88 MPH!! Speed to get to the new War of the Ancients Raid? Maybe.

[chaos5061]

4.3 New Mounts. Ghost Mounts.

From Blizzard:

[chaos5061]

Tier 13 Set Bonuses.

From Blizzard:

While we’ve been previewing the visuals of tier 13 on the front page at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com, we thought you might be interested in the magics that lay imbued betwixt their stitches and plating. Behold -- the tier 13 set bonuses!

Please keep in mind that the below data is pre-PTR and could change prior to the release of patch 4.3.


Death Knight

Blood, 2P -- When an attack drops your health below 35%, one of your Blood Runes will immediately activate and convert into a Death Rune for the next 20 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 sec.Blood, 4P -- Your Vampiric Blood ability also affects all party and raid members for 50% of the effect it has on you.
DPS, 2P -- Sudden Doom has a 30% chance and Rime has a 60% chance to grant 2 charges when triggered instead of 1.DPS, 4P -- Runic Empowerment has a 25% chance and Runic Corruption has a 40% chance to also grant 710 mastery rating for 12 sec when activated.

Druid

Balance, 2P -- Insect Swarm increases all damage done by your Starfire, Starsurge, and Wrath spells against that target by 3%.Balance, 4P -- Starsurge generates 100% extra Lunar or Solar energy while Eclipse is not active.
Feral, 2P -- While Berserk is active, Savage Defense absorbs are 100% larger, and your Blood in the Water talent now causes Ferocious Bite to refresh the duration of your Rip on targets with 60% or less health.Feral, 4P -- Frenzied Regeneration also affects all raid and party members, and your Stampede talent now grants two charges after using Feral Charge (Cat).
Restoration, 2P -- After using Innervate, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for 15 sec.Restoration, 4P -- Your Rejuvenation and Regrowth spells have a 10% chance to Timeslip and have double the normal duration.

Hunter

2P -- Steady Shot and Cobra Shot generate double the amount of focus.4P -- Your Arcane Shot ability has a chance to grant 25% haste to you and your pet for 10 sec.

Mage

2P -- Your damaging spells have a 30% chance to grant Stolen Time, increasing your haste rating by 50 for 30 sec and stacking up to 10 times. When Arcane Power, Combustion, or Icy Veins expires, all stacks of Stolen Time are lost.4P -- Each stack of Stolen Time also reduces the cooldown of Arcane Power by 3 sec, Combustion by 4 sec, and Icy Veins by 6 sec.

Paladin

Holy, 2P -- After using Divine Favor, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for 15 sec.Holy, 4P -- Increases the healing done by your Holy Radiance spell by 20%.
Protection, 2P -- Your Judgement ability now also grants a physical absorb shield equal to 30% of the damage it dealt.Protection, 4P -- Reduces the cooldown of Divine Guardian by 60 sec and increases the radius of its effect by 70 yards.
Retribution, 2P -- Your Judgement ability has a 50% chance to generate 1 Holy Power.Retribution, 4P -- While Zealotry is active your abilities deal 12% more damage.

Priest

Healer, 2P -- After using Power Infusion or Lightwell, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for [10|15] sec. (10 sec for Discipline, 15 for non-Discipline.)Healer, 4P -- Your Power Word: Shield has a 10% chance to absorb 100% additional damage, and the cooldown of your Holy Word abilities is reduced by 20%.
Shadow, 2P -- Shadow Word: Death deals an additional 55% damage, and you no longer take damage from your own Shadow Word: Death when the target fails to die.Shadow, 4P -- Your Shadowfiend and Shadowy Apparitions have a 100% chance to grant you 3 Shadow Orbs each time they deal damage.

Rogue

2P -- After triggering Tricks of the Trade, your abilities cost 20% less energy for 6 sec.4P -- Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 sec, Adrenaline Rush by 3 sec, and Vendetta by 9 sec.

Shaman

Elemental, 2P -- Elemental Mastery also grants you 400 mastery rating 15 sec.Elemental, 4P -- Each time Elemental Overload triggers, you gain 200 haste rating for 4 sec, stacking up to 3 times.
Enhancement, 2P -- While you have any stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and healing spells deal 20% more healing or damage.Enhancement, 4P -- Your Feral Spirits have a 45% chance to grant you a charge of Maelstrom Weapon each time they deal damage.
Restoration, 2P -- After using Mana Tide Totem, the cost of your healing spells are reduced by 25% for 15 sec.Restoration, 4P -- Increases the duration of Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 sec, and you gain 30% haste while Spiritwalker's grace is active.

