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11 Views
21:23:18 11/23/10
Patch 4.0.3a and more
[LESS INFO] 11 VIEWS | ADDED 21:23:18 11/23/10
UPDATE: Title fixed. Sorry for the confusion. Grrr...
I didn't want to post anything about the new patch until I was absolutely sure Blizzard will release it this week. Now is time to speak about it since they already start "breaking" the US live realms.
This is the patch responsible for breaking the whole Azeroth. After this goes live the world wont be the same again. This is NOT Cataclysm yet. Most of the Cataclysm features are going to be added on December 7, when the new expansion will be launched.
A while ago a player compiled the features of this patch and Cataclysm and grouped them so we can know what we can do in 4.0.3a and what we can no until Cataclysm.
If somehow you have misses our Cataclysm reviews and our Cataclysm Exploration episodes you can still find them over here and read them while you download the patch and wait for your realm to go online.
Plus, do not forget to check out the Blizzard store . If you want to make a game present or you miss any wow expansion this is the moment to buy them: WoW $5, BC $5, WotLK $10... until Nov 30th.
What IS in:
* Portals in Dalaran Removed (you have trainers instead)
* New race-class combinations (except worgen/goblin)
* Race Changing to new class combinations (check the wowhead table for them)
* New Gnome/Troll starting areas
* Changes to existing zones (the world that you know it will change forever)
* New cata load screens, cinematic, music and login screen
* City Quartermasters, with rep tabards for championing
* Class balancing and bug fixes
* Druids, paladins, priests, and shaman will have their talent trees reset
* Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%
* New tamable hunter pets (monkey, fox, dog, and beetle) as well as new skins for existing pet classes. (check more on wow-petopia )
* A steam powered auctioneer, similar to the engineering only one in the Like Clockwork store, has been added next to the justice point vendors in Dalaran. They are now usable by all non-engineers.
* Some mounts other items are being removed (check this for details) (thanks WarcraftPets )
What IS NOT in this patch:
* Creating worgen/goblin characters
* Worgen/Goblin start zones
* Archeology profession
* Professions past 450 (Illustrious Grand Master)
* Guild leveling
* Guild achievements
* Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor flight skill
* New Zones (80+)
Official 4.0.3a Patch Notes
In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth's defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King's fall, Azeroth's native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.
Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed…forever.
General
* Azeroth Shattered
* Deathwing's return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-60, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.
* New Race/Class Combinations
* In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.
* The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
* Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.
* Many quests in zones on Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have been removed from the game to make way for new adventures. These quests have been automatically removed from players' Quest Logs.
Classes: General
* Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
* The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
* Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
* Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
* Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.
Death Knight
* Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
* Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
* Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30% (now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown, up from 2 minutes.
* Talent Specializations
* Blood
* Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
* Glyphs
* Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.
* Bug Fixes
* Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.
* Horn of Winter will once again provide runic power when used while another Attack Power buff is already present on the death knight.
Druid
* Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
* Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
* Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
* Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
* Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
* Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.
* Talent Specializations
* Balance
* PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.
* Feral
* Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
* Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
* Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
* Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
* Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.
* Restoration
* Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
* Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
* Malfurion’s Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
* Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
* Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid's total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
* Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
* Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.
* Glyphs
* Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
* Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look... if they must. Must they?
* Bug Fixes
* Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
* Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.
Hunter
* All special attacks based on weapon damage (except Scattershot) are now normalized.
* Scare Beast is now available at level 36, up from level 14, and has had its training cost updated.
* Deterrence is now available at level 78, up from level 36, and has had its training cost updated.
* Disengage is now available at level 14, down from level 78, and has had its training cost updated.
* Glyphs
* The level requirements for glyphs that affect Scare Beast, Deterrence, and Disengage have been altered to correspond with the level changes of these abilities.
* Bug Fixes
* The Core Hound pet ability Ancient Hysteria now places its own unique debuff on affected players that has the same effect as Sated and Exhaustion.
* Certain pets should no longer forget how to Dash.
Mage
* Arcane Blast now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
* Arcane Explosion now costs 15% of base mana, down from 18%.
* Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 5%.
* PvP set 4-piece bonus changed to increase damage by 5% instead of providing 5% Haste.
* Talent Specializations
* Arcane
* Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 5% and its cooldown is now 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
* Arcane Concentration: Now has a much higher chance (13/27/40%) of entering a Clearcasting state. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds. The tooltip still states that there is a 3/6/10% chance, as it averages out to approximately the same chance with the internal cooldown applied.
* Arcane Specialization again increases arcane damage by 25%.
* Fire
* Blazing Speed no longer dispels movement slowing effects (it still dispels effects that totally stop movement).
* Fire Specialization again increases periodic fire damage effects by 25%.
* Molten Shields now also causes Blazing Speed to dispel movement slowing effects in addition to its current functionality.
* Pyroblast base mana cost is now 17%, down from 22%.
* Frost
* Deep Freeze: the cooldown on this ability is no longer reduced by Haste.
* Early Frost now reduces Frostbolt cast time by 0.3/0.6 seconds, down from 0.35/0.70 seconds.
* Fingers of Frost proc chance is now 7/14/20%, down from 10/20/30%.
* Frost Specialization again increases all damage against frozen target by 25%.
* Reactive Barrier is now triggered by any damage which causes the mage's health to be below 50%, even if the mage was already below 50%.
* Shatter now also increases Frostbolt damage by 10/20% against frozen targets.
* Shattered Barrier duration is now 2/4 seconds, down from 3/6 seconds.
* Glyphs
* Glyph of Evocation now heals for 40%, down from 60%.
* Glyph of Deep Freeze now increases damage done by Deep Freeze by 20% (no longer increases Frostbolt damage against Deep Frozen targets).
* Bug Fixes
* Improved Polymorph now correctly shares diminishing returns with controlled stuns.
Paladin
* Exorcism damage has been increased by approximately 50%.
* Holy Radiance now has reduced effectiveness on targets over 8 yards away from the paladin.
* Seal of Truth: periodic damage from Censure reduced by 25%.
* Talent Specializations
* Holy
* Beacon of Light now lasts 5 minutes, up from 60 seconds.
