Posted by Spooner | 0 Comments

Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings Updated for Patch 3.2

Check it out, Blizzard isn’t screwing players who got this legendary (as it’s so hard right? Nothing like Thunderfury, Mediv’s or Rag’s hammer was…).  I mentioned in the patch notes update a few seconds ago, Val’anyr has been boosted in patch 3.2 and here are the new stats!

• Item Level has been increased from 239 to 245
• Stamina has been increased from 52 to 55
• Intellect has been increased from 54 to 57
• Spell Power has been increased from 587 to 621
• Critical Strike Rating has been increased from 47 to 50
• Haste Rating has been increased from 46 to 49

Posted by Spooner | 2 Comments

3.2 PTR Raid Testing: Valkyr Twins

So the PTR servers were classified SNAFU and the Jaraxxus testing was rescheduled. (Testing for the Lord Jaraxxus raid encounter on PTR has been cancelled tonight due to technical difficulty. I’ll reschedule this for a later time.) On the plus side we got to see some testing done by the EU folks on what appears to be a very laughably easy boss fight, and it’s one of the later boss fights with better loot.

Here’s the gist of the fight with a little video:

• You’ll have to tank both sisters pretty far apart from each other.
• There will be light and dark “wells” that your character can run through and touch to gain either a light or a dark aura buff thing.
• One sister is dark the other is light. Having the aura/buff thing for the opposite energy than that of the sister you are fighting is key.
• If you’re charged with darkness then you take next to no damage from dark attacks, deal extra damage to light, and can absorb dark  attacks to gain a speed buff. Same concept for light power. After a while the sister will do a dark or light vortex aoe attack, make sure you are changed with her same energy type (light or dark) so that her attack won’t kill you, when it’s done, switch back to her opposite type so you can keep dealing mega damage to her.
• Killing one of the sisters wins the fight according to the video.

I can only imagine in 25man mode there are more little light/dark orbs flying around,t he damage is ramped up, and you have less time to move or possibly the buffs fade over time. Perhaps even having to kill both sisters. Whatever the case, the fundamentals of this fight are really pretty simple. It’s not intimidating at all and feels like a loot piñata from everything I have read and seen of the 25man and 10man kills on the PTR.

Posted by Spooner | 10 Comments

Patch 3.2 PTR build 10072 Changes and Additions

I am a helmet.

Ok I’m going to consolidate this post to make it easier for you guys to follow. Also it saves me time to spend finishing the polish on my 3rd Starcraft2 Beta post. Guh this is making my eyes hurt, I’ve been writing this bloody post for over 2 damn hours because I can’t seem to really really care enough. Mayhaps after this I won’t post any more 3.2 information until like, the day just before it goes live so we’re not arguing over things that go through changes like so much damp toiletpaper. So here’s what we have lined up:

• A few T9 set bonuses have been changed.
• Profession changes got some more tweaks.
• Class spells and talents have received a few changes.

T9 Changes: I’m liking the tanking set changes, they all seem to be really solid for helping out threat which is hard to scale compared to DPS.

• Death Knight T9 Tank 2P Bonus – Decreases the cooldown on your Dark Command ability by 2 sec and increases the damage done by your Blood Strike and Heart Strike abilities by 5%.
• Druid T9 Feral 2P Bonus – Decreases the cooldown on your Growl ability by 2 sec, increases the periodic damage done by your Lacerate ability by 5%, and increases the duration of your Rake ability by 3 sec.
• Druid T9 Balance 4P Bonus (Starfire) – Increases the damage done by your Starfire and Wrath spells by 4%.
• Paladin T9 Tank 2P Bonus – Decreases the cooldown on your Hand of Reckoning ability by 2 sec and increases the damage done by your Hammer of the Righteous ability by 5%.
• Warrior T9 Tank 2P Bonus (Taunt) – Decreases the cooldown on your Taunt ability by 2 sec and increases the damage done by your Devastate ability by 5%.

Profession Changes: They pretty much made most of the crafted epics more expensive in materials, oh and engineering is more badass.

Alchemy

• Transmute: Eye of Zul now requires Forest Emerald x 3 instead of Eternal Life x 3.
• Potion of Petrification no longer requires Mountain Silversage or Black Lotus.

Blacksmithing

• Breastplate of the White Knight now requires Titansteel Bar x 12 instead of 10 and now also requires Eternal Life x 8.
• Sunforged Bracers now requires Eternal Life x 12. (Up from 4)
• Sunforged Breastplate now requires Eternal Life x 20. (Up from 12)
• Titanium Spikeguards now requires Vengeance Bindings instead of Corroded Saronite Woundbringer x 2.

