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

[chaos5061]

With the next patch to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we will be temporarily removing the Jade Forest zone. We’re going to be making improvements to the zone, and want to put the focus of testing on other areas during this time.

As a result, starting with this next beta patch (which is coming soon™), you will find that you are no longer able to enter Jade Forest. If you have any characters that are hanging out in Jade Forest when the zone is disabled, they will be automatically ported out to the following locations:

Valley of the Four Winds (for Horde characters)
Krasarang Wilds (for Alliance characters)

Characters that need experience to continue testing can visit either Orgrimmar or Stormwind. In each faction city, there will be an NPC that provides a quest which will reward enough XP to boost your characters from 85 to 86, as well as send you to Valley of the Four Winds to continue questing from there.

We expect Jade Forest to be offline for an extended period of time; we’ll provide further details as we progress with our updates to the zone. Thank you for testing Mists of Pandaria!

[chaos5061]

Dragon Turtle Vendor

The latest beta build added a vendor for the Dragon Turtle mounts, with all of them selling for 3,000 gold. This price is very unlikely to be final! The vendor is located just outside of the Stormwind city walls near the Cataclysm portals.

Great Riding Turtles

• Reins of the Great Green Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Great Black Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Great Blue Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Great Brown Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Great Purple Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Great Red Dragon Turtle

Normal Riding Turtles

• Reins of the Green Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Black Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Blue Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Brown Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Purple Dragon Turtle
• Reins of the Red Dragon Turtle

[chaos5061]

WoW China Developer Interview

otarma was able to translate the latest China Developer's interview for us once again! Keep in mind that things can get lost or mistranslated when doing translation.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Why don’t you allow cross-realm trade between Real ID friends?
It would make cross-realm item circulation too easy, which would impact the economy of individual realms. However, if you really want to play with someone, you can transfer to their realm.

Some players are nostalgic about the raid attunement quests. These players sometimes feel the only reason to kill the raid bosses is the loot. Some players are even asking for the return of raid attunement quests. Will this change in MoP?
Quest lovers and raid lovers don’t have much in common. For many raiders, it is a chore to be forced to do a bunch of raid attunement quests. We are not going to introduce any raid attunement quests at all. On the contrary, because players want to have a reason to raid, we will tell the stories through the means other than quests, such as dialogues of NPCs, events in instances, and the quotes of raid bosses.

How do players reach Pandaria?
Through portals. Currently there are no routes to Pandaria.

Will there be regular championships for pet battles?
Currently we don't have any plans to do so.

Some changes in Cata made some reputations ungrindable (such as the two centaur factions). Will this be fixed?
If the reputations are achievement-relevant, we will fix it, otherwise we don’t want players to grind the reputations that reward nothing.

When people try to do The Loremaster achievement, it’s difficult to find the quest lines that they abandoned halfway. How do you think of it? Is there a way to make the achievement easier?
If you can give us a specific example then we can probably fix it. Besides, the Loremaster achievement in MoP has a little tweak. The quest achievements of the new zones will credit the quest lines instead of numbers of quests accomplished. So the credits are “complete X Y Z story lines”.

Are the mounts from Jewelcrafting profession BoP?
No, they are BoE.

I ask this out of curiosity. Are there more quests in MoP than in Cata LV 80-85?
Currently we have about 1300 quests, of which about 300 are dailies. Some quests are available to Alliance or Horde only, but most quests are neutral. The number of faction-specific quests is probably less than 200. We don't have data to compare with the previous expansions yet, but it is likely that the number is close to WotLK. The quests are more focused on dailies (MoP focuses on dailies more than any other expansion).

Of course, the dailies will be randomized. You can never accept all of them at the same time. If you max out the reputation levels of all factions to provide their quests at max numbers, you can accept about 48 level 85+ dailies at the same time.

After the launch of MoP, will you continue to introduce more world bosses in the following patches?
Yes, depending on how well the world bosses are received. If it's a success then we will certainly introduce more.

The Rise of Zandalari patch seemed unfinished; the whole story was not fully described. Will there be more stories about Zandalari?
Yes, you will see a lot about Zandalari in Kun-lai, and you will discover the connections between Zandalari, Pandaria and Mogu.

LFR provides a lot of convenience for players who are not in raiding guilds. Simply clicking a button to find a raid also decreased the communications within realms. The communications between strangers became less and less. How do you plan to deal with it?
We don't have plans to force players to communicate; it is not necessary for those who try LFR to befriend total strangers. Our bottom line is, we think if you play this game with your friends it will be happier, but if you don’t have friends to play with, then LFD and LFR will also help you experience dungeons and raids.

