The Art of War(craft): Cataclysm PvP

BlizzCon came and went and nothing is going to be the same again. At least not after Cataclysm, the third expansion for the World of Warcraft. Cataclysm is set to change the face of the game more than anything we've ever seen, it'll almost be like WoW 2.0. The classes are the same, but there'll be new races, new abilities, new mechanics, and a new, revamped world with a renewed faction conflict that will have deep implications for PvP.

Gameplay will change significantly, particularly for Warlocks and Hunters, and there will be changes to talents, talent tree passive benefits, racial abilities, as well as entire systems to rate Battleground play. There will likely be an overhaul to the Arena ratings system, as well, perhaps as soon as Arena Season 7 kicks in. Blizzard isn't content to sit idle on its success, but has in fact taken the opposite direction by overhauling the entire game. They're turning Azeroth on its ear, and it's going to be insane. After the jump, we'll take a look at how the Cataclysm is going to shape World of Warcraft PvP.

New Races
This is huge. Worgen and Goblins impact PvP on every imaginable level, from something as simple as battlefield silhouettes to new racials to faction balance. The Alliance finally get a bloodthirsty, 'badass' race while the Horde finally get their small race in the Goblins. Darkflight and Rocket Jump are racials on 2 minute cooldowns that greatly improve mobility, which will come into play for both escape and closing maneuvers. Goblins have another racial ability shared with Rocket Jump, an offensive spell called Rocket Barrage. It won't be a matchbreaking spell considering it's a racial ability, but could be something to go to when all other class abilities are down for the count.

The new races combined with the new leveling experience will be extremely compelling, so expect a lot of leveling for months after Cataclysm launches. PvP servers will be have their share of griefers who will pick on Worgen or Goblins, so be prepared to park your high level mains nearby for quick changeover when other players get in the way.

New Race and Class combinations
This will have a moderate impact on the classes as racials come into play -- imagine a Protection-specced Tauren Paladin who can stun with both Hammer of Justice and War Stomp. These holy cows would also have higher health thanks to Endurance and Protection talents. A Gnome Priest gets an extra out by way of Escape Artist, while Dwarf Shamans get to shrug off bleed effects with Stoneform or cleanse themselves even when out of mana. Human Hunters with Perception on top of Track Hidden will be the bane of stealthers, while Undead Hunters (especially when specced Survival) are going to be masters of escape with Will of the Forsaken.

The new silhouettes will also take some getting used to, and we'll have to throw our initial perceptions of races out the door. Gnomes will finally have a class that can heal themselves, for example. Players will need to rely more on other visual cues, particularly equipment such as distinctive shoulders, for class identification from a distance. As a corollary to the new races, Blizzard promised a reworking of the racial abilities of the current races to bring them up to speed with the newer, cooler Goblin and Worgen racials. Expect race choices for class to be more meaningful -- an ironic statement in the face of paid faction (and probably race) changes.

Revamped Talents
Blizzard promised the pruning of passive, boring, even necessary talents. This means players will actually become more powerful and unpredictable, with abilities that have cool secondary effects or entirely new abilities from talents. It will take a deeper understanding of every tree to determine what passive bonuses each spec gets. This also means that traditional builds that pick up critical talents for raiding have some flexibility to invest points in "fun" talents like Body and Soul.

Even though Blizzard said they won't be deepening the talent trees beyond the 11th tier, five additional levels still grant talent points to invest in what should be a completely overhauled set of talents. The removal of passive bonus talents will make way for more interesting talents that are either spells in themselves such as Hungering Cold or Haunt, or those that add secondary effects to existing spells such as Body and Soul. Players will be able to customize their characters more than ever before and have even those playing the same class will have entirely different arsenals.

New Battlegrounds
Tom Chilton said they were targeting multiple new Battlegrounds to ship with Cataclysm -- even without all the changes they're ushering into the game, this is an extremely ambitious project. The Burning Crusade shipped and ended with one, while Wrath of the Lich King shipped with one and introduced the Isle of Conquest in Patch 3.2. Cataclysm is targeted to ship with three. That's just... wow. We have no idea about how these new Battlegrounds will look, or how they'll play, but Blizzard's renewed focus on Battlegrounds PvP is refreshing, reassuring, and celebrated by a whole lot of players.

Rated Battlegrounds and the Return of PvP Ranks
This aspect of Cataclysm PvP probably merits a post on its own, but we'll skim over it for now just to give an idea of how amazing things are going to be for the expansion. Blizzard will finally implement a way for Battleground enthusiasts who prefer the Battleground experience to Arenas a way to access the same gear that had previously only been available through Arena play. This improves more players' gear, which should make PvP more competitive and interesting no matter where it happens.

Rated Battlegrounds will also impact how players approach Battlegrounds, making each win more significant. It will become counterproductive to AFK during a match. Furthermore, rated matches require queuing up as a group -- which is the one difficulty in the scenario, although Chilton mentioned that rated Alterac Valley or Isle of Conquest will likely be pared down to 25-man affairs.

There will likely be a new crop of guilds focused on Battlegrounds PvP, with guild advancement leaning in that direction. The return of PvP ranks will excite many old school players, although it's possible that these can be seasonal titles to match the titles obtained from Arena play. There are still many questions that linger about Battlegrounds PvP in the Cataclysm, but it is extremely promising and should breathe new life into PvP as a whole.

Tol Barad
Finally there's the Cataclysm's version of Wintergrasp, an island South of Hillsbrad although Chilton explained that their plans for Tol Barad might require more land mass than they had originally allocated (Tol Barad can be seen in a map inside the manual that comes with the original World of Warcraft game). It will be a zone like the Isle of Quel'danas, a daily quest hub, between battles. This mechanic improves upon Wintergrasp's design which leaves the zone barren before and after matches. At the same time, this reinvigorates inter-faction conflict as the zone becomes a hotbed of griefing on PvP servers.