Engineering

• Unlearn Gnomish Engineering – Unlearns Gnomish Engineering, allowing you to choose another engineering specialization.
• Unlearn Goblin Engineering – Unlearns Goblin Engineering, allowing you to choose another engineering specialization.
• Jeeves now requires Field Repair Bot 74A x 2, Field Repair Bot 110G x 10 (Up from 4), Scrapbot Construction Kit x 20 (Up from 10), Titansteel Bar x 8, King’s Amber x 2, Handful of Cobalt Bolts x 30.
• Nitro Boosts now increases your critical strike rating by 24. (Old – Critical strike and hit rating by 12)
• Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket now targets enemies at long range. Cooldown reduced from 1 min to 45 sec.
• Reticulated Armor Webbing can now be used on all types of armor. (Old – Only plate)
• Frag Belt now lets you throw a Cobalt Frag Bomb every 6 minutes. (Down from 10 minutes)
• Cobalt Frag Bomb now creates Cobalt Frag Bomb x 3. (Up from 1)
• Mind Amplification Dish – Dismantle and reassembles a helm with a mind amplification dish, increasing Stamina by 45 and allowing you to attempt to engage in mental battle with your enemies and, hopefully, control them. Can be used every 10 min. Changes the appearance of your helm and binds it to you. Only grand master engineers can activate the mind amplification dish.

Jewelcrafting

• Nightmare Tear has been added to the game. (prismatic all socket +10 to all stats gem, like the current Siren’s Tear)

Leatherworking

• Black Chitin Bracers now requires Nerubian Chitin x 40, Abyss Crystal x 4, Arctic Fur x 6, Crusader Orb x 4.
• Bracers of Swift Death now requires Heavy Borean Leather x 20, Eternal Shadow x 12, Arctic Fur x 6, Crusader Orb x 4
• Crusader’s Dragonscale Bracers now requires Icy Dragonscale x 40, Eternal Water x 8, Arctic Fur x 6, Crusader Orb x 4.
• Crusader’s Dragonscale Breastplate now requires Icy Dragonscale x 40, Eternal Water x 8, Eternal Life x 8, Arctic Fur x 8, Crusader Orb x 8.
• Ensorcelled Nerubian Breastplate now requires Nerubian Chitin x 40, Eternal Air x 8, Greater Cosmic Essence x 8, Arctic Fur x 8, Crusader Orb x 8
• Knightbane Carapace now requires Heavy Borean Leather x 24, Eternal Shadow x 20, Arctic Fur x8,  Crusader Orb x 8
• Lunar Eclipse Chestguard now requires Heavy Borean Leather x 24, Eternal Life x 20, Arctic Fur x 8, Crusader Orb x 8
• Moonshadow Armguards now requires Heavy Borean Leather x 20, Eternal Life x 12, Arctic Fur x 6, Crusader Orb x 4

Tailoring

• Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers now requires Spellweave x 8, Eye of Zul, Cardinal Ruby, Majestic Zircon, Crusader Orb x 4.
• Merlin’s Robe now requires Ebonweave x 8, Spellweave x 8, Dream Shard x 8, Crusader Orb x 8
• Royal Moonshroud Bracers now requires Moonshroud x 12, Crusader Orb x 4
• Royal Moonshroud Robe now requires Moonshroud x 20, King’s Amber x 2, Crusader Orb x 8

FINALLY here are the class changes weeeeee: DK, nothing to see here. Druid, also nothing special. Hunter, pets won’t have expertise anymore throguh talents which sucks kinda, but their damage is being ramped up. Mage, Frost is no longer the retarded cousin of DPS and has more fficiency in mana and they also got mortal strike. Paladin, tanking with ardent defender is going to be VERY RNG but still worth picking up. Priest, shadow priests got mortal strike too and vamp. touch looks like unstable affliction.  Warlock, nothing special. Warrior, execute won’t dump all your rage anymore and you won’t see 21k shield slams in PvP anymore but threat should be nicer.

Death Knight

• Rune of Spellbreaking is no longer cumulative with additional Silence duration reduction.

Blood

• Scent of Blood now causes your next 1/2/3 melee hits to generate 10 runic power. (Up from 5)
• Blood Plague now deals [ 6.325% of AP + 1.15 ] Shadow damage. (Up from [ 5.5% of AP ] shadow damage)

Frost

• Frost Fever now deals [ 6.325% of AP + 1.15 ] Frost damage. (Up from [ 5.5% of AP ] frost damage)

Glyphs

• Glyph of Corpse Explosion – Increases the radius of effect on Corpse Explosion by 5 yards.

Druid
Feral

• Savage Roar is now only usable in Cat Form.
• Enrage now generates 20 rage instantly and generates an additional 10 rage over 10 sec.
• King of the Jungle has an additional effect -  In addition, the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form is reduced by 20/40/60%.
• Primal Tenacity no longer reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Innervate – Innervate now grants the caster 45% of his or her base mana pool over 10 sec in addition to the normal effects of Innervate.

