World of Wacraft

[Darkostar]

Yeah, I had a feeling Tremor would be great for, like, Faction Champs.

I've been leveling with a Bear and Fire Mage, but the Fire Mage swapped over to a long neglected Elemental Shaman.

[Kalbear]

Can anyone recommend an spriest DoT timer, like Squawk & Awe for boomkin DPS? It's not too bad in 5mans but I can't imagine keeping track in raids.

ForteXorcist is really good. It's not quite Squawk and Awe, but it's pretty close.

LK is really about defiles. Period. You can say it's problems with valks, but problems with valks go away if you can do defiles right. If you don't, you lose guys on valks. It's that simple.

I'm in the Cata alpha/beta, and am up to 81. Ferals are completely broken (as in not working as intended) right now. The zone of Vash'jir is a neat idea at first that goes completely boring as you realize it's a really tiny zone that takes forever to get around and the scenery looks like an artificial fish tank. Maybe it gets better, but right now it's super-compact. It's also really easy to level in.

Orgrimmar looks ridiculously awesome.

Completing quests while walking around is win.

The talents for ferals, so far, are kinda ass.

[Inigima]

Yeah, I had a feeling Tremor would be great for, like, Faction Champs.

I've been leveling with a Bear and Fire Mage, but the Fire Mage swapped over to a long neglected Elemental Shaman.

Yeah, tremor and cleansing are mandatory for faction champs if you're a shaman.

ForteXorcist is really good. It's not quite Squawk and Awe, but it's pretty close.

LK is really about defiles. Period. You can say it's problems with valks, but problems with valks go away if you can do defiles right. If you don't, you lose guys on valks. It's that simple.

Thanks Kal, I appreciat eit.

[Angeleyes]

Orgrimmar looks ridiculously awesome.

Completing quests while walking around is win.

The talents for ferals, so far, are kinda ass.

Blizzard was talking about how 'Forsaken Architecture has really come into its own' in this expansion. If you come across any, care to take a screen shot or two? I'm fairly interested.

@Lyanna

Been busy, will give some Saur tips tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of follow through.

[Darkostar]

Have a horrible wireless connection at home, but healed Stockades twice and BFD once.

Creeping up on 24.

[GoN]

Great little piece on tankspot summing up my feelings about blizz's announcement on using your real first and last name to post on their forums.

Real ID- Unethical and Dangerous

What the hell is blizzard thinking?

[The Winged Shadow]

Can anyone recommend an spriest DoT timer, like Squawk & Awe for boomkin DPS? It's not too bad in 5mans but I can't imagine keeping track in raids.

You can also check out Event Horizon. It's amazing :).

[Migey]

Blizzard was talking about how 'Forsaken Architecture has really come into its own' in this expansion. If you come across any, care to take a screen shot or two? I'm fairly interested.

www.mmo-champion.com

either scroll down to halfway down the page and take looks at Hillsbrad Foothills (for SS's of Tarren Mill) or Western Plaguelands (were the Forsaken and Humans are fighting over Andorhal). Also, you can just look around in the 'old zones' part just to the left in the Cataclysm panel at the top of the page.

@Kal

Vashj'ir is not tiny or small by any stretch of the imagination. According to most sources, and (i think) possibly said by blizzard, it will end up being the biggest zone in the entire game, so big infact that they can't fit it into one map, and thus the overmap of Vashj'ir is more like a continent map. It's split into three pars, the Kelp Forest, which is the smallest (although still large), the Shimmering Expanse, which is massive, and the Abyssal Depths, which is the biggest.

There is no way you can say its small. If you've seen screenshots or live feed of L'Ghorek, Nespirah, or the ruins of the actual city of Vashj'ir itself, and compare it to the map, then you can see right there that you have a very large zone. Also consider that the zone goes up and down rather then just across, so that gives potential for even more quests.

And Vashj'ir does vary, if all the screenshots are any indication, sec, il get a few of the more different ones, +the four maps (overmap + 3 smaller zones). These are all of Vashj'ir, none stolen from another zone.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/cataclysm/cataclysm_worldmaps/cataclysm/12319/Vashjir.jpg

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/cataclysm/cataclysm_worldmaps/cataclysm/12319/VashjirDepths.jpg

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/cataclysm/cataclysm_worldmaps/cataclysm/12319/VashjirRuins.jpg

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/cataclysm/cataclysm_worldmaps/cataclysm/12319/VashjirKelpForest.jpg

Sorry, apparently i cant get the screenshots of anything apart from the map, since on mmo-champion its using some fancy screenshot viewer instead of individual pages, so heres the entire page.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1658

[Arataniello]

I leveled my long neglected warlock this weekend. Got him to 63. Leveled his inscription and alchemey to 375. Now I just need 70 so I can finish those off.

I think you only need to be level 65 to extend your training to the maximum 450.

[Migey]

The guy on that link does make a few good points. Since you cant read it il quote it

''The RealID changes to Blizzard's official forums are unequivocally unethical and potentially dangerous. The community response on their official forums -- as well as nearly every fansite -- is huge and overwhelmingly negative.

Blizzard's stated goal is to help reduce trolling on the forums. The idea is that when a poster has an identity they can't escape, they're less likely to threaten their reputation. Their other, less-discussed goal is the creation of a Blizzard-owned Facebook which they can directly monetize and which can also provide an advertising platform for future games.

They're doing this entirely at the expense of your personal privacy. If you want to use a service you had used in the past, you now have to be willing to post your real name to the public alongside every post.

Here's where the problems are:

1.Employment -- Posting to Blizzard's forums will now show up for any employer doing a search on your name. Given Blizzard's search engine rankings, you can bet this will be pretty high up on the list of results. No matter how unfair, many employers will look on this negatively.

