Interview

You can find the whole Interview here, I’ll just mention a few highlights.

• Blizzard is happy with Looking for Raid (LFR) and Transmogfrification
• Raid Finder is the most successful part of 4.3
• Players have enough content to chew on until MoP comes
• We try to bring content faster

Oh well, what can I say? The Patch has been out a good month and the excitement is ebbing down a bit. The Deathwing fight has a shallow taste since we do not actually fight Deathwing, just some tentacles and crap … and in Dragon Soul you simply chop him down from 20% and he does not even fight back.
Of course we haven’t beaten all on heroic, but we have seen it all and while it is still fun I am not sure that will hold “a couple of months more”.
The exact wording is “the three excellent dungeons we have, the new raid, and Raid Finder that should give people something to sink their teeth into for a few months“.

Mists of Pandaria

All expansions so far were at least a 3-4 months on beta. MoP is not even in Alpha stage, yet. This means we still have at least 4 (more likely 5-7 months) before it goes live. Wonder if they can really afford to not bring new content up to then.

Bring new Content faster

If you have read blue posts and dev blogs you have heard that one before. In fact it was one of the goals Blizzard had in mind for Cataclysm. But we had never had in any expansion this little content updates before. WotLK and Catyclysm were roughly released at the same time of the year, but now one year later we have less contentupdates than before.

Wrath of the Lich King

• Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, Naxxramas
• Ulduar
• Trial of the Crusader
• The Brood Mother Returns: Onyxia
• Icecrown Citadel
• Ruby Sanctum

Cataclysm

• Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, Throne of the Four Winds
• Firelands
• Dragonsoul

The locations in Dragonsoul are simply recycled content. Path of the Titans, Wyrmrest Temple, Maw of Go’rath, Maw of Shu’ma, Airship and the Maelstrom with a few Bosses added. Also the Models do not have any new look, just a bit customized, recycled models.
Basically we payed ~72€ on monthly fees to get it.
Recycling old content seems to be the biggest thing in Cataclysm. Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines, Zul’Aman, Zul’Gurub.

Random Heroics

Speaking about these last two instances. The current System for heroics is also a major step back and is part of the daily (weekly) heroic instances System. In Wrath of the Lich King you did get a random heroic daily, but not just from the last 2 published batch. This made the system a lot less boring than the current system. I mean we ran Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman for 7 months, just these 2 instances, 7 times a week … roughly 210 times … and now we will run End Time, Well of Eternity and Hour of Twilight equally often – yay! I think this is what Dave Kosak referred to “something to sink their teeth into”.

what would I do

To improve the current game I would:

• Fix the Looking for raid Loot System
• Exclude non soulbound items from calculating Item Level
• Introduce a separate PvP Item Level
• Merge all 5 man heroic instances into “Random Cataclysmic Heroic”
• Prepare a new Sanctum at Wyrmrest Temple, in case MoP is still more than 4 months out

And please Blizzard bring content faster! It doesn’t always have to be a new raid or new instances, or a ton of features at once. Sometimes little things help to cover time much better than a whole bunch of content.

Related Posts

• Cataclysm: Peparation, 25 Dailies to boost XP
• Cataclysm: ZG Removed, Mounts removed, Pet removed
• Future of Zul’Gurub remains unclear
• Cataclysm: Zul’Gurub removed
• Patch 4.0.1 Feedback

Trailer

The past years I have heard countless requests for Pandaren as playable class. While they for sure would not be my first choice I can understand that many others like them very much. But let us look at the teaser video first to get a first impression of what to expect.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Race, New Class, New Zone!

Pandaren will become a playable race available to both factions (at level 10 you permanently decide your faction) and introduce Monk (Tank, Healer, Melee DPS) as class. Blizzard also wants to go back to the Burning Crusade Zone System which will feature the Mists of Pandaria as huge Zone with 5 Subzones, which are larger than for example Twilight Highlands instead of having Zones scattered like in Cataclysm.

Pandaren

In a time when Azeroth was swarmed by demons the last Pandaren Emperor sealed off Pandaria in an impenetrable Mist for 10000 years before the Sundering. A Few wander-lusty Pandaren gathered on Shen-zin Su, a huge giant turtle that roams the seas of Azeroth, but over time they also lost contact with the homeland. Even worse, the Turtle is in jeopardy of being swallowed by the sea and this is where Pandaren players start. They will meet both Alliance and Horde and will have to permanently choose who to side with.

Pandaren like to eat!

Just like me, Pandaren love to cook and eat However a fat belly and rings around the eyes looks cuter on them I have to admit
Cooking and eating is supposed to plays a big role for Pandaren and even some racials are centered around that.

Pandaren Racials

• Epicurean
  Increases the stat benefits from food by 100%
• Gourmand
  Cooking skill increased by 15.
• Inner Peace
  Your rested experience bonus lasts twice as long.
• Bouncy
  You take 50% less falling damage.
• Quaking Palm
  You touch a secret pressure point on an enemy target, putting it to sleep for 3 seconds.

If I had to choose between 100 hit rating (Draenei, Racial) and 90 agility and stamina (Pandaren, Epicurean food buff) it seems quite a bit stronger and versatile, with the disadvantage that you have to have the food buff. But who knows what changes are planned for cooking other than “it is going to play a big role”.

Pandaren Classes

• Hunter
• Mage
• Monk
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warrior

This brings us straight to the new class, Monk.