* Blessed Life: the effects of this talent cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
* Illuminated Healing absorb shield now absorbs 10% of the total amount healed, up from 8%. Each point of Mastery increases the effect by an additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
* Light of dawn has been redesigned. It no longer has an enforced cooldown, now costs Holy Power instead of mana, and scale in direct proportion to the amount of Holy Power used. In addition, it now heals the 5 most injured group targets (including self) in a 30-yard frontal cone.
* Protector of the Innocent no longer triggers from self-heals.
* Protection
* Divine Bulwark now grants 2.25% less block chance per point of Mastery, up from 2%.
* Holy shield no longer increases chance to block. Instead, it increases the amount blocked by an additional 10%, for a total of 40% damage blocked.
* Shield of the Righteous: Contribution of attack power halved (now 60% with full Holy Power) and base damage brought up so that a level 85 paladin in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact.
* Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Guardian of Ancient Kings by 40/80/120 seconds, down from 1/2/3 minutes.
* Wrath of the Lightbringer now increases Crusader Strike and Judgement damage by 50/100%, up from 30/60%.
* Retribution
* Crusade now also has a proc on kill to increase the healing done by the paladin's next Holy Light by 100/200/300% for 15 seconds, in addition to its current effects.
* Divine Storm: This ability has been redesigned. It no longer consumes Holy Power and instead costs 5% of base mana. It shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike and hits all nearby enemies for 60% weapon damage.
* Pursuit of Justice now has an 8-second internal cooldown, shared with Blessed Life.
* Rebuke no longer initiates Auto Attack.
* Sanctity of Battle now also causes Divine Storm’s cooldown to be reduced by Haste effects.
* Zealotry no longer consumes 3 Holy Power, but still requires 3 Holy Power to use.
* Glyphs
* Glyph of Beacon of Light now makes Beacon of Light free, instead of increasing the duration by 30 seconds.
* Glyph of Divinity has been redesigned. It now grants the paladin 10% of maximum mana upon use.
* Glyph of Light of Dawn now increases the total number of most injured targets healed by 1.
Priest
* Binding Heal now provides roughly double the amount of healing.
* Prayer of Healing has had its mana cost reduced by nearly 30%, and its base points and Spell Power coefficient increased by 20%.
* Talent Specializations
* Discipline
* Divine Aegis is now always triggered by Prayer of Healing, in addition to critical heals from all other spells.
* Grace has been increased to 4/8% stacking 3 times, up from 2/4% stacking.
* Inner Focus now works with Binding Heal, but no longer works with Heal.
* Power Word: Barrier has been redesigned. It no longer acts as a shared absorb shield. Instead, all affected friendly targets take 30% reduced damage for the duration of the shield, which is now 10 seconds, down from 25 seconds.
* Shadow
* Shadow Orbs: redesigned slightly. The Shadow Orbs continue to increase damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Spike and stack up to 3 times, but now when the priest casts Mind Blast or Mind Spike (consuming the orbs), the priest gains a 15-second duration buff (Empowered Shadow), which increases the damage done by all Shadow periodic spells. Empowered Shadow does not stack. Mastery increases the damage bonus of Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow by the same amount, 10% with the base 8 Mastery, and an additional 1.25% per Mastery.
* Vampiric Embrace healing to the caster has been reduced to 6%, down from 12% (there was a tooltip error which stated that the self-healing amount was 15%). Party members still receive 3% healing.
* Bug Fixes
* Dark Archangel now correctly increases the damage done of certain abilities by 4%.
Rogue
* Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
* Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
* Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
* Talent Specializations
* Combat
* Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
* Bandit’s Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.
* Subtlety
* Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.
* Bug Fixes
* Bandit's Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities it's supposed to modify.
* Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue uses Vanish, but city guards will not.
Shaman
* Chain Heal mana cost increased from 17% to 20% of base mana.
* Earthliving Weapon now only has 25% of its full chance to proc from a single hop of Chain Heal.
* Talent Specializations
* Elemental
* Elemental Reach now also increases Searing Totem range by 7/15 yards.
* Fulmination now has a Spell Alert visual associated with it, which appears when the shaman gets to 9 Lightning Shield charges.
Warlock
* Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
* Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
* Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Talent Specializations
* Demonology
* Hand of Gul'dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Destruction
* Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
* Bug Fixes
* Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.
Warrior
* Cleave damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
* Execute damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
* Heroic Strike damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
* Overpower now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
* Rend base damage has been reduced by approximately 17% and percent of weapon damage per tick lowered to 25%, from 30%.
* Shield Block now only increases block chance by 25%, but excess block that pushes avoidance plus block to over 100% is now converted to critical block chance.
* Slam now costs 15 rage, down from 20, and now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
* Victory Rush damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
* Whirlwind now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.
* Talent Specializations
* Arms
* Mortal Strike now does 150% weapon damage, down from 185%.
* Second Wind now heals for 2/5% of total health, down from 5/10%.
* Strikes of Opportunity now does 100% weapon damage, down from 115%.
* Fury
* Blood Craze now heals for 1/2/3% of total health, down from 2.5/5/7.5%.
* Bloodthirst damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
* Raging Blow now does 110% weapon damage, down from 150%.
* Unshackled Fury now gains approximately 50% more benefit per point of Mastery.
* Protection
* Critical Block now grants an equal amount of block chance and critical block chance (1.5% each per point of Mastery).
* Devastate no longer provides bonus threat.
* Shield Slam: Contribution of attack power reduced to 60%, down from 75%, and base damage brought up so that a level 85 warrior in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact. In addition, Shield Slam no longer generates 30% bonus threat from its damage.
* Vigilance no longer provides 3% damage reduction, but still refreshes Taunt and provides Vengeance.
* Glyphs
* Glyph of Bloody Healing increases the healing received from Bloodthirst by 40%, down from 100%.
* Glyph of Intimidating Shout no longer causes targets to flee slowly, but roots them instead.
* Glyph of Shield Wall increases damage reduction to 60%, but increases the cooldown from 2 minutes to 4 minutes (talented).
* Bug Fixes
* Taste for Blood should once again proc on every other tick of Rend.
Achievements
* The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
* What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been now awards Master Riding.
Items
* Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
* PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.
Professions
* Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).
* Alchemy
* Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he’s mean (or because he didn’t want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).
* Engineering
* The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.
