3.3 impressions, bug fixes and Winter Veil

[Ayasu]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzlyiPXqpjY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzlyiPXqpjY</a>

Well, we've been sitting in it for a week. Patch 3.3. The end of the expansion. Three new 5-player dungeons, 4 new raid bosses, and, according to Blizzard, over 1800 new items added to the game. On top of the new content, we also have some holiday content starting today! I've decided I'm going to start posting these blog-like things weekly on the front page. This gives the page some extra content for you guys to check, among other things, and will hopfully help to keep you coming to the forums.

Icecrown Citadel

Well, Friday we attempted Icecrown Citadel. Learned the way the trash behaves in the beginning of the dungeon, learned how fun traps are, and attempted Lord Marrowgar. I won't be lying when I say we didn't go into this with 100% strength. The fact that we had to PUG 3 people made the raid start late. On top of not listening very well to instructions, the PUG'd healer and one PUG'd DPS flaked out and fake disconnected on us, which put us in a pinch. We also didn't go in there with our strongest tanks, either, which kind of threw a wrench in the works. We did manage to get him to about 50%, and after the latest bugfix notes on Marrowgar, I'm rather certain we'll stomp him this week. My thoughts is that he was hitting as hard on 10-man as he was on 25-man, which would explain why the tanks were taking so much damage. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1 Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted. To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677858456&sid=1 12/14/09 In Ulduar, the Salvaged Demolisher’s Hurl Boulder ability will now properly ignite tar. Vault of Archavon bosses are again able to be hit by area of effect abilities. Chains of Ice is no longer limited to a single target. In addition, when Chains of Ice is used on a snare immune target with Everlasting Winter talented, it will once again apply Frost Fever. Druids will now be able to shapeshift out of a spell-reflected Entangling Roots spell. The trinket Ephemeral Snowflake will now be triggered by all healing spells. The players’ Gunship will now appropriately dock after achieving victory. Lord Marrowgar will now do significantly less melee damage in both the 10 player normal and 10 player heroic difficulty. Everlasting Affliction can now refresh the duration of Corruption on a target when the Warlock casts Shadow Bolt. This talent also refreshes the duration of Corruption with Drain Life and Haunt.

The Feast of Winter Veil

To quote the Dwarves, ""Ahhh, winter... Yes... Winter..." The Feast of Winter Veil is here! It's Christmas time in the real world, and WoW reflects that by decking the cities in festive lights, decorated trees, and even a quest(and achievement) to save Metzen, one of Greatfather Winter's eight magical reindeer! WoW.com's got a great article written up already to walk you through all of these achievements. You can view that here: The OverAchiever: Guide to Winter Veil. Also, on Christmas Day, you can go to Ironforge's tree and open your presents! You get a different amount of presents depending on your level, I believe. I think if you're above level 60, then you should be fine to get all of them. From what I understand, the gift this year is a BB Gun, with which you need to shoot the other faction leaders. Go go naked runs through horde cities!

Upcoming Raid Schedule

If you'll notice, I've adjusted the raid schedule for this month to account for the holidays. This week, we have a normal raid schedule. I do expect people who can make it to be here, unless otherwise stated. Next week is light -- on the Wednesday, Dec 23rd, it's just Ony/TOC/VOA; no ICC that week. The day after Christmas, so long as enough people have signed up for the Secret Santa event(as of the time this is posted, there are not enough participants), we will have an in-game gift-giving party. (If enough people do not sign up, this will be canceled.)(DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.) The week after Christmas, on Tuesday, Dec 29th we will do Ony/VOA/TOC again, followed up by ICC on the next night. After then, we have no raids scheduled until 2010! Oh wait, that's the week after that. I have filled out January's raid schedule. Unless otherwise noted, that schedule is final. If there is enough interest, then we will start doing alt runs on seperate days through TOC and Ulduar. Also we will talk about Ulduar 10 Hard Modes and TOGC after the holidays. There *will* be another Guild meeting sometime next month. There will be a calendar note and forums post, again, once the date for that is determined. Also, yes, I know that's a picture of a rabbit and a squirrel, and not a raid boss.

Battered Hilt
Well, I know I told you guys last week "Go get your Batterd Hilt!" but... it seems they've nerfed the droprate, horribly. Most sources are saying it's now a .001 to .01% drop. If you're really feeling overzealous and can find one on the AH, I hear they're going for like 14-30k gold. My only suggestion, honestly, would be to run Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection on Heroic, daily, and hope to get one of the three of them on randoms to maximize your chances.

EDIT: According to WoW.com, the drop rate of the Batterd Hilt has been increased. But this could just mean it went from 0.001% to 0.01%. We'll see, though.