official World of Warcraft

[Noveed]

Yup, watched that video today. Most fights didn't last 2 minutes

Linkage: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=146299

wow unreal... i thought our dps was pretty decent but thiers is insane... my guildies on a good night range between 7-11k on the 10 man normal.... these guys were consistantly pushing 11k+ in HC ... wow!

Yeah after watching that fight i certainly think its doable... I am going to be brave and ask my guild if i can try lol... probably do not have his mana pool at the moment, im HoL specced/orientated with only around 3k SP buffed i know I could easily solo heal a few.

[Olemus]

And some more cataclysm news:

We're continuing to refine the badge/emblem and PvP point systems in Cataclysm and we'd like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

Our primary goal when approaching badges in Cataclysm is to address a lot of the confusion that comes with these currency systems. To that end we're changing badges to a more straightforward point system, similar to the ones we've used for a while for Arenas and Battlegrounds. There will be a total of four types of points you can earn in Cataclysm (two for PvE and two for PvP), and these will remain the same even as we introduce new content.

Here's the breakdown:

PvE

Hero 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)

PvP

Honor Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.

Conquest Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you'll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We're removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they're definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or 'bragging rights' type items. And you'll have the option of purchasing the previous season?s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

We do plan to have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won't be a 1:1 rate, and you'll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won't allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however.

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

[Noveed]

O M G

PvE

Hero 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)

PvP

Honor Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.

Conquest Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you'll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We're removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they're definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or 'bragging rights' type items. And you'll have the option of purchasing the previous season?s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

We do plan to have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won't be a 1:1 rate, and you'll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won't allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however.

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

So blizzard have realised that players could stockpile Badges... They did it in BC and in Wotlk... only 2 expansion and they decide to change... this is a step back not progression. So all they are doing in Stunting/gimping progression. They have seen how raiders teared down ICC and previous raids, are they making gear Harder to get or making the process longer and more annoying?

So Just to sum up then in Cata...

10 mans and 25 mans of the same dificulty share the same raid lockout ID... (less badges)

There is a Cap as to how many Valor badges on could get per week ...

Just guessing then currently as things stand one could possibly get in one week

VoA10 x2 Frost

VoA25 x2 Frost

Weekly x5 Frost

ICC10/HC x24 Frost?

ICC25/HC x24 Frost?

Doing First Random Everyday for 1 week x14 Frost

In total then 71 badges of Frost per week (someone can correct me if I am wrong, not sure if Heroic modes drop more badges than thier normal counterparts)

From the 71 or so badges it costs 23 Badges for the Primodal Saronites to craft gear... and you need like 5-8 to craft items (25 for Shadow's Edge ... just imagine trying to craft it in Cata...) If making the game annoying and tedious is thier best answer to make things harder to get then im probs out when Cata arrives. Obviously they have not stated if the new badge mechanics will apply to old badges like Frost Triumph etc or just new Cata ones however i just gave frost as an example as they are the current badges. As things stand I do not need gear on my hunter and I had around 300 badges, I have been selling saronite to guldies on the cheap for around 700g so they can craft Shadow's Edge... also I have been sending stuff over to my alts so I could get the Boots/Legs Crafted... Once Cata hits this sort of gameplay will most likely be gone, I wouldnt mind if they make the badges BoA, atlteast then people could send badges from alts to mains and vice versa... I could have had Full T10 on all my alts by now if that was the case ;)

[Elliott]

So blizzard have realised that players could stockpile Badges... They did it in BC and in Wotlk... only 2 expansion and they decide to change... this is a step back not progression. So all they are doing in Stunting/gimping progression. They have seen how raiders teared down ICC and previous raids, are they making gear Harder to get or making the process longer and more annoying?

Yes, they're stunting progression so people don't just obliterate their content the night it's released, but I also think they're doing this because there will be more raids available at the start in Cataclysm than there were in WotLK. I'm in a raiding guild and even I don't want to feel obligated to do every raid to get all the badges/points I could possibly acquire per week. Putting a cap on this basically just gives people a break and lets them choose their favorite raid or two to do per week.

Really, they're just trying to find the happy medium between vanilla WoW's system and the emblem system. I think they want to keep it so you can buy the base level of your gear (like the iLvl 251 T10 gear) with points (instead of dropping "tier tokens" from bosses), but they don't want you acquiring all that gear in three weeks. Not sure why they put a cap on the hero points though. Then again, I didn't see the point in capping honor points.

VoA10 x2 Frost

VoA25 x2 Frost

Weekly x5 Frost

ICC10/HC x24 Frost?

ICC25/HC x24 Frost?

Doing First Random Everyday for 1 week x14 Frost

In total then 71 badges of Frost per week (someone can correct me if I am wrong, not sure if Heroic modes drop more badges than thier normal counterparts)

Actually, 25 from ICC10 and ICC25. You forgot the Val'kyr before Valithria that drops an emblem. So, 73 total. With 73 per week, you can get geared up damn fast if you're dedicated and can down most/all of the bosses in ICC.

[Noveed]

Yes, they're stunting progression so people don't just obliterate their content the night it's released, but I also think they're doing this because there will be more raids available at the start in Cataclysm than there were in WotLK. I'm in a raiding guild and even I don't want to feel obligated to do every raid to get all the badges/points I could possibly acquire per week. Putting a cap on this basically just gives people a break and lets them choose their favorite raid or two to do per week.

