RipTen Videogame Blog » Blizzard

Battle.net Balance is Now Live

Jensen Walker — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:58 +0000

Blizzard has thrown back the doors on Battle.net Balance, its new online payment service which allows players to add funds to their Battle.net account, the balance of which can then be used to purchase Blizzard Entertainment products and services directly through Battle.net.

Products and services currently include certain World of Warcraft paid services, as well as digital versions of select Blizzard titles. With the upcoming launch of Diablo III, players in certain regions will be able to use their balance to acquire acquire items from the game’s currency-based auction house.

Keep in mind that any amount of money you add to your Battle.net Balance is non-refundable and unable to be converted into cash, although some regions will be eligible to receive cash payments via Paypal for sales of items from the currency-based auction house.

For a full FAQ, head over to the Battle.net website.

Diablo III Undergoes Further Beta Changes – Companion Pets Cut From Release

Jensen Walker — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:30:29 +0000

The latest beta patch deploy for Diablo III has resulted in a few more changes to the much anticipated action RPG, with Scrolls of Companion and Scrolls of Reforging being removed from the game.

Blizzard Community Manager Nethaera took to the Diablo III forums today to explain the features were cut due to the development team feeling they were undeveloped, and unsuitable for a live release. Additionally, companion pets were considered too cute and cuddly for the dark and gritty world of Sanctuary.

According to Nethaera, “Neither of those are issues we felt like we could solve without a lot of additional work, and we’re trying to close in on a solid release date for the game, not move further away. When weighing these systems against releasing the game, we decided to cut these scrolls and stay on track for the game’s release.”

Blizzard intends to redesign and evolve companion pets and reforging scrolls into a more meaningful and enjoyable system at some point in the future.

Satirically Speaking: WoW Edition – The Panda

Jensen Walker — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:00:04 +0000

The following is a satirical piece. It is not meant to be taken seriously. If you take it seriously, I’m afraid there may be no hope for you.

The Panda

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of Pandaren lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
Then the sound of old wood snapping, as flew open did my door.
`’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `breaking down my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’

Ah, distinctly I mull over that dark night in bleak October,
Whence from Blizzcon came a creature consigned to myth and nothing more
Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for dredged up WoW lore-
For the rare and radiant Pandaren thus announced on Blizzcon’s floor-
Canon now and evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Worried me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the clamour of my heart, I stood repeating
`’Tis some visitor now beating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating blows upon my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,’

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,’ said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so violently you came rapping,
And so bluntly you came attacking, attacking my poor chamber door,
That I scarce dared approach you’ – here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only words there spoken were the whispered words, `WoW lore!’
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the words, `WoW lore!’
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a smashing somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,’ said I, `surely that is my window lattice, broken;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!’

Open here I flung the shutter, when, full of bravado and bluster,
In there stepped a portly panda with a brief but mighty roar.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with gait lumbering did he slouch beside my chamber door -
Slouched beside the broken remains of my chamber door -
Slouched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this strange panda beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the cute and cuddly decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though property damage has been caused, thou,’ I said, `art adorable on my floor.
Cheerful, soft and ancient panda wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lovely name is, that I might stand here in awe!’
Quoth the panda, `Evermore!’

Much I marvelled this ungainly bear to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning – little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bear burst through his chamber door -
And leave a man bereft of warmth at night, his shattered chamber door,
With such name as `Evermore!’

But the panda, sitting lonely on the cold floor, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered – mouth remaining firmly shuttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Blizzard have made jokes before -
On the morrow he will leave me, a joke, a prank, as once before.’
Then the bear said, `Evermore.’

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,’ said I, `what it utters is its only growl and roar,
Voiced from some unhappy refrain, memories of whence it came,
Mournful moans of memories muddied, his song from central Kalimdor -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of “Never-evermore.”‘

But the panda still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bear and broken door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bear of yore -
What this large, ungainly, adorable, drunk, and ominous bear of yore
Meant in growling `Evermore.’

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the bear whose drooping eyes now peered into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the screen-light gloated o’er,
And whose velvet violet lining with the screen-light gloating o’er,
I shall press, ah, evermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, fouled from an unseen censer
Swung by Legions whose foot-falls burned on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,’ I cried, `Metzen hath lent thee – by these demons he has sent thee
Respite – respite and nepenthe from dim memories of WoW lore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost WoW lore!’
Quoth the panda, `Evermore.’

`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bear or devil! -
Whether Metzen sent, or whether Metzen tossed thee here ashore,
Bountiful yet all undaunted, on this misty land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted – tell me truly, I implore -
Is there – must there be Pandaria? – tell me – tell me, I implore!’
Quoth the raven, `Evermore.’

`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bear or devil!
By this world which grows around us – by Blizzard that we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the mists now fading,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the devs named WoW lore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the devs named WoW lore?’
Quoth the raven, `Evermore.’

`Be that word our sign of parting, bear or fiend!’ I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the annals of foul creatures once of yore!
Leave no brew as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my Azeroth unbroken! – quit your place upon my floor!
Take thy claws from out my heart, and take thy form from off my floor!’
Quoth the panda, `Evermore.’

And the panda I’m left hating, still is waiting, still is waiting
Propped up against the frame of my shattered chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a most infernal being,
And the screen-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow dies a death brought on by lore
The Pandaren – now evermore!

~Credit for the original (and timeless) composition of this piece belongs to The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe.

Blizzard to Skip Blizzcon 2012 due to Jam-Packed Schedule

Jensen Walker — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:00:55 +0000

If you were looking forward to attending Blizzcon later this year, you may want to re-evaluate your travel plans.

Blizzard today announced that the next Blizzcon would be held in 2013 due to a busy schedule which will see them focusing on the releases of Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria and Heart of the Swarm, as well as the 2012 Battle.net World Championship.

The latter is a major global eSports event featuring some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world which will take place in Asia towards the end of 2012 and will feature the StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship tournaments.

Blizzard will release more details regarding the 2012 Battle.net World Championship and BlizzCon 2013 in the months to come. To read the full announcement, click here.

Blizzard to Include Product Placement in Next MMO?

Jensen Walker — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:30:49 +0000

An eagle eyed user of the NeoGAF forums recently posted a job listing for a franchise development producer for Blizzard’s secrecy shrouded future MMO (code named Titan) which has set tongues wagging.

The listing indicates that the position would require the following:

-Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment’s next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.

While next to nothing remains known about Blizzard’s Titan project, the above does suggest that a) the setting for the MMO may be modern or contemporary, and b) that it may contain advertisements or product placement opportunities.

The position advertised does mention the need for brand extension covering a wide range of markets, including books and novels, action figures, comics, apparel and short movies, so jumping to conclusions about what this may mean for Titan is likely premature. Regardless, I think it’s safe to assume that product advertising in any game is never looked upon fondly by consumers (indeed, advertisements are facing challenges in traditional industries such as television with the advent of technology which allows them to be entirely avoided).

What this news does prove, however, is that gamers are eager for any news about Titan – even when it’s not really news at all.

Geeked Out: World of Warcraft Foam Doomhammer Replica

Todd Schlickbernd — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:30:42 +0000

Have you ever wanted to beat the bananas out of someone without putting them in the hospital? Pardon, let me rephrase that, when was the last time you wanted to non-lethally beat the bananas out of someone but couldn’t find a weapon of appropriate power and yet of restraint? Well look no further, Think Geek is offering an incredibly detailed (and thereby powerful) replica of the Doomhammer as seen and revered in World of Warcraft. It’s a little more expensive than your kids-isle Nerf weapon, but there’s a reason for that. Check out the specs:

Doomhammer replica for fans of World of Warcraft
Made of polyurethane and PVC tube piping
Wrapped with genuine leather
Dimensions: 22″ x 10″ x 7″
Weight: about 3 lbs

Now it won’t turn you into a real-life Thrall, but this weapon is pretty much necessary should that be a particular goal of yours. The mighty Doomhammer will set you back $149.99 American and can be purchased here. The price may seem a little steep, but just think of every fight you’ve ever been in, or shamefully avoided, and just how easily you could’ve won it with if you had this weapon. And think of the applications! Friend beat you in Halo? Smash their face in (harmlessly)! Parent won’t stop telling you to clean your room? Clean their face (non-violently)! Non-relative authoritative figure authoritatifying in your general area? Dethrone/excommunicate/fire them (without much pain)!

