Extended (24H) Maintenance 06/08/10 - Select Realms
WoW will be down for 24 hours on some servers and we're all going to die. (Gnomes first.)
Quote from: Laetzin (Source)We will be performing extended maintenance on the realms listed below on Tuesday, June 8th, beginning at 12:01 AM PDT. The maintenance is scheduled for 24 hours as we prepare for the upcoming expansion. These realms will be playable again at approximately 12:01 AM PDT on Wednesday, June 9th.

All realms not listed below will undergo scheduled maintenance beginning at 5:00am PDT and will be available for play at approximately 11:00 AM PDT.

Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Drak'thul, Draka, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thaurissan, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Uldum, Vek'nilash, Windrunner

Thank you for your patience

Korean World of Warcraft Beta Contest
There is an ongoing contest on the official korean website.


After poking around on Twitter I finally found someone willing to translate the important part (thanks Kyiran!).


World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Test Invitation Event (basically, contest)
Period :  3 June 2010 ~ 12 June 2010 until 11:59 PM
Whom: World of Warcraft Members (like, subscribers)

How to Participate

• 월드 오브 워크래프트 공식 홈페이지의 모험가협회 토론장에 방문하셔서 이벤트 글타래인 ‘대격변에서 고블린과 늑대인간의 캐릭터명으로 만들어 주고 싶은 이름은?’ 글타래에 답변을 남겨주시면 됩니다.
• Visit the Warcraft Official Homepage's Adventurer Association Forums and leave a message in a thread "What will you name your Cataclysm Goblin and Worgen characters?"
• 참여 하신 분들 중 총 1000명에게 추첨을 통해 대격변 비공개 베타 테스트에 참여하실 수 있는 초대권을 선물로 드립니다.
• As a gift we will select 1000 people who participate and send them an invitation to participate in the World of Warcraft Closed Beta Test.

Announcement and Confirmation of the Winners Method

• 당첨자 발표 일정 : 6월 15일 오후
• Winners will be announced on the 15th of June in the afternoon
• 초대권  발송 일정 및 확인 방법 : 당첨되신 초대권은 한국 비공개 베타 테스트의 일정에 맞추어, 월드 오브 워크래프트 공식 홈페이지의 [계정 관리] > [우편함]을 통해 개별적으로 발송될 예정입니다.
• This part is a bit more difficult but it's basically about confirming participation at the official website via your mailbox (forum inbox?) (where you recieve the invitation) in the "Korean" closed beta test.  It specificies the beta test as "korean" here where it doesn't elsewhere.

This could be a fairly interesting information, especially because of the timing.

• There is a beta contest, and winners will supposedly be announced on June 15th.
• As far as I know, there is a WoW Press Tour @ Blizzard HQ this week for official fansites.
• 5 Screenshots on the Day have been uploaded on Blizzard's site before the week-end. (= until Tuesday)

Don't get your hopes too high, especially since the korean page also clearly states that it doesn't mean that the beta will start on June 15th but the timing is definitely interesting and I will live in the hope of a beta/NDA lift for the rest of the week.


Comics
This week we have Dark Legacy Comic #241, Teh Gladiators #138 + #139 and a follow-up of last week's comic with Questionable Content #1680.

Reminder - Blizzard released a Preview of the Twin Peaks Battleground in Cataclysm on Friday. Apparently it went down the front page a little too fast and a couple of people missed it.

Facebook/Twitter TCG Loot Code Giveaway
It's time for another TCG Loot giveaway, courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com once again.

• People who liked the MMO-Champion Page on Facebook will have a chance to win 2 x Landro's Pet Box!
• Following me on Twitter.com will give you a chance to win 2 x Landro's Pet Box as well!

How does it work?
It's easy, just become a Fan of MMO-Champion on Facebook and/or Follow me on Twitter! Winners will be picked randomly at 08:00PM PST and the code will be sent to the winning Twitter/Facebook account shortly after.

I had some time to learn how all that stuff works and you can probably expect more interesting loot super-soon (... and surprise tweets if I'm in the mood!)

Thanks to WoWTCGLoot.com for the shiny loot codes.



MLG Columbus WoW 3v3 Arena Tournament - Day 3!
Today is the final day of the tournament!

Scoreboard
Check the Saturday Scoreboards on Gotfrag.com

Live Stream
The live stream is available on MLGPro.com.


Day 3 ScheduleSunday (All times are EST
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM - Warm-Up
10:00 AM - 10:35 AM - Pool Play
10:35 AM - 11:10 AM - Pool Play
11:10 AM - 11:45 AM - Pool Play
11:45 AM - 12:20 PM - Pool Play      
12:20 PM - 12:55 PM - Pool Play
12:55 PM - 1:30 PM - Pool Play
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM - Break
2:00 PM - 2:35 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Round 1A
2:35 PM - 3:10 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Round 1B
3:10 PM - 3:45 PM - Championship Bracket: Losers Round 1A
3:45 PM - 4:20 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Finals
4:20 PM - 5:05 PM - Championship Bracket: Losers Finals
5:05 PM - 5:20 PM - Break
5:20 PM - 6:05 PM - Championship Bracket: Finals

Update - And Blizzcon tickets are all gone.

MLG Columbus WoW 3v3 Arena Tournament
The 2nd day of the tournament has just started!

Live Stream
The live stream is available on MLGPro.com.

Day 2 ScheduleSaturday
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM - Warm-Up
10:00 AM - 10:35 AM - Pool Play
10:35 AM - 11:10 AM - Pool Play
11:10 AM - 11:45 AM - Pool Play    
11:45 AM - 12:20 PM - Pool Play
12:20 PM - 1:00 PM - Break
1:00 PM - 1:35 PM - Pool Play
1:35 PM - 2:10 PM - Pool Play
2:10 PM - 2:45 PM - Pool Play
2:45 PM - 3:20 PM - Pool Play
3:20 PM - 3:55 PM - Pool Play
3:55 PM - 4:30 PM - Pool Play
4:30 PM - 5:05 PM - Pool Play
5:05 PM - 6:00 PM - Break
6:00 PM - 6:35 PM - Pool Play
6:35 PM - 7:10 PM - Pool Play
7:10 PM - 7:45 PM - Pool Play
7:45 PM - 8:20 PM - Pool Play
8:20 PM - 8:55 PM - Pool Play
8:55 PM - 9:30 PM - Pool Play
9:30 PM - 10:05 PM - Pool Play
Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day
The Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated and 5 more screenshots have been added. That's enough screenshots until Tuesday... I want to believe.


