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Scheduled Game Maintenance, Blue Posts, Batdog WD Build, Witch Doctor Fan Film

Darkmoon Faire Cross-Realm Zone
It looks like the Darkmoon Faire now has the Cross-Realm Zone feature turned on, resulting in many more people there when you visit now! You can take part in some discussion about it here.



Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
Greg, what will happen to ch.mode gear when the new exp. hits? Would be a shame if all these cool sets became unobtainable.
They don't strictly need to be unobtainable. If the dungeons keep scaling you down, the challenge will still be there. (Source)
Though to be honest, we're not sure yet what our actual solution will be. (Source)

Will items be something like Bloodsoaked instead of Thunderforged in 5.4?
Yes. Assuming we do it. (Source)

On a side note, will we ever see Progression-Paths outside of Gear for Characters at Max-Level?
We would like to, but we have to come up with good systems. (Source)

could you elaborate on the valor vendor going away in 5.4. That could be punishing to those still a tier behind or more
But we do like having a place you can earn gear even if you don't want to raid. I just didn't want to announce that content yet. (Source)
I don't think GC meant that the older valor vendors are going away. Just that you won't have new ones. Right?
The older ones won't go away and we don't know if there will be new ones or not. It's just an idea at this stage. (Source)

PvP
What's the objection with returning AV back to where it was a few years ago where epic battles could have lasted hours?
The problem is some players don't want a very long BG. We've discussed making long BGs their own thing.... (Source)

Disabling auto follow in Battle Grounds has only hurt the multi boxer.
The problem is when multi boxers are having fun in PvP, everyone else often is not. (Source)
The biggest issue is that this change has utterly destroyed a play style that has been accepted for 8 year's!!
Nevertheless, do you think it was fun for the solo players on the receiving end? (Source)

Why isn't PvP gear upgradable? This is driving me away from pvp...I can't just jump into a raid in pvp gear and be hit capped
It takes a lot of Conquest gear just to purchase your gear. We didn't want you to also have to upgrade it. (Source)

Patch 5.3 PvP Changes
Blue post says new players get discouraged cuz of gear difference in pvp. But getting one shot in FULL boa by prot warr is OK
Low level Shield Slam was fixed in 5.3. To be fair, while low level still matters, far more players care about 90 PvP balance. (Source)

PVP power gems are useless in PVP atm compared to a STR gem please explain why or is it blizzards hate towards PVP showing
Strength is still a PvP stat. Why does that offend you? I can understand why PvE gear would. (Source)

What's the point of the nerf to PvP stats?
Getting e.g. a Conq weapon made a huge swing in damage. We want gear progression but not huge swings. (Source)

thx to ur stupid decision cancelling pvp resilience. i am afk . byebye wow.
You understand, I hope, that we're trying to improve the experience when players in vastly different gear try to PvP. (Source)
Why even have gear in pvp? Seems counterintuitive, pvp is about action, not long-term planning gear.
Getting rewards is fun. Without power based progression goals we don't think many players would stick with it for long. (Source)
Some might, just as some raiders raid just to see the fights, not to earn gear. (Source)

in 5.3 pve ganked tanks are FAR better than pvp geared tanks for RBG.. they dont need pvp power, defensive stats better. why?
We don't want anyone, not even tanks, to be super hard to kill as FCs. It's not fun for anyone. (Source)

why do you always treat PVP players as 2nd class in wow, bg's are broken,bots run rampant,and pvp nerfs in 5.3, please fix pvp
Look at the list of 5.3 changes. Ask yourself how many were PvE vs PvP fixes. (Source)

http://t.co/KveNIAuLKx Read that please and write back your thoughts on it please
Feel like we have addressed this a bunch. PvPers told us they wanted PvP to be more about skill and less about gear. (Source)
PvE'ers told us they would participate more in PvP if they didn't die immediately until they had better gear. (Source)
Letting someone use PvE gear as *starter* gear in PvP (and vice versa) allows more crossover and gives you more opponents. (Source)

