World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

For people that don't know the prices for the rep mounts are going up substantially from 5k to around 40k / 50k. I find this change very unreasonable and not needed. Hopefully this isn't intentional, but right now would be the best time to provide feedback on this change.
The change to gold costs for certain mounts currently on the 6.1 PTR isn't intentional. The modified gold cost was part of a change that's still in currently progress to make the mounts/items vendor refundable for gold. Once those changes have been fully implemented, the gold costs should return back to its current levels on the live realms.

TL;DR, there are currently no plans to change the cost of the mounts in question when patch 6.1 goes live.

The Slagworks wing of Blackrock Foundry (Oregorger, Gruul, and the Blast Furnace encounter) is open over the weekend on the PTR. Please use this thread to discuss and provide feedback.

There's a lot of threads on this topic in here, but this one had the most entertaining premise, so this is where I'll say this.

We wage a constant battle against bots. Blizzard has an entire department devoted to tracking down bots, hacks, and the like, and punishing those who make use of them. In fact, if/when you have something to report, you can email that team directly at [email protected]. They'd absolutely love to hear from you.

That goes for more than just bots, as well. Exploits, cheats, hacks -- any such behavior you see, send our Hacks team an email. Any evidence you can put together is great as well, video in particular. Toss something up on Youtube (can be unlisted) and send us the link. Make sure character names and realms are included. Getting in-game reports of bad behavior is good, but it's even better to have hard evidence of said behavior.

We probably can't completely wipe bots from existence. We sure as hell try, but the fight continues. We can, however, punish as many of those who use them as we can catch. And the more we catch, the better our ability to detect them gets.

And seriously, if you catch someone in the act, email [email protected].

(Also, juuuuust to be clear, we did not "create bots to speed up the BG queue process." That's silly.)

People are told SS/videos are not enough proof.
We won't outright ban someone out of the blue based on one screenshot. But typically, players that are using these sorts of obvious exploits have several reports against them as well. It's often difficult for us to catch those players in the act, so seeing visual evidence really helps. Videos also help us learn more about how a hack or exploit operates, so we can know what we're looking for in the future.

In short, screenshots and videos aren't enough proof on their own, but they certainly help us pull the trigger.

If an individual cheating or exploiting, and we record videos or take screenshots. They "cannot be used as evidence". Many years ago (2 at least) I stumbled upon a thread with two blue posts backing up that screenshots and videos cannot be used as legitimate evidence since they can be easily be modified.

Can you please; confirm or deny is this is still true in 2015? Regardless of PvE or PvP. I do understand calling out individuals on the forum is against the CoC/ToS however; if one were to properly follow through with a proper report, could said images and videos be used against the accused party? Or do we only give you guys our word and from there you do your investigation?
I've only been at Blizzard just shy of 2 years, so I'm not sure what the policy was before I got here. I just know what it is now, which is what I said above.

Calling out individuals publicly on the forums (aka "naming and shaming") is against the ToS largely to protect innocent players from harassment. As you can imagine, there are a lot of false reports. We'd hate for someone to be subjected to harassment in-game because some troll is pretty good with Photoshop, for example. It also helps us fight back against the bots if the surly individuals who create them are less aware of the exact evidence we're given.

Classes
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Any plans on adding new odd pets for hunters to tame in 6.1? thanks in advance.
Anything in 6.0 that you can't tame that you want to tame? (Muffinus)

PvP
What class/spec do you play and what is your 3s experience?
I never answer this as it would only become a distraction to actual feedback. "X is good/bad because you do/don't play it" (holinka)
But I really try to play as many as I can time permitting. (holinka)

Have you played any 3s arena games recently, or any arena recently? Are you aware of the state of the game? Comments on scabbard?
I play arena and RBG regularly. They have always been my favorite part of the game. (holinka)

Trap Launcher indicator wasn't updated to recent changes?
Requires a client patch to fix. Will be correct in 6.1 (holinka)

Hey what do you think about having dampening start at the beginning of a match in 2v2? It's one of my key annoying issues right now
if both teams have a healer, it does start immediately. (holinka)

I hope you don't consider Ashran a failure. For all its flaws (which can be fixed!), it's the best wPvP in WoW yet. Thank you.
Thanks. We consider the queueing system a failure, which we intend on fixing.in 6.1. A lot of aggravation starts there. (holinka)

Garrisons, Followers, and Outposts

• Garrison Followers
  
  • Garrison Followers may now be upgraded to item level 675.
• Garrison Buildings
  
  • Salvage Yard
    
    • Follower Weaponry and Armor Set tokens (War Ravaged, Blackrock, Goredrenched) no longer drops from salvage. Weapon and Armor enhancement tokens that can upgrade a Follower's weapon or armor item levels will continue to have a chance to drop from Salvage Crates.
  • Trading Post
    
    • Players trading Garrison Resources for tradeskill materials can now shift-click to specify the amount of items they want to purchase.
    • Trading Post Parts that drop in Ashran now have a chance to drop from all creatures and NPCs that drop Artifact Fragments, with an increased drop chance based on the quality of the creature or NPCs.

Itemization

• All rings, neck, cloak, and trinket items that can be acquired in Nagrand (A level 98+ zone) or later should now be better suited for the character's loot specialization. This means tanks should no longer receive items with no bonus Armor and healers should no longer receive items with no Spirit from quests or Personal loot mode for those item slots.

