Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
Yet another Timewalking loot post ( As directed by GM)
Opened timewalking Cache before hotfix
Recent Forum Posts
Embrace Two New Races in Cataclysm Classic
This build revamped most of the pets abilities with a very simple goal, make pets useful. The result is a more active pet for Death Knight, and an insane amount of possible raid buffs for hunters depending on what pet they have. Yes, they also have Heroism/Bloodlust if they're specced in Beast Mastery.
If you ever dreamed about your pet having tons of possible abilities, your dream probably looked a lot like this list.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Utility Abilities
(Pets with a - E are exotic pets tameable only by Beast Mastery Hunters)
Bloodlust / Heroism
- Ancient Hysteria (Core Hound - E) - Increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party and raid members. Lasts 40 sec.
Allies receiving this effect will become Sated and be unable to benefit from Bloodlust or Time Warp again for 10 min. / Instant, 6 min cooldown
Healing
- Spirit Mend (Spirit Beast - E) - The Spirit Beast heals the currently friendly target for {1237.75+((RAP*0.35)*0.5)} plus an additional {475.97+((RAP*0.35)*0.335)} over 10 sec. / 25 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown
Stat Boost (BoK)
- Embrace of the Shale Spider - Fills all friendly party and raid members with the Shale Spider's embrace, increasing Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intellect by
%. / Instant
Stamina Buff
- Qiraji Fortitude (Silithid - E) - Increases party and raid members' Stamina by 584.76. / Instant
Critical Strike Buff
- Furious Howl (Wolf / Dog) - The wolf lets out a furious howl, increasing the critical strike chance of all party and raid members by 5%. / Instant, 45 sec cooldown
- Terrifying Roar (Devilsaur - E) - The devilsaur lets out a terrifying roar, increasing the critical strike chance of all party and raid members by 5%. / Instant, 45 sec cooldown
Casting Speed Reduction
- Lava Breath (Core Hound - E) - Your pet breathes a double gout of molten lava at the target, reducing the target's casting speed by 25% for 10 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown (No longer deals damage)
- Spore Cloud (Sporebat) - Dusts nearby enemies with spores, reducing all enemy targets within 6 yards casting speed by 25% for 9 sec. / 6 yd range, Instant, 12 sec cooldown
Attack Speed Reduction
- Dust Cloud (Tallstrider) - Your tallstrider kicks up an obscuring cloud of dust, causing all enemies within 10 yards to have their melee and ranged attack speed reduced by 20% for 8 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown
- Tailspin - Your fox twirls its tail around, kicking up an obscuring cloud of dust, causing all enemies within 10 yards to have their melee and ranged attack speed reduced by 20% for 8 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown
Movement Speed Reduction
- Ankle Crack (Crocolisk) - Snap at the target's feet, reducing movement speed by 50% for 6 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown (Replaces Bad Attitude)
- Frost Breath (Chimaera - E) - Your pet simultaneously breathes frost and lightning at an enemy target, slowing the target for 5 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown (No longer deals damage)
- Time Warp (Warp Stalker) - Slows time around the enemy, reducing their movement speed by 50% for 6 sec. / 25 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
Healing Debuff
- Monstrous Bite (Devilsaur - E) - Your devilsaur ferociously bites the enemy, reducing the effectiveness of any healing received by 25% for 8 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
Root
- Venom Web Spray (Silithid - E) - Sprays toxic webs at the target, preventing movement for 5 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown (Up from 4 sec, no longer deals damage)
- Web (Spider) - Encases the target in sticky webs, preventing movement for 5 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown
Silence / Interrupt
- Serenity Dust (Moth) - The moth's wings produce a cloud of dust that interrupts the enemies spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 2 sec. / 25 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
Armor Reduction (Sunder Armor)
- Tear Armor (Raptor) - Tears at the enemies armor with the raptor's talons, reducing it by 4%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
- Corrosive Spit (Serpent) - Spits poison at an enemy, corroding their armor, reducing it by 4%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
Increased Bleed Damage
- Gore (Boar) - Your boar gores the enemy, causing it to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 15 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
- Tendon Rip (Hyena) - Tears at an enemy's legs, increasing damage taken from bleed effects by 30% for 15 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
Increased Magic Damage
- Fire Breath (Dragonhawk) - Breathes Fire on the target, increasing magic damage taken by 8% for 45 sec. / 40 yd range, Channeled, 30 sec cooldown
- Lightning Breath (Wind Serpent) - Breathes lightning, increasing magic damage taken by 8% for 45 sec. / 40 yd range, Channeled, 30 sec cooldown
Increased Physical Damage
