This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
News
Live
Challenge Mode Guide: Rewards, Narrated Videos, Rules and Useful Items
Today's weekend guide covers Challenge Modes, a new type of dungeon introduced in Mists of Pandaria.
They're a great way to cap
Valor Points
, not to mention learning more about your class outside of a raid setting. You can also get a ton of achievement points and unique rewards along the way!
In this guide, we've previewed all the rewards you can achieve, from transmog gear to mounts, and gone over special gearing and zone rules. We've also included links to helpful walkthrough videos of each zone as well as Blizzard's realm leaderboards. Finally, we made a list of unconventional items that can help shave off seconds on your run, such as
Rod of Ambershaping
for crowd control.
Click the cut to read the guide!
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Challenge Modes
For the current Challenge Mode guide as of Patch 5.1,
click here
!
When
asked on Reddit
what their most exciting feature was for Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard responded with
Challenge Modes
. This feature has a lot of cool things in store: rewards include mounts and vanity armor, it's content you can't outgear, and it's a great way for skilled players on a limited schedule to access challenging content.
Challenge Mode Overview
Challenge Modes are timed heroic instance runs, done in low ilvl gear. Any gear worn above ilvl 463 will be scaled down. This ensures that running these instances will be challenging even in later tiers--you can't outgear it. In addition, the pulls will be more complex than on Heroic mode.
All nine Mists of Pandaria dungeons will come with Challenge Modes.
Durability will not be affected by running Challenge Modes, since you won't be getting items
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Challenge Modes
For the current Challenge Mode guide as of Patch 5.1,
click here
!
If seeing Dragon Soul nerfed every month isn't your thing, Challenge Modes in Mists of Pandaria may be more your style. Similar to
Herald of the Titans
, you'll beat bosses without overgearing them, getting special vanity prizes like unique transmog armor as rewards.
Overview
Challenge Modes are timed heroic instance runs, done in low ilvl gear. Any gear worn above ilvl 463 will be scaled down.
Gear will retain all hit and expertise, so players can remain capped. Stats that will be scaled down are secondary ones.
There are three tiers of achievements and rewards, listed below: gold, silver, and bronze.
Once players have beaten all the gold achievements, they have access to a
realm leaderboard
.
Challenge-mode leaderboards
allow players to filter by instance, time, and by guild.
Inspiration for challenge modes: timed Stratholme runs and the original Zul'Aman r
Live
Mists of Pandaria Loot Tables and Dungeon Journals
We've been holding off on posting the encounter journals and loot tables until they've gotten more filled out. Last Friday's patch, however, seems to have added a lot of data: there are loot tables and a lot more abilities added! The only journals that seem incomplete are the world bosses, which makes sense as they are probably deciding what mounts and rare items to assign them.
Be sure to check out each bosses and their back stories as well--
Hoptallus
is by far the most menacing of this expansion!
Raids
Straddling the mountain range between the Jade Forest and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, the Terrace of Endless Spring has been a sacred refuge for millennia. Its peaceful fountains are said to have the power to heal and rejuvenate, but when the Sha of Fear attacked, many of the complex's guardians turned on each other in fits of terror.
<h1><img class="bossicons" widt
Live
News Round Up: Class Beta Feedback, PvP Gear, Leaders of Azeroth
Today's news round up has a ton of blue posts. First off, there's a lot of detailed beta feedback for
Druid
s,
Hunter
s,
Priest
s, and
Warrior
s, including discussions about Level 90 Druid talents and Rapture for priests. There's also discussion about PvP gear in Mists,
nerfs, Dungeon bugs on beta, and the recent completion of the Leaders of Azeroth short story series. Click the cut to see all the posts!
PvP Gear in Mists
You will have less resilience on your gear coming into beta. However, you will also have some base resilience and that base should offset the PvP power that everyone is getting. The net result should be that you take about the same damage you do today in a PvP setting, but will take less damage from someone not wearing PvP gear.
Currently on your beta build, I believe the ratio of power to resilience is off. You should have more resilience and less power than you do.
It is entirely possible that some new talents or spell changes will result in too much burst damage in isolated cases, but when giving feedback, it's useful for us if you distinguish between those and survivabili
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Temple of the Jade Serpent Preview
Table of Contents
Wise Mari
Library Event
Liu Flameheart
Sha of Doubt
Video Preview
We ran through the
Temple of the Jade Serpent
today--it's a pretty quick instance but each wing is richly detailed. You can also buy all glyphs for from a vendor right inside the instance. All bosses dropped ilvl 425 loot, but they were reskins of 4.3 gear and didn't have real names yet, like
Chestguard of Despair
.