Warlock

2P -- The duration of your Doomguard and Infernal summons is increased by [15|45] sec and the cooldown of of those spells is reduced by 4 min. (45 for Demonology, 15 for non-Demonology.)4P -- Soulburn grants a 10% increase to your spell power for 10 sec.

Warrior

Protection, 2P -- Your Revenge ability now also grants a physical absorption shield equal to 20% of the damage done by Revenge.Protection, 4P -- Your Shield Wall ability now grants 50% of its effect to all party and raid members.
DPS, 2P -- Heroic Strike costs 10 less rage while Inner Rage is active.DPS, 4P -- Your Execute critical strikes have a 20% chance to refresh the duration of Colossus Smash.

[chaos5061]

4.3 on PTR within the week.

From Blizzard:
We're intent on getting the 4.3 Public Test Realms up potentially within the next week.

As you mentioned, there's still a lot of work to be done on this patch, so a lot of the content will be rolled onto the test realms over time. Transmogrification, Void Storage, some balance changes, and several UI updates/improvements will likely make the PTR right away. The dungeon/raid content, legendary questline, Dungeon Finder updates, and especially Raid Finder are still very much works in-progress

[chaos5061]

4.3 is on the PTR now. Looking for patch notes will post when I find them.

[chaos5061]

Notes incoming.

[chaos5061]

4.3 PTR Notes 9-27 Pt.1

From Blizzard:

General

Transmogrification
This new feature allows players to customize their gear like never before. You'll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.

Void Storage
In addition to the bank, players will now have access to a new "deep storage" system, allowing characters to free bag space by setting aside coveted gear. You'll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.

Reforging
The former Reforging vendors have been... retired. The ethereals have chosen to take over the business and joined their Transmogrification and Void Storage service providers. You'll find them in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.

Outland & Northrend Quest Flow
The amount of experience needed to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by approximately 33%.

Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.

Relevant questgivers have been moved into Outland and Northrend dungeons. The majority of dungeon quests for these zones are now available from within their respective dungeons.

North American realms (excluding Brazilian, Latin American, and Oceanic realms) no longer permit letters with accents in character or guild names. Existing character and guild names with special characters will be unaffected by this change.

Achievements
The achievement Master of Alterac Valley no longer requires the Alterac Valley Blitz achievement.

Classes: General

All raid and party buffs which grant group members 10% increased attack power have been changed slightly. They continue to provide 10% increased ranged attack power, but now provide 20% increased melee attack power.

Abomination's Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.

Blessing of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.

Runescroll of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this consumable has been increased to 16%, up from 8%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 8%.

Trueshot Aura: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.

Unleashed Rage: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.

Vengeance for Protection warriors, Protection paladins, Blood death knights, and Feral druids has been redesigned slightly. It no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken by the tank generates Vengeance equal to 33% of the damage taken by that attack. In addition, as it updates periodically during the fight, it's always set to at least 33% of the damage taken by the tank in the last 2 seconds. It still climbs from that point at the rate it did previously, still decays when damage is not taken, and still cannot exceed a maximum based on the health and Stamina of the tank.

Threat generated by classes in active tanking modes has been increased to 500% damage done, up from 300%. This applies to druids in Bear Form, death knights in Blood Presence, warriors in Defensive Stance, and paladins with Righteous Fury active.

Death Knights
Death Strike now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.

Blood
Blade Barrier has been redesigned. It now passively reduces damage taken.

Bone Shield now has 6 charges, up from 4.

Veteran of the Third War now reduces the cooldown of Outbreak by 30 seconds.

Druids
Wrath has a new spell effect.

Restoration
Wild Growth healing has been reduced by 20%.

Glyphs
Glyph of Shred has been renamed Glyph of Bloodletting, and now also causes Mangle (Cat) to extend the duration of Rip, in addition to its existing Shred functionality.

Glyph of Wild Growth now also increases the cooldown on Wild Growth by 2 seconds.

Hunters
Coming soon.


Mages
Coming soon.

Paladins
Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target. That target is imbued with Holy Radiance, which heals them and all group members within 10 yards instantly, and continues to heal them by a smaller amount every 1 second for 3 seconds.

Seal of Insight, when Judged, no longer returns 15% base mana to the paladin.

Judging Seal of Insight still causes damage, and melee attacks will still restore 4% of base mana.

