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Scattered Shots: Pet talent trees in the Wrath Beta
Welcome to another edition of Scattered Shots, the other WoW Insider weekly Hunter column. Daniel Whitcomb is your guest host again this week. So, we theorized about talented pets a bit quite a few installments of Scattered Shots ago, but now we have the actual trees live and testable on the Wrath Beta, and they seem to be firming up nicely. There's a few promised changes yet to come, such as the removal or lowering of focus costs on many major abilities and talents, and it's still very possible that Blizzard may make changes here and there before live, but I think they're solid enough at this point that we can look at each tree and make some solid predictions about how people will use them and how various talent builds might look.
Rhonin and Vereesa in Dalaran
Love him or hate him, the latest beta patch has made it official: Rhonin has entered the World of Warcraft. Along with his wife Vereesa, of course. The Violet Citadel in Dalaran had its artificial wall preventing you from getting inside removed in the last Wrath beta patch, and they've begun populating it in this patch. Rhonin, Vereesa, and a couple members of what I assume is the Dalaran ruling Council (the Six).Rhonin and the two Archmages in the Citadel all seem to be wearing recolors of the supposed Mage Tier 7 that cropped up awhile back, so we can all consider that a definite confirmation. It looks pretty cool, if a bit unusual (wow, a tunic and not a robe!), with the helm turned off. With the helm on, I really couldn't help but giggle. You can see Rhonin and Vereesa above, and we've also added higher resolution images to our Dalaran gallery. Oh, and forgive the poor lighting. They apparently haven't turned on the electricity in the Citadel yet.%Gallery-28715%
One Shots: Riding to Northrend
For those of us who still haven't made it into the Wrath of the Lich King beta but would like to know some basic details (non-spoiler) we're glad to offer this nifty screenshot courtesy of our very own Senior Network Editor, Elizabeth Harper. The place you want to go to find your way to Northrend (for the Horde) is just outside Orgrimmar and to the right, as opposed to going to the left where the old zeppelin tower is. Apparently, you can catch a similar zeppelin outside of the Undercity as well. Today's One Shot captures this strange new zeppelin flying across the hot sands of Durotar, on the way to colder lands and new adventure! Do you have a screenshot from a beta (that's not under NDA, mind you) that you think shows off some of the cool things in an upcoming game? Perhaps you're just fond of showing off your own particular mount that you worked hard to achieve and would like to tell us about it? Whatever your reason, send those screenshots in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with a description of what we're seeing. Yours could be one of the next One Shots!%Gallery-9798%
Ask a Beta Tester: Wintergrasp and caster stats
Let's start out with the PvP zone that's on everyone's mind: Lake Wintergrasp. Added in the last beta patch, Wintergrasp doesn't seem all there, but Alex has boldly ventured into the zone in an attempt to tell the rest of us about the zone. Boowat asked.... How does Lake Wintergrasp PvP actually work in regards to siege weapons etc. do i just go round running people over or driving into the side of buildings? Alex: Very little of Lake Wintergrasp is actually implemented. Right now it is more or less a sandbox with tonka trucks in it, except you can climb in the trucks and they can shoot missiles and throw rocks. Each of the vehicles has a set of abilities that come up like if you mind controlled something. Your action bar changes to their action bar. They have anywhere from 1 to 4 abilities. Some of them can cause Siege Damage to structures, some can't. The tanks are heavy siege damage, the planes have some light siege damage, and the shredders are mostly for wtfpwning players. For more of your questions -- and our answers! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
Around Azeroth: An end to all things
Yes, it's another Wrath beta screenshot. They've been pouring in like rain lately, and I like to feature stuff we haven't seen before. This fiery photo, submitted by Jason on behalf of his beta-testing daughter Cami, shows the carnage of the Death Knight quest "An End To All Things ..." WotLK appears to have continued The Burning Crusade's popular "jump on a mount and blow stuff up" quests. Instead of dropping smiley-face bombs on demon encampments, you hop on a Frost Wyrm and use deathbolts to nuke hundreds of Scarlet Crusaders -- or you can have your drake devour them whole. An unfortunate victim of the latter action is seen flying from the dragon's mouth here. And if you have a moral problem with carpet-bombing and/or eating Crusaders, I highly suggest you avoid the rest of the death knight quests. They sound almost as bad as playing Dark Side in Knights of the Old Republic.This image came to us straight from the Wrath of the Lich King beta -- and we'd love to have your beta screenshots, too! If you have anything our readers might like, beta or not, sharing it is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. And yes, I know this is a sunset, but I still like the dragon. %Gallery-1816%
First look at Tailoring in Wrath
