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World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies
by
Published on 2010-06-18 11:21 PM
Cataclysm Preview - Grim Batol
[blizzquote author=Blizzard source=http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/grimbatol.html]
During a bloody civil war among the three dwarven factions of Ironforge, the Bronzebeards ousted the Wildhammer and the Dark Iron clans from the ancient corridors of the mountain city. In the wake of the defeat, the Wildhammers ventured north and forged a new home, Grim Batol, in the mountains of what is now the Twilight Highlands. However, although they worked tirelessly to create a better future for themselves, the Dark Irons, who established the city of Thaurissan in the Redridge Mountains, could not move beyond the memory of their defeat. Consumed by the desire for revenge and desperate to control the entire dwarven region of Khaz Modan, the Dark Irons led a two-pronged assault on the Bronzebeards in Ironforge and the Wildhammers in Grim Batol. Despite their past differences, these two embattled rivals joined forces and drove the Dark Irons out of Khaz Modan, decimating the armies of the treacherous clan's sorcerer-thane, Thaurissan. Yet victory carried grave consequences. Although Thaurissan's wife and queen, Modgud, was slain during the attack on Grim Batol, her death tainted the mountain fortress. While the Bronzebeards rebuilt their glorious city of Ironforge, the Wildhammers felt forever changed by the horrors they witnessed at Grim Batol. They fled their cursed home and never returned.
The abandoned city's defiled corridors later became home to a number of nefarious plots. When the Demon Soul was discovered by the Dragonmaw clan and used to force Alexstrasza's drakes to serve the Horde, Grim Batol acted as the red Dragon Aspect's torturous prison. The Dragonmaw held Grim Batol through the Second War, before they were driven out by Deathwing, who planned to steal Alexstrasza's eggs. Yet as Deathwing carried out his plan, the Demon Soul was destroyed, and the powers locked within were returned to Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Malygos. Deathwing narrowly escaped an assault by the four re-empowered Dragon Aspects, although he did not leave empty-handed; in his grasp were the eggs of Alexstrasza. For their vile transgressions, the fleeing Dragonmaw were shown no mercy, and the struggle came to a quick end. Members of the red dragonflight were left behind to keep watch over Grim Batol, and for years they successfully guarded its desolate halls from further intrusion... until the arrival of the Twilight's Hammer, a sinister cult who worshipped Azeroth's malefic Old Gods.
The cult, seduced by Deathwing's thirst for absolute domination over Azeroth, has claimed the Twilight Highlands as its base of operations. The black dragonflight has driven off the agents of the red dragonflight who guarded Grim Batol so that it may be used as a fortress for training Deathwing's minions. The halls of Grim Batol run so deep into the highlands that it is unknown to what twisted end the Twilight's Hammer is using this doomed dwarven marvel.
Called to action by the red dragonflight in the Twilight Highlands, players will be charged with putting a decisive end to the foul machinations developing within the level-85, 5-player dungeon of Grim Batol. The ferocity of the enemies within should not be underestimated, and with the assistance of brave Red Drakes and a handful of explosives, players can thin the ranks of Grim Batol's occupiers through bombing flights into the ruined city's corridors. Regardless of how successful these attacks might be, General Umbris will not allow his army to fall so quickly. In the end, adventurers will be left to their own devices, venturing into the darkest recesses of the dwarven fortress, where a nightmarish enemy is taking shape. Will you be able to uncover Grim Batol's secrets and emerge unscathed, or will your destiny be sealed within this tortured city, like so many brave heroes before you?[/blizzquote]
[blizzquote author=Blizzard source=http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/grimbatol.html]
During a bloody civil war among the three dwarven factions of Ironforge, the Bronzebeards ousted the Wildhammer and the Dark Iron clans from the ancient corridors of the mountain city. In the wake of the defeat, the Wildhammers ventured north and forged a new home, Grim Batol, in the mountains of what is now the Twilight Highlands. However, although they worked tirelessly to create a better future for themselves, the Dark Irons, who established the city of Thaurissan in the Redridge Mountains, could not move beyond the memory of their defeat. Consumed by the desire for revenge and desperate to control the entire dwarven region of Khaz Modan, the Dark Irons led a two-pronged assault on the Bronzebeards in Ironforge and the Wildhammers in Grim Batol. Despite their past differences, these two embattled rivals joined forces and drove the Dark Irons out of Khaz Modan, decimating the armies of the treacherous clan's sorcerer-thane, Thaurissan. Yet victory carried grave consequences. Although Thaurissan's wife and queen, Modgud, was slain during the attack on Grim Batol, her death tainted the mountain fortress. While the Bronzebeards rebuilt their glorious city of Ironforge, the Wildhammers felt forever changed by the horrors they witnessed at Grim Batol. They fled their cursed home and never returned.
The abandoned city's defiled corridors later became home to a number of nefarious plots. When the Demon Soul was discovered by the Dragonmaw clan and used to force Alexstrasza's drakes to serve the Horde, Grim Batol acted as the red Dragon Aspect's torturous prison. The Dragonmaw held Grim Batol through the Second War, before they were driven out by Deathwing, who planned to steal Alexstrasza's eggs. Yet as Deathwing carried out his plan, the Demon Soul was destroyed, and the powers locked within were returned to Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Malygos. Deathwing narrowly escaped an assault by the four re-empowered Dragon Aspects, although he did not leave empty-handed; in his grasp were the eggs of Alexstrasza. For their vile transgressions, the fleeing Dragonmaw were shown no mercy, and the struggle came to a quick end. Members of the red dragonflight were left behind to keep watch over Grim Batol, and for years they successfully guarded its desolate halls from further intrusion... until the arrival of the Twilight's Hammer, a sinister cult who worshipped Azeroth's malefic Old Gods.
The cult, seduced by Deathwing's thirst for absolute domination over Azeroth, has claimed the Twilight Highlands as its base of operations. The black dragonflight has driven off the agents of the red dragonflight who guarded Grim Batol so that it may be used as a fortress for training Deathwing's minions. The halls of Grim Batol run so deep into the highlands that it is unknown to what twisted end the Twilight's Hammer is using this doomed dwarven marvel.
