July 1 News

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No, it's not World War I, but the World Wide Invitational. A huge party by Blizzard, and a news extravaganza, with Diablo III announced and a ton of WotLK information to dig through. The easiers way to do this is to head over to WoW Insider's WWI Roundup. There is a lot of very good writeups from folks who were able to attend the festivities, and what they saw there.

Nyhm is back, and this time, he's giving Eminem a run for his money.

July 1 brings the Season 3 Arena Titles.

Apparently Arena Junkies vastly overestimated the rating necessary to get titles on most realms, and some people eare up in arms about it, complaining that too many people got titles... PvP-e-peening has gotten so abrasive that apparently the top 0.2% is now calling the top 0.5% scrubs and undeserving of the same title. Pretty humorous to me, but I guess titles are serious business to some.

This person's title didn't change:
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/8836/wo...08140253wi4.jpg
One person suggested a guild name change to <Duelist Duelist>

July 8 News

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Manaprincess starts us off today, offering interesting handcrafted WoW related knicknacks.

Bornakk pipes up to help either quelch or fan the fires of flying mounts in Northrend. He says that there will be some process involved, but that it won't be an expensive one. I'm pretty interested in seeing what kind of questline Blizz can cook up to allow our flyable mounts freedom of the air again. This is of course just speculation, but there is also an instance around lvl 77 that is supposed to require a flying mount to get around in. Perhaps you have to quest in there to get the ability to fly again? A great many possiblities here.

Zach Yonzan opens up a can of worms with an article wondering about Season 4 in arena. He says that a 2000 rated team is nothing now, and is quite a large proponent of the new ranking system to "weed out the chafe". This leads to several interesting questions. One of the larger ones is "If folks can't get at least some wins, will they keep playing?" Arena PvP is getting to be like raiding was, pre-TBC. Anyone in Naxx gear (Season 3/4) will blow someone in MC gear (Season 1) out of the water. Sure, fun for the S3/4 level folks, not so much fun for the S1 (or less) level folks. If new blood stops coming in to the arena...what's going to happen to it? Will it truely sift down into a contest of skill, or will it just wither and die?

As ever, the Ask A Lore Nerd column provides some great insight into the story behind the game.

The Casuals, the "forgotten majority" when it comes to WoW...what do they have to look forward to in WotLK? Robin Torres answers that for you.

In a fun nod to the announcement of DIII, there will be a Tyrael mini/non combat "pet" added to WoW.

Finally...you have signed up for the WotLK Beta Test, right? It's now open, and you can head over and sign up for your chance to be a beta tester.

July 15 News

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Todays extended maintenance brings us Patch 2.4.3. This one has caused some controversy ever since hitting the PTR, with cheap, lower level mount, a Cheat Death nerf, and the ability to use Arena Points to buy epic gems, among other things. Personally, as I'm now running alts through the high 20's, low 30's recently, I'd forgotten just how annoying most of those zones are. There is some help with a couple new quest hubs and flight points, but for the most part, it's a LOT of back and forth running that just isn't fun.

Oh, and Happy 9th Birthday, Lurker Lounge!

Stealth changes incoming!



M'uru wall has been weakened.

I like this one. No more fussing around because someone needs to drop a flag before a raid.

Another "haha, screw you!" to Engineers. Lovely.

Arena balance shouldn't be dictated by what profession you are.

Edit: play nice Quark.

Seems fair given I couldn't use my lovely Netherweave nets to root and escape those pesky rogues, warriors and enh shammies that like to pick on Sharanna in arena.

Tal, if there is one thing I've learned from playing 3v3 with you, it's that everyone likes to pick on Sharanna in the arena.

I can't help it that she's so good looking that folks just want to run up an hug her...to death.

And yet Blacksmiths have always been able to use their weapons and armor without restrictions.

I frankly think items should be allowed in arena; if you spend the damned money and time leveling a profession to a point, creating the items, and learning how to use them effectively, you should see some fscking results for all that time and effort.

Go to battlegrounds and stop whining, then. Arena isn't intended to make you feel better about using some stupid item; it's intended to be balanced.

There is a particular problem with on use effects and chance effects from professions in Arena. That includes the stupid stun mace. They can either confer an ability a class didn't have before (boots on a priest, vastly improving escapability) or enhance a class ability to stupid levels (warriors being the de-facto stun class). This, in turn, makes it a "required" profession, and gives the class more power than intended resulting in either a class getting nerfed or a profession getting nerfed. Guess what the better choice is?

