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

[chaos5061]

Blue Posts

Mistweaver Feedback
We've dealt with some issues, and we have the AP/SP conversion working internally now. That said, the tooltips will still not work for another build or two (that’s a separate issue).

We’ve changed Eminence from working on auto-attacks, since this would encourage monk healers to auto-attack just for those heal procs. Regarding our “vision” for the spec (in terms of PvE), it is currently (and this could change, of course):

Melee healing MistweaverYou position your statue near the ranged to heal them, and you are in melee. Your rotation is similar to a Windwalker’s, except you spread Renewing Mists out and Uplift during AOE phases. For AOE, you use Spinning Crane Kick and one of the last tier talents. You almost never cast Soothing Mist, Enveloping Mist or hard cast a Surging Mist unless you absolutely have to. If something doesn’t deal damage, you don’t want to cast it.
Ranged healing MistweaverYou aren’t in melee, you’re at range. You may position your statue near the melee since they're farthest away. You mostly cast Soothing Mist since your statue also casts it with you, and burn through your Chi with Enveloping Mist. While moving you put down Healing Spheres near people you think may become injured (or on top of those who are). If you want to add in some damage, cast Cracking Jade Lightning. Cast Renewing Mist whenever it's up. Roll/Chi Torpedo into injured members and use Spinning Crane Kick to heal them up. Use the Chi you generate through Spinning Crane Kick on Uplift.

Also, depending on the fight, you can switch between both of those modes (using Transcendence to teleport back and forth into melee). There will inevitably be encounters where one is better than the other, and we feel that’s okay. That is going to the life of a Mistweaver Monk.

Windwalker PvP Mobility still feels limited
The PvP set bonuses for monks will clear snares and roots when you Roll, use Chi Torpedo, or Flying Serpent Kick. We’ve also changed Roll, Chi Torpedo and Flying Serpent Kick to suppress snares while the monk is moving.

Can you provide any specific scenarios in which your mobility feels underwhelming (Versus a Frost Mage? Versus a Rogue? In a team scenario?)

Monks are intended to have good mobility, but be a bit less good at locking targets down.

Zen Sphere will be toned down soon.

We’re still looking for just the right mechanic for Blackout Kick.

[chaos5061]

What would a hero be without a mighty steed? How else does a champion ride boldly into the thick of battle? What self-respecting hero walks to the battlefield, instead of riding in style?

You’ve met the pandaren and learned of their rich and enigmatic history, but the time has come to reveal their mount of choice, the Dragon Turtle.

The pandaren have long sought mounts that embody their values: patience and strength. With a naturally armored hide, and even gait (no matter how heavy the passenger), and the relaxed attitude that welcomes long journeys, the Dragon Turtle is perfect for the pandaren adventurer. Indigenous to mainland Pandaria, these fine steeds are easily outfitted with the essentials: maps, cushions, footstools, and brew-storage. Comfortable and hardy, the dragon turtle’s slow, even stride will gently ease passengers into new parts of the world and/or a relaxing nap time.

Features: 360-degree panoramic view, fully automatic transmission, deep pile ornate rug seats.

This mount's handling is so intuitive that you can "safely" read a map or eat a snack while in motion.

*Disclaimer: Do not operate while napping. May not actually charge into battle. Maps, cushions, and brew-storage optional.May cause mount envy and wanderlust. For recreational use only. Keep fingers and toes away from mouth. Do not leave in sun. Feed and water regularly. No guarantees real or imagined apply.

[chaos5061]

Mage Skill Animations Preview
Today we continue looking at the new skill animations by starting with the Mage.

[chaos5061]

Druid Skill Animations Preview

We also have the Druid skill animations today! Please note that

Incarnation is not yet displaying the armored shapeshift forms. (Moonkin, Bear, and Cat forms)

[chaos5061]

Raid Requirements

• Terrace of Endless Spring - You must have completed Heart of Fear achievement before attempting the Terrace of Endless Spring.

