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Cataclysm Beta: New videos of druid, rogue and warlock tier 11 armor
Blizzard puts an immense amount of time and thought into every piece of tier gear (at least, you'd hope it does). For those of us who raid (even casually), it's the armor set we'll see our characters in the most. You get a blue drop out of a heroic, and you might replace it in a few weeks. You get a piece of tier gear, and ... well, the only thing that's prying that out of your hands is an even better piece of tier gear. That said, our datamining friends over at MMO-Champion have released some terrific finds today -- the tier 11 sets for druids, rogues and warlocks that so many of you will be wearing just a few months after the Cataclysm release. The druid set, which seems to turn you into some manner of electrified bird-man, is absolutely gorgeous. Warlocks get a nice, evil-looking set that comes complete with skewed horns. As for rogues ... well, somewhere out there, there's a rogue who roleplays as an Arabian ghost -- and man, is he happy today! Though the full warrior set is not yet in the Cataclysm beta files, MMO Champion did dig up the warrior tier 11 helm, so the Matt Rossi posse gets a sneak peek at its gear as an added bonus. The video for the druid tier 11 is above; rogues, warlocks and warriors will have to follow me after the break.
Encrypted Text: Cataclysm heroics from a rogue's perspective
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we discuss the new heroic dungeons in the upcoming expansion. I remember what it was like to play a rogue in dungeons in vanilla WoW. Our only form of long-term crowd control was Sap, and it brought us out of stealth every time we used it. Subtlety rogues could spend three talent points on Improved Sap, which still left Sap knocking us out of Stealth a tenth of the time. Every mob had some sort of AoE or whirlwind-style attack, and rogues were often right behind tanks in terms of healing necessary. We've come a long way since the old days. Tricks of the Trade, with its instant threat transfer, has become the crutch that supports even the greenest tanks. Fan of Knives is one of the best AoE abilities in the game and synergizes with our poisons for incredible potency. Improved Sap has been baked in to the ability, and we can use our CC safely on a wide variety of targets. Feint's new ability to reduce our AoE damage taken also allows us to survive most attacks. You might say that rogues are nearly perfect for running heroics. Unfortunately for us, Cataclysm's heroics have a thing or two to teach us about complacency.
The Queue: The prodigal editor
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's 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. I did it. I finally did it. I managed to wrest control of The Queue back from McCurley. It was horrible. Horrible. The things he did to it ... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, everybody. It won't happen again, I swear. (Until I find myself incredibly busy with other WoW Insider projects again, that is.) Siaperas asked: With Zul'Gurub going the way of the dodo, is it still possible to rep up with Zandalar?
Shifting Perspectives: Restoration talents in 13066
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. This week, we eschew the future in favor of the present, and are also delighted to discover that the Mac video capture bug appears to have been fixed on the beta. Many thanks to Raylis of Wyrmrest Accord for putting together a guide to troll form associations and allowing me to use it. We'll have a worgen version up once the barbershop starts cooperating! Resto's picked up a lot of interesting stuff recently. Whether these changes survive to patch 4.0.1 intact is anyone's guess, but today's column is a comprehensive look at all restoration talents as of build 13066 on a level 85 premade druid (average ilevel 335). Because the subject matter's on the dry side unless you're a healer, I've also included: Some notes concerning Cataclysm questing Why Anduin Wrynn is awesome Video of male worgen interrogation techniques (now that my video capture is actually working, you'll see more videos popping up soon) Video of said male worgen casting most of our heals with the user interface active to give you a sense of the numbers and efficiency you'll see at level 85 with pre-heroic blues
Lichborne: Unholy and the state of the Cataclysm beta talent trees
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly source for news, guides, tips and opinions on the death knight class. With this week's Lichborne, I was hoping to have run a few heroic Cataclysm dungeons so I could report back to you on how death knights play through them -- but alas, it was not to be, as my beta client refuses to log in to the game without crashing. Luckily, there are plenty of things to discuss apart from that. This week, I'd like to discuss our talent trees as they currently are in the beta and where things are headed for us as the release date draws nearer.
Totem Talk: Totems and heroics in Cataclysm
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 talked about what to expect in the upcoming patch 4.0.1 and how healing felt in the new pre-Cataclysm patch. After that, we also got news of a very important update for us in the latest PTR build, patch 13033, with Mana Tide Totem's recent change to increase our spirit by 200 percent rather than just give a flat percentage of mana back when used. The cooldown of the ability was reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes. Last week, heroic dungeons were also made available in the Cataclysm beta for us to test out, including heroic Shadowfang Keep and heroic Deadmines. This week, I would like to talk a little bit more about the changes to Mana Tide Totem and what to expect using it in the next expansion. I would also like to share with you my experiences healing through the new heroic dungeons as a restoration shaman in a new set of blue ilvl 333 gear.