The popularity LFR received and the benefits it brought are undisputed, but did it bring negative effects too? For example, do players get bored more easily because they can experience raid so easily without the efforts of teamwork?
This system certainly has some flaws. One of them is that it gives players more reasons to not play with friends, make new friends or join a guild. But according to the statistics before and after the release of patch 4.3, we didn’t find players more easily bored about the new raid.

A more functioning guild finder may solve the problem to an extent, but a single system could not possibly fulfill the needs of all players. We hope to make more improvements in 5.0 (including off-line communications or a database website).


WoW China and Korea Server Merges
There is also some older news out of China and Korea about server shutdowns!

They have shut down servers with very low populations, allowing players and guilds to transfer to another server. If a player comes back to the game after their realm has been shut down, they are still able to transfer by using the website. Thanks goes to otarma again for translation.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Since the announcement of the Gaming Environment Optimization Program Phase 1, we have received a lot of support from the players of the relevant realms. So far, Phase 1 goes very well. Most players have arrived at the target realms and received a much better gaming experience. In order for players to begin their new gaming experience more efficiently, we will initiate Phase 2 of the Gaming Environment Optimization Program On June 5th. Hence the source realms will be shut down. The players of the source realms need to organize and take care of the items and money in mailboxes and AH so the transfer can be completed more efficiently.

[chaos5061]

Blue Posts

Why Not Add Head Enchants to Inscription?
Part of the logic in getting rid of the head enchant was to make it easier for players to use their gear. Gems, enchants and reforges all have their place but too much of that sort of preparation before you can actually use an item gets annoying. I'm not saying freeing up one head enchant solves that problem, but it's a small step. I don't know that enchanting the helmet in and of itself is so much fun that we need to preserve it. I think in the meeting where we discussed cutting the enchant there might have even been a little bit of cheering.

In addition, we're not saying we'll never make head enchants again. Maybe we'll come up with a clever use for them or maybe we'll come up with some kind of system that needs a different kind of reward (this was the original genesis of the enchants back in the day). It would be harder to implement such a design if we had to go take the head enchants away from one of the professions. For now, the idea will just go back in the vault. It may not be there forever.

Testing Heroic Dungeons
We're still investigating the stuck character issue.

[chaos5061]

Bucket list preparation for Mists of Pandaria

From WowInsider:

We may not have a release date just yet, but Mists of Pandaria is progressing quite nicely on the beta servers. I have one level 90 character already, and I'm leveling another one through just to see the changes, note any bugs I happen to still see hanging around (of which there are very few so far!) and get another look at the story behind the expansion as it plays out. It's fun, it's keeping me very busy, and sometimes I tend to forget that there's another Azeroth that I really ought to be addressing: the live one, where all my junk is at.

I hate organizing things in game, which is really kind of odd because my life out here in the real world is pretty organized. I keep the house very clean and tidy. My library is organized in tidy sections by author, and my kitchen is immaculate. In fact, I get kind of annoyed when things aren't terribly organized or tidy at home. But in-game, I just can't seem to bring myself to addressing what is becoming an ever-increasing issue, and I'm really dragging my feet on getting ready for Mists.

Getting ready? Yes, you heard me right -- I've found that if I want a seamless experience when I pick up an expansion and start to play, preparing beforehand is key. Plus, it gives me something to do while I'm waiting for the expansion to come out.




A reason for being

The Godmother over at ALT:ertnative has the right idea. She's begun compiling a list of stuff she wants to get done before the expansion begins. One thing on her list is something I'm working on, too -- those pesky Argent Tournament dailies.

I'm still missing two mounts from the tournament, and I'd like to have them all in place before Mists hits so that all of my characters have them. While I suppose I could wait until Mists hits and work without a daily quest limit, frankly, I'd rather just work on it now while I have the time. It doesn't take me very long at all to knock out the tournament dailies; it's just getting the urge to log on and do them.

... which is part of the reason having a list like the Godmother's is a really good thing. Logging in these days doesn't really offer a heck of a lot to do, but making a list of things you want to get done before Mists can put the focus on the stuff you really want to get done. And that, in turn, gives you a good reason to log in. When the expansion hits, you're going to be involved with leveling and gearing up and new dailies and quests; heading back to finish old stuff is kind of a drag. So why not knock it all out of the way now while we're waiting?

A place for everything

As for me, I know I'm going to have to do something about my bank and void storage situation. They're both crammed full. I'm sort of hoping that something will be put into place so that I don't have to get rid of any of the gear I've happily stowed away, gear from quests that I cannot repeat. But let's face it: The biggest thing to prepare for when a new expansion is on the way is making space for all the junk you pick up while you're leveling.


