Project Lore

BlizzCon 2009 is certainly gone, but it is by no means forgotten.  The latest, and greatest, convention to celebrate Blizzard's universes has given World of Warcraft players plenty of fodder for questions and concerns.  Not to mention increasing the general hunger we reserve for all things Azeroth (or things in another dimension that happen to impact Azeroth).  Even though the third expansion is a ways away, Blizzard has begun trickling out additional information and screenshots for Deathwing's return via the official Cataclysm website. The Abyssal Maw, the elemental plane of water, was chosen as the first zone to be detailed.  In sticking with tradition, the new page details the background of the zone as told through small snippets of lore.  We learn, or are reminded, that the elemental planes are creations of the Titans to protect their creations from the elemental minions of the Old Gods (ie Ragnaros) and the natural destructive forces of the elements.  However, Deathwing's escape into Azeroth rips open a hole between the planes of existence, allowing noble and nefarious factions to enter the formerly closed areas. Blizzard manages to tease a new Legendary item during the description of Abyssal Maw.  By way of describing the likely end boss of the zone, Neptulon the Tidehunter, Blizzard states that he "possesses a potent weapon that allows its owner to control the very seas of Azeroth."  And it appears that players will be able to get their hands on the powerful weapon, "the artifact has remained secure inside the water elementals' domain... but that will soon change." It's nice to see Blizzard following up BlizzCon with new information in such a timely manner.  Hopefully the company can keep the flow of information coming, instead of peaks and valleys.  In case you are wondering, the Cataclysm site is not bare outside of Abyssal Maw.  It also contains the introduction to the Worgen with Gilneas and the Lost Isles for the Goblins.

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I know my good buddy Bastosa already covered WoW-Europe's preview of Ulduar, but I can't contain myself.  Forget about the fact that my toon is a bit further behind his raiding accomplishments, this is new content we are talking about here!  Unlike my controversial post on Dual Spec yesterday (that it is a band-aid feature), I am pretty sure everyone is incredibly excited to learn more about the Titans and Old Gods as we battle through new encounters. Feature list:

• Fourteen boss encounters.  Eleven of these will have a "hard" mode for players who want more of a challenge - and extra, high item level loot.
• The area is split up into two sections, an entryway and then the dungeon.  Via the preview, an army lead by the first boss guards the rest of the dungeon.  The fight will involve vehicular combat, and yes, the vehicles will scale with gear.  The initial skirmish will be one of the eleven encounters with a hard mode.
• Confirmed bosses include Flame Leviathan, Freya, Thorim, Hodir, and The Iron Council.
• Yogg-Saron, the second known living Old God, is alluded to being the final boss.

You may have noticed that there is no mention of Freya, Thorim, Hodir, or The Iron Council in the preview post.  That information came out thanks to a post on the official North American realms detailing the planned testing of v3.1 and the raid.  Blizzard will be changing up their testing from here on out, possibly in an attempt to stop World First Kills from happening shortly after the content goes live.  Patch v3.1 will be tested in chunks (the above bosses being the first batch) that are only available during a strict timeframe.  Adding to that, the North American and European playerbases will be given different content to test at different times.  Furthermore, the territories may not even be allowed to test some content at all. With over a baker's dozen worth of encounters, immense scope and scale, Old God and Titan lore, possibly an Old God itself and stories based on Norse mythology, Ulduar seems like a can't miss.  Here is to hoping that the fights come out as fun and distinct as the first one sounds.  One question did immediately pop into my head after reading the preview, "Why are we fighting against Thorim and Hodir after we have done so much for them?"  Ideas? Also, Voltron reference...awesome!

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Everyone's favorite class designer hit the official forums during maintenance day to inform us that class changes for Patch 3.1 would be announced soon.  For those who don't already know it, Patch v3.1 will be Wrath's first content patch, with the main feature being the addition of an all-new raid known as Ulduar.  Popular speculation has Yogg-Saron - the second known "Old God" - or parts of him as the final boss.  Piggy-backing on the big content patch are numerous other tweaks, such as the classes changes discussed below. Making good on Ghostcrawler's promise, Eyonix threw up Part 1 of the upcoming changes.  However, only Rogues (yahoo), Priests and Shamans currently have a short-list of changes, every other class is "coming soon."  I am no Shaman, nor am I an expert Priest, but it seems pretty obvious that both classes have been buffed overall in the listed changes.  As for what my lovable little gnome thinks about his upcoming changes?  Awesome. PvP, that is the big change for Priests.  The notes specifically state that Shadow PvPers will see increased survivability thanks to a buff to Shadow Form which reduces magic damage along with physical damage.  Although no specific modifications were detailed, Eyonix notes that the developers are looking into making Holy have "additional PvP utility."  All the Discipline Priests shouldn't feel left out though, they get an entirely new ability, Power Word: Barrier, which is essentially a PW:S for their group.  Blizzard even through in some love for the whole class, adding Divine Spirit as a core ability. Shamans of the Elemental and Enhancement varieties also scored some additional, although undefined, PvP utility.  Following that, Dalaran's lag should be slightly lower come v3.1 thanks to the streamlining of Totems.  Mana Spring / Healing Stream Totems and Disease Cleansing / Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined. They are now two totems rather than four separate lag-inducing pillars of doom.  The nature-friendly class has received one modification that might be viewed as a nerf, Chain Lightning will jump to four targets, but do less damage.  The less damage could mean for the fourth jump or that the overall DPS output by CL will be lowered The number one change I was looking forward to for Rogues was how Blizzard planned to tackle the annoyance of keeping Hunger for Blood active.  For the none rogues out there, the spell had to be spammed three times, wasting two extra global cooldowns and 60 energy, to max it out.  Then it had to be refreshed every 30 seconds to keep it up.  While refreshing didn't break stealth - you could refresh while creeping to the next mob - it was incredibly annoying to worry about an ability with such a short duration that was so desperately needed.  The new HfB is a self-buff that can only be used when a bleed effect (anyone's bleed) is active.  While the need for a bleed is indeed a nerf, the 6% damage increase - from 9% with three stacks to 15% with no need for stacking - should help soothe that irritated skin. Like the other classes, rogues have also seen a selection of buffs beyond the HfB change.  Added haste, lower cooldowns and additional damage to various talents and abilities should make every rogue happy.  However, we do not know the exact amount these favorable changes will impact us, due to the numbers on a few of tweaks not being unveiled. The rest of the classes will be revealed in the upcoming parts of Eyonix's post.  Please hold off on the complaints until you see your own buffs.  Remember, these notes are not comprehensive and therefore do not list all the changes.  On the flip side, they can also be thrown out the window at a moment's notice. All of the changes do seem to be buffs, so perhaps Blizzard is saving all the nerfs for one giant post to get all the QQ out at once...Sly devils. In other news, numerous bugs have been found in WoW recently, but the developers are already hard at work on hotfixes. Update: Eyonix has posted more class changes.  Warriors, Warlocks and Druids should check out the post covering Part 2 of the changes.

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