Funny how you guys didn't care about ppl getting smashed in PvP until just recently. Why is that?
Mostly, player feedback. We were worried it was driving folks out of PvP. (Source)

what is the point of pvp gear now? Lack of blizz responses is discouraging. Pvp gear =no point. The community wants a response
The community (or at least part of it) asked vociferously for PvP gear to matter less in PvP to allow for catch-up. (Source)
yeah pvp gear is a joke. No point in even buying it. Just afk in LFR and u can beat someone in full pvp
By "full pvp" do you mean Honor or Conquest? Conquest, no way. (Source)
Sure, but what about honor gear? 20 item level deficit vs. LFR gear is a lot for PvP power to overcome post-nerf.
If you'd rather LFR to get gear instead of Honor gear, that seems fine. You'll want to graduate to Conquest either way. (Source)
Honor gear is pretty much catch up gear. If you PvP seriously, you'll earn some Conquest. (Source)
Intuitively, Random Battlegrounds giving worse PvP rewards than doing LFR doesn't seem "fine" to me, but I see your pt
You can run BGs as much as you want but raids once a week (or so). (Source)
But at the same time, when a new season comes serious PVP'ers "must" LFR to stay ahead (aka not get behind)
You can earn all your Honor gear in a week or two depending on how much you play. LFR is nowhere near that generous. (Source)

My level 85 alts only have 40% baseline resilience still, not 65%. Intended?
Yes, the 65% was for level 90. Lower characters will have less. Partially that's because there is still resilience gear at 85. (Source)

Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
The current SSD prices are stable, with almost all SSDs under $1 per gigabyte when on sale. No new GPUs worth waiting for are expected before the third quarter this year. RAM prices have been increasing for the past few months, so if you were thinking about adding RAM anytime soon, now is the time.

The new Haswell CPUs from Intel are here and they offer a ~10% performance increase over the previous generation of CPUs in most applications. They run a little bit on the warmer side, so depending on how much you want to overclock, you may need to spend a bit more for a better CPU cooler like the NH-D14 or H90.

Unless you are doing a lot of video rendering or something that is similarly multithreaded, you do not need the 4770K and should spend that money elsewhere.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.


Peripherals/Monitors
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
MonitorAsus VS229H-P 21.5" LED IPS Monitor - $140ASUS VS248H-P 24-Inch Monitor - $170
KeyboardKensington Pro Fit Media Keyboard - $18Cyborg V.5 - $45
MouseLogitech G400 - $50Razer Deathadder - $45
SpeakersCreative A220 2.1 Speaker System - $30Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $39
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
MonitorASUS VE278Q 27-Inch - $266HP ZR2440W 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $381
KeyboardLogitech G510 - $89Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $76 ($120)
MouseLogitech G500 - $48Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $60
SpeakersLogitech Z323 2.1 Speaker System - $54Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $75


Puppy and Dolphin
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Pick one of the two CPU/Motherboard combos.
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
CaseNZXT Source 210 - $39NZXT Source 210 - $39
Power SupplyCorsair CX500 - $50XFX Core Edition PRO 550W - $61
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition- $85AMD FX-6300 - $129
HeatsinkCooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $25Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - $33
MotherboardGIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ 970 - $99GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ 990FX - $123
MemoryKingston HyperX Blu 4GB 1333 - $328GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $66
Graphics CardASUS 7770 - $99ASUS 7850 2 GB or ASUS GTX 660 2GB - $180 / $190
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $57Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $91
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22
Total$508$744 - 754


Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
CaseCooler Master HAF 912 - $55Cooler Master HAF 932 - $140
Power SupplyCorsair 650TX V2 - $87Corsair 750HX - $119
CPUIntel i5-4670K - $250Intel i7-4770K - $350
HeatsinkThermaltake Frio - $57Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $77
MotherboardASUS Z87-A - $150ASUS Z87-PLUS - $176
Memory8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $7116GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $120
Graphics CardGigabyte 7950 OR ASUS GTX 660 Ti - $320 / $280Gigabyte 7970 OR ASUS GTX 670 - $400 / $350
Hard DriveWestern Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $91Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $91
SSDSAMSUNG 840 128GB (Review) - $95
OR
Plextor 128 GB M5 Pro (Review) - $129
Intel 335 180GB (Review) - $178
OR
SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB (Review) - $133
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22
Total$1063 - $1232$1540 - $1673



Blizzard News and Armored Bloodwing Giveaway
If you missed our mount giveaway, Curse is giving one more away! The instructions for entering are near the end of the video below. If you want to enter, please post on the video comments and not on MMO-Champion.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Darkmoon Faire Cross-Realm Zone, Blue Tweets, Setup of the Month, Blizzard News started by chaud View original post
Comments 76 Comments
  1. Hiazakuru's Avatar
    My Idea would be kind of like a Ditto type of Pet, it would be off of a rare spawn named 'Metamorphic Slime' In one of the under caves on the boarder of Vally of the Four Winds and Kashar Wilds , neer the Lizard people.

    It would have the skin of one of those " troll slimes " kinda like the one that drops off of an AQ boss, but it would have the Skull of a reptile in the top of it instead of a troll skull and would change colors slowly, like the new Camiliien flying mount when idle.

    It's name would be
    Metamorphic Slime-ling - lvl 1 , Undead = Passive : Undead pets return to life immortal for one round when killed. 150HP , 15Atak , 10Speed

    It's abilities would be Elemental , Undead . and would be prone to high dmg from Critters abilities . 50% and low dmg from Dragonkin abilities . 33%

    ------------------------------------
    First Tie r: at lvl 1

    Elemental, Learn-able at lvl 1 , 90% Hit Chance:
    Slime Spew - Slimes the Enemy pet with a toxic sludge causing 25dmg and ticking for 5 Elemental dmg over 3 rounds. High dmg to Humanoid , Low dmg to Aquatic

    Undead, Learn-able at lvl 10,90% Hit Chance:
    Hunger - The Slime - ling pulls the Enemy pet into it's body Ingesting it , causing 30dmg for 2 rounds. Applying the 'Ingesting' effect. High dmg to Mechanical , Low dmg to Critter

    ------------------------------------
    Second Tier : at lvl 2

    Undead, Learn-able at lvl 2 , 100% Hit Chance:
    Coagulate - Coagulates the Slime-ling into a hardened state lowering dmg taken by 50% for 3 rounds. 4 round CD.

    Undead , Learn-able at lvl 15 , 85 % Hit Chance :
    Ingesting Slime - Coats the Enemy pet in Ingesting Slime slowing eating it alive Restoring 20 Health to the Slime-ling and eating 20 health from the enemy pet for 4 rounds. Does Double healing if the Enemy pet is 'Ingesting'. 2 round CD, High dmg to Humanoid, Low dmg to Aquatic

    ------------------------------------
    Therd Teir : at lvl 4

    Elemental , Learn-able at lvl 4, 100% Hit Chance:
    Forced Evolution - The Slime-ling Force Evolves it self into a higher organism over 2 rounds. Taking the first to Stimulate growth then on the 2nd Evolving adding 65dmg to each attack for 2 rounds. 4 round CD , High dmg to Mechanical, Low dmg to Critter


    Magic, Learn-able at lvl 20 , 100% Hit chance:
    Metamorphose - Take on the Enemy pet's look and abilities for 4 rounds increasing dmg dealt by 20% of the Slime-ling's health and adding awareness to there opponent's attacks for 2 rounds. after Morph wears off the extra awareness causes a 10% increased Dodge chance to the attacks used while in Metamorphose. 4 round CD, High dmg to Flying, Low dmg to Mechanical

    Idea By: Cori / c
  1. dzzope's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    Yes, because that is the best GPU at that price point. If you want to spend more, you likely already know what you are doing and don't need a list. The 770s are all OOS or cost $480+ on Amazon right now.
    Ok, Points taken on some things and I did say that maybe you need a new price point rather than replacing the one you have BUT I'm a member of a hardware forum and about half of the people coming to us for advice ARE looking for either 120hz screens or multi-monitor set-ups.. really with the price and performance of hardware these days there is little reason not to when a 2k computer (that a few years ago would only run 1 screen) can now run 3, High res or 120fps..

    And sorry but you need to look in better places if you think you can only get 770's at that price.

    pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=137&sort=a5

    Also on the SSD's, whats the point in going for a 120GB drive when you want all your games / apps to load fast.. have you seen the size of just wow these days..
    I it's just the name and inconsistency in your suggestions that piss me off with these, Unicorn does not describe what your putting under the hardware.

