So speculate how long until MOP? June, August, October, December or ?

[chaos5061]

Some MoP Glyphs Pt.1

From WoW Insider:
Not much else to say here, folks: on top of the warlock tanking glyph, there are a ton of other new glyphs in the Mists of Pandaria beta which we found via WoWDB. Blizzard has gotten really creative with a lot of them. There are a bunch of really awesome minor glyphs and some incredibly useful major ones. Check out a sample below and the rest after the break!
Glyph of Animal Bond
While your pet is active, all healing done to you and your pet is increased by 10%.

Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell
Causes your Anti-Magic Shell to absorb all incoming magical damage, up to the absorption limit.

Glyph of Armors
Reduces the cast itme of your Frost Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor spells by (1500/-1000) sec, and increases the defensive effect of each Armor by an additional 10%.

Glyph of Aspect of the Pack
Increases the range of your Aspect of the Pack by 15 yards

Glyph of Avenging Wrath
While Avenging Wrath is active, you are healed for 0% of your maximum health every 4 sec

Glyph of Beacon of Light
Removes the global cooldown on Beacon of Light

Glyph of Blade Flurry
Your attacks have a 30% higher chance of applying Non-Lethal poisons while Blade Flurry is active

Glyph of Blessed Life
While Seal of Insight is active, you have a 50% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power whenever you take direct damage or are Stunned, Feared, or Immobilized. This effect cannot occur more than once every 20 sec.


Glyph of Bloody Healing
Increases the healing you receive from bandages by 20% while your Deep Wounds is active.

Glyph of Bone Shield
Increases your movement speed by 15% while Bone Shield is active. This does not stack with other movement-speed increasing effects.

Glyph of Burning Embers
Increases your maximum Burning Embers by 1.

Glyph of Chaining [NYI]
Doubles the jump distance of your Chain Heal spell, but reduces its healing done by 15%.

Glyph of Blinding Light
Your Blinding Light now knocks down targets for 3 sec instead of Blinding them.

Glyph of Blitz
Your Charge stuns an additional 2 nearby targets.

Glyph of Circle of Healing
Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target, but its mana cost is increased by 35%.

Glyph of Cleansing
Your Cleanse will remove one movement impairing effect if cast on yourself.

Glyph of Cleansing Waters
When you dispel a harmful Magic or Curse effect from an ally, you also heal the target for 4% of your maximum health.

Glyph of Cleaving
Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1, or 3 when Enraged.

Glyph of Combustion
Increases the duration of the damage over time effect and the cooldown of Combustion by 100%.

Glyph of Conflagrate
Reduces the movement speed reduction of Conflagrate to 100% and increases the duration by 100%.

Glyph of Consecration
You can now target Consecration anywhere within 25 yards.

Glyph of Crittermorph
When cast on critters, your Polymorph spells now last 24 hrs and can be cast on multiple targets.

Glyph of Death and Decay
Your Death and Decay also reduces the movement speed of enemies within its radius by 50%.

Glyph of Death Coil
Your Death Coil spell is now usable on all allies. When cast on a non-undead ally, Death Coil shrouds them with a protective barrier that absorbs up to ((0+0.495*AP)*1) damage.

Glyph of Death Grip
Increases the cooldown of Death Grip by 10 sec but stuns targets for 1 sec.

Glyph of Debilitation
Your Eviscerate and Envenom abilities also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.

Glyph of Demon Hunting
Demonic Fury now reduces damage taken instead of increasing damage dealt.
In addition, while using Metamorphosis, Soulshatter taunts your target, Twilight Ward will absorb all schools of damage and Demonic Slash is shorter range and generates fury.

Glyph of Demon Training
Improves your demon's special abilities:
Reduces your Imp's Firebolt cast time by 50%.
Increases your Voidwalker's total health by 20%.
Your Succubus's Seduction ability also removes all damage over time effects from the target.
When your Felhunter uses Devour Magic, you will also be healed for that amount.
Increases the number of targets hit by your Felguard's Legion Strike by 1.

Glyph of Denounce
Increases your Holy damage by 20% for 6 sec after you Denounce.

Glyph of Disengage
Increases the distance you travel when you Disengage.

Glyph of Divine Storm
Your Divine Storm also heals you for 1% of your maximum health.

Glyph of Double Jeopardy
Judging a target increases the damage of your next Judgment by 20%, but only if used on a second target.

Glyph of Earth Shield
Your Earth Shield charges are no longer depleted when taking damage, but Earth Shield's duration is reduced to 45 sec.

