The patch notes for the patch 3.3 PTR have been updated. This latest iteration of the patch notes gives, in particular, warlocks and rogues some of the love that they’ve been waiting for (although I’m sure it won’t be enough for some/most).

Some highlights:

• Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.
• Improved Poisons: Bonus chance to trigger Deadly Poison from this talent increased.
• Improved Drain Soul: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.
• Destructive Reach: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

There are also a new slew of bug fixes.

All the updates after the break.

Paladin

• Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion or Sated from a target if the recipient is out of combat when the effect ends. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Priest

• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.

Rogue

• Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.
• Improved Poisons: Bonus chance to trigger Deadly Poison from this talent increased.

Shaman

• Elemental Mastery: This talent now increases spell haste by 15% instead of critical strike chance while active.

Warlock

• Improved Drain Soul: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.
• Destructive Reach: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

User Interface

• Dungeon System now called Dungeon Finder

Graphics

• A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). If you are experiencing random crashes related to file read errors or out of memory, this new backend may help. To enable the new backend, add the following line to your Config.WTF file: SET gxApi “d3d9ex”. For more information please visit our Test Realm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11572&sid=1

Items

• Shaman Tier-9 4-Piece Set Bonus (Elemental): This set bonus now does an additional 10% of Lava Burst’s initial damage over time instead of increasing the size of the Lava Burst.

Bug Fixes

Note that this list has not been combed through, and includes several that were updated previously. However, there’s also quite a few new fixes.

