Attending the first offline FFXIV event

Now that all those boring game facts are out of the way, we can discuss Eorzea Prelive — the event!  Part 2 of our Eorzea Prelive coverage explores the journey, the set up and a behind-the-scenes look at the extravaganza itself.

Eorzea PreLive was held in Yebisu Garden Place, located in Yebisu, which is itself located in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo.  To cite Wikipedia:

Ebisu was founded around 1928 as a community developed around the Japan Beer Brewery Company facilities where Yebisu Garden Place now stands. Yebisu Beer, named for Ebisu, one of the Japanese Seven Gods of Fortune, was introduced in 1890 by Japan Beer and has long been a local favorite. The area adopted its name from the train station built in 1901 by the company to facilitate distribution of its beer. Japan Beer has since reorganized and was renamed Sapporo Breweries Ltd. After the breweries were moved to Chiba in 1988, the area was redeveloped as the Yebisu Garden Place, which opened to the public in 1994.

**Quick note: For the town and its locations, I’m going to use the traditional spelling, “Yebisu” as it was the spelling used on all the signs, buildings, etc.

As mentioned above, Ebisu is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune.  Ebisu brings fortune to fishers and merchants, which makes this town an appropriate location for launching a new game, especially one in which Square Enix is so invested.  On a coincidental note, the timing works well too.  In Japan, days are given one of six rankings based on how lucky they are — sort of like a daily horoscope that applies to everyone.  Nowadays, it is somewhat of an archaic notion, mostly referenced when planning weddings or funerals. Still, this ranking is listed on some calendars or daily planners you can purchase.  One of my more superstitious clients actually ran white out through the entirety of his planner just so he did not have to always be worrying how unlucky a day might be.

The day on which this event was held (the 14th) was a day of trials.  It’s a day where friends come together to get through hardships, with the evening being an especially fortuitous time.  This seems to have worked out well, as the developers really pulled off a great initial event for their new MMO, and already forums are reflecting a renewed excitement about the game.  Then again, the Collector’s Edition releases on the 22nd, which this month is butsu-metsu, the unluckiest day of them all.  So what do I know…

Yebisu Garden Place feels almost like a theme park.  Everything looks very clean and new, and there are many different places to shop and eat.  It is also very close to the station and is connected via 5-minute stroll down the Ebisu Sky Walk, which is an overpass with moving sidewalks.  The atmosphere was very relaxed, though the weather was somewhat finicky.  I was able to get some good shots in when I first arrived, but it began to rain soon after and I had to take cover inside Yebisu Garden Place Tower at location K. The Garden Hall where the event took place is at location J.

Yebisu Garden Place Tower went up about 40 floors and had viewing windows set up for tourists.  It is well known how tight and cramped Japan can be, especially in urban areas.  One of Japan’s most interesting traits, however, is how stark the contrast can be between these densely packed cities and the little recreational areas tucked away inside them.  A walk through any major town or city can reveal peaceful little playgrounds or shrines that feel like a whole other world compared with the hectic areas that surround them.  Located in the heart of Tokyo, Yebisu looks as any urban environment would, but as the pictures up at the top of the article and immediately below show…

…the Garden Place fits neatly inside while still maintaining a unique feel all its own.  By the way, the picture on the right is facing the Garden Hall where Eorzea Prelive was held.

Outside, there was a statue of some guy giving an “Adventure, ho!” pose. Well, let’s follow him inside…

A placard at the doors identified this as an event to announce the completion of FFXIV.  A giant FFXIV logo spread behind the check-in counter.  Things were a little quiet since the event was not set to begin for another 5 hours…

…but some people had been here already.  Two massive flower bouquets had been delivered by Square Enix BFFs Enterbrain and Hakuhoudou.  Enterbrain (left) is a company that publishes gaming magazines, such as Weekly Famitsu and Connect!On.  They also publish Vana’diel Tsuushin, dedicated to FFXI content; and soon, Eorzea Tsuushin, which will be dedicated to FFXIV content.  Hakuhoudou (right) is a large advertising agency in Japan.

