The Patch has landed.

1.2 gigs of data, wow. Not so bad if you’ve been playing regularly, the background downloaded already has it. If you’ve taken a break for awhile, well…

From the new splash screen when you log in to the modified talents and trees to the new Inscription skill, there are a lot of changes here. Check out the Latest Patch Notes for details. Also keep in mind that the patch has probably broken at least some of your addons. I referred to that previously and linked to an addon update list.

So what I’ve put together here is a collection of posts regarding the new talents and builds. I did this previously (Level 80 WoW Talents And Builds) and this new post links to new and, hopefully, updated info.

Dual Talent Builds and What’s Not in This Patch:

Dual Talent Specs - At last — “…And my personal favorite: Dual Talent Specs. This new feature should be added to the game in one of the content patches following the release of Wotlk. Hopefully in Patch 3.1.” What does that mean? It means you’ll be able to save 2 different Talent Specs for your characters, and that you’ll be able to switch between the two as much as you want, any time you want, besides while in combat or in arenas.

Breaking News: Patch 3.0.2 will not contain all major class changes - There were spells and abilities missing, talents not enumerated, and generally the notes looked as if they were lifted from a version of the game done a few weeks ago. Apparently this was intentional. Ghostcrawler made a post moments …

Class Talent Discussions:

Hunters: BigRedKitty: 3.0.2 Hunter talent trees - The major purpose of this column is to give you, the WoW Insider reader, a point of reference. You know our writing, you know our play-style. You should know our limitations and the areas at which we’re not too shabby. …

Warlocks: Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks - In fact, out of all the 11-point talents, Soul Link is the only one that should give us any pause for thought. Considering that for about a month, we can only allocate up to 10 points in another tree if we choose to get a 51-point …

Mages: Mage WotLK Talents & Developer Q & A - She has done a great job already working with many of classes and now she’s finally making it to the mage class, particularly the information regarding the new spell frostfire bolt. Initially I really didn’t understand the purpose of …

Priests: Spiritual Guidance: Patch 3.0.2 - Holy and Disc Priest talent review - This post will cover all of the new Holy and Discipline talents that will be accessible when the patch becomes live. Not only that, I’ve offered up some suggestions on different builds to remain raid viable (at least to the rare few …

Shaman: Going Resto in Three-point-Oh - New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Requires 5 points in purification and 30 points in Restoration) - 1 point - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect. Shaman get an all-in-one …

Warriors: The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The Door Swings Open Pt 1 - Honestly, the difficulty here is not in finding good protection talents you can spec into, it’s in picking which ones to talk to you about now. Some of these talents (like Gag Order) only get really good once you have abilities you …

Ferals: 3.0.2 for Feral Druids - In a few hours, when the servers come back up, patch 3.0.2 is going to hit, and WoW will change drastically. Every tree is get revamped to a greater or lesser extent, and extended up to 51-point talents. The Feral tree changes, …

Rogues: Four Seasons of TBC, Rogue 3.0 Specs - However, without prep which mutilate doesn’t get until WOTLK, the spec is severely lacking in outs and terrible at catching mages, one of the most dominant classes in 3.0. For offensive comps, perhaps a prep spec is still worth …

Paladin: Prot Paladin Talent Build - Block hurts them afterall. We’ll see. Lastly no Holy, nothing in the Ret tree beyond the above, and as the levels tick toward 80, they’ll all get spent in the Prot tree. Tagged: build, Paladin, pally, prot, talent.

Tankadin Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 3: Changed Tools - 10/8 - Part 3: Changes to Existing Talents and Spells 10/9 - Part 4: New Talents, and suggested Trees 10/10 - Part 5: The New Threat Rotation or 96969 10/11 - Part 6: Threat Stats for Protection Paladins and Tank Gear Reitemization …

That should be enough to chew on for now. Feel free to comment or, if you like the post, use the share buttons below.

PS: Wrath is bringing a lot of changes and Northrend is a pretty good sized place with a lot going on. Take a good look at the Killer Guides’ Wrath of the Lich King guide - It will make your trek to 80 much easier and much more lucrative.

Hey, if this is your first time here, consider subscribing to my news feed or even subscribe to this blog by email. Thanks for visiting!

