If there was a question about how Blizzard planned to deal with Arena points in Wrath of the Lich King -- which seems so palpably close -- Wryxian explained their resolution to the problem of carrying over points from Level 70 to 80. The answer? They won't. Players who hit Level 71 will have all their Arena points reset to 0 and be removed from all Level 70 bracket Arena teams.
New skirmish brackets will open up for those between Levels 71-75 and Levels 79-80. As mentioned before, Level 80 players will be able to participate in rated matches and be eligible for Level 80 Arena rewards that will, thankfully, look distinctively different from PvE gear. This means that players should be spending their Arena points now instead of banking the maximum 5000 points, as it will not carry over past Level 70. In this scheme of progression, Level 70 Arenas will conceivably die an eventual natural death.
What does this mean for the current season? When the pre-Wrath content patch is released, we're likely to see a shake-up in class representation in Arena play, as more classes become viable. It is also highly likely that the current season will end when Wrath is finally released, and competitive or rated Arena play will be in a state of limbo as Blizzard is likely to allow several weeks for players to reach Level 80 before starting a new Arena season.
Our sister site Big Download, purveyor of all things PC games, have released their list of the most anticipated PC titles for the rest of the year, and as you might imagine, Wrath of the Lich Kingis posted in there, nestled in among other sure-to-be-giants like Spore and Left 4 Dead. The game that's expected to be WoW's big MMO competition this fall, Warhammer Online, is in there as well, so for those of you who are PC gamers, the Fall and Winter future looks particularly bright (even if it does seem a little slow lately).
Of course, we have no idea how WoW's second expansion will fare on retail shelves this Fall, but all of the ingredients are there -- WoW is experiencing a resurgence lately (thanks in part to Blizzard's Recuit-a-friend promotion), and the news out of the beta has been nothing but encouraging for most everybody. Burning Crusade was gigantic, and that was back when 8 million were playing the game. All indications are that Blizzard stands to rake in the cash when their expansion goes on sale later this year.
Wrath of the Lich King is shaping up to be one hell of an expansion. It looks like Blizzard has pulled out all the stops with remarkable quest design, breathtaking landscapes, and even wonderful music that really sets the mood for adventuring in Northrend. Even though World of Warcraft allows players to access iTunes from within the game -- and I know a lot of players turn up their own music when playing -- I highly recommend playing Wrath with the music on and turned up when it finally hits retail.
Music in World of Warcraft has always been a point of pride for Blizzard, with their work on Karazhan being widely praised for setting a great mood and being enjoyable overall. The music in Wrath continues that tradition with scores from Blizzard veterans Russell Brower, who composed the login screen theme for the new expansion. Brower was also behind the music for The Burning Crusade login screen as well as the affecting melodies of Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands (some co-written with New Age musician David Arkenstone and fellow Blizzard veteran Jason Hayes).
With all the Wrath news dropping, there's been a ton of hype around the next World of Warcraft expansion. Lots of players are very excited (including yours truly), but Charles S isn't so much. He actually stopped playing the game in March of this past year (before that, he raided as a Warlock), and he is using today's Ask WoW Insider column to ask you, our readers, if anyone else isn't so hot on what they've seen so far: I've been reading your site and the news about the expansion and my question is, is it too early to be disappointed in what I am seeing for this expansion?
Unfortunately he doesn't expound much more beyond that, and I'd like to know what else he wants to see from the expansion -- we're going to get Death Knights, siege vehicles, and we're going to get to meet the Lich freakin' King, more than once. I don't know what more a Warcraft fan would want. But maybe you do -- think it's too early for Charles to be disappointed, or should he wait and see if Wrath will bring him back to the game?
And if you have a question you want to ask our readers, feel free to send it along to ask@wowinsider.com, and you might see it up here next week for everyone else to answer.
Wrath of the Lich King news started off as a trickle.First it was the development of the expansion than the addition of the Death Knight class. Then we had a lot of speculation and evasive answers from Blizzard. Now that the Beta test has been opened up there has been a flood of information.Most of this comes from the observations and mining of players, more so than Blizzard itself.Perhaps the most frustrating part of the WoW experience is waiting for Blizzard to give us information.
There are some tidbits that we're all excited to hear.When will we see Wrath go live?Will there be another expansion? Where does Kalgan live, and does he have decent body guards?I'd like to know if there are any plans for additional server types in the future.
We always do our best here to get as much information about WoW as possible as quickly as we can. If you had the opportunity to ask your three most burning questions of the game developers, what would you ask?
Here's the second Northrend instance run from the guys at WoW Radio -- last time around, they took us through Utgarde Keep, and this time Totalbiscuit, Duncor, Gnomewise, Mugi, and Nachtsturm run us through The Nexus, a level 72ish instance on the Borean Tundra. This run is a little more spoileriffic than Utgarde -- there's some Blue Dragonflight lore floating around, so watch at your own risk if you don't want to know about that kind of stuff.
