Beta Mists, 8

Okay, back to the beta!  D&D was canceled tonight, so I have some time to kill.

Which is good, because I'm in the Valley of the Four Winds now, in the area with the Turtles of DOOM.  I think I crashed out... ten times?  About that, to kill five turtles.  Erg.

Macros work if you put an ! in front of spell names.

Krasarang is still closed, but I've found a couple quests that point that way.  I'm gonna guess it's the next zone open.

Hm, looks like another 'you need to kill five things but they're way overfarmed' quests.

New favorite quest!  "Crouching Carrot, Hidden Turnip."

Fast forward a week:  I spent most of the week disconnecting every five minutes.  It's more stable now, and more zones are open, so yay! more to take pictures of.

Hadrian finally has a spec!  Of course, misdirection is still broken.

I rolled a Pandaren until he puked. o.O

The Jade Witch is finally fixed... and apparently there were more quests after that one that I couldn't get to before.  I guess I'm questing in the Jade Forest again.

Woo, crashed again.

New cave maps!  But, um, the map doesn't actually show up yet.

The Jade Serpent is beautiful!  I'd imagine that, like the green drakes, I'm never actually going to get that color for a mount, though.  (Still waiting on my green drake, dammit.)

Tried Temple of the Jade Serpent; group fell apart.  (Come on, people, it's beta, we're all still learning it. >.<)

But I hit 87 (current level cap), and got Stampede.  Which I can apparently cast while moving.

Valley of the Four Winds has the Tillers faction, which will, among other things, let you have your own little farm mini game, which isn't yet implemented.  Krasarang Wilds has the Anglers, which have fishing poles, a (slowly sinking?) raft, and a water bug mount that lets you walk on water.

Lots of NPCs have little notes (I'm a girl, NEEDS HOE OR RAKE, temp model) that are presumably for the developers, but I find them quite amusing in the meantime.

Database Sites

Wowhead:  A repository of items, quests, spells, NPCs and other information.  The search is spelling-dependent, but the user-submitted comments on items or quests can be extremely helpful.  Includes basic strategies for many raid and dungeon bosses.  Includes a transmogrification set gallery.

Thottbot:  Similar to Wowhead, but with a different interface.

Allakhazam:  Also similar to Wowhead, but with a different interface.

Wowpedia:  A wiki-based encyclopedia of WoW lore, including people, places, histories, and items, as well as game mechanics information.

Wowwiki:  An older wiki, which Wowpedia has, to some degree, replaced; updating is hit or miss.

Battle.net:  Blizzard's official site, including blogs, the Armory (character search), and other official game information.

Moon Guard Wiki:  A wiki created for Moon Guard, a role-playing server, including information useful both to general role-playing and to the Moon Guard community.

Gem & Sockets

Which gems activate which sockets?

• Red socket: red, orange, purple, prismatic
• Yellow socket: yellow, orange, green, prismatic
• Blue socket: blue, green, purple, prismatic
• Meta socket: meta
• Cogwheel socket: special cogwheels from engineering vendors

Diggerest

So I've got beta access, and Diablo 3 beta access, and I've gotten Duskhawk to 86 on the beta.  And what am I doing?

Archaeology on the live realms. >.<

This weekend I checked off Nerubian, Vrykul, Draenei, and Troll completions (I already had Orc done), which means I finished the Blessing of the Old God, the Nifflevar Bearded Axe, the Last Relic of the Argus (the most awesome thing I've gotten from archaeology so far), and, ahem, Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds.

I love the model for Zin'rokh.  I loved it back in Vanilla (not that I ever got it), and it's still one of my favorite sword models.  Surprisingly, the Troll completion was less frustrating than the Draenei one.  Having finished out the Orcs and everything of the Draenei once except the Last Relic, I had to go through thirteen more common item completions to get the Last Relic into my queue.  Zin'rokh?  I was actually trying to whittle down my only half-done list of Dwarf artifacts.  (Dwarf is still 25/31... I keep getting Fossil sites.)  At least the Dwarf artifacts got me to Diggerest.