Around 5 o’clock, the staff began allowing press in the doors and up to the auditorium.  The elevator had the third floor marked with a FFXIV sticker which was cute, but there were staff on-hand to press the right button for us anyway.  In true geek fashion, I asked the operator if I could snap a quick picture of the elevator button; he chuckled and said it was OK.

As you can see above, the elevator opened up into a room filled with PCs.  They were all running FFXIV and were open for press and fans alike to tinker with.  By this point, most press had seen several versions of the game already, and the 350 fans in attendance were all participating in the beta.  As a result, most people just milled around the area, and the demos did not draw all that much attention.  At least not compared to what else was on display…

All around the PC room, Square Enix set up displays for top-of-the-line merchandise provided by various sponsors. It was like that scene out of Spaceballs:  Merchandising — where the real money is made.  Final Fantasy XIV: The Keyboard, Final Fantasy XIV: The Mouse, Final Fantasy XIV: The USB Controller, Final Fantasy XIV: The PC Speakers, Final Fantasy XIV: The Graphics Card, Final Fantasy XIV: The Wireless Router… oh, and don’t forget the thumb drives they gave out in the press kit.  Imagine someone using all of these at once; I’d like to see a picture of that.  I guess it’s no mystery why the PlayStation 3 version is delayed until March, though.  With the console version, you just pop in the disc and go.  Want the true FFXIV experience on the PC?  Step right up and empty your bank account.  Oh well, enough conspiracy theories, let’s drool over more geek crap.

And what computer powerful enough to destroy mankind would be complete without the perfect case to house all this destructive power?

The above Final Fanta-gasm is a Cooler Master ATCS840 equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 SLI card.  The design on the side is by FFXIV illustrator Akihiko Yoshida.  According to the sign, the case is still in development and may change before release.  If all this was not cool enough, there are still two more displays to check out!

The FFXIV Collector’s Edition, in all its glory. Some of the special goodies it comes packaged with that we can see here are the behind-the-scenes DVD, FFXIV–branded Security Token, travel journal “filled with pages of never-before-seen concept art,” the beautifully illustrated Yoshitaka Amano box cover, and the leather Adventurer’s Tumbler.

Neighboring the Collector’s Edition display was another case with the upcoming Battle Tracks and Field Tracks CDs.  These come with about nine tracks each and are bundled with maps and booklets.  Here’s a previous article with more information and a statement from the composer, Nobuo Uematsu.  Some tracks can even be previewed on their official site as well.

OK, I think it is just about time to head in for the Prelive event — easy to forget such a trivial thing with all these exciting products ripe for the gawking.  We already covered most of the information earlier today, courtesy of Square Enix.  I want to give them another hat tip for getting together such a thorough summary for overseas players quickly.  The Twitter account was not very detailed, and the reception (not to mention picture-taking) kept me from helping out during the Live Feed — sorry about that.

Before settling in for the show, I was contacted by Global Online Producer Sage Sundi through Twitter, of all places.  He wanted to catch up and say hello.  Until then, I had only read or listened to interviews of him online and translated the contents.  It was a pleasant bonus getting to meet him, and right off the bat he was very friendly.  Not to mention, living in Japan all this time, I was impressed by how well he handled the English language.

During the fatigue debacle, Sage Sundi had opened up a little on Twitter and posted that he had always hoped to serve as an example of cultures working together effectively.  However, with the controversy about fatigue raging, he felt that our goals and ways of thinking just might be too different sometimes.  He comes across as someone serious about crossing the cultural boundaries we, as players, smack into day after day.  Funnily enough, he has become somewhat of an icon in NA player culture, being featured in many game-related memes and photoshops.  Hopefully, cross-cultural communication is something we can help tackle as the game evolves.

Anyway, let’s head into the auditorium.

