Heroic Cataclysm dungeons now available for beta testing
by Michael Gray 
Sep 21st 2010 at 3:52PM
Keep an eye out here at WoW Insider as we begin exploring the heroics for your edification and expanding our repair bills for your enjoyment. Heroics are a significant staple of endgame for any WoW player, so this announcement is a significant milestone in the progress of the Cataclysm beta.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zalvi24 Sep 21st 2010 3:53PM
finally
heavyice2 Sep 21st 2010 5:49PM
Hell, it's about time
Tremelizzer Sep 21st 2010 6:52PM
Only if it was possible to copy a new premade. Queue is full it seems :P
Chukie Sep 21st 2010 3:55PM
Thats quite a bit of gear. Good to see heroics will be a decent chunk of time again.
(cutaia) Sep 21st 2010 3:59PM
I can't help but wonder if Deadmines/SFK are included in this.
Firestyle Sep 21st 2010 4:08PM
Yes, they are also available.
Link Sep 21st 2010 4:10PM
They are. There's a feedback page for it on the official forums.
Cody Sep 21st 2010 4:10PM
http://worldofraids.com/wow-blue-tracker/us-forums/26859118922-compiled-dungeon-feedback-links.html
Yes, sir, it is.
kaion Sep 21st 2010 4:13PM
I haven't logged in yet but the test forums have threads for feedback for both.
jfofla Sep 21st 2010 5:22PM
Anybody who played Alliance in Vanilla knows the instance name is not Deadmines.
It is VC
Narshe Sep 21st 2010 7:06PM
Actually, anyone who played in Vanilla understand Deadmines came before Dire Maul and still refer to it as DM not VC. The dungeon that came first keeps its abbreviation, no reason to change it because something came later. Not to mention waaaay more people run Deadmines compared to Dire Maul, even before TBC came out.
Ninerva Sep 21st 2010 11:35PM
Narshe: If the dungeon that came first always keeps its abbreviation, then "Uld" would refer to Uldaman, not Ulduar.... or Uldum. Right? Nope, Uld refers to Ulduar right now, and it'll be Uldum in cata. The general rule is that more recent, and therefore more relevant, content has first choice of abbreviations.
That being said... if you say DM in Westfall chat, it's obvious you mean Deadmines. If you say it in Feralas chat, it's obvious you mean Dire Maul. If it would be ambiguous (i.e. trade chat) DM is Dire Maul and VC is deadmines. However, since Deadmines is being significantly updated in cata and Dire Maul presumably isn't, Deadmines will have first choice of its abbreviation again.
Ana Stubbs Sep 21st 2010 4:02PM
If only the premade copy page were working for us EU folks...
kooda Sep 21st 2010 5:27PM
Beta, not PTR or is it the same system with the beta?
Ana Stubbs Sep 21st 2010 5:40PM
Beta one has been broken for a week now, don't know about PTR as I didn't download it.
KPB Sep 21st 2010 4:03PM
If that is the minimum to get into the heroics the gear will be better than that. Either higher iLevel blue or same iLevel but purples. I wonder if it will be like initial Wrath heroics where the early bosses dropped blues and the final boss dropped purples.
Bruce Sep 21st 2010 4:27PM
Take a look at MMO-Champion's list of crafted gear... iLevel 359 are the epics in Blacksmithing anyway. That tells me that 359 is the iLevel of blues and purples dropped in Heroics and possibly even the first tier of raiding (so long as the pattern is the same as that in Wrath).
Boobah Sep 21st 2010 5:26PM
Given the dev's stated goal to have players gear up in heroics before hitting raids, there's no way the gear from raids won't be a tier past the stuff from heroics.
With 333s as the designed entry level for heroics, it's not unlikely that the heroics will drop 346s (possibly all blues; maybe purples off the end boss), with the crafted epics matching the first raid tier at 359. The usual tuning is for an instance to require gear one tier (13 item Levels) below what drops.
Kuro Sep 21st 2010 5:49PM
If memory serves...
...there was a blue post stating something along the lines that heroics would drop no purples in order to keep purple gear "special" -- either grind it out in with farming rep or raids or farming mats. *shrug*
Apparently we'll be doing our first raids in Blue gear from heroics.
Marshal Sep 21st 2010 4:07PM
Well this should make Totalbiscuit happy.