The Fall of the Lich King~SPOILER!
by Olblindman on Feb.02, 2010, under Other
What we know about the Warcraft movie
by Olblindman on Jan.30, 2010, under Other
Last week, we reported that the Warcraft movie may be on its way. Previously there had been speculation that the film’s development would be pushed back, since director Sam Raimi was tied up by problems with Spider-Man 4. Raimi then unexpectedly walked away from Spider-Man 4, citing creative reasons, and it suddenly looked hopeful that he might soon be turning his attention to the Warcraft film.
So now, in preparation for more news on the film, we will be bringing you up to date on what we currently know about the Warcraft movie.
Who
- Legendary Pictures will be producing the film. The company purchased the rights to the film from Blizzard in May 2006. Legendary Pictures’ impressive resume includes Batman Begins, 300, Watchmen, and The Hangover.
- Sam Raimi, director of The Evil Dead series and, of course, the Spider-Man franchise, was announced as director for the Warcraft film in July 2009.
- Robert Rodat will be writing the script, according to an October 2009 interview with Raimi. Rodat is the screenwriter for Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot.
What
- There is currently no confirmation that the lead character will be an existing character in Warcraft lore. Raimi said in his October interview that he wanted to make a film about the game itself, meaning a film that features the land and lore of Azeroth.
- Chris Metzen said at Blizzcon 2007, that the Warcraft movie will definitely be a war movie, not a quest movie like The Lord of the Rings. Given Rodat was picked for the script, this fits the bill.
- Metzen also said Thrall will be in the movie during that same panel. This may be subject to change now that Raimi and Rodat are on the film, but Horde fans can hope!
Where
There is no confirmation on a shooting location yet, but rumors at Ain’t It Cool Newsmention Raimi is in communication with “a certain legendary locale.” This may mean that we will soon be seeing more of New Zealand. This would be appropriate given the director’s experience there. Raimi was the producer for the television series Xena: Warrior Princess andHercules: The Legendary Journeys, both of which were filmed in New Zealand. If Blizzard and Legendary Pictures had New Zealand in mind from the start, it may be one of the reasons Raimi was selected for the film.
When
This is the big question, and unfortunately there is no answer to it yet. When we know, you will.
Tags: 300, batman-begins, chris-metzen, Hercules, hercules-legendary-journeys,legendary-pictures, lord-of-the-rings, LOTR, movie, new-zealand, Robert-rodat, sam-raimi,saving-private-ryan, Spider-man, spider-man-4, The-Evil-Dead, the-patriot, Thrall,warcraft-movie, watchmen, wow-movie, Xena, xena-warrior-princess
Filed under: News items, Features, BlizzCon, Rumors, Warcraft Movie
Talent Trees in Cataclysm
by Olblindman on Jan.30, 2010, under Blue Posts
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
I was going to bump this to the General forum, but I think the talent tree comment is worth addressing in the role forums, since it applies to class design.
1) We are changing talent trees, in some cases substantially. The major focus is pruning out boring but valuable talents that passively increase say damage or healing.
2) A secondary focus is to fix the clunky areas (e.g. warlocks having two conflicting range increasing talents). We’re not going to remove old favorites or radically change the focus of the trees. You will definitely have to rethink your builds however.
3) Because you earn passive bonuses just for spending points in the tree, those fun, niche or utility talents won’t seem as expensive as they do today. We want to create a lot more choices where you are choosing utility vs. utility. We want to see far more “cookie cutter” build guides that say “Spend the last 5-10 points where you want.”
4) In some cases, trees will flat out get new abilities. These are in addition to the new level 81+ abilities.
5) You will get 5 additional talent points for the new levels.
6) We are not deepening the trees. This actually unlocks some interesting opportunities. For the first time, you can reach a 51 point talent and a 21 point talent in another tree.
I’ll also add that for Lich King we just brought Naxxramas back and adjusted the bosses for 10 and 25 raid sizes. The Cataclysm raids are new content with new maps and new bosses. We’re just trying to hit the nostalgia button with mentioning old foes like Ragnaros. Ragnaros may be back, but he’s not in Molten Core.
