Nerfnerfnerf.

I'm so upset.
Blizzard has nerfed all Bear abilities.

• The damage done by the following abilities has been reduced by approximately 17%: Mangle (Bear), Maul, Lacerate, Pulverize, Swipe (Bear), Thrash.

I seriously can't understand HOW we can utilise Swipe to it's previously amazing potential.
I've done a few dungeons since this hotFIX, and with a Frost Death Knight, Swipe is seriously inadequate.
Also on long and extended boss fight where rage was very very easy to come by, haveing excess rage i'd just hit swipe.
Now it's not even worth blowing a GCD on since it does less, if not the same, damage as Lacerate.

Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.

I won't even continue after this one.

Duoing instances is now so much harder than prepatch, we can't even progress through Blacking Lair.

Out with the old...

As we all eagerly await the arrival of patch 4.0.3a, also known as "The Shattering", i've been embarking on huge nostalgia trips.
Not long ago I started doing Zul'Gurub every lockout, but this could be the last ever one.
It will be truly a shame to see such a well designed instance disappear, one can only hope that Cataclysm will bring even better.
Today's post is a tad short due to lack on inspiration as well as a slight disappointment that Blizzard have released absolutely no hints at all to when 4.0.3a will go live.
Keep in mind that WoW's birthday is tomorrow, and maintenance occurs on Wednesday mornings, so perhaps, just perhaps, they'll hit that shiny red button and release Deathwing to turn us all into Cajun chicken.

Then we can serve ourselves for Pilgrim's Bounty.

Goodbye, ZG.

Forever will your mounts elude us.

Hot and Cold

BLIZZARD.
FIX NEFARION.
It's getting rather ridiculous how many adds spawn, especially considering we ticketed it, and the GM replied saying, "You cleared the area too fast".
We're 2 people, not 40.
However, we still managed to kill him, even with an untimely Druid class call at the very end with a couple of adds still up, not exactly what you need when you're trying to tank.
Also we managed to duo Saphirron, an 11 minute fight, which was calm enough considering when we trio'd it we did it in just over 8.

Our most exciting achievement so far on our duoing quest however, is completing Obsidian Sanctum in its entirety. I've heard stories of Death Knights and Paladins in 277 gear soloing Sartharion and whatever. What they didn't do though, is solo all of the trash and the drakes. That's impossible considering you need atleast two people for Shadron, and even then, it's one of the toughest encounters I've faced, full group or not, with two people it's a nightmare. Just if anyone was wondering, me and my friend have a combined average item level of around 255.

As I now run away to complete Zul'Aman again, I leave you with my proudest ever screenshot I've taken.

GeneCraft returns.

Yes after a long extended absence through not playing, GeneCraft has returned.
The character which I posted all of the screenshots from though (Geñe) is now slightly inactive, as I have began playing my Druid again.
Basically, I lacked the ways and means in order to make gold, then by chance, i started running old raids with a friend of mine, and suddenly, it began piling up. So every week, we run the same instances, doing all the bosses we can.
In Vanilla I play in bear form, so far we have 2-manned the following:

Molten Core, Blackwing Lair (currently bugged, first encounter somehow vanished and we tried to reset it by dieing, only to find the gate to the room was locked, and we're now "locked out".the one time we did 2man it, Nefarion was bugged and spawned over 100 adds), Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj20 and Ahn'Qiraj40 (up to Twin Emps).
In TBC instances, I usually play as Restoration, however, Karazhan is doable in bear form, as are some other encounters, the raids we've currently 2manned in TBC are:

Karazhan, Zul'Aman, Tempest Keep (No Kael), Serpentshrine Cavern (No Vashj or Karathress), Mount Hyjal (Only the first boss), Black Temple (Up to Akma), Magtheridon.

We've also 2manned one of the drakes in Obsidian Sanctum, and 3-manned Sapphiron in Naxxramas.

For today's screenshot is one of the kills, I forgot to turn off the interface, so don't flame too hard, it's got everything I need :).

