Results tagged “Beta” from From the Abbey to Outlands

I was surfing around a few minutes ago and found a thread posted in the US forums by the Blizz rep Crygil, stating the beta realms were down as of 12 am PST. While it is true that beta realms have been literally deserted since 3.0.2 hit, I am very surprised that they brought the beta realms down so far in advance of the expansion launch. I am both surprised and saddened that there was no final event, like both of the prior betas. Vanilla WoW and TBC betas both had huge end of beta events! Deciding to test the waters, since it was about 3:15 CST(1:15 AM PST) I quickly updated the last beta patch and tried to login.

That was the point when I got the screenshot the to the right, a final farewell to the beta realms. While the beta realms are not yet down completely, I trust the blue in that they will have the realms down, but it saddens me that they could not take the Wrath beta out with their traditional, and beloved bang. No raid bosses in Shatt, not Lich King in Dalaran, no Magtheridon in Dun Morough. Just... *poof*. /mourn You will be missed, Wrath Beta Realms!

[Update: Apparently the 10 PM posting last night was meant to say that beta realms will be going down at 11:59 on the 4th, not 12:01 on the 4th, so they are still up as of 12:30 CST, but alas nothing notable going on, other than people spending all their gold on stupid stuff.]

I want to preface this with the disclaimer that what I am about to mention is beta info, and may not actually go live. It also may not reflect the state of Ret when the 3.0.3 patch goes live. That said, these are my opinions, and I stand by them.

So a new beta build was pushed up to the beta realms tonight, 9138, and the expected nerfs to Paladins have come in, and they are hurting. Let me point out that the changes that Blizzard said were coming for Retribution Paladins was intended to impact on their performance in PvP, as everything was said to be fine in PvE. Right. Divine Storm is now physical. Yup, PvP. Armor now takes some of the oomph of the spell when used in PvP. Seals and Judgements are down, in fact there is almost all 'down from' numbers on the MMO Champion site when going through the ret spells.

Judgement of the Wise now grants the paladin 15% of his base mana. (Down from 33%)

Wait! What?!? This isn't a strictly PvP thing. This is almost more a PvE thing, cause you generally won't last long enough, if you are going to run out of mana, if you don't have time to drink. This is almost entirely a PvE nerf, and one I can't say I like too much. This hits both my Paladins right in the mana bar, something that Ret has always had issues with before. Based on my math, Med has a mana pool right now of 5658, and the JotW gives back 975. In the current iteration, that same proc would give me less than 500. 443-444 mana, to be exact at a 15% broken down from 33%. Blizz, my friends, I understood the PvP, but this? This is a snuck in ninja to what was supposed to be the solution to the mana problem.

I thought I would write a few thoughts on my experiences this lovely October patch day because my realm is not up yet and I am bored. I guess my first thought is on the admission by Blizzard that there are some balance issues with some talents and those were excluded from this patch, unlikely to return until closer to, or the day of Wrath's release. I am disappointed by this. That means that either a) they are pushing an unfinished patch or b) they intentionally held back this information until well into the patching process, knowing the fans would be furious. The first denotes a significant amount of proof that things have changed at Blizzard since the merger, and the second shows a great lack of respect for their customers.

My day, odd as it was, started at about 5 am my time, which is to say Central. I had taken a nap, and slept longer than planned, missing the entirety of the few hours before the realms went down. I went ahead with my plan and blew away my install of WoW after backing up a few of my favorite folders, and began the process of installing the client from scratch, since my client felt really sluggish of late. I went through the entire patching system all the way up to 3.0.2, and, knowing the beta realms were down, I decided to launch my beta client since I had word through Twitter that those were still up. I got about as far as 2 or 3 seconds after click and I got an error message saying there was an error in one of my beta files. I have since narrowed this down to the Wrath beta looking for files that are not there.

The likely culprit is that during the install of 3.0.2, the patch asks if it can move my install to Public folders, cause Vista's User Access Controls or some such don't like it in the Program Files. I think this is bogus, but I did it anyway. Now, though, there was a problem. I run over and begin downloading the beta client again, and load up the beta and live forums to look for an answer. 503 Service Unavailable. Uggh. So I go out for a bit while my client downloads, and come back to the beta installer saying it cannot install since I already run a WoW.exe that is in the 3.0.2 generation. /facepalm. The servers are slowly coming back up now, and I am dreading seeing what patch changes didn't make it, and worried what we will all come to see, some day, that this is not the Blizzard we are looking for.

