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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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WoW General News - Feb 18, 2009 7:24 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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More WotLK goodness...New dungeons as per WorldofWarcraft.com!
We've updated the World of Warcraft Guide with two more dungeons introduced in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This update includes Drak'Tharon Keep and Gundrak. Each page includes pertinent information on the dungeon or raid such as its location, final boss, and background lore, and contains a link to its loot table on the Armory.
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News Index
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WoW General News - Feb 18, 2009 7:17 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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Hey raid fans, ready for more epic gear, how about a new epic raid dungeon? Check out this teaser from WorldofWarcraft.com!
As the next step in tiered raid progression in Wrath of the Lich King, Ulduar is set to let players enjoy gorgeous setpieces, sprawling battlefields, and innovative boss encounters. Ulduar's design aims to provide a fun, unique, and innovative raid experience, and it includes additional challenges and rewards for seasoned raiders.
In this sneak-peek at World of Warcraft's newest raid dungeon, we'll take a look at some of the new content that makes Ulduar stand out.
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News Index
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WoW General News - Feb 18, 2009 7:13 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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Blizzard has announced the dates for the next BlizzCon on the WorldofWarcraft.com site! I am excited for this one!
Blizzard Entertainment today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes. To learn more, please read our press release.
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WoW General News - Feb 2, 2009 2:11 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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The latest BlizzCast is now available!? Here is the nuts n bolts from WorldofWarcraft.com, inculding a link to the BlizzCast site!
In the seventh BlizzCast, we take time to wrap up the second World of Warcraft expansion with Production Director J. Allen Brack and Lead Game Designer Jeffrey Kaplan. Also in this episode, Crygil sits down with Senior Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen to discuss the lore of Wrath of the Lich King.
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WoW General News - Feb 2, 2009 9:36 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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We all love themed WoW stuff. I adore my Collector's Editon of WotLK. Now there are some more great items to use with the lateste expansion in its theme according to WorldofWarcraft.com.
Just in time for the journey to Northrend, SteelSeries is launching a new line of Wrath of the Lich King-themed peripherals: the new Zboard Limited Edition Gaming Keyboard, Qck Limited Edition Lich King Exclusive Gaming Surface, and 5C Limited Edition Frost Wyrm Exclusive Gaming Surface. All are made with high-quality materials and feature artwork from Wrath of the Lich King. Please visit SteelSeries.com for full details on each of their features and availability.
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News Index
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Arena Ratings, What's Next?
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WoW General News - Feb 2, 2009 9:33 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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Some great stuff is coming out for Arena. Those players that enjoy the Pvp, not to mention the gear take a look at this from WorldofWarcraft.com:
Read what's on the developers' minds, find out about upcoming plans, and offer your own insight in these recent discussions from our community forums.
Gladiators Ready?
In the latest patch, we introduced a new Arena matchmaking system designed to provide players with better competition and more fitting opponents based on their lifetime performance. Review the details of this new system and take part in the conversation on our PvP Discussion forum. Read on!
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
If you have more questions about how the new matchmaking rating and other ratings fit into the new Arena system -- or if you just want a glimpse at our future plans for fine-tuning -- we go into further detail in this post. Read on!
Combat Theory
Want to hear more about the design philosophy behind the new Arena system? Last week, the developers laid out the thought process and principles behind the change. Read on!
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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WoW General News - Jan 27, 2009 12:29 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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In regards to the last patch there were a few bugs, according to Nethaera below are the listed fixes from the WorldofWarcraft.com forums.
Bug Fixes
- General
- Human females Helms will no longer lift off the character's head during a Special2H animation or during a HoldRifle animation.
- Death Knights
- Howling Blast : The 5 second cooldown will now display correctly.
- Hunters
- All Hunter aspects are no longer on the global cooldown that is shared with other Hunter abilities. All hunter aspects are now on a separate 1 second cooldown.
- Warlocks
- Ritual of Summoning will now function as intended.
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WoW General News - Jan 23, 2009 9:24 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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Well we all know how frustrating it is not to get our WoW fix early and with the servers down for emergency maintence people's patience goes quickly. However, according to the WorldofWarcraft.com forums, this is to fix Arenas. They should be up shortly but if anything new arrises it will be posted. Keep your fingers crossed for the server gods to be pleased and allow them to be restored shortly.
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News Index
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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Update: Death Knight Creation
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WoW General News - Jan 20, 2009 4:29 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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This is direct from Nethaera on the WorldofWarcraft.com forums:
Please be aware that select players are currently able to create death knights on realms other than the one they currently have a level 55+ character on while others are still unable to do so at this time. We are currently working to address this issue and anticipate this to be corrected as of tonight’s rolling restarts. We will post additional updates after the completion of the restarts.
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It was anticipated that with the release of the current patch, 3.0.8, players would be able to create a new death knight on any realm within their region. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we are not able to make this available as of yet. We do anticipate making this available in the near future and will do our best to keep everyone informed of when this becomes available.
Please keep in mind that when implemented restrictions will still apply to new, non-transfer realms such that death knights cannot be created on those realms until you level a character to level 55 on that realm or until transfer restrictions are removed.
If you have any further questions on creating a death knight, please see the FAQ.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13392160286&sid=1
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WoW General News - Jan 20, 2009 10:25 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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Here are the lates patch notes remember, the latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/.
General
- Players may now create death knights on any realm once they reach level 55.
- Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.
- Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night Elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You’re not seeing things.
- Racial Resistances: These can now be mitigated against by gaining additional chance to hit.
- Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.
- All Silence spells now have diminishing returns. This includes: Arcane Torrent, Garrote silence effect, Improved Counterspell effect, Improved Kick effect, Silence, Gag Order, Silencing Shot, Spell Lock, and Strangulate.
- Dispel Resist talents have changed to protect only beneficial spells and damage over time effects.
- Shield Wall, Barkskin, Guardian Spirit, and Divine Protection are now off the Global Cooldown.
- A new mailbox is now available at the Crows Tavern in the Dalaran Sewers.
- We have added over 60 new graveyards to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.
- The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at a bonus 75% speed.
- Reputation rewarded for killing mobs will no longer automatically deprecate. This means trivial mobs will continue to give out their full amounts of reputation on kill for the majority of cases in the game (level 70 creatures in Stratholme, for example, will continue to award the full amount of rep to level 80 players seeking to boost their Argent Dawn faction).
- World of Warcraft now supports 3-D imaging. Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/GeForce_3D_Vision_Main.html for more information.
Achievements
- The Loremaster of Kalimdor Achievement has had its quest amount reduced.
- The Perma-Peddle Achievement is no longer a part of the “Fool for Love” meta-achievement.
- The Winds of the North has had its requirements changed. This achievement is now earned by getting Exalted with the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition.
PvP
- Vehicles can now be affected by most player spells, except CC, snares and roots.
- Arenas
- Arena rating requirements for all Deadly Gladiator’s Arena items have been reduced by 100.
- All rage and runic power are set to 0 when an Arena begins and the preparation period is over.
- Ring of Valor: The small pillars will now rise immediately once the arena begins.
- Battlegrounds
- Lake Wintergrasp
- Wintergrasp Commendations can now also be purchased for the low low price of 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor. Players can visit their respective Wintergrasp vendors and put those Marks of Honor to use!
- Wintergrasp PvP vehicles have had their health increased.
- Wintergrasp Tower cannons have had their health increased.
