1 button mounting... fly or run... works in Dalaran too!

Posted by Weezzii in , ,

Yep.. just like the title says.
This is something else that's been out for a little while without having the exposure it probably should.
Single button mounting for ground or flying mounts... works in Dalaran n' everything.

/run C=CallCompanion if(not IsMounted())then if(((GetZoneText()=="Dalaran")and(GetSubZoneText()~="Krasus' Landing"))or(GetZoneText()=="Wintergrasp")or not IsFlyableArea()or IsModifierKeyDown())then C("MOUNT",x)else C("MOUNT",y)end end
/dismount


Replace "x" and "y" with whatever number your mounts are in the mount tab.
X is your ground mount and Y is your flyable.

Enjoy!

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Make your UI work for you

Posted by Weezzii in , ,

Player UI's are a fairly common discussion topic when it comes to WoW blogging. Mog and I have been up and rolling for a little while now, and I think we're about due for one -- and a couple folks in-game have been inquiring about it.
So here goes - breaking down, and building up the UI.

Making the choice to move into filling your screen with addons and modifications is all about player preference and convinience.
Personally, I've been using some sort of bar enhancing addon for years. After bars, it was tracking dots... then tracking cooldowns... seeing buffs... changing the minimap... raid frames... raid notifiers... special procs... OMG BEJEWELD ADDON! I can play a game in a game!
The list goes on and on... the warcraft interface can be doctored up however you need it to be in most cases.

Because there is so much out there to explore and test... it's really a good idea to determine what YOU need. Addons are addictive... like tatoos for some people, and your endless quest of convinience can quickly become something of a mess.
Rather than breaking down all there is to be said about AddOns in general, I'm just going to speak from my own perspective... and if you're just getting your feet wet with UI modification now, apply some of these things to yourself and see if the shoe fits.
My considerations:
I'm a GM, and I like to have fast access to a list of guild members currently online, and I like the flexibility to invite anyone in the guild to my party/raid in the click of a button. Additionally, I raid lead... and therefore I need raid information. When in raids, I want to know who's alive/dead, who has mana... who's not in the zone and who's got various debuffs. For my toon, I want my health/mana, pet, focus, and target visible at a glance. I also want multiple chat windows... preferably 3 - one for general stuff, one for loot, and one for whispers and officer chat. I want a fairly clean UI, with plenty of viewable space that also allows for a boss timer addon of some sort as well as a clean way of tracking my own buffs and debuffs. Lastly, and certainly not least, I want customizable bars. The standard blizzard UI bars are terrible in my opinion, and I like to have control over this aspect of the UI.

So, here's my current UI.. along with a second pic identifying a few things.





A walk-through -- from left to right.

Recount: A damage/healing meter... pretty basic for most people to have it these days. Mine is hidden/closed except between raid wipes or the end of an encounter when I might thumb through it briefly while we prepare for whatever is coming next.

Omen Threat Meter: Straight forward, again, most people likely already use this mod to track their threat on the current target.

Grid w/Grid Mana Bars: Allows me to see the raid in a snapshot. Faded boxes are out of range, white outlines mean someone is being targetted, and the icons designate debuffs currently on those individuals.

Chatter: A chat addon, much like Prat. Fully customizeable chat settings. The chat box on the right that is holding whispers has timestamps enabled so I can respond to most questions even if I've gone afk for a bit, and I know when they were sent.

Action bars: My pet and main action bars are done via the Bartender addon. Similar functionality to Bongos/Dominos... flip/turn/customized all your skill buttons for whatever suits your mood.

Ranged Display: Allows me to see a rough distance to my target. This isn't terribly useful for most people because their skill icons turn red if they're out of range. However... I'm a SV hunter, and I need to be at 30 yards to increase my damage... and I can shoot futher than that. So I need to know where I'm standing in relation to my target regularly.

Unit Frames: My frames were created with PitBull. There's a lot of unit frame addons out there... ag_unitframes and xperl immidiately come to mind. PitBull is extremely customizeable... to the point of being annoyingly so. But if you've got the time to spend on learning the ropes for setting it up, it's well worth the wait. This particular frame style is a copycat of MetzUI's unit frames... slightly adapted for my personal preferences.

Tool Tip: I use CowTip addon for my tooltips. In this picture the tooltip is fading out, but there's not much special about it. CowTip gives you the option for 50 things you probably don't even need on your tooltips.. and it allows you to move it where ever you want.

Buff Bar: These are Bison buffs. Similar to the stock UI.. very customizable features, however. I don't have anything with a timer on it in this pic... but you'll see examples later on in this post.


Like most people, I prefer to keep my player frames in the lower portion of the screen, so I'm taking in more information without looking around a whole lot. For the most part, my whole UI is set up with that in mind -- using the lower 3rd of the screen for much of the information I need to know.
One thing to keep in mind while creating your UI is that it is absolutely okay to just "hide" something. There's no need to have every bar or macro visible on your screen unless you really think that you're going to need it to be clickable... keybinds work just fine on hidden elements. Even in my own UI, the first full bar in the series of three at the bottom of the screen could be hidden. All I would need to do is move the mana potions to the next bar down because they aren't keybound.
So, now let's take a look at what isn't entirely obvious in my UI:





Error Monster: Keeps my errors from excessive finger bleeding button mashing from clogging up the screen. Just one notification does the trick.

Power Auras: A-MAZING addon. I will explain this later on in the post.

SLDT: SL Data Text takes all the information you would normally find around your minimap.. as well as other snippets of info and turns them into movable text. I have the vast majority of the options turned off... just leaving a few convinient items on screen. If I hover over the "Guild" text, a pop up comes up that lists everyone online.. from there, I can alt+click someone's name to invite them to group/raid. The part that says "Jan 28 (Wed)" is actually my in-game calendar. If I click on that, the calendar will pop up --- AND, the text flashes if I have a new event I've been invited to. The other SL Data Text bits are self explanitory.

Mico Menu: I keep that hidden... but it pops up if I hover over that area - via Bartender.

CowTip: Again, an example of my tooltip addon, this time a lot more visible.


So with the exception of a couple keybound bars that are permanently hidden, that's the bulk of my UI.
I would like to spotlight two addons in particular however, because I think many people could benefit by using them.
First, let's discuss Power Auras.

Power Auras is a highly customizable addon that allows you to track buffs/debuffs/gains..etc.
In the last screenshot, you can see two different Power Auras that are setup.
(similar to Drotara's setup) The Hunter's Mark icon pops up when ever Hunter's Mark is on the target I am currently targetting... it doesn't matter if it's mine or someone else's.
The Serpent Sting icon pops up only when MY serpent sting is on my current target... and the indicator is letting me know that there are 11 seconds left on it.
I'm a Survival Hunter, so it's very important that I know when my Lock and Load procs, so there is also a Power Aura setup that pops up the Lock and Load icon over my character when it goes off.

You can do this for virtually anything. Additionally, you don't need to use icons to give you information... you can also use the preset images that come with the addon, or you can even create your own!
For instance, when I DO NOT have an aspect on, I get a faint ring that shows up around my character, which reminds me to toss one on.
To add to all this... there are customizable "fly in" and "fly out" animations to get your attention. Each button/power aura is completely independent of the other ones... and you can set some up for a certain character, or make them usable on all chacters. You can actually even import/export power auras you have set up on in your UI so you can exchange with friends.

Lastly for addons, is one that is not visible in any of my previous screenshots - Opie (oh-pie!).
Opie is a highly customizable radial button addon that allows you to access to a number of skills/macros in the push of a single button.
Opie "flies out" from a designated point into a circular fashion... depending on how many abilities you have on that particular Opie ring.
An example...



First first image is my normal view, the second is once I've depressed (and holding) the keybind for that "ring," -- although you can't see my cursor, it is actually right about where the tip of the arrow is inside of the ring. In the last image, my cursor is outside of the ring, in the lower right... and therefore, when I let go of the bind for that "ring," I am going to switch to aspect of the cheetah... denoted by the larger icon size and the direction of the inner arrow.
Screenshots do not do this mod any justice what so ever. The whole thing is smoothly animated.
You can set custom rings with macros as the buttons.. so again, it does not HAVE to be skills directly on your rings. This can free up a lot of space on most people's UI's.
That particular ring shown is simply for my most used aspects... and they're all bound to one keystroke now, rather than taking up 5 spaces on an action bar. This is great for out of combat things as well... buffs.. prayer of fortitude and fortitude take up two buttons... why? Just put them on a ring alongside spirit, shadow protection... etc. The same thing for food.. or creating food, portals, whatever you need. I have rings that I use both in combat and out of combat.
An additional feature the author of Opie included is a default ring that automatically detects quest items.
No more searching in your bag for a quest item or freeing up a slot on your bars for an item you need to use - hit your quest item Opie ring bind!