- Acid Spit (Worm - E) - Your worm spits acid, causing the enemy target to take an increased 4% physical damage for 25 sec. / 20 Focus, 30 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
- Ravage (Ravager) - Violently attacks an enemy, causing the enemy target to take 4% increased physical damage for 25 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
Stun
- Sonic Blast - Emits a piercing shriek, stunning the target for 2 sec. / 20 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown (No longer deals damage)
- Sting (Wasp) - Your wasp stings the target, stunning them for 2 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 45 sec cooldown
Physical Damage Reduction
- Demoralizing Roar (Bear) - The bear roars, reducing the physical damage caused by all enemies within
yards by 10% for 15 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
Disarm
- Clench (Scorpid) - The scorpid clenches the enemy's weapon with its talons, and disarming their main hand and ranged weapons for 10 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
DPS Abilities
- Bite - Bite the enemy, causing {187.74+((RAP*0.35)*0.40)} damage. / 25 Focus, 5 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
- Claw - Claw the enemy, causing {187.74+((RAP*0.35)*0.40)} damage. / 25 Focus, 5 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
- Smack - Smack the enemy, causing {187.74+((RAP*0.35)*0.40)} damage. / 25 Focus, 5 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
Cataclysm Beta - Build 12942 Death Knight Pet Changes
I already mentioned that the Death Knight's ghoul is already getting an overhaul in this patch. Unholy Death Knights can pick the Shadow Infusion and Dark Transformation talents.
If the Death Knight uses Death Coil 5 times and activates Dark Transformation, the ghoul gains a 100% damage buff and a new set of skills for 30 seconds.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Golden King Video Preview
Kody released a short video preview of the Golden King, the Alliance lion guild mount. It currently costs 200 gold and require your guild to have the Dungeon Diplomat achievement. The blank spot on the lion is supposed to display your guild tabard but it is currently bugged on beta realms.
How Archaeology works
Ghostcrawler explained how Archaeology works on official forums, there is also a very nice post from MortalWombat on our forums with a couple of extra information and tons of screenshots.
Archaeology just went in this build for the first time and we don't yet have any of the support around it to teach players what to do. It has been informative to watch players learn to swim by drowning, but we thought it was time to offer a little more direction. 
Digsites
Once you train archaeology, you can see digsites on your map (not your minimap - your map). There are always 4 digsites per continent. These will not change until you dig one out. Most of the time, you're probably only going to be concerned with the 4 sites on your current continent, but at higher character and archaeology skill levels, there will be 16 sites active at one time (4 each in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland and Northrend.)
You will only find sites in zones of your level or lower. A level 25 player will have all 4 sites per continent in level 25 zones. (This means Outland and Northrend will have no sites at this time.) A level 80 player will have all 4 sites in any zone. A low level Kalimdor player might have sites in Ashenvale and Stonetalon, while a level 82 might have Uldum, Ashenvale, Stonetalon and Silithus.
Sites are race specific. You can usually guess the race by the location. Kalimdor tends to have a lot of night elf ruins. Eastern Kingdoms tends to have a lot of dwarf ruins.
Some races are only available on some continents (such as orc and draenei on Outland). You need to have a minimum character level and a minimum archaeology level to use these. Currently you can see them if you are a certain character level but can't gather from them until your archaeology skill is higher. For Outland, the skill is 300. While somewhat consistent with other gathering skills, we think this is confusing and we will change it so that you don't even see the digsites until your archaeology skill is sufficiently high. Tol'vir artifacts are the most rewarding, but also require near max archaeology skill to recover.
Some players are reporting some issues with digsites not showing up correctly. We'll look into these bugs.
Unlike other gathering skills, digsites are player-specific. Other players will be searching in different locations. There is no competition for digsites.
Fragments
Each digsite can be searched 3 times before it despawns and a new site spawns. If there is a digsite somewhere too far away from you or otherwise inconvenient, just ignore it and hit the closer ones. You won't run out.
To search a digsite, use the Survey ability. The survey tool will spawn and point in the approximate direction of the artifact. Red means you're far away. Yellow means you're close. Green means you may be within 40 yards or so. When you discover your find, you'll get fragments specific to a particular race.
There are two main strategies to surveying. You can attempt to triangulate by moving around the outer edge of a digsite. (Like quest blobs, the digsites are not necessarily circular.) Other players just keep surveying, heading in the direction the tool points until they strike paydirt.
