Tuesday (8 Dec) - Patch 3.3 - Fall of the Lich King

Tuesday (8 Dec) - Patch 3.3 - Fall of the Lich King

Maybe I just never noticed, but I don't recall ever seeing a patch that had it's own title. The last expansion pack for WoW was called "Wrath of the Lich King." So, it is a measure of how significant this patch is that Blizz would name it "Fall of the Lich King."

Icecrown Citadel's Frozen Throne is the home of the Lich King himself in this new 10/25 man dungeon that will also introduce Tier 10 gear. Before seeking out the Lich King, however, Icecrown Citadel's Frozen Halls offer three five man dungeons leading into the Frozen Throne. Assuming the game is playable today, I'm certain groups will be flooding into those dungeons, whether geared for them or not. Wild hopes to be a part of that rush to get a taste of the new dungeons.

The opportunity for dungeon crawling also got a boost as groups and raids can now be formed across realms. Blizzard already has cross-realm action in the pvp battlegrounds. Now it's available for dungeons and raids. The immediate advantage may be to folks like JB and DER, as we may be able to more quickly form groups from the larger pool of players. The hard core PUG leaders of Silvermoon server will face an interesting challenge - they'll have more players to choose from (and some would say, dupe and ninja from), but at the same time those players forced to choose PUGs as they had few other options, should now have a lot more choices of who to join.

On the addon front Blizzard has taken aim at addons that manage quests. Philly in particular is interested in seeing how well the new quest tracker works. She currently uses two quest addons called Lighthearted (which provides in game quest tips that players post in wowhead) and Questhelper (which provides mapping directions to quest locations and suggests the order to accomplish them in the shortest time). Philly doubts the new quest tracker will replace either one of those addons.

There is a change that could have a significant effect on low level characters, adding increased health and mana regeneration to speed up levelling. The increased regeneration falls back to normal by level 15, however, too late to be any use for Andro and Jocelyne, who are at or on the cusp of level 15 now. The two might still get some benefit from more favorable spell casting up to level 20, but Andro, a warrior, won't see much difference.

There are multiple and significant changes to almost every class. I don't think that talent points will have to be re-established, but there are good and bad changes for everyone.

For druids, Wild's battle rez cooldown has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. For some fights Wild could be able to rez two people instead of just one, and a battle rez should be up and ready for almost every encounter now. Wild's AoE heal, Tranquility, has also had it's cooldown reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10. For moonkin, the powerful Eclipse proc has been "adjusted" to ensure that eclipse procs won't overlap each other. For those who knew how to take advantage of that, it will mean less DPS. Others say that, coupled with nerfs to the Tier 8 set bonuses, moonkin DPS is now broken - again. Among other problems is the fact that most damage comes off of the Eclipse procs, which are of limited duration, and any interruptions or need to move takes time off that proc, reducing damage. Procs are also subject to significant randomness, and bad luck will greatly reduce a moonkin's numbers. Moonkin can still put up big numbers - if they get lucky with proc rate, can stand still, and never get bothered. Right.

Philly wants to interject a comment - Nice buffs! Yes, shadow priests get some lovin' from Blizz, with buffs to Devouring plague, Mind Flay, Shadowform, and Vampiric Embrace. And Philly can now cast her shield on any friendly target, even if they aren't in her party or raid. Wow.

Shaman JB got a buff, too, with Blizz turning one of the shaman's totem's into a spell, Fire Nova. Now JB can drop a fire totem and still be able to use Fire Nova as an AoE, and does not even have to be in line of sight of the target. Nice.

Hot off the presses! Moonkin do get some love! I just learned that the Eclipse proc change included changes to Wrath and Starfire, the two spells that are used during eclipse procs. During eclipse Wrath damage has been increased from 30% to 40%, and Starfire's crit was also raised from 30% to 40%. Go Blizz!

And there is much, much more. But maybe the server is up. Bye!