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The Queue: All aboard the knuckle train to Fist Planet
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. I really hope the rest of you guys caught the Adventure Time marathon on Cartoon Network yesterday, too. There is no better time than Adventure Time. Darasen asked: Do items like Mithril Spurs and Carrot on a Stick make a worgen's running wild ability move faster (where level-appropriate, of course)? If so, am I the only one that finds the idea of kicking yourself to go faster or dangling a carrot in front of yourself humorous? I'm not sure mount speed enchantments or items even exist anymore, especially the Carrot; but if they do, yes, they would affect Running Wild. Crusader Aura does.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Arms and the 4.0.6 patch notes
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. Last week, we saw patch notes for the PTR and patch 4.0.6. Since then, we've seen updates to these notes. These updates mean that some of the things we talked about no longer apply. And then they went and updated them again. It would be fair to say I kind of groaned when I saw Blizzard do this, knowing I'd most likely have to basically spend another week talking about the notes. I was especially annoyed because I finally have my tank set to the point where I can tank in a raid or a heroic without feeling painfully undergeared, and I've gotten my DPS up to where I think it should be at the current gear level and talent spec design. In general, I think warriors are almost where they should be right now. We may be slightly weaker than I'd like as tanks, and arms is frankly pretty bad as a DPS spec right now. It's still good for PvP, although that's mostly due to its ability to chain stuns, which it will be losing somewhat in 4.0.6. With Slam still not scaling at all with haste, arms is going to need flat-out DPS increases to go along with the nerfs it's taking. Fury will probably be all right -- not the absolute top DPS, even among hybrids, but it will deliver in fights where melee is unduly punished for being melee. So let's go take a look at the cards we're going to be dealt in patch 4.0.6 as of the most recent update. If I had to sum up the entirety of the remainder of this post, it would be, "Okay, but why not buff arms for PvE?"
Arcane Brilliance: News and notes for mages from PTR patch 4.0.6
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, a magical journey awaits ... a fantastic voyage through a mystical realm. I speak, of course, of the Public Test Realm, and the wondrous patch notes that dwell therein. Now before we begin, I should make it clear that mages aren't getting anything even remotely earth-shattering in patch 4.0.6. It's not like Blizzard is letting us autofire while moving or anything. But a patch is still a patch. Things are going to change, and though mages have been left largely un-fiddled-around-with (at least in comparison to many other classes), we do have some incoming alterations to be aware of. So with our expectations in an appropriately subdued state, let's peek beyond the jump for an annotated look at what be happening, yo.
Patch 4.0.6 PTR: New restoration shaman spell animations
With all the changes up on the latest build of the PTR, something that wasn't documented is happening, and it is pretty awesome. Restoration shaman spells are now getting a different animation. Until now, our casting animation was very similar to that of druids. Green energy would glow around our hands and small leaves would form within that power. While it was nature-related, it wasn't very shaman-esque. A healing shaman's element has always been water, and now our spells are accompanied by that very element. Gone are the leaves and green; instead, our hands our now encapsulated in glowing blue orbs of water as we bargain with the element to heal our allies wounds. When Greater Healing Wave lands on a target, it has a water splash animation very similar to Riptide, and for now, Healing Surge and Healing Wave have had their leaves replaced with sprite-like things that fly up in a circle around the target. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if Healing Surge and Healing Wave get similar animations on target to Greater Healing Wave. I don't think anyone quite expected an update like this, but it certainly a welcome one. It gives us just a little bit more of a unique flair and really fits our style of healing. It also shows that even now, Blizzard is looking at all of those little things that make the game so awesome, like cool casting animations. What do you think? 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: Nothing
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. You people. I link you one of the year's best screenplays, and you spend four pages of comments talking about how Facebook is evil. All I did was link you a cool thing! So today I'm not even doing that. Today you get ... Nothing. Aerowannabe asked: Does anyone remember the devs talking about updating the professions at low level in order to make them more viable? I'm not expecting crafting gear to be better than dungeon stuff or anything, but it would be nice if there at least some things they could craft that help leveling. I'm not really sure what you mean -- craftable stuff at low level is still pretty good, from the blacksmithing armor with +hit on it to jewelcrafting pieces that have no real competition for several early level brackets.
