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The Queue: Dog and pony show
Welcome back to The Queue, our 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. Rainyia sent us this picture on Twitter. "It's what I imagine worgen riding mounts to look like," she says. I suppose she's not far off, though admittedly this worgen looks a little, uh, young. jq71586 asked: Do the immediate goblin and worgen starter zones have mailboxes? Or to retrieve heirlooms, for example, is it still needed to run toward a larger nearby city to access a mailbox? New goblins and worgen do indeed have mailboxes available right away. You'll be able to get your heirlooms and proceed to outlevel the starting zone right away, even though you can't leave until you complete it anyway.
Blizzard clarifies combat resurrections for Cataclysm
Earlier today, Blizzard's Zarhym posted some clarifications on the changes to Create Soulstone and Rebirth that we can expect to see in Cataclysm. I know a lot of warlocks and druids who are going to be very unhappy about this change. These mechanics are not fully implemented on beta yet. These limitations affect raid content only. One combat resurrection is allowed per boss attempt in 10-man raids (Rebirth or Soulstone). Three combat resurrections are allowed per boss attempt in 25-man raids (any combination of Rebirth and Soulstone). Accepting a combat resurrection is what counts towards the total accrued, not the cast. Create Soulstone has a 15-minute cooldown. Rebirth has a 10-minute cooldown. Zarhym also hinted at the possibility of adding to the existing functionality of Soulstone by allowing one to be cast in combat on a deceased character, a change that would soften the blow ever so slightly for many raid leaders. Zarhym remained cagey when questioned about the ultimate fate of Reincarnation, but it seems that reincarnating currently counts towards the attempt combat resurrection total. Whether this is a bug or a feature is yet to be determined. The full blue posts are after the jump.
The Queue: Talbuk surfing
Welcome back to The Queue, our 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. Surfboards? Passé. The latest extreme sport is surfing on alien ungulates. Grovin asked: Not being in the beta, I was wondering what the current status is on the storage space issues related to tabards, backpacks and banks (as brought up here)? Right now there's no new news relating to inventory space. Blizzard has said that it's exploring options for tabard storage, but we haven't heard anything else since.
Cataclysm: Guards in starting zones buffed to level 90
Planning on kicking off Cataclysm by killing all the quest givers in newbie zones? Think again: Blizzard has increased the level of starting zone guards in areas like Coldridge Pass and Deathknell to 90. These guards are currently level 65 on the live servers. The change, which guarantees you'll be at least five levels lower than the guards, takes advantage of existing game mechanics to protect lower-level players from mischief. NPCs that are five levels higher than you are exceedingly difficult to hit (spell casters will suffer a 39 percent chance to miss) and frequently wallop you for higher-damage-causing crushing blows far more often. The guards will also have higher health pools as well. This contrasts vividly with guards on the live server, who are prone to dying if a level 80 character accidentally sneezes on them. Level 90 guards are better suited to protecting newbie players from max-level griefers. Note that only starting areas will see these high-level guards. The guards in major cities are now level 85 -- dangerous, but soloable. Players who are upset by this change are encouraged to stop being jerks who grief newbies. 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.
Totem Talk: Totem tweaks keep elemental shaman on course for Cataclysm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Get some Fulmination with your Lightning Bolts! Sort the shocks from the flames with Totem Talk: Elemental, brought to you by Sarah Nichol, otherwise known as Pewter from The 'mental Shaman and the Obscurecast and founding member of TotemSpot. This has been an authenticatorless week. I do not recommend weeks like this. Now that I have access to Azeroth again, however, I am reminded that the lack of substantial updates to the elemental spec implies that the developers are mostly finished with us and have been for some time. For the majority of elemental shaman, we are watching and waiting for the final Cataclysm itemization and profession details, although we certainly aren't the only class in this situation. Luckily, this latest beta build has given us a few minor details to mull over. My enforced break from the game has also coincided with my first reader emails and questions, so after I've covered the consequences of the tweaks, I'll be answering some questions. Now, as for the small changes, I am happy to see Searing Totem finally get some love. I suspect many elemental shaman will be grinding their teeth in annoyance as I mention the shaman sweet spot on the Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter, or the frustrating positioning for Blood Prince Council, or even the erratic totem behavior on Sindragosa! The totem's low range has caused many shaman to question the value of the current Elemental Reach talent. Why pick up a talent that increases your max range to 40 yards, if you have to continually refresh a Searing Totem at a mere 20 yards? The full change and a Ghostcrawler post on the topic is after the jump.
New hairstyles for dwarf women from Cataclysm beta
As a longtime fan of dwarf women, I got a bit of a shock when I logged on to the Cataclysm beta this evening and discovered my shaman's neat and tidy bun had morphed into an extroverted anime style! Obviously she's been visiting the stylist without my knowledge, but a quick trip to the Stormwind barber revealed a total of four possible new hairstyles for dwarf women. Who would have thought we'd be such trendsetters? Now, the textures for a few of them do look a little funky, and some of them look like several styles combined, so the usual this is beta and it is possibly a bug caveats apply here. In spite of that, I feel optimistic and look forward to the possibility of new hairstyles for the other races. So far, tauren are still woefully under-served when it comes to choice, and the gnomes and elves of beta are sticking to tried and tested styles. As for the men? We'll be adding new styles to the gallery as we find them. %Gallery-106691% 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.