• Items
  • Ancient Pickled Egg: This item can no longer be triggered by Life Tap.
  • Brutal Hauberk: The tooltip on this item no longer references granting energy (as energy-based classes cannot equip it).
  • Costumes: Various costumes from holidays, items, and quests that previously were cancelled by getting on a mount will now cause an error message when the player attempts to mount instead of cancelling the costume.
  • Carapace of the Old God: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system.
  • Crystalforged Trinket: Can now be refunded at its vendor.
  • Dragonslayer Set: No longer displays a duration on the Nature’s Ally buff.
  • Drums of the Forgotten Kings: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations.
  • Drums of the Wild: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations.
  • Eating and Drinking: Eating and drinking are now cancelled and prevented while in a vehicle as a passenger.
  • Figurine: Emerald Owl: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
  • Figurine: Talasite Owl: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
  • Fire Hardened Hauberk: The tooltip on this item no longer references granting energy (as energy-based classes cannot equip it).
  • Giantstalker Set: No longer displays a duration on the Nature’s Ally buff.Glyph of Immolation Trap: Now properly increases damage by 100%.
  • Gul’dan’s Regalia Set: Tooltip corrected to indicate increased damage for all pet attacks, not just abilities.
  • Husk of the Old God: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system.
  • Idol of Flaring Growth: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip.
  • Idol of Lunar Fury: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip.
  • Idol of The Corruptor: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip.
  • Insignia of the Alliance: Item level changed to 60.
  • Insignia of the Horde: Item level changed to 60.
  • Level 58 PvP Items: A variety of PvP items with a minimum level of 58 were not being translated properly when a player used the Paid Faction Change service. That has been corrected. Paladin- and shaman-specific items still will not be translated, as there is no opposite version to translate them into.
  • Liadrin’s Plate Set: No longer incorrectly reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield.
  • Lightning Capacitor: Combat log tooltip for Electrical Charge updated to include more detailed information.
  • Nightsong Regalia Set: The bonus to Rejuvenation from this set will now work properly with the Idol of Rejuvenation equipped. In addition, the instant heal provided now has a correct combat log tooltip.
  • Noggenfogger Elixir: Players shrunk while under the effects of this item will now be able to mount.
  • Quel’dorei Channeling Rod: Spelling error corrected.
  • Quel’dorei Sash: Spelling error corrected.
  • Quel’dorei Guard: Spelling error corrected.
  • Qiraji Bindings of Command: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system.
  • Qiraji Bindings of Dominance: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system.
  • Reclaimed Shadowstrike: No longer has a cooldown to create Reclaimed Thunderstrike.
  • Reinforced Shadowstrike: No longer has a cooldown to create Reinforced Thunderstrike.
  • Reins of the Swift Frostsaber: The mount learned from this item no longer triggers a global cooldown.
  • Runescroll of Fortitude: The buff from this item will no longer be cancelled when the player who used the item swaps talent specializations.
  • Seaspray Albatross: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
  • Sigil of Virulence: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip.
  • Solace of the Defeated: Can no longer be triggered by spells with a base cost of 0.
  • Solace of the Fallen: Can no longer be triggered by spells with a base cost of 0.
  • Spirit of Eskhandar Set: This set no longer requires Eskhandar’s Collar to complete (that item can no longer be acquired).
  • Swift Horde Wolf: The mount learned from this item no longer triggers a global cooldown.
  • The Egg of Mortal Essence: This item can no longer be triggered by Life Tap.
  • Tier 2 Helmets: Looting these items from Nefarion in Blackwing Lair will no longer trigger the Onyxia’s Lair (level 60) Feat of Strength achievement.
  • Totem of Quaking Earth: This totem will no longer sometimes grant unintended bonus healing.
  • Turalyon’s Plate Set: No longer incorrectly reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield.
  • Veklor’;s Diadem: Now tradable using the Bind-on-Pickup trade system.
  • Warmth of Forgiveness: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
  • Windrunner Set: The set bonus which grants Greatness to the hunter’s pet will no longer spuriously show the hunter also gaining that buff.
  • Worldbreaker Garb Set: The Electrified effect caused by this set now has detailed combat log tooltips.
• Racial Abilities
  • Arcane Torrent: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs. In addition, this ability will now be properly noted and displayed as an interrupt in the cast bar UI.
  • Every Man for Himself: Disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger this ability.
• Classes
  • Death Knights
    • Bloody Strikes: Now properly increases the damage displayed in the tooltips of Blood Strike and Heart Strike.
    • Bone Shield: Tooltip corrected to indicate the player has the correct number of bones.
    • Chains of Ice: This ability will no longer appear to land on targets which are immune.
    • Desecration: The debuff from this ability will no longer sometimes appear as if it were cast by someone else. In addition, the visual and snare from this ability will now both dissipate at the same time. Further, this talent will now respect snare immunities, and no longer sometimes snare immune targets.
    • Frost Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.
    • Glyph of Bone Shield: Now updates the number of charges in the Bone Shield tooltip.
    • Glyph of Dark Death: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil. In addition, its own tooltip has been clarified to indicate it also applies to healing from Death Coil.
    • Glyph of Death’s Embrace: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil to indicate runic power is refunded.
    • Glyph of Heart Strike: Now updates the tooltip on Heart Strike to indicate Heart Strike applies a movement snare.
    • Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Now updates the tooltip on Icebound Fortitude to show increased damage reduction.
    • Glyph of Plague Strike: Now updates the damage shown in Plague Strike’s tooltip.
    • Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now updates the tooltip on Unbreakable Armor. Tooltip on glyph modified to make its effect more clear as well.
    • Master of Ghouls: Tooltip typo corrected.
    • Night of the Dead: Tooltip typo corrected.
    • Obliterate: This ability will no longer sometimes fail to do additional damage based on diseases on the target.
    • Raise Ally: While this spell is active on a target, they will not be sent to the graveyard, prematurely ending the spell.
    • Raise Dead: It is no longer possible under some circumstances to use a Risen Ghoul to cause neutral guards to attack opposite faction players.
    • Strangulate: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
    • Taste of Blood: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip.
    • Unholy Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.
  • Druids
    • Glyph of Hurricane: Now modifies the spell tooltip on Hurricane to indicate the spell also applies a movement slowing effect.
    • Hurricane: When cast from Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, this spell will now channel properly instead of stopping the channel as soon as the shapeshift is cancelled.
    • Infected Wounds: This ability is no longer considered to be in the magical defense category; therefore spell hit no longer applies to its activation. Tooltip error corrected.
    • Nature’s Grace: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it will not be activated from periodic spell critical strikes.
    • Swipe (Bear): Tooltip corrected to display 8 yard range.
    • Rejuvenation: Druids will no longer get a more powerful spell error message when attempting to overwrite a Rejuvenation they cast.
  • Hunters
    • Concussive Barrage: This ability is no longer subject to spell reflects.
    • Explosive Trap: The damage from this trap will now scale properly with the hunter’s attack power.
    • Glyph of Immolation Trap: Now properly increases damage by 100%. In addition, this glyph will now modify the tooltip of Immolation Trap correctly.
    • Glyph of Mending: This glyph will now modify the amount healed in the tooltip on Mend Pet.
    • Point of No Escape: It is no longer possible to gain benefit from this talent multiple times by having a target affected by multiple of the same hunter’s traps. In addition, Freezing Arrow will no longer incorrectly provide a critical strike bonus to players beyond the hunter with this talent.
    • Roar of Sacrifice: Corrected tooltip error.
    • Silencing Shot: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
    • Volley: The tooltip for this ability will now update properly from haste.
  • Mages
    • Arcane Concentration: The interaction of this talent with Arcane Missiles has been restructured. Instead of an Arcane Missiles cast triggering the talent, each missile has an independent (but reduced) chance to trigger this talent. In addition, the talent will no longer sometimes be triggered from misses by Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast, and Blizzard.
    • Blast Wave: Tooltip typo corrected.
    • Blizzard: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage. Also fixed a bug where some trinkets were not triggered by this spell.