However, there are alternatives to simply chucking things out. If you're an engineer, make sure you've got a Jeeves built so you can repair and sell while you're out in the field. Or if you don't want to bother with Jeeves, get yourself a Tundra Traveler's Mammoth so you have a vendor on the go. Being able to sell stuff immediately is just as good as having a place to store it, for the most part.

Things I gotta do

There are also plenty of achievements I have yet to nab, and it's just going to get harder to grab them after the expansion launches. I never really bothered going for the various heroic dungeon achievements in Cataclysm, but they're on my list as something to do while I'm waiting. Grabbing all those mounts I still haven't collected is also there, as well as picking up any pets I may have missed out on. I'd like to have them all, because Pet Battles are bound to be far more interesting when I've got my choice of whatever I'd like to use.

Cleaning out old alts and deleting the ones I no longer want to play is also on that list. So is leveling the ones I know I'm going to want to take to Pandaria with me, eventually. It's a heck of a lot easier to get to 85 and level professions now than it will be when Mists launches. Right now, I can level an alt, gear up and get decked out in Raid Finder gear with little difficulty. When Mists hits, having that better gear at the outset means leveling will be just a little easier, too.

I've got several more things on the bucket list, but those are a few of the highlights. I know I'm not the only person who takes the time to get everything set up before an expansion launch, but I still find myself wondering what other people do. Do you have a bucket list of stuff to get done? If so, what's on your list? Maybe I'll find a few things I've overlooked that I ought to add to mine!

[chaos5061]

Heroic Gate of the Setting Sun Video Guide

Gate of the Setting Sun is a level 90 heroic instance located in Dread Wastes.

[chaos5061]

Quests

90	Lighting the Way	Light the Signal Flame.	45 60	471,000
90	That's a Big Bug!	Kill Raigonn.	45 60	471,000

Achievements

	Pandaria Dungeon	Bomberman Trigger 15 explosions within 15 seconds during the Saboteur Kip'tilak encounter in Gate of the Setting Sun on Heroic Difficulty.	10
	Pandaria Dungeon	Conscriptinator Gain three stacks of Resin Residue by defeating Mantid Conscripts in Gate of the Setting Sun on Heroic Difficulty.	10
	Pandaria Dungeon	Heroic: Gate of the Setting Sun Defeat Raigonn in Gate of the Setting Sun on Heroic Difficulty.	10

Dungeon Maps

[chaos5061]

The Lorewalker Stories

In Mists of Pandaria there are several extra

lore related achievements to go with the regular zone exploration achievements.

For example, to complete Fish Tails you must find small statues or other objects hidden around Pandaria and read the lore. Once you have found all of the objects for an achievement, Lorewalker Cho will send you mail that asks you to meet him at the Seat of Knowledge. Once there he will narrate a small story that gives you some more information about Pandaria lore.

In the video below, the Fish Tails and Ballad of Liu Lang stories are told to you.

[chaos5061]

From WoWhead:
Last month we were the first to break the newsthat a legendary might be coming to Mists of Pandaria. We had a lot of speculation that legendary items would affix to equipment to enhance its stats, making this World of Warcraft's first legendary that every class can use!

However, nothing referenced an exact item back then. Thanks to today's datamining, though, we have a better sense of what it will be. (Keep in mind that this is still speculation, with no actual items datamined yet--just icons and quests.)

New icons for a legendary axe, fist, gun, dagger, mace, shield, staff and sword have been datamined in today's patch.

So far the only procs that we know of are these three: Hammer of Ten Thunders (hammer), Jade Infused Blade (sword), and Yaungol Fire (fist). We'll keep you guys updated if we find any other weapon procs.

This looks like a big step for Blizzard and it's going to leave a lot of people divided. On one hand, the idea of a legendary based on merit rather than class sounds fantastic; on the other, guilds will have a lot of trouble deciding who gets the first one of these. Hopefully the droprates are much higher and the system isn't as linear--or luck based--like previous legendaries have been. We think it might end up like the AQ40 epic weapon quests, where any class could loot the armaments and get a weapon with raid materials, but it was still a rare occurrence. What do you think?Quests

• Wrathion has his own reputation: The Black Prince.
• You'll have to hit honored with it for Trial of the Black Prince, and you increase reputation by killing any raid creatures as well as level 90 mogu and mantid in Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes.
• A later quest sends you into raids: The Strength of One's Foes. Here you'll loot 10 Sigil of Power and Sigil of Wisdom.
• For Fear Itself, you will need to kill the final boss in Terrace of Endless Spring. You will be rewarded with Chimera of Fear.
• It's known that 5.1 will bring new additions to Pandaria, such as a fortress on the coast of Krasarang Wilds. The description for Incoming... says that the quest will continue in 5.1, when the naval fleet lands. A lot of people have wondered how Pandaria will tie into existing storylines on Azeroth, so this is a cool solution.
• Breath of the Black Prince appears to be the final quest in the series, rewarding you with Breath of the Black Prince, which augments a weapon and/or shield and has an ilvl of 513.

