Update - US Maintenance extended to 06:00PM
Some servers are already coming up, but you might have to wait a few more minutes to see yours coming back online.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
We’re in the process of finalizing our tests on all realms and are extending the anticipated time for bringing them back online to 6:00 p.m.
EU Maintenance extended, now scheduled to end at 04:00PM CST as well, instead of 12:00PM
Update - WoWTal.com has been updated with a new feature, you can now click the "Use it ingame!" button to get a /run command to copy and paste in game to automatically spec your char.
Patch 4.0.1 on live servers this week
We have a long maintenance, official previews everywhere, and a couple of information confirming the patch on my side. Patch is this week, enjoy!
Extended Maintenance 4.0.1 Release - 10/12
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker)
Extended maintenance will begin tonight at midnight, Tuesday, October 12 for the release of patch 4.0.1. Maintenance will begin at 12:01 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 12:01 PM PDT. During this time all realms and many web services will be unavailable.
Water Engine
The Cataclysm water engine should be available in this build, here comes the shiny!
Interface Changes
A lot of features from the Cataclysm interface will be introduced with this patch.
Stats changes in 4.0.1
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker)
We've previously unveiled some of the stat changes that are coming with Cataclysm, including stat alterations, stat removals, or changes to how they're obtained. This is an update to that preview intended to explain the actual changes and to detail what everyone will be seeing on their characters.
Stat Changes
Stamina - Due to the assigning of Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers have more Stamina than before. Health pools are now much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.
Spirit - This stat should only be found on healing gear. Non-healing casters have other systems in place to regenerate mana.
Intellect - Intellect now grants Spell Power and increases your Critical Strike chance with spells.
Haste - Haste should now be more attractive for melee classes by allowing them to recover resources such as rage, energy, and runes more quickly. Our intention is for Haste to let you "do stuff" more often.
Parry - Parry provides the same avoidance as Dodge, and you'll receive a percentage of your strength as Parry Rating.
Mastery - This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It's directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.
Armor - The amount of bonus Armor received per stat point on items has been drastically reduced, and Armor is no longer given by Agility. In addition, Armor now better mitigates differences among Armor types so that protection from mail, leather, and cloth is much closer to that of plate.
Resilience - This now only affects damage done by players and their pets. It will not impact crit chance, crit damage, mana drains, or other such effects.
Removed From Items
Attack Power - This stat is rarely present on items, although it is derived from other stats. Strength and Agility, which are present on items, grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors.
Block Rating - Block has been redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block Rating is no longer given out directly as a stat. Instead, Mastery for Protection paladins and Protection warriors increases the chance to block.
Spell Power - Spell Power is no longer present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect now grants Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.
Armor Penetration - This stat is no longer present on items. Armor Penetration still exists in talents and abilities.
Shield Block Value - There are some effects that increase the Block value by a percentage, but this does not exist as a stat.
Removed From the Game
MP5 - This stat no longer exists in the game. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman have been redesigned to benefit from Spirit.
Defense - Defense is now removed from the game. Tanking classes will become uncrittable versus creatures by shifting into Defensive Stance, Blood Presence, or Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.
Spell Ranks - Spell ranks now cease to exist. All spells have one rank and will scale appropriately by caster level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells have been changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and there are many new spells to learn along the way as well.
Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.
What Else You Should Know
Combat ratings - Ratings are much harder to "cap out" at maximum gear levels. Ratings are steeper in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit than level-80 mobs.
Reforging - This new itemization customization feature allows you to partially change the stats on an item. You can reduce the value of an existing stat on an item, and add an equivalent amount of another stat that was not already present on the item. This makes it far easier to reach important thresholds like the Hit Rating and Expertise Rating caps.
Patch 4.0.1 Class Mechanics Changes
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker)
Patch 4.0.1 will bring about major changes to all World of Warcraft classes, including sweeping talent tree revamps, altered spells, and improved abilities. We wanted to go over some of the more complex changes that are being made. If your class isn't listed here, it does not mean we didn't spend as much time on it -- the class will still receive a broad range of updates to talents, spells, and abilities -- we simply feel that these mechanics merit additional explanation.
The way in which runes regenerate has been changed. Rather than each rune type (Blood, Frost, Unholy) regenerating simultaneously, they now fill sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. You essentially have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. This allows the death knight rotation to be more forgiving, so that the player can take advantage of things like ability procs or respond to movement. This system makes it a little easier to get back on track without six separate runes now "out of sync" from the standard rotation.
You're a Bloody Tank
The time has come to dedicate a death knight talent tree to tanking, and that is what is in store for the Blood tree. We felt that we could offer a more focused and polished tanking tree rather than having to scatter similar tools throughout the trees. This also allows us to really focus the other trees into more flavorful damage-dealing specializations.
Runic Empowerment
This mechanic allows for runes which were on cooldown to instantly activate, which prevents the rotation from becoming too predictable and boring.
