World of Warcraft: 3.2 bringing profession upgrades and new shaman totem bar

June 17, 6:33 PMMMORPG ExaminerJaime Skelton

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Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Adding to the growing list of changes pending in the next patch for World of Warcraft (3.2, "Call of the Crusade") are two new changes confirmed - upgrades to profession enhancements and jewelcrafting epics, and a new totem bar for shaman.

Per Bornakk, crafters will see the following changes:

The design recipes for cutting epic gems will be made available for purchase with Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens and there are several ways to obtain raw epic gems:

• Prospecting Titanium Ore
  
• Alchemy transmutations
  
• Purchased with Honor
  
• Purchased with Emblems of Heroism

• The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased
  
• Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from the honor potion vendor. The Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power, or Strength for 1 hour, and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  
• Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced. They are still usable everywhere else.

• No changes will be made to this profession; it will continue to have the 2 additional prismatic sockets (which can hold the new epic gems)

• Values on Northrend ring enchants increased

• Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications

• Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6)
  
• Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health
  
• Lifeblood no longer affected by global cooldown

• Master's Inscriptions increased

• Dragon's Eye gems stat bonuses increased

• Fur Lining values increased

• Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina

• Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating

• Embroideries improved

Per Nethaera, shaman can look forward to a new totem bar as well:

There comes a time in all shaman’s lives when they must learn to harness the power of nature and wield powerful totems. As they grow in power, so do the opportunities to use these instruments of healing, protection, and destruction. In the upcoming content patch, Call of the Crusade, the shaman will be able to quickly place totems of each element, aiding them in managing these powerful focuses of nature.

We wanted to provide some insight regarding the upcoming shaman-specific interface addition, the Totem Bar. Shaman will be able to utilize this new bar to manage their fire, earth, water, and air totems in a more accessible and convenient way. This bar will appear on the left-hand side above the standard toolbar, similar to warrior stances or druid forms. The bar contains space for four totems of the player’s choice, one of each element. Clicking the respective button will drop that totem. To the right of the four totems is a button for Totemic Call, which we have renamed Call of Earth. To the left of the four totems is a new ability named Call of Fire which will drop all four totems on the bar at once. The mana cost is the same as if the shaman dropped all four of the totems one at a time. However, it takes but a single global cooldown.

Questing shaman will be able to quickly move their totems of choice forward, while a shaman in an instance, Arena, or Battleground will be able to replace their totems if they have to move or if the totems are destroyed.

Shamans will also be able to customize their bar to set Call of Fire to drop less than four totems if they choose. Access to this functionality is made available at the same level as Call of Earth (currently level 30.) At higher levels, Shaman will gain two additional spells, Call of Air and Call of Water. These function exactly the same as Call of Fire, essentially giving the shaman three different sets of totems that can be placed at once. New key bindings will also be made available for all of these slots.

As with all new content under testing, we want to caution players that, as a new part of the interface, there may be additional changes during the period of the PTR until the release of the Call of the Crusade content patch. We look forward to constructive feedback once it is available for testing.