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Cataclysm Post-Mortem: Hyjal
Alex Ziebart and Mathew McCurley (that's me) decided to give each Cataclysm zone the once-over now that we're many months out from the release of the expansion. In this post-mortem series, we'll examine (in our own opinions and words) what worked and what didn't work in terms of story, quests, and overall feel for the zones and the cool moments that dotted the landscape. Join us for a discussion about Cataclysm's new level 80 to 85 content and what made the cut as the most compelling experiences. Hyjal is home to the majestic world tree Nordrassil, once under siege by the Burning Legion and Archimonde, an eredar leader and lieutenant of Sargeras. In Warcraft III, we vanquished Archimonde at Nordrassil and subsequently went back and ended his campaign in Hyjal through the Caverns of Time. Now, Ragnaros the Firelord has returned to Azeroth with the help of Deathwing and has invaded the sacred mountain with one goal -- destroy the wardens of Hyjal and burn their tree to the ground. Hyjal's story Mathew: I had an odd experience with the story at Hyjal, mostly because at first, I couldn't have given a damn about the druids and the Emerald Dream and all of that. The first time I went through Hyjal, it was a sprint, and I never stopped to smell the roses, since we were racing to 85. It was only after I did Hyjal a second or third time that I truly dug in and found the wonderful story of the zone. Now, I am 100% involved in the Hyjal story and am really excited to see where it's going. Now, the druids are my best friends, and there is nothing I want to do more than help ancients punch fire elementals in their fiery faces.
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 4.2 changes, clarifications and legendary staves
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we discuss the perils of writing about the PTR, which stands for "Public Test Realm." For a very long time, I thought it stood for "Pirate Taco Restaurant," which I thought sounded more fun, frankly. Yes, it's always a good time when I write something and the testing process immediately renders almost every word of it completely moot. Testing is testing, I guess, and absolutely everything that pops up on the PTR at pretty much any stage of the testing cycle is entirely subject to change. So remember what we talked about last week? The whole tier 12 set bonus thing? No longer true. Well, okay, I guess some of it still holds true, but not the really interesting part. Gone is the moving Arcane Missiles. To me, that was the single most significant bonus being offered by the tier 12 set for mages, but it's been removed entirely in the latest PTR build. The other bonuses remain, in slightly altered form, but mobile missiles is apparently out. Still, I'm not perturbed, other than my simmering rage at having a thousand or so of my words -- wrung from my brain only a week prior, sweat out over a hot (or at least lukewarm, perhaps slightly moist) keyboard, painstakingly arranged into mildly pleasing, competently conjugated sentences -- become instantly irrelevant. You see, I actually think this could end up being a good thing for mages, and I promise that in a minute or two I will tell you why I think that, and the answer will not be "because of all that paint I huffed."
Patch 4.2 PTR: Nozdormu's mortal form, new Sulfuras revealed
Nozdormu, the leader of the Bronze Dragonflight and notable absent aspect, finally has a mortal form in preparation for the legendary quest line to forge Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest in the upcoming patch 4.2. Nozdormu's model is based on the blood elf and night elf models with modified tier 6 shoulders and some cool tattoos he probably got during one of his time binges out beyond time and space. Let's hope one of them doesn't say "Mom" in Draconic. In addition to the Nozdormu mortal form, Wowhead News also has models of the new Raven Lord "on fire" version, a more complete version of Majordomo Fandral Staghelm's Druids of the Flame, some 3-D renders of the new "overfiend" enemy from the Firelands (who looks like a baby version of Baleroc), and a human spread out like Bolvar chained up above the Lich King before Tirion bought him that cool new hat.