Conclusion
At this point, it's simply too early to speculate on the details but it's certainly early enough to be excited as all hell. Just as Cataclysm will inject new life into the game, PvP will likewise be given a much-needed jolt. For certain, there'll be persistent class balance issues, but those will tend to diminish in the face of Battlegrounds PvP where team composition, individual player class and spec, aren't as important as they are in the Arena vacuum. More than anything, the game promises to be fun. At the heart of it, that's what it's all about. In the midst of blowing up opponents, capturing their bases, or tearing down their walls -- we're supposed to be having fun. If Blizzard's actions match up to their mighty BlizzCon words, Cataclysm PvP will probably be the most fun PvP we've ever seen in the game.

Patch 3.2.2 PTR: Pandaren and Lil' K.T. pets revealed in latest build

Like Diablo's Cow Level, the Pandaren have almost mythic status within World of Warcraft since that memorable and almost plausible April Fool's Day prank. Blizzard has paid homage to that by tucking a pet Pandaren Monk into the latest build (10371) of patch 3.2.2 which has just gone live on the PTR.

Boubouille over at MMO Champion has once again been rooting around the patch files and he came across the first model of the aforementioned pet. Isn't he cute? Heavy on the Chinese aethetics, we have no idea how you'll be able to get this little guy. While datamining, Boubouille also discovered another hitherto unmentioned pet, Lil' K.T.. Yes, you too can have your own pocket-sized Kel'Thuzad, a tiny trophy-sized lich to call your very own! Again, we're not sure how you get one. Here's hoping he drops off his full-sized self in Naxx but who knows? For now we just have a spell note in the files

And as a note, please remember that Pandarens are not a playable race, nor is this an indication they will ever be added to WoW.

Are you ready for the return of Onyxia? With the Brood Mother being revitalized as a 10 and 25 person raid, you'll need to be sure you know everything that's coming at you.

Phat Loot Phriday: Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat

Name: Weather-beaten Fishing Hat

Type: Rare Cloth Head

Armor: 127

Attributes:

• +40 Stamina, +40 Spirit


• On equip: increased fishing +5. This hat isn't to be confused with the Lucky Fishing Hat, which also gives this fishing bonus, and is available only through turn-ins at the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament. +5 bonus isn't a huge bonus to fishing at all (your main +bonus comes from your fishing pole ), but given that it's an extra +5, it's worth having.
  


• And here's the good part: on use, attach a lure to your equipped fishing pole that increases fishing by +75 for 10 minutes. With a 10 minute cooldown, you effectively have an infinite lure. Unfortunately, the highest bonus from lures is actually 100, so if you need those extra few points somewhere, you'll still have to shell out for a lure (or, more likely, pick them up from the fishing quest reward). But this hat will come in handy if you're doing any regular fishing for sure.


• Plus, can you say stylin'? No, really, this shares a model with the "Stylin'" hats , which means it looks pimp .

How to Get It: It's a rare (like 1%) drop from the Bag of Fishing Treasures, the reward from the daily fishing quests in Shattrath or Dalaran. So basically all you've got to do is fish a lot and get lucky. Fortunately, Blizzard just buffed the daily fishing quest -- it now sometimes gives a Dalaran cooking award, which is a big help if you're going for that hat .

And this is a great time to mention something we heard at BlizzCon as well. Blizzard is working on tuning up fishing, and they mentioned Animal Crossing as an influence. They said that likely, you'll see a fish in the water and decide whether or not you want to go after it, and then you'll throw your lure in and have to watch as the fish does or doesn't decide to bite it. Does that sound more fun? Maybe not, but Blizzard has said they specifically want to bring more fun into fishing and all of the other professions soon. Should be interesting to see.

Getting Rid of It: You'll want to save it, because even though the regular stats may not be that great, odds are you'll have to wait quite a while until another fishing hat option rolls around again. But just in case they do implement that Animal Crossing thing, and you hate it so much you want to quit fishing and burn all of your gear, you can sell it off for 2g 54s 90c, or disenchant it into a Large Prismatic Shard, with a small chance of a Void Crystal.

WoW Patch 3.2.2 Updated

The newest WoW Patch 3.2.2 PTR build which came online this morning has some hot new achievements for our favorite brood mother. The Onyxia achievements are as we expected - pulled straight from the classic NSFW Onyxia Wipe Animation .

Of particular note is the Level 60 Onyxia Achievement – that is now a Feat of Strength as it will be unobtainable after Patch 3.2.2 releases and Ony becomes a level 80 raid. In my opinion, guilds should be doing nightly Ony runs to get their alts the achievement. Nothing says awesome like some good old level 60 Feats of Strength.

The full list of Level 80 Onyxia Achievements after the break

10-Man Achievements

• Onyxia's Lair – Defeat Onyxia in 10-player mode.


• More Dots! – Defeat Onyxia in less than five minutes in a 10-player mode.


• Many Whelps! Handle It! – Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 10-player mode.


• She Deep Breaths More – Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 10-player mode.

25-Man Achievements

• Onyxia's Lair – Defeat Onyxia in 25-player mode.


• More Dots! – Defeat Onyxia in less than five minutes in a 25-player mode.


• Many Whelps! Handle It! – Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 25-player mode.


• She Deep Breaths More – Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 25-player mode.

Night Elves and Worgen: Druid allies of the Moon

For some, the Worgen seem unlikely members of the Alliance. These lupine creatures have a long history within Azeroth, even if no one is quite sure where or - to quote Chris Metzen, "when" - they come from. The choice to include the isolationist zone of Gilneas is logical. After all Arugal's infamous Shadowfang Keep is located just north of the Greymane Wall, right up the road. Added to this the fact a Gilnean hasn't been seen in a decade, well that makes them ripe for a lorefest. Blizzard have all but confirmed it was their isolationist attitude which led to the people of Gilneas becoming Worgen but if that is the case then it's kind of ironic. They hid to escape the undead plague and instead succumbed to another infection entirely.

