Yet Another Warlock Nerf

Have you sold any brooms lately? I have to admit it didn't go well as I planned. I sold all flying and swift ground ones (15 of them or so), but didn't have any luck with Magic Brooms. Nobody wanted to buy them so I gave them away for free after a few days of trying. I sold Swift Flying Brooms for 30-40 g a piece so I guess it was worth it in the end.
Don't forget to get rid of the brooms before patch 2.3.2 hits - they will be changed to 14 days realtime duration! Yeah, bastards nerfed them. If nothing else, they will make a great Christmas present for random lowbies in Orgrimmar.

Anyway, back to the topic.

There are 3 recipes which are available only during Winter's Veil, and now's the time to take advantage of it.

Elixir of Frost Power is used in alchemy, and it's quite good for a level 28 elixir. Winter's Might weapon enchant is not great, but some mage twinks might like it. Lastly, Snowmaster 9000 is the only way to get Snowballs till next year's Winter's Veil.

The recipes aren't that hard to get - simply do all the quests and you should easily get at least one. Kaliope has some tips on that!

If you have a profession which can use any of this recipes, learn it just for the sake of it if you want. But just like with brooms, someone will want to buy it eventually, so I suggest you pay a visit to your favorite auctioneer (I like the one on the left in Orgrimmar's AH, how about you?) and buy as many as you can - for a reasonable price of course, which greatly depends on the realm but I'd say less than 40g.

Keep the recipes somewhere safe, and hope there won't be too many people doing the same thing. Trust me, in 2-3 months, you will easily get over 100g per recipe.



P.S. Here's some great tips on making gold with alchemy!

The most obvious way to make money with Alchemy is to transmute Earth to Water, since earth generally goes for 3 to 5 gold and Water goes for 15 to 20 gold. Get your Sporeggar rep up to Revered and start doing this transmute daily. It is the easies 10 to 15 gold you will ever make.

I was actually gonna make a post about it but too late now. And I wouldn't say this is obvious - I still see dozens of tards selling Primal Might transmutes etc. in trade channel for 5 gold.
If you choose transmute mastery, I recommend transmuting either Primal Might or Skyfire Diamonds. And not for someone else's mats and giving them the procs for a measly 5g! You'd have to be insane to do that. Take a couple of hours and farm the mats yourself or just buy it on AH.
If you have elixir or potion mastery, transmuting Primal Earth into Water is, as stated, the easiest 10-15g you will ever make. Each day.

> Making gold: Winter's Veil

Mad Alchemist's Potion
It seems this new potion has a 95% chance to proc an additional elixir effect, and it's class dependant - meaning you will get buffs depending on your class, so casters should get Elixir of Draenic Wisdom or similar, and melee classes should get Elixir of Mastery or Major Agility. Good news. But I wonder how will it work with different specs or roles - what exactly will my feral druid get?


Druid

• Growl: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.
• Challenging Roar: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.

I believe spell hit rating was previously increasing the chance for these spells not to be resisted so this is good news. Tanking druids still lack serious hit rating though.


Warlock

• Unstable Affliction: The silence from this ability is now subject to diminishing returns.

What can I say... nerf to dual lock teams.

Warrior

• Challenging Shout: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.
• Taunt: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.

Same as for druids, a welcome and needed change. Intimidating Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl are not getting changed though.


Raids & Dungeons

• The Mechanar: The Cache of the Legion can now only be looted by players who are present during some portion of a successful attempt of the Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand encounters. In addition, on Heroic difficulty Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand no longer drop Badges of Justice. Instead, the Cache of the Legion contains a Badge of Justice for each player present.

My favorite Badge of Justice farming instance is getting nerfed :((

You can read the full patch notes on worldofraids.com.

Also, I'd like to point out that Ming, considered a very good rogue (and a very nice blogger) thinks Rogues are finally the strongest class in TBC.

I got no idea how I missed this, but Wowinsider is here to point it out. Druids will be able to shift forms without exposing themselves to vulnerable human form, which is in my opinion overpowered (I got a druid, remember). While the change looks very cool and somewhat logical, I believe it is hard enough for any class to catch a druid as it is.
Also from latest patch notes:

• PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde now clear the debuff from Judgement of Justice.

So long paladin, you shall not catch my druid anymore! Can this please be nerfed?

> New PTR build: Ain't getting better

Who do you think will be more overpowered in next patch, rogues or hunters?
Hunter's ranged attacks min range is now 1 yard . Mmo-champion calls it mega major über change. I'm completely and utterly dissapointed - Mortal Strike, Dispel Magic, and now reduced minimum range... Wait - it's not instant? Oh, no worries hunters, wait a day or two it will be.
I can't wait to see what BRK has so say about this!


Update:

It seems hunters won't be able to shoot from 1 yard afterall - supposedly it's a tooltip error.
But I can't help to wonder, why were hunters able to shoot from 1 yard on PTR? Imo, it's easier to say it's a bug then explain to the community why they did such drastic changes and then reverted it. Drain Life didn't get nerfed also - it's just a bugfix after 2.5 years.

Drysc:

There's a tooltip error, it should be "5-35 yards". We want melee and ranged to be kept separate, so that when in melee attack range you should not be able to use a ranged attack. There's some amount of 'give' there, especially in fast paced PvP which can produce some temporary gray area but that's fully known with this change.

