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Encrypted Text: Top new, useful Cataclysm rogue abilities
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 abilities that we'll see as we level up in the upcoming expansion. As I've mentioned several times before, rogues are often thought of as the "cooldown class." We've got a plethora of abilities, with nearly one (or two) for every situation. We're then regulated via cooldowns attached to each abilities, limiting how often we can use them. This gives the rogue class incredible potency in short fights, when our cooldowns are able to be used in quick succession. However, we have often stumbled in longer encounters, when our cooldowns are only active for a small percentage of the overall fight. Blizzard has been working on resolving this by reducing both the potency and the cooldown of a few of our moves, like Sprint, to give us more flexibility. The DPS model for rogues hasn't change at all since The Burning Crusade. The only real addition was the creation of Mutilate and Envenom, which have been staples for rogues for years now. While Fan of Knives was a fun addition at level 80, its use on anything but trash has been limited at best. It's unsurprising that even though we're receiving three new abilities in Cataclysm versus BC's two, they're still all cooldown abilities. However, our new spells are actually incredibly fun and useful. They also take some skill to use properly, which is something that the rogue class needs desperately to get back to. Using your abilities wisely should yield a large reward -- and with that thought, I will now introduce the 2010 graduates of the Rogue Ability Academy.
The Queue: Getting ready for heroics edition
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. Mat McCurley will be your host today. Hey, I'm back! Blame Alex. Yesterday, heroics opened up for testing in the Cataclysm beta. Tonight, the epic quest to get absolutely destroyed by these dungeons begins! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday! Come one, come all. Witness the horrors, trials and tribulations of stalwart souls! The slaughter in the Stonecore! The battle in the Blackrock Caverns! Throne of the DIES ... The quite literal Deadmines! Hellish Halls of Origination. A truly Grim Batol! Uh... Vortex Pinna...culling? What do you want from me? It's early. Enough of that. Let's get on with some questions. There are some Cataclysm spoilers in a couple of The Queue questions this week, so be wary if you're avoiding that sort of thing.
The Light and How to Swing It: Guardian of Ancient Kings for prot and ret
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge -- and soon, an entire flight of black dragons. Please send screenshots as well as any comments to gregg@wow.com. I've been holding off on talking about Guardian of Ancient Kings (which I'll abbreviate "GK" and pronounce "goak" because, frankly, why not?) for a few different reasons. One, it wasn't implemented, and two, even if it were implemented, we couldn't level to 85 to use it. Both of those have changed in the past couple builds. So, we've got a warrior of the light who will stand by our side and do ... what was it again? Oh, right. Something completely different depending on what spec you are. If you're holy, it helps heal; prot, it helps you tank; and ret, it helps do damage. This is intended to be a major cooldown for whichever spec you've chosen and will adapt appropriately. It is the Batman of abilities, with something in its utility belt for everyone.
Shifting Perspectives: Bear druids in patch 4.0.1
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. This week, sum durids is bare. Unannounced changes on the most recent beta build: Female worgen have been redesigned and now bear a startling resemblance to Rachel Dratch. Nourish has a 50/100 percent chance to refresh the duration of Lifebloom on your target and causes Allison Robert to use the f-word six times in one sentence on the WoW Insider team line. Dave Kosak's stoner troll Gravy from Flintlocke vs. The Horde is now a bartender in Orgrimmar. Actually, that last part's a little misleading; I think our pal Gravy's been tending bar since the alpha. I found out about him a few builds ago and have been trying to sneak him into an article ever since. As a general note concerning tanking once patch 4.0.1 and then Cataclysm itself hit, I think we are very likely to see an instancing model reminiscent of the pre-3.0.2 world. I got my start as a 5-man tank in the dungeons and heroics of The Burning Crusade and was known as one of the few people on my server willing to tank Shattered Halls, Shadow Lab and Magisters' Terrace PUGs. As a result, I got very familiar with the need to mark mob packs, assign crowd controllers, use line of sight and tab targeting, and maintain situational awareness. I was equally familiar with the effect that an inexperienced or incompetent player could have on a group under those circumstances (particularly when said inexperienced or incompetent player was me). This is not an indictment of the more difficult instancing model to which Blizzard seems to be returning, because I've genuinely missed tough heroics. However, the dungeon finder is perhaps more suited to a world with greater margin for group error. Tanks are generally unwilling to confront instances requiring heavy crowd control when they don't know what kind of group they're going to get. Guild achievements and reputation are also oriented around guildies' instancing together. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the dungeon finder will become obsolete, but I'm reasonably certain that the wait for a tank is going to get longer. When CC is more of a concern, a tank's control over the dungeon's outcome is necessarily limited, and there are increasingly few incentives to ply your trade for a random group.
