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It's been a while since the last Cataclysm UI enhancements article, so I figured it was time to update everyone on what has been added since then. There's a lot of new stuff, with more yet to come for certain features, but here's a recap of everything new since July 1st. Don't forget to also check out the Guild UI preview.
New Talent Pane
One of the biggest changes is of course the new talent pane. With the talent system being revamped to 31-point trees, Blizzard has taken the opportunity to design a new, more intuitive interface to introduce players to each specialization they have available to them.
New Glyph Pane
The glyph system is getting an overhaul in Cataclysm as well, so to go along with that the glyph pane has been updated to reflect the changes. Using a glyph will now "teach" your character that glyph -- permanently making it accessible via the glyph pane as an option to add to your active glyphs. All of the glyphs you've learned, and those still available to your character, will display to the right of your active glyph section in a list that is easy to browse. In the screenshots you'll notice that glyphs you do not currently know will be greyed out.
Spell Activation Overlay Effects
This awesome new feature allows you to enable visual indicators when certain effects are triggered by your character, similar to the extremely popular PowerAuras AddOn. In the screenshot examples below you can see that each effect has a unique icon. Those displayed are for Arcane Missiles, Rime and Sudden Death.
In addition to this, ability icons on your hotbar will now light up with a glow effect when they become available for use, or when one of the spell overlay effects are active that the ability will benefit from. For example, check out how Howling Blast and Icy Touch look on the action bar while the Freezing Fog buff is active.
Check out this preview on MMO-Champion to see more of the spell-specific icons.
Raid Frame Improvements
The default raid frame UI has seen substantial improvements and will be much more viable to use over an AddOn in Cataclysm. As you can see in the screenshots below, it can be customized quite a bit and is visually similar to the popular Grid AddOn.
To go along with this, the UI options for the raid frames have been updated.
Spellbook Update - Mounts & Companions
The spellbook has been updated with new tabs for your mounts and companion pets, so they no longer display on your character pane. The nice thing about this change is that the spellbook now displays not only the icon but also the name of your mounts and companion pets -- making it much easier to browse and select the right one for the situation.
Character Pane - Expertise and Hit Chance Explanations
The character pane has received an additional update for the Expertise and Hit Chance statistics. You'll now see detailed information on the chance for your attacks to be dodged, parried and miss based on the level of the creature. This will greatly assist players in choosing gear upgrades and what gems or reforging to take advantage of.
Character Pane - Spec and Class Color
The character pane has also been updated and will now display the spec you've chosen alongside your level, and it will also be colored in your class color. It will also display on the inspect pane, making it easy to quickly see a person's chosen specialization.
Reforging Pane
Reforging is a new feature in Cataclysm that allows you to reduce a secondary statistic and put those points into another secondary statistic, by visiting a Thaumaturge NPC. This system allows for incredibly customizable items and lets you tailor them to your specific needs.
And as a reminder, I've included a video introduction of the reforging system.
Druid - Eclipse Bar
Druids will find when they choose the Balance specialization that they have a new mechanic bar: Eclipse energy. Using certain spells will generate either Lunar or Solar energy, and once you reach 100 it will proc an eclipse of that type. Lunar will increase Arcane damage, while Solar will increase Nature damage.
Hunter - New Pet Pane
With Cataclysm, Hunters will be able to have multiple "active" pets -- up to 5 at higher levels -- and they can call upon any of them while out questing, doing dungeons, etc. In addition to this, you'll also be able to have up to 20 pets stabled. This called for a new pet pane, and what you see below is the result.
Mage - Portal & Teleport Bars
Mages now have a new feature for their portal and teleport spells. Rather than each spell being displayed in the spellbook, there are now two spells named "Portal" and "Teleport." Upon clicking either of them, a bar pops out that allows you to select which destination you'd like to port to. These spells can also be moved to your action bar, resulting in similar pop-out functionality.
Paladin - Holy Power Bar
With Cataclysm, Paladins are going to have a new resource system. While they're retaining mana as a primary resource, Holy Power will be used exclusively for a handful of abilities that grow in power based on the amount of Holy Power you currently have. To support this new resource system, a new UI element has been added for Paladin players under their unitframe. As you see in the screenshot examples below, as you have more Holy Power, the bar glows more impressively.
Minimap Update - Quest Tracker Arrow
If you remember from the last UI enhancements article, the minimap now has an arrow pointing to your primary tracked quest, assuming you're using the quest tracker feature. It was updated recently and now looks much better.
New Talent Pane
One of the biggest changes is of course the new talent pane. With the talent system being revamped to 31-point trees, Blizzard has taken the opportunity to design a new, more intuitive interface to introduce players to each specialization they have available to them.
New Glyph Pane
The glyph system is getting an overhaul in Cataclysm as well, so to go along with that the glyph pane has been updated to reflect the changes. Using a glyph will now "teach" your character that glyph -- permanently making it accessible via the glyph pane as an option to add to your active glyphs. All of the glyphs you've learned, and those still available to your character, will display to the right of your active glyph section in a list that is easy to browse. In the screenshots you'll notice that glyphs you do not currently know will be greyed out.
Spell Activation Overlay Effects
This awesome new feature allows you to enable visual indicators when certain effects are triggered by your character, similar to the extremely popular PowerAuras AddOn. In the screenshot examples below you can see that each effect has a unique icon. Those displayed are for Arcane Missiles, Rime and Sudden Death.
In addition to this, ability icons on your hotbar will now light up with a glow effect when they become available for use, or when one of the spell overlay effects are active that the ability will benefit from. For example, check out how Howling Blast and Icy Touch look on the action bar while the Freezing Fog buff is active.
Check out this preview on MMO-Champion to see more of the spell-specific icons.
Raid Frame Improvements
The default raid frame UI has seen substantial improvements and will be much more viable to use over an AddOn in Cataclysm. As you can see in the screenshots below, it can be customized quite a bit and is visually similar to the popular Grid AddOn.
