Is the bundle sale a sign for Mists?

I’m preempting the calls from forum trolls everywhere that will say the Mists + Cata bundle is a sales driven desperate search for the remaining 10 geeks hidden in a bunker who have not played Warcraft. The game must be failing! See proof! Exclamation!

Get back in your bloody basement and play Farmville (oh, wait).

Or I could suggest that they are looking to convert a few players cheaply so that they continue to play, or return to play. Well der-derp-duh. Good on them. If I was pondering a return I might do this too. This is not Age of Conan, and it is a silly thought to think that wow is anywhere near a decline.

The active players I know are mostly happy. A few bitch and hate some aspects (dailies, valor gates, etc), but for the most part are entertaining themselves and others on a daily basis. Money grab? Maybe. Dead? Bah humbug.

Yes, bad mood today. Rants will continue until the alcohol arrives.

How to define Tradechat?

A brief definition of Tradechat:

Like watching a Lord of the Flies movie if it was rebooted by the creator of the Human Centipede teamed up with Uwe Bol, and then sent to William Burroughs to fix the continuity.

Trade chat today was dreadfully rude, and I think we’ll see new levels of disgusting and vile in the lead up to Cata release, then an unholy mess in the first few weeks. Trolls will return like everyone else, and the feeding frenzy of shuddering verbal grime will come with them.

Like a train wreck, sometimes you just have to look…even just to be reassured that there are a huge amount of sick people out there, who are thankfully at home indoors (and probably in the basement).

Cata 4.0.3 excitement

Just patched my gaming pc, watched the trailer, and read some patch notes. Darn it, that old saying really does ring true.

I thought I got out, but they pulled me back in.

Bring on mid December, when the bug fix patches have been applied, and we’re getting right into it. Fo rnow though its just as exciting to think about DeathWing attacking every damn city in Azeroth.

Cata Tip: Don’t hit 80

If you are levelling to 80 before Cataclysm is released then please consider getting your character to level 79.9, and then stopping. This is so they can acquire a full bar (150%) worth of rested xp prior to launch into Cata with. Of course if you’re not going to continue to level that toon, then go to 80 and wait for the rested to accumulate in the normal way.

Tip sourced from Just My Two Coppers Blog & forums, go read for more goodness.

pre-Cata Leveing Boost

Saw a post by everyone’s favourite Greedy Goblin, which had an excellent tip as Cata Prep. TLDR is complete but do not hand in as many quests as you can; and when Cata launches you’ll be able to do a quick hand-in and jump start leveling.

He also suggested saving your hearth to a city on the main continents, rather than Dalaran as the portals will be removed. I am not sure where the new 80-81 quest hubs will be, but a major city is a good idea till we do.

Sometimes that goblin is darn clever. Go read for his other prep thoughts.

Cata as a Gift

The Cataclysm release date has been confirmed as Tuesday 7th December. Now the interesting and totally self serving thing about this is that it is also my birthday, so I’m really pleased. Thank you Blizzard for the thought, such a wonderful gift.  I’d hate to think of how the scale of this gift could be topped, – kidding.

But I have a issue: How am I meant to be playing the expansion (or downloading the last patch and waiting) on my birthday when my partner and family probably expect me to be talking to them that day?

Well the reality is that we will all be patching that day, and that Tuesday will probably mean more like Wednesday or Thursday. So as long as (a) it all goes smoothly, (b) I can get online, and (c) I can create a reasonable build; it will be a great birthday week.

“Cataclysm includes the best content we’ve ever created for World of Warcraft. It’s not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out,” – Mike Morhaime

It is safe to say that I am very excited, even if you ignore the hype and flashy improvements there is still a lot of new and strange things to explore. I expect we will see a return of some players to the game due to this in the short term.

Happy hunting.

Cat (Feral) Druid Talent Build

Update 4: The infomation here is not current for Cataclysm, as I have not played a dps Cat yet. The best advice I can give you to find an effective definitive starting point is to read the Druid – Cat EJ forums, and then use a tool like Mr Robot or Rawr to load your character and optimise.

Pay close attention to the discussion on Hit and Expertise requirements, as these have changed and sometimes the tools will not reflect the updates. And gem for strength (just kidding – don’t).

In an effort to respec now that we’re live in 3.0.2, here is the build that I will initially be using for my Druid, who is a cat dps role.

The huge question I have is this build gimp’ed because of the choice to still use Omen of Clarity?

Update 3: I’m tooling around with my Druid again, which means more Cat specs will be looked at and updated. Tanking has more appeal than Cat at the moment, but as a Level 75 Cat, no way I’m changing to a proper Bear spec when a hybrid feral build will do the trick.

Update 2: In light of some feedback, and general tooling around I have a new spec. Omen of Clarity is dropped out for Bersek. Still not sold on some of the differences between mine and other specs, but as yet I have not raided pve with a Cat.

Update 1:   As 3.1.1 is here, consider this spec out of date. I’m sure the basics will be ok, but I’m not claiming this is accurate anymore. Instead go have a look at Altosis’s DPS build for Cats. It has a breakdown of talents, a build link, and he’s playing Cat far more than I am.

Prot Paladin Talent Build

Update 2: This post is now out of date due to the changes in Cataclysm, and has nothing specific to level 85 tanks anymore.

I can tell you that builds for Paladins have changed in an incredible range of ways, as to has the rotations and use of resources. The Holy power addition means a Paladin Tank is no longer just a AoE tank – target switching is real for all Tanks now. If you don’t like switching targets and loved being lazy then Paladin is probably the best choice for tanking, but you’ll readlly need to be careful and change your style to be effective.

The EJ Forum is the best place to start, read the first sections, and then jump across to TankSpot for more information.

Update: A new post for Paladin Tanks at Level 80 is here, updated for 3.3.3.

The patch v3.0.2 has me thinking of how to spec, and honnestly I just don’t know. I’ve tried to silently troll the usual forums for builds, but found a storm of activity with no clear winners.

So here goes…Here is a spec that is for a level 70 Prot Paladin, is heavy on Tanking, and has little flex into the other talent trees.

Edit: As 3.1 is fast approaching, consider this spec out of date. I’m sure the basics will be ok, but I’m not claiming this is accurate anymore.