Primal News Transmute [17/07/07]

◊ Eej · 07/17/07, 3:17 PM

After a two week break, Primal News Transmute is back and now on the front page!

2.2 PTR Summary

So, 2.2 PTR is now upon us and there are a whole bunch of changes that you wouldn't know of by simply looking at the PTR patch notes. Here are a sample of the notable changes you might be interested in knowing about:

-Flasks of Shadow and Arcane Fortification have been changed to Flasks of Pure Death and Blinding Light, respectively.

-New Arena Caster shields.

-Amusing "Purge Me" signs added onto Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Protection.
-Warlock T5 and S2 sets have been changed. T5 2-piece bonus has been replaced by "Your pet is healed by 15% of the damage you deal." and the S2 Dreadweave 4-piece is now "Reduces the casting time of your Fear by -0.2 seconds."
-Rogue Blind change has been reverted.
-JC-only epic gems have been introduced.

EJ Discussion Thread
MMO-Champion Summary Thread (with Broom Mount movie and more PTR changes)
Inline images courtesy of World of Raids

Tigole reiterates Zul'Aman information

Originally Posted by Tigole

I've been following a lot of the reactions on the WoW forums as well as the fansite forums to our announcement of Zul'Aman. I've noticed that there's a little bit of confusion as to some comments that were made in various articles that said that (I am paraphrasing here) "Zul'Aman will be more casual than Karazhan."'

Of course, what most of us in the WoW community have come to realize over the past few years is that the term "casual" means different things to different people. In fact, I am at the point where I try to avoid using the term at all. I've come to discover that most players consider themselves "Casual" when it supports their argument and likewise, they think of themselves as "hardcore" when convenient. We have the largest Casual Hardcore (or Hardcore Casual) community of any MMO out there!

All joking aside, the clarification is this:

--Zul'Aman will be a 10-person raid zone
--Zul'Aman will be on a quicker reset than 7 days (some might call this "casual")
--Zul'Aman will be MORE difficult than Karazhan and drop better loot (some might call this hardcore)
--Zul'Aman will feature 6 bosses and it's our goal that you can kill them all in one night -- perhaps 2-3 hour clear times (some might call this casual)
--Zul'Aman will not have a key requirement. Nor will it have an attunement quest\ (some might call this casual)
--Zul'Aman will have a VERY challenging timed quest for those who choose to participate in it. This *will be* hardcore and will be very rewarding. Players do not have to engage in the timed run (very similar to the Baron run in Stratholme)
--We're tuning the first boss in Zul'Aman to require less raid coordination than some other raid bosses. He will still hit very hard so you'll need to be geared properly but it won't take 15 minutes to explain the fight. It will be a simple yet challenging fight. The other boss fights get more complex and challenging from there. If players want a basis of comparison, imagine the tuning of ZA started around Nightbane/Prince difficulty and ramped up from there.

ZA is a very cool looking zone. It will feature brand new troll models -- Forest Trolls. They are very impressive looking. There will also be a large amount of brand new item art in the zone. We'll get screenshots of this out soon.

I know this question is going to come up so I'll answer it now -- Yes, you can totally skip Karazhan if you're an amazingly elite guild who doesn't have time to key up for KZ yet can face the challenges of ZA without gearing up in KZ. Have fun storming the castle.

I don't see what the big deal about ZA is, other than new content. Unless it has something of interest, like Shoulder/Head enchants that actually have stamina on them, I don't think it'll make a very big deal at all. Of course, I've been proven wrong in the past and maybe something ridiculous will be in ZA like an easily attained Skillherald.

That being said, I look forward to the bear mount.

Elendshill has a silly mount.

He thinks he's so cool with his Spectral Tiger. Little does he know that the classic Ivory Raptor is still superior. As for the other item cards:

Originally Posted by Elendril the Terrible Hunter

The common is Goblin Gumbo, which creates a pot of goblin chili in front of you that anyone nearby can click to get a consumable that makes them belch green gas for a period of time, and the uncommon is a goblin fishing chair, which creates a cool looking chair that you can actually fish from.

Amusing Armoury Link of the Week

Plate Gank Squad 2.0

• Maestroquark · 07/17/07, 3:52 PM

Originally Posted by Eej

Amusing Armoury Link of the Week

Plate Gank Squad 2.0

I ... I ... I'll just crawl up in the fetal position in a corner, now.

Tipme · 07/17/07, 9:56 PM

I'd love so see more Amusing Armory links.

• Fogbug · 07/18/07, 4:43 PM

I'm more impressed that there's a battlegroup where 1938 gets you 4th place

Elendril · 07/20/07, 11:22 PM

This post mentions me. I approve.

archz0r · 07/25/07, 12:11 AM

I remember seeing a site with loads of pictures like this one: http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7274/1140wo0.jpg but I can't remember the URL nor the name. Any pointers on what to search on or where to look would be very appreciated.

Lionus · 07/26/07, 6:45 AM

Originally Posted by archz0r

I remember seeing a site with loads of pictures like this one: http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7274/1140wo0.jpg but I can't remember the URL nor the name. Any pointers on what to search on or where to look would be very appreciated.

I don't know the site you mean. But on a local forum where i go alot was a thread full of them.
Some examples

Funny as hell

Jebraltar · 07/26/07, 11:59 AM

I think this is the site people keep alluding to:

RPG-motivational

Not sure, though.