Cataclysm Beta: Worgen emotes and back flip video
Worgen have recently gotten a little bit of an upgrade in the Cataclysm beta. All of their voice emotes now have appropriate sounds to go along with them, and some of their emotes have new animations. Also, like the night elves, worgen now do a flip randomly while jumping. This is, however, a back flip -- and it looks pretty cool. The video above contains a complete catalog of all the available emotes and audio and shows off the new worgen back flip. You also get a chance to see the male worgen dance in action if you've missed it before -- and it is all done with a spiffy top hat to add that little touch of class. Female worgen have yet to be fully implemented in the beta, so we will just have to wait to see if they get any special emotes or animations to go along with them. Be sure to have your speakers turned up a bit, the sound came out a little soft. 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, 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.
Justice and valorous quartermasters available in Cataclysm beta
A new beta build was made available last night, and with it, two new vendors located in Stormwind, in the command center found within the Old Town. In preparation for Cataclysm, patch 4.0.1 will bring with it a major gear currency change. These changes do away with the badge system we have now and instead replace them with a point system. Here's a reminder of the breakdown: Justice points low-tier, easy-to-get PvE points that will buy gear (like Emblems of Triumph are now) Valor points high-tier, harder-to-get PvE points that will buy gear (like Emblems of Frost are now) Honor points low-tier, easy-to-get PvP points that will buy PvP gear (like normal honor points are now) Conquest points high-tier, harder-to-get PvP points that will buy PvP gear (like arena points are now) The two new vendors sell all manner of new items, with ilvl346 gear sold by the justice quartermaster and ilvl359 gear sold by the valorous quartermaster. The valorous quartermaster also appears to sell our tier 11 gear. While not all graphics are updated at this time, you can start to get an idea of the level of stats we can expect to see on the gear. Check out our gallery to see what's been added. %Gallery-103362% 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, 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 Light and How to Swing It: New paladin heals in Cataclysm
Every Sunday, Chase Christian of The Light and How to Swing It invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. This week, we examine the cool new heals that paladins can look forward to. If you've been playing a holy paladin for any period of time, you're familiar with the feeling of spamming one button. I pushed Cleanse so often in Molten Core that my mouse nearly broke, and the number 2 key on my keyboard has never forgiven me for the rough treatment it received in The Burning Crusade. Our ability selection has been a bit more flexible on Wrath, largely due to our potent mana pool, allowing us to cast any heal we want to. Holy Shock has found its way into our arsenal on a regular basis, and Flash of Light gets a fair amount of usage as a backup spell when Holy Light isn't necessary. While Cataclysm is introducing us to an entirely revamped healing model and our new core heal, Divine Light, the spells look nearly the same as they do today. Our hands do the glowy-light thing, and then someone gets some sparkles raining down over their head. Meanwhile, restoration druids are covering the ground with more flowers than Cenarius' gardener, and resto shamans are literally making rain to water them. Luckily for us, Blizzard saved a few tricks for holy paladins, and our new abilities actually have some amazing animations and useful functions.
The Queue: Hard (Stone)core
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's 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. Have we mentioned lately that we're positively getting our asses kicked by Cataclysm heroics? Emile asked: With flying in Azeroth coming up, we should be able to fly to those dancing trolls you can see when you fly from Darnassus to Moonglade (if I remember the right FP, I'm sure it's somewhere over Darkshore). Will those trolls still be there in Cataclysm? Yes, you'll be able to fly to Shatterspear Vale, where you can see the Shatterspear trolls joining the Horde and attacking the night elves, who've just had every single settlement in Darkshore obliterated by the cataclysm.
Amazon just sent out a bunch of emails about Cataclysm's release date
Approximately 37 million of you, in a row, tipped us off tonight about an email from Amazon. This email told people that Cataclysm's release date was Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010, and that those who pre-ordered from Amazon would get it soon after between Nov. 26 and Nov. 29 (due to shipping and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday). Amazon is not a reliable source for release dates. They are often wrong. But it is "odd" that they're saying something now, so close the date. We've previously heard a rumor that Nov. 2 might be another release date, and we know that Cataclysm is on track for a 2010 release, barring something nuts. Until Blizzard announces the date itself, we don't know exactly when Cataclysm will be released. So until then, just grab a towel and don't panic. And let me just make it real clear: WoW Insider is not claiming Nov. 23 is Cataclysm's release date. We're just reporting on what has happened with Amazon emails.
