The Truth is out there!

Fox Mulder would be quite fascinated. As the Guardian reports „the Ministry of Defence went to extraordinary lengths to cover up its true involvement in investigating UFOs, according to secret documents revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Apparently 10,000 eyewitness reports are most likely mostly due to weather effects. There is no proof on existence of UFOs but it shows that the government is trying to conceal its real interest. Read the whole article here, along with an overview of the most famous „incidents“.

Burning Crusade: Talent Changes

In addition to the introduction of druid talents a post on the official World of Warcraft forums indicated some changes to talents of other classes. I have listed the changes to Rogue talents below. Check this link for changes to the other classes.

Rogue:

Assassination

  • Remorseless Attacks – Added Mutilate to the list of affected abilities.
  • Mutilate – Description changed: “Instantly attacks with both weapons for an additional 44 damage with each weapon. Damage is increased by 50% against Poisoned targets. Must be behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.”

Combat

  • Surprise Attacks – Added Shiv to the list of affected abilities. Now damage caused by the affected abilities is also increased by 5%.

Burning Crusade (most likely fake) Hunter Talents

Hunter’s stat mechanics are being fundamentally altered.

* In the current alpha, hunters only receive 1 RAP per point of AGI instead of 2.
* They have lowered the agi/crit ratio for hunters to something like 33 (more like rogues)
* They have boosted the dps value of all ranged weapons in the game by about 10%
* from anecdotal accounts it sounds like you epic hunters will gain about 5% crit or so and lose about 400 AP. While your bows will be boosted in magnitude, (anecdotal accounts would place the boosted Ash’rethul on par with the Slavemaker from Naxx)
* Hopefully that will leave you about in the same place, powerwise
* This will however change what hunters look for in stats, and significantly change how your talents function, which may be why yours were saved for the second batch.

%crit and %hit will be replaced by crit rating and hit rating

* this is to ensure a level scalability for crit/hit items. As levels go up, these static % bonuses would become more and more valuable, you’d see people at 70 running around with Blackhand’s breadth and other such items because they were still amazing.
* This is for both melee and spells
* at 60, 14 crit rating will equal 1% crit. Blackhand’s bredth will be 28 crit rating. At 70, that 28 crit rating will be worth something around 1.2% crit
* This change may or may not make stats inherently more useful, as they often degrade at a slower rate (example, at 60 warriors require 20 agi for 1 crit. Going by the same scaling factor they’d require 23.3 agi for 1 crit at 70. If this is true, then for some classes, items with stats like Chromatic boots etc will be significantly more useful than items with +crit% for longer

=========
Beast Mastery
=========

Improved Aspect of the Cheetah
Rank: 0/3
Requires 2 points in Pathfinding
Requires 15 Points in Beast Mastery Talents

Reduces Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack’s penalty to daze you when struck to a 90% chance.

Bestial Discipline
Rank: 0/2
Requires 20 points in Beast Mastery Talents

Gives your pet’s melee attack a 20% chance to regain a small amount of Focus – amount increases for lower Attack Speeds.

Tier 7

Evolution
Rank: 0/5
Requires 30 points in Beast Mastery Talents

Your pet gains melee attack power equal to 4% of your melee attack power and gains Armor equal to 6% of your Armor.

Tier 8

Masters Influence
Rank: 0/2
Requires 35 points in Beast Mastery Talents

Your ranged critical strikes have a 50% chance to enrage your pet causing 30% additional damage for 8 seconds.

Natural Avoidance
Rank: 0/3
Requires 35 points in Beast Mastery Talents

Your pet has a 20% chance to avoid area of effect attacks.

Tier 9

Bestial Unity
Rank: 0/1
Requires 1 points in Bestial Wrath
Requires 40 points in Beast Mastery Talents

When you activate Bestial Wrath your pet gives out an intimidating howl, decreasing all damage your pet takes by 30% and increases your damage dealt by 15%.
Additionally, all threat generated by you is transfered to your pet. Lasts the entire duration of Bestial Wrath.

========
Marksmanship
========

Hawk Eye
Rank: 0/3
Requires 10 points in Marksmanship Talents

Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2 yards. Additionally reduces threat generated by your ranged attacks by 5%.

Improved Scorpid Sting
Rank: 0/3
Requires 20 points in Marksmanship Talents

Increases your ranged attack power against the target inflicted with Scorpid sting by 1% every 4 seconds for a maximum of 5%.

Tier 7

Trueshot Aura
Rank: 0/1
Requires 3 points in Barrage
Requires 30 points in Marksmanship Talents

325 Mana
Instant cast
Increases the Ranged and Melee attack power of party members within 45 yards by 30. Lasts 30 min.

Trainable Ranks Listed Below:
Rank 2: 425 Mana, 60 Attack Power
Rank 3: 525 Mana, 90 Attack Power
Rank 4: 625 Mana, 120 Attack power

Ranged Weapon Expertise
Rank: 0/5
Requires 5 points in Ranged Weapon Specialization
Requires 30 points in Marksmanship Talents

Increases your skills with Guns, Bows, and Crossbows by 2

Tier 8

Unparalalled Precision
Rank: 0/5
Requires 35 points in Marksmanship Talents

Increases your Ranged Attack Power by 4%.

