Here comes the next content patch (3.2)

[Lantyssa]

I really hope Arthas is not redeemed.  He's been a dick since day one.  There is nothing to redeem because he was never a good person.  But I expect it given WoW 'morality'.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Alternate interpretation (aka what the quest heavily implied): Tirion was planning to try and pull some sort of redemption thing right up until the point he actually got the heart then went " there's not actually anything left that can be redeemed" and then being a lawful good (as opposed to lawful stupid) paladin tried to use the heart to kill Arthas.

Oh, and add Sylvanas to the "Gonna show up in Icecrown" list. She's got a slight grudge.

that's exactly what that quest was saying.  Basically "the light can redeem anyone....but arthas is proper fucked"

[Paelos]

I put in the Yogg achievement with what I hoped was a ridiculous stand-in number. Clearly it wasn't ridiculous enough because players were variously excited or worried that it was a real number.

Then in an example on how we don't want raids to rotate in tanks, I wanted to pick what I hoped was a ridiculous number so that players wouldn't try and and deduce from my answer how many bosses Icecrown has.

Sadly, my sarcasm doesn't translate well to the forums.

Like I said, he's fucking with people.

[Sjofn]

Clearly Mal'ganis will help us kill off the Lich King because he ALSO has a grudge, and then OH MY GOD MAL'GANIS IS THE REAL END BOSS OF ICECROWN and then the nerdrage will explode across the internets because that's just what happens with WoW lore for some reason.

[Nevermore]

Obviously Tirion will turn out to have been Mal'ganis in disguise the whole time!  It was all a clever ruse!

[Fordel]

I put in the Yogg achievement with what I hoped was a ridiculous stand-in number. Clearly it wasn't ridiculous enough because players were variously excited or worried that it was a real number.

Then in an example on how we don't want raids to rotate in tanks, I wanted to pick what I hoped was a ridiculous number so that players wouldn't try and and deduce from my answer how many bosses Icecrown has.

Sadly, my sarcasm doesn't translate well to the forums.

Like I said, he's fucking with people.

Now I'm sad :(

[Ratman_tf]

I think it'd be a serious letdown not to kill Arthas.  Also, remember, it's not just Arthas anyway, it's Nehr'zul too.  So you'd have to split him again if you wanted to redeem him.

My money is on Arthas being gone. His soul is just another gallon in Nehr'zul's gas tank at this point, after he hijacked his body. It would be a fitting end to Arthas. He sold his soul, and in the end, doesn't even get to share the power.

[WindupAtheist]

IIRC, the quest dialogue went something like...

Tirion: Got your heart, bitch!
Arthas: You ain't gonna do shit. You're gonna try to redeem me, because you're a schmuck that way.
Tirion: Actually now that I've gotten a close look, there's nothing left to redeem in you. *STAB*
Arthas: OW FUCK OW OW!

Also, I think that Arthas novel states that it's the other way around. He ate Ner'zhul. At least that's what the Arthas entry at WoWwiki states now.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, I think you're right, the Arthas novel says he wins the battle of wills with Ner'zhul or some shit and he's running the show inside the body or whatever.

[Lantyssa]

That's what Ner'zhul wants him to believe.

[AutomaticZen]

That's what Ner'zhul wants him to believe.

That's what Arthas wants him to believe.

It's like a chess game of insanity.

[K9]

Lorelol.

The last boss in Icecrown will be zombie Kael anyway, everyone knows that.

[kildorn]

Lorelol.

The last boss in Icecrown will be zombie Hogger anyway, everyone knows that.

Would be far more awesome if you're going to lorelol it.

[Ingmar]

No way. Magister's Terrace was only a setback!

[Mattemeo]

Arthas will be the final boss. Just as you cleave away the final morsels of his HP bar, a scourge minion will bound up to him (a geist, preferably, those guys are great) and say "Marthter, the Dwagon, he ritheth!" (speech impediment completely necessary) - bringing news of the successful re-awakening of Galakrond.
Arthas will be all "Moo hoo haha, you cannot defeat me now, I has a dragon innit" and then just as he plans to mount Galakrond and bring about the destruction of all life, he realises the folly of bringing a million ton, mile long, morning-cranky dragon back from the dead, and Galakrond eats him.
Then Alexstrasza will appear and say "I could have totally done that back at the Wrathgate, I just didn't feel like it - oh hai daddy" and Galakrond will tell her she's not leaving the Dragonshrine dressed like that.

[K9]

Frankly I don't care, so long as the bosses have the same quality dialogue as the bosses in Ulduar.

[Sjofn]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

  XT 

[Ingmar]

and Galakrond will tell her she's not leaving the Dragonshrine dressed like that.

ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[SurfD]

I was never fully clear as to what exactly happens to Matthias Lehner at the end of the Heart questline.