Well, that about covers the meat of my UI. There's a couple other things going on that are purely asthetic.. but nothing worth mentioning unless someone has a specific question about it.
Here are some additional screenshots showing UI's that other people sent in to WWOT:

Larocca's UI pic 1, Larocca's UI pic 2
Lucido's UI
Shaylastar's UI
Smalltoaster's UI
Zonya's UI
Kobeathris' UI
Zodi's UI

Thanks to everyone who was willing to share!
Here's a complete list of addons I'm currently using:

AzCastBar
Bartender4
BigWigs
Bison
Button Facade
Cartographer
Chatter
CowTip
Error Monster
Grid
kgPanels
MikScrollingBattle Text
Omen
OmniCC
Opie
PitBull
Power Auras
RangeDisplay
RatingBuster
Recount
SimpleMinimap
SLData Text


enjoy!

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Not Heroic. Heroic Challenge, prz!

Posted by Weezzii in , , ,

I think I speak for a number of people when I say the "timed" sorts of dungeons bring an added appeal. Doing ZA bear runs is of course the first thing that comes to mind. Even after you get to the point of being able to "beat" the instance every reset, it is simply a little more fun when you have that clock bearing down on the group.
Similarly the BC quest-line for entering Tempest Keep, [Trial of the Naaru: Mercy] ...or even the pre-BC 45 minute Baron runs through Undead Strat -- they all bring an added element of excitement to doing an instance. (not to mention the fringe benefit of implication to your entire group that AFKing isn't an option)

I'd like to see another 5-man dungeon implemented that has something of a similar quality.
Before I get into that, the "modes" of the dungeon should be as follows:
"Normal" -- ie.. just like any other "normal" instance.
"Heroic Challenge" -- this is where this entire suggestion comes into play - explained below.
There should not simply be a "Heroic" mode.

What is the "Heroic Challenge"?
An instance of "Heroic" level difficulty with player urgency and skill being required to win. (yes, I said win... not just "complete")

How do you "win" an instance?
You queue up for the instance much like you would an arena. Once your group is in queue, you are paired up against another group to compete against. The ultimate goal would be to complete the instance before the opposing group completes the instance... ie. "win".

But isn't gear and skewed class makeups going to dominate?
Hopefully not. The idea is that your current gear would not exist in this instance. Additionally the instance should be created to ensure a challenge for everyone. ie... not all humanoids or demons/elementals that can be CC'd by bringing a single class. Groups would have to make a decision upon queue'ing up as to which classes they will bring and face the consequence of not being able to CC everything easily. The instance would have to contain a variety of obstacles that a simple group would not normally be able to handle with ease. Hard hitting mobs to avoid the AoE-fests... certain adds on bosses that need to be OT'd, but if you don't bring an OT are capable of being elaborately kited (just an example). I'm sure there are many ways to provide obstacles for a 5 man group.

Wait, you said our "gear would not exist"... what are you talking about?
Pre-set loadouts of gear. When you enter the instance, the gear in your bags and your current gear basically become gray'd out to you. Similar to arena preparation, you get a couple of minutes to get ready/buff/drop a food table. Additionally you choose which set of gear you will be participating in the instance with. It doesn't have to be amazing gear... it needs to have some general sense of balance/ilvl for all classes. Something along the lines of the blue quality "Savage" pvp gear that is currently available. After choosing your gear loadout, your stats adjust to match your choice.

So both "teams" are essentially using the same gear?
Yes, exactly. Helping to boil things down to the methods each group uses to progress through the instance.

How do we know if we lost, though?
The instance could be designed along the same lines as certain parts of Mechanar or Arcatraz... with a semi-transparent floor (or ceiling), so you would actually see the team you are competing against. Another idea would be to run the teams side-by-side... sort of like being in the Deep Run Tram and looking through the glass at the water... but seeing the other team instead.

Wait.. speaking of losing, what about winning?! What do we get?
Well, it'd be "Heroic" level difficulty, so gear off of each boss should be on par with dungeons of that variety. Additionally, if you slay the last boss before your counter-parts, then I don't think an additional badge or two would be out of the question, as well as an added piece of loot. The losing team should still be allowed to complete the instance, they just won't have the benefit of bonus badges or bonus loot from the final boss.

Hmm... sounds pretty cool. What about exploits? Aren't people going to exploit this?
People are going to try to exploit everything, just because they want to try. Keep in mind that this is in fact a "Heroic" dungeon -- meaning you can only run it once a day anyway.

What about people who play at off-peak hours? Won't finding competition be hard?
I think that's inherent to any part of the game. Off-peak is great for farming... and probably poor for battleground competition. This could be extended into your battlegroup, of course. Your "team" would come from your server... but you could be matched against a group from another server, either faction.

Sounds like this would be hard to implement!
I've no doubt this would take a lot of work to implement properly and work out the various kinks. The design of the dungeon alone would be a monstrous task to balance AGAINST various group makeups to provide greater challenge and prevent class-stacking n' that sort of thing. I suppose you could limit groups to a maximum of 2 of any class... but that may not be a desirable feature.


In general, I think this would be a lot of fun. There wouldn't be a "Heroic" mode to just go in and test stuff on... just a "Normal" mode to allow you and your group to get your feet wet with the flow of the instance and a loose idea of what to expect. For those people that play the game quite a bit, this would probably be the dungeon that you would look most forward to running each day... and for the more casual players that don't get to log on much, this may be the one instance they run when they do log on. Thankfully though, even with the disparity in gear that these two types of people might have, it is all negated by the pre-set loadout system built into the dungeon itself.
So you're racing not just against time in general.. but other players as well. I suppose if you really wanted to extend the idea of competition more, you could have a "leaderboard"... listing the best times posted by which 5 people - battleground or server wide.

Anyway, that's just a thought that I've had for a long time. I'm sure someone else out there has had the same idea before. I've searched the WoW Suggestion forums with zero results that turn up anything remotely similar to this.

So, what do you all think? comments/suggestions/feedback?
Scrap the idea altogether?... or should we refine this and post it in the suggestion forums so we can watch the trolls pick it a part and then tell us to go back to our miserable lives?

===> the TL;DR version
- Dunecat is srs business.


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Switching to Survival

Posted by Weezzii in , , ,

Well, like many Hunters out there, I'm abandoning BM for the time being to test the waters elsewhere. As Drotara aptly stated, "Marksmanship received no notable buffs to compensate for the beating they took with Steady Shot." [referring to the Steady Shot nerf - for you non-hunters]
So I made the move into Survival. The EJ forum-goers are putting SV at the top of the theoretical dps charts for Hunter specs, so it was time for me to take the plunge and see what it's all about. Last night I spent some time at the practice dummy with some rather lackluster results. I headed off to do a pair of heroics after that and found marginally better success, but dps at levels that are clearly lower than I should be capable of producing.

After re-thinking some things I hit the dummies two more times before heading to bed, and it felt like things started to make more sense to me for some reason. Watching cooldowns and playing reactionary off of them came easier.

I popped online today and spent about 5 more minutes at the dummies going over (I guess what you could call) some shot discipline. Over-writing Explosive Shots is a sound way to make yourself come in somewhere towards the bottom of the meter... so it's something to be watchful of, for sure.

Shortly thereafter a guildie threw together a pug 10man Vault run and asked me to tag along. The results were better than I'd seen last night... I ended up at about 3750dps, with Explosive Shot making up about 48% of my overall damage (ideally, I suppose, I'd like that to even be a little bit higher).

After that, the raid converted to a 25man Vault group...

This raid I found to be fairly encouraging. I ended up at 5251dps. I uploaded the WWS here: click!
Disregard other people's numbers, as this was also a pug group. Interestingly, Recount and WWS report different numbers for the encounter... about 100dps off.
Recount said Explosive Shot made up about 42% of overall damage, while WWS is citing that it was only 35% -- but they agree about the total damage done by Explosive Shot. I'll have to take some more time looking at this to see where exactly the discrepancy is located. One additional note, is that I couldn't stay at 30+ yards from the boss. If it was reasonable for me to reposition a little bit to get back into that range, then I would... but in many cases it would have involved a trip to the other side of the room, which I wasn't going to make.

