Meet the Pandaren!FACTION: ALLIANCE / HORDE
Couched in myth and legend, rarely seen and even more rarely understood, the enigmatic pandaren have long been a mystery to the other races of Azeroth. The noble history of the pandaren people stretches back thousands of years, well before the empires of man and before even the sundering of the world.
Denizens of a wondrous and fertile land, the pandaren once labored under the oppressive thumb of a monstrous race of ancient warlords known as the Mogu. Through tenacity, diplomacy, and a unique form of unarmed combat, the pandaren staged a successful revolution that deposed the Mogu and established a pandaren empire that would prosper for thousands of years.
During the bleak days that preceded the sundering of the world, when demons flooded onto Azeroth and threw the entirety of the mortal realm into jeopardy, the last Emperor of the pandaren discovered a way to protect his land from the devastation. His deal with fate shrouded his land within an impenetrable mist for ten thousand years, but the nature of his transaction has left Pandaria haunted ever since...
Wanderlust
It is the rare pandaren indeed who sought a way beyond the mist. Generations ago, pandaren explorers began to gather on the back of a giant turtle: Shen-zin Su. The great sea turtle roamed Azeroth's oceans, perhaps the only contact pandaren had with the outside world. Eventually, they too lost contact with their mist-shrouded homeland.
Players who choose to create a pandaren character will start their journey on the back of Shen-zin Su. When the great turtle is threatened, and their whole wandering homeland is in jeopardy of being swallowed by the sea, players will have to accelerate their training and spring into action.
During their time on the turtle, players will first encounter the Alliance and Horde. Before they are finished, they'll have to make the most important decision of their lives: Which of the two factions will they support as they venture out to heal a world broken by the Cataclysm and threatened by a global war?
Patch 4.3.2 Going Live This Week - Or Maybe Not
I just received an update on the Patch 4.3.2, it seems that the update was postponed because of a very bad bug. As far as I know it means the patch won't happen tomorrow, however it might happen on wednesday in the US and thursday in Europe. If it's not the case it will be postponed to next week.
The info was solid and was backed up by a few other things (announcement of PTRs going down, etc) but those last minute changes happen, and there's nothing I can do against them. This is also the reason why Blizzard doesn't announce patches early.
Even if I always warn that things might be postponed, it still sucks when it does happen, and this is pretty much how comfortable I feel when I have to announce it. Feel free to yell at me and make me sad. I'll be in my corner trying to hide in my happy place.
I just received an update on the Patch 4.3.2, it seems that the update was postponed because of a very bad bug. As far as I know it means the patch won't happen tomorrow, however it might happen on wednesday in the US and thursday in Europe. If it's not the case it will be postponed to next week.
The info was solid and was backed up by a few other things (announcement of PTRs going down, etc) but those last minute changes happen, and there's nothing I can do against them. This is also the reason why Blizzard doesn't announce patches early.
Even if I always warn that things might be postponed, it still sucks when it does happen, and this is pretty much how comfortable I feel when I have to announce it. Feel free to yell at me and make me sad. I'll be in my corner trying to hide in my happy place.
Diablo 3 - Patch 10 - Unofficial Changes
Patch 4.3.2 Going Live This Week
The information isn't official yet but assuming everything goes as planned, Patch 4.3.2 should be going live this week. This patch is bringing us Cross Realm raids for older content with RealID friends, a few item tweaks and new items, a few new achievements, and a reduced game client install size. It also brought testing of the 64-bit client which didn't appear to have widespread or major bugs, however I'm not really sure if it will be available on the live realms.
As usual there's a slight chance (1%) that the patch will be postponed if something terrible happens, but as far as I know, we're good to go this week.
