World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
- Thread starter Kaotik
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Just a heads-up for those who may have missed this (somehow): the Blizzcon WebTV broadcast subscription is now available for purchase - since a couple days actually. If you have a WoW subscription you'll earn an in-game minipet also, just like last year.
This year there will be four parallel channels to watch compared to the lone channel last year, so that means a lot more coverage this time. I was vacationing in Stockholm with my father during much of last year's Blizzcon and I didn't get to catch up with realtime events until the US woke up later - due to the time difference - during the second day (I sat up and watched the previous day for most of the night, lol)... Was fun.
With so much more coverage I'm not sure how I will be able to sleep at all during that whole weekend.
I'm hoping for a surprise announcement of their Secret MMO(TM), but not holding my breath for it. They're ramping up for Cataclysm right now, they may not want to steal any thunder from that by announcing what would be interpreted by many (stupid people) as a "successor" to WoW... Also, since they've already revealed most of the lore stuff happening in Cataclysm, most of the race and class changes, world changes and so on - and that Starcraft 2 will have already launched by the time Blizzcon rolls around - I bet Diablo 3 will have main focus this year.
I expect Blizzcon to reveal the Rogue/Amazon/bow using class this year. If it's yet another caster or melee class, I'll be sorely disappointed. I'm sure it'll be a physical ranged class this year (IE: bow/arrow or possibly spear, like the old 'Zon), as there's no bow users shown so far, and it would be strange to not have one. Remotely concievably, they might save bows for an expansion down the road, but that would feel like a ripoff.
Perhaps we'll hear a launch date for Cataclysm, but again, not holding my breath. Right now it seems there's still a lot of work to do, but they're dedicated and efficient at Blizzard. Most of the work on original WoW happened during the last year of development, and Cataclysm isn't nearly in that state of un-readyness. Maybe they just might feel confident enough in their abilities to actually give us a date. It'd be sweet if they did. Pretty sure we won't see a Diablo3 date tho, other than "2011" (sure hope it won't be 2012! That'd suck.)
Btw, isn't it amazing how Blizzard manages to keep the lid on their Secret MMO so completely? They're a big company these days and the "sMMO" team must be huge even now. That nobody has leaked ANYthing (that we got to hear about it at least; maybe Blizzard has their own paramilitary team of assassins...), I'm really impressed with their ability to STFU.
This year there will be four parallel channels to watch compared to the lone channel last year, so that means a lot more coverage this time. I was vacationing in Stockholm with my father during much of last year's Blizzcon and I didn't get to catch up with realtime events until the US woke up later - due to the time difference - during the second day (I sat up and watched the previous day for most of the night, lol)... Was fun.
With so much more coverage I'm not sure how I will be able to sleep at all during that whole weekend.
I'm hoping for a surprise announcement of their Secret MMO(TM), but not holding my breath for it. They're ramping up for Cataclysm right now, they may not want to steal any thunder from that by announcing what would be interpreted by many (stupid people) as a "successor" to WoW... Also, since they've already revealed most of the lore stuff happening in Cataclysm, most of the race and class changes, world changes and so on - and that Starcraft 2 will have already launched by the time Blizzcon rolls around - I bet Diablo 3 will have main focus this year.
I expect Blizzcon to reveal the Rogue/Amazon/bow using class this year. If it's yet another caster or melee class, I'll be sorely disappointed. I'm sure it'll be a physical ranged class this year (IE: bow/arrow or possibly spear, like the old 'Zon), as there's no bow users shown so far, and it would be strange to not have one. Remotely concievably, they might save bows for an expansion down the road, but that would feel like a ripoff.
Perhaps we'll hear a launch date for Cataclysm, but again, not holding my breath. Right now it seems there's still a lot of work to do, but they're dedicated and efficient at Blizzard. Most of the work on original WoW happened during the last year of development, and Cataclysm isn't nearly in that state of un-readyness. Maybe they just might feel confident enough in their abilities to actually give us a date. It'd be sweet if they did.
Pretty sure we won't see a Diablo3 date tho, other than "2011" (sure hope it won't be 2012! That'd suck.)Btw, isn't it amazing how Blizzard manages to keep the lid on their Secret MMO so completely? They're a big company these days and the "sMMO" team must be huge even now. That nobody has leaked ANYthing (that we got to hear about it at least; maybe Blizzard has their own paramilitary team of assassins...), I'm really impressed with their ability to STFU.
News Alert, for those 3 people here who play WoW, yet don't regularly visit WoW-related websites:
PATCH 4.01 (IE: Cataclysm game rules!) PUBLIC TEST REALM IS UP!
...If you have a north american WoW account, that is. Us euros are left hanging, at least for the moment... Also, expect character copying servers to be completely destroyed due to the load, lol.
PATCH 4.01 (IE: Cataclysm game rules!) PUBLIC TEST REALM IS UP!
...If you have a north american WoW account, that is. Us euros are left hanging, at least for the moment... Also, expect character copying servers to be completely destroyed due to the load, lol.
Spent a bit of time yesterday leveling up a night elf hunter just to get a feel of the new focus system. The character transfer feature is completely clogged up, it said 4 days waiting time and the queue was full anyway so no hope of trying with my level 80 character.