Glyph of Enduring Infection
Your diseases are undispellable, but their damage dealt is reduced by 30%.

Glyph of Enraged Speed
While Enraged, you move 20% faster.

Glyph of Evocation
Your Evocation ability also causes you to regain 60% of your health over its duration.
With the Invocation talent, this healing is reduced to 30% of your health.
With the Rune of Power talent, you gain 1% of your health per second while standing in your Rune of Power.

Glyph of Expose Armor
Your Expose Armor ability causes three applications of Weakened Armor.

Glyph of Eye of Kilrogg
Your Eye of Kilrogg is no longer stealthed and can now place your Demonic Circle.
In addition, the movement speed of your Eye of Kilrogg is increased by 50% and allows it to fly in areas where flying mounts are enabled.

Glyph of Felguard
Your Felguard will equip a random two-handed axe, sword or polearm from your backpack.

Glyph of Fire Blast
Your Fire Blast and Inferno Blast spells can now also spread Living Bomb.

Glyph of Fire From the Heavens
Your Judgment and Hammer of Wrath criticals call down fire from the sky.

Glyph of Flash of Light
When you Flash of Light a target, it increases your next heal done to that target within 4 sec by 30%.

Glyph of Freezing Trap
When your Freezing Trap breaks, the victim's movement speed is reduced by 70% for 4 sec.

Glyph of Frugal Blessings
Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Might by 50%.

Glyph of Gag Order
Your Pummel, Heroic Throw and Storm Bolt hits silence the target for 3 sec.

Glyph of Gushing Wound
Your Bloodthirst critical strikes are even bloodier than normal.

Glyph of Hammer of Wrath
You take 10% less damage for 10 sec after using Hammer of Wrath. (this is incredible)

[chaos5061]

Some MoP Glyphs Pt.2

Glyph of Healing Storm
Each application of Maelstrom Weapon also increases your healing done by 20%.

Glyph of Hamstring
Using Hamstring reduces the cost of your next Hamstring by 100%.

Glyph of Healthstone
You receive 100% more healing from using a healthstone, but the health is restored over 10 sec.

Glyph of Hoase Voice
Reduces the cooldown and rage generation of your Battle and Commanding Shout by 50%.

Glyph of Holy Shock
Decreases the healing of Holy Shock by 50% but increases its damage by 100%.

Glyph of Ice Lance
Your Ice Lance now hits 1 additional target for 50% damage.

Glyph of Icy Touch
Your Icy Touch dispels one helpful Magic effect from the target.

Glyph of Icy Veins
Reduces the cooldown and duration of Icy Veins by 50%.

Glyph of Illumination
Your Holy Shock criticals grant 1% mana return, but Meditation returns 10% less mana. (number is probably not final)

Glyph of Immediate Truth
Increases the instant damage done by Seal of Truth by 20%, but decreases the damage done by Censure by 50%.

Glyph of Inquisition
Reduces the damage bonus of Inquisition by 10% but increases its duration by 100%.

Glyph of Invisibility
Increases your movement speed while Invisible by 40%.

Glyph of Killing Spree
Your Killing Spree returns you to your starting location when the effect ends.

Glyph of Lava Burst
Your Lava Burst spell will always be a critical strike regardless of the presence of Flame Shock on the target, but it deals 5% less damage.

Glyph of Lesser Proportion
Slightly reduces the size of your pet.

Glyph of Light of Dawn
Light of Dawn affects 2 fewer targets, but heals each target for 25% more.

Glyph of Loose Mana
Your Mana Gem now restores mana over 6 sec, rather than instantly.

Glyph of Mana Gem
Your Conjure Mana Gem spell now creates a Brilliant Mana Gem, which holds up to 10 charges.

Glyph of Marked for Death
Your Arcane Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Command, and Explosive Shot abilities automatically apply Hunter's Mark.

Glyph of Mind Freeze
Increases the interrupt duration of your Mind Freeze ability by 1 sec, but also raises its cost by 20 Runic Power.

Glyph of Mirrored Blades
When attacked by a spell while in Deterrence, you have a 100% chance to reflect it back at the attacker.

Glyph of Momentum
Your Blink spell teleports you in the direction you are moving instead of the direction you are facing. (This is why there's a physics engine!!!!!!!!)

Glyph of Mortal Strike (NYI)
When your Mortal Strike is affecting a target, healing effects on you are increased by 10%.

