Official WoW Cataclysm Thread

[BondExtreme]

RELEASE DATE CONFIRMED - December 7th

This is the place to talk about anything related towards the upcoming, new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm!

Here we talk can talk about any news updates for the expansion, the two new races, Goblin and Worgen, the changes in the existing zones, brand new zones, class changes, how leveling may change, new dungeons, profession changes, guild perks system, new PvP battlegrounds, new talent tree changes, improved graphical changes and much much more!

Here are the official, general notes on what can be expected in the expansion from WowWiki. Remember that these are general notes. There is a WHOLE LOT more to know coming in the expansion.
* Level cap increased to 85.
* Zones are drastically affected by the Cataclysm in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. The Barrens has been split into two, and is full of canyons of lava. Wetlands is destroyed, Ashenvale hit as well. The Maelstrom churns. The changes will be made available to all players regardless of expansion purchase.
* New race for the Alliance: Worgen.
* New race for the Horde: Goblins.
* New race/class combinations.
* New monsters, quests, and zones.
* New dungeons, raids and battlegrounds.
* Guild advancement system, which includes guild leveling, achievements, and rewards.
* Ability to fly anywhere due to the Azeroth revamp. The blood elf and draenei starting zones will still be instanced.
* New water rendering engine.
* Cataclysm will have support for new DirectX 11 features.
* Cataclysm will have hardware cursor in OpenGL mode.

Here are a few sites dedicated to Cataclysm content on the upcoming expansion.

MMO Champion - The best news resource for World of Warcraft and new news content released almost every day on the expansion, Cataclysm.

Wowhead - An amazing website dedicated to WoW with a HUGE database of everything in the game.

WoWWiki - Type in anything Warcraft related and get yourself updated on the lore.

TotalBiscuit - Otherwise known as The Cynical Brit, this guy has an amazing website dedicated to StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm. It's a podcast but he puts everything on his website and his amazing Youtube channel. Everything he does now is presenting updates for the Cataclysm beta.

 

[BondExtreme]

Ok sorry about the confusion. This thread is back in business.

 

[Cja123]

This expansion is making me think heavily about getting back into this game. One of the main reasons I left was the community though.. I had a couple of local friends who played with me but once they bounced.. it became very difficult to get groups for instances and level.

 

[zithe]

This expansion is making me think heavily about getting back into this game. One of the main reasons I left was the community though.. I had a couple of local friends who played with me but once they bounced.. it became very difficult to get groups for instances and level.

Blizzard added a random dungeon finder. You queue for a role and a party is built with other people queuing. It mixes a handful of servers (I think it's 8) to make the queue quick. Up until level 80, healer and tank queues are usually less than a minute. DPS queues can be like 20 minutes to an hour sometimes, though.

Once Cataclysm comes out, every one of those websites will be severely outdated and people will have to actually figure stuff out.

 

[DannibusX]

I haven't decided to play Cataclysm yet, knowing that it will suck the life out of me like WoW has for the last 5 years. I'll probably get it, but take a much more casual approach to the game.

 

[BondExtreme]

Once Cataclysm comes out, every one of those websites will be severely outdated and people will have to actually figure stuff out.

I severely doubt that. These websites have been operating regularly for years and have a huge fan base. They can't just quit providing content cold turkey. lol

I haven't decided to play Cataclysm yet, knowing that it will suck the life out of me like WoW has for the last 5 years. I'll probably get it, but take a much more casual approach to the game.

Yeah I know what you mean. I'm not playing currently but will be going back when it launches. I'll need to play a bit more casual this time around also. This does however look like the most promising expansion. This one has the most added/changed content in it. I also love it how they are making us go back to the main two continents of Azeroth.

 

[Kreij]

I don't play WoW, but just about everyone I know does. This is a massive update.
Actually it's more of a world re-create than an update from everything that I've read.
Blizzard is going to rake in millions (again) and IMO with changes like these, they deserve it.

