The Frozen Throne

Firstly, I'd like to recap my recent play experiences. I have been playing three toons: my mage, my priest and my warrior.

I finished Sholazar Basin with Gaiwyn, to gain the achievements Into the Basin and Loremaster of Northrend, the latter of which granted me the tailoring recipe for Deathchill Cloak. Being Frostfire is proving to be both powerful and fun. 13K Frostfire Bolt crits are crazy.

Ilyaena is level 77 and still melting faces. I got Fo' Shizzle My Grizzle and moved onto Sholazar Basin, but having recently done it with Gaiwyn makes me want to take a break from that zone for a little while. One option is to bite the bullet and simply start questing in Zul'drak; another is to play another toon aside from my warrior.

I have been making steady progress with Zlaenya. I got her to level 72, and she also has Cold Weather Flying, which helps immensely. Dragonblight is frequently feeling my fury. Warriors are fun!

Another thing I have been doing is trying to buy up Cobalt Ore at a reasonable price. So far I have smithed a lot of items with Nick's warrior and disenchanted them. I just have to work out which enchants are best to sell at the auction house to turn a pretty profit.

With the Lich King solidifying his hold on Northrend even more and the argent champions doing all in their power to overcome the scourge, the epic battle within Icecrown Citadel looms ever closer.

The patch notes will no doubt be updated regularly, but as it stands there are some nice changes incoming. Let's take a look at what patch 3.3 is likely to offer:

Firstly, the instances that we have been holding our breath for: Icecrown Citadel's raids and five-man wings. I would absolutely love to have the chance to experience Tier 10 content, but since my mage is still in T7 and I don't have the slightest chance of having enough time to raid, let alone do the latest heroics, I guess I'll just have to settle for watching videos and drooling over images of gear and encounter screenshots. So far, things are looking rather delectable.

Class changes are indeed improvements, too.

The changes to Improved Scorch are long overdue, where stacking is no longer required to gain the 5% spell crit increase. And there is a new glyph to make a mage's Water Elemental more of a pet; perhaps much like the indefinite up-time of a Death Knight's ghoul. The introduction of this glyph alone is making me second guess my recent move away from frost.

Speaking of Death Knights, we knew it was coming, but the changes to Scourge Strike should finally make it worth having as your primary talent again. Wave goodbye to Obliterate, if you are Unholy. Thank goodness. >.>

Some of the changes for shadow priests are very nice, too. Changes to haste, more mana regen and a greater bonus to shadow will increase overall performance.

Finally, new achievements are worth looking at, even if I will never be given the chance to attempt any of them. Titles like I'm on a Boat (that single from The Lonely Island, m*thaf*cka) and I've Gone and Made a Mess (a tribute to Moroes) made me chuckle.

There's also the latest Feat of Strength: It's Over Nine Thousand! Self-explanatory >.<

Keep an eye out for talent updates and other upcoming changes as the PTR continues to drive forward in its endeavour to prepare us for the storming of that final bastion that stands between Northrend's finest and the obliteration of the scourge once and for all.

I can't wait to see how the Lich King's long awaited defeat is decisively delivered!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

25-man Raiding

I was promoted to Guild Master last week. Since then, we have had a couple of meetings, discussed a lot of things regarding moving forward, and I have written up various proposals surrounding decisions that we felt needed to be made.

I finished Icecrown but haven't yet touched Sholazar Basin. I felt like playing my rogue, so have been doing a few quests on her.

Raiding is pretty quiet right now. We are trying to recruit more players so that we can begin 25-man raiding. Feel free to check out our recruitment forum.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Full Circle

I am now fully epicced: I hit exalted with Argent Crusade and bought my Signet of Hopeful Light. In tonight's Naxxramas run, I got Dark Shroud of the Scourge, completing my collection of iLev 200 epic gear.

Onward, to 25-man raiding! That is, if we don't wipe to Kel'Thuzad on ten-man three times before calling the raid.

I finished finding the Elders of Northrend and have five left to get the Elders of the Dungeons.

I respecced my paladin to Retribution. I will level her up to 80 like this. Eventually.

Still finishing off Storm Peaks. Last stop, Sholazar Basin.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Titanic Lightning Rods of Supreme Brilliance

I finished Dragonblight last night and started on Grizzly Hills tonight.

Dinged 77 and got my Cold Weather Flying. Ah, it's good to be able to fly again!

I flew around the rest of the Northrend zones. Words like 'epic' and 'amazing' fail to describe the splendour and incredible magnitude and magnificence of this continent. Such varied environments; such humongous structures; such an amazing array of creatures; and such extreme activity everywhere.

I really love the Titan lore and Storm Peaks captures so much of this across its mountainous terrain: giant structures built into the mountains; rune-inscribed golems roaming the mountain crags and paths; huge temple structures that bring a new definition to monolithic architecture.

I couldn't capture in my screenshots the scope of all there is to see, but I can say that I was in absolute awe of the superb job the design team have done in every gigantic zone. There is so much to see and it all takes your breath away.

Take the time to fly around Icecrown, Storm Peaks, Sholazar Basin and Crystalsong Forest -- and actually look at everything. You won't be disappointed.

Gundrak, Zul'drak

A Huge Crater in Zul'drak

Steps to the Zul'drak Plateau

Crystalsong is Breathtakingly Beautiful

Beware the Creatures of Icecrown

Before logging off, I decided to try and find a good spot to farm Frostweave Cloth. I am going to need hundreds of them to get my Tailoring up. I tried a spot in Icecrown, but the mobs there are level 80, so I would recommend waiting until level 79 and grinding out your last level there if you are after cloth, like me.

I also went to Zul'drak. Just outside of the Argent Crusade area, there is an ongoing undead event. You can kill a number of mobs at once, with a decent droprate on cloth. The downside of this is that the respawns are pretty haphazard and sometimes you can't get out of combat. I had a couple of close calls and had to run for my life a couple of times.

One bonus of killing the undead mobs, though, is that one of them dropped a Manual: Heavy Frostweave Bandage for me.

I intend to continue questing in Grizzly Hills and then probably Zul'drak until reaching 79, when I will do my Frostweave stint and hopefully be able to craft my Magnificent Flying Carpet at Level 80. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore