The Care and Feeding of Warriors is kinda grossed out by the innards just falling out of that big dead guy in the picture there. Tanking in Hyjal is fun but also kinda gross, and Matthew Rossi can't say he enjoys all the intestines falling all over the place. If they could cut back on that it would be great..
It's well known that I don't think of warriors as a hybrid class. The reason for this is, every single class in World of Warcraft can perform in a damage dealing role, as part of the means towards making soloing possible in the game. Not one class doesn't have some sort of 'DPS' spec, from Priests to Warriors to Paladins, and many classes (the ones who combine DPS and CC) have multiple damage trees. Another way to look at it would be to argue, as I have in the past, that there are four roles in World of Warcraft (damage, tanking, healing, and crowd control) and that every single class is a hybrid of at least two of these functions. Since this is debatable, I prefer to define as 'hybrids' the three generally accepted classes of Shaman, Paladin and Druid. (Clearly, there's no real 'right' or 'wrong' to this, a strong case could be made for the hybrid nature of any class, I'm just explaining my point of view.)
However, hybrid or not, one thing is clear: while talents and abilities are what makes the warriors two roles of DPSing or tanking possible (or PvP, which in the case of warriors combines burst DPS with a variation of tanking survivability) it is in gear selection and choice that you discover the real flexibility of the class.
The changes just keep on coming, and at the oddest times too. The following was just unlocked on the patch 2.4 PTR: Arena gear is now obtainable in exchange for PvE tokens. According to World of Raids, Tier 4 tokens will get you season 1 gear, T5/6 will get you season 2, and the new Sunwell T6 tokens will get you Vindicator gear. You can also, apparently, exchange Badges of Justice for "all PvP gear," as pictured.
What does this change signify? Yet again, Blizz is trying to open up progression. Whether this is in advance of Wrath, when this all will be relatively meaningless, or simply in response to continuing pressure for advancement from players, this is probably a change that will be lauded by those who don't already have what it gives. If you've got this arena gear already, it might seem unfair that people can get it through alternate paths, and maybe it is. But I like that Blizz keeps trying to make it easier to be versatile in the game, to not just have to devote yourself to either PvE or PvP. Players being able to take advantage of all the game has to offer is key to its continued success.
That was quite a big push to the PTR last night. In addition to Primal Nethers and Nether Vortices not being BoP, resilience affecting mana drain (which was buffed for warlocks), five new jewelcrafted trinkets, etc., several of the class sets were also changed:
[Paladin] Season 1/2 Retribution gear has resilience now (previously added, here for completeness)
[Paladin] Healing arena sets 4-piece bonus changed to "Increases the healing from your Holy Shock spell by 30%" (was "Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec")
[Druid] Restoration arena and PvP sets 4-piece bonus changed to "The casting time on your Healing Touch spell is reduced by 0.25 sec" (was 15% increase to the outdoor movement speed)
[Druid] Balance arena and PvP sets 4-piece bonus changed to "Your Wrath casts have a chance to reduce the cast time on your next Starfire by 1.5 sec" (was 15% increase to the outdoor movement speed)
[Mage] Season 3 arena set 4-piece bonus changed to "Reduces the cooldown of your Blink spell by 2 sec" (was 0.15 sec reduction to Polymorph casting time)
[Shaman] Elemental Season 3 arena set 4-piece bonus nerfed to 50% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Lightning Bolt (was 70%)
In addition, Flasks of Pure Death and Flasks of Blinding Light are now purchasable with Marks of the Illidari, Vial of the Sunwell's cooldown has been raised from 1 min to 2 min, and Sunrage Shoulderpads are now Sunrage Treads (boots) instead, with 8 more stamina but no blue socket. Whew, I think that's everything. What do you guys think of the class changes? Buff or nerf? Not you, Shamans, that's clearly a nerf. Sorry I don't have better news to report there.
Every Sunday, Eliah or Elizabeth will bring you their thoughts on the Priest class with Spiritual Guidance. Whether it's keeping your fellow players alive or melting their faces, you can read about it here!
The archaic stuff out of the way, in part two of this two-part series we turn to the hot new stuff: the Priest sets from the Burning Crusade. BC made one tremendous improvement in the way class sets were handled: raid gear for off-specs. For us men and women of the cloth, that means Tier 4, 5, and 6, as well as Arena gear, are available in versions befitting both healing and shadow priests. As before, I'll start with the epic raid gear, T4, T5, and T6, pictured above from left to right. They really went crazy with the shoulders, didn't they?
Every Sunday (yes, we've moved), Eliah or Elizabeth will bring you their thoughts on the Priest class with Spiritual Guidance. Whether it's keeping your fellow players alive or melting their faces, you can read about it here!
Alright, I admit it. This post is just an excuse to look at all the pretty armor we priests get. And if you ask me, we get some of the best sets -- reminiscent of neither Power Rangers nor...um...whatever this is, priestly gear tends to look priestly. In this two-part series I'll be taking a look at our class sets, from Dungeon Set 1 (a.k.a. Tier 0) right up through Tier 6, with stops to comment on the graphics, stats, and set bonuses. This post will cover the PvE sets prior to the Burning Crusade, and part two will take on the rest of them (including Arena gear).
MMO-Champion comes through again with concrete details on new content. As listed in the patch notes, 2.1.2 on the PTRs contains the Arena Season 2 items. The set names are apparently "Merciless Gladiator's [Whatever]." Most of the sets do not seem to be activated yet, but we have the full stats and appearance of the Warrior set, Merciless Gladiator's Battlegear (pictured at right).
