Pet Battle System now on Beta Realms (Early Version)
This build of the beta introduced a very early version of the Pet Battle System!
I want to be the very best!
Picking up Pet Battle Training on the beta is pretty easy, all you need to do is visit the trainer in your capital city and pick up the 2 abilities.
Update - Almost forgot about those, added something about the Pet Battle Masters.
Tracking Pets
The pet tracking changed slightly since our first preview, you now track 2 types of pets: the ones that you can't capture and are only here to let you gain XPs will show up as a small yellow dot on your map. The ones you can actually capture will show up with an easily noticeable green icon and will be flagged as capturable in their tooltip.
Fight!
The fight is started by right clicking a pet creature when you're in range (approximately 30 yards). The camera will rotate around your character and the game will switch to Pet Battle mode. From this screen you can:
See the status of all your pets at the top left of your screen.
Control the abilities of your active pet at the bottom.
Switch between pets and see them by clicking the 4th icon on the bar.
Capture pets when they're low on life!
You can also surrender but that sounds pretty wimpy to be honest.
The battle is pretty simple, weaknesses and strengths are already implemented and if you pick the wrong type of pet you will get your ass kicked pretty fast. It ends whenever the enemy is defeated or captured.
Pet Battle Interface
Attacking!
Selecting another pet
New pet on the field!
Let's try to capture ...
Gotcha!
Pet Battle Masters
The Pet Battle System will also have fights against NPCs, some of the achievements datamined last night point to "Pet Battle Masters" that you have to defeat on every continent.
Finding New Pets
How are you going to know where to find new pets for your collection? Easy, Blizzard is going to integrate a full encyclopedia directly in the game. Maps aren't implemented yet but currently, the info page of any pet will already tell you where you can find it!
Pet Family Passive Bonuses
Newly added are passive bonuses for all pet families.
Aquatic - Purity - The duration of harmful damage over time effects is reduced on Aquatic pets.
Mists of Pandaria Beta - Patch 15640
A new beta patch went up tonight, and there are a lot of changes. Keep checking back, as our list isn't complete just yet!
Item - Hunter T14 2P Bonus
- New: Your Kill Command deals $1% additional damage, your Chimera Shot
deals 15% additional damage, and your Explosive Shot deals 5%
additional damage.
Item - Hunter T14 4P Bonus
- New: Increases the duration of your Bestial Wrath ability by 6 sec,
increases the chance for Black Arrow to trigger Lock and Load by 20%,
and increases the ranged attack speed granted by Steady Focus by an
additional 10%.
Item - Mage T14 2P Bonus
- New: Increases the damage done by your Arcane Barrage spell by 15%,
increases the damage done by your Pyroblast spell by 5%, and increases
the damage done by your Ice Lance spell by 5%.
Item - Mage T14 4P Bonus
- New: Increases the damage bonus of Arcane Power by an additional 15%,
reduces the cooldown of Icy Veins by 45%, and reduces the cooldown of
Combustion by 20%.
Item - Priest T14 Healer 4P Bonus - New: Reduces the cooldown of your Penance spell by 4 sec and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing spell by 4 sec.
Item - Rogue T14 2P Bonus
- New: Increases the damage done by your Venomous Wounds ability by
20%, increases the damage done by your Sinister Strike ability by 15%,
and increases the damage done by your Backstab ability by 10%.
Item - Warlock T14 2P Bonus
- New: Increases the damage done by your Corruption spell by 10%,
increases the damage done by your Incinerate spell by 5%, and increases
the damage done by your Shadow Bolt spell by 10%.
Item - Warrior T14 DPS 2P Bonus
- New: Increases the damage done by your Mortal Strike ability by 25%
and increases the damage done by your Bloodthirst ability by 25%.
New Models
Several new models were added in this build. Keep in mind that the item sets are missing the belts and we will add them as soon as possible!
Purgatory [NYI]
*New* - An unholy pacts grants you the ability to fight on through
damage that would kill mere mortals. When you would sustain fatal
damage, you instead are wrapped in a Shroud of Purgatory, absorbing
incoming healing equal to the amount of damage prevented, lasting 3 sec.
If Shroud of Purgatory runs its course, you die. If it is removed
through healing before its expiration, you survive. This effect may only
occur every 2 minutes.
Plague Leech
*New* - Draw forth the infection from an enemy, consuming your Blood
Plague and Frost Fever diseases on the target to activate a random
fully-depleted rune as a Death Rune. 30 yd range, Instant, 25 sec
cooldown.
Unholy
Ebon Plaguebringer now also increases the damage your diseases deal by 60%.
Lacerate
now scales from 82.2% of Attack Power with no base damage instead of
base damage + 38.6% of Attack Power. DoT now deals 68.2% of Attack Power
with no base damage instead of 51.6% of AP + base damage.
Mangle (Bear) now deals 470% weapon damage instead of 350% damage and additional bonus damage.
Mangle (Cat) now deals 480% damage, up from 370% damage.
Maul now scales from 110% weapon damage instead of 100% weapon damage plus additional bonus damage.
Moonfire
DoT base damage has been reduced by 33%. Now scales from 24.8% of Spell
Power, up from 22.7%. Now deals damage over 12 seconds instead of 18
seconds.
Starfall now scales from 34% of Spell Power, up from 31.2%.
Swipe (Cat) now awards 1 combo points if it strikes your current combo target.
Thrash (Bear)
direct damage now scales from 20.3% of Attack Power with no additional
damage. DoT damage now scales from 93.6% of Attack Power with no
additional damage.
Wrath now scales from 121% of Spell Power, up from 110%.
Talents
Force of Nature now has a 60 sec cooldown and lasts 15 secs instead of a 3 min cooldown and a 1 min duration.
Heart of the Wild now depends on which specs you're NOT, instead of which spec you are.
Balance
Starfall now scales from 34% of Spell Power, up from 31.2%.
Starfire now scales from 169.4% of Spell Power, up from 155.3%
Powershot
now has a 3 sec cast time, up from 1.5 sec. Now deals 400% weapon
damage plus 100% weapon damage to all enemies in between you and the
target. Up from 100% weapon damage + 25% to all enemies.
Silencing Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
Beast Mastery
Go for the Throat
has an additional effect: your Arcane Shot critical strikes reduce the
Focus cost of your pet's next Basic Attack by 100% for 12 sec.
Kill Command base damage has been increased by 12.5%
Marksmanship
Aimed Shot now deals 160% ranged weapon damage, up from 90%. Additional damage increased by 100%.
Chimera Shot now costs 44 Focus, down from 50% Focus.
Rapid Recuperation no longer gives you Focus when you gain Rapid Killing.
Survival
Black Arrow
now costs 35 Focus, is Instant, and has a 30 sec cooldown. Black Arrow
is now a DoT dealing 5,180 damage over 20 sec. Now shares a cooldown
with other Fire Trap spells.
Brain Freeze
now causes your next Frostfire Bolt to be instant cast, cost no mana,
deal 25% additional damage, and act as if your target were frozen for 15
sec.
Fingers of Frost
no has a 12% chance to proc from Frozen Orb hits, down from 20%. Now
also has a 4% chance to proc from Blizzard ticks. Now has a 9% chance to
proc from Scorch, up from 8%.
Mastery: Frostburn
now scales from 150% of Spell Power, down from 250% of SP. Now also
increases the damage done by your Water Elemental by 150% of your Spell
Power.
Blackout Kick now costs 2 Chi, up from 1 Chi. Base damage increased by 20%.
Crackling Jade Lightning now costs 1.5% of Base Mana, down from 3%. When dealing damage, you have a 15% chance to generate 1 Chi.
Detox now removes Disease effects instead of Bleed effects.
Expel Harm now costs 2.5% of Base Mana, down from 6%. Now Generates 1 Chi.
Fortifying Brew now Increases your health by 100%, and reduces damage taken by 20%. Lasts 20 sec.
Grapple Weapon
now grabs non-ranged weapons. If you steal a better main-hand weapon,
your damage or healing will be increased by 5% or damage taken reduced
by 5%.
Healing Sphere now costs 2% of Base Mana, up from 1.5% of Base Mana. Now is instant cast, down from 1.5 sec cast. Now has a 0.5 sec cooldown.
Spinning Crane Kick now costs 2 Chi, down from 1 Chi. During Spinning Crane Kick, you can continue to dodge and parry.
