World of Warcraft : and

New Mount and Vanity Pet Storage

Zyuu — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:31:37 GMT

Wryxian posted information about a nice new way of how mounts and vanity pets will be handled in Wrath of the Lich King.

We’re pleased to announce a convenient upgrade to the way that mounts and vanity pets are handled in Wrath of the Lich King.

Players will be able to “learn” a mount or non-combat pet much like learning a spell, recipe, or new ability, and these creatures will then show up on a new Pet tab within the Character Info section of the interface. Players will be able to access and preview their learned mounts and vanity pets through this tab.

Once learned, the pet icon or mount icon will no longer appear in bag spaces or bank spaces. This inventory space will be made available once again for other adventuring needs. Pets can still be set to hotkeys by dragging them to the hotkey bar, much like any other spell or ability.

WWI In-Game Pet, Blue Posts and Wallpapers

Zyuu — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:06:06 GMT

Worldwide Invitational In-Game Pet: Archangel Tyrael

Add some more Diablo flavor to your WoW experience, with the Archangel Tyreal In-Game Pet.

The code for the in-game World of Warcraft pet that was provided in the goodie bag at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational will be usable at our Pet Redemption Webpage after patch 2.4.3 is released in the near future.

After you have received the in-game code from this webpage, the Alliance will travel to Stormwind and the Horde to Undercity to visit a new NPC where you will be able to claim the in-game pet.

The pet itself will be a miniature version of the Archangel Tyrael of Diablo 2 fame who will travel with you on all your grand adventures in Azeroth! Pictures of this amazing new pet will be available on the official website soon for everybody to check out.

[Source]

Upgrades to Raid Gear in Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath of the Lich King will work similarly to The Burning Crusade in that higher tiers of raid gear won't be replaced immediately and they may help out the leveling process but a person in blues may get upgrades from their first quest completion.

One thing I have been reminding players of is that we don't currently plan to completely redo a statistic this time like we did with stamina. Where in The Burning Crusade players saw items with a ton more stamina that lead to immediate changes to their gear, in Wrath of the Lich King you should more or less be seeing gear that is just higher level.

[Source]

Blizzard Authenticator, how it works!

A player by the name of Ysgarth over at the official WoW Forums, made a post which contain a lot of insightful information about the new Blizzard Authenticator, which we posted about last week.

On 26/06/08, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Authenticator, a device that provides your WoW account with an extra layer of security. They sell this device in their Blizzard Store for €6. You may consider buying it, but is the extra security really worth the money? How much more secure does it make your account? This post will explain how this device works, and exactly why it makes your account more secure.

How the authenticator works

The Blizzard Authenticator is a token that you can put for example on your keychain. It has a little display that, once your press the button will generate a 6-digit number that changes every minute.

This number is used as a 1-time password. This means the password is only valid once. When you use it to log in, the code becomes invalid and any hacker trying to access your account later with the same number won't be able to log in.

A hacker wanting to access your account will now, in addition to keylogging your username and password, have to physically break into your house and steal the authenticator to see what number it displays. But hackers are clever people. Isn't there any way for them to know which number the authenticator is going to display? The answer is no, and here's why.

Every authenticator has a little built-in clock. This clock keeps track of the number of seconds since, for example the WoW release date, Tigole's birthday or whenever. Each authenticator also has a unique key, which it uses to encrypt this number of seconds into what looks like a completely random number. There is no way, without knowing the encryption key, to guess what number is going to be displayed at any point in time. Even if the hacker has all the numbers you entered before, he can't extrapolate that into what number will be showing next.

The hacker also can't hack into the device itself to find out it's key, because it doesn't connect to the computer in any way. Even if the hacker were the mailman who delivered the authenticator to your house, he would have to open it up and extract the hardware that contained the key. These devices are generally tamper-resistant and will purge themselves when opened.

So, if the hacker can't know your 1-time password, how is Blizzard going to know? The difference is, Blizzard has the key for every authenticator they made. When you log in, blizzard looks up which authenticator is associated with your account, and finds the matching key. They then use this key to decrypt the number you entered into the number of seconds the authenticator has been counting. They then verify that this number matches the current time.

Even if the time on your authenticator doesn't exactly match the time on blizzard's server, they still allow you to log in within a minute or so of the defined time, just in case the clock in your authenticator is running a little slower or faster than normal. This still does not allow hackers to use the number from a minute ago, because when you log in successfully, that number is then disabled and prevented from being used again.

If you still think someone may eventually find a way around it, this security measure is used by businesses and government agencies around the world to provide security, and they have a lot more sensitive information to guard than the login information to a WoW account. This is a tested method that has proven itself to be secure.

[Source]

Lake Wintergrasp

There is still much testing to be done in this regard, Dominus. While we're not ready to delve into the more specific details about objectives and time lines for succeeding in Lake Wintergrasp, I can assure you this ambitious new world PvP zone has been given some serious thought and will undergo considerable testing to ensure it's not only successful, but enjoyable.

For me, this new zone is probably the single-most exciting project with regards to Wrath of the Lich King content.

[Source]

Stormwind Harbor and Old Ironforge

Why the decision to add a full new area to Stormwind Harbor before finishing Old Ironforge that's almost done?

