New Forums, Guild XP Changes, Cataclysm Hotfixes, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Cataclysm is now live on all servers, if you're looking for information please check the Cataclysm Information News Post or use that menu on the top-right that you never noticed before.

MMO-Champion Forums and Moderators Update!
The release of the expansion is behind us, it's time for a small forum announcement!

1. Moderators
40 moderators have been added to the forums, the goal with this addition is to ban less and have more people around to prevent problems before they happen instead of having to swing the banhammer. They've been around for a couple of days now, and if you really want to complain about someone you can always send me a well-written Private Message about the situation.

Keep in mind that the first step to discuss a "bad" moderator decision is the Ban Appeal forum. However, I would like to remind everyone that the forum is only here if you think the moderator was wrong and misunderstood something, posting to explain that "but it was sarcasm!" after you spent 10 posts insulting someone's mother really isn't going to do anything good.

2. New Forums!
In an effort to clean up the General Discussions forums and keep things alive, three (well, technically 4) new forums have been created.

WoW Forums

• Achievements - A lot of people are addicted to achievements, they now have a dedicated forum.

Off-Topic Forums

• General Off-Topic - We finally have a dedicated Off-Topic forums, this is where anything not related to World of Warcraft goes. Obviously the moderation will be a little heavier here than on the other forums to keep things under control but I'm sure we can make something great out of it if we all decide to be nice.
• Fun Stuff - This forum is for all the fun stuff you want to post all the time, but can't because it's not related to WoW. We're talking about Photoshop contests, funny pictures, forum games, funny videos, etc ... (PS: The post count is disabled on this forum, don't bother spamming)
• Sports - Everything related to sports.
• Cinema / TV Shows / Music / Books - This isn't really a new forum, just the result of a merge of the TV Shows / Cinema and Music forum. We also added Books there for the smarter forum posters.

The expanded team of moderators will be happy to see you on their forums! Now might be a good time to register!

Guild Experience Change

We have decided to remove the added bonus of gaining Guild Experience from Guild Achievements earned. This change will realign Guild Achievements with our philosophy held for normal Achievements, which are intended to be predominantly their own reward (barring the rare exception of special achievements that grant an additional reward.) Previously, the experience reward had been seen as an additional side bonus and not something that should have been significantly skewing the advancement of guilds. During the beta, we greatly increased leveling speed across the board and since most characters were copied from templates, guild experience from Achievements didn’t seem imbalanced. It has become clear that an imbalance does exist and should be addressed to ensure that guilds progress at the rates expected within the daily Guild Experience limits.

For guilds that are currently above the normally possible experience limit, we will be readjusting it back to the expected limit once more. This will not affect Guild Reputation gains at this point in time.

Cataclysm Hotfixes - December 7

Here you will find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the release of patch 4.0.3a and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. While many have already been deployed on all realms, some may not be implemented until the next time your realm is restarted. We will continue to update this thread in the days ahead as additional hotfixes are applied.

December 7
General

• It is no longer possible for an ill-mannered person of the opposing faction to one-shot a flight trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, which in turn made the 500 players standing on top of the flight trainer with their mammoths really sad.
• Fallen Hero's Spirits in Icecrown can no longer have their pockets picked.
• Ray'ma and Brew Vendor Brew of the Month Club vendors are now spawning properly.
• The achievement “Stood in the fire” is granted when standing in a zone boundary different than Deathwing's spawn location. In addition, players can now get this achievement by walking into the wake of Deathwing's fire after he has passed.
• If faction mounts do not translate to a mount of the opposite faction when performing a paid faction change, they will now be removed.
• Players are no longer able to endlessly kite the outdoor Battlemasters.
• Several combat issues involving mind control mechanics have been fixed.

Battlegrounds

• NPCs and vehicles now have the correct Cataclysm values for health and damage in the 80-84 and 85 Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest, and Alterac Valley level brackets.
• Some players were unable to enter 10- vs. 10-player Battlegrounds when the option to enter became available. This has been corrected.

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

• Low-level priests will now properly take Shadow Word: Death backlash damage when casting Shadow Word: Death.

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

• Lightning Shield again properly deals damage while the shaman is casting other spells.