This is a new mechanic being added for Balance druids. The resource is managed through a new bar near the health and mana bars. As the druid casts Arcane spells, the bar moves towards the sun element until the druid achieves a Solar Eclipse, which buffs Nature damage. The goal is then to cast Nature spells, until the bar moves toward the moon element, which triggers a Lunar Eclipse and buffs Arcane damage. The gameplay becomes trying to quickly move the bar from one end to the other in order to maximize each Eclipse buff.
This is a new resource which has replaced mana. Hunters never felt like they should be casting mana-based spells, and having a resource that lasted for a long time and then was painfully gone didn’t lead to compelling gameplay.
Pets
Hunters can now use Call Pet to choose from among five different pets. They can swap out any of these five pets with other pets they have tamed by visiting a Stable Master. The Stable Master now allows the hunter to store twenty pets total.
Pet families have been updated. Each family can now provide unique buffs to parties or raids, so if a class buff is needed for a raid and that class isn't represented in the group, chances are a hunter can provide a little assistance by calling out a specific pet.
Ammo
Ammo is no more. As a hunter, you're just that good now.
Any quivers or pouches used to store ammo will automatically be converted into a bag of roughly equal value.
This is a new resource which works similarly to combo points. Paladins will generally want to build up Holy Power until it shines through with a bright yellow glowing effect. Once Holy Power has been built up, it can be consumed to augment existing abilities. For example, Word of Glory can be used to cast an instant-cast free heal. This gives paladins several options for how to spend their Holy Power, depending on the scenario.
Any shard bags used to store Soul Shards will automatically be converted into a bag of roughly equal value.
Soul Shards are now a new resource for warlocks. Each warlock will have a total of three. These Soul Shards can be expended using a new spell, Soul Burn, which allows the warlock to augment the next spell cast. The augmentation effect will vary depending on which spell is used, and all warlock spells which can be empowered by Soul Burn will have a tooltip listing of the effect it grants. Soul Shards will no longer be necessary for summoning demons or casting any other spell typically used when out of combat.
Rage is being normalized so that its generation is no longer based on damage done by auto-attacks. Each auto-attack will provide a set amount of Rage, with off-hand weapons granting 50% of the rage main-hand weapons do. Haste will allow Rage to generate more rapidly by increasing attack speed. In addition, while taking damage, the amount of Rage generated will now be based on the warrior's health rather than the opponent's level. The essence of this change is to improve the scaling that occurs with warrior gear. With warriors balanced around the top tiers of items, we've found that the class tends to underperform more drastically than others in lower-quality items. These changes should correct that.
Flexible Raid Lock System in 4.0.1
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker)
Almost six months ago we announced that Cataclysm raids were being redesigned to make both raid sizes the same difficulty, drop the same quality of loot, and exist in the same lockout. This evolution in raid philosophy is built on the belief that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what's more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character's progression. These systems are the culmination of a great deal of design and player feedback from the last few years. With the release of the 4.0.1 patch, the new Flexible Raid Lock system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.
With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.
Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.
To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.
Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.
While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.
But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.
All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.
Reforging
Reforging is finally here! You can swap 40% of any of the secondary stats of an item (mostly ratings) for another secondary stat. Reforging is done by NPCs in Capital Cities, ask a guard if you want to know where they are!
Power Auras / Spell Procs Alert
The extremely popular Power Auras is now part of the default interface. You will now get visual alerts when most of your procs are ready, each with its own unique art.
Relic Slots Items
Most items had their stats changed a little to match the new mechanics but the biggest change is on relics. They now have stats and can be socketed, future relics will not be restricted to a single class.
Road to 4.0.1 - WoWTal v2! WoWTal.com is up to date for Patch 4.0.1 and has brand new talent trees, Glyph lists, and more! Check it out!
Currency and Honor Calculator
The old currency and honor points will be converted to new values with this patch! The currency calculator has been updated to the latest values, is now pretty, and even supports the 4000 Justice / Honor points cap for gold conversion!
In the upcoming 4.0.1 patch, we'll be introducing a major overhaul of the current glyph system. This update features a host of changes including the addition of a new glyph tier, the transition of glyphs from consumable items to permanent spells, and a more streamlined user interface.
In its Prime
Glyphs will now be separated into three different tiers: minor, major, and prime.
Prime - Prime glyphs will typically provide direct increases to damage or healing throughput. Examples of prime glyphs include Glyph of Howling Blast, which will cause the death knight ability Howling Blast to infect targets with Frost Fever, and Glyph of Insect Swarm, which increases the damage of druid's Insect Swarm ability by 30%.
Major - Major glyphs will typically augment spells and abilities to offer additional utility. Examples of major glyphs include Glyph of Silencing Shot, which will cause a hunter to instantly gain 10 focus when successfully silencing an enemy's spell cast, and Glyph of Ice Block, which will reset the cooldown on Frost Nova every time a mage uses Ice Block.
Minor - Minor glyphs will typically provide players with additional convenience or cosmetic changes. Examples of minor glyphs include Glyph of Righteousness which will reduce the mana cost of Seal of Righteousness for paladins by 50%, and Glyph of Levitate which will remove the reagent requirement for a priest's Levitate spell.