Really, they're just trying to find the happy medium between vanilla WoW's system and the emblem system. I think they want to keep it so you can buy the base level of your gear (like the iLvl 251 T10 gear) with points (instead of dropping "tier tokens" from bosses), but they don't want you acquiring all that gear in three weeks. Not sure why they put a cap on the hero points though. Then again, I didn't see the point in capping honor points.

Actually, 25 from ICC10 and ICC25. You forgot the Val'kyr before Valithria that drops an emblem. So, 73 total. With 73 per week, you can get geared up damn fast if you're dedicated and can down most/all of the bosses in ICC.

Totally forgot about the "free badge" lol thanks for reminding me.!

[Elliott]

Totally forgot about the "free badge" lol thanks for reminding me.!

Actually, I forgot even more: the weekly quests inside of ICC. That's 10 more if you can do them in both ICC10 and ICC25. So 83 badges per week total.

[the evn show]

The one thing I dislike is removing personal rating from weapons: it's a trip back to TBC and patch 2.0 where you were pretty much obligated to do PvP if you were a raider because the weapons available from arena points were better than anything you realistically had access too (you could zone into tier 4 with weapons on par with end-boss loot. For some classes PVP items were better than all of the alternatives -- ie feral druids wanted the pvp staff over Tier 6 weapons).

Frost badges quickly became 'obsolete' as do all badges: capping the rate at which you can farm them (ie: 75 are available per week but you cannot earn more than 50, pick the way you want to earn those 50 from raids, dungeon finder, etc) might be part of their plan to deal with raiders getting upset at being forced into old/dead content for their daily fix of frost.

The running joke in my guild is that raid lockouts will be account bound. Conspiracy only schedules 2 progression raiding days per week but everybody has a lot of alts (I'd guess the average is 5 each) so there are a lot of pick-up raids through out the week. If I had to guess I'd say there are problem 10-different raid lockouts used in the guild every week: that turns in to a lot of frost emblems.

Even without this change, there were official guild "main" and "alt" raids so that you could practice new bosses without ruining your limited attempts on your main. Mostly I'm happy with the changes: playing an hour a day is going to be extremely viable and that's exactly what I'm looking for.

[Elliott]

The one thing I dislike is removing personal rating from weapons: it's a trip back to TBC and patch 2.0 where you were pretty much obligated to do PvP if you were a raider because the weapons available from arena points were better than anything you realistically had access too (you could zone into tier 4 with weapons on par with end-boss loot. For some classes PVP items were better than all of the alternatives -- ie feral druids wanted the pvp staff over Tier 6 weapons).

I'm worried about this too. I really don't want to do PvP to get the best weapons. I'm hoping they bring down the quality of the PvP items to be in line with the PvE items. Then again, I couldn't see myself replacing Trauma with any of the PvP weapons right now.

[lalalawawawa]

Can I use a US Wrath key to upgrade my EU TBC account?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Can I use a US Wrath key to upgrade my EU TBC account?

Nope!

[Noveed]

Actually, I forgot even more: the weekly quests inside of ICC. That's 10 more if you can do them in both ICC10 and ICC25. So 83 badges per week total.

haha yeah lol!

[lalalawawawa]

Nope!

Damn. Too bad. Oh well, I guess I'll spend this gift card I earned on some music then.

Or... any stores on Amazon.com that ship internationally for something less then your house?

[the evn show]

I've decided to start 'seriously' 25-man raiding again now that my guild is going to a 2-days/week schedule. There's an opening in my guild's raid for a shadow priest and my 10-man strict group (7/12 hard modes) fell apart a couple of months ago. I haven't played as a shadow priest since?ever really. Can anybody offer advice for some of the harder bits of content? We're 11/12 HM 25-man but there are a couple of fights that are still sketchy (putricide, sindragosa, and saurfang).

Kind of a shame to have the mage go into retirement but nobody seems to need one these days.

[CloudEngineer]

i have been wow free for almost a month now, lol my job makes it difficult to raid due to my schedule.

need a new job lol

[Got3n]

Cataclysm Friends and Family Alpha on MMO-Champion :-(, I wish i knew some Blizzard employees

[Minifig]

Cataclysm Friends and Family Alpha on MMO-Champion :-(, I wish i knew some Blizzard employees

It's not the Alpha.

They just said it's alpha.

If you read the post on the forums it says the "Friends and Family PHASE", which lead me to believe they're just getting access to the beta early.

[Slane]

It's not the Alpha.

They just said it's alpha.

If you read the post on the forums it says the "Friends and Family PHASE", which lead me to believe they're just getting access to the beta early.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[Minifig]

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Yes it does.

Closed beta in house / in family testing ..

Then Closed beta to the general public for stress testing.

[+SOOPRcow MVC]

No, it really is an alpha... trust me.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Just got my 3rd orb of deception on my 98th run for Deathcharger.

Ah well, they make some money :p

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

No, it really is an alpha... trust me.

Im gunna throw this date out there for Cataclysm: Friday, October 15th.

[Olemus]

No, it really is an alpha... trust me.

Correct it's Alpha. Friends and Family has always been an alpha test.

[Noveed]

Correct it's Alpha. Friends and Family has always been an alpha test.

Errr hold on I think i recognise you! :p

EU - Stormrage by any chance?

[Shaun N.]

Errr hold on I think i recognise you! :p

EU - Stormrage by any chance?

Well you live in the same town/city - Hows THAT for coincidence!

[Elliott]

Just got my 3rd orb of deception on my 98th run for Deathcharger.

Ah well, they make some money :p

You're going to hate me: I decided randomly a few days ago that I wanted the Deathcharger. Did one run and it dropped. :laugh: