Sorry this one is late had problems when it came to uploading!
Get ready to explore the changes rolling in with the Cataclysm pre-patch that has taken the World of Warcraft community by storm – literally! With a release date catching us all by surprise, we're here to ensure you won't miss a minute of the action. Whether you're from NA or EU, mark your calendars for the end of April and beginning of May respectively, as we prepare to embark on an adventure filled with new zones, dungeons, raids, and races. We'll guide you through the exact times to log in and start questing, so you'll be perfectly in sync with the worldwide launch.
This episode isn't just about when to play; it's about how your play will change. We're diving into the heart of the new content that's going to reshape Azeroth as we know it. From the introduction of the wily goblins and the ferocious worgen to the class updates that'll redefine your gameplay, we cover it all. Plus, we're talking archaeology and how to get your hands on that sandstone drake mount everyone is buzzing about! Want to know more about transmog and updated stats? We've got that covered too with a discussion that's as informative as it is entertaining. So pull up a chair, fellow adventurers, and let's discuss what's on the horizon in the World of Azeroth.
Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!
The Thank you. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. We'll be going over the latest news in warcraft and that is cataclysm pre-patch. So we have gotten a date for it. Um, it's a lot earlier than what I would have predicted. I think I predicted sort of may-ish time, uh, that we would get the pre-patch, but it is well, it's still kind of May. It's August. No, not August, it's not August, obviously it's not August. April, the end of April, last day of April for NA and the 1st of May for EU, you know, because it is on the reset day. So you get it afterwards.
Speaker 1:
But with Cataclysm pre-patch, obviously that asks the question when does Cataclysm actually launch? And that is a couple to a few weeks after, and that is May 20th. And this is a worldwide release, so just like wrath of the lich king is worldwide. So this means that everyone at a specific time will get their uh chance to jump into cataclysm content and start leveling. Now cataclysm will release at 11 BST, that is British summertime, you have 12, so midnight CEST for those in Europe, the western side of Europe, and then you have so on and so forth. There I think it's 3 PTD for NA. I really don't know what that time zone is. I really don't know what it stands for is. I really don't know what it stands for, but I believe that is the time zone for it and obviously you can pick up your time zones as and when it would release. I'm pretty sure the best sort of times are going to be American, unfortunately, which is afternoon, slash evening, because that's just where they're based essentially. Uh, they are based in the us, which is a little bit upsetting, but it is what it is. Uh, what comes with cataclysm.
Speaker 1:
So seven new zones, 10 new dungeons, five raids, three of them at launch, uh, new player races, such as goblin and wargon, the class updates, new talents, talent spells, zone updates, whole barad, new race slash class combinations, new profession uh, transmog, reforging, update character and gear stats and darkmoon island. So these are obviously going to be split depending on if it is pre-patch or the launch. In pre-patch we are getting the races, which is goblin and wargum, the class combinations. So a night, elf mage, a gnome priest, all of that sort of stuff. Leveling updates, so kalimdor and eastern kingdoms will be changed and obviously you will be no longer able to level through the old classic zones. Um, the old classic zones will obviously still be there in the form of classic era, which I think everyone will admit. It's still a decent place to go and play if you are looking to play classic.
Speaker 1:
The class updates, so new talents, trees, spells and more so. This includes, for druids, star surge you have pulverized. For feral druids, you have or guardian druids, I should say you have tree of life. For resto druids, all of that stuff. You also get your mastery, uh, that you can learn at level 80, which is really nice. You have new race and class. Wait, they've put this twice. They put new race and class combinations twice.
Speaker 1:
Um, you have the new profession, so you can actually learn your archaeology. Uh, during the pre-patch. If you wanted to uh, try and get your hands on one of the archaeology mounts very early on is definitely the best way to do it. The new archaeology mount is the sandstone drake, and this is the one where you turn yourself into an actual dragon like your character, and someone can ride on the back of your dragon, essentially so. It is a two seater flying mount. Basically, transmog comes along with the pre-patch as well as updated character and gear stats, so this means obviously mastery is put into the game as well as uh hit rating changes, crit rating changes, all of that stuff. Um is good to go now on the beta. Obviously they're still testing a couple things, such as reforging and all of that, but hopefully that will be the minor side of things to fix when it comes to getting the pre-patch out and released to the public.
