Last week's WRUP was dismally quiet as the team waited (a bit impatiently) for patch 3.1 to hit the realms. So, with the patch out, what is the WoW Insider team playing this weekend? Like the rest of you, it looks like we're scoping out new content! Want to know what the team is playing this weekend -- or want to let us know what you're playing this weekend? Read on!

• Adam Holisky: Either sitting behind home plate at a Minnesota Twins game this weekend, or sitting in front of my monitor leveling fishing on my second character.
• Alex Ziebart: We're going into Ulduar Sunday night for the first time, since Wednesday night was an utter wash. I'm hoping we don't all suck now due to sleeping through Naxx for months. We got Sarth 3D, we can't have gotten that rusty, right? ...right?
• Allison Robert: Screaming and beating my modem, router, laptop, and various wires in the hopes that one or more of them can cough up a stable connection in raids. Quoth the Magic-8 Ball, "Outlook not good."
• Chase Christian: I've gathered up our Undying Naxx 10 group for our first assault on Ulduar, we're going to go for broke on Saturday night and play until someone falls asleep.
• Daniel Whitcomb: Various real life obligations are rearing their heads this weekend, but I am planning to steal some time to sneak on and do the Argent Tournament and fishing dailies. Daddy needs a new Sea Turtle mount and/or Crab pet.
• Eliah Hecht: Leveling my Alliance Warlock and my Horde Hunter, and trying to get a guild run together on the new Vault boss.
• Elizabeth Wachowski: Desperately attempting to get my Holy gear up to par with my Ret gear. On a related note, lrning2healz.
• Jennie Lees: Missing all the Ulduar firsts due to being in California. At least it's nice weather!
• Matthew Rossi: We found the remains of the Bronzebeard expedition this week. Since then, our forces have pushed into the lair of the great beast. Blood has been shed, some of it our own, and I can't say with certainty who the ultimate victor will be. Especially since I'm such a noob healer. Still, the 10 of us will continue our plunge into the titan city. Tekeli-li! There's also some 25 man legacy raiding planned, I believe. Ulduar -- 25 we do during the week.
• Matt Low: Calling an extended campaign this weekend. Also will be leading an expedition into Ulduar. (And watching playoff hockey in between)
• Michael Gray: My guild fairly effortlessly defeated Flame Leviathan. We're going to be working on Magma Ragers next.
• Michael Sacco: ULDUAR.
• Zach Yonzon: On Sunday we take another crack at Ulduar and hope that trash doesn't trample on us the way the Lakers will trample on the Jazz. Amazing is about happen, people! League Pass Broadband FTW. In other news... are the Battlegrounds up yet?


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Who doesn't love themselves some authentication goodness?

I sure do!

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Another Twitter recommendation for Phat Loot Phriday this week, this one from @MEA_Alex. Probably our last piece of Naxx gear, too -- next time we'll get into Ulduar, as there is some really awesome stuff in there, too.

Name: Death's Bite (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDigger)
Type: Epic Two-Hand Axe
Damage/Speed: 554-831 / 3.40 (203.7 DPS)
Attributes:

• +101 Strength, +114 Stamina
• Improves hit rating by 62, and crit strike rating by 90.

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The prices of Northrend fish over the last few days have dropped dramatically. With prices in the range of 40-60 gold on most servers, the three fish used to make Fish Feast in particular were always a good source of income to the profit-minded WoW angler. With the changes to the fishing profession introduced in patch 3.1 however, things have changed.

Currently, all of the prices of popular fish are deflated. We attribute the price drop to a significant increase in supply with minimal increase in demand. In fact, a quick look at the Warcraft Top List, spread over 7 days, shows just such an increase in looting of high-level fish. The reason that fishing has become so much more attractive to the average WoW player is primarily because Blizzard has made the profession more attractive in the form of new mount drops from fishing, easier fishing (pools more visible and cast time reduced) and the introduction of daily quests with some pretty attractive potential rewards. More players fishing means more supply. And, as we’ve mentioned previously, when supply is increased and demand is not- a drop in price is often the expected result.

