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Trial of the Gladiator
There was concern today that the new Trial of the Gladiator feature means the arena ladder will be removed, but it looks like more information will be coming in the future.


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
If you’re looking for some great Arena action, then Trial of the Gladiator is for you. Building on the same system used for the Arena Tournament realm, players who take part in Trial of the Gladiator will be able to enter and purchase gear, enchants, and gems from a vendor, and then match skills with other players. Similar to the Arena Tournament realm, an array of equal-quality gear and items will be available to all players, putting everyone on the same footing from the start of competition.

Any player will be able to queue for this new feature once it’s available, but you’ll only be able to earn a rating during specific days and times of the week that rated competition opens up. This will help make the pool of serious combatants more concentrated, allowing the system to match players more accurately based on skill and helping ensure rated battles provide a highly competitive experience.

You’ll be able to practice whenever you like outside of those times, but if you want to earn the prestige awards, you’ll need to hone your skills and climb to the top of the ladder at the appointed times. We also don’t want to penalize people too heavily for missing a scheduled combat or two, and we’re looking into ways to make sure the system strikes the right balance between flexibility and cutting-edge competition.

Connected Realms Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
As previously announced, we’ve been working toward connecting realms to increase the number of players on low-population realms, and since then have completed several connections. As a part of our ongoing communication, we wanted to provide you with an update that contains a list of completed realm connections, currently planned connections, and any additional future plans in one convenient location.

*Please note this list does not encompass all potential future connections. Please check back for further updates.

​We will be connecting the realms listed below on Monday, November 18th during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 6 a.m. PST through approximately 11:00 a.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

  • Draenor and Echo Isles
  • Gorgonnash and Balnazzar/Warsong
  • Lethon and Blackwing Lair/Dethecus, Detheroc, Haomarush
  • Lightning's Blade and Burning Blade/Onyxia
  • Smolderthorn and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos

​Future Connections
We do not have a date for the following realm connections, but will update this blog post when we do.

​​Batch 1
  • Azshara and Azgalor
  • Arygos and Llane
  • Cairne and Perenolde
  • Nathrezim and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos/Smolderthorn
  • Zangarmarsh and Hellscream

Batch 2
  • Coilfang and Dark Iron
  • Fenris and Dragonblight
  • Spirestone and Drak'Tharon/Firetree/Malorne/Rivendare
  • Ysondre and Magtheridon

​Plans for these connections may change at any time, but we’ll provide additional updates on specific dates for future connections here as we can. Please note that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

Flying in Warlords of Draenor
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Warlords of Draenor and Flying Mounts
No no no no no. I have paid what? something like 100,000 gold to buy flight for all my alts? You make us pay more gold to learn to fly in new zones and now you're taking this away from us?

No this doesnt fly with me at all. What next? Level up an alt but she can't fly until I do the same quest? I appreciate you want to make something feel epic again. Taking something away from me that I've repeatedly earned and paid for sucks.

I'm also tired of leveling up again with no flight. Once I have mastered flight, I should be able to buy a tome like cold weather flying. I dislike no flying until 6.1, but making me quest againto earn something I have sunk MASSIVE gold into, doesnt leave a good taste in my mouth.