Monk

Monks are masters of bare-handed combat, choosing to draw their weapons only for devastating finishing moves. Monk healers bring harmony and balance to every group, healing even the most grievous of injuries with ancient remedies and focused spiritual arts. And few can hope to out-last the unquenchable prowess of the Monk Brewmaster, whose empowering beverages and unpredictable combat style allow them to absorb incredible amounts of punishment.

This means they can fulfill 3 roles, Healer, Melee DPS and Tanking, making them pretty versatile. The following races can become Monk.

Alliance

• Pandaren
• Draenei
• Dwarf
• Gnome
• Human
• Night Elf

Horde

• Blood Elf
• Pandaren
• Orc
• Tauren
• Troll
• Forsaken

Monks are designed to use Agility or Intellect Leather Armor and no shields. They can use Fist Weapons, One-Handed Axes, One-Handed Maces, One-Handed Swords, Polearms and Staves. It was mentioned to have Staves/Polearms for Tanking and Dual Wield for the Melee DPS role.

Monks are designed to be more active than current classes and will not have an autoattack! Basic moves, like Jab and Roll will require “Chi” to use. Chi can be compared to energy and regenerates slowly. Jabs generate Light and Dark force which can be used for finishing moves.

New Zones

We will get 5 new zones and the Wandering Isle of Shen-zin Su as Pandaren starting zone. The remaining Zones are located in Pandaria. The Jade Forest starts at the shore and the further zones lead high up to the hidden ancient seat of the Pandaren empire in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

• The Wandering Isle (starting zone)

Pandaria

• The Jade Forest
• Valley of the Four Winds
• Kun-Lai Summit
• Townlong Steppes
• Vale of Eternal Blossoms

Btw, the 6 instances in Pandaria are marked as red dots (additionally Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery in Eastern Kingdoms get upgraded to Level 90)

The new zones appear quite colorful, bright and light … this is actually intented. Cold, Dark and destructive dominated previous expansions and this is a welcome change. If you look closer at the concept art you will realize that the new expansion will also feature some “darker” zones, too. The Sha (evil spirits that come to life through Alliance vs Horde conflict) exist only in concept art. Also the Mogu look more traditional, the way monsters are supposed to look, with Asian touch of course. There is also a concept art of a dark, mystic jungle passage, so don’t think you have seen it all

The previews for some zones are pretty small and others (“Townlong Steppes” & “Vale of Eternal Blossoms”) don’t even have any, yet. There will be tons of stuff to come the next weeks.

Anyway have a look at this fly-through video, featuring the wandering island and some Pandarian zones and instances.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Talent System

Basically they cut down to give you only 6 Talents, which is a pretty sad moment for WoW imo. If you look at it from Blizzard’s Point of View it may make sense. Giving you all needed abilities baseline and actually giving you choices, but it will kill off all the fun builds that currently exist (e.g. Enhancement/Resto PvP build) and discourage experimentation. “Giving you an actual choice” as Blizzard says is only half the truth.

Bottom Line

I am pretty startled by all the negativity that is dominating forums and comments at the moment. All we have seen are some bits and pieces and so much that needs to be clarified over the next weeks. It is probably a bit too early to condemn the game just because people don’t like Pandaren. There are many that actually like them.
As before with Worgen and Goblins, introducing a new race does not mean you will have to play it. If you think your Draenei is the better choice you can keep playing it
Blizzard stated that the Pandarian Zones will be larger than Twilight Highlands, which is a very large and diverse zone … Which means we will see a lot of different, varied locations. Some we will like more than others. You cannot hit the taste of 11 million players on the nail. Also the new monster types in addition to the old reappearing ones will bring enough diversification to not bore us too fast. I, at least, am curious what they come up with.

Annual Pass

After having spent too much time and money into wow I did not want to pay for another Blizzard title, like for example Diablo and initially planned skipping the game. But Morhaime announced an amazing deal for wow players, the Annual Pass.
Basically you subscribe for 12 months and get Diablo and a mount for free. It is a great way to bind customers and I cannot see to have other companies do anything alike. Imagine Bioware offering Masseffect III for free if you subscribe to SW-ToR.

Further Reading

• Official Mists of Pandaria Site
• Official Annual Pass FaQ
• Official Blue Posts:
• Class Talent System
• Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel
• Raids & Dungeons Panels
• MMO Champion Coverage

Related Posts

• The Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Guide
• Patch 4.3 General and Enhancement Shaman changes
• A look at the first PTR 4.3 Changes
• Underdev Update and Arena Season Ending
• Cataclysm: Archaeology Preview

<3 Enhancement!

At least for now I totally enjoy Enhancement Shaman, can’t really say with certainy if we aren’t a bit overpowered, but looking at dps in normal and especially heroic instances we seem to have arrived in the upper parts of damage meters.

Right now we can play out our abilities as hybrid better than ever, being able to sacrifice some dps to help heal a player or even place an aoe heal in tricky phases seems to be a big plus. We can cc, interrupt, place that winning heal, use our cd in heavy damage phases, give proper heroism (honestly did you meet a mage yet that did not cast heroism at the worst possible occasions?) and do not totally suck on meters!

This patch made me a happy goat so far! The only thing I feel sorry about are the players that abandonded the class a tiny bit too early.

Related Posts

• The Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Guide
• Many Shaman improvements in build 12857
• Hidden Build (12857 Codename Ninja) – Thoughts
• Cataclysm: Planned Stat Changes
• Cataclysm: No Worgen Shaman!

Stood in the Fire!

