Dellmon, epic x4, Slayer of Flight Attendants? More listener e-mail (including an answer from Domino on a mystery from Episode 2), Dell’s Fan Faire wrap-up, and the dreaded EQ2X are the topics of Dellmon and Aliscious’s fifth episode. Also, the second installment of the Ali Angle.
Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms and Loremaster of Kalimdor no longer requires you to complete a given amount of quests anymore. You now have to complete the achievements for each zone to get the Loremaster title.
We finally have the name of the first mounts rewarded for the Raids & Dungeons achievements! The mount currently use the models below but they might change in the future, apparently the color of the Storm Drake is scheduled to change, and the Volcanic Stone Drake uses the regular Deepholm Dragon model, this might or might not be intended. (= Don’t yell at me if something changes in the future, it’s mean)
Wrath of the Lich King released in China – Censorship
Blizzard finally got the authorization to deploy Wrath of the Lich King on chinese servers, their version of the game is censored because of cultural reasons and 178.com has a nice collection of screenshots to compare the original and the chinese expansion.
WoWTal – Build 12759 Update WoWTal.com is finally updated to the latest beta build.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Beta – Recent Mount Hyjal Changes
In the last patch we made some major changes to the way that Hyjal flows.
The Good News: As you progress through the zone, youll no longer need to keep flying back and forth to the World Tree to notify Ysera of your progress.
The Bad News: Beta players who were halfway through the quest chain when the patch hit will not have received proper credit for earlier quests, and wont be able to progress.
Were sorry for the trouble but its all in the name of making a better game. (Source)
Northrend leveling way too hard on beta
Are we? Because I’m pretty sure nobody ever stated that as being the claim and I don’t personally appreciate the comparison. Welcome to beta, where things you don’t like happen with great frequency.
As has been stated in the main thread, combat numbers are continuing to be evaluated. Feedback on Outland and Northrend are actually very much appreciated as the new numbers do reflect on those areas as well. It is highly likely that we will be bumping up experience gains in Northrend to match the increase(s) we made in Outland when Northrend launched. (Source)
31 Points Talent
We want you to get your 31 point talent and most of the time that’s what players want too. When they skip that talent they feel, as you seem to express, that something is wrong with the talent, not that there is a really fun choice in another tree. So once it’s a given that we want you to spend 31 points in the main tree, then spending points in another tree as you level is just going to force you to eventually respec to get that 31st point anyway. (Technically, you don’t need the bottom-most talent — you just need 31. But we still consider it a problem when you don’t want that bottom talent for some reason.) (Source)
Restoration in raid
Your buttons: Rejuv, Regrowth, Lifebloom, Nourish, Healing Touch, Wild Growth.
Buttons you probably push in a raid: Rejuv, Wild Growth.*
Solution 1: We add Regorge and Rejuke as new heals. You push Rejuv and Wild Growth.
Solution 2: We get you to push Rejuv, Regrowth, Lifebloom, Nourish, Healing Touch and Wild Growth.
In Solution 1, you get new heals and still only use 2. In Solution 2 you use 6 heals. I suppose we could posit a Solution 3, where you get 2 new heals and use 8 buttons, but since we can’t even get you to Solution 2 yet, that seems quite ambitious.
All of this belies the fact that there *are* new mechanics in your tree, even if there aren’t new action buttons. Tree of Life and Efflorescence do things for which there is no current comparison.
* – every time I say this, druids will respond "Check my logs! I push all my buttons!" The sad truth is you likely don’t need to. You can be a very good druid with those two buttons. (Source)
Restoration in Icecrown Citadel
We just don’t think the data bear that out. I’m looking at a random parse for a heroic Icecrown 25 druid who healed 80% of his or her damage with Rejuv, 17.5% with Wild Growth and 2.3% with Swiftmend. That is literally 99% of healing, though I suppose you could be charitable and assume the Swiftmends did something with Regrowth. This result is very typical. Presumably this healer is no slouch, since he or she is handling the most challenging content in the game. You could argue I suppose that he or she would have been an even better healer with more buttons, but the fact is, the raid cleared the instance. This healer is not doing anything wrong. This healer figured out that ignoring those other buttons didn’t really slow the group down much. We think that is a design flaw. If we saw, say the two-button druid healing Vault of Archavon and Marrowgar and the five-button druid healing heroic Sindragosa and Lich King, then it probably wouldn’t be the kind of thing we were so aggro about. (Source)
But I don’t like it when someone, especially as knowledgeable as Ghostcrawler, calls people bad for using a small number of abilities.