Regardless, 5k+ dps the night after spec'ing into this has got my attention. For those out there with other thoughts/insights/comments, I had an [Elixir of Mighty Agility] on as well as [Poached Northern Sculpin]... mostly because they were already in my bags at the time.

Additionally, I'm prioritizing shots as follows:
Serpent Sting > Explosive Shot > Kill Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot
.. and of course watching for LnL procs and using Rapid Fire.
Glyphs I'm currently using:
Imp AotH
Serpent Sting
Steady Shot

My spec: 2/18/51

I have a number of concerns about staying with this spec however. The biggest is that utilizing (to its fullest extent) [Sniper Training] is not realistic on some fights. Malygos, Sartharion, and Thaddius immediately come to mind. That may not seem like a big deal... just a couple of bosses that I can't make the best of my dps. The problem however... is that these bosses are tuned to be more dps dependent to kill them.

Ah well, I still need to play around more. There's more dps that can be gained from what I'm doing right now... not to mention the dps that can be gained from whatever I'm not doing right now.

Thoughts/Comments? LOLSURVIVAL?

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Contest Winner!

Posted by Anonymous in ,


Congratulations to Smalltoaster, Buckykentuky, Hanamontana, and Skillen for winning the screenshot contest! ZOMG SCARY LAZER CHIKENS!

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3.0.8? /boggle

Posted by Weezzii in , ,

Well it's early in the morning and login screen isn't indicating extended maintenance or information regarding the patch. /collective sigh
However, on the EU side of the game, apparently the patch is going live today...
SO, for the sake of argument we'll assume it's going to come out today and our login screen hasn't been updated because the servers have been down for less than an hour. =)

For everyone who's going to be stuck at work all day, the patch notes being reported from the EU servers can be found by clicking the "Read More..." button below.

General

  • Players may now create death knights on any realm once they reach level 55.
  • Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.
  • Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night Elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You're not seeing things.
  • Racial Resistances: These can now be mitigated against by gaining additional chance to hit.
  • Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.
  • All Silence spells now have diminishing returns. This includes: Arcane Torrent, Garrote silence effect, Improved Counterspell effect, Improved Kick effect, Silence, Gag Order, Silencing Shot, Spell Lock, and Strangulate.
  • Dispel Resist talents have changed to protect only beneficial spells and damage over time effects.
  • Shield Wall, Barkskin, Guardian Spirit, and Divine Protection are now off the Global Cooldown.
  • A new mailbox is now available at the Crows Tavern in the Dalaran Sewers.
  • We have added over 60 new graveyards to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.
  • The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at a bonus 75% speed.
  • Reputation rewarded for killing mobs will no longer automatically deprecate. This means trivial mobs will continue to give out their full amounts of reputation on kill for the majority of cases in the game (level 70 creatures in Stratholme, for example, will continue to award the full amount of rep to level 80 players seeking to boost their Argent Dawn faction).
  • World of Warcraft now supports 3-D imaging. Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/GeForce_3D_Vision_Main.html for more information.

Achievements

  • The Loremaster of Kalimdor Achievement has had its quest amount reduced.
  • The Perma-Peddle Achievement is no longer a part of the "Fool for Love" meta-achievement.
  • The Winds of the North (Horde) has had its requirements changed. This achievement is now earned by getting Exalted with the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition.

PvP

  • Vehicles can now be affected by most player spells, except CC, snares and roots.
  • Arenas
    • Arena rating requirements for all Deadly Gladiator's Arena items have been reduced by 100.
    • All rage and runic power are set to 0 when an Arena begins and the preparation period is over.
    • Ring of Valor: The small pillars will now rise immediately once the arena begins.
  • Battlegrounds
    • Lake Wintergrasp
      • Wintergrasp Commendations can now also be purchased for the low low price of 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor. Players can visit their respective Wintergrasp vendors and put those Marks of Honor to use!
      • Wintergrasp PvP vehicles have had their health increased.
      • Wintergrasp Tower cannons have had their health increased.
      • The Wintergrasp Fortress Exterior walls have had their health increased.
      • The Fortress Keep door now has had its health decreased.
      • The Orb is now instantly clickable.
      • Elementals should now always despawn when the battle begins.
      • Wintergrasp now extends further south so that more revenants can be reached.
      • There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant.
      • Players will be eligible for participation rewards after two honorable kills.
      • Players will receive increased honor with increased rank.
      • Players will receive additional Marks of Honor at Corporal or higher rank.
      • Players will receive corporal rank at 5 honorable kills instead of two.
    • Strand of the Ancients
      • Antipersonnel Turrets will now gain vehicle immunities, use falloff damage, and damage increased to 4000 + 200 per level to compensate for falloff.
      • The Strand of the Ancients Demolisher has had its health increased.
      • The Strand of the Ancients tower cannon has had its health increased.
      • Seaforium charges have been moved closer to the graveyards on the 2nd tier.

    Death Knights

    • All multi-rune abilities generate 15 runic power.
    • Anti-Magic Shell: The cooldown has been lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec.
    • Anti-Magic Zone: This ability's duration has been cut to 10 seconds.
    • Blood Aura now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
    • Blood Presence now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
    • Bloody Strikes will receive extra bonus damage from Pestilence.
    • Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%.
    • Corpse Explosion: Damage increased substantially, added 5 sec. cooldown, and changed cost to 40 runic power.
    • Dark Command: Range increased to 30 yards.
    • Death Pact now grants 40% instead of 20% healing.
    • Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%.
    • Heart Strike no longer has a haste debuff but will now be able to strike two targets.
    • Horn of Winter now has no cost and grants 10 runic power in addition to its stat buff, but has a 20 second cooldown.
    • Howling Blast: Cooldown removed.
    • Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher).
    • Killing Machine: Instead of a chance to be triggered on critical strike, this talent now has a chance to be triggered on each swing based on the swing time of the weapon (slow weapons more likely, fast weapons less likely).
    • Mark of Blood: The total amount of healing this can grant is now capped based on a percentage of standard creature health at the target's level.
    • Night of the Dead now grants 40/70% passive area spell avoidance to your pet in addition to its current effects.
    • Outbreak will no longer receive bonus damage from pestilence. The bonus from Plague Strike and Blood Boil has been increased slightly.
    • Pestilence no longer has a 10 seconds cooldown.
    • Raise Dead has now been split into two spells:
      • Raise Dead now raises a ghoul or pet ghoul (if talented). Requires corpse dust if no humanoid corpse is nearby.
      • Raise Ally now raises a fallen party member as a ghoul and has no reagent. Available at level 72. This should now last for 4 minutes.
    • Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (two-handed only) now grants 25 Defense and 2% Stamina.
    • Rune Strike: Damage decreased from 200% to 150% but threat increased to 150% from 100%.
    • Shadow of Death: The duration has been changed from 45 seconds to 25 secondsseconds and now has a 15 minute cooldown.
    • Summon Gargoyle: Damage dealt by the Gargoyle reduced by approximately 20% and maximum duration cut to 30 seconds.
    • Unholy Blight had had its cost reduced from 60 to 40 runic power.
    • Wandering Plague will now properly reset after being castand now considers the resilience of the target in determining its chance to be triggered.
    • Vampiric Blood (DK) changed from 20% health / 50% healing to 15 % health / 35% healing.
    • Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded. It no longer affects the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell and retains the current damage reduction bonus.

    Druids

    • Aquatic Form is now available from druid trainers at level 16.
    • Celestial Focus (Balance) no longer includes Starfall.
    • Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
    • Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
    • Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
    • Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
    • King of the Jungle - The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
    • Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
    • Nature's Grace - Now also effects Revive.
    • Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
    • Polearms: Now trainable by Druids.
    • Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
    • Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
    • Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
    • Starfall: Instead of canceling shapeshifting, now cancels on shapeshifting into an animal form.
    • Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
    • Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
    • Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.