@Bond. Thanks

 

[zithe]

I severely doubt that. These websites have been operating regularly for years and have a huge fan base. They can't just quit providing content cold turkey. lol

They're changing zone levels and layouts. Nothing will be the same. I meant above that the websites will not have any light to shed on multiple subjects for a little bit.

Some of the changes to the city graphics aren't quite to my liking, but they'll grow on me.

 

[DannibusX]

I can guarantee that sites like WoWHead have people in the beta datamining the crap out of it. Their sites will still be chock full of information the day the expansion launches.

 

[BondExtreme]

^ Oh yes.

And then there is MMO Champion where the moment a slice of news comes out such as blue posts or new beta builds, it is on the site in a matter of minutes. Blue posts meaning something a Blizzard employee says something about the game basically.

I actually suggest everyone who is interested in the content to go to MMOC and on the left panel where it says Cataclysm, scroll through that. TONS of beta info right there. Classes, the new guild leveling, new raids, new zones, etc. And of course they have tons of pics too. Go immerse yourselves in the content. lol

 

[Reventon]

WoW is the greatest game ever but I haven't been on in like 3 weeks.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

I'm subbed for this thread. My and my warrior can't wait for Cataclysm

 

[BondExtreme]

News Update

All credit goes toward MMO Champion.

New Stone Drakes as well as Drakes of the Wind mounts!

Stone Drakes Video
Drakes of the Wind Video

Drakes of the Wind picture.
Stone Drakes picture.

Btw, I will be doing a lot of these updates on here ;D

 

[BondExtreme]

News Update

All credit goes toward MMO Champion.

"Throne of the Four Winds - Skywall Raid Instance

Let's post something new today! The Throne of the Four Winds is the raid instance in Skywall, the elemental plane of Air. It will feature 2 encounters:
* A fight against the "Conclave of Wind", a Djinn council. (The Djinn model in the game files is the one used by Siamat)
* A fight against Al'akir, the Elemental Lord of Air. (No models yet)

The instance looks similar to the Vortex Pinnacle, the 5-man dungeon of Skywall and players will move between platforms with their flying mounts."

Raid screenshots.
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Blue Posts

Hunter

Volley removed
I know I'm going to regret posting in this thread again, but I think it's the right thing to do so I'll take one for the team.

We think Multi-Shot is a more interesting ability and can fill the hunter AE niche (along with Explosive Trap). We'll have to change Multi-Shot from the current version to get it there. I'm very sorry if for some unusual reason Volley was your favorite spell as a hunter. We've been trying to consolidate abilities and free up some bar space and having multiple AEs that competed with each other seems like a good area to hit up. The Volley and Multi-Shot niches were very similar, which resulted in the latter being dead. We wanted to pick one and we though Multi-Shot felt more huntery and less "clunky" (to use a favorite Wow forums term).

Do consider that you won't be AE'ing yourselves through Cataclysm content the way you do currently. When you do need to AE, hunters will have the tools to do so. In situations where you do have to AE, you are probably not also trying to CC. When you're back to the level of trivializing lower level content, nobody is going to say "Don't bring a hunter. Their AE spam isn't spammy enough." We don't consider easily breaking rogues out of stealth a good reason to keep Volley around.

I think that hits most of the reasonable concerns. I care much less about addressing the unreasonable ones.

As always, those of you whose sole contribution is to post very inane or derogatory things will be banned.

Man, have we come a long way from "AE is only for trash."

Paladin

One Man Army
Yes. Many of the problems we've had with Ret are of the "one man army" category, where a paladin can do a lot of damage, then go defensive and heal themselves up. We love the kit of the paladin who can heal as well as do damage, but it needs to be tightly controlled. Word of Glory gives us that control. We have the room to make the spell really powerful because we know its on a tight cooldown and you sacrifice dps to use it. We can't do that today with say Flash of Light, because once you can cast one strong FoL, you can cast a bunch of them until you go OOM (at which point you Judge or Divine Plea, and you're going again). Similarly, we can make Selfless Healer nearly overpowered because you can't use it on yourself and because even with it you're not going to out compete a Holy paladin in healing. If you can occasionally contribute to group healing in tight spots, then that's great. That's some utility you can provide. (Note: Don't oversell this as "I'll get brought to raids because of my healing.")