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Cross Realm Raids
We previously introduced the ability to
form cross-realm parties with Real ID friends,
and now with Patch 4.3.2, we're adding the ability
for players to use that same functionality to form raids
to run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in
Battlegrounds
This will allow you to join up with your Real ID friends
from other realms and:
Form a cross-realm raid and use Raid Finder
Jump in to any classic dungeon or raid and be
automatically placed in the same instance
Join forces and dominate the Battlegrounds
Please note, you will not yet be able to run normal or
Heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm Real ID raids.
As we look forward to the BattleTag system, it’s a
very exciting time for World of Warcraft. No matter
what realm you and your friends are on you’ll be able
to team up and take on group content throughout the
game.
Originally Posted by Blizzard
4.3.2 PTR and New File Optimization Tech
With the 4.3.2 patch we’ll be testing some new file
optimization tech. As you may be aware, with previous
major expansion patches (2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc.) we’ve carried
out a time-consuming process to reorganize the game files
currently installed on your hard drive to integrate
all previous patch files, essentially ‘cleaning up’ what’s
on your computer and reducing the full installation size.
This process used to require an amount of free hard drive
space double that of the entire installation size
to complete, which is why we’ve reserved them for
large expansion-sized patches.
The new tech we’re testing with the 4.3.2 PTR will
process these cleanups with no additional hard drive
space required beyond what the patch is adding.
Because of that you may see them appear more
frequently with patches.
While the cleanup is occurring you’ll see a specific
message on the launcher informing you the process
is currently taking place. If you encounter any issues
with the new process please be sure to visit our support
site at http://www.battle.net/support/
Items
Vial of Shadows had the proc damage cut in third and proc frequency tripled to reduce burst in PvP.
Many of the original level 60 ranked PvP gear items have had Replica added to the start of their name, making their name identical to the versions being sold in Area 52, for example the Replica High Warlord's Cleaver. However, they still retain their higher item level and stats.
Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps had its proc time increased to 12 seconds from 10 seconds. This change was made to all three versions of the item.
The three new items added in Patch 4.3.2 are found on the TCG Loot vendor in Booty Bay. They are part of the Timewalkers: War of the Ancients expansion. (Feldrake, Eye of the Legion, and Demon Hunter's Aspect)
Achievements Changes
Dungeons & Raids
Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider now properly
shows the Reins of the Twilight Harbinger
as a reward.
Player vs. Player
Hero of the Alliance: Ruthless: New achievement,
rewards Hero of the Alliance title.
Hero of the Horde: Ruthless: New achievement,
rewards Hero of the Horde title.
Feats of Strength
Ruthless Gladiator's Twilight Drake Obtain the
Ruthless Gladiator's Twilight Drake from
Arena
Season 10 of Cataclysm.
Spell Changes;
GeneralMounts
Feldrake Summons and dismisses a rideable
feldrake. This is a flying mount. 1.5 sec cast
Companion Pets
Eye of the Legion Right Click to summon and
dismiss an Eye of the Legion. Instant
Classes: General
Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Tier 13
Item - Druid T13 Balance 4P Bonus (Starsurge)
now also increases Starsurge damage by 10%
Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Beast Mastery
Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged Attack
Power by 2700, up from 2000.
Survival
Deterrence now also reduces all damage taken
by 30% while active.
Black Arrow now ticks every 2 secs instead
of every 3 secs. Damage is now spread over
20 secs, up from 15 secs.
Lock and Load no longer affects Arcane Shots.
Marksmanship
Bombardment now lasts 5 secs instead of
affecting your next multi shot only.
Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator /
Beta Skills/Talents)
Fire
Fireball damage has been reduced by 6,3%
Pyroblast damage has been reduced by 6,2%
Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Tier 13
Item - Paladin T13 Holy 4P Bonus (Holy Radiance)
now increases healing done by Holy Radiance
by 5%, down from 20%.
Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana,
up from 35%.
Encounter
10 Man
Sludge Spew: Inflicts
29250
43875
to
30750
46125
Shadow damage to an enemy.
Stomp: Splits 750000 damage between all
targets within 25 yards.