    Hunters

    • Hunter Aspects are now off the Global Cooldown again. They still have a shared 1 second cooldown.
    • All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
    • Arcane Shot: Mana cost lowered to match the cost of Steady Shot.
    • Aspect of the Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
    • Call of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only the Hunter and their own pet.
    • Deterrence: Design changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to "deflect" spells coming from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking. Lasts 5 seconds and has a 90 second cooldown.
    • Explosive Shot: Damage increased substantially, and additional scaling added to compensate Survival Hunters for the decrease in power of Steady Shot. No longer deals damage to secondary targets.
    • Ferocious Inspiration: This talent now also increase the damage the Hunter does with Arcane Shot by 3/6/9%.
    • Improved Tracking(Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
    • Kill Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
    • Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 30 second cooldown.
    • Readiness: No longer resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
    • Steady Shot: Now gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
    • Serpent's Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
    • Tranquilizing Shot (Hunter): Cooldown increased to 8 sec, up from 6. Mana cost reduced to 8%, down from 12%.
    • Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
    • Viper Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
    • Volley: The damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack power scaling).
    • Pets
      • All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
      • The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Poison (Scorpid) has been lowered.
      • Rake: This hunter pet ability has had its damage adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
      • Scorpid Poison: No longer stacks. The damage has been adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
      • Spirit Strike (hunter pet ability) now has an initial attack (which can crit) and then a single dot. Damage overall is higher.

    Mages

    • Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.
    • Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.
    • Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.
    • Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.
    • Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 25/40/50%.
    • Incanter's Absorption: The amount of spell damage a Mage can gain from this ability is now capped at 5% of the mage's health.
    • Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.
    • Slow Fall is now castable on others.
    • Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).

    Paladins

    • Avenging Wrath: Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Avenging Wrath cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other anymore. Forbearance removed from Avenging Wrath.
    • Divine Protection: The penalty has been removed.
    • Divine Shield: The penalty has been changed so that all damage done is reduced by 50% in place of an attack speed penalty.
    • Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It's a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.
    • Judgements of the Pure: This Holy talent now increases the damage done by Seals and Judgements.
    • Judgement of Wisdom: Now returns a percentage of base mana instead of a percentage of max mana.
    • Sacred Duty: Interaction with Divine Shield and Divine Protection removed, but stamina bonus increased.

    Priests

    • Abolish Disease and Cure Disease can now be cast while in Shadowform.
    • Holy: Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.
    • Levitate is now castable on others.
    • Mana Burn: Now burns a percentage of maximum mana.
    • Shadow
      • Shadowform: You can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting.
      • Vampiric Embrace- Mana cost of this spell has been removed.

    Rogues

    • Cheap Shot: This ability no longer has diminishing returns against anything other than itself.
    • Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
    • Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.
    • Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.

    Shaman

    • All shaman talent points have been refunded. Please visit your trainer to learn spells and abilities.
    • Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
    • Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
    • Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
    • Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
    • Mental Quickness and Static Shock have switched positions in the talent tree.
    • Mental Quickness: Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.
    • Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
    • Tremor Totem's duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
    • Elemental
      • Elemental Oath: In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
      • Elemental Mastery: Redesigned. Now increases the Shaman's critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains at 3 minutes.
      • Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
      • Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
      • New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
      • Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and it's talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
      • Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%

    Warlocks

    • Curse of Agony will now scale better when used with the Glyph of Curse of Agony. Ticks beyond the original duration will do 33% more damage than the ticks that preceded them. i.e. 74 -> 145 -> 217 -> 290.
    • Demon Armor and Demon Skin: Armor increased by approximately 120%.
    • Demonic Circle: The teleport now clears all snare effects.
    • Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
    • Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
    • Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.

    Warriors

    • Bloodthirst: Charges have been decreased to 3, but the effect has been raised to 1% per charge.
    • Fury: Bloodsurge: Now has a chance to trigger from any hit with Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst, or Whirlwind.
    • Fury:Titan's Grip: The hit chance penalty has been removed.
    • Sudden Death: The amount of rage spent on an Execute while Sudden Death is active is now capped at 30 rage. Improved Execute and the Glyph of Execute will still increase the damage done by increasing the amount of rage able to be converted into damage.
    • Taunt: Range increased to 30 yards.

    Professions

    • Alchemy
      • All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create.
      • The Cooldown on Transmute: Titanium has been reduced to 1 day, and the materials required have been simplified.
      • Reduced the cooldown on Northrend Alchemy Research from 7 days to 3 days.
      • The chance to discover a Northrend transmutation has been increased.
      • Changed the Crazy Alchemist Potion so it always gives health and mana. It also grants the benefit of another random potion effect.
      • Potion of Nightmares functionality changed. You can now move to interrupt the effect, and damage taken is no longer increased while you are under the effects of this potion.
      • Added a new recipe for Ethereal Oil to grand master alchemy trainers.
      • You can now discover a recipe for the Elixir of Water Walking with Northrend Alchemy Research.
    • Blacksmithing
      • Reduced the spell power on the Titansteel Guardian to bring it in line with its item level.
      • Increased the material requirements to make high level frost resistance gear created with blacksmithing.
      • Increased the materials required to make several recipes that require cobalt.
      • Added a new recipe for shield reinforcements that increases the block value of shields.
    • Cooking
      • A recipe has been added for Kungaloosh. You can learn this recipe from an NPC in the Dalaran sewers once you have completed the quest 'The Taste Test' in Sholazar Basin.
      • A recipe for the incredible Fish Feast can now be purchased for Dalaran Cooking Awards.
      • Succulent Orca Stew and Shoveltusk Soup have been removed from the requirements for any cooking achievements as they will not be added to the game.
      • A new recipe for Worg Tartare is now available for purchase with Dalaran Cooking Awards. This delicacy imbues hit rating and Stamina upon those brave enough to eat it.
    • Enchanting
      • Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them.
      • Increased the Fire damage inflicted by the Icebreaker weapon enchantment.
      • Reduced the armor penalty granted by the Berserking weapon enchantment.
      • Increased the amount of healing from the Lifeward enchantment.
      • Increased the amount of damage caused by the Icebreaker enchantment.
      • Added a new recipe to enchant bracers with Stamina. You can buy this recipe from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran.
    • Engineering
      • Engineers may now be able to properly engineer Centrifuge Constructs.
      • Reduced the cooldown and increased the duration of the effect for Hyperspeed Accelerators.
      • Added a new recipe for epic plate spell power goggles.
      • Weakness Spectralizers are now usable by druids.
      • The Saronite Bomb recipe now creates a lot more bombs for the same material cost. While this breakthrough was discovered by goblins, all engineers can take advantage of it.
      • Gnomish Lightning Generator has had its cast time and cooldown reduced.
      • The engineering Scrapbot can now repair.
    • Inscription
      • Jessica Sellers, a new vendor in the Dalaran inscription shop, will sell most inscription inks for the cost of one Ink of the Sea. She also sells Snowfall Ink for multiple Inks of the Sea.
      • A new recipe for Glyph of Arcane Blast has been added to Master and Grand Master Inscription trainers.
    • Jewelcrafting
      • Added a new recipe to convert a frozen orb and some green quality gems into several superior quality gems.
      • Reduced the spell power granted by the use effect of the Figurine – Twilight Serpent, but reduced the cooldown significantly.
    • Leatherworking
      • Iceborne Belt pattern skill up range has been increased to the correct range.
      • The epic leg armor patches now require a Frozen Orb in addition to their other materials.
    • Mining
      • Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.
      • Weakened Giants and Iron Rune Sentinels can now be correctly mined.
    • Skinning
      • Increased the critical strike rating granted by ranks 5 and 6 of Master of Anatomy.
      • Carrion Fleshstrippers are now skinnable.
    • Tailoring
      • Reduced the cloth required to make a Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.
      • Simplified the materials required for Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread.
      • Reduced the eternals required to make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread, but increased the number of Iceweb Spider Silk.
      • Greatly reduced the materials required to make the self-only tailoring leg enchants (Master's Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread), but these recipes no longer grant any skill gains.
      • Reduced the training cost for the normal Flying Carpet.
      • Ebonweave now requires the tailor to be in the Maw of Neltharion in Dragonblight to creating it.
      • Spellweave now requires the tailor to be at the Azure Dragonshrine in Dragonblight when creating it.

