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[explodet]

I feel your pain - as a mage, not only am I asked for portals, I get tells from farmer rogues for 100 bread. I'm not a damn vending machine!

 

[Pimpbaa]

Yeah, I'm a warlock as well and those requests for summons are quite annoying. I just ignore them unless a significant amount is offered. If they make no mention of giving me money, then I don't even bother replying.

 

[hobart]

I need to start asking for gold for my bread/water. I'm not asked with frequency... but when I am it's for a fucking lot.

I like being nice... but when you're level 52 and making only 2 bread at a time... it's time consuming. What pisses me off more is that people don't tip out of good will at all... fucking cheapskates.

 

[Doth Togo]

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Congrats on being third.

 

[SaitoH]

Have a look at the shit I have to put up with now I'm playing a Warlock -

http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/5382/wow10gu.jpg

For christ sake I'm not a fucking portable holodeck. Wanker.

I was playing my level 44 mage and got a tell in Ironforge for a port. Thought that was odd, so I shift-clicked his name and he was in Feralas. I told him I was in Ironforge and he said he knows.

;;

Either he thought I was a warlock, or he actually expected me to fly to Feralas to make a portal for him.

I have a feeling I'll be ignoring a lot of tells once I get to 50. Odd because I've never once asked for bread, water, or ports once with any of my characters ... aside from instances I mean.

 

[explodet]

Yeah, portals for party members in instances is cool, as is consumables for them. It's just the random requests from strangers which is odd.

So... Blizzcon is this weekend, eh?

 

[ToyMachine228]

So BlizzCon kicks off tomorrow...Any more rumors surfacing about the expansion?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

So BlizzCon kicks off tomorrow...Any more rumors surfacing about the expansion?

The end-game will still be a boring loot grind for gear that has no utility except being used to farm more gear or wait 3 hours in a battlegrounds queue.

I quit the game recently, if you hadn't guessed by my bitterness. I'll be back when something interesting goes on with the end-game or Battleground queues are reduced to below five minutes. I'm dying for some quality 3 or 5 man instances.

 

[border]

Are there any good WoW podcasts, btw?

 

[hobart]

So BlizzCon kicks off tomorrow...Any more rumors surfacing about the expansion?

WoW Guru has quite the comprehensive list of rumors and "truth." Worth a look. Only a day away anyway... so... we find out soon.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

I really hope there's more discussed than what that italian mag scan revealed a week or so ago. If the only thing new from this weekend is a translation I'll be sad. CGW or whatever scans up atm. Nothing new, except a few jackass marketing quotes.

 

[Doth Togo]

Congrats on being third.

aren't you the 1337.

 

[hobart]

I really hope there's more discussed than what that italian mag scan revealed a week or so ago. If the only thing new from this weekend is a translation I'll be sad. CGW or whatever scans up atm. Nothing new, except a few jackass marketing quotes.

GAF's WoW:BC discussion

Just went up

 

[Azwethinkweiz]

OFFICIAL SITE UP

Burning Crusade

edit: I know that it's posted in your forum link, but not everyone checks it.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

aren't you the 1337.

Yes.

 

[Ferrio]

Look at this insane shit. After only about 10 guild runs of MC, I have both thunderfury bindings.

 

[Zaptruder]

Look at this insane shit. After only about 10 guild runs of MC, I have both thunderfury bindings.

Damn. mofo :O

Ah well I'm not a rogue, so I can't be stressing about that.

Although, I've been told the sword procs nicely with wingclip...

 

[Ramirez]

I want to see a Hunter get that so I can watch all the people cry about it :lol

 

[Ferrio]

Supposably a hunter does have it on one server.

 

[darkiguana]

Look at this insane shit. After only about 10 guild runs of MC, I have both thunderfury bindings.

Heh, the first time I ran UBRS i got the magister's robe. The other mage in the group had been to UBRS a lot and this was the first time it dropped for her. We rolled, I rolled 100 and she rolled a 9 She was so PISSED!!! She yelled "FUCK!!!!!", left the raid and hearthed out of there. I kinda felt bad, but oh well. I hope I am never that bitter about something that happens in this game. The funny thing was that she is in my wife's guild

 

[YakiSOBA]

Hey, I just bought the game and I wanna play on a fun pvp server... I dont wanna join some server where alliance dominates horde or vice-verca though.

Any suggestions?
I have a friend who plays in 'Bonechewer' -- does anyone know anything bout' that server in particular?

Thanks ya'll!