Tol'vir I know is going to take forever.  I've completed all of the common ones at least once, and none of the rares, and I keep spawning Troll and Night Elf sites.  With my massive number of completed Night Elf commons, Tyrande's Favorite Doll has to be soon, right?  Right?  The Fossilized Raptor has been the same way for me.

I think the archaeology rares were a good idea in theory, but in practice?  Hardly anyone gets them while they're relevant to the current tier of equipment.  The fun items are far more... fun as rares.  Maybe the usable, Binds-to-Account equipment should have been less than epic, but more common, just to make it useful when you find it.

Beta Mists, 7

I've mostly been trying to get through quests in the Jade Forest, but I've run up against a couple buggy ones that I just can't do right now (the Jade Witch and Getting Permission).  I finally hit 86, though, and the Valley of the Four Winds is open, so I headed over there to see what it's got.

So far:

• OMG huge birds.
• The cutest little pig farm.
• New giant lizards.
• MOTHRAN. 
• Birds flying around with sacks of grain. o.O
• Stormstout brewery.
• The Cliffs of Despair over the KrasarangWilds, and New Taurajo.

Huge birds!

Cute pig farms!

Mothran!

Birds... carrying sacks of grain?

The Stormstout Brewery

The zone itself is pretty: rolling hills, nice trees, quaint little farms.  Oh, and stills.  This is Pandaria, after all, and for the longest time all we knew of them was Chen's Empty Keg.

Pretty trees!

New Taurajo in Krasarang

Whoops, got too far to one side for a screenshot.  Let's see where it ports us.  (Back to the wreck in Jade Forest.)

I haven't seen any quests yet, but that could just be the two bugged quest chains from the Jade Forest keeping me from moving on.  (If so, that's quite annoying:  previous expansions you could move on when you were high enough level for the next zone.)

Running around Jade Forest looking for any extra quests... There are cats that walk on water. o.O

Waterwalking cats

Accidentally ran into the Alliance's allies.  Whoops.  Now PVP + resurrection sickness.  Running on, a rogue sapped me, tried to kill me, but didn't dismount me.  Jump off a cliff into water, feign, camouflage, equip fishing pole that allows water breathing.  Now to just re-camouflage until PVP wears off...

Ended up in an archaeology site, and the fragments are in!  Pandaren's special fragments are oracle bones.  Hm... attacked by an Ancient Haunt after my last Survey, which dropped Mogu fragments.

Oh, hey.  If I go across the bridge into the Valley of the Four Winds, there's a quest.  From Chen Stormstout himself.

Okay, the Virmen are adorable.  Like rat murlocs.

Virmen

Beta Mists, 6

Oh, look, a patch.  Download was surprisingly fast.

Hey, Hadrian is back to his normal size!  Unfortunately it doesn't look like this means the pet talents are in yet.

The slicky quest in the Jade Forest that wasn't letting me pick up the exploded slickies seems to work now.  There are spinning turtles here.

Whoops, phasing error.  Maybe I have to complete some more quests to make my turn-in person show up.  But now!  Going in search of pets!

Aw, you can't actually collect battle pets yet.  Sorry, Mr. Mouse!

So far, browsing through, a few pets have abilities in.  The Albino Snake, Jubling, Hawk Owl, Nuts, Armadillo Pup, Baby Blizzard Bear, Core Hound Pup, Crimson Whelpling, Mechanical Squirrel, Onyxian Whelpling, Peddlefeet, Strand Crawler, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Willy, Bananas, Gurky, Lil' K.T., Mini Tyrael, Pandaren Monk, Phoenix Hatchling, Spectral Tiger Cub, Stone Armadillo, and Zergling all have abilities, although some of them are obviously test abilities.

Jacob the Test Seagull, with his test abilities

Crimson Whelping - pet abilities

I don't know where Bubbles is acquired, but dude.  Also, the Dimetradon Hatchling appears to have some camera distance issues.  And, dude, the Fetish Shaman?  The otter pup is absolutely adorable.

Bubbles

Fetish shaman

Otter pup

Whoops, flew around, and Hadrian shrunk again.

Checked in at the mining trainer; I really hope Trillium's materials get nerfed down to one of each ore.