Dungeons & Raids

• The Mana Burn ability that is cast when Arcane Aberrations die in Dire Maul has been replaced with an Arcane Explosion ability that does not drain mana.
• Al'akir's Lightning Cloud now despawns when the encounter is defeated in Throne of the Four Winds.
• Players are no longer able to use Killing Spree on Ozumat in Throne of the Tides. The message "Invalid Target" is displayed.
• Players are no longer placed oddly when affected by Ulthok's Squeeze in Throne of the Tides.
• Temple Guardian Anhuur in Halls of Origination will now lose Shield of Light at the appropriate times. He was cheating.
• Millhouse Manastorm in The Stonecore will not stay linked to trash packs he is no longer stationed at after a group wipe.
• Razorgore and Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair will no longer cause an infinite loop of encounter mind control mechanics when pets or companions are present.

Items

• Tattooed Eyeball should not be epic quality and is now superior.
• Wailing Weeds no longer give experience, have any drops, or are able to be gathered in Mount Hyjal.
• Items which have refund options available no longer have their expiration cooldown recorded incorrectly when more than one is purchased within a short amount of time.
• An issue which prevented players from rolling Need on certain relics found in dungeons has been corrected.
• Helm of the Thousand Needles now has 12 Strength and 17 Stamina in addition to the 12 Hit Rating it had before.
• Spider's Silk now drops from most all spiders in the level range of 16-25.
• Stag Flanks now drop from level-appropriate stags.
• Big Mouth Clams and the Black Pearls they sometimes contain again drop off of many creatures.
• Corpse Dust and Infernal Stones are no longer available from vendors.
• The stats for the one-handed mace Shatterscale Mightfish have been corrected.
• Rogues are now able to equip and use Morningstar of the Order. However, the tooltip for the item still shows Main Hand in red, and right clicking on the item when it is equipped returns the message "You do not have the required proficiency for that item." This display issue will be corrected in a future patch.
• Passengers are now force ejected from multi-passenger mounts that have been converted into a Reindeer or Brewfest Kodo. This works for both NPCs and PCs.

Professions

• There is no longer a School of Fish in Elwynn Forest that like to think of themselves as in "testing," nor do they yield Peacebloom when fished. This School of Fish is no longer a part of the counterculture and will no longer give you flowers when fished.
• Recipe: Feathered Lure is no longer on the vendor list for the Cooking reward vendors, as it's returning an error "The Spell is not available to you" when players attempt to learn it.
• Electrostatic Condenser no longer provides inconsistent loot chances for each gathering profession.
• Training in Archaeology should now properly generate dig sites around the world according to the player's skill level.
• Archaeology daily quests are now properly flagged as dailies.
• A Fossil Archaeology Find at the Un'Goro Terror Run dig site spawned beyond the range of the dig site area and has been removed.
• There was an inconsistency in Cooking skill-ups between Lavascale Minestrone and Lavascale Fillet which has been addressed.
• Some Leatherworking recipes which require a skill of 525 were missing from the vendor Misty Merriweather and have been returned.

Quests

• Cataclysm Level 80-85 Zones
• Mobs that spawn infinitely during the Temple of Earth finale within Deepholm do not grant experience.
• Players are no longer ported out of the Maelstrom if they have "The Eye of the Storm" in their quest log when they go through the portal to the Maelstrom.
• Twilight Proveditors for the quest "End of the Supply Line" in Mount Hyjal should respawn at a more consistent rate.
• Zin'jatar Raiders respawn more quickly for the "Buy Us Some Time" quest in Kelp'thar Forest, Vashj'ir.

Eastern Kingdoms

• Completing the quest "Never Surrender, Sometimes Retreat" is now updating Gilneas properly.
• Forsaken Sailors were dealing too much damage to those questing in Gilneas. Their damage output has been reduced.
• If a player completes the objectives of "Bad Medicine" outside of Northern Stranglethorn, then the quest "Just Hatched" will not auto-launch, but Corporal Sethman will have the quest available when the player turns in the quest "Bad Medicine" to Brother Nimetz. If the player completes "Bad Medicine" within Northern Stranglethorn, then "Just Hatched" is auto-launched.
• Quest givers in The Exodar, Teldrassil and Dun Morogh are all now offering the level 50 mage quest "Meet with Maginor Dumas" leading players to Stormwind.
• The deprecated quests "Foreboding Plans" and "Encrypted Letter" are no longer being offered to players by the Syndicate Documents in Hillsbrad Foothills.
• The deprecated quests "Looking Further" and "Morganth" are no longer being offered by the Old Lion Statue in Redridge Mountains.
• The cutscene for "Lordaeron" in Silverpine Forest will now properly play if the player is mounted when starting the quest.
• High Priest Venoxis should spawn properly during the "High Priest Venoxis" quest event in The Cape of Stranglethorn.
• The quest "The Holy Water of Clarity" will be offered regardless of the order in which the player completes the prerequisite quests in The Cape of Stranglethorn.
• The NPCs of Bloodgulch no longer disappear when players skip the cutscene during the quest "Eye Spy" in Twilight Highlands.