Arcane Brilliance: Things I've learned while dying in Cataclysm heroics, mage edition
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, weekly mage column of choice for dress-wearing, warlock-hating Frostbolt slingers the world over. Also, fans of the short musical films of Journey, Short Imagined Monologues, and the sublime, video game-based synth and fretwork amalgams of Sixto Sounds. Seriously, listen to this one. Holy crap. So over the past few days, I've found myself a broken corpse lying in a spreading puddle of my own bodily fluids a bit more frequently than I'm used to. The reason for this is simple: heroics. No, not the ones on the live servers -- where you can throw together a random group consisting of a ret pally tank, a six-year-old playing a hunter his mom bought him on eBay the day before, a feral druid healer who for some reason came into the instance suffering from nine more minutes of resurrection sickness, a mouth-breathing rogue who may or may not be a serial killer, and an AFK shaman farming badges while auto-following the healer -- and still blast through the place. I'm talking about heroics in the Cataclysm beta. They're absolutely brutal, guys. Now, granted -- it's still early. The testing process for these beauties is still in its infancy. We're tackling them using premade characters with talent builds we threw together by looking at the talents and thinking, "This looks nice." We're wearing gear that's barely entry-level for heroics (if we're lucky) and using spell rotations that we're basically making up on the fly. We're going into instances we've never seen before, doing boss fights nobody knows the mechanics for, and dealing with crippling, often game-breaking bugs. These places simply aren't finished, not by a long shot. But then again, that's why we have a beta. We go in, throw our soft, cloth-clad bodies against the long claws of some horrifying beast or another, use the final droplets of our blood to scrawl feedback for the developers ("Landmines ... everywhere ... can't feel ... legs ... fading to black ... tell warlocks ... hate them ... so ... much ... "), and then come back for another round. Blizzard takes the data it gathers from our gruesome deaths and uses it to construct a better game. Still, there is much we can learn -- even in this unfinished state -- from the first incarnations of these heroics. Join me after the jump, won't you?
Cataclysm Beta: New titles in build 13066
There's a new patch headed to the beta servers, and MMO-Champion has datamined the following title rewards for raid achievements in Cataclysm: Heroic: Nefarian -- Defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on heroic difficulty. Title: Blackwing's Bane Heroic: Sinestra -- Defeat Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight on heroic difficulty. Title: Dragonslayer Heroic: Al'Akir -- Defeat Al'Akir in the Throne of the Four Winds on heroic difficulty. Title: Of the Four Winds Defender of a Shattered World -- Complete the raids and heroic dungeons listed below. Title: Defender of a Shattered World Who else is pretty pumped to be a Dragonslayer? 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, 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 Beta: Select guild raid achievement requirements reduced
I admit it. I'm an achievement-holic. I'll repeat the most idiotic, mind-numbing task for hours on end just to earn a handful of achievement points. It doesn't matter that I can't do anything with those points. I want them. I need them. And I know I'm not alone in my obsession -- some people play World of Warcraft just for the achievements. (You know who you are.) Once Cataclysm launches, there will be a whole new set of achievements just for guilds, only compounding my poor, crippling obsession. A metric ton of them are for completing old instances and raids as a guild, and grabbing those points requires 80 percent guild participation. Under the guidelines laid out earlier in September, that meant you'd need to take along at least 20 guildies to conquer Serpentshrine Cavern (a BC 25-man), even if you could easily complete it with fewer. Well, for those of us who are obsessed with collecting achievement points, there's good news -- Blizzard just cut the required participation rate for all the old school Burning Crusade raids. On the official forums, blue poster Mumper confirmed that they're treating all old 25-man raids as 10-mans -- instead of needing 20 guildies to take on Lady Vashj and Kil'jaeden, you will now only need 8. The full blue post is after the break.
The Queue: Kittris
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's 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. What, Mat thinks he can just post cat pictures in The Queue and not expect retribution? Everyone knows that the only cuter than cats is small cats, or "kittens," in the vernacular. And I have four small cats right now. You can see them above, possibly forming Voltron, or possibly playing Tetris with their bodies. Sicadastra asked: Simple question: Do the passenger flying mounts require that the passenger have the appropriate flying skill as well? I assume not, just curious. Nope, just like someone without normal riding skill can hop on a Nether-Rocket or a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth.