Thanks to a helpful commenter at Wowhead, I have the following comparison between this set and the Season 1 equivalent, Gladiator's Battlegear. The new set has, as compared to the old one: +639 armor +36 strength +31 stamina +22 crit rating +18 hit rating +6 resilience The gem slots and set bonuses remain the same. It would be nice if you could mix and match between Season 1 and Season 2 sets in order to get set bonuses, but I'm not sure whether this is actually the case.
Hopefully stats on the other sets will come to light soon; if that happens, I'll update this post.
Update:skins and set bonuses for all the classes' sets are now available.
My little blood elf pally has finally hit 40 and got her free mount, and with it comes a new goal -- collecting the entire Chain of the Scarlet Crusade set from Scarlet Monastery.
I probably would have never thought of doing it until I got the only BOP part of the set during my first Cathedral run. Then I got the Aegis of the Scarlet Commander and Herod's Shoulder, and realized that I was starting to look pretty cool. At that point, it became a quest. I knew it would be difficult -- and that I'd even have to go back at 70, most likely -- but I still want to do it.
As I write this, I'm off to tag along in Armory with a 70 rogue from my guild who is doing silk farming in hopes of getting the Ravager or the mail helm from Herod. All in all, I only need the helm, chestpiece and boots to look like a real Scarlet Crusader. The tabard would be nice but not necessary. The boots are extremely rare, so I'm either going to have to do a lot of farming or plunk down some money from my epic flying mount fund. But it'll be worth it when I can stand in the lobby of Scarlet Monastery and taunt the Alliance. Hmm, the Ashbringer would also be a nice fit ...
Have you ever wanted to collect the full set of something, whether it be from BRD or Naxx? Have you ever bought an item just because it was cool to have it?
This is one AddOn that I'd recommend to just about everyone. ItemRack lets you construct sets of equipment, and allows you to switch them based on hotkeys, events, or menu activation. For example, on my Priest, I have a heal set, a solo set (pictured), and a fire resistance set, which I use ItemRack's menu to switch between, although I should probably set hotkeys (it's also got plugins for FuBar and Titan Bar). I also have a Plaguelands set, which consists of my Argent Dawn trinket, that gets auto-equipped whenever I enter the PL, and a mount set, which has my boots with spurs, that gets auto-equipped when I mount up.
It appears the vendor for the Tier 5 armor has appeared on the beta (like Naxx, Tier 5 will be distributed via a token system), and I gotta say it looks cool. I found all the pictures here (a few classes are still missing at the moment), but I've hosted them here as well in case that resource disappears for whatever reason: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock.
As a point of reference, I see a lot of** damage and healing* on one of the Priest sets (the Tier 3 set has +483), and that's not counting all the pluses to spell crits, hits, and so on (not to mention filled jewel sockets, of which none of these currently have). The set bonuses are nice as well-- particularly the Hunter's, where only a two piece set bonus gives every pet attack a chance to heal the pet for a small amount. Finally, it looks like the sets are made up of only five pieces each, which means it'll be that much easier to get those bonuses in place (and combine them with other sets that may happen to show up).
So what do you think? I'm not blown away by the stats completely, but there's no question these are extremely nice upgrades, even from Tier 3. And I still think that the Warlock, Mage, and Rogue sets look freakin' sweet.
*Update: Druid dude insightfully points out what I missed: the Priest bonus is for damage and healing, not just healing. I might take back what I said about not being blown away-- that's awesome.
**Update2: My math skills FTL. For specific numbers on how the new sets' +dmg and +healing compare to old sets, see the comments below.
Ocelot Eyes in the WoW ladies LJ group has a dream-- and it is to dual wield Thekal and Arlokk's Grasps, two uber looking fist weapons that drop from the bosses in ZG. There's the gear we're all working towards right now on quests or drops-- and then there's the dream gear we all want.
Sure, we'd all love to be walking around in Tier 3 (and for my little Gnome warrior, that's exactly what I would love to see him in), but for each one of us, there's probably some gear that just fits with what we want our characters to be. For my Shaman, it's the Tier 0 shoulders, the Pauldrons of Elements. Yeah, it'd be nice to have the Tier 1 shoulders (my guild is working through MC, and it's likely that I'll get them before long, to go with a few other Earthfury pieces I've already picked up), but the Elements, with those little hooky things, just seem like the perfect shoulders for my Shaman. Just seeing those on other characters was one of the reasons I rolled Shaman, and so even if I get better stuff, I just have to have them.
Likewise, on my Priest I'm already determined to jump the hoops for Benediction / Anathema-- it's a tough (and long) quest, but that's just so the right weapon for my Priest, especially since I plan to keep her shadow specced. And I sent my rogue on many, many more runs through Deadmines than I needed to, just because I wanted to have the Defias Leather set early on.
So spit it out-- what's your dream gear? What's that one piece or that one set of armor that you just have to have?
That was quite a big push to the PTR last night. In addition to Primal Nethers and Nether Vortices 
My little blood elf pally has finally hit 40 and got her free mount, and with it comes a new goal -- collecting the entire 
It appears the vendor for the Tier 5 armor has appeared on the beta (like Naxx, Tier 5 will be distributed via a token system), and I gotta say it looks cool. I found 
Ocelot Eyes
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