Matthias Lehner is an anagram for Arthas Menethil, and appears to actually be disembodied remains of whatever good there used to be in Arthas's soul.  From what i can gather, even though the novel indicates that Arthas-as-Lich-King's last act was to utterly destroy it, it seems to me like it has become a completely indipendant entity.  Quite possibly, after you vanquish the Lich king, his "good soul" will ether be free to pass on, or may be re-born / re-incarnated as an utterly "good" arthas, since you basicly just obliterated the evil half of his personality.

[Dren]

Seriously. Fuck off.

People like you bitch at every little thing blizzard does when it comes to wow lore...

I know next to nothing about the lore and don't care.  I don't like killing these big bosses (in any game) that supposedly got to where they are by tearing reality apart or imploding universes because we all of a sudden figured out that if you take a toenail and some grass to a special forge you can make them weak and after a 15 minutes fight with 25 people destroy them.  Hell this time we actually do quests that show just how powerful Arthas was when he started out.  We know the hps his hits took, and what his cooldowns were, etc.  I'd only imagine he has grown stronger.

But no.  We'll get there with 25 people and chop him down in a very special and specific way.  His 250k one shots will be gone.  His massive AOE insta-kill power won't be available.  Blah blah blah.

Killing other bosses that weren't known already to have done universe shattering feats is fine.  They are tough and killing them is important to prgression.  Killing the ultimate good or bad entities in a game world of any kind in and of itself is immersion breaking to me.  Then, add to that, nothing actually changes in the game world when you do it is just the definition of anti-climatic.

Same as all other MMO's?  Yep.  Gonna stop me from playing the game?  Nope.  Just an opinion.  I would hope they try "something different."  My faith was in their phasing techniques.  I'd love to see them really actually use it to its fullest.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Except that arthas isn't the ultimate bad entity in warcraft, sargeras is.  Arthas isn't even the most powerful entity on the planet right now, that's aszhara.  He's just popular and 'cool' but in terms of raw power he himself is not the strong, his power mostly comes from his armies of undead.

[Fordel]

Straight from the Desk of "Why the Fuck am I still awake" reporting!

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=92744.0

[K9]

Rogue tears incoming.

[Merusk]

Gee, it only took them 8 months to realize that it was nutty?  Someone's pet rogue must have moved-on.   

[bhodi]

Shame, I didn't think it warranted a 30% reduction. It was good damage, but I didn't think it was ridiculously OP (general opinion says I'm wrong about this).

The HaT nerf is sad; it completely eliminates that unique and useful (in some circumstances) build. I guess some people hated it, I thought it was "something different".

Mind Flay glyph not removing slow is funny since they railed against it over and over and over and over again. "Oh it'd be too overpowered!".

[Selby]

Now my arcane mage is going to do more damage and have it cost less mana.  Score?

[kildorn]

Shame, I didn't think it warranted a 30% reduction. It was good damage, but I didn't think it was ridiculously OP (general opinion says I'm wrong about this).

The HaT nerf is sad; it completely eliminates that unique and useful (in some circumstances) build. I guess some people hated it, I thought it was "something different".

Mind Flay glyph not removing slow is funny since they railed against it over and over and over and over again. "Oh it'd be too overpowered!".

The damage nerf on FoK was missing the point and seems to be overnerfing in reaction. The interrupt change is all anyone really wanted, it was crazy to have a no cooldown AE kick in the game.

[Soulflame]

I thought there were going to be actual nerfs to rogues in that.  Now I'm disappointed.

[Paelos]

Fan of knives nerf just makes rogues less annoying now for me as the tank. They still do asskicker damage to anything they touch. The Onyxia mount also looks really really cool.

Also, I tried out both the bosses released in Trial of Crusader this week, and the place is pretty fun. The learning curve early on is pretty steep if you don't read up on all the strategy stuff, but once you have a solid plan it's not that bad at all. It took us two days to kill those two bosses, and we're mostly in Naxx/badge gear with 1-2 Ulduar upgrades. I think that's near the level Blizzard expected for the ten difficulty.

Downside is they dropped hunter shit twice.

[Nevermore]

That's a pretty nice feral buff.  Not huge or anything but I can think of some nice utility uses for it.  Mostly a solo and/or pvp buff but a potential insta-cast battle rez in raids is nice, too.  I wonder how long the proc lasts.

[ezrast]

Mage

    * Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 130% instead of 200%.

Arcane

    * Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

You have gotta be fucking kidding me. "Oh, ezrast unsubbed; let's make his class ONE MILLION TIMES MORE AWESOME."

And I thought the 3.2 buff I was missing was pretty great. Fuuuuuck.

[Sheepherder]

Just sit it out, resub when the next patch drops, and sponge up some welfare epics in the tournament 5-man.

[jpark]

I may take a break from this and try Aion or re-examine EQ2.

I see a trajectory to this game of a global dumb down to combat and encounters that is taking its toll.

[Rasix]

   We get it, dude.

On the plus side, this patch is making me a steady amount of low effort money.  Transmute master alt + JCer alt ftw.

[Selby]

On the plus side, this patch is making me a steady amount of low effort money.

I made 2k just selling enchants above material cost.  It was great.