I fear there still isn't much to be found regarding rogues.
However, according to Mania there is a rumor going around which speculates that bite might be changed to become much the same as claw. A result of this would mean that any previous attempts to determine hunter pet DPS will have to be looked at again. Wolves might actually become viable pets again. Hopefully you managed to get a ghost wolf while you were able to do so. Owls and bats would probably become more mainstream as raid debuffs as well.
There's also a list on the EJ forums displaying some new pet skills. Keep in mind that some of these might actually be NPC or player abilities instead.
Skills
Please note that the "pet type" below is the speculated type most likely to be able to train the listed skill.
49966 - Smack (Rank 1)
49967 - Smack (Rank 2)
49968 - Smack (Rank 3)
49969 - Smack (Rank 4)
49970 - Smack (Rank 5)
49971 - Smack (Rank 6)
49972 - Smack (Rank 7)
49973 - Smack (Rank 8)
49974 - Smack (Rank 9)
50245 - Pin (Rank 1)
50256 - Swipe (Rank 1)
50262 - Rushed Assault (Rank 1)
50271 - Tendon Rip (Rank 1)
50274 - Spore Cloud (Rank 1)
50285 - Dust Cloud (Rank 1)
50318 - Serenity Dust (Rank 1)
50433 - Bad Attitude (Rank 1)
Smack (Rank 9)
Description: Smack the enemy, causing 54 damage.
Pet type : Gorillas?
Pin (Rank 1)
Description: Pins the target in place, and squeezes for $o2 damage over $d.
Description: Increases the caster's movement speed by 60% for $d. and causes it to inflict an additional 250 damage on its first three attacks.
Description2: Movement speed increased by $s1%. Inflicts an additional $s2 damage on first three attacks.
Pet type : Bear, Boar or ravager perhaps?
Tendon Rip (Rank 1)
Description: Damages an enemy for 3 and reduces movement speed by -25% for $d.
Description2: Movement speed reduced by $s1%.
Pet type : Crocolisks most likely.
Spore Cloud (Rank 1)
Description: Inflicts 2 Nature damage to nearby enemies every $t1 sec for $d and reduces armor by -15%.
Description2: Nature damage inflicted every $t1 sec. Armor reduced by $s2%.
Pet type : Spore Bats? Nether Rays? Obviously the -armor is kinda high, perhaps it doesn't stack with sunder or expose?
Dust Cloud (Rank 1)
Description: Kick up an obscuring cloud of dust, lowering the chance for enemies to hit by 30%. Effects last $d.
Description2: Dust cloud, chace to hit reduced by 30%.
Pet type : Spore Bats, Nether Rays?
Serenity Dust (Rank 1)
Description: Heals the pet for $o1 over $d.
Description2: Healing $s1 damage every $t1 seconds.
Pet type : Spore Bats, Nether Rays?
Bad Attitude (Rank 1)
Description: Snap back for 5 damage at any target that strikes you for the next $d.
Description2: Snap back when struck.
Pet type : Gorillas, Cat, Bear?
Speculations
As you can see there's a few options which might appeal as interesting to WotLK hunters. Keep in mind that no data is final, or confirmed in any way. At the same time, anything is possible.
Comic update
Cru the dwarf has another bouncy update for you, drop by and say hi.
LFG has also updated, but you're already checking them daily right?
Flash, security alert
I need to point you out this post. The older Shockwave flash player has a major security issue. Update it here. The fix is already some weeks old.
It's going to be a short post today, but none the less interesting.
Firstly, on the right side here, you can see the collector's edition pet. Much like last year. But a lot cooler!
Then, there's a few new videos : * Deathknight gameplay video. * Deathknight talents video. It'll be really hard to read sadly. But, you can also find the deathknight talents (blood, frost unholy) here, here and here on flickr.
Tier 7
Tier 7 pictures! Four of these were not in the video posted earlier this week. Source : Aszune forums, google, neogaf.
Paladin
Warrior / Deathknight
Rogue
Priest
Mage
Hunter
Warlock
Multiple
Warrior, Unknown, Druid, Paladin. You can see there's another 2 sets previously unseen. Whether these are Tier 7, or dungeon sets is unknown, and subject to change. Perhaps set 1 is for deathknights and set 2 for warriors. Time will tell.
Sylvanas
Not sure where this one is from, but it suggests that dear lady sylvanas in Undercity is going to receive a much needed personal model.
Introducing "Rampage the Comic", as written and drawn by Lilgekko. (One of our raid members) This is a first attempt. Colored versions may be added at a later date. This is basically a beta version for preview.
I know you're all spoiled rotten with higher quality comics like Dark Legacy, Chidori, Cru or teh gladiators. But all comics start somewhere.
Click image for large version. Based on true events, no joke... And even the first fanart, by Gnomestomper. (the same guy who edited the rrvs banner) Link to our forums. More comics will be released later, stay tuned!
WotLK
Also, two more very interesting WotLK screenshots. By cronin from the aszune forums.
About 5 or so years ago, probably more, my ICQ got hacked. I told you about this before. I didn't have the original email anymore, and was thus unable to get the password back.
I've mailed ICQ support for about two weeks straight and they... well... ARE COMPLETELY RETARDED UP TO THE POINT THAT I'D GO THERE WITH A GUN AND KILL STUFF...
