World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Reputation Enchantments - Shoulders

• Inscription of Charged Lodestone - Permanently adds 30 Intellect and 20 haste rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - Permanently adds 50 Intellect and 25 haste rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Inscription of Jagged Stone - Permanently adds 30 Strength and 20 critical strike rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone - Permanently adds 50 Strength and 25 critical strike rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Inscription of Shattered Crystal - Permanently adds 30 Agility and 20 mastery rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal - Permanently adds 50 Agility and 25 mastery rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Inscription of Shattered Crystal - Permanently adds 30 Agility and 20 mastery rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz - Permanently adds 45 Stamina and 20 dodge rating to a shoulder slot item.
• Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz - Permanently adds 75 Stamina and 25 dodge rating to a shoulder slot item.

Reputation Enchantments - Head

• Cataclysm Reputation Earthern Ring Revered Tank Enchant - Permanently adds 90 Stamina and 35 dodge rating to a head slot item.
• Cataclysm Reputation Guardian of Hyjal Revered Caster Enchant - Permanently adds 60 Intellect and 35 critical strike rating to a head slot item.
• Cataclysm Reputation Dragonmaw/Wildhammer Revered Strength Enchant - Permanently adds 60 Strength and 35 mastery strike rating to a head slot item.
• Cataclysm Reputation Ramkahen Revered Agility Enchant - Permanently adds 60 Agility and 35 haste rating to a head slot item.

Concentration Aura
Someone else is getting Concentration Aura. Place your bets. (Source)

200% crits
Warlocks and mages get 200% crits.

We have talents or passives for the hybrid classes because we want the nukers to get the big crits but not the healers. But for mages and warlocks, it seemed silly to have identical passives that say "you get 200% crits" when we don't do that for all the melee classes who get 200% crits.

Incidentally, hunters also get 200% crits in Cataclysm. They already did for the most part on all of their physical attacks, but unless I'm mistaken, attacks like Arcane Shot could only get a 150% crits. That is fixed for Cataclysm. (Source)

Raid Buffs in Cataclysm
Nobody has more powerful versions. All raid buffs are identical in power in Cataclysm. Some have different durations or radii or other measurements of convenience. "I won't get brought because his buff is more powerful than mine," is a pretty reasonable argument. "I won't get brought because his buff is more convenient than mine," just doesn't carry the same punch.

Players are going to find themselves in situations all the time where they bring the same buff that someone else brings. Shaman and paladins are probably in the best situation of bring able to bring something no matter what else the group already has. But we still want for groups to be able to bring say two Fire mages, and in that case, their contributions are identical. (Source)

Failed specs
Yet, even though Enhance's dps was low, there were thousands of dps shaman raiding ICC. By far the majority of raids had at least one. The only specs we really failed on in LK raiding were Frost mage, Subtlety rogue, BM hunter and Arms warrior. (Source)

Hybrid Builds
We really haven't ever supported the true hybrid builds where someone goes halfway down two trees. It would be one thing if someone really wanted to play say an Affliction warlock who also emphasized demons or the Ret paladin who also wanted to be a better healer. But almost without exception the hybrid builds that have ever existed involved sneaking down into a second tree to get an overpowered talent or two. The developers never really wanted the last talent in a tree to be a decision. They want you to get that talent. When players would make builds that didn't go to the bottom of their tree they would feel like something was wrong with the tree. Nobody wants that 31-point talent to be a hard choice.

So, yeah, go get that 31-point talent. You'll have some decisions to make on the way down and then you'll have 10 points that can get you 3 or 4 additional talents from a pool of 15 or so that are left over. Not all of those builds will make sense, but many of them will. That feels like plenty of choice to me and both you and we will know that you have the basics that make your spec work. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Subtlety
We're going to make Dirty Tricks baseline.

We still think the mobility between Subtlety and the other trees is a little far apart. This is something we want to address.

We also think Subtlety's damage against heavy armored targets is probably a little low and we're looking at that as well.

However, as we said in the Twitter dev chat, if you had a tree with Assassination's burst or Combat's timers *and* Shadowstep and Prep, why would you play anything else in PvP? In PvE, we want to get all 3 rogue specs to be as close together as possible. But part of that involves Rupture and Honor Among Thieves, which are just more potent in PvE than PvP. In PvP, we think it's fair that Subtlety does less toe-to-toe damage given that the tree has so many advantages when not toe-to-toe. (Source)

Sprint cooldown
I will admit that the 3 min cooldown on Sprint feels a bit antiquated. It's something we're discussing but it's too soon to promise anything. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Totems not as useful as before?
This is a pretty common sentiment among shaman, but it's just not one we agree with. Elemental shaman having to give up their dps totem for a dps buff was a situation we weren't happy with. But Enhance giving up a dps buff for utility totems -- and very powerful utility totems -- isn't the same thing in our minds.