The Queue: Adam Holisky is a liar edition
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. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. Hello ladies and gents. It's me, Mathew, your lovable addon and user interface columnist, filling in for The Queue! I've totally never done this before, so be gentle, please. Overlord Adam Holisky asked me to write this bad boy up while I was editing a Cataclysm video for you, so blame him when that takes a little big longer to do. Also, everything Adam Holisky says is a lie.
The Queue: Failure
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 don't know which WoW Insider staff member originally cropped the image above so neatly, but they left it laying around our newsroom, and therefore it's fair game. Mine now! Sucks to be you, random WoW Insider writer! Guess who just stole your thunder! Yeah. That's right. It was me. (I hope it wasn't Rossi's picture ...) If the above image is familiar to you, that's good! It goes hand in hand with the first iteration of worgen failure. Cetha asked: After reading the comments on the new female worgen faces, it made me wonder: How often do people actually look at the faces of their toons, besides in the character select screen? When I build my toons, I always spin them around and pick the hairstyle that looks best from the back, since 99% of the time spent looking at my toon is spent looking at the back.
Officers' Quarters: Patch 4.0.1 -- An officer's perspective
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. Most major game patches have a significant impact on guild officers, and in the past I've tried to give an officers' perspective on how the changes to the game will affect the decisions and plans that we make moving forward. Unlike previous patch-perspective columns, however, a reader actually requested this one. Hey Scott, I'm a guild leader for a rather small 10-man raiding guild, and I got to thinking today about the upcoming pre-Cata patch that's going to change everything. See, Wrath was the first expansion of WoW that I, and many members of my guild, were ever really active in (a lot of us swapped over from another MMO, together), so I was wondering -- once the pre-Cata patch hits, should we continue raiding? From the grumblings I've been hearing on the PTR, numbers are all out of whack, and with some of the class changes coming, I was wondering if it'd even be a good idea to keep raiding once 4.0.1 hits. I've never experienced the "conversion" from one expansion to another on the raiding front, so I really have no idea what to expect as far as people's attitudes (not just guildies, but possible PUGs, too). In the other games I'd played, an expansion just meant new zones, storyline, etc., but WoW's expansion features a level cap increase, and in this case, a major overhaul in how we play.
The Light and How to Swing It: Holy paladin changes in beta build 12984
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 changes in the latest beta patch. Recently, I read a great thread on the official healing forums. Ghostcrawler, the lead systems designer for WoW, posted several times with interesting information and a few explanations regarding the new healing model in Cataclysm. I've talked about the idea of triage healing before, but there were a few specific points that Ghostcrawler made that really resonated with me. One of the commenters referred to the idea of "auto attack" heals, relating spells like our cheap Holy Light to the automatic attacks of the physical classes. It's a very succinct way to think about it, since we're used to raiding in environments where we never stop casting. It's true, most paladins on the beta have just been spamming Holy Light. I'm guilty of it as well. It almost feels like the old Flash of Light days back in TBC, where FoL was the only spell we used because we'd never run out of mana. Blizzard saw this as a problem, and so the latest Cataclysm beta build contains a major nerf to Holy Light. Ghostcrawler's statement that healers shouldn't be spamming one heal seems almost prescient now.
The Queue: Road dog
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. Don't ask how this worgen got his hands on a goblin trike. Just don't. Because it's not very interesting. ... Fine. He got it by accident, thanks to Blizzard's messing around with worgen mount stuff this beta patch. There. Are you happy now? Way to ruin the magic. Your mother and I are very disappointed in you. Rin asked: What are player health levels looking like in Cataclysm? I would assume they're getting pretty ridiculous at this point. I saw a video with a warlock with 80,000 health ... My level 83 rogue has 55k HP. A tank in level 85 gear with buffs has roughly 100k.
Cataclysm beta: Horde and Alliance guild mounts
The latest beta build introduced additional mounts and companion pets into the game. With a new patch pushed onto the beta servers, check out these videos of the guild faction mounts! The Alliance version above is called Reins of the Golden King (which is an awesome lion). Interested in seeing what the Horde mount is? It is the Kron'Kar Annihilator (a scorpion), and you can see a video of it after the jump!
Cataclysm Beta: Warlock evilness (goodness) in build 12984
If you follow the WoW Insider team on Twitter (and you should, if you haven't already), you were treated to some sweet hilarity early this morning when information of an upcoming beta build woke us up with a swift fist to the face. And let me tell you -- it has left an impression. Of all the builds that have come and gone, this one screams the loudest, telling the tale of just how close Cataclysm is to breaking the horizon. Instead of another huge list of major overhauls, this patch brings a good amount of substance to smaller but still important elements of the game. We're seeing new achievements, feats of strength, non-combat pets and spell refinements. And for the warlock class, there are changes that look dead sexy and are definitely worth a stare or two. But before we dive into this fresh cesspool of puppy love, do keep in mind that there are spoilers ahead. If you lay awake at night anxious that the day ahead may shatter your dreams of a virgin expansion experience, you may want to skip this post. However, if you are craving Cataclysm goodness or just can't control the temptation any longer, come on in -- the water is warm and there is plenty of Unending Breath to go around.