But anyway... I've finally got back my email address! Originally I abandoned it, as it was receiving 200 spam messages a day. It later got closed down due to inactivity, then taken up by somebody else who abused it for sending spam. Hotmail then closed the account permanently, or so they said.
Just for the heck of it, i figured i'd try the password recovery thing again today, and it gave me a curious message different from before. So I tried to register a new account under the same name, and,,, it actually worked! However...... the password recovery tool tells me the following :
Sorry, we cannot send your password to: (my email here) Make sure you enter the complete email address as it appears in your ICQ details. You may also try to enter a different email address that you previously entered in your ICQ details.
/sigh Somebody give me a gun and tell me their address? Or at least their email address.
I tried : webmaster, support, support10 and even Pniyot_shonot@icq.com but they no longer seem to be working. They used to... So i can only presume they completely closed down all email support. Which was probably located in india to begin with. I need to contact these fuckers somehow, but i can't for the life of me figure out how.
I want my short number back, even if I'll never use it again.
Looking for some more info on Wrath of the Lich King? MMOC and WoR letting you down? Look no further.
* Tap Tap, Pew Pew lists some info and links. * Deathknight.info has early screenshots of the new interface, as well as info on the DK starting gear. Also some speculated Tier 7 helmets and shoulders. Also see this thread on their forums for the starting gear. * Yet Another Warlock Nerf summarizes the warlock talents and some abilities. * Warlock therapy summarizes as well. * Wikidot lists enchants, images, videos, talents and more. * Serious business on gameriot talks about the leaked notes. * Wow-Wrath lists a number of updates fairly regularly at the moment. * Tank hard! is among the many who believe the talents are fake. * Draele warns you not to post about the alpha talents on the official forums. Or risk eternal banishment. * Three Druid Noob summarizes for druids. * Spooncraft talks about the 'leaked' talents. * Misery also ponders the validity of the talents. * Gweandar @ altitis writes about the current WotLK alpha hype and speculation around it.
Got some more interesting links? Just leave a comment. Anonymous posting is enabled and i've recently set up a comments feed as well.
Thoughts
My thoughts on the talents? Who knows, even if they are real "now" blizzard is working on the alpha test. (That's not even beta) Things are likely to change heavily still before you'll hear anything about a beta. All the info currently available is, if not touched by speculation, at least subject to change.
From what i've seen so far i'd say the enchants seem quite plausible, expertise will help us rogues a lot. The talents in some cases may seem overpowering but as with TBC this expansion will ensure that all the old content will become redundant. It wouldn't be surprising if the new talents will give your character a whole new level of strength.
All info on the WotLK alpha was deleted from MMoC, as well as WoR and the blizzard official forums. Ming's notes on gameriot was actually "deleted". If the notes were completely false they would probably have survived longer.
Lots of visitors last night (this morning), I presume the reason to this is the previous post about the WotLK alpha talents. Well it's all good, feel free to spread the url on your guild forums, blog or just tell your friends. It'll be fun to see if we can hit 4K page views for once. 3 March we got it up to 3980, so close. Historical records only exist to be broken, as such we'll get that number sometime or other.
World of Raids visual update
Do you remember this post? Well, it looks like today is the day. Be sure to head over and give your opinion on the new theme.
WotLK
Some corrections have been added to this page since yesterday's news.
* Improved Icebound Fortitude, is obviously a Death Knight spell. * A Warlock Talent tree has been set up, as has a Druid, Warrior and two different ones for Mages. Obviously these are _not_ real, but they give ample room for slightly more realistic speculations than before. * Most of the images in the previous post are still working, so be sure to check those out while they're hot and ready.
Blizzard has released two new pages of information regarding the new Death Knight class, and gameplay.
Highlights in these articles explain that your Death Knight will start his life at level 55 in the Eastern Plaguelands. Indeed Stratholme. You'll also only be able to create one death knight per realm, per account. So sadly you won't be creating 4-5 new Bank alts or profession mules...
Class roles for the DK were already known and are basically the same as Paladins, warriors or Druids. Tank / DPS depending on your talent trees. A knight also seems to have a "Presence" which is described much like a paladin aura. The three presences are Blood, Frost and Unholy.
You already knew this obviously, right? If not, do tell me which rock you've been hiding under. Be sure to check out this page on wowwiki which details some of the DK's rune system. Sadly the page seems to be rather incomplete still. The system is fairly straight forward, but is complex in it's ability to refresh itself. Basically it works like this:
You inscribe upon your weapon any combination of 6 runes. 3 Blood, 1 Frost, 2 Blood. Or 6 Blood, Or 6 Frost. Whatever you fancy. Each ability you use will require / deplete a set number of combination of runes and thus regulate your maximum DPS or threat output much like warriors are limited by rage, paladins by mana, and rogues by energy. Each time a rune is used it gets a 10 second cooldown.
Most interesting is the ability to summon minions. * Raise Dead, much like the old Diablo II Necromancer class. The coolest feature is that you can cast this on friendly players. Who will then become your little pet ghoul for the duration. * Army of the Dead, much like Baron Rivendare summons. These are limited time minions and the spell is channeled. Should produce quite a comedic effect however. * Summon Deathcharger, your mount. At level 60 there will be an epic quest which allows you to upgrade this spell.
Gameplay
As stated Blizzard released new info regarding gameplay as well.
