World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Megathread of DEATHWING ATE MY FAVORITE ZONE! [Archive]

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Nferno

30-08-2010, 04:40 PM

Starting off with the Collector's Edition:

IRVINE, Calif., Aug 17, 2010 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for a limited-release Collector's Edition of World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game,* World of Warcraft. The special Collector's Edition package, which will only be available at retail stores, will include the following exclusive bonus items in addition to the game disc:

-- Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development.

-- Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil' Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.

-- Behind-the-scenes DVD with over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft(R) retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.

-- Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive bonus tracks.

-- Special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.

-- World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards, including a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector's Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG.

The first two World of Warcraft expansions, The Burning Crusade(R) and Wrath of the Lich King(R), each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races -- worgen and goblins -- will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.

The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.

The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows(R) XP/Windows Vista(R)/Windows(R) 7 and Macintosh(R) at a suggested retail price of $79.99. The release date and other details for the game will be announced in the months ahead. For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm.

Deathwing Mini-Pet:

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/minideathwing_small.jpg

Baxx:

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/catacollectorbox_small.jpg

Faction Leaders models have been updated, Thrall looks awesome, hordies:

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/thrall_small.jpg
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/leaders_small.jpg

Don't see Cairne Bloodhoof there do you? That's because he has been killed. As to who killed him remains a mistery, for now. Rumors about are that Garrosh had a hand in it

Mounts:

Goblin Normal:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/august/normal_nomotor1_small.jpg
Goblin Epic:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/august/epic1_small.jpg

Worgen:
NYI

Raid and Dungeon achievement mounts:

Drake of the Wind (Raiding Achievement Reward):
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/drakeofthewinds_small.jpg

Stone Drakes (Dungeon Heroic Achievement Rewards):
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/stonedrakes_small.jpg

Camel Mounts (Presumably the purchasable Northrend Bear equivalent):
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/ridingcamels_small.jpg

Flight Training (310%):
Is now trainable at the reasonable fee of 5k gold. Anybody who has done the grind for epic flying in BC can tell you that it's a fair price to pay, considering gold inflation. (This price could possibly change on live servers)
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/riding310.jpg

Dark Phoenix (We Are Legendary Guild Reward):
Remember seeing that seemingly unobtainable Phoenix floating above you in Shattrah during Burning Crusade? How about that dude that shows his shiny, shiny one off at Krasus' landing?

Well now you and your guildies can band together and tackle that old content for those legendaries you've missed. This mount requires that you have most the legendaries available in your guild to unlock the Dark Phoenix:

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j8YKNFr8ya8/0.jpg

Professions!:
Archeaology being the new profession (Secondary, like fishing/cooking) takes you to the far reaches of Aezeroth in search of ancient artifacts. These items will both be discoverable through exploration and through drops. As to what this profession entails, remains a mistery, for now.

Path of the Titans:
Scrapped.

Stat Changes:
Stat have been completely reworked this expansion with many stats making their way out and their effects being incorparated in to other stats.

? WoW Cataclysm MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability to compensate.

? WoW Cataclysm Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don?t panic, Intellect will be improved so that it provides mana and Spell Power at the same time.

? Attack Power in WoW Cataclysm: Attack Power is also being removed from items . Instead, Agility will provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers.

? Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers in WoW Cataclysm.

?World of Warcraft Cataclysm Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to stress about juggling around ?the cap.? Tanks will receive the required anti-crit from talents and skills, like Survival of the Fittest.

? Armor Penetration Change: This ability is too confusing and ?mathy.? It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. Mastery in WoW Cataclysm is also applicable to other talents and skills and for other classes.

? Haste: Will increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus ? this is definitely huge! Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit ? probably to make up for their intelligence and mana.

? Stamina Changes in Cataclysm: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed. This sounds like the stamina increase at the beginning of WoW Burning Crusade.

Guild Perk System:
Guild Perks are incentive for guilds and players not to player/guild hop. It's a system in which various activites conducted as a guild (raiding, questing, dungeons, etc.) will reward the guild with Perks. These perks get unlocked as you progress, unlocking tasty, delicious rewards and interesting mechanics to aid you and your guildies.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/1-1.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/2-1.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/3-1.jpg

Nferno

30-08-2010, 04:41 PM

Classes:

2 New races unlocked, being:

Worgen (Alliance):

The worgen are a race of feral wolf-beasts whose very name inspires fear. Theories regarding their history abound, yet the worgen's origins remain steeped in mystery.

Records indicate that the worgen existed for a time in Kalimdor. In fact, more recent evidence suggests that their true origin might have a connection to the night elves and a secretive druidic order from Kalimdor's distant past. Yet until new evidence comes to light, this information remains speculative.

The worgen's first verified appearance in the Eastern Kingdoms has been traced back to the Third War, when the archmage Arugal utilized the wolf-beasts as a weapon against the Scourge. Arugal's weapons soon turned against him, however, as the curse of the worgen rapidly spread among the human population, transforming ordinary men and women into ravenous, feral creatures.

Arugal adopted many of the worgen as his own and retreated to the former mansion of Baron Silverlaine, the estate now known as Shadowfang Keep. The curse, however, was not contained. It persisted in the lands of Silverpine and extended even into the fabled walled nation of Gilneas, where the curse rapidly reached pandemic levels.

The citizens of Gilneas found themselves trapped, with no hope of escape. They retreated deeper within the isolated domain, and there they survived, fearful of the savage presence that lurked just outside the barricades.

Tensions among the displaced citizens escalated over time, resulting in a civil war that now threatens to destabilize the embattled nation even more.

There are those among the Gilneans, however, who cling to hope. Many believe that a treatment for the worgen curse may exist, although others have nearly given up, fearful that if the barricades should fall, their humanity will be lost forever.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/worgencreation12803_small.jpg
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/july/worgenmaleupdated_small.jpg

and Goblins (Horde):

Originally the slaves of jungle trolls on the Isle of Kezan, the goblin race was forced to mine kaja'mite ore out of the volcanic bowels of Mount Kajaro.

The trolls used this potent mineral for their voodoo rituals, but it had an unexpected effect on the slaves who were in constant contact with it: kaja'mite generated a startling new cunning and intelligence in the goblins. Crafting their own powerful artifacts of engineering and alchemy in secret, the goblins soon overthrew their oppressors and claimed Kezan for their homeland. The mines that had been their prison, their slave camp, and the base of their rebellion now became the city of Undermine. Weaving through the heart of the island in a dizzying network of tunnels, vaults, and lava tubes, Undermine epitomizes the goblins' complex, unpredictable mindset.

The goblins' natural greed soon lifted them to prominence as masters of mercantilism. Trade princes arose during the First War as the cleverest goblins learned to take advantage of the strife. Great fortunes were amassed, and the Isle of Kezan became a hub for fleets of goblin trading ships. One of the trade princes agreed to lend his faction’s services to the Horde in the Second War. Following the Horde's defeat, the goblins learned from their colleague's failed example, and soon they realized that their profits could double if they weren't stuck in such a restrictive relationship. By the end of the Third War, goblins were providing weaponry, vehicles, and devious services to both the Horde and the Alliance. This wouldn't last forever...

Recently, the goblins of Kezan have found a new enemy in the Alliance – unexpected and unprofitable encounters with this faction have driven certain trade princes from their comfortable neutrality. Reforging old pacts with their one-time allies, the goblins have been welcomed into the Horde with open arms.
http://hothardware.com/newsimages/Item10695/CataclysmGoblin.jpg

New Class/Race combos:

* Human Hunter
* Orc Mage
* Night Elf Mage
* Dwarf Mage
* Blood Elf Warrior
* Dwarf Shaman
* Undead Hunter
* Tauren Paladin
* Tauren Priest
* Gnome Priest
* Troll Druid

Class Changes:

****load.

No, really. So many changes are rolling out in Cataclysm that most classes won't function in the same manner they used to (their roles will remain, their rotations/priorities won't). I'm not going to mention the changes made (as all are subject to change on live) but I'll give a rundown on the resource systems:

Most notably are the changes coming to Paladins and Hunters. The resource systems for these two classes have changed drastically, with Hunters now using a Focus resource (Similar to Rage) and Paladins an ever confusing, Holy Power.

Focus works in a similar manner that Druids and Warriors generate Rage. While Rage can deplete completely, Focus is an ever-accumulating resource which can be replenished by different class mechanics. A welcome change to the Hunter of yesteryear asking for Mana Breaks because he spammed Volley non-stop.

Also, Volley is gone with Multi-Shot being the go-to AoE for Hunters. Just thought I'd put that out there.

Holy Power is a complicated sonnovabitch. If I understand it correctly, it works like Combo Points, but doesn't. Your Paladin is still dependant on Mana to do attacks, AFAIK, but you need Holy Power in order to attack HARDER. Basically, Holy Power gives you an incentive for not blowing your abilities every cooldown, the more Holy Power you have, the more of a multiplier it becomes on your abilities, thus giving you more damage.

Ghostcrawler put it best by saying that this will split the class from being a faceroll any-noob-can-kill-anybody, to differentiate the good from the bad. A good Paladin will know when to use his Holy Power, whereas a facemasher will still blow them every cooldown.

Powerauras:

Remember that addon you used to use when needing to know when something procs? Tellmewhen, Powerauras, Totemic?

Well now they've implemented it into the game, so no more pesky addons eating up your bndwidth/Memory usage:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/august/spelloverlayeffects_small.jpg

Zones, Towns and Cities:

Twilight Highlands:

Azeroth's inhabitants endure a lifetime of struggle and conflict. They're subject to violence from neighboring enemies and rampaging beasts at an early age, and must learn to take up arms to defend themselves against predators. Regularly forced to cope with the deaths of friends, family, and members of their tribes, clans, cities, and guilds, these scarred survivors become stronger by reinforcing their walls, banding together with new allies, and raising sharp, careful, resilient children. They adapt. They change.

Few places on Azeroth exemplify this ever-changing dynamic more than the Twilight Highlands of the Eastern Kingdoms.

The highlands have undergone constant upheaval throughout their history, with races and factions thriving, collapsing, and changing seemingly without pause. The fortress-city of Grim Batol has played host to no fewer than three potent factions: the Wildhammer dwarves, who abandoned their home after a Dark Iron curse left it uninhabitable; the red dragonflight, which was forced to fight for the Horde in the captivity of the Dragonmaw orcs during the Second War; and, of course, the Dragonmaw themselves, who were driven from Grim Batol when the red dragonflight was finally freed from their grasp.

The Dragonmaw now cling to the edges of the highlands. They're no less wild and difficult to deal with than when they ruled Grim Batol, but their knowledge of dragons and warfare is of unquestionable importance, especially amidst the chaos of the Cataclysm. The Wildhammer dwarves dwell in forested outposts among the highlands' mountains; though long friendly with the Alliance, they have only now begun to consider casting their lot in with Stormwind and Ironforge thanks to the entreaties of their cousins, the Bronzebeard clan. Even the mighty red dragonflight has suffered greatly in recent months: its members have been decimated by a frenzied, newly aggressive black dragonflight attacking relentlessly from the petrified Obsidian Forest.

Amidst this upheaval, a new power has come to possess the highlands.

Though the environment has been given many names throughout its history, it's only been dubbed "Twilight" thanks to the dominance of its current masters. The fanatical Twilight's Hammer cultists appreciate the name, but there are more functional features to the swath of land they've chosen as their headquarters. It's rimmed by massive mountain peaks that scrape at the sky like fingernails, making invasion by land nearly impossible, and the highlands' black-glass beaches ensure that marine assaults are fraught with terror; ships docking on the peninsula risk running aground.

More important to the cult, however, is the promise of worldly extinction and change that permeates the land. In the dimness of the highlands, shadows are deeper. The sun and the rest of Azeroth seem distant. The elements themselves are more pronounced: fires burn hotter; rain forces its way into the ground; and the heaves and shudders of the land call to mind some colossal being stirring beneath the earth. This doesn't frighten the members of the Twilight's Hammer; it lulls them to sleep.

Their dark work is done here in a manner that could never have been realized in Silithus. The devoted of the Twilight's Hammer train in the halls of mighty fortresses, not tiny compounds and outposts. They summon dangerous, mercurial elementals who loathe each other to the point of outright war but still pause their feuds momentarily to work towards the destruction of the other races. Outside the highlands, the cult is fractious and divided. Here, it is guided on its mission of destruction by some of the cruelest and bloodiest names in history, yet the names associated with this cabal belie the true extent of its leadership.

These dark whisperers chose the highlands as their base of operations for a reason. They can feel the presence of the Old Gods in the air and see their victory in the darkness. The shifting landscape, battling factions, and wicked elements embody the cult's vision of what its world will become as it is finally purged of life and order. The rest of Azeroth will follow the Twilight Highlands into oblivion, one way or another.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/cataclysm/cataclysm_worldmaps/cataclysm/12319/small/TwilightHighlands.jpg

Echo Isles:

The preconception that any goblin would sell their best friend for a fistful of gold is not entirely unfounded: many of them probably would and some actually do.

The truth is that quite a few goblins combine a shrewd business sense with a certain level of... moral flexibility. For example, after the cataclysm reawakened a volcano on their home island one of the goblins' trade princes realized that there was good money to be made in offering panicked goblins a ticket to safety on his ship, taking their life savings - and then selling them into slavery. A clever plan, until it (and the ship) fell apart in a naval crossfire between an Alliance fleet and a lone Horde ship. The shipwreck's survivors washed ashore on the Lost Isles off the coast of Kalimdor, where they discover that the island's dense jungles harbor many mysteries and more than a few unpleasant surprises.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/march/echoisles1.jpg

Gilneas:

Gilneas is located on the peninsula south of Silverpine Forest.

The human kingdom had supported the Alliance during the Second War, but King Greymane had no qualms about severing all ties to the outside world when it became clear that the Alliance needed Gilneas more than Gilneas needed the Alliance. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, darkness fell on Gilneas after the Greymane Wall's gates had been closed, and the worgen curse ravaged the nation. Before long, Gilneans were fighting against Gilneans in a bloody civil war that left the kingdom in tatters. Remarkably, the people of Gilneas have somehow managed to hold on to the last vestiges of their humanity... for now.
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/30/1114143-gilneas_super.jpg

The Abyssmal Maw:

Azeroth's native elementals wreaked havoc across the world while they were under the influence of the Old Gods.

To keep Azeroth safe from these threats, the titans imprisoned the Old Gods underground and banished the savage elementals to the titan-constructed Elemental Plane, a secure dominion where the elementals could dwell without harming Azeroth.

Four domains were created within this primordial realm to serve as ideal environments for each type of elemental. For ages since, the elementals of air, water, earth, and fire have engaged in endless strife with each other, waging titanic battles in the confines of their realm. One of the Elemental Plane's domains, a vast ocean known as the Abyssal Maw, is home to the water elementals. Legend says that Neptulon the Tidehunter, the powerful being who rules over the aquatic realm, possesses a potent weapon that allows its owner to control the very seas of Azeroth. Thus far, the artifact has remained secure inside the water elementals' domain... but that will soon change.

Within Deepholm, the domain of the earth elementals, the malefic Dragon Aspect Deathwing is on the verge of executing a catastrophic act: to burst forth from the Elemental Plane into Azeroth. Doing so will ravage the surface of the world and breach the barrier that separates Azeroth from the elementals' realm. Whether Neptulon and his subjects have entered into an alliance with Deathwing remains unknown. Regardless, if Deathwing's actions create an opening into the Abyssal Maw, nefarious and honorable factions alike will seek out the fabled weapon carried by Neptulon. Whoever secures the artifact will have control over the world's seas, a power that perhaps no one, not even members of the Horde or the Alliance, should possess.
http://www.wowcataclysmguide.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/abyssal-maw1.jpg

Mount Hyjal:

For years, Mount Hyjal and the wounded World Tree, Nordrassil, have remained cut off from the rest of Azeroth. Sealed away within a protective field of dense foliage by Malfurion Stormrage, Nordrassil has been slowly recovering from the devastation of the Third War, when Malfurion called upon the tree's power to destroy the archdemon Archimonde and repel the forces of the Burning Legion and Scourge. Now, with the impending cataclysm, the World Tree's well-being is threatened once more. From the Firelands within the Elemental Plane, Ragnaros and his minions prepare to burst into Hyjal and set Nordrassil ablaze -- and the conflagration would endanger all life on Azeroth.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, players will have the opportunity to explore the newly reopened Mount Hyjal as Azeroth's heroes, with the help of Ysera, Malfurion Stormrage and Hamuul Runetotem, are called upon to push back the armies of the Firelord, banish Ragnaros to the Elemental Plane and lay waste to the twilight dragon stronghold in nearby Darkwhisper Gorge. This all-new level 78-82 zone will feature multiple quest hubs, phased terrain and quest lines, portals to micro-zones within the Firelands, an all-new raid dungeon, and much more.

The World Tree
Players will be able to enter Hyjal by way of Moonglade, to take on a series of high-stakes quests in a historic location alongside some of Azeroth's most renowned heroes. With a longstanding rivalry among the night elf leadership threatening to undermine the campaign against Deathwing, players will quickly discover the task of defending Nordrassil is more daunting than they had anticipated. In order to succeed, they must seek out the help of extremely powerful allies: the Ancients.

The Ancients
To protect Nordrassil and heal the devastation the invading fire elementals are causing across Mount Hyjal, players must first recapture the shrine of the wolf god Goldrinn. The ogres surrounding the shrine will not leave peacefully, but seizing the shrine will allow players their first opportunity to infiltrate the Firelands and shut down a key Twilight portal, slowing the advance of the nearby Twilight's Hammer in Hyjal.
With the first portal dismantled, players will soon be sought by the wilderness spirit Aessina to assist in cleansing and healing the nearby forest, ultimately returning the land to its former splendor. This small victory, however, isn't enough to deter the Twilight Remnants from attempting to scorch the forest once more. As you struggle to keep these foes at bay, you'll also need to help the Guardians of Hyjal -- a new neutral faction of druids and worshippers of the Ancients -- repopulate the forest with animal life. It's even rumored that Malorne has been spotted in the wilderness. Perhaps further investigation is necessary....
Amid the chaos, the Druids of the Talon will need players' assistance to resurrect the goddess of winged creatures. Players begin the process by helping to slay a group of black dragons and closing a second Firelands portal from within. Just when you think things might be heating up, you'll need to fight through a burning night elf town to shut down the third and final portal with the assistance of the turtle god Tortollus.

Darkwhisper Gorge
Your successes in Hyjal will ultimately lead you to the assembly of the Ancients, who have set a plan in motion to bring a powerful ally and demigod back into this realm. Before that can happen, however, you will need to infiltrate Darkwhisper Gorge disguised as a follower of the Twilight's Hammer, acting quickly to sow discord within the entrenched faction, weakening it for the coming struggle. Only time will tell if the Ancients' plan is a success -- but you'll need to do your part if there's any hope of saving Mount Hyjal from the twilight dragons, Ragnaros, and his minions of the Elemental Plane.

Vashj'ir:

Once a great Highborne city housing some of the most revered night elves of Kalimdor, Vashj'ir was swallowed by the Great Sea during the Sundering and thought to be lost forever. Queen Azshara, formerly a beloved leader of the night elves, escaped death in the depths of the sea when the Well of Eternity imploded. Such salvation came at a great cost, as the queen and many of her fellow Highborne were forever transformed into the monstrous naga, doomed to wander the seas for thousands of years. Their existence mostly remains a mystery to the peoples of modern Azeroth, though the Earthen Ring has learned of Azshara's naga seizing Vashj'ir for an unknown purpose as the cries of the elements echo across Azeroth from the abyss.

The Sunken City
Vashj'ir is a level 78–82 zone in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm where players will be called to explore the depths of the Great Sea and stop the naga from seizing immeasurable power from the realm of Neptulon the Tidehunter. This expansive underwater zone will feature an unprecedented fight for survival against the naga overwhelming the area, several new quest hubs -- including Alliance and Horde naval ships and submarines -- all-new underwater travel and combat mechanics, several pocketed undersea caves free from water's grip, two new five-player dungeons (Throne of the Tides and Abyssal Maw), and the first-ever opportunity to explore the remains of the once-majestic city of Vashj'ir!
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/04/ah041510vashjmain.jpg

Tons and tons of more models, weapons and changes which I've left out. Check them out at MMO-Champion (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/).

So tell me, who's looking forward to this expansion?

Feel free to add anything you feel I've missed :)

vii

30-08-2010, 04:56 PM

I might just start playing again. This looks amazing. It's a whole new world to explore!

Could someone tell me what gametime costs nowadays? I haven't played in a year or two...