Glyph of Nightmares
Your Felsteed and Dreadsteed can cross water while running and leave a trail of flames.

Glyph of Power Word: Shield
20% of the absorb from your Power Word: Shield spell is converted into healing.

Glyph of Prayer of Mending
The first charge of your Prayer of Mending heals for an additional 60% but your Prayer of Mending has 1 fewer charges.

Glyph of Protector of the Innocent
When you use Word of Glory to heal another target, it also heals you for 20% of the amount.

Glyph of Purge
Your Purge dispels 1 additional Magic effect.

Glyph of Rebuke
Increases the cooldown by 5 sec and lockout by 2 sec of Rebuke.

Glyph of Riptide
Your Riptide no longer has a cooldown, but also no longer instantly heals the targeted ally.

Glyph of Ritual of Refreshment
Your Ritual of Refreshment spell no longer requires the assistance of other raid members to complete.

Glyph of Rude Interruption
Succesfully interrupting a spell with Pummel increases your damage by 5% for 30 sec.

Glyph of Seal of Blood (NYI)
Your Seal of Truth now uses the Seal of Blood visual.

Glyph of Holy Fire
Your Holy Fire spell is now instant

Glyph of Shadow Bolt
Splits your Shadow Bolt into three smaller attacks.

Glyph of Shifting Presences
You retain 50% of your Runic Power when switching Presences.

Glyph of Sinister Strike
Your Sinister Strike deals 25% more damage and costs 25% more Energy.

Glyph of the Alabaster Shield
Increases the damage of Shield of the Righteous by 50% but reduces the amount it blocks by 20%.

Glyph of the Luminous Charger (NYI)
Your paladin class mounts glow with Holy Light.

Glyph of the Chameleon
Each time you shapeshift into Cat Form or Bear Form, your shapeshifted form will have a random hair color.

Glyph of the Mounted King (NYI)
Mounting a paladin mount automatically casts Blessing of Kings on you.

Glyph of Thunder Strike
Your Thunder Clap visual includes a lightning strike.

Glyph of Totemic Encirclement
When you cast a totem spell, you also place unempowered totems for any elements that are not currently active. These totems have 5 health and produce no other effects.

Glyph of Totemic Vigor
Increases the health of your totems by 10% of your maximum health.

Glyph of Unleashed Lightning
Your Lightning Bolt takes 5% longer to cast, but may be cast while moving.

Glyph of Unstable Affliction
When Unstable Affliction is removed, it instantly deals critical damage to both the target and the dispeller, but no longer silences.

Glyph of Water Elemental
Increases the health of your Water Elemental by 40%, and allows it to cast while moving.

Glyph of Water Shield
Increases the passive mana generation of your Water Shield by 10%, but Water Shield no longer activates when you receive damage.

Glyph of Winged Vengeance (NYI)
You grow larger during Avening Wrath.

Glyph of Word of Glory
Increases your damage by 10% for 6 sec after you cast Word of Glory.

[chaos5061]

Some MoP Enchants

From WoW Insider:
Dataminers have been hard at work combing through the Mists of Pandaria beta client that became available tonight. The new enchants coming for weapons and armor have names and here they are, courtesy of WoWDB.

Enchant Weapon - Pandamonium: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to sometimes grant 1000 attack power for 12 sec. Can only enchant a level 92 weapon.
Enchant Weapon - Windsong: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your critical strike, haste, or mastery rating by 1,500 for 12 sec when dealing damage with spells and melee attacks. Requires a level 384 or higher item.
Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your Intellect by 1,650 when healing or dealing damage with spells. If less than 25% of your mana remains when the effect is triggered, your Spirit will also increase by 750. Requires a level 384 or higher item.

Enchant Weapon - Elemental Force: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes inflict 3,000 additional damage when dealing damage with spells and melee attacks. Requires a level 384 or higher item.
Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your Strength or Agility by 1,650 when dealing melee damage. Your highest stat is always chosen. Requires a level 384 or higher item.
Enchant Weapon - Colossus: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to make your damaging melee strikes sometimes activate a Mogu protection spell, absorbing up to 7,500 damage. Requires a level 384 or higher item.
Enchant Weapon - Flowing River: Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your dodge rating by 1,650 for 12 sec when dealing melee damage. Requires a level 384 or higher item.

I am loving the names of the weapon enchants this go-around. Dancing Steel and Colossus are my favorites. Whether or not these enchants will be paired with a way to turn off the weapon glows, only time will tell.

