Inscription Rundown

So I decided to give a good shot at Inscription on the Beta Premade server.  Its similar to two professions already.  Its like enchanting in the fact that you have tiers of mats.  Its also like jewelcrafting in that you get alot of your mats from Milling herbs.  So here's a quick rundown of what you should expect.  I'm currently on Tier 5, and its progressively harder.  Originally glyphs were always orange when you first bought them, now they're green.

• Classic WoW
  • Tier 1-Alabaster Pigment(Moonglow Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Silverleaf
    • Peacebloom
    • Earthroot
    • Mageroyal
  • Tier 2-Dusky Pigment(Midnight Ink) and Verdant Pigment(Hunter Ink, Dawnstar Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Briarthorn
    • Swiftthistle
    • Bruiseweed
    • Stranglekelp
  • Tier 3-Golden Pigment(Lion Ink, Dawnstar Ink) and Burnt Pigment(Nothing Yet!)
    Milled from:
    • Grave Moss
    • Wild Steelbloom
    • Kingsblood
    • Liferoot
  • Tier 4-Emerald Pigment(Jadefire Ink, Royal Ink) and Indigo Pigment(Royal Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Khadgar's Whisker
    • Goldthorn
    • Fadeleaf
    • Wintersbite
  • Tier 5-Violet Pigment(Celestial Ink, Fiery Ink) and Ruby Pigment(Fiery Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Blindweed
    • Firebloom
    • Arthas' Tear
    • Gromsblood
    • Purple Lotus
    • Sungrass
  • Tier 6-Silvery Pigment(Shimmering Ink, Ink of the Sky) and Sapphire Pigment(Ink of the Sky)
    Milled from:
    • Golden Sansam
    • Dreamfoil
    • Mountain Silversage
    • Plaguebloom
    • Icecap
• Outlands
  • Tier 7-Nether Pigment(Etheral Ink, Darkflame Ink) and Ebon Pigment(Darkflame Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Any Outland Herb
• Northrend
  • Tier 8-Azure Pigment(Ink of the Sea, Snowfall Ink) and Icy Pigment(Snowfall Ink)
    Milled from:
    • Any Northrend Herb

TMNT

Found this in the Dalaran Sewers, quite clever.  If you don't get it, you've led a sad childhood.

Beta Shots-Naxxramas Looms

Still can't wait to get inside Naxx again.  Also some cool looking guard towers that look like the ones from Warcraft 3.

Beta Shots-Eagle

A cool looking eagle sitting on a rock in Grizzly Hills.  They've added alot of depth to the world, birds flying around(not those crappy lookin ones in the old world), more sharks and other aquatic animals.

Tier 7-Paladin

Holy

Protection

Retribution

Not sure if these are 10 or 25-man, but same deal as Death Knights, they have the same set bonuses.

Tier 7-Death Knight

DPS

Tank

New Passive Spells in spellbook, so we know exactly how much bonus we get.

I believe both links are Tier 7 10-man.  Doesn't matter, set bonuses are the same.  Really happy about the disease tooltips.

Beta Shots-Warsong Hold Dialog

Some dialog at the horde town, Warsong Hold.  Its an orc telling his son about some Alliance deserters, that happen to be in the pen with the pigs.

Beta Shots-Entrance to Azjol-Nerub

This is cool how they made it seem very hidden.  The holes in the ceiling actually goto the surface, where a river use to flow.  Hard to explain, very cool to see.

Beta Shots-Wyrmrest Temple

At the bottom of the screenshot is the area that has the 10/25 man instance, Chamber of Aspects.  At the top is the Red Dragonflight, including Alexstrasz, leading the fight against the Blue Dragonflight, who are trying to wipe out magic users, and are attacking the tower.

Beta Shots-Windfury Weapon

The new rank of Windfury Weapon.  I'm not sure if this is available at 70, I was 72 when they were patched in...didn't even work.  They got them to work last patch.  There's a glyph also, that gives your Windfury Weapon bonus damage a 40% increase, making this even better.

