It's Hallow's End! Halloween arrives in WoW

It's that time again folks—time to dress up in a ridiculous costume, and go score some treats! It's Hallow's End!

Hallow's End runs from October 18 - October 31 and can be celebrated in any major city or inn!

Forge of Souls Heroic Full Clear (WoW PTR 3.3)

Patch 3.3 PTR Icecrown Livestream Forge Of Souls and Pit Of Saron

Watch the WoW.com crew hack and slash their way through the recently opened Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron (on heroic)!

The live video feed is after the jump!



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Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls - The Arthas Patch

Icecrown Citadel will feature a massive five-player dungeon sprawling across three wings of the citadel's foundation. While the Lich King's attention is focused on the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade ripping through the front gates, players will be tested as they assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating the citadel through an alternate entrance.

An epic quest line will present adventurers with the task of weakening Icecrown Citadel's forces, requiring that players defeat the challenges in each dungeon wing before venturing into the next one. Normal and Heroic versions of the dungeon will be accessible to players, although each wing will be considered a separate instance; therefore, on Heroic difficulty, each wing will have its own separate lockout timer. All-new rewards -- including item level 219 (normal) and level 232 (Heroic) loot -- will be offered to those who destroy some of the Lich King's most formidable allies.


The Forge of Souls

Serving as the first wing in this expansive dungeon, the Forge of Souls will quickly put players to the test of carving through the Scourge stronghold into deeper, more treacherous locations. Jaina will command Alliance forces, and Sylvanas will direct Horde forces. The goal is to ruin the twisted engines known as soul grinders found in this portion of the citadel, and then players can advance -- that is, if the Horde and Alliance forces can overcome the foes who confront them.

Bosses

* Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls: An instrument of reckoning, Bronjahm watches over the engines in the Forge of Souls. He must be killed if the soul grinders are to be destroyed.

* The Devourer of Souls: As the chief operator of the engines found in this wing, the Devourer stands guard over the souls stolen by the Lich King.



Pit of Saron

Accessible only to those who have laid waste to the Forge of Souls' unholy operations, the Pit of Saron will bring Horde and Alliance forces deeper into the Lich King's domain. Players who venture here will immediately be confronted by the lord of this lair, Scourgelord Tyrannus. But defeating him will not be as easy as it seems. Before they can present a threat to Tyrannus, the adventurers, instructed by their leaders, will need to free enslaved allies who have been trapped by the Scourge. Until that happens, Tyrannus will leave all adversaries to his minions, workers of the citadel's mines. Perhaps the challenges here will lend clues as to the whereabouts of the Lich King's private chambers outside of the Frozen Throne, deep within the Halls of Reflection.

Bosses

* Forgemaster Garfrost: A master of Scourge weaponry, the forgemaster hauls stocks of saronite ore and other precious materials to the cold forges where the mechanisms of death are born. With a host of rime weapons and exotic alloys at his disposal, it could get cold in here.

* Krick and Ick: Zombies serve as mindless muscle in the Pit of Saron's mines, stockpiling metals for Forgemaster Garfrost, and Krick -- a devious leper gnome -- supervises the operations from atop Ick, Krick's ghastly means of transportation.

* Scourgelord Tyrannus: Tyrannus is a terrible force who will no doubt demonstrate his powers to those brave enough to enter the Pit of Saron. The scourgelord must die if players hope to make their way into the third and final wing of this dungeon.



Halls of Reflection

With Jaina and Sylvanas leading the way, adventurers who make it as far as these frigid halls will quickly recognize the weapon that lies ahead: Frostmourne, the corruptive, legendary device of the Lich King himself. The Lich King's private chambers are within reach, although they may be the death of anyone who ventures there.

Bosses

* Falric and Marwyn: Captains for Arthas Menethil in life, Scourge commanders for the Lich King in death, Falric and Marwyn will be summoned to the Halls of Reflection for one purpose: destroying all intruders.

* The Lich King: Sylvanas, thirsty for vengeance against the corrupted prince who sentenced her to an existence as an undead monstrosity, and Jaina, eager to find a flicker of Arthas's soul locked somewhere within the Lich King, have brought their hand-picked allies to this final confrontation. Arthas's true power may only now be discovered. Is there any hope in this mission, or does only death await?

from wow.eu

Ok I am officially excited! lol

WoW Patch 3.3 PTR - the low down

BALANCE

NATURE'S GRACE: Now procs from non-periodic spell criticals (old: all spell criticals).