Dungeon Requirements

• Challenge Modes require that you complete the instance and earn the Heroic difficulty achievement first.

Battlegrounds

• Silvershard Mines is now a 10 man battleground, down from 15 man.

New Titles

• %s the Relic Hunter
• %s the Undaunted

New Currency Types

• Zen Jewelcrafter's Token - Awarded for demonstrating great skill in jewelcrafting, these tokens can be used to purchase unique jewelcrafting plans and the beautiful Serpent's Eye.
• Ironpaw Token - Replaces the Chef's Token. Represents your credit with the Ironpaw family of cooks. Can be redeemed for Cooking ingredients and other things at the Stockmaster in Halfhill Market.

[chaos5061]

Blue Posts

Guard Kills Rewarding Honor
We don't want to encourage people to "farm" guards. It's a bit counter to the purpose of world PvP. If it helps, we have some information we're putting together for you. It will go into a bit more about our plans for PvP in Mists of Pandaria that we'll share with you before much longer though.

Balance Druid Concerns
Increasing Hurricane's damage so that we actually use it for AoE is a great start. Giving it an Arcane version so we can AoE in Lunar is almost getting there! But then you totally forget about Wild Mushroom, which is currently our strongest AoE ability. Either it's back to being worthless, or we're still stuck forcing a Solar Eclipse.
Mushrooms don't benefit from Eclipse and really it's targeted more at something you set up before targets arrive. You then use Hurricane once they're there. That's the intent, anyway, and if it's not there yet, then we'll get it there.

General Shaman Class Feedback
Just to touch on a few points here:
"Resto shaman glyphs have too much of a penalty."This is a fair concern. We don't want glyphs to be no-brainers. Often this means giving a powerful bonus a penalty that offsets that bonus, hopefully in interesting ways. "Increases duration and cooldown," is a common one. Glyph of Lightning Bolt would be a no-brainer without some kind of offset. However, because there are only 3 glyph slots, choosing a glyph for a more situational spell can itself be a sufficient cost. We've taken a look at the Resto glyphs recently to make sure they feel more equitable.
"Telluric Currents is mandatory."We definitely don't want that to be the case. To be fair, it wasn't mandatory early on in Cataclysm, but as Intellect-based mana regen increased, it became better and better. By having Intellect no longer interact with mana pools, we'll improve this situation somewhat, but we'll take a look at it above and beyond that.
"Enhance doesn't value haste enough."Yes, this is something we want to address. Ultimately, we'd like to deliver on the goal of "more haste lets you do more stuff," but that's challenging giving how many buttons Enhance is already using. It's better than it used to be with the addition of Ascendance, but it's not quite good enough yet.
"Why the long cooldown on Reincarnate?"We debated this for awhile, but ultimately decided that having every shaman in a raid being able to stand up every fight would be really powerful and an actual encounter balance problem for us. We could make the ankh count against the battle rez counter, but that would be pretty mean. We think the best design is to leave it at a long-cooldown. Sometimes you may not want to blow it if you think the fight is going to be a wipe.
"Thou shalt not use AE abilities on a single-target fight."I'm going to address this because it's of potential interest to more than just shaman (and frankly, issues with broad appeal are the ones I prefer to address). I think the "law" here has gotten oversold a bit, and maybe that's my fault.

There are two essential problems here we wanted to fix. One is that it's fun when you hit different buttons on AE fights. That just keeps combat more interesting. The second, more balance-related issue, is that when say warriors used Whirlwind so much on single-target fights and multi-target fights, then warrior damage just skyrocketed whenever there was an opportunity to AE. Meanwhile the mage just had to channel Blizzard or something. The game is in a very different place these days and every spec has some variety in how they AE. Frost DKs use Howling Blast and Protection warriors use Thunder Clap even on single targets.