Remember, the thing you uncover is yours. There is no competition with other players and nobody can gank your node.
Artifacts
Whenever you get a new fragment for a race, you'll start a research project. You can only work on one artifact per race at a time. When you have enough fragments, click Solve to complete that artifact. You won't waste excess fragments -- they will just start the next project. You can be working on one project for each race at a time.
Most artifacts are common. These give you a little bit of lore or flavor text and an item you can sell for a small profit (presumably to a museum!) The profit increases as the value of the artifact increases. You can estimate this by the number of fragments needed to finish the artifact. You will only find cheaper artifacts at low level, but you can find cheap and valuable artifacts at higher level (the reason for this is we want players to be able to find all the artifacts if they want to). You won't find a second copy of a common object until you have found all the artifacts of that race. If you get stuck at a certain skill level of archaeology or character level, you may find an artifact more than once until you reach the next tier.
Some artifacts are rare. These always make a blue or purple item. Many of these have no in-game power and are toys or for flavor. Some of them are actual weapons and armor. The latter items are all bound to account. They aren't heirlooms in that they don't scale, but you can pass them around. So if you are level 80 and you find a level 60 axe, you can always have another character use it when they are level 60. You will never get a rare artifact more than once.
The future
We designed archaeology to be easily expandable, so we plan to add much more content in future patches, including new races to research (though to be fair, there's a sizable amount of content already). We also have a feature that is not available on beta yet, that allows you to use your archaeology skill for a slight (think Fish Feast-level) bonus in the Cataclysm dungeons.
Digsites
Once you train archaeology, you can see digsites on your map (not your minimap - your map). There are always 4 digsites per continent. These will not change until you dig one out. Most of the time, you're probably only going to be concerned with the 4 sites on your current continent, but at higher character and archaeology skill levels, there will be 16 sites active at one time (4 each in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland and Northrend.)
You will only find sites in zones of your level or lower. A level 25 player will have all 4 sites per continent in level 25 zones. (This means Outland and Northrend will have no sites at this time.) A level 80 player will have all 4 sites in any zone. A low level Kalimdor player might have sites in Ashenvale and Stonetalon, while a level 82 might have Uldum, Ashenvale, Stonetalon and Silithus.
Sites are race specific. You can usually guess the race by the location. Kalimdor tends to have a lot of night elf ruins. Eastern Kingdoms tends to have a lot of dwarf ruins.
Some races are only available on some continents (such as orc and draenei on Outland). You need to have a minimum character level and a minimum archaeology level to use these. Currently you can see them if you are a certain character level but can't gather from them until your archaeology skill is higher. For Outland, the skill is 300. While somewhat consistent with other gathering skills, we think this is confusing and we will change it so that you don't even see the digsites until your archaeology skill is sufficiently high. Tol'vir artifacts are the most rewarding, but also require near max archaeology skill to recover.
Some players are reporting some issues with digsites not showing up correctly. We'll look into these bugs.
Unlike other gathering skills, digsites are player-specific. Other players will be searching in different locations. There is no competition for digsites.
Fragments
Each digsite can be searched 3 times before it despawns and a new site spawns. If there is a digsite somewhere too far away from you or otherwise inconvenient, just ignore it and hit the closer ones. You won't run out.
To search a digsite, use the Survey ability. The survey tool will spawn and point in the approximate direction of the artifact. Red means you're far away. Yellow means you're close. Green means you may be within 40 yards or so. When you discover your find, you'll get fragments specific to a particular race.
There are two main strategies to surveying. You can attempt to triangulate by moving around the outer edge of a digsite. (Like quest blobs, the digsites are not necessarily circular.) Other players just keep surveying, heading in the direction the tool points until they strike paydirt.
Remember, the thing you uncover is yours. There is no competition with other players and nobody can gank your node.
Artifacts
Whenever you get a new fragment for a race, you'll start a research project. You can only work on one artifact per race at a time. When you have enough fragments, click Solve to complete that artifact. You won't waste excess fragments -- they will just start the next project. You can be working on one project for each race at a time.
Most artifacts are common. These give you a little bit of lore or flavor text and an item you can sell for a small profit (presumably to a museum!) The profit increases as the value of the artifact increases. You can estimate this by the number of fragments needed to finish the artifact. You will only find cheaper artifacts at low level, but you can find cheap and valuable artifacts at higher level (the reason for this is we want players to be able to find all the artifacts if they want to). You won't find a second copy of a common object until you have found all the artifacts of that race. If you get stuck at a certain skill level of archaeology or character level, you may find an artifact more than once until you reach the next tier.