So direct-damage spells (e.g. Wrath, Starfire, Moonfire's initial hit) or direct-healing spells (e.g. Regrowth's initial heal, Nourish) will be the only ones that can trigger the 20% haste effect from 3/3 Nature's Grace. This is definitely a nerf for Balance concerning Starfall and Hurricane crits, but it's also a nerf concerning specific gear sets. Moonfire's DoT component can crit if you're using Balance 2-piece Tier 9, and a Restoration druid rocking 4-piece Tier 9 gains the ability for Rejuvenation to crit.

For Balance's AoE situations and Starfall cooldowns, it's an out-and-out nerf, albeit a limited one given Starfall's cooldown and the unlikelihood of Hurricane playing a major role in any given boss fight. Otherwise, it's also a nerf directed at Tier 9 bonuses, unless Blizzard's planning on future tier bonuses (or class changes) that will make periodic damage and/or healing crits a routine thing. Stay tuned.

GENESIS: Now increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spell damage and healing effects (old: all periodic damage).

Hold the phone. Were Ferals seriously putting points in the Balance tree for more Rake and Rip damage? I'm honestly scratching my head as to how a dedicated cat could justify putting 5 points there (certainly a bear would have little interest in doing so), but I can see it maybe (emphasis on maybe) working for someone having difficulty incorporating Ferocious Bite into the cat rotation. That's if Genesis ever worked at all for Rake/Rip, and after a little Googling, I'm seeing several forum threads where players insisted that points in Genesis did nothing for Feral bleeds. Blizzard doubtless noticed this, in which case the Genesis "change" here isn't actually a change at all; they're really just clarifying the tooltip.

Bye-bye, unexpected and almost certainly mythical bonus! We hardly knew ye.

MOONFIRE/WRATH/HURRICANE/INSECT SWARM/STARFIRE/TYPHOON/ENTANGLING ROOTS/SOOTHE ANIMAL: Mana cost of lower ranks reduced.

This dovetails into what we've seen on the previous notes concerning Blizzard's desire to ease the leveling process. Druids at 80 won't notice this, but anyone who's still leveling is going to appreciate it to bits.

FERAL

SWIPE (BEAR): Now has an 8-yard range (up from 5 yards).

This surprised me. Swipe chains so effectively right now that I wonder if players will notice a big difference.

INFECTED WOUNDS: No longer stacks up to 2 times.

Didn't we just see this in the most recent patch? This might be a mistaken holdover from the previous patch notes, although I suspect that this, like the Genesis "change" described above, is actually a tooltip correction given that the current talent (in patch 3.2.2) is still listed as stacking twice.

RESTORATION

REJUVENATION: Now heals 1352 over 12 seconds (down from 1690 over 15 seconds).

So is this a bug fix (as we read earlier) or a nerf? Inquiring minds want to know. Either way, Rejuvenation's still losing a tick. While it looks like a horrifying nerf on the outside, math-wise Rejuvenation will still be healing for the same base amount per tick, but you're going to spend more GCD's re-applying it. This also means you're not going to be able to blanket a 25-man raid with Rejuvenations as effectively as we do right now, so Restoration's raid-healing capacity is also taking a hit.

I'll grant that we're kind of overpowered raid healers and there's no reason for the highest-rank Rejuvenation to heal for an extra tick, so I'll going to elect the happy-face route and decline to characterize it as an outright "nerf." However, that's how this "bug fix" is going to be felt ingame.

REJUVENATION/HEALING TOUCH/GIFT OF THE WILD/MARK OF THE WILD/REGROWTH/TRANQUILITY: Mana cost of lower ranks reduced.

As with the Balance spell changes, no surprises here, although this will have an equally nice impact on leveling Ferals as well. Healing as a Feral is monstrously inefficient, particularly before Improved Leader of the Pack, so -- two thumbs up.

IMPROVED BARKSKIN: Now grants 80% additional armor contribution from cloth and leather items.

The current talent grants a passive 160% armor contribution from cloth and leather while in Travel Form or not shapeshifted (in addition to its other effects on the tooltip), so...yep, that's a big ol' nerf, good buddy. Resto druids in PvP will simply be more vulnerable outside of form or while trying to escape, period.

We're still keeping an eye on the PTR, and as soon as I head ingame I'll start collecting notes on any other changes, buffs, or nerfs present, and I'll also see what I can do to capture footage and notes on the new content.

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