[chaos5061]

Going to get some sleep. A couple of notes for people though:
1 Lore from TankSpot will be doing a stream of the beta as soon as the beta goes live he said. You can find his stream here: www.twitch.tv/devolore Go there every now and then to check to see if he's in or not. You can also follow his twitter @devolore and he will post when he goes live.
2 Keep watching MMO Champion and WoW Insider for news and datamined info. For whatever reason Wowhead isn't posting anything yet but check with them about every hour to see if they posted anything.

[chaos5061]

Lore's MoP Beta stream is up. www.twitch.tv/devolore

[cabby]

Haha, you lied. You said you were going to get some sleep and yet you're still here all ga-ga over MoP.

[chaos5061]

Was just starting to when my iPhone made that email received tone so I got up to check thinking if I'm lucky MoP beta invite but no luck just Lore's stream starting up. Was alseep to minutes later.

[chaos5061]

MoP Character Creation

From MMO Champion:

[chaos5061]

Wowhead MoP database is live: http://mop.wowhead.com/search?q=date%3A2012-03-22

[krendar]

MMO Champion Beta Livestream:

http://www.twitch.tv/mmo_champion

[chaos5061]

Thank you krendar knew I was forgetting something.

[chaos5061]

Wowhead Mists of Pandaria Talent Calculator now has Monk: http://www.wowhead.com/mists-of-pand...ent-calculator

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
Warlock
Warlocks and Green Fire
Green "fel" fire for warlocks, like they've been asking for since... forever?

It is our hope to introduce a quest which will allow warlocks to unlock the use of green fire.

Druid
Moonkin Form Model Update
I think they deserve a revamp, though, same as cats and bears got.
Well, we agree. And this is why an improved moonkin model is indeed in the schedule. But alas I have no due date to announce. In the meantime, we hope the various new cool shape-shift glyphs will provide a little distraction while the moonkin model gets the loving it needs. We hope the Glyph of Stars will help you here.

Scarlet Monastery and Scholomance
Wouldn't it instead be more logical to do something about dungeons people NOT love so much? Why try fixing things which already are working fine and people already love?
That's a fair point. But just because we're revamping the big player favourites, doesn't mean that we won't be looking around and seeing what else we might want to revamp.

So, what's this about Lillian Voss as a boss fight in Scholomance, eh? In Mists of Pandaria, we finally catch up with Lillian Voss. For those who didn't play through the Forsaken starting experience, Lillian Voss was brought back to life by Sylvanas, but despite this she refused to become part of the Forsaken.

After trying to re-connect with her still living father, those players with keen eyes might have noticed her handiwork in Western Plaguelands. As a non-aligned "free agent," Lillian has some surprising hidden talents. In Mists of Pandaria she's still confused about her situation. Still broiling with internal conflict, despising what she has become.

Now she has a new and grander mission in mind and it revolves around Scholomance and Darkmaster Gandling in particular. She wants to ensure that like herself, no others shall be raised from death and subjugated.

Mists of Pandaria Graphical Upgrades
There are actually quite a lot of graphic engine improvements in Mists of Pandaria, however for the most part they are subtle. For example, improved shadowing, blending and enhancements to the fog effect.

Amongst the large list of information we hope to share with you is included a list of the new graphic engine improvements with some before and after screenshots to highlight what each one brings to the game.

Each one might be subtle but as a whole they bring an improved visual appearance to the game.

The Zandalari in Mists of Pandaira
Thousands of years ago, when the Zandalari and the Mogu boasted the most powerful empires in Azeroth, the Zandalari were actually allied with the Mogu. So when the Pandaren revolted against the Mogu, of course the Zandalari displayed their allegiance to their Mogu friends by attacking the embryonic Pandaren empire. Overcoming this threat was to be one of the Pandaren empire's first tests of strength.

After the passing of so many thousands of years, after the mists had covered Pandaria for so long — keeping ancient threats like the Zandalari at bay — Pandaren children have now come to see the mythological Zandalari somewhat like our children see bogeymen. Scary enough to ensure compliance with the instructions and requests of parents, but at the end of the day, not the kind of threat you ever really see with your own eyes and in your own backyard... right?

The misty shrouds that the last Pandaren Emperor used to protect Pandaria from the demonic jeopardy that threatened Azeroth have done a particularly good job, for no troll has been seen in Pandaria for over 10,000 years. No wonder the Zandalari seem like nothing more than freakish figures of fiction to many Pandaren.