Also... TAUREN PALADINS!!!! HUGE SHINY ARMOR! NERDGASM!

Nferno

30-08-2010, 05:00 PM

Nferno

30-08-2010, 05:18 PM

PVP/Arena and Rated Battlegrounds:

The idea behind rated BGs is to be able to offer the best PvP rewards through both Arenas or BGs. If you love BGs but don’t like Arenas, you can still get great rewards. If you love Arenas, hopefully the experience will be even better for you because the guys who don’t like Arenas will be off doing something else. If you like both Arenas and BGs, great, you have more choices in what you do that week. If you like PvP but still lose a lot, yes you’re still going to be a season behind the guys who win a lot. We’ll reward you gear just for participating, but if you want th best gear, you still need to win.

Allows player to earn Arena points through Arena or BGs; no punishment for losing, but points via BGs may be capped at 6 or so per week; required to join as a group, but not one dedicated like Arenas – may be awarded special epic ground mounts.

New Battleground: Battle for Gilneas – take control of the city by taking control of the most districts; It appears this battleground will be instanced

New PvP Zone: Tol Barad Island – will function like Wintergrasp; yet when combat is at a lull will also function as an Isle of Quel’danas type quest hub; winning faction will have access to a raid area; due to the popularity of Wintergrasp, Tol Barad may be an instanced area.

Old PvP ranks are back

New Arena maps will be added

http://www.warcraftecon.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ratedbgpanel.jpg

Well, I kinda see what they want, but don't really understand the logic behind it.

Basically, the complaints were that the best PVP gear was only obtainable through Arenas. A lot of people don't enjoy playing Arena because of the length of matches, class imbalance, etc. and prefer to do battlegrounds instead. Also, you don't have to be coordinated if you don't want to and do objectives, you can camp players if you want to or generally just **** around. That's part of the beauty of battlegrounds, sure, if you go for objectives like you're supposed to you'll have a better chance of winning, but you have this freedom to not be obligated to do something like in Arenas

So Blizzard rolled this out, making the best PVP gear obtainable through Battlegrounds. Slight problem though, you need to go in with a pre-made group in order to be eligable for the ratings. That's right, they removed the "Lone Ranger" aspect of Battlegrounds and made it into large Rated Arenas with objectives, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Only time will tell how this plays out. It's an interesting concept, for sure.

KalMaverick

30-08-2010, 05:27 PM

I have it on subscription, but roughly about R300-350 for 2 months game time.

Dude...

Rather buy a 2 month game card for about R200

Yuri

30-08-2010, 06:27 PM

Nice post Nferno. Ive been following Cata for a while and you summed it up very well.

Bonezmann

30-08-2010, 06:29 PM

Yuri

30-08-2010, 06:37 PM

KalMaverick

30-08-2010, 06:53 PM

The gamecards cost R300 too.

I still have to level up my DK to 80 and my Hunter is stuck at 58 or something. I'll decide whether to buy it or not when it gets released, and if I do, it won't be the collector's edition either... Although, those Trading cards are VERY tempting...

edit: The guild leveling system looks awesome too!

Say what?

http://www.gamecards.eu/games/good/134

World of WarCraft
60 Days Pre-paid Game Card
European region
$25.98

$25.98 = R191

I don't know for sure but I think if you paying a subscription then you need a credit card in which case you might as well just buy from gamecards.

EDIT:
Take2 = R270
Rampage Gaming = R275

Miktar

30-08-2010, 07:03 PM

Now that's how you make a damn game thread, people! The bar has been raised.

EDIT: Also looking forward to Cata. Getting my Tauren Shaman to 80, so I can enjoy Worgen free of guilt. :P

KalMaverick

30-08-2010, 07:08 PM

I must say I am also looking forward to it.

Especially as I play a paladin and the new holy power thing sounds interesting so far some talents that are out don't look to bad but some kinda seem dumb.

Luckily it is beta and so nothing is final yet, one big thing to remember.

Nferno

30-08-2010, 08:20 PM

I personally cant wait for the pre expansion patch, where we get to play around with all the new talents before Cata actually releases.
I remember in Vanilla when the TBC pre patch was released, all the new talents as well as the change to honour.

It was brilliant, for those 2 weeks or so pve almost entirely came to a halt, as everyone was pvping for the grand marshall gear.....good times.

Pre-launch is awesome. The WotLK launch event was the most fun I've had since playing WoW and I stayed awake until early hours of the morning just zombifying crowds of people. Hopefully Cata's one is equally wicked.

Can't wait to roll a Goblin rogue.

Bonezmann

30-08-2010, 08:34 PM

Pre-launch is awesome. The WotLK launch even was the most fun I've had since playing WoW and I stayed awake until early hours of the morning just zombifying crowds of people. Hopefully Cata's one is equally wicked.

Can't wait to roll a Goblin rogue.

With Archeology and Engineering. :P

Telur

31-08-2010, 07:19 AM

Planning on rolling a worgen druid. I have all my heirloom items ready and waiting for it XD.

Nferno

31-08-2010, 09:43 AM

Say what?

http://www.gamecards.eu/games/good/134

World of WarCraft
60 Days Pre-paid Game Card
European region
$25.98

$25.98 = R191

I don't know for sure but I think if you paying a subscription then you need a credit card in which case you might as well just buy from gamecards.

EDIT:
Take2 = R270
Rampage Gaming = R275

Well it all depends on how well the Rand is doing if you have a subscription to determine how much you will pay. Sometimes it's sub-R300, sometimes above it.

I also prefer to support Blizzard directly, rather than a 3rd party site making a marginal profit selling Blizzard's products.

anyway, new stealth build was found on the latest Beta patch, though it has yet to be inplemented:

This build is NOT ON BETA SERVERS, I have no way to confirm strange values by checking in-game and a lot of temporary stuff might be there. I strongly suggest that you don't even try to complain about changes in this build on official forums, and if you plan to do it, you'd better do it in a very nice and constructive way if you don't want to get your ass kicked.

MMO-Champ (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1954-Cataclysm-Beta-Build-12857-%28Codename-Ninja%29)

Lots of class tweaks and updates, including a damn long list of guild achievements and player achievements.

I would post all the class updates in this build since there's so many of them, so I'll just drop some of the classes I play the most:

Paladin

* Divine Plea now let you gain 10% (down from 25%) of your total mana over 15 sec. Cooldown changed to 2 min, up from 1 min.
* Consecration now scales from 22% of AP and 22% of Spell Power, down from 32%.
* Exorcism mana cost changed from 20% base mana (up from 8% of base mana). Cooldown removed.
* Lay on Hands cooldown reduced from 20 min to 10 min.
* Seal of Righteousness is gone, effect merged in Seal of Justice.
* Tower of Radiance now procs from Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Holy Light or Divine Light.
* Blessed Life now has a chance to proc whenever you take direct damage. (Old - "All attacks against you")
* Illumination is gone.
* Denounce revamped - Reduces the mana cost of Exorcism by 25/50%. In addition, you have a 50/100% chance when casting Holy Shock to make your next Exorcism spell instant and cost no mana.
* Enlightened Judgements is now a Tier 4 talent, up from Tier 3. Healing value increased by 30%.
* Healing Light renamed to Blazing Light - Increases the damage of your Holy Shock and Exorcism by 10/20%. (No longer affects Word of Glory's healing)
* Arbiter of the Light no longer affects Holy Light.
* Conviction is back as a Holy Tier 5 talent - Gives you a 1/2/3% bonus to damage and healing for 15 sec after causing a critical effect from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
* Daybreak (Tier 3) *New* - Your Flash of Light, Holy Light and Divine Light have a 15/30% chance of resetting the cooldown on your Holy Shock.

Protection

* Seal of Justice now deals [ 0.5% of MWS * AP + 1% of MWS * Spell Power ] additional Holy damage on each hit.
* Vindication now has a chance to reduce physical damage done by the primary target of the skills. (Old - All targets)
* Grand Crusader now only procs from damage dealt to your primary target.
* Sanctuary now also reduces all damage taken by 3/7/10%.

Retribution

* Selfless Healer now has a 50/100% chance to proc, up from 30/60%.
* The Art of War revamped - Your melee attacks have a 7/14/20% chance to reduce the cast time by 100%, reduce mana cost by 60%, and increase damage by 60% of your next Exorcism.
* Pursuit of Justice additional effect - You have a 50/100% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect.

Shaman

* Magma Totem base damage increased by 33%.
* Fire Nova base damage increased by 33%.
* Rolling Thunder is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. Mana regeneration increased from 1% to 2%.
* Improved Fire Nova moved to Enhancement.
* Elemental Reach no longer increases the range of Thunderstorm, now affects the range of all your Shock spells. (Old - Just Flame Shock)

Enhancement

* Unleash Elements now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
* Totemic Vigor is gone.
* Improved Fire Nova is now a Tier 4 Enhancement Talent - Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova by 10/20% and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 sec.

Restoration

* Improved Water Shield now also procs from Greater Healing Wave.

Really ticked off that they reverted Elemental Reach to a similar model of what it once was, the Thunderstorm gain sounded too good to be true and it would have made kiting melee classes so much easier than the current wait-until-they're-up-in-yo-grill method.

Improved Fire Nova moving to deep Enhancement is facerape for Elemental Shammies. Not having access to it would mean less DPS on AoE fights and to a certain extent single-target fights too. This is probably to compensate on for the new AoE Earthquake, so Shaman don't do excessive damage in AE encounters.

Warlock

* Seed of Corruption base AE damage increased by 33%.
* Drain Mana mana cost reduced from 17% of base mana to 12% of base mana.
* Drain Life now restores 5% total health to the caster every 1 sec regardless of damage done. Soulburn now reduces cast time by 50%, down from 60%. Mana cost reduced from 17% of base mana to 12% of base mana.
* Life Tap changed to - You Life Tap for 20% of your total health, converting 75% of that into mana.
* Corruption now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
* Haunt now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
* Soul Swap now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
* And I think Dark Pact is gone, but since I also screwed up with Soul Link last time, I strongly suggest that you assume I'm stupid until it's confirmed.

Demonology

* Soulburn now lasts 20 sec, up from 15 sec.
* Unending Breath is back.
* Nemesis is gone.
* Hand of Gul'dan's range increased from 30 yards to 40 yards and revamped - Summons a falling meteor down upon the enemy target, dealing 1597.26 to 1886.4 Shadow damage and erupts an aura of magic within 4 yards, causing all targets within it to have an increased 10% chance to be critically hit by any of your demons for 15 sec.
* Ancient Grimoire is now a Tier 5 talent, up from Tier 4.
* Demonic Rebirth has a 2 minute cooldown.
* Aura of Foreboding (Tier 4) *New* - When your Hand of Gul'dan lands, all enemies within 4 yards will be rooted for 2/3 sec and stunned for the same duration if they are still within the Curse of Gul'dan aura 6 sec afterword.

Destruction

* Shadowflame no longer fears the targets.
* Hellfire base damage increased by 33%.
* Rain of Fire base damage increased by 33%. Range increased from 30 yards to 35 yards.
* Immolate range increased from 30 to 40 yards.
* Chaos Bolt range increased from 30 to 40 yards.
* Empowered Imp now has a 2/4% chance to proc from your Imp's Firebolt.
* Soul Leech now restores 1/2% of your total health and mana, down from 5/10%.
* Backdraft now reduces the casting time of Shadow Bolt, Incinerate, and Shadow Bolt by 10/20/30% for 15 sec. No longer has 3 charges.

* Hand of Gul'dan's range increased from 30 yards to 40 yards and revamped - Summons a falling meteor down upon the enemy target, dealing 1597.26 to 1886.4 Shadow damage and erupts an aura of magic within 4 yards, causing all targets within it to have an increased 10% chance to be critically hit by any of your demons for 15 sec.

combined with:

* Aura of Foreboding (Tier 4) *New* - When your Hand of Gul'dan lands, all enemies within 4 yards will be rooted for 2/3 sec and stunned for the same duration if they are still within the Curse of Gul'dan aura 6 sec afterword.

would finally give us Demolocks that much needed CC for PVP. A bit skeptical as to wether this new talent will see a nerf or not, seeing as how you could use it to exploit Battlegrounds much like the Earthbind totem did in Alterac Valley (Field of Strife? :P)

Overall, some cool changes I hope to see make it in to the expansion. :)

KalMaverick

31-08-2010, 04:51 PM

Well it all depends on how well the Rand is doing if you have a subscription to determine how much you will pay. Sometimes it's sub-R300, sometimes above it.

I also prefer to support Blizzard directly, rather than a 3rd party site making a marginal profit selling Blizzard's products.

I'm sorry but why should I pay anywhere near R300? When I can get it for 90% of the time under R200?

I support Blizzard by giving people cheaper ways to buy gamecards so that they ACTUALLY buy them and not think omg it's over R300...

And sorry whether you pay R300 or R200 you still supporting Blizzard, just with the former price you supporting their ridiculous mark up too.

Nferno

31-08-2010, 04:59 PM

I'm sorry but why should I pay anywhere near R300? When I can get it for 90% of the time under R200?

I support Blizzard by giving people cheaper ways to buy gamecards so that they ACTUALLY buy them and not think omg it's over R300...

And sorry whether you pay R300 or R200 you still supporting Blizzard, just with the former price you supporting their ridiculous mark up too.

Apologies, I got confused with my billing. Just checked my billing info now and it's roughly about R350 for a 3-Month sub :)

35.97 EUR Three-Month Subscription

Let's not derail this further, though. Got anything to add in regards to Cataclysm?

Yuri

31-08-2010, 06:40 PM

Im actually looking forward to rated BGs. I dont foresee needing a premade to be a problem, sure right now on live premade's dont come along too often, but in Cata when you can obtain the best gear from them? Im pretty sure you will have guilds for the sole purpose of rated BGs. And of course there will still be normal BGs for those who just wanna blow off some steam.

One problem i think might come along, is certain class/specs being completely sidelined. For example I roll an enhance shammy, considered by many to be one of the weakest pvp specs in game, though Im more than happy with my performance in BGs. Though lets face it, range classes have the advantage in BGs, and I dont really see that changing in Cata.

Time will tell of course, but for those who chose to pvp with specs that arent current fotm, might struggle to get into rated BGs.

KalMaverick

01-09-2010, 11:10 AM

Though lets face it, range classes have the advantage in BGs, and I dont really see that changing in Cata

Actually I think they are trying to change that.

Paladins seem as they have been given some help in that department with a talent that gives a 45% speed increase if they cast a judgement and the target is a certain distance away.

So ja I think they are trying to balance it a little bit, ofcourse it is still going to be a lot of trial and error (and a lot of complaining ofcourse) but I think good things are going to come out of it.

@Nferno
Now that is decent pricing :)

Nferno

01-09-2010, 09:40 PM

One problem i think might come along, is certain class/specs being completely sidelined. For example I roll an enhance shammy, considered by many to be one of the weakest pvp specs in game, though Im more than happy with my performance in BGs. Though lets face it, range classes have the advantage in BGs, and I dont really see that changing in Cata.

I Resto Shammied in 2's with a Prot/Retradin to 1.8k easily enough. They're actually quite good at locking down most casters and can pretty much global most clothies.

Problems arose when we started running into a lot of Resto Drood/Arms Warrior setups as they're both ridiculously overpowered and when together, pretty much the hardest comp to face in 2's.

Druids kite Paladins (and most classes) way too easily and with an innervate at hand, almost impossible to OOM. Even with me going on the all out offensive and purging my ass off, it's near impossible to kill a skilled Resto ****er throwing HoTs out and matches last way too long as it just boils down to a Mana Battle.

Technetics

02-09-2010, 08:51 AM

[Deleted by admin: no advertising]

Yuri

02-09-2010, 06:23 PM

Yeah most classe/specs have their niche in arena. For example enhance has beastcleave. (i still need to try my hand at this comp before cata rolls around) But i was referring to how the minority specs might be affected by rated BGs.

Its all going to be about conquest points, which only come with a win, so simply participating wont be enough. I can see everyone trying to put together the "perfect teams", because so much is riding on a win, and a team of 10/15 players being harder to coordinate then a 3v3 arena team, people are gonna go for what they consider OP class/specs.

I just wonder where that leaves the minority specs, ie enhance, in the elitist world that is wow.

Nferno

02-09-2010, 11:17 PM

Its all going to be about conquest points, which only come with a win, so simply participating wont be enough. I can see everyone trying to put together the "perfect teams", because so much is riding on a win, and a team of 10/15 players being harder to coordinate then a 3v3 arena team, people are gonna go for what they consider OP class/specs.

I just wonder where that leaves the minority specs, ie enhance, in the elitist world that is wow.

This I agree with. It's always been about min-maxing, that's pretty much what end-game boils down to. Doesn't matter if it's arenas or raiding, the best group composition is usually the one preferred. I'm not buying that the whole "bring the player, not the class" philosophy as it's apparent that it's not working now, though with the class changes showing a lot of homogenization, that could still change.

I guess it's just a bit of a double-edged sword. Blizzard designed the game with the intention for players to min-max their character through gear, etc. That mentality carried over to the social elements of the game and unfortunately players get benched at raids/arenas for a more suitable class for that particular role.

Don't worry, best thing we can do for our less-than-desirable specs is to jump on the bandwagon and hope that CATA WILL FIX IT! :)

Nferno

09-09-2010, 02:31 PM

Troll and Worgen Druid forms updated!

Troll Cat:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/cataclysm_druid_troll_cat_small2.jpg
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss6.jpg
Troll Bear:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/cataclysm_druid_troll_bear_small2.jpg
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss5.jpg

Worgen Cat:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/cataclysm_druid_worgen_cat_small2.jpg
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss7.jpg
Worgen Bear:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/cataclysm_druid_worgen_bear_small2.jpg
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss8.jpg

Absolutely LOVE how they made Troll Druid forms! Can't wait for when Cataclysm goes live and I race change my clumbsy Tauren Druid to a Troll, looks epic!

Yes, once again I have broken the H-Scroll, but it was worth it!

To all the Shaman tired of looking at that same Ghost Wolf model we've had since, like...vanilla, now there's a glyph! Yeah, we can get a glyph that changes our Ghost Wolf's appearance!

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/august/arcticghostwolf_small.jpg

...to an Artic Frost Wolf which is the same Ghost Wolf, but white. What a bummer :(

Nferno

10-09-2010, 03:08 PM

Triiiiiiiiiiiple Post and more H-Scroll raping. Forgive me, kind mods.

Guild Mounts are coming into play, meaning both factions get their own unique mount which is guild specific.

The first model dug up so far is the Alliance Guild Mount, being a lion of sorts. The blank white area on the torso is where your guild emblem will be. Neat!

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/alliancelion_small.jpg
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/alliancelion.jpg

I'm pretty confident that the Horde Guild Mount will be a boar, but only time and Boubouille will tell! Edit: Damn********no. It's a Scorpion, no pics out yet but it's icon and description are in the Beta. Bummmmer.

No, not this kind of Scorpion Mount.
http://www.seventhsignguild.com/ScorpionMount.png
THIS kind of Scorpion Mount!
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/hordescorpion_small.jpg
fBogTRhF73o
I'll update this post with the Horde one as soon as implemented/dug up by the data miners.

Miktar

10-09-2010, 04:48 PM

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!

KRINGER, FORM OF A POWER-RANGERS VEHICLE!

sywlyn

12-09-2010, 06:43 PM

Nferno

13-09-2010, 08:16 AM

Finally reached level 80 with my BE Death Knight. I enjoyed the WOTLK content and there where some great quest lines.

I never expected the game to change as much as it does once you hit 80. Still attempting to figure out the currency and hell, seems like Gear really does make a massive difference in the end game. As for guilds, lol, it would be great to add a guild finder option since im finding it rather hard to find a guild "which is actually governed like a guild".

Level cap is all about gear. No, really, just gear.

You'll notice as you play more that it boils down to refining your character and trying to get the most out of it. Think of the 1-80 grind as building a race car and once you get to cap, you have to tune the **** out of it in order to stay competetive. Welcome to World of Warcraft.

Something which would be neat, however, probably hard to implement is guild halls, similar to those in Guild Wars, but more functional.

Blizzard said they don't plan on doing this as it would cause players to spend more time in the player housing than in the beautiful cities they have created.

They like the social aspect of main cities and players been able to inspect and interact with each other. "OMG nice shield, wherecha get it?" that kind of thing.

Level 80 and still a noob, shows you how much dept there really is :-P
Been playing WoW for quite a bit of time and have 5 pimped out level 80s. I still consider myself a noob, there's always so much to learn ;)

Nferno

14-09-2010, 12:30 PM

Archeology revealed!