* Bug Fixes
* Several epic gem transmutes that were missing from the trainer have been added back.
Bug Fixes
* Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
* Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
* Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player’s total healing done.
Known Issues
* Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
* Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
* The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
17 Views
01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp - Rated BGs - BestBuy DevChat
[LESS INFO] 17 VIEWS | ADDED 01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp queuing changed in 4.0.3
In patch 4.0.3, Wintergrasp queuing was changed so that each battle attempts to match the factions at a 1-to-1 ratio. This is the exact system being used for Tol Barad in Cataclysm. While we understand that this inflates queue times for factions which are vastly overpopulated on select realms, we prefer this system over using Tenacity. In addition, the new system at least encourages playing on a faction that's better balanced against the opposing faction. With the old Wintergrasp functionality, players were almost encouraged to be on an overpopulated faction, further contributing to realm balance issues.
That said, we'll review realms with significant faction imbalances on a case-by-case basis in the event we need to take further action.
Rated Battlegrounds FAQ
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is just around the corner -- and that means Rated Battlegrounds will soon be available. While Rated Battlegrounds will only be open to level-85 characters, we know many of you may still have some questions about this new system, so we’ve put together an FAQ to help address some of the more common inquiries we've seen.
Q. What are Rated Battlegrounds?
A. Like the Arena system, Rated Battlegrounds are an alternative way for players to battle against opponents of similar skill levels and accrue rating to purchase powerful PvP gear. Instead of competing in a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 bracket, though, you'll be testing your mettle in familiar environments like Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm, as well as all-new Battlegrounds set to release in Cataclysm.
Q. How are Rated Battlegrounds structured?
A. Rated Battlegrounds are broken down into two brackets: 10v10 and 15v15. These brackets rotate weekly and can be viewed in-game via the calendar by activating the Battleground holiday filter.
Q. What Battlegrounds are eligible for Rated Battleground matches?
A. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Battle for Gilneas, and Twin Peaks.
Q. What happened to the 25v25 bracket?
A. We decided to remove this bracket. We don't feel it's feasible to ask players to coordinate a group of 25 players for Rated Battlegrounds. If any player happens to drop group just before a match begins, the raid group would not be able to enter the battle. We anticipate most players or guilds will stick with fairly dedicated 10-player groups, and making the jump to 15-player groups shouldn't be too difficult.
Q. How can I queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. Before entering the queue, you must first create a raid with the full number of players required for the weekly bracket (10 or 15). Any level-85 player on your realm and of your faction may participate in the battle regardless of guild association.
Once you have a raid of the appropriate size, simply open up the PvP window, click on the Conquest tab, highlight "Rated Battleground," and then click "Join Battle."
Q. Can I queue up solo and just be matched with a Rated Battleground team?
A. No. You will need to first join a raid of the appropriate size and level before you can queue up for a Rated Battleground. Individual queuing will not be available for Rated Battlegrounds.
Q. Do all players in the raid group have to be from the same guild in order to queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. No. So long as the raid group size matches the weekly bracket and is comprised of level-85 players, you can queue up for a Rated Battleground no matter what guild you are in. Guild membership has no effect on the formation of Battleground teams.
Winning a Rated Battleground with a team composed of at least 80% guild members, however, will result in the additional benefit of guild experience gain for that guild.
Q. How can I tell if my Rated Battleground team meets the minimum guild requirement?
A. If you join a Rated Battleground with the minimum number of required guild members, a special guild banner will appear in the upper-left corner of the in-game mini-map. This will let you know if you are eligible for the bonus guild experience.
Q. What are the normal benefits of winning a Rated Battleground?
A. When you win a Rated Battleground, you will be rewarded Conquest points, up to your weekly cap. Weekly caps are individual for each player and are based on your highest single PvP rating from the previous week (the cap resets on Tuesdays). This rating can be derived from your 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 Arena rating or your Rated Battleground rating.
Q. What Rated Battleground rating do players start out with?
A. Players start at zero Rated Battleground rating and progress upward from there. If you lose a battle, your Rated Battleground rating will only be reduced if that rating is currently higher than your Match Making Value (MMV). For the most part, a rating only goes up.
Q. What’s MMV?
A. Match Making Value (or MMV for short) is our best measure of an individual player's skill. MMV is the skill rating per format (2v2, 3v3, 5v5, Battleground) and per character that is used for matchmaking. It exists to help the matchmaking system create great matches as quickly as possible for all players. It's generally not a rating we show, with the exception of an average MMV for Arena teams.
Q. Will my MMV go down in the event of a Rated Battleground loss?
A. Yes; however, unlike Arenas, all players in a Rated Battleground team will win or lose the same amount of Rated Battleground rating per match depending on its outcome.
Q. Does MMV for Rated Battlegrounds function the same as it does in Arenas (i.e. does it go up more when you beat a higher-rated team, and go down more when you lose to a lower-rated team)?
A. Yes. Your MMV will go up faster if you defeat a Rated Battleground team with a higher average MMV.
Q. What’s the plan to prevent your Rated Battleground rating from skyrocketing at high win ratios? If your rating only goes down when it is above your MMV, it seems that ratings will just be high on average (compared to Arena).
A. If your Rated Battleground rating gets inflated much beyond your MMV, you’ll only receive a minimal amount of points when you win. Similarly, you’ll lose many more points after a defeat, until your Rated Battleground rating gets back in line with your MMV. This will prevent inflation.
Q. Can consumables and engineering items be used in Rated Battlegrounds?
A.Yes, but they will follow the same rules and restrictions as Arenas.
Q. Will Rated Battleground teams only be matched against other teams in their Battlegroup?
A. No. Rated Battlegrounds will be region-wide, meaning that when you queue for a Rated Battleground, you will have the opportunity to be matched against a team from any of our North American World of Warcraft realms.
Q. Are there any plans to reward players with the highest Rated Battleground rating, similar to Arenas?
A. Epic ground mounts will be rewarded at the end of each season to the top 0.5% of players according to Rated Battleground rating. Titles are also available as you gain rating in the system. The titles are rewarded directly from achievements earned from gaining the required rating.
Developer Chat Hosted by Best Buy (transcript)
Will the heirloom items scale to 85?