I was playing over on the Beta realms tonight, in preparation of a neat NaPodPoMo episode I am planning, and was working through the early part of the Death Knight Starting Experience. Some of the more notable quests, some that made me hate myself, and one that made me laugh, inspired this post.

If Chaos Drives, Let Suffering Hold The Reins is a quest that has you going down into the human areas of the Enclave and killing some of the human inhabitants. While the Scarlet side does not require you kill and innocent bystanders, even though the helpless Scarlet Peasants are the easiest to slaughter, the Citizens of Havenshire part of it is pure evil. These citizens are fleeing the carnage and the Scarlet's behind them. The Lich King, evil bastard that he is, not only has you slaughter them, but even a moments hesitation has him telling you to finish them.

Abandoned Mail is on the funny side of things. First off, I love that there is a fully functioning mailbox in this place, so that if you mail your Death Knight stuff, like bags or the like, they can retrieve them in the starting experience. Also, the fact that you, as a Death Knight serving the Lich King, are so low a person that you have no qualms of searching from and potentially stealing the mail of your victims. Now I am sure this quest is there to make the Death Knights notice that there is something they need to look at, and thus find their mailbox, it is still a quest that made me laugh at the dispicable nature of the Death Knight pre Light.

I am in need of some help. I am trying to make my mounting macro for my Paladins work in Wrath like they do in live TBC realms right now, and it's not working. The live macro right now is:

/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Sanctity Aura;
/stopcasting
/use [flyable]  Cenarion War Hippogryph;
/use [nomounted,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber
/dismount

Now changing that to be the new aura I am using, and the 2 new mounts, and nothing else changing, I get this.

/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Retribution Aura;
/stopcasting
/use [flyable]  Armored Snowy Gryphon;
/use [nomounted,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber
/dismount

The problem, my friends, is that using the aura triggers the Global Cooldown, which means that the now casted mounts cannot be used. The only point when I can mount up is when the Crusader is being dispelled on a second macro execution. Now the only thing I can think of is that mounts, before the recent change, were not on the GCD, but as they were items had no cooldown. Anyone have any suggestions on this? Thanks!

While I am happily blogging the beta, I wanted to let you all know that first, I am not the only blogger in the Wrath beta, nor the only one covering it. I thought I would give you the list of just a few independent bloggers I know of in the Wrath of the Lich King beta:

First we have Matticus and Wynthea, both of whom write at World of Matticus, though I do not know if the newest addition, Sydera, is in the beta, or blogging about it. I have had the chance to beta alongside Lassirra over at The Hunter's Mark, where you can find many details of the Hunter side of the beta test, from exotic pets to auto shot. While admittedly evil, you can still trust the word of Saresa at Destructive Reach on all things Warlock in the beta, but don't let any Paladins or wielders of the Light near her, since she is liable to do what warlocks do to those they do not like: make them into pet food.

While there are a number of other bloggers, the ones I have heard from in regards to this piece are Dechion, who is blogging the live and beta games with interesting thoughts and perspectives on coming and present situations. I heard from Kree, a feral tank Guild Master who is covering some beta stuff, but a lot of the opinions that present themselves to a GM of a raiding guild. We have Drotara of Less QQ more PewPew, who is doing a new podcast called Locked and Loaded with Lassirra of The Hunter's Mark, and blogs about the life of a hunter in beta and out. Lastly on my list is Makea from Murloc Queen, who blogs the Shaman lifestyle and who was kind enough to link back to me a post about Shaman's Windshock and Paladin's Judgement of Wisdom.

Are you a WoW blogger covering the beta? If so let us all know in the comments and I will be happy to add you to the links people, I hope, will get from this post. If you know of a blogging beta tester, let us know as well, or have them stop by and introduct themselves!

I have been spending a bit of my time on the secondary professions in beta for my now level 76 Paladin, and I had a few observations. First, I hope to god they fix the horrible state of First Aid. Instead of making the manual for the Heavy Frostweave Bandage a vendor item, they have made it a drop, and a pretty rare one at that. I think this is a big mistake, and forces people to run dungeons, and with no in game indication of where to get it, many players might miss it completely, and therefore suffer in their professions.