- The Wintergrasp Fortress Exterior walls have had their health increased.
- The Fortress Keep door now has had its health decreased.
- The Orb is now instantly clickable.
- Elementals should now always despawn when the battle begins.
- Wintergrasp now extends further south so that more revenants can be reached.
- There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant.
- Players will be eligible for participation rewards after two honorable kills.
- Players will receive increased honor with increased rank.
- Players will receive additional Marks of Honor at Corporal or higher rank.
- Players will receive corporal rank at 5 honorable kills instead of two.
- Strand of the Ancients
- Antipersonnel Turrets will now gain vehicle immunities, use falloff damage, and damage increased to 4000 + 200 per level to compensate for falloff.
- The Strand of the Ancients Demolisher has had its health increased.
- The Strand of the Ancients tower cannon has had its health increased.
- Seaforium charges have been moved closer to the graveyards on the 2nd tier.
Death Knights
- All multi-rune abilities generate 15 runic power.
- Anti-Magic Shell: The cooldown has been lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec.
- Anti-Magic Zone: This ability’s duration has been cut to 10 seconds.
- Blood Aura now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
- Blood Presence now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
- Bloody Strikes will receive extra bonus damage from Pestilence.
- Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%.
- Corpse Explosion: Damage increased substantially, added 5 sec. cooldown, and changed cost to 40 runic power.
- Dark Command: Range increased to 30 yards.
- Death Pact now grants 40% instead of 20% healing.
- Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%.
- Heart Strike no longer has a haste debuff but will now be able to strike two targets.
- Horn of Winter now has no cost and grants 10 runic power in addition to its stat buff, but has a 20 second cooldown.
- Howling Blast: Cooldown removed.
- Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher).
- Killing Machine: Instead of a chance to be triggered on critical strike, this talent now has a chance to be triggered on each swing based on the swing time of the weapon (slow weapons more likely, fast weapons less likely).
- Mark of Blood: The total amount of healing this can grant is now capped based on a percentage of standard creature health at the target’s level.
- Night of the Dead now grants 40/70% passive area spell avoidance to your pet in addition to its current effects.
- Outbreak will no longer receive bonus damage from pestilence. The bonus from Plague Strike and Blood Boil has been increased slightly.
- Pestilence no longer has a 10 seconds cooldown.
- Raise Dead has now been split into two spells:
- Raise Dead now raises a ghoul or pet ghoul (if talented). Requires corpse dust if no humanoid corpse is nearby.
- Raise Ally now raises a fallen party member as a ghoul and has no reagent. Available at level 72. This should now last for 4 minutes.
- Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (two-handed only) now grants 25 Defense and 2% Stamina.
- Rune Strike: Damage decreased from 200% to 150% but threat increased to 150% from 100%.
- Shadow of Death: The duration has been changed from 45 seconds to 25 secondsseconds and now has a 15 minute cooldown.
- Summon Gargoyle: Damage dealt by the Gargoyle reduced by approximately 20% and maximum duration cut to 30 seconds.
- Unholy Blight had had its cost reduced from 60 to 40 runic power.
- Wandering Plague will now properly reset after being castand now considers the resilience of the target in determining its chance to be triggered.
- Vampiric Blood (DK) changed from 20% health / 50% healing to 15 % health / 35% healing.
- Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded. It no longer affects the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell and retains the current damage reduction bonus.
Druids
- Aquatic Form is now available from druid trainers at level 16.
- Celestial Focus (Balance) no longer includes Starfall.
- Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
- Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
- Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
- Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
- King of the Jungle - The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
- Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
- Nature's Grace - Now also effects Revive.
- Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
- Polearms: Now trainable by Druids.
- Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
- Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
- Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
- Starfall: Instead of canceling shapeshifting, now cancels on shapeshifting into an animal form.
- Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
- Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
- Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.
Hunters
- Hunter Aspects are now off the Global Cooldown again. They still have a shared 1 second cooldown.
- All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
- Arcane Shot: Mana cost lowered to match the cost of Steady Shot.
- Aspect of the Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
- Call of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only the Hunter and their own pet.
- Deterrence: Design changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to "deflect" spells coming from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking. Lasts 5 seconds and has a 90 second cooldown.
- Explosive Shot: Damage increased substantially, and additional scaling added to compensate Survival Hunters for the decrease in power of Steady Shot. No longer deals damage to secondary targets.
- Ferocious Inspiration: This talent now also increase the damage the Hunter does with Arcane Shot by 3/6/9%.
- Improved Tracking(Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Kill Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
- Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
- Lock and Load: Now has a 30 second cooldown.
- Readiness: No longer resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
- Steady Shot: Now gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
- Serpent’s Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
- Tranquilizing Shot (Hunter): Cooldown increased to 8 sec, up from 6. Mana cost reduced to 8%, down from 12%.
- Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
- Viper Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
- Volley: The damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack power scaling).
- Pets
- All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
- The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Poison (Scorpid) has been lowered.
- Rake: This hunter pet ability has had its damage adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
- Scorpid Poison: No longer stacks. The damage has been adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
- Spirit Strike (hunter pet ability) now has an initial attack (which can crit) and then a single dot. Damage overall is higher.
Mages
- Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.
- Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.
- Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.
- Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.
- Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 25/40/50%.
- Incanter’s Absorption: The amount of spell damage a Mage can gain from this ability is now capped at 5% of the mage’s health.
- Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.
- Slow Fall is now castable on others.
- Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).
Paladins
- Avenging Wrath: Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Avenging Wrath cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other anymore. Forbearance removed from Avenging Wrath.
- Divine Protection: The penalty has been removed.
- Divine Shield: The penalty has been changed so that all damage done is reduced by 50% in place of an attack speed penalty.
- Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It’s a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.
- Judgements of the Pure: This Holy talent now increases the damage done by Seals and Judgements.
- Judgement of Wisdom: Now returns a percentage of base mana instead of a percentage of max mana.
- Sacred Duty: Interaction with Divine Shield and Divine Protection removed, but stamina bonus increased.
Priests
- Abolish Disease and Cure Disease can now be cast while in Shadowform.
- Holy: Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.
- Levitate is now castable on others.
- Mana Burn: Now burns a percentage of maximum mana.
- Shadow
- Shadowform: You can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting.
- Vampiric Embrace- Mana cost of this spell has been removed.
Rogues
- Cheap Shot: This ability no longer has diminishing returns against anything other than itself.
- Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
- Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.
- Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.
Shaman
- All shaman talent points have been refunded. Please visit your trainer to learn spells and abilities.
- Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
- Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
- Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
- Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
- Mental Quickness and Static Shock have switched positions in the talent tree.
- Mental Quickness: Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.
- Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
- Tremor Totem's duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
- Elemental
- Elemental Oath: In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
- Elemental Mastery: Redesigned. Now increases the Shaman’s critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains at 3 minutes.
- Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
- Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
- New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
- Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and it’s talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
- Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%
Warlocks
- Curse of Agony will now scale better when used with the Glyph of Curse of Agony. Ticks beyond the original duration will do 33% more damage than the ticks that preceded them. i.e. 74 -> 145 -> 217 -> 290.
- Demon Armor and Demon Skin: Armor increased by approximately 120%.
- Demonic Circle: The teleport now clears all snare effects.
- Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
- Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
- Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.
Warriors
- Bloodthirst: Charges have been decreased to 3, but the effect has been raised to 1% per charge.
- Fury: Bloodsurge: Now has a chance to trigger from any hit with Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst, or Whirlwind.