    Quests

    • The quest, "Scare the Guano Out of Them!" now only requires 10 Darkclaw Guano, down from 15. Also, only the character that scared the bat, or their party, may now loot the guano.
    • Shoveltusk Meat obtained during the quest; "Shoveltusk Soup Again?" is now correctly flagged as a quest item with no sell price.
    • During the quest, "Scalps!" you can no longer use Ahunae's Knife to scalp kills that you aren't tapped to.
    • The path followed by the Har'koa's Kitten during the quest, "I Sense a Disturbance" has been improved.
    • Westguard Sergeants, Winterhoof Braves, and Ethereal Frostworgs should no longer attempt to attack their opposite faction counterparts unless the character controlling them is first attacked.
    • Westguard Sergeant and Winterhoof Brave demoralizing shouts will now only affect the Winterskorn Vrykul and worgs at Skorn.
    • Various fixes to the Queen Angerboda event during the quest, "The Slumbering King".
    • The daily quest, "Shoot 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from 10.

    Dungeons and Raids

    • The Obsidian Sanctum
      • Players will now be affected by Twilight Residue when they leave the Twilight Realm. Twilight Residue grants immunity to Fire and Shadow damage for a few seconds.

    User Interface

    • Chat frames can now be made "Noninteractive". When in this state, they will ignore all clicks.
    • Various filters can now be applied to Achievements.
    • A special UI for chatting with GMs has been added.
    • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

    Items

    • Emblems of Heroism can now be purchased at a 1 to 1 rate using Emblems of Valor.
    • The Darkmoon Faire exotic vendors have been updated with new items.
    • Amberglow Signet now correctly grants Hit Rating.
    • Deadly Gladiator's Refuge has had its 4 piece set bonus changed. It now reduces the cooldown of Swiftmend by 2 seconds.
    • Deadly Gladiator's Staff has had the Agility and Critical strike rating restored to ratios consistent with other instances of the Gladiator's Staff.
    • Dreamwalker Battlegear: The Rip bonus is now 4 seconds instead of 3.
    • Druid Feral Tier 7 Set: The 4 piece bonus now also decreases the cooldown on Tiger's Fury by 3 seconds.
    • Druid Restoration Tier 7 Set: The Rejuvenation bonus has been changed to affect Lifebloom instead.
    • Gifts and Pledges of Adoration for the capital cities are now soulbound.
    • The Flag of Ownership now has only a 60s cooldown to match the 60s duration of the flag.
    • The following crafted weapons have had their stats adjusted to properly reflect their intended power:
      • Corroded Saronite Edge, Corroded Saronite Woundbringer, Cudgel of Saronite Justice, Furious Saronite Beatstick, Saronite Spellblade, Saronite Shiv, Savage Cobalt Slicer, Notched Cobalt War Axe, Sturdy Cobalt Quickblade, Cobalt Tenderizer
    • Living Lashers can now properly be skinned with Herbalism.
    • Players can now open clams while riding a vehicle, sitting, mounted, stealthed, and invisible.
    • Reduced the stats on the Savage Cobalt Slicer to match the weapon's level.
    • Some low-level rogue pvp gloves were accidentally omitted from the patch 3.0.3 update. This has been rectified.
    • Some neglected creatures in Icecrown have found the contents of their pockets.
    • Totem of Hex now correctly grants 165 spell power to Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, up from 85.
    • The white Polar Bear mount is now the proper (larger) size.
    • Glyphs
      • Glyph of Conflagrate now makes it so your Conflagrate spell no longer consumes the Immolate or Shadowflame spell from the target.
      • Glyph of Death and Decay has been changed to grant 20% additional damage instead of its current effect.
      • Glyph of Hammer of Justice: Now increases range by 5 yards instead of increasing stun duration.
      • Glyph of Invisibility duration has been increased.
      • Glyph of Deterrence: Now -10 seconds instead of -20.
      • Glyph of Holy Light now affects friendly targets in a larger radius.
      • Glyph of Horn of Winter now increases the duration by 60 sec.
      • Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Now increases the duration of the effect by a fixed amount of 6 seconds.
      • Glyph of turn evil now also increases the cooldown of your turn evil spell by 8 sec.

    World Environment

    • Incapacitating Shout now has an 8 second duration.
    • Conquered Soul of the Blightcallers are no longer AE immune.
    • Corrected a raid emote in Violet Hold to display the proper creature name.
    • Corrected a redundant aura tooltip for Locust Swarm in Naxxramas.
    • Several creatures in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas did not have Heroic values for hit points and damage.
    • Storm Peaks, Grom'arsh Crash Site - Peon Gakra is now an innkeeper and the zeppelin hull, an inn.

