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The Shattering plot summary: Thrall
Christie Golden's The Shattering, followup to The New York Times best-selling Arthas, is thankfully just as good (if not better) than its predecessor. We've given you a spoiler-free review, and now it's time to dive into the meat and potatoes, the spoilery goodness contained within the crunchy hardcover shell. The Shattering covers a lot of ground, but you should know ahead of time that the main players in this story are orcs, tauren, humans and dwarves. The other races are mentioned only in passing or have very minor roles, but that's OK. There's a lot here to love, and we finally have clarification on some rumors that we've heard second- and third-hand for a year now. Rather than going in full chronological order, I've instead divided the summary by character, so you can follow each of their particular storylines. Today's summary is for Thrall. Remember, this summary is full of spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want the book spoiled!
WoW Insider reviews The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm by Christie Golden
The Warcraft universe has incredibly rich lore supporting it, and it's natural that, like many IPs, it would expand outside of the game world. Warcraft novels have historically been hit or miss, largely due to the strengths and weaknesses of the various commissioned authors who write them. Some novels feature out-of-place characters invented by the author specifically for those particular stories; some struggle with the characterization of beloved characters. But there have been some bright spots: Rise of the Horde was a fantastic look into the birth of the Horde on Draenor, and Arthas: Rise of the Lich King provided insight into the man who would become the Lich King. These books have something in common besides their IP: Christie Golden wrote them. In Arthas, she gave Blizzard its first The New York Times-bestselling novel. Now, her latest offering is the Warcraft universe's newest novel, a tie-in to the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. We present to you our review of The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm.
Long, Strange Trip achievement will award Master Flying
The recent changes with Patch 4.0.1 introduced the Master Riding skill, which allows players to purchase 310 percent riding speed for all flying mounts, for a cost. The upsides to this are nice -- instead of mount speed being assigned per mount, mount speed is now being assigned by riding skill, and mounts will go faster according to your riding skill. In other words, all those 60 percent speed ground mounts you have in your bags will now move at 100 percent speed when you learn Journeyman riding at level 40. The downside to this, however, is that achievement drakes have been changed as a result and will no longer fly at 310 percent speed. Instead, they will fly at your highest riding skill level, and you will have to purchase Master Riding to fly faster. This was all well and good for the Ulduar and Icecrown drakes, which will be progressively easier to get as we level to 85 and beyond. But for those people just one or two steps away from completing the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, an achievement that takes a full year to complete regardless of what level you happen to be, this was a crushing blow. Guess what guys? You can breathe a sigh of relief -- it's been fixed! Zarhym I provided an update in the lengthy thread about Master riding, so in case it gets missed I'm throwing it up in its own non-sticky thread for now. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187849344&sid=1&pageNo=28 I have a slight update to spread to the masses. We are going to be adding a hotfix for the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. This hotfix will make it so that obtaining the Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake will award players Master riding. The way in which 310% will be awarded is going to be a little quirky at first, but we plan to make it a more smooth process in a future patch. For now, you will need 280% flying in order to learn to use the Violet Proto-Drake. Once you mount the drake for the first time it will teach Master riding. The only catch is that you have to dismount and mount the drake again in order for 310% speed to take effect. source For those working on the achievement -- don't stop now! Master riding can be yours for free once the achievement is complete! 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.
Cataclysm beta: Raids begin testing on October 17
Endgame raiders, start paying attention -- Daelo, Blizzard's lead encounter designer, has announced that beta raid testing will begin on Oct. 17. It looks like Blizzard wants to test the first raid encounters, Halfus Wyrmbreaker and the Omnitron Defense System, in the Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent respectively. I eagerly anticipate the fight mechanics and abilities of these bosses more than you probably know. Daelo -- Beta Raid Testing Schedule for Oct. 17 We're going to start testing a few raid encounters on all Beta servers this Sunday, October 17 at 13:00 PDT. Two encounters will be tested: Omnitron Defense System in Blackwing Descent Halfus Wyrmbreaker in The Bastion of Twilight Blackwing Descent is a raid zone with an entrance located along the side of Blackrock Mountain. The Bastion of Twilight's entrance is located within Twilight Highlands. Since these are the beta realms, this schedule is subject to change at a moment's notice due to bugs and server issues. More raid tests will be occurring over the next few weeks. source
Patch 4.0.1 goes all Anzu, all the time
You know him, you love him, you previously needed a druid to summon him -- but for right now, Anzu the Raven God seems to be just chilling in heroic Sethekk Halls, waiting for you to go in and kill him for sweet, sweet justice. And a possible mount drop. Oh, who are we kidding, you just want the mount. No longer friends with any druids? No problem! Our own Alex Ziebart, the darkness that dwells in the souls of all, went into heroic Sethekk today and confirmed it. As of right now, Anzu is simply there if you enter the instance on heroic. No need of a druid who has completed or is on the Vanquish the Raven God quest; just walk in and there he is. As of yet, there's no information on the intended nature of this change; it wasn't mentioned in the big mount availability changes post for 4.0.3. As soon as we find out, we'll let you know. 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.