We don't want to have to balance the game around the assumption that Earthbind or Tremor Totem are up 100% of the time in a raid, which they would be if they also gave you the Strength of Earth buff. (For starters, we'd have to give equivalents to other classes since otherwise having a shaman would be a huge advantage.) Once you remove Tremor and Earthbind, (and disregarding Stoneclaw and Earth Elemental as super situational) then you're left with Strength of Earth vs. Stoneskin, and the powers of those two really aren't comparable. If you have one shaman, drop Strength of Earth. If you have two, or someone else who can bring that buff, then you can add Stoneskin. If you really need Earthbind or Tremor for an encounter, then you can live without Strength of Earth. Most of the time in PvE when you need those other two, it's not for the entirety of the fight anyway. (Source)

[...] If the model was that shaman were brought for their buffs then that would be a problem. But the model is that shaman are brought because they contribute to the group as a whole, which includes bringing some buffs (and to be fair, more than most classes) but also doing competitive dps. If your dps is too low, then *that* is the problem, not that you don't bring a powerful buff so awesome that you're virtually guaranteed a raid spot even if you go AFK half the time. (Source)

[...] And if you have a paladin, you probably have Devotion Aura, so then there is no reason to drop Stoneskin either. And if the group also has a warrior, then that warrior might Battle Shout, rendering Horn of Winter useless. You just aren't going to be guaranteed a raid slot because you bring the only reasonable version of a group buff. The good news is that nobody is. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Rage Normalization - Crits no longer generate extra rage
We actually are concerned that even with normalization that rage scales too well with gear. Currently on beta, rage generation feels about right at level 80, but the income drops down more and more with higher levels. Now we have no doubt once warriors get epic gear with tons of haste and crit that they will have plenty of rage again, but that's the problem that rage normalization was really intended to fix.

The solution we're looking at, and I predict a lot you aren't going to like it, is not to have crits provide extra rage. That will let us bump rage income across the board without it getting infinite again at the epic level. This actually provides a certain amount of consistency with other classes because then crit would be about bigger numbers and haste would be about being able to do more because you have more resources to work with.

We think to feel right that warriors (and bears) generally need enough rage income to hit their main rotational buttons, but not Heroic Strike or Cleave. You might occasionally have to wait a second for that Bloodthirst or Mortal Strike, but we don't want that to be a regular occurrence (unless you just squandered your rage by playing badly.) Getting a lot of rage, because say you were stunned or took a lot of damage from something or the shaman popped Bloodlust, then just lets you Heroic Strike or Cleave more, get bigger Executes, save GCDs from going to Bloodrage, etc.

But also to feel right, this needs to occur in both quest greens and fully-gemmed and enchanted endgame gear. We don't think that is happening enough yet on beta.

Rest assured, you'll still scale just fine with gear.

Hit rating and rage generation
We know Cataclysm warriors will value hit pretty highly, and to be honest that's not a bad place to be coming off of LK where warriors viewed hit as junk. Then again, part of that was because of the Heroic Strike bug, so maybe hit would have been more valuable even in LK.

We're also taking a hard look at combat ratings across the board right now in Cataclysm. We removed so many passive combat ratings from the talent trees (as well as things like Misery and the Draenei racial) that we're concerned that our current ratings are too brutal. If we relax those, then everyone will see their hit go up.

If after all that dust settles warriors still are penalized too much for a miss then we might consider something to address that, but only if we were confident that warriors would still desire hit on gear more than they did in LK. (Source)

Rage "nerf"
It's just tricky because we know that warriors used to the Icecrown raiding environment are going to feel rage nerfed almost no matter what. Some of those warriors are going to complain about being rage starved anytime they aren't hitting Heroic Strike on cooldown. We just have to be very cautious when we get feedback. It is 100% supposed to be a nerf, but only to the degree of having to pay attention to that red bar up there under your health. It isn't supposed to be a dps nerf (minus the Heroic Strike bug and Shadowmourne and other things that make Fury dps too high on live). (Source)

Warrior Scaling
Totally. A little more rage is fine. Cats get more combo points as their geat gets better. Mages get more mana. We're just worried that the Cataclysm numbers currently in beta will make warriors still scale too well with gear, which means the leveling warriors don't have fun or the warriors facing the Bastion of Twilight out-dps the other classes. (Source)

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It’s immensely important that everyone use separate passwords for separate applications, including games. Secure passwords have both numeric and alphabetical values, and are usually at least 10 characters in length.

For more information on password security, please click here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/artic...rticleId=20574
For more information on account security, click here: http://us.battle.net/en/security/

Ysera open eyes
As I've said before, her eyes are very intentionally open. This is, in fact, part of the fiction and will be explained in one of our upcoming novels as well as a future event in game.

If it suits you, feel free to RP going CRAZY INSANE after looking into her eyes in Hyjal. (Source)

Bloat vs. Choice
I think the word "bloat" has become like the word "clunky" in these forums. It's so often used as a synonym for "I would have designed this differently" that it has lost a lot of specific meaning.

I think in the end one of the things we've really learned about what players are looking for in a talent tree is that they are often looking for different things. Some players are perfectly happy spending every point on say damage. Damage is what they do, so any point not related to damage feels wasted. Some players want every possible talent build to be legit. They don't want there to be any wrong answers such that they could almost assign points at random and have something that was functional and diverse. Some players, and this surprised us a little, like to have the ability to make bad choices and are perfectly happy making wrong choices -- to them the freedom to choose trumps the desire for power. Some players just want every point and agonize about having to leave anything out. Some get really bent out of shape at the thought of spending even 1 talent point on a talent that they may not use say once every 30 min or so. They would rather respec into a situational ability when that situation comes up rather than have it just in case. Some are mostly interested in just seeing something different. They are less interested in the perfect talent tree than they are in having them change over time. Even powerful abilities feel like old hat and they want the new hotness. You see this a lot for the classes whose talent trees changed earliest in Cataclysm, who are now wondering when "their overhaul" is coming. Opposing them are the nostalgia buffs who can't stand the thought of any talent or ability going away because it's iconic for their class.

I'm really not building towards any kind of conclusion with any of that. It has just been interesting to see the feedback. I guess I can offer that you might want to be careful about who you think you are speaking for when you say "we feel this" or "we don't want that." Players, even the microcosm of the forum community, want different things. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy Shield / 15% block
Yeah, as some of the other posters said the issue is not really whether 4.5% or 8% (which is pretty liberal) is the amount of damage reduced. You're comparing full uptime to no uptime. If a paladin refuses to use their mitigation talents (i.e. stubbornly or sloppily choose not to use Holy Shield ever) then they are going to take more damage and suffer the consequences.

