cataclysm-game
Latest
The bounty of Cataclysm
I wasn't fond of Cataclysm when it launched. Not because of its zones or its story, both of which I probably like more than almost anyone. My major problem on Cataclysm's launch was that I was generally solo, having to use Dungeon Finder for my dungeon runs. The rest of the folks I was guilded with weren't on at the same time I was, and that meant I had to try and tank the new dungeons (with their emphasis on CC that no one wanted to remember how to do) and then the new dungeons on heroic, with all sorts of instant-kill mechanics that were completely avoidable and which no one wanted to avoid. Pugging these dungeons as a tank in groups full of people conditioned by Wrath heroics was like placing my genitalia in a garbage disposal, except you can generally only do that once. I ran these dungeons repeatedly. It was not pleasant. By the time I was geared enough to tank the new raids, I was so bitter and hated Cataclysm as an expansion so much that my friends and colleagues (many of whom were lucky enough to have dedicated groups running these dungeons, not being forced to pug as I was) thought I'd gone frothing, barking-mad insane. I tanked in tier 11, but I had no desire to do so; I merely did it out of obligation. What this meant was that I missed out on getting to enjoy those dungeons. The difficulty of getting groups to avoid Corborus' burrowing, the inevitable fallout of blaming and group disintegration cost me several months when I could have been admiring how well laid-out these dungeons were, looking over their art and enjoying the mechanics on a technical level. There were a lot of cool fights I spent my time gritting my teeth through, a lot of dungeons I endured due to their tuning. It's one of the reasons I like going back and tanking them now.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 25
A new round of hotfixes to patch 4.0.6 were just released over at the official WoW blog. The changes are primarily fixes or nerfs to the heroic Valiona and Theralion encounter in the Bastion of Twilight. A few of the nerfs appear to balance the fight for the heroic 10-man version, while others are all-around nerfs to the damage in the fight. Another change fixes the ressurrection of players in the Twin Peaks and Battle for Gilneas battlegrounds. Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes - February 25 Dungeons & Raids Bastion of Twilight Blackout will no longer hit players sent down to the Twilight Zone by either Valiona or Theralion. Collapsing Twilight Portal should no longer close faster when a person uses it while on Heroic difficulty. It now has a set duration. Devouring flame maximum damage has been reduced. Theralion's damage should now be more consistent with Valiona's on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Blast damage has been reduced on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Protection now lasts 6 seconds, up from 3. Players should now always receive the Twilight Protection buff when entering the Twilight Realm. Twilight Sentries have slightly lower health on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Zone damage has been lowered slightly. Unstable Twilight's search effect has been lowered to a 1-yard radius, down from 2. PvP Players in Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks who are Neutral with the associated factions should no longer experience issues resurrecting at the appropriate graveyards. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 22
We've got a pretty short list of hotfixes for Patch 4.0.6 this morning, courtesy of Community Manager Zarhym. Included are the hunter changes that have been mentioned several times over -- and for the raiders out there, a small adjustment to Throne of the Four Winds: Zarhym Classes Hunters Aimed Shot damage has been decreased to approximately 160% weapon damage (at level 80+), down from 200%. Aspect of the Hawk now provides 2000 attack power at level 85. Dungeons & Raids Throne of the Four Winds The Catch Fall aura is now removed whenever a player leaves the dungeon. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 19
Since the release of Patch 4.0.6, we've had a pretty steady stream of hotfix announcements, each one providing fairly substantial lists of changes over the past several weeks. Today, we've got what is less of a hotfix and more of a little note, courtesy of Community Manager Zarhym: Zarhym Classes Hunters The changes to Aimed Shot and Aspect of the Hawk announced yesterday have not yet been applied to live realms and should not go into effect until after the holiday weekend. source The changes referred to are the two hunter hotfixes from yesterday's list. Aimed Shot damage for hunters will be decreased to approximately 160% weapon damage at level 80+, down from 200%, and Aspect of the Hawk will provide an additional 2,000 attack power for hunters at level 85. These changes will presumably go live after Tuesday's maintenance. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
The Queue: Ragequitter redux
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Yesterday I gave you some advice on how not to get a rematch in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Today, I say to you that I have found the method so effective, so potent, that some players opt to physically turn their system off or unplug their ethernet cable in order to avoid the shame of loss to a dog that barks ice cubes. Saekeion asked: Does the reputation discount with a faction also apply to when you sell items? Do you get more money if you have a higher reputation with that faction? If so, does Goblin's Best Deals Anywhere apply to the amount of money you get for selling an item? Good question, but no, sell prices for items aren't affected by any outside modifiers, including rep. They will always sell for the same amount.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 18
Blizzard's serving up some weekend hotfixes, included the promised dungeon finder changes from earlier this week. Community Manager Zarhym posted the updated list earlier, and along with the dungeon finder tweaks, we've also got a fairly good list of class changes. Keep in mind, while the dungeon finder changes have been implemented, they will take a realm restart in order to take effect. Some highlights: For hunters, Aspect of the Hawk now provides around an additional 2,000 attack power at level 85. For paladins, Light of Dawn no longer heals targets outside the paladin's party or raid. It correctly heals up to five targets in the paladin's raid. For warlocks, instant-cast Shadowbolts from Shadow Trance (both the talent and Glyph of Corruption versions) should no longer consume charges of Backdraft if both procs are available. Follow us after the break for the full list of hotfixes.