I think some of you misinterpreted what I was saying.
I said: We think druids are too effective when they only use a couple of spells. Several players called me on that saying they used all of their tools and only "bad druids" used two spells. I called them on that, saying that these so called "bad druids" were clearing every boss in the game, on heroic mode, using only two spells. So if they are truly the bad druids, there isn’t enough separation between good and bad. More than likely, I think there aren’t many bad druids beating LK 25 heroic, and that some druids are giving too much credit to the size of their toolbox when only a few tools are doing all the work.
It doesn’t really matter though, because if you like using more tools, you should like Cataclysm healing. (Source)
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents) Long Arm of the Law / Pursuit of Justice stacking
We generally don’t stack movement speed increases and PoJ explicitly says that it doesn’t stack, but the 30% is a very conservative number so we left ourselves room to bring that up. It’s 45% in our current builds.
Even if they don’t stack, I think PoJ will be useful in a variety of situations and won’t feel like a wasted talent. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents) Tier 1 Enhancement
Right. The problem with tier 1 Enhancement is you have Focused Strikes, which clearly is for Enhance and nobody else. Then you’re left with Elemental Weapons, a good talent for all 3 specs, and Improved Shields, a good talent for Enhance and Resto. That leaves Elemental with only 3 points they want to spend in tier 1 and a strong desire to get to tier 2. But, as I said above, if Elemental did care about shields, then presumably they could care about Improved Shields. (Source)
Making Shaman fun
Fun is obviously very important to us, but it’s also a really difficult thing to talk about. I read these forums constantly, and it’s pretty typical to see the class who had exciting changes a few weeks ago now bored of those and eager for new changes. The grass is greener mindset is huge around here, perhaps understandably since it’s hard to stay in touch with the changes going on for all classes at once. When you drill down sometimes on what players are looking for to make their class fun for them, you often get a list of ideas that would be terribly overpowered or just not work in our game, or both. That doesn’t mean it’s not a goal. It just means that delivering what is fun for one player means something very different than what is fun for another player. (Source)
Fire Nova
We’d like to downplay Fire Nova in lieu of Earthquake (in addition to Chain Lightning of course). We also agree that Fire Nova should be used for true AE situations and not against single targets. (Source)
Elemental Rotation
We didn’t set out with the goal of change for the sake of change though. Most of the new rotational abilities we’ve added were to fix problems with the class. Prot warriors for example are going to be hitting the same buttons they hit in LK because we think that works. Elemental is getting Unleashed Weapon (and Earthquake), and beyond that we think you have the right number of buttons to hit, so we’re hesitant to cram a new button in there. Nor are we excited about giving you "Super Duper Lightning Bolt" that lets you take Lightning Bolt off your bar just for the sake of having a new button. I’d characterize the Elemental playstyle as closer to a mage, who isn’t managing a ton of different nukes, but does have to react to what is happening in terms of procs, short cooldowns and movement. Lava Surge, Elemental Mastery and Unleashed Weapon are examples of those respectively.
We’ll definitely take the feedback under advisement though. (Source)
Feral Spirit Scaling
Feral Spirit should scale like all pets. (It doesn’t yet). Losing Parry was a consequence of losing Spirit Weapons, but we’ll give it back somewhere. (Source)
Thunderstorm
I agree that Enhancement’s choice at level 10 is transformative. I disagree that Resto similarly plays very differently at level 10. I also think you’re downplaying Thunderstorm. Now you can Lightning Bolt and when a target gets closer to you, Thunderstorm them back and then Lightning Bolt them again. (Source)
Unleash Weapon
Elemental’s range talent needs to affect Unleash Weapon too. (Source)
US – Select 24 Hour Maintenance 08/17
Originally Posted by Lylirra
(Source)
The realms listed below will be undergoing a 24-hour extended maintenance to prepare them for the upcoming expansion. Maintenance will begin at 12:01 AM PDT on Tuesday, August 17, and will conclude at approximately 12:01 AM PDT on Wednesday, August 18.
