World of Warcraft : warcraft

WoW 5-year Anniversary: Game Informer Interviews Jeff Kaplan

Kody — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:02:15 GMT

Game Informer recently had a chance to interview Jeff Kaplan to talk Warcraft in celebration of the 15-year Warcraft and 5-year World of Warcraft Anniversaries. The interview is a fun read with some great quotes from Kaplan, and sheds a lot of light on why early design decisions were made, as well as the process of evolving the game to what we play now.

I've included some of the more interesting pieces from the interview below. While many know Tigole was one of the first quest designers on the game, did you know there were only two originally, working on many of the early zones? We also get word from Tigole that there will be a cutscene included with patch 3.3, likely related to the defeat of Arthas. Beyond that, Hinterlands was originally planned to be an endgame classic zone, while Burning Steppes was geared for level 30s!

On Kaplan's role

GI: You're primary job with World of Warcraft was world design, right?

JK: That's correct. I actually joined the World of Warcraft team as one of the two first quest designers, specifically to create quest content and to design that system. The other quest designer was a really great Blizzard veteran by the name of Pat Nagel. He and I worked in collaboration with the lead designer to design the quest system and start making some of the first quest content.

As WOW progressed from there, I got very involved with all things PvE with the game. When it came to dungeons, I helped formulate the vision along with some of the other guys as to what our dungeon experience and raid experience might be like. I worked very closely with our creative director, Chris Metzen, who was sort of the keeper of the flame when it came to the lore of Warcraft. I tried to apply his vision in a game design sense to world design and world building. I was kind of a medium between Chris Metzen and our level designers and our environmental artists.

On storytelling in WoW becoming more important with each expansion

GI: One of the things that I've picked up on personally that's been improving with the expansions -- whether you're looking at quests or instances or raids or anything -- storytelling seems to be a more and more important factor with subsequent patches and expansions. This stands out to me, because very few other MMOs have managed to create captivating narrative content, but it seems like you guys are really striving for that and often succeeding in World of Warcraft. Is that something you expect to continue progressing in future World of Warcraft expansions and future Blizzard MMOs, or will narrative always take a backseat to the grind in MMOs?

JK: It's funny, because you said that narrative became more important, but I look at it a little bit differently. The story was always extremely important to us; I just don't think we did a good job of telling it early on. What happened over the years as World of Warcraft progressed is that we had this very seasoned development team. Guys like Chris Metzen, our creative director, were partnering with guys like Alex Afrasiabi, our lead world designer who headed up the quest team. We've got the most experienced quest team in the industry. These guys are masterminds now when it comes to telling a story. They're just much better at doing it than we ever were before.

They really wrapped their heads around the concept of letting the players experience the story first-hand rather than just trying to beat them over the head with text, which is something that's really important. In the early days, we did a lot of quests where we put a lot of time, heart, and soul into designing them. If you go back and look at the "Green Hills of Stranglethorn" quests, for example, there's a lot of text written, and there's actually quite a bit of story there, but the players don't absorb it, because they don't experience it themselves.

If you fast-forward to something like the Death Knight starting experience, our story-telling team has really mastered or refined the art of delivering the story as first-hand gameplay rather than spraying you with the word hose, which is what we did in the past.

On the use of cutscenes in World of Warcraft

GI: I would agree that the game has gotten much better at showing rather than telling, but Wrath of the Lich King also saw the introduction of cutscenes to the game. It's obviously much easier to tell the story in that, but you're also taking the player out of the game. Do you think that those will keep showing up future expansions as well? Is it something you'll use sparingly?

JK: Cutscenes will always be something that we use sparingly, yes. We never want to interrupt gameplay too frequently or for too long of a period of time. The Wrathgate cutscene was a big experiment for us. It was our first foray into in-game cutscenes in World of Warcraft. I don't think we've fully refined how we want cutscenes to work with future World of Warcraft content.

We debate like crazy. We debate the length, we debate the frequency, and we have a lot of theories, but Blizzard is a really iterative development house. I think what's going to have to happen is that you'll see more cutscenes come into the game for us to really refine our strategy with them. We definitely have an eye toward more cutscenes, but at the same time, we don't want to become just a cutscene game.

Even before Cataclysm, in patch 3.3, there's going to be a really exciting cutscene moment that's going to be our next experiment with that.

On the casual-vs-hardcore debate

GI: With the drop to 10-man or 25-man for all raids, another major change was the ability to run 5-man dungeons for badges that you can use to purchase equipment that would normally only drop from raids previously. These kinds of changes seem focused on appealing to more casual players, but I know that some hardcore players complain about them. How do you strike that balance in the Warcraft community between pleasing the hardcore fans but still making things accessible?

JK: It's not even just a casual versus hardcore thing. It's a play style choice. There are some players who just never want to experience the large raids. They're not interested in hanging out with 25 players online. Some of those are very skilled, very hardcore players who play the game more than people who play 25-person raids. Between PvE and PvP, we have these separate paths to the end-game for people to pursue. The same goes for within a game type.

If you take PvE, we have to make sure that five-person groups or solo people or 10-person groups or 25-person groups, that everyone has access to really good gear and progression that they feel good about. We don't want them to feel like Blizzard is only validating one way to play. What we like to remind the hardest of the hardcore 25-person raid groups is that at the end of the day, when it comes to the best of slot items, you're still the only people with it. Just because we're doing a bit of catch-up for everyone else doesn't mean that we're diminishing your accomplishments at all.

I think amongst the players, they also recognize the elite titles and Achievements that those hardcore players are earning. Being a former very hardcore raider from EverQuest, I understand that mentality. The thing those players want most is to attain something that nobody else has, which is sort of an interesting paradox in a game with an 11.5 million player base.

Check out the full interview by heading over to the Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on Warcraft's Past And Future article on Game Informer.

Plans Beyond Northrend Confirmed

Zyuu — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:09:46 GMT

Not that many (did you?!) believed the silly rumors that kept saying how Wrath of the Lich King would be Blizzard's final expansion for World of Warcraft… but, it doesn't hurt to hear it from one of the Lead Designer's just to feel completely reassured.

Some fun facts about expansions and MMOs is that the old school game EverQuest is still releasing expansions and they're up to 14 expansions so far, with a new one planned for October the 21^st.Now, EQ had at its peak somewhere around 700,000 subscribers, while WoW has above 10,000,000. It's not exactly rocket science to understand that we're going to see tons of expansions for WoW.

Question is what's next after Northrend. My guess is Emerald Dream. There are many other speculations as well, but I'm rooting for Emerald Dream, since it has huge potential and I love the lore behind it. Sure, Maelstrom or Undermine has enormous potential as well.Either way, it's likely that we won't hear anything about this for some time.

“We actually already have ideas on how we’re going to expand on that in the future,” Chilton told us when asked if more land was going to be added to the game...[a lot of] the major landmasses that we talked about heavily in previous WarCraft game have already come to fruition, although there are still areas of the game that we’ve talked about and set up story-wise that we haven’t revealed yet. So there’s definitely more to go.”

-- Tom Chilton, Lead Designer

It's actually quite amusing to read posts by some players saying that since Arthas is such a powerful adversary, Wrath of the Lich King should be the last expansion until WarCraft 4 or World of Warcraft 2. What those people do not realize is how MMOs tend to bend the lore and always aim to expand. MMOs have no final boss or a "THE END" type of ending.It's one of the main selling points and also why we pay a monthly fee.

Sure, many are new to MMOs and it will take them awhile to understand how they work, but even trying to speculate or thinking along those lines will only end up in disappointment. Luckily the majority – including me – are happy to know that WoW will expand over and over. Perhaps within two-three years from now, we'll be having Emerald Dream, Undermine and The Maelstrom?Highly possible and most likely there will be even more due to the free content patches in between as well.