 

[LukeSmith]

Look at this insane shit. After only about 10 guild runs of MC, I have both thunderfury bindings.

We have so much elementium that we've supplied two guilds with the ore for their Thunderfury. Yet we still have one half of the bindings. Legendaries that require lucky drops for the lose.
Grats on your bindings, hopefully there's a guild with the genorosity to help you with the elementium on your server (unless you guys are through Firemaw already, which I may have assumed you weren't simply because you said you had both halves in 10 MC runs, and wouldn't expect a guild with 10 MCs under their belt to be that far in progress, pardon if my assumption is incorrect).

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Hey, I just bought the game and I wanna play on a fun pvp server... I dont wanna join some server where alliance dominates horde or vice-verca though.

Any suggestions?
I have a friend who plays in 'Bonechewer' -- does anyone know anything bout' that server in particular?

Thanks ya'll!

http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

This site has a really good compilation of info that was obtained at Blizzcon:

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=25431

Here's some news about items and professions straight from Scott Mercer from Blizzard.

Firstly, there are no plans to implement scribing of scrolls as a profession. Blizzard believes it's too close to alchemy in function and one of the primary design goals is to make each profession as different as possible.

Next, news on patch 1.9. There are plans to improve fishing to make it function similar to mining and herbalism, in that schools of fish (ie. fishing nodes) will be placed around the world. So, you can see what your fishing will net you before you do it. Ship wrecks will also be included so players can fish for items.

Enchanters will be happy to hear about the inclusion of enchanting oils that can be sold on the auction house. These oils will grant temporary abilities on weapons and armour. These abilities will include +spell power, increased damage and the like.

High-end items will now disenchant into 'Nexus crystals' -- a powerful ingredient for epic enchantments. One such enchantment includes a +20 fire spell damage to gloves.

Beyond patch 1.9, Blizzard plans to add specialisations to tailoring and alchemy. These specialisations have yet to be set in stone.

As previously mentioned, the expansion will contain a new profession -- jewelry crafting. In addition to making necklaces, rings and crowns, players will be able to make special trinkets usable only by the jeweller, and mystic gems for use in socketable items.

Mercer also gave some insight into item budgets and point allocation. This is the system used by Blizzard that determines how many stats and powers an item will get. Although not all details were revealed, 14 points are equal to 1% crit and 12 points are equal to 1% dodge. If an item has one stat, then those stat points are of less value than the those on an item with multiple stats. For example, 12 stamina is equal to 8 stamina and 8 strength.

When asked about epic class items, Mercer admitted that the original implementation was 'a mistake' and that all classes will be receiving reworked epic items in the future. He also stated that Molten Core weapons would be getting reworked art.

Seems like enchanters are going to be getting a big push next patch with the new epic enchantments and the AH sellable enchantments.

Also, its good to hear that Blizzard thinks that the original implementation of the epic sets were a "mistake." Its going to make a lot people happy to know that they will be updated with new stats and stuff.

 

[ToyMachine228]

So this is slightly off-topic but not completely...

What is the best WarCraft novel out there? I want to read one, but I've seen four, and I don't really have time to read all four.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

So this is slightly off-topic but not completely...

What is the best WarCraft novel out there? I want to read one, but I've seen four, and I don't really have time to read all four.

Book One of the War of the Ancients trilogy.

Also, a pretty good writeup of BlizzCon infos:

Notes from Blizzcon, as observed by Quutar

Interesting quote from the line to get in:
“WTB Murloc pet… $30!”

Opening ceremonies
The opening started with the president of blizzard doing a future talk… talking about how good things will be. This was the first Blizzcon, and got 8k attendance. He loves the fans, blah blah blah. The Zerg are playable in the Ghost multi player, and other Ghost things that I did not pay much attention to.

The name of the expansion is the “Burning Crusade”. The producer for WoW came on, and talked about community. The community of WoW is what makes it strong; In the future… for the free “patches” they will be adding
• Noxtramus (sp?) (The place above Stratholme)
• Linked Auction Houses in all major cities (HUGE cheer)
• Ahn’Qiraj (sp?)
• Weather effects… real effects, not just pretty fluff

And the highlights from the expansion was
• Burning Crusade
• Blood Elves for Horde
• Primarily in outland, through the dark portal
• Medhiva(sp?) Tower
• Caverns of Time
• The Black Temple where you will fight and kill Illdian
• Flying mounts in the outlands
• Gem Crafting/socketed Items… new profession

They then showed an into movie for the new expansion. It was a lot of concept sketches that looked awesome… some in game scenes from Medhevas(sp?) tower, and from the Blood Eleve starting area

The burning legion is exacting revenge on the people beyond the dark portal. They are punishing the outland. The concept art… looks awesome.

