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Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

Queue, queue, queue. Everyone must be really excited for the eventual 3.3 patch, because we’ve got a ton of questions about Arthas and Icecrown today. What the heck, guys! BUT YEA, I SHALL ANSWER THINE PLEAS.

m_rydelis asked:
I have a question here, so as I remember from Warcraft TFT, Lich King was left to freeze on Frozen Throne, and in WotLK cinematic we see him on it, so did it just melt down, or something happend, because there is no such thing as Warcraft as Frozen throne now.

Icecrown Citadel was built over the Frozen Throne, and Arthas has apparently done a lot of construction on Icecrown Glacier since TFT and especially since the opening cinematic. The Frozen Throne likely still remains inside of the fully-constructed Icecrown Citadel, but we’ll definitely see when 3.3 launches.

Cyrus asked:
Do we even know if there’s going to be a 3.4? Has Blizzard announced it, or are people assuming it just based on the number of content patches in BC? Maybe progression will just go OS, Naxx, EoE, Ulduar, Argent Coliseum and Icecrown.

The plan is for there not to be a 3.4. Blizzard has stated time and time again that the plan is for Arthas to be the final boss of the Wrath cycle and for Icecrown Citadel to be the final content patch of the Wrath cycle. The next expansion should be approaching much sooner than the wait between vanilla and BC (and BC and Wrath) as well, so this timeline could work out fine provided that the 4.0 train keeps rolling as it should. Blizzcon should clue us in as to how things are progressing in that regard, so keep your eyes open.

Ayiano asked:
I just spent all day writing a reply on the US suggestion forum regarding Racial Weapons (under the toon of Ayiana, if you want to check it out). In other words, weapons limited to a single race. Obviously, the most common request is Tauren totems (not the Shaman totems, but the held, giant, telephone-pole-sized totems seen in War3 and the cinematic). I was just wondering if you guys had any cool, yet serious and feasible ideas for other racial items (not necessarily weapons)? And if so, do you think Blizzard would implement them?

It’s extremely unlikely. Blizzard’s already shown that producing even faction-specific weapons and armor is too hard for content patches — I was excited when I heard that the Tier 9 sets were faction-specific, and crushed when I saw that they were shared between armor classes — so I honestly don’t think that race-specific items are even a remote possibility.

Beyond creating the art assets, it’s also a matter of what the items would do. Are they cosmetic? Do they help in combat? Do they give some kind of perk? How will those perks be balanced not only between races, but classes?

It’s a little too much work for flavor (flavor that would, admittedly, be pretty cool. I want huge totems). But a guy can dream, right?

Avrador asked:
Question: Why as a Gnome are all my mounts so huge. I understand why they’re sized up for Tauren, but I just bought my lvl30 ram as a gnome, and not only is it much larger than the version Dwarves get, but it’s larger even than the human horse, and almost as tall as a talbuk. And the gnome version of the Wrath bears are larger than the Draenei version of the same. Is Blizzard helping us Gnomes compensate for something?

I can’t speak for Blizzard’s artists, but I’m pretty sure that the idea is for you to look ridiculous. Even more ridiculous than just being a gnome in the first place, which is a feat!

Thereluctantwarlock asked:
Question: with the recent announcement of faction changes, wouldn’t it then be possible to see, in the future an incredibly long and difficult quest chain with albiet serious consequences, that would allow you simply “defect” to the other faction? This seems like it would be a better solution than racial recustomization. Plus, it would be super cool.

I don’t like to give absolutes when it comes to possible features, but I’m pretty comfortable saying “that will never happen” to this particular one. Like many game designers for team-based or multiplayer games, Blizzard believes (correctly) that silhouette is an important factor in telling friend from foe. At a glance, we should be able to determine if a person is dangerous, and that would be incredibly difficult when the only difference is an internal flag saying “Alliance” or “Horde”.

It’s also a matter of identity, where it’s pretty unlikely that the opposite faction would (in lore) even let a member of the other faction defect to them. The races that belong to either faction are there for good reasons.

Burninate asked:
What will happen to the Emblem of Heroism rewards? Will they be purchasable with Emblems of Conquest instead? And, if so, what will happen with the tier pieces sold for Heroism/Valor?

Each reward maintains its current token type and cost on the PTR. The vendors will still exist and downgrading your tokens is still very possible. The prices haven’t changed and no rewards have been removed.

Lokasenna asked:
Do we know of any reason why the “Additional instances cannot be launched” message would popping up with much more frequency lately?

Yes. Blizzard is currently throttling the total number of possible instances per realm, and a lot of people are playing nowadays. It’s an attempt to prevent instance server stress from impacting gameplay for others. It’s been successful at that, but the side effect is that less people total get to run instances at any given time.

There are big changes coming that should alleviate or completely remove both instance server stress and “additional instances” errors. Keep your eyes peeled.

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The Patch 3.2 PTR Patch Notes from the official sites have been updated this evening. There are a few notable changes, and you can read the full new patch notes after the break.

Some of the key changes include:

• Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.
• The frame rate for those with Shadow Effects enabled under the Ultra Video settings has been improved.
• The Engineering changes previous covered.
• Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.
• Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.
• Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.

The full notes after the break!

This post is currently being edited. Thanks for your patience.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.2.0

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

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

General

• Construction of the Crusaders’ Coliseum is complete. Testing not yet available. New raid normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders’ Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (normal), 25-player (normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.
  • Trial of the Champion
    • 5-player (normal and Heroic mode) dungeon.
    • Daily quest added to the Heroic daily dungeon quest giver.
  • Trial of the Crusader
    • 10 and 25-player (normal mode) raid dungeon.
  • Trial of the Grand Crusader
    • 10 and 25-player (Heroic mode) raid dungeon.
    • Crusaders’ Tribute: Active on Heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
• Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style battleground is now available for testing.
  • Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
  • Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
  • Capture the Docks, Airship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy’s base.
  • Capture the Oil Derrick or Cobalt Mine for their resources to garner reinforcements and a steady flow of bonus honor.
  • To claim victory, bust through the enemy’s keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.
• The Argent Tournament Expands
  • All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount, and new heirloom items.
  • All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts, and a new pet.
  • Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Black Knight, he makes his astonishing return to the tournament. Wait, didn’t you kill him?
• New druid art for cat and bear forms has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one’s cat and bear forms.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Arenas
  • The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5-player team rating. Rating requirements from 2-player teams can still be used to purchase the previous season of gear.
  • Dalaran Sewers
    • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
    • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
    • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
  • Ruins of Lordaeron
    • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
    • Two line-of-sight tombstones have been added to the slime pool on the southern side of the map.
    • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
• Battlegrounds
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
    • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
    • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
    • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
    • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
    • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  • Arathi Basin
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Eye of the Storm
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  • Warsong Gulch
    • There is a now a 20-minute timer on this Battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.
• Wintergrasp
  • To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.
    • Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
    • Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins.
    • The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.
    • Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.
    • Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.
    • The queue will accept up to 100 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 200 players at a time.