The issue is how catastrophic is it if you are sloppy and let Holy Shield slip off for a short time or choose to use Word of Glory instead. The answer is probably: not very.

Fifteen percent block is rarely going to make the difference between you being alive or dead. It will make a difference over the course of a fight in how much damage you take and therefore how much mana your healers need to invest. For that reason it's an excellent idea to keep Holy Shield up a lot. But if you let it fall down every now and then, you probably won't explode. (And let's remember there are several emergency buttons if you are on the verge of explodination that will mitigate a lot more damage than a block.)

The reason I keep comparing it to 15% damage reduction, is because damage reduction affects every hit you take. Block is a chance to take less damage on every swing. Integrated over the course of an entire fight, you will probably block 15% more with Holy Shield up. But if you let it drop for a few boss swings, you are going to take far less than 15% more damage. In fact, you may take no extra damage at all (i.e. you would have blocked anyway). In fact, you may take no damage at all (i.e. you dodged or parried). (Source)

Holy Shield uptime
I would say we are actually giving you control over your ability to survive. Today paladin tanking is very automated. Today the control isn't in your hands. We need to change that.

Look, nothing on normal mode is going to be tuned to the point where a paladin tank who lets Holy Shield fall down wipes the group. On heroic mode, yes, you will probably be asked to play to the best of your ability. That's the purpose of those challenges. (Source)

Why is Holy Shield duration so short?
The reason we haven't done that is we're concerned that once you have any Holy Power left for extra things, that you then assume you'd be balanced around those extra things. So for example, the model goes from paladins having to keep 15% block up to having to keep 15% block up *and* heal themselves every rotation. That's still a model we might consider though.

We're happy with the bones of the design. The details and tuning aren't quite right yet, but we have many ideas left to try. (Source)

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Shadow Power
Shadow Power is now called "Blackout" and is a passive talent tree bonus for picking the tree. It provides 200% crits to Shadow spells. (Source)

Archangel and Evangelism
Archangel and Evangelism don't stack. The intent is that Dark Archangel is used when burst matters more than sustained damage (Dark Evangelism = Sustained, Dark Archangel = Burst), and not really something you'd do rotationally. In PvE you might do it if the target is going to die soon (when sustained dps really doesn't really matter), for target swapping, right before Bloodlust etc. (Source)

Mind Spike redesign
There are some additional Shadow changes that are upcoming, including a slight re-design for Mind Spike. The role for Mind Spike is still something you can do when you don't have the opportunity for your full blown rotation, but we also don't want you to feel like you have to work it into your normal rotation. (Source)

Mind Flay
Mind Flay is going back to a 3 sec cast time. As sometimes happens in beta, the data were pulled right while we were changing the spell, resulting in it being bugged. Sorry. (Source)

For our ongoing coverage of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we recently sat down with game designers Dave Kosak and Roman Marotte to ask them about the work they've done on the Southern Barrens, a once-familiar place drastically altered by Deathwing's return and the continuing struggle between the Horde and the Alliance.

Q. What was the original concept for the zone?
A. The Barrens is one of the areas of Kalimdor hardest-hit by the Cataclysm. It has literally been ripped in two! The Northern Barrens retains much of the feel of the original zone and fulfills a similar gameplay purpose: it's primarily a training ground for low-level Horde characters. That gave us enormous freedom to create a whole new gameplay experience for the Southern Barrens. In the wake of the Cataclysm, the Alliance has been aggressively expanding into the heart of the continent from the east coast. As players enter the zone, they'll find that the Horde is really up against the ropes. The escalating conflict between the two rival factions is front and center here, providing a backdrop for much of the area's quests.

Q. Who will be using this zone (what levels/factions)?
A. The Southern Barrens is geared toward Alliance and Horde characters from levels 30–35.

Q. Without giving up any spoilers, what's the general storyline for this zone? How has it changed from the original design?
A. "An eye for an eye" is the theme, with each side taking and losing ground, descending deeper and deeper into violent conflict. From the Horde perspective, players will learn the grim fate of Camp Taurajo and Honor's Stand. It's then up to the players to rally their faction's disorganized forces, initiate a change in local leadership, and avenge the sacking of Taurajo. The Alliance, meanwhile, struggles to hold on to recent gains, fending off attacks from all fronts. Players will also fight to save Northwatch Hold from the brink of capture and keep the roadways from Theramore open. Additionally, both factions have to deal with the explosive growth of a strange new jungle spreading across the Barrens. This is all entirely new content for the expansion.

Q. What do you think is the most exciting new addition to or feature of the zone?
A. Definitely the Alliance/Horde conflict, which really comes alive in the Southern Barrens. We tried to give players the feeling of participating in large PvP-style conflicts, even if they're playing solo. Alliance and Horde members will struggle to capture and defend key points of the battlefield against waves of enemy troops. New technology will allow players to experience the story in ways they never could have prior to Cataclysm. For example, the Horde assault on the fortress at Bael Modan, and its aftermath, should really pull players into the action by showing dramatic changes in the world.

Also, one word: Mankrik.

Q. What goes into redesigning a zone like this?
A. The Southern Barrens was a complete rework, so we really started from scratch, identifying the key areas of contention and then building a short storyline around each one. To accentuate the conflict, battles continually rage in hot spots around the zone. Finally, we put together a quest structure that throws players into the thick of those engagements. We invested a lot of effort into infusing the right emotions into the zone. If you're a Horde player, for instance, we want you to be completely outraged by what happened at Taurajo!

