2fps

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know
Sometimes I feel like checking out…

Its late November, the sky is the color of dull concrete sidewalks and we’re stuck in the dead zone between patches again. Its a familiar situation but I don’t feel any more prepared for it than I have in the past. I feel pretty good about having cleared Ulduar before 3.3 and the only boss I’ve not seen die is Algalon which I’m ok with for now but at the same time, I’m not thrilled to be coping with the feelings of listlessness and purposelessness.

In the month before Ulduar came out I still had goals and milestones I was reaching for: getting Death’s Bite so I could start Ulduar with a decent weapon, running a few heroics and doing a bit of pvp to stockpile badges and honor for epic gems, etc. This time around, I think I’m stuck with nothing in particular to work for that has any real significance to me. Going after gear on alts is remarkably unappealing due to the veritable flood of new gear that will shortly be available from the new heroics and if we take working on alts off the table, I’m not left with much.

The one upside to being caught in the between-patch purgatory is the assurance that I can safely turn my back on the Argent Tournament and never think twice about it again. I was altogether done with that place a month after it came out and I’ve never been more relieved to write off a part of the game.

I almost got to this point with the Isle of Quel’danas in BC but I never could let it go. Quel’danas felt like it mattered. The dailies had purpose. Recover ore from the naga so we can forge weapons and armor to use against Kil’jaeden. Take mana remnants from our enemies to power our defenses on the island. Bomb the incoming enemy fleet to secure the harbor for the Shattered Sun. All these and more like them were all dailies that served a clear purpose and contributed to a very tangible goal: taking back the Sunwell.

Tournament dailies are so bad as to almost make me wonder who got fired between patch 2.4 and 3.2 for the quests to have lost so much in quality. Joust some dudes so you get better at jousting because when you fight Arthas you’ll need to… do something with a lance and a horse? Kill some Scourge dudes; go ahead and pick any of them throughout the zone, this is just a token effort it won’t really mean anything in the war effort. Kill Chillmaw because he’s a dangerous threatening dragon who is apparently so cross-eyed he can only fly in one tight circle around a completely empty part of Icecrown.

That’s why I’m very much looking forward to 3.3 and how it makes Quel’danas relevant again, if even in a small, transient way. One of the last steps in the Quel’delar chain is to take the blade to the Sunwell. I did it last night and it was such a surreal experience. In what is easily the most significant moment I’ve had while engaging in the storyline of the game, I found myself in front of the entrance to the Sunwell on the island of Quel’danas, a broken and possessed blade in hand.

I portaled to the island and blinked as I looked around. The crack elves were gone, the demons weren’t flooding out of the nether gates and the archers weren’t shooting down enemy hawks. The village was peaceful with most of the Shattered Sun soldiers cleared out entirely. I walked down the road to the Sunwell without seeing anyone or anything until I reached the summoning stone. There were soldiers standing guard outside the instance portal but they weren’t fighting or even looking like they thought they might be fighting soon. I asked for an escort to the Sunwell proper and was ushered into the hallway leading out from the room Mu’ru had been held captive in. High elf and blood elf pilgrims walked by me down the ramp leading to the site of Kil’jaeden’s battle with Kalecgos and Anveena. The leaders of Silvermoon were conversing on the ground level below.

The most obvious sight in the room below was the Sunwell itself. A blazing pillar of fire stretching out into the empty sky above. It was amazing. I had chosen to play a blood elf originally because the destruction of Silvermoon and the defiling of the Sunwell in Warcraft 3 were such significant, compelling events. The pathos of the fate of the blood elves was gripping and intriguing. Every blood elf npc had been shouting "Remember the Sunwell!" since the first moment I started a character.

Here it was, purified and restored in whole.

Being near the Sunwell was irrationally satisfying. I felt as calm and content seeing it onscreen as if I was actually physically there. I finished the quest with whatever silly sword it was I was working on fixing and then just stayed there taking it all in. Eventually I left and finished the Quel’delar chain but as soon as I could, I went back to the Sunwell.

Sadly it was all gone. The phased area I was in while doing the sword quest chain was no more. Demons once again ran amok, crack elves were lining the beaches and the arcane patrollers were breaking down and falling apart. I would trade all of those daily quests and all of Quel’danas as it existed in 2.4 to have that access to the Sunwell back.

Here’s hoping there’s a way in the future.

Icecrown General chat was flooded tonight by people talking about how many times they were wiping in Heroic Halls of Reflection on the PTR. My group wiped just over a half dozen times but after coming up with some killer strategery we got through the instance. Now I’m going to share said strategery with you, here’s hoping its useful!

You enter the instance down there at the bottom of the map next to the Halls of Reflection title. As you can see, its a very short walk down the hall to get to the first bosses. As the fight begins you’ll see hosts of inanimate NPC’s arranged in a ring around the walls. Think back to Halls of Lightning. Remember how some of the Vyrkul guys would come to life as you walked past them? Similar mechanic at work here. Small packs of mobs will animate and charge your group and once you’ve taken down a few waves of adds you can kill the first boss. The first two bosses themselves are complete pushovers. The trash before them can be more problematic.

