Cataclysm Alpha release date
Lately we saw a bunch of rumors about a potential alpha test of Cataclysm starting this week and judging by the amount of mails I received, a lot of people got excited. Time to clarify a few things!

First of all, the Alpha test of the expansion will not start this week and probably won't start before some time. At this point I'm not even sure if there will be a Friend and Family Alpha test, this phase of testing doesn't seem to be very important and the amount of players on the server isn't high enough to get things really tested. After a few weeks of testing you can usually connect to the server in the morning, type /who 1-80, and realize that you're the only one connected.

As far as I know the latest update in the testing of Cataclysm was the introduction of a few computers with the expansion installed in the european HQ to let the employees here try the expansion, and the version they have access to is very similar to the one people played at Blizzcon.

You also have to understand that each time you spread a rumor like that, thousands of accounts are hacked because scammers use that wonderful opportunity to scam people who do not understand what the F&F Alpha really is.

When the Alpha/Beta starts, you will know about it. Blizzard worked hard to improve their communication over the past years and I wouldn't be surprised if we heard about it through a blue post before it's leaked on a fansite. (But I'll make sure you read it on MMO-Champion first if something happens, don't worry)

Stop worrying about Cataclysm and enjoy Icecrown Citadel for the moment, the next minor patch should be deployed on January 19th or January 26th. (And will include the cinematic ending the Lich King storyline)


Professor Putricide Hotfixes
Quote from: Daelo (Source)
Professor Putricide is getting two hotfixes deployed right now.

One of them fixes an issue where the Mutated Transformation and Mutated Plague ability were doing significantly less damage in 25 player mode than intended. Mutated Transformation was actually doing less damage in 25 player mode than in 10 player mode!

In a separate hotfix affecting both 10 and 25 player modes, Tear Gas should no longer cancel player abilities such as Devotion aura. Instead of being totally immune, players now take 99% less damage. This also means Heals over Time spells will continue to work while Tear Gased, Dispersion will grant mana, etc.



Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Balance druids in 3.3.2
Keep in mind that we tend to make much smaller adjustments during a minor patch cycle due to the limited amount of testing time we're allotted before applying such patches. For this reason you're not likely to see any major Balance druid changes coming in the next minor patch.

With that being said, one small change we have in the pipeline will double the passive effectiveness of Earth and Moon so that it provides a flat 2/4/6% spell damage increase, up from 1/2/3%. As an obligatory warning, this is subject to change prior to the next minor patch going live. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Elemental T10 4pc Bonus
We're not happy with Elemental 4PT10, even with the change Eyonix announced (not requiring Flame Shock for LvB to crit). I think we're likely to completely redo it. We'll try and post soon what we think that change will be so you can make gear choices accordingly. (Source)

[...] The Shaman Tier 10 bonus has been redesigned and will no longer reduce the cooldown of Lava Burst or enable Lava Burst to be guaranteed to critical strike without Flame Shock present. Instead successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.

Please note this is still a work in progress and we may end up with a different or modified bonus before the patch goes live. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Using Nevermelting Ice to boost Corruption's crit %
I don't think either haste not crit qualify as an "exploit." That word implies you are somehow abusing mechanics so bad that you risk some kind of punitive reaction on our part. Usually if we don't like how a class is working we'll just fix the mechanics and not blame players for it.

In any case, haste provided a huge damage boost and was hard to fix. Crit provides a moderate damage boost and is hard to fix. So we probably won't be changing the way rolling crit works any time soon. You can use it without fear of ramifications from us. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Prot Warrior DPS
We understand that warrior damage is on the low end but regarding the raid progression, it's a hard case to say that your wipe on Festergut (as an example) was caused by the difference between tank damage when the dps from focused classes like rogue, warlock, etc. can probably improve to beat the enrage timer. (Source)

[...] I honestly think it's hard to argue that your choice of tank often costs you a kill because of the dps of the tank. Often those numbers are rounding errors compared to the damage capable by the dps specs in the raid. However, I don't think you even need to invoke that argument. I think it just feels crappy when your dps is lower than other tanks.

I don't think the block diminishing returns exacerbates this much to be honest, but it was a problem that was already there. We'd like to buff Prot sustained dps in a way that isn't risky for PvP.

(Standard: "no promises" implied.)

I'll say again that we have nothing against threat modifiers. Some of you need to stop treating them as if they are cockroaches to be stomped out whenever they appear. Bonus threat is really the only way to keep tank damage lower than dps damage but threat higher than dps threat. It only becomes a concern when A) the threat modifiers are flat (because then when the dps do more damage with gear, you aren't doing more threat with gear) or B) you're spamming abilities that do lots of threat but no real damage, because that just feels lame (and really we're just talking Sunder Armor here, which nobody spams anymore anyways). (Source)



Artworks
Another artwork was published on the Battlecry Mosaic page.



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