Classes: General
- Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage from other players.
Druids
- The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition to its current effect.
Hunters
- Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
- Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
- Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
- Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.
Mages
- Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
- Pyroblast damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
Paladins
- Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.
Priests
- Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that have magic effects that can be dispelled.
Dungeons & Raids
- You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
- Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
- Players can no longer win multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons and wins the first, will not be eligible for the second on that particular boss.
Over the last few weeks since the 4.3 patch to Word of Warcraft there have been numerous tweaks and hot-fixes. Here is a complete list of all of the changes made to the 4.3 patch since its release.
December 20
- General
- Algaefin Rockfish no longer swim in schools, and schools of Deepsea Sagefish have taken their place along many coastlines.
- Classes
- Hunters
- Multi-Shot, modified by the talent Serpent Spread, should now properly spread Serpent Sting to other targets that are within range when a nearby player is affected by Serpent Sting.
- Paladins
- Horde Paladins should find that Judgement of Truth now properly triggers item procs that it is intended to trigger.
- Hunters
- Dungeons and Raids
- Deadmines
- Helix Gearbreaker’s Stickybomb should no longer break Stealth.
- Vanessa VanCleef’s Vigorous VanCleef Vindicator achievement should no longer break Stealth.
- Vortex Pinnacle
- Minister of Air
- The knockback for Lightning Nova has been reduced from roughly 12 yards to 8 yards on normal difficulty, and from18 yards to 12 yards on Heroic difficulty.
- Minister of Air
- Well of Eternity
- Mannoroth
- Felhounds, Doomguard Devestators, and Felguards are no longer capable of dealing critical hits.
- Mannoroth
- Zul’Aman
- Amani’shi Warbringer’s damage has been reduced by 12%.
- Amani’shi Medicine Man’s summoned Protective Ward health has been reduced by 60%.
- When an Amani’shi Scout is alerted, he now idles for 1 second before running to summon reinforcement.
- Amani’shi Reinforcement’s damage has been reduced by 15%.
- Amani’shi Flame Casters’ Fireball Volley now inflicts less damage.
- Jana’lai’s Flame Breath ability now inflicts less persistent fire damage.
- In Dragonhawk form, Daakara’s Flame Whirl spell increases fire damage taken by a lesser amount.
- Daakara’s Creeping Paralysis now inflicts less damage.
- Zul’Gurub
- Berserking Boulder Roller’s Boulders now inflict less damage.
- Bloodlord Mandokir’s Decapitate cooldown has been increased by 5 seconds.
- Gurubashi Shadow Hunters are now immune to Disarm.
- Gurubashi Shadow Hunter’s Shadowed Shot ability now inflicts less damage.
- Gurubashi Blood Drinker’s Blood Leech ability now inflicts less damage.
- Lesser Priest of Bethekk’s Shadowflame ability now inflicts less periodic damage.
- High Priestess Kilnara’s Wave of Agony now deals less damage.
- Jin’do’s Twisted Spirit health has been reduced.
- Jin’do’s Twisted Spirit damage has been reduced.
- Jin’do’s Shadows of Hakkar now inflicts less damage.
- Dragon Soul
- Morchok
- Double Stomp damage should now only come down on the heads of the two players closest to the boss.
- Hagara
- Ice Waves will not spawn until Hagara finishes casting Frozen Tempest.
- Spell immunity mechanics such as Ice Block and Divine Shield should now temporarily block damage from Watery Entrenchment, but should not remove the debuff.
- Ice Tomb can no longer be avoided by a raid of players all standing within a smokebomb.
- Yor’sahj the Unsleeping
- Yor’sahj now deals triple melee damage to player-controlled pets and targets them with Void Bolt.
- The Firebloom heal triggered by the Druid tier-12 should no longer cause Deep Corruption.
- Yor’sahj’s damage has been reduced by up to 10% on 25-player Heroic difficulty, bringing the difficulty of the encounter closer to that of 10-player Heroic difficulty.
- Spine of Deathwing
- A Safe Fall aura has been added to the start of the encounter, preventing players from taking falling damage, should their parachutes end early.
- Corrupted Bloods now use Burst regardless of crowd control conditions, including silence.
- Madness of Deathwing
- Deathwing should no longer fire two Elementium Meteors when a limb tentacle is destroyed at the same time that Deathwing is casting Elementium Meteor.
- Morchok
- Deadmines
- Items
- Timepiece of the Bronze Flight has been given an additional red socket.
- Quests
- Players on the quest Patricide can no longer receive the Fragment of Deathwing’s Jaw while in a Raid Finder group.
- Graham Van Talen should no longer incorrectly offer Gnome Engineering and Goblin Engineering once the player has sufficient Engineering skill level.
