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[J-Rzez]

They must be making an absolute killing on that mount, unbelievable.

I'm still waiting on my new rocket mount though. Not letting my friend start playing until they activate it.

 

[Angry Grimace]

They must be making an absolute killing on that mount, unbelievable.

I'm still waiting on my new rocket mount though. Not letting my friend start playing until they activate it.

You will not get a RAF mount until the friend has paid for 2 months.

 

[Bisnic]

Can you use this mount on a lvl 20 character? Seems a bit ridiculous to get such an epic mount when you're some crappy hunter still killing wolves and bears.

 

[Subterranean]

They must be making an absolute killing on that mount, unbelievable.

I'm still waiting on my new rocket mount though. Not letting my friend start playing until they activate it.

They are making a ton off of the mount. $2 million in 4 hours to be exact.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178849

 

[Retro]

Somebody at MMO champ found an interesting typo at WoWhead:

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=49479

Most likely something left over from testing, but interesting that Blizzard has considered adding new weapon classes in the past... and with Weapon Skill going away in Cataclysm, now might be an interesting time to introduce more.

Thought it was cool enough to share.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I'm a little bothered now, the notion that they're actually starting to charge for this shit, window dressing or not WHILE they still charge you a monthly fee is a bit absurd. These are free-to-play tactics.

When it was for charity that time, yeah that was ok. The CCG cross promotion is also fine, IMO, but now just pulling out the stops and doing this type of direct RMT is a bit warped.

It's very sad, since it seems to be successful and you know what means; prepare for more and more and more assets withheld so they can sell 'em to you at an extreme premium.

They got every right, since to do it. It's a skin basically. Not a gameplay advantage. It's nature of the business to expand your bussiness. This does not affect us who do not want to pay for it at all.

For me it's just another mount. I think most of the mounts in the game are over the top as it is, so no thanks.

 

[Tamanon]

Can you use this mount on a lvl 20 character? Seems a bit ridiculous to get such an epic mount when you're some crappy hunter still killing wolves and bears.

You can, but it doesn't fly and runs at normal level 20 mounts speed, just looks neat.

 

[Alex]

They got every right, since to do it. It's a skin basically. Not a gameplay advantage. It's nature of the business to expand your bussiness. This does not affect us who do not want to pay for it at all.

For me it's just another mount. I think most of the mounts in the game are over the top as it is, so no thanks.

It can affect people quite a bit. This is a pay to play MMO, usually my purchase of the title, its expansions and payment for services/updates includes these things. This is kind of a new thing. It's conjoining a pay to play and free to play model and it's a bad place to be as a fan.

Say if I did want this mount, and I did want that pet, I pay for the games ongoing dev yet I have to pony up a gigantic premium in order to obtain them now. That little shop will probably fill up more and more and when the next sluggish period hits, really nothing is going to stop them from blurring the lines more and more until it hits an uncomfortable spot.

Blizzard, has of course said that they wouldn't do this or that but they've also renegged on things more than couple times in the past

As for what they're in their rights to do, I don't care, I'm not a stockholder, nor will I ever defend any company as if I were one. I'm nowhere near ready to set something on fire or cry boycott. This is pretty tame at the moment, but at the same time I'm not going to take it up the ass like one of the console flag wavers either. It's worth calling out and discussing and evaluating where it could go.

Personally, for me, it's entertainment, and I like Blizzard a lot. They support old games and release more content in patches than a lot of devs will do in fucking sequels, so I'll be giving my benefit of the doubt until any truly repugnant shit comes. But it's an icky precedent and really just adds more fear for the future of the genre. I *hate* microtransactions.

I gotta say though, as opposed to, say, a couple shitty maps for a shitty FPS, it is even funnier to see people paying such a sum of money for a really, really tacky alpha channeled horse.

 

[J-Rzez]

You will not get a RAF mount until the friend has paid for 2 months.

I know this, and this guy has that compulsive attitude, his life will be consumed. So, I guess the moral of the story is, a human soul is worth a 2-seater rocket mount.

 

[Xabora]

Somebody at MMO champ found an interesting typo at WoWhead:

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=49479

Most likely something left over from testing, but interesting that Blizzard has considered adding new weapon classes in the past... and with Weapon Skill going away in Cataclysm, now might be an interesting time to introduce more.

Thought it was cool enough to share.