Tiger Palm now deals 50% additional damage if the target is above 50% health.
Transcendence now has a 45 sec cooldown, down from 3 minutes.
Talents
Charging Ox Wave now affects all nerby enemies within 5 yards, down from 40 yards.
Karma
*New* - Reduces all spell damage taken by 90% and clears all magical
effects on you, reversing them back to their original caster if within
40 yards. Lasts for 6 sec. 1 Chi. Instant. 1.5 min cooldown
Zen Sphre
Summons a Zen Sphere at the target location. Deals x damage to the 3
lowest health enemies within 20 yards of the sphere every 1 sec. If
enemies die from the Zen Sphere, they combust dealing y damage enemies
within 8 yards. Use Zen Sphere again while active to detonate it,
instantly dealing y damage to all enemies within 20 yards. 1 Chi. 40
Yards Range. Instant.
Rushing Jade Wind
has been reworked and now has a 30 sec cooldown, down from 45 sec. You
summon a whirling tornado that travels 0 yards in front of you, dealing
5,454 Nature damage to all targets in its path and increasing damage
taken by your Spinning Crane Kick by 30%. For 8 sec sec after you cast
Rushing Jade Wind, you move at 200% speed while using Spinning Crane
Kick and reduces Spinning Crane Kick's Chi cost by 1 Chi.
Tigereye Brew now costs 3 Chi, up from 1 Chi. Now has a 60 sec cooldown, down from 90 sec. Now Increases your damage and healing done by 15%.
Tiger's Lust now has a 30 sec cooldown, down from 60 sec.
Mistweaver
Brew: Mana Tea
- For each 4 Chi you consume through use of spells and abilities, you
gain a charge of Mana Tea. Use Mana Tea to consume the charges. Mana Tea
can stack up to 50 times.
Life Cocoon
is no longer a talent. Now costs 3.5% of base Mana instead of 2 Chi.
Now requires Serpent Stance. Reworked - Encases the target in a cocoon
of Chi energy, increasing all periodic healing taken by 100% and
reducing all damage they take by 30%.
Renewing Mists
now costs 4.2% of Base Mana, up from 3%. Base healing increased by 50%.
Now scales from 31.5% of Spell Power, up from 21.5% of SP.
Revival now cleanses Disease effects instead of Bleed.
Soothing Mists
now costs 1% of Base Mana, down from 2%. Now heals (52,576 + 51.2% of
SP), up from (3,119 + 28.8% of SP). Now has a 20% chance to generate 1
Chi, up from 15%.
Stance of the Wise Serpent
now has an additional effect - In addition, you also gain Eminence
causing you to heal the lowest health nearby target within 20 yards
equal to 50% of the damage you deal.
Summon Jade Serpent Statue
now has an instant cast and a 3 minutes cooldown. Now limited to 1
statue, down from 2. Healing increased by 200%, now scales from 110% of
Spell Power.
Surging Mist
base healing has been increased by 26%. Now scales from 180% of spell
power, up from 125%. No longer targets the lowest health friendly
target.
Uplift base healing has been increased by 37%. Now scales from 42.5% of Spell Power, up from 25.5% of Spell Power.
Brewmaster
Avert Harm now reduces damage taken by 50%, up from 20%.
Brewmaster Training
Blackout Kick portion reworked - After you Blackout Kick, you gain
Shuffle causing the 3 attacks taken to become staggered within $115307.
Clash - You and the target charge each other, meeting halfway then stunning all targets within 6 yards.
Dizzying Haze
now costs 20 Energy, up from 10 Energy. Now reduces movement speed by
50%, up from 15%. Misfire chance now stacks up to 3 times.
Spinning Fire Blossom
now deals Fire damage instead of Physical damage. Now also roots the
target for 2 sec if Fire Blossom travels further than 10 yards.
Sword of Light
has an additional effect - Your spell power is now equal to 50% of your
attack power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of spell
power.
Protection
Mastery: Divine Bulwark
now scales from 120% of Spell Power, down from 225% of Spell Power. Now
also increases the effectiveness of Bastion of Glory by an additional
120% of Spell Power.
Guarded by the Light
now also increases your block chance by 10%. Your spell power is now
equal to 50% of your attack power, and you no longer benefit from other
sources of spell power.
Shield of the Righteous
Reworked - Instantly slam the target with your shield, causing 5,364
Holy damage, increasing your block chance by 10%, and the amount you
block by 30% for 6 sec, and causing Bastion of Glory. Bastion of Glory -
Increases the strength of your next Word of Glory when used to heal
yourself by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times.
Mass Dispel now costs 13% of base mana, down from 38% of base mana. Now has a 15 sec cooldown.
Void Shift
is no longer a talent. Now has a 6 min cooldown. You and the currently
targeted party or raid member swap health percentages. Increases the
lower health percentage of the two to 25% if below that amount.
Talents
Cascade absorb has been reduced by 66%. Now scales from 97.5% of Spell Power, down from 261.3%.
Divine Insight
Discipline and Holy bonuses have been reworked. Discipline - When you
cast Spirit Shell, there is a 40% chance your next Power Word: Shield
will both ignore and not cause the Weakened Soul effect. Holy - When you
cast Greater Heal, there is a 40% chance your next Prayer of Mending
will not trigger its cooldown, and will jump to each target instantly.
Divine Star
now is instant cast, down from 0.25 sec cast. Base damage/healing has
been reduced by 28%. Now scales from 32.5% of Spell Power, down from
65%.
Halo is now Instant, down from 2 sec cast. Base damage reduced by 50%. Now scales from 195% of Spell Power, down from 390%.
Mindbender
*New* - Creates a Mindbender to attack the target. Caster receives 6%
mana when the Mindbender attacks. Damage taken by area of effect attacks
is reduced. Lasts 15 sec. 4 min cooldown. Can be cast in Shadowform.
Twist of Fate has been reworked - After damaging or healing a target below 20% health, you deal 15% increased damage and healing for 10 sec.
Holy
Chakra: Chastise
now Increases the damage done by your Shadow and Holy spells by 15%,
grants a 10% chance for Smite to reset the cooldown of Holy Word:
Chastise, reduces the mana cost of Smite and Holy Fire by 75%, and
transforms your Holy Word spell back into Holy Word: Chastise.
Greater Heal base healing has been reduced by 17%. Now has a 2.5 sec cast time, down from 3 sec.
Serendipity
- When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your
next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 20% and mana
cost reduced by 10%. Stacks up to 2 times. Lasts 20 sec.
Shadow
Vampiric Touch base damage has been reduced by 75%. Now scales from 37.6% of Spell Power, down from 62.6% of Spell Power.
Borrowed Time - Grants 15% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield. Lasts for 6 sec.
Meditation now allows 25% of mana regeneration to continue, down from 50%.
Rapture
- When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled you
are instantly energized with mana equal to 150% of your Spirit. This
effect can only occur once every 12 sec.
Spirit Shell
now costs 6% of Base Mana, up from 2%. Now has a 1.5 sec cast time,
down from 3 sec. now absorbs (32,648 + 219.0% of SP) spell damage.
Healing now procs when the shield expires or is dispelled.
Major Glyph
Glyph of Fade now causes your Fade ability now also reduces all damage taken by 10%.
Glyph of Penance now Increases the mana cost of Penance by 20% but allows Penance to be cast while moving.
Fan of Knives - Radius increased from 8 to 10 yards.
Rogue - Major Glyphs
Glyph of Fan of Knives
- Renamed Deadly Momentum. When you land a killing blow on an opponent
that yields experience or honor, your Slice and Dice and Recuperate
abilities are refreshed to their original duration.
Imp: Singe Magic - Auto-Cast: Cast upon master when he is stunned, silenced, polymorphed or feared by a magic effect.
Shadow Bolt - Damage reduced to 1,428 + 150% of Spell Power, down from 1,503 + 175.0% of SP.
Soul Fire - Mana cost reduced to 8% of Base Mana, down from 11%. Damage reduced to 1,894 + 150.0% of SP, down from 2210 + 175.0% of SP.
Soul Harvest
- Reworked: You and your demon absorb nearby wandering souls,
regenerating 2% health every second while out of combat. This effect is
disabled in arenas.
Succubus: Seduction - Auto-Cast: Cast upon targets who stun, silence or fear their master.
Summon Doomguard - The Doomguard will cast Doom Bolt until it departs.