Flying isn't being taken away. It's still there in all the other places you've earned it/gained it. All of those mounts you have are still usable. You just won't be using them in Draenor (at least to fly with) until a little while later and you'll still be able to get it at some point. We plan to make travel though via flight paths as convenient as possible and make being on the ground worth it via discoveries within the world. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor and Flying Mounts
Those of you who are worried about the lack of flying early on in the expansion, remember that it will only apply to the new zones, and only for a limited time in most cases. The new zones are being designed with this in mind too—we're being extra careful to ensure that flying isn't missed too much. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor and Flying Mounts
I just want to emphasise to those of you who are worried: we're working to make sure you won't be hugely inconvenienced by the loss of flying as you explore the new content. There'll also be a sturdy flight path network to get you from A to B. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor and Flying Mounts
Its not cool its just tedious and annoying to have to relearn to fly every gd expac. You know the expac I had the most fun leveling in Bash? It was cata because I could fly I could skip the camping skum i could nuke my quests; and then when I got to 85 I could put on a tabard and just grind my rep, it wasn't daily gated so I got it all done in about a day and a half it was wonderful.
We know there is some portion of players that raid, or have some specific end-game goal, and that leveling and questing and mobs and the story and the actual rest of the game in general just gets in the way of that. But ultimately "racing to end-game so you can put on a tabard and grind out rep" isn't the name of the game we're making. We're not going to be able to force you to care about the music, or setting, or experience, but you gotta understand that the rest of the game is for everyone else that does care about those things, and at least consider the logical reasons we present that makes that content better for them, even if it means it could maybe slightly disrupt your ability to chain-queue for Heroics.

Why not make the air more dangerous instead of taking away flying.
We've tried that quite a few times, it's really just a symptom of how the game mechanics function that most of our forays into dangerous flight just feel really bad. On one hand they feel unnecessarily harsh because there's only a few things you can really do to someone while they're flying and they generally deal with stuns/slows/dismounts, and on the other hand there's just no fun gameplay that can really be had there. The best gameplay is at ground level because that's the basis for the design of our game's combat systems. We'd toyed with mounted/flying combat in the past but that could almost be a totally separate game on its own, and probably gets us too far away from what WoW is.

How would this questing to unlock flying be the same? Its essentially dailies with the new name of Epic questing chain. You would most likely have to repeatly do things everyday or every week until you earn a certain gated number.
Do I need to go edit that part out, or is everyone going to be able to refrain from deciding exactly what it is (and being angry about it) before we've even designed it?

Nah, never mind, editing it out. Everyone is just going to focus on that and make assumptions about what that means. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Arenas
I don't know where this idea came from, but just to clear things up, we have no plans to remove the current Arena ladder. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Professions
We do want to slim down on the overall number of gems and enchants you'll need to put on your gear. That's primarily a quality of life change. We want to make it less of a hassle to be able to equip a new item.

That said, we don't think these changes have to mean that e.g. Jewelcrafting will no longer be a decent source of income. We could -- and this is purely a hypothetical example -- make the best gems rarer, which would drive prices up and increase profit margins. If you can make just as much gold (comparatively) off of one gem in Warlords as you can selling three in Mists, that'll help substantially. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Racial Changes
There aren’t plans for any broad, sweeping changes to racial abilities in 6.0. We’ll probably tune some numbers so some racials feel less mandatory in certain cases. Also, due to the changes we announced at BlizzCon, there are several hit and expertise-based racials that will need to be replaced with something new—hopefully we can use those new racials to help shore up racial balance overall. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Yak Reforge NPC
We've talked about different options. Maybe transmog? Maybe item upgrades? We don't know yet. Your thoughts/feedback would be helpful. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor Heirlooms UI
It's a new UI of (essentially) buttons that will "light up" when you obtain one (or have obtained one) of the heirlooms. Click the button and an item of that type will be generated and put into your bags. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Character Transfer Services
It looks like there are no plans to add a bulk character transfer option at this time.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The cost associated with the migration service actually helps to regulate the amount of realm hopping going on, which in turn helps to prevent huge 'overnight' realm population fluctuations.

It's certainly a useful service for people who find themselves stranded without friends etc. but we don't currently have any plans to change the way it works or add a multi-character move option. However, we hear you loud and clear and will continue to pass on everyone's thoughts.

Some very valid points, thanks once again.

I've mentioned this in other threads, but right now—especially during the Connected Realms roll-out—we're not looking to make any changes to the migration services. Once things have settled, we can take a step back and assess the situation.

