If we're going to extend logically, I would assume that Northrend DEs cap at 375. Setting the TBC cap at 300 meant that nobody could find themselves with an item they couldn't DE just because they hadn't bought the newest expansion yet.

Can we stop the off-topic talk, please? You are derailing this WotLK thread with talk about inflation, which for me at least is very boring when I expect news and discussions from the beta. Discuss inflation and it's effects in another thread, maybe make one about it even if it's so interesting to others.

The Barrier to entry really is only that you need to sell most you got in AH. Like many newbies would sell linen cloth to vendors, they shouldn't.
Actually if I remember correct, the general advice from the beginning of WOW already was to sell "everything" on AH.

@Above, I agree

DKs require you to have another class up to at least the same level as them, thus it is not exactly like starting a brand new class on a new server with no former 'base' of provisions.

Everyone (who knows about DKs) knows they are coming, everyone knows the requirements, and as such if "you are not prepared!" then sure.. go and live with needing to farm DM with your DK.. its not exactly going to be challenging requirement even once D&D gets fixed - you could also visit those handy AHs.

It will take a day or two to level your desired gathering / crafting profession up to a skill level of clvl55 and keep in mind you have a mount to start off with which always speeds gathering up.

Fair enough it is kind of annoying to jump the gun on levels but still somewhat be required to go back and do this stuff - to the point some little help might be nice - but they are not 'main' characters to start with, they are without question starting as an alt (which will become a main if you wish) and thus should be augmented by your other characters if you want to jump ahead there too..

Can you honestly say you play all of your alts without a single piece of help from your accumulated wealth or assistance from your other characters? you save money on your mount, you don't need to buy BoE gear to pimp it out nor enchant your weapons - those savings should be plenty to spend 100/200g~ on assorted gathering assistance to help boost your crafting profession without having to farm the additional gathering mats beyond for skill ups.


Not to mention, I don't really see the Lich King asking Lady Blaumeux to sit around in Ebon Hold teaching his future gnome slaughtering minions of death how to sew and pick flowers for their future convenience.
He trained you up to be a killer, where your sole focus was on death and destruction - not knitting or mining.

Out of curiousity has anyone on the beta tried any of the TBC raids on the beta servers? I know that with people of different levels it won't be a great way to tell how raiding will look if there is a period of wrath talents live before the expansion launches but it would still be interesting to have an idea how it will impact things.

They talked about it, but it seems it's already ingame, just hidden, the token window to free bagspace:

All the above. BG tokens, heroic badges, holiday items (like burning blossoms?), faction turn-ins, etc. etc. Tigole posted to say that sort of thing would be unified into a single pane rather than taking up bag space.

I'm thinking that rather than starting off their professions at a higher level, maybe DKs should be setup so that their first 2 professions picked get 3 or 5 skillups per item created till 300 or so. So they'd still need to level it somewhat, but they could be jumpstarted into it a bit. This would mean you couldn't just make a DK to have a free profession, but it would be a lot less painful to get it to a reasonable level. The important thing is they just need to make it so once you've picked your primary professions you can't get that same bonus if you switch.

I also think it'd be a really good idea for Blizz to go back and put 1 or 2 reasonable crafting recipes in each profession at the pain points which use the following expansion's materials when the next expansion comes out. The pain points (usually the last 25 or so, depends on profession) are designed to make it difficult to cap out the profession, but when the cap is raised, they need to soften that pain point considerably and it really helps if you have the option to use the mats from the next area in them. For instance for enchanting they could add 1 or 2 recipes at 275 or 285 that use arcane dust or lesser planar essence, and then at 360 or something like that when the expansion comes out they can add a recipe that uses whatever the cheapest mats are from the Wotlk.

I'd like to see that as well. I don't expect it - Jewelcrafting didn't even exist pre BC and going 290-300 was more expensive than 300-375.

If you can draw any conclusions about Blacksmithing that has this set; Cobalt Belt - Spell - World of Warcraft, starting at 360 I can see it very likely that those "pain points" will go away.

What I think of DK professions, well just force pick 2 at start around 270 (?) - 300 and after that if you switch you have to reroll from 1 of course.

Something like that for BSing 275-300 has been long overdue.

Good idea. They could also make those recipes create something useless but fun or beautiful, because making vendor fodder hoping for skillup is never fun.

Extending on the idea of improvements to professions I actually had the idea once of allowing skill-ups to "crit" potentially giving you 2-4 extra skill points per craft. Though I guess that may not be too fun to some people.

I like this idea. More items like the new Mariachi stuff would be great for leveling up professions, even if they are all just silly RP items. Making [Imperial Plate Belt]x20 and vendoring them just isn't too exciting.

Given what appears to be the placement of the Cobalt Set, I don't expect to sell very many of them, but I do expect to give a bunch away to DPS without tank sets, at least, and to levelling Death Knights. So that's a step up from the vendor.

To any people currently in beta, I redeemed my blizzcon 2007 beta code and it just sends me an email that I will be invited to a future beta, yet to be decided. I was under the impression that it was automatic entry to Lich King beta, is this not true?

There was a blue post stating as long as you registered it before the 1st of August you will get one in the next wave of beta invites. (Don't have the link handy sorry).

So given the time frame I'd expect the next wave is due... oh around the 2nd of August

Hi, hoping someone in the beta can answer this. A friend of mine wants to play a deathknight in WOTLK and hes wondering what the exact requirements are. Does the 55+ character need to be on the same faction and on a PvP server if he wishes to create the DK on a PvP server?

The quote below is from WOTLK Wiki. If its 100% true, and you can create the DK on any realm, it seems odd that Blizzard is allowing players to circumvent the 'Must level on a PvP realm to have a toon on a PvP server' rule.

Pretty sure Blizz have actually addressed this particular query, and yes, you can make a DK on a PVP realm even if all your 55+ are on PVE realms.

The PVE to PVP debate may well come up again, they've already broken the 'rule' with the free transfers on the oceanic servers a few months ago, depending on how they think that went, you might yet see it changed.

There's also an "issue with the WWI and BlizzCon beta keys (EU players can't use the BlizzCon keys and US players can't use the WWI keys)." In which case:

Are there equivalents of the windy clouds, etc in Wrath yet? If so do they still use the current mote extractor or do they need a new version?

Engineering isn't implemented yet. There are only some rumors about craftable siege weapons.