The current plan is to have heirloom items stop at level 80 at the moment.
I was wondering what new and exciting mounts there will be and what your favorite so far is?
Not surprisingly there are all kinds of new mounts, we have spectral wolf/horse mounts, a dark phoenix, a camel, the new alchemy mount that turns you into a drake can ride, among others. Also a scorpion for the horde and a lion for the alliance. My favorite has to be the camel though... i mean really, who doesn't want to be a camel jockey?!
Has Blizzard considered adding a "Tabards Tab" to the UI, so that tabard collectors can switch out tabards more effectively without having to take up bank and bag space? --Thanks! Deathunholy of Galakrond
We have talked about adding a tabard tab. We've talked about doing a closet tab to handle it. It isn't something we are adding for Cataclysm though.
Will it be as long of a wait to fight Deathwing as it was for Lich King?
Hopefully not, we definitely have a goal to get our content patches out more quickly than we have in the past, without sacrificing quality of course, we plan for deathwing to be the most amazing encounter we've ever made! =]
Are there any plans to potentially add queueing to the rated battlegrounds instead of it having to be a pre-made raid team? I was really excited when I first heard about this feature, but after reading the FAQ i was a bit disappointed with that design.
We're currently looking into the possibility of having players in the honor battleground queue be able to be called to action by groups that aren't quite full, but we're going to see how the current queue'ing works out first so, that isn't something that would be available just yet
Will you allow players to fill their quest log with say, 25 dailies, and then turn them in right after Midnight on December 7th to get a quick boost towards 85? This is how it worked in the beta, but some players are confused on whether it will work on Live. Thanks!
Regarding 25 daily quests to turn in when the expansion goes live, this is something players have been able to do for the last 2 expansions and we aren't talking about changing it now.
I understand the decision from an economic perspective but I was wondering if the deveopers were disappointed in the decision to allow race changes immediately following the release of the expansion.
Regarding allowing race/faction change on day one. Actually this wasn't an economic decision at all. This was a decision that the leadership team made. Our priority as a dev team is to allow players to play the game with their friends, the way they want too. We also talked about the fact that this is a week one problem. So we made the decision not to restrict anything.
Will Darnasus be re built to be a real tree or will it always look like a dead stump with trees at the top?
...but now that Deathwing is doing his thing it makes much more sense than it used to! ;]
Deathwing hates trees.
A lot of players I know are trying to plan out what characters to roll for the new expansion, and the big question is: Will there be ANY new realms tagging along with the release of Cataclysm? Some point to low pop realms as a reason against, but surely with the redux'd 1-60 experience and the droves of returning players desiring clean slates, there has never been a better time for a fresh realm or two?
We haven't decided exactly what the new realm decisions are yet, but we open new realms when there is player demand for them. One thing we can't do is plan all realms for day one. The goal is for realms to have good concurrency so everyone has a great game/matchmaking experience.
Could you comment on the plan for raids in Cataclysm? If i remember it was said that there would be smaller raids in cata but more of them. Would that mean like two small raids per patch or more patches in total?
The idea is that we'll have more raid environments, but fewer bosses in each environment, but a similar total number of raid bosses overall... if that makes sense. =] so, for cataclysm launch we have the skywall environment, the twilight bastion environment, and blackwing descent, versus having almost all the bosses in one environment like we did with naxrammas.
With the changes to the game environment itself, what new computer requirements will be optimal to run the game smoothly?
One of the things that is really important to us is a great gaming experience regardless of your hardware. While the system requirements do go up over time, we do want the experience on slower machines to be great. We do this by trying to add a lot of graphical options to allow players to control the experience from "runs fast" all the way to "looks great".
Will there be more than one Legendary weapon in Cata? Will there be a Caster DPS legendary? Any info or plans would be awesome =) Thanks!
It's likely there will be more than one legendary weapon, although it's too early to say for sure. We do, however, have a plan to do a caster dps staff soon.
Where did Uldum come from?
Egypt ;]
The idea with Uldum is that it has always been there, cloaked from the eyes of the players. The emergence of Deathwing has damaged some of the technology that kept it hidden. There is a story in the zone that explains this and what has been happening in the player absence.
With resource systems now broadened to include focus, rage, energy, and runic power as well as mana, and there being conditionals like enrages, holy power, combo points and runes, will classes that just use mana be getting similar treatment or remaining as they are?
Really that decision is made on a class-by-class, talent tree-by-tree basis. If we feel like the talent spec in question needs a broader resource management then we do it, but we don't like to unnecessarily complicate a spec's resource management if it isn't absolutely necessary.
Why is it that we are not able to use Archaeology before the expansion? I thought it was really cool how you guys released Inscription last time and would love to have the opportunity to level it before the expansion drops.
Using archeology before the expansion was something we talked about, but ended up adding everything about the profession to the "post sundered" world. Thus, you won't be able to use archeology before the sundering happens.
The first tier of Cataclysm raiding has 3 separate instances to tackle. Are you guys planning on keeping with the Burning Crusade model (SSC/TK, BT/Hyjal) and having multiple instances per raid tier? Will Deathwing have to share the spotlight with some other instance?
We'll evaluate that on a tier by tier basis. When we have awesome ideas that we can successfully make happen we'll do multiple environments, but it won't necessarily always be the case. We do have a super cool idea for the deathwing tier though... ...or at least so we hope. =]
What happened with the Worgen district in Stormwind?
We decided it didn't really fit very well, it was looking kind of awkwardly forced into the city. Plus deathwing would have destroyed it anyways.
As the world of Azeroth is changing I was wondering if the Death Knight zone will stay the same or will it also be affected by the cataclysm?
The death knight zone doesn't have any changes for Cataclysm.
I have been confused from the different posts for tier gear. Will there be three levels within each tier still or just heroic and normal and in either case will u just be getting them with points or will u still have to get certain things off drops off certain bosses to get the higher more heroic version of the tier gear?
There is still just normal and heroic difficulty for the raid and dungeon content, and the heroic gear has a higher item level than the corresponding normal gear
Do you feel faction imbalance is a problem at the moment? My queue is around 10-15 min at prime time as a member of the Horde and I know this is the case on at least two of the battlegroups. If so, do you think Worgen will fix the problem? And if they do not, will free faction changes ever be a possibility in the future on battlegroups or servers with a major problem?
