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Arcane Brilliance: Gearing a mage for Cataclysm heroics
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. Come for the mage talk; stay for the warlock-bashing. So you have a mage. After literally days of grinding out experience points, your mage has dinged 85. Re-energized after the climb from 80, you allocate that final talent point, rush off to the mage trainer to learn Time Warp, and then open the dungeon finder tool, ready to leap feet-first into your first Cataclysm heroic. Visions of vast piles of justice points dance in your head as you click the button to queue yourself ... but what's this? Your average gear level needs to be ilvl329 to queue for a heroic? And your gear level is well below that? Bewildered, you pore over your character sheet, noticing with some dismay that you're still using that wand you found off a crab in Vashj'ir on the first day of the expansion, and you somehow never replaced that off-hand from PvP Season 8 in the last five levels. What to do? Those of us who are used to having the gearing process spoon-fed to us by the past year or so of the Wrath endgame progression are likely in for a bit of a shock. Plentiful and easy-to-obtain purples like those offered in normal 5-man instances like Trial of the Champion and the Icecrown instances are nowhere to be found here. There's no short-cut. This is the beginning of the endgame, and baby steps are still required. Past the break, we'll dive headlong into the various options available to us at this very early stage in the expansion. Gearing up in Cataclysm is gradual, challenging, and rewarding. We'd better get started.
The Queue: There was a title here. It's gone now.
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. Answering reader questions, flailing wildly with a plank. Just another day at the office. Kyle asked: I'm considering leveling my shaman from 80 to 85 first. Which of the two new starting zones (Hyjal or Vashj'ir) provide the best lore experience for a shaman, or at least the most rep with the Earthen Ring? There's no real shaman content in Hyjal; it's all druids all the time there. Vashj'ir, on the other hand, has you interacting and working with the Earthen Ring for pretty much any non-"Bring us food, it's cold and wet down here" quests.
Cataclysm 10-day trial edition announced
If somehow you managed to avoid buying Cataclysm (perhaps you were shielded behind thick lead plates in a secret bunker), then know that nowhere is safe, for Blizzard has announced a 10-day trial edition of the fastest-selling World of Warcraft expansion to date. You somehow believed that you were impervious from your Cone of Ultimate Seclusion, but know you now that nowhere, no matter how remote, can save you from the Cataclysm. Seriously, though, how have you managed to not buy this expansion yet? This trial edition requires Wrath of the Lich King be installed to play, and you have a current subscription or ever have had one to Wrath of the Lich King. This 10-day trial has access to all the content but can't level past 80 (the FAQ specifically states "any characters you play during the trial can only advance up to one experience point below level 81," so if you want to go to Deepholm, Uldum or Twilight Highlands, you'll either need to buy the retail release or, in the case of zones that can be flown to, accept dying a lot. Seems like an interesting way for the six people in the whole known universe who are on the fence to make up their minds, right? Go read the FAQ and decide if it's for you. 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: What do you mean there's an octopus on my face?
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 was mostly comments on Adam's treatise, so there wasn't a lot of Queue-worthy material in there. Sorry. The quest giver told me he had put something on my head to show to L'ghorek, but I didn't notice anything different. And speaking of Vashj'ir ... Shulkman asked: I read in a blue post about six months ago that there was supposed to be a special "underwater food" for questing in Vashj'ir. (Also, something special for the mages, food wise.) Whatever happened to that? Blizzard took the far, far superior route of letting you eat or drink whatever you want in Vashj'ir, as long you're not swimming. You can consume nutriment at your leisure while sitting on the ocean floor or any horizontal surface.
Cataclysm hotfixes for Dec. 16
Another day, another round of hotfixes. Once again, today's hotfixes are aimed primarily at class and dungeon balance, turning some knobs one way and some the other. Some examples: Halls of Origination The damage of Fireballs automatically cast by Temple Fireshaper with Molten Barrier active has been adjusted in normal and heroic difficulty. The Stonecore The Crystal Shards creatures in the Corborus encounter are now level 86, down from 88. Shaman The Mana Tide Totem hotfix from yesterday has been reverted. The Mana Tide buff no longer stacks, as this had a major impact on encounter design. The full list of hotfixes is behind the cut below.