Upcoming Paladin Changes

Zyuu — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:10:01 GMT

Ghostcrawler, an employee of Blizzard Entertainment has posted interesting information and in-depth details surrounding upcoming changes to the Paladin class.

I understand that you feel that you've gotten the shaft, that the implementation of the paladin doesn't meet your vision for the class or perhaps what you even feel Blizzard originally promised in the class. I get that. I hear you. Saying it 100 times doesn't make it any louder.

Here are some things we are looking at right now. You may not agree with them all, but I will share them with you in the hopes of making you feel better about your class, and maybe even getting you excited again. I also can't promise they are final because it's still the sort of thing we're wrestling with, and I don't want to disappoint anyone if it doesn't work out or we change our minds. Okay, massive caveats out of the way:

-- We'd like to do something else with Kings. I don't know that a core ability is the answer, but burying it deep in Prot, when Prot warriors would just as soon play with BoSanc, doesn't feel great either.
-- We'd like to mess around with the top 2 tiers of all 3 trees, still encouraging you to cross-spec a little, but making that initial bite into the upper tier more tasty instead of just an icky appetizer to get the what you really want down deeper.
-- I think Beacon of Light is starting to feel pretty good. It may be a little OP right now, but I think we can get it in a good place. (I'm sorry, but I don't know if you have the version I'm talking about or not.)
-- We'd like to get Vengeance back to 3 stacks, because that just feels more fun than 2. I can almost assure you that it won't be at 15% total damage -- that is hugely generous for 5 talent points, and would normally be budgeted at more like 15 talent points. If I had to guess, it will end up at something like 3 talent points for 1 / 2 / 3% that stacks up to 3 times (so 9% at 3 stacks). That is still over-inflated for 3 talent points. I understand that your dps used to depend on Vengeance. We'll just have to buff it in other ways. Death Knights will get the exact same treatment, whatever it ends up being.
-- JotW was changed to support the new party buff system and it needs to keep that role. That is one of the main reasons why a group would want to take a Ret pally over another dps class. I understand your mana was dependent on this ability. We'll just have to buff that in other ways as well. Having too many talents that just lower mana costs feel like a band-aid, so we'd rather not overdo that route. Instead we'd just like to make sure you have enough mana. The new Divine Plea is one mechanic here (it works more like Blood Rage than Evocate now), but it's not the only one.
-- Deep Ret and deep Prot need 1 or 2 more cool talents. We'll carve out room by bundling or just swapping out some of the current talents.

I hope you take this little view into our current thought process in the spirit that it's given. Sometimes we regret talking about stuff that isn't final because it ends up coming back to bite us. But I also thought it wouldn't hurt to cheer you up a little either, so hopefully something I've said will do that.

Anyone else having concerns about the direction they are taking the Paladin class?

Latest Blue Posts

Zyuu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:10:45 GMT

The very latest of blue Blizzard posts can be found below!

Storm Peaks & Icecrown situation
Storm Peaks is crashing because of an Art/Engine related bug. There is no way we can hotfix Storm Peaks. We'll need to patch to fix it . (src)
Those zones were also causing issues. Unfortunately, we can't hotfix those areas so you'll have to wait until the next patch for them to be available. (src)

Naxxramas 25-man loot
Next major beta patch will have the 25 player loot drop. (src)

Tigole on Naxxramas and Raid difficulty
We expect Naxx to be the easiest raid dungeon in WotLK. If experienced Sunwell guilds were repeatedly wiping, the dungeon would be overtuned. The raid game will ramp up over time. There will be many extremely difficult encounters for people to face. But the early bosses in Naxx are intended to be beatable very early on.
The 10's will get hard too. It's not a casual/hardcore thing. It's more about ramping difficulty and progression. (src)

How the class changes are done?
We have spreadsheets -- huge ones. We have values for characters in greens and raid buffed with epic gear. We have estimates of mob damage and health, character downtime, the benefits from enchants, gems and glyphs. We have conversion rates of mana to runic power to energy to rage. We look at damage per second, efficiency, button presses per second, typical rotations, movement vs. standing still, mobs vs. players and every other variable we can think of (and there are a LOT of them).

In the end we come up with an estimate for what an attack should do. We come up with a budget for talents and spells just like we have a budget for items at a given level. Sometimes those estimates are wrong because we forgot to take something into account, or because there's a bug in a talent or spell somewhere that messes up the calculation.

And then we do lots of testing, and to get a reality check on our tests, we compare them to the numbers people are reporting from the beta. Repeat as necessary.

I've said this in a few posts: that our numbers can sometimes be wrong (as is the case almost any time you deal with numbers), but the methods we use to arrive at them are absolutely not sloppy. (src)

Exploration & Quest Achievements
Lost Lands (Sholozar Basin) and Balargarde (Icecrown) will be fixed in an upcoming patch. We'll try to see what's happening with Nagrand Slam (Quest). (src)

Fishing Achievements
Old Ironjaw and Old Crafty are now their own achievements. They are also removed from the One That Didn't Get Away achievement. Also, they will give retro-credit so long as you kept your fish.
Regarding giving retro-credit for The Fishing Diplomat, unfortunately, this cannot be done.
Moonglow Cuttlefish School doesn't exist in Northrend yet. The schools will be added or else the criteria will be removed from the achievement. (src)

Achievements - Cenarion faction title changed
Friend of Cenarius will be changed to Guardian of Cenarius. (src)

Achievements - 3000 Quests title changed
Ok. It's now the Seeker. (src)

Bug with achievement comparisions
A bunch of compare bug fixes are on the way in the next patch. (src)

Druid
Druid form customization and glyphs
We definitely like the idea of druid form customization. Frankly, it's been too long coming. We're not 100% certain glyphs are the best way to handle that. It's definitely a topic that is under discussion, so feedback on the topic is appreciated. (src)

Raid Tanking and itemization
We want druids to be able to MT Naxx and Ulduar.

I really don't think they're that far off, but if I'm wrong and bears collapse on Patchwerk, we'll change the numbers until they can stand up. We'll try to change the numbers in intelligent ways so that bears are tanking Arthas too and not standing in the back healing the warrior tank.

Likewise, if cat dps is always near the bottom of the dps damage meters, we'll fix that too.

There isn't any actual armor with bonus armor any longer. It was just too problematic a stat. It does still exist on non armor pieces: the rings, necks and maybe cloaks. The way the game is designed, tanks need a certain amount of armor and we'll make sure you have it without having to resort to PvP gear or Sunwell gear. As I have said before, we can boost the bear intrinsic bonus or Thick Hide or come up with a new scalar off existing stats. This feels like a solvable problem to me.

Personally, I would love to be able to get rid of Feral Attack Power as a stat. It feels a little kludgey and it makes itemization harder because you can't share with anyone else in the game. It's like having a libram for your main weapon. But it's not going to happen for Wrath, at least not initially. (src)

Hunter
Pet hit points
How easy or hard it is to kill the pet is a very important dial to get tuned right. We're trying to figure out if pet hit points are high enough. (src)

Pet dismissal in stable
This is in the plan. It may not be available right at release, however. (src)

Rogue
Assassination Tree Feedback
Just wanted to make one comment on bloat. Having plenty of talents that you want put can't get is good for the trees. Also, some trees just have a lot of talents in them because they're trying to offer some very different options, while others are quite small.

What we do want to avoid, however, is a situation where there are so many "mandatory" talents that you end up not being able to pick up the fun talents. Mandatory talents are typically those that offer passive buffs to dps or efficiency that nobody in their right mind would skip over. We're fine having some of those, but having too many can tend to push builds more towards being cookie cutters.

