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WoW.com's top ten stories of 2009, part 2
In mid-August, Blizzard released patch 3.2.2, which re-introduced Onyxia, the game's first raid, as a special anniversary encounter. Blizzard told us all sorts of stories about how they did it, from the early trepidation (soothed by one of their bosses saying that they'd have "a million subscribers" someday), to the first launch night and the subsequent scrambling for more and more servers to keep players in the game.
WoW.com's top ten stories of 2009, part 3
If you were reading the site earlier this year, you'll remember that our first word about what was in the new expansion came long before BlizzCon did -- multiple leaks, some believable, some not, shaped our idea of what we'd be getting in the game's third add-on. Way back on July 1st, reader Ryan noticed for us that Blizzard had applied for a Cataclysm trademark, and from there, things spiraled out into rumors and speculation. Obviously, Cataclysm will already be one of the biggest stories of 2010, but it took up a lot of 2009 as well.
The Queue: Apology denied
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I thought about starting today off by apologizing for the abomination that was yesterday's image... but what did Mike Sacco think would happen when he asked me to add a picture to the post for him? That's a dangerous thing to ask someone. He brought it on himself, and has nobody else to blame. If the image scarred you for life, it's his fault. Krsnik asked... "What level of gear is recommended to have before attempting to raid ICC 10man? Can I just go from 10 man ToC to 10man ICC or must I first get gear from 10man ToGC? I would really hate to replace my tier gear and since the guild I'm in is just starting 10man ToGC, I know it'll be a while before I can get Tier 9.5 gear."
Tom Chilton on Cataclysm additions and the upcoming world event
Our friends over at WorldofWar.de (who were listening live to the podcast this past weekend) recently got an interview done with Lead Designer Tom Chilton, and you can read it over on their site right now. There's not a lot of news in there (though Chilton does gush over the Dungeon Finder, just as players have for the past week or so), but aside from the usual player housing deny and the old "we don't know what the future holds" back and forth, but there is one fun thing he reminds us of in the second half of the interview: Blizzard is adding on to the old Blackwing Lair instance in Cataclysm. It sounds like kind of what they've done with VoA: Blackrock Caverns, which we heard about at BlizzCon, will be a new area (supposedly level 85 5-man, though Chilton says "lots of bosses") inside Blackrock Mountain that's connected to all of the Black Dragonflight bosses in Blackwing Lair. Finally, Chilton sorta-kinda re-confirms that there will be a new content patch before the expansion -- he says it probably won't be a numbered patch like 3.4 or 3.5, but he says there may be some more class balances in there, new Battle.net features, and possibly even a new raid boss. But mostly it'll just be the patch that brings us all of the world events previous to the Cataclysm shakedown that we'll all go through. Sounds like fun. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Yes, we know some stores have Cataclysm release dates
There's been a lull of Cataclysm info recently, so we're getting repeats tenfold of the kind of emails we used to get before Wrath's official release date was announced -- emails saying that Amazon or Gamestop or other retailers have release dates listed for the new expansion already. Here's the rub. Blizzard hasn't yet divulged a release date for Cataclysm, probably because they have no earthly idea when it's coming out yet. Until they do, any release dates from stores are, at best, speculation or, at worst, outright lies. But why would retailers list a release date for Cataclysm if one doesn't exist yet? Simple: to take your money. Many game retailers (Gamestop especially) stock their stores based solely on preorder numbers, only getting a few extra for the teeming masses that never thought to go to Wal-Mart to get a guaranteed copy without putting money down first. In the meantime, you get to ... not have that money. Not a good deal. Preordering is a process designed to get money from you without getting anything in return for an inordinate amount of time, so wait until Blizzard announces a date before you plunk any of your hard-earned money down. And, again -- we know when the sites say Cataclysm's coming out. You'll know just as soon as we do when it'll actually be available. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Worgen starting zone preview from Scrolls of Lore
In lieu of providing any new information on Cataclysm in the wake of BlizzCon, Blizzard's been showing the goblin and worgen starting zones at a lot of major gaming conventions, which means a good handful of players have had the chance to try them out. Nostra from popular lorecrafting site Scrolls of Lore is one of those handfuls, and they've written up a fantastic walkthrough of the worgen starting zone, starting from your character's royal connections and subsequent infection and culminating in Deathwing's cataclysm. What's not explained (so far, likely because no one's able to get that far yet) are how the night elves play into the whole worgen "thing" as shown in the Cataclysm trailer, but there's still a lot of new information on phasing, quests, and scenery in Gilneas besides what we've already covered, as well as accompanying photos. It's definitely worth a read. Hopefully Blizzard will continue to fill in more blanks in the worgen storyline as we get closer to the expansion's release, or maybe even update the Cataclysm site more than once every four months. In the meantime we can rely on sites like Scrolls of Lore to give us exhaustive previews of public demos like this one. Thanks, Nostra! World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
The Queue: Still wishing for weather
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Please, everyone. We're begging you. Stop asking us Cataclysm questions that we'll need a time machine to answer. We're not in any betas, and if some of us were magically in an alpha, we probably couldn't tell you. We don't know what will happen to your favorite NPC when the world explodes. We don't know how much Loremaster will change. We don't know if Ragnaros procreates with Maiev Shadowsong. We don't know if Deathwing has enslaved a herd of unicorns. Mr Shinra asked... "Where are all battlegrounds supposedly located on the world map? I figure if come cataclysm we have the entire (old) world available for flight then perhaps we might by able to see the (empty/placeholder) battleground locations by flying over? I know the BGs are seperate instances much like a dungeon is, but it would still be kind of cool to be flying from, say Mount Hyjal to Orgimmar and passing over Warsong Gulch."