Archaeology just went in this build for the first time and we don't yet have any of the support around it to teach players what to do. It has been informative to watch players learn to swim by drowning, but we thought it was time to offer a little more direction.

Digsites
Once you train archaeology, you can see digsites on your map (not your minimap - your map). There are always 4 digsites per continent. These will not change until you dig one out. Most of the time, you're probably only going to be concerned with the 4 sites on your current continent, but at higher character and archaeology skill levels, there will be 16 sites active at one time (4 each in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland and Northrend.)

You will only find sites in zones of your level or lower. A level 25 player will have all 4 sites per continent in level 25 zones. (This means Outland and Northrend will have no sites at this time.) A level 80 player will have all 4 sites in any zone. A low level Kalimdor player might have sites in Ashenvale and Stonetalon, while a level 82 might have Uldum, Ashenvale, Stonetalon and Silithus.

Sites are race specific. You can usually guess the race by the location. Kalimdor tends to have a lot of night elf ruins. Eastern Kingdoms tends to have a lot of dwarf ruins.

Some races are only available on some continents (such as orc and draenei on Outland). You need to have a minimum character level and a minimum archaeology level to use these. Currently you can see them if you are a certain character level but can't gather from them until your archaeology skill is higher. For Outland, the skill is 300. While somewhat consistent with other gathering skills, we think this is confusing and we will change it so that you don't even see the digsites until your archaeology skill is sufficiently high. Tol'vir artifacts are the most rewarding, but also require near max archaeology skill to recover.

Some players are reporting some issues with digsites not showing up correctly. We'll look into these bugs.

Unlike other gathering skills, digsites are player-specific. Other players will be searching in different locations. There is no competition for digsites.

Fragments
Each digsite can be searched 3 times before it despawns and a new site spawns. If there is a digsite somewhere too far away from you or otherwise inconvenient, just ignore it and hit the closer ones. You won't run out.

To search a digsite, use the Survey ability. The survey tool will spawn and point in the approximate direction of the artifact. Red means you're far away. Yellow means you're close. Green means you may be within 40 yards or so. When you discover your find, you'll get fragments specific to a particular race.

There are two main strategies to surveying. You can attempt to triangulate by moving around the outer edge of a digsite. (Like quest blobs, the digsites are not necessarily circular.) Other players just keep surveying, heading in the direction the tool points until they strike paydirt.

Remember, the thing you uncover is yours. There is no competition with other players and nobody can gank your node.

Artifacts
Whenever you get a new fragment for a race, you'll start a research project. You can only work on one artifact per race at a time. When you have enough fragments, click Solve to complete that artifact. You won't waste excess fragments -- they will just start the next project. You can be working on one project for each race at a time.

Most artifacts are common. These give you a little bit of lore or flavor text and an item you can sell for a small profit (presumably to a museum!) The profit increases as the value of the artifact increases. You can estimate this by the number of fragments needed to finish the artifact. You will only find cheaper artifacts at low level, but you can find cheap and valuable artifacts at higher level (the reason for this is we want players to be able to find all the artifacts if they want to). You won't find a second copy of a common object until you have found all the artifacts of that race. If you get stuck at a certain skill level of archaeology or character level, you may find an artifact more than once until you reach the next tier.

Some artifacts are rare. These always make a blue or purple item. Many of these have no in-game power and are toys or for flavor. Some of them are actual weapons and armor. The latter items are all bound to account. They aren't heirlooms in that they don't scale, but you can pass them around. So if you are level 80 and you find a level 60 axe, you can always have another character use it when they are level 60. You will never get a rare artifact more than once.

The future
We designed archaeology to be easily expandable, so we plan to add much more content in future patches, including new races to research (though to be fair, there's a sizable amount of content already). We also have a feature that is not available on beta yet, that allows you to use your archaeology skill for a slight (think Fish Feast-level) bonus in the Cataclysm dungeons.

and a preview video by Totalbiscuit (Which sounds surprisingly like Yahtzee):

oVZ9pkD6-v8

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but the embedded video doesn't show for me. See the video here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVZ9pkD6-v8&feature=player_embedded#!)

Miktar

14-09-2010, 04:45 PM

Fixed it for you.

Nferno

16-09-2010, 11:23 AM

Thanks Miktar.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you on this 16th day of September 2010, the first megapatch for Cataclysm. This will most likely be the bulk of it with smaller content/update patches coming through before the release, like we saw before WotLK.

1.7gb. Start pre-patching, people!

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/400predl_small.jpg

Feel it, it is here!

Holy ****, today is the 16th ;_;

Edit: Just to clarify: This will put in the following changes to test-realms, not live realms. That doesn't mean you'll have to patch again once Cataclysm hits, it's only a matter of Blizzard activating the patch to live realms once Cataclysm goes live. So patch up and get ready to rumble but keep in mind that we're still in a testing phase and nothing is final yet!

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 4.0.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patch...atchnotes.html

General

* Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Classes: General

* Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
* All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
* Ammo has been removed from the game.
* The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
* Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
* Rage has been normalized.
* Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
* Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
o Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
o Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
o Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
o Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
o The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...26290449&sid=1

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
* The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
* The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
* Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
* Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
* The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* Paladins now have a new resource bar.

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
* Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Items

* Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
* Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

Professions

* The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.

User Interface

* Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
* The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
* The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
* The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
* A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character’s primary and secondary professions.
* Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
* New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
* Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
* New Raid frames are now. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
* The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/bo...&forumId=11114

Domanskip

16-09-2010, 11:55 AM

Boubouille (or however you spell it, from MMO-Champ) is saying that November 2nd is the big day. He is VERY rarely wrong, so start placing those pre-orders and prepare.

Aesir

16-09-2010, 12:49 PM

Haven't played this in a while but I get cravings every time I see this, last night I oficially decided to start playing again. I have a problem though I neither have the strenth, motivation, cap nor the time to download all the patches again, so I have to either wait for Cata to come out or beg someone here that has them.

Anyone in the PTA area willing to give/borrow/sell me the updated files? pleeeze. ^^,

Nferno

18-09-2010, 08:17 AM

Some Reputation Rewards (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1974-Cataclysm-Reputation-Rewards-Blue-Posts-Fan-Arts) are up on MMO-Champ, so I recommend anybody who likes to streamline their targets and likes to pre-plan their gearing should check it out.

There is a "Drake of the Wind" which I posted in the first post which is available as a Reputation Reward and the Camels posted earlier are as well.

Old Azeroth is almost behind us now and to pay tribute to the good times it brought before the devastation hits, I'll put up some screencaps of good experiences and happy times in old Azeroth:

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Thehulk2.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Thehulk-1.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Tenaris.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/SunkenTemple.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Skeles.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Raggy.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Ole-1.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/Houseparty.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/ZulGurub.jpg
Please feel free to add your own screenshots of good times in old Azeroth. Just make sure they're not of Outland and beyond ;D

Nferno

20-09-2010, 10:53 AM

Post #26 updated with new Horde Scorpion Guild Mount. Scroll up to take a look.

So you like World of Warcraft? What about Plants Vs. Zombies?

Well, there's a new quest which popped up on the Beta and it looks awesome. Check out the video, it's incredibly good:

aWI5XTmGrmo

Koning Skapie

21-09-2010, 09:55 AM

So Cataclysm's Real release date is now 1st November Correct? They should of just made it WoW 2 there are way to many changes made especially in the Paladin and DK side but yeah thats just me lol :)

Check out my link if you time Peace SEE YOU AT rAgE 201 Peeps

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sporeggar&cn=Zangetstu

Nferno

21-09-2010, 11:36 AM

So Cataclysm's Real release date is now 1st November Correct?

Speculated 2nd of November. Blizzard have not confirmed a release date yet, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

So...

"When it's done."

FoX

27-09-2010, 11:01 AM

I got selected for the cataclysm beta WHOOO! But I have to download it and its 4.7gig.... FFFFFFUUUU.

All tho my cap is 9gig.... mmmmm...

Nferno

27-09-2010, 01:14 PM

I got selected for the cataclysm beta WHOOO! But I have to download it and its 4.7gig.... FFFFFFUUUU.

All tho my cap is 9gig.... mmmmm...

Congrats! Hopefully you can shed some more light on some things not covered here...and screenshots, drop us some screenshots please.

Hopefully that means Cataclysm Beta keys are still being handed out, so here's holding thumbs I still get one :P

Die Jason

01-10-2010, 09:17 AM

There's a rumour this has been delayed till early next year...

Source (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280118.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop%3Btitle%3B1)

Nferno

01-10-2010, 11:24 AM

There's a rumour this has been delayed till early next year...

Source (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280118.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop%3Btitle%3B1)

Negative compadre'.

The next Arena Season will begin for level 85 players approximately one week after the official launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Blue Confirmed. (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/27026472909/arena-season-8-ending-soon/)

Season 9 is going to b the 14th of December, so we (UK players!) can expect it on the 8th of December, since we fall a day after US release.

Miktar

01-10-2010, 04:30 PM

Man, those changes to how guilds work is gorram awesome.

Nferno

01-10-2010, 04:57 PM

Darkon5524

02-10-2010, 11:19 AM

Agreed. I'm also digging the loot changes, making 25man and 10man drop the same quality items, just not the same quantities.

I haven't played WoW for about 3 months now and I'm totally missing it. Probably not missing the gameplay itself as much as I miss the whole culture around World of Warcraft. I can't wait for Cataclysm, it's been too long in this icy continent.

So true man, i recently started playing again with friends and joined my old guild again who took us back with open arms, we on 11/12 on heroic ICC but i don't really want to raid as much, i started a shaman and its currently level 50, looking forward to get it maxed out, just want cataclysm to come out already! My character name is Darkaran on Doomhammer if anyone is there :)

Nferno

04-10-2010, 03:51 PM

World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM) in Stores Starting December 7

IRVINE, Calif., Oct 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the highly anticipated third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game*, will be released starting on December 7, 2010. The expansion will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows(R) XP/Windows Vista(R)/Windows(R) 7 and Macintosh(R) at a suggested retail price of $39.99 and will also be offered as a digital download from the Blizzard Store. A special Collector's Edition packed with bonus items will be available exclusively in retail stores for a suggested retail price of $79.99.

"Cataclysm includes the best content we've ever created for World of Warcraft. It's not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With the help of our beta testers, we're putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months."

The first two World of Warcraft expansions, The Burning Crusade(R) and Wrath of the Lich King(R), each shattered PC game sales records upon their release.* In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races — worgen and goblins — will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.

The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway. Visit the official Battle.net(R) website at http://www.battle.net to set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate. To learn more about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, visit http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm.

7th of December!!

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/cid_4E82ECA21CDB4DF983E7E57FD91FB374linebroker4.gi f

IMMA GONNA ASPLODE WITH EXCITE

Nferno

05-10-2010, 11:26 AM

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/1195446011100.gif
Nobody discussing Cataclysm while it's so near to release makes me sadface :(

Anyway, more Cataclysm news on the table:

Guild Member Hardcap Set at 600:

Large guilds face a certain number of unique challenges. Beyond the usual demands of leading large numbers of players, guilds with memberships greater than 500 have an unfortunate tendency to break the guild interface. Up until now, this has been more of a nuisance than anything else -- Blizzard has never imposed a hard cap on guild membership. (WoW Insider's very own guild, <It Came from the Blog>, stands at 1,100 members, for example.)

Blizzard was keenly aware of the problems that these large guilds suffered, promising earlier in the summer to address them for Cataclysm. Well, not-so-great news, members of giant mega guilds: Blizzard is effectively throwing in the towel on large guilds and imposing a hard cap of 600 members effective the moment patch 4.0.1 goes live.
http://wow.joystiq.com/

Blizzard claims that this won't impact 99% of the guilds out there, since not many guilds have over 600 members.

This isn't such a bad thing, the large guilds will have to break up forming smaller guilds which will keep servers competetive and give more people a chance to raid and see end-game content. I like the way this is going since I don't see everybody getting a chance to raid in a guild with over 600 members.

Tol Barad Quartermaster Mounts:

Are Spectral mounts. Everybody's favorite mount, the Spectral Tiger is not going to be the desirable item it's always been anymore since these mounts are coming into play. This, in addition to the Dark Phoenix mount I mentioned earlier being obtainable through Guild Achievements means that Blizzard are trying to do away with hard-to-obtain-but-so-worth it mounts. It's sad for us who have worked hard and farmed for months for these mounts, but this gives casuals a chance to also get shineys.

Everybody loves shineys.

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/spectralwolf_small.jpg
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/september/spectralsteed_small.jpg

With Zul'Gurub being removed with Cataclysm, I suggest all you hordies dig into that bitch right now to get your He-Man tiger mounts before they're gone forever. You won't regret it.

In regards to Zul'Gurub:

Zul’Gurub is a cozy old raiding zone located on the eastern end of Stranglethorn Vale. The zone has its own reputation associated with it; the Zan’dalar. Zul’gurub sparked some serious media attention when it was first released. A bug with one of Hakkar’s abilities named Corrupted Plague allowed you to spread it to other players outside the zone, the resulting pandemic caused some serious media attention.

Why do you care about the zone being removed? Well, the zone may be a raid instance today, but that is going to change. It will not be a raiding zone after Cataclysm comes out, or possibly even before then; when patch 4.03 goes live.

As Blizzard puts it: Zul’Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.

Instead, the zone will be an outdoor area in which a few quests are undertaken. The important part is; it will be quite different and you cannot do ZG in its former glory ever again.

Now, there are several things that can happen which may be of interest to you. Note that not all of these are certain at this point;

* There are two highly sought after mounts that drop in ZG – The Swift Razzashi Raptor and Swift Zulian Tiger. These have a very low drop rate and may not be attainable at all once Cataclysm is released. Drop rates vary from site to site, but assume its between 0.5 and 1% for both.

* The Razzashi Hatchling is a very rare drop from the Razzashi Raptors in the zone. It drops nowhere else right now. However, as this pet was only added to ZG fairly recently, perhaps it will be attainable through other means in the future. According to warcraftpets.com, the drop chance is about 1 in 1000.

* Achievements – The Zandalar reputation is being removed. Anyone exalted with this reputation when Cataclysm hits will receive a feat of strength. New players will be unable to ever raise this rep. This looks pretty definitive. The Zul’Gurub achievement, which requires killing Hakkar, and Deadliest Catch, which lets you fish up a boss in ZG, will both be replaced by Feats of Strength as well.

* The Polymorph Turtle spell, which can currently only be obtained by killing Gahz’ranka, may no longer be obtainable at all.

* For profession completionists; The Zandalar quartermaster may or may not be removed. He offers a range of plans for Alchemists, Blacksmiths, Enchanters, Engineers, Leatherworkers and Tailors. If you want to get these plans, I would suggest doing so as soon as possible.

If you want to own or complete any of the items listed above, I would suggest heading to ZG asap and getting some killing done! I did not mention quests; There is a selection of repeatable quests for armor, head/leg enchants and trinkets you can do; there is a set for every class but the Death Knight. These require varying levels of reputation and items from within the zone. There are but two one-time only quests that I could find. A Collection of Heads and The Heart of Hakkar, which starts from an item dropped from Hakkar himself.

If there are things on that list you don’t want to miss, I suggest you get started! I have been running around ZG for a while and will gladly share some tips on how to go about things, should you feel motivated;

Firstly, if you want to solo ZG, you will still need to form a raid to enter. You can form a raid with someone and remove that player from the raid after you log in without being teleported out of the zone. However, you will not be able to zone back in if you use that method. Dying will require you to form a raid again.

Trash

Some trash is very easily killed. Other trash can pose a problem:

* Axe Throwers are the most frustrating of the lot. They will initially open with regular attacks. However, when they are not killed swiftly, they will channel a whirlwind type ability which will leave you unable to do anything for 10 seconds. No moving, no casting, no nothing. Two Axe Throwers can channel this in succession to leave you permanently disabled, resulting in your eventual death. Kill them fast.

* Berserkers and Champions can knock you back pretty far. Pulling a bunch of Champions leads to a lot of time spent flying, or being stuck into walls causing your assailants to evade reset, or simply go back to full health and then proceed attacking.

* Mad Servants. These are imps found only near the Maw of Madness. They’re easy enough to kill, but spawn two voidwalkers after death. These voidwalkers will deal periodic shadow damage and slow you. The imps provide 4 rep but the voidwalkers do not.

* Brood Widows are the large red spiders only found by High Priestess Mar”li. They have the ability to stun you for 7 seconds, and will spawn a bunch of weak little spiders upon death. Kill them first and don’t pull too many.

* Soul Flayers are found in the center of the zone at Hakkar’s temple only. They can fear you, heal themselves and frenzy. They are part of larger packs of various trolls. Kill the Soulflayers first, as these packs are certainly capable of killing a fully epic’d out level 80 quickly.

Reputation

Clearing everything in the zone is something I started out doing but can’t really recommend. A lot of the trash takes too much time to kill. If its rep you’re after, there are two types of trash mob you can kill that are worth exceptionally much rep for the ease with which they are handled.

* Zulian Crocolisk. These are all found on the lower lying land levels surrounding the body of water around Hakkar’s temple in the center of the zone. They deal very little damage and have just over 9k health. You can kill them very easily, they provide 4 rep each and last but not least; They do drop coins and bijous.

* Withered Mistresses and Voodoo Slaves. If you turn left immediately upon entering the zone, you will be able to cross some water and find a ramp leading up to the left. You’ll find these mobs at the top of this ramp. Some of them will knock you down, so be careful not to pull too many. They have about 12k health, are worth 4 rep each and drop bijous and coins.

You could simply stick with killing trash mobs to reach exalted, but bosses provide a tidy boost as well.

* High Priestess Jeklik, (Bat Boss) You need to clear the surrounding area of trash, which consists mostly of bats. The boss itself will frequently silence you, uses a 4 second fear occasionally and will attempt to heal herself for 100k every so often, about a third of her total pool. This is a 4 second cast heal which can be interrupted.

* High Priest Venoxis (Snake Boss). Flanked by several weaker snake guardians. You can AE them down or focus on them first. The boss can dispel himself. He will turn into a snake at low health and deal more damage, but nothing unmanageable. Note: If the Parasitic Serpent debuff is on you, a small snake will spawn when it wears off. Kill it fast to avoid getting the same debuff again.

* High Priestess Mar’li (Spider Boss). Summons three ‘Spawns of Mar’li’ at the start of the fight. These will quickly grow and deal more damage as they do, so kill them first. Occasionally she will spawn another. At low health she will turn into a spider, with a root ability being the main thing of interest if you aren’t soloing.

* Bloodlord Mandokir (Raptor Boss) This boss is quite difficult to solo. In fact, many classes can’t do it at all. He drops the Swift Razzashi Raptor, which makes him an attractive target. Make sure to fight him at the top of his platform and if you want extra safety, clear the immediate area. He fears. Tanking classes have the easiest time, as he hits hard and fast. You can choose to kill his raptor Ohgan first, as it adds extra damage and applies an armor debuff. However, killing Ohgan will grant the boss a sizable 2 minute duration buff. I recommend leaving the raptor alive and killing the boss first. If you’re unsure whether you’ll have a chance when trying to solo him, try reading through the comments here and see if your class is represented.

* High Priest Thekal (Tiger Boss). This boss drops the swift Zulian Tiger mount, and is thankfully much easier to solo than Mandokir. Thekal is accompanied by two tigers, which are easily killed, and two henchmen: Zealot Lath and Zealot Lor’Khan. Lor’Khan is the most important of the lot, as she can cast a sizable heal. If you kill one of these three targets, it will come back to life if you don’t kill the remaining two within 10 seconds. As such, they all need to die simultaneously. Pay close attention to Lor’Khans heals, as you will want to interrupt those to prevent it from ruining your carefully planned simultane-a-kill. When all three are dead, Thekal will turn into a tiger and summon tigers periodically. Luckily, damage output of most classes is high enough nowadays to give you enough time to kill the tiger before he actually does anything you might be worried about.

* Gahz’ranka. This boss drops the Polymorph Turtle spell. To summon him, you will need a Mudskunk Lure, which can be purchased from Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh. It is consumable, so you will need multiples if you plan to kill this boss more than once. In order to summon him, you will need to fish up 5 Zulian Mudskunks from the schools in the water surrounding Hakkar’s temple and combine those with the Lure. The resulting item can be used to summon the boss at Pagle’s Point, which is located at the northeastern corner of the water area. The boss is easy to kill, but make sure to fight it in the water as you will be tossed high into the air by it.

* High Priest Arlokk (Panther Boss). This boss is exceptionally easy to kill. After using the gong, the boss will attack. If you put out a lot of damage, you can kill her before she will vanish. If not, she will disappear and send wave after wave of extremely weak panther into your face. You can kill them one by one or wait to AE them in greater numbers. When the boss reappears, finish her off.

