Cataclysm Mounts - Drakes of the Wind, Stone Drakes, and Camels
Mounts didn't get a lot of love on the front page since the beginning of the beta. A lot of stuff was implemented in-game during the latest beta update and we now have a decent idea of what to expect in-game. I tried to restrict it to the mounts that we will most likely see in-game, more recolors are available but they aren't always linked to an item, etc ... Let's keep it simple for the moment.

This is not a complete list of all the mounts added to the game with Cataclysm, I'll do that a little later when most of them are added to the game.

Drakes of the Wind
The only known drop location is the Reins of the Drake of the East Wind rewarded from Glory of the Cataclysm Raider achievement.




Stone Drakes
Only 2 stone drakes seems to be implemented for the moment, the only known drop location is the Reins of the Volcanic Stone Drake from the Glory of the Cataclysm Hero achievement.




Camels
Last but not least, camels! Absolutely no idea where they are from, but they will most likely be linked to Uldum. No animations yet = No video needed.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Crowd Control spells cast time increased to 2 sec
Pretty much. The crowd control spells were never designed around the existence of haste. Asking anyone to interrupt a 1.1 second Polymorph isn't reasonable. Health pools are going to be a lot larger, so control is going to play a larger role than burst compared to the live environment. On the other hand, dispels are more expensive in Cataclysm and you can waste a dispel now if there is nothing there to dispel.

So I'm right in my sentiment that, instead of correcting haste affecting utility spells, we now all get to suffer even further exacerbated haste dominance?
I never follow this line of thinking. Yes, making it harder to have a [very fast] cast time requires more haste. But you have to make a big trade off for that haste, such as having a lower crit chance for your damage spells. That seems like a reasonable enough trade off that you'll at least have to consider it.

You can argue that haste is over-valued in PvP because of the risk of interruption, which is much less of a big deal in PvE. Therefore making the cost per stat of haste higher in PvP seems perfectly reasonable. I wouldn't call that "exacerbated dominance." I'd say it's adjusting it to its actual value in PvP compared to other stats. (Source)

Buffs improvements in talents
There is no difference between "talents that increase potency of buffs" and "talents that increase range of buffs". In both cases you must spend talent points to bring a buff up to par with something other classes offer. In both cases, the baseline buff has something about it that's inferior. So if there's some sort of difference that I'm missing here, please share with the class. No one else can see the difference either.
That's not our definition. If you bring an 8% attack power buff and someone else brings a 10% attack power buff, then the other guy will generally be more desirable. If you have an 8% attack power buff but a talent that brings it up to 2% (and only that), then you have a talent you probably don't want to spend and feel dumb spending whenever the 10% guy isn't around. This is the case with many talents in Lich King, such as Improved Blessing of Might. These are the class of talents that we said we would remove (and then proceeded to do so).

Once you get beyond the buff itself, there are a variety of ways it is produced by a character. Sometimes it's a base spell. Sometimes it's a talent. Sometimes it's a passive aura. Sometimes it's a proc. Sometimes it goes away when the dude dies. Sometimes it lasts for a duration. We're not interested in making all of these parameters identical, and we think the game would suffer from a pervasive sameness were we to do so. We also think most raiders are sensible enough not to disqualify someone because his buff isn't produced in the absolute most convenient way possible. "Our dps would go up 2% if we had 10% attack power instead of 8% attack power" seems like a reasonable sentiment. "Our dps would go up if the range on this buff were longer" seems like you're really down in the weeds of things to actually worry about. (Source)

Goblins & Worgens DK on Beta
Both goblin and worgen will be unable to finish the DK starting zone until we get back to it and add the goblin/worgen "Special Surprise" quests. Until then you'll be stuck. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Rhumba removed from the game
We were sad to see this talent go, because we thought it was cool too. However, BM just had too many damage-oriented talents, which was preventing those hunters from being able to pick up the utility or fun talents, which in turn violated a major goal of the talent tree revamps. (Source)

Swapping pets
If our pet dies, can we use Feign Death, drop combat, and instantly bring out one of our 5 different pets in that short window of being out of combat in an Arena Match?
No, because you have to dismiss a pet before you can summon a new one. You also need to rez a dead pet before you can dismiss it. It's possible that allowing all of that in combat is fine since it would take so long to actually pull off and in the meantime you could just have rezzed your pet (or healed an injured one rather than dismissing it).

On the other hand, dismissal no longer affects happiness in any way since the new model is you can swap them more regularly. Your pets just have to learn not to get all emo about it. (Source)

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Lightwell
How to make lightwell work: Change clicking range to 15y, Make clicking it not change target
As I have said previously, this is the plan. We just haven't been able to test it yet, and the talent has enough baggage that it's hard to get players to even try it. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Elemental shamans
Elemental Reach affects all shocks. (Elemental only).

Totemic Reach increases the range of Searing Totem. (Tier 2 Enhance, so available to all shaman.)

If you're fighting a shaman with a bunch of Lightning orbs and you're worried about damage, just go hit the shaman. That still removes the orbs.

Rolling Thunder is 2% mana return, not 1%.

[...] Yes, we have made further changes to the tree since the build that you have available now. They are predominantly talent changes and not gameplay changes. Earth Shock was the big one. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Demonic Rebirth
Demonic Rebirth has a long cooldown. (Source)

The MMO Report
It's monday, and it's time for my weekly answer to people who point out that this site can't be called MMO-Champion if it only talks about WoW. Thank you MMO Report!