Leatherworking wasn't the only profession to start seeing some love in the latest beta patch. Among the others starting to be implemented is Tailoring. When I say 'starting to be implemented' I really mean just that. It's a start. Tailoring especially screams 'I'm not done, seriously!' when you look at what there is to offer. Not that that's a surprise, of course. It's still early in the beta.If you want to look at what there is to offer, check out the gallery below. We have images of each of the patterns that have been implemented (sort of) in this beta build. A lot of the items are completely bare of stats, which is unusual for sure. It's possible that it's just a display error, but there's always a chance these items haven't really been itemized yet, and were put in early so you can start skilling up to test the big stuff on the way. It was suggested that these items may possibly have random stat distribution upon creation, but usually there's a 'Random Enchantment' note on the items in that case. Oh, if you were wondering, the Magic Carpet isn't there yet.%Gallery-29600%
First look at Leatherworking in Wrath
The latest beta patch included the base upon which Leatherworking will be built. There's only a small pool of recipes so far, leveling recipes starting at 350 skill and building up to a few at 375, so it's a start and not much more. I haven't seen any phat bloos of leet purps yet. None that are actually implemented, anyway.It seems they start you off with two basic Leather sets. A caster/healer set and a melee set. The materials don't seem too awful really, but I haven't had an opportunity to run around with a character that has Skinning very much, so that remains to be seen. At the very least, the two types of armor kits you get look like simple skilling recipes, and they won't be a total waste. You won't want to spend a massive amount of gold getting higher quality enchants and armor kits for your leveling greens, but these will do just fine in that spot. We've snagged screenshots of all of the currently implemented recipes, so click on the gallery below to take a look.%Gallery-29604%
Experience needed per level for 71-80 soars in Wrath Beta
One of the more unwelcome changes in the latest Wrath Beta build is pretty simply explained: It now takes nearly twice as much experience (80% appears to be the exact number) to level. This has hit a few us on the WoW Insider Beta team by surprise. Both Zach and I, for example, were about 2 bubbles each from our next level, and now find ourselves only halfway through instead. Of course, this is the Beta, so one can hardly complain about one's leveling time stretching. However, 80% is a very significant jump. It would imply that either Blizzard was intentionally keeping leveling experience incredibly low so they could get testers to max level quicker, or they felt that testers were leveling far too quickly and required a massive amount of slowing down. I doubt leveling will be slow as it was in the bad old days of games like Everquest, but if it's so slow that players need to clear both starting zones to level up enough to progress further, it seems like that defeats the whole purposes of having 2 starting zones in the first place. Hopefully Blizzard monitors this new changes and adjusts it downward again if needed.
Latest Beta build kills spell downranking [UPDATED]
A new build has hit the Wrath Beta server tonight, and while it's minor enough that it doesn't even fix quite a few bugs from last build, it does have a doozy of a change: Blizzard appears to have killed downranking, the practice of using a lower rank spell (usually, but not always, a healing spell) to save mana, prevent overhealing, or apply an attached buff or effect. They've done this by making all lower levels of a spell cost one high mana cost, sometimes more than 100 mana higher than the highest rank. Right now, it's looking like all these spells are now a percentage of base mana.
Hunters get some major love in the Wrath Beta
It's been a busy day on the Hunter Beta boards, with Koraa delivering tidbit after tidbit of great news for Hunters. Here's the breakdown: Deterrence and Master's Call will become baseline. Animal Handler will be getting an overhaul. Serpent Sting will get a mana cost reduction and a coefficient buff with the aim of making it worth casting in your basic shot rotation. Silencing Shot will become a proper interrupt for PvE usage, and Trueshot Aura will go raid wide. Hunters will be getting a big push with lots of changes in the beta build after next. These are definitely welcome changes. In PvP, being able to stand up to focus fire or get back to range have long been weaknesses of the class. Having a non-talent way to break out of snares or add a bit of extra defense attacks will go a long way to making a bit tougher. It's not trainable Scatter Shot or pet resilience, exactly, but it's nearly as good as either, and may be better for us in the long run than the former option. Finally, we'll have a dependable way to get away from Hamstring or Crippling Poison that does not involve Beastmastery or being a Dwarf. Animal Handler has been looking more and more lackluster lately in the face of other mount speed talents that provide more speed and better benefits, especially now that pets will share our hit percentage, so hopefully this revamp makes it desirable again. Similarly, the state of Silencing Shot and its inability to interrupt silence-immune mobs has long been a sticking point with PvE-focused Marksmanship Hunters. So so far, all of the announced changes are definitely welcome news that should hopefully be nothing but useful to Hunters. We'll definitely be looking forward to this build after next to see the final state of Animal Handler, whether Serpent Sting will be useful for damage purposes again, and whatever other changes -- such as the promised counters to LOS -- Blizzard tests out.