    Bug Fixes

    • Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.
    • Racials
      • Berserking: Can now be used properly while under the affects of Hand of Protection.
      • Heroic Presence: Now works properly in Ghost Wolf Form.
      • Shadowmeld: This ability will now properly restore threat when it is cancelled. In addition, it will correctly remove a player from combat if it is active when that player is the last person left alive that the creature hates. This ability is now also unusable while affected by Faerie Fire.
      • Will of the Forsaken: Using this ability while disoriented would trigger it's cooldown to no affect; it is no longer useable while disoriented.
    • Classes
      • Death Knights
        • Blood Aura Will now always do the correct amount of healing, based on the actual damage taken of the target.
        • Blood Caked Blade: Now does the proper damage amount when triggered by an off-hand weapon.
        • Bloody Strikes: The tooltip for this talent now has correct values.
        • Butchery: Will now always grant 20 runic power, regardless of the creature type killed.
        • Chains of Ice: This ability is no longer able to land on death knights who have Anti-Magic Shell active.
        • Crypt Fever: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. Will also no longer incorrectly increase Death and Decay damage.
        • Corpse Explosion: Fixed a bug where how much Runic Power the Death Knight had was affecting the damage done, and also increased the damage substantially.
        • Dancing Rune Blade: The weapon no longer echoes the Raise Dead and Army of the Dead spells. In addition it will now more closely match the master's damage and will cast Rune Strike when its master does.
        • Death Chill: The effect from this talent will no longer be consumed if Killing Machine is active.
        • Death Pact: This will no longer cause guards to attack the Death Knight.
        • Desecration: will no longer break stealth.
        • Ebon Plague: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. It will no longer stack with Crypt Fever used by another character.
        • Frost Fever: This talent now works properly when spell reflected.
        • Gnaw: This ghoul ability is now able to be set on autocast.
        • Icy Clutch: This will now be applied properly in all cases to targets that gain Frost Fever via the Pestilence ability.
        • Mark of Blood now works correctly with periodic damage.
        • Pestilence: The diseases will now spread correctly even when the damage from Pestilence kills the primary target.
        • Raise Dead no longer puts you in combat when you cast this spell.
        • Shadow of Death: This ability will no longer cause tracking abilities to become inactive when the death knight becomes a ghoul.
        • Tundra Stalker (Rank 1) will now work properly on Death and Decay.
        • Unholy Blight: Will no longer cause spell pushback.
      • Druids
        • Bear Form: This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
        • Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
        • Maim: Tooltip adjusted to match the duration the ability has always had.
        • Opening: Opening doors and objects should no longer cause shapeshifted forms to be cancelled.
        • Rake: The initial damage from this ability is now properly considered bleed damage, and will be increased by Mangle and Trauma.
        • Savage Fury - Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
        • Starfall will no longer cause nearby creatures to become hostile for no apparent reason while the Druid is affected by fear effects. In addition, it will no longer pick ambient creatures as targets.
        • Survival Instincts: The extra health from this ability now persists in all forms, but the ability can only be activated in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form. This prevents the health gain from occurring multiple times if constantly shapeshifting.
        • Swiftmend: Riptide will no longer cause this ability to light up, and this ability will no longer sometimes consume Earthliving off the target.
      • Hunters
        • Aspects: All aspects now have a 1 second global cooldown.
        • Aspect of the Beast: Will now increase Hunter pet attack power by the correct amount.
        • Aspect of the Viper: Beast Lore, Scare Beast, and Tame Beast will no longer trigger mana regeneration from this ability.
        • Call of the Wild: Now only works on the pet and their own master.
        • Carrion Feeder: No longer causes extremely large amounts of threat when the pet gains happiness.
        • Chimera Shot: The secondary effects of this shot will now still be triggered even when the target dies from the ability's damage.
        • Cower: Now longer shares a cooldown with Growl, but has its own separate cooldown.
        • Dust Cloud: This pet ability will now be cast by the pet at the target instead of while they are moving toward the target.
        • Marked for Death: Now works properly for Steady Shot and Glyph of Steady Shot.
        • Master's Call: Now makes the pet immune to roots and snares for the duration as well, allowing the pet to break roots on the target even when the pet is rooted.
        • Nether Shock: Pets will now correctly use this ability on all targets, not just mana users.
        • Noxious Stings: When this talent triggers Wyvern Sting, the Wyvern Sting will now last the proper duration.
        • Owl's Focus: Free abilities will no longer consume this effect.
        • Prowl: This ability will no longer sometimes turn autocast on by itself.
        • Sniper Training: Now increases the damage of Aimed Shot by the correct amount.
        • Spirit Strike: This pet ability's duration and period have both been reduced to 6 seconds.
        • Spore Cloud: This ability will now work properly.
        • Swipe: The tooltip has been adjusted.
        • Tracking: Entering an arena no longer disables tracking types.
        • Fixed a bug that allowed Viper's Sting to target death knights. They are now invalid targets.
      • Mages
        • Arcane Missiles: This spell now only has one chance to trigger Arcane Concentration.
        • Brain Freeze: This talent can now be triggered by Blizzard.
        • Burnout: This talent will now properly charge the mage additional mana when Living Bomb causes a critical strike.
        • Fingers of Frost: This talent can now trigger properly from Frost Armor.
        • Frost Nova: Will now properly overwrite the effect of Shattered Barrier and of Frostbite.
        • Icy Veins: The spell pushback reduction from this talent now works on Frostfire Bolt.
        • Improved Scorch: This talent no longer triggers effects that trigger on casting a spell.
        • Incanter's Absorption: This talent will now work properly when the mage is sitting.
        • Living Bomb: Now triggers Ignite when it causes a critical strike. In addition, the final explosion will now still occur even if the mage is affected by a crowd control effect.
        • Molten Fury: This talent will now interact correctly with Torment the Weak.
        • Precision: Frostfire Bolt will no longer receive double the intended benefit from this talent.
        • Spell Power: Now affects the critical strike chance of Blizzard.
      • Paladins
        • Devotion aura: When mixing two different ranks of this ability in a party, players will no longer sometimes see a spurious second copy of the buff.
        • Hand of Freedom: Now works properly against the froststorm Breath Hunter pet ability.
        • Judgement of Blood, Judgement of Command, and Judgement of the Martyr will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
        • Judgement of Light: The tooltip has been corrected to remove the implication that it only works on melee attacks.
        • Judgement of the Wise: The amount of mana gained has been corrected to match the tooltip.
        • Pure of Heart: This talent will no longer cause Curse of Agony to do more damage than intended.
        • Repentance: Avenger's Shield no longer breaks Repentance, but unfortunately, Seal of Vengeance and Corruption damage will break it again. This will be corrected in a future patch.
        • Righteous Vengeance: This talent will now calculate its damage correctly when the damage is absorbed. In addition this ability will no longer cause excessive damage when refreshed on targets with damage reduction effects active.
        • Seal of Command: The tooltip has been adjusted to show the damage gained from spell power.
        • Shield of Righteousness now properly shares a cooldown for both ranks.
      • Priest
        • Dispersion: This ability can no longer be cast while affected by Cyclone; doing so consumed the cooldown to no effect.
        • Guardian Spirit: It is no longer possible for simultaneous killing blows to trigger the heal from this ability multiple times.
        • Improved Holy Concentration: The tooltip has been rewritten to indicate that this talent reduces cast time rather than providing haste.
        • Mind Flay: Fixed a bug with targeting where you would not deal damage if not facing the target while channeling. Also corrected an issue where the damage from this ability was slightly delayed.
        • Prayer of Mending: Will now only benefit from the healing talents of the priest who cast the original spell.
        • Rapture: This talent will now correctly return mana for Power Word: Shield based on the caster's mana poll instead of the target's mana pool.
        • Shadow Weaving: Shadow Word: Death: Will now only apply one copy of this buff per cast.
        • Shadow Word: Pain now will gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
        • Surge of Light: Prayer of Mending will no longer sometimes cause Surge of Light to trigger on Priests who do not have that talent.
        • Twisted Faith: This talent will no longer sometimes cause Shadow Word: Pain to fail due to a more powerful spell being in effect.
      • Rogues
        • Envenom: The tooltip values have been corrected to be accurate.
        • Fan of Knives: All poisons will now trigger correctly when used with this ability.
        • Honor Among Thieves: The bug where stacking multiple rogues with this talent caused them all to gain additional combo points has been fixed. In addition, it no longer cancels eating and drinking if a party member gains a critical strike while it is active.
        • Killing Spree: This ability no longer breaks stealth if it fails due to all targets being out of range.
        • Mutilate: this ability will no longer give poisons on the off-hand weapon two chances to be triggered.
        • Turn the Tables: This talent no longer generates threat when it triggers.
      • Shaman
        • Chain Heal: This spell will now give an invalid target error message if the primary target is a totem.
        • Earth Shield: Now correctly uses the Shaman's own spell critical strike chance to determine the chance of a critical heal.
        • Elemental Shields was reducing flat physical damage, not a percentage. Now properly reduced by a percentage.
        • Lava Lash - Fixed a bug which allowed you to use the ability even if you had a shield in offhand. Now requires a 1hand axe, fist or dagger to be able to be used.
        • Fixed a bug where Thunderstorm (Elemental) was knocking back 15 yards, instead of 20. It should now roughly knockback the correct length of 20 yards.
        • Magma Totem: Fixed a bug that capped the damage of this ability at too low of a level.
        • Resistance Totems: Players will no longer see two copies of these buffs when two shamans cast the totems simultaneously.
        • Spirit Walk: This Feral Spirit ability will now properly clear roots and snares from the Shaman master.
        • Stoneclaw Totem: The tooltip has been revised to indicate the damage absorb shield also works on the Stoneclaw Totem itself.
      • Warlock
        • Warlock Pets: Some pets were not properly classified to receive correct creature scaling for Wrath of the Lich King. Their health and damage done will now be higher.
        • Corruption will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
        • Create Healthstone: Attempting to create a healthstone when you already have one no longer consumes mana or triggers the cooldown of this ability.
        • Demonic Circle: Teleport: the button for this ability will now darken when the Warlock is out of range of the Demonic Circle and will light up when the Warlock is in range.
        • Demon Power Scaling: Spell power gained from spirit via the Fel Armor ability will now properly affect the scaling of spell power and attack power on summoned demons.
        • Drain Mana: This spell will no longer cancel when the target's mana poll is low or the caster's mana poll is full. It also now generates a very small amount of threat instead of no threat.
        • Everlasting Affliction: Will now calculate correct damage values for Corruption when it is refreshed in all cases.
        • Haunt: Will now gain correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target. In addition, this ability is now limited to a single target as intended. This also now works properly when refreshed on its current target.
        • Mana Feed: This talent will no longer sometimes fire for warlocks who do not have the talent.
        • Master Conjuror: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not increase the damage bonuses of Firestones or Spellstones.
        • Metamorphosis: The bonus armor effect from this ability will now calculate properly and interact correctly with armor buffs and debuffs.
        • Ritual of Doom: A Doomguard summoned with this spell will now scale properly from its master's stats.
        • Shadow Embrace: This ability will now create a separate debuff stack for each Warlock with the talent, and each warlock will benefit properly from his or her own debuff.
        • Soul Siphon: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
        • Unstable Affliction: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
      • Warrior
        • Bladestorm: Fixed a bug where sometimes stuns and roots would not be removed properly when this ability is used.
        • Damage Shield: Rank 1 of this ability now works properly.
        • Heroic Throw no longer triggers the snare from Mage Frost Armor.
    • PvP
      • The Wintergrasp Aura should now properly update in all instances, transferring the buff when the zone control changes.
      • Arena: Dalaran Sewer: The Flush effect which pushes players out will now also remove the ability to use Demonic Circles summoned during the arena start time.
    • Items
      • Idol of the Emerald Queen: This idol was providing greater healing than implied by its tooltip. It has been reduced to correct value.
      • Glyph of Ambush: This glyph will now interact correctly with Initiative when Ambush is used outside of combat range.
      • Glyph of Charge: The stun from Charge will now work properly when Charge is used with the extra range from this glyph.
      • Glyph of Corpse Explosion: Additional explosions from this glyph will no longer consume Unholy Runes.
      • Glyph of Rejuvenation: The heal from this glyph is now properly considered a periodic heal.
      • Gronstalker Set: The Aspect of Viper bonus from this set has been changed to work correctly with the redesigned Aspect of the Viper.
      • Mana Potions: Warriors and Death Knights now receive a correct error message when attempting to use mana potions.
      • Scrolls: Buffs from scrolls can now only be overwritten by more powerful scrolls.
      • Soul Preserver: This item will now interact correctly with Desperate Prayer, Lay on Hands, Riptide, and Wild Growth.