I've seen spears on older spell IDs. Lemme find it.

http://www.wow.com/2008/10/06/ask-a-beta-tester-exotic-weapons-furbolgs-and-more/
BAM!

 

[half a moon]

ugh, broke my iphone that had an authenticator on it. what do i need to do. call billing? what info do they need to know?

 

[Narag]

I know this, and this guy has that compulsive attitude, his life will be consumed. So, I guess the moral of the story is, a human soul is worth a 2-seater rocket mount.

:lol

 

[Rapstah]

"Spears" was a weapon class in the original WOW beta back in 2004 that got merged with the Polearms class back then. I think One-Handed Exotics stem from early beta versions of Titan's Grip.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

It can affect people quite a bit. This is a pay to play MMO, usually my purchase of the title, its expansions and payment for services/updates includes these things. This is kind of a new thing. It's conjoining a pay to play and free to play model and it's a bad place to be as a fan.

Say if I did want this mount, and I did want that pet, I pay for the games ongoing dev yet I have to pony up a gigantic premium in order to obtain them now. That little shop will probably fill up more and more and when the next sluggish period hits, really nothing is going to stop them from blurring the lines more and more until it hits an uncomfortable spot.

Blizzard, has of course said that they wouldn't do this or that but they've also renegged on things more than couple times in the past

As for what they're in their rights to do, I don't care, I'm not a stockholder, nor will I ever defend any company as if I were one. I'm nowhere near ready to set something on fire or cry boycott. This is pretty tame at the moment, but at the same time I'm not going to take it up the ass like one of the console flag wavers either. It's worth calling out and discussing and evaluating where it could go.

Personally, for me, it's entertainment, and I like Blizzard a lot. They support old games and release more content in patches than a lot of devs will do in fucking sequels, so I'll be giving my benefit of the doubt until any truly repugnant shit comes. But it's an icky precedent and really just adds more fear for the future of the genre. I *hate* microtransactions.

I gotta say though, as opposed to, say, a couple shitty maps for a shitty FPS, it is even funnier to see people paying such a sum of money for a really, really tacky alpha channeled horse.

Of course we should discuss it, but I felt this was in the cards for so long.

It's so easy to see how this is an experiment. They release this thing to test the playerbase. Will it create a buzz? How many are instantly willing to pick it up?

For me it's a total turn on that it has already become so popular. It makes me not want to have it. 25 Dollars is also ALOT. It's almost two months of WoW time. It's more than a server transfer, or class change I think.


I can see why you would connect the dots in that this is the beginning of the end. It started with those companion pet. Now this. Next is maybe Heirlooms, and other useful tools...

I think many will leave in an heartbeat if it comes to this. I see this as a lesser Blizzcon Murky/Space Marine pet...



As for Pay to play, I am not sure if I think its not okay. I actually think it is when its things at this stage that is not lacking. WoW is already a Zoo-like riding ground with the insane amount of mounts, including freaking motorcycles and now flying A-Bomb shaped rocketships.
But maybe I would hope to expect an even better service now; Even more stable servers, higher account protection, fight against inflation and gold farmers etc... Yeah, in my overall picture down the road I hope this means better gameplay for me. Probably a Naive thought, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[arhra]

I can see why you would connect the dots in that this is the beginning of the end. It started with those companion pet. Now this. Next is maybe Heirlooms, and other useful tools...

They've been selling mounts for cash for years. Now they just cut out the middle-man and eliminated the TCG bullshit (and associated ebay scalpers).

 

[Dina]

Here's a good opinion piece about the new mount and pet: http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Game-by-Night-Gameriot-Warehouse/Screw-the-Pony-Think-of-Your-Sub

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Haven't played WoW for 9 months, but thinking of returning. I was a lvl80 Warrior with comfortable tanking equipment for Naxx when I left - not sure what changes have been made now though.

Was on EU server: Aggramar

Left due to bordem - all the people I played with seemed more interested in standing still AFK in Dalaran.
Worth coming back?

 

[moojito]

Haven't played WoW for 9 months, but thinking of returning. I was a lvl80 Warrior with comfortable tanking equipment for Naxx when I left - not sure what changes have been made now though.

Was on EU server: Aggramar

Left due to bordem - all the people I played with seemed more interested in standing still AFK in Dalaran.
Worth coming back?

