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New Ghostcrawler Blog: Cataclysm Talent Tree Post-Mortem
Ghostcrawler's back after a hiatus from posting his developer blogs and this time he wants to talk talent trees. A lot of us aren't a big fan of the new trees, especially because it feels foreign to take an entire tree without looking up; frequently a good spec boils down to a cookie cutter spec with 1-2 points in a different ability or two.
Then again, cookie cutters
were
always popular--even in vanilla. Cataclysm just
streamlined
them. All in all, this is an excellent post-mortem into why Blizzard changed talents and how they feel about it currently, even if the system has its detractors. It's also a good examination into mastery and early leveling as well as endgame goals.
You may have noticed we changed class talent trees for Cataclysm. We changed not just the trees themselves, as you might expect for an expansion, but the entire structure of the trees and the way you choose talents. Now that the Cataclysm model has been in play for several months, the team has been discussing what we like and don’t like about it, and I thought that might be of interest to some of you. As always with this series, this is design rumination,
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Patch 4.2: Crystallized Firestones Used to Upgrade Gear Into Heroic iLevels
There's a new vendor and loot system up after today's patch on the 4.2 PTR. Outside of
Firelands
, there's a new vendor
Lurah Wrathvine
that flies on a
Flameward Hippogryph
. In exchange for one
Crystallized Firestone
--an item which drops from heroic mode bosses every kill--she will upgrade an item into its heroic version. It is worth mentioning that the base items for these upgradeables can come from both from the Valor Points vendor in Orgrimmar/Stormwind and from the Firelands raid. Currently only twenty-one items are affected, but what's the most important are that the relics are affected along with wands and other ranged weapon slots. This means that, unlike current content, we won't be in max ilevel gear with a significantly lower level relic slot.
Interestingly enough, there are also some items for other slots--like a leather belt and a necklace. This may mean that Blizzard will use this vendor to enhance loot tables without having to needlessly increase the diversity and RNG of a boss' loot table. It will be a smart way to make sure that seven bosses have an entire tier's worth of ilevel, for sure. As I speculated previously, with the loot tables being so varied, they had a good opportunity to pull s
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Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Notes - Updated 5/31
Blizzard has just updated the 4.2 Public Test Realm patch notes, with a handful of new class changes!
Notable changes include:
All character races now have a /roar sound.
8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
Warrior
:
weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12% (down from 20%) and
weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5% (down from 10%).
Check out the full changes!
General
All character races now have a /roar sound.
Classes: General
Pets
The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.
Classes
Death Knight
Talent Specializations
Frost
Annihilation now increases Oblit
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Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14199 - New Items, Icon, Spell Changes
A new patch has just hit the Public Test Realms, bringing a handful of changes previously announced with the
patch notes update
a few days ago! Class changes are fairly boring, mostly tooltip changes for clarity, though there are a few spell changes here and there - nothing extremely surprising.
Latest Additions
Only a small handful of items, as well, including some new Firelands weapons (and their Heroic versions) and a new Leatherworking armor kit,
Drakehide Leg Armor
. Most importantly, however, is the addition of a new companion pet:
Murkablo
! This lil' guy is taught by
Murky's Little Soulstone
and is most likely this year's
BlizzCon
pet.
Click here to see all the latest additions in our database!
New Icon
Only one new icon with this patch - an icon for
Murkablo
, the
Diablo-themed baby murloc
! Can't wait to see this little guy in action!
[icon nam
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Winged Guardian Hits Blizzard's Pet Store and All Races Get a Roar
Two fun new vanity features were just announced by Blizzard. The first is the long awaited
Winged Guardian
to the Blizzard store for $25 USD.
A new arrival has just landed in the Blizzard Pet Store: the majestic Winged Guardian flying mount, a titan creation designed to protect Azeroth’s most ancient secrets. As with the Celestial Steed, this Guardian of the Titans will carry you across Azeroth as fast as your riding skill will take you. Head over to the
Pet Store
to see this new addition and other World of Warcraft companions, and check out the
FAQ
for more information.
The second bit of information is that the /roar emote will now have roaring for all. If you recall, it was hotfixed out in 4.1 because Worgen had their own roar and other races didn't. Well, don't worry; now
everyone
has one.
Hey everyone!
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Tier 12 Set Bonuses and Stats Preview
It's starting to look like the tier set bonuses will be final now as the patch gets closer and closer without frequent changes to them. We figured this would be a good time to remind you of what they are plus show you the stats for the individual tier pieces so you could see what pieces you'll covet and what ones you'll wear offset for.
