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This week’s Rawrcast was broadcast LIVE from The Argent Tournament on the US PTR realm, Broxigar. Our PTR experiences this week are discussed along with a few highlights, including the still crappy Flask of the Stoneblood, exploring Ulduar, testing the Iron Council event, and mats you may want to start gathering now for new craftables in 3.1. And, Stomp bids a fond farewell to Phaelia.

We also address a Swedish listener’s e-mail regarding the challenges of playing on the EU servers. And, we explain how our hard edge seems to be misinterpreted as a soft chewy center.

All this, and much more is now available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, download, or stream it from our main page.

• Current 3.1 Patch Notes: here you can find all of the craftables, glyphs, and class changes discussed
• PTR Cookie Recipe
• MMO Champion

Don’t forget to tune in for the
LIVE show next week on
Ustream – Saturday, March 7 @ 4 PM, CST
where we will debut the
Tweet Me, Tweet You contest to our listeners.
Listen to WIN a 60-day Game Card!

Music provided by: Forcefeed – Grinder

During Saturday’s the recording of Episode 8 of The Rawrcast Show (which will post this evening), we discussed the upcoming change in 3.1 to the Flask of the Stoneblood. It seems that Blizzard has decided, in all of its infinite wisdom, to buff the flask by upping the added HP from 650 for 2 hours, to 750 for 2 hours (what currently appears in the PTR).

We polled our live Ustream audience about this change:

The overwhelming response by 100% of our live audience was No, and with much reason. The other flasks that are considered of the same level provide much more worthwhile buffs.

• Flask of the Frost Wyrm: Increases Spell Power by 125 for 2 hours. Yeah, more DPS or HPS. Good all around. Someone sitting around 1,400 Spell Power would gain close to an additional 10%.
• Flask of Pure Mojo: Increases Mana Regeneration by 38 Mp5 for 2 hours. Yea, increased regeneration is always good. Someone sitting around 600 Mp5 (outside of the 5 second rule) would gain roughly an additional 15%.
• Flask of Endless Rage: Increases Attack Power by 180 for 2 hours. Yeah, more better beat ‘um ups, and even more DPS. Someone with approximately 4,000 attack power, unbuffed, would stand to gain approximately 3.5%. Since most classes that benefit from this flask are pure DPS, with raid buffs this benefit would grow immensely.*
• Then we throw in Flask of the Stoneblood….

With it’s measly 650 HP buff, the average tank 30K HP tank using it would gain less than 2.17% of a buff to their total hit points. And, with the planned 3.1 change, it appears to be increasing to a whopping 750 HP. This would bring our example tank up to an abysmal 2.5%. How does that even close to par with the other flasks of the same caliber?

On the flip side, if the flask granted the bearer a flat percentage rate instead of a base number, the HP gain would increase along with the user’s gear level. At a rate of 3%, our example 30K HP tank would be granted 900 extra HP. A lesser geared 20K HP tank would gain 600 HP. And so on…. Math is fun. And, knowing that this would roll out of control at some point, there could be a cap, or even a max level for the flask (much like how you took away my drums – curse you).

In summation, we here at rawrbitchrawr think that this change might warrant a closer look. Our tanks deserve a little bit more than a minuscule speck of HP from a flask. Or, if the change is still pewp, how about adding a threat generation component to the flask. Something! Anything is better than a splat of HP that will easily be swatted away tenfold by a skull crushing Ulduar boss.

*Numbers are based on characters out-of-combat, and without raid buffs . All estimates are rough. If you are reading this, you are too close to the screen.