WoW Cataclysm Beta: Stormwind – Screenshots and Video!
- July 5th, 2010
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getbuffed.com visited the kapital of the human race Stormwind.
Archive for the ‘World of Warcraft’ Category
getbuffed.com visited the kapital of the human race Stormwind.
getbuffed.com visited the Western Plaguelands. Once terrorised by the scourge and Arthas the new Western Plaguelands grew green and can't be called Plaguelands anymore.
getbuffed.com made a sightseeing flight through Elwynn Forest, the starting zone of the human.
getbuffed.com made a sightseeing flight through Durotar, the starting zone of the orcs and trolls.
getbuffed.com visited Orgrimmar, the capital of the Horde helmed by Garrosh Hellscream.
It's official: The beta test for WoW Cataclysm has started today. This was reported moments ago on the official World of Warcraft website.
Quote: "The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test is live, and we've begun the process of issuing invitations to selected participants! Week by week, as the beta test progresses, we will continue adding new World of Warcraft: Cataclysm playtesters. To opt in for Blizzard Entertainment beta tests, you must create a beta profile using the Beta Profile Settings option located in the "Manage My Games" section of your Battle.net Account Management page.
Please note that players selected via the opt-in system do not receive beta keys. Rather, your account will be flagged automatically and an email will be sent to you. Simply log in to your account by visiting http://battle.net when you receive a beta welcome notice and check your "Manage My Games" section to verify that the beta client is available for download. Be careful when reading emails claiming to be beta invites. Scam emails often use clickable links to gather your account information, so the safest practice is to go to http://battle.net to check on your beta invitation status. If you would like tips on how to arm yourself against phishing attempts, head over to the Battle.net Account Security page."
The beta test started only for US players at the moment - we will keep you posted when beta testing starts in other areas.
WoW Cataclysm: Blizzard unveiled the talent tress for Priests! Check out other Cataclysm talent trees here. Please keep in mind that everything is subject to change, and the files we got are just drafts of the the final talent trees. Please keep in mind that everything is subject to change, and the files we got are just drafts of the the final talent trees.
Cataclysm Shaman Talent Information:
Discipline Talent Tree
Tier 1 (Left to Right)
Unbreakable Will (5 ranks available)
Reduces the duration of stun, fear, and silence effects done to you by an additional 6/12/18/24/30%.
Twin Disciplines (5 ranks available)
Increases the damage and healing done by your instant spells and the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Tier 2 (Left to Right)
Penitence (3 ranks)
Increases the critical effect chance of your Smite and Penance spells by 5/10/15%.
Improved Inner Fire (3 ranks available)
Increases the effect of your Inner Fire spell by 15/30/45%.
Focused Power (2 ranks avaialble)
Reduces the cast time of your Mind Control spell by 0.3/0.5 seconds, and your Mass Dispel cast time is reduced by 0.5/1 second.
Martyrdom (2 ranks available)
Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 seconds after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike. The Focused Casting effect reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting priest spells and decreases the duration of interrupt effects by 10/20%.
Tier 3 (Left to Right)
Atonement (3 ranks)
When you deal damage with Smite, you instantly heal a nearby low-health friendly target within 40 yards equal to 15/30/45% of the damage dealt.
Inner Focus (1 rank available)
Instant 1.5 min cooldown
When activated, reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
Improved Power Word: Shield (3 ranks available)
Increase the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10/15%.
Tier 4 (Left to Right)
Evangelism (2 ranks available)
When you cast Smite you gain Evangelism, increasing the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, Holy Nova and Penance spells by 2/4% and reducing the mana cost of those spells by 3/6% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Mental Agility (3 ranks available)
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%.
Improved Mana Burn (2 ranks available)
Reduces the cast time of your Mana Burn spell by 0.5/1 seconds.
Tier 5 (Left to Right)
Archangel (1 rank available)
Consumes your Evangelism effects, instantly restoring 3% of your total mana and increasing your healing done by 3% for each stack. Also allows you to channel Penance while moving. Lasts 18 seconds.
Enlightenment (3 ranks available)
Increases your total mana and total health by 2/4/6%.