Hungry for more hand-made swag? Take a leisurely stroll through our Geeked Out collection.

Diablo III Senior Producer Leaves Blizzard for “Bigger and Better Things”

Jacob Saylor — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:00:59 +0000

Steve Parker was the Senior Producer on Diablo 3 at Blizzard up until this past Friday when he tweeted:

“Hey Twitter, I’m no longer working at Blizzard or on D3. I’ve had a great 5 years there and those guys are going to kill it with Diablo.”

This leaves the company with a gaping hole in their Irvine offices, but with work mostly complete on Diablo 3, it’s unlikely that his departure will cause any major setbacks on development of the game.

The reasons behind his leaving Blizzard are currently unknown, but we here at RipTen believe that in the next few days more information will become available on the subject. While things look to be fairly mundane on both ends, you never know in this industry. In a response over Twitter to another user, he had this to say:

“Thanks! Looking forward to bigger and better things.”

Here’s to seeing Mr. Parker succeed in his future endeavors, so that he may continue to bring us all awesome games for years to come.

Diablo III Rated in South Korea; The Rest of the World Still Pending

Jensen Walker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:00:24 +0000

There has been a lot of hype and a lot of anticipation surrounding Diablo III, and while Blizzard still hasn’t confirmed a release date, the game has been rated ‘R’ by the South Korean Gaming Board. An R rating means the action RPG is considered suitable for ages 18 and above.

Generally, when ratings start to be issued it means a game is within a few months of hitting the shelves, so perhaps we’re looking at a March release. Blizzard has removed the controversial real money transactions auction house from the Korean version of the game in order to gain ratings approval due to Korea’s gambling laws, and this seems to have paved the way for the game’s eventual release.

Now we wait for ratings approval elsewhere before finally getting our hands on the title. It might be interesting to see what sort of rating the Australian Classification Board slaps on the game now that they finally have an R rating of their own (and it was a long time coming). Until then, enjoy whichever game is your current vice!

Source: Dualshockers

Diablo III on Consoles? You Bet Your Ass.

Justin Carter — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:13:07 +0000

If you’re someone who’s shown an interest in a Blizzard game, but doesn’t have the money to shell for a high-end PC, you’re in luck. After some vague talking, Blizzard has announced that Diablo III is coming to us console kiddies. Blizzard Community manager Micah Whipple confirmed on his Twitter when asked about the possibility:

“Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.”

Mosqueira himself decided to pitch in on the talk by tweeting that Blizzard needs designers for consoles:

“Are you a game designer? Do you love Diablo? What about Diablo on console? If so we’re looking for you…”

At this time, there haven’t been any specific consoles announced, or a release date. But still, a Blizzard game coming to the consoles. Pretty sweet, right?

via IGN

Blizzard Denies Diablo III Release Date Rumors

Catherine Cai — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:30:34 +0000

Best Buy has recently been stirring up the rumor pot that Diablo III‘s release date is set for February 1st. A photo of a Best Buy showing off a large poster with the same release date in a retail store in Rochester, Minnesota has been floating around on the internet (shown above) started the rumors in the first place. Although the photo has since been taken down, Best Buy’s online store still shows the same release date.

Sadly, Diablo III fans, it appears that Best Buy’s release date is false. Blizzard community manager Bashiok denied the February 1st release date on his Twitter feed, stating,

“Diablo III does not have a release date. Any store or person claiming otherwise is guessing,

Retailers will not know a date until its officially announced through a press release.

We can’t really keep every individual retail shop from making up a date.”

It looks like we’re back in the waiting game boat. The best thing we can do now is pray hard for an early 2012 release.

[Via VG247]

Blizzard Announces Price Drop for WoW Expansions in Europe

Catherine Cai — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:00:33 +0000

Blizzard announced that for the new year, it was going to permanently drop the price of World of Warcraft expansions in Europe. Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm have been dropped €19.99 and €29.99, respectively, in both retail and the Blizzard Store.

Note, US WoW players, the price drop only applies to Europe. Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm are still $39.99. You jelly?

[Via VG247]

Did You Know Diablo’s Deckard Cain Is A Kid From South Dakota?

Dave Oshry — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:00:05 +0000

Greetings friend. Stay awhile and listen to this tale.

Back in the early 90′s, Blizzard held a very vague contest for an unannounced game. The contest involved sending them a post card with your name on it. One father in South Dakota had a newborn baby with a such a cool name that he decided to put HIS name on the postcard and send it in to Blizzard. That baby’s name? Deckard Cain Elder.

Sixteen years later, young Mr. Elder seems to have discovered Reddit, and decided to share his tale.

According to him:

My first name comes from Harrison Ford’s character in the movie Blade Runner, my middle name is my mother’s maiden name, and my last name is my fathers family name.

I wonder if he’ll hang out with that boy named Dovahkiin when he grows up? Anyway, back to the story.

About six months after entering contest, the Elder family received a box from Blizzard.

Inside the box were several things:

A long yellow envelope, a copy of Diablo, a black hat with Blizzard in blue printed on the front, a very large Diablo T-shirt, and a blue statue of Diablo that stand a little over a foot tall.

rawr.

Also inside the envelope was a letter from Bill Roper, the producer of Diablo.

Said letter explained that young Deckard had won a grand prize. He would soon have his name in Diablo, Blizzard’s upcoming RPG. The rest, as they say, is history.

You know what else is cool about Deckard Cain? He raps:

Stay tuned to RipTen for more interesting stuff you never needed to know.

New Diablo III Trailer Is Epic

Catherine Cai — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:55:26 +0000

Blizzard, newly dubbed VGA Gamer Gods, showed off another Diablo III trailer, making us wonder once again Deckard Cain’s age and how he’s still sprightly enough to constantly dodge fireballs.

Here goes, in all its concept-art-demons glory:

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Diablo III – VGA 2011: Exclusive Cinematic Trailer HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

World of Warcraft’s Hour of Twilight Patch Goes Live (Details)

Jensen Walker — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:02:52 +0000

It’s been a long time coming, but Blizzard’s 4.3 patch for World of Warcraft is finally making its way to live servers today.

Major features of the patch include transmogrification, which introduces a wardrobe-like cosmetic function to the game, three new 5-man dungeons, void storage (long term storage option for sentimental items you want to keep, but don’t want to clutter up your bank), the new Darkmoon Island island zone and of course the final Cataclysm raid in which players face a climactic with Deathwing.

On top of that there are the usual class fixes and changes. For your convenience, the full patch notes follow the trailer below.

General

New Dungeon: End Time

This new 5-player Heroic dungeon begins the quest to save all with a look at the desolate future of Azeroth, should its defenders fail to stop Deathwing.

New Dungeon: Well of Eternity

In this new 5-player Heroic dungeon, adventurers travel back 10,000 years in a brazen attempt to retrieve the Dragon Soul.

New Dungeon: Hour of Twilight

This new 5-player Heroic dungeon sets the final stage by bringing players face-to-face with the Twilight’s Hammer in present-day Dragonblight, where Thrall and the Dragon Soul must be safely escorted to Wyrmrest Temple so that the assault on Deathwing can commence.

New Raid: Dragon Soul

Players have the opportunity to take the fight to Wyrmrest Temple and beyond, assisting Thrall and the Dragon Aspects as they seek to bring an end to the Black Dragonflight once and for all. 10- and 25-person raids will get to take on Deathwing himself, with three levels of difficulty to consider and epic gear to claim.

New Baradin Hold boss: Alizabal

Alizabal presents an all-new boss challenge to player in 10- and 25-player arrangements who control Tol Barad. This boss will be available with the start of Season 11, one week after the release of patch 4.3.

New Legendary Item: Fangs of the Father

The most deadly and experienced rogues will play a central role in the fate of the world the rogue’s way: by manipulating key events from the shadows. Players will travel across continents to accomplish crucial missions of reconnaissance, burglary, infiltration and, of course, assassination. Rogues who succeed will receive a paired set of daggers that will become increasingly lethal as their bearer progresses along the legendary quest. At the height of their strength, they will be imbued with the vile essence of the Old Gods, as well as the maddened fury of the Black Dragonflight — bestowing great power upon their bearer. These powers include a stacking increase to Agility which builds until dark wings unfurl from the rogue’s back, removing the combo point cost and increasing damage of finishing moves for a short time. In addition, the wings which can be spread on command (with no combat benefit) to slow a rapid descent, allowing the rogue to slowly fall to the ground… or enact a little death from above!