* Jin’do the Hexxer. This boss can be solo’d, but has a weird little bug going on. He will frequently summon a mind control totem, which will, unsurprisingly, mind control you. This mind control will then be removed after a few seconds, when Jin’do realizes that there are no further enemies left. Note; Make sure you don’t have a pet out for this fight. When the mind control drops, proceed killing the boss. Sometimes, you will be teleported into the skeleton-filled red pit. These have practically no health. In fact, I recommend fighting Jin’do near the pit, as he will sometimes reset after teleporting you too far away. Lastly, if you kill Jin’do just as he places his mind control totem, prepare to spend the next 4 minutes mind controlled. It will wear off, I promise.

* Hakkar. First of all; If you are using a pet and you are the one with aggro, he will mind control you and reset when you have any type of target nearby. Pets includes blood worms, shadow fiends and magma totems. So again: You can use a pet to tank Hakkar as long as you never pull aggro yourself. You cannot use a pet if you’re tanking. Secondly; Hakkar is stronger and has more abilities when any High Priest bosses are alive. You should kill them all. Jin’do , Mandokir and Gahz’ranka can be left alive. When going up to his temple, you can choose to go left or right around it. Whichever direction you choose, make sure there are no mobs walking back and forth there anymore. My usual method is this: Pull Hakkar all the way to the edge of the platform, be it the north or the south side (depending on which side I cleared the trash from). About half a minute into the fight, I will target the Son of Hakkar (these spawn roughly every minute and wander back and forth) and attack it to get it to come to me. When it does, kill it and you will receive a 2 minute debuff for standing in the green cloud. Now, when Hakkar channels Blood Siphon about a minute into the fight, he will not gain health. If you don’t have the debuff, he will gain a considerable amount. Hakkar doesn’t hit terribly hard and doesn’t use any abilities that are a major threat besides the mind control. If you want, you can forego using the Son of Hakkar debuff and simply deal enough damage to negate his heals.

Enjoy ZG while it lasts, and good luck on the drops!!

vii

11-10-2010, 12:44 PM

This gave me a giggle today.
http://www.darklegacycomics.com/259.jpg

Come on, You know it's true.

Nferno

11-10-2010, 01:42 PM

Yeah, Vii, World of Workcraft ;)

In other news, to those who thought the ship was sinking...

IRVINE, Calif. -- October 7, 2010 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft?, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), now exceeds 12 million players worldwide. This milestone was reached in the wake of the mainland Chinese launch of World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King?, and also as global anticipation continues to mount for the December 7 release of the game's third expansion, Cataclysm™.

"The support and enthusiasm that gamers across the world continue to show for World of Warcraft reaffirms our belief that it offers one of the best entertainment values available today," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We are as committed as ever to taking the game to new heights, and we look forward to demonstrating that with Cataclysm in December."

Since debuting in North America, Australia, and New Zealand on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular subscription-based MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade?, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007. For 2008, the World of Warcraft series represented three of the top five bestselling PC games, with Wrath of the Lich King finishing the year at #1, and in 2009, World of Warcraft titles claimed three of the top six spots.*

World of Warcraft is currently available in eight languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on career opportunities available at Blizzard Entertainment can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs.

For further information on World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm, please visit the official website at www.worldofwarcraft.com.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?101007

Nferno

12-10-2010, 11:48 AM

IRVINE, CA. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that the greatest band in the world*, Tenacious D, will perform at the closing concert during this year’s sold-out BlizzCon?. Taking place October 22-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft?, Diablo?, and StarCraft? game universes. While tickets to the convention are currently sold out, viewers can watch at home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering over 50 hours of event coverage (including Tenacious D’s performance) globally over the Internet and also on DIRECTV? in the United States.

Tenacious D is made up of musical visionaries Jack Black and Kyle Gass. After forming in 1994, the duo rose to rock god-dom following the release of the HBO cult-hit series Tenacious D: The Greatest Band on Earth. Since then, Tenacious D has released two albums and a pair of live DVDs, sold out arenas around the world, and starred in their own feature-length movie, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. At the BlizzCon closing ceremony on October 23, the band will perform an earth-shattering set that includes the debut of new, soon-to-be-legendary songs.

“The best way to wrap up two days of epic entertainment is with an epic rock concert—and few bands fit the bill like Tenacious D,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to a great show and can’t wait to see what Jack and Kyle have in store for everyone attending BlizzCon and watching from home.”

In addition to serving as a gathering place for the Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will have an array of activities, including discussion panels, competitive and casual tournaments, contests, hands-on playtime with current and upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, and more. Viewers at home can order a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket for $39.95 USD, available as a multi-channel Internet stream around the world (pricing and availability may vary by region) and also via DIRECTV in the United States. Visit www.blizzcon.com for more details and ordering information.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at us.blizzard.com/jobs. As BlizzCon draws closer, further details about the show will be announced at www.blizzcon.com.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?101011

Tenacious D at Blizzcon 2010!

Yuri

12-10-2010, 06:29 PM

Patch 4.0.1 is deploying 12:00 AM Wednesday morning......oh yeah, I cant wait for Wednesday evening. From now until Cata hits is going to be a roller coaster ride to be sure.

Darkon5524

12-10-2010, 07:19 PM

OllieTheDog

13-10-2010, 12:35 AM

Darkon,I have the patches dunno how I am gunna give them to you

Cannot wait,I want a Worgon!

Nferno

13-10-2010, 08:21 AM

I need the patches >.<! Got no money to pay for extra Wireless Cap lol and i dont got adsl... lol its 5.2gb >.< anyone willing to share and mail me them please^^? or where could i pay to download them, like at a internet cafe or something where its cheaper than the R1400 bucks for the cap to download it lol, message me if you can help me please :(

I'm in the same position as you, dude. I'm not going to be able to test out the changes in 4.0.1 until sometime December, since I'm on a 3G card here and cap is damn expensive.

Darkon5524

13-10-2010, 04:16 PM

Darkon,I have the patches dunno how I am gunna give them to you

Cannot wait,I want a Worgon!

Hey man, perhaps put the stage 1, 2 and 3 patches and the new 1.1gb patch that came out today O_O on a dvd or two and mail it please? lol would be really appreciated ^^ or which region do you live in and we can arrange a meet up or lan or something hehe :)

Miktar

13-10-2010, 05:21 PM

I LOVE the new changes! The talent tree makes sense now!

Nferno

13-10-2010, 05:42 PM

I LOVE the new changes! The talent tree makes sense now!

Hey Miktar, I know it's a longshot but would it be possible to put the latest patches on the NAG dvd? I know a lot of people would apprecate it, considering internet in SA.

Of course, I would understand if it's not possible due to it having a relatively small audience and space constraints on the DVD.

I am ****ing dying to play, but can't afford to shell out the R1200 it woul cost for cap.

Miktar

13-10-2010, 05:47 PM

Mind telling me how we put 9GB + 5GB of patches on a 9GB DVD? :P

Nferno

13-10-2010, 05:51 PM

Mind telling me how we put 9GB + 5GB of patches on a 9GB DVD? :P

Hm, as far as I know the patch needed is 5.6GB. Well, that's what my downloader indicates.

Miktar

13-10-2010, 05:54 PM

That's just the start. 5.6GB isn't the totality of it.

Either way, 5GB on a 9GB DVD, for a single patch?

I don't think RedTide would go for it.

Nferno

13-10-2010, 05:58 PM

Holy ****bricks, capman.

Yeah, I didn't really have my hopes up, but it was worth a shot.

Miktar

13-10-2010, 06:04 PM

Trust me, I'd love to. If you want to email Megarom and see if they want to sponsor a Cataclysm Patch dvd ;)

Though I guess they'd rather people buy Cata.

vii

13-10-2010, 06:10 PM

Somebody

13-10-2010, 06:11 PM

There's a 5.3gb patch you have to download after that a streaming 1.6gb patch which you cannot copy and give to a friend. Blizzard screwed us over. No idea how I am going to be able to download the 1.6gb patch. Does anyone know if there is a way past this?

Miktar

13-10-2010, 06:12 PM

Maybe in celebration of the release of Cataclysm... You put an extra dvd in the NAG? I don't want to tell you guys how to do your job(really, It sounds hard). But how about a section in celebration of the most successful game EVER!? Srsly, It's been how many years and it still has an average active player base of 14 million. That, my good sir, is success...

I just said:

Trust me, I'd love to. If you want to email Megarom and see if they want to sponsor a Cataclysm Patch dvd ;)

Though I guess they'd rather people buy Cata.

vii

13-10-2010, 06:13 PM

I just said:

Only saw your reply after I posted mine. Glad my idea doesn't sound that ludicrous :D

Miktar

13-10-2010, 06:27 PM

vii

14-10-2010, 02:28 AM

For anyone in or near Potchefstroom that need the files. I just got them. If you just download my whole game client you won't have to struggle with the streaming one. Let me know if you need my help :D

Darkon5524

14-10-2010, 02:46 PM

Telur

14-10-2010, 09:43 PM

New druid tree of life form do like :3

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/october/druidtreeoflife.jpg

Art is very subjective. We're very used to the phenomenon of half of a class loving say their tier set art and the other half thinking they are the worst thing ever.

Messing with player models is always risky and we know the current Tree of Life model is one of those things that is either loved or hated. That is why, as promised, we are offering a minor glyph if you just prefer the older, treant-based, version of ToL. (Source)

Do like!

Edit: I think I just destroyed hscroll

FoX

14-10-2010, 10:00 PM

Dude you raped it.

And now after all the frikken chages I'm dumb struck on how to play the game, The random earth quakes are unnerving and thy gave the games water a pretty makeover.

Telur

14-10-2010, 10:05 PM

I'm pretty much waiting for cataclysm to come out so I can create a druid from scratch and learn to play the class all over again. (totally going Worgen druid -main talents Bear, secondary ToL)

Domanskip

14-10-2010, 10:57 PM

Very excited for this patch. Downloading it at the moment. Gonna be fun learning my 6 level 80's! I'm definitely making my druid into a healer after seeing those awesome new models.

Yuri

15-10-2010, 03:11 PM

Ive been playing around with 4.0.1 for the last two days, and Im loving it. Having to almost relearn how to play your class is very refreshing. So all in all Im very impressed with it, as this only means more good to come with Cataclysm.

Still busy sorting out my gemming and enchants, going to head into a Bg when Im done....going to be interesting in the least Im sure.

Nferno

15-10-2010, 03:23 PM

Don't worry, guy. I raped the H-Scroll previously in the thread.

From what I gathered on the Beta, Tree Form is cooldown based now. There was a cosmetic glyph coming into play that let your Druid be able to retain the Tree Form model out of Tree Form, but you won't have the effects until you pop the cooldown.

Can anybody confirm if this has made it on live yet?

Yuri

15-10-2010, 09:19 PM

I had a look at the druid glyphs and I couldn't find any matching that description.

zAnD

16-10-2010, 01:20 PM

Very excited for this patch. Downloading it at the moment. Gonna be fun learning my 6 level 80's! I'm definitely making my druid into a healer after seeing those awesome new models.

New druid healing mechanics are not that great. heals take longer to cast, but the heals are bigger( was healing for 6k health with regrowth at lvl 77, on thursday)

and tree of life form only lasts for 30 seconds, with a 3 min cooldown. this ****ed me off the most...

Yuri

16-10-2010, 02:43 PM

At the current state of the game heals are generally bigger for all classes. My enhance shams greater heal is critting for 17k.

Nferno

16-10-2010, 03:02 PM

At the current state of the game heals are generally bigger for all classes. My enhance shams greater heal is critting for 17k.

That's huge for Enhance heals. Especially since it's insta-cast because of Stormstrike procs.

Awesome!

Miktar

16-10-2010, 05:18 PM

My Ele and Resto Shaman is loving the new rebalance with Spirit stat being important. I'm now having zero issues with any non-Heroic heals. And my DPS is still around 3k

FoX

16-10-2010, 07:52 PM

is a 65 holy pally suppose to crit all most 4k holy dmg? cuz for some reason my pally feels ALOT more powerful.

oh and why is mark of the wild gone? or is a lvl 85 skill now or some thing?

Yuri

16-10-2010, 08:03 PM

My Ele and Resto Shaman is loving the new rebalance with Spirit stat being important. I'm now having zero issues with any non-Heroic heals. And my DPS is still around 3k

Ele is definitely in a good place right now, maybe even the best its ever been. But Ill be sticking with my wolf pack, nothing makes me warm and fuzzy like two spirit wolves at my side:)

vii

16-10-2010, 08:52 PM

I just saw the new patch at a friends place. The water is beautiful. Love all the small changes like how talent trees work, and how your character stats are shown :D

Nferno

18-10-2010, 07:20 AM

Wq4Y7ztznKc&feature=player_embedded#at=142

SQUUUUEEEEEEE!

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc28/BlazingNferno/dance_gif_017.gif

FoX

18-10-2010, 08:58 AM

OH MY GOD

some thing in by body just exploded

Nferno

18-10-2010, 09:10 AM

I just have 1GB left to download of the patch before I'm in. Renewed my account subscription this morning, can't ****ing wait for this day to end!

Just renewed my sub. It's going to be the bees knees.

Nferno

19-10-2010, 07:23 AM

Get home yesterday :right: Start Downloading Patch :right: Patch Finishes! :right: Patch Installing :right: 40% Installing - ERROR

:down:

http://i532.photobucket.com/albums/ee321/makuteeol/dawson-crying.jpg

:down:

Contact Blizzard :right: Ask WTF is up :right: Get told to download the patch again :right: Tell them I can't afford to fork out another R1k for cap :right: Blizzard said there's no other way

:down:

http://trygve.kvisle.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/ffffuuuu.jpg

Boggle24

19-10-2010, 08:36 AM

in what world would you ever pay R1000 for enough cap to download the patch and not just get an uncapped account instead ?

Nferno

19-10-2010, 08:40 AM

In a contractor's world where you move every 3 months and it's not viable to get a land line in company residence.

Boggle24

19-10-2010, 09:30 AM

That sucks big bawls.

My friend got a guy at BT games to download and give her the patch, perhaps you could do the same ?

Nferno

19-10-2010, 09:38 AM

Will try to sort it out when I get home. Being reading the Blizzard Technical Issues forums and they have a post mentioning patching problems and workaround fixes.

If that fails, I may take up OllieTheDog on his generous offer of providing the patch :)

vii

19-10-2010, 10:51 AM

Nferno, where abouts do you live? A friend of mine drove through to Potch from JHB on Saturday just to come get the patch. Was quite lulzy. And now I know of someone that might be able to help you out in JHB.

Nferno

19-10-2010, 10:54 AM

Staying in Pretoria at the moment. Will try to resolve the issues tonight, if not may drop you a PM ;)

vii

19-10-2010, 03:14 PM

Staying in Pretoria at the moment. Will try to resolve the issues tonight, if not may drop you a PM ;)

Oh, Well, If you can wait till 14 November, I'll be heading back home to Kempton for the holiday. Then popping over to PTA is quite an easy trip. :D

Nferno

19-10-2010, 03:22 PM

Oh, Well, If you can wait till 14 November, I'll be heading back home to Kempton for the holiday. Then popping over to PTA is quite an easy trip. :D

If I don't get this patch right by Movember, I'll let you know. Thanks :D

Yuri

19-10-2010, 04:48 PM

Nferno you need at least 15gb free space for the patch to unpack and install.

Nferno

20-10-2010, 07:52 AM

Nferno you need at least 15gb free space for the patch to unpack and install.

Have like 400GB free. Space wasn't a problem ;)

So I got it working in the end! Found some elaborate means to patch it on the World of Warcraft forums.

Just in case anybody has a similar problem, let me tell you what I did to get it working:

1. Delete your WTF folder.
2. Open up the WoW client, but don't let it start loading the background downloader. Click "Play" as soon as the launcher opens.
3. You will be greeted by the normal WotLK login screen. Enter your details and try to log in.
4. It will begin to check the integrity of the patch files and if needed begin downloading.
5. After it's complete the 1.5GB streaming launcher will appear.
6. Let it patch.
7. ?????
8. Profit.

FoX

20-10-2010, 08:58 AM

Is a 8k holy crit normal for a 66 pally?

Nferno

20-10-2010, 09:41 AM

Hm, Fox. I would have said "No" about 3 weeks ago.

But with the new patch and all the talent/Stat changes and coefficients, it's really hard to say what "normal" is any more, since Blizzard stated in Beta that they now balance around end-game content and not leveling content.

Holy power could be a contributer.

I'll check on my 80 Palla when I get home from work today and let you know. So far, I've only been fiddling with my Warlock and Shaman.

Nferno

21-10-2010, 09:01 AM

So I took time to properly check out most of the changes yesterday and I was a bit overwhelmed by all the new features and spells.

Shaman (Resto): I lost quite a chunk of Spell Power in the stat conversion (Read: about 500 SP) but it was compensated for by the new heal in the picture and the changes to Earthliving proc. Earthliving seems to heal for a lot more than before and that is a welcome change, considering it was never much of a HoT to begin with.

I'm really big on PvP and the talent changes kind of gave my spec a boot in the face. You can no longer reach the talent which makes Ghost Wolf insta-cast, thus making kiting all that much more difficult. It will be reachable at 85, but currently it was a bit of ner***e to the Resto Shaman in PvP. 1.8 sec cast time is a joke and disgusting. We'll see at 85 when it's viable.

Warlock (Demo): WHERE THE HELL ARE MAH SOUL SHARDS?!11

Oh wait, there's 3? They're built in the UI, like Death Knights? Most my spells no longer require soul Shards? WICKED!

The "Blowing a Soul Shard with Soul Burn" mechanic is quite interesting but I feel it's not quite enough to compensate for the removal of a lot of spells/talents. Demonic Empowerment saw a huge nerf as well, with the mechanics changing, making the Felguard immune to snares/stuns, etc. opposed to the previous mechanic of increasing my Felguard's hasteI actually don't even have Demonic Empowerment on my action bars because the spell is lackluster. Going to spec out of it today.

Hand of Gu'ldan (sp?) is interesting and has made Demo very dependent on the spell because of the relating talents. Mostly everything revolves around this spell now and has given us a very much needed gap in PvP.

Hand of Gu'ldan -> Stuns people in AoE -> Fear and DoT up as soon as they're out of it - > Profit.

Felguard got LOLSTORM. That's amazing.

Priest (Disco): Hasn't changed much from the little I played with her. New mechanics (Evangelism) seem interesting, though I haven't had much chance to fiddle with the inner workings.

More heals are always welcome and I really love the new Talents. I believe Disco should have been like this from the beginning.

Paladin (Prot): WHER DA **** MAH SPELLS GONE? WHAT DA HELL IS DIS CRAP?!1

I seriously logged in and was dumbstruck on how much they changed my class. My rotation is now ****ed. My threat generation is lower. I'm not sure how to play this guy any more, it's like a new class.

Will spend some more time with it this afternoon to get a better understanding. At the moment, I'm confuzzled.

Currency Changes: I got royally screwed with the conversions. Really.

I was honor capped on my Shaman before the patch and when I logged in, they only gave me 5000 honor in return. Pretty ****ed about that.

Though I do like the Arena gear changes. You can now buy all gear from Arena Masters (under ilvl 277) for honor, not rating requirements any more. I finally got the shield I was saving for, it looks godly.

Got my Horeseman's Reigns last night on the first character I did the boss with (Warlock). Stoked.

Will give more feedback once I relax and check out all the changes. I was more excited than a retard in a room full of bouncy balls yesterday and wanted to try everything new and see all the new features.

One thing I've noticed, the patch has made the game MUCH more welcoming to new players and very intuitive. If that is how they're going to shape the game for Cataclysm, I can expect them to pull in an abundance of new players.

Over and out.

brazed

21-10-2010, 09:18 AM

So. I thought I'd waltz down to Musica and buy myself the battle chest alongside wrath, but then I reconsidered and wondered if it that wouldn't be rather pointless. I mean, everything changes in two months anyway. What incentive is there for me to bother with it now? Shouldn't I just get all 4 (game + 3 expansions) when Cataclysm is released?

Thoughts?

Nferno

21-10-2010, 09:24 AM

I suggest you get yourself the Battlechest now, since it comes with a very good guide on dungeons and starting out. I remember my friend living and dying by that booklet :D

But seriously, the real reason to get it now before Cataclysm would be that the whole "Old World" is changing come Cataclysm and you will get to experience the old content before it's completely removed/revamped. It would make a lot more sense on how the world has changed and the impact Deathwing's destruction has caused on the continent. Just so you have a better understanding on the before/after effects.

