Greg

4.0 & Cataclysm Mage & Druid Builds

 Druids, Mages  Comments Off on 4.0 & Cataclysm Mage & Druid Builds
Oct 072010
 

The 4.0 patch will likely hit on or about the 12th or October and, as you probably already know, it will change a lot of things. Talents, for one.

Instead of 71 talent points at 80 you’ll have 41 at 85.

Instead of putting a few points her and a few there, you will be locked into one tree until you buy the top tier talent. Those 41 points will buy every talent in any one specialization, but you can go 31/5/5 or 31/10 or 39/2 or something like that. Obviously this means that your Pally will be Protection or Holy or Retribution.

That nice 31/20/20 build of yours? Poof! It’s gone!

Each specialization will automatically get certain abilities. For example, all Subtlety rogues will get Shadowstep. These aren’t optional abilities. The top tier ability is Mastery, which is trainable. Mastery gives a bonus to some defining characteristic of your builds. Fire mages, for example, get increased periodic damage. Mastery rating will be on gear and can be stacked.

Whether you will want to stack it depends on all the usual things. Some on the forums are saying that you do not want to stack Warrior Mastery, but on other classes it’s great.

I expect there will be a lot of tuning for awhile.

Abilities have changed, too. You no longer get them every other level and you no longer have to get levels in the ability. Instead of Shiftypoke1 through 12, you just get Shiftypoke once and it scales with your level. I’m sure there will be plenty of forum remarks regarding that change, in addition to all the others.

Glyphs? There will be a made rush for glyphs on patch day. 85s will have 9 glyphs that they can slot (prime, major, minor, 3 of each) but every class can learn all the glyphs to their class and swap them as they like. Kinda like if you have several gear sets which you swap depending on that you’re doing. If you class has 20 glyphs you just buy all of then and then figure out which is the best set. Once you’ve bought the set you’ll never have to buy them again.

Mad rush on patch day? I think so. My inscription is 450 so I’ll be ready.

Oh yeah, the builds.

I’ve taken a shot at putting up 4.0 leveling builds for Druids and mages. Check them out if you like and tell me here if they’re good, bad, or ugly. I have not leveled anything 1-85 in the beta (though Zygor has) so it’s quite possible that an “interesting” error will creep in.

 Posted by at 12:07 pm

If There’s a Press Release it Must Be Real – Dec 7 Cataclysm

 Cataclysm  Comments Off on If There’s a Press Release it Must Be Real – Dec 7 Cataclysm
Oct 042010
 

It looks like it’s official: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be released on December 7th, the same date as another event of particular interest to many.

MMO-Champion has the press release, but it’ll be on many sites.(Any emphasis below is mine.)

IRVINE, Calif., Oct 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the highly anticipated third expansion for the world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game*, will be released starting on December 7, 2010. The expansion 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 $39.99 and will also be offered as a digital download from the Blizzard Store. A special Collector’s Edition packed with bonus items will be available exclusively in retail stores for a suggested retail price of $79.99.

“Cataclysm includes the best content we’ve ever created for World of Warcraft. It’s not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With the help of our beta testers, we’re putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months.”

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. Visit the official Battle.net(R) website at http://www.battle.net to set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate. To learn more about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, visit http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm.

It’s not an open beta, yet, so signing up gives you that chance to participate.

It sounds to me like Blizzard is pretty confident in their development process and progress. The new zones are looking great, and not only of the new zones. Have you seen the pics of the Undead area?

Some people are saying that it will take only 36 hours to level from 80 to 85.  (70 to 80 in Wrath only took 27ish.) How well caffeinated are you? Me? It’ll be a couple of weeks, real time, at best, to get there. It’s the real life stuff that gets in the way of the 36 hour grind fests.

Will it be a solo Pally or DK that gets to 85 first? Warrior and healer team? What do you think and how much time will it take you?

 Posted by at 8:38 am

Cataclysm Release Date is Dec. 7

 Beta  Comments Off on Cataclysm Release Date is Dec. 7
Oct 012010
 

From MMO-Champion the release date is one week before the start of the new arena season, which is Dec 14.

Don’t be surprised if it’s pushed back.

Rumor has the 4.0 patch coming in next week. Time to plan to rebuild all your builds.

 Posted by at 1:36 pm

The Gold Run and a 4.0 Rogue Guide

 Get the Gold, Rogues  Comments Off on The Gold Run and a 4.0 Rogue Guide
Sep 252010
 

A few weeks ago I made about starting from scratch and trying to hit 1k gold in 30 days. I’ve been documenting this on GotWarcraft.

  • Broke 1k gold on day 7, 2k on day 13, and 3k on day 18

This is on a new server, no 80s, no rich friends, no gold buying, no transfers, and the highest character so far is a 31 Rogue. Stop scoffing, I’m slow, Ok?