There are several areas in Azeroth that have yet to be completed. This is not to say that we never intend on revisiting some of these places. It's all a matter of timing and finding a way to fit in some of our older ideas with some of our upcoming content.

For instance, the Stormwind Harbor makes sense now to provide the Alliance quick access to Northrend beyond flying to Menethil Harbor. Just the same we're opening the Orgrimmar Arena to put it to good use for some new challenges in Wrath of the Lich King.

You may well see other areas in Azeroth of which we've yet to make use come to life some day.

[Source]

Two new Wallpapers, made by fans

Three Fan Arts and Russian Alpha Version

Zyuu — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:04:23 GMT

Three new and very cool Fan Arts was recently posted on the Blizzard Fan Art site.

Next week the technical alpha version of the Russian World of Warcraft will begin.

We are delighted to announce the World of Warcraft Russian Technical Alpha, commencing next week.

All our Russian-speaking players are invited to participate in this first phase of testing which focuses only on the technical aspects of the game. We would especially appreciate your reports regarding any connection and latency issues you may experience.

The second phase, the Localization Beta, will begin with patch 2.4.3 and will focus on the localization of World of Warcraft.

To coincide with the release of the Russian Technical Alpha, the Russian forums will also be launched, giving our players a place to discuss the functionality of the game in Russian. A list of known issues will be featured here for the launch of the first phase of testing.

You can read this announcement in Russian here.

The forums will go live next week and we look forward to seeing you there!

Season 3 Information Reminder, Arthas and Blue Posts

Zyuu — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:52:48 GMT

Quick links to noteworthy news:

Blizzard posted a reminder on the Reward Requirements for the End of Arena Season 3

With season 4 coming on June 24th, we want to remind everyone about the requirements for individuals and teams to be eligible for the end of season rewards.

Teams will need to meet both of the following requirements to be counted and considered as potential recipients of any rewards. A team that does not meet these requirements will not be counted, and will not be factored in to the reward distribution percentages. The requirements for a team to be counted are as follows:

The team must have played at least 20 games during the season.
The team must have at least one player that has played in 20% or more of the total games for that team.

If a team is counted and is able to receive rewards, the requirements for a player on that team to be eligible to receive them are as follows:

The player must have played in 20% or more of the total games for that team.
The player must have a Personal Rating that is not more than 100 points lower than the Team Rating (your Personal Rating may be higher, however).

Good luck to all of those competing for top honors!

More information on end of season rewards and Arena Season 4 can be found here

[Source]

Facing Arthas in Lich King: How will his encounter work?

Nethaera, a Blizzard Entertainment employee post some interesting information about Arthas in WotLK. How do you think the encounter will be like?

When it comes to whether or not Arthas will be epic enough, we are working to maintain the epic feel of the encounter and have been discussing ways of doing this that should be appropriate. One idea that has been talked about was whether or not it would require a 25-player group to defeat Arthas before it ever opens up to 10-player groups.

What we end up with is yet to be decided.

Also Keep in mind, when you encounter Arthas, it will be end game. We also plan for things often far in advance of when something is implemented. So when we say we've been discussing, we're not talking about a conversation that just happened last night over coffee in someone's den. ;) Testing also relies on quite a few things including what happens during all of those other quests and encounters prior to the final showdown with Arthas.

[Source]

Got any ideas how you would like to fight Arthas? Perhaps with both alliance and horde at the same time and/or together with a large amount of players? Hopefully they make the encounter more epic than anything seen before. Kil'Jaeden and Illidan were great, but Arthas is much bigger lore-wise, so I'm sure we're going to get to see something grand.

Blue goes on a rampage: Wrath of the Lich King information

There's quite a few recent posts by Blizzard employees that answer and explain many Lich King questions.

40-player raid instances?

We currently have no plans to add a 40-player dungeon into Wrath of the Lich King. We fully anticipate making the 10 and 25-player dungeons and raids challenging as a part of their progression. You can say what you like about whether or not a 10-player dungeon is truly challenging if you wish, but they take coordination and require each player to play their role to their best ability to succeed. However we haven't ruled out the possibility of ever adding a 40 man raid in this expansion or the one after should we feel it's something we would like to do.

Less gold for the epic ground mount?

We have no current plans, but of course anything can change as we get closer to launching Wrath of the Lich King.

[Source]

Northrend appears to be too colorful and alive?

The screenshots that have been released don't show every aspect of every zone that we are working on. I don't want to give too much away, but while Arthas doesn't own the entire continent from one side to another, you will definitely see the Scourge in a lot of locations.

[Source]

Regarding the changes to Curse of Elements

This change isn't intended to add new functionality like Nature and Holy but simply combine the spells instead. In the future it's possible we will make additional changes to Curse of Elements along these lines, but we will have to wait and see. Right now we don't plan to plan to change things up too much but combining the spells felt like a good improvement to try out for patch 2.4.3.

[Source]

No refunds for normal mounts purchased before 2.4.3

This should be a give, but some people try anyway.

As with most changes to the game, we will not be offering refunds for any characters who purchase, or have purchased a standard mount prior to patch 2.4.3.

[Source]

Public Test Realm 2.4.3 Information

I know you've all got questions and I'll try to answer some of the hot ones here.