Seems like deathwing has a thing for Wetlands and Plaguelands, the past 4 days he hit wetlands each day on Ravencrest. If you are going to idle anyhow, try to do it there and you might get a shot at the Achievement!

Fix your macros!

Weapon Imbues

Windfury on leftclick; Flametongue on rightclick

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift][btn:2]Flametongue Weapon;[nomod]Windfury Weapon;[mod:alt]Frostbrand Weapon;[mod:ctrl]Earthliving Weapon

Feral Spirit and DBM

If you have Deadly Boss Mods installed you can get a nice timer bar for your wolves with this macro. A rightclick will cast Spirit Hunt.

#showtooltip
/cast Feral Spirit
/cast [button:2] Spirit Walk
/dbm timer 00:29 Feral-Spirit End!
/dbm timer 01:59 Feral-Spirit CD

Shamanistic Rage and DBM

Nice bars for Shamanistic Rage if you have deadly boss mods installed. You can leave out the /use Trinket1 part.

#showtooltip Shamanistic Rage
/cast [nobtn:2] Shamanistic Rage
/dbm timer 00:15 Shamanistic Rage End!
/dbm timer 00:59 Shamanistic Rage CD
/use Trinket1

Ghostwolf and Mounts

• left click: Ghost Wolf
• right click: mount, depending on conditions
• right click + ctrl: Mekgineer’s Chopper (for these special moments!)
• right click + alt: Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth (if you need a repair!)
• right click + shift: force flying mount (for wintergrasp, which is tagged as noflyable)

#show Ghost Wolf
/use [noform,nomounted,nobtn:2]Ghost Wolf
/cancelform [form]
/dismount [mounted]
/userandom [mod:ctrl]Mekgineer's Chopper;[mod:alt]Traveler's Tundra Mammoth;[flyable][mod:shift]Mimiron's Head;Crimson Deathcharger,Invincible,Raven Lord

Flame Shock & Earth Shock

This will cycle Flame Shock, Earth Shock, Earth Shock when I am in spec 1 and Frost Shock in spec 2 (guess which is my pvp spec). In addition it will cast wind shear on the current target.

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/castsequence [spec:1] reset=target12 Flame Shock,Earth Shock,Earth Shock;[spec:2] Frost Shock
/cast Wind Shear

Fishing and Stormstrike

For these moments when you get ganked while fishing peacefully If you get into combat and have a fishing pole equipped then this will equip your weapons and cast stormstrike and toggle autoattacks. The itemid can be used aswell as the actual name of a weapon.

#showtooltip
/equipslot [worn:Fishing Poles,combat] 16 Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings
/equipslot [worn:Fishing Poles,combat] 17 item:50737:3789
/cast [worn:Fishing Poles] Fishing
/stopmacro [worn:Fishing Poles]
/startattack
/cast Stormstrike

Discover the entrance to blackrock caverns

Go to blackrock mountain and discover the entrance to BRC, which lies right below Blackrock Spire/Blackwing Lair and you will be able to queue for it right away.

Quests

As posted here you can get 26 quests to cash in right away when cataclysm goes live!

Flasks, Food, Gems, Enchants

Leveling will go much smoother if you use up those consumables you banked away. The Cataclysm consumables will be so much better that the remaining flasks will be useless

Also in Deepholm you will start to replace your items and weapons . Having some replacement gems and enchants will make them even better.

Related Posts

• State of Enhancement!
• Cataclysm: Peparation, 25 Dailies to boost XP
• The Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Guide
• Future of Zul’Gurub remains unclear
• Underdev Update and Arena Season Ending

A lot of things changed on the PTR, quests like “Sealed Vial of Poison”, “Damaged Necklace”, “XXX  Must Die!” weekly raid quest no longer yield XP.

These selected quests will bring you roughly 35%-40% into Level 80 with minimal travel time.

Is it possible?

In a Dev Chat Blizzard confirmed that they haven’t restricted quests in the past 2 expansions and will not do so now either. Here is the original text:

Q: Will you allow players to fill their quest log with say, 25 dailies, and then turn them in right after Midnight on December 7th to get a quick boost towards 85? This is how it worked in the beta, but some players are confused on whether it will work on Live. Thanks!
A: Regarding 25 daily quests to turn in when the expansion goes live, this is something players have been able to do for the last 2 expansions and we aren’t talking about changing it now.

There are no restrictions and this leaves us some room to maximize the gain. Ideally we’d select 25 Quests and are close by to be able to turn them in fast. There are quite a few quests hubs that are suitable for this. Some Quests give 16k xp, some 22k xp, and a few 27k xp.

There are a couple of tricks though that we can use to our advantage. If you simply look for 25 daily quests you’d select Sons of Hodir, Skybreaker(or Horde equivalent) and Argent Tournament. This works well, but can still be improved.

If you look at the quest “Among the Champions” from Argent Tournament you will see that the “Mark of the Champion” aren’t classified as quest items. Abandoning the quest will leave the items in your inventory and you will be able to cash it in at once.

Wintergrasp Quests

Too bad that we will hit the 25 daily quest limit this way. On the other side if you take Wintergrasp quests instead of Sons of Hodir they will not count towards the daily quest limit, which means you will be able to turn in 26 Quests instead of 25.

As you can see I have also chosen “Putting the Hertz: The Valley of Lost Hope” which is only 15 sec flight time away from the Skybreaker but gives 27500 xp as reward.

