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With 4.0.3 shipping I'm bolting together my cataclysm Warcraft PC. I'm a Mac user for everything else but I have a pc with vent, Warcraft, and curse client, and synergy (literally nothing else so I don't get keylogged).

With luck I'll be playing on ultra graphics with the hopped up clutter macros.

This is NOT THE PATCH CHANGING THE OLD WORLD, Patch 4.0.3a will do that and the one deployed this week is mostly here to pave the way for the shattering of Azeroth.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.3

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un...testrealm.html

General

* Much of the data being downloaded in patch 4.0.3 will pave the way for the shattering of Azeroth shortly before the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on December 7.

* The leader of Wintergrasp raids can no longer kick players from the raid (this change will also apply to Tol Barad in Cataclysm).

* When in a Looking For Dungeon group, using an instance portal to that instance will now take players to the Looking For Dungeon entrance point instead of the normal destination of that portal. This will make it easier to return to the instance after dying in an LFD group.

* Honorable Kills are no longer awarded for killing players below level 5.

User Interface

* Added pets to the new raid unit frames when displayed in party.

* The default UI Scale has been altered so it will be set at a 1:1 pixel/texel ratio. This will result in a smaller UI appearance for higher resolution monitors.

* Players may now adjust the local "Lag Tolerance" time for better precision of spell timing. This is an advanced-users-only feature found in the Interface Options (Combat) panel.

Bug Fixes

* Macros now handle spell variant transitions better. For example, Trap Launcher causes a different version of Frost Trap to be cast. Previously the macro system was not handling this transition properly.

* Queuing in Looking For Dungeon for a different wing of the instance a player is already in now works properly. For example, a party can now queue for Scarlet Monastery - Library after completing Scarlet Monastery - Graveyard.

* Killing High Interrogator Gerstahn before killing Emperor Dagran Thaurissan in a Blackrock Depths - Upper City random Looking For Dungeon run will now provide the proper reward. This also applies to Archmage Arugal and the Crown Chemical Company bosses in Shadowfang Keep during the Love is in the Air holiday event.

* Repeatedly inspecting other players should now function correctly.

* Area heal-over-time effects should no longer cause players to stand up.

* Male blood elves have received a crash course in dancing and now know to stop dancing when they run.

* Drake mounts have gotten bored with gliding and will flap their wings again when flying forward.

* Druid Flight Form now properly appears in the Spellbook before Expert Riding is learned.

* Sunfire's damage-over-time effect now deals damage at the same rate as Moonfire's damage- over-time effect.

* GM Ticket messages should now displace buff icons instead of obscuring them.

With 4.0.3 shipping I'm bolting together my cataclysm Warcraft PC. I'm a Mac user for everything else but I have a pc with vent, Warcraft, and curse client, and synergy (literally nothing else so I don't get keylogged).

With luck I'll be playing on ultra graphics with the hopped up clutter macros.

How much have the graphics 'improved' that you're 'hoping' to play everything with ultra graphics? Big monitor perhaps?

How much have the graphics 'improved' that you're 'hoping' to play everything with ultra graphics? Big monitor perhaps?

They have added a dynamic lighting system as well as higher resolution textures for newer content. there is also a new water engine in the game with reflections and better looking water (still no water physics)

just to note about water eye candy. l2 had fully reflective water at default settings in 2005. it's not a dx11 thing, and shouldn't take up too much resources- higher textures would be more resource intensive, but blizz doesn';t have to do much to make the textures in most of the game higher resolution.

all of it sounds cool though. many people's biggest complaint about wow is the graphics, i think the graphics are technically pretty decent for the most part(aside from texture resolution) but what really brings it together for me compared to agame like aion(which alot of people play only because it's pretty) which i find ugly, is that the art and tehcnical side of the graphics is consistent throughout the world. in aion there are jarring uultra low res blocky textures right next to high rez textures every where you go. you look at your armour up close and there's shiny shaders with jagged lines no matter how high you force the AA to go. the armour models and skins are a step down from the 6 or 7 year old lineage 2. and teh reflective water appears and dissapears as you move through it. so for me wow has always looked much better in the consistency of the art direction and the integration of the graphics tech into the art and graphical feel of the game. it might not be cutting edge and it might look cartoony, but id' rather have wow graphics than aion's glaring and jarring graphical issues.

How much have the graphics 'improved' that you're 'hoping' to play everything with ultra graphics? Big monitor perhaps?

The texture quality has improved substantially, the models have become more detailed (which is disc-access time).

The basic engine hasn't changed a whole lot but they're cramming a bunch more pixels through it.

We also play on much larger screens that we did in the past. In 2005 the typical screen was 1024x768 and 800x600 for gaming wasn't unreasonable. Today I'd bet that 1080p is more common than 1024x768 - that's >250% increase in the number of pixels.

To play warcraft today you want 4gb of ram (more for prefetch) a fast drive system, a mid-range video card, and 2 really fast cores (2x4ghz > 8x 2ghz)

Elemental Invasion Part 4 - We're under attack!

Things are getting serious and elementals are attacking capital cities!

Elemental Invasions

* Guards will try to evacuate citizens, low level players can also use portals to leave the city before the attack.

* You first have to deploy sandbags/barricades to help defending the city.

* You will then have to defeat the elementals in all the districts of the city, Orgrimmar is damaged badly in the process and most of the buildings are on fire.

Bosses

* After successfully defending the cities, you will get a chance to counter attack by entering the huge portal in capital cities (or using the LFD tool) to fight mini-bosses in 4 different instances.

* The 4 bosses are Grand Ambassador Flamelash in BRD, Crown Princess Theradras in Maraudon, Kai'ju Gahz'rilla in Zul'Farrak and Prince Sarsarun in AQ20.

* The bosses only appear at the end of the elemental invasion after you succesfully defended the city, you cannot queue for them all the time.

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Ah, feels good to be playing my mage again :D

DPS here is crappy, given that it's basically a bunch of trash mobs just with a ton of health. Still, it's nice to be at the top of the charts :p (DPS is the box on the right, threat on the left)

I spec'd fire to try it out, as I was arcane when I stopped playing (last December). Fire is a hell of a lot more fun; there's so much more to do: cast Living Bomb here and there, Scorch whenever I feel like for free, wait for Hot Streak and Impact to proc for some more free spells, etc... It's just a lot more lively then arcane ever was. I'm very very happy with it.

So 2 things I have to say.

1st off, Recruit a Friend is da bomb!!! I have went from level 1-57 1/2 in 1 day 8hours playtime. Triple xp for quest turn ins and mobs and instances and everything is awesome!!! Going to suck when I hit 60 tonight and loose that xp bonus. Although I do have the free 2 person Rocket flying mount!!

2nd when I am grinding so fast because of triple xp, it sucks with this elemental invasion in IF and Stormwind, because ALL the npc's are GONE!! No training, no AH, no sell/repair, no MAILBOX!! Why do you evacuate the mailbox!??!?! hehe

The Elemental attacks are very exciting too bad i have only seen physical DPS drops from the bosses :(

the Shattering has happened on the PTR so I would think we are close to having the Shattering happen on live servers either next week. November 22th or November 29th :D

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