Races: General

• Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
• Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren’s Lucky Coin, Lavanthor’s Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
• Emblem System Changes
  • Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders’ Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  • The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
  • The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
• Item Buy Back Feature Revised
  • The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.
• Mounts
  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  • Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
  • Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
  • Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
  • Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
• New Dungeon Loot Feature
  • Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.
• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

Classes: General

• All pets now receive 40% of their master’s resilience and 100% of their master’s spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.
• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target’s maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
• Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3-second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

Death Knights

• Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.
• Blood Plague: Damage done increased by 15%.
• Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 25% per disease.
• Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.
• Frost Fever: Damage done increased by 15%.
• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
• Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.
• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
• Talents
  • Blood
    • Bloody Strikes: This talent now provides 5/10/15% increased damage to Blood Strike instead of 15/30/45%.
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
  • Frost
    • Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
    • Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    • Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
    • Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
  • Unholy
    • Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
    • Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
    • Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
    • Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    • Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 20% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Druids

• Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
• Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
• Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
• Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
• Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Talents
  • Balance
    • Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
    • Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30-second cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
    • Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
  • Restoration
    • Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
    • Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.
• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
• Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.
• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
  • Survival
    • Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
  • Pets
    • Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the Hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.
• Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3-second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.
• Talents
  • Fire
    • Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 2% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.

Paladins

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when the target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
• Judgements: Some of these attacks were considered ranged and some melee. They are all now considered melee attacks that can’t be dodged, parried or blocked.
• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker’s maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal-over-time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack.
• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Talents
  • Holy
    • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
    • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
    • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
  • Protection
    • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health or below is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
  • Retribution
    • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
    • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown. Mana cost reduced to 5% of base mana.
    • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
    • Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.
• Talents
  • Discipline
    • Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
  • Holy
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.

Rogues

• After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
• Talents
  • Combat
    • Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
  • Subtlety
    • Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.

Shamans

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
• Talents
  • Enhancement
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman’s attack power, down from 30%.
  • Restoration
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman’s health.
    • Nature’s Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman’s maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    • Nature’s Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

Warlocks

• Banish: Effect will now be cancelled if Banish is recast on a banished target.
• Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.
• Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes
• Talents
  • Affliction
    • Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
  • Demonology
    • Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
  • Destruction
    • Empowered Imp: The warlock’s critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
    • Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Fury
    • Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.
    • Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.
  • Protection
    • Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.
    • Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.

User Interface

• Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.
  • A skull graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players can find creatures they must kill for a quest.
  • A skull graphic with red eyes will be placed on the map in the general area where creatures can be found that must be killed in order to collect quest objects.
  • A gear/cogwheel graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must loot quest objects found in the world.
  • A chat bubble graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must interact with a specific NPC for a quest.
  • A yellow question mark graphic will show on the map to provide the location of a NPC whose quest the player has completed.
• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.
• Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Casting bars under a target’s portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
• Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
• Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.
• Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

• The frame rate for those with Shadow Effects enabled under the Ultra Video settings has been improved.

World Environment

• Northrend Children’s Week has arrived in Dalaran! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District.
• Portal areas in all major cities now offer a portal to the Blasted Lands near the Dark Portal.
• Once crossing through the Dark Portal, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.
• A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.
• The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes in Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.
• Mathiel in Darnassus has finally earned himself enough money from your repair bills that he was able to buy himself an anvil.

Quests

• The ravasaur trainer Mor’vek has returned to Un’Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount… if they can survive the creature’s deadly poison.

Achievements

• A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.
• Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

• Alchemy
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or strength for 1 hour and is usable in Arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
  • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
• Cooking
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  • Chef’s Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey’s Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward Crate, Barrel, or Spice Bag from the cooking dailies.
• Enchanting
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
• Engineering
  • Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look… stylish?
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical or vehicle units.
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  • The Cobalt Frag Bomb now incapacitates enemies within a 3-yard radius. A short cast time was added, but they are usable while moving. This change applies to any Cobalt Frag Bombs already created. The existing recipe now makes 3 at a time.
  • Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  • Increased the passive bonuses provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  • A new repair bot has been added, and his name is Jeeves. He is the ultimate gentleman robot butler, able to perform all the mundane tasks of repairing, selling and buying junk for your entire raid. Additionally, he can open bank boxes for skilled engineers (350+). Jeeves is not destroyed when used, but due to pressing engagements, can only be summoned once an hour. The schematic for this handsome robot was said to be hidden within the parts of another robot - hoping to be found by an engineer one day.
  • Nitro Boosts: Now have a 5-second duration.
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  • Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  • The Spynocular belt attachment has been changed to a Frag Belt. The Frag Belt periodically produces a Cobalt Frag Bomb that can be used from the belt every 10 minutes (never runs out!).
  • A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one’s faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
• Fishing
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
• Herbalism
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
• Inscription
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven’t yet obtained Mangle. Scribes can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  • Master’s Inscriptions increased.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased.
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s tokens.
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    • Alchemy transmutations
    • Purchased with honor
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
• Leatherworking
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  • Fur Lining values increased.
• Mining
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
• Skinning
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
• Tailoring
  • Embroideries improved.

Items

• Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade Arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King Arena seasons.
• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
  • Druids
    • Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
  • Paladins
    • Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
  • Rogues
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
  • Warlocks
    • Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
• Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.
• Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

Dungeons and Raids

• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders’ Coliseum.
• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  • Drakes used by players in these instances will now scale in health and damage according to the rider’s average item level.
• Ulduar
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players.
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a tooltip issue with Pandora’s Plea.
• Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes (”of the Bear”) have had their stat values increased significantly.
• The leatherworking item Guardian Gloves is now correctly marked as uncommon quality.
• Death Knights
  • Rune of Razorice: Corrected a bug where this applied to frost damage done by others.
• Hunters
  • All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
  • Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
  • Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
  • The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
  • T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
• Priests
  • The heal from Glyph of Power Word: Shield can now cause Divine Aegis.
  • Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
• Shamans
  • Fixed a bug where Frostbrand Weapon (Rank 9) was not scaling properly with a shaman’s spell power.