Power Word: Barrier (1 rank available) - Requires 2 points in Improved Power Word: Shield
13383 Mana 40 yd range
0.5 sec cast 3 min cooldown
Summons a holy barrier on the target location that absorbs 293 damage done to party or raid members within it each time they take damage. While within the barrier, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. The barrier lasts for 15 seconds or until it absorbs 1955 damage.
Tier 6 (Left to Right)
Reflective Shield (2 ranks available)
Causes 22/45%% of the damage you absorb with Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker. This damage causes no threat.
Soul Warding (3 ranks available) - Requires 1 point in Power Word: Barrier
Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 1/2/3 seconds, and reduces the mana cost or your Power Word: Shield by 5/10/15%.
Tier 7 (Left to Right)
Divine Aegis (3 ranks available)
Critical heals create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 10/20/30% of the amount healed. Lasts 12 seconds.
Power Infusion (1 rank available) - Requires 2 points in Enlightenment
3294 Mana 30 yd range
Instant cast 2 min cooldown
Infuses the target with power, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts 15 seconds.
Improved Flash Heal (3 ranks available)
Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15% and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
Tier 8 (Left to Right)
Renewed Hope (2 ranks available)
Increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal and Penance (Heal) spells by 2/4% on targets afflicted by the Weakened Soul effect, and you have a 50/100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 3% for 1 minute to all friendly party and raid targets when you cast Power Word: Shield. This effect has a 15-second cooldown.
Rapture (3 ranks available)
When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled, you are instantly energized with 1.5/2/2.5% of your total mana, and you have a 33/66/100% chance to energize your shielded target with 2% total mana, 8 rage, 16 energy or 32 runic power. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.
Aspiration (2 ranks available)
Reduces the cooldown of your Inner Focus, Power Infusion, Pain Suppression and Penance spells by 10/20%.
Tier 9 (Left to Right)
Focused Will (3 ranks available)
After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 2/3/4% and increasing healing effects on you by 3/4/5%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 8 seconds.
Pain Suppression (1 rank available)
1647 Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast 3 min cooldown
Instantly reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%, reduces all damage taken by 40% and increases resistance to Dispel mechanics by 65% for 8 seconds.
Grace (2 ranks available)
Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells bless the target with Grace, increasing all healing received from the Priest by 2/4%. This effect will stack up to 3 times. Effect lasts 15 seconds. Grace can only be active on one target at a time.
Tier 10
Borrowed Time (5 ranks available)
Grants 5/10/15/20/25% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield, and increases the amount absorbed by your Power Word: Shield equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of your spell power.
Tier 11
Penance (1 rank available)
Enemy: 30 yd range
3294 Mana Friendly: 40 yd range
Channeled 12 sec cooldown
Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing 394 to 439 Holy damage to an enemy, or 1201 to 1354 healing to an ally instantly and every 1 second for 2 seconds.
Holy Talent Tree
Tier 1 (Left to Right)
Holy Focus (2 ranks available)
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any Holy spell by 35/70%.
Searing Light (3 tanks available)
Increases the damage of your Smite, Holy Fire, Holy Nova and Penance spells by 4/8/12%.
Divine Fury (5 ranks available)
Reduces the cast time of your Smite, Holy Fire, Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.
Tier 2 (Left to Right)
Divine Accuracy (2 ranks available)
Increases the chance to hit with your Smite, Holy Fire, Holy Nova and Penance spells by 10/20%.
Empowered Healing (5 ranks available)
Your Greater Heal spell gains an additional 6/12/18/24/30% and your Flash Heal, Heal, and Binding Heal gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% of your bonus healing effects.
Spell Warding (5 ranks available)
Reduces all spell damage taken by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Tier 3 (Left to Right)
Desperate Prayer (1 rank available)
3706 Mana
Instant cast 2 min cooldown
Instantly heals the caster for 4995 to 5876.
Improved Renew (3 ranks available)
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 5/10/15%.
Inspiration (3 ranks available)
Reduces your target's physical damage taken by 3/7/10% for 15 seconds after getting a critical effect from your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal, Prayer of Healing, or Circle of Healing spell.
Tier 4 (Left to Right)
Healing Prayers (2 ranks available)
Reduces the mana cost of your Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending by 10/20%.
Improved Healing (3 ranks avaialble)
Reduces the mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Divine Hymn and Penance spells by 5/10/15%.
