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

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We’ve just released not one, but two new previews for Mists of Pandaria!

The new pandaren customization page allows you to explore the vast number of unique looks for your pandaren characters. Check out all the hairstyles, fur colors, faces, beards, and earrings at your disposal either at character creation or in the barber shop to set your own character apart. Pick from any of more than 200,000* possible combinations!

We’ve also released a sneak peek at the Mogu’shan Vaults, one of the high-level raids that await you and your friends in Pandaria. Learn more about the history of this ancient site and discover the secrets that have lain hidden deep within the vaults for centuries... until now.
More Mists of Pandaria previews are coming soon -- stay tuned!

*The authors of these pages make no claim or guarantee that this number is accurate. Dammit Jim, we’re writers, not mathematicians!

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As an experiment, in the next beta build, you may find some new kinds of test dummies.

In order to keep them out of way in less travelled areas, they are located in Shattrath. (The Aldor and Scyers miss you!) The dummies have 50 million health, can be killed, and respawn quickly. They are spread out so you don't accidentally cleave or interfere with someone else's test. They won't turn to face you, so you can attack them from behind, if that's how you roll. The dummies also should buff you if you get near them with a full suite of temporary raid buffs, including food and flasks, and debuff themselves. These won't stack with your group buffs or debuffs, so it doesn't matter if you buff yourselves or not. (We're only talking about main raid buffs here, like Battle Shout or Blessing of Kings. If it's an individual buff or debuff, you'll still need to apply it normally.)

We are leaving this thread open if you'd like to post your DPS or link to logs such as World of Logs. It will be very easy to sandbag or cheat in this testing, so understand that we'll have to take all such numbers with a big old grain of salt. However, in order to compare apples to apples, we suggest purchasing a full set of PvP gear, including one on use and one on proc trinket, but no enchants or gems. Reforging is fine. If you use different sets of gear, please state that in your post. Also keep in mind that target dummy DPS is not encounter DPS.

Please keep this thread clear of class feedback -- it's just for numbers.

Again, the main purpose of this experiment is to make it easier for you get consistent DPS testing. It is only for beta and may get turned off at any point if it becomes disruptive.

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Onyixa or Trolls
Would you rather have Onyxia or more trolls?

Colossus Smash Feedback
So when abilities work the same in PvE and PvP that's lazy design, and when abilities work differently in PvE and PvP that's lazy design? Got it.

I think GC's point is that the accusation of "lazy game design" is often just a hoity-toity way of saying "you're not doing something I want." I mean, the point might be valid, I don't know anything about PVP and less about warriors, but the rhetorical jab of "lazy game design" is the new "slap in the face."

Yeah, this was really my point. I legitimately wasn't trying to troll anyone. As any long time readers know, I have a very sarcastic sense of humor, but it's not intended to convey disrespect for any of our players. At the same time, I'd recommend a pretty thick skin from anyone attempting to wade into our forums.

We get requests literally every day to have different sets of numbers in PvP and PvE so I found it slightly amusing that the argument here was that it was bad design to do so (which ironically is often an argument I use for why we don't do it more often).

I suspect the OP and other early posters really wanted to say "I want warriors to be more of a force in PvP and having a brutally hard-hitting Colossus Smash is one way to do that." I would have found that a much more solid argument than trying to argue that we had no choice but to buff Colossus Smash because it was somehow aesthetically offensive to have it work differently in PvP. Now, I still would have disagreed with that argument because higher burst damage is almost never a good way to make a spec desirable in PvP. It's usually just less fun for everyone.

Interesting thought experiment, if you're so inclined: compare the armor of a boss to the armor of a player.

You, of all people, should know that each player represents their own opinions, regardless of what other players have said.
I do appreciate that of course, but it's helpful when players recognize that too.

Ninety-nine percent of the time you post something on our forums, you're going to be engaging with other players, not us. We read everything of course, but we can't directly respond to it all. If I were a player, one of the first questions I would ask myself before posting is "How will other players respond to my post?" If you think other players will disagree with you or if you think your point will be controversial, then it's probably worth shoring it up even more carefully. That is often the distinction between a well-crafted argument and something that comes across as just venting.

Beta Class Balance Analysis
For example, according to my sims using pre-raid gear, if I want to increase my dps by 3-5% (depending on the spec) I can simply race change to Orc
The racial discussion is a huge morass, by which I mean that if I wade into it, it's going to dominate all of the discussion in this thread. Suffice to say in this case that we think the world has changed enough that 5% pet damage went from kinda of a big deal to a really big deal, so we reduced it to 2% pet damage. We want Forsaken warlocks to exist.

Let's please try and keep this thread on classes though and not debate EMFH etc.

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Warrior
Is Sudden Death from the arms warrior talent tree working as intended?I did about 5 min worth of attacking on a target dummy and i was literally getting proc after proc after proc with maybe 2 or 3 seconds in between on attacking? not saying it needs a nerf but maybe the % proc chance is wrong atm?
As I suggested in a recent thread, we are going to try the implementation of Sudden Death as 20% on white attacks instead of 6% on white and yellow attacks.

Won't this end up dramatically reducing the vengeance gain from magic damage? In general it's probably not a big deal, except in the case of certain mobs (e.g. Gandling and Lei Shi) who do magic damage exclusively.
We're actually giving 5% of damage that isn't mitigated by armor (i.e. bleeds and magic damage) to solve this problem.

LFR Feedback
It would not be a problem if it rewarded 378 gear and doesnt include any set bonuses.
Even if it does have upgrades for you, realistically, how long will you run it (assuming your guild does normal and heroic as well) before an upgrade for a particular slot drops? I mean, I'm sure there're unlucky examples, but in my case, for instance, I was done with it in 3 weeks (for my primary spec), to fill some voids on my gear. After that, I kept visiting it with my off-spec to gear that one up.

Also, keep in mind that LFR in Mists of Pandaria is going to work differently: personal loot, 1 week delay in relation to the release of the normal version of the raid (at which time, if your guild is sufficiently skilled, they'll be jumping into Heroics)... It'll be a completely different situation, not just because of the timing on its release, but also because there'll be much more content available than LFR and raids, which will probably help battling the "burn out" if you still want to run it over and over for that piece of gear that just refuses to drop (we've all had one of those!).

Leveling Difficulty
The whole make lvling harder I agree with but that should be on all servers.
Although it's not really related to the thread, the developers agree that the low level experience (for levels 1-20) is a bit easy at times. And that comes from the fact they don't want to scare new players off.

However, they feel there needs to be some fear of death, and they've been working to increase the presence of creatures and try to make the world feel more dangerous in several places (particularly in that level 1-20 range), as well as in the level 85-90 zones.

While the developers don't want to make it frustrating, you should notice (and if you've been in the beta you've probably experienced it already) that the 85-90 zones require much more attention regarding where your character is, what's surrounding you and how many mobs you can take at the same time.

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Reasoning for Separate PvP and PvE Gear
The reason is to give people something to grind until their eyes start bleeding...I have to agree, because I cant see any other real argument - now you have to spend double time to get both gears. It pushes players away from PvP, so PvP is deserted in all aspects.
How about some of the other arguments you've seen in this thread, such as the fact that PvPers were miffed about raiders stepping into a battleground in their top tier PvE gear and flattening their opposition? If I remember correctly, PvPers didn't want to have to raid to get the best gear for PvP.

Bring Back Skirmishes in MoP
We are well aware that there are some players out there who would love to see Skirmishes brought back into the game, the key word in that sentence being "some". When Skirmishes were in the game, they were used by an incredibly small percentage of the playerbase. So if you consider that the development and design support that is required for this system is in no way trivial, it’s very unlikely that Skirmishes will ever be brought back.

Nostalgia for Classic WoW
I like the memories which those days gave me. Signing on to my first big guild. Spending a whole night gathering the mats for my first head enchant. Being taught the Grim Guzzler stealth run. Looking for hours for a group to Strath/Scholo.

However, I am not sure I'd enjoy it as much now - having seen how the game (and others) have developed, and how they offer a much wider range of game elements now.
I started in April '05 and have plenty of memories from those days. My first dungeon run (Deadmines), those long evenings on BRD, UBRS, Baron runs, MC... And as fun as they were, and as much as I enjoy remembering that experience, I agree with that sentiment. It's been 7 years, we've moved on, and I'd rather look to what the future holds. What was right back in 2005 just wouldn't work today (much like what was right in 1998 wouldn't have worked in 2005).

I still remember the reaction when we (the players) were told that 40 man raiding was being downsized to 25 man raids. Some people complained because they felt that 40-man raids were barely epic (in their opinion) already, as considered that the truly epic were 72-man raids that other games had. However, these days everyone is defending that 25-man raiding is more epic than 10-man and arguing that 40-man was just too big...

I'd even dare to say that what makes those memories so great is the simple fact that you can't relive them easily. Sure, I can pick up my copy of X classic game from the 90's, plug it in and replay the game. But that sense of mistery and going blindly into something that is entirely new is just not going to come back on that particular case.

That's one of the reasons why I'm so looking forward to Mists of Pandaria and all the new features that will come along. Pandaria (the continent) itself is just gorgeous and there's plenty of content to explore and discover.

And since all the way to level 90 we'll have to use ground mounts, it will be even easier to notice those small details that add to the gameplay experience to make it even better.

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The Battle.net World Championship event -- the culmination of the over 30 StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) tournaments, and home to the upcoming World of Warcraft Arena global finals -- will take place November 17 and 18 in Shanghai, China. With so many talented players competing to be crowned 2012’s world champion, we want to see faces from all over the world live, in the crowd, and cheering on their hometown heroes.

In the near future we’ll open up tickets sales for the event. Keep in mind, however, since we will be offering tickets through our Chinese website, some western payments may not be supported. If you’re determined to make the trip to Shanghai for the ultimate StarCraft II event, though, we want to help you out. We’ve given several of our eSports partners, as well as StarCraft II and World of Warcraft fansites a collection of tickets.

In the coming days you’ll find information on the following websites about how to claim tickets of your own. We’ll be sure to update this post as well when individual website ticket promotions are live.

We hope to see you in China!

As we get closer to the Battle.net World Championship event we’ll have more details on what events and activities will be featured, where and when streams will be available, player and shoutcaster lineups, and more!

WCS Events Overview
Blizzard eSports Events Page
Battle.net World Championship Site
WCS Liquipedia Page
WCS Live Stream on twitch.tv

Stay tuned to StarCraft2.com and WorldofWarcraft.com for additional event coverage, player interviews, and recaps.

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Professions: Living in Perfect Harmony

As with any new expansion, we often find that we have an opportunity to take a closer look at a variety of game systems within World of Warcraft and explore new ideas or improvements to the game. One system in particular is held near and dear to the hearts of the community: professions. With Mists of Pandaria, the designers were able to seize upon an opportunity to look at the role of materials and refine their purpose and their usefulness. In the end, they came up with Spirit of Harmony as the new resource du jour.

Harmonious Prospects
In Mists of Pandaria, we’re introducing a new material known as the Spirit of Harmony. It slices— it dices— well, ok, it doesn’t, but crafters of any stripe will find it has many uses. By now, any experienced crafter is used to filling bags with a variety of materials such as Primal Life, Primal Fire, Primal Earth, etc. but in Mists of Pandaria, it’s all about Spirit of Harmony (in combination with the usual materials, like ore, leather, and gems). Spirit of Harmony is the result of the designers simplifying an already complex system while still keeping a wide variety of possibilities open to players. Much like with other Primals, Mote of Harmony can be combined (10 to 1) to create one Spirit of Harmony.

Harmony is Personal
Let’s get right to it. Spirit of Harmony is a Bind on Pickup (or “BoP” to veterans) crafting material that can be found on every lootable creature in every zone in Pandaria -- from dungeons to the outdoor world. Intially, we want crafters to be out in the world adventuring instead of camping out in front of an auctioneer, hoping to score some cheap mats.

We understand that this may be of concern to those who play a variety of profession alts, and may consider other options for the future, including the possibility of allowing Spirits of Harmony to be Bind to Account in a future patch.

In addition to serving as a core crafting ingredient, Spirit of Harmony can also be used to purchase a variety of additional bonuses or materials that your character may need. While not every profession will get equal value out of them, most everyone will need to collect them for one reason or another.
Here are some examples of the many ways that Spirit of Harmony can be used:

Alchemy: Purchase an extra Transmute.
Archaeology: Purchase a restored artifact.
Cooking: Exchange for an Ironpaw Token.
Enchanting: Buy reagents.
Engineering: New mounts and personal goggles.
Herbalism: Purchase herbs.
Inscription: Purchase rare inks.
Jewelcrafting: Use to purchase extra daily discoveries.
Tailoring, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking: Used to create epic items.

Purchasing materials may not ultimately be the most efficient way to gain resources, but it can be an added convenience to purchase something with Spirit of Harmony rather than going back into the world to get it. The Spirit of Harmony vendor can be found in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

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Dev Watercooler: Scenarios

We recently began revealing the Scenarios you’ll experience at level 90 in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria on our preview site. As the final tweaks are being made, we thought it would be a good time to sit down with Senior Game Designer Dave Maldonado and Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft for a little behind-the-scenes perspective on this unique new system.