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WildTangent is a company that started up around ten years ago (they originally made game plugins for Winamp, if you remember that) that’s recently gotten a reputation for “bloatware.” They’ve made deals with PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Acer to bundle in their software on the harddrive when you buy it. (Most users familiar with PCs find these software bundles more of a nuisance than anything else.) But nevertheless, WildTangent claims up to 20 million users worldwide, and they continue to make deals, the most recent one being with none other than Blizzard. According wow goldto a press release on their website [PDF], World of Warcraft’s trial downloader will now be included with all installs of WildTangent’s ORB software, which means that whenever you buy a new computer from a dealer WildTangent has hooked up with, there’ll be a program already installed on your PC that will let you download and play World of Warcraft, among the many other games WildTangent has already included.

This likely isn’t targeted at you, dear audience — odds are that you’ve already got the discs for WoW, and if you do buy a new PC, you’ll probably still delete WildTangent’s app and install WoW yourself. Instead, it’s a stab at picking up new subscribers — people who might not already know about World of Warcraft or PCs may see the icon on their new desktop, double click it, and find Azeroth for the first time. The press release even notes that WoW subscribers still in their trial month are counted as subscribers, so odds are this is a random attempt to pick up a few more subscribers from people who aren’t willing to go get the game themselves.

There’s one more thing to note here: Activision isn’t mentioned at all.

While those familiar with WildTangent and the perception that their software is junkware and bloatware may suggest that Activision is somehow behind this deal (sneaking software onto new users’ PCs definitely seems more up Activision’s alley than Blizzard’s — the former company has gotten a reputation for releasing only slightly updated sequels constantly, and the latter has instead always been consumer-focused, even releasing Mac and PC versions of its software on the same discs), the press release specifically says Blizzard Entertainment is behind the deal, and only mentions Activision Blizzard in the company summary at the end. So who knows — maybe Blizzard is feeling pressure to keep that subscriber number rising, and is willing to resort to a deal with WildTangent to try and pick up a few more players. Whether that tactic will work or not remains to be seen.

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Blizzard’s Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton answered quite a lot of questions about the upcoming PvP changes in Patch 3.2. There are a lot, particularly the experience gains in Battlegrounds which also has deep implications in PvE as players can simply toggle experience gains off (any Level 60s up for Molten Core?). It’s a pretty lengthy interview and Stockton goes into detail with the new Isle of Conquest Battleground. Some highlights from the chat:

• Experience gain in Battlegrounds is slightly slower than questing or grinding
• Players can toggle experience gain on and off with a mere 10 Gold
• There are plans to include greens and “the occasional blue item” at the end of each Battleground match (!) but won’t make it to Patch 3.2
• The Isle of Conquest is in the Frozen Sea, North of Icecrown
• Objectives in Isle of Conquest are captured exactly like flags in Arathi Basin — I totally called this wrong when I said it would probably be a numbers and proximity thing
• Battlemaster Achievement isn’t likely to change (whew!) but Blizzard is considering what to do with the Achievements for the Isle of Conquest
• Rated Battlegrounds are coming. Not quite soon®, but an announcement will be made during BlizzCon
• Blizzard plans “to deliver more Battlegrounds to the players as often as we can”

Oh, man. That last bit made want to change my underwear. Blizzard is actually paying attention to Battleground enthusiasts, realizing that while Arenas are nice and all, a lot of players love the BGs, too. New Battlegrounds “as often as we can?” Yes, please! Head on over to the official site to read Stockton’s interview in full. Bombs, cannons, parachutes, angry Generals… 3.2 is shaping up to be one explosive patch, indeed.

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One thread over at the forums sparked quite a discussion when it asked what the problem was with World of Warcraft PvP. It’s a pretty good question and definitely not something with a simple answer, but Ghostcrawler took up the task and addressed several issues in his usual forthcoming fashion. In a nutshell, Blizzard views the following issues as the primary problems of PvP:

• Too much emphasis on Arenas and not enough on Battlegrounds.
• Too much emphasis on 2s and not enough on 3s and 5s.
• Not enough class / spec representation in Arena. Warlock, hunter and shaman numbers in particular are too low, but they’re not the only ones.
• Too fast-paced.

Ghostcrawler proceeded to explain the last point in detail, talking once again about burst damage and reiterating their intent that PvP should be a balance between damage, healing, and crowd control. He says that Blizzard plans to “add an extra GCD or two” in the small window where a player can either be healed to full or fall to enemy fire, allowing players to better use their full toolbox. Anyone who has ever played Arenas should know that that’s a pretty tall order.

The charge that burst damage is too high is also old and not entirely accurate. Blizzard points to the fact that healers are also powerful in Arenas — borderline overpowered, actually. Very few Arena teams find success without a healer. Ghostcrawler reminds players that healers are so important that not having a Mortal Strike-type debuff “may be a huge liability.” It’s a delicate problem, and Blizzard is afraid that nerfing burst damage across the board can lead to extended matches where crowd control remains the only solution.

Speaking of crowd control, some players pined about the dominance of Rogue / Mage / Priest in Arenas. The viability of the comp is undeniable as it continues to win tournaments through different seasons. Blizzard agrees, noting that they’d “prefer to see other comps as dominant as RMPs in 3s,” but explains nerfing the comp would probably simply lead to the dominance of cleave or double melee.

He brings up an old point about Resilience gear not being readily available at the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King or sacrificing too many stats to the point where it was more attractive to use PvE gear. This contributed to the perception that burst damage was too high — the damage output has generally remained the same but more players are sporting resilience now, allowing for slightly longer, more strategic matches.

As much as Blizzard points to the low representation of Warlocks, Hunters, and Shamans this season, it should be interesting to note that these have fluctuated over time. In particular, Blizzard managed to raise Hunter representation in Season 5 to the point where Survival Hunters needed to be nerfed. Warlocks also enjoyed decent representation in earlier seasons, so it’s a continuous challenge to balance the classes. Shamans, unfortunately, have yet to enjoy their time in the limelight.