Imagine the Pandaren's surprise when the mists collapse and Pandaria's lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains are once more threatened by the ancient Zandalari menace that they had come to see as nothing more than scary savages in some superstitious stories.After the mists collapse, of course after 10,000 years the Zandalari are intensely curious about Pandaria, even more so perhaps than the Horde and Alliance are. But is there more to their interest than pure curiosity?

So, just like the Alliance and Horde, they send out their forces to Pandaria. But it would appear they have it in mind to re-connect with their ancient allies, the Mogu. It seems they want to help them retake the land away from the Pandaren and once again bring it under Mogu rule. How very kind of them!

But is their mission to re-establish Mogu rule really so altruistic as that? They seem so desperate to acquire Pandaren territory. What exactly could be their motive, if it isn't just to help out their ancient Mogu allies?

To find out more, we will need to wait a little while longer so we can head towards Kun-Lai Summit and unravel the secrets that are there to be discovered.

LFR -loot system
We're working on getting a new Coffee with the Devs (aka Dev Watercooler) out, which will explain the new system in a very clear and precise way.

I don't want to post everything that'll be explained in that article, however essentially for Raid Finder it's currently intended to be like this: the boss will die, the game decides who wins loot. There'll be no rolling or passing.

How Exactly Do We "Demand" Item Squish?
The way you “demand” an item squish is by testing, talking and sharing your constructive feedback with us here. We realize that there are players on both sides of the fence on this issue and we want to be able to evaluate the comfort level for moving forward with the possibility before we actually do anything more (should we feel it’s necessary.) Essentially, we want players to start expecting it rather than fearing it. While we stand 100% behind the new talent changes, we also recognize that they may be a bit controversial. We thought it would make sense to first have everyone try out the new talent model for the expansion before we tried doing any item squishes. We don’t want a returning player to not only have to relearn their class because of these big talent changes, but also to have to get used to doing lower damage. That’s a lot of change to take in at once. As we mentioned, we had the squish all in and working, but seeing those small numbers felt odd to us – and we knew exactly what to expect. For a player not knowing what to expect, it might feel downright alien and not very “ WoW like” which is not a good experience with which to welcome a player to a new expansion. We know that veterans are ready and willing to take on whatever gets thrown their way, but for others, we don’t want to completely overwhelm them if we can avoid it.

As we said in the original blog, we don’t want anyone to reject the idea of an item squish solely because they enjoy soloing old content. There are other solutions to that problem, if in fact it becomes a problem.

The primary motivation behind an item squish is to make the numbers more readable for players. It would have almost no balance implications. There are however some programming implications. It’s easy to get bogged down into technical details quickly, but many of the numbers in WoW have a cap of two billion. There are cases where we already have gotten close to that cap, with which many of you are probably already familiar. We already had to do some work in Cataclysm to increase the gold cap (because gold is stored in the game as copper). We have already had some bosses, such as Flame Leviathan, with health of over one billion. We have already had fights in the game where players could hit the threat cap. All of these problems have solutions, but they aren’t free solutions, and focusing programmer time on fixing them means less time for other features. We think we will be fine for Mists of Pandaria, but we are going to have to consider those solutions soon after.

[chaos5061]

Hotfixes 3-26-12

March 26

Dungeons and Raids

Dragon Soul

The Madness of Deathwing

Burning Blood will no longer prematurely spike up to 100 stacks if players damage the Arm and Wing Tentacles very quickly.








Items

Scroll of Resurrection outfit items designated for healers no longer have Strength.




Quests

The deprecated quests Keanna’s Will and The Shattered Blade are now removed from quest logs upon login.




UI

Fixed a bug that locked some Mobile Armory users into Away status in-game.

[chaos5061]

Dev Watercooler - Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained Pt.1

Hey, how about that landslide of Mists of Pandaria information? It has taken a few days, and will probably take a few more, for the nuance of everything to really sink in. One of the topics we've been getting lots of questions about is the crazy new loot model we're introducing in Mists. We've answered several related questions in the forums, but thought it might be prudent to just put all the information in one place.

