Official news related to Cataclysm

[garrett30328]

Though I do like a simple, easy to follow reward structure like WOTLK Gave us, I do like this new point system and will reward lower levels with points to gear up as they level up to 85.

[chaos5061]

Points system update about old content

Justice Point Drop Quantities Update (See the my other point post)
From Blizzard
Just a quick note that the points listed here aren't final, we're still trying to balance the numbers. Specifically for Cataclysm drops. It's possible they may still change.

[chaos5061]

Patch 4.0.1? Maybe so

From MMO Champion:
Is Patch 4.0.1 this week?
Yes, most likely. I'm still trying to get a confirmation on that but really, It's not like it's going to happen on October 19th a few days before Blizzcon. The super mega awesome info compilation for the patch should be available soon, except if I hear that the patch has been delayed.
Now The Best Part From Blizzard:
We will be performing extended maintenance on Tuesday, October 12th. Maintenance will begin at 12:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 12:00 PM PDT. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience.

[wowvern]

This is why I put this thread up, so the members of Zygor's Guides could pass on necessary information to get us ready for Cataclysm. With a 12 hour maintainence cycle, it looks as if 4.0.1 will be ready to go Tuesday. Woo-hoo!

[chaos5061]

This is why I put this thread up, so the members of Zygor's Guides could pass on necessary information to get us ready for Cataclysm. With a 12 hour maintainence cycle, it looks as if 4.0.1 will be ready to go Tuesday. Woo-hoo!

Lot of people in forums are wondering if it will take till sometime Friday for realms to be back up.I think it had something to do with the patch before Wrath came out that it took a couple of days.I at least hope's it up by Thursday Night around 10:30. I'll be home from work by then that night.

[Cartman]

If I remember correctly there were only minor problems when patch 3.0 went live.
But maybe we in good old Europe are only lucky that the US servers are a test for deploying the patch one day before we get it so most issues are already solved.

[chaos5061]

Nothing official from blizzard yet. This from MMO Champion:
Patch 4.0.1 on live servers this week
We have a long maintenance, official previews everywhere, and a couple of information confirming the patch on my side. Patch is this week, enjoy!

[ossianfinn]

I am really not entirely sure what all the "speculation" is about. The launcher for WOW when you open the game to play, say Dec. 7th is the launch date. That is official enough for me.

I can tell you one thing though. They have a lot of work in the next 2 months. I am in beta, and I can tell you that there are still a lot of bugs left to be worked out. They are also telling us that there is to be another beta sever wipe to make the way for them to introduce the raid content to the beta server. To this point, we still haven't even seen the new raids on the beta server.

There is still a lot to be done, but it can be ready by 12-7-10 if they get on the ball. They need to get the new raids into beta so that they can be tested, fix the bugs that have been reported, and let those fixes be tested on the beta server.

P.S. Don't let those new talent changes scare you. They are not that bad. I have actually found them to have simplified my rotations quite a bit. Your concerns won't be on where you are in your rotations anymore. You will be more concerned with that pack of 7 elite mobs in heroic Grim Batol. Unfortunately, they are gonna be harder to defeat than the new talent changes ... lol

[chaos5061]

The speculation is about patch 4.0.1. Not cata. With the extended maintenance alot of people say it comes out this Tuesday.

[Dragonhawk]

Well, the login announcement says "for the release of 4.0.1" so I would call any speculation on that subject fairly safe.

[chaos5061]

It's official!!!!!!!

From Blizzard:
Extended maintenance will begin tonight at midnight, Tuesday, October 12 for the release of patch 4.0.1. Maintenance will begin at 12:01 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 12:01 PM PDT. During this time all realms and many web services will be unavailable.

[chaos5061]

Well here it goes.

It's 2:06 here and the realms just went off. Here's hoping that everything goes well and there is no major hang ups to getting it all going again and patched to 4.0.1.