Archaeology grants group-wide buffs in Cataclysm 5-man dungeons
Archaeologists have the ability to give a group-wide dungeon buff to all their party members upon entering Cataclysm's 5-man dungeons. Each buff is gained through a repeatable quest during which the appropriately leveled archaeologist turns in a specific keystone to activate the zone-wide buffs. The specific turn-in locations are near the beginning of each dungeon. Here are a list of the buffs available: Blackrock Caverns Dark Iron Contingency Plan: Reduces elemental damage done to you by 5 percent; requires a Dwarf Rune Stone. Throne of the Tides Waters of Elune: 10 percent bonus damage against Naga; requires a Highborne Scroll. Stonecore Might of the Earthen: Reduces physical damage taken by 5 percent; requires Dwarf Rune Stone. Grim Batol Vengeance of the Wildhammer: 5 percent damage increase; requires Dwarf Rune Stone. Vortex Pinnacle Whispers of the Djinn: Heals your wounds and replenishes mana slowly; requires Tol'vir Hieroglyphic. Lost City of the Tol'vir Tol'vir Secrets: 10 percent bonus damage against the Neferset; requires Tol'vir Hieroglypic. Halls of Origination Map of the Architects: Increases movement speed; requires Tol'vir Hieroglyphic. Thanks, Uriah! 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.
Cataclysm hotfixes for Dec. 15
This is getting to be a little bit of a habit, isn't it? We've got another round of hotfixes today, though it's a relatively short list compared to what we've seen over the past few days. The changes were pushed live and published to the official World of Warcraft blog. The majority of today's changes seem to be addressing dungeons and raids, including the following: Argaloth in Baradin Hold now respects the faction that kills him and does not drop trinkets for the opposing faction. In the Lost City of the Tol'vir, Frenzied Crocolisks should always despawn when Lockmaw resets. In Shadowfang Keep, troll druids in particular, when shapeshifting into Cat/Bear form, were dealing an extra 5 percent damage to themselves via Beast Slaying when afflicted by Barion Ashbury's Asphyxiate. This caused them to die instead of being taken down to 1 health. This has been corrected, and Asphyxiate now properly ignores damage modifiers. Take a look after the break for the full list of changes.
Interact with target keybind gets you past players atop NPCs
Have you been frustrated with all of the dragons and mammoths sitting atop your vendors and quest NPCs? If you're like every other WoW player in history, the answer to that question is yes. It happens in every content patch and in every expansion. Every crucial NPC is completely obscured. Luckily, back in patch 3.1, Blizzard added the ability to set an "Interact With Target" keybind, which few players seem to know about. To set this keybind, bring up World of Warcraft's main Options menu (hitting Escape will bring it up), go to the Key Bindings menu, scroll down to Targeting Functions, and you should be able to find the option easily. You can also set an Interact With Mouseover key bind if you so choose. If you've never customized your key bindings before, be careful about the key you choose to bind to these functions. You don't want to overwrite other crucial keybinds accidentally. Once your Interact With Target key is set, you no longer need to worry about crowds or mammoths. Just /target who you want to interact with and hit the appropriate key. It will bring up the dialogue prompt, and you're set. 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 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 hotfixes for Dec. 14
Once again, Blizzard has applied another round of hotfixes addressing several issues with quests, classes, and flying mounts. The changes were pushed live and published to the official World of Warcraft blog. While not quite as much of a novel as yesterday's list of fixes, there are still a lot of changes that ought to make players a bit more happy in this post-Shattering world, including the following: Master Riding now properly grant players 310 percent flight speed in Eastern Kingdoms with X-53 Touring Rocket, Celestial Steed, Headless Horseman's Mount, X-51 Nether-Rocket, X-51 Nether-Rocket X-TREME, and Invincible. The dungeon finder random bracket for Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns has been changed from level 80-81 to 80-82, and the specific bracket has been changed from level 80-83 to 80-85. The respawn rates for all Horde and Alliance cooking daily quest objectives in Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been increased. The Alchemy mount Vial of the Sands is no longer bind on pickup. Check out the full list of changes after the break.
Archaeology receives stealth buff
Yesterday saw a slew of hotfixes, but it appears that today's maintenance has added a stealth buff to archaeology. Previously, all surveys in an area were only allowing three fragments per successful survey, making the archaeology grind a little long. Today, it appears that surveying an area is allowing anywhere from three to six fragments per survey, a substantial buff for those trying to complete artifacts at a speedy pace. While there has been no official blue post regarding the change, it has been verified in game. For more information about the archaeology profession and how to get started, check out our Archaeology 101 video, courtesy of Robin Torres. [Thanks wowdigsite.com!] 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 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.