We realize your trees are in a big of flux, which makes it hard to comment, but on the other hand, we're in a really good position right now to make adjustments to the trees. (src)

Shaman
Thunderstorm knock up range
Not exactly intended. It's still supposed to have relatively the same knock back distance, just we toned down the knock "up" effect. Should be fixed in the next build. (src)

Warrior
About the Arms tree
Arms is definitely something on our radar. The other two trees are getting a lot closer. Arms now has some self-healing like Fury, and the Overpower changes are in the right direction. We just need to smooth out some rough spots and try to make the whole thing gel. (src)

Tanking in WotLK
I've tried to answer some of these questions in a few other threads, but I'll try and answer how AE tanking will be easier. Keep in mind that I know my version of the data which is often a week or more out of sync with your build.

1) Defensive Stance generates more threat than on Live. Essentially it has Salv built in.
2) Rank 9 Thunder Clap hits for a base 300 damage with a 12% attack power coefficient.
3) Thunder Clap is also heavily buffed by one old and one new talent that many (but not all) tanks will have.
4) Your AP will be higher because tanking gear has a lot of AP and because of the way Strength boosts Block, you're just going to want more.
5) Because you have more AP, you're hitting harder, so you should be rage starved much less in 5-player instances. So you can use Tclap when it's up.
6) Thunder Clap has a 6 sec cooldown, so you don't need to spam it.
7) There is a glyph to increase Tclap's number of targets, and while I expect many tanks will have it, we also don't want to rely too much on glyphs to fix problems with a class. So consider this a very minor component, but I did want to mention it.

When you pull (with your helpful new pulling ability) and then Thunder Clap, you are going to generate so much treat that you're going to have time to position the mobs, Cleave or Sunder them or otherwise get ready for the next big Thunder Clap. This is a big difference from Live, where Thunder Clap often barely keeps you above the threat of the rest of the group and you're begging for enough rage to use it again. (src)

Defensive Stance/Thunder Clap threat
On the issue of Defensive Stance threat...

Earlier in the beta, we removed the Defiance talent. It was a mandatory talent since encounters were designed around the very safe assumption that all Prot warriors had it. So Defensive Stance ended up generating more threat.

More recently in the beta, we did a similar thing with Salv. We pulled Salv as a blessing some time ago, so we baked even more threat into Defensive Stance (and equivalents for other tanks).

If this makes it easier to understand, imagine that everyone except the tank always has Perma Salv up and every tank has Defiance as a core ability.

On the issue of Thunder Clap threat...

Yes, the damage is 300 now. We wanted to buff damage by 50% to make up for the cooldown increasing. Having to hit it less often for a bigger effect is a good way to remove spam. It does do 75% threat (it was 150% on Live IIRC) and has an AP coefficient of 12%. Talented and glyphed, this makes it a crazy good ability... possibly too good, but we'll see. (src)

Protection Warriors in PvP
We even threw in Charge in Berserker Stance too. Maybe that will help when you aren't tanking.

We still might need to adjust the talent depending on the outcome. When we say we don't want Charge to be part of a tank's rotation, we mean that we don't want to see the normal way to tank a boss to be backup (or Intervene) then Charge back in over and over to proc a stun and get some rage. It's totally cool to use it to get around the battlefield on short notice, but we don't want the backup and Charge thing to be mandatory. It may not be, since mobs tend to follow the tank and the min range is large, but you guys are clever and we just need to see it action some first.

I don't want to totally derail this thread with a discussion of the role of Mortal Strike in PvP (which is ironic, since it would actually be a re-rail). However, the plan for now is not to have an MS-like effect in Prot.

On the one hand, we have given it out to other classes, and perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, classes lacking the debuff can struggle in Arena. On the other hand, if half or more of the specs in the game get something like MS, you are just going to exist in Arenas in a state of permanent healing debuff, in which case we should just make that an aura on entering Arena and be done with it.

We'll probably continue to evolve our views on the role of Mortal Strike. It's very much a work in progress and I'm almost certain this is not the final word on the subject. (src)

Death Knight
Unholy Blight Rank 2 Temporarily disabled
Due to a server crash, we had to disable this spell. You'll still see it in your spellbook and be able to cast it. But it will do nothing. We'll try to get the spell restored ASAP. Thanks for bearing with us. (src)

Runeforging
We have neglected this ability for a few weeks and it's time to get it back into shape. There have been a few good posts on the topic, and I am inviting you to add more feedback to this thread. At this point we are not as interested in ideas to completely overhaul the system (though if they're really, really good, I'll listen to anything). But specifics on the actual enchants would be useful. (src)

Major Death Knight Quest Change
With the new patch, you HAVE to go back and finish your quests in the death knight starting area if you want to be able to interact with vendors or NPCs in Stormwind or Orgrimmar. If any of you have been to those cities, you'll know what I mean. Eventually, death knights will experience the full quest chain before wandering out into the rest of the world. So for beta, pretend I have a big old ! over my head and I'm telling you to go back to Ebon Hold. (src)

Death knight dual wield vs. two-hander
The design is that the death knight can dual-wield or use a two-hander. I know not everyone agrees with that design, and you are certainly welcome to debate it in this thread. My suspicion is that most DKs will use the larger weapons, since a certain famous rune weapon is a two-hander, and just because it fits the kit for a lot of people. But we aren't trying to specifically punish or promote one-handed weapons either.

The design is that neither wins out and becomes the obvious choice. We are trying to do that in part because it's so rare. All rogues DW, but no paladin does. All Fury warriors DW, but no Arms warrior does. We have sprinkled the trees with talents that benefit one system or the other. Typically, dual wielding eventually wins out, damage-wise, over two-hander use. As such we can't promote DW too much or it will dominate.

Tanking is a special concern. It is NOT the design that all death knights dual-wield when tanking. There is probably a slight motivation to do so because faster swings can be useful for generating early threat, and because you can stack mitigation by choosing two tanking weapons, which are all one-handed. Working against that is the parry counterattack of most bosses, which works against dual-wielding. We do have some knobs to turn here, such as making the parry rune enchant benefit two-handed style more than one-handed style. This is something we are going to keep a very close eye on. Again, the design is that both styles are equally useful. (src)

Abilities scaling off of diseases
We think that many of the abilities that scale off of diseases scale too well off those diseases. While it's a perk of Unholy to have 4 diseases, we don't want every DK ability to be doing double damage for Unholy because 4 > 2. We will probably adjust the numbers a little so that having diseases up still matters a lot, but a little less than it is currently. (src)

Death Knight balance adjustments
If that sounds like too much of a euphamism, you could also go with nerf bat.

We have started our big numbers pass on all classes, and as many of you suspected, the death knight's damage was much too high in some situations. For comparison, their sustained dps could be 30% higher than a rogue of similar gear and skill. That's a lot. Remember, a death knight can pack 5 or 6 abilities into a 10-second window. They hit often, like a rogue, but for much bigger numbers.*

I don't want to freak anyone out, which is probably inevitable with a post of this nature, but I also didn't anyone to be unduly shocked if a new build goes out soon.

We need to get more feedback on the death knight talent trees, rotations and abilities, and to some extent that wasn't happening because opponents were dying too fast, or perhaps just because five digit crits are too distracting. We also need to get the game closer to a shippable state, which means making sure the dps of various classes at various levels of gear is more in line. I'm sorry, but from all our tests and number-crunching, DK dps was not in line. I also suspect they aren't the only class in that situation.

