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Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
News
Live
Cataclysm Beta Key Giveaway!
Would you like a Cataclysm beta key?
You don't need to say anything. We already know the answer.
Right now,
Allakhazam
is giving away a big stack of Cataclysm beta keys! All you have to do is go to the
thread
in their forums and post what you're looking forward to the most in Cataclysm, and on Monday the ZAM team will pick winners from among the posters!
They have 50 keys to give away—and don't worry, both us here at Wowhead and the guys at
TankSpot
will have some of our own to give out shortly.
Click here for the full rules!
http://wow.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=22862
PS:
Blizzard has notified us that they're having a little trouble with the activation process. The keys are good, but it may be a day or two before they actually activate your account properly.
PPS:
Remember, if you're a
Premium
member, you already have a ZAM account! If you signed up through Wowhead, your username wil
Live
Cataclysm: New Guild UI
In the recent Cataclysm beta build the new
Guild UI
has been partially enabled. The new Guild UI is only available by typing /groster currently, but presumably will have it's own menu option in the future.
Inside you'll start off with the revamped roster list. Several new panels have been added to the roster, with the default panel displaying level, class, name and last zone the player was in. A little drop down at the top will let you switch to the other two panels:
Guild Status
and
Professions
. The Guild Status panel is pretty much exactly the same as the one we currently see in-game. The real nice part about the new roster is the addition of the all-new Professions panel! The list allows you to see who has what profession, and then open up a second window to see all the patterns you have within the guild, and to view who has them.
Check out an extensive visual tour of the new Guild UI after the break! Also, be sure to check out our recent
Guild Perks
blog for a full rundown of all the interesting new benefits you can earn by being in a guild!
Live
Official Forums Now Use Authenticators
Live
Cataclysm: New Raid Frames and Reforging(?)
In a recent Cataclysm beta build Blizzard introduced
new raid frames
, to allow better testing (since there are no new raids enabled) they have enabled them as party frames. The new raid frames are vastly different from the live version. Taking some design aspects of popular addons like
Grid
I believe Blizzard has designed raid frames that I personally might not have to use an addon for!
Also added in the newest build,
Reforging
has finally made its appearance. Performed by Highborne Thaumaturges in the major cities, reforging allows you take secondary stats on your armor and convert them to another secondary stat. An example used by the in-game thaumaturges is, if you have an item that increases hit rating but you would rather it increase your haste rating you can convert the hit to haste for a price.
Unfortunately we are unable to test reforging to get more exact information, as it is currently bugged!
Live
Cataclysm Spell Updates: Armor Specializations and New Talent Calculator Interface
So not only do we have a ton of spell and talent updates for you (including the new
armor specializations
, we've also updated the appearance of the
talent calculator
to match the in-game interface—right down to the shiny glow effect on the specialization selector!
The new talent calculator interface features icons for the class roles (both on the spec selector and across the header), icons to let you know which trees are still locked and which are available, and more. We've also got a full list of the new skills available, including a complete list of the new
armor specializations
!
New abilities, talents and professions in this build
Updated Cataclysm talent calculator
Armor specializations
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 12604) 3D Models Added!
Yet another update to the Cataclysm Beta!
Here's a few more 3D models for you guys - most notable new additions include some amazing seahorses (mounts?!?!) and some extremely interesting new Grim Batol objects! I don't care what anybody else says, those seahorses are some of the best looking models to ever hit the game, hands down. Of course, if we do discover any more cool new models, we'll be sure to keep the blog updated - c'mon Blizzard, one-up the seahorses! 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
Cataclysm Beta (Build 12604) New Icons and Map Changed!
Yet another
Cataclysm Closed Beta
patch, so soon! Blizzard has released another update to the Cataclysm Beta, and we've got a few new goodies for you guys! As always, you can check out the latest items, NPCs and other recent finds by browsing the
Latest Additions
page. Check out the latest Cataclysm goodness after the break!
Live
Cataclysm: Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir Level Changes
In the next beta build it seems Blizzard is changing the minimum level requirement for entering both
Vashj'ir
and
Mount Hyjal
. The quests which allow entrance into the two new zones will be available at level 80, not level 78 as it was previously set at. You will also need to be level 80 to enter
Throne of the Tides
or
Blackrock Caverns
Along with this change mob health is getting double for all 80+ Cataclysm creatures. So a mob that had 16,400 HP now has 31,000 HP!
So now that you've heard these changes, how does the community feel about them?
In the next beta build the minimum level for entering and questing in Mount Hyjal and Vashj’ir will change from level 78 to level 80. All associated creature will have their levels increased to match the new flow.
Additionally, after careful review and consideration we've decided to increase the hit point values of level 80+ Cataclysm creatures. The new hit point values are roughly double their previous values.