New Feature: Raid Finder

This new grouping feature allows players to quickly and easily form a pick-up raid for a specially tuned version of the current tier of endgame content: the Dragon Soul raid.

New Feature: Transmogrification

This new feature allows players to customize their gear like never before: copying the appearance of one magical item onto another.. You’ll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.

New Feature: Void Storage

In addition to the bank, players will now have access to a new “deep storage” system, allowing characters to free bag space by setting aside coveted gear. You’ll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.

Reforging

The former Reforging vendors have been… retired. The ethereals have chosen to take over the business and joined their Transmogrification and Void Storage service providers. You’ll find them in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.

Darkmoon Faire

Make your way to Darkmoon Island during the first week of every month to take in the new Darkmoon Faire, complete with new quests, shows, games, recipes, toys, balloons, souvenirs, snacks, beverages, achievements, and titles.

Improved Outland & Northrend Quest Flow

The amount of experience needed to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by approximately 33%.

Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.

Relevant questgivers have been moved into Outland and Northrend dungeons. The majority of dungeon quests for these zones are now available from within their respective dungeons.

Achievements

The achievement Master of Alterac Valley no longer requires the Alterac Valley Blitz achievement.

The achievement Tol Barad Veteran now requires 25 victories in Tol Barad, down from 100.

Classes: General

Vengeance for Protection warriors, Protection paladins, Blood death knights, and Feral druids has been redesigned slightly. It no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken by the tank generates Vengeance equal to 33% of the damage taken by that attack. In addition, as it updates periodically during the fight, it’s always set to at least 33% of the damage taken by the tank in the last 2 seconds. It still climbs from that point at the rate it did previously, still decays when damage is not taken, and still cannot exceed a maximum based on the health and Stamina of the tank.

Threat generated by classes in active tanking modes has been increased to 500% damage done, up from 300%. This applies to druids in Bear Form, death knights in Blood Presence, warriors in Defensive Stance, and paladins with Righteous Fury active.

Spells which have an effect broken by taking damage past a threshold (Entangling Roots, Fear, Frost Nova, etc.) now count damage that was prevented by damage absorbs or other damage reducing effects.

Buffs

All raid and party buffs which grant group members 10% increased attack power have been changed slightly. They continue to provide 10% increased ranged attack power, but now provide 20% increased melee attack power.

Abomination’s Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.

Blessing of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.

Runescroll of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this consumable has been increased to 16%, up from 8%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 8%.

Trueshot Aura: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.

Unleashed Rage: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.

Death Knights

Death Strike now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.

Blood Presence now provides an armor bonus of 55%, up from 30%.

Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit and spell penetration stats.

Talent Specializations

Blood

Blade Barrier has been redesigned. It now passively reduces damage taken.

Bone Shield now has 6 charges, up from 4.

Veteran of the Third War now reduces the cooldown of Outbreak by 30 seconds.

Unholy

The gargoyle called by Summon Gargoyle should exclusively use its ranged attack regardless of range to the target.

Unholy Might now increases Strength by 25%, up from 20%.

Druids

Wrath has a new spell effect.

Hurricane has a new updated visual effect.

Swipe (Cat) has been reduced to 340% weapon damage, down from 415%.

Bear Form now provides an armor bonus of 120% at all levels, up from 65% for characters below level 40, making it easier for lower level druids to tank dungeons.

Bear Form now provides a Stamina bonus of 20%, up from 10%.

Talent Specializations

Balance

Celestial Focus now also reduces Cyclone spell pushback.

Restoration

Wild Growth healing has been reduced by 20%.

Nature’s Focus now also reduces Cyclone and Entangling Roots spell pushback.

Glyphs

Glyph of Shred has been renamed Glyph of Bloodletting, and now also causes Mangle (Cat) to extend the duration of Rip, in addition to its existing Shred functionality.

Glyph of Wild Growth now also increases the cooldown on Wild Growth by 2 seconds.

Hunters

Monstrous Bite now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.

Talent Specializations

Beast Mastery

Animal Handler now increases Attack Power by 30%, up from 25%.

Widow Venom now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.

Burrow Attack now does approximately 20% more damage, and has an increased area of effect.

Froststorm Breath now does approximately 20% more damage, and has an increased area of effect.

Survival

Explosive Shot damage has been increased by 15%.

Mages

Mages

Pyroblast’s initial damage has been increased by approximately 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by approximately 100%.

Fireball damage has been increased by approximately 17%.

Talent Specializations

Fire

Living Bomb damage over time has been increased by approximately 10%, and explosion damage has been increased by approximately 120%.

Paladins

Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target. That target is imbued with Holy Radiance, which heals them and all group members within 10 yards instantly, and continues to heal them by a smaller amount every 1 second for 3 seconds.

Seal of Insight, when Judged, no longer returns 15% base mana to the paladin. Judging Seal of Insight still causes damage, and melee attacks will still restore 4% of base mana.

Seal of Truth, when Judged, now benefits from a multiplier of 20% per stack of Censure, up from 10%.

Talent Specializations

Holy

Clarity of Purpose now also reduces the cast time of Holy Radiance.

Illuminated Healing (mastery) now also applies to Holy Radiance.

Infusion of Light now applies its cast time reduction from Holy Shock critical effects to Holy Radiance, in addition to its current effects.

In addition to providing haste, the effect from Judgements of the Pure now increases mana regeneration from Spirit by 10/20/30% for 60 seconds.

Light of Dawn now affects 6 targets (base effect), up from 5.

Paragon of Virtue now lowers the cooldown of Divine Protection by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20 seconds.

Speed of Light no longer triggers from Holy Radiance and no longer lowers the Holy Radiance cooldown. Speed of Light now only triggers from Divine Protection.

Tower of Radiance, in addition to its current effects, now also causes Holy Radiance to always generate 1 charge of Holy Power at all times.

Beacon of Light is triggered by Word of Glory, Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Divine Light and Light of Dawn at 50% transference and Holy Light at 100% transference. It does not transfer Holy Radiance, Protector of the Innocent or other sources of healing.

Retribution

Sanctified Retribution now increases the critical hit chance of Hammer of Wrath by 2/4/6%, down from 20/40/60%.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (passive) now increases damage by 25%, up from 20%.

Glyphs

Glyph of Light of Dawn now lowers the number of targets to 4, instead of increasing targets to 6, but increases healing by 25%.

Priests

Divine Hymn now affects 5 targets, up from 3.

Talent Specializations

Discipline

Atonement will now account for the target enemy’s combat reach when calculating proper range, enabling it to be used on large creatures such as Ragnaros and Ala’kir.

Divine Aegis has a new spell effect.

Holy

Spirit of Redemption has been rebuilt to address a few functionality issues and make it more responsive. Spirit of Redemption otherwise remains unchanged.

State of Mind has been redesigned and is now called Heavenly Voice. Heavenly Voice increases the healing done by Divine Hymn by 50/100%, and reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 2.5/5 minutes.

Guardian Spirit’s healing bonus has been increased to 60%, up from 40%.

Holy Word: Serenity now has a cooldown of 10 seconds, down from 15 seconds.

Glyphs

Glyph of Circle of Healing now also increases the mana cost of Circle of Healing by 20%.

Rogues

Wound Poison now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.

Shaman

Flametongue Weapon no longer increases spell damage. It now increases all non-physical damage done by the wielder by 5%.

Lightning Bolt has a new spell effect.

Wind Shear’s base cooldown has been adjusted to 15 seconds, up from 6 seconds.

Talent Specializations

Elemental

Call of Flame no longer causes Fire Nova to extend the duration of Flame Shock.

Earthquake damage has been increased by roughly 75%.

Elemental Fury now removes the cooldown from Chain Lightning.

Reverberation now reduces the cooldown of Wind Shear by 5/10 seconds, up from 0.5/1 second.

Shamanism now increases the spell power benefit to Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, and Chain Lightning by 36%, up from 32%.

Fire Elemental now benefits from 55% of its master’s spell power, up from 50%

Enhancement

Improved Lava Lash now causes Lava Lash to spread a Flame Shock debuff from the target to up to 4 nearby targets. This excludes crowd-controlled targets and those who already have a Flame Shock debuff from the shaman.