As far as cooking, I love the daily cooking available from 70 in Dalaran, and that they are pretty straight forward. The Dalaran Cooking Award is awesome, and will allow many players to get the usually rarer recipes. Also, I love the fact that the stats boosted by recipes is a lot more numerous, with many more stats options for food buffs. The only problem is that you seem to learn some recipes at 350, but by 380 or so they are green, with nothing new until 400, which is all of the cooking award ones, and they are already green when you learn them, least the ones I have bought. Hope this improves, with recipes a little more spread out.

The last of the secondaries is Fishing. Medros was already 375, and had a nice stockpile of the Sharpened Fish Hook. These, make no doubt, are required for fishing in Northrend. I do not recall if I needed them for fishing in Borean, but by the time I hit Sholazar I was about 400 and it needed 430 to even cast. The good thing is that fish per point is different now. Fishing in Dragonblight was about 6 or 7 fish per point, but Sholazar was 3 or 4 catches per point. I do not know if they changed the skills for fishing, or if they just made it less mind numbingly boring, but I had no problem getting to 420, which is where Med is now, off just catching the Nettlefish I needed for my 400 cooking, 20 of those fish taking me 5 points to 400.

I would say that of the 3 professions, I found fishing has taken the most steps in progress, while as of build 8982 the cooking and first aid were annoying and pointless to even continue. I hope that tonight's 9014 and beyond make all three of the secondary professions more useful and worthwhile.

I figured that since the Achievement is quite possible the most asked about feature amongst my audience, I would give you a small peak at the ones I find neat, cool, or otherwise interesting.

1. It's Happy Hour Somewhere - This is cool simply because most of us drink so few beverages, just our normal water for the caster's among us. I would be interested to see how many people can find before they have to rely on the alcoholic beverages in the game, or whether most will simply head there first!
2. Well Read - 42 of the books found throughout the game, this will be one of the most widespread achievements to accomplish spanning from Tirisfal Glades to Tanaris, Northrend to Netherstorm. This is one I would consider worthy of more than 10 points, but I think that is the basic one for those that pretty much anyone can do.
3. Friend or Fowl? - This is one of the neatest, and most insanity causing quests in the new contest. I do not recommend even trying at the base, instead go and try when you get near the Explorer's League camp for the quests there.
4. To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before - This is another well traveled quest, with the idea being that you need to /love to each of these critters. To my knowledge no actual feeling of love must be felt, and no penalty is given if the critter is slaughtered immediately after. Most of the critters can be found in multiple locations, though there are a few with single zone locations. The highest level zone is Zul'Drak, though you can always try to run your way there and /love before you are dinner for the trolls there.
5. What A Long Strange Trip It's Been - There is a different one for each faction, but the general idea is the same. Complete all of the holiday achievements. This will take at least a year to complete, as only a few of the past holiday achievements are noted and each holiday has several of them. Essentially if it results in you getting an item, and you have the item still, it will recognize it. I imagine this will be a great deal of fun come the future holidays, and I am sure that at least a few of the composite achievements have titles.
   

So there you go, a peek at my top 5 neatest achievements in the Wrath beta, and coming Soon™ to a realm near you! What Achievements do you find cool, neat, interestingly named or just plain notable in the listings online? Let me know in the comments, Please!

So the 8926 beta build came out last night, with the 3.0.1 background downloader starting up today, so of course there is news and data mining and opinions aplenty. I figured I may as well give you my highlights from the new beta build. There are a few low lights too, sadly, but this is beta and things are always changing.

The first thing I need to mention is Heirlooms. I believe it was at the Invitational in Paris when we first heard of the possibility of an account bound object, instead of character bound, and now we have them. In the new build Blizzard has introduced Heirlooms, items that will be bound within your account, currently bought with the Naxx tokens, that can be sent within your account. The other good thing is that these items scale with the toon, so you can send your new level 1 Warrior an item, and it will continue to improve in stats as the character gets higher in the ranks.

I assume there will be heirlooms for each type, like a Melee DPS for each of leather, mail, and plate in end game, caster for all levels, and so on, and this way you ensure that the various classes still get proper gear for their needs. So far we have weapons, trinkets, and shoulders, though I would assume more will come in time. Also, while MMO Champion has model viewer made shots of many Heirloom items, there is no word yet on whether those items will look as awesome on a level 1 as they will on a level 80 character.