The caverns of time will deal with the lore of WoW. Three instances listed were:
• The raising of thrall, before he became war chief… something about hillsbrand
• The opening of the dark portal for the very first time
• The defense of the world tree… final battle in War3

And… the level cap is raised to level 70. Talking to a blizzard employee afterwards (they had a “B” on their badge)… they will be giving us ten more talent points… and increasing the “tree” to a 41 point talent. No details were giving on the filling in from 31 to 41… but the idea is one of balance… if someone gets the 41… they can’t have a 21 from another tree…

Raid Panel
Definition of a raid: Entrance into another territory for phat l00t.

They focus on the end game for raids. “Heat only rises” which means… I think… that they have to keep things going up and harder, since the challenges have to remain. Raid targets provide something to aspire to… something that makes the world feel bigger, even if you don’t do the raids, you hear about them.

Low level raids is not really their focus. It is possible to ten man the dead mines at level 15… but they don’t focus on balancing it for that.

The 1% myth. They talked about how on the forums they are flamed for making “content” that only 1% of their player base is playing. According to blizzard, during the week… during peek hours… at any one time there is
• 500 Molten Core instances
• 1500 Onyxia instances
• 250 BWL instances
• 700 Zul’Gurub instances
All going at the same time. If you consider that this is all week long (for instance 800 MC on weeknights) that is far more than 1% of their gaming population.

Onyxia was born August 13 2004. She was the first end game raid targeted instance/mob for WoW. She was designed to break the mold for previous games raid encounters. She borrowed “stages” from other RPG games and brought them into WoW. Her stages, as described by blizzard were:
• Introduction
• She can fly!
• All hell breaks lose

Onyxia became a template for the mindset of later raids. They ask them selves for each raid
• what should each class be doing
• Mix things up, try not to keep it static
• Have a duration in mind
• Pacing is important
• Keep Challenging the player
• Raise the bar

There was some discussion about “smart” mobs. Nefarion, in Oobers, says to go after the one in the skirt, but when you finally fight him, he gets tanked like normal. Where are the smart mobs that go after healers first? That use smart tactics? Simple answer:
“We can kill you any time we want!”
A smart raid boss is not fun. Killing the player is easy, challenging the player is hard.

They had some interesting stats up. In a one week period… the most deadly raid bosses were
• Vaelstraz(sp?) 24,182
• Bloodlord 11,242
• Firemaw 10,363

Then the most deadly “mobs” in the game outside of raid bosses
• Gadjetstan Bruiser 19,254
• Defias Pillager 17,162
• Tauren Mill Death Guard 8,298

Testing the raids is very hard. A guild that works together will do better than a pickup raid almost always. Previously, internal testing was basically done via pickups. They would get some internal testers, CMs, and other blizzard employees… all of which are very good raiders on their own, and have them test things out. The problem was that all of these people were not used to raiding together… to they are working on a “Strike Raid Team” of dedicated raiders. Employees who test raid content… and work together… mimicking a guild.

Blackwing Lair was not put on the public test realm at the request of the player base. They wanted to be surprised… and well… it was a mistake. Zul’Gurub was in the PTR, and the difference showed… all future raid instances will be on the PTR.

WoW was in Alpha/Beta for over a year. The average turn round now for content is 3-8 weeks. That is why the older stuff is far more polished than the new stuff.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta contacted blizzard about the ZG plague in the game. The CDC had read that Blizzard had simulated a plague spreading through the world, and was interested in how they simulated it. They were disappointed when they found out it was a bug.

They also previewed some of the raid content. Ahn’Qiraj was the focus of the preview. There is going to be a massive war with the Qiraj, and it will involve the entire server. Previous raid locations were bereft of quests, that is going to change with AQ. There will be a large amount off quests interwoven with the raid instances. Story is highly important with all new raid instances coming out, AQ being the first with this it seams.

AQ will require a world event to open. Both sides, alliance and horde have to complete “stuff” to open the gates. Once they are opened, then they are forever opened, it’s a permanent server change. All level ranges will be involved, as there will be supply gather and processing quests for the lower levels, and stuff ranging the spectrum. One side and/or the other will have to gather the four parts to a scepter to open the gates. It will take the average server 3 weeks to open it. If nobody does stuff, eventually the gate will open on its own.