Improved Lava Lash no longer increases base Lava Lash damage by 15/30%. This increase has been rolled into the base Lava Lash skill.

Mental Quickness has been redesigned. Instead of granting the shaman spell power, Mental Quickness now causes Enhancement shaman spells to behave as though the shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power. Enhancement shaman spells no longer benefit from spell power from other sources.

Maelstrom Weapon can now also proc from fully absorbed melee attacks.

Restoration

Ancestral Healing now also causes the shaman’s heals to increase the target’s maximum health by 5/10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of the target’s maximum health, for 15 seconds. This effect does not stack if multiple Restoration shaman are present, and does not apply to heals from procs.

Riptide’s periodic healing coefficient has been increased by 50%. The initial direct heal is unchanged.

Warlocks

Shadow Bolt has a new spell effect.

Soul Fire now scales with 72.6% of spell power, up from 62.5%.

The Voidwalker ability Suffering now works like the hunter pet talent Taunt.

Talent Specializations

Demonology

Master Demonologist now grants a base bonus of 20%18.4% and2.5%2.3% per mastery, up from 16% and 2% per mastery.

Impending Doom is now also activated by Soul Fire.

Destruction

Fire and Brimstone now increases the damage of Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on Immolated targets by 5/10/15%, up from 2/4/6%.

Burning Embers now deals damage equal to 25/50% of Soul Fire and Imp’s Firebolt, up from 15/30%.

Buning Embers damage cap has been raised.

Shadowburn now deals Shadowflame damage, instead of Shadow damage.

Improved Soul Fire now lasts 20 sec, up from 15sec.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused Doomguard and Infernal to benefit dramatically more than intended from Demonology Mastery.

Warriors

Charge (and related abilities) should now correctly path to a target even if the target moves during the Charge. This change should decrease the likelihood of the warrior Charging to a different location than the target.

Slam now uses a new character attack animation.

Colossus Smash now uses a new character attack animation.

Talent Specializations

Arms

Mortal Strike now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.

Fury

Dual Wield Specialization no longer increases Physical damage by 5%. It continues to increase off-hand attack damage by 25%.

Furious Attacks now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.

Dungeons & Raids

Dungeon Journal entries have been added for the new dungeons: End Time, Well of Eternity, Hour of Twilight, and Dragon Soul.

Players who use Dungeon Finder for a random Heroic dungeon will no longer be locked to that instance. Previously, players who entered an instance via the Random Dungeon option were then prohibited from queuing for that dungeon or entering the instance manually via the portal. Players should now always be able to complete a specific Heroic dungeon once per day regardless of any random dungeons completed.

Ruins of Ahn’qiraj

Bosses in Ruins of Ahn’qiraj now drop a rare-quality Scarab Coffer Key which can be used to open the Scarab Coffers found within. These keys are zone-bound to Ruins of Ahn’qiraj and have a 17-hour expiration. This change also applies to Greater Scarab Coffer Keys used to open Large Scarab Coffers.

Zul’Gurub

Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin’do the Godbreaker.

Zul’Aman

Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.

Guilds

Guild Standards are again useable in Firelands. Duration has been increased to 15 minutes, the effect has a 100 yard radius, and now affects dead players.

Inactive Guild Leader Replacement

Guilds with inactive guild leaders can now usurp the leader under specific conditions.

Items

Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest: The chance for this item’s effect to be triggered has been reduced.

Races

The orc racial Blood Fury now increases spell power rather than only spell damage.

User Interface

Archaeology areas of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.

Bag Search

A search field has been added to allow players to search bag, bank, guild bank, and Void Storage inventories for specific items.

The Reforging interface has been updated and improved.

Quest Tracking areas or points of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.

The World Map now displays the expected character levels for each zone.

Added a “promote everyone” checkbox that will automatically make all raid members, Raid assistants. This checkbox can be found in the Raid Frame and the Unit Frame “pull-out” tab.

There are now commands for world markers & unit markers.

Added new rotation, zoom, and pan controls are now available in all windows with player models in UI frames.

Players can now unlearn profession specialization without unlearning the profession (Engineering & Alchemy).

[Mac] Added functionality to allow using the Command key instead of the Control key on Apple keyboards. This can be enabled in Mac Options.

[Mac] Added functionality to disable Mac OS system keyboard shortcuts so that they do not interfere with keyboard shortcuts in WoW. This can be enabled in Mac Options.

Added a feature to interact with NPCs, game objects (mailbox, mining nodes, etc.), and corpses on left-click as well as right-click. There is now an option under Interface:Controls to turn this feature off.

General Bug Fixes

[China, Korea, Taiwan] Pasting from the clipboard should no longer cause the client to crash.

Goodbye Subscribers, Hello Profit! Why World of Warcraft Isn’t In Danger

Jensen Walker — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:00:26 +0000

If you read my last opinion article relating to World of Warcraft, you’d know I’m not a fan of the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. Despite that, I’ve never doubted that Blizzard’s behemoth of an MMO is in any danger of losing its number one position in the MMO hierarchy.

While MoP may not be for me, it certainly will and does appeal to a great many others, and I stated my belief that it would be a superior expansion to Cataclysm in terms of design, content and player retention.

WoW’s subscriber numbers made the news recently, with an Activision Blizzard investor call revealing subscriptions have dropped from 11.4 million in May to current total of 10.3 million. If you factor in the total loss since Cataclysm’s launch, you have a loss of roughly 1.7 million subscribers. That’s a lot of lost subs. However, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime reported that the majority of those losses come from the eastern market (China, in other words).

While WoW struggles with retention issues, Activision Blizzard amassed $627 million worth of sales, with $148 million in profit. The majority of that revenue (62%) was generated via digital sales.

So on one hand you have an ageing MMO bleeding subscribers, but on the other you have a company (and IP) that has tripled its profit for the quarter over this period last year. What does this mean?

A Guardian Cub spends a few precious moments with its mother before a digital salesman pounces.

World of Warcraft has without doubt peaked and has now begun its slow decline. While subscriber numbers will fluctuate following expansion releases, they will continue to drop. In my opinion, Blizzard will continue to do their best to entice former players to renew their lapsed accounts while shifting an eye towards new, younger players to combat turnover.

So long as WoW retains enough of a player base to deliver lucrative sales of digital fluff items such as mounts and pets, a decline in actual subscribers doesn’t really hurt the game or the company much at all. The ubiquitous Sparkle Pony (Celestial Steed) and more recent Guardian Cub pet have proven to be great hits within the WoW community, and so long as players continue to purchase similar digital items, WoW’s subscriber loss is buffered by the increase in revenue earned from these digital sales.

Of course, if your subscriber numbers dip significantly, your digital sales will also take a hit. Furthermore, you have to consider that younger players won’t have the income or ability to purchase digital items, and will be relying on their parents (who are likely already paying subscription costs). It’s a delicate balancing act.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, my mistake, it's just another sparkle pony.

If you take into account a good portion of the 1.7 million lost subscribers were from China, you also have to consider the manner in which subscriptions are purchased in that region. Instead of a flat monthly fee, Chinese players purchase game cards which allow them access to the game for a number of hours. Thus, revenue generated from subscriptions is going to be wildly different to regions where a standard US$15 is charged. Subscriptions themselves are subjective when they’re neither fixed nor recurring.

Even if World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers dropped to 8 or 7 million by the time Mists of Pandaria is released, it would still be the most successful MMO on the market, it would still be raking in revenue from digital sales and it would still have the ability to bounce back, with the expansion providing an instant if temporary subscriber boost. If MoP is a stronger expansion than Cataclysm, it will retain more of those new and returned players in the long run.

To conclude, World of Warcraft will continue to dominate the market for the next few years at least, regardless of subscriber decline. Blizzard itself is likely to have a landmark 2012 when you factor in the release of Mists of Pandaria, Diablo III and most probably Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. So say I, with all the clout of my non-existent financial analysis expertise. WoW isn’t going anywhere, and it isn’t going to relinquish its mantle as the king of MMO’s any time soon. If that disappoints you, here’s a picture that is sure to cheer you up.

Pandamon, I choose you!

WoW Devs Answer Class Balance and Design Questions in Latest Q&A

Jensen Walker — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:20:37 +0000

A few weeks ago Blizzard hosted a Q&A session regarding World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Today, the second of these Q&A’s took place via CoverItLive

Community Managers Bashiok and Zarhym presided over the session, with input from class designers Celestalon, Koraa, Watcher, Wradyx, Xelnath and everyone’s favorite spirit beast, Ghostcrawler.

