Posts with tag wow-patch-3.3.3-ptr

Time Is Money periodically allows Basil a place to post inane nonsense and market predictions which rarely pan out. Still reading? Don't say I didn't warn you.

As we all read, miners will be able to smelt Titansteel after patch 3.3.3 with no cooldown. What will this mean for you, and how can you make money from this change? Let's start by quickly evaluating the Titansteel production chain.

• Saronite Ore is farmed by miners
• Saronite Bars are smelted by miners
• Titanium Bars are transmuted by alchemists
• Titansteel Bars are smelted with an Eternal Fire, Earth, and Shadow

Where in this do we see people mining Titanium Veins and smelting the Titanium Ore? We don't. Since the cooldown was removed from the alchemist's transmute titanium ability, the ore is no longer worth smelting. Saronite is always cheaper.

Here at WoW.com we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!

If you weren't aware that patch 3.3.3 hit the PTRs this past week, there's a very reasonable chance that you live under a rock. (Though, if you're reading this, it must be a rock with exceptional internet access.) Now that we've had a few days to think over the cornucopia of news that's been thrust upon us, let's look out upon the vast internets before us and see what they think of the latest patch.

• Birdfall talks about the novelties of 3.3.3.
• Slice and Dice analyzes the rogue changes.
• And Forever a Noob brings us more rogue discussion.
• Frostheim talks about the buff coming to beast mastery.
• At Big Hit Box, Imonaboat talks about 3.3.3 for frost-spec death knights.
• Gypsy at Mischief, Magic, and Rocket Science suggests that 3.3.3 is time for mages to break out the pitchforks.

The Patch 3.3.3 PTR patch notes have just been updated to reflect today's latest PTR build. All of the changes can be found behind the cut below, and we're also in the process of integrating them into our primary Patch 3.3.3 patch notes post. (Update: All changes are now reflected in our primary patch notes posting.) Some highlights:

• Death Knights: Icy Talons: The personal haste benefit provided by this talent is no longer exclusive with other sources of melee haste. This will allow death knights to always swing 4/6/12/16/20% faster when Frost Fever is applied. Windfury Totem and the party/raid component of Improved Icy Talons still do not stack.
• Hunters: Ferocious Inspiration: This ability is now an aura and provides 1/2/3% damage to all party or raid members within 100 yards and boosts the damage of Steady Shot by 3/6/9%.
• Engineering: The Pet Bombling and Lil' Smoky non-combat pets are no longer Bind-on-Pickup.

For the full listing of updates, just click through the link below.

In a somewhat speedy announcement following last night's announcement on Facebook, the PTR realms are coming down for maintenance:

Ujumqin

We will be bringing down the PTR servers today for maintenance at approximately 11:30 AM PST.

There is currently no estimated time for this maintenance.

This thread will be updated as more information becomes available.

source

There's been no update to the thread as of yet. Whether this is to address the disconnects and lag on the PTR servers or to apply a new patch is currently unknown, however, we'll update this post as soon as more information becomes available. In the meantime, check out the class changes, patch notes, and other information available about Patch 3.3.3 while you wait out the maintenance!

There's a new notice up on Warcraft's Facebook site with some intriguing new information:

Official Warcraft Facebook

Death knights, druids, hunters, mages, rogues, warlocks, warriors, oh my! For those participating in our public testing of the upcoming minor content patch 3.3.3, look out this week for a host of fascinating new adjustments to these classes. Chains of Ice innately does what? Nature's Grasp has how many charges? Vitality boosts stamina by how much? Stay tuned to find out the answer to these and more questions!

source

What does this mean? No idea, but it appears as though the various class changes and tweaks that were announced for patch 3.3.3 aren't set in stone just yet, which is what Ghostcrawler said late last week. This fluidity should be expected, after all, as it is a public test realm. Players on the PTR may want to keep an eye out for the changes, and possibly expect some sort of minor patch this week. When an announcement is made about the changes, we'll let you know!

So one of the new changes coming in Patch 3.3.3 is that one will be able queue up using the dungeon finder in order to fight world event bosses such as the Crown Chemical Trio or the Headless Horseman. However, the actual extent of the changes is a bit more involved, as Zarhym clarified in a recent forums post. Here's the rundown:

Matt's covered the basic profession changes in patch 3.3.3, but I wanted to spend some more time with those changes. At face value, they may not seem like a very big deal. However, the ramifications of the changes run a little deeper than many people would necessarily realize. The changes affect a lot about the way we habitually perform our trades, and will definitely affect how we sell items in trade chat and on the auction house.

The most startling change for professions in patch 3.3.3 is probably the new NPC. Frozo the Reknowned takes your Frozen Orbs and turns them into more useful materials. (There was a time I thought I'd never get enough Orbs, but I guess times change.)

Let's take a look behind the jump and do a little more trade-based analysis of these patch 3.3.3 changes, and what it means to the future of professions in Wrath of the Lich King. While it seems that the changes will make a great deal more convenient in the new patch, it does seem like the auction house prices for items are likely to go down.

If you read the patch notes for the latest public test realm build, you might have noticed there is an odd change being applied to priests of the bubbling nature.

Renewed Hope: now has a 60-second duration, up from 20 seconds, but a 20-second cooldown.