But the instance does look terrific -- there are some new looks at Blizzard's updated cavern shader system we heard about a long time ago, and considering that The Nexus is, well, a Nexus of magical energy, it provides for some fascinating vistas and magical effects, even on Totalbiscuit's older machine. And the fact that all that magic is floating around seems like it provides for some fun mana mechanics for casters. These instances are shaping up, even in this early Wrath of the Lich King beta, to look like the best Blizzard has ever created.
Our favorite Hunter (although BRK comes close), Mania, has had some help from the Wrath beta, and has now updated the great Petopia with all the new pets seen in Northrend so far. No penguins yet, but there are some great new bears in there, and some awesome wolves (is it just me, or are wolves underrated as pets?). Unfortunately, there are no new families up yet, but Mania says updates are coming, and of course Wrath is still in beta anyway.
She's also got a Beta pet FAQ up, with everything you'd ever want to know about being a Hunter in the beta, from pet talents to "exotic pets" (the real ones, not the ones BRK dreamed up for us).
It's going to be an exciting time to be a Hunter in Northrend. Pet versatility makes Hunters one of the most interesting classes in the game, and it looks like Blizzard is set to open it up wide in the expansion.
When expansions come to World of Warcraft (well, at least when the last expansion did) people either get Beta invites or they don't, people start fretting about gear resets, new abilities get discussed, alternating doom and gloom and wild, frenzied excitement over new talents rages... but while all that is going on, the game is still being played. My own guild has marched firmly into BT and Hyjal, and we're one boss away from clearing the later, ol' Archie himself. In the process of clearing the other four bosses, gear has started trickling in and with it comes the realization that sometimes, higher tier gear is optimized for the places it drops.
I've been using Shield Block Value as my primary threat stat on my armor. As time has gone on, without really realizing it, I've been moving to a more hit/expertise system which relies less on big shield slams and more on consistent white damage and specials that don't miss and are not dodged or parried. While this has been occurring, armor with higher dodge rating has been steadily dropping, meaning that my avoidance goes up and my rage generation is more and more dependent on not missing or being dodged or parried. T5 content, with the reliance on SBV, allowed me to stack stamina and block value in a way that T6 content does not. I've dropped my block value from around 800 to a little more than 600 lately, while looking to increase my hit and dodge for bosses like Azgalor, who doesn't crush. (He's a nice little preview of the future in that regard.)
My point is two fold: one, especially for a warrior (be he a tank or DPS, I'm just using tanking as my example because it's what I primarily do) gear obsolescence is constant. You're always changing and upgrading your gear as you go through content. (This is true for just about every class, mind you, but I'm talking to warriors.) Furthermore, however, you also become a bit of a packrat, holding on to outdated gear because it has a stat that may be desirable for a specific fight. I still use The Sun Eater if I feel dodge is absolutely essential for a fight, despite having overall better weapons now.
Continuing on from the analysis of the changes to the Balance druid talent tree, as shown in the first patch notes for the official Wrath of the Lich KingBeta, we'll now examine the Feral and Restoration trees.
Feral tree The Feral tree is seeing changes to limit the benefits that the other two trees, specifically Restoration, can gain from investing a few points into the first few tiers. We are also seeing changes to the ways in which bears will be generating aggro.
The Faerie Fire (Feral) and Feral Charge swap Feral Charge is currently an 11-point talent into the Feral tree, which contributing to the advantages that Restoration druids currently have in arena. It allows Restoration druids the ability to charge, immobilizing their target and interrupting spells for four seconds.
Instead, Faerie Fire (Feral), which is not something that a Restoration druid would likely spend 11 points to get, will take up the 11-point spot, with Feral Charge taking its place in the tree 21 points in.
In addition, Feral Charge will be usable in cat form, dazing the target and moving the cat behind it. This will help address the concerns that cat form is not especially viable in PvP, although their crit dependency is still a weakness. It will also be useful in dungeons to catch runners and other out of place mobs.
Balance tree If you were to invest three points into your Brambles tier three talent, you will not only have the current 75% boost to damage caused by Thorns and Entangling Roots, but your Treants will have their damage boosted by 15%.
In addition, all damage caused by Treants, and any attacks done to you while Barkskin is active, have a 15% chance of dazing the target for three seconds. Actually, Force of Nature, which summons your Treants, is having its cooldown reduced from three minutes to two.
This will be a nifty talent for Moonkin in battlegrounds and arena, although it won't be enough to convert all of those Restoration druids to the ways of the Giant Chicken.
