Top Gaming Zone

World of Warcraft: World First Dragon Soul Raider

2011-12-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

The guild Russian Guild Exorsus became the first World of Warcraft guild in the WORLD to down all of Dragon Soul Heroic, receiving "Reins of the Twilight Harbinger", one damn sexy mount. Check it out!

World of Warcraft: NEW Epic Gems

2011-12-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

With the release of Patch 4.3, Epic Gems came along. Each gem can be purchased for 75 Conquest Points and bring an increase of 5 to any stat compared to previous (blue quality) gems. They are purchasable at your Conquest Vendor in Stormwind City or Orgrimmar.

Gem	Stats
Stormy Deepholm Iolite	+63 Spell Penetration
Balanced Elven Peridot	+25 Hit Rating and +25 Resilience Rating
Infused Elven Peridot	+32 Spell Penetration and +25 Mastery Rating
Radiant Elven Peridot	+25 Critical Strike Rating and +32 Spell Penetration
Shattered Elven Peridot	+25 Haste Rating and +32 Spell Penetration
Steady Elven Peridot	+25 Resilience Rating and +37 Stamina
Turbid Elven Peridot	+25 Spirit and +25 Resilience Rating
Vivid Elven Peridot	+32 Spell Penetration and +25 Resilience Rating
Lucent Lava Coral	+25 Agility and +25 Resilience Rating
Resplendent Lava Coral	+25 Strength and +25 Resilience Rating
Splendid Lava Coral	+25 Parry Rating and +25 Resilience Rating
Tenuous Lava Coral	+25 Expertise Rating and +25 Resilience Rating
Willful Lava Coral	+25 Intellect and +25 Resilience Rating
Mysterious Shadow Spinel	+25 Intellect and +32 Spell Penetration
Mystic Lightstone	+50 Resilience Rating

World of Warcraft: Dragon Soul Cinematics

2011-12-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

With the release of World of Warcraft Content Patch 4.3, Blizzard brings the possibility to fight with the main character of the expansion. Yep, I'm talking about Deathwing!

Not only can we fight Deathwing's dragon ass, we can also use the Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder to gear up easier (puggable 10-25 man raids, woop!). There is also Transmogrification, Void Storage, and the all new Darkmoon Faire Island!

*With this new patch came (4) Dragon Soul (the newest Raid) Cinematics. Only 3 of the cinematics have been added to the game, but Blizzard has insured that the 4th video will be coming soon!

World of Warcraft: Dragon Soul Cinematic (1/4)
World of Warcraft: Dragon Soul Cinematic (2/4)
World of Warcraft: Dragon Soul Cinematic (3/4)

New World of Warcraft Commercial

2011-11-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

The new World of Warcraft commercial has a Trade/Barren chats legend.. Chuck Norris!

World of Warcraft: New Annual Pass Mount - Tyrael's Charger

2011-10-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

After the uncovering of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria at BlizzCon this year, Blizzard also discussed their new marketing scheme (..err somethin').

Basically, if you sign for the annual pass, which is a 12-month recurring ($15/monthly) subscription to World of Warcraft, you receive the following..

~ Diablo III FREE – Download the digital version via Battle.net for free when the game launches early next year. This is the full game, not a trial edition.

~ Tyrael’s Charger WoW Flying Mount – Ride for the Archangel of Justice on all current and future characters on a single World of Warcraft account. Tyrael’s Charger will arrive via in-game mail with the upcoming launch of patch 4.3.

~ Access to the Next WoW Expansion Beta Test – Get a guaranteed spot in the beta test for the next World of Warcraft expansion (at a time to be announced in the future).

In my opinion, this is a great way to get all the people who are doubting MoP to be a good expansion to have something to fall back on if it fails them. I personally believe Mists of Pandaria will be a WONDERFUL expansion, that is taking a different direction, which is needed. I've been playing WoW since 2004 and I can tell you right now that I haven't gotten bored of it. That is probably because I never really played it a lot, but still, MoP looks to add a PVP-based expansion, which is the funnest part of WoW!!

World of Warcraft: Death Knight Tier 13 Armor!

2011-10-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Death Knight Tier 13 armor had been hidden from us for quite some time, but it has finally been finished and released. In my opinion, it was well worth the wait. The gear looks amazing; makes me want to level up a Death Knight (but I'm leveling up a Hunter currently, hehe). Check it out!

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria - Official GamePlay

2011-10-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Big props to the guys over at MMO-Champion for having the biggest balls in town and recording some gameplay footage while at BlizzCon 2011. Many people are complaining about this newest expansion for the World of Warcraft series, but I personally think it looks amazing, everyone is just too stuck up on the fact that they used 'Pandas'. You've been playing weird exotic animals (Draeni) and midgets (Gnomes), but a Panda is bizarre? Alrighty then!

Patch 4.3 - Cauldron of Battle

2011-10-12T13:08:00.001-07:00

Finally! There's no more need for the welfare raiders to beg you for flasks. With the Big Cauldron of Battle, there will no longer be a need. It will allow users to simply click on the cauldron and receive the flask that corresponds to their class/spec needs! Yet another exciting feature coming in World of Warcraft patch 4.3!
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World of Warcraft: New Pets - Chromatic Dragon,

2011-10-10T12:34:00.001-07:00

With patch 4.3 approaching, new pets have been released: the Chromatic Dragon and the Guardian Cub!