Voidwalker: Consume Shadows
- Renamed to Shadow Bulwark. 50 Energy, Instant, 60 sec cooldown.
Temporarily grants the Voidwalker 30% of their maximum health for 20
sec. Auto-Cast: Use this ability when below 20% health.
Voidwalker: Sacrifice
- Renamed Shadow Shield. 60 Energy, Instant, 10 sec cooldown. Encases
the Voidwalker in shadow energy, reducing physical damage taken by 60%
for 30 sec. Each time the Voidwalker is struck, a blast of Shadow damage
is released, dealing NaN Shadow damage and reducing the power of Shadow
Shield by 20%. Auto-Cast: Use this ability when being attacked.
Voidwalker: Suffering - Auto-Cast: Taunts the current target if it is not attacking the Voidwalker and taunts any target who attacks its master.
Warlock - Talents
Dark Regeneration
- Cooldown reduced to 2 min, down from 3. Now restores 30% (was 50%) of
you and your pet's maximum health and increases all healing received by
25% over 12 sec (was 20 sec).
Grimoire of Sacrifice
- You sacrifice your demon to increase the power of your direct damage
spells by 15% and regenerate 2% of maximum health every 5 sec.
Molten Core now procs from Shadowflame or Wild Imps. Molten Core now also reduces the mana cost of Soul Fire.
Wild Imps
- Your Shadow Bolt hits summon a Wild Imp from the Twisting Nether.
This effect can occur every 20 sec. Each Wild Imp will cast 10 Firebolts
before departing. Each Firebolt generates 5 Demonic Fury.
Warlock - Destruction
Backdraft - When you cast Conflagrate, the cast time and mana cost of your next three Incinerates is reduced by 30%. Lasts 15 sec.
Burning Embers - Burning Embers are generated by casting Incinerate and are consumed by Chaos Bolt to deal damage or Ember Tap to heal you.
Chaos Bolt
- Unleashes a blast of chaos, causing (1,705 + 150.0% of SP * (1 + 1%
of (25 + 1,000.0% of SP)))) Shadow damage. Replaces Soul Fire.
Chaotic Energy
- You drain energy directly from the twisting nether. Your mana
regenerates 650% faster and your spell haste also increases your mana
regeneration. No longer affects Fel Flame and Soul Fire.
Conflagrate - Now costs 1% of Base Mana. Now has a 12 sec cooldown.
Havoc
- Cooldown reduced to 1.5 min, down from 2. Duration increased to 15
sec, up from 6 sec. Causes the next three (was four) single target
spells cast by the Warlock to also strike this target.
Drain Soul
- Now costs 3% of Base Mana. Base damage decreased to 1,895, down from
2,526. If the target is at or below 20% health, Drain Soul causes double
the normal damage and your periodic damage spells tick 100% faster.
Nightfall - now has a 10% chance to proc, up from 4%. This effect cannot occur more than 5 times a minute.
Glyph of Immolate
- Renamed Glyph of Dark Soul. While off cooldown, your Dark Soul
ability passively grants you 10% of the active effect, but reduces the
power of Dark Soul by 10%.
Glyph of Incinerate
- Renamed Glyph of Imp Swarm. Teaches you the ability Imp Swarm.
Requires Demonology. Summons 5 Wild Imps; from the Twisting Nether to
attack the target. The Wild Imps passive effect is disabled while Imp
Swarm is on cooldown.
Glyph of Life Tap
- Your Life Tap no longer consumes health, but instead absorbs 15% of
MHP healing recieved. This effect stacks. The absorb lasts 30 sec.
Glyph of Shadowflame - Your Shadowflame slow is increased to 50% but Hand of Gul'dan no longer has charges.
Warlock - Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Bane of Agony - Renamed Glyph of Verdant Spheres. Your Soul Shards are transformed into Verdant Spheres.
Glyph of Imp - Renamed Glyph of Hand of Gul'dan. Your Hand of Gul'dan can now be targetted at a location.
Battle Stance - Increases rage generated from normal melee attacks by 100%.
Berserker Rage - You become Enraged, increasing the rage you generate from normal melee attacks by 50% for 6 sec.
Berserker Stance - A reckless combat stance. Generates rage from damage taken.
Block - New: Gives a chance to block enemy melee attacks.
Defensive Stance
- A tanking combat stance. Decreases damage taken by 15%. Reduces the
chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%. Significantly
increases threat generation.
Enrage
- Now works with melee abilities instead of just special abilities. Now
increases the rage you generate from normal melee attacks by 50% for 6
sec, up from 25%.
Spell Reflection - Cooldown reduced to 15 sec, down from 25 sec.
Warrior - Talents
Enraged Regeneration - Now costs 60 Rage. Costs no Rage if used while Enraged. Now heals over 5 secs, down from 10 secs.
Piercing Howl - Duration increased to 15 sec, up from 6 sec.
Bastion of Defense - Increases your block chance by 10%, down from 15%. No longer increases armor from items.
Revenge - Cooldown reduced to 4.5 sec, down from 6 sec.
Shield Barrier - Raise your shield, absorbing (100% of AP) damage for the next 6 sec. Absorption amount increases with attack power.
Unwavering Sentinel - now increases armor value from items by 10% instead of reducing chances to be critically hit.
Warrior - Fury
Bloodthirst
- Damage decreased to 75% weapon damage, down from 100%. The chance for
Bloodthirst to be a critical strike increases the longer it has been
since you have been Enraged.
Meat Cleaver - Dealing damage with Whirlwind reduces the Rage cost of your next Whirlwind by 5. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Raging Blow - Damage reduced to 120% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Single-Minded Fury
- When you dual-wield one-handed weapons, all damage is increased by
25% (was 35%), and your off-hand weapon will deal an additional 30% (was
40%) damage.
Whirlwind - Rage cost increased to 30 rage, up from 25. Cooldown removed. Now deals 100% weapon damage, up from 35%.
Wild Strike - Damage reduced to 220% weapon damage, down from 270%.
Warrior - Major Glyphs
Glyph of Cleaving - Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1.
Glyph of Incite - Your Devastate hits cause your next Heroic Strike or Cleave to hit for 100% more damage.
Glyph of Sweeping Strikes - Reduces the duration of Sweeping Strikes by 50%, but it hits one extra target.
Extinction Event
Defeat Salyis's Warband in Valley of the Four Winds.
10
Pandaria Raid
Getting Hot In Here
Have the entire raid dance with Sebutai the Swift after being hit by Pillage.
10
Pandaria Raid
I Heard You Like Amber...
Kill
Living Amber in Burning Amber until at least 8 pools overlap, and then
defeat Amber-Shaper Un'sok on Normal or Heroic difficulty in Heart of
Fear.
10
Pandaria Raid
Less Than Three
Defeat Wind Lord Mel'jarak without crowd-controlling more than 2 of his swarm at once.
10
Pandaria Raid
Like an Arrow to the Face
Defeat Garalon in Heart of Fear on Normal or Heroic difficulty without destroying any of his legs.
10
Pandaria Raid
Straight Six
Defeat Elegon after having deactivated six Empyreal Focuses within 10 seconds.
Attention to Detail
Defeat Jandice Barov in Heroic difficulty without ever eliminating a false image.
10
Pandaria Dungeon
Humane Society
Defeat Houndmaster Braun without killing any hounds in Scarlet Halls on Heroic Difficulty.
0
Pandaria Dungeon
Seeds of Doubt [NYI]
Defeat the Sha of Doubt encounter while under the effects of 4 Seeds of Doubt.
0
Pandaria Dungeon
Where's My Air Support?
Defeat Commander Vo'jak after having killed the Sik'thik Amberwing in Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.
0
Guild Feats of Strength
Realm First! Grand Empress Shek'zeer
First guild on the realm to defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
Realm First! Sha of Fear
First guild on the realm to defeat the Sha of Fear in Terrace of Endless Spring on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
10
Guild Feats of Strength
Realm First! Will of the Emperor
First
guild on the realm to defeat the Will of the Emperor encounter in
Mogu'shan Vaults on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
Kun-Lai Summit Zone Preview Longview and Dr. Wuky offer us a look at Kun-Lai Summit in a previous beta build.
Important - As usual, this is WORK IN PROGRESS. The screenshots and video do not reflect the final version of the zone.