Holy
Clarity of Purpose now also reduces the cast time of Holy Radiance.

Illuminated Healing (mastery) now also applies to Holy Radiance.

Infusion of Light now applies its cast time reduction from Holy Shock critical effects to Holy Radiance, in addition to its current effects.

In addition to providing haste, the effect from Judgements of the Pure now increases mana regeneration from Spirit by 10/20/30% for 60 seconds.

Light of Dawn now affects 6 targets (base effect), up from 5.

Paragon of Virtue now lowers the cooldown of Divine Protection by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20 seconds.

Speed of Light no longer triggers from Holy Radiance and no longer lowers the Holy Radiance cooldown. Speed of Light now only triggers from Divine Protection.

Tower of Radiance, in addition to its current effects, now also causes Holy Radiance to always generate 1 charge of Holy Power at all times.

Glyphs
Glyph of Light of Dawn now lowers the number of targets to 4, instead of increasing targets to 6, but increases healing by 25%.

[chaos5061]

4.3 PTR Notes 9-27 Pt.2

Priests
Divine Hymn now affects 5 targets, up from 3.

Discipline
Atonement will now account for the target enemy's combat reach when calculating proper range, enabling it to be used on large creatures such as Ragnaros and Ala'kir.

Divine Aegis has a new spell effect.

Holy
Spirit of Redemption has been rebuilt to address a few functionality issues and make it more responsive. Spirit of Redemption otherwise remains unchanged.

State of Mind has been redesigned and is now called Heavenly Voice. Heavenly Voice increases the healing done by Divine Hymn by 50/100%, and reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 2.5/5 minutes.

Glyphs
Glyph of Circle of Healing now also increases the mana cost of Circle of Healing by 20%.

Rogues
Coming soon.

Shaman
Flametongue Weapon no longer increases spell damage. It now increases all non-physical damage done by the wielder by 5%.

Lightning Bolt has a new spell effect.

Wind Shear now has a 25-second base cooldown, up from 6 seconds.

Elemental
Call of Flame no longer causes Fire Nova to extend the duration of Flame Shock.
Earthquake damage has been increased by roughly 75%.
Elemental Fury now removes the cooldown from Chain Lightning.
Reverberation now reduces the cooldown of Wind Shear by 10/20 seconds, up from 0.5/1 second.

Enhancement
Improved Lava Lash now causes Lava Lash to spread a Flame Shock debuff from the target to up to 4 nearby targets. This excludes crowd-controlled targets and those who already have a Flame Shock debuff from the shaman.
Improved Lava Lash no longer increases base Lava Lash damage by 15/30%. This increase has been rolled into the base Lava Lash skill.

Mental Quickness has been redesigned. Instead of granting the shaman spell power, Mental Quickness now causes Enhancement shaman spells to behave as though the shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power. Enhancement shaman spells no longer benefit from spell power from other sources.

Restoration
Ancestral Healing now also causes the shaman's heals to increase the target's maximum health by 5/10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of the target's maximum health, for 15 seconds. This effect does not stack if multiple Restoration shaman are present, and does not apply to heals from procs.

Riptide's periodic healing coefficient has been increased by 50%. The initial direct heal is unchanged.

Warlocks
Shadow Bolt has a new spell effect.

Warriors
Coming soon.

Dungeons & Raids
Dungeon Journal entries have been added for the new dungeons: End Time, Well of Eternity, Hour of Twilight, and Dragon Soul.

Bosses in Ruins of Ahn'qiraj now drop a rare-quality Scarab Coffer Key which can be used to open the Scarab Coffers found within. These keys are zone-bound to Ruins of Ahn'qiraj and have a 17-hour expiration. This change also applies to Greater Scarab Coffer Keys used to open Large Scarab Coffers.

Races
The orc racial Blood Fury now increases spell power rather than only spell damage.

User Interface
Archaeology areas of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.

Bag Search
A search field has been added to allow players to search bag, bank, guild bank, and Void Storage inventories for specific items.

Guilds with inactive guild leaders can now usurp the leader under specific conditions. More information on this coming soon.

The Reforging interface has been updated and improved.

Quest Tracking areas or points of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.

The World Map now displays the expected character levels for each zone.

General Bug Fixes
Coming soon.