Shifting Perspectives: PTR 4.0.6, balance and you
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids.This week, I'm going picture hunting. If you happened to send any in last week, chances are I didn't get them. Our emails over here recently changed, and I can now be reached at tyler@wowinsider.com. So send your pics! Okay, okay, so I know that I had originally promised to start doing the raiding guide this week, and I was so totally going to do that, but the information that's currently up on the latest PTR is just too juicy to pass up. Like the mythical GC pony, the raid guide will come next week, I promise. The PTR doesn't hold a lot of information for balance druids overall, but what it does hold is amazingly amazing. (Props to those who know where that one comes from.) There are a few nerfs, and they come in areas where we really needed buffs instead, but there are quite a number of buffs out there as well that can certainly whet the palate. There are also some important profession and general changes that will help everyone, including balance druids. I'm normally not a fan of huge balancing patches such as these that come out so soon after an expansion is released -- rage, what good was beta, and all that -- but at least we are finally getting these changes now. And what changes are those? Oh, why, I'm so glad that you asked.
Lord of His Pack live at Blizzard's community site
Do you like worgen? Sure, we all do! Well, I do, anyway. And if you liked the Gilneas starting zone and wanted to get to know more about the origins of the place and its independent-minded king, Genn Greymane, Blizzard has you covered. James Waugh's Lord of His Pack is all about the king himself, his relationships with allies and adversaries like Darius Crowley, and how they made the trip across the ocean to Darnassus following their flight from their homeland. The past and the present are both explored, and a fuller picture of the Gilneas that was and the Greymane that is come to light. Go check it out now.
The Queue: Know what's better than a million dollars?
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. That's right: the entire screenplay for The Social Network for free. A perfect companion to the DVD or Blu-ray that I hope you're planning on buying/watching. BlindWorg asked: So, when the next tier of raiding is launched, how it affects what gear we can by with justice/valor points? Will it be like Wrath that we can buy the the items that cost valor points now with justice points when it happens or how does it happen? In 4.1: JP items from 4.0 will still cost JP. VP items from 4.0 will cost JP instead. Items new to 4.1 will cost VP.
Guild experience changes in patch 4.0.6
The latest round of patch notes from the PTR have some interesting new information in the form of guild improvements. While running 5-mans with guild groups has always given guild experience, these changes seem to be focused on improving the rewards from doing so. Zarhym We have redefined the definition of a Guild Group for 5-player dungeons. If 3 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 50% of the normal rate. If 4 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 100% of the normal rate. If 5 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 125% of the normal rate. Also note that Heroic dungeons offer a 1.5x multiplier on all guild experience earned. source Right now, in order to count as a guild group, four out of the five party members of that team must be from your guild. With these changes, a guild will be able to take three members along and still qualify for guild experience, albeit at a slower rate. What does this mean? Mainly that smaller guilds have more of a chance to reach that experience cap that larger guilds have been hitting without fail every day. The experience gain is only 50% of the normal rate, but at least doing dungeons with your guild members in smaller numbers will actually mean something. On the other end of the spectrum, if all five players in a dungeon run are from the same guild, that group now earns a staggering 125% guild experience. Why the change? It seems as though Blizzard is trying to encourage people to group with their guild members, by offering more incentives for doing so. This is all well and good, but if more guilds are running dungeon groups, this means less people using the dungeon finder and longer queue times for those who have to wait. We'll have to wait and see what the results from these changes look like once the patch hits live. 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.
Ghostcrawler responds to heroic dungeon difficulty complaints
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street posted an entry on his blog yesterday called "Wow, Dungeons are Hard!" It's a rather lengthy (but worthwhile) read about the current state of Cataclysm heroics, Blizzard's philosophy on designing them, his impressions on their current difficulty level, and some advice for improving your performance. Like I said, it's an epic post, and we won't reprint the whole thing here. This, however, is the key takeaway: Wow, Dungeons are Hard! The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They're only going to get easier from here on out. We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. And by extension, we want you to celebrate when you win instead of it being a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, we don't want you to stumble your way to victory. We don't want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they're doing. We don't want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot. Ultimately, we don't want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize. source All that being said, though, is Blizzard really satisfied with its dungeon designs and their current level of difficulty? Hard heroics are indeed hard, but the updated PTR patch notes for 4.0.6 (which went live just yesterday at almost the exact same time Ghostcrawler was discussing heroics) indicate that a series of nerfs is coming our way. That will no doubt lead to player rejoicing, but remember -- heroics are naturally getting easier as people get more familiar with them and players continue to compile better gear, which makes completion even easier still.