- Fury:Titan's Grip: The hit chance penalty has been removed.
- Sudden Death: The amount of rage spent on an Execute while Sudden Death is active is now capped at 30 rage. Improved Execute and the Glyph of Execute will still increase the damage done by increasing the amount of rage able to be converted into damage.
- Taunt: Range increased to 30 yards.
Professions
- Alchemy
- All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create.
- The Cooldown on Transmute: Titanium has been reduced to 1 day, and the materials required have been simplified.
- Reduced the cooldown on Northrend Alchemy Research from 7 days to 3 days.
- The chance to discover a Northrend transmutation has been increased.
- Changed the Crazy Alchemist Potion so it always gives health and mana. It also grants the benefit of another random potion effect.
- Potion of Nightmares functionality changed. You can now move to interrupt the effect, and damage taken is no longer increased while you are under the effects of this potion.
- Added a new recipe for Ethereal Oil to grand master alchemy trainers.
- You can now discover a recipe for the Elixir of Water Walking with Northrend Alchemy Research.
- Blacksmithing
- Reduced the spell power on the Titansteel Guardian to bring it in line with its item level.
- Increased the material requirements to make high level frost resistance gear created with blacksmithing.
- Increased the materials required to make several recipes that require cobalt.
- Added a new recipe for shield reinforcements that increases the block value of shields.
- Cooking
- A recipe has been added for Kungaloosh. You can learn this recipe from an NPC in the Dalaran sewers once you have completed the quest 'The Taste Test' in Sholazar Basin.
- A recipe for the incredible Fish Feast can now be purchased for Dalaran Cooking Awards.
- Succulent Orca Stew and Shoveltusk Soup have been removed from the requirements for any cooking achievements as they will not be added to the game.
- A new recipe for Worg Tartare is now available for purchase with Dalaran Cooking Awards. This delicacy imbues hit rating and Stamina upon those brave enough to eat it.
- Enchanting
- Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them.
- Increased the Fire damage inflicted by the Icebreaker weapon enchantment.
- Reduced the armor penalty granted by the Berserking weapon enchantment.
- Increased the amount of healing from the Lifeward enchantment.
- Increased the amount of damage caused by the Icebreaker enchantment.
- Added a new recipe to enchant bracers with Stamina. You can buy this recipe from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran.
- Engineering
- Engineers may now be able to properly engineer Centrifuge Constructs.
- Reduced the cooldown and increased the duration of the effect for Hyperspeed Accelerators.
- Added a new recipe for epic plate spell power goggles.
- Weakness Spectralizers are now usable by druids.
- The Saronite Bomb recipe now creates a lot more bombs for the same material cost. While this breakthrough was discovered by goblins, all engineers can take advantage of it.
- Gnomish Lightning Generator has had its cast time and cooldown reduced.
- The engineering Scrapbot can now repair.
- Inscription
- Jessica Sellers, a new vendor in the Dalaran inscription shop, will sell most inscription inks for the cost of one Ink of the Sea. She also sells Snowfall Ink for multiple Inks of the Sea.
- A new recipe for Glyph of Arcane Blast has been added to Master and Grand Master Inscription trainers.
- Jewelcrafting
- Added a new recipe to convert a frozen orb and some green quality gems into several superior quality gems.
- Reduced the spell power granted by the use effect of the Figurine – Twilight Serpent, but reduced the cooldown significantly.
- Leatherworking
- Iceborne Belt pattern skill up range has been increased to the correct range.
- The epic leg armor patches now require a Frozen Orb in addition to their other materials.
- Mining
- Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.
- Weakened Giants and Iron Rune Sentinels can now be correctly mined.
- Skinning
- Increased the critical strike rating granted by ranks 5 and 6 of Master of Anatomy.
- Carrion Fleshstrippers are now skinnable.
- Tailoring
- Reduced the cloth required to make a Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.
- Simplified the materials required for Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread.
- Reduced the eternals required to make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread, but increased the number of Iceweb Spider Silk.
- Greatly reduced the materials required to make the self-only tailoring leg enchants (Master's Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread), but these recipes no longer grant any skill gains.
- Reduced the training cost for the normal Flying Carpet.
- Ebonweave now requires the tailor to be in the Maw of Neltharion in Dragonblight to creating it.
- Spellweave now requires the tailor to be at the Azure Dragonshrine in Dragonblight when creating it.
Quests
- The quest, "Scare the Guano Out of Them!" now only requires 10 Darkclaw Guano, down from 15. Also, only the character that scared the bat, or their party, may now loot the guano.
- Shoveltusk Meat obtained during the quest; "Shoveltusk Soup Again?" is now correctly flagged as a quest item with no sell price.
- During the quest, "Scalps!" you can no longer use Ahunae's Knife to scalp kills that you aren't tapped to.
- The path followed by the Har'koa's Kitten during the quest, "I Sense a Disturbance" has been improved.
- Westguard Sergeants, Winterhoof Braves, and Ethereal Frostworgs should no longer attempt to attack their opposite faction counterparts unless the character controlling them is first attacked.
- Westguard Sergeant and Winterhoof Brave demoralizing shouts will now only affect the Winterskorn Vrykul and worgs at Skorn.
- Various fixes to the Queen Angerboda event during the quest, "The Slumbering King".
- The daily quest, "Shoot 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from 10.
Dungeons and Raids
- The Obsidian Sanctum
- Players will now be affected by Twilight Residue when they leave the Twilight Realm. Twilight Residue grants immunity to Fire and Shadow damage for a few seconds.
User Interface
- Chat frames can now be made “Noninteractive”. When in this state, they will ignore all clicks.
- Various filters can now be applied to Achievements.
- A special UI for chatting with GMs has been added.
- For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.
Items
- Emblems of Heroism can now be purchased at a 1 to 1 rate using Emblems of Valor.
- The Darkmoon Faire exotic vendors have been updated with new items.
- Amberglow Signet now correctly grants Hit Rating.
- Deadly Gladiator’s Refuge has had its 4 piece set bonus changed. It now reduces the cooldown of Swiftmend by 2 seconds.
- Deadly Gladiator's Staff has had the Agility and Critical strike rating restored to ratios consistent with other instances of the Gladiator's Staff.
- Dreamwalker Battlegear: The Rip bonus is now 4 seconds instead of 3.
- Druid Feral Tier 7 Set: The 4 piece bonus now also decreases the cooldown on Tiger’s Fury by 3 seconds.
- Druid Restoration Tier 7 Set: The Rejuvenation bonus has been changed to affect Lifebloom instead.
- Gifts and Pledges of Adoration for the capital cities are now soulbound.
- The Flag of Ownership now has only a 60s cooldown to match the 60s duration of the flag.
- The following crafted weapons have had their stats adjusted to properly reflect their intended power:
- Corroded Saronite Edge, Corroded Saronite Woundbringer, Cudgel of Saronite Justice, Furious Saronite Beatstick, Saronite Spellblade, Saronite Shiv, Savage Cobalt Slicer, Notched Cobalt War Axe, Sturdy Cobalt Quickblade, Cobalt Tenderizer
- Living Lashers can now properly be skinned with Herbalism.
- Players can now open clams while riding a vehicle, sitting, mounted, stealthed, and invisible.
- Reduced the stats on the Savage Cobalt Slicer to match the weapon's level.
- Some low-level rogue pvp gloves were accidentally omitted from the patch 3.0.3 update. This has been rectified.