First new metal - Ghost Iron

Second new metal - Trillium

Hm, the specialization panes have had their information reduced to just the main spells.  I liked knowing what the specialization spells/abilities were and when you get them.  I also don't know what my mastery ability is - and I have no way of telling what the other specs mastery is without actually respec'ing.  (Feedback submitted on the forum, woo.)

The current incarnation of the specialization pane.

I seem to still have the Master Marksman ability (Steady Shots are still stacking it and proc'ing Fire!), but I can't find anything in my spellbook that tells me I have it.  Oh, wait, there is is!  So I'm still supposed to have it. :)

I went to check my priest's talents, and it's consistently giving me a fatal error.

Logged on the Tauren monk to check what the trainer was like, and, well:

I foresee a lot of new monks falling off the bridge.

Okay, so I went to look at the warlock again, and they've fixed destro's mana regen spell (Chaotic Energy, which is passive), and the new play style is hella fun.  Burning Embers can be used to empower a Soul Fire nuke or to heal - which is helpful, since carrying Burning Embers damages you.  So far I've gotten an 83k Soul Fire, and I don't even know how that compares to live.

Chaotic Energy - Destruction's mana regeneration

Also, there's Fire and Brimstone.  It uses a Burning Ember to splash around Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, or a Curse - so if you're going to need to AOE, save up an Ember for Fire & Brimstone, and then pop your dot/debuff/nuke of choice on the group and then, if needed, you can follow up with Shadowfury or Rain of Fire.  So you could AOE up Curse of Elements or Immolate, both of which will buff your Rain of Fire, or Conflagrate if you just want to daze them, or Incinerate if that's all it will take to kill or mostly kill them.

Fire & Brimstone, sort of like Soulburn just for Destro

Huh, nice little warlock bug.  Shoot keeps trying to turn on, all by itself, even with no wand equipped.  And keeping me from casting Rain of Fire without manually canceling it.  (Added to the bug thread for it.)

Beta Mists, 5: a Warlock note

My warlock is my... I'd say 6th string toon, but hell, I have 3 hunters at 85, so probably more like 8th.  I've always played her as destro, since I liked the "BURN IT ALL" concept of the spec.

I copied over my lock to take screenshots, and I discovered:

• Soul shards... are no more for Destro; Burning Embers instead
• I apparently can kill myself without having access to Hellfire now
• I don't have Hellfire
• I have a self-heal!
• I... can bubble? o.O
• I can Cloak of Shadows, but have to burn health to do it
• My imp will auto-cleanse me if I'm polymorphed, etc.
• Warlock talents have some flavor text
• Banes aren't yet implemented for Destro, so Havoc is NYI
• No DoTs o.O
• LOTS OF FIRE WOO

Destro's mana is still broken, so I can do about 1 filling of a Burning Ember before I'm dry.

Of names

I play Marksman hunters.  I have three at 85, and my poor Night Elf sitting at 81 waiting for me to get around to leveling her.  (Damn you, beta!)  Being a Marksman hunter, I don't collect Spirit Beasts, and I've mostly just collected some pet looks I like, outside the half-dozen pets I rotate around in my active slots for their buffs.

My very first hunter pet was named, well, "Kitty."  I can be slow about deciding on names sometimes, and in retrospect, it was pretty apt: I tend to refer to a lot of my pets by what they are, rather than their name.  My wolves are invariably "Puppy," all the cats get referred to as "Kitty," and so forth.  That said, I do have some naming conventions, with a few random puns.  Except for Viatrix's, all of my hunters' pets are male.  Some of Viatrix's are.

So, my pets.  (If you can't picture any of the looks, check Petopia.)