Also, another strong point to buy now is for the Cataclysm pre-launch event. They have an event every time before the expansion, building up to the launch and it's gone forever after that. They're really memorable and fun events and only happen once before every expansion.

FoX

21-10-2010, 09:57 AM

Dude I totally got raped with my pally(holy) that's why I never played with him and that's why he's only lvl66 even tho I have had the game for like 4 years and he's my first char. Now I frikken decimate all that comes before me not even that 68 blood knight(elf pally) stood a chance, when his life droped to 20% I Hammer O' Wrath-ed his ass and, BOOM dead.

Oh and why oh why do thy all ways jump around like rabbits?

KalMaverick

21-10-2010, 10:45 AM

Currency Changes: I got royally screwed with the conversions. Really.

I was honor capped on my Shaman before the patch and when I logged in, they only gave me 5000 honor in return. Pretty ****ed about that.

What do you mean?

You should of not lost any honour as there was no hard cap.

EDIT: I love my tag hahaha :D

Nferno

21-10-2010, 11:24 AM

Hurr? The honor cap used to be 75k prior to this patch. There was an honor conversion, since they changed the way honor is gained and the amount of honor you gain per HK/PVP daily, etc.

On the PvP side, Season 8 will end with the release of patch 4.0, and all Arena Points, Honor Points, any leftover Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper's Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards will be converted into the new Honor Points. The new Honor Point pool will also have a soft cap for these conversions, but a hard cap will be enforced later. At the time of conversion, items that previously cost Honor or Arena Points will be sold in exchange for the new Honor Points. Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds won't be available again until Season 9 (shortly after the release of Cataclysm), when they can be entered to win the higher-tier PvP Conquest Points.

So my 75k of old honor got converted to just over 5k of the new honor, along with whatever Arena Points I had left over.

On the plus side, buying gear for honor is relatively cheap, considering how little honor you gain now.

To clarify the conversions:

Here's some information on how each of the currencies will be converted in the next content patch. Keep in mind these values may change, and they can get a bit math heavy. Just know that our intent is to appropriately value each mark and provide a conversion we feel is fair.

The following items are immediately converted to gold:
• Emblem of Heroism = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Valor = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Conquest = 5.5 gold each
• Badge of Justice = 1.833 gold each

Your New Honor Points total will be the sum of the following amounts:
• Old Honor * 0.024
• Old Arena Points * 0.85
• Battleground Mark of Honor * 2.976
• Wintergrasp Mark of Honor * 19.08
• Stone Keeper Shard * 1.6
• Venture Coin * 3
• Spirit Shard * 1

Your Justice Points total will be equal to (Emblems of Triumph + Emblems of Frost ) * 2.75

Again, the softcap for both Honor and Justice conversions is 4000 points. This means that if a character converts to above 4,000 points, it will not be possible for them to earn more until they fall below the 4,000 cap.

A hardcap will be implemented in a following patch before Cataclysm's release. At that time, any excess points above 4,000 will be converted as follows:
• Honor points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point of Honor.
• Justice points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 2 gold per point of Justice.

Daylight robbery.

brazed

21-10-2010, 11:32 AM

Patch size of a virgin install?

Nferno

21-10-2010, 11:38 AM

I'd be lying if I said I knew, dude.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect anything less than 20gb of patches.

brazed

21-10-2010, 11:39 AM

:/

Even less reason to invest in WOW now before cataclysm.

KalMaverick

21-10-2010, 11:40 AM

Yes I know that, but how did you get screwed?

What screwed you?

EDIT: I want to know how they screwed you as I haven't been in the game yet since 4.0.1

brazed

21-10-2010, 11:43 AM

Yes I know that, but how did you get screwed?

What screwed you?

Do you really want the answer to that, cause it's a long and -very- graphic one.

Alternatively, you could say who the question was aimed at :p

KalMaverick

21-10-2010, 11:45 AM

I'm pretty sure Nferno will know I was talking to him, if not he does now.

Nferno

21-10-2010, 11:53 AM

KalMaverick

21-10-2010, 11:56 AM

Well, considering how I would be able to buy 2 pieces of Wrathful gear for my 75k honor, I now can only buy one piece for the lousy 1800 I got from my honor, if even. The rest of my 5k honor came from the battleground mark conversions, etc so you can't count that in.

I'd say it's pretty much getting screwed. Then again,I shouldn't expect too much from the end of an expansion and no more Arena seasons.

So in other words the the new honour costs are more expensive now as compared to the old honour costs?

I kinda remember reading that they are looking at the prices because quite a few people are complaining it's more expensive now.

Nferno

21-10-2010, 12:05 PM

Some items, very expensive. Some items, very cheap. It's like 2 different dev departments decided to cost half each and not tell each other the prices.

Picked up an ilvl 270 PvP shield for a mere 70 honor, but a set of Wrathful shoulders would set you back 1100 or so. It doesn't make sense. Anything held in the offhand is so cheap now (talking 70 honor cheap), yet the gear which used to be cheap (read: Furious Gladiator) is not that much cheaper than Wrathful gear.

KalMaverick

21-10-2010, 12:10 PM

Ok so I worked this out, I'm not sure how right the numbers are because the websited I used might be out of date.

Wrathful Gladiator's Felweave Raiment
2370 Arena points (Old cost)
1650 Honour (New Cost)

2370 Arena points = 2014 new honour

So it seems you save quite a lot of points.

Ofcourse this is only this item as you said some are very cheap and some very expensive.

Nferno if you get chance please check this for me.

Wrathful set:
Head
Chest
Hands
Legs

Total Old Cost: 8540 Arena Points
Total New Cost: 5990 Honour
8540 Arena = 7259 Honour

Back
Neck
Wrist
Waist
Feet

Total Old Cost: 284200 Old Honour
Total New Cost: 3940 New Honour
284200 Old = 6820 New

So it seems you actually save quite a bit. I don't really think you were screwed at all.

Nferno

21-10-2010, 12:55 PM

Will check when I get home from work, Kal. Currently, when I try to log in I get DC straight away.

Crappy reception at work.

Yuri

21-10-2010, 06:16 PM

From the perspective of my enhance shammy, I'm happy with the changes. From what I've tested so far there is a lot more positive than negative. I find in pvp that I do a lot better vs melee than pre 4.0.1. Survivability as a whole has improved.

The only real problems I have in pvp are Shadow Priests and Mages, but then again that is a problem I think most classes suffer with, as spriest and mage dps way too high.

brazed

22-10-2010, 09:34 AM

So I got it. installed it, patched it, played it.

Nice.

Die Jason

22-10-2010, 09:39 AM

Just for interest's sake, how big were dem patches?

brazed

22-10-2010, 09:47 AM

The first patch was 5.3gb, then there was the cataclysm patch which was big, but I could play whilst it was installing, so I'm not sure how large exactly, maybe 3-5gb.

Die Jason

22-10-2010, 09:51 AM

So about 10gb max, hectic. Thanks, good to know.

Nferno

22-10-2010, 10:29 AM

So I got it. installed it, patched it, played it.

Nice.

\o

What did you roll? :D

brazed

22-10-2010, 10:38 AM

I got the first patch from someone else, so that was great, otherwise I would still be downloading I think.

I rolled horde and an undead warlock.

I like the idea of a corpse shooting fireballs...

Also. I play a Runekeeper in Lotro, I like my dps classes.

Nferno

22-10-2010, 01:18 PM

I like my dps classes.

Definitely a lot of fun, and Warlock being one of the most interesting DPS classes to play. All three specs are excellent, though I've always ended up back at Demonology because I love the Felguard mechanics.

Enjoy!

Darkon5524

23-10-2010, 12:11 AM

So yeah, I'm fully updated finally, a friend came into town and started playing again so he gave me his client :D, yeah I've been really busy relearning my class etc, tonight we went for Lich king heroic 10 man, went well but we didn't down him tonight, can't wait for cata lol >.<!

Nferno

23-10-2010, 07:51 AM

New info pouring in from Blizzcon 2010:

Cataclysm panel:

Enhanced Maps

* The 2D maps for each dungeon was the first step.
* Detailed boss info will be added to the map, including loot, lore, and abilities! (Yep, in-game AtlasLoot)
* You won't have to pull a boss and die anymore to find out what he does.
* "We're not going to tell you how the boss works, but we want you to have an idea of what you're getting into."
* 3D Portrait of the bosses will be available.
* It will work in both Dungeons and Raids.

Patch 4.1.0 Preview - Firelands Raid

* The Firelands are on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Lava is all over the place.
* Ragnaros encounter will be completely different. They want to give you an idea of his true power.
* The instance will have 7 bosses
* Plane of Fire is an outdoor area similar to the Hyjal Raid (the layout, not the terrible waves upon waves)
* To the north is Sulfuron Keep, you'll go indoors here to fight Ragnaros. Sulfuron Keep looks very similar to the area in Cataclysm's Hyjal levelup zone.

Patch 4.1 - Abyssal Maw 5-Man Dungeon

* Blizzard wants to release a 5-man Dungeon with each content patch to make sure that nobody feels left out.
* It will be a continuation of the story players are going through in Vashj'ir and Throne of the Tides.
* Abyssal Maw is the Elemental Plane of Water.
* "Nothing like The Oculus"
* The dungeon has 4 bosses.
* "Risen areas" where you fight and then travel to the next

Classic Heroics (Heroic SFK / Deadmines)

* New quests and encounters are now available in the dungeons.
* All dungeons in Cataclysm now have their quests inside the dungeon right at the front. They no longer are part of huge quest chains outside of the instance.
* The instances have been updated and completely revamped, they are not like Naxxramas in WotLK and you can expect a brand new instance. Normal difficulty is also updated.

Classic Dungeons

* Classic dungeons have been revamped to be made shorter and less confusing. Dungeons such as Maraudon or Uldaman were really really long to get through.
* For example dungeons can be split into multiple wings. Uldaman will be broken up into 2 wings. Ironaya will be the final boss of the first wing for the Dungeon Finder.
* Maraudon will also be broken up into 2 wings as well. The dungeon now has a "living" section, and a lower section where Princess Theradras is.
* Other dungeons will be trimmed. The top portion of the Sunken Temple has been removed and only the bottom floor remains.
* Wailing Caverns's maze has been removed and bosses have been moved around to just make the instance smaller. Moving bosses wasn't hard because bosses didn't really have their own rooms.

Raid Philosophy

* Tons of new mechanics have been added to the game, "Try to be as quiet as possible so this big blind dragon doesn't kill you." , "Players flying through the air during the fight."
* These mechanics are added to the game in bite-sized chunks to make sure that players aren't overwhelmed.
* One of the most important goal is to have content for everyone, the normal/heroic mode system worked out great in WotLK and they will keep doing it.

Flexible Raid Locks / Difficulty

* Ulduar Heroic encounters worked fine, Blizzard decided that they could just make the whole instance Heroic (Trial of the Crusader). They decided to make the difficulty dynamic in Icecrown Citadel because ToC was just a pain in the ass.
* With the new system, you can join multiple raids of either size but you can only defeat each boss once per week.
* Heroic Difficulty works just like it in Wrath of the Lich King - Once you kill a heroic boss, you're locked to that raid group with that raid ID. However, if heroic bosses get too hard you can kill normal mode bosses with other people. (You can't do the same boss on Heroic and Normal in a week)

Raids & Dungeons Q&A
Q: Will there be a better system to prevent "ninja" looting on the LFG system?
There are a couple of improvements in Cataclysm. The loot system is more strict and people aren't able to roll on something they cannot wear.

Now that 10 and 25-man raids have the same difficulty, how do you balance them and make them the same difficulty?
Balancing is very hard but it's also a very high priority, encounters should be roughly the same difficulty. It might take some time but developers will get them to the same difficulty.

With the flexible raid lock system, is there anything to prevent people from leaving the group as soon as something bad happens?
It will get better over time, as player gets better and get used to the new system you will most likely end up getting a much better PuG experience.

Legendary weapons, with 10 and 25 man lockouts being combined in cataclysm are there any plans to go back to Ulduar and Icecrown citadel in regards of Shadowmourne and Val'anyr
Are we going to go back and change the way fragments drop? That's a good point, will bring that up in the office on monday. It's a great suggestion.

Are you changing BRD as well in Cataclysm?
I've done a pass on most of the old dungeons, trimming a lot of the suck. Things like 20 seconds sleep and 10 seconds disarms and things really really obnoxious. Unfortunately breaking up BRD is very tricky, so what we did do is put up some teleporters, there's a teleport past the bar, in the city, etc ... There are also teleports in Cataclysm dungeons such as Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines. Graveyards are also super close now, all dungeon graveyards are right outside the portal now. Developers want you to do the encounters, not run so much.

I'm concered about encounter mechanics like more hard stuff, my main concern is that the binary sort of thing that certain mechanics are big and flashy or something really subtle or obvious but it wont kill you immediately. Is there any middle ground there?
We talk about that quite a lot, and it's actually a pretty nasty design problem. Tanks and healers have a lot of things on their hands, if you are taking a little bit of damage you're probably going to blame the healer. We're trying to make things more visual and hopefully you won't have to look at a buff stacking for an encounter, one of the new things we have in Cataclysm are meters that the dungeon guys can script to make some of the mechanics more visual and make sure players know why they die. The blind dragon (Atramedes) for example needs you to be quiet, that's visually indicated with a sound bar.

Is there any plan to make a legendary weapon guild bound due to achievements
It's not something we're looking into, there's an achievement for it but we have no plans to make a guild wide legendary. It's an idea that came up but there are a lots of design problems with that, it was more complicated than what it was worth. For the time being, in the future legendaries will be for one person.

Dungeons and Raids Panel:

This year's Dungeons & Raids panel with Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer focused on the developers? design goals for Cataclysm -- starting with a look at what?s in store for two classic dungeons, Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep.

A New Feel for Classic Dungeons

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, many classic dungeons will be updated to reflect our ever-evolving design philosophy, and the reworked Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep should serve as two good examples of how classic dungeons can be greatly improved without losing their ?classic?; feel. Even after players have long memorized every last corner of a dungeon, classic dungeons can be made to feel fresh again by adding new quests, new encounters, and interesting lore lead-ins from their respective zones (in this case, Westfall and Silverpine Forest). This subtle approach helps revitalize classic dungeons for low-level characters and provides meaningful content for level-85 characters through Heroic versions, while still retaining the spirit of what made the dungeon popular in the first place.

One exciting new change that Stockton announced was that all key dungeon quest givers will now be located just inside the dungeon entrance. You will no longer have to beg your party to share their quests with you, or make your way to a dungeon only to find you haven?t completed a mandatory quest chain.

The primary goal for touching up any classic dungeon is to make them less confusing, shorter (in the case of the most sprawling crawls), and -- overall -- more fun. One way to accomplish this is to tweak the layouts and divide larger dungeons into separate wings. Come Cataclysm, players will see this philosophy in action in places like Uldaman and Maraudon, now separated into wings that are easier to navigate. Other dungeons are better served by trimming away the excess, as in certain sections of Sunken Temple and the maze-like portion of Wailing Caverns.

Raid Philosophy

One of the first things level-85 raiders will notice in Cataclysm is that more raid dungeons will be accessible right off the bat, in the form of multiple, smaller-scale raid dungeons. Our goal is to provide a dynamic and wide range of raid content that offers a little something for everyone.

Ever since Ulduar, our philosophies for Heroic raid dungeons and lockout systems have been steadily evolving. Ulduar presented players with the first-ever opportunity to toggle the difficulty of a raid boss for a greater challenge and access to better loot -- but the system was somewhat confusing, requiring players to know how to trigger Heroic difficulties through specific gameplay mechanics that varied by encounter. In Trial of the Crusader, players were granted the ability to toggle Heroic difficulty directly through UI, but could only change it for the entire dungeon at once. In Icecrown Citadel, we melded the mechanics of Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader to give players the flexibility to choose between normal and Heroic difficulties via the UI on a boss-by-boss basis? and we?re still making tweaks to give players even more options.

Patch 4.0.1 introduced the flexible raid lock system, which will be used in Cataclysm raids. While the Heroic raid lockouts will function the same as they did in Wrath of the Lich King, normal raids will lock players to specific boss kills each week, rather than to entire dungeons. This system is designed to give players with fluctuating schedules more flexibility to progress through content, to help keep players from being locked out of raiding for a week if an emergency comes up, and to give raid leaders more options when scheduling raids and maintaining a raid roster.

Patch 4.1

The panel closed with a first look at the Firelands, an all-new raid coming in patch 4.1. Continuing the quest to save Hyjal from an elemental invasion, players will be called upon to enter the Elemental Plane of fire and extinguish seven unique bosses? including Ragnaros himself. Too soon?

Also coming in patch 4.1 is the five-player Abyssal Maw dungeon, which takes players into the Elemental Plane of water to challenge four new bosses?and while it?s technically an underwater dungeon, the designers promise that the layout and mechanics are nothing like those in the Oculus.

Another major feature of patch 4.1 will be enhanced dungeon and raid maps. While dungeon maps currently show the dungeon layout and locations of bosses, 4.1 will allow players to find a host of new information for each boss, including 3D boss portraits, the lore behind the encounter, a full loot list, and a breakdown of boss abilities (by phase, if applicable).

At this point the audience was shown video footage of two new raid zones being introduced in Cataclysm, Bastion of Twlight and Throne of the Four Winds. That's all from the World of Warcraft Dungeons & Raid panel. Thanks for reading!

Quests and Lore panel:

We've seen over the years the overarching dangers etc, it has been getting bigger bigger and bigger. Are there any plans to take some more bigger things down? Will we take down Alexstrazsa for example?
She's the Aspect of Life man, can you really punk her down for long? A careful way to answer this question is, obviously Deathwing is the bad guy and in the subsequent patches similar to how WotLK worked, ultimately when we develop the final combat with Deathwing to put him down, there is really good money on the fact the family will get involved. Their greatest and most horrible hour, the will perform the function they were created for. It's probably best to let the specifics breath at this point. Deathwing is so gnarly, how do you defeat something undefeatable? Can he be defeated by any martial mean? How will the family (AND THRALL) pull this off?

Oh I just have to say it, you know Thrall is a shaman now. So what Aspect is missing from the family? Neltharion is out, the family has been broken for 10,000 years, what of the 5 aspects are you missing? Earth. So I'm just saying. Maybe that's a way Thrall can distinguish himself helping the family back together for a big win.

Can you give any spoilers of a location of an Old God in this expansion. and elaborate on the theory that if all old gods are gone the world would explode?
OR IS IT? You haven't seen who pays Deathwing's bills. Have you played any Cataclysm? ... like where the world blows up? Have we publically announced the...? You might see it's name uttered in a few places in Cataclysm... Nezoth/Ni'zoth? He has was the creature responsible for the spark of the Emerald Nightmare, and he has all sorts of weird **** going on.

What are you guys doing with Kalecgos and the blue dragons?
- Metzen: Something amazing. (To Alex) Should I tell them..?
- Alex: Do it.
- Metzen: Kalecgos will be the new blue aspect. And just in time.

When we first met Garrosh Hellscream he was kind of an annoying kid? Now he's the leader of the Horde. Are we going to get a Warchief out of this guy?
We know that the whole Garrosh thing is "contentious" and it's part of a much larger storyline involving Thrall. Thrall is the most important person on Azeroth, the Garrosh storyline has a lot to do with Thrall. Thrall is a Clark Kent type character who doesn't really know his true strength, he was pushed into leadership very young and Garrosh is used as a counterpoint to Thrall. He's a hothead against someone who thinks a lot. Ultimately the story isn't about Garrosh, it's going to be some of the best storytelling that WoW has ever done.

Regarding Thrall, are Thrall and Jaina ever getting together and have a family?
Think Jaina got green fever going on? I don't want to spoil it, I dont mean this in a marketing way at all. Thrall is meeting a nice girl from Nagrand and gonna have little brown babies. Let's put it to bed. Funny choice of words there.

Will we ever see a redemption or resurrection of Illidan as a Character?
BOY DO I WANT TO DO THAT. That'd be badass. I don't think anyone at all has ever talked about that. But I love that ****. I'm a sucker for a good redemption story. Except Arthas. Not Arthas. He's dead.

Is there any update of the wow movie?
Metzen: You didnt get the memo? Kiefer Sutherland. I like Kiefer Sutherland. (/joke) Like a month ago we had a session with Sam Riami at which we kicked the **** out the story. It's really great, we are waiting for the green light seeing Riami's got multiple projects going on at the moment, but we broke through a very serious wall. We showed him what we had, it was like a geek cyclone.