Called to action by the red dragonflight in the Twilight Highlands, players will be charged with putting a decisive end to the foul machinations developing within the level-85, 5-player dungeon of Grim Batol. The ferocity of the enemies within should not be underestimated, and with the assistance of brave Red Drakes and a handful of explosives, players can thin the ranks of Grim Batol's occupiers through bombing flights into the ruined city's corridors. Regardless of how successful these attacks might be, General Umbris will not allow his army to fall so quickly. In the end, adventurers will be left to their own devices, venturing into the darkest recesses of the dwarven fortress, where a nightmarish enemy is taking shape. Will you be able to uncover Grim Batol's secrets and emerge unscathed, or will your destiny be sealed within this tortured city, like so many brave heroes before you?[/blizzquote]
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Published on 2010-06-18 07:49 AM
Screenshot of the Day - Halls of Origination
The Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated with a screenshot of the Halls of Origination's floor.
Blue posts
The Bridge in Redridge Mountains
No spoilers, but there is no way we could request Redridge without the bridge playing a prominent role.
(Source)
Honor/Badges Cap
We don't limit honor per week, but we do cap it. In the same way we won't limit the hero points per week that you can earn from heroic dungeons. We do limit the arena points you can gain per week (called conquest points in Cataclysm since you can earn them from rated BGs) as we limit the number of valor points -- the Frost equivalent that you earn from raids. In short, the upper tier is harder to earn and more prestigious to own, but once the tier advances you can quickly catch up to the first tier while the second one becomes the new high-end goal.
Technically the Frost badges are limited per week right now, it's just that the cap is set to max number possible. In Cataclysm, the cap will be lower than the max number possible so you have some decisions about how to earn those points rather than having to do everything.
Lower tier -- no cap per time, but an overall cap. In LK: Honor (PvP) and Triumph (PvE). In Cataclysm: Honor (PvP) and Heroism (PvE).
Upper tier -- cap per time. In LK: Arena points (PvP) and Frost (PvE). In Cataclysm: Conquest (PvP) and Valor (PvE). (Source)
Amount of gear in 10/25-Player raids
Me: "We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes."
The heroic 25 will drop more armor, weapons and tier-piece tokens per player than the heroic 10. The normal 25 will drop more badges per player than the normal 10, and it might drop more armor and weapons as well. Legendaries would most likely be both 10 and 25. We don't want a player to have to say "I prefer running 10s, but now I feel like I have to run 25s to get a specific item." If they say "I prefer running 10s, but now I feel like I have to run 25s to gear up faster," well, tough. (Source)
[...] Imagine those ratios were reversed and a 10 dropped 1.2 items per raid (1 per 8.3 players) and a 25 dropped 5 per raid (1 per 5 players). Now the 25 is more efficient. It's more complicated than that because you might have more competition for a powerful drop in 25s, while you might shard more loot in 10s because the target class / spec isn't present. (Source)
Cataclysm Legendary
I don't know the details because we probably won't do a legendary for the first tier, but we would definitely not want a structure such that a 25 guild felt like the fastest way to finish the item was to run multiple 10s. If the 25s could finish it first, that would be fine. The 10s would still be able to get the item, which is not possible today. (Source)
Benefits of 25-Player raids
Your assumption here is that there is some magic tipping point at which a 10 dude wouldn't feel compelled to run a 25 and a 25 dude wouldn't feel stupid for not running a 10. That number may in fact exist, but it may be very hard to hit. I will tell you that we had to go to a whole tier of gear to make the heroics feel like they were worth doing.
The stereotypical hardcore 25 guild (and I used "stereotypical" specifically because I'm not sure how meaningful it is to try and talk about a typical guild) is very concerned with efficiency. They want to get the final boss killed as quickly as possible and gear up everyone quickly. They feel a sense of accomplishment in doing things quickly. Thus we hope the benefit of gearing up more quickly by doing 25s is enough to keep them doing 25s. (Source)
10-Player Heroic Gear = 25-Player Heroic Gear
Yes. The exact same loot tables, but more rolls on those tables for the larger raids, particularly 25 heroic. (Source)
Journey through all the raid tiers in TBC
The problem is that journey was not made by many players (and I'm talking about interested players, not those with no interest in raiding). For everyone who progressed through all of those tiers, a huge percentage of players dropped out along the way, possibly just from the time commitment before they finally got to see the exciting new stuff that everyone was talking about. It might have worked okay for very tight-knit guilds with very stable rosters, but it was a hassle for other guilds who had to go do farming runs just to gear up one or two new players or alts before they could get back into progression. Again, it was more content to have to go back and do old zones, but I'm not sure it was fun content.
We want raiding players, in general, to be able to see the final content. If Icecrown was being used by 10% or less of the raiding population then not only is it pretty hard to justify all of the production time it takes to make a raid, but it also feels to players who don't finish the journey like they don't get to see the climax of the story. Game designers, at least in this day and age, actually want players to finish their games, not drop out somewhere along the way when things get too tedious and difficult. (If you like difficult, that's what heroic modes are for. If you like tedious, well I guess try to get the Insane in the Membrane achievement.) (Source)
Skill vs. Gear
If you want to know a little secret, part of the reason we can't use gear as a barrier to entry any longer is because the skill of the raiding population has grown so dramatically. The guilds who got the first kills in Icecrown probably could have done it with gear from a couple of tiers prior (with the possible exception of heroic LK). Skill trumps an enormous amount of power from gear. (Source)
Raid content accessibility
You're asking for us to spend an inordinate amount of our development time on a very small portion of our player base. That might work for an instance as easy to develop as Molten Core. It won't work for Ulduar. Making raids only for the top 2% is hard to justify when we're sitting there looking at a long feature list trying to decide what features we want to do for Cataclysm and what has to wait. The equivalent would be saying "This is the Survival hunter expansion. We're going to spend a huge chunk of our development time on Survival hunters. If you don't play a hunter, sorry, but please buy our expansion anyway." Your strategy should actually be welcoming as many players as possible into raids -- that's what allows us to keep spending so much time and effort on them. (Source)
Keeping old content alive and challenging
I'm not sure you feel this way, but typically the response is "I walked uphill in the snow, so they should have to as well." You got to the content first. You were showing off your tier set and Shadowmourne in Dalaran before those others guys. Why does it matter if they will eventually be able to catch up to you (especially since you'll pull ahead again the second a new raid is available)? The alternative is saying that those players should want to run through every raid tier before they can hit the new stuff, but I can tell you that whether or not they want to (and many don't) the facts suggest that they never finish and give up on raiding.
