I already went over what's changed for the classes in the latest PTR build (not much); here's what's new in the items:

• Mats for the new Alchemist Stones have been reduced. Old mats were Alchemist Stone, 2 Nether Vortices, and 16 primals; new mats are reduced by 10 primals, i.e. Alchemist Stone, 2 Nether Vortices, and 6 primals. Which primal is required varies based on the stone in question: Assassin's = Shadow, Guardian's = Air, Sorcerer's = Fire, Redeemer's = Life.
• The Philosopher's Stone is now a trinket requiring level 35, and gives +5 to all stats.
• Jewelcrafters can get patterns for four new epic gem cuts (Reckless Pyrestone, Steady Seaspray Emerald, Quick Lionseye, Forceful Seaspray Emerald) both from the Shattered Sun Offensive at Revered and from the Scale of Sands (the Mount Hyjal faction) at Honored.
• The models have been changed for Vanir's Right Fist of Brutality, Crossbow of Relentless Strikes (pictured), Vanir's Left Fist of Brutality, Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery, Gavel of Naaru Blessings, Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents, Vengeful Gladiator's Pummeler, and Vengeful Gladiator's Bonecracker; see MMO-Champion for screenshots.

It looks like the new Philosopher's Stone is a cool little trinket; I don't remember there being much competition for that slot that early in the game. It's an interesting move to make those cuts available from two factions, and should appease the hardcore types who, presumably, are at least Honored with Scale of Sands by now. Looking at the Primal requirements for the Alchemist Stones, most of those are easy primals, but Air is significantly more expensive. Rogues get it easy. And all those new models look groovy; a good set of changes overall.

[via MMO-Champion]

The best WoW database site (in my opinion) just got better. Several features have been added to Wowhead over the past couple days; as the site's "Adorable Bearcat Overlord" Miyari notes, they are perhaps not strictly essential (her term is "icing"), but nice to have anyway.

My favorite addition is that users' comments will now be annotated with the patch number that was in effect when the comment was made, so you can more easily spot information that might be outdated (see screenshot).

Alchemical recipes that are attained via discovery are now noted as such under the "source" tab, and the corresponded spells will state their provenance as well. Elixirs will now be annotated as to whether they are Battle or Guardian elixirs. Pet skills will now show which pets can learn the skill, as well as which mobs can teach the skill. And finally, tradeskill spells will show at what skill levels they change from orange to yellow, green, and gray.

I say well done, Wowhead folks! If you have any ideas for how Wowhead can improve, hit up the their Site Feeback forum.

Jagoex sent a followup on the speculation around the Mad Alchemist's Potion that us Alchemists are getting in the next patch. We've already seen a few buffs come in, but Jagoex found a few more: Adept's Elixir, Earthen Elixir, and Elixir of Mastery and Major Fortitude all popped up from the potion proccing. It's pretty wild how random these buffs will get, and unfortunately, that makes them fairly useless-- there's no way a strength buff would help casters. However, as cheap as these are (we're told that it only takes a few Ragveil to make them-- AH speculators take heed), it might be worth it to make a bunch, and then just keep canceling buffs and drinking until the right buff is achieved.

The good news is that the buff isn't completely random-- in his testing Jagoex found that most of the time, the potion put a complementing buff on the player. That is, if the player has a Guardian Elixir buff, the potion would apply a Battle Elixir buff, and vice versa. He's only tried it a few times, so more testing is probably necessary, but there are indicators that the MAP's buff is not completely random.

Good news for Alchemists. This is definitely looking like a fun potion, and as long as it stays cheap, it could be a really useful for players who regularly need elixir buffs.

Slowly the information about this new item has been trickling, nay bubbling to the surface. First there was the announcement of a new, Alchemist-only potion that does...um, stuff. Then we learned what it does. CM Drysc said it would restore health and mana and add a random elixir buff.

