Uldum, Tol'vir and Ramkahen, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Uldum - Screenshots, Tol'vir, and Video
TotalBiscuit released a video of Uldum during the week-end, keep in mind that this zone isn't finished yet and this is just a preview.

It's a pretty good opportunity for me to throw tons of screenshots of Uldum in a news post, the zone definitely had a couple of updates since the last time I posted it and you should discover a couple of interesting things there. This time, we'll go through the zone by night.

Last but not least, the models of the Tol'virs (Stone-like cat people created by the titans) and the Ramkahens (Descendant of the Tol'vir who lost their "stone" form) are now fully implemented.

Tons of variations exists for these models and you will probably see a lot of them around Uldum.

Arena Tournament Realm Online

The 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s online portion has come to a close, but fear not! The Arena Tournament Realm is coming back online for everyone that participated in the 2010 event! Skirmish mode will be disabled during this time, but players will still be able to create new characters and teams in addition to being able to participate in “rated” matches. Please keep in mind that the online portion of the 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has come to a close, and that all matches played on the Arena Tournament Realm are not counted toward tournament standings or any prizes.

Enjoy!

The 2010 EU Warcraft Invitational: Activities

The 2010 European Warcraft Invitational is drawing near, and while you’ll have the chance to watch some of the top players on stage, you might also want to take an occasional break from the thrill of the games and prove yourself in one of our fun activities:

• Play against fellow goblins to prove you are worthy of becoming a member of the Kezan Trading Company.
• All your gold are belong to us! Collect as much gold as you can to win the gold rush challenge.
• You’ve played StarCraft II and think you can take on the universe? Prove it in the StarCraft II tournaments and competitions.

Best of all, the winners will be receiving some great World of Warcraft and StarCraft loot, including mouse pads, posters, t-shirts and WoW: Cataclysm Beta keys.

More information about the 2010 European Warcraft Invitational can be found here: http://www.wow-europe.com/rf10/

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Blue Posts

Guild wipe last week on beta servers
We had to wipe guilds on the beta server in regards to a number of bugs that were introduced with the new guild advancement system. The wipe also helps us get the most accurate testing we can with the new system.

Sorry for the late notice on this, we will do our best to give warning if we need to do it again. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Protection Paladin (Source)
Here is how Prot paladins are working in our current beta build. You might not see these changes in the next beta build, but in the one after that. Things are still in a high degree of flux however.

Shield of the Righteous -- Now consumes Holy Power to cause damage.

Holy Shield -- Now a passive ability that causes your Shield of the Righteous to provide 5% block per stack of Holy Power consumed. In other words, you never click Holy Shield. You just click Shield of the Righteous and buff yourself.

Hammer of the Righteous -- Now generates Holy Power but shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike. Almost all talents that affect one or the other will affect both. The intention is you use Crusader Strike -> Shield of the Righteous for single target and Hammer of the Righteous -> Shield of the Righteous for multitarget.

Avenger's Shield -- No real change, but it still hits pretty hard. Both CS and HotR can proc Grand Crusader to lower the Avenger's Shield cooldown.

Vindication -- can be caused only by Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.

Holy Wrath -- With the above changes, we think Prot paladins have enough rotational buttons to hit, so we are downplaying Holy Wrath. Holy Wrath is really intended as a Ret filler spell (for when other attacks are on cooldown). Prot could technically use Holy Wrath, but we aren't providing any talent hooks.

Consecration -- Now on a 10 sec duration with a 30 sec cooldown. The Hallowed Ground talent makes it cheaper and hit harder -- it does not affect duration. Use Consecration when you need it, but you can't spam it. This is consistent with the AE changes we are making to all tanks.

With these changes in mind, Prot will be thinking about buttons such as these:

Single Target: Judgement, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield.
Multi-target: Judgement, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield, possibly Exorcism.

None of this includes things like Seals, Inquisition, defensive cooldowns, Word of Glory, etc.

So with Vindication off of Holy Wrath, is it intended that Prot Paladins are the only tank without an AoE Physical Damage debuff, or will similar changes be made to the Warrior/Druid/DK mechanics?
Hammer of the Righteous will be AoE enough. It hits many targets. It may not be as widespread as Demo Shout on a pull like a jillion Onyxia Whelps, but we don't really expect you to debuff pulls of that size.

