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Patch 4.2: Two New Hunter Pets, Molten Cats, and Dungeon Journal Interface Changes
There are a couple exciting things still left on 4.2's PTR worth checking out, so we've rounded them up here. These topics include two new hunter pets (
following up from Blizzard's original eight they introduced last week
), some new vanity items including a staff that turns you into a molten cat, and a lot of Dungeon Journal changes for functionality and appearance (it's looking very good).
We'll start with the hunter pets first since a lot of you were unimpressed with the five spiders, two spectral cats, and the reskinned owl of last week. Blizzard apparently listened to the masses and decided to add two very cool new models with their own trick for taming them.
Remaining Hunter Pets
Karkin
Karkin spawns in Fireplume Peak--you'll reach him by jumping off Skitterflame's Ledge. He is a crab with a shiny metallic skin that casts a frontal fire attack from range. Again, you will have to jump between floating rocks to get in range to tame Karkin, but not too close or else you’ll be attacked.
Skarr[/h3
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Ask the Devs #9: Tanking, Next Topic to be DPS
In Ask the Devs #9, Blizzard covers the topic of tanking. The topics addressed a number of practical concerns and provided insights into how Blizzard perceives the strengths and weaknesses for each tank. Topics included: the role of mastery for each tank, aggro-generating abilities for warriors and druids, the decreasing amount of tanks required in a raid, the OP nature of protection paladins, the possibility of new tank classes--and most importantly, when tanking classes will get a legendary weapon.
Stay tuned soon for the answers to
Ask the Devs #10: Damage Dealing.
Live
Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Notes - Updated 6/07
New patch notes Blizzard released late last night. We've got some feral changes for druids, DK nerfs, useful information about Season 10 arena gear, and clarification on Justice Points in 4.2--as well as even more rare tamable beasts for hunters to find!
General
New Daily Quests Available
A large assortment of all-new daily quests and rewards are now available in Hyjal, where players can help the
Guardians of Hyjal
push back the allies of
Ragnaros
and establish a forward operating base in the
Firelands
. In order to partake in the Regrowth and
Molten Front
daily quests, players must have at least completed up to and including the quest
Aessina's Miracle
. Once this quest has been completed, players should speak with
Matoclaw
in the Sanctuary of Malorne to take part in the Regrowth efforts.
All existing
Valor Points
s in the Currency tab have been converted to
Justice Points
. Any points above the Justice Point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of per point and mailed to characters.
Classes
Death Knight
[u
Live
New Dev Watercooler Blog: Content for the Casual 85
This new dev watercooler blog covers casual content for 85s. As we've covered in recent posts, there's a ton of content to do even if you don't raid with Firelands coming out: dailies, epic questlines, new achievements and zones. Blizzard has created great quest hubs and events that tie into the current plotlines before--Isle of Quel'Danas, the war efforts for Ahn'Qiraj, the Argent Tournament dailies to name a few--and now we get to read a dev's perspective on Firelands.
As this is my first dev watercooler, I thought some introductions would be in order. I'm the lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, but many of you may already be familiar with my writing and webcomics under the pen-name "Fargo" from years past. To all my new and old friends: Hello! I hope to have the opportunity for more chats like this in between cramming our game full of epic experiences capable of melting your frontal lobes with pure liquefied awesome. (It says that on my business card.)
I'm 85. Now What?
World of Warcraft has a pretty big footprint: we try to create a world that appeals to casual and hardcore players alike. There's a whole body of players -- be t
Live
News Roundup: Upcoming Daily Quests, 4.2 Currency Clarifications, BlizzCon Benefit Dinner Tickets
Just a few new Blizzard posts today, including an interesting discussion in which a player relates the idea of completing new daily quests to " to throw my pc in a river." How do you guys feel about the upcoming daily quest hubs? Excited for the new storyline, rewards and content? Or are you burned out over the idea of Isle of Quel'Danas 2.0? Be sure to let us know in the comments!
In addition, we have some clarification on how Justice, Valor and Honor points will be handled when 4.2 hits, with promise of an upcoming blog post covering the conversions and such in more detail - looking forward to it! Also, don't forget, tomorrow is your last chance to purchase tickets for the
BlizzCon Benefit Dinner
, available at $500 USD and includes admission to BlizzCon!