Class Changes
Talent Balance

• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Talents
    
    • Evanesce should now provide protection against many more effects, and function more consistently.
    • Ice Nova (Frost) now roots the target instead of stunning them, but the root is no longer affected by diminishing returns.
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Talents
    
    • Chi Explosion (Mistweaver) healing while in Serpent Stance is increased by 40%, and is now usable while channeling Soothing Mist. Healing while in Crane Stance is reduced by 33.3%.
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Talents
    
    • Empowered Seals (Protection, Retribution) has been improved. Liadrin’s Righteousness now increases haste by 20% (up from 15%). Uther’s Insight now heals the Paladin for 2% of maximum health every 3 seconds (up from 1% every 2 seconds).

Classes

• Cosmetic transformation effects now have a higher priority than Druid combat forms.
• To retain and improve readability in rated PvP environments, cosmetic transformation effects are now suppressed for all classes inside a rated PvP environment (Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds).
  
• Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Armor Sets
    
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Blood Death Knights now only applies Anti-Magic Shell to 1 additional ally within 15 yards (down from 2 allies).
• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • General
    
    • Mangle damage increased by 27%.
• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Frost
    
    • Deep Freeze's stun effect now always breaks on damage from Ice Lance or Ice Nova, but no longer has a chance to break from other damage sources.
  • Talents
    
    • Blast Wave (Fire) now has a 3-second cooldown.
    • Ice Nova (Frost) now has a 3-second cooldown.
    • Supernova (Arcane) now has a 3-second cooldown.
  • Armor Sets
    
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Fire Mages is now approximately 0.7 procs per minute (down from 1 procs per minute).
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Armor Sets
    
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Brewmaster Monks now only applies Guard to 1 additional ally within 15 yards (down from 2 allies).
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Glyphs
    
    • Glyph of Immediate Truth is now only available to Retribution Paladins.
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Armor Sets
    
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Combat Rogues has been redesigned. Using Vanish instantly generates 5 combo points and the next Ambush, Eviscerate, Revealing Strike, or Sinister Strike will be a critical strike.
• Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Elemental
    
    • Enhanced Chain Lightning now makes Earthquake instant cast, and increases the damage done by the next Earthquake by 300% when Chain Lightning or Lava Beam strikes 3 or more targets (instead of increasing Earthquake damage by 60% for each target struck).
  • Enhancement
    
    • Maelstrom Weapon no longer reduces the mana cost of spells.
  • Armor Sets
    
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Elemental Shaman now requires the Shaman to consume 18 Lightning Shield charges to trigger (up from 15 charges).
• Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Armor Sets
    
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Arms Warriors now causes Colossus Smash to generate 20 rage (down from 30 Rage).

Quests

• Players in a raid group will once again no longer be eligible for quest credit, except for specially-designated Raid quests. We are continuing to explore ways of allowing players who want to engage in solo or small-group questing while in a raid group (for example, while waiting for a Highmaul raid to form, or in a Rated Battleground queue), without also allowing raid groups to trivially complete quests that were never designed with groups of that size in mind.
• Legendary Ring Quest Line
  
  • Characters can now select the version of the ring they want to receive when completing a step of the Legendary Ring Quest Line that provides an upgrade.

Creatures and NPCs

• Khadgar has decided to dismiss his remarkably realistic mirror images from capital cities across the land. Adventurers answering his summons and seeking to enter Draenor may once again only find him near the Dark Portal in Blasted Lands.

PvP

• Flask of Conquest has been added as a potential drop from Strongboxes awarded at the end of a Rated Battleground match. The flask increases Conquest Point gains from Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds by 25% for 2 hours and the effect persists through death. The flask does not affect the character's Conquest cap and the drop chance is in addition to the existing chance for Strongboxes to contain Conquest Points.

Professions

• Fishing
  
  • Fishing vendors on Draenor now sell a consumable item that enables automatic filleting of fish caught in Draenor. Fish caught in Draenor are now automatically filleted.
  • Draenor fishing bait now lasts for 10 minutes (up from 5 minutes) to match the duration of fishing lures. and needs to be used within 15 minutes of being caught or it'll spoil.

Items

• Toybox
  
  • Piccolo of the Flaming Fire has been rebuilt into a Toybox item. Players can channel for 30 seconds to cause those around them to dance with a 5-minute cooldown.
  • Ruthers' Harness has been added to the Toybox.
• Moroes' Famous Polish now has a 30-minute cooldown (up from 10 minutes) to keep it consistent with our transformation cooldowns.

UI

• New Colorblind Options
  
  • Players can now access a new suite of colorblind filter options under Accessibility settings in the Interface menu.
• Premade Group leaders can now automatically accept applicants via a new "Auto Accept" checkbox after the group has been listed.
• Improved the ordering for categories in the currency tab.
• Popup notifications such as those for completing an achievement or receiving a reward after a Battleground match can now be dismissed by right-clicking on it.
• Added an "Ignore this bag" option to Profession bags for bag clean up.
• All multi-page windows now supports mousewheel scrolling.

Tomorrow, we will be testing two Blackrock Foundry Mythic encounters: Gruul and Hans'gar/Franzok. After testing of those two encounters concludes, we will open up the Slagworks wing in Raid Finder over the weekend. That should conclude our 6.1 Foundry testing - the raid zone is a 6.0.3 feature and will be opening on live servers next week, but testing it in the 6.1 PTR allows us to get some useful tuning data and gets players onto the PTR to test other features as well as the overall stability of the 6.1 patch.

As always given the nature of PTR, it is quite possible that there will be technical or gameplay issues that disrupt the testing. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

Mythic difficulty is designed for a fixed-size 20-player group. All participants must be from the same PTR server.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below on all PTR servers, for roughly an hour or so.

Friday, January 30

• Gruul - Mythic Foundry - 13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)
• Hans'gar & Franzok - Mythic Foundry - 15:00 PST (18:00 EST, 24:00 CET)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, fire, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.