Q. So what has happened at Camp Taurajo? It appears to be in ruins.
A. That depends on whom you ask! Alliance players can speak to General Hawthorne at Forward Command and discover his reasoning for removing Taurajo from the Horde arsenal. On the other hand, if you speak to the various Horde leaders at Hunter's Hill, Camp Una'fe, or Vendetta Point, you'll hear a very different version of events. We suspect that debate over the ethics of this one will rage for some time.

Q. What was the most challenging aspect about implementing so many changes to an existing zone?
A. It was a real challenge getting the story to flow organically from the start of the zone to the climax. Key NPCs move around and are killed during the fighting; that's always tricky to pull off.

Q. What should players do or go see first?
A. Alliance players will definitely want to get to Northwatch Hold as soon as possible: it's about to fall to the Horde! Likewise, Horde players should check out the utter devastation at Taurajo. Someone... has got... to pay.

Q. Why is the Great Gate barring entry to and from the Barrens and Mulgore?
A. The Horde built the Great Gate in reaction to Alliance aggression from Dustwallow Marsh, including the construction of a highway running from Theramore straight to the Barrens. The gate was finished just in time: Alliance forces had penetrated all the way to the entrance of Mulgore, and the gate slowed them down long enough for the Horde to rally and launch a counterattack (with the player's help, of course!).

Q. Will you explain a bit about the emergence of the Overgrowth and the new Horde Camp Una'fe?
A. Players may be familiar with the story of Naralex, the ambitious druid who tried to reinvigorate the springs of the Wailing Caverns to return the Barrens to the lush expanse that it once was. His story continues in the Southern Barrens as he tries to contain and cope with the unintended consequences of his near-fatal exposure to the Emerald Nightmare. The uncontrolled growth in this part of the Barrens threatens the Alliance and the Horde alike. Teegan's Expedition in the east is stymied in its attempts to get Alliance supplies to the front, while at Camp Una'fe to the west, Taurajo's survivors find themselves overwhelmed as well.

Q. What are the Alliance forces at Forward Command and Fort Triumph and the Horde forces at Desolation Hold hoping to accomplish in the Southern Barrens by vying for control of the Battlescar?
A. Geography defines the conflict here. The Battlescar sits in the middle of a narrow pass, a natural bottleneck. The Alliance needs to blast its way through here in order to maintain an overland link between Theramore and Northwatch Hold, not to mention a route into the Stonetalon Mountains, where the Alliance can lend aid to its allies. If the Horde can seal off this pass, then Theramore will essentially be isolated. The conflict comes to a head in the Battlescar... and the future of Kalimdor may hinge on the outcome.

Thank you, gentlemen, for taking the time to discuss the work you've done to breathe new life and adventure into the Southern Barrens for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm!

Wrathgate/Battle for Undercity gone in Cataclysm
It's not bugged. The quest ends at the cinematic now. (Source)

AE Tanking skills cooldown
We just didn't like the direction we were heading where every tank had an ability to guarantee that incoming adds would head right for them, and every tank had an ability to do reflective damage that had literally no decision or skill on the part of the tank to employ.

Use your Consecrates, Shockwaves, Swipes and Death and Decay when they would have the most impact, not on cooldown. Get adds to stick to you because you use abilities at the right time, not because once a mob hits you, you generate free threat. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Shield of Righteousness outdated in current Beta Build
The actual tooltip says:

Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to determine damage dealt:

1 Holy Power: 30% Attack Power
2 Holy Power: 60% Attack Power
3 Holy Power: 90% Attack Power

Shield Slam hits for 100% of attack power, but it's physical damage. On the other hand, it doesn't require a secondary resource.

[...] It's not Shield Slam and it's not intended to fill that role. I was merely offering that so players would have a point of comparison for the kind of numbers their attack should produce.

We had pulled SoR from the beta because it was one of the things that, in our minds, made the Prot paladin and warrior feel too similar. We wanted to bring it back because paladins like the ability, but we didn't want to bring it back as a Shield Slam clone.

[...] If you use Shield of the Righteous with 1 stack, you hit softer, which may not be that big a deal since you can do it again after the next Crusader Strike / Hammer of the Righteous. However a 1 stack Shield of the Righteous only grants 5% block, which may be less than you want. (Source)

Holy Shield
To add to my previous tooltip, here is Holy Shield. Remember it's a passive now.

Your Shield of the Righteous hits increase your block chance by 5% per stack of Holy Power consumed. Lasts 20 sec.

As far as the burst threat concerns go, use Avenger's Shield. It hits very hard in Cataclysm. (Source)

Words of Glory / Holy Shield
We're talking about 15% block here, not 15% damage reduction. Sure over the course of a fight, you'd notice 15% block. But if you let Holy Shield drop for a few seconds you have virtually no way to know if that would even affect the next several seconds of the fight. Would you have blocked anyway? Great! You didn't need the Holy Shield. Would the boss have hit you even with the extra 15% block? Bummer, you wasted Holy Shield. If it's a dragon breathing on you, then the block does nothing.