Blessed Recovery (3 ranks available) - Requires 1 point in Spell Warding
After being struck by a melee or ranged critical hit, Blessed Recovery heals you for 5% of the damage taken over 6 seconds. Additional critical hits taken during the effect increase the healing received.
Tier 5 (Left to Right)
Holy Reach (2 ranks available)
Increase the range or your Smite and Holy Fire spells and the radius of your Prayer of Healing, Holy Nova, Divine Hymn and Circle of Healing by 10/20%.
Spirit of Redemption (1 rank available)
Increases total Spirit by 5% and upon death, the priest becomes the Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds. The Spirit of Redemption cannot move, attack, be attacked or targeted by any spells or effects. While in the form the priest can cast any healing spell free of cost. When the effect ends, the priest dies.
Deliverance [PH] (3 ranks available)
When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 3/6/9%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 seconds.
**PH. Will likely need to be replaced or updated**
Tier 6 (Left to Right)
Surge of Light (2 ranks available)
Your spell critical strikes have a 25% chance to cause your next Smite or Flash Heal spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 seconds.
Holy Concentration (3 ranks available)
Your mana regeneration from spirit is increased by 16/32/50% for 8 seconds after your critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Empowered Renew.
Tier 7 (Left to Right)
Choir Leader [PH] (2 ranks available)
Your Divine Hymn also heals you for 10/20% of your total health during its duration, and the channel time of your Hymn of Hope is reduced by 10/20%.
**PH Name. Will likely need to be replaced or updated.**
Lightwell (1 rank available)
6177 Mana 40 yd range
0.5 sec cast 3 min cooldown
Creates a Holy Lightwell. Friendly players can click the Lightwell to restore 8634 health over 6 seconds. Attacks done to you equal to 30% of your total health will cancel the effect. Lightwell lasts for 3 min or 10 charges.
Blessed Resilience (3 ranks avaialble)
Critical hits made against you have a 20/40/60% chance to prevent you from being critically hit again for 6 seconds.
Improved Holy Nova (2 ranks available)
Reduces the global cooldown of your Holy Nova spell by 0.25/0.5 sec., and increases its critical effect chance by 25/50%.
Tier 8 (Left to Right)
Body and Soul (2 ranks available)
When you cast Power Word: Shield or Leap of Faith, you increase the targets's movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds, and you have a 50% chance when you cast Cure Disease on yourself to also cleanse 1 poison effect in addition to diseases.
Chakra [NYI] (5 ranks available)
When you use Prayer of Healing, Renew or Heal 3 times in a row you will enter a Chakra state empowering you for 20 seconds. You can only be in one Chakra state at a time.
Prayer of Healing - Increases your area-of-effect healing by 2/4/6/8/10%, and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds.
Renew - Increases the periodic haste effect of your Renew spell by 3/6/9/12/15% and reduces the global cooldown of your Renew spell by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds.
Heal - Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 1/2/3/4/5%, and your Heal has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Renew on the target.
Smite - Increase your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 4/8/12%.
Starting at Rank 2 - Increases spell power by 10% of your total spirit.
Rank 3 changes the talent to Spiritual Guidance - Increases spell power by 15/20/25% of your total spirit.
** NYI. See the descriptions above.**
Thriving Light [NYI] (2 ranks available)
Reduces the duration of Wound effects on you by 15/30%, and reduces the damage taken by bleed effects by 10/20%.
Tier 9 (Left to Right)
Empowered Renew (3 ranks available)
Your Renew spell gains an additional 5/10/15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
Circle of Healing (1 rank available)
10706 Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast 10 sec cooldown
Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 16 yards of the target for 1813 to 2000.
Test of Faith (3 ranks available)
Increase healing by 4/8/12% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
Tier 10
Divine Providence (5 ranks available)
Increases the amount healed by Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Holy Nova, Prayer of Healing, Divine Hymn and Prayer of Mending by 2/4/6/8/10%, and reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending by 6/12/18/24/30%.
Tier 11
Guardian Spirit (1 rank available)
1235 Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast 3 min cooldown
Calls upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target. The spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40%, and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of for 50% of their maximum health. Lasts 10 seconds.