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Blending "casual" with progression...

Posted by Weezzii in ,

Another topic over at World of Matticus caught my attention.
In this reader submitted topic, Sydera (a writer on WoM) responds to Adam, an individual having problems with his "casual raiding guild."
Adam wrote:

"So, as a mixed minority I hate generalizing… but I seem to be having a problem in my guild concerning ::duhn duhn duhn:: DPS classes. Tank/Healers tend to enjoy their positions and willingly choose to do them. They read strategies, the seek out gear upgrades in their free time, they put effort into the game. As of late the DPS classes have been showing up expecting amazing loot without wanting to work for it...


...Our guild is sizable enough to be running 25 mans every week, but the DPS classes aren’t pulling their weight. None of them will run Heroics to get their own gear, they expect as many drops as the people who have put effort in… none of them read boss strats so I’m forced to review every boss fight beforehand and we still wipe.

I KNOW things can be better because when our “best” do 10mans (just for the hell of it now, no one needs the gear) we can clear everything in one shot with 2 healers (myself and a Resto Druid). Hell, I’ve seen PUGs do better in 25mans than some of my guildmates.

The problem, then, is two-fold:

a) If I don’t let the sub-par DPS into the raids we won’t have enough for Naxx25. No matter how good the rest are you can’t clear it with 15 people. And in a lot of cases the bad DPSers actually hinder our performance (ie putting Grobbulus clouds in awful places, failing to make the jump on Thaddius and then rushing into the fray with an opposite charge, etc).

b) There are a lot of 2 or 3 friend groups within my guild. One is a good player, but he wanted his friends to come along too. They suck, and I can’t say no to them without the good player being hurt, etc. And when I say suck, I’m talking people in 50% Naxx10 or better epics doing 1,000 DPS. I’m not kidding. I did that at level 70 with my Priest in shadow and we currently have a few mages and warlocks consistently performing under the 1,500 mark with full raid buffs.

Recruiting isn’t helping much. I don’t get many people expressing interest in joining and the ones who do message me aren’t exactly cream of the crop. Am I screwed? Should I take my ten best players and start from scratch? Should those ten and I try to merge into another guild? I’ve led guilds since level 60 and I usually have a good idea how to proceed. Right now I’m at an absolute loss."


My post below this point is in partial response to Sydera's article about this -- which if you're at all interested in this topic, you should read because it's very good. It can be found here: - link -


The essence of this problem and answer really only hits home to a small percentage of folks out there. It's a great question... along with it a great answer from Sydera.
There's a couple of small things I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective on, being that this is one of those "there is no black and white - only gray" type of situations.

I'm a GM of what I would consider a "casual raiding guild." In most cases I would agree that the principles behind such guilds are exactly as stated in this article... and I would also agree that in most cases they are mutually exclusive.
BUT, they certainly do not have to be.
One thing to think about in creating/leading a casual raiding guild is that "casual" does not have to mean "sloppy," though normally it does.
As a matter of definition, I think a casual raiding guild is a guild that does not raid as frequently as a "hardcore" raiding guild. It's a light schedule... 2 nights a week for our guild. Simply because we raid less does not mean that we don't take our raids seriously in the sense that we ARE in raids to kill bosses and not waste what little time we spend in a raid setting.

Being a GM of a casual raiding guild isn't terribly different than being the GM of a hardcore raiding guild. Forming a competent raid group capable of killing {insert next boss} is where your "large scale" focus remains. However, that isn't to say that small scale things wait at every turn for you.
Adam's position is very difficult... and I think the methods to rectifying it are aptly stated by Sydera. Those are the 3 easiest, clearly defined options available.
While you think about this Adam, or anyone in a similar position, you *really* need to hash out an objective for your guild. That goes for an existing guild or for a guild-soon-to-be-made. Having clear objectives removes many would-be issues from a guild situation.

Being a casual raiding guild does not mean that the approach to guild leadership should be casual. Some sort of structure/guidance needs to be in place to ensure the objective is being properly worked towards.
If you're going to go the route of taking 10 friends and making a new guild, you need to be applying this thought-process WHILE you make the guild.



Ask yourself some questions before hand...
(these are all just off-the-cuff type responses)

Is this a raiding guild? Yes.

Does that mean that we raid the same thing over and over again... or have a mindset for progression? Progression.

How many times per week will we raid? 2.

What nights will we raid? Wednesday... and either Friday or Saturday.

[this is not a question] EXPECT attendance. Being casual is cool, but not meeting the objective is not. It's not a science... but simply expect people to be there around 90% of the time.

What are your expectations of a raider? Reading up on the class.... "x" amount of dps for some... the best gems/enchants available... being focused on the boss and not making animal noises on vent or something else distracting.

What sort of loot system will be in place? Loot Council.. 3 officers, 3 members... and the GM will be the tie-breaker if needed.



Sort these questions out BEFORE you begin inviting people to your guild. This is bare-bones basic stuff here.
I mention it in this format because people fail at guild creation before the guild has even taking one step forward.
While recruiting/inviting talk to EACH person... tell them the answers to all of the above questions. They need to know that attendance is expected on those days. It is simply not practical for you to invite people to your guild that will only ever make it to 1 of your 2 raids per week. If something comes up with a guild member down the road that changes their situation to only being able to raid once per week, that's fine. Cross that bridge when you come to it.

In this initial talk with each person prior to their invite will give way to the dreaded "friend question."
You have a good player that wants his friend/spouse/girlfriend to join too. Your knee-jerk reaction SHOULD BE "no," but you're response does not have to be.
Explain to them that this is a raiding guild. THIS PERSON is being recruited to raid, their friend is not. You have no problem with friends/spouses joining the guild, but they are not joining the guild under the context that they will EVER be invited to a raid. If they can't accept that, then your guild isn't for them.
Does it suck to potentially lose people due to this? Absolutely.
Will it happen often? In my experience, no. (perhaps once or twice in a couple years)

Friends will join and accept the guild's rule or they will choose not to join at all, and the two friends will find ways to run small stuff together happily without being in the same guild.
You really need to hammer home the idea that these "friends" will not be filling raid spots -- there can be no question in their minds at all.

When you start to build up your player-base, you will have a group of individuals that knows what their expected role in the guild is -- be it raider, or simple friend.
Having friends in the guild is a good thing because in many cases it does in fact make people a little happier about the situation (particularly in a "casual" guild). Secondly, on those nights where a couple of your raiders can't make it, you have a few people to pull from the guild (who aren't expecting it) without hitting up the LFG channel.


As far as tackling this issue with an existing guild... that's different - BUT, still doable.
First things first: have a meeting with your Officers, if you have any.
Lay out the problem. -- (example) We have a lot of people in the guild, some are terrible at raiding and don't intend on improving, this is supposed to be a casual raiding guild... not a casual wiping guild.
Re-define to them what YOUR ideal guild is. Why? Because you're the GM. You may be a "people's guild"... but ultimately it does have a figurehead, and you're it. As long as that doesn't go to your head, then decisions you make will be fine.
When the Officers are in-line with your thinking and understand the guild is not what you had planned on it being, accept the fact that you are part of the reason the guild got to this point... and you're going to be a part of fixing it.
Go back through the questions listed above with your Officers. Officers will either fall into your criteria or not, just like every other player.
After that... bring the information to the guild. "Changes are on the horizon.. etc etc"

If you have a guild website/forum, that's the best place to do this... if you don't, use the "info" tabs in each tab of the guild bank. You can put some information in each tab to make the information available to everyone. Then, change the guild message of the day to tell people to read those tabs.... and have the gmotd spammed occasionally throughout any given day.
Talk to the individuals in the guild that you want on your raid roster. Use one of the guild bank tabs for this so it's highly visible who is on a priority for raid slots.
Still short on people? Don't raid for a week if still need to recruit.
Don't re-organize the entire guild and then just turn around and invite 10 "friends" to fill raid slots in your first week... that'd be like shooting yourself in the foot. Take the time to get that raid team how you need it to be to meet YOUR objectives... then press on.