If we nerfed DK dps too much, then rest assured, we'll improve it. By many accounts, the class is a pretty fun one to play, and we're not about to let our first new class get largely ignored just because its dps (or tanking for that matter) aren't competitve. As always, feedback on the changes are useful, but try not to fret too much. :)

Yes, I expect many of you can cite examples where you saw another class one shot an entire group of elites. Those classes are getting adjusted too.

* - there is an expectation that a guy with a giant runeblade should be hitting for really big numbers. An alternative is to keep the Mortal Strike-like crits, but slow down the frequency that they can use those hits. I'm not sure slower rune coolups or expensive abilities would be as fun as the current implementation but it is something we could consider. Another alternative is to nerf DK white damage in order to keep the big numbers, but changing white damage can do very strange things to classes, so we'd prefer to try other routes first. (src)

Death Knight DPS
1. Whereabouts is DK damage intended to fall between other classes? It has been speculated it is between a Ret Palidan and an Arms Warrior. Is this true?
2. Are all 3 Specs (Blood, Frost, Unholy) intended to do the same baseline damage? I.E. Speccing for DPS in any of the trees should be roughly the same its just the ‘flavour’ that changes.
1) Who should do what damage in what order is a very touchy subject that ends up causing a lot of arguments. Furthermore the blue quotes tend to get used, often out of context, as a hammer to bust up a lot of discussions about class balance. It's probably easiest if I just say that among the dps classes in a raid, none should be double any of the others, and ideally nobody is 50% ahead of anyone else. The design of LK, even more so than BC, is that the different dps specs are very close in potential. Also remember when you are looking at any data parse that you need to keep in mind the skill of the player and the specific encounter. One of the challenges with the DK is there are no players who have been playing them for 3 years to know all the nuances of the character. As a rhetorical question, we ask ourselves: do we design them to be slightly weaker knowing they will get better and better over time?
2) Overall, Blood, Frost and Unholy should do the same damage. Because of the kinds of damage they do, it probably won't even out on any single fight, but overall that's the goal. We don't look at numbers and say, oh well Frost is supposed to do 10% less dps. (src)

Upcoming Racial Ability Changes

Zyuu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:56:24 GMT

If you missed the most important blue post last week, this is the one. Many upcoming changes to the racial abilities will occur with the release of Wrath of the Lich King.

Quote from: Kalgan (Source)

Changes that should be in the next beta push. Bear in mind that some of these may change somewhat or entirely, and there may also be other changes coming in subsequent pushes:

Orc
- Hardiness now reduces the duration of stun effects by 15%

Troll
- Racial Passive "The Voodoo Shuffle": Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%. Trolls be flippin' out mon!
- Berserking: no longer has an activation cost of energy/rage/etc

Draenei
- Gift of the Naaru: The amount healed is increased based on the caster's Spell Power or Attack Power, whichever is higher. This ability does not lose casting time from taking damage.
- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%

Dwarf
- Frost Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Frost spells by 2%
- Racial Passive "Mace Specialization": Expertise with Maces and Two-Handed Maces increased by 5.

Undead
- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 1% (yes, this is lower than the other resistance racials)
- Will of the Forsaken: removes any fear, sleep, or charm effect (no longer has a lasting immunity).

Night Elf
- Quickness: reduces the chance to be hit by melee or ranged attacks by 2%
- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 3%

Tauren
- Endurance: now scales based on base health, to be tuned to approximately a 5% heath increase if the player were wearing green quality gear
- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 2%

Gnome
- Escape Artist: the freeing effect can no longer be resisted
- Arcane Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Arcane spells by 2%

Blood Elf
- Mana Tap: ability removed (partially integrated into Arcane Torrent)
- Arcane Torrent: restores 15 energy, 15 runic power, or 6% of mana to the Blood Elf (along with the current 2s silence effect)
- Magic Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2%

Human
- Perception: changed to a passive, now grants one character level of passive stealth detection
- Racial "The Fall of Humanity": Feign death which may trick enemies into ignoring you. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect. 5min cooldown
- Racial Passive "Human Supremacy": The dominance of Humanity is evidenced by having one more racial bonus than normal. Actually, make that two counting this one. (just a tooltip, no actual functionality)
- The Human Spirit: spirit bonus lowered to 5%

Note: this is a list of changes/additions, not an exhaustive list of all abilities. Racial abilities not mentioned here haven't changed (or are ones I forgot to put on this list).

WotLK -- More Naxxramas 10-man loot

Zyuu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:47:59 GMT

Check out several new items that dropped for players yesterday/today. Also check out the Naxxramas 10-man loot compendium (that list will get a facelift today) if you haven't yet.

Weapons: Kel'Thuzad's Reach (MH Fist), Wand of the Archlich (Wand), Staff of the Plaguehound (Feral Staff), Anarchy (1H Dagger), Infection Repulser (MH Mace), Hammer of the Astral Plane (MH Mace), Nerubian Conquerer (Gun)
Ring: Circle of Life (Caster)
Cloaks: Cloak of the Dying (Spell), Cloak of Mastery (Physical DPS)
Cloth: Cowl of Sheet Lightning (Head), Leggings of Sapphiron (Legs), Miasma Mantle (Shoulders), Sullen Cloth Boots (Feet), Cowl of Winged Fear (Head)
Leather: Contagion Gloves (Hands), Blistered Belt of Decay (Waist), Putrescent Bands (Wrist)
Mail: Retcher's Shoulderpads (Shoulders), Bands of Anxiety (Wrist), Arc Scorched Helmet (Head)
Plate: Helm of the Unsubmissive (DPS Head), Thane's Tainted Greathelm (Tank Head), Blackened Legplates of Feugen (Spell Legs), Legplates of Inescapable Death (Tank Legs), Leggings of Innumerable Barbs (DPS Legs), Massive Skeletal Ribcage (Tank Chest), Abomination Shoulderblades (Tank Shoulders)

Daily Blue Posts, 3v3 PvP Finals and more

Zyuu — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:13:08 GMT

60-70 XP changes confirmed for patch

'Confirmed. (src)

'Achievements - Removal of the titles for the Realm First Feats of Strength
We've decided to remove the titles for the Realm First Feats of Strength that are associated with reaching level 80. We've also removed the titles associated with the Realm First Feats of Strength associated with gaining 450 skill in the professions and secondary skill. Lastly, we've removed the title associated with Realm First to accomplish the Northrend Vanguard achievement.

Realm First boss kill achievements will still grant a title.

As a side note, Beta characters will retain their titles or end up displaying a broken title. This won't carry over to the live realms but it is merely a symptom of removing these titles from the game. If we were to do another wipe of the achievement system, the Beta titles would go away. (src)

Raid Beta Testing
Well there will be raid beta testing in the Beta, but don't forget the upcoming PTR will allow even more testing prior to changes being made live. (src)

Death Knight
Blood Tanking
A Blood knight can heal herself really well and Vampiric Blood lets the healers heal you a lot too.

I think when the damage among the 3 trees is more normalized, the threat will be too. It's possible Frost or Unholy is better for mitigation, but if so, I would expect the difference to be pretty marginal over the long haul and possibly even depending on the boss. (src)

Druid
There are a lot of huge changes in the expansion though. Warrior tanks are worried they won't be useful anymore because their big niche (surviving crushing blows) was given to all tanks. Paladin tanks are concerned because better AE threat is being given to all tanks. Death knight tanks are worried that they are going to get nerfed because of the damage they're doing. Druids are worried that they won't have the armor they are used to, and might be inferior tanks because of it. Almost every class is worried that their unique raid buff won't gaurantee them a spot in the raid any longer. We're worried about pulling it all off. :)

Druids have talents like Thick Hide, Natural Reaction, Mother Bear and Survival of the Fittest in part to make up for the fact they aren't wearing plate, parrying or blocking. Is that enough mitigation to make them just as good end-game tanks as the other three tanking classes? We don't know yet. We haven't finished our testing and nobody on beta is in Naxx yet. If Bears are getting clobbered or their healers are running out of mana trying to keep them up, we'll fix it. (src)

Paladin
Retribution Talent Tree Feedback
We are about ready to do our next major pass on the Paladin trees.

Ret Pallies, it's your turn.

Please try and focus your feedback on talents. Which ones work and which ones don't? For talents you don't like, try and separate out whether the numbers are just off or if it's a mechanic you just don't need.

We're cool discussing holes in your class (e.g. mana issues or interrupts), but let's try and stay away from direct comparisons to other classes for purposes of this discussion. These threads tend to get long, so it would be helpful not to have a dozen pages debating whether Ret dps is currently too high or low compared to death knights. (src)

Protection Talent Tree Feedback
We are about ready to do our next major pass on the Paladin trees.

We think Prot does have too many mandatory talents, and too many talents that offer passive mitigation without other interesting mechanics or even dps. This thread is a great opportunity to discuss the tree and offer your feedback.

For purposes of this thread, the kinds of feedback that are useful:
-- Which talents are fun vs. which ones aren't
-- Areas in the tree that tie up too many talent points vs. areas that feel barren
-- Talents that feel mandatory vs. talents that feel fun but optional vs. talents you'd never get

For purposes of this thread, we are less interested in:
-- Mitigation and threat capabilities of the paladin vs. other tanks (we'll get to that)
-- Holy and Retribution (we'll get to that)
-- Mana, dps, interrupts or other paladin issues (we'll get to that)
-- Whether it's a good goal for Prot to be viable at healing, dps or PvP. (It's helpful to mention when talents might fit these roles, but let's not use this particular thread for a debate on whether Prot should be at all decent in PvP.)
-- Questions about other topics, pleas to visit other forums or catty arguments

Rest assured this is not our only avenue for collecting feedback. We do talk to experienced and beginner tanks alike as well as drawing on our own internal resources to make decisions. (src)

Warrior
Protection Tree and PvP
As I said before, whether Protection shoud be viable for PvP is controversial. People on the extreme of both sides of the debate should be able to see pretty clearly that there are plenty of others who don't see their point of view. It's not an argument that is going to be won by debate, consensus or vote.

As I've also said, there are some things we want to do with Prot to improve it. We could make a very fat, very boring tree with 30 talents that promise excellent passive mitigation. I don't think that's going to make warriors any more fun to play. Here's what we'd like to do instead:

Add some more fun abilities to the tree. Warbringer is one such ability. It may not be something everyone will use, and honestly, we're cool with that. Some talents should be optional. We also know some tanks, even hardcore endgame ones are excited about the ability. As a tank it could be a good source of rage (Yes, we know you lose all your rage when stance dancing -- the design of Warbringer is not that you stupidly lose all your rage when you change to Battle Stance and then say oops.) It could also help your mobility on fights where you need to zip around a lot to put out fires -- that's part of tanking too. It's not all sitting there and getting hit by Brutallus.

To make room for some of those abilities, you have to have some options. The classic tanking build from BC doesn't leave you a lot of free talents. We need to combine a few mitigation talents together to buy you some space. Also, must haves like Imp Heroic Strike and Imp Thunder Clap may not be must haves anymore, because...

We're buffing Prot's dps. A lot. This is going to help with threat, and will make doing dps with a prot build (whether as OT, MT, leveling or doing daily quests) more fun. A lot of abilities that do +threat now are going to be doing +damage instead. You are going to see crits from Thunder Clap and Conc Blow that might blow your mind. You're going to hit Thunder Clap and have mobs stick to you long enough for you to use some other abilities. Oh and If you haven't tried Retaliation while tanking yet, it rules. For those who never got to enjoy the joys of Shield Slam with crazy +block, you'll soon get to.

Warriors lost a very comfortable tanking niche with the removal of crushing blows. We need to make sure there are still good reasons to take a Prot warrior. Vigilance and Safeguard are good starts there, but we're also looking at buffing signature abilities like Spell Reflect. A lot of the recent changes were intended as buffs, not nerfs. We'll get you your Expertise back. We'll get you your cheap Devastates back.

As we start to get the talent trees in better shape, we're going to be able to get a better handle on the state of balance. Simultaneously, people in the beta will start venturing into heroics and Naxx. This will start to give us some data for the first time on whether L80 Prot warrior threat or mitigation is too low compared to other classes. If it is, we'll fix it.

I mention that because we designed Vigilance not as a band-aid to fix Prot warrior threat (because we don't know if it's too high or low yet) but because we thought it would be fun. Use it on that reckless warlock who likes to pull aggro and you turn a weakness into a strength. Use it on your fragile healer and you can, yanno, actually *protect* them. Instead of having to say "Please wait for 3 Sunders before you attack" maybe people will say "That tank has Vigilance -- no way you'll pull off him."

We're not done with the trees yet. We still welcome your feedback on these concepts and abilities, but all this rerolling talk is quite premature... and almost always is. (src)

Warrior Tanking Q/A
Please explain to me why I have to spec into arms (43/5/23) to attain more threat generation than a full prot spec on beta:
Because we haven't done the numbers yet. But that's still a useful data point to know. It might even be okay if non-tanking specs can generate a lot of threat (heck, hunters do it), so long as they also don't have high mitigation.

Simply put, we bring nothing to a raid. Nothing, no buffs, no debuffs that can't be applied by someone else.
That is pretty much the point. No class brings anything so unique that you want them to come at the expense of others. You should earn your raid spot because you know how to tank and have some decent gear and a guild who can back you up. Maybe you're a great leader or maybe you don't argue. Maybe you've got a great sense of humor or are a good guild recruiter. All of those are better reasons to get into a group IMHO than because your buff is a unique snowflake. Quite honestly I'd rather raid with my friends than some jerk who has the perfect buff. And I really don't want to send one of my friends off to reroll a level 1 dude because we both happened to choose rogues at first level six months ago and now our group is suffering for want of a buff. If you can tank, you'll get into raids.

What they'll do is say "Ok, aside from tanking, what do they bring to the table?"
In my experience, what they do is say "This dude knows his class backwards and forwards," or "This dude has a new epic shield," or "This dude is a consistent player who won't leave us in a lurch on Thursday." But for the sake of argument, let's continue.

The druid steps forward and says "I have Battle Res, possibly the best ability in game for guilds when it comes to learning new content. I can also innervate, and I'm really good at switching to dps when I don't have to tank. If we ever get to an extreme fight that requires a lot of healers, I can respec if we need it."
The Prot warrior should also be able to switch to dps, and they come with Battle Shout and Commanding Shout, two very solid buffs. No, they can't heal.

The Paladin steps forward and says "I can cover one of your 3-4 primary Paladin Blessings. I'm still the best AoE tank for large pulls, like those spiders you see scampering around down there. I have many auras which are useful to stack in the raid, I have wipe prevention in the form of DI, and I have plenty of other tricks like BoP or BoF, or Lay Hands. Oh, and I can respec healing too if the raid really needs it for a fight."
If the paladin is so much better at AE that you take him instead of a warrior, then we have a problem. Yes, pallys are able to heal. That part is totally valid.

The Death Knight steps forward and says "I know I'm new, but I'm the WotLK favored child and you know it. I'm the best Magic boss tank, and you know there'll be fights tailored to me. And I bring just as many tricks as the Paladin, only mine are cooler cause they involve ghouls and exploding corpses."
Again, the "best Magic boss" shouldn't be to the extent that you call the raid when she can't come. There will be no fights tailored to a particular class. Sorry. Believe me, we don't have to come up with a gimmick to encourage death knight raiders. Northrend is infested with them already. Ghouls are cool though.

