Throne of the Four Winds - Skywall Raid Instance
Let's post something new today! The Throne of the Four Winds is the raid instance in Skywall, the elemental plane of Air. It will feature 2 encounters:


  • A fight against the "Conclave of Wind", a Djinn council. (The Djinn model in the game files is the one used by Siamat)
  • A fight against Al'akir, the Elemental Lord of Air. (No models yet)

The instance looks similar to the Vortex Pinnacle, the 5-man dungeon of Skywall and players will move between platforms with their flying mounts.




Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Volley removed
I know I'm going to regret posting in this thread again, but I think it's the right thing to do so I'll take one for the team.

We think Multi-Shot is a more interesting ability and can fill the hunter AE niche (along with Explosive Trap). We'll have to change Multi-Shot from the current version to get it there. I'm very sorry if for some unusual reason Volley was your favorite spell as a hunter. We've been trying to consolidate abilities and free up some bar space and having multiple AEs that competed with each other seems like a good area to hit up. The Volley and Multi-Shot niches were very similar, which resulted in the latter being dead. We wanted to pick one and we though Multi-Shot felt more huntery and less "clunky" (to use a favorite Wow forums term).

Do consider that you won't be AE'ing yourselves through Cataclysm content the way you do currently. When you do need to AE, hunters will have the tools to do so. In situations where you do have to AE, you are probably not also trying to CC. When you're back to the level of trivializing lower level content, nobody is going to say "Don't bring a hunter. Their AE spam isn't spammy enough." We don't consider easily breaking rogues out of stealth a good reason to keep Volley around.

I think that hits most of the reasonable concerns. I care much less about addressing the unreasonable ones.

As always, those of you whose sole contribution is to post very inane or derogatory things will be banned.

Man, have we come a long way from "AE is only for trash." (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
One Man Army
Yes. Many of the problems we've had with Ret are of the "one man army" category, where a paladin can do a lot of damage, then go defensive and heal themselves up. We love the kit of the paladin who can heal as well as do damage, but it needs to be tightly controlled. Word of Glory gives us that control. We have the room to make the spell really powerful because we know its on a tight cooldown and you sacrifice dps to use it. We can't do that today with say Flash of Light, because once you can cast one strong FoL, you can cast a bunch of them until you go OOM (at which point you Judge or Divine Plea, and you're going again). Similarly, we can make Selfless Healer nearly overpowered because you can't use it on yourself and because even with it you're not going to out compete a Holy paladin in healing. If you can occasionally contribute to group healing in tight spots, then that's great. That's some utility you can provide. (Note: Don't oversell this as "I'll get brought to raids because of my healing.") (Source)

Class balance and RNG
That's the wrong view to take though. The equivalent would be "I'm balanced around getting a crit every swing, so when that doesn't happen, RNG screws me." You get a Templar's Verdict every 3 Crusader Strikes. Sometimes you get lucky and need fewer. You of course need to pay attention for when that happens and be able to react to it and alter your immediate plans. That right there is the element we think is most missing from today's Ret paladin. (Source)

Words of Glory
The amount it heals is most definitely balanced around how good it will be for Holy.
Those numbers don't have to be the same though. The new talent tree design affords us a lot more flexibility in that regard. Part of the reason Word of Glory is so useful to Holy is because it costs no mana. Ret doesn't really care about mana, because it comes and goes easily, but a Ret generally won't be able to sit there and queue up several Holy Lights in a row. They will be able to sometimes use a Word of Glory though. (Source)

New World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper
The World of Warcraft Fan Wallpapers have been updated with a new wallpaper titled "Cataclysm" by Kenvd.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Throne of the Four Winds, Blue Posts, Wallpaper started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 133 Comments
  1. Eucep's Avatar
    I'm more worried for multi-shot remaining on the shared cooldown of aimed shot.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    The fanart wallpaper is decent, but having a hard-to-discern figure in the middle detracts from it.

    Also, I love the buildings for Skywall; seems that Blizzard took a lesson from Ulduar. I'm hoping they come up with a better Djinn model though, because I don't desire to be looking at Disney-style genies.