- Some neglected creatures in Icecrown have found the contents of their pockets.
- Totem of Hex now correctly grants 165 spell power to Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, up from 85.
- The white Polar Bear mount is now the proper (larger) size.
- Glyphs
- Glyph of Conflagrate now makes it so your Conflagrate spell no longer consumes the Immolate or Shadowflame spell from the target.
- Glyph of Death and Decay has been changed to grant 20% additional damage instead of its current effect.
- Glyph of Hammer of Justice: Now increases range by 5 yards instead of increasing stun duration.
- Glyph of Invisibility duration has been increased.
- Glyph of Deterrence: Now -10 seconds instead of -20.
- Glyph of Holy Light now affects friendly targets in a larger radius.
- Glyph of Horn of Winter now increases the duration by 60 sec.
- Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Now increases the duration of the effect by a fixed amount of 6 seconds.
- Glyph of turn evil now also increases the cooldown of your turn evil spell by 8 sec.
World Environment
- Incapacitating Shout now has an 8 second duration.
- Conquered Soul of the Blightcallers are no longer AE immune.
- Corrected a raid emote in Violet Hold to display the proper creature name.
- Corrected a redundant aura tooltip for Locust Swarm in Naxxramas.
- Several creatures in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas did not have Heroic values for hit points and damage.
- Storm Peaks, Grom'arsh Crash Site - Peon Gakra is now an innkeeper and the zeppelin hull, an inn.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.
- Racials
- Berserking: Can now be used properly while under the affects of Hand of Protection.
- Heroic Presence: Now works properly in Ghost Wolf Form.
- Shadowmeld: This ability will now properly restore threat when it is cancelled. In addition, it will correctly remove a player from combat if it is active when that player is the last person left alive that the creature hates. This ability is now also unusable while affected by Faerie Fire.
- Will of the Forsaken: Using this ability while disoriented would trigger it’s cooldown to no affect; it is no longer useable while disoriented.
- Classes
- Death Knights
- Blood Aura Will now always do the correct amount of healing, based on the actual damage taken of the target.
- Blood Caked Blade: Now does the proper damage amount when triggered by an off-hand weapon.
- Bloody Strikes: The tooltip for this talent now has correct values.
- Butchery: Will now always grant 20 runic power, regardless of the creature type killed.
- Chains of Ice: This ability is no longer able to land on death knights who have Anti-Magic Shell active.
- Crypt Fever: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. Will also no longer incorrectly increase Death and Decay damage.
- Corpse Explosion: Fixed a bug where how much Runic Power the Death Knight had was affecting the damage done, and also increased the damage substantially.
- Dancing Rune Blade: The weapon no longer echoes the Raise Dead and Army of the Dead spells. In addition it will now more closely match the master’s damage and will cast Rune Strike when its master does.
- Death Chill: The effect from this talent will no longer be consumed if Killing Machine is active.
- Death Pact: This will no longer cause guards to attack the Death Knight.
- Desecration: will no longer break stealth.
- Ebon Plague: It is no longer possible to have a duration longer than the disease which caused it. It will no longer stack with Crypt Fever used by another character.
- Frost Fever: This talent now works properly when spell reflected.
- Gnaw: This ghoul ability is now able to be set on autocast.
- Icy Clutch: This will now be applied properly in all cases to targets that gain Frost Fever via the Pestilence ability.
- Mark of Blood now works correctly with periodic damage.
- Pestilence: The diseases will now spread correctly even when the damage from Pestilence kills the primary target.
- Raise Dead no longer puts you in combat when you cast this spell.
- Shadow of Death: This ability will no longer cause tracking abilities to become inactive when the death knight becomes a ghoul.
- Tundra Stalker (Rank 1) will now work properly on Death and Decay.
- Unholy Blight: Will no longer cause spell pushback.
- Druids
- Bear Form: This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
- Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Maim: Tooltip adjusted to match the duration the ability has always had.
- Opening: Opening doors and objects should no longer cause shapeshifted forms to be cancelled.
- Rake: The initial damage from this ability is now properly considered bleed damage, and will be increased by Mangle and Trauma.
- Savage Fury - Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
- Starfall will no longer cause nearby creatures to become hostile for no apparent reason while the Druid is affected by fear effects. In addition, it will no longer pick ambient creatures as targets.
- Survival Instincts: The extra health from this ability now persists in all forms, but the ability can only be activated in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form. This prevents the health gain from occurring multiple times if constantly shapeshifting.
- Swiftmend: Riptide will no longer cause this ability to light up, and this ability will no longer sometimes consume Earthliving off the target.
- Hunters
- Aspects: All aspects now have a 1 second global cooldown.
- Aspect of the Beast: Will now increase Hunter pet attack power by the correct amount.
- Aspect of the Viper: Beast Lore, Scare Beast, and Tame Beast will no longer trigger mana regeneration from this ability.
- Call of the Wild: Now only works on the pet and their own master.
- Carrion Feeder: No longer causes extremely large amounts of threat when the pet gains happiness.
- Chimera Shot: The secondary effects of this shot will now still be triggered even when the target dies from the ability’s damage.
- Cower: Now longer shares a cooldown with Growl, but has its own separate cooldown.
- Dust Cloud: This pet ability will now be cast by the pet at the target instead of while they are moving toward the target.
- Marked for Death: Now works properly for Steady Shot and Glyph of Steady Shot.
- Master’s Call: Now makes the pet immune to roots and snares for the duration as well, allowing the pet to break roots on the target even when the pet is rooted.
- Nether Shock: Pets will now correctly use this ability on all targets, not just mana users.
- Noxious Stings: When this talent triggers Wyvern Sting, the Wyvern Sting will now last the proper duration.
- Owl’s Focus: Free abilities will no longer consume this effect.
- Prowl: This ability will no longer sometimes turn autocast on by itself.
- Sniper Training: Now increases the damage of Aimed Shot by the correct amount.
- Spirit Strike: This pet ability’s duration and period have both been reduced to 6 seconds.
- Spore Cloud: This ability will now work properly.
- Swipe: The tooltip has been adjusted.
- Tracking: Entering an arena no longer disables tracking types.
- Fixed a bug that allowed Viper’s Sting to target death knights. They are now invalid targets.
- Mages
- Arcane Missiles: This spell now only has one chance to trigger Arcane Concentration.
- Brain Freeze: This talent can now be triggered by Blizzard.
- Burnout: This talent will now properly charge the mage additional mana when Living Bomb causes a critical strike.
- Fingers of Frost: This talent can now trigger properly from Frost Armor.
- Frost Nova: Will now properly overwrite the effect of Shattered Barrier and of Frostbite.
- Icy Veins: The spell pushback reduction from this talent now works on Frostfire Bolt.
- Improved Scorch: This talent no longer triggers effects that trigger on casting a spell.
- Incanter’s Absorption: This talent will now work properly when the mage is sitting.
- Living Bomb: Now triggers Ignite when it causes a critical strike. In addition, the final explosion will now still occur even if the mage is affected by a crowd control effect.
- Molten Fury: This talent will now interact correctly with Torment the Weak.
- Precision: Frostfire Bolt will no longer receive double the intended benefit from this talent.
- Spell Power: Now affects the critical strike chance of Blizzard.
- Paladins
- Devotion aura: When mixing two different ranks of this ability in a party, players will no longer sometimes see a spurious second copy of the buff.