The Thousand Needles
Stormwind Bank
Desolace
Stonetalon Mountains
Mulgore
BlizzCon Tickets on Sale 6/5/10 at 10 AM PDT
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)If you were unable to purchase BlizzCon tickets during the first round of ticket sales, we just wanted to remind you that our second batch of BlizzCon 2010 tickets will be going on sale Saturday, June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Visit the ticket sales page then for a chance to get yours.

BlizzCon 2010 will take place October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $150 USD each. For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and multi-channel Internet stream -- keep an eye on http://BlizzCon.com for more information in the near future.

Click here to go to the BlizzCon 2010 ticket-sales page: http://us.blizzard.com/store/blizzcon-tickets.xml
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffCataclysm Beta
We'll make it very clear when the time comes that the beta has started and what to expect if you are selected. Currently, with the StarCraft II beta, players who were selected were sent an email and were asked to log into their Battle.net account to access the beta download. Cataclysm beta should work similarly. We'll do our best to be as clear in the process as we can so that everyone can hopefully avoid the more unscrupulous schemers who attempt to phish for accounts.

Just to be clear now, we have not started any beta invites at this time. Please be cautious of any emails you may receive until we say otherwise. (Source)

MLG Columbus WoW 3v3 Arena Tournament
From June 4-6 in Columbus, Ohio, 16 of the top World of Warcraft 3v3 Arena teams from around the world will compete for over $15,000. Teams will compete in two groups of eight teams each, in a round robin format, with the top two teams from each group advancing to a double-elimination Championship Bracket. The competition will be fierce, and only the best will remain standing in the end.

Stream
The live stream is available on MLGPro.com.

Competition Format
See the rules on MLGPro.com

Rules & Settings
See the rules on MLGPro.com

Teams
For more details on each team don't miss the team preview on Gotfrag.com.

• World of Warcraft: Columbus WoW Team Preview Pt. 1
• World of Warcraft: Columbus WoW Team Preview Pt. 2

1. Nerdstomper.com (Hoodrych, Velsuz, Nadagast)
2. Fnatic (Yog, Douja, Woundman)
3. Complexity Red (Snutz, Venruki, Reckful, Sodah)
4. Complexity Black (Toez, Flexx, Twixz)
5. PK Cards (Zilea, Valrath, Veex)
6. Team EG (Azael, Pookz, Cdew)
7. Loaded Blue (Didy, Deltons, Brogo)
8. Loaded Black (Orangemarmalade, Numberone, Satz)
9. Team Fierce (Kekki, Bubler, Deceased)
10. Skill-Capped.net Central (Filovirus, Nevershock, Zyz)
11. Skill-Capped.net East (Enforcer, Verty, Jigslol)
12. Skill-Capped.net West (Vidra, Pollee, Diziet, Bothi)
13. ArenaPwnage.com (Talbadar, Nuvos, Drmayonaise)
14. SK Gaming U.S. (Realz, Glickz, Kollektiv)


Schedule
All times are EST Time.

Friday
10:30 AM - 1:30 PM - Early Check-In
1:30 PM - 6:30 PM - Check-In / Warm-Up / Account Setup    
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM - Welcome
7:00 PM - 7:35 PM - Pool Play  
7:35 PM - 8:10 PM - Pool Play  
8:10 PM - 8:45 PM - Pool Play  
8:45 PM - 9:20 PM - Pool Play  

Saturday
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM - Warm-Up
10:00 AM - 10:35 AM - Pool Play
10:35 AM - 11:10 AM - Pool Play
11:10 AM - 11:45 AM - Pool Play
11:45 AM - 12:20 PM - Pool Play
12:20 PM - 1:00 PM - Break
1:00 PM - 1:35 PM - Pool Play
1:35 PM - 2:10 PM - Pool Play
2:10 PM - 2:45 PM - Pool Play
2:45 PM - 3:20 PM - Pool Play
3:20 PM - 3:55 PM - Pool Play
3:55 PM - 4:30 PM - Pool Play
4:30 PM - 5:05 PM - Pool Play
5:05 PM - 6:00 PM - Break
6:00 PM - 6:35 PM - Pool Play
6:35 PM - 7:10 PM - Pool Play
7:10 PM - 7:45 PM - Pool Play
7:45 PM - 8:20 PM - Pool Play
8:20 PM - 8:55 PM - Pool Play
8:55 PM - 9:30 PM - Pool Play
9:30 PM - 10:05 PM - Pool PlaySunday
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM - Warm-Up
10:00 AM - 10:35 AM - Pool Play
10:35 AM - 11:10 AM - Pool Play
11:10 AM - 11:45 AM - Pool Play
11:45 AM - 12:20 PM - Pool Play
12:20 PM - 12:55 PM - Pool Play
12:55 PM - 1:30 PM - Pool Play
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM - Break
2:00 PM - 2:35 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Round 1A
2:35 PM - 3:10 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Round 1B
3:10 PM - 3:45 PM - Championship Bracket: Losers Round 1A
3:45 PM - 4:20 PM - Championship Bracket: Winners Finals
4:20 PM - 5:05 PM - Championship Bracket: Losers Finals
5:05 PM - 5:20 PM - Break
5:20 PM - 6:05 PM - Championship Bracket: Finals

Cataclysm: Twin Peaks Battleground
Quote from: Blizzard (Source)Located within the Twilight Highlands, the Twin Peaks remains a crucial point of high ground for staging effective and debilitating attacks against the black dragonflight and the Twilight's Hammer, who dominate this foreboding environment. And now, two previous occupants of the nearby city of Grim Batol vie once again for control of the peaks' defenses. The Wildhammer clan, architects and original owners of the once-great fortress city, maintains some operations in forested outposts of the highlands. The Wildhammers now call upon heroes of the Alliance to help claim the peaks and fend off the Dragonmaw orcs. The Dragonmaw clan, having spent years working to enslave red dragons, once again provides strategic importance to the Horde. As the Dragonmaw and Wildhammers fight for territory they once called home, the Alliance and Horde carry out the struggle to control the Twin Peaks.