The instanced version of the
Temple of the Jade Serpent
looks practically identical to the outdoor quest version--except it's been corrupted by the Sha. The library and water wings are accessible, as is the central area where questgivers and monks trained formerly. After questing through The Jade Forest, it's intriguing to find out how the temple ended up in such a state.
Wise Mari
Corrupted Living Water
elementals scatter the hallway by the Fountain of the Overseeing, along with dead Jinyu. When they die, they leave a harmful pool with [spell=106
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Jade Forest Preview and News Round Up
We were lucky enough to preview the start of the Jade Forest questline in beta before the zone was later closed! Here's a peek at the cutscene for the Alliance--as covered in our
Press Event
coverage, it's quite different than the cutscene for the Horde with a very angry Garrosh.
We've also got screenshots of the initial Alliance and Horde questing hubs in The Jade Forest, as well as some of the Temple of the Jade Serpent!
Be sure to check out our recent Mists of Pandaria beta coverage--this weekend alone we
updated our talent calculator
to have talents and abilities for ALL classes, including monks, as well as footage of redone
Scholomance
,
Scarlet Monastery
, and
Ragefire Chasm
.
Alliance
Live
Mists of Pandaria Preview: New Scholomance and Monk Talent Calculator Updates
Content manager Krelumian managed to get footage of my paladin doing Scholomance and turn it into a video, so we figured we'd post it here for everyone to see as a new post!
Additionally,
our talent calculator now has abilities and specializations live for the monk
!
A lot of you requested it yesterday and Aryu worked hard last night to make sure it was up on a weekend.
Be sure to check out our other two previews of redesigned dungeons:
Scarlet Monastery
becomes the Scarlet Halls & Cathedral, where many new things are happening.
Ragefire Chasm
has a new evil lurking underneath Orgrimmar.
Scholomance
Overview
Familiar faces like
Janice Barov
and
Rattlegore
are back with updated mechanics, but some other bosses like Ras Frostwhisper[/b
Live
Mists of Pandaria Preview: The Scarlet Halls and Cathedral Redesigns
We got to check out two wings of
Scarlet Monastery
--
formerly four instances, SM is now reduced down to two
. This instance has been entirely retooled: bosses are redesigned and renamed, large areas are removed, sides commonly known as the Library and the Armory were merged to become
the Scarlet Halls
while the Graveyard and Cathedral became
the Scarlet Cathedral
.
In short, a lot of HUGE changes! We've also updated this post because our instance was bugged last time.
Watch the video for our complete run through--my character with Krelumian narrating--or click the tabs to see a detailed breakdown on what the changes are.
Video
The Scarlet Crusade is having a war and they're losing it pretty badly in the remnants of what many players referred to as
the Graveyard side
. Undead pour in and corpses burn in large, decaying piles throughout the somber scene. The area has also been pruned of
Interrogator Vishas
and his torture scene as well as trash mobs.
This is now part of Scarlet Cathedral
. It transitions seamlessly into where the Cathedral area was.
High Inquisitor Whitemane
Live
Mists of Pandaria Preview: New Ragefire Chasm
We hopped on the PTR and ran all the redone instances that we could this morning. These are very much works in progress as instances, but they looked really cool and had some fairly significant changes.
A common theme I noticed in pretty much every instance was a desire for there to be useable items that made the 5-mans more dynamic. In RFC, players were charged with rescuing orcs from sticky situations--from dangling off a ledge to being devoured by an elemental hound. Meanwhile, in SM, certain mobs would drop explosives which players could detonate and there was also the option to use archery targets as shields from a barrage of flaming arrows. Cool stuff, can't wait to see it more developed--and to see what it means for level 90 5-mans!
Ragefire Chasm
Overview
Those poor Troggs. What did they do to anyone? I mean, besides killing and maiming low level Horde players?
In short, Ragefire Chasm is redone
. Trogg corpses litter the molten floors of the instance--they aren't the enemies anymore. Instead it's a new cult, former members of the Horde called the Dark Shaman. Garrosh has orde
Live
Mists of Pandaria 2012 Press Event Official FAQ
Our massive Mists of Pandaria blog post
and
our exclusive interviews with Blizzard
have a lot more information, but this is the official FAQ that Blizzard gave all the press. This way you can browse through and see what Mists of Pandaria is all about--in their own words.