Some artifacts are rare. These always make a blue or purple item. Many of these have no in-game power and are toys or for flavor. Some of them are actual weapons and armor. The latter items are all bound to account. They aren't heirlooms in that they don't scale, but you can pass them around. So if you are level 80 and you find a level 60 axe, you can always have another character use it when they are level 60. You will never get a rare artifact more than once.
The future
We designed archaeology to be easily expandable, so we plan to add much more content in future patches, including new races to research (though to be fair, there's a sizable amount of content already). We also have a feature that is not available on beta yet, that allows you to use your archaeology skill for a slight (think Fish Feast-level) bonus in the Cataclysm dungeons.
New Flight Skill
Just in case you missed it.
Battleground Titles and Achievements
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Player vs. Player
Rated Battlegrounds Min Level
It's limited to 85's. (Source)
"Old" Battleground Titles back in Cataclysm
As you noted in your edit, the original titles are not going to be taken away from players who already have them. The Feats of Strength associated with the old titles will be changed slightly to more clearly distinguish them from the Achievements associated with the returning titles.
Here's a brief rundown of how the rated Battleground titles will function in Cataclysm, and how the original titles can be earned by players who did not have a chance to participate in the original ranking system:
As of now, the first ranks -- Private for Alliance and Scout for Horde -- are earned when a player reaches a Battleground rating of 1100. The ranks increase every 100 rating points, up to Grand Marshal/High Warlord at 2400 rating. Titles earned through the new system are yours to keep and will not be wiped with each season.
In addition, all-new titles and Achievements will be added for top performers. Hero of the Alliance and Hero of the Horde will be awarded to players who finish a season in the top .5% of the rated Battleground ladder. These titles will be wiped at the end of each new season, however, a new Achievement will be awarded to players who earn this title each season.
Let’s see how many seasons in a row you can stay in the top .5%!
(Source)Guild Leveling / Perks
Guild Perks on Beta
All guild perks should be working as of today's build except for Happy Hour and Chug-A-Lug. These will both be active in our next build. (Source)
Mobile Guild Bank requirements
You need Friendly guild faction to use the mobile guild bank. That is updated in the tooltip for the next build. There is currently a bug where it is set to friendly. (Source)
Guild Raids & Dungeons Achievements
In general we require 80% of the group to be comprised of guild members. There are exceptions to this case though like 40 man raids and arenas. All the gritty details below are below.
4/5 - dungeons
8/10 - 10 player raid, 10 player BG
20/25 - 25 player raid, 25 player BG
10/40 - 40 player raid
12/15 - 15 player BG
2/2, 3/3, 5/5 - Arenas (Source)
Guild leveling on beta
This feedback is extremely useful guys, please keep it coming. A few things to note:
-XP is currently not being earned for all the dungeons, only Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns and The Stonecore are giving XP. In our next build, ALL dungeons going back to classic will give guild XP. Guild XP gained from bosses is based on the bosses level and is modified by things like the number of players in your party/raid and if the encounter is heroic or not.
-XP is currently not being given out for rated BG's. (obviously, since they are not on beta)
-XP is currently not being given out for Achievements. This will also be implemented in our next build. Note that guild achievements give large amounts of XP at a time and for this reason, they will not respect the daily cap.
-XP for quests if working correctly and most of your leveling has been based off of this alone so far.
-As far as rep gain goes, you need to remember that rep gain is based on your guild xp contribution. As you can see from my notes above, you currently only have one way to contribute, quests. Once our next build goes live and you can earn guild XP from boss kills, this rate should increase. You can expect a similar increase from rated BGs. Before you ask, guild achievements do not grant guild rep since they are earned by the entire guild.
Hope this helps and keep that feedback coming! (Source)
Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Arcane Blast changes in Build 12942
It goes a little beyond that, as the arcane blast debuff only affects arcane blast. Essentially, arcane blast is the highest sustained dps (but unsustainable in terms of mana), followed by arcane barrage, followed by arcane missiles (which is very close to arc barrage in dps, and free of course).