- Hand of Freedom: Now works properly against the froststorm Breath Hunter pet ability.
- Judgement of Blood, Judgement of Command, and Judgement of the Martyr will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Judgement of Light: The tooltip has been corrected to remove the implication that it only works on melee attacks.
- Judgement of the Wise: The amount of mana gained has been corrected to match the tooltip.
- Pure of Heart: This talent will no longer cause Curse of Agony to do more damage than intended.
- Repentance: Avenger’s Shield no longer breaks Repentance, but unfortunately, Seal of Vengeance and Corruption damage will break it again. This will be corrected in a future patch.
- Righteous Vengeance: This talent will now calculate its damage correctly when the damage is absorbed. In addition this ability will no longer cause excessive damage when refreshed on targets with damage reduction effects active.
- Seal of Command: The tooltip has been adjusted to show the damage gained from spell power.
- Shield of Righteousness now properly shares a cooldown for both ranks.
- Priest
- Dispersion: This ability can no longer be cast while affected by Cyclone; doing so consumed the cooldown to no effect.
- Guardian Spirit: It is no longer possible for simultaneous killing blows to trigger the heal from this ability multiple times.
- Improved Holy Concentration: The tooltip has been rewritten to indicate that this talent reduces cast time rather than providing haste.
- Mind Flay: Fixed a bug with targeting where you would not deal damage if not facing the target while channeling. Also corrected an issue where the damage from this ability was slightly delayed.
- Prayer of Mending: Will now only benefit from the healing talents of the priest who cast the original spell.
- Rapture: This talent will now correctly return mana for Power Word: Shield based on the caster’s mana poll instead of the target’s mana pool.
- Shadow Weaving: Shadow Word: Death: Will now only apply one copy of this buff per cast.
- Shadow Word: Pain now will gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Surge of Light: Prayer of Mending will no longer sometimes cause Surge of Light to trigger on Priests who do not have that talent.
- Twisted Faith: This talent will no longer sometimes cause Shadow Word: Pain to fail due to a more powerful spell being in effect.
- Rogues
- Envenom: The tooltip values have been corrected to be accurate.
- Fan of Knives: All poisons will now trigger correctly when used with this ability.
- Honor Among Thieves: The bug where stacking multiple rogues with this talent caused them all to gain additional combo points has been fixed. In addition, it no longer cancels eating and drinking if a party member gains a critical strike while it is active.
- Killing Spree: This ability no longer breaks stealth if it fails due to all targets being out of range.
- Mutilate: this ability will no longer give poisons on the off-hand weapon two chances to be triggered.
- Turn the Tables: This talent no longer generates threat when it triggers.
- Shaman
- Chain Heal: This spell will now give an invalid target error message if the primary target is a totem.
- Earth Shield: Now correctly uses the Shaman’s own spell critical strike chance to determine the chance of a critical heal.
- Elemental Shields was reducing flat physical damage, not a percentage. Now properly reduced by a percentage.
- Lava Lash - Fixed a bug which allowed you to use the ability even if you had a shield in offhand. Now requires a 1hand axe, fist or dagger to be able to be used.
- Fixed a bug where Thunderstorm (Elemental) was knocking back 15 yards, instead of 20. It should now roughly knockback the correct length of 20 yards.
- Magma Totem: Fixed a bug that capped the damage of this ability at too low of a level.
- Resistance Totems: Players will no longer see two copies of these buffs when two shamans cast the totems simultaneously.
- Spirit Walk: This Feral Spirit ability will now properly clear roots and snares from the Shaman master.
- Stoneclaw Totem: The tooltip has been revised to indicate the damage absorb shield also works on the Stoneclaw Totem itself.
- Warlock
- Warlock Pets: Some pets were not properly classified to receive correct creature scaling for Wrath of the Lich King. Their health and damage done will now be higher.
- Corruption will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Create Healthstone: Attempting to create a healthstone when you already have one no longer consumes mana or triggers the cooldown of this ability.
- Demonic Circle: Teleport: the button for this ability will now darken when the Warlock is out of range of the Demonic Circle and will light up when the Warlock is in range.
- Demon Power Scaling: Spell power gained from spirit via the Fel Armor ability will now properly affect the scaling of spell power and attack power on summoned demons.
- Drain Mana: This spell will no longer cancel when the target’s mana poll is low or the caster’s mana poll is full. It also now generates a very small amount of threat instead of no threat.
- Everlasting Affliction: Will now calculate correct damage values for Corruption when it is refreshed in all cases.
- Haunt: Will now gain correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target. In addition, this ability is now limited to a single target as intended. This also now works properly when refreshed on its current target.
- Mana Feed: This talent will no longer sometimes fire for warlocks who do not have the talent.
- Master Conjuror: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not increase the damage bonuses of Firestones or Spellstones.
- Metamorphosis: The bonus armor effect from this ability will now calculate properly and interact correctly with armor buffs and debuffs.
- Ritual of Doom: A Doomguard summoned with this spell will now scale properly from its master’s stats.
- Shadow Embrace: This ability will now create a separate debuff stack for each Warlock with the talent, and each warlock will benefit properly from his or her own debuff.
- Soul Siphon: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Unstable Affliction: Will now gain the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
- Warrior
- Bladestorm: Fixed a bug where sometimes stuns and roots would not be removed properly when this ability is used.
- Damage Shield: Rank 1 of this ability now works properly.
- Heroic Throw no longer triggers the snare from Mage Frost Armor.
- PvP
- The Wintergrasp Aura should now properly update in all instances, transferring the buff when the zone control changes.
- Arena: Dalaran Sewer: The Flush effect which pushes players out will now also remove the ability to use Demonic Circles summoned during the arena start time.
- Items
- Idol of the Emerald Queen: This idol was providing greater healing than implied by its tooltip. It has been reduced to correct value.
- Glyph of Ambush: This glyph will now interact correctly with Initiative when Ambush is used outside of combat range.
- Glyph of Charge: The stun from Charge will now work properly when Charge is used with the extra range from this glyph.
- Glyph of Corpse Explosion: Additional explosions from this glyph will no longer consume Unholy Runes.
- Glyph of Rejuvenation: The heal from this glyph is now properly considered a periodic heal.
- Gronstalker Set: The Aspect of Viper bonus from this set has been changed to work correctly with the redesigned Aspect of the Viper.
- Mana Potions: Warriors and Death Knights now receive a correct error message when attempting to use mana potions.
- Scrolls: Buffs from scrolls can now only be overwritten by more powerful scrolls.
- Soul Preserver: This item will now interact correctly with Desperate Prayer, Lay on Hands, Riptide, and Wild Growth.
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News Index
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WoW: Lich King Only PC Game Nominated for EMA Award
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WoW General News - Jan 19, 2009 5:25 PM PST | Posted by SWATJester
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The Entertainment Merchants Association, the trade association representing game sellers, has released their nominees for their 2009 Video Game Home Entertainment Awards. (Note to EMA: Terrible name. Change it.) A total of 90 nominees were recognized in 20 categories that encompass the most-popular gaming platforms and genres. Winners will be announced at Game Supply: The Supply Chain Academy for Interactive Entertainment on February 11, 2009 in Burbank, CA. The full list of nominees is available here.
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King somehow managed to be the ONLY nominee for PC game of the year. Takes a bit of the suspense out of who will win doesn't it? The nod was the only nomination for WoW; though publisher Activision Blizzard was nominated for Third Party Video Game Publisher of the Year, competing against EA and Ubisoft.