Are people going to call you tyrannical? Probably a small handful will.. but that's only because your vision for the guild does not fit into their grand plans. And guess what?.. That is 100% O.K.
There is no reason every guild should be for every person. Make your guild have an objective and a purpose... people that can share your objectives and purpose will WANT to be there - which is exactly who YOU WANT to be there.

Being a GM doesn't mean that you need to be flexible or inflexible to every issue that comes down the river. It does mean that you need to pick a side of the fence to be on most of the time, though. Being truthful to people (even if it could potentially hurt their feelings) doesn't necessarily make you an ass. Use some tact and get your point across, it'll be better for you and for them.

Anyway... that's my take on it.
You have the ability to change your own situation.
Good luck!

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World Events: To Honor One's Elders Achievements

Posted by Anonymous in , ,

Beginning on January 24th at 6:00am, the Lunar Festival World Event will begin unlocking several achievements and the another required meta-achievement for [What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been]. This world event will be considerably easier than previous events as far as RNG is concerned as there really isn't any "luck based" achievements. Rather, this achievement will require a lot of traveling and patience to complete. In order to make your lives (and who am I kidding, myself too!) easier, here is a brief rundown of all the Lunar Festival achievements and necessary information needed to accomplish them!


[Elders of Eastern Kingdoms], [Elders of Kalimdor], [Elders of the Horde], [Elders of the Alliance] - All four of these achievements require pretty much the same thing. You need to visit all of the listed locations and speak with the elder present there. Once you speak with him/her, you complete the quest/achievement and receive a [Coin of Ancestry]. Wowwiki.com has an absolutely fantastic guide to knock out all four of these in an extremely efficient manner, and so I wouldn't even bother trying to put my own guide together. The guide can be found here.

[Elders of Northrend] - Same deal as above...you just need to visit the people listed. The one hitch is that I don't have coordinates as of right now because this will be the first Lunar Festival in Northrend...but the listings give a general idea.

[Elders of the Dungeons] - Same deal again...just need to run the dungeons listed and scope out the Elders found inside.

[50 Coins of Ancestry] - If you've done the world Elder achievements, this is an automatic achievement.

[The Rocket's Red Glare] - You need to simply shoot of 10 [Red Rocket Cluster]s in 25 seconds or less. These rockets can be bought from Lunar Festival Vendors in all major old world cities, and the launchers for the rockets are nearby. Another easy knock out.

[Elune's Blessing] - You need to complete the [Elune's Blessing] quest given by Valadar Starsong in Moonglade (53,35). The quest itself is to kill Omen (the monster pictured above), but one thing to note is that in previous Lunar Festivals you don't actually have to participate in the kill. You simply just need to stand on his corpse.

[Lunar Festival Finery] - You simply need to purchase a festive pant suit or festive dress in order to complete this achievement. Such articles of clothing can be purchased for 5 Coins of Ancestry from Valadar Starsong.

[Frenzied Firecracker] - Easy enough. Just purchase 10 [Festival Firecracker]s from Lunar Festival vendors and pop them on the ground.

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Looking back, I'm not really sure how much of a necessity this guide was/is to the average player. Most of the achievements are pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to compile at least a list of links to make your searching easier. I hope this was helpful, and good luck on getting your "Elder" title!

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Reins of the Azure Drake

Posted by Weezzii in , , , ,

Well... we've spent practically no time in the Malygos encounter on 25man. Due to our rather short weekly raid schedule of 2 days (and sometimes 1), we just haven't had the opportunity to sit down and really hash out the fight for much more than an hour or hour and a half.

On Wednesday we cleared out Naxx however and opened up tonight for Malygos attempts. Attempts 1 and 2 were both solid, but a little weak on dps in phase 2, and group failure in sticking together during phase 3.
Our third attempt cleared up those trouble areas and we pulled off a very smooth kill... I think losing 4 people by the end of the encounter. And as luck would have it, on our first Malygos kill [Reins of the Azure Drake] dropped.

We use a voting system for distributing mounts that drop from 25man encounters... so, congratulations to Taimatala on her new mount.


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Ventrilo Woes No More

Posted by Weezzii in ,

On par with the annoyance of the [Toy Train Set], are the variations of how people are heard when they come into the vent channel. Some folks come in incredibly loud and others sound like they left their microphone in the glove compartment of their car. Then, on occasion you have the individual that logs into the game from different computers and uses a different headset n' such.

Thankfully, Ventrilo is equipped to handle such nuisances. I heard about this function about a year ago... I looked for info about it and then didn't find a definitive answer, so I just continued to subscribe to my method of changing every person on the vent server.

Well... the info is out there and easily located these days, so here ya go -

How to set up your Ventrilo client to make everyone come across at approximately the same volume:
Step 1: Go to "Setup" on your Ventrilo client
Step 2: Enable the "direct sound" options
Step 3: Click the "SFX" button
Step 4: From the list on the right, select "Compressor" and then click "Add".
Step 5: In the "Compressor" properties use the following settings:
-------- Gain: 10 (I have mine set to 10. This adjusts how loud you will hear other people, so depending on your computer's set volume, you may have to go a little higher or lower.)
-------- Attack: 0.01
-------- Release: Around 500
-------- Threshold: Around -30
-------- Ratio: 100
-------- Pre delay: 4.0
Step 6: Click OK for all 3 windows, and you're done.

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Achievement Guide: The Argent Dawn

Posted by Anonymous in , , ,

In my continued search for more achievements, I have been weighing my options as to what type of achievements to attack next. While working on my Eastern Kingdom Loremaster achievement, I ran the old world instances of Stratholme (Eastern Plague Lands) and Scholomance (Western Plague Lands) several times. At 80, no matter what class or spec you play, you can easily clear these instances in no time at all. The reputation associated with many of the quests in EPL and in Scholomance is the old world faction The Argent Dawn, who has found a WotLK revitalization in the faction of the Argent Crusade. Gaining exalted with the Argent Crusade is fairly easy seeing as all you need to do is run level 80 heroics, but gaining exalted with the Argent Dawn is slightly trickier. Achieving this task will be the focus of this guide!

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Achievement Focus:
- [The Argent Dawn] - Exalted with the Argent Dawn - 15 Achievement Points
- [The Argent Crusade] - Exalted with the Argent Crusade - 15 Achievement Points
- [The Argent Champion] - Exalted with the Argent Dawn and Crusade - 25 Achievement Points
- 55 Achievement Points Total

So how do you grind exalted reputation with The Argent Dawn? The easiest way that I have found is chain running Undead Stratholme (using the side entrance with The Key to the City) to collect [Corrupter's Scourgestones]. These stones drop from many of the bosses in UD Strat and can be turned in each for a total of 150 Argent Dawn reputation. In order to collect these stones, you must kill the boss while having your [Argent Dawn Commission] equipped. Clicking on the map above outlines the easiest path to take for killing bosses and collecting as many Corrupter's Scourgestones as possible per run. The numbers on the map correspond to the following bosses:

1. The Unforgiven
2. Baroness Anastari
3. Maleki the Pallid
4. Nerub'enkan
5. Magistrate Barthilas
6. Ramstein the Gorger
7. Baron Rivendare
Red Square - Hearthsinger Forresten

The first seven bosses are always there, and Hearthsinger Forresten sometimes (but not always) spawns as the locations posted. Killing each of these bosses and collecting their stones delivered either 1350-1500 reputation per run (depends on whether you get Hearthsinger...Baron Rivendare also awards 300 reputation per kill). As a resto Druid at level 80, I was able to complete the full circuit in about 15 minutes per run, and so grinding this reputation through this method above will prove to be both quick and easy for any class. Happy reputation grinding to those of you who wish to pursue this achievement!

EDIT REGARDING HEARTHSINGER FORRESTEN: He does have a third spawn point which is a bit further beyond the "1" on the map. I didn't include it because I personally consider it to be further out of the way than I want to go, but in order to appease Rick, I wanted to point this out!

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As for comments, I am really interested to know if you readers find these guides interesting or at least mildly helpful. Any suggestions on how I can improve them? Any other type of info I should include? Also, if you have an suggestions about a particular achievement you would like a guide for (as long as I can figure out how to make one :P), please send me an e-mail at wwotblog@gmail.com.

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Current Achievement Points: 4880
Recent Achievements
- The Northrend Gourmet
- 100 Emblems of Valor
- 20 Exalted Reputations
- Ambassador of the Horde
- Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms

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