All realms not listed below will undergo standard scheduled maintenance beginning on Tuesday, August 17, at 5:00 AM PDT and will be back up at approximately 11:00 AM PDT. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition Announced
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
IRVINE, Calif., Aug 17, 2010 — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for a limited-release Collector’s Edition of World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the third expansion for the world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game,* World of Warcraft. The special Collector’s Edition package, which will only be available at retail stores, will include the following exclusive bonus items in addition to the game disc:
— Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development.
— Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil’ Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.
— Behind-the-scenes DVD with over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft(R) retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.
— Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive bonus tracks.
— Special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.
— World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards, including a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector’s Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG.
The first two World of Warcraft expansions, The Burning Crusade(R) and Wrath of the Lich King(R), each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races — worgen and goblins — will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they’ll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.
The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.
The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows(R) XP/Windows Vista(R)/Windows(R) 7 and Macintosh(R) at a suggested retail price of .99. The release date and other details for the game will be announced in the months ahead. For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm.
All EQII servers are scheduled to come down on Tuesday, August 17 at 5:00 AM PDT for Game Update 57. Servers are expected to be offline for around 4 hours, coming back online around 9:00 AM.
The following event starts right after server maintenance and continues for an undetermined amount of time.
The path to Balaurea is a long one, but also one paved with adventure. As preparations for a full-scale assault continue, Lord Marchutan of the Asmodians and Lord Kaisinel of the Elyos have begun fighting for control of Balaurea. Reports from the front line indicate that the Elyos have secured a base of operations in Inggison, while the Asmodians continue to defend their region of Gelkmaros. This thrust is merely the first battle in a war that will be fought by all Daevas and consume all of Atreia.
It won’t be long until great airships begin to transport Daevonian soldiers readied for battle. The Empyrean Lords from both races have bestowed a special blessing upon all citizens of Atreia that will enable all Daevas to earn twice as much experience from each battle and crafting experiment so they may more swiftly muster the strength necessary to conquer the Balaur and ensure the destruction of the Dragon Lord Tiamat. Act quickly soldiers! The blessing the Lords bestow cannot be sustained forever, and the stronger their warriors become, the less likely the Lords will be able to hold the blessing.
Glory calls; will you answer? Tell your friends, and take advantage of this special blessing before the assault begins. The path to Balaurea is in front of you, and the time to prepare is now!
– The Aion Community Team
For the tl;dr crowd, the above basically states that all the live servers will have double xp. As Tamat mentions on the official forums, it’s unknown how long the double xp will last, so get yours today! AionSource Community News
The Day Deathwing Came Spoiler The Day that Deathwing Came is one of the ridiculously awesome quest introduced to the game with Cataclysm, I had a LOT of requests to post this video over the last month and it gives you a pretty good idea of why you should be excited about a few things in Cataclysm.
Legends – Part one: The Gathering
It’s been a while since the last time we saw a huge machinima project (the last one was probably Tales of the Past). "Legends" is a machinima created by Lucas Cedergren, the first part is 1 hour long (split in 5 Youtube Videos) and is the result of months of work in cooperation with a lot of people from the machinima scene, see the description below for more information!
Background
After centuries of conflict the world of Azeroth has found, at long last, sense of peace and well being. New generations rise and new allegiances are forged in a brave and exciting new world with hope of an even brighter tomorrow – but in these times there are those who would seek to crush hope and extinguish the light. Minds dark and twisted, focused only on spreading the darkness that clings to their very being. Unaware of this rising darkness Azeroth continues, in blissful ignorance, to enjoy new-found freedoms, unknowingly walking towards their demise. But there are remnants of wars past. Heroes of old… Some would say… Legends. Brave warriors who selflessly sacrificed themselves to protect their people. But that was long ago, things have changed and the heroes of old have been scattered and forgotten, un-needed, until now. Maybe if they could be found in time.. Maybe the course of this dark destruction could be averted.
All hope now rests on the shoulders of two young, fresh faced Warriors, as they rush to save Azeroth and reunite these heroes so that they can once more restore peace to the world.
Quick Note From Lucas "Lima" Cedergren
Most movies are made in Modelviewer. But this is recorded 90% in-game. We’ve had the help of some of the best voice actors in the machinima community, additional sound design by Glenn Xaydin Govan and special effects by Johan Vågstedt I think we have created something to be proud of. I very much hope that all of the viewers will enjoy it! This is the first part of three. We are currently writing the script for the second one and we are sure that it won’t take 4 years to complete it this time. This movie is more of a prologue for the upcoming 2 that will contain a lot more action and delve deeper into the plot. If you want more information about the movie and our upcoming ones please visit www.cedergren-productions.com.
