Blizzard has released back ground info on the Quel’Delar sword. This is an epic weapon that requires the players to find the pieces to reforge the blade. Here is the story of the famous Blade posted by Blizzard;

In ages past the great Dragon Aspects worked alongside the night elves to forge powerful prismatic blades that could be used to thwart any evil that came into the world. They would become known as the blades of Quel’Serrar. One of these blades, which had become lost in time, was recently unearthed again by brave heroes of Azeroth. Now rediscovered, Quel’Serrar is revered once more as a mighty tool of raw power.

Its sister blade, however, has not been seen for many years…

The sword known as Quel’Delar was held by the group of kaldorei who would eventully become the high elves, and it was handed down from generation to generation. Most recently Quel’Delar was wielded by the valiant high elven warrior Thalorien Dawnseeker. Thalorien fought tirelessly in the Troll Wars to defend his beloved home of Silvermoon, the Sunwell, and all of Quel’Thalas. When the Scourge swept through the lands during the Third War, Thalorien was among the last lines of defense for the Sunwell. Despite the sword’s power, he was ultimately slain by the overwhelming might of Arthas and his legendary runeblade, Frostmourne. Quel’Delar was thought to be lost forever.

Following the destruction of their homeland, the determined blood elves began to regroup and rebuild. It was during this time that the battle-hardened warrior Lana’thel stumbled upon Quel’Delar, and soon afterward the greatest opportunity to use the blade presented itself: Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider raised an army and combined forces with Illidan Stormrage, who led them north to Icecrown on a mission to destroy the Lich King. Lana’thel readily followed her prince with one thought in mind — revenge against the Scourge — but only tragedy awaited her.

In the icy hills of Northrend, Arthas ultimately defeated Illidan and Kael’thas, and the expedition’s few survivors were scattered across the frozen wastes. One by one the Lich King sought out those who had challenged him, and Lana’thel found herself cornered. Using Quel’Delar, she struck at him with all her might… but Frostmourne’s evil powers overwhelmed her. Through his blade, the Lich King chose Lana’thel to serve him in undeath as queen of the San’layn, a group responsible for overseeing the Scourge’s operations across Azeroth.

Queen Lana’thel eagerly carried out her new duties, but every time she looked at her blade, maddening anger would swell within her as she remembered her former life. She could not afford such distractions, and with a scream that echoed throughout Icecrown, she shattered Quel’Delar and flung the fractured pieces as far as she could.

Now…

The champions of the Alliance and the Horde who confront the Lich King’s armies have but a slim chance of finding the pieces of this fabled blade. If they succeed, the heroes can embark on an epic adventure to re-forge Quel’Delar. They will require the strongest materials and a source of great power to make this shattered blade into the fearsome weapon it once was. Several classes can use Quel’Delar, and the sword can fit several different play styles. For any class that is unable to wield it, however, the Sunreaver blood elves and the Silver Covenant high elves will gladly take this relic of their history in exchange for a usable weapon.

The search begins soon…

Hear ye Hear Ye, for all you WOW players out there. The time has come to convert your wow account into a Battle.net account. On November 11, 2009 if you do not have a Battle.net account you will not be able to log into WOW. At least we get a pet out of it. Here is the announcement from Blizzard;

A few months ago, we unveiled the Battle.net account, our new way for players to log in to World of Warcraft and future Blizzard games, sign up for upcoming beta tests, shop the online Blizzard Store, and more with just one username and password. This was just the first step in the rollout of the brand-new Battle.net; in the future, players will be able to use Battle.net to participate in cross-realm chat in World of Warcraft, create real-life friends lists, communicate across different games, and a whole more.

In preparation for the launch of these new features, on November 11, 2009, all current World of Warcraft players will be required to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account in order to log in to the game. As our way to say “thanks” for taking a moment to go through the process, existing World of Warcraft accounts that upgrade to Battle.net (including those that have already switched over) will receive a brand-new penguin in-game pet — after you’ve merged, he’ll be waiting for you in your in-game mailbox the next time you log in.

 Starting on November 11, all World of Warcraft players will need to log in to the game using a Battle.net username and password, and anyone who wishes to create a new World of Warcraft account will need to start with a Battle.net account.