The packs will have warrior types, mages, hunters and priests. Obviously you want to kill the priest first as he’s a healer. You may find it helpful to nuke down the mage next as her flamestrike isn’t very comfortable. Here’s the deal with the trash. The first few waves shouldn’t really hold you up. Once you kill the first boss, the one conveniently labeled with a number 1 on the map, you can make things infinitely easier on your group by hiding out in the nook on the left wall where the boss was standing. The blue arrows make the nook impossible to miss! You can hide out of line of sight while standing in that nook while your tank stands in the entry in line of sight to make sure none of the adds glomp onto one of the casters. Once all the adds pool together in the entryway it becomes very easy to nuke them down.

Kill bosses 1 and 2 and pat yourself on the back, that room is the worst of the instance for most.

Note that it says TRAP in the next, smaller circular area in the hall. This just means that that big skeleton guy you see all alone really isn’t alone at all. He summons a handful of adds that you’ll need to pick up as they are elites. This little room is also what gives the instance its name. The summoned adds are shadow copies of your party, much like the Herald Volazj encounter in Ahn’kahet.

At the end of the hall you see Arthas fighting Sylvanas one on one. You’ll think to yourself, this would be so much cooler if she had her original voice. Then you’ll shed a tear.

Some stuff will happen and you’ll need to talk to Sylvanas to start the final part of your trip: the gauntlet. Exit the room through the door on the right. You see this tunnel? This long tunnel that’s spans the entire instance? You’re going to be running down this hallway away from a lumbering Arthas. He walks slow and funny and isn’t nearly as menacing as you might have hoped but he will oneshot your whole party if he catches you.

Arthas summons big walls of ice to trap you in but no worry, Sylvanas will bring them down. Your job is to kill the waves of trash that attack you as she’s working on the icewalls. Once you kill all the trash the wall will conveniently drop and you’ll move on to the next one. The first wall only has a few ghoul mobs. The second one introduces aboms and warlock caster types. The third wall features a ridiculous number of all of the above. You’re looking at around four aboms and a handful of casters. The casters put a nasty Curse of Doom on your party members so be sure to dispel that quicklike if you can. Get past this last wall and you only have one thing left to do: get to da choppah! Your faction’s airship awaits you as you scurry away from the big bad snowman and conveniently provides you a portal back to Dalaran.

Grats, you finished the Halls of Reflection!

As a side note: if you came here to finish the related step in the Quel’delar quest chain you’ll be treated to a different intro sequence as you start the instance. The blade comes alive and is clearly possessed as it becomes an enemy mob you have to kill. Loot the sword and you’re good to go. You don’t have to kill anything else in this instance. If you want to be a complete asshat, get this part done then turn around and leave the instance to turn in your quest. The npc you turn it in to is standing a stone’s throw away from the summoning stone.

Halls of Reflection opened up tonight on the PTR.

Frostmourne’s visible the second you step into the instance.

Dammit Sylvanas, get away from that!

The first event isn’t too hard as long as you understand basic concepts like line of sight. More updates to follow.

Currently there’s a problem with the PTR zone phasing or something that isn’t putting copied characters in the right phase as the entrance to the new Icecrown 5mans. Some people are saying if you’ve ever done any questing in Icecrown before then you won’t be in the right phase. Some others are claiming to have done all the Icecrown quests and can get right into the instances.

Shayzani unfortunately cannot enter the instances. Sad times.

Fortunately, premades are available for this round of testing and they come geared to the teeth.

I made a warrior and a druid premade since those are the only classes I don’t already have high level characters. Gearing a druid to tank feels a lot less clunkier than gearing a paladin or death knight I have to say. Survival of the Fittest is really a fantastic quality of life improvement.

Like I said, I don’t have a druid so I was way out of my element. The only things I knew about druid tanking I picked up from Aurorai and a few posts I hurriedly pulled up on my way to the instance.

The basic rotation is Maul Maul Maul Maul Maul Maul Maul right?

So into the Pit of Saron we go on normal mode. Yes, the “LFM PoS” jokes run rampant. Mmochampion has a bunch of pictures of the instances up already and I didn’t take very many inside since I was frantically and futilely trying to hold aggro over the most trigger-happy dps I’ve ever grouped with before. SWIPE SWIPE SWIPE SWIPE ARGH SWIPE SWIPE SWIPE SWIPE WHAT IS THIS MURU OR SOMETHING?!

The trash wasn’t anything special for the most part. Some mobs drop green stuff on the ground. Shocking. There are lots of undead. Also shocking. One really interesting female vyrkul mob had a chain shadowbolt that was pretty sweet.

After killing the first boss we rounded the pit in the middle of the open instance and hit up the second boss.

The first boss was a non-issue with no particularly notable abilities. The second boss was a little confusing but then, I couldn’t really stop to figure anything out because I was fighting desperately for aggro. It felt like there was some sort of odd mechanic at work in the fight but yeah, I’d need to go back and give it another shot to learn more. Hopefully when I go in on Shayzani I’ll be able to focus on the encounter more than on trying to learn a new class.

