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

[wowvern]

PS: I'm getting the Digital Deluxe edition. My fixed income will be spent by the 5th.

[chaos5061]

Hmm too bad about that man. But at least you'll be able to afford it eventually. Just got my CE preorder on Amazon.

[chaos5061]

About that SLI and Crossfire thing yep:

Are SLI or XFIRE features supported for multiple video cards?
World of Warcraft does not support SLI or CrossFire configurations. If you are experiencing issues with multiple video cards, try disabling SLI or CrossFire functionality. http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...ld-of-warcraft

[chaos5061]

Greenstone Village Scenario

The Greenstone Village scenario recently opened in beta! All scenarios now reward a

Cache of Powerful Armor, which has a chance at a dungeon quality blue (for your class) along with gold.

[chaos5061]

Galleon World Boss

Galleon was enabled for testing a few weeks ago and didn't pose much of a challenge to a small group of Level 90 PvP geared players.

[chaos5061]

Beta Class Balance Analysis
Since everyone is thinking it, I'll ask...
Ghostcrawler: I still love you guys, but I have to travel a bit for business. Rest assured, you're in very capable hands. We spend extraordinary efforts to make sure the development team is all on the same page, so you shouldn't notice any differences.

Is there an ICD for Strikes of Opportunity? I don't believe players ever confirmed or defined one (if they did, I'm open to the answer/verbal abuse).
There's only a 0.1sec ICD.

Is this about the general size of "tiny ICDs" used to prevent things from chain-proc'ing off of the same attack/ability? (for example, is there also a 0.1 sec ICD on static shock and echo of the elements? perhaps even flametongue weapon?)
We don’t frequently use tiny ICDs like that, but it solves problems in a few cases. Static Shock and Flametongue have no ICD at all. We mentioned Echo of the Elements having a short ICD before, and yes, it is also 0.1sec.

Is it intended that, while stealthed, if the priest takes ANY damage (including any dots on the priest when spectral guised is used), knocks the priest back out of stealth and ends the ability? It makes the spell basically a momentary target drop, since most class specs now have access to dots.
Yes. Unless otherwise specified, stealth breaks on taking damage or perfoming any offensive action. While this does make it less powerful than if it didn't break on damage, we still expect it to be valuable in PvP. Additionally, dispels before you use Spectral Guise can remove many of the DoTs that would otherwise break it.

Amount of Gold Dropped in Old Raids
In general, enemies in raids and dungeons drop significantly more gold than outdoor foes, specifically because we are assuming that the gold is going to be split 5, 10, or 25 ways. As player power rises over time, it obviously becomes possible to complete old content with significantly fewer players, such that the gold rewards become disproportionately high.

In the past, our only solution was to drastically reduce the gold dropped by legacy content across the board (e.g., Magtheridon, much of Karazhan, etc.). In Mists, we have a new system in place that normalizes gold yield based on the number of players involved in the kill. If a Black Temple enemy drops 100 gold today on live, and you kill it with a 25-player raid group in Mists, it'll also drop 100 gold and each player will get 4 gold. If you solo Black Temple, that enemy will also give you 4 gold. If you do it with 4 friends, it'll drop 20 gold and each of you will get 4.

In other words, the gold obtained from killing raid or dungeon creatures no longer depends upon how many people you bring, or do not bring, with you. This system does not apply to anything in the outdoor world.

If this is the case, will the original gold values of the bosses in Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair and Karazhan be restored so groups will once again get more gold from the boss than from a single trash mob?
Yes.

[chaos5061]

Theramore, Jaina, and War
If the Alliance are getting into the war thanks 2 Theramore, what were they smoking when Garrosh did EVERYTHING ELSE?
Theramore is a galvanizing event, not the first battle.

This may be the first book I actually pass over.
Remember that few people understand Jaina or the burdens she bears. The love story isn't conventional/expected.

An Alternative End Game - a Focus on the Journey
Just for the sake of curiosity, since there are mentions about focusing on the journey and never getting to the destination...