Potential character model revisions in Cataclysm
WoW's fifth anniversary and the interviews surrounding it have ended up providing us with some previously-unknown tidbits of information -- which is a good thing, especially when it comes to stuff we've been wanting to hear about for a long time. This particular tidbit comes from the Warcry network interview with J. Allen Brack and Samwise Didier about the game's anniversary, and it's about a subject near and dear to our constantly-complaining hearts: new character models. They might even be coming in Cataclysm. Says Brack: "Even though things would be better with new (character) models, we'd probably spark a lot of player outrage. So we've talked about giving players a choice between the classic models or the new ones, but it might not be something we want to take on at the same time as we remake Azeroth." That's pretty big news.
Gilneas flag revealed
Every faction and major city has its own flag and crest, and of course we figured that goblins and worgen would be no exception to this rule come Cataclysm. We haven't seen the goblin one yet, but it looks like Blizzard may have just revealed the worgen flag in promotional materials for their fifth anniversary celebration! As seen in the photo above, featured in Kotaku's 5 Years of WoW article, the flag looks ... a lot like the Quake III logo, upside down. But, of course, it also looks a lot like a clawed hand, which makes sense. And it's also a red and yellow circle on a black background, which is the classic worgen eye color scheme. It's worth noting that this isn't the same design as the Warcraft II Gilneas flag, but that makes sense given how much change the kingdom has experienced. Looks pretty neat. Hopefully we get a full crest like every other faction gets, too. The blood elf and draenei crests were so cool that it'd be a shame if these new races didn't get one. We're counting on you, Samwise. And while we're on the subject, it's just about time for you to update the official Cataclysm site, isn't it, Blizzard? World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
IgroMir 2009: Goblin gameplay footage
More Cataclysm footage is trickling onto the internet from IgroMir 2009, Russia's huge gaming convention, and there was a beautifully clear (well, compared to what we usually see) video of early Goblin gameplay that merited some attention here. I have to confess; I wasn't initially enthusiastic about Blizzard's choice for a new Horde race, even if Goblins do make sense from a lore perspective. But after trawling through so many videos of their early questing experience in the Lost Isles, I'm sold. Female Goblins still aren't playable yet, but their male counterparts have some awesome casting animations and an incredibly endearing sort of waddly run. They just look so interesting and dynamic doing anything that now I'm torn over which class to roll, although I can't really take their 2H special attack seriously, so it'll probably be a caster-class of some sort. I enjoyed Necrolord_Bob's answer to our poll on which Goblin class to roll: "Priest! Priest of the Holy Temple of BOOM!" We didn't think that Blizzard would tolerate any Cataclysm footage floating around YouTube for long, but it looks like the earlier Worgen video we posted is still up. That said, don't bank on these (or the related videos) being around for long. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
IgroMir 2009: Cataclysm panel recaps
I touched on Blizzard's presence at IgroMir 2009, sort of the Russian E3, a bit previously, specifically about J. Allen Brack's panel regarding guild progression and leveling in Cataclysm. Of course, I had to Google-translate the panel from Russian (nyet, I do not know Russian, comrades), and not everything Blizzard-related from the whole convention was in the recaps I read. Thankfully, Blizzard themselves have released their own recaps of the Cataclysm panel. In his talk, Brack discussed rated battlegrounds, Tol Barad (briefly), and guild progression. It turns out that I was pretty thorough in the guild leveling post, but here's the stuff I didn't cover: Rated Battlegrounds will be an alternative way to gain Arena points for those who prefer large-scale PVP. Your personal rating gain for a win will vary depending on the specific Battleground. There'll be featured Battlegrounds each week with bonus rating gain for wins. You will not lose points or rating for a Battleground loss. Arena points can be used to purchase pets, mounts, vanity items, and perhaps best of all, the old honor system PVP titles like Grand Marshal. Tol Barad will provide bonus daily quests and instances for the faction that wins the battle for the zone, somewhat like, as Brack put it, a cross between the Isle of Quel'Danas and Lake Wintergrasp. You can check out our previous IgroMir post here, or read Blizzard's official recap on their IgroMir site. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Worgen /welcome video from IgroMir 2009
