madman

I think that is pretty obvious. Profession tuning, class tuning, pvp tuning, raid tuning, engine optimisation and bug fixing.

 

Mideci

I would be stunned and amazed if the game is not shipped in 2008. Given the amount of time spent on the TBC beta, a release date in 2009 would entail a beta period far longer than the TBC beta. Never mind the fact that the Christmas retail / holiday shopping season is what it is, an opportunity to lock people into the game -- yet again, and for the foresseable future.

It's readily apparent that they have a ship date in mind, likely in November, and a "slip date" that's probably early in December. There will be a lot of bonuses not paid if the expansion doesn't ship in 2008.

And, really, I'm unclear what kind of showstoppers you think are out there that are delaying the game's release until 2009. By all accounts, the beta is a buggy mess, that is fairly full of fleshed out zones, a fair number of quests, and a bunch of instances. It needs a ton of tuning and completing and bug fixing. But, again, TBC was beta-to-released in less time than we are talking about releasing Lich King from here -- and Lich King's beta has already been underway a couple of weeks.

This concern aboiut when people are going to find time to level is so not relevant to when the game ships, I'm not sure why it concerns you, but I'm quite certain it doesn't concern Blizzard.

 

Zaroua

Not to troll or be a jerk, but raid tuning was severely lacking in TBC beta. I'm looking at you T5 content, Nightbane and R&J event. Hopefully they've learned from their mistakes for LK.

Dogma also claims that God has a sense of humor and at times presents Him as a joker of sorts, thus again lowering Him to human level. While I am certain God has a "sense of humor" since He gave it to us, I find it most difficult to believe He finds humor in sin since He will cast the unforgiven sinner into the lake of fire for eternity. Not very funny at all.

 

Stardusty

Maybe not, but it would be possible for them to implement the 'new' talent trees and mechanics like they did pre TBC on live servers, assuming they finish polishing the talents in time.

Yeah, staggering the raid content instead of shoving it all in from the get go will go a long way towards evening out the progression rate throughout Wrath, as well as giving them more time to heavily test and tune things.

 

Niallest

I've written a new thread a few times now, but always chicken out and don't want to post it, so i'll ask here instead.

Does anyone else see a use for a new thread with tips on making gold from the expansion release? Not being in the beta, nor having nearly enough time to research the wealth of info out there and find the specifics on what old world mats will be valuable to inscription, I find myself wishing that gold making thread hadn't been locked now. I've got a bank alt sitting on a ton of low level herbs to sell for ink making, but that's all i've managed to learn about so far.

 

Sydane

I contemplated making a post like that as well, but decided against it. Really, it's all so speculative that you'd probably just end up with a thread full of "I think this will go up" and "I invested in this before BC and lost everything" and nothing really all that useful. If you've read the Art of Making Gold thread (still a great read, at least the first 40 pages or so), you can apply a lot of that, and some common sense, to making profit on the transition.

I'll throw in a few quick suggestions:

Turn your badges over as soon as possible, gem and vortex prices will only drop from here until the expansion and then be worthless.
The non-herbalism mats needed for inscription will prove to be the most expensive as they will get hoarded and farmed the least.
New news of coming changes causes prices to spike but they usually level back out after a week or two (saw this with void shatter).

 

Pyros

Fuzzy memories, but as far as I remember all your DPS were on razuvious since the adds aren't meant to be damaged. And they'd have to step out of los for shouts to avoid mana burns, but melee just couldn't step out in time unless they run around a lot. So yeah, it'd be very hybrid dps unfriendly in its old state. Back then though no one raided with enh shaman or retadins.

As for gimmick DK fights, ultimately a prot warrior can get them done too. Or a warlock/mage tank(depending if there's a spellstealable buff) if it's purely magical stuff. Just that the DK would probably end up being the primary choice.

 

Callin

Assuming a October/November release, is there enough content currently to keep people playing until then?
While my guild is not progressed far, attendance is slacking off at all play times. While people still show up for raids, they are playing alot less at other times. Part of it is the "summer-lets-go-outside-and-play" doldrums, but part of it is also a lack of non-raid content. Alot of my players are maxed on content outside of raids and alts only hold so much of an appeal.
Can we expect a content release similar to pre-TBC? Perhaps something along the lines of the expansion talents or maybe the new Achievement system. Releasing the Achievement system may draw renewed interest as people try and complete old content that will not be able to be achieved after the expansion release.

 

Mordekhuul

It'll really depend on the guild. Our guild and a friend guild of ours have certainly seen more coming and going lately than in the past, but we are fielding 25 man raids and progressing in BT and such despite (first BB kill last week, first bear mount last night).

In the months leading to the last expansion my guild, teamed with our friend guild, had a goal of killing Nefarian pre-expansion, as we were progressing through BWL at that point, and we got him literally 2 days before the expansion released.

We are looking at a similar goal for Illidan this time around, to keep us focused.

 

◊ Bekah

For the love of kittens, please do not resurrect another gold making thread. I'll make your question simple and easy:

At this time the profession polish passes have not occurred. Again, for the slow people. Profession polish passes have not occurred. No one is hiding the information on what mats are going to be needed to level inscription to 375. No one is creating the worlds biggest stockpile of resources and not sharing the info. Even if beta testers wanted to have some kind of leg up- the sites like MMO-champion make sure that all that information is out there as soon as possible- sometimes before the beta servers are even back up after being patched.

