3.3.3 Mounts, Battlecry Mosaic, Blue posts

[Boubouille]

Patch 3.3.3 Mounts
Patch 3.3.3 introduced a couple of new mounts and I think it's time for a recap!

Celestial Steed
The Celestial Steed is probably the most impressive mount of his patch, it looks like a mix of Invincible and Algalon. I'm not really sure where this mount will drop for the moment but considering how cool it looks, I wouldn't expect it to be widely available.

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Blazing Hippogryph and Wooly White Rhino
Both mounts are supposed to be TCG Rewards but as you probably know, Blizzard and Upper Deck Entertainment won't be working together anymore in 2010 and the future of the WoW TCG game is unclear. The Blazing Hippogryph was supposed to be a reward of the Wrathgate TCG expansion (UDI stated that Wrathgate Booster won't go into production) and the Wooly White Rhino is currently a reward of the "Icecrown" TCG expansion.

Even if we can't know what will happen with the TCG, it's pretty obvious that Blizzard has a plan and developers aren't adding more TCG rewards to the game just for fun. Just sit tight and wait for the official announcement.

Crimson Deathcharger / Azure Deathcharger
I'm starting to hate these mounts. A couple of days ago I pointed out that they were most likely a reward of the new Icecrown Citadel Quests but I slightly changed my mind since then. If you go through the list of new mounts in the database you will notice that the Crimson Deathcharger is actually a "summon", this property only applies to class mounts and it could be the sign that Blizzard just decided to be nice to Death Knights and wants to give them faction-specific mounts like Paladins. Once again, we will probably have to wait until the patch is live to figure it out.

Frosty Flying Carpet (Tailoring Only)
The Pattern: Frosty Flying Carpet is sold by Frozo the Renowned in Dalaran for Frozen Orbs x 6. (The DB will be updated when we can actually log in Dalaran on the PTRs)

Tom Chilton, Game Director- 5 Year Interview

In this interview, World of Warcraft Game Director Tom Chilton talks about the hectic final months leading up to the game’s launch, crafting an MMORPG for a wide range of play styles, and the ongoing effort to improve the game through expansions and content updates.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wowan...tomchilton.xml

World of Warcraft BattleCry Mosaic Complete

Thanks to the combined effort of Warcraft players from around the world, we have reached twenty thousand submissions, and the final piece of the World of Warcraft BattleCry Mosaic has been revealed. Head over to the World of Warcraft anniversary site now and check out the complete mosaic, which can only be described by one word: epic.

You can now look at the complete mosaic using the site's mosaic viewer, download the original artwork wallpaper, and of course view the legendary-sized mosaic wallpaper. And while you’re there, make sure to also check out all the previously unlocked content.

Thank you to everyone who sent in their pictures to help us create a little piece of Warcraft history, and thank you to all our players around the world for your continued support. Lok'tar!

Check out the BattleCry page now, as well as our our updated special Battlecry Gallery (11 new):

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wowan...ary/battlecry/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/...y-gallery.html

The wallpaper is probably one of the best ever released by Blizzard, it includes 4:3, widescreen, and even dual-screen versions!

Blue posts

Blizzard Voice Chat
The Blizzard Voice chat is actually pretty cool, and has improved greatly since it was released. We do see it as a success. We're completely fine with players using third party voice chat programs. It was simply important to us that an option was available for those who didn't want to rely on a 3rd party voice chat program -- no matter their reasons.

Additionally, there are a great deal more players who use it than you probably realize. (Source)

Dual-Wield DPS itemization in Cataclysm
We will be making one-handed weapons with Strength on them. (Source)

Hit in Cataclysm
As I've said, it doesn't really work that way though. Say you need 300 hit (using arbitrary numbers here) and your tier set provides 250 hit and you get the rest from gems and jewelry. Everything's cool. Now a new patch comes out and your tier set has 230 hit. No problem. You get rid of some of the gems and jewelry. Now a new patch comes out and your tier set has 240 hit. Now you curse Blizzard every time an item drops with hit on it.