[chaos5061]

New Models

It looks like Jaina got a little makeover in this build!

New Loading Screen

[chaos5061]

New and Changed Maps

[chaos5061]

Achievement Changes

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Classic
Dungeons & Raids

• Scarlet Halls Guild Run (New) Defeat Flameweaver Koegler in Scarlet Halls while in a guild group.

Feats of Strength

• [PH] Collector's Edition: : Owner of the Mists of Pandaria Collector's Edition Imperial Quilen mount.
• [PH] Collector's Edition: : Owner of the Mists of Pandaria Collector's Edition Lucky Quilen Cub pet.

Silvershard Mines
Player vs. Player

• Mine Mine Mine!: Kill 250 (was 100) enemies while you are defending a mine cart.

[chaos5061]

Spell Changes

Mounts
Aquatic

• Subdued Seahorse is now account wide.

Flying

• [PH] MoP CE Mount has been renamed Imperial Quilen.

Companions

• [PH] MoP CE Pet has been renamed Lucky Quilen Cub.

Death Knight (Forums)

• Frost Presence now increases Runic Power generation by 20%, down from 100%. Now also reduces the duration of effects that remove control of your character by 20%. No longer increases your maximum Runic Power by 30. Also reduces the cost of your Frost Strike by 0 for Frost specialization Death Knights.
• Unholy Presence no longer reduces the global cooldown on your abilities by 0.5 sec.

Frost

• Improved Frost Presence (New) While in Frost Presence, your Frost Strike ability costs 15 less Runic Power. Death Knight - Frost Spec.
• Might of the Frozen Wastes no longer allows your autoattacks to generate 15 Runic Power. Now also allows your Obliterate to deal 50% more damage.
• Obliterate had weapon damage increased to 250% from 200% and base damage increased by 56%.

Unholy

• Improved Unholy Presence (New) While in Unholy Presence, your attack speed and rune regeneration are increased by an additional 10%. Death Knight - Unholy Spec.

Unholy & Frost

• Improved Icy Talons was renamed to Unholy Aura. Increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%. Death Knight - Unholy & Frost Spec.

Druid (Forums)

• Astral Storm is now a Balance spell.
• Faerie Swarm is now a Talent.

Talents

• Displacer Beast now has a 2 min cooldown, down from 3.
• Heart of the Wild now also increases Stamina.

Hunter (Forums)

• Glaive Toss now the primary target will take 8 times as much damage from each strike, up from 4.
• Kill Shot now does 300% weapon damage, rather than 85% weapon damage plus (45% of RAP + 512).

Talents

• A Murder of Crows: If used on a target below 20% health, the cooldown is reduced to 15 seconds, rather than reset.
• Binding Shot now requires a Ranged Weapon.
• Narrow Escape now lasts 8 sec, rather than until canceled.
• Posthaste has been reworked: Your Disengage frees you from one movement impairing effect and increases your movement speed by 60% for 8 sec.

Pets

• Ancient Hysteria is now a Exotic Ability.
• Cower is now a Basic Ability.
• Demoralizing Screech is now a Special Ability.
• Dust Cloud now requires Melee range.
• Growl is now a Basic Ability.
• Qiraji Fortitude Increases party and raid members' Stamina by 10%, down from 2257%.
• Tear Armor is now a Special Ability.

Mage (Forums)
Talents

• Rune of Power now increases your spell damage by 12%, up from 10%.

Frost

• Frostbolt damage has been reduced by 7%.
• Mastery: Frostburn: All your spells deal 16% (was 12%) increased damage against Frozen targets. Increases the damage done by your Water Elemental by 16% (was 12%).

Monk (Forums)

• Blackout Kick damage was increased. Windwalkers gained an additional effect: If behind the target, you deal an additional 20% damage over 4 sec. If in front of the target, you are instantly healed for 20% of the damage done.
• Expel Harm healing was changed to (3.15 * (MainHand DPS + 50% of OffHand DPS + 7.1% of AP - 1)) to (3.15 * (MainHand DPS + 50% of OffHand DPS + 7.1% of AP + 1)).
• Resuscitate now costs 20% of Base Mana / 50 Energy, down from 67% Base Mana / 100 Energy.