Where Have the Herbs Gone?

I spent some time today on a couple of servers looking for herb bargains, to use for Inscription or to resell. As you might already know, many of the herbs needed for Inscription are being snapped up as soon as they appear.

So you’ll log into the AH, search for (herb) and see… nothing. Or you’ll see something, at about 10 times the price you were paying not so long ago. Peacebloom at 20+ gold a stack? Wow.

Herbalism For the Win!

Herbalism is the new mining, but better. Start a new toon and gather stacks of the basic herbs and you’ll be able to sell them for far more than you’ll sell copper ore or light leather.

Given the way Inscription research works there will be an ongoing increased demand for the low level herbs which means more gold in your pocket.

Prices will stabilize as more people start farming all the necessary herbs, but I think prices are going to be permanently somewhat higher and much higher in the short term. So if you have an Herb Gatherer, now’s your time.

Mining and Skinning Are Still Good

I also think ores and skins will see some degree of price rise. Why? People will drop one or the other skill (I dropped mining and I’ll drop skinning tomorrow) to get Herbalism and/or Inscription. More herb gatherers means fewer ore and skin gatherers, leading to a somewhat lower supply of those items with little decrease in demand. Hence, higher prices.

I’m sure that the Chinese (and other) farmers will also see this opportunity, which will dampen prices somewhat. Still, it’s a good time to be a gatherer.

Getting Your Skills Up Fast

If you want to level your Herbalism skills to take advantage of these prices then take a quick look at my quick and dirty herbalism leveling guide.

If you’re interested in a deeper guide to leveling your Herbalism and/or Inscription skills, then take a look at my review of Penn’s Profession’s Guide.

The other day I posted a guide on getting your Herbalism skill leveled quickly in preparation for the upcoming Inscription skill (rumored to be happening this Tuesday, the 14th.)

While Herbalism is as easy to level as any other gathering profession, Inscription will be a little tricker. I will likely write up a quick guide to that profession once I get it maxed, but Penn’s Guide does it better:

Penn’s Profession Guide has this to say about Inscription:

This profession is a powerfull one. It will give you the ability to create Scrolls & Glyphs. Scrolls will allow you to increase certain stats on your char for a limited amount of time. Glyphs will allow you to change the way your abilities work, such as reducing cooldowns or improving the effect of other spells/skills. You can also create Vellum which is an item that is used by Enchanters to allow them to create and sell an item that will do an enchant.

Inscription is similar, in a way, to the scrolls which youi find in-game, enchanting, and jewel socketing.

Glyphs work like scrolls in that you “read” it and you get the effect. The difference is that you will have certain slots available for both minor and major glyphs. The number available increases as you level, with none to start with and 3 of each at level 80.

Another difference from scrolls is that the glyphs will remain in effect until you replace them with another. Much like the gem socketing idea. Inscription is similar to Jewelcrafting in that way.

Enchanting, of course, also provides permanent buffs which can be changed on the fly. Obviously inscribers will be in at least as much demand as Enchanters or anything else that provides permanent buffs or enhancements.

Now, if you want to get your Herbalism and/or Inscription (or any other profession) leveled as quickly and efficiently as possible, then check out Penn’s Guide, ASAP.

Penn’s on Herbalism

Not only do you get better detail than what I included, you get the names and locations of all the trainers, Horde and Ally, and you get detailed maps for each individual herb.

For example, if you need to farm Khadgar’s Whisker, you’ll get a map of the best zones for that herb and a marked path to follow.

It’s not a total Herbalism guide, with details on every herb (and usage) in game, but it is a killer Herbalism leveling guide. (And the same applies to all the other professions.)

Inscription

I’m browsing my copy of Penn’s Guide now, in the Inscription section. It starts out with a description (see above,) related professions, and trainer names and locations.

Clicking the Start Leveling link takes me to a new page, with all the recipes that I’ll need on the left side. Starting at the top, I hit mill and I’m presented with a page that shows the exact herbs I’ll need, the quantities, any other purchases I need to make (such as parchments,) and what inks I’ll get as a result.

