Official news related to Cataclysm

[wowvern]

The official release date will drop October 4th. Any dates you hear are rumors and to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, the end of Arena season 8 was announced Tuesday. This is significant for two reasons:

1. The new patch will drop on Oct 12th for the US and Oct 13th for EU. Note to staff: Are the new talent trees set up for the Adviser? If not, you have 1 week. Check MMO-Champion for details, as well as the main WoW site. The main site just updated its under development page.

2. Any honor points gained will be dumped into a new scoring system when Cata drops (season 9 starts). Check MMO or the WOWHead blog for further details.

Normally, when Blizzard announces the end of an arena season something major is about to happen. They typically announce these events two weeks prior to a patch release. That being said, here's the revised timeline:

Oct. 12 (US), Oct. 13th (EU): 4.0.1 drops on live (all but official now): New talent adviser needed by this time. Regular 3.3.5 guide will work with 4.0.1. 4.0.3 on PTR?

Nov. 9 or 16: 4.0.3 drops on live (speculation, but accurate. Blizzcon update.): 1-60 quest updates need to be finished by this time. The free portion of our guide updates.

Dec. 7: Cata in stores (Blizzcon for confirm): Full guide (Worgen, Goblin starting zones) should be close to done. Time to pay up.

This post will be updated as time gets closer. I will be checking the following sites daily for updated info:

WoW forums and community site
MMO-Champion
Wowhead blog
Tankspot

And will post anything relevant as info comes my way. I am willing to do this (and have done so for the past 3 weeks), so stay tuned as the wagon is finally on the road to Cataclysm.

[rena]

7 December, if you trust the game file saying that Season 9 begin on December 14.

[wowvern]

I just told my local Gamestop of the Dec 7th date and they were excited. Keep in mind that until Blizzcon, the date is to be considered semi-official. I can confirm that Arena Season 9 is Dec 14th from blue posts on the official forums, but again, until Blizzcon...

[AussieEevee]

It would be stupid for Blizzard to start the new season and then release the expansion, however, a november release hasn't been ruled out and won't be until an actual release date is announced.

[wowvern]

If you read my post closer, you will notice that the release date is one week before the start of the arena season.

[chaos5061]

From MMO Champion:
Patch 4.0.1 - PTR Build 13131
The test realms have been updated with a new PTR build, this build is tagged as (Release) and seems to be a release candidate for live servers, it's a very small patch with only a few changes to spell data. You can still expect the patch on October 5th or 12th as far as I'm concerned.

[AussieEevee]

Remember that MMO-Champion is only speculating Although, I hope they're right in this case...

If you read my post closer, you will notice that the release date is one week before the start of the arena season.

Supposedly. The blue post said that's how they want to do things, but it may not work out that way.

[quallyamp]

Oh dear... they may have told us the date ages ago... some one noticed this

"Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Speaking to a small conglomerate of various Alliance representatives, Mekkatorque pointed out that the time to strike is now. After all, Thermaplugg has eluded death for years to keep his reign over Gnomeregan; and with the fall of the Lich King, the last great threat to the citizens of Azeroth, the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%," Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported."

Think US date format

[cabby]

Haha, that does make perfect sense. And I really wouldn't put it past Blizzard to try to sneak that info into something like that.

[trevo66]

Oh dear... they may have told us the date ages ago... some one noticed this

"Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Speaking to a small conglomerate of various Alliance representatives, Mekkatorque pointed out that the time to strike is now. After all, Thermaplugg has eluded death for years to keep his reign over Gnomeregan; and with the fall of the Lich King, the last great threat to the citizens of Azeroth, the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%," Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported."

Think US date format

7th December release seems realistic. I have said in numerous posts about Cata that I predict a mid November/Late November release. I have heard numerous rumors of a 4th November release.

A 7 December release would have it on the shelves for the Christmas, which would be a must for Blizz and a 'must have' present for Blizz customers.

[AussieEevee]

Oh dear... they may have told us the date ages ago... some one noticed this

"Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Speaking to a small conglomerate of various Alliance representatives, Mekkatorque pointed out that the time to strike is now. After all, Thermaplugg has eluded death for years to keep his reign over Gnomeregan; and with the fall of the Lich King, the last great threat to the citizens of Azeroth, the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%," Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported."

Think US date format

Nice catch to whoever noticed that :P

[quallyamp]

I cant remeber were i saw the post now but looks like it was right 8)

[pinghansen]

Official now

From http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company...es.html?101004

WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: CATACLYSM™ IN STORES STARTING DECEMBER 7

PARIS, France – October 4, 2010 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, the highly anticipated third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game*, will be released starting on December 7, 2010.

[wowvern]

Yup, it's official! December 7th is the release date.

[chaos5061]

Points system update about old content

From Blizzard:
Although we’ve revealed some details of the conversion process (https://forums.wow-europe.com/thread...74620794&sid=1), many of you have asked how many Justice and Valor Points bosses and daily dungeons will actually award. This list is incomplete, and the values may still change, but it covers the majority of the content we’ve been asked about.

* Lich King Heroic dungeon boss -- 16 Justice Points
* Lich King daily normal dungeon -- 12 Justice Points
* Lich King daily Heroic dungeon -- 23 Justice Points
* Lich King raid boss -- 23 Justice Points


* Cataclysm Heroic dungeon boss -- 75 Justice Points
* Cataclysm daily normal dungeon -- 75 Justice Points
* Cataclysm daily Heroic dungeon -- 75 Valor Points
* Cataclysm 10-player raid boss -- 75 Valor Points
* Cataclysm 25-player raid boss -- 105 Valor Points


It’s important to note that once you outgrow content, by leveling past it by a predetermined amount, you’ll no longer gain points. The ‘outgrown’ level for end-game Wrath of the Lich King content is likely to be level 81. Once you level beyond Lich King content you’ll still be able to enter the dungeons, kill bosses, and see their drops, but they will not award you with points. This same principle applies to all content that provides Justice Points, including content from The Burning Crusade.