Formally humans and now Worgen, the trailer hints that it will be the efforts of the Night Elves which will see the Worgen joining the Alliance. Now this in interesting because the Night Elves have their own history with the Worgen, Velinde Starsong and the Scythe of Elune. But given that the Gilnean Worgen are the only other Alliance race who can become Druids, there's an even deeper link between the two races. Also, given that Druids are skilled shapeshifters, the Night Elves could hold the key to helping the people of Gilneas deal with their curse.

Now the werewolves on which the Worgen are based are lunar creatures. In the most popular mythology they are forced to transform when the moon is full but this is not always the case. Part of this can be seen in the Wolfcult of Northrend's Grizzly Hills who remain in human form until forced into combat. For the Night Elves, who revere the larger silvery orb known as the White Lady as their supreme Goddess, Elune, the Worgen are a part of their mytholgy. While in the past, the Scythe of Elune storyline has been a big part of Worgen lore, how much of it and the pull of the Moon - which is found in traditional werewolf lore - will make it into Cataclysm remains to be seen.

This is part of the excitement of a new expansion, the promise of the unknown is just that, so promising! For a short time, our imaginations can wander without the constraints of fact and detail. We can dream of what we want the Worgen and, specifically, the Druid class to be within the lore of Azeroth. Regardless of what this might be in the end, there is definitely going to be a close bond between the Kaldorei and the people of Gilneas which will shape how World of Warcraft moves into a post-Cataclysm age.

WOW Leveling 31-40 and notes on PvP servers

In the wake of the announcement concerning the upcoming abolishment of spell and ability ranks, I'm wondering whether it's worth our time to continue noting and linking the presence of new ranks while leveling. For now, I'm going to keep linking them; when Cataclysm hits, it shouldn't be too much trouble to go back and delete them, because I'll be revising the guides anyway to reflect any changes Cataclysm makes to the class. Also -- werewolves. Who saw that coming? Have you seen those racials? Sweet Sister Mary Clarence, those are overpowered. And the transform animation? Well, don't we all feel stupid now for rolling something that barely manages a weak whumph when it shifts. But I'm an optimist at heart, and I firmly believe that Blizzard has something special in mind for us. Maybe a bigger whumph.

On a completely unrelated note that I am going to write here just because I can get, I was tanking a VoA-25 PuG earlier this week and we lost our offtank to a disconnect right before Emalon. We then spent the next 30 minutes trying to find another tank...with 7 Death Knights in the raid.

Hero class, my giant furry newly-improved butt.

In the wake of the announcement concerning the upcoming abolishment of spell and ability ranks, I'm wondering whether it's worth our time to continue noting and linking the presence of new ranks while leveling. For now, I'm going to keep linking them; when Cataclysm hits, it shouldn't be too much trouble to go back and delete them, because I'll be revising the guides anyway to reflect any changes Cataclysm makes to the class. Also -- werewolves. Who saw that coming? Have you seen those racials? Sweet Sister Mary Clarence, those are overpowered. And the transform animation? Well, don't we all feel stupid now for rolling something that barely manages a weak whumph when it shifts. But I'm an optimist at heart, and I firmly believe that Blizzard has something special in mind for us. Maybe a bigger whumph.

On a completely unrelated note that I am going to write here just because I can get, I was tanking a VoA-25 PuG earlier this week and we lost our offtank to a disconnect right before Emalon. We then spent the next 30 minutes trying to find another tank...with 7 Death Knights in the raid.

Hero class, my giant furry newly-improved butt.

In the wake of the announcement concerning the upcoming abolishment of spell and ability ranks, I'm wondering whether it's worth our time to continue noting and linking the presence of new ranks while leveling. For now, I'm going to keep linking them; when Cataclysm hits, it shouldn't be too much trouble to go back and delete them, because I'll be revising the guides anyway to reflect any changes Cataclysm makes to the class. Also -- werewolves. Who saw that coming? Have you seen those racials? Sweet Sister Mary Clarence, those are overpowered. And the transform animation? Well, don't we all feel stupid now for rolling something that barely manages a weak whumph when it shifts. But I'm an optimist at heart, and I firmly believe that Blizzard has something special in mind for us. Maybe a bigger whumph.

On a completely unrelated note that I am going to write here just because I can get, I was tanking a VoA-25 PuG earlier this week and we lost our offtank to a disconnect right before Emalon. We then spent the next 30 minutes trying to find another tank...with 7 Death Knights in the raid.

Hero class, my giant furry newly-improved butt.
As with many other classes, the rate at which you'll pile up new skills slows considerably between levels 31 and 40, and you'll finally be settling into a grinding/questing playstyle that resembles what you'll see at 80.


LEVEL 32

Three of the skills that make Cats pretty cool to play arrive at this level, although one's only usable popping out of Stealth:

Ravage: Ravage is more or less a copy of the Rogue skill Ambush, and it's a once-per-fight ability that has to be used as an opener from Prowl while behind an opponent. Even at this level, it does a respectable amount of damage, but whether it's a better opener than Pounce (which you'll get in 4 levels) depends on how you've specced and the type of opponent you're facing. Versus a low-armor target (e.g. caster mob) or any target that's sitting down (which guarantees a critical strike), your enemy will almost always die faster to a Ravage than a Pounce. However, if you've talented into Brutal Impact and Shredding Attacks, Pounce will keep your mob stunned for 4 seconds, which is long enough to get at least 2 and sometimes 3 "discounted" Shreds off. That's better damage than you'll get from Ravage, but it's still a great opener if you don't particularly care about the stun that Pounce provides, or if you're grinding on a bear build without either of the aforementioned talents. As an aside, although Pounce is by far the more popular opener in battlegrounds and arena for what should be obvious reasons, a Ravage on an opponent who's just sat down to eat/drink will produce the kind of monster crit that people are so fond of putting in PvP videos. Make sure you have some sort of heavy metal going on in the background or at least some deeply emotional song on how no one understands you and you're going to show them all. Preparation, people, that's all I'm saying.
Ferocious Bite: Ravage is your brand-new opener, and here's your brand-new finisher, which -- unsurprisingly -- is also a copy of a Rogue ability (in this case, Eviscerate). As you level and your gear improves, Ferocious Bite is often a better finishing move than Rip if for no other reason than its likelihood to finish off a low-health mob quickly. As with Ravage, you'll see better damage from it on low-armor mobs and enemies. The one potentially problematic thing about Ferocious Bite is that it will gobble up to 30 additional energy you have pooled and convert it into additional damage. Sounds like a good deal, right? It's what makes Ferocious Bite into one of the more difficult skills to incorporate into the Cat DPS rotation in raids, simply because any energy you have up to 65 will be gulped in an instant. It's also annoying while you're out grinding and moving from mob to mob quickly, because you'll find yourself auto-attacking your next target because you don't have the energy to do anything else. For these reasons, it takes some practice to learn when to use Ferocious Bite effectively, so experiment with it and Rip versus a variety of targets and see what works best for you. Track Humanoids: I confess I have absolutely no idea why Cats have this ability, although come to think of it, my own cats have no trouble finding me whenever they feel like standing in front of the door having a lengthy internal debate over whether to go outside, so...eh. As you've probably figured out, it's a great PvP ability and should be the first thing you switch on in battlegrounds or arena, particularly if you're stealthed at a node somewhere. Being able to see the angle at which an enemy is approaching will give you advance notice on where you need to approach from in order to stay behind them. You do not want to be directly in front of an oncoming enemy; as we've noted before, eventually every player will see you if you're anywhere in front of them, but even if you don't have any points in Feral Instinct, they can't see you if you're behind them. For that reason alone you want to have Track Humanoids up in order to swing around to the rear as they're heading your way, but you'll want to open on them from behind as well. Track Humanoids is also enormously useful in PvE on any quest requiring you to kill a named humanoid NPC or humanoid mobs period -- even if you're Balance, just pop into Cat, mouseover all the dots on your map, and you'll see what you need to kill and where -- and you'll also want to be running it constantly if you're leveling on a PvP server so you'll have advance notice of any trouble heading your way. PVP SERVERS AND ZONE PREFERENCES

On that note, while this doesn't have much to do with Druids specifically, I received a question recently from a player who's leveling an Alliance Druid on a PvP server and who unfortunately had the typical "nightmare" experience in Stranglethorn. Unagidon was interested in finding out if particular contested zones for 40+ player were more Alliance- or Horde-friendly in the interests of avoiding more of these problems, and it was a question I wanted to pose to commenters as I haven't leveled anything on a PvP server in more than a year. For reference, Una's Druid is currently 41 and has finished Dustwallow Marsh.

I'm tempted to say that Feralas and the Blasted Lands would be a level 40-55 Alliance player's best bets on a PvP server, but after that I'm hard-pressed to think of any zone that not equally dangerous to both sides. Winterspring and Silithus might be a good pick just because so few people level there right now, period (with Winterspring being the safer of the two due to Alliance players farming for Frostsaber mounts), but for the forseeable future, I would avoid Un'goro like the plague due to the influx of high-level Horde traffic from players working toward Ravasaur mounts. For Horde players, my first picks would be the Swamp of Sorrows and then Un'goro (for the same reason Alliance would be avoiding it). Thoughts from commenters on this question would be very welcome. WoW Rookie also had a good post on "20 tips for PvP servers" that I hope you'll find helpful.

At any rate, the other two skills you'll train at 32 are simply upgrades:

Demoralizing Roar, rank 3: standard upgrade. Healing Touch, rank 6: standard upgrade. LEVEL 34

And the same is true at level 34. Part of me can't believe that at some point in what's likely to be 2010 I will be going through all of these leveling guides and just mass-deleting all of these links. I'll strike you a deal, Blizzard; I go to Irvine and make werewolves, and you can sit in front of a laptop linking to stuff that you know isn't gonna exist in a little while. It's like they don't even stop to consider my feelings when they do s^@t like this. Pretty nervy if you ask me.

Maul, rank 4: standard upgrade. Moonfire, rank 6: standard upgrade. Rake, rank 2: standard upgrade. Rejuvenation, rank 6: standard upgrade. Starfire, rank 3: standard upgrade. Swipe (Bear), rank 3: standard upgrade. Thorns, rank 4: standard upgrade. LEVEL 36

One new Cat ability and one new Bear ability! You'll be using the former quite a lot, but how frequently you use the latter will depend on your healer's propensity for tabbing out during pulls.

Pounce, rank 1: This is one of Cat form's two stuns (the other being Maim, which you won't get until 62), although unlike Maim and Bash you have to be Prowling in order to use it; in other words, it's an opener. One of the nice things about Pounce is that it applies a small bleed effect over a fairly lengthy period (18 seconds), which is invaluable versus tougher targets. As a general rule, you want to get as many bleeds as possible going on more heavily-armored targets in both PvE and PvP because, while armor mitigates a great deal of your damage (to the point where Armor Penetration is one of the Cat's best stats at 80), bleeds completely ignore it. Also, incapacitating more dangerous enemies with Pounce's initial stun may help you squeeze out that extra bit of damage necessary to kill them faster than they'll kill you. Even without Brutal Impact and Shredding Attacks, you should be able to manage a Pounce + Shred combination on just about everything before the target comes out of the stun, and in fact, using Pounce is pretty much going to be your only opportunity to use Shred at all while soloing.

The Cat's soloing rotation at level 36 will thus be a Ravage + Rake + Claw to whatever finishing move you decide to use, or a Pounce + Shred + Rake + Claw to a finishing move. If your gear is poor, you'll probably want to open with a Pounce because it'll help you avoid more damage from mobs, but regardless of whether you open with Ravage or Pounce, you want to get a Rake going early and then use a finisher judiciously. Versus armored or high-HP targets, a Pounce + Shred + Rake + Rip combo will get three different bleed effects ticking quickly, which will often seal the fate of even an elite mob at this level. Versus lesser-armored or lower-HP targets, a Ravage + Rake + Claw + Ferocious Bite may finish them off faster. As previously stated, if you have Brutal Impact and Shredding Attacks, you'll want to open from a Pounce with as many Shreds as you can manage no matter what.