We're not really trying to keep Black Temple or Sunwell alive at this point, and by the same token, we're okay if Naxx has basically been reduced to achievements or weekly raid quests. It had its time in the sun. We don't need to prop it up forever. (Source)
Concept Art
The official Concept Art Gallery has been updated with two new pieces.
The Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated with a screenshot of the Halls of Origination's floor.
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
The Bridge in Redridge Mountains
No spoilers, but there is no way we could request Redridge without the bridge playing a prominent role.
(Source)Honor/Badges Cap
We don't limit honor per week, but we do cap it. In the same way we won't limit the hero points per week that you can earn from heroic dungeons. We do limit the arena points you can gain per week (called conquest points in Cataclysm since you can earn them from rated BGs) as we limit the number of valor points -- the Frost equivalent that you earn from raids. In short, the upper tier is harder to earn and more prestigious to own, but once the tier advances you can quickly catch up to the first tier while the second one becomes the new high-end goal.
Technically the Frost badges are limited per week right now, it's just that the cap is set to max number possible. In Cataclysm, the cap will be lower than the max number possible so you have some decisions about how to earn those points rather than having to do everything.
Lower tier -- no cap per time, but an overall cap. In LK: Honor (PvP) and Triumph (PvE). In Cataclysm: Honor (PvP) and Heroism (PvE).
Upper tier -- cap per time. In LK: Arena points (PvP) and Frost (PvE). In Cataclysm: Conquest (PvP) and Valor (PvE). (Source)
Amount of gear in 10/25-Player raids
Me: "We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes."
The heroic 25 will drop more armor, weapons and tier-piece tokens per player than the heroic 10. The normal 25 will drop more badges per player than the normal 10, and it might drop more armor and weapons as well. Legendaries would most likely be both 10 and 25. We don't want a player to have to say "I prefer running 10s, but now I feel like I have to run 25s to get a specific item." If they say "I prefer running 10s, but now I feel like I have to run 25s to gear up faster," well, tough. (Source)
[...] Imagine those ratios were reversed and a 10 dropped 1.2 items per raid (1 per 8.3 players) and a 25 dropped 5 per raid (1 per 5 players). Now the 25 is more efficient. It's more complicated than that because you might have more competition for a powerful drop in 25s, while you might shard more loot in 10s because the target class / spec isn't present. (Source)
Cataclysm Legendary
I don't know the details because we probably won't do a legendary for the first tier, but we would definitely not want a structure such that a 25 guild felt like the fastest way to finish the item was to run multiple 10s. If the 25s could finish it first, that would be fine. The 10s would still be able to get the item, which is not possible today. (Source)
Benefits of 25-Player raids
Your assumption here is that there is some magic tipping point at which a 10 dude wouldn't feel compelled to run a 25 and a 25 dude wouldn't feel stupid for not running a 10. That number may in fact exist, but it may be very hard to hit. I will tell you that we had to go to a whole tier of gear to make the heroics feel like they were worth doing.
The stereotypical hardcore 25 guild (and I used "stereotypical" specifically because I'm not sure how meaningful it is to try and talk about a typical guild) is very concerned with efficiency. They want to get the final boss killed as quickly as possible and gear up everyone quickly. They feel a sense of accomplishment in doing things quickly. Thus we hope the benefit of gearing up more quickly by doing 25s is enough to keep them doing 25s. (Source)
10-Player Heroic Gear = 25-Player Heroic Gear
Yes. The exact same loot tables, but more rolls on those tables for the larger raids, particularly 25 heroic. (Source)
Journey through all the raid tiers in TBC
The problem is that journey was not made by many players (and I'm talking about interested players, not those with no interest in raiding). For everyone who progressed through all of those tiers, a huge percentage of players dropped out along the way, possibly just from the time commitment before they finally got to see the exciting new stuff that everyone was talking about. It might have worked okay for very tight-knit guilds with very stable rosters, but it was a hassle for other guilds who had to go do farming runs just to gear up one or two new players or alts before they could get back into progression. Again, it was more content to have to go back and do old zones, but I'm not sure it was fun content.
We want raiding players, in general, to be able to see the final content. If Icecrown was being used by 10% or less of the raiding population then not only is it pretty hard to justify all of the production time it takes to make a raid, but it also feels to players who don't finish the journey like they don't get to see the climax of the story. Game designers, at least in this day and age, actually want players to finish their games, not drop out somewhere along the way when things get too tedious and difficult. (If you like difficult, that's what heroic modes are for. If you like tedious, well I guess try to get the Insane in the Membrane achievement.) (Source)
Skill vs. Gear
If you want to know a little secret, part of the reason we can't use gear as a barrier to entry any longer is because the skill of the raiding population has grown so dramatically. The guilds who got the first kills in Icecrown probably could have done it with gear from a couple of tiers prior (with the possible exception of heroic LK). Skill trumps an enormous amount of power from gear. (Source)
Raid content accessibility
You're asking for us to spend an inordinate amount of our development time on a very small portion of our player base. That might work for an instance as easy to develop as Molten Core. It won't work for Ulduar. Making raids only for the top 2% is hard to justify when we're sitting there looking at a long feature list trying to decide what features we want to do for Cataclysm and what has to wait. The equivalent would be saying "This is the Survival hunter expansion. We're going to spend a huge chunk of our development time on Survival hunters. If you don't play a hunter, sorry, but please buy our expansion anyway." Your strategy should actually be welcoming as many players as possible into raids -- that's what allows us to keep spending so much time and effort on them. (Source)
Keeping old content alive and challenging
I'm not sure you feel this way, but typically the response is "I walked uphill in the snow, so they should have to as well." You got to the content first. You were showing off your tier set and Shadowmourne in Dalaran before those others guys. Why does it matter if they will eventually be able to catch up to you (especially since you'll pull ahead again the second a new raid is available)? The alternative is saying that those players should want to run through every raid tier before they can hit the new stuff, but I can tell you that whether or not they want to (and many don't) the facts suggest that they never finish and give up on raiding.