Patch 4.3 Legendary Daggers give you Wings

2011-09-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

As patch 4.3 approaches, new information about the legendary Rogue weapons has been released. Now we know that these weapons will GIVE YOU WINGS (no, not Red Bull).

Tier 13 gear has also been shown, along with all the Tier 1-12 sets that will be available for transmogrification. Props to MMO-Champion for all the info!

Tier 13 Gear

Death Knight - Not Yet Announced
Druid - Deep Earth Vestments
Hunter - Not Yet Announced
Mage - Timelord Regalia
Paladin - Battleplate of Radiant Glory

Priest - Not Yet Announced
Rogue - Blackfang Battleweave
Shaman - Spiritwalker’s Vestments
Warlock - Faceless Shroud
Warrior - Colossal Dragonplate

Diablo III News - General Information - Beta

2011-09-08T13:53:00.001-07:00

Raw Data

Items
Spells
Strings

Male/Female Titles

Level 10: Sir / Dame
Level 15: Baron / Baroness
Level 20: Count / Countess
Level 25: Duke / Duchess
Level 30: Lord / Lady
Level 40: King / Queen
Level 50: Defender
Level 60: Champion
Level 70: Guardian
Level 80: Conqueror
Level 90: Destroyer
Level 100: Avenger
Level Max: Patriarch / Matriarch

Corrupted Titles

Wanderer
Local Hero
Demon's Bane
Tempted
Fallen Hero
Tainted
Villian
Rotten
Scourge of Tristram

Game Types

Cooperative
Diablo III
DotA
Arena
Team Deathmatch

Game Zones

Act 1: Tristram Tristram
Act 1: The Cathedral
Act 1: The Cemetery
Act 1: The Fields
Act 1: The Highlands
Act 1: The Halls of Agony
Act 2: Caldeum
Act 2: Stinging Winds
Act 2: Dahlgur Oasis
Act 2: Desolate Sands
Act 2: Archives of Zoltun Kulle
Act 3: Depths of the Keep
Act 3: Bastion's Keep
Act 3: Fields of Slaughter
Act 3: Arreat Crater
Act 4: Gardens of Hope
Act 4: Silver Spire
Act 4: Bastion's Keep

Runestone Effects

Diablo 3 Beta Coming Soon

2011-08-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Transmogrification Comic - World of Warcraft Patch 4.3

2011-08-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Really humorous picture making fun of Death Knights XD!

World of Warcraft: Guild Name Changes in Patch 4.3

2011-08-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

With the release of 4.2.2, more has been noticed about Guild Name Changes and how they will be approached by Blizzard Employees. As you can see, these will be for guilds with names against the name guidlines.

Along with the Guild Name Change updates, there are now new Trial Account posts with links, which, most likely, will link to the World of Warcraft webpage to allow you to purchase the game.

-All Information Presented Is From PTR, And May Not Be Seen ON Live Servers-

Client Strings

LanguageRegions["ptBR"] = 12;
GUILD_NAME_ALERT = "Guild Name Change Alert";
GUILD_NAME_ALERT_GM_HELP = "You must pick a new name within the guidelines of our naming policy.";
GUILD_NAME_ALERT_MEMBER_HELP = "Your guildmaster must pick a new name within then guidelines of our naming policy.";
GUILD_NAME_ALERT_WARNING = "Your guild has been flagged for a rename.";
OLD_GUILD_NAME = "Old Guild Name:";
TRIAL_ACCOUNT_LEVEL_CAP_REACHED = "You have reached the maximum possible level on a trial account. [Click Here] to upgrade your account!";
TRIAL_ACCOUNT_MONEY_CAP_REACHED = "You already have the maximum amount of money on a trial account. [Click Here] to upgrade your account!";
TRIAL_CAPPED_MONEY = "Trial money cap reached.";

New WoW Vendors - Patch 4.3

2011-08-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

This picture shows two new types of NPCs. Transmogrifier's and Void Storage. Wonder what these guys will do. Post in comments if you have any idea :)

World First Glory of the Firelands Raider by Ascendance

2011-08-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Ascendance (EU Guild) for completing the GLORY OF THE FIRELANDS RAIDER achievement world 1st!

The Five Stages of MMOs

2011-08-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a hilarious picture from the World of Warcraft creators 'The Daily Blink'. Check them out at TheDailyBlink.com!

Diablo 3 Beta Information

2011-07-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Diablo 3 Beta coming "soon"
Every now and then I have people asking me about a potential ETA for the beta of Diablo 3. This is a pretty hard question to answer but we can guess that it will be available very soon.

1. Activision Earning Call - During the latest conference call, Activision announced that the beta would start during Q3 2011, that's between July 1st and September 30th.

2. Press Tour - A Diablo 3 press tour is scheduled for Diablo fansites on August 1st, this is pretty much what happened with Cataclysm with the Press Tour happening 2 weeks before the start of beta.

3. Box Art - Last but not least, the Diablo 3 beta box art has been uploaded on the european battle.net last week, Blizzard seems to be getting ready for a launch "soon" - https://eu.battle.net/account/local-...-gb/d3-big.png (Thanks to Fisker for finding that one)

I'm not saying that it will happen omg omg omg super soon, because beta get postponed easily but things are definitely moving forward and I wouldn't be surprised to see something happen a few days after the press event.