Class balance and RNG
That's the wrong view to take though. The equivalent would be "I'm balanced around getting a crit every swing, so when that doesn't happen, RNG screws me." You get a Templar's Verdict every 3 Crusader Strikes. Sometimes you get lucky and need fewer. You of course need to pay attention for when that happens and be able to react to it and alter your immediate plans. That right there is the element we think is most missing from today's Ret paladin.

Words of Glory
Those numbers don't have to be the same though. The new talent tree design affords us a lot more flexibility in that regard. Part of the reason Word of Glory is so useful to Holy is because it costs no mana. Ret doesn't really care about mana, because it comes and goes easily, but a Ret generally won't be able to sit there and queue up several Holy Lights in a row. They will be able to sometimes use a Word of Glory though.

New World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper by Kenvd.

Article destination

 

[AlienIsGOD]

Thanx for the yummy pics and info, I'd rather come to this thread instead of going to MMO Champ, just because I like TPU better :O

 

[Hvale2k5]

Im afraid to get back in to wow lol.... it really destroy my first two year in college, DAMN WOW YOUR SCARY! love the game tho, i wish i'm rich so i can play this all day

 

[BondExtreme]

Im afraid to get back in to wow lol.... it really destroy my first two year in college, DAMN WOW YOUR SCARY! love the game tho, i wish i'm rich so i can play this all day

Unfortunately with games we need to consider time management. lol
Do homework first even if it means you can't get on for the day.

 

[zithe]

News Update

All credit goes toward MMO Champion.

"Throne of the Four Winds - Skywall Raid Instance

Let's post something new today! The Throne of the Four Winds is the raid instance in Skywall, the elemental plane of Air. It will feature 2 encounters:
* A fight against the "Conclave of Wind", a Djinn council. (The Djinn model in the game files is the one used by Siamat)
* A fight against Al'akir, the Elemental Lord of Air. (No models yet)

The instance looks similar to the Vortex Pinnacle, the 5-man dungeon of Skywall and players will move between platforms with their flying mounts."

Raid screenshots.
Image1
Image2
Image3
Image4
Image5
Image6
Image7
Image8

Blue Posts

Hunter

Volley removed
I know I'm going to regret posting in this thread again, but I think it's the right thing to do so I'll take one for the team.

We think Multi-Shot is a more interesting ability and can fill the hunter AE niche (along with Explosive Trap). We'll have to change Multi-Shot from the current version to get it there. I'm very sorry if for some unusual reason Volley was your favorite spell as a hunter. We've been trying to consolidate abilities and free up some bar space and having multiple AEs that competed with each other seems like a good area to hit up. The Volley and Multi-Shot niches were very similar, which resulted in the latter being dead. We wanted to pick one and we though Multi-Shot felt more huntery and less "clunky" (to use a favorite Wow forums term).

Do consider that you won't be AE'ing yourselves through Cataclysm content the way you do currently. When you do need to AE, hunters will have the tools to do so. In situations where you do have to AE, you are probably not also trying to CC. When you're back to the level of trivializing lower level content, nobody is going to say "Don't bring a hunter. Their AE spam isn't spammy enough." We don't consider easily breaking rogues out of stealth a good reason to keep Volley around.

I think that hits most of the reasonable concerns. I care much less about addressing the unreasonable ones.

As always, those of you whose sole contribution is to post very inane or derogatory things will be banned.

Man, have we come a long way from "AE is only for trash."