It's fine for Lava Lash / Flame Shock to get used for both single target and AE. There are some situations where breaking CC or hitting the wrong target is a really bad idea. In those situations, you can try to move out of the way or just not Lava Lash (or not use Flame Shock). The risk of hitting the wrong target has always existed in WoW and it's one of those points of skill differentiation between average players and experts. We don't want a world where there is never any risk of breaking CC or hitting the wrong target. That's dull. In those very rare situations (say Spine of Deathwing) where maximum DPS and hitting the right target are both extremely critical, you can use the glyph.
"Why so few shaman changes?"I know players eagerly tear into the latest beta changes like opening birthday presents. What goodies did the designers leave for us today? And to be fair, it's really rewarding for designers to make a change that they know players will get excited about. There is a lot of positive reinforcement there.

But remember, change is not the goal. Fun is the goal. It is not our intention to introduce crazy new things every beta build. We are overwhelmingly focused on the end result. All of the developers are well accustomed with the phenomenon where we make changes early in an expansion and those classes get excited, but then what was shiny and new starts to be less shiny and new as time goes on and they see other classes get changes. If you are like most players, newness wears off quickly -- that's not what is going to keep you playing two months after Mists ships. It's more likely to be a very slippery, very subjective "I am having fun playing my character" sentiment that can keep you engaged.

If there are things you still don't find fun about your class (whatever class it is) please feel free to keep bringing them up. But don't evaluate beta notes as some kind of thermometer about how much we love or hate your class. We love them all.
"OMG, GC didn't address the most important issue!"I don't have the bandwidth to answer everything, but rest assured we read it all. If there is something particularly important to you for us to address, feel free to keep bringing it up (without just "bumps" please).

[chaos5061]

Affliction Multi-dotting Changes
Multi-dotting is one of those mechanics that provides a benefit to dot specs (especially Affliction, Shadow and Balance) and we're not trying to kill it. We do need to keep it under control however. When there are 2-3 targets then players have some decisions about whether to spend their GCDs focused on one target or trying to keep dots up on multiple targets. Doing so can mess with the rotation, in a good way, and as I said, it's one of those mechanics that makes dots feel different from cast time spells.

The benefit of multi-dotting depends a lot on the situation -- the dot classes can out-perform the melee cleave guys when targets aren't clumped and the melee tend to do a lot better when they are. The value of multi-dotting in PvP depends a lot on the power of dispels, and I don't think anyone has a good feel yet for how that is going to play out. (Our intent, once again, is to make dispelling in PvP more strategic and less spammy so that you can remove things when you need to, but anything dispellable isn't immediately regarded as worthless.)

When multi-dotting becomes broken, in our minds, is when a dot class would rather try to maintain dots on many targets at once rather than focus on single targets at all because they end up doing more damage from just dotting. (Let's assume for the sake of argument that such damage is useful and isn't just trying to win meters at the expense of beating the encounter.) When multi-dotting large numbers of targets becomes too good, we have several problems. For one, we have to choose how to balance the dot specs. Do we just let them be overpowered when there are many targets? Do we make them weak against single-targets to compensate? Casting too many dots also comes at the expense of cast time spells, which means that stats and mechanics that benefit cast time are less attractive and the casters themselves are too good at moving and too hard to interrupt.

It's too early to worry about whether Affliction, Balance or Shadow will be the best multi-dotter, or whether such a title is even worth much. In an ideal world there will be situations that benefit each so that the classes don't play too similarly but don't convey such an advantage that players feel like they need to stack the right class for the right encounter.

It would seem that the lack of burst, or 'on demand' damage, would be the reason that Afflocks should excel at multi-dotting.
Sure, that's fine. But it can't be "I win the meters, but you have high burst." For better or worse players focus a lot on who does the highest damage, not whose damage was most useful to beat the encounter. If the situation is "I win the meters when I can multi-dot but you win the meters when you burst," then that would work better, but it's harder for us to frequently engineer encounters with those situations. Even better would be "I benefit the group because I can multi-dot but you benefit the group because you can burst."