For more information on Diablo 3 and a coverage of the press tour, your best bet is to keep an eye on Diablofans.com

[Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2390-Diablo-3-Beta-ETA-PassLoot-and-NPCScan-Blizzard-Comic-Con-Panel]

Blue Posts

2011-07-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Difficulty to get Valor Points
Valor Points aren't awarded in a vacuum though, nor are ZA and ZG necessarily the 'best and only' route. Overall, running a raid, even the previous tier's raid, is going to be more rewarding for most players overall than just hitting up ZA/ZG. You can acquire gear of a high ilevel that provides set bonuses to help prepare for the next tier of content, as well as get a chance at potentially lucrative (or useful) BoEs; opportunities you won't find in the troll dungeons.

That's not to say that there aren't advantages to hitting up ZA/ZG to cap your VP if that's all you're after; but to believe that it's necessarily the most rewarding path if that isn't your sole goal, is, I think, a mistake. They still offer viable alternative for those players who have already spent a good deal of time in the tier 11 raid content too.

On a related note, we're looking at ways to make raiding accessible and easier to get organized, without at the same time compromising the experience for those who are looking for a challenge. We adjusted tier 11 specifically so that players who haven't seen the content yet will have a chance to get in there and mix it up. In fact, we think that things work best overall when we have heroic raids, normal raids, and then previous tiers all available at the same time - which was an arrangement we didn't quite have in place when Cataclysm launched (unless you count Argaloth, but we don't think a single boss counts as a tier). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

People skipping queues by grouping with a tank through RealID
Not sure if this is the place to post or not, but you can use the old skipping queue method as a dps by queuing with a tank and the tank leaving instantly. It doesn't remove the dps person like it does on normal queuing. Something to look in to!

Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention. It’s not a bug, though, and Real ID Party doesn’t change the way this system is intended to function.

We certainly don’t want players skipping queues and getting an unfair advantage over players that are waiting patiently. Ultimately, the Dungeon Finder rule system is much more “intelligent” than you might think: players who abuse the system may find that they are removed when their tank compatriot leaves, regardless of how long they were already in the dungeon. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Incentives to players to participate in world PvP
The problem with these "incentives" is that they could potentially cause additional problems or not feel "good" to those that get caught in it when they don't want to be involved. Also keep in mind that though we have PvP and PvE realms, it's all the same game, so if we introduce something, it would go on all realms.

As you've seen we did some outdoor PvP incentives in Burning Crusade (after it was introduced in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands), but the difficulty then is keeping people involved and interested in going back to it.

We're always open to constructive feedback on these things, but introducing specific things into the world to inject PvP isn't a simple undertaking and has some potential pitfalls. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Why is Ghostcrawler no longer on the forums?
Where did he go? I am not aware of what exactly happened. Did he get a lot of trolls attacking him than decide to lay low after that?
No, it didn't really have anything to do with that. We (community managers) had several discussions with Ghostcrawler and the other lead developers about how we'd be approaching communication on the new community site when it launched. Ultimately, we all agreed it'd be better for the company and the community to have the community managers be the primary source of forum communication. He still reads the forums every day for feedback. Likewise, we stay in touch with him every day, often relaying information he provides us to you all. So his thoughts on any given subject are still very often shared on the forums. The only difference is we, as community managers, take the time to relay his thoughts to you so he can focus more on considering the feedback we collect and provide from the forums, affording him more time to focus on development.

That said, he's always looking for new subjects to tackle for our blogs, so you still get a direct link to his (and the rest of the development team's) thought process. As we've stated before, we also plan on completely revamping the concept of Ask the Devs. The goal is to make sure the new Ask the Devs format allows for more interaction between devs and players, and has a quicker turnaround time on answers provided.

He may not be in the trenches interacting with players on the forums daily anymore, but he's still watching. Reading. Contemplating. Waiting to strike. And when he does, we'll be there to share his words of wisdom. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

[...] Just know that we're very close to Ghostcrawler (and the rest of the dev leads), so we can have very frank discussions about game design. Sometimes we'll sit in GC's office and argue points we've seen on the forums, either because we personally agree with those points, or we're playing devil's advocate. He sits with the rest of the class design team too, so it's really awesome to get a philosophic design discussion going with the lot of them. They're very receptive to unfiltered feedback.

I guess my point is, the perception that something is missing in terms of player feedback from the forums reaching people like GC, is stronger than the reality. But I do agree that the communication about that feedback isn't as strong as it used to be. Our department is relatively new to the structure we have now -- it began shortly before the launch of StarCraft II when the new community site format was introduced about a year ago. We're still learning how to optimize our team and figure out the tools/staffing we need to better support our forum goers. To be honest, the roles and responsibilities of Blizzard community managers have greatly increased over the years, but we know that employee interaction on the forums is still as important as ever.

