Patch 3.3.5 Patch Notes

New patch notes for the PTR be here. For some reason the Mmochampion Blue Tracker will not bring me to the original post, so I’ll copy/paste from the tracker itself.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.5

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

• The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, is now available for testing! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.
• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

User Interface
Chat Frame

• Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose the Pop Out Chat option. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
• Using the Pop Out Chat option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
• Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
• Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
• Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
• The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.

Friends List

• A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
• In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
• A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
• Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
• A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster’s Real ID information in each friend’s list.

For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

All in all, not that much on the mage front. Other than the Ruby Sanctum, of course. But the thing we’ll most be looking forward to are the changes to friends and communication.

Given that Real ID will be used to communicate between Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft (and possibly Diablo 3 and whatever future games Blizzard comes up with), I’m predicting this patch to be released the week of the Starcraft 2 release, on June the 29th.

I can hardly wait. 😛

Cataclysm PvE and PvP currency revamp

It seems like while I was asleep Blizzard announced the upcoming changes to the emblem and honor systems in Cataclysm. Here are some highlights from the blue post announcement:

PvE
Hero Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how
many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned
from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)
Valor Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to
how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per
week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most
like the current Emblem of Frost)

PvP
Honor Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a
maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can
earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.
Conquest Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be
a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can
earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas.
(currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season
begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower
tier.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will
be sharing this same point type.

I don’t know too much about PvP because I avoid it like the plague, but I’m sure there are hardcore arena folks who will complain about not being different from their battleground cousins.

I actually don’t mind the way they’re handling it with this, making them revert from the higher currency to the lower. Now if this included heirloom items I wouldn’t have to deal with converting emblems all the way from triumph to heroism.

3.3.3 Mage Changes

I’ve got to leave on a trip soon, so here’s a copy of the Mage section of the Patch 3.3.3 notes. (Sorry for the weird formatting)

Mages

Frostbolt: Spell power scaling on this spell has been increased by approximately 5%.

Talents

Arcane

• Arcane Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of critical strikes. The self damage buff remains unchanged.
• Incanter’s Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage’s health on the spell power buff has been removed.

Fire

• Burning Soul: Threat reduction is now 10/20%, up from 5/10%.
• Combustion: The cooldown on this spell is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
• Empowered Fire: This talent now also applies to Pyroblast damage.
• Torment the Weak: This talent now also applies to Pyroblast damage.

Frost

• Brain Freeze: This talent now allows your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt to be instant and cost no mana. There is a small internal cooldown to keep the Frostfire Bolt from immediately triggering Brain Freeze again.

The rest of the patch notes for 3.3.3 can be found here.

In Which I Re-introduce Myself

All around the WoW blogosphere people are talking about how we’re about to hit a slump in content and everyone is going to stop playing WoW for a while or altogether (or get Starcraft 2, but then who can blame them?).

However, I like to think that I’ve quite rudely violated the natural order of the expansion cycle. While quite a lot of other people are thinking of taking a break, I’m just busy getting started into the endgame.

Just last Friday I ran Naxx-10 for the first time. Yup, Naxx-10 — 15 months after the release of the expansion. Now this was only in a pug, but we actually did pretty well. We managed to clear in just a few hours every wing except the Construct Quarter, AND Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad. Now this might seem like not a very big deal to all of you longtime raiders, because most everyone is raiding the last major raid in Wrath, and everyone can easily get their sweet epix, but for me it IS a big deal.

I’ve always wanted to raid since I started playing 3 years ago, but I’ve never had the chance; my guild hasn’t been able to round up enough people since Karazhan in BC. Now I’m planning on leading our guild’s first run into Naxx this Wednesday.

While this Naxx pug was a major success, I’d have to say this ICC run I went to on Sunday was not, so much. We couldn’t even beat Marrowgar (lowest we got him was 25%). So after I nursed my bruised ego by going and killing Ony for the first time since her makeover.

I’ve always wanted to raid since I started playing 3 years ago, but I’ve never had the chance; my guild hasn’t been able to round up enough people since Karazhan in BC. Now I’m planning on leading our guild’s first run into Naxx this Wednesday.

I know that it’s possible, and with some more time we can get right into the endgame and catch up with everyone else in time before the Cataclysm drops.

Take that, pre-expansion slump!

——-

Alright, so it turns out I can’t change the name of the blog, so for now I’m just gonna run with it. /sigh

Alas, Poor Yorick

Oh, fancy meeting you here!

So I managed to dig this lovable little blog out from the mass grave of hobbies I tried to pursue and failed miserably at completing; exhuming it unmercifully in order to serve my every whim in zombi-blogified undeath. Also in HD.

I kinda had an idea of what I would have liked to do with “Mirr[or] Image” (An awful name in retrospect) but it barely puttered on for a few weeks before I left t out in the back yard to forget about it.

So I decided I want to be a writer again, yeah? I figured to start out I should do some honest-to-Elune writing for once then, this post included.

This is somewhat new to me because I generally suffer from horrible writer’s block and plan lack of inspiration. Maybe I need to put more faith in myself.

So after I prune some stuff off of poor Mirr[or] Image, change the name to something less cumbersome, and get it up and running again, I’ll see if this long forgotten hobby goes anywhere.

(Many thanks to Anea and Keeva’s advice about blogging.)