Goblins and Worgens are the new races of the Expansion!

From MMO-Champ: "In the last PTR build 4 new textures of Halloween masks have been added.

•2 of them are for Goblins masks - Helm_Mask_Halloween_GoF and Helm_Mask_Halloween_GoM

•2 of them are for Worgens masks - Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoF and Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoM”.

It’s a big call by MMO champ but they are saying: “Goblins and Worgens are the new races of the Expansion” ... and I think they're right! The only other masks ingame are of playable races and the Worgen masks look to be new skins. I hope they are right and I hope Alliance get Worgens as the new race! Goblins remind me of Ferengi from Star Trek, and Horde like ugly things, right?

With Blizzcon just weeks away we will find out real soon. We might find out some clever dev put them in just to throw us all off! MMO champ also spotted changes to the old Emerald Dream maps. Hmm, interesting!

Just to throw a spanner in the works, both these races might end up being Horde and the blood elfs might actually change faction! This might be the reason behind the whole faction change being implemented into the game. But really, we don't want the blood elfs on the Alliance side! But it could be a very interesting twist.

Goblins and Worgens are the new races of the Expansion!

From MMO-Champ: "In the last PTR build 4 new textures of Halloween masks have been added.

•2 of them are for Goblins masks - Helm_Mask_Halloween_GoF and Helm_Mask_Halloween_GoM

•2 of them are for Worgens masks - Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoF and Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoM”.

It’s a big call by MMO champ but they are saying: “Goblins and Worgens are the new races of the Expansion” ... and I think they're right! The only other masks ingame are of playable races and the Worgen masks look to be new skins. I hope they are right and I hope Alliance get Worgens as the new race! Goblins remind me of Ferengi from Star Trek, and Horde like ugly things, right?

With Blizzcon just weeks away we will find out real soon. We might find out some clever dev put them in just to throw us all off! MMO champ also spotted changes to the old Emerald Dream maps. Hmm, interesting!

Just to throw a spanner in the works, both these races might end up being Horde and the blood elfs might actually change faction! This might be the reason behind the whole faction change being implemented into the game. But really, we don't want the blood elfs on the Alliance side! But it could be a very interesting twist.

WoW armory on the iPhone!

The official Blizzard armory app is out on the iPhone. I've had other armory apps in the past but all of them have now been taken off iTunes. The ones I have still work nice but it looks like Blizzard might have struck a deal to stop the others being made available now. There is no doubt the new Blizzard app is far superior to the others. The coolest thing is the live ingame calendar that you can reply to on your iPhone! It even gives you notices of raids and events on your phone ... nice! I bet you all can't wait to show off your armory profile to your work colleagues :P

Check out the official video now!

WoW armory on the iPhone!

The official Blizzard armory app is out on the iPhone. I've had other armory apps in the past but all of them have now been taken off iTunes. The ones I have still work nice but it looks like Blizzard might have struck a deal to stop the others being made available now. There is no doubt the new Blizzard app is far superior to the others. The coolest thing is the live ingame calendar that you can reply to on your iPhone! It even gives you notices of raids and events on your phone ... nice! I bet you all can't wait to show off your armory profile to your work colleagues :P

Check out the official video now!

Are you ready for some jousting?

I finally got a chance to check out the new five man dungeon coming with patch 3.2. Just like the new raid instances, the new five man takes place in the arena. The first boss fight in this five man takes place on the back of horses using your pikes. So if you haven't had any jousting experience, now's the time to get some practice in.

On normal mode, this instance drops epics for all its loot. On hrd mode, it drops 213 level epics. It's going to be a great way for new level 80s to get some fast leet gear.

Another bonus with this five man is it's fast. You're going to be able to knock this baby over in twenty minutes with ease.

Are you ready for some jousting?

I finally got a chance to check out the new five man dungeon coming with patch 3.2. Just like the new raid instances, the new five man takes place in the arena. The first boss fight in this five man takes place on the back of horses using your pikes. So if you haven't had any jousting experience, now's the time to get some practice in.

On normal mode, this instance drops epics for all its loot. On hrd mode, it drops 213 level epics. It's going to be a great way for new level 80s to get some fast leet gear.

Another bonus with this five man is it's fast. You're going to be able to knock this baby over in twenty minutes with ease.