We want Prot to be able to use Word of Glory sometimes and we're evaluating the best way to make that happen. We don't want a model where Prot uses the heal on cooldown because then we just have to assume it's up all the time and it feels more like something you have to maintain instead of something you can use for emergencies. (Source)

We're less sure about Inquisition. It's fine if Ret is designed around keeping it up nearly all the time because they're only spending Holy Power on damage attacks otherwise. With Holy Shield though it might feel like Prot needs to keep two Holy Power-based things running, which is probably two much to ask of a tank. In the prior model you could choose Inquisition's damage instead of Holy Shield's mitigation, but with the new Shield of the Righteous model, we realize that's probably not going to happen so we need to evaluate if that's okay. (Source)

Divine Purpose and Holy Wrath
We changed Divine Purpose yet again (and probably not for the last time) so that it gives Holy Power on almost all specials. This is one of the major sources of unpredictability in the rotation, so we need to get the numbers right where getting extra Holy Power is fun and that the more skilled players can utilize it better.

We actually want Holy Wrath to feel like a filler. The reason is that we think it's bad gameplay when players have absolutely no gaps in their rotation. Our encounters get increasingly complex to the point where we often ask you to worry about extra things beyond your core rotation. We also don't want things that break up your rotation (like say a knockback or fear) to be horribly punitive (it can be punitive, but shouldn't destroy your dps relative to someone else's).

To use the specific example, Ret isn't going to want to skip over a Crusader's Strike or Templar's Verdict opportunity except under extreme duress. But missing a Holy Wrath once in awhile won't be devastating. It might be a dps loss, but it won't crater your dps. We want all of the classes to have the occasional GCD with nothing going on, so long as it is truly occasional and not constant. This is less important with casters because they do have short periods while casting to look around and notice the state of the encounter. With the live DKs for example, there is absolutely no time to do anything but mash buttons, or the whole rotation collapses. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Rage Scaling
Bloodrage and Berserker Rage have been off the GCD for ages. Rage has mattered at various points of WoW's history, and neither ability has strictly been used on cooldown in the past. It's a new mechanic causing the problems.
I disagree. I think it is just because rage actually matters as a resource, so things that provide rage now feel like very important buttons instead of convenience abilities. We could remove Raging Blow and Fury's mastery, and warriors would still smack Bloodrage on cooldown just because of rage normalization.

Currently, Deadly Calm is the only way to proc Inner Rage aside from auto-attacking for ~15 seconds. I'm not sure where the disconnect is. Lack of confidence in players' observations? We're certainly not trying to circumvent the limits and discipline of a rage system.
Players in beta are either in Icecrown-level epics or quest greens. Nobody has gemmed and enchanted Cataclysm raid gear, or even heroic blues yet. Rage won't scale with gear to the degree that it did in the old model, but it will most definitely scale. Haste, hit and crit all have a huge impact on rage generation, and you just aren't going to get high ratings for those until you're in endgame gear.

On a dummy in live (my benchmark for the leanest possible rage income), I'll only get into trouble if I start fooling around with Heroic Strike or Cleave. That is, I think, roughly how it should be.
Sure, but once you have Blackwing Descent raid gear, you're still going to have a lot more rage. If you never run into rage problems now unless you hit Heroic Strike, then you're going to hit pretty quickly the situation where you never run into rage problems even when you hit Heroic Strike. We normalized rage, but we didn't want to normalize it completely. Gear still makes a big difference for rage income -- just not damage per se.

If you can, at least consider the relative angle. I haven't tested Fury for a couple of builds; just whacked a dummy for ten minutes on a pre-made after doing the same with Arms, and it was like night and day. Granted, in its cozy epic-80 niche, Fury still has rage close to where it should be. I wasn't staring at greyed-out buttons unless I did something stupid. Really, really fun and free. Just couldn't get that with Arms.
Yeah, I'm actually more worried about things feeling good for Arms, because Arms just doesn't hit as frequently as Fury, so the income is going to feel spikier. (Source)

Bloodsurge
As I suggested recently, we have already reverted the Bloodsurge change. We don't want Slam to be that predictable. (Source)

Bloodrage and Berserker Rage on GCD
Bloodrage and Berserker Rage are on the global cooldown because warriors were just hitting them on cooldown now that rage is something they actually have to pay attention to. (Source)

We are hitting them on cooldown because right now we 100% NEED that rage due to the current rage system and the rage starvation going on while leveling. If the rage equation were tweaked so that we can sustain our rotations then we wouldn't need to be hitting them on cooldown.
This is going to be a tricky thing to nail, and we knew it would be. There are some warriors who interpret any limits on their ability to push their buttons as being rage starved. Yet if you literally never pay attention to the bar, then it isn't a resource at all. Your "sustain our rotations" could mean that you should always be able to hit every button when you want to. What is the role of rage in that model? We are taking a look at the ratings decay as you gain levels. Now that the talent trees have lost so much crit, haste and hit, they may be too steep. I just mention that as an example of the kind of thing that is going to affect rage generation. (Source)

And if you're worried about Bloodrage being used for activating Raging Blow, then make it not an enrage
It's not really Raging Blow. It's the fact that rage isn't unlimited any more, so now Bloodrage is attractive as a button to hit on cooldown. By contrast, Tiger's Fury is not used on cooldown because you can push it at the wrong time. The health cost isn't a serious consideration of Bloodrage, but eating up a special attack is. (Source)

Enrage Uptime
We're going to continue to iterate a lot on enrage uptime. We want Fury to be enraged a lot (say 60 to 75% of the time), but want them to have enough control so that if they run into an unlucky streak, they can use one of their buttons to become enraged. Enrage has a longer duration on our internal builds, but we still want to avoid it being up constantly. (Source)

[...] That's not really it. As I suggested above, we don't want Enrage to be up say 60% of time, allowing your cooldowns to then push enrage time up to 100% total. But if we make Enrage on a long duration that means it needs a really small proc chance, which shifts it from being unpredictable to being slot-machine-level random. I'm not worried that there is a sweet spot in there somewhere where you often get Enrage procs to fill in the time in between say Death Wish and Bloodrage. We'd rather lower the damage on the Enrage talent, since getting to the Enraged mechanic is also valuable, especially for Fury. (Source)