You may have heard of the changes promised to racials, and those changes did hit this build, though some have already been altered from the promised looks. Fall of Humanity, a feign death like ability, was remove before the build went live, and I can imagine the Night Elf Shadowmeld, which now works in combat, is also in live, or will in the next build. Humanity will be getting a new racial, "Every Man for Himself": Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.(I have confirmed that Fall of Humanity is not on the live beta realms)

And not we have Paladins. Ret and Prot Paladins got lots of love this build, though since I know Ret best, I will fill you in. Many of our talents got redone, from Art of War to Diving Storm, Judgment of the Wise to Crusade. Overall I think our changes were an improvement, with the added benefit of a full power Blessing of Kings coming with only 5 points spent in the Protection tree. From my playing I am so far loving the build, and might actually document this one if it lasts past the next build.

Oh, and one more thing...(since Steve didn't do one) we are getting some peaks at the coming build that will be next, and one of the things that Blizzard is clear on is that Riding Crops and all the other mount speed boosters will be gone at the least by 70. They were going to make them enchantements, but then they made all mounts learned spells and the boosters just became a pain to fix. I am not sure I feel they are less of a pain pre 70, but Blizz seems to be working out other speed boosting abilities so we will have to see what will come to pass. Take care!

I have a lot to do. I am collecting herbs for my guild, as well as for myself. I am debating furiously with myself about inscription and my lowbie hunter, Traluun, and trying to still get in time for job hunting, writing, beta testing, and have a small semblance of a social life. So it is with this in mind that I ask you, my readers, what do you think my priorities should be.

The reason this came up is that in conjunction with the recent beta build 8905, Blizzard's reps have posted feedback requests for all of the currently open dungeons in the beta, from Utgarde Keep to Naxxramas in both 10 and 25 man versions, and I realized that even with Med not even at 74 yet, I have not hit a single instance. Not even a one. I got my starter Death Knight through the old Starting Experience and into Inscription/Herbalism professions, worked a fair bit on Med's blacksmithing, and a bit on Arita's Northrend herbalism and alchemy, but I haven't *done* much in the beta.

Sure, I have moved and been doing renovations, and I haven't had the unregulated time I would like to be working on the beta and live realms. I also find it really hard to go from Medros, level 73 ret Paladin with awesome abilities and the capability to take down the mobs with ease, to Medros, level 70 Paladin, or even Telaan, Level 70 Paladin, or even still Traluun, level 45 Hunter. It's a bit of a shock, you know? A big change in the game and the world.

So, as my readers, I come to you, playtime in hand, and ask for your advice. Do you want more Wrath prep info as I push through the live realms to gather needed materials for the Inscription profession coming in 3.0.2, or should I spend more time on the beta realms, digging through the lore, the stories, and the experiences to give you all a better insight into what awaits us in the wonderful continent of Northrend, from gorlocs and proto drakes to dragon aspects and scarlet lackies? Sound off in the comments!

I thought I would bring you all a few of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath beta as of build 8905, which launched Friday, September 5th, 2008. Please remember that this is still beta level content and there is a lot more than can, and will be done in the beta before all is said and done.

Mount on, Mount off - Mounting in cities like Ironforge and Stormwind, currently fine to do on live realms, is back off on the beta realms. I am not sure the cause of this, but I did notice after leaving Dalaran that there is a debuff about flying in Dalaran that did remain, and this could well be the cause of this mounting issues in other cities. I am not sure how many, or which Horde cities currently allow riding, though I do recall an time when many Horde complained about a difference of classifications. If this is still limited in most Horde cities, this could also have an effect on city mounting.

Return to the end - So my little DK, Isen, who is just a testing, screenshot, and exploration toon, not the DK I plan to make on the beta realms for actual play testing, has been advised to return to the Ebon Hold by this post, virtual ! and all, to 'complete' the Death Knight starting experience. What happened when I did was interesting, even if all it truly showed me was that the Starting Experience will be a mess on launch and that the experience should bring most players to 58 when they complete the experience as it is in this build.

To the right you will see a sample of the treatment my Death Knight got in Stormwind upon being sent there at the end of the current experience. I did not, sadly, have the foresight to check in on the cities before hitting a Death Gate back to the hold. What I found when I got there, though, was quite an interesting site. First the lag issues. Holy crap! It was taking about 30-90 seconds for any action to be registered in the game. There was Death Grips going off all over the place, with mobs sometimes being lassoed around from one end of the area to the next. I saw mobs which did not show the tag for them until just before they got their killing blow.