Gallywix: Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince live at Blizzard's community site
Trade Prince Gallywix represents the worst of the goblin race. Irrepressibly greedy and always scheming, the conniving racial leader of the Bilgewater Cartel is a sore spot for most goblins out there. This could have something to do with the bit where he tried to sell everyone into slavery when the island of Kezan was destroyed. But hey, when the opportunity arises to make a buck, Gallywix is there to take advantage of it. Live on Blizzard's community site, Gavin Jurgen's Gallywix: Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince is the story of just how Gallywix rose to power, containing a few tips to aspiring Trade Princes out there. Did we say a few? Yeah, right -- as if a Trade Prince is going to give away his secrets that easily. Gallywix is the third installment of the Leaders of the Horde and Alliance series. Unlike the prior two entries, Gallywix offers a more humorous look at what it takes to become a leader -- and a grim glimpse into the seedy underbelly of Kezan. From the slums to the heights of his own Pleasure Palace, Gallywix's rise to power is something that's often bickered about by those that play Horde who feel that Gallywix's time ought to be coming to an end. Judging from this story, that's only going to happen over Gallywix's dead body -- and the bodies of those he takes down with him. Check out the whole story on Blizzard's community site (and while you're there, you can take a peek at the other stories currently available). World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
The anachronistic illogic of battlegrounds
Is there a logic to Azeroth's battlegrounds? I understand that places like Arathi Basin, the Battle for Gilneas, or Twin Peaks have victory conditions that may or may not really have all that much to do with how real wars are waged -- much less Warsong Gulch or Eye of the Storm. (I mean, if you want to contemplate how grabbing a flag and taking it somewhere equates to an epic military triumph, go ahead.) But I'm not specifically talking about the rules of the individual battlegrounds, mind you. Why has there never been a battleground that has been about killing the other side? Just wanton, brutal mass combat between opposing forces? (The answer is probably because it would be terrible.) But when you start to think about what the fighting is even about, it gets even weirder. Yes, that post is really a clever jab at LoS and how it often doesn't work like you'd expect it to (and that's worth considering as well), but really think about some of the battlegrounds we're going to right now in a post-Cataclysm world.
Raid composition and the role gap
I was once in a raid that had two ranged DPSers or ranged DPS/healer-capable players for every melee/tank-capable player. We often had to field raids with three melee DPSers, four tanks, five healers and 13 ranged DPSers. I look back on these days (this was a year ago) with a kind of whimsical despair, longing for their return, as I am now constantly trying to field a 10-man raid with six melee DPSers. Sometimes we have a hunter! I often step out of raids on purpose just to get that hunter in, because the idea of trying to field a six-melee raid force makes me age preternaturally.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 16
Along with a list of hotfixes for the dungeon finder tool and vote kick system, Community Manager Zarhym released an update of hotfixes to other portions of the 4.0.6 patch. While some of these hotfixes go live the moment they're implemented, others will take a realm restart to go into effect. Today's list is just a small handful of class changes, plus one change to Blackwing Descent: Zarhym Classes Druid It is no longer possible for Skull Bash (Bear) to hit two targets at a time. A macro was previously circumventing the intended functionality of this ability. Shaman Purification (Restoration passive) now grants a 25% bonus to healing effects, up from 10%. More information can be found here. Priests In addition to its current effects, the Body and Soul talent now grants 12.5%/25% reduction to the base mana cost of Power Word: Shield. This is not reflected in the tooltip, but is reflected in the amount of mana used when Power Word: Shield is cast by Holy priests who have this talent. The tooltip update will require a client-side patch. Power Word: Shield now costs roughly 34% of base mana, up from 25%. This is not reflected in the tooltip, but is reflected in the amount of mana used when the spell is cast. The tooltip update will require a client-side patch. More information on these changes can be found here. Dungeons & Raids Blackwing Descent Maloriak will no longer cast Flash Freeze on anyone who is tanking Aberrations or anyone who has recently been hit by them. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 15