Creating a Battle.net account is simple and free. To merge your existing account with a Battle.net account, go here. For more info, check out the Battle.net site or read the FAQ.

There is a fishing goodie on the test realms for all you WOW fishermen. Fishing can be boring but the tournaments can be fun. The rewards listed below are definelty worth it. Remember as with all ptr items this can be changed before release. Here is the announcement;

Coming in patch 3.3.0, the esteemed tuskarr of the Kalu’ak are proud to introduce to Northrend the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby, a test of fishing skill with a healthy dash of luck! Every Wednesday beginning at 8 PM players can try to catch the elusive Blacktip Shark. Elder Clearwater sits in Dalaran for one hour awaiting the return of the quickest, most experienced fisher to bring him the first catch of the night. This champion fisher will be rewarded in-kind for his or her fishing expertise. Those who aren’t able to return with the first catch will still receive just reward for getting the Blacktip Shark to Elder Clearwater before he takes his leave.

It is said that these sharks’ favorite meal are the bite-sized Pygmy Suckerfish. Perhaps a hook in their waters will do the trick. Because of the increased concentration of fish, you have an increased chance to catch a shark from fishing pools. Don’t forget, in patch 3.3.0 you never catch trash from fishing pools, regardless of skill.

The derby winner will receive a substantial chunk of experience (or money at maximum level) and gain 5000 reputation with the Kalu’ak. In addition, the champion will be given a choice between two unique rewards:

Dread Pirate Ring
Binds on Account
Unique-Equipped
Finger
+34 Stamina
Requires level 1 to 80 (80)
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 53.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 29.
Equip: Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.

Boots of the Bay
Binds When Picked Up
Feet
Requires Fishing (200)
Equip: Increased Fishing +15.
Use: Whisks you away to the finest drinking establishment in Booty Bay. (1 Day Cooldown)

To keep it interesting, the Achievement “Master Angler of Stranglethorn” has been changed to “Master Angler of Azeroth.” This can be earned by winning either the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

Online games are a way for people to get together, have fun, and complete quests. If you have a close group of friends that play together or a good guild, grouping is easy and mostly painless. Unfortunately sometimes you can’t find a group or everyone is doing something else. Then you begin to ponder joining a pug (Pick up group). You begin to think, “Should I really pug this? Is it worth it?”

In World of Warcraft pugs can be good or bad, it is really a 50-50 chance. I have been lucky that most pugs I have been in (recently) have been pretty good. No nonsense, with a get it done attitude. In guild runs pugging a much needed tank or healer can yield mixed results.

A few weeks ago our guild had to pug a tank for a heroic toc run. We didn’t have any tanks in guild that could go so I suggested we pug one. After a small discussion and “shudders” in chat we found what appeared to be a tank. As soon as the instance started, the tank began running his mouth; “Wow you guys really suck. Why do I always end up with such losers?” No one had even started attacking anything at this point. We assumed he was joking, oh how wrong we were.

This continued the entire trial, up to the black knight. Finally one of our guildies had enough. One of the dpsers decided to quit and bring his tank so we can dump the mouth. We quit and reformed and were able to complete the run jerk free. All I could say is, some people’s kids.

The question that comes to mind is what was this anonymous stranger thinking? Did he think that berating people would make him seem cool or superior? Tips for all you guys joining pugs out there; be respectful of your team, do not belittle anyone regardless of how bad they do, and of course have fun.

Pugging can indeed yield mixed results, don’t let this prevent you from taking a chance. For every bad pug experience I have had, there are at least five good ones. I have been fortunate to have met some good people in the process of joining and pugging roles for a team. When you find a good player don’t be afraid to add them to your friends list, most of the time they will add you as well. Good luck and happy Pugging.

Patch 3.3 is on the test server! Lots of changes for classes and some game changes going in on this one. The notes reflect what we know so far. Looks like Rogues got some loving in this patch. Patch notes are listed below for your viewing pleasure.

General

·         Icecrown Citadel

o    The Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-player dungeon, is currently available for testing.

o    Additional Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid content will be made available in future test builds.

