88 MPH!! Speed to get to the new War of the Ancients Raid? Maybe.

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
We will be performing rolling restarts for all US realms on Thursday, June 30th, beginning at 5:00 AM PDT. Downtime for each realm is expected to be minimal, and the overall process should conclude at approximately 5:30 AM PDT.

Thank you for your patience.

[chaos5061]

From Wowhead:
Daily quests aside, there are some even bigger exploits rumored to be happening right now that's got the PvE scene in a tizzy. The well-known guild STARS decided to kill Ragnaros like many of us did--his death is required before you can begin heroic modes, much like how ICC had the LK as a gating mechanic for heroics. Unlike the rest of us, however, they took it a step farther when right after their kill the entire guild faction transferred to reset their raid lock, forming a new guild. They've already killed some heroic bosses as supposed world firsts. Of course, the "raiding community" as a whole will not take this too seriously and the world firsts they net will most likely not be tracked, but it's a lot of money and dedication...for apparently nothing.

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
Eternal Embers and Seething Cinders Droprates
You’re assuming the drop chances for embers averages out to .5 per boss in 10’s and 2 per boss in 25’s, which it doesn’t. Whether you’re in 10’s or 25’s you’re going to see an equal drop average for Eternal Embers per player, and the same can be said for Seething Cinders.

Patch 4.2 Hairstyles
We had a bunch of hairstyles we threw in for testing on the PTR and the majority of them did not pass the test. (quality, art direction, bugs, etc.)

Patch 4.0 Raids now puggable
We specifically intend for the 4.0 raids to be puggable now that Firelands is out. Grabbing some tier 11 by way of Justice, quest rewards, plus across the board difficulty nerfs should really be enough to get them going.

The patch has only been out a day or so though. I think it'll probably take a little bit before people really get it into their heads that they should be pugging the previous tier because it's not too hard to be successful. It's just getting people used to the various encounters and mechanics.

Maybe people are waiting for the holiday weekend? If nothing else, leading one yourself is always an option. I think we'd agree that we need some better ways to get pug raids together considering we intend to follow the "New Raid is Hard, old Tier is Puggable" format from here on.

Still unsure what that means regarding the final raid (i.e. Deathwing). Do pugs not get to see him until the next expansion is released? (Not saying whether that's a good thing or not, but personally I enjoyed getting to Arthas on some of my alts without spending near as much time as I did on my main.)
In ICC we had a stacking raid buff over time which gradually made the content easier. Not saying we’ll do that exact thing again but the philosophy was around even then that everyone who wants to can eventually see the content, but it’s going to take very organized groups (which typically means raiding guilds) to see the encounters first.

So casuals will constantly be a tier behind for the rest of the life of this game? If that is what is actually coming out of your mouth I'll save myself the time and unsub now. What a piss poor vision for your game. There are normal and heroic versions of raids for a reason. That heroic difficulty was implemented so that the two segments of the population (casual and hardcore) would both have something to do. You are now bifurcating the raiding population AGAIN, by telling casuals that they have to run around in the left overs.
Trying to label all of our players as “casual puggers” vs.” hardcore raiders” is ridiculously simplistic. Among raiders there is an enormous diversity of players. There are those who will raid virtually every night when new content is out, to guilds that raid once a week (and even then will cancel raid nights fairly commonly). If you must try to label raiders, you’d be closer to the Blizzard model if you said normal mode is for organized raids, heroic mode is for more hardcore organized raids, and the previous tier of content (and Baradin Hold) is targeted for pick-up groups. Also consider that even within a raid zone we try to design easier bosses (usually near the front) and more challenging ones (usually at the end) which can help blur those lines and offer smoother transitions for each category.

Overall, we think you’ll have a better experience playing World of Warcraft if you play with friends, either existing or those you meet in game. WoW, while much more solo friendly than most older MMO games, is still intended as a multiplayer game. We provide features like Dungeon Finder for when playing with friends isn’t possible, and as we said above, we’d like to offer more features like that.