[chaos5061]

Explanation of 4.3 Balance Changes, Part One. Pt.1

From Blizzard:
Back in June, I wrote a blog explaining the context behind some of the changes in the upcoming patch that might not be intuitively obvious. That blog ended up being one of the most popular ones we’ve ever done; even players who disagreed with the specific changes appreciated our explanations for what we were trying to accomplish. Therefore, we’d like to continue in that fashion and we figured there was no reason to wait until 4.3 was “on the shelves” to get the ball rolling.



One note before I dive into things. If you haven’t read the previous blog, “Rate of Change,” now might be a good time. There are some changes that we want to make to class mechanics or balance in general that we don’t think are fair or appropriate to spring on players in the middle of an expansion. These include things like the power of interrupts or the active mitigation model we want to implement for tanks. We’ll get there, but in short term we fundamentally believe that it’s important to pick our battles.



On with the show. Note that most of these changes are mechanics changes. We have not yet finished enough testing to be confident in our benchmark damage, healing, and tanking numbers for 4.3. When we finish those, and when we see what some players are capable of doing on the PTR (or even what they theorycraft or sim based on PTR numbers) there will be additional changes. Off the top of my head, I’d say Fury warrior damage is almost certainly too high and Resto druid AE healing (ignoring the effects of Tranquility of course) is also too potent.



You’ll also notice some classes aren’t mentioned at all. It’s possible we’re just happy with them, but it’s more likely we just haven’t gotten to them yet. We don’t want to hold a PTR until every single thing is done, because that minimizes test time.



Melee DPS



Overall, we think melee DPS in dungeons and raids is still too low. We think melee DPS is fine in PvP, and we think melee DPS is competitive against ranged specs against target dummies, but in actual encounters with all of their moving pieces, melee falls behind. To attempt to adjust for this imbalance, we have improved the benefit to attack power given by the various raid buffs (Blessing of Might et al.) to melee only. Hunter DPS is fine, or even high in 4.2, so we didn’t want this buff to extend to them, which is why the AP benefit is now 20% for melee attacks but still 10% for ranged attacks.



Vengeance



As promised, we allow for this tanking mechanic to now ramp up quickly when the tank is taking damage.



Death Knight



We discussed some of our Blood changes in a recent blog. We wanted to make it less punitive for DKs to miss Death Strike. Long term, we still want to make hit and expertise matter more to tanks, not less, but it wasn’t fair to punish DK players for working the “right way” when the other tanks aren’t there yet. We also reduced the cooldown of Outbreak for Blood DKs so that applying diseases doesn’t compete with Death Strike runes as much, and we simplified Blade Barrier so that there is less pressure to spend runes instead of sitting on them.



For now all we have done is bumped Bone Shield’s charges. We may still try out the “big hit dampening” described in the “Bloody Mitigation” blog.



Druid



We’re okay with Resto druids using Wild Growth frequently, but we think we allowed it to become too powerful given its ease of use. As I suggested above, this may or may not be sufficient to nerf Resto druid throughput overall. The change to the Glyph of Wild Growth has positive and negative elements. We heard from druids that they felt like they didn’t have as many major glyph choices as intended, since the Glyph of Wild Growth was such a no-brainer for raiding druids -- it increased the number of Wild Growth targets with no downside. We want major glyphs to be a decision, which usually involves them having some kind of downside. With the AE heals, we thought the downside might be that the healers may not be using their AE heals necessarily, but having seen two raid tiers of content now, we’re confident that the glyphs did not have as much of a downside. (We changed the Glyphs of Circle of Healing and Light of Dawn for similar reasons).



Paladin



We changed Seal of Insight to no longer return 15% base mana and then changed Judgment of the Pure to provide mana regeneration so that Holy paladins would not need to Judge every eight seconds. With these changes, they will want to Judge every 30 seconds, which seems more reasonable. Judging every eight seconds is hard to ask someone who is also targeting players a lot to heal them.



We made several changes to Holy Radiance to make it a cast time spell. We felt like Holy paladins couldn’t go into a group healing mode because Holy Radiance had a long cooldown and in the absence of a cast time, didn’t compete with any other spell. With this change (and the Light of Dawn change below), paladins can opt for an AE healing “rotation” (insofar as healers can ever have a rotation) of using Holy Radiance -> Light of Dawn instead of Holy Light et al. -> Word of Glory.