Ask your friends if they still hang out in Dalaran!

 

[Milpool]

Haven't played WoW for 9 months, but thinking of returning. I was a lvl80 Warrior with comfortable tanking equipment for Naxx when I left - not sure what changes have been made now though.

Was on EU server: Aggramar

Left due to bordem - all the people I played with seemed more interested in standing still AFK in Dalaran.
Worth coming back?

Heh, I'm on that server, horde side. Though I haven't played in a few weeks due to other games and a dodgy connection.

 

[mclem]

Haven't played WoW for 9 months, but thinking of returning. I was a lvl80 Warrior with comfortable tanking equipment for Naxx when I left - not sure what changes have been made now though.

Was on EU server: Aggramar

Left due to bordem - all the people I played with seemed more interested in standing still AFK in Dalaran.
Worth coming back?

Hey, that's my home server!


Whether it's worth coming back is pretty dependent on what you want out of the game. I think 9 months would put you at mid-range Ulduar, although the gear would be a little behind that. Catching up shouldn't be too hard, given the badge system, you'll just need to accumulate a bunch of badges; you should be able to get into a T9 set without too much hassle along with quite a few badges towards the T10 stuff.

The new dungeon finder system should get you heroic groups with little to no hassle at all. However, you may find you have gear issues - not for the content, you're fine for that, but for some of the gearscore folk who sulk about people in a group who aren't at least in Tier 9 gear. I've not *noticed* many of them on our server, but my gear's of a level that they wouldn't complain about anyway, so I may just have been fortunate.

You'll probably need to work a bit for it, but once you've got some gear you should be able to access the newer heroics, which are great little 5-mans and contain some really nice loot; a bit of farming and a bit of luck, and you ought to be good to go for current raid content.

In short: It shouldn't be too tough to catch up. Your problem will be with the people, rather than the game mechanics. Find good people and you may be in luck. Your best opportunity to calm the unreasonable people is to go DPS rather than tank in a dungeon, but that means having the queue times to accompany it.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Thanks for the reply guys!
Here's my nub warrior: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aggramar&cn=Kilchkov

Had played since Beta until 9 months ago, but think its time to get back in just before the Expansion comes out. Currently loading it all back up (taking forever), so might see what its like since my friend gave a scroll of res.

EDIT:

Actually looks like my mates used it since I've been away, apparently there was 7 days free play time, so he activated the account and messed about on it :lol

 

[Entropia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCjuFpQ3EeA&fmt=18

 

[yacobod]

ugh, broke my iphone that had an authenticator on it. what do i need to do. call billing? what info do they need to know?

this happened to me, solution wasnt as straight forward as i hoped

if you have your authenticator key it should be easy, if not you need to have all 3 of your cd-keys, i had to end up filling out a form and sending in a copy of my drivers license to recover my account, rather to remove my key from the battle.net account

 

[notworksafe]

Here's a good opinion piece about the new mount and pet: http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Game-by-Night-Gameriot-Warehouse/Screw-the-Pony-Think-of-Your-Sub

What a moronic article. There's no reason to think that subscription costs will go up because the mount sold well. If anything, they would go down because that's what happens to every MMO and Blizzard now knows if the funds coming in are low, they can just pop out a glowing horse and have 70k people waiting in line to buy it.

if you have your authenticator key it should be easy, if not you need to have all 3 of your cd-keys, i had to end up filling out a form and sending in a copy of my drivers license to recover my account, rather to remove my key from the battle.net account

For anyone that has an authenticator, make sure to write down your authenticator serial number and email it or yourself (or keep it somewhere you won't lose it) because if you ever lose your authenticator or the battery dies it will be a huge hassle to get it off your account without that number.

 

[Dina]

What a moronic article. There's no reason to think that subscription costs will go up because the mount sold well. If anything, they would go down because that's what happens to every MMO and Blizzard now knows if the funds coming in are low, they can just pop out a glowing horse and have 70k people waiting in line to buy it.

Yeah, that's not what the article is about. It's about inflation, but mostly, fighting a trend.

 

[notworksafe]

Well the author mentions in multiple times, so yes it is at least part of what the article is about. The rest of it is also irrelevant drivel (Drivel from GameRiot? What a shock!). When the pet store first launched people whined and cried but I also remember people saying that mounts would soon be sold through the store as well, probably at a cost of $20 or more. Well look what happened. Is anyone surprised?