World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria™
March 2012 Media Event FAQ
Q: What is
World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria™
?
Escalating tensions between the Alliance and Horde have broken out into open warfare. The roar of cannons blacken the sky while naval engagements around the globe fill the seas with blood. As the clash of mortal armies spins the world into chaos, a continent -- once shielded by impenetrable mists -- suddenly manifests itself in the southern oceans. There’s no question that this resource-rich new land will be at the center of a global conflict. Will the Mists of Pandaria part to reveal Azeroth’s salvation? Or will this new battlefield become the flashpoint that pushes the Alliance and Horde over the brink into
Live
Transmogrification Guides, Part 7: Quest Armor (Updated for 5.4)
Our
Transmog database
contains quest sets from each expansion. Some of these items are only from one quest in the game--better to discover a set you like now, instead of after you've vendored that unique quest reward!
This guide covers all of the quest transmog sets in the game. They're organized by expansion and armor type with information on how to acquire them and basic colors.
Plus, you can mouseover each set to see what it looks like!
Check out the complete updated series of Transmogrification Guides:
PvE and PvP Tier Armor
Lookalike Tier Without Class Restrictions
Dungeon Armor
Quest Armor
[url=
http://www.wowhead.com/news=216211/transmogrification-guide
Live
Darkmoon Despoiler: A Guide to Farming Darkmoon Artifacts
The Darkmoon Faire is back in town and it's time to start collecting tickets again for all those new vanity items. While there are mini-games and profession quests to help you along, the bulk of your monthly tickets will come from turning in special Darkmoon artifacts, so it's time to get farming! As it appears players are unable to farm low-level instances for artifacts now, we've listed all the possible bosses that drop them.
You will need
Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide
in your inventory to be eligible to loot these artifacts. It can be obtained by talking to
Selina Dourman
at the Faire or
Darkmoon Faire Greeter
/
Darkmoon Faire Greeter
outside the portal.
As a maximum of 145 tickets can be acquired per month, and 80 of these tickets come from item turn-ins, this is definitely something you want to farm if you're after mounts, pets, or look-alike heirloom gear.
You can continue to loot duplicate artifacts if you already have one in your inventory. However, you cannot turn in duplicate artifacts in the same month.
Artifacts drop from specific areas--certain types of bosses (humanoids, reptiles, casters, etc), raids, or from enemies in PvP.
Several PvP artifacts appear to be bugged and cannot be redeemed at the Faire this month. T
Live
4.3 Preview: Well of Eternity Overview and Dragon Soul Testing
Blizzard hit us with an unexpected testing phase this afternoon of the new raid as well as the final 5-man; unfortunately, the raid was announced right as the bosses went live, so the servers started tanking immediately while everyone rushed to log on. Only a few groups got a 10-man together--most top-end guilds fought the loading screen boss instead, getting 4-5 of their members in the instance before testing time ran out. We managed to get in and take some screenshots, but sadly, the majority of my guild was stuck at the loading bar for the entire night.
All of this is to say I doubt we'll see many good videos, as the streams were fairly disappointing due to guilds like Blood Legion only able to pull trash due to limited numbers--most videos will probably be PUG point of views.
A rocky start, but hopefully we'll have some great testing sessions before and after BlizzCon!
Here are our other 5-man related previews
:
End Time Preview
Hour of Twilight Pre
Live
4.3 5-man Dungeon Drops
We managed to get the loot tables for the 5-mans (prettied up by resident volunteer Neutronimity, thanks!)--this is probably a lot more helpful than our datamined list of items as these show what will drop from where and what stats you can start looking forward to picking up.
A quick rundown of the items: they're ilevel 378 and surprisingly solid stats. The trinkets were taken from Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent in procs and on uses, making them equally solid; whose death knight alt wouldn't want to nab a
Rosary of Light
?
As a side note, there are also unique dungeon sets for these 5-mans. While they do not have set bonuses, they do have a noticeable style which
we covered in this post
.