    • Cone of Cold: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Dalaran Intellect: Mages will now be properly blocked from casting this spell when the target has a more powerful version of the buff.
    • Deep Freeze: This spell will no longer consume two charges of Fingers of Frost when it misses its target.
    • Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time.
    • Frost Nova: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Frostbolt: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Glyph of Mirror Image: Now updates the tooltip on Mirror Image to show 4 images are summoned.
    • Ignite: Now correctly benefits from the dispel resistance granted by the Arcane Subtlety talent. In addition, this talent will now properly include in its damage calculation any damage of the initial fire critical strike that was absorbed.
    • Ice Lance: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from all talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Improved Scorch: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets.
    • Mirror Image: The mirror images summoned will no longer sometimes appear as shades before taking on the appearance of the casting mage.
    • Prismatic Cloak: Rank three of this talent will now properly modify the tooltip on Invisibility to indicate the effect is instant.
    • Slow Fall: This spell can now activate trinkets that can trigger from casting a helpful spell.
    • Winter’;s Chill: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets.
  • Paladins
    • Aura Mastery: The animation for this ability will no longer be extra bright when used with Concentration Aura active.
    • Beacon of Light: The effect of this ability will no longer sometimes continue past the duration of its buff. In addition, the duration when used with the Glyph of Beacon of light will now correctly be 1.5 minutes. Finally, the tooltip was corrected to indicate benefitting targets must be in the paladin’s party or raid.
    • Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
    • Blessing of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
    • Devotion Aura: When in a party with another paladin using a different rank of this ability, it is no longer possible to see two different Devotion Aura icons displayed as buffs.
    • Divine Sacrifice: This ability now properly counts all damage transferred against its limit, instead of not counting some damage.
    • Greater Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
    • Greater Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
    • Guardian’s Favor: Corrected a tooltip error in rank 1 of this ability.
    • Hand of Freedom: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the druid spell Cyclone. In addition, disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger casting this on oneself.
    • Hand of Reckoning: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability.
    • Hand of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
    • Heart of the Crusader: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
    • Judgements of the Just: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
    • Judgement of Righteousness: The damage from this ability will no longer sometimes increase when the paladin’s agility increases (only occurred with low strength and high agility).
    • Judgement of Wisdom: Corrected incorrect information in the combat log tooltip.
    • Retribution Aura: It is no longer possible under some circumstances for the UI to display buffs from two different ranks of this ability.
    • Seal of Corruption: Tooltip corrected to list the actual amount of damage done instead of a higher number.
  • Priests
    • Glyph of Power Word: Shield: The heal caused by this glyph will now correctly use the casting priest’s critical strike chance instead of the target’s.
    • Inspiration: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it also functions with Prayer of Mending.
    • Levitate: This spell can now activate trinkets that can trigger from casting a helpful spell.
    • Mass Dispel: Some trinkets which were not triggered properly by this spell will now work correctly when Mass Dispel is cast.
    • Mind Flay: The rank 1 tooltip has been corrected to indicate the accurate damage and snare effect. In addition, this ability will now work correctly with [target=focus] and [target=mouseover] macros.
    • Prayer of Mending: Inspiration and Divine Aegis can no longer be incorrectly triggered by this spell for priests who do not have those talents.
    • Silence: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
    • Spirit Tap: This talent can no longer be triggered by the death of the priest’s Jewelcrafter Stone Statues.
  • Rogues
    • Ambush: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Backstab: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Deadly Poison: Another rogue using a higher rank of this poison will no longer prevent the lower rank Deadly Poison from being applied to the target.
    • Eviscerate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Glyph of Rupture: Now updates the duration on Rupture’s tooltip.
    • Killing Spree: Entering a vehicle will now cause this ability to halt, and attempting to use it while on a vehicle will result in an error message.
    • Mutilate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. In addition, the damage from this ability can now be blocked.
    • Sinister Strike: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
    • Slice and Dice: Improved Slice and Dice and Glyph of Slice and Dice now update the duration of this ability.
    • Throwing Specialization: Deadly Throw will no longer cause multiple spell interruption combat log entries when used with this talent.
  • Shamans
    • Glyph of Earthliving Weapon: Now updates the tooltip for Earthliving Weapon.
    • Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave: Tooltip and functionality corrected to ensure this glyph will cause extra healing from Lesser Healing Wave regardless of which shaman cast Earth Shield on the target.
    • Hex: Players are no longer able to use Battlemaster trinkets while under the effects of this spell.
    • Mana Tide Totem: The tooltip on this spell will now be modified properly by the Glyph of Mana Tide Totem.
    • Thunderstorm: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the Druid spell Cyclone.
  • Warlocks
    • Conflagrate: This spell will no longer benefit inconsistently from the talents Emberstorm and Improved Immolate, as well as the Glyph of Immolate and Tier 9 set bonus. Just as for Immolate, all stacking percentage increases will be applied additively instead of multiplicatively (+10% and +20% make +30% instead of +32%). In addition, Conflagrate used with Shadowflame will now scale properly from spell power.
    • Curse of the Elements: Rank 4 has been increased to 11%, up from 10%.
    • Drain Soul: This spell now deals 4 times the normal damage for all ranks. Previously it was only ranks 6 and above.
    • Glyph of Conflagrate: Now updates the tooltip of Conflagrate to remove reference to Conflagrate removing an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target.
    • Glyph of Siphon Life: This glyph will now modify the tooltip on Siphon Life correctly.
    • Glyph of Unending Breath: Now updates the tooltip on Unending Breath to indicate it increases swim speed.
    • Hellfire: Dealing damage to another player with this ability will now put the Warlock in combat.
    • Improved Shadow Bolt: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets.
    • Soul Link: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
    • Suffering (Voidwalker): Ranks 5-8 had the incorrect taunt radius of 5 yards and have all been adjusted to a 10-yard radius.
  • Warriors
    • Blood Frenzy: This debuff is no longer considered a Bleed effect that can be removed separately from the actual Bleed effect which caused it.
    • Bloodrage: Tooltip now adjusts to show effect of Anger Management on this ability.
    • Glyph of Cleaving: Now updates the tooltip of Cleave to show that more targets are struck by the ability.
    • Glyph of Hamstring: Now updates the tooltip of Hamstring to indicate it has a chance to immobilize.
    • Glyph of Vigilance: Now updates the tooltip on Vigilance to show that more threat is transferred.
    • Mocking Blow: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability.
    • Rampage: Rampage now behaves correctly as an Enrage effect when interacting with the Enraged Regeneration ability.
    • Recklessness: Heroic Throw and Shattering Throw will now benefit from this ability and consume charges of this ability. In addition, Recklessness now behaves correctly as an Enrage effect when interacting with the Enraged Regeneration ability.
    • Sudden Death: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip.
    • Sweeping Strikes: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip.
    • Vigilance: The threat transfer granted by this ability will now reactivate when Tricks of the Trade or Misdirection cast by the Vigilance target expires.
    • Warbringer: Tooltip typo corrected.
• Game Systems
  • Target Effects: When this UI feature is activated, Fear, Silence, Frostbolt, and Hamstring will all now display text over the target’s head indicating what type of effect has been applied.
• Battlegrounds
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • The “Let the Battle for the Strand of the Ancients” message should no longer appear twice in round 2. It also now appears correctly at the beginning of round 1.
    • Storm the Beach should now be correctly granted to the Horde when they start round 1 on offense.
    • The east Antipersonnel Cannon at the Amethyst gate should no longer be able to shell the graveyard flag.
    • Fixed an order of operations issue where players would sometimes not be resurrected or clear their Inactive debuff at the end of the 1st round.

