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Patch 4.2 Firelands and daily quests preview up now
If you've been waiting for Patch 4.2 preview videos, Blizzard has you covered. Yes, the official site has video trailers previewing not only the Firelands raid, but also what we're going to be doing for our daily quests to restore the former glory of Mount Hyjal after the eruption of the fire elementals and their lord Ragnaros onto its slopes. So far, I see a whole lot of magma- and fire-based things to kill, some chaotic-looking mechanics, and Fandral "I am so on fire" Staghelm seems to make an appearance near the end with fire scorpion and firecat forms. After the break, you can watch the Daily Quest preview movie. It shows a bit of the natural world reclaimed but in general is mostly some kicking vistas. Looks like 4.2 is going to be a rather incendiary one for Cataclysm.
Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered
Ask the Devs, Blizzard's developer community question and answer feature, continues with round 5, an in-depth look at achievements detailing the difficulty of changing achievement, making certain rewards account-wide, and whether removed content is ever going to be a part of the game again. Check out the full question and answer session after the break. Quote: Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide? – Larosh (Europe [German]), Eneia & Payasos (Europe [Spanish]), Rageudder & Kellgros (Europe [English]), ??????? (Europe [Russian]), Nyn (North America/ANZ), ?????? (Korea) A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we're having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features. source
Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor questions answered
Ask the Devs, the ongoing, in-depth Q&A series focusing on specific aspects of World of Warcraft, continues with round 4 answers to your questions about weapons and armor. As in the past, the devs hand picked user questions and gave detailed answers, shedding new light on some of the design intricacies that go into creating the World of Warcraft. There are some interesting questions this time around, as always, and even some more interesting answers. Highlights include the need for more armor models, a cool idea about buying quartermaster outfits, the drop rate of the legendary shards for 10- and 25-man raiding, and an interesting fix to prevent players rolling need on items in the random dungeon finder only to throw them up on the auction house. The full Q&A is after the jump.
Patch 4.1: Even more new archaeology items
The last build rolled out on the patch 4.1 PTR introduced some cool new items, but Blizzard wasn't done there. The build rolled out today included even more! These items include: Pterrordax Hatchling Voodoo Figurine Extinct Turtle Shell Technically, the turtle shell was in the last build, but we misinterpreted the item when we saw it on Wowhead. Our initial guess was that it would be a drop in Firelands due to a display bug giving it the heroic label, and we assumed its itemization was unfinished. However, we eventually came to the conclusion that it's extremely likely that the shield is actually an archaeology award -- it's bind on account. It will lose its current heroic label between now and when the patch launches. These items are continuing Blizzard's effort to populate neglected research types. Trolls needed a little more love beyond the endless journey to find Zin'rokh, and fossils needed even more love. An epic shield, another pet, and the other additions from previous builds will go a long way toward making fossil dig sites less ... painful. WoW Patch 4.1 is on the PTR and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from previews of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
Patch 4.1 will not contain Firelands raid content
According to a statement from Blizzard on Eurogamer, patch 4.1 will not contain Firelands and the associated raid content. Lead producer J. Allen Brack cited the fact that players hadn't sufficiently progressed through the current tier of raid content as the reason for this decision. Eurogamer provides the quote: "We feel like the player base isn't really ready for the next raid yet," [Brack] said. "And that led to some changes where Firelands is now actually going to be in 4.2." This is a step toward much smaller (and faster) content patches, much as we had back in vanilla WoW. Blizzard could release a small set of features far more rapidly than the current "monolithic" patches. Firelands and its associated raid content will now be included in patch 4.2. Patch 4.1 will entirely focus on the return of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub. [via Eurogamer]
Patch 4.1 PTR: Trinkets of tier 12
Blizzard seems to be putting a lot of thought into trinkets this expansion. In Wrath of the Lich King, it was a struggle to get your hands on a pair of good, strong trinkets. In Cataclysm, while perhaps not every trinket is strong for every class (I'm looking at you, Fury of Angerforge), there does seem to be a whole lot more of them. The data for a whole slew of new trinkets in patch 4.1 is already in the game, with the heroic versions clocking in at ilevel 391. The full list of trinkets is behind the break below (and it's quite a list), but I wanted to highlight a couple of them, as they have some fairly unique mechanics. Note that the numbers I cite below are from the heroic versions of the trinkets. Stay of Execution In addition to an impressive amount of dodge, this trinket has an on-use effect. "Absorbs up to 29125 damage for 30 sec, but once the absorb expires, you take 20% of the damage absorbed every 3 sec for 12 sec." Assuming you use the entire absorption bubble, that's 5,825 damage every 3 seconds. In most situations, that certainly makes that damage spike much more manageable. Of course, use it at the wrong time and you end up with a DoT ticking away as soon as a boss's enrage kicks in. Hungerer In addition to a glob of agility, "When using an ability causes your Energy or Focus to fall below 20% of your maximum, you will gain 1730 haste rating for 15 sec. This cannot occur more often than once per minute." Except in situations where you're pooling Energy or Focus to apply a debuff or interrupt a spell, all classes that can use this trinket bottom out their resources rather frequently. The cooldown will determine the trinket's power and not the actual mechanic of the trinket's proc, but on the surface it seems much more interesting. Time (and theorycrafting) will tell if it actually proves useful, though. There are, of course, a lot of your typical procs and stacking stat trinkets (which many people prefer) mixed in with this batch, but it's nice to see cool new mechanics as well. Once again, the full list of new trinkets is behind the cut below.
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.
Know Your Lore: Fandral, Feralas, and the struggle of the Green Dragonflight
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. In the sunken city, he lays dreaming ... The drowned god's heart is black ice ... At the bottom of the ocean even light must die ... Do you dream while you sleep or is it an escape from the horrors of reality? -- The Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron We've discussed the Green Dragonflight before, from the history and background of the flight itself to the events that occurred during the Nightmare War. But the activities of the green flight continue in Cataclysm, both in the northern reaches of Hyjal and elsewhere around the world. Despite the victory at the end of Stormrage, the troubles of the Green Dragonflight are far from over, and the threat of the Emerald Nightmare still looms.
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?
BlizzCon 2010: Patch 4.1 Firelands raid and Abyssal Maw dungeon
The Dungeons and Raids panel is now in Q&A mode, and Cory Stockton (lead content designer) gave us a lot of new information concerning what to expect when patch 4.1 goes live. I've assembled everything we know below: Firelands raid This is the elemental plane of fire and an outdoor raid located in Mount Hyjal. You'll be able to mount up and run around. The final boss will be Ragnaros, and you'll fight him in a building called Sulfuron Keep. Sulfuron Keep looks very similar to the building you'll see when you fly into Hyjal for the first time (and may in fact be the same one). The Firelands raid will provide more backstory and lore on Ragnaros' presence in Azeroth. I thought I heard that he won't be moved out of Molten Core (he'll be in both raids simultaneously) but I'm not 100 percent sure. Expect 7 bosses. The Abyssal Maw The elemental plane of water. A new 5-man in Vashj'ir thematically similar to the 5-mans shipping with Cataclysm. "Oh, and it's nothing Oculus." Players will be moving around a lot in the dungeon and they're doing their best to avoid the "Oculus effect" of quirky mechanics being unintentionally annoying. The entire dungeon will be underwater. They've overhauled underwater combat and you can fight normally if you're on the floor. Most of these mechanics are already in place in the beta Vashj'ir zone, so some players will already be familiar with it. They're planning on four or five bosses. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