·         Dazed: Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed.

·         Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Classes: General

·         Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.

·         Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes.

·         Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.

·         Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.

Races: General

·         Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.

Death Knights

·         Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.

·         Talents

o    Unholy

§  Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Druids

·         Pets

o    Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Hunters

·         Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously.

·         Talents

o    Beast Mastery

§  Intimidation: If the hunter’s pet is in melee range of its target, the stun from Intimidation will now be applied immediately instead of on the pet’s next swing or attack.

·         Pets

o    Avoidance: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 30/60/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Mages

·         Talents

o    Arcane

§  Arcane Empowerment: This talent now also grants 1/2/3% increased damage done by the mage’s party or raid for 10 seconds after the mage gets a critical strike with Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, or Arcane Blast. This effect is exclusive with Ferocious Inspiration and Sanctified Retribution.

·         Pets

o    Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Priests

·         Pet

o    Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Rogues

·         Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.

·         Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.

·         Vanish: For the first second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability.

Shamans

·         Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.

·         Talents

o    Elemental Combat

§  Improved Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Improved Fire Nova. This talent now provides an additional 10/20% damage to the spell and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 seconds.

Warlocks

·         Pets

o    Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

o    Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.

Warriors

·         Victory Rush: This ability is now trainable at level 6.

·         Talents

o    Protection

§  Damage Shield: This ability will no longer trigger any chance-on-hit effects from the warrior or the opponent it damages.

User Interface

·         Quest Tracking Feature

o    This system is currently under development and is not fully functional.

·         Looking For Group System

o    This feature is undergoing several improvements and is not available for testing at this time.

·         For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

·         A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). This is currently enabled by default on the public test realms. For more information please visit our Test Realm forum.

Professions

·         Enchanting

o    Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster’s target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.

Items

·         Glyphs

o    Death Knights

§  Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage.

o    Shamans

§  Glyph of Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Glyph of Fire Nova. This glyph now reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 3 seconds.

Bug Fixes

·         Druids

o    Rejuvenation: Rank 15 of this spell was providing a 15-second duration. It has been correctly reduced to 12 seconds.

·         Mages

o    Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time.

Icecrown Citadel coming next patch 3.3. Blizzzard has updated the Euro Wow site with a plethora of information. Everything sounds incredible, finally we get to face the Lich King himself. Here is the quick rundown of what we know at the moment;

Icecrown Citadel will feature a massive five-player dungeon sprawling across three wings of the citadel’s foundation. While the Lich King’s attention is focused on the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade ripping through the front gates, players will be tested as they assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating the citadel through an alternate entrance.

An epic quest line will present adventurers with the task of weakening Icecrown Citadel’s forces, requiring that players defeat the challenges in each dungeon wing before venturing into the next one. Normal and Heroic versions of the dungeon will be accessible to players, although each wing will be considered a separate instance; therefore, on Heroic difficulty, each wing will have its own separate lockout timer. All-new rewards — including item level 219 (normal) and level 232 (Heroic) loot — will be offered to those who destroy some of the Lich King’s most formidable allies.

The Forge of Souls

Serving as the first wing in this expansive dungeon, the Forge of Souls will quickly put players to the test of carving through the Scourge stronghold into deeper, more treacherous locations. Jaina will command Alliance forces, and Sylvanas will direct Horde forces. The goal is to ruin the twisted engines known as soul grinders found in this portion of the citadel, and then players can advance — that is, if the Horde and Alliance forces can overcome the foes who confront them.

Bosses

• Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls: An instrument of reckoning, Bronjahm watches over the engines in the Forge of Souls. He must be killed if the soul grinders are to be destroyed.

• The Devourer of Souls: As the chief operator of the engines found in this wing, the Devourer stands guard over the souls stolen by the Lich King.

Pit of Saron

Accessible only to those who have laid waste to the Forge of Souls’ unholy operations, the Pit of Saron will bring Horde and Alliance forces deeper into the Lich King’s domain. Players who venture here will immediately be confronted by the lord of this lair, Scourgelord Tyrannus. But defeating him will not be as easy as it seems. Before they can present a threat to Tyrannus, the adventurers, instructed by their leaders, will need to free enslaved allies who have been trapped by the Scourge. Until that happens, Tyrannus will leave all adversaries to his minions, workers of the citadel’s mines. Perhaps the challenges here will lend clues as to the whereabouts of the Lich King’s private chambers outside of the Frozen Throne, deep within the Halls of Reflection.