Please know that we totally want you all to be having the best possible experience while playing. There is no simple fix to this that works for everyone. There are solid reasons why we can't currently offer free transfers to any realm, even with cooldowns as some have suggested, but we're constantly working to develop and implement other solutions that will help as many people as possible.

Patch 5.4.2 PTR - Power Word: Barrier
The 100% damage reduction on Power Word: Barrier in the latest PTR build is just a tooltip error.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Trial of the Gladiator, Connected Realms Update, Flying in WoD, WoD Blue Posts started by chaud View original post
Comments 109 Comments
  1. Animaneth's Avatar
    Let's see how all the no-flying-mounts people react when they have to pay exorbitant prices for ores or herbs... no potions / flasks... no blacksmith supplies... you will cry for mercy and beg for dailies to keep up with the gold you are going to spend on consumables...
  1. sheppo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arbsbear View Post
    I have a feeling the entitled crowd is gunna get all worked up & complain about Flying Mounts like they did with Dailies in MoP & Cata Heriocs being to hard.
    then I guess people should go to the official forums and counter the arguments the vocal minority are making.. it's a good change and blizz need to see that we are all behind it
  1. zshikara's Avatar
    All these people whining and complaining about no flying. I for one SUPPORT no flying till 6.1! I have been of the mindset that flying really hinders this game ever since it was added in BC. I gave it a fair chance and I still say to this day WoW would be a better game WITHOUT flying mounts. But its already been added and you can't put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. The best thing they can do is limit/restrict it till a certain point, and this I approve of greatly.

    I don't PvP hardly at all. I am strictly a PvE player, so no, I don't care about wPvP. My reasons for not wanting flying include world immersion, expansiveness of zones, and the world feeling dangerous again. Also its quite epic when you have to plan your route ala roadmap style instead of "get to certain height and fly afk in a straight line."

    I might be in the minority here, but I can't be the only one who thinks the way I do.
  1. Schaden's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Xilurm View Post
    You know what's interesting? It's that people keep whining like little fucktards for the "old days" to come back. And when suddenly it becomes a less convenient game some other party will whine like little fucktards again.

    What I get from this, is that this game isn't for everyone and it seems Blizzard just chose which crowd to keep.
    The playerbase is not a monolith, nostalgia goggles tend to be strapped on tight, etc. etc.
  1. Hatredsheart's Avatar
    Connected realms on the 18th - is that Lightning's Blade US or Lightning's Blade EU?
  1. Warlord Booty's Avatar
    I love passionate people on any side of an argument. When you have something really bad happen to you in real life, you tend to not be such whiny little pussy about things, I know it did for me. And really, this is just a game. When a game feels like a job or stresses you out or makes you feel bad, it's time to step away.

    This is actually why I don't raid anymore, a few years ago before I could drive, I'd play a lot more and raid and that was fine. I didn't like relying on people for anything, and yet liked being a spoiled princess. So sometimes I'm bored and log in and one annoying comment and I go full troll mode or I just log off. Not having flying in WoD is pretty much that. It's such a non-issue for me, that I can't possibly see why people get upset about it (to the level of that 3 paragraph poster with the blue response). I just... grow up already.
  1. Alexander Krizak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zurich View Post
    isn't Blizzards reaction to ''why not make realms with older expansions on them (that's right I want my BC and WoTLK!)?'' that ''noone wants to be in the main city and spam for a group, noone wants to lose the perks that came with each new expansion'' ... but now they are taking flying mounts from us

    yes newer expansions came with dungeon finder, with better graphics, many conveniences, ... but I personally would MUCH RATHER have the amazing old content back: the awesome raids (Ulduar, Sunwell, ...), I wouldn't mind losing some perks so that ppl would once again hang out in Dlaran and that my fav zones in Northrend wouldn't be completely empty. Now those awesome zones are just something you have to rush through to get to max lvl. And soon my 2nd fav continetn (Pandaria with it's beautiful zones) is gonna become irrelevant too.

