If you've visited the rogue forums recently, you already know how frustrated rogue players are with bugs introduced with patch 1.10.  Well, early this morning CM Drysc made a post giving a bit of information on the status of bugs and fixes.  Drysc's list is not comprehensive, however, and if you wish to be up to date on all rogue issues you should check this thread by player Bluur, which is both comprehensive and regularly updated.  Drysc also mentions the upcoming rogue review, which he notes has been bumped forward - likely due to the shaman review being included in patch 1.11.  Also interesting is the fact that the infamous "we're not overhauling the class" post appears to have vanished... what does this mean for the future of the rogue?  We'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, here's a summation of the issues Drysc brought up:

• The issue with Seal Fate talent not adding additional combo points on critical strikes (an issue for all classes, actually, with talents triggered on critical strikes) is going to be addressed in an upcoming patch (hopefully sooner rather than later).
• Many Vanish issues have been reported, and Drysc mentions two - one slated to be fixed (in-process melee attacks should no longer hit once you have Vanished) and another (ranged attacks breaking stealth if the rogue has Vanished)  that they've been unable to reliably reproduce. 
• Improved kick should be causing the proper 5 second spell lock as of patch 1.10.1.d.aspx?fn=wow-ro
• Two issues with Distract.  I'll quote Drysc directly for the first: "Using Distract will properly face a character to the distraction target, but their model facing will not be appropriate with their ‘directional’ facing, allowing you to backstab someone in the face."  (Sounds painful.)  For the second, using Distract on a lightning shielded monster will cause the rogue to take damage and come out of stealth.  Both of these will be resolved in a future patch.
• Corrupted Bronze Whelplings in Blackwing Lair are currently able to see through stealth.  This will be resolved in a future patch.

[Fan art by Astrid Hansen]

Though I'm not sure how I missed this, a hotfix was applied on Friday evening fixing an unintentional change in the Onyxia encounter.  If you missed fighting Onyxia during that time, consider yourself lucky - apparently she was using her deep breath ability to burn raids to a crisp every 10 to 15 seconds.  No word as of yet on other raid related issues that were introduced in patch 1.10.

Community manager Drysc informs us that all servers have been taken offline (as of approximately 6:20 PM PST) to fix an "issue" with patch 1.10.  There's no current ETA on bringing the servers back online, nor any information (that I can locate) about what the problem may be.  More updates as they come!

Update: As of 9:00 PM PST the login message reports that the issue has been resolved and we should expect to see servers back online within the next 90 minutes.

I'm sure you've all noticed that all US realms remain offline at this time.  A message on the login screen stated earlier that they're starting to try to bring the servers up one at a time, but I've yet to see anything come online.  No ETA is given, though we're supposed to get an update at 5:00 PM PST.  I guess I didn't really want to go to Blackwing Lair anyway... now where did I put that fishing pole...

Update: Servers are starting to come online again around 5:00 PM PST.

Have all of the priests in the audience decided how they want to respec when the servers come back up?  Despite having spent some time considering available options, during the my play-time on the test server I've been unable to reach a conclusion.  Fortunately, Azrathil of EU server Kel'Thuzad has put together a fairly comprehensive list of possible talent builds for 1.10.  For those of us still indecisive, there are a few pages of commentary in the thread, as well as additional build suggestions.

When the test server first came up, I made a post regarding the numerous add-on problems people were seeing.  Well, now it's patch day and there are a number of mods that won't be in working order when the servers come back online - including favorites like CT Raid Assist and Decursive.  European community manager Aeus has made a post, presumably as an attempt to calm the flow of complaints before they start, reminding everyone of possible add-on issues.  While I'm hoping this won't be as bad as it sounds, patch days are usually a tumultuous time of fixing and tweaking for those of us that use any UI mods.  Since the servers are down, now's as good a time as any to check for updates to your favorite UI mods - so get at it!

Rumor no longer - the official graphics and stats for the Dungeon 2 armor set (sometimes called tier 0.5) have been released by Blizzard, as well as information on modifications to the Dungeon 1 (sometimes called tier 0) armor set.  I don't see anything unexpected here, but if you haven't been following the rumor mill too closely, it's worth checking out.

The wait for patch 1.10 is over - Eyonix has confirmed that it will be released during maintenance tomorrow.  While I'm pretty excited about seeing some of the changes go live, there's still a long wait while the servers are patched.  And it will be a longer wait for those playing on the new servers, which will be down until 2:00 PM PST instead of the usual 11:00 AM PST.  Up for a little fishing, anyone?