For now you'll still probably see developers on the PTR forums from time to time when they need direct testing feedback, or need to inquire further about any issues/concerns. Having said that, it is the role of the community team to get information from the company to the players, and vice versa. When we're doing our job right the developers can focus more of their time on developing the game, while still feeling like they're attuned to what players are saying. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Divine Aegis Visual Effect
I spoke with the developers about this yesterday. You're likely to see a slightly toned down version of the original effect when it's updated. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Discipline Mastery
The root of the issue is this -- our Mastery affects our spells in very different ways.
The intent is exactly that. If mastery affected all of your spells the same way, then it would really just be a “+healing” stat, which we already offer (Intellect). Crit and haste don’t affect all your spells the same way, and we think it’s a more interesting design if mastery behaves the same way. It is possible to go too far of course. If mastery doesn’t affect enough of your entire healing package (either in terms of number of spells or raw output), then it just becomes a weak stat. Alternatively, it can lead classes, and healers in particular, to neglect spells that are weak because mastery doesn’t boost them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2383-Computer-Setup-of-the-Month-Blue-Posts-MMO-Report

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Closed Beta Sign Ups

2011-07-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Closed Beta Sign Ups, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Open Beta Sign Ups, Gameplay footage, new, E3, 2011, 2012, release date, reveal

How To Get In The MW3 Beta

1. Go Here (USA) / Here (Non-USA).
2. Enter your address (must be valid; you will receive your information via e-mail)
3. Press CONTINUE.
4. Follow the prompts on the page (simply press Next >> a few times).
5. When you read your e-mail address, you will see a link like this: Play Modern Warfare 3!
6. Click this link, and enjoy!

How To Get CoD: Black Ops FREE

1. Go Here (USA) / Here (Non-USA).
2. Enter your address (must be valid; you will receive your information via e-mail)
3. Press CONTINUE.
4. Follow the prompts on the page (simply press Next >> a few times).
5. You will receive your copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops via mail in 2-3 days.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm - Firelands Heroic UNLOCKED

2011-07-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

The heroic mode is now unlocked in the US and Europe will follow shortly. Guilds started working hard to defeat the heroic versions of encounters and a couple of bosses already died.

Premonition got the US first kill of Shannox and Lord Rhyolith.
Blood Legion got the US first kill of Beth'tilac. They didn't post a kill shot yet and we'll just pretend Europe is better if they don't.

Congratulations to both guilds for defeating the bosses so quickly!

Firelands Raid Boss Pages Update / LearnToRaid.com
While we're discussing Firelands Raid Bosses, I would like to point out that most of the Firelands raid boss pages have been updated with new videos from LearnToRaid.com.

PvP Season 10 Begins

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Season 10 has officially begun, and players can once again take to the Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds to compete for the new Ruthless Gladiator PvP sets!

All Team Ratings and Personal Ratings have been reset, and any Conquest Points from Season 9 have been converted to Honor Points. Any Honor Points above the cap were converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. Matchmaking Ratings, however, will be carried over into Season 10.

Another important event that coincides with the start of Season 10 is the distribution of rewards from the previous season. Players who were in the top teams from each battlegroup at the end of season 9 should be receiving their end-of-season rewards approximately one week after the end of the last season. These include Arena-specific titles until the end of this new season and, for players who have earned the rank of gladiator, the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until all rewards have been received.

If you have any further questions about Arena and Rated Battleground rewards, please read the FAQ.

- Season 10 Gear List and FAQ

This season introduces most of the gear I already posted on Patch 4.2 patch day (see below) and a new boss in Baradin Hold, Occu'thar (Wowpedia).

The strategy is pretty simple - One main tank, one off-tank, Occu'thar is tanked facing away from the raid and the off-tank taunts and starts tanking the boss whenever the current tank gets a stack of Searing Shadows. Healers keep everyone alive, and DPS make sure Eyes of Occu'thar die under 10 seconds while DPS'ing the boss as well, that's pretty much it.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Occu'thar
This ravenous demon broke free of its cage and gained access to the western wing of the prison, devouring all of the inmates held there. Occu'thar's gluttony resulted in a body too bloated to escape its environs, effectively turning the prison wing into its new holding cell.

Focused Fire - Occu'thar sets his gaze on the location of a random player, then inflicts 35000 Fire damage every 1 sec. to players within 12 yards of the targeted location.
Searing Shadows - Occu'thar inflicts 105000 Shadow damage to players in a 60 degree cone in front of him, and increases Shadow damage taken by 100% for 30 sec.

Eyes of Occu'thar
Occu'thar forms an Eye of Occu'thar on every player for 10 sec. The eyes bore into their target hosts with the Gaze of Occu'thar.

Gaze of Occu'thar - The Eye of Occu'thar gazes at its target host, inflicting 6000 Shadow damage every 1 sec. for 10 sec.
Occu'thar's Destruction - After an Eye of Occu'thar remains attached to a player for 10 sec, it fully bores into the host and detonates with Occu'thar's Destruction, inflicting 25000 Shadow damage on all players.

Patch 4.2 - Arena Season 10 Armor Sets and Weapons
Arena Season 10 Armor sets and weapons will be available in this patch.

Weapons

Class	Set	Class	Set
Death Knight	Ruthless Gladiator's Desecration	Rogue	Ruthless Gladiator's Vestments
Druid	Ruthless Gladiator's Refuge	Shaman	Ruthless Gladiator's Earthshaker
Druid	Ruthless Gladiator's Sanctuary	Shaman	Ruthless Gladiator's Thunderfist
Druid	Ruthless Gladiator's Wildhide	Shaman	Ruthless Gladiator's Wartide
Hunter	Ruthless Gladiator's Pursuit	Warlock	Ruthless Gladiator's Felshroud
Mage	Ruthless Gladiator's Regalia	Warrior	Ruthless Gladiator's Battlegear
Paladin	Ruthless Gladiator's Redemption
Paladin	Ruthless Gladiator's Vindication
Priest	Ruthless Gladiator's Investiture
Priest	Ruthless Gladiator's Raiment

Season 10 - Elite (2200+) Armor Sets

Season 10 - Armor Sets

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Stats balance on gear
Stat balance on gear should be looked at via much more than just boss loot tables. We consider reputation gear, tailor gear, Valor gear and the tier sets when examining what's available to you. If you wish, you can have Spirit on every slot but your belt (which can still be reforged). The priest tier set has Spirit on all 5 slots.

Having said that, the mindset that only cloth with spirit is priest healer gear (and cloth with no spirit is never priest healer gear) is a mindset to be resisted. If that is allowed to set in, then all the fun of looking at a potential new piece of gear and deciding for yourself whether it is an upgrade for you is removed entirely.

Along those lines, something to keep in mind is that there is more to improving the healing you do in cloth than simply stacking spirit. As you increase spell power, haste, and crit, and your tank increases health, armor and avoidance, boss damage negates less of your mana in the first place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Arena Season 10 Start and new gear
You are correct. The season transition and introduction of new PvP items was different this time around, and we apologize for the lack of advanced warning.

The Season 9 set was removed today. The items available for purchase with Honor Points are now considered lower tier Season 10 items. They are still the same items from Season 9 in terms of aesthetics, but the item level and stats are slightly higher to ensure that the Season 10 honor gear has the correct item level relative to the Season 10 conquest gear.

It's likely this is how things will work going forward and we'll be sure to make that more clear when the next season transition takes place.

New basic transition flow:

1) Season X ends and rated play is unavailable; Season X gear becomes available for purchase with HP; CP is wiped.
2) One week later Season Y starts and rated play is available; Season X gear is removed entirely; Season Y introduces a low tier of items which replace Season X vendor items and are available for HP; Season Y introduces the new top items available for CP and rated play. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Lava Bolt Crossbow / Lava Bolt Crossbow sounds like a gun
This is a known issue for which we have a fix. The crossbow shouldn't sound like a gun. 'Cause that'd be silly.

Updating sound files requires a client-side patch, so unfortunately this cannot be addressed via a hotfix. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Note to websites/tools developers - Community API
The Community API Forum received a lot of attention from Blizzard employees recently and if you are maintaining a website or tools based on the Armory you might want to check it out for new features and changes.

35 Comments

Legendary Staff / Dragonwrath Tarecgosa's Rest - Mount, Comics, The Daily Blink

Boubouille

Published on 2011-07-05 12:21 AM

Legendary Staff / Dragonwrath Tarecgosa's Rest - Mount
During one of the latest update to the official armory site, the page of Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest has been updated to include a new spell: Tarecgosa's Visage.

It looks like the Legendary Staff also comes with a built-in mount now, Blizzard was pretty sneaky about it but it looks like we'll see the mount model on live servers after all. See the preview below!

I did NOT write this information. All credits to MMO Champion
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2369-Heroic-Firelands-US-First-Kills-LearnToRaid.com-Videos-Season-10-Blue-Posts

New PvP Mounts for Rated Battlegrounds

2011-06-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Patch 4.2 Mounts Preview
We now have a decent amount of information on Patch 4.2 and I can start building nice recap/previews, let's start with mounts!

PvP Mounts - Twilight Drake PvP Mounts
Gladiators get a brand new mount next season! As far as datamining goes the color of the new Vicious Gladiator's Twilight Drake seems to be that one.

Vicious Gladiator's Twilight Drake

PvP Mounts - Epic Wolf and Horse PvP Mounts
Two new awesome PvP mounts have been added, the Horde War Wolf and the Alliance War Steed are rewards of the Veteran of the Horde II and Veteran of the Alliance II achievements. There's also a couple of recolors but as far as I know only the first 2 pictures below are used.

PvE Mounts - Fire Hawks
3 different Fire Hawks are currently in the game files but only 2 seem to be implemented/have a known drop location.

Corrupted Fire Hawk (Purple) is used by Corrupted Egg of Millagazor, a reward of Glory of the Firelands Raider
Pureblood Fire Hawk (Orange) is used by Smoldering Egg of Millagazor, a rare drop from Ragnaros in the Firelands Raid. (Doesn't seem to be heroic-only so far)
Green Fire Hawk (Green) is used by Green Fire Hawk Mount but doesn't seem to be implemented.

PvE Mount - Fire "Raven God" / Flametalon of Alysrazor
The Fire "Raven God" model is the Flametalon mount from Flametalon of Alysrazor. The mount isn't listed as a loot from Alysrazor in the Encounter Journal for the moment but it's very likely that it will drop from this boss, let's just wait and see if there's an official confirmation in an upcoming PTR build.

> High-Definition <

PvE Mount - Flameward Hippogryph
The Flameward Hippogryph is a reward of the The Molten Front Offensive, you can get this achievement by completing all the questlines of the new Firelands daily quests area.

NEW BLIZZARD NEWS

In order to best accommodate players under the unique play style of Rated Battlegrounds, we’ll be offering all-new PvP ground mounts -- the Vicious War Wolf (Horde) or Vicious War Steed (Alliance) -- in a unique way. If you want to sit your knickers on these sweet new rides come patch 4.2, Rage of the Firelands, you must earn achievements for winning either 75, 150, or 300 Rated Battlegrounds.

One account-bound mount will be awarded for each of these achievements earned, so if you win 300 Rated Battlegrounds with a character, you’ll be afforded the opportunity to give that character and two of your alts each a wolf or steed. Since these mounts are tied to each achievement and not to your placement on the competitive ladder, they will be awarded instantly rather than at the end of each season as with Arena mounts. Your Rated Battleground wins tracked for these achievements are cumulative and are not reset with each season, so you can work toward the reward at your own pace.

For those of you storming the front lines, protecting vital tactical positions, and keeping your teammates alive in Rated Battlegrounds, we wish you the best of luck in obtaining awards that befit your show of valor!

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/

Blue Posts - 06/16/2011

2011-06-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Quest Design
I'm reading that as you want quests to be interesting but easy and fast to get people to endgame.
Yes and no. When designing quests, it's important for us to keep in mind all the different kinds of players that'll play through them and what their interests might be. For example, some World of Warcraft players just want to get to max level as quickly as they can. That's a totally valid style of play, so we try to make sure that quests don't arbitrarily complicate or impede the leveling process.

That's just one thing we consider, though. We know that there are a lot of players who absolutely love questing -- quest chains, daily quests, low level quests, all of it. (Loremasters, represent! \o/) And we absolutely want to appeal to that group of players, too. With respect to the OP's suggestions, our concern is that, if we implement quests that are too challenging or too similar to dungeon content, then we risk forcing players into roles and types of gameplay that they may not appreciate. Not everyone likes running dungeons or feeling pressured by having to learn encounter mechanics, so overloading quest content with those kind of scenarios may not be the best course of action.

Could we do more to vary up the kinds of quests you play through, though? Sure. We feel that we can still provide a streamlined, straightforward questing experience without always relying on the simple "collect this," "kill that," "okay, now kill that again, and then be a good sport and collect a variety of gross things from their corpses" objectives that everyone has come to love. Those kinds of quests certainly have their place and will likely remain a staple in World of Warcraft, but we're trying some new things with the 4.2 daily areas that we hope players will enjoy, and want to continue that trend with future content, as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Ask the Devs
I'm not going to bother getting into the specifics of what was answered or why or any fansite articles bashing the process; it's been covered many times before.

But, at the core, I think we agree it's not working. While we could (and do) lament over the reasons why a scheduled Q&A based on question popularity doesn't sit well with people, the bottom line is it can't go on as it is.

We don't expect people will ever be completely happy with any Q&A. Regardless of how they're conducted we'll never get to every question, so there are always going to be complaints that we didn't answer the right ones. But Ask the Devs is different. While there are certainly arguments that answers didn't say the right things, or didn't give a firm answer on how a problem would be resolved, the process just doesn't work because of the format.

We've spent a lot of time discussing why it doesn't work, and while that's interesting to us, the bottom line is that once we've finished the role Q&A's with healers, we will be ending the Ask the Dev series.

Our goal with Ask the Devs was always to increase interaction with the developers, to provide a direct conduit to their thoughts and process. We're in the planning stages for a new Q&A process that will replace Ask the Devs, and while we're absolutely certain people will continue to be upset we didn't answer every question, we think it will overall be a far more successful approach. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Tanking and Survavibility
DKs have a lot of control over their survivability. While the other tank classes spend a lot of button clicks on generating threat, DKs can regularly hit Death Strike, which heals them. This puts a very powerful tool in the hands of the player. Played well, you can mitigate a lot of incoming damage and even choose when it is important to mitigate that damage. But you also have the possibility of playing poorly. It probably isn’t the kind of play style that is going to appeal to everyone.

You can look at the recent discussion about the paladin Holy Shield as a microcosm of this debate. Some players wanted more control over their survivability, and the new Holy Shield provides that. But it is more work to control an active button and there is a larger penalty for doing it badly. Death Strike is like Holy Shield on steroids in this regard. There are good and bad times to use Holy Shield. There are definitely good and bad times to use Death Strike. We see some DKs attempting to hit Death Strike as much as they possibly can, and then getting frustrated when they can’t squeeze more Death Strikes into the rotation. What they are perhaps missing is that the timing of when they Death Strike is very important. Used optimally, it’s a powerful reactive tool.

One thing we have discussed is giving players more control over whether they make this decision (trading higher risk for higher return) or not. In many driving games for example you have the choice of an automatic or manual transmission. Many players choose the automatic, suspecting that they are probably not going to be as fast as a player who is awesome at managing their clutch, but it means they never have to mess with the clutch and can still win plenty of races. On the other hand, imagine that the player who plays the manual perfectly is performing at 100% and the player who performs the manual poorly is performing at 25%. Choosing an automatic transmission for 75% performance may be perfectly acceptable. You give up a little theoretical performance in return for having less going on. Tanking can often have a lot going on. Maybe there is a talent choice that lets DKs have a more powerful Death Strike in return for weaker passive mitigation. Some players would take that talent, and some might only take it for some encounters.

Related, we understand that some DKs don’t like having to make the decision about whether to Death Strike or whether to apply tanking debuffs. That’s really the tension that’s supposed to be at the heart of any resource system -- I have a limited allotment of X, so at this moment do I want to use X on this one ability or on a separate ability? Again, a possible solution is to put the choice of which play style to use in the hands of the player. We could offer a talent or glyph (or something) that lowers the cooldown of Outbreak for instance, without turning Blood DKs into a spec that can play optimally by pushing nothing but Death Strike. It’s something we’ll consider.

(Assuming Blood is the manual transmission, and the other three classes are automatic)

Amazing DKs aren't 25% better than Amazing Paladins/Warriors/Druids, so what is the point of a system that is incredibly punishing and only slightly rewarding?

The 25%, 75% and 100% percentiles weren’t meant to be taken literally. If a DK feels like he or she has to work much harder than other tanks to achieve about the same amount of survivability, then that feels bad (and to be fair, we had this exact problem with paladin tanks being too easy to play well in the previous expansion). On the other hand, if a DK played well completely trumps all other tanks, then the very best guilds for whom the skill cap isn’t an issue, will just use DK tanks. We see a pretty good spread of DK tanks among both great raiding guilds and all raiding guilds for that matter, so we don’t think the numbers are so far off that groups are either flocking to or avoiding DK tanks. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/ - Source

Zygor's World of Warcraft Guide - Buyer Review

2011-06-12T11:51:00.001-07:00

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So.. I am a huge fan of World of Warcraft. I had a Level 80 Troll Priest, Level 80 Troll Hunter, Level 80 Blood Elf Death Knight, and Level 80 Undead Rogue during Wrath of the Lich King... I was spending 14+ hours a day playing the game, and I always felt like I was doing something wrong. It took me 34 days /played to get to 80 on my priest (my first level 80, so this is reasonable), and about 28 on my Rogue (whom I still have access to).. I enjoyed questing just as much as I enjoyed PVP, but I never could keep up with my friends when we would level together, until I found Zygor Guides. Most of you have probably heard of Zygor Guides.. It's the best WoW Leveling, Farming, Achievement, Dailies, Professions, a little bit of everything really, guide.

Now, I had never heard of Zygor Guides until 3 weeks until Cataclysm release, so I felt pretty uninformed when half of my guild was already using the guide! I wondered how the GM was always pumping out level 80 alts so fast, but after using the step-by-step guide provided by Zygor, I see exactly how he did it!

Okay, let's hop 2.5 weeks ahead.. Cataclysm is about to be released, and I'm still leveling up my rogue (the character I planned to level to 85 in Cataclysm). I'm about level 74, and I was in a Random Dungeon when these two guys were chatting about how fast they were leveling.. The one guy was talking about how he bought some leveling guide that came with an AddOn that told you the order to do your quests, where your quest objectives were at, etc., and the other guy was talking about how he had heard of it, but never used it..

So, I decided to hop into the conversation and ask "What is this Guide/AddOn called, bro?". The guy said Zygors, which then made me ask my guildies about it. Almost immediately, like 5 guild members told me how amazing of a guide it was, how written it was, how it cut their leveling in half, etc...

So, I just ding level 75, and I go and google this guide .. I find the website (Can be found here ), and watch the little promotional video and read through... Sounded promising. So, I got a copy of the guide, and opened it up... Let's just say, there's a guide for EVERYTHING. Every profession, the best dailies, the best leveling paths.. I felt like a Pro on WoW after I got this guide, lol. It's a shame that half the server already had it, and I never went and got my copy!!

I went from level 75-80 in 3 days (not 3 days /played, just from playing for 3 days.. it was about 20 hours of leveling to reach this ; without being rested). Then Cataclysm dropped. I got to 85 2 days after release, and got 'Realm First Level 85 Rogue' achievement.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Zygor Guides took me from being a casual nub, to a professional one!
:D

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Blizzard Art Gallery - New Pictures

2011-06-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Blizzard Art Gallery Update
The World of Warcraft Art gallery has been updated with three pieces representing the Warcraft universe.

Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14199, Patch 4.2 /roar emote sounds

2011-06-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Published on 2011-06-01 12:53 AM

Update - Added official notes update, including the very anticipated ...

If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.

Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14199
A new build is being deployed on test realms.

Item Additions
A couple of new Firelands Raid loot and the addition of Drakehide Leg Armor and Murky's Little Soulstone used to summon Murkablo, a Diablo-themed Murloc.

Level	Type	Spec	Slot	Name
378	Axe	Melee	Main Hand	Eye of Purification
391	Axe	Spell Spirit	Main Hand	Eye of Purification
378	Dagger	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Avool's Incendiary Shanker
378	Dagger	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Entrail Disgorger
391	Dagger	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Avool's Incendiary Shanker
391	Dagger	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Entrail Disgorger
378	Mace	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Shatterskull Bonecrusher
391	Mace	Physical DPS	One-Hand	Shatterskull Bonecrusher
1	Staff		Two-Hand	Stave Icecrown Raid D02 Green
378	Staff	Spell Spirit	Two-Hand	Smoldering Censer of Purity
391	Staff	Spell Spirit	Two-Hand	Smoldering Censer of Purity
378	Sword	Melee	Two-Hand	Zoid's Firelit Greatsword
391	Sword	Melee	Two-Hand	Zoid's Firelit Greatsword
378	Sword	Spell DPS	Main Hand	Firethorn Mindslicer
391	Sword	Spell DPS	Main Hand	Firethorn Mindslicer
0	Consumable			Trampoline MII
45	Enchanting			Formula: Enchant Cloak - Lesser Agility
85	Item Enhancement			Drakehide Leg Armor
85	Leatherworking			Pattern: Drakehide Leg Armor
20	Pet			Murky's Little Soulstone

Official Notes Update
Official notes have been updated and are awesome because they aren't the result of my crazy datamining, you know. Also these notes seems to be from a later build and any change listed there is most likely more up to date than datamined changes

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

General

All character races now have a /roar sound.