Cataclysm sells 4.7 million copies in one month
Proving that Deathwing wrecking up the joint can actually be a good thing, this recent press release from Blizzard shows us that after an initial burst of 3.3 million, Cataclysm went on to sell another 1.4 million copies over the next month. Blizzard Entertainment Press Releases "We created thousands of new quests, introduced new lands to explore, and extensively revamped the game world for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, making it our biggest and most ambitious expansion yet," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We've been floored by the community's response so far, and we'd like to thank them for their continued passion and support for World of Warcraft, and for helping Cataclysm reach this incredible milestone." source This pretty much cements Cataclysm's position as a huge seller for Blizzard and brings this expansion up above Wrath of the Lich King, the previous best seller. It's unlikely that anyone is exactly surprised by this news, but it bodes well for the game and its current success. 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: Those were $500 sunglasses
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. I can't really think of any reason why you wouldn't be watching Mortal Kombat on Netflix Instant right now, like I am. Not a single one. cjivan asked: I've been soloing heroic UP on my hunter for the Blue Proto Drake lately, and today I noticed something odd. I got honor points for killing Skadi. Is this a bug or intended? Your faction controlled Wintergrasp, which made bosses drop Stone Keeper's Shards back in Wrath. Since that currency no longer exists, honor points are rewarded in its place.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Testing 4.0.6 PTR changes
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. If you're wondering where your heroic dungeon gear guide is, it's been eaten by the PTR. Frankly, I've been running heroics as DPS and as a tank for about a week straight now, and I'm kind of bleary-eyed anyway, so looking at something aside from a long list of gear might just be the way to go. Above, you may see my draenei warrior just after successfully getting his hands on a new offhand weapon and zoning out of Grim Batol, whereupon Deathwing immediately set him on fire. I mean, I wasn't even done loading yet. Or you may see me, this morning, waking up to the news of the patch notes for the PTR. Take your pick, I suppose. In an expansion that has already proven to be significantly melee-unfriendly (to put it mildly), today's notes make me a touch cranky. Some I understood the reasoning on; others I expected -- but they still didn't do much to make me feel like Cataclysm is going to stop dumping its particular form of love down on melee classes any time soon. So let's take a look at the coal Father Blizzmas is putting in our stockings, shall we? (Hey, I still have a tree up in my living room.)
The Queue: Dances with cats
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. I don't know about the rest of you nerds, but I had every Calvin and Hobbes book when I was a kid, and I was pumped as heck to get the hardcover box set. You know, the one that weighs like 50 pounds. Necrosaro asked: So I was wandering through Ghostlands yesterday, and I was wondering, why can't I fly there? Did Blizzard redesign all of the old world except for the old-world BC areas? Being forced to ride at 100% speed is really annoying. Ghostlands is technically part of the Outland map set (530, where Kalimdor is 0 and Eastern Kingdoms is 1), along with the other BC starting areas. It just doesn't appear that any BC content was touched, probably due to time constraints. Silvermoon City and the Exodar likely weren't meant to be flown in or around, though I can't speak for Blizzard.
The sudden yet inevitable betrayal of gaming immersion
Warning: This post contains spoilers and Firefly references. There's this quest in Loch Modan. To make a long story short, the gnolls and murlocs seem to be making a peace treaty. In the very least, they're making some kind of deal to lay down some awfulness on the Alliance. They are the Axis of Awful, after all. When things get to this point, there's nothing else for an adventurer to do but dress up like a shrub, take a bottle of scent pheromones, and sneak out to sabotage the meeting. But that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is what the Mosshide gnoll screams when you lay the whammy on him. "AAAAAAGH!" the gnoll yells. "CURSE YOUR SUDDEN YET INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!" Rumors have it that in beta, the murloc responded, "Mine is an evil mrglglglglglglglglglg. Now DIE!" Of course, this is a reference to the old Firefly series, which has many devoted followers among all kinds of geeks and gamers. On one hand, I totally love the reference. My wife and I giggled and laughed and loved the shout-out to one of our favorite television series. On the other side of the coin, I can see the argument that pop culture references like this can take a player "out of the game." It disrupts immersion and adds silliness to an escapist hobby that some people take very, very seriously. What about you? Where do you fall in that argument?