The 20 man instance of AQ is an outdoor instance at the difficulty level of ZG. It is an exterior instance, like ZQ, and will be non linear, like ZG.

The 40 man instance of AQ is HUGE. They showed a scale map of the 40 man, and showed the cathedral section of the scarlet monastery. The cathedral section fit inside of one of the boss rooms. They also showed some play scenes (one of the devs hopped on the computer and explored with an invulnerable dwarve)… and it looks beautiful… and creepy. It sets the mood, and just makes you feel like the miniscule invaders.

They showed the map of the Naxxram(sp?) which is the instance above stratholme. It will have multiple floors. I think I saw they had multiple wings, and that is something that blizzard wants to move to for future dungeons.

They are really pleased with the “wing” experience with dungeons. A group can do a single wing, and feel accomplishment.

Kazzazhan (sp?) medhiva’s tower is going to be a 10 man raid instance. It is massive, larger than all of blackrock spire (upper and lower) combined. The opera house inside of it was very cool.

The caverns of time will have 4A group can do a single wing, and feel accomplishment.

Kazzazhan (sp?) medhiva’s tower is going to be a 10 man raid instance. It is massive, larger than all of blackrock spire (upper and lower) combined. The opera house inside of it was very cool.

The caverns of time will have 4 instances. Two normal instances, one battle ground, and one battle of mount hijal.

Tempest keep was talked about. It is the home of Kael’Thas (sp?) and will have 4 wings. There will be three 5 man wings, and one raid wing at the level of Molten Core.

Hellfire Citadel is the home of Magtheredon (sp?). It will be modeled like Onyxia… a few trash mobs, then right to the boss.

Illidan will be the final boss of the black temple in the outlands. He is the big bad boss that is planned for the expansion… expect him to require 40 level 70 players.

The ultimate goal of the raid team is to keep hard core raiders busy all week. They want to provide a menu raids available, making the raid lockout a background issue, since there are so many to choose from that by the time you get back to raid XXX, its timer is up anyway.

Linear progression is no longer desired in raids. One example of this was Onyxia->BWL where her cape is needed… I think they listed another… but I don’t know

Smaller raids sizes is planned in the future… they want to make more 10 and 20 man instances. They will still add 40… but the focus will be on 10 and 20 man instances for the raid team.

The dire Maul tribute idea they like a lot. It provides at least two ways to approach and experience the same raid. Expect them to do similar things in the future with multiple ways to play a dungeon besides just killing all that walks.

Q:“How will level 70 effect current spic gear?”
A:”You will have a head start on the new stuff”

Itemization was addressed. Items for specific builds is lacking, and they plan on adding more. They will be, eventually, adding stuff for specific builds… like more fire mage gear, more shadow preist gear… things like that.

The big raid change
The biggest, to me, change they said they are doing… probably in the 1.9 patch, is how they handle the raid lockout timer. Currently, the timer expires XX amount of hours/days after the first boss kill. They are going to be moving that to a calendar system. For instance, molten core would reset on Tuesday during server maintenance for everybody… even if you entered it for the first time on Monday. It means that all the instances will reset at certain times… not a set time after you first kill a boss. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing. This also was not something they were “thinking of” but something that they are doing soon.

The idea of loot tokens, like with ZG was brought up in a question. Blizzard really likes the tokens more than the pure random drop like BWL/MC. Expect them to move to things like that for all future set pieces. They would have implemented something like that before, except that the quest department was to busy. Its time vs effort.

The random seed for loot is random. It is not seeded from the raid leader, or who ever enters the raid first. There is no mystic voodoo on what loot drops when. They did a two week study on what loot actually did drop, and found it to be random and approximately average… they way it was supposed to be.

They will be adding more scripted encounters in raids… they really like them a lot.

Any thoughts on cross faction cooperation should be squashed. More horde vs alliance in the future… the two sides will hate each other more and more

What is the role of druids in a raid? It was said that each class is tasked and thought about when they design encounters… how is druids considered. They added more crowd control into encounters to compliment druids, and are going to add in the future times where a feral druid is needed. But for now, we are healers with unique crowd control for encounters.

Mods where discussed. Blizzard looks at the top mods found on curse gaming, and evaluates each one. Does this mod provide functionality that is sorely lacking from the base UI, and should it be implemented. Does this mod do something we don’t want it to, and should we remove that functionality from the API. Is the mod great, but purely 3rd party and should stay as such. They basically adjust things based on the players needs.