Vodka vs Method Dragon Soul Challenge
The Dragon Soul Challenge is a head-to-head speed clear competition between vodka and Method. With no buff and no stopping, the first guild to fully clear 25 player Heroic Dragon Soul wins. Both raids will occur simultaneously on 4/21/2012 at 2:00 pm EST[8:00 pm CET].
They invite all fans of World of Warcraft to view and participate in all the action at http://athenelive.com/dschallenge. The primary stream will showcase players from both guilds and be casted by Athene and Kinaesthesia. 100% of all proceeds from this event will go directly to the Save the Children charity.
Razer, Curse, and other sponsors will be providing prizes to the viewers such as signed Cataclysm Collectors' Edition games, Razer headsets, mice, and keyboards, Curse shirts and Premium accounts, and other prizes.
WoW China Developers Q&A Otarma was kind enough to translate some of the questions from the WoW China Developers Q&A for us. If you want to see all of the questions or help to provide a more accurate translation, see the original topic!
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Will we be able to steal people's crops in the Tiller's farming area?
No, you are the only one who can see your farm.
Will there be more faction-themed mounts (e.g. Armored Razzashi Raptor and Rivendare's Deathcharger)? Some complain that Alliance can have more Horde-themed mounts.
We want to make sure both factions have all the new mounts. After all, even in the old days, all that it took to collect all the mounts was a lot of time investment.
Are there plans to adjust leveling speed? Or lower the XP required to level from 60 to 80?
It's hard to say. The current leveling speed is already too fast. Many players switch to next area so quickly that they cannot experience the full quest lore. We might adjust the quest routes for levels 60 to 80 so that players can choose the route they want.
I heard there would be archaeology dailies. Are these dailies available only when archaeology skill reaches 525? Or is it like the fishing and cooking dailies in Cata, which merely require minimum skill points?
The latter. Archaeology dailies are like fishing and cooking, chosen randomly from 3-5 quests every day.
Is there a reputation requirement to use elder tokens to buy gear?
No. You will be able to use elder tokens to buy gear from specific NPCs. The elder-token gear is different from the reputation gear sold by reputation vendors. Except for some gear that requires certain levels, you can buy many enchants from these NPCs (similar to those provided by rep vendors in Cata). Rep vendors will also sell some rep gear like before that costs gold, not elder tokens, and this gear requires certain level of reputation.
Is it possible to introduce the option of invalidating the Alt+Tab combination like SC2 does so that players who do arenas or raids won't accidentally switch to their desktop? Such accidents are common because many players use Alt in their customized hotkeys.
Currently we don't have such plan. Our UI settings are already too complicated.
Will there be some graphical upgrades in Mists of Pandaria?
We further enhanced rendering, shadow and environment fog. But they are not easy to see. We may consider giving a detailed list of changes or some before-after comparison screenshots.
Some players feel empty during the time of leveling from 1 to 85 because of the acquiring frequency of skills and talents decreased. What do you think?
The frequency at which you acquire skills is as high as it was before, if not higher. After all, those skills that used to require talent points are available from your specialization directly. The most different part now is players do not click talent trees once every 1 or 2 levels. We never considered it interesting to have players choose to add 1% damage to their frost spells. We plan to introduce a window to tell players when they can learn a certain spell. However, the new talent system is more important to level 90 characters than the leveling characters. We will introduce a similar mechanic to dungeon unlocks. (e.g. a Level 15 Horde character will receive a message to tell him/her that Ragefire is accessible now)
Is there going to be a queuing system for challenge mode dungeons like the normal and heroic dungeons?
Np. Challenge modes will be extremely difficult. You have to run the challenge with a group that you are familiar with. Our current design philosophy is that once a member goes AFK after entering the dungeon, you will have to start over.
Is there going to be any requirement to enter challenge modes? Since all the ilevels of a player's gear are normalized, will there still be something like an ilevel requirement?
There will be a minimum ilevel requirement, maybe higher than heroic dungeon.
Ideally, how long will it take for a PuG to complete a run of a heroic dungeon in Mists? You mentioned earlier that the difficulty of heroic dungeon would be close to the ones of WotLK, so how about the time taken?
The time needed to complete a WotLK heroic dungeon varied greatly from the time this expansion launched to the introduction of LFD. In Mists we believe 30 to 45 minutes is an ideal average value.
Will there be any rules about pet trading? Will we be able to trade pets of limited editions (like Panda Cub) or Blizzard Store pets （like Wind Rider Cub）? How about achievement pets?
We plan to allow players to trade Blizzard Store pets excluding Guardian Cub (because it's not BoP and it's unique). Collector's edition and other limited edition pets (like Mini Tyrael or BlizzCon pets) will not be tradable, either.
You said earlier that not all pets can take part in pet battle system. What are the exceptions?
Currently the exceptions are pets with humanoid children models. They will not be included in pet battle system. Nor will the Guardian Cub.
Scenarios seem fun enough. Will they provide some solid rewards other than VP and rep? And are all scenarios accessible only to level 90 players?
Given the simplicity and convenience of Scenarios, VP and rep are enough. Currently scenarios are accessible to level 90 players only, but we might introduce some low-level scenarios in future.
Compared with WotLK and TBC, leveling from 80 to 85 in Cataclysm is significantly faster. How about MoP?
It's hard to predict before the game goes live. On average we think it won't be faster than Cataclysm since you are not allowed to use flying mounts during leveling. So the time taken should be a little bit longer.
Some players think it's not a good idea to have Mistweavers healing while damage-dealing. Have you considered other devices of gaining chi?
We won't force Mistweavers to do so. It's only an optional game style, just like Atonement Priests healing with Smite. In some special encounters, Mistweavers can totally stay in the back of the raid with other healers. We haven't completed all the Monks skills so chances are some other ways of gaining chi can be added in.
The number of 25-man raiding guilds seems to be declining. Are there going to be any plans to encourage them? Or do you plan to remove 25-man raids?
A: The number of 25-man raiding guilds is probably going to keep decreasing, but we will still continue to provide 25-man raids unless one day no one does 25-man raids anymore. We do not have direct plans to encourage players to choose 25-man. We hope to keep 10-man and 25-man raids close enough so players can choose the type that they find interesting. (Provided you have enough people to run 10-man or 25-man raids)
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Talent System Feedback I wonder, when mop rolls out, and every fire mage has the same spec, will you admit failure? Theory crafters will figure out which combination of talents and glyphs provides the best dps given a situation. We call those situations boss fights. Look back at your data, and tell me how many fire mage specs where used on ragnaros.
Yep, we would admit failure if every Fire mage still takes the same talents. We don't think the theorycrafters will be able to solve the problem as easily as you describe though. Does Greater Invis or Cauterize provide the higher dps? Both can save your life, depending on you and the situation. Maybe Nether Tempest or Living Bomb might have a marginally higher dps than each other for some fights, but still, it's much easier for us to balance two abilities against each other than it is to balance a 33/5/3 build against a 34/3/4 build.
As to your Ragnaros question, the answer as you can imagine is that the talent builds were virtually identical. That's what we we're trying to fix. However, if you look at glyphs, the situation is much more diverse. The new talents are more akin to Major glyphs, in that they aren't just passive dps increases. About 30% of mages had Glyph of Dragon's Breath and about 30% had Glyph of Blink. Which was the higher dps? Apparently there was disagreement, or nobody knew, or it didn't matter.
You didn't remove traps either. Look at warriors. Yep blade storm tanking sounds boss.. until you realize that dodge, parry and block do not function while channeling an ability. Don't worry, I had to look that up on a third party website, because blizzard refuses to document their own games basic mechanics.
We want Bladestorm to be attractive to tanks. It would be a flaw in the tree if one of the talents was a no-brainer to skip. In 5.0, Bladestorm does not prevent dodge, block or parry, and it even allows shouts, of which Last Stand is included.
I sympathize with the problem that our tooltips can't explain all of the nuance, depth and exceptions for the abilities. At times we have tried to be more complete, but the tooltips ended up reading like legal documents and of course grew very long. It's a problem we'll continue to try and solve though.
The issue is you are asking us to ignore the fact it's you that designed the 4.x system and you also similary tried to "sell us" that system as a net positive back in the pre-4.0 days. It's a matter of trust and prior performance.
Hey, we're happy to admit our mistakes and try to improve the game for the future. I suspect you'd probably prefer that than if we stubbornly clung to failed experiments. Our sincere hope is that new talent system fixes the problem of player choice and customization once and for all. I think it has a strong chance of doing so. But I've been in this business long enough to know that I might be wrong.