Hi,


Blizzard replacing some of their artists with people who actually understand games (and a spreadsheet)?

Or was that a rhetorical question?

--Pete

I highly doubt grenades would break arenas. The rocket boots were already fine; they're damn expensive to make, had a chance to backfire, and had a lengthy cooldown besides. More than that, they had no stats other than either AP or spellpower; no Stamina, no Resilience, nothing. Once you used them, you were stuck wearing crappy boots.

Grenades last a maximum of three seconds, have a short cast timer, and have a teeny tiny 3 yard radius; it's very possible to miss people with them. Frost Grenades are dispellable, and Arcane Bombs are incredibly expensive to make and require that you stand still in order to use them.

I don't see how Engineering would become a "required" arena profession at all. Like I said, I think if someone is willing to throw bombs and grenades that cost a fair amount of money, then they should be allowed to. It's their gold and time. Why is an Engineer's gold and time worth less than a Blacksmith's?

It isn't. An engineer can use, say, the engineering helms in Arenas. There's no ban on them. But can smiths use their consumables in arenas? Sharpening stones, and the like? No.

-Jester

Well, one word: Thunder.

Overall I agree with the "not as big a deal" crew though, despite being an engineer myself. Not caring about PvP makes my opinion kind of ... of no importance, I guess

Oh, so you want to add more RNG into Arenas, which isn't supposed to be based on RNG at all. That's awesome.



"Dispellable" is not a valid reason for something to be arena worthy. You don't give classes abilities they shouldn't have (everyone getting frost nova) because, oh, they might have a dispeller (who isn't healing the damage or doing other things while they're dispelling). Neither is "expensive". You don't pay for victories, you fight for them.



Blacksmithing was the mistake, because as I've mentioned, it includes one of an "on use" or a "chance on hit". Is the DPS from blacksmithing weapons the reason they're good? No, they're stuck at S2 level DPS. It's the proc, which shouldn't be there in the first place. Hopefully Blizzard's acknowledged this by the fact that they're nerfing mace specialization in WotLK and with any luck are smart enough to not create that weapon again.

For Arena, every profession should be able to confer some stat bonuses that you couldn't get otherwise, and they'll all balance out pretty much. No profession should confer on use or chance on hit abilities.

Again, stop whining and go play battlegrounds. That's what you want. An unbalanced free for all where skill matters less but you can pay some extra gold to get cheap kills.

And I can wear the lovely mooncloth robes that my profession allows me to create. Its the consumeable part of the confessions that they've removed.

Don't get me wrong. As a paladin I *have* to stand still and have LoS on my targets in order to heal them. I have one instant cast heal that is on a 14 second timer. I pillar hump as a part of my role in the arenas. I would dearly love to have a way to, at least for a little while, get away from the melee so I can do my job and heal. In BGs the nets allow me to use that as a means of getting distance from a rogue or a warrior. But having to face engineering stuns/disorients or someone potting at the last second in Arena is not my idea of skill.

I've always thought that arenas should have predefined sets of equipment. If you want a purely skill-based affair, then give everyone the same gear and let talent spec and player skill be the rule of the day. Sure you remove a huge motivation to play arenas by taking away the gear rewards, but there are ways around that- titles, mounts, heck, maybe even free playtime.

I've long thought that's the way to do it, too. But then you have hordes of folks saying THAT isn't fun. Blizzard can't win here, with PvP. Basically...people want to kill other people easily, with no risk to themselves doing so in this game. You can't make it balanced, or fair, without upsetting a large chunk of your playerbase.

This is essentially the same argument those who like twinks are so fond of constantly repeating "I twink so that I can compete against other twinks!" but when you realize there are very few twinks out there, and they don't tend to like playing against each other, the argument kind of falls flat.

Hm.

Overall, I get nothing out of WoW PvP. Just not my thing. But I had a great time when I was twinking. And not because we could win AB in under 10 minutes (EDIT: or was that 5 minutes? Long time since I've been in an AB) 2000-0 against undermanned pickups, but because we regularly organised games against other twink teams on our server and later in our battlegroup. Those games between almost evenly matched groups of dedicated players were among the best ecperiences in WoW for me. With so many annoying random factors removed, it really boiled down to skill/tactics/coordination.