The idea by what I understood was that all of this occurs after the now legendary fight at Light's Hope Chapel. This is the former end of the experience where Tirion Fordring not only kicks the ass of the entire scourge forces, but redeems Darion Morgraine and wounds the Lich King enough to send his tail between his legs. Well, there was always one issue that could never be accounted for. While Darion and all the Player Death Knights are redeemed and brought to the realization of their horrific actions, there was a lot of Lich King loyalists back on Acherus. This step, where you get to fight Patchwerk, the boss from Naxx, and take out the last remnants of the Lich King's forces on Acherus, is the second to last step for your Death Knight.

The last is the utter humiliation of your Death Knight. You are sent through a portal with a letter for your respective faction's leader, Thrall if you are Horde or King Variann Wrynn if you are Alliance. Thrall makes mention of Tirion and his actions written about in 'Of Blood and Honor, where he saves Eitrigg from the hands of the Alliance. Wrynn... well, I guess he's still out of it a bit, cause he just hollers about the salvation of the Death Knights and your banana, spit, and apple attacks, not to mention the verbal abuse cease. The funniest part? The boy, Anduinn Wrynn <King of Stormwind> also spits on you. Yes, there are two kings of Stormwind.

Of Core Hounds and exotic pets - Corehounds, as found in Molton core, Shadowmoon Valley, and other places, look awesome, intimidating, and deadly in their own surroundings, but not so much in the service of a hunter. Also, I am pretty sure the Devilsaur look noticeably smaller this patch. Not having done much with Ameland on beta realms, though, and with the talent reset throwing me for a ride, I am not sure for myself. Anyone with photographic evidence, please email it in!

Unholy Blight Crash: Rank 2 - It seems that not only is Storm Peaks still causing the servers to be as stable as beta patch notes, Icecrown, opened in this patch, is also causing crashing issues. In addition, though, the Death Knight spell Unholy Blight Rank 2 is also said to be causing issues with the servers crashing and has been hotfixed out until the next patch right alongside the Storm Peaks and Icecrown. This makes for interesting flying into or out of Dalaran, as the flight path from any connected point traverses either Storm Peaks or Icecrown, giving you the No Man's Land debuff and sending you back to a Northrend starting area. Fun!

Ch-ch-changes! - Blizzard feels like they are still doing major class balancing with the last patch addressing long lists of changes for Rogues and Warriors, and Ret Paladins and Death Knights both getting a lot of tweaking. As Ghostcrawler put it, they are trying hard to get all of the classes right in their spreadsheets and in game, but it takes time. They are working on it, and this is beta, and in no way is this final.

Is that ice on the mailbox? - Medros was one of my alts lucky enough to receive a Penguin Egg in their mail, which is used to learn the spell to summon this cute little guy you see at left. He is absolutely adorable, and I am sure would look even more so with some of the pet tweaks seen from Breani in Dalaran, like the new pet grooming kit that WoW Insider mentioned over the weekend. I will definitely be heading into the beta realms to see how cute my Chilly looks waddling after the ball chase item from Breani.

Moving on up - Lastly, but related to the Death Knight stuff, I wanted to note how awesome the Stormwind Keep is looking. We now have the return of Variann Wrynn, who is the long lost, and forgetful King of Stormwind, though I am sure his son will one day get his own tag of King removed, perhaps replaced with Prince. I would also love to see Anduinn get a new model, maybe of a slightly older boy. Would be nice world progression. I am curious of what part the Argent Healer NPCs I see all over the place will play in patch 3.0.2 and beyond, but I can assume they have a role in the pre Wrath world events we saw, similar to the pre Burning Crusade events. I can't wait!

There you go, some of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Have something different? Something you want me to check out? Let me know in the comments and I will do my best for the mid week screenshot gallery!

When beta build 8885 went live late last week, there were a whole slew of titles that were put in for Feats of Strength. The feats are one time only, or no longer obtainable goals that are the other side of the achievement feature. Achievements are things you can work toward, things that anyone can obtain with enough work and perseverance. Feats of Strength are no longer obtainable or limited in their ability to obtain, like opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj or hitting 80 first on your server for your class.

With some Feats, there was a title attached, like for the first Death Knight to reach 80 on a realm there was the title of 'of the Ebon Blade', one which any Death Knight would be happy to have. The title aspect of those newly introduced Feats was something of a confusion for many players and beta testers who have been reminded continually that Blizzard wants us to take our time to level 80, not bypass all of the content they worked so hard to design for the adventure of that leveling.

This is why we can't fly in Northrend until level 77, right? Well, yes, that was what they were telling us, but then they put in Feats, which included much coveted titles, for those who did the opposite and rushed to Level 80. The first person to level 80 on a real would automatically get 3 titles, with other classes and races getting some as well. The point was made that these titles only rewarded unhealthy or illegitimate behavior.