BlizzCon 2009: TSG wins WoW Arena Tournament World Championship

This year's World of Warcraft Arena Tournament Finals had an extremely good attendance despite some hiccups on the tournament stage, leaving the hosts cracking space-filling jokes until the teams were finally ready. Actually, this happened between every match, which was one of the few dampers in an otherwise decent tournament. The strong attendance at the Finals might also have something to do with the presence of a US/Canadian team, TSG, consisting of David Kovacs, Bennett Lynch, and Fabian Siffredi, otherwise known as Valrath, Veex, and Zilea, who ran a strong Death Knight, Warrior, Holy Paladin cleave comp all the way to a $75,000 purse. The last team to stand in their way was Shipit from Korea, consisting of Soonjae "Coilmaster" Cha, Jaemin "Tsukiyomi" Lee, and Janghwan "Kamiu" Bae with a Warrior, Hunter, Holy Paladin comp that never really posed a challenge for the new World Champions.

All throughout the Finals, TSG played extremely aggressively, bringing Shipit's Hunter, Tsukiyomi, to dangerously low health within the opening moments of every match. The Koreans faced an uphill battle coming from the consolation bracket, needing to defeat TSG twice in a best of five, but it was clear that the North American team's aggressive style and double melee comp were too much to handle.

The Korean contingent walked away with a respectable $30,000 and third place team x6tence from Europe took home $15,000. The awards were handed out by Blizzard's Tom Chilton, who described this year's Arena Tournament as "the best ever". We also saw the defeat of RMP -- as even Mage hero Orangemarmalade couldn't advance within the consolation bracket. It reaffirmed the power of Holy Paladin heals and Death Knights, however, in an environment that saw zero Shamans. It'll be exciting to see what 2010 holds as Cataclysm is likely to change the entire face of World of Warcraft PvP.

BlizzCon 2009: Ed Fries of Figureprints

FigurePrints was at BlizzCon again this year, and we stopped by their booth to say hi to our friend Ed Fries -- his company has been making virtual World of Warcraft characters into real-life 3D figurines for a couple of years now. Since the last time we'd spoken, FigurePrints had not only raised their prices, but we'd unveiled their new FigurePets series right here on WoW.com.

Fries gave us a few more things to unveil in this exclusive interview, including the fact that FigurePets will have another series get released next month, and that they're planning to offer some new options to players who want to print characters out but don't have the time to go find their favorite armor. Additionally, we asked him about the price raise, and what the company planned to do about people who really wanted to immortalize their figures but didn't really want to spend all that money.

Additionally, we've got a short video after the break showing one of their employees manually removing some of the powder from a newly printed figurine in the booth at BlizzCon. It doesn't have much explanation of what he's doing (for more on the process, you can see last year's BlizzCon interview), but you can see inside the printer and what it's like to create these figures.

Since the last time I've talked to you, you started doing the pets.

Right. We launched FigurePets. We launched with a series of three pets over there -- we've got Stinker, the Clockwork Rocket Bot, and Speedy. And they all sold well, but Speedy was the one that everyone loved.

Speedy's the little turtle.

The turtle, yeah. People love the Speedy. Those did well enough that it encouraged us to go on and do a second series that we'll be launching next month. I can't say what it's going to be yet, but it's going to be three of the five that are on that shelf up there (points), so...

Can you tell us which five are on the shelf?

Let me see, there's a Worg Pup, Egbert, Sleepy Willy, Muckbreath, and Grunty.

I hope it's Egbert. The pets was a big deal, and I know another request that you have from a lot of players is mounts.

Yeah, we get a lot of requests for mounts. Even more we get requests for Hunter pets and Warlock pets. So that we've been working hard at. We're getting a lot closer. We've got a prototype up there of a Hunter and a Tiger pet, and that's getting close to being a finished product. We have a couple months more of development work to do, but that'll be the next kind of big thing that we launch.

You have that one out, you also have a big Traveler's Tundra Mammoth that looks amazing here. What's the tough thing about this when you're trying to do these pets?

It's actually really easy to put big things together -- I can say that because I'm not the artist who has to do the work, but. For us to do something one off, is not very hard. For us to create a system where anyone can go and get their pets and their character is much, much more work. So it's easy for us to show off and print this Tundra mount with three different characters on it, never mind that just the cost to print that is about $1500.

It's, what, 11 inches tall or so? $1500?

It's as big as fits in our print bay which is 10" x 14" x 8". So we do stuff like that just for fun. Maybe someday we'll be able to offer a product like that, so really our focus right now is get the Warlock and pet or Hunter and pet working, and then we'll move on to mounts.

The other thing we've heard from readers is that the price has actually changed once since you guys came out, and it's actually gone up. You've raised the price on it.

That's true.

So a lot of people are really interested and they think it's really cool, but the price is still a limiter. And what is the price for the pets?

The pets are $29.95 for one, or $24.95 each for three.

So obviously that's an option, but as you get better and better at making these things, I have to assume the process gets easier and a little cheaper. So what do you foresee in terms of a cheaper price in the future? Or a) why did you raise the price, and b) if people are waiting on a price cut, how long are they going to be waiting?