We're not really trying to keep Black Temple or Sunwell alive at this point, and by the same token, we're okay if Naxx has basically been reduced to achievements or weekly raid quests. It had its time in the sun. We don't need to prop it up forever. (Source)
Concept Art
The official Concept Art Gallery has been updated with two new pieces.
by
Published on 2010-06-17 08:17 AM
WoW Movie - Not really "soon"
Apparently we will have to wait a while before there is anything new about the World of Warcraft Movie. Deadline.com reports that Sam Raimi will direct the Wizard of Oz prequel for Disney.
Assuming that Sam Raimi is still the director for the World of Warcraft movie as previously announced by Blizzard, it looks like it will have to wait a little longer.
Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day - Steamwheedle Port
The screenshot of the day gallery has been updated with a screenshot of what's left of the Steamwheedle Port (Tanaris) in Cataclysm.
Blue posts
Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with 3 new pieces of fan artwork.
World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper
The World of Warcraft Fan Wallpapers section has been updated with the 3rd piece of the very impressive "The Stars' Fury" series of artworks from Jeremy Sun. He also has a pretty nice gallery on wow.duowan.com
I'm sure one of the elite photoshopper of the forum will create a nice compilation of the 3 wallpapers, and one of our extreme geek will post a nice picture of the wallpapers on a 3 monitors setup. (Do it, please.)
Update - A nice panorama of the 3 wallpapers is available in the forums.
Apparently we will have to wait a while before there is anything new about the World of Warcraft Movie. Deadline.com reports that Sam Raimi will direct the Wizard of Oz prequel for Disney.
Assuming that Sam Raimi is still the director for the World of Warcraft movie as previously announced by Blizzard, it looks like it will have to wait a little longer.
Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day - Steamwheedle Port
The screenshot of the day gallery has been updated with a screenshot of what's left of the Steamwheedle Port (Tanaris) in Cataclysm.
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Reforging - Spirit will be a reforgeable stat
We don't want players changing Agi, Str, Stam or Int (or armor!) on items for probably obvious reasons, but converting Spirit to something else or something else into Spirit shouldn't be a problem. (Source)
Cataclysm Hard Modes
They will probably be unlocked very quickly, maybe after one clear, or maybe right from the beginning. We're still working those logistics out. We held the LK ones back partially because we shipped that patch late in the year and didn't want to ask players to raid their asses off over the holiday season. (Yeah, I know, more nanny state discussion ensues.) (Source)
Cataclysm Raid Gear Requirements
I would also expect a little more gearing up from 85 quests / heroics / crafted materials before jumping right into the raids this time around. (Source)
25-Player Raids not attractive anymore in Cataclysm?
If we wanted to remove 25-player raids, we'd just do that. We know a lot of players like them. Personally, I will probably keep raiding 25s. A lot of players like the 10s too though, and despite what fans of the 25s might think, offering lower item level loot in the 10s doesn't make them attractive enough. We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes. Many (though not all) of the players worried about the reward per effort of 25 raiding are concerned more with the heroic modes. (Source)
Running both 25 and 10-Player raids each week
This isn't speculation on our part. We have the data. As far as motivation, in some cases the 10 gear ends up being better than the 25 gear. Especially on 10 heroic, which a group of raiders in 25 level gear can often handle, the 10 gear is equivalent. There is also the issue of badges, which you can only maximize if you hit both versions every week.
We know there are a lot of players who want to run 10s who feel compelled to run 25s for the better loot. We know there are a lot of players who want to run 25s and feel like they still have to do 10s as well. We know both groups of players are getting frustrated and burning out -- not because they don't like raiding, but because they don't like raiding the same content twice a week, particularly when the 10 version tends to not even be challenging since their 25 participation ensures they overgear it.
One raid lockout with same item levels for 10 and 25 and a weekly cap on badge income solves all of those problems for us. It does creates two potential new problems. One, players may gravitate towards 10s because the logistics are easier. We intend to handle that by making 25s more efficient at earning gear. Two, players who really like to run both a 10 and 25 every week lose that opportunity. Sorry. If it's any consolation, because the bosses are divided among multiple raid zones you can still do some in a 10 and some in a 25 or have an alt that only does a couple of those zones a week without the full commitment of two complete boss kill cycles every week. (Source)
Guild talents "removal"
I think this is a common problem. Some players focused on "cut guild talents" without reading what we are doing instead.
Imagine you are a priest. Some of your spells are talents, such as Penance and Circle of Healing. If you take Circle of Healing, you don't have enough points to get Penance. Talent trees are about (sometimes tough) decisions. However, many of your other spells you get by leveling, such as Prayer of Mending and Mass Dispel. You don't have to make a hard choice to get those, but you do have to put some work in.
The guild bonuses used to be talents. They are now more like leveling spells. We call them perks now instead of talents. We haven't cut any content, but just changed the UI from boxes with prereqs to a list. (Source)
Cataclysm Features
I try not to make ranked lists of features between expansions, because it always feels like you're comparing apples to oranges ("Now with 14.2% more raid bosses!') and has a lot to do with how interested you are in any of those features ("Fishing has a new icon!"). I'll just say that Cataclysm is massive, feels really polished even at this early stage, and has a ton of content. It feels a lot like two expansions, because you have the 80-85 content as well as an all new 1-60 experience. We don't sing the praises of our quest design team enough. They have poured their souls into this expansion and you realize that from your very first quest. There are just so many "holy crap!" moments. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Jumping charge and intercepts
We don't view avoiding a Charge in this way to be an acceptable use of skill. Note that I am talking very specifically about the OP's scenario, and not about whether warriors are punished more or less than other classes for internet latency. (Source)
We don't want players changing Agi, Str, Stam or Int (or armor!) on items for probably obvious reasons, but converting Spirit to something else or something else into Spirit shouldn't be a problem. (Source)
Cataclysm Hard Modes
They will probably be unlocked very quickly, maybe after one clear, or maybe right from the beginning. We're still working those logistics out. We held the LK ones back partially because we shipped that patch late in the year and didn't want to ask players to raid their asses off over the holiday season. (Yeah, I know, more nanny state discussion ensues.) (Source)
Cataclysm Raid Gear Requirements
I would also expect a little more gearing up from 85 quests / heroics / crafted materials before jumping right into the raids this time around. (Source)
25-Player Raids not attractive anymore in Cataclysm?
