Battle.Net

It appears the Battle.net site has been updated with a new login background, login process (not much change easily seen), and all the old account management pages are now more integrated into Battle.Net.

BoA Items

Population Issue

If you're able to patiently wait for patch 3.3 you will probably be rewarded with the very thing you're requesting. That's right, we aim to implement the ability to exchange bind-on-account items between your Horde and Alliance characters in patch 3.3. Of course, as with anything not yet live (and even things that are) this is subject to change, but it currently remains our intention. Hope that helps somewhat, or rather, hope that will help somewhat. ;-)

PTR Build

Talent Calculators updated.
Achievements updated.

Achievements

• Call to Arms achievements require you to complete the level 80 version, not just any version.
• Tabard achievements changed to require you to equip X tabards instead of own.

Class Changes

Druid Changes

Restoration

• Tranquility - Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes from 10 minutes.

Death Knight Changes

Unholy

• Night of the Dead - Now only reduces cooldown on Army of the Dead by 2/4 min. Down from 5/10.
• Raise Ally - Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes from 15.
• Army of the Dead - Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes from 20.

Paladin Changes

Protection

• Divine Intervention - Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes from 20.

Rogue Changes

Subtlety

• Preparation - Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes from 10.
• Filthy Tricks - Now reduces the cooldown of your Tricks of the Trade and Distract abilities by 5/10 secs and Preparation by 1.5/3 min. Down from 2.5/5 min.

Shaman Changes

Restoration

• Reincarnation - Cooldown reduced to 30 minutes from 50.

Warlock Changes

Demonology

• Inferno - Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes from 20.

Priest Changes

Holy

• Divine Hymn - Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes from 10.

Profession Changes

Tailoring

• Flying Carpet - Requires 300 skill in tailoring to ride. Down from 410. Material costs reduced.

Misc Changes

• Item - Shadowmourne Legendary - Your weapon swings have a chance to drain a Soul Fragment from their undead, demon, and elemental victims. When you have acquired 10 Soul Fragments you will unleash the Souls of the Damned, dealing 6840 to 7560 shadow damage split between all undead, demons, and elementals within 8 yards.
• Item - Icecrown 25 Normal Dagger Proc - Your melee weapon attacks have a chance to trigger Invigoration, granting you 2 energy, 1.0 rage, or 60 mana every 2 sec for 10 sec. No longer restores runic power.
• THIS_DUNGEON_IN_PROGRESS = "This Dungeon is In Progress.";
• ERR_RAID_LOCKOUT_CHANGED_S = "Raid Lockout set to %s.";
• ERR_CURRENCY_FULL = "Can't carry that much currency.";
• This frame has been improved to offer new functionality and can be used with the new shrunken map option.
• Clicking on the arrow in the top right corner of the new map interface will hide all but the map pane, bringing the map out of full-screen mode and allowing players to leave it open while navigating a zone or engaging in combat.
• Given that some quest objectives can be achieved in multiple locations within a given zone, highlighting such a quest will highlight an area of interest closest in proximity to the character's current location.
• Highlighting a quest name in the right pane will highlight the corresponding area of interest on the map in the left pane, show its quest text in the lower left pane, and list the quest rewards in the lower right pane.
• All active quests listed in the right pane for the zone being viewed on the map will be assigned a number. These numbers will be displayed on the map according to the areas of interest for each quest.
• The map interface has been separated into four separate panes: a map pane (left), a pane listing active quest names for the zone being viewed (right), a pane listing the full quest text for any highlighted quest (bottom left), and a pane listing the quest rewards for any highlighted quest (bottom right).
• A Show Map button has been added to the Quest Log. Selecting a quest and pressing this button will open the map for the zone in which the quest objective is located displaying the associated area of interest. Any other active quests in a player's Quest Log for that zone will also be displayed.
• Players no longer need to kill the final bosses in all four wings of this dungeon in order to teleport to Sapphiron. Teleportation orbs have been added to allow players access back and forth from Sapphiron's lair.

Infernal cooldown lol

We didn't like the way Affliction played. There were players who liked having so many dots and players who didn't. It certainly wasn't the case that whoever QQ'd the most won (and I suspect it was the pro dot crowd who QQ'd the most). We wanted to make Affliction more about the Shadow spells and Destruction more about the Fire spells. We wanted each to have a core group of spells upon which they focused. That is happening now and I believe both specs are fun to play.

The John Madden thing for Feral is not an excuse to let their dps be high. The actual point is that there is a wide margin between theoretical Feral dps as told by a simulator and actual Feral dps. We balance around the real numbers, not the theoretical maxima. Feral druids do great on bosses that don't require any movement or re-targeting. There are plenty of bad druids too, just as there are plenty of bad warlocks.

Fair enough, but we're more likely to patch the cinematic than we are to change a class just because the cinematic promised you a pony^H^H^H^H demon.

We thought "difficult to control" would be a good cost to pay for "very powerful demon." We also thought it fit the kit of the warlock having to struggle to harness the demon's power. Guess what? We were wrong. It wasn't a fun implementation. We could easily change the spell to summon an army of Infernals, but they would all be individually weak. That's how numbers work.

I think there is some promise to the idea that warlocks might have permanent pets and guardians, with the Doomguard and Infernal as dps-timers in the second category, much like Force of Nature or Mirror Image. But we're going to have to think through that design and analyze the technical and balance implications. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't, but it isn't going to happen for 3.3. If you'd like, we can bump the Inferno cooldown back up if it bothers you so much. :)

I am pretty certain you guys are driving crazy the warlocks who actually want to discuss pets in this thread. Why don’t you let them instead of trying to use it as your moment in the spotlight to air all your grievances?

Niche advantages vs Real advantages.

Assuming I'm understanding you correctly, we don't balance tank survivability around utility abilities like say Cleanse or Death Grip. We try to make sure all the classes have a certain number of those. We do balance survivability around cooldowns that affect survivability. My recent caution to not over-interpret effective health was that A) cooldowns matter, and B) it's difficult to quantify those cooldowns as part of EH. (Avoidance matters too. You may not gear for it, but it matters and you'd notice it if it was gone.)

I totally agree about the context part as well. I try and say often that the encounter is everything. Most of the time when players are posting from the point of view of who is the best tank or whether a certain tank is a liability to the raid, what they really mean is "on Sartharion +3, Mimiron hard, Vezax hard, Gormok hard or Anub'arak hard" because those are the most challenging encounters in which to keep a tank alive.

If Sindragosa is the hardest boss in Icecrown, and if she does a ton of magical damage, and if Unholy death knights have a much easier time tanking her because of this, then you'd see a lot of arguments over magical mitigation and cooldowns.

Tier-10 Armor Sneak Preview: Paladin & Priest

As the threats within Icecrown Citadel continue to take shape, so do the rewards for the brave souls who seek to face them. We've updated our Under Development page with high-resolution images of a couple more of the tier-10 armor sets ( http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/tier10sneak.html ) that wait to be acquired within the halls of Icecrown Citadel. As we add more classes' sets to the PTR, they'll arrive here for your viewing. Stay tuned!

I gotta ask why...

Actually, we've adjusted mana and health regen at low levels (in the upcoming patch) so that food and water aren't really necessary right at the start. Believe it or not, it's not about someone being too "dumb" to figure something out so much as realizing that not everyone enters into playing the game with a knowledge of how MMOs work. Food and water is just one more thing for a new player to learn about very quickly when starting the game and we'd like to ease players into how things work as they go along. They'll learn all about food and water soon enough after.

Keep in mind, for many people, (even veteran players) they didn't realize they could drink and eat at the same time early on in the game. Imagine being brand new to MMOs and having to learn the mechanics and complexities of what are considered very simple things to experienced gamers.

Armory Parsing

As of this morning the database is at 383,000 characters with a queue of over 45,000! This includes people from almost 19,000 guilds! We now have 62 realms listed, but several only have characters for one faction, or only a few characters on a faction. This may be due to the crawler not getting to their realm yet, or they may have been a bad seed.

You can see the list of realms here and you can add characters to the queue here. If you happen to have a server with php, curl, and a few GB of spare badnwdith, you can help speed up parsing by mirroring requests for us. Send us an email if interested!