In the upcoming patch, the priest's inner fire skill has been revamped, and not everyone thinks it's for the best.  The attack power bonus has been removed, the armor bonus has been increased, and the duration has increased from 3 minutes to 10 minutes.  However, there's an added caveat to that new duration - inner fire now has 20 charges, and each time the priest is hit, a charge is used.  This means that when a priest is taking hits in combat, inner fire isn't going to last 10 minutes, or even 3 minutes - numbers being thrown around on the priest forums suggest that a rogue could go through all charges in 10 seconds while a hunter pet would take 15 seconds.  But despite public outcry, community manager Eyonix has said that they're pleased with the improvements.

While I'm not one of the people claiming they're going to be removing inner fire from their hotbar, I'm certainly disappointed that, when confronted with complaints about the skill's short duration, Blizzard decided to significantly reduce the duration.

It's hard to keep track of all of the news that comes out about upcoming changes in the World of Warcraft. We know a good deal about patch 1.10, and a little about the expansion, but there are also plenty of little tidbits floating around regarding patches 1.11 and 1.12. To keep everything straight, Schwick of EU server Shadowsong has compiled a very detailed listing of all known information about future content, including links to the original sources, as well as a good amount of informed speculation. An excellent resource for anyone who wants to know what's going on!

You've read the patch notes and seen the changes live on the test server - so we all know Patch 1.10 is coming.  And one of the most unexpected changes - I don't think anyone predicted it - was the lowered instance caps for Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Depths, and Blackrock Spire.  But are these changes going to be positive or negative in the long run?  Ukulkos from Khaz'goroth server makes several well-reasoned points about how these changes hurt more casual players for whom this makes up the a lot of the end-game.  Of course, Blizzard also has some good counter-points.  What do you think?  Are the changes going to be good or bad for you?

Do you remember the last time you raided the city of your opposing faction?  Me neither.  It's those dishonorable kills - you can't help but pick them up in enemy territory.  When Blizzard implemented the honor system several patches ago, they added the concept of "dishonorable" kills that would lower your honor ranking, mainly for killing "civilian" NPCs.  The problem is that civilian NPCs will assist other NPCs, which leads, nearly inevitably, to them attacking you when you're fighting in enemy territory.  It's so problematic, that various members of the community have called for the removal of dishonorable kills entirely, but Blizzard seems to have faith in the system - in fact, they're tweaking it in 1.10 with hopes of reducing the number of DKs received in "friendly" PvP raids.

[Fan art by Lan Jun Kang]

No, 1.10 isn't a hunter patch, but it contains quite a few changes for hunters - though response to them ranges from "nerf" to "bug fix".  An overall list of issues can be found in this thread, but they're summarized below.

• Scatter shot - shares a cooldown with traps (so no more scatter/feign/trap)
• Ranged weapons "normalization" - results in a minor decrease in overall DPS (3-5% are the numbers that are being thrown around)
• A hunter's attacker no longer looses target when the hunter feigns death
• Traps - are now considered "stealthed" which means they can become visible if someone gets close
  
• Diminishing returns - traps are now on diminishing returns (shared with scatter shot)
• Flared areas are now visible to everyone
• Beaststalker's set bonuses changed - varying opinions on this

[Fan art by Nicole Chartrand]

Stealth and invisibility abilities have been altered for the 1.10 patch, and if you're a class with a stealth ability, you aren't going to think it's for the better.  Presently, when in stealth, you can use a skill, and are unstealthed at the end of the skill cast.  However, in 1.10, you are unstealthed at the beginning of the skill cast rather than the end.  What does this mean to you?  Well, if you're trying to cast aimed shot from shadowmeld, people now have a chance to spot you.  Though there are pages of complaints, Blizzard has confirmed that this change is intentional.

[Fan art by Nicole Chartrand]

Whenever a patch is released, there are cries of "nerf" on all sides - because regardless of the change, it's probably negative to some.  And while some so-called nerfs will be found in the patch notes, others are conspicuously absent, leaving players in the dark about whether new game behavior is an intentional change or a mistake of some sort.

While many of these complaints spring up before and after every patch, one in particular has caught my eye.  The recent revamp of priest talents includes a new talent called Spiritual Guidance - which can increase damage and healing spells by up to 25% of the priest's total spirit.  This sounds like a nice buff to spirit for a priest, but in patch 1.10, spirit itemization seems to have been changed.  A number of high spirit items have had their spirit stat significantly reduced while the devout set has had its spirit bonus removed.  As priests copy over to the test server, they're realizing that their total spirit has dropped significantly - and thinking Spiritual Guidance might not be as good as they thought.

Hopefully this is a mistaken case of Blizzard's itemization department not talking to the class department.  Or perhaps there are new spirit items to replace the ones that are about to become not so good.  We'll only know for certain when 1.10 hits the live servers.