To go along with this, the UI options for the raid frames have been updated.
Spellbook Update - Mounts & Companions
The spellbook has been updated with new tabs for your mounts and companion pets, so they no longer display on your character pane. The nice thing about this change is that the spellbook now displays not only the icon but also the name of your mounts and companion pets -- making it much easier to browse and select the right one for the situation.
Character Pane - Expertise and Hit Chance Explanations
The character pane has received an additional update for the Expertise and Hit Chance statistics. You'll now see detailed information on the chance for your attacks to be dodged, parried and miss based on the level of the creature. This will greatly assist players in choosing gear upgrades and what gems or reforging to take advantage of.
Character Pane - Spec and Class Color
The character pane has also been updated and will now display the spec you've chosen alongside your level, and it will also be colored in your class color. It will also display on the inspect pane, making it easy to quickly see a person's chosen specialization.
Reforging Pane
Reforging is a new feature in Cataclysm that allows you to reduce a secondary statistic and put those points into another secondary statistic, by visiting a Thaumaturge NPC. This system allows for incredibly customizable items and lets you tailor them to your specific needs.
And as a reminder, I've included a video introduction of the reforging system.
Druid - Eclipse BarDruids will find when they choose the Balance specialization that they have a new mechanic bar: Eclipse energy. Using certain spells will generate either Lunar or Solar energy, and once you reach 100 it will proc an eclipse of that type. Lunar will increase Arcane damage, while Solar will increase Nature damage.
Hunter - New Pet PaneWith Cataclysm, Hunters will be able to have multiple "active" pets -- up to 5 at higher levels -- and they can call upon any of them while out questing, doing dungeons, etc. In addition to this, you'll also be able to have up to 20 pets stabled. This called for a new pet pane, and what you see below is the result.
Mage - Portal & Teleport BarsMages now have a new feature for their portal and teleport spells. Rather than each spell being displayed in the spellbook, there are now two spells named "Portal" and "Teleport." Upon clicking either of them, a bar pops out that allows you to select which destination you'd like to port to. These spells can also be moved to your action bar, resulting in similar pop-out functionality.
Paladin - Holy Power BarWith Cataclysm, Paladins are going to have a new resource system. While they're retaining mana as a primary resource, Holy Power will be used exclusively for a handful of abilities that grow in power based on the amount of Holy Power you currently have. To support this new resource system, a new UI element has been added for Paladin players under their unitframe. As you see in the screenshot examples below, as you have more Holy Power, the bar glows more impressively.
Minimap Update - Quest Tracker Arrow
If you remember from the last UI enhancements article, the minimap now has an arrow pointing to your primary tracked quest, assuming you're using the quest tracker feature. It was updated recently and now looks much better.
It's time to take back your homelands, Gnomes and Trolls!
How-To Videos
It's a good time to post the how-to videos from Etsuko again. Check them out below!
Operation: Gnomeregan
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Zalazane's Fall
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Quote
Quote from: Lylirra (Source)
Look lively—the efforts to retake the areas of Gnomeregan and Echo Isles have begun. While it's been some weeks since we shared the details surrounding these calls to arms, the battle is finally underway!
If you are of the illustrious Alliance and wish to take up the charge of retaking Gnomeregan as called by Gelbin Mekkatorque, you'll want to report to him for duty in the district of Tinkertown in Ironforge. Members of the noble and steadfast Horde are tasked to report to Sen'jin village in southern Durotar. No matter if you're a weathered champion of your faction, or are still learning the ways of battle, you'll be able to help in these monumental efforts to change the very landscape of Azeroth.
Dismissed!
Operation: Gnomeregan: http://www.worldofwa...gnomeregan2.xml
Zalazane's Fall: http://www.worldofwa.../echoisles2.xml
Look lively—the efforts to retake the areas of Gnomeregan and Echo Isles have begun. While it's been some weeks since we shared the details surrounding these calls to arms, the battle is finally underway!
If you are of the illustrious Alliance and wish to take up the charge of retaking Gnomeregan as called by Gelbin Mekkatorque, you'll want to report to him for duty in the district of Tinkertown in Ironforge. Members of the noble and steadfast Horde are tasked to report to Sen'jin village in southern Durotar. No matter if you're a weathered champion of your faction, or are still learning the ways of battle, you'll be able to help in these monumental efforts to change the very landscape of Azeroth.
Dismissed!
Operation: Gnomeregan: http://www.worldofwa...gnomeregan2.xml
Zalazane's Fall: http://www.worldofwa.../echoisles2.xml
How-To Videos
It's a good time to post the how-to videos from Etsuko again. Check them out below!
Operation: Gnomeregan
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Zalazane's Fall
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Cataclysm Exploration Videos: Twilight Highlands, Cape of Stranglethorn, Stonetalon Mountains
09-06-10 20:10 |
Kody 
View Thread (5 Comments)
Silencer has been busy over the past week, so it's time to feature more of his Cataclysm exploration videos! The spoiler tags after videos contains Frejya's commentary on what has changed from WoWWiki.
Twilight Highlands - Build 12857
Part 1
Part 2
The Cape of Stranglethorn
Stonetalon Mountains
Part 1
Part 2
Twilight Highlands - Build 12857
Part 1
Part 2
The Cape of Stranglethorn
Spoiler
Stonetalon Mountains
Part 1
Part 2
Spoiler
Vortex Pinnacle Video
TotalBiscuit put together a video of Vortex Pinnacle, a new 5-player instance in Cataclysm. It's an absolutely beautiful zone made up of a palace floating in the clouds.
Blue Posts
TotalBiscuit put together a video of Vortex Pinnacle, a new 5-player instance in Cataclysm. It's an absolutely beautiful zone made up of a palace floating in the clouds.
