241 – The Instance: A Level 85 Bunk

We kick things of with a sizable chat regarding the free-2-play movement, and where Blizzard might fit into that, including the idea that Starcraft go down the AOE road a little. But then, oh what a meaty show we have for you today! Just get listening!

Void Storage:
A variety of items can be placed into Void Storage — including soul-bound items and Battle.net Account Bound items — making it the perfect location to store trophies from past conquests, as well as armor you may want to hold onto for Transmogrification. It will cost you to store or remove. NOT intended to be an extended bank of regular items you use. Includes bag searching, which will apply to regular bags and bank as well. 1000 gold to unlock.

Transmogrifier:
The Transmogrifier NPC, which will let you change the appearance of any armor piece on you, while retaining the stats of your current gear. (= T12 stats, but with the Tier 2 look!). Players won’t be able to change the appearance of their armor into another armor type or class armor set, and you might have to own the armor before you can use it to swap the appearance of your existing armor. Visiting a Transmogrifier will present players with a new interface that will allow them to change the appearance of an item while retaining its original stats. This means that you can raid in your paladin tier 12 Immolation set, but look like you’re wearing Lightbringer, while priests can bring Benediction back — at least in spirit. Hunters can once again roam the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale in their tier 2 Dragonstalker set.

Raid Finder:
The Raid Finder will be introduced in Patch 4.3, it will work like the Dungeon Finder.

5-Man Instances:
3 new 5-man instances will be added in this patch. One of the instance will be in the Caverns of Time, for the War of the Ancients.

New Raid:
Deathwing raid will be the final raid of the expansion. You will even get to ride on Deathwing’s back during the fight, apparently to take him down over multiple phases. The project for an Abyssal Maw is gone for the moment, the storyline wasn’t convincing enough/fitting. All the 4.3 goodness can be found here!

Threat in World of Warcraft is still a threat. Also very threating. Also, hunters no longer care that much about Misdirect! The threat generated by classes in their tanking mode has been increased from three times damage done to five times damage done.

In an upcoming patch: Vengeance no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken generates Vengeance equal to one third of the damage dealt by that attack. As Vengeance updates during the fight, it is always set to at least a third of the damage taken in the last two seconds. It still climbs from that point at the previous rate, still decays at the previous rate, and still cannot exceed the current maximum.

Rumors & Scuttlebut
Character Activity Charts! The fine folks at MMO Champion have the skinny. So turns out, no one is playing their effing DeathKnight.

Drop of the Week
Free Shipping From FigurePrints Through Sept. 15! Take advantage of this hot summer deal by getting free shipping on all World of Warcraft FigurePrints ordered now through September 15 and shipped within the United States or Canada. Discounted rates to Europe are also being offered as part of this limited-time offer. If you’ve been considering a custom World of Warcraft character statue of your own, now is the perfect time to save some cash.