Premades

Yes we plan on having premades for this test phase. No I do not know when they will be available. Post about them will be deleted.

Season 4

This test phase is not intended for testing Season 4. Season 4 gear was already tested in a previous PTR phase. According to Eyonix post in the general forum Season 4 will most likely be available on the retail realms well before 2.4.3 goes live.

Authentication update

The PTR authentication servers were updated today June 18th. This means that if you account was active today you will be eligible for the PTR. Likewise the password your account has today will be the only password available on the PTR. If your account is not Burning Crusade enabled as of today you will not be able to use Premade characters when they become available.

[Source]

Previous recent news

Blue Posts, Fan Art and Comic

Zyuu — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:41:08 GMT

Nothing overly exciting on the Blue Post front today. Here goes, though:

Will the level cap be increased beyond 80?

A player explain why he rather not see the level cap to get increased anymore past eighty and Bornakk of Blizzard replies with:

We don't have any details to share beyond Wrath of the Lich King.

That said, before we start to think of things that are way down the road, focus on the present. Why have you spent the "countless hours" gearing up your characters right now? For me it is to feel that I accomplished something with the new character. I enjoy knowing I have multiple characters all leveled up and ready to go if I need them.

As for the leveling part. I used most of my AQ40 items a decent ways into leveling to 70 and they made leveling go quite a bit easier for me which I felt was a great reward. Something to keep in mind is that there was a change in item setup in The Burning Crusade to where you saw a lot more stamina on basically everything.

In Wrath of the Lich King we don't currently plan to rework an entire statistic like that, so instead the items will just get more powerful at a more consistent rate. Of course anything can still change so we'll have to see how things turn out.

[Source]

Personally I'm all for more levels in World of Warcraft. Leveling up is quite fast, so more levels usually also mean more content to experience while leveling up. As long the cap is only increased with each expansion, it shouldn't be a big issue, considering Blizzard tend to take quite... awhile.... to release something as major like an expansion for WoW.

What's your thoughts, dear reader? Should the level cap get increased even more after 80, or should it stay?

Heroic Old World Dungeons

I'm sure there's quite a few of us who'd love to see old world dungeons getting heroic mode added to them, but will it happen? Bornakk tell us the current plans regarding this:

We currently have no plans to implement this. Whether we made them tuned for level 70s or 80s they would be left behind again at some point but don't get me wrong, it's a fun idea, it's just that right now we are focusing on all the dungeons we are adding in Wrath of the Lich King, their regular and heroic versions, along with the dual setup of 10 and 25 person versions for each of the raid dungeons.

[Source]

It's a shame that Blizzard have no plans for the time being to add heroic versions of old school dungeons such as Stratholme, Scholomance and Dire Maul. Even lower level dungeons, such as Maraudon and Dead Mines would be amazingly fun to dungeon crawl through if there were heroic versions. Ah well, let's play the wait game and see what the future has in store.

Updated textures with Wrath of the Lich King?

A player is asking if we're going to see updated textures with the Lich King expansion, since he feel WoW is a bit too much "WC3.5" (Warcraft 3.5). Nethaera, a Blizzard representative replies:

We have some really amazing graphics and textures going in with Wrath of the Lich King. I believe the art team is really outdoing themselves as have all of the teams developing the expansion. We are still retaining the style that makes Warcraft, well, Warcraft, but hopefully you'll enjoy the newer elements that are being added in and the design of Northrend.

[Source]

From what I've seen so far, Wrath of the Lich King is dead on with how I picture Northrend like; dark, grim and cold. Burning Crusade was a bit sci-fi inspired and it seems like Lich King will go back to WoW's roots and be more fantasy-like. Time will tell, though.

Are we going to see a change in minimum requirements for WotLK?

This is a question which appear quite often. Nethaera replies:

Sorry. No updates on that end to share at this time. You know the drill. If and when we do have something to share we will.

[Source]

A slight change in the minimum system requirements wouldn't hurt, if we get nicer and more rich and detailed textures. What's your thoughts? WoW is famous for it's incredibly low system requirements.

How will the Closed Beta for Wrath of the Lich King work?

As always, with a Closed Beta for a game, there's several ways to get in. Through friends and contacts and usually there will be contests on different websites and it's possible a sign up form exists. Nethaera share some details regarding the Lich King closed beta with us:

We generally pull from many places so that we have a good variety of people in the beta. Some of it is random and some are winners from contests, or specific groups that we want to pull from. We don't have a specific schedule for you on who we will pull in or when to share with you, but we'll do what we can to keep people as informed as possible.

[Source]

Also, there's no real experience needed to get into the Closed Beta, except that you have a World of Warcraft account in good standing of course...

There is no minimum level of experience needed since we look at a broad spectrum of testers. We want people of all experience levels to be able to share their experiences with us so that we know where we might need to work on something more. We don't necessarily want to make one aspect too hard or too easy on either end of things.

[Source]

Something that many might find interesting is that there will be a sign up process to "apply" for the Closed Beta.

I just thought I'd update this thread with a little extra information to let people know that there will be a sign up process when it comes time for the beta as well.