Another round of hotfixes has been announced this evening. Tonight brings us a few hotfixes to raid content, including every engineer's friend, the Cardboard Assassin. Sorry, my cardboard friend. Your days of tanking Cho'gall are over. Hotfixes for Feb. 15 General The amount of guild reputation and guild experience gained from killing a raid boss has been dramatically increased, as the previous rate felt too low compared to the difficulty of progressing through raid content. This change will require a realm restart to take effect, which will be next Tuesday's weekly scheduled maintenance at the latest. Shield of Velen guards in The Exodar are now consistent with other "royal" city guards in terms of health, level, and damage. Classes Mages Arcane Blast now costs 5% of base mana before stacking modifiers, down from 7%. Dungeons & Raids Baradin Hold Argaloth despawns and resets properly if the raid wipes during Fel Firestorm. Blackwing Descent While flying around the Vault of the Shadowflame, Nefarian no longer forces everyone to stand up if engaged. Throne of the Tides It should no longer be possible to summon a mount in certain areas of this dungeon. Items Shard of Woe (Heroic trinket) now reduces the base mana cost of spells by 205, with the exception of Holy and Nature spells -- the base mana cost of Holy and Nature spells remains reduced by 405 with this trinket. Professions Engineering Target Dummies are no longer able to taunt boss-level creatures. source
Cataclysm hotfixes for Feb. 14
Blizzard has released the newest hotfixes, already on servers now. Hope you all took advantage of Whiptail-a-palooza while you had the chance. Here are your hotfixes for Feb. 14, 2011: General Players who are exalted with 40 factions are again awarded The Exalted title. Note that the associated achievement does not state that this title will be awarded when it's earned. This will be corrected in a future patch. More information can be found here. Classes Druids Starfall will now hit any target in range which is in combat or not at full health (including the Exposed Head of Magmaw, which was causing issues with Starfall). Paladins The hotfix to Beacon of Light and Light of Dawn on February 11 did not produce the intended results and has been reverted. Light of Dawn should still trigger Beacon of Light. Dungeons & Raids Blackwing Descent The Atramedes achievement Silence is Golden was incorrectly failing when any raid member's sound bar went over 30%. The achievement now requires no one's sound bar to go over 50% as advertised. Professions Alchemy The Mysterious Potion was restoring the wrong amount of mana. It now restores 1 to 15,000 mana, instead of 1 to 30,000. Fishing The Bone and Jeweled Fishing Pole quest rewards are now item level 15, down from 200. Herbalism Whiptail was spawning too quickly in Uldum after patch 4.0.6. The spawn time has been reduced. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
The Queue: Voynich bin ein Berliner
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. The Voynich Manuscript is one of my favorite unsolved mysteries of the literary world: a manuscript no one can date in a language no one can decipher about no one knows what. It's a bunch of flowers and women showering. I think it's the equivalent of someone a thousand years from now digging up a D&D Monster Manual: "What does it mean?" If you want to check out the manuscript yourself, head to Yale's online library and type in "Voynich." It's the first result. Jyetie asked: My dad asked my why my character was purple and glowy the other day, so ... Is there any lore-icle reason for Shadowform for priests? Other than looking cool? All priests use aspects of the Forgotten Shadow, sort of the other side of the Light, in practice, but shadow priests are way into it. Priests who are completely at one with the Shadow can (some say) ascend to god-like status, achieving ultimate power and immortality. Shadowform is essentially your character's getting as close to ascension as he can. Commenter "Furry" puts it well: "It's a physical show of how your soul is going to a darker place."
"The Exalted" title requirement change reverted
Tensions on the forums have been pretty high since Blizzard made a change to the achievement that awarded players the title The Exalted without announcing it beforehand. Bashiok hit the forums tonight to address said drama, saying that while the community managers were disappointed that the saga resulted in so many forum code of conduct violations, they did have a long talk with the designers, who agreed to change the achievement back to its original form. In other words, if you qualified for The Exalted before 4.0.6 (40 exalted reputations), you'll soon be awarded your title again. Right now, the devs are unsure as to whether the change can be applied with a hotfix, but they're going to attempt one and see if it sticks. If a patch is necessary, they'll let us know. There's some additional interesting information in the blue post, including the technical reasons why Blizzard couldn't grandfather the title to those who achieved it prior to 4.0.6. Full text is after the cut.