So we wanted to be sure that you all got to see this before Blizzard has YouTube pull it. You probably have about 30 minutes at best. So go at it! The video below the break shows some introductory worgen moves from the recent Russian IgroMir 2009 demonstrations Blizzard had setup. Video is typically against the rules at these things, but a leak is a leak, and this should give players a good view of it. Of particular note is the animations at the end of the video. The /welcome animation is a worgen pointing, waving, and then getting down on all fours to sniff the air in-front of him; as if to smell the nether regions of the person being greeted as canines are prone to do. There is some discussion if this it worgen idle animation at the wrong time, or if this is part of the overall /welcome animation sequence. Unforunately we don't know, but we're all having a good laugh over it. And now you can do. The goods after the break, while it still exists.
Return of the Grimtotem
Cocles over at Loregy.com (who I actually got to meet the other day -- good guy, and check out his license plate) has an interesting idea about something he spotted in the information about the Cataclysm zones the other day. Thousand Needles is getting a revamp, including possibly a new instance, and Cocles says that could mean something awesome: the return of the Grimtotem clan (just a warning: there is a more serious spoiler later in that post). I'm in. I love the "dark Tauren," and would love to see more from them. Plus, while we've seen plenty of troll instances, Cocles says we haven't seen a Tauren instance in the game (and all we can think of is good old Mr. Smite). And we haven't really heard from the Grimtotems since that whole issue with the spirit beast taming. It'd be nice to fight some cows for once. There's lots of lore to mine there, too: Magatha is the reigning matriarch of the clan, and not only is she buddies with the Forsaken (obviously there's been something happening with them during Wrath), but she's rivals with Cairne Bloodhoof as well. It would definitely be interesting. Of course, this is all speculation -- we aren't sure that there will even be an instance in Thousand Needles, much less that it'll be Grimtotem based (the whole place is getting flooded, so anything could happen -- maybe the Naga will get a "fin-hold" there). But the idea of taking on the Grimtotem again seems like fun.
Cataclysm: "Almost all items are going to have to change."
So, wait a minute. If Strength on leather gear is going away in Cataclysm, how are feral druid tanks going to be itemized? Ghostcrawler's got it handled. We talked about druids in bear form also getting AP from strength. Strength won't appear on leather and no piece should have Str and Agi together, so it's not like they would really double dip. That lets us still have tanking necks, rings and cloaks with strength on them that are attractive to all 4 tanking classes. Ghostcrawler, you machine, you. First you tell us that all of these stats are just plain goin' away in Cataclysm, and now you give us specifics? Such an industrious crab. But how is this change going to be carried out? Turns out he's got something to say about that, too.
Breakfast Topic: What class is your goblin going to be?
Yesterday's Breakfast Topic asked about the new Alliance race, but today we're here to ask about the prodigal Hordies, Cataclysm's newest Horde race, the goblins. The announcement of the race was a bit of a surprise, but one that made a lot of sense upon further examination. I wasn't at all excited for goblins at first, but the more I look at 'em, the more I kinda like 'em -- especially all of the cute hairstyles that the women get. So, I know that I'll be rolling at least one goblin. I'm thinking a warlock and ... I have no idea. I'm running out of classes I don't already have an 80 of. But it might be fun to faction change one of my existing 80s to a goblin too. They'd be my first high-level Horde character! I never fell prey to infectious rerollbelfatosis. So what about you guys? Excited to blaze new trails and be Kalimdor pioneers with your little green man (or woman)? What are you going to roll? Does your goblin have a backstory you're building? Let us know in the comments and in the poll below! %Poll-36723% World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Breakfast Topic: What class is your worgen going to be?
