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Live
Patch 3.3.5: Halion and the Ruby Sanctum Announced
For everyone who thought
Icecrown Citadel
was going to be the last raid before the upcoming release of the
Cataclysm
expansion - think again!
Blizzard's Zarhym has released some sparse details of a new addition to Wyrmrest Temple:
The Ruby Sanctum
! Just a few days ago, we had
reported
that Blizzard's Tom Chilton revealed that they had some plans involving this new wing, and the nice guys and gals over at Blizzard decided to give in and deliver the news!
http://www.wowhead.com/?zone=4987
Highlights
Patch:
3.3.5
New raid:
The Ruby Sanctum, inside Wyrmrest Temple,
Dragonblight
Bosses:
Halion the Twilight Destroyer, and his servants:
Baltharus the Warborn
General Zarithrian
Saviana Ragefire
Rewards:
All-new loot
Drakes will only drop an
Emblem of Frost
Same item levels as in Icecrown Citadel
See the original blue quote after the break.
Live
No More Limited Attempts in Icecrown Normal Modes
Blizzard has decided that they needed to change up the limited attempts system for
Icecrown Citadel
.
Normal mode wipes on
Professor Putricide
,
Blood-Queen Lana'thel
,
Sindragosa
, and
The Lich King (Icecrown)
will no longer
count towards the limited attempts. The limited attempts are still in effect for Heroic mode versions of the encounters.
After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode.
We will continue to monitor developments in Icecrown Citadel in the future, especially since the Heroic difficulty has been unlocked by a significant number of raids.
Live
Changes to Lich King Weapon Drops
Blizzard recently decided the weapon drops from
The Lich King (Icecrown)
needed to be re-optimized in order to measure up to the quality you would expect from The Lich King. Both the heroic and normal versions will have traded certain stats for others—for example,
Royal Scepter of Terenas II
is having its MP5 replaced with haste rating (yay!).
The blue post with the full list of changes follows:
After reviewing several items available from the Lich King encounter, we've decided to re-optimise certain weapons that didn't meet with our expectations and the quality that the Lich King expects. The weapons listed below, both their Normal and Heroic versions, will now better represent their respective roles and present more intriguing options to players.
Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas
: Critical Strike replaced with Haste rating
Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas
: Haste rating replaced with Armor Penetration
Heaven's Fall, Kryss of a Thousand Lies
: Armor Penetration replaced with Haste rating
Royal Scepter of Terenas II
: MP5 replaced with Haste rating
Stormfury, Black Blade of the Betrayer
: Armor Penetration replaced with Expertise rating
[/
Live
Icecrown Citadel Weeklies Now Available
So I know I've been spamming you with blogs today, but I couldn't let this one go by: The
weekly quests
for Icecrown Citadel are now available!
If you're looking to find them all in one convenient list, you can just use the
Sack of Frosty Treasures
item page! Scroll down to the
Reward from
section to see the complete list of quests. :)
For those of you who are wondering, the raid weeklies don't have a centralized NPC who gives them. The NPCs who give the quest actually spawn inside the raid instance itself. Only one NPC will spawn, and it's a different spawn for each quest. It's my understanding that they're pretty hard to miss, though, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding yours. :)
Live
Lich King Loot Data Available!
Ladies and gentlemen, the Lich King's drops are here!
http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=29983
Just head on over to the
Lich King page
and check it out, or find them on the
Latest Additions
page!
See after the jump for an overview of the Lich King's weapons (in 3D!).
Live
New Mount: Invincible Charger
Blizzard has just released a preview for a new mount being introduced in
Icecrown Citadel
.
The
Invincible Charger
was once Arthas' warhorse before becoming the Lich King and once he gained his powers he rose it from the dead making it his perfect steed.
To obtain this mount you must conquer Icecrown Citadel and face the Lich King on
Heroic
difficulty. Only one will drop from
The Lich King (Icecrown)
on heroic mode, much like how
Mimiron's Head
drops from the heroic version of
Yogg-Saron
.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/invincible.xml
Update: Blizzard posted an FAQ which you can read after the break.
Live
Building the Gunship Battle
Blizzard just released a new article on the creation behind the
Gunship Battle
encounter in
Icecrown Citadel
. They talk about how they designed it and how they were going for "controlled chaos" throughout the encounter.
As this is my favourite encounter of all time, I highly suggest you should give it a read on the
official site
.