If you didn’t make it to the party last time, here’s your third chance to PUG it up with WoW devs and CMs. Blizzard announced take three of PUG with the Blues, and this time it’s personal.

Just hop onto the Patch 3.3 PTR this Wednesday at 4 PM PST/7 PM EST and put your character into the random heroic Wrath dungeon queue. If you’re lucky, you’ll get grouped with someone with <GM> before their name and get to run a heroic with a developer or other Blizzard rep!

This could be your only chance to catch a blue standing in fire, keyboard turning, or using Lava Burst without Flame Shock up. Don’t miss it!

Oh, and some WoW.com staff will be there too. So get your PTR client patched up and ready to go! Do you feel lucky, PUG? Do ya?

Following its announcement at BlizzCon ‘09, players have been looking forward to seeing just how the new legendary two-handed axe, Shadowmourne, will be created and how it’ll function. Today, Blizzard fills us in on the details … well, sort of.

In their official preview of the weapon, Blizzard fleshes out its backstory as the Ebon Blade’s premier anti-Arthas weapon. Forged from the hardened blood of Yogg-Saron, empowered with the souls of the deceased, encased in ice from Arthas’ own Frozen Throne, the axe is intended to be a true match for Frostmourne. But at what cost?

Blizzard has yet to reveal the weapon’s stats, but the soul-stealing proc on it is pretty neat. Here’s hoping it’s not too much of a pain to craft.