- Pelturas Whitemoon should now be quite willing to complete the quest Orendil’s Cure for multiple players.
- Players are now able to complete the quest Trial of the Naaru: Mercy by beating the 55-minute timer.
A detailed strategy on defeating the final boss of Firelands: Ragnaros
Being the seventh and final boss, it’s hard to argue against Ragnaros being the most difficult encounter in the Firelands raid. His encounter in broken in to three phases, with two transition phases in-between those. This fight relies on heavy coordination and raid awareness, and has a very high learning curve for newcomers in to the raiding scene. This guide will help you defeat the Firelord and ease the growing pains in learning each phase’s mechanics. Ragnaros has both a normal and heroic difficulty, and this guide will go over the normal mode version of this encounter.
Before we begin walking through each phase, make sure your raid is prepared. Proper flasks and food buffs should always be a given, and you need to make sure you have a good raid composition to ensure that you maximize your potential against the final boss of Firelands. Generally you want to utilize as many class-related buffs as possible, but there is a general guideline for raid composition via class roles. In 10-man, you want 2 tanks, 2-3 healers and 5-6 DPS.
Understand that the amount of healers and DPS can vary depending on your raid’s strengths and weaknesses. For example: if you only have two single-target dominant healers or two raid healing-focused classes in your 10-man raid, you don’t want to try and only two-heal this encounter because it requires both heavy single target and raid healing. A good example of a 10-man raid that can pull off two-healing this encounter would be a Paladin/Disc Priest and a Shaman/Druid/Holy Priest.
As mentioned previously, Ragnaros has three phases with two transition phases between each phase. The first phase lasts from 100% – 70% HP, the second from 70% – 40% HP, and the last from 40% to 10% HP (with an exception to heroic mode for the last phase – which will be mentioned later on in this guide – whereas Ragnaros reaches 10% and goes in to an additional phase). The transition phases last until 45 seconds have passed or all the adds have been destroyed. On top of this, Ragnaros is stationary the entire duration of the fight. He stays in his pool of lava directly in the front-center of the room and will annihilate your entire raid if he has nobody in melee range to hit. Obviously, this should never happen.
Phase 1 – By Fire Be Purged!
Phase 1 is the easiest of all the phases, and it’s a good introductory to some of the base mechanics of Ragnaros that will be persistent throughout the entire fight. In this phase, both of your tanks should be relatively close to one-another. It’s ideal to have your entire party clustered around one side of the platform that you’re fighting on – as obvious, his platform is gigantic and it’s easy to get out of reach of a healer if you stray too far off to one side. For this reason, it’s recommended that you set a general area that your group revolves around as to prevent people from getting out of reach from the rest of the party. You also want your party to spread out slightly within this designated region about 8 or more yards apart, as Ragnaros will randomly cast an ability called ‘Wrath of Ragnaros’ that will knock a random party member up and do a fair amount of damage to them, as well as any party member within 6 yards of his target. Obviously, you want to mitigate this to only one person getting knocked up and taking damage to make things easier for everyone in your party.
The next ability Ragnaros has at his disposal is ‘Sulfuras Smash’, which is persistent through all three of the main phases. Roughly every 40 seconds or so, Ragnaros will mark a target close to him with three lava pools close together and then smash his hammer on top of it. If you get caught underneath the hammer, you’ll take a massive amount of damage and more than likely die from it. On top of this, the hammer creates three individual lava waves that disperse from it from either side and in front of it in a ‘T’ formation. If someone is caught within these lava waves, they take a moderate amount of damage and are afflicted by a damage over time that can be dispelled. These waves do not move that fast and can be easily avoided and predicted, so nobody should ever be getting hit by them. However, if someone does it’s imperative you cleanse the DoT immediately as it will kill the player if they didn’t already die from the initial damage and knockback from the wave.
These are the current patch notes for WoW 4.3 as of time of this post. If things change once Blizzard lists them as “Official”, we will be sure to publish any updates.
General
New Dungeon & Raid Content
- End Time is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.
- Hour of Twilight is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.
- Well of Eternity is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.
- The new Baradin Hold boss, Alizabal, is now available for testing. Your participation and feedbackhere is appreciated.
- Dragon Soul is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback is appreciated. For the latest testing schedule, please visit the PTR Discussion forum here.
Raid Finder
- This new grouping feature allows players to quickly and easily form a pick-up raid for a specially tuned version of the current tier of endgame content: the Dragon Soul raid. Raid Finder is now available for testing. Your participation and feedback here is appreciated.
Transmogrification
- This new feature allows players to customize their gear like never before. You’ll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.