Visual Preview
Source
Slot
Price (Normal, 378)
Price (Heroic, 391)
Hands
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Gauntlets of the Fiery Vanquisher
Chest
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Chest of the Fiery Vanquisher
Legs
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Leggings of the Fiery Vanquisher
Helm
Helm of the Fiery Vanquisher
Base
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Patch 4.2: Ragnaros 10-man Preview and Strategy
We got a chance to check out Ragnaros yesterday on 10-man normal mode. Seeing a final boss for an instance on the PTR is a rare treat; Blizzard usually doesn't give away the end of the instance so easily and it was surprisingly polished except for a minor glitch with visuals on the platform.
As you might remember from
the dungeon journal entry
, Ragnaros is a three phase fight in normal mode. There's an additional fourth phase in heroic. We were able to get him down into phase three and close to a kill. He seemed a little undertuned, even if it was 10-man normal mode and it is PTR. It was just too easy to get down quickly. This was largely because few abilities were punishing--it was only in phase three and during intermissions which served as phase transition that you could wipe from a single mistake.
We made a quick video to show you the footage of our progress (special thanks to my guild
Out of Line
for being awesome and helping). This video is a rough guide and hopefully will give you a better overview of the fight's general progression. Of course, if you prefer text, there's a
Live
Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Notes - Updated 5/26
Patch 4.2 PTR Patch Notes have just been updated, documenting a number of fairly major class changes including a
ton
of bear
Druid
adjustments and some brand spankin' new
Rogue
changes! Some additions which were actually added with the
5/24 patch notes update
have had their text clarified (so if some things look familiar, that's why).
General
The Keyring bag slot has been removed to make room in the user interface for new features.
Keys which no longer serve a purpose in the game will be removed from player inventories. Compensation for the keys will be automatically provided in the form of each key's vendor sell price in gold.
Keys which are obsolete quest items will be removed from player inventories.
Keys which may still be of use to players will be transferred to regular inventory space. If a player's bags are full, these keys will sit in a backlogged inventory until sufficient space is made available. Once space is opened, the keys will appear in regular inventory upon the playe
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Patch 4.2: Firelands Boss Loot Including Where Pureblood Fire Hawk Drops
Thanks to the Encounter Journal feature on the PTR, we now have what drops from what boss in our knowledge for
Firelands
. This is pretty awesome and it confirms things most people speculated about ilevels, including how
Ragnaros
has an elevated ilevel like
Sinestra
does from current content (as well as a mace that any Holy paladin would probably kill to have).
Crystallized Firestone
also drops from all heroic modes of bosses it seems and it is uncertain as to what this item is used for, though it could quite possibly be used to upgrade armor pieces.
A lot of people thought that
Smoldering Egg of Millagazor
would drop from a rare mob, but no, that's also our favorite Firelord. Speaking of mounts, however, it's possible that since
Flametalon of Alysrazor
isn't tied to a loot table for a boss currently that it could be from a rare mob or a random drop from doing the zone quests--which
Alysrazor
plays a role in. We'll have to wait and see.
Beth'tilac
Normal
Heroic
Cowl of the Clicking Menace
Robes of Smoldering Devastation
Carapace of Imbibed Flame
Thoracic Flame Kilt
Spaulders of Manifold Eyes
Cindersilk Gloves
[item=70922
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Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14179 - Spell Changes, New Items and More!
Blizzard has just released a new PTR patch, as a follow-up to yesterday's
major official patch notes update
. Just a few class changes and clarifications today, mostly already documented in the previous patch notes update - including spell details for the nerfed raid boss abilities. We're still digging in the patch data, so if we find any more interesting additions we'll be updating this post!
As for new items, Blizzard has added yet another
huge
batch of epic quality loots (over 250 new/updated items!), and finally started adding the actual item sets for the Tier 12 items, so you guys will be able to easily find and check out set bonuses and all that good stuff!
Latest Additions
Flametalon of Alysrazor
- 'Nuff said! (
Check it out!
)
It appears that the pet collection achievements will now offer awesome new rewards!
Petting Zoo
now awards
Nuts' Acorn
Menagerie
now awards
Brilliant Kaliri
Littlest Pet Shop
now awards
Celestial Dragon
Y
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Ask the Devs #8 Answered, Next Topic is Tanking
And here comes the latest Ask the Devs rubric we'll see for a long time.
The Firelands
. If you have submitted any questions regarding the new bosses, T12, the daily quest hubs in Hyjal and the Firelands, or just about lore, here's your chance to see them (or ones like them) answered. Some of the more interesting questions inquire after that Abyssal Maw dungeon Blizzard promised us a while back (we are not getting it), raid balance and boss mechanics in the Firelands, and even a little bit of lore to make those of us into that kind of thing very happy.