Bloodthirst
The 3 sec Bloodthirst cooldown definitely makes us nervous, because it leaves so few opportunities to do anything else in the rotation, so we're just going to have to watch it. (Source)

[...] We might try 4.5 sec too. We just want to make sure Fury has something to do within that window when they aren't enraged, and we don't want that something to be Whirlwind. We also don't want to add yet another new warrior attack just to fill that niche. (Source)

Booming Voice
It's fine for Booming Voice to be an optional talent. You can't view it strictly in terms of rage per unit time, because availability counts for a lot too. What I mean is if you had an ability that gave you 100 rage on a very long cooldown, it might not be as useful as something you could rely on more often. (Source)

Deadly Calm
The intent is that Deadly Calm will often proc Inner Rage when it has finished, However if you could use it while you were in Inner Rage then you'd just use Deadly Calm to get around the rage loss that Inner Rage is supposed to cause (and in fact, that might make the ability more limiting because you'd be dumb to use it anywhere else). (Source)

Titan's Grip vs. Single-Minded Fury
Don't worry about the relative damage increases of Titan's Grip versus Single-Minded Fury. We've made no attempt to balance those against each other and won't spend that effort until we're happy with the basic rotation, which we aren't just yet. (Source)

Heroic Strike
If you have 30 rage and Bloodthirst is on cooldown, then you'll probably hit Heroic Strike. (Source)

Recklessness still on GCD
There probably isn't a good reason for it to be, to be honest. We'll discuss changing it. (Source)

Fury Rotation
Yeah, the windows are what we're going for. It might be that 6-10 sec duration feels better.

It should be something like this:

No enrage: Bloodthirst, Heroic Strike, Colossus Smash, Slam procs.

Enrage: Bloodthirst, Raging Blow, Colossus Smash, Slam procs, with Heroic Strike just for excess rage. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Unholy

• Dirge now affects Festering Strike instead of Death Strike.
• Corrupting Strikes now also affects Festering Strike.

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Feral

• Shred now costs 40 Energy. Down from 50 Energy.
• Swipe (Bear) now costs 15 Rage. Down from 20 Rage. Now has a 6 sec cooldown.
• Swipe (Cat) now costs 45 Energy. Down from 50 Energy. (Yes, the cooldown is only on the bear version)
• Maul now costs 30 Rage. Down from 35 Rage.
• Mangle (Cat) now costs 35 Energy. Down from 45 Energy.
• Mangle (Bear) now costs 15 Rage. Down from 20 Rage.
• Claw now costs 40 Energy. Down from 45 Energy.
• Rake now costs 35 Energy. Down from 40 Energy.

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery

• Ferocious Inspiration is now a 1 Rank talent, down from 3 Ranks.
• Improved Kill Command now Reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command by 3/6 sec instead of reducing its focus cost.

Marksmanship

• Arcane Shot now causes [ 17% of Ranged AP + 603 ] damage. Down from [ 33% of RAP + 603 ]
• Termination no longer requires Aspect of the Hawk to grant additional focus.

Survival

• Misdirection no longer has a focus cost.
• Resourcefulness is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• T.N.T. is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
• Point of No Escape is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
• Lock and Load is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
• Survival Tactics is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Hunter vs. Wild now is a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2. Now increases your total Stamina by 3/7/10%.
• Entrapment now is a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane

• Time Warp no longer increases the Mage's movement speed.
• Arcane Barrage now has a 5 sec cooldown, down from 6 sec.

Frost

• Curtain of Frost now lasts 15 sec, up from 10 sec. Cooldown increased from 30 sec to 2 min. Now slows the movement speed for 4 sec, down from 8 sec.
• Summon Water Elemental now has a 3 min cooldown, up from 2 min. Cooldown now starts to decrease when the mage summons the Water Elemental. (Old - Triggered on Elemental's death)
• Shattered Barrier freeze duration lowered to 3/6 sec. (Down from 4/8 sec)

Fire

• Critical Mass - Your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec.
• Improved Flamestrike now increases the effect radius of Flamestrike by 1/2 yards instead of increasing its damage.
• Hot Streak now procs when you score 2 non-periodic critical strikes in a row with your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Fire Blast or Pyroblast spells.
• Fire Power is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3. Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 1/2/3% and gives your Flame Orb a 33/66/100% chance to explode at the end of its duration.
• Firestarter *New* - Your Molten Armor allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving instead of reducing the chance you are critically hit.
• Cauterize - You have a 50/100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every 1 sec for the next 4 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy

• Consecration now lasts 10 sec (down from 15 sec) and has a 30 sec cooldown.

Protection

• Devotion Aura is now trained at level 5. Down from level 6.
• Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Avenger's Shield by 2/4/6 sec. (Down from 3/7/10 sec)
• Holy Shield is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5. No longer deals damage for every attack blocked.
• Hammer of the Righteous now deals 398% weapon damage (up from 300%). Still jumps to 2 additional nearby targets, each jump reduces the damage by 50%.
• Shield of the Righteous is back - Slam the target with your shield, causing 3198 plus 100% of your attack power per stack of Holy Power as Holy damage and refreshing the duration of your Holy Shield.

Retribution

• Swift Retribution is gone.
• The Art of War is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. Now increases the damage by 20/40/60% and critical strike damage by 30/60/100% of your Exorcism. Now has a 5/10/15% chance to proc from melee attacks.
• Communion additional effect - Your auras increase your party and raid's damage dealt by 3% and your damage by an additional 2%.
• Sanctity of Battle is gone.
• Rule of Law is now a 2 rank talents. Down from 3.

