Support NeoGAF

[Macattk15]

What ice troll raid? The only time I've ever heard one mentioned has been people jokingly suggesting that there must be one because an expansion *always* has a troll raid. I've never seen an official mention of such.

That giant castle like structure located near Gundrak in Zul'drak is mostly unused. Been mentions / rumors of a possible ice troll raid up there ... though it doesn't seem it anymore.

 

[yacobod]

ZG, ZA, ....

would be cool if there was another Zul... troll raid tho, ZG and ZA were both pretty well designed instances

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Do bear in mind that the *actual* pre-Cataclysm patch - that is, 4.0 - will necessarily be massive and require a lot of testing since we would assume it'd have to contain the entire newly-sundered world; at some point those players who don't have the expansion will need to get their entire base world updated, and 4.0 is the logical time for that to take place.

It'll be a bit weird, though, we'll see the effect's of Deathwing's attack without actually being able to *do* anything about it for a while, unless they're planning something crazy with phasing to phase the whole new world in overnight on the release date.

Yeah it'll probably be a phasing before the servers go down on expansion night to insert in the entire sundered world.

For an event I'd like to see quakes, cracks starting to form in the ground, as well as Twilight's Hammer goons stalking the lands. Also a red sky.

 

[mclem]

That giant castle like structure located near Gundrak in Zul'drak is mostly unused. Been mentions / rumors of a possible ice troll raid up there ... though it doesn't seem it anymore.

Well, Gundrak is directly beneath that area - you can see the central room of it if you go over to that big quest rhino and look straight down - so logically there wouldn't be any space for an instance there - not, I should add, that that's ever stopped them doing it in the past.

I suspect it was ready in case they needed a stopgap troll raid, but they weren't actually committing to doing it, hence the fact that I've not been able to find anything official on the subject.

 

[mclem]

Yeah it'll probably be a phasing before the servers go down on expansion night to insert in the entire sundered world.

The only thing I'd question there - and it depends precisely *how* phasing works, it may not actually be a problem - is the fact that I think that would mean they'd have to have both worlds coexisting for a while, which would be quite a bit of extra overhead on the servers. While it's okay to have multiple copies of some small region running at the same time, if we're talking entire continents it becomes a rather different matter...

...or I'm entirely wrong about phasing. Which is quite possible.

 

[Rapstah]

Judging from Blizzard's previous expansion releases, they'll stage an "invasion" of the world, but this time it might actually be real (important characters could actually die if they can hide that kind of scripting from datamining). No idea how they'll do the terrain though, WOTLK proved they can't phase terrain changes yet.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

The only thing I'd question there - and it depends precisely *how* phasing works, it may not actually be a problem - is the fact that I think that would mean they'd have to have both worlds coexisting for a while, which would be quite a bit of extra overhead on the servers. While it's okay to have multiple copies of some small region running at the same time, if we're talking entire continents it becomes a rather different matter...

...or I'm entirely wrong about phasing. Which is quite possible.

Well what they might do instead is just stick with the old world in 4.0 and then releasing a much larger patch in 4.0.1 with the entire sundered world. I think that makes much more sense.

 

[mclem]

No idea how they'll do the terrain though, WOTLK proved they can't phase terrain changes yet.

I'm sure they said at Blizzcon that they had sorted that and were planning to use it in Cataclysm. Don't write that off

 

[border]

They said they can phase terrain/geometry now -- they just haven't done it in WotLK.

 

[mclem]

Well what they might do instead is just stick with the old world in 4.0 and then releasing a much larger patch in 4.0.1 with the entire sundered world. I think that makes much more sense.

I'm not sure they want to be releasing a massive patch like that right around the release date of the expansion; too many extra variables that could cause problems. Or were you suggesting 4.0.1 would be a few weeks after the expansion came out?

 

[Retro]

I'm thinking when you log in post-4.0, you'll instantly be teleported to a phased version of your race's capitol (or just Stormwind / Orgrimmar) where there will be a series of quests that have you running all over watching the world tear itself apart. I am thinking you might have to escort your faction leader to safety, so there will be something like... a race part, some flying parts... basically they need to keep players moving around to show the whole world blowing up.

You'll probably have a few of your faction's heroes there to buff you to insanely unkillable levels, and maybe a movie.

 

[Rapstah]

I wonder how they'll do the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas in Cataclysm. The loading screens felt like a compromise at the time, so unifying Kalimdor/Draenei and Azeroth/Quel'whatever would be nice - especially considering flying mounts - but then they'll have the issue of people without Burning Crusade getting to go there.