I'm happy to say that it rocks. I always hated having mana on my hunter, and having to juggle viper and hawk aspects. It sucked IMO. No cooldown on arcane shot = dead grell in 2 seconds, lal. Getting steady shot at level 3 = awesome. Only bad thing about it is it means another long trip up that friggin' tree to the trainer, better to move the skill to level 2 or 4 to rationalize things a bit.
Having a pet right from level 1 is also awesome. Only annoying thing with that is the constant mewling and jowl-shaking, and I don't like the white/black-striped skin on those kitties either. It's the first thing I'll do upon hitting level 10... Replace that kitty!
Very curious about warlocks too and the new soul shard functionality. And paladins, with their new holy power. And balance drooods... I got my moonkin to transfer over when the queue lets up a bit.
I'm happy to say that it rocks. I always hated having mana on my hunter, and having to juggle viper and hawk aspects. It sucked IMO. No cooldown on arcane shot = dead grell in 2 seconds, lal. Getting steady shot at level 3 = awesome. Only bad thing about it is it means another long trip up that friggin' tree to the trainer, better to move the skill to level 2 or 4 to rationalize things a bit.
Having a pet right from level 1 is also awesome. Only annoying thing with that is the constant mewling and jowl-shaking, and I don't like the white/black-striped skin on those kitties either.
It's the first thing I'll do upon hitting level 10... Replace that kitty!Very curious about warlocks too and the new soul shard functionality. And paladins, with their new holy power. And balance drooods...
I got my moonkin to transfer over when the queue lets up a bit.MMOs rumor is nov. 2nd, which is a tuesday (IE: maintenance day for NA realms). EU realms would see release on wednesday, as that is their maintenance day.
As for the water, the reason it disappears on higher settings is because the new graphics renderer is not available on the test realm, only on beta realm, and in this system you get the standard (IE: very very ugly) WoW water on the lowest setting, and the new water on the higher settings. And when the new water is missing then you don't get any water at all on those settings.
Btw, leveled an undead warlock up to level 6, much MUCH faster than leveling night elf, due to a lot less useless running around. Deathknell is a lot more compact than the Aldrassil area, and quests are better organized.
I don't have soul burn yet (level 10 only) so I've no idea yet how the shards work out, but low-level questing is wtfpwn easy. Mana regen is insane, health regen is insane... You practically can't die unless you lag out after aggroing something (and don't have a pet, as both imp and hunter kitties kick some major booty.)
I remember leveling my first undead warlockess (which I still have, and is my only remaining Horde character, now level 80 with her own guild), back in Vanilla WoW, around patch 1.1 or 1.2 or whatever. Early 2005 anyway. I was running through tirisfal glades and not accomplishing much, and ended up getting owned by murlocs on multiple occasions... Warlocks were SO weak back then, it wasn't even funny. Of course, I was a total nabb like everybody else, but locks were really weak and ineffective. Just like hunters, my other early character... I really do know how to pick 'em, don't I? Lol.
As for the water, the reason it disappears on higher settings is because the new graphics renderer is not available on the test realm, only on beta realm, and in this system you get the standard (IE: very very ugly) WoW water on the lowest setting, and the new water on the higher settings. And when the new water is missing then you don't get any water at all on those settings.
Btw, leveled an undead warlock up to level 6, much MUCH faster than leveling night elf, due to a lot less useless running around. Deathknell is a lot more compact than the Aldrassil area, and quests are better organized.
I don't have soul burn yet (level 10 only) so I've no idea yet how the shards work out, but low-level questing is wtfpwn easy. Mana regen is insane, health regen is insane... You practically can't die unless you lag out after aggroing something (and don't have a pet, as both imp and hunter kitties kick some major booty.)
I remember leveling my first undead warlockess (which I still have, and is my only remaining Horde character, now level 80 with her own guild), back in Vanilla WoW, around patch 1.1 or 1.2 or whatever. Early 2005 anyway. I was running through tirisfal glades and not accomplishing much, and ended up getting owned by murlocs on multiple occasions... Warlocks were SO weak back then, it wasn't even funny. Of course, I was a total nabb like everybody else, but locks were really weak and ineffective. Just like hunters, my other early character... I really do know how to pick 'em, don't I? Lol.
According to people in my guild that have been playing considerably longer than I have, expansions tend to be released on tuesdays worldwide, and there isn't any server maintenance that week. I'd prefer a wednesday release myself.
The fact they're not announcing longer maintenance for the expansion yet doesn't mean it won't be there.
It'll be no doubt tuesday, since otherwise US would have to wait almost a week for it to launch after europe, considering Blizz doesn't have the habit of doing scheduled maintenances on "wrong days"
That was bad wording on my part - I meant that in the past there has been no maintenance in the week that new expansions have been released (again, according to people in my guild; I've only been playing since ToC was current content).
I'm quite sure there has been maintenance on every single expansion release, of course my memory ain't the best out there, but they need it to allow logging in with expansion enabled accounts (iirc if you got for example wotlk before the actual release date and installed it, you couldn't play 'till it was officially up too)
Wrath of the Lich King came out in the US on November 13 2008, which was a Thursday. There was no maintenance that day. The only thing they did to keep people from getting to the new content was to not enable the Wrath activation code servers until midnight US eastern time.