Morchok's current target and their
The two targets
closest ally will to Morchok
take a double portion of the damage.
Void Diffusion: Deals 180000 Shadow damage
split evenly between units. In LFR mode,
the base this damage dealt is 50,000.
does not split.
10 Man Heroic
Stomp: Splits 750000 damage between all targets within 25 yards.
Morchok's current target and their
The two targets closest ally will to Morchok
take a double portion of the damage.
Void Diffusion: Deals 269100 Shadow damage
split evenly between units. In LFR mode,
the base this damage dealt is 50,000.
does not split.
25 Man
Sludge Spew: Inflicts
43875
82875
to
46125
87125
Shadow damage to an enemy.
Stomp: Splits 2300000 to 2700000 damage
between all targets within 25 yards.
Morchok's current target and their The two targets
closest ally will to Morchok
take a double portion of the damage.
Void Diffusion: Deals 540000 Shadow damage
split evenly between units. In LFR mode,
the base this damage dealt is 50,000.
does not split.
25 Man Heroic
Stomp: Splits 2000000 damage between all
targets within 25 yards.
Morchok's current target and their The two targets
closest ally will to Morchok
take a double portion of the damage.
Void Diffusion: Deals 807300 Shadow damage
split evenly between units. In LFR mode,
the base this damage dealt is 50,000.
does not split.
Items
Vial of Shadows: Your melee and ranged attacks
have a chance to trigger an additional attack for
4028
12084
to
6042
18127
physical damage.
Vial of Shadows: Your melee and ranged attacks
have a chance to trigger an additional attack for
3568
10706
to
5353
16059
physical damage.
Vial of Shadows: Your melee and ranged attacks
have a chance to trigger an additional attack for
4546
13640
to
6819
20461
physical damage.
Official Patch 4.3.2 Notes
Classes: General
Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage
from other players.
Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also
increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition
to its current effect.
Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more
attack power.
Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30%
while active.
Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds,
as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The
total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it
consumed by Arcane Shot.
Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
Pyroblast damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from
35%.
Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that
have magic effects that can be dispelled.
Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.
Dungeons & Raids
You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID
friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups
larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or
participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able
to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm
raids of Real ID friends.
Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been
added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
Players can no longer win multiple copies of the same
item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example,
a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or
two weapons and wins the first, will not be eligible for the
second on that particular boss.
Baradin Hold
The roaming Eyes of Occu'thar have been replaced by
hateful creatures who serve Alizabal.
Dragon Soul
Warmaster Blackhorn
The visual warning for Twilight Elites' Blade Rush
should be easier to see.
Items
Vial of Shadows damage (Lightning Strike) has been
reduced to approximately one-third of previous damage.
However, it will now trigger approximately 3 times as often.
This is intended to keep overall DPS the same while
reducing burst damage, especially in PvP.
Lunar Festival
A few changes were made to Lunar Festival this year, with two faction specific pets being added and new Elders for you to visit in the Cataclysm zones. You can find a list of the Elder's locations on Wowpedia.
The new Lunar Lantern and Festival Lantern are new rewards from the Lunar Festival. The new Lunar Lantern would be the Alliance version and the Festival Lantern the Horde one. Each costs Coin of Ancestry x 50 from the vendor.
Every year the druids of Moonglade hold a celebration of
their city’s great triumph over an ancient evil. During the
Lunar Festival, citizens of Azeroth have the opportunity to
honor their elders by celebrating their sage wisdom,
sharing in magnificent feasts, and of course…shooting
fireworks!
The Lunar Festival returns to Azeroth in a cascade of
pyrotechnics on Sunday, January 22! With the start of a
new year, elders of generations past manifest around the
world to impart their wisdom upon all who would listen.
Should you encounter these venerable spirits in your
travels and take the time to heed their wisdom, they may
even pass along tokens of their gratitude -- Coins of
Ancestry, the lessons of a past age in physical form.