Worgen druid flight form video from Wowhead
Well, what do you know! We figured that worgen and troll druids would just get recolors of existing druid flight forms, but it looks like we were wrong. The latest Cataclysm beta patch added a brand new Swift Flight Form model for worgen druids, so it's safe to assume that trolls will have one soon as well. I'm liking the Gilnean flag on the back of the form, as well as the serrated beak and big feathery mane. Wonder what kinds of touches the troll form will get? Guess we'll have to wait and see! And hey, maybe this means we'll see new moonkin forms too. A dog can dream.
The Queue: Explanations
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. In Monday's edition of The Queue (titled Veronica Day), most people had no idea what I was talking about in the intro. I was talking about Felicia Day's character in Fallout: New Vegas. She voices Veronica Santangelo, one of the companion NPCs. For those of you completely unfamiliar with New Vegas, just watch the video embedded linked above. It will explain everything you need to know about the game. Or ... it will explain nothing at all. Watch it anyway. Be warned: It contains some animated gore. Eyhk asked: Why were chests removed? Just because those dirty rogues were solo-farming them? Kinda seems harsh to remove a once integral part of dungeon running, getting that chest loot.
Officers' Quarters: The great raid size debate
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Cataclysm, as you are probably already aware, brings with it massive changes to the raiding scene in World of Warcraft. Certainly the most controversial change is Blizzard's desire, announced in April, to balance and separate 10- and 25-man raids -- namely, both sizes will share the same lockout and loot tables. The 10-man scene, widely regarded as inferior throughout WoW's history, will be designed to have approximately the same difficulty as its 25-man counterpart. Reports from the beta dungeon forums indicate that 10-man bosses are currently much easier to bring down than their 25-man versions, but we can only assume that Blizzard will take steps to even out the difficulty according to its stated goal. In the weeks following the expansion's launch, it will be extremely interesting to see how this whole situation shakes out. These changes will force most guilds to choose one size or the other as their primary raiding focus. As I've previously stated, this is a good thing. Many officers right now, including the one who wrote this week's email, are wondering which size to choose. Officers' Quarters is here to help! Hail Scott, What is your take on 10-man versus 25-man raiding in Cataclysm? Our guild would like to continue raiding 25-mans, but several of the other raid guilds on our server have apparently decided to switch to 10s. Are they jumping to conclusions, or are they on to something? Is this the end of 25-man raiding, and are we in for a repeat of the guild implosions and massive raider unemployment we saw when 40s were dropped to 25s?
The Queue: Veronica Day
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. Fallout: New Vegas has been my poison of choice for the last few days (in between playing World of Warcraft, obviously). Do you know how weird it is to be running around a post-apocalyptic wasteland for hours with an NPC voiced by someone you've met in person? I'll give you a hint: It's really weird. dawnseven asked: Now that we're practically on the eve of release, have there been any real changes to fishing in the Cataclysm beta? At last year's BlizzCon, Blizzard said it wanted to make it more interesting. Is there anything new besides new fish and new dailies? Is it still the same ol' boring thing?
The Queue: I had an NPC before it was cool
Welcome back to The Queue, our 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. Yes, yes, it's great that Red Shirt Guy got his own NPC, but what's better than hanging out next to a classic, beloved lore figure? That's right. Being barefoot in the kitchen, performing some unknown action with a haunch of meat. Top that, Red Shirt Guy. Lochlorien asked: Since patch.4.0.1 was released and druids lost their tree forms, being a 30-second buff now, how do you explain Applebough? He's always in tree form sitting in Dalaran selling fruit. Shouldn't his tree form have the same cooldowns and duration as the rest of us? Treants existed before Tree of Life form did. I would imagine that Applebough, with a name like Applebough, is an actual tree, instead of a dude what turns into one.
Raid Rx: What the -- more beta healing changes?
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community. Hey everyone! I'm back from BlizzCon and feeling refreshed. It looks like another beta patch was pushed today. Most of the changes were adjustments to spell coefficients. There are additional healing changes that might actually mean something. Some of the highlights include Rebirth being restored to the original 10-minute cooldown for druids and Chakra losing the Renew state for holy priests.
Want to preload Cataclysm without pre-ordering? Here's how
NOTE: Blizzard has approved use of this method. It is not against the ToS, EULA, or any other acronym. Pre-orders for the Cataclysm digital upgrade are officially open, and you can start downloading the remainder of the expansion's data the moment your purchase goes through. But what if you're awaiting a Collector's Edition or you don't have the money to upgrade online right now? You don't want to be left waiting for Cataclysm to download and install on launch night. Thankfully, we've got you covered. There's an easy way to preload all the data you'll need to play Cataclysm the moment it goes live on midnight Dec. 7. Just follow these easy steps: Make sure World of Warcraft and/or the launcher and background downloader are completely closed. Open up your World of Warcraft folder. Open Launcher.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT. Open Config.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT. Now load up the launcher and you should begin downloading 700 megs or so of new material. That's the last bit of data you need to play on launch night. Enjoy! Remember: This will only give you the necessary files to play Cataclysm. It will not upgrade your account and you will not be able to access Cataclysm features. You still need to buy the game if you want to play on launch day. Thanks to Lemon King for the tip! 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 Zone Review: Loch Modan
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Editor's Note: This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. Read at your own risk! Anybody seen my Stonewrought Dam? It was just here a minute ago. Oddly enough, most citizens of the zone of Loch Modan seem unaffected by much of the mighty dam going away and taking most of the lake with it. But there are still things to do, such as uncover one of the weirdest conspiracies ever and mend the relationship between a father and son.