So, from the standpoint of a boss fight arcane is less about a constant rotation, and more about optimizing your mana bar to the fight you're involved in (with a little rng in the mix). (Source)
Combustion
In the next beta build combustion's instant damage is guaranteed to crit. Not only does this mean ignite is guaranteed to be instantly re-applied but also that you have a shot at a hot streak to re-apply pyro. (Source)
Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Selfless Healer
The damage buff to Selfless Healer is intended to make using Word of Glory less of a dps loss. It's just giving you back some change. It isn't intended to be a mandatory talent, and it would be hard to keep the buff duration up all the time time anyway. (Source)
[...] If you had read a little more before running to the forums (armed with only data-mined information I might add), you would have seen that using Selfless Healer will still be a dps loss. That is the intent. The change is just to make it less of a dps loss than it was previously. Giving up a Templar's Verdict is a lot for a paladin. (Source)
Inquisition
You should use Inquisition when you need to AE tank, since it will boost the damage on Consecrate and the Holy portion of Hammer of the Righteous. You should use Shield of the Righteous on single targets. If you get a proc, you might decide to use Shield of the Righteous even on larger groups. (Source)
Holy Paladin "nerf"
What you call nerfs (and buffs) I call class balancing that is being done during beta. End result will be a working class that can fulfill it's role.
Yeah, pretty much this. Since you don't really have anything to compare it to (in that you aren't seeing your character on live suddenly healing for less than she did the day before), it's hard to get too upset over seeing numbers go down. Some of the numbers are just too high right now. It will all even out before we're done. (Source)
[...] We wanted going to melee to benefit from Seal of Insight to be an option you might consider on some fights. With the previous numbers, you would be stupid to play any other way, which was not our intent.
We were seeing too many paladins use nothing but Holy Shock -> Word of Glory and be effective at doing so. The intent was to give paladins more healing spells to use in Cataclysm, and this mechanic was dominating too much. It will still be quite effective.
The other concerns seem to be about mana and throughput number changes. It's too early to worry about those yet. It will be some time before we feel like the numbers are stable enough. We'll make sure paladins have about the same mana regen as the other healers. (Source)
Does Haste affects Judgement of the Wise/Bold?
Yes. (Source)
Sanctified Wrath (Yep, I screwed up. Rank 3 didn't change = didn't show up on my side. You can call me stupid)
* Sanctified Wrath is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5. Now increases the critical chance of Hammer of Wrath by 20/40%, down from 25/50% and reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 20/40 secs, down from 30/60 secs.
I *think* this is a data-mining error. This implies we removed rank 3, which we have not done. It's still 60% / 60 sec at max ranks. (Source)
Seal of Command
It improves the damage of these 3 Seals. The cleave only applies to Righteousness. (Source)
Art of War Change
The overall damage is lower than TV now, which was the goal. (Source)
Retribution Mana management
Ret doesn't need a lot of mana to do the basic rotation. They were getting so much mana that they were doing things like casting Exorcism a lot, using Consecrate on cooldown and using expensive heals. A little of that is okay, but it should be a bonus when you get a lot of mana, not something you do all the time. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Shield Slam Damage
We need to shift some of the damage from Shield Slam to Devastate and Revenge. It's fine that it hits like a monster, but it shouldn't totally dwarf everything else. (Source)
Heroic Strike in SMF on Beta = Bug
Heroic Strike doesn't interact with either Bloodsurge or Single Minded Fury.
Bloodsurge can only be proc'd by Bloodthirst. SMF only affects Slam (and damage). The latter just has some goofy tooltip bug in your build. (Source)
Haste scaling
Not everything needs to scale with haste (or crit for that matter). They just need to scale well enough that A) the stat isn't viewed as garbage on gear, or B) that Fury (in this case) doesn't blow past Arms at high gear levels.
[...] Haste does not affect Rend ticks. Our general philosophy is that melee dots do not need to be sped up. Melee benefits from haste by generating more resources. Thus, there should be no Taste for Blood losses with haste. Rend can crit however.
Since I can probably guess the question that will get asked next, Slam also won't scale with haste. However, we have changed Blood Frenzy from being passive haste to a chance that your autoattacks will generate extra rage. This should help Arms scale with haste a little better, as well as give Arms a slightly less predictable rage income (in the way that crit used to deliver, but without the crit scaling problems).
We're not worried about Heroic Strike ever beating Slam. If that happens, it's just a tuning problem easily solved.
[...] We want haste to apply to as close to 100% of your damage as possible. For casters it always applied to cast time spells. Now it also applies to dots. For melee, it improves your auto attack damage but also grants you more resources, therefore improving your special attacks as well. (Source)
Cataclysm Zone Q&A: Ashenvale
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