Firefox

If you are a person that enjoys beta testing new software, the Firefox 3.6 Beta is up for download.

Blue Posts

Introducing the Pet Store

Today we’re pleased to introduce the Pet Store for World of Warcraft, a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth. Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil’ K.T. and the Pandaren Monk.

Make a Difference: Pandaren Monk Charity Pet

Enter the Pandaren Monk, ( http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100000763 ) a martial-arts expert who’s here to help celebrate the upcoming fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft. He may be cute, but he’s proof that even the softest of critters can overcome the hardest of circumstances. For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life.

Lil’ K.T., the Littlest Lich

Lil’ K.T. is a miniature lich who bears a striking resemblance to the legendary lord of Naxxramas, Kel’Thuzad. But don’t let his diminutive stature fool you: Lil’ K.T. has a diabolical laugh and wields true power at his bony fingertips, randomly wreaking icy havoc on critters who dare to cross his path. You can now buy this new pet for $10 on the Blizzard Store. (http://us.blizzard.com/store/ )


In order to receive a purchased pet, you’ll need to merge your World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account. For more information on Battle.net, please visit the FAQ. ( https://us.battle.net/faq/index.html ) For more information on the new Pet Store, visit the Pet Store FAQ. ( http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=29845 )

Patch 3.3 comes out...

Once every hundred-thousand years or so, When the sun doth shine and the moon doth glow And the grass doth grow… a shiny demon will appear and demand to hear the best song in the world, or it will eat our souls... patch 3.3 should be out before that happens again!

Sorry about that. I was just listening to Tribute to the Best Song in the World by Tenacious D :-)

I’m not going to give you the classic “soon” this time, but there is not yet an ETA on when patch 3.3 will be released, not even an unofficial one. Rest assured however, that we let you know as soon as a release date has been set :-)

Cross Server LFG /Stone Keeper Shards

I believe it's set up to recognize the state of the realm you're on. So if your faction on your realm controls Wintergrasp, you will have the buff and receive shards, while players on other realms who are in your party for a dungeon will not if their faction does not control Wintergrasp on their realm.

What if you had GM powers?

C) Be unable to log into the standard game client, as access levels allotting a character the power alluded to in choice B are not possible with any client connecting to World of Warcraft realms outside of Blizzard Entertainment offices.

They might login with a tag due to a mistake on our end. That doesn't allot them any powers beyond having the tag in front of their name and the "Blizz" logo in chat. Trust me. I know how our tools work. ;)

Replenishment and Cataclysm.

We still like Replenishment. There are only so many ways a class can buff a group's damage or stats, so boosting regen is a distinct buff that is brought by a sufficiently large number of classes. It's really nice to have Replenishment, but with mana regen from gear and talents being what they are now, you can certainly run without it.

We don't plan on cutting Replenishment for Cataclysm. However, since Spirit largely becomes a stat that only healers care about, one of two things will likely happen: you bring Replenishment just for the healers, or Replenishment changes to affect both Spirit and non-Spirit based regen, but affects Spirit more.

Replenishment seems to offend some healers who don't want to feel reliant on other classes. But we have explicitly designed WoW's endgame content to be largely group-based, and synergies like this are a part of that. Tanks have to depend on priests for stamina buffs and hunters and rogues for threat buffs. At a higher level, all dps have to rely on dps buffs to do their job.

World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary Sweepstakes

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of World of Warcraft on November 23, 2004 -- and to kick off the celebration, every week for the next five weeks, we'll be giving out prizes to players as a way to "thanks" for being a part of the World of Warcraft community these past five years. Each week, we'll randomly select winners from a different group of accounts based on how long they’ve been playing the game. The first week’s winners will receive a World of Warcraft Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein courtesy of this week'’s sponsor, Taverncraft. For more details on prizing and eligibility, please check out the rules at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/5year/index.html and stick around for more five-year-anniversary festivities in the weeks ahead!