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Discipline

• Soul Warding now is a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 6. No longer reduces the mana cost of Power Word: Shield.
• Focused Will now is a Tier 6 talent. Up from Tier 5.
• Evangelism revamped - You have a 100% chance when you Smite and a 40% chance when you Mind Flay to gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 15 sec. Evangelism (Smite) - Increasing the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance spells by 2/4% and reduces the mana cost of those spells by 3/6%. Dark Evangelism (Mind Flay) - Increases the damage done by your Periodic Shadow spells by 1/2%.
• Archangel revamped - Consumes your Evangelism effects, causing an effect depending what form you are in. Archangel (Caster) - Instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your healing done by 3% for each stack. Dark Archangel (Shadowform) - Instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your shadow damage done by 3% for each stack.
• Improved Mana Burn is gone.
• Borrowed Time is back as a Tier 4 talent. Borrowed Time - Grants 5/10/15% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield, and increases the amount absorbed by your Power Word: Shield equal to 4/8/12% of your spell power.

Shadow

• Mind Flay now deals damage over 5 sec. (Up from 3 sec)
• Twisted Faith is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6.
• Pain and Suffering is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6. Now 2-Ranks instead of 3.
• Empowered Shadow Orbs now is a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5. Now gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack. (Up from 33/66%)
• Shadowy Apparition is now a Tier 6 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Shadow Power is gone.
• Shadowform now increases all nearby friendly targets spell haste by 5%.
• Improved Shadowform is now called Phantasm and no longer increases spell crit while in Shadowform.
• Improved Devouring Plague is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Veiled Shadows is now a Tier 1 Talent. Down from Tier 2.
• Spirit Tap is gone.
• Sin and Punishment *New* - When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 6 yards have a 50/100% chance to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Assassination

• Cheap Shot now costs 40 Energy. Down from 60 Energy.
• Murderous Intent now is a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
• Seal Fate is now a 2 Ranks talent. Down from 3 Ranks.
• Vile Poisons no longer affects Envenom.
• Improved Expose Armor is now a Tier 5 Talent. Up from Tier 3.
• Improved Eviscerate is now named Coup de Grace and affects Envenom.
• Lethality now increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Backstab, Mutilate and Hemorrhage abilities by 10/20/30%. (Old - All combo point generating abilities)

Combat

• Gouge is now trained at level 16. Up from level 14.
• Blade Twisting now reduces movement speed by 70%.
• Improved Kick now has a 100% chance to silence the target for 1.5/3 sec.

Subtlety

• Dirty Tricks now is a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Elemental

• Hex now lasts 1 min. Up from 30 sec.
• Searing Totem now prefer to target enemies that are afflicted by your Flame Shock or Stormstrike effects.
• Reverberation is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Improved Fire Nova is now a Tier 3 talent. Up from Tier 2.
• Elemental Warding now reduces magical damage instead of all damage.
• Ancestral Knowledge is now named Acuity and Increases your critical strike chance with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3%.
• Convection now Reduces the mana cost of your damaging offensive spells.

Enhancement

• Heroism's "Exhausted" debuff now also affects Time Warp (Mage)
• Static Shock now procs from Primal Strike, Stormstrike, or Lava Lash (Old - All melee attacks and abilities). Chance to proc increased from 2/4/6% to 15/30/45%.
• Totemic Reach *New* - Increases the radius of your totems' effects by 15/30%.

Restoration

• Totemic Focus is now a 2-Ranks talent, down from 3-Ranks. Now also increases the duration of your totems by 20/40%.
• Cleansing Waters *New* - When your Cleanse Spirit successfully removes a harmful effect, you also heal the target for [ 1093 to 1164 ]/[ 2187 to 2330 ].

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Apparently, no changes in this build.


Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Fury

• Bloodsurge no longer procs from Heroic Strike.
• Booming Voice now reduces the cooldown on your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout by 15/30 sec.
• Rampage additional effect - In addition, improves your critical strike chance by an additional 2%.
• Enrage now lasts 4 sec. Down from 12 sec.
• Rude Interruption now lasts 15/30 sec. Down from 30 sec/1 min.

Protection

• Impending Victory is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Warbringer is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Bastion of Defense is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• Damage Shield is gone.
• Thunderstruck is now a Tier 5 talent. Up from Tier 3. Revamped - Improves the damage of your Cleave and Thunder Clap by 3/6%. In addition, your Thunder Clap improves the damage of your next Shockwave by 5/10%. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Gag Order is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
• Shield Specialization now allows you to generate 20/40/60 extra rage when you Spell Reflect a magic attack.
• Heavy Repercussions *New* - While your Shield Block is active, your Shield Slams hit for an additional 50/100% damage.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Patch Notes (version 12694)

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.

General

• The Alliance starting experience for worgen is available. Venture through the cursed lands of Gilneas to discover your true path! Currently the female worgen character is not available for testing.
• The Horde starting experience for goblins is available. Beginning on the Isle of Kezan in a goblin paradise, players will face a treacherous road ahead!
• The level cap for all characters is 83.
• Elements of the guild leveling, perks, and roster page are now functional. Players should once again be able to buy and register guild charters, which now only require five signatures. See the Known Issues section for issues associated with this new system.
• Cataclysm Launcher Update
  
  • The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...01168&sid=2000
• Players may use our Character Copy feature for copying existing characters to beta realms, or may choose from high-level pre-made template characters.