Please note that that time is not now. Please be aware that there are some scams currently running that are asking people to sign up for Wrath of the Lich King beta. We will let everyone know when it is time to sign up.

[Source]

Comic Contest: Honorable Mentions

Blizzard updated their Comic Contest gallery with a new Honorable Mentions comic.

Impressive Fan Arts

Azazel a very talented artist has released two sexy fan arts, they might not be considered safe for work, take this into consideration please.

Previous recent news

Comic and Slim Jim WoW Commerical Video

Zyuu — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:41:37 GMT

It's friday and today Teh Gladiators released yet another episode of their popular World of Warcraft comic.

Slim Jim World of Warcraft Commercial

Myndflame very recently finished making their very own WoW commerical video, called Slim Jim. It's very amusing and you can view it below. Get to know your spicy side in World of Warcraft!

What is my Spicy Side?

It's that part of you that's a little aggressive, a little insane, a little adventurous, and even a little mischievous. Your Spicy Side has absolutely no regard for proper conduct or state laws of any kind.

Slim Jim WoW Commerical

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Previous recent news:

Season 4 Update and Possible PVE to PVP Transfer?

Zyuu — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:17:06 GMT

An update to the previous announcement of when Season 4 is going live has been made by Eyonix:

We've updated the Season 4 two-week notification announcement thread to include a very important point of clarification.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=7102930383&postI...

It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the end-of season rewards, such as the Arena-specific title and/or Armored Nether Drake to refrain from transferring their character to another realm, between the beginning of Season 4 and when these end-of-season rewards are physically awarded, otherwise they will become ineligible to receive either.

[Source]

Free Alliance Character Moves Oceanic PvE-PvP

Bornakk announced that they are opening PvE to PvP transfers to the Oceanic PvP realm Thaurissan. Many are speculating that Blizzard might give in and offer PvE to PvP transfers on other realms as well, but it's highly unlikely, since this is an attempt to balance the faction imbalance which exists on Thaurissan.

To address faction imbalance issues on Oceanic PvP realm Thaurissan, we will be offering free character moves for Alliance players only from Oceanic PvE realms Nagrand, Aman’Thul, and Khaz’goroth to this realm. This transfer opportunity will open on Thursday, June 12, and is scheduled to end no later than Thursday, June 19. During this timeframe Paid Character Transfers to Nagrand, Aman’Thul, and Khaz’goroth will be disabled as we focus on resolving the issue at hand. In the event that we meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, transfers may be disabled without prior notice. No additional characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.

Once the transfers open, you can begin the process by visiting the Character Move page. (https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/accou.../character-move.html)

Previous recent news:

Say goodbye to Spell-damage only gear in WotLK

Zyuu — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:39:49 GMT

Recently PC Gamer interviewed Tom Chilton alias Kalgan, one of three Lead Designer's. Kalgan usually focus on PVP oriented things and is known as the 'Blizzard PVP guru'. If you're able to buy PC Gamer in a store near you, I highly recommend you get the latest issue, since it's filled with Lich King goodness.

One of the things that Kalgan unveil is that the spell-damage only type of gear will get replaced by a whole new system in Wrath of the Lich King. This is certainly interesting and fortunately he share further information about it:

PC Gamer: What else is changing?

Tom Chilton: We're also going to be doing away with spell-damage only type gear. We'll be moving to a system that, as part of your talents, will let players convert healing into spell-damage and vice-versa as part of their talents. That way they can use the exact same gear, but their talents just adapt what it does.

So, converting spell-damage to healing and the other way around is going to be a reality come Lich King. I'm not exactly sure how to react to this just yet, but it's definitely one way to solve some of the underlying issues with gear and it might balance things out or go the opposite direction -- unbalance things.

If done right, with the help of talents being able to go the spell-damage route or healing without having to change your items.. well, it's great! This will make it much less annoying for players and there will be no special need to carry around many different sets. At least not a spell-damage only set and a healing set.

In the very latest issue of PC Gamer UK there's a Wrath of the Lich King preview and interview with J. Allen Brack, the Lead Producer of the Lich King expansion.

J. Allen Brack (JAB) tells us about the biggest lesson they learned from The Burning Crusade. He say that he felt Illidan wasn't involved in the overall storyline of TBC, they wanted Illidan to be more interwoven into the plot and continue being there as players advanced further into Outlands. This is something he want to work on with Wrath of the Lich King, Arthas will be more involved from start to "finish".

I felt the same way in Burning Crusade, while I enjoyed most of the aspects, I always wondered why Illidan mainly remained in his Black Temple and wasn't out there more. It's good to hear that I'm not alone on thinking like this. Lich King will be more grim and darker with Arthas looming around -- a welcome and interesting change, also something I agree with since I played some Lich King at Games Convention last year and it felt darker, more grim and simply "cooler" (no pun intended).

Another thing is that he absolutely feel they are getting better at making World of Warcraft -- especially since 95% of the development team that made Burning Crusade, are now working on Lich King. And with time we learn a lot, this is a given. All lessons they've learned should show as you enter Northrend. Time will tell... time will tell.