If for an example in a raid I am a healer who "never has to move" or that the "movement I do doesn't really need any fancy augmentation from a talent" then offering me three "movement" talents won't seem interesting. That's why throughput "increasers" seem more interesting to people because at least they can see the utility because for the most part
I'm not trying to nitpick through all these examples. I just want to communicate that the system would be a lot less compelling if there were obvious choices or non-choices like this. But please keep telling us of any you think fall into that category. We have time to fix them.
We do some Patchwerk-style fights still (Ultraxion was pretty close), but there are plenty of fights with many moving parts as well. Maybe we're arguing semantics here, but I don't think "increasers" are interesting. They may be useful, perhaps even mandatory, but that works against their being interesting. You don't have to think about them much. You don't have to experiment. You don't have to be a clever player to benefit from them. They just kind of sit there, making your numbers bigger.
Deciding "will I use this talent?" is interesting (in my definition anyway, which is the definition commonly used in game design, so maybe I'm just slipping into industry jargon). Deciding how to use the talent is interesting. I love the thought that a mage who has killed the Sha of Fear a dozen times might decide to switch from Rune of Power to Incanter's Ward, just to keep things interesting.
As an example from Mage Tier 4, Cold Snap screams Frost. It does not reset any Fire or Arcane ability, want to take a guess how often any Fire or Arcane mage takes that? Or flip it around, want to take a guess how often any Frost mage doesn't take it?
Cold Snap doesn't reset Frozen Orb though, which would make it too attractive to Frost and not attractive enough for Fire. It resets spells like Frost Nova, which all mages have and will likely use. It also restores your health, making it useful even if you don't have a spell on cooldown.
Agreeing with this sentiment more and more as I peruse the new warrior tree. None of the talent choices are exciting at all relative to the other two choices in the tiers. It really does feel like I can just pick whatever without any real impact on my performance.
You *should* be able to pick whatever you want without any impact on your performance. If one talent increased your performance more than the others, we would all just take that talent (unless some of us didn't care about performance, which is always possible).
Bladestorm, Shockwave and Dragon Roar all have different cooldowns. That alone will give them a different feel -- do you want to hit weaker buttons more frequently or more powerful buttons more rarely? But your overall DPS can be the same (unless the fight length makes the length of the cooldowns relevant, but even that is interesting in that you need to consider it). If Dragon Roar did the highest damage in most situations, then the other two choices are boring and won't get used a lot.
This attitude 'use cookie cutters or you're bad' annoys me to no end, in vanilla, TBC I not ONCE used a cookie cutter spec and on my NE priest I was second tank healer in Molten core at 58
If that's the case, that's awesome. That's what we want. But most players aren't in your situation. They take virtually the same talent choices as everyone else. You would probably be sad too if you felt like that was your only real option. We want every player to feel like they can choose whether they like A instead of B or C.
GC you take so much heat. Props to you man, for weathering a very turbulent storm daily.
It's cool, man. They just want the game to be fun, which is exactly what we want. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
WoWDB Pet Pages Update
Work continues at a steady pace on WoWDB, with the addition of more information for Pets after the changes in the last Beta build. We now have fixed the dedicated pages for all of the Battle Pet abilities and added more information to each pet's page.
The tooltips for individualabilities will show you which pets the attack is strong against, and which pets the attack is weak against. The page will also show you which pets can learn the abilities. On each pet's page, we have listed all of the spells that the pet can learn. We will continue to add features as the system is fully implemented in the beta.
BattleTags Now Live...ish!
The Diablo III beta is now connected to the live version of Battle.net. If you are in the Diablo III beta, or your friends are in the Diablo III beta, you are able to add them to your friends list via Battletag in Diablo III. Once they are added, they will appear on your friends list in WoW, allowing you to take part in cross-realm activities together. You can even add your friend's other friends by BattleTag (when they are BattleTag friends and not RealID friends with the player).
If you want to take advantage of this, be sure to add your friends before May 1, when the Diablo III beta ends. If you don't, you will be stuck waiting until May 15 when Diablo III is released to add any new friends. There is no word yet on when we will be able to add people in WoW directly by BattleTag.
Horde Pandaren Introduction
After leveling a new Pandaren character the player must choose a faction to leave The Wandering Isle. After selecting a faction you meet with the faction leader to learn a little bit more about the faction.
Patch 4.3.4 64-bit Client
If you are having trouble getting the Launcher to work correctly with Patch 4.3.4, don't forget to delete the following files if you have the 64-bit client installed: Battle.net-64.dll, MovieProxy.exe, WoW-64.exe.
A 64-bit client is once again available for use with Patch 4.3.4. Before being able to launch WoW in 64-bit mode you will need to download the 64-bit client for PC/Mac (using one of the links below), and unzip it into your World of Warcraft directory. Once you extract the files you can start the 64-bit client by opening the Launcher as normal (Run as Administrator if applicable). To switch back to the 32-bit client, go into Options -> Game Preferences, and check the Launch 32-bit client setting. The game will display which version you are using at the bottom left hand corner of the login screen. ex: Version 4.3.4 (15595) (Release x64)
Next wave of Mists beta invites?
As soon as we're ready to invite more people to test the beta, we'll let you know as we have with previous waves.
It just wouldn't be very helpful if we made an advanced warning announcement that an advanced warning announcement will be coming soon. 'Cause then people would be asking for hints as to when the warning about the warning is coming. Pretty soon they'll want clues about the hints about the warning warning to come before the announced announcement.It's not a good idea to look at it that way since we're not sticking to an invite schedule. We invite large chunks of Annual Pass holders, then we give it a while to monitor realm stability and population. Each wave of invites has a varied impact on the beta test. We can't know in advance how many of the people invited will start playing right away (if at all), or how often they'll all play, etc.
Once things start to stabilize after invites are sent out and we see more predictable statistics, we'll set up another wave and start inviting more people. It isn't an exact science, which also means it's not very feasible for us to be transparent about every step of the process between waves of invites being sent.
There are a few simple goals with beta:
- Get plenty of people testing all the new content/features so we get solid feedback, as well as address bugs and crashes
- Get the remaining Annual Pass holders in as quickly as possible so they're given what they've been guaranteed
- Make sure the environment is stable enough that we can accomplish the first two goals
Having said all of that, I just want to try and drive the point home that you'll virtually never get an adequate answer when you ask us when another wave of beta invites will be going out. The community team will be notified once the developers and producers are prepared to invite more people. We get the messaging together, localize it as needed, and post as soon as we get the green light. There's virtually no point in that process where publicly providing estimates on when the next wave is coming will be useful, as that whole process generally happens within a matter of hours (not days or weeks).
Aside from being unable to get everyone into the beta myself, I hope this info helps a bit. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Announcements
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Looking for players — PvP forum
As you may have noticed, we have moved quite a few recruitment threads from this forum. Although we think it's great that you use our forums to find and join other players for more epic fun and challenges, this particular forum is dedicated to discussions about Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds, and as such is not a venue for recruitment or arranging groups.
In order to more conveniently facilitate guild recruitment and such, we have set up a new forum that is aimed at all players who are looking for other players for various PvP activities.
We kindly ask you to please use the forum above from now on for all your PvP team searches and recruitment needs, and to be considerate of those players who wish to use this forum for its intended purpose — discussions about Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. Please note that any thread created for the purpose of recruiting players for any kind of group or guild may be removed without warning.
We thank you for your understanding and we hope that you will succeed in finding other players to have fun with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Looking for players — PvE forum
As you may have noticed, we have moved quite a few recruitment threads from this forum. Although we think it's great that you use our forums to find and join other players for more epic fun and challenges, this particular forum is dedicated to discussions about Raids and Dungeons, and as such is not a venue for recruitment or arranging groups.
In order to more conveniently facilitate guild recruitment and such, we have set up a new forum that is aimed at all players who are looking for other players for various PvE activities.
We kindly ask you to please use the forum above from now on for all your PvE group searches and recruitment needs, and to be considerate of those players who wish to use this forum for its intended purpose — discussions about Raids and Dungeons. Please note that any thread created for the purpose of recruiting players for any kind of group or guild may be removed without warning.