Comics
Dark Legacy Comic #252 and Teh Gladiators #160 + #161 are out!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Cataclysm Mounts Preview, Blue Posts, Comics started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 133 Comments
  1. mmoc0d8e6c2903's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheWaffler View Post
    I think "remove flying mounts" is far too much to ask at this point.
    Wow, there are even people hating on flying mounts?


    Now I have seen everything O.O
  1. BBeG's Avatar
    Aren't the Camel mounts a Ramkahen rep reward?
  1. LQDMTL's Avatar
    Unless those camels spit I don't think I'll be worried about getting one.
  1. Kryos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LQDMTL View Post
    Unless those camels spit I don't think I'll be worried about getting one.
    Camels don't spit. Lamas (Alpacas) do.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by sTyLnK View Post
    Are the camels going to be available for the Alliance or will they be getting different mounts? Anyone know?
    As far as can be told currently, the camels are from a neutral faction (most likely in Uldum).
  1. mmocc96dd7ab0e's Avatar
    We'll all be 'filling up the barn' to get a 'mountain of mounts' concisting by 99.9% of drakes/dragons. Yup..blizz is all about reskinning.
    I bet they'll fook up the camels by slapping ye good olde 'everything with 4 legs moves like a horse' animation on it too. I can hardly contain my excitement..
  1. LQDMTL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kryos View Post
    Camels don't spit. Lamas (Alpacas) do.
    Well then I want a Llama mount.
  1. Mercadi's Avatar
    These drakes look like junk to me. Very colorful, random looking junk.
    Camels are very good looking by me.
  1. LQDMTL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Izzykizzy View Post
    We'll all be 'filling up the barn' to get a 'mountain of mounts' concisting by 99.9% of drakes/dragons. Yup..blizz is all about reskinning.
    I bet they'll fook up the camels by slapping ye good olde 'everything with 4 legs moves like a horse' animation on it too. I can hardly contain my excitement..
    And just how many NEW flying mounts could you come up with? Griffins, Hypogriffs, bats, Drakes, Dragons, Proto-Drakes, flying carpets, helocopters, rockets, broomsticks, weird flying mantas... what's left? Kites?

    Of course it's reskinned this or retooled that. Until we travel to another planet, I wouldn't expect anything "new" or "unique".
  1. The Last DJ's Avatar
    WTB in-game fez to wear while I ride my camel mount through Tanaris with "Istanbul" on repeat in the background, PST.

    (For the confused and/or too young to recall: youtube.com/watch?v=Mv-KcF3Rkv8)
  1. Frozen's Avatar
    West=Best
  1. Ssateneth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tharaldriel View Post
    We were sad to see this talent go, because we thought it was cool too. However, BM just had too many damage-oriented talents, which was preventing those hunters from being able to pick up the utility or fun talents, which in turn violated a major goal of the talent tree revamps.

    ...THE FUCK? I remember you stating VERY clearly, Blizzard, that the goal of these new trees would be to force players to make choices between valuable talents. That, and I think we all agree that firing fucking snakes at your target IS a fun talent in itself.

    ...Oh wait. Someone complained that they couldn't get Invigoration and Rhumba in the same build? FIX THAT SHIT HARD /sarcasm

    On a lighter note, I came buckets @the drakes. Don't get peoples' whining over the drake designs - the Drakes of the Wind look nothing like wrath or TBC drakes, and the Stone Drakes are absolutely amazing. Kinda ridiculous how, when people saw that drake in Stonecore, they went "OMG I WANT THAT AS A MOUNT" and now stone drakes look "retarded". Heh.
    It was stated before that when filling out your DPS tree that you have enough points to pick every dps talent and you should have enough left over to make a choice between a few utility talents, but you could not get all the utility talents. Too many dps talents = very little choice on utility = braindead cookie cutter talent specs which is what blizzard wants to avoid.
  1. Riboflavin's Avatar
    I think armored bat mounts should be offered by the "We Now have a City" trolls. The npc trolls have been using bats as mounts during the entire history of the game.
  1. Ryme's Avatar
    The raid drakes look dreadful... Now if there was a black and blue version, I'd be drooling, but as is, they're just far too... "noisy". They look like a 6 year old coloured them in.

    The heroic drakes? Better colour schemes, but god damn can we tone down the shitty spikes!
  1. Vigilyn's Avatar
    i'll take three
  1. Vinden's Avatar
    *facekatana*!
  1. Heltoray's Avatar
    lame reskins with just the same animations and basic model as all those ugly wotlk drakes nobody liked

    the camel looks nice, though
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Heltoray View Post
    lame reskins with just the same animations and basic model as all those ugly wotlk drakes I didn't like.
    Fixed. Just as some dislike those type of mounts as you do, there are plenty of people who do like the drakes and proto-drakes of WotLK.
  1. mmocc96dd7ab0e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LQDMTL View Post
    And just how many NEW flying mounts could you come up with? Griffins, Hypogriffs, bats, Drakes, Dragons, Proto-Drakes, flying carpets, helocopters, rockets, broomsticks, weird flying mantas... what's left? Kites?

    Of course it's reskinned this or retooled that. Until we travel to another planet, I wouldn't expect anything "new" or "unique".
    Its a fantasy game for a reason,it requires a certain ammount of originality and creativity. Something blizzard seems to lack lately. Why should a flying creature be an allready excisting mythical creature? Why not come up with something that hasn't been thought of before? There are simply no limits when it comes to fantasy worlds.
  1. ihatepeople's Avatar
    The volcanic stone drake looks SICK....the northern wind drakes are underwhelming to say the least...but its ok, i'll be happy with the volcanic one for quite awhile.....can't wait for the last beta build so I can tinker around some more inside the beta.

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