Cataclysm Release Date: December 7th, 2010

The end of the world is upon us.

Patch 4.0 will also drop any day now.

Cataclysm Currency Conversion Contraption

Wow, alliteration!

Click Here -- This is the calculator that tells you how your various emblems, marks, badges, and points convert to the new system once Patch 4.0 rolls out (this is the Pre-Cataclysm patch, coming quite soon)

For further info on the new currency system, read these blizzard posts: Part 1 | Part 2


Enjoy!

Cataclsym CE Edition Annouced - Up For Preorder

Blizzard has announced the details of the Collector's Edition for Catalcysm. The contents seem to be about the same as the previous editions and will retail for $79.99.

Furthermore, if Amazon is your vendor of choice, you can actually put your preorder in now, here: Amazon.com CE pre-order page.

More Beta Goodies

While my own Beta funtimes are on hold due to not being able to download the whole client again (its 15+ Gb!) There was a new build tonight with more cool things.

They are as follows:

More Updates To the Default UI: It seems they continue to overhaul the old interface and make it much more informative; including a lot of the information we used to have to look up on forums or articles, or via mods. Its looking good.

Guild Leveling and Guild Rewards: More info on "Guild Progression" and a preview of the sorts of things we can get through it, Pets, mounts, herilooms, and so on. Pay special attention to the Dark Phoenix!

Spec Masteries: Basically, gear above level 78 will have a stat +Mastery; it boosts the power of your "spec" via a special talent. The new Mastery Talent for each spec can be found in this article.

New Models and other Assorted Fun Things(tm): MMO-Champs has a big post up with some more changes included in the new build. Check em out!

Week in Review and Upcoming Events

The Midsummer Fire Festival is behind us now, and summer is in full swing in both Azeroth and here on Earth, where we aren't expecting a cataclysmic event within the next few months. The new holiday event isn't until September, so you have plenty of time to recover from the festivities.

The week's raid schedule was hectic due to the 4th of July weekend, but we still managed to piece together a few good runs.

Several different groups tried out the new raid at Wyrmrest, and discovered the dragon lurking there to be challenging. Hopefully a week and thought and preparation will help us overcome Halion this week.

The "Classic" raid didn't happen this weekend due to poor turnout on Wednesday, so we'll likely be visiting Zul'Aman this Wednesday instead. Normal start time is 8:30ish server time.

Guild ICC10 Runs occurred on Thursday as scheduled and then again on Monday night as a makeup date for the Saturday run. The Kingslayer group also took the week off due to the holiday, but should resume Sunday as well.

The Sunday night ICC25 did occur and was pretty successful. Join us this week and we'll continue to progress.

ICC Raids scheduled for this week:

ICC10:
Thursday at 8PM Server: Mains run for people not in the Kingslater group.
Saturday at 7PM Server: Gear run for alts and newer people. Please show up if you have any interest in ICC10
Sunday afternoon: Kingslayer group, attempting Sindragosa (probably 1PM)

ICC25:
Sunday at 7 Server: We need as many guildies as we can get so we don't lose loot to pugs. Don't be late!

Cataclysm Beta: User Interface Revamp!

There is no doubt that WoW has had one of the best user interfaces in RPG games to date. Its easy to use and pretty clean, and infinitely customizable with addons. But its also getting pretty dated, and Blizzard has struggled to add new gameplay elements into the existing UI, so things like dual-specing, Glyphs, and raid and dungeon browsers seem sort of tacked on.

Well, given the huge changes coming to the in-game world in Cataclysm, it looks like Bliz took the change to blow up and rebuild a lot of the User Interface windows too. Professions are getting their own tab, the spellbook is updated to show much more info, the minimap can now track multiple things (or everything!) at once, and much more.

Check out the preview over here at Curse.com.

Beta Info Roundup 1 (Cataclysm Spoilers Inside)

Note: no Beta Invites have been sent out yet, Blizzard is still verifying the 1st round before sending them out.

So now that the closed beta has begun and the NDA has been lifted, the information is flowing pretty freely. You can find the latest beta posts on the links on the side of the page here, at MMO Champs and WoW.com, but they are posting pretty fast so I figured I'd link a few of the highlights so we can find them later.

If you missed the spoiler tag in the title, and you still don't want to be spoiled, stop reading NOW.

Guild Perks! These are the rewards from leveling and doing things as a guild. Some highlights: Mass resurrection, repair cost reduction, more resources per mining/skinning attempt, hearthstone cooldown reduction, and 15% extra money for the GBank (from corpses) Check it out!

While you're at it, Check out some early previews of the updates to Trade Skills including this little bit of info about Blacksmithing. 290 Stamina?! On a BLUE ITEM?!

Cataclsym Beta Hunter Changes: Read this, Hunters are going to ROCK. Highlights: Camo/stealth system, a new aspect to let us auto-fire on the move, new "Venoms" which work a lot like Paladin Judgements, and much more!

Goblin Male and Female sound files: Note, some of these aren't exactly Safe for Work. Take a listen to the clips in that post though when you can. They are Hilarious, and they may not make it into the game in that form, so hear em while you can.

Also: Worgen Male and Female Sound clips as well

Breaking news: Trolls and Dwarves ALSO get warlocks. How many warlocks can Jo roll now?!

Lore Spoiler: The horde have a new Warchief, and Lady Sylvanas of the Forsaken is up to shenanigans with some of the Ex-Lich Kings newly-freed minions. Hijinks ensues!

And finally we have a MASSIVE BETA SPOILER POST over at MMO-Champions. He has screenshots of all of the zones, including areas where the world has been torn up real good by the Cataclsym. There is also links to each classes talents as they are currently in the Beta, and also links to many new items and 3d Models of things in game.

Check it out here! You can likely spend all day looking through that stuff.

And as a preview, check out the new Troll Druid forms. (Cat / Bear) Also Worgens: (Cat / Bear) WHOA!