wow

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hot off the presses and fast on the heels of the recently announced 2012 Battle.net World Championship event set for later this year, Team Liquid took the time to interview Ilja Rotelli, director of global community and eSports at Blizzard Entertainment. The interview looks deeper into the new structure of the Battle.net World Championship and the future of Blizzard eSports. Here’s a brief snippet from the interview to whet your appetite. At the national qualifier level, do you hope to hold some tournaments that are completely open to anyone who wants to compete? Ilja Rotelli: That is precisely one of the design philosophies we originally adopted. The idea is that we want to make a more aspirational and participatory eSports environment for StarCraft. The idea that there are superstars that seem so far away, that one can't hope to become; this makes eSports very restrictive. Blizzard has a slightly different goal from eSports companies. If you think very frankly about the business goal for Blizzard as a company, we gain when more people play the game, and a strategy that makes sense to achieve that goal is to go grassroots. We don't have plans in place yet, but in my dreams, this is the beginning, where we go as grassroots as we can for the first year. Then, in 2013, we would love to add an additional layer to the bottom of the structure, to be even more grassroots than now. This is just a philosophy, not a practical plan that we have in place, but certainly that is one of the design principles we have been using so far. Visit the Team Liquid site to read the complete article.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Allow Players to Turn Off Enchant Effects I realize this thread has been around for a while but the topic is still relevant. As many of you may or may not know, weapon enchants have been a feature of World of Warcraft since the beginning. Providing iconic and recognizable looks to various enchants is something that’s added an element of uniqueness to the game and to your character. However, we do understand they can sometimes overpower the aesthetics of the awesome weapons you can obtain in game now. It’s certainly something we have discussed with the developers recently and we’ll be looking into potentially allowing an enchant toggle. If and when such a feature is introduced, we’ll be sure to let the community know as soon as possible. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Damage in Arenas As you already mentioned, in the upcoming patch there is a change to Vial of Shadows that should reduce some of the burst damage you are experiencing in PvP. Dying in openers certainly isn't fun, and can be incredibly frustrating if you're the one on the receiving end of such a coordinated attack, but don't give up! In addition to perhaps taking some time to focus on other activities such as Rated and unrated Battlegrounds where you have more people to watch your back, you might also consider browsing some PvP videos from other members of the community to not only help inspire you, but to also arm you with a further arsenal of tactics that you can use to your own advantage against opposing teams. Also, from my own experience, when I was having a lot of trouble against a certain class or spec that I felt countered my usual tactics, I found it helpful to sometimes grab a friend that played that class and spent some time dueling them so that they could critique me on areas where I could improve my skills, including my timing on using certain abilities, and how I could counter some of their own tactics. That way when I stepped back into arenas, I was more confident in my own skills and felt better-prepared for how to expose the weaknesses of my enemies. Keep at it, and remember there are players out there equally as scared to see you step out onto the Arena floor.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Mists of Pandaria Expansion Name It's not irrelevant, particularly given almost everything that happens after the Cataclysm and Deathwing's demise is centered around the discovery of this new continent. These forgotten lands, as well as the way the Horde and Alliance go about exploring them, are central to the overall story line (much like Illidan and the Burning Legion were to The Burning Crusade, the Lich King and his Scourge were to Wrath of the Lich King, and Deathwing's destructive return to Azeroth was in Cataclysm). I'm not sure I understand your argument. It feels like you're claiming we're naming the expansion after a new race's starting zone (not true) and arguing that's "jumping the shark." If you're only taking issue with the title, I don't think that qualifies for such a label at all. More importantly though, I get the sense you learned only two bulleted details about the expansion (new race and new land to explore) before deciding to post this thread. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Encounter Designers Who Worked on Ulduar What a coincidence! We happened to talk about raid design and results with Ghostcrawler and Mumper yesterday, and everyone looked back fondly on Ulduar, among others. Yes, the same designers and artists who worked on Ulduar are still working on raids. Here's the thing -- Ulduar is an example of a raid where lots of players got to enjoy the first few bosses, and very few players ever saw the last few. Yogg Saron and Algalon were among the least-killed bosses ever, and not because they were exceedingly difficult. Rather, clearing the dungeon all the way to Yogg took up a big chunk of a raiding week (and you only had an hour to kill Algalon), and the ability to extend raid lockouts came later in 3.2.0 (but extending raid lockouts means getting less loot overall). Raid Finder partially resolves the length-of-raid problem, so we can consider designing longer raids, but that's not always an easy call. Long raids mean longer development time, and while some players might be willing to wait, we understand why others might get impatient. Of course, having multiple raids in a tier (like the combination of Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent) has the advantage of giving players different environments to play in while potentially making scheduling and logistics easier. Pushing a big red button for Mimiron was very cool, and again is fondly remembered. We have created something like 40 raid bosses since the creation of those encounters however, and we cant help but think that it would start to feel really gimmicky and forced if every raid encounter had its difficulty set by pushing a button, (or not killing adds, or changing the order you kill the bosses, or the other mechanics we used in Ulduar). We think Mimiron would feel less special if there were six more bosses in the game with big red buttons, and we’re just not sure the design space is there to have a near infinite variety of means by which players launch a heroic mode in game. Nonetheless, because there are so many requests for those style mechanics, we are considering doing a few bosses with optional modes (in the same way Mimiron, Freya or Sartharion had them) in Mists of Pandaria. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Mists of Pandaria Talent Trees One of the problems we're specifically trying to address with the new talent system is getting back a little to the sense that there are 10 classes in the game (soon 11) instead of 30 (soon 34). A common complaint we saw about the Cataclysm talent design was that hybridization was greatly downplayed. Now it’s easy to dismiss going down two trees as never really having worked out, but it’s clear that many players are in love with the idea of doing so. We also just want to keep the total number of talents under control, since the intent is that they have pretty big effects. If you're facing a Frost mage in PvP in Mists of Pandaria, you’ll have even less of an idea of what is in their toolbox than you do today. If you're a raid leader, you won’t be so certain what abilities your Discipline priest has to deal with the upcoming boss. A little of that keeps gameplay feeling fresh, but too much of it can be overwhelming. If each of the three mage specs, for example, had different talent choices, then we would have 612 total talents in the game instead of 198. Even 198 is a lot to learn. We also have the suspicion that coming up with 612 really awesome talents will be much more challenging. One of our design philosophies is concentrated coolness: have a few awesome things instead of a lot of mediocre things. Now in some ways we are strengthening the concept of a spec by really pushing rotations and some other signature spells to specific specs. Immolate is Destruction only. Backstab is Subtlety only. Given that, talents are a great vehicle to make sure that your character still feels like a warlock or a rogue at the end of the day. We really want to avoid talent synergies where only one talent on a tier makes sense for your character. This would be the case if say Fire mages did bonus damage with only Fire spells, or there was one healing talent on a tier competing against two DPS talents for your priest. Please continue to bring up concerns you have in this regard (though not necessarily all in this thread) and we will try to address them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Intellect on Plate The situation with intellect plate is an ongoing discussion among the designers, but we have yet to come up with a solution that's better than just continuing to make intellect plate.