Classes: General
Pets

The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Frost

Annihilation now increases Obliterate damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.

Glyphs

Glyph of Dark Succor has been redesigned. Rather than placing a 15% maximum health floor on Death Strike healing while in Frost or Unholy Presence, it causes the next Death Strike within 15 seconds after killing a foe that yields experience or Honor Points to heal for at least 20% of the death knight's maximum health (still requires Frost or Unholy Presence).

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Feral

Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1464 1042, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 13.8% 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 816 581, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 2.35% 1.67%, down from 3.26%. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Marksmanship

Careful Aim now grants additional critical strike chance against targets over 90% health, up from 80% health.

Pets

8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.

Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Shadow

Psychic Horror no longer has a forward facing requirement, making it consistent with other non-projectile-based crowd control spells.

Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Subtlety

Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

Recklessness and Deadly Calm can no longer be used at the same time. One cannot be used while the other is active, but using one does not put the other on its full cooldown.

Arms

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12%, down from 20%.

Fury

Dual Wield Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5%, down from 10%.

Items

If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.

User Interface

The order in which characters are listed at the Character Selection screen can now be rearranged and saved.
Raid Profiles have been added which allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.) for future use.

Spell Changes

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Companion Pets

Murkablo Right Click to summon and dismiss Murkablo. Instant

Leatherworking

Leatherworking: Drakehide Leg Armor - Creates Drakehide Leg Armor. Reagents: Pristine Hide, Volatile Earth x 20

Tailoring

Tailoring: Embersilk Net and Tailoring: Frostweave Net now have a 35 yards range, up from 25 yards.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Blood

Dancing Rune Weapon deals 100% damage of the Death Knight's attack, up from 50%.

Frost

Rune Strike no longer scales from Attack Power, but it could just be a tooltip change gone wrong.
Killing Machine now procs from autoattacks instead of melee attacks. (Tooltip clarification, already like that on live)

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Feral

Claw's additional damage has been reduced by 35%, from 1101 to 710. (Tooltip fix?)
Faerie Fire (Feral) bear form damage has been increased by 333%, from 679 to 2950. Now scales from 10.8% of AP, down from 15%.
Ferocious Bite can now consume up to 35 additional energy to increase damage by up to 100%.
Lacerate base damage has been increased but AP scaling has been reduced. Now deals [3608 + 5.52% of AP] damage and making them bleed for [345 + 1.85% of AP] damage over 15 sec, instead of [2088 + 7.66% of AP] damage and making them bleed for [75 + 2.56% of AP] damage over 15 sec.
Mangle (Cat) additional damage has been reduced by 80%, from 1670 to 315. Base damage remains unchanged.
Mangle (Bear) now deals 190% normal damage, down from 260%. Additional damage increased by 130%, from 754 to 1740.
Maul now deals [35 + 19% of AP] physical damage, down from [8 + 26.4% of AP] damage,
Shred additional damage has been reduced by 80%, from 1716 to 330. Base damage remains unchanged.
Swipe base damage has been increased by 330%, from 215 to 929
Thrash base damage has been increased by 330%.
Natural Reaction now reduces damage taken while in Bear Form by 9/18%, up from 6/12%.
Pulverize now deals 60% weapon damage, down from 80%. Additional damage increased by 350%, from 360 to 1624.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Pets

Intervene no longer affects "the next melee or ranged attack" only.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Arcane

Arcane Power now only increases the mana cost of damaging spells.

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Protection

Guarded by the Light no longer allows your Word of Glory to grant Holy Shield.
Holy Shield now costs 3% of base mana and has a 30 sec cooldown - Increases the amount your shield blocks by an additional 20% for 10 sec.

Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Combat

Vitality now increases Attack Power by 30%, up from 25%.
Savage Combat now increase total attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.

Assassination

Assassin's Resolve now increases melee damage by 20%, up from 15%.
Vile Poisons now increases the damage dealt by your poisons by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.

Subtlety

Cloak of Shadows now has a 2 min cooldown, up from 1 min.
Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of both Cloak of Shadows and Combat Readiness by 15/30 sec.
Sanguinary Vein now increases damage dealt to targets with a Bleed effect by 8/16%, up from 5/10%.

Shaman (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Elemental

Call of Flame has an extra effect - When your Fire Nova damages a target, the duration of your Flame Shock effect on that target is increased by up to 6 seconds.
Fire Nova damage has been increased by 15%.

Tier 12

Item - Shaman T12 Enhancement 4P Bonus - Your Stormstrike ability also causes the target to take 6% increased damage from your Fire Nova, Flame Shock, Flametongue Weapon, Lava Burst, Lava Lash, and Unleash Flame abilities.

New "/roar" Sounds Added in 4.2

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hey everyone!

As many of you who play goblins and worgen may have noticed, the sound usually associated with your characters' "/roar" emote was removed in patch 4.1. This was done to help resolve an issue that caused the sounds associated with the both the "/roar" and "/attack" emotes to play simultaneously whenever the "/attacktarget" command was used.

We know that many of you missed hearing your /roars, so we're happy to report that, in patch 4.2, goblin and worgen characters will once again have a sound associated with the emote. Even better, we're adding brand new sounds for "/roar" for all playable races.

We're excited to be able to introduce these new sounds and hope you have a roarin' good time with the updated emotes. (Yes, I went there. Rawr. :3)