Free Talents Respec for Patch 3.0.2

One final late night note here, due to the large number of talent changes it has confirmed that all classes will receive a free talent respec when patch 3.0.2 is released. Good times for all!

All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells. (source)

Blizzcon Day 1 Wrap Up - Classes, Groups, UI and More!

General Blizzcon Announcements

• Blizzcon “Secret Project” Announcement Confirmed - Next Generation MMO, outside of WoW / SC / D3 universe
• Info on next 5 patches - patches 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3

Blizzcon Class Panels

Death Knight

• The original idea behind the rune system was a totally customizable rune pool (like, 6 Unholy runes) but “it sucked”. They changed it to what is it today (2 Runes of each type)
• Death Knights shouldn’t be played like a metronome and is intended to be an interactive and reactive class.
• As a death knight, your talent trees are a good way to define “your style, but not your role”. Devs want to bring this philosophy to other classes.

Druid

• Balance druids have been greatly improved and you shouldn’t see a lot of boomkins anymore. Their DPS is now on par with other DPS classes.
• Balance DPS looks pretty good now but developers are keeping an eye on the survivability
• Entangling roots was allowed indoor to give druids more crowd control ability in instances.
• Restoration were stuck in the HoT niche and were very limited in 5-mans or raids. Nourish is new flash heal-like spell added to solve this problem on single targets and Wild Growth was added to give them an AOE Heal.
• Druids were also given an OOC resurrection spell.
• Feral druids were decent at tanking and DPSing, but couldn’t master any of these fields. In WotLK you can take all the bear talents to become a very good main tank, or all the cat talents to have a very high DPS.
• Feral mana is a known issue, and developpers don’t want intellect on feral gear. This is being looked at

Hunter

• The hunter pet system was overhauled because it was “clumsy for new players”.
• The shot rataion has been cleaned to make things easier for hunters and make them less reliant on mods or macros.
• Freezing shot was introduced to make pulls faster without having to deploy your traps on the ground each time.

Mage

• Frostfire Bolt is a way to achieve an elemental tree with mages, they should be able to deal both fire and frost damage
• Mage DPS looks pretty good now, there are still a few mana issues getting fixed very soon
• Living Bomb base damage will most likely be increased and the spell mechanics might be modified slightly. Overall, the 51-points talent weren’t meant to be spammed and developers want them to be situational
• Frost and Fire looks pretty balanced now, but Arcane needs a few more tweaks. Arcane needs to be more “mobile”

Paladin

• Paladins were decent off-tanks but not great main tanks, this is fixed in WotLK. Paladins should focus on protection gear instead of spell power.
• Holy Paladins were good healers but couldn’t do much in encounters where players are required to move a lot, however they definitely don’t want them as a HoT class.
• Retribution paladins are supposed to deal a decent amount of DPS without running out of mana.
• Retributions paladins have to be in control of their damage and shouldn’t have to rely on lucky critical strikes to deal most of their damage

Priest

• The goal with Shadowpriest is to make them a DPS class, not just a mana battery.
• Discipline priests should be viable raid healer.
• Mind sear was introduced to give priests another viable DPS ability.
• Class-specific racial abilities were cool, but the idea became got “old” with time. That’s why racials have been revamped

Rogue

• AoE DPS was really needed and Fan of Knives was added to the game.
• Purchasable poisons and the buff of the dagger spec should help “reintroducing” them to the game.
• The goal is to have end-boss less immune to poisons and rogues less dependent of Windfury

Shaman

• Totems are now physical and harder to dispell, have more life and last longer.
• Hex was added to give Shamans more crowd control ability, Riptide to improve their healing, and Lava Burst their spell DPS.

Warlock

• Warlocks pets have been made more useful.
• The warlock rotation shouldn’t be restricted to a shadowbolt spam, that’s why Chaos Bolt was added.
• Affliction Tree is still too complicated and developpers are working on it. Developers definitely want it back as a raiding spec
• Pets should be easier to summon/switch and use.

Warrior

• Protection spec has been revamped to make it cooler to play, mitigation talents now take a lot less points and will let you invest in a few other nice tools.
• In TBC, Arms was PvP and Fury the PvE spec, this will change in WotLK : Battle Stance, Overpower, and Rend have been improved. New fun abilities have been introduced like Bladestorm and Sudden Death, Fury obviously have Titan’s Grip.