Icecrown Radiance - Incompetence or Arrogance

It's an MMO. Stuff changes. If you want to play a game where the designers don't continually tinker with things to try and improve them, you might want to pick up a 10-year old game from the bargain bins. I'd be happy to provide my favorite list of classics. :)

Blizzard developers are our own greatest critics. We've changed our minds over and over on the best way to handle things -- the guys working on WoW long before I got here did the same thing. We take some forward steps and backwards steps, but overall I believe the game improves over time and most players I speak with think the same thing. (I know not everyone does, but you don't need to reply to this response to point that out.)

I think WoW would be in far worse shape today if we were still using the Molten Core-era class and raid philosophy. At the end of the day we think Icecrown will be a more fun place to tank knowing that bosses don't need to hit quite as hard to make up for your high avoidance. When we think something is not going to be fun like this, we try and make corrections. If any of you are so wise that you can clearly see the consequences of your design decisions many months away such that the patches you help release will be filled only with new content instead of bug fixes and course corrections, please send us your resumes. :)

PUG with the Blues

Come join the fun on the PTR and instead of getting the PUG blues, you could end up grouped with a blue. Members of the Development Team (including the encounter designers themselves) and the Community Team will be on the PTR to test out the new dungeon system and want you to come join in the fun. Join us tomorrow, November 4 beginning at 4 PM PST.

For a chance to group with us, be sure to use the Dungeon system and choose the "Random Heroic" option.

3.3 Sounds

I put most of the 3.3 sounds in a file for you to download, you can choose from various hosts here or here (sometimes faster).

Thanks to Leviathon at EJ for transcribing the below files.

Soundfile for the start of the Deathbringer fight:

Horde:
Deathbringer: Join me father, join me and we will crush this world in the name of the Scourge. For the glory of the Lich King!
Deathbringer: Stubborn and old. What chance do you have? I am stronger and more powerful than you ever were.
Deathbringer: Pathetic old orc. Come then heroes, come and face the MIGHT of the Scourge!

Alliance:
Deathbringer: For every Horde soldier that you killed, for every Alliance dog that fell the Lich Kings grew. Even now the Valkier work to raise your fallen as Scourge.
Deathbringer: Things are about to get MUCH worse. Come and face the might the Lich King has bestowed upon me.
Deathbringer: *Laughing* Dwarf....

Death: I....am released.

Soundfiles from after the Deathbringer fight:

Horde side defeat of Saurfang Jr.:
Saurfang: My boy died at the Wrath Gate. I am here only to collect his body.
Saurfang: We named him Dranosh, it means heart of Draenor in Orcish. I would not let the Warlocks take him, my boy would be safe, hidden away by the elders of Garadar.
Saurfang: I made a promise to his mother before she died. That I would cross the Dark Portal alone whether I lived or died. My son would be safe, untainted.
Saurfang: Today I fulfill that promise.
Saurfang: *he starts getting emotional* You will have a proper ceremony in Nagrand next to the pires of your mother and ancestors.
Saurfang: Honor young heroes, no matter how dire the battle, never forsake it.
Saurfang: Kor'kron move out! Champions watch your back the scourge have reincar....
Saurfang: *yelling*
Saurfang: *coughing*
Saurfang: *crying sound*?

Alliance side defeat of Saurfang Jr.:
Saurfang: Behind you lies the body of my only son. Nothing will keep me from him.
Varian: Stand down Muradin. Let a grieving father pass.
Saurfang: I will not forget this kindness. I thank you highness.
Saurfang: *orcish*
Varian: I....I was not at the Wrath Gate but the soldiers who survived told me much of what happened. Your son fought with honor. He died a heroes death and he deserves a heroes burial.
Varian: Jaina why are you crying?
Jaina: *crying* It was nothing your Majesty. Just..I am proud of my king.
Varian: Muradin secure the deck and prepare our soldiers for a assault on the upper citadel. I'll send out another regiment from Stormwind.