The Queue: BlizzCon buddies
Welcome back to The Queue, our 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. Gurky made some new friends at BlizzCon. One of them is all business, the other is more of the wild child of the group. Loki asked: Do we know the timeline for Gilneas? I play on an RP server and am heavily into the lore but I'm having trouble figuring out how long the Greymane wall has been up and also how far in the past that worgen players will be during the first few levels. The little movie they showed at BlizzCon shows the moon changing by what looks to be about a week and a half, so does that mean the human-based events take place that far back before the launch of Cata, or are we looking at months? The Greymane Wall had been up for roughly 25 years, give or take a year or two, prior to Cataclysm. The opening events in Gilneas originally took place one year before Cataclysm, but now the length of time is indeterminate -- Blizzard removed the "one year later" reference some time ago. However, in order for the timeline to make sense, there has to have been time for the Scythe of Elune to be rediscovered in Grizzly Hills and moved. You can assume that your character has had around a year to run wild while the Gilneans set up their worgen hunts. Once you've got your human mind back, it's mere days or hours before the cataclysm officially hits.
Female worgen now available on the beta
Female worgen are now available as of the beta build (13221) that just hit tonight. I haven't checked yet to see whether you can just make a new female worgen, but I was lucky to get a character redesign option on a male worgen I've played previously for a Shifting Perspectives column. Many of the animations and emotes were glimpsed in May on untextured models, but some are new. Running Wild currently appears to be a bit bugged (that's the extra limb or two you'll see). Their Two Forms animation also differs from the male worgen version. Above, you'll see a video of the Two Forms and Running Wild animations. Past the cut you'll find a much longer video of all the model's current animated emotes, casting and channeling animations.
Cataclysm Beta: Worgen Running Wild animation
The latest build of the Cataclysm beta has finally added the animation for the worgen racial ability Running Wild, the mount replacement skill that lets them drop to all fours and run at increased speed. You can see it in the video above. Note that beta servers are still down, so we can't get a good video of it in the wild quite yet. So far, I'm impressed -- can you imagine 20 or 30 of these guys running at you in a battleground? 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 Queue: The one where Fox tells you about all the [REDACTED]
Welcome to your daily dose of The Queue. With your usual hosts suffering from post-BlizzCon fatigue, The Queue was left unguarded and once again captured by Fox Van Allen. All members of the Van Allen faction shall enjoy a 5 percent buff to damage and experience for the 24-hour duration, and Spirit Shards may now be collected. The powers than be here at WoW Insider are still licking their BlizzCon-inflicted wounds, so they requested I once again write The Queue. And since Holisky, Sacco, et al. probably won't even have the energy to edit this, I'm spilling the beans on what happened at BlizzCon 2010. Not the boring stuff. The awesome, seedy stuff that could get everyone fired. First of all, I cannot believe what happened after [REDACTED] ended. [REDACTED] stayed a little bit after, and once we all got a few photos, all of us took turns [REDACTED]ing in the [REDACTED]. You know how [REDACTED] seemed awful friendly during the [REDACTED]? Yeah, you guessed it, he was totally [REDACTED]. Like, really [REDACTED]. On a somewhat related note, I'd really appreciate it if those of you who were taking the pictures of me when I was [REDACTED]ing [REDACTED] would stop uploading them to Facebook. Or at least stop tagging me in them. I mean, my grandmother can see that stuff. Come on. Oh, and P.S.: [REDACTED]'s hair smelled exactly the way you'd have expected it to -- like [REDACTED]. [Nice try, Fox. – Ed.] Dark Finch asked: Does WoW Insider plan to redo the "(Place Spec Here) 101" articles to match the current talent trees and abilities? If so, will you do this before or after Cataclysm launches?
The Queue: Barely coherent
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. Just so all of you are aware, Michael Sacco literally scraped me off of a hotel room floor so I could write The Queue today. No, I am not misusing the word literally there. There was a cartoonishly oversized spatula involved. Xantenise asked: Is there any news on the location of the awesomeness that is Asric and Jadaar in the new expansion?
BlizzCon 2010: Cataclysm login screen
The new Cataclysm login screen has been unveiled this weekend during BlizzCon 2010. Our hopes and prayers for a login screen without a screaming, ear-shattering dragon were all for naught. Deathwing is certainly much cooler than Sindragosa, so I'm sure we can live with it ... for a few weeks. After that, my mute button and I will be becoming close friends again.