Here is my complete list of quests:

There are 26 quests:

• 24 x 22100 xp
• 2 x 27500 xp

for a total of = 585400 xp. If you happen to have a Kraken Tooth (they have been removed) you can turn that one in aswell.

The idea is to start in Wintergrasp for the weekly quests first, then use the Argent Tournament Tabard to cash in the Argent Tournament Quests, continue to the Skybreaker and then turn the last quest in at Aldur’thar. From there on you can continue as you please

This will also have a nice effect towards guild advancement and leveling. The more people in your guild will do this the faster it you may reach the Guild Perk “Fast Track” (for an additional xp Boost).

Btw, if you are on EU-Ravencrest and are an experienced Tank with preorder/digital purchase we are still looking for some help with assembling an instance farming group to 85.

Related Posts

• Interview with Dave Kosak about WoW in 2012
• Cataclysm: ZG Removed, Mounts removed, Pet removed
• Future of Zul’Gurub remains unclear
• Underdev Update and Arena Season Ending
• Cataclysm: Zul’Gurub removed

Also my connection speed is no option to be able to compete for Realm First Level 85 Shaman, etc with Patches and downlaod being part of the Installation.

This is why I decided to preorder the digital download.

Account Management

This is what the Accout Management Page looked like directly after the purchase:

As you can see it says “Product Level Cataclysm (Upgrade Complete) Standard Edition” and “Upgrade Complete Play the minute servers go live.”

A bit later I got the following mail:

The Account Detail Page lists the follwoing steps:

1. Order and pay
   Order and pay for a digital upgrade to Cataclysm today.
2. Log in once
   Log into the World of Warcraft game client to start the download of Cataclysm data. The data will download while you play or have the Launcher open.
3. Play
   At 00:01 on 07/12 your account will be automatically upgraded so you can begin playing Cataclysm.

I relogged, restarted the Launcher and was able to predownload some of the new data.

I hope this helped people who are still undecided what to do For me it seems like the perfect convenient way to get this expansion and I am so far glad I did it this way We will see at dec 7th how it turns out

The only thing that worries me, is that the mail states:”You will be able to play Cataclysm on December 7 at 12:01 AM Pacific time“. I hope it is just a display error

If you have questions, post a comment below

Related Posts

• The Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Guide
• Interview with Dave Kosak about WoW in 2012
• Not much to post these days
• State of Enhancement!
• Some Preparations for the Launch

Mount changes

Here is Blizzards original announcement.

As stated in the Under Dev page (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/), patch 4.0.3 brings about The Shattering, a cataclysmic event that will forever change the face of Azeroth. As we prepare to raise the level cap and introduce two new races with the Cataclysm expansion, it’s important to keep in mind that the game world is going through tremendous changes that will affect the availability of certain rare mounts and items.

Swift Zulian Tiger

Zul’Gurub is changing from a raid to a leveling zone in 4.0.3, and this mount will no longer be obtainable.

Swift Razzashi Raptor

This mount will also no longer be obtainable after the change to Zul’Gurub.

Razzashi Hatchling

With the change to Zul’Gurub this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable.

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle

This tome will continue to be available through other means.

Crusader’s White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance Steed/Swift Horde Wolf

As the attempt-based tribute system is being removed from Heroic Trial of the Crusader, the Argent Crusade Tribute Chest will no longer spawn, and these mounts will no longer be obtainable

Reins of the Blue Drake

This mount will once again be available from defeating 10-player Malygos without needing to use the Dungeon Finder. The Reins of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25-player Malygos.

Mimiron’s Head

This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating 25-player Yogg’Saron with no Keepers assisting you

Invincible

This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating Heroic 25-player Lich King

Although we have no current plans to introduce new ways to obtain the Zul’Gurub mounts, pets, and the tribute mounts, they may return should we find a place where they fit in the future.

Related Posts

• Interview with Dave Kosak about WoW in 2012
• Cataclysm: Peparation, 25 Dailies to boost XP
• Future of Zul’Gurub remains unclear
• Cataclysm: Zul’Gurub removed
• Patch 4.0.1 Feedback

In a nutshell we get to choose more utility, get some glyph and ui enhancements which make the class more fun to play. Many changes are also coming statwise, many buffs get spread to more classes and we will get many changes to our Totems.

Keep in mind that patch 4.0 is tuned at level 85 characters and not 80. Enhancement Shaman felt a bit awkward to play at the start and Unleash Weapon (Level 81) will strongly effect the class.

4.0 First Steps

When 4.0 comes life you should visit your trainer as soon as possible. We will lose some abilities, for example to cleanse poison and disease, while we also learn some new skills. For example Primal Strike (for leveling up, shares cooldown with Stormstrike), Cleanse Spirit (remove curses), Healing Surge (a new heal), Bind Elemental (cc for elementals), Totem of Tranquil Mind (30% less casting time loss on damage), Mail Specialization (+5% primary stats, while wearing mail), Ghost Wolf can be used indoors and last but not least mastery.

Here is a link with all Shaman Abilities on Wowhead.

Talent Changes

The next best thing to do is to fix your talents. Beginning at level 10 you will be able to choose a talent tree (is there any other choice than enhancement?). You will receive a set of basic abilities right away and the other talent trees will not unlock before you place at least 31 points in your primary tree. Here are the Talents you get right away.

Enhancement

A totemic warrior who strikes foes with weapons imbued with elemental power.

• Lava Lash
• Mental Quickness
• Dual Wield
• Primal Wisdom
• Mastery: Enhanced Elements

We have 35 talent points to spend at Level 80 (actually 79) and these are talents every enhancement should take.

