Gimme dat Cataclysmic Gear!

It's not for endgame, but they now have hunters' rifles that look more like goblin RPGs!

How is your gear? All oiled up and polished and ready to go? I know it mine is. I wanted to talk a bit about what the gear will be like climbing to 85 based on my observations in Beta.

Levels 80-82: the Vash'jir or Mt. Hyjal zones will be equalizers. If you have gear from 25-man ICC (and perhaps from heroic 10-man ICC) then you probably won't upgrade too much of your gear. If your gear is hovering around ilevel 251 or lower, then you'll be switching up fast. By the time people are finishing either of these first two zones, they should all be looking a lot alike in terms of gear power, if not fashions. The average gear score you'll have after these zones will probably be around ilevel 289, not a big jump from ICC gear.

One of the general things you find with quest greens is that none will ever be as well-rounded as what you're already wearing. Spiffy Tier 10 gear has a bit of everything your class and spec needs to get ahead in the world. And if not, then it has two or three gem slots to close the gap.

What about the Big Raid?

Actually, I really won't miss Sartharion 3D on 25 man

I just can't see how very many 25-man raiding guilds are going to survive after the Cataclysm. Everything I read fails to give 25-man guilds any real incentive to keep running 25-man raids.

• The loot tables are the same in 10 man and 25 man.
• The lockouts for 10 and 25 man instances will be the same. So there's no more way to run both.
• 25 man raids are awfully painful to organize. I would not lay blame on one single guild leader who decided it wasn't worth his trouble to keep doing it.

My Chef's Hat is Better than Your Chef's Hat

This is not beta, it's from the live servers:

I just wanted to show off what happens when you put an Arcanum of Burning Mysteries onto your cooking hat. I'm still not sure though if, when you crit on a Fish Feast, it burns the food or makes it an "Exquisite Fish Feast" (although "Exquisite Fish Feast" sounds like cat food really so maybe just burning it is better).

It's the Little Things... (part 1)

• It appears that every quest in the game may have reset. I suspect that my full quest history does not copy to the test servers. Or, there will be a new Loremaster type achievement.
• My favorite shaman trainer in the game is Farseer Umbura who always sat in the Valley of Heroes of Stormwind, down by the water sort of enjoying the nice day.  She has moved to the tavern in the Dwarven District where she spends her time with a couple of Wildhammers now.  /sigh.  I'm not sure I appreciate these damn dwarves sort of taking over as the face of Alliance Shamanism.
• Things that are gone:  The Hydraxian Warlords. That big nasty bronze dragon outside the Caverns of Time. Steamwheedle Port. Arch Druid Fangel Staghelm (and good riddance to that last one).
• I was poring through Mer's gear and was thinking, "What the hell? Why has all my stuff got all this damn spirit on it? Bleah! Yuck! Spirit!" And then I remembered that Spirit is the new Mp5 and my gear in beta has transitioned to all the new stats. Spirit still seems like a priesty thing however, so it leaves a sorta bad taste in my mouth still.
• We have spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit! How 'bout you?
• Also, in my healing gear, I have approx 27.6% bonus hit. Even though 16% is the hit cap, and um... healing gear doesn't have any hit rating at all. So that's got to be a bug. But in the meantime, I feel like Bullseye. Ha! Can't miss!
• Merinna dropped by the newly flooded Thousand Needles and dove down deep to see what they have done with this (I was hoping to find a bunch of waterlogged centaurs honestly) But I got down there and finally needed to put on my water breathing spell. But all the glyphs are currently turned off, so I didn't have any reagent and drowned.

One Word: "Stylin'!!"

Questgiver: Take this, a mighty magic helmet, to aid you in your struggles.
Winklestien: Hoo Yeah! 'Bout time one of you questgivers gave me a helmet with some stats.
Questgiver: And in addition to protecting your life, this helm shall strike fear into all who oppose you on the battlefield. Your visage shall be one of terror to your enemies.
Winklestein: Sweet!
(Winklestein puts on the helmet, stands a bit taller... for a goblin)
Winklestein: How do I look?
Questgiver: ...
Winklestein: C'mon! Spit it out!
Questgiver: One word: Stylin!


Winklestein is wearing the Spearhead Helm, available soon from questgivers all over the Southern Barrens.