For those new to a Final Fantasy MMO, getting around can sometimes be a challenge. Terrains can be rough, maps can be confusing, and teleporting to different areas is not an unlimited resource. This guide should help you make your way through the enormous land that is Eorzea.

Navigating the Terrain

There are quite a few pitfalls in the world of Eorzea. Oftentimes you can look at a point on your map, head in it’s direction and be completely blocked by something the map seemingly didn’t even show. It’s become a running joke that Final Fantasy gamers can’t jump and although it can be amusing to those that don’t play the game, it can be a very frustrating experience for those that do.

This section of the guide will help you get used to reading the maps to help minimize any frustration.

Cliffs

In FFXIV, cliffs come in all shapes and sizes. For the sake of the guide here, cliffs are defined as any drop in the map which you are not able to hop down from. A lot of times you will come to a point with only the slightest drop, but you wont be able to drop down from it.

Click the thumbnail picture for an example of a point that characters are unable to jump down. Moving a few inches to the left will let you drop down. You will find this sort of thing fairly often depending on which zone you’re in. La Noscea and Thanalan are pretty notorious for them, but they are everywhere.

At first, it can seem a little irksome, but you do get used to which spots you should be able to jump down from in time.

Ramps and Caves

Part of what’s going to help you on your adventures through Eorzea is learning where the ramps and caves are on your map. For all you FFXI vets out there, think back to your Yuhtunga Jungle navigation skills and this will be much easier.

Ramps and/or tunnels give you access to parts of the map that may be otherwise blocked off. Locating them can mean the difference between being on path and being lost. Or, finding your Levequest targets or running out of time.

A bit further along the guide here, We’ll go over spotting these on your World Map.

Caves such as this are mostly found in the La Noscea region. Usually they’re just a dead end, but have monsters in them that can be leveled up on, based on your level. Spotting caves is also fairly easy by looking at your map.

Winding Ascents and Descents

As if the terrain weren’t confusing enough, The Black Shroud is pegged with these! They’re extremely handy in navigating, but also pretty easy to miss. Most often these function as a means to have bi-directional paths on different heights. Imagine walking down a path going North to South, and you come across a land bridge running East to West overhead. How the heck do you get up there you wonder? Here’s a quick example how. See the tunnel on the right? You’ll want to travel through that.

Traveling through the tunnel, turn immediately around and voila! We have our Winding Ramp to take us up to that land bridge on the right, while the cave we just exited is on the left. If you’re having a hard time seeing it, just click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture.

Decoding the Map

The technical, have-to-know details. If you’ve played XI for any serious amount of time, this will seem a little familiar. For those of you new to a Square MMO, it can be a downright headache. The following images are map areas for the ramps, caves, and winding ascents/descents we’ve just gone over. Here’s what you want to look for.

The ramp in the left image is the space between the two lines going up and down. My map marker arrow is pointing to the spot where you’re going to need to go sometimes get to different areas. Also worth pointing out is the different terrain colors in the left image. See the light brown spots on the map? They actually indicate areas which are on a whole other level beneath where I’m standing in that image. You can’t just pull up your map and hope to cursor-navigate to any area you need.

The center image shows how to spot a cave. Almost always, short curving lines like this one indicate some type of cave.

The image in the right shows what you’ll need to look for on your map when you wish to get up or down a level mostly in The Black Shroud. Using the pictures previously listed for the winding ramps, along with the map picture here, you should now be able to get yourself through these with ease.

Zoning and Regions in FFXIV

Regions are much larger in FFXIV than they were in XI. Square has implemented Seamless Zoning for XIV. This means that even though you’ll pass through parts of the maps which are handled by different physical servers, there are no more “Now Loading” screens to deal with. Well, almost no more.

Current Region Listing

    * La Noscea — Limsa Lominsa is located here
    * Coerthas
    * The Black Shroud — Gridania is located here
    * Mor Dhona
    * Thanalan — Ul’dah is located here

Zoning

As I mentioned before, there is almost no zoning in FFXIV. When you exit Ul’dah into Thanalan, you’re actually zoning into a new server. I like to call this a soft zone, as there is no load screen.