 

[Bisnic]

Anyone know a good Alliance server?(Dont wanna pay 55$ to change faction AND transfer) I'm tired of mine, there's not enough people, i'm not in a raiding guild(in fact i left mine because it kept losing members everyday and was almost dead), and pug raids are rare and not very good. The only thing i like about mine is being on Vindication battlegroup and having to wait only 4-6 minutes on average with my mage to get the frost badges daily heroic done. Which is, basically, the only thing my mage has done this year except for Wintergrasp/fishing quests. /cry

I'd like one with a good population, where there isn't too many elitist jerks and where people are not too obsessed with Gearscore for pug raids or guild invites(i do have 5.4K GS, but i still hate people who only trust a player's value with this, and i hate people who ask stupid requirement like 5k+ for simple stuff like TOC10). If i could keep a ~5 minutes wait for the heroic daily, it would be nice too, i sure hope Vindication-Alliance isn't the only battlegroup like that. :lol

Does such a server exist?

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I'm not sure they want to be releasing a massive patch like that right around the release date of the expansion; too many extra variables that could cause problems. Or were you suggesting 4.0.1 would be a few weeks after the expansion came out?

No, having 4.0.1 come out a few weeks after the expansion would be really bad since it would contain the post-cataclysm world. What I was suggesting was put out 4.0 like they did with 3.0 a month before and release 4.0.1 when the servers come down for the expansion.

Though I see what you mean in terms of the extra variables. I guess they could bring the entire post-cataclysm world out in 4.0 before the expansion hits. Let all the alts and new players have all this new content out weeks in advance along with some sort of event to keep the 80s occupied until Cataclysm is released.

 

[mclem]

I wonder how they'll do the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas in Cataclysm. The loading screens felt like a compromise at the time, so unifying Kalimdor/Draenei and Azeroth/Quel'whatever would be nice - especially considering flying mounts - but then they'll have the issue of people without Burning Crusade getting to go there.

I think the question at this stage should be: Would they actually *mind*? I suspect the reasons they didn't want to allow people who haven't upgraded into the new areas were:

1. Wanted to save the new streamlined quests and experiences for people who've purchased the expansion.
2. Wanted to ensure there was low-level content available exclusive to the expansion as an extra incentive to upgrade.
3. Wanted to ensure that expansion purchasers got a clear levelling experience without having a bunch of sightseers who haven't purchased the expansion sitting around. The people who *had* purchased the expansion were quite happily throwing themselves through the portal instead.
4. Wanted to avoid forcing people who hadn't bought into the expansion from having to download a large collection of new content.

This time around, though:

1. There's new streamlined quests all around, for everyone. The ones at Exodar and Silvermoon are likely to seem old-hat - either way, they're definitely the ones that least need updating.
2. This still exists, but it's now handled by virtue of the fact that the opening Goblin and Worgen quests are phased; if they can't create a Goblin or Worgen, they can't travel through the phasing.
3. Again, phasing, but also the fact that there's a heck of a lot for sightseers to see other than that.
4. Well, they're going to have to do that *anyway*, so what the heck.

 

[border]

Are there people using a different GearScore addon than I am?

I see messages in trade like "2500 GS Paladin looking for ToC or Onyxia raid". Why the hell would you advertise a 2500 gearscore? Isn't that downright terrible? People in Heroics start complaining as soon as they see someone under 4K. I also see raid leaders demanding a 2500 GS for VoA runs, which also seems like a pretty low threshold.

I have to think there's some other addon where 2500 is actually a decent score.

 

[Yaweee]

I really hope that Exodar Island and Silvermoon join the non-instanced chunk of the old world. Having random load times mid-flight (or worse, depending on what solution they choose) because Blizzard doesn't like the idea of making four-year-old TBC content part of the main game would be a goddamn shame. Incorporation of early expansions into the base game happens in damn near every other MMO, so why not WoW?

 

[Rapstah]

Are there people using a different GearScore addon than I am?

I see messages in trade like "2500 GS Paladin looking for ToC or Onyxia raid". Why the hell would you advertise a 2500 gearscore? Isn't that downright terrible? People in Heroics start complaining as soon as they see someone under 4K. I also see raid leaders demanding a 2500 GS for VoA runs, which also seems like a pretty low threshold.

I have to think there's some other addon where 2500 is actually a decent score.

