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Wouldn't it be cool if...
01:10AM PST - Class changes are (finally) here.
11:30PM PST - Ysera looks great.
11:00PM PST - Added 6 screenshots of the game data streaming and added reforging. Classes changes are on the way. (Yes, "a few hours" doesn't mean the eternity)
10:00PM PST - A lot of stuff is broken because well ... working with streamed data isn't fun. Classes changes will probably have to wait a few hours. Don't worry, there is a plan B to keep you interested.
09:00PM PST - Downloading. New launcher looks pretty, but makes me sad.
Cataclysm Beta - Build 12694
A new build is being deployed on live servers. The coverage of the changes in this patch will take a while because .... well, we have to redownload the whole client with a downloader currently in beta. (Beta is the keyword here, really)
Reforging
Reforging is finally here! You can swap 40% of any of the secondary stats of an item (mostly ratings) for another secondary stat.
Models
Ysera looks great.
Cataclysm Beta Launcher- Data Streaming
The new launcher is available, it allows you to "stream" the game and play before you downloaded all the content in the patch. For more information, please check:
When you have enough data to enter the game, the world will be downloaded as you progress through the game. Absolutely everything is streamed, the world, the maps, special parts of the interface, etc ... It's a little annoying when you start from scratch but it's fairly impressive.
Spell Changes
These changes are the result of the comparison of the spells of the current build with the previous one. They're not a definitive or official list of changes, be careful before you whine, it might just be a mistake.
IMPORTANT!!! - Spell tooltips aren't accurate for the moment, we're working on a fix. Stick to the values written in this post.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Unholy
- Dirge now affects Festering Strike instead of Death Strike.
- Corrupting Strikes now also affects Festering Strike.
Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Feral
- Shred now costs 40 Energy. Down from 50 Energy.
- Swipe (Bear) now costs 15 Rage. Down from 20 Rage. Now has a 6 sec cooldown.
- Swipe (Cat) now costs 45 Energy. Down from 50 Energy. (Yes, the cooldown is only on the bear version)
- Maul now costs 30 Rage. Down from 35 Rage.
- Mangle (Cat) now costs 35 Energy. Down from 45 Energy.
- Mangle (Bear) now costs 15 Rage. Down from 20 Rage.
- Claw now costs 40 Energy. Down from 45 Energy.
- Rake now costs 35 Energy. Down from 40 Energy.
Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Beast Mastery
- Ferocious Inspiration is now a 1 Rank talent, down from 3 Ranks.
- Improved Kill Command now Reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command by 3/6 sec instead of reducing its focus cost.
Marksmanship
- Arcane Shot now causes [ 17% of Ranged AP + 603 ] damage. Down from [ 33% of RAP + 603 ]
- Termination no longer requires Aspect of the Hawk to grant additional focus.
Survival
- Misdirection no longer has a focus cost.
- Resourcefulness is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.
- T.N.T. is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
- Point of No Escape is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
- Lock and Load is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
- Survival Tactics is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
- Hunter vs. Wild now is a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2. Now increases your total Stamina by 3/7/10%.
- Entrapment now is a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Arcane
- Time Warp no longer increases the Mage's movement speed.
- Arcane Barrage now has a 5 sec cooldown, down from 6 sec.
Frost
- Curtain of Frost now lasts 15 sec, up from 10 sec. Cooldown increased from 30 sec to 2 min. Now slows the movement speed for 4 sec, down from 8 sec.
- Summon Water Elemental now has a 3 min cooldown, up from 2 min. Cooldown now starts to decrease when the mage summons the Water Elemental. (Old - Triggered on Elemental's death)
- Shattered Barrier freeze duration lowered to 3/6 sec. (Down from 4/8 sec)
Fire
- Critical Mass - Your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec.
- Improved Flamestrike now increases the effect radius of Flamestrike by 1/2 yards instead of increasing its damage.
- Hot Streak now procs when you score 2 non-periodic critical strikes in a row with your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Fire Blast or Pyroblast spells.
- Fire Power is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3. Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 1/2/3% and gives your Flame Orb a 33/66/100% chance to explode at the end of its duration.
- Firestarter *New* - Your Molten Armor allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving instead of reducing the chance you are critically hit.