Kalimdor

• 60 completed quests in Winterspring are now required in order to earn the Winterspring Quests achievement.
• Players should no longer experience issues completing the quest "The Reason Why" when attempting to interact with the various Moonstones in Ashenvale.
• Players are no longer able to attack other players while in Diemetradon form during the quest "Ever Watching From Above" in Un'Goro Crater.
• It is no longer possible to pick up the deprecated quest "The Gordunni Scroll" in Feralas.
• The deprecated quest "Hunting in Stranglethorn" is no longer being offered by Roon Wildmane in Desolace.
• Questgiver Melizza Brimbuzzle in Desolace now respawns at a much more reasonable rate after dying.
• Jinky Twizzlefixxit now provides players with a replacement River Boat quest reward via her gossip text if a player deletes it while in Thousand Needles.
• Antechamber Guardian now spawns correctly for "What Lies Within" in Tanaris.
• The quest "Sandscraper's Treasure" is no longer being offered to Alliance players via the Sandscraper's Chest in Tanaris.
• The Antediluvean Chest is now correctly spawning inside the Antechamber of Uldum within Tanaris and there is no longer an issue with it spawning outside of the chamber.

The Story So Far... Part II

Heralds of Twilight

As the world's races struggled for survival in the wake of the Cataclysm, details came to light concerning what—or who—had caused the disaster. Prior to the upheaval, the Fury of Earth had cryptically told Thrall that Azeroth's instability had been caused by something good that had turned unnatural. Something that wished to inflict pain and suffering on the entire world.

The warning was in reference to an ancient being once known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder. Long ago, this Aspect of the black dragonflight had been granted dominion over Azeroth's earthly expanses by the benevolent titans. Yet the incessant whisperings of the Old Gods had gradually driven Neltharion insane and caused him to abandon his sacred charge. He had later revealed his treachery during the War of the Ancients by turning an immensely powerful artifact—the Dragon Soul—against his allies, annihilating nearly all of the blue dragonflight. Forever after, Neltharion would answer to a new name: Deathwing.

Deathwing's murderous aim had become the subjugation of the other dragonflights, a goal left unfulfilled decades ago when he was chased into hiding by the Dragon Aspects Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Malygos. In Deathwing's absence, agents of the black dragonflight continued one of his darkest schemes: creating a more powerful breed of dragon. The most promising of these vile experiments resulted in twilight dragons, malefic creatures that first appeared in the cursed and abandoned dwarven city of Grim Batol, and later within the hallowed Chamber of the Aspects.

During many of these developments, Deathwing remained hidden. Rumors regarding his death circulated, leading to the assumption that his malevolent influence on Azeroth was at an end. Such was not the case. In Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane, Deathwing nourished his hatred of Azeroth's inhabitants, awaiting his moment to burst forth from his lair and reforge the world in flame. That fateful day—the Cataclysm—arrived shortly after Thrall's return from Outland.

Deathwing's violent return did much more than sunder the lands of Azeroth; it also ruptured the boundaries of the Elemental Plane. In the aftermath, chaotic elementals emerged into the world from within the Abyssal Maw, Deepholm, the Firelands, and the Skywall. Working with Deathwing, the Twilight's Hammer cult and its twisted leader, Cho'gall, established footholds across the world with the aid of twilight dragons and enslaved elementals.

Thus far, many of Azeroth's defenders have devoted themselves to combating the cult and allaying the elemental forces threatening to tear the world apart. Chief among these champions are the shaman of the Earthen Ring, including Thrall, Nobundo, and Muln Earthfury. Other Horde and Alliance heroes have also risen to the challenge, but their focus has been split due to skirmishes between the two factions.

Amid the turmoil, two other beleaguered groups are striving to overcome their own hurdles. The human kingdom of Gilneas, walled off from the rest of the world for years, has come under assault by Queen Sylvanas's Forsaken. Aside from the undead, the kingdom is assailed by a debilitating curse that transforms its victims into feral wolf-beasts known as worgen. Meanwhile, a volcanic eruption on the tropical Isle of Kezan has ousted the Bilgewater Cartel and other goblins from their homes. Trade Prince Gallywix has capitalized on this moment of panic and swindled his fellow goblins out of their life savings—and their freedom—in exchange for transport off of Kezan.