Each WoW class was discussed to some degree, with class homogenization also mentioned. Questions about the new talent system, healer mana management, glyphs and PvP all found their way into the discussion as well.

There was far too much discussed to even attempt to sum up, but you can read the entire transcript below and visit the official site to view comments and reactions.

Behold the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Fact Sheet

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:00:39 +0000

Blizzard has released a nice little fact sheet for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Heart of the Swarm is the continuation of Wings of Liberty and centers arround the Zerg and everyone’s favorite Queen, Kerrigan.

It will feature new campaign-specific swarm units with Kerrigan playing a major role in every battle and players can choose which new abilities and enhancements to bestow upon her.

Also included will be new multiplayer units, maps and battlenet features.

Features:

Continues the epic story of StarCraft II from where Wings of Liberty left off.
Approximately 20 new campaign missions.
New campaign gameplay mechanics, allowing players to evolve new abilities and units for their zerg army.
Go into battle with Kerrigan as she tries to restore her strength and regain control of the Swarm.
New multiplayer units and maps, expanding strategic choice and gameplay depth for each race.
Expanded features and functionality for Battle.net to improve custom-game search, and new tools for map authors to create even more epic custom games.
New pre-rendered and in-game cinematics bring the story of Heart of the Swarm to life.

Mists of Pandaria Further Explored via Developer Q&A Transcript

Jensen Walker — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:21:40 +0000

Late yesterday afternoon, Blizzard conducted a live Q&A session for Mists of Pandaria, with most questions answered by World of Warcraft developers Cory “Mumper” Stockton and Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, hosted by Community Manager Zarhym.

The questions fielded include both the silly and the serious, and touch on topics such as the new talent system, the pet battle system (including the possibility of a spectator mode), guild levels and rewards, and the Pandaria faction hubs.

You can view the full transcript below. It is rather lengthy.

Zarhym: Hello everyone and welcome to our live developer Q&A with Greg Street and Cory Stockton! For the next hour we’ll be fielding your questions about World of Warcraft’s fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria.

Comment From Dwight
How will one get to the continent of Pandaria?

Mumper: Players will get to Pandaria via new quests from Orgrimmar and Stormwind. We have tried to make these quests short and sweet to make sure players can into the new continent as fast as possible.

Comment From Ceantari
Any future plans (patches or in the MoP x-pac) on changing how player pets (in particular hunter pets) spawn upon dismounting? Prior to patch 4.2, whenever you dismounted, your pet would spawn with initial starting stats. A few seconds later, it’s stats would update with the appropriate values. Sometimes this would lag, which usually resulted in fatality for the pet when the player (more appropriately, the hunter) would engage combat immediately after dismounting. Now, the 4.2 patch allows the pet to remain at your side while on a ground mount, but still despawns when on a flying mount. This brought up a new problem: when you aggro a hostile enemy while riding a ground mount, your (whether it be hunter’s, warlock’s, or mage’s) pet’s movement speed is reduced to 100%. If the player continues to ignore the aggro’ed enemy, the pet will fall behind and despawn upon leaving draw distance. This is more of an inconvenience for frost mages, since they have to spend a 3 min cooldown to summon it.

Bashiok: Hi all! Please keep in mind this is a *moderated* chat, meaning your comments won’t show in the channel until we answer it.

Mumper: We are fixing pets so stats won’t lag several seconds after logging in or dismounting in 5.0.

Zarhym: Greg Street will be fielding our next question…

Comment From Ceantari
Currently, it was announced that Monks might not have an auto-attack feature. With the lack of auto-attacks, are there plans on balancing the values for Hit Rating and Haste Rating for a DPS-spec’ed Monk, since one would only need to reach the “soft” hit cap (8%) for specials and Haste Rating will only be affecting their power regeneration and reducing their GCD?

Ghostcrawler: Monks will have the same hit cap as e.g. an Arms warrior and their energy regen drives everything they do, so their regen will scale the same as rogues and haste in general will scale their damage by the same percentages.

Comment From Eldacar
At Blizzcon Tom Chilton mentioned possible incentives for raiding enemy towns to encourage world PVP in mists, can Greg or Cory elaborate on this at all?

Mumper: In regards to extra rewards for world pvp, we are contemplating the idea of increasing players conquest point caps by an extra 10-15%.

Comment From Guest
With the new talent system, will you start to follow the model in place with Collosus Smash, where a move functions completely differently in PVE and PVP?

Ghostcrawler: We don’t have a problem with specific mechanics working differently in PvP and PvE. Curse of Doom worked that way for years. Same with PvP durations on debuffs. What we don’t want to do is just launch into having different coefficients and talents and everything for PvP and PvE. That just doubles the size of the game which makes it more complex to balance and harder for players to understand.

Zarhym: I see we have a few questions. :)

Comment From Timothy Maloney
Currently in 4.2 as a Balance Druid I have to kill critters before every boss fight so that I start in Solar Eclipse. Is there going to be more critters in MoP or even better, a cooldown that puts us straight into an eclipse?

Ghostcrawler: We don’t think the answer is more critter spawning in instances. :) We don’t have a specific solution we’re ready to announce, but we plan to address the problem.

Comment From Jesse Kik
Where do we level from 85 to 90?

Zarhym: You’ll be leveling on the new continent of Pandaria, of course! ;)

Comment From Guest
Hey there. Will Pandaria have a new Dalaran like city or will we be using the ones already existing ingame?

Mumper: We will have separate player hubs for both the Horde and Alliance on Pandaria. Separate hubs means we do not have to make them sanctuary and will encourage world PVP. These hubs will have access to an AH, Bank and general vendors. Valor, conquest, profession and faction vendors will be scattered around the world to encourage travel.

Comment From Greenmember
Will there be more guild levels in MoP, if so how far will the cap go and do you have any examples of new perks?

Comment From Ezioh
Are you still considering expanding the proposed talent system or is the general form already set? As in, is there still the possibility of get more choice from the new system? (Six overall specializing skills seems quite limiting)

Ghostcrawler: We tried a lot of tiers. We were worried at more than 6 that the combinatorial complexity of >729 different variations of talents would be challenging to balance or for players to even comprehend. We want to focus on having fewer awesome talents than many tiers that will force us to dilute individual abilities in the name of balance (for example, if you ended up with 6 forms of crowd control, then all of them need to be pretty weak).

Mumper: We will be adding new levels to the guild leveling system for Mists of Pandaria. These new levels will come with new perks too! An example of a couple perks we are thinking about are reduced cost on void storage and transmogrification.

Zarhym: Mumper’s answer was for Greenmember. ;)

Comment From Dave Hovis
Where exactly is Pandaria located on Azeroth? many speculate that it is in the south, but I have always assumed it was to the west of Kalimdor.

Mumper: Pandaria is located on the south side of Azeroth. Think the exact opposite of Northrend. Come to think of it, we should have named it Southrend.

Zarhym: :o

Comment From David Nguyen
Often as an enhancement shaman, I find that weapon drops, specifically agility one handers, are always rare or not made to be slow (I know slow daggers seem pretty odd, but stay with me here). Is there any chance we would be able to reforge swing speeds?

Ghostcrawler: We don’t want minute differences in weapon speed to have a non-obvious, massive effect. We like daggers being fast and other weapons being slow and will make shaman etc. mechanics work around that.

Comment From Mer
Since we’re getting an account wide “pet library” so to speak, do you have any plans to extend this functionality to the mount page? Many players are hanging onto exclusive mounts on older/unplayed characters.

Mumper: We will be testing out account wide features with pet battles and if it proves successful there, we would certainly want to the same thing with mounts.

Comment From Walterodim
First off, just wanted to say Blizzcon was awesome. It was my first time there and you guys were all great! Look forward to coming back next year. During the first discussion on talents, you revealed that Druids would be receiving a fourth talent tree to differentiate between bears and cats. I think this has been mostly received as a positive change by the community. You also stated that the notion of a hybrid tax is an antiquated view on class structure. Are there any plans to provide unique buffs to the four pure DPS classes to compensate for their lack of diversity, or maybe, creating a 4th spec in their areas that would allow for another role, such as a tanking Warlock?

Ghostcrawler: We don’t want to have unique buffs per DPS spec within a class, but we do want to make sure the DPS specs do offer utility that the tanks and healers can’t bring alone. We also want to have greater variety and richness among specs for those classes with multiple DPS specs (e.g. hunter, warrior). We definitely want for there to be a reason to bring pures to a group as well.

Comment From Kcdope
In regards to the Challenge Mode dungeons, how many of the dungeons will offer these modes and will our entire level/stats be reduced to a level equal to lower level dungeons if applicable?

Mumper: We are hoping to have challenge mode dungeons enabled for all 9 of the new Mists of Pandaria dungeons. Assuming we like how it pans out, we would certainly be excited to extend the feature to more classic dungeons or raids.

Comment From Gil
With shadow orbs becoming a new resource, do you have any plans to improve the interface to make tracking shadows orbs easier, like what was done with paladins?

Ghostcrawler: If you saw the way we handled the monk resource bar at Blizzcon, we are experimenting with doing that for various classes and specs who have resources like that. So we could move shadow orbs down in the middle of the screen for Shadow priests if that paradigm works out.

Comment From molgive
Will you consider giving glyphs the same treatment as the talent trees? Glyphs are also somewhat cookie cutter, as passive damage increases are not fun and are mandatory for any player wishing to compete

Ghostcrawler: We aren’t happy at all with Prime glyphs because they are no-brainers (but often mathy to figure that out). We want to expand the Major glyphs because that is where the real decisions lie. Not sure of the future of Primes quite yet. They *might* go away. (Don’t freak, scribes!)

Comment From Guest
With MoP you’re introducing the pet battles. Will that be a new way of earning XP and/or valor points ?

Mumper: We are hoping to implement XP gain for pet battles in a similar way to what players see with gathering professions now. You would not want to level your entire character just on pet battles, but we do think you should be rewarded for participating in it.

Comment From Avengerjk
So with the removal of talent points it seems like players leveling lose their “awesome I just got zealotry” feeling. Though the new talent system seems interesting and unique the gap between each 15 levels makes a dullish feeling in between each gap. Any word on how this will play out?

Ghostcrawler: Couple of points. With Ret specifically, we wanted to try and address some of the feedback from players about the rotation. Divine Purpose and Zealotry add too much complication or RNG for some players, which is why we think they make good optional mechanics. Overall, when you see the rate at which you get new spells, you are still rewarded about every other character level (much like today). There are just a lot of core or spec spells that used to be no-brainer talents.

Comment From Jim Smith
I think I read somewhere that resilience is becoming a base stat in MoP — if this is the case, what does that mean for PvP gear and/or does this mean that end game guilds will be top in PvP.

Ghostcrawler: Resilience will still be an important stat for competitive PvP. Likewise, PvE gear will still be the best gear for PvE. The hope is to lower the barrier of entry by making the gap smaller (but not trivial).

Comment From Kubus
One of the current issues discouraging World pvp is the presence of highly overpowered guards around cities and hubs, 1-shotting anyone who engages in pvp. How will this be in MoP?

Mumper: We know this is an issue in the current game and we plan to address it in Mists. We want to encourage world PVP, not make it a one-shot game for npc guards. This is one of the main reasons we decided to make two separate player hubs instead of a shared sanctuary.

Comment From Mitchell John Goolmeeze
Will pet battles be created the same way as duals?

Mumper: We will let players duel other players that are near them in the world, but we will also have a queuing system you can join to fight against other pet trainers of similar level.

Comment From Aurora
I see two new poisons given to rogues in the new talent system, does this indicate we’ll be seeing poisons reworked for MoP? As it is the Assassination spec relies so heavily on the instant/deadly combo for damage it’s not viable to use anything else.

Ghostcrawler: We are reworking poisons. For starters, rogue damage is balanced around the expectation of two damage poisons, which makes it really brutal to use a utility poision instead. In MoP, you will have one damage poison and one utility poison so you can choose which utility poison to use (and not IF you want a utility poison). We also want to reduce the amount of ramping that rogue DPS requires, such as removing the need for Deadly Poison to stack. (And likewise we want to make Bandit’s Guile less punitive when swapping targets.)

Comment From Karasan
Will the pandarian racial that benifits XP bonus give them twice the blue bar for the same amount rested, or will it give you a larger multiplyer when reciving XP

Zarhym: Their blue bar (rested XP) will last longer before running out.

Comment From Mistrpickles
The island of Pandaria is set to be located on the back of a giant turtle, will this turtle go under water?

Mumper: The starting zone for new Pandaren is located on The Wandering Isle (the turtle). The continent of Pandaria itself is not a turtle, its a piece of land.

Comment From Hazmatt
Is there any chance of a new spell for paladins to fill the role of Holy Wrath for single target fights?

Ghostcrawler: Holy Wrath becomes a nuke for Holy. Ret and Prot will generate Holy Power from Judgment, Exorcism procs, Hammer of Wrath and other abilities that make sense. We still want there to be some small gaps in rhe rotation, but smooth over some of the frustration of today.

Comment From KJCossin
Is Bashiok nice in person?

Zarhym: He’s the best! (I’m within punching range.)

Comment From adarkguardian
How does the new death knight talent Asphyxiate work at this point? Does it last until the target takes damage, like Repentance or Hex, or is it channeled like the succubus minion’s Seduction?

Ghostcrawler: Asphyxiate lasts 5 sec. There was a typo in the Blizzcon presentation. Asphyxiate is the same duration as Strangulate, which it replaces.

Bashiok: I am the best. You can tell because I say so.

Comment From Ashendant
What’s going to happen to the currently existing Relics once the MoP arrives? will they be turned into gold/grey trash/off-hands/trinkets?

Ghostcrawler: Relics will turn into gray items that you can vendor.

Comment From Dave Williams
My questions concerns the limits to Pandaren faction chat. How do you intend to deal with if you meet someone at the starting pandaren area and friend each other (not RealID) yet choose seperate factions?

Zarhym: Much like the worgen and goblins cannot leave their starting areas, you cannot friend a fellow pandaren until she has chosen her faction.

Comment From Stephen LaFlamme
At Blizzcon you stated that mage’s primary nukes will be spec specific ( Fireball for Fire, Arcane Blast for Arcane, and Frostbolt for Frost). However, what will happen to Frostfire bolt? Currently it is only used by Frost Mages and only when a talent procs. Is this spell going to be reworked or simply removed from the game?

Ghostcrawler: Frostfire Bolt is the starting spell at level 1. You get Frostbolt, Fireball or Arcane Blast at level 10. Fire or Arcane can still use Frostfire if they want a snare, or when Brain Freeze procs for Frost.

Comment From matticus
Is @ChrisMetzen the real Chris Metzen?

Zarhym: Yes sir.

Comment From Cerylia Dawnwing
I have a question about dungeons… many people have complained that there were not very many dungeons this expansion (compared to the number of dungeons in 1-60 Azeroth, Outland, and even Northrend). In Cataclysm endgame, there were very few normal dungeons for a casual player to easily PuG, and the rest are perhaps a dozen or so heroics (which do get boring after doing the same ones over and over!). Do you plan to have more dungeons come MoP? Will there be more choices for both regular AND heroic versions to have a little something for everyone?

Mumper: We will have 9 normal mode dungeons at launch for Mists of Pandaria. 6 of those will be on Pandaria and 3 will be classic heroics (Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery). All of these dungeons will have a normal, heroic and challenge mode version. We are currently planning to not have any max level, non-heroic dungeons. Most players never found a good niche for dungeons at that tuning level.

Comment From Rory Mayo
With MoP featuring the battle between the alliance and the horde, can we expect to see more prominent roles or appearances from famous NPCs?

Mumper: Yes, we certainly are.

Zarhym: ^.^

Comment From Adam John Mitchell
Is drain life ,death coil and soul harvest being removed since there are similar talents in it’s place?

Ghostcrawler: Harvest of Life upgrades Drain Life (Drain Life turns into Harvest, which is a mechanic we use for several spells such as Strangulate -> Asphyxiate and HoJ -> Fist of Justice). Soul Harvest is being removed, but shards passively regen outside of combat or can Drain Soul in combat to replace them. Mortal Coil is the new Death Coil.