Locks Taxing Our Healers? Why Bring 'em
I think all of this is the same issue that I addressed (or attempted to) the other day. Is it possible to have a situation where warlocks are so constantly hovering near death's door that they are a liability? Yes, it's possible. Do we want that? Of course not. On live today, groups don't generally hesitate to bring warlocks for fear of draining healer mana, unless the locks are really bad and tend to Life Tap just before the dragon breathes or whatever.

Affliction mana costs are about twice as high as they need to be on beta right now, which causes warlocks to have to Life Tap too frequently and worry too much how to offset that health loss through talents and other self-healing. Once Life Tap gets down towards more moderate uses, I think a lot of these concerns will go away.

We know some players are also worried that Life Tap won't scale well at higher gear levels when mana use per time is higher, but we've already made a change to Life Tap to convert 15% of health into mana (instead of consuming 15% health to grant 20% max mana). This will probably mean that you Life Tap a little less at high gear levels, which is what happens on live. But it's fine and often a little fun for high levels of gear to convey such perks, and we only need to worry about it until the final tier of gear in Mists, at which point if history is any indication, everything resets and all bets on scaling are off.

Warrior PvP Feedback
Though over the hills and far away Pandaria looks bleaker still
I feel quite different about that actually, with Double Time and Juggernaught, Bladestorm, Safeguard and also Avatar; warriors will have a nice little array of abilities to escape snares, roots and other abilities. If you rotate these abilities well, you could have quite a nice amount of up time.

This ability could be toggled on and off, so it would have an infinite duration. You could compare it to your stances (making it quite fitting for a Warrior), only then with for example a 5 second cooldown to toggle it on or off.
I really think that sounds like a cool idea. My personal feeling is that it would be awesome if Avatar was able to be toggled with a health or rage per second cost. But we will have to wait and see as to how the warrior class develops into the future of the Mists beta.

[chaos5061]

Mists of Pandaria Login Screen Preview

[chaos5061]

Warlock Challenge Mode Armor

As always, this is an early and very incomplete preview. We will update with a nicer version later on.

Tier 14 Hunter Armor

As always, this is an early and very incomplete preview. We will update with a nicer version later on.

Tier 14 Druid Armor

As always, this is an early and very incomplete preview. We will update with a nicer version later on.

New Creatures

[chaos5061]

New and Updated Maps

[chaos5061]

Achievement Changes

Cooking

Professions

• Master of Pandaren Cooking now rewards the title Master of the Ways

[chaos5061]

Spell Changes

Death Knight (Forums)

• Frost Fever now scales with level and has a spec dependent tooltip.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Shifting Presences now you retain 70% of your Runic Power when switching Presences, down from 80%.

Druid (Forums)

• Astral Storm damage decreased by 10%.
• Healing Touch now costs 28.9% of base mana, up from 25.5%.
• Hurricane damage has been increased by 10%.
• Incarnation: King of the Jungle now also removes the positional requirement of Ravage.
• Lifebloom - Heals the target for (6,210 + 5.7% of SP) over 10 sec. When Lifebloom expires or is dispelled, the target is instantly healed for (8,150 + 75.2% of SP). This effect can stack up to 3 times on the same target. Duration refreshed each time you cast Healing Touch, Nourish, or Regrowth on the target. Lifebloom can be active only on one target at a time.
• Mangle now has a spec specific tooltip. Feral and Guardian will also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec, and generate 5 Rage.
• Mangle now has a spec specific tooltip. Feral and Guardian will also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec and generate 5 Rage when used in Bear Form and award 1 combo point when used in Cat Form.
• Mangle now has a spec specific tooltip. Feral and Guardian will also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec, and award 1 combo point when used in Cat Form.
• Maul now has a spec specific tooltip. Feral and Guardian will also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec.
• Pounce no longer requires prowling.
• Ravage! now has a spec specific tooltip. Ravage has a 50% increased chance to critically strike targets with over 80% health. Feral and guardian also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec. Awards 1 combo points.
• Wrath (Balance) damage has been reduced by 10%.