I did buy the mount for a friend, but I don't see myself buying anything else they have in the pet store. The selling of pets and mounts has been going on in WoW for a long time. It was called the WoW Card Game. The main problem with that however, was that the cards were limited in supply so the cost went up for the mount cards very quickly. Plus Blizzard got none of the resale money. So I think the pet store is a great alternative to that. Who would pay hundreds of dollars for a glowing, non-flying tiger when they could get a glowing, flying horse for $25?

The pet store is nothing new for Blizzard and it's likely to expand even further and sell more pets and mounts. Every time it does, we'll get more people predicting the end of the gaming universe as if they were the first to think of it and as if Blizzard hadn't been doing this all along I think that's far more obnoxious then charging people $25 for a digital horse.

 

[Angry Grimace]

What a moronic article. There's no reason to think that subscription costs will go up because the mount sold well. If anything, they would go down because that's what happens to every MMO and Blizzard now knows if the funds coming in are low, they can just pop out a glowing horse and have 70k people waiting in line to buy it.


For anyone that has an authenticator, make sure to write down your authenticator serial number and email it or yourself (or keep it somewhere you won't lose it) because if you ever lose your authenticator or the battery dies it will be a huge hassle to get it off your account without that number.

That article is the WoW equivalent of a Y2K panic article.

 

[notworksafe]

Agreed, Grimace. I'm hoping Blizzard posts that Twitter Dev Chat thing soon, just so there's something non-mount related to talk about.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Of course we should discuss it, but I felt this was in the cards for so long.

It's so easy to see how this is an experiment. They release this thing to test the playerbase. Will it create a buzz? How many are instantly willing to pick it up?

For me it's a total turn on that it has already become so popular. It makes me not want to have it. 25 Dollars is also ALOT. It's almost two months of WoW time. It's more than a server transfer, or class change I think.


I can see why you would connect the dots in that this is the beginning of the end. It started with those companion pet. Now this. Next is maybe Heirlooms, and other useful tools...

I think many will leave in an heartbeat if it comes to this. I see this as a lesser Blizzcon Murky/Space Marine pet...



As for Pay to play, I am not sure if I think its not okay. I actually think it is when its things at this stage that is not lacking. WoW is already a Zoo-like riding ground with the insane amount of mounts, including freaking motorcycles and now flying A-Bomb shaped rocketships.
But maybe I would hope to expect an even better service now; Even more stable servers, higher account protection, fight against inflation and gold farmers etc... Yeah, in my overall picture down the road I hope this means better gameplay for me. Probably a Naive thought, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

You're just envisioning a lot of doomsday slippery slope-type scenarios that you have no plausible reason to believe will happen.

It's a fucking Algalon-Horse, not a free-pass to solo Arthas. Ironically, nobody seems to care that the RAF system not only gives you an even better mount, but also confers several in-game advantages.

 

[Interfectum]

You're just envisioning a lot of doomsday slippery slope-type scenarios that you have no plausible reason to believe will happen.

It's a fucking Algalon-Horse, not a free-pass to solo Arthas. Ironically, nobody seems to care that the RAF system not only gives you an even better mount, but also confers several in-game advantages.

Nailed it.

Everyone is so worried about what might happen 1 to 2 to 10 years from now. Honestly just enjoy WoW for what it is now until whenever you feel Blizzard has pushed you personally too far, then quit.

In the mean time, stop worrying about other people wasting their money on a stupid mount.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Divine Storm
Divine Storm will get the Whirlwind treatment (less damage per target but unlimited targets).

The difference is that paladins fit their rotations around cooldowns while warriors do so around a limited resource. So it's entirely possible a paladin will still use DS when other attacks are on cooldown. (It will depend on what exactly the Ret rotation looks like, which we're still developing.) Divine Storm also provides a little healing too, so it's not exactly the same as Whirlwind. We probably wouldn't want to get to the point where Rets feel the need to have their single target spec without DS and the cleave spec with DS. (And without knowing the numbers, it's going to be difficult for any of you to insist that this will or will not happen.)

In general, we don't want buttons that are good against single targets to just be better against groups of targets. It makes rotations too static and makes numbers hard to balance since "cleavey" specs can do so much more damage against tight packs of enemies. Some higher damage is fine. It just too extreme right now.