In total, there will be nine glyph slots: three minor, three major, and three prime. As players level, they will be able to progressively unlock "sets" of these slots in increments of three (one minor slot, one major slot, and one prime slot). The first set of glyph slots will be unlocked at level 25, the second at level 50, and the final at level 75.
Teach a Man to Glyph...
In addition to the glyph tier changes, glyphs will also be transitioning from single-use items to permanent spells that a player can learn. While the item from which a glyph will be taught will still be consumed on use, once a glyph is learned, a player will always have access to it. This functionality will feel very similar to the current mechanic that allows players to learn certain recipes and patterns from item drops.
Despite these changes, activating a glyph will more or less function as it does now. To activate a glyph, players will simply need to select the desired glyph from their list of known glyphs and then click on the appropriate tiered slot.
Dust to Dust
With the transition from single-use items to permanent spells, the process for switching activated glyphs has been slightly altered. Similar to activating a learned glyph, players will need to select the new glyph from their list of known glyphs and then "place" it on top of the old glyph. While this process will not destroy the old glyph as it does at present, it will require a new reagent, Dust of Disappearance, which can be purchased from Inscription vendors or be crafted by scribes.
As a precaution, the following dialogue will also appear before a glyph is exchanged:
Are you sure you want to inscribe this glyph? The existing glyph will be lost.
Cost: 1 Dust of Disappearance
Players will be given the opportunity to confirm the exchange or cancel out of it. Please note that the old glyph will not be permanently lost; it will simply be deactivated.
Gotta Catch'em All
To complement each of these changes, the glyph UI window has been completely redesigned. All glyphs will now be organized in the glyph panel according to their tier (minor, major, or prime) and, much like how class spells and abilities display in the trainer window, will be sortable by "Already Known," "Unavailable," and "All Glyphs" categories. Players will also be able to search for glyphs using keywords and results will populate under each corresponding collapsible tier.
To access the new glyph UI, players will need to open up the Talent pane (default: N) and then click on the "Glyphs" tab.
If you need a list of all the Glyphs available for your class, make sure you check out yesterday's Glyph Preview!
Addon Updates
Just like any major patch, this one will most likely break a couple of your addons. Most of the popular addons are already updated to support Cataclysm and you probably have tons of time to update them while the servers are down.
If you hate updating tons of addons, downloading the Curse Client might work just fine for you.
If you want to save a lot of time over the next weeks and like to update everything in a single click, upgrade to Curse Premium!.
Patch 4.0.1 Classes pages
Classes pages are still the easiest way to get an overview of your class in Patch 4.0.1 without going through tons of diffs! Make sure you check them out!
Patch 4.0.1 Classes Changes
Expansion do not happen that often and I decided to do something stupid. Here is an extensive list of all the classes changes in Cataclysm/Patch 4.0.1!
This list is ridiculously long, really.
I'm still working on that list and cleaning it up.
There is no way I have all the changes listed there, I spent the past 18 hours working on that list and I'm definitely stupid enough to make a couple of errors and forget a few things.
If something looks like a nerf, keep in mind that it's supposed to be balanced at level 85. A lot of these spells are supposed to run with fully itemized mastery gear, you don't have that yet.
Report any bug or stupid thing in comments, or better, on Twitter.
All classes changes have been moved to their respective classes pages!
So am I the only one disappointed by the uselessness that in-game power auras brings to ELE sham, as in no lava surge/rolling thunder (LvB reset/ lightning shield charges), any ideas on a nice alternative? Couldn't figure out how to get needtoknow working with either (something besides NTK is fine to me if simpler, msbt might work?).
How long have you been playing this game? Seriously? Anyone and everyone knows that a big patch day can and will be problematic. Don't even taken into account that THIS patch overhauls nearly everything that is to do with Cataclysm.
It happens like this every-single-time. We're used it.
Actually your terribly wrong. There was an article my friend told me about in the English Times. Blizzard have made a total of 2.5Billion Sterling and yet only spent 240million, on everything from blizzcons - expansions - salaries - Servers and so on. Now 250million may seem like a lot but compared to a 2.5billion worth its nothing at all. Blizzard are renowned for their capitalist scumming. They'd sell you toilet paper for 500% its value if they could. They dont give a shit about me or you and certainly not about their gamers. All they care about and i quote one of them saying "We are aware that since the wotlk expansion players have been getting more and more turned off. All we can do is ride out the rest of the storm and hope to make as much as we can until the boat sinks". Does that not disgust you as a gamer of one of their products? How about if i told you the spirit healers have been found out to be using subliminal messages? Check youtube if you dont believe it.
Cataclysm imo will be the end of wow as we old members, know it. I'm a wpvper since 5 years ago and ive seen the drastic changes to pvp. From the disastrous battleground designs to the player balance wank. Now their attacking everything on a grander scale. So for me once the first few weeks of ganking questers is over i'll prolly take my guild and friends with me to Guild Wars2 or one of the Battlefield Series.
The most of these changes are going to have such an effect on player vs player that the game will be unplayable and un-enjoyable!
Hello m8s!
I can't even log in...when it finishes downloading the patch(or checking the files) and the loading patch screen is on it keeps asking me for cataclysm cd...
anyone had this prob or knows what to do?
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