No, the system called "Gear Score" is unified. There could be other addons but they wouldn't be named that. You could wowhead the paladin in question's profile and check the (actual) GS from there.

 

[Rapstah]

I really hope that Exodar Island and Silvermoon join the non-instanced chunk of the old world. Having random load times mid-flight (or worse, depending on what solution they choose) because Blizzard doesn't like the idea of making four-year-old TBC content part of the main game would be a goddamn shame. Incorporation of early expansions into the base game happens in damn near every other MMO, so why not WoW?

Not to mention those loading screens were bugged as fuck too, I joined an instance in mid flight right after a loading screen and when I reappeared into the world my character was falling into the Twisting Nether...

EDIT: Whoops, double post.

 

[Yaweee]

Are there people using a different GearScore addon than I am?

I see messages in trade like "2500 GS Paladin looking for ToC or Onyxia raid". Why the hell would you advertise a 2500 gearscore? Isn't that downright terrible? People in Heroics start complaining as soon as they see someone under 4K. I also see raid leaders demanding a 2500 GS for VoA runs, which also seems like a pretty low threshold.

I have to think there's some other addon where 2500 is actually a decent score.

WoW-Heroes is on that scale of points, and 2500 is appropriate for TOC10 or Ony10. Likely using the wrong term because they don't understand that GearScore is a separate addon.

 

[Dunlop]

WoW-Heroes is on that scale of points, and 2500 is appropriate for TOC10 or Ony10. Likely using the wrong term because they don't understand that GearScore is a separate addon.

lol, that was me a few days ago. I saw the general chat request for a GS 2500 and could not figure it out at first as I had like 2800 when I hit 80 with blues.

Is there an addon that reflects the WOW heroes score or do you have to go to the sight.

I'm at like 2.1k atm

 

[border]

Currently I have a warrior, a warlock, and a Death Knight at level 80. I'd like to start doing some Battlegrounds/Wintergrasp PVP with one of them. Of those classes, which is the most fun to PVP with? Keep in mind that I'd like them to be somewhat viable, but I'm not looking to do Arenas at all.

I did a lot of PVP at 70 and 80 with the warrior and warlock. Warrior was fun since people throw you lots of heals, but it's frustrating being kited all over the place so much of the time. Warlock used to be cool when Fear was actually useful -- nowadays I just feel like a target for an insta-stunlock death from several different classes, and still not very viable against other casters with bigger nukes.

I have no PVP experience with my Death Knight, other than being ganked a few times in the open world. Between Death Grip and Strangulate it seems like it could be a lot of fun though. It's kind of annoying that you have to keep diseases up all the time to get the most out of it though.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Currently I have a warrior, a warlock, and a Death Knight at level 80. I'd like to start doing some Battlegrounds/Wintergrasp PVP with one of them. Of those classes, which is the most fun to PVP with? Keep in mind that I'd like them to be somewhat viable, but I'm not looking to do Arenas at all.

I did a lot of PVP at 70 and 80 with the warrior and warlock. Warrior was fun since people throw you lots of heals, but it's frustrating being kited all over the place so much of the time. Warlock used to be cool when Fear was actually useful -- nowadays I just feel like a target for an insta-stunlock death from several different classes, and still not very viable against other casters with bigger nukes.

I have no PVP experience with my Death Knight, other than being ganked a few times in the open world. Between Death Grip and Strangulate it seems like it could be a lot of fun though. It's kind of annoying that you have to keep diseases up all the time to get the most out of it though.

arms spec warriors rape

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Blizzard just released details about "Assault on the Ruby Sanctum."

As we prepare for the public testing phase of minor content patch 3.3.3, some players might come across information regarding upcoming content that isn't yet available. To avoid any confusion, we'd like to tell you about an exciting new raid dungeon we are working on for content patch 3.3.5.

The Ruby Sanctum

A powerful war party of the Black Dragonflight, led by the fearsome Twilight dragon, Halion, have launched an assault upon the Ruby Sanctum beneath Wyrmrest Temple. By destroying the sanctum, the Black Dragonflight look to crush those that would stand in the way of their master’s reemergence into Azeroth and to ultimately shatter the Wyrmrest Accord – the sacred bond that unites the dragonflights.

The battle that is to come will surely deal a crippling blow to the Red Dragonflight, however, it is up to you to stop this unprecedented offensive and defend the Ruby Sanctum. First you must face the assault of Halion's servants, Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and General Zarithrian, before squaring off against Halion the Twilight Destroyer, a new and deadly force in this realm.