A quick aside… thunder clap was mentioned in a way that made it sound like it works on bosses… can anybody test this?

Rogues in instances was brought up. They acknowledge that there is not much for a rogue to do in earlier instances, which is why they added traps to BWL. In the future they will do more for the special abilities of the various classes. As far as rogues being vulnerable to AE attacks, they are doing more directional AE attacks… cores and such, as not to decimated rogues as often.

They want skill to be more important than gear and level.

Items/Professions Panel
20 million items are crafted each day. Number one is the copper bar, number two is the heavy rune cloth bandage. They want professions to be simultaneous, be done while questing, and be for everybody.

They listed some barriers to professions that they avoided.
• Complex invention (you just make the stuff, no complication)
• Repetitive behavior. (to make one item should not be a grind…)
• Scary interface (click and make)
• Focus on item creation
• Creation failure (it does not fail and you lose your materials)
• Item quality (if you can make it, you make it at full quality)
• Items need to be fun to make

Not quiet sure the explanation on all of them, since I don’t like the crafting interface all that much. But overall it was an explanation on why the current crafting system is the way it is, something to be simple, accessible, and intuitive.

They are going to be adding more gear with a random enchant… like wild leather and green lens.

They are adding more consumable items

They allow tradesmen to differentiate them selves through world drops, specialization, and other methods. Specialization is obvious, but the world drops was surprising. Basically the patterns that have rare drops are there to set apart one crafter who has it, from another.

They want to let the hardcore players shine, to reward the hard core players. Enchanting is considered the hardest core of the hard core professions. They have no plans on making “enchanting crystals” allowing enchanters to sell their enchants on the AH. Having to spam the trade channel in the cities is a conscious choice, and intentional. They will be adding something to the enchanter for the auction house.

Wizzard oil. There is at least two types of wizard oil, which acts on weapons just like sharpening stones. One of the adds +24 to spell damage and healing to a weapon for 30 minutes… another adds to mana regen. There are consuables, and applied to the spell casters weapon.

Each profession is supposed to cover different needs, no duplication. An example was the “scribe” profession people ask for. The ability to make the scrolls of agility and the like. The problem is that is what alchemy does, so the scribe won’t be made.

The future of fishing looks interesting. Macro/bot fishing was a big upheaval early in the game, and caused many of the current adjustments. The biggest change for fishing is the targeted fishing, like in the tournaments. They will be doing that for all fishing in the future. There will be schools of oily blackmouth, schools of stonescale eels, shipwrecked items… that you target and fish for. They want to make fishing use nodes, just like herbalism and mining.

Dis enchanting items are “cool” according to the items person. It allows a useless item to become useful. In the future, when you dis enchant an epic (level 60 epic or any epic was not said)… you will get a nexus crystal instead of a shard. There will be new very powerful enchants that use these crystals.

The expansion will add specializations to tailoring and alchemy. Transmutation was one specialty in alchemy. Jewel crafting will be added also. It will allow people to make rings and necklaces, crowns and “gems” for inserting into socket able items.

When ever a item is made, four questions are asked
• Who is it for
• What else is available
• What makes it compelling
• How difficult is it to obtain

There is a math formula on how items are made, when balancing the various stats and abilities. It is item level and quality which is put together to find what stats it can have. The slot also matters, with some slots getting more than others. Special abilities also cost stat points. 1% crit cost 14, while 1% dodge costs 12 stat points. Spreading stats allows for a higher overall value. But even with this hidden formula… the item creators are allowed to fudge things.

Design flows into art. When something is designed, then the concept art is made for that item

In 1.9 there will be a lot of new procs for casters. Spell casters are getting a massive itemization boost in 1.9. There was one proc on a weapon that when ever a successful spell cast, there is a chance to lower the targets resistances to the spell. There is a lot of caster itemizations coming.

Socketable items are a concession to the player. They will allow the players to pick and choose the abilities that they find important, fitting the gear they have to their playing style. Gems will be available through various ways. Crafted, quest, and drops.

The tier two art is very very nice. The paladin art is incredible… make up for all the banana jokes ever. The tier two items will undergo a review stat wise… but mainly for the set bonuses… the stats for the items will not likely change.

There will not be a caster legendary any time soon. If they make a caster legendary item, they will have to make one that all casters (except hunters!!!! Specifically) would want and could use.