Bosses

• Forgemaster Garfrost: A master of Scourge weaponry, the forgemaster hauls stocks of saronite ore and other precious materials to the cold forges where the mechanisms of death are born. With a host of rime weapons and exotic alloys at his disposal, it could get cold in here.

• Krick and Ick: Zombies serve as mindless muscle in the Pit of Saron’s mines, stockpiling metals for Forgemaster Garfrost, and Krick — a devious leper gnome — supervises the operations from atop Ick, Krick’s ghastly means of transportation.

• Scourgelord Tyrannus: Tyrannus is a terrible force who will no doubt demonstrate his powers to those brave enough to enter the Pit of Saron. The scourgelord must die if players hope to make their way into the third and final wing of this dungeon.
  Halls of Reflection

With Jaina and Sylvanas leading the way, adventurers who make it as far as these frigid halls will quickly recognize the weapon that lies ahead: Frostmourne, the corruptive, legendary device of the Lich King himself. The Lich King’s private chambers are within reach, although they may be the death of anyone who ventures there.

Bosses

• Falric and Marwyn: Captains for Arthas Menethil in life, Scourge commanders for the Lich King in death, Falric and Marwyn will be summoned to the Halls of Reflection for one purpose: destroying all intruders.

• The Lich King: Sylvanas, thirsty for vengeance against the corrupted prince who sentenced her to an existence as an undead monstrosity, and Jaina, eager to find a flicker of Arthas’s soul locked somewhere within the Lich King, have brought their hand-picked allies to this final confrontation. Arthas’s true power may only now be discovered. Is there any hope in this mission, or does only death await?

It has passed the test server and is now live, WoW patch 3.22 is here. A couple of nice additions in this patch; Onyxia raid is back. She has been remade, revamped and ready to take on level 80 players. Onyxia’s loot has been updated to the new levels. The next item that grabbed my attention was the daily PVP battle ground quests. Players over level 11 will be able to take PVP quests for the battle grounds they are eligible. Full patch notes can be found Here, or for the lazy;

Continued…

Yep I said it, bringing IT! The game is still going strong, still fun, and now even more fun. City of Heroes Issue 16 has made it to live. The main aspect I am excited about is the power customization. We can now customize our powers, animations colors, and sets. A full list of the City of Heroes patch notes can be found here;
Here is a list of the features;

Powers Customization:

Hundreds of powers have been updated to allow new color selections and customization. Players can now pick new Themes for each powerset, adjusting colors, appearance, and even animations for some sets.
Key Features:
• Thousands of Tintable particle and geometry effects for powers, such as Energy Blasts and Stone Mallet colors.
• Customizable Primary and Secondary colors for powersets, with color choices themed to match the selected powerset.
• Powerset Themes selectable for a complete set, or individual powers.
• Powerset Themes selectable at character creation, as well as in the tailor screens.
• Independant Theme selection for each character costume.

New Theme selections:

New Themes of Spines and Thorny Assault available, including themes of Thorns, Metal Spines, Crystal Spines, and Slate Spines. New Animation Themes for Super Strength and Martial Arts.Huge variety of customizable powersets, including Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Devices, Earth Control, Earth Melee, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Plant Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Spines, Stone Armor, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault, Traps, and Willpower.

_______________________________________________

New Character Creator:
• The Character creator and Tailor screen have been updated to be easier to use and even preview the animation and color choices for powers!
Key features:
• Tabbed Character Creator: Jump between Archetype, Power Sets, Costumes, and Character ID in any order without losing progress.
• New Powers Customization screen, for adjusting powers and previewing animations.
• Select colors and themes for each individual power, or apply it to the entire power set!
• Preview live animations of all powers, showing the selected Theme and color choices.
• Save and Load Theme settings for each powerset, saving colors and selections for all powers.