Guild Leveling and Rewards – Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Dark Phoenix Mount Reward
The guild rewards you guys are seeing in game are not hooked up yet. Guild rewards have 3 requirements that must be be met before you can use them. First and foremost, they must be unlocked via a guild achievement. Let’s just say, that for example, you need to complete the new guild achievement "We are Legendary" in order to unlock the Dark Phoenix. That achievement requires the guild to gain access to all 6 legendary weapons currently available in the game. (note that all guild achievements start on Cataclysm launch, so anything you have now will not matter, it must be done with your guild after launch)
So, let’s say that your guild get’s this achievement and thereby unlocks the Dark Phoenix on the guild vendor. At this point anyone in the guild can see the item on the vendor, but they will need a specific amount of guild faction to be able to purchase it. In this case, let’s say exalted. Now, once you have the guild faction, you can purchase the item for its gold price. (prices will vary based on the reward)
I am using the Dark Phoenix and the We are Legendary guild achievement as examples here but you should get the idea. Don’t worry, we wont be handing out all the goodies so easily. =)
Guild Heirlooms
The heirlooms on the guild vendor are just like other heirlooms in the game except that these must be unlocked via a guild achievement and you must have the required guild faction to purchase them. After that, you can use them just like normal heirloom items.
We did have thoughts of making these items guild bound a long time ago but we came to the conclusion that that was just too limiting of a design. Imagine leaving a guild and losing all the guild rewards that you worked so hard to get? Taking items away from players is something that we would like to avoid at all costs. (Source)
Guild Leveling
Guild experience can be earned in any of four ways:
1. Completing quests / daily quests that reward experience
2. Killing any dungeon / raid boss with a guild group/raid
3. Winning a rated battleground with a guild group/raid
4. Earning a guild achievement (these are nice, fat chunks of experience so they feel great when you get em)
A guild group/raid is 4/5, 8/10, 12/15 or 20/25 members of the group/raid being guild members. (Source)
Guild Reputation
Any quest that rewards experience to you will also reward guild experience. The amount of guild reputation earned is based on the amount of guild experience rewarded. Note that daily quests will also reward guild experience.
All guild reputation is gained as a factor of guild experience. (Source)
[…] As I mentioned in the other post, anything that grants guild xp will also grant guild facton. So that means that winning a rated BG with your guild or completing specific guild achievments will reward faction as well as completing quests or killing instance bosses. (Source)
Guilds Q&A (Source) 1.) No matter how hard you work at your own guild rep, even if you farm it like a psyco, can a GM just "Deny" you of the guild rep rewards.
1. GM’s have no control over the guild rewards. As long as your guild has unlocked the item via the achievement and you have the required guild rep, you can purchase the item.
2.) Are all the standard guild control functions staying the same? (GBank control, inv and remove settings, ect)
2. Yes, most all of the guild control functions are remaining the same. We are however introducing a new ui for guild ranks that will allow you much more control.
3.) I understand there is going to be an exp cap per day, but as per reward and ability, will this at least be the determining factor that a 10 and 25 guild are not equals. (its an mmo ppl, go make friends)
3. The experience cap is in place to help balance out the experience curve between large and small guilds. We tuned the cap to be be high enough that in most cases, you will never hit it. (when I say most, I mean average size guilds which make up the majority of wow’s guilds)
Guild Ranks system overhaul
The entire guild rank system in the process of being overhauled. The new interface for this will be much better and allow you to actually move ranks up and down as well as copy an existing ranks permissions into a new one.
Sorry for the inconvenience on this right now but it will be fixed up in an upcoming build. (Source)
Guild UI
A lot of the UI for the guild advancement system is in progress. The "at war" box will be removed from the guild faction at some point in the future. (Source)
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Beta Servers – Characters stuck in Moonglade
We’ve investigated this issue and believe we’ve determined a fix to be released in the near future. I’m unable to say for sure in what build the fix will appear, or when that build will be released.