Paladin

One Man Army
Yes. Many of the problems we've had with Ret are of the "one man army" category, where a paladin can do a lot of damage, then go defensive and heal themselves up. We love the kit of the paladin who can heal as well as do damage, but it needs to be tightly controlled. Word of Glory gives us that control. We have the room to make the spell really powerful because we know its on a tight cooldown and you sacrifice dps to use it. We can't do that today with say Flash of Light, because once you can cast one strong FoL, you can cast a bunch of them until you go OOM (at which point you Judge or Divine Plea, and you're going again). Similarly, we can make Selfless Healer nearly overpowered because you can't use it on yourself and because even with it you're not going to out compete a Holy paladin in healing. If you can occasionally contribute to group healing in tight spots, then that's great. That's some utility you can provide. (Note: Don't oversell this as "I'll get brought to raids because of my healing.")

Class balance and RNG
That's the wrong view to take though. The equivalent would be "I'm balanced around getting a crit every swing, so when that doesn't happen, RNG screws me." You get a Templar's Verdict every 3 Crusader Strikes. Sometimes you get lucky and need fewer. You of course need to pay attention for when that happens and be able to react to it and alter your immediate plans. That right there is the element we think is most missing from today's Ret paladin.

Words of Glory
Those numbers don't have to be the same though. The new talent tree design affords us a lot more flexibility in that regard. Part of the reason Word of Glory is so useful to Holy is because it costs no mana. Ret doesn't really care about mana, because it comes and goes easily, but a Ret generally won't be able to sit there and queue up several Holy Lights in a row. They will be able to sometimes use a Word of Glory though.

New World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper by Kenvd.

Article destination

Looks like that temple in storm peaks. I hope it's not a pain like occulus is.

 

[Delta6326]

i may go back and try WoW played it for long time, but i always play private server(don't shoot me)

 

[BondExtreme]

Mini News Update

All credit goes to MMO Champion.

BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft & StarCraft II In-Game Items
The Blizzcon 2010 Pet is another Murloc to add to your collection! Will try to get a better picture when the shiny little murloc appears in my game files.

Blue Post:

"Death will rise from the tide!" Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain once warned -- and at BlizzCon 2010, the band's dire musical prophecy will finally come to pass. Everyone who attends this year's BlizzCon or purchases the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will receive an exclusive set of murlocalyptic in-game items for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. World of Warcraft players will be joined by Deathy, a murloc companion decked out as Deathwing and doing his best to strike fear into the hearts of Azeroth's crustacean population. You'll also be able to display your tidal pride in StarCraft II with a Murloc Marine character portrait and a pair of deep-sea decals to emblazon on your units, each with a different terran, protoss, and zerg design.

BlizzCon 2010 takes place on October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center. For further details or to order the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, visit www.BlizzCon.com.

Article destination

 

[1Kurgan1]

Looks like that temple in storm peaks. I hope it's not a pain like occulus is.

You won't ever see an Occulus again, they have said it's completely apparent to them that people don't like instances like that where you are just mounted.

 

[BondExtreme]

News Update

All credit goes to MMO Champion.

Baradin Hold Preview

Baradin Hold is the new PvP Raid Instance in Tol Barad. Just like the Vault of Archavon in Wintergrasp, the instance will only be available to the faction controlling the zone and according to the current layout of the map, Blizzard will most likely add more wings over time.

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Raid Map

Article Destination Here you can also view updated beta images for Azshara. You can also view an Azshara Q&A by the developers.

 

[ShiBDiB]

whens this release? im really tempted to go back jus cause I could use a game to keep me occupied when the weathers shitty this winter

 

[AlienIsGOD]

I hope its b4 Xmas... it WOULD make sense as they (Blizzard) could take in a whole whack of $$$ over the holiday season, as they somewhat did with WOTLK coming out in Nov of 08

I dont see the big problem with Occulus. Easy instance with a bit of flying, but only 1 boss that you do in mounted combat. IMO its better than 5m TOC. Horse mounted combat..... no thats stupid

 

[BondExtreme]

Important!

BlizzCon 2010 Promo

Blizz just released this quick trailer for Blizzcon in October.

Also @ShiBDiB. I am assuming at Blizzcon they will be announcing the release date. I am almost 100% sure of that if they don't do it before then. But basically any day now they can announce the release date for the game.