So when people are yammering about their money woes in trade or guild chat, I’m scratching my head and says, “WTF???” I used to offer suggestions, but no one is interested, so I just read the stuff and smile (or sigh.) Someone’s buying those three man mounts and nice raid purples (for 6-10k) on the AH and it ain’t them (don’t have the mount, but I’ve bought some of those purples.)

In the off chance that you are interested, I’ve been doing a day by day accounting of what I’m doing, here: 1k Gold in 30 Says, from Scratch

I’ve been reading the blueprint forums where people logged their speed run results. This little pocket change stuff I’m doing is silly low. No wonder no one’s interested. Ah well, it’s fun for me.

Cataclysm

The 4.0 patch, as you all know, is bringing major changes to the talent system and a few other areas, as well. That patch will be released before Cataclysm hits. I don’t have an exact date, but I’m sure everyone’s seen the “…downloading data…” note on the launcher.

You can see the test realm patch notes here.

I’ve put up a 4.0 Rogue guide and will have the others up as soon as I can get my act in gear. The rogue guide includes remarks on Mastery, leveling builds, and a few other things. Let me know what you think.

 Posted by at 9:02 am

Misc. Cataclysm Beta Notes

 Beta  1 Response »
Sep 202010
 

Well, there would be more notes, except that, at this moment, trying to load any character reliably crashes the client.

Ok, now onto the stuff you already know:

A lot of the Cataclysm features will be unleashed in the 4.0 patch, currently on the test realms (data is being downloaded, but it goes live when???) This includes a complete overhaul of the talent system. (This also means that those of us with build guides had better get to work.)

I was able to hit the character screen in the beta, where I saw this:

Some new icons for the character generation screen

  • The top icon is to “Customize your character”
  • The second is to change faction
  • The third, by Ramzen, is to change race.
  • Dunno why the Hunter has no icon. Discrimination against Blood Elves?

It looked like this after I logged back in:

More "change character" buttons

I guess the belf discrimination was just a rumor. So maybe this is something that’s being played with, at the moment? I’ll see what I can find…

(By the way, there’s a Beta FAQ here – it mentions a fix for logging into the beta, but it didn’t work for me. )

Ok, the log-in issue is fixed, but you have to delete a cache folder.

Go to your WoW Beta Folder > data and delete the cache folder.

This seems to work for most people.

Here’s another fix

  • Delete Cache folder in WoWBeta/Data/
  • Delete config.WTF
  • Use the WoW.EXE file with the green T in your wow beta folder.

Ok, found the button thing. It’s a test of their paid change system, though these changes are free. But, most of you already knew that. These buttons will not be on the live game, unless you’ve paid.

In the latest build players will notice paid character services buttons appear next to characters at random on the Character Selection screen. These are the buttons you would normally see after purchasing any service, such as race, realm, or faction changes, or character customization. If a character service button shows up next to one of your characters, you can click it to make use of a free race change or character customization (faction change coming soon). You can make use of these buttons as often as you like, but the services for which you’re selected are randomly chosen for you and will update every hour. So, say if you don’t want to change your race but would like to customize your appearance on a specific character, you will need to wait for the right button to appear.

Please note that these buttons are only for beta testing purposes and are not intended to be released for free on live realms. We want beta testers to stress test our paid services so we can ensure they are operating smoothly when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is released.

Here’s the thread

Edit:

Gotta love that right hand dagger. 🙂  Now really, isn’t that something that should be a low level dagger in the Goblin or Orc area?

Freddie and the "Dagger"

 Posted by at 10:57 am

Making Gold from Scratch

 Get the Gold  2 Responses »
Sep 092010
 

Just for the hell of it I started a set of characters on a brand new server (Emerald Dream, Horde side.) Why? I was tired of being on a low pop server and wanted to see some people running around who were on the same side. Try being Alliance on Detheroc and you’ll know what I mean. The only people you see there are the NPCs in the city, right before the Horde player(s) kills them.

Anyway…

In addition to that, I need gold to buy stuff for the toons, so I’m taking an idea from a gold guide seller and am doing a 1k gold run in 30 days. For the one or two of you who might read this and be interested, the index page to all the days is here: 1k Gold Run.

Why? It’s sort of my response to those “can I have X gold to by a (something??????) Pretty Plz????” remarks in game. Gold’s easy to make (and easier to buy, just say bye bye to your account…)

At this point my mains are a mighty level 18 Rogue and a devastating 17 mage.

 Posted by at 11:50 am

WoWhead Tooltips – an Improved System?

 Miscellaneous  4 Responses »
Aug 162010
 

In another post on this site, Cataclysm and the Goblins, a commenter brought to my attention something to help with the WoWhead Tooltips thingie (WTT.) What the standard WTT does is pop up a tooltip when you hover over a WoWhead link. It’s powered by a javascript which you can place somewhere in your site/blog template (I suggest the footer area.) It’s easy, quick to install, and it works.