Cataclysm Beta: Death knight, hunter and paladin tier 11 previewed
The fine folks at MMO-Champion once again peel back the layers and show us the future -- at least, the future of what we'll be wearing. While the hunter set is interesting, I'd have to say I actually really like that paladin set, shown above. It's no Judgement, but it's pretty solid nonetheless. They also revealed the death knight tier 11 set earlier, and it's very dramatic looking. The red set is pretty spectacular. (I restrained myself from saying it was hot. You're welcome.) Head on over and take a look. 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.
First Cataclysm cinematic footage in Sunday's NFL commercial
Blizzard has announced that the first Cataclysm commercial will air on Sunday, Oct. 17, during the Dallas Cowboys vs. Minnesota Vikings NFL game. The game kicks off at 4:15 p.m. Eastern, 1:15 p.m. Pacific. This commercial will feature the first look at the cinematic for Cataclysm, just a few days prior to BlizzCon. TiVo Alert: Cataclysm TV Spot Debuts 10/17 This Sunday, during the Dallas Cowboys versus Minnesota Vikings NFL game on Fox (starts at 4:15 PM EDT, 1:15 PM PDT), we are debuting a new television commercial for World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion. The commercial will feature the first look at cinematic footage from Cataclysm, so tune in to an exciting game this Sunday and catch the new commercial! source This is wonderful news, especially for the Cowboys, who are in need of some sort of cataclysm of their own to beat the Vikings. Kaboom. 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 Care and Feeding of Warriors: Too soon?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. Yes, your DPS is too low. Be you arms or fury, yes, absolutely, it is too low. It is not my purpose to dispute this with you or argue with you about it. (I will point out it has already been addressed and you may already see an increase.) Frankly, I fear I have not been contentious enough the past few months. It was hard for me, looking at ICC DPS parses, seeing the highest fury DPS and even seeing my own in those times when I would go off-spec, to worry about fury DPS in 4.0.1. While arms has been low in PvE for quite some time, it was difficult for me to believe that patch 4.0.1 would launch and lower fury DPS so dramatically. I knew that it would lower it. Rage normalization, the loss of the Heroic Strike bug that allowed warriors to get away with so little hit, and the rooting out of armor pen was fated to topple us from our throne and humble us -- there is no disputing this. It was intentional. I could easily have imagined a drop as severe as 80 percent of what warriors were doing in Icecrown in patch 3.3.3 and not have been surprised.
Certain mounts and items no longer available in patch 4.0.3
As promised, Blizzard has provided a list of the mounts and items that will no longer be available as of patch 4.0.3, The Shattering. The brief list is below, followed by the full Blizzard statement after the break. Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashi Raptor are no longer available. Razzashi Hatchling is no longer available. Tome of Polymorph: Turtle will continue to be available through other means. Mounts from Trial of the Crusader will no longer be available. Reins of the Blue Drake will return to their place as a 10-man rare drop from Malygos. The Azure Drake will continue to be available in 25-man mode as normal. Mimiron's Head and Invincible will be rare drops from their respective bosses on hard mode.