Blue Posts
Quote
Combat ratings, changes in store in the future? (Source)
Your primary stats go up, but your combat ratings go down. The reason for this is that those ratings convert to percentages. If you started with say 50% crit chance, and then gained a level and your new gear had say +4% crit chance instead of +2% crit chance, then you'd quickly get to 100% crit and stay there. This was the reason we implemented combat ratings in the first place. (You can blame Blackhand's Breadth.)
This particularly gets to be a problem when you reach max level. The reason is because you are going to go through several tiers of gear without increasing your character level, so we need to have enough space in the numbers for them to increase. We figure out what the highest say crit and haste chance the game can handle and then work backwards giving each tier a meaningful upgrade (or getting new gear won't be fun) and that determines the combat ratings on the starting gear.
We definitely understand the confusion / weird perception issues this causes and we've talked about some ways to completely revamp the game's combat equations so that we didn't need to use percentage-based stats influenced by ratings with diminishing returns. That is too large a change for Cataclysm, but something we might do in the future (when we aren't also tackling talent and glyph revamps).
Also remember that if you are leveling to 85, you are skipping over a lot of potential quest rewards that you can't get yet. The item leaps among levels are pretty large at level 80-85, which we had to do to make the upgrades feel meaningful. (Imagine the alternatives where you could go to Twilight Highlands directly from Icecrown and do okay.) Once those quest items are in, you'll be more powerful as you level.
On providing class feedback about damage values (Source)
A lot of you are focusing on numbers, which are just such easy things to tweak at this stage that we haven't turned our attention to them yet. If a "fun" ability for you is synonymous with "one that hits hard" then what you find fun is liable to be random and switch from build to build. :)
We have adjusted mob health and damage quite a bit in the beta and we're going to continue to do so. In LK, quest mobs got to be a bit of a joke, such that everyone was used to killing clouds of them with ease. We're trying to return to a world where you can generally handle one, but might want to think about using some of your crowd control or emergency buttons when you get an extra one or two. (Again, that's the intent. We're still adjusting things to get there.)
Current difficulty of Uldum, Twilight Highlands and level 85 content (Source)
Unfortunately, this is the most salient point in the original post. :( Everything from mana cost to tank damage are designed around having the correct gear. Doing an 85 zone in 83 gear is much, much harder than doing a 75 zone in 73 gear. Why? Because with only 5 levels, we made the level to level jump in item stats really high. That also means mobs also jump up a lot in power from level 73 to 75.
Almost every "Wow, things are hard" thread I have read on this and other forums are a direct result of not having Uldum and Twilight gear yet. We thought long and hard about whether it was a good idea to bump the level cap without that gear in place. In the end, we thought it was worth getting feedback on the quest design and some of the encounter design. But encounter balance is enormously dependent on having the right gear. Just keep that in mind. Things will feel better when you have ugrades available.
Dark Simulacrum (Source)
There' still some polish needed on Dark Simulacrum. We are going to try and let it affect everything we possibly can, but there have to be some limitations. Copying pets and the like is just something we can't handle really well. We also need to make sure that some effects have a duration. It's probably okay to copy Shadowform, but Shadowform itself has no duration and the DK version needs to. :)
Protection as of build 12857 (Source)
Generally, you should use Inquisition when AE tanking, since it will boost the Holy portion of Hammer of the Righteous as well as Consecrate. You should use Shield of the Righteous when fighting single (or perhaps 2-3) targets, because it's going to hit a lot harder.
Beyond that, you have a few options. You can glyph Avenger's Shield to focus on one target if you'd like. You can switch to Shield of the Righteous even on group targets when you get Sacred Duty procs. You can use Grand Crusader procs to focus on the targets you are already in melee with, or use Avenger's Shield on additional targets to help hold threat. Consecrate isn't the "threat glue" is used to be, nor does it have 100% up time, so you're going to have some choices about when and where you use it.
Word of Glory, Beacon of Light and Holy's healing rotations (Source)
The main strength of Word of Glory is its cost. No matter how strained mana might get, you're always going to have ample usage of an instant, free heal.
It's difficult to offer talents that mod the other heals. If you have a talent that makes Flash of Light more cost effective or Divine Light faster, then those aren't really filling those niches anymore. We had a lot of problems like this in the past where a combination of talents, glyphs or set bonuses made Flash of Light or Holy Light the obvious heal for paladins, and the other one just died. We want to use all 3 of the cast-time healing spells in Cataclysm, but we're offering the most gameplay around Holy Shock and Word of Glory, because those are what make Holy paladins feel the most different from other healers.
As others have pointed out, Beacon just can't stay as "I heal at 200% effectiveness" in the Cataclysm healing model. It will still give you extra healing, particularly with the Tower of Radiance component.
We're not worried about the AE healing situation. In Lich King there were situations, especially in raids, where healers were called upon to instantly heal multiple targets at once or someone was going to die. With the larger health pools in Cataclysm, those situations are just going to be very rare. AE damage, and sometimes raid-wide AE auras, will still exist, but your tools are more than adequate to handle them. No, Light of Dawn may not take 5+ targets from 50% damage to 0% damage, but it also doesn't need to. You'll have time to top them off with single target heals, or just wait until the next AE heal is available. We just don't think spammable AE heals are that fun. If we wanted them to be a big part of the game, we'd need to make actual AE healing rotations that did more. The LK scenarios of hitting Wild Growth and Circle of Healing on cooldown are not something we want to go back to (plus, we've increased those cooldowns).
Holy's mastery (Source)
The paladin mastery should definitely replace a lower shield with a larger one. We're a bit hesitant to just let you continually stack the shield up to its max size. That feels more annoying if anything because then paladins would feel compelled to spam heals on a tank before the pull so they could start with a max strength shield and then drink to restore the mana investment.
Illumination and Divine Plea (Source)
I can't imagine anyone chose Holy paladin because they loved Illumination and Divine Plea as concepts. I can see liking those abilities when they gave you near infinite mana. For some healers, we understand that never having to worry about mana was fun, but we feel like overall, healing will be more fun if there is more skill and less spamming the same button involved.