I would have greatly welcomed the option to always play against such teams and not having to farm or buy all that silly twink gear. So while I realise that most players do in fact feel like you described (raids pwning single players running to instances, sheesh...), I would like to be noted as an exception .

My name is Tarabulus and I enjoy fair* PvP combat. What's your game?

take care
Tarabulus


*as fair as possible

I think that's what they're trying to accomplish with the Arena Tournament servers. Don't forget the prize of waving your e-peen in everyone's face; there'll always be that to win.

I completely disagree. Part of the skill and effort involved is the itemization. This is just as valid as your spec. I spec differently for 2s than I do for 3s and 5s due to my team makeup. I was dead set against it when they stopped allowing you to change gear in arenas too. If you put the time and effort into different sets of gear that is just as much prep and effort as anything else you can do to boost your team's ability to win. IMO pvp is about putting your character/team against mine. If I've itemized my ducks in a row and you're just a welfare epic mess I SHOULD win.

The playing field can not be "leveled" because that just takes the fun out of it. If there is no progression, no preparation, no hard choices, and because of which no hard fought victories what is the point?

Removing the equipment factor from Arenas would suit a different style of game, WOW is big on slow, painstaking character growth. That said I do think low level twinks are a problem because the BGs should be fun for new players and being one-hit by someone you can't even touch isn't fun.

Even if gear differentials were removed there will still be players with 'unfair' (ie. not based on skill) advantages over others. A more modern machine, a better connection to the server, even an appropriate interface - ever tried to heal in Arena using Grid and mouseover macros? I don't recommend it!

July 16 News

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With Patch 2.4.3, came the Gigantique Bag, for a mere 1200g. Some would argue, that it's a steal that price, for the 22 slots it brings. Others would disagree, figuring that paying 1200g for 2 bag slots (as most folks have 20 slot bags by now) is a waste of money. In many places, this item has sparked some interesting debate. What do you feel you MUST carry with you at all times? As soon as it was live, I know some folks who rushed out and bought 4 of them. I also know (myself included) folks who aren't interested in them. It has gotten me intersted in what folks feel that they need to play though, what they like to have at their "fingertips" at all times. I won't post my list of "must carry" stuff to the front page, but will continue this discussion via the News Discussion thread.

So, what's in my bags? I carry, at all times...

-Netherdrake
-Winterspring Frostsaber
-Healing Potion Injector
-Mana Potion Injector
-1 stack of Purified Draenic Water
-Goblin Jumper Cables XL
-1 Stack of Heavy Netherweave Bandages
-Hydrocane
-Broken Longbow
-Lovely Purple Dress
-Blacksmith Hammer
-Mining Pick
-Arclight Spanner
-Pheonix Hatchling (I have a 'stable' of vanity pets and alternate them as the mood strikes me)
-Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
-Medallion of the Alliance (2m, non epic version)
-Agility Food
-Elixir of Major Agility
-Elixir of Major Mageblood
-2 Stacks of Smoked Talbuk Venison (Food for the bottomless pit)
-Hearthstone
-T5 gloves (I keep them to swap out with my T6 gloves for boss fights/times my pet takes a lot of damage)

That's it. After you take away the 24 slot quiver I have, and consider that I have 20 slots bags in every available slot, that leaves me with 53 "free" slots at any given time.

I used to carry the Repair Bot 110G, But I haven't had to use those in a long, long time, so it got banked.

I understand the lovely purple dress (we all need to feel pretty sometimes), but the Broken Longbow? That's 600g worth of space, right there!

I used to do a lot of pulling in raids, and rarely would I get healing. Back before Misdirection, a healer landing a big heal on a hunterpuller means the pull go awry. So I got the dress to save on armor repair costs (after one run where my repair bill ended up way, way over the tanks) and started doing things that way. Until I realized that you can' t pull without a bow, and mine was expensive to repair as well. So I went back to a lowbie area and got the broken longbow. I used the two together as a 'pulling' outfit, thus sending my cost of dying down from 3-4 gold/death to 2-3 silver/death.

When pulling was dying down, as it was better to have the tank do it, it became all the rage for anyone who didn't have Feign Death to drag whatever rampaging mob onto anyone who HAD FD'ed to "give them a repair bill too". So I ItemRacked a "death" outfit, which was my pulling outfit revisited.