    As for the "you still have explosive trap" argument... Yeah, there is that. But unless they're changing Black Arrow in Cataclysm, it's going to suck for survival hunters.
  1. Sal's Avatar
    Gorgeous looking instance and more Paladin stuff. I might have to dust off my Paladin if they keep this up...
  1. chrion's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurbz View Post
    Point #1: If you have that much hate for Blizzard, why are you playing their game?

    Point #2: It is not that GC only agrees with people who line up with his design views. It's that his job is not to design the game based around what players say they want. If you give feedback in line with the stated design goals for Cataclysm, which in this case is "Reduced reliance on AoE and lower AoE damage overall", then you are fine.

    Point #3: You do realize that the point of beta is NOT for the players to help design the game. Blizzard pays a team of people a decent amount of money to do that. We are there to say "This thing isn't working the way you said it was supposed to". Not "That design sucks, implement these completely different things instead." Which is why anyone crying that Blizzard has destroyed hunters for the rest of time is pointless right now because we haven't been given the completed design for hunter AoE to test. Constructive feedback would be to wait for the Multi-shot changes to be implemented, testing it, and if you don't feel that the implemented design makes up for the loss of volley, suggest ways to improve the implemented design. And do this without crying to have volley back, asking them to completely overhaul stuff, or insulting/flaming Blizzard or their design team.

    Be happy that Blizzard is even bothering to share all of this. They could do like every other company and have an NDA in place on their closed beta up until release.
    People are waaaay to spoiled by the plethora of information, go to the star wars mmo forums and try to find out about 1 of the abilities in the game. The lack of any concrete information about anything in the game that actually matters, like the talent trees for example is sad, Bioware is telling NOTHING except pre planned overproduced video snippets that tell them NOTHING. People here should be happy they get to know EVERYTHING before the game releases, and Blizz even communicates with us.
  1. pikachui's Avatar
    LOL Garrosh has hair in that pic.
  1. TheTachy0n's Avatar
    Skywall looks very much like Aion main city
  1. sluggs's Avatar
    2 bosses?

    A council and then a giant boss at the end?

    sounds so similar to a BC raid instance....
  1. Yseraboy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tides View Post
    Don't forget that post from GC said that they would also change Multishot around a bit.
    This^^

    People QQ'ing about loss of Volley seem to be skipping-over the rest of what was said:

    We think Multi-Shot is a more interesting ability and can fill the hunter AE niche (along with Explosive Trap). We'll have to change Multi-Shot from the current version to get it there.
    Volley is dead, long live multi-shot & explosive trap.
  1. Clockwork Pinkie's Avatar
    Oculus 2.0. Hopefully people hate on it again so I can get more free stuff for doing it.
  1. Metadot's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by omslemming View Post
    `As always, those of you whose sole contribution is to post very inane or derogatory things will be banned.`


    in other words typical blizzard, disagree with us in any way and youll be banned, as a hunter who uses volley a lot for aoe situations I think i have a right to moan about this, all i can say is whatever they put in the game to replace it better be as useful/damaging or or your gonna get a lot of pissed off hunters in the game.

    multishot that hits 1 or 2 mobs is nothing like volley so to compare the 2 is crazy, thats like saying a rogues blade flurry is a valid aoe ability in a group of 5 or 6 mobs......ignoring the fact it only hits some of them.

    the bigger question is why? why can you not have volley and multishot working side by side the same as you have for years why change something that noone im aware of qqs about(i dont recall any volley sucks qqs) it just seems blizz are changing things for the sake of it now stop trying to over complicate things like this blizzard because in doing so your proably going to end of removing abilitys like this that a lot of people use for some unknown reason i cant think of other then u fancied stirring the class yet again.

    `
    You obviously didn't read what blizzard has written or maybe you just didn't understand it.
    So I suggest you read it carefully as all you are whining about has a valid answer in that post...
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Naidia View Post
    Oculus 2.0. Hopefully people hate on it again so I can get more free stuff for doing it.
    And wait 40 mins for a full group .... again?