Are we going to see another caster legendary weapon that isn't a mace?
- Metzen: What do you want? What would make you happy?
- A big stick.
- Metzen: A Staff, it's coming!

We are almost 2 expansions past outland, are we ever gonna find out what happened to High General Turalyon
We have every intention to deal with that character in a very important and epic way. no plan yet. you're gonna love it though." /sarcasm

Is there going to be anything in Cataclysm about CoT or the Bronze Dragonflight?
You can count on it. AND IT'S SO BADASS!

I'm a big fan of the Saurfangs but I never knew what kind of clan they're from.
- Metzen: Blackrock.
- You sure?
- Metzen: 80%

Did the philosophy behind the Burning Legion change, and did Kil'jaeden shape it for his own personal gain?
The philosophy hasn't shifted. (Really long and complicated question/answer, might go back to this one)

After the battle of Andorhal when our favorite Death Knight gets Chain Hooked back to us for Reeudcation is there going to be any revisiting to that?
The forsaken storyline is a complex one, you will definitely see that somewhere.

What happened to Kul Tiras?
We have to save something for the future patches, not now. We will deal with Kul Tiras in the future.

So for the story contest i wrote what might have happened to Kael'thas what happened between tbc and the bt
Actually a number of years ago, one of our lead writers wrote a 80 page novel about that, and its bitching, we've been struggling where to put it out, i would like to put it out at some time.

About Legendary caster weapons earlier, are you adding Medivh's staff back into the game?
No.

Will we see a reuniting of Sylvanas, Vereesa and Alleria?
We'll have that wrapped up along with the Turalyon storyline.... in Stromgarde... with Atiesh. TWO YEARS AGO! (sarcasm)

Will we see more lore about the Eredar and the Draenei in the future?
You know, we haven't really explained it all that well. We had it in the War3 book where Sargeras came across the Eredar and they were this bad race. Then I wanted to revamp it with TBC and the Draenei to where the Eredar corrupted him. That went over as well as a fart in church. But I still stand by the new story.

How are Trolls related to Moonkin at all?
We've developed a lot of the Troll Druid lore in-house. I'm not sure if we're going to release all of that with Cataclysm, but it will be explained.

Will legendaries from the past scale to be useful at 85?
Yeah we don't have that planned. We don't want to make items that last forever. I won't say never, you may see Atiesh at some point, but we don't really have it planned.

[...] missed a couple of questions there, will update in a few.

In Burning Crusade Illidan didnt seem very involved in quests, Arthas on the other hand was everywhere in Wrath of the Lich King, how about Cataclysm?
In WotLK we might have cartooned Arthas out a bit, with Deathwing its a little harder for him to show up and not just kill you. What does happen that when you see Deathwing, he will kill you 99% of the time. His name ain't Socialwing for a reason!

In the book Stormrage serious stuff happens which in my opinion is a little more intense than cataclysm, is everyone going to forget what happened to them in cataclysm? Regarding the nightmare taking over the world.
So the question would be: do we reference the events of Stormrage in Cataclysm? A there are things in our literature that are harder to pull off than other, that's one of them, especially in a expansion in which you destroy the world things get cluttered, it will be softly touched upon but nothing big. We will be talking about it.

I'm an old school tabletop roleplayer, I can assume you are too, I'm in a guild of an rp server, we absolutely love storytelling, will there be any tools implemented into the game for Roleplaying?
Yes. You mean sort of a character story panel? I wouldn't rule it out, we don't really discuss it but we can bring it up again.

There's a lot of lore with deathwing in the old RTS games and is there going to be any connection to the Demon Soul or anything like that? In Outland there was a hint that the Netherwing might be related to Deathwing, will the relationship be clarified?
Yes. can't really too much bout it, but you'll see something (soon). Metzen: SOMETHING AWESOME

I know that the Paladins got a lot of attention, Silver Hand, Argent crusade etc, EPL and WPL being rebuilt etc, are the Paladins still playing a big part in cata?
The Argent Crusade is cleaning up atm, the Plaguelands was their base of operations. Theyr'e spreading out with the Cenarion Circle cleansing the lands. Will there be a dungeon? No nothing planned.

In WotLK, it seemed in endgame raiding content from Ulduar to Coliseum to Lich King wasn't very coherent. In Cataclysm is there going to be more cohesion?
Yes. That's a tricky question isn't it? interesting. Lich King's raiding there actually was a story there, was it pulled off as masterly as it should have been? No, I dont think so. I definitely think that in this expansion there will be a lot more.

Nerz'hul/Bolvar storyline; is it finished or whats going on..?
Yes, uh.. yeah Nerz'hul is done. The lich king idea is the ultimate expression, Nerz'hul is done. Relative to Bolvar its kinda weird, where my instinct goes regarding storyline, but seeing were not building a new Northrend expansion anymore its kind of an issue with the present day like we dont have any outland stuff either. Bolvar is keeping a lid on the scourge, we are unlikely to chase that for the next little while

I hear all this stuff about Caster DPS and Ranged DPS Legendary Items, but what about Tank DPS?
You are preaching to the quire here, I want one. Yeah! So you said it right, when we do a legendary it covers a role, unfortunately the tank role is smaller than dps role, maybe even than healer role. So not out of the question we're gonna do that staff (from earlier) first.

GC promised us a moose. WHERE IS OUR MOOSE?
Yeah. He did. Damn that guy. We gonna find him. and ask him. Yourself. No damn idea. I want a moose, Chris (Metzen) wants a moose. Muhh. Where is it? No idea?

About Ragnaros, I remember back in the Molten Core days when you woke him up, and he just one shot everyone is he gonna do that again?
Yeah... yeah.. you want him to do that? Like three guys.. five? seven? MORE DEATH. Firey glorious death

Now that Arthas is dead how or will you be able to make Worgen or Goblins or any other race Death Knights?
There is actually a story here, so when you play the DK area Arthas still exists. So why is he still alive? It's a different pocket of time. The Worgens back then are probably minions of Arugal something, Goblins are already around so no problem regarding that. Metzen: Necromancy is not exclusive to the lich king, it existed before nerzhul changed to the lich king. It's not a new thing, really.

Nferno

23-10-2010, 11:22 AM

IT'S PEANUT BUTTA JELLEH TIEM

b8Z6_EjZxiE
gRpY3fJ0RkA

So much lolz.

KalMaverick

23-10-2010, 12:44 PM

Wow nice posts. Some awesome stuff going on.

"The 2D maps for each dungeon was the first step."
"Detailed boss info will be added to the map, including loot, lore, and abilities! (Yep, in-game AtlasLoot)"

Already first two lines are full of awesomeness.

I knew they were talking about maps but loot too? Now we talking.

Nferno

23-10-2010, 01:53 PM

I knew they were talking about maps but loot too? Now we talking.

I have a sneaky suspicion that they will be implementing a whole lot of 3rd party addons into the game in the future.

They've put in threat meters to a certain extent (Omen), they've changed the Quest window to make it more intuitive (Questhelper), they've added in spell proc notifications (Powerauras/Tellmewhen) and now they want to bring in Atlasloot and Bossmods as a standard.

Only a matter of time before we see a Recount and Gearscore equivalent.

Miktar

23-10-2010, 05:59 PM

Gearscore is already kind of there, in the way that Heroics and Raids now lock you out if you don't have good enough gear.

Yuri

23-10-2010, 06:20 PM

Great read, thanks for posting that.

KalMaverick

24-10-2010, 09:06 AM

A recount equivalent would be pretty cool.

I also like the whole auto quest system thingy that seems like it's going to be very useful.

Also the quests of a dungeon will be in a dungeon is cool, I'm not sure if say all 10 quests of dungeon X will be right at the entrance or only say 5 and the other 5 you must find. Either way getting the quests for the dungeons was always a big pain in the ass.

I can't wait to play it. I already pre-ordered my copy.

Nferno

27-10-2010, 01:45 PM

Holy****bricks, Batman. Deathwing is coming!

Some information on the new event which will happen, building up to the launch of Cataclysm.

One of Azeroth?s oldest adversaries will soon tear through the Elemental Plane to reforge the world in flame, but this foe won?t be conducting his reign of terror from the confines of a castle or lair. Deathwing is a destructive force the likes of which adventurers have yet to see in World of Warcraft, and his appetite for devastation can only be satisfied by the shattering of the world. Following his explosive escape from Deepholm, Deathwing will cast a deadly shadow over the people of Azeroth as he wreaks indiscriminate havoc across the land.

Once free to terrorize the world, Deathwing will randomly choose territories in Azeroth to attack each day until his ruinous reign is brought to an end. A blackened sky will be the only warning before every living creature caught in his approach is consumed by his terrible fire. The unfortunate victims of his malice will receive a rare Feat of Strength... as well as a repair bill and corpse run.

When Deathwing returns, you'd best keep your eyes on the skies.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27387876560&sid=1

Some Q&A in regards to the event:

Umm, ok.

This will last long enough on any given day I can have time to run there and get some......or is it something that will pop up and be done 5 minutes later and I'm just going to have to be lucky in the right zone?

There is very little warning once he decides to strafe a zone. If you're not in the zone already, you have virtually no chance of sacrificing yourself to his flame.

If you're in the zone, you're almost definitely screwed.

Q: So he's doing that now or soon?

Gonna have to start hanging out in old world.. .. fishing...

Saw his in game model at BlizzCon.. He's so huge!

A: His true terror reign will begin as soon as he tears out of Deepholm, resulting in the shattering of Azeroth.

Q: So does this mean he's going to strafe zones all through Cataclysm until the 4.x patch when he's killable and he's dropped on a realm sometime?

A: Yes, this isn't a permanent event, but will last so long as he's free to roam the world.

Q: Will Deathwing be crisping the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor only, or will the frozen wastes of Northrend feel his firey wrath?

A: This will be specific to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, though he will choose his locations quite indiscriminately.

The achievement is a Feat of Strength since it won't be available forever. Given the rate at which this occurs and the random way in which he chooses to attack, virtually everyone who earns the Feat of Strength will get it by accident -- it's a wrong place at the wrong time sort of thing. ;)

Q: If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, do you have to be a certain level to get the achive?

I can smell the QQ already from players who can't have fun. Like, low levels thinking they should be safe from everything, and will cry during the event if they die - then later will cry as higher levels when they can no longer do the event.

A: Deathwing doesn't care what level you are.

Q:
Will there be any zones not open to attack?

Do all zones have an equal chance of being attacked?

How best may I sacrifice myself to my lord and masters righteous flames?!

A: Because his flames literally kill any creature, critter, NPC, or player in Deathwing's path, there are a few places we're not having him go for gameplay reasons. The large majority of the zones on the two continents are fair game though. :)

And a video of Deathwing's death pass at old world:

1CLSnc-vB0U&feature

FoX

27-10-2010, 04:44 PM

holy **** even water burns O_O

Nferno

28-10-2010, 10:06 AM

Have you seen this awesome login screen? Have you?! For the love of Thrall, please watch this!

oyzmXMfHIeI&feature

brazed

28-10-2010, 10:40 AM

Cataclysm is looking awesome. I'm so happy that dragons are finally getting their due treatment: fear, respect...awe.

Boggle24

29-10-2010, 09:31 PM

Ok so I need help getting started on the whole WOW thing, like brazed I also want to buy the battlechest, but some people are telling me there's going to be a battle chest which includes Wrath of the Lich king soon, is this true, because I'm searching the internet and not getting anything helpful.

also, does the game work sort of like steam in that after I buy it I can copy over the game files of someone else to skip the monumental task of updating it myself ?

Please tell me that's the case.

Yuri

29-10-2010, 10:31 PM

Boggle24

29-10-2010, 10:49 PM

I don't mean the patch files, I mean copy the game itself, like what you can do with Steam.
For instance me and my friend both own HL2, CSS and a few other games on steam, I can copy his files (no patches, just game files) into my Steam folder if I reinstall a game that I forgot to backup, without having to actually download gigs of patches again.

Another friend of mine has WOW fully updated, but the only patch she has with her is the one that goes from 3.5 to 4.01, and I really don't want to download all the patches prior to that one.

I saw that battlechest on Take2.co.za, but the one that was mentioned to me apparently has the first month of game time on the original WOW for free, expansions not included, that one seems to only have a 14 day free pass.

Nferno

30-10-2010, 12:20 PM

Boggle, you can just copy the entire World of Warcraft directory and it will work, if that's what you mean.

Buy the Battlechest just for the CD keys to create your account, would most likely be cheaper than buying them individually.

Boggle24

30-10-2010, 01:11 PM

Ah thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to know :D

So I'll get my hands on the battle chest for my CD keyes and copy the entire game directory from my friend, weeeeeee, she let me play a bit on her account yesterday with her paladin, I really enjoy the battlegrounds.

KalMaverick

30-10-2010, 01:18 PM

I can't say for sure (because I activated mine ages ago) but I think as soon as you activate your wow account you get a free month to play.

So if you buy the battlechest and activate the original WoW then you will get 1 month free game time, but you can also then still activate Burning Crusade and WotLK at the same time and so have 1 free month to play with all the expansions activated.

Nferno

01-11-2010, 11:33 AM

Hate waiting for launch day to get your copy of the expansion only to get home and have to endure the installation process? What about not pre-ordering and finding out that they're all sold out, making you wait a few extra days waiting to play?

Well, fear no more, for digital pre-sales are up!

http://imgur.com/BwYwJ.jpg

Here's some Q/A in regards to it:

Q. In what regions is the Cataclysm pre-sale available? What day/time is Cataclysm launching in my region?
A. The pre-sale is available in the following regions, with realms scheduled to launch at the following times:

Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia - December 7 at 12:01 a.m. PST Europe and Russia - December 7 at 12:01 a.m. CET

Q. When will my credit card (or other payment method) be charged?
A. You will be charged on the day that you place your pre-order for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Q. Why do I need to log in to the game once after I’ve upgraded?
A. The first time you log in after pre-ordering, your account will become eligible to begin receiving the Cataclysm data when it’s available. The data will automatically download in the background while you play World of Warcraft or while you have the Launcher window open.

Q. Can I pre-order a physical copy of Cataclysm and have it shipped?
A. Not from Blizzard Entertainment, but many retailers offer pre-orders of physical boxes and Collector’s Editions.

Q. Will a digital version of the Collector's Edition, with the exclusive pet, be available?
A. No. The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition is exclusive to physical retail copies. The digital version consists of the standard edition.

EDIT: Word on the street is that the digital pre-sale version comes without the Cataclysm cinematic I've posted earlier in the thread. I very much doubt this is the case, so it's best to wait for an official announcement on it before deciding which purchase to take. We should hear something within the week.

EDIT 2:

Fair day all,

Alright, so we've completed the investigation and it appears that from this point forward, the digital download will no longer include the game Pre-rendered Cinematics/Cutscenes as part of the download. As such the Wrath loading cinematic, Wrathgate, etc... will no longer be installed with the game when using the digital streaming download. This may change in the future(no promises, heh) however for right now they are not part of the digital download.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27189094900&sid=1&pageNo=1#19

Nferno

02-11-2010, 08:11 AM

The Elemental Invasion began yesterday! Deathwing Cutists and Doomsayers everywhere! Elemental rifts opening and battalions of Elementals are wrecking the lands!

So. Awesome.

Spent the better half of yesterday evening doing the quests and hunting down rifts. The lore related with this event is amazing! No loot in this event though, but time will tell if they bring some in. It's only the beginning of the event and Blizzard has stated that it would build up as we get closer to launch date, so I can't wait to see what else is in store for us.

Horde Lore:
You get a quest chain which takes you to Thrall's throne room to speak to Garrosh. When you get there, Thrall, Vol'jin and Garrosh are in the throne room discussing the invasion. Thrall said he needs to take some time, a few weeks to months, to establish what needs to be done for the greater good of the Horde. He will go to Nagrand and Garrosh will be the acting Warchief in his absence.

Garrosh was skeptical at first on Thrall's departure, calling Thrall out as being a coward for staying in the Old World while he battled it out with the forces of the Lich King, but the idea of becoming the Warchief later appealed to him. I can't see any good coming from this as Garrosh never cared about the good of the people, but instead victory in battle and spoils of war.

So. Awesome.

Anyway, here are some zones where you can find Elemental Rifts, in case you're hunting down achievements:

Fire
1. Westfall
2. The Barrens (Between Razorfen Downs and Razorfen Kraul)
3. Dustwallow Marsh (Inside Theramore near Armory; North of Witch Hill)
4. The Hinterlands
5. Searing Gorge
6. Blasted Lands
7. Winterspring
8. Hellfire Peninsula
9. Zul'Drak (South of Zeramas; East of the Reliquary of Pain; In the middle of Zeb'Hakkar)

Water
1. Silverpine Forest (East of Shadowfang Keep; South of the fork in the road east of Sepulcher; West of Dead Field towards the shore)
2. Ghostlands
3. Wetlands (On the shore near the Bluegill Murlocs and the two ruined ships; Between the Greenwarden and Dark Iron Dwarf Camps)
4. Thousand Needles (Darkcloud Pinnacle)
5. Stranglethorn Vale
6. Swamp of Sorrows (Stonard)
7. Un'goro Crater
8. Zangarmarsh
9. Shadowmoon Valley
10. Dragonblight (Agmar's Hammer; Wintergarde Keep)
11. Icecrown

Wind
1. Darkshore
2. Hillsbrad Foothills (Southshore; Tarren Mill)
3. Duskwood
4. Arathi Highlands (South of Circle of West Binding; Hammerfall)
5. Eastern Plaguelands
6. Terokkar Forest
7. Netherstorm
8. Borean Tundra (Magmoth)
9. Sholazar Basin

Earth
1. Loch Modan
2. Redridge Mountains
3. Desolace
4. Western Plaguelands
5. Burning Steppes
6. Silithus
7. Nagrand (Laughing Skull Ruins)
8. Blade's Edge Mountains
9. Howling Fjord (Wyrmskull Village near the hut Alliance players witness the visions of the past)
10. Grizzly Hills
11. Storm Peaks (Gnoll Camps west of K3; Maker's Library)

Pics are huge, so check out the screencaps at MMO-Champ (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2054-Cataclysm-Prologue-Elemental-Invasions-Started)

Boggle24

02-11-2010, 11:02 PM

ok guys, got my battlechest (after a spontaneous road trip to the mall just before closing time with my friend), thing is I copied her game files but she doesn't have Wrath of the Lich king installed, I got WotLK with my battlechest though so I want it installed.

So what do I do, her WOW is completely updated with the Cataclysm patch, it just doesn't have WotLK installed, can I install it over the completely patched game still without breaking it ?

Also, anyone know where she can get Wrath of the Lich king seperately these days, no one has it anymore, and buying the Battlechest at R400 just for WotLK is kinda silly.

Nferno

03-11-2010, 07:22 AM

Boggle24

03-11-2010, 08:01 AM

This one is sitting at 21gb

but it's odd, the login screen seems to be the Wrath of the lich king one (with the frost Wyrm flying about in the background in the snow).

.... maybe you have 7gb of screenshots ?

:P
EDIT:

Ok so I just activated my WotLK, and something struck me.

You can pay for the digital upgrade of Cataclysm and let it sort of -pre load- right ?

well I haven't done that as I'm going to buy the game from the shelf later, perhaps that's what you did and why your folder is so much larger ?

KalMaverick

03-11-2010, 09:24 AM

If I'm not mistaken, if her copy is fully updated to the latest patch, I don't think you need to install the WotLK disc, just activate your serial number on your account for WotLK.

How big is the folder you copied from her? Mine is fully updated, sitting at 28.8gb.

Where on earth do you get the extra 7gb? :O Addons and screenshots maybe?

@Boggle24

My WoW folder is at 21.8gb and it's fully updated to the streaming patch of 4.0.1.

I also haven't done the digital upgrade as I already ordered the game from Take2

Also the login screen is supposed to be the WotLK one not the Cata one.

PS I wish I could do the elemental invasion T_T

Nferno

03-11-2010, 09:29 AM

The Data Folder is 21.8gb, which is the game client. The "Updates" folder has 5.6gb in there, so I presume it stores all mah patches when I download them, instead of deleting them once updated.

Edit: Boggle, you won't be able to pre-patch with the digital download anyway. Your download will only be eligible once Cataclysm is released on the 7th of December, but you can pay up front now.

KalMaverick

03-11-2010, 09:51 AM

The Data Folder is 21.8gb, which is the game client. The "Updates" folder has 5.6gb in there, so I presume it stores all mah patches when I download them, instead of deleting them once updated.

How do you update your WoW? Through the launcher?

I download the patches separately then run them (I have all the patches from somewhere around BC backed up) so my update folder has about 12mb only.