Cataclysm Beta: Build 12984 death knight changes
In the wee hours of the morning, an (as yet unimplemented) beta build found its way out onto the internet for dissection by the usual datamining suspects. As has become a happy habit with the past few builds, there are death knight changes to be had. Now, these changes don't solve all of our problems. In fact, some of them exacerbate a few of them. However, a couple of the changes are amazingly good, and I'd call this patch, overall, another step in the right direction. Let's take a look at what changed and what it means for the death knight playstyle. As a warning, this patch has not yet been placed on the beta as of this writing, so things may still change from what's here.
Cataclysm beta: Paladins in build 12984
In the middle of the night, a new build for the PTR and beta got pushed to the patch servers, but it hasn't been marked as ready for download at the time of this writing (it might be at the time of this reading, though). Several classes have received major changes (including six new talents scattered across druid specs), while others simply got a collection of damage tweaks. Paladins appear to be somewhere in between those. Most of our changes are small tweaks and talent reorganizations, but a few are obvious balancing passes. While there is a new talent for holy, it's just another of the spirit-to-hit conversion talents that other classes have seen. This could, however, mean a possible comeback of the shockadin -- but I'll leave that for Chase to speculate on tomorrow when he covers the holy changes in more depth. Some quick excerpts from the patch notes, with everything after the break: The holy tree gets a spirit-to-hit conversion talent. Holy Light's healing has decreased by 25% and mana cost has increased to 9%. Divine Purpose proc rate has lowered to 20%.
Cataclysm Beta: Restoration shaman changes in Build 12984
Last night, a new beta build was revealed, build 12984.The builds are coming quicker, it seems, as it was only last week that we received Cataclysm build 12942. Until the last patch, restoration shaman were left largely untouched except for some minor tweaks here and there and a little pruning in our talent trees. Last week's patch saw the removal of even more passive critical strike rating, the renaming of a spell that has become an old and trusted friend (the new Healing Surge), and some boosts to some of our spells' cast times with a tweak to Purification and healing output of our Healing Rain and Healing Stream Totem through Soothing Rains. Overall, it was a very good patch for us. This week's change sees us once again with a multitude of changes. We get a few more tweaks and what are potentially a couple of nerfs. Shaman have been referred to as the healing model for Cataclysm, and we've been enjoying this kind of protected bubble in a sea of changes.
Arcane Brilliance: What to expect for mages in patch 4.0.1
Each Saturday, your computer is visited by the Arcane Brilliance fairy, a delightful creature that sprinkles your computer with mage dust. All you have to do is leave a warlock corpse under your pillow on Friday night ... Let's do a patch 4.0.1 mad-lib! This patch is a (act of aggression) in the (body part)! (Class developer) has ruined (spec you like). (Changed spell) is a joke, and (new talent) is completely (inappropriate term for the developmentally challenged). I'm rerolling (other class) the second this (derogatory noun) goes live. What the (expletive), Blizzard? Yay, that was fun. But pre-expansion patches always are, am I right? People who haven't played in six months suddenly resubscribe, excited to see the new content. Some players are optimistic, looking forward to new life being breathed into their classes. Others are terrified, convinced the sweeping changes will destroy everything they ever loved about the game. The official forums become a teeming mass of wild speculation, irrational fear and baseless end-times prognostication. And the thing is, nobody's really wrong. Nobody's really right, either, but that's the beauty. Is the end nigh? Absolutely. Is the dawning of a new era of fun upon us? Yes. Are the changes good? Mostly yes, but also sort of no. Bad? Not really, but maybe. Indifferent? Meh. The questions aren't even remotely uniform, and their answers are entirely fluid. Turn off the lights, then start throwing darts, and you'll have an idea of the precision involved here. Still, I'd like to put one very concrete answer out there. The question at the heart of the matter is this: Should I panic? And the answer, as firmly as I can state it: No.
Cataclysm Beta: Worgen are their own mounts? [Update: Confirmed!]