Gather enough of these Coins of Ancestry and the Cenarion
Circle will open to you their stores of celebratory fireworks,
trinkets, garbs, and recipes!
The Cenarion Circle have even more cause to celebrate
this year than any previous, for this year also marks the
first Lunar Festival since the return of many Ancients
that had fallen in battles past: Goldrinn, Malorne, Aviana,
and Cenarius himself. But this celebration is muted by
the eternal torment of one of their own -- Omen,
blessed by the moon goddess Elune, has risen again
from the depths of Moonglade’s lake. Driven mad by the
Burning Legion’s tainted magics during the War of the
Ancients, Elune’s blessing of immortality means that
he will forever be cursed to return in his maddened state at
the advent of a new year. Heroes are called to help
ease this tormented Ancient’s suffering, in the hopes that
perhaps next year will see him return with a clearer mind.
Lunar Festivities end Sunday, February 12.
Computers - Setup of the Month
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!
This month
Hard drives remain expensive, so now is still a good time to buy a SSD, as the next generation is a while away and the current prices are fairly flat, with sales bringing the cost very close to $1 per gigabyte.
AMD's Bulldozer arrived to negative reviews, citing excessive power usage and heat output and very poor single threaded performance. The previously mentioned patches for Windows are now available and give a few percent performance increase. (Patch 1, Patch 2)
New CPUs from Intel should be arriving in early April if you aren't in a hurry to build, bringing increased performance and lower power consumption.
The new 7970 GPU from AMD has been released and can be had for ~$550 if you can find it in stock. The 7950 will be here in a matter of weeks somewhere in the low ~$400 price range. More GPUs will likely be released next month. New GPUs from Nvidia likely won't be here before early March.
Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.
Peripherals/Monitors
Component
Puppy
Dolphin
Monitor
ASUS VW224U 22-Inch
Widescreen - $149
ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $200
Keyboard
Microsoft Digital Media
Keyboard 3000 - $21
Cyborg V.5 - $47
Mouse
Logitech G400 - $37
Razer Deathadder - $48
Speakers
Logitech S220 2.1
Speaker System - $30
Component
Narwhal
Unicorn
Monitor
ASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $279
HP ZR24w 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $375
Keyboard
Logitech G110 - $70
Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $74 ($130)
Mouse
Logitech G500 - $58
Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $68
Speakers
Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $45
Puppy and Dolphin
Overclocked Puppy will outperform Dolphin when multiple threads are in use (Not WoW) and come close in most other cases.
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Mix and match anything between Dolphin and Narwhal.
Overclocked Puppy will outperform Dolphin when multiple threads are in use (Not WoW) and come close in most other cases.
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Mix and match anything between Dolphin and Narwhal.
Component
Puppy
Dolphin
Case
NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
Power Supply
Corsair CX500 V2 - $58
Corsair CX600 V2 - $70
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition- $115
Intel i3-2100 - $125
Heatsink
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $27
Corsair Air Series A70 - $38
Motherboard
ASUS M5A97 AM3+ 970 - $116
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $123
Memory
4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $25
4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 12800 DDR3 - $40
Graphics Card
XFX 6770 - $95
MSI 6850 or EVGA GTX 560 - $174 / $175
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $120
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $157
DVD
Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total
$619
Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
Component
Narwhal
Unicorn
Case
Cooler Master HAF 912 - $66
Cooler Master HAF932 - $143
Power Supply
Corsair 650TX V2 - $90
Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $144
CPU
Intel i5-2500k - $230
Intel i7-2600k - $320
Heatsink
Thermaltake Frio - $55
Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $88
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - $160
ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO - $205
Memory
4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 12800 DDR3 - $40
8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $54
Graphics Card
XFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $220/ $230
XFX 6970 2GB OR EVGA GTX 570 - $325 / $360
Hard Drive
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $157
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $157
SSD
Crucial 128 GB m4 (Review) - $180
OR
Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB - $180
Intel 510 Series 120 GB (Review) - $275
OR
OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 (Review) - $165
DVD
Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total
$1041 - $1231
Trading Card Game Art Gallery Update
The Trading Card game art gallery has been updated with ten new pieces.