Once of the cool things about inscription milling is that you don’t need any exact herb to mill, you need any herb out of a group. So pick your favorite out of Peacebloom, Silverleaf, or Earthroot and go to town. You don’t need X of one and Y of the other. 100% of one will do just fine. Very cool.

Grabbing a random Glyph here, Glyph of Arcane Missiles, which is used in the guide to train from 115 to 125, you’re presented with the mats needed for this item and an estimated quantity of items that you will need to make (in case some creations don’t give a skillup.)

The page also lists all the herbs needed for the entire 75 to 150 section.

And the others

All the detail above applies to all the other professions in Penn’s Guide. Want to level fishing? Pick Fishing on the left side, then click Start Leveling, then the level range that you’re interested in, then the exact fish. You’ll see a map (on the bottom of the page) which shows you where to go to catch these fish.

My fishing is stuck at 205 or so, so I’ll be using this (later) to max out my fishing. as I already have all the herbs I need I expect to have my inscription maxed by Tuesday evening, assuming the patch actually lands then.

Are you an Enchanter? Same thing, all the details of what to get and when to get it that you’ll need to level that very expensive profession as quickly as possible.

And the same is true for all the other professions in the game.

Quibbles?

- Very few. Penn’s is not a gold guide, so you won’t get much in the way of tips on making money with your favorite profession (Zuggy’s Gold Guide is much better for that.) What you do get is detailed profession leveling instructions for every profession in WoW.

- There are a few typos here and there, but I didn’t see any that make the reading confusing. People who are instant typo detectors (my wife) will notice them, but most will skip right over them.

- The entire guide is online. It’s not a PDF, either. This isn’t really a quibble, but it is something to be aware of. Of course, this makes it much easier for the author to constantly update and tweak the guide.You log in and see that Inscription was just added. Very cool.

In Conclusion:

If all you’re doing is gathering herbs, ores, and skins then you don’t really need this guide, though the maps are nice.

If you want to master Inscription (or any other WoW profession) as quickly and painlessly as possible then Penn’s is the way to go.

Highly recommended, get your copy here.

A Guide to Leveling the Herbalism Skill

Wrath of The Lich King is right around the corner and with it comes the new skill, Inscription. Much like Alchemy, Inscription will be a great profession for Herbalists, since the herbs you gather will be used in the creation of the inks needed for Inscription.

So, with that in mind, I dumped my mining skill (at 375, poof!) and decided to raise Herbalism from zero.

This guide isn’t a complete Herbalism guide, with details on all the herbs out there and what to do with them (besides sell them,) it’s an Herbalism Leveling guide, intended to get you from 1 to 375 quickly.

Just some quick notes, then the guide.

As I leveled the skill, even though I’m on a PvP server, I saw few other players and little competition. This is on the Bloodscalp server so your mileage may vary.

Naturally you’ll need to be at least level 58 to do this since you’ll need to be able to go to Outlands to get your training and higher level herbs. It’s more interesting if you’re 58 on a PvP server.

The epic ground mount will save you some time and the epic flying mount (if you are 70 and have the cash) is sweet.

A very cool addon to use is Gatherer. Download it for free (donate if you want to) and read the documentation. If you import the WoWhead database you’ll find on the site, this little widget will show you where the various herbs (and ores and boxes) have been found by others previously.

If you’re using the Cartographer Addon the Gatherer data can be displayed on the Cartographer maps once you import the WoWhead database. This will give you a clear idea of which paths to follow to maximize your flower picking.

Make sure you hit your Herbalism trainer as you hit the skill caps at 75, 150, 225, and 300, just like any other profession.

Getitng started

Talk to your Herbalism Trainer, dump a skill if you have to, and get your 1st level Herbalism skill. Then just go to to your favorite starting area and start gathering Peacebloom and Silverleaf. I went to Eversong woods, but it’s all over the place in all the Horde starting areas.

If you’re Alliance you will nead to head over to Durotar… Just kidding. All the Ally starting areas are also rich in herbs.

Once the herbs in your area become green and aren’t giving you any skill improvements, you’ll want to go to the next higher area. For example, from Eversong Woods go to Ghostlands, or from Durotar/Mulgore go to the Barrens. Westfall and Loch Modan are decent areas, too.