A Head Start

After a small bout of cow flu, I'm happy to say i can now begin blogging again without showering my keyboard with Frogger Boss babies.
As many of you may have noticed, Patch 4.0 is running on the background downloader and is currently in stage 2, and there are alot of rumours going around it's ready to be released on the 12th of October, which is a Tuesday, and it's around the right time, however we'll just have to wait and see.
If you've been lucky enough to get a character transferred onto the PTRs you'll, I'm sure, have checked out the new talent changes, however for those who aren't as lucky, or those of you who just want to look at every class/role combination, there's a full calculator been released by MMO-Champion which includes all the new talents.
There has also been a total mess up by Blizzard concerning Brewfest, which started on Monday. When it started, two quests somehow sneaked into the game and many people who were online on the European servers were able to complete them. These quests, which involved getting drunk in order to see pink elephants and wolpertingers, have been duely removed from the game. However speculation still circulates as to why they were removed, some people believing animal rights activists appealed to the de-materialisation of pink elephants and capture of defenseless wolpertingers, and others saying they were advertising to the younger generation the adverse effects of excessive alcohol consumption. All Blizzard has said is, "This quest was not supposed to be active in the EU".

And finally today's screenshot.

Baby Murlocs are the best Murlocs

A couple of minor news posts from Blizzard, Harvest Festival has started, possibly the worst Holiday Event ever. Also, a new battleground has been previewed going into Cataclysm, which is basically an Arathi Basin clone, The Battle for Gilneas.
Since nothing is really happening at the moment, apart from PTRs being mostly broke and people still insisting on clogging the queues choc full of characters they won't even try to test with, I thought I'd tell everyone why I love Murlocs so much.
As my first ever character on World of Warcraft was a Human Paladin (cliche, I know), I was introduced early to the horror that is a Murloc. They stand close together, they have HUGE aggro-ranges, and they sound more annoying than a Justin Beaver fan. However! Without Murlocs, we wouldn't have baby Murlocs, and without baby Murlocs, I wouldn't get a warm happy feeling every time i hear the sound effects for the little blighters. They are, so cute.

I, You, Fire.

No real news of note from actual Blizzard, other than they're ignoring all of the trolls and flamers on the forums not able to actually copy characters and pre-mades onto the 4.0.1 PTR.
However!
I recently found this "Currency Converter" on MMO-Champion that lets you see how many Justice Points you can get from Triumph and Frost, which for some reason is the same amount for both types, this needs to be changed FAST.
I'm levelling an alt, and i don't want to grind for mindless hours now, just to get some nice loots from Cata.
Also, though I'm not sure if it's true, there's a post that says Cataclysm will be released on the 2nd of November, which gets big cheers from me, you can read that post, and many more blue posts on similar subjects here.

Today's screenshot if brought to you by the Vrykul of Howling Fjord:

Pre-Cataclysm Patch now live on PTRs

Get those characters transferred onto the PTRs guys, the Pre-Cata patch is now live. The queues are currently full though, so I'd wait a day or too before getting your hopes up that it'll work, and then another couple of days if you want to copy a premade...
Everything from talent trees, spells and abilities are included in the latest PTR, and you can read the patch notes right here: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/testrealm.html.
Nothing on the new badges/points/emblems/freeloots system yet, which hopefully will be installed over the next couple of weeks, if my memory serves correctly, the pre-Wrath patch came around 2-3 months before the actual expansion, and PTRs can go on for anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months, I myself am hoping for a release date before Christmas.

Screenshot of the day, plus news on currency changes

There was a post on World of Warcraft forums yesterday explaining the currency changes happening pre-Cataclysm, which you can read in full here http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14574620792&sid=1.
In my opinion, this seems pretty awesome, when they are released in Patch 4.0.1, all Triumph and Frost will be converted into Justice Points, which is going to make alot of people happy I'm sure. However, to those who are concerned about the already raving mad lunatic elitist trolls that run Trade Chat these days, this is going to be really bad. In the post by Vaneras, he says, and i quote, "One change of note since that original announcement is that we've changed the name of the low-tier PvE currency from Hero Points to Justice Points. The original announcement post has been updated to reflect this."
This seems pretty bad really, meaning people now who're already sufficiently geared enough to do so, can stockpile Frosts and Triumphs and get an absolute horde of Justice Points, meaning when they hit whatever level will be required for this so called low-tier PvE they can get an early advance on gear, and therefore on raiding content, since the craze of GEAR>SKILL KAYKAYZ?1? Is still very much in effect.
What they've yet to announce is the rate of conversion, which is I'm sure is Blizzard's idea of a counter to stockpiling emblems.

Onto the screenshot then, and I've just discovered you can actually do this, and I'm not sure how long it's been in effect, behold.
Hearthstone- Sitting down.

And So It Begins.

Welcome to GeneCraft!
The only World of Warcraft blog written by a cow.

I'll be updating regularly with World of Warcraft news and updates, concerning current game issues and indeed the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm.

I'll also be posting my very own "Screenshot of the day".

Enjoy :)