Duskhawk (Pets)

• KitTabik - Mulgore Prarie Wolf.  Dusk's first pet.  Way back when, wolves had a bonus to armor that actually made them okay tanking pets, before the implementation of pet talents.  He's named after an obscure wolf companion in one of my bad high school-era stories.
• Olin - Dun Morogh Snow Leopard.  I picked up Olin during the Karazhan days, when cats were the top DPS pets for hunters.  I leveled him from level 8 in Terokkar forest on basilisks.  I named him after, ahem, the daemon the Golden Compass daemon quiz thing gave me.
• Violet - Purple Tallstrider.  During Burning Crusade, they added in the druid flight quests, and at some point the purple tallstriders appeared on an island south of Auchindoun.  One of the guys in my guild whispered me asking if I'd seen them yet, and I immediately had to go tame one.  This was my first, "Where did you get that?!" pet.  I named him Violet because of the color.
• Hadrian - Black Dun Morogh Bear.  When they added pet talents and the additional pet slots, I picked me up a bear to tank.  I've always preferred the black bears, so I went back to Dun Morogh (where I got Olin) to pick up Hadrian.  I named him after the emperor the wall is named after.  Hadrian is the pet I generally have out while soloing.
• Coby - Orange & Black Ravager.  During a lot of Wrath of the Lich King, I raided with my wolf for the attack power bonus.  During Cataclysm, with the change in pet buffs, the one our raid leader was asking for most often was 4% increased physical damage taken - which is a ravager or a worm.  Since I don't raid as beast mastery, I eventually went out and picked up a ravager from Hellfire Peninsula.  (My transmog set for Dusk unintentionally matches him.)  He's named after my real-life place of work, because I don't like ravagers, and taming one was "work."
• Octavian - Winna's Kitten, all growed up.  I LOVE GREEN.  Ahem.  When I found out Winna's Kitten was tamable in Cataclysm, I had to tame him.  I named him after another Roman emperor, despite not being a tank pet.
• Phil - Green Wind Serpent.  I picked up Phil at some point for the spell power buff.  Apparently one of our guildies is actually named Phil, so when the raid leader asked about a spell power buff pet, and I said, "Sure, let me get Phil out of the stable," there was some confusion. >.>  One of the random male names I picked.
• Hawkins - Black Fox.  Hawkins was the first fox I tamed on Dusk.  His name is entirely a pun.
• Asher - Ashtail (Grey Fox).  I was wandering around Loch Modan for archaeology a couple months ago, and Ashtail popped up on my NPC Scan.  Since there wasn't anyone around, I was like, what the hell, why not? and tamed him.  The name is just a play on his given one.
• Pickles - Cheetah.  "Pickles was a bad cat."  The Firecat was one of my favorite books when I was little, and given 25 stable slots, I picked up a cheetah-skinned cat just to give him this name.
• (Unnamed Spider) - I've had a couple of random spiders over the course of Cataclysm for PVP purposes; I don't think I've actually named any of them.  This one is a red lava spider from the Molten Front.
• Chad - Grey Hyena.  I picked up Chad back during Wrath of the Lich King when hyenas had hamstring for PVP.  I used him mostly during the PVP fight in Trial of the Champion.  He's named after my cat that died last year.  (Since, you know, hyenas are more closely related to cats than to dogs...)
• Clever - Red Raptor.  One of the "omg 25 stable slots" acquisitions, named for - well, it's a raptor.  Do I really have to spell it out?
• Peredur - Black Boar.  I grew up on a hog farm, and I've always loved Durotar's black boars.  When I rolled a Draenei hunter on another server when my main server was down, she went on a pilgrimage at level 13 to get one.  He's named after Percival, which ties in to the same bad high school-era story KitTabik is from.
• Zuul - Green Demon Dog.  I love the look of the demon dogs, even though I don't play with him at all.  There is no Dana, only...
• Harold - Green Turtle.  I picked up Harold as a soloing tank pet for the spell shield.  I don't use him much.  Random male name.
• Turquoise - Blue Tallstrider.  Once the 25 stable slots went in, I went and picked up the clutch mother.  Named for the color again.
• Magenta - Pink Tallstrider.  I really don't like pink, but like so many other hunters, once I had the Lovebird and the Mulgore Hatchling, I had to finish the set.  Again, named for the color.
• Kurtka - Yellow Wasp.  I picked up the wasp for the armor debuff in case we needed it for raiding (we never have).  The name is another pun.  Kurtka is Russian for jacket.
• Justin - Green Nether Ray.  I mostly ride a green nether ray for my flying pet; I picked up one for a matching set thing.  Random male name.
• Clarence - Brown Sporebat.  The sporebat was a "just because" taming thing.  Named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life.
• (Unnamed Skoll).  I picked up Skoll while looking for the Time-Lost Protodrake.  I haven't decided on a name.
• Larry - Green Worm.  I picked up the worm even though I don't play beast mastery because of its AOE, just in case I ever needed it.  (Then they buffed Multishot.)  He just seemed like a Larry...
• Lawrence - Black Devilsaur.  I love the sapphire-blue eyes the black devilsaurs have.  Named after Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Mabs (Pets)