Source:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/gunship-battle.xml
Live
Limited Attempts Explained
With the
Icecrown Citadel
progression moving closer and closer to
The Lich King (Icecrown)
, we have seen the development of a not-exactly new feature, yet one that has caused quite a bit of confusion - the
limited attempts system
.
Restraint on boss attempts showed first in
Ulduar
and the one-hour timer on
Algalon the Observer
. Apparently Blizzard liked the idea, because then we saw
Trial of the Crusader
, where players were given 50 attempts to clear the entire place - or the remaining bosses would despawn. Well, the Icecrown Citadel expands on ToC. Two weeks ago, when the Plagueworks opened, raids were given 10 attempts to kill its final boss -
Professor Putricide
.
Now, with the release of the Crimson Hall, those attempts have been increased to 15 - however another boss,
Blood-Queen Lana'thel
shares them. In another 2 weeks, when the Frostwing Halls are open, players will get yet another 5 attempts, making the total of 20 shared between Putricide, Lana'thel,
Sindragosa
, and the Lich King. Presumably the number of attempts will go up (I suspect by 5) every so often (I suspect every 2 weeks).
So, to sum up here's everything in a table (after the break).
Live
Frostwing Halls Open in 2 Weeks
The Frostwing Halls in
Icecrown Citadel
are set to open in 14 days, or on
February 2, 2010
.
This is the final section of Icecrown Citadel. In here you will face the last three bosses:
Valithria Dreamwalker
,
Sindragosa
, and
The Lich King (Icecrown)
himself.
There will be a patch sometime before this (most likely on the 2nd itself) which will patch in the new in-game cinematic, among
other things
.
Live
The Crimson Hall Unlocked
The third section of
Icecrown Citadel
unlocks today, after waiting 2 weeks since The Plagueworks opened.
Inside the
Crimson Hall
you will find the three Blood Princes-
Prince Keleseth
,
Prince Taldaram
and
Prince Valanar
. After you beat the princes you will have a chance to use your 15 attempts at killing
Blood-Queen Lana'thel
.
Good luck and happy raiding!
Live
TankSpot Making...a Feature-Length Film?
Apparently one of our friends at
TankSpot
are planning a WoW-themed documentary project called
The Raid
.
This is a really interesting concept to me—obviously one that strikes very close to home, but beyond that I've always been really interested in the places that gaming and culture connect. They've set up a page on
KickStarter
in the hopes of gathering some funding in the form of donations.
If you're interested in hearing more about the project, you can check out their page here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/84946011/the-raid-promo
Or you can read the blurb after the break. I really encourage you to check this out—gamers are never going to be understood by the mainstream media unless we take the first step. They also have a fan page on Facebook which you can find
here
.
Live
The Crimson Hall Available on January 19
Now that the Plagueworks is open in
Icecrown Citadel
, we know when the next wing will open.
By visiting
Muradin Bronzebeard
on
Deathbringer Saurfang
's platform, you can find out how long until the next wing opens—and according to him the Crimson Hall, which contains the
Blood
Prince
Council
and
Blood-Queen Lana'thel
, opens 2 weeks from today. That puts the release on January 19, 2010!
If Blizzard stays consistent with the last wing that would put the release of The Frostwing Hall and The Frozen Throne, which has
Valithria Dreamwalker
,
Sindragosa
and
The Lich King (Icecrown)
himself, to be released on February 2, 2010—2 weeks after the release of the Crimson Hall.
Edit:
Blue confirmed!
This is correct.
Then the next wing of Icecrown Citadel opens in 2 weeks.
Live
Oculus Loot Improved!
The Oculus
recently had a hotfixed deployed that will make it more attractive for players to stay and finish the dungeon as compared to the usual occurrence I have seen of leaving the second the loading screen lets you.
Once
Ley-Guardian Eregos
is defeated, a loot bag will be provided to each player present. Each bag contains 2 additional
Emblem of Triumph
, a chance at rare gems and a chance at obtaining
Reins of the Blue Drake
. Note that this bag will only drop when you get the dungeon when selected
randomly
with the Dungeon Finder.
Also,
Reins of the Azure Drake
will now have a chance of dropping from both 10- and 25-player
Malygos
.
Read on after the break for the original post.
Live
Raiding as an Arcane Mage
I've recently started raiding heavily with an Arcane Mage, and I have to say, I'm loving it.