I should clarify that the systems we're introducing are actually pretty simple in practice. I'm only going into a fair amount of detail because those are the kinds of questions we are getting. You don't have to understand all the particulars to participate, and we're certain that it will just all make sense once you are experiencing it in-game instead of hearing it described (that whole "show, don't tell" thing). Let's begin:

Personal Loot

Here is how looting works in today's Raid Finder groups:

The boss dies.
The game randomly decides which items off of the boss's loot table drop.
The group rolls Need, Greed, or Pass on each item.
If you were raiding with a group of friends, you might discuss who should get each item. Even if you ultimately lost, hopefully you are happy that a friend got an upgrade and that your group as a whole is now a little bit stronger.
But if you're in Raid Finder, you are quite possibly alone with a bunch of strangers.
So, if you can Need, you probably do, because there's no time for discussion, some of the rollers may be AFK, and even if you piss someone off, you aren't likely to have to pay the social cost of doing so since you'll never see them again.
The highest roll wins.
Drama ensues.

Here's how the new Raid Finder system will work in Mists of Pandaria:

The boss dies.
The game automatically decides who won some loot, and gives those players a spec-appropriate item.
Some players may still get mad, but hopefully they are mad at the laws of probability and not at the rest of the raid.

So, realistically, that's really all you need to know to understand how it'll play out in-game. For those looking for more detail, here's what's happening behind the scenes:

The boss dies.
Each player has a chance to win loot, independent of the other players.
For each player who wins loot, the game randomly assigns them a spec-appropriate item from that boss's loot table. This subset contains only items that the game (meaning the designers in this case) thinks are appropriate for your class and current spec.
Notice that you aren't rolling Need or Greed. You don't have an option to Pass. The game just says "Take this."
You can't trade this item, or that would defeat the purpose of removing the social pressure on groups of strangers. If you don't want the item, you are free to vendor, delete, or disenchant it.

The big difference here is that instead of kill -> loot -> roll, the new system uses kill -> roll -> loot. The loot is not determined until the winners are determined. It's all automatic, and you're under no obligation to pass or roll — these choices no longer exist. The game decides who gets loot, not the players. The end. Nobody is going to be a callous jerk and take the item that you rightfully deserve. Nobody is going to try to talk you into trading an item to them because they are down on their luck and can't ever win a weapon. No DPS dude is going to ninja the tanking shield that you need for your guild to progress.

We understand some players are interested in off-spec or transmogrification loot, and we will consider future changes to the system to accommodate those desires. However, we're not sure fundamentally that Raid Finder is the best avenue for acquiring that loot. You would either need to take it from another player who actually desires it for their main spec, or a conversation would have to take place to make sure nobody else needed it more than you do. In other words, you would have to stop people from just rolling Need whenever they could. I've seen some suggestions that we allow an option for essentially "I'm happy to get loot beyond just what my main spec can use," and maybe that's the kind of approach we could take, but let's make sure the basic design works first. For now, there are other avenues, such as dungeons, faction gear, normal raids or older content to provide off-spec or cosmetic gear.

Here is a model I've seen some people say they want:

The boss dies.
I get the exact item or items I want.
I never have to come back and kill this boss again.
I politely ask Blizzard when there will be new content for me to run.

I added that, somewhat tongue in cheek, to point out that the intent of the new system is not to make killing bosses or getting loot more efficient, or to let you choose buffet-style which items you get. We like random loot being random, as long as it isn't so frustratingly random that you stop enjoying the experience. The intent of the new loot system is really to relieve social pressure on a group of random and anonymous strangers. We think it is reasonable for groups of friends, such as the typical raiding guild, to have a discussion about how to divvy up loot. That discussion is a tried and true RPG tradition going back to D&D or earlier. We don't think that is a reasonable expectation for Raid Finder, though.

The personal loot system will initially be used for Raid Finder and for world bosses. We want to use it for world bosses because we want it to be fairly easy to form PUGs to take down these bosses when they're up. If my raiding guild is about to take on a world boss, and some lonely hunter is asking to join the group (it's always a lonely hunter, isn't it?), it would be nice to be able to bring him on without worrying about that jerk taking loot away from me or my friends. We want to foster a "the more the merrier" attitude with world bosses.

This is why it's so important to us that the size of the group shouldn't matter. We don't want guilds to try to kill a world boss with the smallest number of players necessary in order to maximize loot per player. When everyone has their own chance at loot, why not make the group as large as you can? Note that you still have to be a member of the group that taps and kills the boss. We want to have a little bit of competition for world boss kills, especially between the Horde and the Alliance. We think that is part of the fun of world bosses; otherwise, why not just stick the gronn in a cave? (That sounds dirtier than I intended.) We don't want everyone in the zone to get credit just by lurking around. We want you to cooperate with other players, and we're trying to remove barriers to cooperation by eliminating loot drama.