Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.0.3a, The Shattering, likely hitting live servers tomorrow
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 22nd 2010 at 11:00AM
The Shattering patch will include all the old-world changes coming with Cataclysm, including changes to the Loremaster and Explorer achievements to match, the removal of Zul'Gurub, a reduction in the amount of experience required to level from 70 to 80, and the addition of all of the new race/class combinations. Worgen and goblins will still have to wait for Cataclysm itself, of course. If you don't plan to do any raiding or dailies in Northrend in the next couple weeks on any of your characters, you may also want to move your character to Stormwind or Orgrimmar before the servers go down, as rumor has it that the portals in Dalaran are going away with this patch.
If all this change is getting you confused and dismayed, never fear! We here at WoW Insider will be with you every step of the way. Just stay with us for all the latest news and handy guides you need to survive in the brave new world of Cataclysm.
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 (available Dec. 7, 2010), 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: Realm Status, News items, Rumors, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 12)
uncaringbear Nov 22nd 2010 5:27PM
I'm racing to get my second druid to 80 in the next few days so I can go back to my first druid and change one of her professions over to Alchemy before Dec 7 for the awesome new mount.
I'd love to make a third druid, but Blizzard won't let me have more than 10 toons on a single realm :(
(cutaia) Nov 22nd 2010 11:05AM
I guess tonight I'll have to see if I can finally finish the Benediction quest in case it goes away...
Saeadame Nov 22nd 2010 11:07AM
Haha yeah I was scrambling to get that done on my priest too. I would sit in trade chat hoping for someone that was looking for a 2-man molten core, so I wouldn't have any competition.
I ended up just buying the other Eye because I didn't want to have to farm it.
(cutaia) Nov 22nd 2010 11:12AM
Sadly, I have both the eyes...I just can't seem to heal these idiot peasants in the Plaguelands. Run faster, for Christ's sake!
Jorn Nov 22nd 2010 11:33AM
Power word: Shield is your friend or renew spam with the talent to heal them when it hits. With chakra renew it's even 1s global cooldown. Can't be that hard to keep 'm alive these days.
Saeadame Nov 22nd 2010 11:35AM
Yeah, I failed it once.. I did it as disc and just PW:S all of them. Didn't even have to dispell or anything. Holy Nova for the adds and renewed the PW:S is it fell off.
Kind of a mana-intensive method, but it worked.
Daynthebold Nov 22nd 2010 11:36AM
Fail priest is fail priest. I kid, I kid. I remember helping guildies with this part but that was Vanilla. Can you still do the quest as part of a group?
Saeadame Nov 22nd 2010 11:44AM
@Dayn - you can, as long as they don't move at all after you start the quest. If the quest realizes you have people helping you (ie, they move) this crazy powerful elite mob comes out and kills you.
Not so fun.
(cutaia) Nov 22nd 2010 11:44AM
"Fail priest is fail priest. I kid, I kid."
Oh, no...it's true. I'm the failiest of fail priests. I'm terrible at triage.
Stoop Nov 22nd 2010 12:18PM
I fianlly got a leaf drop last night for my horde hunter. I had done Rhok on my old ally hunter, but never got around to it on Stoop. Now he's properly Rhoking out.
Socialcockroach Nov 22nd 2010 1:53PM
Well, when I did it back when it was the cool thing to do, I found the use of Oil of Immolation potions to really help. They allowed me to spend most of my time focused on the fleeing viligers and passively got the attention of the skeleton mobs.
Also, since the renew that you can use is VASTLY superior to mine back in the day, you should be find just chucking one of those around, and for villagers that are in immediate threat, a glyphed PW:S should do the trick nicely.
Good luck on your Bene! I still have mine and I love it. My favorite staff in the game.
Baba Nov 22nd 2010 4:26PM
I believe they said somewhere that all the Vanilla class-specific quest-chains ARE going away, so you'd better hurry
Saiyde Nov 22nd 2010 11:05AM
Awesome! I hope everyone remembers to not park in Dal. (Bet the dirty mages will jack up portal prices)
Hrothgar Nov 22nd 2010 11:24AM
Yes, yes I will. That combined with Pilgrims Bounty portal whoring and I should see a tidy if somewhat insubstantial profit.
themightysven Nov 22nd 2010 11:26AM
I don't usually ask for tips for portals, and was surprised last night when I got a 25 gold tip. So, with a mark up it should be around 1000 g a portal ya?
Chetti Nov 22nd 2010 11:33AM
I really couldn't believe trade chat last night, people offering upwards of 40-50g as a tip for a port. From what I saw, the average price advertised was about 5g. Around the PB tables though, it was either the 5g ad or mages just saying they were opening up a port to IF/Darn for anyone who wanted an invite to use it. Seems to be a good time to be a mage, whether you charge outright a set fee, or take whatever tip is being offered.
TK00 Nov 22nd 2010 1:03PM
God forbid you have to spend the 10 minutes it takes to travel without a port.
Saitenyo Nov 22nd 2010 1:28PM
I usually just charge for the cost of the reagents. I don't need to make a killing selling ports, but I think some people forget that it does cost money for a mage to make a portal, so I balk a little when people don't bother to tip for it.
It's such a negligible cost for the person asking for the port typically, but for the mage, those 20s reagent costs add up after a while if you're doing a lot of ports for people, so there's really no good reason for someone not to tip a mage offering a port unless they refuse to accept it.
But yeah, 40g seems unnecessary. Although if someone actually offered me that for a port I can't say I'd refuse!
VioletArrows Nov 22nd 2010 2:11PM
I'm actually just going to stay in Dalaran. There's no reason for a level 80 to go back to Azeroth yet, unless you just want to look around, which will only take a couple hours. Meanwhile there's still dailies to do up there, and they nerfed the proto-drake eggs you get from the Sholazar gorlocs (3 days to hatch and a higher chance to drop).
Noyou Nov 22nd 2010 5:32PM
Haha. I ported more people for free yesterday than I got money for. I leave it up to the people. surprisingly I got some good tips 15-20g as well. If someone asks me I usually tell them 5g. most of the time they give 10-20g. It all kind of evens out. I tried to do a 4 port package for hallows end but most people couldn't wrap themselves around the concept. My mage is like my 4th or 5th alt so when I'm usually on him it's for relaxing/porting so I don't mind hanging out.
As far as parking my toons in a particular spot. I was going to put them all in their home cities. The only problem with that is we may have to go to SW/Org to pick up old world flying. Which sucks because there will probably be a massive line waiting to get flying. Oh well. I think i will make sure to set their hearths to their home cities (except my mage- might leave him in Dal to port people out /grin) before i end playing tonight. happy shattering!