Ghostcrawler: Round 1 of patch 4.0.1 class rebalancing implemented
For the record, I did not ask for a pony. When I logged into my account post-4.0.1, though, my cup runneth over with them. Sadly, though, Blizzard is taking all my precious ponies away for redistribution. WoW Insider's own Matt Rossi had a terrific post yesterday about the class balancing issues that we were seeing with patch 4.0.1. Casters like me were experiencing the thrill of god mode, with reports of mages being able to one-shot their opponents. And while we casters were getting sweet, delicious ponies, melee players got a big pile of pony excrement. Arms and fury DPS were down -- way down. So was retribution paladin and kitty DPS. Last night, Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler let us all know that fixes were on the way. Today, he confirmed that fixes were implemented and explained what was done to each affected class to balance them out. The full post explaining who got buffed, who got nerfed and why is available just after the break.
Patch 4.0.1 class balance issues and you
No, it's not just you. The pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 has indeed already begun turning the world upside down. Some caster DPS is far, far higher than it was a week ago, while melee DPS (especially DPSers who made heavy use of armor penetration) have seen significant shortfalls. Tanks are reporting threat issues across the board, as Wrath heroics that they tanked with ludicrous ease a week ago are suddenly providing them with much more difficulty, especially on groups of mobs. It's the pre-expansion shift, and it's wreaking havoc with players who've grown accustomed to how their classes or specs have played since November 2008. You're not alone. To try and put things into a nutshell: With elements of play like the new spirit-to-hit conversion and new talents and abilities, some casters are reporting greatly inflated DPS. Meanwhile, with the loss of stats like armor penetration and tinkering with buffs like Windfury, melee DPS of all stripes are reporting DPS losses. Some classes are reporting as much as a 50 to 60 percent drop. Some of this is probably due to suboptimal gem or gearing options. ArP's switching to crit like it did basically loaded up a lot of people with far more crit than they needed, as one example. Healing is in a weird place. Resto druids miss their forms, and across the board, heals are reported to be slightly less efficient -- but since no one's leveling past 80 yet, rating decay isn't crippling anyone. Tanks are reporting significant issues in trying to tank the current content with the new systems. AoE threat is greatly reduced for just about everyone, and learning new mechanics is causing some difficulty. For instance, if you spam Heroic Strike as a warrior tank now, you're doing it wrong. Armor has decreased in many cases, the loss of defense has cost tanks who relied on that stat some pure avoidance, and in general, the greatly inflated DPS of some casters has made keeping threat off of them extremely brutal. Things are going to be up in the air for the next couple of months, more than likely. If your class got some of the ludicrous buffs, congrats on god mode until Cataclysm. If you instead suffered for the changes, my condolences; I do know how you feel. I really, really do. Whether we'll see adjustments before Cataclysm itself or not is unknown, but unlikely, as the focus right now is most likely on making sure the expansion ships in a more balanced way. This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
The Queue: Patch 4.0.1 bonanza
Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today is our first full day with patch 4.0.1 on live servers. In today's edition of The Queue, we'll be tackling a few frequently asked questions about the patch. Some of them will be aimed at people who haven't been able to log on yet, and some will be aimed at those who have but are still unsure of the answers. Some of the questions were taken from the What is Patch 4.0.1 post yesterday rather than the comments of The Queue. As a warning, most of my answers are very short because that's all that's required. Enjoy! Cortland asked: Is the built-in Power Auras that shows procs around your character in this patch?