Basic Enhancement Shaman build (0/31/0)

(Talent Calculator)

• Please note: this build has 2/3 improved Lightning Shields as I have to spend 1 point somewhere
  you can change that point to wherever you like
• also you have 5 more talent points to spend
• but each enhancement shaman should have at least these talents

Single Target Enhancement Shaman build (5/31/0)

(Talent Calculator)

• I have chosen Concussion over Acuity, since we already have absurd high crit rating and because we lost the 50% extra crit bonus damge
• best single target dps

AoE Enhancement Shaman build (4/32/0)

(Talent Calculator)

• if you find yourself doing heroics or for fights like Halion, where AoE Damage matters you might like to check out this build
• I moved 1 point from Acuity and 1 from Improved Shields to improved Fire Nova
• also added the Fire Nova and Chain Lightning Glyph

Utility Enhancement Shaman build (0/36/0)

(Talent Calculator)

• if you prefer utility and are willing to sacrifice some dps
• I see this more as daily life spec for pvp realms, when you do dailies or other stuff and have to deal with occasional ganking

Glyphs

Glyphs leave you with similar choices.

For now the best dps glyphs seem to be:

Prime Glyphs

• Stormstrike
• Lava Lash
• Feral Spirit

Major Glyphs

• Fire Nova
• (Lightning Shield)
• your choice

My personal favorite Major Glyph is the new Lightning Shield one (“Your Lightning Shield can no longer drop below 3 charges from dealing damage to attackers”). Using this Glyph your Lightning Shield can only expire or be dispelled, but it never runs out of charges for dealing damage and will remain at 3 orbs for Enhancement Shamans.

This and the new power aura like spell alert for Maelstrom Weapon make the class much more fluent and fun to play.

What happened to my Mana?

Our Mail Armor has no longer Attack Power, Armor Penetration or Intelligence stats. We do now get 2 Attack Power per Agility and a 5% bonus Agility if all our gear is Mail Armor. the following new abilities will help to manage our mana anyhow.

• Primal Wisdom
  Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to immediately restore 5% of your base mana.
• Maelstrom Weapon
  When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance (higher than rank 2) to reduce the cast time and mana cost of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Hex, or any healing spell by 20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec.
• Mental Quickness
  Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 50% of your attack power, and reduces the mana cost of your instant spells by 75%.

There is also an undocumented change. On Beta Enhancement Shamans have a lot of passive MP5, think it was around 600 mp5 in combat at level 80.

Gems & Reforging

There is a lot of discussion about proper gemming for 4.0 and reforging. Lets look at the stats.

Haste

• Shamans lost the melee haste bonus they got during Ulduar
• Static Shock no longer procs from auto attacks
• Windfury nerfed, *cough* adjusted to 10% melee/ranged haste.
• Unleash Wind (Level 81) will bring 20% additional melee haste for 6 swings.

Critical Strike

• Stormstrike
  Chance to be critically struck by the Shaman’s Nature spells increased by 25%.
• Elemental Devastation
  When you deal critical damage with a non-periodic spell, increases your chance to get a critical strike with melee attacks by 9% for 10 sec.
• Lightning Shield can now critical hit! This will make it easy to keep up Elemental Devastation.
• Armor Penetration will be converted to Critical Strike Rating and provide us with even more crit on our gear.

Hit Rating

• the new spell hit cap for Enhancement Shaman is 446 hit rating (420 for Draenei)

Expertise

• Unleashed Rage
  Increases your expertise by 8, and increases all party and raid members’ attack power by 10% while within 100 yards of the Shaman.
• 139 expertise rating cap, 116 Orcs (using Axes), 116 Dwarves (using Maces)

Agility

• Each 83.19 agility = 1 % melee crit (324.88 @ Level 85)
• 1 point of agility = 2 attack power
• 1 point of agility = 1,28  spell power (raidbuffed, mail spec, unleashed rage,kings,flame totem)
• Mail Armor Specialization, +5% Agility if you are in full mail gear

Mastery

• Enhanced Elements
  Increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage done by 20%.  Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%

Gem conversion

Attack Power gems will be turned into Agility, Spell Power gems into Intellect, Armor Penetration to Critical Strike Rating. Hit rating will become a blue gem.

Conclusion

Haste will no longer become our most important stat, since less abilities benefit from it. Haste will be in line with critical strike rating which also seems to be less important than pre 4.0. Our new abilities (especially Stormstrike) provide a good base crit and we are already struggling with the crit cap.
However Agility seems to become a very good stat for us, since all our damage abilities increase by it.
It is not really known how effective Elemental Mastery will turn out. Guessing from the tests I have done on Beta it looks quite promising, basically replacing the spell crit damage bonus, that we can no longer get.

This is how I will reforge, gem

• Agility is a primary stat, also our best and you cannot reforge to. This means, it is probably best to reforge gear for expertise cap first, so we can use red sockets for Agility.
• Reforge the rest of the gear for Mastery (there are no Mastery gems at level 80), remember the (+hit cap).
• Use the 21 Agility Meta, (Relentless Earthsiege Diamond) and one Blue Gem Socket for +Hit Rating.
• For good Socket Boni, you can use Agi/Haste (Yellow Socket) or even Agi/Hit (Blue Socket).

Priority System

The loss of 100% spellcrit bonus damage reduced the importance of our spells until we reach high level of mastery rating. I am not sure if Lava Lash or Stormstrike win the priority queue. They both proc Lightning Shield while Stormstrike also places the +25% spell crit debuff on our target.
This debuff will help to get spell crits and thus Elemental Devastation, which again keeps our melee crit up. Fortunately due to the long cooldown on both abilities it doesn’t really make a big difference.
Delaying Lava Lash 1-2 seconds can also help making sure that we will have enough Searing Totem stacks on our target to make it our biggest nuke.

The Stormstrike debuff reads: “granting you an additional 25% chance to critically strike that enemy with your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lightning Shield, and Earth Shock spells for 15 sec.”

Lightning Shield will keep itself up so we only have Shocks and Lightning Bolt to assign a priority to. The outcome should be quite obvious

Prio Queue

• Feral Spirit
• Lava Lash
• Storm Strike
• MSW 5
• Flame Shock x1, Earth Shock x2 Rotation

This will make the class much less tedious to play than it feels at time on live.

Totems

• Earth
  • Strength of Earth Totem
  • Stone Skin Totem
• Wind
  • Windfury
• Water
  • Healing Stream (will also provide resistance to fire, nature and frost spells glyphed)
  • Totem of Tranquil Mind
• Fire
  • Searing Totem (single target), Fire Nova can not be used
  • Magma Totem (multi target)

Spell Alert

The changes to the UI in 4.0 include a Power Aura like Icon that pops up for a few seconds once you got 5 Stacks of Maelstrom Weapon and looks like this. Pew Pew Lazerbeams!!

Other things to note

Totem/Relic Slot

Bizuri’s Totem of Shattered Ice, like all other totems, has been changed to provide primary stat/stamina/haste/crit and should be replaced with Totem of the Avalanche.

Totem of the Avalanche
Binds when picked up
Relic    Relic
+51 Agility
+77 Stamina
Red Socket
Classes: Shaman
Requires Level 80
Item Level 264
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 34 (0.74% @ L80).
Equip: Improves haste rating by 34 (1.04% @ L80).

Feral Spirit

Feral Spirit’s cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes, instead of 3 and its duration has been reduced to 30 seconds. While this hampers our solo abilities quite a bit, it might even improve our raid dps on short fights.

Feral Spirit
12% of base mana    30 yd range
Instant cast    2 min cooldown
Summons two Spirit Wolves under the command of the Shaman, lasting 30 sec.

Sample Video

I have put sample video together, showing some of the talent ui, glyph ui, new spells (up to 85), and power aura in action. If you are curious take a look at it. The video is in 1080p, so you can choose fullscreen and higher quality and read the tooltips.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In case I forgot something, you have questions or want to express your gratitude, leave a comment below. Thanks for reading.

On a sidenote, something that keeps me baffled on Beta is that one one side we can unleash wind and fire, even get a fire damage debuff on the target, but have no ability that will actually consume it. It would be awesome if Lava Lash would make use of this, which it doesn’t at the moment.

Related Posts

• Patch 4.3 General and Enhancement Shaman changes
• A look at the first PTR 4.3 Changes
• Patch 4.0.6: Enhancement Shaman Windfury Changes
• Many Shaman improvements in build 12857
• Hidden Build (12857 Codename Ninja) – Thoughts

After seeing the DK flying mount which looks more like a gnawed off “Wiesnhendl” from the October Fest than some scary flying beast, I am glad that this looks much better.

They look better than they appear on the Screenshots.

From Archaeology

Both Fossilized Raptors are rare items in Fossil Archaeology and require 100 & 85 Fossil Archaeology Fragments.

Here is what wowhead says.

Fossilized Hatchling
3 sec cast
When you finished assembling this tiny skeleton through some eldritch magic, the little critter sprang back to life. He’s a pretty good pet. Since he’s a skeleton, he doesn’t eat much.

Fossilized Hatchling
Binds when picked up
Item Level 30
Use: Teaches you how to summon this companion.

The guy got away befor eI could make better screenshots of the pet. But anyway here take a look at it (click to enlarge).

Fossilized Raptor
3 sec cast
When you finished assembling this skeleton through some eldritch magic, the creature sprang back to life.

Fossilized Raptor
Binds when picked up
Mount
Requires Level 40
Requires Riding (150)
Item Level 40
Use: Teaches you how to summon this mount.  This is a very fast mount.

Related Posts

• Underdev Update and Arena Season Ending
• Cataclysm: Archaeology Preview
• Interview with Dave Kosak about WoW in 2012
• Cataclysm: Peparation, 25 Dailies to boost XP
• Cataclysm: ZG Removed, Mounts removed, Pet removed

Blue Post

The subject “Raid Mounts” was touched in a Blue Post.

Q: How about questions pertaining to what will be included in the 4.0.1 patch? And if so, my question is: will Invincible’s drop rate be changed in that patch?
A: No changes are being made to raid mounts in patch 4.0.1.

I am aware that the Question wasn’t about Zul’Gurub, hence I decided to try my luck with a GM Ticket

General Question

Q: Can I still turn in these items once 4.0.1 hits live Realms?

• [Head of Onyxia] – Level 60
• [Head of Ossirian the Unscarred]
• [Heart of Hakkar]

A: Quest items that are dependant on current NCPs in Azeroth I would strongly recommending turning in before the 4.0.1 patch to ensure that those NPCs are still in game afterwards. We’re not able to provide specific information about which NPCs will remain after the patch.

Q: What happens to Baron Mount? Will it still be available?

