Posts with tag tier-9

Fox Van Allen steps out of the shadows every Wednesday to take control of Spiritual Guidance, telling you all you need to know to melt faces with expert precision.

The era of patch 3.2 held some dark days for a shadow priest. The fights in Trial of the Crusader were definitely not built for shadow priests, especially in heroic mode. We scaled terribly with new gear. Our tier 9 gear was questionably designed. Every class has their own problems, but the problems that besieged shadow priests were bad enough to negatively effect raid performance. It wasn't hard for shadow priests to get left behind.

Patch 3.3, though -- this is our time. The changes to the spec have already been detailed: buffs to our glyphs, talents, and haste-affected DoTs gave us a ten-to-twenty percent boost to our damage right off the bat. Our tier 10 gear gives powerful two- and four-piece bonuses. And best yet, the fights in the new Icecrown Citadel five-man dungeons and raids seem as if they were built for us. We add tremendous value to an ICC raid in almost every fight.

Actually seeing those fights, though -- that can be a challenge. Patch 3.2 did a lot of damage to the shadow priest class's reputation. An increased emphasis on "gear score" in the game can (unfairly) get an average-geared shadow priest written off. We can't just take playing for granted -- past problems with the spec means there's a higher bar for us.

If you got left behind in the last patch or even if you're a newly minted level 80, don't worry -- you can catch up quick. Here's how.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today.

That's a picture of my hunter above. She can use some better gear, and hopefully this weekend it'll be her turn to get decked out in tier 9. It's just so easy and fun. Plus I really like the idea of all my 80's having their tier 9 shoulders to look at on the loading screen. That's not strange, is it?

Saberix asked...

"Is tier 9 gear the new standard in gear? Am I going to be teased if I don't have it?"

Welcome to Lichborne, your look into the issues of the moment for the death knight class.

Ah, Emblems of Triumph, the new hotness. Even if you're not running the coliseum, you still have chance to grab them in the heroic daily, and by now, surely most of us have at least had the opportunity to save up enough to buy something. Deciding what to buy, however, is a whole different question. Let's take a look at the badge loot and see what's in it for a death knight.

These past few weeks have bought a flurry of updates the Patch 3.2.2 PTR servers, and a lot of the updates have a lot to do with Death Knights. Since we were the most changed class in Patch 3.2, it might be expected that we got a good amount of tweaking in 3.2.2 to complement and compensate the Patch 3.2 changes. Thus, it would behoove us to take a look at said changes and see where they'll leave us coming into the likely rapidly approaching patch.

A lone shadowed figure approaches the village as it settles down for the approaching night. A hush falls with his passing and all eyes turn to follow. Who can say what has brought him here but there's no mistaking his calling; there's a Warlock in town.

With more than seven weeks since the last Blood Pact column there was bound to be a few things that weren't covered. Not too much though, right? It's not like anything major happened in those weeks. Did it?

I'm kidding of course; the last couple of months have seen huge changes and awesome announcements. There's simply no way I can cover them all, and do justice to any of them, in one article. That said these things can't be left on the shelf to moulder. So I'm going to do a quick run-down of what's been going on in Blood Pact's absence and then we can start plunging into their dark and squishy innards going forward.

Over the course of the Patch 3.2 PTR's lifetime, the WoW.com team probably spent a rather unhealthy amount of time there. Sure, it makes us wonder what the heck is wrong with us, but it pays off for you guys. You've seen the fruits of our labor pretty much all day long, and will continue to. That said, there are a lot of simple things that we haven't put in front of you guys since we originally discussed them. Primarily, our image galleries.

Embedded below are almost all of the galleries we put together for Patch 3.2. Tier set stats, the Isle of Conquest, Children's Week quests, the new Heirlooms, badge gear, and more. Please note, however, that the screenshots were taken on the PTR, so any of the stats you see in the pictures may differ slightly from what went live. Only slightly, however. Enjoy, and don't forget to click through the cut below for the rest of the galleries.

WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.

New instances and raids are fun and all, but let's not forget what we're all here for: the loot. With the new patch out on servers, there's a whole slew of new items and gear to win and collect. Here's a quick roundup of everything we know about the new loot coming in patch 3.2, from the badges you pull from dead bosses' bodies, to the sweet epics you can turn them in to get.

It's the final day of Mighty Battle! The past four days has seen the Horde and Alliance battle it out in an epic brawl involving empty armor sets! After four days of battling, I've adjudged eight Tier 9 armor sets to have won roughly the same number of matches and drawn a few. In the polls, the Horde have been the overwhelming favorite, which either means Blizzard loves the Horde more or I called it wrong - although both are quite likely. What happens today?

Today is the last day we'll pit armor based on how well they represent their faction, their class, and how generally badass they look. Badass must be criteria why the Horde are edging out the Alliance armor sets, which look more goodass than badass. Anyway, hit the jump to see how each faction's Warlock and Warrior sets stack up against each other!