The Ruby Sanctum will feature 10- and 25-player content, Heroic difficulties and all-new rewards! Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to its release.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23329393289&sid=1

 

[Yaweee]

Sounds interesting. I wonder if his underlings are just Badge machines like Sarth's drakes, or real bosses with loot tables.

Since it is the "final" boss fight to bridge the gap towards 4.0, I am guessing that the hard modes and achievements will be fairly elaborate for the sake of giving players something to do with all that phat loot they've earned from ICC hard modes (think of design similar to Yogg hard modes and achievements, not Arthas' or Anub's)

 

[LAUGHTREY]

"Arthas is not the last boss wtf blizz?" comments in 3...2...1...

 

[yacobod]

illidan wasnt the last boss in BC, no biggy as long as the encounter is fun

 

[border]

arms spec warriors rape

My impression was that warriors were better suited to arenas where they can get a dedicated healer. If I'm just running random battlegrounds I tend to think I'd be better off with a DK, since they have substantial self-healing capability and some excellent damage-mitigation from spells.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

PTR patch notes are out! http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23329393385&sid=1

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.3

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General
* Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.


PvP
* The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the 50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50% experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds, players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience awarded in either case.
* Battlegrounds
o The Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a random Battleground.

+ The Random Battleground option can be found in the Battleground tab of the PvP frame and is only available for level 80 characters at this time.
+ If this option is selected, players may not queue for specific Battlegrounds and a random Battleground simultaneously.
+ Similar to the Random Dungeon system, players will not know for which Battleground they are chosen when selected from the queue until they zone into the Battleground.
+ The Random Battleground option will only allow a group size of 5 players to queue together.
+ Bonus rewards will be offered for choosing the Random Battleground option.[ul]
+ Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
+ Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
+ Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.

* Daily Battleground quests have been removed in place of the Random Battleground option.
* Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.

o Players with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective faction's quest givers, including individual marks for those who may have more marks for one Battleground than another.
o Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.

* Whenever a Battleground has the holiday bonus active, it will now be referred to as "Call to Arms" in the Battleground tab and Calendar. In addition, Call to Arms Battleground Honor rewards have been changed.

o Choosing a specific Battleground with the Call to Arms bonus active will yield the exact same rewards as when choosing the Random Battleground option.

+ Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
+ Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
+ Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
+ When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the Call to Arms bonuses. In addition, the rewards for the first victory of the day cannot be earned more than once, regardless of whether or not it is obtained from the Random Battleground system or the Call to Arms Battleground.

* Wintergrasp

o The internal balance system now only changes when a faction achieves 2 consecutive defenses after an initial capture of Wintergrasp, up from 1. You can find additional details here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23329393344

Dungeons & Raids

* Culling of Stratholme

o Players may now skip the initial introduction dialog to this dungeon once they have completed it at least once.

A lot of changes. The rest are at the link.

 

[Entropia]

Shamans changes oh god oh god oh god oh god

 

[speedpop]

Totem ranges increased and passive auras? Christmas has come!

edit: HAAANNNNSSS!!!

Players can now Right-Click to place an item in the Auction frame.

Finally.

 

[border]

The cooldown and location requirements have been removed from creating Moonshroud, Spellweave and Ebonweave.

WARNING WARNING WARNING for all Tailors

Time to start dumping this shit on the Auction House ASAP. I suspect that once the change goes live you won't be able to sell this stuff for much more than cost of materials. Such a shame too, since it was a nice little profit you could get off these goods and it took less than 10 minutes of time to make some stuff you could collectively sell for maybe 400-500g.

 

[border]

Look at how many class spells and active abilities have now become passive talents:

Abomination's Might: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc on certain strikes.

Improved Icy Talons: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc.

Arcane Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of critical strikes.

Elemental Oath: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.

Unleashed Rage: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.

Rampage: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc from critical strikes.

I think it's pretty obvious that all of these are going completely disappear from talent trees come Cataclysm. Maybe I don't understand exactly how it's going to work, but it looks like these are pretty huge buffs for everyone in a group. Bring a fury warrior and you get 5% crit ALL THE TIME. Bring a Blood DK and get 10% attack power ALL THE TIME. Bring a Frost DK and get 20% melee Haste ALL THE TIME. Of course even when these abilities were a proc they saw a lot of uptime, but still nice to see that they will be constant buffs.

