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Ghostcrawler responds to heroic dungeon difficulty complaints
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street posted an entry on his blog yesterday called "Wow, Dungeons are Hard!" It's a rather lengthy (but worthwhile) read about the current state of Cataclysm heroics, Blizzard's philosophy on designing them, his impressions on their current difficulty level, and some advice for improving your performance. Like I said, it's an epic post, and we won't reprint the whole thing here. This, however, is the key takeaway: Wow, Dungeons are Hard! The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They're only going to get easier from here on out. We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. And by extension, we want you to celebrate when you win instead of it being a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, we don't want you to stumble your way to victory. We don't want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they're doing. We don't want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot. Ultimately, we don't want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize. source All that being said, though, is Blizzard really satisfied with its dungeon designs and their current level of difficulty? Hard heroics are indeed hard, but the updated PTR patch notes for 4.0.6 (which went live just yesterday at almost the exact same time Ghostcrawler was discussing heroics) indicate that a series of nerfs is coming our way. That will no doubt lead to player rejoicing, but remember -- heroics are naturally getting easier as people get more familiar with them and players continue to compile better gear, which makes completion even easier still.
Special version of the Cataclysm LP now available on iTunes
One of the best yet tragically unappreciated parts of Cataclysm is its new music. There's that awesome track where it's like, "dun dun DUN dunnnnn," and then that other one where it's like, "whooooooosh bah bah bahh bah bahhhh BAH," and the other one ... uh ... Yeah, so anyway, this doesn't work so well via text. But good news -- you can now enjoy it digitally in a way that doesn't involve my converting sound to text! The Cataclysm LP soundtrack -- 17 epic cuts full of "dun" and "bah" -- is now available at the iTunes store. And if that's not enough, you get all sorts of awesome bonus content. So says Blizzard: Cataclysm LP Now Available on iTunes Want to bring the music from the latest World of Warcraft expansion with you anywhere you go? The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm soundtrack is now available as an iTunes LP from the iTunes Store, featuring 17 eminently epic tracks as well as special bonus content including artwork, liner notes, and behind-the-scenes interviews. If you previously purchased a copy of the Cataclysm soundtrack album from iTunes prior to the release of this special LP version, don't worry -- you'll be able to receive the bonus content at no additional charge. For more information or to purchase the Cataclysm soundtrack LP, visit the iTunes Store. source And while you're there at iTunes, why not take a moment to subscribe to the WoW Insider podcast? Just saying ...
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman guide to Cataclysm reputation gear
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast Last week, we consolidated the expansion's changes for restoration shaman in a Cataclysm 101 post -- just the basics there, nothing too fancy quite yet. This week, I fully intended to begin writing restoration guides for the various 5-man dungeons and heroics, but instead, I'd like to take some time and talk about gearing up before you even set foot in dungeons at level 85. Over the last week, I've received a massive influx of email asking about what gear is available through questing and through the various factions. While it is very true that you can receive quite a bit of gear from questing, the reputation rewards are quite stellar. You will gain a sizeable chunk of reputation simply from leveling to 85, so let's see what gear you can pick up along the way. For today, we'll keep Mail Specialization in mind and stick with the mail gear, rings and trinkets available from the various factions.
WoW's Cataclysm demolishes Lich King sales record
The runaway freight train that is World of Warcraft's third expansion has obliterated the 24-hour sales record set by the preceding WoW update. Cataclysm moved 3.3 million copies in its first day on the market, whereas 2008's Wrath of the Lich King sold 2.8 million copies in its opening 24-hour salvo (a mark that established the record for the top-selling PC game in history at that point). "We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. Even so, the expansion failed to top the current 24-hour record of 5.5 million copies set last month by Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Totem Talk: A Cataclysm 101 guide to restoration shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast To quote The Smashing Pumpkins, "Today is the greatest day I've ever known." Tuesday, Dec. 7 marks the release of the third World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. Over the last several months, we've been talking about all the changes leading up to this expansion. We've covered new spells, changes to old spells, and everything in between. If you remember, not too long ago, we did our series of everything you needed to know about each class. Restoration 101 was my first post here for Totem Talk. Today, we're going to round up all of the changes to restoration shaman that Cataclysm brings. The changes have already been implemented before Cataclysm was released, we have already had an opportunity to become familiar with them. We're also going to talk about what it is to be a restoration shaman and what you have to look forward to as you explore the world of Azeroth. Note that this is not a guide for the endgame content and is meant for beginners new to the game or just starting as restoration.
Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm guild roundup
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. This is it, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight at midnight PST, Blizzard will knock down the velvet ropes around the expansion's leveling zones and usher in a new era of World of Warcraft. At the same time, Cataclysm will provide new guild features, including leveling, achievements, and reputation. Certainly this is one of the most exciting times in WoW's history to be a guild officer. This expansion provides new tools, new goals, and new opportunities for guilds and those who lead them. The question remains: Is your guild ready for it? After the break, I've linked to every Cataclysm-related Officers' Quarters column, as well as some other columns that may help you with issues related to the increased level cap, the redesign of WoW's raid system, and other expansion matters. Our members are counting on us to provide a stable and effective guild community before and after we all hit 85. Let's not disappoint them!
Blizzard's Pardo talks genre boundaries, Cataclysm
Curious as to why Blizzard would opt to destroy what is arguably the most successful game world in the history of the MMORPG genre? A new interview with World of Warcraft co-designer Rob Pardo has some answers. "We do have the ability to continually add to the game and evolve it, but the trickier challenge is that eventually people are going to want to move onto new types of entertainment," Pardo tells Edge. He goes on to liken MMOs to a long-running television series, and touches on why metrics aren't necessarily the tools that drive a game maker's creative decisions. So, is WoW, and Cataclysm, pushing the limits of what Blizzard can do with MMORPGS? "Not really," Pardo says. "Obviously you're not going to design a brand new game using WoW, but there's so much opportunity within that world to do different things."
Totem Talk: A restoration shaman's Cataclysm checklist
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast By the time you read this, Cataclysm will be exactly one week away from release. Are you excited? I know I am! The number of people who return to the game after long breaks, especially at expansion time, can be staggering. Last week, we talked about what restoration shaman who are returning to the game for Cataclysm should expect when they load in, and we talked about ways for them to ease their transition back into the game. This week, I would like to talk about getting ready for that big day when our level caps are raised to 85, new zones open up for us to explore, new profession recipes become available, and new dungeons and encounters are available for us to experience. So are you ready for the expansion? Are you truly prepared?
Officers' Quarters: Managing the alt invasion
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. I'll never forget that first month after Wrath went live and the endless requests from guild members to invite their death knight alts into the guild. The second anyone rolled a DK, they wanted to bring that toon into the roster to be part of the social experience as we all explored what the new expansion had to offer. I couldn't blame them. It is painful to be cut off from your guild during such an exciting time. As it turns out, the DK influx was only a small taste of what the Shattering has wrought. Now it's troll druids, tauren paladins, and undead hunters springing out of the woodwork, or dwarf shaman and gnome priests for Alliance guilds. Even this, however, is just the rumblings before the earthquake. In one week, a deluge of goblins and worgens will engulf our rosters. How can we manage this alt invasion? Let's take a look!
Totem Talk: Bringing your restoration shaman back for Cataclysm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast Last week, we talked about the alchemical concoctions we can expect to see in Cataclysm both while leveling and at level 85. There were quite a few options, and I shared some of my own experiences with them in the hopes that it will help you as you go for max level. With Cataclysm release in two weeks, a lot of people have been switching focus to the new content. More people still are returning to the game and being assaulted by all the changes. This week, I thought we could take a few moments and talk about what restoration shaman returning for Cataclysm will need to know. I've received many emails about this topic over the last few weeks and felt it was something that required some attention. Let's talk about how returning restoration shaman can ease their transition into this brave new world.