I haven't had to use either in a long while, though I do occasionally still whip out the dress and do a little /dance while I'm waiting for a raid to start. Or if I'm helping lowbies, I may wear that, to give a mob a sort of a chance. Deadmines in a dress? Oh, yeah!

From memory, I'll figure out what I missed when I get home.

-Wizard oil x2
-Black whelpling
-Wolpertinger
-Mining pick
-Hearthstone
-Drums
-Bandages
-Super Rejuv pots
-Healing potion injector
-Mana potion injector
-+Dmg foodx2
-Kibler's bits
-Infernal stones
-Shadow power elixers
-Flasks
-Brewfest Keg
-Brewfest Ram
-War kodo
-Skeletal warhorse
-Netherdrake
-ZA bear
-Purple chocobo
-Black chocobo
-Spiteblade
-Band of Devastation
-Crimson felt hat
-OH fish
-SR gear x5 (cloak, bracers, boots, pants, belt)
-BT neck
-Black pantsuit
-Spell hit rings x3
-Riding crop
-Medallion of the horde
-Battlemaster trinket
-AR gear x3 (trinket, gloves, chest)
-T6 gloves
-summer festival space goat fire thing
-Stam gear x11 (hat, shoulders, cloak, bracers, belt, pants, boots, trinket, OH, wand, ring)
-MH and OH beer mugs
-Wicked Witch hat

62 slots used + 1 full bag of shards and some extras

During raids I add 3 healthstones, 2 stacks of food, and as many shards as I can jam in there. Last night I was running around with 3 or 4 open slots, if I had the motivation to farm cash I would probably buy the 22 slot bags.

Here are my bag items from memory:

- 1 stack of talbuk steaks for clearing trash in raids and instances.
- 1 stack of dps food (Spicy Talbuk)
- 1 stack of fisherman's feast or crawdad for bosses
- 1 stack of Fortification flasks
- 1 stack of Relentless Assault Flasks for loldps or when folks forget their flasks
- 4 stacks of greater stoneshield potions
- 1 stack of greater rage potions
- 1 health injector
- 1 stack bandaids for skinned knees
- 1 stack of agility elixirs
- 1 stack of fort elixirs
- 3 vanity pets (Sinister Squashling, Firefly, Blue Dragonhawk)
- Netherdrake and Gryphon mount
- Epic horse mount
- Epic sheep mount
- Back up shield (used to be my stamina set shield)
- Chest, legs and helm from the Destroyer set, bracers from VR, tank boots from Solarian for trash tanking in BT so I has rage
- ring and neck with dodge on them for a dodge set
- DPS kit (full set including sword from HMrT and throwing weapon)
- PVP kit (for HMrt - shares thrown, and boot slot with DPS kit)
- Knight's colors
- 4 pieces for fishing outfit + fishing pole and lures (5 spots)

Comparing bag contents? Well, here I go.

Main Backpack
- Hearthstone
- Bounty of the Harvest
Second Bag
- Skinning Knife
- Terrok's Quill, for some reason...
- Knothide Leather Scraps
- Knothide Leather
- Heavy Knothite Leather
- Cobra Scales
- 2xScrolls of Intellect
- 2xPotions of Waterwalking
- Righteous Weapon Coating
- Tuxedo Jacket
- Tuxedo Shirt
- Tuxedo Pants
Third Bag
- Fishing Pole
- Fishing Hat
- Two stacks of Clefthoof Ribs
- Two stacks of Filtered Draenic Water
- Four stacks of Naaru Rations
- 5xMajor Rejuvination Potions
- 5xSuper Health Potions
- 5xSuper Mana Potions
- Drums of Panic
- Drums of Battle
- Fishing lures (Hooks)
- Stack of Grilled Mudfish
Third Bag
- Horn of the Frostwolf Howler
- Reins of the Onyx Netherdrake
- Crown of the Fire Festival
- Vestment of Summer
- Mantle of the Fire Festival
- Sandals of Summer
- Brazier of Flames
- Worg Carrier
- Frostwolf Insignia Rank 6
- Riding Crop
- Crystalforged Trinket
- Charged Crystal Focus
- Spirit Shards
- Elixirs of Shadow
- Apexis Shards
- Osha'gun Crystal Powder Samples
- Badges of Justice (Only 7, which I've gathered from SSO dailies. I don't do heroics...)
- Netherweave Cloth

Pretty much all of that is essential, except maybe the themed sets. Still, one never knows when you might find yourself in a situation where it's appropriate to put on a tux. That, and I spent half an hour distracting the Alliance battleground joiners in Shattrath by doing the fire dance atop the nearby awning.