When you zone from Thanalan into The Black Shroud however, you will get a “Now Loading” screen. This is the type of zoning we’re used to in other MMOs. I call it a hard zone. It’s an entirely different region, with different terrain and atmosphere.

From Town to Town

Getting from town to town in Eorzea is actually a bit easier than it was in XI. You can walk between Gridania and Ul’dah, but as Limsa Lominsa is on an island, you’ll need to take a ferry.

Between Gridania and Ul’dah

This is actually fairly straightforward From Gridania, exit into The Black Shroud. Follow the path past Camp Bentbranch southeast towards Camp Tranquil. From there, continue southeast towards the marker on the map for Thanalan.

Once you zone into Thanalan, head Southwest towards camp Drybone. Continue southwest towards Ul’dah, and you’re there.

Between Ul’dah and Limsa Lominsa

The only way to first arrive in Limsa Lominsa if you didn’t create your character there is to take a ferry. Getting to the ferry from Ul’dah means running through some relatively high level areas but don’t worry, almost nothing will aggro you. The Ferry Docks can be located at 26-4 in Western Thanalan.

There are two ships that run back and forth between Limsa Lominsa and Ul’dah. Each takes 10 minutes to arrive, and the ferry ride itself is 10 minutes.

Currently, there are no monsters that pop during the ride. However, you can fish from the upper deck.

Teleporting

In FFXIV, each player is given the ability to teleport to certain points in the world. The only requirement to teleport to a location is that you must visit it and use the aetherial crystal to “arrive”. Teleporting is not without cost, however.

Anima

Teleporting requires you to spend a sort of energy force known as Anima. Each character is given 100 anima to start out with. Teleporting to different areas will cost varying amounts.

    * Teleporting within your current region will cost 4 anima.
    * Teleporting anywhere outside your current region costs 6.
    * Teleporting from an Aetherial Node to a Camp and vice verse costs 1. Even though it doesn’t say so from camp > node.
    * Using the Return function while not dead to return to your last bound Aetheryte costs 2 points.
    * Releasing from KO status to your last bind point is a freebie.

Conserve anima!

The only currently known way to regenerate your points is to let time pass by. For each 4 RL hours, you regenerate one anima point. Use them cautiously. You don’t want to let yourself run completely out, only to find yourself needing to quickly travel from La Noscea to The Black Shroud.

Hitching a Ride

There is a way to teleport without always having to spend your precious anima points. If you are in a party, you can hitch a ride with one of the members who initiates a teleport. To do this, you must be very close to the member using the teleport. Once he or she ports out, you’ll notice a ! (menu) icon on top of your screen. Use your menu and you’ll have the option to “Accept Teleport”. Voila! Free ride.

Campsites

The most common areas for doing Guildleves, campsites also fucntion as bind points in FFXIV. When you come upon a new camp, interact with it’s crystal and you will “arrive” at the location. You’re now bound there. When you die, this is where you’ll release to and the camp will now show in your teleport list.

Aetherial Nodes

Much like the Outposts of FFXI, Aetherial Nodes are pegged throughout the world in FFXIV. They can serve as EXP camps, and you can even do Guildleves from them in certain situations. Once you “arrive” at the node, you can then use it as a teleport point, but only between it’s closest adjacent camp and vice-versa. Nodes will not show up in your Teleport List. I suggest going out of your way to visit as many of these as you can throughout your travels. Not only will you get to explore more of the world, but you’ll be creating very handy shortcuts for yourself.

Thank you for taking the time to read my guide. I hope it helps you on your travels throughout the world. See you all in Eorzea!

Many players are frustrated because they can’t receive the perfect commander. We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be giving them a chance to relieve themselves of some of that frustration!

We will be releasing Commander Badges, which are used to receive a powerful commander! To get this badge for free, all you need to do is exchange IGG points for GO Mall Points!