Now, one of the biggest concerns is content being consumed too fast and the lack of it afterwards. JAB comment on this and feel it's the greatest challenge of World of Warcraft pretty much (from a Blizzard standpoint) -- to provide players with enough content. Due to the high standards of quality Blizzard have set, they just can't pump out content as fast as players might like. On the other side of the coin, you will be greeted with quality content when it finally is out. It's worth it, wouldn't you say? Or do you feel they should release content unfinished with more bugs?

There's a lot more and some of it have been mentioned in other interviews, articles and what not, but it's still a great read and if you're at the least curious about the future of World of Warcraft, check out the full interview.

Season 4 Rating and Arena Changes, Gfx, Blue Posts

Zyuu — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:04:44 GMT

As we posted earlier today there's big changes to Season 4 Rating Requirements and Arena's. Even more details can be found below.

While Season 3 is still going strong, we wanted to announce ahead of time the rating requirements that will be present for arena items once Season 4 begins. We also wanted to give everyone a heads up to some changes that will be in an upcoming patch, altering how points are gained and players are matched in the arena system. The patch with these changes is scheduled to release before the start of Season 4.

First though, the rating requirement changes:

When Season 4 begins, Season 3 items will be reduced in personal and team arena rating requirement to:

Shoulders: 1950
Weapon: 1800

The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:

Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:

Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

The Season 2 items, which will move to the honor system when Season 4 begins, will continue to have no rating requirement.

The changes to the rating requirements for these items reflect the nature of the items, their power, and the relative difficulty that should be had when attempting to obtain them. These items are comparable to those found in the newest 25 person raid zone, Sunwell Plateau, and should therefore also feel very challenging to obtain.

To help ensure that the challenge in obtaining these items stays true to those achieving these ratings, we'll also be implementing new rules with an upcoming patch to curb practices that undermine the core concepts of the arena system. These rules are as follows:

If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.

This means that a player cannot join a highly rated team and begin earning points based purely on the pre-established rating of the team before they joined it. They'll need to compete, improve, and gain a personal rating worthy of the points they would receive.

If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.

This means that players cannot join a highly rated team and immediately face highly rated opponents, easily and quickly bringing their personal rating up. Instead they'll need to again compete, improve, and earn their rating.

We're excited to see these changes implemented, which will continue to emphasize the strong competitive nature of the arenas, and the challenge in obtaining the highest end rewards available for PvP.

[Source]

Enhance your graphics

Make the following Macro ingame and it will improve your visual experience in World of Warcraft.

/console farclip 777 /console horizonfarclip 6226 /console groundeffectdensity 256 /console groundeffectdist 140 /console smallcull 0 /console skycloudlod 3 /console characterambient 0

Restart WoW for some of the changes to take effect. Note that your FPS might decrease, not for the faint of heart (i.e slower computers).

I've executed the macro and restarted WoW, what can I expect this to do?

The vegetation can be seen from miles away (grass flowers etc) plus there seems to be FAR more of it.
The "bloom" effect seems to be more vivid.
The view distance is greatly increased.
Everything seems to be more sharp and crisp.
The weather effects appear to be more intense.

You can view a couple of examples below:

Ok, this really make my FPS low and I want to revert back the changes, what do I do?

Make the following macro, execute it and restart WoW:

/console groundEffectDensity 16 /console groundEffectDist 1 /console horizonfarclip 1305 /console farclip 177 /console characterAmbient 1 /console smallcull 1 /console skycloudlod 1 /console detailDoodadAlpha 1

Via World of Raids

Feedback on Arena Wait Times

Since the release of the 2.4 patch we've been working to tighten up the changes made to help address longer wait times when attempting to get into an arena match. While we're fairly certain it's been successful, we'd like your feedback relating to the wait times, how they were before the patch and how they've been lately.

As our changes have been continual since patch 2.4, please only leave feedback if you've played in the last week.

Via World of Raids

Playing after the first Qualifier

Seeing as tomorrow is the end of the practice phase, will we have to pay another $20 to keep playing after tomorrow?

No. If you registered for the First Qualification Round you will play until the end of that round. You will only need to register again to continue playing after the First Qualifier is completed and the Second Qualifier is beginning.

Via World of Raids

New Priest Season 4 Items and WotLK Videos

Zyuu — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:22:21 GMT

Due to a GM messing up and accidently giving a player back the wrong type of items (season 4 instead of 1) -- we can now present you with two new priest season 4 items. The player in question is on EU-Arathor and he had petitioned to get his season 1 items reimbursed.

Wrath of the Lich King Video Footage from Blizzcon

We're able to present you with three short video clips (not very high quality unfortunately) from Wrath of the Lich King that was taken during last Blizzcon. These clips surfaced very recently, so they are basically fresh out of the oven. Again, quality leaves a lot to be desired, but, it's always something.

Wrath of the Lich King BlizzCon footage 1

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Wrath of the Lich King BlizzCon footage 2

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Wrath of the Lich King BlizzCon footage 3

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2.4 Known Issues List, Daily Blue

Zyuu — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:31:14 GMT

With Patch 2.4 not everything is perfect. Far from it actually. Hortus is maintaining a quite long list of 2.4 issues. These issues will be resolved in a future patch.

This is a list of known issues in the 2.4 client. This is not an exhaustive list of all known bugs, but a list of issues that we are understand can replicate and are will be fixing in a future patch.

