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Arcane Brilliance: Fire mage Cataclysm talent analysis
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we take a hard look at the new fire tree in Cataclysm and beyond. Well, not really beyond; I'm not sure how we'd even do that. The next three weeks will find Arcane Brilliance looking in depth at each of the mage talent trees, with all of the associated bits and bobs. Because it's very likely the most popular of the three specs right now, we'll begin with the fire tree. Or will we? Yes ... yes, we will. I'm sorry, I just got done watching Inception for the first time (I know, I'm slow), and I'm pretty sure none of this is real and all of it is a dream. A dream where I get to write a weekly column about mages and set fire to warlocks over and over without repercussion. And you guys are all in my dream with me! Frankly, I never want to wake up. The fire tree, in my opinion, is a model of good design. From top to bottom, the talents play off of each other, working together in creative ways that just make the tree fun both in theory and in practice. It's not without its problems, but the issues are comparatively minor. We'll mention some of them, but only in the interest of full disclosure. For the most part, the fire tree seems to be an example of Blizzard's getting it right.
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 4.0.1 stat weights and gemming for mages
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're discussing stats and gemming. As you all know, the most important stat for mages (once you've hit the whine cap) is pew-pew -- which you'll want to stack at all costs -- but as far as secondary stats go, you should be reforging everything into QQ. In our ongoing coverage of all the crazy crap you need to worry about after patch 4.0.1 dropped a crazy crap-bomb on our class (and, to be fair, every other class also), we've discussed talent builds, spell rotations, glyphs, and of course, the fact that most of the glyphs currently in the game are wrong. But one thing we haven't yet covered is all those numbers next to your character sheet. You know the ones I'm talking about: defense, dodge, expertise, and the most important of all, RBIs. Which one is the most important to get? And which is best for warlock-slaying? I'm joking, of course. Employing comedy to deflect your attention from the fact that I'm not wearing any pants, and also from the fact that I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about. But good news! Nobody else does, either. When it comes to stat weights in this uncertain, pre-Cataclysm world, we're all still figuring it out on the fly, really. It's actually kind of fun to go to the official forums and see violent disagreements between people who are equally ignorant of their subject matter. It's like watching any Fox News panel of "experts" argue about the evils of video gaming. Mass Effect is hardcore cyber-porn! Medal of Honor trains terrorists! Plants vs. Zombies encourages plant-on-zombie violence!Frankly, that last one is true. Also, I made it up. Just like a lot of people on the forums are essentially making up their stat weight and gemming strategies right now -- because to put it as simply as I know how: We just don't know yet. Nobody does. Even the evil geniuses over at Elitist Jerks are still sorting this mess out. And they're evil geniuses.
Guest Post: What will be Patch 4.0.1's legacy?
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. As the dust begins to settle in the wake of the great patch-aclysm of 2010, it's time to look back with a little perspective and see exactly what we've been left with. The most immediately visible effects revolve around the drastic changes to many of our favorite classes, but frankly, a bit too much hubbub has been made over these already. The WoW community is -- to put it delicately -- a rather passionate bunch, so we tend to react strongly to the need to relearn our classes. Realistically, though, it's just a matter of figuring out which playstyles suit us the most, adapting to them and hoping we don't lose any friends and guildies as casualties of evolution. Damage numbers are also relatively meaningless at this stage in the game. While we're sure to see some frustratingly unviable specs in Cataclysm like we have in the past (*cough* PvE subtlety), for the most part, the developers can tweak code through patches and hotfixes to ensure that we all eventually see appropriately-sized numbers flashing before our eyes. Since the order of buttons we press to succeed is in a constant state of flux anyway, we'll eventually forget that X skill or Y talent even existed. But some things will stick with us longer. I believe Patch 4.0.1's legacy depends more on permanent game changes that we'll one day take for granted.
