5.2 Gear upgrades temporarily disabled

[kandrathe]

According to this article I read at Joystiq, linked to the following blue post;

Even Ethereals need a vacation, and the item upgraders (Voidbinders), are no exception. They’re saying they need to go home to take care of business arrangements, but … I’m not convinced. I think they’re just homesick for their ‘space mummy’ families.

Ok ok, fourth wall broken, we’re actually just temporarily removing them from the game for 5.2 due to the new raid tier. The idea with the item upgrade system is that it’s a way to spend currency on upgrading items when buying new items isn’t the clear path. Either you’ve bought everything, or at least most of them, and then spend currency to get that extra *oomph*. With a new raid tier coming, we don’t want to create a trap where people are wondering what’s more lucrative: spend currency on new items, or on the new gear appearing on vendors? (Hint: It’s the new gear on vendors.) To help ensure we’re not indirectly encouraging anyone to spend their currency somewhere they probably shouldn’t, the item upgraders will be taking a break.

Right now we’re planning for them to return in 5.3, which will not have a raid tier, and offer upgrades again as people will have likely have some currency to burn. We’re not sure yet if we’ll continue this cycle of having them take a break for raid patches and then come back in non-raid patches, but we’ll continue evaluating as we go, absorb feedback, and let you know how these plans evolve

The bottom line is; You may want to plan your upgrades in preparation for Thunder King raids before they release 5.2. From my back of the napkin calculations, you'd want your ilvl to be about 500ish to be able to get into entry level Thunder King raids. I'm guessing alternative to not being geared up prior to 5.2, not having peeked into the PTR, would be another rep grind (maybe quests, and maybe dungeons and raids) to enable purchase of new Shado-Pan Assault, or Zandalari faction gear with higher ilvls 496-511. And, the continuing pseudo struggle between the Kirin-Tor Offensive, and the Sunreaver Onslaught.