One Shots: This is the way the world ends
As of this morning, adventurers in World of Warcraft find the landscape has changed. Things we knew of and loved are changed irrevocably, and the land trembles at the oncoming nightmare soon to be revealed as Deathwing roams the land in Cataclysm. Last night, the world turned dark, and Massively reader Format was there to capture this image outside of Orgrimmar. He writes in to explain the dark scene: "Bon voyage World of Warcraft! Come tomorrow you will be very different-looking. This picture was taken after the elementals started attacking Orgrimmar. The sky was blue but turned red, and all of a sudden, ash started to fall. This screenshot was taken outside the walls. It's just crazy to look at because this is the last night to see this until the big change comes tomorrow. It was nice knowing you WoW 1.0 -- and it's nice to meet you WoW 2.0." One Shots loves to see your screenshots -- from MMOGs large and small! If you'd like to take part and share your adventures, then snap a great screenshots and send it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
Cataclysm: Part 4 of the elemental invasion is live
Cities are under attack. Elementals are invading the capital cities of Orgrimmar and Thunderbluff for the horde and Stormwind and Ironforge for the alliance. It's madness in the streets and it is awesome. Defend the cities by closing rifts and freeing trapped and scared citizens. We do not know if the bosses are up yet, and it looks like it is not live on all servers yet. More as it develops. %Gallery-107474% Update: New dungeon finder bosses are active after you stop the invasions. Update 2: Random dungeon finder bosses are dropping 251 loot, and securing each city opens up two bosses. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
The Queue: Theme song
Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. Hello, WoW Insider community. I'm sure you've heard of me -- I'm Mathew, one of the co-hosts of the WoW Insider Show, probably the best WoW podcast ever*. Our show is pretty great! However, we are desperately lacking one very crucial component: a theme song. We need a theme song. So, community, I beg and beseech you, help us come up with a theme song for our awesome podcast. Suggest something, record something, give us ideas, anything. We want to hear your input! I have personally added my selection to the top of The Queue, as I believe punk/heavy metal versions of Ke$ha songs will more than likely bring us the listenership we deserve. * Source: My mother. Everyone on the planet asked: How can we contribute ideas for the WoW Insider Show theme song? Great question, everyone. Here are the ways to help us out: Comment in this thread Send an email to theshow@wow.com with the subject "Theme song" Tell us on Twitter by following @wowinsidershow
Blizzard unveils Cataclysm system requirements
Conventional gaming wisdom holds that World of Warcraft is such a lean, mean GPU-conserving machine that it will run on everything from a 386 to a scientific calculator from the early 1970s. Rumor has it that there are even some punch-card computers and difference engines that will run Blizzard's game with a bit of tweaking. Sadly, those days are numbered, as the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion is planning to destroy not only the world of Azeroth, but also any thoughts you may have had of running WoW on your older Mac or PC hardware. The official system requirements for the new expansion have been released, and -- skipping right over the minimums -- we find that the recommended setup is a dual-core CPU, 2 GB of system memory, and a graphics card with vertex and pixel shading capability. While it's not exactly state of the art, it may necessitate a bit of an upgrade if you're still puttering along with your Burning Crusade or vanilla WoW equipment. Check out all the details courtesy of our friends at WoW Insider.
Totem Talk: Restoration stats and spells at level 85
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shamans. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast. So last week, we went over a series of common questions players were asking about restoration shaman changes in both the Cataclysm beta and patch 4.0.1., and the week prior, we talked about healing in heroics and normal dungeons. With everything going through massive amounts of changes and still two months to go before the release of the Cataclysm, some things are starting to feel like they are becoming settled and stable. Luckily for us, restoration shaman seem to be pretty settled, with maybe a little minor tweaking necessary before the full release. Today I'd like to talk about some of the numbers you can expect to see when you hit level 85. I'm talking about the base mana costs, stat values you will need to know and to start talking a little bit about the coefficient of healing spells you can expect come Cataclysm.
