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This was posted on the Blizzard Tech Support forums in regards to the 3.3 patch starting on the Background Downloader. So according to Blizzard, we have another month or so before 3.3 hits the live realms. But then MMO-Champion posted this..

To be honest I doubt this information is true, most of the items are now implemented, the heroic modes are here, and new builds do not really add any new content. Blizzard already posted about pretty much everything (even Shadowmourne). Actually the only “missing” parts of the patch are the Season 8 Armor Sets (the weapon models are here) and the end of the Icecrown Citadel storyline.

After reading about how Blizzard plans on releasing ICC in sections, we don’t even need the Arthas storyline because it won’t be available for months anyway. Season 7 has only been going on ~11 weeks and as MMO-Champion pointed out, the average WotLK Arena Season lasts 17-18 weeks.

With this information, MMO-Champion is predicting a December 8th or 15th release date on the patch. Given their most recent track record of accurately predicting information, I’m assuming they’re going to be dead on and I’ll be planning around those dates.

Today is November 21st, so that gives us at least 17 days to complete anything we want to finish up before 3.3 comes out and we all become busy beavers again, kissing “leisure time” goodbye for quite a while. What do you need or want to finish in-game?

My #1 goal is to get Tômservô to 80 and be ready to farm heroics with the guildies for 3.3. My wife’s Mage is still kind of a fresh 80, her friend Ahydien is still trying to gear up his Ret Pally and our friend Drim just got his Rogue to 80 a few days ago. They always need a tank and healer to run heroics and I’ve been healing for them on my Priest, but I would much rather tank for them on my DK to make things a bit more fun and rewarding.

I don’t NEED to be rewarded to help my friends run heroics and it’s still fun to heal them on my Priest because they’re just fun to be around in general, but I think tanking will give Drim a chance to teach me first hand how to now fail as a DK tank since that’s what he does for us in our raids. I’ll be like Grasshopper and he’ll be David Caradine.. except not being dead in a closet. Too soon?

I won’t lie, though.. collecting all of those Triumph Emblems to get from a total scrub to full T9 will be fun. I don’t need Triumph Emblems on my Druid, so why not get them on someone that could really use them?

Goal #2 is to start working on Tôm’s Skinning and figuring out if I want to invest the time and money in to Blacksmithing or not. I won’t bother working on either profession until I’m 80 with him and I’ll only work on them until 3.3. Once the patch is released, 95% of my time will be spent back on my Druid to raid ICC 4 nights a week, farm the new 5-mans and collecting Emblems of Frost for T10.. and that won’t calm down for a long time since ICC will be released gradually over a few months.

Goal #3 is to do whatever achievements are available for the new Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday on Sammich. I wan’t the turkey pet and Pilgrim Sammich sounds pretty hilarious. I hope there is a costume you can collect to go with it.

My Druid is pretty much done before 3.3. There are still a few upgrades from ToC-25 (and of course ToTGC and maybe Ulduar hard modes) but I can’t MAKE them drop. There are no upgrades from Triumph or Conquest Emblems so farming heroics is pointless right now, outside of gaining rep for achievements.

So yeah.. Tôm to 80, start skinning, maybe Blacksmithing, Pilgrim’s Bounty on Sammich and a little over 2 weeks to do it. It’s definitely doable, but leveling has gone a little slow since hitting 71. This is my weekend to work (I have every other weekend off) and since taking over The Clique, the wife and I have been busy doing guild leadership stuff so free-time has been sort of non-existent. I’ll be cutting it close, but I’m sure it’ll get done. I’m actually having a lot of fun leveling my DK (which I didn’t think I would, to be honest) so it doesn’t feel like a chore at all.