We are working on some technology to further combine the PVP queues at server sites. This has been going on behind the scenes for a few weeks now in preparation for Cataclysm. Queue time is one of those things that gets a lot of attention and time, but will change significantly post Cata. Really good question.
What would you say was the hardest and/or easiest parts of developing this expansion? After all, many are saying this is the best expansion to date... So, what was the biggest challenge/easiest feat in creating it?
There have been huge challanges with this expansion, unlike any we've seen in the other two expansions. The scale of Cataclyms is huge for us, and something we didn't really expect when we started development. But we certainly feel like the effort has been worth it, and feel it's our best expansion so far.
Why does it seem the scorpion guild mount doesn't have a guild flag where the lion does? I was hoping to see Hordes of scorpions from our guild walking around with our tabard hanging from the tail like a flag behind them.
When riding a scorpion mount, your character displays holding a large standard with your guild symbol on it.
Why did you decide to make 310% mount speed purchasable in 4.0? It's a huge price for such a tiny speed upgrade, and used to work well as a just-above-vanity perk for people who completed the toughest achievements.
The primary reason was to equalize the awesome vanity mounts players had, and change the mechanic to one where you used the mount you were most excited about using. We wanted players to be able to see the mount players want, without considering the speed differential as a factor.
Will you allow players to change their login screen? I'd love to be able to use the Classic login screen, the unreleased one that was shown at Blizzcon, or perhaps a login screen of a previous expansion.
Players are not able to change their login screen.
How would a person get a Guild Mount? Would it be guild rep? If so how would that be calculated or obtained?
Once your guild gets to a high enough level and unlocks the guild mount, any player in the guild with a high enough guild reputation is able to buy the mount.
Will heirloom items work for goblins and worgens leveling from 1-80 at release?
Heirloom items will work perfectly for Worgen and Goblin characters! Enjoy!
Has there been any discussion of changing the heirloom items to true "Bind on Account" instead of the bind on server limitation that it has currently?
That is something we would like to do. Currently the servers mail carriers refuse to work together, and haven't worked out the economic terms from transferring mail from one server to another. One day we hope to resolve the union issues.
Will the option ever be available to change ones class, contingent upon what's currently available to the race restrictions at the time?
Never say never, but we don't currently have plans to do that.
There's any through about making account wise achievement, like Starcraft ones? It a reason for many players to not reroll/change mains since its look like a lot of work wasted when you switch your main char. Even changing to another char to help with one fight look a bit wrong now, if you are after achievements.
We do have plans to solve this problem, as it is limiting people from re-rolling for sure. This is something we want to solve, but don't have a good solution on how to do it at the moment.
Was there anything you guys regret not being able to include at launch? Possibly something that didn't have enough polish to it that me way see in the future? (You don't need to mention the Dance Studio at this point, really, it's okay)
Well... there is the dance studio. ;] There are of course always things we'd hoped to get into any patch/expansion that get pushed out until later. One example would be the idea to have a built-in atlas that details every encounter in each dungeon/raid. We're not super happy about the fact that the first time anyone encounters a new boss, the only way to learn about it (other than looking up strategies on the web) is to charge in and die a lot.
We'd love to give players some idea of what they're about to fight before they engage the boss. =]
Do honor points and Badges roll over into CATA, or do they reset to zero?
Yes, honor points and justice points carry over into cataclysm. Stock up now!
Is there any talks of maybe some faction cooperative campaigns? Since the cataclysm is threatening to destroy all life of azeroth, to me a logical response from the heroes of azeroth would be to set aside their differences and be able to work together in a raid. An Idea to maybe lessen the frequency of such groups is make the raid difficulty increase by choosing to work with the other faction, a sort of Heroic mode. Possibly even dual faction specific raids. Has there been any talks of such poss...
This is a common request, but not something we are looking to do. While there is a singular main bad guy in this expansion, the Horde and Alliance have their own unique challenges and agendas, and typically don't look to team up. After all it's the World of Warcraft, not the World of Peacecraft.
When designing expansions and content patches, do you have a list of new features to choose from that are planned out in advance or is there more of a brain storm session?
The feature set for each patch is determined by a combination of doing things (or finishing things) that we've been wanting to do for a while, along with completely new ideas that emerge as a result of the immediate needs of the game
The primary things you won't be able to do if you don't have Cataclysm are create a new Goblin/Worgen, level to 85, and fly in the orld world.
We like to stay as flexible as possible, so it's important to us to make sure that we aren't "over planned" into the future even though the real needs players have are changing
With the previous two expansions, the new content was actually on other continents, so if you didn't have the expansion, you just couldn't visit the continent. Since Cata is largely reworking of old-world content, however, how do you differentiate between someone with or without the xpac? What kinds of things will and won't be available to players don't have the upgrade?
See my answer above!
Will the 80 to 85 experience be closer to the 18hr mark or the 5 day mark that was 70-80?
That totally depends on the player to be honest, you'd be amazed by the differences in play patterns. That being said, somebody usually finds a way to level up very quickly.
What new feature(s) in WoW: Cataclysm are you guys most proud of?
I would have to say the 1-60 revamp, it's a ton of fun to play through the zones and an incredible amount of new content.
I'm most happy with the new Worgen and Goblin starting experiences. I think they are the best starting experience we've ever done, and that includes the death knight.
I have is why not have this latest expansion as a new territory like a Southrend similar to Northrend or a Moon body like Outlands instead of destroying Azeroth and Kalimdor? Were there limitations to expanding outwards or was this just to facelift the original game?
We make decisions like this on a case by case basis.. again depending on the needs of the game. In the case of Cataclysm, the world was due in for an overhaul, and we wanted to make everything fly-able, so it was important to flesh out any areas that were originally unfinished.
Can you clarify and confirm what will be available to players when 4.0.3a hits and what will be unavailable until 7th Dec?
4.0.3a will be the patch that actually causes the world to shatter and change forever. At that point you will be able to experience the new 1-60 leveling experience, as well as the new race/class combinations.
Is there an alternative mount for worgens that other races can ride
Worgen can ride the other mounts in the game, if that's what you're asking. They're not limited to their feral run.
With the level 1-80 Heirloom items, when Cataclysm is released will the xp gain work while leveling until you hit level 81? Or will XP gain be disabled for those on release?
They will not. Heirlooms stop granting their XP bonus at level 80. Not level 80.999999.
Will achievement points ever be able to be used to purchase any perks?
We have no plans to allow this. Achievements are a badge of honor only.
Druid
Is the Moonkin form for troll and worgen on the beta and ptr the final form or is it just a placeholder?
Final!
Mage
Right now, up to 50% of Ignite damage disappears due to the technical limitations of spells critting within certain timeframes. This has implications for Mage dps and the value of Mastery as a stat. Is overall damage being balanced to compensate and can we expect a solution in the near future?
We're resolving that by rolling up any "lost" ignite damage into the next ignite that overwrote it
Warlock
Are there any plans for a new Lock mount? I would love to see a possible flying mount for Locks..
One of the things we look at with mounts is broad appeal. While we do specific class mounts from time to time, most of the time we look to have mounts that all classes can use.
Warrior
Is Hit rating intended to tramp all other stats but Str for Fury till the 27% hardcap? Seems excessive
Generally speaking, we do balance hit rating to be the "best" stat until you're at the hit rating cap
4 Views
06:43:51 05/02/09
BIKE SNOBS / NOISE / F BRakes Lyrics
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 06:43:51 05/02/09
Hey all, XRIS here, announcing that the TS is back in action, after a nice break from reality, the web, and modern life in general. (I myself haven’t checked my email in six months or turned on the TV in the last four, so I am feeling cleansed.;-)
But all that is potentially changing, because we are currently crawling out of the bright pit of new romance, over employment and other fine distractions. Carefully observing what damage, or good, has been done by this technological withdrawal. Some people still call me personally on the old 20th century device the cell phone (R.I.P. my beloved Star-tek, now I be rockin’ a pricey iPhone), well, those old school friends have expressed their hurt / offense that I don’t welcome them into a facebook / twitter presence I either never embraced or had in the first place. To all those folks, sorry about that. Though it may happen again. But for now, I am logging on to the half-life. I personally will be reflecting back on the interesting experiment of complete withdraw, while we in TS slowly reintroduce ourselves to the modern tech world we withdrew from, seeing what we really do “need”. Which seems to parallel what much of the nation seems to be doing with their wasteful economic lives.
TO THE BLOGS!
I don’t know how much we need blogs, but clearly they can be fun, if not powerful tools. Or in my case, luring temptresses, because I was finally drawn back on to the interwebs, as our beloved bassist Juggy D. told me: “Reconnect your series of tubes, Team Spider is on BIKE SNOB”. The mysteriously anonymous yet ever blogging Sir Snob Esq. Writes that we have given the brake-less fixed gear community their theme song, referring to our crappy little ditty FUCK BRAKES. Ha. Why not? Most people probably don’t know the lyrics, or what inspired the song, but we’re glad the general spirit is embraced. ( though BikeSnob picked up on the political themes stating “(brakeless fixed gear) has officially been elevated to a rolling metaphor and a political statement.”
Nice, though he isn’t optimistic people are going to take to the streets and make the world a better place, a stern letter is the first step away from a blank stare.
Since people are discussing the lyrics /origins Fuck Brakes, might up well clear up the confusing.
SIT BACK KIDS AND HEAR A TALE, A TALE OF A FATEFUL TRIP…
The FUCK BRAKES song and general shenanigans are the result of a combination of events, starting with an old fixie sticker that was floating around a few years back. An ancient time, when dragons roamed free, and the fixed gear community was much more of a cult riding without brakes, then a fashionable phenomenon. It attracted, if not required, a certain state of mind, as much as a crucial level of skill. Hence the FUCK BRAKES stickers affixed to many bikes and items, such as our guitarist $am’s helmet (featured on our Fuck Brakes EP cover looking somewhat military like). Ironically, in the distant past I had a bit of a paternal stance against non-messengers riding fixed on the streets of NYC. And I wasn’t even a messenger. I remember long conversations w/ Mike Green of bikeblog where I doubted that random commuters had a suitable skill level to deal with NYC realities. The exception being our 8-10 hours a day bike riding, midtown-traffic battling, road warrior Messenger friends, who initiated the use of fixed gear riding on the streets of NYC in the first place. My opinion was sadly reinforced after personally witnessing an old lady launched in the air on 8th and Broadway after a young guy skidded into a full crowd of people crossing the street. The impatient pedestrians were crossing against a light, so the kid certainly was in the right as far as traffic rules went. But much like the Pope’s stance on condoms, he was not really factoring in reality. In the streets of NYC, it’s the rules of the wild Wild West, aka: if you’re going to take your guns to town, you better be fast on the draw. Or in his case, able to stop. Though, much to the rider’s credit, he took responsibility and stuck around till the end -knowing the inevitable red flashing lights on the horizon would probably represent more than just ambulances. Even in the face of an escalating mob scene, including one person in the crowd who exclaimed in disbelief, “He doesn’t even have brakes!” At which point the young guy was saved from a possible crowd lynching by firefighters, who inexplicably were there before the police, (who never came) complete with their truck and Dalmatian.
Anyhow, bicycle deaths were definitely on the rise. Though I doubt any statistics exist to see if the rise of fatalities were at all fixie related, I personally linked it to lack of experience mixed with a lack of infrastructure. The city was not exactly catering to the onslaught of new cyclists of any type. In fact, cops seemed to be harassing and arresting cyclists at every turn. Hundreds of dollars in fines for “riding on the sidewalk” as people mounted up in front of their building rather than on the street. Messing with Critical Mass’ers by claiming they were “protestors”, or “parading without a permit”, charges, which aren’t grounds for arrest in the first place. (If we tend to believe in the Constitution).
And so it was on a Critical Mass bike ride, the weekend before the 2004 republican national convention, that I found myself in the infamous NYC tombs for over 30 hours (well over the 24hour due process requirements), shackled at the ankles to other cyclists while mysterious G-men carrying palm pilots asked us questions about our roommates and other uncalled for invasions of privacy, all the while giving the impression that cooperating with their Intel gathering would make it all go faster. Funny enough, bassist Juggy-D was my roommate at the time, and I refused to needlessly sell him out. Though it turns out he was in handcuffs somewhere else anyway.