We heard a little while back from Ghostcrawler that haste would soon affect Heal-over-Time (HoT) and Damage-over-Time (DoT) spells, and sure enough, soon after that, Shadow Priests — who use DoTs all the time — saw a nice buff. But of course this is the PTR, and everything is subject to change, and so last weekend, Blizzard removed Shadow Word: Pain from that equation — right now, it’s not affected by haste at all. GC says that sure enough, Blizzard thought shadow priest DPS was too high with all of their DoTs given a boost, so SW:P got the boot (for now — remember, this is all still on PTR).

Misery, my go-to shadow priest, has some good insight on the change, and says that sure, if shadow priest DPS was too high, it was too high. But it’s too bad that Shadow Word: Pain had to take the nerf, especially since you get it so early on in the class and it’s such an iconic spell for the spec. The reason these guys are so happy about the hasted DoTs is that DoTs as cast don’t really scale with your gear — they just sort of do their damage on their own. When haste got put into the equation, shadow priests became happy that they could go after more haste to increase the DoT part of the damage. They could tailor the spec and spells the way they wanted to use them.

In the latest build of the PTR, they have updated the new looking for raid interface (now called the Raid Browser). This interface is completely separate from the new Looking for Group interface and will not share its cross-realm capabilities. This means that you’ll only be raiding with the same pool of people you’ve been pugging raids with already.

While some people are upset at the lack of cross-realm support for raiding, others of us are relieved. This means no cross-realm raid stealing, no cross-realm ninjas, and no cross-realm toy trains for us to smash. It is also fairly difficult to get the same group of people back later to finish a raid when they’re scattered across your battlegroup.

However, some of the new features include the fact that the Looking for Group channel will be turned on by default for all characters and will be available in major cities, just like Trade and General. It will also be uncoupled from the LFG and Raid Browser interfaces. This means that those people who currently spam Trade with raid requests can move over to LFG and still hit their intended audience.

Right now, it also looks like you can queue for both classic and BC era raids as well as the current level content from the interface while on a level 80 character. I’m not sure if this will stay in as a similar feature was available in the normal LFG tool, but was removed a build or two later. There are still a few rough edges, but it appears to be coming along nicely.

Sindragosa. Her very name strikes fear into the hearts of mortals. This once majestic dragon was a former member of the blue flight. In fact, she was a consort of Malygos. Sindragosa was available for testing earlier this evening and she’ll be another boss in the upcoming patch 3.3 Icecrown raid. If she looks familiar, you might’ve seen her in the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic. It’s the same dragon that Arthas summoned.

Of the two encounters I’ve seen so far, Sindragosa has proven to be the most fun to heal in Icecrown. I’ll tell you what you can expect when your raid faces her behind the cut below. Also, our Icecrown gallery has been updated with more Sindragosa screenshots.

Today, the gates to the instance promptly opened up. They were on time which was great! Unlike the night before, we didn’t have to wait around for half an hour before being able to go in. Our crew of 10 waltzed in and took the teleporter up to Sindragosa’s lair. Some fancy camera work revealed that there would be several trash packs to clear out before the blue dragon herself would face us.

The trash

We gathered at the top of the stairs and opted to pull conservatively. Ended up having 2 paladins tanking many whelps (left side). Nothing special as they’re just whelps who happen to shoot bolts of frost at range. Both groups also had handlers looking after them. They didn’t last long either.

Once we cleared out a set of trash, one of the frost wyrms would land on the platform as if though to taunt us. It’s best to proceed with engaging whelp trash first and then the corresponding frost wyrm. One of the big wyrms has a fear ability. Start the pull by clearing out the whelp group on the right.

Spinestalker and Rimefang

If you followed my advice, Rimefang should be the first frost wyrm your group will deal with. Rimefang starts off on the ground doing standard dragon things like breathing before taking off and hovering in the air. The big ability that Rimefang will do is target players and drop patches of ice on top of them while she is in the air. Don’t worry, Rimefang will mark the locations with a giant blue rune. You can’t miss it. Not only do these patches slow down movement speed, but players will take damage while standing in them until they are clear of it.

Stay out of the ice (not fire).

Spinestalker will touch down after the left whelp pack gets cleared out. I’d say he’s a little easier to deal with compared to Rimefang. All he does is an AoE fear which can be mitigated with Fear Ward or Tremor totem. I don’t remember them being Dispellable or anything like that. It’s reminiscent of Onyxia except without the many whelps nor the air phase.

Once that part of the trash is done with, it’s time for everyone to get back up the stairs. Make sure you’re actually not on the stairs when Sindragosa lands. She has a massive aggro radius and will go after players who are even on the 4th step from the top. One of our tanks picked an unfortunate time to go AFK and he found that out the hard way.

