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Blizzard has released the video into for the Burning Crusade – it’s pretty cool. Check it out.

Just stumbled on to the test patch 2.0.1: I doubt i will be able to get into the test server, but I did grab a huge install note doc to share with you. I presume that this is what everyone will get once the expansion ships.

Hi-lights include:
1. Everyone get’s to respec their talents for free.
2. Heal over time spells can now stack from multiple casters (sounds like raids will get tougher)
3. Professions get a let up on making cools stuff.
4. Autoloot is finally a feature.

Here’s the goods:

World of Warcraft Test Patch 2.0.1
The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/
General
• All players will have talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 41-point talents. Several new abilities have also been added for all classes.
• All pets now receive a percentage of their master’s armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
• Low-level spells cast by high-level players will receive smaller bonuses from +healing and +spell damage.
• HoTs, DoTs, and channeled spells have been re balanced to receive a more appropriate (higher) percentage of +spell damage and +healing.
• HoTs from different sources will now stack (i.e. multiple druids can cast the Rejuvenation spell on 1 target).
• New item property “Resilience” has been introduced. Resilience reduces your chance to be the victim of a critical strike, and reduces the amount of damage critical strikes do to you.
• Weapon Skill now does the following:
• Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing.
• The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
• When casting a buff on a low level target, the appropriate rank of the buff will be automatically be applied.
• Crowd Control effects in PvP will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
• Players will no longer lose faction when under the influence of “Mind Control” or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap.
PvP
• Honor System Revamp
• Current honor totals have been reset.
• Players may display their highest lifetime rank title (accessible from character sheet).
• Honor points earned each day may now be spent as a form of currency. Check the PvP tab of your character sheet to see your honor information.
• PvP rewards are no longer unique.
• Marks of Honor earned from battlegrounds are no longer turned in for reputation or honor. They are now used in addition to honor points in order to purchase rewards.
• Two New Arenas are now available in three different modes.
• 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches
• Players may queue up at Goblin NPC’s in Stormwind, Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Gadgetzan
Druids
• The talent “Swiftmend” will now include bonus healing from the talents “Improved Rejuvenation” and “Empowered Rejuvenation”.
Hunters
• Traps can be set while in combat, but require a 2 second arming time.
• Auto shot will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee range while in combat with target.
• 1 agility will now grant 1 ranged attack power.
• Auto shot is now reset when casting Aimed Shot.
Shaman
• Shaman with the appropriate talent spec are now able to dual-wield. Both main and off-hand weapons can be affected by self-weapon buffs such as Windfury.
• Rockbiter’s weapon functionality has been changed. It is now a damage proc instead of a flat attack power bonus.
• Windfury Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon enchantments will only benefit the weapon with the enchantment on it.
Warlocks
• Range of “Drain Life” and “Drain Mana” spells have been increased.
Warriors
• Rage generation from dealing damage has been normalized.
• All Rage awards are averaged with our expected rage per swing (adjusted for weapon speed).
Items
• The “Far Sight” effect has changed so that the camera now zooms in to a distant location, rather than instantly showing the distant view. This also affects the items: Ultra-Spectropic Vision Goggles, the Ornate Spyglass, and the Hunter ability “Eagle Eye.”
• Spells can now require either a totem item or a totem category item to cast a spell. This means that the Enchanting Rods now count as all of the lower level enchanting rods as well, so you only need a single enchanting rod instead of all six. This also means that “Finkel’s Skinner” now counts as a Skinning Knife. Several weapons that are picks have been flagged as counting as a Mining pick as well.
• Items that give bonuses, such as + to crit, have been modified to adhere to a combat rating system.
• All current items will provide the exact same benefit from ratings at level 60 as they provided before the ratings system.
• Thrown weapon items no longer stack, but use durability instead. One unit of durability is lost per throw, and these items can be repaired.
• The tool tip for the Great Staff of the Guardian now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
• Items that are useable from player inventory with a cooldown will now update the cooldown in real-time.
• Players will no longer be able to sell the “Blue Skeletal Horse” to vendors.
• The damage Proc from the item “Misplaced Servo Arm” will no longer break the Rogue ability “Gouge”.
• The “Skull of Impending Doom” has been changed and will now increase run speed by 60% for 10 seconds, but deals damage equal to 60% of your maximum health and drains 60% of your maximum mana for over 10 seconds.
• The Backfire effect on the “Net-O-Matic” will no longer break on damage.
Professions
• All of the profession-made items that have been created up to now have been given proper stats based on the current expansion item level progression table.
• Most of the items made by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithing have had their creation time reduced. Now the cap on time required to make an item in those professions is based on quality and level.
• New Max times required.
• Level 31+ Green Items at least 8 sec
• Level 31+ Blue Items at least 15 sec
• Level 31+ Purple Items at least 25 sec
• Skill level now determines what items you can disenchant.
• Skill 1= Level 1-20
• Skill 25= Level 20-25
• Skill 50= Level 25-30
• Skill 75= Level 30-35
• Skill 100= Level 35-40
• Skill 125= Level 40-45
• Skill 150= Level 45-50
• Skill 175= Level 50-55
• Skill 200= Level 55-60
• Skill 225= Level 60-65
• Players will no longer lose an item when attempting to disenchant on a boat when the loading screen appears.
User Interface
• Meeting Stone gossip options have been removed from Innkeepers in preparation for the new LFG system.
• LFG/LFM UI
• Tips have been added to Loading Screen tips and new player tips
• Meeting Stones now function similar to a Warlock Summon spell.
• Player’s select party member to be summoned and right click the stone.
• A second party member then clicks the portal to summon.
• Enchanting UI has been vastly improved.
• Raid UI now supports frame for Main Tank.
• Spell Alert (Enemy Cast bar)
• Defaults to off
• Enabled through Interface Options
