MMO Champion (and a few of our tipsters -- thanks!) is reporting that the European WoW site has opened up registration for the Wrath of the Lich King beta. I wasn't able to sign in with my trial account (created for the Dingstravaganza a while back), but there's no question that the page is up (inside EU players' Account Management menu) and accepting signups. Of course, this still doesn't mean that anyone is playing the beta, only that signups are taking place. We're also being told that it's an open sign-up, so it could be a long time before these signups are actually allowed to play, especially if one of the beta keys from BlizzCon or WWI are used to run a closed beta first.
As for why this isn't happening on the main North American site yet, remember that one of the EU CMs was the one to break the news -- perhaps because WWI was local, they're starting things up early there (or maybe it's just a timezone thing, and the EU site has had more time today to get the signups going). No matter what, the wait is almost over -- there's no question now that we're closer to the Wrath of the Lich King beta than ever.
Update: Eyonix confirms the registration on US side is coming soon.
Here's some nice news for Arena PvPers in the area of undocumented 2.4.3 changes: MMO Champion has discovered that the PvP gems that are currently purchasable for honor points are now available for Arena points as well -- 800 points each, to be exact. The full list of gems is as follows:
To tell the truth I'm kind of surprised this happened so quickly -- apparently The9, who runs World of Warcraft in China, were able to drop the Sunwell Plateau patch pretty soon after it came out in the US and Europe. Burning Crusade, we know, took a long time to release over there (it came out months after it did on this side of the world), but either The9 is responding to pressure to release content closer, or patch updates are much easier to localize and distribute.
Either way, grats to The Seven and all of the other guilds worldwide able to topple The Deceiver. Next up, Northrend!
Now that right there is what you call a bow. The very first legendary ranged weapon ever, Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury, has dropped on the live realms, from Kil'jaeden as expected. Last Resort on EU Boulderfist is the lucky guild, and Stefang is the lucky Hunter (seen here with his bow and Kalecgos) -- feel free to check his Armory page, as long as you're careful not to drool on the keyboard.
Thori'dal, as you probably know by now, shoots its own ammunition, which means that not only did Stefang win a nice bow, but he now has an extra bag slot (something all Hunters probably want even more than a legendary weapon). There's no word on how the giveaway went down (we're guessing DKP, and if Stefang did anything less than cash in everything he had, he got this thing for a bargain), but grats to both him and Last Resort for a very, very nice piece of loot.
Our diligent friend Boubouille from MMO Champion has done it again -- we don't know how he does it, but he's done it again. He's tipped us to having managed to dig up files from Patch 2.4.2 and found a treasure trove of the items most people probably won't be able to get. The items are incredible upgrades from the previous season and look to be on par with Sunwell Plateau gear in terms of item points. [EDIT: Apparently, what Boubouille did was take the game files after the vendors on the PTR were unlocked and collated them -- still nothing to dismiss.]
Following the trend of Patch 2.4, two new spell haste weapons have appeared in the files -- the Brutal Gladiator's Blade of Alacrity and a hammer version called the Brutal Gladiator's Hammer of Swift Judgement. The hammer has slightly more Stamina but possesses no spell hit. The two weapons have no spell damage and healing bonuses but are, if they make it to live in their current form, the highest spell haste items in the game at a whopping 227. This translates to roughly 14.5% speed increase, the highest gain from a single item. From the looks of it, these weapons alone will be worth the 2200 2050 [EDIT: my bad! i wrote this post up in five minutes before rushing out to see Iron Man! That movie rocked, by the way, so go out and watch it!] rating required to get them. Read about every single Brutal Gladiator item -- from item sets to weapons -- over at MMO Champion.
MMO Champion has pointed out something that should make Warrior and Shaman weaponsmiths rather happy: all one-handed epic weaponsmithing weapons will be non-unique as of 2.4.2. Combine this with the fact that the Main Hand designation is being taken off of most weapons as well, and you can see where this is going. Dual-wielded Dragonmaws, anybody?