Do not expect any epic quest items for other classes individually any time soon. The current epic quest items for hunters and preists where a mistake. There are items in AQ that are better than both of the epic quest items for those classes. If they do make new epic weapon quests… they will release all 9 at the same time.

Warlock shard bags are a long way off.

Expansion Playable Demo
I did not get a chance to play the demo yet… the line was huge and I only had 30 minutes before the next panel. I did get to ask some questions, and watched some blood elves play. First off… the blood elves are close to night elves in model and movement, but there are a lot of subtle differences that make them two races. First off… they don’t flip when they jump. Occasionally when you jump… you spin in a circle. The starting area and the races are very bright. The playable classes for the blood elves are Warrior, Warlock, Mage, and Priest.

Dungeon Panel
Tired… I will write it tomorrow.

 

[explodet]

In 1.9 there will be a lot of new procs for casters. Spell casters are getting a massive itemization boost in 1.9. There was one proc on a weapon that when ever a successful spell cast, there is a chance to lower the targets resistances to the spell. There is a lot of caster itemizations coming.

FINALLY.

 

[Insertia]

Looking at the new trailor for the new expansion prompted me to give the game another try.
Forgot how long it took for the game to install, and crap I have to install a 1.3gb patch.

I hope I enjoy it again.

 

[ToyMachine228]

 

[Stuggernaut]

:lol

 

[SaitoH]

Murky Vs Lightsaber

 

[Gattsu25]

I'm installing WoW right now...was gonna buy the game a WHILES ago but got side tracked by unimportant stuff (getting an apartment, spending $800 fixing up my car, etc)


so


what servers are good for GAF folk? PvP please

also...not sure how you can check for this but: IS THE NAME WAKUNE TAKEN????

 

[Fularu]

Dragonmaw rocks, it's a low-medium pop pvp server, so it isn't as laggy as the others out there

 

[ToyMachine228]

Murky Vs Lightsaber

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/691/murkyvs6aj.jpg

That's the Baby Murloc Pet?:lol

 

[Gattsu25]

Krin Tor - Wakune (Tauren Hunter) RP...temp base until I find a bigger server where WAKUNE isn't already taken >_<

Dragonmaw - Malam (Undead Warlock) Not sure if I like the Race/Class combo but I'm there

I'm on break right now..already kinda late...so...I'll play when I get home...I just created the characters...didn't even get a chance to login with either =\

 

[SaitoH]

That's the Baby Murloc Pet?:lol

Yep. Best. Pet. Ever.

He does an awesome homage to the classic WB, dancing frog, cartoon.

 

[ManaByte]

Yep. Best. Pet. Ever.

He does an awesome homage to the classic WB, dancing frog, cartoon.

Yeah they showed that on AOTS today. Funny. :lol

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Another long writeup about Day2 BlizzCon, stolen from the WoW forums:

I attended everybody's class panel discussion, and pally's, you guys will be very happy:

Paladins: Throw away your whisper cast, you're getting multi-buffs that are 15 minutes! If you buff salvation on a druid for example, all druids will get salvation from you, allowing another paladin to buff the druid with light, and thus all the other druids as well. Lots more will be posted on wow site soon, the talent preview will be out this or next week. One thing that was disturbing was that he said, and i quote "The team and I agree that Paladins have excess survivability and will be addressed, not in 1.9, but in Burning Crusade."

Druids: Burning Crusade will reintroduce storm crow form, I talked directly to Caydiem (all u druids know her) and I asked her when we could expect it, she said we'll see a druid specific form of flying with the introduction of the flying mounts.

Warlocks: Soul shard bags and thus stacking shards are in the works, in the faq section, i asked them if warlocks can create shards on their own in addition to farming, rather than having to use drain soul all the time if ur in an instance. Not much else was mentioned, when asked about warlock specific mounts for flying, they said it was being wrestled with.

Warriors: More legendaries and epix, its a good time to be a warrior getting gear. Not much in the way of massive skill changes.

Priests: More racial distinction for everybody, more dps incoming.

Hunters: Alot more pet specialization, more than just dash and dive and screech and howl n stuff, all bows after 2.0 comes out will be slotted, explanation to follow in professions part of post.

Rogues: Even more dps coming your way in the form of racial special abilites (Read: Fear ward on dwarf priests, starshards for NE priests).

Mages: Will again be top of the dmg charts, fire spec is being revamped and encouraged since there will be alot fewer fire based instances, see raids section below.