Patch 4.2 - Are You Excited For It?
In case you missed it, we posted an
extensive guide to the first stage of Hyjal daily quests
coming in patch 4.2. With these new quest hubs, the upcoming
Firelands raid content
, a [url=
http://www.wow
Live
PvP Season 9 Ending as early as June 21st, Patch 4.2 Soon After
Blizzard just posted the speculative end date to season 9 for PvP as soon as June 21st. While this isn't set in stone, it points to patch 4.2 and season 10 within a week after this. As such, our bets are on the last week of June or possibly the first week of July for 4.2, but we'll see. It's most likely that Firelands will have some sort of gated content if this release is so soon as there has been no heroic testing thus far and no indication that such encounters will be doable on live. Several fights still have major bugs, too, even on normal 25-man. As someone who has tested every encounter, I can say that it doesn't feel as completed as it usually does.
At any rate, hopefully Firelands' gating is not one as painful as Sunwell's was, if it indeed has one.
Arena and Rated Battleground Season 9 is scheduled to end as early as June 21. At that point we will determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards, a process that should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake to refrain from transferring their characters to anothe
Live
Patch 4.2: 3D Models for Firelands' Weapons and Offhands
Back in the beginning of March,
we posted a large collection of 3D models
for weapons and offhands we had discovered through datamining. Of course, this was all before Firelands was pushed into the next patch; with that bit of news, our models got lost in the depths of the blog.
However, since we recently provided a
list of drops from Firelands
, this is a good time to check out what these items will look like in addition to knowing their stats. Although the jury's still out on the tier sets, personally we think these models are looking pretty awesome.
Update:
We have included screenshots of the models that weren't previously mentioned in our blogs.
Live
Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14241 - New Items and Spell Changes
There was a small patch on the PTR today -- and we mean
really
small. The only item added was a new staff to Ragnaros' loot table:
Sho'ravon, Greatstaff of Annihilation
. The new pet biscuits are also now
Kibler's Bits
which now make your pets bigger, presumably it works on vanity pets as well.
There were also a couple of spell changes that we've posted below for you to look over.
Classes
Druid
Forum
|
Talent Calculator
Spell Changes
Thrash
:
Deals AP*0.192+1311 to AP*0.192+16170.0982+932 to AP*0.0982+1150 damage, and causes all targets within 8 yards to bleed for (AP * 0.0326 + 8150.0167 + 581 * 3) damage over 6 sec.
Hunter
Forum
|
Talent Calculator
Talents and Specialization
:
Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing 20352850 Shadow damage over 15 sec. Black Arrow shares a cool
Live
Patch 4.2: A Complete Guide to Stage One of the New Dailies
Patch 4.2 introduces a completely new daily quest hub and provides an excellent new direction for dailies. The only downside is that some of the quests are so enjoyable while others aren't half as cool; it creates a stark contrast of dailies that feel like fun and others that feel like a chore. Still, it's a lot better than other daily hubs of yesteryear and the rewards are much better. Our volunteers (Neutronimity and ArgentSun) plus myself have been doing the dailies every day, so we have a series of guides in the works for you!
The first stage of the Firelands Invasion serves as an introduction to the current events of Hyjal. The Guardians of Hyjal have made a call for all heroes to join them in their effort to protect Hyjal from Ragnaros' armies and to push the battle back to the Firelord's domain. Each stage of this effort in pushing them back becomes a stage of dailies to unlock. If your character hasn't completed the zone prior, you will first be asked to assist the four Ancients of Mount Hyjal. Only after this is done will you be able to join everybody else in their war against the Firelands.
As it's usual with PTR content, keep in mind that while there is a good chance that the content presented here will remain
Live
Shifty Hands: A Guide to Picking Pockets
Pick Pocket
, for the less-agile and uninitiated, is a unique ability allowing rogues in stealth to loot special items from hostile mobs without entering combat. If done sloppily, it can aggro mobs, annoy your party members, and make you look pretty clumsy. If done correctly (and with enough bag space), you can amass a collection of unique items, and if you’re lucky, some epics inside of a lockbox. There's a lot of mundane objects in the pockets of Azeroth, but one's trash is another's treasure--you might find something amusing like a trashy novel or loaded dice.