Speaker 1:
Now, the best things that I'm looking forward to in this uh pre-patch is the new talents by far new talents and you know what? I might actually give archaeology a go. I think it's a good uh way to actually make some gold and I think it's definitely not meant to be slept upon. Class combinations is also one that can fly under the radar. The only problem is a lot of people have the levels that they want in certain races. Like, my mage is level 80 already and I would love a night elf mage, but I just can't be asked to level it, and that's the problem. I think trying to level uh is going to be a bit annoying, um, but we'll see. Who knows who knows.
Speaker 1:
Um, yeah, by far, the talent trees, the spells and stuff. They're going to be the most important thing in the pre-patch and you can get to learn what you want to, uh, play as your alt character in cataclysm, what you want to main. If you're still unsure, if you really do enjoy it. You know, going into cataclysm. Are you like 100? Sure you want to be this class when, like, going into cataclysm, that kind of thing, what is happening in cataclysm?
Speaker 1:
So, with the launch being on the 20th of may, they will open up, obviously, the zones and these zones being mount hyjal, vashir, pilot highlands, oldham, deepholm, kazan and gilneas. Kazan and gilneas are very much starting, uh, leveling zones, so there's no real. You can't really include them. You mainly have five main zones that you're going to be leveling in, which is the Mount Hyjal, vashir, twilight Highlands, oldham and Deepholm. And, as a small thing that I want to point out, you can access Mount Hyjal before it turns into the current Mount Hyjal or the Cataclysm version, and I'm going to be logging out there on the 19th Actually it'll probably be when pre-patch hits so on the well, last day of April for me, because I'm in EU and seeing what happens to my character when I log back in and see if it's a absolute shit show, because that'll be fun. I just kind of want to try and break the game and see how it works.
Speaker 1:
Uh, in all honesty, um, there are nine new dungeons blackrock caverns, throne of the tides, vortex, pinnacle, stone core, the lost city of tolvir, the halls of origination, grim batol, dead minds and shadowfang keep. Now people are thinking why are dead minds and shadowfang Keep? Now people are thinking why are Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep there. They get revamped in Cataclysm and they are good revamps. Deadmines, cataclysm is nearly a 10 out of 10 dungeon. In my honest opinion, it is quality. I think it's really slept upon Because for those that don't want to hear the lore and the spoilers for it but essentially you go through it it's got a couple of new bosses. You get the foe reaver, you get admiral rip snarl, you know that kind of thing. But in the heroic version you face vanessa van cleef, so the daughter of edwin van cleef, who you've been killing in dead minds all throughout classic, the burning crusade and wrath of the lich king you face his daughter and it's a completely different kind of boss fight. So when you get to the end and you get to a certain percentage, she poisons you all and sends you back halfway through the dungeon and then you've got to make your way through the dungeon again whilst dodging fire patches and being poisoned and you know it being blurry and stuff like that. It's honestly a really good boss fight and I think that it's going to be quality. I think a lot of people will enjoy it. Not many people have actually experienced heroic dead mines in the cataclysm version and I think it's going to be something that people will look fondly upon. We have the dungeon journal introduced, which obviously shows a lot of the loot, a lot of the stuff that you can pick up in these dungeons, in these raids, stuff like that.
Speaker 1:
The boss based raid system, lock system oh yes, so allowing players to do either 10 or 25 player versions of each boss in the same week. Lockouts are based on individual bosses, so what this means is essentially, you can do the first boss in raid. Okay, so you have raid one. There's six bosses. You do the first three bosses in 10 man mode and then you do the last three bosses in 25 player mode. They drop the same. They drop the same gear and stuff. It's just, if you have 15 other people who wanted to do this last boss, then they can join by all means. Uh, if you wanted to do it the other way around, 25 people wanted to kill the last, um, like the first few bosses, and then you want to split the raid group into 10 player raids and do the last three bosses to get some decent loot, then you can do as well. You know that kind of deal. I think that's what a lot of people will be doing. They'll be doing 25 player loot when possible and then obviously split the group on the last boss to get the most out of the last boss loot. Kind of deal. Like if there's a really good trinket for casters, you would split casters up into two of the groups and hopefully one of your groups would get this caster trinket. That kind of deal.
