1641

In some ways I’m sort of glad that Cataclysm hasn’t released yet. Our 10-man group just finished up our ICC meta achievement last week. I’m sure we could have finished it sooner, but between a really unsteady roster for the first few months, people on summer breaks, and just some general oddities (we had one person miss heroic Sindy because the game somehow force released her right before our kill), we needed the extra time. On the other hand, I’ve been very tired of ICC for at least a month.

So the current timing is actually working out just right for me. I need a month or so of “non-scheduled” time before Cataclysm comes out to recharge the batteries, so to speak.

As to the release date, while it does seem like 12/7 is completely reasonable, it would be trivial to change that text string and push the date back or move it up.

1642

4.0.1 Patch will change ICC and Ruby Sanctum to the new shared lockout system for 10s and 25s: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27026324753&sid=1

No more running both ICC10 and 25 in the same week. I wish they’d put this in 5 months ago before I burnt out on doing exactly that.

And no more joining terrible raids, getting locked to a single boss, then being SoL for the rest of the week. (Although good luck at joining a successful raid in progress)

1643

I can’t believe what I just witnessed. About 20 level 1 orcs were lining up to form the name of a gold website in Origimmar. And they were clearly hacking… They went from laying down on the streets to flying up into the air and making the sign in the air…

Here’s a screenshot: http://yfrog.com/fvwowscrnshot100310051823j

1644

Yeah they’ve been doing that for awhile. Though I had hoped Blizz had done something about it since I hadn’t seen it in about a month now.

1645

Yeah I posted a shot of a group I saw a few weeks ago. I honestly think Blizzard is in on it now.

As for the new raid “flexible” structure… yeaah. Thanks blizzard I really want to beta test on live servers cata content months before the expansion. Thanks for fucking up my guild’s raid schedules. I may be burned out but I have a feeling the guild alliance/pug 25 I run every week will die now due to many wanting to make sure they can get their 10man title or help guildmates get titles. At least its not effing over Ulduar for the mounts.

1646

What would be the most cost efficient way of getting back into this, if all you own is vanilla WoW?

I’m thinking about coming back for Cataclysm (it has been many years since I last played, and I’m intrigued by the new revamp, the automated instance finders, etc.).

But when I went to look at what it would take to get all the content, it looks like I’d have to shell out about $120 just to buy Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm.

If that’s the case (or if it would cost something comparable), I think I’ll just pass and stick with LOTRO.

1647

You can get Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King for like $20-$30 each now (and that’s just looking at Amazon), so it’s not quite as bad as that, but definitely still a significant cost. If you just want to check out the low level stuff in Cataclysm it will apply to all accounts, no matter which expansions you have, though there will be some expansion-specific areas and content you can’t access. At some point presumably a Base Game + Burning Crusade + Lich King pack will be released which would probably be cheaper, but I don’t believe they’ve announced anything like that yet.

1648

On Amazon, it’s about $90 for BC, LK and Cata. I assume $90 would qualify for free shipping. And, yeah, Blizzard should really do something like a $30-40 Battle Chest, wrapping up all the previous expansions. It’s getting cost-prohibitive to start playing their game.

1649

The 1-60 zones and their changes can be accessed by anyone. You can just shell out for some playtime to check out the new stuff and features.

The downside is that you’ll be stuck if you reach 60 and that you can’t roll any of the new expansion races. You’ll definitely have plenty of content to make a decision on buying the expansions, though.

1650

It hasn’t been mentioned here yet I think. Cata is now confirmed for Dec 7th.

From MMO Champ

1651

was mentioned 12 posts prior, but it probably bears repeating :)

1652

Especially since this is the first official announcement on it. Everything up until now has been speculation (even though well-grounded).

1653

Are those 1-60 changes being implemented at the same time as the Cataclysm launch?

1654

A couple weeks before from what Blizz has said. They’ll be available in the 4.0.3 patch which will come after the 4.0.1 patch which is due out in the next week or so.

1655

So how do rated BGs work? Will that be premade against premade?

1656

Sly… you can do what my wife did: just buy the expansion packs when (and if) you get to the level cap where you need them. As others have said, it means certain races (and professions, I believe) will be closed to you. But it’s an option to think about if you just want to check out the new world of Azeroth.

In addition, you won’t have to buy Cataclysm to experience the new world… the Cataclysm expansion just opens up a couple very high level areas and 2 new races.

1657

From the top of my head:

Burning Crusade added 2 new races:

  • Drainai on Alliance side (blue space things with tails think Avatar)
  • Blood Elf on Horde side (“Evil” Night Elves so Horde had one sexy race as well)

Wrath of the Lich King added 1 new class:

  • Death Knights for all races

Assuming you have a lvl 60 (since you played vanilla) you will only have to buy Burning Crusade to go to 70 and see if you like it.

You won’t have access to Northrend (lvl 70-80 area) + the Death Knight class.

1658

I think it’s better to say “December seventh, two-thousand ten… a date… that will lack… productivity.”

1659

so I got in to the beta for cataclysm, other than looking at my awesome lvl 80 pally, is there anything else I can do in that beta? I took a ride to orgrimmar but 99% of the npc is like missing.

where can I check out the new contents?

1660

Well, you can level, run 5mans, try the new races, new profession and new zones…

Here is your Hitchhikers Guide. Don’t Panic and bring a towel.