Shamans: NERFED!!!!!! The shaman dev said he felt the class was where it should be, while they will get a talent overhaul, no major changes.

EVERY RACE WILL HAVE NEW SPECIAL ABILITIES PER CLASS ie gnome rogues will have an ability dwarf rogues wont.

Battlegrounds / PvP:
-Battleground Queues are being fixed: You can queue in multiple bg's at the same time, and pick and choose which you want to get into, more bg instances per server will be made, Groups will autoform (no more getting into bg and "invite to raid plz") will be an option.
-3 New battlegrounds: Azshara crater (originally made at same time as AV, but put on hold till now) 40v40, Gurubashi Catacombs (format of play unclear, possibly gladiator style 1v1 deathmatches, being tweaked for balance, ie platers vs clothwearers)5v5, Caverns of time (unannounced what type of format, only that it exists) unknown XvX
-BG rules: Honor/hour will be made equal in all bg's so people can choose domination (AB) or ctf (WSG) and still get equal honor, Penalties for /afk'ing out (atm its an enter queue cooldown, considering loss of honor if its done very early in round)
-Bracketing: Guild vs Guild matchups will be arranged by a new ui, no further details available
-BG and you: BG will affect the outside world, for example, winning an AV round will allow alliance to get a buff or potion or something like that from the emissaries in cities.
-WSG: If flag is turtled, ie people get your flag, and hide somewhere, for too long the flag will become huge and on everybodies map. Graveyards might be moved away from flag room.

Professions:
-Enchanters, you guys are going to piss yourselves, read on:
~NEW essence, Large brill is no longer the best, epic disenchants will give "Nexus Crystals," that can be used for epic enchants, examples given were Firepower(+35 fire dmg to gloves), Subtlety(2% aggro reduction and +1 stealth lvl to cloak)
~Blacksmiths have sharpening and weight stones, enchanters get enchanters oil, an example: Wizard Oil: 5 charges, +24 to dmg and healing affects for 30 minutes.
~Over 60 new enchants, and enchanter specialization will be introduced (ie weapons, armor, and MOUNTS(possibly, the specs may change for final release))
-Alchemy: alchemy specific trinkets can be made, alcemy specialization will be introduced for diff types of potions
-Tailoring: Specialization is in the works, not finalized yet
-Jewelcrafting (Have screenshots of journeyman jewel crafting below:
~Create: Rings, necklaces, trinkets, and gems for socketable items(read below)
~Predicted to be the 2nd most profitable profession after enchanting, will go with mining for ore and gems.

Itemization:
~Lvl 65 green will be better than most 60 blues and some 60 epics, 60 is not a special lvl anymore.
~Socketed items:
Many items (ie blue and purple and orange and yes, red) in burning crusade (BC from now on) will have sockets that can be filled w/ dropped or crafted gems that add attributes, quote, "Say you're walking through STV, and dont wanna get ganked, so switch out your + dmg gems in your staff for some +Stam gems, and rogues, if you're in STV and wanna do some ganking, switch out your +aggro reduction gems and switch in your +2% crit gems."
-Socketed items will be independant of enchants, example: Permanent enchant (ie crusader), temprorary enchant (Sharpening stone or enchanters oil), and socket(s).
~NEW Proc rules on weapons: Proc on eskhanders claws for example, does damage or speeds attacks, the new caster procs on say a druid staff for example will be Chance on Hit: Makes your next healing spell 50% faster.
~A new enchant or jewelcrafter gem will be Magic pierce proc, ie. Gives your fire spell a 2% chance to reduce you're targets fire resistance by 100%
-Fishing: Introduction of fishing nodes. You can still fish at any body of water, but you will see SPECIFIC nodes sometimes, like "school of deviate fish," or "School of stonescale eels," which will guarantee at least 1 of those. this change should be in 1.9

PvE:
ALL raid instances, cept ahn qiraj, in BC will be restricted to Lvl 70, there is no 40 man raid instance for lvl 65, unless ur suicidal, as a result, many new 5man instances will be introduced.