At this time, from a beta tester who is as big about stockpiling mats as anyone else (I made a fortune on Jewelcrafting mats when TBC was relased) I've got 4 transfers from live to beta- three of which are reserved for shepherding goods (I even have a guild bank with three tabs purchased to move in bulk) over once the professions are nailed down so that I and everyone else can nail down the kind of information you want. I haven't used a single one... because (see a theme here) the profession polish passes have not occurred and there's no reason for me to buy or move any goods over from live.

What's available on the front page of sites like MMO Champion is pretty much all that any beta tester knows. Hell, I go there to find out what changed with each patch because there are rarely full patch notes.

At this point I can tell you with full honesty that there's nothing special (or even all that mundane) to collect on live for Beta's release beyond stuff for achievements. Want a gold making tip... the only one I can possibly think of? If you're horde go out and buy a bushel of cat carriers for the people who want vanity pets now that they don't take up bag space.

Even there, it's not like cats are a limited supply item- save yourself some bank space and wait to do crazy things like that until a month or so before it's released to live. You can have a whole guild bank of cats if you like... but they're just going to consume space until the game ships.

 

Starfire

Not true. Well, not entirely. While badges are going to depreciate, if they become BoE in WotLK they will definately rise in value again. And at the very least they can be used for alts.

 

• Snowy

Okay guys, enough talk and speculation and debate about the release date. Here's a hint: They'll announce one. If they can't make it, they'll push it back. Simple as that. Stop posting about it.

Paladin: Pyla
Mage: Pylah

 

Vagabond

Well, over the last couple of days there's been some major speculation about Warhammer Online's release date on several boards I read; with the consensus coming down to Sept-Oct or so.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. From MMO-Champ/Shacknews:
Maybe I'm simply too Cynical, but it seems the trend of the meaning of "when its done" to actually mean "when we need to steal thunder and/or steal back subscribers" continues. Not a bad business model, but distastefully obvious from an entertainment provider.

And, as bad as AoC is tanking at the moment, I do wonder where the significant portion of the OTHER 60% that left WoW for AoC have gone rather than come back to WoW.

 

Orestus

I've kind of been operating under this premise, saving my badges for when they become BoE to gear up a deathknight or other alt w/ a nice set of epics once they hit 70. I have a steady supply of Badges coming in and nothing to really spend them on for my main, up to 250 or so to date.

I'm starting to wonder though whether its even worth it, and whether I should just convert them to gold as quickly as I can. No access to the Beta, but from Wowhead, compare:

Keleseth's Blade of Evocation (lvl 70 blue instance reward)
+24 Int
+31 Spirit
233 Spell Damage

with

[Scryer's Blade of Focus]
+42 Stam
+28 Int
247 Spell Damage

The Scryer's blade is slightly better, but its only gonna last a few levels and then will be replaced again anyway. Meanwhile, if I just use my badges now for gems then sell the gems, I'd get a minimum of 1200g for them (Seaspray emeralds, only gem I've sold from our Guild bank, go for about 120 - 140).

I'm not sure anyone leveling to 80 would throw down 1200g for a leveling item on the AH the instant they hit 70, which is basically what you're doing if you hoard your badges now rather than just liquidating them.

 

Nezralix

How the heck do you figure this? What have they done that's at all related to the Age of Conan release that's been designed to "steal subscribers"? Unless you consider Sunwell, which we all knew was coming for a long time, then nothing. And it certainly wasn't something that would draw the regular folks away from another game.

And nobody has any idea when Warhammer is coming out, so that clearly isn't on their radar.

I'll tell you what *is* on their radar: A holiday release. Just like for the majority of game developers. And if they comment on players going off to play another game and then coming back to play theirs through no real reason except the quality of their product, well then, who can blame them?

 

• Snowy

Maybe my post wasn't clear.

SHUT UP ABOUT THE RELEASE DATE.

Hint: The next time it's not going to be me posting, but me banning. Talk about actual WotLK stuff in this thread. Please.

Paladin: Pyla
Mage: Pylah

 

◊ Bekah

Another point to clear up:

Badges of Justice are still soulbound on beta. There have been no blue posts indicating that they intend to make them BoE or that the glitch that makes the "Soulbound" text not show in the tooltip while viewing from your bags (not linked- when you link them it reads Soublound) is anything but a bug.

 

ildon

Based on the new information about the token pane, I don't think Badges of Justice will become BoE, and that the tooltip change was just a result of the not-implemented storage system.

 

Darkrenown

They could make it a spell and have DK's tank it with Antimagic Shell. If desired they could make it reflectable (but have him immune to the damage) and let warriors tank it too.

 

Cube

If they're not changing the encounter that much(and from Commander Eligor Dawnbringer's talk, they appear to not be), you won't have a player character tank him, period.

 

McTurok

I hope they don't change it.

It's one of a few fights in the game that aren't tanked by a traditional tanking classes. It was a very nice change of pace encounter in Naxx.

 

Dancing Wu Li Master

I agree that they shouldn't require a Death Knight tank for the fight, but the random resist chance was a poor part of the design.

A mind-control object would retain the non-traditional tank aspect, while removing the random bad luck element that detracted from the encounter.

 

Arnath

The 1% resist chance is gone in WotLK though.

 

Cuer

Some official info about what will happen with Arenas once the expansion hits:I wonder if a number of people will intentionally keep an alt at 70 to play the "twink Arena" game, for a bit.

 

McTurok

I think the randomness to the MD was part of the fun in that fight. We (as a guild) kind of enjoyed mocking those that failed at it and also those that got owned by the boss first for having agro. However, I do recall nights where it put some in a rather "pissy" mood. hehe

I think with the re-tuning of Naxx, there will be a few fights where a DK would be better then a Warrior, Pally, Druid.

I do recall there being a few caster boss encounters in there were a DK could be the tank instead.