Feeding the issue of the tooltip error is a bug currently where you can indeed range attack someone while being meleed, but that's in the process of being resolved as well.

---

Yes I know, I'm complaining a lot. I love my warlock and I'd hate to abandon it - every class got some love this patch, except locks and shaman. Oh wait, shaman got free spell damage from healing. I won't get the Merciless Gladiator mount, and it will be twice as hard in Season 3 with the newly nerfed lock.

But hey, seems my druid will have something to look forward to.

The Mad Alchemist's Potions "side effect" is actually a random buff from other elixirs. However it won't replace existing elixir buffs if you have one on.

It would be wrong to make an entirely new making gold post about this, because there ain't much to say.
When I first found out about Mad Alchemist's Potion, I thought the side effects would be negative, like on Fel Mana (hunter pot!) or Fel Rejuvenation Potion. It seems I was wrong. Although the buffs you get will be random, so it might not be exactly what you need at the moment, it's still a pretty solid chance to get a useful stat boost which does stack with other elixirs! Gosh I can't wait to try it.
There's not many potions you can make from Ragveil, so people usually don't even bother picking them up, but since this new pot is so cheap to make, expect Ragveil prices to increase. It won't make you a fortune, but you won't regret it either.

> Hunters, rejoice!

It seems some people have joined the cause after Big Bear Butt's idea about having a list of raid consumables on guild websites, so I thought what the heck, I'll make a list for warlocks.
Although my list will be much more simple since warlocks won't be healing or tanking, still there are certain buffs that will benefit you more than the other. Don't use shadow priest consumables, ok?

Alchemy

• Flasks:

Flask of Pure Death - Increases spell damage caused by Shadow, Fire and Frost spells by up to 80 for 120 min. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
Cost: 30-40g per flask

Flask of Mighty Restoration - Increases mana regeneration by 25 mana per 5 seconds for 120 min. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
Cost: 30g

Flask of Pure Death... even the name suggests it's the best flask out there. Mighty Restoration is merely an alternative.

• Elixirs (guardian):

Elixir of Major Fortitude - Increases maximum health by 250 and restores 10 health every 5 seconds for 60 min.
Cost: 2g per elixir.

Elixir of Major Mageblood - Regenerate 16 mana per 5 sec for 60 min.
Cost: 5g per elixir.

I'd prefer Major Fortitude, since it doesn't cost so much and more health and hp/5 means more Life taps.

• Elixirs (battle):

Elixir of Major Shadow Power - Increases shadow spell damage by up to 55 for 60 min.
Cost: 4-5g per elixir

Elixir of Major Fire Power - Increases fire spell damage by up to 55 for 60 min.
Cost: 10-12g per elixir

Adept's Elixir - Increases spell damage and healing by up to 24 and spell critical strike rating by 24 for 60 min.
Cost: 3g per elixir

Major Shadow Power is the best here, however if you're a fire lock (and you shouldn't be, especially if you're raiding) you might want to use Elixir of Major Fire Power. Adept's Elixir is quite good also, but use it only if you find yourself unable to get Elixirs of Major Shadow Power.

• Potions:

Super Healing Potion - Restores 1500 to 2500 health.
Cost: 2-3g

Super Mana Potion - Restores 1800 to 3000 mana.

If you have talent points in Improved Life Tap, Super Healing Potions should be better than Mana Potions. But you can save a bit of money and don't use potions at all - use Life Tap, Siphon Life and Drain Life.
You can also get 2 potions a day by doing daily quest in Skettis. And don't forget - if you have too many marks from battlegrounds, you can exchange them for potions also (two marks for one potion) in Hall of Legends of Hall of Champions. They won't restore as much health or mana as Super pots but are pretty cheap.


Cooking

Blackened Basilisk - Restores 7500 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 min.

Poached Bluefish - Restores 7500 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes.

Crunchy Serpent - Restores 7500 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes.

Blackened Sporefish - Restores 4320 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 minutes.

Blackened Basilisk is very easy to get (basilisk in Terokkar Forest have a good drop); Crunchy Serpent is a bit harder since mobs are higher level and more spread around. For Poached Bluefish and Blackened Sporefish you will need fishing. I recommend Blackened Basilisk over Sporefish, since we don't need mp5 as much as spell damage.


Enchanting

Superior Wizard Oil - While applied to target weapon it increases spell damage by up to 42. Lasts for 30 minutes.
Cost: 10g for 5 charges.

Superior Mana Oil - While applied to target weapon it restores 14 mana to the caster every 5 seconds. Lasts for 30 minutes.
Cost: 12g for 5 charges

42 spell damage is much better than 14 mp/5 for a warlock. These temporary enchants will stack with permanent enchants (major spellpower or similar), so there is no reason why not to use them. Also, they won't dissapear after you die, although 30 minutes might not be enough for two boss attempts.


So there you have it!
If you buff yourself with spell damage consumables mentioned here, you will get an extra 145 spell damage. You will spend around 100g for a few hours of raiding, but if you finally out-dps that mage it will be worth it, right?

If you got something I didn't mention here, be sure to let me know.

> Warlock Raid Consumables