Nferno

03-11-2010, 09:56 AM

Yep, update through the launcher.

Boggle24

03-11-2010, 09:59 AM

Ah ok cool, so I'm completely set.

Mwuahahahaha time to game bitches, just started a Blood Elf Hunter, want a character from each race, and definitely gonna play Alliance just to try out Worgen :D

Nferno

03-11-2010, 10:06 AM

Nice. Hope you enjoy it as much as the rest of us do :) What server are you playing on? EU/US?

Just a tip, if you are the type that enjoys a good story: Make sure you read all the quest text. It will get a bit much after a while, but later on the plot begins to make more sense. It's an epic story.

Also, haven't heard from Brazed in this thread since he got it working. Guess he's really busy and not playing or he's playing the **** out of it and can't find the time to post about it ;)

Scy7he

03-11-2010, 10:31 AM

Made me a BE Hunter a few days ago too, the starting lands is pretty cool with that huge scar running across the lands. Chose the Beast talent tree so id be able to tame Exotic pets later on :P

Boggle24

03-11-2010, 10:51 AM

I'm playing on Dentarg (EU)

since my friend got me into all of this she really wants me to jam with her on the server, plus she's gonna show me the ropes and all that :P

I think I'm gonna take marksmanship for my Hunter.

I'm also thinking of seriously playing a rogue right now, I want my Hunter and another class to be my primary characters I'm going to be leveling first.

Also, how does a death knight work ?
do you need a character to already be lvl 55 then turn him into a death knight, or do you actually just start at lvl 55 ?

Nferno

03-11-2010, 10:56 AM

You have to have a character at level 55, then you can make a Death Knight of any race and he will begin at 55. You will still be able to keep both characters.

Beast Mastery is the fastest for leveling a Hunter as it's pretty difficult to pull aggro from your pet in that spec which means little down time. Markmanship and Survival only really shine at higher levels, but any spec is a viable leveling spec.

Send pet in > Auto Attack your Target > Go make a sandwich while your pet does all the work :)

Scy7he

03-11-2010, 11:10 AM

Yeah thats the nice thing about hunters. My main is a Human Priest (lvl 33 atm) i was tempted to go Druid but then i thought, nah everyone chooses Druid because they are so versatile. Only thing i find boring about choosing humans in games is that you always have to ride a freaken horse :P

Nferno

03-11-2010, 12:04 PM

Official Cataclysm Wallpaper is out and it looks wicked! You can download the dragon goodness here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/wallpapers/wallpaper197.html

Nferno

09-11-2010, 11:42 AM

Phase 2 of the Elemental Invasion has begun and it's...well, it's more of the same, really.

Still no drops or any vanity items available from this event and nothing which is happening is striking me as memorable. Some good lore in the 2 new quests available, but as far as content or having fun is concerned, it's pretty lame.

Keep in mind that this is only Phase 2 and we still have more ahead of us. But from what I'm seeing now, it doesn't hold a candle to the Zombie Invasion, prior to the launch of WotLK.

FoX

09-11-2010, 01:21 PM

Lake Shire got owned my elements!!!!

Boggle24

09-11-2010, 03:37 PM

So that's what all those elemental rifts are.

I destroyed a few, and each time you get a nice buff that lasts for an hour, the latest one I destroyed was in Stranglethorn vale and it gave me a quest where I have to return the strange object to some horde leader.

Enjoying the game so far, almost at 40, can't wait to get my swift mount

Nferno

09-11-2010, 03:40 PM

I destroyed a few, and each time you get a nice buff that lasts for an hour, the latest one I destroyed was in Stranglethorn vale and it gave me a quest where I have to return the strange object to some horde leader.

That is what is known as a breadcrumb quest. You hand it in to the corresponding person and they will give you a new quest from there.

Glad you're enjoying it so far :)

Yuri

09-11-2010, 07:16 PM

So what are you guys gonna do when Cata launches? I don't enjoy leveling alts, so I'm gonna get my shaman to 85 asap. Rated BGs are gonna be a blast I think, and it will be great to have arena skirmish back, I've missed it these last few weeks.

Boggle24

09-11-2010, 08:57 PM

Nferno

10-11-2010, 04:07 PM

New Troll Druid Flight Forms! SQUEEEEEEE!

Pics at MMO-Champ! (http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/epicdruidtroll.jpg)

QRjAvHvZtP0&feature=player_embedded

Yuri

10-11-2010, 05:06 PM

Well my priority is getting my Hunter up to 80 now, when Catalyst launches I'm gonna make a Worgen Druid, I really wanna try out the tanking and healing a bit, and apparently druids are very versatile.

Ive personally always preferred hybrid classes to pure dps. Once you've played with the tools of a hybrid a pure always feels so limited, well for me anyway. Druid is an awesome class, hopefully you have tons of fun with it:)

Boggle24

10-11-2010, 11:23 PM

Woohoo

Lvl 40 and dual specced bitches, I love that Beast Mastery makes your mount speed even quicker, plus, exotic pets \:D/

Also, anyone know when more of the elemental invasion quests are due ?

Nferno

11-11-2010, 07:50 AM

I presume that once a week the event will escalate, but no official timeline has been given.

S7wede

12-11-2010, 09:36 AM

Judging from the time line, the event increases in scope every week on a Tuesday afternoon (17:00) local time. If you take that Cataclysm is going to be released on the 7th of December (A Tuesday I might add) That gives us roughly around 3 weeks (starting from next Tuesday) to escalate to level 3 and finally the shattering. I think stage 4 will last around 2 weeks, as the elemental lords will drop ilevel 251 loot that non raiders can use.

This is all purely speculation though.

KalMaverick

14-11-2010, 09:52 PM

Whoop.

Got 7 free days of game time because I haven't played in a while.

Nferno

15-11-2010, 09:12 AM

Ho-Lee-****.

Any of you folks know Gamon, the Tauren in the inn at Orgrimmar which is flagged for PvP? Surely you must have killed him or at least seen others kill him at the inn when he spawns?

Anyway, the NPC is getting a huge buff in the expansion, making him lvl 85 and he hits like a truck. Gone are the days of Gamon-kills and hearing the Tauren death sound effect. Guaranteed this will bring many lulzy moments in Org when folks try to bring him down :D

Also, Ghostcrawler (leading Game Designer) finally got his own NPC! And boy, oh boy is it imba.

He is a rare elite Surf Crawler which has the whole spectral thing going on, like this expansion's pets which came out. He will be tamable by hunters and sports an OP debuff.

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/ghostcrawler_1.jpg
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/ghostcrawlerstats.jpg

That's right, his debuff is called the "Nerfbat" reducing all your skills when hit and stacking. Good lord, I wish my Hunter was 80.

Boggle24

15-11-2010, 10:46 AM

:O

that is sooo epic, I am so taming him if I ever find him.

By the way, with Beast mastery I can tame exotic pets too right ?
Anyone wanna recommend me a great pet to go and tame, I like verocity but anything awesome will do, especially if it's some kind of elite creature or boss like beast.

Nferno

15-11-2010, 11:00 AM

Yeah, Beast Mastery (With the last talent point) can tame exotic pets, but you have to be level 70 to reach the talent.

If you haven't done a quest in the Crossroads, The Barrens called "Eeyachee", I suggest you go do it and tame the lion you summon for it.

The quest requires you to summon the lion (the only white lion you will find at that) and it's tamable if your level is high enough. It doesn't do much more damage than ordinary cats, but it's model is awesome. :)

You only have one chance of taming him (Horde only), unless you can find a buddy with the quest to summon him for you. If you've done the quest, then you're **** out of luck.

Also, there's an elite black jaguar called "King..something" can't remember the name, near Grom'gol that is also tamable, the model is also very neat and damage matches Eeyachee's.

The best advice I can give you is to check Petopia (http://www.wow-petopia.com/) and decide from there which pet is more to your liking.

FoX

15-11-2010, 01:35 PM

I am amazed at how buffed up some the classes had gotten with the 4.x.x patch, my brother with his 54 mage is taking on things up to 5lvls higher than him and owning them?!? before the patch he could barely kill some one on the same lvl as him. The same with my holy pally(witch is a true healer now some what) oh man did I get raped.

MrDeVil_909

15-11-2010, 02:53 PM

I'm starting to get curious about this whole 'WoW' thing every kid and his mom is going on about, but Holy Crap, 5+ gigs of updates at least from the Wrath files. I guess I will probably wait till Cata and install off those discs.

Nferno

15-11-2010, 03:01 PM

It really is worth it, Mr. D. You'll find it actually appeals to a broader audience than what most people are lead to believe and doesn't just cater to soccer-moms and 13 years olds.

What I suggest is to download the 10 Day free trial (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/trial/) to see if you like it or not before purchasing Cataclysm.

I've met some of the greatest people I know through World of Warcraft and we still keep in contact, even though some of them have long stopped playing the game. The social aspect of it by far outweighs the actual gameplay and if you're a sucker for a good story, then I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

EDIT: Good god, re-reading that, I sound like some kind of Blizzard PR dude.

*Backs away from thread silently*

MrDeVil_909

15-11-2010, 03:14 PM

You sound like a total pusher, you should be ashamed. :p

I've never doubted the appeal of WoW, in fact quite the opposite. I've always been a little scared of it the way I'm scared of heroin. ;)

The problem with the Trial, is unless I can get my hands on a client, it will cost too much to download. I'm on 3G so a rough calculation puts it at R3.5 k.

Nferno

15-11-2010, 03:19 PM

Ah yeah, fair enough. I could mail you the game client on DVDs if you'd like, just drop me a PM if you're interested and know how to go about it, I don't mind. :)

Kaji Kitsune

15-11-2010, 03:26 PM

It would be easier just to mail him a 32gig flash-drive. I would also like WoW but I just don't have the hours of game time to play that game :(

oh and there is no pause button, and I still push the Esc button to "pause" when ever I play with FoX's account only to come back and see that I died :/

Boggle24

16-11-2010, 12:53 AM

MrDeVil_909

16-11-2010, 09:17 AM

It would be easier just to mail him a 32gig flash-drive.

Was just thinking what a great idea that was, until I saw the price of a 32 gig flash-drive. Oi.

Thanks for the offer Nferno, I will mull it over and get back to you.

vii

16-11-2010, 09:53 AM

Was just thinking what a great idea that was, until I saw the price of a 32 gig flash-drive. Oi.

Thanks for the offer Nferno, I will mull it over and get back to you.

Where do you live? I might be able to help with the data. Otherwise just use DVD+R Dual Layer for the data. They're R19 each and can hold like 8gb.

MrDeVil_909

16-11-2010, 10:55 AM

I'm in Joburg, Westdene.

You're all a bunch of pushers, btw. :p

Nferno

16-11-2010, 11:53 AM

:O

So who was just in Orgrimmar ?

hoooo leeeee shiiiiiiit.

Complete elemental invasion, phoreal real, before I knew it was in a 40 man raid group battling and closing rifts all over the city and trying to save prisoners and put up baricades or soemthing, anyone know what was actually going on ?

was still pretty freakin epic though.

Holy crap, I missed it!

Had to go to the licensing dept this morning, so I went offline pretty early. Wasn't expecting it to drop so soon!

Will dig into that sucka tonight!

Boggle24

16-11-2010, 12:12 PM

vii

16-11-2010, 12:14 PM

I'm in Joburg, Westdene.

You're all a bunch of pushers, btw. :p

I'll be able to give you the data anytime from the first if you're up for a drive to Kempton(Near the airport).

Nferno

16-11-2010, 12:58 PM

It's pretty cool, Garosh Helscream is right there battling along side you.

And apparently Thrall is going to do or say something that will shock a lot of us, I don't know what though.

By the way, I gotta say I'm loving the professions, there's something satisfying in checking your mailbox to find you've made another couple hundred Gold from selling stacks of leather.

my skinning is at 315 now, my Leatherworking on the other hand :S, not doing so well.

I just can't ever bring myself to use the leather to up my LW, I'd rather sell for profit !
>:D

just got lvl 48 this morning, gonna run around Tanaris with my friends a bit before hitting Ungoro I think, can't wait for Outland bitches !

Un'goro Crater is the ****! I love that place to bits and some really great quests there.

Not a fan of Garrosh, personally. He's got the primal Orc mentality of war and honor in war, like Grom Hellscream. Not really a people's person like Thrall. I personally would have preferred Vol'jin to be the stand-in Warchief because, well...Vol'jin is awesome.

Yuri

16-11-2010, 05:19 PM

Ive been reading quite a bit on the forums about the event that led into WOTLK, it sounds as though that was pretty awesome. I kinda skipped TBC and only came back about halfway into Wrath.

Nferno didn't you say you were around for it? Zombies vs Elementals, whats your take on both of them?

Nferno

16-11-2010, 05:47 PM

Well, I just got home and I'm going to log on soon to see this phase of the event, so I'm not really sure how social this one is.

The zombie invasion was some of the greatest fun I've ever had in WoW. Infected crates appeared out of nowhere at Booty Bay and if clicked, it would give you an infection. That infection turned you into a zombie (the current Death Knight Ghoul model) and once you became zombie, everybody around you, friend or foe, was flagged as an enemy. Once you attack another player, that player becomes infected and later on goes to become a zombie himself. He then goes on to infect more people and so forth and so on...

What was great about it was that HUGE crowds of zombie-players would gather together and go attack a major city. The players within the city would try to hold off the waves of zombies trying to attack them and it was quite a social event. I recall hordes of zombies gathering more zombies all the way from Ratchet through to Barrens, Razor Hill and then to Orgrimmar. It was chaos.

Then there were some other little things to the event where you would go kill **** near portals to collect stuff and get gear. Obviously not as memorable as the zombie invasion as I can't remember many details :P

Yuri

16-11-2010, 07:18 PM

Well I logged on and Orgrimmar was in glorious chaos:). Lots of fun I must admit.

Nferno

17-11-2010, 07:54 AM

So I did the events last night. Pretty fun, but not really on par with the zombie invasion as the rifts only open in major cities every now and then, opposed to the zombie invasion where it was an ongoing thing.

Pretty fun overall, though. Nice to go bat**** on a group of elementals with a bunch of friends. The instance bosses are pretty cool too and drop some neat loot. Bit disappointed that there are no vanity items this time around, even a pet would have been nice.

Nferno

17-11-2010, 08:40 AM

Reddit's Guild made a promo video to recruit more members. It's probably the best guild recruitment video I have seen yet.

d395g4XckGU

**** YEAH NARWHALS (http://****innarwhals.tumblr.com/)

Boggle24

17-11-2010, 10:34 AM

So I've been reading up on the History and lore of Azeroth and OMG epic !

Now that I actually know what the dragon aspects are and who Deathwing really is that Cataclysm intro is a million times more awe inspiring.

Alexstrasxa must be aching for some payback for what he did to her during the second war.

Nferno

17-11-2010, 11:09 AM

Tol Barad info! Can't wait for it since I love Wintergrasp :)

An island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, Tol Barad is a historic land now sought-after by the leaders of the Horde and the Alliance. Its strategic, isolated location makes it an ideal stronghold from which to conduct military strikes. In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, a battle will be waged to seize control of this prized territory. Should you triumph, unique rewards await you. Read more about this all-new world PvP and questing zone here.

The Fight for Tol Barad
Similar to Wintergrasp, Tol Barad will serve as an open world PvP zone, although there is also a hub on Tol Barad Peninsula for both factions to complete daily quests. Reachable by portals in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, or via a level-85 mage teleport or portal, Tol Barad will accept up to 80 players per faction to engage in brutal combat across the island's surface. Unlike Wintergrasp, Tol Barad will not have Tenacity buffs. Instead, the queue system will attempt to match each side at a 1-to-1 ratio. Battles will take place every two hours and thirty minutes, giving the offensive faction a chance to claim territory.

Tol Barad will feature capture-point gameplay. There are three keeps and three towers for the defending side to hold. When destroyed by the attackers, each tower will add five minutes to the standard fifteen-minute battle timer. In order to win, though, all three keeps must be captured and controlled by the attackers. If these keeps cannot be taken by the attacking forces, the defending faction will claim victory in Tol Barad. Similar to Eye of the Storm, Tol Barad determines whether a keep has been captured by the number of players from each side in the immediate area. There is, however, a new twist: each time a member of your faction is killed in the immediate vicinity of a keep, a slider bar will move slightly in favor of the opposing faction. So not only does the size of each force in the area determine who controls each keep, but losing allies during the contesting process determines control as well.

In order to destroy the defenders' towers, attackers will have access to an all-new type of war machine: Abandoned Siege Engines. Six of these Siege Engines will be placed around the map, and these vehicles can be used to bombard the towers. In contrast to the Siege Engines of Wintergrasp, these machines cannot attack players or buildings while the vehicles are being driven. Instead, players must drive them within range of a tower and jump out, allowing the vehicle to transform into an automated cannon that can lay siege to the tower. The Abandoned Siege Engine will continue to damage the closest tower in range until the machine is destroyed by opposing forces.

To the Victor Go the Spoils
Players who win the battle for Tol Barad will be awarded honor points in addition to Tol Barad commendations. These commendations can be used along with new reputations as currency with special vendors who sell rare and epic items, mounts, and more. In addition, the controlling faction will have unique access to extra daily quests. Similar to the Vault of Archavon, Tol Barad gives those who control it the chance to form a raid and best foul beasts locked within Baradin Hold for precious rewards.

Questing for a Living
Aside from the battle to control Tol Barad, there are many quests available to both factions just off of the main island on Tol Barad Peninsula. Members of the Horde will assist Hellscream's Reach, an all-new faction vying for control of Tol Barad. At odds with the Horde are Baradin's Wardens, an Alliance faction also seeking to command the territory. Six unique quests, randomly determined from a larger pool of missions, will be offered daily. This will allow for diversity in completing quest objectives as you explore Tol Barad Peninsula over time. The faction that controls Tol Barad will also have sole access to six additional daily quests. Completing each of these exclusive quests will award experience, gold, and Tol Barad commendations. By accomplishing these tasks, players will learn of the perilous inmates held within the prison on Tol Barad, as well as why this isolated land is of great importance to Hellscream's Reach and Baradin's Wardens. In addition, increasing reputation with these new factions will grant access to incredible rewards.

With so much at stake in the wake of the Cataclysm, Tol Barad will be fiercely sought-after by the Horde and the Alliance, but it's up to you to help determine which side makes this island the next great military port of the Eastern Kingdoms.

and tons of pictures over at MMO-Champ (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/)

Boggle24

17-11-2010, 04:33 PM

So what's up with the new 4.0.3 patch ?

does everyone have to install it, and if so how do I install it (first time patching) ?

Ok seriously, I tried entering the game and it started downloading a 15MB patch, but the patch is enUS, and I'm pretty sure I need enGB since I have a Europe version of WOW.

can anyone help me out here ?

Nferno

17-11-2010, 06:00 PM

Yeah, you have to download the patch.

Start the game through the launcher and wait a while for the patch downloader notification to appear, it should auto-patch an 800mb or so patch.

I have no idea why yours would download the enUS patch. Try it through the launcher and see if it patches.

If that fails go to your WoW directory and run the updater on it's own, it's called Blizzard Downloader.

Boggle24

17-11-2010, 06:13 PM

I run the launcher and nothing is happening :/

EDIT:

Ok I restarted and ran it again, it took quite a while but started downloading, it's split up into 3 phases (red, yellow and green) Setup, Available and PLayable ?

says I have 1GB to go.

Yuri

17-11-2010, 06:51 PM

Yeah basically once you've downloaded 594mb you will be able to log in and play, while the rest is downloaded in the background.

Boggle24

17-11-2010, 08:09 PM

Don't think I'll be doing that though, mostly whenever someone is downloading anything my WOW disconnects.

I'll just let it run through tonight, it'll be done by tomorrow morning.

Boggle24

22-11-2010, 12:01 AM

OK I don't really want to double post but since it looks like I'm the only guy who's having his first WOW experience I have to say this.

I ****ING LOVE BATTLEGROUNDS.

went through like 6 or 7 Arathi basins today and won all but one of them, and Alterac is pretty sweet as well, already got like 400 Honor points saved up for when I need to start gearing at 80.

Nferno

22-11-2010, 07:49 AM

http://i.imgur.com/0jykf.png

I lol'ed, because it's true.

Pilgrim's Bounty is more important than defending our cities.

Kaji Kitsune

22-11-2010, 08:43 AM

Boggle24

22-11-2010, 10:04 AM

I had a look and stuff like Furious gladiator gear only costs between 400 - 800 Honor points, not that bad.

What's honor gear supposed to be ?

Nferno

22-11-2010, 10:13 AM

What's honor gear supposed to be ?