Heroic dungeons will be back, and are likely to use a new form of token. Don't expect to hoard up 500 Badge of Justice and spend those on WotLK gear. A new type of badge will be added and new rewards for them as well.
Attunements and dungeon locking will still exist, according to Blizzard however you won't need to do any attunements for a 10 man dungeon in order to get attuned to a 25 man dungeon. Each 25 man dungeon will also have a 10 man version in WotLK, with lower quality loot and easier bosses. Lockouts will be individual, so you'd be able to do spire 25 man, and spire 10 man in the same day.
Hopefully this mechanic will mean there will be less frustration about attuning players for higher end raids. Much like the Vials of eternity and Black Temple attunement quests currently.
Wallpapers
Blizzard has released a decent new wallpaper of Arthas.
New videos
Unless these are taken down soon, which however unlikely (could) happen. Source : http://wotlk.wikidot.com/
The last gate in Sunwell has been opened, and Kil'jaeden is now reachable on all servers. Expect news of the latest world first kills to show up on MMOC soon.
Poll
Two polls closed, DPS, heal or other? * DPS all the way! - 60 (49%) * I multitask - 34 (27%) * Heals of course - 28 (22%)
So, the majority of the blog readers are DPS (rogues, n all eh?) much as expected also when you look at raid balance. At least half the raid will contain DPS of some sort, while the other half will consist of 2-3 tanks and healers.
Email, web or other? * Gmail - 45 (50%) * Hotmail - 15 (16%) * Yahoo - 10 (11%) * Other - 10 (11%) * ISP Based - 6 (6%) * Live Mail - 3 (3%)
I compressed the single votes into the "other" category to keep the list small. AOL, Burntmail and "other free webmail" only had a single vote each. Gmail turns out to be the biggest contender, followed by Microsoft's hotmail / live mail, then yahoo. This in turn gives reason to suspect why Microsoft would be interested in buying Yahoo as a whole and not just their search functions.
A new poll has been added, be sure to add your vote! Are you planning to make a Death Knight?
Like most people I'm very hungry for any and all information about WotLK and more than willing to share it. The below data seems partially realistic at least, even if it's unverified or confirmed.
These talents have a close resemblance to previous ideas posted by the community as well as several existing Diablo II talents and abilities. Keep in mind that all information is "alpha" and subject to heavy change even if it is real. Chances are the info is fake. But i won't withhold some nice speculation from you. Wishful thinking and all.
Sadly, no rogue or hunter information yet, only Deathknight, Druid, Warrior, Mage and Priest so far.
Well, here's the list, decide for yourself.
Deathknight
Black Ice - Increases your Frost and Shadow spell damage by $s1% Bone Armor - "The caster is surrounded by 4 whirling bones. Each bone reduces the damage from the next spell or melee attack by 40% but is then consumed. Lasts 5 min." Chromatic Rune Mastery - "Whenever a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune activates, it has a 6% chance of converting into a Chromatic Rune. This Rune counts as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune. Lasts 10 sec." Degeneration- "Instantly attack the target, dealing $s1% weapon damage and inflicting a disease dealing ${$m2*7} over $48428d. This disease will corrupt an existing heal over time spell, removing it and dramatically increasing the damage dealt. While afflicted by this disease, other heal over time effects on the target will have no effect." Army of the Dead - Summons an entire legion of your best Ghouls to fight by your side Death and Decay - ${$m1+$AP*0.039} shadow damage inflicted every $t1 sec to all targets in the effected area for $d. Has a chance to cause affected targets to cower in fear. Dirge - Whenever you kill a diseased target that yields experiance or honor you have a 5% chance of the corpse rising as a free Ghoul. You can have a maximum of 2 Ghouls at one time Blood Gorged - When you are above 75% health, you do an additional 3% damage with any melee weapon Dancing Runeblade - Summons a second Runeblade that fights on its own for 1 sec per 10 Runic Power, doing the same strikes that you do Rage of Rivendare - You do 2% additional weapon damage to diseased targets Unholy Blight - A creeping swarm of unholy insects surrounds the caster for a 10 yard radius. All enemies caught in the swarm take 120 damage and are plagued with a disease that can stack up to 3 times. Lasts for 1 sec per 10 Runic Power Hungering Cold - A wave of cold leeches all heat from the earth, freezing all enemies in the cone-shaped area, and causing 10 damage per Runic Power. The frozen terrain persists for 1 sec per 10 Runic Power and will freeze enemies that attempt to cross it
Druid
Improved Moonkin Form - Rank 1-3 : Effect unknown Improved Tree of Life - "Increases your Armor while in Tree of Life Form by $s1%, and increases the effect of your Bark's Blessing by $s2%" Living Seed - "When you gain a critical effect from your Swiftmend, Regrowth, Nourish or Healing Touch spell you have a $h% chance to plant a Living Seed on the target for $s1% of the amount healed. The Living Seed will bloom when the target is next attacked. Lasts $48504d." Spark of Nature - "Increases the critical effect chance of your Swiftmend and Nourish spells by $s1%." Nourish - Heals a friendly target for $s1. Heals for an additional $/4;s1 if Rejuvenation is on the target. Flourish - Heals friendly party or raid members within $a1 yards of the target for $o1 over $d. The healing is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Flourish reaches its full duration Blinding Swarm - A swarm of insects that inflicts $s1 Nature damage to targets standing in the swarm. Chance to hit reduced by $m2% while standing in the swarm Nature's Fury - Converts $s2% of your bonus healing into bonus spell damage. In addition, your Wrath and Starfire spells have a $h% chance of applying the Nature's Fury debuff on the target. The Nature's Fury debuff increases Nature and Arcane damage done to the target by 2%. Lasts 10 sec. Stacks up to 3 times Starfall - You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each doing $50288s1 Arcane damage, and an additional $50294s1 Arcane to all nearby targets within 10 yards. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts $d Infected Wounds - Your Shred, Maul and Mangle attacks have a $h% chance to cause an Infected Wound in the target. The Infected Wound reduces the movement speed and casting speed of the target by $48482s1%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts $48482 Berserk - Removes all Stun, Fear, Snare and Movement Impairing Effects and increases your energy regeneration rate by 100% while in Cat form, and increases your total health by 20% while in Bear form. After the effect ends, the health is lost. Effect lasts 20 seconds
