Recently in Beta Category

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.

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Within a few hours several members of the order are gathered, those who are willing to travel to Northrend at the same time as Connroe in order to plant the packages, even though they may die, and the final instructions are given to the gathered soldiers. A few minutes later, Medros and Connroe are given a few last minutes to talk before his return to Northrend. Medros takes out a small knife with the Isen family crest on it, and raises it.

Connroe looks on in horror as Med cuts off his long hair, hair he was always so proud of when he was growing up, hair grown in their father's image. Medros then follows this by cutting his own hand, and sprinkling a fair amount of blood onto the strands of hair he cut off. He then hands both the length of hair and the bloodied dagger to Connroe.

"These will be your proof to your 'master' that I am dead at your hand. You must be detailed in how I died and not show any concern if he mentions our relation. If this goes as planned we will soon be reunited once the Lich King is killed and the world freed of his terror. Perhaps..." Medros pauses, "perhaps we can even return to Westfall at some point, and look at reclaiming the old farm, Conn"

The brothers quickly embrace before Connroe is led to the upper floor of the structure, Medros following hesitantly in the wake of his escort. Lord Fordring offers Connroe the dais, where a similar stone to the one that Medros threw him in Northrend sits, except this one is much larger, almost as if the smaller was formed in the image of this, but more portable.

"This will return you to the place you came to us from. In the bundle at your feet is the body of one of our fallen soldiers who died valiantly. You should bury him in the ground of Northrend and take the Lich King the evidence of your brothers death. By the time anyone can check, the body will be merely a skeleton in the ground. You have been told where to go for the means to communicate with us. We only ask you tell us where we might intercept the Lich King's forces and beat them back where we can. Are you ready Connroe Isen?" Fordring asks

"I am, but I just need to ask one thing..." Connroe requests, receiving a nod from the leader of the Order. "What is in this place, the feeling here... it is as if it were pure light..."

"Yes, as if it were pure..." Fordring says, not finishing the thought. "Safe travels, and may the Light protect you when only darkness surrounds you, Connroe."

Those were the last friendly words Connroe heard before his first communications from Northrend. The Lich King was most pleased with his accomplishment, but he could feel his glowing orbs on him for weeks after, likely watching for signs of change after being order to kill his last remaining family. As the months go by, Connroe feels the watch of the Lich King wane, and eventually he feels it safe to report in. He gives reports as he is able, some are empty, some full of troop and vessel movements.

It is not until he hears of two significant changes that he knows something is planned. The first is that the vessel Acherus has been ordered to move to the sky above the Eastern Plaguelands, where a group called the Scarlets are forming for attacks on the Scourge. The second is the shocking news that the Death Knight Morgraine was freed from the service of the Lich King in Naxxramas by his last remaining son, Darion, who had now become a new Death Knight himself in the act of freeing his father.

As various servants of the Lich King vied for the valuable place as leader of the necropolis, Connroe gratefully accepts additional training aboard the vessel in order to take a leadership role over other Death Knights in time. On the day that Highlord Darion Morgraine is named the new commander of the Acherus, and the day before it departs for Azeroth, Connroe reports to the Order this news, and also that of the recall of the necropolis Naxxramas, taking with it notable figures of the Scourge.

Connroe is only relayed four words in response to his last communication with the order from Northrend, "See you soon. Med."

While many of watch the crawling progress bar of our installs for patch 3.0.2, I thought I would let you know what talents I recommend for a couple of my classes. These will be for the specs I choose to play, and are not necessarily going to reflect what you will, or may choose to select for your characters. First up, I am going to start with my beloved Paladin class, and their Ret build. This will be a 0/3/58 build.

I feel this build maximizes crit rating while still giving some points into the new lower tier and more accessible Blessing of Kings in Protection tree. Admittedly this does not have the full 5 points in Kings, but it gives us some, and can always be changed if the majority of players you group with have the full one, or just wait five weeks and hit 72 so you can go full in. As with before, I have chosen to ignore Pursuit of Justice and Eye for an Eye, as I do not feel they are worth those essential points for the next month before Wrath goes live.

I also left Divine Purpose out in order to get those 2 extra points in Improved Blessing of Kings, and these points can be added back in later if you feel the need. Crusade, while potentially nice, will not, I think, improve the damage output enough to go 3 in for this talent. Maybe at 80. Essential talents from my time on beta are Repentance, Improved Ret Aura, Art of War, Judgment of the Wise, and Divine Storm. That last one, of course, is why we limit the diversity of our talents. Sheath of Light is a good one, giving your heals a much nice kick to them. Flash of Light can heal for enough to keep you alive in a pinch, and with the new push back changes even a Holy Light can be hit for almost a full to top heal.