Hunter
Beast Mastery

• Animal Handler now increases your pet’s attack power by 5/10% instead of increasing its expertise by 5/10.

Survival

• Deterrence now deflect all spells. (Old – Only spells cast by targets in front of you)

Pets

• Rake (Cat) now deals 47 to 67 bleed damage and an additional 19 to 25 damage every 3 seconds at max rank. (Up from 19 to 25 additional damage over 9 sec)
• Roar of Sacrifice cooldown has been reduced from 2 min to 1 min.
• Wild Hunt now increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and attack power by 15%. (Up from 10%)

Glyphs

• Glyph of Arcane Shot – Restores mana equal to 20% of your Arcane Shot’s mana cost.
• Glyph of Freezing Trap – When your Freezing Trap breaks, the victim’s movement speed is reduced by 30% for 4 sec.

Mage
Fire

• Living Bomb can now be used on multiple targets at the same time.

Frost

• Ice Barrier mana cost has been reduced from 25% of base mana to 21% of base mana.
• Cone of Cold mana cost has been reduced from 29% of base mana to 25% of base mana.
• Frost Ward mana cost has been reduced from 16% of base mana to 14% of base mana.
• Frostbolt mana cost has been reduced from 13% of base mana to 11% of base mana.
• Ice Armor mana cost has been reduced from 28% of base mana to 24% of base mana.
• Ice Lance mana cost has been reduced from 7% of base mana to 6% of base mana.
• Frost Nova mana cost has been reduced from 8% of base mana to 7% of base mana.
• Empowered Frostbolt now reduces the cast time of your Frostbolt by 0.1/0.2sec instead of increasing its critical strike chance by 2/4%.
• Permafrost now also reduces the target’s healing received by 7/13/20%.

Paladin
Protection

• Ardent Defender now heal you up by 30% of your maximum health and the amount healed is based on defense.

PvP Items

• Hateful Gladiator’s Libram of Justice now Increases spell power of Flash of Light by 293. (Up from 236)
• Deadly Gladiator’s Libram of Justice now Increases spell power of Flash of Light by 331. (Up from 267)
• Furious Gladiator’s Libram of Justice now Increases spell power of Flash of Light by 375. (Up from 320)
• Relentless Gladiator’s Libram of Justice now Increases spell power of Flash of Light by 436. (Up from 404)

Glyphs

• Glyph of Righteous Defense – Increases the chance for your Righteous Defense and Hand of Reckoning abilities to work successfully by 8% on each target.
• Glyph of Seal of Command – You gain 8% of your base mana each time you use a Judgement with Seal of Command active.

Priest
Shadow

• Vampiric Touch had its damage on dispell doubled. (From 680 to 1360 at Max Rank)
• Devouring Plague can now affect only one target at a time.
• Dispersion now has a 2 min cooldown. (Down from 3 min)
• Improved Mind Blast has an additional effect – while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 sec.

Warlock
Glyphs

• Glyph of Health Funnel – Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while channeling your Health Funnel spell by 100%.

Warrior
Fury

• Execute now works up to a maximum cost of 30 rage.
• Berserker Rage now removes and grants immunity to Fear, Sap, and Incapacitate effects and generating extra rage for when taking damage for 10 seconds.

Protection

• Shield Block now also increases the threat generated by Shield Slam by 100%. Does not increase Shield Slam damage.
• Bloodrage now generates 20 rage. (Up from 10)

Arms

• Sudden Death no longer only uses up to 30 total rage. (See the change to Execute)

K, I’m done.

Posted by Spooner | 4 Comments

Tier 9 Set Bonuses changed in Patch 3.2 PTR

Had a little hiccup there with my host not working right (for what its worth, you and I broke nothing, it was their own internal servers or some such crap) but it seems the news is just going to keep flowing today! There is a new build deployed on the Patch 3.2 PTR and I’ll be updating news as the night progresses so stay tuned. For now, there were some changes to the Tier 9 set bonuses:

Priest

Shaman

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Warlock

Warrior

Posted by Spooner | 9 Comments

Not so bound on pickup raid loot in 3.2

How many times has loot been miss-looted to the wrong person? Human error happens what can I say. I know that I’ve had to get epic loot ticketed by a GM to other players or to myself from another player in the past, the wait time is flat out caused by the sheer amount of identicle issues. So in order to cut down on the work load for in game support staff, Blizzard is allowing epic loot off raid bosses in Patch 3.2 to be traded to other players for 2 hours after its initial pickup. You guys think this is a good idea or a bad idea?