Ailis in Hunterland

Yes, yes, I’m a complete slacker.  3.3 has been out for weeks, the second wing of Icecrown is about to open and I just now got around to updating the gear posts.

Better late than never?

Anyway, all four posts have been updated/tweaked with the latest in Shammy goodness so peruse and use to your heart’s content.

PS – Found out today I’m having a girl…  Gamer girls rule!

3.3 has been out for two days now.  People are dealing with the usual patch week bugs, lags, disconnects and the “Additional Instances Cannot be Launched” boss.  I am always amused during patch week at the QQ from people who seem to completely forget every patch is wrought with issues and lag and so then proceed to act like this is something new and immediately fixable.

What these people seem to forget is that, on an average day you have X number of people playing on any given realm at any given time.  On patch day, and from that, patch week, you have X to the Nth power of people on every realm all the time because everyone wants to see the new content regardless of the time they normally play.

What did I do on Patch Day?  Downloaded my updated addons and did my dailies.

Anyway, enough of that minor rant.

My initial impressions of 3.3 so far?  Without having seen the new raid yet (Friday!), I really like it so far.  Here are my favorites:

The New Dungeon Finder

This is such a fantastic tool (when it works) for newbie 80’s.  My mage just hit 80 and I can use this to get into just about any heroic without having to worry about linking achievements, my gear score, or any such nonsense.  And even if someone in my group thinks I’m a total noob because I’m in blues and greens, it doesn’t matter – I will probably never see them again.  It’s a great way to farm emblems and gear up any toon very quickly.

Shaman T10 Look

I cannot express to anyone how much I love how the new Shaman armor looks.  I even love my stats and set bonuses (except the minor complaint I have at the lack of expertise on any of the items).  The color palette is great and muted and I really like how Blizzard is differentiating the levels by color.  Once again, we will be able to tell who has 10-man, who has H10-man/25-man, and who has H25-man sets by just a glance.  After the “meh” that was T9, I’m, once again, excited to collect a tier set.

The Quel’Delar Quest Line

I’m really happy this exists.  I’m not going after Shadowmourne because it’s not a weapon for me but here is a relatively easy, albeit long, quest line I can do for a 251 weapon with relatively decent stats.  The hilt to start the quest drops in the heroic modes of the new 5mans.  And it has a pretty decent drop rate – it dropped twice for my group in the Pit of Saron alone.  You go talk to a number of people around Icecrown and Dalaran (even sneaking into the opposing faction’s area in disguise!) and then go back into each of the new 5mans in order to reforge the blade.  A quick jaunt around Sunwell a few quests later and ta-da, new weapon.

So far, I’m really happy with this patch.  I’m sure I’ll have more impressions once I get into the new raid instance this weekend.

My question to everyone that I’ll leave you with is this: When do you think Cataclysm will drop?

Here’s why I ask.

We know a few things:

1. Icecrown is to be released in stages every few weeks or so, putting Arthas available sometime in February 2010 and, therefore, unlocking heroic mode.
2. Assume all the best guilds will have Heroic mode cleared by end of March with more guilds clearing both normal and heroic in April and May.
3. Blizzard stated at Blizzcon they plan to release two titles next year but didn’t specify which two.  Starcraft, Diablo and Cataclysm are in their pockets.
4. Blizzard can’t wait too terribly long between the release of Arthas and the release of Cataclysm without risking people getting too bored (which is an entirely different eye rolling rant unto itself).
5. This patch is most likely the last patch of WotLK.

So, knowing all of that, what do you think?  When with Deathwing rise up and sunder the world?

Gah, finally.  Why are shamans the last ones to see their new tier set?

Well, the wait is over, somewhat.  Here’s the T10 version as worn by a male human.  I hope the race sets will be out shortly.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/november/huge-sh.jpg

I can get behind this design.  I’m amused by the spectral goats floating out of the shoulders – would make more sense to be wolves, don’t you think?  But nothing looks ostentatious or sticks out weird.  The colors are muted, which I’m actually in favor of.  The whole set just speaks to the Icecrown zone itself.  With the Fall/Winter months setting in here in my city, the set just seems to go with everything else going on as well.

I don’t know about you guys, but it’s nice to be somewhat excited about a tier set again.  T9 fell flat on its face in my opinion.  I have two pieces and that’s probably all I’ll get.  I only really have two purchased badge items, too.  The rest of my gear is a mash of ToC, crafted and U25 gear and I’m fine with that.

Given this look and the set bonuses, however, I think I may just try for all the pieces and see what I can get my little hands on.  Here’s to hoping the rest of the loot from Icecrown and the Emblem of Frost vendor is fun and appealing as well.

Shaman

• T10 Elemental Relic (Shocks) – Your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells grant 73 haste rating for 15 sec.  Stacks up to 3 times.
• T10 Enhancement Relic (Stormstrike) – Your Stormstrike ability grant 146 attack power rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• T10 Restoration Relic (Riptide) – Your Riptide spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

/dies