[chaos5061]

Maintenance extended till 2pm PDT

[chaos5061]

Patch Notes for 4.0.1

From Blizzard:
World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patch...atchnotes.html

Cataclysm Systems Patch

* World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be in stores on December 7, 2010 and the time has come to prep for the official launch by implementing its first major patch. Players can experience many major game and user interface systems updates in the first official patch for the upcoming third expansion, patch 4.0.1.


General

Cataclysm Launcher Update

* The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We'd like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....74501095&sid=1


Reforging

* Players can now visit special Reforging NPCs in capital cities located near Enchanting trainers. 40% of any one secondary stat on an item can be can be allocated to add a new secondary stat to the item. The stat being added cannot already exist on the item. An item cannot have more than one reforged stat at a time, though the Reforging of an item can be undone and changed.


Dungeons & Raids

Flexible Raid Lock System

* Icecrown Citadel and Ruby Sanctum now use the new Flexible Raid Lock system. This system provides the opportunity for a character to defeat each raid zone's encounters once a week. A character may now complete the encounters during the week with different raids of either 10 or 25 players.
* Learn more about this feature by visiting our official forums here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....13237976&sid=1


Icecrown Citadel

* The Chill of the Throne effect has been removed.


Currency

PvE Currency Changes

* All Emblems of Frost and Emblems of Triumph have been converted to new Justice Points.
* Any dungeon or raid which awarded these emblems will reward Justice Points instead. Anything below Emblems of Triumph, including badges from The Burning Crusade dungeon and raid content, have been converted into gold and sent to players via the in-game mail system.
* Any bosses players defeat that are level-appropriate to them award Justice Points.
* All items that previously cost emblems or badges of any type now cost Justice Points.
* Higher-tier Valor Points will be awarded to players who kill dungeon and raid bosses in the latest tier of PvE content after the launch of Cataclysm.


PvP Currency Changes

* All Arena Points, Honor Points, Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper's Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards have been converted into new Honor Points.
* Honor Points will be awarded instead of these currencies, with the exception of Arena Points.
* Higher-tier Conquest Points will be awarded to players competing in each of the latest Arena or Rated Battleground seasons after the launch of Cataclysm.
* For more information on the changes to the currencies and conversion rates for each type, please visit our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....74620792&sid=1


Classes: General

* Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
* All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
* Ammo has been removed from the game.
* The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
* Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
* Mastery rating has been added as a new stat which provides unique benefits for characters based on class and talent specialization. Mastery rating does not currently exist on items in the game, however, Reforging can be used to add Mastery rating as a secondary stat to existing items.
* Rage has been normalized.
* Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
* Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
* - Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
* - Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
* - Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
* - Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
* - The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....17049255&sid=1

Death Knights

* A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
* The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
* The way in which runes recharge has changed.


Druids

* A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.


Hunters

* Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
* Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
* Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
* The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.


Mages

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.


Paladins

* Paladins now have a new resource bar.


Warlocks

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
* Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.


Items

* Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
* Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.


Professions

* The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.


User Interface

* Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
* The Guild Interface has been redesigned to incorporate additional functionality, including new sorting and organizational options.
* The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
* The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
* The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
* A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character's primary and secondary professions.
* Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
* New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
* Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
* New Raid frames are now available. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
* The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/bo...;forumId=11114


Graphics

* Improved water and lava rendering system (Video Options - Liquid Detail on the Graphics Panel)
* Dynamic Sunshafts effect (Video Options - Sunshafts on the Graphics Panel)
* Multi-monitor support (Video Options - Monitor on the Graphics Panel)
* OpenGL Hardware Cursor support for Windows (Video Options - Hardware Cursor on the Advanced Panel)
* Experimental support for DX11 (enabled by passing '-d3d11' on the command line or adding SET gxApi "d3d11" to the Config.WTF file)

[chaos5061]

I would post all the talent trees changes but that would be so long of a post that Zygor would probably be mad If I break each class into a different thread but different posts that would still take awhile and may be still too much room. Also probably Zygor or one of the moderators may have a post soon about that for the updated talent guides.