Ghostcrawler also stresses that Arenas aren’t going to disappear (sorry, guys). He explains that some people actually enjoy Arenas “because they are quick, easy to organize (relative to a Battleground), often have fast queues, and / or they just enjoy the ‘purity’” of a death match without the burden of map objectives. Blizzard understands, however, that players who don’t like Arenas are forced to play it in order to acquire the best PvP gear and would like to fix that. The key issue with this is that Blizzard needs “to develop a way to reward good gear through BGs that isn’t based on endless grinding.”

Whether we’ll see that solution as soon as Patch 3.2 remains to be seen. Blizzard is definitely looking at some interesting things for PvP and the Battlegrounds, and part of that is a means for Battlegrounds to be as rewarding as Arenas. With Blizzard relatively quick to respond to player issues, hopes are good for positive changes to WoW PvP… soon®.

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Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

Ahhh, Sunday — what’s known around our place as “the day wow goldof extras”: extra sleep, extra housework (blarrrg), extra mileage on the jogging trail, extra errands in game (going fishing in hopes of catching up with Mr. Pinchy, anyone?). If you’re pining for some WoW love this weekend yet find yourself stuck outside of the game, don’t feel as if you’re all on your lonesome. Join the WoW crowd on Twitter. Most of the WoW.com team is there, plus a wider community of WoW players from all over the world. It’s addictive – come follow the latest scuttle and see for yourself.

More of the latest scuttle, of course, from other WoW.com readers, after the break.

	Watching the pros play WoW Many WoW fans say they’d gladly follow PvP tournaments — if only they could follow the action. “Arena Tournaments could benefit greatly from instant replays, slow motion and camera angles beyond the third-person view,” wrote listereo. “These aren’t available due to the limitations of the software. If a ’spectator’ player could be present, a la Quake 3, who could fly around the action on a non-player client to act as a sort of cameraman, then that footage could be pulled down to a video source and played back. ‘Slow motion’ could be available if the client frame rate was high enough and the recording media was able to record on a frame-by-frame basis instead of a set 24 or 30 frames per second, but just the same, it would need to be pulled down as fast as it’s read from the screen to a source that could be readily manipulated.”Going forward, match recording similar to Halo 3 ought to be explored, live spectator modes should be considered, and options better than capture cards and cameras mounted to the monitors need to be developed, if there’s any hope of instant replays or slow motion highlights similar to what we enjoy in major league sports coverage. Such things would pull resources away from developing the fun and balance in the game.” Would you watch a match “broadcast” under those conditions?
	The lore of Ulduar Nothing brings in the comments like a good foray into lore. WoW.com’s Matthew Rossi revisited a post about the lore of Ulduar with some juicy speculation: “See, I’m not entirely sure that Loken was fully controlled by Yogg. Because if he was, why would he deliberately set up a confrontation that ended in his death and the impending reformatting of Azeroth by Algalon?”My theory is that Yoggy can influence powerful Titan/Titan servants (I’m still not sure if the Watchers of Ulduar are intended to be considered Titans the same way that Golganneth, Norgannon, etc., etc., are), but he can’t make them totally act out of character so much as he can emphasize/exaggerate their natures. So Mimiron becomes more interested in his gadgets than in lives; Thorim seeks sport through combat and forgets his duty (subtly aided by the ‘Sif’ entity created by Yogg); Freya becomes an avatar of nature’s impartial cruelty; and Hodir is lost in delusions of the rampaging strength of winter. We go in and slap them around, but Loken was too far gone for that. “So he sets up the Iron Dwarf army for Yoggy, but he also sets us up to kill him, thus reformatting Azeroth and *once and for all killing Yogg-Saron*. The Titans couldn’t kill the old gods without destroying the world, remember; since they’re going to destroy the world anyway, it’s a safe bet that they’ll take the time to kill the old gods this time, instead of letting them continue to interfere with the development of their experiment. “After Loken dies, Yogg’s in a race against time to get out of Ulduar before Algalon arrives to sterilize the planet. If he can get out and enslave the mortal races, he’ll have a power base from which to fight Algalon off and fortify Azeroth to stand against the Titans when they come to personally whup his butt. So he needs the Iron Army, but he doesn’t *trust* it, since it (and Loken) are creations of the Titans and might regain their loyalties if pressed. He intends to use them as fodder in his war of conquest, and then discard them before it’s too late. Hence his sticking them in front of the Archivum: he needs it guarded, but at the same time, it’s a relatively minor concern for him. “Likewise, Yogg himself is the one who lets the Twilights into Ulduar, much as C’thun made use of them in Silithus. They’re insane cultists who worship the old gods via their elemental lieutenants, perfect minions because there’s zero chance they’ll betray him and side with the Titans. “This is all speculation on my part, mind you.” A plausible theory?
	Surviving summertime raiding To have and to hold, in sunshine and student schedules and in health … Does summertime play havoc with your guild’s raiding schedule?”Maybe guild leaders should try to enjoy the summer too instead of wasting their lives trying to hold together a guild in a video game?” wrote Netherscourge in reply to frustrated players trying to keep raiding groups rolling forward. “I mean, if other people in the guild are out having fun in the fresh air, maybe the guild leaders should consider doing the same thing? Summertime should not = more time to play WoW. It should = more time to enjoy real life. Just a thought. But hey, if you love camping out in your basement and adjusting DKP spreadsheets all day long, more power to you.” Others took umbrage at Netherscourge’s angle. “I don’t see how going outside is more ‘real life’ than sitting inside playing a game,” wrote toxicityj. “A lot of school-aged children/teens and college students spend a majority of their day at school and for some at work during most of their free time. Maybe some people would enjoy their time off playing a video game, catching up to their friends who hit 80, starting a new ‘toon, raiding the hell out of Naxx in preparation for Ulduar, etc. Juts because you would rather spend your time outside than inside playing a game doesn’t make your preference more ‘real life’ than someone else’s. Please get off your high horse.” “How kind of you,” agreed Kirklees. “Except some of us work for a living and don’t get summers off. ‘Summer’ is exactly the same as every other month of the year for me, except some of my employees take trips with their family and there is more work for the rest of us to go around. Perhaps if you opened up your scope of who plays the game, rather than trying to talk down to those of us who don’t have the luxury of having a few months free and still want to be able to unwind from our daily lives with the game that we enjoy.” What’s summertime like for you and your guild?
	Discover your inner ShrinkGeek Buff geeks — yes, they exist, and they’re chatting it up on our post about a new web site designed especially for geeks who want to get fit. “As an avid health nut, I can tell you powders and pills are not the way to go,” wrote Naix. “Your body need meats, fish, fruits, vegetables and nuts. The human body can only process about 50 grams of protein at a time. So if you’re working out, getting about half your body weight in grams of protein is way more than sufficient. Eat your big meals early on in the day. Eat smaller meals at night. Don’t eat after 9 p.m.”Stronglifts is the best workout program I have ever done. Lift for about 30 minutes, and you’re done. It has compound exercise programs that make sense. I have gained about 30 pounds of muscle and am down to 12% body fat over the last year doing this program. The best part is it is free. “When working out, form > weight. If the weight is too heavy to lift correctly or if you think you need a spotter, then you should not lift the weight. Period. Start at low weight, and keep adding weight until the 3rd or 4th set is your max. Do cardio after you lift and try and eat at least 20 grams of protein after your workout.” Rafe Brox offered a slightly less structured workout. “You could pair this with what one of my friends calls the ‘Viking Workout,’” he wrote. “Pick up heavy rock. Throw rock. Chase rock. Repeat until no can pick up rock. “I’m not sure where the burning and pillaging comes in; maybe that’s on the program’s off days. ;-)” Read about getting fit from a geek’s perspective at ShrinkGeek.
	What is casual? It’s casual! It’s hardcore! It’s … it’s … it’s ME!Reader fauxbo settled the hardcore vs. casual debate once and for all: “It’s easy to settle. A casual player plays less than you. A hardcore player plays more than you. See? It’s not so hard.” What’s your playstyle? Come see how other WoW.com readers characterize their own time spent in the World of Warcraft.
	Upcoming mount changes: taking the adventure out of WoW? Leveling a new character has never been easier, and now Blizzard is streamlining the process even more with changes to the mount system. “Blizzard is going the route of the only possible way in WoW 1,” wrote Bossy. “A fantasy MMORPG can only be alive when you gather enough people in one place to adventure in. Today’s limitations are server pops (3K to 3.5 K max online at once) and lag (when too many people are in one place).”Since each content patch spreads out the public even more, you need to concentrate your efforts on the end game, meaning the last 10 levels of a game and its end content after 80. It may kill off the more adventure type-like players, but I have the impression the majority of WoW players these days are not really interested in the ‘long adventure story.’ I think most find other ways to enjoy this game, like playing the BGs or doing the last raids and having a go at the latest gear and or achievements. “There really is no alternative (other) than to regroup to 3,000 players online in the last 10 zones and levels for this kind of game and try to make the journey to 68 as painless as possible. A lot goes away, of course, but it only is good if the new game play is as good as the old. And WotLK offers more than old WoW (despite the nostalgia glasses). So WoW 2009 is certainly no longer WoW 2005. More options, more different playing styles (casual - hardcore) in its end game, but less adventure to grow up in a living world.” Do you miss what Bossy calls “the adventure”?
	The couple that WoWs together … Plenty of WoW players say playing together is an important part of their romance. “My (now) husband and I actually met online through a site, but we could only see each other on weekends due to living several hours apart,” wrote Danielle. “I had just started playing Warcraft and asked him to join me. Neither of us are big phone talkers, so we spent most of our courtship running around Azeroth together. We used to sit and watch the sunset in Booty Bay after we were done leveling for the day. We eventually moved in together but still play WoW to this day and will be celebrating our third anniversary this year.”Awww. Greg’s experience has been similar: “While my wife and I have never actually used our WoW time to date per se, we do generally agree that WoW has been good for our marriage. Because of my job, I spend a good deal of time away from home. WoW has been an amazingly cheap, simple and fun way to stay in touch. It’s really helped us to stay close during times when that would otherwise be difficult. I know the joke used to be that the game came bundled with divorce papers, but it actually can be a healthy part of life and relationships. Honest.” Looks like the couple that WoWs together, wows together.
	A look at the Shroud loot system If your guild is still running any form of complex loot system, could the Shroud system work for you? “I am raid leader for Leftovers on Silver Hand and been raiding since EQ in ‘99,” wrote YuriPup. “Shroud is the best system I have come across and works with our unique structure very well. When you have 100+ raids a week, 700+ raiders and lots of potential churn, a simple, robust system is best — and I am a huge fan.”The one little change we have made to Shroud is adding a save level — same points as a standard roll but lower priority, so that a raider at 0 points can still show they are interested in that tier piece over the experience raider who’s building an off-off set. (LO loot problems were more likely to be of the ‘No, you take’ kind, and save helps that a lot.) “The other bit that wasn’t mentioned, at least about our implementation of Shroud, is there is no going negative. If you are at 0 points you can’t shroud, but you can standard. And no points are earned until the end of the raid. New raiders can get loot their first raid (”Welcome to LO, here are your free loots”), but they can’t shroud.” What loot system works best for your raiding guild?

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Well, you guys wanted me to run Deadmines. As you can see, I ran Deadmines. Many thanks go to Urse (Healer), Child (Tank), and Sneafoo (Noob Rogue of Doom) for 4-manning the thing with me. Urse was pretty overleveled for the place so healing was hilariously easy, but Sneafoo made up for it by starting the run at level 12 and aggroing Gruul from the pirate ship.

I went further than that, too. I didn’t stop at Deadmines, I did Wailing Caverns, Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep as well. I was kicking around the idea as soon as someone suggested Deadmines, but I didn’t think I would manage to land a group for either of them. When I went out to the Barrens to get my Succubus (Angva) at level 20, that sealed the deal for me. I picked up the quest The Orb of Soran’ruk, and despite the fact that its quest rewards sucked, it gave me more reason to try and get the groups together. I put out a call to all of the various resources I knew, LFG and community chat channels (your server probably has a few good ones) and all of that, and managed to score a few groups.

While Shadowfang, Wailing Caverns and Blackfathom lack some of those lasting rewards, I still enjoyed running them. Since they lack those rewards, they’ve all sort of fallen by the wayside so I was glad to have some actual reason to run them. Many thanks to Jillanus, Tempt, Retica, and a couple of the folk that helped out with Deadmines for tagging along on these somewhat less rewarding runs.

My swag:

• Lavishly Jeweled Ring
• Gold-flecked Gloves
• Rod of the Sleepwalker
• Sporid Cape

Not a bad haul, really. Some of it is so-so but certainly better than what I had before them.

Playing The Warlock
So there’s that about what instances I did, now let’s talk about the class. A lot of my grievances for last time such as a lack of mana regen and all of that have pretty much gone away. Once I got to my 20s, I started getting the many talents and abilities that make the Warlock a strong soloing class. Fel Concentration was a recent acquisition, and Life Tap without talents or much spell power seems sort of like you’re whipping yourself just because you like pain. It’s much more useful with Improved Life Tap and some spell power behind it. I definitely feel better about my downtime while soloing now than I did last week.

The stretch of levels I’m in right now isn’t exactly the greatest place to start min/maxing, but figuring out how to use my spells in instances was pretty interesting. I’m having a rough time feeling out when to re-apply my DoTs on a mob, or to just blast it because it wouldn’t be worth it to reup them. It’s all part of the process! Advice is welcome, but I suspect there’s no simple rule of thumb. All mobs have different health pools, so it’s a matter of adjusting.

Talents

The Quests
Last week, you all voted that I go to Westfall rather than continue on in Loch Modan. After finishing up a few quests I had in my quest log, I hopped on the Deeprun Tram and made the trip down. While Loch Modan still had a bit of freshness for me since I haven’t gone there often over the years, I know Westfall like the back of my hand. For the longest time I really liked Westfall, so I would take all of my alts there. When everyone started going nuts over the Draenei starter zones, I was still running alts to Westfall. I knew it well enough that I could go in, get all the necessary quests, and be out in a couple hours. Even pre-nerf Defias Pillagers weren’t immune to my brutal efficiency.

There has been one roadbump in my Westfall desctruction, however. Each and every time. The Defias Messenger. Yeah, sure, you can just wait in Moonbrook for him to either patrol back or respawn, but holy crapola. Do you know how long it takes him to RP walk across the entire zone? I was sitting in Moonbrook for a half hour waiting for his stupid face to show up. Yeah, I could’ve wandered off down the road to hunt him down, but then what would have happened if somebody killed him while I was working my way up the zone? Yep, would’ve spawned back in Moonbrook and I’ve missed my chance. This quest sucks, yo. In fact, it sucks so hard that I kind of want to spell it ’sux’ to emphasize just how much suck it sucks.

But I killed him eventually, so woo.

My brutal efficiency (with that single exception) caused me to finish up Westfall really, really quickly. Rather than sitting around doing nothing all week, I did a little questing in Redridge between instance runs, and I was reminded why I hate that zone. It’s basically nothing but tightly packed Humanoids that all either run or call for help. It was even worse before the removal of elite status from many of the mobs, so I was glad that was gone.

Redridge is also home to what is probably one of the most epic (also annoying) escort quests in the game. Missing in Action’s Corporal Keeshan is kind of a badass all things considered, despite the annoyance of the quest. He’s a legit tank, even when he’s wrapped in bloodied bandages. Play your cards right and he’ll taunt things right off of you and let you blast away. Very convenient. Still, the escort was way too long. I didn’t exactly time it, but I’m pretty sure the escort took a good 20-30 minutes or more to go from the back of the cave to Lakeshire. Considering the next person that shows up to do the quest needs to wait for him to respawn back there, they could be camping out in a dank corner of a cave for a half hour. That’s not good.

So now comes the part where we decide where I go. At level 25, we have three more choices. We’re tied to Hillsbrad, Duskwood, and the Wetlands until around level 30, so…

Where should Level 25 Turpen go?

Level 30 will come up pretty quick, most likely. That’ll open up some additional zones to mix it up a little more and give me somewhere else to go. After I finish up the zone picked above, where would you guys like to see Turpen go?

Where should a Level 30 Turpen go?

Odds and Ends
In other news, I forgot I had this Kharanos Gift Voucher in my bag from when I first rolled the character. My WoW account is a Collector’s Edition, so I get a fancy pet each time I roll an alt. I usually default to the Panda because it’s the cutest. The Zergling is sort of ugly, and I’ve only recently played a Diablo game so the Mini Diablo is sort of meh. The Diablo might go nicely with a Warlock, though. Which should I pick?

Which Collector’s Edition pet does Turpen choose?

The whole leveling process has been very cool. I’ve had a lot of readers sending me tells in-game (which I welcome, by the way) and that’s been neat. I’ve had a number of people say they want to race me to 80, but keep in mind that that’s probably a bad idea. Level at your own pace, not mine! Remember, leveling this character is practically part of my job now, so when I actually take some time to level, I’m going to be doing it aggressively. It’s a work ethic thing, not a gameplay thing. Don’t inflict yourself with it unless gaming is serious business to you! Still, I love chatting with you guys, so don’t be afraid to stop by and say hello. All of you have been incredibly kind. Well, most of you…

Now a question for the ages: What else do you want to see Turpen do? More instances? Some PvP? Some other crazy random other thing? Try to be as specific as possible in your requests! Heck, do you have any questions for me? About the class, or my tradeskills? About my experiences? Ask them here or on my feed! If you ask on my feed, you’re more likely to get a quick response. If you ask here, you’re probably going to be waiting until next week.

Before I close up, remember that you can follow Turpen’s progress visually in my WoW.com gallery dedicated to him. I’m uploading a screenshot of him at every level, and it’s all completely up to date. If you want to see how he grows progressively more awesome looking, that’s the place to look.

I’ll decide where to go next according to the status of the polls embedded in this post at midnight tonight, but I’ll leave them open awhile longer so you can all see the results. If you don’t get your vote in before midnight, it won’t count. How do you like dem apples?

Panda
Zergling
DiabloVote

Stranglethorn Vale
Arathi Highlands
DesolaceVote

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Got more tips for us? Just send them along to guildwatch@wow.com, and you might see them right here soon.