After the Ghostlands, I went to Silverpine Woods, Hillsbrad, Arathi Highlands, then the Hinterlands, and lastly to Eastern Plaguelands. That got me to 300 skill. Next, I was off to Thrallmar (Honor Hold if you’re Ally) to get the Master Herbalist skill. Then I did a couple of loops around Hellfire Penninsula to get to 350 or so, then the rest at Zangamarsh.

Note, unless your skill is 300+ you won’t be able to pick anything in the Outlands.

If you’re leveling this skill in order to make specific potions you may want to modify your path a bit to target your preferred herbs.

Your starting area will yield:

Peacebloom, Silverleaf, and Earthroot (requires skill 15.) You’ll need 150 of these herbs in any combination to level your basic inscription skills.

The 10-20 area herbs:
I was in the Ghostlands, but you can find these in Durotar, Silverpine, Westfall, and Redridge. You’ll find:

• Peacebloom, Silverleaf, and Earthroot,
• Mageroyal, requires skill 50
• Briarthorn, skill 70
• Stranglekelp, skill  85 (take a water breathing potion.)
• Bruiseweed, skill 100

In the 18-30 areas (Duskwood, Hillsbrad, and the Wetlands) you’ll find:

• Mageroyal 50
• Briarthorn 70
• Stranglekelp 85
• Bruiseweed 100
• Wild Steelbloom 115
• Grave Moss 120
• Kingsblood 125
• Liferoot 150

Grave Moss can be found in and around, you guessed it, graveyards.

Next up are the 30-40 areas. I went to the Arathi Highlands, but you can also go to Alterac mountains or other areas. Here’s what you’ll find there:

• Stranglekelp 85
• Bruiseweed 100
• Wild Steelbloom 115
• Grave Moss 120
• Kingsblood 125
• Liferoot 150
• Goldthorn 170
• Khadgar’s whisker 185
• Wintersbite 195 (Saw very little of this one.)

There’s a lot of overlap between the Arathi/Alterac zones and Stranglethorn Vale, The Badlands, and Swamp of Sorrows. In STV and the Badlands you’ll find Purple Lotus. The Badlands has Firebloom, and the Swamp has Blindweed. Grab whichever area works best for your needs, including avoiding crowds and gankers.

• Firebloom 205
• Purple Lotus 210
• Blindweed 235

The 40 -50 zone: I went to The Hinterlands next, and then to the Eastern Plaguelands. In the Hinterlands you’ll find

• Purple Lotus 210
• Ghost Mushroom 245
• Golden Sansam 260
• Sungrass 270

Killing the local trolls will result in some Wildvine drops.

In the Eastern Plaguelands (50+) I found:

• Arthas’ Tears 220
• Sungrass 230
• Golden Sansam 260
• Dreamfoil 270
• Mountain Silversage 280
• Plaguebloom 285
• Black Lotus 300 (I didn’t see any of this.)

Ok, now you have your 300 skill and you’re ready to hit the Outlands. Get Master Herbalist when you hit your side’s main town in Hellfire (Thrallmar or Honor Hold,) and then do a few loops around Hellfire Peninsula and Zangamarsh. Unless you’re hunting specific herbs, you won’t need to go beyond Zangamarsh to hit 375.

In Hellfire Peninsula:

• Golden Sansam 260
• Dreamfoil 270
• Mountain Silversage 280
• Felweed 300
• Dreaming Glory 315 (Picking this sometimes gives a nice regeneration buff)

In Zangamarsh:

• Blindweed 235
• Ghost Mushroom 245 (in caves)
• Golden Sansam 260
• Dreamfoil 270
• Felweed 300
• Dreaming Glory 315
• Ragveil 325

You’ll sometimes see various motes (life, shadow, etc.) that will come with your Outland Herb picking, particularly from the Felweed.

Fel Lotus, (which sells for a nice price,) also has a (very small) chance to drop from any of the Outland herbs; the only one I saw came off a Felweed. It’s most commonly seen off of the Felweed, Dreaming Glory, Ragveil, and Flame Caps, all of which can be found in the Outlands. Last I heard it was about a 3% chance to appear.

Note: Wash any flowers before using (you know about those Alliance types,) and bring gloves just in case you’re allergic.