Brewmaster

• Brewmaster Training now buffs an additional ability: Spear Hand Strike no longer costs Energy.
• Dizzying Haze now causes melee attacks to misfire, rather than all attacks.
• Stance of the Sturdy Ox now shrugs off physical attacks, rather than just melee attacks.

Windwalker

• Adaptation: Your chance to dodge is increased by 25% for 5 sec rather than 1% until cancelled.
• Combat Conditioning (New) Your Blackout Kick now also deals an additional 20% damage over 4 sec if behind the target or heals you for 20% of the damage done if if front of the target. Monk - Windwalker Spec.

[chaos5061]

Paladin (Forums)

Retribution

• Seal of Justice now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Exorcism has been renamed Glyph of Templar's Verdict. You take 10% less damage for 10 sec after dealing damage with Templar's Verdict.

Priest (Forums)

• Confession now has a 60 sec cooldown, down from 30 min.

Shadow

• Devouring Plague now ticks every 1 sec for 6 sec, rather than every 5 sec for 6 sec.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Mind Flay now grants increased movement speed for 5 sec, up from 3.
• Glyph of Lightspring base healing has been increased by 200%.

Shaman (Forums)
Talents

• Ancestral Guidance now works with up to 3 nearby injured party or raid members, rather than just 1.
• Conductivity now also works with Lightning Bolt. If your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, or Stormstrike damages an enemy standing in your Healing Rain, allies within the Healing Rain share healing equal to 50% of the initial damage done.

Warlock (Forums)
Talents

• Grimoire of Service now has a 20 sec duration, down from 30.
• Grimoire of Supremacy (Affliction, Demonology) now has demons that do 20% additional damage, up from 10%.

Affliction

• Agony damage has been increased by 75%.
• Haunt debuff now increases all damage done by your spells on the target by 20% for 8 sec, down from 40%.

Destruction

• Conflagrate no longer has a cooldown.

Pets

• Threatening Presence is now a Special Ability.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Conflagrate has been reworked: Increases the movement speed reduction of Conflagrate by an additional 35%.
• Glyph of Siphon Life now will heal you for 20% of the damage dealt, up from 4%.

Warrior (Forums)

• Deep Wounds now causes Physical damage.

Arms

• Overpower (Arms) now has a 60% increased chance to be a critical strike. (Tooltip fix)

Professions
Enchanting

• Disenchant now has a 1.5 sec cast time, down from 3 sec.

Cooking

• Bundle Groceries now makes bundles of 100, up from 20.

Misc

• Summon Zeppy Summons Zeppy. Unlimited range. 45 sec cast (Channeled). Summon.
• The Most Interesting Questgiver In The World Restores 1 health.
• Teleport: Jade Forest Teleports the caster to the Jade Forest. 3% of Base Mana. 10 sec cast.
• Portal: Jade Forest Creates a portal, teleporting group members that use it to the Jade Forest. 4% of Base Mana. 10 yd range. 10 sec cast. 60 sec cooldown.
• No Man's Land -> Valley of the Four Winds (Horde)
• No Man's Land -> Valley of the Four Winds (Alliance)

[chaos5061]

New Items

For the full list of new items,

check out WoWDB!

10	Miscellaneous		Head	Nat's Hat
85	Other		N/A	Vegetron 4000
85	Other		N/A	Flippable Table
85	Other		N/A	Foxicopter Controller
440	Armor	Tank	Back	Carapace Inlaid Drape
440	Armor	Melee	Back	Cloak of the Unending Swarm
440	Armor	Spell Spirit	Back	Cloak of Collective Thought
440	Armor	Physical DPS	Back	Mantid Exterminator's Cloak
440	Armor	Spell DPS	Back	Drape of the Burning Signal
440	Armor	Tank	Neck	Badge of the Amber Siege
440	Armor	Melee	Neck	Bridge Breaker Medallion
440	Armor	Physical DPS	Neck	Saboteur's Locket
440	Armor	Spell DPS	Neck	Hardened Resin Pendant
440	Armor	Spell DPS	Neck	Mantid Eye Amulet
440	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Waist	Cord of Bloody Evangelism
440	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Hands	Scarlet Visionary Gloves
440	Cloth	Spell DPS	Chest	Darkmaster's Spare Robe
440	Cloth	Spell DPS	Chest	Empowered Necropile Robe
440	Cloth	Spell DPS	Waist	Scholarly Cord
440	Cloth	Spell DPS	Hands	Gloves of Fiery Purification
440	Leather	Spell Spirit	Hands	Beneficent Gloves
440	Leather	Physical DPS	Chest	Foul Cadaverous Armor
440	Leather	Physical DPS	Waist	Loksey's Lost Belt