General

Spells that create a buff that chains damage to a secondary target can chain to a critter
Players are able to have pets out while mounted by logging out.
Zoning after a pet has died or has been dismissed can cause an "Internal Pet Error".
Abilities and spells that chain to secondary targets do not calculate combat reach for each potential unique target.
Swimming while in Wisp Form produces an odd animation.
Male Blood Elves do not place both hands on polearm-type weapons when swinging them.
The /clap emote is not emitting sound if performed more than once.

Druid

Mangle's talent link tooltip indicates a 100 yard range.

Hunter

Initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap (rank 6) and Explosive Trap (rank 4) cannot be heard by Classic WoW players.
Swapping your current pet for a stabled pet while mounting will cause you to receive an error ("You do not have a pet to summon") when you use Call Pet.

Mage

Molten Armor will not deal damage to an attacker if the mage is protected by a damage absorbtion shield.
Noxious Breath will cause Arcane Missiles to only deal damage during the first volley.
Seal of Wrath applies to non damaging attacks causing it to break Polymorph.

Paladin

Crusader Strike is adversely affected by Seal of the Crusader.
The Bladestorm effect from the Ravager item proc has its channeling broken by refreshing paladin judgments.
The Paladin talent Precision displays Daggers and Staves as a weapon class in the link tooltip.
There is a discrepancy in the combat log when casting Paladin healing spells.

Priest

The Priest Talent Power Infusion consumes an inconsistent amount of mana when cast on yourself.
Touch of Weakness doesn't reduce the melee damage of attacker.

Rogue

Cloak of Shadows do not remove the curse Shrink.
Mutilate is being written to the combat log multiple times when used.

Shaman

Frostbrand (rank 5) and Frostbrand (rank 6) do the same damage at level 66.

Warrior

Whirlwind has a new sound.

NPCs

Disorient effects are being inconsistently applied to Black Blood of Draenor mobs.
Pig pets are not making footprints.
Kalecgos' Human form is incorrectly casting his Revitalize spell on targets without mana.
Zul'jin will occasionally land a melee swing on the victim of his Claw Rage or Lynx Rush target.
Internal messages will occasionally be displayed in the Vazruden the Herald encounter of Hellfire Ramparts.
Shared Bonds cast by Sister of Pain is applied inconsistently and is not able to be dispelled.
Sunblade Imps in Magisters' Terrace are sometimes not resetting properly.
High Astromancer Solarian no longer calls for help from the trash in her room when engaged.
Nightbane's Charred Earth ability is dealing physical damage.
Internal messages are displayed in the combat log when Sinister Reflections spawn during the Kil'jaeden encounter.
The tooltip from Mennu The Betrayer's Tainted Stoneskin Totem is incorrect.
Internal messages are displayed in the combat log after Gruul the Dragonkiller casts Ground Slam.
Hunter's Mark does not appear above Shield Orbs.
It is possible for pets to get stuck in place after exiting the Spectral Realm in the Kalecgos encounter.
Shield Orbs are missing portraits.
The death emote voice-over for Kael'thas Sunstrider in the Magister's Terrace continues after he has already died.
Felblood Initiates will occasionally change sex if reset after being transformed into an Emaciated Felblood.
Wretched mobs in the Magister's Terrace are not resetting properly near Selin Fireheart's room.
The [Sunfury Nethermancer Sunfury Nethermancer]'s channeling animation doesn't stop when they're melee attacking.
The selection circle for the Spider critter is huge.
Mage Blink cannot be cast while stunned by the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw ability.

UI

If you are saved to 10+ instances, the Raid Infos are overlapping at the second row.
Paladin healing spells used in castsequence macro's are not completing the cast sequence when a rank is not specified.
The hunter's spell Dismiss Pet "fades" from player 1 minute after dismissing pet.
If Scrolling Combat Text is activated and Auras is selected, some spells that do not give auras will show up in green in the scrolling combat text.
Casting some spells with Auras selected for Scrolling Combat text, will show the notification twice.
Casting Mass Dispel when Auras on Scrolling Combat Text is enabled will show <Mass Dispel> multiple times depending on how many targets are affected.
When updating to 2.4.0 Interface Options are not all updated correctly.
Calling a filter where "Unknown" checkboxes are the only options enabled under Message Sources generates a Lua error.
Debuff sizes are not scaling properly in size based on who cast the debuff.
The Okay and Cancel buttons in the General Log window do not have sound.
The guild log scroll bar does not always properly display what it's supposed to.
The school of magic in the combat log concerning buffs that "reflect" damage onto the attacker is repeated.
Changes to some Interface Options are not undone when clicking Cancel.
Toggling <Party Members' Pets> in the Party & Raid, Interface Option already in a party does not change the state of the party UI.
The Combat Log displays all events after logging in until a filter is selected.
There's a typo in exhausted damage message.
Find Minerals and Find Treasure are not showing when activated or fading in floating combat text.
Instant and channeled abilities that do not have a target are generating a past tense line in the combat log.
Some of Interface dropdown changes are not discarded when canceled.
Pet skill damage appears on the screen while Pet damage option is disabled.
The World PvP Objectives display is not updating changes made in the interface menu until you relog.
The visual for the checkbox for the Camera interface options are not saving on logout.
Unchecking default checked settings in the General and Combat Log Config menus will not save properly after logging out.
The name of Temporary Weapon Enchant buffs do not show up in the combat log when they are dismissed.
Dying and disconnecting causes you to be unable to release.

Quests

There is a typo in Harbinger Inuuro's gossip text after the Sun's Reach Armory is captured.
There are typos in the quest "Maintaining the Sunwell Portal".
Abilities/trinkets that trigger after killing an opponent that gives experience or honor are being activated after killing mobs during bombing quests.
Completing the quest "Arcane Refreshment" does not teach the spell Conjure Water.
Completing the quest "The Journey Has Just Begun" does not teach players how to make an Onyxia Scale Cloak.

Items

Several procs from items are breaking crowd control effects such as Scatter Shot.
Using a Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuit does not initiate a global item cooldown.
Vengeful Gladiator's Rifle is using a inconsistent sound.
The Nexus Key staff is giving an inconsistant amount of bonus healing.
The name "Swift War Elekk" is shown in the casting bar when summoning the Black War Elekk.
Bow strings are not being lit in 2.4.0.
The Arcane Strike proc from Shattered Sun Pendant of Might is breaking crowd control effects such as Scatter Shot.
It is possible to dodge, block, and parry the proc Arcane Strike from the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might
The Brutal Gladiator's Rifle is emitting a Bow sound effect upon use, despite the item being a Gun.
Certain socket bonus modifiers do not display the healing that they provide.
Draenei female horns will not protrude correctly through certain helms.
The tooltip for Skyshatter Helmet's gem socket bonus (+9 healing) does not include the additional spell damage.
Arcane Charges used in the quests "The Air Strikes Must Continue" and "Distraction at the Dead Scar" deals fire damage despite the name "Arcane".
Shifting Naaru Sliver summons a Power Circle for a duration inconsistent with its tooltip.
The tooltip for the 4 piece bonus of the Dragonhide Battlegear states that the movement speed increase affects travel form even though it does not.
The pushback resistance part of the Battlecast Garb set bonus does not seem to be functioning.
The reduced cooldown of Shaman Nature's Swiftness provided by the 4 piece set bonus from the "Seer's Ringmail Battlegear" PvP armor is not applying.
The Cloak of Swift Mending, dropped from Selin Fireheart in the Magister's Terrace on normal difficulty, does not have a level requirement.
Brann Bronzebeard's Lost Letter is displaying a damage range in its tooltip even though this item is not a weapon.
The set bonus for the Crusader's Ornamented Battle Gear and Crusader's Scaled Battle Gear have a typo in their tooltip.

Environment

In Silithus, there is a Tornado that needs sounds.
In Heroic Magister's Terrace, the door in Selin Fireheart's room will respawn with no boss to kill to open it, leaving players unable to proceed.
Attempting to enter the Caverns of Time: Hyjal Summit raid instance without being in a raid group, without the expansion installed, or below level 65 will return the the old Hyjal error message stating that a player must have "...friendly or better reputation"

Battlegrounds

The Berserking power-up found in Battlegrounds makes no sound when acquired.

PC

There is a slight popping noise that occurs when running while using the Creative X-FI sound card.

Mac

On Macs with nVidia 8800 cards, when a full-screen effect is active, the top row of pixels is black or garbage.

Daily Blue Posts

[via World of Raids]

WotLK: Epics replaced by greens

One of the goals in expansions is to level the playing field a bit for players and we like providing extra opportunities for players who (just as an example) want to get to high-end content but are currently far behind on things.

Keep in mind that the availability of higher level items is greater than it was before the launch of The Burning Crusade. So take that for what it's worth. :)

But there isn't the huge gear gap to be corrected so we wont be seeing people double thier hp and spell damage within 5 quests in northrend. There was also a change in how much Stamina items got when The Burning Crusade came out and the new items should maintain the consistency they have now and not jump up a huge margin.

Arena Tournament: long queue times have been fixed

It wasn't a hardware issue, just a setting in the code, which we found and fixed very early this morning. We'll monitor the queues throughout the day to see if we need to make further adjustments.

Arena Tournament: Activation process after sending an essay

We will be reading the essays and flagging eligible accounts on a weekly basis. So it just depends when we receive your essay. Check the email address associated with your account for notification on when you are flagged.

"Heroic Countenance" might be addressed in the next BlizzCast

Magister's Terrace gave us a new way to unlock heroic mode, Heroic Countenance. Essentially it is a permanent spell cast on us after completing the quest to kill Kael, that keeps us from having to reach a certain reputation. This is what we need from here on out and hope it's adopted for WotLK, but I also hope Blizzard reconsiders their current heroic instances as well.

We're hoping to touch on this a bit in the next BlizzCast, stay tuned. ;-)

WotLK Bestiary Update and loot in Lich King streamlined

Zyuu — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:08:34 GMT

Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary Update -- Iron Dwarves

The bestiary page for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been updated with a new creature from the upcoming expansion. Learn more about one of the new species you'll encounter in Northrend, the malevolent iron dwarves.

The Explorers' League has scoured the far corners of the world, seeking to uncover the truth behind the origins of the dwarves. Now it seems they may be one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the past.