**Corrected possible typo**
Shadow Talent Tree
Tier 1 (Left to Right)
Dark Thoughts (2 ranks available)
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any Shadow spell by 35/70%.
Improved Spirit Tap (2 ranks available) - Requires 3 points in Spirit Tap
Your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death critical strikes have a 100% chance, and your Mind Flay critical strikes have a 50/100% chance to increase your total spirit by 5/10%. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 17/33% rate while casting. Lasts 8 seconds.
Darkness (5 ranks available)
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Tier 2 (Left to Right)
Shadow Affinity (3 ranks available)
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 8/16/25%, and you receive 5/10/15% of your base mana when your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain (2 ranks available)
Increased the damage of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3/6%.
Shadow Weaving (3 ranks available)
Your Shadow damage spells have a 33/66/100% chance to increase the Shadow damage you deal by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Tier 3 (Left to Right)
Improved Psychic Scream (2 ranks available)
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 2/4 seconds.
Improved Mind Blast (5 ranks available)
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds, and while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 seconds.
Mind Flay (1 rank available)
1853 Mana 30 yd range
Channeled
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 501 Shadow damage over 3 seconds and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
Tier 4 (Left to Right)
Veiled Shadows (2 ranks available)
Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 3/6 seconds and reduces the cooldown of your Shadowfiend ability by 1/2 minutes.
Shadow Reach (2 ranks available)
Increase the range of your offensive Shadow spells by 10/20%.
Empowered Shadow Orbs (3 ranks available) / placeholder!!!! Likely to be changed!
Increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs by 2/4/6%, and you have a h/h/h% chance to gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack.
Tier 5 (Left to Right)
Silence (1 rank available) - Requires 2 points in Improved Psychic Scream
225 Mana 33 yd range
Instant cast 45 sec cooldown
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 seconds.
Vampiric Embrace (1 rank available)
Instant
Fills you with the embrace of Shadow energy, causing you to be healed for 15% and other party members to be healed for 3% for any single-target Shadow spell damage you deal for 30 minutes.
Improved Vampiric Embrace (2 ranks available) - Requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace
Increase the healing received from Vampiric Embrace by 33/67%.
Focused Mind (3 ranks available)
Reduces the mana cost of your Mind Blast, Mind Control, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 5/10/15%.
Tier 6 (Left to Right)
Mind Melt [NYI] (2 ranks available) / likely to change!
Increases the additional damage done with your Shadow Word: Death by 5/10% on targets at or below 25% health, and when you deal damage with Mind Spike, the cast time of your next Mind Blast is reduced by 11/33% lasting 6 seconds. Mind Melt can stack up to 3 times.
Improved Devouring Plague (3 ranks available)
Increase the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15%, and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect.
Tier 7 (Left to Right)
Shadowform (1 rank available)
2676 Mana
Instant cast 1.5 sec cooldown
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing all damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.
Shadow Power (5 ranks available)
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay, and Shadow Word: Death spells by 20/40/60/80/100%.
Tier 8 (Left to Right)
Improved Shadowform (2 ranks available) - Requires 1 point in Shadowform
Your Fade ability now has a 50/100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when used while in Shadowform, and reduces casting or channeling time lost when damaged by 35/70% when casting any Shadow spell while in Shadowform. In addition, spell haste for all nearby party and raid members is increased by 5%.
Shadowy Apparition [PH] [NYI] (3 ranks available) / placedholder – likely to be changed!!
While moving or dealing damage with your Shadow Word: Pain, you will sometimes summon a Shadow version of yourself which will slowly move towards a target which is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain. Once reaching that target, it will instantly deal damage equal to 15/30/45% of your Mind Blast’s damage.
Tier 9 (Left to Right)
Psychic Horror (1 rank available)
3294 Mana 33 yd range
Instant cast 2 min cooldown
You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 seconds and drop their main hand and ranged weapons for 10 seconds.
Vampiric Touch (1 rank available) - Requires 1 point in Shadowform
3294 Mana 33 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Causes 1000 Shadow damage over 15 seconds to your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 1% of their maximum mana per 5 seconds when you deal damage from Mind Blast. In addition, if the Vampiric Touch is dispelled it will cause 1600 damage to the afflicted target.
