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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.
Cataclysm Zone Review: Dun Morogh
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! The upheaval in the snowy lands of Dun Morogh has been more political than geological, but there's quite a fair amount of new material for those rolling a brand new dwarf or gnome in Cataclysm. Starting Zones Coldridge Valley and New Tinkertown The dwarven starting zone hasn't changed much physically, but the troggs are more aggressive now, so there's no time for placid mail delivery quests. But there's always time for beer! Eventually, you kill a troublemaking fire elemental that seems to quell the threat here, but an untimely cave-in forces you to forego the tunnel and take an airlift to Kharanos instead. (Alas, this detour bodes ill for the popularity of the famous Dwarven Demolition Team.)
Cataclysm Beta: Handling Blackwing Descent's Omnotron defense system
Hey look, it's the Tron defense system! It is one of the initial roadblocks your raid will encounter in Blackwing Descent. These four golems will prevent you from advancing further until you neutralize all of them. This raid instance can be found on top of Blackrock Mountain. It's sandwiched between Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge. Read on to find out more about what to expect!
Cataclysm Beta: Testing Halfus Wyrmbreaker in Bastion of Twilight
Sunday afternoon, a couple of raid encounters in the Cataclysm beta were activated so they could be tested. I managed to get in on both of them, and I'll cover my experience and initial thoughts regarding Halfus Wyrmbreaker. He is the first boss that can be found in the Bastion of Twlight. The entrance can be found in the southwest corner of Twilight Highlands at the top of an extremely high pillar. I don't have much in regards to the lore and stuff, but something about this boss tells me that he controls and restrains drakes (or wyrms).
The Queue: Cathedral picture
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. I'm completely out of witty intros. It's Sunday! Deal with it! DarkSpade asked: Was the WoW miniatures game ever officially announced as dead or is it still out there flapping in the breeze? Any chance of it coming back? The license for the WoW Minis game was originally held by Upper Deck, a company with whom Blizzard no longer does business. Cryptozoic, who picked up the WoW TCG license, did not pick up the Minis license. I think you can probably extrapolate the status of the WoW Minis game from there.
The Queue: Pebble
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. Pebble: the most adorable non-combat pet. If you disagree, you are wrong. Missemilyblack asked: Will WoW Insider bring back the Class 101 articles once Cataclysm is in full swing? This may be pathetic, but I rely on those articles heavily when I'm trying out a new spec. It's so nice for a casual like me to get quick advice about rotations, glyphs and talents without much mucking around, and having them updated to include level 85 spells and the new talents would really be a godsend. Yep, we plan to have new 101 articles for Cataclysm once class balance has stabilized a bit. We really like the 101 articles and we're glad they help people who need it; we just need to make sure that the new ones won't become obsolete too quickly.
City tabards giving reputation in latest beta build
As of the recent beta build (13189) that went live earlier this evening, city tabards sold by racial factions (e.g., Thunder Bluff, Stormwind, Gnomeregan, Undercity) are now awarding reputation in dungeons. With the obvious exception of those offered by Gilneas and the Bilgewater Cartel, these tabards aren't technically new to the game -- you can get them at the Argent Tournament on the live servers right now if you want -- but the reputation gains are definitely a new perk. While you can still get the tabards from Argent Tournament vendors on the beta, each major city also has a faction quartermaster (usually close to the city's flight master and introduced in beta build 13066 in late September, I think) selling both the tabard and a set of level 40 cloaks. The tabards are available at friendly for 8 silver (even at the Tournament -- they no longer require Champion's Seals), but you can't get the cloaks without being exalted. Still, grinding reputation for one of your faction's races should be considerably easier in Cataclysm -- all you'll have to do is get to friendly, buy a tabard and run dungeons as you normally would. This is a great addition to the game. Not only will you have access to cool tabards even at a low level, but it should make getting other races' mounts and faction discounts much easier as well.
New Tree of Life form in all its video glory
The new Tree of Life form went live on last night's beta build, and I've shot a short video to show you what it looks like in action. As mentioned previously, the Tree currently shares the male orc skeleton and animations, so you won't see anything too unfamiliar here, but the new form is just beautiful. If anything, it's kind of depressing that it's now a cooldown. The new forms are colored by race, and here's the breakdown: Night elves get the purple form. Tauren get the brown and green form. Worgen get the dark brown form. Trolls get the light brown form.
Certain mounts and items no longer available in patch 4.0.3
As promised, Blizzard has provided a list of the mounts and items that will no longer be available as of patch 4.0.3, The Shattering. The brief list is below, followed by the full Blizzard statement after the break. Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashi Raptor are no longer available. Razzashi Hatchling is no longer available. Tome of Polymorph: Turtle will continue to be available through other means. Mounts from Trial of the Crusader will no longer be available. Reins of the Blue Drake will return to their place as a 10-man rare drop from Malygos. The Azure Drake will continue to be available in 25-man mode as normal. Mimiron's Head and Invincible will be rare drops from their respective bosses on hard mode.
New Tree of Life model datamined
Boubouille at MMO-Champion has datamined the long-awaited new Tree of Life model from an upcoming beta build (click the image above for a high-res version), and commentary's already starting to fly on the forums. Some players are really enthusiastic, others are not (Cirocco of Rexxar's notable soundbite: "Hunchback of Notre Lame"), and others think it's a little too masculine-looking in comparison to the older treant model. If the posture looks a little familiar, it's because the Tree apparently shares the male orc's skeleton and animations (at least for the moment), although I'm having difficulty locating the YouTube video that a player claims to have seen of this. The new model isn't yet live on the beta, so unfortunately I can't yet get a video for myself. EDIT: Thanks to our readers, it's been located -- go here. I really like the new model, but I'm surprised that Blizzard thought it was a priority for an update given the Tree of Life's new status as a Metamorphosis-like cooldown. Bears and cats finally got their update in patch 3.2, so I'm hoping that Moonkin, Travel and Aquatic Form are next on the list. At any rate, it's a spot of good news (well, to me, anyway) in a patch where cat DPS has nose-dived, bears are going crazy trying to hold aggro in 5-mans, and trees are ... well, no longer trees. Past the cut you'll find a quick note on the WoW Insider team's take.
