Divine Dalaran

O. M. G. Dalaran is... amazing. It's gorgeous, it's magnificent, it's breath-taking. The music is phenomenal, and the architecture and design are incredible. Okay, I'm running out of adjectives, and I think you get the picture. ^_-

SPEAKING of getting the picture, I have TONS of screenshots. Enjoy. =)

Map! There's an Alliance half to the southwest and the Horde zone is to the northeast. If you go into a building of the opposing faction, you're ported out. =P

One of the new barber shops. They have them in the major cities, but this was the first one I visited. =)

Inside the barber shop.

Before: bald, beard stubble.

After: kick-ass mohawk, nicely cropped beard, and all this for only 15g! :D

The new Dumal!

Read the sign. =P

A bit of wine tasting, for the more refined Horde members. =)

And the cheese vendor, conveniently placed right next to the wine. ^_-

A place called "the Wonderworks." Looks like a toy store. =)

Inside the Wonderworks. Notice the vendor's name. ^_-

'Nother view in the Wonderworks. Looks fun! :D

A nice vista down a street. =)

(2 above) Leatherworking/Skinning shop.

Herbalism greenhouse. =)

Chillin' with Breanni, as requested by Kisa. ^^

Good lord, this place is beautiful.

Another winding avenue.

View of Runeweaver Square, in the center of the city.

A statue in the Eventide, part of the Alliance sector.

Aerith? A girl selling flowers in the city? How... unique. =P

I guess even treants have to make a living...

Cake > Pie?

A clothing store.

Holy expensive shirts! O.o I wonder if Haris Pilton shops here. =P

Your friendly neighborhood ammunition store.

I think I wet myself. So. Effing. Gorgeous.

An inn at the Magus Commerce Exchange (a.k.a. the Trade District). It's called the Legerdemain Lounge.

Notice the big signs above the doors indicating which tradeskills they train! From left to right, First Aid, Tailoring, and Leatherworking, if you can't tell. =)

Rhonin [Leader of the Kirin Tor]
Next to him is his wife, Vereesa. If you've read the War of the Ancients trilogy by Richard A. Knaak, those names should be familiar. ^^

The Magus Commerce Exchange. To the left are Inscription and Herbalism trainers, and to the right with the signs depicting mugs, is the inn I mentioned earlier.

(2 above) Inside the Inscription building. Lots of books. XD

Blacksmith trainers.

Tailoring trainers.

(2 above) First Aid trainers.

Enchanting trainers. I think the glowing enchanting mats sitting around are a really neat touch. ^^

Reagent vendor. Very cool and kinda creepy. ^^''

Engineering building, if you couldn't tell from the sign. ^_-

An inn on the Horde side of town. Very spacious with tables and a fireplace... I wouldn't mind going there. =)

(3 above) Some random shots of some nice places in Dalaran. I love the fountain in the third pic. :D

A Kirin Tor guard, Horde side.

Beautiful statues, and a really nice staircase, too. ^^

Even Dalaran's mailboxes are magic. =P

The Antonidas Memorial. (l2lore)

Krasus's Landing. This is where the flight master is.

Overall, Dalaran is interesting in that in combines an old-timey look with a completely magical feel. It puts even Silvermoon to shame, imo. =P I hope you had as much fun viewing the screenshots as I had taking them. This expansion has not yet ceased to amaze me, and I can't wait until it comes out so you can all experience it too. =)

A Glance at Glyphs

Hey, all! Just a really quick look at glyphs. I'm not getting too much into it yet, since my Inscription is still only 128, and they've unlocked it up to 300. XD I'm waiting to hit 74 and get access to Dalaran before I level it, and as luck would have it, I'm only four bars away! Expect an Inscription update soon! ^^

The glyph as an item, still in my inventory. When you use it, it takes you to your glyph window where you click which slot you want it in. I don't think where you place it makes a difference, as long as Major Glyphs go in their slots, and Minor Glyphs go in theirs.

I don't know what Minor Glyphs are, but they go in the little circles between the bigger ones. =P

Mmm, more crit. >=)

You gain the ability to make some low-level Major Glyphs at 75 Inscription! This augment to Healing Stream is one example.

Beta Imbalance - Scourge Strike

Perhaps one of the best and worst things about being part of the beta testing is just that... it's testing. Which means there are bound to be things that are miscalculated, ill-conceived, or just plain OP. =P

Scourge Strike was an Unholy DK talent that NO ONE wanted when it was first released. It didn't do anything special, especially for a 41-point talent, so Blizz made it better-- a LOT better. This will clearly be toned down in the next patch, but it's fun to play with for the time being. ^_-

If you look at this talent, and take a moment to understand how a DK plays, you'll quickly see how this ability is severely unbalanced as it stands.

1. "... deals 115% of weapon damage...": My weapon damage right now is 654-827, before it's mitigated by armor, of course. 115% of that puts me in the range of 752-951.
   
2. "... as Shadow damage...": Well, there goes that "mitigated by armor" part. =P Now we're dealing solely with Shadow resistance, and that's far less common than armor.
3. "... plus 653...": Okay, that makes my range 1405-1604.
4. "... and 58% additional damage for each of the Death Knight's diseases on the target.": An Unholy DK will typically have minimally three diseases, occasionally four, on his target, so add 174%-232%.

Final damage result:
3 diseases = 2445-2791 Shadow
4 diseases = 3260-3721 Shadow

The requirements for maximizing this ability are rather simple to meet. Remember, you have 2 Blood, 2 Frost, and 2 Unholy runes to work with, all refreshing 10 seconds after use. Using 1 Frost and 1 Unholy, I can almost immediately get three diseases on my target. This leaves me with the 1 Frost/1 Unholy required to use Scourge Strike right off the bat. 10 seconds later, my diseases are still up, and my runes are refreshed, allowing me to use Scourge Strike twice more. Getting the fourth disease up is a matter of having 60 runic power, which may or may not happen in a short fight, depending on how much you have saved up.

All this aside, the real fun comes when it crits. =P There's so much synergy via talents with Scourge Strike, it's sick. FOUR of the Unholy talents deal with SS. Take a look:

Vicious Strikes: 6% more crits, 30% more powerful crits.

Outbreak: here's 15% more damage to the base ability.

Desecration: if I'm standing on my Desecration effect, that's another 10% damage!

Rage of Rivendare: since the target almost definitely has Blood Plague, this is ANOTHER 10%!

Blood Presence: and if you happen to choose Blood Presence over Unholy, you can add on an additional 15%! XD (I like Unholy Presence-- 15% attack speed increase, 0.5 second shorter Global Cooldown.)

When all this adds up, and I happen to crit... LOOK OUT! People are QQing all over the forums and the General chat channel about Scourge Strike. I kinda hope they don't get around to balancing it any time soon. =P

POW!

BAM!

SMASH!