    And if your trying to stick to a budget then why are you spec'ing out a 4770k which most people will never use the potential of either in multi-core computing or in overclocking?
    Why are you specing a PSU that is WAY beyond whats needed for the build?

    Lower budget, better build:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12Liz
    Slap in cooler of choice, anything between $30 and 100, still under your budget but will play games better..
    Ohh and reasoning on the Ivy chip is $30 difference for marginal performance and increased power.. and like you said, anyone needing these suggestions will need an easier time of it and Ivy is MUCH easier to overclock.. and if they aren't overclocking then your doing them a dis-service by suggesting a k series chip and large cooler in the first place


    True unicorn would be:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12LdP
    Way beyond what people need but hey, it's a unicorn..

    Sensible 2k build for multi-screen / high res / 120hz monitors..:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12Lpj
    Swap the 2x770's for a single 780 if you rather stay to 1 card.. but it's much better bang for buck with the 770's.

    You don't have to break any banks to go for big power, you also don't have to spend as much as your suggesting for better in game performance.
    Feel free to drop in AMD cards wherever suits though they suck big donkey N*** for wow.. Also feel free to drop in Asus, gigabyte Asrock whatever boards / cards is each persons preference.. I Like MSI at the mo, great bang for buck and very good customer support.

    To anyone else that was saying anything about me over spec'ing.. My grievance was calling it a unicorn.. That and mixing a 670 in when a 770 is a far better investment and a 750W gold rated PSU where it wasn't needed etc etc.

    I wasn't attacking you, I was trying to point out some flaws in your builds(granted while having a rant but the rant was stated).. but here you go.. feel free to copy.
  1. the9tail's Avatar
    What's the objection with returning AV back to where it was a few years ago where epic battles could have lasted hours?
    The problem is some players don't want a very long BG. We've discussed making long BGs their own thing....

    Sweet, my 2 stopped BGs can be something that isnt 40man BGs.
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dzzope View Post
    Ok, Points taken on some things and I did say that maybe you need a new price point rather than replacing the one you have BUT I'm a member of a hardware forum and about half of the people coming to us for advice ARE looking for either 120hz screens or multi-monitor set-ups.. really with the price and performance of hardware these days there is little reason not to when a 2k computer (that a few years ago would only run 1 screen) can now run 3, High res or 120fps..

    And sorry but you need to look in better places if you think you can only get 770's at that price.
    We only list Amazon prices. Of course people going to a hardware forum want high end stuff, but we aren't really a hardware forum. Most people requesting build help here are spending $1k or less.
  1. dzzope's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    We only list Amazon prices.
    Well thats just plain silly. Any specific reason?

    Even if you used something like pcpartpicker, like I have it will list amazon and a few others, not a comprehensive list at all but only amazon?

    Anyway, I was ranting a bit (and didn't mean to cause offence, if any was taken) but there are a few inconsistencies in your builds (as stated, not to mention a $50 mouse and IPS monitor(albeit a good price for one) in your puppy peripherals section)

    P.S, the review linked with the 335 SSD is actually the 330.. they don't use a sandforce controller in them anymore. (you may want to double check some of the links too, Someone said earlier that one of the z87 boards was linking to a z77..)
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dzzope View Post
    Well thats just plain silly. Any specific reason?
    Not everyone in the world can use Newegg, but almost everyone has a local version of Amazon.
  1. dzzope's Avatar
    In that case pcpartpicker really is a better option as it covers mostly the same areas as Amazon and all you have to do is select your country in the top right corner.

    Granted it doesn't cover Brazil or china but it does probably 90% of amazon zones and most of your readership.

    In the very least tell people to shop around as if they don't know then they will probably expect you to tell them the best place to get parts.
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dzzope View Post
    Ok, Points taken on some things and I did say that maybe you need a new price point rather than replacing the one you have BUT I'm a member of a hardware forum and about half of the people coming to us for advice ARE looking for either 120hz screens or multi-monitor set-ups.. really with the price and performance of hardware these days there is little reason not to when a 2k computer (that a few years ago would only run 1 screen) can now run 3, High res or 120fps..