Now, MMO-Champion has a screenshot from a player experimenting with the new potion on the PTR. As Drysc mentioned, each time it proc'd he got one of the following elixir buffs: Major Agility, Fel Strength, and Major Armor (same as Major Defense Elixir.) The tester also mentioned that the proc rate was "quite high."

Personally, I'm not a fan of random buffs. I like to know what I'm going to get so I can plan my strategy around it. What about our Alchemists out there? Is this your cup of tea or another foul brew to be poured down the nearest drain?

Nerrisa brings up an interesting idea on the forums that I hadn't considered before-- what if we all got to choose a third profession when we reach level 80? For some, handling two professions is more than enough, but there are also plenty of people who could definitely benefit from a third. And although the professions are paired off pretty well (Alchemy and Herbalism, Leatherworking and Skinning), there are definitely some trios that would work well also-- Enchanting goes great with anything, and Mining, Blacksmithing and Engineering would be a great combo, too, for power players who've reached 80 and are looking for lots more to do.

Of course, Bornakk says no to the idea (actually, as Incgamers points out, he really says there are "no unannounced plans" for it to happen, which is quite a few qualifiers for him), so it's unlikely that we'll have an extra profession slot to face Arthas with. But don't forget that we will have a new profession, Inscription, and if Blizzard adds many more professions, maybe we will need a third slot to keep them all straight. I'd love for my characters to learn more, I'm just not sure if I'd have the diligence to get them all to 375-- I'm having enough trouble with two as it is.

You may have noticed a mention in the latest PTR notes to a pot called "Mad Alchemist's potion," which will actually require a certain alchemy level to consume, not just make. A lot of alchemists were wondering what this does-- considering the cool Engineering-only stuff we've seen lately, us alchemists could use a little pick-me-up. Nothing crazy-- I do admit that Engineers deserve lots of love-- but a little something to drown our sorrows in while watching Engies fly past on their new mounts.

And now, Drysc has revealed exactly what it is-- it'll be a "trainable alchemist-only rejuvenation potion" (which means it delivers health and mana), and will provide a random elixir buff to the drinker. And what's more, the elixir buff won't replace ones you already have on, so if we read this correctly, that's three elixir buffs for alchemists. Very nice. And the best part: it's cheap. Drysc reckons it's about a crystal vial and two ragveil. Start saving up your ragveil now-- when 2.3 hits, they'll be in high demand.

Players have already started tracking the random buffs given by the potion. Looks like a great little profession bonus for us alchemists.

Update: The potion is still hard to find on the servers, so we're not sure what the random buffs are yet. Eventually, I'm sure we'll know exactly that this thing does, but for now, all we know is that alchemists are getting a potion for themselves in 2.3.

Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.


What's in store for your profession in patch 2.3? Without further ado, Insider Trader is here to update you on what craftspeople should be looking out for, now on the test realm. (Sure, you could read the official PTR patch notes -- but then you wouldn't get links to all our helpful posts at WoW Insider!)

The big news for professions, of course, is the new engineering mounts. Now that the mats list for these sweet little rides is out, we know you're all revving your engines to get those last engineering skill points. Early next week, we'll run a special engineering leveling guide with some inside advice on that brutal stretch of leveling from 300 to 375.

Until then, here are the collected notes for profession changes in patch 2.3.

Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

If you're an alchemist, you either love the discovery system – or you despise it and wish to blast it back to the depths of Developers' Hell (that's one of those rock-and-lava zones, right?). Implemented with The Burning Crusade expansion, the discovery system gives alchemists a small (err, very small ... ok, very, very small ... ok, infinitesimally small) chance of discovering a new recipe every time they make a potion, elixir or flask. Players seem split between considering it a creative new mechanic or an annoying contrivance and roadblock, but after several patches and adjustments, the system seems here to stay.

Let's jump right in with your most burning question: Just how small (err, very small ... ok, very, very small ... ok, infinitesimally small) actually are your chances for making a discovery? Pretty darn small. Prior to patch 2.1, the most commonly cited figure floating around was 0.01%. (Discoveries were disabled via hot-fix for a short time just before patch 2.1, reportedly to prevent an exploit in which alchemists who repeatedly tried to create potions with no bag space could make discoveries without actually creating a potion or using potion ingredients.)