- Cauterize - You have a 50/100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every 1 sec for the next 4 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Holy
- Consecration now lasts 10 sec (down from 15 sec) and has a 30 sec cooldown.
Protection
- Devotion Aura is now trained at level 5. Down from level 6.
- Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Avenger's Shield by 2/4/6 sec. (Down from 3/7/10 sec)
- Holy Shield is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5. No longer deals damage for every attack blocked.
- Hammer of the Righteous now deals 398% weapon damage (up from 300%). Still jumps to 2 additional nearby targets, each jump reduces the damage by 50%.
- Shield of the Righteous is back - Slam the target with your shield, causing 3198 plus 100% of your attack power per stack of Holy Power as Holy damage and refreshing the duration of your Holy Shield.
Retribution
- Swift Retribution is gone.
- The Art of War is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. Now increases the damage by 20/40/60% and critical strike damage by 30/60/100% of your Exorcism. Now has a 5/10/15% chance to proc from melee attacks.
- Communion additional effect - Your auras increase your party and raid's damage dealt by 3% and your damage by an additional 2%.
- Sanctity of Battle is gone.
- Rule of Law is now a 2 rank talents. Down from 3.
Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Discipline
- Soul Warding now is a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 6. No longer reduces the mana cost of Power Word: Shield.
- Focused Will now is a Tier 6 talent. Up from Tier 5.
- Evangelism revamped - You have a 100% chance when you Smite and a 40% chance when you Mind Flay to gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 15 sec. Evangelism (Smite) - Increasing the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance spells by 2/4% and reduces the mana cost of those spells by 3/6%. Dark Evangelism (Mind Flay) - Increases the damage done by your Periodic Shadow spells by 1/2%.
- Archangel revamped - Consumes your Evangelism effects, causing an effect depending what form you are in. Archangel (Caster) - Instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your healing done by 3% for each stack. Dark Archangel (Shadowform) - Instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your shadow damage done by 3% for each stack.
- Improved Mana Burn is gone.
- Borrowed Time is back as a Tier 4 talent. Borrowed Time - Grants 5/10/15% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield, and increases the amount absorbed by your Power Word: Shield equal to 4/8/12% of your spell power.
Shadow
- Mind Flay now deals damage over 5 sec. (Up from 3 sec)
- Twisted Faith is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6.
- Pain and Suffering is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6. Now 2-Ranks instead of 3.
- Empowered Shadow Orbs now is a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5. Now gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack. (Up from 33/66%)
- Shadowy Apparition is now a Tier 6 talent. Down from Tier 5.
- Shadow Power is gone.
- Shadowform now increases all nearby friendly targets spell haste by 5%.
- Improved Shadowform is now called Phantasm and no longer increases spell crit while in Shadowform.
- Improved Devouring Plague is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
- Veiled Shadows is now a Tier 1 Talent. Down from Tier 2.
- Spirit Tap is gone.
- Sin and Punishment *New* - When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 6 yards have a 50/100% chance to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.
Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Assassination
- Cheap Shot now costs 40 Energy. Down from 60 Energy.
- Murderous Intent now is a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
- Seal Fate is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
- Vile Poisons no longer affects Envenom.
- Improved Expose Armor is now a Tier 5 Talent. Up from Tier 3.
- Improved Eviscerate is now named Coup de Grace and affects Envenom.
- Lethality now increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Backstab, Mutilate and Hemorrhage abilities by 10/20/30%. (Old - All combo point generating abilities)
Combat
- Gouge is now trained at level 16. Up from level 14.
- Blade Twisting now reduces movement speed by 70%.
- Improved Kick now has a 100% chance to silence the target for 1.5/3 sec.
Subtlety
- Dirty Tricks now is a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Elemental
- Hex now lasts 1 min. Up from 30 sec.
- Searing Totem now prefer to target enemies that are afflicted by your Flame Shock or Stormstrike effects.
- Reverberation is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
- Improved Fire Nova is now a Tier 3 talent. Up from Tier 2.
- Elemental Warding now reduces magical damage instead of all damage.
- Ancestral Knowledge is now named Acuity and Increases your critical strike chance with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3%.
- Convection now Reduces the mana cost of your damaging offensive spells.
