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In an informative tell-all, Cory Stockton, WoW‘s lead content designer, has posted a blog entry discussing the past, present, and future of Tol Barad, its cousin Wintergrasp, and his hopes for the balance changes that will soon be coming to Tol Barad. One particular issue mentioned is that the attacking side in Tol Barad is less favored as part of the design, but taking Tol Barad is too hard, as opposed to being just challenging. Check out the post on the WoW community site WoW/en/blog/2034541″>here, and check back later here on WoW Insider for my writeup and reactions to the changes.

For the most part, I think Stockton’s aims, goals, and intentions are good for Tol Barad, and people need to remember that the changes listed are not the end all, be all for the zone. We’ve got a lot of balancing coming, so hang tight.

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2011/01/10/cory-stockton-addresses-tol-barad-balance/”>Cory Stockton addresses Tol Barad balance originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/warlock/” rel=”tag”>Warlock, WoW.joystiq.com/category/pvp/” rel=”tag”>PvP, WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/” rel=”tag”>The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-sport/”>Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP.

Whoop! Two weeks into the expansion, and I just have to ask … are you guys having fun? Because I am. PvP is amazing, even being undergeared. Stamina is up at this point, so even lacking the right gear, combat will last more than a few global cooldowns. Today we’ll conclude our talent review series with a look at warlocks and some really cool talents they can pick up to help in PvP. We still have lots to talk about in WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), from Tol Barad to The Battle for Gilneas to Twin Peaks to rated battlegrounds … oh, Cataclysm is loaded with PvP goodness. Hit the jump to get started.

WoW.joystiq.com/2010/12/20/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-warlocks-in-cat/” rel=”bookmark”>Continue reading The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/12/20/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-warlocks-in-cat/”>The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/warlock/” rel=”tag”>Warlock, WoW.joystiq.com/category/pvp/” rel=”tag”>PvP, WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/” rel=”tag”>The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-sport/”>Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP.

Whoop! Two weeks into the expansion, and I just have to ask … are you guys having fun? Because I am. PvP is amazing, even being undergeared. Stamina is up at this point, so even lacking the right gear, combat will last more than a few global cooldowns. Today we’ll conclude our talent review series with a look at warlocks and some really cool talents they can pick up to help in PvP. We still have lots to talk about in WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), from Tol Barad to The Battle for Gilneas to Twin Peaks to rated battlegrounds … oh, Cataclysm is loaded with PvP goodness. Hit the jump to get started.

WoW.joystiq.com/2010/12/20/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-warlocks-in-cat/” rel=”bookmark”>Continue reading The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/12/20/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-warlocks-in-cat/”>The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/warlock/” rel=”tag”>Warlock, WoW.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/” rel=”tag”>Analysis / Opinion, WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-pact/” rel=”tag”>(Warlock) Blood Pact

Every week, WoW Insider brings you WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-pact/”>Blood Pact for WoW.joystiq.com/tag/affliction-warlock-blood-pact”>affliction, WoW.joystiq.com/tag/demonology-warlock-blood-pact”>demonology and WoW.joystiq.com/destruction-warlock-blood-pact”>destruction warlocks. In a dark and hidden place, the true masters of the arcane arts share secrets and swap stories. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-pact/”>Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat.

Didn’t we mention that the position of the warlock writer here at WoW Insider is something akin to the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher position at Hogwarts? Well, our current warlock WoW.joystiq.com/bloggers/adam-panshin/”>Adam has taken a brief leave to attend to dark, sinister forces, which means that in the meantime, you guys are left with me to deliver your weekly dose of felfire and brimstone. That’s like leaving the sorcerer’s apprentice to clean the workshop all by himself, and well, you all know how that one turns out. Anyway, let’s see what we can get away with this week.

Let’s face it, playing a DPS class is a bit of a chore. It’s challenging, certainly, and there’s an unspoken need to be competitive, always measured by your performance on the meters. For some players, this is a motivation for playing their class — diving into loads of data, crunching numbers, and testing against target dummies. It’s a lot of hard work. For some players who pick up the warlock class mostly because they like the flavor — it’s still a roleplaying game, after all — all that can be a little daunting. In fact, there are still many players who aren’t hardcore enough to troll forums, read blogs, or pore through spreadsheets to squeeze the most DPS out of their class.

WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/16/blood-pact-the-warlock-study-guide-for-cataclysm/” rel=”bookmark”>Continue reading Blood Pact: The warlock study guide for Cataclysm

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/16/blood-pact-the-warlock-study-guide-for-cataclysm/”>Blood Pact: The warlock study guide for Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/mage/” rel=”tag”>Mage, WoW.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/” rel=”tag”>Analysis / Opinion, WoW.joystiq.com/category/pvp/” rel=”tag”>PvP, WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/” rel=”tag”>The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-sport/”>Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP.

The Cataclysm is getting close, so we’ve only got a few weeks of this transitional stage, but it’s important to pick out our PvP talents heading into the expansion. Today, we’re going to take a look at mages, who have the usual set of tools and a couple of new ones. Nothing drastic has changed, despite the overhaul in WoW.joystiq.com/tag/patch-4.0.1/”>4.0.1, so mages are still casters who do best at range. Nothing has made them capable of wading into melee and standing toe-to-toe with rogues or anything silly like that. Instead, what we’ve got are three interesting trees with slightly different ways to crush their opponents — all of them fun.

WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/05/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-mages-in-4-0-1/” rel=”bookmark”>Continue reading The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for mages in 4.0.1

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/05/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-mages-in-4-0-1/”>The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for mages in 4.0.1 originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/mage/” rel=”tag”>Mage, WoW.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/” rel=”tag”>Analysis / Opinion, WoW.joystiq.com/category/pvp/” rel=”tag”>PvP, WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/” rel=”tag”>The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you WoW.joystiq.com/category/the-art-of-war-craft/”>The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and WoW.joystiq.com/category/blood-sport/”>Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP.

The Cataclysm is getting close, so we’ve only got a few weeks of this transitional stage, but it’s important to pick out our PvP talents heading into the expansion. Today, we’re going to take a look at mages, who have the usual set of tools and a couple of new ones. Nothing drastic has changed, despite the overhaul in WoW.joystiq.com/tag/patch-4.0.1/”>4.0.1, so mages are still casters who do best at range. Nothing has made them capable of wading into melee and standing toe-to-toe with rogues or anything silly like that. Instead, what we’ve got are three interesting trees with slightly different ways to crush their opponents — all of them fun.

WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/05/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-mages-in-4-0-1/” rel=”bookmark”>Continue reading The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for mages in 4.0.1

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/11/05/the-art-of-war-craft-must-have-pvp-talents-for-mages-in-4-0-1/”>The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for mages in 4.0.1 originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This will no doubt be a rather controversial change. Zarhym hit the forums last night to let everyone know about what looks to be a last minute decision to WoW-blue-tracker/us-forums/27607450688-updated-combat-resurrection-design.html#0″ rel=”nofollow”>nerf combat resurrections in raid instances.

While they will still work in a raid, you’ll be limited in the number you can use on any given boss attempt. One res per 10-player boss attempt, and three per 25-player boss attempt. They can be any combination of combat resurrections — either Soulstone or Rebirth — but once you’ve used your allowed number players will receive error messages when attempting to accept the resurrection.

This change has been long overdue with the abuse of soulstones in the past, and is likely an attempt to reduce the focus on those spells being a major reason why you bring extra druids or warlocks to a raid. While I’m sure there will be some negative reaction to this, overall it’s good for the health of the raid game.

The design for combat resurrection effects has changed a good deal for Cataclysm, and we want to make sure players are clear on how spells like Rebirth and Create Soulstone now function. Rebirth has a 10-minute cooldown and Create Soulstone has a 15-minute cooldown. On raid boss encounters, you can only use one of these combat resurrection spells (so one Rebirth or one Soulstone) per attempt for 10-player raids. For 25-player raids you can use three forms of combat resurrection per raid boss attempt (so three of any combination of Rebirth and Soulstone). The count is incremented as soon as a player accepts a resurrection, so one can always choose not to accept if he or she wants someone else to get the resurrection instead. There is no equivalent of the Sated debuff (which tracks Bloodlust/Heroism usage), but you will get an error message if you try to resurrect too many players, and we might add tracking to our raid interface if there is demand for it. Outside of raid content, you can use as many battle resurrections as you have available.