Plate DPS Classes Using Mail/Leather
by Olblindman on Jan.28, 2010, under Blue Posts
As we have done in previous expansions, we plan to release a patch that updates the game systems shortly before the full expansion content goes live so you will still be experiencing Wrath of the Lich King content with the new stat systems for at least a short period of time. All classes will be changing a lot in Cataclysm and we will announce all of the changes in advance to try and prevent players from being taken by surprise. In the mean time, please make your item selections with both current and future content in mind.
The original post was directed at the plate wearers because a mail-based class who is wearing leather going into Cataclysm won’t be at the same disadvantage as a plate-based class who is wearing leather or mail will be.
For an enhancement shaman or hunter, the mail will lose its Intellect, but the physical dps mail and leather will both have Agility that enhancement shaman and hunters want. However, we are also going to offer a small additional incentive for characters to wear “their” armor so it will encourage shaman and hunters to wear mail over leather, balance druids to want leather over cloth, holy paladins to prefer plate, etc.
We realize everyone will have lots of questions about what will happen to their gear, and we will eventually share all of that with you. We just wanted to post this reminder for plate wearers who are currently after leather and/or mail items to let them they will really not want it when we convert to the next expansion.
Part of the Cataclysm re-itemization will be to change all of the old (pre-Wrath of the Lich King) items, which will include doing things like actually having low level balance druid leather or holy paladin plate.
Ghostcrawler
Lead Systems Designer
Q u o t e:Made WHAT clear, exactly? This is old news.
The only thing it has done is made people paranoid since this warning has been posted so many months away from Cataclysm.
I mean, is the expectation honestly that Plate DPS Classes stop bidding/rolling on Leather/Mail? That’s not going to happen as long as there’s meaningful content out.
The intention isn’t to have people change their bidding/rolling habits right now. If the item is an upgrade right now for current content you should probably go for it.
The intention is to make sure players know that the leather/mail items probably won’t be very useful when we do reach Cataclysm so having some extra plate items as backups will probably be more helpful than another abyss crystal at that point in time. Cataclysm is not right around the corner but if you are using (just tossing a number out there) 8 leather items, replacing all of them may take more than a couple weeks.
Q u o t e:
Q u o t e:
If you are focused on Icecrown progression right now, as you probably should be (…)And what is that supposed to mean ? Since when doing progression content is the “recommended by Blizzard” way of playing the game ?
Drop the elitist attitude, your message will get through without it.
No offense Crabman, I love you and think you’re a great man. But it’s your responsibility to choose your words more carefully than the average poster.
I meant if you are focused on gearing up your character for Cataclysm instead of Icecrown, then you are probably overplanning. 
If you are gearing up for Cataclysm though, I would not suggest plate wearers investing in leather and mail. If getting leather and mail help you beat the bad man with the big sword, then go for it. I posted this mostly in response to tin-foil-hat-wearers above who speculated we were trying to nerf warrior dps or change social norms or whatever by suggesting they stop rolling on leather.
This all may seem perfectly obvious to you, but I promise you we will still see plenty of “you pulled the rug out from under me” posts, which is why we are starting early with the information campaign.
Lead Systems Designer
Arena Season 8 delay explanation by Bornakk
by Olblindman on Jan.27, 2010, under Other
If you PvP you may have noticed Arena Season 8 has not arrived today as expected. The forums certainly have, and Bornakk made sure to explain the reason. Apparently in order to start the arena season, the minor content patch 3.3.2 is necessary and since it isn’t ready yet neither is Season 8. A brief side question about how people are finding the new resilience changes devolves but should’t distract us from the main message here. Arena Season 8 has been delayed because patch 3.3.2 is not out yet. That’s the sum total of what we know at this time. Please, do not panic, as soon as we know more about when the season will start or patch 3.3.2 will drop, we’ll share that information with you.
Tags: arena, arena-guide, Arena-Season-8, arenas, Bornakk, breaking, guide, how-to-play-battlegrounds, Patch-3.3.2, wow-arena, wow-arena-season-8, wow-patch-3.3.2
Ashen Verdict strength-based melee DPS rings stats
by Olblindman on Jan.27, 2010, under Other
On WoW.com today I came across information regarding the strength-based rings! Enjoy =)
Patch 3.3.2, the next minor content patch, will include the much requested strength-based rings for melee DPS from the Ashen Verdict reputation. This should make warriors, paladins, and death knights quite happy. This afternoon Zarhym has released the stats for the different reputation levels (friendly, exalted, etc…), which we have for you after the break.
