Posts with tag 4.0.3a

Every Monday and Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. Each week, Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of dwarven stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Mail your hunter questions to Frostheim.

It's been coming for a long, long time: Deathwing has finally shattered old Azeroth. It was kind of a jerk move on Deathwing's part, and frankly, he's just asking to be punched in the face. Along with the visual changes and host of sparkly new pets available to tame, hunters are also seeing all those beta changes finally brought over to live with patch 4.0.3a.

If my poor, overworked email box is any indication, a lot of hunters out there have not been following the constant beta changes and are confused about many of the changes -- and while our abilities are basically the same, there have been a lot of meaningful changes to the way our DPS works.

Join me after the cut for a rundown of the hunters view of patch 4.0.3a, including pet changes, ability changes, and just what Blizzard means by our shots being normalized.

Insider Trader is a column about professions by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, who also writes Gold Capped about how to make money using the auction house. Email Basil your questions.

Inscription is going to be going through some changes in Cataclysm. We've already had a pretty massive overhaul in patch 4.0 with the changes to glyphs, but we're in for some more after the expansion ships. Obviously, the mats we use will change: the new common pigment from milling is Ashen Pigment (for BlackFallow Ink), and the uncommon one is Burning Embers (for Inferno Ink). Kaliope, who I've come to rely on for beta profession information, informs us that the best herb to get the Burning Embers from is Twilight Jasmine, found in the Twilight Highlands.

As in Wrath of the Lich King, we will be able to trade the common inks for the uncommon ones; Jessica Sellers has updated her price list to accept Blackfallow Ink. It's going to be a single Blackfallow for a single older ink, as well as 10 for an Inferno Ink or Snowfall Ink.

The meta gems for most DPS classes -- the ones that provide 3 percent increased critical damage -- had their requirements changed in patch 4.0.3a to "Requires more blue gems than red gems." This was very unpopular and made these meta gems far less attractive -- possibly even no longer worth using.

Happily, Blizzard has announced that it's changing back to the old requirements in a future patch.

Daxxarri

The current design has been reconsidered, so we're planning to revert gems that now require more blue than red gems back to their original requirements. Such a change can't be accomplished via a hotfix though, so we'll have to wait to revert these in a future patch.

source

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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.

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Earlier in the evening, Blizzard posted a list of hotfixes for yesterday's patch on the official World of Warcraft blog. Here are a few notable fixes:

• Fishing daily quests in Stormwind and Orgrimmar have returned.
• Shield Slam's damage has been reduced by about 28 percent at level 15, with smaller but still noticeable reductions at higher levels.
• The title "Champion of [guildname]" can no longer be improperly awarded to players.

The full list of hotfixes are behind the cut below.

Jessica Sellers no longer accepts Ink of the Sea for lower-level inks. If you want to make, say, the Glyph of Mage Armor, you'll need to mill Outland herbs to be able to make Ethereal Ink. Speaking of that glyph, it's been uncraftable since 4.0.1 and is now available on the trainer. It's going to be a pain to collect mats to make it, however. Still, as one of the more desirable glyphs for mages, it's likely to find buyers, even if Outland herbs are expensive and hard to find.

So what is Jessica looking for these days? Why, nothing other than Blackfallow Ink! It's not yet available in game from any source, so until Dec. 7 when Cataclysm launches. A word to the wise: if you have an herbalist and want to spend a few weeks making cash hand over fist, farm for old-world herbs. Check the "milled from" tab on the following pigments to get a hit list:

• Emerald Pigment for Jadefire Ink
• Golden Pigment for Lion's Ink
• Silvery Pigment for Shimmering Ink
• Violet Pigment for Celestial Ink
• and of course, as I said above, Nether Pigment for Ethereal Ink

It's a little unfortunate that all these new players who are coming back are going to have to deal with low supply and weird pricing on the glyphs they probably want to try out; however, it's always possible that Blizzard will revert Jessica to her previous state of accepting Northrend inks.

If you're trying to log into your World of Warcraft account right now, we're sorry -- the fictional world you intended to visit today is currently unavailable on account of still being in the process of being destroyed. Shatterings take time.

We know you're all eager to survey the carnage, but before you do, you may want to familiarize yourself with all the not-so-Cataclysmic changes that are coming in patch 4.0.3a. We've made the official patch notes available for you after the break -- but first, a few quick highlights:

• The Barrens Totally shattered.
• Stranglethorn Vale Totally shattered.
• Warlocks Shattered, but only by about 12 percent.
• Fringe In the process of being shattered, following a move to a Friday time slot.

With the old world changing so drastically come The Shattering, there's been some question of how the Loremaster achievement might change in the wake of Cataclysm. Community Manager Zarhym has clarified this for us in a recent blog post. As he puts it, if you already have either Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms or Loremaster of Kalimdor, those achievements will stay intact. However, if you're only partially through with those achievements, you may suffer a setback, as any quest that's being removed from the game will no longer count toward those achievements in progress. Therefore, it's a good idea to finish up the achievement if you can.

That said, it will be a little bit easier to get those Loremaster achievements come The Shattering. Instead of having one huge quest counter for each continent, patch 4.0.3a will introduce zone-specific quest achievements to the old world, similar to the ones that already exist for Outland and Northrend zones. Once you finish the zone-specific achievements for every zone on a given continent (minus the new Cataclysm zones, of course), you'll have the achievement. Even old-school Loremasters can get in on the action, as the zone quest achievements will still be available for them to complete.

While Zarhym didn't specifically outline it in his post, Loremaster of Cataclysm will be required for future Loremasters as well, although it's not clear whether that will start to be a requirement in patch 4.0.3a or at the launch of Cataclysm itself.

Deathwing returns on the public test realm as patch 4.0.3a, "The Shattering" that will change Azeroth forever, is live on the PTR and labeled as "release." With great knowledge such as this comes great speculation -- when will The Shattering arrive?

It is entirely possible that The Shattering could take place next Tuesday the 23rd, as Blizzard has said that the time between events and phases in the elemental invasion are progressing at a faster pace. Another option is that The Shattering will take place one week before Cataclysm's launch, on the 30th, giving players one full week to experience the new content, race/class combos, and new world.

We can only wait and hope that this day comes sooner than later. My undead hunter and troll druid are itching to be made.

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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.

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