Group Discussions

• 30 specs but 25 raid slots
  • More viable specs and death knights, but no room
• Buffs felt out of control
  • Complex, inconsistent, stacking problems
  • Curse of Shadows – gg mages
  • Bloodlust rotations
  • Jimmy can’t come ? No WF ? Cancel the raid

• Buff and debuff overhaul
  • Most buffs affect the whole raid
  • Multiple ways to get the same benefit
  • But no stacking
  • Plenty of room to bring who you want
  • Bring the player, not the class

  • Everyone buffs, everyone does dps!

• Downplay consumables

  • Potion cooldown

• Gear and Skill >> Buffs and Pots

• Just bring good players

• More shared gear

  • e.g. Spell Power – healers might not need second gear sets

• Four main tank classes

  • Overlap niches

  • Healing and coordination >> threat

• Dual Specs are coming – more flexibility!

User Inteface Panel

Blizzard’s Secret Project Announced at Blizzcon

For months rumors have been flying around as to what Blizzard’s “secret project” could be, and after the Blizzcon announcement earlier today it appears the project isn’t so “secret” after all…

The new project is blizzard’s next generation MMO, an MMO which according to the Blizzcon announcement will not take place in one of the franchise’s current universes. As for what this “new universe” is, who knows, we won’t have any definitive answer for several months.

Though this project wasn’t all that secret, it’s still great too get confirmation that it will be outside of the current WoW / SC / Diablo world’s. I’m very interested to see this project built from the ground up.

Future WotLK Patch Updates and News

In a very uncharacteristic move Blizzard dropped the ball on several pretty big content patches, which are slated for release following the launch of WotLK. Here’s a quick break down of what’s coming up in the next several months of patches.

Patch 3.0.2

This patch is the bridge between the Burning Crusade and WotLK. There is no official scheduled release date yet, all we know is it won’t go live until S4 ends, which is this 10/14/08. In my opinion it will launch 10/21/08. This patch includes major talent changes, class balances, and other features in preperation for WotLK. Check out the compiled list of changes and updates here. Patch 3.0.2 Compiled.

Patch 3.0.3

This minor patch will go live 1-2 weeks after patch 3.0.2 releases, it’s only real purpose will be to retroactively complete the C’thun achievement quests. This patch will likely be the last patch prior to WotLK launch and should include any final bug fixes or other minor changes

Tigole Regarding Patch 3.0.3

We just added the C’Thun BP’s to the retro list. Previously, we were checking the quests but the quests were not recorded because they are repeatable.

This fix won’t go in the upcoming patch but one that will follow that patch by a week or two. So hang on to those C’Thun BP’s and you’ll get credit.

Patch 3.1

The first major content patch of the expansion, major highlights include

• Uldar Raid Instance 10 man
• Uldar Raid Instance 25 man

Patch 3.2

The second major content patch for expansion. Currently the features in this patch have not been announced. However, we do know that that this patch will…

…add a new and still unknown raid instance to the game (source)

Patch 3.3

The third major content patch for the expansion, major highlights include

• Ashbringer story resolved
• Icecrown Citadel released

Additional New WotLK Features

• New Guild Ratings based on PvE / PvP accomplishment
• New Guild Achievements

Not a whole lot is currently known regarding these new guild ratings, it’s something that’s been talked about for some time. Prior to the Burning Crusade blizzard had considered putting a system for rated Warsong Gulch in, but scrapped the idea. Personally I think this would be a great idea, particuarlly for PvP guilds, as it adds a whole new level of accomplishment for those groups of players.

New Riptide Animation

Not sure if I missed this change in a previous PTR build or not, but it looks like there was an undocumented change to the riptide animation. As you can see below it’s received a significant improvement. Note, this is build 9038, not 9056, which will buff the +healing of riptide.

2 Talent Specs in WotLK?

You bet! While details are still up in the air, chances are you’ll be able to have 2 talent specs to swap when WotLK comes out. I’ve heard several different theories on how this new 2 spec feature might work. One, and the most likely selection in my opinion, would allow you to have 2 talent spec templates saved. You still would only be able to have one spec active at a time, but you could return to your trainer and train you secondary saved template for free.

This would be a great addition, and something both PvE and PvP players alike would enjoy. I would almost guarantee we’ll get further confirmation on this feature tomorrow at Blizzcon.

We most surely are working on some plans to allow players to switch between specs, but the details are sill being discussed internally.

Just wanted to add that it is most likely that we will see this added to the game in a patch after the release of WotLK :-) (source)

Flying Mounts in Northrend

Nothing too unexpected here. There was some initial confusion regarding how you would get your flying mount training for Northrend. Currently the plan is to have it as a part of a quest chain at level 68 and require 1000 gold. This change is for 2 reasons.