Either you medically kepe yourself away for days at a time until you hit 80, or you share your account with others to keep the grind going, essentially working in shifts. Are either of these really fair? I think not. So Blizzard has removed them, realizing the mistake they were making and stepping back from that precipice. I am sure some or all of these titles will make it into the game eventually, but they will no longer be attached to the Feats, making them a sure fire way to induce players to do something they shouldn't.

I want to commend Blizzard for realizing that this was not the way to reward players, that there had to be a better way to convince the playerbase to work toward something. They made a mistake, yes, but they also fixed it, which is a good sign from a company that many of us feel, at times, doesn't listen to us as much as we would like. How do you think that some of the many awesome titles should be implemented to encourage game play, not insanity in order to obtain? Do you think the titles 'Of Argus', 'Crusader', and 'The Lion Hearted' should be obtainable by a small few, or any of those races or classes to whom they apply? Give feedback on this in the comment section below. 

I would like to note first and foremost that the majority of this work was not done by me, instead being the work of better and more knowledgeable people than I. The Wrath Wiki has put up a guide that is intended to get you from 1 to 300 in Inscription. The guide is good, but there were a few places I thought it could use a little help on in instructing those not in the beta on what it will be like leveling your inscription. I hope they don't mind.

First, their number of herbs needed, from what I have seen, seems to be pretty close. I will just point out that at this point in the beta, a lot of glyphs that can be made require the herb Mageroyal. I haven't had a chance to look, but I would guess at the current point of my Death Knight's inscription, about 75% of the glyphs he can make use this particular herb. It's 1 of each level of parchment, an ink, and a Mageroyal.

If that remains, I would advise a minimum of 4 stacks of Mageroyal be used in your leveling of Inscription. That being said, this could change, and they could change some of them to using Swiftthistle or some other herb, with maybe Lotus as their top of tier herb for really special glyphs. Please do note that the guide says the heavy Mageroyal is due to broken mats.

The next thing I wanted to point out was that, currently, glyphs are trained in waves, so while it may be that 17 Glyph of Swipe can get you from 85-100, there will likely be about 7-9 other glyphs you can make to earn those points too. There are not any Death Knight or Warrior glyphs right now in the game, though there may be in the build that follows 8885, which is current as of this writing, so you can learn about 8 class glyphs at each tier, plus the stat scrolls, the different Vellum's, and inks.

While the Scroll of Recall lists making about 60 to get the 25 points, I did not need to make this many myself. I did make that many, as they are super handy little scrolls that act, essentially,l as a 10 minute hearthstone cooldown, so in your time in Northrend and beyond you will no doubt go through a lot of them. Don't be surprised if you find it to be in the hundreds, especially if you have your hearth set to a trainer location and have to go farm up the herbs.

Lastly, I would like to point out that there are at least 4 herbs in each pigment level, and each one in that level of pigment can give the same amount. Some of the herbs can give both a common quality and uncommon quality pigment, and some inks require a little of each kind, so use each pigment wisely. I for one am incredibly excited about the inscription profession, and am already farming herbs for when the 3.0.2 patch hits the live realms, how about you?

What follows are my early thoughts on the 8885 beta build that went live tonight.

• they missed something that should have been in this build, cause I am getting errors like crazy
• still no weightstones or sharpening stones
• it looks like most glyphs are actually craftable by scribes, including scribes as low as 100
  Paladin judgements are working again
• no noticeable change in xp required per level
• cooking daily quests in, with Dalaran Cooking Award, which can be used to buy recipes in Legerdemain Lounge in north Dalaran
• thanks to Zubr of Arathor, playing on Northrend for the /console error 0 command to stop showing errors
• glyphs seem to be 'used' with 1 hour cooldowns
• scribes will make a killing
  
• Mageroyal seems to be a big in demand herb for early scribe glyphs
• to use a glyph, you right click it. Some say they cannot be used, even when well beyond the level required. Odd.
  
• Overall nice, once you remove the errors, but more time may be required to work out some potential issues

There are many bad changes, many mediocre ones, and many good ones. It's beta, and things will change, but for now, I can play on my Paladin, though I am about to stop my leveling because I want to prep my live toons for the 3.0.2 patch and expansion.