Let me just clarify something - Hammer of the Righteous will generate 1 Holy Power per cast, or 1 Holy Power per target hit?

One per cast. Otherwise we think paladins might want to always be hitting multiple targets, like "Let me tank the boss and one of the adds or my Holy Power generation will be low."

Is Holy Wrath going to have the same model it currently has? As a split damage ability?
Yeah, we like the split damage because it lets Ret (and Prot if needed) use it in most situations.

Also will 3 stacks of holy power when using shield of the righteousness roughly equal the amount of threat it did before it got removed or is it changed?
It will be a hard-hitting button, especially with 3 stacks. I'd guess your highest damage ability.

World of Warcraft Calendar Wallpapers
The official World of Warcraft Wallpapers section has been updated with 2 new wallpapers.

[larre]

sick

[Mallus]

The Uldum models look awesome.

[Roflomnom]

ooooooooo

gnomes on turtles!

[Asphyxiate9]

this is awesome

[Keosen]

In every update is always a wall of text regarding Paladins. sick.

[Narshe]

Im digging the Pali changes and prot sounds rly interesting, almost making me want to tank as one. Will stick with my DK though and hope they receive the same kind of attention soon, not that they need some whole new source for abilities or anything.

Uldum looks great too!

[Gak32]

Think I'm going to stop paying attention to the Paladin updates. Blizzard can't seem to make up their mind how they want us to work, and the "runaround" is getting kinda annoying Nothing new though, we always get a big rework.

On the plus side, Uldum looks fantastic! Made me say, "Wow!" a few times looking at those screenshots.

[Råwr]

Uldum continues to look freaking amazing. Lovely.
Also, the recent changes to the paladins are looking quite promising. Might have to gear up that sitting enchanting alt for this, depending on how warriors look when Cata actually goes live

[Falkus]

Think I'm going to stop paying attention to the Paladin updates. Blizzard can't seem to make up their mind how they want us to work, and the "runaround" is getting kinda annoying Nothing new though, we always get a big rework.

On the plus side, Uldum looks fantastic! Made me say, "Wow!" a few times looking at those screenshots.

Big rework which then gets applied a million and one hotfixes because everyone else whinges and moans about it.

Agree with Uldum screenies. Looks amazing.

[Alianthos]

A gnome with a red hat waterskiing on a killer whale.

Your argument is invalid.

[Deleted]

Loving the look of Uldum and the Tol'vir models are looking lush :3

[EntropyWarrior]

30 second cooldown on consecration? Wow that is a stupid idea. It will be like warrior aoe tanking in wrath right now, except they have cleave, TC, shockwave and we will have HotR and consecration.

[skbak]

Uldum is going to be awesome.

[Blur4stuff]

they want shield toss to get a cd reset somewhat frequently so i imagine they intend for it to be used more frequently than now for aoe aggro

[dimonik]

Hater post be hatin
2.Furries FURRIES EVERYWHERE...and they ruin everything :c First the worgen which most likely if not already will spawn several pages of "delightful pron" and now these...Tolvir sphynxlooking...THINGS uggh...enough already >_<

What? You'd think this is a fantasy game or something! :S

[Deleted]

Uldum malways keeps reminding me of Dark Age of Camelot : Trials of Atlantis, where you are in zones that look so egypt style aswell.

Ah, good old times ...

[Ikkatsu]

Still no love for Death Knights

[Elennoko]

Hater post be hatin
2.Furries FURRIES EVERYWHERE...and they ruin everything :c First the worgen which most likely if not already will spawn several pages of "delightful pron" and now these...Tolvir sphynxlooking...THINGS uggh...enough already >_<

i still don't understand peoples hatred of furries. Meh, I guess I should just accept the fact people will just think yiffers are all furries. Oh well. That's the internet at it's finest...

On topic:

The models look AMAZING and Uldum seems to be my favorite zone so far. It's just gorgeous.

[Nuronv]

30 second cooldown on consecration? Wow that is a stupid idea. It will be like warrior aoe tanking in wrath right now, except they have cleave, TC, shockwave and we will have HotR and consecration.

and Avengers Shield and Holy Wrath.

I would say it makes the two quite even which is what they are aiming for.