So 2010 is coming to a rapid close. But what does 2011 hold in store for us World of Warcraft players? We already have Cataclysm, what more could we ask for?

Well – since we’re all busy making resolutions and claiming we’re going to lose weight or get to the gym or something else like that, I was curious what some of us were planning in terms of Warcraft resolutions – things we wanted to see 2011 bring to us, or things we wanted to do with a new year and a fresh start. So what did I do? I asked Twitter, of course!

@errant_pastor says:

I want my ‘mad scientist’ of a huntress to be a Professor, of course!
…and camels! CAMELS FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE! They are so cute!
And I’d really like to kill Deathwing. Not because I’m a big raider, but, damnit it’s PERSONAL this time.

@tongarityphooon says:

Personally, I’m going to make up for only getting two toons to the level cap in Lich King. The others were all SO CLOSE.

As for me? My Warcraft resolution is to experiment with some classes that I had normally thought were practically unplayable by my play style: that means I need to get back to leveling my Shaman, and maybe try out a Druid. I’m also planning to hit the level cap with a few more characters this time around – by the time Cataclysm hit, I only had 2 level 80s and a ton of lower level alts. I’d love to have some variety, fill different needs in heroics and raids.

Perhaps my biggest resolution though is to get back to playing more often! RL just keeps getting in the way, and I want to dive back in full force now that Cataclysm is out. I’ve been away too long, and my enemies have grown soft, as it were.

What are some of your 2011 World of Warcraft resolutions? Let us know in the comments!

Now that Cataclysm has been out for a good while, the Blizzard devs have had a solid opportunity to see how their designs have managed to play out in live play. As usual, as expected, and as appropriate, the devs are seeing some unintended effects of the things they’ve done, and hearing the cries of players who have it difficult – especially healers, who have had a pretty rough time of it lately.

Some of it’s by design, and some of it is unintentional, but Ghostcrawler did say that there will be some changes in the near future to round things out a little more. He let us in on the scoop in a blog post at the new official site, where he explained that the devs are largely happy with the current state of PVE and damage numbers, acknowledge that healing is really hard but point out that it should be, acknowledge there’s a bigger emphasis on crowd control, and notes that a number of stats will likely get some changes in the near future.

In PVP, they noted that offensive dispels will get softened a bit and squishier classes will likely get some love, and noted that they’re pleased with the overall direction away from “see a healer, kill it first” to other more diverse strategies. Head over and read the blog post to see the whole list, but keep in mind it’s far from exhaustive.

The venerable TotalBiscuit, of The Cynical Brit, has an amazing tutorial on how to get a super-secret achievement in one of the more fun quests available in Mount Hyjal! In this quest, you’re supposed to climb trees, grab bears, and throw them down to a tampoline, but if you do something different you could earn something very unusual for yourself! Check out the video to find out how!

…and if you believe any of that, or that the video itself is real, I have a bridge in New York to sell you, nice and cheap. Enjoy!

(click the image above to embiggen!)

Blizzard posted some brand new festive holiday art to the Blizzard Art Gallery, and while clearly our favorite is the above montage of Blizzard properties having a happy, fun, and mischievous holiday season – complete with at least one very unlikely Christmas tree!

There’s more to see at the Gallery though – an epic Santa and Jim Raynor with a sack of gifts just for you! Head over to see more.

Regardless, have a wonderful, happy, healthy, and bright holiday season from us here at the Azeroth Metblogs to you and your families. We’ll see you in Azeroth!

Poor Gamon. He just can’t catch a break – or he couldn’t, until Cataclysm came out, and he got a pretty hefty buff to the tune of now being an 85 Elite mob waiting quietly in respite for anyone who would dare attack him. And trust me, when you attack him, he brings the pain.

But what’s this? Apparently 300 naked orcs are more than enough to take him on and take him down. Check out the video – which will likely go down in the halls of legend – above. it’s a long, hard pitched battle, but eventually he falls to the massive fury of 600 orcish fists.

Want to see how powerful he is normally? Check out the video below from the venerable Total Biscuit when he decided to try his luck against Gamon back in the beta:

Epic.

(image courtesy of RipTen)

Now that we’ve all had our noses down in Cataclysm for at least a couple of weeks and more and more level 85s are beginning to appear all over the World of Warcraft, I have to ask the question: are you pushing your main to 85 first, or are you spending more time leveling a new race or playing a new race/class combination that you weren’t able to play before?