If we wanted to remove 25-player raids, we'd just do that. We know a lot of players like them. Personally, I will probably keep raiding 25s. A lot of players like the 10s too though, and despite what fans of the 25s might think, offering lower item level loot in the 10s doesn't make them attractive enough. We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes. Many (though not all) of the players worried about the reward per effort of 25 raiding are concerned more with the heroic modes. (Source)
Running both 25 and 10-Player raids each week
This isn't speculation on our part. We have the data. As far as motivation, in some cases the 10 gear ends up being better than the 25 gear. Especially on 10 heroic, which a group of raiders in 25 level gear can often handle, the 10 gear is equivalent. There is also the issue of badges, which you can only maximize if you hit both versions every week.
We know there are a lot of players who want to run 10s who feel compelled to run 25s for the better loot. We know there are a lot of players who want to run 25s and feel like they still have to do 10s as well. We know both groups of players are getting frustrated and burning out -- not because they don't like raiding, but because they don't like raiding the same content twice a week, particularly when the 10 version tends to not even be challenging since their 25 participation ensures they overgear it.
One raid lockout with same item levels for 10 and 25 and a weekly cap on badge income solves all of those problems for us. It does creates two potential new problems. One, players may gravitate towards 10s because the logistics are easier. We intend to handle that by making 25s more efficient at earning gear. Two, players who really like to run both a 10 and 25 every week lose that opportunity. Sorry. If it's any consolation, because the bosses are divided among multiple raid zones you can still do some in a 10 and some in a 25 or have an alt that only does a couple of those zones a week without the full commitment of two complete boss kill cycles every week. (Source)
Guild talents "removal"
I think this is a common problem. Some players focused on "cut guild talents" without reading what we are doing instead.
Imagine you are a priest. Some of your spells are talents, such as Penance and Circle of Healing. If you take Circle of Healing, you don't have enough points to get Penance. Talent trees are about (sometimes tough) decisions. However, many of your other spells you get by leveling, such as Prayer of Mending and Mass Dispel. You don't have to make a hard choice to get those, but you do have to put some work in.
The guild bonuses used to be talents. They are now more like leveling spells. We call them perks now instead of talents. We haven't cut any content, but just changed the UI from boxes with prereqs to a list. (Source)
Cataclysm Features
I try not to make ranked lists of features between expansions, because it always feels like you're comparing apples to oranges ("Now with 14.2% more raid bosses!') and has a lot to do with how interested you are in any of those features ("Fishing has a new icon!"). I'll just say that Cataclysm is massive, feels really polished even at this early stage, and has a ton of content. It feels a lot like two expansions, because you have the 80-85 content as well as an all new 1-60 experience. We don't sing the praises of our quest design team enough. They have poured their souls into this expansion and you realize that from your very first quest. There are just so many "holy crap!" moments. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)Jumping charge and intercepts
We don't view avoiding a Charge in this way to be an acceptable use of skill. Note that I am talking very specifically about the OP's scenario, and not about whether warriors are punished more or less than other classes for internet latency. (Source)
Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with 3 new pieces of fan artwork.
World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper
The World of Warcraft Fan Wallpapers section has been updated with the 3rd piece of the very impressive "The Stars' Fury" series of artworks from Jeremy Sun. He also has a pretty nice gallery on wow.duowan.com
I'm sure one of the elite photoshopper of the forum will create a nice compilation of the 3 wallpapers, and one of our extreme geek will post a nice picture of the wallpapers on a 3 monitors setup. (Do it, please.)
Update - A nice panorama of the 3 wallpapers is available in the forums.
by
Published on 2010-06-16 08:24 AM
I'm sure you will be happy to know that most of the server issues we had post migration are now resolved. The most annoying bugs on the site should be gone very shortly now that there is time to work on it.
Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day Compilation
Blizzard released a screenshot of Cataclysm each day for the past 7 weeks and we have more than enough of them to do a compilation of what we saw. Enjoy!
Blue posts
Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day Compilation
Blizzard released a screenshot of Cataclysm each day for the past 7 weeks and we have more than enough of them to do a compilation of what we saw. Enjoy!
 Abyssal Maw |
 Abyssal Maw |
 Abyssal Maw |
 Abyssal Maw |
 Azshara |
 Azshara |
 Blackrock Caverns |
 Blackrock Caverns |
 Blackrock Caverns |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Blasted Lands (Tainted Scar) |
 Brill |
 Deepholm |
 Desolace |
 Forsaken Invasion of Gilneas |
 Gadgetzan |
 Gilneas |
 Grim Batol |
 Grim Batol |
 Halls of Origination |
 Halls of Origination |
 Lost Isles |
 Lost Isles |
 Lost Isles |
 Mount Hyjal |
 Mount Hyjal |
 Mulgore (Red Cloud Mesa) |
 Orgrimmar |
 Stonetalon Mountains |
 Stonetalon Mountains |
 Stonetalon Mountains |
 Stonetalon Mountains |
 Stonetalon Mountains |
 Stormwind (Bank) |
 Swamp of Sorrows |
 Thousand Needles Speedbarge |
 Thousand Needles Speedbarge |
 Thousand Needles |
 Thousand Needles Speedbarge |
 Vashj'ir |
 Vashj'ir |
 Vash'jir |
 Vash'jir |
 Westfall |
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
A message to Blizzard about the Public Beta and the NDA Lift
by
Published on 2010-06-15 08:56 AM
Is Patch 3.3.5 Today?
You're all going to ask, so here is your answer: most likely no. The latest PTR Maintenance was yesterday and as I write this post it's still going on because there is more work to do. I could be wrong but I really don't see it happening.
TheSpeedGamers Mario Marathon
If you read this site regularly you probably know that every now and then I like to mention of the Speed Gamers Marathon on the front page. I think I skipped the past 2 but an 8 days Mario Marathon is currently in progress and it's definitely worth mentioning.