• Displays targeted enemy’s cast bar when they are casting.
• May also be displayed with “V” key functionality.
• Auto-loot may be enabled with just one click in the Interface Options.
• Character sheet UI now displays more precise melee, ranged, and spell stats.
• Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be fed in one of your action bars.
• Semi-charged items can no longer be placed in the Auction House.
• A knowledge base has been added to the in-game UI.
• Searchable database of FAQ’s and common support issues.
• Keyrings have been expanded to hold more key-type items and will now size dynamically for the number of keys in possession.
• The Hunter ability “Mend Pet” will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
• Players will now be able to disable ability messages in the floating combat text.
• Players will now be able to scroll down their ignore list if it extends beyond one page.
• The tooltips for the Show Dispellable Debuffs and Show Castable Buffs options will now specify they only apply to raid pullout groups.
• Significant changes have been made to User Interface customization. For specific details, please visit http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=36975623&sid=1 .
Bugs
• The Rend Blackhand arena event in Upper Blackrock Spire will now properly reset after a wipe.
• Players will no longer resurrect with low mana and health if they died and released on a Zeppelin or Ship.
• Fixed an issue where effects with 100% chance to be applied were being resisted.
• Fixed an issue where high level players were not being properly credited the right amount of faction reputation.
• Party members will now be properly credited for completing the “Dead Man’s Plea” quest when a totem or pet gets the killing blow on Baron Rivendare.
• Slowing abilities and spells will no longer decrease the speed of a player when traveling by Gryphon.
• Fixed an issue where players were re-taining talent based abilities even after re-training.
• Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell “Shadowburn” was improperly consuming two Soul Shards.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to click on anything if they had any add-ons installed.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to use “Mana Burn” on mobs and players without mana.
• Fixed an issue where spells that proc while a player was standing would not proc if they were sitting or lying down.
• Fixed many interface overlapping graphic issues.
• Fixed an issue where Seal of Justice (Rank 2) will now refresh with melee strikes.
• Blood Elf mobs in Azshara will now have the correct model.
• Fixed an issue where a spell with two procs would be reflected and one of the procs would still hit the player that reflected the spell.
• Fixed an issue that was putting Hunters back into combat when they have the “Spirit Bond” Talent or have the Cryptstalker set bonus.
• Fixed an issue where players were being awarded the wrong item when double looting a corpse under the master loot option.
• Fixed an issue where players interrupted while casting would have a longer cast time than normal.
• Fixed an issue where players could not see enchants when inspecting another player.
• Fixed an issue where extra attacks from “Windfury Weapon” would not proc “Flurry” when they crit.
• Fixed an issue where players that were killed in freezing traps would be stuck there until releasing.
• Fixed an issue where Warlocks were able to despawn a pet to gain a free “Soul Shard”in the Battlegrounds.
• Warrior “Shield Slam” and “Shield Bash” will no longer trigger a proc from an equipped weapon.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to consume a Mana Emerald at full mana.
• The totem, “Wrath of Air,” will no longer be useable in “Ghost Wolf” form.
• Fixed an issue where Warrior “Battle Shout” was causing too much threat.
• Fixed an issue where computers with ATi video cards were sometimes having problems when displaying a certain texture.
• Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell “Death Coil” gained double the benefit from the talent “Shadow Mastery”.
• Player pets will no longer attack CC’ed targets while in Passive mode.
• “Prayer of Spirit” will no longer cast on the user if there is no other target selected.
• “Lightning Shield” will now have the appropriate cool-down time between uses.
• Fixed an issue where materials were being consumed if a player logged out before an enchantment had finished being applied.
• The Hunter, “Auto Shot,” ability will no longer activate on resurrection.
• Fixed a bug where “Inner Focus” was not being consumed when using “Mind Soothe.”
• Fixed a bug where Rogues were able to use the ability “Ghostly Strike” when not facing their target.
• Warlock pet dismiss sounds will now play properly.
• Fixed an issue where Fist weapons were sheathing improperly.
• Bags will no longer overlap the Bank UI when the game window is resized.
• Players will no longer be able to whisper to enemy players in Battlegrounds.
• The Skeletal Gryphon ride for the Eastern Plaguelands PvP event will now fly at its correct speed.
• Players will no longer be able to whisper to enemy players in Battlegrounds.
• Players will no longer be able to jump onto the top of the Dun Baldur Fortress in Alterac Valley and get behind the terrain to attack other players.
• Shapeshifting will now break “Nogginfogger Elixir” effect.
• You will no longer die when Feign Death is finished channeling.
• “Scatter Shot” will now properly do damage even if the target is immune to the confuse effect.
• “Aspect of the Cheetah” will now properly trigger with absorbed damage.
• Casting a lower rank polymorph on a target that is already under the effect of a higher rank will cause an error message and not consume mana.
• The talent, “Master of Elements,” will now properly proc off of totems.
• Players will no longer be attacked by same faction guards when using mind control on an enemy player to attack.
• “Vanish” will now properly un-target the Rogue from the attacker when the attacker is in the same party.
• The talent, “Improved Chain Heal,” will now properly add to the base healing done.
• “Healing Wave” Ranks 11 and 12 will now benefit from the Shaman talent, “Healing Way.”
• “Improved Curse of Agony” will now properly increase the base and spell power.
• Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they take a flight path.
• Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they are dead at the end of a Battleground match.
• Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they enter an Arena.
• Casting “Dark Pact” after exiting combat will no longer put you back in combat.
• The tool tip for the “Great Staff of the Guardian” now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
• Several Chest spawns in Dustwallow Marsh will now properly spawn above ground.
• Items that can give +Stamina/Intellect from random suffixes will now properly apply while dead.
• “Beastmaster’s Gloves” will now give the proper 2% crit chance for Hunter pets.
• Various graphical errors will be noticeable while viewing maps.

