Posts Tagged ‘Patch 4.3’

Dec
05
2011

4.3 Gear FAQ

We’ve been receiving a lot of questions regarding gear changes and additions in Patch 4.3, so we’ve put together a small FAQ in order to tackle them.

If you have a question regarding gear in Patch 4.3, you’re welcome to submit it by commenting on this post, or by emailing Noelani (contact details on our About page). We’ll do our best to respond to everything (and do our best to answer accurately)!

Are ‘Replica’ items from Darkmoon Faire transmogrifiable?

Yes they are, we tested it out in-game. They’re also BoE and not class specific, so you can use multiple characters to speed up your collecting process, and can buy/sell them.


Will Tier 3 be making a come-back?

Sadly not, or at least not yet. When Transmogrification was first announced, Kaivax commented with the following statement,

“We would like to offer some alternative ways to get favorite items that are no longer available…not every favorite item will be immediately available at launch. But we’ll keep a list of items that get requested by the players and work to get them in someday.”
[Source]

Numerous threads sprung up with suggestions and Tier 3 featured greatly among the requests. As such, we can’t rule out Tier 3 just yet, it may be a later addition to the feature.


Are Season 3 sets available for purchase again?

Yes, Season 3 armor and weapons were re-introduced in 4.3, after more than 3 years absence. All of them can be purchased with Honor Points, from Kezzik the Striker in Area 52, Netherstorm. The head, chest and legs cost 1000 honor each, the shoulders and gloves 750.


Has the availability of Vindicator’s off-set pieces which matched Season 3 changed?

Vindicator’s pieces still are only available by trading in Tier 6 tokens on the Isle of Quel’Danas. They’re not currently available for honor, unlike the extras from Seasons 2 & 4.


Are the off-set items (Belts/Boots/Bracers) that match Season 1 Gladiator sets available once more?

They haven’t been added back into the game yet, and there’s no evidence to suggest if and when they might return.


Why can’t I use my level 60 PvP items (f.ex. Marshal’s & Warlord’s) for transmogrification?

It was recently announced by Bashiok that level 60 PvP sets are un-transmogrifiable. Instead, replica versions of these items have been added to vendors in Area 52, which will only be transmogrifiable by characters that have obtained the feats of strength for the Legionnaire/Knight-Captain ranks and higher, from the old PvP system.

This essentially means that those who own the original sets will never be able to transmogrify them, but the appearance will be available, via the replicas, to those with the appropriate PvP ranks. The issue is rather complicated and has drawn a large amount of criticism, so this system may yet change again. Check this thread for further details.


How do enchanting effects work with transmogrification?

Transmogrification will normally apply the enchant glow of your equipped weapon onto your chosen weapon appearance. The exception to this is if the source weapon, the one which is supplying the visual appearance, has a passive glow/effect on it before having been enchanted.


What about the so called ‘absurdities’, which items are exempt from transmogrification?

We’ve already found a considerable amount of items which cannot be transmogrified under the ‘silly’ or ‘absurd’ category, and there are no doubt many more which we don’t yet know about.

Among the most queried is the infamous Sandrene’s Invisible Vest (Alliance) / Sandrene’s Invisible Vest (Horde), which is, somewhat unsurprisingly, not a viable look for transmogrification. The various fish weapons are also out of the picture, no doubt to spare people the embarrassment of being double-carp slapped to death in battlegrounds.

To the disappointment of many, the Forever Lovely Rose and the other, more gruesome headpiece from the ‘Love is in the Air’ festival, Vile Fumigator’s Mask, are both un-transmogrifiable.

We will endeavour to create a Blacklist of un-transmogrifiable items which, even though they adhere to most ‘mogging guidelines, fall at the hurdle of the ‘absurdities rule’. The list will be added to our Transmogrification Rules article when we’ve compiled enough information.

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Nov
29
2011

Patch 4.3 Arrives

The long awaited patch has finally made it to the live realms, with a whole lot for people to explore over the coming months. Although 4.3 is packed full of new features, being that we’re a site dedicated to WoW gear, we’ve focused primarily on the details of item additions and alterations, a short break-down of which can be found below.

You can also check out our 4.3 Gear FAQ, which tackles a few questions we’ve received regarding the patch.


Transmogrification

Probably the defining feature of the patch, Transmogrification offers players a way to change their appearance whilst still retaining the stats of their more powerful equipment. Yes, gone are the days of masquerading as a nightmarish clown whilst levelling in Outland, of hideous transitions between distinctly different tier armor looks (hooray – speaking as a priest who had to mix turquoise T11 and orange T12 for a while).