Pain and Suffering (3 ranks available)
Your Mind Flay has a 33/66/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 10/20/30%.
Tier 10
Twisted Faith (5 ranks available)
Your damage done by your Mind Flay and Mind Blast is increased by 2/4/6/8/10% if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain, and increases your spell hit rating by an additional amount equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of your spirit.
Tier 11
Dispersion (1 rank available) - Requires 1 point in Vampiric Touch
Instant 2 min cooldown
You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 second for 6 seconds. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced and clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
The getbuffed wishlist for World of Warcraft Cataclysm: From a fresh user interface to actually challenging heroic dungeons - ten changes we want to see in the next WoW expansion
World of Warcraft is quite the allround talent – PvE, PvP, big raid instances, small raid dungeons, and more. But sometimes even Blizzard’s designers get bogged down in details: World of Warcraft is far from perfect. And WoW: Cataclysm could make some player wishes come true – let's take a look at the top ten wishes we have for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion.
10. More updated Dungeons
There are going to be heroic versions of the Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep for those who have reached level 85. Great! But is this enough? We're going to spend a lot of time in the old world anyway, so why not update some more old dungeons and raid instances? More heroic classic dungeons – that's what we want!
9. Being able to change the look of tier-sets
Wearing a full Tier 2 set armor was really special back in classic WoW. Today tier sets seem to be off-the-shelf-articles for everyone. On one hand, that's ok – we don’t mind if more players are able to get their hands on shiny epics. But on the other hand it is pretty boring to see every character in Dalaran wearing the same armor. Blizzard devs already stated that they’re not going to introduce dyes. Alright, so what about more nice tabards or, as seen in other MMOs, a way to give an item the look of another – without changing its stats. And all of that without any form of micro transaction please. 
8. Better rewards for hard work
Having five man instances and raid dungeons available in various difficulty settings is a good thing for many players. But the rewards could be better, especially when beating certain bosses in hardmode. We would like to see more special encounters like Algalon the Watcher for example, which are only available to hardcore raiders. More special rewards like the drakes for the meta achievements would be cool as well. Additional item levels or heroic items for hardmode kills are a nice bonus – but many players don't see them as actual rewards. In addition they add to the confusing item level inflation we’ve seen in Wrath of the Lich King – bringing us to our next wish for Cataclysm...
7. Stat jumble, be gone!
An MMO needs a large variety of items. But it’s pretty hard to keep track of WoW’s emblem and faction vendors, normal mode and heroic mode drops, 10 man and 25 man boss loot tables, ...? Wrath of the Lich King introduced so many new tiers of items that it’s easy to get lost especially for new players. Even veteran players often simply look at best-in-slot-lists rather than to research potential item upgrades themselves. Less is definitely more in this case!
6. Interface updates
World of Warcraft's standard interface has been revised and upgraded several times during the last five years but important features are still missing. For example: Why can't we move single interface elements? Where are the space-saving raid frames or some inventory for tabards? And what about a wardrobe for elder tier-sets and alternative armor?
5. Well-elaborated tool for finding raid companions
Yes, there is a tool where you can find new players for your raid, but it is not as popular as it should be – with good reason. There should be a new tool that shows you for example how often somebody has visited a dungeon and some achievement filter to make directly visible how successful this character has been in raids so far. And: You wouldn’t need gear score anymore.
4. Classes should be more unique
Players are criticizing WotLK since beta days: Classes became more and more alike.. With all the changes made in later patches, many people feel validated. So we wish more uniqueness for every single tank, heal and damage dealing character class. The official Cataclysm class previews give us a hope that this is going to change. We hope that good things are going to happen.
3. Enjoyable daily quests
Sure, daily quests will never be one of the highlights while playing World of Warcraft, and they do not have to. But the boring and recurring dailies of the Argent Tournament were a bit too much. More variety provided through a bigger pool of daily quests, where every day there's a random quest to do – that’s what we expect from having fun in doing our daily quests. We are looking forward to Tol Barad – if it isn't going to be a second Wintergrasp with all that went wrong there, that is.