I really should finish up Adversarial Blood and the final Skettis quest.

Ahh, yes, bag space...

4 of almost every single slot not including what is currently being worn (ie. 4 helmets, 4 amulets, 8 rings, etc...) - PvP feral, Bear tank set, Cat dps set, Healing set, PvP resto (this one is only partial).

I love being a druid!

Add reagants, consumables, one flying mount, one ground mount, hearthstone, etc. and that overflows 4 20-slotters right there. My usual free space is 8 slots...

Extraneous cruft, alas, has to be swapped in and out of the bank as needed...

July 18 News

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That's right. I've got the WotLK Beta Patch notes up, and there's a ton of them! A lot of stuff to chew over, ponder, dissect, and talk about. Head over here to check it out!

Guess I'll play the bagspace game, too. I'm still using two 16-slot bags and I just recently picked up two 18-slot bags. One of these days I'll get a 20-slot bag or two from Mag and similar areas; my luck with rolls has been terrible lately.

Main backpack:

- Naaru Ration x12
- Frost Grenades x10
- Frost Grenades x10
- Frost Grenades x10
- Arcane Bomb x7
- Super Sapper Charge x4
- Explosive Sheep x2
- Jaggal Clam Meat x10
- Archmage Vargoth's Staff
- Mallet of Zul'Farrak
- Fel Iron Casing x1
- Goblin Rocket Launcher

Imbued Netherweave Bag (1):

- Mote of Mana x8
- Mote of Earth x2
- Mote of Shadow x2
- Mote of Air x4
- Mote of Fire x3
- Mote of Life x1
- Mote of Water x3
- Vengeance of the Illidari
- Elemental Blasting Powder x5
- Lv.68 green breastplate, waiting to be disenchanted
- Dense Stone x11
- Solid Stone x4
- Black Vitriol x1

Imbued Netherweave Bag (2):

- Badge of Justice x14
- Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor x12
- Arathi Basin Mark of Honor x13
- Alterac Valley Mark of Honor x14
- Eye of the Storm Mark of Honor x40
- Healing Potion Injector x20
- Mana Potion Injector x20
- Major Rejuvenation Potion x2
- Swim Speed Potion x4
- Swiftness Potion x5
- Swiftness Potion x5
- Lesser Invisibility Potion x2
- Spirit Shard x2
- Bloodberry Elixir x2
- Zergling Leash
- Heavy Netherweave Bandage x20
- Heavy Netherweave Bandage x17
- Brilliant Wizard Oil (4/5 Charges)

Netherweave Bag (1):

- Crystalforged Sword
- Devilshark Cape
- Strength of the Untamed
- Vindicator's Hauberk
- Wrynn Dynasty Legguards
- Battlescar Boots
- Vambraces of Courage
- Tankatronic Goggles
- Justicar Handguards
- Symbol of Divinity x3
- Symbol of Kings x100
- Symbol of Kings x100
- Symbol of Kings x67

Netherweave Bag (2):

- Gouging Pick
- Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
- Blacksmith Hammer
- Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor
- Arclight Spanner
- Hearthstone
- Horn of the Black War Wolf
- Flying Machine Control
- Adamantite Ore x9
- Fel Iron Ore x1
- Elementium Ore x1
- Truesilver Ore x4
- Mithril Ore x4
- Thorium Ore x9
- Bottom Shard of the Arcatraz Key
- Second Key Fragment

Poor use of your bank and bank alts IMO.

Mine:

New bags rule!

July 22 News

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Well, since the NDA has been lifted, WotLK info has been coming fast and furious. Tons of great stuff, so it's hard to keep up with it all. My beta invite seems to be delayed in the mail, so I'll have to make do watching other folks go at it

First off, the Official Talent Calculators are up and working.

Pets have finally come into their own, with each Family Tree having it's own special skill. Snatch, Pin, and Nether Shock all seem like very interesting abilities.

