Cataclysm Digital Sale, Patch 4.0.3/4.0.3a, Expertise Cap, Blue Posts

Q. In what regions is the Cataclysm pre-sale available? What day/time is Cataclysm launching in my region?
A. The pre-sale is available in the following regions, with realms scheduled to launch at the following times:

Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia - December 7 at 12:01 a.m. PST Europe and Russia - December 7 at 12:01 a.m. CET

Q. When will my credit card (or other payment method) be charged?
A. You will be charged on the day that you place your pre-order for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Q. Why do I need to log in to the game once after I’ve upgraded?
A. The first time you log in after pre-ordering, your account will become eligible to begin receiving the Cataclysm data when it’s available. The data will automatically download in the background while you play World of Warcraft or while you have the Launcher window open.

Q. Can I pre-order a physical copy of Cataclysm and have it shipped?
A. Not from Blizzard Entertainment, but many retailers offer pre-orders of physical boxes and Collector’s Editions.

Q. Will a digital version of the Collector's Edition, with the exclusive pet, be available?
A. No. The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition is exclusive to physical retail copies. The digital version consists of the standard edition.

Even though we have a set December 7 release date for Cataclysm, we still want to avoid giving out specific dates for upcoming events and patches in the event we need to shift our scheduling around at all to meet production needs.

I'll try my best here to give you useful information without it feeling like a non-answer. :)

Be patient! If you're really hoping to roll brand new characters once the shattering of Azeroth takes place, I'd strongly recommend just waiting. You'll get a sense soon enough for how events will unfold from now until December 7. I suggest you stick to your main characters for now. Very soon the pre-Cataclysm events will begin and they'll continually ramp up in severity and things to do over time, leading up to the shattering (patch 4.0.3a). You're going to want to participate in these events, as they'll only be around for a short time and will not return once Deathwing is unleashed.

[...] One thing we'll be clarifying a bit better next week is the distinction between what is in patch 4.0.3 versus when the shattering takes place.

Patch 4.0.3 will implement virtually all of the content necessary to make the changes to Azeroth, but those changes will actually take place in patch 4.0.3a, which is scheduled to be released shortly after patch 4.0.3.

Due to recalibrating expertise for Cataclysm, level 80-83 creatures (which includes bosses) dodge and parry less, so you need less expertise, 23, to be exact. Sorry we didn't announce this. I would classify it as an unintended consequence (though not unknown) and not a desired change on our part.

At level 85, you will need 26 again.

Current class balance
At 85 on the current beta build, Fury is high. Ret, Feral and the DKs are either close or slightly high. Rogues and Enhance might be a little low. This is how things look this AM and after a few more raid tests and balance tweaks, we might feel differently.

We know not everyone is able to beta raid test, but it is very useful to compare our internal tests and estimations to what players are actually able to accomplish. (Source)

Unique Buffs
Nobody brings unique buffs anymore. It isn't a tenable design when you have 30 different specs and raid groups that are sized 10 and 25 to have 30 very valuable unique buffs. I further question how fun it is to know that you probably only got brought because you make everyone else functional.

[...] A raid leader should bring you because you perform well, contribute to guild progression and are a pleasant person to play with. If your dps is dreadfully low, then it's understandable if a progression-focused leader feels like he or she can't afford a spot for you. The only PvE specs we felt were dreadfully low in the previous expansion were Arms warrior, Frost mage, Subtlety rogue and BM hunter. If we can fix those for Cataclysm then we'll be in pretty good shape and the onus will be on you to be a capable enough raider that folks want to raid with you. (Source)

Insane of the Membrane breaking in 4.0.3
Most of those changes are specific to when the world actually changes (mounts, feats, quests, etc). That's technically patch 4.0.3a. We'll have more information on the distinctions between patches 4.0.3 and 4.0.3a to announce next week. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Shield of the Righteous changes in latest build
We changed Shield Slam and Shield of the Righteous to do more base damage and scale less with AP. This was to fix a problem where numbers became absurdly large with a lot of AP, especially under the effects of Vengeance, dwarfing the damage done by druid or DK tanks. With these changes, a tank in heroic dungeon blues should deal the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance will have less of an impact.

The coefficient for Shield of the Righteous was lowered from 120% to 60% at 3 Holy Power. The coefficient for Shield Slam was lowered from 75% to 60%. (Source)

Word of Glory
We buffed Word of Glory base points for Holy paladins. We nerfed the Ret and Prot talents to keep it about the same for them. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Vanish Bug
The only live Vanish bug we know of had to do with pets and guardians still being able to target you. We have fixed that on our end. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Enhancement
We are seeing Enhancement at about the same dps they were at before at level 80, and are competitive with e.g. Fury warriors, Ret paladins and Unholy DKs at 85 as far as PvE dps goes. As always, it depends a lot on the encounter and the individual behind the keyboard.

If you find that is not the case for you, let us know, but it would be helpful to provide something more than anecdotal information.

[...] From a quick glimpse at some of these parses, the priority of abilities seems fine but the numbers are lower than some of the other ones we've seen. That suggests it could be a gear issue. Mastery is pretty good for Enhancement shaman, and some chose to reforge and regem for it. I didn't go inspect all of you to know if you tried that or not.

We'll keep looking into the issue though.

I am looking at an Al'Akir parse right at this moment with an Enh shaman tied with Frost DKs, Fury and Ret. (Source)

Enhancement and Lava Burst
We don't intended for Enhance to use Lava Burst rotationally. If you hard cast a Lava Burst when you're out of range, no problem. The value of Lava Burst to score a crit will also go down as your natural crit rate rises (at 85; I assume your crit rate is probably pretty high at 80). (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Shield Slam changes in latest build
We changed Shield Slam and Shield of the Righteous to do more base damage and scale less with AP. This was to fix a problem where numbers became absurdly large with a lot of AP, especially under the effects of Vengeance, dwarfing the damage done by druid or DK tanks. With these changes, a tank in heroic dungeon blues should deal the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance will have less of an impact.

The coefficient for Shield of the Righteous was lowered from 120% to 60% at 3 Holy Power. The coefficient for Shield Slam was lowered from 75% to 60%. (Source)