Cataclysm Beta: Last call for Quel'thalas
One of the better kept secrets of vanilla WoW is a zone called Quel'thalas. (Be careful not to confuse this with the zone Isle of Quel'danas.) If you're not a lore buff, Quel'thalas is the kingdom of the Quel'dorei, or blood elves, as they're now known. (Check out Elven Evolution and Current Horde Politics: the Blood Elves for the full story.) The blood elf zones we know in WoW as Silvermoon City, Eversong Woods and Ghostlands are all considered part of Quel'thalas -- but those are not the zones I'm talking about today. The Quel'thalas I'm referring to is a tiny peninsula northeast of Tirisfal Glades. It isn't accessible by road or flight path, only water, and when you arrive you'll be greeted by ... nothing. There aren't any NPCs, enterable buildings or quest legs -- just an empty, unexplained mystery. Take a look. %Gallery-99822%
Raid Rx: Raid healing rotations and fun-ness
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. Do you find healing fun? Are healing "rotations" going to be needed? I mean, obviously you find healing fun if you've been playing a healer for a while. You enjoy the challenges, the reflexive nature of the role, and the potential adrenaline rush. Hopefully, you're not being forced to play a healer because your group doesn't have enough others to do it. I know I curse myself when I screw up and let one of my players die. It's something I take seriously because I enjoy healing. As we're all aware, the switch to Cataclysm will yield a shift in healing philosophy and execution. I know some players have expressed either reluctance or caution because of fears that this new style of healing will not be fun in comparison to current or older models of healing.
The OverAchiever: More new and altered Cataclysm achievements
This week we're returning to a look at new and altered achievements to expect in Cataclysm, but today's outing is going to be a little murkier than our previous examination of general, quest and exploration achievements. While those seem within a stone's throw of being done, today's achievements -- dungeons, raids and professions -- concern content that's often been inaccessible or buggy on the beta. There's also the minor matter of raid content that's not yet been implemented, but we'll hazard a few guesses anyway. As with our earlier article, I didn't bother mentioning any achievement that's completely unchanged, but you'll find everything else here.
Cataclysm Beta: Welcome to New Tinkertown
Fresh off the heels of Operation: Gnomeregan, Blizzard has published a web reveal of New Tinkertown. High Tinker Mekkatorque and the gnomish forces have seized control of an area on the surface just outside of Gnomeregan and have started efforts in retaking their city. Mekkatorque will ask you to complete new missions like rescuing gnomes and routing troggs, with the main goal of stopping Razlo Crushcog. New Tinkertown is the new level 1-5 leveling zone for gnomes. While the quests and the content have been on beta for a while now, you can read more about the official details after the jump.
Spiritual Guidance: Has mana regen become collateral damage in patch 4.0.1?
Spiritual Guidance's shadow-specced Wednesday correspondant Fox Van Allen recently got his performance evaluation here at WoW Insider, and it wasn't pretty. While his ability to recall distant pop culture references and melt faces has been deemed "adequate," his people skills "need improvement." Action item: "Stop ganking Dawn Moore in the hallways." Salary action taken: "Convert salary from U.S. dollars to old America Online CDs." If you're a regular reader of WoW Insider, you may have noticed an interesting trend about patch 4.0.1 and the upcoming class changes it brings: Almost everyone's freaking out. It's bad enough that almost every other class columnist on here is telling it's readers not to panic. It's as if we're running some kind of Douglas Adams convention around here. You won't hear all that from me, though. And it's not just because I'm too cool for books. It's because shadow priests aren't panicking, for the most part. There are disappointments here and there -- mostly regarding the mastery mechanic and the (currently) low value of the mastery stat -- but otherwise, things are pretty decent in this neck of the woods. So decent, in fact, that there's someone complaining on the beta forums that shadow priests are probably so overpowered because Blizzard reps all play shadow priests. (I LOLed.) But that's not to say we don't have our concerns. My latest concern is mana regen. While our damage has actually been buffed in some of the latest beta patches (most recently, Dark Archangel has been buffed from 3 percent per stack up to 4 percent), our mana regen continues to get hit with nerfs. Granted, Blizzard is really trying to aim for healers, but with most holy and disc nerfs to regen affecting our abilities too, are shadow priests becoming collateral damage?
