Wait seriously? Its not April first right? Hot

I actually intended to make this blog post tomorrow morning, but something huge happened so I had to post, I'm debating wether to put the big news at the beginning or end...never mind, this is too big to wait. Build 4.0.1, yes that means Cataclysm, is now on the Public Test Realms. The PTR went live as of 7:38 pm PDT and I am downloading it as I type. Also, a new beta build has been found by MMO-Champion, found, its not up on live yet, I believe.

This new build, numbered 12942, code named Fluffy, yes I will be calling it that because I've had enough numbers for a while, is rather significant. We get to see the new Alliance guild mount, its awesome, some very cool changes for Death knights, so much for almost done, more waves of information on archeology, and revamping on pets, the code name is amusingly fitting.

Dear god this is a huge build. Huge rash of spell changes, nothing huge, I'm going to make forum posts with all the blue posts.

In other class based news, we have also been shown the tier eleven set bonuses and the concept art for the warrior and hunter tier eleven gear, you can see rather easily how they are based on the old designs from the first three tiers.

At the same time we can see a huge amount of new achievements, probably enough to keep even the most obsessive person busy for a few weeks. And what goes with achievements better than titles? Nothing, well maybe vanity pets.

We also now know that there will be a specific type of flying you must learn to use flying mounts in Azeroth, called Azerothian Navigation, now no bitching about this, it only costs 250 gold, I'm not even kidding, 750 less than cold weather flying and 3750 less gold than epic flying with a the best discount.

And check out this monster, this is the guild mount for the Alliance, and see that white banner on his side, for your guild tabard, awesome right?

On to the big hunk of Archeology stuff while my PTR is now installing. Ok as soon as you train Archeology you will be able to see dig sites. they will apear on you world map, not mini, and every continent will always have four dig sites, well not Northrend and Outland, at least not until you are high enough to access them. All the dig sites will be in areas that are at or below your level, so 25's won't have any in say the western plague lands, much less Outland. You will be able to hit each dig site three times before it de-spawns and you are given another one some where else on the continent to replace it. By search I mean that you can cast a spell that helps you find the hidden site. If you've ever used something like a range finder or TomTom add ons, this will make sense, you cast the spell, it pints you in relatively the right direction and depending on what color it is, you know roughly how close you are.

The first time you get something from a dig site it will be a fragment of some artifact than will start you on a research project to complete the item. I forgot to mention two really cule things about Archeology, my grammar is going to start slipping soon because I'm half staring at the PTR Cataclysm launcher. Oh right sorry Archeology, one no one else can use your dig sites, they only exist for you, and each dig site will be tied to a specific race, you can usually tell what race based on where in the world the dig site is.

Blizzard would probably try to kill me if I didn't mention that they plan to continue expanding Archeology constantly, probably to keep us lore honds quiet haha.

MK finally huge huge pet changes. First of all, Unholy Death Knights, you may be one of my favorite specs once again. Unholy Death Knights now, on the beta, have a talent that increases the damage their ghoul does by 20% every time the DK casts Death Coil and this ability stacks. You know what is better? At five stacks the ghoul turns into a hulking monster and all of its abilities are made WAY stronger and some are just completely changed.

Also, hunter pets, huge huge huge overhaul going on there. I can't even really explain how huge these changes are for hunters. Every single class of beast pet is getting amazing new abilities that I've never even thought of, or just never believed they'd get, Spirit Beasts now offer a bit of party healing to help out Healers, Core Hounds now come with their own version of Heroism/Bloodlust/Timewarp. Hell they're even making spore bats kind of not totally useless, when was the last time you saw anyone with the spore bat pet?

I'll say it again, huge huge beta build and of course Cataclysm now on the PTR, get it quick, because You have to download 15.7 gbs to play it, and it will take a while. As soon as I get in I will start recording videos and such and getting some more in depth coverage. Ah such a good day.