PvP Season 9 has begun!
Polish your shields and sharpen your swords, because Season 9 of World of Warcraft PvP has begun! New vendors are available for the new sets of PvP gear in the capital cities, and the new Cataclysm rated battlegrounds are now available! Check out the full blog post at the World of Warcraft community site. Zarhym The first PvP season of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is underway! Players are now able to compete in level-85 Rated Arenas for top gear, items, and titles -- and for the first time ever, they can enter level-85 Rated Battlegrounds to fight for the same rewards available through Arenas, along with the original World of Warcraft PvP titles. Players can also participate in unranked War Games, skirmishes that allow Battleground and Arena teams to hone their skills against opponents of their choosing -- even if they're in the same faction. So prepare yourselves, aspiring Grand Marshals and High Warlords, as the struggle between the Horde and the Alliance is about to get bloodier. 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 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.
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman guide to Cataclysm reputation gear
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast Last week, we consolidated the expansion's changes for restoration shaman in a Cataclysm 101 post -- just the basics there, nothing too fancy quite yet. This week, I fully intended to begin writing restoration guides for the various 5-man dungeons and heroics, but instead, I'd like to take some time and talk about gearing up before you even set foot in dungeons at level 85. Over the last week, I've received a massive influx of email asking about what gear is available through questing and through the various factions. While it is very true that you can receive quite a bit of gear from questing, the reputation rewards are quite stellar. You will gain a sizeable chunk of reputation simply from leveling to 85, so let's see what gear you can pick up along the way. For today, we'll keep Mail Specialization in mind and stick with the mail gear, rings and trinkets available from the various factions.
Cataclysm hotfixes for Dec. 13
Another day, another round of hotfixes for Cataclysm deployed and published to the official World of Warcraft blog. Today's round of fixes is just as lengthy if not longer than the last few we've seen posted. Along with a few class changes, there are a metric ton of tweaks to quests in several zones, including the following: In Vash'jir, NPCs on The Verne and the Pincer X2 will no longer despawn or behave oddly while players are completing the quest Full Circle. In Twilight Highlands during the quest Aiming High, the Flintlocke's Explosives can now be used anywhere on the Skyshredder. Those exploring in Deepholm should be happy to hear that players should no longer be repeatedly consumed by the very mean Colossal Gyreworm. Follow through the break for the full list of hotfixes.
Sexual dimorphism in Cataclysm
Three years ago, I read this article by Annalee Newitz on sexual dimorphism in WoW, promptly filing it away in my head as one of those interesting quirks about the game and games in general. What really struck me at the time were the alpha pictures of trolls and tauren. While I like the current tauren female model, I'm not terribly enamored of troll ladies, if only because 95 percent of them (not an actual statistic) seem to choose the same blandly "pretty" face. Alpha troll women seemed to share a lot more of the troll male's features, with more pronounced tusks, sharper profiles and more of a hunch like the men. In general, I found these alpha models fascinating. Also interesting to note was that this trend goes both ways: when blood elves debuted, the males were much closer to the females and were beefed up in The Burning Crusade beta. As Annalee Newitz pointed out, the other race that debuted in BC, the draenei, are extremely dimorphic; males are bigger and more massively muscular than orcs, while their females are far less mesomorphic. What interested me, at least so far as the tauren and troll model changes went, is that players complained that the tauren and troll women weren't to their liking, which most likely had an influence on the design of draenei and blood elves. Now, with Cataclysm, we have two new races to consider. How do the worgen and goblins stack up on the dimorphism scale?
New war games mode for arenas and battlegrounds
If you've ever wanted to have a friendly match strictly for bragging rights, try out a new prospective arena or BG-mate before committing, or just practice some strategies, then war games are for you. Instead of accidentally almost starting a nuclear firestorm by playing games with a computer, you'll be skirmishing against other players in the World of Warcraft. Bashiok - War Games: Battleground and Arena Skirmishes Q: What's a War Game? A: A War Game is an unranked match in which one group of players challenges another group to an Arena or Battleground skirmish in a setting of their choosing. You will be able to initiate a War Game by using the /wargame or /wg command, as explained below. source While these matches are not for points, they can allow you to do fun things like challenge a rival guild to an Alterac Valley free-for-all, set up some arena runs to iron out the kinks in your group composition without losing rating, or set up an in-realm tournament on your own time. All war games must be between players on the same realm, but combatants can be from the same or different faction. We used to set up complicated free for alls in the Gurubashi Arena in guild for fun nights, this seems like a good way to extend that tradition. Go check out the complete FAQ and see if it's for you.