These are previews, not patch notes. Just because we didn't mention anything doesn't mean there is no chance of it changing.

*sigh*

Well, Rets, I hope you like spamming Crusader Strike!

The worst part is, that it's like Blizzard forgot that AoE damage is largely irrelevant in most endgame content, and you just do more of it in AoE situations regardless of which skill you actually use. I'm sorry, I just think the anti-Whirlwind/DS sentiment is misguided on their part; more so with DS since you only have one weapon whereas Fury Warriors have two to it does way more.

 

[Rapstah]

Okay, just hit 80 on my first ever level cap character - now what the hell do I do? I can't run heroics right away and I don't really want to either since I'd probably wipe every single group (Holy specced Priest).

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Okay, just hit 80 on my first ever level cap character - now what the hell do I do? I can't run heroics right away and I don't really want to either since I'd probably wipe every single group (Holy specced Priest).

Run normal ToC/ICC 5-mans to gear up for heroics and start farming rep for the main factions in WotLK for enchants.

 

[ShallNoiseUpon]

 

[Rapstah]

Run normal ToC/ICC 5-mans to gear up for heroics and start farming rep for the main factions in WotLK for enchants.

And if I can't queue for any of those instances? Locked, "you must obtain better gear".

 

[jersoc]

For anyone that has an authenticator, make sure to write down your authenticator serial number and email it or yourself (or keep it somewhere you won't lose it) because if you ever lose your authenticator or the battery dies it will be a huge hassle to get it off your account without that number.

no it's not. all they need is your billing address and the last 6 numbers of your vanilla wow code. i did this a month ago. the hardest part is the hour long wait to get to someone in billing. it took me 5 mins once i was speaking to someone.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'll admit the lack of rarity kind of sucks, but that Celestial Steed is *really* cool.

 

[notworksafe]

no it's not. all they need is your billing address and the last 6 numbers of your vanilla wow code. i did this a month ago. the hardest part is the hour long wait to get to someone in billing. it took me 5 mins once i was speaking to someone.

Must have changed policies recently. I had to send them all my wow product codes and a copy of my drivers license. This was only a few months ago, but I'm glad they made it less of a pain.

And if I can't queue for any of those instances? Locked, "you must obtain better gear".

Just run randoms to get badge gear. The LFG tool won't put you in an instance you can't heal. Then once you are geared you can run the higher level heroics to get the good stuff.

 

[Rapstah]

Just run randoms to get badge gear. The LFG tool won't put you in an instance you can't heal. Then once you are geared you can run the higher level heroics to get the good stuff.

Kind of figured, got into Halls of Lightning earlier and while we wiped on the first boss due to the tank leaving, I had no trouble healing up to that point. Thanks!

 

[HarryDemeanor]

And if I can't queue for any of those instances? Locked, "you must obtain better gear".

Forgot about the gear requirements. They need to fix that.

 

[Retro]

1. I make it a point not to use twitter. Anyone planning to ask questions at the Developer Chat tonight mind throwing the "Will Paladins get a gap closer?" question at em, even though I'm sure it will be asked a hundred times and they'll ignore it anyways?

2. So fucking tired of the Pony Drama. Not the mount itself but the endless fucking whining and bitching and making 200 posts about how it sucks, why people who buy it sucks, why blizzard sucks, why blizzard sucks for deleting the other 199 posts they made bitching about the horse, etc. etc. etc. Seriously, this is the worst shit to ever hit this game, and there have been some pretty epic bitchfests in the past.

I'm just tired of hearing about it everywhere I turn, and I know I don't have to read WoW-related sites, but I usually do.

3. If I had $25 I'd probably buy it but I still think my Dragon hawk is cooler.

4. Got the chestpiece from the Purple Judgment set... mostly crap from heroics now, which are pretty much just boring at this point :lol.

 

[Angry Grimace]

1. I make it a point not to use twitter. Anyone planning to ask questions at the Developer Chat tonight mind throwing the "Will Paladins get a gap closer?" question at em, even though I'm sure it will be asked a hundred times and they'll ignore it anyways?

2. So fucking tired of the Pony Drama. Not the mount itself but the endless fucking whining and bitching and making 200 posts about how it sucks, why people who buy it sucks, why blizzard sucks, why blizzard sucks for deleting the other 199 posts they made bitching about the horse, etc. etc. etc. Seriously, this is the worst shit to ever hit this game, and there have been some pretty epic bitchfests in the past.