Now go pick some flowers!

edit: Penn’s Professions Guide has a better Herbalism guide than the above and a killer Inscription guide. Here’s my Penn’s Guide review if you want to check it out and get your own copy.

So I dumped mining as a profession in favor of Herbalism (on my 70 Rogue.)  I’m going to max this skill out, hopefully before the next big (3.0) patch, in preparation for the new Inscription profession.

As most of you know, Inscription is part of the soon to be released Wrath of the Lich King expansion for Wow. As a professions, Inscription requires herbs which are then milled into the inks needed to write the scrolls and glyphs that Inscription creates. So I’m going to build a huge mass of these flowers and such and when the skill goes live I’m going to powerlevel it.

Most of these scroll and glyphs are not “Bind on Pickup,” so inscribers will be able to keep their guilds stocked with scrolls and glyphs.

Anyone out there interested in an Inscription guide? If so, if there anything in particular you’d like to see in it?

Ever had a hard disk die? How about the one with you WoW (and/or any other MMO) data on it. How long would it take you, and how much would it cost, to get it all back?

How long would it take to download all those patches, updates, addons, reconfigure your hotkeys and other characters setups?

DominateYourServer has a detailed guide to backing up your WoW installation. Basically you copy/backup the entire WoW folder set over to your backup system and you’re good.

There are a number of choices for backing up, but none are foolproof. Do two or more if you’re really concerned (or paranoid.)

1. Install an internal hard drive and use it for backups. Just copy data from whichever drive you have your copy of WoW on over to the other drive. This is great if your main drives dies, not so good if your computer is fried (eg: by a lightning strike,) but it’s lots faster than the other methods.
2. Use an external drive. These connect with a USB cable and usually come with backup software. A bit slow, but since you can disconnect the drive after backing your system and then store it in a safe place, you’re pretty well protected.
3. DVDs (and BlueRays) are  cool, get yourself the appropriate software and burn some disks. Then store then in a safe place. DVD burners are pretty cheap, Bluray not so cheap (yet.)
4. Online backup. We use Mozy, but there are a bunch of other services available. You pick the files/folders that need to be backed up and it does it all in the background, making incremental backups on a regular basis. The first backup will take a long time since it will back up everything that you tell it to. Once that’s done then the following backups take a lot less time.
5. Go Raid. A RAID is a set of dard disks which work together. We’re interested in the mirroring function here. You set up to drives to mirror each other and then every bit of data that gets written to drive 1 also gets written to drive 2. So if one or the other fails you have a backup. I’ve seen these fail, so I suggest another backup method as well as this one. Also, this won’t backup your existing data, it’s best done with a new install.

Now THIS is how it’s done. It’s in Chinese, but I think we’ll all be able to understand what’s going on. One player, going in solo:

More funny WoW videos

For those of you interested in the PvP game here’s an overview of what’s happening with PvP as Wrath of the Lich King gets ready to invade our gaming space.

As always, keep in mind that very little of this is final. Finality won’t be reached until the actual game is in our greedy little hands.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King PvP Portal Launched - Ten Ton Hammer - We have launched a new portal to collect all data on the PvP side of Wrath of the Lich King. If you’re looking for the latest information on PvP, from Honor, Arenas, and Screenshots from the new areas, visit our new PvP portal! …

Lifestyle of the Northrend Rogue - This is significantly more than it dealt previously, and I can see more Rogues integrating this into their PVP rotations.Gouge still adds 1 combo point to the current target (its combo point generation has been in limbo). …

WoW: State of the PvP in Beta Editorial - Ten Ton Hammer - Wrath of the Lich King’s PvP keeps adding new features and evolving so that players will have different experiences in PvP than they had when they played through WoW’s second expansion. In this article, Gabriel “DarkFact” Zamudio checks …

Wrath of the Lich King Beta Death Knight PVP Nerfs - I’ll never become a fully endorsed Blizzard fan-site because I criticize the developers for some of their decisions when it comes to the game. Case in piont, the Death Knight. They’re not a broken class in my honest opinion, …