Interestingly enough WoW:WotLK was the only clearly PC-only game on the list. While there certainly other nominees that had PC ports (Fallout 3, Call of Duty 5, etc.), it looks like the EMA gave PC-only games the shaft this year. For more information, or to express your disappointment, feel free to contact Grace Lee of the EMA.
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News Index
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Figureprints Announces No More Waiting
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WoW General News - Jan 18, 2009 4:49 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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When I was at BlizzCon, a company called Figureprints showed me how they made figure sout of peoples characters. It was amazing to watch. The only problem they were having was the demand to get orders completed. According to WorldofWarcraft.com, that has changed. Check it out:
FigurePrints, which lets you order custom 3D figures of World of Warcraft characters, complete with gear and a choice of poses, has grown immensely since their launch in 2007 to meet the high demand for their collectible statues. Because of the increased production capacity now available, the lottery/waiting list system is no longer necessary, and you can place an order immediately. For more information or to order your own personal FigurePrint, visit the FigurePrints website at www.figureprints.com
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
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WoW General News - Jan 8, 2009 11:24 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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A lot of us have been experiencing latency issues, this is just in from WorldofWarcraft.com and the forums.
For the last several weeks, our players have been experiencing periodic latency in both outdoor Northrend areas and Naxxramas, and we wanted to provide you with several updates on what we're doing to resolve these issues. As many players have discovered, the outdoor Northrend latency has been tied to activity in Wintergrasp. We are actively working on a server-side fix that should address the high latency experienced in the outdoor world when Wintergrasp is active. This fix is currently in testing on internal test realms and we anticipate that we'll be able to push it to live realms in the near future. Concerning Naxxramas, optimizations are being made that will address both the latency and disconnection issues affecting players while in that zone. These optimizations will be included with the next minor content patch.
We appreciate your patience as we work to address these issues.
-Eyonix
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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Unlocking the Kirin Tor Familiar
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WoW General News - Jan 7, 2009 9:37 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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A lot of us love those vanity pets, especially rare one. The folks at WarcraftPets.com have shown us how to unlock this pet via one of the achievements. Here is the full scoop!
The Kirin Tor Familiar is an arcane elemental vanity pet that may be obtained after completing the Higher Learning achievement. This achievement requires you to read eight different books on The Schools of Arcane Magic (which is a reference to the schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons). Each book spawns in a specific location in Dalaran. The book that spawns may be the book for the achievement or one of many humorous "flavor" books, which do not give credit for the achievement.
If you are fortunate enough to find one of the achievement books, you get credit for reading it by simply clicking on it. There is no channeling involved, and multiple players can read the same book. If you find a flavor text, you should read it in order to reset the timer to try to get the achievement book to spawn. After reading any book, it will despawn three minutes later. A new book will then respawn in 3-4 hours.
Once you have completed the achievement, you will receive a book, The Schools of Arcane Magic - Mastery, in the mail from Rhonin, the Leader of the Kirin Tor. Using this book will transport you to the spires atop Violet Citadel, where you will find Archmage Vargoth. After talking to him, he will teach you how to summon your new pet!
Higher Learning Books and Locations
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Introduction
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Abjuration
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Conjuration
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Divination
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Enchantment
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Illusion
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Necromancy
-The Schools of Arcane Magic - Transmutation
Camping vs. Pathing
-Time the Spawns
-Plan Your Route
-Recruit Friends Camping vs. Pathing
-Time the Spawns
-Plan Your Route
-Recruit Friends
The guide with screenies is avaialble here!
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News Index
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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A Quest: The RP Guild and Me
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WoW General News - Dec 30, 2008 9:41 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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In my quest for RP in WoW, I have been searching for a guild to fit not only my character's storyline but my real life personality as well. Now this may sound simple but it was far more complex than even I had originally anticipated. I feel the best place to start is at the beginning, as it is the foundation for what I base this upon. My character, a priest, named Talibah is also on the server I play on but unlike all my other characters she is a Horde, blood elf.
Now, for RP to be believable and have some weight, it is recommended that you create a storyline of origin or history about your character. By doing so, it can explain personality traits, vulnerabilities and other reactions etc.
The background of this character, is that she is a noble fleeing an arranged marriage by a very gruff and domineering father who has no qualms about hiring mercenaries or killing those that get in his way. Since her mother is no longer alive to act as a buffer and protect her from her father's ever growing greed and desire for power, Talibah become his pawn to attain more of both. He promises her hand in marriage to align with a powerful and wealthy family.
Outraged, Talibah fights back the only way she knows how, she flees and is caught soon after. To establish his control and make her bend to his will he brands her back with his insignia, which scars her for life permanently. However, this does not have the desired effect and it makes her more determined to leave the life she has and begin anew to live how she feels she should. Again she run but becomes hunted by even people she trusted as friends. Her mistrust for strangers grows through her travels from city to city in her attempts to escape her father and those that serve him..
Her history is now in place, and it allows for interaction to entwine her story line with other players, have get involved and so on. In the process of all this, I made a few friends along the way by joining one guild in particular and found that via interaction another character was more than happy to help out in freeing mine. I was thrilled, I thought I found a stable and wonderful environment to hang my hat so to speak, but it was short lived. There were internal conflicts and I know even I am not the easiest person to get along with due to my own stubbornness.
I found guild policies I was not happy with, and as I run one it made it far more difficult to be in this environment. As I would suggest things only to be met with the proverbial slap in the face. Still feeling that I could "fix" things I decided to go the promotion route, which was also a disaster. The guild leader reversed the decision with no explanation, and the rumors I was told I give little weight as it sounded more like jealous teenagers vying for prom king/queen than anything of merit. I also found the leadership was extremely ineffective. As you can imagine I was none too pleased and left to create a guild with the few friends I made there.
This showed promise, but as the days went by I found that I was taking on more responsibility that I did not ask for and getting other help say for dungeons and so on was not very forthcoming. As much as it broke my heart to do so I left this guild and found another by asking around and speaking with a recruiter. Now, I am still "green" among the ranks but feel far more comfortable so far. I was pleased they screened me first. The guild mistress, in spite of the chaos surrounding them was willing to take a few minutes to explain where the guild story line is as so I no longer feel like a leaf being thrown about in the wind.
The true test if this is a good fit for me is time itself, but I will suggest these things when searching for an RP guild:
-Ask questions, it doesn't hurt to inquire about the things you look for.
-Ask other players within the guild how they like it.
-If they have a site, make sure you look at it, it tends to have a fountain of information.
-Interact with players in the guild, you can learn a lot by the RP you engage in.
-Let the people that you are joining know your history as you see fit and see how they react.
-Address any concerns via the proper chain of command, one does not like their toes stepped on and this shows you respect them.
-If you find the guild is not a good fit, tell them why if you choose to leave. It may help them improve things.
Now the above are only suggestions, but I find them very useful. Hopefully, they will help you as they helped me and I finally found a place to call home. So, good luck for those in the same quest as I am and may you find a home as well.
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News Index
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Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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Stratics Network Announcement - Dec 23, 2008 12:26 PM PST | Posted by Skycapp
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We want to take a minute to introduce the new Stratics In-Game Community Toolset that we're making available to the Stratics community completely free. Below you will find out how to download the new tools and information on how we're trying to improve your gaming experience.