Can I grab one? I'm going to grab one? [Gets up and picks up a Tauren figure, brings it back. Passes it over, and points out how heavy it is and how solid and sturdy it is, with the glass dome around it.] They're a bargain for a hundred and twenty-nine bucks. It's big and heavy, it's beautiful, we've really done a lot of work to improve the quality from when we first started, we have really good color control now, really good quality control in general. Basically, our costs were higher than we expected. We launched, and we need the business to make sense, too, right? Or we would go out of business and people wouldn't have this service. Definitely, with the volume of work we have right now, we need to be at the $129 price. We've been doing some more kind of opportunistic discounting -- if you look around, there's codes you can enter in now to save 5%, we're handing out a 10% code here at the show. We just came off a sale where we were 10% discounted. So there are ways to save. Also, if you buy a FigurePet you get 10% off a FigurePrint. So we're doing more discounting, but really, the thing I can do to bring up the price now is to get volume. And the best thing I can do to get volume now is to go to Asia. Being as we're only in the US and Europe, and I really need to get us into Korea, Taiwan, and ultimately China. If we can start increasing the number of prints that we can do, we can get down to $99, $95 price range, which is where I'd like to have the product be.

All right, so tell your friends in China that they want to buy FigurePrints if you want the price to drop. That's all I really had. It's interesting that we started following this when you guys were first messing around, and it's still going. The other thing we talked about way back when was other games. Obviously you've got a good licensing deal with Blizzard here. Have you done any more R&D or are you interested in doing anything else like that?

We've talked to a lot of other game companies, I've been approached by several here at the show. There's nothing really out there like World of Warcraft though, and so I continue to have those discussions, and explore them. But right now, the best way to grow the company is to do more for World of Warcraft. Add the Hunter and pet that people want, expand more globally, to reach more of the World of Warcraft audience. We probably only reach about half the Warcraft players right now, and so we'd like to reach more people.

I'll give you the scoop on another thing that we're going to introduce real quick, that we're kind of showing in a subtle way here at the show. We're planning to introduce the option to dress yourself in some of the classic armor tiers, even without having them.

So Tier armor as an option. Instead of gearing up my character in Tier 1, I can just say put me in Tier 1.

Yeah, so you don't have to run back and go run Molten Core or something.

And go find all that actual gear.

So we're going to have, we're going to offer Tier 1, 2, and 3, and dungeon set 1 and 2. And for a lot of people, those were really cool sets that they have a lot of fun memories around. So we're going to introduce that very very soon, and that's just another option for people who come to the site.

Cool. And you know, way back when you first started, we said why can't you just choose your armor, and you said, well you have to earn the armor that you pick to be in, but does that mean that Tier 1, 2, and 3 are not worth earning any more, that you can say you earned them and no one cares?

I think it's kind of a compromise, I don't think it's really viable to make someone go back and run Molten Core raids for an armor set that, if they're only going to do it for that, I don't think that's very reasonable.

It is only 1, 2, and 3, we're up to 9 now with the current state.

Exactly. Maybe this is sort of a compromise, but we're going to try this out, and see what the response is, and see if people want to dress themselves in that sort of gear, and then who knows we might expand that program a little more, we'll see.

Great, thanks very much.

BlizzCon 2009: WoW Dungeons and Raids panel

In just a few short minutes, the next World of Warcraft panel of BlizzCon 2009 should be starting up. This time around it's the Dungeons & Raids panel, which should be exploring some of the dungeons of Cataclysm and potentially some words on Icecrown and other content.

Please click 'Read More' to find the ongoing liveblog.

1:58PM And the Q&A is over! Thanks for reading, everyone.

1:57PM "Is Sartharion getting lonely in Wyrmrest Temple?" "...possibly. We'll see."

1:56PM "Any plans to go to Nazjatar, and will we see an Azshara encounter?" No Nazjatar, but we may learn things about Azshara.

1:56PM Argent Coliseum hard modes won't be near the difficulty of Yogg+0 but will be much harder than the normal modes.

1:55PM Hard modes get iterated a lot because they're difficult to test.

1:54PM How extensive is your raid testing, and did anybody internally kill Yogg+0 pre-nerf? Daelo: Encounter team is 5-people, but we bring in other leads and raiders on staff for the 10-man. It's hard to get 25 developers together, but QA does those. "It's pretty much impossible for 25 people on QA to reach the skill level of a good raid. They didn't beat Yogg+0, they got spanked pretty hard by Yogg+4."

1:53PM Will we get a cinematic planned for Arthas's death, or something special? "100%. Absolutely. It's going to be awesome, there's no way you're going to be disappointed."

1:52PM Will attunement quests be coming back? "It's a possibility." If it's the right place and the right time, you might see them. They use other mechanics as well, the one boss a week of Argent Coliseum.

1:49PM Nefarian, Ragnaros and Onyxia have come back, and Naxxramas has come back. Any plans for, say... Ahn'qiraj? Stockton: We have no plans for that. Onyxia is the only one of the recent crop that is reused. The rest is influenced. Blackrock Descent is brand new content.

1:48PM Will the focus on AOE on raids bosses continue, or will we go back to single target? Daelo: There was an evolution towards AOE DPS, especially in 5-man dungeons. We gave everyone CC, then nobody used it because they didn't need it. We play on using casters more in dungeons so that's not as easy. Raids will be varied.

1:47PM "The Sons of Hodir loved when I polished their helm, but they didn't care that I saved their dad. Will you bring back reputation in raids?" Stockton says yes, they want to continue implementing rep in dungeons, but the guy heading up that system isn't at the panel. Sounds like Afrasiabi is in charge of that.

1:45PM My laptop battery is going to die out in a few minutes, so the full 20 minutes of Q&A may not be covered, but we'll try.

1:44PM There's a solution being deployed right now. Some servers already have it. The tech that allows them to fix this problem is the same tech that empowers cross-server LFG. In a few months, this problem shouldn't ever be seen again.

1:44PM Q&A starting. Question about "Instances cannot be launched."

1:43PM There will be a reward system for it. If you're the leader of a PUG and you complete the dungeon successfully, you will be rewarded. Tentative release is 3.3.0, definitely before Cataclysm.

1:42PM It's designed to make it easier to PUG.

1:42PM You can LFG for 5-man instances with players from other realms. "The tech supports raids, but we're going to kick it off with only 5-players." It will work off of battlegroups, like battlegrounds.

1:41PM Cross Server LFG!