Mage
Permafrost (updated) - "Adds a Chill effect to your Icy Touch and Mind Freeze, reducing movement speed by 30% for 6 sec." New food = sweet potato pie and strudles New water = something stupid who cares Netherwind Presence - Gives your Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt spells a $h% chance to cause the next Arcane Blast, Fireball, Frostbolt or Frostfire Bolt to be instant Arcane Barrage - Launches several missiles at the enemy target, causing $s1 Arcane damage Burnout - Increases your spell critical damage bonus with all Fire spells by $s1% but every time you critical with a Fire spell you lose an additional $44450s1% of your total mana Living Bomb - The caster becomes a living bomb, causing $44459s1 Fire damage to all enemies within $44459a1 yards every $44457t1 sec. After $44457t2 sec, a fiery explosion occurs causing an additional $44461s1 Fire damage to all enemies within $44461a1 yards Chilled to the Bone - Increases the damage caused by your Frostbolt and Ice Lance spells by $s1% and reduces the movement speed of all chilled targets by an additional $s2% Tundra Stalker - You deal 2% more melee damage to targets under the effects of Icy Touch, Chains of Ice, Howling Blast or Hungering Cold Deep Freeze - Stuns the target for $d. Only usable on Frozen targets
Priest
Divine Providence - Increases the amount healed by Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending by $s1% (Unknown) - Gives you a chance to gain a $49694s1% bonus to your Spirit after gaining a critical effect chance from your Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death spells. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a $49694s2% rate while casting. Lasts $49694d Penance - Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing $47666s1 Holy damage to an enemy, or $47750s1 healing to an ally every $47758t2 sec for $47758 Mind Rot - Drains $o1 mana from the target over $d.Mana drain, $s1 points every 5 seconds Rapture - Causes your party members to gain mana equal to ${$m1/2}.1% of the healing done by your Greater Heal, Flash Heal and Penance spells Guardian Spirit - Calls upon a guardian spirit to heal and watch over the friendly target. The spirit heals the target for 624 every 2 sec, and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. Lasts $48151d Growing Pains - Converts $s3% of your bonus healing into bonus spell damage. In addition, your Mind Flay has a $h% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target Dispersion - You disperse into pure shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by $s1%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate $s2% health and mana every 1 sec for $d
Warrior
Bladed Armor - You gain $s1 attack power for every 1000 points of your armor value Spell Deflection - Reduces all spell damage taken by $s1% for 10 sec following a successful parry Titan's Grip - Allows you to equip two-handed axes, maces and swords in one hand, but you attack $s2% slower then normal Strength of Arms - Increases your Strength and total health by $s1% Bladestorm - Instantly Whirlwind all nearby targets and for the next $d you will perform a whirlwind attack every $t1 seconds. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you can move but cannot perform any other attacks or abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed Heroic Leap - Leap through the air and slam down on all enemies within $a3 yards of the target area, causing $s2% weapon damage and dazing them for $d Sword and Board - When your Devastate and Shield Slam abilities deal damage they have a $h% chance of refreshing the cooldown of your Shield Slam ability and reducing its cost by $50227s1% for $50227 Shockwave - Sends a wave of force in front of the warrior, causing ${$m3/100*$AP} damage (based on attack power) and stunning all enemy targets within $a1 yards in a frontal cone for $d. This ability causes a high amount of threat
Warlock
"While the Succubus is active, physical attacks done to you or your Succubus have a chance to heal you or your Succubus instead of doing damage. The healing caused by Love Struck will not exceed 50% of the Warlock or Succubus' total health. This effect has a 6 second cooldown."
Mind Twisting - Deals $s1 damage and knocks the targets up in the air Nightmare - Assault the target's mind, causing a powerful nightmare that deals $s2 Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards of the target. Lasts $d Everlasting Affliction - Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Seed of Corruption spells gain an additional $s2% of your bonus spell damage effects, and your Drain Life and Shadow Bolt spells have a $h% chance to reset the duration of your Corruption spell on the target Atrocity - You devastate the area, causing Corruption (Rank to all targets within 15 yards. In addition, your Corruption spell will do 434 Shadow damage to the target when it finishes its duration Decimate - Your next Shadow or Fire spell is instant cast, and does damage in the form of Chaos damage, ignoring all resistances, absorption, and immunity mechanics. After the end of the Decimated cast, you become exhausted, disabling you from casting a spell of the same school for 3 sec. Eternal Flames - Your Searing Pain and Incinerate spells have a $h% chance to refresh the duration of your Immolate spell on the target, and increases the critical strike damage of your Destruction spells by an additional $s2% Demonic Pact - Increases your Spirit by $s1% while your Demon is active. In addition, your pet attacks have a $s2% chance to increase your party's total Health and Damage by $48090s1%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts $48090 Metamorphosis - You transform into a Demon, with full health and mana. While in Demon Form, you gain Demonic abilities and your armor is increased to 360%, but your pet no longer is summoned When leaving Demon Form, your health and mana is returned back to normal and your pet is re-summoned.