Leap of Faith (Source)
Leap of Faith needs to be constrained to your group only.
Heroic Leap (Source)
The Thunder Clap portion of Heroic Leap was the subject of much derision on this very forum. If you liked it, you should have stuck up for it then. It's gone now.
That sounds harsh, which isn't my intention, but it is really, really common on these forums to see a concerted effort among some players to say "Change X" and then when we do, other players come out of the woodwork to say "But we liked X!" I can't suggest a great solution to that except to pay attention to the kinds of discussions that are happening, and chime in if you disagree with something strongly.
---
We had a problem with Heroic Leap's high arc because it could propel you through doorways, essentially showing you all of the interior geometry of the world, which looked pretty unpolished. It's the kind of thing we can keep trying to improve though.
Bloodsurge (Source)
On Bloodsurge, a lot of specs pay the price for hitting an ability that procs at the wrong time: Art of War (Exorcism) and Hot Streak (Pyroblast) to name a couple. We don't want it to be trivial to achieve maximum dps.
Your primary stats go up, but your combat ratings go down. The reason for this is that those ratings convert to percentages. If you started with say 50% crit chance, and then gained a level and your new gear had say +4% crit chance instead of +2% crit chance, then you'd quickly get to 100% crit and stay there. This was the reason we implemented combat ratings in the first place. (You can blame Blackhand's Breadth.)
This particularly gets to be a problem when you reach max level. The reason is because you are going to go through several tiers of gear without increasing your character level, so we need to have enough space in the numbers for them to increase. We figure out what the highest say crit and haste chance the game can handle and then work backwards giving each tier a meaningful upgrade (or getting new gear won't be fun) and that determines the combat ratings on the starting gear.
We definitely understand the confusion / weird perception issues this causes and we've talked about some ways to completely revamp the game's combat equations so that we didn't need to use percentage-based stats influenced by ratings with diminishing returns. That is too large a change for Cataclysm, but something we might do in the future (when we aren't also tackling talent and glyph revamps).
Also remember that if you are leveling to 85, you are skipping over a lot of potential quest rewards that you can't get yet. The item leaps among levels are pretty large at level 80-85, which we had to do to make the upgrades feel meaningful. (Imagine the alternatives where you could go to Twilight Highlands directly from Icecrown and do okay.) Once those quest items are in, you'll be more powerful as you level.
On providing class feedback about damage values (Source)
A lot of you are focusing on numbers, which are just such easy things to tweak at this stage that we haven't turned our attention to them yet. If a "fun" ability for you is synonymous with "one that hits hard" then what you find fun is liable to be random and switch from build to build. :)
We have adjusted mob health and damage quite a bit in the beta and we're going to continue to do so. In LK, quest mobs got to be a bit of a joke, such that everyone was used to killing clouds of them with ease. We're trying to return to a world where you can generally handle one, but might want to think about using some of your crowd control or emergency buttons when you get an extra one or two. (Again, that's the intent. We're still adjusting things to get there.)
Current difficulty of Uldum, Twilight Highlands and level 85 content (Source)
Unfortunately, this is the most salient point in the original post. :( Everything from mana cost to tank damage are designed around having the correct gear. Doing an 85 zone in 83 gear is much, much harder than doing a 75 zone in 73 gear. Why? Because with only 5 levels, we made the level to level jump in item stats really high. That also means mobs also jump up a lot in power from level 73 to 75.
Almost every "Wow, things are hard" thread I have read on this and other forums are a direct result of not having Uldum and Twilight gear yet. We thought long and hard about whether it was a good idea to bump the level cap without that gear in place. In the end, we thought it was worth getting feedback on the quest design and some of the encounter design. But encounter balance is enormously dependent on having the right gear. Just keep that in mind. Things will feel better when you have ugrades available.
Death Knight
Dark Simulacrum (Source)
There' still some polish needed on Dark Simulacrum. We are going to try and let it affect everything we possibly can, but there have to be some limitations. Copying pets and the like is just something we can't handle really well. We also need to make sure that some effects have a duration. It's probably okay to copy Shadowform, but Shadowform itself has no duration and the DK version needs to. :)
Paladin
Protection as of build 12857 (Source)
Generally, you should use Inquisition when AE tanking, since it will boost the Holy portion of Hammer of the Righteous as well as Consecrate. You should use Shield of the Righteous when fighting single (or perhaps 2-3) targets, because it's going to hit a lot harder.
Beyond that, you have a few options. You can glyph Avenger's Shield to focus on one target if you'd like. You can switch to Shield of the Righteous even on group targets when you get Sacred Duty procs. You can use Grand Crusader procs to focus on the targets you are already in melee with, or use Avenger's Shield on additional targets to help hold threat. Consecrate isn't the "threat glue" is used to be, nor does it have 100% up time, so you're going to have some choices about when and where you use it.
Word of Glory, Beacon of Light and Holy's healing rotations (Source)
The main strength of Word of Glory is its cost. No matter how strained mana might get, you're always going to have ample usage of an instant, free heal.
It's difficult to offer talents that mod the other heals. If you have a talent that makes Flash of Light more cost effective or Divine Light faster, then those aren't really filling those niches anymore. We had a lot of problems like this in the past where a combination of talents, glyphs or set bonuses made Flash of Light or Holy Light the obvious heal for paladins, and the other one just died. We want to use all 3 of the cast-time healing spells in Cataclysm, but we're offering the most gameplay around Holy Shock and Word of Glory, because those are what make Holy paladins feel the most different from other healers.
As others have pointed out, Beacon just can't stay as "I heal at 200% effectiveness" in the Cataclysm healing model. It will still give you extra healing, particularly with the Tower of Radiance component.