• Making you wait until level 77 forces you to see all of the zones in the order they were intended to be played through. There has been a significant improvement in the overall design and feel of each zone and it would be a shame to just “fly by” (pun intended!) them without experiencing the story line along with each zone.
• The 1000g cost is simply attempting to further reduction inflation on your server’s economy by sucking probably between 25-50% of the overall gold you would have made by while leveling. Pretty lame in my opinion, but I understand blizzard’s reasoning behind it.

Cold Weather Flying was indeed a part of a quest line, but we changed it because we felt that it wasn’t clear enough where to get it.
This ability will now be purchasable instead, and the 1000 gold cost has been tuned around the amount of gold people will usually have gathered around level 77. At that level we expect you will have more than enough gold to afford getting the Cold Weather Flying ability. (source)

Cold Weather Flying Trainer

Best Blizzcon Achievements List

As many of you know Blizzcon is right around the corner. It’ll be 2 days of big announcements, exciting changes, and some of most ridiculous footage of gamers hanging out in the massive convntion center (I can’t wait!).

If do happen to be joining this year’s festivities at Blizzcon 2008 consider participating in the strictly unoffical Blizzcon Achievemnts!

• “Little man in big Place” - Made it to Blizzcon in one peice
  
• “Did you catch that?” - Sit in the back row of each board both days
  
• “I went to Blizzcon and all I got was this lousy Shirt” - Buy a T shirt from the Blizzcon Store
  
• “Champion of your Realm” - Punched everyone from your server in the face. Awards Title: Felon
• “Ruler of Blizzcon” - Survived both days of Blizzcon without Sleeping, eating, and showering
• “The status is not quo” - beat someone with an inflatable frostmourne as they try to protect with an inflatable bubble hearthing paladin.
• “Finalizer of the Truth” - Learn, without doubt and with photographic evidence, the gender of Ghostcrawler.
• “Slayer of the Dragon” - Hand out mints to five people with the “dragon” breath.
  

Thanks to Killertotems from the WoW forums who initially started this list.

What would you add to the list?

Mana Tomb Stealth Farming

If you’re a rogue then you may already be aware of this, if not…sit down, because you’re going to be floored when you realize how much gold you could have been making for years! Stealth farming in the mana tombs is one of the quickest and easiest ways for a rogue to make some serious gold. You don’t need amazing gear, any particular talent spec or God-like skills, all you need is a level 70 rogue and 350+ lock picking.

Stealth farming mana tombs as a rogue really could not be any more simple.

• Walk in Mana Tombs on normal mode
• Kill the 2-3 mob packs guarding each of the 2 chests
• Loot the chest
• Walk out, reset theinstance, repeat.

Your server will ultimately determine the amount of gold you are able to make using this strategy, but in my experience the mana tomb farming runs have yielded as much as 500 gold per hour. Check out the video to see how it’s done.

WoW Email Scam Warning

WoW email scams are nothing new. Phishers and scammers go where the money is, and WoW accounts are a great source of quick and repeatable income for these people. But please…please don’t let yourself become the next victim. Earlier this evening I received a phishing email asking me to update my WoW info.

This is a common technique used by these scammers to steal your personal information and steal your World of Warcraft account. I’ve attached a copy of this email below.

There are a few things that give this email away as an obvious fake.

1. Note the URL in the lower left corner. while it appears legit at first glance you should note it is a sub-domain which is located on a free hosting service.
2. Note the poor grammar I’ve high lighted in red, do you really think blizzard would misspell “follow”?
3. I’m a US player, not a EU player.
4. Finally, remember Blizzard will never contact you by email to verify  your personal information, including passwords.

This email is very similar to another phishing scam I received several months ago, oddly enough it appears to be from the same scam “artist”. In my first scam warning I mentioned a few tips which might help you avoid scams like these, I’ve got them listed below for your convince.

The easiest way to avoid these is to simply not click on them, but there are a few extra small steps you can take to further protect yourself (in the event you accidentally click them). First and foremost, I strongly suggest you download and use firefox. Security wise firefox out performs internet explorer in every category (which tends to stop virtually nothing).

Additionally you may also find it helpful to download the NoScript addon for firefox. This allows you to block active and script content from sites, and will only allow scripts to be run on sites you trust (like zuggaming.com!).

You won’t believe the number of scripts that run on the majority of sites. These scripts often…

• Track your movements on the site
• Automatically download files without your permission (could be virus)
• Present advertisements you may not want to see
• Present Pop ups, pop unders, pop overs and exit ads
• Additional malicious activities

With just a few simple steps I’ve listed above you can dramatically reduce your chance of becoming the victim of one of these phishing scams.

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