The Prot Warrior steps forward and says "I can Disarm...some mobs, not quite sure yet if it'll hit bosses and how many. And there's an ability that let's me put a buff like Pain suppression on people, which..maybe will come in handy, depending on the bosses we find? And I have a single-target 10% threat reducer."
You Sunder, you Demo Shout, Battle Shout, Challenging Shout. You might Piercing Howl depending on the encounter. You Execute. You Intervene. See where I'm going...? If you are really winning or losing fights based on whether your tank can Innervate, then we've probably made the content too challenging. The difference in skill (or gear) between a potential warrior and druid tank should have a much bigger effect on the outcome.

The situations we've had before have been more like "The paladin can tank all of Heroic Shattered Halls with no CC" or "The druid can do nearly double your dps while tanking" or "The warrior can achieve passive crushing immunity and has the only ability that can handle Shear." Those are egregious barriers to having 4 viable tanking classes, which is why we're trying to fix them. (src)

North American/European Warcraft Finals

Quote from: Nebu (Source)

The 2008 North American and European Warcraft Finals will be taking place this weekend, September 6-7, in Boston, Massachusetts, and Madrid, Spain. These events will feature the top eight qualifiers from the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena and Warcraft III tournaments for their respective regions. Attendees will also have the opportunity to try out demos of Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II on-site. Admission is free, so come by and check it out if you're in the area.

For full details on each event, please visit the tournament page.

EU - Blizzard Authenticator Availability

Quote from: Vaneras (Source)

Just a small update for you guys. The Blizzard Authenticator should be available for purchase again in a few weeks.

Threat Meter, Inscription, Training Dummies

Zyuu — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:12:10 GMT

Threat meter

A new builtin threat meter frame has been discovered recently. By typing

/console showThreatMeter 1
/script function IsThreatWarningEnabled() return 1; end

into the console, a familiar threat meter is added to the user interface when needed, which shows colored bars under the name of the currently targeted enemy. The bars are colored as one would expect it, red for the aggroholder, and grey to orange shades for partymembers. Currently the bars don't change their length and there are other bugs, too.

Inscription

A few days ago we wrote about Inscription in general. Today we have another update on the unlock of glyph slots. Now we know at what level, what type of glyph slots are accessible.

level 15 unlocks 1 Major and 1 Minor glyph slot
level 30 unlocks the 2nd Minor
level 45 unlocks the 2nd Major
level 60 unlocks 1 Major and 1 Minor
Glyph Mastery - an Inscription only skill unlocks a 7th slot, currently unknown what skill level or what type of glyph

That means a Death Knight starts with 2 Major and 2 Minor slots.

Training Dummies

That's something we forgot mention in our previous build 8885 coverages, but Blizzard added training dummies to the game, you can find some of them in the sewers of Dalaran, thanks to them players can run DPS benchmarks and else. The newly added training dummies are really popular and they are getting an update in the next build:

Quote from: Kalgan (Source)

In an upcoming update one of the dummies will be level 80 with normal lvl 80 mob stats, the other will be a "boss" dummy with normal lvl 80 boss mob stats.

The Gun'drak Mystery

Zyuu — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:39:07 GMT

With the addition of Gun'drak, Akali's platform in Zul'drak has been upgraded. He is still chained and tortured by the Prophet of Akali to gain powers to fight the Scourge, but the platform itself is now see-through.

After exploring the dungeon, it is clear, that Akali's platform offers a peak into the central part of the instance. The level 76-78 instance has 2 separate entrances close to this platform, both starts by taking players down below the surface using an elevator. Here they shortly come across the previously seen part where they must solve a puzzle to unlock the last boss, Prophet of Akali.

This makes us wonder, what does the currently unused main fortress of Gun'drak hold? Due to its massive size my best bet is on a raid instance that would be introduced after Naxxramas, Nexus, Chamber of Aspects and Ulduar or a second dungeon wing for high level players.

4HM, WotLK Itemization, TCG Wallpaper

Zyuu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:53:32 GMT

Naxxramas and the Four Horsemen

The final boss encounter of the Death Knight wing in Naxxramas known as the Four Horsemen has been changed in a few ways, first the fight mechanics had to be changed to fit the 25 man raid size, and.... one of the four Horsemen Highlord Mograine is no longer, he has been replaced by Baron Rivendare. How do we know this?

There are several new soundfiles in \Data\enGB\patch-enGB-2.MPQ\Sound\Creature\BaronRivendare\ where Baron Rivendare says the exact same things as Mograine used to say in the 40-mans Naxxramas.
In the latest beta push, the Mark of Mograine has been replaced with Mark of Rivendare (from the 40-mans Naxxramas we know that each of the Four Horsemen applies a specific Mark).

WotLK Itemization - Level 80 Items

Another batch of items recently looted in the new level 80 dungeons.

Weapons - Ymiron's Blade (1H Sword), Jeweled Coronation Sword (MH Sword)
Shields - Tor's Crest (Caster)
Rings - Signet of Ranulf (Caster)
Leather - Hood of the Furtive Assassin (Melee DPS), Ceremonial Pyre Mantle (Melee DPS)
Plate - Crown of Forgotten Kings (Paladin), Ancient Royal Legguards (Melee DPS)

New TCG Wallpaper - Undead Warlock

A new TCG (World of Warcraft Trading Card Game) Wallpaper has been added to the official site. This week's wallpaper features an undead warlock roaring in defiance as she prepares to hurl fel powers on her enemies.

Labor Day Blue Posts - Wintergrasp Changes, Riding Crop

Zyuu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:38:03 GMT

Yesterday was Labor Day which resulted in less blue posts than normal.

Ongoing Wintergrasp Changes

Quote from: Kalgan (Source)

Here's a quick update on some of the things coming to Wintergrasp over the course of the next few beta updates.

Graveyards will be inaccessible to attackers (ie: above normal terrain) to put a damper on gy camping.
Ranking up will be based on HKs rather than killing blows (was always intended to be HKs)
In the case of team imbalances, there will be escalating bonuses to the weaker team (for both honor and combat effectiveness... mostly survivability bonuses and potentially easier access to vehicles)
The losing team will receive a partial bonus at the end of a battle (also based on participation)
Players will be able to leave Wintergrasp at any time (via a "Leave Battle" UI option similar to leaving a battleground)
A variety of daily quests will be introduced to the zone, including quests that are relevant when the battle isn't currently active
Ongoing tuning of vehicle power (they're still on the strong side)
Ongoing bugfixing and polish
Something else we're hoping to get in, but aren't certain of at this point is the ability to select which graveyard you respawn at.

WotLK Beta - Blue Posts

About the future Riding Crop
The jury is still out on what's going to happen to the crop. We hope to have a solution soon. The main goal was to get the riding crop out of the trinket slot. It's very common to end up in combat with a riding crop equipped which wasn't very fun. It was also tedious to have to swap trinkets everytime you mounted (even with a mod like Outfitter or with macros).