We've been busy working with PLAYXPERT to deliver a totally unique experience for you while you play the games you love. This new technology allows you to use gamer-inspired tools without the need to alt-tab. Now for those of you with dual monitors, this is already an option. But for the majority of users out there this will be a new luxury, allowing you to surf the web, chat with friends, listen to music and even kill process's all while still in-game.
We have built these Stratics Community tools just for you.
DOWNLOAD HERE
The hand-picked widgets that will come standard for our users:
- Universal chat across all major chat IM tools (Yahoo, Xfire, Windows Live, ICQ, AIM, Gtalk)
- Pandora for your music listening pleasure while you're raiding or grinding in-game (Pandora has a US only restriction)
- Web browser widget so you can access the stratics news, reviews and even your guild pages while in-game and
- Switchblade so you can test playing your favorite games with a Xbox 360 controller.
- GoogleGadgets – Allows the user access to the wealth of Google Gadgets in-game
- Notepad – Gives the user the ability to use the Notepad application in-game to take notes for quests, locations, etc.
*The technology works on XP and Vista but the in-game overlay system will not be available to Vista users until January. Take note – the updater will auto-upgrade your vista version when the in-game support is added.*
More about the Technology:
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News Index
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
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WoW Community News - Nov 13, 2008 7:38 AM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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If the latency issues got you down Blizzard has created new realms and is offering free transfers. According to Bornakk on the WorldofWarcraft.com forums check out the details:
We will be offering free character moves from selected high population realms to a brand new realm, Fizzcrank, to assist in population dispersal. The ability to move a character on the selected source realms will become available starting on Monday, November 10 at 12:00PM PST, and is scheduled to run until Monday, November 24 at 12:00PM PST.
In the event that these realms meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience. No characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.
Once the transfers open you can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html
We will continue to evaluate realms and add more free character moves as we feel they are needed.
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News Index
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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WoW Community News - Nov 12, 2008 12:57 PM PST | Posted by Emuishere
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This came to me via Nethaera and if you use the WoW Forums it is important!
All forums on the official World of Warcraft forums will be temporarily switched over to read-only mode. While we would like to make every effort to ensure the forums allow the community to interact with each other, the current situation does not allow for this, or allow Blizzard to relay information to the community. Thus, all forums will be available as read-only to allow us to share information with the public. We hope that we can keep the limitation of access to a minimum and revert the forums to full functionality as soon as possible.
We have also posted up some information on the Wrath Launch Help Center that can be found here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12651004995&postId=126492765041&sid=1#0
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News Index
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Thursday, October 30, 2008
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WoW Community News - Oct 30, 2008 4:28 PM PDT | Posted by Emuishere
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In a bold business decision Blizzard made an announcement today in regards to some of the issues people have experinced since the release of the last patch. On the World of Warcraft forums, per Nethaara this is the latest!
"Since the release of the latest patch, Echoes of Doom, we have gone through a series of optimizations in order to increase overall game performance. We've seen steady, stable populations and a flurry of activity and excitement during the Hallow's End event and the latest rumblings of zombie attacks. It's been an exciting time for us as we draw closer to the release of our second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.
We've reached a point where we feel we can now accurately evaluate the events since the patch release. Though overall downtime has been minimal, players have experienced latency, inaccessible instances, and general frustrations. We are therefore announcing that we will be issuing compensation to accounts in all realms in the US, Oceanic, and Latin American regions. Accounts that are currently active and in good standing will be credited with an additional three days of game time.
We would like to thank you for your patience during this time and look forward to seeing you in game! "
I've played a variety of online games and I have never seen a company do something like this for their players. All I have to say is that this shows you how valued the members of World of Warcraft are!
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News Index
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Thursday, October 16, 2008
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Ret Paladins to be nerfed TO THE GROUND!
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WoW Developer Comments - Oct 16, 2008 7:27 AM PDT | Posted by Eldorian
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Ghostcrawler said this quote will probably come back to haunt him, so might as well make it start now :)
There's some disdain on retribution specced paladins and how powerful they are in PVP. Ghostcrawler has put out a statement that they are aware of these issues and do plan on doing something about the damage that retribution paladins are currently doing. Here's the snippet:
Since these threads seem to be proliferating, I figure'd I'd just start a new one. Here is a quick Q&A.
Q: Is Ret OP?
A: Perhaps. We think Ret's dps isn't abnormally high in PvE, and may
not even be high in PvP over the course of a long fight. Where we are
worried is how much damage Ret can do up front. It's also Holy damage,
which isn't a big deal when you're considering a fully sundered mob,
but can turn into a lot of damage in PvP.
Q: Are we going to nerf Ret?
A: TO THE GROUND BABY. Okay, not really, but sometimes I can't resist.
We'll see how much that quote comes back to haunt me. We will probably
be making some changes soon, perhaps even hotfixes. We want to be very
surgical about what we do. We don't want to overdo it, and we don't
want to hurt their sustained PvE damage. When we've decided, I'll make
sure you all know.
Q: Why did it take us this long to admit there was a problem when EVERYONE knew about it?
A: A couple of weeks ago there were some bugs with weapon equipping
that caused some problems that of course were being exploited. We
didn't want to nerf Ret TO THE GROUND BABY only to discover that the
weapon problem was causing 90% of it.
Q: Enough about Ret. Unholy death knights are worse!
A: That wasn't a question, but we think we have Unholy in a better
place now. We made some changes to a few deep talents (that the DK
community is already aware of, so don't fret) to get Unholy's dps more
in line. Also, you aren't going to see any PvP DKs for a long time, so
we need to focus on paladins for now.
Q: Hi. Thanks for the update. While you're here, can I ask you all
these other offtopic questions about paladins or the game in general?
A: ...
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News Index
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Saturday, October 11, 2008
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BlizzCon: Dungeons and Raids
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WoW Developer Comments - Oct 11, 2008 1:57 PM PDT | Posted by DJTyrant
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Blizzard held a panel this afternoon showcasing their new Dungeons and Raids coming in Wrath of the Lich King. We got a live walk through of the dungeons also to see exactly what they will look like, all the content seen is currently on beta so nothing mind blowing was announced but some good information was released:
Halls of Lighting (5 man)
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Five player dungeon located in The
Storm Peaks
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Discover the secrets of the Titans
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Epic lore + Epic gameplay =
Awesome
Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom (5 man)
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Another Old God encounter (C'Thun)
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Five player dungeon deep in the
heart of Azjol-Nerub
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Features both indoor and outdoor
terrain
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What horrors lie underneath
Northrend?
Chamber of the Aspects (10/25 man)
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Raid zone located inside Wyrmrest
Temple
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Expandable
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Choose your difficulty and reward!
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Hardest way is not killing any of
the Twilight Drakes; Twilight Drake as a reward, very difficult
Eye of Eternity (10/25 man)
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Home of Malygos, Aspect of Magic
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Showcases new features of
expansion
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Epic multiple phase fight.
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During the fight you receive help
from the Red Dragonflight
Itemization
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Higher quality loot from Heroic
dungeons
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Different currencies per raid tier
(emblem of heroism / emblem of valor)
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Separate sets for 10 and 25 player
raids
Q&A
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May have something to get people
out raid so you can keep raid moving
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Dunno about 10 / 25 legendaries;
more lite Ataiesh
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Not designing encounters for the
dual spec abilities
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Make decisions of older dungeons
based on how they fit into the storyline
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Emblems can be used to purchase
set pieces
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Attunements pretty much being rid
of (minus the summoning of Malygos)
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Hunter pet tanks should be able to
off tank
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More difficult encounters will
come in later, possibly not as hard as Sunwell
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Dropping more items per boss
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News Index
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WoW Developer Comments - Oct 11, 2008 1:54 PM PDT | Posted by DJTyrant
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Blizzard held a panel at BlizzCon this morning to let us in on some of the upcoming plans for the world of PvP in Wrath showing us some content from arenas, battlegrounds and Wintergrasp the new open PvP zone.