Arachnid Sting
Rank: 0/1
Requires 35 points in Marksmanship Talents

170 Mana 8-35 yd Range
Instant cast
Requires Ranged Weapon
Stings the target for 15 seconds, reducing their armor by 100 every 3 seconds for a maximum of 500 armor reduction.
Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on any one target.

Trainable Ranks Listed Below:
Rank 2: 220 Mana, reduces armor by 250 every 3 seconds for a maximum of 1250 armor reduction
Rank 3: 270 Mana, reduces armor by 400 every 3 seconds for a maximum of 2000 armor reduction
Rank 4: 320 Mana, reduces armor by 550 every 3 seconds for a maximum of 2750 armor reduction

Tier 9

Hasted Response
Rank: 0/1
Requires 1 points in Scatter Shot
Requires 40 points in Marksmanship Talents

264 Mana
Instant cast 90 Second Cooldown
Your next Aimed Shot, Scatter Shot, Frozen Shot, Multi Shot or Concussive Shot will not start their respective cooldowns.

========
Survival
========

Improved Feign Death
Rank: 0/2
Requires 15 points in Survival Talents

Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability will be resisted by 10%. Additionally has a 50% chance to cure one Poison, Bleed or Sting effect.

Tier 7

Brawn
Rank: 0/5
Requires 30 points in the Survival Talents

Increases your Melee Attack Power by 5%.

Tier 8

Mental Trap
Rank: 0/1
Requires 35 points in the Survival Talents

60 Mana
Instant cast
Place a nature trap that affects the mind of the first enemy that approaches, preventing all spells from being cast for 4 seconds.
Trap will exist for 1 min. Traps can only be placed when out of combat. Only one trap can be active at a time.

Improved Mental Trap
Rank: 0/5
Requires 1 points in Mental Trap
Requires 35 points in the Survival Talents

Your Mental Trap has a 20% chance to erupt in screeches for 30 seconds when an enemy approaches. All enemies within 10 yds of the Trap are unable to cast spells.

Survival Of The Fittest
Rank: 0/1
Requires 5 points in Brawn
Requires 35 points in the Survival Talents

980 Mana 100 yd range
Instant cast
Sacrafice your pet to assume a Bestial Form, increasing your Health and Melee Attack Power by 25% and increases the chance you’ll resist Fear, Movement impairing and Stun effects by 60%.
However, you may not use any Ranged Abilities or Ranged Attacks while in this form.

Tier 9

Master Survivalist
Rank: 0/1
Requires 40 points in the Survival Talents

360 Mana
Instant Cast 2 min cooldown
All damage received in the entire duration of the next 10 seconds will then be converted back into health over 8 seconds.

Spells

========
Beast Mastery
========

Sentry Owl – Rank 1
Requires Level 64
94 Mana
Instant Cast

Place a Sentry Owl and see through its eyes at any range. Can detect Stealth opponents. Only one Sentry Owl can be placed at any time. Lasts 10 minutes.

Sentry Owl – Rank 2
Requires Level 70
94 Mana
Instant Cast

Place a Sentry Owl and see through its eyes at any range. Can detect Stealth opponents. Only three Sentry Owls can be placed at any time. Lasts 10 minutes.

Stampede – Rank 1
Requires Level 70
180 Mana
Instant Cast 35 sec cooldown

Command your pet to attack the target with a devastating blow, dealing melee damage plus 50 and knocking the target back by 6 yds.

========
Marksmanship
========

Frozen Arrow – Rank 1
Requires Level 70
330 Mana
1.5 Second Cast 25 sec cooldown
Requires a Ranged Weapon

Hits the target with a Frozen arrow freezing them and chain freezing any enemy within 4 yds from a frozen target for 5 seconds. All frozen targets cannot be harmed or healed.
Deals 600 damage once the target/s is released from the frozen state.

========
Survival
========

Fire Shrapnel – Rank 1
Requires lvl 66
120 Mana
Instant cast
Requires a Ranged Weapon

Plant a Shrapnel on the opponent that lasts for 20 seconds. Each time the shrapnel inflicted opponent attacks you with a fire based spell, your resistance to fire will be increased
by 30. Stacks up to 4 times. Only one Shrapnel per Hunter can be active on any one target.

Frost Shrapnel – Rank 1
Requires lvl 66
120 Mana
Instant cast
Requires a Ranged Weapon

Plant a Shrapnel on the opponent that lasts for 20 seconds. Each time the shrapnel inflicted opponent attacks you with a frost based spell, your resistance to frost will be increased
by 30. Stacks up to 4 times. Only one Shrapnel per Hunter can be active on any one target.