Pleasant Reminder: Please be sure you have room for receiving another commander of the related type before you use a Commander Badge, besides, Salla, Bart, Sipoleen and Jason can’t be gotten from Commander Badge.If you’ve owned all of the uncommon commanders, please do not use any Commander Badge.

Event Duration
Sep 9th until 11:59Pm Sep 12th EDT (GMT-4)

Servers
Available to all GO servers

Details
1.Each account that exchanges 1,000 to 2499 GO Mall Points during the event on a particular server will be rewarded with 1 Spell Commander badge.

2.Each account that exchanges 2,500 to 4,999 GO Mall Points during the event on a particular server will be rewarded with 1 Special Commander Badge.

3.Each account that exchanges 5,000 or more GO Mall Points during the event on a particular server will be rewarded with the highly coveted Super Commander Badge!

Rewarded badges will be given out on Sep 14th.

The Galaxy Online team reserves all rights to interpreting the results of this event.

-The GO Team,IGG-

Last week was certainly an interesting one for those of us in MMOG land, with a phenomenal PR blunder from Blizzard dominating the headlines. Unless you were on a desert island, in solitary confinement, or just avoid anything related to Blizzard or World of Warcaft you no doubt heard the outcry over the proposed change to the WoW forums that would require all members to post with their real names. While Blizzard saw no downside to turning their forums into the newest incarnation of social media, players of a fantasy MMOG seemed to feel differently.
I don’t wish to debate the merits or pitfalls of the proposed changes, that has certainly been done enough this week, but it made me think about Susan Wu of Ohai games and her plan to make social media centric MMOGs. Players have flocked to, and fallen in love with, their initial game offering City of Eternals — a browser-based game that uses a player’s Facebook login to create their character, populate their friends list, and even create their guild. With integrated status-update-style announcements and leader boards adorned with player’s real life pictures, City of Eternals exalts the merging of real life and MMOG play. So why do gamers seem so willing to let their real information flow freely in City of Eternals and yet seem so violently opposed to it in WoW? I assume it relates back to our overall resistance to change; if Blizzard had implemented this system at the launch of WoW then I imagine there wouldn’t have been much said about it and their forums would have never have reached the level of buffoonery that they are infamous for.
This week’s review looks at a game that has been no stranger to change or controversy, Dungeons and Dragons Online.

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Controversial decisions are nothing new to MMOG developers. Even though this week’s example may have been the most widely reported, Blizzard isn’t the only company ever to spark outrage by announcing their forthcoming plans. Turbine fanned some flames of their own when they announced that their AAA title, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Strormreach, was going to shift from subscription-based to microtransaction driven. But both Turbine’s well implemented plan and the gaming community’s positive reaction put the fire out and helped change the perception of free-to-play games here in North America.
Once a faltering title that was destined for the dust bin of MMOG history DDOU is now the leader in the fastest growing segment and the model of success that many other developers are beginning to look at for aging or disappointing games. But can a formerly pay-to-play title cut it as a free-to-play? While the polish and content factors may be heavily weighted toward success, how well can the game capture players who are looking for value above all else? Let’s put Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited under the Microcosms microscope and find out.

Graphics

One of the unfortunate caveats that we often have to mention when reviewing a free-to-play game is that you often compare their graphics to those of their subscription-based counterparts. Coming from a major publisher and sporting the major budget that goes with an AAA title, you don’t have to worry about getting such a warning here. You will find all the spell effects, textures, shadows and lighting that you would expect, but without the system crippling requirements that leave some budget minded gamers feeling left out. In fact the scalability of Eberron Unlimited may be its best asset, especially when dealing with gamers that may choose to play a subscriptionless game due to financial considerations. Having a game that can morph from stunning on a bleeding edge system to smooth and playable on the Radio Shack machine that you got for Christmas in 2002, and do both remarkably well, is a huge upside.

