RSS Forge of Souls, Cairne Bloodhoof, Blue Posts

The Forge of Souls Preview
Here is a short video preview of the Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-man dungeon of the Icecrown Citadel. The instance is currently bugged on PTRs but will most likely be available in the next PTR Build.

<div align="center">Patch 3.3 Quests Changes - Cairne and Baine Bloodhoof
Today is another small update of Patch 3.3 quests. You might remember from the World of Warcraft - Cataclysm leak that Cairne would eventually .... "leave" Thunder Bluff. Once again it looks like this will be confirmed at some point after the release of Patch 3.3.

A new NPC has been added to the game - Baine Bloodhoof (Leader).
A new version of Rites of the Earthmother quest has been added to the game > Rites of the Earthmother. Baine Bloodhoof replaces his father in this quest.
A new version of Journey Into Thunder Bluff quest has been added to the game > Journey into Thunder Bluff. Baine Bloodhoof replaces his father in this quest.

This change isn't active on PTRs for the moment but Blizzard is definitely getting a few things ready for when it will happen ...

Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Icecrown 5-Man Dungeon Loot on PTRs
Currently the items available from the 5 man dungeons is not ready to be tested. When it is ready, it will start dropping from the bosses. (Source)

Pre-Cataclysm Events
I want to stress something: at no point in the trailer or on the website is it mentioned or even alluded to that the fight against the Lich King will happen the same time as the cataclysm. I can definitely see where one might get that impression, but the actual storyline is not going to be quite that compact.

[...] One thing I should mention right off the bat: there are no current plans to exclude players from Orgrimmar by any criteria to my knowledge.

As for the rest of what's been floating around, I will say that there is reason behind every choice. As I said earlier, I'm not going to explain the story before it happens, but I will emphasize that there is a story, and these aren't aribtrary decisions.

[...] As for Thrall, I sincerely doubt you could call what happens "ruining" him, but neither is he a perfect leader. He's made mistakes of his own, and not all of them have to do with what people consider the biggest threats to the Horde.

I am not going to give hints on what will happen, but I will say this: we have no intention of removing all honor from the Horde and making them out to be a faction of pure evil. Thrall's honor, however, is not the only definition.

I will also say that while I have read a large number of rumors and speculation concerning what's to come, I haven't seen a single one that has the progresson of events or the reasons behind them correct. http://www.mmo-champion.com/Smileys/classic/wink.gif (Source)

Only one new class in 5 years?

Beyond the balance concern, which is a valid one, we don't want to over-saturate World of Warcraft with different classes. We want to make sure each class has a very distinct set of core mechanics from other classes. Continually introducing new classes can tend to bring about a feeling of redundancy if we're not fully comfortable with developing an entirely new set of mechanics distinct from the current classes.

This does not mean that we'll never consider adding new classes to the game as time moves on, but we're pretty happy with the play styles represented by the classes currently available. (Source)

Expert Riding Skill Price in 3.2.2
The full price of Expert Riding is 250g. I listed 225g in my original post thinking that most everyone would have at least honored with Stormwind or Orgrimmar faction by that point.

Just wanted to follow up on this and make sure everyone was clear that the full price is 250g and then faction discounts apply that reduce the price all the way down to 200g at exalted.

Thanks and sorry for the mixup. (Source)

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...athknights.gif Death Knight
Diminishing Returns on Chains of Ice on PTRs
Stop your mass rerolling there DKs; this is a bug. http://www.mmo-champion.com/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif

Chains of Ice should not have DR on its snare.

The bug was likely introduced because we were trying to prevent the huge visual from displaying on creatures that were immune to the snare. The functionality of Chains of Ice has not changed for 3.3 (at least as of this posting.) (Source)

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...ns/idruids.gif Druid
Improved Barkskin
Improved Barkskin has not changed for 3.3 (at least as of this posting). The tooltip was clarified to specify that only leather and cloth armor contribute, which was always the case.

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