‘Mogging can be conducted at one of two Ethereals, one in Stormwind and one in Orgrimmar, for a small fee. No doubt these vendors will be almost inaccessible for the next week as people gather around them and try to figure out what to wear.

Check our Transmogrification Rules post for detailed information on what can and cannot be transmogrified.


Dragon Soul Raid Instance


 
Dragon Soul is a brand new raid instance featuring 8 encounters, culminating in a double-length showdown with Deathwing himself. Interestingly, the raid also comes with a new, third difficulty mode, Raid Finder. On top of the usual Normal and Heroic modes that have been used thus far in Cataclysm, the Raid Finder is a 25-player only, cross-realm version of Dragon Soul, which has been toned down to be easier than the Normal difficulty setting. This addition means that there are three different level brackets for instance drops and Tier 13 pieces; item levels 384, 397 and 410, each of which have different colourations.


Class Specific Additions

As mentioned above, there are three different tier set colourations in Patch 4.3. Unlike the previous Cataclysm editions, all Tier 13 pieces will be purchased using tokens dropping within a raid instance (Dragon Soul), rather than having certain pieces available for Valor Points. However, the new Baradin Hold boss, Alizabal, will continue to drop tier legs and gloves, like her fellow inmates have in earlier patches. Some matching off-set pieces for the tier sets can be found within the Dragon Soul raid, but there are also many items available for Valor Points which copy or fit the item level 397 appearances, including BoE bracers and boots.

Season 11 ‘Cataclysmic Gladitor’ sets are also inbound with this patch, most likely on December 6th, although no official announcement has been made.

The following pictures represent the Normal-mode iLvl 397 versions of Tier 13, the rest of the sets are to follow soon:


Darkmoon Faire


 
The Faire will be keeping its usual time schedule, one week per month, but this time they’ve upscaled their event to take over an entire island, rather than just a few tents outside a city. There will be games aplenty and new mounts and pets to get your hands on, but also the addition of the first ‘Replica’ items to the game. Visual copies of Dungeon Sets 1 & 2 will be available for purchase with Darkmoon Prize tickets. Note that they are purely for appearance and have no combat stats at all.

Read more about the festivities and the new outfits on our article: Prepare for Darkmoon Faire.


Five-Player Dungeons

4.3 introduces three new five-player dungeons to the mix, acting as a prelude to the Dragon Soul raid, à la Icecrown Citadel. Located in the Caverns of Time, the three instances, Well of Eternity, Hour of Twilight and End Time, are a past, future and present journey towards the final face-off with Deathwing… with some new loot along the way. Over one hundred items of 378 iLevel are being added, split between the three dungeons. Expect to see some articles about these outfits soon!

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Nov
29
2011

Transmogrification Rules

Transmogrification is a feature added with Patch 4.3 which allows players to change the appearance of their armor and weapons whilst retaining their stats. Players may transmogrify their gear for a fee at either Warpweaver Hashom in Stormwind, for the Alliance, or Warpweaver Dushar in Orgrimmar for members of the Horde. Prices vary depending on slot, armor type and the item level of your equipped armor/weapon. For example, transmogrifying the appearance of a 378 leather chest costs around 18 gold, no matter what you change it to look like. Doing the same for a cloth chestpiece costs a little over 14 gold.

If you still have a question about transmogrification after reading this post, check out our 4.3 Gear FAQ. It may have the answer you seek, and if not, you can submit your question to us!

The following list outlines the current rules for transmogrification, originally posted by Kaivax [Source]. The list has been slightly amended to fit successive alternations made to the feature:


      • The character must be able to equip both items.

      • Only uncommon (green), rare (blue) or epic (purple) items may be transmogrified. (exceptions: a select few of these items will be prevented from being used to transmogrify if they are inappropriate)

      • Items must share the same armor type (examples: plate for plate, cloth for cloth)

      • Weapons can be transmogrified to one another within the following categories: Bow/Crossbow/Gun, 1H Axe/Mace/Sword, 2H Axe/Mace/Sword, Polearm/Staff

      • Daggers, Fist Weapons and Wands can only be transmogrified into weapons of the exact same category.

      • Guns, Crossbows, and Bows can be used to transmogrify Guns, Crossbows, or Bows.