This is a guide using Wowhead's vast database to show you every fun item you can pickpocket in World of Warcraft. Either for vanity item collections or just to send your friend something fun, this list will help you rediscover Azeroth and more.
Live
Patch 4.2: Eight New Hunter Pets Preview
Two days ago, Blizzard dropped the bombshell that there will be eight new hunter pets to tame in 4.2--and that all of them will be rare spawns in the
Molten Front
zone that currently serves as a daily quest hub. Unfortunately, these pets aren't all that exciting since they're mostly spiders (PvP pets, anyone?) or reskins of old rares, but the mechanic they use is actually exciting. Taming them will be a unique challenge as each one has a brand new ability and mechanic meant to challenge players, sort of a throwback to the hunter quests of vanilla. So any hunter who fancies themselves a true marksman will probably want to get these guys just for the sake of getting them.
We've taken the liberty to track down these new creatures with the help of
our awesome friends at WoW Insider
and make a short video showing off their models while Perculia helped compile a bit of their strategies. We'd also like to thank
the forum goers from Petopia
for finding the names of a few we couldn't find yet.
[youtube=sBpEOQgBJOg w
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Patch 4.1 Hotfixes (5/19 - 6/1)
A few hotfixes today, the biggest ones are probably the "nerfs" to the goblin racial discount and Archaeology gains--even though they weren't working as intended.
May 20-June 1
Classes
Stationary ground effects should no longer move with the casting character if he or she moves (or is moved) from his or her current location.
Warlock
It is no longer possible under specific circumstances for players to keep the buff from the now-defunct Improved Demonic Tactics talent.
Charred Glyph
should not be increasing the spell damage of all warlock pets by 20%.
Dungeons & Raids
Blackwing Descent
Maloriak
now prefers to cast
on caster targets more than 15 yards away. Tank-specialized characters are not targeted, but Flash Freeze can chain onto them. If all the characters in the raid stack up within 15 yards of the boss, they can be hit by Flash Freeze.
Throne of the Tides
Unstable Corruption
s now award much less experience when killed on normal difficulty.
Live
Patch 4.2: Celestial Dragon, Nuts, Brilliant Kaliri, and Mylune's Call Preview
Vanity items and pets are fun. And if you like them, 4.2 has them in
droves
like any beefy content patch should.
To help show you some of these cool things, we threw together a quick video of the achievement pets plus an item that you get from the 4.2 dailies:
Mylune's Call
. Originally we were going to just describe the item and its effect in a post, but it's one of those you should see for yourselves hence the video. The effect is surprisingly cool and it can be yours after you complete the second stage of the dailies for a mere 2,800 gold.
The additional pets we're including are the achievement pets. 3D models don't give them justice, especially when their animations are so cool (and, in the case of one squirrel, downright silly).
Live
New Ghostcrawler Blog: Cataclysm Talent Tree Post-Mortem
Ghostcrawler's back after a hiatus from posting his developer blogs and this time he wants to talk talent trees. A lot of us aren't a big fan of the new trees, especially because it feels foreign to take an entire tree without looking up; frequently a good spec boils down to a cookie cutter spec with 1-2 points in a different ability or two.
Then again, cookie cutters
were
always popular--even in vanilla. Cataclysm just
streamlined
them. All in all, this is an excellent post-mortem into why Blizzard changed talents and how they feel about it currently, even if the system has its detractors. It's also a good examination into mastery and early leveling as well as endgame goals.
You may have noticed we changed class talent trees for Cataclysm. We changed not just the trees themselves, as you might expect for an expansion, but the entire structure of the trees and the way you choose talents. Now that the Cataclysm model has been in play for several months, the team has been discussing what we like and don’t like about it, and I thought that might be of interest to some of you. As always with this series, this is design rumination,
Live
Patch 4.2: Crystallized Firestones Used to Upgrade Gear Into Heroic iLevels
There's a new vendor and loot system up after today's patch on the 4.2 PTR. Outside of
Firelands
, there's a new vendor
Lurah Wrathvine
that flies on a
Flameward Hippogryph
. In exchange for one
Crystallized Firestone
--an item which drops from heroic mode bosses every kill--she will upgrade an item into its heroic version. It is worth mentioning that the base items for these upgradeables can come from both from the Valor Points vendor in Orgrimmar/Stormwind and from the Firelands raid. Currently only twenty-one items are affected, but what's the most important are that the relics are affected along with wands and other ranged weapon slots. This means that, unlike current content, we won't be in max ilevel gear with a significantly lower level relic slot.