After the second boss you go through a tunnel winding up to a platform where the last boss is waiting. The tunnel is a gauntlet and there’s falling ice and incoming mobs. Think Hodir for the falling ice. Obvious ice is obvious and all.

The last boss is mounted and flying in the air and the dps went balls to the wall on him before I could figure out how to make him land so I could hit him. Despite not being able to touch the guy it seemed to end ok. Until Sindragosa appeared anyway.

The events were a little buggy. The last boss died and then nothing happened but we stayed in combat for ages. Everyone in our group left except me. Eventually, Sindragosa appeared in the sky and nuked the daylights out of the platform, killing all the Horde slaves we had freed during our trip. Sylvanas cursed and urged me on to the next instance and that was the end.

I guess that last boss didn’t really die after all because there he is clearly hiding behind some rocks.

None of the mobs in here dropped any loot whatsoever so no sneak peeks into the loot tables just yet. With any luck I’ll be able to try out the other instances with people I know and on my death knight. Stay tuned for more updates!

Patch notes and previews are now up for 3.3.

I haven’t ever dabbled much on the PTR’s in the past because my old computer just couldn’t handle it. I did play on the PTR for 2.4 to test out Magister’s Terrace however and seeing as 3.3 is allegedly the last major content patch for this expansion and adds additional 5man instances (which was true for 2.4 as well) I think I’ll try my hand at the PTR again.

3.3 is bothering me already though. The loot from the new Icecrown 5mans is going to be the same item level as loot from 10man Coliseum and there’s going to be four new 5mans. This irritates me. Not because I don’t want people to get easy loot but because I feel like I’m having way too much loot thrown at me personally.

There are 5 badge vendors right now that offer a variety of gear. At least one epic drops in every heroic 5man. The 5man ToC drops purples in both normal and heroic modes and in such quantities that I’m surprised the (few) trash mobs don’t drop epic "green" trash loot.

Oh yeah, you can get purples from raids too.

I feel like I’m drowning and choking with epics already, and that’s before you add four more 5mans dropping all-purples-all-the-time.

It makes me sad because I don’t get to spend any time with my gear before I have to shard it to make room for new things I’ll shard next month.

In Burning Crusade you simply did not get upgrades quickly like you do now. I can still recall the names of a lot of the gear my paladin had and at what point in time I had it in Burning Crusade.

I was using my Scarab of the Infinite Cycle in Black Temple.

For tanking weapons I started with a Continuum Blade, upgraded to the Amani Punisher and then never upgraded again.

Back then, there was plenty of time to get to know your gear. Yes I said get to know your gear. Not just the stats but the item’s personality too. My scarab and I were always fighting in Karazhan and heroics because it always wanted to proc once nobody needed to be healed. I would gripe about it to my friends, equip something else for a few days and then come crawling back begging forgiveness. Eventually we made up after getting into Black Temple and there wasn’t ever a time when I wasn’t casting or when someone didn’t need healing.

Nowadays its a totally different story. I was just feeling like I was getting to be on good terms with my Stormedge but now that’s been shelved for a new Ony weapon. My gear and I are but passing strangers. I’ve only gotten to know a bare handful before losing them to obscurity.

…

I’m so not crazy, I swear.

I wondered how and if they’d handle Bone Shield’s overpoweredness when they reduced its cooldown back down to a minute. Mmochampion has new patch notes listed today that address the issue.

• Bone Shield: This ability now has 3 charges instead of 4. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
• Glyph of Bone Shield: This glyph now grants 1 additional charge instead of 2.

So instead of six charges when glyphed, it’ll have 4 total. Hopefully this will mean it will have a decent and reasonable uptime instead of being completely broken. I like Unholy and all but its nice to have a choice between tanking trees instead of being shunted into just one.

This is the part where I smirk at the paladins, warriors and druids.

Early on in the WotLK beta it was said once or twice that Death Knight pvp was a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ style. That seems to be the style Blizzard is using to finetune (read: nerf) Death Knight tanking.

The PTR patch notes (which you can find here and here) have been updated again. This patch so far has made me think that the “Call of the Crusade” was the Argent Crusade calling for Death Knights to receive public beatings.

…stupid jealous paladins.

So recapping the changes so far for me personally as a Blood Death Knight tank we have:

• Icebound Fortitude cooldown increased to 2 minutes, up from 1.
• Veteran of the third War’s 2/4/6% stamina bonus reduced to a 1/2/3% bonus.
• Frost Presence gives 6% bonus stamina instead of 10% health, a net loss of a couple thousand health for me.
• Toughness gives up to a 10% armor bonus, down from 15% armor bonus.
• The amount of agility/dodge rating required to get 1% dodge increased by 15% making dodge more on par with parry before diminishing returns.

The last one is the newest one and doesn’t do anything but cut my chance to dodge. Its not going to make parry rating more attractive to me when gearing because Death Knights already have pretty wicked diminishing returns on parry thanks to Forceful Deflection.

Thank you sir may I have another!