    I dont see Volley being removed to be a big deal. Hunters use Focus anyway, so using a channeled spell seems hard to balance. If it was 50 focus, it wouldn't be able to be spammed anyway, you would need a steady shot inbetween casts.
  1. mmocf9e36bd733's Avatar
    I really like the look of skywall!

    Reminds me of another game I used to play but I can't remember what it was called..
  1. CocoaBeware's Avatar
    The enthusiasts posting here are not remembering Oculus very clearly it would seem.

    I remember quite clearly that almost no one EVER wanted to do Oculus. I could literally be in queue for days, but my search for a group was pretty much futile.

    Then it was nerfed insanely and an extra goody bag was added. Afterwards, many people thought it was amazing. No real effort was put into making the instance more enjoyable, which I think should have been the main goal.

    A quick, aerodynamic and shifty drake would be cool, not the current "blimp" model. The spam/wait/spam/wait projectile weapon is tedious. It looks to me like they simply designed the drake so it would be functional, and added nothing else.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TobiasX View Post
    The Skywall instance and dungeon descriptions mention flying mounts, not vehicles. Not sure where people keep getting the idea that it's Oculus 2.0 from.
    I know, I did wonder myself.
  1. Granyala's Avatar
    in other words typical blizzard, disagree with us in any way and youll be banned,
    Blizzard NEVER bans an user who does not share their PoV as long as he voices his opinion in a civilized/non spammy manner.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by CocoaBeware View Post
    A quick, aerodynamic and shifty drake would be cool, not the current "blimp" model. The spam/wait/spam/wait projectile weapon is tedious. It looks to me like they simply designed the drake so it would be functional, and added nothing else.
    It was the fact that I learned my class for the last 2 years, had a massive range of spells and worked on a tight rotation. But in Occulus, that meant nothing, just spam one button the whole time when clearing trash. The frustration hits when nobody knows what the hell to do on the last boss. For about 3 months i didn't meet a single person who knew about this new spell they got after killing Urom. This is the exact same reason that NOBODY did EoE.

    flying drakes with new spells you knew nothing about ..... BAD IDEA.
  1. Vainde's Avatar
    Hunter E-Peen on large trash pulls just shortened...
    Like AoE Dps matters in every aspect of the game, right?
  1. Elechan's Avatar
    I don't think they understand a damn thing about Paladins -_- we are strong in PVE cause we can last, but in PVP? WE SUCK!!!!! Morons....
  1. The Stormbringer's Avatar
    Did I miss something? It says the Skywall raid is only going to have two encounters? Two boss fights? Admittedly, one of them is a -group- boss fight, but it sounds like it will be similar to the Council of Iron.

    I was expecting... I don't know... more? Or maybe I'm just reading it all wrong.

    ---------- Post added 2010-08-25 at 03:27 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Elechan View Post
    I don't think they understand a damn thing about Paladins -_- we are strong in PVE cause we can last, but in PVP? WE SUCK!!!!! Morons....
    You do? Really?

    You know, that's funny, because the last time I PvP'd up against paladins, they damn near kicked my ass. I was fighting a retadin... it seemed we had her outgunned, but she started healing herself over and over and over until her reinforcements arrived (another paladin and a rogue) and they wiped us out.

    On numerous occasions I have tried (and usually failed) to kill paladin healers in PvP. They just won't die. And paladin tanks? They're one of the best tank classes that can PvP! They can dish out more damage (in my experience) than warrior tanks, they can take nearly as much damage as bear tanks, and they can heal themselves when they are on the brink of death.

    Paladins last in PvE AND PvP.
  1. Rude Hero's Avatar
    "The Throne of the Four Winds is the raid instance in Skywall, the elemental plane of Air. It will feature 2 encounters"

    WOAH. That seems a little more extreme to me. As posters have said before me, the wording makes it seem like there are two encounters, one of which is Iron Council-style.

    I don't mind keeping some of the raids small, but I hope that the total number of raid encounters available at release will be comparable to or greater than Wrath's. From what we've heard so far, it sounds like there will be three raids upon release- Skywall, Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent. It looks like they'll have 2, 4 and 6 bosses respectively, adding up to 12. Add an algalon-style fight to each raid and you have 15. How does that compare to the other expansions?

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