WotLK: A screenshot and some musings

Greetings again all. I took one screenshot last night. Like a fool, I was so immersed in testing that I failed to take any more.

Fret not, loyal reader. After I complete the Death Knight Experience you can expect me to delete my Dwarven DK and start anew. I'll take plenty of screenshots for you then.

In the screenshot you can see the back of my DK, to include that beautiful runeblade on his back. The Val'kyr Battle-Maiden before me is one of two standing flying beside the Lich King himself. Also, if you peer into the background, none other than Baron Rivendare is also present in Ebon Hold.

Make sure you scroll down past the screenshot, as I'll let you know about the integrated threat meter, or at least what I saw of it.



As for the threat meter, I'll have to get a picture taken and post it later. It is pretty sleek, but I think it is a little hard to see if you're not used to it. In between your character portrait and health/runic power bars, there is just enough space for a diamond to appear. This diamond turns yellow when you are targeting an enemy in which you appear on its threat table. It gradually becomes more red the higher you get.

I apologize now for not having more details about that. I will pay a little more attention to it the next time I hop on.

Professional Picker: Wild Growth

If you have been keeping up with all the WotLK Beta information on the web, then I'm sure you're familiar that Blizzard has been throwing in some upgrades for players with a gathering profession. So far, Blizzard had hooked up miners and skinners. Miners were given the Toughness ability, which I'm sure will have lots of Protection Warriors and Protection Paladins changing to this profession if they don't have it already. Skinners were given the Master of Anatomy ability, which any Hunter or Rogue would just love to have. On the other hand, I know some of our cloth-wearing friends that have either of these will also enjoy the benefits to be had.

I just found out this morning that Blizzard has seen fit to hook up the flower pickers in the World of Warcraft: Wild Growth. As you can see from the tool tip your local, neighborhood Herbalist will be able to heal himself, over time, once every five minutes.


Obviously, it's hard to tell at this point if it scales with anything like spell damage and healing, or if it is on the same cooldown as anything else. Luckily for me, Druids can use it while shapeshifted. It will definitely be an extra boost to help the healers out when trudging through the early instances. My only concern would be that once our HP pools start rising, how effective will this ability be?

As we're still in the beta phase, we would be fools to think that all of these new and cool changes are permanent. I like what Blizzard has going with this, and hopefully they'll develop a way for it to scale or have the amount healed boosted a bit.

Now, if only I could get a beta key to test it out...

The WotLK Beta

It's official. The Wrath of the Lich King beta forum is now open to the public.

I read a few posts, but it's still so new and early in the day that I don't think many people are awake and online yet. I did learn that you can't actually post there unless you have a Beta account, which is unfortunate. Seemingly the people that are posting and testing as we speak are the ones who already had Beta keys from previous events.

So the question still remains: Has Blizzard started emailing keys to people that entered into the Beta Opt-In?

I really do hope that I am selected, or my wife. I really want to just get in there and explore and see everything for myself, but more importantly I actually want to test the place out. What could be cooler than exploring the new content, examining every facet of an expansion that they've worked so long and hard on, than to critique everything that seems wrong or out of place knowing that it will only improve the quality of the game for the millions of users that will be playing in the future?

So here are my questions to you, new reader:

1.) Will you read the Beta forums often to learn as much as you can?
2.) Why do you want to be selected to participate in the WotLK Beta?



Here are some links of interest:

WotLK beta patch notes
WotLK beta General Forum

Keep in mind, you cannot post here unless you have received a beta key (and in turn, a temporary beta account). There is not a Non-Disclosure Agreement for the beta, so feel free to frequent the forums and learn as much as you can.

If I am by chance selected to test the beta, you can rest assured that I'll be blogging here about it non-stop. Only time will tell.