The latest clues come from ancient dig sites within the Howling Fjord, where the iron dwarves were first encountered. Etched with runes of power - and with lightning pulsing beneath their thick, metallic skin - they may represent the missing link between the dwarves and the legendary titans of myth. Unfortunately the malevolent iron dwarves have openly defied the Explorers' League and seem intent on destroying any and all artifacts connecting them to the shadowed recesses of history.

WotLK loot to be streamlined

We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal. When there are examples for players to see it should be easier to understand.

The Evolution of WoW and Its Many Games

Zyuu — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:29:45 GMT

Check out a column called Play Evolution, by James Lantz. He write about "The Evolution of World of Warcraft". Basically he covers the many games within World of Warcraft. Things such as the exploration game, where you explore "secret" areas and every corner of the maps. There's ways to have fun with the fishing and crafting professions and a lot more.

You can’t beat World of Warcraft – there’s no such thing. There are no victory conditions, and you’ll never see a screen that pops up and says, “You win!” You may think that getting to the highest possible level is an obvious victory, but that’s not true for everyone. Some people are satisfied with hitting the level cap, but others want to beat every raid boss.

It’s perfectly feasible to imagine hundreds of personal goals, even ones as obscure as crossing from one capital city to another at level one, or camping an important travel NPC so no one can reach his hub. Because there’s nothing as simple as beating the game, every goal in World of Warcraft is completely arbitrary and set by each player to match his or her own desires.

Check out the full column here.

Sunwell Badge Vendor available on the PTR

Zyuu — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:28:14 GMT

They just recently spawned a Sunwell Badge Vendor named Smith Hauthaa on the US PvE PTR realm.

Help out and discover new items with the Curse Client. Make sure "Allow database uploads" is selected.

Chest & Legs -- 100x Badges
Gloves & Belt -- 75x Badges
Rings -- 60x Badges
Caster Weapons 1 hand and 2 hand -- 150x Badges
One hand Weapons -- 105x Badges
Off hands -- 45x Badges

Weapons

Crossbow of Relentless Strikes -- 150 Badge of Justice
Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery -- 45 Badge of Justice
Vanir's Left Fist of Brutality -- 45 Badge of Justice
The Mutilator -- 45 Badge of Justice
Swift Blade of Uncertainty -- 45 Badge of Justice
Vanir's Right Fist of Brutality -- 105 * Badge of Justice
The Blade of Harbringers -- 150 Badge of Justice
Staff of the Forest Lord -- 150 Badge of Justice
Scryer's Blade of Focus -- 150 Badge of Justice
Gavel of Naaru Blessings -- 150 Badge of Justice
Blade of Serration -- 105 Badge of Justice

Rings

Cloth

Tormented Demonsoul Robes -- 100 Badge of Justice
Enslaved Doomguard Soulgrips -- 75 Badge of Justice
Corrupted Soulcloth Pantaloons -- 100 Badge of Justice
Slippers of Dutiful Mending -- 75 Badge of Justice
Shroud of the Lore`nial -- 100 Badge of Justice
Legwraps of Sweltering Flame -- 100 Badge of Justice
Adorned Supernal Legwraps -- 100 Badge of Justice
Gown of Spiritual Wonder -- 100 Badge of Justice
Boots of Incantations -- 75 Badge of Justice

Leather

Barbed Gloves of the Sage -- 75 Badge of Justice
Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer -- 100 Badge of Justice
Belt of the Silent Path -- 75 Badge of Justice
Tunic of the Dark Hour -- 100 Badge of Justice
Tameless Breeches -- 100 Badge of Justice
Handwraps of the Aggressor -- 75 Badge of Justice
Shroud of Nature's Harmony -- 100 Badge of Justice
Embrace of Starlight -- 100 Badge of Justice
Embrace of Everlasting Prowess -- 100 Badge of Justice
Crystalwind Leggings -- 100 Badge of Justice

Mail

Runed Scales of Antiquity -- 100 Badge of Justice
Scaled Drakeskin Chestguard -- 100 Badge of Justice
Hauberk of Whirling Fury -- 100 Badge of Justice
Leggings of the Pursuit -- 100 Badge of Justice
Gauntlets of Rapidity -- 75 Badge of Justice
Clutch of the Soothing Breeze -- 75 Badge of Justice
Wave of Life Chestguard -- 100 Badge of Justice
Rushing Storm Kilt -- 100 Badge of Justice
Aftershock Waistguard -- 75 Badge of Justice

Plate

Sunguard Legplates -- 100 Badge of Justice
Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate -- 100 Badge of Justice
Legplates of Unending Fury -- 100 Badge of Justice
Legionbane Greaves of Adyen -- 75 Badge of Justice
Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor -- 100 Badge of Justice
Girdle of the Fearless -- 75 Badge of Justice
Girdle of Seething Rage -- 75 Badge of Justice
Chestplate of Stoicism -- 100 Badge of Justice
Breastplate of Ire -- 100 Badge of Justice
Waistguard of Reparation -- 75 Badge of Justice
Greaves of Pacification -- 100 Badge of Justice
Ecclesiastical Cuirass -- 100 Badge of Justice

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