Before moving on, I hope your raid has some type of Frost Resistance Aura. I’m not sure if frost resist gear is needed as the damage is healable from what I’ve seen.

Sindragosa’s ground phase

The first thing I noticed was she had 9.76 million health.

Toggle on that Frost Resist aura as Sindragosa herself radiates her own Frost Aura debuff which deals a solid 4000+ damage to the entire raid every few seconds. I happened to be sneaking a peek at several livestreams that were going on at the time to gain some idea of what to expect. The tank was directed to pick up Sindragosa and have her facing the stairs (entrance). The rest of the raid stacked on the left side of the room.

Why?

As all dragons do, Sindragosa has a Tail Smash which will knock players back. She also has a conical Frost Breath which will knock out any players who are stupid enough to stand in front. Now tanks aren’t stupid but they can at least survive one of these. So don’t stand in front of her.

Oh and she Cleaves.

Every once in a while, she’s going to Icy Grip the entire raid directly on to her position. Stop what you’re doing and run outwards. Violet Hold’s Cyanigosa was part of the blue dragon flight. She must have learned that icy grip and explode ability from Sindragosa. 5 seconds after Sindragosa death grips you in, she’ll cast Blistering Cold which will blast anyone too close for 35000+ damage. It might be possible for the tank to stay in. We had ours run out but it might be easier for the sake of positioning to simply eat the Blistering Cold and rapidly heal him up after the fact. Otherwise Sindragosa will end up chasing after your tank.

For casters, there’s another specific ability to watch out for and this one is a real pain in the butt. It nuked me the first time before I realized what had happened.

2 players on 10 man will get a debuff applied called Unchained Magic. Healers, this is an ability you will specifically wish to add to your debuff window. This debuff stays for about 20 seconds. When it is active, you must be careful of how many spells you cast. Every time I healed, I gained 1 stack of a debuff called Instability. After 8 seconds of not casting any spells, Instability will go off resulting in 2000 damage multiplied by the amount of spell casts before it.

In other words, if I have Unchained Magic and I cast 8 Flash Heals followed by a Circle of Healing and a Power Word: Shield, after 8 seconds I’ll take 22000 damage. It seems to happen also when the Unchained Magic debuff itself wears off. Whatever Instability stacks are on the player when Unchained Magic wears off will immediately detonate.

If you have Unchained Magic, take it easy for the next several seconds. Slow down on the spell casts. Use your spells in quick bursts and let Instability go off before opening up again.

Mages and paladins, it appears to be possible to render yourself immune and wipe the ability. Ice Block and Divine Shield will remove Unchained Magic.

I do believe her phases are tied to time elapsed on the fight. I didn’t notice a specific percentage that would trigger Sindragosa’s air phase as we were DPSing all over the place.

Sindragosa’s air phase

This is where we separate the pretenders from the contenders. This is one of Icecrown’s biggest situational awareness check fights and I’ll tell you why. This part strongly reminds me of Sapphiron.

She’s going to mark several players in the room with a Frost Beacon. A few seconds after that, they will be completely encased in a block of ice. The ice serves an important purpose. You see, Sindragosa is going to fire Frost Bombs in the area. The bombs have a large radius and will damage anyone who is within line of sight. The ground will have a slight swirly effect which signifies where the Frost Bombs will land. When I did this, I called out the direction of where the raid should be running to on vent (North, south-west, and so forth). Stay close to the Ice Tomb to reduce the amount of movement you need when strafing around.

As you can guess, the objective is to position yourself in such a way that the Ice Tombs containing frozen raid members are between the raiders who are still free and the location of the Frost Bombs. After the first few attempts, we decided that all marked players should run to the middle of the room. Unmarked players should stand near the bottom of the stairs before moving up close to the Ice Tombs.

Unlike Sapphiron, the Ice Tombs do not simply wear off. On 10 man, they had around 270k health. It’s up to your raid to DPS them down at the same time during this phase. Another benefit of having marked players together is so that the rest of the raid can deal incidental AoE damage to them as they are focusing on breaking down the blocks. Players inside the Ice Tomb will die of Asphyxiation if they aren’t broken out of.

Note that any player who gets caught in the radius when an Ice Tomb is cast will also get tombed even if they are not marked.

After she fires 4-5 Frost Bombs, Sindragosa will land again. Pray that your main tank is free and is able to pick her up. Feel free to place her on top of any Ice Tombs still up so AoE damage will still damage them.

Low health phase

Once she gets to about 30% (I didn’t catch the actual percentage), Sindragosa will no longer take to the air. At this point, the raid is in a full burn phase. You have a soft enrage timer to compete with.