    Blizz you are down to 7.7m ... why not try that out, the content for that is ready made
    I'm sorry, did I miss the patch where they removed Ulduar and the Sunwell from the game? Or the patch where they disabled the ability to lock your experience so you remain at a certain level?

    I've never understood the people who clamour for servers locked to old content. You have the ability to live in the past right now if you want to. Lock your experience at level 70 or 80, form a guild with others who have done the same, and go have fun in Sunwell or Ulduar. If you can't manage to drum up enough support to get this going... well, then maybe you have your answer for how popular old content servers would really be.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Good thing that they've alread tought on replacing the reforge npc on Yakk for the ilvl upgrade npc.

    Unless they bring some new kind of in-game service, that's the best option since it matches the fact that I won't need to reforge anything anymore and, maybe not even enchant/gem each piece.
  1. dotSeed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Animaneth View Post
    Let's see how all the no-flying-mounts people react when they have to pay exorbitant prices for ores or herbs... no potions / flasks... no blacksmith supplies... you will cry for mercy and beg for dailies to keep up with the gold you are going to spend on consumables...
    I'm pretty sure it's the crowd that resorts to buying those, rather than grinding their own materials, that is against no flying.
  1. Grasswhistle's Avatar
    I think if Blizzard mailed every player a 100$ bill, someone would wind up complaining about it. "why no 200$ blizz u fkin suck!"
  1. herick's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkrulerxxx View Post
    In reality, the whiners about no flying till 6.1 are the vocal minority. MMO Champ already has polls showing favor to no flying so in reality, it's not a problem, it's just the whiners whining too much.

    Cant wait for the next expac!
    except that, not everyone who plays wow, comes to mmo champion, so you can't claim its the vocal minority who dislikes the flying change.
  1. SumoSizeIt's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zshikara View Post
    All these people whining and complaining about no flying. I for one SUPPORT no flying till 6.1! I have been of the mindset that flying really hinders this game ever since it was added in BC. I gave it a fair chance and I still say to this day WoW would be a better game WITHOUT flying mounts. But its already been added and you can't put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. The best thing they can do is limit/restrict it till a certain point, and this I approve of greatly.

    I don't PvP hardly at all. I am strictly a PvE player, so no, I don't care about wPvP. My reasons for not wanting flying include world immersion, expansiveness of zones, and the world feeling dangerous again. Also its quite epic when you have to plan your route ala roadmap style instead of "get to certain height and fly afk in a straight line."

    I might be in the minority here, but I can't be the only one who thinks the way I do.
    I rather like the waiting period they're introducing. It should make world PvP interesting for a bit while the masses level up. I fully sympathize with the guy talking about alts, though. The tome system in Wrath was fantastic, and I'd love to see it introduced in a future patch for seasoned altoholics.
  1. ThirdWizard's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemonpartyfan View Post
    I don't see how casuals would be impacted more by this, all players are subject to all changes.
    Actually, casuals will be hit hardest by this. Hardcore players can spend the time on the quest line to unlock flight and still have time for other things. Casuals don't have as much time to devote to things like that. Casuals are also less likely to keep up with WoW news, so they'll be less likely to be ready for the end of the quest come 6.1. That means more work getting flying when the hardcores have prepared. This is true especially when you take into consideration alts, unless the unlock is account wide.
  1. mmoc7fb8344b2d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Animaneth View Post
    Let's see how all the no-flying-mounts people react when they have to pay exorbitant prices for ores or herbs... no potions / flasks... no blacksmith supplies... you will cry for mercy and beg for dailies to keep up with the gold you are going to spend on consumables...
    You are forgetting that core of the no-flying-mounts people have already farmed mats in vanilla with no flying, pvp server, having to "farm" single node multiple times to get everything in it and even killing mobs around them took twice as long. I think the cry will come from completely another direction.