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

If you are a Scribe who has not yet stepped into the glyph market since patch 3.1 went live on Tuesday, April 14th, then you'd better hustle!

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What can I say, I enjoy musical theatre as long as I don't actually have to go to it. (Did you know that was Murray Head, Anthony Stewart Head's older brother? I didn't.)

So for the past few days I've spent my in game time divided between 10 and 25 man Ulduar. I've almost moved into the place, really: save for the first day the patch dropped, I pretty much only log on to pick up consumables and flasks and head back to Storm Peaks. In part this is due to my personal life, as I actually have slightly less time to play now than I did before so almost all of that in game time has to be concentrated, and partly it's just been for the fun of seeing new boss fights. My guild is a 'learn as you go' kind of guild, so we're not worrying about PTR runs or prepared boss strats, we're going in and seeing what works for us, which so far has killed the four bosses in the Colossal Forge section. Razorscale died with three people up, but hey, a kill's a kill.

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Congratulations, Argent Champion! You've progressed past the Valiant rank and become a true Champion of the Argent Tournament. You're the finest that the Tournament has to offer and you've made your city proud.

And that means playtime's over ... again.

Yep, it's time to kill some Scourge outside Icecrown Citadel again, but this time you're after their commanders, the ones you've so deftly avoided in the past.

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

Good afternoon, folks. I want to take a second to apologize for The Queue's absence the last couple of days. Patch days pretty much murder Adam and I, so we set this thing aside for a couple of days. We're much less busy now though, so it should be back on schedule!

thatoneguy asked...

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Irae AoD beats General Vezax Hard Mode
I love the smell of saronite in the morning. You know, one time we had that room bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' trash mob. The smell, you know that saronite smell, the whole hill. Smelled like ... victory.

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

Everyone who is everyone is in Ulduar, even Mr. Twilight Vanquisher Xyrin. Why aren't you?

• Ming over at WoW Riot talks about his Rogue predicitions for the season in 3.1. A good read!
• Many Annas hate Northrend. But it's okay Northrend, I've still got that lovin' feeling for you.
• Mania's Arcania gears up the lackadaisical Hunter.
• OurGirlFriday continues her series: What kind of Warrior should I be?
• Ret QQ is the best QQ, complete with input from Ghostcrawler.


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The Warlock community was in an uproar over the extremely quick hotfix that Blizzard applied to nerf Conflagrate among other niggling issues with the recent Patch 3.1. Aside from the fact that nerfs are never a fun thing, Warlock players pointed out that Death Knights, while acknowledged by Blizzard to be overpowered, reigned for months before getting nerfed (somewhat) in the latest patch. Warlocks also pointed an accusatory finger at Holy Paladins, who dominated Arenas throughout Season 5 and promptly got a fix along with Death Knights.

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Not to be outdone by TalentChic, the folks at 3D Armory also sent us their lists of what the most popular builds are in the game after patch 3.1, and since everybody seems to be build-hungry lately (and why not -- we each get two!), here they all are.

Warrior: Fury 18/53/0.
Paladin: 0/0/0, which means you need to log in, Paladins! Also 51/5/15 for Holy.
Hunter: 0/0/0 wins here, too, but Survival (6/14/51) comes in next.
Rogue: Combat 15/51/5.
Priest: 14/57/0 for Holy.
Death Knight: 17/0/54 Unholy.
Shaman: Elemental 57/14/0.
Mage: 0/53/18 Fire.
Warlock: 0/41/30 Destruction.
Druid: 14/0/57 Restoration, which surprised me.