We ran into some technical issues when we switched over to our new mount system. So the crop is somewhat in flux. The main design goal is "not a trinket". (src)

Possible feature - Flightpath stop
This has idea has already likely been suggested but it would be really nice if you could hit a button and on extended flights you could stop at the next flightpath on the way.
We've debated this for some time. It's still a possibility. (src)

Achievements - Zehvra Mount & Feat of Strength
This one has been changed to be a Feat of Strength. (src)

More PvP Achievements in the works
We're going to be adding Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients achievements soon so any brainstorming by you guys is welcome. (src)

Achievements - Feat of Strength for Poisons?
This is a cool idea. We'll look into it although depending on how the class team handled the removal of poisons, we may or may not be able to do this as a Feat. (src)

Death Knight
Obliterate & Scourge Strike
I think Obliterate just needs to do more damage and Scourge Strike less. They are very similar abilities so it's easy to imagine numbers balanced in such a way that Obliterate is fun for Blood (when you don't need Death Strike) and Scourge Strike is an improvement to Obliterate for Unholy without being the only talent you ever need in that tree. (src)

WotLK -- Build 8885 Part 3

Zyuu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:31:19 GMT

Model and spell changes

wotlkwiki.info managed to datamine the tabard of what seems to be the Knights of the Ebon Blade. They will be available in the Championing feature of the game, making it very easy to raise reputation with them in any high level dungeon with just wearing their faction tabard.

The last change upgraded another part of Crystalsong Forest, adding a familiar shield around the Dalaran City teleportation rune, much like the one surrounding Transitus Shield in Coldarra and what used to be around Dalaran itself in Alterac Mountains.

Overlord Drakuru, whose questline was featured earlier at World of Raids, got his own model, which makes him look a lot more corrupted and a lot less generic overpowered troll. Good for him!

Two mounts have been changed in this patch, the Black Qiraji Battle Tank, and the Death Knight class mount. The bug mount's description now includes "This mount changes appearance depending on your location", my best guess is that it will summon a wasp native to Outland and a Nerubian native to Northrend instead of the same black Qiraji bug throughout the world. The Deathcharger got Archerus added to its name.

Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal: Summons and dismisses a rideable Black Qiraji Battle Tank. This mount changes appearance depending on your location.

Professions

Engineers are receiving a very handy new gadget that creates a Gadgetzan portal, with the usual interesting tooltip.

Inscriptionists - as described yesterday - can not only create Glyphs to enchant spells, but powerful scrolls, too that would help parties missing certain buffs (e.g.: Scroll of Stamina VIII: 165 Stamina for 30 minutes), runes to enchant chestpieces and tarot cards that can be turned in for rewards. It seems one of these tarot card rewards has just been found. The Darkmoon Fortune Teller buffs players based on questions and answers.

First Aid's most exciting new feature would have been a second high level bandage that heals every second for 4 seconds, instead of the usual 8 second duration. Its heal per second was significantly higher (1025) than the other new Frostweave Bandages, making it very good for PVP and fast paced PVE encounters as well. The manual was available as a random drop from level 75 or higher humanoids throughout Northrend, but it wasn't actually learnable because First Aid was capped at 430 and it required 450. In build 8885 this Manual was removed and turned into a gray item in everyone's bank or backpack:

Icecrown Runes

We discovered a series of runes related to Icecrown, probably very similar to the buff system of Zul'drak. The mobs of Zul'drak all have a chance to drop a Drakkari Offering (BoP) which stacks to lots of 250 and 10 of them can be turned in at one of 3 Troll altars for either a Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Wisdom or Blessing of Might, though named differently. The buffs last 30 minutes and are automatically dispelled if the player leaves the zone.

Through the awesome 10-15 minute lootlags, some of the beta testers were able to get into Icecrown, avoiding the No Man's Land (de)buff. Their images are growing steadily in number in the gallery. Click here to see them all!

Community Update 27/082008

Zyuu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:47:21 GMT

The World of Warcraft Community Team sent us their Community Update today. Including recent news and forum posts that serves as a great recap of what's been going on the last couple of days.

EU Forums:

Here are some of the most recent blue-posts made on the EU forums:

EU main

'''''

· World of Warcraft Downloads for your Phone

· BlizzCat Episode 5: Special WWI Edition

· New Fan Art: Study in Blue

· Re: Patch 3.0.2 and Naxx

· Re: Most Beautiful City

· 27/08 PTR forum cleaned

'''''

· 26/08 Wrath of the Lich King : Wendigo

· 26/08 Beta Key & Beta Test Information

· Content Patch before Wrath of the Lich King

· Wrath of the Lich King Arenas

· 21/08 WotLK Opening Cinematic Unveiled!

· 22/08 Games Convention

· BlizzCon Ticket Drawing Opt-In Period Ends

· The Friday Thread

EU Beta

'''''

· Flying Mounts in Dalaran

· Realm Firsts achievements

· 27/08 Scheduled Maintenance

· Re: Server Shutdown

· Re: Storm Peaks Open

'''''

· Wrath of the Lich King: Beta Patch Notes

· New Content in 8820

· Raid buff review

· Re: [Protection Is mana a real issue?]

· Re: Feral tanking

· Storm Peaks Closed

· The Nexus (71-73)

· CoT: Stratholme (80)

· Halls of Lightning (80)

· Utgarde Pinnacle (80)

· The Oculus (80)

· Halls of Stone (77-79)

· Azjol-Nerub (72-74)

· Drak'Tharon Keep (74-76)

· Utgarde Keep (70-72)

· The Nexus - Heroic (80)

Other noteworthy threads:

· Pimp My UI - Episode 70

· The Northrend Times - Episode 8

US Forums (main and beta)

· Inscription trainers will be in Azeroth also

· Blizzcon Opt-In has ended

· Recovering pets

· Storm Peaks Closed- 8/22/08

· Raid stacking in Wrath of the Lich King

· How will Lich King be defeated?

· Wrath of the Lich King Opening Cinematic!

· New Beta build

· Beta premades

· World PvP

· Tanking in Wrath of the Lich King

Website:

World of Warcraft Downloads for Your Phone

27/08/08

Carry a little piece of Azeroth wherever your real-world travels take you with our new World of Warcraft-themed wallpapers and ringtones for your phone. They’re part of a new service that lets you download content related to your favorite Blizzard Entertainment games to supported mobile phones. Over 50 pieces of content are currently available, including ringtones of World of Warcraft’s capital city themes and the distinctive murloc gurgle, as well as wallpapers featuring character artwork, class and faction emblems, and more. Visit the new Mobile Ringtones and Wallpapers page for more information -- and while you’re there, be sure to check out our StarCraft and Diablo mobile content, too.

BlizzCast Episode 5: Special WWI Edition Now Available

27/08/08

This special Worldwide Invitational wrap-up edition of BlizzCast begins with a brief chat between RTS Community Manager Karune, World of Warcraft Community Manager Nethaera, and Diablo III Community Manager Bashiok about their WWI experiences. Bashiok then takes you into the mind of Diablo III Lead Designer Jay Wilson, and the two discuss some recent hot issues surrounding the game. Listen to the show now or check out the transcript to see all the featured artwork.

New Fan Art: Study in Blue

27/08/08

We've added Dênakê's portrait "Lena" to the Blizzard Fan Art gallery to share this moody piece with you.

We're always looking for new fan art and if you're an artist, you can submit your work to us here. We update the Gallery regularly and encourage you to check regularly to see what new and talented submissions are on display.

Wrath of the Lich King : Wendigo

26/08/08

We have just updated the Wrath of the Lich King official website with a new creature: the Wendigo.

Though rarely seen, the wendigo's existence is evidenced by the fierce, primal roars that echo across Northrend's mist-shrouded peaks. Many believe these reclusive, cannibalistic creatures are the primordial cousins of the wendigo that populate the mountains of Dun Morogh...

Check out the Bestiary to learn more!

BlizzCon Ticket Drawing Opt-In Period Ends

25/08/08

The opt-in period for the BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing is now over. We will be randomly selecting winners within the next few days and will announce when selections have been made on our websites. If you are chosen, you will receive an email from Blizzard containing information about how to purchase up to two tickets to BlizzCon 2008. If you haven’t done so already, please go to Blizzard Account Management and update your contact information. For more details, see the FAQ.

