We Know BC

Inflation

After the most recent patch, the XP per level — t least for reaching level 61, which I had been getting close to — increased by about 30%, to 581,700. Thanks, Blizz.

Source for Mods

I keep losing track of BC-capable mods, so I’m posting this link to WoWInterface’s mod list.

Impressive Kiting

I zoned in to Honor Hold the other day and immediately saw the ground shaking in the way that indicates the proximity of a Fel Reaver. It seemed strange that a Reaver should be in the hold, but sure enough I turned and saw a Reaver stomping away at a toon by the gate. Right away I started throwing Mind Blasts and Shadow Word: Pain at it as other beta testers cast, wanded, shot, and hacked at it.

Several times the Reaver stomped so as to stun everyone in a wide radius; others times he stomped directly on me. Since I didn’t have aggro, I had the opportunity to shield and renew effectively. After five minutes or so of chasing the Reaver around the Hold, healing, blasting, and following the Fel Reaver around, it disintegrated in the open area at the low end of the Hold. It can be done, but it took a whole fortress full of beta-testers to brind the Reaver down.

BC Warlocks

[snippets from the We Know forum]

Here are some screenshots of BC Kaz and pets so that you can see what the various stats are for each pet at level 60 (int/sta/etc are the same for the most part, but damage/armor/attack power change a lot):

Kaz
Imp
Voidwalker
Succubus
Felhunter
Felguard

I will post later with similar screenshots but at level 63 so that you can see the pet statistics scaling with the additional levels.

The Felguard does some neat tricks. He has a cleave to hit multiple targets, he can "taunt" like a voidwalker (not a real taunt just some threat generation, but what're you going to do?) and he also can stack up "Demonic Frenzy" up to 10 times. Each attack can (and usually does, maybe 100%) proc "Demonic Frenzy" and each buff gives him 5% more attack power, thus a total of 50% is attainable.

The Felguard was hitting level 60 mobs for about 150 on average and his intercept (just like a warrior) hits for 50ish with a short stun afterwards. Felguard = teh win! I love him, I really do and want to make little evil demon babies with him.

Comparing the Felguard to the Voidwalker, the Voidwalker is a much better tank now than it was before so if you want a tank use it. The Felguard has a lot of health and decent armour but it gets hit really hard none-the-less. With the 50% attack power boost from its Demonic Frenzy it gets its attack power up to 665 without raid buffs, which is pretty nice. Sure the extra 222 is only 14 more DPS without extra buffing going on but it scales well. The 50% is after buffs, so if the Felguard gets a battle shout, mark of the wild, kings, etc then it will have even more attack power. All in all the Felguard is an offensive pet, even though it has a taunt (which still won't keep mobs on it). For tanking you'll still want the VW since it has two  fake taunts, a lot more armor and a lot more health. Plus if the poop hits the fan then you can sac it and run away.

Another change for pets that is nice is that if you accidentally hit a summon spell for a pet but cancel it you will keep your previously summoned pet. Before you'd lose your pet immediately upon starting a new summons, now you don't lose your old pet until the new one actually comes out. Nice!

I played around with the pets and equipment to see what happens to the pet's stats. Initially I didn't think any changes were being made but then I realized that the pet screen does not update when you swap equipment around. I changed Kaz's stamina by ~50 and int by ~20 (just as a quick test before I ran to the dentist) and it changed the pet's stamina and int by ~15 and ~5 respectively. Basically it looks like 25-30% of the change was applied to the pet. I will try and investigate this with a broader range of pets/stat changes so that I can nail anything down. There's probably a post on the official forums about all of this but I don't like their forums so I'll just ignore it. =P

At level 61 you can teach your Felguard Intercept 2 and train yourself Curse of Weakness 7. The other spell upgrades available are in the following screenies:

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I'm trying to find the thread on the official forums that discusses it, but they've removed the 100% cap on +dmg for DoTs lasting more than 5 ticks and for spells with casting times greater than 3.5 seconds. As it stands right now here is some data that I've collected through testing, not sure how it matches up with anything official:

Soulfire is indeed getting +dmg * (6 / 3.5), nearly double the +dmg that you have
Immolate is still getting 100% of the +dmg * (5 / 5)
Corruption is getting 140% of the +dmg * (6 ticks / 5 ticks should only be 120% but for some reason it's higher)
Curse of Agony is getting 240% of the +dmg * (12 ticks / 5 ticks = 2.4)

All of the instant spells remain the same, +dmg * (1.5 / 3.5)

Another oddity that I've found is that immolate is not getting the full 13% damage boost that demonology is supposed to afford. Instead it is merely getting the 3% boost from soul link but not the boost from demonic tactics or master demonologist (with the Felguard). All of these spells are getting the bonus +dmg based on your pet's (int + stamina) * 0.15 from demonic knowledge, which comes out to be (for Kaz) 83 more damage at level 61 with any pet other than the imp out, less for the imp.