Zones

• Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir, two new level 80-82 zones, are available for testing. Deepholm, a new level 82-83 zone is available for testing. Players may find their way to these zones by speaking with temporary teleportation NPCs located in any major city.
• The level ranges of Gilneas and the Lost Isles are in the process of being adjusted slightly. Creature, quest, and quest reward levels are all being altered so that players finish questing in these zones roughly by level 12. Further fine tuning will continue in future content updates.
• Several zones have had quest maps integrated.
• Eastern Kingdoms
  
  • Arathi Highlands, Blasted Lands, The Cape of Stranglethorn, Dun Morogh, Duskwood, Eastern Plaguelands, Elwynn Forest, Hinterlands, Loch Modan, Northern Stranglethorn, Northshire, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Tirisfal Glades, Western Plaguelands and Westfall are ready for testing.
• Kalimdor
  
  • Most zones in Kalimdor are available for testing, though work continues on polishing the quest experience and flow, as well as zone aesthetics.

Dungeons & Raids

• Blackrock Caverns, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
• The Stonecore, a new level 82-84 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
• Throne of the Tides, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.

Classes: General

• All hunter and warlock pets have been deleted to address a data corruption issue. Hunters will need to tame new pets, while warlocks will notice the names of their pets have changed.
• Ammo has been removed from the game.
• The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
• The glyph system is in the process of being altered. Existing glyphs may not be fully supported or functional.
• Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
• Rage has been normalized.
• Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
• A first pass on new talent trees has been implemented.
  
  • Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
  • Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
  • 31 points must be spent in the primary specialization tree before any points can be placed in additional trees.
  • Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
  • More information regarding our plans for talent trees can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...andmastery.xml

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• A dedicated tanking tree has been implemented.
• The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids. The feature is functional, but the interface art is still a work in-progress.

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
• Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
• Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
• The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• We are in the process of overhauling many paladin talents, spells and abilities. Expect updates in upcoming patches.

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Professions

• The Reforging interface has been implemented, however it may not currently be hooked up correctly to the corresponding NPCs.

User Interface

• The ability to use third-party addons has been temporarily disabled for the test environment.
• The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
• Auto-quests have been added to the game. Players will automatically be given an auto-quest by entering specific areas in the game world. This alert will appear distinctly in the Objectives pane via the Advanced Quest Tracking feature. These quests will still be given to players with full Quest Logs, but will count toward the 25 total allotted quests if the log is not full.
• The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
• The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
• Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
• New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
• Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
• Raid frames are now available and have temporarily replaced the standard party frames so that players can test them.
• The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.

Graphics

• Experimental support for DX11 (can be enabled by passing ‘-d3d11’ on the command line or adding SET gxApi "d3d11" to the Config.WTF file).
• OpenGL Hardware Cursor support (can be enabled on the Video Resolution Panel).
• Improved water and lava rendering system (enabled by the Liquid Detail slider on the Video Effects Panel)
  
  • 0 = Classic Water
  • 1 = New Water (fake reflections)
  • 2 = New Water (ocean has real reflection for terrain)
  • These values are likely to change during Beta.
• Dynamic Sunshafts effect (enabled by the Sunshafts option on the Video Effects Panel).

Known Issues

• Sudden Death procs do not reset the cooldown of Colossus Smash.
• Several cloaks are displayed incorrectly on draenei females.
• Ground mounts can be used when underwater in Vashj'ir.
• Corpses are not tapped on the quest "Free Your Mind" allowing other players to use the Sovereign Rod on targets they did not kill.
• While on the quest "Blood and Thunder!" NPCs will despawn prior to the event and the quest cannot be completed.
• Sound is cutting in and out during two segments of Mor'norokk's voiceover during the quest, "Some Spraining to Do".
• Characters with two professions learned cannot train new spells.
• The spell effect visuals for Healing Rain and Earthquake look awkward when cast on a staircase or a steep incline.
• Guild control and guild banks are experiencing issues related to the new guild leveling interface and functionality. In addition, guild experience may not display properly when players change zones, and guild members will be demoted to the lowest guild rank when logging out.
• Battleground queues are undergoing significant changes and are not currently operational.
• Gnome and troll characters have a broken background displayed as well as a LUA error at the character selection and creation screens. Having either a gnome or troll character can cause newly created characters to not display on the character list until it is refreshed by logging out and back in, switching realms and then switch back, or logging into and back out of the realm.
• Players are currently unable to create new worgen characters.
• Selecting high Liquid Detail when using Geforce 6 & 7 series video cards will currently prevent lava and water from rendering properly. You can temporarily restore liquid to the world by reducing the Liquid Detail setting via the Video Effects Panel, or by typing “waterDetail 0” in your Config.WTF file.

Bug Fixes

• Entering a phase with phased terrain (i.e. Rim of the World) no longer boots players from flying mounts.
• Players are now able to receive Stoneskin Totem from shaman trainers.
• The quest "Up the Volcano" can now be completed.
• Characters now ride the Swift Seahorse for the quest "Waking the Beast."
• The mob Tendril from Below should no longer fall below the world when killed.
• Globe of Boiling Water should now drop from Scalding Water Lords for the quest "Full of Hot Water."
• The quest "Blackfin's Booty" can be completed.
• The quest "Offering to Azshara" can be completed.
• The quest "Seeds of Discord" should reset properly.
• The rug in Stormglen Inn is should no longer be experiencing z-fighting with the floor beneath it.
• The fire damage from lava should no longer hit players at any height.
• Trainers are functioning properly.
• Selecting a character on the character select screen after creating a new one will no longer cause the game to display and act on the character two slots above the selected one.