Several Holy talents changed to support the change to Holy Radiance, such as allowing it to benefit from Illuminated Healing, Clarity of Purpose, and Infusion of Light. It didn’t make sense for Speed of Light to be triggered by a cast-time spell, so we caused the Paragon of Virtue talent to lower the cooldown on Divine Protection, so that Holy wouldn’t lose quite so much functionality of Speed of Light. Speed of Light has definitely been nerfed compared to 4.2, but we feel it’s an acceptable change given the entire package.



We reversed the glyph for Light of Dawn. Instead of providing an additional target to Light of Dawn, the glyph now reduces the number of targets but increases the throughput. Light of Dawn was not a very useful spell in 10-player raids or similar small groups, like Arena teams. This glyph should allow paladins to tailor Light of Dawn for their group size.



Priest



We were seeing too many situations where a raid wanted one or even two Disc priests at the expense of a Holy priest. We think part of the problem was Holy’s lack of a strong raid cooldown, so we replaced the State of Mind talent (which was fairly weak ever since Chakra had an unlimited duration) with Heavenly Voice that boosts the healing of Divine Hymn to make it more competitive with Power Word: Barrier. We also increased the number of targets of Divine Hymn from three to five.



We also reduced the mana cost of Power Word: Sanctuary. We think Holy has sufficient AE throughput, but this spell in particular was very expensive.



We wanted to change the Glyph of Circle of Healing to make it less of a no-brainer as I explained above under Wild Growth. In the case of the Holy priest, we thought the healing done by CoH was appropriate (which was not the case for the druid) so we had the glyph increase the mana cost instead. Relying too much on Circle of Healing in inappropriate situations (such as when only a few characters are injured) risks hurting the priest’s efficiency with this glyph.



We rebuilt Spirit of Redemption in a different way. We aren’t trying to change the power of the talent at all, but we did want to make it feel more responsive (less lag between death and Spirit) as well as clean up a few bugs.



Shaman



We made changes to Wind Shear to restrict the short cooldown version to the DPS shaman (who have the Reverberation talent) and make Restoration less potent at interrupting. We think Restoration is currently too useful in PvP relative to other healers because of a potent, ranged interrupt. We don’t think this nerf will have major PvE ramifications.



We changed Mental Quickness and Flametongue Weapon to hopefully put a nail in the coffin of Enhancement shaman using spellpower weapons. We want Enhancement using melee weapons. Players who have been doing so should notice no change in their DPS. Players who have been using caster weapons or armor will find that gear is no longer useful to them.



Elemental’s AE damage was still not competitive with the rotations of other DPS specs, so we buffed Earthquake and removed the cooldown on Chain Lightning. These two spells should be the bulk of Elemental’s AE DPS, while spreading Flame Shocks should be an Enhancement mechanic (see below).



We also tried to improve Enhancement’s AE. In this case, the DPS was fairly competitive, but applying the AE was a headache with having to tab through multiple targets to spread Flame Shocks. Enhance can now use Lava Lash to spread Flame Shock (and the bonus granted from Improved Lava Lash has been baked into the base Lava Lash ability, so Enhance should not suffer any DPS loss as a consequence).

[chaos5061]

Explanation of 4.3 Balance Changes, Part One. Pt.2

After checking in on thousands of raid attempts, we were concerned that Resto shaman were not competitive with the other healers, especially on 10 player-content and on fights where the raid needs to stay spread out. It’s okay for healers to have niches where they really shine, but we felt like Resto wasn’t experiencing enough of these. We buffed Riptide outright and gave Ancestral Healing a new mechanic of boosting the target’s max health. These buffs are also intended to help offset some of the loss of Wind Shear for PvP.



As you can see, we changed shaman mechanics quite a bit, some of which will be met with cheers and others will be met with poo flinging. Please try out the changes when the PTR goes live and offer us constructive feedback if you want us to discuss any concerns you might have. That goes for all of these changes of course.



No doubt when 4.3 goes live, there will be even more changes and some of the above will be modified or redacted. Part Two of this blog will explain our intent behind the final changes.



Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. He knows Plainsrunning.

[chaos5061]

Rogue Legendary Info.

From Blizzard:
“They wanted to hold me, to keep watch over me – a prisoner in all but name. But I will NOT be held accountable for the sins of my father. My destiny will be my own.”- Wrathion, the Black Prince

The Contract

Patch 4.3 will offer the most deadly and experienced rogues the opportunity to finally play a central role in the fate of the world the rogue’s way: by manipulating key events from the shadows. Players will travel across continents to accomplish crucial missions of reconnaissance, burglary, infiltration and, of course, assassination. Those familiar with the events that unfolded in the Badlands since the Cataclysm struck may recall the story of Rheastrasza, the ambitious red dragon who acquired a black dragon egg and magically purified it, cleansing it of the Black Dragonflight’s corruption. While those events may lead to a more hopeful destiny for Azeroth, it will take cleverness, stealth, skill, and the help of a few friends to unravel the web of intrigue that will reveal what became of the egg… and determine the fate of Deathwing himself.


