Another update

As some of you may be aware, the Blizzcon 2008 tickets were all sold out recently. Spooncraft informed me earlier though, that he's managed to get one of those tickets and is going to give it away rather than use it himself. If you're interested in getting one and estimate your chances low at getting one of the 3000 new tickets, you can sign up for the gift raffle on this page. Sign-ups valid between 10th of August and 1st of September 2008. Remember, free is always better than paying for it! New Beta Patch WotLK Beta patch - build 8788. There have been sightings of a new stat called Armor penetration Rating. What this entails is uncertain at this time. It would imply the weird 7 penetration = 1 stat will no longer hold true. It is fairly reasonable to assume normal armor penetration will be replaced by this stat. The result is that armor penetration will become a percentage rather than a fixed value. This is great news for clothies, less good news for warriors. Here's a a thread on the MMOC forums on the subject. There's a quest event called the Amphitheater of Anguish which appears to be the WotLK equivalent of the circle of blood in nagrand. One of the rewards is the Icier barbed spear, which is said to be 100% more chilling than the Ice Barbed Spear. Classes Big list for deathknights as usual. No changes for rogues, as usual. Although.... I think you'll have a snicker at this one. All spell ranks are now based on a certain percentage of your base mana pool. (Your total mana if you had zero intellect) What could this mean you may ask, I shall tell you. This means that Arcane explosion, rain of fire, consecration, frost nova, holy nova, blizzard and more Rank 1 spells now all cost "more mana" (bwhaha) than the highest level rank of that same spell. /glee Meaning you should see a lot less mages, paladins, priests etc running about spamming rank-1 spells to locate us rogues and druids. Isn't it lovely? *cough* Seriously though, we feel for you guys. Really. Sort of. Not. Just use the highest rank of that spell and you'll be fine. Jewelcrafting Jewelcrafting appears to have gotten a huge boost, and a serious number of epic bind on pickup gems. In specific the following will be quite entertaining to physical DPS classes: +27 Agi, +27 Hit Rating, +27 Crit Rating, +27 Haste Rating, +27 Expertise, +54 Attack Power, +189 Armor Penetration. That's right, no less than 7 gems that are useful! There's even a +27 Str one for you shamanistic and warrior types out there. The regular epic WotLK gems are currently valued at +20 stats per gem, so these JC-only gems are +7 stats worth each. 7 gems x 7 stats = 49 stats. Whoa batman, that means Jewelcrafting could be worth 9 stats more than Enchanting or Blacksmithing if it stays this way o_O? Time shall tell, since Jewelcrafting is also expected to receive trinkets and/or rings or necklaces that may be bind on pickup. Much like leatherworking, blacksmithing and tailoring obviously, but still. That's pretty hot so far. Not only that, these special gems are tri-color (prismatic) so they can be used in what would otherwise be a low value blue socket. Rumor goes that meta gems are getting their requirement removed, so you'll no longer need 2 blue, 2 red, 2 yellow to activate the Relentless Earthstorm or WotLK equivalent. Otherwise jewelcrafting would have been worth another 2 x 50% of an epic gem(20) extra = 2 x 10 stats. Blacksmithing Blacksmithing titansteel weapons got fixed. You can see them here. The ilvl seems to be 200 and there is 143.6 DPS on the one-handed weapon. HOWMUCHDIDYOUSAY? 143.6 DPS. By damn, that's going to blow certain weapons away. It also gives an "idea" regarding the first entry level epic weapons you'll probably find in naxxramas. More on that later I guess. Armorsmiths get to add a socket to their own gloves and bracers, weaponsmiths get to add a socket to each of their weapons. But you already knew this. Right? Tailoring You're getting a flying carpet, no kidding. And, as we could probably have expected a little, something seems to be going on in the direction of a tailor-only leg enchant. They currently are identical to the epic Brilliant Spellthread and epic Sapphire Spellthread. As listed here. We're also getting: 20 slot bags, 22 slot bags, 32 slot enchanting bag and a 32 slot soulshard bag. Beta Poll Are you in beta?

Noes :( - 110 (81%)

Yep! - 16 (11%)

Sold my key - 6 (4%)

What? - 3 (2%) More people who missed out on it than there were people who got in. Initially the percentage of players who didn't get into the beta was a lot lower though, after the second wave their number went up quite a bit. Six of you sold you key, how much did you get then hm?