3.2.2, 3.3, and 4.0: The future of World of Warcraft

So, I'm going to assume I'm still talking to an empty room, but that's how these things get started eh? So I'll keep trucking along, mostly because... well, to be honest, I am just that bored.

With Blizzcon this week, there's a lot of talk about the future of WoW. 3.2.2 is going to hit Live servers sometime in November, and we'll be face to face with our old friend Onyxia again (feral druids and deathknight tanks should take note: the new version of Thunderstrike/Shadowstrikc is a beast of a polearm, and the only (unless I'm grossly overlooking something) 2-handed weapon with any kind of tanking stat on it. More on that in a future post.).

3.3 will follow afterwards, where we will reach the culimination of the expansion and come face-to-face with it's namesake: Arthas, the Lich King. Some info was given at Blizzcon about Icecrown Citadel, and it sounds awesome. The raid instance will take up 4 floors of the citadel and wil be comprised of 12 bosses, including Sindragosa (queen of the frost wyrms), The Lich King himself, and a very interesting sounding encounter involving boarding the opposing faction's airship from your own faction's ship. Also in the Icecrown raid will be a legendary axe, Shadowmourne, available for Hunters and Deathknights. The surprising news on Icecrown Citadel is that it will include not one, not even 2, but 3 (!) 5-man dungeons that will be linked together through an Epic questline and feature 8 bosses, whom you will face with the help of some of your faction's Heroes (King Varian Wrynn for thelliance and Saurfang Sr. for the Horde) Also among the interesting news about the 3.3 patch is that it will feature a new cross-realm LFG system that will actually provide rewards for PUGging. More info on this as it comes.

The big new this week though, as was said in my previous post, was Cataclysm, the 3rd expansion for World of Warcraft. More info was released today about the expansion, specifically on itemization (which I won't cover in this post, I'm still trying to make up my mind on how I feel about it.) and the dungeons and raids. Right off the shelves, the game will ship with 5 raid instances: Grim Batol, Skywall, the Firelands, Blackwing Descent, and the Tol Barad Prison (Vault of Archavon 2.0). It has yet to be seen whether or not these will be large scale raids or single-boss encounters, but it looks to me like the focus on raiding will be much greater in the next expansion. Also announced are several dungeons, including a new wing of blackrock spire and heroic Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines.

So that's what's coming, and I say it's great. There are changes, but without change things stagnate. Of course there will always be the whiners who will incessantly berate Blizzard, and to be honest they bring me down. It's a game right? Can't you take the changes and go with the flow?

I dunno... more on that later.

In the meantime, I'm working on trying to get a cool look for this site as well as getting some quality posts up. If you've somehow stumbled across this, bookmark it and come back in a week or so, maybe you'll see something worth reading.

And as always, screw Kungen. Monte tanks all.

(oh and in an effort to get this blog publicized, I do need to put a confirmation code in this post, so here it is. hbi7kpuy32 )

Cataclysm and other stuff

So I started this blog and haven't posted much, but with good reason. The past 2 weeks have been pretty hectic for me in real life, in a very good way. I proposed to my girlfriend, and for some reason she said yes. Because our pastor is going to be having hip replacement surgery in november, we decided to set the date to fall before his surgery, so we're getting married Novemeber 7th. So things will be hectic for me for awhile...

Of course, if by some strange chance you have, in fact, actually found this blog, you're obviously not wanting to read about my real life... you're here for tanking info.

The big news this week is the confirmation of what MMO-Champion recently leaked, the new expansion! It will be called 'Cataclysm' and will feature a revamp of the old world.

The main features of the new expansion are:

• Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races--the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
• Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.
• Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.
• New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.
• More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.
• New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.
• Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
• New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
• Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
• Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

Now, we have almost no info on a lot of the new content, but there is something to be talked about, as far as tanks are concerned, and that's the new class/race combinations.

Here are the new tank possibilities, for each faction -

Horde

• Troll Druid
• Tauren Paladin
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Goblin Deathknight
• Goblin Warrior

Alliance

• Worgen Deathknight
• Worgen Druid
• Worgen Warrior

So the Horde wins out here, in terms of new tanks. Of course, all of this information is fresh off the presses and can, cna likely will in some form, change.

As more information comes in as Blizzcon continues, I'll post a more in-depth look at some of the tank-related changes in the coming expansion.