Cataclysm is the fastest-selling PC game "of all time"
The first reports are in on Cataclysm sales, and the expansion appears to be doing quite well. In the first 24 hours of the game's release, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sold 3.3 million copies (compared to Wrath of the Lich King's 2.8 million). This is only a good thing for Azeroth, as it's seeing this expansion be even bigger than the last -- and for a six-year-old game that's three expansions in ... that could be unprecedented. The main part of the press release below, and the full release after the break. Blizzard PR PARIS, France. -- December 13, 2010 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, the third expansion for the critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), sold through more than 3.3 million copies as of its first 24 hours of release*, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This milestone eclipses the previous record of more than 2.8 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in November 2008 by Blizzard's second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King®. source
The Queue: From the photo album
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 pulled out the oldest screenshot I could find in my Screenshots folder. Unfortunately, I switched computers right before BC launched, so all of my vanilla screenshots are gone. You guys should post the oldest screenshot you can find in the comments. Though I'm not going to force you! Or am I? Revynn asked: Am I wrong to be annoyed that guilds are already 11/12 while most of us are still trying to get to 85? It's somewhat expected for guilds like Paragon to steamroll content, but they've barely had time to run heroics. Doesn't that say something about the difficulty level of Cataclysm raids? Yeah, you're wrong. Sorry, but the fact is that not only were these raids open for a month or more on the beta, we're also dealing with guilds we know are the best of the best of the best. Some of them are even sponsored. Being at the bleeding edge is just what they do. Most guilds will take months before they even clear the first tier of raiding. Who cares if someone does it faster? The speed that you experience the game is what matters here.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Cataclysm gear guide -- factions
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. Well, what do they say about plans and contact with the enemy? This week, I'd fully intended to write a Cataclysm 101 guide for prot warriors, but then Cataclysm actually happened and I immediately spent the time as fury. Since I'm going to start working on leveling my prot warrior soon as I get the fury to 85 (which I should have done by the time you read this) the protection 101 will be next week. This week, as I've been flitting around trying to decide which factions to grind rep with for which rewards, I've decided to share all that musing with you. Also I've been kind of running around like a chicken going 'woah' a lot, but you probably didn't need to know that. Yes, I was in the beta. I was in the beta on a four year old computer. Playing the expansion on a new machine has even my jaded warrior heart all aflutter. So far, I've kept my T10 pieces for the 2 set bonuses, which are boring but compelling (the two piece is now just all physical damage increased by 5%, while the four piece is all damage, period) but with Deepholm gear dropping I expect I'll be dumping set fairly soon. I've more or less replaced almost all my non set gear with blues and greens. So here's a sampling of the factions I'm looking at and the gear and arcanums they offer.
The Queue: Heroic as heck
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'm ready for heroics. Are you? Astalnar asked: Is there any chance worgen will get a unique DPS form (wolf instead of cat), same way as trolls got bat instead of bird? Worgen already have a unique model for cat form, the same way trolls do. Worgen also got a unique flight form. If you're asking if Blizzard is going to scrap the unique cat form model they already gave worgen in favor of something else, the answer is assuredly no.
Arcane Brilliance: Cataclysm 101 for mages level 81 to 85
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, Arcane Brilliance tears itself away from flying circles around Azeroth going "ooh," "ah," and "holy crap is that the sarlac pit?" to deliver you a brief leveling guide. If you happen to be a mage and you happen to be between the levels of 80 and 85 (or someday hope to be in that level range), and you hate warlocks with a passion that borders on religious fervor, you've stopped at the right place. Seriously, you should know that it's physically painful for me to not be playing Cataclysm right now. I hope you people appreciate my sacrifice. There are flagged warlocks right this very moment on my server questing in Vashj'ir that are not being killed, and it hurts my heart to think of it. To make up for lost time, I demand that each of you slaughter at least one warlock when next you log in. It's the least I could ask. So, I assume that those of you who have a mage as your main are well on your way to level 85, if you haven't gotten there already. Those of you who have a mage alt or are still leveling a lowbie mage may not have even started on this portion of the mage leveling game yet. Whatever the number next to your mage's name, at some point or another, you may find yourself in the market for a mage 81-85 leveling guide. Good news, everyone! This is that leveling guide. Also, I just managed to use "mage" in a sentence 72 times. Let's begin, shall we?