I’ll cut to the chase: We will not be developing a Cataclysm version of the website
Why not!?
We do not have enough time. They are releasing Cataclysm on an accelerated timetable. It is also the expansion where WoW started transitioning to slightly more involved gameplay. There is no way to make a cata version of the site without a significant chunk of full-time work. We need to turn our attention very soon to the next retail release. Maintaining two classic versions of the site and retail has left us with not very much time to add/improve features on the retail site. We would like to spend our time improving the upgrade finder for the next retail release, specifically. Those improvements have been on our feature list forever!
We do not have our old code sitting around from the initial Cataclysm version of the website. Even if we could dig it up off an old hard drive, we do not think that would be the site people want at this point in time. We never imagined old versions of the game would become relevant again, so we certainly did not code the site in such a way that old optimization algorithms could be plugged into the modern site’s code base. We would have to re-write the reforge optimizer from scratch! It was also based on stat weights - I’m not sure players would accept that as “good” optimization now.
What about classic MoP, WoD, etc.?
Assuming the classic track continues, we will assess those as they come. If those releases time up well with retail content, there is a chance we could create a version of the site for some or all of the future classic releases. We cannot say for sure until the time comes. The only thing we can say with certainty is that the retail version of the website will always be up to date and maintained.
I’m sorry if you were hoping/expecting a cata version of AMR. I wish we could support everything, but in the end we are just a couple gamers with only so many hours in the day. We appreciate every subscriber, and we look forward to continuing to improve the quality of the retail site indefinitely.
Ouch. This is very sad news. I don’t mind admitting that since AMR became a thing I used it for all my optimization needs, totally outsourcing my own mental efforts to AMR. The modest 2 dollars a month was a great bargain for all the time that I saved trying to figure things out myself!
I do not look forward to returning to the dark times of using WoWHead gear lists and calling it “good enough”. But this is what I must do. =(
Godspeed, AMR crew. Here’s wishing for a miracle to allow you to eat your words, for all our sake!
Sorry about that. It looks like The War Within could come out as early as end of August, so that is putting a lot of pressure on our development schedule. Who knows, maybe the retail version of the site will become so popular that we could afford to hire someone to help us make classic versions of the site, but so far that has not been possible.
While this is sad for me and my guild mates, it’s also totally understandable from a dev / business point of view. Hopefully some things change and AMR can get updated for cata.
this makes me very sad. I have used this site since original cataclysm, possible Wotlk if you were around back then, it really was nice to be able to get an accurate way to reforge and gem properly to hit and expertise.
Any chance you guys want/need some help? I’d be happy to try and see if I could help offload some of the work if it would help with having an AMR Cata version come out…or just help with Retail.
Like you, I’m just a gamer with some technical knowledge that might be useful.
Yeah we will put up something on the site when the pre-patch hits letting people know what’s up. Pre-patches usually add the next expansion’s mechanics, so the WotLK version of the site will no longer work.
We will keep the latest TBC and WotLK versions of the site around if Blizzard ever brings back those versions of the game, but after the pre-patch next week there will be no way to officially play WotLK, same as TBC.
so what do you recommend for cata? like i need something to help me reforge/gem/find upgrades. especially to optimize things like hit rating and expertise
Dude I love you guys no matter what people say Your best in in bags and upgrades has been the best of the last 3 xpacx Well done # golfclap big respect. Will you be doing anything for Cata at all? do you need help getting the engine
running for gear in Cata? We are here for you.
Ah that’s sad, amr has taken alot of the guesswork out of gearing my alts and my main for checking for upgrades. I only saw this because i was trying to log in to check something now for wotlk. I dont play retail, so i’m legit bummed i wont be able to use your fantastic service anymore. thanks for all the help since classic launched though
I am crushed! For years other players have wondered how with a lower gear score I could out DPS them lol. Perfectly fine tuned characters always do better. Now, sadly, I am going to have to go back to doing massive research and take a lot of time to do this myself, and honestly, I doubt I can do as well.
Thank you to the AMR Team for many years of service. I still have the Retail version, but I no longer play Retail as we all know, Blizzard has all but destroyed the “old ways” of Warcraft. Sigh…good bye guys and thank you!
I am so so sad that AMR won’t be back for cata. I love this addon so much and helped me become a better player. I sorta feel like that little bird getting kicked from the nest. You all have been appreciated by this 63 year old grandma! Thank you all so much for all your efforts and time and expertise!!
Oh no. This is awful news. I hope there is some way the situation changes so you can continue to provide help for those of us who no longer play retail. You’ve been such a help all these years. I’m not sure where to go for help gearing now. /sadness
As Swol mentioned in his original post, ideally we can find a way to do future classic expansions (MoP, WoD, etc.), but this year everything was accelerated too much, and the quality of both the Cata and TWW versions of the site would suffer if we tried to do both, so we had to focus on the one covering more of our current users.
My hope is that we can come up with some things while working on TWW to help us do classic versions more quickly in the future, but we won’t really know until we have tried it.