Much like Gilneas and the Bilgewater Cartel, other kingdoms and factions the world over face their own trials, from internal political strife to the reappearance of ancient foes. Yet there is one inescapable truth that they all share: if Deathwing and his nihilistic servants are left unopposed, the Cataclysm will pale in comparison to the chaos that lies ahead for Azeroth.

A New Age Has Begun…

The undead armies of the Lich King have been vanquished, and the campaign in Northrend has come to an end. Now Azeroth faces a new threat, as Deathwing the Destroyer has burst forth from the heart of the Maelstrom, unleashing widespread devastation upon Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. As the world teeters on the brink of destruction, champions of the Alliance and Horde must embark on a quest that will take them from the World Tree to the bottom of the Great Sea to the elemental planes themselves, looking for a way to bring an end to Deathwing’s reign of ruin.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is now live and available at a store near you -- or you can click here to upgrade directly through Blizzard. Featuring new zones, unique dungeons, hundreds of new quests, an increased level cap of 85, and two new playable races -- worgen and goblin -- Cataclysm provides a huge variety of content for new and returning players. The expansion is available in both a standard and Collector's Edition. To learn more, check out the press release, visit our Cataclysm game information page, or check out the game guide to get started.

Blue Posts

Ganked on PvP servers
What you're experiencing is world PvP on a PvP realm. I realize that it's not for everyone, but it's not something that we plan to adjust. The harsh reality is that life on a PvP realm can be difficult, and if you aren't prepared for the rigors of playing on such a realm, then it's probably in your best interest to transfer to a normal realm, or, if you cannot afford that, then consider creating a new character on a normal realm.

There's never been a better time to create a fresh character. (Source)

Realms Queues
We're in the process right now of doing our quickest fix for queues which is simply raising player caps. Most realms that are seeing a high queue (once the cap changes go through) should see a substantial halving or more of their wait times.

Once that's done we can then continue to evaluate and take further action as necessary. In our years of experience, free character transfers are marginally successful in that the vast majority of players hate queues, but the vast majority also aren't willing to leave their realms and guilds to avoid them. It's a solution, and one we may employ, but it's one that isn't quick and easy, and with widely varying histories of success. (Source)

[...] We do have another round of player cap increases going out in the next little bit but bottom line is we're most likely going to have to work toward free transfers. They're not super simple to execute so it's not something that's going to be available today.

Anyway, we'll keep you informed as we go. (Source)

[Luzifer]

Awesome changes

[Tehceilingkitteh]

Good stuff. I like the change to guild exp. Keep truckin mods

[Zwai]

I wonder how much longer Blizzard will choose to ignore the gross imbalance of Horde and Alliance on PvP servers and will respond with the really stupid and futile "this is normal world PvP - go reroll or transfer if you don't like it". The Hordes that are making their Alliance's life a living hell are basically biting the hand that feeds them. And if all those Alliance would actually transfer to or reroll on PvE realms, even more Hordes would eventually cancel their subscription because the queue times for (rated) BGs will become longer and longer and longer...

So yes, definitely the right answer in the last blue post there... NOT.

[Deleted]

I could say that all of these changes could have been fixed in the beta but who am I to judge, there are probably more to come .

Also... *Points* at Stood in the Fire nerf.

[Explosion_Rex]

I wonder how much longer Blizzard will choose to ignore the gross imbalance of Horde and Alliance on PvP servers and will respond with the really stupid and futile "this is normal world PvP - go reroll or transfer if you don't like it". The Hordes that are making their Alliance's life a living hell are basically biting the hand that feeds them. And if all those Alliance would actually transfer to or reroll on PvE realms, even more Hordes would eventually cancel their subscription because the queue times for (rated) BGs will become longer and longer and longer...

So yes, definitely the right answer in the last blue post there... NOT.

It works both ways there. I'm Horde on a server dominated by Alliance. Leveling right now in the new zones is virtually impossible and I'm not even going to bother for a couple weeks.

[Violent]

It is no longer possible for an ill-mannered person of the opposing faction to one-shot a flight trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, which in turn made the 500 players standing on top of the flight trainer with their mammoths really sad.

Lol! Owned!

[Nomad]

It is no longer possible for an ill-mannered person of the opposing faction to one-shot a flight trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, which in turn made the 500 players standing on top of the flight trainer with their mammoths really sad.