Other
Mind Shock - (Shaman) - Shocks an enemy with concussive force, inflicting Nature damage and slowing attack and casting speeds by $s2% for $d.Time between attacks increased by $s2%. Martyr - (Paladin) - "Redirect all harmful spells directed at friendly targets to yourself for $d." Improved Icebound Fortitude - (Death Knight) - "Increases the duration of your Icebound Fortitude. In addition your Icebound Fortitude will dispel any damage over time effects and replace them with heal over time effects. Armor increased by $s2%. Immune to Stun effects." Miner's Revenge - (Mining?) - "Hurls your pick axe at the target, inflicting $s1 Physical damage, ignoring any armor." Shield Break - (Uknown) - Break down the enemy's defenses, disarming any shield they have equipped or reducing the chance the enemy will block by $s3% for $d.
Interesting
Also, if you wish to see Death Knights. See for yourself. As there are several images already on the web. WoR also has a nice list up which summarizes most of the info currently available.
More talent details here. It's a bit messy though.
Enchants and some more images
Wikidot lists some info and a "lot" of screens that were previously unreleased. Including enchants, mobs, weapons. Rogues will be especially pleased to learn of the following enchants : (Keep in mind the might be fake part though) All enchants are permanent and most of these require a lvl 60 or higher item, and rings are "enchanter only".
* Enchant Cloak - Haste: "Enchant a cloak to increase haste rating by 20." * Enchant Cloak - Superior Agility: "Enchant a cloak to increase Agility by 16." * Enchant Boots - Superior Agility: "Enchant boots to increase Agility by 16." * Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault: "Enchant bracers to increase attack power by 38." * Enchant Bracers - Expertise: "Enchant bracers to increase expertise rating by 15." * Enchant Gloves - Greater Assault: "Enchant gloves to add 32 attack power." * Enchant Gloves - Major Agility: "Eenchant boots to increase your agility by 20." * Enchant Gloves - Expertise: "Enchant gloves to increase expertise rating by 15." * Enchant Weapon - Greater Savagery: "Enchant a melee weapon to increase attack power by 90." * Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Agility: "Enchant a melee weapon to increase Agility by 26." * Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Striking: "Enchant a melee weapon to do 10 additional points of damage." * Enchant Weapon - Deathfrost: "Enchant a weapon so your damaging spells and melee weapon hits occasionally inflict an additional 150 Frost damage and reduce the target's melee, ranged, and casting speed by 15% for 8 sec." (Remember this one?) * Enchant Ring - Haste: "Enchant a ring to increase haste rating by 20." * Enchant Ring - Assault: "Enchant a ring to increase attack power by 40."
Some images
Source : Wikidot. Since these images are hosted on imageshack, you'll have to be fast since imageshack is known to delete images which suck up too much band width.
Aside throwing your pick around it looks like there's at least 3 new types of ore: Azurire, Saronite and Cobalt. (Descriptions cut down for text width reasons)
* Smelt Azurite : "Smelt azurite ore into an azurite bar." * Smelt Saronite : "Smelt 10 saronite ore into a saronite bar." * Smelt Cobalt : "Smelt cobalt ore into a cobalt bar."
* Smelt Froststeel : "Smelt 3 azurite bars and an eternal water into a froststeel bar." * Smelt Hardened Azurite : "Smelt 10 azurite bars into a hardened azurite bar." * Smelt Titansteel : "Smelt a saronite bar and titanium ore into a titansteel bar."
Zones - Official Preview (mash up)
And there are many more videos obviously. I can't wait to see the actual beta Wrath of the Lich King, how about you?
Just likethat, I madea druid. It's actually my second one as I abandoned the other (nelf) when he was level 27 or so. Not many will know this but there's also a lvl 60 paladin, a lvl 13 warlock and a lvl 43 rogue on my character list. However, that was on another server, and another account. I think it was the US server whisperwind or such.
YOU HAVE A PALADIN?
Well, I used to. But as stated, that was on another account and those were alliance characters. I doubt I could transfer it over here, and even if you could.... What use would an alliance character be to me at this point in time? Not much.
So, at any rate, I've been looking at a bear butt for the last 3 levels or so. My game experience is better than it was 3 years ago and surprise surprise the bear does more damage than the lvl 27 nelf did. But that's kind of a given if you equip proper gear. Stocking up on int and spirit really doesn't do much for cat form eh? And a 30 dps weapon may be cute, but a 20 dps weapon with +10 str will do a lot more for your cat form. But such things you learn over time. So we'll see where this character ends up at.
Why?
I know it's "yet another alt". And I don't really have altitis. But there are reasons, two in fact, maybe even three.