What's the point of a journey that doesn't lead to a destination? I mean, the reason why you start it is (or it'd be expected to be) to get, eventually, to a destination. But a journey is not a journey unless you're going somewhere. And if that somewhere remains costantly in a distant, unachievable vacuum, then what purpose does that journey serve? (I'd argue you could call it a journey, even, if you're never getting where you want to).

We Need a New Insane Achievement
Nice read indeed! It could be interesting to know what you guys think think should be the requirements for a new insane achievement then?

Purpose of Beta Testing
I do agree that betas have changed over the past 6 years tho.
They have indeed. Beta tests tend to have multiple functions and purposes these days, but the primary purpose of beta tests remain the same as always though, which is to test the new game/content.

[wowvern]

The reason I brought up the SLI bit was something I read here earlier (I think it was you, Chaos) about the SLI/Crossover causing significant issues in WoW. Now we have definitive proof that says it is not to be used.

[chaos5061]

Well I proved that there wasn't much difference not that it didn't work. All that info is in my computer upgrade thread here in the off topic forum. And I will say that I only proved it for Crossfire not SLI.

For people wondering what I'm talking about is if you have Crossfired your video cards try turning the Croosfire off and check your FPS in WoW. There was for me only a 2-5 FPS improvement not enough to justify having the second card. But this is only if your just playing the game. There will be a little bit more of a bump if your streaming to places like Twitch.tv. That's why I may eventually buy another card for SLI because I do stream some of the time.

[chaos5061]

Symbiosis Update

Druids get a

fun new ability

in Mists of Pandaria that gives them a spell from another class and the target an ability from the druid. The spells have changed around since we last posted about it, so here is an updated list of the spell swaps!

[chaos5061]

Spells Gained by Druid

Death Knight	Bone Shield	Death Coil	Icebound Fortitude	Anti-Magic Shell
Hunter	Ice Trap	Play Dead	Deterrence	Misdirection
Mage	Frost Armor	Frost Nova	Ice Block	Mirror Image
Monk	Elusive Brew	Clash	Fortifying Brew	Grapple Weapon
Paladin	Consecration	Divine Shield	Cleanse	Hammer of Justice
Priest	Fear Ward	Dispersion	Leap of Faith	Mass Dispel
Rogue	Feint	Redirect	Evasion	Cloak of Shadows
Shaman	Lightning Shield	Feral Spirit	Spiritwalker's Grace	Purge
Warlock	Life Tap	Soul Swap	Demonic Circle: Teleport	Unending Resolve
Warrior	Spell Reflection	Shattering Blow	Intimidating Roar	Intervene

[chaos5061]

Spells Granted by Druid

Death Knight	Blood: Might of Ursoc	Frost: Wild Mushroom: Plague	Unholy: Wild Mushroom: Plague
Hunter	Dash	Dash	Dash
Mage	Healing Touch	Healing Touch	Healing Touch
Monk	Brewmaster: Survival Instincts	Windwalker: Bear Hug	Mistweaver: Entangling Roots
Paladin	Holy: Rebirth	Retribution: Wrath	Protection: Barkskin
Priest	Discipline: Cyclone	Holy: Cyclone	Shadow: Tranquility
Rogue	Growl	Growl	Growl
Shaman	Elemental: Solar Beam	Enhancement: Solar Beam	Restoration: Prowl
Warlock	Rejuvenation	Rejuvenation	Rejuvenation
Warrior	Arms: Stampeding Shout	Fury: Stampeding Shout	Protection: Savage Defense

[chaos5061]

If you fancy yourself an explorer eager to set an early foot, hoof, or paw on the long-hidden continent of Pandaria, be sure to enter the

Mists of Pandaria Beta Key Sweepstakes

!

Starting July 31, we'll be randomly selecting 2,000 winners each week to receive a key to our exclusive World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test. In addition, every other winner chosen will receive a second key to share with a friend! Drawings will occur every Tuesday for five weeks for a total of 15,000 keys.

Signing up is easy. Simply follow

Warcraft on Facebook

and complete our

official entry form

between now and August 27 for your chance to win. For more information about how to participate, check out the sweepstakes

rules and eligibility page

and our

sweepstakes FAQ

. Good luck!