We thank you for your understanding and we hope that you will succeed in finding other players to have fun with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Battle.net® Update: Updated Terms of Use
In preparation for the upcoming launch of Diablo® III, we’ve updated the Battle.net® Terms of Use to cover some key changes that will be occurring prior to the game’s release.
New Battle.net Balance Limits and Security Requirements: With the upcoming release of Diablo III’s currency-based auction house, account security will become more important than ever; we are making a few changes to ensure that players who wish to use the auction house have a safe and worry-free experience. Beginning prior to the launch of Diablo III, in order to carry a Battle.net Balance greater than $100 USD (or equivalent), players will be required to attach a Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator to their Battle.net account. In addition, we will be instituting a Battle.net Balance maximum limit of $250 USD (or equivalent). We’ll go into more detail about the different options for making purchases in the currency-based auction house prior to launch.
Global Play: When Diablo III presales began, we mentioned as part of the purchase process that Diablo III players would be able to choose to play on game servers based in the Americas, Europe, or Asia, regardless of what region they were connecting from or which language-version of the game they purchased (with certain restrictions). As you’ll see in the updated TOU, the name for this functionality is “Global Play,” and we’ll be providing more information about exactly how it works, including the restrictions noted above, prior to Diablo III’s launch.
Stay tuned to diablo3.com for further details on the currency-based auction house and Global Play in the coming weeks. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Alliance Pandaren Introduction
After leveling a new Pandaren character the player must choose a faction to leave The Wandering Isle. After selecting a faction you meet with the faction leader to learn a little bit more about the faction.
WoWDB Update - Advanced Tooltips
We're progressing on WoWDB and even if it's still far from finished, we just climbed the first step toward improving how we work on MMO-Champion: advanced tooltips!
They're basically the same thing as regular tooltips but with more information when possible. Obviously we're not gathering data from users yet and we will start doing so in a few weeks when the beta looks a little more stable, but as soon as we do we will be expanding the information readily available to users.
We're very considerate (yes, we are!) and also took into account that some people might not like the new tooltips, that's why we're giving you the choice! If you want to control the tooltip type for each spell, you can add "?simple" or "?advanced" to the WoWDB link. For example:
If as a site owner you want to disable them, you can also do it by embedding the following code with your tt.js. Users who want to use the advanced versions of tooltips will still be able to use the ?advanced links on your site, but any regular link will default to the simple version.
Where are we going with this? The ultimate goal is pretty simple, if we're doing things right, you shouldn't have to visit the site to get your information. It's also going to be incredibly useful since it will let us track a lot more things on patch days, making our classes changes much more accurate and interesting. This is obviously very much a work in progress and we will be improving this over the next days/weeks but we're terribly interested in feedback and wanted to launch the feature as soon as possible.
In the end, the database has a long way to go. The interface is pretty terrible and finding anything is hard. We're on our way to fixing it (we'll do a first pass on navigation/filters this week now that things are implemented, new design a little later) and we're busy experimenting with cool stuff. It should be fairly shiny soon!
Feedback on the new tooltips would be greatly appreciated!
Inactive Guild Leader Replacement was added to World of Warcraft in patch 4.3, and allows an active member to take over the guild leadership position from an inactive guild leader, encouraging guild activity by giving players a way to promote a new leader if theirs has been absent for an extended period of time.
Based on your feedback, we recently modified the Inactive Guild Leader Replacement process. From our most recent hotfixes for World of Warcraft:
Inactive guild leader replacement now requires 90 days of absence, up from 30 days.
Ascent to the rank of guild leader is now only available to guild members at Rank 2, 3, or 4, where the guild leader is considered Rank 1.
The option to dethrone the guild leader is only visible to the highest-ranked player logged in at any given time.
Since we made this change in a hotfix, it is still possible for the in-game process to present itself to guild members who are at Rank 4 or lower. However, if a guild member at Rank 4 or lower attempts to replace the absent guild leader, they will see an error in-game. This will only be the case until we apply a change to a future patch.
A new Submit Bug button has been added. Clicking this option will open a report dialog box, along with basic instructions on what to include in your bug report.
A new Submit Suggestion button has been added. Clicking this option will open a text dialog box, along with a description of what to include in your suggestion.
The Report Lag button has been removed.
The Report Abuse button is now called Report Player.
The Report Player function offers four categories: Spamming, Language, Name, and Cheating.
Reporting a player for Cheating now opens a text window in which a description of the occurrence can be written.
Reporting a Name opens a window with three categories: Player Name, Guild Name, and Arena Team Name. There is also a text field for optional information.
Report Player now includes text and visual instructions for how to submit a report.
Right-clicking a character’s portrait now offers additional reporting options.
Bane of Havoc no longer persists when the warlock changes to a spec that does not include the talent.
Items
Fras Siabi's Barely Bigger Beer is a now bit less big, and its effect no longer stacks.
UI
Inactive guild leader replacement now requires 90 days of absence, up from 30 days. Ascent to the rank of guild leader is now only available to guild members at Rank 2, 3, or 4.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Annual Pass Invite Order
We've stated in the past there are several ways by which candidates are invited to test Mists of Pandaria beta. All we've said with regard to Annual Pass holders is that they'll be invited before people who submitted through our opt-in process, and that they'll be invited in order of Annual Pass purchase date and total cumulative play time on the account.
So here are a few things I didn't feel like typing on Twitter to one person all but accusing us of a conspiracy:
1) You don't have access to enough information to determine with certainty the way in which each and every person flagged for beta access was invited.
2) Even if you were able to prove that one Annual Pass holder was invited a) in an Annual Pass invite wave, and b) before someone who purchased their Annual Pass earlier, has more cumulative play time on their account, and was also invited in an Annual Pass wave, that still doesn't prove there's a systemic flaw in the way in which all accounts are being flagged.
3) We're aware that the terminology we used when initially announcing the Annual Pass feature was misleading. We've already stated we regret the way that went down. That said, we had no reason to falsely claim we'd be distributing invites in a way we had no intention of actually following. There's just no good reason to lie about that and hope people wouldn't catch on. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Red Panda Male Tail
We consider the pandaren models pretty much done: i.e. the distinctive longer tails for female red-coloured pandaren, that we like, are there to stay. Let's say it like this: we don't want to repeat the female worgen on this one. We don't want to second-guess the design.
This may just be my interpretation and not our company's, but the way I see it is that with many things there's always going to be people that like it exactly how it is — as we do — and those that don't. If we change it, the people who didn't like it before the change might be satisfied by it changing, but there's also the chance they might not be. What's guaranteed, though, is that those who did like it just as it was (usually the silent majority) definitely won't like it being changed. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Jewelled Panthers
So I am not sure offhand if any of this information is new or not, but here it is anyhow just in case any of it is news to you.
These will be Jewelcrafter recipes and we're not actually completely decided on whether there will be a recipe for each colour, or whether the creation of one will produce one of the four colours at random.
As I think you already know, the black one will be a little different. It's a flying mount and it'll be created by combining the other four mount colours together.
We're estimating that the cost of creating these mounts will be very expensive. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Monk (Forums) Monk Mistweaver Feedback We don't want to need Agility.
We don't want that either. Mistweavers should use Intellect leather. We just have to make sure that any of their damage-dealing abilities don't make Agi attractive. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Paladin (Forums) Holy Paladin Solo DPS
We don't want Holy to be a DPS spec, but we do want Holy paladins to be able to do reasonable damage when solo, to keep up pressure in PvP, or when grouped in moments when healing isn't critical. Holy Shock and Denounce are supposed to provide that damage, but their numbers are abysmally weak at the moment. We will fix.
Warlock (Forums) Affliction Warlock Feedback
We are discussing removing the limit one on Agony. We think Malefic Grasp already solves the same problem of wanting to make sure that focusing on a single target can be as effective as multi-dotting the room.
(As an aside, it's fine to multi-dot the room, but we want to avoid a situation where a dot class is either terrible with one target or doubles everyone else's damage when there are multiple targets.)
If we make the Agony change, then Soul Swap could move Agony and UA and feel worth doing (assuming Seeds already covers Corruption in an AE environment). It's also possible we could just bring down the Soul Swap cooldown as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mists of Pandaria Press Tour This Week, Suggest Questions!
This week is the Mists of Pandaria Press Tour! We're sending a team of fearless people to Blizzard to bring you back tons of shiny new Mists of Pandaria information! The information gathered during the press tour will be released in exactly one week, on Monday March 19th.