Firstly, I believe that by playing alternative classes you'll gain knowledge which will benefit your main. You'd be better able to understand the limitations of your tanks, healers or dps raid members by having played said class at least up to 40 or higher. Preferably higher though.
Secondly, why pay somebody else to do something if you can do it yourself? I like having as many professions as I can. So you can just log an alt and just craft what you need rather than dig trough the auction house or hope a certain guild member comes online to do it for you.
Third, I was getting tired of Outland. My mage is 68 now, and pretty much done with nagrand. Blade's edge can be pretty frustrating without a flying mount. So I'll continue him later.
Characters
If you don't count the whisperwind characters I'm now looking at: * 70 Rogue - Main character. Engineer + Enchanter * 70 Hunter - Miner + Skinner * 70 Warlock - Enchanter + Tailor * 70 Shaman - Herbalist + Alchemist * 68 Mage - Jewelcrafter + Miner. Temporarily on hold. * 13 Druid - Miner + Skinner. New and fresh * 3 Paladin - Guild bank alt * 4 Priest - Bank alt with 20k gold * 6 Warrior - Alliance spy! * 1 Warrior - To reserve the name for a death knight
When WotLK comes around, a new profession will be added : Inscription. Depending on what skills will be added for it that apply to the crafter himself only, I may pick it up on my main, and drop engineering. Currently I can't really drop it as there's several rare patterns in my posession.
There's 3 miners but, the hunter will get Leatherworking later and the mage may get engineering at some point. It all depends on WotLK really. Until then I'm just preparing.
Speaking of bears
The guild managed to get a timed ZA done, and as such our bear cavalry has increased by "1". Now we know we can do it, but we haven't really bothered to do it again since. So the lucky player may well be the only player in Rampage until WotLK with a bear mount.
When WotLK activates, or more likely when blizzard releases patch 2.5 the bear drop will be deactivated in Zul'Aman and another item will take it's place. Bear mounts will be available again in the expansion, but they won't be brown. You'll get polar bears! How quaint.
Internet is on, off, on, off, on, off, bloody annoying.
KPN / XS4ALL. Telfort, it's all up and down since tuesday morning. KPN is the major ISP here, so the entire damn country is having internet trouble.
To kill time i viewed episode 1-7 of "outlaw star" (anime) last night.
Also, i recommend you get this tool called Peerguardian2, if you ever scroll trough the internet. This thing blocks off adware, spyware, malicious p2p sniffers and plenty of other things you don't really want to run into. Of course, that doesn't really matter if internet simply does NOT work... /sigh
The pet, a hunter's loyal companion, sidekick, protectionaire, slave to the death, and sexual outlet in lonely times. Tell it to run headfirst into a pack of angry mobs a dozen levels higher and it will happily do so. All your pet asks for is a regular meal, whether magically created or scraped off the dead corpse of your victim.
If you're looking for a list of pets or other pet related information I can send you to TKA Something or Petopia. You should be able to find most of what you need. But not everything. Have you ever wondered which pet is "actually" better than another pet? Why people tell you to get a bat or boar for grinding? Why you should get a Windserpent, or Ravager for raids? Well, let's see and find out.
I'm splitting this post into two parts, so that I can give you part 1 now, and focus on physical pets. Then part 2 will come sometime in the future and give you more detail, and include caster type pets. Gives you a reason to come back later ;)
Raiding
A Hunter's task in raids, is to do DPS, Damage Per Second. Also misdirecting mobs and on occasion traps. Mainly however, damage. Hunters are fairly adequate DPS in a raid, but many forget, or neglect their pet. (Cruel bastards!) Any DPS is good DPS, and a hunter's pet is no exception. It's a valuable tool that you should learn to master, even if you are not a Beast Master.
If untalented and unskilled most pets will be fairly much the same. Some variations do exist however, more on that later. And important oddity are the so called caster pets, which you will want to avoid. Caster pets are wild creatures that usually have a mana bar when they are not tamed yet. Petopia gives you an explicit warning on these type of pets. The main reason is that they will have -20% armor, -20% health compared to normal pets. As pets are already pretty squishy this is obviously a bad thing.
Pet abilities
Wowwiki lists several Pet abilities, some of these are learned. Petopia has a similar, more detailed list.
Firstly, the three leading abilities : * Gore : 25 Focus : 1.5 sec cooldown : 37 to 61 damage +50% chance on double. Effective 55,5 to 91,5 damage * Claw : 25 Focus : 1.5 sec cd : 54 to 76 damage * Bite : 35 Focus : 10 sec cd : 108 to 132 damage
Utility abilities : * Screech : 20 Focus : 1.5 sec cooldown : 33 to 61 damage + attack power reduction * Furious Howl : 60 Focus : 10 sec cd : +45 to +57 damage on all party members within 15 yards. ((45+57)/2) * 6 = 306 effective damage.
Scaling abilities : * Lightning Breath : 50 Focus : 1.5 sec cd : 99 to 113 Damage : + 12.87% Dmg from RAP * Scorpid Poison : 30 Focus : 4 sec cd : 55 Nature damage over 10 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. 55 Damage per 2 seconds. +x% Dmg from RAP * Fire breath : 50 Focus : 10 sec cd : 111 Fire damage over 2 sec : + 2.25% Dmg from RAP. Due to the long cooldown and high focus usage this skill is useless. * Poison Spit : 35 Focus : 10 sec cd : 120 Nature damage over 8 sec. As this ability does not stack, it's effectively pretty useless for DPS.
