Mini-Deathwing and Masteries!

It's been a bit of a slow week news-wise, though there has been some beta updates and a lot of great screenshots of some of the new zones. There was an interesting Q&A about the changes to the Barrens, which you can see over on MMO Champ. They also dug out a model of a new Mini Deathwing pet. It's not clear yet how you can obtain this pet, speculation is it may come with Collector's Editions of Cataclysm, however it could also end up a drop or a pet from the Blizzard Store.

We've also seen some more information in a blue post about Druid masteries in Cata, which have been added in the most recent beta.

 Druid 

• Restoration - Increases the potency of your heal over time spells by up to 20% based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Healing increased further by mastery rating.
• Feral - Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32% and increases the damage done by your Cat Form bleed abilities by 20%. Absorb and damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Balance - Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 12%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

It will be interesting to see just how these stats work out in Cata. All of these bonuses are increased by Mastery rating on gear, but how Mastery rating will be prioritized in terms of gems (and possibly enchants) and gear will take some analysis. All of the talents and related stats and spells are in flux in the beta, so it's difficult to get a firm grasp on just how things will work and balance out when Cataclysm finally drops. 

Just reading over the Masteries as they are at the moment, it looks like there will definitely be caps as to where it will be ineffective/wasteful to pass a certain level of Mastery rating. I'm noticing this particularly for the Restoration Mastery, where HoT spell potency is increased 'by up to 20%' - the 'by up to' being the key phrase in there. Whether that is fully intended and how much it will change is still up in the air, but it is highly unlikely that stacking pure Mastery rating will be desirable for any spec. The Feral and Balance masteries seem to have a set initial bonus which is increased by additional Mastery rating (rather than up to a set point) which is likely to have a cap as well. As Cataclysm gets closer and actually drops, I'm sure theorycrafting will get into full swing and determine just where the caps will be.

Balancing stats should become a bit more manageable with the advent of Reforging (which you can see an update here on MMO). 

This is one image from MMO Champ showing the change in stats - for those who don't know, Reforging will allow you to reduce a stat on a piece of gear in order to add in another stat. As you can see in the image above, on this piece of gear the player has reduced their Haste Rating in order to add some Hit Rating. This will be a helpful feature for optimizing gear for your needs, particularly if a piece doesn't look all that good at first glance. You can Restore an item's original stats after Reforging, which so far is looking like you can do so as often as you wish, so any changes you make will not be set in stone.

There was also a post over at WoW.com letting us know that Cataclysm is still on track for a 2010 release. Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's CEO, is quoted as saying:

"... I'd like to point to the release of Cataclysm, being our best expansion yet for World of Warcraft. Although an exact release date has not yet been announced, we're on track to launch the expansion by the end of the year. As with all Blizzard games, though, we won't release until it's ready." 

Some good news there!

I'll keep this post brief and wrap up with another good reminder on account security from Blizzard; Password Security Information. Good advice as ever, to use a different password for your WoW account than you use on your email accounts or anything else. In the horrible event that your WoW account does get hacked, you don't want those hackers rooting around through your emails or personal information as well! Be sure to keep yourself and your information safe!

More posts to come soon!

How to fully opt out of RealID

I noticed this article on WoW.com, it tells you how to fully opt out of RealID (and also how to customize it if you do want to use it). Article here. I'm very glad they posted this!

Quoting the article:

This is a guide for how to truly opt out of this feature...

To be clear, everyone who does not have a parentally controlled account has in fact opted into Real ID, due to a security flaw. Addons have access to the name on your account right now. So you need to be very careful about what addons you download -- make sure they are reputable. In order to actually opt out, you need to set up parental controls on your account. This is not an easy task. Previous to the Battle.net merge, you could just go to a page and set them up. Done. Now, you must set up an account as one that is under parental control. Once your account is that of a child's (a several-step process), your settings default to Real ID-disabled. Any Real ID friends you have will no longer be friends. In order to enable it, you need to check the Enable Real ID box.

Setting up parental controls:
Go to the appropriate battle.net site for your region. (That link should take you there.)
Push the Create or Manage a Battle.net Account button.
Log in as normal.
Click on Parental Controls, which is an option listed under Manage My Games. (And, if you're like me, you'll be sad that you are still not in the beta.)
Choose the No - Setup Parental Controls button.
Fill in your info as both the child's account and your own. (Why they make this distinction, I don't know. Parental controls always used to be an option for adults to manage their own game time.)
You will receive an email. You need to save this email, because the link in there is the only way to get to the parental controls. Otherwise, you have to make Blizzard resend it. Click the link to get into the controls.
Save Settings and then be told it will take up to 30 minutes to go into effect.
That is how to opt out.

It says that it's not easy to set up parental controls, but it only took me about 5 minutes total to do all of that, so really not that bad. It looks like it works well - logged in to test it and I didn't see any of the RealID setup settings in the Interface menu or the Social tab. Seems to have done the trick! 


I think it would be much better if this was standard across all accounts (not just in parental controls); what would be best is an Opt-in setup where you're automatically out of RealID until you select that you want to activate it. That would be the safest for privacy, really. At least Blizz listened to the community and decided to cancel their plans for using RealID on the forums.

Warning: New scam with Celestial Steeds

I love my shiny sparkle pony, and I imagine many players would still love to get one, especially if it's free. Unfortunately, though, it looks like hackers are upping their attempts to break into your account with a new scam that makes it look like you've been given a Celestial Steed. The good people over at WoW.com posted this story, including a copy of what the scam email looks like and some very helpful tips for protecting your account and what to do if you're hacked. Read the full story here: New scam tries to give you a free Celestial Steed.

The sample of the scam email they posted looks very convincing, so be very careful with any emails you receive! With the latest round of beta invites reported to be going out this week, also be very careful with any emails mentioning an invite - your battle.net account will be flagged for a beta trial, possibly before you even get an email, so don't follow any links out of an email! Always type the official WorldofWarcraft or Battlenet url into your browser to ensure you get to the official site and not a keylogger.

I also recommend picking up an Authenticator for your account. It's very cheap and will help keep your account protected! Remember to never share your account information with anyone, and Blizzard employees and GMs will never ask for your account information or password. Plus, you can get a cute core hound pup with your authenticator!

Keep safe!