The nice people at Blizzard have started posting articles to their official Warcraft Encyclopedia.  The main link is located at the top of the ‘Workshop’  section of the main WOW community site.

While it far from complete and lacks much of the depth found in the wowwiki, it is the official source and it has some noteworthy features. The official encyclopedia takes a very dry authoritative tone and focuses on rather abstract concepts such as immortals and demigods (with liberal doses of Burning Crusade references).

Speculation: It seems that either Blizzards creative writers want to flesh out their back-story for the upcoming expansion, or they have nothing to do right now (seems unlikely) and they are emptying all their notebooks onto the website (also seems unlikely).

Relmstein has a post about new classes they would like to see. While the descriptions are interesting (pirates, ninjas, and monks), the classes lack the finesse that Blizzard strives for.

Think about it. Blizzard spent nearly a year cleaning up their talents and spells for each existing class. When they where evaluating new features for Burning Crusade, Blizzard stated that they would not add any classes because they felt it would be too difficult to develop.

So as my favorite detective says, “here’s the thing:” After spending a year getting the classes ‘right,’ Blizzard has been making sweeping changes to all the classes to accommodate level 70 as a viable goal. I think this is the reason the BC has been delayed till January. Blizzard saw how much work it took to tweak the classes and now they want to aggressively test the new changes BEFORE wrecking havoc on all its players.

what do you think?

Sadly, I’ve been sick and I’ve had a ton of work to do. The fact that Burning Crusade has been postponed till January or something doesn’t help.

I’ve been leveling my new Druid. He’s lvl 37. According to the program I’ve logged like 4+ days playing him, so I guess he’s making good progress.

I’ve been exploring all the quests on the western continent. Most of the Desolace stuff, is straight forward with lots of grinding experience.

On Sunday, I took Kurn to the fishing derby and we rudely reminded that 2 o’clock means 2 0′clock. I may never get to try that. sigh.

1 final oddball note. I use Mac os 10.4.x and I’ve been playing with holding the control key down while moving the mouse scroll wheel. It’s a great little zoom feature. Try it.