Speaker 1:
Um that we have tol barad pvp zone. Now this one I'm not as happy about. I didn't really like tol barad, but I will still give it a go. I think that it's best that I give it a good shot at it rather than just, uh, kind of deny it again, because I don't remember a lot about it. I just remember it being quite tough to win if you're the attacking team, because you had to capture three different towers and these towers were quite far away from each other but the alliance or the defender's base was slap bang in the middle so they could just tap one and you'd have nothing to do. And then you know you, as they're trying to attack the third one and capture the third one, you know one or two rogues just goes and sneaks the other like bases. You know it's that kind of shit show, but hopefully they'll make it an instanced um thing, kind of like they did with winter grass. But I think that that was a very good idea to do.
Speaker 1:
Darkmoon isle obviously the darkmoon isle is someplace where you can get certain uh toys that you can ride. Uh, dark moon rides. There's a sort of guru bashi arena type thing there as well. You know it. It'll be nice to see it in its first iteration, almost. And then obviously you have flying in eastern kingdoms and kalimdor. You cannot do that until, uh, the expansion has actually released um, because obviously if people can do that, they will just simply fly to somewhere and start farming some minerals or stuff like that. Actually, that's a good point. Am I able to do that? Would I be? Actually, I'm gonna. I'm gonna try that. Hopefully they don't spawn in minerals or herbs and ruin the economy, but we'll see. Well, it wouldn't ruin the economy, but you know what I mean With this.
Speaker 1:
There are a few things that are going away with Wrath of the Lich King. The Swift Zulian Tiger and the Swift Rosashi Raptor are both mounts from Zul'Gurub that will no longer be attainable. This is because Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman do get their reworks in Cataclysm. So if you want these mounts, you best start farming now and very quickly. So if you want these mounts, you best start farming now and very quickly. The Rosashi Hatchling with the changes to Zul'Gurub, this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable. The Tome of Polymorph Turtle this tome will continue to be available through other means. The Crusader's White slash Black War Horse and the Swift Alliance Steed slash Swift Horde Wolf this is the attempt based tribute system in Trial of the Crusader and the Trial chest, essentially, and they will be no longer obtainable in the game. The Reigns of the Blue Drake will once again be available for defeating 10 player Malagos without needing to use the dungeon finder. The Reigns of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25 player mode. Mimiron's Head will become a drop chance rather than a guaranteed, and so will Invincible from 25-man Lich King.
Speaker 1:
Now please do not go on the forums after the pre-patches here and be like, oh my God, I didn't get my Invincible after killing the Lich King 25. This is ridiculous. No, they're stating it right here. Okay, calm it down everyone. But yes, this is essentially what you are going to miss out on. You also have Ins um insane in the membrane that you will not be able to complete. The insane in the membrane is where you get all of the reputations at like honored or revered or something that includes the bloodsail buccaneers, the um booty babe like rep. You know all of that stuff, the really difficult reputations to farm. But if you haven't started it already, I don't think you've got a chance to be honest with you, because I think it takes a really long time to uh get that essentially. But that is it for this episode.
Speaker 1:
I cannot wait for pre-patch. It's really good that it was given to us like just out of nowhere. Essentially, I didn't expect this to uh like this news to just happen. To be honest, I think it's really good. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I think a lot of people should give cataclysm a go. I think a lot of people should give Cataclysm a go. I think a lot of people will look down on it quite. They won't look down on it fondly because of maybe something that's happened in the past during the expansion, but I think giving it a good go, people will actually enjoy it. I think the content that is within Cataclysm is really good and I just hope that everyone else will kind of understand it. And those who want to just play classic you still have Classic Era. You do Like. Don't complain that you do not have Classic anymore because Classic Era is there. Okay, please, just don't. So thank you all. Very much for listening and go, avala friend, goodbye all. Thank you.