In short, later gear has more of the same stat on it. When the stats are easily capped, the larger pools become hard to work around. I compared it today to playing Tetris with really large pieces. It's hard to make the puzzle work. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Unstable Affliction "nerf" in the latest PTR Build
Tooltip clarification. Move along. [...] I will say that Unstable Affliction backlash being unaffected by resilience really feels like a bug. I don't see how it's a necessary warlock perk. (Source)

[HardlyWaken]

Gah, i want that mount D:
first? :P

[fishleg]

Nice stuff

[Insomnium]

Thats some nice mounts D:.

And slapping in faction specific Deathchargers in? Isnt it a bit late for that?

[Inexistent]

Like looking mount I want it

And finaly a good wallpaper that supports my res of 3840x1200.

[Ferledon]

Yeah, loving the wallpaper

[Kalundu]

Hey, some DK mount loving.

[ozzyloki]

grr.. i can't figure out how to get it to display properly on my dual screen set up >

[Kalundu]

grr.. i can't figure out how to get it to display properly on my dual screen set up >

It's not like it's that awesome that you have to. :3

Sorry, I can't give any other advice. Not too much experience with DS's.

[LordArcsinh]

At last, at long last, Blizzard has topped the Ashes of Al'ar.

Now, who do I have to murder to get that? (aside from my raid mates)

[Toriankel]

I. Need. That. Mount. Homyword

[Boubouille]

grr.. i can't figure out how to get it to display properly on my dual screen set up >

Set it to "Tile" instead of Center or Stretch, should work.

[Kalundu]

At last, at long last, Blizzard has topped the Ashes of Al'ar.

Now, who do I have to murder to get that? (aside from my raid mates)

Heh, on SS's Al'ar looks fantastic, when I actually saw him in-game for the first time he looked gay. :C

[Keristrasza]

Thats some nice mounts D:.

And slapping in faction specific Deathchargers in? Isnt it a bit late for that?

Somewhat, but look how late in the game they changed the 225 flight form for druids in BC. Before they actually put in flying 300 the birds at 225 looked the same. :<

I'm all for the faction specific. While I love my current mount, I rather lose it to faction colors than let some paladin run around on my class mount. Its crazy. That is unless they give us the epic form of paladin mounts/Warlock mounts as payment for stealing one of the best class mounts in game and giving it to every elitist schmuck out there.

Yes, I dislike elitist raiders, not because they work hard at what they do, but because blizzard (and the raiders) think that only they should have access to the best mounts in game. You would think titles, achievements and the highest end armor in game would be enough. No casual guild is gonna get H ICC 10/25 gear, period.

[Deleted]

I agree this wallpaper is one of the best pieces of art Blizz has ever released, it's amazing.

[Iwuko]

Nice wallpaper, but is that the "super special treat"? Was hoping for Cataclysm info, but oh well.

Celestial Steed looks so awesome.. I want!

[3vyan]

it's a nice wallpaper...
but they shouldn't made all the fuss about it.

They made it look like they were going to release something unexpected, something amazing...
While we could see this wallpaper already a long time ago :s

[ozzyloki]

Set it to "Tile" instead of Center or Stretch, should work.

Brilliant! Thanks Boubouille ;D

[Crusoe]

I really hope they make professions like duel spec, were you can toggle between your different professions, so you don't get every professional buff at the same time, but don't have to drop a maxed profession, and level a new one from scratch every other minor patch.

Speaking for those OCD mount collectors out there, is is annoying that we leveled tailoring for the 2 tailoring mounts, droped tailoring for engineering for the two BOP pets, and the two engineering mounts, not to mention the BOE ground mount. Then to make back the thousands of gold we spend on those professions just for the mounts, we dropped engineering for a profession that could actually make gold (in my case JC). Now we find out that we are going to have to drop JC so we can level tailoring all over again, for this new BOP mount.

Having to go back to tailoring wouldn't be as painful if I could start back at 450 tailoring, with all my old recipes stored away somewhere. They can do it with talent points, seems they should be able to do it with professions, the professions link in armory seems to support that they could do it, since there is a counter to all recipes for all crafting professions. If you toggled from JC to tailoring you would have your JC gems deactivate, just like using the cheap tailoring thread would deactivate if you toggled from tailoring to JC. This would make life easier for min/maxers, as well as people who like to RP, flying around on a engineering mount for a day.

The current system of losing all your skill points, and all your recipes, seems to me to not be in line with blizzard's "casual friendly" motto.

[Panquake]

I hope we get to keep our current DK mounts too.