Sindragosa will Frost Beacon a random player every few seconds and then encase them in a block of ice. If a player gets the Beacon, they have to run out of the raid immediately as far as possible or they will get Ice Tombed along with any players around them. There is no time for the raid to break down the Tombs. I believe she gets progressively stronger (or the raid gets weaker). Either way, this is the Heroism/Bloodlust portion of the fight where full DPS must be wielded.

All in all, I’d give this a 9 out of 10 for encounter fun-ness as a healer. The encounter mechanics are simple in theory but can be difficult to execute. There’s a ton of damage going around and if a player is even a sliver out of position, they will die. It’s certainly a tense fight that will keep any healer on the edge of their seats and zeroed in on their raid frames.

Blizzard’s new Dungeon System is a pretty huge overhaul of the social and gameplay experience of getting an instance group together, and we’re all pretty excited about it here. On top of the hassle-free daily random dungeon selection and the great new matchmaking features, you even get teleported to the random dungeon.

But as it turns out, there’s even more cool stuff hiding below the surface. If you’re like me, chances are good you’ve spent a day or two chain-running heroics to gear up an alt or to get instant gratification on that badge item you want. The issue with chaining heroics at this point in time is that eventually you hit a wall: do instances you hate (Oculus) or stop running instances because of your 24-hour heroic lockouts.

Well, in patch 3.3, everything’s a-changin’. While heroic lockouts aren’t going away, they will not affect your random dungeon selections. What this means is that if you and four guildies do a timed Culling of Stratholme run, and then you join the queue for a random heroic, you may be assigned Culling of Stratholme a second — or third, or fourth — time, depending on your luck, as your random dungeon. And you’ll get two extra Emblems of Triumph for completing the random dungeon each time, even if you’ve run the dungeon already that day. The only way that your lockout will affect you is that you cannot create a group with /invite for that same dungeon again that day.

Basically, as long as you’re choosing the Random Dungeon option, you can run as many heroics as you want, every day.

With increased rewards for, easier access to, and the trivialization of lockouts for heroics, Patch 3.3 is the perfect time to dust off that neglected level 80 alt of yours and take him or her on a tour of Northrend’s most dangerous places.

The LFG system has been completely revamped. Details were released the other day. It’s supposed to be coming some time in patch 3.3. You won’t have to worry about not finding a tank or a healer as the LFG interface is supposed to draw from a pool of various servers. The idea of pulling players from other servers seems like a double edged sword. Sure you might be able to run into more people and more opportunities, but what happens if you run across a ninja or an unsavory player? I suppose it’s reassuring to know that they’re on a different server than you are.

But here’s some other changes:

• Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members.
• Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance.

Personally I like the idea of not having to fly all the way down to the Utgarde or Nexus instances. That’s going to cut down on travel time for sure. Hopefully the players we’ll be partying with will already be fully repaired and have enough reagents to last the run. It’s nice to know that extra convenience has been added for the days where we forget. Are you looking forward to these new changes?

I’m on a boat!

That was the first thing that came to mind as I entered Icecrown for today’s Gunship encounter that will be coming in patch 3.3. It was another fun fight against those foul Horde forces although there were a few slight bugs in the mix. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete it because the Alliance cannons just didn’t seemed to be working properly. The goblins must have sabotaged it. Either that or someone forgot to reload them.

I added some screenshots of the event into the Icecrown gallery.

Anyway, it’s time to grab your sword and fight the Horde!

After teleporting up to the exterior area where the gunships were held, our raid group immediately engaged several Horde vermin. I was worried that it was going to be Faction Champs for trash. We easily swatted aside this healing druid (who wasn’t even in tree form) and ripped apart a blood elf priest. The hunter and rogue fell swiftly underneath the might of the Alliance task force after that.

Once we rescued our fellow Alliance NPCs, we had two ways to go. Going right would mean we would have to get by this abysmally large frost wyrm. It looked like some Horde attackers were trying to keep him at bay. Going left meant plowing through more orcs and their allies with the Alliance gunship, The Skybreaker, docked. Even though it would have been fun to sandwich the Horde units between us and the wyrm, we decided to head for the alliance vessel.

After all, we had an event to start.

Just as we were approaching dock, a large shadow appeared overhead. We looked up only to discover that the frost wyrm we left alone earlier blocked the path between us and the ship. Naturally, we did the only logical thing that came to mind and charged in. The frost wyrm put up a good fight but was soundly dispatched.

We boarded The Skybreaker and who did we see?

It’s our friend Muradin Bronzebeard!

