Beta (Important!) - New Cataclysm Launcher Coming Soon

Uldum - Screenshots, Tol'vir, and Video
TotalBiscuit released a video of Uldum during the week-end, keep in mind that this zone isn't finished yet and this is just a preview.



It's a pretty good opportunity for me to throw tons of screenshots of Uldum in a news post, the zone definitely had a couple of updates since the last time I posted it and you should discover a couple of interesting things there.




Last but not least, the models of the Tol'virs (Stone-like cat people created by the titans) and the Ramkahens (Descendant of the Tol'vir who lost their "stone" form) are now fully implemented.


Tons of variations exists for these models and you will probably see a lot of them around Uldum.



Arena Tournament Realm Online
Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker)
The 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s online portion has come to a close, but fear not! The Arena Tournament Realm is coming back online for everyone that participated in the 2010 event! Skirmish mode will be disabled during this time, but players will still be able to create new characters and teams in addition to being able to participate in “rated” matches. Please keep in mind that the online portion of the 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has come to a close, and that all matches played on the Arena Tournament Realm are not counted toward tournament standings or any prizes.

Enjoy!

The 2010 EU Warcraft Invitational: Activities
Originally Posted by Slorkuz (Blue Tracker)
The 2010 European Warcraft Invitational is drawing near, and while you’ll have the chance to watch some of the top players on stage, you might also want to take an occasional break from the thrill of the games and prove yourself in one of our fun activities:

  • Play against fellow goblins to prove you are worthy of becoming a member of the Kezan Trading Company.
  • All your gold are belong to us! Collect as much gold as you can to win the gold rush challenge.
  • You’ve played StarCraft II and think you can take on the universe? Prove it in the StarCraft II tournaments and competitions.

Best of all, the winners will be receiving some great World of Warcraft and StarCraft loot, including mouse pads, posters, t-shirts and WoW: Cataclysm Beta keys.

More information about the 2010 European Warcraft Invitational can be found here: http://www.wow-europe.com/rf10/

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Guild wipe last week on beta servers
We had to wipe guilds on the beta server in regards to a number of bugs that were introduced with the new guild advancement system. The wipe also helps us get the most accurate testing we can with the new system.

Sorry for the late notice on this, we will do our best to give warning if we need to do it again. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Protection Paladin (Source)
Here is how Prot paladins are working in our current beta build. You might not see these changes in the next beta build, but in the one after that. Things are still in a high degree of flux however.

Shield of the Righteous -- Now consumes Holy Power to cause damage.

Holy Shield -- Now a passive ability that causes your Shield of the Righteous to provide 5% block per stack of Holy Power consumed. In other words, you never click Holy Shield. You just click Shield of the Righteous and buff yourself.

Hammer of the Righteous -- Now generates Holy Power but shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike. Almost all talents that affect one or the other will affect both. The intention is you use Crusader Strike -> Shield of the Righteous for single target and Hammer of the Righteous -> Shield of the Righteous for multitarget.

Avenger's Shield -- No real change, but it still hits pretty hard. Both CS and HotR can proc Grand Crusader to lower the Avenger's Shield cooldown.

Vindication -- can be caused only by Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.

Holy Wrath -- With the above changes, we think Prot paladins have enough rotational buttons to hit, so we are downplaying Holy Wrath. Holy Wrath is really intended as a Ret filler spell (for when other attacks are on cooldown). Prot could technically use Holy Wrath, but we aren't providing any talent hooks.

Consecration -- Now on a 10 sec duration with a 30 sec cooldown. The Hallowed Ground talent makes it cheaper and hit harder -- it does not affect duration. Use Consecration when you need it, but you can't spam it. This is consistent with the AE changes we are making to all tanks.

With these changes in mind, Prot will be thinking about buttons such as these:

Single Target: Judgement, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield.
Multi-target: Judgement, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield, possibly Exorcism.

None of this includes things like Seals, Inquisition, defensive cooldowns, Word of Glory, etc.

So with Vindication off of Holy Wrath, is it intended that Prot Paladins are the only tank without an AoE Physical Damage debuff, or will similar changes be made to the Warrior/Druid/DK mechanics?
Hammer of the Righteous will be AoE enough. It hits many targets. It may not be as widespread as Demo Shout on a pull like a jillion Onyxia Whelps, but we don't really expect you to debuff pulls of that size.

Let me just clarify something - Hammer of the Righteous will generate 1 Holy Power per cast, or 1 Holy Power per target hit?

One per cast. Otherwise we think paladins might want to always be hitting multiple targets, like "Let me tank the boss and one of the adds or my Holy Power generation will be low."

Is Holy Wrath going to have the same model it currently has? As a split damage ability?
Yeah, we like the split damage because it lets Ret (and Prot if needed) use it in most situations.

Also will 3 stacks of holy power when using shield of the righteousness roughly equal the amount of threat it did before it got removed or is it changed?
It will be a hard-hitting button, especially with 3 stacks. I'd guess your highest damage ability.