Question Suggestions
Since we'll be interviewing developers during the tour, if you have something you really really want to ask about Mists of Pandaria, now might be a good time to bring it up in the comments. We'll pick the best questions and add them to our existing list. I'd love to see if you guys can suggest of something we haven't thought of!
Before posting a question, check and make sure it hasn't been answered by reviewing what we already know about the expansion.
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Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Missing out on Scroll of Resurrection
I'm going to respond to this simply because I've seen this sort of sentiment before, and while I have no doubt that not everyone will accept the answer I will give here, I'm going to give it anyway.
There is an assumption that we don't care about our long term customers. This couldn't be further from the truth. We absolutely care, and part of that is the ongoing efforts we make every day to communicate, to share what we're doing, to listen to what you are saying here and elsewhere about what more you want to see in the game and more. We also heard you say that you wanted to get your friends back that have previously left the game, so we revisited the Scroll of Resurrection so you could see about enticing them to return and play. This is our way of empowering you with a way to convince your friends that there is a benefit to coming back and that it will be as painless as possible to get caught up with you (thus the boost and transfer.) The level differences and even realm differences are often something people have said serve as a barrier to convincing their friends to return. So, we're doing what we can to move those obstacles away, at least for a little while.
I'm sorry to hear that your own friend wasn't able to benefit from the promotion, but there has to be a start and end to these things. Anytime we've run promotions in the past, there has always been someone somewhere who didn't get a chance to take part. We do what we can though to spread the word and make it as available as possible, but we have to be careful about limitations as well. We'll make sure to let people know if new such opportunities come up. It sounds as if (though) that you're having a good time leveling up together and that seems like a big win for you overall. We hope that you continue to do so since having fun is what the game is all about.It's for a limited period of time, but we don't have a specific date to give you. We'll do our best to give people some warning before it ends. I'd tell your friends that it's better to do it sooner rather than later to be safe, but it's completely up to them on what works for them. Since the promotion just started, we still have some time yet though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Is There Anything Positive Going On?
There's plenty of positive, but we go through these periods between content sometimes where people start looking for the "next big thing" if they feel they've done it all in game. People who are generally happy, tend to just play the game for what it is and we rarely see them on the forums. (That's not to say that we don't get people who are also happy on the forums too.) People who feel that there needs to be change to the game or have run into things they aren't happy with, tend to come to the forums to talk about it. They come to discuss it with other people here and see if they're the only one feeling a certain way, or they hope that one of us will see it and pass word along to the developers.
Frankly, we love getting to see constructive feedback whether it's positive (I love this thing because of xyz!) or more negative (I don't like this because xyz.) I sound like a broken record when I say this but, it's a truth that any community manager knows passionate people post passionately. If apathy wins, all you hear is silence. I'd much rather see that people still care than deal with no one talking about anything.
That said though, it's important not to let other's negative perceptions color your own (as difficult as that may sometimes be.) If you're having fun and enjoying the game for what it is, there is no reason at all you can't continue to do so. Your fun is purely your own.
It won't be long though and we'll have more to share on the ongoing development for the game and Mists of Pandaria, so hopefully that will lighten the mood a little. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The battlefields of World of Warcraft are littered with the bones of those who have become casualties in the ongoing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. You do not need to become one of them. One of the keys to victory is knowledge, and that is where the World of Warcraft War College enters the picture. In these discussions between players, you can learn and share strategies with other players to improve your tactics and improve your odds of emerging victorious from the field of battle.
Are you a veteran Gladiator with countless victories tallied? Are you new to World of Warcraft and striving to improve your PvP skills? In this weekly feature, we invite players of all skill levels to ask questions, share tips and tactics, and join a conversation dedicated to surviving and thriving in World of Warcraft PvP.
This week, the topic of discussion is:
The Battle for Gilneas - Which strategies are most effective in this battleground for both rated and un-rated play? What tips, tricks and tactics have you discovered? What common mistakes have you witnessed?
NAO Invitational Qualifiers Curse, Skill-Capped, and Logitech are sponsoring a player run Arena tournament with over $4000 in prizes. You can find the list of prizes on ArenaJunkies. See the structure and rules for more information about how the teams are selected.
The remaining part of this week's qualifier rounds will be held on the
28th from 7-11pm EST. The second qualifier round will take place on
Febuary 3rd/4th 7-11pm EST. The Tournament itself will take place on
February 17th / 18th /19th. You can watch the stream of all of them here.
Dragon Soul Difficulty Changes
Don't forget that the previously mentioned Dragon Soul changes are
supposed to be going live next week, so this will likely be your last
chance to complete the encounter before everyone has access to the 5%
buff.
During the scheduled server maintenance on the
week of January 31, the Dragon Soul raid will become enveloped by the
“Power of the Aspects” spell, reducing the health and damage dealt of
all enemies in the raid by 5%. This spell will grow progressively stronger
over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more
accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties,
but it will not affect the Looking for Raid difficulty.
The spell can also be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the
beginning of Dragon Soul, if a raid wishes to attempt the encounters
without the aid of the Dragon Aspects.
For those of you who raided in Firelands and/or Icecrown you’re no doubt
aware that as time goes on we want to keep people progressing by
adjusting the difficulty. For any number of reasons a group may be
having difficulty on a specific encounter each week, and our intent in
adjusting the content is to ensure the ability to keep progressing,
enjoying the content, and gearing up. With Icecrown we progressively
buffed the players, and while this slow progression (and ability to
opt-out of the buff) were both beneficial, it led to an expectation of
your characters power, and once you left the raid you could certainly
feel less effective. For Firelands we attempted to fix that by nerfing
the content instead of buffing players, but we nerfed the content
difficulty all at one time, which was counterproductive for players who
really didn’t need as severe a change as we made. With Dragon Soul we’re
attempting to do the best of both by having a progressive nerf to the
content, keeping player power constant while providing small increases
in assistance over a long period of time, as well as allowing players to
opt-out of the assistance by speaking to Lord Afrasastrasz.
We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes
encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to
down that next boss.
One of our upcoming goals in Mists of Pandaria
is to make the gap between the overall DPS/healing of both PvE and PvP
items smaller. In fact, we have design plans for new PvP combat
mechanics that will make PvP gear and weapons markedly better in PvP
than equivalent level PvE gear and weapons.
The overall goal is to reduce the barrier for crossing between PvE and
PvP (and vice versa), as well as to also ensure that PvP gear is the
best in PvP, and PvE gear is the best in PvE. More details on these
upcoming changes will be posted as they become available.
Regardless of anyone’s rankings past or present, the process of learning
and striving to improve never stops: it helps even the most
battle-hardened gladiator remain able to go toe-to-toe with their
fiercest opponents.
In team-based combat such as Arenas, pressuring an enemy in order to go
for a kill or striving to protect your comrade from being the brunt of a
focused assault are part of the experience, no matter what classes are
driving to get the job done. Most matches are an incredibly complicated
dance between combatants: a push and pull of offensive and defensive
tactics, of coordinating switches, interrupts, dispels, crowd control,
and of learning when to use your particular cooldowns or abilities, and
when to change your tactics on the fly. Depending on who you ask, what
class they are, what brackets they are in, and what team compositions
they run, you are likely to get a totally different answer as to what
particular class gives them the most trouble at any given time.
As far as the current balance of various classes: it’s something we are,
as always, keeping a close watch on. We welcome you to post
constructively about your observations in the appropriate threads, and
the more focused and on-topic you can keep it, the better.
While it's not possible to address every individual thread or concern of
the community, rest assured we are listening, regardless if you see us
post within a particular thread or not.
First Glimpse of the 2012 Battle.net World Championship
Teamliquid has an interview about the Starcraft portion of the 2012
Battle.net World Championship. A few of the main points are summarized
below, read the full interview for all the details.
The prize pool will be comparable to the Battle.net continental invitationals in 2011.
Qualifications will begin in Q2 this year.
The entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty.
There will be five regional championships, with the final being held in Asia.
There will also be national championships before the regionals.
Blizzard won't be running all of the matches, instead they will be working with existing eSports organizations.
There will be more matches and ways to see them than there were for Blizzcon 2011.
Hot off the presses and fast on the heels of
the recently announced 2012 Battle.net World Championship event set for
later this year, Team Liquid took the time to interview Ilja Rotelli,
director of global community and eSports at Blizzard Entertainment. The
interview looks deeper into the new structure of the Battle.net World
Championship and the future of Blizzard eSports. Here’s a brief snippet
from the interview to whet your appetite.