    BTW, those who are expecting/fearing that casuals will roar about this when they finally get to 100, Blizzard is confident about this change, because casual feedback about no flying in timeless has been great. Many of these guys also dont care about potions, gems and such. Immersion is much more important. So this actually is a sort of a win-win, where casuals win, the true hardcore win, and the lazy wannabe-hc population will whine.
  1. mmoc7c49724528's Avatar
    The thing that bothers me isn't even to do with the new expansion. It's literally the fact that they're connecting well populated realms together, when they need to do it to empty ones like Sunstrider...
  1. CaptainArlong's Avatar
    Every argument against flying is a complete and utter failure. On a PvE server, someone who wants to rush through the content and get to the end as quickly as possible, has to have something they want to do removed from them. So they have to pay, while everyone else gets what they want? No, that's not fair at all. The only option is leaving flying in, and letting people decide what they want to do and how to play. That way if someone wants to rush, they still can, while everyone else can look at the "pretty" virtual environment or take their time.
  1. mmocffdefd0908's Avatar
    Are the Realm Connections EU or US ? Normally there is always a European or American Flag up at the Post :/ would really hope for EU Anub'arak Merge! :>
  1. mmoc7fb8344b2d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptainArlong View Post
    Every argument against flying is a complete and utter failure. On a PvE server, someone who wants to rush through the content and get to the end as quickly as possible, has to have something they want to do removed from them. So they have to pay, while everyone else gets what they want? No, that's not fair at all. The only option is leaving flying in, and letting people decide what they want to do and how to play. That way if someone wants to rush, they still can, while everyone else can look at the "pretty" virtual environment or take their time.
    Your logic is complete and utter failure. What if I want to kill every mob with 1 skill and get all the best raiding gear free from vendor. I'm paying for the game, right? If someone wants to take their time to raid and put in the time and effort to get that gear they still can.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Though the example is not fair, because when you scoop down with your flying mount to take the nodes, nobody else can get them. But when I get all the BiS gear from vendor day 1, nothing important was lost, because immersion is not important in game, right?
  1. ihyln's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    "No no no no no. I have paid what? something like 100,000 gold to buy flight for all my alts? You make us pay more gold to learn to fly in new zones and now you're taking this away from us? "

    I paid just as much for riding skills "back in the day" as today while gold wasn't as available as it is now. That when you hit max level you have 20k gold from questing only.
    You actually had to farm the gold instead of having it automatically from questing. As a new player I wasn't even able to buy basic riding skills without having to get gold from somewhere unlike now. And it took me quite some time to get 5k gold for my epic flying skill during TBC while now I just buy it instantly as soon as I ding max level without the help of other characters.

    So yeah I agree, spoiled. If I had children and they complained like some people here... that's really not going to fly.

    I don't even understand why it matters if you fly, ride or walk as long as it's fun. If it's about the gold, everyone paid for it and we have never been able to fly straight away in a new expansion except cataclysm for very good reasons...

    - - - Updated - - -



    You heard about connected realms by now I hope. They are actually trying to fix this right now...

    Also, having to PvP on a PvP server. Logic?

    - - - Updated - - -



    I support it too. You will experience the content much better and you will have a lot more fun that way.
    Sometimes they just have to force players to do something to make it work out.
    Just because something is easier now doesn't make you spoiled, dingus.

    People used to hunt for their meals. Oh now you go to the store to get food? YOU SIR ARE SPOILED.

    Unbelievable how far fanboys will go to justify having features being taken away from them. Having a long ass chain of quests to get flying back? Might as well call them dailies.
  1. crsh1976's Avatar
    I still don't understand the big deal and all the whining.

    I will be nice to not have to deal with players flying from point A to point B, kill quest-specific mobs/pick something up and fly back - that's not a game, there's no fun whatsoever in that.

    Go play other MMOs where there's no flying (Rift comes to mind, LotRO as well), exploration = fun. Having to kill mobs to get something = more XP. Unexpected event along the way = the best sort of fun.

    It's the basic stuff some WoW players need to be reminded of, apparently.

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