Blues made a funny. Me likey. (:
Is that a "sad, but true" moment?

[Penric]

It is no longer possible for an ill-mannered person of the opposing faction to one-shot a flight trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, which in turn made the 500 players standing on top of the flight trainer with their mammoths really sad.


This happened at EU Kilrogg, was annoying to say the least.

[Zwai]

It works both ways there. I'm Horde on a server dominated by Alliance. Leveling right now in the new zones is virtually impossible and I'm not even going to bother for a couple weeks.

I am aware of that, but the census of WarcraftRealms.com shows, that the average ratio of Horde to Alliance on PvP realms is 1.7 to 1. I know there are a few Alliance-dominated realms, but the majority is Horde. In the end, it doesn't matter which faction outnumbers the other one. Any server with a split of larger than 1 to 1.5 has a real problem.

[Beagan]

I wonder how much longer Blizzard will choose to ignore the gross imbalance of Horde and Alliance on PvP servers and will respond with the really stupid and futile "this is normal world PvP - go reroll or transfer if you don't like it". The Hordes that are making their Alliance's life a living hell are basically biting the hand that feeds them. And if all those Alliance would actually transfer to or reroll on PvE realms, even more Hordes would eventually cancel their subscription because the queue times for (rated) BGs will become longer and longer and longer...

So yes, definitely the right answer in the last blue post there... NOT.

Agreed. I like PvP, I like questing in the knowledge that I could be attacked any time, I even don't mind being outnumbered at times. But being outnumbered 10:1 every time all the time has nothing to do with PvP. It's more, as someone in the General channel called it yesterday, PvSittingduck.

[valiorik]

We got free transfers already, but... they are just stupid. From EU top-2 realms they are offering us to transfer to two in the bottom realms. It's just not right you know
It would be much more better just to buy new hardware for them.

[Deleted]

And if all those Alliance would actually transfer to or reroll on PvE realms, even more Hordes would eventually cancel their subscription because the queue times for (rated) BGs will become longer and longer and longer

What does playing on a PVE realm have to do with BGs/Rated/Arena? I play on an PVE realm and heck we're so stuffed with PVP people it's bursting out of the seams.

[Simca]

Well since I think this is our official announcement for the new mods, I'd like to step in and say Hi!

I'll try to continue to be just as helpful as I was before becoming a moderator except now I can do more to help the site by locking bad threads/etc.

[hheebo]

>Ganked on PvP servers
>Blizzard poster: $$$ $$$ $$$
That's all I could read.

[Roflomnom]

PLEASE BLIZZARD!

Fix the "Stonetalon Mountains Quests" achievement.

So sick of being 1 quest away from Loremaster.

[Theodrid]

The Guild Exp bait and switch is really cute. A better solution would be to drastically lower the exp granted from achievements.

I highly doubt that even a remotely similar number of people are going to give a crap about all those guild achievements they spent time programming into the game. There is no direct benefit for doing them other than some silly number I see in the guild interface. Less than 24 hours and they've drastically changed one of the largest features of Cataclysm. Makes you wonder what the hell they are doing with all that beta data they collect.

[Strakha]

What you're experiencing is world PvP on a PvP realm. I realize that it's not for everyone, but it's not something that we plan to adjust.

Kind of a dick comment, it's not really world PVP if it's 20 vs 1, it's just not fun at all. I used to play on a PVP realm and this is why I left mine, but at the same time, they can easily merge servers, but I guess they would see this as a sign of weakness, as this is what all their competitors had to do after their populations dipped.

They still need to nerf darkflight or just ban all racials for arena, RPM team all with sprint? yeah that will be fun! nope. time to get rid of racials in PVP in general, I know they want everyone to play worgen so they can nerf their racials then profit off the race transfers (hello undead/humans).

Also fix the derp-snarl on worgen female, and the worgen female running wild animation looks like doggystyle porn or was this intentional? Either way not that impressed with this half-expansion so far, wish they put more effort into redefining the racials for all races and less effort into making the worgen female look like a retarded hyena head on a tauren females body.

[echo808]

If faction mounts do not translate to a mount of the opposite faction when performing a paid faction change, they will now be removed.

im guessing this is to fix the trike and mammoth mount

[mafain]

# If faction mounts do not translate to a mount of the opposite faction when performing a paid faction change, they will now be removed.

This may or may not cause some concern with people who double race change for goblin mounts