In patch 2.1, Blizzard noted that discovery rates were increased "significantly," but nobody seems to have performed (or published) an extensive enough analysis to pinpoint an honest number. One popular guesstimate puts the current discovery rate at 0.1% -- but really, your guess is as good as any. (Cauldron discovery rates are on a different table and run much higher than the general rate. Players report making cauldron discoveries, estimated at about 30%, as frequently as every one to five batches.)

We've covered many different aspects the world of Roguecraft has to offer thus far -- from class quests to gear to number crunching. However, one of the things I've heard from people who are new to Rogues is the question of what trade skills are useful to take up and why. As such, this week's edition of Encrypted Text will contain some of my views on what each trade skill can offer a Rogue. Obviously, short of starting a wiki -- this is not going to be a fully comprehensive version of all that Trade skills can offer. But hopefully between my experience of bouncing between many, many trade skills, and comments from the seasoned Rogues in the WoW Insider crowd, we'll be able to de-mystify one of the earliest choices facing the new Rogue.

Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

Nothing interrupts a peaceful night of crafting like a lunatic guildmate ranting about learning a coveted new pattern, only to find that it's already green in skill level – nothing, that is, except that sickening feeling in your stomach as you consider what you'll do when your favorite patterns go green. Skilling up a profession can be a rollercoaster ride, if you don't hit the right patterns at the right time. (Of course, all the professions have those infamous "dead zones," when skilling up seems to be based on either unfathomable luck or unfathomable finances – or maybe both. But we'll cover dead zones in another installment.)

Skilling up in a profession can happen when you create an item that's listed in green, yellow or orange in your tradeskill window. Items listed in grey will not give you any skill points for creating them; red listings anywhere means you don't have the required skill level. Just as it does with creatures you fight, pattern color indicates difficulty and skill-up potential. Green items raise your skill occasionally, yellows about half the time and oranges every single time. (The exception to orange skill-ups occurs in skinning, in which successfully skinning an orange creature does not guarantee a skill-up.) As a burgeoning crafter, your goal is to find patterns that are relatively easy to get the materials to make while providing a solid shot at skilling up. While orange patterns offer a guaranteed chance of gaining a skill point, the best bang for the buck is often a yellow pattern.

And that's where things start getting murky ...

Well, this is definitely something I've never thought about before. Corntrollio of Laughing Skull asks the forums, "Ever wonder what mana or healing potions taste like? What do you imagine them tasting like?"

After thinking about this a little, I realized that I actually do sort of subscribe a taste to potions based on their color. Mana pots are blue raspberry Icees, health pots are strawberry daquiris, and all the little yellow elixirs that I constantly drink as a rogue are Mountain Dew (it gives you energy!)

Other suggestions for potion taste include:

• Major Dreamless Sleep Potion: Nyquil
• Ironshield Potion: Soy sauce ("you give me someone who after taking in 900000% of their daily sodium DOES NOT think they can attack a giant fire giant, AND WIN, and I show you a better man.")
• Adept's Elixir: Midori
• Noggenfogger Elixir: Smirnoff and apple Pucker
• Elixir of Major Defense: Black licorice
• Fel Regeneration Potion: Burning

There were many suggestions, but in the end, Jivursa of Dalaran won the thread with "I believe they must taste pretty bad. After all, even if my LIFE DEPENDED ON IT I could not bring myself to drink another until 2 minutes had passed." What do you think potions taste like?

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

One of the questions you'll generally always come across on the first page or two of the Blizzard profession forums is The Respec Question: How do I respec from X specialty to Y specialty? With drastically varying procedures from profession to profession and scattershot updates and changes from patch to patch, it's hard to know when you've finally come across an accurate, definite answer – yet if you get it wrong, you could be wasting hundreds of gold and hours of skillups. Bindar of Aggramar has compiled a guide covering specialty respecs for all professions. We'll take a look at the basics right here for you.

