A number of things that are on the PTR are not reflected in the patch notes, and several things that will eventually be on the PTR aren’t in the notes either (many of the class changes, for example).

Check out WoW Insider’s Guide to Patch 3.1 for more information.

General

Abomination’s Might: This effect can now also be caused by Death Strike. Magic Suppression: Now has 3 ranks (down from 5) for 2/4/6% magic damage reduction. New talent: Improved Death Strike. Increases Death Strike damage by 10/20. Outbreak: Increases the damage of Plague Strike by 15/30/45% and Scourge Strike by 10/20/30%. Scourge Strike: Damage increased. New high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets have been added. Players can enable this feature by setting Player Textures to High in the Effects Panel of the Video Options. Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible. Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold. Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.
Death Knight
Blood

Druid

Lifebloom: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications. Maim: This ability is now considered a stun, and shares a diminish category with all other stuns. It no longer has a chance to break from the target taking damage. Duration lowered to 1 sec. per combo point. Heart of the Wild: Stamina bonus changed to 2/4/6/8/10%. Intensity: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
Hunters

Read the rest of this entry »

Horde Mounts

Alliance Mounts

Elekk, Draenei Racial Mount



Horse, Human Racial Mount



Mechanostrider, Gnome Racial Mount



Nightsaber, Night Elf Racial Mount



Ram, Dwarf Racial Mount

Now could you please, perhaps, let us log on? Just for a little while?

Oh, right, and if anyone wants to know what the WoW Insider team is up to — just log on to the test realm. (Or if the world server is down, as it so often is, you can keep reading.)it won’t be like patch 3.0.8 again, where we hung out with you for a little while before running back to the live realms. You know the live realms don’t mean anything to us, don’t you? With your recent upgrade to patch 3.1, you have dual specs and Ulduar — what’s not to love about that? (And how’s the occasional world server crash going to get in the way of the true love we feel for patch 3.1?) We promise, the live realms don’t hold a candle to you. And didn’t you like those flowers we sent you?
Adam Holisky: Sons of Hodir gets to exalted this weekend on my Shaman.
Alex Ziebart: Leveling some random alt, whichever one will be able to get groups easier than my Prot Paladin. Why oh why do I play on one of the only servers with a surplus of tanks? Dual Spec cannot come fast enough. If I’m not doing that, I’ll be dinking around on the PTR getting my bug testing on.
Allison Robert: 10-man Sarth 3D this weekend, and hopefully some testing on the PTR to evaluate changes to Druid talents and glyphs. There haven’t been massive changes for Balance, so I’m mostly interested in seeing Savage Defense at work for bears, looking into the Savage Roar change for cats, and comparing Nourish to Regrowth.
Amanda Miller: I will probably do some light farming before we slaughter Malygos on Sunday.
Daniel Whitcomb: I’m actually remarkably close to Chef de Cuisine. I only have the Horde recipes and Dirge’s Kickin’
Chimaerok Chops to go. So, I think I may actually organize BWL and AQ40 fun runs to get the rep and quest drops I need to start on the sceptre questline so I can get the recipe. Also, I’m about 10 Badges of Honor away from a new breastplate, so I’ll probably try to finish off a few more heroics for those if all else fails.
Matthew Rossi: If I play at all (which is doubtful) it’ll be casual stuff. Maybe level an alt, or go do some old world achievements on my Tauren, or even help lowbies do some instances. Generally going to take it easy in-between stressful IRL stuff.
Matt Low: Not much planned here. Maybe do some more blogging. Possibly hit up the PTR again and play around with the Priest as Holy instead.
Michael Gray: I’m trying desperately to finish up my Darkmoon Nobles deck. Darkmoon’s still a little bit away, but I’d like this goblin-gypsy-shaped monkey off my back.Dan O’Halloran: Now that my Resto Druid is level 80, I’ll be looking for Naxx-10 groups. But I love to level so am choosing between alts to focus on next. Right now it’s between Hunter, Warlock and Death Knight. DK may be the winner as I would like to play him more before the 3.1 changes happening to the class.
Elizabeth Wachowski: I’ll probably be leveling my Warlock’s professions and doing more Northrend quests on my Paladin. Also Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, as usual.
Jennie Lees: Going to be testing Ulduar tonight, if the European PTRs hold up. Other than that, nothing planned — cleared all content twice already, and that’s enough for my fragile sanity.
Lisa Poisso: Blowing things up in as many different ways as possible, and healing no one. At all. Even once.

Players who can’t get on the PTR or who have similarly given up in frustration because the world server isn’t exactly in the stablest of conditions, you can live the encounters vicariously through the streaming video of other intrepid players such as the folks from Rawrcast or Thelastrace on Justin TV. You mileage may vary. In the meantime, you can enjoy the screenshots of the encounter below. We guarantee they won’t crash.