We're not worried about the AE healing situation. In Lich King there were situations, especially in raids, where healers were called upon to instantly heal multiple targets at once or someone was going to die. With the larger health pools in Cataclysm, those situations are just going to be very rare. AE damage, and sometimes raid-wide AE auras, will still exist, but your tools are more than adequate to handle them. No, Light of Dawn may not take 5+ targets from 50% damage to 0% damage, but it also doesn't need to. You'll have time to top them off with single target heals, or just wait until the next AE heal is available. We just don't think spammable AE heals are that fun. If we wanted them to be a big part of the game, we'd need to make actual AE healing rotations that did more. The LK scenarios of hitting Wild Growth and Circle of Healing on cooldown are not something we want to go back to (plus, we've increased those cooldowns).
Holy's mastery (Source)
The paladin mastery should definitely replace a lower shield with a larger one. We're a bit hesitant to just let you continually stack the shield up to its max size. That feels more annoying if anything because then paladins would feel compelled to spam heals on a tank before the pull so they could start with a max strength shield and then drink to restore the mana investment.
Illumination and Divine Plea (Source)
I can't imagine anyone chose Holy paladin because they loved Illumination and Divine Plea as concepts. I can see liking those abilities when they gave you near infinite mana. For some healers, we understand that never having to worry about mana was fun, but we feel like overall, healing will be more fun if there is more skill and less spamming the same button involved.
Priest
Leap of Faith (Source)
Leap of Faith needs to be constrained to your group only.
Warrior
Heroic Leap (Source)
The Thunder Clap portion of Heroic Leap was the subject of much derision on this very forum. If you liked it, you should have stuck up for it then. It's gone now.
That sounds harsh, which isn't my intention, but it is really, really common on these forums to see a concerted effort among some players to say "Change X" and then when we do, other players come out of the woodwork to say "But we liked X!" I can't suggest a great solution to that except to pay attention to the kinds of discussions that are happening, and chime in if you disagree with something strongly.
---
We had a problem with Heroic Leap's high arc because it could propel you through doorways, essentially showing you all of the interior geometry of the world, which looked pretty unpolished. It's the kind of thing we can keep trying to improve though.
Bloodsurge (Source)
On Bloodsurge, a lot of specs pay the price for hitting an ability that procs at the wrong time: Art of War (Exorcism) and Hot Streak (Pyroblast) to name a couple. We don't want it to be trivial to achieve maximum dps.
One of the things that has been a bit neglected in all of the Cataclysm news is how players will access the level 80-85 zones after visiting them for the first time. Most of them start off with breadcrumb quests in the two major cities for the expansion, Stormwind for the Alliance and Orgrimmar for the Horde. These breadcrumbs typically provide shortcuts or special events that will only happen once, as a means of accessing the new zones for the first time.
After that, many might think they need to fly to the zones to access them. That however is not the case. Extremely similar to the city portals in both Shattrath and Dalaran, there are new zone portals added in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar to allow quick access to the zones you've already visited at least once. There's a visually unique portal for each new zone: Mount Hyjal, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Uldum and Twilight Highlands, as well as a portal to Tol Barad.
Portal Locations
As mentioned above, the new portals are located in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. I've highlighted the area on each city's map as a quick guide to accessing them.
Portal Screenshots
Orgrimmar
Stormwind
After that, many might think they need to fly to the zones to access them. That however is not the case. Extremely similar to the city portals in both Shattrath and Dalaran, there are new zone portals added in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar to allow quick access to the zones you've already visited at least once. There's a visually unique portal for each new zone: Mount Hyjal, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Uldum and Twilight Highlands, as well as a portal to Tol Barad.
Portal Locations
As mentioned above, the new portals are located in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. I've highlighted the area on each city's map as a quick guide to accessing them.
Portal Screenshots
Orgrimmar
Stormwind
The blues have been relatively quiet on the forums so far today, but if there are any posts of note I'll be adding them to this article later tonight.
Cataclysm Race Intros
TotalBiscuit put together videos of all the new Cataclysm race intros currently implemented. So far 11 out of the 12 intros are now in the beta, with only the Goblins remaining to be completed. The videos contain some lore spoilers for the Wrath to Cataclysm transition, so you may not want to watch them if you want to keep that unspoiled.
SC2Replayed Contest
For those of you playing StarCraft II, we're running a replay contest on SC2Replayed for the month of September. Check out the details below, or over on SC2Replayed.
Cataclysm Race Intros
TotalBiscuit put together videos of all the new Cataclysm race intros currently implemented. So far 11 out of the 12 intros are now in the beta, with only the Goblins remaining to be completed. The videos contain some lore spoilers for the Wrath to Cataclysm transition, so you may not want to watch them if you want to keep that unspoiled.
Alliance
Horde
Horde
SC2Replayed Contest
For those of you playing StarCraft II, we're running a replay contest on SC2Replayed for the month of September. Check out the details below, or over on SC2Replayed.
Quote
At SC2Replayed, we want to see awesome replays. So, we've decided to hold a contest to see who has the awesomest, funniest, or perhaps quirkiest replays!
How does it work?
The replay can be on any subject. Seriously epic matchups, unique builds, tutorials, or just plain humorous replays are all welcome.
Once your replay is uploaded, you don't have to do anything! We will be able to keep track of your replays automatically.
How do I win?
Very simply, the prizes will go to the replays that has the most downloads.
Again, we will be able to keep track of the replays automatically.
One of the best ways to get your replay viral is to post and link it in community forums (not just SC2Replayed's forums).
When does it start?
Make sure your epic replay is uploaded between Sept. 3rd, 10 AM, CDT and Sept. 17th, 10 AM, CDT. That gives you two weeks to accumulate your downloads.
What's in it for me?
First place: 1-Year Subscription to Curse Premium, plus a feature spot on SC2Replayed.
2nd place: 6-Month Subscription to Curse Premium, plus an honorable mention.
2th - 5th: 3-Month Subscription to Curse Premium, plus an honorable mention.
6th - 10th: 1-Month Subscription to Curse Premium.
Curse Premium membership grants you no advertisements on all Curse sites and pushes your uploads to the top of the queue (with other premium users). To see the other benefits of becoming a premium member, go to Curse.com/premium.