Costume slots: Your active costume slot is stored when you log off will be the costume slot used when you log back in. It will also display that costume in the character selection screen.

_______________________________________________

Powerset Proliferation: More power sets are now in the hands of Archetypes who couldn’t use them previously!
Archetype – Blasters
• Radiation Blast

Archetype – Brutes
• Claws

Archetype – Controllers
• Cold Domination

Archetype – Corruptors
• Archery
• Trick Arrow

Archetype – Defenders
• Assault Rifle
• Traps

Archetype – Dominators
• Earth Assault

Archetype -Masterminds
• Thermal Radiation

Archetype -Scrappers
• Electric Melee
• Electric Armor

Archetype -Tankers
• Electric Melee
• Electric Armor

Archetype -Stalkers
• Broadsword

_______________________________________________

Enhanced Difficulty Options: The old notoriety system has been removed and replaced with a new difficulty system of independent settings. You can now fine-tune the difficulty levels of the missions you play by telling the game exactly how you want to be treated:
• Choose to fight monsters between a -1 to +4 level difference from the player’s level.
• Choose to set your personal team size (1-8).
• Choose if you want bosses to scale down to Lieutenants when soloing or not
• Choose to have AVs scale down to EBs.

The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled. Actual team size overrides any difficulty setting, so you will always get Arch-Villains if the team has 6 or more members. The difficulty setting is per task, so personal team member sizes do not add together.

You can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.’s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.

_______________________________________________

Sidekicking Changes: Super-Sidekicking! One player can now sidekick or exemplar the whole team, everyone can always play together!
• Each player in the group’s level is set to the level of the owner of the active team task. If no team task is selected, everyone in the group’s level will be set to the level of the team leader.
• When the team level changes, players will be notified via a dialog and have the option to quit the team or immediately accept. The dialog will time out after 30 seconds at which point acceptance is implied.
• While in the pending state, players cannot receive rewards and any critters they damage will be worth no experience.
• Players can choose to auto-accept team level changes 0 to 50 levels above or below their current level.
• Exemplars will now earn XP and a level capped person will get XP converted into influence like exemplars used to.

The next patch will bring some class changes, an Onyxia update, and yes some companion pets. WOW is one of those games that have many options, raiding, pvp, questing and non combat pets. The next patch will see the addition of several new pets. Get ready for these:

1-Onyxia Whelping. Just log on during the 5th anniversary and you will receive one.
2- Pandaren monk, always a fan favorite. Now you can have a little Kung Fu master panda following you around.
3- Lil’KT. A mini version of Kel’Thuzad.
4-Zipao Tiger
5-Wind Rider Cub
5-Gryphon Hatchling

Cataclysm is still some time away, in the meantime we have patch 3.2 to look forward to. One of the big changes in the patch is upgrading Onyxia to a 10 and 25 man dungeon. This comes with new loot, which will have stats for level 80 players but will have the art work of the original loot. Many players love the old style, so this will allow them to keep that old style yet have good stats.

Onyxia will also drop a 310% speed flying mount based on her model. Here are the patch notes of everything on PTR right now, of course subject to change, from Blizzard (Patch Notes) ;

General

• The Brood Mother Returns
  • After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.
    • Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
    • Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
    • Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
    • Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Battlegrounds
  • Players level 11 and higher will always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knights

• Pets
  • Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
    • Typhoon: The knockback distance from this spell has been increased to match Thunderstorm and the range of the ability has been reduced to 10 yards.
  • Feral Combat
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid’s finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

Paladins

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
    • Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
    • Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina.
  • Retribution
    • Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.

Rogues

• Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
• Talents
  • Assassination
    • Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
  • Combat
    • Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
  • Subtlety
    • Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Arms
    • Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Dungeons & Raids

• Shadowfang Keep
  • Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Items

• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach.
• Glyphs
  • Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
  • Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 20 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.

User Interface

• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Bug Fixes

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.
• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.
• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 now work with Holy Nova.
• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Master’s Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Trap Mastery: Tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.
• Val’anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: This item’s special bonus now works properly with Prayer of Mending and the heal-over-time effect triggered by Flash of Light cast on Sacred Shield targets.
• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.