WoW Update - 14 Oct 2008: Preparing for 3.0

It's Tuesday night, which normally means server maintenance. With so many WoW players in the office, we're all updated on what's happening to the server - and yes, tonight there is indeed a twelve-hour maintenance scheduled while we anxiously await Patch 3.0.

I know it's long past time that I did a bit of talent work on the site - the last being, perhaps, Avierra's long-drawn-out flirtation with Protection spec. But unfortunately, with Wrath of the Lich King on the near horizon, I'm forced to think about how I'll spec to level.

Here's what I'm considering:

Avierra: from her straight up Holy/Prot build (link this later) will go Ret/Holy for Judgments of the Wise. I'm tempted to go full Holy at first as I won't have the benefit of Holy Shock until I hit my mid-70s, but I'm not going to have JotW if I do that.

I'm really going to miss Divine Illumination, though. I think this spec will definitely push my healing down, although my raid utility is going to increase.

Froufrou: 15/41/5 Combat will give way to... 5/51/5 Combat. I still miss the Subtlety talents I spec in when I play PvP, but I had to sacrifice some things to get the new talents in Combat. I somewhat regret maintaining my Dagger build for Burning Crusade - I blame my own ignorance for that. I understand that Lich King will be kinder on Dagger rogues, though.

I still intend to level Sei to max level, of course. I'm not looking at getting her out of Beast Mastery spec as I expect her to be my dedicated farmer. I've stopped levelling her tradeskills. When she hits 80 I expect to drop Mining on Avierra and Skinning on Froufrou so that I can fix my tradeskills like this:

Avierra - Engineering / Jewelcrafting
Froufrou - Leatherworking / Enchanting
Sei - Mining / Skinning

I'm flirting with the idea of getting Inscription for Frou instead of Enchanting but herbs are going to be expensive.

When I get home from work, I'll be downloading mods to replace the ones that are going to break in the new patch. I'm psyched about farming in 3.0 - I expect Avierra to do more damage when her healing gear consolidates to +spellpower. Maybe I should wake up early to start patching my client...