Recent News
Cataclysm Launches Tonight! Midnight! (12/06/2010)
Patch 4.0.3 and the Shattering of Azeroth (11/23/2010)
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Final Event! (11/15/2010)
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event #3 (11/15/2010)
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event #2 (11/01/2010)
Cataclysm Launches Tonight! Midnight!
12/06/2010
Tonight, at 12am PST (Pacific Standard Time), Cataclysm officially goes live! Incase you're time zone challenged, that's 1am MST, 2am CST, and 3am EST. For people outside the lower 48 states of the US, you're on your own!
I don't know about you guys, but we are incredibly excited. As soon as the servers go live, we'll be out the gates and won't stop until we're 85. We'll be sure to post here as soon as we are.
If you are preparing for tonight, we have 3 guides you can use:
Guild Leveling Guide 
Mount Hyjal Leveling Guide
Cataclysm Leveling Guide 
So get your food stocked, drinks stocked, and call in sick... because there's only a few hours left!
If you have any questions about how the launch will work, you can refer to this post:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1251976654
Good luck tonight!
Patch 4.0.3 and the Shattering of Azeroth
11/23/2010
Today marks the beginning of the Cataclysm-Era of World of Warcraft. Blizzard has released Patch 4.0.3 and today (or soon) will be the Shattering of Azeroth. Dozens of zones will be changed forever, new zones will appear, and we are inching closer and closer to the release of the expansion on December 7th.
With today's patch, we can assume we will witness the Shattering of Azeroth event either today or within the week. What the "event" will actually be is pretty much anyone's guess. Whether it's a one time event, cinematic, or a blink of an eye - only Blizzard insiders know.
One thing is for sure, if you are into these type of events, you should try to be online today when the servers come up (which is estimated to be at 11am PST).
Blizzard hasn't released the full official Patch Notes for 4.0.3, most likely because they are waiting until after the Shattering of Azeroth event to take place, but you can check out our unofficial Patch Notes for 4.0.3.
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Final Event!
11/15/2010
The Final Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event began today. In Stormwind, Ironforge, Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, massive armies of elementals are invading! When an invasion begins, rifts will appear in each city spawning dozens of elementals. As a defender, you must slay elementals in order to destroy the rifts; as well as rescuing trapped citizens. Each city is broken down into districts. Once all districts are defended, the event is over and you are victorious. If you are victorious, portals will spawn allowing you to enter dungeons to defeat 4 separate bosses. The breakdown of the entire event is below:
Alliance
Stormwind: Air and Water Elementals Invade
Ironforge: Earth and Fire Elementals InvadeHorde
Orgrimmar: Earth and Fire Elementals Invade
Thunder Bluff: Air and Water Elementals InvadeDestroying a rift will grant you with the buff of the same type. This does count towards the "Tripping the Rifts" Achievement.
Invasion Phases
Phase 1: Citizens will begin evacuating the city. After a few minutes, piles of sandbags will appear all over. Right-Click one to collect a Sandbag, then place the Sandbag at a Floating Red Arrow. Once all of the Sandbags are placed, the next phase will begin.
Phase 2: Elementals will trap citizens. You must talk to an Earthen Ring representative to receive an Earthen Ring Unbinding Totem. Use this totem to free citizens. There are a certain number of trapped citizens in each district. All must be freed to defend the district.Rifts will spawn in each district spawning a total of 32 powerful elementals. All 32 elementals must be defeated to close the rift. All rifts must be closed to defend the district.
Once all rifts are closed and all citizens freed, a district will be marked as defended. Once all districts are defended, the city will be saved. This must be accomplished within an hour of the event starting.
If the city was successfully saved, instances will open up to defeat 4 bosses, one of each element. You will only have 30 minutes to enter these instances. After 30 minutes, the instances will be closed until the next event. Events occur every few hours.
Bosses
Kai'ju Gahz'rilla (Water)
Crown Princess Theradras (Earth)
Grand Ambassador Flamelash (Fire)
Prince Sarsarun (Air)
You can check out their loot here. They actually drop really nice gear.
While the instances are opened, attempt to defeat all 4 bosses. Upon zoning in, the leader of either of the main cities will be present. Talk to them to accept the quest. The 4 quests are simply to defeat the 4 bosses.
This will be the last event until the Cataclysm. Be sure to finish everything you want to in the next week or so! Remember, zones such as Zul'Gurub will be removed after the Cataclysm, meaning the Swift Zulian Tiger and Raptor will no longer be available.
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event #3
11/15/2010
During the past week, Blizzard has activated the third Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event. With it comes a handful of quests and a continuation of the story - the battle against the Cultists and Elementals. Quests are available in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. In total, there are 8 new quests available for each faction:
Show Me Your Papers
Arrest the Infiltrators
Back Under Cover
I Said the Words...
Tablets of the Earth
What's Shaking in Ironforge (Alliance)/The Elementals Cry Out (Horde)
Subduing the Elements
A Gathering in Outland
If you are trying to keep up to date, make sure to get these quests done before November 23rd, the rumored date for Patch 4.0.3.
Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event #2
11/01/2010
Today marks the beginning of the second Cataclysm Pre-Launch Event (the first being the attack on Gnomeregan). In this event, Twilight Hammer cultists have taken up residence in capital cities and raging elementals are attacking everywhere. The event offers a small quest chain and daily quests, as well as an achievement. Below is all of the information pertaining to the event:
- New Quest NPCs are available in capital cities. See Erunak Stonespeaker to begin the quest chains (Prophecies of Doom for both Alliance and Horde)
- Elementals will randomly spawn in various zones throughout Azeroth, Outlands, and Northrend. Rifts have a 1 hour respawn timer from whenever they were last destroyed. Destroying the rifts will result in the achievement, "Tripping the Rifts". You must destroy an Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind rift of any level to receive the achievement. If you destroy a rift of your own level (Ex. A Northrend Rift for Level 80), you can also complete the daily quest, "Hammering it Out"
- The following are Rift Locations for each type of Rift, ordered by the level of the zone:
Loch Modan (15)
Redridge Mountains (15)
Desolace (35)
Western Plaguelands (55)
Burning Steppes (55)
Silithus (55)
Nagrand (65)
Blade's Edge Mountains (65)
Howling Fjord (75)
Grizzly Hills (75)
Storm Peaks (75)
Westfall (15)
The Barrens (15)
Dustwallow Marsh (35)
The Hinterlands (45)
Searing Gorge (45)
Blasted Lands (45)
Winterspring (55)
Hellfire Peninsula (65)
Zul'Drak (75)Water Rifts
Silverpine Forest (15)
Ghostlands (15)
Wetlands (25)
Thousand Needles (25)
Stranglethorn Vale (35)
Swamp of Sorrows (35)
Un'goro Crater (55)
Zangarmarsh (65)
Shadowmoon Valley (65)
Dragonblight (75)
Icecrown (75)Wind Rifts
Darkshore (15)
Hillsbrad Foothills (25)
Duskwood (25)
Arathi Highlands (35)
Eastern Plaguelands (55)
Terokkar Forest (65)
Netherstorm (65)
Borean Tundra (75)
Sholazar Basin (75)
For more information on the entire event, you can check out WoWPedia's page here.
The best method for finding and destroying the Northrend Rifts is to pick a spot and camp it until it spawns. Since rifts do not spawn at a set time, after their initial spawn, they become incredibly skewed. Thus, it's easier (and probably faster) just to stay in one spot. The following were the locations I used:
Earth Rift: Slightly West of the temple at Zeb'Halak in Grizzly Hills
Fire Rift: Slightly East of Reliquary of Pain in Zul'Drak
Water Rift: Wintergarde Keep (Alliance) in Dragonblight or Agmar's Hammer (Horde) in Dragonblight
Wind Rift: Slightly North of Fizzcrank's Airstrip (Alliance in Borean Tundra or Slightly North of Taunka'le Village (Horde) in Borean Tundra
You do not need to take any action to receive the buff (AKA the credit for destroying the rift). You can simply AFK near the rift's spawn point and if someone else destroys the rift, you too will receive credit. However, if you want to complete the Daily Quest, you must click the Mysterious Object before it despawns. Mysterious Objects appear after a rift is destroyed.
Cataclysm Teaser Trailer Released
10/18/2010
Yesterday, Blizzard released the Cataclysm Teaser Trailer during the NFL game between the Vikings and the Cowboys. If you missed it during the game, you can check it out on YouTube here.
The trailer gives us a glimpse of what we can expect over the next few weeks as the world of Azeroth changes forever, thanks to Deathwing. As far as cinematic trailers go, it's one of the cooler ones I've seen. I can't wait for all of this to take action comes Patch 4.0.3.
Patch 4.0.1 Goes Live
10/12/2010
On Tuesday, Patch 4.0.1 went finally went live. The patch included dozens of changes to the Talent and Glyph systems, Classes, and the User Interface. The biggest changes were:
Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
- Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
- Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
- Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
- Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
- The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum.
PvE Currency Changes
- All Emblems of Frost and Emblems of Triumph have been converted to new Justice Points.
- Any dungeon or raid which awarded these emblems will reward Justice Points instead. Anything below Emblems of Triumph, including badges from The Burning Crusade dungeon and raid content, have been converted into gold and sent to players via the in-game mail system.
- Any bosses players defeat that are level-appropriate to them award Justice Points.
- All items that previously cost emblems or badges of any type now cost Justice Points.
- Higher-tier Valor Points will be awarded to players who kill dungeon and raid bosses in the latest tier of PvE content after the launch of Cataclysm.
PvP Currency Changes
- All Arena Points, Honor Points, Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper's Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards have been converted into new Honor Points.
- Honor Points will be awarded instead of these currencies, with the exception of Arena Points.
- Higher-tier Conquest Points will be awarded to players competing in each of the latest Arena or Rated Battleground seasons after the launch of Cataclysm.
Reforging
- Players can now visit special Reforging NPCs in capital cities located near Enchanting trainers. 40% of any one secondary stat on an item can be allocated to add a new secondary stat to the item. The stat being added cannot already exist on the item. An item cannot have more than one reforged stat at a time, though the Reforging of an item can be undone and changed.
You can read the entire Patch Notes for 4.0.1 here.
With Cataclysm fast approaching, Patch 4.0.1 is just the beginning. Expect many changes over the next 2 months leading to the release of Cataclysm, the biggest being Patch 4.0.3, which you can expect early November. There should be some Cataclysmic events from now until Patch 4.0.3. Once Patch 4.0.3 releases, expect the world of Azeroth to be changed forever. You can view the Unreleased Patch Notes for 4.0.3 here.