...and I can't log in!

Not actually a surprise. In the mean time, I took a look over what patch notes remained visible while applying the patch. Priests got a few changes, mostly to Shadow, but even as a Shadow-Offspec Priest I'm very interested to see how the addition of Haste will change gameplay as DPS.

In more interesting news for me, however, is the addition of the Corehound Pup to the game as a vanity pet. The pet is available to players who have a Blizzard Authenticator associated with their accounts, though there seems to be some confusion - for players with multiple accounts, it seems that some of them are only getting the pets on one of their old accounts rather than both, while others are getting the pets on both accounts. It may be due to associating an Authenitcator with one account prior to the Battle.Net merging, but that's purely my own guess. (And ooh, it looks like the Authenticators got a new skin at some point - cool!)

Some have mentioned that the Corehound is the Blizzard incarnation of Cerberus (Greek form: Κέρβερος, pronounced [ˈkerberos]), the multi-headed hound guarding the gates of the underworld (not Hell as some confuse it). Kerberos is computer network authentication protocol (clearly the name borrows from the originals). Thus, the combination of our little authentication guard dog pet works on enough levels to be ridiculously adorable AND clever.

Naturally, with 3.3's new LFG randomizer, the Perky Pug is in (animation link on PUG), and it appears you'll need to group with 100 random people to snag the bugger.

In more common news, Ice Crown Citadel is now available to us in 5, 10, and 25 man formats. You'll need to complete the raid instance to unlock hard modes for each boss. I read some time back that they would be releasing the bosses over time, such that players could not heave themselves against the new encounters and complete the instances in their entirety within the first week (or day, depending on how extreme their obsession with being FIRST is). I like this quite a lot, after experiencing the TotC blues for the last month or two.

Quite a lot of handy things are going in with this patch, in fact, but rather than go over ALL of them, I figured I'd mention the ones that actually interest me, personally. I recommend reading the Patch Notes if you haven't already. I still haven't finished, in fact... I ought to get to that.

Other changes that interested me:

• The new Quest Log and Map 
• Dungeon Finder Roulette
• Kalu'Ak Fishing Derby
• Weekly Raid Quests
• Rep gains in Northrend sped up
• Raptor Pets are no longer dropped from rare spawns

Happy 3.3, folks!