Ask a Beta Tester: Blacksmithing and sockets, revisited
Today nearly everyone wanted more detail on the blacksmithing socket patterns we talked about yesterday. In fact, five individuals inquired:Do blacksmithing sockets stack with enchants?The answer is yes. (At least for gloves and bracers -- there are currently no enchants available in the game for belts.) Please, there's no need to keep asking. Really!Orno had a question about a different blacksmithing pattern I didn't know about until he mentioned it: Is Socket One-hand Weapon able to socket main-hands and is it also BS only? Though this ability has been data-mined from the expansion files, it isn't currently available from trainers. So the pattern is either a random drop or it simply hasn't yet been added. Either way, we haven't run into anayone who knows it to confirm one way or the other. Sorry, Orno, but you know as much as anyone about this one!For more of your questions -- and our answers! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
The strange task of entering Dalaran
Here's a somewhat annoying little problem with the Beta. As of the latest build, you can't just walk into Dalaran, or rather, you can't just use the teleportation crystal go up. Instead, you have to complete a quest to align yourself to Dalaran. But this quest is only available at level 74. In the Outlands, it's not uncommon for a fresh 58 to head through the Dark Portal and right to Shattrath City. Binding in one of the Inns there essentially puts all of the Outlands before you, with flights connecting you easily to where you wish to go. It seems strange that Blizzard has put up this strange quest attunement roadblock to those who wish to alight from the boat to Northrend and head straight to the capital. Perhaps it's a similar decision that caused them to restrict flying mounts to level 77 and above -- they don't want people skimping on exploration and seeing content, so they make you hang around the newbie zones for a while before you can just stick with Dalaran. Luckily, not all is completely lost. Much like with Shattrath before level 58, You can still get teleported or summoned up by a Mage or Warlock before level 74. Still, it's a strange little extra hoop Blizzard's having us leap through to get the to top.
Ask a Beta Tester: Blacksmithing and socket slots
Today we're going to kick things off not with a question, but with a statement. Eldacar of Boulderfist wrote in to tell us that he's just managed to hit 450 skill in Blacksmithing and to report on the new sockets available to Blacksmiths. Several people have asked how the sockets work, but with my complete lack of Blacksmithing skills, I haven't had much to say on the subject. Here's what Eldacar had to tell us:The bracer and glove sockets are Blacksmith-only and both add uncolored sockets that accept any color gem. They will add the socket even if the item already has a socket. Currently I have not tested if you can use these sockets to meet socket bonus requirements, however I have verified they do not cause problems if you have already met the requirements. The tradeable epic belt socket, Titanium Belt Buckle, is bugged and not currently applying the socket to your belt despite consuming the item, but it is safe to assume it will add an uncolored socket as well though.For more of your questions -- and our answers! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
Around Azeroth: Clash of the product placements
I know that WoW is an enormously successful video game with many spin-off products. But these commercial tie-ins may have gone too far. Why else would this shot from the WOTLK battleground Strand of the Ancients feature a night elf mohawk assaulting a Toyota Tacoma? (That night elf really does have a purple mohawk. Check the big version if you don't believe me.) Sure, you say it's a total coincidence. That's what they want you to believe. When that Recipe: Quarter Pounder With Cheese drops for you in the Nexus, don't come crying to me!Tony sent us this image straight from the Wrath of the Lich King beta -- and we'd love to have your beta screenshots, too! If you have anything our readers might like, beta or not, sharing it is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. And, please, no more sunsets! Unless it's a sunset over Arthas's grave.%Gallery-1816%
WoW Insider's Utgarde Keep walkthrough
If you're dying to see the inside of some of Wrath's dungeons, you're in luck. We've put together a small walkthrough-in-pictures for Utgarde Keep for you to peruse. If you're in the Wrath beta and haven't run Utgarde yet, maybe you'll be able to put this to good use. If you're not in the Wrath beta, look through it anyway! It's a nice little preview of the dungeon and the types of mechanics you'll be running into when you first reach Northrend.If you don't know what Utgarde is, it's likely the first dungeon you'll run through in Wrath of the Lich King if you're the instancing type. It's set in the Howling Fjord, and is a vrykul fortress from which they plan their attacks on Alliance and Horde settlements. It's the first of two dungeons that will be taking place in Utgarde, the other being Utgarde Pinnacle.As always, if you want to see a larger version of the pictures, click the Hi Res button in the upper right of the gallery. I especially recommend that for our Northrend galleries, you simply can't see some of the detail in the low res versions. %Gallery-29459%
Breakfast Topic: Does the levity mess up the lore?