At that point, between the endless electronic fingerprinting, and questions that revealed more than they obtained, I came to realize… I am now in the system.
I had always avoided partaking in the system / grid / economic debt traps etc. for their obvious (to me) chains and seemingly nightmare-like realities. So the idealistic, naive and chronically optimistic me, had always avoided at great lengths being documented. Where many of my friends had no licenses or ID’s, they were constantly being arrested. I lived the same off the grid lifestyle, but had a knack for not getting tangled up with the law. This was back when paper trails were actually on paper, passports were stamped not scanned, and living a low budget lifestyle meant wonderful anonymity as much as it did poverty. Nowadays it seems that with just a couple keystrokes you can find out your local dumpster diver’s home address, not to mention life story (and nude pictures!). But back then, the few times I had been captured by authorities it had at worst maybe resulted in finger prints on some old index card system, forgotten names and phantom addresses. But now, in the modern reality, suddenly, they had me. Fingerprints, digital photos, profiles, associate, and with this (perhaps inevitable) attaching of my heavy chains, I felt –surprisingly-- FREE. Like blazing down the avenue, taking lights, no brakes, maneuver or die time, saying, (or better yet- living) the words: FUCK BRAKES.
When I came out of jail, the Police of course “accidentally” switched everyone’s keys so no one could get in their homes upon release. And for the first time in a while, I found myself stuck on the streets, dehydrated, spent, assumed to have been whipped into shape, while in reality, I was no longer hiding in the shadows. Reflecting on my reality I started penning lyrics.
--Again the hell of my jail cell
--Rats and roaches make prisons swell
--Your harps and clouds of yesterday
--They drift away
Feeling free about the future, confirming my long running form of atheism from popular religions such as capitalism, Catholicism, self imposed isolationism,
I found myself looking backwards… and recognizing what the systematic arrests were all about…
--Mistakes were made
--In the land of the free built by their slaves
--Taught how to behave
--By corporate crooks
--Digging our mass graves
And that really nothing is new, except maybe for my own self-awareness, of how they motivated me, more than scared me…
--I never colored within the line,
--My flags and bridges burn far behind
--East side, west side, you lie we die
--Doored and doomed, still we fucking ride.
Suddenly, the powers that be somehow made riding a bike, political.
Well, all those initial lyrics sort of got lost in the piles of stuff floating around team spider’land. (See recent moving of Zak’s 30,000 lyrics ;-)
And sort of forgotten about. We would sometimes joke about living the ‘fuck brakes’ lifestyle. And how it equally applied to our cats, Snotty and Ratt, who spent every waking moment conspiring on escaping the house. Always running into the busy alphabet city streets that we were so set on protecting their naive little butts from. And of course 80 yr olde ZAK, who lived in such an immediate and present fashion, that his life appeared as reckless as the life of a teenager. Living the fuck brakes lifestyle is likely why he fit so seamlessly in the underground squatter punk scene.
Then, when ZAK passed away, we weren’t sure what to do. Should the team Spider call it ‘quits.’? Was the TS moniker more a chain and burden at this point than a benefit. What would Zak want? When we knew Zak would only ask: what do you want? And after some chilling, we decided we wanted to keep rocking out, hanging, having fun. We had lots of songs sitting around, and had spent much of our time over the last few years caring for Zak, that we never got to tour or record, a.k.a. do things that normal bands do. Soon, inspired by Zak, and more obviously our cat’s, out poured verse 2:
My kitty cats
Snotty and Ratt
Wait by the door for sneak attack,
Breaking free from my laws and lies
Their sweet meows say
“Fuck it, still we ride”
And soon we were recording our shitty little EP, deciding in a typical commercially suicidal decision to call it: FUCK BRAKES
Never the less, we got to tour Europe,
Where we made lots of new friends, and new adventures, rocked the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Ireland, lost passports in Belgium, rode protected bike lanes in Amsterdam, and even installed a much needed “American” shower in Paris. Along the way we self-taped and produced a feature Doc, FUCK BRAKES: THE MOVIE (of course) --the title of which already has distributors backing away slowly, --
But STILL… we plan to put out this summer.
So, now fixed gear riders are popping up everywhere. Skilled riders are all over, alleycat races are popping up that feature more non-messengers than messengers. Tall bikes, cruisers, 10 speeds and every other flavor are appearing so quickly that the cars have been forced to wake up. A large bike community sharing the road with the beasts, usually with admirable, (& often still required) skills, while more and more bike lanes, including European style protected lanes, are starting to appear. And, most surprisingly… the city is slowly (not so surprising) adapting to the unstoppable cyclists, potentially making it safer for all involved.
So, maybe FUCK BRAKES the song is, or will be embraced by the community who were inspired by the community who inspired it, but we probably have to make a good recording of it first! (—I still don’t like that shitty studio version floating around…got suckered into a ‘fancy’ studio where we mistakenly played around with it till we were broke and couldn’t afford to re-do it the way it should have been done in the first place: One take, raw, and on fire.--) *someone in the bikesnob comments called it ‘punk-lite’ ha. Pretty accurate. For now I’ll just enjoy it playing it Live.
Well, whoever embraces the song, thanks. Meanwhile, we’re just planning to continue to try to do things our way, making our own mistakes, having fun, riding bikes, rocking the Ska-core, and spreading the bike core reality.
Living free, not ready to die
Fuck brakes!
XRIS
\n/
b\/c
/y\
--On May 3rd, TEAM SPIDER is returning to the LIVE realm, with a FREE Bike-Punk show in Tompkins Sq. Park, ---BIKE NOISE 2!---
Featuring lots of our friends and favorite bands including: MISCHIEF BREW, WOMBAT IN COMBAT and more… Tompkins Square Park, Sunday MAY 3rd, 2009, East Village NYC, 2-6 PM.. co$t: Free. Ride yr bike.,
-------------------
FUCK BRAKES, complete lyrics:
St Peter at the pearly gates
Asks me why did I say fuck brakes
You mean we’re free to decide?