I have not yet tested Unstable Affliction, I'm hoping to get to those in the coming days (affliction spec) followed by a few days toying around with a destruction spec. At level 62 Kaz got a slew of new spells which includes fel armor and an upgraded shadow bolt (same as from AQ20). Other spells are Corruption, Immolate (both like AQ20) and Drain Life.  At level 64 I can test out incinerate (if we get that high) and at 66 we'll see what soul shatter (our aggro dump) is all about. Sadly seed of corruption (our new non-talent dot) is a level 70 spell and it is doubtful that we'll hit that anytime soon. I am guessing that before the closed beta completes Blizzard will bump people up to level 70 to test the higher end content. Even now there are zones in the expansion that we simply cannot go to, such as Blade's Edge Mountains and Shadowmoon Valley. Walking into these zones gives a debuff called "no man's land" that teleports you out of the zone.

Using the new drain life in addition to the demonic aegis boosted fel armor I can drain tank (using the new Drain Life) to retrieve 300 health per second from a mob. Life Tapping down to next to no health and then two Drain Lifes later on the same mob and I'm at 100%/90%. Wow, get ready for the Nerf baseball bat!! Kaz was at a nice round (and exact) +500 to shadow damage with an 10.6% chance to crit at the time of this testing.

Another note for warlocks that is worth mentioning is that the spellstone has been modified slightly (read: completely) so that it is almost useful. The buff given for damage absorption has been removed but now only debuffs are removed when the items is used instead of all buffs. Additionally, the item goes in the wand slot so that you can keep your off-hand item in place (can still swap in combat) and the item has a cooldown instead of being consumed upon use. A significant upgrade for a previously totally useless item. If only the firestone could get some lovin’!

Heading back to Stormwind upon reaching level 63 Kaz picked up a new drain mana spell as well as some pet abilities including an upgraded blood pact. With 3/3 improved imp in Demonology the new skill conveys a bonus of 86 stamina, which with a 15% boost from demonic embrace means a total of 97 stamina. Wow!  At least we know what pet we'll have to have out for raids all the time, ... oh wait, we already knew that.  Drat!

More to come later..

Different Gear I have come across and use

These are just a few different things I have come across in gear that I currently either use or have seen during questing:  ***(Click on the pictures to make them bigger)***

  This is a Dagger that you get from doing a quest in Zangarmarsh (sp). The blade itself, being Green and all, is really good. The Azuresong Mageblade is still a little better, but this one is SOOO much easier to get!

This is a trinket that has really good +Dmg and +Dmg for a short period of time with a cooldown on it. This was a quest reward also, I think the same place as the Blade above.

This was my first blue piece that I have gotten in BC. It is a really good belt and it has 2 sockets in it, which as you can see, I put +Dmg and +crit stuff in it!

As I come across more stuff, I'll let you know!

Nethergarde Bitter and other Useful Things to bring from Azeroth

I just finished a quest that made me go back to the "old world". I had to go to Nethergarde Keep and pick up a Nethergarde Bitter - a strong alcoholic beverage. You need to take it to this location (where my character arrow is, in the South Western part of the zone). You also need some faction, but it's just friendly. Make sure you pick up your Nethergarde Bitter before you head into the outlands, and you won't have to go back for it!

I've also discovered that if you are an Enchanter, you should bring six Large Brilliant Shards and four Greater Eternal Essence so you can make your new enchanting rod. It consumes your Arcanite Rod, so if you don't have one of those yet, you should get on it. The highest level rod covers all the lower level rods, so you don't need to carry them all around any more, or risk having left it in the bank when someone asks you for an enchant.

The new enchanting rod also requires a Feliron Rod from a smith. I've seen Feliron spawns all over the first zone in Outlands, Hellfire Peninsula, but it's not entirely common. Make friends with a smith! :)

PvF?