Wetwork

Rogues willing to do whatever is necessary to ignite a brighter future must first delve into the Dragon’s Soul raid dungeon to begin the quest line. Those who prove their prowess within will be set on a collision course with Ravenholdt Manor and the enigmatic Black Prince, Wrathion. This shadowy figure could be the key to victory for the mortal races, but what is his true agenda? Before the truth behind these mysteries are revealed, enterprising assassins will need to fight tense raid battles against Deathwing’s most powerful minions, and embark alone on perilous missions to seal the fate of the Black Dragonflight. The quest culminates in the earth-scorching execution of Deathwing himself and a shocking revelation about the true nature of the mission.




What’s in it for me?

Rogues who succeed will receive a paired set of daggers that will become increasingly lethal as their bearer progresses along the legendary quest. At the height of their strength, they will be imbued with the vile essence of the Old Gods, as well as the maddened fury of the Black Dragonflight -- bestowing great power upon their bearer. These powers include a stacking increase to Agility which builds until dark wings unfurl from the rogue’s back, removing the combo point cost and increasing damage of finishing moves for a short time. In addition, the wings which can be spread on command (with no combat benefit) to slow a rapid descent, allowing the rogue to slowly fall to the ground… or enact a little death from above! When it comes to dealing death, the Fangs of the Father promise legendary killing power to rogues of any specialization.

An incredible adventure and legendary rewards await. The future of all life on Azeroth hangs in the balance. Better get moving.

[chaos5061]

Priest Tier 13 4.3 Preview. You are the Sun Priest.

Adventurers will be tested like never before in 4.3 as they take on Deathwing and his minions, emerging with powerful new treasures. Please enjoy this preview of the priest tier 13 set.



Priests (and paladins for that matter) are often the most challenging classes to design ‘badass’ armor sets for, in contrast to the death knight and warlock, whose underlying concepts demand the unquestionably cool dark and sinister approach.

In this instance, however, the design asked for a bold, two-tone, ‘Venetian carnival style with creepy, soulless black eyes,’ which gave me a powerful, potentially edgy direction to explore. The set’s ‘Dying Light’ theme was visualized as a spiked, setting sun motif.

[chaos5061]

Raid Finder Info

From Blizzard:

We are working hard to introduce an exciting new feature to World of Warcraft in patch 4.3: the Raid Finder system. While it presents unprecedented technical hurdles and may change before it’s released, we wanted to provide you with an early look at what we hope to accomplish, and share some details that we’ve worked out, which will lend some insight as to how the new feature is planned to work.



So what is the Raid Finder? It will be a brand new grouping feature that superficially works much like the Dungeon Finder. Instead of five-player dungeons, the Raid Finder is designed to help players quickly and easily form a pick-up raid for a specially tuned version of the current tier of raid content: the Dragon Soul raid. It’s not intended to replace organized raiding though. You’ll still need friends and guild members to help you conquer the toughest raiding challenges that patch 4.3 has to offer.



As we currently plan to roll out the Raid Finder feature in patch 4.3, level-85 players will be able to use it to access a 25-player version of the Dragon Soul raid dungeon, which will culminate in a glorious battle against Deathwing himself. Dragon Soul will be split into three different difficulties. The Raid Finder provides access to a new tier of difficulty, which in this case has split the raid into two wings, each containing four boss encounters. Meanwhile, raiders will still need to join with friends and guildmates to face the more challenging normal and heroic versions of the raid, since the Raid Finder cannot be used to access those higher difficulty levels. Naturally, because they’re harder to defeat, the normal and heroic version of Dragon Soul will drop more powerful lootalong with prestigious rewards such as achievements, titles, and epic mounts. Rich rewards still await those who face the Raid Finder version, which we hope will introduce the thrills and epic experience of raiding to a broader audience than ever before.



You can access the Raid Finder through the ‘Raid’ button in the menu at the bottom of the default user interface. The Raid Finder should feel familiar to Dungeon Finder users. Just fire it up, select your class role, click the ‘Find Raid’ button, and get ready to face Deathwing’s jaw of doom.