In other news... From the 5.2 PTR patch updates yesterday,

• A new legendary metagem from Wrathion, "Crown of the Heavens"
• Three tameable spirit beast porcupines- hunter challenge
• The ability to show absorb effects on player, target, and raid frames.
• The rep panel will show which factions have commendations in effect
• DK's are being made even more awesome -- Bloodworms have 200% more health and do triple the healing, strangulate CD is now 60 sec (was 120), Tier 14 set bonuses changed (nerf'd 2 piece, added more boom in 4 piece).
• For Druid's; changes to Cyclone, Starfall won't break CC, 10% boost to Restoration
• For Hunters; tweak to aimed shots CD
• For Mage; Blazing Speed replaces Blink, with changes to Glyph of Blink, PVP change to Temporal Shield, Frost proc chance increased, changes to Glyph of Ice Lance.
• For Monks; Windwalkers get a new elemental ability, changes to Spinning Fire Blossoms, and adjustment to Tigereye Brew. For bremasters, a change to proc of the Black Ox Statue.
• For Paladins; Repentance cast time increased, Sacred Shield can now be dispelled, Selfless healer nerfed quite a bit. Blinding light will now have a 1.8 sec cast time for Holy paladins. A change to tier-14 set bonus.
• For priests some big changes; AB sprit shell can no longer be dispelled, devouring plague damage is now constant, Focused will is now passive ability for both Holy and Discipline priests. Flash heal nerfed by 30% for all, but for disc/holy boosted by 43% (a net plus 13%). PW: Solace is now Solace and Insanity -- For disc/holy replaces Holy Fire, instant, no mana, and restores 1% mana -- for shadow; causes double damage for mind flay if the target has 3 shadow DOT's. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit can now always be cast when stunned. Glyph of Desperation replaced with Glyph of Binding Heal - allowing binding heal to be cast on a 3rd target with at +35% mana cost. Inner Focus now will always grant 5 secs of immunity to silence, interrupts and dispels. Glyph of Inner Focus is replaced with Glyph of Weakened Soul which reduces the weakened soul debuff by 2 seconds (from 15 secs to 13). Changes to the 2 piece and 4 piece tier 14 set bonuses. For Discipline Priests -- Penance is buffed 20%, Rapture mana returns are nerfed (reduces the cost of PW:Shield by 25% (was 50%) and provides mana return of 150% (was 200%) of Priest Spirit -- making spamming PW:Shield about as expensive or worse than spamming Flash Heal. Divine Aegis is no longer 100% proc for POH - now only on crit.
• For Rogues; changes to Shuriken Toss, Smoke Bomb, Nerve Strike. Change to the tier 14 set bonus. For combat rogues -- Blade Flurry will strike up to 4 more targets for 40% weapon each (was one target for 100%).
• For Shamans; Chain lightening now does not increase damage for successive targets. But, Lava Beam's damage now will increase by 10% for each successive target. Elemental mastery's CD is now 90 secs (was 120). Enhancement Shamans -- Mental Quickness lowers the costs of shocks by 90% (and still lowers other stuff at 75%).
• For warlocks; Fel Armor is now a DR, not more armor, Blood Fear, along with new effects, is now a 60 sec debuff upon striking the Warlock (costs 1 charge, 5% health, 30 sec cd), Burning Rush adds immunity to movement impairing effects. Imps lose blood pact. Dark intent now also increases Stamina. New glyph of Ember Tap - makes it a HOT, increases healing gained by 33% restored over 10 seconds. Glyph of Unstable Affliction is changed to now only reduce cast time by 25%. Unstable Affliction's backlash is now always critical, and is buffed 15%. Chaos waves visual changed. Changes to tier 14 set bonuses.
• For warriors, all haste item/consumable buffs are increased 100%, Bladestorm cannot be disarmed, Defensive stance DR nerfed to 15%(was 25%), Unwavering Sentinel(Protection) improves DR on Defensive Stance by 10% (25% to 35%). 2nd Wind does not regenerate while stunned. Warbringer (the charge knocked down target, stuns 3 sec) also reduces their movement speed for 15 sec (8 sec pvp) and the stun/knock down has normal diminishing returns of stun effects,(was proc stun DR b4). Taste For Blood (Arms was Lvl 50 - now Lvl 20) now causes 2 stacks of overpower (max 5) when Mortal Strke deals damage, 1 stack if target dodges and it no longer interacts with Heroic Strike. Overpower (aka Rogue Bane) now costs 10 rage. Impending Victory buffed to 15% max health (was 10%) if you haven't killed something.
• Other - minor changes to Pet Battle effects, tougher elite battle pets (3 vs 1 battles), Red Panda reward pet for completing the Beasts of Fable quest line.
• Heroic Pandaria Dungeons award 100 JP and boss gold drops randomized in the 40-60 range (was 50) - less gold if < 5 players in the group.
• PVP - gear can now be purchased with Honor points. The new Malevolent Gladiators gear will be ilvl 476 (was 483) - existing gear remains as is. Druids(Balance, Feral), Windwalker Monks, Ret Paladins, Shadow Priests, and Shaman(Enhancement, Elemental) now gain 25% of the bonus healing by PvP power (was zero). Healing types will continue to get 50% bonus, and 0% damage bonus from PvP power. For caster and healers, PvP power is now evenly split between main and off hand (this will affect Season 12 gear -- but, the net change should be zero) -- Season 13 weapons price reduced to 2250 CP (was 2500), and shields/off hands price increased to 1250 CP (was 1000).
• Battlegrounds - Players in low level BG's will have their level set to the maximum level of the BG with their stats and abilities scaled accordingly -- Rated BG will award CP to the losing team according to the final score (up to 200 points for a close match - winner gets 300 iirc).
• Itemz -- transmog rules relaxed 2h axes, mages, swords can be mixed, 1h axes, maces, swords can be mixed, stave and polearms can be mixed. Costs of 5.0 VP gear reduced 50%, and 5.1 VP gear reduced 25%.