The Future of Block from Ghostcrawler

From The tanking forums

"I feel like we've been pretty candid about its future. You can probably find my previous comments relatively easily. We think block needs to mitigate much more incoming damage per hit, but to make that change we would also need to lower tank avoidance across the board and prevent every hit from being blocked (especially in situations with more than one target beating on you). To make Prot tanking more interesting, we have allowed block to become too much of a dps stat. In retrospect, we'd rather it remained a mitigation stat and that Strength was pushed up as the big warrior and paladin dps stat.

You shouldn't overly worry about outscaling content. We said from the beginning that there would be three major patches to Wrath of the Lich King. We aren't setting up a system that is going to remain on autopilot for 10 more tiers of content without our intervention. It's totally valid for players to worry about scaling, and all things considered, we'd rather have mechanics that scale well. But if those scaling problems aren't going to manifest themselves until you have item level 500 items, then you're worried prematurely.

We would like to get Prot warriors into PvP in a legitimate way, but our first priority is making sure every class has at least one viable PvP spec first. By "legitimate" I do NOT mean that you sometimes can do a 19K Shield Slam when all the stars align. That's not acceptable even if it is rare. Also consider that tanks do have a legit role acting like actual tanks when running flags or tanking AV-style NPCs. That may not be enough of a role, but I did want to point out that emphasizing BGs more and Arenas less also helps to carve out a niche for PvP tanks.

I know there are plenty of Prot warriors out there who couldn't care less about PvP. Sorry. We have to. :(

We want Prot warriors to do decent damage in PvE. We don't want them to do as good damage as actual dps specs -- there needs to be a trade-off for such high survivability. This means we need threat multipliers or you won't be able to actually hold aggro. It's okay if Shield Slam can make big (yet not absurd) numbers, since you don't Shield Slam all that much. That's fun. As I said above though, it would probably work better if Shield Slam hit hard because your Strength was high, not because you built a gimmicky set.

[ Post edited by Ghostcrawler ]

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Ghostcrawler
Lead Systems Designer "

Some help for LTLJohnny

My level 60 Death Knight, LTLJohnny, has literally cruised his way into Outlands. I must say, apart from being quite entertaining playing a gnome Death Knight, I am finding Death Knight to be a alot of fun.

Being a Guild and raid leader, we've really had a hit and miss with Death Knights. I've seen some great DPS and taking abilities from some players. I've also seen some of the worst DPS and worst tanks come out of the same class. I suppose this comes from a class which is still really in its infancy.

I've played my hunter for almost three years. I learnt his skills while levelling over months. I had time to get to know every skill. Death Knights is almost as bad as getting a power leveled character off the Internet. Unlike other classes which have an abundance of time to get to know their skills, Death Knights are thrown in the thick of things and it can be quite daunting.

Typhoon Andrew's blog has a link to a podcast where DK player/blogger Runeforge Gossip has been interviewed by podcast and answers a lot of questions about Death Knights.

So whether you're a level 60 gnome named stabyournuts or a level 80 Death Knight tanking Ulder, check out the blog and get some questions answered.

Stock up on badges NOW!

With patch 3.2 just weeks away now is as good a time as any to stock up on Emblem of Heroism badges! Why? New epic gems is why. I know I'll need at least 6 for my hunter and 6 to 8 for my druid. You will get the new gems off Arcanist Ivrenne if you're Alliance or Magistrix Lambriesse for Hord.




At this time Cardinal Ruby, Majestic Zircon and King's Amber gems are 20 Emblem of Heroism badges. Ametrine Dreadstone and Eye of Zul are 10 Emblem of Heroism badges.

So if you're bored ingame and looking for something to do, stocking up on heroism badges is not going to be a waste of time, especially if you want to make some quick gold from people frantically re-geming all their gear with epic gems.

Stock up on badges NOW!

With patch 3.2 just weeks away now is as good a time as any to stock up on Emblem of Heroism badges! Why? New epic gems is why. I know I'll need at least 6 for my hunter and 6 to 8 for my druid. You will get the new gems off Arcanist Ivrenne if you're Alliance or Magistrix Lambriesse for Hord.




At this time Cardinal Ruby, Majestic Zircon and King's Amber gems are 20 Emblem of Heroism badges. Ametrine Dreadstone and Eye of Zul are 10 Emblem of Heroism badges.

So if you're bored ingame and looking for something to do, stocking up on heroism badges is not going to be a waste of time, especially if you want to make some quick gold from people frantically re-geming all their gear with epic gems.