We can't wait to see what the community produces. Good luck!
Cataclysm Beta: Build 12857 Stormwind Updates, Ghostcrawler Explains Glyphs
09-02-10 13:53 |
Kody
View Thread (2 Comments)
With the latest beta build, Stormwind has seen a few more updates. Content-wise, guards now patrol the walls of the city. However the best part of the update has to be the new ground textures. Each district has a unique texture for their walkways, all of them in very high resolution -- making them look great on Ultra settings.
One thing to note is that the Mage Quarter doesn't seem to have the updated textures yet; the cobblestone is a bit lower quality than the other districts. I took the screenshot mostly for completeness sake, and as a good example of the difference in resolution of the textures.
Beyond that, the new cemetery in Stormwind has received an update. It may have been in another build, but it's the first I've noticed it and felt this is a good article to post about it in. One of the larger memorial areas now has a plaque that can be interacted with. It's a memorial to Tiffin Ellerian Wrynn, wife of King Varian Wrynn.
Interestingly, this is not the largest memorial within the cemetery, which raises the question of who the other is for. Perhaps it's Lord Anduin Lothar's resting place.
Ghostcrawler Explains Glyphs
One of the biggest things yesterday was of course the new glyph system being activated. While only the Rogue and Shaman glyphs are complete at the moment, it raised a lot of questions. Ghostcrawler tried to answer them, and did a pretty good job of explaining the goals of each glyph type.
One thing to note is that the Mage Quarter doesn't seem to have the updated textures yet; the cobblestone is a bit lower quality than the other districts. I took the screenshot mostly for completeness sake, and as a good example of the difference in resolution of the textures.
Beyond that, the new cemetery in Stormwind has received an update. It may have been in another build, but it's the first I've noticed it and felt this is a good article to post about it in. One of the larger memorial areas now has a plaque that can be interacted with. It's a memorial to Tiffin Ellerian Wrynn, wife of King Varian Wrynn.
Interestingly, this is not the largest memorial within the cemetery, which raises the question of who the other is for. Perhaps it's Lord Anduin Lothar's resting place.
Ghostcrawler Explains Glyphs
One of the biggest things yesterday was of course the new glyph system being activated. While only the Rogue and Shaman glyphs are complete at the moment, it raised a lot of questions. Ghostcrawler tried to answer them, and did a pretty good job of explaining the goals of each glyph type.
Quote
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a "change up your rotation" style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.
The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.
Minors are basically convenience or fun.
We don't want glyphs to change rotations. We feel that was a mistake in LK. Talents should affect your rotations, and glyphs should just provide a little bit of customization and power. We fixed some class problems with glyphs in LK, which was an easy solution to do at the time, but now is the time to undo all of that and let the classes stand on their own without the glyphs.
Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a "change up your rotation" style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.
The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.
Minors are basically convenience or fun.
We don't want glyphs to change rotations. We feel that was a mistake in LK. Talents should affect your rotations, and glyphs should just provide a little bit of customization and power. We fixed some class problems with glyphs in LK, which was an easy solution to do at the time, but now is the time to undo all of that and let the classes stand on their own without the glyphs.
Update - Dark Phoenix Mount Source
The new build also added the Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider achievement, which is what now rewards the Reins of the Dark Phoenix. It's no longer an item sold on the guild vendor.
New Glyph UI
With last night's beta build, the new glyph UI is now active on the beta realms! A big thanks to Rilgon of Stabilized Effort Scope for the screenshot! More details on the new UI forthcoming.
As you can see from the screenshot, players will have three of each glyph type that can be active at any given time, at level 85: Prime, Major and Minor.
New Glyphs
Only the
Shaman and 
Rogue glyphs are complete at the moment!
Prime
Major
Minor
Prime
Major
Minor
Glyph of the Arctic Wolf
Thanks to Rilgon for the screenshot of this!
Worgen Character Customization Update
As of the latest build, it's now possible to change which form is in the foreground. Change the customization options still alters both at once, though. (via clampy @ MMO-Champion forums)
Heroic Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep At Cataclysm Release
And for those of you sad about Zul'Gurub going away as a raid, there's some good news! While it was previously mentioned that the level 85 versions of Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep would come in a patch after Cataclysm's release, it looks like Blizzard has changed their minds. Or found the time to get them finished before release. Either way, it's good news!
The new build also added the Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider achievement, which is what now rewards the Reins of the Dark Phoenix. It's no longer an item sold on the guild vendor.
New Glyph UI
With last night's beta build, the new glyph UI is now active on the beta realms! A big thanks to Rilgon of Stabilized Effort Scope for the screenshot! More details on the new UI forthcoming.
As you can see from the screenshot, players will have three of each glyph type that can be active at any given time, at level 85: Prime, Major and Minor.
New Glyphs
Only the
Shaman and Rogue glyphs are complete at the moment!Quote
Rogue
Prime
- Adrenaline Rush - Increases the duration of Adrenaline Rush by 5 sec.
- Backstab - Your Backstab critical strikes grant you 5 energy.
- Eviscerate - Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.
- Rupture - Increases the duration of Rupture by 4 sec.
- Shadow Dance - Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 sec.
- Sinister Strike - Your Sinister Strikes have a 20% chance to add an additional combo point.
- Hemorrhage - Your Hemorrhage ability also causes the target to bleed, dealing 40% of the direct strike's damage over 24 sec.
- Killing Spree - Increases the bonus to your damage while Killing Spree is active by an additional 10%.
- Mutilate - Reduces the cost of Mutilate by 5 energy.
- Revealing Strike - Increases Revealing Strike's bonus effectiveness to your finishing moves by an additional 10%.
- Slice and Dice - Increases the duration of Slice and Dice by 3 sec.
- Vendetta - Increases the duration of your Vendetta ability by 20%.
Major
- Vanish - Increases the duration of your Vanish effect by 2 sec.
- Ambush - Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.