Thrall and Aggra's "wedding"
Correct. Their pledging of their lives to one another was essentially their 'wedding', although I'm sure Orcs don't use such nomenclature to refer to these things. Maybe 'life bond' fits better.

Does Blizzard plan on adding the rest of the dungeons and raids to the Dungeon Journal?
Absolutely. With the time it takes to present a single boss in the Dungeon Journal we were only confident supplying Cataclysm content with the release of the feature in 4.2, but we are on a path to filling it out with all dungeons and raids in the entire game.

[chaos5061]

4.2 Hotfixes July 1st Everyone Thank The Guild Stars For No Heroic Modes

From Blizzard:
July 1

General
Characters should no longer randomly suffer falling damage.

Classes
Pets should no longer be attacking new targets at random while a player is under the effects of any crowd control.

Druids
It is no longer possible to cancel Lunar Shower by right-clicking the buff, or canceling it via a macro.
Starfall is no longer hitting targets that are within 40 yards if they are not in combat with the druid or his/her party/raid members. It is targeting all hostile characters in combat with the druid’s party/raid members, is not hitting Stealth characters, is not breaking crowd control effects, and is not targeting nearby critters.

Hunters
All of the Hunter-centric rare spawns in Mount Hyjal and Molten Front are now immune to both Distracting Shot and Taunt.

Priests
The Flash Heal from Surge of Light will now correctly activate Chakra.
The heal-over-time effect from the Glyph of Prayer of Healing now will correctly apply to targets that are within 30 yards of the target of Prayer of Healing, but over 40 yards away from the priest.
Channeled spells are no longer being interrupted if cast immediately after Shadowfiend.

Rogues
Sap is no longer placing the rogue in combat when he/she is visible and the target is sapped.

Warlocks
Warlocks will no longer fall through pillars in Ring of Valor if the pillar is moving when the player uses Demonic Circle: Teleport.

Dungeons & Raids
Dungeon Finder
It is no longer possible for two separate guild groups with less than five players each to be matched with any other groups or players in the queue from the same guild.

Firelands
Firelands Heroic difficulty has been turned off in all regions until the following week's realm maintenance.

Alysrazor
Blazing Talon Clawshapers and Blazing Initiates cannot be interacted with any longer prior to them shifting to human form.
The Molten Feather power bar is now reappearing when appropriate.

Baleroc
Baleroc's gate will now properly unlock itself again after a wipe, even if Shannox is still alive.

Beth’tilac
Beth'tilac's trash will no longer respawn after she has been killed.
Cinderweb Drones will now add threat to players on the bottom floor (below the web) and not give any threat to players above the web.
The Widow’s Kiss will now ignore immunities, including Divine Shield and Anti-Magic Shell.

Rhyolith
Rhyolith is now slightly easier to turn in 10-player mode.

Creatures
Cinderweb Spiderlings no longer drop any loot and their health is restored to full after players exit combat.
The Flame Archon range of Fiery Torment has dramatically increased.
Flamewaker Subjugator, Flamewaker Animator, and Unstable Magma health has been reduced. Flamewaker Subjugator damage has been increased for 25-player raids.
The damage-over-time effect from the Hell Hound ability Rend Flesh now stacks up to 5 times, down from 10.
Molten Flamefathers had too much health in 10-player mode, and too little health in 25-player mode. This has been corrected.
Surger damage dealt by Surge has been reduced.
Unbound Blazing Elementals now have a greatly reduced chance to drop epic items and crafting recipes. They also drop less gold.
Unbound Pyrelords can properly target banished/cycloned Smoldering Elementals with Ignite Elemental. In addition, Ignite Elemental cannot be interrupted.
Unbound Pyrelord health has increased, while Unbound Smoldering Elemental health has decreased.
Neither the Sulfuron Span nor Shatterstone volcano are able to be affected by the siege damage done by a Saronite Bomb.
The rate at which crafting recipes drop has been greatly reduced.

Zul’Drak
Players are again successfully able to complete the quest Betrayal.

Items
The Heroic and normal versions of the crossbows Arbalest of Erupting Fury and Lava Bolt Crossbow no longer have identical stats.