If you can scrape together the mats, 2.4.2 should be a very good time to be a dual-wielding weaponsmith of the non-Rogue variety. The 2.7 speed on the mace and axe weapons means that your Windfury and Whirlwind will be very happy. All you have to do now is hope you have enough badges, gold, or pull with your raid leader to get all the Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes ready to go.
MMO-Champion was able to take a sneak peek at some items released on the official WoW Armory and discovered some truly brutal news: if the items go live as they appeared on the armory, the new personal rating requirement to wear Season 4 shoulder pieces will now be 2200. This is a steep ratings increase from Season 3, where shoulder pieces required a personal rating of 2000. As of this writing, the two items that MMO-Champion was able to scope out cannot be searched for on the official WoW Armory -- either hidden from searches or removed from the database entirely. The Brutal Gladiator's Mooncloth Mantle and Brutal Gladiator's Ornamented Spaulders no longer appear in the item database although MMO-Champion was quick to take screenshots. [EDIT: Apparently, the items are viewable in the EU Armory, you can view the Mooncloth shoulders and healing plate shoulders. - Thanks, BaboonNL!]
There is no guarantee that these item changes will make it live or if the weapon requirements -- currently 1850 for Season 3 -- have also been raised. Although Tharfor has gone on record to state that it's likely that Season 3 items' ratings requirements will be lowered in Season 4, Blizzard didn't mention raising the rating requirements for Brutal Gladiator pieces. According to Realm History, this means that roughly 12% of players rated 2000 and above in 5v5 teams will qualify for the shoulder pieces; 11% of the 3v3 bracket; and about 9% of the 2v2 bracket. That means an even smaller percentage of the general population. As much as Patch 2.4 catered to casual content, if these details make it live, it seems as though Arena play has become even more hardcore than ever.
Boubouille of MMO Champion has a special treat for Hunters and loot hounds everywhere today, unveiling footage of the legendary bow Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury in action. The bow itself looks pretty awesome, with lots of detail and colors. In addition, it looks like when you shoot it, you get a pretty nice light show going on. I'd say that they've managed to make it rather legendary indeed, looks wise. It's worth noting that the stat data shown in this video is from PTR data mining, so it may not keep those exact stats when the 3rd gate opens and Kil'jaedan is finally downed, but I imagine a lot of Hunters (myself included) are drooling big time over this little glimpse, and can't wait to get their hands on it regardless.
Our good friend Boubouille at MMO Champion has news of an XP change in the game, but not where you might expect. Blizzard has secretly changed the amount of XP earned... at level 70.
But wait, you say, we don't earn XP at level 70! Ah, but we do -- after you hit 70, you actually continue to earn XP to level 71, but you never actually ding. And while before the patch, the amount you had to earn to "hit" 71 was about 814,700, now it's up to 1,256,500. Which makes sense -- while some folks are saying this might have been done to just fix a bug, Boubouille says it lines right up to the difference between vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade, which means we'll need to earn about 50% more XP per level in Wrath of the Lich King.
Of course, this affects a few other things in the game -- Mania notes that pet loyalty is based on percentage level XP earned, so Hunters at level 70 will now need to hang out with their pets for longer to earn a higher loyalty level. But Blizzard isn't nerfing anything here -- from what we can tell, they're just lining up level 70 to become the first level of the next expansion instead of the last level in the game.
Last week, we rounded up all of the professions-related changes coming with patch 2.4 for various reagents, mining, blacksmithing, engineering and fishing. If you were feeling left out, have no fear; the rest of the professions are here! From new enchants and gems, to new recipes and craftable gear, every profession is getting a bit of a boost this patch.
Once again, keep in mind that because this is information from the Public Test Realms, the specifics may be changed. If you see a Wowhead tooltip, and I have provided alternate materials next to it, that is because websites like MMO-Champion have since discovered updated information.
Jump through the break to see what's in store for jewelcrafters, enchanters, alchemists, herbalists, cooks, leatherworkers and tailors!
As always, for the details on anything and everything patch 2.4-related, check out our Complete Guide.