Enhancement
- Heroism's "Exhausted" debuff now also affects Time Warp (Mage)
- Static Shock now procs from Primal Strike, Stormstrike, or Lava Lash (Old - All melee attacks and abilities). Chance to proc increased from 2/4/6% to 15/30/45%.
- Totemic Reach *New* - Increases the radius of your totems' effects by 15/30%.
Restoration
- Totemic Focus is now a 2-Ranks talent, down from 3-Ranks. Now also increases the duration of your totems by 20/40%.
- Cleansing Waters *New* - When your Cleanse Spirit successfully removes a harmful effect, you also heal the target for [ 1093 to 1164 ]/[ 2187 to 2330 ].
Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Apparently, no changes in this build.
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Fury
- Bloodsurge no longer procs from Heroic Strike.
- Booming Voice now reduces the cooldown on your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout by 15/30 sec.
- Rampage additional effect - In addition, improves your critical strike chance by an additional 2%.
- Enrage now lasts 4 sec. Down from 12 sec.
- Rude Interruption now lasts 15/30 sec. Down from 30 sec/1 min.
Protection
- Impending Victory is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 5.
- Warbringer is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5.
- Bastion of Defense is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.
- Damage Shield is gone.
- Thunderstruck is now a Tier 5 talent. Up from Tier 3. Revamped - Improves the damage of your Cleave and Thunder Clap by 3/6%. In addition, your Thunder Clap improves the damage of your next Shockwave by 5/10%. Stacks up to 3 times.
- Gag Order is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
- Shield Specialization now allows you to generate 20/40/60 extra rage when you Spell Reflect a magic attack.
- Heavy Repercussions *New* - While your Shield Block is active, your Shield Slams hit for an additional 50/100% damage.
Cataclysm Build 12694 Official Notes
I'm pretty sure I never posted the official patch notes on the front page, they're not really interesting but at least you have something to read while you download the client.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Patch Notes (version 12694)
Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.
General
Zones
Dungeons & Raids
Classes: General
Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Professions
User Interface
Graphics
Known Issues
Bug Fixes
Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.
General
- The Alliance starting experience for worgen is available. Venture through the cursed lands of Gilneas to discover your true path! Currently the female worgen character is not available for testing.
- The Horde starting experience for goblins is available. Beginning on the Isle of Kezan in a goblin paradise, players will face a treacherous road ahead!
- The level cap for all characters is 83.
- Elements of the guild leveling, perks, and roster page are now functional. Players should once again be able to buy and register guild charters, which now only require five signatures. See the Known Issues section for issues associated with this new system.
- Cataclysm Launcher Update
- The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...01168&sid=2000
- Players may use our Character Copy feature for copying existing characters to beta realms, or may choose from high-level pre-made template characters.
Zones
- Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir, two new level 80-82 zones, are available for testing. Deepholm, a new level 82-83 zone is available for testing. Players may find their way to these zones by speaking with temporary teleportation NPCs located in any major city.
- The level ranges of Gilneas and the Lost Isles are in the process of being adjusted slightly. Creature, quest, and quest reward levels are all being altered so that players finish questing in these zones roughly by level 12. Further fine tuning will continue in future content updates.
- Several zones have had quest maps integrated.
- Eastern Kingdoms
- Arathi Highlands, Blasted Lands, The Cape of Stranglethorn, Dun Morogh, Duskwood, Eastern Plaguelands, Elwynn Forest, Hinterlands, Loch Modan, Northern Stranglethorn, Northshire, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Tirisfal Glades, Western Plaguelands and Westfall are ready for testing.
- Kalimdor
- Most zones in Kalimdor are available for testing, though work continues on polishing the quest experience and flow, as well as zone aesthetics.
Dungeons & Raids
- Blackrock Caverns, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
- The Stonecore, a new level 82-84 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
- Throne of the Tides, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
Classes: General
- All hunter and warlock pets have been deleted to address a data corruption issue. Hunters will need to tame new pets, while warlocks will notice the names of their pets have changed.
- Ammo has been removed from the game.
- The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
- The glyph system is in the process of being altered. Existing glyphs may not be fully supported or functional.
- Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
- Rage has been normalized.
- Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
- A first pass on new talent trees has been implemented.
- Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
- Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
- 31 points must be spent in the primary specialization tree before any points can be placed in additional trees.
- Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
- More information regarding our plans for talent trees can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...andmastery.xml
Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)- A dedicated tanking tree has been implemented.
- The way in which runes recharge has changed.
Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)- A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids. The feature is functional, but the interface art is still a work in-progress.
Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)- Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
- Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
- Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
- The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)- We are in the process of overhauling many paladin talents, spells and abilities. Expect updates in upcoming patches.
Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)- Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.
Professions
- The Reforging interface has been implemented, however it may not currently be hooked up correctly to the corresponding NPCs.
User Interface
- The ability to use third-party addons has been temporarily disabled for the test environment.
- The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
- Auto-quests have been added to the game. Players will automatically be given an auto-quest by entering specific areas in the game world. This alert will appear distinctly in the Objectives pane via the Advanced Quest Tracking feature. These quests will still be given to players with full Quest Logs, but will count toward the 25 total allotted quests if the log is not full.
- The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
- The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
- Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
- New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
- Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
- Raid frames are now available and have temporarily replaced the standard party frames so that players can test them.
- The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
Graphics
- Experimental support for DX11 (can be enabled by passing ‘-d3d11’ on the command line or adding SET gxApi "d3d11" to the Config.WTF file).
- OpenGL Hardware Cursor support (can be enabled on the Video Resolution Panel).
- Improved water and lava rendering system (enabled by the Liquid Detail slider on the Video Effects Panel)
- 0 = Classic Water
- 1 = New Water (fake reflections)
- 2 = New Water (ocean has real reflection for terrain)
- These values are likely to change during Beta.
- Dynamic Sunshafts effect (enabled by the Sunshafts option on the Video Effects Panel).
Known Issues
- Sudden Death procs do not reset the cooldown of Colossus Smash.
- Several cloaks are displayed incorrectly on draenei females.
- Ground mounts can be used when underwater in Vashj'ir.
- Corpses are not tapped on the quest "Free Your Mind" allowing other players to use the Sovereign Rod on targets they did not kill.
- While on the quest "Blood and Thunder!" NPCs will despawn prior to the event and the quest cannot be completed.
- Sound is cutting in and out during two segments of Mor'norokk's voiceover during the quest, "Some Spraining to Do".
- Characters with two professions learned cannot train new spells.
- The spell effect visuals for Healing Rain and Earthquake look awkward when cast on a staircase or a steep incline.
- Guild control and guild banks are experiencing issues related to the new guild leveling interface and functionality. In addition, guild experience may not display properly when players change zones, and guild members will be demoted to the lowest guild rank when logging out.
- Battleground queues are undergoing significant changes and are not currently operational.
- Gnome and troll characters have a broken background displayed as well as a LUA error at the character selection and creation screens. Having either a gnome or troll character can cause newly created characters to not display on the character list until it is refreshed by logging out and back in, switching realms and then switch back, or logging into and back out of the realm.
- Players are currently unable to create new worgen characters.
- Selecting high Liquid Detail when using Geforce 6 & 7 series video cards will currently prevent lava and water from rendering properly. You can temporarily restore liquid to the world by reducing the Liquid Detail setting via the Video Effects Panel, or by typing “waterDetail 0” in your Config.WTF file.
Bug Fixes
- Entering a phase with phased terrain (i.e. Rim of the World) no longer boots players from flying mounts.
- Players are now able to receive Stoneskin Totem from shaman trainers.
- The quest "Up the Volcano" can now be completed.
- Characters now ride the Swift Seahorse for the quest "Waking the Beast."
- The mob Tendril from Below should no longer fall below the world when killed.
- Globe of Boiling Water should now drop from Scalding Water Lords for the quest "Full of Hot Water."
- The quest "Blackfin's Booty" can be completed.
- The quest "Offering to Azshara" can be completed.
- The quest "Seeds of Discord" should reset properly.
- The rug in Stormglen Inn is should no longer be experiencing z-fighting with the floor beneath it.
- The fire damage from lava should no longer hit players at any height.
- Trainers are functioning properly.
- Selecting a character on the character select screen after creating a new one will no longer cause the game to display and act on the character two slots above the selected one.
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