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
We will be performing rolling restarts July 2nd at 5am PDT

[chaos5061]

From MMO Champion forum post by Spl4sh3r
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...3#post12073453

Time to complete includes the day you reach the stage (double reset is not counted)

Phase 1 (beginning):
8 Marks from one time quests
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
Marks needed: 20
Time to complete: 3 Days

Phase 2 (Molten Front):
15 Marks from one time quests
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
10 Marks from Phase 2 Daily
Marks needed: 150
Time to complete: 10 Days

Phase 3 (choose between Druid of the Talon and The Shadow Warden):
5 Marks from one time quests
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
10 Marks from Phase 2 Daily
9 Marks from Phase 3 Daily
Marks needed: 150
Time to complete: 7 Days

Phase 4 (choosing the other option in Phase 3):
5 Marks from one time quests
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
10 Marks from Phase 2 Daily
9 Marks from Phase 3 OR 4 Daily
Marks needed: 125
Time to complete: 7 Days

Phase 5 (choosing Armaments)
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
10 Marks from Phase 2 Daily
9 Marks from Phase 3 OR 4 Daily
4 Marks from Phase 5 Daily
Marks needed: 125
Time to complete: 5 Days

Phase 6 (choosing Moonwell)
15 Marks from one time quests
4 Marks from Phase 1 Daily
10 Marks from Phase 2 Daily
9 Marks from Phase 3 OR 4 Daily
4 Marks from Phase 5 Daily
Marks needed: 125
Time to complete: 5 Days
Total time to unlock everything and get Flameward Hippogryph: 32 Days

[chaos5061]

Added image to last post.

[chaos5061]

New Expansion Rumor

From Wowhead News:
There's "a leaked document" from Blizzard making the rounds this holiday weekend and we figured we'd post it here before you guys started tipping us off to it. Like anything that's unofficial, this is an unconfirmed rumor so take it with a grain of salt; there's a good chance it's just some fan trying to get their fifteen minutes of fame. However, it's definitely a well done fake if it is one. The only suspicious part is the header itself--the person who created this definitely knows their lore, if nothing else.

The "document" mostly gives an overview of what levels 85-90 will be like, detailing how the expansion will take place years after the Burning Crusade and focus on Outland's growing instability. The Burning Legion would be the central antagonist after Deathwing's demise. Demon Hunters will also supposedly take a supporting role in the expansion, though not as a playable class.

This would be an interesting direction--TBC and the Outlands in general are long considered the best expansion, the setting having earned a fond place in most players' hearts. What do you think? Fake or legitimate? And, beyond that, what do you think about returning to the Outlands as a whole?

Since we had a bit of a mixup last time with some of the info on the Quests & Lore panel, I thought it would be a good idea to organize information about VotV all in one place. Fans will probably dump any questions they already have out of their heads when Mike introduces VotV during the o. ceremony, and we should be prepared to give some good Q and A about quests and story for the new product.

Feel free to add on anything you want and zing it back to me at the company email, but I’ve just prepped up a list with the Creative dept for some main points that we want to cover at the panel.

