Rob Pardo at the GDC

Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Game Design, held a panel at the Game Developers Conference the other day about the success of World of Warcraft; what Blizzard did and didn't do right.

Go to wow.com to see a summary, complete with images.

Recently, I have been doing Argent Tournament dailies with Gaiwyn. I initially intended to save up for one of the heirloom trinkets to make levelling Kynthaea easier when Cataclysm hits (as I have upgraded her gear significantly). But now, I want to see if I can get the 150 Champion's Seals that I need to purchase a Silver Covenant Hippogryph.

It would also be nice to get a Great Red Elekk, a Swift Gray Steed, a Swift Moonsaber, a Swift Violet Ram and a Turbostrider -- each costing a mere 5 Champion's Seals and 400g (with faction discount).

I'm also hoping that they introduce a good range of new mounts in Cataclysm to make getting Mountain o' Mounts much more possible, and thus bringing my Blue Dragonhawk within reach.

Not much else to report. I play when I can and have been trying to recruit for my guild. It's hard to find casual players that are patient enough to stick around while we find other casual players.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Excited About Cataclysm

The latest news is about changes to stats. You can read about the changes here.

I just want to get excited for a moment about some of these changes. The simplification and adjustment of classes is really cool and something I am very much looking forward to seeing implemented.

• Spell power is all but being removed and Intellect will be a caster's key stat; this will simplify gear choices and having a powerful caster weapon will seem much cooler!
  
• Only healers will benefit from Spirit; MP5 is being completely removed, as is the FSR^*.
  
• Armor Penetration will only come from talents
  
• Mastery is going to be a really cool addition; there will be much more choice in talent specs and this will allow for a greater range of viable playstyles
  
• There will no longer be ranks of spells, but spells and skills will get stronger as you level -- think: heirloom items.
  
• Weapon skill is finally being removed! This is an excellent move on the developers' part, as it should have been removed from the game a long time ago
  
• The addition of Reforging will make gear choices so much more interesting!
  
• Gems are being changed to reflect the stat changes and to improve slotting; this in itself is something to get excited about, as Jewelcrafting should become a whole lot cooler (hopefully this means there will be far fewer high level gem recipes to learn!) and meeting the requirements of meta gems will not be such a sacrifice anymore!

* The five second rule, where casters must have stopped casting for five seconds before passive mana regeneration activates

The changes to gear before Cataclysm hits also has me excited. I'll summarise what Eyonix said in his post:

• Plate wearers will want to wear only plate because only plate will have favourable stats
  
• Tanks will no longer see defense or block value on their gear
  
• Mail and plate will have no intellect whatsoever; hunters get focus instead of a mana pool (we knew this a long time ago, but it is still exciting!) and caster shaman and holy paladins will have talents that give them bonuses to mana
  
• Mail, leather and cloth wearers will see a substantial health increase (40k health mage?)
  
• Absolutely no spirit for casters!! Let mages rejoice across the world!
  
• No MP5 for healers

More information is going to be released as they continue to work on all of the huge changes and new stuff for the expansion. When patch 3.4 hits, we should see the initial changes take place and will have time to get used to the new stats before Cataclysm comes out.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore