Blizzard updated the launcher again today without warning and hopefully without incident — unlike Monday, when everything went awry, errors abounded and people were unable to connect.
There is no indication that patch 3.3 is anywhere near downloading or anything other than a small tools patch. There has also been no word from Blizzard yet on exactly what this patch does, but it is required if you want to log into the game. The patch is very small and only takes a handful of seconds to download and apply.
We’ll keep an eye on this issue for any problems, but as of this writing, all is well.
Kocherberg World of Warcraft Blizzard, patches
Another PTR build was pushed out today for patch 3.3. The item levels for the Frost level gear are 264. As always, there’s a new assortment of trinkets to select from. Tanks may be interested in the Corroded Skeleton Key. Healers who don’t already possess decent healing trinkets will want to pick up Purified Lunar Dust. For DPS players, you have the choice of a Herkumi War Token or Maghia’s Misguided Quill. The latter is for casters due to the increase in spell power. Can’t comment too much on the physical DPS trinket. That’s a lot of haste.
Another interesting thing to note is that Primordial Saronite is on the vendor. I’m not sure if this will be a permanent change when it goes live. I have a feeling the Primordial Saronite is only obtainable within the Icecrown instance for crafting reasons (like Crusader Orbs).
Anyway, new ranged slot items, trinkets, capes (back pieces), chest pieces, gloves and belts will be available for purchase. And of course, you can exchange an Emblem of Frost for an Emblem of Triumph.
Remember, Emblems of Frost are gained by completing the new weekly raid quests, taking down bosses in Icecrown Citadel or the new Vault of Archavon boss.
For the full list, check out MMO Champion.
Update: You use the Primordial Saronite to purchase recipes in Icecrown. Currently, each recipe costs 1 Primordial Saronite. You also need to be revered with the Ashen Verdict.
Castillans World of Warcraft Analysis / Opinion, patches
Good news, everyone! Blizzard just posted the updated schedule for Icecrown Citadel encounter testing on the Patch 3.3 PTR. Looks like the US gets first crack at taking down Saurfang Jr., while the EU gets the exclusive on reenacting a Spin Doctors song.
The full schedule is listed below. Bear in mind that testing times are subject to change with or without notice due to build changes, PTR stability, capricious developer whims, and So You Think You Can Dance results.
EU Servers
Thursday, November 12 at 19:30 CET – Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Rotface
Friday, November 13 at 19:30 CET – Blood Princes, Professor Putricide
Saturday, November 14 at 19:30 CET – Lord Marrowgar
US Servers
Wednesday, November 11 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Lord Marrowgar, Festergut
Thursday, November 12 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Deathbringer Saurfang
Friday, November 13 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Icecrown Gunship Battle
Saturday, November 14 at 4PM EST / 1 PM PST – Sindragosa
Kocherberg World of Warcraft patches, Wrath of the Lich King
It’s entirely possible that my French is failing me (it’s been a while since I studied it, and it might be getting rusty), but as far as I can make out, this blue post on the French customer support forums claims that patch 3.2 is coming “next Wednesday.”
This is in the course of answering a routine question about where to get patch files and so forth – a surprising place for a patch release date confirmation, but I’ll take my info where I can get it.
I’m not sure whether “next Wednesday” (“mercredi prochain” in the French) means August 5 (in which case the North American realms would get the patch tomorrow), or whether it means August 12 (in which case we’d get it the 11th), but I’d lean towards the former. So get your ducks in a row, faithful readers, and get ready for the Call of the Crusade.
Castille MMOPRG News, World of Warcraft europe, patches
You have probably seen the new Night Elf cat forms by now, the last of the four feral forms that are going to be revamped in patch 3.2. Reaction to them has been mixed; many players love them, while many think they leave something to be desired in the ferocity department. As our newest columnist Eddie put it, “You have to love the little ‘bells’ on the colors. Just like a nice little kitty cat.” I fall on this side as well – they look more delightful than dangerous.
Evidently Anik of Rexxar agrees with me and Eddie, because he was inspired to make the above image showing the logical extension of the direction the cat forms seem to be taking. What gets me is how little editing really needed to be done – they really look like that already, for the most part.
Of course, several of our writers are extra-excited about these newest forms; Zach and Manda both promise that they are rolling druids just to get access to them. Sailer Moon Cosplay Cat and Scene Kid Cat are their picks, in case you were wondering.
gmaxwell World of Warcraft Druid, Humor, patches
As an unannounced change in this morning’s patch 3.1.1, Exorcism can no longer be used against players. The stated rationale for this change not being announced ahead of time was that they were “trying to get the tooltip changed at the same time to reduce confusion,” which doesn’t quite seem to hold water for me – wouldn’t it be less confusing to tell the players, and not leave them to find out for themselves the next time they tried to PvP? Anyway, that’s a relatively minor issue.
Recall that in patch 3.1, Exorcism was changed to be usable on all targets, and to automatically crit against demons and undead (before, it could only be used against demons and undead). Evidently Blizzard feels that it’s just too much burst damage for Ret pallies in PvP, especially given that it means they can start up their combos from range. Edit: Just to clarify, the functionality of Exorcism in PvE is unchanged.
Ghostcrawler also promises that they’re working on making Pally DPS “more interesting and also less bursty” instead of just using all your skills on cooldown, and that once they figure out how to do that, you’ll be able to Exorcise other players again. He gives Conflagrate, Brain Freeze, Rip, Overpower, and Arcane Blast as examples of the kind of more interesting mechanics they might be going for. He invites feedback on ways to make Pally DPS more reactive, so go make your thoughts known in the thread if you have any ideas.
Catelet World of Warcraft paladin, patches, PvP
This one has been in the game files for a while — the screenshot above has been with MMO Champion since November of last year — but the latest PTR Build reveals that the Arena Season 5 reward mount is a Frost Wyrm. Just as the otherworldly Armored Nether Drakes were representative of Outlands, the Deadly Gladiator’s Frost Wyrm is the perfect symbol of Northrend. As with past seasons, the mount is expected to be a 310% speed flyer awarded to the upper 0.5% of Arena participants in each of the three brackets.
With Arena Season 5 expected to close soon, perhaps as early as the release of Ulduar, players now have a small window in which to earn that Gladiator title and what might arguably be the coolest-looking mount in the game. In mount-related news, the Coralshell Turtle was renamed to Sea Turtle, whose tooltip reveals it as the first aquatic mount in the game: “This mount can’t move very quickly on land, but she’s a great swimmer.” Better practice that fishing…
MMOvalue MMOValue news Arena, Mounts, patches
Curse is running an excellent story about their time spent last evening with Blizzard developers Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton. There’s a few things we didn’t know before that are in the article. The major ones are:
Patch 3.1 is already done (says Kaplan). Will release Ulduar 10-man and 25-man raids.
Patch 3.2 will contain a yet to be announced raid instance. Hopefully more on this over the next two day. Release date / timeframe is unknown.
Patch 3.3 will continue the Ashbringer storyline. Release date / timeframe is unknown.
Dance studio to be released after WotLK.
Guild ratings, where guilds get a rating based on PvE/PvP achievements. The idea is being “tossed around.”
The other interesting note is that the development team is three patch cycles ahead of the live game. That’s amazing, in my opinion. And beyond that, they’re also working on the next expansion. Doesn’t that raise your eyebrow just a bit? Perhaps we’ll hear something major in the next few hours…
Castres World of Warcraft developers, development, guild, guild-ratings, patch-3.1, patch-3.2, patch-3.3, patches