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Specifically, I want to talk about the quality of Yoggy's goods, which is the same as the quality of every other drop in normal-mode Ulduar-25: ilvl 226 for armor, and ilvl 232 for weapons. The same pattern holds on 10-man, with Yogg-10's drops being ilvl 219, like the rest of Uld-10. This is a departure from previous tradition, where the last boss of a raid would drop items of higher caliber. Kel'Thuzad, for instance, drops items a full tier above the rest of Naxx (ilvl 213 vs. 200 on 10-man, ilvl 226 vs 213 on 25-man).

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Back way before patch 3.1 was on the PTRs, the first concrete information we got about the patch was a round of class previews from the CMs. Over the course of about a week Blizzard showed us a few changes they were thinking about implementing for each class. Some (most?) got implemented in the live patch (like Savage Defense), and some got scrapped completely, like Power Word: Barrier.

It was made clear all along that these were only provisional changes, subject to modification as the patch progressed through the PTR and onto the live realms. Still, some players are upset that what they see as "promised" changes did not come true. Invoking the spirit of "this is why we can't have nice things," Ghostcrawler warns that he's "not sure if we will do previews for patch 3.2 given the response this time around."

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Knock Knock Knock on Wood by Inner Sanctum
Inner Sanctum just completed Heroic: Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood, the hard mode version of Freya (+ 3 Adds). That's the 2nd Hard Mode encounter they beat this week (the first one was Thorim).

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Daily Quest Viewer is my favorite kind of addon: it solves one problem well. It tells you what today's daily quests are, enabling you to stop pestering your guild (or the trade channel) for information. My guild has developed a policy of putting the daily dungeon and daily heroic in the message of the day, but that only works if an officer has managed to check the dailies and update the message.

DQV learns what the dailies are by communicating with other instances of DQV over the AceComm background channel. This means that the more people on your realm and faction running the mod, the better it will work, so please, for the good of your realm community (and me, if you're on Shadow Council), install DQV.

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Today's Moviewatch is another music video. Surfing with the Alien is a song performed by guitarist Joe Satriani, who's about as well-qualified a musician as you could hope to hear. Kakashisan built this video as a backdrop to the instrumental, giving action to Satriani's song.

This video is going to be one of my long-term favorites. In my opinion, it's damned near perfect. Satriani's music is astoundingly good, and Kakashisan didn't try and overwhelm that music by over-producing his video. The imagery is basic, streamlined, and not complex. The action doesn't distract the audience from what we're hearing.

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Update (7:20AM PDT - 4-17)

Entropy of US-Frostmourne just killed 10-player Yogg-Saron; this is the first reported kill of him on 10-player that I've heard of.  Loot: Touch of Madness (1h Phys. DPS Axe), Abaddon (2h Phys. DPS Sword)

Congratulations to Closure of EU-Stormscale (#6) and For teh Horde of EU-Nazjatar (#7) for downing Yogg-Saron and completing Heroic: The Secrets of Ulduar.  New loot - Chestguard of Insidious Intent (Mail Phys. DPS)

Update (11:30PM PDT): Exodus of US-Ysondre just killed Yogg-Saron, making them 5th worldwide to complete Heroic: The Secrets of Ulduar.  New loot - Blood of the Old God (Hit Rating Passive / AP Proc Trinket)

Yogg-Saron US First Kill - vodka of Alterac Mountains

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Update (7:40AM PDT): Wraith of EU-Ysondre just killed Yogg-Saron (#8) and got a Fragment of Val'anyr, making that 8 for 8 from Yogg.  100% drop?

The Legacy Yogg-Saron Kill Video

The Legacy of EU-Mazrigos released the video of their Yogg-Saron kill from yesterday, April 16th.  You can download it from FileFront, or visit its post on Warcraft Movies.

New Ulduar Loot

Now that we're a few days into 3.1 being live, more items have been discovered.  Here's a quick recap of what's new since Ulduar opened up.