Patch 4.2: Avengers of Hyjal reputation rings
The Avengers of Hyjal is the new raid reputation being introduced with patch 4.2 for raiders daring enough to enter the Firelands and do battle with Ragnaros' minions. Much like the Ashen Verdict, players will be able to gain rewards with the Avengers as they progress up the reputation tiers. At exalted, ilevel 391 rings will become available in a variety of styles. So far, these rings are available on the PTR: Viridian Signet of the Avengers Infernal Signet of the Avengers Quicksilver Signet of the Avengers Obsidian Signet of the Avengers Adamantine Signet of the Avengers Blizzard has said that the Avengers of Hyjal faction will work differently from the Ashen Verdict, however, in that it does not want players farming the trash in the Firelands for reputation. Rather, it looks like we will get a system like the Brood of Nozdormu or Hydraxian Waterlords, where after a certain reputation level, the only way to increase your standing with the faction is to kill bosses. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Patch 4.2: Firelands bosses voice emotes
Firelands bosses Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, Shannox, Baleroc, Fandral and Ragnaros all have their voice emotes in with the new patch 4.2 PTR patch. Want to take a listen? They are all right here! Fair warning for spoilers and all that jazz, so hit the jump for the full clips. This post contains patch 4.2 spoilers.
Patch 4.2: Firelands lore spoilers and speculations
If you're into the lore of World of Warcraft, then patch 4.2 is already shaping up to have some surprises for you. Having recently been on the PTR, I got a chance to play through the introductory quests on Mount Hyjal that transition into the new daily quests and set the stage for the raid. In less than an hour of gameplay, some interesting new tidbits were revealed. These are all spoilers -- nothing but spoilers from this sentence on.
Patch 4.2 PTR: Tier 12 set bonuses
While the tier 12 sets on the patch 4.2 PTR aren't even technically sets yet, their set bonuses were still buried in the game files for observant folks. Blizzard told the truth -- these bonuses are pretty unique and a lot of them seem based thematically on Firelands, designed to fix some raiding spec issues, or both. Check them out below and after the cut! Death knight DPS 2-piece Your Horn of Winter ability also grants you 3 runic power every 5 sec for 2 min. 4-piece Your critical strikes with melee abilities deal 15% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 sec. Death knight tanking 2-piece Your melee attacks cause Burning Blood on your target, which deals 800 Fire damage every 2 for 6 sec and causes your abilities to behave as if you had 2 diseases present on the target. 4-piece Your Dancing Rune Weapon grants 15% additional parry chance.
Patch 4.2 Preview: The Firelands
Blizzard has just released a comprehensive look at the raid content for patch 4.2, The Firelands. Featuring seven bosses, the legendary staff Dragonwrath, and a host of new challenges for players, patch 4.2 will be the first new raid content of Cataclysm since launch. Players will take the fight to Ragnaros' domain, eventually fighting their way through Sulfuron Keep to take on the Firelord himself. Players will be facing a host of new challenges in the Firelord's domain. Beth'tilac, the fearsome lava spider, will require players to climb on her webs to defeat her. Lord Rhyolith is a massive magma giant that is reminiscent of the Supremus fight in the Black Temple. The great firehawk Alysrazor drops feathers that players will use to fly during the fight. Shannox, one of the flamewalkers loyal to Ragnaros, is a hunter with some nasty pets to deal with. Sulfuron Keep is guarded by Baleroc in a moat of molten rock. Finally, guarding Ragnaros' fortress is Majordomo Staghelm, previously known as Fandral Staghelm, where the once-great archdruid becomes a turncoat, allying with the Firelord. Finally, players will face Ragnaros himself. With this update, we also finally know the name of the legendary staff to be found in the Firelands -- Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. A flaming version of Anzu will be available, as well as two other mounts. Patch 4.2 is heating up good! %Gallery-122481%
Cory Stockton interview reveals more info on Firelands in patch 4.2
In an interview with buffed.de, WoW Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton let loose information on patch 4.2, including information on the Firelands raid, the tier 12 armor sets, new epic quests revolving around Thrall, the Firelands daily area, and much more. Keep reading for a summary of the big stuff.