Ask the Devs #9 was
just announced
, and its topic will be
Tanking
. The official thread for it will come a little later today, so get your questions ready!
Welcome to the answers thread for our World of Warcraft "Ask the Devs" global Q&A. These answers are in response to the round #8 questions, which can be seen here:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2098312571
What happened with the Abyssal Maw dungeon that was supposed to come with Firelands? – Maryjanee (EU-EN), Espiritu (NA)
Our initial
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News Roundup: On Upcoming Raid Nerfs, BlizzCon Tickets, New Support Site
Just a few new Blizzard posts today after earlier's
major update to the patch notes
, including a clarification on the decision behind the upcoming raid dungeon content nerfs. In addition, Blizzard reminds us of the upcoming (second) sale of BlizzCon tickets, available this Thursday. They've also launched a brand new support site, which allows users to submit tickets via a web interface instead of the clunky in-game method! Sounds awesome to me. :)
On 4.2 Raid Content Nerfs
I'm sure you guys noticed the
massive list of raid nerfs
coming in 4.2, intended to offer players easier access to content that they may not have gotten to experience. Blizzard has certainly learned from their past mistakes in making and then keeping content inaccessible and now wishes to keep content challenging while it's new and then as new content becomes available, gradually move previous content to a PUGable level. Is this a good thing? What do you guys think?
Plenty of people like the challenge, but not everyone has the ability or maybe even desire to be in a guild capable of tackling it right from the get-go.
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Now Hiring: Web Designer
Do you like killing dragons? Do you like to occasionally punt gnomes? And, most importantly, are you a web development and design rockstar?
If so, you might be excited to know that we're hiring a
web designer
to work here at Wowhead (and sometimes on ZAM websites as well). The ideal candidate will have strong Photoshop and coding skills, know each browser and their enumerable quirks, have a solid understanding of web design, and also be able to work efficiently in a remote office environment.
This is a
full-time, contract, work-from-home
position. If you think you're the right one for the job, check out the requirements on our jobs page, and then send a copy of your resume to
jobs@wowhead.com
. You must include design samples along with your cover letter, resume, and salary history in a separate document to be considered.
Thanks to our awesome users, we're fortunate to have a group of paid professional enthusiasts working together to bring you a site that we hope makes your World of Warcraft experience a more pleasant one. Every time we hire a new person, we're all excited at the opportunity to bring another one of you guys into the inner sanctum of Wowhead. We look forward
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Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Notes - Updated 5/24
The 4.2 Patch Notes have been updated! This latest update brings major nerfs to T11 encounters in preparation for Firelands, as Blizzard wishes to allow more players access to the content. This update also contains an assortment of class changes (including some important tanking changes) as well as a few more T12 set bonus adjustments.
With the upcoming content patch, 10- and 25-person Normal mode raid encounters will be receiving a comprehensive set of tuning adjustments to decrease their difficulty.
These changes will allow players, groups, and guilds who have yet to experience the content in Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the the Four Winds an opportunity to do so.
With the addition of a new tier of armor and weapons, we want to make the previous tier more accessible in ways other than just a shift of currency type, so we are making item level 359 gear purchasable for Justice points in the upcoming content patch.
Read the updated patch notes here
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2723732#dungeons
to see the current list of changes. Please note that all adjustments are subject to change based on the current 4.2 test
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Patch 4.2: Farewell, Keyring
The keyring being unavailable on the PTR wasn't a bug, apparently; come 4.2, the keyring is being removed from the game. As someone who remembers when the keyring was a welcomed addition, it's an interesting sign of the times to see it disappear from whence it came. A lot of keys will be going with it as well it seems.
World of Warcraft has evolved quite a bit since the day the Keyring bag slot was added in patch 1.11. When implemented, the Keyring provided players with a convenient way of storing dungeon, quest, and other keys automatically. Back when the largest bag was a mind bottling 18 slots -- rumored to be bottomless -- the Keyring helped save precious bag space. But as things tend to do, time went on, bags got bigger, and designs for (literally and figuratively) gating content evolved through the years. In today’s Azeroth, keys don’t really serve much of a purpose except to take up physical storage space from the game (which could be used for other awesome stuff), and visual interface space from you. Because of this, we’ve decided to get rid of the Keyring in order to free up that space for new features. This change could als
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Patch 4.2: Elemental Bonds Quest Preview
The Elemental Bonds questline is finally up on the PTR and we've taken the liberty of doing it all so you can spoil yourselves silly. As a point of note, this questline is the main lore point behind 4.2 and it features both the villains as well as the heroes of
Firelands
.