Ghostcrawler: Keep in mind all of this is subject to change. :)

Comment From Jackson
Will there be a system where you can turn pet battles on/off at will? Sometimes I don’t want to be pestered by obnoxious pet owners that constantly want to duel. Or perhaps I don’t want to get a random encountet while trying to get anywhere. Anyways, will there be an option to switch pet battles off temporarily?

Mumper: We will have an option to disable invites to pet battles. Similar to what we have for player duels.

Comment From Gillian Seed
The new Cold Snap talent resets Ice Block, Frost Nova, and Water Elemental. I realize that the talents are early, but given that the first two are baseline, might this mean that the Elemental (like Living Bomb) is becoming a core mage spell?

Ghostcrawler: Water Elemental is a Frost spec spell.

Comment From bulldude
how does the new warlock talent that allows you to move while casting, but doubles cast time affect channeled spells?

Ghostcrawler: Channeled spells take twice as long to tick after you have started moving with that talent.

Comment From Mondo
One of the issues with the Outland expansion was that it felt too ‘off-worldly’. Northrend resolved this a bit by actually taking place -on- Azeroth, and Cataclysm brought back that wholesome Azerothian nostalgia. How does Pandaria handle this issue, considering how foreign the land (and indeed, the entire Pandaren lore) is to the world? When you’re playtesting MoP, how do -you- feel about the land?

Mumper: We are actually working very hard on this specific concept. Pandaria is based on Asian landscapes but its important to remember that these landscapes need to feel like they fit in Azeroth, not the real world. So far, we feel really great about how we are doing on this. Hopefully that was clear to players at BlizzCon as well!

Comment From Feye
What place will the World Bosses have in the scheme of raid difficulty and the item level of gear they drop? Will they be a mandatory part of the raiding cycle?

Ghostcrawler: We want the world bosses to be optional, kind of like Baradin Hold.

Comment From Krazie
Are we going to require items to change talents like changing the glyphs?

Ghostcrawler: Yes. Our goal (which is more important than the mechanism) is that we don’t want swapping talents to be a huge pain, but don’t want it to be so easy that making the choice isn’t interesting. We don’t want players to feel the need to swap talents in 5-player dungeons or for every trash pull in a raid.

Comment From Ensanguine
How big are the MoP areas going to be in comparison to say Outlands or Northrend?

Mumper: The zones themselves are quite large, even bigger when you take into consideration that you will not be able to use your flying mount until level 90. If I was to guess, I would say you could imagine the entire continent feeling like all 5 of the Cataclysm 80-85 zones combined.

Comment From Krazie
Will their be any raid size PvE scenarios?

Zarhym: One step at a time, grasshopper. ;D

Bashiok: Try to snatch the Valor Points from my hand.

Comment From penguin
Will there be a way for pandaran to switch factions (once) after they choose alliance/horde? Can they defect?

Mumper: We are currently planning for this to be a permanent choice.

Comment From James Brooks Tost
I play Enhance – with 4.3 the cooldown for Wind Shear is going to 26 seconds untalented, with Talents back to 5 Seconds, when MoP comes out those talents are gone. Are there plans to give the 5 second Wind Shear to Enhance as a base skill, or can I kiss my reputation as my Guild’s top interrupter goodbye?

Ghostcrawler: We want Enhance to still have a frequent interrupt that locks out for less time than other interrupts. However, overall we want to reduce the frequency of interrupts and increase their duration so that when you use them is more of a decision. We want them to be more impactful for both the interrupter and target rather than a spammy nuisance.

Comment From Khrow
Any plans to rework the crowd control system? Currently fear is not a reliable form of CC unless a glyph is used so they won’t move others, like warriors have no real CC at all. Speaking of which, how much CC will be needed in the new dungeons?

Zarhym: We’re currently exploring ways for Fear to behave more consistently without the glyph, but don’t have a precise answer yet.

Comment From Wink
Regarding the talent trees, will there be trees as we know them at all? I like the way you guys are moving with talents, but I wasn’t sure if combat/assassination/subtlety would exist anymore at all? Using a rogue as an example, will all three trees be merged into ‘Rogue’ now? It’s hard to tell from the examples given.

Ghostcrawler: Specs as you know them will still exist. At level 10 you can choose Assassination and get Mutilate. We want the specs (especially for the pure classes) to be more distinct than they are today since some of the signature utility is now available to all members of that class. Specs will contain core rotational mechanics and the tools needed to perform your role. Talents complement that with various forms of utility.

Comment From Thersius
I don’t like PvP, I play on a PvP server, because my friends on a PvP server and most people from my country is playing on that particular server. I have to face world PvP every time I am doing my bussiness in the new hubs in Pandaria? I love the new zone, but I don’t want to be backstabbed by a rogue while I am selling my stuff, or buying equipment. Can non-interested players avoid the world Pv

Mumper: Yes, we certainly don’t want you to always be back-stabbed while you are setting up your auctions. However, if a group of the opposing faction wants to form a raid and attack your city, we want them to have a chance to be successful. So yes and no. =)

Comment From aikouka
There seemed to be a bit of a backlash at BlizzCon against the idea of counters in the Pet Battle System. An example would be a water-based pet (Murloc) vs. a fire-based pet (Lil’ Ragnaros). This makes the fighting seem a bit more intricate, but I can understand the desire to have Pet Battles be easier to approach. Is there any thought to more than one skill level?

Zarhym: We intend to create a simple combat system with some engaging depth. We’re still in the process hashing out the details. Suggestions are certainly welcome! ;)

Comment From Guest
So far everything I have heard about the expansion sounds too good to be true! I was wondering however – I had heard that Cooking will become a primary skill, but others say I have misheard/read this. But wouldn’t it make the Pandaren racial moot if that were the case? Can you clarify?

Ghostcrawler: Cooking will remain a secondary skill. We do have some cool stuff planned to match the Pandaren love of cooking. For example, you can choose to specialize in different styles of cooking. For example, grilling may create Strength food. You can choose the specialization that makes the most sense for your character and still unlock feasts at the end, or you can try and learn all specializations.

Comment From dude
I am keeping my gray relics! Who is with me?!?!?

Zarhym: Not me! I like my gold. :)

Zarhym: We’ll be wrapping up the chat pretty soon, folks, but we still have a couple more answers to provide.

Comment From oliver
What will be the new cap for professions? Do you plan to create any new professions?

Mumper: The new cap for professions is 600 and we are currently not planning to add a new profession. We are hoping that pet battles will offer a fun, new type of activity for players to do that offers an alternative to player power progression.

Comment From SlowFatKid
Will there be any grasshoppers?

Mumper: Yes! It actually just got checked into the game by the artists today! Going to be awesome to use in pet battles!

Comment From brendan
will pandas become a mount as well

Zarhym: Inappropriate! :o

Comment From Ben Casaleno
Do you plan on making talent options for each class spec or only 1 set per class. In the preview it seemed that each tier complimented a specific spec rather the class. Also if you believe that talents should be fun choices why put damage dealing spells in the talent options rather then make them only things that increase movement speed, change rotation (ie makes 1 spell faster to cast),.This new system will not kill off cookie cutter builds if things people view as optional are mixed in with abilities. Make abilities base line with spec/leveling and make talents optional increases in power not through damage like the disc priest talent soul warding or rogues improved slice and dice….they both increases possible damage without a direct damage increase. Any comments?

Ghostcrawler: The damage-dealing talents aren’t core rotational abilities, but situational or utility abilities. When there is a damage option, it should compete against other damage options. The idea is to get away from cookie cutter builds. We don’t think there is always a right answer for whether you’d choose to run for longer or more often. Even today, guides will say “choose what you want” for those options. Some talents will probably be better situationally (if the boss can’t be interrupted, then your interrupt talent isn’t so sexy for that fight), but every e.g. shaman should not have the same talent set at the same time, or our design has failed.

Comment From T Williams
Just wanted to say awesome job guys, especially on the new talent system, looks like a huge improvement

Zarhym: Thank you. We’ve spent a lot of time working on it. We can’t wait to get further feedback and suggestions.

Comment From EldacarJS
Does Bashiok occasionally run around the office yelling “Rakanisu!” like his imp brethren from D2??

Bashiok: No way. Bishibosh 4 lyfe!

Comment From Spinner
What will happen to passive abilities like trueshot aura, arcane tactics, improved icy talons and unleashed rage? Where will they go in the new talent system?