I'm just tired of hearing about it everywhere I turn, and I know I don't have to read WoW-related sites, but I usually do.

3. If I had $25 I'd probably buy it but I still think my Dragon hawk is cooler.

4. Got the chestpiece from the Purple Judgment set... mostly crap from heroics now, which are pretty much just boring at this point :lol.

Paladins don't need (read: they don't deserve based on the other skills they have) a gap closer. If you want a gap closer, go train your engineering up to get some Nitro boots. I think you'll find that Arenas will be far less important in Cataclsym.

Again, they should have offered 2 or 3 mounts; so that the mounts feel a little more special, rather than everyone has the same one.

 

[Retro]

Paladins don't need (read: they don't deserve based on the other skills they have) a gap closer. If you want a gap closer, go train your engineering up to get some Nitro boots. I think you'll find that Arenas will be far less important in Cataclsym.

It's a big debate I don't exactly feel like carrying over to these forums, but with the changes to dispel mechanics I think they're going to need some kind of significant change to keep targets in range, especially since those targets will have additional health, armor is being upgraded and Blizzard has moved away from Burst as a viable strategy.

Paladins are arguably the most kitable class at this point, and it looks like things will only get worse.

I don't think Charge or Deathgrip are solutions, and honestly I'd hate to see them just transplant another class's abilities. I'd like to see either a range-based speed debuff (the further they are away from you, the slower they move), a wall or barrier spell similar to what Mages are supposedly getting (cast right in front of an enemy means they have to stop and go around it) or a manually targeted knockback that you can cast just ahead of a running target to boot them back towards you (or if you're clearing an objective or your aim sucks, further away).

Those would at least be interesting updates, but I'd settle for some kind of improvement to Hand of Freedom (like not being insta-dispelled)

Again, they should have offered 2 or 3 mounts; so that the mounts feel a little more special, rather than everyone has the same one.

That really would have been for the best. Make it a "WotLK Series", with themed mounts specific to the setting. Honestly though, people would bitch no matter what... instead of bitching about a $25 mount, people would bitch that they have to spend $75 to get all three.

In other, un-pony-related news, the developer chat starts in 10 minutes. I don't think anybody is still at work, but I guess I'll post them anyways as they come down.

 

[VaLiancY]

The developer chat should be nice, I hope isn't congested with sparkle pony talk.

 

[Retro]

The developer chat should be nice, I hope isn't congested with sparkle pony talk.

With the efficiency they've been shutting down every tread that starts up about it at the official forums (which, if they're anything like the MMO champ forums, are inundated with Duh), I'm guessing it is something they just don't want to talk about. I'll be surprised if they even get mentioned, even as a joke... anything they say could be seen as adding fuel to the fire.

The first three questions are up:
Q: Any plans to give Fury Warriors more hit from precision or another talent due to the removal of Heroic Strike as"next weapon" hit?
A: Part of the problem is that Fury warriors undervalue hit as it is because of the way Heroic Strike works today. We’ll make sure they do appropriate damage with the new model, but that probably won’t be with a talent that says “I don’t have to worry about getting hit for my gear.”

Q: Will Protection Warriors have improved AoE tanking in Cataclysm?
A: We will make sure they don’t feel gimp compared to the other 3 tanks. We’re not going to give them an ability that they can just spam endlessly to maintain AE threat. We think Thunder Clap and Shockwave already work well for that. We want you to have to manage threat, but we don’t want it to be insanely hard to manage. (You also might be doing less AE tanking in Cataclysm overall.)

Q: How will haste affect channeled spells. Will it be similar to DoTs and HoTs?
A: They will channel faster but their duration will remain unchanged. You will get more ticks on the same cast.

Softball questions so far...

Q: Do you intend to have all 280% flying mounts scale to 310% when a 310% mount is earned, or will only purchased mounts do so?
A: Our current plan, is that in Cataclysm, you can learn a new rank of flying that lets all flying mounts move at 310% (even current 280% mounts). That will probably be as fast as mounts will ever get. We don’t like it that when you get a 310% mount that you stop using your old ones.