Patch 4.2: Firelands information features coming soon
Blizzard has released a schedule of patch 4.2 information related to the Firelands, armor tier previews, dungeon journal teaser, and more! Here's what we're expecting in the next couple of days, so stay tuned to WoW Insider for all the information and our commentary. April 27 "Through the Fire and Flames" 4.2 Video Teaser. April 28 "The Firelands" raid preview "A Legendary Engagement" legendary staff preview "The Regrowth and Molten Front Quest Hubs" BlizzCast 16 April 29 "Elemental Bonds" quest preview Tier 12 teaser May 2 Dungeon journal teaser Stay tuned! WoW Patch 4.1 is live, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from guides of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
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.
Official WoW TCG War of the Elements card, loot information released
We've seen the leaks and the datamined information, but it's all official now -- Cryptozoic has released the WoW TCG card and loot information for the next expansion to the Worldbreaker set, War of the Elements.
Cryptozoic invites you to Darkmoon Faire Chicago this weekend, April 1-3
Cryptozoic invites all WoW and TCG players out to Darkmoon Faire Chicago this weekend, April 1-3, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. This is Cryptozoic's first Epic Con, their new traveling gaming convention for all games, not just the trading card games. There is going to be plenty of fun awaiting attendees, so hit the jump for all of the activities planned this weekend.
WoW TCG: War of the Elements worldwide release April 26
Cryptozoic has just announced that War of the Elements, the first WoW TCG Worldbreaker expansion, will be released worldwide on April 26, 2011. The expansion is being released in four languages at the same time around the world, a first for the trading card game. War of the Elements also features loot cards, as usual, for WoW players to redeem cool pets, mounts, and other in-game items from WoW TCG cards. War of the Elements will include Landros' Lichling, Fool's Gold, and the Savage Raptor mount. War of the Elements will also feature two new dragonflights: the bronze and blue flights, with respective leaders Nozdormu and Kalecgos. What is interesting is that the TCG has solidified Metzen's statement that Kalecgos would become the new leader of the Blue Dragonflight and plays up the importance of these two flights in the coming patches and content in Cataclysm. %Gallery-119621%
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.
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.
Know Your Lore: Ragnaros
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. He is the lord of the living flame. Even among the contentious and fratricidal elemental lords, his is the fist that burns away life. It was he who, when the Titans reordered Azeroth and crafted the elemental planes, first made war upon his former brothers and sisters who served the Old Gods in the time before. He personifies his element like no other. More important to us, however, is that he is both the first elemental lord we as players could possibly have faced (Ragnaros was indeed the only elemental lord to even be in the game until Cataclysm) as well as the one whose return to Azeroth solidifies that this is, indeed, a true disaster in the making. For he seeks nothing more and nothing less than the total annihilation of all mortal life and the complete consumption of the entire world in flames. He is Ragnaros. He is the Firelord. He will set Azeroth to burn until it is consumed utterly. Unless he is stopped, we will all die in flames.
Cataclysm 101: Zone and instance progression
If you're sitting there at your keyboard right now violently coveting your upcoming Cataclysm experience and daydreaming of all the places you'll go, we here at WoW Insider would like nothing better than to aid and abet you in your wacky escapades. And since Cataclysm is launching on International Matthew Rossi's Birthday, who better to help you figure out where you intend to stream like an unstoppable torrent of locusts? Well, there may be lots of better options, but I'm doing it anyway. Cataclysm has several new zones to experience and quite a few new dungeons to crawl through. Let's take a look, shall we?
Lil' Ragnaros and Moonkin Hatchlings now available at the pet store
Blizzard had previously promised new pets Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling before the end of November and it has delivered, just barely. Right now, you can purchase both pets in the pet store. Lil' Ragnaros will ignite nearby critters, do his famous submerge, and even counts as a cooking fire! The Moonkin Hatchling comes in Horde and Alliance versions, depending on your faction, and will plant flowers around your feet and even /dance with your friends. Check out the pet store here.