This time around, over the past few months they have been upgrading the server hardware, a few realms at a time. There was 24 hour maintenance for the server groups that had their upgrades done. When this patch goes in, it will convert all the combat mechanics to the new systems, but the world won't change yet. A few weeks after this patch, another patch will change the world, then a short time later the expansion will go on sale.
This time around, over the past few months they have been upgrading the server hardware, a few realms at a time. There was 24 hour maintenance for the server groups that had their upgrades done. When this patch goes in, it will convert all the combat mechanics to the new systems, but the world won't change yet. A few weeks after this patch, another patch will change the world, then a short time later the expansion will go on sale.
4.0.1 is now on the PTR. This introduces the talent / skill changes, and has been for about a week.
4.0.3 will contain the world changes. This will be the last patch before cataclysm.
Then, when cataclysm arrives properly, the new races, level caps, dungeons etc. will be available.
I'm guessing 29th September or 6th October for 4.0.1 hitting live servers, then 4.0.3 arriving 2 weeks later, followed by cataclysm retail on 2nd November.
4.0.3 will contain the world changes. This will be the last patch before cataclysm.
Then, when cataclysm arrives properly, the new races, level caps, dungeons etc. will be available.
I'm guessing 29th September or 6th October for 4.0.1 hitting live servers, then 4.0.3 arriving 2 weeks later, followed by cataclysm retail on 2nd November.
Over 5GB of data has been delivered via the background downloader already, so things are definitely starting to heat up now. I've played some on the test server (no beta access) and the class changes feel awesome at lower levels, for the most part anyway. Having some mana issues on my balance druid if I kill many mobs in a row, but as of right now there's a bunch of bugs affecting the eclipse mechanic which may play a part there.
Warlock feels real good too, the new soul shard system is Win. Hunters and focus is Win (unless you're marksman they say, but that can be fixed). At least at low levels survival is RIDICULOUSLY powerful now that explosive and arcane shots no longer share the same cooldown. You often kill enemies before they even reach your pet as long as you got focus. The new (which is like the old) Kill Command also hits crazy hard.
Warlock feels real good too, the new soul shard system is Win. Hunters and focus is Win (unless you're marksman they say, but that can be fixed). At least at low levels survival is RIDICULOUSLY powerful now that explosive and arcane shots no longer share the same cooldown. You often kill enemies before they even reach your pet as long as you got focus. The new (which is like the old) Kill Command also hits crazy hard.
I read on wow.com (now wow.joystiq.com, I think) that Kill Command has been majorly nerfed on the beta, to the point where it does less damage than arcane shot (but still costs twice the focus).
In other news, the twilight cultist pre-cataclysm world events have been enabled on the PTR. If only they could keep the character transfer queues open for more than 30 seconds a day, I'd have a shot at actually doing them.
Also, if you have any emblems of triumph or frost lying around, I'd spend them before 4.0.1 hits and they are converted to justice points. The conversion rate isn't favourable - at the moment a cardinal ruby on the PTR costs the equivalent of 79 emblems of triumph/ frost after the conversion.
Blue posts have said that 4000 justice points will allow you to buy 1 (or maybe 2) pieces of lvl 85 dungeon gear. So assuming 3000 justice points per item, and 5 or 6 dungeon runs per item (not unreasonable, thinking about the cost of emblem of heroism item costs), you'll end up getting 500-600 justice points per 85 dungeon run, or the equivalent of 180 emblems of triumph/frost with the conversion in 4.0.1. I reckon it would be better to dump emblems in to gems / primordial saronite, sell those for gold and start fresh when you hit 85.
A thousand people per realm dumping badges into gems and saronite means you can't sell your gems and saronite even for the price of FREE once Cata hits...
I've got ~630 badges. I've already bought almost everything except the 1-handed tank heirloom mace. I might buy that one too, I'm not sure. Regardless, I'm just going to let ALL my excess badges convert to golds. It's easiest that way.
Oh, and the kill command nerf was expected IMO. Hunters were terribly powerful. I'm confident they'll be workable (and very very fun to play now that they don't have mana anymore) once Blizzard is finished. Survival is already fantastic IMO. No shared cooldown on arcane and explosive shots, no shared cooldown on traps and black arrow (except fire traps). I can launch a snake trap, then shoot black arrow at a target while snakes munch away at my victim, awesome!
I've got ~630 badges. I've already bought almost everything except the 1-handed tank heirloom mace. I might buy that one too, I'm not sure. Regardless, I'm just going to let ALL my excess badges convert to golds. It's easiest that way.
Oh, and the kill command nerf was expected IMO. Hunters were terribly powerful. I'm confident they'll be workable (and very very fun to play now that they don't have mana anymore) once Blizzard is finished. Survival is already fantastic IMO. No shared cooldown on arcane and explosive shots, no shared cooldown on traps and black arrow (except fire traps). I can launch a snake trap, then shoot black arrow at a target while snakes munch away at my victim, awesome!
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