The Daily Quest: Preparation
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Final push time! Patch 4.0.1 is fast approaching, we have a release date for Cataclysm, and the world is about to change forever. Here are a few posts from around the blogosphere about preparation -- quests, mobs and guilds. Let's take a look! Yelling On The Internet takes a look at the guild side of preparing for Cataclysm. The blog Glimpses of Azeroth has a bunch of really great posts about the rare spawns of old-world Azeroth. An Eternal Odyssey has been covering quests you should do before Cataclysm, including Only One May Rise, the quest for the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Patch 4.0.1 introduces reforging into the game
One of the features that is in patch 4.0.1 is the new reforging feature. This allows you to adjust armor, weapons and trinkets to better line up with the stats you need. The whole concept essentially allows more gear to be used instead of disenchanted. It also allows you to game your stats a little bit more by turning an item that would be providing way too much hit rating into something that provided some hit rating and critical strike rating. There are a few restrictions: You can only change secondary stats (hit, crit, haste, mana regen, dodge, etc.). Only one stat may be changed. You can't change one stat into a different stat the item already has. You can't alter how much of the stat to change; it's always 40 percent(ish) of the original amount. The item must have an item level of at least 200 (level 80 epics or higher). Otherwise, the price of reforging is the same as the sell price of the item. You can always restore an item back to its original stats for free if you decide you don't like the new setup. This allows you to try out different setups (paying the full reforge cost each time) until you find the right fit. Where can you find these reforging guys? They are usually found in major cities near the enchanting trainers. If you can't find them, be sure to ask a guard, who'll point you in the right direction. All in all, the reforging system is pretty simple and provides the opportunity for us to start trying out the new mastery stat without waiting for Cataclysm itself to be released. If you'd like to take a look at how this works, here's a gallery walking you the process through step by step. %Gallery-104732%
Totem Talk: Cataclysm and patch 4.0.1 restoration questions answered
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast. Even with an official release date finally announced for Cataclysm, we still have a beta going on in full swing and changes still happening, as is evident in the release of beta build 13117. There is still plenty to talk about and, most likely, still quite a bit that will change between now and when Deathwing breaks through The Maelstrom. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how our healing will change when the pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 goes live, and last week, I talked to you about my first impressions about healing in heroics and dungeons in Cataclysm. Those posts generated quite a few questions. So as I like to do every so often, I'd like to take a minute or two to answer some of the more common questions I've been asked through email, comments and various other sources.
The Queue: We killed Malygos edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. Hello there, friends. Mathew here, filling in for another exciting episode of The Queue. Did you know that we totally killed Malygos? He's dead. First, we punched Sapphiron in the face for a key to the Eye of Eternity. Then, we marched over to Coldarra and made our way up the spire. After that, Malygos attacked while my buddies and I stood around in zappy pools of power and blasted the aspect of magic. After some disc surfing and cowering under magic domes, Malygos redecorated the floor and, with the help of annoyingly hard-to-control red drakes and a bunch of idiots who can't press 1-1-1-3-1-1-1-3-1-1-1-3 and maybe the shield button, Malygos died. Dead. Forever? Who knows? Right now, though, Malygos is dead. Questions? loreaddict asked: Malygos is dead for real?
Cataclysm Beta: Arena Season 9 available for testing
Bashiok has just posted that the Cataclysm beta is now host to Arena Season 9. The developers are looking to test arena games and the bugs therein, as well as the much-lauded rated battlegrounds. Fire up those betas for some awesome PvP action. Bashiok -- Arena Season 9 Available for Testing Arena Season 9 is now running and available for testing in the Cataclysm beta. To help facilitate testing we'd like to ask that those interested in providing bug reports and feedback focus on playing arena games, but also participating in the rated battlegrounds. Please let us know if you find any issues or have any feedback. Thanks. source