Q: Will healing hands be a paladin-centered tranquility, or something we have to run around to keep people in range of?
A: The idea is that it matters where the paladin is, so it won’t be raid-wide like Tranquility will be in Cataclysm. We will make sure the magnitude of the heal is sufficient that it’s a button the paladin wants to use. The cooldown and duration aren’t set in stone either.

Q: When does the homogenization of classes stop? Paladins are starting to look like priests. Where is the diversity?
A: We want the challenge of beating PvE encounters or enemy teams in PvP to be how awesome you are at strategizing, not how often you are at recruiting the right classes. While it is very, very important to us for classes to feel different, it’s also very important to us that friends get to play together.

Q. Will there be any new pet families added, or will we simply see more additions to existing ones?
A. We're not sure yet whether we’re adding new pet families or not. It’s possible. Expect to see some monkeys, foxes and other new pet possibilities though!

Q. Is every healer supposed to be able to tank-heal efficiently, or will we still see specs excel in it more than others?
A. Each healer is intended to have a different niche, and different strengths. Such as Restoration druids with HoTs, or paladins at direct healing, Discipline priests at absorption/prevention, etc. That said, each healer should be able to keep up a tank and have some deeper “tank healing gameplay” as they do now.

Q. Could the Shadow priest's Mastery bonus instead be something more distinctive from shaman shield orbs (like shadow ravens)?
A. The original “fantasy”; behind the Mastery bonus is that you’re storing shadows through combat with you, that you can unleash out using Mind Blast or Mind Spike for more burst damage. We're not sure about ravens or how that relates to a Shadow priest, but we’re definitely going to do some unique art for them.

 

[Retro]

Q: With the change to death knight tanking, Blood being the tank spec, what AoE aggro moves (besides Death and Decay and Pestilence) will we have to use?
A: We think Death and Decay and Pestilence are pretty good. We’ll add another ability if we think it’s needed, but remember, the “round things up and AE them down” strategy isn’t going to be as effective in Cataclysm until you out-gear instances.

Q: Will relics and wands be getting any new attention in Cataclysm?
A: With relics, the plan is to make them class agnostic. In other words, there might be a +strength relic that a death knight or paladin might want to equip. We think that will let us add more of them to the game without them being so specialized. They will feel more like wands.

How to make wands and relics a bigger part of gameplay is something we’ve had many, many discussions on. Ultimately though we’d rather see warlocks, mages and priests casting their spells, not zapping someone with a wand. In Cataclysm we don’t expect to see much wanding, even at lower level.

Q: Now that paladin's Holy Shock is baseline is there any plans to change the Art of War talent?
A: We like Art of War, so we don’t expect it will go away. We understand the concern that Holy Shock might compete with Art of War a little bit in terms of role (an instant damage spell) and that’s something we’re going to have to address.

Class Agnostic? Never heard that term used to describe anything but religion... I think they might have a different word in mind, maybe :lol

 

[Bisnic]

Forgot about the gear requirements. They need to fix that.

Regular TOC & the 3 ICC mans do not have gear requirement compared to their heroic versions. Just run them until you get all the epics 200/219 you want, buy the cheap 300-400g epics 200 in AH, you can gather quite a few emblems with the 3 ICC ones until you get everything. Really, only Heroic Halls of Reflection have a big gear requirement. My rogue with 4.4k GS still cannot queue for it while H TOC/FOS/POS were available somewhere between 3.3k and 3.5k, the regular ones were available once i hit lvl 80 and i had like 2.7k-2.8k.

 

[Retro]

Q: What will happen to our gems and enchants on gear that give us stats that are being removed in Cataclysm ?
A: We are going to change most gems and enchants that have obsolete stats like armor pen and defense..

Q: Will Dark Simulacrum work on bosses? or at least be useful in PvE?
A: It will work on any spell you can Spell Reflect, which is actually quite a few bosses. Remember, Dark Simulacrum doesn’t cancel the incoming damage so in that sense it is easier for us to balance letting death knights use it in PvE.

Also be careful considering new spells for old encounters. The encounter designers will make the new encounters with the new spells in mind.

Q: Are there any plans to separate the mana regeneration mechanic and the damage reduction mechanic that is in Shamanistic Rage?
A: It’s a drawback we’re aware of and one we’re looking at. We don’t have a change that we’re ready to announce.