FAQ
Q. Raids aren’t dungeons. Who will keep things organized?
A. A Raid Finder raid will require someone to queue as leader. The Raid Finder leader will have a very limited set of powers and cannot change loot type, nor do they have the ability to arbitrarily kick people from the raid. They do have the ability to mark targets and use /raid warning, and can promote other players to be leads as well. To be most successful, each Raid Finder group should have at least one leader who will explain the fights, assign raid markers, and make the tough calls, like who the main tank and off-tanks are.


Q. How will loot be distributed?
A. Automatic rolls and the Need Before Greed loot rules will apply in Raid Finder raids, just as they do in Dungeon Finder instances. Also, while Dungeon Finder raids aren’t locked, you are only eligible for loot from a boss once per week. This means that if you were present for the defeat of a boss, whether you receive loot or not, then you will automatically pass on loot that drops during later attempts on that boss during the same week.


Q. How will Raid Finder loot differ?
A. Loot acquired through the Raid Finder, including tier set pieces, will be of a lower item level than items acquired from normal or heroic mode versions of the Dragon Soul raid, and its appearance may differ. Also, there are certain items, as well as components for legendary weapons, which will not drop in Raid Finder raids. While individual bosses will not yield Valor Points as they would in other versions of the raid, you can still earn 250 Valor Points for beating the final boss in each wing of the instance.
Tier armor that drops in Raid Finder raids still provides set bonuses, and those bonuses are compatible with the higher item level versions of the armor available in the normal and heroic mode versions of the raid. None of these tier sets will be available for purchase from a vendor via Valor Points.


Q. Will there be an item level requirement to use the Raid Finder?
A. Yes, accessing raids via the Raid Finder will require that participating characters be level 85 and have attained a certain item level, to help ensure that they are prepared for the content they’ll be facing.


Q. Will the Raid Finder be cross-realm?
A. Yes, the Raid Finder will draw players from all realms. As with the Dungeon Finder, it will place some priority on grouping players from the same realm, though not at the cost of increased queue times.


Q. What kind of raid composition will the Raid Finder create?
A. Each Raid Finder raid will include two tanks, six healers, and seventeen damage dealers. As the raid is assembled, the Raid Finder will attempt to balance the group according to armor type, which should help ensure a healthy mix of melee and ranged dps.


Q. Why 25-player only?
A. A 25-player group is actually easier and faster to fill than a smaller group would be, and allows for greater flexibility in raid creation, all of which will help contribute to lower queue times. Also, 25-player raids are less subject to issues with composition or player connectivity.
The Raid Finder version of the Dragon Soul raid will be designed with pick-up raiding in mind. Normal and heroic difficulties will require the greater organization and teamwork found in guild raid groups.


Q. Will I get Call to Arms benefits when using the Raid Finder?
A. We don’t currently plan to apply Call to Arms benefits to the Raid Finder, though that may change in the future.


Q. Will I be locked to a raid I join through the Raid Finder?
A. Since the Raid Finder only offers access exclusively to a specially tuned version of the Dragon Soul raid instance, instance locks will not be enforced for that version. Instance locks will still be enforced for the normal and heroic versions of the raid.


Q. Can I queue with my friends in a party or raid?
A. Yes, you can queue for the Raid Finder individually, in a party, or in a raid. The Raid Finder can be a great tool to help fill those last few slots in a raid.


Q. I’m a dedicated raider with an organized group, what good is the Raid Finder to me?
A. Since instance locks aren’t in play, Raid Finder raids could provide a way for dedicated raiders to gear up alternate characters, fill gaps in their itemization, finish off elusive set bonuses, or just have some fun while preparing to face the normal or heroic version of the raid on the next reset.


Q. Why aren’t other raids available?
A. The Raid Finder is intended to help players experience the current tier of content.Also, many older raids don’t require a full complement of raiders, making the Raid Finder unnecessary. This is also the first rollout of the feature and we decided to start things simple, rather than potentially delay the feature’s introduction.
If the Raid Finder proves popular, more raid instances may be added to it in the future.


Q. Will Vote Kick still work in the Raid Finder?
A. Yes, though many of the same requirements and restrictions will be in place. For example, kicking too many times can result in a Vote Kick cooldown. Also, the thresholds are different, and several players will need to agree on kicking a candidate before the vote begins. Successful kick votes will require a significant number of Yes votes to pass.