FAQ

To help clear up some concerns regarding the recently-announced

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Beta Sweepstakes

, we’ve put together a quick FAQ featuring the most common questions that we’ve seen from the community.

Q. Why did you replace the opt-in with a sweepstakes on Facebook?
A. The Mists of Pandaria beta opt-in has not been replaced. The sweepstakes is an additional way for us to randomly give out keys to our Facebook followers, but it has not replaced the beta opt-in. We’ll still be sending out beta invites to players who have opted-in, as normal.

Q. Why Facebook?
A. When we release important news and announcements about World of Warcraft, Facebook is among the ways we get the message out. Since a significant portion of our players have Facebook accounts, we’d like to encourage them to follow us so that they can stay up-to-date on the latest news and events. Most every news item and story that goes out on our website we also send out on Facebook, so it’s a great way to keep up on World of Warcraft and Mists of Pandaria.

Q. Why is my country unable to participate in the sweepstakes?
A. Unfortunately, some countries have laws or restrictions which prevent us from making contests available to their residents. The beta opt-in is still running, however, and does not have the same rules and limitations. If you’re unable to participate in the Facebook sweepstakes we encourage you to sign up for the opt-in through Battle.net Account Management.

Q. Do I need a Facebook account to enter this promotion?
A. No. While entering with a Facebook account will provide you with some additional benefits, such as sharing if you’ve won with your friends, you don’t need an account to participate. If you’d like to enter, but don’t have a Facebook account (and don’t want one), you can click on the “Alternate Method of Entry” link at the bottom of the official rules page.

Q. The contest states that Facebook will not be given my personal information. What do you guys need it for?
A. If you’re selected as a random winner, we’ll need your name and email address to ensure that you receive your beta key. We will not use this information for any other purpose.
As for the Facebook application itself, while it will request access to your Friends List, it will not generate any unwanted notifications, messages, or wall posts. The request will simply allow the application to show you your friends list in case you want to let them know about the sweepstakes.

Q. When exactly will the weekly drawings be held?
A. Drawings will be held every Tuesday, starting July 31. We’ll gather up all of the entries submitted before 11:59 p.m. PST, Monday and then randomly select 2,000 qualified winners from that pool. Out of those 2,000 winners, half of them will receive an additional key to give to a friend, sent to the email provided in the entry form. Winners will be removed from the entry pool and the process will repeat again the following Tuesday. A total of 5 drawings will be made, with the final drawing being on August 28.

Please note that if you are randomly selected as a winner, it may take a few days before you are notified and receive your beta key via email. In the meantime, we ask that players please refrain from posting on Facebook or the official forums about whether or not they’ve been selected.

[chaos5061]

Mists of Pandaria Digital Deluxe Mount and Pet
The pet and mount are both available to the Digital Deluxe version. These are also Battle.net account wide. The page is just missing showing the pet currently.

Beta Class Balance Analysis
If you switch targets while he's tanking something, he'll provoke the new target off you when his cooldown ends - so in essence, he can only "tank" something you're attacking.
We’re going to try to solve this by making Xuen fixate on the target you summon him on. If that target dies, he’ll revert to assisting you.

Not sure if this has been addressed but it seems like I am now generating a burning ember when out of combat. Is this intended or a bug? I am running the glyph of burning embers. I do have to say if it is intended it made QOL for a destro lock so much better.
Yes, this is intended; Destruction warlocks now only decay down to and regen up to 1 Ember out of combat, similar to how Demonology does with 250 Demonic Fury. Oh, and in the next build, we are toning down the fiery effect and sound at 1 Ember.

Wait, are you sure about that Zar? I remember previous Flametongue testing showing that it had around a ~0.15 ICD. This was to help prevent using double Flametongue imbues and weapon syncing for Enhancement.
What Zarhym shared is correct, the development team just double-checked.
Flametongue has no ICD. Using Flametongue on both weapons should naturally be a DPS loss over using Windfury and Flametongue.