Diablo 3 - Patch 10 Not This Week
Activision Blizzard Q4 2011 Conference Call
The Q4 2011 Earnings call will take place on February 9, at 1:30 PM PST, which brings us an update on subscriber numbers for the final quarter of 2011. Keep in mind last call informed us of a 800,000 subscribers loss, but this time around the Annual Pass and Patch 4.3 may soften the blow.
The week of the call also may bring us information on upcoming releases, if there will be any announcement expect it before the call takes place. During the previous call they wanted to remind investors that there is normally an increase in subscriptions around December, with previous quarters showing the following losses:
- Q1 2011 - 600,000 subscribers lost
- Q2 2011 - 300,000 subscribers lost
- Q3 2011 - 800,000 subscribers lost
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Mists of Pandaria Talent System
So my question is, with only 6 'tiers' of talents after MoP,
what is happening to all the other talents that are
currently in game? Are they going to be skills you learn
from your class trainer, either active or passive?
Or removed from the game completely?
A little of both. To better explain, let's divide the current
talents into five categories: 1) mandatory, 2) very cool,
but not mandatory, 3) sort of cool, 4) boring, and 5) useless.
We're going to give you all of the "mandatory" talents to
your class spec, and you'll learn those talents at certain
levels like you do with core class spells. Players who skip
over what we consider mandatory talents today -- like
Raging Blow or Hot Streak -- are unintentionally (or maybe
even intentionally) gimping themselves, and that's not
what we want to have happen. We want players to be
able to experience the full power of their class, so we're
going to award certain talents straight-out.
The second category of talents -- the cool, but not
mandatory ones -- are really the heart of the new talent
system (they're the talents you'll probably be choosing
from in each of new six tiers). You may be glad you
have talent A, but talent B and talent C are also compelling
options, and it should ideally be an interesting choice
about which one you take and when.
The third category of talents are still pretty cool, but
they just aren't at the same level as other talents. These
talents make good glyphs. For example, an early version
of the warrior tree had Rude Interruption as a talent, but
we feel it's too situational to compete with the other
talents, so we'll likely make it a glyph.
The next category are boring talents -- the kind that
reduce cooldowns or increase damage on some abilities.
In most cases, we're just baking talents these right
into the spells themselves. While there were occasionally
situations where you got to decide which of these
talents to take, the answers often relied on complex
math problems that some other player ended up solving
for most of us.
Finally, the current trees (despite our best efforts) still
have some bad talents. They're the talents you almost
inevtiably end up with when you have a talent tree with
X rows and Y columns that you need to populate.
In the end, not a lot of players end up taking these talents,
so we'll just cut them. We don't think they'll be missed,
but if turns out that players wind up actually missing
some of the Cataclysm talents in the Mist of Pandaria
design, then we've probably made a mistake somewhere.
Ideally, you won't miss a thing and will have more fun
picking talents that cater to your play style
(or, at the very least, the current situation.)
New Warcraft Art
The World of Warcraft: Classes and Cataclysm Art galleries have been updated with five new pieces of Warcraft artwork.
Diablo 3 - System Changes (Many new changes!)
Mists of Pandaria: PvP Recap
According to the recent blue posts, Mists of Pandaria information is finally on the way. While we are waiting for new announcements we can review the new PvP changes that are coming in Mists of Pandaria using a dedicated thread in our Mists of Pandaria forum.
Previous Coverage:
- Blizzcon World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel
- Official Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel Recap
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard
New Character Models
It's absolutely not a "too bad" situation, Sutei. I know
the concept of us having near unlimited resources to
throw at whatever we want to is intriguing, but it's just
not the case. We don't have an army of artists on
layaway that we can transfer onto a project.
Just the same, we don't necessarily want to exponentially
expand the head count of the art team to ensure a
specific project gets done. There's a synergy we strive for
on each of our development teams. In fact, we go to
pretty great lengths to vet applicants whenever hiring
for a new position. We need to know our iterative design
philosophy and our core values are shared. So, if we
were to hire several new artists to get this project finished,
you certainly wouldn't see the results of that "right this
moment."
Right now it's just difficult to give any sort of estimate on
new models might be available. Whenever a new
expansion is in development there are many, many
requests for new art assets. We're elbow deep in designing
new gear sets, fleshing out the environments, finishing
up several new creature models, etc.
If all of this makes you feel that much further away
from ever seeing new character models, I can say the
project is still a regular topic of discussion for us.
We want to figure out the best way to introduce such
a feature without shocking a huge chunk of the
playerbase that doesn't really think about how their
character's features could be improved every time they
log into the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
New Character Models
Nothing about the forums being down and characters
being stuck with silhouettes earlier has anything to do
with some sort of preparation for an announcement.
We haven't teased anything on Twitter. Bashiok and I
confirmed on our accounts this week that we'd have an
update on the status of Diablo III from Jay Wilson going
up today (which happened this morning).
I did mention on my feed yesterday that I had just gotten
out of a meeting with Greg Street and Cory Stockton
(same as every Wednesday), and that they've made a
ton of progress on Mists of Pandaria since we last spoke
-- the ball is rolling. Cory also echoed my statement on
his feed by saying it's rolling very fast now. But...
we're not quite ready to reveal our work just yet. Right
now we're locking down the plan of action for releasing
new information.
I'm confident it's going to be a fun ride. Just sit tight
while we plot the course.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Dragon Soul Trash
If I had to choose which trash I'd get rid of or change,
the drake event before Ultraxion would be my first choice.
That would probably be ours as well. We're considering
it. I doubt we'd remove it entirely [...]
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Ask The Devs
They switched to the live Q&A, but then stopped
doing those too for some reason.
This is sort of correct. We feel that the CoverItLive
platform we used for two developer Q&As post-BlizzCon
is a better format. The methods for choosing questions
are never perfect -- especially when there are so many
-- but CoverItLive allows us to answer more questions
much more quickly than we did with "Ask the Devs,"
not to mention it takes up way less time for our
developers.
We haven't stopped doing the CoverItLive developer Q&As
. There are a couple of reasons we haven't done this
in a while. For one, there are only so many questions
we can field regarding future content
(in this case Mists of Pandaria) before we have to step
back and say, "wait until we have these things more
fleshed out so we can put the upcoming features in a
contextual preview." Also, we really want to make sure
there isn't an expectation that these Q&As will be done
at regular intervals. We'll host them when we feel they'll
appropriately compliment new information that's gone out.
We are in the initial planning stages of the next Q&A
for World of Warcraft, but its timing is still contingent
upon a lot of other things. It just doesn't make sense
to host another one right now when we haven't really
released further previews of the next expansion since
BlizzCon.
That said, our goal is to try and cover as much ground
with CoverItLive as possible. We want to expose you to
different development teams at appropriate times
(whether it be class designers, UI designers,
the art team, etc.) so you really get a feel for all of the
work that goes into everything we do. At the same time
we want to make sure we get these kicked off for our
other franchises as well.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Diablo 3 System Changes
Some major changes have been made in Diablo 3, including changes to the core character attributes. For the full changes post and the follow-up by Bashiok, see the news post by our friends at Diablofans.
- Scrolls of Identification are gone - players can now identify rares/legendary items without them.
- Button '5' is now dedicated to potions.
- The Mystic artisan has now been removed from the game.
- The Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube have been removed.
- The Stone of Recall is now a button at the bottom and has been renamed "Town Portal".
- The Blacksmith is now responsible for salvaging players'
- Common (white colored) items are no longer salvageable.
- Character Attributes have been changed. We're changing core character attributes to Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality...