2. A new old world
Luckily, this is something the Blizzard designers are definitely going to do: with the arrival of Cataclysm, Azeroth won't be the same. The old world is in desperate need for a complete make-over – meaning optical quality and gameplay. The starting areas need to be revised in order to make them more attractive for starters – even without the heirloom armor speeding up the time to level.
1. Really challenging heroic dungeons
Blizzard designers promised it – we hope they'll stay true to their words. controlled monster-pulls instead of mindless AE bombing. Heroic 5-man-dungeons in WotLK got too easy too soon.. As nice as it may be to rush through dungeons in eight minutes, we wish that the new dungeons in Cataclyms will be more challenging -- even the non-heroic versions.
„…And so begins our story of a baby beholder, starving and lost in Dalaran. He might grow faster than we thought and maybe we should habe been more careful about this little... thing." The story of the little beholder starts as small and unimpressive as the Baby B appears to be but soon we have to learn about one way to true power. Olibith entered the Alienware-Blizzard contest „Rise to Power“ and ended up as one of the four winners.
Olibith - Beware of the Baby B
Interview with Olibith about WoW, machinimas and the love for gnomes
buffed: Hi Olibith, can you introduce yourself to our readers in a few sentences? Like where you’re coming from and what you do for a living?
Olibith: I come from France and I am a graphic designer. Unemployed right now but with many project as a geek online t-shirts shop and an e-cards website this year. I got a wife, a 3 years old daughter and 2 cats.
buffed: In about 4 years your videos got about 8.000.000 clicks – just on Youtube alone. How do you feel about that?
Olibith: That feels really great. Knowing that so many people saw my works is amazing and really is a motivation to make more movies. As a machinimaker, having an audience is the main hope and reward.
buffed: You get often named when you ask machinima makers who inspired them and who they look up to. How do you feel about that and your VIP-status?
Olibith: I guess I was lucky to be part of the firsts waves of WoW machinimas, it would be much more difficult right now to be noticed. I'm honored if I inspired anyone to make movies. This VIP status, having ingame NPCs, awards and all that fame are still amazing me, even if it goes with a lot of technical questions to answer and a lot of pressure for each new movie.
buffed: And do you have any idols you look up to?
Olibith: Of course yes, Baron Soosdon sure have always been one of them for his mind blowing relation to music and visuals, I also am a total fan of Oblivious Films and their so unique sense of humor. Ian Beckman, Stone Falcon prod, AFK pl@yers, Spiffworld all those are the people of the machinima scene that are still deeply inspiring me.
buffed: Just a few weeks ago you won a Blizzard competition with a film about the rise of the small – how did you come up with the idea of “Beware of the Baby B”?
Olibith: The idea came while playing WoW. I was in Dalaran with my pet Willy and then I saw this half eaten ginger bread man on the ground next to the cake chariot. Then I knew I had a story to tell in this "rise to power" contest.
buffed: In your series “Never Stay Tuned” you’re often making clips about pop culture, movies, TV commercials and series, and you also get the help of other movie makers like Ian Beckman, Dopefish and Baron Soosdon – how do you get all these ideas for the clips and how long does it take, till an episode of “Never Stay Tuned” is finished?
Olibith: The Never Stay Tuned series is something I am constantly thinking about, writing down ideas till I have enough of them to start. There's always a music video, a machinima, a video game, a movie scene or an ad on TV that makes me think - this is NST material! It took me so much time to make NST4 that I'm now kind of anguished to start working on next episode. The thing is that I want to make sure each episode is, to me, better than the last. Meaning next NST will certainly take me more than 200 hours and that is quite scary. I'll maybe start this year after my actual project, but then again I have so many projects I want to do.
buffed: You’re also using elements from other video games and hint at games like Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto. Is it more complicated to find and implement non-WoW material instead of only using the WoW tools like the modelviewer?
Olibith: It sometimes is more difficult, for the Metal Gear Solid parody I had to recreate a 3D room in After Effects with screenshots of the walls textures took ingame on PS3 with Snake's camera. For the Gnome Theft Auto sequence, I just used one of the official video and had to hide Nico Bellic behind my Gnome. Gnomes have a very large head so it was quite easy.
buffed: Does your alter ego – the gnome magician – have any similarities with yourself? Or do you like or maybe even dislike gnomes in general?
