated world of warcraft sites such as “This site, the best unofficial WoW site ever” can give you many hints and strategies on how to maximize your playing. Many sites can offer you a wide variety of macros/guides/arena strategies and more, Who knows, this information might lead you to having a better arena team, getting into raids easier and having more fun on your behalf. One of the most important things i have seen in world of warcraft is “Don’t be afraid of criticism” even though many of us will often snob criticism off and usually tell that person a few words that are not nice many people can still have good helpful ideas and tips for you, Constructive criticism is your friend… even though you might not like being told how to play your class it does not hurt taking someones advice on different aspects of the game. Not only will criticism help you improve, but you will also earn respect among the people who criticized you, they will learn that your not that “Uber Noob”. Earning respect among people on your server earns you a greater chance of being invited to Arena teams/raids and guilds.

PS 6: Be time efficient
Know what you are going to do and set to achieve a goal, such as i want to earn X amount of honor and X amount of badges tonight. Find out what your server is best at, such as if your server is constantly winning Av’s then constantly do them, AV will always give you the most honor and is the most efficient way to farm honor.

Strategy courtesy of Electrocow

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