New instances:
~Ahn Qiraj***, 20 man instance and 40 man instance: this place is freaking, HUGE, see the diagram below comparing library SM to the 20 man AQ.
~Caverns of Time: Will be 6 things, 4 5 man instances (think scarlet monestary wings), 1 raid instance, and a battlegrounds. The raid portion is announced to be the Battle for Hyjal, quests will involve Aiding Proudmoore at the base of the tree, falling back to reinforce Thrall's flank, and finally making a last stand at the well of eternity.
~Medivh's tower, largest instance ever created in WoW. The head instance designer said, "Molten core was designed as a 6 hour instance, the Tower will be built as a 20 hour instance, meant to be taken in several distinct parts. (I saw video footage and got some pics, will show later.)
~Hellfire Citadel: This is where magtheradon is residing, you will have to kill him
~Necropolis: the city over strat, its still being designed, but one boss is said to be code named "Vacuum cleaner of souls." (lol)
~Archimonde: the next onyxia, no huge instance to clear, just go to his keep, kill a couple warders, fight him.
~The Black Temple: Slay Illidan This is said to be the hardest instance they could come up with, it will make "BWL look like a walk in the park."
~Tempest keep: no further details than the name, but you can see what it looks like on WoW's site, its the floating islands with the green gems and stuff.

-Bad news druids, Emerald Dream has been cut from the expansion and will come afterwards.

***Ahn'Qiraj has to be unlocked first on each realm via an event called the War of the Ahn'Qiraj. EVERY character on both factions has to cooperate, everybody from lvl 10-60 has to complete a quest in order to form the sceptre of the silithid, then escort him to ring the gong, then wait five days for an event (its 5 days so that everybody on the server has time to assemble and watch the war break out between the mortals and the Qiraji (who control the silithid). After the war event, the doors to AQ will be opened on that realm permanently, grab your FRAPs guys, this is gonna be huge.

Some VERY AWESOME and INFORMATIVE pics and videos in that same thread, here. I'd say that thread has about another 10 mins of life, tops.

Those 1.9 raid zones are HOT HOT HOT.

Good to know the 2 classes I play in every MMO, RPG, you name it, were the 2 classes that happen to get cut early on: http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=10/30200143242.jpg&s=x11 :lol now that sucks :lol

 

[ManaByte]

Well Warlock is close enough to a Necro.

I'd like to see them add a Bard class to WoW however

And with Medivh's being designed as a 20 hour raid instance, any guesses to how long it'll take people to really finish it? It takes some raids up to 12 hours to do MC.

 

[Prime]

So whats that, shard stackin IS in the works???

 

[xabre]

So whats that, shard stackin IS in the works???

God willing.

Edit - Actually there are a few things that could be done to make the sharding process a hell of a lot easier.

a) Shards should drop from any mob, not just mobs that give experience.
b) Shards should be a buff and not a constant spell, although that does lessen their importance it would be incredibly useful in PvP.
c) Shards should be stackable.

 

[Insertia]

Wow, I just found out mages can teleport...at lvl 20. I'm a lvl 38 and I had no clue about this. So far teleportation is limited to Stormwind. Is it possible to tele to other places like BB and IF?

 

[SaitoH]

You can teleport to IF and Darnassus (have to talk to the portal trainers there). At 40 you start getting the portal spell. That makes a portal that anyone in your group/raid can use. 40 you get portal for IF and SW, 50 for Darnassus.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

i love what they are gonna do with wsg. it will stop the damn Stalemate games that last for over an hour. which in turn makes me hate wsg.

I wish they would fix fear bug tho.

 

[border]

Warsong Gulch needs anti-turtling measures AND a time limit. Is anybody still playing it anyway? I've tried queuing up for it and matches never start.

Arathi Basin is much better because you are pretty much guaranteed matches that won't last more than half an hour.

Is there a site that breaks down the honor bonuses you get for winning in the BG's? Like it tells you exactly how much additional honor each victory is? And what bonuses you get for special objectives? I've heard that there is a bonus in AB for not letting the opposing team score more than 1000, but I've never seen it confirmed.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

well i have been getting games but only cause its wsg holiday

thats the only time people will ever play wsg.

but other than its usually AB and sometimes av...unless its av holiday then its av and ab always.

I think you should at least get rep over time in wsg just because you can be in there for hours.

 

[border]

How are holidays supposed to work? I've read the description but I never notice any difference between the BG quests that Horde NPCs give out. Is it supposed to mean that you get special quests over the weekend or just extra honor?

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

How are holidays supposed to work? I've read the description but I never notice any difference between the BG quests that Horde NPCs give out. Is it supposed to mean that you get special quests over the weekend or just extra honor?

double honor

some are speculating double rep as well but im not so sure about that

 

[border]

Is it double honor for all battlegrounds every weekend? If not, how do you know which BG is awarding double honor?

Victories in AB seem to get about the same honor as normal....791 honor.