Interestingly enough, there are also some items for other slots--like a leather belt and a necklace. This may mean that Blizzard will use this vendor to enhance loot tables without having to needlessly increase the diversity and RNG of a boss' loot table. It will be a smart way to make sure that seven bosses have an entire tier's worth of ilevel, for sure. As I speculated previously, with the loot tables being so varied, they had a good opportunity to pull s
Live
Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Notes - Updated 5/31
Blizzard has just updated the 4.2 Public Test Realm patch notes, with a handful of new class changes!
Notable changes include:
All character races now have a /roar sound.
8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
Warrior
:
weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12% (down from 20%) and
weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5% (down from 10%).
Check out the full changes!
General
All character races now have a /roar sound.
Classes: General
Pets
The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.
Classes
Death Knight
Talent Specializations
Frost
Annihilation now increases Oblit
Live
Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14199 - New Items, Icon, Spell Changes
A new patch has just hit the Public Test Realms, bringing a handful of changes previously announced with the
patch notes update
a few days ago! Class changes are fairly boring, mostly tooltip changes for clarity, though there are a few spell changes here and there - nothing extremely surprising.
Latest Additions
Only a small handful of items, as well, including some new Firelands weapons (and their Heroic versions) and a new Leatherworking armor kit,
Drakehide Leg Armor
. Most importantly, however, is the addition of a new companion pet:
Murkablo
! This lil' guy is taught by
Murky's Little Soulstone
and is most likely this year's
BlizzCon
pet.
Click here to see all the latest additions in our database!
New Icon
Only one new icon with this patch - an icon for
Murkablo
, the
Diablo-themed baby murloc
! Can't wait to see this little guy in action!
[icon nam
Live
Winged Guardian Hits Blizzard's Pet Store and All Races Get a Roar
Two fun new vanity features were just announced by Blizzard. The first is the long awaited
Winged Guardian
to the Blizzard store for $25 USD.
A new arrival has just landed in the Blizzard Pet Store: the majestic Winged Guardian flying mount, a titan creation designed to protect Azeroth’s most ancient secrets. As with the Celestial Steed, this Guardian of the Titans will carry you across Azeroth as fast as your riding skill will take you. Head over to the
Pet Store
to see this new addition and other World of Warcraft companions, and check out the
FAQ
for more information.
The second bit of information is that the /roar emote will now have roaring for all. If you recall, it was hotfixed out in 4.1 because Worgen had their own roar and other races didn't. Well, don't worry; now
everyone
has one.
Hey everyone!
Live
Tier 12 Set Bonuses and Stats Preview
It's starting to look like the tier set bonuses will be final now as the patch gets closer and closer without frequent changes to them. We figured this would be a good time to remind you of what they are plus show you the stats for the individual tier pieces so you could see what pieces you'll covet and what ones you'll wear offset for.
Visual Preview
Source
Slot
Price (Normal, 378)
Price (Heroic, 391)
Hands
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Gauntlets of the Fiery Vanquisher
Chest
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Chest of the Fiery Vanquisher
Legs
0
Valor Points
Base item +
Leggings of the Fiery Vanquisher
Helm
Helm of the Fiery Vanquisher
Base
Live
Patch 4.2: Ragnaros 10-man Preview and Strategy
We got a chance to check out Ragnaros yesterday on 10-man normal mode. Seeing a final boss for an instance on the PTR is a rare treat; Blizzard usually doesn't give away the end of the instance so easily and it was surprisingly polished except for a minor glitch with visuals on the platform.
As you might remember from
the dungeon journal entry
, Ragnaros is a three phase fight in normal mode. There's an additional fourth phase in heroic. We were able to get him down into phase three and close to a kill. He seemed a little undertuned, even if it was 10-man normal mode and it is PTR. It was just too easy to get down quickly. This was largely because few abilities were punishing--it was only in phase three and during intermissions which served as phase transition that you could wipe from a single mistake.
We made a quick video to show you the footage of our progress (special thanks to my guild
Out of Line
for being awesome and helping). This video is a rough guide and hopefully will give you a better overview of the fight's general progression. Of course, if you prefer text, there's a
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