For those of you currently participating in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test, please note that this functionality may not be fully implemented as of yet. If you notice combat resurrections are not currently functioning as explained here, this is just a heads-up about the updated design intent behind them.

On lore (and the breaking thereof): Nhani’s “Cataclysm and the Night Elves, Regarding Tyrande” http://nhani.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/cataclysm-and-the-night-elves-regarding-tyrande/. A thoughtful article, and comments in response regarding the relegation of strong female characters to lesser roles & discrepancies in the lore (e.g. Night Elf marriage).

Finally getting to play resto spec again (sorry about my lack of healing in Ulduar hard mode last night, fellow guildmates: on things to do list for today “research & buy glyphs that my inscriber doesn’t know”). So:

• MMO Champion, Resto druid guide, 4.0.1 edition http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/779352-Resto-Druid-Guide-4.0.1-edition
• Elitist Jerks, Resto 4.0 Guide/OP http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t107636-resto_4_0_guide_op/#post1777982
• Raeina’s Resto Druid guide http://druidlove.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/patch-4-0-1-resto-druid-guide/ for an easier to understand version. As Iron Wardens are attempting Yogg-Saron HM, I’ll opt for Regrowth for my prime at the moment
• When time, the links in Restokin’s Healing in 4.0.1 http://www.restokin.com/resto-druid-healing-guide/
• And, of course, re-read WoWpedia.org Yogg Saron tactics WoWpedia.org/Yogg-Saron_(tactics)” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.WoWpedia.org/Yogg-Saron_%28tactics%29

Debating whether to get my alts the Feat of Strength Tripping the Rift as it takes so much camping time. I may just do it on my gatherer’s. Useful list of sites, with maps and hints over at WoWpedia.org WoWpedia.org/Tripping_the_Rifts” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.WoWpedia.org/Tripping_the_Rifts (hosted by Curse after Wikia enforced a restrictive skin on WoWwiki editors, most of whom moved to WoWpedia).

Oh and I just discovered, whilst trying to find any trace of an official Blizzard posting on the above event at World of Warcraft, Europe … ROFL Bear episode 50. http://myndflame.com/videos/roflbear/50-bear-cows/ … oh well, there’s Friday gone…

Filed under: WoW.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/” rel=”tag”>Analysis / Opinion, WoW.joystiq.com/category/news-items/” rel=”tag”>News items, WoW.joystiq.com/category/pvp/” rel=”tag”>PvP

Recently, players from the Emberstorm and Whirlwind groups have been noticing that they’re being grouped in the dungeon finder with each other. This isn’t a bug; the matchmaking system has been changed to allow those two battlegroups to be matched into dungeons and BGs with each other as part of the overall goal to eventually merge all battlegroups across a geographical area (think Europe or North America) and allow matchmaking across all of them.

CM Lylirra announced these changes and addressed some bugs to the process that are making it impossible to queue for BGs, which will hopefully be straightened out. Still, bugs aside, the first step of eventually allowing an entire region to be selected from for PvP and PvE seems really exciting to me and very positive overall. Finally, I’ll get to farm all the disparate old friends I have on like 20 servers! A frabjous day, all told.

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/battlegroup-changes-in-anticipation-of-complete-merger/”>Battlegroup changes in anticipation of complete merger originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recently, players from the Emberstorm and Whirlwind groups have been noticing that they’re being grouped in the dungeon finder with each other. This isn’t a bug; the matchmaking system has been changed to allow those two battlegroups to be matched into dungeons and BGs with each other as part of the overall goal to eventually merge all battlegroups across a geographical area (think Europe or North America) and allow matchmaking across all of them.

CM Lylirra announced these changes and addressed some bugs to the process that are making it impossible to queue for BGs, which will hopefully be straightened out. Still, bugs aside, the first step of eventually allowing an entire region to be selected from for PvP and PvE seems really exciting to me and very positive overall. Finally, I’ll get to farm all the disparate old friends I have on like 20 servers! A frabjous day, all told.

WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider” style=”float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0″ />WoW.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/battlegroup-changes-in-anticipation-of-complete-merger/”>Battlegroup changes in anticipation of complete merger originally appeared on WoW.joystiq.com”>WoW Insider on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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