I just logged on my character that was logged off inside the sunwell, i was getting the buff as well.

Drysc on 2.4 Rating Requirements

Not sure this is strictly 2.4, but close enough. If deemed off topic please delete.

It looks like S3 items will NOT be available without ratings come S4. He mentions "lower" ratings but doesn't give an exact number. 2000->1800 seems like a likely move for the shoulders, and weapons to 1650 or something? I assume that the S4 stuff it self will remain at the current rating levels. All of this is speculation on my part of course.

K'iru appeared earlier today at the same time that the Alchemist/Jewelcrafting quests were finished up to make the JC pattern vendor go active. Perhaps he's linked to completely finishing the takeover of Quel'Danas.

Well that would certainly be a big incentive for raiders to complete the dailies and push for the completion of the outdoor 'storyline' -- an additional +79 stamina raid-wise is nothing to sneeze at.

Is the buff permanent while in the vicinity, or a duration suggesting it was triggered by something? I haven't been on the PTR lately.

It seems to be permanent, at least there is no time left indication on the buff.

I just logged on now -- 1:37 am Central -- and the buff is up. So, compare that to the earliest reports people were getting it (looks like at least four and as many as possibly eight hours ago?).

Another thing: It does not appear to stack directly with fort. It is late and math escapes me at the moment in terms of any crazy hidden modifiers I am overlooking but I have 630 stamina with the buff and only 653 after adding Power Word: Fort on top of that.

That would mean it does not stack at all with stamina. You forgot that you have 2/2 imp fort so you really get 102 stamina out of fort. The difference in health is 23 stamina, and the difference you list in HP is 230 HP.

Edit: You forgot that the fort icon doesn't actually account for the stamina increase.

Yep -- that would be it -- that's fairly worthless then except for the five-man groups that don't have priests.

So all the Alchemy lab quests are finished now? Thats dissappointing, was hoping for some gem transmutes.

Well, as a jewelcrafter with nearly every rare pattern in a guild which is just several weeks into BT and already has plenty of everything not named spinel... I can't imagine how anyone could be upset about this badged-for-gems thing. And I'm not. As a consmer, or a jewelcrafter. Epic gems are a tiny upgrade but a desirable one. This makes badges "useful" for nearly every toon in the game.

From: Is the S1 1h mace good for a 70 tank weapon?

Im sure theres a few protadins who were curious but that seems to be the answer for 2.4 your stuck with either Hyjal Mace/Sword or the ZA one (for magical damage and not mitigation).

I find it quite funny that they do their best to promote more tank availability but refuse to make an optimal tanking weapon for Protadins, no doubt Deathknights will have multiple Runeblades for different tanking roles though :P
They have been known to even put armor on caster weapons in the past (Sageclaw/Mindfang), you have armor on Talon of Azshara but.. well... anyway.

Well, Paladins/Druids get owned when it comes to a tanking weapon. The only real (well itemized) tanking weapons for them atm are a blue sword from Apexis Shards thingies and a ilvl 100 epic mace.
Decent ones are either a trash staff that's kinda poorly itemized from SSC and a sword that every mage/lock will kill their mothers for.
Totally retarded to put a decent pala DAGGER on badge vendor and no sword and another dps staff for druids (though it's quite juicy for tanking also, just not as good as it could be).

Or they've added a drop in SWP. Blizzard CMs have the disconcerting habit of saying *exactly* what they mean, knowing that they'll be over-read.

@Playered:

Regarding Paladin tank weapons, I'd like to point you towards the [Cudgel of Consecration]. It has more spell damage than the [Gladiator's Gavel] and can achieve STA parity with a Solid Star of Elune, which activates the socket bonus for even more spell damage.

The spell hit vs. the resilience is basically a wash, but there you have it - a Paladin tank weapon after the Gavel.

It was a quote giving information about no new items from badges being available for tanking weapons, if you read the link you would see the CM mention the MT mace, further-more I believe that item is less stamina and/or far less spell damage than all 3 of the items I mentioned which is why I didn't mention it.

The fact that the thread was made about the S1 weapon is completly ignorable aside of the information within.

Considering the fact that the only one approaching that description they ever released was the Crystalforged Sword, I wouldn't hold my breath. They just don't want to release a weapon that has purely wasted stats for every class/spec besides one. (That's why I don't get their decision to not put a paladin tanking weapon on the badge vendor, but I suppose that's not important.)

What, like every single Druid and Warrior tank weapon in the entire game?

Similarly, moonkin would love more leather gear with spell damage, crit, and haste. The only problem is that at best 1 raid member out of 25 wants it, and the other 24 are unhappy when it drops a second time. I think blizzard has finally realized the issues with niche itemization (raid drop idols and librams, I'm looking at you) and is trying to design more items that appeal to multiple classes and specs. Changes like spell haste affecting the GCD and heart of the wild boosting attack power are aimed at this. They make spell haste good for all casters and make druids want gear that's very similar to rogues. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for more items that at best one raid member can use.

To corroborate on tedv's point, in one of the blizzcon panel (I believe it was in the raid panel), someone asks Tigole what are they intending to do about paladin itemisation (and seems to imply dps paladin itemisation). Tigole answers basically goes like this: 'Imagine we would put ret paladin loot on a boss, then people would go 'OMG what were they thinking?'. [e: in reference to most of the raid not interested in such a loot dropping]. You can get items for that purpose from badges.'.

That doesn't mean there shouldn't be an option in place; yeah, having an offspec item drop for 6 weeks in a row sucks, when your 5 <insert random class here> have been waiting forever to see their main spec loot drop. The RNG follows the so called sod's law, and will often do things like that; no two ways about it. However, I see no real reason why a superbly itemized high ilevel paladin tanking weapon, for instance, shouldn't be available somehow, outside the arena sets.
There are elegant ways around this; having craftable plans drop off trash; reputation rewards; quest rewards (surely they could add an ilevel 151 choice of weapons and relics as rewards for those specs that don't have anything drop off Illidan or Archimonde - enha shamans for instance); by trading in the more conventional weapons, like they're already doing with some of the armor sets; or even via badges, if need be.

Or even every piece of leather/mail/plate with +heal on it.