Explosive Shot mechanics: Some time ago, GC announced that explosive shot would join other effects in having "ignite" mechanics. We have been testing it recently to model it in Simc and FemaleDwarf. The mechanics have clearly been changed, but don't match the typical ignite model. For example individual ticks to crit and debuff changes on the target affect the damage of future ticks. Further, some damage appears not to get rolled into the ignite-style debuff. We have looked at a few models (e.g., the ES under LnL don't do ignite but other do, crit dmg is subtracted from the dot pool, etc.). So far the models don't correctly model crits. Can you please explain the actual and/or planned future mechanics here?
The version in your current build has a bug with this rolling periodic-type effect on Explosive Shot in particular. That’s been fixed for the next beta build. I believe, in that build, it’s not counting the extra initial periodic tick that Explosive Shot deals when calculating the rolling damage. Regardless, fixed for the next build.

[chaos5061]

Making Leveling Interesting
Having also leveled through vanillla, I'm familiar with the 'dangerous' experiences mentioned by the OP. Due to several things such as the sprinkling of elite mobs throughout zones, loot and quest rewards that weren't really that good for anyone (Hmm, a cloth item with strength and intellect, but hey, it's an upgrade for my warrior so I'll equip it!), and of course something we all face when new to a game — the great unknown — it did seem a lot more challenging.

But in reality, all I ever did with those elites was to give them a very wide berth. If I had a quest that involved killing them, most of the time it would sit and rot in my quest log until it went grey because it required more people to help, people that were busy off having their own adventures. I personally don't miss those quests taking up space in my log, and I'm also kinda glad that if I accidentally stumble into an area that used to be inhabited with elites, it no longer means a long time-wasting trip through black and white land to reclaim my broken corpse. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think dying is much fun and I try to avoid it at all costs.

If you'd like to try leveling with an extra element of challenge, firstly you should go solo, it's not really surprising you find it easy with a friend. Secondly, if you want danger, roll on a PvP server. If you have a real death wish, pick a realm where the opposing faction has a higher ratio. Next up, try leveling in zones aimed at higher levels. It'll significantly raise the chance you'll take on more than you can handle. Lastly an obvious one: No heirlooms.

This is true. If the mobs just had a bigger hp pool could create the illusion of difficulty. I find killing mobs in three seconds a bit boring personally.
Would taking 10 seconds instead to kill each mob give you a better game experience while leveling? Considering how many mobs you have to get through for some quests, that could get really grindy :S

What really can get annoying is how fast you get through with a zone, specially with heirlooms. And I know what you're gonna say "take your heirlooms off then!", but the problem isn't the rate at which I level.. After like 5 lvl 85s I don't really feel like wasting months and months to level a new alt, yet if zones could be available for a few more levels....I like to see the areas, the quest lines and follow a new story, yet it gets a bit disheartening to keep going when all your quests are green or gray and you can one shot every single mob along the way.
That's a valid point, but it's a side effect of equipping heirlooms.

You admit yourself that you want to level quickly, and that's what heirlooms are for, to give you the desired effect through bonus XP as well as ensuring you always have decent stats for your level. However, quest XP also has to be tuned for players not wearing heirlooms and/or with guilds that don't have the bonus XP perk. For example, if you gain 5 levels in a zone by the time you reached the end of that zone, non-heirloomed players will have gained nowhere near that much, so the level of difficulty has to reflect that.

You seem to be under the nigh permanent illusion that something taking a very long time equals it being difficult and that that's what we're after. It isn't. We want the content when leveling to be harder, not slower.

And it has nothing to do with us really. We're veterans, and we can do nigh anything you throw at us that would be reasonable to expect in the leveling game. We want you to make a harder leveling game such that you can ease people into a harder endgame, so that you don't have to spend such a ridiculous amount of time making really easy and boring content at max level because nobody ever figured out how to play on the way up.
As I said earlier, I don't see longer fights against low level mobs as being more challenging at all, just more grindy.

I see and understand what people are saying here, I'm sorry if some of my answers to individual comments are coming across as responses to the issue as a whole.