Guild Leveling Speed
We are looking for as much feedback as we can get on the guild advancement leveling speed and experience gain. Please use this thread to report any feedback you have. As much info as you can give on the size of the guild, active members and what you were doing to earn the guild experience would be extremely helpful.
We know that not all of the ways to earn guild experience are active yet (rated bg’s for example), but they will be soon. The feedback on how it feels with just quests / bosses now would still be useful.
We will be tuning the values to get where we need to be until they feel right. Your input on this is greatly appreciated. =)
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents) Hammer of the Righteous
I think if Hammer of the Righteous went back to its old design of hitting 3 targets, you’d see the forums swarming with paladins in a few weeks demanding some way to AE, such as… removing the cooldown on Consecrate again. There is no way to change the Prot paladin rotation up without changing some core abilities, and we are committed to changing the Prot rotation up.
We have some room to experiment with the proc rates for Grand Crusader, but remember that the more often it procs, the weaker it has to hit. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents) Elemental Changes
In the next beta build (or the one after that), you will see two important changes to Elemental shaman. First, you will use Lightning Shield (for damage!) instead of Water Shield. Second, you will want to use Earthquake for AE over Fire Nova. These changes, especially the former, will provide Elemental shaman with a bit of an upgrade in the rotation over what you’re used to in LK.
I don’t want to oversell it, because players have a tendency to imagine herds of glittering ponies when left to their own imaginations, but it should be a fun change. (Source)
MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton had the opportunity for a tour of the latest update to Atlantica Online. Called “Troy”, the update brings the continent of Africa into the game. It is set to go live on all servers later this week and features a new tactical battle system and player housing. Read all of Michael’s thoughts about Troy. MMORPG.COM News
Welcome to the Server Maintenance Party: Battle for Eastern Plaguelands! We are done with the gathering, let the PvP begin! Or at least the running around and standing in towers — we’ll at least get that done. Will the Alliance show up and attack? I don’t know!
Join us in game (here are the details) or watch the stream on our Justin.tv channel. I’m narrating as usual. Whether this turns out to be an enormous battle or a funky dance party, it’s going to be fun.
For the Horde!
Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in <It came from the Blog>. Guild ranks of “Blog Lurker” or above can invite, so /whisper Robiness or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules — basically, don’t be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
Blizzard deployed a small patch to address an issue that prevented players from accessing offline gameplay through the login screen. The patch is 12.8MB file size.
Blizzard Quote:
To get the latest news and interact with the community, visit our brand new StarCraft II website. Be sure to check out our Game Guide for an in-depth look at StarCraft II gameplay. We wish you all the best on your journeys through the embattled Koprulu Sector!
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Patch 1.0.3
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue preventing some players from accessing offline play from the login screen.
All EQII servers are scheduled to come down on Wednesday, August 18 at 5:00 AM PDT for Game Update 57. Servers are expected to be offline for around 4 hours, coming back online around 9:00 AM.
Blizzard Entertainment has announced one of the features that mimic the additional World of Warcraft services for a fee trend. In a near future, Blizzard will be offering a Change of Name service to Starcraft II players. Before this service goes live, you will be able to change your current name once for free. Not a bad deal.
Blizzard Quote:
We wanted to let everyone know that in the near future we'll be allowing everyone a chance to change their chosen StarCraft II character name for free.
In some cases, people chose character names that don't represent their usual multiplayer nicknames, as they were unaware of how the character names were being used. It's important to us that everyone is represented by a name of their choosing in their multiplayer games, ladders, and on the forums and community site.
In addition, beyond this initial free name change, we’ll be launching a service similar to the one we offer for World of Warcraft which will allow additional character name changes for a fee. We'll announce more details on how the free name change and additional paid character name changes will be implemented in the near future.
All the quests, really! With GU57 three new crafting quest series will be added to the game, giving players non-grinding crafting content from levels 1 through 90! The new quest series also unlock the sale of Advanced recipe books, filling a need that drop rates just weren't covering.
You can see the new quest series and all the crafting quest content at a glance on our new and improved Tradeskill Quests Guide at ZAM!
PS: The Guide page is spoiler-free. You have to click through to the quests to see spoilers!
All servers will be down for an extended maintenance Tuesday, August 17th at 7am PDT / 9am CDT / 10am EDT / 2pm UTC/GMT. Estimated downtime is approximately 10 hours. Lineage II : The Chaotic Throne
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