- Character stats are now placed in the same place as the inventory panel and the old dedicated stats panel has been removed.
New Warcraft Fan Art
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork.
Update: Added Bashiok's follow-up statement.
Dragon Soul Difficulty Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard
During the scheduled server maintenance on the week
of January 31, the Dragon Soul raid will become enveloped
by the “Power of the Aspects” spell, reducing the health
and damage dealt of all enemies in the raid by 5%.
This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to
reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more
accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic
difficulties, but it will not affect the Looking for Raid
difficulty.
The spell can also be disabled by talking to Lord
Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul, if a raid
wishes to attempt the encounters without the aid of
the Dragon Aspects.
For those of you who raided in Firelands and/or Icecrown
you’re no doubt aware that as time goes on we want to
keep people progressing by adjusting the difficulty.
For any number of reasons a group may be having difficulty
on a specific encounter each week, and our intent in
adjusting the content is to ensure the ability to keep
progressing, enjoying the content, and gearing up.
With Icecrown we progressively buffed the players, and
while this slow progression (and ability to opt-out of the buff)
were both beneficial, it led to an expectation of your
characters power, and once you left the raid you could
certainly feel less effective. For Firelands we attempted
to fix that by nerfing the content instead of buffing
players, but we nerfed the content difficulty all at one
time, which was counterproductive for players who
really didn’t need as severe a change as we made.
With Dragon Soul we’re attempting to do the best of
both by having a progressive nerf to the content,
keeping player power constant while providing small
increases in assistance over a long period of time, as
well as allowing players to opt-out of the assistance
by speaking to Lord Afrasastrasz.
We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that
these changes encourage you to attempt a higher
difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.
Dragon Soul Difficulty Changes Follow-up
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Believe it or not there are actually guilds and raiding
groups that are attempting to progress through Normal
and Heroic raids, but are hitting a wall, and have been
hitting a wall. We have actually statistical date we base
our changes on, we know exactly how many people are
clearing these raids each week, we know exactly how
many people are able to down just a few bosses, and
how many were only able to down a few bosses every
week for weeks on end and then stopped raiding altogether.
The issue we're constantly trying to combat is the one
where people feel like they're just out of options. One
way this is an issue is the content is too easy, they
blasted through it, have everything they could possibly
want, and have nothing else to do. Ideally that's a small
subset of very hardcore players. For everyone else it's a
feeling of just being stuck with no possible way to progress
. Very few players are willing to suit up, buff up, do
all the necessary requirements to raid, jump in, and
then do no better than they did last week for hours and
hours, only to return next week and do the same.
If a guild doesn't want the help, they're free to opt out of
the buff. For those that do it's an approximate 5% change,
which is pretty minor, and we expect it to be about a
month before we raise it another 5%. This first change
will absolutely help the guilds that are just barely
scraping by, or just need a tiny bump to cross the next
hurdle, but it's just not logical to exclaim that someone
will roll into Raid Finder, grab a couple items, then be
looting Heroic Deathwing's corpse the next night.
We feel the content has been out for quite a while now,
that most people who have progressed and downed
Deathwing on Heroic have done so, they've had sufficient
time to celebrate in their accomplishments, and these
very small progressive alterations will only help guilds
that are already doing well in the raid get over some
hurdles they may be facing.
If they don't have to be like us, why do they have to have
nerfs to get to our position in HM Raiding?
Because they want to and they pay the same amount
for the game? I don't know, man. How is it good for
the game to have 1% of players parading around for
months and months and a 99% sitting around with
nothing to do because they're sick and tired of wiping?
Your solution is "Well then they should get better or quit.
" and that's just not reasonable for a video game
comprised of millions of people looking to just have
some fun. It's still a computer game.
If there's a easy, normal, and hard difficulty, why
tweak normal until it becomes as easy as the easy mode?