The Mighty Battle continues! Today we'll took at another pair of mail and leather sets, this time for the Rogue and Shaman Tier 9 sets from the Crusader's Coliseum. For the past three days, we've pitted suits of armor against each other in an all-out brawl determined by the armor design's faithfulness to its class, representation of its faction, and overall badassery. It's the first time we're seeing faction-based PvE Tier armor in the World of Warcraft, so we'll see who comes out on top.

While I've outlined my criteria for judging the armor sets, we've spiced things up with a reader poll to see which armor you guys like and from the results thus far it looks like the Horde have gained a good edge in the voting. Is it a result of faction-bias? Are the armor sets really that much better for the Horde? Hit the jump to find out!

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we talk about the upcoming Emblem of Triumph gear, analyzing each piece's stats and bonuses.

Due to the tireless work of Boubouille of MMO-Champion and many others, we've been able to discover many of the new items coming our way in patch 3.2. There's a wide variety of gear planned for Rogues, as there are three separate ilvl tiers of gear being distributed. In addition, Blizzard has included two copies of nearly every piece of gear: one for the Alliance, and one for the Horde; each piece possesses its own art and design.

We'll be able to pick up our new Emblems of Triumph from the Daily Dungeon quests and the new Crusader's Coliseum. You can trade the EoTs for a few very attractive pieces of gear, especially for those few slots that you could never find the gear to fill. When planning your gear migration path in patch 3.2, remember to include these items in your spreadsheets. They're guaranteed items that you can plan to acquire within a well-defined timeline.

It's Day Three of Mighty Battle, and the competition has only begun to heat up! In our head-to-head comparison and review of the new faction-specific Tier 9 armor sets, the Horde have edged ahead with a pair of wins and a draw while the Alliance follow closely behind with a win and a draw. Today we'll examine the Paladin and Priest armor sets and see which faction comes out with the knockouts. Glancing above I'm sure you already have an idea of how this match-up is going to go, but we'll forge ahead, anyway.

Hit the jump to see the battle!

The Mighty Battle continues! Today we'll take a look at the Alliance and Horde versions of the Hunter and Mage Tier 9 sets. Yesterday's battle saw both factions score a victory each as the Horde Death Knight armor edged out its Alliance counterpart while the Alliance Druid set neatly trounced its Horde opponent. Each armor set will take on the opposing faction's equivalent in a three round tussle that covers how well it looks as a class set, how much it represents the faction, and overall design.

Of course, these are all just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. Players' tastes vary, so I'll preface my qualifications by saying that I, uh, am a fan of John Galliano, have the fashion sense of Brüno, and read medieval fantasy fashion magazines. Oh alright, none of those are true, except maybe the first one which still has nothing to do with World of Warcraft armor design. What the heck, this is a humor piece, anyway, so let's get right into battle!

The full Tier 9 previews are finally out, courtesy of MMO Champion. Whatever your opinions are on faction-specific armor - there are arguments to be made for and against it - it's reasonable to say that some of the sets look pretty darned good. It's the first time we're seeing faction-specific armor sets in a long time, so we'll actually get to do something we can't do with old armor sets - we'll pit the Horde and Alliance against each other in an armor face-off!

In our Tier 9 Mighty Battle, we'll pit one faction's version of the Tier 9 armor against the other and judge them based on the following criteria:

• Thematic integrity to class - We'll look at how well Blizzard's armor design represents the class. The best kind of class armor should be recognizable as a perfect representation of that class. For example, the Warlock's Tier 5, the Corruptor Raiment, or the Paladin's Tier 2, the Judgement set, both look unmistakably diabolical and righteous, respectively.
  
• Thematic integrity to faction - Because these are the first faction-specific PvE sets, we'll also examine how well the armor sets embody each faction and their archetypal - or stereotypical - representation.
  
• Overall design - Of course, aside from looking true to the class and faction, an armor set can just be plain badass. Everybody wants to look good, right?
• Tiebreaker, how each armor class stacks up - Since we're scoring ten classes, we'll avoid a tie by scoring the armor sets based on their armor type, too. Because the armor sets share models across armor class, we'll award points to each faction based which side has better designs overall. Kind of like an electoral college, but without the chads.

The Mighty Battle begins after the jump!

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• If you're into the esports scene, you might be interested to know that Fnatic has just assembled a new team!
• Are you a Death Knight? Are you new to tanking? Blood Barrier has 10 tips for you!
• Rolling Hots isn't a fan of the Tier 9 Druid armor. Behold, their deconstruction of both the Horde and Alliance sets.
• Lorecrafted reviews (and spoils, be warned) the latest issue of the World of Warcraft comic.
• BlizzPlanet speculates on the future of the Warcraft universe. How many worlds are out there in the 'verse, anyway?