Ask a Beta Tester: World Explorin'

I'm sorry, folks, but I have to revisit the school-specific spell power discussion... yes, again! As a great many commenters have pointed out, school-specific spell power has recently been removed from the beta versions of the tailored Shadoweave and Spellfire sets. Its overall damage has been decreased and converted to spell power.

However, there are still school-specific spell power items out on the beta realms, like the Karazhan drop that no one ever really wants, Drape of the Righteous. (It's in such high demand that I, in fact, have two of them.) So is this scenario a sign that there will still be some school-specific spell power? A sign that Holy damage is somehow special? A sign that Blizzard is only half-way through removing school-specific spell power? Your guess is as good as anyone's.

For more of your beta questions -- and our beta answers -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.

Binge asked....

Looking for details on the requirements for "World Explorer" achievement. Do we have to visit each sub-area of a zone? How about districts of an opposite factions capital (Stormwind cathedral, trade, old town, etc)? What about full exploration of dungeons and raid instances? Even Battlegrounds?

The World Explorer achievement is made up of four major achievements requiring you to explore Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland, and Northrend. Drilling down from there, to explore Eastern Kingdoms, you must explore Quel'Danas, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, Deadwind Pass, Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains, Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Tiristfal Glades, Eversong Woods, Loch Modan, Westfal, Wetlands, Silverpine Forest, Ghostlands, Redridge Mountains, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Swamp of Sorrows, Badlands, Stranglethorn Vale, The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands, and Burning Steppes. Yikes, that's sounding like a lot of work! To drill down further, to explore Elwynn Forest, you must explore Northshire Valley, Fargodeep Mine, Forest's Edge, Tower of Azora, Eastvale Logging Camp, Crystal Lake, Goldshire, Stormwind City, Jerod's Landing, Brackwell Pumpkin Patch, Ridgepoint Tower, and Stone Cairn Lake.

So, yes, you will have to hit major cities of the opposing faction, but you won't have to explore each section of them. Basically, you need to uncover all map areas of the place you're attempting to explore. Battlegrounds and instances are not currently included in any of the exploration achievements.

Sorano asked....

Is Shield of Righteousness effectively the attack Holy paladins can/should use between 6 seconds cd Holy Shocks? What would be your opinion on that new ability?

It's an awesome ability! But for tanks, not for healers. It does additional damage based on your block value, and I'm guessing a Holy Paladin is going to do their soloing in a spell power set to maximize Holy Shock and Judgement damage. I imagine it will fall somewhere in a Holy Paladin's soloing rotation, between the Holy Shocks and the Judgements (healadins do tend to carry shields around and all), but without a high block value to back it up, it's not going to be our favorite ability -- more something to do when we have extra mana.

In the now rather briefer period of time between Holy Shocks, well, I usually just melee and judge.

With a build like this you get 10% baseline spell crit and 16% when using Holy Light or Holy Shock. It just seems to good to be true. Can anyone confirm?

I agree, it seems too good to be true. However, I can confirm that this is how the beta build is currently behaving.
Tooltips reflect the flat 10%, though the 6% from Sanctified Light talent doesn't show up. Add another 3% crit on targets you've judged with the Heart of the Crusader talent and you're in business with a 19% critical strike chance... at least for Holy Shock... on targets you've judged. And that, of course, is before you add gear into the mix.

David asked....

I know this may not be the best place to post this, but I currently feel that Blizzard is treating us EU beta testers as second rate testers. Our beta server is currently overcrowded and having all sorts of lag and disconnects as you can see from our forums and we have been asking for a second realm for ages. And now we had an answer from Vaneras basically reafirming that we won't get any server and won't even get premades. i think this is extremely unfair and his a proverbial kick in the face to all of us EU testers.

I can say that EU stability sounds no worse than US stability. I often wonder how anyone has managed to get anywhere with the amount of up-and-down the US beta servers have had. (The screenshots in this feature are often pried from the cold dead hands of the beta servers during the ten consecutive seconds they've been online all evening.)

As to pre-mades, kick in the face or otherwise, US testers only get them for a PvP-specific realm, and they come with PvP gear, specifically for the purpose of testing out Lake Wintergrasp. What are EU players missing out on? Endless slaughter that doesn't let you get far from a major city, much less really test things.

The Wrath of the Lich King beta is in full swing, and the WoW Insider crew is here to sate your curiosity with Ask a Beta Tester! Leave your beta questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em! And if you can't get enough Wrath, don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!