Might fall, but not today
Fuck gravity
And the USA
Cause we’re going down
Either way
Whoa oh- Fuck Brakes
Mistakes were made
In the land of the free built by their slaves
Taught how to behave by corporate crooks
Digging our mass graves
I never color within the lines
My flags and bridges burn far behind
East side, West side, you lie we die,
Doored and doomed,
Still we fucking ride
Whoa oh, Fuck Brakes
Again the hell of my jail cell, rats and roaches make prisons swell
Your harps and clouds of yesterday,
They drift away
My kitty cats Snotty and Ratt
Wait by the door for sneak attack
Breaking free from my laws and lies
Their sweet meows say
“Fuck it, still we ride”
Whoa – oh Fuck brakes
Saint Peter at the pearly gates,
Again asks why? did I say fuck brakes?
Like we’re free to decide
Might kneel but not today
Fuck religion,
And the USA
Cause we’re on our knees
Either way
Live free or fucking die
(We’re free to die)
Live free or fucking die
We’re free to Fuck Brakes!
==============
2 Views
16:34:00 04/22/09
Roy Buchanan DVD cover by Noë the G and John Peden
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 16:34:00 04/22/09
Roy Buchanan DVD cover by Noë the G and John Peden
Originally uploaded by Doctor Noe PS, we finally put up our "sneak-peek trailer version" of highlights for BlipTv and YouTube. Remember, this is a teaser, containing a fraction of the original footage on the DVD it is meant to promote. To get the full-scope, full-sound, complete experience, buy the DVD!
Here's how we look on BlipTv:
And here's the "Telly Talk Teaser" on YouTube:
We wanted to test the waters to see if there would be a demand for a similar kind of musician-with-guitar talk and demo in a Guitar Galaxy series with some of our old friends ... Billy Gibbons, Steve Stevens, Steve Vai, Joe Satch, Yngwie, Eddie Van H. (my kid goes to school with Wolfie) and Keef (I interviewed him last summer -- see this:) . ...
JC-017 Photo Credit: Jacob Cohl
Keith Richards (left) and director Martin Scorsese (right) backstage at the Beacon Theater while filming the Rolling Stones concert film “Shine A Light.” Paramount Classics in Association with Concert Productions International and Shangri-La Entertainment Presents A Martin Scorsese Picture “Shine a Light” starring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese. The producers are Victoria Pearman, Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner and Steve Bing. The executive producers are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. This film has been rated PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking.
© 2008 by RST Concerts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
From my interview with Keith:
Keith Richards is also a major fan of Scorsese’s and says he’s studied “every one of his movies. Some of them I know most of the dialogue,” he says. “All I heard was that Marty might be shooting the Stones, and I said, ‘Yeah!’ Given the opportunity to get a Stones show shot by a master, who’s going to say no?”
Richards and the Stones have been no strangers to the cinematic treatment by film masters. Of the more than 18 documentaries that have been made about them, “Shine A Light” is one of more than half a dozen helmed by an “auteur.” There was 1968’s Jean-Luc Godard activist-arriviste take on the band, “Sympathy for the Devil: One Plus One”; Robert Frank’s very-limited release (it was shown publicly perhaps three times) documentary about their debauched life on the road, “Cocksucker Blues”; Peter Whitehead’s 1966 art-scene film “Charlie is My Darling”; The Maysles Brothers’
“Gimme Shelter”; and Hal Ashby’s “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Film scholar that he is, Richards says “Don’t forget ‘Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll,’” Taylor Hackford’s documentary about a legendary Chuck Berry concert, in which Richards appeared and also co-produced. “To me, ‘Shine A Light’ is on a par with that film. It’s different because it’s a Stones show but it’s a very superior rock ’n roll film.”
And why was that one so important to him as a performer and as an artist?
“Actually, to me,” says Richards, “what was really intriguing was getting Marty’s take on it, and his vision. To me, the thing was that Martin Scorsese wanted to do something, and I thought, well, he must have something in mind that is beyond the usual sort of video scan. So I really wanted to find out what Marty wanted.”
Who would have guessed that beneath the guise of the ultimate rock ‘n roll outlaw beat the heart of a cinematheque-denizen film scholar who wanted nothing more than to please a master auteur? “When you’re actually up there doing the work, you really pass all of that onto the director so that in a way, you just do what you do and try
to do it as well as you can, and at the end you see whether you did it or not and then you stop to see – ahh! his vision of it,” observes Richards. “As it slowly unfolded with “Shine A Light” – Marty’s great use of old footage and live footage, for instance, had a great feel about it. It slowly dawns on you as you’re watching it. Otherwise, you have no idea. You can’t climb inside of somebody else’s brain.” At this point in the conversation, Keith says, "Lord knows, there's been people trying to get into my brain, but that was a necessity," referring to his own brain salad surgery.
From the Production Notes for the movie "Shine A Light"
Noe Gold, aka Noe the G is featured for his interviews with Mick and Keith in the Mahalo Daily show’s report on the Martin Scorsese Rolling Stones movie “Shine a Light,” which opens stateside April 4, 2008.
Check out the episode here .
P.S. Please check out my latest links ...
This just in:
>"}}}}));> Noe Gold, aka Noe the G is now a regular
contributor to Fancast.com, an entertainment news website
sponsored by the movie-obsessed Fandango service. His blog
kicks off with his interviews with Mick and Keith in a report
on the Martin Scorsese-Rolling Stones movie 'Shine a Light,'
which opened stateside April 4, 2008:
bigpicture.fancast.com/2008/04/fancast_interview_mick_jag... .
>"}}}}):;> Noe was interviewed about how he came to talk to
Mick and Keith on the Mahalo Daily show's episode here:
daily.mahalo.com/2008/04/04/md093-shine-a-light-exclusive...
[http://daily.mahalo.com/2008/04/04/md093-shine-a-light-exclusive-footage-and-interviews/ ]
April 4, 2008 -- Mahalo Daily, (http://daily.mahalo.com/) ranks
consistently in the top five podcasts on iTunes. We recently
put out a video which reached 350,000+ views on YouTube, and
was most viewed for several days.
There will be more from my Mick & Keef conversations here.
So whaddayasay, Guitar World flickr-ites? should we do it? will there be an audience for this sort of thing?
Lemme know.