2.Women -- Many women playing the game choose to conceal their gender to avoid harassment. Whether fair or not, posting publicly with their real name will not only be uncomfortable for some but could very well lead to direct sexual harassment in and out of game.

3.Minors -- Any parent will need to be far more concerned about their children's activities on Blizzard sites than they currently are. This is especially true in any case where a child's real name can be found or their address can be tracked.

4.Uncommon Names -- Anyone with an uncommon name can much more easily be tracked.

5.Security & Hacked Accounts -- Blizzard is not doing a good job safeguarding accounts. If they have another breach in their account system, it won't matter how clean your own computer is -- a malicious user could be posting under your name, leaving a permanent and damaging trail.

This move probably will get rid of trolls. It is certain to get rid of a lot of good posters, too. Unfortunately, the forums are also one of their main avenues for both customer and technical support, and users are often redirected to them even while on the phone w/ those departments.

You will never see another post from me on their forums. I've already given my name out via other platforms, but those were my choice, and those were done in a setting where I can completely control how a potential employer views it. I know a number of other good users who are being faced with this same decision and coming to the same conclusion.

You don't need to be a security or privacy rights advocate to understand how bad this can be for you or your friends on a personal level. ''

[Kalbear]

There is no way you can say its small. If you've seen screenshots or live feed of L'Ghorek, Nespirah, or the ruins of the actual city of Vashj'ir itself, and compare it to the map, then you can see right there that you have a very large zone. Also consider that the zone goes up and down rather then just across, so that gives potential for even more quests.

I'm saying it's small.

I've been playing in it. It FEELS SMALL. You can say whatever you choose, but the starting area (the Kelp zone) has enough questing + killing mobs to get one full level, and it's very samey. The background - the water - doesn't really change all that much. There are landmarks here and there, but it ultimately all blends together. The mobs you fight are fairly boring. The third dimension doesn't really matter. The novelty of a water zone wore off very, very quickly for me.

[Poobah]

TBH I'm glad to hear you say the leveling is fast and the zone is hateful.

Why?

If 99% of people go camp Hyjal I have a nice clean run to 82+ through Vashj'ir :) Planning to get in the nolife race to 85.

In other news my guild is totally and utterly dying for summer. Withering into nothing pretty much :( It's terrible.

[Kalbear]

Yeah, I was able to gain a level from doing the quests in the Kelp forest + one Blackrock run. I was rested, but still. And I think I've still got quests to go in Kelpland.

One thing that's really odd is that to get from 80-81 it's about 3 million XP. The mobs in the Kelp Forest give (at 80) about 3800 XP rested. When you get to 81, it takes 4 million XP to get to the next level - but the mobs suddenly give 4600 XP. Same mobs, same level, different value. What's odd about this is that the quests give the same XP.

So the northrend model was to have all the levels cost close to the same XP but seriously drop the XP gain from mobs as you went up in level from them - which meant questing was rewarded more and grinding less. The Cat model is to give you more XP for mobs while making the quests less valuable...which encourages grinding. Really odd, and something I hope they change.

[Poobah]

Blizzard have just deployed a massive smokescreen in an attempt to divert attention away from RealID and the various people posting about how this is probably illegal in most European countries.

Linky

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

I can't read the linked thread, as the firewall at work blocks it, but I really don't see what the big deal is. I mean, what are people going to do with someone's name? Find them on Facebook? I've seen a lot of people complaining about the changes, but it seems likely to me that the majority of people fretting about the consequences of having names on the forums already use their real names on various social networking sites anyway - and isn't that more instrusive in the first place?

Not that people even have to participate, mind - they can always just stay away from the official forums.

If this encourages people to stop behaving like shitty human beings toward each other on the forums, then for me it can only be a good thing.

It's also encouraging more non-trolls than trolls to quit WoW. This has got to easily be Blizzard's worst decision.

[Kalbear]

The talent tree revamp is interesting. I think functionally it won't matter, but it'll make people feel happier about their talents.

I'm curious with the feral 'choice' whether or not it'll bifurcate even further between cat and bear.

[jurble]

It's also encouraging more non-trolls than trolls to quit WoW. This has got to easily be Blizzard's worst decision.

Seriously, my real name would be terrible to post with on a forum.

[jurble]

Also Cata screenshots!

http://www.thekots.com/index.php?topic=839.0 - guff

http://www.thekots.com/index.php?topic=846.0 - Vashj'ir

http://www.thekots.com/index.php?topic=854.0 - random

http://www.thekots.com/index.php?topic=855.0 - random crap and uldum

http://www.thekots.com/index.php?topic=856.0 - twilight highlands

My guild-leader enjoys it when his server dies from traffic. Server's slow-ish now, so just open them in a tab and like wait half an hour.

[RaceBannon42]

Other role-defining examples of abilities players can now get for free at level 10 include Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, Mutilate, Shadow Step, Thunderstorm, Earth Shield, Water Elemental, and Penance.

Holy crap. I dont like this. I mean those are some of the best talents, the ones you look forward getting. This just seems to cheapen them, takes a lot of the reward out of leveling.

[Kalbear]

Holy crap. I dont like this. I mean those are some of the best talents, the ones you look forward getting. This just seems to cheapen them, takes a lot of the reward out of leveling.

I dunno; it's awesome to make a choice and have that choice matter. Getting a point at level 10 and putting it into something that gives you 2% more fire damage isn't really a choice. I get you - I do think it removes that OMG can't wait for lvl 20/30/40 whatever, but I think they can still do that by giving defining talents and skills at those levels too. There are a lot of class-defining abilities.