The minor content patch will also bring with it an influx of other small changes, as well asarena season 8. You can check out all the changes in the translated version of the patch notes that were discovered last night.
The rings after the break.
Requires The Ashen Verdict – Friendly
Ashen Band of Might
- +91 Stength
- +91 Stamina
- Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 53.
- Equip: Improves hit rating by 53.
Requires The Ashen Verdict – Honored
Ashen Band of Greater Might
- +98 Stength
- +98 Stamina
- Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 57.
- Equip: Improves hit rating by 57.
Requires The Ashen Verdict – Revered
Ashen Band of Unmatched Might
- +98 Stength
- +98 Stamina
- Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 57.
- Equip: Improves hit rating by 57.
- Equip: Chance on hit to increase your attack power by 480 for 10 sec.
Requires The Ashen Verdict – Exalted
Ashen Band of Endless Might
- +99 Stength
- +107 Stamina
- Yellow Socket
- Socket Bonus: +4 Strength
- Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 59.
- Equip: Improves hit rating by 59.
- Equip: Chance on hit to increase your attack power by 480 for 10 sec.
Invincible!
by Olblindman on Jan.26, 2010, under Other
This is also a great opportunity to embed the video of Invincible. This is NOT an official video and it was taken during the Patch 3.3 PTRs, the mount might be different on live servers. At this time I suspect that it will be slightly more impressive on live servers, I’m currently investigating and will let you know if something new comes up. MMO
More Tank stuffs
by Olblindman on Jan.26, 2010, under Blue Posts
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
1) We’re much more concerned about tank single target dps than we are tank AE dps. Especially in Icecrown, there are virtually no fights where the tank’s dps contribution on an AE fight is really going to amount to much. You can make an argument that the single target dps can be relevant on e.g. Festergut (though again, I still don’t think there are that many cases where the difference between success and fail are the tank’s dps).
2) You may find Devastate boring, but Devastate is a very easy ability to buff because even small tweaks have large effects given how often it is used. Buffing say Shield Slam (or even Def Stance) would make the PvP balance we’re trying to solve even worse. You’d have to buff Revenge enormously to see a difference. Any buff to Heroic Strike affects dps warriors in PvE as well who aren’t hurting at all. Some of the ideas about e.g. Rend are interesting, but we’re pretty sure the last thing the warrior needs is yet another ability to manage while tanking. Long term that might be the kind of thing we consider, but given that we’re looking for a safe and easy buff, that’s not the kind of thing we want to mess with now. (Consider that even if we did a PTR, who is going to be on there when the competition is new bosses in Icecrown?)
3) There are differences in how tanks generate AE threat, and therefore damage. Warriors are jealous of the DK and especially paladin persistent area-based damage, and the others are jealous of the warrior’s burst AE threat on incoming adds. Druids are jealous of anyone with more than one button.
So, yes, one way of handling this is to give every tank a burst AE attack like Thunderclap, a sustained AE attack like Consecrate, and a mass taunt like Challenging Shout just for good measure. That’s the kind of thing we are really reluctant to do though because it just works against the justification for having 4 tanking classes when they all perform the same way including using the same kind of tools. Now, on the other hand no tank should be horribly gimped in any of those situations, and except for rare exceptions they really aren’t. We’re mostly talking quality of life issues here. (One such exception: DK offtanks on Yogg had trouble picking up adds and the dps couldn’t afford to wait. As long as there aren’t a ton of fights like this though, we don’t think it’s a systemic flaw.)
4) Long-term, the paladin manner of generating AE damage and threat is probably too good, especially given how simple it is. To be honest, we have very mixed feelings on the whole AE tanking game. We brought the druid and warrior more in line with the paladin for fear of recreating the Shattered Halls / Mount Hyjal experience, where other tanks just weren’t competitive. What that has led to of course is the AE tank + AE style of damage for almost every pull. You need the tools to be able to tank legitimate adds fights (imagine lots of incoming mobs), but does that mean every pull needs to devolve into that? We’d like to see less AE overall, so buffing everyone’s AE tools isn’t going to be tops on our agenda. That does however mean that we really can’t afford to have a “best AE tank”, and while things are more fair there than they were in BC, they aren’t fair enough.
Sorry for going off topic here, but these kinds of questions have come up a lot lately, so I figured I’d just share some of our discussions publicly.
Recent Comments