Games Convention – Day One

22/08/08

We’ve updated our Games Convention site with coverage and photos from the first day of this year’s event, held once again in Leipzig, Germany. To find out what’s happening at the Blizzard booth, read all about it here.

Wrath of the Lich King Opening Cinematic Unveiled!

21/08/08

Five years have passed since Arthas released Ner’zhul from his icy prison and merged with him, claiming the Frozen Throne of Icecrown. Now the heir of Lordaeron has risen again, and soon the world will learn what it means to incur the wrath of its one true king.... The opening cinematic for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is now available for download or streaming from the official Wrath of the Lich King website. Check it out now!

Games Convention Update

20/08/08

We have even more for you at this year’s Games Convention. As well as playable demos of StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King, SK-Gaming will be conducting a Live Raid on the Sunwell Plateau, and we’ll be showing a brand new cinematic trailer for Wrath of the Lich King.

To find out more, you can check out the Games Convention site for more information.

BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing Information

20/08/08

The BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing opt-in is now live. People with eligible Blizzard Accounts who wish to enter the drawing can now do so by logging in to Blizzard Account Management. The opt-in period will last until 08:59 a.m. CET on Monday, August 25. After it ends, we will select 1,500 people from the opt-in pool and offer them a chance to purchase up to two tickets to BlizzCon 2008. This is a random drawing -- everyone with an eligible Blizzard Account who opts in any time during the opt-in period will have the same chance to win. Please make sure your Blizzard Account contact information (email and phone number) is up to date. For more information, read our FAQ.

New Fan Art: Looking for Group!

20/08/08

This week's addition to the Blizzard Europe Fan Art Gallery is a humorous piece from our talented artist Kness. This submission displays the trials and tribulations of a young gnome seeking out the perfect group for her adventures.

We're always interested in new fan art and if you're an artist, you can submit your work to us here. We update the Gallery regularly and encourage you to check regularly to see what new and talented submissions are on display.

BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing Information

19/08/08

As discussed last week, we’re preparing a drawing to offer 3,000 more BlizzCon 2008 tickets for sale. We’re finalizing the process now, and you’ll be able to enter the drawing soon -- in the meantime, please check the BlizzCon site for more information on how the drawing will work. Please note that a Blizzard Account is an account created for the Blizzard Online Store -- as opposed to an account created for a Blizzard game, such as World of Warcraft. If you have any questions regarding Blizzard Accounts, please read our Blizzard Account FAQ. We will announce when the drawing opt-in period begins on our website soon. For more information, please refer to our BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing FAQ.

The World Behind The World of Warcraft

Zyuu — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:25:29 GMT

Over at GameSetWatch there's a column about "The World behind World of Warcraft". Social behavior, loot and its importance and also why people keep playing WoW and why they want to are some of the topics covered.

World of Warcraft has spawned at least two books of published essays. One of them has an entire chapter on the most mundane of the most mundane--fishing. World of Warcraft spawns entire blogs and sites that are dedicated to the many, many corners of WoW. To the experienced gamer, games have the ability to be an entirely different experience from person to person.

To the beginning gamer who plays WoW as one of his first games, this is understood quickly instead of gradually. This leads to an opportunity for intelligent observation, the scale of which equals insight into an entire country. Take a comment from a non-official WoW forum: "At 70, you can choose from one of three factions: Raider, PVP, and Casual. You then blame the other two factions for 'ruining the game.'"

Only in an MMO that is as large as World of Warcraft is it made clearly apparent that there are all kinds of players (people) and that video games can be a setting for social interaction, larger than life. You can meet another player and that player can feel, unlike the ones you regularly play with, like someone from another country, another world, another clique.

Many might find themselves in a state of déjà vu, since there are a thousand different articles out there which cover similar topics, however this is also interesting to quite a few – read it with an open mind and apply your own point of view and it should prove interesting. At least I hope so.

You may read Michael Walbridge's full column here.

Community Updates 20/08/2008

Zyuu — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:03:09 GMT

The World of Warcraft Community Team sent us their Community Update today. Including recent news and forum posts that serves as a great recap of what's been going on the last couple of days.

EU Forums:

Here are some of the most recent blue-posts made on the forums:

- BETA – Totem of Wrath Stacking

- BETA – The New Kill Commant

- BETA – Shadow Priest Changes Coming

- BETA – Northrend Quests

- BETA – Mana Cost Change to prevent Downranking

- BETA – Tanking in WotLK

- BETA – Up and coming Death Knight stuff

- BETA – Feral Tanking

- LIVE – Old Style Alterac Valley

- LIVE – 40 man Naxx will be gone

Other noteworthy threads

- Pimp My UI – Episode 69

- The Northrend times – episode 7

US Forums:

- Heroic mode for old instances pre-tbc

- Boars & Charge

- WoTLK Talent release Pre-Wrath?

- Lake Wintergrasp

- Death Coil and Frost Strike

Website:

Games Convention Update - 20/08/08

We have even more for you at this year’s Games Convention. Developers will be on hand to answer your questions about StarCraft II and Diablo III, SK-Gaming will be conducting a Live Raid on the Sunwell Plateau, and we’ll be showing a brand new cinematic trailer for Wrath of the Lich King.

To find out more, you can check out the Games Convention site for more information.

BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing Information - 20/08/08

This is a random drawing -- everyone with an eligible Blizzard Account who opts in any time during the opt-in period will have the same chance to win. Please make sure your Blizzard Account contact information (email and phone number) is up to date. For more information, read our FAQ.

New Fan Art: Looking for Group! - 20/08/08

BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing Information - 19/08/08

Please note that a Blizzard Account is an account created for the Blizzard Online Store -- as opposed to an account created for a Blizzard game, such as World of Warcraft. If you have any questions regarding Blizzard Accounts, please read our Blizzard Account FAQ. We will announce when the drawing opt-in period begins on our website soon. For more information, please refer to our BlizzCon 2008 Ticket Drawing FAQ.

BlizzCon: Statement from Mike Morhaime - 14/08/08

Tickets for BlizzCon 2008 were sold out rapidly on Monday and Tuesday and Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment, has issued a statement regarding this situation. More information about the ticket sales and a solution can be found on the BlizzCon site here.

Blizzard at the Games Convention 2008 - 14/08/08

We’re excited to be able to showcase some of Blizzard’s games at this year’s Games Convention in Leipzig from 21 to 24 August. We’ll be providing playable demos of StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King, running quizzes and providing some extra excitement with a Live Raid.

Looking for a job at Blizzard? Our Game Masters will be at the booth ready to answer your questions about recruitment and working at Blizzard. Bring your CV along and talk to us about how you can start your career at Blizzard.

We look forward to seeing you at the Games Convention, in Hall 5 at booth number D01!

World of Warcraft : warcraft

WoW 5-year Anniversary: Game Informer Interviews Jeff Kaplan

On Kaplan's role

On storytelling in WoW becoming more important with each expansion

On the use of cutscenes in World of Warcraft

On the casual-vs-hardcore debate

Plans Beyond Northrend Confirmed

Upcoming Paladin Changes

Latest Blue Posts

Upcoming Racial Ability Changes

WotLK -- More Naxxramas 10-man loot

Daily Blue Posts, 3v3 PvP Finals and more

Threat Meter, Inscription, Training Dummies

The Gun'drak Mystery

4HM, WotLK Itemization, TCG Wallpaper

Labor Day Blue Posts - Wintergrasp Changes, Riding Crop

WotLK -- Build 8885 Part 3

Community Update 27/082008

The World Behind The World of Warcraft

Community Updates 20/08/2008