The numbers game
So, let's add some numbers to what we have to work with then. Firebreath can be ignored, thunder stomp is useless and poison spit won't top any meters either.
Gore
25 Focus : 1.5 sec cooldown : 37 to 61 damage +50% chance on double. Effective 55,5 to 91,5 damage ((37+61) * 1.5) / 2 = 73,5 Damage per 1.5 seconds 73,5 / 1.5 = 49 Damage Per Second (DPS) 73,5 / 25 = 2,94 Damage Per Focus (DPF) 25/1.5 = 16,67 Focus Usage Per Second (FPS)
20 Focus : 1.5 sec cooldown : 33 to 61 damage + attack power reduction (33+61) / 2 = 47 Dmg per 1.5 sec 47 / 1.5 = 31,33 DPS 47 / 20 = 2,35 DPF 20 / 1.5 = 13,33 FUPS This skill applies a debuff on it's target which reduces attack power. It stacks with demoralizing shout so has a high utility value. the actual DPS is fairly low however.
Furious Howl
60 Focus : 10 sec cd : +45 to +57 damage on all party members within 15 yards. ((45+57)/2) * 6 = 306 effective damage. The actual effect of this buff really depends on your party. If you have 5 hunters + 5 pets then it provides you with ((45+57)/2) * 10 = 510 Damage depending on the crit chance of each member in your party. (Probably higher than your pet's crit chance) As wolves can only learn Bite as a secondary skill however, the number of attacks your pet can use his energy on is pretty poor and will result in a large loss of energy and wasted damage. If you are trying to maximize a tank's threat then the wolf might be an option, but otherwise probably not. Also, the buff only applies to physical attacks.
Beyond level 60 there are no upgrades of this skill, which strikes me as rather odd. Scaling not included in this calculation. I will continue further upon this in the second part of this post.
Scorpid Poison
30 Focus : 4 sec cd : 55 Nature damage over 10 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. 55 Damage per 2 seconds. +scaling As the poison does no damage upon application, but only every 2 seconds we must calculate the damage of the DoT. Luckily this is fairly simple as long as you don't include the scaling part.
At 5 stacks this is 55/2 = 27,5 DPS DPF calculation is more difficult. As, once the stack of poison reaches 5, you'd only need to re-apply it once every 8-9 seconds to ensure it stays active. It is however possible to be resisted so you'll want to re-apply it every 4 seconds as the cooldown allows. You'd be using 30 Focus per 8 seconds optimally, or 60 per 8 realistically. 3,75 F/sec or 7,5 F/sec.
You see the actual value of this skill really depends a lot on how often you need to re-apply the poison to keep it ticking. If you fail to do so it'll reset and you lose DPS. If you can keep it running at 7.33 DPF you can use the remaining energy for other skills such as Claw.
At the lowest stack the DPS is a lot lower. 55/5 = 11 per 2 seconds. 11 / 2 = 5,5 DPS. So, if used sporadically it'll be lower DPS than Bite
Combined skills
Most pets are able to learn more than a single trick. However, some pets also have a damage modifier.
Ravager(+10%), Boar(-10%)
Gore, Bite
Bear(-9%), Cat(+10%), Raptor(+10%)
Claw, Bite
Scorpid(-6%)
Claw, Scorpid poison
Carrion bird(+0%)
Claw, Bite, Screech
Owl(+7%), Bat(+7%)
Screech, Bite
Wind Serpent(+7%)
Bite, Lightning Breath
Wolf(+0%)
Bite, Howl
Suddenly things start to get more complicated. But oh so many more options become available to us.
Focus usage
Lets take Gore and Bite, 25 and 35 focus, Bite having a 10 second cooldown 0: Bite 1.5: Gore 3.0: Gore 4.5: Gore 6.0: Gore 7.5: Gore 9.0: Gore 10.5: Gore 12.0: Restart cycle
Bite will be off cooldown, and available again. Total focus used = 210 in a 12 second cycle. It could be worth investigating whether having your pet skip 0.5 seconds on the last gore and use bite instead for a better energy-damage conversion might be better usage of it's energy. But sadly pets pretty much ignore such minor details and will just continue attacking with what is available. It's possible to micromanage their cycle, but i don't recommend you ever try to do such a thing.
210 / 12 = 17,5 energy per second used. On it's own your pet regenerates 24 energy per 4 seconds. 24 / 4 = 6 Energy Per Second (EPS). Bestial discipline can double it's default regeneration to 48 per 4 seconds. 48 / 4 = 12 EPS. Meaning, you are 17.5 - 12 = 5.5 energy per second short of enabling your pet to sustain it's cycle indefinitely. This can easily be complemented by Go for the Throat, however it depends on how many shots you fire per minute and the hunter's crit rating. But, more on that later.
Depending on how much energy your pet has available to him, the DPF of his abilities can be very important. Pets have a maximum Focus they can burn trough every minute and some pets with only Bite or only "Howl and Bite" are made relatively useless for DPS because they regain more focus than they can burn. Much like a rogue not using his energy before it reaches 100.