The Queue: CSI Theramore
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. Seriously. All I see in this image is Jaina going, "ENHANCE. ENHANCE. ENHANCE." Daynthebold asked: Does gemming and enchanting your gear affect the dungeon finder's ilevel check? Or is it just the basic ilevel of the untouched item? Gemming and enchanting have no effect on your item levels, so they don't affect your dungeon finder average either.
Patch 4.0.6 PTR: New DPS meta-gems and requirement fixes
Good news for people who've been sick to death of Cataclysm's terrible meta-gem requirements (read: everyone): Blizzard has made its promised changes to Chaotic and Relentless gem types in patch 4.0.6, making both require three red gems. But that's not all! There are also three brand new meta-gems coming with the new patch, giving DPS classes a boost to their main stat and 3% increased crit damage. Good changes all around. The full text of the announcement is below. Check out the full 4.0.6 PTR patch notes (so far) here. Jewelcrafting Meta gems with the Chaotic and Relentless prefixes now have a requirement of 3 red gems. New meta gems have been added: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond (Agility/3% critical damage), Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond (Strength/3% critical damage), and Burning Shadowspirit Diamond (Intellect/3% critical damage). These new recipes are unbound and can drop from any Cataclysm creature. The new meta gems have a requirement of 3 red gems equipped. 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 4.1: What we know so far
Patch 4.1, the first major content patch of Cataclysm's life cycle, has been mentioned a few times lately here on WoW Insider, sparked by Alex Afrasiabi's commentary narrating a zone overview for G4. Since then, many players have asked the question: What is actually in patch 4.1? What do we know about it? Do we know anything? We don't know everything that will be contained in patch 4.1, but between BlizzCon and more recent information, Blizzard has already outlined a number of the major features from the patch. Let's take a look at those features, shall we?
Patch 4.0.6: Bloodlust's arena nerf
The first round of patch notes for patch 4.0.6 went up on the PTR today, and among them is a long-anticipated change to arena: Official patch 4.0.6 patch notes Bloodlust, Heroism, Time Warp and Ancient Hysteria can no longer be cast while in Arenas. source To some players (mainly my fellow shaman), this change has been viewed as a huge nerf. Bloodlust has long been one of the main assets a shaman brings to an arena team. Ever since Season 1, shaman have been able to cite Bloodlust / Heroism as one of the main reasons they were allowed to PvP at a competitive level. However, Bloodlust has been both a blessing and a curse for shaman. In nearly every season of Wrath of the Lich King, one of the most frequently cited complaints by enhancement shaman in arena was that Bloodlust was the only reason they were on the team. Beast cleave and enh/arms/holy paladin were both comps that relied on the shaman to Bloodlust so that their arena partners could dish out the major damage. Elemental and restoration shaman fared better towards the tail end of the expansion, but there still was an overall feeling that the strongest contribution to the team a shaman could offer was its Heroism cooldown.
Cataclysm hotfixes for Jan. 5
Community Manager Zarhym has documented and posted another list of hotfixes this evening. While there are still a number of changes to the open world, attention has been turned to the high-end raids and raid bosses of the current tier, such as Cho'gall and the Bastion of Twilight. Some examples of the overall changes: Heroic Deadmines now has significantly fewer trash mobs. Ramkahen now has a functional mailbox. What can King Phaoris do for you? The number of guard spawns in Tol Barad has been increased for both Horde and Alliance base camps, with guards now surrounding the edges of each camp. Both Alliance and Horde guards use all abilities that the Furious Hyjal Warden uses and will attack with ranged abilities when unable to find a path or at a distance. Guards are also immune to taunt effects. In addition, Hellscream and Baradin Guards now respawn more quickly. You can find the full list of hotfixes behind the cut below.