1:41PM Onyxian Whelpling is adorable. Everyone will get it if they log in during the anniversary celebrations. The pet has animations such as... trying to Deep Breath.

1:40PM 1074 topend damage on the new OEB.

1:40PM We've talked about this before on the site, but the loot will be based around Tier 2 helms and other classic loot, like Deathbringer, Obsidian Edged Blade, and Quel'serrar.

1:39PM Holy crap. Showing off the new Onyxia loot stats. 182 Stamina on the Prot Warrior helm.

1:39PM Onyxia before she finished puberty, if you will.

1:38PM It kind of looks like teenage Onyxia. Not full-on Onyxian dragon, but more than just a drake.

1:38PM Showing the Brood of Onyxia flying mount. Looks great.

1:38PM "Even more Deep Breath randomization!"

1:37PM The fight will still feel like Onyxia, but there are new spells and mechanics that will come into play. "There's still many whelps." "Yeah, you'll need more DoTs, for sure."

1:36PM Stockton is back behind the mic to talk about Onyxia's anniversary arrival. Will arrive "sometime around November." Wow.

1:35PM Wow, the visuals are beautiful. The trash mobs look like Ragnaroses that popped Avenging Wrath.

1:35PM The Firelands is an exterior raid zone. We're taking the fight to Ragnaros, and it's not "too soon" anymore. He'll be at full strength.

1:34PM Blackwing Lair 2.0, Daelo implies we'll be seeing some old friends.

1:34PM You dawg, we heard you like raids so etc etc. There's a raid zone in Nefarian's old throne room. He's alive.

1:34PM "Do you see this? Nefarian's room? You might notice something is different about it."

1:33PM Moving on to Cataclysm raids now.

1:33PM Video preview of the 5-mans had some outdoor footage, too. Curious!

1:32PM Jaina, Sylvanas, and others will make appearances.

1:32PM Wow, multiple 5-man dungeons in Icecrown. 8 bosses across the dungeons. An epic questline carries you from one wing to the other, unlocking them in series. After you finish the chain you can do them all whenever you want.

1:32PM Showed some video of Icecrown. Looks beautiful.

1:30PM Patch 3.3 will also have a 5-man dungeon.

1:30PM 4th floor is just Arthas. It's a big, round throne room. "Parts of the room will break off. And if you fall of... well, it's bad."

1:29PM 3rd floor has multiple wings

1:29PM The two ships fire at eachother, and the two ships board eachother with rocket packs. You need to attack/defend.

1:29PM On the 2nd floor, you board your faction's airship. Alliance boards with Varian, Horde boards with Saurfang. You race the other faction up to the next floor.

1:28PM There are 4 floors to the dungeon, and it's still a spire. It's inside of the huge metal casing we see.

1:28PM It will use the waypoint system from Ulduar. Sindragosa and the Lich King are the two bosses they just named.

1:27PM There's actually 12 bosses.

1:27PM 10 and 25 player raid. "31 epic bosse-wait what? Did Ghostcrawler get ahold of this slide?"

1:27PM Icecrown Citadel sneak peek!

1:27PM Wow, Blackrock Caverns looks amazing. They weren't kidding. I'm getting all nostalgic.

1:26PM Oh right, better description. Take the egyptian stuff from Ahn'Qiraj and cobble it together with Ulduar. That's Uldum.

1:25PM This dungeon will be linear.

1:25PM "The Beast still lurks..."

1:25PM Deathwing has literally drilled a hole from Blackrock Spire to Grim Batol to transport supplies and troops. This is the Blackrock Caverns. The Twilight Hammer is there, naturally.

1:24PM Blackrock Caverns is up. "Reinventing a fan favorite." People love UBRS, but they didn't want to use that as one they made a Heroic for. They are going to recreate the experience.

1:24PM They just showed a video preview. It's very much Titan architecture. Imagine Ulduar, except with pharaoh statues instead of constellations.

1:23PM The story is that there is some sort of super weapon in Uldum and/or the Halls of Origination. Everyone wants it. Horde, Alliance, Deathwing, all of them.

1:22PM Concept art of the aesthetics. WoW's version of a sphinx is basically a gryphon.

1:22PM Brann Bronzebeard will be there, and it's non-linear again.

1:22PM The aethetics of Uldum and the dungeon Lost City of Tol'vir is WoW's take on Egyptian aesthetics.

1:21PM The other dungeon for Cataclysm noobs is an outdoor 'dungeon' in Uldum.

1:20PM Er, it was only 5 seconds long.

1:20PM They're playing video now. We'll try to get that, but no promises.

1:20PM Abyssal Maw will be one of the first dungeons you experience in Cataclysm. Showing off concept art now.

1:18PM The dungeon is non-linear.

1:18PM Abyssal Maw is the first they're showing off. It's in the Sunken City of Vashj'ir, a 5-player dungeon. You will literally get pulled down into the elemental plane of water. There are rifts in the ocean floor due to the Cataclysm, which allows access to the plane. The Naga have taken a huge interest.

1:17PM Slide of the "dungeon matrix." 4 raid zones, 8 dungeons, 2 "Old World Heroics." AT LAUNCH. Yes, that's 4 full raid zones at launch.

1:16PM Cataclysm preview now!

1:15PM After lots of iteration, "What just happened?" they pass it off to QA and the PTR.

1:15PM Playtesting comes next. Apparenly there are 5 encounter designers, which makes playtesting rather straightforward.

1:14PM And the screen that displays how much she Deep Breaths! Stockton: "Wow, looks like it's random." Daelo: "Yeah, how weird!"

1:14PM Creature editing panel for Onyxia pulled up. It has all of her 3.2.2 details. Abilities, health pool, damage range, loot, model, etc.

1:13PM They're showing an actual shot of Wowedit right now. Mob placement and mob path is plotted out with dots and lines.

1:13PM A tool called "Wowedit" is what they use to actually place things and make them do what they do.

1:12PM "What makes an encounter cool?" and making sure variety is provided come after.