The marathon is to support ACT Today (Autism and Care Treatment) and will last until Friday. As usual I'll keep the stream and the ChipIn widget on the front page for a while.
Blue posts
Raids & Dungeons
Caster Legendary in Cataclysm
Blizzard has already confirmed that the first tier of Cataclysm raiding will have a caster DPS legendary weapon. Probably a dagger.
I don't *think* we've confirmed that, but there was a lot of press last week so maybe somebody said something off the cuff.
We haven't put a legendary on the first tier of content the last two expansions. It just feels too soon and doesn't have the same impact when everyone is upgrading their gear so quickly from leveling.
We agree that it's probably the caster's turn when we do get around to adding one. I would be surprised if it was a dagger given that our artists like to have so much fun with the art -- even though Warcraft daggers are as large as claymores from other games, they're still relatively small. (Source)
Legendaries in 10 and 25-man raids
How legendaries will work out on a chance to obtain the items has yet to be determined. We are trying to avoid having one raid be the defacto better way to go simply based on gear and leave it up to the way players want to play. (Source)
Raid progress and shared 10/25-Man Raid ID in Cataclysm
I don't think it is that simple. Making raid progress is a really powerful motivator for a lot of players. While we design raiding to be much more inclusive than it used to be, we still want skill to be a big component. We don't want raiding to just be about who has the most free time, but who uses that time for the most progress. To be successful, MMOs need to had wide appeal. You should be able to have a professional or social life or (heaven forbid) other games you like to play and still feel like you can make progress in WoW.
The old BG model was one that essentially rewarded who played the most. Since some players were willing to play a ridiculous and unreasonable number of hours, the numbers were tuned around that to the point at which many players felt like the feature just wasn't for them. As you point out, they could have just made very slow progress, but in reality they felt so far behind that they chose not to participate at all. While the Arena design has its limitations, one of the things I like is that you can play your matches for the week and be done.
There are plenty of players who chose 25-player raiding over 10-player raiding and had no desire to kill a boss multiple times a week, but felt like they had to do so to earn badges and loot to stay competitive. We considered models such as letting you kill a boss as many times a week as you wanted but only having loot rights once, but then we realized how horrible that was going to be for say the guild's main tank who would be asked to raid constantly without even the hope for more loot of his own.
Really we're just trying to deliver on the original LK intent, which was you choose whether you like 10 or 25. (Source)
Amount of gear in 10/25-Man Raids
The amount of gear in the 25 person raids will be roughly equivalent on per-person basis to the 10 person raids. One thing to keep in mind it that we don't plan to allow players to upshift from 10s to 25s, only downshift from 25s to 10s on a given week.
The statements beforehand said that 25person would have more gear per person than 10s, so I wonder if "roughly equivalent" indicates a change in plans, or just not wanting to commit yet to either "exactly the same" or "more".
The number 6 per boss was being mentioned I believe, so slightly more I guess, but anything can change in testing so I wouldn't say that it is set in stone. But we all know you guys won't call us out if anything changes during a beta, right?
So basically there will be no real incentive (gear-wise at least) to run 25 man raids.
There are rewards like badges/gold for the additional coordination involved, but we are trying to avoid having gear be the reason that one style is better than the other.
Guild Perks / Leveling
Guild Talents "removal"
The only difference in the way we are handling the guild talents is it will be possible to get all of them instead of having one person in your guild pick and choose which ones you got. The feature has always focused on leveling your guild to unlock new perks. In fact, you're getting more perks this way than you would have if the decisions had been exclusive. (Source)
I understand not giving the GM all the power, but having a group customization would be fun.
But why would that be fun? Let's walk through it for a bit. Do you think it would be fun to try and recruit new members because you chose the "right" talent build? Do you think it would be fun to try and argue with your members about what the right talents were to take? Do you think it would be fun to feel like you should leave your guild because they took a lot of talents that didn't affect your play style? Those were all the problems we ran into as we started implementing things. Instead of the feature being exciting, it was causing a lot of anxiety for everyone here who was in a guild. Guilds are supposed to be about friends -- not min maxxing guild benefits. There are plenty other aspects of the game where you can min-max. (Source)
Guild Perks and Items rewards
There are two categories of rewards. The perks are things earned by the guild. If you join a high-level guild, you get those benefits immediately and you lose them if you bail on the guild. They are passive bonuses and a couple of spells, not items. Separately, there are also items you can purchase. The items are yours to keep even if you leave the guild. In order to discourage guild hopping, you have to make some kind of investment in the guild. But you can still choose to leave if in the future you just find that you'd rather be with someone else. (Source)
Guild Leveling
There are many ways to earn guild levels. We want to make sure nearly every existing guild has a shot at them all. The only question will be how fast you level. (Source)
Player vs. Player
Rated Battlegrounds
We keep a lot of players in mind when designing these types of things which is why we want to make it easily accessible. The guild you are listed in has a rather large number of people and the guild leveling/achievement system will help support this. Being in a guild like this, it likely won't be difficult to find a few guildies to put together a team and hop in the rated BG queue. There will still be non-rated BGs much like they are today if that suits you better.
There likely won't be detriments for losing rated BG games, but the increase of rating for winning. (At least when you first get going in them). Yes, you need to win to get rewards. Rated BGs aren't meant to be a way to just casually and aimlessly get the best PvP gear in the game, but to reward those who compete (and win) on the grand scale of battlegrounds. (Source)
Joining Rated Battlegrounds
This was just mentioned above, but I'll reiterate just for the sake of it. You need to be in a full group to join the rated BG queue. The team can change every week, between every match, whenever you like. The rating you receive is personal and not team-based so it doesn't matter who else is in the group. (Source)
Levitate/Water Walking exploit in Battlegrounds
Water Walking and Levitate was indeed removed from Battlegrounds. This was done to prevent the exploit in Strand of the Ancient.
[...] You shouldn't be able to use it during the preparation phase. After the preparation phase, these spells should work normally. Also, the fix should not remove any active auras that are turned on during the preparation phase (i.e. Path of Frost, Paladin Auras, etc). (Source)
Miscellaneous
Worgens/Goblins Death Knight on Cataclysm release day
We weren't going to prevent goblin or worgen DKs from day one. The realm first feats are cool, but I'm not sure we should let them dictate what classes people can and can't play. The entire realm first thing is over in a day or two anyway.
