Blizzard has continued to make numerous changes to World Of Warcraft on a daily, sometimes twice-daily basis this week.  Today, for instance, they snuck in a pretty significant nerf to Priests in PvP:

• Mana Burn has been reduced to 10% mana burned (up to a maximum of 20% of the Priests mana), down from 13% (max 26%).
• Mana Burn now causes Fear, Hex and Psychic Scream to break early when used.

Following this from two days ago:

• The effectiveness of the Priest spell Divine Hymn has been reduced.
• The Priest ability Soul Warding now only reduces the mana cost of Power Word: Shield by 15% instead of 30%.
• Glyph of Mass dispel will now reduce the cost of the spell by only 35%.

Did you know that Priests were overpowered?

Curse Gaming, one of the large clearinghouses for WoW addons, announced their premium service today.  According to Curse, for $2.45 to $4.16 per month (depending on the plan you choose), you can get:

• Premium Curse Client – Update all your Addons with one click or let the Curse Client update automatically for you. Enjoy an ad-free experience.
• Support the Addon Author Rewards Program – A part of your subscription will go to addon authors, helping them develop and maintain the Addons you love.
• Ad-Free Curse.com Experience – No more annoying or intrusive ads.
• Support Curse – Help us develop new features for the client and website. Allow Curse to keep providing safe, secure Addons.
• Premium-Only Beta Key Giveaways – Get access to Key Giveaways available only to premium subscribers.
• Faster Addon Downloads – Get in the game sooner with lightning fast download speeds.

So said Nethaera in an official message to the community today:

Updated Argent Tournament Mounts

In an upcoming minor patch, faction mounts offered by vendors on the Argent Tournament grounds will have their visual appearances improved. You will find that the mounts being offered will better match the colors of the faction you chose to represent. Mounts already purchased at the Argent Tournament will automatically be replaced with the updated mounts when this patch goes live.

The ten mounts using the original tournament look will then be available for purchase from Argent Tournament vendors for 5 Champion’s Seals and 500 gold (faction discounts apply). To purchase these original mounts at the Argent Tournament, players must be either members of, or exalted with, the corresponding faction.

Equipment Manager Coming Soon

That’s right, it’s back! When enabled from the Interface Options menu, this feature will allow players to store sets of equipment, easily swap between saved sets using hotkeys, and pull items directly from backpacks or bank slots (must be at the bank to equip inventory from the bank).

More information about the Equipment Manager originally slated for release with the Secrets of Ulduar content update can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/ui.html

That pretty much says it all.  You can now decide between Bejeweled and Peggle on those long flight paths.

EDIT BY SCOTT: Holy crap! Pocap is trying to ruin my life in WoW, and I LOVE THEM!

Last night at a high school in Richmond, BC, Rick Dubras of the Richmond Addiction Services Society hosted an open forum to discuss gaming addiction.  The only game mentioned (and pictured in scary upside-down color) in the article was, of course, World Of Warcraft.  The quote that stuck out was this one:

“Teens develop a commitment to the game. These games have to go to the end or the time’s wasted. They can’t be restarted,” he said.

Really?

[Hat tip to Brandon from Maple Ridge, BC, for the heads up and excellent picture]

Blizzard patched World Of Warcraft today with version 3.1.1.  The full release notes can be found here, but we’ve got everything you need to know:

• In order to address issues with the dual talent specialization system, all players will have their talents points refunded. Players who have purchased dual talent specializations will have both specializations reset. Glyphs will not be affected by this reset.
• Characters who are not of the same race or class are once again able to view each others’ professions linked in chat.
• Corrected an issue preventing players from earning the achievement, “Storming Stormwind.” Players who were not properly awarded this achievement for completing the objective should retroactively be granted completion.

Some great stuff from our friends at WoWinsider regarding what you and your raid groups will need to do in order to get the best, and hardest out of Ulduar. For example:

• Iron Council: This encounter scales depending on what order you kill the NPCs. The NPCs will gain new abilities and do more damage depending on who’s left up with them. Leaving the dwarf up last is considered the easiest, followed by the vrykul for medium mode, and the giant being the last add is considered the hardest.

There are LOADS of tips like that one if you just click on this link. I’m told that linking things is all the rage on the webbernets.