At the national qualifier level, do you hope to hold some tournaments that are completely open to anyone who wants to compete?
Ilja Rotelli: That is precisely one of the design philosophies we
originally adopted. The idea is that we want to make a more aspirational
and participatory eSports environment for StarCraft. The idea that
there are superstars that seem so far away, that one can't hope to
become; this makes eSports very restrictive.
Blizzard has a slightly different goal from eSports companies. If you
think very frankly about the business goal for Blizzard as a company, we
gain when more people play the game, and a strategy that makes sense to
achieve that goal is to go grassroots. We don't have plans in place
yet, but in my dreams, this is the beginning, where we go as grassroots
as we can for the first year. Then, in 2013, we would love to add an
additional layer to the bottom of the structure, to be even more
grassroots than now. This is just a philosophy, not a practical plan
that we have in place, but certainly that is one of the design
principles we have been using so far.
Allow Players to Turn Off Enchant Effects
I realize this thread has been around for a while but the topic is still
relevant. As many of you may or may not know, weapon enchants have been
a feature of World of Warcraft since the beginning. Providing iconic
and recognizable looks to various enchants is something that’s added an
element of uniqueness to the game and to your character. However, we do
understand they can sometimes overpower the aesthetics of the awesome
weapons you can obtain in game now. It’s certainly something we have
discussed with the developers recently and we’ll be looking into
potentially allowing an enchant toggle. If and when such a feature is
introduced, we’ll be sure to let the community know as soon as possible.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Damage in Arenas
As you already mentioned, in the upcoming patch there is a change to
Vial of Shadows that should reduce some of the burst damage you are
experiencing in PvP.
Dying in openers certainly isn't fun, and can be incredibly frustrating
if you're the one on the receiving end of such a coordinated attack, but
don't give up! In addition to perhaps taking some time to focus on
other activities such as Rated and unrated Battlegrounds where you have
more people to watch your back, you might also consider browsing some
PvP videos from other members of the community to not only help inspire
you, but to also arm you with a further arsenal of tactics that you can
use to your own advantage against opposing teams.
Also, from my own experience, when I was having a lot of trouble against
a certain class or spec that I felt countered my usual tactics, I found
it helpful to sometimes grab a friend that played that class and spent
some time dueling them so that they could critique me on areas where I
could improve my skills, including my timing on using certain abilities,
and how I could counter some of their own tactics. That way when I
stepped back into arenas, I was more confident in my own skills and felt
better-prepared for how to expose the weaknesses of my enemies.
Keep at it, and remember there are players out there equally as scared to see you step out onto the Arena floor.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mists of Pandaria Expansion Name
It's not irrelevant, particularly given almost everything that happens
after the Cataclysm and Deathwing's demise is centered around the
discovery of this new continent. These forgotten lands, as well as the
way the Horde and Alliance go about exploring them, are central to the
overall story line (much like Illidan and the Burning Legion were to The
Burning Crusade, the Lich King and his Scourge were to Wrath of the
Lich King, and Deathwing's destructive return to Azeroth was in
Cataclysm).
I'm not sure I understand your argument. It feels like you're claiming
we're naming the expansion after a new race's starting zone (not true)
and arguing that's "jumping the shark." If you're only taking issue with
the title, I don't think that qualifies for such a label at all. More
importantly though, I get the sense you learned only two bulleted
details about the expansion (new race and new land to explore) before
deciding to post this thread. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Encounter Designers Who Worked on Ulduar
What a coincidence! We happened to talk about raid design and results
with Ghostcrawler and Mumper yesterday, and everyone looked back fondly
on Ulduar, among others. Yes, the same designers and artists who worked
on Ulduar are still working on raids.
Here's the thing -- Ulduar is an example of a raid where lots of players
got to enjoy the first few bosses, and very few players ever saw the
last few. Yogg Saron and Algalon were among the least-killed bosses
ever, and not because they were exceedingly difficult. Rather, clearing
the dungeon all the way to Yogg took up a big chunk of a raiding week
(and you only had an hour to kill Algalon), and the ability to extend
raid lockouts came later in 3.2.0 (but extending raid lockouts means
getting less loot overall). Raid Finder partially resolves the
length-of-raid problem, so we can consider designing longer raids, but
that's not always an easy call. Long raids mean longer development time,
and while some players might be willing to wait, we understand why
others might get impatient.
Of course, having multiple raids in a tier (like the combination of
Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent) has the advantage of giving
players different environments to play in while potentially making
scheduling and logistics easier.
Pushing a big red button for Mimiron was very cool, and again is fondly
remembered. We have created something like 40 raid bosses since the
creation of those encounters however, and we cant help but think that it
would start to feel really gimmicky and forced if every raid encounter
had its difficulty set by pushing a button, (or not killing adds, or
changing the order you kill the bosses, or the other mechanics we used
in Ulduar). We think Mimiron would feel less special if there were six
more bosses in the game with big red buttons, and we’re just not sure
the design space is there to have a near infinite variety of means by
which players launch a heroic mode in game.
Nonetheless, because there are so many requests for those style
mechanics, we are considering doing a few bosses with optional modes (in
the same way Mimiron, Freya or Sartharion had them) in Mists of
Pandaria. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mists of Pandaria Talent Trees
One of the problems we're specifically trying to address with the new
talent system is getting back a little to the sense that there are 10
classes in the game (soon 11) instead of 30 (soon 34). A common
complaint we saw about the Cataclysm talent design was that
hybridization was greatly downplayed. Now it’s easy to dismiss going
down two trees as never really having worked out, but it’s clear that
many players are in love with the idea of doing so.
We also just want to keep the total number of talents under control,
since the intent is that they have pretty big effects. If you're facing a
Frost mage in PvP in Mists of Pandaria, you’ll have even less of an
idea of what is in their toolbox than you do today. If you're a raid
leader, you won’t be so certain what abilities your Discipline priest
has to deal with the upcoming boss. A little of that keeps gameplay
feeling fresh, but too much of it can be overwhelming. If each of the
three mage specs, for example, had different talent choices, then we
would have 612 total talents in the game instead of 198. Even 198 is a
lot to learn. We also have the suspicion that coming up with 612 really
awesome talents will be much more challenging. One of our design
philosophies is concentrated coolness: have a few awesome things instead
of a lot of mediocre things.
Now in some ways we are strengthening the concept of a spec by really
pushing rotations and some other signature spells to specific specs.
Immolate is Destruction only. Backstab is Subtlety only. Given that,
talents are a great vehicle to make sure that your character still feels
like a warlock or a rogue at the end of the day.
We really want to avoid talent synergies where only one talent on a tier
makes sense for your character. This would be the case if say Fire
mages did bonus damage with only Fire spells, or there was one healing
talent on a tier competing against two DPS talents for your priest.
Please continue to bring up concerns you have in this regard (though not
necessarily all in this thread) and we will try to address them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Intellect on Plate
The situation with intellect plate is an ongoing discussion among the
designers, but we have yet to come up with a solution that's better than
just continuing to make intellect plate.
Let Holy paladins wear Strength plate – This would require a lot
of conversions. Does hit become Spirit? What happens to expertise? Do
all Strength items convert or just actual armor pieces? Can paladins mix
and match with Intellect jewelry and trinkets? Do Holy paladins also
hit really hard in melee, or do they lose that ability? Does it make
paladins too effective as hybrid classes if they can share much of their
gear across three different roles?
Let Holy paladins wear mail – Our mail is designed to look like
shaman or hunters, not paladins. It’s cruel not to let a paladin wear
the paladin tier armor, and also weird that a given tier piece could be
plate or mail even though it looks identical.
Let priests wear plate – We like the design for priests as
cloth-wearers, we would not want to drop less cloth overall (since only
mages and locks would need it at that point), and we don’t want priests
to look like warriors, DKs or paladins.
Individually these aren't difficult problems, and we have the ability to
solve each of them, but at the end of the day the designers don’t think
any of those solutions are preferable to just keep on making Intellect
plate for Holy paladins. Maybe someday there will be a new class that
also uses Intellect plate. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Death Knight (
Druid (
Hunter (
Mage (
Monk (
Paladin (
Priest (
Rogue (
Shaman (
Warlock (
Warrior (