The UI is clean and well laid out with a style that has its own unique flavor without feeling foreign to gamers. Some mental retraining will be needed to remap hotkeys and their function, but the game’s starting area and its myriad quests will help accomplish this pretty easily. My best recommendation, however, is to not disable the help tooltips that pop up, and to do the tutorial quests– they are less of an annoyance and more beneficial here than they are in most other games.

Gameplay

MMO gaming has become somewhat of a paradox in the last few years. What started out as something that was, by its very nature, a group and social experience has given way to becoming a solo affair with some grouping thrown in. Dungeons and Dragons Online was built to be as close to the tabletop game as possible which means it was designed for more than one player, but the developers have added a couple of features to allow solo players to be successful without compromising that feeling of interaction.
The first, and most prominent, mechanism that achieves this is The Dungeon Master (I visualize the little balding guy in the robe from the 80s cartoon series, but that could just be a me thing). The Dungeon Master is a persistent companion who sets the stage of your adventures via a voice over. In addition to the unseen guide there are mercenaries that are purchasable from an in-game vendor who will fight along side you in the game’s many instances.

Leveling and combat are both handled a bit differently in DDOU than they are in the typical MMOG offering. For each of the game’s 20 levels there are 5 “sub levels” that help to stretch out the time needed to level, keeping the pace on par with that of the tabletop game. While that may sound like a grindy mess to they typical player, this isn’t the typical game and you are introduced to rather epic feeling battles from the get go. The combat system of DDOU also gives it a more intense feel than auto attacking to kill your 10 rats. Combat is handled primarily by left clicking on the mob (or mobs) you are fighting in a fashion reminiscent of a first person action game, with spells and abilities triggered off of action bar hotkeys.
Before I get into one of the more interesting aspects of gameplay, the puzzles, let me first give you a warning about controls in DDOU. As I stated earlier, left clicking a mob in combat will cause you to swing your weapon in the direction the mouse is aimed. It will also create the same effect if you are out of combat or trying to interact with any world object and aren’t close enough. This can be a major source of frustration until you become familiar with it.
Puzzle solving was a major part of the tabletop version of D&D and this iteration stays with that theme in a major way, adding a very nice element of gameplay that is typically missing in MMOGs. Puzzles come in all shapes and sizes and are an integral part of gameplay from the intro quest line on.

Value

 

Radically changing the way a MMOG is monetized could easily be the final nail in the game’s coffin, but Turbine has pulled off nothing short of a miracle with this resurrection. With strong graphics, amazing gameplay and tons of content available, the free portion of DDOU is the strongest in the industry, and the item shop pricing is superbly handled as well. If you chose to pay for DDOU, there is still a subscription model available that unlocks all the game’s features and rewards you with an allotment of item shop currency each month. Players who make any purchase in the item shop will be upgraded to Premium membership, which could be the best overall value in all of free-to-play gaming.

Score

 

Overall DDOU receives 5 out of 5 hammers, with its amazing value easily making up for the slight downsides of the leveling system and learning curve. Blessed with the advantage of starting life as a big budget game, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited has made the most of its second chance and is a model for how to properly make a free-to-play game. 

Blizzard has just launched the 4.0.1 Public Test Realms! This patch will introduce the new streaming client, class & talent changes, stat changes and much more. What this patch doesn’t contain is all the Cataclysm zone changes and Archaeology.
You can read the patch notes after the break!

Blizzard said:

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 4.0.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Classes: General

• Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
• All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
• Ammo has been removed from the game.
• The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
• Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
• Rage has been normalized.
• Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
• Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
  • Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
  • Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
  • Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
  • Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
  • The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626290449&sid=1

Death Knights

• A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
• The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
• The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druids

• A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.

Hunters

• Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
• Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
• Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
• The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Mages

• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

Paladins

• Paladins now have a new resource bar.

Warlocks

• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
• Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Items

• Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
• Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

Professions

• The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.

User Interface

• Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
• The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
• The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
• The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
• A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character’s primary and secondary professions.
• Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
• New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
• Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
• New Raid frames are now. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
• The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.

For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11114&sid=1