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PTR
10.2.7
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10.2.6
Beta
News
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 12539) 3D Models Added!
Blizzard just released a huge update to the Cataclysm Beta, and as usual we've uncovered some new models!
Unfortunately, despite the beta patch being hugenormous, there weren't too many new models added - most notable new additions include
Cenarius
, and some sweet new recolors of upcoming Catclysm NPCs. If we do discover any more cool new models, we'll be sure to keep the blog updated! You can check out all of our previous model posts filed under the
3D Models
tag!
Check out all of the new models after the break!
Live
The Weekly Marmot - Talents Part 2 & Blizzard Twitter Chat
This week on the Weekly Marmot, I briefly discuss the new talents that hit the Cataclysm beta last week, and then spend the rest of the episode talking about Paladins. Seriously, Holy Power sounds amazing. Check it out.
Also, I'm being hunted by Nazgul.
Live
Icecrown Citadel Raid Buff Up to 30%
With today's maintenance the zone wide buff for has finally reached a staggering
30%
bonus to damage, healing, and health (see
Hellscream's Warsong
and
Strength of Wrynn
).
As with every increase we've seen in the past this should give some guilds still struggling with encounters that little extra needed push and guilds who are experienced will get an easier time. It should also be noted this is the final increase to the buff so don't expect another 5% to be tacked on again in a month!
As always, you can turn this buff off at anytime if you feel like trying the encounter in its most difficult form.
Live
Cataclysm: New Hunter Pets
While there are currently no new pet families being added in
Cataclysm
, Blizzard has added a plethora of new pets for Hunters to tame.
The team over at
Petopia
have put up a
post
listing some of the new looks you can find for hunter pets in Cataclysm and where you can find them. Since we have access to the 3D models for some of these pets, we thought we'd post them here as well for you guys to take a look!
The original article is here:
http://www.wow-petopia.com/html/cataclysm/newlooks.html
You can check out all the new models and pets after the break!
Live
Throne of the Tides Impressions
About couple of weeks ago I posted
blog
about how one of the new Cataclysm dungeons, Blackrock Caverns, felt. If you are interested in it, go ahead and take a look - I found it a pretty cool instance. Not as cool as the one I am about to present to you here and now though. You can read my shorter description
here
.
The Throne of the Tides is an 82-84 dungeon, supposedly the second one in the Abyssal Maw - the first one still unnamed and with 0 info about it. If you follow the normal quest flow, you will find the entrance to this dungeon during your last quest in Vashj'ir, after a colossal battle featuring Neptulon the Tidehunter himself. As you approach the giant whirlpool beneath Vashj'ir, you get sucked in, everything swirls around you, and - tadaaa - you drop in the elemental realm of water. Pretty cool looking place, by the way. But let's talk content now!
Live
Cataclysm: Guild "Perks"
Our developers here at Wowhead have been hard at work getting data up on the
Cataclysm
website and they have pushed a new section for you all to check out.
Guild Perks
are now listed in their own
category
.
If you don't already know what Guild Perks are here is a brief explanation. When you create a new guild (or Cataclysm happens and you're in one) you are able to level up the guild much like you level your player character. As your guild levels up you gain new perks, 25 in all, some are simple like
Fast Track
or more awesome like
.
We have the entire list of Guild Perks with descriptions and the levels you'll earn them at after the break!
Live
July 16 Twitter #BlizzChat Developer Chat Transcript
The
#BlizzChat
developer chat on Twitter just ended, and we have a recap of all the questions that were answered below.
Q:
Will all mage specs be competitive in PvP & PvE?
A:
Want them to all be almost equal, want players to play as Frost because they like Frost.
Q:
Mastery no longer in Talent Pane how does it work?
A:
You'll gain a new ability from class train at 75 for the Mastery stat that will allow the mastery rating to affect the bonus.
Q:
Druid forms off the cooldown like Warrior Stances?
A:
Not at this time.
Q:
Ret pallies using spell plate?
A:
This would require a lot of weird solutions and could make Ret too powerful of a healer.
Q:
Account-wide achievements?
A:
Something we want to do but technically challenging. No promises.