Talents

• Incarnation now also removes the positional requirement of Ravage.

Balance

• Astral Communion (New) Commune with the sun and moon, gaining 20 Lunar or Solar energy every 1 sec for 5 sec. Generates the power type most beneficial to you. 5 sec cast (Channeled).
• Starfire (Balance) damage has been increased by 10%.

Feral

• Shred now has a spec specific tooltip. Feral and Guardian also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec.

Restoration

• Nourish now costs 10.2% of base mana, up from 8.5%.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Savagery (New) Savage Roar can now be used with 0 combo points, resulting in a 12 sec duration.

Hunter (Forums)

• Trueshot Aura no longer grants 5% increased critical strike chance.

Mage (Forums)

• Mana Attunement now only grants 150% increased mana regeneration, down from 300%. (See this blue post)

Monk (Forums)

• Blackout Kick has a new Windwalker bonus: Also empowers you with Serpent's Zeal, causing you and your summoned Jade Serpent Statue to heal nearby injured targets equal to 100% of your auto-attack damage. Stacks up to 2 times.
• Legacy of the Emperor now has a power cost: 60 Energy / 6% of Base Mana.
• Path of Blossoms damage has been increased by 100%.
• Tiger Palm buff now lasts for 20 sec, up from 15.
• Zen Flight no longer has a duration in the description.
• Zen Pilgrimage now has a 30 minute cooldown, up from 15.

Talents

• Charging Ox Wave no longer has a range listed.
• Chi Burst damage has been increased 8%.
• Chi Torpedo damage has been increased 8%.
• Deadly Reach now only grants a 20 yd range, down from 40.
• Power Strikes effect has a 20 sec cooldown, up from 15 sec.
• Rushing Jade Wind damage has been increased 9%.

Brewmaster

• Gift of the Ox has an additional effect: When you move through your Healing Sphere summoned through Gift of the Ox, you heal yourself for 9,986.
• Keg Smash no longer has a listed range.

Mistweaver

• Teachings of the Monastery now has an additional effect: When you Blackout Kick, you gain Serpent's Zeal causing you to heal nearby injured targets equal to 100% of your auto-attack damage. Stacks up to 2 times. The Spinning Crane Kick buff now scales with AP.

Windwalker

• Flying Serpent Kick now has a defined damage amount of 1,826.
• Legacy of the White Tiger now has a power cost of 6% of Base Mana / 60 Energy. No longer increases mastery, now increases critical strike chance by 5%.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Breath of Fire now requires the target be afflicted with your Dizzying Haze, rather than have 3 stacks.
• Glyph of Dizzying Haze was renamed to Glyph of Clash. Increases the range of your Clash ability by 10 yards.

[chaos5061]

Paladin (Forums)

• Flash of Light now costs 42% of base mana, down from 36.3%.
• Judgment moved Retribution to it's own spec specific tooltip. For Retribution, it additionally generates one charge of Holy Power, and applies the Physical Vulnerability debuff to a target. Physical Vulnerability - Weakens the constitution of an enemy target, increasing their physical damage taken by 4% for 30 sec.

Holy

• Divine Light now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.
• Holy Light now costs 16% of base mana, up from 14%.
• Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.
• Holy Shock now costs 16% of base mana, up from 14%. Damage reduced by 20%.

Protection

• Consecration damage reduced by 10%.
• Holy Wrath damage changed to (4,300.5 + 91% of SPH).

Priest (Forums)

• Mind Sear now has a 40 yd range, up from 35.
• Power Word: Shield now scales with 187.1% of Spell Power, up from 87% of Spell Power.

Talents

• From Darkness, Comes Light no longer works with Spirit Shell.
• Mindbender now restores 4% mana, down from 6%.