Ghostcrawler: Many of those become passive abilities you get for your spec. We are removing some of the less interesting buffs and debuffs (+bleed damage, armor, 3% damage, resists are all on the chopping block at the moment).

Comment From MattWedra
At Blizzcon it was mentioned that PvE Scenarios will be something that we will queue for…Will we be required to be in the area that the PvE Scenario will take place in order to queue, or will we be able to queue for them from the cities like we do for the Dungeon Finder. If they are instanced events how will this “get the players out into the world” other than standing around a specific area waiting for the queue to pop, or am I missing the idea?

Mumper: We are planning to only let players queue for scenarios from specific spots in the world (where the scenario is located), not in the cities. We want players out in the world, not spamming the queue button in cities.

Comment From Grunbold
Is there any chance we’ll be seeing more weapons with procs? Something akin to thunderfury, sulfuras, or even the Revenge of Kalimdor?

Ghostcrawler: Yes, proc weapons are fun. There are several in the 4.3 raid. We will add more.

Comment From Zolstice
what will the pandas ride? non anthropomorphic pandas?

Mumper: We are still working on ideas for their mount. An epic turtle is certainly one of the most popular options around the office right now!

Comment From Val
At Blizzcon you said that demolocks will create demonic fury and turn into a demon when it is maxed out. will this be automatically or will we be able to choose when we use our full demonic fury?

Ghostcrawler: You have control over when you transform. The amount of Demonic Fury you have determines the duration of the Metamorphosis.

Comment From Ferel
Has GC seen #OccupyGregStreet ?

Ghostcrawler: Heh.

Zarhym: I had nothing to do with that! …

Comment From Juan Tejada
can other people watch the pets battle?

Mumper: We are working really, really hard to have spectating for the pet battles. Trust me, we want it just as bad as you guys. Stay tuned.

Comment From Viktor Voko Lindvall
Is Zarhym this flirty in real life?

Zarhym: Wouldn’t you like to know? <3

Comment From Raghnall
With the world PvP that is being talked about, are there any plans to add any Quest Hubs in Mists of Pandaria which functions like a smaller scale of Baradin Hold/Wintergrasp that will change faction when it is assaulted? Maybe even ones with actual leveling quests instead of just more dailies to add a dynamic questing experience like the ones that were talked about at Blizzcon?

Mumper: Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing we are thinking about. We will share more info on our ideas for this soon. The idea is that we want to give players more options and not just always have one place to go or one thing to do.

Comment From Varthsic
What exactly is a PvE scenario?

Zarhym: It’s a short, instanced 2-3 player experience without the need for a tank/healer. Think of them as a short series of group quests with a queuing option available.

Comment From Coercion
It’s clear from the consideration and thought you give your answers that you all have a deep understanding of the theory behind MMOs. Is this all knowledge learned on-the-job, or did you have any guidance such as school or peers when making these design decisions?

Ghostcrawler: There isn’t a lot of formal training that goes into it (though that seems to be improving over time). A lot of it is playing a lot of games, but it helps to have a bunch of really smart dudes on the WoW team (and throughout the company) who can poke holes in what you were certain is a brilliant idea. The guys behind the scenes don’t get enough credit for the success of our games.

Comment From Damian Liu
Will there be any new underwater zones in MoP? I personally loved Vashj’ and would hope that there’s at least some mini-zone in the starting area or something.

Mumper: Nope, we are not making another Vashj’ir. Glad you liked it though! =)

Comment From Matthew
If you get skinning as a Pandarin, will they weep when skinning another bear?

Zarhym: :*(

Comment From Blizzhoof
I’m in a high end raiding guild and if the racials for Panderan stay as is, we are almost all going to have to race change. Do you plan to have the Panderan racials (specifically the double food buff) nearly balanced with the other races on release or do you want them to be the best to start with so more people play them?

Ghostcrawler: The food buff is the equivalent of racials like the haste or crit buffs of the goblin and worgen.

Ghostcrawler: The 100% number is a ballpark number.

Ghostcrawler: We are still evaluating the power of our primary vs. secondary stats. Primary stats (Agi etc.) are a bit good right now, but that also helps ensure that new tiers of gear are nearly always upgrades.

Comment From Zac Williams
Will Arms Warriors do an equal amount of damage when using Bladestorm (lvl 90 talent) as Fury warriors, who have double weapons over arms?

Ghostcrawler: We don’t want there to be obvious talent decisions. We can make Bladestorm do more damage with two weapons or let Arms do more damage to keep Arms vs. Fury equivalent.

Comment From Nathan Drake
When do we except this x-pack to come out? (hopefully not late 2012)

Mumper: Based on what we showed at Blizzcon, hopefully sooner rather than later. =)

Comment From Zyde
Just have to say Blizzard are doing a wicked job with this expansion. It is very hard to hype up an expansion without some epic badass villain. The idea of the raging war between the two factions and the Pandaren being stuck in the middle (somehow trying to find peace?) looks to be so cleverly laid out. So very well done for that. New talent system is one of your best ideas yet. Just one question. How will the story be planned out with no villain, will there be a consecutive story eg every patch will release a raid focusing onto the main raid in the last patch. Or will every patch be unique in terms of story?

Ghostcrawler: There are definitely villians in Mists of Pandaria. We just didn’t want to put one on the “box cover” so to speak (we don’t know what the box looks like yet of course). You have seen some of them, like the mogu. We know who the final boss is. Seriously. It’s just too epic to share. Yet.

Comment From XLM
Come on guys, time to wrap up.

Zarhym: You got it. =)

Ghostcrawler: This has been cool. It’s nice being able to interact so directly with players (aside from the approximate 5000 people I met at Blizzcon). We look forward to doing it again. I want to give a shout out to all the other designers that helped Cory and I get all the answers right. :)

Mumper: Thanks for all the great questions guys! There is only so much time at the BlizzCon Q&A so this was great to get a chance to field some more questions! Thanks and hopefully we can do it again soon!

Ghostcrawler: We’ll try to address the item inflation question soon in a dev watercooler.

Zarhym: Thank you all very much for participating in our first-ever CoverItLive developer Q&A! We have plans to hold these events at regular intervals going forward on much more specific topics. Stay tuned to http://worldofwarcraft.com for details.

We appreciate you being a part of our first run!

Blizzard Under Fire Over Homophobic Incident at BlizzCon (Update)

Jensen Walker — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:45:02 +0000

UPDATE: Blizzard President Mike Morhaime has issued a written apology to GayGamer.

The Mists of Pandaria announcement isn’t the only divisive news to come out of Blizzcon. Seemingly homophobic comments made by George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, the lead-singer for the metal band Cannibal Corpse, were broadcast in an interview screened during the closing ceremony of the event. While Fisher’s language was bleeped out, an uncensored version of the interview, wherein he levels homophobic insults towards Alliance players, can be viewed at GayGamer.

While Fisher’s invective riddled tirade is obviously aimed at Alliance players, the fact that the interview was broadcast at all is somewhat questionable, given that Fisher encouraged Alliance players to commit suicide (bleeped in the edited version). While the statements were made in jest, and everyone is entitled to free speech, a company has an obligation to consider whether such statements should be broadcast to the public and reflect upon their corporate image.

A thread on the official forums seems to be more focused on the perceived bias between the Horde and the Alliance factions on the whole, but has generated over 75 pages worth of responses.

Blizzard has also issued a statement regarding the incident:

“We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun. Thank you all for speaking up. We’ll definitely keep this in mind for future shows,”

What do you think? Have Fisher’s comments been blown out of proportion, or should Blizzard have avoided airing the interview?

You can view the edited version of the video below.

Via [RPS]

Blizzard to Host Live Mists of Pandaria Q&A on October 27

Jensen Walker — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:20:23 +0000

Do you have any burning questions regarding World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Mists of Pandaria? Here’s your chance to have them answered.

Tomorrow, Thursday October 27th, Blizzard will be hosting a one-hour live online developer Q&A with Lead Content Designer Cory “Mumper” Stockton and Lead Systems Designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

In order to participate, you’ll need to visit the official CoverItLive website beforehand to create an account. Once the chat begins, all you have to do is log into the CoverItLive client embedded on WoW’s front page to ask any question relating to Mists of Pandaria. You can also read the responses as the developers answer as many queries as they can.

As it’s a moderated chat, it’s probably not worth participating if all you have are complaints. You can view the full details here.