WotLK PvP Changes and Blue Posts - There’s been loads of changes in the past few days for WotLK, specifically related to PvP. Take a look at a few of the most recent blue posts and updates regarding pvp in the last 48 hours. WotLK PvP Recap from Zug Gaming Berserker Rage …

The Eye of Eternity Loot, WotLK PvP Gear - WotLK PvP Arena Gear - ilvl 252 Warlock LK Arena 6 Warlock Helm LK Arena 6 Warlock Shoulders LK Arena 6 Warlock Legs LK Arena 6 Warlock Chest LK Arena 6 Warlock Gloves, WotLK PvP Honor Gear - ilvl 252 LK Honor 5 Caster DPS Bracers …

WotLK - PVP Rogues OP? - WotLK will certainly shift the way we play not only in PvP, but PvE as well. If you haven’t checked out the new talent points then get your butt over to Blizzard’s website and be amazed. Rogue beta talents …

Northrend will start at level 68, so if you’re not that high yet you should check out Zygor’s leveling guide, it’s the best thing out there for getting leveled fast.

Death Knights, the heavy metal (plate) wearing Hero Class of Wrath of the Lich King, are probably going to be the most played class once people load Wrath onto their systems.

As it stands, their ability trees are blood, frost, and unholy. They generate runic power and use it to power their big smash attacks. Blizzard sees them as tanks for caster mobs, which brings about interesting PvP thoughts, but they’re solid in the DPS department and should be a blast to solo.

Talents? Builds? Powers? Well… All their talents and abilities are still being run through the beta grinder and will be buffed, nerfed, and kicked around until Bliz is happy enough with their status. Since they’re getting a lot of attention from the Devs I assume that the “happy enough” state will actually occur.

If you’re one of the few whole will actually be playing one of these death machines then you might want to check ouit some of the “How the Death Knight Stands Right Now” posts below. Keep in mind that there will be changes between now and the Wrath release date.

This first is advice to raiding DKs from a Druid:

Tips for new Death Knights from a fellow melee, part 1 - I’ve healed a lot of Death Knight tanks, and tanked for a lot of Death Knight DPS. Most of you seem like cool people, so I say this with sincere love in my little Druid heart and a touch of worry over what will happen in November: …

Zuggy covers Death Knight presences and powers:

Death Knight Abilities and Spells - Death Knight Presences Death Knight presences can be best described as equivalent to warrior stances. There are 3 stances a death knight may enter. Blood Presence - Increases damage done by 15% and heals the Death Knight by 2% of damage …

An Update on current talents and DPS:

Death Knight Discussions/Changes for Wrath of the Lich King (Oct 2nd) - Frost tree to get some buffs Disease damage went down a little, which will lower’s Unholy’s overall dps. Dancing Rune Weapon was doing a huge portion of blood’s dps. We thought it was cooler to let it hit hard but be out less often. …

More on DK changes and where they stand, now:

9014 Beta Build and More - As always, our friends over at WotLKwiki where quick to post the Death Knight changes. Here they are, I’ll add any other changes I find in a future post. 9014 Death Knight Changes. Blood. Bloody Vengeance - No longer increases frost and …

More DK Changes and Commentary:

New Beta Patch: Death Knight Changes - Runic Focus - Description changed to : “Unlike most casters, a Death Knight’s spells cause double damage on critical hits.” Unholy. Death and Decay - Damage Increased (Now Rank 4 - 62 Damage) (Old Rank 4 - 52 Damage) …

Here’s a free Death Knight prep guide. (Look for the button in the middle of the red text.) It’s not a talent or leveling guide, rather it gives info on recommended gear as you level to 70, as well as a number of other tips. You can also pre-order the full Death Knight guide from the same page.

I’ve heard rumors, here and there, that one or two people are planning on playing a Death Knight when Wrath of the Lich King arrives.

Just in case this is true you might want to check out this freebie, the Death Knight Prep Guide.

It’s not a leveling or skill guide. It is a guide to potions, gear, and a few other things you’ll want to do to get your Death Knight 100% ready to go for Outlands and Northrend. Buy them and store them now, while they’re cheap.

So check it out, it’s a freebie. When you hit the page look for the box of red text, the download link is in the middle. Here ya go: the Death Knight Prep Guide.