It’s Holiday Season in Azeroth Again

It’s that time of the year again. Today is Pirate’s Day and Brewfest is fast approaching. All this festivity made me wonder what will happen to the holiday scheme when the new expansion goes live. Of course, I am sure all the holidays will continue to occur on a normal schedule, but if Blizzard is mixing everything else up, why not it’s holidays.

Might we not see something to coincide with the Worgens or Goblins or possibly a revamp of the Darkmoon Faire, something other people have pointed to as a possible way to have a lot of fun with the Cataclysm in ways unrelated to the lore.

What does everyone think – which holidays would you like to see revamped and how would you like to see them changed. Personally, I’d love to see some crazy shenanigans in Northrend with reindeer and elves (just saying).

Armor Penetration is being Nerfed in 3.2.2

We mentioned a little ways back that Blizzard will be removing Armor Penetration, along with a tidy sum of other stats when Cataclysm launches next year. However, we didn’t expect that it would happen so early. Ghostcrawler updated a post yesterday with the following details about the changes:

GhostcrawlerThe nerf to armor pen in 3.2.2 is intentional. Compared to the recent buff where we increased the value of armor rating to 125%, this nerf would take it back down to 110%. While we are still evaluating the effects of this change in the 3.2.2 build, we did want to let you know of the possibility in case you were about to spend a lot on armor pen gems.

In fact, this was really the point. Several melee specs (and Marksman hunters) had begun to focus on armor pen at the expense of all other stats. Gear without armor pen was being passed over and gem sockets were increasingly being filled with just this one stat. While every spec has stats that are more valuable than others, this one felt like it was starting to trump everything. Not coincidentally, characters stacking lots of armor pen were starting to do more damage than their peers and more damage than we were comfortable with.

This change is largely for PvE reasons, though we won’t cry at all if melee damage in PvP drops a little as a result.

We’re letting you know now so that this doesn’t feel like a stealth nerf, assuming it goes live. While you might disagree or be frustrated by the change (though I also suspect it won’t come as a surprise to many players), we ask that you try and keep your response to something appropriate for these forums.

The Guild Leveling System in Cataclysm

The Guild Leveling System, which is yet another new feature from Blizzcon that we haven’t had time to discuss yet, is one of those things that is going to become a very interesting and highly engaging new part of the game. We don’t know everything about it yet, but we do know some basics and can go over how the new system might switch up what you’re already doing in your guilds.

What It Is

To start with, it looks like the Guild Leveling System will be a 20 level progression through various task that award XP for the entire guild. Every time a member participates in PvP, daily quests or raiding, they will gain points for the guild. The guild will then progress up a ladder of “talent points” that will reward the members with cool new features.

We also know that the things you will gain through Guild Leveling will not be necessary to defeat bosses and are meant to be fun additions and not a necessary grind. Guilds that are not as active will not be penalized for it.

These talents, while not announced yet, were hinted at a bit. The panel

Guild Talent Tree

members aid things like mass resurrections, reduced repairs, and extra food. Things that would be really nice to have, but that won’t affect your ability to defeat a raid boss (think time savers or cool things on the side). The key here is convenience, not necessity. Another possibility mentioned is buying bank tabs with your guild leveling.

Guild Server Transfers

A big part of the process that has been discussed thus far is guild server transfers, allowing an entire guild to switch servers together, instead of one at a time. It’s an interesting idea and one that a few guilds will probably take advantage of. The cost and who will pay for it has yet to be worked out yet.

Guild Vendors

Another new feature will be guild vendors. These vendors will sell reagents for currency that is only available in the guild and is acquired while leveling. They will also sell heirloom gear which is bound to the guild – so if you leave the guild, you lose access to that gear. Other cool features in here include being able to share profession books and being able to set up a “tithe” so that a percentage of your guild loot goes straight to the guild bank.

We’re keeping a close eye on this as the new features look to really change how guilds play together in the game. It should be a fun new end-game experience come Level 85.