Unless WoWhead is down. 😉

The script tries to connect to WoWhead and If the WoWhead servers are having problems then your site will be slower to load. Apparently WoWhead has been having the occasional issue these days, as it gets ready for Cataclysm. It’s very slow as I write this post.

So the commenter, one Mentor, mentioned an improved WTT and posted instructions on his site, here: Install WOWHead Tooltips

It’s a little more complicated than the standard WTT install and you will have to create a MySQL database in your control panel. Once you have that, you run an install program, install a plugin, add some code to your header file, and you’re good to go. It completely replaces enhances the standard tooltip usage.

The problem is that I can’t really see the point to this device. Originally I thought it would replace the WTT, but then I removed the old WTT scripts and… I just get a link. Now, it’s quite likely that I’m a boob and can’t do code to save my life, but I don’t see any tooltips on his site, either. Not with FireFox or Explorer.

I’m putting the old WoWhead javascript back, but I’ll try it in the footer and see if that helps the pages to load better.

The tooltips wiki has complete documentation if you want to check it out:

Here are some links copied straight from the examples on the Wiki pages, using the code in the example. They pop the tooltip since I replaced the WTT.

  • item: [item]Rigormortis[/item]
  • a heroic item: [item heroic]Rigormortis[/item]
  • item: [item]titansteel shanker[/item]
  • blue item:[item]Armor of the Fang[/item]
  • green item: [item]Battle Seeker Chestguard[/item]
  • Achievement: [achievement]call in the cavalry[/achievement]
  • It’s supposed to call the WoWarmory, but I can’t get it to work with this character: [armory loc=”{us},{Bloodscalp}” ]Irillys[/armory]

Here are some links made the old way (HTML links:)

hmmm… Ok, the javascript is back in and the examples are a nice purple and they do the tooltips, but the old style links aren’t colored.

After all that:

Ok, I get it, i think. (Yes, I’m slow. Shut up. 😉 ) You get the tooltips with the original WoWhead javascript and you get the pretty colors and a few options with the new Tooltips thing. The old WTT will still do the tooltip, but without the pretty colors. I like colors.

You no longer don’t have to browse WoWhead for the item URL if you already know the name of the item, achievement, or whatever. Just plug it into the new syntax and the link happens. See the documentation pages for the syntax, copy the examples, play around with them a bit, and you’ll achieve enlightenment.

You have to have both codes for all the goodies and you have to use the new syntax to get the colors and added features, it won’t happen with the HTML links. Installing the new thing will do nothing to any old WoWhead links you may have. They are all safe.

It’s installed, and it seems to work now, so I’ll keep it.

Travel to Scenic Vashj’ir

 Beta  1 Response »
Aug 092010
 

Vashj’ir, one of the new Cataclysm zones (80+,) is an ideal spot for the avid fisherman. Loaded with everything from crabs to lobster to grouper and big eels to giant whale sharks this place has everything.

Then, when you’re bored with catching giant fish the local Naga might come on board, say “Hi!” and escort you down for a scenic tour through their underwater city. Make sure you have a Naga approved Visa or getting back might be difficult.

To get to Vashj’ire and Nagaville, the first time, you’ll need to take the boat. Hordies head out the main gate of Orgrimmar, take a left, and go all the way to the beach. (If you’re facing Org, hang a right.)

You’ll find a dock. Hop on board and head on out to the greatest fishing grounds you’ve never seen.

Then, if for some silly reason, you should hearth back to Org, say… to get trained, then how do you get back to the fishing grounds (at least, for the Beta?)

Rozlyn is here to help. She’s standing in the doorway to the Org Mayor’s office and will teleport you back to Vashj’ir. Make sure you stock up on fresh bait and tackle, first. That’s Roz in the doorway. (click to embiggen.)

Rozlyn will get you back to Vashj'ir

Another way to go is by air. There is a flightmaster in Vashj’ire that will send you to Undercity, so grab that one and you’re good.

Vashj'ir to Undercity

The Orc is your flightmaster to the big city, the “guy” in the water is your local flightmaster.The Location is “Sandy Beach.”

Sandy Beach is here… at the marker, south of Kelp Forest. The first FP you grab should connect to it automatically.

Sandy Beach Fly Point

Now go catch a big one!

 Posted by at 9:11 am

Thrall and the Goblin, Together Again

 Beta  Comments Off on Thrall and the Goblin, Together Again
Aug 082010
 

Me and my bud, Thrall

Me and Thrall

The Goblin area is pretty nicely done and pretty funny. I won’t give any spoilers here other than to say the Goblins are fond of explosives. Lots of explosives. And they’re pretty creative about what they blow up.

Think of a whole race of mad scientists…

I’m sure we’ll see a few Goblin-Gnome rivalries playing out.

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