Q: What do Scenarios bring to World of Warcraft that we haven't seen before?

Dave Maldonado: From a technological standpoint, almost everything in the system is new. Players are obviously going to see the World of Warcraft they know and love when they're running Scenarios, but all of the technology driving what we can do with Scenarios is new, and we took that as an opportunity to really indulge in new ways of interacting with the players, the NPCs, and the environment. It was a lot of work to design the technology, with a whole new UI, and new tracking systems and so forth, and while that programming was going on, we got to dream up and implement a lot of randomization and many new things for monsters to do and for the environment to do.

Jon LeCraft: With Scenarios, we can do even more than we could previously do with group quests, because even with phasing and all of our options in the outdoor world, there were a number of things that we still wanted to bring to the game. We can now change the environment and change the ways things spawn and change the behavior of enemies on the fly, and that opens up nearly infinite possibilities.



DM: My favorite example is the concept of a ship that you want to destroy by setting it on fire. So you could storm the ship, kill everyone on-board, and then burn it down. But what happens when you decide to sneak on to the ship, leave everyone alive, and set the fire while they're all standing around? In Scenarios, we have a lot of flexibility to imagine the different ways that players might choose to play, and have the NPCs and the environment react to that more naturally. The result is -- you're going to see all those NPCs on the ship jump off because it's on fire, and then look back at it in amazement. Other NPCs that were making deliveries to the ship before it became a floating inferno are going to react to the change in their world. Instead of trying to put the box that they're carrying on the boat, or despawning and disappearing before your eyes, or something else unrealistic, they're going to stop and gawk at the flames.

Q: We've seen Scenarios compared to dungeons a lot, yet you're comparing them to group quests. What aspects of Scenarios are like dungeons, and what aspects are like group quests, and what’s just new?

JL: For one, you're in a group and you start the Scenario by going into the Dungeon Finder, and if you aren't in a group, one will be provided for you. That's dungeon-like. Also, Scenarios have a boss at the end.

DM: The boss at the end brings everyone together.

JL: They're very different than the bosses you're used to, though, because Scenarios are designed to be completed by three characters of any spec.



DM: We're still tuning and discussing exactly how difficult Scenarios will be, but there are many major differences between Scenario bosses and dungeon bosses. Scenario bosses often can't be tanked, or tanking isn't very helpful. They can be easier than dungeon bosses, because they have to be feasible for three DPS players, but they can also be much more difficult than dungeon bosses, because they can have very high damage attacks that must be avoided by the players. These encounters aren't designed in a way that you can tank or heal through their massive attacks. You either pay attention to the signs that an attack is coming and avoid it, or you fail.

JL: Because there won't always be a certain number of interrupts, or a certain amount of aggro control or healing in a Scenario, these boss encounters rely on placement, timing, and pattern recognition.

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DM: At the same time, there are many different things you can do to bosses in Scenarios. You can often crowd-control them, or stun them, or interrupt what they're doing. This would make them very easy to deal with in other circumstances, but they have a huge health pool and the ability to deal massive amounts of damage. Very few can be "tank-and-spanked."

Q: As World of Warcraft players, how would you describe the Scenario experience?

DM: Watching other players test Scenarios, and testing them ourselves, they’re really what I would call a “pure WoW” experience. They give you the option to do a lot more with your character than in other aspects of the game. In PvP, for instance, there isn’t a lot of room for experimenting, or using all of your spells, or even using most of your spells -- unless you want to get killed. In Scenarios, we see every class, every spec, and every style of play being viable. Furthermore, Scenarios are places where you get to experiment with how you move through the environment. There are all sorts of things you can skip, or choose to interact with that someone else might skip, and those decisions you make will have a noticeable impact on what happens next in that Scenario.



JL: I keep coming back to that. Choosing to interact with things is a constant in Scenarios. A huge ghost mob might be mind-controllable. An urn might be something that you can try to access, and it might drop a few gold for you while spawning a couple of mobs that you have to deal with.

Q: What’s coming next for this system?

DM: More Scenarios! We’ve got a lot of really cool ideas, and this is content that we hope to make even more of as we start producing post-expansion content patches.

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Mists of Pandaria Beta - Build 15972
A new beta build will be deployed on beta realms soon. Please take note of Ghostcrawler's post before discussing the latest round of class changes.