Today saw an announcement that the next patch to World of Warcraft will be incoming soon, which will be the pre expansion patch we have all been waiting for. I was luckily in the beta when the news hit, and I got a bit of the early reactions that those in the thick of testing have about the impending release. The first impression I got was that many think it is too early, and others thought that this was one of the many 'Soon™' promises that Blizzard is both legendary and frequently mocked for.

I did a bit of research based on the first expansion, Burning Crusade, and I got some insights into how things might go this time. I would like to point out first that this is not last time, and that was Blizzard's first expansion to an MMO, and they have most likely learned a bit since then. So, the first fact we need to keep in mind was the January 16th release date of Burning Crusade. The next one I dug up was that the 2.0.1 content patch was released on the 5th of December. This was 1 month and 11 days before the release of the expansion.

Now, these two dates do not really have much of a connection now, since we still do not know the date that 3.0.1 will be pushed to the live realms, but keep that in mind when we do get that anticipated patch. The other piece of data we have is that Blizzard, after weeks of speculation about the release date, confirmed the release date on the 9th of November. This was 1 month and 4 days before the patch was released and over 2 months before the expansion was actually released.

Now, again, as I said before, things may well be different this time. Mike Morhaime has stated emphatically that the expansion will be released in 2008, so even if the date is announced on December 1st, I would think it is unlikely it will be a 2 month wait. Second, Blizzard was being pummeled by it's fans and the press for a release date, or at least a confirm or deny on the matter. This could have forced Blizzard to give a release date before they were ready. Lastly, as I said in the beginning and repeatedly, things can be different. Things likely will be different. Tomorrow Blizz could give us a release date. They could do it at Blizzcon. They could release it at Blizzcon! In the end, we'll have to wait and see, but these are just a few of my ideas of what the announcement could mean.

I know a few people who are in the beta, so I think I have a decent cross section of the player base when I say that right now the beta server I play on, and the one the Europeans(Coldarra) play on are completely useless for actual testing. Beta testing is fun. I love finding bugs to pass along and helping to make the finished release candidate more polished and less bug filled than the current one. I cannot do this, however, if I can only play for 10-30 minute stretches filled with lag and looting problems.

Before, and even since I got into beta, I have listened with an uninterested eye as friends complained about lag filled and crash ridden servers in the beta. I figured, at worst, that these were likely the result of most of them being in Europe and the beta realms being located in the US, even the one for Europe. Not so. I have tried a few times in the last few days to get into the beta realm Northrend, and I get in for between 5 and 30 minutes before I get world server down.

Crashing servers aren't unfamiliar to me, I played in the original beta, in the days after the games release, and in the first few days of Burning Crusade, but this is a little ridiculous. Blizzard has said they are looking into it and working with their server team to find the problems, but in the meantime their beta testers are sitting there, hands on their chest, growing increasingly frustrated at lost opportunities. We all want to make a better release client, but every World Server Down and You have been Disconnected we get makes it all the more likely bugs will slip through.

I know, I know. Cheesy. But I am happy. This is the first time I have experienced a beta patch first hand in about 4 years. I am a little excited. Below you will find the thoughts I have as I work my way through reported and discovered changes.

-Death Knight's Frost Presence now gives an aura buff to everyone nearby for a walk on water buff. Blood Presence still gives nothing
-Death Knights now appear almost diseased in appearance. Eww.
-Can now check, read, and delete mail.
-Fishing trainer in Valiance now trains Grand Master. Cooking Trainer still blank. Same goes for Valgarde.
-Paladins cannot use Judgments. More properly put, they can cast them, but they have no effect. Still able to so decent damage.
-Warlocks now glow purple.
-Hunter's Kill Command has been changed, for the worse.
-IF guard still does not know what inscription is.
-Select bodies of water have schools of fish.
-Turkey killing achievement is still very hard to do in Valgarde proper
-The flight... master(?) at Amber Ledge now has the proper texture for her form.
-Apparently Titan's Grip, the long griped about dps nerf to the Fury Warriors, has been fixed to make those same Warriors machines of mass slaughter. Expect a slight tweak down of that talent in a later build.
-Even patches can be followed by downtime

And on that note, as the servers went down, I assume to fix the glow issues, the judgment issues, or just to randomly taunt beta testers, I will end this here. I would like to say that while I feel a Blizzcon release of Wrath would be awesome, I don't see it as feasible, but I feel the game will be released withing a short time after that. We now have level 80 and only one world zone left unreleased, as well as raid dungeons which need to see a few runs, likely the purpose of the mentioned premade realm. Look for more new soon!

[Update: 2:30 AM - After the lengthy shut down Paladins still cannot judge, and Death Knights still look diseased. Server is about to shut down again, and I am off to bed. Look for another update in the morning.]

We are currently in the beta phase of the next expansion, as you are all well aware. All of the classes have new talent trees, and some have spectacular abilities that totally kick ass. Some, not so much. I understand that some all players want those OMFG abilities to be seen. Not all will get them. Some may get them eventually. Everyone wants a Divine Storm, a Titan's Grip, a Beast Mastery, a Typhoon to be given to their class. Not everyone can. This is a fact of life that we will just have to struggle to accept and live with.

The way I see it, having a Hunter, 2 Paladins, and a Druid at 70, is that the big skills are being given to those classes and specs within classes that really, really need them. Hunters have long been the mockery of gaming. Ret Paladins too have suffered being the butt of all DPS jokes. Many raiders seem to feel that Moonturkey are carried, not doing real damage or contributing much to a run other than the aura. I play all of this. I see why we are getting the OMFG talents. We need them.

In a most recent Ask the Beta Tester segment on WoW Insider, their rogue columnist said that Rogues aren't getting any must have talents. He admitted that they will still do massive damage in any raid or group. No doubt rests in my mind that without the changes to Paladins in Wrath, Rogues would still be the hands down favorite for any raid or group. As it stands now, I have a small chance I could win out if their was a choice in a raid, especially with buffs to auras which make them raid wide and the talents and improvements to Retribution Aura that I have taken in the Retribution tree.

Changes to spell power will definitely affect Arita, my druid(renamed Aritas due to name change), but I am trying to get Medros to Dalaran in order to see the amazing city of magic. He only just dinged 71 last night, so it will be a bit until he hits the 74 minimum, but I will then spend some time learning the druid abilities to see how they do in solo and group play. I pretty much stuck to the prospective talent tree I posted about, and I will be sure to report here when I begin doing more than mere fedex quests on the Doomkin.

Hunters. Huntards many call us. Too easy to play, too streamlined, too anti group. We are the most insulted group, and the least wanted in groups. In fact, I think that if a raid were to choose between a Hunter and a Doomkin, they would likely choose feather over fur. Not to mention that hunters are almost never allowed to bring out their biggest asset, their pets, in most raid or group encounters. While Beast Mastery will undoubtedly be the most popular hunter spec in Wrath, cause let's be honest, who doesn't want to tame a Devilsaur, but Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot seem to have some promise. I will be looking at my Hunter last in the line of alts I will bring to the beta.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if your class isn't broke, don't expect a fix. Blizzard is giving clothies spell power, which will automatically give you a buff in that all that juicy healing gear that used to drop will now be usable. They are still working on classes from the Death Knight on down, so don't think that just cause we might have a cinematic, that the beta is over, cause it's not. This change. Things will continue to change. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

I am tired from renovations and a lot of stuff in life, but I have had time to look in at the beta, and I figured I would give you all a few of my favorite sites from the beta. Just click on the thumbnails for larger versions.

So I mentioned here that I have begun in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test, and I have some thoughts and questions here. First, are there any mods for the beta? I am a mod fiend and I am feeling really lost without a single mod. I have my Statusbars mod which tells me in a HUD type display what my health and the mobs health is. I have died a number of times because of this. Second, Gatherer? Is there any way to mark gather nodes? I am finding Cobalt ore hard to find and would love to mark them.

As an aside, it is nice that WoW Head WotLK has comments with coordinates, but how exactly do I figure out those coordinates? How did they get the coordinates? I love the look of the zones in Northrend. I have seen both Borean Tundra and Sholazar Basin, though the later only when I pulled a noobish hop off the ledge without remembering that Divine Protection was changed, and thus dying on the rocks. No more suicide jumps from Aldor Rise. I wanted to thank a kind GM from the beta realms who unstuck me in the world so I could return to my journey on Aritas, who was stuck in a server issues last night. The final tip comes from Galanis on the Northrend beta realm, "Profession Trainer tracking is critical in the newbie towns", a good tip to put into practice when you are just hitting Northrend!

Lastly, below you will find the huge, massive gnome lore found in the Tundra. Spoilers may be found! Enjoy!



[Update: Thanks to Lassirra for the tip about WoW Interface for WotLK!]
[Update: Thanks to MrCynical in IRC for the reminder that Divine Shield still does what Divine Protection used to do, and for longer!]