• Kitty - Nightsaber (acquired as a level 6 cat).  This is Mabs's original pet.
• Sobek - Green Crocolisk.  I picked up a crocolisk for Mabs's tanking pet, since I wanted to use different tanks on all my hunters.  Sobek is a crocodile-headed ancient Egyptian god.
• Max - Old Cliffjumper (Grey Worg).  I like rare skins, and Old Cliffjumper is probably my favorite worg skin.  Max was one of my dogs as a kid, and I name all my dog pets in non-WoW games Max.
• (Unnamed White Lion).  I picked up Sian-Rotam before the quest was changed, but never named him.

Duskmoon (Pets)

• Darius - Blue Crab.  Named in the same vein as Hadrian, after ancient-era king, this time Persian rather than Roman.
• Joshua - Black Wolf.  I like the wolves around the Altar of Zul in the Hinterlands.  Random male name.
• Thirteen - Red Lynx.  Duskmoon's first pet.  Named after my favorite FF7 character.
• Patrick - Blue Tallstrider.  The first time I tamed the Clutchmother was on Duskmoon.  Random male name.
• Philip - Black Crow.  I liked the crows in Howling Fjord; the name was picked randomly.

Viatrix (Pets)

• Laurel - Black Boar.  I thought I would try something different with my pets on Viatrix and make them female.  Thus her boar is named Laurel.
• Phoebe - Undead Starting Spider.  I hate spiders.  Hate, hate, hate.  Running across one in the house leaves my skin crawling for hours, even if they never actually touched me.  So when I started my undead hunter and was given a spider pet to deal with, her name ended up a play on "phobia."
• Molly - Brown Tallstrider.  I figured I'd pick up a tallstrider for her at some point.  Named after one of my brother's cats.
• (Unnamed Brown Fox).  I got a fox while I was in the Western Plaguelands and never got around to naming it.
• Llinos - Green Ravager.  Okay, so at level 43 I decided I needed to go pick up a ravager for Viatrix.  I had been running dungeons on her, and... well, yeah.  There's only one place to get ravagers prior to Hellfire Peninsula:  Draenei-land.  Draenei-land, in Cataclysm, is accessible for Horde only from the boats at Rut'theran Village at the foot of Teldrassil.  To get there, without flight paths or a fast flying mount?  You have to go through Stormwind's docks.  At level 43.  I died at least five times before managing to get on the boat (after taking the zeppelin to Grom'gol and running up through Westfall and along the edge of the water up to Stormwind Harbor).  The name is Welsh for greenfinch.  (So... named after the color.)
• Shelly - Green Demon Dog.  I picked up a demon dog in the Eastern Plaguelands.  Random female name.
• Eleanor - Green Turtle.  I thought I would try using a turtle tank on Viatrix, but she ended up in the stable.  Random female name.
• Mara - Black Bear.  I tried a bear on her, too.  Decided to stick with the boar.  Random female name.
• Daniel - Red Worg.  So once I got up to higher levels, I decided to pick up a wolf for the 5% crit for dungeons.  I'd always liked the red worgs in the Burning Steppes, so I got one.  I forgot I was doing female names on Viatrix, and he ended up with a random male name.
• Jack - Snow Leopard.  At some point I realized that Viatrix had no cat, and for some groups I preferred to have the Agi/Str buff if it wasn't present.  I realized at 85 I hadn't named him, and in a brief panic, he was named after my new cat.  Then, when swapping out to my wolf, I realized the unintentional correlation. >.<

Beta Mists, 4: Shaman and Priest

Ok, I've been playing Duskhawk in the Jade Forest for a while, so I figured I'd take a look at some of my other toons.  First, my elemental shaman, since I hear totems have gotten serious work.