[UPDATE: According to some reports, well-known raiding guilds Death & Taxes, Method, and Fusion all managed to stay inside Ulduar for some time after Blizzard booted everyone else out of the instance. This is sort of expected, considering Blizzard wanted to truly test the encounter -- numerous players formed 2-man raids just to be able to enter Ulduar, thus maxing out the instance limit.]After players got a taste of Hodir yesterday, Blizzard earlier opened up another Ulduar boss encounter on the Patch 3.1 PTR. The Iron Council were ready and waiting for raiders eager to have a shot at them — and as you can see from the screenshot above, they don’t look like pushovers. However, numerous crashes and related problems prevented full testing of the encounter, and Blizzard shut down Ulduar testing for the meantime. We had some of our team from WoW Insider who tried to take a crack at the Iron Council but were repelled by various iterations of server fail.

 
 Hybrids vs. pures — is it an issue?
Are tanking Warriors currently working at a disadvantage? Readers had a lot to say this week about the relative strength of Warriors and other “pure” classes.

For Dru, who plays a healer, it’s experience and skill that get the job done. “As a healer, I’ll always take a Warrior first for PUGs. They might not have access to the same range of abilities, but in my experience, the skill level of your average Prot Warrior far outstrips that of other tanking classes. I won’t even run with DK tanks these days; who needs that headache?”

Others see the new wave of tanks as bringing more to the table. “Our GM/RL is a DK tank,” says kryonik. “He’s capable of putting out 4k DPS … while tanking. Our main Druid tank is capable of doing that in cat form with some gear swaps. Our Paladins have great ret and holy sets in addition to AOE threat while tanking.

“… Right now, in terms of min/maxing, you bring a Protection Warrior to raids to offtank, period. There is no other reason to bring one.”

Mike breaks the issue down to a bottom line: “Seems there’s a big link here you’re not making. … Holy Priests and Prot Warriors are suffering from exactly the same problem. Despite the concern of some of the replies to your article, your overall point stands. Both of these pure classes do what they do very well. They are excellent generalists. There is no tanking situation a Prot Warrior can’t face and no healing situation a Holy Priest can’t face.

“Unfortunately, in the world of homogenized hybrid classes, no-one is looking for a generalist; they are looking for specialists for different fights. So in Blizz’s effort to tweak other classes to be almost as good as Warriors (e.g. by adding Last Stand or Shield Wall equivalents), they have undermined the role of the Warrior and their position in raids.

“They’ve done exactly the same to Holy Priests, nerfed the pure class and tweaked the hybrid, and it’s a direct consequence of making previously hybrid classes more viable when competing with the pure classes.

“What’s the outcome of all this? I have no idea, but currently I have Warrior and DK (tanks) and a Priest and Druid (healers) all at 80, and the hybrids are getting more action. Part of me feels pretty sad about this. It’s not slightly wrong; it’s very wrong. I prefer the pure classes.” 

 WoW botter tells all
Our 15 Minutes of Fame (Infamy?) interview with a player who’s resorted to botting (which is against WoW’s Terms of Service agreement) for leveling up alts and farming mundane tasks provoked a lengthy debate (plus a followup Breakfast Topic, too). Read the rest of this entry »

It does look like there’s a good bit of activity going on over at the official forums – the PTR forums have gone up and came back down, and there are several new stickies over there. This kind of activity usually happens right before the PTR client is available for download and the realms go up – but they could just be getting this out of the way before they go home for the weekend. In which case it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the PTRs up on Monday.

But with that said, there’s half a dozen of us up at WoW Insider HQ tonight that will be anxiously waiting to cover all the news.

Right from Zarhym’s mouth tonight.

Yaaarrrr! Now has a detailed tooltip.
Well thank god for that, I mean what would have happened if Yaaarrrr!’s tooltip got left out? I mean, that would be tantamount to not letting clams stack. And we all know what happened to that.

By the way, Yaaarrrr! is the spell that comes with the Savory Deviate Delight that turns you into a pirate or a ninja.

Priests are generally thought of as a tough class to play in PvP. They excel in groups, but one on one, the Priest will usually lose in a PvP fight. You are just too soft, and can’t take enough damage to stand up to most other classes out there. So if you want to PvP as a Priest, make sure you have some friends with you. In instances and Raids, the Priest truly shines.

What’s the Priest weaknesses? It’s difficult to play (and stay alive) particularly at the early levels. And mana dependent. The Priest is a versatile and highly sought after class in WoW. A player that knows what they are doing can take a priest, and fill in almost any position needed. By end game (level 70+), you need to know what kind of Priest you want to play. A Shadow spec Priest at end game is an invaluable asset in both instances and Raids. A Shadow Priest is capable of pushing out a lot of DPS, as well as buffing and debuffing during a Raid. It is easy to see why Healing Priests are so valuable to any group or Raid.

From healing, to being a mana battery, or going full out DPS, the Priest is very versatile, and is highly sought after in every group. The Priest is a very powerful caster but does take a lot of attention and forethought to be played correctly. You are a cloth wearing caster, and as such you are very squishy. Sure you can buff up, and heal yourself, but you are still soft, and if not very careful, you will wind up running back to your corpse more than you are killing. It is a very demanding class in that you have to watch your companion’s health, and the amount of hate you are generating, at all times. Many people quit the class before seeing the true potential of the class. You can hit pretty hard, and heal yourself in a fight, but early on you will be out of mana all the time, and you will die quite often. You wear only cloth, and until you get a few of your harder hitting spells, your fights will be an uphill battle.

