Muffins Presents Cataclysm Part 2: Eastern Kingdoms
Muffins released a 2nd video preview of Cataclysm, it focuses on the Maelstrom/Eastern Kingdoms and is as good as the first one posted a few weeks ago.





Grim Batol Screenshots and Dungeon Loot
Grim Batol is now active on beta servers and players can explore the instance as they wish (flying mounts work there apparently), here are a couple of screenshots from this dungeon.


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Now that all dungeons are now active on beta realms (more on that later), a lot of items have been discovered on PTRs. I cannot sort them by instance yet but lvl 85 normal instances are definitely dropping ilvl 333 loot. Couple of issues with the new in-game cache format, we'll stick to screenshots for the moment.

Models aren't implemented yet.





Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Pestilence
We're starting to think that the ship has just sailed on Pestilence. As I said, our original intent was that Blood Boil be the main AE attack, but now we're considering making Blood Boil more for tanking, letting Frost use Howling Blast and letting Unholy use Pestilence, because, you know, diseases.

That is a really great idea. Have you given any thought as to how you would implement it? Like would Unholy be the only spec that could spread full strenght diseases?
Something like that. Full strength might be too powerful, but we'll see. Unholy still has a few too many talents like Improved Icy Touch and Corrupting Strikes, so this might be a good replacement (though likely deeper than those two examples). (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Retribution Mastery
We have actually changed Retribution's mastery. Having both it and Inquisition boost Holy damage was giving too much power to things like Exorcism (over which you have very little control) and not enough to things like Templar's Verdict (which is supposed to be the centerpiece of your rotation). The new mastery will emphasize Templar's Verdict more. (Source)
Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Warlock Pets
While we generally still want to adhere to the goal of Felhunter = Affliction, Felguard = Demo, Imp = Destro, we want everyone to use their other demons sometimes too. That involved making a lot of changes.

For starters, their damage and survivability will move closer together. We want the decision to be more about utility of their abilities than dps or squishiness. Under the new scaling model, the Imp and Succubus have health, mana and armor not too far off from the Felhunter.

We tried out the Imp doing friendly damage when he dispelled because we thought it was interesting for the demonic feel, but we have already removed it. We also tried an ability to knock allies out of CC that break on damage, but we now think that would be too powerful. Currently the Imp still does a dispel on allies.

We wanted to split Devour Magic into offensive and defensive components or else we felt like the Felhunter would always be the obvious choice for PvP. Now you can choose between having an off-the-GCD silence / interrupt and an offensive dispel / purge -or- having a defensive dispel, increases health and an escape tool.

Like everything else in beta, these are subject to change. We're close to being able to get more max-level PvP feedback and will buff or nerf abilities accordingly. (Source)
This article was originally published in forum thread: Cataclysm Part 2: EK, Grim Batol, Dungeon Loot, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 74 Comments
  1. Efekz's Avatar
    Oh yeah baby! I love Boub!
  1. Matik's Avatar
    Being in Beta - I want to make a couple of points of clarification for you Boub.

    Flying mounts can work in all instances, you need to enter while mounted and you can fly, it's currently a bug I believe that they are aware of. If you mount WHILE INSIDE the instance, it won't let you fly.

    Also, currently on Beta, the only end-game instances that have gear is Grim Batol (4 Bosses) and Halls of Origination (7 Bosses). They drop ilvl 333 gear and there's quite a few upgrades from there. Lost City of Tol'vir (lvl 84-85), Vortex Pinnacle (lvl 81-85), and Stonecore (lvl 81-85) still do not drop gear as of yet.

    The bosses are all pretty simple as well in these two instances that drop gear, the first boss of Grim Batol is the only one that is badly bugged because his bleed attack hits for 30k a tick when it's supposed to deal 6k a tick.
  1. Alraml's Avatar
    Are these just the normal mode lootables or is the HC stuff in there too?
  1. HoX's Avatar
    Look really cool! Can't wait for Grim Batol, it look great!
  1. Matik's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azalu View Post
    Are these just the normal mode lootables or is the HC stuff in there too?
    Heroic mode instances are not yet implemented.
  1. furydeath's Avatar
    oh boy 1-123 damage can;t wait to be doing them high dps. :P
  1. Pope's Avatar
    The Lightbox doesn't seem to work, if I click on an image I get different image then the thumbnail.

    And there is no "next image" option.

    But overall, nice pictures.
  1. implicationmmo's Avatar
    The last 2 links for the Grim-Batol dongeon are inversed.

    But it does look nice
  1. Xendrie's Avatar
    I like the idea with BB HB and Pestilence for DK
  1. Matik's Avatar
    By the way - There's a tank cloak that I think you missed. It drops from Grim Batol trash mobs, and I think a caster ring drops from them as well.
  1. pheonix33's Avatar
    those items are pretty nice looking, now i want to see what they're graphics are
  1. KnivezXIII's Avatar
    Like would Unholy be the only spec that could spread full strenght diseases? I think that should have been "Strength". =]
  1. Skulli's Avatar
    Would like to see that the raid instances would require the gear from the 5m instances (heroic).
    Disliked it in WotLK and TBC that you could go straight into the instances with your level 70 gear and clear the places.

    Remember MC, nobody would have done that place without farming scholo/strat/ubrs/lrbs before.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by KnivezXIII View Post
    Like would Unholy be the only spec that could spread full strenght diseases? I think that should have been "Strength". =]
    Why would it have a capital???

    As for the patch, i am keeping close tabs on ret pally. TV is a bit rubbish at the moment, Inquisition only grants 30 seconds buff even talented and our lvl 85 talent is a bit worthless.
  1. Evilbob51's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by furydeath View Post
    oh boy 1-123 damage can;t wait to be doing them high dps. :P
    If you look closer, you might actually see that those weapons are meant for casters. I'm not sure how you play your mage, but its definitely not one that relies on melee damage.
  1. furydeath's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Evilbob51 View Post
    If you look closer, you might actually see that those weapons are meant for casters. I'm not sure how you play your mage, but its definitely not one that relies on melee damage.
    What's wrong with a melee mage? They have melee hunters.
  1. Milanor's Avatar
    Looks like you got a double thumbnail of image 10 there, Boub. Bumps the links for the rest of the pictures back a tick.
  1. Muraza's Avatar
    Roar
  1. Marthe's Avatar
    Thats some nice DPS on those weapons....
  1. row's Avatar
    ...

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