      • Off-hand weapons can only be used to transmogrify Off-hand weapons, but very few of these still exist in-game.

      • One handed weapons can be used to transmogrify a Main hand or Off-hand weapon.

      • Using an item for transmogrify makes it soulbound.

      • Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-refundable.

      • Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-tradable.

      • Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be transmogrified.

      • Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be used to transmogrify.

      • Legendary items cannot be transmogrified.

      • Legendary items cannot be used to transmogrify.

      • Fishing Poles cannot be transmogrified.

      • Fishing Poles cannot be used to transmogrify.

      • Mailing an item strips its transmogrification.

      • Placing an item in Void Storage strips its transmogrification.

      • Vendoring an item strips its transmogrification.

      • The displayed enchant will be that of the currently equipped item.

      • There may be individual items that are excluded from being transmogrified on the basis that they were originally added to the game as absurdities. (examples: a weapon that looks like a fish, or a chest piece that is invisible)

A list of the so-called ‘absurdities’, items which cannot be transmogrified because they were designed as gimmics, can be found at our Transmogrification Blacklist.

The rules are still subject to change, as the list above was written during PTR testing, before the official release of Patch 4.3 on 29 November 2011. The list will be updated should any adjustments or additions come to light. Furthermore, we’ll do our best to keep track of items which are blacklisted from transmogrification, i.e. those referenced in the final rule of the list.

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Nov
07
2011

Prepare for Darkmoon Faire


Darkmoon Faire is getting a serious revamp in Patch 4.3 and today we got our first glimpse of what’s to come, as the Faire was opened for testing on the PTR.

We took the time to explore the monthly event in its new location and find out about the items on offer from Darkmoon vendors.
Here’s our guide to the new gear:

*Spoiler Alert!*

The updated Faire is littered with an array of new pets, mounts and a few token Darkmoon themed armor pieces for you to get your hands on, but the highlight from a transmogrification standpoint is without doubt the introduction of ‘Replica’ items.

2005 is back in Style

Replicas are BoE, stat-less, non-class-specific items which are exact visual copies of old armor sets, namely Dungeon Sets 1 & 2 aka Tiers 0 & 0.5, formerly from Blackrock Spire, Stratholme and Scholomance, which haven’t been obtainable by players since Cataclysm was released.

Sold by Barum and Baruma, a pair of Dark Iron Dwarves on Darkmoon Island, the new home of the Faire, Replicas retain the rare and epic qualities of the armor they are based on, so they can be transmogrified. For example, Replica Magister’s Robes and Replica Sorcerer’s Robes are identical to the chests from the original Mage Dungeon Sets 1 and 2, minus any combat stats.

Replicas, along with the other goods from the Faire, can be purchased with Darkmoon Prize Tickets which can be gathered through a variety of profession-based quests and mini games connected to Darkmoon Island. The total cost of each 8-piece set is 520 Tickets, broken down into 75 each for Heads, Shoulders, Chests and Legs, and 55 per Bracers, Gloves, Belts and Boots.

How long will it take to collect a set?

Right now is it difficult to say with certainty how long it will take to gather a full set, as it depends heavily on how lucky you are with finding Darkmoon Artifacts, but given that the Faire will only be active one week per month, we can draw some conclusions about how many tickets you can obtain from quests per event.
The five mini games (essentially daily quests) award 1 Ticket each per day, 35 over the course of a week. Primary profession quests add 8 and secondary professions 12 per week. There is also a weekly quest, Test Your Strength, which awards 10 tickets. The Darkmoon Artifacts are drops which trigger quests awarding between 5 and 15 tickets each, but the required items are seemingly rare, so we can’t provide any concrete information about those just yet.

Discounting the latter source, you can obtain 5 tickets per day, 20 per week if you have all professions, plus 10 from ‘Test Your Strength’. This adds up to 55 per Faire, in other words, per month, for the standard quests given at the Faire. If you’re able to find all of the artifacts, they add up to 80 tickets per month, bringing the total to 135. At this rate, it’d take four months for one character to collect an entire set, but it’s worth noting that, as the items are BoE, those who have alt characters will be able to speed up this process greatly!

We’ll keep the article updated as more information becomes available and when the Wowhead database is brought up to speed.

Darkmoon Faire Dungeon Set Replicas

DruidHunter

MagePaladin

PriestRogue

ShamanWarlock

Warrior

Wowhead News and MMO-Champion are both running guides on the specifics of the Darkmoon Island quests and items, if you would like any further information.

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