Update: Zarhym has confirmed Running Wild as the worgen "mount" in Cataclysm. There have been a lot of people anxiously awaiting the arrival of worgen mounts on the beta. Goblins have had their mounts for a little while now, and most people are still curious what the worgen mounts will even look like. With some of the information mined out of the most recent beta build, it looks like a worgen mount will end up being the worgen themselves. A new racial ability called Running Wild has been added for worgen, with a 1.5-second cast time that adds the "mounted" aura to the player. The description says, "Drop to all fours to run as fast as a wild animal." However, worgen already have their own version of Sprint called Darkflight, which gives them a temporary speed boost, but this new racial implies mounted speeds. If this is true, then it will mean different things for different groups. For worgen druids, you never have a reason to buy a mount of any type now. For those Alliance players out there, this might mean a lack of worgen racial mounts, which will probably be compensated elsewhere to keep the number of mounts equal between Horde and Alliance. For tauren players, yes, someone else appears to be getting Plainsrunning before you. 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 Queue: A river runs through it
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. Better appreciate your crappy water textures while you can! What will you do when they're gone? Not have crappy water textures? As if that's even an option. Lisdonvarna asked: Do you think that the number of humans created after Cataclysm launches will diminish due to the worgen's ability to be human out of combat? Why roll a regular dwarf when you can play a dwarf that can turn into a night elf, know what I mean? No, I really don't think it'll be an issue. People will continue to roll characters of races they find appealing, whether due to racial abilities or aesthetics -- and the fact is that most of your time is spent in combat.
Cataclysm Beta: Shaman changes in Build 12984
Thanks to MMO-Champion, we've got a fresh new build from the Cataclysm beta on our hands as of last night. As you might expect, shaman have received a few notable changes; what you might not expect is that the editors of WoW Insider gave me permission to write about them. This isn't the first time in the last month that a priest has ventured in totem territory, so I'm going to guess the shaman community has been slipping something into the drinking water at Team Priest headquarters. What are you guys up to, exactly? Anyway, right off, you'll notice some huge buffs to shaman weapon imbues, but they're not actually buffs. The increases in attack power, healing and damage are just adjustments to bring the values up to Cataclysm levels. Other major highlights include tweaking to the enhancement tree and restoration abilities, which we'll discuss after the jump. There are cookies.
Cataclysm Beta: New mounts and companion pets in build 12984
Meet Deathy. He's one of the new companion pets that will be joining us in Cataclysm. He won't be the only one, though, as the latest build added a host of new mounts and pets. Mounts & Pets Mounts Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank Summons and dismisses a rideable Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank. This is a very fast mount. Sandstone Drake Transforms you into a Sandstone Drake, allowing you to fly very fast and carry an ally on your back. Mottled Drake Summons and dismisses a rideable Mottled Drake. This is a very fast mount. Kron'Kar Annihilator Summons and dismisses the Kron'Kar Annihilator. This is a very fast mount. cast Companion Pets Deathy Right Click to summon and dismiss Deathy. / Instant Guild Herald Right Click to summon your guild's Herald for up to 5 min. Guild Page Right Click to summon your guild's Page for up to 5 min. Gold Mini Jouster Right Click to summon and dismiss a Gold Mini Jouster. Blue Mini Jouster Right Click to summon and dismiss a Blue Mini Jouster. Tiny Shale Spider Right Click to summon and dismiss the Tiny Shale Spider. Pebble Right Click to summon and dismiss Pebble. / Instant Landro's Lil' XT Right Click to set down or pick up your Landro's Lil' XT action figure. Enchanted Lantern Right Click to summon and dismiss your Enchanted Lantern. Magic Lamp Right Click to summon and dismiss your Magic Lamp. / Instant Elementium Geode Right Click to summon and dismiss your Elementium Geode. Mr. Grubbs Right Click to summon and dismiss Mr. Grubbs. Brazie's Sunflower Right Click to summon and dismiss Brazie's Sunflower. I wonder if the Gold and Blue Mini Jousters will interact with each other in some fashion. That'll be somewhat entertaining during downtime in raids. The Sandstone Drake is a mount I'd be interested in grabbing, as well, due to its shapeshifting and passenger capability. I know there isn't a whole lot of information yet on the mounts or pets, but what are you looking forward to picking up? [via MMO Champion] 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: Racial changes in build 12984
A new build for the Cataclysm beta is pending and should be hitting servers fairly soon. In build 12984, we're going to see several races getting a few updates. Racial changes Human Perception is gone. Undead Cannibalize now also regenerates mana. (7% of total health and mana every 2 sec for 10 sec) Tauren Cultivation still increases your Herbalism skill by 15, but also lets you gather herbs faster than normal herbalists. Gnomes Shortblade Specialization Expertise with Daggers and One-Handed Swords increased by 3. Human Perception is gone? My poor dwarf will have extra reason to be Cannibalized? Gnomes becoming experts with daggers and one-handed swords? And the change no one could have seen coming, taurens can pick flowers faster? Anyway, enough with the amazement. What do you guys think of these changes to racials so far? [via MMO-Champion] 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.