The thread implies you guys heard something different though, possibly from the recent press event. (Source)
Beta Invitation
One safe way to check is to log into your account at http://battle.net and check the "Manage My Games" section. If you actually received a beta invite, it wouldn't be in the form of a key. Your account would simply be flagged and the Cataclysm logo would show up in the "Manage My Games" section, allowing you to install it.
This is the safest way to check without clicking on any links sent to you. With that said, we have not begun sending out beta invites yet to my knowledge. (Source)
Cutting features from the game
If you were a game developer, perhaps you'd make different choices in our shoes. It's a subjective business and if you were super passionate about guild talents, perhaps you could have come up with a model that solved all of our concerns. Sometimes those concerns are visible early and sometimes you really have to get into the meat of the implementation before you realize the problems. We think the Blizzard development model has worked pretty well for over 15 years. Part of that model is being willing to cut something (features, or even titles) that isn't working out, no matter how much effort we've put into them. Keeping a feature that didn't work but that was clearly the pet feature of some developer has marred several potentially good games.
[...] As I mentioned in the above response, we have killed entire games and even game worlds before. If you go back and look at previous expansions of World of Warcraft, and certainly vanilla, there were features on the list that eventually were scrapped or changed into something completely different. As with much of our design, the alternative is not to share any information until we are 100% sure it is going to come to pass. That would mean you would know almost nothing about Cataclysm at this stage though, which would also be pretty frustrating. Every good game studio I know cuts features (and titles!) all the time.
It's like sculpting in stone. It's like good writing. You carve away until what you have left is the best you can make it. (Source)
Classes
Hit and Defense Stats
As I've posted before, we like hit. It's the kind of thing that makes you pay attention to your gearing, because rather than just snatch up each item that's a higher ilevel than what you currently have, you have to actually look at the stats. You can't approach every decision with "I like hit, so if it has hit, I'll take it."
Defense was a different beast because it was serving as a barrier to entry. Mages and hunters can run a dungeon just fine without being hit-capped. Sure their damage will be lower, but not so low that they can't handle the content. Defense wasn't designed the same way -- a tank not at the defense cap risked dying on a boss fight and literally couldn't handle the content. If we had instead taken defense and stripped off the extra avoidance and changed it so that it decreased crit damage (so it made more of a smooth curve), then we probably could have kept it, even with an eventual cap. (Source)
Stealth in Cataclysm
Every rogue has the best stealth built in -- they have Master of Deception for free. Druids still have to talent Feral Instinct for it because we don't want every druid (read Balance and Restoration) to have uber stealth. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Elemental and Restoration dual-wield in Cataclysm
Elemental and Resto are going to be pretty unlikely to want to dual-wield in Cataclysm. For the most part we want them using a one-handed caster weapon and shield. (Source)
You're all going to ask, so here is your answer: most likely no. The latest PTR Maintenance was yesterday and as I write this post it's still going on because there is more work to do. I could be wrong but I really don't see it happening.
TheSpeedGamers Mario Marathon
If you read this site regularly you probably know that every now and then I like to mention of the Speed Gamers Marathon on the front page. I think I skipped the past 2 but an 8 days Mario Marathon is currently in progress and it's definitely worth mentioning.
The marathon is to support ACT Today (Autism and Care Treatment) and will last until Friday. As usual I'll keep the stream and the ChipIn widget on the front page for a while.
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raids & Dungeons
Caster Legendary in Cataclysm
Blizzard has already confirmed that the first tier of Cataclysm raiding will have a caster DPS legendary weapon. Probably a dagger.
I don't *think* we've confirmed that, but there was a lot of press last week so maybe somebody said something off the cuff.
We haven't put a legendary on the first tier of content the last two expansions. It just feels too soon and doesn't have the same impact when everyone is upgrading their gear so quickly from leveling.
We agree that it's probably the caster's turn when we do get around to adding one. I would be surprised if it was a dagger given that our artists like to have so much fun with the art -- even though Warcraft daggers are as large as claymores from other games, they're still relatively small. (Source)
Legendaries in 10 and 25-man raids
How legendaries will work out on a chance to obtain the items has yet to be determined. We are trying to avoid having one raid be the defacto better way to go simply based on gear and leave it up to the way players want to play. (Source)
Raid progress and shared 10/25-Man Raid ID in Cataclysm
I don't think it is that simple. Making raid progress is a really powerful motivator for a lot of players. While we design raiding to be much more inclusive than it used to be, we still want skill to be a big component. We don't want raiding to just be about who has the most free time, but who uses that time for the most progress. To be successful, MMOs need to had wide appeal. You should be able to have a professional or social life or (heaven forbid) other games you like to play and still feel like you can make progress in WoW.
The old BG model was one that essentially rewarded who played the most. Since some players were willing to play a ridiculous and unreasonable number of hours, the numbers were tuned around that to the point at which many players felt like the feature just wasn't for them. As you point out, they could have just made very slow progress, but in reality they felt so far behind that they chose not to participate at all. While the Arena design has its limitations, one of the things I like is that you can play your matches for the week and be done.
There are plenty of players who chose 25-player raiding over 10-player raiding and had no desire to kill a boss multiple times a week, but felt like they had to do so to earn badges and loot to stay competitive. We considered models such as letting you kill a boss as many times a week as you wanted but only having loot rights once, but then we realized how horrible that was going to be for say the guild's main tank who would be asked to raid constantly without even the hope for more loot of his own.
Really we're just trying to deliver on the original LK intent, which was you choose whether you like 10 or 25. (Source)
Amount of gear in 10/25-Man Raids
The amount of gear in the 25 person raids will be roughly equivalent on per-person basis to the 10 person raids. One thing to keep in mind it that we don't plan to allow players to upshift from 10s to 25s, only downshift from 25s to 10s on a given week.
The statements beforehand said that 25person would have more gear per person than 10s, so I wonder if "roughly equivalent" indicates a change in plans, or just not wanting to commit yet to either "exactly the same" or "more".
The number 6 per boss was being mentioned I believe, so slightly more I guess, but anything can change in testing so I wouldn't say that it is set in stone. But we all know you guys won't call us out if anything changes during a beta, right?