• Let Holy paladins wear Strength plate – This would require a lot of conversions. Does hit become Spirit? What happens to expertise? Do all Strength items convert or just actual armor pieces? Can paladins mix and match with Intellect jewelry and trinkets? Do Holy paladins also hit really hard in melee, or do they lose that ability? Does it make paladins too effective as hybrid classes if they can share much of their gear across three different roles?
• Let Holy paladins wear mail – Our mail is designed to look like shaman or hunters, not paladins. It’s cruel not to let a paladin wear the paladin tier armor, and also weird that a given tier piece could be plate or mail even though it looks identical.
• Let priests wear plate – We like the design for priests as cloth-wearers, we would not want to drop less cloth overall (since only mages and locks would need it at that point), and we don’t want priests to look like warriors, DKs or paladins.

Individually these aren't difficult problems, and we have the ability to solve each of them, but at the end of the day the designers don’t think any of those solutions are preferable to just keep on making Intellect plate for Holy paladins. Maybe someday there will be a new class that also uses Intellect plate. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Blue Post Replies We read them. We also allow conversations to take place without our influence when it seems that it's the better course of action. Sometimes our intervention can actually skew a conversation off track if we're not careful. Then again, sometimes skewing a conversation is something we need to do too, to get people "on track" or even away from non-constructive discussion. Sometimes we just don't have anything we could effectively add to the conversation, but it may spark some discussion internally that we can have amongst ourselves or take to the developers and producers. If and when we do have something we can bring back, we generally try to. Some may be under the false belief that it was the constant posts about a topic that made us come back to the topic, when in fact we may just need some time to discuss and come up with an answer that works and sometimes, we may have an answer that we just can't share at the time. Timing in our roles is often everything and as many know, "promising" something too soon, can be upsetting or worrisome to some people, while others don't mind being "in the know" even if plans do change. It's a balancing act. We don't have elaborate schemes. That would mean we have a lot more time on our hands than we actually do to sit, plot and plan. In most cases, when we reply to something on the forums, we're tightrope walking while keeping an eye on the ever so dangerous ps and qs. That's not to say there isn't a method to the madness (see above paragraph.) It just means, we have to be quick on developing our thoughts and typing them out in a way that (hopefully) makes some semblance of sense. If we see some really good feedback or ideas, we will often take it with us when we meet with the developers (which is generally a weekly face to face meeting.) We don't want to give the wrong impression that feedback given equals a guaranteed change based on that feedback. We are just as likely to notice a smaller thread as we are to notice the larger ones. Sometimes, the best conversations are on the first few pages (not to say we don't read through the entire thread.) The reason being, that often, the conversation is more focused on the topic at hand and as the thread lengthens, we either see repeat discussions/arguments, or it begins to expand to other topics that may not be as relevant to the main topic of the original post. BTW, contrary to popular belief (and not to start a moderation discussion.) We do not delete threads solely on the idea that it's saying it dislikes something we've designed or done to the game. We generally delete non-constructive threads or repeat threads since they often don't lead to good discussion or split conversation which makes it more difficult for us to sift through them for the constructive bits. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) 64-bit Live Client We'll be disabling the PTR forums shortly. Going forward you will be able to find the latest 64-bit client on the Tech Support forums. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Mists of Pandaria Information Plan There does and there is. There's not anything specific I can share on a time frame as of yet, but things are moving along well with Mists of Pandaria and we'll be getting you all more information on "what's next" as soon as possible. For those that were able to see the next expansion at BlizzCon, you'll have seen that we were relatively far along in development. As we've said before, we're working diligently to put out expansions a little bit quicker than we have in the past. But, as always, we want to make sure we release "when it's ready" as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

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 (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

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.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

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 when 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)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

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.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

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)

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

A 64-bit client is now available for use with the 4.3.2 PTR. You can download it at the link below, unzip it into your PTR directory, and then run the executable to test it.

• The 64-bit client is being distributed separately from the PTR as it is not yet supported for use with World of Warcraft.
• This can only be used with the 4.3.2 PTR, it is not to be used with the live version of the game.
• The game’s built in voice chat does not currently work in the 64-bit client.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the in-game movie recording functionality.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the customized LCD display for the Logitech G15 series of keyboards.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client is currently not supported on 10.5 systems. You will need 10.6.8 or later for this version.

Build 15201 - PC link, Mac link If you encounter any issues while using the 64-bit version, please report your findings in the PTR bug report forum (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/2359401/), and return to using the 32-bit executable.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Other MMORPGs Unfortunately Blizzard decided that endgame was king when they made the leveling process take no time at all. That wasn't arbitrary decision, nor did we arrive at it lightly. There are more than a few factors which played into it, but I'll cover one of the really big ones: People often play MMOs to play alongside their friends and share adventures. That social experience is important, and it can feel a bit lonely when your friends and most of the rest of the playing population is cavorting around at the level cap while you're just starting out. It's true that some players will create new characters to level up alongside their pals (or invite a new player using the Recruit A Friend service), but all too often a new player will end up on a realm and be expected to level up with relatively little assistance before they can join their friends on their 'end game' adventures. There are now also three expansions worth of new leveling content to experience in addition to the classic quest line which takes players from 1-60. We wanted to make it easier for players to come into the game and enjoy the leveling process, but also join their friends who are already playing on a more reasonable time frame. Another reason that questing seems faster is that we've learned a lot of lessons about quest and zone design flow since the old days - you might notice this when transitioning from Azeroth to Outland now, for example. The leveling experience is important to us, which is part of the reason we revamped Azeroth for Cataclysm. It can be fun, rich and engaging without taking as much time as it used to. Still, at the end of the day, end game gets so much attention because that's where players spend the majority of their time. We do understand that not everyone enjoys the same types of game play, and we're always looking for ways to expand and improve the end-game experience to make it more engaging for different players. There is almost no reason what so ever to venture out into the world. That was an error we made with the design of Cataclysm, but getting players invested in the world again is something we're interested in addressing with Mists. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Rated Battlegrounds VS. The Blues [1/17/12] We're going to be pushing a new build today so we're going to be postponing this epic battle till next Tuesday. Should hopefully give more of you time to get the build and get set up. See you then! If you've got a three-day weekend enjoy it! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Pet Battles A common type of feedback we get from players about Cataclysm is the observation that after they hit max level, they start to run out of things to do. Of course, this isn't a new problem or an uncommon one in MMOs, but it's definitely something that we think we can improve on. When the game was relatively new to most players, activities like leveling an alt or completing achievements could be all that were needed to entertain and satisfy. But there is a finite amount of entertainment to be gotten from leveling alts. So some players get a lot of joy from running dungeons, or raiding, or participating in organized PvP. Those activities aren't for everyone, but we will continue to add new dungeon/raid/PvP content to the game. We love playing that content ourselves. Nonetheless, we have big plans to keep introducing completely new things for players to do. Pet battles, Scenarios, and dungeon Challenge Modes are all coming to World of Warcraft. And we want to rekindle the fires of existing features that haven't gotten much love for a while, such as reputation systems, daily quests, world bosses, and yes -- world PvP. For those who see Pet Battles as a feature that holds little interest, no worries! Like many systems in the game, it's being designed to be optional. Our ultimate goal still remains: When you finish what you do every day or every week, be it raiding or battlegrounds or crafting and playing the auction house, if you want more WoW, there will be a lot of activities for you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Linear Questing There are advantages and disadvantages to linear questlines. The advantages tend to flow from the effort to build epic stories for players to be a part of. When you put the player into a linear questline, you can more easily incorporate dramatic elements like foreshadowing, plot twists, and a satisfying climax that you know the player is going to be there for. The disadvantages have been well-covered: If you're isolated into a personal story too much, you lose the sense of being in an open world that is filled with alternative potential adventures. It's more difficult to hop around and partake of the glories of several different zones at the same time, and harder to join up with friends whenever you like. Group quests become less-desirable. As Dave Kosak and others have said before, we think we may have gone a bit too linear with Cataclysm. That informs one of our big philosophies for Mists of Pandaria: Give players more flexibility to play how they want to. We think that the solution may be to have linear story arcs, but have more of them in each zone, rather than making the whole zone one big story with a beginning, middle, and end. In addition to multiple linear quest lines, there will be smaller (and in some cases, one-off) quest hubs, and some of those hubs may be well off the beaten path. To make that work, we've got to tweak the orientation of quest achievements. Rather than "vacuum up every single quest in the zone", we're aiming for achievements that reward completing the main story arcs. All in all, players should feel less like their time spent playing in a zone is exactly the same as every other player. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) LFR Issues The system is not perfect, and we definitely seek to improve it when we can. We are always looking for feedback and ways to improve our features, and feedback from players always helps. In patch 4.3.2., if multiple identical items drop from the same boss, and a player rolls on all those items, the subsequent rolls from that player will be forfeit if said player wins one of the items. A player will still be able to win the same loot more than once per dungeon though, but only if it drops from two different bosses. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Classes: General Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.

Dungeons & Raids 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.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Other MMORPG Games “The real game doesn’t start until you’re max level”. Before I begin, I should clarify that the following post is composed entirely of my own, personal opinions. I think that games in the MMO genre tend to transform at the level cap, mostly because leveling has ended, which heralds a slight change in basic gameplay. In World of Warcraft, many of the same experiences that are available when leveling up remain available at the level cap (questing, exploring new areas), and you also gain access to new experiences and challenges. The motivations and goals tend to be a bit different and less single minded. Rather than pursuing a new level, and the new abilities and talents that can come with it, instead you might be seeking a powerful item, trying to defeat a more powerful enemy in PvE, or achieving a milestone in the PvP game, among many other goals including completing achievements, finishing collections, capping professions, etc. Gameplay broadens, from the relatively simple road of questing and leveling, into a broad plain of possibilities. The leveling experience awaits once again with a new character though, and playing a game with a new character class can offer an entirely new gameplay experience, especially if you select a different class role than the one you're already used to. Of course, expansions also offer the opportunity to experience leveling again for end-game characters. Some would say that there's an unfortunate tendency for players to plow through expansions as quickly as possible to pursue end-game again, because they have a pre-conception that "it's the only thing that matters". Honestly, that is what tabletop gaming is for. Players and their game masters (GMs) spend hours creating characters that are unique to the player. And then the GM creates a story that the players follow. But while a (good) GM might have an overall plan for his/her players the path they take is determined by the players not the GM. I absolutely adore table top gaming, and it's a popular pass time here at Blizzard. I believe that a good game master, with the help of a group of players who are willing to invest themselves in the story and their characters, together can create an experience that is truly thrilling, engaging, cathartic and satisfying. Even a not so serious game can be outright hilarious, and I don't think I've ever spent as much time laughing as I have around the gaming table. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Mists of Pandaria: More of a Patch than an Expansion? Challenge Modes - A progression of achievements, hardly revolutionary. It’s quite an awesome feature as I see it; after not too long a dungeon becomes too easy or simple because of out-gearing it or a number of other reasons. These challenge modes will allow you to compete on par with other players who have better gear as everyone will have a fixed Ilvl when inside challenge dungeons. This means you are all competing for the prestige of being the fastest to complete these dungeons compared to others. Pet Battles - No comment This particular mini-game may not be for everyone, and it’s not designed to be. We want to be sure that there is something in the game that each player can enjoy doing, be it PvP, PvE or even pet battles; pet battles are being implemented to create a fun, new type of activity that all players have access to and offering an alternative to increasing the power and strength of your character specifically. New Zones - I always love a new zone, but think it's all a bit stale now. Same models, same textures, same trees, it's just not exciting anymore Just as it was in BC, WotLK and Cataclysm, the setting is changing. I don’t think that the look and feel of any expansion to date has been like the previous, they have all had a very unique feel, this is true for Mists of Pandaria as well. Mists of Pandaria will be on a continent which is largely based around Asian culture, this differs greatly from any previous expansions. BC was a very demonic setting, WotLK was in a cold and frigid Northland, and Cataclysm was set where the world was beginning to literally falling apart as can be seen in the landscapes. So we assure you that it will be different I think the only thing that will make me buy the expac would be no flying in the new zone. It's the only way to bring back PVP, I purposely rolled on a PVP realm for 1 reason, I want to skirmish WHEREVER and WHENEVER I want, not when I queue for a BG, that's what PVE realms are for. Well, we are taking several initiatives to try and bolster world PvP and bring it back to everyone! For one, we are not allowing flying in Pandaria until level 90. This means that there will be no people suddenly taking off into the skies when you approach them, unless they have reached the max level. We are re-introducing optional world bosses which players will fight each other for. There are also many more initiatives that are being taken so we hope that world PvP will once again be bustling with activity. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Rated Battlegrounds VS. The Blues [1/13/12] Greetings Combatants of the Glorious Alliance and the Merciless Horde! It is my great honor to invite you all to test your skills, steel, and sorcery against Blizzard employees such as myself (watch the face though, I got an image to maintain). So if a bit of You vs. Blue action sounds like your idea of a good time come on down to the 4.3.2 PTRs this Friday, January 13th. We'll be queuing for Rated Battlegrounds from 3pm-6pm PST, you'll know it's us from our [Blizzard Horde] & [Blizzard Alliance] guild names. Hope to see you on the fields of battle! (Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Cross Realm Raids and a Lack of Community Unfortunately, that opinion is very subjective. The continued popularity of the cross-realm LFD tool, and now the LFR, indicates that a great number of players are just fine with using it for quicker access, rather than attempting to group up with people on the same realm. Also, implying that every group in LFD/LFR is filled with people you'd gladly never group up with again is exaggerating the actual situation. There are many of us who use the tools a lot, and rarely experience this. Having said all that, the future BattleTag system will go a long way to improving the ability to build and maintain cross-realm friendships, eliminating the need to fill groups with as many 'randoms'. [...] We're always looking for feedback and ways to improve our features. Player feedback regarding dungeon groups and long wait-times contributed to the development of the dungeon finder tool in the first place. Now, in response to new feedback, BattleTags will address some of the issues players currently face when meeting potential friends on different realms. No, unfortunately some people don't always enjoy the groups they find themselves in through the Dungeon Finder. But do you believe limiting the pool of players to your own realm, or offering an incentive to manually search for your own group will solve this? Finishing a dungeon with a great group before the Dungeon Finder tool was available was indeed a fantastic experience, but I personally still get that feeling now when I'm grouped with a nice bunch of people. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Extra Character Slots There are on-going discussions about how we want to handle this issue. If I recall correctly, there were some ideas brought up at BlizzCon about what we could potentially do to alleviate the concerns about extra character slots, but I don't have any more information on a specific decision right now. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Heroic Leap Reliability Completely changing Heroic Leap so it works like shadowstep or (feral step) it would make it much more reliable and useful in PvP, and it could be used to jump up platforms and get back on targets like shadowstep does. This would actually be a step backwards in my eyes, the ability to choose the location you will land on Heroic Leap is a great offensive and defensive tool. I cannot count the number of times that Heroic Leap has saved my warrior from death by it being defensively, and on the other side, you can use it offensively gain ground on fleeing opponents or any of its many other applications. I feel that adding a targeting requirement would lower the manoeuvrability of the class and remove the unique feel given by this ability. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) Scroll of Resurrection Temporarily on Cooldown The Scroll of Resurrection will temporarily be unavailable while it goes on cooldown. As of January 11, 2012, you will no longer be able to send Scroll of Resurrection invites to your friends with lapsed accounts. Never fear, once this ability refreshes, we’ll let you know. Keep an eye on the official World of Warcraft site for more information. To learn more about the Scroll of Resurrection, visit the FAQ. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