World of Warcraft Calendar Wallpapers
The official World of Warcraft Wallpapers section has been updated with 2 new wallpapers.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Uldum, Tol'vir and Ramkahen, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 121 Comments
  1. twinkleblur's Avatar
    i find it very interesting how from the very 1st patch of this expansion and even now there are so many paladin changes the last 6 patches were litterally all nerfs and now the class is getting a complete overhaul on every spec. this is why i had to reroll something just isnt right with there being a change after every patch. i see alot more nerfs in the near future.
  1. randa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ShiroRX View Post
    My question is how are they just discovering Uldum now, from a lore perspective. It's not like the zone is hidden, its in the open right there next to tanaris. They have flying mounts, helicopters, etc. They trying to say not only brann, but the entire world never noticed that area before?

    gilneas and kezan are different stories. their presence was acknowledged but just never visited. uldum literally popped up between three known zones, unbeknown to anyone.
    Whole zone was covered with tick layer of sand, then one day Mr. Crowley was passing through and bunch of scorpions attacked him, so he had to use fist cleaves to kill those scorpions, but his overpowered cleaves generated so much excessive force which transferred on the air, that all the sand was blown away.
  1. ShiroRX's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by thegamer View Post
    The side from Tanaris was locked behind a gate and guarded by giants. Everyone presumed it was an underground complex like Uldaman, so no reason to go poking around from the air. Also, there is a crashed gnomish airplane on the southern beaches of Tanaris, so perhaps there is an anti-air system in place. The cloaking made it look like mountains, beach, and sea until Cataclysm.
    The cloaking system is the only possible explanation.
  1. shade3891's Avatar
    The Uldum zone reminds me of stargate
  1. Ma_shed's Avatar
    The cat people look badass
  1. azrielen's Avatar
    I wonder if there are female Tolvir?

    I mean, if the stone ones have non-stone "descendants," what are they doing? Genetic engineering? LOL

    Maybe some of those are just really manly females. XD
  1. Thessalor's Avatar
    Right, furries flocking to WoW...

    Uh, the Tauren hate thread is over there... >>>
  1. azrielen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by netameta View Post
    When is Cata is out they been talking about it for months already
    The last quarter of this year, like they've been saying. Once there's a release date, trust me, we'll ALL know.

    They talk about every expansion for about a year, given that they tend to announce them at Blizzcon and release near the next Blizzcon.
  1. FireryRage's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by netameta View Post
    When is Cata is out they been talking about it for months already
    Welcome to Blizzard's games, hope you enjoy your stay.
    This is fairly standard fare for Blizzard. The expansion will come out when it's done, as do all their games.

    I also have to say, as a pally, I find all the updates quite interesting, although I do feel for those who don't play pallies and wish they had more updates on their favorite classes.
  1. Bamahut's Avatar
    I love Uldum, part of AQ and Egypt architecture! A really well concept zone!
  1. xnickybx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Daez View Post
    For starters, there are way to many newbs going on about how they want to make Jacob or TeamJacob in this game with their Worgen and role play Twilight. That in and of itself is just sad. Also, this game is a fantasy game not a horror game. If you want to play a horror creature in a MMO then demand that someone make a horror MMO (unless one already exists that I don't know of). Keep your horror and your Twilight out of my fantasy. I can't be the only player getting pissed about this. Oh, and Tauren are very loosely based on NA lore and cattle. They aren't a generic copy from somewhere else.
    Troll or retard? Im goin with troll.
  1. Riboflavin's Avatar
    Uldum was cloaked by the Makers/Titans, however the magic while powerful was ancient and fell once the Cataclysm began. I've been looking forward to exploring Uldum since I did the Platinum Discs quest in Uldaman when I began playing WoW.

    Let's logically think about the fan base for Twilight: 15-30 year old women, I'm really sure that tweens and house frau are saying to themselves "I can now role play with Blood Elves and Worgen the fantasies I could never cover in Second Life, or Fan Fiction devoted entirely to Twilight"


    Personally I'm bother more by all these people with bro themed names more than I am people pleasuring themselves at home to anything on their computers or rping in tells or over vent as I don't have to see it unlike the thunderfury/a word that rhymes with canal trade spam linking by people named Coolstrybro.
  1. Lazertrooper's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by azrielen View Post
    I wonder if there are female Tolvir?

    I mean, if the stone ones have non-stone "descendants," what are they doing? Genetic engineering? LOL

    Maybe some of those are just really manly females. XD
    Curse of flesh, same thing that happened to vrykuls, dwarfs, giants and gnomes.
  1. proto's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Neoz View Post
    Harrison Jones!!??!! No way, you got to be kidding me xD

    Blizz devs gone wild xD


    BTW good looking Prot changes, makes me a bit more excited about tanking than on live, which is boring as hll xD
    Harrison Jones is in game since day one of WotLK. Seems someone missed some quests @ GRizzly Hills

    Uldum area is gigantic
  1. Riboflavin's Avatar
    Harrison Jones was also in Zul'aman right beside the dreaded "5 people ring the gong" boss in TBC.
  1. walexia's Avatar
    kinda reminds me of serious sam
  1. mmoc67c88ad895's Avatar
    Uldum looks really impressive.
  1. S@thi's Avatar
    Interesting update on the beta launcher.
    I wonder how this works out.
    Alot of people are having download policies so I wonder which amount of data this time needs to be downloaded.
    Last time I installed the beta + patches it was around 25 GB.
    Also curious about how SOON is SOON
  1. Longhair's Avatar
    Odd they put a Thanksgiving theme screenshot on their page. However, I'm a little worried how incomplete that zone looks.
  1. Dragonb's Avatar
    Egypthian theme <3

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