A: Deathcharger’s Reins which drop from Baron rivendare will remain ingame, however there will be a different NPC that takes his place here.

Q: There is a blue post indicating that no changes will be made to raid mounts, does that include ZG or only Mimirons Head/Invincible?

A:Zul Gurub will no longer be a raid in Cataclysm, please keep an eye on our Community Posts at forums.wow-europe.com for further information about our plans for Zul Gurub.

Followup

My questions about ZG weren’t really answered so I decided to try my luck with a followup ticket.

<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: Hello there. During the lead up to the expansion there will be World Events most likely starting with patch 4.0.1. It will be then that the instance will no longer be available as the world changes.
To [Ketruxa]: “most likely” meaning you don’t know for sure? I am aware that ZG will be removed, or well “gone as raid instance” whatever that means. My Question is about how long it is possible to get the mounts still, not to tickle some information out of you that
To [Ketruxa]: is supposed to come by a blue post on the forums
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: Means, I’m guessing   We do not have exact information as to which phase parts of the world will change.
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: At least not regarding everything.
To [Ketruxa]: Thanks for the honest reply! Could you ask your senior then? I tried to get an answer on official forums, but well with so many posts it probably has been overlooked.
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: The changes will start when the World events start which should take around 5 weeks in total. All the changes will be in the game when 4.0.1 goes live, but not all will be activated.
To [Ketruxa]: yep, I am aware of the different stages, the only thing I am unsure about atm is when the raid instance will be removed.
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: Unfortunately, I cannot give you a definite answer other than it will be after 4.0.1
To [Ketruxa]: after or with?
To [Ketruxa]: Ok thanks for your reply
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: The changes will be with the patch, but they may not go live until the appropriate phase.
To [Ketruxa]: Thanks for the reply. Guess I’ll have to see in 4.0.1
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: Alright then. Is there anything else I can help you with?
To [Ketruxa]: Not really, thanks.
<GM>[Ketruxa] whispers: Farewell then, Daisan. Have an awesome evening and good luck.
To [Ketruxa]: Have a nice end of your shift

Important

This is a followup to this post including more details on the actual removal of Zul’Gurub.

Related Posts

• Cataclysm: Zul’Gurub removed
• Paladin versus Molten Core!
• Interview with Dave Kosak about WoW in 2012
• Myrddin solos Plague Quarter
• Enhancement Shaman solos Sapphiron

Update

Blizzard changed the conversion rates, read the update at the end of the post.

Blizzards announced a while back that they were in the process of redesigning the currency system. The idea is to make things much easier by having only 2 PvE and 2 PvP currencies in the game. A lower, easier to obtain currency – Justice Points – and a higher valued currency that is similar to the current Emblem of Frost – Valor Points.

Once a new tier of gear becomes available Valor Points would be merged into Justice Points. Basically this is what will happen when Patch 4.0.1 goes life.

Older emblems and badges will be converted into gold.

Justice Points and Valor Points

Hero Points (now Justice Points)

Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)

Valor Points

High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

Coming patch 4.0.1 ALL Frost and Triumph Emblems will be converted into Justice Points. There will be a soft cap of 4000 Justice Points, if you have more you will be able to keep them up to patch 4.0.3 but you will not be able to acquire more.

Justice Points conversion

Your Justice Points total will be equal to (Emblems of Triumph + Emblems of Frost ) * 2.75

Also all lower level emblems will immediately be converted to gold at this rate:

Gold Conversion for Lower Emblems

• Emblem of Heroism = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Valor = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Conquest = 5.5 gold each
• Badge of Justice = 1.833 gold each

Patch 4.0.3 will enforce the soft cap and all Justice Points above 4000 will be converted into gold.

Justice Points Gold Conversion

Justice points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 2 gold per point of Justice.

What? give Numbers!

1455 Emblems of Frost and Enblems of Triumph are needed to reach the soft cap. Further emblems will be stored to patch 4.0.3 and then converted to gold for 5.50 gold each.

As you can guess, this will not be a good idea since you will not gain more Justice Points. It depends on your realm economy if you can sell

• a multicolored gem for at least 55 gold
• a single color gem for at least 110 gold
• or a primordial saronite for at least 126.5 gold

then you are better off converting your emblems into gems or primordial saronite. Otherwise you should convert your emblems into Emblems of Conquest so you can get the gold as soon as patch 4.0.1 goes live.

Most likely – until further numbers are availbale – I will keep about 700 Emblems worth ~2000 Justice Points. Then I’ll be able to get some gold, will be able to gain more Justice Points and may be at the cap again when cataclysm launches.

What about items?

The item cost has risen dramatically if you look at plain emblem conversion. Let us look at some items:

The last column shows the Justice Point cost divided by 2.75 – the above mentioned conversion rate. I added it jsut to illustrate the worth of your emblems before patch 4.0.1 goes live.

Right now a T10 Head costs 90 Emblems of Frost and due to conversion it will cost you Justice Points worth 400(!!) Emblems of Frost.

Blizzard will hardly make Loot more difficult to acquire and I guess we will gain Justice Points at similar speed then current emblems. They simply want to deflate the stockpiles. Hopefully some more information will  be released the next days.

Conversion Calculator

Mmo-champion published an online calculator, where you can enter the amount of emblems in your possession and compute the amount of gold you would receive from ingame conversion.