Void Storage
- In addition to the bank, players will now have access to a new “deep storage” system, allowing characters to free bag space by setting aside coveted gear. You’ll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.
Reforging
- The former Reforging vendors have been… retired. The ethereals have chosen to take over the business and joined their Transmogrification and Void Storage service providers. You’ll find them in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.
Outland & Northrend Quest Flow
- The amount of experience needed to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by approximately 33%.
- Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.
- Relevant questgivers have been moved into Outland and Northrend dungeons. The majority of dungeon quests for these zones are now available from within their respective dungeons.
North American realms (excluding Brazilian, Latin American, and Oceanic realms) no longer permit letters with accents in character or guild names. Existing character and guild names with special characters will be unaffected by this change.
Achievements
- The achievement Master of Alterac Valley no longer requires the Alterac Valley Blitz achievement.
- The achievement Tol Barad Veteran now requires 25 victories in Tol Barad, down from 100.
Continue reading
If you’re like I am, then when you hear that a new guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm has come out, and is the best thing since sliced bread (or perhaps Darnassus Marzipan), then you are inclined to take it with a grain of salt. I have only occasionally seen a guide live up to its hype in every way. Which is why I was very pleasantly surprised by WoW Crusher, which really does deliver powerful, effective techniques for improving your game and being a lot more successful at whatever part of it you prefer to do – or all of at once, if you’re good at multitasking.
WoW Crusher is the first guide that I’m aware of to tackle all areas of the game head-on with incredible professionalism and style. This is the real deal. a compilation of hundreds of pages, dozens of detailed videos and the most detailed tutorials on the internet.
It is not only up-to-date with the latest developments in WoW, but has actually been put to the test in some of the game’s most demanding arenas and raids by the legendary duo of Markco and certified PvP pro Kevin Richardson.
Also included in the guide is the revolutionary WoW Crusher add-on that houses the most current and cutting-edge builds in the game. It is fully automated and legal, so you don’t have to worry about getting in the crosshairs of Blizzard.
One of the things that impressed me most consistently about WoW Crusher is that it isn’t just focused narrowly on one or two aspects of the game (say, PvP or raiding), but is very broad in its coverage of topics, while still managing to look at each individual area with the depth you need to really learn the techniques.
The author avoids both the temptation to use obscure terminology to get his points across, and the equally large temptation to oversimplify in the name of making the guide accessible.
The guide is highly accessible without being “dumbed down”, and as a player of the game, I appreciate that the writer has made the guide clear and easy to understand, but also doesn’t talk to me like I’m a slow-witted murloc.
It’s useful, interesting, and well written, and strikes a number of balances very successfully.
Although no product is perfect, I have no hesitation in recommending WoW Crusher to anyone who wants to make their character far more effective than they will be if you keep limping along with clicking and a few half-worthwhile macros.
The guide delivers amply on its promises and will help to improve your game – probably hugely – regardless of whether you’re interested in PvE, PvP, gold-making or a mixture of everything thrown in.
Zygor Guides has launched a set of new guides to compliment their existing leveling guides. The Zygor guide set now includes the following:
- Leveling and Loremaster - Power level your characters from 1-85 in the fastest time possible – usually under 4 days /played time!
- Dailies and Events - Get more out of your end-game expercience with daily quests to make gold and unlock rare items!
- Professions and Achievements - Become a master of your trade, get filthy rich, and earn your bragging rights.
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- Titles, Reputation and Macros - Set yourself apart from the crowd, gain respect, and streamline your gameplay.
- Continuous Updates - Zygor guides are always kept up to date with the latest patch and you can easily upgrade for a small fee when new expansions come out.
With the launch of these new products, Zygor Guides is also offering a set of discounts on the products from Oct 4th – Oct 11th, 2011. These discounts represent approximately 20% off the normal retail prices.
Greetings, Spugnort’s World fans! I am working on getting the site put back together and hopefully better than ever. Spugnort’s and several of the associated game guide authors, review sites, and vendors shut down operations a couple years ago due to financial troubles brought on by a massive decline in sales that tended to mirror the overall decline in the economy. With the way the company was structured and the equipment, hosting, and employee costs we had at the time, it simply wasn’t feasible for the company to remain intact.
So… instead of trying to rebuild what was (at its peak) a roughly $2 million dollar per year company – I am going to start small with the help of the one of our original guide authors.
We plan to initially put together some basic guide reviews, packages, and suggestions from the plethora of commercial products that still exist on the market. In addition, some of the products we previously released and worked on will be touched up a bit and many will be made available free of charge.
Hopefully, we’ll have a lean-mean gaming business back off the ground in short order and hopefully start offering some products and services that you will find of use. In the mean time – check back often as we are hard at work.
~Spug