Level 80 (OLD)
16400
Level 80 (NEW)
31000
Players will also
Live
The "Editors of Azeroth" Podcast—From the Folks at the WoW Official Magazine!
Those of us with the
World of Warcraft Official Magazine
genuinely love community. Whether it's through forums or face to face conversations, we thrive on feedback, questions, and interaction with our readers. Sadly, here in the world of publishing time can be scarse, and while I'm able to peruse the forums out here on a regular basis, the Editor-in-Chief
Marty Cortinas
and the Creative Director
Julian Rignall
find themselves relatively unable to do so (hence the low post counts).
So, in lieu of them being active forum monkeys like me we've started up
The Editors of Azeroth Podcast
! Every two weeks we'll be sitting down in a small, hot room to talk about the latest World of Warcraft news, interview folks from around the community, and answer any questions that you want to ask us. On that note, please -- give it a listen, and ask us any burning questions you might have.
Send your questions to:
Email:
letters worldofwarcraftthemagazine.com (make sure to include 'Podcast'
Live
The BFF Report Welcomes You to the Future...?
When I first walked in the door at E3, there was this super attractive young lady (shocker, right?) who took my hand and escorted me over to this giant, baby food orange booth. She likely picked me because of my incredible aura of masculinity, and not because Dolby was standing right behind me sporting a super giant news camera, amirite? She dropped a funky PS3'esque controller into my, now sweaty, palm and introduced me to the future of gaming. Sort of..
You guys ever heard of this fancy "cloud computing" technology that allows you to access documents from virtually any computer terminal? Well, replace those silly DPS calculators with games and you have OnLive. The game I was playing was not hosted by any console or gaming PC anywhere in the vicinity, but rather being streamed, live, over the interwebs, to the giant LCD TV in front of me. The first thing that came to mind was "LOLOLLOLatency," but after ninja tapping the controller a few times...
btw, I got her number.
BOOM
Live
New Forum Index!
We've had forums on our site for a good long time now, but all this time we've never had a forum index.
We decided it was time for this oversight to be rectified!
You can now reach our forum landing page
here
, or by clicking on the "Forums" header under the menu. We have a brief rundown (and pretty icons) for every forum on the site. A great place to bookmark!
http://www.wowhead.com/forums
Live
Cataclysm: New Worgen Male Models
In latest Cataclysm beta build new models for male
Worgen
's have been added. The new models change is mostly in the facial area where it looks like Blizzard was trying to go for a more feral look. You can check out a comparison of the old and new models on the right.
So now that you've seen the new models,
what are your opinions
? Is this change for the better or for the worse?
Live
ZAM's TERA Online Site Live
I don't know how many of you follow other MMOs—I know that I can't imagine really playing more than one at a time. But there are two coming up in the near future that I'm actually really excited about—BioWare's
The Old Republic
, and
TERA Online
.
TERA is exciting to me, partially because of the art style but mostly because of the gameplay. It's calling itself an "Action RPG", which in practical terms means that it deals with the most basic interface problem in all MMOs—the fact that most basic combat just involves standing still and deciding what order to push your buttons in. In TERA you actually have to
move out of the way
when people shoot at you. If you're firing a bow, you actually need to
hit
your target. The combat has sort of a next-generation
Secret of Mana
feel to it.
So this seems like a perfect time, then, to point out that ZAM has their
TERA site
up! If you're interested in following news about this game as well, or in following/updating our wiki, come and take a look!
http://t
Live
Cataclysm Beta: How to Log In Again
If you woke up this morning and
still
weren't able to log into the Cataclysm Beta, you weren't alone. As it turns out, Blizzard tweaked their login server but the tweak didn't exactly take effect. You'll need to tweak your install slightly before you can log in again:
Hi guys,
We've made some changes to the login server, however these changes didn't quite stick. You will not be able to login without doing the following:
Before you start, please make sure the WoW beta client is not open.
1. Navigate to the following folder in your beta install.
~\Data\enUS**
2. Open up your realmlist.wtf file with a text editing document.
3. Change the "set portal public-beta" line to "set portal public-test"
4. Save this change.
At this point you should be able to login normally.
**This folder will differ depending on which language you installed WoW Beta with. For example if you have a German install, the folder will be deDE.
If you still have issues with logging in please post here!
Thanks guys and sorry for the inconv
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 12539) New Icons, Load Screens and Maps!
More
Cataclysm Closed Beta
goodness! Blizzard has just released a huge patch for the Cataclysm Beta, and we've been working on updating our
Cataclysm site
(and this blog) with the latest data! You can check out the latest items, NPCs and other recent finds by browsing the
Latest Additions
page. Here, we have for you guys some snazzy new icons, maps and loading screens! Check out the eye candy after the break!
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!
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