Epixxx are a Girl's Best Friend.

Sunday was Valentine's Day. This day also happens to be the Anniversary of myself and my husband finally becoming an item, what is now more than twenty years ago. Needless to say, it was a total disaster.

My daughter spent most of the night projectile vomiting, the first incident of which left several hours clearing up to deal with. I was awake at just before 3am and never returned to sleep, thus completely poleaxing me for the rest of the day. However I'd remembered our Anniversary, and I even came prepared with a gift. My husband however, was not as organised. He didn't forget, let me make that clear, but he was lacking gifts, and was well aware (especially how I then spent most of the rest of Sunday) he needed to come up with something spectacular, especially as my Son sent me flowers and a lovely note to cheer me up in-game.

Guess what I found in my Inbox last night:

Considering how much I've wanted to complete this questline since starting it on the PTR, I'm prepared to forgive my husband for just about everything he may have forgotten about for some time. Let's face it, nothing says 'I Love You' more to the Female Girl Gamer than the chance to do a questline for shiny epixx... :D

Yes, I'm that shallow. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to see the guys outside the Tournament...

So guys, I found this item in my Inbox and I'm told you know what it is...

Jet-Propelled!

Six inches of snow outside \o/

Inside, we made Icecrown progress last night :D

Yes, that's me with a Rocket Pack. When we left the Gunship Battle last night we'd cracked a great deal of the tactical gubbins, so when we go back I suspect that's another job done. Marrowgar was CONSIDERABLY more nerfed than he was last week, and with the tweaks we made it was a foregone conclusion. However hats must be removed to my Husband who had an inspired moment with the tactics for Lady Deathwhisper. She went down (I think) on the fourth try of asking. It was suitably impressive watching everyone hit the same point on the learning curve. Oh, and she dropped the most Awesome Bow Evah \o/

All told, not a bad night's work. I might even go so far as to say we could have the first wing's content cleared before the gating is removed... depends on how hard Saurfang is...

Oh I Say :O

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, we wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point we can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The rest of the statement is here.

To be honest, on reflection, this isn't a big surprise. They have to make this content last, possibly until the Summer (depending on what goes down with the pre-Cataclysm events) The fact they don't know yet when this will all be phased in is however a bit of a surprise. I would have thought by now they'd have a handle on their timescales...

I find myself wondering what the Hardcore Guilds will think of this. They ARE FORCED to do the 10 mans of these dungeons before they can attempt 25 man, which is possibly the most significant development we've seen since the introduction of 10 man raiding. Things will be made deliberately easy for those late to the party with a raid-wide buff that will be introduced once all four wings are open. Yes, it's the Sunwell all over again, but this time it's forcing everybody to do things in the same order, in the same timescales. I'm not sure that's a good or a bad thing.

Part of me thinks this is going to be really rather hard. I do hope that's the case.

Everything Must Go

It's a PTR CRAZY SALE!!!! All Commendations are now available for the low, low price of 1 Badge of Triumph! Get them while they're HoT!

That's a new PTR version by the way... off to look at Patch Notes now...

Looking Good! SPOILERS FOR 3.3

Remember that manky old sword in the ice outside the Tournament? Not so shabby now... The changes to Icecrown are continuing apace, but in rather worrying news the latest PTR build has bought a COMPLETE lack of flying mounts. Nothing works, clearly it must be extra cold this build. The upshot of this is that riding to Icecrown from the Tournament is a proper adventure. 5 deaths, and a hefty repair bill later, I made it through the Commanders and to the gates...

... only to discover the raid group I was invited to consisted of three people in phase with me and five who were not. Annoyingly therefore the Citadel remains undiscovered for now :(

I was going to go take a look and see if the there's details on what the Reputation changes look like thus far but I'm now locked out of the server altogether. More news when I can make it back in.

End of the Tunnel

So, this week has seen not one, but TWO 25 man Guild outings, and the 25 man achievement for doing Boss #1 without a System Shutdown. The drama was worth it.

This morning brings a new PTR build and some much needed love for Alts.

• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:

            Argent Crusade
            Alliance Vanguard
            Horde Expedition
            Kirin Tor
            Knights of the Ebon Blade
            Sons of Hodir
            Wyrmrest Accord

• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.
• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).
• Reputation commendations can now be purchased for 1 Emblem of Triumph each.

That's a fabulous change :D It also gives a sense of the game moving forward to it's logical conclusion in this expansion as well, which is exciting in itself. What do you mean, that's what Icecrown is for? :P

Hunter

• Pet Leveling: Hunter pets now need only 5% of the experience a player needs to level, down from 10%.

To the person who asks me how pets level, here's the answer, it's experience based. I thought it was directly related to kills but if it's experience then it does include quest rewards as well. Every day is a school day :D

There's also a very BIG SPOILER that I won't reveal here as yet but I'm very happy about, as it means one of my favourite Alliance NPC's survived the Wrathgate...

This weekend we'll do a roundup, I'll get some pics of the faction stuff, and there will be chocolate cake. Oh yes.