Warning: Wrath spoilers ahead! Blizzard's pretty good at Lore when they want to be, with the whole 2.4 storyline, the Battle of Ahn'Qiraj, and many epic storylines promising to come out of Northrend. At the same time, they also have their own offbeat brand of humor that is never far gone from their design philosophy, and it shows up in their stories too. Sometimes it serves them well and adds a bit of levity, but other time, it seems to take on a life of its own, a life that can strangle what could have otherwise been something compelling and interesting. Zul'Aman is perhaps the most pertinent example. What could have been the last attempt of the Farstriders to shut down the troll menace threatening their people, what could have been a revival of the Troll killing tradition of the Arathi, or an examination of the High Elves who stayed loyal to the Alliance but still hate the Amani, instead turned into a cheap redneck treasure hunt. It killed much of the allure of the zone and turned what could have been a epic struggle against a former hero of the Horde into a run of the mill bunny bashing session.
The Tuesday Morning Post: I survived the Fail Murloc edition
Good Tuesday Morning, everyone! By now, I'm sure you're all aware of the amazing and frustrating odyssey that has been the attempt to secure BlizzCon tickets, as documented here by Mike. This writer finally managed to buy his ticket only at 9 PM PDT yesterday, despite having been poised at the virtual ticket counter since approximately 7 AM yesterday. The sight of the Fail Murloc and his cousin the Fail SCV (shown at right) have almost been burned into my very retinas. As of this writing, some of my colleagues still haven't managed to get through to buy a ticket. As a reminder, the store will reopen sometime this morning, and Blizzard has said that there are a lot of tickets remaining. Despite the hubbub, all this trouble hasn't (completely) dampened our enthusiasm for the wonders of BlizzCon. We've spent the refreshing time tossing around speculations about what we'll see on October 10th. See if our predictions match up with yours. In other news, it's an extended maintenance this morning, which means downtime goes from 3 AM PDT to at least 11 AM PDT, which means you should have plenty of time to read WoW Insider. There's plenty of news to catch up on, of course, especially with a new build hitting the Wrath Beta servers. Let's take a look at some of it:
New tailoring recipes discovered in Wrath Beta files
MMO-Champion has just discovered 3 interesting new tailoring patterns in the Wrath Beta files. Rather than things you can sell, however, these are soulbound cloak embroideries, and at least at first glance, they seem very nice indeed. Lightweave Embroidery: Embroiders a subtle pattern of light into your cloak, giving you a chance to cause an additional 800 to 1000 Holy damage when you damage an enemy with a spell. You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.
Spell pushback mechanics changed on Beta
Pushback has always been the bane of spellcasters and Hunters everywhere, be it in PvP or PvE. The slightest bit of damage, even the environmental kind, can make a quick 1 second cast somehow stretch into eternity. However, as of the latest Beta build, the eternal cast time may be a thing of the past thanks to some new spell pushback rules. When you're casting a spell, the first two hits will add .5 seconds each to the cast time. Every other cast will have no effect. For channeled spells, the first 2 hits will take 25% each off the total duration, while all subsequent hits will have no effect. This sounds like it should be a pretty awesome change overall, especially for solo or small group PVE, where one who has drawn aggro or otherwise lost control of their target can rest assured that it will take them only a single second longer to get off a heal or cast a crowd control spell. Here's hoping this is one change that makes it to the live servers. Of course, it's probably still worth taking that pushback protection talent if you can. There's no use tempting fate, and that 1 extra second can be a surprisingly long time when you're under pressure. Thanks to everyone who pointed this out!
Ask a Beta Tester: Gold, Atiesh, and Mr. Tirion Fordring
See what I go through to get you the juiciest beta information? That's three sharks I'm fighting off, all for you! Those things are vicious... but they were clearly have not been reading the beta forums, because they had no idea how overpowered Paladins are right now. But enough chatter: time for your questions! Hoops asked.... How much gold roughly would you get from questing 70-77 (until you unlock the flying mount)? I was wondering if it would it be worth farming money beforehand or would the money from questing be enough. I'm not 77 yet, so I can't exactly address the question as asked, but I can tell you that I've made about 400g leveling from 70 to 72. That's just from questing, vendoring trash & unneeded greens -- and it includes some stupid deaths, plenty of repair bills(I blame Dalaran for many of them!) , and training a couple of professions (35g to train a primary profession to the next skill level and 100g to train a secondary profession to the next skill level). For more on money-making in Wrath -- and other questions! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving things away here and there.