So basically there will be no real incentive (gear-wise at least) to run 25 man raids.
There are rewards like badges/gold for the additional coordination involved, but we are trying to avoid having gear be the reason that one style is better than the other.
Guild Perks / Leveling
Guild Talents "removal"
The only difference in the way we are handling the guild talents is it will be possible to get all of them instead of having one person in your guild pick and choose which ones you got. The feature has always focused on leveling your guild to unlock new perks. In fact, you're getting more perks this way than you would have if the decisions had been exclusive. (Source)
I understand not giving the GM all the power, but having a group customization would be fun.
But why would that be fun? Let's walk through it for a bit. Do you think it would be fun to try and recruit new members because you chose the "right" talent build? Do you think it would be fun to try and argue with your members about what the right talents were to take? Do you think it would be fun to feel like you should leave your guild because they took a lot of talents that didn't affect your play style? Those were all the problems we ran into as we started implementing things. Instead of the feature being exciting, it was causing a lot of anxiety for everyone here who was in a guild. Guilds are supposed to be about friends -- not min maxxing guild benefits. There are plenty other aspects of the game where you can min-max. (Source)
Guild Perks and Items rewards
There are two categories of rewards. The perks are things earned by the guild. If you join a high-level guild, you get those benefits immediately and you lose them if you bail on the guild. They are passive bonuses and a couple of spells, not items. Separately, there are also items you can purchase. The items are yours to keep even if you leave the guild. In order to discourage guild hopping, you have to make some kind of investment in the guild. But you can still choose to leave if in the future you just find that you'd rather be with someone else. (Source)
Guild Leveling
There are many ways to earn guild levels. We want to make sure nearly every existing guild has a shot at them all. The only question will be how fast you level. (Source)
Player vs. Player
Rated Battlegrounds
We keep a lot of players in mind when designing these types of things which is why we want to make it easily accessible. The guild you are listed in has a rather large number of people and the guild leveling/achievement system will help support this. Being in a guild like this, it likely won't be difficult to find a few guildies to put together a team and hop in the rated BG queue. There will still be non-rated BGs much like they are today if that suits you better.
There likely won't be detriments for losing rated BG games, but the increase of rating for winning. (At least when you first get going in them). Yes, you need to win to get rewards. Rated BGs aren't meant to be a way to just casually and aimlessly get the best PvP gear in the game, but to reward those who compete (and win) on the grand scale of battlegrounds. (Source)
Joining Rated Battlegrounds
This was just mentioned above, but I'll reiterate just for the sake of it. You need to be in a full group to join the rated BG queue. The team can change every week, between every match, whenever you like. The rating you receive is personal and not team-based so it doesn't matter who else is in the group. (Source)
Levitate/Water Walking exploit in Battlegrounds
Water Walking and Levitate was indeed removed from Battlegrounds. This was done to prevent the exploit in Strand of the Ancient.
[...] You shouldn't be able to use it during the preparation phase. After the preparation phase, these spells should work normally. Also, the fix should not remove any active auras that are turned on during the preparation phase (i.e. Path of Frost, Paladin Auras, etc). (Source)
Miscellaneous
Worgens/Goblins Death Knight on Cataclysm release day
We weren't going to prevent goblin or worgen DKs from day one. The realm first feats are cool, but I'm not sure we should let them dictate what classes people can and can't play. The entire realm first thing is over in a day or two anyway.
The thread implies you guys heard something different though, possibly from the recent press event. (Source)
Beta Invitation
One safe way to check is to log into your account at http://battle.net and check the "Manage My Games" section. If you actually received a beta invite, it wouldn't be in the form of a key. Your account would simply be flagged and the Cataclysm logo would show up in the "Manage My Games" section, allowing you to install it.
This is the safest way to check without clicking on any links sent to you. With that said, we have not begun sending out beta invites yet to my knowledge. (Source)
Cutting features from the game
If you were a game developer, perhaps you'd make different choices in our shoes. It's a subjective business and if you were super passionate about guild talents, perhaps you could have come up with a model that solved all of our concerns. Sometimes those concerns are visible early and sometimes you really have to get into the meat of the implementation before you realize the problems. We think the Blizzard development model has worked pretty well for over 15 years. Part of that model is being willing to cut something (features, or even titles) that isn't working out, no matter how much effort we've put into them. Keeping a feature that didn't work but that was clearly the pet feature of some developer has marred several potentially good games.
[...] As I mentioned in the above response, we have killed entire games and even game worlds before. If you go back and look at previous expansions of World of Warcraft, and certainly vanilla, there were features on the list that eventually were scrapped or changed into something completely different. As with much of our design, the alternative is not to share any information until we are 100% sure it is going to come to pass. That would mean you would know almost nothing about Cataclysm at this stage though, which would also be pretty frustrating. Every good game studio I know cuts features (and titles!) all the time.
It's like sculpting in stone. It's like good writing. You carve away until what you have left is the best you can make it. (Source)
Classes
Hit and Defense Stats
As I've posted before, we like hit. It's the kind of thing that makes you pay attention to your gearing, because rather than just snatch up each item that's a higher ilevel than what you currently have, you have to actually look at the stats. You can't approach every decision with "I like hit, so if it has hit, I'll take it."
Defense was a different beast because it was serving as a barrier to entry. Mages and hunters can run a dungeon just fine without being hit-capped. Sure their damage will be lower, but not so low that they can't handle the content. Defense wasn't designed the same way -- a tank not at the defense cap risked dying on a boss fight and literally couldn't handle the content. If we had instead taken defense and stripped off the extra avoidance and changed it so that it decreased crit damage (so it made more of a smooth curve), then we probably could have kept it, even with an eventual cap. (Source)
Stealth in Cataclysm
Every rogue has the best stealth built in -- they have Master of Deception for free. Druids still have to talent Feral Instinct for it because we don't want every druid (read Balance and Restoration) to have uber stealth. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)Elemental and Restoration dual-wield in Cataclysm
Elemental and Resto are going to be pretty unlikely to want to dual-wield in Cataclysm. For the most part we want them using a one-handed caster weapon and shield. (Source)
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