 

[Yaweee]

Oh, great Shaman changes. Spell haste for Flame Shock is an outright damage boost, and the crit change frees up a glyph slot for either Elemental Master or

Elemental Oath is pretty significant, too.

All in all, I'd guess 5~6% damage increase for elemental shamans, maybe more.

The totem range thing is pretty awesome, too, but overall not vastly different for personal DPS.

 

[Sciz]

My enhancement spec welcomes the opportunity to indulge in elemental's flame shock crits.

Guess I'll finally have to pick up glyph of ToW again.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I wish I was able to send items from faction to faction if the characters were on the account. Hell, I'd love for some realm to realm account mailing too. Really want my BlizzCon stuff all on my Paladin.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I wish I was able to send items from faction to faction if the characters were on the account. Hell, I'd love for some realm to realm account mailing too. Really want my BlizzCon stuff all on my Paladin.

Hell, just let us send heirlooms cross-realm. I'm almost considering transferring one of my 80s over to a realm I'm leveling a hunter on JUST so I can have a Tome of CWF for the 68-80 grind. Mind you, I'm considering it.

 

[Bregor]

Wow, they finally figured out that Rogues have dropped Rupture from their rotation, 7 months after it happened!

 

[J-Rzez]

Oh boy, more changes to Scourge Strike. Can't wait to see what's going to end up being broken with it this time. Either it'll hit too hard, it'll hit like a noodle, or something won't be working period. Happens ever single time they change it.

 

[Door2Dawn]

When will the PTR be up?

 

[mclem]

Maybe I'm reading too much into the Ruby Sanctum description, but what they describe feels like a Hyjal-style encounter to me; the fact that you're defending against an assault. Of course, that could just be colourful text when actually they're just standing around when you get there and you pull them, but we'll see.

 

[Tamanon]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/patch-3-3-3-build-11573/

A couple of very very very interesting achievements were added to the game files with this patch. I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional but ...

Gnomecoming King - You assisted High Tinker Mekkatorque and the Gnomeregan Exiles in the recapture of Gnomeregan's surface.
Gnomecoming Queen - You assisted High Tinker Mekkatorque and the Gnomeregan Exiles in the recapture of Gnomeregan's surface.

Apparently, parts of the pre-Cataclysm event have been deployed in this patch and retaking Gnomeregan will be part of it!

Blizzard didn't forget about horde players, it looks like Trolls will play a big part in the pre-Cataclysm event for the Horde :

Finally my gnomish comrades can go home!

 

[J-Rzez]

They just had to put something in related to trolls. :lol

Looks like Vol'jin got some new old armor. At least he doesn't look like some level 25 bank alt anymore, kinda. Same with the gnome guy.

 

[gottalovetheglove]

I must say, I really dislike the new human models they're using for important NPCs (Anduin Wrynn, Jaina, etc.). They look plastic and, dare I say, worse than the original models.

 

[Deacan]

How can anything be worse than the Human model at the moment.

 

[Gravijah]

Bah at more Shaman changes when my Priest is 77. :lol

 

[RubxQub]

What server does everyone here play on these days?

Looking to start an Alliance char on a PvP server since I've already done the Horde side to death in a previous life.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

How can anything be worse than the Human model at the moment.

Ain't updating the animations for Races and Creatures, some of the most time consuming things they can do? Maybe that's why it's taking so long with those dances?

Is it the Male Human model, you think is bad?

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Well that was sure a waste of time. Did the beginning of ToC with the mounts and was kicked shortly after that for no reason. I love randoms.

 

[Retro]

Maybe I'm reading too much into the Ruby Sanctum description, but what they describe feels like a Hyjal-style encounter to me; the fact that you're defending against an assault. Of course, that could just be colourful text when actually they're just standing around when you get there and you pull them, but we'll see.

Not according to what Zarhym said last night;

Well, when you're able to enter the Ruby Sanctum, you'll find yourself in the wake of an assault that's already taken place.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/23329393289-assault-on-the-ruby-sanctum.html

To me, it sounds like you'll get in there, and see that the Black Dragonflight is hard at work, suppressing the other dragons to prepare for Deathwing's return. The Red Dragonflight currently guards the shit out of Grim Batol, which is supposed to be where Deathwing makes his lair.

Basically, Deathwing is trying to get rid of anyone left who can stop him. The Burning Legion is on the outs, Arthas is on the outs, the Horde and Alliance are busy with Icecrown and each other... the dragons are the only real threat to him left.