Bornakk has announced on the official forums that epic quality gems will be introduced when patch 3.2 goes live. You’ll be able to purchase recipes for cutting them using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens, and you can get the raw epic gems by prospecting Titanium Ore, through alchemy transmutations, or by purchasing them with honor or Emblems of Heroism.

Due to the introduction of epic gems, perks in every profession will increase accordingly. You can read the full list of profession updates, which are subject to change, after the jump.

Horsemouth has started a thread on this topic in our general forum, so feel free to add to the discussion.

When the next major content patch launches we will be introducing epic quality gems and updating the perks for each profession. Please keep in mind that any of this information may see further changes before the patch launches.

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

Coinciding with the implementation of epic gems and the gain that Blacksmiths will receive through their perk from these new gems, we have gone through all of the perks in every profession and increased their values to match up accordingly.

Alchemy

• 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.

Blacksmithing

• 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)

Enchanting

• Values on Northrend ring enchants increased

Engineering

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

Herbalism

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

Inscription

• Master’s Inscriptions increased

Jewelcrafting

• Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased

Leatherworking

• Fur Lining values increased

Mining

• Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina

Skinning

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

Tailoring

• Embroideries improved

Twitter user John West (Twitter ID jwest23) is spearheading a community effort to provide a series of Twitter “feedbots” that allow WoW users to receive near-realtime updates of their US and EU server status. The project is still under construction, meaning that not all US and EU realms have their own individual feeds yet (for example, this feed for US-Doomhammer or this feed for EU-Ravenholdt). However, more US and EU realms are being added on a regular basis (you can request individual realms to be added via the author’s Twitter page).

The “region-wide” feeds for US and EU servers are complete, which provide a quick snapshot of how many realms are online for each region, listed as a percentage. Check out the “wowrsusall” and the “wowrseuall” feeds for more details (read: WoW-RealmStatus-US-All). Being a fan-created collection of Twitter feedbots, you can never be too certain of the “here today, gone tomorrow” factor, let alone the continued quality control of such a project. But for now, it’s proving to be a quick and convenient way for Twitter users to find out their current realm status (or region statistics) on-the-go.

It might not seem like a big deal to PvE-oriented players, but everyone who loves the occasional Battlegrounds can finally rejoice in a long-awaited fix: the faction that begins the first round of Strand of the Ancients will finally be decided by the random “coin toss” mechanic, as announced by Zarhym in the official forums.

“The current plan is to implement the ‘coin toss’ for Strand of the Ancients in the next major content patch,” Zarhym writes. “We know it’s been a long time coming, but the solution to the issues preventing us from originally randomizing who starts on offense/defense is in the works right now.”

Definitely great news for fans of this Battleground, especially Horde players. Currently, the Alliance always receives the (alleged) advantage of playing the first round; an advantage that Horde players have been complaining about since the Battleground’s inception. Zarhym says the coin toss mechanic will go live in the next major content patch (presumably patch 3.2).

If you indulge in even the slightest bit of PvP in World of Warcraft, it’s likely you’ve heard about the many player concerns brought up since Wrath of the Lich King’s launch. In-depth responses from Blizzard reps are usually few and far between when it comes to this topic, especially since so much of it seems to be fueled by QQ and forum trolls. But last night on the official WoW forums, Ghostcrawler (a.k.a. Greg Street, lead game designer at Blizzard) posted some interesting news about what the developers are currently considering “PvP problems,” and what they’re not.

In a thread that originally began as an open-ended question (“What IS a problem in PvP right now?”), Ghostcrawler responded with a total of three posts, citing the main issues that Blizzard recognizes as “problems in PvP.”

In his first post, Ghostcrawler listed four issues that he recognizes as problems. Check out his full posts here, here and here. To summarize, Ghostcrawler says that there’s currently too much emphasis on Arenas rather than Battlegrounds (and within Arenas, too much emphasis on the 2v2 bracket as opposed to the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets). He also says there’s not enough class representation in Arenas, with Warlock, Hunter and Shaman classes “too low.” Lastly, he describes PvP as “too fast-paced,” referring to Arenas.

In subsequent posts within the same thread, he elaborates a bit on the above-mentioned topics, talking about burst damage as it applies to GCDs, the plight healer classes face being crowd-controlled all the time and a few other little morsels of info. It’s not an official announcement concerning upcoming patch changes, but it’s an interesting read with some long sought-after information for anyone who’s been itching for some clarification regarding what Blizzard recognizes as current PvP problems.

Earlier this week we reported the new mount changes announced for the upcoming 3.2 WoW patch. However there’s been one particular change that seems as if it may have been overlooked by the majority of fans (which was also updated yesterday in a clarification post by Zarhym). We’re talking about mount speed cast time, and the fact that it’s been reduced to 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Not only is a 50 percent drop in mount casting time huge, but the mechanic itself might be a more important feature than many players realize. For years, WoW players have been begging Blizzard to give all classes the ability to instant-cast their mounts, just like Druids are able to (as well as anyone who gets a Magic Broom come Hallow’s End). But there’s many reasons why Blizzard has stuck to its guns over the years. For starters, most Druid players say it wouldn’t be fair to give everyone their special ability. There’s also the argument that instant-cast mounting would severely impact the PvP aspect of the game.

In Zarhym’s latest update, he clarified that the new 1.5 second cast-time will apply to ground mounts only. What do you think about the upcoming reduced cast time? Or for that matter, the fact that it won’t apply to flying mounts? A much-needed update, or a game-breaking “fix?”