Item Mode Type Slot Flame LeviathanIgnis the Furnace MasterXT-002 DeconstructorThe Assembly of IronAuriayaFreyaMimironThorimYogg-Saron

Leviathan Fueling Manual	25-player	Spell / Hit Off-Hand	Off-Hand
Igniter Rod	10-player	Spell / Crit Off-Hand	Off-Hand
Relentless Edge	10-player	Phys. DPS Polearm	Two-Hand
Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace	10-player	Plate Tank	Hands
Drape of Fuming Anger	10-player	Strength DPS	Back
Cindershard Ring	25-player	Phys. DPS Ring	Fingers
Furnace Stone	10-player	Dodge Passive / Armor Use	Trinkets
Power Enhancing Loop	10-player	Strength DPS Ring	Fingers
Pendant of the Piercing Glare	10-player	Spell / Hit Necklace	Neck
Shawl of the Caretaker	10-player	Spell / Haste / MP5	Back
Belt of the Crystal Tree	25-player	Leather Spell	Waist
Insanity's Grip	25-player	Phys. DPS Fist	Main Hand
Cable of the Metrognome	10-player	Plate Spell	Waist
Vulmir, the Northern Tempest	25-player	1h Phys. DPS Mace	One-Hand
Wisdom's Hold	25-player Hard	Spell / Crit Shield	Off-Hand
Pauldrons of the Combatant	25-player	Mail Spell	Shoulders
Mjolnir Runestone	10-player Hard	Crit Passive / Armor Pen. Proc	Trinket
Sif's Remembrance	10-player Hard	Spell Power Passive / MP5 Proc	Trinket
Touch of Madness	10-player	1h Phys. DPS Axe	One-Hand
Abaddon	10-player	2h Phys. DPS Sword	Two-Hand
Earthshaper	25-player	2h DPS Mace	Two-Hand
Chestguard of Insidious Intent	25-player	Mail Phys. DPS	Chest
Chestguard of the Fallen God	25-player	Mail Spell / Crit	Chest
Cowl of Dark Whispers	25-player	Cloth Spell / Crit	Head
Garona's Guise	25-player	Leather Phys. DPS	Head
Shawl of Haunted Memories	25-player	Spell / Spirit / Crit	Back
Godbane Signet	25-player	Phys. DPS	Fingers
Sanity's Bond	25-player	Spell / MP5	Fingers
Blood of the Old God	25-player	Hit Rating Passive / AP Proc	Trinket

The Lich King's Cache Contest Update

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While in Durotar one morning, the felsteed of Aphaeresis of <Hall of Mirrors> on The Scryers took a moment to enjoy a refreshing change of scenery. Durotar may be a bleak desert land, but it's certainly nicer than the steed's usual location. Hanging out in the netherspace with that annoying imp, dull voidwalker and inappropriately flirty succubus, waiting to be summoned? Not my idea of a fun time. Now, if there were an incubus in-game, maybe ...

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We've seen some awesome Warcraft-related cakes before, but this one is probably the most literal we've come across -- it's an actual representation of a laptop, complete with what looks like a to-scale keyboard, and little letters etched on the keys. Sure, it's a little more pillowy and frosted than your average MacBook, but that edible paper screenshot does look really cool. And before someone in the comments asks: what addon is that around the ability buttons?

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It could be pretty easily argued that Blizzard is one of the biggest PC gaming development houses in the business today -- they consistently own both the sales charts and the playtime stats in terms of PC gaming. But Activision-Blizzard has quietly confirmed that they've passed on a membership to the PC Gaming Alliance, a group that claims to be "the authoritative voice on PC gaming worldwide." Activision, for their part, says that they just couldn't justify the membership fee, and this isn't the first industry group that they've snubbed: they famously left the ESA and their big yearly conference at E3 last year.

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Yogg-Saron - Kill Movie by The Legacy
The Legacy just released a video of their Yogg-Saron kill! You can find it on Warcraftmovies


Yogg-Saron - 10-Man World First Kill by Entropy
Entropy (US-Frostmourne) defeated Yogg-Saron in 10-Man mode. I think this is a world first and I didn't give a lot of attention to 10-Man raiding recently so here we go!