Jaine: You're right Uther forgive me. I...I don't know what got ahold of me. We will deliever this information to the king and the knights who battle within Icecrown Citadel.
Uther: There is... something else you should know about the Lich King. Control over the Scourge must never be lost. Even if you were to strike down the Lich King another would have to take his place. For without the control of its master the Scourge would run rampant across the world destroying all living things.
Uther: A grand sacrifice by a noble soul.
Jaina: Who could bear such a burden?
Uther: I do not know Jaina, I suspect the piece of Arthas that may be left inside the Lich King is all that holds the Scourge from annihilating Azeroth.
Jaina: Then maybe there is still hope.
Uther: No Jaina *screams* He...he is coming! You...you must.

For the Horde side it is roughly the same thing except he is talking to Sylvanas and she has no wanting to see him redeemed.

Build Notes

Talent Calculators updated.
Achievements updated.

Achievements

• Icecrown - Many new Icecrown 25 achievements added.
• Shadowmourne - Owner of Shadowmourne.

Class Changes

Mage Changes

Frost

• Fingers of Frost - This talent now triggers immediately on casting a spell rather than being delayed until the spell strikes the target.

Paladin Changes

Holy

• Flash of Light - No longer works with Sacred Shield effect.
• Lay on Hands - Heals a friendly target for an amount equal to the Paladin's maximum health and restores 1950 of their mana. Once healed, the target cannot be targeted by Divine Shield, Divine Protection, Hand of Protection, or Lay on Hands again for 120 sec.

Protection

• Hand of Protection - Now includes Lay on Hands on the debuff.
• Divine Shield - Now includes Lay on Hands on the debuff.
• Divine Protection - Now includes Lay on Hands on the debuff.
• Hand of Reckoning - If the target is tauntable and not currently targeting you, causes [1.0 + 0.5 * AP] Holy damage.

Warlock Changes

Demonology

• Molten Core - Increases the duration of your Immolate by 3/6 sec, and you have a 4/8% chance to gain the Molten Core effect when your Corruption deals damage. The Molten Core effect empowers your next 3 Incinerate or Soul Fire spells cast within 15 sec.

Warrior Changes

Arms

• Mocking Blow - If the target is tauntable, also deals weapon damage.

Profession Changes

Herbalism

• Lifeblood - Uses your skill in Herbalism to absorb energy and nutrients from the earth, healing you for 3600 (increased by maximum health) over 5 sec.

Misc Changes

• POWER_TYPE_BLOOD_POWER = "Blood Power";
• OPTION_TOOLTIP_MAP_QUEST_DIFFICULTY = "Color quest titles by difficulty when displayed with the World Map.";
• ERR_PARTY_LFG_BOOT_NOT_ELIGIBLE = "That player can not be booted yet.";
• ERR_LFG_TOO_MANY_MEMBERS = "You can not use dungeons with more than 5 party members.";
• Big Love Rocket - Summons and dismisses a rideable Big Love Rocket. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.
• Invincible - Summons and dismisses the flying undead horse Invincible. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.
• Meeting Stones - To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.
• All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards.

Popular Titles

I have put together a list of the most popular titles, you can find it here. It is cached weekly, or on cache clears, as the percentages do not change often. The database is currently at 333,000 characters and growing. We can't keep it growing without your help, so head over to the realm list and help fill out empty or missing realms!

G4 Interview

G4 has done a 5 years of WoW interview with several of the present and past devs, head over to their site to watch them.

WoW China

It looks like they are in trouble again, which will cause even more delay in WotLK.

General Adminitration of Press and Publication (GAPP) of the People’s Republic of China just issued an official press release saying the review of “World of Warcraft” (The Burning Crusade) was halted and the application from Netease for the operation of WoW in China had been returned.

GAPP explained: it clearly told Netease that Charging and New account registration was not allowed during the private test, but Netease ignored it and allowed public registration from 19th, Sept, which as GAPP described, “Illegal Behavior”. The GAPP also warned Netease that Netease’s Internet service could be suspended.

via Mobinode

Blue Posts

How RANDOM are the Random Heroic Dungeons?

It's more fuzzy random than actually random. For example it is less likely to put you in a dungeon that you ran recently.

If you dislike Oculus so much that you are willing to spend a couple of hours getting deserter debuffs rather than run a 45 min dungeon, then I'd suggest you give Oculus another try. It's not that bad with the gear scaling on the drakes now.