The lists are a great read if you want to plan out how you can go about completing those Achievements, from the simple tasks, such as completing five daily quests (worth 5 points), to the loftier goals such as defeating the 25-man Naxxramas with only 20 people (worth 50 points). Achievements are classified under different categories, such as General, which involve collecting vanity items or finishing "whimsical" goals; there is the Quest category for those who are obsessive questers; there are also PvP goals that involve specific tasks in the Battlegrounds or Arenas.
With the rumor of Achievements in Wrath of the Lich King finally revealed to be a certainty, there's a bit more excitement in the air about the expansion. When I told my somewhat obsessive-compulsive wife about the new Achievement system, she was filled with both dread and giddiness knowing she would obsess (and lose a lot of sleep) over unlocking them, particularly the whimsical ones. "You're probably not excited about all this, are you?," she asked me, knowing I didn't concern myself too much with some of the game's frills. "Actually," I replied with a smile, "there are PvP Achievements, too."
So while my wife is looking forward to doing all the, ahem, frivolous things like getting a haircut -- she'll probably unlock that one in the first hour of the expansion's release -- or giving out ten hugs (!), I'll be grinding away at the PvP-oriented Achievements. Hot Streak is certainly doable; I've been an Alterac Valley All-Star more than a few times; but getting City Defender looks like it'll take a little bit more work. How about you? What category of Achievements are you most interested in? Are you a professions freak, a quest addict, or maybe an explorer? It looks like there's something for every type of player. What kind of Achievements do you think you'll be unlocking often?
Just in case, like Jaguarpaw, you thought that the little we heard about Mages in Wrath of the Lich King at WWI was all they were going to get, worry not: changes, believe it or not, are still coming. Zarhym says it, but did he really have to? We haven't heard the end of all the changes in Wrath -- not from the alpha, not from the upcoming beta, and odds are that we won't even have found everything in the expansion when it actually releases. That was certainly the case with Burning Crusade, and it will undoubtedly be the case with Wrath.
Unfortunately, that doesn't actually mean that all of your concerns will be answered -- Blizzard has promised, specifically for Mages, to make these same changes before, and the changes haven't been made to players' satisfaction. And players, as I know because I happen to be one myself, are picky people -- even if Blizzard fixes everything, we'll still find something to complain about. But don't write off Wrath just because you were disappointed by what you heard at WWI -- we've only seen the earliest of previews so far.
And just in case you missed it yesterday, Wowhead decided to go ahead and release all of the talents for all of the classes they could see in the alpha, including all of the new talents for Mages. This is far from the last we'll hear about Wrath, but that info, official or otherwise, should tide you over until the next round of releases.
The Paladin class hasn't gotten much love from Blizzard from what we've seen so far in the development of the Wrath of the Lich King. Of all the class updates delivered during the recently concluded Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France, the Paladin was one of two classes (the other was the Mage) that didn't receive much by way of news. On the other hand, leaked information from the Alpha revealed some new whopper spells for Mages, including cool and explosive (literally) 51-point talents. Hunters don't have new talents yet, either, but the exciting news is that in WotLK, their pets will.
From out of the blue. But good things come to those who wait. Tipster Delsin helped shed some Light on the slow development pace by linking to what is purportedly a forum discussion with Ghostcrawler, a developer of the new expansion. The responses from the blue were supposedly sprinkled over a couple of weeks, with the first and oldest post revealing little we didn't already know. It detailed the design directive the developers were taking, noting four important points:
Retribution Paladins need to have better utility in raids
Holy Paladins shouldn't feel so punished during encounters which require lots of movement
Protection Paladins need to be great tanks not only for 5-person content but also for raids; at the same time, all four tanking classes should maintain their niche
Paladins, more than any other class, need diverse sets of gear depending on their spec and role. Itemization is being fixed across the board to make it easier for healers and tanks to do damage without needing a whole new set of gear
These key points illustrate that Blizzard has a good grasp of what plagues the class, and is moving in the right direction. In two more responses in the same thread, the developers explain why the Paladin developments are taking so long and the issues they're looking at. Read more after the break.
We've talked before about using Wrath of the Lich King as an opportune time to switch mains. As Daniel mentioned in that post, I'm planning on switching from my human warrior to my draenei warrior once WotLK comes out. Now, one of the things I've noticed from reading forums, talking about it with my guild mates, and of course from you commenters here at WoW Insider is that there seems to be two or three camps of opinion on how to go about switching mains at the expansion.
Camp one we'll call the laissez faire approach. These people, although they intend to switch mains, aren't really doing much about it. They expect that the gear reset from Wrath will take care of any gearing inadequacies and that we're all going to be running around in clown clothes anyway for a while.
With all 
Wrath of the Lich King news started off as a trickle.
Our favorite Hunter (although 
Just in case, like Jaguarpaw, you thought that 
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