- Blade Flurry - Reduces the penalty to energy generation while Blade Flurry is active by 50%.
- Cloak of Shadows - While Cloak of Shadows is active, you take 40% less physical damage.
- Crippling Poison - Increases the chance to inflict your target with Crippling Poison by an additional 20%.
- Deadly Throw - Increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 20%.
- Evasion - Increases the duration of Evasion by 5 sec.
- Expose Armor - Increases the duration of Expose Armor by 12 sec.
- Fan of Knives - Increases the radius of your Fan of Knives ability by 50%.
- Feint - Reduces the energy cost of Feint by 20.
- Garrote - Increases the duration of your Garrote ability's silence effect by 2 sec.
- Gouge - Your Gouge ability no longer requires that the target be facing you.
- Preparation - Your Preparation ability also instantly resets the cooldown of Kick, Dismantle, and Smoke Bomb.
- Sap - Increases the duration of Sap against non-player targets by 80 sec.
- Sprint - Increases the movement speed of your Sprint ability by an additional 30%.
- Tricks of the Trade - Removes the energy cost of your Tricks of the Trade ability.
Minor
- Blurred Speed - Enables you to walk on water while your Sprint ability is active.
- Safe Fall - Increases the distance your Safe Fall ability allows you to fall without taking damage.
- Distract - Increases the range of your Distract ability by 5 yards.
- Pick Lock - Reduces the cast time of your Pick Lock ability by 100%.
- Pick Pocket - Increases the range of your Pick Pocket ability by 5 yards.
- Poisoning - You apply poisons to your weapons 50% faster.
Shaman
Prime
- Earth Shield - Increases the healing of your Earth Shield by 20%.
- Earthliving Weapon - Increases the effectiveness of your Earthliving Weapon's periodic healing by 20%.
- Feral Spirit - Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
- Fire Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Elemental Totem by 5 minutes.
- Glyph of Flame Shock - Increases the duration of your Flame Shock by 50%.
- Flametongue Weapon - Increases spell critical strike chance by 2% while Flametongue Weapon is active.
- Lava Burst - Your Lava Burst spell deals 10% more damage.
- Lava Lash - Increases the damage dealt by your Lava Lash ability by 20%.
- Lightning Bolt - Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt by 4%.
- Riptide - Increases the duration of Riptide by 40%.
- Stormstrike - Increases the Nature damage bonus from your Stormstrike ability by an additional 8%.
- Water Shield - Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 50%.
- Windfury Weapon - Increases the chance per swing for Windfury Weapon to trigger by 2%.
Major
- Chain Heal - Increases healing done by your Chain Heal spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%.
- Chain Lightning - Your Chain Lightning spell now strikes 2 additional targets, but deals 10% less initial damage.
- Elemental Mastery - While your Elemental Mastery ability is active, you take 20% less damage from all sources.
- Fire Nova - Increases the radius of your Fire Nova spell by 5 yards.
- Frost Shock - Increases the duration of your Frost Shock by 2 seconds.
- Ghost Wolf - Your Ghost Wolf spell form grants an additional 10% movement speed.
- Grounding Totem - When your Grounding Totem absorbs a spell, it attempts to reflect that spell on its caster, but the cooldown of your Grounding Totem is increased by 45 seconds.
- Healing Stream Totem - Your Healing Stream Totem also increases the Fire, Frost, and Nature resistance of party and raid members within 30 yards by 130.
- Healing Wave - Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else.
- Hex - Reduces the cooldown of your Hex spell by 15 seconds.
- Lightning Shield - Your Lightning Shield can no longer drop below 3 charges from dealing damage to attackers.
- Shamanistic Rage - Activating your Shamanistic Rage ability also cleanses you of all dispellable Magic debuffs.
- Shocking - Reduces the global cooldown triggered by your Shock spells to 1 second.
- Stoneclaw Totem - Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.
- Thunder - Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 10 seconds.
- Totemic Recall - Causes your Totemic Recall ability to return an additional 50% of the mana cost of any recalled totems.
Minor
- Arctic Wolf - Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble an arctic wolf.
- Astral Recall - Cooldown of your Astral Recall spell reduced by 7.5 minutes.
- Renewed Life - Your Reincarnation spell no longer requires a reagent.
- Thunderstorm - Increases the mana you receive from your Thunderstorm spell by 2%, but it no longer knocks enemies back.
- Water Breathing - Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.
- Water Walking - Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.
Glyph of the Arctic Wolf
Thanks to Rilgon for the screenshot of this!
Worgen Character Customization Update
As of the latest build, it's now possible to change which form is in the foreground. Change the customization options still alters both at once, though. (via clampy @ MMO-Champion forums)
Heroic Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep At Cataclysm Release
And for those of you sad about Zul'Gurub going away as a raid, there's some good news! While it was previously mentioned that the level 85 versions of Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep would come in a patch after Cataclysm's release, it looks like Blizzard has changed their minds. Or found the time to get them finished before release. Either way, it's good news!
Quote
Quote from: Valnoth (Source)
Heroic Shadowfang Keep and Heroic Deadmines WILL be released with Cataclysm. You will not have to wait for a later patch.
- Heroics are not ready for testing.
Heroic Shadowfang Keep and Heroic Deadmines WILL be released with Cataclysm. You will not have to wait for a later patch.
Update - Removed the Known Issues and Bug Fixes sections from the patch notes update. Added a more up-to-date Known Issues blue post below the notes.
Zarhym updated the Cataclysm beta patch notes for build 12857 at some point last night. Any lines modified will have those modifications in green, and anything removedwill be marked out. Below you will find the updates for this build, but you can find the full patch notes in this thread.
General
Zones
Dungeons & Raids
Classes: General
Professions
User Interface
Known Issues - Updated August 31st, 2010
Zarhym updated the Cataclysm beta patch notes for build 12857 at some point last night. Any lines modified will have those modifications in green, and anything removed
Quote
General
- The level cap for all characters is 85.
Zones
- Uldum is partially available for testing.