End Time
Echo of Baine
Shared
Girdle of Lost Heroes
Dragonshrine Scepter
Gloves of the Hollow
[item=72806 do
Live
4.3 Preview: In-Depth Hour of Twilight Preview, Warlord Blackthorn Dungeon Journal, and More
So before I get onto the cool stuff, a quick congratulations to the five
Diablo III beta winners
:
aceofangel, Jarrho, Arawethion, Rainemard,
and
shevegas23
! You'll have an email sometime this week about your keys.
Anyway, today was another PTR patch so Perculia and I checked it out after our raids tonight--and came up with some interesting stuff, not least of all, a whole lot of screenshots of another 5-man. We also discovered that the dungeon journal entries for Dragon Soul changed, in particular, Warmaster Blackthorn got a new entry which we have included at the bottom of this post.
Hour of Twilight 5-Man Preview
The final stage in this series of dungeons is set in the present-day Dragonblight, now under a full invasion by the Twilight's Hammer. Players must escort Thrall and the Dragon Soul safely to Wyrmrest Temple, where the assault on Deathwing is to commence. But the Twilight's Hammer forces are numerous, and their leadership remains strong. Those attacking the temple are commanded by a man known v
Live
4.3 Preview: End Time 5-man Coverage, Dungeon Set 3d Models, Dungeon Journal Entries, and More
Today's been a long day. Like, a really long day.
But I enlisted the help of Perculia and my guildmates; together we tackled the first 5-man End Time (the other two weren't open) for screenshots and videos. We've
also got their drops from the client uploaded on our PTR site
; modelviewer sets of all the new dungeon sets which all match each other, even if they don't have set bonuses; and the dungeon journal entries for every instance. There are a lot of placeholders for the DJ, though, so be warned!
End Time Dungeon Journal and Video Preview
<h1>Echo of Baine</h1>
<p><img src="
http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/249172.jpg"
width="400" style="float:right">Enraged by his failure to protect the world and, most importantly, the Horde, this time-ravaged shade of Baine Bloodhoof lingers within the ruins of the Obsidian Dragonshrine. Although he's still as powerful as the tauren high chieftain from the present, within this shattered future Azeroth, this guilt-ridden echo is little more than a discordant vessel
Live
4.3 Preview: Hour of Twilight 5-man
Hour of Twilight
The final stage in this series of dungeons is set in the present-day Dragonblight, now under a full invasion by the Twilight's Hammer. Players must escort Thrall and the Dragon Soul safely to Wyrmrest Temple, where the assault on Deathwing is to commence. But the Twilight's Hammer forces are numerous, and their leadership remains strong. Those attacking the temple are commanded by a man known very well for the strength of will he's offered Alliance citizens. Now with his own will broken, he preaches only Deathwing's cataclysmic vision for all life on Azeroth.
[table cel
Live
4.3 Preview: Well of Eternity 5-man
Well of Eternity
Ten thousand years in the past, the night elven capital city of Zin-Azshari was a magnificent, sparkling metropolis. Situated on the shores of the Well of Eternity, Zin-Azshari was where the aristocratic Highborne first opened a portal into the Twisting Nether and invited the Burning Legion to invade Azeroth. Under the command of the night elven queen, Azshara, the Highborne now pour their energies into the portal, preparing it for the terrifying and glorious entrance of the titan Sargeras.
With a gateway to the past now open, Nozdormu will transport players to Azshara's
Live
4.3 Preview: End Time 5-man
Cho'gall, once a key executor of the nihilistic Twilight's Hammer's vision, has been struck down. Lady Sinestra, consort of Deathwing and mother to the malevolent black dragons Nefarian and Onyxia, has fallen at the hands of great heroes. Ragnaros, lord of the realm of fire in the Elemental Plane, and Al’Akir, baron of the realm of air -- both mighty arbiters of Deathwing's destructive ends -- have themselves been purged. But even with so many of Deathwing's servants now vanquished, he freely roams the skies of Azeroth, wreaking havoc on the land and its people. It's in these darkest of hours that the forces standing against Deathwing must carry out a desperate plan to put an end to his devastating twilight flight.
The other Dragon Aspects, with allegiance from Thrall, have devised a dangerous and unorthodox strategy to bring Deathwing down once and for all. But to do so, they must acquire the Dragon Soul from a pivotal moment in the distant past... and they're going to need your help. In patch 4.3, level-85 players will gain access to three new Heroic-difficulty five-player dungeons, embarking on quests to aid the Aspects and other familiar faces in a
1
2
3
4
5
6
9