    And sorry but you need to look in better places if you think you can only get 770's at that price.

    pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=137&sort=a5

    Also on the SSD's, whats the point in going for a 120GB drive when you want all your games / apps to load fast.. have you seen the size of just wow these days..
    I it's just the name and inconsistency in your suggestions that piss me off with these, Unicorn does not describe what your putting under the hardware.

    And if your trying to stick to a budget then why are you spec'ing out a 4770k which most people will never use the potential of either in multi-core computing or in overclocking?
    Why are you specing a PSU that is WAY beyond whats needed for the build?

    Lower budget, better build:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12Liz
    Slap in cooler of choice, anything between $30 and 100, still under your budget but will play games better..
    Ohh and reasoning on the Ivy chip is $30 difference for marginal performance and increased power.. and like you said, anyone needing these suggestions will need an easier time of it and Ivy is MUCH easier to overclock.. and if they aren't overclocking then your doing them a dis-service by suggesting a k series chip and large cooler in the first place


    True unicorn would be:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12LdP
    Way beyond what people need but hey, it's a unicorn..

    Sensible 2k build for multi-screen / high res / 120hz monitors..:
    pcpartpicker.com/p/12Lpj
    Swap the 2x770's for a single 780 if you rather stay to 1 card.. but it's much better bang for buck with the 770's.

    You don't have to break any banks to go for big power, you also don't have to spend as much as your suggesting for better in game performance.
    Feel free to drop in AMD cards wherever suits though they suck big donkey N*** for wow.. Also feel free to drop in Asus, gigabyte Asrock whatever boards / cards is each persons preference.. I Like MSI at the mo, great bang for buck and very good customer support.

    To anyone else that was saying anything about me over spec'ing.. My grievance was calling it a unicorn.. That and mixing a 670 in when a 770 is a far better investment and a 750W gold rated PSU where it wasn't needed etc etc.

    I wasn't attacking you, I was trying to point out some flaws in your builds(granted while having a rant but the rant was stated).. but here you go.. feel free to copy.
    As said above, multi monitor setups (aka having games through 3+ screens) is a niche, I tried it, it was fun experience but I removed the setup like 3 months in, cause it isn't offering really anything special to me personally past the "wow" factor when you first hook it up. Same goes for SLI/Crossfire setups with enthusiast performance cards. There is very few people who are willing to dish 2x or 3x $600 ($1200 or $1800) for graphics cards alone.

    I build two machines somewhere mid last year which will serve me well up until 2015, when I will most likely upgrade again, those are
    i5 3570k, 8GB DDR3, AMD R7950 and 120GB SSD - All games this far run super fine without any need for more power.

    I paid about 1200EUR per machine (including case, cooling and PSU), yes it's more expensive in Europe, but that's two machines for 2400EUR, where's if I would go balls to the walls with Titan or SLI it would be pretty much the price for one machine.

    Also on that 120GB SSDs, you can get additional mechanical drivers or even SSDs in the future, also external driver and NAS is something people buy in masses now, so a 120GB SSD for the OS and few games should be enough for everyone.
  1. deafguy's Avatar
    that's funny, I just ordered an identical build to Narwhal lol
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spektroman View Post
    And what would communicating in advance do for you? Make you upset ahead of time?
    Most likely wouldn't change their minds, but it would go a long way towards at least giving players a heads-up as well as a chance to respond before the fact (instead of after it). I can understand why they didn't give advance warning for the big mining/herb node nerf of patch 5.1, but what's their excuse for not mentioning anything regarding the DMF change (or "no loot for scenarios", for that matter).

    We have different views but, regardless of that, I believe Blizzard has done a lousy job this patch in communicating not-so-insignificant changes no matter which way you spin the wheel.
  1. Serissa's Avatar
    Woo no more free trinket @ 06:00 for you :P There's a lot of people now (even @ early morning). Wanna do achievement? Fight for it :P
  1. karloz1337's Avatar
    I wonder why you cant combine

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0055Q88EO

    with

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B009O7YORK
  1. SROL's Avatar
    So I just uhh.. reply here, then?
  1. Mazzic518's Avatar
    Chaud I appreciate your PC build lists keep up the good work .
  1. mmoc24665d4db5's Avatar
    Give us a new raid, but no new tiers??? That dosen`t make any sense... Please give us a new cool tier!!
  1. JoranBragi's Avatar
    So who won the mount?

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