Leveling, Inscription and Beta 13241

Finished leveling my shaman the other day, the total leveling time you can see above.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead has finally premiered tonight on AMC… and it is damn good.

Blizzcon 2010

Well, Blizzcon 2010 is officially over. I was able to catch it and watch most of it through… alternative methods.

All in all, it was a bit underwhelming, partially due to the fact that there were no big reveals this year. About the only reveal they had was the final 5th class for Diablo 3 being the Demon Hunter. Since this was already heavily speculated to be the case, it came as no big surprise to most people.

The Class Q&A along with the open Q&A were probably the most interesting parts of the WoW panels. Seeing slack-jawed WoW players ask obscure questions while the designers simply stare agape for a few seconds before they realize they have to try and answer the question is always entertaining. I think the most interesting thing overheard at the Q&A is that, yes, we will be seeing the Emerald Dream at some point, and yes, that will of course include the Nightmare. I had given up on ever seeing that in game, since the Warcraft novel Stormrage supposedly reconciled that whole plot line.

I did not watch the dance or costume segments, but this particular video makes me wish I did.

All in all, not much happened this year. There was a question as to whether Blizzard would reveal or announce the new MMO they’ve been working on, but it did not happen. We’ll always have next year to look forward to, at least. By then we may even hear whispers of a new World of Warcraft expansion, along with (hopefully) the big reveal as to what Blizzard’s next MMO actually is.

To Do List: Cataclysm Edition

1. Get Gladiator

I’ve wanted to do high rated arena for a long time now, but the opportunities were always non-existent.  With Cataclysm however, and the people I’ll be playing with, I may finally have that opportunity.

2. Hit the gold cap

This is a longshot, especially since the gold cap is now much, much higher. Still, it’s something to shoot for.

3. Casual raiding

I haven’t raided hardcore since vanilla when I was with Impervious. I don’t mean to get back into raiding hardcore, but I do hope to do some light casual raiding in Cata.

These three things are the ones I know for sure I want to try for. So what’s on your Cataclysm to do list?

Treeform: The Cry Heard Round The Blogosphere

I can’t help but notice that, pretty much everywhere, all I’m hearing about is the loss of Druid treeform, which is now a used cooldown for Restoration and no longer a permanent form.

Honestly, I don’t understand what the big deal over this is. I played a Druid a number of months in Wrath, during which I was Restoration for a good chunk of. While I enjoyed the treeform animation, I was never too attached to it, and more than a few times found myself wishing I could heal in caster form without nerfing myself. I was generally surprised to see what my caster form looked like half the time. The problem I have with this situation is that a large number of people are reporting that they’re shelving their Druid because they can no longer sit in treeform all day long.

Now, this is just opinion, but you do not play a class specifically because you like the way they look when they’re healing. That kind of logic is just plain silly. The reason you should play a class is because you like the job that class is designed to fill and the tools that are given to you in order to do that job. To simply shelve a character over such an insignificant change is, quite frankly, extremely vain and just plain wrong.

I play this game to have fun, and while I can certainly see some people having fun ONLY because they’re a tree, it’s just the wrong state of mind to be in. I know I would much rather have a Druid in my group because he enjoyed being a Druid, not because he could turn into a fricken tree.

4.0 on Live & Beta 13183

Well, patch 4.0.1 of Cataclysm is finally live on servers. Everyone is either freaking out over the changes or drooling over their new tools.

Honor Jewelcrafter Quartermaster Gone in 4.0.1

I’m hoping this is permanent. As per MMO-Champion’s reporting, the Honor Jewelcrafter Quartermaster, the guy that lets you buy epic gems for 10k honor, is gone on the PTR.

Like I said, I’m really hoping this is permanent. 10k honor is so unbelievably easy to accrue and the ability for anyone to get easy access to these gems lead to a pretty big crash in price, as I haven’t seen cut gems going for more than 170g in months. Those aren’t even the common gems. Delicate Cardinal Rubies usually average around 100g on Deathwing US, with the most uncommon cuts hitting around 160-170g.

So, yes, I am hoping this guy is gone for good and stays that way for Cataclysm. I probably won’t win any fans over with that, but I really believe it’s better for server economy.

It’s Official

December 7th. Cataclysm release date.

The next two months are going to be ridiculously long.

General Frost & 13117 RoF Addendum

There were a few undocumented changes to Ring of Frost in the latest Beta build of 13117.

Besides the obvious change of the cooldown coming down to 2 minutes, the freeze effect is now a *real* freeze, so Shatter and Frostburn do apply. It still breaks on damage, however, but it’s unclear whether ANY damage will break it, or whether it breaks when a certain amount of damage has been applied in the same way that Frost Nova breaks.

All in all, I think the new Ring of Frost is finally making it into a worthwhile ability. I was a little disappointed when they changed the spell to Ring of Frost, as I was really rather happy with Curtain of Frost. But, I’m starting to think Ring of Frost will be an ability that sees a lot of use, in both arena and rated BGs.

I’m also pretty happy with the current state of Frost in the beta. Control is better than ever, damage is decent, on a premade Icelance is critting for around 15k, Frostfire Bolt for around 18k and that is without the 15% damage glyph. Not only that, but I think the Mage class is nearly done for Cataclysm, I think they only need about another month of polishing and everything will be fantastic.

Build 13117

Build 13117 has gone live on the Beta servers and with it these two little (and I do mean little) changes for Mages.