Capture the Flag
Twin Peaks is a new 10 vs. 10, capture-the-flag-style battleground. Much like in Warsong Gulch, players must work to dominate variable terrain, infiltrate the enemy base, and steal the enemy flag, returning it to their fortress while remaining in control of their own flag. The first faction to capture three enemy flags before time expires will win the battle.

Dominating the Terrain
Although the Wildhammer and Dragonmaw bases are virtually identical, the terrain surrounding each base is not. Players will need to work to control an asymmetrical field where the mountain peaks are divided by a valley river. A single bridge over the river serves as a choke point in the center of the map; although deep, the river can be crossed. On either side of the river sits an outpost where temporary character enhancements can be claimed. In addition, tree stumps and rocks throughout the valley create strategic points for you to use line of sight to your advantage. To prevent absolute domination by one faction through its control of the enemy graveyard, the Horde and Alliance players resurrected in Twin Peaks will spawn from one of two graveyards per faction.

Wildhammer Longhouse
Serving as the Alliance stronghold in the north, the Wildhammer Longhouse hovers above the valley, atop a series of plateaus. With three entrances to the complex, players have two primary means of reaching the longhouse: scaling the plateaus to the northwest, or using the stairwell up the middle in order to access any of the three openings. Be careful, though! Falling or being knocked off the cliff can not only cause damage, but it can also hinder a successful offensive against or defense of the base.

Dragonmaw Clan Compound
Acting as the Horde base in the south, the Dragonmaw Clan Compound sits over a body of water into which the valley's river feeds. With three entrances to the compound, players have a few means of getting inside. One entrance on the southeast side requires riding up an incline and crossing a knee-deep river. A second entrance is through a water pipeline leading from the surrounding lake, while the main entrance can be accessed via a bridge over the waterfront. You'll want to be aware of your surroundings when you use the main entrance, though, because players can be knocked down into the water, slowing their advance or crippling their defense.

Those who seek to control Twin Peaks will face an intense battle. The lands surrounding this ever-troubled location are key strategic strongholds of Deathwing and all of his followers. The Twilight Highlands are as rich with history as they are fraught with disaster and tragedy. Will the Dragonmaw clan, reinforced by Garrosh's Horde, take control? Or will it be the Wildhammer dwarves, reunited with their Ironforge brethren and accepted into the Alliance, who seize the peaks?

Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day
The Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated with a new screenshot of the Speed Barge in the Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)



Concept Arts
The official Concept Art Gallery has been updated with two new pieces of artwork.



Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffNumbers scaling up over time
They are just numbers. Automobiles used to cost hundreds of dollars a few generations ago and now they cost tens of thousands of dollars. But most everything else economic related has scaled up as well.

There isn't any inherent scaling problem with WoW's numbers getting absurdly large. The only real issue is comprehension when you're looking at a rogue doing 240,000 dps to a boss a billion health. But consider that we aren't that far away from character levels themselves being in the triple digits.

To fix the issue, we would have to go back and have level 1 characters do less than 1 point of damage, which would be pretty weird. Or we could use some kind of metric system where the last few zeros just get lopped off after a certain point. We joke about breastplates with megastamina and megadamage and megadps. (Source)

Haste / Attack Speed Bonus
Yeah, it went from "melee haste" (which needed a modifier to distinguish it from spell haste) to just "melee attack speed." At this point it's probably safe to just call it "attack speed" since that sounds like weapons (melee and ranged) and not spells. (Source)

"Unique" Item Procs
The main problem they bring is how to balance them. You mention several items that were definitely cool back in the day, but some of they also had to be nurfed into oblivion due to the problems they caused. Then on the other side is that a proc sounds cool but to keep it balanced the proc chance is super low or something like that which makes a stat-stick item more consistent and more useful.

That said, the unique item procs idea made a bit of a comeback in Icecrown Citadel and is something we like doing. We have learned a lot of the years on how to balance these types of items while also trying to prevent it from interfering with something like arena PvP. We would like to keep doing procs and we'll see how things go in Cataclysm.

[...] When examples are used that doesn't mean they are the be-all-end-all reasoning for things. We have also run into problems with procs that are so awesome the item is used way beyond the expected range for it. (Hi Thunderfury, how are you today? Have you been chatting with your buddy Stormherald lately?)

We want the procs to be cool, fun, but not overpowered. The overpowered aspect applies to both PvP and PvE. While we would love to make procs that just ignore the min/max factor of gear, we can't really do that as it will either make the item overpowered (see above) or possibly so bad that even the previous tier is ahead. Also, while we stayed away from them for awhile, we did make a bunch in ICC and they were pretty successful so will see how things go in the future. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Warlocks in Cataclysm
We like Shadow Bolt being the nuke for both Demonology and Affliction. That isn't likely to change. Talents don't have to be in "your tree" for them to be good talents for your build. We generally consider 0 / 0 / 71 builds to be a failure.

Fel Flame's role is for situations where you have to move a lot, or possibly in situations where you don't have time to get multiple dots up. We don't anticipate it becoming a rotational ability for any warlock.

None of this is to say that talent trees and possibly even rotations won't be changing. I'm pretty excited with the current state of the Cataclysm warlock talent trees. We've fixed up some awkward parts and come up with some cool mechanics. Hopefully we can share them soon. (Source)

The MMO Report
Yes. I was kidding. And I love you so much Casey.

Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day
The official Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated with a new screenshot of the Stonetalon Mountains.


First Batch of BlizzCon Tickets Sold Out
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)The initial allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2010 has now been sold out. If you weren't able to get tickets this time, you'll have another chance on Saturday, June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, when a second batch goes on sale. Coverage of the gaming festival will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and multi-channel Internet stream -- keep an eye on http://BlizzCon.com for more details in the near future.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffPTR:Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall
The event has been turned off. Thanks for your participation! (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
"Boring" talents
Every player is going to have a different definition of "boring or bland talents" so that's not going to be a great litmus test. We're probably keeping Improved Overpower. It's the kind of talent that makes Overpower more powerful for an Arms warrior or just makes the ability more powerful in general. Because the talent affects one ability it can have a greater magnitude which is more noticeable than say a 5% damage buff.

Cruelty is the kind of talent we'll replace (probably by making it affect only a handful of abilities) and tanking talents like Anticipation (if we can get away with it). (Source)

Vigilance
The Taunt renew part of Vigilance is cool and being able to essentially Salv someone can be useful to. Actually gaining threat from using the ability makes it feel like Defiance 2.0 though. You feel like you have to use it all the time (not that that's a huge burden, but still) to achieve the threat levels that other tanks essentially get without the talent. (Source)

Update - We have winners for the Twitter and Facebook TCG Loot giveaway! The next one will be very soon, thanks again to WoWTCGLoot.com for the codes!