The Warlock’s guild seems to be a rather accomplished one (the ‘lock has The Immortal title), so there’s a good chance that getting the weapon was a guild effort. It’s quite possible that the Dormant Wind Kissed Blade that drops off Thunderaan was assigned by Master Looter to the Warlock, who then started the quest.

Although no raiding guild in their right minds would’ve allowed such a travesty to happen no matter how much DKP the Warlock had back in the day, now in a time where Onyxia is visited every few days for some easy Gold, anything goes.

This news comes on the heels of what is reputedly a world first Death Knight obtaining the legendary sword. Here’s the kicker, though… the left and right Bindings of the Windseeker have class restrictions (revised to include Death Knights)… and Warlocks aren’t among those eligible to start the quest chain. Mages and Warlocks are both casters who can equip swords, but this doesn’t explain how the Warlock obtained the item. [EDIT: Whoops. Looks like I dropped the ball on this one. Daniel already wrote that even though the Bindings have class restrictions on the tooltip, they’re actually usable by any class according to Blizzard.

If you’re interested in knowing what sort of trouble the WoW Insider team is getting into this weekend — or want to tell us what sort of trouble you’re getting into this weekend — read on!

Elizabeth Wachowski: Mass Effect, because I’m about two years behind the curve.
Jennie Lees: Hoping to find time to complete Fool for Love, but most likely failing due to RL this weekend. And I still haven’t leveled Herbalism.
Lisa Poisso: A brand new alt, along with a few friends and family.
Matthew Rossi: More Sarth, then working Horde side.
Matt Low: I’ll be working on the LITA achievements. Other than that, it’ll be quiet on the gaming front.
Michael Gray: Love is also in the air at the Gray Household. Love, fish, and everything in between.
Michael Sacco: Sarth+3 with the guild on my newly 80 (and epicced-out) elemental shaman. LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!
Zach Yonzon: Getting two Battleground masteries. Maybe a third if I get the time. But two down for sure.

And, of course, what everyone is waiting for: Top Ten Things BRK is Doing This Weekend!

10. Cleaning out his WoW Insider digs, ninjaing a few pieces of office equipment, putting that folder of Dan’s I totally swore I didn’t take in the shredder, and making a DVD-backup of the dwarf pr0n.
9. Logitech G13 is in da house! Stocking up on pain-relievers as I try to de-program my fingers.
8. Laugh as people rush to complete another set of holiday achievements,leaving me free to jack up the prices on raid-mats on the AH.
7. Kick myself again for buying a 9000 gold Nobles deck an hour after the Darkemoon Faire closed last week. Read the rest of this entry »

 As for the Alliance, there is one major difference. Dwarves start out with a much higher amount of hit points and Elves start out with a much higher percentage of dodge (that’s in addition to the +1% they get as a racial benefit). What does that mean? That means that dwarves can take more of a beating, which is nice since you don’t actually get your pet until level 10, and Elves get hit less often then dwarves do. In the end it all evens out, but that is pretty much the only major difference between the two.  We think it’s important to note at this point that later on down the road, there is very little difference between any of the five. Your major pro’s and con’s are going to stem from your talent choices and the gear that you have on your character. But in the beginning game race does play a role.
  
   On the hand, Dwarves have a racially innate talent with Guns (+5 bonuses) which pretty much makes them one level higher then other hunters in respect to their skill with their ranged weaponry. Once again, in the lower levels (prior to 30) this is going to give you a slight advantage. But it really won’t make much difference when you hit the end-game in the long run.
It draws a conclusion that Dwarves have a nice tracking ability which allows them to spot treasure chests on their overhead minimap. Not in itself a very Hunter oriented ability but it’s just a nice little bonus. But Dwarves receive a stone-form ability which gives them some nice immunity at the cost of speed. It is important for you to have a nice little ability when put in a bind. For instance if your pet drops aggro and you’re stuck melee’ing the beast. But those are the differences between the two. You also have their resistance bonuses. Elves get a +10 nature resistance while Dwarves get a +10 frost resistance. Basically Elves are better off against Druids and Dwarves are better off against frost spec’d Mages. That’s pretty much what it boils down to.On the other hand, Elves lack this inherent bonus get a nifty little trick which is unavailable to Dwarves and which we find quite invaluable given the right situation. Elves can stealth, albeit a stationary stealth. It means that they can’t move at all. But this ability is quite nice if you’re going AFK for a few moments and don’t feel like getting ganked by a passing mob or Horde opponent. If you’re setting yourself up into a nice sniping position, Stationary stealth is the best sort of camoflage you need to prevent from being noticed from a distance. Now this stealth! In comparison to that of a Rogue, pretty much anyone who passes within melee range of you will discover you sitting there all by your lonesome. But, considering its a free ability, you can’t really complain.