Beta Shots-Throne of Stormwind

"Hey the King is Back!"  Or however the male human joke goes.  This is his new throne.  I guess they give missing kings cool thrones for coming back.  Lady Prestor isn't to be found, wonder how they Onyxia chain works now.

A Hobby of Mine

I'm new to it, but I play Warhammer 40K. I play Tau Empire, and tend to always lose to the friend that got me hooked on it, who plays Chaos Space Marines. I hate his Noise Marines. This is one of the basic units Tau. I bought a box that came with nine of them, three of this smaller armored unit and 18 Gun Drones. Two down, seven to go.

Beta Shots-Fog Effects

They've added some cool fog effects in Wrath.  They look really good and give the game more atmosphere.

Beta Shots-Dryads

The new Northrend dryad model.  This particular dryad had a decient quest chain, nothing hard, all fairly close.

Beta Shots-Creepy Waterthing

This is at Theramore, suprisingly.  Evidently its part of some quest that originates in Northrend.

Beta Shots-Mountains!

One of the reasons why flying mounts will be needed/used more than they were in The Burning Crusade.  This is looking down on one of the Alliance towns, from the peak of a mountain where I completed a quest.

Beta Shots-Azjol-nerub

This is just the outside.  I'm really impressed on the varity of dungeon art.

WotLK Release Date!

Wowhead has a banner that says November 13th, 2008. Looks reliable

Beta Shots-Even More Warsong Hold

The first thing you see after getting off the zeplin.

Beta Shots-More Warsong Hold

An awesome floor warmap inside the hold, showing Alliance, Horde and Arthas' Forces.

Beta Shots-Warsong Hold

While I don't care for most of Boren Tundra, I do love the Horde fortress that Blizzard has crafted.  Its amazing,  and you can't get the feel of it till you see it yourself.  Horde will arive at it via zeplin from Orgrimar.  It lands inside the fortress and your quickly introduced to the troubles at the hold.

Beta Shots-High Warlord Saurfang

Even the Alliance talks about Saurfang in high regards.

Beta Shots-Shaman Surfin'

Cool little quest chain in Howling Fjord that ends with you riding one of the spears back down to the town.

Beta Shots-Patchwerk Want to Play

One of the recient beta patches extended the Death Knight starting questline.  It now ends with you having to cleanse Ebon Hold of the Lich King's "present."  No he didn't leave something on the rug, but he did leave Patchwerk.  Luckly you still have the uber Aura you did from the Lights Hope Chapel event.

New WotLK Daily

Beta Shots-Naxxramas

One of the places I can't wait to raid again.  I loved the 40-man version, and made great progress with the guild I was in at the time, Kingsguard(on Medivh).

Beta Shots-Noobs in Beta

This is the guy you should be mad at for getting into the beta when you didn't.

Beta Shots-Grizzly Hills

An amazing view of Grizzly Hills from Howling Fjord.  Haven't been able to explore Grizzly Hills much, but it looks amazing so far.

Beta Shots-Titan Statue

Very cool quest chain leads you to explore around the statue, while disguised so that the Iron Dwarves who've taken over don't question you. This was taken from a flight path taking me to the start of the chain. Some interesting Titan lore from this chain, it makes it even more mysterious.

Beta Shots-Howling Fjord

The first thing you see as you enter Howling Fjord...the fjord! Its really narrow, and the ship fills the waterway. It really is an amazing way to start Northrend.

Beta Shots-Waterfall

The scenery is amazing. Makes The Burning Crusade look boring. And I've only seen two zones!

Beta Shots-Shoveltusks

These guys are really well done. Not only do they have herds, but they have ones called "Shoveltusk Stag." If another one comes near the others herd, they'll fight. They start out by charging each other. Then they hit each other for awhile, till about half health, when they retreat. Seeing it is better than my description.

Beta Shots-Storm Giants

Storm Giants! The Fel Reaver of Howling Fjord!

Beta Shots-Dragonblight Coastline

Taken from one of the docks at a Tuskarr settlement; thought it was very cool. Shows off the Northrend sky and its "Aurora Borealis" effect.