First Batch of Blizzcon Tickets Sold Out
The first batch of Blizzcon tickets is sold out. A second batch will go on sale June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

Patch 3.3.5 - Ruby Sanctum Availability
And here comes the end of any "OH GOD US WILL GET ALL THE FIRST KILLS" drama. It was fun while it lasted.
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)Due to the fact that we will be delaying the release of patch 3.3.5 in Europe, Korea and Taiwan in order to ensure the patch process in all regions is as smooth as possible, the Ruby Sanctum will not immediately be available on North American realms upon the release of the patch. Once patch 3.3.5 has been released in North America and we are confident about a time when we can open up Ruby Sanctum, we will provide an update here on the forums.


Facebook/Twitter TCG Loot Code Giveaway
WoWTCGLoot.com was nice enough to throw a couple of TCG loot codes my way to give them away on Twitter and Facebook!

• People who liked the MMO-Champion Page on Facebook will have a chance to win 1 x Paper Flying Machine Kit or 1 x Landro's Gift Box!
• Following me on Twitter.com will give you a chance to win not one, but 2 x Landro's Gift Box!

How does it work?
It's easy, just become a Fan of MMO-Champion on Facebook and/or Follow me on Twitter! Winners will be picked randomly at 08:00PM PST and the code will be sent to the winning Twitter/Facebook account shortly after.

This is just a small test run to see if I can do that often because this kind of contest seems easier to manage on social networking sites than on the site or the forums. More interesting codes are already in the way depending on how things go. Good luck!

Thanks to WoWTCGLoot.com for the shiny loot codes.



Patch 3.3.5 - Vote Kick Change
Blizzard finally found a good use to the tracking stats added with Patch 3.3.3 a few months ago.

• Abandoned LFG (hidden)
• Completed LFG (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (follower) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (initiator) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (target) (hidden)

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)We have found that most players using the Dungeon Finder don’t use the Vote Kick feature or abandon groups very often. For these players, we are removing the cooldown on voting to kick players from a dungeon party. In contrast, those players who tend to kick players or abandon groups more frequently will notice that the Vote Kick feature maintains its cooldown. The goal here is to make sure players who are generally patient can make use of the Vote Kick feature when they really need it, without giving a more powerful tool to those who try to kick others or abandon dungeon groups very frequently.

This functionality will adjust itself as a player’s behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.
BlizzCon Tickets on Sale Tomorrow
Quote from: Nebu (Source)Just in case Wednesday, June 2 isn't circled on your calendar, here's a quick reminder that BlizzCon tickets will be going on sale tomorrow at 7 p.m. Pacific Time -- keep your eye on the ticket sales page tomorrow for the chance to get yours. If you are unable to purchase tickets tomorrow, a second batch will go on sale June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. And for those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and a multi-channel Internet stream.

BlizzCon 2010 will take place October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $150 USD each. For further information, check out the official BlizzCon site.

Click here to go to the BlizzCon 2010 ticket sales page.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffHaste buffs
It's extremely likely that the 3% global haste buff category is being removed completely, and Improved Moonkin Aura will offer the 5% spell haste buff, along with however it is distributed for Shadow Priests, and Shaman,
Yes, we are reclassifying all of the haste buffs as spell haste buffs or melee attack speed buffs. (Source)

Masteries / Passive Tree Bonuses
The passive talent tree bonuses are intended to let you get better at your intended spec just by spending points in the tree. We felt like talents had gotten to a place where they had lost some of their original goal for allowing player customization. So many talent points were considered mandatory just to make your character functional that there were very few actual choices you could make.

(We call the passive talent tree bonuses "passive talent tree bonuses" to differentiate them from the mastery stat on gear, which affects only the third talent tree bonus. We came to that distinction late and are honestly a little sloppy about the nomenclature to this day, so "mastery" sometimes gets used interchangeably as the talent tree passives themselves and as the stat on gear that affects the third of those passives.)

In Cataclysm we have an opportunity to get a lot of those passive talents out of the talent trees. At the same time, we do need to allow for a distinction between say the higher damage and lower survivability of a Fury warrior compared to a Protection warrior. If individual talents shoulder too much of that burden, then the talents aren't much of a choice. Instead, we give you passive bonuses just for spending points in the tree. Protection warriors care most about reducing damage and maintaining threat, so those are the first two passive talent bonuses. The third one we wanted to feel specific to the Prot warrior tree, so that one is going to relate to blocking with a shield.

Another way to think about it is that each talent in the Protection tree also says "and reduces incoming damage by X, increases damage done by Y when tanking, and increases block effectiveness by Z."

I wouldn't say that we intended for all of these passives to be super sexy. It's more accurate to say that we use them to allow the talents themselves to be more exciting and ideally game-changing and a little less "kitchen sinky."

If I'm 51/20/0, and someone else is 51/0/20, we both get the same talent bonuses from blood, but do I get frost passives while he gets unholy passives?
In your example, both DKs would get the maximum passive bonus possible from Blood and nothing else. You are only ever one tree. The points you spend in another tree will help out because those talents accomplish something, but you don't get bonuses for them. You are either a Blood, Frost or Unholy DK. (Source)

Mandatory Talents
There will still be mandatory talents. We're not really trying to make a talent like Sword and Board optional. We expect most Prot warriors of appropriate level will grab it. Related, we doubt we'll see an end to cookie-cutter specs. As long as the recommended Prot tree says "You must get Sword and Board" then that's essentially a cookie-cutter.

We would like to accomplish a couple of goals though.

1) For more casual players (i.e. the ones not posting in this forum), we want there to be less difference in power between an optimal and sub-optimal spec. It's okay if the optimal one is still better, but not so much better. Casual players should feel fine just spending points with a small amount of consideration and not feeling like step one is to go to the Internet to find the right build. The passive bonuses help with that.

2) For those players that do take optimization very seriously (and I'm assuming most of you are in that category), we just want to see more cookie-cutter builds that say things like "spend the last 5-10 points wherever you want." If those points would give you survivability or a massive threat bonus or even utility that's hard to live without (say Warbringer for a Prot warrior), then you're not really spending the points where you want. But we think there is room to have some of those choices that don't really exist now. (Source)

Mage (Forums / [url=http://tal...