Cataclysm's coming, but thankfully you appear to have a bit of time left in Wrath's lifespan to decide how you're gonna tackle the expansion first. Me, I haven't decided yet. I want to level my shaman to 85 first -- maybe even go for realm first shaman/draenei if I've got the time and inclination -- or go for broke and level the hell out of a worgen in New Azeroth. I know for a fact that I'll be rolling at least one worgen. My class selection's probably going to be a male worgen fury warrior, for the "hell yes" factor, and a female worgen frost mage because it appears they'll be tall, svelte things. And yes, I plan to roll a goblin too. So what about you guys? Excited to blaze new trails and be Eastern Kingdom pioneers with your wolfman (or -woman)? What are you going to roll? Does your worgen have a backstory you're building? Let us know in the comments and in the poll below! %Poll-36721% World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Unofficial Cataclysm Alpha/Beta FAQ
From what we've seen, WoW: Cataclysm is pretty far along in development. Blizzard had a lot to say -- and show -- of the game's third expansion at BlizzCon, and every new bit of info we've been able to wrangle since then tells us that the game is chugging towards the fabled Friends & Family Alpha, full steam ahead. We don't have a solid date, and likely won't until it happens, but it's coming. Now, when the Alpha starts, Blizzard tends to keep a tight lid on information coming out of it -- even the testing period's very existence -- by judicious use of NDAs and cease-and-desist orders. It's possible that we won't even be able to give you information that comes out of the alpha. But all of that goes away when the closed beta starts and everybody can't talk about it enough. So, what happens if you happen to come upon an alpha or beta invite? Well, there's a few things you should know. The first -- is that you're a lucky duck. The rest -- we've assembled in this handy guide, readable in its entirety after the jump.
The WoW comic leading into Cataclysm (spoilers)
The Wrath storyline factored heavily into the official WoW comics, albeit slightly late, and continues to do so with the release of the upcoming Thassarian manga. And now it looks like it's headed on a collision course with the storyline to Cataclysm! Ogre-turned-Liefeldian-monstrosity Cho'gall recites a prophecy in the latest issue related heavily to the Old Gods, Mary Sue shamagadin Med'an, and the Elemental Planes. BlizzPlanet has a pretty good writeup of what the prophecy could mean and its consequences down the road, but I'll give you a brief summary here, too. Of course, I'll toss it after the jump for those inclined to avoid spoilers. Ready?
Cataclysm: The exhaustive list of old-world changes (so far)
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is coming. Sometime. We're at that point now where BlizzCon has been over for a few months and Blizzard is being pretty stingy with new information in the meantime. It's a definite dry spell, but the same thing happened with Wrath -- and then the Friends and Family Alpha began, and all bets were off. And while the F&F Alpha for Cataclysm hasn't started yet (believe me, we'd know), that doesn't mean you can't stay informed. There've been bits and pieces of new info released, in PC Gamer magazine, on Twitter, and elsewhere on the internet. And we like to keep track of that! What's come out is mostly new information on what's going to happen to Azeroth. And we just recently decoded this planning map of Cataclysm zones, which is where some information comes from. So what this article is meant to be is a compendium of all known changes to old-world zones that'll occur in Cataclysm, sorted by continent and zone. We'll update whenever new information is released. Hit the jump to get caught up! Disclaimer: Some information may be outdated or incorrect by this stage in Cataclysm's development!
IgroMir 2009: More Cataclysm guild leveling details
IgroMir is Russia's largest gaming convention -- sort of an Eastern European Electronic Entertainment Expo (E5?) -- and Blizzard made an appearance there this week, showing off World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Starcraft II. Besides the demo booths, visitors could look forward to panels with J. Allen Brack (the current WoW head honcho) and Chris Sigaty (SC2 grand poobah), trivia contests with the Russian Blizzard CMs, and goblin/worgen leveling contests. But, of course, here at WoW.com we're mostly interested in Cataclysm news, so let's get right to it, shall we? In his Cataclysm panel, Brack touched on two subjects -- Tol Barad, the new outdoor PVP zone/quest hub, and the new guild leveling system. The Tol Barad talk was apparently nothing new, but the guild leveling talk had some good information in it. Not everything discussed here is new, but some of it is, so I'll just reiterate what he said. After the jump, of course.