DRAMA

• The Village People on EU Doomhammer apparently broke up this past week — the guildleaders split, we hear, and robbed the guild bank dry as a bone. The good news is that they’ve reformed in the form of Avalon. Our tipster says it’s one to avoid, but we think it might be exactly the guild to join. When you hear about a restaurant failing a health check isn’t that the time to go eat there? Aren’t they super vigilant right after they have a major problem? Wouldn’t a guild that just broke up and reformed be much more likely to try to stay together?
• Eastside on Moonrunner is a ninja. But Oblivion kicked him from the guild when they found out, “so they are not a ninja guild.” Well that’s good to know.
• Strendar on Ascension from Shu’halo kicked a 13-year-old girl out of the guild for supposedly leaking private comments to people who applied to the guild. The girl and her mom appear in the thread, and boy are they unhappy. Not just because the girl got kicked, but also because Strendar is calling her out for something he had a problem with, not her. A messy (and captivating) read.
• More progression thread drama, this time from Nagrand. Things really get good on page 3. why is it that these threads lend themselves to arguing so easily — is it that hard to simply just track and report who’s killed who?
• Apparently Project Flying Monkey, the drama-prone guild on EU Bloodfeather, is getting a little help, from none other than Ensidia. We hear their advice so far has pushed them up to the top of their server, and that they’ve even beat one of the better guilds on the realm, Aspire. But isn’t getting and giving advice fair play? You tell us.
• Coca Cola, arguably the number one guild on Proudmoore, we hear, is closing up shop, after their leader kicked all the guild’s members and took the entire gbank (24K in gold and another 2K in items). Apparently the members are scattered, a sad end for a worthwhile guild.
• Finally, one bit of guild goodness: The Crew on Blade’s Edge held a baby shower for founding member Chloezelot a few weekends ago. Members met at the Beer Garden in Dalaran and showered the guest of honor with rose petals, in a spotlight and gave gifts including the Nurse’s Gown and toys from the Dalaran Toy Shop. Cake was served and drinks enjoyed. Sounds like fun! Good luck with the kid!

DOWNED

• Clam Stackers on Ravencrest thought about sacrificing a Gnome for victory, but instead, they just threw guild members off of the shattered walkway for good luck. And it worked: Auriaya, and Iron Council downed in Ulduar. Woot!
• Vice on EU Quel’thelas has been rocking — they took out 25-man Flame Levithan in Ulduar, and dropped Kologarn as well. Grats!
• Deadly Omen on Echo Isles finally finished 10-man Naxx.
• Forlorn Legacy of Windrunner has crushed some hard mode bosses lately — Assembly of Iron, Hodir, and Thorium have all fallen to their swords.
• Surrender or Die on EU Aerie Peak got to Razorscale the other day, and had an inevitable wipe on the second try. But for some reason, she didn’t despawn, due to the Expedition Defenders still fighting. After cheering them on in raid chat a lot, they got her down to about 2k HP… resulting in a dreaded 0% wipe. Bummer. But they’ll get her next time.
• Slightly Wicked of Draka cleared Naxx 10, this was the first week they were able to down Gluth, Thaddius, 4H and subsequently and quickly Sapp and KT.
• Dragon Knights on Area 52-A killed Flame Leviathan, and has Razorscale on notice for 25-man. In 10-man, they’re up to Kologran, with Ignis on notice for next time. They’re also recruiting — quailty DPS are welcome.
• Aggro My Own Vegetables (EU Chromaggus) has cleared out Malygos — they’ve also finished off Flame Leviathan and Razorscale, and completed OS 1D the week before. Grats!
• Irritable Vowels on Bronzebeard is a small, casual guild of friends that usually just raids 10-man content and found they had fifteen members online and bored and decided to mess around in BC content they hadn’t seen. They easily downed Archimonde in Hyjal, and then rolled into 25-man Naxx and cleared Arachnid with just 19 people. Way to go!
• Shadow Exiles (EU Earthen Ring) downed Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Ignis, XT-002 Deconstructor, Iron Council, Kologarn, Auriaya and Freya in Ulduar 10 in just three runs so far. Nice job.

RECRUITING

• War Ensemble on Silver Hand-A is recruiting dedicated players committed to clearing new content in Ulduar. If you can raid with them Friday through Sunday, check ‘em out.
• The Knights of the Shadows on Kalecgos-A is looking to expand their active roster of level-headed, easy-going, and capable raiders. They like to think of themselves as a “casually serious” raiding guild, and are specifically looking for Rogues, Warlocks, Feral Druids, Mages, and Shamans to complement the 25-man Ulduar progression core.
• Slave to the Grind of Sen’jin-H is looking for more members for 25-man raids and Ulduar. They’re currently recruiting all classes that don’t begin with “Death” or end with “lock”. Potential recruits must like cheese and be capable of not standing in fire, please.
• Synergy on Scilla is a casual raiding guild recruiting players level 75 and up. They are looking primarily for healers and DPS so that they can advance past the Loot Leviathan and consistantly run 25-man raids. Transfers are welcome. Apply for an interview right over on the website.
• Revision on Khaz’goroth started up recently with the goal of having about 30 raiders tackling Ulduar at high speed. They’re seeking experienced players who want a good spot based on performance — no one gets a free ride, but if you’re good, you’ll always have a place in the raids. If you can stay out of AoE and get better, they’re looking for sure.
• Dusk til Dawn Khadgar-A is recruiting all classes and roles other than Death Knights for 10-man Ulduar progression. They are a casual raiding guild with no raid atttendance requirement, Suicide kings for loot, and a mature, winning attitude. If you can’t handle a wipe or two, this isn’t your bus stop. But if you are looking for a mature casual raiding guild, this may be the place for you.
• Eucatastrophe of Thorium Brotherhood is currently recruiting more raiders to flesh out their ranks and take the dive into 25-man content. Focus on ranged DPS and healers, but all welcome to apply. Currently blasting their way through Ulduar.

That’s it for GW this week. Until next week, happy raiding!

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Dear Blizzard,

I’ve spent the past year and a half writing about WoW. I need wow goldsome gold. Can you bail me out?

I can provide you with a promise I’ll restructure my daily questing and resource farming, providing a leaner and meaner gold flow for my raiding activities. But I’m going to need some start up help.

Regards,

Adam.

P/S: If I don’t get my gold bailout, I’ll Blame Canada and not you (which happens to be today’s music selection).