New patch 4.0.6 hotfixes released
Yet another round of hotfixes for Patch 4.0.6 has been released, according to blue poster Zarhym. As with prior hotfixes, some may go live immediately, while others may require server restarts. Regardless, there are plenty of interesting fixes this time around, from class tweaks to adjustments to dungeons and raids. A few highlights: Haste is again properly increasing resource regeneration rates for applicable melee classes. However, this fix will require a realm restart to take effect. For priests, Inner Focus now appropriately increases the critical heal chance of Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing. For those who are wondering where those bouquets of roses went, fear not -- Bouquet of Ebon Roses and Bouquet of Red Roses for the Love Is in the Air event now properly drop from Cataclysm dungeons. Read on for the full list of hotfixes.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 8
Patch 4.0.6 has only been out a day, and we've already got a list of hotfixes. While some have been pushed live, others may required a server restart, so if you don't see the changes go into effect immediately, don't panic! A few highlights from the list: Players who have used the Paid Race Change service to transfer to a goblin or worgen character post-patch 4.0.6 can properly use the dungeon finder again. Thank goodness! Possibly due to the bugs present prior to patching, the Love Is in the Air event has been extended by 48 hours. In Blackwing Descent, Maloriak's Aberrations should correctly spawn even if Vile Swills are still alive from the previous phase. Follow us after the break for a full list of hotfixes.
Patch 4.0.6 bug locks race-changed worgen out of dungeon finder
Patch 4.0.6, like all patches before it, brings surprises as well as the expected changes. Hopefully you leveled your worgen the old-fashioned way. If not, like me, you will be stuck unable to queue for any Cataclysm dungeon. At least right now, it appears that players who race-changed to worgen are experiencing the issue, with no reports of race-changed goblins or characters who were rolled at level 1 worgen or goblins having the issue. The bug locks you out of all dungeons, even ones you've obviously completed. I'm wearing gear from several dungeons I now can't do. Bashiok - Random dungeon: have not completed required quest This appears to be a bug affecting specific characters which is keeping them from being able to queue with a "You have not completed the required quest" error, and we're in the process of investigating. It looks like this may only affect Worgen characters, specifically those that race changed to Worgen before 4.0.6, but we're still investigating. source Well, at least now I can stop worrying about getting my daily valor points. Hopefully, the issue will be ironed out soon, because both of my level 85 worgen warriors are bored as heck right now. Edit: As of 3:57 p.m. EST, this seems to have been hotfixed on at least some servers. I can now queue on both my worgen. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
WoW Insider's guide to patch 4.0.6
World of Warcraft patch 4.0.6 is upon us, and WoW Insider has all the information you need to take advantage of what the patch has to offer. Check out all of our patch 4.0.6 coverage below, organized into sections for ease of reading. Official patch notes Official patch notes released News and discussion Luck of the Draw getting buffed in 4.0.6 Justice point trade good prices 2,200 rating PvP weapons removed temporarily General thoughts on healing in patch 4.0.6 Ghostcrawler on heroic dungeon difficulty PvP The PvP perspective on 4.0.6 Tol Barad changes in 4.0.6
Blood Pact: Beginning The Bastion of Twilight as a warlock
Every week (when the regular warlock writer hasn't been eaten by a prince of hell or something, that is), WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. You might think that the Old Gods and the demons would get along. After all, both really just seem to want to kill everything on the planet. Apparently, you'd be thinking wrong. Strange, I know, but I guess there can be more than one reason to destroy a world, and these two butt heads over who should get to do it. Personally, I'm all for killing both -- well, killing those who refuse to become my slaves, that is. Due to that whole "must destroy the world" shtick, we find now find ourselves face to face with yet another dungeon full of monstrosities to wipe clear. With as many of these cults and beasties as there seem to be, you'd think the races of Azeroth would just stop caring by now. This time, the diabolical threat is Cho'gall, the leader of the Twilight's Hammer, which has come a long way since its original incarnation as a clan of orcs. So far I know, it goes kind of like this: Old Gods want to destroy Azeroth, Deathwing works for the Old Gods, Cho'gall works for Deathwing; ergo, we must kill Cho'gall ... or something like that. It seems a little hokey in my book, but anything with that many eyes around its body cannot be cool and probably needs to die, anyway. So let's get to killin'!
The Queue: Alex won't shut up about his RIFT characters edition
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Alex, shut up about your RIFT characters already. I have had it with you. MusedMoose asked: Has Blizzard given us any information about how the contents of the "Satchel of Helpful Goods" are determined? I ask because my shaman keeps getting Bandit gear -- boosts agility, stamina, and I think hit rating. My shaman is resto, so these items border on useless; I plan to dual-spec to elemental at 30 and said items will still be of little good. I find it odd that I'm being given items that only one of my class's three specs can use. The Satchel of Helpful Goods will give you armor that your class can use, but it won't always be good for your spec. If you always got perfectly itemized gear, then what would be the point in doing more random dungeons?