Patch 3.3.5 Regional Release Information
Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)In patch 3.3.5, we will be introducing our new Battle.net system, which opens up new communication options for World of Warcraft players and lays the groundwork for integration with future Blizzard games, such as StarCraft II. In order to ensure that the implementation of this major new system goes as smoothly as possible, we plan to release the patch to North American realms first, with Europe, Korea, and the region of Taiwan following approximately one week afterward.

Addon Spotlight - HudMap
It's time to talk about another addon on the front page! With the recent news of AVR and AVRe removal with Patch 3.3.5 I figured it might be the right time to mention HudMap. It will probably remind you of AVR in some ways but this addon is different and so far it looks like Blizzard will tolerate it.

• HudMap on Curse.com.

What is it?
HudMap is an addon that provides a true heads-up tactical display of an encounter, with raid member positions, range data, debuff area-of-effect indicators, and more.

Additionally, HudMap ships with totem radius indicators. In general, if you want to do range or player-to-player directional stuff, HudMap's your huckleberry.

Can I use this in to replace AVRe?
Possibly. You can use it in a similar manner, though it definitely takes a very different approach to information display. HudMap is designed to give you proximity awareness of your partymates and areas that are potentially hazardous due to proximity or some other effect that boss mods generally warn you about. In that sense, yes, it's a replacement.

However, HudMap is not going to let you annotate the world, add additional data over physical locations, or let you draw obscene pictures on Arthas before you pull him. HudMap does nothing to emulate or project 3D data, and never will. Additionally, feature parity is not a goal of the project - some information is better presented in AVR than it will ever be in HudMap, and I'm not going to try to replicate that. Other data will fit HudMap better naturally, and those pieces will be actively pursued.

Is this addon going to get banned because Blizzard doesn't like AVR?
To head off the inevitable, I've asked Blizzard if this is kosher in light of the AVR breakage. They have not indicated that it is a violation of the rules. Until they indicate otherwise, HudMap will be developed and updated. The impression I get is that Blizzard's primary complaint was with AVR's ability to draw pseudo-3D images over the game world, which is outside of the scope of what the UI was intended to be able to do. HudMap doesn't do any of that.

Extending HudMap
Have an idea for a range feature? It's easy to implement one. Just see modules\example.lua for a simple framework upon which you can build your own modules.

Let's socialize!
We're at the end of a very long and very calm week-end and we all reached the point where we just need more people to hug. If you're not into hugs, it's also a wonderful opportunity to start working on a plan to take over the world.

That's why I finally created a Facebook fan page for MMO-Champion! Technically we already had a MMO-Champion group but I couldn't do much with it, the fan page might actually let me do a few interesting things.


On a slightly more personal level, I also decided to create a Twitter account and fight my fear of social networking. It will probably take a few days to get used to it but it looks like there are also a couple of fun things to do with Twitter.



MMO-Champion IRC Channel
Last but not least, if you really aren't afraid of strange people, come and say hi on IRC! If you're not sure about how to join us, just read:

• MMO-Champion IRC

I also uploaded last month statistics just for fun.

It's Monday, and Fluffy rules.

Affenjungs INC vs. Halion 25 Heroic
Affenjungs Inc released a video of one of their attempts against Halion in 25-Man Heroic mode on PTRs. The normal mode of the encounter was already fairly impressive but it really looks like the Heroic mode will hurt.

Zalazane's Fall and Operation Gnomeregan Videos
The first part of the Cataclysm Prologue is on PTRs and people who are much more useful than me released videos of both events on Youtube. Of course, you might want to avoid them if you don't like spoilers.

The videos are Youtube playlists, just click on the next video for the 2nd part, etc ...




The MMO Report
This is probably the last time you will see the MMO Report on MMO-Champion since they decided to make fun of me. I'll be waiting for a virtual hug from Casey in my mail to resume posting.

Also, small update on the "we got hacked" issue. After checking a few things it seems that it only affected something like 5% of the readers on the site, assuming that at least half of them had an up to date antivirus, I probably did a front page news just because 2.5% of my users got a spyware. And no, the virus didn't target WoW accounts, we just have 1M visits each day on the site and some people get randomly hacked for tons of reasons, when MMO-Champion becomes that reason you won't need me to hear about it everywhere on the forums.

I still apologize for the screwup, even if it's not as bad as it looked in the first place.



Comics
This week we have Dark Legacy Comic #240, Teh Gladiators #136 and #137, and a comic from Foxtrot!

It's Saturday, and bunnies are going hop hop hop!

Ruby Sanctum Loot Table Update
There was another wave of PTR testing at the end of the week and new items have been discovered, no heroic items yet but it looks like everyone will get something from the 25-man loot table! Baltharus' Gift, Scion's Treads, Twilight Scale Shoulders, Saviana's Tribute, Surrogate Belt, Umbrage Armbands, Returning Footfalls have been added to the lists.

25-Man Loot Table
lvlTypeSpecSlotItem271PlateMelee.DPSFeetApocalypse's Advance271PlateSpellFeetForeshadow Steps271PlateTankingFeetTreads of Impending Resurrection271MailPhys.DPSFeetReturning Footfalls271MailSpellWaistSplit Shape Belt271LeatherPhys.DPSWristUmbrage Armbands271LeatherSpellWristPhaseshifter's Bracers271ClothSpellWristBracers of Fiery Night271CloakSpellBackCloak of Burning Dusk271NeckMelee.DPSNeckPenumbra Pendant271FingerPhys.DPSFingerSignet of Twilight271FingerSpell MP5FingerRing of Phased Regeneration271TrinketPhys.DPSTrinketSharpened Twilight Scale271TrinketTankingTrinketPetrified Twilight Scale271TrinketSpell DPSTrinketCharred Twilight Scale271TrinketHealingTrinketGlowing Twilight Scale
10-Man Loot Table
lvlTypeSpecSlotItem258PlateMelee.DPSWristBracers of the Heir258PlateTankingFeetScion's Treads258PlateSpellWaistSurrogate Belt258MailPhys.DPSShoulderTwilight Scale Shoulders258LeatherPhys.DPSChestGloaming Sark258LeatherSpellHandsChangeling Gloves258ClothSpell HitWaistMisbegotten Belt258CloakSpell MP5BackAbduction's Cover258FingerMelee.DPSFingerZarithrian's Offering258FingerSpell HitFingerSaviana's Tribute258NeckPhys.DPSNeckBaltharus' Gift

Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day
4 screenshots of the day (Friday / Saturday / Sunday / Monday) have been added to the Official Site!