Nature Shrapnel – Rank 1
Requires lvl 70
120 Mana
Instant cast
Requires a Ranged Weapon

Plant a Shrapnel on the opponent that lasts for 20 seconds. Each time the shrapnel inflicted opponent attacks you with a nature based spell, your resistance to nature will be increased
by 30. Stacks up to 4 times. Only one Shrapnel per Hunter can be active on any one target.

Shadow Shrapnel – Rank 1
Requires lvl 70
120 Mana
Instant cast
Requires a Ranged Weapon

Plant a Shrapnel on the opponent that lasts for 20 seconds. Each time the shrapnel inflicted opponent attacks you with a shadow based spell, your resistance to shadow will be increased
by 30. Stacks up to 4 times. Only one Shrapnel per Hunter can be active on any one target.

Track Invisibility – Rank 1
Requires lvl 68
Instant cast

Detect Invisible opponents and shows invisible units within detection range on the minimap. Only one form of tracking can be active at a time.

WoW Insider has published information about the coming Burning Crusade hunter talents. They are most likely fake but nevertheless interesting lecture. Follow the link for full details on talents and spells.
Hunter’s stat mechanics are being fundamentally altered.

  • In the current alpha, hunters only receive 1 RAP per point of AGI instead of 2.
  • They have lowered the agi/crit ratio for hunters to something like 33 (more like rogues)
  • They have boosted the dps value of all ranged weapons in the game by about 10%
  • from anecdotal accounts it sounds like you epic hunters will gain about 5% crit or so and lose about 400 AP. While your bows will be boosted in magnitude, (anecdotal accounts would place the boosted Ash’rethul on par with the Slavemaker from Naxx)
  • Hopefully that will leave you about in the same place, powerwise
  • This will however change what hunters look for in stats, and significantly change how your talents function, which may be why yours were saved for the second batch.

%crit and %hit will be replaced by crit rating and hit rating

  • this is to ensure a level scalability for crit/hit items. As levels go up, these static % bonuses would become more and more valuable, you’d see people at 70 running around with Blackhand’s breadth and other such items because they were still amazing.
  • This is for both melee and spells
  • at 60, 14 crit rating will equal 1% crit. Blackhand’s bredth will be 28 crit rating. At 70, that 28 crit rating will be worth something around 1.2% crit
  • This change may or may not make stats inherently more useful, as they often degrade at a slower rate (example, at 60 warriors require 20 agi for 1 crit. Going by the same scaling factor they’d require 23.3 agi for 1 crit at 70. If this is true, then for some classes, items with stats like Chromatic boots etc will be significantly more useful than items with +crit% for longer

Beast Mastery

Improved Aspect of the Cheetah
Bestial Discipline
Evolution
Masters Influence
Natural Avoidance
Bestial Unity

Marksmanship

Hawk Eye
Improved Scorpid Sting
Trueshot Aura
Ranged Weapon Expertise
Unparalalled Precision
Arachnid Sting
Hasted Response

Survival

Improved Feign Death
Brawn
Mental Trap
Improved Mental Trap
Survival Of The Fittest
Master Survivalist

Spells

Sentry Owl
Stampede
Frozen Arrow
Fire Shrapnel
Frost Shrapnel
Nature Shrapnel
Shadow Shrapnel
Track Invisibility

Burning Crusade Stormcrow and Dragonhawk

With the latest update of the Burning Crusade Alpha Client a new Spell has been introduced.

Flight Form
Shapeshift
Requires Level 68
Self20 Mana
3.000 sec cast
Transforms the Druid into Flight Form. While in this form you are able to fly in Outland. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.

I found it here at the Curse Gaming Spell Database.

Burning Crusade Honor Tab

I have just been sent this nice screenshot of the the Burning Crusade honor tab. The upper part shows the current honor that is used to „buy“ honor awards, while the lower part of the tab shows the Arena Achievements. Apparently there are 3 types of teams: 2 on 2, 3 on 3 and 5 on 5.

Burning Crusade Honor tab, with honor kills, and Arena matches. Thanks for sending me that picture.

Burning Crusade Changes to the Honor System.

Vaneck gave out a few more details on the upcoming changes to the honor system in Burning Crusade. You can read the whole Forum post here. Read the more important information below:

We’d like to share the following Honour changes that will be introduced with The Burning Crusade:

After the Expansion, the old Honor system will be completely removed and players who achieved ranks in the old Honour system will be able to choose to display their highest gained Rank as a title. We are interested in reintroducing these titles in the future but we have no specific plans in place yet.

Honour:
Players participating in Battlegrounds and outdoor world pvp gain honor points and players will be able to spend these on special honour rewards. The level 70 honour rewards are not currently planned to have item levels as high as the best raid or arena stuff.

Arenas:
If you’re on an arena team, you gain arena points at the end of each week based on your arena team’s rating. You spend arena points on arena rewards, and it will be seriously phat lewt, which will also most likely be more PvP oriented.