Beta Shots-Desecrated Vykrul Grave

A small section of quests have you find out who desecrated some old Vykrul graves. They all have the spirit of a Vykrul over them. This one in particular had one casting some wave. Looked really cool. Another had the spirit of his pet bear sleeping by the grave.

Beta Shots-Proto Dragon

Surprisingly, this is still in Howling Fjord. Its some sort of Proto Dragon hatching grounds. Few quests involved with the area.

Beta Shots-Island

This is the island that the Ancient Lift takes you to. Its from a different angle and far away.

Beta Shots- Ancient Lift

The Ancient Lift is what you see me riding there. It carries players from the mainland in Howling Fjord to and island with a Tuskarr settlement.

Beta Shots-Utgard Keep

The first thing you see entering Howling Fjord is the massive Utgard Keep looming over the quite small Alliance outpost. The level 70 dungeon itself is short and fun, though the last boss did bug out the first time; luckily you only have to run out to reset him.

Beta Shots-Forsaken Plaguebringer

These guys were cool, they had chemguns and were plaguing a Vykrul town. Not fun to fight if you pull more than one though.

Beta Shots-Northrend Inns

The new Inns are cool. No cellar, but they are split level, and have a bit more "life" to them.

Shaman's in Wrath

I reciently recieved my own beta invite and began trying out my current main in the harsh lands of Northrend.  I decided to start in Howling Fjord, since its just plain amazing.  Everything about it.  I would have bought the beta if that was the only zone they designed.  After almost dying due to a current beta bug that makes health and mana(rage/energy/runes/runic power) not regen, I was off and questing.

I stuck with my current shaman's raiding spec, Enhancement, and adjusted for the new talents.  I did the majority of the quests in the starting town, and a good bit in the second major Alliance outpost.  I was finding it difficult to get five stacks of Malstrom Weapon up on any single mob.  The changes to shaman's attributes really messed up my gear, since most of it is [1]Leather and [2]Gemmed for Strength.  I lost about 6% crit, since it takes more agility for 1% crit, but gained about 400 attack power.  Even with crit affecting spell crit now, I didn't have enough to make Elemental Devistation proc reliably enough.

I found even with Black Temple and Hyjal gear, I was struggling with quests.  Since I had a good set of Elemental gear from Arenas, I decided to give it a shot before counting Shaman out.  I returned to Stormwind, respected to Elemental, and took the boat from the new Stormwind Harbor to Boren Tundra, the other starting zone.

Wow, what a differance respecing made.  Elemental is even better than it was in The Burning Crusade.  With about 1000 to nature spells, I was critting for 3800 to 4000.  Even better was the fact I never had to drink.  I did happen to have a Glyph that reduced my Lightning Bolt mana cost by 10%.  And Thunderstorm was just plain cool, and was still effective.  I quested for awhile, trying the build out.  Overall I'm pleased with Elemental.

Sorry Restoration fans, I didn't try it out.  While I have enough decient gear to try it, its not my cup of tea.  Also, its not as easy to test while questing.

I'm sure Enhancement will be fine.  Spirit Wolves is still not implemented and my gear didn't fit the changes well.  My only worry is that Enhancement feels bloated at its higher talents.  Elemental has no worry for now, except nerfs.

Beta Shots-Tirion Fordring

Picture says it all. Some cool quests right from the start in Howling Fjord. One in particular ends with him, which I won't ruin, but is very cool.

Beta Shots-Dragonblight Arcane Thing

Taken when flying over the zone Dragonblight. Not sure what it is, but it looked cool.

Beta Shots-Howling Fjord Chasm

This is that chasm they showed in the teaser trailer for Wrath. Its full of Explore's League dwarves who've gone crazy.

Beta Shots-Death Knight DPS at 70

This was taken when I had the 30% Strength weapon proc, trinket buff, 15% damage from Bloody Vengeance, 10% attack power from Abomination's Strength and 15% haste from Unholy Presence. Fun stuff.