Tanaris - Gadgetzan
Thousand Needles - Speed Barge


Blasted Lands - Tainted Forest
Stonetalon Mountains - The Charred Vale
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffLowering the GCD
Lowering the GCD is as close to anything on the never list. We will possibly do it for hunters, but that is because their resource system is going to prevent them from ever spamming multiple buttons at once (in the same way rogues have a lower GCD). Even with rage normalization there are going to be times when a warrior is at 100 rage and can unload with multiple attacks at once. The GCD is there for a reason, partially for game balance and partially to keep the server - client communication from getting gummed up.  (Source)

Mandatory Talents
If talents aren't mandatory (for PvE or PvP) then they are considered marginal. If your talent decisions don't actually matter, then that feature becomes a lot less compelling. You could advocate I suppose a design where each individual talent point is even with every other, but given the enormou...

Screenshot of the Day - Deepholm
A new screenshot of Deepholm has been added to the Screenshot of the Day Gallery on the official site.


Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffOperation Gnomeregan and Echo Isles
The events themselves are not currently scheduled to go live with patch 3.3.5. We're simply taking the opportunity on the PTRs to test these events while they're up and running in case we do not have another opportunity to do so before marking these events live.

[...] The release of the events will be contingent upon the development of other features leading up to Cataclysm, but their release will likely not coincide directly with a patch. They're events that simply need to be "turned on" when we're ready. (Source)

Put the shared diminishing returns cooldowns on tooltips in Cataclysm
Yeah, we would like to do this. (Source)

Class Balance in PvP (Source)
This is probably going to be one of those controversial posts, but I think if you really sit down and think about it and don't post a knee-jerk reaction, you might agree that it makes a lot of sense.

"Balance" means two different things to Arena players. For some players, the most important thing is for their favorite spec to be viable. Balance for them is all 30 specs being about equally powerful or perhaps even in about equal proportions. For other players, and I'd categorize more of the very high-end in this camp, the most important thing is for the fights themselves to feel balanced, even if that means not every spec is truly competitive. Some players might even be happy with only RMP as a viable 3s comp, so long as the matches felt like they were won by skill and not by cheesy maneuvers or dumb luck.

In a perfect world, you could accomplish both goals, and we do work towards both. But at the end of the day, it is also realistic to choose one as the higher priority goal. We made a lot of effort to get more specs into PvP in Wrath, and overall we've had a lot of success there relative to past seasons. The LK seasons have been pretty diverse, though Fire and a couple of other specs still aren't there. But that also came at the expense of actual player vs. player balance, particularly in the earlier LK seasons.

One of the reasons we are focusing on rated Battlegrounds for Cataclysm is they put less emphasis on the class composition of the teams and more on the coordination of the team. The fewer number of players involved, and the more the goal is centered around killing someone then accomplishing objectives, then the more important the number and power of individual tools belonging to a single spec become. Once you go to even a 10-player team, then there is a lot more flexibility and historically under-represented Arena specs can come into their own. It's easier to have synergy the larger the team size and even double up on some classes and specs rather than have so much power determined by whose crowd controls don't diminish with each other.

As far as Arena balance goes, it's an interesting debate on whether it's more important that things feel really, really good for a small number of classes or more important to have a large number of classes / specs participating.

Also it is just bad design to say you want to balance all 30 Specs. and not do it. Pick a philosophy, are you balancing all 30 or are you balancing based on classes, many people would rather not play a hybrid (i.e ret) and get pushed around trying to be balanced while blizzard makes up their mind on whether they are going to balance only holy or ret and holy.
I wouldn't call it "bad design." Just challenging. Maybe it would have been easier if WoW had been developed with 10 classes instead of the virtual 30 we have now, but that ship has sailed.

We try and balance around specs first, but if we can't quite hit that, we fall back on class. It would be awesome if Fire mages were competitive with Frost mages in Arena, but failing that, at least a mage can have a Fire build for PvE and a Frost build for PvP. If on the other hand mages themselves had no viable spec, then your only choice it to roll an alt. As easy as leveling is these days, it's still not trivial.

For classes with roles that essentially do the same thing, won't the one that performs better, even only if slightly always be chosen? You can buff fire PvP but if frost is only better by a slim margin it will still be the spec of choice.
"Performs better" in a PvP context is really hard to define. It has little to do with who is highest on the damage meters. You can look at who wins the most matches, but even then I don't think you are looking at actual power as much as popularity. As soon as someone comes up with a new strategy, that popularity can shift, even if the abilities don't change at all. Skill still has a much bigger effect than class or spec in most cases. While a good player might not be able to choose any of the 30 talent trees and be as succesful, they are rarely faced with just one choice either.

Can you please elaborate on where the sane controversy is over whether or not your whole player base -or- only 50% of your player base should be allowed to participate in arenas at a relatively competitive level of play? Are you proposing that half of your player base just shouldn't be able to succeed by default simply because they picked the wrong picture at the starting screen, as "interesting" design?
To be clear, this isn't our design, but you could design the game where 5 specs are PvP specs in the same way 4 specs are PvE tanking specs. If you rolled a shaman and really, really love to tank and perhaps even rolled your shaman back when they were tanks, then you are just out of luck. If we went that route (and again we're not) then we could provide a really balanced PvP experience for those 5 specs because we could focus all of our attention on those few. There is a reason RTS games who go for massive differentiation (like StarCraft II) have only a few races, while RTS games with many sides (like the Age of Empires games I used to work on) don't go for massive differentiation.

There are plenty of players out there who could care less if Balance druids or Fire mages are ever viable in PvP so long as there are some classes / specs that they can choose which will provide a really balanced, compelling, dynamic game for them. There aren't many posting in this thread, which frankly doesn't surprise me, but they are out there and their opinions count too. You can argue they are a very small minority of our player base, but they are also the ones for whom class balance discrepancies are most meaningful because their skill at the game is so refined. In the same way, we spend a lot of effort on heroic LK 25, even though very few players have the ability to experience let alone beat that encounter. That's also not to say we spend 90% of our encounter time on the Lich King and ignore the 5-player dungeons. Make sense?