His buddy beside him offered us a gift. It’s a jet pack that we get to wear in our ill-often used shirt slot. Activating it allows us to jump to any point within several yards. Supposedly it’s meant to be a safety device in case we fall off the ship. But we’re a little more ambitious than that. We’re going to use these jet packs (pictured in the very first image of the post) to board the other ship.

The premise

The basic idea of the encounter is that both the Alliance and Horde gunships will be squaring off against each other. Throughout the encounter, your raid team will be busy fending off intruders from the opposite faction as they board your ship. You’ll have several players manning the deck guns as they open fire on the other ship. Once the health of the ship drops to a certain percentage, the mages on the other ship will encase the guns in a solid block of ice preventing them from firing. It’s up to your team to then take the offense to them and knock out their mages and their rocketeers so that you can resume pummeling their ship and until it crashes and burns. Not only will you have to mess with opposing faction NPCs, you get to deal with High Overlord Saurfang. If you’re Horde, you get the pleasure of trying to stop Muradin Bronzebeard (and no one can stop a dwarf).

Attempt 1

Once we were ready to begin the encounter, it was time to ascend Icecrown. We talked to Brann and he gave the order to fire up The Skybreaker’s engines. The course was pre-plotted and we decided to take the scenic route. The architecture was admired. Bone dragons were spotted circling around the tower.

But then we were beset upon by the Horde gunship, Orgrim’s Hammer. They called for us to stand down and retreat. Of course Muradin was having none of that and said the dwarven version of “Hell naw!” and basically ordered us to open fire. Both gunships leveled off in the air and virtually hovered side by side.

Unfortunately, we came across a slight malfunction. Our cannons appeared to be ineffective (bugged as I had mentioned earlier). We discovered this while dodging incoming rockets. Without being able to do much of anything else, a group was dispatched to board the other ship to attempt to stop the rockets and take out the mages. Sadly, they didn’t last very long without any real support and we wiped as a result.

One thing I will say is that it seems to take a while for the encounter to reset after a wipe. Once every player died, we’d have to wait to zone in because the encounter was still in progress. It seems like it won’t reset until the Alliance gunship is destroyed.

Attempt 2

We dusted ourselves off and went back once we were clear. Knowing that the cannons were bugged, we decided to try something else and see what the trash did. We talked to Muradin and we were up and away!

All of us decided to forgo the cannons and simply board their ship. We looked for a safe zone which appeared to be toward the… bow of the ship. My naval terminology fails me but I think that’s what it’s called.

Axethrowers

These were annoying. All they do is throw axes and it seems as if they are able to hit players from any range. They weren’t difficult to take down.

Sergeant

They’re the main muscle for the Horde. Sergeants have a nasty whirlwind effect which is capable of decapitating clothies such as priests within their range. Players hit with a Wounding Strike will have the effectiveness of healing spells on them reduced by 25%.

Rocketeers

These are the enemies that are shelling the Alliance gunship and they are a priority target. Take them out and the ship will experience some relief from their rockets for a while. The rockets they fire are easy enough to spot and dodge. Players can even see the runes on the ground that show rocket impacts before they strike. Simply stand out of the rune and you won’t take damage. If you do take damage, it’s easy enough for healers to handle. But that doesn’t mean get careless.

Battle Mages

Mages are the key. Take them out and your cannons will be free to fire again.

By the time we figured out the individual abilities, High Overlord Saurfang had approached us and began systematically dismantling all of us one by one. The clothies had no chance. When he was on the tanks, the damaged appeared to be marginal. The tank I was with reported that Saurfang gained a stacking buff that would increase the amount of damage the orc would do. This lead me to conclude that a tank would be needed specifically for Saurfang while the rest of the raid was working on the other NPCs on the ship. We would have a limited window of time before Saurfang tore us apart and it was best that he be held off to the side. Once the NPCs were taken care of, it was time to strategically retreat to Alliance ship and continue firing cannons (if they were working).

Healing this fight is going to be random. There’s a lot of stuff to keep track of and if you’re caught looking the wrong way, some players could drop to 0 fairly quickly. Saurfang’s tank will need a set of heals especially when that stacking buff starts piling high.

All in all, it was a fun fight and a nice preview of the mechanics that are involved. At the present, it’s still a bit buggy with the guns and without them we can’t beat the encounter. We ended up staying a few more attempts after that just to get a firm handle on the mobs. Again, I’m not sure if the encounter is properly tuned yet. The trash went down much quicker than expected. To be fair though, this isn’t meant to be Faction Champions 2.0 in the skies or anything. This is certainly one of the encounters I will be looking forward to in Icecrown.

Oh I forgot to add. You can’t kill Saurfang. When he reaches a certain point, he just lays the smacksdown on the entire raid. We found that out the hard way by pouring massive DPS on him. Nope, didn’t work.