4.3.2 and the Mature Language Filter Yes. I can confirm that we are fixing that issue in 4.3.2. You will see the note on it in the next update to the 4.3.2 PTR patch notes. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) WoW No Longer Compatible with Windows 2000 In preparation for the upcoming release of Mists of Pandaria, updates to World of Warcraft will no longer support Microsoft Windows 2000. Microsoft ceased support for this version of their operating system in 2010. Players still using Windows 2000 are encouraged to upgrade prior to the release of Mists of Pandaria. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) New Languages for Battle.net Mobile Authenticator We’ve just released updates for the iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™, and Windows™ Phone 7 versions of the free Battle.net Mobile Authenticator app. We now support the following additional languages:

• Português
• Italiano
• Polski

Visit this link to find out how to download the right version for your mobile device. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

General

• Killing a boss in a guild group while using the random Heroic Dungeon Finder should now award guild reputation and experience.
• Mobs that have been damaged by Shadowy Apparitions should again provide experience when defeated.
• Darkmoon Tonk and Darkmoon Zeppelin should no longer become a horde balloon after performing a faction change from Alliance to Horde.

Dungeons and Raids

• Hour of Twilight
  • Archbishop Benedictus
    • Thrall and Archbishop Benedictus should no longer fail to complete their roleplay introduction (preventing players from completing the instance).
• Well of Eternity
  • Mannoroth
    • Starting the Mannoroth encounter should no longer remove Stealth effects.
• Dragon Soul
  • Twilight Elite Dreadblades and Twilight Elite Slayers should now refrain from doing melee attacks while mounted, and always engage and melee players after landing on the gunship deck.
  • Ultraxion
    • All Fading Light debuffs and Aspect crystal buffs on players should now be cleared when the encounter ends.
  • The Madness of Deathwing
    • The Corrupted Parasite debuff is removed from a character who leaves the zone.

Events

• Darkmoon Faire
  • Players should now be able to complete the quests "The Captured Journal" and "The Enemy's Insignia" after having completed them in a previous month.

Items

• Vial of Shadows proc damage should now be increased by ranged attack power for hunters.
• Souldrinker and Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps no longer have a chance to proc twice for paladins with Seal of Truth active.
• Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth now invokes Speaking of Rage bonus damage that is treated as ranged damage and benefits from ranged critical strike chance.

Quests and Creatures

• Pelturas Whitemoon should no longer becomes unresponsive after a player completes the quest "All's Well".

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The first World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch of the year is in development and now available for testing on the Public Test Realms. This minor patch includes several updates that we were unable to apply via hotfixes, including the recently announced cross-realm raids, assorted class balance fixes, and more. If you'd like to help us test out this patch and provide feedback, you can start by copying your character over to a test realm. Once you've had a chance to try things out, be sure to visit our Public Test Realm forum to discuss the patch. 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.

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.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

A 64-bit client is now available for use with the 4.3.2 PTR. You can download it at the link below, unzip it into your PTR directory, and then run the executable to test it.

• The 64-bit client is being distributed separately from the PTR as it is not yet supported for use with World of Warcraft.
• This can only be used with the 4.3.2 PTR, it is not to be used with the live version of the game.
• A Mac version is not available yet, though we are working on one and plan for it to be available in the near future.
• The game’s built in voice chat does not currently work in the 64-bit client.

link If you encounter any issues while using the 64-bit version, please report your findings in the PTR bug report forum (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/2359401/), and return to using the 32-bit executable.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Account Wide Ignore This is something we'd like to add into the game in some capacity, particularly to compliment the upcoming BattleTag system. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) LFR Difficulty Too Low We actively encourage feedback on things such as the LFR, because we want to make it fun for everyone. Fun isn't wiping over and over because you have people in the group who are new to the raiding environment, or perhaps aren't up to speed on the latest tactics as you might expect from someone attending, say, an organised guild run. As we've said on numerous occasions, this is why we've designed LFR to be easier than normal raids, to enable a range of players — including less-experienced people or those with less-powerful gear — to see the content and gear up a little before perhaps trying it on normal, then later possibly heroic difficulty. However, feedback in the form of threads like this is not what we are looking for, nor does it tell us anything useful. If you find LFR lacks challenge to the point where you feel you can leave your computer during an encounter, I'd suggest, like others here have done, that you join a raid on normal or heroic difficulty, which should test your skills sufficiently. Insulting the people LFR is aimed at will not be tolerated. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) New Year, New Permanent Price Cuts! Great news for all Blizzard fans! From today, our latest games are available at retail and on the Blizzard Store at new, permanently low prices. You can now get Wrath of the Lich King for a mere €19.99 and Cataclysm for just €29.99. There’s never been a better time to grab the games you might have missed out on before. Just click here and celebrate the New Year by taking advantage of our new reduced prices. Still don´t have World of Warcraft? Now you can get the full game and all expansions for cheaper than ever before. Want to check out StarCraft II? If you haven’t yet taken advantage of our great new price for StarCraft II, you can click here to get yours right away! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)