Raid Healing in Cataclysm (Source)
Specs won't single target heal the same way. They will have enough basic tools that nobody will have a massive hole in what they can cover. We don't want the Disc priest to throw up her hands when asked to tank heal, or the paladin asked to sit out when on a fight with a lot of AE healing. You need to be able to run a 10-player raid with any 2 healers (ideally 2 different healers) and be okay. You need to be able to do any 5-player content with any healer (before you over-gear it as many of you do these days). 

I don't think anyone here believes that Blizzard hates healers. I believe Earthmaster said it best when he said "Healers want everyone to live." This is in direct conflict with Blizzard's desire to make content challenging. The easier it is for healers to keep everyone alive, the harder it is for Blizzard to develop challenging content.
Yep. The rub is that some healers are only going to enjoy encounters when they can keep everyone alive pretty easily and some are only going to enjoy encounters when they really have to work at it. Those two are hard to reconcile because you're essentially trying to bring together "easy" vs. "harder."

If you are already well rounded then you have no reason to worry. I would bet that some druids have actually macro'd a castsequence for 5xrejuv + wg. Those are the ones who will have to change. That said, I am reasonably sure that we will end up favoring certain spells over others. Regardless of what GC envisions, that's almost unavoidable. What those will be remains to be seen.
Yes, the players who already use all their spells will see the least change. As for the second part of your quote, sure some spells will dominate in some cases. That's okay as long as others dominate in other places. The problem now is that many druids shrug and say "I'm not a tank healer," so they don't ever use their tank-healing spells.

Some of the changes that we are getting that we are getting I can agree with, but minimizing proactive healing is something I don't agree with at all, and something that I think is a very bad move on their part.
There is nothing wrong with proactive healing. It's challengi...

Ruby Sanctum PTR Testing
The Heroic version of the Ruby Sanctum is now being tested on PTRs.

vodka

Update - Zalazane's Fall screenshots are here! Expect an extensive preview "soon".
Update - Operation Gnomeregan screenshots added! Echo isles are on the way!

Zalazane's Fall Screenshots
This is a very fun questline, it's not too long and it's a pretty nice introduction to what will happen in Cataclysm! For more details on the quests please read:

• Cataclysm Prologue - Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles

Operation Gnomeregan Screenshots
This is a very fun questline, it's not too long and it's a pretty nice introduction to what will happen in Cataclysm! For more details on the quests please read:

• Cataclysm Prologue - Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles

[img]http://static.mmo-cha...

Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day
A new screenshot has been added to the Screenshot of the Day Gallery on the official site. This one is from the Halls of Origination instance (Preview).


What if murlocs were real?
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)Wait a minute...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/photogalleries/100524-new-species-handfish-walk-science-pictures/?now=2010-05-24-00:01#new-handfish-species-pink_20881_600x450.jpg
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffEarthfury Epaulets (T1 Shaman) in Molten Core
Unfortunately you will have to wait for the fix to the Baron's loot table to get a pair of those Earthfury Epaulets. The good news is the Eye of Sulfuras is still on Ragnaros' loot table, so it is possible to receive this item.

[...] It'll get fixed in a future patch. Unfortunately I can't really say when =(. The fix should be in the patch notes and if it isn't, I'll update this thread. Sorry for the inconvenience. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Psychic Horror / Anti Magic Shield
We looked into this is and it is intended. Psychic Horror was changed so that the disarm effect still occurs regardless of whether the target is immune to the fear portion. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Retribution in Cataclysm (Source)
There are a few basic way classes choose what attack to use next. Some classes are limited by resources. If a rogue has 60 energy, she can choose to spend it on attack A or attack B. If attack A hits harder and attack B doesn't have situational utility, then she'll use A every time.

A warlock generally isn't limited by mana within short time scales. A lock's decisions are more rotational. You want to cast A before you cast B. It's not that B is bad, just that it becomes more powerful if you do A first. For example, there is little point in casting your first Corruption seconds before the target is about to die.

Paladins have a third model, one more based on prioritization. You aren't generally limited by mana, and you don't generally need to do things in a certain order for the mechanics to work, but you do have attacks that you'd rather use when they are available (generally because they hit harder). The decision point comes in because you have a lot of cooldowns, so you can't just spam your hardest hitting attack over and over again. When your Judgements and Hammer and Crusader Strike are on cooldown, then your choice is probably Divine Storm. (Depending on your gear, DS might even trump CS.) If Divine Storm's damage went down, then you might prioritize Consecration or Exorcism higher, but you can't spam those either, so then you're back to Divine Storm or autoattack. That was my point.

There are things we can do as well to make Divine Storm better at single targets without making it overpowered against groups of targets. Off the top of my head, there are mechanics like the meteor where the damage is divided among the targets. What we are trying to chill out on the warrior, paladin and DK particularly is the "free AE" component. When your AE attacks are balanced against single targets (in the absence of some mechanic like I was suggesting above) then you just get free damage when you can AE as well. This means those classes leap dramatically ahead on meters whenever they are in a situation where they can "cleave." It also means they aren't doing anything very differently when faced with groups of mobs over single targets. By contrast the mage might switch to Blizzard or Living Bomb and the rogue has to start using Fan of Knives.

One of the ways we can support more individual abilities on classes is by making them situational. If you use all of your attacks no matter what the situation, then your gameplay tends to get very formulaic and eventually boring. It is also likely to get really complicated if your whole action bar is part of your standard rotation. A better design, we think, is that some abilities get used in AE situations and some get used in single-target situations. There can be overlap, but we'd at least like players to assess the upcoming battle and make some decisions about how to approach it before just going into a tunnel vision button-hitting mode.

Solution: Make CS baseline, put a 1 point 10% dmg to CS buff in its place in the talent tree to replace it.
That is not an announced change. I can understand the frustration of being in a gray area at the moment where you know some information that we have released but much of the details are still under NDA. Unfortunately, if you focus on little tidbits that someone leaked or speculated, then you aren't going to get the full story. In cases like this we had to put something in the talent tree as temporary filler when we pulled CS. Many of the talent trees have talents that say NYI or just plain don't do anything. That's just where we are in the alpha process. If we push data at a stage when someone can't even talent down a tree then the spec becomes unplayable. As such, we have to make talent tree changes in large chunks at once.