The Ring of Valor
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Looks similar to Gurabashi Arena
with two pits in the middle surrounded by spikes
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Arena located in Orgimar
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Animated Platforms – pillars
that rise up and down on specific times, block LoS, can be ridden on
also
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Dynamic Fire Hazard – timed
intervals on the strip on the ground, 10% of HP damage 3 ticks
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Very close starting positions –
rise on elevators in the middle of the arena, and start up very
close to each other, almost Roman gladiator style, very dynamic and
different from other arenas
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Pillars all have unique symbols so
that more complex matches (5v5) can have more coordination
Dalaran Sewers
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Small and compact, but wanted
unique gameplay decision
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Simple layout
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Dynamic Water Feature, not random
specific timer, creates LoS block; if you're standing on it when it
is coming up it will knock you back; not too much damage; brings a
much more dynamic feel to arena
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No Mounts allowed in this arena
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Starting areas off-limits
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Crates on corners of raised
platform for some permanent LoS strategy
Strand of the Ancients
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Attack/Defend type
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Upgrading it to 15/15 and double
the amount of siege vehicles
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Siege combat and destructible
buildings
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Colored walls to allow for easier
calling out
Wintergrasp
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Non-instanced PvP Zone
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Siege Vehicle Combat
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Something for players to do that
they cannot do anywhere else in the game
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Attack/Siege Map
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Rank system, checks to make sure
people are contributing
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Still find tuning the amount of
kills required to be able to get siege vehicles
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Destructible Buildings
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Coodown in between each game,
currently 2 ½ hours
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Benefits include daily quests, a
unique raid instance for the winning faction that drops PvP and PvE
loot and has a 1-day cooldown; all bosses will drop a form of
currency that you can use to purchase items in Wintergrasp
What's Next?
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Revisit PvP itemization, including
arena vs. battleground rewards
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Queue from anywhere
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Competitive battlegrounds or guild
battlegrounds (“TBD”)
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Experience gain in battlegrounds
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News Index
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Death Knight Creation FAQ Posted
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WoW Developer Comments - Oct 6, 2008 11:18 AM PDT | Posted by DJTyrant
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Nethaera has posted a nice quick, but detailed, F.A.Q. on Death Knight creation covering what realms you'll be able to create a Death Knight on, what the requirments are to create one and much more:
Q. What races can be a death knight?
A. Every race has the availability of being a death knight.
Q. Who is eligible to create a death knight?
A. Players who have at least one level 55 character on a realm may create a death knight on that realm.
Q. What if I have a level 55 character on one realm but want to create a death knight on another realm to play with friends?
A. At the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, you will only
be able to create a death knight on the same realm where you have an
existing level 55 or higher character. In the future, we plan to allow
the creation of a death knight on any realm (provided you have at least
one level 55+ character).
Q. Can I create a death knight on one realm and transfer it to another realm?
A. Yes, you will be able to transfer a death knight, using
either a free character move or a paid character transfer. Normal fees
still apply.
Q. Can I create a death knight on one account and transfer it to a new account?
A. Death knights can be transferred with the same fees and restrictions as any other character.
Q. If I move a death knight to another realm now, can I get
a refund later when the option to create a death knight anywhere is
available?
A. We will not be giving refunds to players who have
relocated a death knight to another realm prior to the open creation
point for all realms.
Q. Can I create a death knight on the opposite faction?
A. You will be able to create a death knight on the opposite
faction provided that it is on a PvE realm. The standard restrictions
for character creation apply for PvP realms.
Q. Is there a limit on how many death knights I can create?
A. You will only be able to have one death knight per realm
at any one time. Should you delete a death knight, you will still be
able to create a new one.
Source: World of WarCraft Forums
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News Index
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Burning Crusade Raids to be getting changes.
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WoW Developer Comments - Oct 3, 2008 2:19 PM PDT | Posted by DJTyrant
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Bornakk has posted what was reported by MMO-Champion on Wednesday and Blizzard will be tuning all Burning Crusade raids with the upcoming content patch. This includes all outdoor raids and all raids from Karazhan to Sunwell Plateau.
To coincide with the upcoming new talents and mechanic changes for classes in the next patch, we are making some adjustments in existing raid content to provide a smooth transition when the upcoming patch is released. The creatures and bosses in raid dungeons that were introduced in The Burning Crusade will have their health reduced, and most will have their standard melee damage output reduced as well, but their spell and ability damage are not being changed. These changes are being made in all raid dungeons from Karazhan to Sunwell Plateau as well as the outdoor encounters of Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker. On top of this Illidan is also doing his part and will stop casting Shear on players.
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News Index
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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Massive Nerf to current raid content coming?
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WoW Community News - Oct 1, 2008 1:45 PM PDT | Posted by DJTyrant
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MMO-Champion is reporting that the latest build of 3.0.2 has dropped the HP of most (if not all) trash and bosses in TBC raid instances. In general it looks to be around a 30% decrease. The reasoning for this nerf is fairly simple as there are massive changes to all the classes in the new patch and a big change to the way buffs and debuffs work in raids. Be sure to check out MMO-Champion for the full details but here are some hard numbers to take a look at:
The Sunwell Plateau
| Monster |
Health (TBC) |
Health (WotLK) |
| Sunblade Protector |
550,000 |
387,000 |
| Sunblade Slayer |
240,000 |
171,000 |
| Sunblade Arch Mage |
190,000 |
136,000 |
| Sunblade Cabalist |
190,000 |
136,000 |
| Sunblade Dawn Priest |
190,000 |
136,000 |
| Kalecgos |
3,700,000 |
2,180,000 |
The Black Temple
| Monster |
Health (TBC) |
Health (WotLK) |
| Coilskar Harpooner |
170,000 |
120,000 |
| Coilskar Soothsayer |
170,000 |
120,000 |
| Coilskar Sea-Caller |
170,000 |
120,000 |
| Dragon Turtle |
100,000 |
73,353 |
| Aqueous Spawn |
66,000 |
44,012 |
| Aqueous Lord |
440,000 |
309,000 |
| Leviathan |
550,000 |
387,000 |
| High Warlord Naj'entus |
3,800,000 |
2,655,000 |
| Dragonmaw Wind Reaver |
200,000 |
140,000 |
| Dragonmaw Sky Stalker |
200,000 |
140,000 |
| Dragonmaw Wyrm Caller |
200,000 |
140,000 |
| Bonechewer Worker |
60,000 |
17605 |
| Bonechewer Taskmaster |
170,000 |
120,000 |
| Illidari Fearbringer |
550,000 |
387,000 |
| Supremus |
4,500,000 |
3,186,000 |
Serpentshrine Cavern
| Monster |
Health (TBC) |
Health (WotLK) |
| Hydross The Unstable |
3,400,000 |
2,390,000 |
Note that this has not been officially confirmed yet, we will let you know when it is!
Source: MMO-Champion
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News Index
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