The New Deal for Flying

You know you want these.

The latest beta build has a number of changes to the flying system:

• Old Weather Flying - (Really named Azerothian Navigation) So, it is going to cost you to use your flying mount in the Old World after all. It's 250 gold (200 with exalted SW reputation). That really is pretty well chump change, so no big worries. You can pick this up at level 60 however, but I think I read that if you don't have a Burning Crusade expansion, then you are not eligible for this.

New Beta Build, New Shaman Changes

A new Beta build with many many talent changes has come out. Of course I skipped past everything to see the shaman's restoration tree: (please pardon my attempt to make "blue text" like what the developers always post with. I started trying to work it out with a stylesheet and then didn't really get close and just gave up. You can sill read it just fine).

Tidal Waves no longer affects Lesser Healing Wave. Now affects Healing Surge.

Improved Water Shield no longer affects Lesser Healing Wave. Now affects Healing Surge.

Okay, but what is Healing Surge? Meh, it's just LHW with a new name. I'm not sure why they bothered. All this means is that I have to change a few macros..

Telluric Currents is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 6.
Improved Cleanse Spirit now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5.
Nature's Blessing is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 5.
Nature's Guardian is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 4.

Moving all this stuff down the tree is making a leaner, meaner healing tree, I think. The reviled Telluric Currents is still nicely marginalized with other talents you can take in its new tier. So is Nature's Guardian. But a lot of the talent choices feel easier than they did before.

Lions and Tigers and ... Bears? Oh, my!

The Cenarion Circle is going to have to relax its dress code.

Worgen druid bears look freaking weird. With the yellow eyes, wild hair and teeth going in all directions, it seems to me that they were trying to capture wild fury of the bear, but ended up with a sense of sheer, roiling insanity. This isn't a wild bear, this is a psychopathic bear. He's ready to tank a monster, or a bunny, or his healer or even a wall perhaps. Whatever catches his eye first.

And then I bumped into a Ziggy Stardust bear... er, I mean, a troll druid bear.

Erm? Is That All?

Just a quick note about live realms for now:


Gosh, I just can't quite find the words to describe the letdown I feel about the whole "Operation Gnomeragon" event.

This particular event has been hyped for a long long time now. I guess I was expecting a series of daily quests, defeating leper gnomes on the surface, preparing the war machine. Maybe a chance to drive those spider tanks! That would have been cool. And... don't you get the sense that maybe they were originally planning it that way? We get to test the spider tanks, shoot at some targets, and then ... nothing.  That quest planting radiation detectors from the flying machine just smells like a repeatable quest.

Alright, so... well, we are still going to retake the city in a fight to the finish with Mechengineer Thermaplugg! YAAAH GO! Woot, kill the tanks! Waste the troggs! Oh no it's a bomb! I was having a great laugh about the dialogue going up to that point. High Tinker Mekkatorque beating on the bomb with a hammer, and then we get teleported back to IF and ... "#$%&$%&#!!111one" That's all? Phhhht.

I'm trying not to mention this, but it's going to just come out anyway: The whole assault on the city glitched out twice for me trying to get it done too. I can tell that this is a widespread problem on the event from what other players were saying.

It seems to me that Blizzard has alluded to the fact that this is not the only "pre-cataclysm" event we can expect, so maybe there is some fun coming yet. But seriously, Blizz... ya dropped the ball on this one.

So, You Think You Can Dance?

C'mon, Daddy-o! It's the Jets Raiding the Sharks!

How to Raid is such a loaded topic and I don't mean to bring it up as a way of yelling at nubs or chastising the people who make a PuG Eye of Eternity impossible to accomplish. So often, though when you get to a new fight with a group you don't usually run with, a large part of the raid is going, "This is easy! Why can't you people do what you are told?"

There is often some ego in statements like that, but sometimes I think the problem is experienced raiders being unable to communicate what it is they do to players with less experience or skill.

I do not want to hold myself out as a skillful, experienced raider telling everyone how it is done. I just want to offer a new way to look at a raid fight that might help.

Raiding is like a large movie musical dance production.

Raiding requires a sense of rhythm: doing certain actions at a certain point in time often in tandem with the other dancers/raiders in your group. In a fight against a WoW boss, or in a stage production of West Side Story, unless everybody sticks to the same basic choreography, the whole thing is going to end up with some broken bodies lying on the floor. 

Enter the Mage!

Don't mess with the 'Dar!

Eridar has come to the Beta.

Merinna has almost always been my main, but if I had a "main alt" (and I have many alts), it would be Eridar the draenei mage.

I'm still sticking to my guns about not letting myself discover too much about the new content between 80 and 85, but I want to learn more about the talent and ability changes for more of the classes I like to play. And besides, I can copy several chars to the beta server, so why not!

There has also been a problem in that all of my low-level beta chars, like Naralie and Winklestein, have disappeared into "crash" zones. Which is to say that I log onto them, they stand there for a few seconds, and then the entire client crashes.

So Eridar is here. My first impressions of the high level mage?

ZOMG! FIRE SPECC IS SO MUCH HONKING FUN!!

New Glyphs

The gylph artwork might benefit from a lil more variety too.

In the most recent beta build, the new glyph system came online.

Most of the details about this are pretty well documented and haven't varied much from what was advertised.

• There are three levels of glyphs: major, minor, and prime
• If you go down to the AH and buy a glyph, you read it once and then you know it for all time. You will never need to buy another.
• The Glyph UI system lists every glyph you could possibly use, but lights up the glyphs you have learned. So, it is possible to be very specific about what you can use and what you need to complete your glyph collection.
• You can change any of your glyphs at any time, in any place, so long as you are not in combat.

Some of the details are becoming more apparent, however, as we look at the system:

• Minor glyphs are just what they always were, fun, cosmetic, mosly inconsequential.
• Major glyphs seem to be existing for talent abilities (not trained abilities) and a variety of utility abilities. All of these are along the lines of reducing cooldowns, making a range a bit further, things like that.
• The Prime glyphs are where the dps is at (or bigger heals, or whatever). All of these glyphs are crit increases, an extra percent of damage, or a longer DoT effect.