Seems a bit strange, doesn't it? Is it a buff, a nerf? What would be the point of adding a cooldown to an ability that has a duration exceeding the cooldown? Well, after kicking the Blizzard downloader all night and day, I've finally tested it for myself and as it currently functions on PTR it appears to have no negative impact on discipline priests. That said, I do not believe it is currently working entirely as Blizzard intends it to. For more information on what I observed, hit the jump.

Patch 3.3.3 hit the PTR last night, and if you weren't following WoW.com throughout the night, it's very likely you've missed a lot of patch news that has scrolled off of our front page already. For your convenience, below is a roundup of all of our Patch 3.3.3 coverage from the last day or so. Enjoy!

• Patch 3.3.3 PTR patch notes
• Cull Stratholme faster than ever before
• Early Cataclysm models/doodads
• Other new models and mounts
• Major changes to the auction house and game economy
• Patch 3.3.3's raid buff changes
• The patch's new achievements
• User Interface updates
• Trade Frozo the Renowned your Frozen Orbs for crafting items
• Death knight class changes
• Shaman class changes
• Warrior class changes

As the patch progresses, there will be plenty more where that came from. We'll be sure to keep you updated and if you've seen something that we haven't, don't be a stranger! Let us know via our tip line.

There's only two, but they're reasonably important.

• Revenge: Damage done by this ability (base and scaling) increased by 50%.
  
• Rampage: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc from critical strikes.

We talked about Revenge this week, and while this change is fairly unexciting, it's still a sizable buff. 50% more base and scaling damage to the ability will definitely make it attractive to use again. I may even change my spec back to take Improved Revenge again. Then again, since I used to spend 2 talent points to get 20% more damage on Revenge and now I'll get 50% without spending them it may still be better to put those points somewhere else. The stun isn't terribly useful for boss tanking in most cases, although when it does work it's nice.

The Rampage change, on the other hand, is what the ability always should have been. While a talented Leader of the Pack will still be better with its healing benefit, Rampage is now exactly as good as the baseline ability. I never understood making Rampage, an ability you have to spend quite a few talent points to get, inferior to one 10 points cheaper. Sure, it's nothing that's going to make or break the spec and it really should have been what we always had, but at least it's finally here.

Patch 3.3.3 will be bringing about some welcome changes in the user interface, instances, and those pesky frozen orbs you can never get rid of, but it looks like they aren't the only things getting an overhaul. Fishing around in the PTR files found some new models as well.

Two new mounts have been added to the game files, the Blazing Hippogryph and the Wooly White Rhino. Where these mounts are obtained is currently unknown -- we'll update with more information on the new mounts as we learn more.

In addition, it looks like Anduin Wrynn finally got his wish -- a new model has been added for the young king-in-training. With more and more models getting overhauls, does this mean players of male humans might finally get rid of that funky overbite? Check out the gallery for pictures of the new mounts and models, and stay tuned for more 3.3.3 PTR info as it develops!

Update: MMO-Champion is reporting that the two mounts are TCG rewards. However, with the recent developments between Blizzard and UDE, this information may change. Keep that in mind, and we'll let you know if we hear any word from the blues about it.

The Twilight's Hammer has already been confirmed to be working with Deathwing in Cataclysm, and since they're an elemental doomsday cult dedicated to bringing about the return of the Old Gods, busting Deathwing out of prison is right up their alley. We should probably expect to see these models in game relatively soon, and probably as part of a plot by the Twilight's Hammer to summon Deathwing back into the world -- a plot which will, of course, eventually succeed.

Stayed tuned for more coverage of Patch 3.3.3 and the Cataclysm opening event as it develops!

Frozen Orbs have been sort of a weird little problem since Patch 3.3 came out. Since they automatically drop off every heroic end boss, the dungeon finder has pretty much guaranteed that there's thousands of them created every single day. However, the Emblems of Triumph that come out of those same dungeons pretty much make most of the profession gear made with Frozen Orbs obsolete.

As a result, many of us have at least a couple stacks rotting in our banks or backpacks, and I know I personally have started outright passing on them, having nothing better to do with them. Now I sort of wish I hadn't, if only because they're finally useful as currency in Patch 3.3.3.

Blizzard has added some major and minor improvements for the user interface in their minor content patch of 3.3.3. Some of these include the addition of a random battleground finder, a holiday boss random dungeon group, as well as others. It is still early in the patch process, so some of these things may undergo more changes as it works its way along. There are still a few rough edges on the interface for the moment.

We don't have everything that's been changed thus far in the gallery, but we thought we'd give you as much as we could muster on short notice. Plus, we included the new Frozen Orb vendor in the gallery for you to drool at things you can do with all of those spare orbs from your daily rampaging of Northrend instances.

Keep an eye on WoW.com for more updates on what patch 3.3.3 is bringing to you.

Patch 3.3.3 will bring some interesting changes to shamans.

• Flame Shock: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes and is affected by spell haste.
• Talents:
  • Elemental Oath: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.
  • Unleashed Rage: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.

Turning the talents Elemental Oath and Unleashed Rage into passive auras is a bonus for leveling, soloing, and PvP. Instead of waiting a few GCDs or strikes for that first crit, the aura is up for you (and your team in PvP) immediately. In a raid environment these talents tend to be up continuously so the change for raiders is less significant.