News has it that the World First Level 85 was earned inside of 6-hours from the game’s official launch, meaning that before most of us even woke up or slogged through the queues to get a chance to play, someone had already hit the level cap again. Granted, Realm First titles varied across servers, but it certainly seems like a number of people are rushing to the finish line so they can get started running dungeons and heroics.

Then again, there are other folks I’ve spoken to who are so busy happily leveling Goblins and Worgen to give a damn about the current state of endgame – claiming there’ll be plenty of time to hit the level cap, and there’s no sense in driving to 85 when the expansion is still brand new.

What do you think? How have you been spending your time in Cataclysm, or how do you intend to spend it when you finally install it? Shout it out in the comments.

Take THAT, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Activision Blizzard is reporting that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sold over 3.3 million copies in the first 24 hours from release, making it the fastest selling PC game of all time in the United States, and dethroning the previous title-holder, CODBLOPS.

Granted, all of the money is headed to the coffers at Activision, so it’ll be a very happy holiday for everyone involved – it must be nice to have the two most popular and best-selling games of all time in your wheelhouse. Maybe I should have opened with “Take THAT, Electronic Arts.”

Here’s what PC Mag had to say about it in their news story:

Activision Blizzard is having a pretty good year. Weeks after its “Call of Duty: Black Ops” game set a five-day sales record of $650 million, the company announced Monday that “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” sold more than 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time.

Those sales numbers surpass Activision’s previous PC sales champ, “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King,” which sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours.

“We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in ‘Cataclysm’, but the result was our best expansion yet,” Mike Morhaime, chief executive and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said in a statement. “We want to thank all of our new, existing, and returning players throughout the world for their incredible enthusiasm and support, and we look forward to hearing what they think about all the new content.”

Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, said the ‘Cataclysm’ release was bigger than “StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty,” another monster summer release from Blizzard.

In October, Blizzard Entertainment announced that its World of Warcraft subscriber base had grown to 12 million users, up from 11 million in October 2008.

I’m happy to say one of those sales was mine, and I’ve been loving the game. Then again, I love lots of games. Did you pick up Cataclysm on launch day or did you wait a bit? Let us know if you have it or are planning to find it under the tree this holiday season in the comments!

Over at the World of Warcraft Livejournal Community, frequent poster and all-around awesome news source Tchernobyl had a couple of interesting sights to share – one of which was the bunny above, which is all kinds of ready to throw down with anyone who might think to pick a fight with him.

It’s not the only thing he noted either – there’s a mouse in there wearing someone’s skull and carrying a pair of shotguns, too.

Yeah, I don’t understand either. But what I do know is that that right there is a rabbit you don’t want to mess with. He may very well be the Omega Hare.

The fine folks at ThinkGeek have a wide variety of new Blizzard-related gear, especially a number of World of Warcraft items that are must-haves for people just getting into Cataclysm. For example, the Cataclysm Mugs are brand new, deliciously usable (unlike the other Tankards available elsewhere) and perfect for use at home or when you’re at work and unable to get your WoW fix.

Also in the lineup? Special Horde T-Shirts and Alliance T-Shirts, and a beautiful T-Shirt with Deathwing on the front that’ll make people ask you “what is that angry dragon doing on your chest?

To which the answer is “he’s about to break your world, that’s what he’s doing.”

The fun doesn’t end with Warcraft, either: there’s a ton of great StarCraft themed shirts too, like the old-school Protoss logo below for this awesome-looking Protoss shirt (shown below.) Personally, I’m more of a fan of this Terran Vintage Logo shirt, but there’s more – including a Diablo III shirt.

Head over to ThinkGeek and get shopping – Jinx isn’t the only company with badass Warcraft and Blizzard-related gear!

Oh – don’t forget this beautiful “Hello My Name Is: Leerooooooy Jenkins” shirt too!

One of the features recently added to the new community site is Blizzard’s brand new World of Warcraft Game Guide, which is designed to give people who may not be familiar with the now 6-year-old MMORPG an idea of what the game is, what MMORPGs are, and what all the fuss is about.

The guide walks you through what World of Warcraft is, how you play the game and how to interact with people in the game, and offers a great resource for people who either just don’t get why people love this game, or – heaven forbid – just don’t know what the game is about or why you should play. The new guide also branches off to race and class specific pages so you can learn more about the races in Azeroth and the classes you can choose to play in the game.

In the end, it’s a perfect resource if you’re trying to entice new players, or if you’re faced off against someone who doesn’t seem to understand and you want something they can read so you don’t have to explain to them.