In today's edition of the Blue Bar, we talk about the release of patch 3.3.2. In particular, we discuss the opening of the final gate in Icecrown Citadel, the changes to Invincible's wings, and Shadowmourne's new proc.

The Lich King awaits!

Patch 3.3.2 is here and the latest official patch notes can be found here.

What does this mean? We finally gain access to Arthas! Many of us have been wanting to take him on since finishing the final campaign of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, and now we'll finally get our chance.

Gating normal modes has been mutually beneficial.

The last Icecrown Citadel gate is finally open, giving us Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa and the Lich King. Looking back, has the gating system had an overall positive effect on most of the raiding community, or a negative one?

I'm of the mind that it's been mutually beneficial for both Blizzard and most of the WoW player-base. In Blizzard's case, they have been able to extend the life-span of their content, and in our case, it helps set a good pace for week-to-week raiding.

For the last month, it's been a steady pattern of new content one week, and farming the cleared content the next. Rinse and repeat. It's been a very enjoyable rhythm. It makes it extremely easy to manage RL duties like class and/or work while also raiding competitively. Always knowing that after one hard push of content, you can look forward to farming loot the next week.

With how well received gating has been, I'm surprised that Blizzard didn't continue it with hard modes. It looks like everyone's in for several weeks of intense raiding.

Invincible is getting some work done on its wings. Very chic.

In an earlier entry of the Blue Bar, I discussed the problem regarding Invincible's wing structure. It's good to see that Blizzard went back and made the necessary improvements to it. The mount will now look fantastic under anyone who's fortunate enough to acquire it. Check out the new model posted by MMO-Champion on youtube here.

Shadowmourne proc altered.

The stacking proc now awards 30 strength instead of the previous 40, and the 10th and final proc gives the wielder 270 strength over 10 seconds in addition to the split shadow damage from Chaos Bane.

The final proc will now simply add additional burst to the weapon for melee DPS in arena. Knowing that you'll have 10 seconds of the proc in addition to Chaos Bane, you'll be able to combine it with other class abilities at its peak and put out some intense pressure. Shadowmourne will be overpowered in arena. No other arena weapon even comes close.

The Shadowmourne undergoing changes this early should be no surprise to anyone considering the history of prior legendaries such as Thunderfury and Val'anyr. Chances are that it will undergo more changes in the future. What's uncertain is whether they will be nerfs because of arena, or buffs to make it a better leveling weapon for Cataclysm.

In other news...

We will begin posting boss guides and videos in our Guides section over the weeks to come. Our goal is to make them clear, concise, and consistent. If you like the style of one guide or kill video, then you'll like them all.

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