Happiness
Pet happiness comes in three flavors. Strawberry, Banana, and Lime. * Unhappy / Red is bad, your pet will only do 75% damage and slowly lose loyalty. When your pet is no longer loyal to you, he will run away. * Contended / Yellow is ok, but you should really feed your pet. Your pet does 100% damage. Loyalty will increase though slowly. * Happy / Green is good even though you might not like limes. Your pet will do 125% damage and steadily gain loyalty.
Pet Damage Scaling
Pets receive attribute bonuses depending on their master's stats: * 1 RAP gives the pet 0.22 AP and 0.1287 spell damage * 1 stamina gives 0.3 stamina * 1 resistance gives 0.4 resistance * 1 armor gives 0.35 armor
So, 1554 Ranged attack power would give your pet about 200 extra spell damage and 341,88 Attack power. 341,88 / 14 = 24,42 DPS for white attacks.
200 pet spell damage increases a pet's damage by about 11. Meaning an estimate of 5% of your pet's spell damage is converted to actual damage. Thus at an estimate 12.87% * 5% = 0,6435% of your RAP is converted to increased pet damage. More on that in part two of this post however. As this effect is still being researched further to provide you with more detail.
Sometime in the future
Part 2 of this post will continue at a later time, as i do not as of yet have all the data i'd like to share with you and will need to put some research into this as well.
Content I intend to highlight and research further includes : * Caster pets. Reduced armor and stamina. Increased damage? BRK's forums have an interesting discussion going on. * Lightning breath, and scorpid poison scaling. Not quite as amazing as it used to be. * Melee pets and caster pets vs boss armor. * Pet Loyalty, Pet Talents, Hunter Talents affecting pet DPS.
Note : It's perfectly possible that i've made some errors in the above calculations, feel free to point them out so they can be corrected.
Firstly, i removed the http://referer.org script. It was slowing down our load time too much. Let me know if any of you notice a difference between now, and last week before the layout change.
The big banner in the top has been reduced from 117k to 33k so this should improve the average load time as well.
Wowhead item links are working again. It seems to have broken down during the upgrade.
Highlights tab put to better use, and thus the interface is again a bit cleaner.
Blogroll link moved to the top of the first navigation panel. It seemed a good spot for it.
Entrecard is up and running again, they appear to have had some server issues recently. If you got a wow or gaming related blog, read this, and go register or something. I'm working on a project for total world domination, and it requires me to put a banner or link on your blog. So help a guy out, world domination isn't something that's easy to do on your own ya know?
Season 4
The Season 4 items are getting data mined further and further. Currently both MMOC and WoR have a nice list of items up for display. Be sure to hop over and drool over the shiny objects you probably will never wear or even see worn on anyone except those guys that keep beating you in the arena.
The 1H weapons will be 107.9, while the 2H weapons will be 140.5 and... require a pretty high rating of no less than 2050. But you knew this already, right?
One interesting bit that you may have missed, is that there's going to be no 2H weapons especially made for hunters. Wuh? Indeed. Hunters will get a MH and OH axe, which although cheap, will require them to have 2050 rating for those weapons. So don't expect to get those easily for your alt.
At the same time blizzard is going to implement some further restrictions which should make cheating the system a lot harder *cough*not really*cough*. But we all know there'll still be players selling rating boosts even in S4 just like they were in S3, alts getting boosted, teams exchanging wins at 3am server time, and so on, and so forth. Just like there will always be people AFK during Alterac Valley.
Le sigh.
Hopefully we can get some more work done on Illidan soon. At least he has got some nice shinyobjects that are actuallyworth having.
Not that the PvP gear would be bad to have, but there's something to be said about earning your gear by actually going into a dungeon with 24 other people and working for it.
PS : Cru the Dwarf did an update. I'm surprised neither MMOC or WoR is posting about him yet. Good comic, go read it.
Whewwwww, that took a while. But i've learned a lot about css while doing so. Indeed the blog's gotten a slightly newer look. If you've been keeping an eye on the test blog you'd have noticed some stuff jumping around these last two days.
OK, it's not that much different on the outside, but it's got quite a few changes under the hood.
It's mostly CSS changes and cleanup. As some of you blogger users know, blogger has a skin with CDATA, in which it stores all it's style data. This data is then loaded on each "and every single page" that you load. By moving this data to an external file you cut down a good chunk of traffic when browsing multiple articles.
Features
* External CSS file (which can be cached) for faster page loading speed. * Added a shoutbox! Or whatever, i'll stick something in there. * The poll numbers are readable OMG! * The poll background bars are not..... doh! Just deal with it. ok? * Spacing between all the boxes has been fixed. It's no longer the shaggy "something between 5-10 pixels" that it was before, but a fixed size everywhere. * Box roundings are more stable. Previously they were causing some ghosting issues. * Changed some of the images from an external (unreliable) site to my own pages.google * Lead line on the left. For looks. * More space for text due to tighter margins. * Easier (for me) to add extra boxes if i wished to do so. * Still using tables, and will continue to do so until somebody can show me a way to do this with divs only. (unlikely) * Blog still loads in a single go, which may seem strange to some. But it's faster than it was before. * Blue frame around header image removed.
If you're interested in using this template for your own blog, just drop me a line.
So, what do you think? Was it worth the effort?
Gold
Also sold some auctions, and I'm finally on 30K gold!
I fear there still isn't much to be found regarding rogues. 
As you can see there's a few options which might appeal as interesting to WotLK hunters. Keep in mind that no data is final, or confirmed in any way. At the same time, anything is possible.