Q: I still don't get the motivation to redo the death knight rune system. It's been a couple years and now that it seems close, why do it all over?
A: Many death knights felt like they didn’t have enough global cooldowns (GCDs) to use their abilities. In some cases, the rune system started to matter less than the GCDs to hit the right button. We want death knights to have to make choices about what abilities come next. When you see DKs play today, it looks like they’re playing the piano – hitting buttons so fast. We need to buy them some room in their rotation to be able to take advantage of say procs or runes coming back sooner than expected.

Q: What are your plans to eliminate the pollution problem in Azeroth? Motorcycles, planes, methane from Kodo gas, venture company????
A: Well on the one hand, there will be more druids with trolls and worgen joining the ranks. On the other hand, there will be more goblins, and you know, goblins just don’t care. They have this section in Orgrimmar where they have their little beach chairs set up to look out on a view of oil drums floating in the lake. On the third (?) hand, you’ll be cleaning up the toxic waste in Gnomeregan if you can retake it!

The fuck kind of question is that? :lol

Q: Can you make crowd control in raids and 5-mans an important aspect of the PvE game again?
A: An emphatic yes.

^ Yay! Dungeons move too fucking fast now.

Q. Thanks for having this chat! I have to say that I feel many changes are PvP-oriented. Is the game shifting more toward PvP?
A. What we’re trying to do at this point in the game is make abilities more niche and interesting, rather than adding Sinister Strike with a different name. A lot of talents and abilities we add initially only seem to have a PvP role at first glance, but eventually also prove useful in PvE situations too (examples are Dispersion, Body & Soul, or Typhoon).

Q. With all the new changes to Demonology warlocks, do you plan to implement any threat reduction talent unique for Demonology?
A. Threat is something that we want to be binary. You should only really ever worry about pulling threat from a tank during the first thirty seconds or so, when the tank is still establishing threat, not two minutes in because your DPS was too high. In a nutshell, we’ll make sure you don’t have to stop DPS during a fight because of your threat level (ala Hodir).

Q. Why are Restoration druids the only spec in the game not receiving a new spell?
A. Restoration druids are actually getting a fair bit. For one, Tree of Life is getting a whole new model (think Ancients of War) and will also “morph” some of your spells to do crazy things while in the form, such as cause Regrowth to be instant, or Lifebloom to apply two applications at once. Tranquility will be raid-wide. We’re also touching nearly every Restoration druid spell to make sure each has a niche and feels good. In general, playing a Restoration druid should feel a lot different (better!) in Cataclysm than it does today.

Q: Can you go into more detail on Vengeance? As it stands it sounds like off tanks will be at a significant disadvantage.
A: We want Vengeance to have a long enough duration that off tanks won’t lose their damage bonus. In most situations, the off tank is doing some tanking along the way. The worst case scenario would be say a fight where the off tank needs to tank in phase 3 but not phase 1. Remember, even in that case though you have tools to generate high threat. Vengeance is there to keep DPS from pulling off you late in the fight.

Q: If 310% speed is becoming trainable, does that mean we'll be able to fly in Azeroth from the get-go?
A: We have considered the concept of “Old Weather Flying.” Just kidding. More than likely, you’ll just be able to fly from the beginning.

^ I'll believe it when I see it.

Q: With armor class bringing mastery bonuses, will players never want to "downrank" from, say, leather to cloth?
A: That’s the idea, really. They still can wear the older armor, but they’ll lose some stats from doing so.

 

[VaLiancY]

Q: Do you intend to have all 280% flying mounts scale to 310% when a 310% mount is earned, or will only purchased mounts do so?
A: Our current plan, is that in Cataclysm, you can learn a new rank of flying that lets all flying mounts move at 310% (even current 280% mounts). That will probably be as fast as mounts will ever get. We don’t like it that when you get a 310% mount that you stop using your old ones.

 

[Tamanon]

Q. Why are Restoration druids the only spec in the game not receiving a new spell?
A. Restoration druids are actually getting a fair bit. For one, Tree of Life is getting a whole new model (think Ancients of War) and will also “morph” some of your spells to do crazy things while in the form, such as cause Regrowth to be instant, or Lifebloom to apply two applications at once. Tranquility will be raid-wide. We’re also touching nearly every Restoration druid spell to make sure each has a niche and feels good. In general, playing a Restoration druid should feel a lot different (better!) in Cataclysm than it does today.

Um....holy shit, that's nice!