Servers are coming up [updated x3]
Update: Servers are coming up as of 5:05 p.m. PT. If yours is not up now, it should be soon. Remember to check out our First Things You Should Do When The Servers Come Up post. Realm maintenance has been extended until 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 5 p.m. PDT according to Blizzard due to unforeseen complications, potentially to fix a good amount of the known issues with patch 4.0.1. While you wait, read up on the patch 4.0.1 changes with our comprehensive roundup, and check out our awesome contests for patch day! Re: Extended Realm Maintenance 10/12/2010 We are in the final stages of completing the maintenance process and will begin bringing realms online shortly. We currently anticipate all realms will be online by 5:00PM PDT and appreciate your continued patience. source This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall events over
Blizzard just ended speculation that the two pre-Cataclysm world events for the gnomes and trolls, Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall respectively, have entered "stage 2" and are no longer available for players to complete. Here is the official blue response: Re: Operation: Gnomeregan Quote: I don't see it in the 4.0.1 patch notes, but it's been in the 4.0.1 PTR. Is the next phase of Operation: Gnomeregan going live today as well? The next phase does start today, but it's a passive phase. There will not be anything for players to do outside of Gnomeregan, or on the Echo Isles, until the new bases of operation for gnomes and trolls are complete, and the new level 1-5 starting experience is added in patch 4.0.3. source If you missed either of these two events, it looks like you're out of luck. As mentioned, the new leveling experiences for trolls and gnomes is coming with patch 4.0.3. This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Patch 4.0.1 gem changes detailed
With the new stat changes from patch 4.0.1, many jewelcrafting gems are changing or being removed entirely. Blizzard has posted a comprehensive, official list of the changes for players, to make the change a little bit easier for all of us. In addition, the stats that are going away have their conversion stats, showing you what to expect when you log on later today. Bashiok -- Gem Changes in 4.0.1 As previously announced, we're changing many of the stats in the game. Some stats are being removed entirely, while others are being redefined. These stat changes will affect gems as well, as we've made a series of basic changes to them, including color changes and stat conversions. Gems are being changed as follows: Color Changes Hit is now blue. This makes blue gems interesting for all specs and classes. Mastery and Dodge are now yellow. This change ensures good yellow gem choices continue to exist for tanking. The addition of Mastery to yellow increases the color's value to all specs. Intellect is now red. Red needs to be a great choice for casters, and a universally good color for all specs. If after the patch you have gems that have changed color, they may no longer match the socket they're in, and the socket bonuses will no longer be applied. Some stats are being converted into others as detailed below: Stat Conversion Attack Power is converted to Agility. Spell Power is converted to Intellect. Mana/5 is converted to Spirit. Defense is converted to Dodge, and sometimes Parry. Armor Penetration is generally converted to Critical Strike. source I love these new gem colors, especially because my main is a tank. Having mastery as a yellow gem and hit as a blue gem make for some very interesting gem builds, especially in response to all the stamina-stacking for tanks that has been going on for the entirety of Wrath of the Lich King. This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Cataclysm: Official reforging preview
Blizzard has just posted its official preview of the new gear customization feature, reforging. Allowing players to decrease secondary stats on an item for something more favorable, reforging gives players more options for items and easier upgrade potential, rather than waiting for their exact pieces of gear to drop. Check out the official preview. Zarhym -- Cataclysm Preview: Reforging Originally a magic brought to the citizens of Azeroth by the Highborne, reforging will provide a new means for players to customize their gear in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. NPCs offering reforging services will be located in all major cities, ready to assist in customizing items by altering the stats they provide. Players can use reforging to modify an item's stat values, or to undo any previous changes and allow different customization choices. Check out the preview now! source %Gallery-104732% This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Known issues with Patch 4.0.1
Before we even begin with the new 4.0.1 content, Blizzard has released a post about the known issues with the newest patch. We are confident that a lot of these issues, mostly tooltip problems or item costs, will be rectified soon. Other than that, enjoy some of the funnier issues, like how the new shaman spell Earthquake is "looking awkward."
Official 4.0.1 patch notes
I hope everyone is having an eventful patch day so far. Here's all of the official patch notes, just posted by Blizzard, to whet your whistle while we wait for the servers to get their spit and polish.
Lichborne: Death knight talents, specs and rotations for patch 4.0.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. By the time you read this, there's a pretty high chance that patch 4.0.1 will be on the live servers. If it's not, it's probably coming next week. Either way, that says to me that it's time to finalize your spec choices and get your rotations figured out. We talked pretty extensively a couple of weeks back about patch 4.0.1 changes in general, but now we'll get down to specifics, going through each tree and checking out some general talent spec and rotation advice to help you start WoW's newest era off on the right foot.
Patch 4.0.1 information roundup
This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into Cataclysm. As you spend the day downloading and entering a whole new game, take the time to check out this round-up for patch 4.0.1 information. The last recorded patch notes can be found here. General updates Arena Season 8 ends due to the balance changes. Your auction house addons will need to be updated Flexible raid locks are live. Guilds are limited to 1,000 members. Guilds will, of course, have other changes that are important for officers to know Currency for gear has undergone significant conversion. Mana regeneration is notably different. You can now use the Return to Graveyard button. There are significant changes to the glyph system. Reforging has been added. The streaming launcher will be active.