Levels 85-90
“Vengeance of the Void” - Name derived from new enemy “The Void”
Expansion will also feature the Burning Legion as a central antagonist.
Years after the Burning Crusade, situation in Outland has become unstable. The Burning Legion has regained many lost footholds and made progress agianst the Draenei and other allies on the planet.
Explain that because of balancing issues we’d prefer not to add any more hero classes for the fors. future, so we decided to focus on fan fave races with new lore and other new features.
Explain Nexus Prince Hafari and the Protectorate’s role in the Alliance. Joins after starting experience in Karazhan and a battle with Prince Malchezaar with the help of the Alliance. Crash lands on the planet on an escape from K’aresh. Mention that Ethereals from Protectorate have a running gag with having worse ships than the Draenei.
Explain General Rashiss and the Coralbreach and Naga race role on Horde. Talk about the starting experience in Quel’thalas when Coral Breach is risen from the bottom of the ocean with sorcery.
Demon Hunters will play a big role in the expansion after the Sha’tar discovered Illidan Stormrage’s secret written works in Karabor. These works redeemed Illidan in the eye of the Naaru and the Draenei, and many Demon Hunters from all races have come to learn new secrets to fight against the Legion. Mention that Demon Hunters will not be playable.
Four new “planets” div’d. into subregions: K’aresh (Kahudi Stone Forest, Kalahad Vas, V’denir), Xoroth (Baneheart Landing, Felsteed Fields, Baldun Mountains), Argus (Mac'Aree, Cage of Sargeras, Forge Camp: Victory), The Nether (Voidbreak, K-13 Crash Site, The Span).
Two new starting zones: Deadwind Pass (1-10 Alliance) and Coralbreach (1-10 Horde). Both put the player in the center of the action and feature rich cinematics and stories, and some plain ol’ cool stuff.
A’dal will be the main antagonist of the expansion, or will he? The Void is mysterious, enigmatic, and isn’t so set in it’s goals like the Legion. The Void and A’dal even attempt to help players on a regular basis, especially in the revised “Shadows of Outland” questline in Hellfire (60-62).
A’dal was corrupted in the invasion of Shattrath City by the Void. Absorbed shadow energies into his body and became the “hive father” of the Void. Leads the Void’s armies through the Nether battling the Burning Legion, the Alliance, and the Horde.
Explosion from Deathwing’s demise shattered the Dark Portal, rendering it a major threat for Azeroth. Kirin Tor and Nethergarde work to seal the portal in an arcane shield to prevent Azeroth from being crushed by the pressure of Outland.
A ton of lore for the neglected Shadow Priest class. Lots of new story content for Shadow Priests and their interaction with the Void and A’dal.

[chaos5061]

And in response to the fake memo is this from The Daily Blink:

[chaos5061]

From MMO Champion:
Firelands Raid Heroic Mode difficulty now unlocked - US First Kills
The heroic mode is now unlocked in the US and Europe will follow shortly. Guilds started working hard to defeat the heroic versions of encounters and a couple of bosses already died.

Premonition got the US first kill of Shannox and Lord Rhyolith.
Blood Legion got the US first kill of Beth'tilac. They didn't post a kill shot yet and we'll just pretend Europe is better if they don't.


Congratulations to both guilds for defeating the bosses so quickly!

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
PvP Season 10 has officially begun, and players can once again take to the Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds to compete for the new Ruthless Gladiator PvP sets!

All Team Ratings and Personal Ratings have been reset, and any Conquest Points from Season 9 have been converted to Honor Points. Any Honor Points above the cap were converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. Matchmaking Ratings, however, will be carried over into Season 10.

Another important event that coincides with the start of Season 10 is the distribution of rewards from the previous season. Players who were in the top teams from each battlegroup at the end of season 9 should be receiving their end-of-season rewards approximately one week after the end of the last season. These include Arena-specific titles until the end of this new season and, for players who have earned the rank of gladiator, the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until all rewards have been received.

If you have any further questions about Arena and Rated Battleground rewards, please read the FAQ.

- Season 10 Gear List and FAQ

[chaos5061]

From MMO Champion:
Occu'thar
This ravenous demon broke free of its cage and gained access to the western wing of the prison, devouring all of the inmates held there. Occu'thar's gluttony resulted in a body too bloated to escape its environs, effectively turning the prison wing into its new holding cell.

Focused Fire - Occu'thar sets his gaze on the location of a random player, then inflicts 35000 Fire damage every 1 sec. to players within 12 yards of the targeted location.
Searing Shadows - Occu'thar inflicts 105000 Shadow damage to players in a 60 degree cone in front of him, and increases Shadow damage taken by 100% for 30 sec.


Eyes of Occu'thar
Occu'thar forms an Eye of Occu'thar on every player for 10 sec. The eyes bore into their target hosts with the Gaze of Occu'thar.

Gaze of Occu'thar - The Eye of Occu'thar gazes at its target host, inflicting 6000 Shadow damage every 1 sec. for 10 sec.
Occu'thar's Destruction - After an Eye of Occu'thar remains attached to a player for 10 sec, it fully bores into the host and detonates with Occu'thar's Destruction, inflicting 25000 Shadow damage on all players.

[chaos5061]

4.2 Hotfixes July 6th

From Blizzard:
July 6

General
An issue has been corrected that would cause players to lose their progress towards Veteran of the Horde II, Veteran of the Alliance II, Warbringer of the Horde, or Warbound Veteran of the Alliance if Veteran of the Horde or Veteran of the Alliance were complete.

Classes
Characters should no longer disconnect or receive movement enforcement errors when certain spells, abilities, or item effects are used while on moving transports.
Druid
Faerie Fire and Faerie Fire (Feral) will now remove Stealth, Invisibility, Vanish, Shadowmeld and Prowl from players.
Mages
When Lava Flows is stolen by a mage via Spellsteal, the mage will no longer gain the Lava Flows buff.
Priests
Shadowfiend is now causing the casting priest to enter combat when cast on enemy players.
Shaman
A Fulmination critical strike for more than 30,000 damage (10-player) or 45,000 damage (25-player) should now properly interrupt Rageface’s Face Rage in the Firelands.
When using Spellsteal on a shaman, Lava Flows will no longer be given to the shaman as a buff. The buff, however, will be removed from the shaman.


Dungeons & Raids
Firelands
Heroic difficulty has been activated and is accessible in all regions.
Pet corpses, guardians, and placed items should no longer provoke Engorged Broodlings to a premature detonation.
The pack of creatures fighting each other around Flamewaker Beast Handlers will stop fighting each other and attack the raid once provoked.
Flamewaker Subjugators now award 50 reputation, up from 15, while Flamewaker Animators award no reputation or loot.
The aggro radius on the third pack of Hells Hounds on the way to Beth’tilac has been reduced.
Unstable Pyrelords now have an active stealth detection aura present when the gauntlet is triggered which prevents stealth classes from traversing up the hill undetected.
Baleroc
Baleroc’s health has been increased on 10-player Heroic difficulty.
Baleroc's gate now despawns properly when he resets.
Shards of Torment despawn when Baleroc resets even if they are spawned after Baleroc has despawned.
Lord Rhyolith
Lord Rhyolith can now be quickly snapped from left to right, or right to left, if the appropriate amount of damage is dealt to the opposite foot.
Lord Rhyolith now prefers to activate volcanoes that are in front of him over volcanoes that are behind him.
Lord Rhyolith now spawns slightly further back on his platform, allowing players to stand on the edge of the terrain and not aggro him.
Lord Rhyolith no longer despawns when reaching the end of the encounter area, and does not despawn when casting Drink Magma from any of the possible locations.
Lord Rhyolith now summons in volcanoes when intended, and it is no longer possible for the first set of volcanoes to be ignored.
Majordomo Staghelm
Majordomo Staghelm has had his health increased by 10% on Heroic difficulty.
Ragnaros
Living Meteors no longer evade and return to their spawn point when their original target dies or uses a threat drop. They will instead choose a new target.
The Sons of Flame can no longer be missed by melee attacks and abilities.
Shannox
Shannox will now rotate when appropriate instead of moving to get in range of his target while being tanked.
Shannox will always use Hurl Spear after a raid wipes, even if Riplimb collapsed just prior to the group wiping.

Items
Jamus’Vaz and Faldren Tillsdale are once again offering players Conquest Points in exchange for Valor Points.
Normal and Heroic versions of Deflecting Star now correctly bind when picked up.
Eternal Embers are now epic quality.
Normal and Heroic versions of Pauldrons of Roaring Flame now have mastery rating instead of hit rating.
Ruthless, Vicious, and Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Clasps of Cruelty have had their Stamina values increased to remain consistent with equivalent belts. Note that the tooltip will require a patch to update.