With
, threat management is as close to a non-issue as it could possibly be, and with the potential max DPS of
spam, there's an entirely different mini-game that emerges.
Live
Algalon vs. Arthas?
You know, I've long since glossed over the concerns of various power levels of bosses in WoW. The fact that
two
random
worms
somebody caught in the hills of Northrend can kick the butt of
C'Thun
stopped bothering me a long time ago, so I don't think that's the problem I have with the placement of the
Algalon
fight.
So, with the fight with Arthas finally on the horizon, I've been thinking a lot about the road leading up to it: specifically Ulduar, and the fight with Algalon the Observer, and something about it just rings false with me.
Live
Shadowmourne Shards Not That Rare?
People expecting
Shadowfrost Shard
to have the dismal drop rates of
Fragment of Val'anyr
(about 5%) will be pleasantly surprised by the drop rates discovered on the official World of Warcraft Armory.
The shards themselves are required for
The Splintered Throne
which requires you to gather 60 of them to create
Shadowmourne
. The good news is that the drop rate is
25-50%
in Normal (25-man) and
51-99%
in Heroic (25-man).
This information was pulled from the Armory page on
Shadowfrost Shard
.
http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=50274
Live
Second Gate In Icecrown Citadel Will Unlock In 28 Days
After defeating
Deathbringer Saurfang
in
Icecrown Citadel
it has been discovered that speaking to your faction's NPC (Muradin or Saurfang) will tell you how many days are left until the next gate's unlocking. Right now it is listed as 28 days which would put the unlock date for North American realms on
January 5, 2010
.
If these numbers stay consistent between wings we most likely won't see the Lich King until
March 2, 2010
. I know it sounds like a long time but maybe this will allow them to test and tune the encounters a bit before we hit those dates and allow a lot of people to catch up so everyone has a larger pool of players to work with.
Update 2:
It seems our assumption that the rest of the gates will be on 28 day timers was wrong. Daelo has just corrected us and the extra long wait on the first gate is because of the holidays.
As noted in game, the release of the Plagueworks in Icecrown Citadel occurs 28 days after patch 3.3.0 was released. After the Plagueworks is available, you will then wait less than 28 days for the next
Live
Icecrown Citadel: The Lower Spire (Feedback Wanted)
Long time no see in the blog, eh Wowhead? I've been working on a few projects on the site (one of which you should see now, and one - soon) and my finals week coinciding with the new epic patch didn't exactly buff my free time. But it's mostly over now, and I should have enough time to post interesting stuff again! However for now you are stuck with the same old boring stuff - bosses :)
With the new patch out, I've made some tweaks to the boss pages. The coolest thing for me are the new tabbed abilities - now each difficulty has its own section, reflecting all the little things that make this difficulty level unique. I think that's pretty cool feature - and it looks really neat too! :)
The boss pages have the basic overview of the fights for the Lower Spire, but I have also included shorter versions of kind of "to go" tips here. And with this we get to the core question of this blog:
Do you think the overviews are sufficient/redundant, and if you could change something about the boss pages design, what would it be?
Please look at the list of bosses after the break and post your thoughts!
Live
Tier 9 Compendium
Icecrown Citadel knocks on the door, Arthas is likely getting dressed like Santa, and a new Tier set is coming out. Looking at the names of the sets, they don't seem anything
special
- so I thought* it's probably a good idea to post some extensive explanation about the
last
Tier. Why? Because it is actually interesting from a Lore perspective.
Remember, back when Tier 9 was released, how a lot of people were excited about Alliance and Horde not only having different sets, but having those sets named after famous members of the respective faction and class? I don't know about you, but I was really excited to be a part of the lore on that level. And because of this inspiration, this blog was born - a compilation of relatively short summaries of all those heroes' and villains' stories. Read on!
*Not really. Read the note after the break.
Live
Icecrown Raid Access Progression Revealed!
Lead Encounter Designer Daelo has published a lengthy post on the official forums that outlines Blizzard's plans for
access progression
in the Icecrown Citadel raid. The citadel will be broken up into four sections, and all of them won't immediately be available when
patch 3.3
goes live.
We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.
Here's a list of the noteworthy points Daelo mentions in his post:
The Lower Spire will be the only section that is available initially.
Plagueworks will open several weeks later, followed by the Crimson Hall and Frostwing Halls.
Players may not attempt the Heroic 10/25-player encounters until they defeat the Lich King in the Normal 10/25-player encounters.
The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated
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