- Twilight Highlands is partially available for testing.
Dungeons & Raids
- Hero Points have been renamed Justice Points.
- All 5-player Cataclysm dungeons are now available for testing.
- Players no longer need to discover pre-Cataclysm dungeons in order to access them via the Looking For Dungeon system. All Cataclysm level 80-85 dungeons still need to be discovered before being unlocked in the system.
Classes: General
All hunter and warlock pets have been deleted to address a data corruption issue. Hunters will need to tame new pets, while warlocks will notice the names of their pets have changed.
Professions
- Rogue glyphs have been updated for the new glyph system.
- Shaman glyphs have been updated for the new glyph system.
User Interface
- The ability to use third-party addons has been enabled.
Known Issues - Updated August 31st, 2010
Quote
Quote from: Ujumqin (Source)
This is a listing of some of the known issues for World of Warcraft Patch 4.0.0.
The latest patch notes for 4.0.0 Beta can always be found at
http://forums.worldo...229998&sid=2000
General Issues
Combat
Environments
Quests
UI
Fixed Issues
[Updated 8/31/2010]
New Cataclysm Launcher
The new build can finally be downloaded, so here are four screenshots of the shiny new Cataclysm themed launcher!
Zul'Gurub Removed As Raid Instance
Bit surprising. I wonder if that means the mounts will no longer be obtainable, or if they're being moved elsewhere?
Level Cap is now 85
New Zones for Testing
Today's beta build will be introducing four new zones for testing, including Uldum and Twilight Highlands!
Twilight Highlands is ready for testing. It is not yet fully implemented, so you will run into stopping points. Please keep all feedback in this thread.
Uldum is ready for testing. It is not yet fully implemented, so you will run into stopping points. Please keep all feedback in this thread.
Felwood is ready for testing.
Felwood is a level 45-50 zone in northern Kalimdor. Quests begin at the Emerald Circle hub in the southern part of the zone.
Please list the level you started and the level you finished in your feedback posts.
Thousand Needles is ready for testing.
Thousand Needles is a level 40-45 zone in southern Kalimdor. Breadcrumbs to Thousand Needles can be found in Dustwallow Marsh and Feralas.
Please list the level you started and the level you finished in your feedback posts.
This only leaves Hillsbrad Foothills, Burning Steppes, Winterspring and Silithus as zones yet to be implemented.
Streaming Launcher Improvements
The new build can finally be downloaded, so here are four screenshots of the shiny new Cataclysm themed launcher!
Zul'Gurub Removed As Raid Instance
Bit surprising. I wonder if that means the mounts will no longer be obtainable, or if they're being moved elsewhere?
Quote
Quote from: Valnoth (Source)
Zul'Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.
Zul'Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.
Level Cap is now 85
Quote
Quote from: Valnoth (Source)
Twilight Highlands and Uldum are now open and ready for testing. You will need to do both zones to reach max level. It should also be noted that neither zone is 100% complete. Please refer to the quest forum for feedback:
http://forums.worldo...8753&sid=2000#0
Twilight Highlands and Uldum are now open and ready for testing. You will need to do both zones to reach max level. It should also be noted that neither zone is 100% complete. Please refer to the quest forum for feedback:
http://forums.worldo...8753&sid=2000#0
New Zones for Testing
Today's beta build will be introducing four new zones for testing, including Uldum and Twilight Highlands!
Quote
Twilight Highlands (Source)
Twilight Highlands is ready for testing. It is not yet fully implemented, so you will run into stopping points. Please keep all feedback in this thread.
- Level 84-85 (though for this push of the beta minimum level for quests has been set to 83. Enjoy getting pounded!)
- Breadcrumbs from Stormwind and Orgrimmar (speak to Varian/Garrosh to begin)
Uldum (Source)
Uldum is ready for testing. It is not yet fully implemented, so you will run into stopping points. Please keep all feedback in this thread.
- Level 83-84
- Breadcrumbs from Deepholm (Reliquary and Explorers' League NPCs in Temple of Earth).
- Quests start in southwestern Tanaris at the caravan.
Felwood (Source)
Felwood is ready for testing.
Felwood is a level 45-50 zone in northern Kalimdor. Quests begin at the Emerald Circle hub in the southern part of the zone.
Please list the level you started and the level you finished in your feedback posts.
Thousand Needles (Source)
Thousand Needles is ready for testing.
Thousand Needles is a level 40-45 zone in southern Kalimdor. Breadcrumbs to Thousand Needles can be found in Dustwallow Marsh and Feralas.
Please list the level you started and the level you finished in your feedback posts.
This only leaves Hillsbrad Foothills, Burning Steppes, Winterspring and Silithus as zones yet to be implemented.
Streaming Launcher Improvements
Quote
Quote from: Lylirra (Source)
We recently released a new Cataclysm beta launcher that allows you to stream game data while you play. We've received a lot of feedback from you regarding this new feature, and that feedback has allowed us to improve the player experience significantly.
In the next beta patch, you'll receive a new Cataclysm beta launcher that includes several updates to in-game streaming. Here's a quick preview of some of the upcoming changes:
We encourage you to continue posting your feedback about the streaming launcher, as we're constantly looking for ways to get you into the game faster and more smoothly.
Thank you!
We recently released a new Cataclysm beta launcher that allows you to stream game data while you play. We've received a lot of feedback from you regarding this new feature, and that feedback has allowed us to improve the player experience significantly.
In the next beta patch, you'll receive a new Cataclysm beta launcher that includes several updates to in-game streaming. Here's a quick preview of some of the upcoming changes:
- Improved three-stage progress bar
- Download speed improvements
- Detailed peer-to-peer connection information
- Bandwidth detection, which will improve the play experience of those with low bandwidth
- New UI with a Cataclysm-inspired theme
- Many bug fixes
We encourage you to continue posting your feedback about the streaming launcher, as we're constantly looking for ways to get you into the game faster and more smoothly.
Thank you!
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