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Because of the number of blue posts yesterday, I decided to post them as their own news.  Another general update is coming shortly.

April 17th - EU Maintenance

Quote from: Ancilorn (Source)

On 17/04 there will be a scheduled maintenance. Please note that all realms will be offline from 14:30 until 15:30, Paris time (CEST).

We thank you for your patience and understanding and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Recent In-Game Fixes - 4/16/09

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

4/16/09

• We have made it so player cannot attack additional quest giver NPCs at the Argent Tournament.
• Pets have been properly trained to now attack Kologarn when instructed.
• Hunter pets should now have their talents refunded when a hunter switches talent specs, even if they are dismissed at the time.
• When re-implemented into the game, the trash mobs before XT-002 Deconstructor should be a little easier to defeat.
• Blood Boil should no longer penetrate Ice Block or Divine Shield.
• Rank 2 of maim should now correctly provide an interrupt effect.
• Improved Aspect of the Hawk should no longer allow Rapid Regeneration to provide additional mana beyond the intended scope of the ability.
• Players killed or ghosts that move into Crystalsong Forest should now be on a spectral gryphon to ride back to their body.
• Champion of the Frozen Wastes should now be able to be completed again.
• Lifebloom can no longer be forced to bloom early.
• Stunning a druid while not in cat form should no longer remove the Primal Tenacity buff.
• The Glyph of Envenom was not supposed to be put into the game and has been removed.
• Quest giving NPCs at the Argent Tournament should no longer be able to be attacked by players.
• Certain fishing nodes for one of the fishing daily quests should no longer be spawned on land.
• The book of glyph mastery has had its drop rate increased.
• T.N.T. should now properly increase the damage of Explosive Trap.
• The disarm effect from Psychic Horror should no longer be able to be dodged.
• Players should no longer be able to equip and soulbind an item they aren’t able to use.

Arena Season 6 and PvP Item Refunds

Quote from: Wryxian (Source)

Arena points will be reset with the start of Arena Season 6. We encourage everyone to purchase arena items prior to the start of season 6. Please note, any items purchased with arena points before the start of the season will not be refunded in any way once the new season starts.

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One of the things which kept me in Azeroth -- at least long enough for the addictive side of the game to set in -- was the promise of exploration. I originally rolled a human mage and still remember at level five, being taken all the way from Elwynn Forest to Darnassus. Bear in mind though, this was back before The Burning Crusade when being Alliance meant traveling from the Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor took a good forty minutes if you didn't have the flight paths or a mount. You had to get the tram to Ironforge then run the gauntlet of death to Menethil, catch the boat to Theramore, get another to Auberdine and then fly or get another boat to Teldrassil. The whole trip really showed me how big the world was, as well as teaching me all about threat and my ability to aggro everything in a three-zone radius.

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Vodka US First Kill of Yogg-Saron
Vodka of the Alterac Mountains server just killed Yogg-Saron! This was the last first kill to claim for a boss in non-hard mode!

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We're getting reports in of Vodka scoring the first Yogg-Saron kill on North American realms. Vodka had been one of the top guilds in the US throughout Tier 7 raiding, and are quickly solidifying their position at #1 (#2 in the world.) That leaves Algalon as the final boss left to down in Ulduar, along with almost all of the hard modes. Yogg-Saron isn't the end of the race, not nearly. Ensidia and Vodka have a lot more work ahead of them to win this thing. The loot consisted of...

• Garona's Guise
• Chestguard of the Fallen God
• Mantle of the Wayward Vanquisher
• Mantle of the Wayward Protector
• A Fragment of Val'anyr

I cropped the screenshot above which was submitted to me via an anonymous tipster to hide any glimpse of Yogg-Saron, so we don't spoil the show for those who care about that sort of thing. If you want to see the full screenshot, you can see the full version here, which also contains the tooltips for all of the items I wasn't able to link above.

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