Blizzard has also announced it's Achievements system that will go live in WotLK. Some are looking at it as all the sudden having up to 500 or so "new mini quests" to do. It does look interesting, and reminds folks that Blizzard is/can tracking a LOT of info about your toon.

One of the neat additions is that Gathering Professions will now have benefits. A nice little perk for being a gatherer.

Finally, Nitefox spots some Custom Mounts that will be available in Northrend. I didn't know that they'd moved Orange County up there...

Such fun. I love the speculation coming from people. I can't tell you how many bad Mutilate builds I've seen appear as people who were spoon-fed the Combat Swords spec try to figure something they've never practiced out for themselves.

Using Cold Blood to "sustain" Cut to the Chase, taking one poison talent but not the others (they're synergistic), ignoring Quick Recovery and Fleet Footed ... oh well, at least Vulajin's in the alpha/beta and has already put up good commentary on the official beta boards.

It looks like Blizzard is also trying to kill a number of the cookie cutter raid builds to get people to try different things.

I noticed that Survival for Hunters has got some major buffs on the high end along with Marksman to try and pull people away from using Beast Mastery for raiding.

Demonic Sacrifice has been turned into a worthless talent for non-Demonology major and Destruction is being pushed to combine in some Affliction spells. Now non-Demonology Warlocks will put a maximum of 13 talent points into Demonology.

Shadow is really looking nice now and there are a ton really good powers.

Prot Paladins are also looking really interesting.

They said Demonic Sacrifice will go back in with some changes.



Tanking right now is completely redone due to threat changes.

In other news, vanity pets and mounts will now become taught spells - the items you get will teach you the spells to summon them. So they won't take any inventory space anymore!

I believe they also said those changes will be intended to put DS in its place - something a demonologist only ever uses on a fight where it isn't practical to try keeping a pet alive so they at least get *some* benefit.

Balancing warlocks around NOT having DS will be fantastic.

It will be difficult to say the least as the 15% damage boost to either fire or shadow is a necessity for raiding Destruction Warlocks. Taking that damage boost away hurt, a lot... On a Warlock that is pushing out 2k DPS (as typical for heavy T6 gear), that's a loss of 300 DPS without DS as it is now. I'm not sure looking at the talents in Destruction that it will be able to keep up that level damage output, but will be interesting to see.

If pets are made viable, and chaos bolt doesn't suck it won't be hard to makeup that 15% damage. Plus instead of dumping 20 points into trash talents you can get some nice utility stuff from the other trees.

There's still a reason to go 13 deep into demonology (as there always has been) and the early talents haven't been wastes (even now) to go that deep.

"Gigantique" bags make it possible for Spangles to carry 80 items at all times. Four 22 slot bags replaced four 20 slot inventory bags, which in turn replaced four 18 slot bank bags, for a total of 16 new slots. All this for the price of 15 days of dailies, such a deal.

Carrying everything enables a typical evening of raiding, farming, heroic instances and battlegrounds with a minimum of shuffling things in/out of the bank. Switching gear is performed instantly with ItemRack and StanceSets. The built-in bag carries the usual food, pots, & supplies for raiding & battlegrounds.

Stuff that is always in inventory:
Armor & jewelry for tanking, DPS, farming, and battlegrounds
Armor & jewelry for arcane, fire, frost, and nature resist (the shadow resist set, scrounged on the AH, remains in the bank)
Clothing and jewelry for formal and informal occasions
Weapons: the kitchen sink
Odds/ends: Nitebane summoner, enchanting rod, gem grinder, tiger, hippogryph, bullets and arrows

No room for:
Pets, happy fun rocks, snowballs, disco lites, romantic picnic baskets

Farming with only 10 or 12 open slots is impractical. Gear is arranged so that one bag can be swapped with an empty bag from the bank, providing 30 slots for drops & temporary quest items. These slots fill up quickly, and every opportunity for mailing/selling is important to maximize the yield from a round of dailies.

Blizzard has made it easier and more profitable to farm with the new bags. I wish that they would also make it easier to switch between two sets of talents. A typical evening starts in protection mode for raiding, then fury for farming and battlegrounds, then back to protection for an instance, and raiding the next day. That takes 100g / day right off the top, which has only become affordable because of the 300g / day gleaned from dailies.