Shadow

• Shadow Orbs are now also generated by Shadow Word: Death.

Warlock (Forums)

• Corruption now costs 1.25% of base mana, down from 2.5%.
• Fel Flame damage reduced 13%. Now costs 2.5% of base mana, down from 4%.
• Life Tap now restores (1500% of MHP * 0.01) mana.
• Soul Harvest no longer regenerates Soul Shards for Destruction.

Affliction

• Agony now costs 1% of base mana, down from 2%.
• Malefic Grasp now costs 1.5% of Base Mana, plus 1.5% per sec, down from 2%/2%.
• Unstable Affliction now costs 1.5% of base mana, down from 3%.

Demonology

• Metamorphosis: Chaos Wave now costs 120 Demonic Fury, down from 200.
• Soul Fire (Destruction) Consumes a Burning Ember to deal 49% additional damage, down from 78%.

Destruction

• Chaos Bolt now has a 3 sec cast time, down from 4 sec. Damage has been reduced ~3%.
• Ember Tap now heals 18.6% of your health, down from 23%.
• Fire and Brimstone damage reduced to 49.6% of their normal damage, down from 61.2%.
• Immolate now has a spec specific tooltip. Now critical strikes have a chance to generate Burning Embers
• Incinerate damage reduced 14%.
• Mastery: Emberstorm now increases the effectiveness of Burning Ember consuming spells by 24%, down from 53%.
• Shadowburn damage slightly reduced.

Warrior (Forums)

• Enrage was reworked: Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst and Colossus Smash critical strikes and critical blocks Enrage you, increasing the Rage you generate from attacks by 50% for 6 sec.

Arms

• Overpower now does 100% weapon damage, down from 120%. Overpower has a 60% increased chance to be a critical strike.

Fury

• Bloodthirst now has double the normal chance to be a critical strike.

Protection

• Unwavering Sentinel now also reduces the Rage cost of Thunder Clap by 100%.

Professions
Cooking

• Cooking enables a cook to explore the mysteries of Pandaren cooking. Your overall Cooking skill reflects your most advanced Way.

Inscription

• Many of the glyph crafting spells were updated with descriptions and reagents, see WoWDB for the full list.

[chaos5061]

Strings Changes

• ACCOUNT_WIDE_ACHIEVEMENT - Progress on any of your characters\nwill count towards this achievement.
• AUCTION_TIME_LEFT0 - Completed!
• AUCTION_TIME_LEFT0_DETAIL - Auction is done.
• COMPANIONS_MICRO_BUTTON_NEW_BATTLE_SLOT - A new battle slot is available! Click here and drag a pet into the slot.
• ERR_NO_RIDING_SKILL - You can learn riding and obtain a mount from your riding trainer at level 20
• EXPANSION_NAME4 - Mists of Pandaria
• GUILD_CHALLENGE_TYPE4 - Scenario
• GUILD_CHALLENGE_TYPE5 - Challenge Mode Dungeon
• INVITATION_XREALM - %s invites you to a group.\n\nAccepting this invitation may transfer you to another realm.
• LEVEL_UP_HEROIC - Heroic Dungeons Unlocked!
• LEVEL_UP_HEROIC2 - New heroic dungeons unlocked:
• LEVEL_UP_RAID - Raid Dungeon Unlocked!
• LEVEL_UP_RAID2 - New raid dungeon unlocked:
• PET_BATTLE_UI_VS - VS
• REPORT_PET_NAME - Report Bad Pet Name
• SCENARIO_STAGE_STATUS - Stage %d of %d
• SEND_BATTLETAG_REQUEST - Send BattleTag Request
• WOW_FRIEND - World of Warcraft Friend

[chaos5061]

ALRIGHT NOW!!!:

Current plan is to remove the daily quest cap completely for ship. Just like what you see in the beta now. We literally have 100's of daily quests at level 90 and we want to make sure that players can pick and choose what they want to do.