Athinah asked…

“I’m so happy that signs of the new druid forms are coming out but…When exactly are they coming out? Is there a chance that they could come out sooner if Blizzard finishes them sooner? If not, what are the chances of the next patch coming out in a month or so?”

The new druid forms will be coming out with patch 3.2, which will be released to the PTRs within the month (most likely), and then will be released to the live servers a month or two after that. I wouldn’t be surprised if 3.2 has a much faster turnaround than 3.1 did, since there won’t be so much raid testing to do.

Max asked…

“Here’s something I’ve been wondering: how do I know I’m seeing everything in the game (Old World, Outland, and Northrend) that’s worth experiencing? I’m just in vanilla still, but the content can still be overwhelming at times and I always feel like I may be missing out on interesting or fun parts of the game, simply because I don’t realize they are there.”

The only thing you can really do is just play the game, make sure you’ve explored each zone completely, and research everything you find. Achievements will help with that somewhat in that they’ll give you a direction to take your questing and group work with, but when it comes down to it all you can do is good old grunt work exploration of the game.

Blaiz asked…

“Why are low level herbs so expensive?”

They’re used in bulk for a lot of profession leveling. Right now no one wants to farm them really. People would much rather be farming Northrend stuff. So those that do farm them are able to put them up on the AH for a premium, and pretty much get whatever they want. I recently leveled up inscription to the 430/450 level from scratch, and there were stack of some vanilla WoW herbs going for 100g. It’s kind of insane, but that’s the market. I should note that this can be different depending on what server your on as well.

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Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

This week, Insider Trader will be listing the locations and mobs that will drop recipes to help you complete your collection and expand your knowledge to wow goldboost sales.

Because this list is meant to be a reference for planning out your next farming expedition, I will not be including “world drops” that can drop from nearly any mob in a given zone or from a specific level of mobs across zones.

Ulduar
There are several epic crafting recipes that will drop in Ulduar. They have a chance to drop from each of the bosses on Heroic mode (25-man), although 10-man groups can also acquire them by downing the bosses on Hard mode.

Currently, there are two Enchanting formulas, six Blacksmithing plans, eight Leatherworking patterns and four Tailoring patterns that fall under this category.

Given Ulduar’s close associations with Engineering, many people have been quite vocal about the lack of schematics in the dungeon, although many of the mobs can be harvested for parts and vendor junk.

You’ll be happy to note that these epic recipes, with the exception of the Enchanting recipes, are all bind on equip. You can store them in your Guild Bank, sell them for profit, or buy them from other players if you’re desperate for a certain one. Of course, this also means that the posted drop rates more closely reflect actual drop rates.

For example, a bind on pick-up Jewelcrafting recipe might say 0.1% drop rate, but Wowhead is counting everyone who kills that mob, and each kill. This results in skewed numbers, because it is only Jewelcrafters who will ever see the recipe if it drops.

The fact that these epic bind on equip recipes boast low drop rates means that they are likely extremely rare.

Jewelcrafting

1. Design: Accurate Monarch Topaz: Check out certain Mammoths in Zul’Drak, Storm Peaks and Sholazar Basin are carrying copies of this design around.
2. Design: Austere Earthsiege Diamond: King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle on both modes.
3. Design: Bracing Earthsiege Diamond: The Cache of Eregos in The Oculus.
4. Design: Deadly Monarch Topaz: Keristrasza in Heroic Nexus.
5. Design: Deft Monarch Topaz.: Halls of Stone on Heroic mode, Sjonner the Ironshaper.
6. Design: Eternal Earthsiege Diamond: Loken in The Halls of Lightning on both Normal and Heroic modes.
7. Design: Fierce Monarch Topaz: Heroic Utgarde Keep, Ingvar the Plunderer.
8. The Nascent Val’kyr of Val’kyrion, Storm Peaks, have a chance to drop Design: Fractured Scarlet Ruby. They are also a key gold farming mob! Check out Time is Money: Farming in Storm Peaks for more details. While you’re in Storm Peaks, seek out Design: Defender’s Twilight Opal: Stormforged mobs in Storm Peaks, located just north of Val’kyrion and to the west of Snowdrift Plains, and Design: Radiant Forest Emerald, which can be found on Frostfeather harpies along Bor’s Breath.
9. Design: Infused Twilight Opal: Anub’Arak in Azjol-Nerub on Heroic mode.
10. Design: Precise Scarlet Ruby: Herald Volazj from Heroic Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom.
11. Design: Radiant Forest Emerald: Frostfeather harpies in Bor’s Breath, Storm Peaks.
12. Design: Thick Autumn’s Glow: Cyanigosa in The Violet Hold, heroic mode.
13. Design: Timeless Forest Emerald: The Prophet Tharon’ja in heroic Drak’Tharon Keep.

Tailoring
There are no farmable Tailoring recipes. There are a few that drop rarely from bosses in Ulduar. There are also a handful of shirt recipes that were added with Wrath, and it seems that the most efficient way to “farm” them is to run dungeons and raids of any sort.

Leatherworking
All of the Leatherworking recipes can be found as rare drops from bosses in Ulduar.

Blacksmithing

1. Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Chestpiece: Venture Co. Excavators in Sholazar Basin, in and around Swindlegrin’s Dig.
2. Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Helm: Iron Rune-Shapers of Grizzly Hills, near Thor Modan.
3. Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Legplates: Zul’Drak, hunt Gundrak Savages around Gundrak in the northeast.
4. Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Shoulders: Onslaught Masons at Scarlet Point or just north of Naxxramas, in Dragonblight.

Alchemy

1. Recipe: Mighty Frost Protection Potion: Damned Apothecaries in Icecrown, near Aldur’Thar.
2. Recipe: Mighty Nature Protection Potion: Cult Alchemists, in Icecrown near Aldur’Thar, along with the above Damned Apothecaries.
3. Recipe: Mighty Shadow Protection Potion: Cultist Shard Watchers in Icecrown, along Corp’rethar: The Horror Gate.

Enchanting

1. Formula - Enchant Cloak: Superior Frost Resistance: Damned Apothecaries in Icecrown, near Aldur’Thar.
2. Formula - Enchant Cloak: Superior Nature Resistance: Cult Alchemists in Icecrown, also near Aldur’Thar.
3. Formula - Enchant Cloak: Superior Shadow Resistance: Cultist Shard Watchers in Icecrown, along Corp’rethar: The Horror Gate.

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