Elemental Spec

 Shaman talents are interesting.  First tier is defensive, and second is about movement - either rooting or escaping roots.  Third tier is totems - reset cooldowns, refund cooldown if destroyed or replaced early, target them.  Fourth tier is the hard decision - elemental mastery (haste buff) vs. ancestral swiftness (5% passive haste and next nature spell isntant) vs. echo of the elements (like elemental overload, but for any direct damage or healing spell).  Fifth tier is healing focused, with a totem, an atonement copycat on a cooldown, and a healing rain related spell.  Sixth tier (that I can't take yet) is a buff to weapon imbues, turning elemental pets into real pets (albeit on their totem cooldown), and an elemental damage spell.

Shaman Talents

So, without talents, what have I got left for totems?

• Earth: Tremor Totem, Earth Elemental Totem
• Fire: Searing Totem, Magma Totem, Fire Elemental Totem
• Air: Capacitor Totem (AOE stun), Grounding Totem, Stormlash Totem (adds electrical damage to allies' attacks)
• Water: Healing Stream Totem

Totem bar is gone; you get totem pullouts now.  Not very handy if you need to hit them fast, but with only nine totems without talents, that's not a ton of toolbar space to just put them all on one.  Weapon imbues got a pullout too, which is pretty nice for them.

Elemental loses access to the Healing Waves and Fire Nova.  No more water breathing. :(

Huh.  I just realized that the bank got a recolor.

Some of the elemental glyphs (Lava Burst, Unleashed Lightning) don't really seem enticing.  Telluric currents sounds like it's probably a Resto-focused glyph (reduces damage by 30%, restores 50% of damage done as mana), but we'll see how mana efficiency is for Elemental.

Okay, I'm done running around Orgrimmar; let's go see how the spells look.

Oh, my God.  I just noticed that Shields and Imbues have 1 hour durations.  FINALLY.  But now - Pandaria on the shaman.

The new Lava Surge not only resets your Lava Burst cooldown, it also makes the next one instant.  The best part: you get a graphical notice around your character, like for fulmination, so you know when it procs with less staring at your toolbar.

Mana seems okay for basic questing; Elemental is still nice and bursty.  Haha, one of my new totems aggroed a critter, which ran over to attack me.

Okay, now to check leatherworking...  Oh, hey, it gave me Zen Master Skinner already.  Leatherworking patterns aren't in yet.  Cooking looks to have two skill 500 recipes in - probably so people can catch up their cooking.

Over to my discipline priest.  Last time I tried to look at her was one of the server crashes, so I haven't gotten to do more than glance through her stuff.

Priest tiers are a bit different than the shaman ones; the first tier is about control - fears, roots, mind control.  The second tier is movement - the bubble speed buff, removing movement impairing effects.  Third tier is incomplete, but it's where they've got Archangel and what used to be Surge of Light, which now has a shadow alternate effect; the third option is TBD.  The fourth tier is emergency buttons - instant self heal, health swap, and a proc'd bubble.  The fifth tier has utility abilities; sixth tier has three options for damage or healing abilities, all of which look cool and make me want to get to 90 on my priest just to try out.  Cascade looks like Prayer of Mending on Steroids with a damage alternate; Divine Star is like a boomeranging fire orb that heals or damage; and Halo is like a healing or damaging Blast Nova.

Priest Talents

Like the shaman glyphs, other than Atonement, there aren't a bunch that excite me.  Hunter glyphs were much more fun.  There is, however, an offensive version of the dispel magic glyph - it deals damage when you do an offensive dispel.  Nice for PVP, probably.

On to the priest spells!  Offensive and defensive dispel have been split up - Dispel Magic and Purify.  Purify has Cure Disease rolled into it.  Discipline no longer has Heal, Holy Nova is MIA, and Divine Hymn is Holy-only.  Most of the shadow damage spells have gone over just to Shadow spec, but they left us Mind Sear and Shadow Words Pain and Death.

No tailoring recipes in yet, but hey!  There's some enchanting stuff.  ... and Zen Master Enchanter requires Blacksmithing (500).  [giggles ensue]  They haven't updated graphics for the new enchanting materials - they have Spirit Dust and Mysterious Essences, but the Cataclysm enchanting graphics.  Several of the skill-ups are 2-5 per crafting.  (FINALLY.  I've been leveling an alt enchanter, and some of the levels are so slow to get past.)  The numbers are large, of course (spirit by 200, etc.).

Enchanting - entry recipes in, but a few bugs

Now to go test discipline soloing!  Actually I really just want to see the void tendrils graphic.  You may have notices I also gave my shaman the earthgrab totem; I like RUN AWAY options, since I have been known to get my characters in over their heads.

I like how prevalent flight paths are in the Jade Forest.

Okay, discipline soloing is as nice as always; I accidentally pulled three wasps, and had no trouble with them.  Void tendrals are HUGE!  Hm, Archangel isn't flashing at me anymore when Evangelism hits five stacks.  All those little things I like are still there - Divine Aegis, Train of Thought, etc.

Void Tendrils

No healing attempts yet - too much to do around the house, and I've spent all weekend beta-ing.  But soon!  (I'll try to remember to screenshot the discipline spec next time.)

General Beta Notes

So I've had a couple days to run around in the beta; some stuff is in, some isn't, some is buggy.  A summary:

What's in:

• Monk class
• New talents/skills/glyphs (mostly)
• AOE looting (which is awesome, btw, and I need to test if it works with the loot-a-rang)
• Quests in the Jade Forest
• Pandarens and their starting zone
• New cloth and leather for gathering
• Temple of the Jade Serpent (instance)
• Some new battle grounds, although I haven't tried them

What isn't in yet:

• New crafting (or at least, not engineering)
• Mining and herb nodes
• Most mobs' loot tables in the Jade Forest
• Most mobs' correct type (most beasts are humanoid, etc.)
• Tamable mobs in the Jade Forest
• Pet talents

What's sort of in, but not quite:

• Pet battles - the interface is there, though you need to keybind it to see it, but I haven't been able to capture anything new yet.  You can see capturable critters, though, because when you mouse over them, you get a target cursor.

Frequently Asked Questions in the Jade Forest:

• Portals are buggy and you may need a Rune of Teleportation to use them.
• Wisdom of the Ages and Jinyu in a Barrel are both buggy and may not work if more than one person tries to do them at a time.  If there's a line, your best bet is to get in it.  There's probably still a chat channel for Jinyu in a Barrel (/riflechat).
• There are several quest hubs (crash site (Horde), Chun Tian Monastery, Arboretum, the orchards, etc.), but the crash site quests chains you through to making friends with your NPC faction.
• No flying on Pandaria until level 90.  (The skill is in your spellbook, waiting to be learned.)
• Premades will need to get a mage to port them to Orgrimmar, or get a Rune of Teleportation from someone to use the portals until they fix them.
• Currently only the Jade Forest is open, and you can't get to the other zones in Pandaria.
• Current level cap is 86.
• Hunter pets are bugged and appear at the size they were tamed.
• You only have a mainhand and and offhand slot now - no ranged slot.  You can put ranged weapons in your mainhand slot, and if it's a wand, you can use an offhand item with it.
• Once Nazgrim is at Hellscream's Hope, he's behind the tower.  (He just had an airship crash; cut him some slack.)

Beta Mists, 3

Back in the Jade Forest...

Cliff gilders (wind serpents) currently track as humanoid.

Even on the beta I'm getting questions about where to get my purple tallstrider mount. >.<

Crowded for some quests - a few the phasing is bugged and need to be done one at a time.

OMG BEAVERS.

Waiting in line for Wisdom of the Ages - took about an hour for the line to get through.

 
Hey, the right-click > report menu has been expanded - now has name/cheating/spamming/language.  I like!  It'll make reporting offensive names and such so much easier.

The report menu when you right-click on someone's name has been expanded

Yay, done with the line!

Done with Wisdom of the Ages!

Haha, I can summon crows under water.

Ok, now that I'm past the long line and the immediate follow-up, it's time to make brownies.