1:11PM A dev mentioned vehicles can ride other vehicles and that's when they decided, "We need to do a Voltron fight." Hence Mimiron.

1:11PM Brainstorming is the ground level for encounter designers. "We sit down at a table in a dimly lit room and just start throwing out ideas." Inspiration comes from anywhere.

1:10PM Daelo is taking over for Stockton now and getting into Encounter Design.

1:09PM Showing off some concept art. Some for Icecrown, some for Cataclysm dungeons. Oh hey, and the train to Mimiron!

1:09PM Then they go to the artists and work closely with them. Artists play a role in dungeon design as well. Example, Utgarde Keep's entryway came out of concept art. The flames out of the forge, etc.

1:07PM They plan the interactive pieces of the dungeon very early in development, because they need to spend a lot of extra time on those things. Example, shattering floor in Malygos, moving bridge before Vashj.

1:07PM They're showing off some very raw 3D maps. Completely untextured.

1:06PM After blocking it out in 2D, they do it in 3D. They repeatedly check the scale, and they plan on using the Ulduar-esque teleporters more to allow them to make larger areas.

Hello I am filler text to make a 'Read More' link show up!

1:04PM Halls of Origination 2D map as well. Picture coming later.

1:04PM Stockton confirms that there will be 4 levels/floors to the dungeon. More Icecrown information later in the panel.

1:03PM Map of Icecrown Citadel! Will try to get images late,r again. There are floor labels, "3rd Floor" "4th Floor"

1:03PM Image coming later, there's a basic mockup of Grim Batol on the scren.

1:02PM From there they block the dungeon out in 2D. The maps, the flow, bosses and boss placement, and assorted other points of interest.

1:01PM They're going into their design process first, the steps to how they make a dungeon. First is "Epic Idea." Where is this place, who lives there, and what the player goals are.

1:00PM Corey Stockton and Scott Mercer are our panelists today. If you were unaware, Scott is also known as Daelo.

1:00PM Directv display just turned off here at the panel, meaning panelists will be out in just a minute or two.

BlizzCon 2009: Blizzard announces cross-server instances

In what will certainly be the be-all end-all solution to "additional instances cannot be launched", Blizzard announced cross-server instances and LFG at the Dungeons and Raids panel at BlizzCon 2009.

By taking advantage of brand-new hardware separate from your realm's instance servers, not only will you be able to find groups from pools of players in your entire battlegroup, your realm's specific instance servers will be free of the stress of mass heroic-running.

On top of the convenience factor, Blizzard says that rewards will be in place for players who lead groups through instances successfully. The nature of the rewards is currently unknown but Blizzard promises more information soon.

Blizzard says that the feature will be used for 5-mans only at this time. It'll be launched with 3.3, not with Cataclysm.

Fantastic news! No more "additional instances" errors, a larger pool of players to choose your groups from, and rewards for good party leaders. Great news for everyone.

BlizzCon 2009: Guild Leveling and Talents

This BlizzCon 2009 we're hearing a lot about the ways guilds will be changing in Cataclysm. Not only will you be able to contribute to your guild by doing the things you already do like daily questing and PvP, your guild will be able to use its new abilities to directly benefit the members in various way. Even more intriguing is the talk of being able to transfer an entire guild to a new server at once.

However, even as things change for guilds, one thing remains the same: you will not be getting a guild hall. You're going to have to keep hanging around on the streets with us Hoi Polloi, I'm afraid. Still, what we are getting is extremely thought provoking on its own.
Frankly, the idea of leveling up your guild is not one I would have ever had on my own, so kudos to the folks at Blizzard for completely blindsiding me. At present we're hearing that there will be 20 levels of guild experience, and that levels will be earned though things people in guilds do anyway like killing bosses, playing in the new rated BGs and arena matches, and through progression in professions and reputations in game.

As guilds level, they'll gain access to guild talent specs, with talents that can directly make life easier for the guild's membership.Talents that will allow for mass resurrection and reduced repairs have been mentioned, although we're also hearing that "We're not going to be character talents in the guild talents. We don't want to put talents players have to have in the guild talents, ie: they have to have this talent in order to kill this boss." That seems like a very smart move to me, making guild talents provide convenience and perks rather than necessary boss killing abilities. Other possibilities not yet confirmed but mentioned in the Systems Panel were allowing for mass Guild server transfers (rather than the situation as it is now, with individual members having to transfer and then recreate the guild on the new server) and allowing guilds to purchase bank tabs via the leveling system. Guild Achievements will also be a part of the new system.

Other parts of the new guild system are guild vendors (selling reagents for guild currency earned during the leveling process) and guild heirloom gear, also purchased with guild currency and allowing you to level faster. These items will be bound to guilds and thus leaving the guild loses you the item. There will also be a Looking for Guild system similar to the current LFG system for grouping, and there will be a variety of new Guild UI options, including being able to look at other guild member's profession books and a percentage of all gold looted being sent as a bonus to the guild's bank. You'll even be able as a guild to invite other guilds to events like raids.

This is all rather astonishing stuff that should help make guilds a more involved element of gameplay. I'm extremely interested to see how this all plays out.

WOW: Cataclysm targeted for a 2010 release date

One small bit of rumor has been floating around the BlizzCon floor the last couple days: that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be released in 2010. We hear these kind of rumors all the time, and don't give them very much credence. Whatever date is up on Game Stop (November 1st, 2010) or Amazon or wherever are just placeholder dates until they start to change or we hear from trusted sources that the dates are correct.

But this time, things are a little bit different.

WoW.com has been able to confirm that during a DirecTV interview, Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, revealed that Cataclysm is targeted for a 2010 release date.

Now a targeted release date should be clearly understood for what it is. It is a date that Blizzard wants to ship their game, nothing more, nothing less. It means that they have a plan and schedule to get the game ready by then. But as everyone knows, long term schedules can and do change. Please limit the QQ if we don't see Cataclysm next year.

Interesting news nonetheless!