The most common question I get asked about Cataclysm is “will it run on my computer?” Not something about mages, not what the new zones are like. Not even how I’m finding it, or how much testing I’ve done. It seems the biggest worry I come across is if people have to buy a new machine so that they can play Blizzard’s latest expansion.
As a result, I’ve done some basic testing in order to be able to answer this simple question. Trouble is, it’s not an easy one to answer. There are so many variables to consider – do you raid, what graphics settings do you use, etc. The best I can hope to do is give you a relative idea of how my machine performs in the beta and provide you with enough information so that you can make your own comparisons.
Continue reading →
Spoiler Alert: Discussion of Mage changes in patch 12759. In this article, I’ll also be focusing on Impact, Pyromaniac and AoE talents and how they’ll work together in a solo, dungeon and raid environment.
A whole slew of mage changes came out in the most recent patch. The main ones were around armour specialisations and talent masteries. Wearing our normal gear (complete cloth armour) nets a handy 5% increase in Intellect. For fire mages, Mastery now gives us a tasty bonus to the DoT component of our spells. Both the specialisation and mastery appear in our spellbook once we’ve learned them from the trainer.
The new teleport bar that I mentioned after the previous patch has now been fleshed out with all teleport spells. The only snag is that only the Dalaran and Shattrath spells work now, meaning that for most mages it’s now a two-hop trip to wherever we want to go. Even so, it’s still better than catching a boat everywhere.
Apparently there are new teleport and portal spells available to the new Tol Barad PVP zone, although I haven’t had a chance to test these yet. There are currently no teleports or portals to Vash’jir, Deepholm or Uldum, although there are static portals at Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
The other big change is that creature damage has been heavily ramped up from level 65 onwards. Level 82 outdoor creatures now do four times as much damage as they used to, which is horrendous news for cloth classes with little to no damage mitigation.
Currently, solo questing involves constant use of mana shield, counterspell and frost nova. And that’s for every single pull, just to stay alive. Going toe to toe with mobs in Deepholm is an excruciating experience – you have to work hard to take down a single mob. If you have anything add to the fight, you’re toast. Don’t forget that Polymorph won’t help you there as almost everything you fight is an elemental of some description.
Continue reading →
Spoiler Alert: Discussion of the phasing technology used in Cataclysm, it’s history, application and the problems surrounding it. Some allusion to in-game events/quests, although no specific details.
Back in Vanilla, Warcraft was mainly a scattering of quest hubs, each with their localised set of quests. Sure there may have been prerequisites such as a minimum level, but by and large you could quest where you liked. In Cataclysm the experience is streamlined into quest tunnels that guide you through a zone from one end to the other. To help with this, phasing is the toy of choice in the quest designer’s toolbox.
Phasing as a technology started out with a single quest in Burning Crusade. “Intercepting the Mana Cells” was added in patch 2.4.0 as part of the daily quests for the Shattered Sun Offensive. These quests were part of the overall Sunwell Plateau content update, adding the final dungeons and raid instances before the release of Wrath. In the quest, the player used a device to move “out of phase” and be able to interact with the items they needed to complete the quest.
Continue reading →
We’ve had another crack at the live podcast again, and we think we’ve found a way that works for us. We’ll be broadcasting live on uStream every Wednesday from 9PM BST/ 8PM GMT. Feel free to join us if you’re around. If not, you can always catch the podcast here on the blog or in your iTunes subscription.
In the episode this week we have:
- Cataclysm Preview: Darkshore & Southern Barrens
- New Pets & Companions
- New NPC Models
- Password Security Reminder
For this week’s Obscurity we answered your Beta questions. We had a batch of them sent in already, plus we got round to a few that were asked live on the show!
A big thankyou to everyone who’s donated to the site. We’ll be ploughing it all back in to making more cool stuff for you all.
Intro music was Decimal Places by I Concur.
You can subscribe to us in iTunes! While you’re there, please rate the podcast and leave us a review.
As always, if you want to contact us about anything on the podcast you can mail us at obscurecast@manaobscura.com, post a reply here on the blog or tweet us at @manaobscura.
Thanks for listening!
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
Spoiler Alert: Pictures of fish! With funny names! And funny faces! And nothing at all to do with anything else really, apart from the funny fishes! It’s not even mage-y!
As you probably know already, Cataclysm ushers in a whole range of changes. New places to explore, new creatures to see. For the seasoned adventurer it’s like being a kid in a toystore – you want to look at everything all at once, and your determined to try growing a bazillion eyes in order to do it.
Since I’ve been spending a lot of time gawking at these strange creatures instead of actually doing any beta testing, I thought I’d share some pictures of them. Be warned, there are pictures of fish ahead.
Continue reading →
