Posts with tag breakingnews

The Fall of Theramore is live on European servers, so as your spy across the pond I thought I'd run it as soon as possible to bring you a review and how-to from the Alliance side. Please note that if you don't want spoilers, don't read this. This post is going to be very spoiler-heavy if you want to be surprised by Theramore's fall.

Last warning! Spoilers behind the cut!

The title says it all -- it has been announced on Battle.net that season 11, the current PvP season, will end on Aug. 28 (Aug. 29 for the EU). That's about two weeks away (15 days if you're on EU servers), so if you want to grind out those last points of rating, you'd better get your skates on!

As ever, at the end of the season, your conquest points will be converted to honor points. In the interim period between Aug. 28 (29 for EU) and Mists' arrival on Sept. 25, there will be no honor cap. Come Sept. 25, all your points over the 4,000 honor point cap will be converted to a ridiculously tiny amount of gold -- 35 copper silver per point, to be precise. So make sure you're not over the cap. Spend everything!

On Aug. 28 (29 for EU), all the gear that was purchasable with conquest points becomes purchasable with honor points. Any items with rating requirements attached are no longer available for purchase.

If you think you may be in the running for an achievement, it is very important not to do anything to the character you think might be eligible. Don't faction-change, don't realm-change; either of these things could wipe out your rating.

Season 12 will begin approximately one week after the release of Mists of Pandaria, and in the interim period, there will be no arenas or rated battlegrounds available. Only normal battlegrounds will continue as usual.

Yesterday's news on the upcoming dispel mechanic changes coming in Cataclysm raised a lot of questions among players worried about how the changes will affect their particular class. Today, Zarhym clarified some of these changes surrounding dispel mechanics, particularly how it will work with the shaman and druid classes. To the concerns about requiring talent points being spent for particular buffs -- something that Blizzard has said time and time again they wanted to move away from -- Zarhym stated, "This is specifically an example of a utility talent we were referring to. Rather than going for all of the "increase your damage/healing by X" talents of today, you'll more often be choosing from talents which will add utility to existing spells and abilities, or just plain give you new spells or abilities. "

As to the concerns that the changes were suggesting that PvP is now going to take precedence over PvE, Zarhym had this to say:

"No one here approached dispel mechanics with the idea that PvP takes precedence over PvE, so there's little reason to object in that regard. The changes to class systems in Cataclysm we've announced thus far are being proposed to make the game better, both in terms of PvP and PvE. Mind you, we have a host of changes planned for every class we plan to share in the future. Before providing overviews of our goals for each class though, we wanted to give you a look at some changes to more broad systems.

While the feedback is welcomed, I'd caution players to consider this information with an open mind, rather than directly translating the proposed changes into the class systems of Wrath of the Lich King. "

In addition, Zarhym had a few other clarifications to make; check them out after the break.