I just completed a quest in the Shattrath, the big city in Terokkar called "I'd Rather be Fishing." I got fishing rod with +20 fishing (have this on my Big Iron Fishing Rod anyway) and +52 Stamina. +52 Stamina? I'm afraid to find out why you need Stamina when you are fishing...

items

if i were nice, i'd have a nice compiled group of photos that show multiple items as a single image..but i'm not that nice :P  as it is, here are a few things i got shots of and thought i'd share.

this plate breastplate is a quest reward (early quest, you can get it at 60).

the dagger is being compared to my epic aurastone (from mc).  note that it is green and boe.  i think it fell of some trash somewhere...i don't recall exactly.

and for those who wish to see what an epic looks like....

i had to show this one to the healers!  if this doesn't make you believe in a one handed weapon, nothing will!  (and there are PAGES of these items, not sure how we get them but i imagine it's not easy).

just some fun stuff :)

so i had a lot of fun with the twisting nether--first of all, it's beautiful.  blizz really did an amazing job creating it!

of course, standing on the edge of the world--how could i not jump off?  several times lol  i think blizz anticipated this as there is a graveyard right next to where i jumped :P

 

and of course, i ran into a friend of steve's and thought i'd warn you all about him....

druids in bc

ok, lots of new stuff and plenty to talk about but i want to focus on a few druid specific things.  i'm starting with resto since that's what i know.

for the most part, i adore the new resto talents.  the big one everyone asks about is tree of life.

i've tried this out and it's kinda fun in a unique sort of way.  you get the standard protection from polymorph and for some reason, this form also has a buff icon stating as much.  the /sit command produces a very minor graphic change and isn't that exciting and there isn't a /dance at all (i really hope it includes falling leaves once they put it in though!).  the attack animation is kinda fun as it looks like you are doing some sort of kung fu move.  but by far, the best is /jump cause the leaves on your head go back and you look a lot like e.t. lol 

there are a few drawbacks to this form though.  one that people comment on the most is the speed reduction (speed is reduced BY 20% not to 20%) and i don't think it's that much of an issue to be honest.  sure, would be nice if it wasn't there but unless you plan to explore in tree form it's really not a big deal.

the only spells you can cast are heal over times (regrowth, rejuv, tranq, lifebloom), swiftmend and innervate.  that means NO healing touch, NO nature's swiftness, NO decursing and NO rebirth while in tree form.  that doesn't sound too bad until you see yourself trying to spam regrowth because the tank is dying and you need a heal boost (where you'd normally toss in a healing touch) or until the tank dies and you have to take time to shift out of form and then cast rebirth...when that sort of thing happens, you realize just how bad it is that you are so restricted in what you can cast.

the bonus to healing is nice, it's 25% of whatever your spirit is (and this is an aura with a 45 yard range so an all heal group would be hawt).  unfortunately, most druid gear doesn't focus on spirit so it doesn't actually work out to be a huge amount.  you can invest talent points to up your spirit but i think resto druids who want to make the most of this form are going to also need to invest in some +spirit gear and enchants.

not positive if it is a bug or intended, but tol form also doesn't allow drinking or using consumables--so no potions at all and in between fights you have to shift in order to regen mana.  this sucks and i'm really hoping it won't remain.

so how about keeping a tank up in this form?  a lot is gonna depend on the instance, your gear and the tank but unless the instance is normally easy for you or you have some other healing, i think you'll find it lacking.  it's just not got the flexibility you get in natural form.  if you could use all your heals--definitely!  it makes using hots much more mana efficient and keeping them on everyone was no problem.  i tried in a 5 man to stay in tol but i just couldn't, i had to switch out to use healing touch due to the cooldown on swiftmend and the lack of nature's swiftness.  with a better tank (i actually was using a paladin, but he was healing himself at times and the shadow priest was using vamp embrace so i also had some help) it might have been easier, i'll try some other group combos and see what happens.  also, i currently don't have lifebloom (still too low) so that extra hot may be all the difference.

i can't see wanting a lot of tol druids on a raid.  i think one would be a great asset, but don't see a need for more than that.

the other thing people have asked about, is the ability to use rank 4 healing touch.  i don't know the math on the scaling, but i took screenshots from both live and bc wearing the same amount of +heal to demonstrate what rank 4 was healing for.  i forgot to get a pic of my spec so i'll check on it--but in bc i have all the resto points that improve healing in any way.  (first pic is what rank 4 is like in live, pic on the right is beta)