Well the nerfs are going to be progressive enough,
as I said, I don't see a 5% change being a big enough
change for Raid Finder players to suddenly start
clearing Normal. We also don't know where we'll end up.
We plan to increase the spell by 5% about every month,
but we're not sure if we'll need to. If we see a lot of
people able to keep progressing and downing bosses,
maybe 5% is all we need. It's going to be watching
completion numbers and seeing where that gets us.
We're not assuming we'll need to go as far as we did
with ICC. It's not going to be automatic, our hand is
on the dial.
The increase is not automatic or set in its frequency.
We will be manually controlling when it increases,
if at all. It will be completely based on how many people
we see able to complete the raid, and our decision
to increase it or not.
Curse Weekly Roundup
Pico is back to tell us about the things you might have missed recently in SWTOR, Minecraft, WoW, and more.
Mists of Pandaria: Monk Class Recap
There haven't been a lot of blue posts or other news this week, but we will hear more about Mists of Pandaria in a few weeks. While we are waiting for new announcements we can review the new Monk class that is coming in Mists of Pandaria using a dedicated thread in our Mists of Pandaria forum.
Previous Coverage:
- Blizzcon World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel
- Official Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel Recap
- Official Monk class page
- Meet the Pandaren Monk
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Talent Tree Homogenization
There is homogenization that is good for the game,
and homogenization that is bad for the game.
Consider Blood Lust/Heroism and Rebirth (battle rez).
Those are very powerful abilities and probably
mandatory for raiding. If shaman and druids were
the only classes that brought them still, then every
10-player raid group would need a shaman and druid
to be successful. In a game with 10-player raids and
11 classes, that means someone is excluded. Even worse,
if yours is the guild with 2 really good rogues or hunters,
you are going to have to make the choice to sit one of
those players out in order to be optimal. Even if that hunter
is a really nice guy or a good player, he can't come because
you need Blood Lust. We don't think that's fun, and we
know a lot of players agree. There are several abilities
in this mandatory or near-mandatory category: interrupts,
raid buffs, dispels and so on. We have no problems
spreading those around, or homogenizing the abilities
that mean groups can bring the player they want to.
The other category though is making each class feel a
bit different when you play them. These are abilities or
mechanics that tend to make your class or spec feel
unique, but aren't mandatory. There are a lot of these
in the game: Chakra, Cauterize, Bladestorm, Demonic
Circle, etc. There are of course still going to be healing,
survival, damage and movement abilities in the game
that are equivalent in their effect as another classes'
ability, but they all work a little differently, and hopefully
make you feel different when you group with other
characters or play different alts. It's important to us to
protect those differences in the game.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Character and Creature Model Quality
We've acknowledged that the old character models could
do with a revamp, and we're planning to get this done.
But the point several of you raised about system
requirements holds true; we want WoW to be accessible
to those with older machines as well as those of you
with top-end gaming rigs.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
MMO-Report
The MMO Report is back after the holidays, and we definitely did not forget about Casey, mostly. He is back this week to tell you about DC Universe Online, the Firefly MMO, and his ever popular Mail Bag!
Diablo 3 - 10 Character Limit, Runed Way of the Hundred Fists, Poll, ScreenshotsStatistics: Rated Battleground Class Balance
Continuing our ongoing statistics posts, today we look at class balance in rated battlegrounds at different levels of gear. The item level is taken from the gear the character is wearing on armory, not their maximum item level. Keep in mind that there are some characters that may not do rated battlegrounds as well as some characters that do not log out in their higher item level PvP gear.
The graphs used here are not scaled starting at 0 to allow you to visualize the difference in win percentages more easily. Keep in mind the actual differences are much smaller than they appear.
Sample Size
- Item Level 370+: 2.6 million sample size
- Item Level 385+: 600k sample size
- Item Level 395+: 25k sample size
Participation Rate
- Item Level 370+: 17% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds
- Item Level 385+: 28% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds
- Item Level 395+: 39% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds
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