I don't understand why they give us all this stuff to do, then impose a stiff tax for doing it. The implication is that I'm supposed to level three warriors, one each for ms, fury and protection. Nuts to that. A cooldown would be appropriate to avoid strange exploits, but whatever rationale exists for the respec tax seems out of date.

Unless things have changed I thought that they were adding the ability to store 2 talant specs in wotlk. Is this still the case? or are they just letting you store the other spec and still have to pay the price to switch between? If that's the case, I don't really see the point. Weee you just saved me 30 seconds it takes to click my 2nd talant spec out.

It was mentioned as something they are looking into, I believe, or are planning to implement, but no details are out and I don't think this exists in current beta (or the EJ WotLK thread would have mentioned it more recently).

As someone that enjoys many aspects of the game, I'm hoping this option goes in and is quite flexible. As a raid leader, I am REALLY hoping it goes in and is flexible enough that some of our hybrids can swap their roles between boss fights (imagine the flexibility it would give Blizzard designers too, knowing they can design bosses that require stacked healing or bosses where stacked DPS matters more, and know folks can do that stacking without swapping people out of the raid).

I've kinda been wondering about something like this myself. But I'm not sure they will go that far. I'm thinking you might end up with something like being able to change on the fly (possibly with a fee still, or perhaps you just have to spend X gold to set up your 2 specs up front) and then slapping it with an hour or 4 hour cooldown or something like that. Possible to still swap in a raid but maybe not for every boss. 4 hours is too long to be able to go from farming to instancing spec nicely, but 1 hour makes that work pretty well.

There are other ways to do it as well, but yeah it is something I would like a fair bit, though of course it's more valuable to some classes than to others. Basically any class that can heal gets way more out of it than say a mage or a hunter. Swapping between fire and frost and arcane can be helpful, sure, someplace like TK where A'lar is fire immune but you want to be fire for Solarian, etc. It has uses, but for a hunter? Not a whole lot of reason for a swap on the fly. I suppose if beast is still the top individual DPS there could be reason to swap between it and survival (which looks to add some really nice group/raid stuff). If you have a melee heavy group it could help to go survival to get expose for them and provide that lovely energy/rage/mana/runic power regen to one of the groups. So again some utiltity, but not nearly the level of having a shaman that can swap between enh and resto or elem and resto. Or a druid that could be a tree one fight, a boomkin the next fight that really loves caster DPS and a feral the next fight where you need some extra off tanking. Yeah I listed 3 for the druid but who knows maybe you'll get 3 specs to flip between.

I'd like more than 2 myself. Even for my hunter if for nothing other than arenas. I prefer a survival spec for 2's and 3's on him, but marks for 5's and either beast or survival (depending on which other hunters are there that night) for raids. So even for one of the classes that gets less out of it, I could see me using 4 or 5 specs in one day if I'm doing 2 different arena teams and a raid that day, which I've done on days when I've had 6 hours to play (20 arena games in 2 hours and then 3 hours of raiding with an hour of whatever in there).

July 29 News

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We start this week off with a great post by Artega. In it he gives us some of the macros he uses in both PvE and PvP, and asks for others. It's already got some great ones in there, so head over, check it out, and add your own.

Bornakk lets us know that Blizz is still working out the kinks in the "2 specs per toon" rumblings that have gone around recently.

ExplorerPeppy gives us a look at the new Motorcycles in action. I don't know about this one, personally. For some reason, I have no problems with the Steampunk nature of the dwarves and gnomes. But on the other hand, motorcycles just seem a bit...much? for me. Even as an Eng, I don't intend on making one (no, I don't have a helicopter, either) unless there is some other pressing reason.

Zach Yonzon takes a quick look at Runeforging, the new mechanic of Death Knights.

Space concerns are also being addressed in interesting manners. A Token Page was found in the Beta, which shows/holds all manner of things along the line of Badges of Justice.

Additionally, Vanity Pets and Mounts will be turned into items that, when clicked, let you learn them as a "spell", so that they no longer take up any room in your inventory as well.

Something else of note is that Blizzard is also addressing a rather interesting concern. Folks, when they are levelling, are used to looking like clowns due to mismatched, miscoloured armor. That is being addressed, and some of the Green Items/Quest Rewards that have been found look amazing.

As well, there is extended maintenance this week, and my beta invite is still lost in the mail.