Sometimes, a picture says it all. Check this out at GU comics

Blizzard has been busy scaling up and improving all the professions. I’m not sure they addressed every player’s concern, but that’s nearly impossible anyway.

They added some cool trinkets such as a riding crop for leather workers (make your mount go faster), and the nightseye panther for jewelcrafters (improves stealth).

Blacksmiths will be able to craft epic quality items for themselves and they will be able to upgrade these items.

Tailors will be able to make a net that immobilizes a target for 3 seconds.

go check it out.

Mac System Requirements
OS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer required

Processor:

933MHz G4/G5 processor,
1.8GHz G5/Intel or better recommended

RAM:

512MB RAM,
1GB DDR RAM is recommended

Video:

NVIDIA or ATI graphics processor with 32MB VRAM,
64MB VRAM recommended

Controls: A keyboard and mouse are required.
Input devices other than a mouse and keyboard are not supported

All Platforms
Connectivity:You must have an active broadband internet connection to play.
Mouse: Multi-button mouse with scroll wheel recommended.
Note: System Requirements are subject to change.

There is so much Burning Crusade activity, it’s hard to pic the stuff for sharing… Here’s a nice jewelcrafting tidbit…

BC Question #27: List of Jewelcrafting: “

What exactly can we make if we get jewel crafting? can you make a list?

Now I don’t have supremely high jewelcrafting yet, but basically you can make Necklaces and Rings usable from level elevenish and up at around 40 skill. I took some screenshots of the items I can make thus far.

Jewelcrafting Items at 41 Skill

“

(Via World of Warcraft WarCry.)

More updated from Nethaera at Blizzard:
Sorry Warlocks, no love for you this time…

Warrior

Spells

(NEW) Stance Mastery – “You retain up to 10 of your rage points when you change stances.”

Arms
Blood Frenzy – Moved up a tier one column to the left of Mortal Strike. Now 2 ranks for 2/4%.
(NEW) Improved Mortal Strike – “Reduces the cooldown of your Mortal Strike ability by 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1 sec and increases the damage it causes by 1/2/3/4/5%.”
Second Wind – Reduced to 2 ranks, now “Whenever you are struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect you will generate 10/20 rage and 5/10% of your total health over 10 sec.”
Endless Rage – Now a passive effect. “You generate 15% more rage from damage dealt and taken.”

Fury
Rampage – Rank 1 (30 AP), Rank 2 (40 AP), Rank 3 (50 AP).
Improved Berserker Stance – Now 5 ranks for 2/4/6/8/10% bonus.
Improved Pummel – Removed.
Improved Whirlwind – Now “Reduces the cooldown of your Whirlwind ability by 1/2 sec.”

Protection
Improved Bloodrage – Moved up one tier and generates 3/6 rage.
Improved Shield Block – Reduced to 1 rank, duration bonus increased from .5 sec to 1 sec.
Tactical Mastery – Reduced to 3 ranks. Now “You retain up to an additional 5/10/15 of your rage points when you change stances.” Also see the new trainer bought spell “Stance Mastery” which gives you 10 rage retention when switching stances.
Last Stand – Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes, from 10.

Rogue

Combat
Blade Twisting – Moved up two tiers to one column left of Weapon Expertise. Reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20% chance to proc the daze effect.
(NEW) Combat Potency – Where Blade Twisting was. 5 ranks that “Gives your successful off-hand melee attacks a 20% chance to generate 3/6/9/12/15 Energy.”

Druid

Restoration
Tree of Life – Now slows by 20%, changed from 50%.

Paladin

Holy
Lasting Judgement – Replaced with “Sanctified Light”, which “Increases the critical strike chance of your Holy Light spell by 2/4/6%.”
Holy Shock – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds.

Retribution
Empowered Judgement – Renamed “Sanctified Judgement”.

Shaman

Enhancement
Stormstrike – Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds. Mana cost reduced to 277 (at level 70).

Mage

Arcane
Empowered Arcane Missiles – Mana cost increase is now 2/4/6%, changed from 3/6/10%.
Prismatic Cloak – Moved up a tier to the left of Arcane Instability and reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4%.
(NEW) Spell Power – Where Prismatic Cloak was. “Increases critical strike damage bonus of all spells by 25/50%.”
Slow – Changed to “Reduces target’s movement speed by 50%, increases the time between ranged attacks by 50% and increases casting time by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Slow can only affect one target at a time.”

Hunter

Survival
Hawk Eye - Moved to first tier, where Deflection was.
Deflection – Moved to second tier, where Savage Strikes was.
Savage Strikes – Moved to first tier, to the right of where Hawk Eye was moved to.