World of Mayja

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My head is spinning with all of the announcements they made in the last two days. I'm going to review only some of what I can recall off the top of my head. Please visit WoW.com as they have great BlizzCon coverage. WoW changes are HUGE - or shall I say, cataclysmic? Okay, here we go:

Diablo III: We played the latest character to be released for Diablo III - The Monk. An absolutely amazing combination of melee/caster classes. This guy has combinations, aoe's, and wicked spells like you've never seen. If you know me, I'm not a melee person, but this guy rocks! (Though I still think my favorite is the Wizard). Check out the link to watch this guy in action. As we said last year, the graphics are phenomenal and the gameplay is very smooth.

WoW: Blizzard announced the new expansion to follow Lich King: Cataclysm. This expansion will be the end of Azeroth as we have known it. The entire world will permanently change with the coming of Deathwing. Every zone will change graphically; some more than others. For instance, the Barrens will be divided into Northern and Southern Barrens by a gigantic fissure of molten lava! Auberdine will be destroyed. New islands will emerge from the seas, and we'll be able to visit our first underwater city!

There are so many changes, I simply can't write them all down. But here are the big ones that hit me upside the head:

1. WE WILL BE ABLE TO USE FLYING MOUNTS IN THE OLD WORLD!!!
2. Every zone will be revamped in how it looks, the questlines offered, and how the quests flow throughout the zone. They will be more guided so you don't have to run around, back-and-forth so much. No one will have access to the old Azeroth again, so take your screenies now!
3. We will be able to enter Mt. Hyjal! And not from a Caverns of Time perspective. I mean actually go to Mt. Hyjal present day!
4. Uldum will be opened, and it's an entire zone!
5. Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will become two new heroic instances!

Guild Changes:

1. Checkout Part 1 and Part 2 of the guild changes from the BlizzCon panel.
2. Guilds will earn guild experience. Every time a guild levels, it will earn a talent point for their talent tree.
3. Guilds will have their own talent trees. As we earn points as a guild, we can spec into things like mass resurrection after a complete wipe, or a raid summon, or guild-wide reduced repair bills, or faster runback speed after dying.
4. Guilds will have their own RSS feed on the Armory. You can find out everything that's been happening with that guild in the last 2-3 days - stuff like who joined, who left, who leveled, guild members' professions, what achievements the guild earned, and what instances they're working on.
5. Guilds will have their own achievements.
6. Guilds will have their own "currency". As a guild, you earn experience, which translates into currency that can be used to purchase heirloom guild patterns at a reduced rate. Guild tailors/leatherworkers/blacksmiths etc. will be able to learn these patterns while still in the guild. But, if that member gquits, they lose all the guild patterns they just learned. No way to ninja guild patterns!
7. Guilds will be able to have crafted heirloom pieces (from the patterns I mentioned above). So, if you're running Uld10 and someone only has Naxx 10/25 gear, you can give them a couple guild heirloom pieces to catch them up to speed. This eliminates the need for gear runs. Plus, if that person gquits, those heirloom pieces will disappear from their toons/bags and return to the guild bank. No need to recraft those pieces. They will be freed up for the next person.
8. Guilds will be able to use their currency to purchase mats at reduced rates.
9. There will be a new LFG - Looking for Guild - channel. It will have a screen similar to the Looking for Group channel, but it will have you post your specs, raids you've done and some notes about yourself. This will help GM's find that boomkin they need a lot faster.

Talent Trees/Stats

1. The talent trees are going to be purged, revamped and have new things added: Mastery stats and the Path of the Titans.
2. Watch the presentation they made at BlizzCon Part 1 and Part 2- these are the actual panel discussions from BlizzCon and they explain it better than I ever could.
3. The following stats will cease to exist: Spellpower, attack power, armor penetration, defense and MP5 (sounds familiar Vanilla WoW peeps?)
4. Haste will only speed up the regeneration of non-mana resources, such as Focus, Rage, Energy or Runes.
5. Spirit is the new MP5.
6. Intellect/Stamina/Strength and Agility will stick around. So will Crit.
7. Ancient Glyphs will be added as an addition to the current glyph system (Part 2 covers this well).

New Races

Goblins: When I first heard that the Horde was getting Goblins, I was disappointed. Then I got to play one. I am no longer disappointed:

1. Goblins will have a passive 1% increased attack speed with all spells and attacks called, "Time is Money".
2. Goblins also have two rocket based racial abilities which share the same cooldown, so only one can be utilized every 2 minutes. They are:
   - A 20 yard Rocket Jump available every 2 minutes.
   - Fire a Rocket Barrage at any enemy within 30 yards, also on a 2 min cooldown.
3. Goblins have a passive boost to Alchemy: "Better Living Through Chemistry" gives Goblins a +15 bonus to Alchemy, along with a 15% bonus to health and mana regen from crafted potions.
4. Goblins will receive the "Best Deals Anywhere" providing the best possible prices on goods and services regardless of reputation.
5. Goblins will have a personal servant called a "Pack Hobgoblin" which can be summoned every 30 minutes, and will offer bank access from anywhere in the world.

Worgen: Honestly, as cool as it looked to transform from a human to a worgen, that was probably the best part about playing this race IMHO. Here are the racials:

1. 70% movement speed increase for 6 seconds, on a 3 min cooldown.
2. They have a 1% passive damage bonus called Viciousness.
3. They have a passive ability called Abberation, which reduces curse and disease durations by 15%.
4. The last racial is a +15 bonus to skinning, which doesn't really offer any benefits other than ease of leveling. But the fact that a skinning knife is not needed is pretty cool. Worgen skin their kills using their claws!

OMFG this post is long! I'm done for now. Time for some jetlag sleep time. I'll catch you guys in game. Enjoy the info and post your feedback here!

P.S. For a great summary of some of the things I neglected to review, please visit WTFspaghetti.

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It's here!

Tomorrow morning we fly to LAX, and drive to Anaheim to check-in at our favorite Anaheim Marriott - right across the street from the convention center and BLIZZCON!

This will be our third BlizzCon and they keep getting bigger and better every year. I've already had offers from fellow guildies who want to purchase my goodie bag - NEVAH! That's the most coveted swag around, and I'm not giving up my precious Grunty!

What's even more awesome this year is that the closing ceremonies will include a live performance by Ozzy Osbourne. OMG! The Prince of Darkness since 1979! WOOT! Take that, Arthas!

I'll be sure to report back after all of the festivities.

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Time for some WoW gamerspeak goodness:

Last night before raid time (9pm server), I was working on the Dalaran fishing daily - Terrorfish. I got one of those giant shells, which normally only give you Succulent Clam Meat. But this time, a Siren's Tear dropped! That's a first.

Seeing that I was charmed with what I like to call my "fishing mojo", I set off to find Northrend fishing pools for the elusive turtle mount... just in case.

There was a night elf swarming around the pools just below Dalaran, so I headed upstream hitting as many Glassfin Minnow pools as I could. The last one was at the foot of the glacier flowing from Icecrown.

One cast, and BOOM - Turtles All the Way Down:



Needless to say, I screamed TURTLE!! Hubby came running to see the scroll of Gratz in guild chat, and to watch me swim with my new turtle. He rocks! Best of luck to everyone in getting your turtle mounts! They say the odds are 1 in 1000 casts. Whoa.

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It's always great to pull out a photo album and flip back through the events and memories of good times. What's funny is when it's a compilation of screenshots from your online world.

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