Addon Spotlight: 4.0.1 UI improvements
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, we discuss some of the UI changes in Patch 4.0.1. Did you all have a fun time watching the BlizzCon coverage over the weekend? Exciting times, yes? Surprisingly, there was a pretty big user interface announcement amidst the hectic lore discussions, log-in screens and worgen cinematics. We'll get to that in time, of course. Patch 4.0.1 brought some awesome new features to World of Warcraft that many people have emailed me asking about. What's the deal with built-in Power Auras? Have you seen the new raid UI and raid frames? Was there something about Atlasloot? All of these things will get answered today, as we take a look at some of the new stock addon and UI features in the WoW stock user interface. I'll even give my own little review of things. Sound good? It better, because this ship is setting sail right ... now.
Arcane Brilliance: Random postpatchery
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, Arcane Brilliance brings you a random collection of thoughts, impressions, half-baked ideas, and unprovoked hatred for warlocks spawned in the wake of the single most significant patch in the history of WoW. But then again ... except for the patch part, that pretty much describes every Arcane Brilliance, right? I thought I'd throw that picture of the tier 11 mage set up there to start the article because it looks so awesome. Someone in the comments section last week suggested I spend an entire column waxing poetic about how cool our tier 11 looks, and I want you to know that I gave the idea serious consideration. Could I come up with a thousand words on one set of gear? Yes, yes I could. Would it be worth reading? No, probably not. But did I want to do it anyway? Yes, yes I did. Let's leave it at this: I really, really want to put that flaming skull mask on my mage's face, and I don't care how many warlocks raid bosses I have to kill to make that happen. So now that the insanity of patch week has come and gone, how are you coping? Got your mage's specs all sorted out? Comfortable with your new spell rotation yet? Updated all your addons? Disconnected a few dozen times trying to summon the Headless Horseman? If you're still looking for a bit of help, check out last week's column on mage specs, glyphs, and spell rotations for a basic primer. This week, I figure I'd just spend the column going over a bunch of stuff I ran out of room to mention last week, along with a few new things that have occurred to me during this week's play.
Gold Capped: Manage your crafting with a queuing addon
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house, and Insider Trader, which is all about professions. For the inside line on crafting for disenchanting, transmutation, cross-faction arbitrage and more, check in here every Thursday, and email Basil with your comments, questions or hate mail! If you are a crafter and you sell your items on the AH, chances are you've realized exactly how much time crafting can take. Obviously, a portion of the total crafting time is going to be spent actually crafting; however, not all of it is. A large portion of your time might be spend poring over the AH searching for prices on your finished goods and taking notes, as well as buying materials from the AH and vendors. There are addon solutions to this, and we're going to talk about a way to address the biggest time sinks involved in crafting: queuing and price management.
Arcane Brilliance: Getting your mage up and running in 4.0.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. Except for last week, when Arcane Brilliance was unable to sit upright, formulate a complete thought, or control the vast majority of its bodily functions. Some of you speculated that the reason I didn't write an Arcane Brilliance last week was that I was busy slaying warlocks. I regret to report that this was not the case, though the desire was certainly there. The sad fact of the matter is that I was out last week with what I believe was a case of what 14th-century Europeans called "The Plague." I woke up on Tuesday morning with a headache, which soon progressed to waves of nausea, racking coughs and severe congestion, and by Thursday, I was shambling through the streets at night in search of brains. Thankfully, I seem to have made a full recovery, though I still crave brains. I'll let you know how that goes. While I was indisposed, it seems a patch of some significance has dropped. Then we got nerfed or something? All I know is that I logged in on Tuesday night and my fire mage was doing a buttload of DPS, and then I logged in again two days later and he was doing maybe one-and-a-half cheeks' worth of a buttload. It was super fun. So, massive buffs followed by massive nerfs aside, we should probably talk a little bit about this whole patch thing. By now, I assume most of you have already respecced your mages, for better or for worse. Even still, I feel like a 4.0.1 primer is in order. Click the link below and you'll find a basic starter guide for getting your mage back on his feet after all this craziness. This week we'll cover specs, general rotations and glyphs.