GC - "We are nerfing Divine Storm against single targets because we don't want AoE abilities to be used against single targets, but we fully expect Divine Storm to continue to be used against single targets."
More accurate to say that we don't want single target abilities to get free bonus damage when in groups. That's not balance-able. For the warrior the solution is to make Whirlwind not cost-effective against single-targets. For the DK, it's about getting Pestilence back towards a utility role (getting diseases up on groups) and not a massive AE attack. For the paladin, we still want them to use Divine Storm (and you can't cost-effect a Ret paladin anyway) so the solution will have to be something different.

How about something like having Crusader Strike apply some kind of debuff to the target . Then have Divine Storm hit anyone with that debuff harder. I think that would get its damage up on single targets but keep it lower on groups.
Yep, both this and the tie-in to Judgements are good ideas. We also like the T102P bonus.

Fan Arts
4 new Fan Arts have been added to the Blizzard Fan Art Section


Grand Crusader King Arthas Menethil
Paulo Henrique S.B. (Pulyx)
Forsaken Rogue
Katie Lisk (PokketMowse)
hujianing (朝圣者)
Chinese new year's eve
Qiu yuwei (Awei)

Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day
A new screenshot of the Lost Isles has been added to the Screenshot of the Day Gallery on the official site.


Heroic Ruby Sanctum Testing Schedule
Quote from: Daelo (Source)Testing so far on the Ruby Sanctum has gone well. For the next phase of the testing, we're going to allow raids to switch difficulty to Heroic.

Heroic mode testing will only be available for a limited time, but we hope to allow Normal mode testing for a longer period.

US Testing Schedule:
Thursday, May 27 at 19:00 EDT.

EU Testing Schedule:
Friday, May 28 starting at 19:30 CEST.

This schedule could change without much warning due to PTR downtime, new builds being deployed, etc.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffHomogenization and healing
Homogenization is a risk. Totally. It's something we try and fight against. In the case of healing, we don't want to erode the unique aspects of the 5 talent specs. We just want to move the non-unique parts closer together. If you need an analogy, we're not going to mess with the flowers or the fruit or the shape of the leaves. We just want everyone to have similar roots. Spells like Circle, Chain Heal and Beacon will continue to be an important and unique part of your repertoire. We just want to make sure everyone has the basic tools so that they aren't in a situation where they're trying to tighten screws with a hammer.

Now having said that, there are a couple of exceptions. If you are a Disc priest who loved to use PW:S and nothing else or a Resto druid who loved to use Rejuv and nothing else, then you will probably need to use more of your buttons again. We don't want to promote the strategy of trying to pre-heal as many people as possible without really worrying about who is actually taking damage. There's not a lot of decision-making or coordination or reactive gameplay there. Disc priests will need to actually cast heals (and Penance can certainly be one of them) and druids will have to mix in some direct heals along with their hots. (Source)

Healing in Cataclysm
I take a different view on a couple of your points here. Healers won't be forced to spam their most efficient heal because the encounters will be less threatening early on. Later on when your mana regen as at its highest you will need to use your highest throughput spell because the damage is higher. You'll also need to use your fast heal sometimes for the same reason. Fortunately fully raid buffed and in good gear, you'll have more mana regen. I don't think any of these changes encourage players to blame healers more. Bad players are always going to deflect their failures onto someone else. That is why they are bad players. The alternative is to make healing so simplistic that there is almost no chance of failure (i.e. nobody would ever die). You'd never get blamed for anything but you'd probably also be pretty bored.

Minus gaming coefficients, we pretty much had this model with downranking and it largely worked. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
"Widening the spell selection"
The definition of "widening spell selection" has to be real choices. Just putting more heals in your spellbook doesn't accomplish much. They have to be spells you'd realistically consider casting, and not just once an evening. That is most challenging with the druid because we decided not to cut any current heals. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Retribution in Cataclysm
The current plan is for Crusader Strike to be baseline, but for Ret to have talents that add to it, and for Divine Storm to be the 51-point talent.

[...] Keep in mind that the way Retribution works, you aren't often choosing to exclude one attack in exchange for another. A Fury warrior can just not use Whirlwind and spend the rage on Heroic Strike again. But Rets are not limited by mana as much as cooldowns. You can choose to not do anything when Crusader Strike et al. are on cooldown, or you can use Divine Storm.

I agree it would, and perhaps does, feel crappy to get the same ability that another class gets as a base ability for your 51-point talent. That's not the design goal. (Source)

Icecrown Citadel Buff increased to 20%
The Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn buffs in Icecrown Citadel have been increased to 20%.
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)We have increased the potency of the Strength of Wrynn and Hellscream’s Warsong buffs in Icecrown Citadel by an additional 5%. These buffs now increase total health, healing done and damage dealt by 20%. In addition, the number of attempts allotted for all final bosses on Heroic difficulty has been increased to 50.

Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day
4 Screenshots have been added to the Screenshot of the Day Gallery on the official site. They're different point of views of zones we already saw and hopefully it means that Blizzard is done with it and that the NDA will be lifted soon. Or maybe I'll just start posting naked gnomes on the front page to keep you interested.



Remote Auction House Beta Test in Europe
My plan to send horde of puppies to Blizzard's EU HQ worked and the remote Auction House beta test finally started in Europe.
Quote from: Ancilorn (Source)The World of Warcraft Remote Auction House beta test is now open for business! The Remote Auction House is a new service in development that lets players access the World of Warcraft Auction House from the Armory website (http://eu.wowarmory.com/auctionhouse/) or the Mobile Armory app for iPhone and iPod touch (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=321057000&mt=8). Players can browse their characters’ local Auction Houses with the same search functionality available in the game, as well as see the real-time status of each of their current bids and auctions.

As we’d mentioned previously certain features of the Remote Auction House will be premium-based. Once the beta test is complete and the Remote Auction House is live, players will be able to subscribe to a new service called World of Warcraft Remote (http://eu.wowarmory.com/wow-remote.xml), which will allow them to buy items; post items for sale from a character’s bags, bank, or mailbox; collect gold from their bids and auctions; and more. During the beta test, players can try out these features for free, and each World of Warcraft account will be able to perform up to 25 transactions per day. (Please note this limit will be increased at launch.)

For more information on the Remote Auction House, refer to the FAQ (http://eu.wowarmory.com/faq-auction-house.xml). We hope you enjoy trying out this new service, and we look forward to hearing your feedback in the thread below.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Hunger For Blood, Going away in Cata?
It's going away for Cataclysm. (Source)