These were my numbers before raid today

Seems I’ll end up with 7800 Justice Points, way above cap, or with nearly 18000 gold if I convert all my emblems into Emblems of Conquest. In this case it seems best to keep around 800 Emblems of Frost. This will leave enough room to acquire new Justice Points and I might end up capped by the launch of cataclysm anyhow and 12000 gold richer.

Gem and primordial Saronite prices

These items are pretty much useless with the launch of cataclysm. You should look out for gem and primordial saronite prices the next days, usually the auction market will react quite fast to this kind of changes. Players tend to drop their stocks as long as it is still worth something, especially towards the end of an expansion.

Blue Posts used for this guide

• Cataclysm Badge and PvP Point Changes, 27/04/2010
• Cataclysm Currency Changes Explained, 14/09/2010
• Cataclysm Currency Changes Explained (updated), 15/09/2010

Update

Blizzard changed the conversion rates, here is the blue post:

We’ve revised the Justice Points conversion rate for Emblems of Triumph and Emblems of Frost. When the upcoming 4.0.1 patch goes live, these emblems will be converted into 11.58 Justice Points (up from the previously planned 2.75 Justice Points per emblem). Justice Points accrued above the soft cap of 4,000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 47.5 silver per point (down from 2 gold per point) when patch 4.0.3 goes live.

There aren’t many changes to the numbers posted above. The key value is still 5 Gold 50 Silver per Emblem. Meaning the math above still holds, however the cap is now at 345 Emblems. This also doesn’t seem to make existing purchasable items so much more expensive from one day to the next, since the inflation of old emblems wil not be as strong as previously announced. All other numbers stay the same.

Related Posts

• Underdev Update and Arena Season Ending
• Cataclysm: Glyph Changes
• Future of Zul’Gurub remains unclear
• Cataclysm: Archaeology Preview
• Cataclysm: Zul’Gurub removed

Underdev

Patch 4.0.1: Cataclysm Systems

As the Cataclysm draws ever closer, patch 4.0.1 will pave the way for the transition into the latest expansion. Players will gain access to a host of new systems features.

• Classes: revamped talent trees, updated hunter pet system, new druid, hunter, paladin, and warlock resources, new Mastery stat
• User Interface: improved Spellbook, new Guild display options, updated PvP interface, expanded and enhanced Professions tab
• Systems: glyph updates including all-new Prime glyphs, new Reforging ability to customize item stats, new PvP and PvE currency system
• And much more!
  Read the 4.0.1 public test realm patch notes here.

Patch 4.0.3: The Shattering

Shortly before Cataclysm launches, Azeroth as you know it will be changed forever. Patch 4.0.3 will bring with it cataclysmic changes to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will be able to find new and exciting sights to see and quests to do in the level 1-60 zones, all-new troll and gnome introductory experiences, redesigned capital cities, new race/class combinations, and more!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

The third major World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, is now deep in development. We continue to release previews of some of the major gameplay and content features in store for players on our forums and the official Cataclysm website.

• Check out our Features page for details on several of the major expansion features.
• You can find an assortment of gameplay and systems changes on our Cataclysm forum. To see our development plans for each World of Warcraft class, item stat and systems changes, updated dispel mechanics, rage normalization, and our all-new Mastery system preview, visit our forum compendium here.
• See the ever-expanding screenshot gallery updated daily with new images of Cataclysm.

Here is the link to the original Announcement:

Arena Season 8 Ending Soon

We are currently planning to end Arena Season 8 as early as October 12. At that point we will go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It’s very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the Arena-specific titles and/or the Wrathful Gladiator’s Frostwyrm to refrain from transferring their character to another realm until after Arena Season 8 ends.

The next Arena Season will begin for level-85 players approximately one week after the official launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. During the break between seasons, all rated matches will be turned off and only skirmishes will be available. All Team Ratings, Personal Rating, and Arena Points will be wiped when Arena Season 9 begins, but Matchmaking Rating and Honor Points converted to the new currency system will remain.

Here are some snippets from different 4.0.1 blue posts:

Feats of Strength

• Zul’Gurub is now a Feat of Strength.
• Deadliest Catch is now a Feat of Strength.
• Hero of the Zandalar Tribe is now a Feat of Strength.

Professions

• The Limnologist now requires 48 different freshwater fish. (Down from 50)
• The Oceanographer now requires 33 different saltwater fish. (Down from 34)
• Accomplished Angler no longer requires Deadliest Catch.

To do list:

• make sure you predownload the patch vie the blizzard downloader, the patch will be huge, even though the new downloader will help tremendously
• get all glyphs for your class, since they will be expensive on launch and under high demand
  Glyphs will be in 3 categories: prime, major and minor glyphs
• stock up on the new gems you will need, for example int = mana + spellpower
• don’t be afraid of “bad gear upgrades”, a lot of gear will be changed, Armor penetration -> crit for example
• get rid of extra ammo you may have now (Ammo will be removed)
• get your zandalar reputation (Zandalar will be changed to feat of strength)
• talent trees will be changed/reduced, there will only be 31 talent points at 4.0.1, you might want to get familiar with those before they launch.
• the new power auras will be introduced, that is one addon you can scratch
• You might want to be 100% safe and be done with Immortal, Undying, Argent Defender, Herald of the Titans, Glory of the Raider
• This is the emblem and honor conversion patch, so you might want to read up on that here.

Related Posts

• Cataclysm: Archaeology Preview
• The Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Guide
• Cataclysm: Emblem Conversion explained
• Many Shaman improvements in build 12857
• Hidden Build (12857 Codename Ninja) – Thoughts