Raid Rx: Post-patch healing thoughts
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community. That was one thorough beating I took on that last raid night. Raiding on patch day is one thing. Healing on patch day is something else entirely. There are so many factors and variables that cause troubling issues. I don't even know where to begin. If you're having difficulties healing your raid, you can rest assured it probably isn't your fault. Well, maybe not entirely. I'd chalk it up to stuff like: learning the new skills and abilities other classes learning their new skills and abilities awesome bugs in Icecrown Citadel performance issues like lag lack of familiar addons Anyway, the rest of the column is devoted to my healing experience. It might be skewed, wrong, incorrect, outdated or something. But it is straight from my perspective and I'm hoping your experience has been different than mine. I'm also hoping to find out what is working for healers and what isn't. Perhaps there are some group tactics that have yet to occur to me.
The Light and How to Swing It: Ret rotation and cooldowns in 4.0.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Please send screenshots as well as any comments to my email at gregg@wow.com. A couple of weeks back, I covered the basics of things that changed for retribution paladins. At the time, I was putting off any information about rotations, because our class has drastically changed and I wasn't sure if there were any more changes coming down along the lines. Now, 4.0.1 is here and locked in. I'll be honest. Some of you might not like the direction the class has taken. I do ask you all to at least give it a try for a week before getting upset. A lot of classes have been revamped and I expect a lot of class-swapping before the expansion. However, those of you who are looking at these changes and drooling should find much more depth to the class.
Patch 4.0.1 adds new guild UI features
Blizzard has graciously provided a primer on how the guild UI has changed with the advent of patch 4.0.1. We've got the TL;DR for you below, and the full blue post is after the break. You can now view the profession recipes possessed by all guild members, and they're both searchable and sortable. Guild news such as achievements earned, epics found or items crafted is now published in the guild news feed. Guild events can be scheduled through the UI now, much like normal events. The UI for guild ranks and permissions has been streamlined and improved. You can now make certain guild ranks require a Battle.net authenticator!
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%
Extended realm maintenance for Tuesday, October 12th; Patch 4.0.1 likely
I shook my Imp in a Ball and asked if the pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 would be dropping on Tuesday and he said, "Yes, but if anyone asks ... It wasn't me who told you." Then Blizzard representative Rishgur announced on the forums that we would be having extended maintenance from midnight until noon on Tuesday, Oct. 12. Coincidence? I think not. It's so blatant that even Kaylee Switchgear, our maintenance graphic gnome, thinks we're having a patch. Could some random bug crop up between now and then to crush the hopes and dreams of those of us preparing for a 4.0.1 Tuesday? Sure, but that could happen with just about any patch. What we do know is that realms will be down for 12 hours and Cataclysm is only a month and a half away. Be sure to tune into WoW Insider during the downtime to brush up on your 4.0.1 patch information and all of the class-revamping, reforging, prime-glyphing, guild-member-capping, Azeroth-shattering information. Rishgur We will be performing extended maintenance on Tuesday, October 12th. Maintenance will begin at 12:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 12:00 PM PDT. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable. Thank you for your patience. source
Insider Trader: Preparing for patch 4.0.1
Insider Trader is a column about professions, written by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, who also writes Gold Capped. This week, we're talking about some of the things that will shape the lives of professionals and trade skill addicts as they await patch 4.0.1. I've briefly touched on this before, but 4.0.1 is likely to drop on Tuesday, and it's bringing a bunch of changes that will have an effect on your trade skills. While there's been a general drop in demand and prices for the last few months as people generally spend less time playing, this patch promises to change that for a few professions. The first change we should talk about is that glyphs are going to be completely reworked. Any glyphs people use after this patch will be learned permanently, and the glyphs they have in either spec at launch will be already known. This means that for the first few weeks after the patch, players will be buying most of the glyphs they think they might ever need, but only once per character. The last time something like this happened was the introduction of dual specs in patch 3.1 -- there was so much demand that the scribes selling glyphs couldn't keep them in supply.
Gold Capped News: Critical AH addons broken by patch 4.0.1
Welcome to a special edition of Gold Capped. Every week, this column (from Basil "Euripides" Berntsen) aims to educate players about how to make money on the auction house. For the inside line on crafting for disenchanting, transmutation, cross-faction arbitrage and more, check in every Wednesday (or whenever there's breaking news). Also, feel free to email Basil any comments, questions or hate mail! If you were to install the PTR right now and try to post a batch of auctions for sale with your favorite addon, there's a good chance it wouldn't work. Blizzard has changed the way that addons can interact with the auction house so that it's no longer possible to queue up a large volume of auctions and let them post while you read my columns. Both Auctioneer and Quickauctions 3 have been hit hard, obviously. These are the most commonly used addons for queuing up a bunch of auctions. The rule previously seemed to be that we're not allowed to buy in batches, but we are allowed to sell in batches. Well, it looks like Blizzard has decided that we can no longer sell in batches, either. In addition, QA3 has lost its ability to automatically cancel auctions that have been undercut. The new patch requires a hardware event per action, and this has not (at the time of publishing) been written into these addons. So what is a batch? Since you can queue up multiple stacks of the same item using the default UI, that seems to be allowed still. What is no longer allowed is putting together a list of different types of items that you want to sell at the same time. Take heart, dear reader: There is a workaround!
Spiritual Guidance: Preparing disc and holy priests for patch 4.0.1
Every Sunday at WoW Insider, you'll find Spiritual Guidance, a guide to healing as a discipline or holy priest. Priestess Dawn Moore will bring you the latest in news, discussion and advice for priests in the World of Warcraft while simultaneously battling her shadow priest rival, Fox Van Allen. This week, after contracting a team of gnomish engineers, Dawn has gone inside Fox's mind to plant an idea deep in his subconscious. The idea? Healing > DPS. Things are crazy for priests lately. New and dramatically different talent builds are appearing each week like cannonballs, mercilessly destroying everything from the previous week. This week, I was hoping to get everyone ready for the upcoming patch 4.0.1, but that's easier said than done, since build 12984 was just cannibalized by build 13033 on Thursday evening, before mutating into build 13066 on Saturday afternoon. All the same, I'm going to do my best to achieve my original goal James Stewart style, and if this all becomes irrelevant six ways before next Thursday, then it does -- and I hope you'll be patient with me while I reconstruct everything before the next storm. Cutting to the chase, I've got a talent by talent write-up to get everyone caught up on what's possibly going to go live in the next week (or three), some recommendations for talent trees, and details on glyphs.
Arcane Brilliance: What to expect for mages in patch 4.0.1
Each Saturday, your computer is visited by the Arcane Brilliance fairy, a delightful creature that sprinkles your computer with mage dust. All you have to do is leave a warlock corpse under your pillow on Friday night ... Let's do a patch 4.0.1 mad-lib! This patch is a (act of aggression) in the (body part)! (Class developer) has ruined (spec you like). (Changed spell) is a joke, and (new talent) is completely (inappropriate term for the developmentally challenged). I'm rerolling (other class) the second this (derogatory noun) goes live. What the (expletive), Blizzard? Yay, that was fun. But pre-expansion patches always are, am I right? People who haven't played in six months suddenly resubscribe, excited to see the new content. Some players are optimistic, looking forward to new life being breathed into their classes. Others are terrified, convinced the sweeping changes will destroy everything they ever loved about the game. The official forums become a teeming mass of wild speculation, irrational fear and baseless end-times prognostication. And the thing is, nobody's really wrong. Nobody's really right, either, but that's the beauty. Is the end nigh? Absolutely. Is the dawning of a new era of fun upon us? Yes. Are the changes good? Mostly yes, but also sort of no. Bad? Not really, but maybe. Indifferent? Meh. The questions aren't even remotely uniform, and their answers are entirely fluid. Turn off the lights, then start throwing darts, and you'll have an idea of the precision involved here. Still, I'd like to put one very concrete answer out there. The question at the heart of the matter is this: Should I panic? And the answer, as firmly as I can state it: No.
Patch 4.0.1 now available on background downloader
Good news, everyone! If you open up your World of Warcraft launcher, you might notice a line at the bottom that says, "Data for the next patch is available." Yes, it looks like patch 4.0.1 will be coming really soon. It seems like we're getting closer and closer to a release date. It looks like the first stage patch is about 1.58 GB. If you're getting ready for bed, it might not be a bad idea to open the launcher, start the game and close it in order to trigger the background download.
