The developers and community managers have been very busy lately answering questions and giving out pretty solid details on feedback in the official WotLK Beta Forums. Here’s a bunch of the more general posts that aren’t about class changes and such. I’ll be going into detail on anything vague in orange text after the quote.
Azjol-Nerub – Anub’arak submerging mechanics
The triggers for him submerging are based upon his health. So a level 77 group with great gear will indeed hit those triggers REALLY quickly. (src) Spiderman goes down, goes up, it’s one of the very cool fights in the game.
WotLK Multi Talent Spec
We talked about this recently at the Worldwide Invitational actually. We are looking into allowing players to basically have two talent specs that they can switch between but we are still working out the exact details so we will have to wait and see exactly how it will function in-game. (src) I somehow doubt this will make it live, possibly a patch later on, but I don’t see how they could clutter any more stuff into the character panes and panels than they already have with this expansion.
WotLK Classes Changes and pre-WotLK Gear
We hope to retroactively change some of the gear on live so the transition is less painful for classes whose core mechanics are changing. (src) Shamans now need Hunter loot just as much as Hunters do because AGI gives attack power to them like STR used to. Welcome to the roughnecks boys, “hunter loot” just became Shaman loot.
Achievements
~Currently we have plans to add account-wide achievements in the future, I just wouldn’t expect them at the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. This is a new system that we are still doing a lot of tuning on right now but do plan to expand upon it down the road. (src)
~Actually, the quest achievements do have progress bars. They are broken in the current beta build but you’ll see them again as soon as we patch. We’ll also have progress bars for the pets as well. We’re working on a solution for the Tabard achievement UI. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have a progress bar for that one as well. (src)
~For basic quest achievements, assume that Daily Quests or any repeatable quest (this includes most world event quests) *DO NOT* count. If an achievement is looking toward a daily quest or repeatable quest, it will specifically mention that or it will mention the specific quest title. (src)
~Just to make sure this clear, this achievement is definitely doable by both factions. You will be able to see which zones you haven’t fully explored so you can focus on those areas if you want to complete all of them. Yes, exploring the capital cities of the opposing faction can be a little challenging, but so is killing the faction leaders – it just depends on how much effort you plan to put into it. (src)
WotLK Reputations Itemization in Beta
The reputations are not itemized yet. (src) There aren’t any quartermasters or anything like that and most dungeon drops aren’t finished being setup yet.
WotLK Beta – Mounts & Vanity Pets Bugs
With this Beta patch we’ve encountered a bug with existing characters and their mounts. Clicking on one of your mounts will return the error “No charges remain”. This is a temporary bug that we hope to hotfix soon. If we cannot hotfix this, we will fix it in the next build. If you purchase a new mount, it should work fine. You’ll notice that all “mount items” now add that mount to your “Pet” tab of your character pane. From the Pet tab, you can summon mounts and companion pets. (src) There was a bug that wasn’t letting people use their mounts because they had “charges” or some such garbage.
Update – Mounts have been fixed. Pets are still broken. (src) Yay
Calendar Events Invitations & Gold Spamming
We have anti-gold spam measures in the works for the calendar. Please continue to post feedback or if you find anything that you believe will be exploitable or abusive. (src)
Blizzcon Tickets
For anyone considering a trip to this year’s BlizzCon (October 10-11 in Anaheim, California), tickets will go on sale worldwide on Monday, August 11 for $100 each through our website. BlizzCon is a celebration of the communities surrounding all of our games, and features discussion panels, hands-on play, contests, tournaments, and more; we look forward to meeting some of you there! (src) Awesome stuff because I’ll be giving somebody a free ticket. In other words I’m giving away $100 for free.
WWI Developer Panel Videos Online!
We have just published videos from some of the developer panels at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational. Check out our Videos page to watch Blizzard developers discuss the evolving design process behind StarCraft II, the world lore and environment of Diablo III, and the present and future of the classes in World of Warcraft. http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/videos.xml?locale=en_GB (src)
Zul’aman Bear
The Zul’Aman bear will no longer be available. But the other mounts you mentioned will remain unchanged. The reasoning behind this is that the Zul’Aman bear is obtained during an event which requires precision and skill at level 70. The accomplishment for those who have legitimately earned the mount would be diminished if we continued to allow players to obtain the mount once the level cap is raised to 80. (src) Makes sense because Zul’aman is going to be nice to 5-man when I’m 80.
Future plan for Crushing Blow
Crushing blows used to apply to mobs 3 levels above you, which included most bosses. The change was to make them apply to mobs 4 levels above you. If you are running an instance of the appropriate level, you will not be crushed. Crushing blows originally served a dual-purpose: they discouraged you from attacking mobs much higher level than you, and they made bosses more challenging. Now they only fulfill the first role. We have plenty of other knobs to make bosses more challenging that feel less random. (src) Right here they’ve just made tanking less of a bitch for everybody. You’ll get crushed by mobs you’re not meant to be taking down but no longer by bosses so there won’t be this crazy random element anymore to wiping when a tank gets crushed. Very good stuff right here.
Trinket Icon Graphics
Most all of the trinkets are currently using temporary art and in many case effects. We are still working on a good deal of the itemization for LK but thank you for the concern and make sure to keep any suggestions or feedback flowing. (src) This is just cosmetic as far as I know.
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