Q:
Healer talents to regen mana by doing damage?
A:
Intentional, healers should now be able to do "some" damage when not healing in Cataclysm.
Q:
More class
Live
Answers to Common Community Questions About Real ID
The Real ID system, which we were introduced to a little while ago, was one of the most controversial things Blizzard has done in a long time. The feedback from the community varied from extremely negative to extremely positive, with all the points in-between. Not only has the community been divided in its opinions, but it has been quite vocal with them as well. Just a little while ago a post appeared on the official Battle.net StarCraft II blog; in it Blizzard answers common questions and addresses concerns about the Real ID functionality, features, and plans.
Check out the full article on the link below, or read over the highlights further down.
http://beta-us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/21187
You will be able to remove yourself from your friends' Friends List. So if I and
Queggy
are Real ID friends, he will be able to remove himself from the list of friends you see when you look up my profile.
Battle.net Facebook integration will allow StarCraft players (and later on, customers from other Battle.net games) to search their Facebook's friends list and ea
Live
New Talent Calculator Interface
We've updated our
Cataclysm Talent Calculator
to accommodate the new in-game interface!
Now, when you load up the talent calc, you'll be taken automatically to a screen like the one at the right here. This gives you the run-down of the individual talent trees (the same one you get in the in-game interface), as well as letting you "choose a specialization". Just like in-game, choosing a specialization will lock you into that tree until you've spent 31 points there.
There are still a few bugs to work out
, and a few problems with Blizzard's data, but we figured you'd want the chance to play with it while we're working out the kinks. Don't forget you can use the button in the bottom right to switch between the "talent tree" view and the "summary" view!
If you're curious about the changes to the new Cataclysm talent system, we ran them all down in a
previous blog
, but here's the gist of it:
Talent trees have shrunk. They're now only seven tiers deep. You still need 5 points to move to the next tier, but (so far) no talent has a maximum of more than three.
Live
More Cataclysm Data!
If you didn't think our Cataclysm site didn't already have enough data you are in for a big surprise! We've a new batch of Cataclysm data that you beta testers have been submiting via the
Wowhead Client
. This includes a vast amount of new items (701 to be exact!), abilities, talents, npcs and more!
You can find all the new data over on our
Latest Additions
page.
Live
AVG Flagging reCAPTCHA with False Positive
I received a number of emails this evening raising concern about a potential virus infection on our site. Naturally, this is reason for great concern! Upon further research (and with loads of great information from the awesome users who reported it) I learned that the AVG Active Surf-Shield tool has been erroneously reporting an "active threat" found in Google's reCAPTCHA (specifically, the recaptcha_ajax.js file), claiming it as a HTML/Framer Virus.
A little more Google tango produced
this thread
on AVG's forums, in which many users are reporting the AVG Surf-Shield as claiming this threat on multiple major websites (such as Yahoo! Mail or Amazon.com), citing seemingly random sources of this alleged "infection."
While there has been no official statement from AVG at this time, I do believe we can safely say that what we have on our hands here is a
false positive
- in this case, the AVG virus scan client is erroneously reporting harmless files as potential threats.
Update! This has b
Live
New Cataclysm Talent Trees & Updated Talent Calculator
So a new beta build was released yesterday and, as announced by Ghostcrawler, the new talent trees have come along with it.
Wowhead's talent trees have been updated
and you can check them out on the
Cataclysm site
.
I'm quite impressed by the look and design of the talent tree frame in it's first pass, and I wanted to share some of those impressions with you.
The trees resemble what they were back in Vanilla, smaller, more concise, and less overwhelming. When you open the talent frame without a talent spec yet, you are provided a window that has summaries of each spec, and what they will provide when you choose them.
As we discussed in an
earlier post
, each specialization provides a unique ability that you learn when deciding which talent tree you wish to travel down. There are a few passive benefits to choosing that specialization as well, such as "Shadow Priest", which reduces the threat you generate by 30%, and providing pushback resistance when casting shadow spells. The active ability and passive benefits are avai
Live
Lord of the Rings Online F2P Beta Keys for Premium Members
So if you haven't heard,
Lord of the Rings Online
is going free-to-play this fall. If you were interested in giving this game a shot but never wanted to shell out the cash, your opportunity is coming up...and if you're a
Premium
member, your time is now!
ZAM is giving out immediate beta access to all of our Premium members across the network. To claim your beta key, just log into your ZAM account and head over here:
http://www.zam.com/giveaways/lotro-f2p.html
Remember, if you signed up for Premium through Wowhead, your ZAM account name will most likely be
(your username)|WH
, and your password should be in an email. If you don't have it, just use the "Forgot Password" function on the ZAM site. :)
Live
A Brand New Batch of 3D Models!
More models for you!
Come and poke around, we've got a bunch of cool ones this time—including Cho'Gall himself, the boss of Cataclysm's first raid!
The rest of the models are (of course) after the break!
Live
Cataclysm Build 12479: Pretty Pictures!
The latest Cataclysm update, in addition to a bunch of new talent features (which we'll have updated for you shortly!), also includes a big batch of new icons, maps, and loading screens for your viewing pleasure!
Loading Screens
More after the break!
Live
Twitter BlizzChat on July 16
Blizzard will be holding another
Developer Chat on Twitter
this Friday!
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23BlizzChat
To submit a question you will need to tweet using the
#BlizzChat
hashtag between
5:00 PM
and
6:00 PM
(Pacific time) on Friday, July 16, 2010. During the chat all questions will be posted on the forums due to the character limitations of Twitter.
Read on after the break for the original post! The full BlizzChat history is available
here
.
Live
Cataclysm Beta Build #12479 Released!
A new build has been pushed to the beta servers! In it are some exciting new changes such as Deepholm and Western Plaguelands being opened for testing mentioned earlier today
here
. For convenience I have a run down of some of the changes you'll see listed below.
The
Level Cap
in the beta has been increased to 83. (
Source
)
Deepholm
and
Western Plaguelands
are open for testing.
New Loading Screens for
Blackrock Caverns
and
Deepholm
.
Updated World Map for Azeroth, Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
New talent trees are in! Check out our related
blog
for more specific details!
You can read the fully updated patch notes
here
!
Live
Deepholm and Western Plaguelands Open For Testing!
According to posts on the beta forums by Valnoth, both
Deepholm
and
Western Plaguelands
are open for testing!
Deepholm is one of the four Elemental Planes, home of the earth elementals, and the location where the big evil man Deathwing himself was once banished to. Here you will find a lot of rock based creatures with a very earthy feel and the crashed remains of the Horde Gunship, Orgrim's Hammer.
The official feedback thread for the Deepholm is
here
.
While the Western Plaguelands hasn't changed much terrain-wise, you will note a lot of the areas have been reclaimed by the Horde, Alliance or the Argent Dawn. The Horde and Alliance are fighting what is left of the scourge in Andorhal, and the Argent Dawn have finally returned to Hearthglen and removed the Scarlet Crusade.
The official feedback thread for the Western Plaguelands is
here
.
Live
Buy FigurePrints Directly Through Wowhead!
You can now buy a
FigurePrint
of your character directly through the
Wowhead Profiler
!
If you don't already know what a FigurePrint is, it's a custom made statue or figurine of your World of Warcraft character. You punch in your character's name and realm, and they custom build a statue of your character. You can even get them both in the form of a statue or a bust, just of the character's head and shoulders.
Now you can get them directly through Wowhead! All you have to do is go to your
character page
and click the "Buy FigurePrint" button, and the website will walk you through the rest.
Please Note:
We can't currently offer FigurePrints based on custom profiles, though it's something we're definitely interested in trying.
Live
More TankSpot Cataclysm Zone Previews!
TankSpot
has done it again! They have provided as with even more awesome video previews of updated Cataclysm zones. These new previews include one of my favourite makeovers yet,
Western Plaguelands
which has had some pretty radical changes from the one we currently know. Remember these videos are also available on their respective zone pages!
Ashenvale
Western Plaguelands
And as a bonus for all of you, here's the brand new 5 player dungeon
Throne of the Tides
!
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