This:

I had a look and stuff like Furious gladiator gear only costs between 400 - 800 Honor points, not that bad.

Also, Wrathful gear and weapons.

Boggle24

22-11-2010, 10:43 AM

Oh, well it's certainly not going for 20 000 honor points.

Nferno

23-11-2010, 07:33 AM

Patch 4.0.3a is deploying on live servers. MMO-Champs says we only have a few hours left to enjoy old world before the Shattering, but don't give an exact time on when the patch will drop.

What's in Patch 4.0.3a?
Sammew posted an interesting list of the features you should and should not expect in Patch 4.0.3a on the official forums. Zarhym also jumped in, and announced a 20% reduction to the XP required to gain levels from 71 to 80.

What is in:

* Portals in Dalaran/Shattrath Removed
* Class trainers in Dalaran where portals once were
* New race-class combinations (excluding worgen/goblin)
* New Gnome/Troll starting areas
* Changes to existing zones
* New cata load screens
* New cata intro cinematic
* New cata login screen
* New music
* City Quartermasters, with rep tabards
* Bug fixes
* Class balancing
* Druids, paladins, priests, and shaman will have their talent trees reset
* Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%
* New tamable hunter pets (Monkey, fox, dog, and beetle, as well as new skins for existing pet classes.)

What is not in:

* Creating worgen/goblin characters
* Worgen/Goblin start zones
* Archeology
* Professions past 450 (Illustrious Grand Master)
* Guild leveling
* Guild achievements
* Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor flight
* New Zones (80+)

Portals removed from Shattrath and Dalaran
Blizzard doesn't want you to use Shattrath and Dalaran as portal hubs anymore, the latest beta update removed all the portal to the cities and replaced them with class trainers.

Race / Class Combinations
This patch will allow you to pick new classes with the existing races! Worgens and Goblins will not be unlocked with this patch, and will only be available on December 7th for people who bought the expansion.

KalMaverick

23-11-2010, 08:04 AM

to bad honor gear cost like 20000 points, Fox had like 2500 honor and after the 4.x.x patch he only had 240... oh man did he flip.

totally off topic: don't you just love the word points it just flows over the keyboard p o i n t s, I can type that word all day!

If you read the thread you would know that the gear is actually cheaper now.

Besides being cheaper it is also actually easier to get.

Wrathful Gladiator's Greatsword for example. http://www.wowhead.com/item=51392

Would of taken you ages to get now can take about 2 days.

Nferno

23-11-2010, 03:52 PM

http://min.us/i7eAm.jpg

I will miss you, bank roof. So many fond memories of jumping from your jagged, pointy-looking things, trying to jump on to the next while waiting for my raid group to fill up.

Or that time where I rolled a Blood Elf alt and danced naked on your tip, looking for handouts, but instead got propositioned for sexual acts.

You have been good to the people of Org, providing shelter from the elements and sanctuary for those low-levels who sought refuge from the Elemental Invasion.

You will be missed, old friend.

vii

23-11-2010, 03:59 PM

What!? They're killing the bank roof?!

That was my hangout. Whenever I had business in org I'd be doing it on the bank roof.

I'm quite sad that the whole world is going to change... :/

Nferno

23-11-2010, 04:03 PM

So not to spoil it for those who don't want to see it yet, here's Orgrimmar (http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/blizzard/world-of-warcraft/cataclysm/org610.jpg) post-shattering.

Boggle24

23-11-2010, 05:04 PM

I'm reading that 4.0.3a is going to be relatively tiny as it's basically just a switch that turns everything int destroyed mode ?

I hope this is the case, I don't like big patches.

Nferno

23-11-2010, 05:06 PM

I'm reading that 4.0.3a is going to be relatively tiny as it's basically just a switch that turns everything int destroyed mode ?

I hope this is the case, I don't like big patches.

From what I understand, yes. I also don't like big patches :(

Nferno

24-11-2010, 08:31 AM

Right, 2 things:

The Shattering patch is 141mb according to my launcher this morning. Patch up and dig into that bitch.

For those who don't have World of Warcraft yet, it's on promotion at 5 Euros for Vanilla and Burning Crusade (Each) and 10 Euros for Wrath of the Lich King. Very cheap, very nice.

http://eu.battle.net/en/promotion/

Boggle24

24-11-2010, 09:13 AM

That's awesome, I'll tell my friend she needs to find someone with a credit card as soon as possible.

Domanskip

24-11-2010, 09:54 AM

I spent more time on the Orgrimmar bank roof than I spent at university last year. Its sad to see it go. I'm gonna log in for the first time in a while to check out the changes.... however heart-broken I may be about the loss of my fantasy universe; change is always a good thing.

Nferno

24-11-2010, 12:27 PM

It's lunch time and I decided to log in to see the changes.

Firstly, seeing the cinematic for Cataclysm in all it's HD glory was amazing. I'm really under the impression that Blizzard has got some of, if not, the most talented artists in the industry.

Then I checked out all the new class/race combos. Nothing spectacular, though it's weird seeing a Tauren Paladin.

Finally logged in to Orgrimmar and OMG WHERE THE HELL IS ERRTHING? It looks like Warsong Hold - Completely different. Hopefully the lag is still minimal as it was pre-shattering.

Right, I'm going to try find the Auction House.

Yuri

24-11-2010, 07:38 PM

Just spent about an hour or so on....my ....mind....is ....blown:). I was exploring Azshara and the goblin presence there is awesome. The highway running through the whole zone is absolute genius.
Yes I am waxing lyrical about these changes:), from the little I've seen.......a round of applause for Blizzard.

Boggle24

25-11-2010, 09:55 AM

So I completely finished Ungoro crater the other day, came back on my way to Silithus and everything is different, not to mention that there are a lot of new quests and I had to redo some I already did (like the crystals of power quest, Lar'kowi).

still loving how much everything has changed, I mean, 1K needles is -completely- under water :O

Nferno

25-11-2010, 09:58 AM

still loving how much everything has changed, I mean, 1K needles is -completely- under water :O

Big, gaping chasm in The Barrens with lava bubbling in it pretty much made me go O_O

Boggle24

25-11-2010, 10:47 AM

I'm confused though.

In the opening cinematic it looks like Deathwing was under the Barrens, but then, it looks like he busts out somewhere near Dragonblight or crystalsong forest, but I thought he was stuck in Deepholm (which is another plane of existance is it not ?)

The new areas look interesting, also can't believe the mealstrom is the gateway to deepholm, so awesome ! :O

Nferno

25-11-2010, 11:01 AM

Deathwing was chilling in Deepholm, a place we've not seen yet. It's the caverns system situated under Skywall, which we haven't seen either.

Both of these will be accessible in Cataclysm.

hell_rising1

25-11-2010, 04:20 PM

Love the new Gnome starting area, the quests are fun. On top of that I've found that levelling seems to be more streamlined. Orgrimmar is amazing! Place my pre-order at BT, gonna go to the midnight launch at the Pavillion, can't wait. Uldum looks so beautiful :')

Boggle24

28-11-2010, 08:47 PM

So I started my first Death Knight (Orc) today after finally getting my Hunter into Outland.

Seriously fun, and I loved the whole starting area, I kinda wish every race had one like it, but I understand why they did it with the death knights with their affiliation with Arthus and everything.

So now I don't know who I want to pull through Outlands first, my Hunter or my Death knight, I gotta say the Death knight seems like it might be more fun, but I like my Hunter and I'd feel kinda ****ty if I just abandoned him all of the sudden.

By the way, can anyone suggest proffs for this char of mine ?

I've got LW and Skinning on my Hunter, was thinking of maybe doing Mining and Jewel Crafting on the DK, but I hear Jewelcrafting costs a LOT to lvl, even with mining (but apparently also makes a lot of money like Skinning does).

Someone mentioned Alchemy allows you to make awesome stuff later on, but I'm more interested in making money than making stuff to be honest.

Nferno

29-11-2010, 07:37 AM

I would level the Hunter, personally. I never considered the Death Knight as a "real" class. Always thought of them as something to play with while you're not busy with your main class.

Sorry Death Knights, that class is an abortion.

As far as professions go: Alchemy + Herbalism is pretty cool. Once you get to 450 in alchemy, you'll be able to transmute epic gems, meaning that once a day you can make an epic gem out of crappy materials and these turn quite a profit.

Though with Cataclysm looming, Mining + Anything is where money is going to be made. At the start of every expansion the ores go for a heck of a lot of gold. Powerlevelers don't care about the prices they have to pay for these, they've been saving for this the whole second half of this expansion.

Make a miner. Don't use the ores on any profession, just dump them in the AH for ridiculous sums. You'll make a killing.

FoX

29-11-2010, 08:17 AM

My ping has gone to **** ITS OVER 9000!!! lol no, its about 800-1500 now after the latest patch using 3G(Namibia). It was on average about 400-700.

OH I'm still exploring the areas that has changed and OMG Darkshore got raped!

Nferno

29-11-2010, 11:14 AM

http://i.imgur.com/bnNeH.jpg

Anybody seeking a guild for Cataclysm?

Our guild is taking a different approach in Cataclysm and we're straying from PvE. We're now a PvP guild focusing exclusively on Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas. We will raid occasionally to experience the content, but our goal is not PvE orientated.

Currently, we're looking at getting to 85 as quickly as possible this expansion so we can start Arenas as soon as the first season begins.

If you're interested in a PvP guild and enjoy Arenas, drop me PM so we can sort something out.

Re-rolls are welcome to join, however understand that our aim is to get in the action as quickly as possible - So a realm-transfer would be more beneficial if you have high level characters.

Kilrogg EU - Horde.

Lok'tar ogar!

Edit: Forgot to mention. Guild is South African-only.

http://badbloods.guildlaunch.com/guild/index.php?gid=133841

...aaaaand some backstory:

So, what's the story with Bad Blood?

Bad Blood was formed at the beginning of 2010 with the majority of players stemming from a PvE guild called "Fusyion". Fusyion moved to a different realm after a good year of raiding as a 10-man strict guild, then 25-man, then back to 10-man strict.

The remaining stragglers, vagrants and homeless remained on Kilrogg where we decided to from Bad Blood.

Bad Blood was initially a 10-man casual raiding guild. After a while of raiding casually we realized our potential and went 10-man strict. This was short-lived due to our initial casual approach and a lot of absentees from raids.

We shortly disbanded towards September of 2010 due to players having IRL commitments which hampered on our raid times.

What does the future hold for Bad Blood?

Changes! a lot of them in fact!

The remaining die-hard bloods decided to give the guild a reboot with a new image an approach. We decided that we grew bored with slaying dragons and opted to take the PvP route in Cataclysm!

We're now a casual PvP guild focusing purely on Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas. We still wish to experience end-game content, so the occasional raid will take place, if all players are willing and available.

If this sounds like it's your kind of thing, then don't hesitate to drop us an application or contact one of our officers in-game.

Lok'tar ogar

Boggle24

29-11-2010, 02:29 PM

I would have loved to join in your guild at some point, but I'm on a different server and most likely will stay in this guild for as long as my friend is there.

Decided on Mining and Herbalism for my death knight (two gathering proffs should make lots of moneyz), gonna make a druid at some point and might give it alchemy ( have you guys seen some of the high level stuff you can make with Alchemy :O, a potion that teaches you how to turn into a dragon that other people can ride).

Nferno

01-12-2010, 08:25 AM

Right. Some rumors from Blizzard coming through the woodwork:

Blizzard Product Slate "Leak"
People are pretty excited about a new picture going around the web, supposedly a leak of the schedule of Blizzard's release for the next year. I don't usually comment that kind of things but ...
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/blizzardslate.jpg

Source
The image appeared on MMOGamesite.com, apparently this is an english MMO site based in China and I already know a lot of people will hate me for reporting that news. The document itself is probably a slide from an internal presentation to executives and/or shareholders, and seems to be 8 months old according to the date at the top.

Battle.net 2.0

* BNET2 - Well, that's the Battle.net we now use on WoW.
* BNET2MapMarket - This is pretty self explanatory, but I'm a little surprised by the timeline.
* BNET2 3rd Parties - The end-game with Battle.net is as far as I know to compete with Steam. One of the best way to do that would be to use the new platform to distribute a popular game, and if that game was an upcoming Call of Duty title the Activision/Blizzard merge would suddenly make a lot of sense, right?

Starcraft 2
Nothing really new here, but I have no idea what SC2 Phoenix is.

Diablo 3
Target release date in a year makes sense. The 2 expansions aren't really a surprise but I wouldn't take it as a confirmation, that's usually the kind of stuff you mention in company meetings with the higher-ups to make everyone happy.

World of Warcraft

* WoWMobile - Done/in-progress with the mobile Auction House and the upcoming extra features.
* Cataclysm - Well, we all know about that.
* WoW Brazil - Portuguese translation of the game. I already heard a couple of rumors about that and at this point I'm 99% sure it's true, this is one of the reason why I think this document is legit. (The 2 others being the TCG Game and Titan)
* WoW X4 - 4th expansion in a year and a half sounds very plausible.
* WoW TCG - TCG Game, this part will probably remind you of one of my old posts ... The Future of World of Warcraft: TCG
* WoW Movie - I'd say the timeline is off because the document is a few months old, before Sam Raimi decided to work on other projects before the Warcraft movie (but I still want to believe).
* WoW X5 - 5th expansion a year and a half later, nothing surprising.

Titan
Yeah, that's Blizzard's new MMOFPS and I might have hinted at that in the past but I don't have a lot of extra information about it and the release date is just an estimation. Don't assume that it will be released by the end of 2013 based on that document, it would be very stupid.

Conclusion
The document is probably legit, even if it's already a little old it still confirms and backups a couple of information I already mentioned, and mentions the portuguese translation for the first time in public. Don't take it as a hard fact and don't bring it up too much on official forums but I think it's an interesting piece of information.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/

Nferno

03-12-2010, 04:54 PM

vF5x_AS1yYw

Yuri

03-12-2010, 06:55 PM

Haha I really enjoyed that Nferno, thanks for putting it up. Have you seen Nymms "Its the end of the world (of warcraft)"? Also really good.

Nferno

04-12-2010, 07:31 AM

Why, oh why does it have to release on a Tuesday?! I have to work the next day and it's really going to put a roadblock on my levelling times. Ay caramba!

On the plus side, I'm going to pick mine up at the midnight launch at an undisclosed location. Can't ****ing wait to get my CE!

Me gusta!

http://i47.tinypic.com/2ziddfs.jpg

-Bouncer-

07-12-2010, 02:07 AM

Nice features trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnXJVSghgI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egOAqSZpbsA

And an the Collector's Edition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYFejR5bZ5Y

Wish I had ordered the Collector's Edition. Looks really nice. I actually havn't played WOW for a while now. I've been to busy with studies but now that I'm finished, I might get back into it. Although I have a lot of updates to download... sigh....

Anyhow, what do you guys think of the expansion?

Nferno

07-12-2010, 07:26 AM

****! I got really baked last night and as per usual stoner fashion, fell asleep and forgot to go to the midnight launch.

Will be picking up my copy at lunch-time and hopefully I can swindle my boss to go off work early to get some levels in...

MrDeVil_909

07-12-2010, 10:23 AM

Good luck playing, the US servers are totally falling over, no doubt the EU ones will be the same.

brazed

07-12-2010, 12:13 PM

It's awesome so far. Srsly. The new starter areas and the progression is simply awesome.

Nferno

07-12-2010, 12:15 PM

Knocked off early. Went straight to BT games. Furry dude at the counter grinned at me as I anxiously bounced up and down in one spot while his co-worker got the order. They give me my order, I shake both their hands and proceed to rush home at 160km/h to install.

Installed. Gonna get stoned now and play.

See you folks in a few months.

Darkon5524

07-12-2010, 09:55 PM

Went to the store that i preorderd it at... guess what, they sold my copy ... (am ****ing ****ed off - excuse the language) but anyway... going to go pick it up at top CD... cheaper and i must say more reliable...

Nferno

07-12-2010, 11:22 PM

Wow. The quests are incredibly well done.

Have to pull myself away or I won't wake up for work tomorrow. I'M WEAK!

Nferno

08-12-2010, 07:45 AM

Best Paladin in the World! (http://www.examiner.com/world-of-warcraft-in-national/world-first-level-85-reached-under-six-hours)

European player Athene, also known as Forscience, logged into Cataclysm an hour after the launch, and a mere five or so hours later, he became the world’s first player to reach level 85.

The human paladin did this with a little help from his friends, which he attributes in his video. He trained for this feet during the beta and took advantage of the early hours and a little intuition to achieve this goal.

So where did he start? Great question! Athene started his race to 85 by handing in his maximum 25 quests, which boosted his experience right away without having to run new quests from start to finish. After the marathon quest hand-in he headed staright to Cataclysm's highest leveled and most intense zone, the Twighlight Highlands.

In the Highlands he found the sweet spot that he discovered in the beta. Here he farmed mobs with high respawn rates while wearing his heirloom gear, which boosted experience gained by killing monsters by a considerable percentage until level 81.

Then all he had to do was tag (or tap) enemies, then his friends swarmed them with DPS to take them out, which earned Athene the experience for the kill. And to be clear, he was not in a group or raid, as to receive the maximum amount of experience for each kill. He farmed this way until he hit the coveted world's first title.

But the real news comes as to why he tried so hard to get world first. A little more than half way through his video, Athene begins talking about his scientific research and it's groundbreaking implications. He is using the publicity to push his documentary-in-progress called "God is in the Neurons." This may serve to explain why he may have picked a paladin and named his character "Forscience."

Athene said he also tried so hard to get the title in order to inspire gamers to apply themselves and make a difference. As for just what kind of research Athene has been up to is still to be seen until the documentary is released. But for now, he will always hold the Nobel Prize of the Cataclysm world, world first level 85.

You can view Athene's video here on Youtube.

2nd expansion that he nailed it now. He got banned the previous time due to confusion, but he made it nevertheless.

Nferno

08-12-2010, 09:12 AM

I'll just leave this here:

http://i.imgur.com/nV6Wt.jpg

spjt07

08-12-2010, 02:16 PM

I must say Blizzard has been coming up with some awesome box designs for their past 2 games.

OllieTheDog

08-12-2010, 05:06 PM

I am buying WoW but want to know what the best version to get is?
Also what servers do you guys play on?

Nferno

08-12-2010, 06:18 PM

I am buying WoW but want to know what the best version to get is?
Also what servers do you guys play on?

Wait until you see the battlechest available which has all the expansions with it. It would work out cheaper than buying them individually.

ShellShok

08-12-2010, 09:45 PM

Wait until you see the battlechest available which has all the expansions with it. It would work out cheaper than buying them individually.

Isn't it almost R700 buying the old battlechest plus cata right now? D:

OllieTheDog

09-12-2010, 08:05 AM

No I found the battlechest with everything apart from Cata for about R210

Blue-IcE

09-12-2010, 08:42 AM

Boggle24

09-12-2010, 10:03 AM

Sigh.

So my free month ran out a few days ago sitting at lvl 61 in Outlands with my Hunter.

With the credit I've got at Animeworx I can buy Cataclysm for R85 essentially, but then I need to buy a gamecard as well (unless you get free playing time with the expansion ?)

Anyhow, off to Jeffreys till like after the 20th, so might as well only get the game near christmas.

Nferno

09-12-2010, 10:06 AM

So i just bought cata installed it and now i have to download 8 gb worth of patching, which makes it kind of impossible for me since i use 3G and my limit is 10 gb a month and i am already paying R2000 for that. any ideas?

That is really odd, I was under the impression that if you installed off the Game Disc you wouldn't need to patch the 8gb.

Musha

09-12-2010, 11:51 AM

@Nferno:

The Subdued Abyssal Seahorse is freaking AWESOME!

But not as awesome as the Sealegs that you get upon entering Vashj'ir. Walking under water with a 60% speed buff! WOOP WOOP!

Nferno

09-12-2010, 12:17 PM

@Nferno:

The Subdued Abyssal Seahorse is freaking AWESOME!

But not as awesome as the Sealegs that you get upon entering Vashj'ir. Walking under water with a 60% speed buff! WOOP WOOP!

Hehe. More like bouncing on the surface of the moon, amirite?

But overall, this expansion has been the best one yet. Very cinematic quests with and awesome "adventure" vibe to them - makes you feel like you are actually impacting on the storyline as opposed to previous expansions where you're just there to witness it. Also, the quests are very, very well written and laid out.

Made 8k gold on the first day selling ores, 6k the following day selling Engineering mats and this morning I found another 8k in my mailbox from selling engineering pets alone. I have never profited so much in any expansion. /flex

Also, I'm now a Goblin!

http://i.imgur.com/f0LMm.jpg