The big thing about the new Ret tree is that it seems to focus in two areas. First it boosts crit rating. With a crit rating of 205 before, I had a chance of 23.5%. I will be sure to add in my new crit rating here ____% when the servers go live, and with all the bonuses to crit, I am sure that percentage will get a bump. The second focus is on mana. Ret gear is well known for it's lack of int and mp5 points, and as we of the Light use mana for a lot of put spells, we have long been those of the oom. This tree will fix that. Judgment of Light being used alongside the Judgment of the Wise talent and Divine Storm triggers, a ret Paladin should have little to now trouble staying healthy and mana filled for a long, long time.

While this isn't the idea spec, it is what we can do with the points we have and the month that spans between this patch and Wrath. Remember, we heard at Blizzcon that there will be a 3.0.3 patch coming in a week or two, and that might in itself bring us more changes still to the live game. I would love your thoughts on this spec, and even your thoughts on other Paladin specs. For now, I am off to look into the Druid trees, and get a refill of my drink. 32% done installing...

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!

After the popularity of my last posting, I thought I would give you all a peek at the latest screen shots I have taken in the beta.

   
   

So we look to have a date for the upcoming 3.0.2 patch, which will bring in some of the features of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, so I thought I would give you the lowdown on the stuff that will make it into 3.0.2 based on the latest PTR builds, what you have to wait until the expansion for, and what won't be in until much later on.

The Patch - We know we will see the Barbershop feature in the patch, giving us the chance to finally change those hairstyles we've had for up to four years. Achievements will make it in, so while a few will wait for many of the Achievements that require Northrend to complete, we can get many of our desired achievements out of the way before we slag through the lengthy install process for the expansion. Inscription will be active, which is surprising a lot of people since Jewelcrafting was not available unless you had the expansion. A feature we will see that has many of my character's banks rejoicing is the Pets/Mounts tab, which will be in for the patch. Thousands of vanity pets will soon find a new home!

Hunters will get to customize their pets in a new talent style of ability system, with the old system of training points going the way of the Ghost Wolf. Hunters will also get Exotic pets, so expect to see Devilsaurs, Rhinos, Chimeras and Worms in your local bank. Stormwind Harbor will finally open up, and King Varian Wrynn will return to Stormwind, bringing a new era to the land of Azeroth. The patch will bring in new UI features like the Calendar system, built in threat meter, and many new emotes.

In the way of combat we will also be seeing several stat changes. Hit, Crit, and Haste will affect Melee and Spell attacks, while Spell Damage and Healing stats will be unified into a universal Spell Power, meaning more gear can be shared between the various casting classes. Lastly on this section, channeling and casting interrupts are changing, with any hits after the second no longer interrupting or stopping a cast bar, though I believe full spell interrupts like Kick and Counterspell will still work as usual. As you can tell, the patch will be bringing some big things for all players of the game.

The Expansion - As big as the patch is, the expansion is even bigger. Of course we get to travel to Northrend, which can be accessed from boats in either Stormwind Harbor or Menethil Harbor. There is also the leveling to 80 thing, which is a pretty important expansion-only feature to mention. From my travels in beta, this is going to be an area that is well worth the time to buy the expansion for. The mobs are interesting, and often unique. The zones are huge, and each has many quest hubs. Medros, one of my Paladins, has gone through all of Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, and part of Grizzly Hills before he hit 76.

I am in Sholazar Basin, have left a bunch of unfinished quests in Grizzly Hills, and I have yet to enter any Northrend instances. I haven't even touched quests in Zul'Drak, Crystalsong(quests Not Yet Implemented), Storm Peaks, or Icecrown. I feel it is quite possible Medros could ding 80 without even touching the top two zones, and on Live it would be even easier with guildies to run dungeons with. No need to worry, folks, there will be no lack of things to do when Wrath hits, even beyond the 80 Ding.

With reaching 80, you immediately have the chance to hop into the 10 man Naxxramas dungeon, which is followed by the 25 man, and the other three Raid dungeons, The Nexus, Eye of Eternity, and Ulduar. According to Blizzard's reps, you should be able to enter Naxx 10 man with just the quest and dungeon gear you have when you hit 80 or shortly thereafter, and the gear progresses naturally from there. While Icecrown Glacier the raid will not be in at launch, it should launch in 3.1, which can be expected a couple months into 2009.

While we have not seen any sign yet of the Dance studios, the Death Knight is definitely the biggest thing not yet listed, and it will require the expansion to create one. You too get to go through the Starting Experience, likely the first example of the implemented phasing technology Blizzard has made a huge deal of that most people will see. You will be able to Death Grip people from vast distances, summon ghouls from the bones of friends and enemies, and ride and walk on water using the Path of Frost ability given to our friends of the Ebon Blade.

Of course we have the little stuff, like new profession abilities, discovery for many crafters, and so on, not to mention the excitement of the culmination of 2 years of Blizzard's efforts. So while there is no doubt plenty to get excited about in patch 3.0.2 when it hits, expected to be on Octber 14th, there is yet more to get pumped about in Wrath of the Lich King, on store shelves, and online, November 13th.