Q. What happens if I leave a Raid Finder raid before it’s over?
A. Players who leave the Raid prematurely will receive a Deserter Debuff, though it will likely be of longer duration than the one applied to users of the Dungeon Finder. This debuff will only apply to the Raid Finder system.

[chaos5061]

Guild Leader Inactive Kick Feature

From Blizzard:
In the event that a guild leader takes a leave of absence and remains inactive for an extended period of time, it can be difficult for some guilds to carry on as normal. To help assist with these situations, we're introducing a new system in patch 4.3 known as "inactive guild leader replacement" that will allow players of the appropriate rank to take over leadership of a guild from an inactive guild leader via the Guild tab.

The way inactive guild leader replacement works is pretty straightforward. If a guild leader’s character is inactive for 30 days, a notification will appear in the Guild News & Events feed which can only be seen by guild members who are eligible to become the new guild leader. To determine eligibility, the game will look for the highest ranked character in the guild that's logged on in the past week, and any guild member from that rank will be able to request guild leadership simply by clicking on the notification.

As with many actions in World of Warcraft, clicking on the notification will open up a confirmation window which, once accepted, will transition leadership from the inactive guild leader to the first player to request leadership. If guild leadership is changed, the old guild leader will be notified via email to his or her registered Battle.net address. While some players may need to log out and back in before their Guild tab will visually update, the change in leadership will be immediate, with all ranks and permissions remaining in-tact.

Please note that if you're an active leader of a guild, this system should not affect you or your guild. The goal of inactive guild leader replacement is simply to allow guilds which have found themselves without leadership for a long period of time to resolve the situation on their own without the need to contact our In-Game Support department.

Inactive guild leader replacement is currently live on the PTR, but keep in mind that it may be difficult to test, as a guild leader will need to be inactive for a full 30 days before the option to transition leadership will become available.

[chaos5061]

Chaos Orbs coming to a AH near you in Patch 4.3

From Blizzard:
We have just made the following change in the PTR:

In 4.3, Chaos Orbs are no longer soulbound! Everyone will be able to roll on new orbs that drop, and any existing chaos orbs will become tradeable.

[chaos5061]

4.3 PTR Patch Notes 10-4-11

From Blizzard:

General
New Dungeon & Raid Content

End Time is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.
The new Baradin Hold boss, Alizabal, is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.


Dungeon & Raids

Players who use Dungeon Finder for a random Heroic dungeon will no longer be locked to that instance. Previously, players who entered an instance via the Random Dungeon option were then prohibited from queuing for that dungeon or entering the instance manually via the portal. Players should now always be able to complete a specific Heroic dungeon once per day regardless of any random dungeons completed.


Zul'Gurub

Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin’do the Godbreaker.


Zul'Aman

Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.


Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Swipe (Cat) has been reduced to 340% weapon damage, down from 415%.


Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Seal of Truth, when Judged, now benefits from a multiplier of 20% per stack of Censure, up from 10%.


Retribution

Sanctified Retribution now increases the critical hit chance of Hammer of Wrath by 2/4/6%, down from 20/40/60%.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (passive) now increases damage by 25%, up from 20%.


Shaman (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Wind Shear’s base cooldown has been adjusted to 15 seconds, up from 6 seconds.


Enhancement

Maelstrom Weapon can now also proc from fully absorbed melee attacks.


Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Demonology

Demonic Knowledge now provides a damage bonus of 20%, up from 15%.
Master Demonologist now grants a base bonus of 20% and 2.5% per mastery, up from 16% and 2% per mastery.


Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused Doomguard and Infernal to benefit dramatically more than intended from Demonology Mastery.


User Interface

A search field has been added to allow players to search bag, bank, guild bank, and Void Storage inventories for specific items.
Added a “promote everyone” checkbox that will automatically make all raid members, Raid assistants. This checkbox can be found in the Raid Frame and the Unit Frame “pull-out” tab.
There are now commands for world markers & unit markers.
Added new rotation, zoom, and pan controls are now available in all windows with player models in UI frames.
Players can now unlearn profession specialization without unlearning the profession (Engineering & Alchemy).
[Mac] Added functionality to allow using the Command key instead of the Control key on Apple keyboards. This can be enabled in Mac Options.
[Mac] Added functionality to disable Mac OS system keyboard shortcuts so that they do not interfere with keyboard shortcuts in WoW. This can be enabled in Mac Options.