Olibith: Physically not really, I would be closer to an ogre than to a gnome. When I bought WoW I wanted to have a night elf druid. And then I saw that night elves male were not looking at all like the Warcraft3 druids... So I chose a gnome magician on day one. I love Gnomes since, the way they have no belief other than technology. My role-play guild, Gnomes Inc, is a 100% gnome guild helping our brothers and fighting for Gnomeregan. Let me tell you that Cataclysm is something we really are looking forward to.
buffed: You seem to have a quite special relationship with Baron Soosdon as you work quite often together and pull a leg on each other – how come?
Olibith: Yep, Soosdon is really a great guy. He is my friend, inspiration and technical guru. When I'm running out of ideas, I just have to chat with him a few minutes and by the end of the discussion I always get a bag full of exciting crazy concepts. He has always been there to help me since I started machinima and that does not make me someone special since the Baron is always ready to help his fellow machinimakers. The kind of guy who writes for just one person a pro tutorial. If there was a WoW machinima Nobel price, I'll give it to Soos.
buffed: Are you playing World of Warcraft in your free time or did you quit for good?
Olibith: I became a casual player, really casual. I don't have time anymore for raids. On my server I got my gnome guild, WoW friends that I know since 5 years, IRL friends, family but also co-workers, ex bosses etc. And I'm not talking about the daily the lvl 1 players that comes to my server just to chat about how to chroma key a character in a video. WoW is like a 3D MSN to me now and it is sometimes hard to enjoy the game. I did not played WoW since Starcraft 2 beta started though.
buffed: What class and race do you play or did you play? And which of the WoW expansions (including classic) do you like the most?
Olibith: I have a gnome mage, a troll rogue, an orc warlock, a night elf druid, a dwarf healer priest, an undead shadow priest, a draenei shaman, a gnome death knight and I plan on having a holy cow with Cataclysm. Most of my characters are max level but my main really is my mage. Vanilla was the best fun I ever had with WoW, 40 people raids were so epic. When BC came, our raid exploded and that really made me sad. I really enjoyed Northrend visually, much more than the Outlands.
buffed: If you could play a WoW boss – which one would that be and why?
Olibith: I think it would be C'thun because he has a lot of tentacles.
buffed: Is there anything you’d wish Blizzard to implement into the game for example with Cataclysm what would make it much easier for you to make machinimas?
Olibith: So many things... Like an offline mode with an advanced camera, weather control etc. An official model viewer with as many options as you can find in other games viewers. But what I'd really like is an in game streaming TV that you can watch in auction houses or on TV sets that engineers could create. I have some ideas about what could be broadcast in those televisions. ^^
buffed: Can you tell us something about your next project?
Olibith: My next project is a horror movie, well not really a serious one. I already got the script, almost all the voices recorded... All I need is time. The title of the movie will be "The Hills have eggs" and there's a chance the KFC dwarf from the NST series will play a great part in the film.
buffed: Thank you very much for your time and all the best for your future!
Olibith: Thanks to you for this interview.
Blizzard has announced BlizzCon 2010. The following press information just reached the team of GetBuffed.com
BLIZZCON® 2010 ANNOUNCED
Blizzard Entertainment’s fifth BlizzCon gaming celebration to be held at Anaheim Convention
Center October 22-23, 2010
Paris, France. -- March 25, 2010 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fifth
BlizzCon® gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on
Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23, 2010. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player
communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes.
“BlizzCon offers us a great opportunity to meet with our players and share our enthusiasm for gaming
with one of the most passionate communities in the world,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of
Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to providing another great show filled with
entertainment, competition, and the latest information about Blizzard Entertainment games.”
In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will
offer attendees a chance to enjoy:
· Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
· Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
· Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
· Community contests with great prizes
· Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
· More exciting activities and attractions to be announced
The previous BlizzCon was held in Anaheim in August 2009. Tickets to the event sold out in minutes, and some of the highlights included the announcement of World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, the unveiling ofa new playable class in Diablo® III, the first public hands-on with the single-player campaign of StarCraft®
II: Wings of Liberty™, and a closing concert featuring rock legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Further details about BlizzCon 2010, including ticket availability and pricing, will be announced on the
official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.
To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard
Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information
on available career opportunities can be found at eu.blizzard.com/jobs.
Blueposts