Here's some news from the PTR hot off the presses via MMO Champion: Shaani the jewelcrafter is now selling epic gems previously only dropped in 25-man dungeons for 15 badges apiece, and all the recipes to cut them for gold at various levels of Shattered Sun Offensive Reputation. So if you don't raid, and don't mind doing 3 or 4 heroic runs for each gem, you'll be able to socket all that new badge gear too. It looks like it was unlocked with the Razorthorn Root daily, so if you want those gems, be sure to get your friends and guildies on doing that daily once it's unlocked on your server come 2.4
While you're there, you can also grab a new daily from Mar'nah the alchemist which will reward a Bloodberry Elixir, which provides +15 to all stats for an 2 hours, but only on the Sunwell Plateau itself (thanks for catching the Sunwell-only restriction, Aikiwoce).
The badgification of epic gear continues apace. What will be interesting to see is if Blizzard is primarily doing this to close the gear gap between casuals and raiders for WoTLK, or if this marks a new loot philosophy that will continue into WoTLK. Will we be able to buy Icecrown Glacier gems for badges as well?
Our good friend Boubouille at MMO Champion tipped us off to some of the loot items he expects to come out of the Sunwell. He doesn't say a source on these, but the guy knows his upcoming items, so here they are for your viewing pleasure. Plus, even if they don't actually turn out to be real, it'll still be fun drooling over them. Look at that Soul Render sword! And the Vial of the Sunwell trinket!
Hot stuff. Of course, the Sunwell isn't like Zul'Aman-- it's the new endgame. So if you haven't seen Illidan yet, and think Mount Hyjal is that level in the old RTS game, odds are you won't be carrying these around anytime soon. But it is cool to know that if this stuff is real, we'll see some records broken in patch 2.4.
Today, while skimming over various WoWsites, I noticed two forum posts about the same topic: Players have discovered that there's a cap on how much money you can carry in the game. Apparently that amount is 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. After you reach that lofty sum, you'll no longer be able to receive money from any source in the game. While some responses to the original posts claim that this exact limit had previously been theorized to exist, there have been no reports of anyone in the game actually achieving this amount via legal means.
Dorgabas on the official forums and meth on MMO-Champion's forums both reported the discovery today, each with a screenshot to provide veracity to their claims. You can check them out by clickinghere. The shots are of two different players, one of whom is on a German-speaking server. In the shot you can read his conversation with a GM, which supposedly translates to him asking the GM about the limit and the GM scratching his head in response.
You can check out both threads linked above for more information, including a rough translation of the German conversation and an explanation of why this amount is the limit due to the game's coding.
MMO-Champion has compiled two handy listings of information about upcoming patches: everything we know so far about patch 2.4, as well as patch 2.3.2.
WoW Insider, of course, has covered all the upcoming content in patch 2.4, as well as the changes in 2.3.2, but for those who would love to see a concise summary of the information, laid out in an easy to understand format, these pages at MMO-Champion are handy indeed.
Of course the obvious question one must ask whenever we see a list of "everything we know about X" is: "what about all that stuff we don't know?" I for one am particularly looking forward to finding out what sorts of rewards will be made available from the new Shattered Sun Offensive faction. Some sort of new mounts perhaps? Will there be a flyable dragonhawk at last? What sort of items would make people start drooling at the mouth enough to devote all kinds of time to all those daily quests?
Earlier today we reported on Swedish magazine Level's exclusive on new Patch 2.4 details. One of the revelations was that the 25-man dungeon, Sunwell Plateau, has a boss named Brutalicus, a pit lord who has lost his wings. MMO-Champion found the game model and has posted it for all to see.
That's one ugly dude. And the spiked codpiece pulled half way up his chest like grandpa belting his pants too high isn't helping. Oh well, we're not taking him out to dinner, we're shaking him hard until phat loots drop out, right?
You can see more angles of this Patch 2.4 raid target in the gallery below.
Here's some nice news for Arena PvPers in the area of undocumented 2.4.3 changes: 
Now that right there is what you call a bow. The very first legendary ranged weapon ever, 
MMO Champion
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