Quests & Creatures
Hyjal Regrowth & Molten Front
Players are now receiving 6 Marks of the World Tree from Caught Unawares and 10 marks from The Sanctuary Must Not Fall, which now allows players to obtain 20 marks as soon as they finish their first days’ worth of daily quests and unlock the Molten Front. The amount of marks offered is properly updated in player Quest Logs as well.
There are now many more Wounded Hyjal Defenders to accommodate a large concurrency of players in the Molten Front.
The Fiery Behemoths and Molten Behemoths are now the same size.
Rayne Feathersong has been moved from the cave and is still available as a daily quest giver at Malfurion's Breach.

[chaos5061]

From MMO Champion:
Firelands Raid Heroic First Kills - Day 2
Guilds around the world are still working hard on Firelands Raid encounter and the harder bosses are starting to slow progression down in both regions.

US First Kills

vodka was the first guild in the US to defeat Alysrazor in Heroic Mode.


EU First Kills

Method was the first guild in Europe to defeat Beth'tilac, Lord Rhyolith, and Alysrazor.
For The Horde was the first guild in Europe to defeat Shannox.

[chaos5061]

Blizzard's response to the great PvP debacle of season 10.

From Blizzard:
Thanks for making a clear-cut thread summarizing why this is a big issue within the PvP community, Tauranewone. To keep communication on this as clear as possible, I'll try and clarify what has happened with the transition between Season 9 and 10, as well as give you our take. For everyone reading along, please do not create new threads on this issue. We'll be primarily watching this one and would prefer to keep our forums as easy to read as possible.

Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.

First off, to be clear, we made two mistakes which led to the primary cause of frustration for players:

1) We noted that Conquest Points were going to be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap with the release of patch 4.2, giving players one week to spend these excess points before the start of Season 10, at which point the 4,000 point cap would go into effect. Instead, the Honor Point cap intended to be enforced yesterday was applied at the same time Conquest Points were converted to Honor Points with patch 4.2. This led many players who saved Conquest Points up for the season transition to receive gold for any Honor Points above 4,000, rather than points above that cap. There wasn't a feasible solution for correcting the fact that the calculations had been run a week early.

2) We didn't notify players that we made a slight change to the way PvP gear is introduced each season. The change simply wasn't communicated among all of the other patch 4.2 changes, which was a big oversight on our part.

These two errors compacted each other. Players were left with no more than 4,000 Honor Points after patch 4.2, which led many players to farm more HP to buy Season 9 gear. Then, when Season 10 hit yesterday, Season 9 (ilvl 365) items were replaced with an HP tier of Season 10 (ilvl 371) items. Since players didn't know this would happen, many of you farmed HP and spent it on the Season 9 items prior to yesterday's maintenance.

Obviously most of you already know what happened and are very frustrated by it, but I just want to clarify the nature of the unrest, as well as the intended way this season transition was to happen. This is the way it should have worked, and how it should work going forward:

1) During any season, a low tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Honor Points.

2) During any season, a high tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Conquest Points.

3) At the end of any season, any remaining Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap.

4) In between seasons, the previous high tier of items becomes available for purchase with Honor Points, allowing anyone who could not previously afford them with CP one last chance to buy them using the excess Honor Points.

5) The new season begins. Honor Points are capped at 4,000 again. The previous season's sets are removed and replaced with current-season HP and CP items.

We've seen a lot of players ask what the purpose is of having Season 9 items available for purchase with Honor Points for a week, before replacing them with better items. The purpose was for people to spend their excess Honor Points on any leftover items, as once the next season starts players can't keep more than 4,000 HP to spend. Now, the reason why this intent wasn't evident to most players is because we capped HP a week too early, which made spending any Honor Points last week less than ideal. The reality is players would have been better off saving 4,000 HP for the start of Season 10 when ilvl 371 gear was released. But they had no way of knowing that.

That is about all of the information I have to share on this subject at the moment, but I want to remind you that the issues with this season transition are well on our radar. We know we messed up in multiple ways. This not only made our intentions very unclear, but led players to make choices to spend their Honor Points they otherwise probably would not have made.

If everything went according to plan, you probably would've spent any HP over the 4,000 cap last week on any remaining Season 9 items you maybe didn't have. You then would have saved 4,000 HP to get started on the low tier Season 10 items. This is the way we're looking at it and will let you know if and when we have more information to share.