As the Blizzard preview teased, this quest chain focuses on Aggra and Thrall both as lovers and heroes trying to save the world. Having seen it in-depth, we can confirm that it focuses on both traditional and nontraditional enemies; as much of the questline is Thrall overcoming his fears and desires as a mortal being with limited time on Azeroth as it is fighting elementals.
To help showcase this truly epic quest, we've compiled a YouTube video of all the scenes from start to finish and we also wrote up more in-depth guide. You can find both in this post.
However, if you don't want to be spoiled, close this page
now
. Even the comments will probably be rife with debate or speculation on this quest chain and its implementation, outcome, and so on. In short, it's not our fault if you spoil yourselves. We've warned you
.
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Reputation and Daily Rewards in Patch 4.2
When a new patch hits, the first thing you want to know is where to get geared up. Besides the
Firelands
raid itself, there are two other methods in which to get gear so far. We've put the items we've uncovered earlier this week and last into separate listings so you can see how you can get gear beyond just the boss drops from a certain Firelord's new domain.
Avengers of Hyjal
Rewards
This faction will provide players with extremely good gear--if they can become famed with them, anyway. The specifics aren't out yet and all we know is that it will involve some raiding. Luckily for non-raiders, most people are speculating that it will be more like one of vanilla's reputation grinds:
Brood of Nozdormu
. Unlike the most recent raid reputation grind of
The Ashen Verdict
from Wrath of the Lich King, Brood reputation was able to be acquired without raiding up until a certain point and then up until introductory bosses until another. So if it does indeed follow this method, it wouldn't be hard to imagine the friendly or even honored rewards being obtained by people who seldom set foot in the raid instance.
It's also nice to see a lot of items besides rings making an appearance. Keep in mind that these are by no me
Live
Patch 4.1 Hotfixes (May 15 - 19)
A few big hotfixes were just announced for live today.
Classes
Death Knight
Necrotic Strike
's AP coefficient has been reduced from 0.75 to 0.7.
Obliterate
has been reduced from 160% to 150% base weapon damage.
Shaman
Healing Surge
has been reduced in power by 20%.
Warlock
now deals 25% less damage.
First Batch of BlizzCon Tickets
Also, as a quick reminder, BlizzCon tickets go on sale in less than 24 hours. Remember to get up prepared on Saturday!
Just in case May 21 isn't circled on your calendar, here's a quick reminder that BlizzCon 2011 tickets will be going on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. PT -- keep your eye on
the ticket sales page
tomorrow for the chance to get yours. If you are unable to purchase tickets tomorrow, a second batch will go on sale Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. PT. In addition, tic
Live
Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14133 - New Models for Nozdormu, Fire Raven God and More!
Last night's patch included a few interesting new 3D models after all! Most notably the fiery version of Anzu makes an appearance--
he was mentioned here
a while ago as one of the coveted vanity rewards, but there's still no word on where he drops.
In addition to this bad boy, the patch also included an amazing humanoid model for the bronze dragon Nozdormu (he shows up at some part of the
legendary staff quest chain
and the Thrall questline) and an amazing set of fiery shoulders upon one of Majordomo Staghelm's Druids of the Flame. These guys appear in the Alysrazor encounter and throughout Firelands as trash mobs. Not only that, but we've got an updated model for the new
Reins of the Vicious War Steed
, a scorching Overfiend, and a poor guy having a very rough day. Be sure to click the screenshots and check 'em out in our awesome 3D model viewer!
[model npc=38743 humanoid=1 img=
http://static.wowhead.com/i
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Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14133 - New Items, Spell Changes and Icons!
Blizzard has snuck another late night patch onto the 4.2 PTRs! This latest update doesn't seem to feature very many interesting spell changes, as most seem to be simply tooltip clarifications and rewordings, but there's probably something I'm not noticing so you guys should definitely check 'em out! Pretty ho-hum new icons, as well, though the one labeled "fireravengodmount" definitely raises my eyebrow. Speaking of mounts, looks like PVP aficionados are going to get some love with the new
Vicious Gladiator's Twilight Drake
! Snazzy!
In addition, we've also got quite a handful of interesting new
epics
, including even more
Tier 12 armor
(
Warlock
,
Shaman
,
Mage
and
Priest
) as well as updated (ilvl 365!)
Brewfest
and
Hallow's End
loot!
Latest Additions
New Brewfest Loot!
Bitterer Balebrew Charm
Bubblier Brightbrew Charm
Brawler's Trophy
Coren's Chilled Chromium Coaster
Mithril Stopwatch
Petrified Pickled Egg
Tremendous Tankard O' Terror
Direbrew's Bloodied Shanker
New Hallow's End Loot!
Band of Ghoulish Glee
Seal of the Petrified Pumpkin
Wicked Witch's Ring
1
500
501
502
503
504
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