The first thing you need to know about changing your profession specialty is how to drop your current spec, a spot where a surprising number of players run into a brick wall. Don't get your netherweave in a twist – it's just a technical difficulty, easily remedied. If you speak with the appropriate NPC to unlearn your specialty and select that option only to find that nothing happens, it's almost certainly an add-on conflict. Open the World of Warcraft folder on your computer and find your interface folder. Rename the whole folder with a temporary name, which disables all your add-ons. Then hop back into game and try the dialogue again; you should be back in business. (Don't forget to go back and rename your interface folder to its original name when you're done.)

We had an idea like this a while back, but now Sweet from Korgath has come up with an even better one. Make 10 Essences equal one Mote just the way that 10 Motes equal one Primal. Since 2.1, Essences (the random crafting widgets that used to drop in Azeroth) are dropping in Outland, and since most of the recipes that use them are pretty old by now, players don't have much to do with them. Way back, we'd suggested an Alchemy Transmute Essence-to-Mote recipe, but Sweet's idea is better-- why not just make them all the same thing?

Drysc rains on the parade, however, by saying that because Essences drop so much back in old Azeroth, it would be necessary (in his view) to nerf their droprate there. And that in turn, would cause problems for lower level players who couldn't make it to Outland (Drysc assumes that lower level players are still farming Essences the way all 60s used to, but I might disagree with him there). Also, he says, it would increase the amount of Motes and Primals floating around, obviously, and Blizzard doesn't want those to be super easy to come by.

But surely there's some conversion rate they could hit on which would make Essences worth just a little more than worthless at level 70. If too many Essences drop in Azeroth, then make it 15, or 20, or whatever. Better than vendoring stacks of Essences picked up while Mote-farming just because no one will buy them on the AH.

Dear readers,

The time for decisions has arrived! I, an alchemist, have surpassed both level 68 and a skill of 325, and Alchemist Gribble here has informed me that I am eligible to become a Super Special Master of Alchemical Stuff! But the problem is, I have to choose which alchemical stuff to super-specially master.

Now before the Dark Portal opened, I was very happily buying Thorium Bars and Arcane Crystals, and transmuting them into Arcanite Bars for a tidy profit once a day. But now that we have all these newfangled Outland concoctions, I'm a bit confuzzled as to what I should tell Master Gribble. I'm sure some of you have vast depths of experience with which you can advise me and other burgeoning alchemists as to the best choices we could make with our alchemy specializations, whether for profit or just for helping our friends. Focus on transmutations for extra profity goodness? Elixirs for raiding? Potions for making friends?

Please leave us some wisdom in the comments below. If someone has an especially useful suggestion, I shall update this spot in order to feature it for everyone to see!

Answer: Most of our commenters have found that each specialization has its own advantages, and it really depends on what you would personally use most. People who use potions or elixirs most (or make them for their friends) find their respective specializations invaluable. Since I'm a druid, though, I still can't use potions in any of my forms, and my small guild doesn't habitually use lots of elixirs anyway. So it seems that for me the way to go is transmutation after all -- with one caveat: on some servers, primal might, which is the most readily available transmutation, sells for less than the materials needed to transmute it, due to an overflow of other alchemist with similar dreams of uncountable wealth. Getting revered with the Sporeggar will allow you to transmute Primal Earth to Water, though, and that is apparently more reliably profitable.

Today I made my first two pieces of Shadowcloth. It's quite an accomplishment for my level 62 warlock, with the somewhat dangerous trek out to the Altar of Shadows. As I was feeling the roaring winds of the air elementals snap at my behind as I rode, I began to wonder if I shouldn't have chosen one of the other two paths instead.

It's a lot of work to jog on out to the Altar, and you take your life into your hands every time you do. Somehow the three disciplines seem somewhat uneven. Had I chosen Mooncloth tailoring, my travel time would include a small jaunt out to the Cenarian Refuge and a dip in the Moonwell.