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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. ihyln's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Geish View Post
    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.
    Just like how Blizzard was confident with Cata dungeons being so difficult and hundreds of dailies right out of the gate with MOP. Nope they didn't backtrack on any of those!
  1. Cheesewheelz's Avatar
    One thing I don't think people are mentioning about the no flying, when they take flying away for one zone it feels ok, but when you take it away for all 7 zones it feels like your being cheated. I love little zones like Timeless Isle and Isle of Thunder not having flying. However I don't understand how taking a flight path allows you to "see more of the content" when I take flight paths 90% of the ground loads and unloads before I have a chance to see any of it, when I am on my flying mount I am near the ground flying between trees looking for things, exploring for random Easter eggs. Seems to me that they don't want to polish things to much for 6.0 so they can deliver it faster and polish things for 6.1.
  1. crsh1976's Avatar
    Eventhough I don't mind delaying the flying "permit", I always thought it was a little stupid how we always ended up flying at the end of the levelling process anyway - I guess it always served as yet-another incentive to reach the cap, albeit a totally half-assed one.
  1. Kazuchika's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    3. I looooove the excuses they're giving for charging for character transfers. Have they seen the realm inbalances? Charging didn't stop it. People still hopped around. Other mmo's don't charge to change servers. I wonder why that is.

    Feel free to show us the MMOs with 7 million players that lets them just randomly hop around for free.

    It's cool we'll wait.

    Oh that's right it's not a big deal for most MMOs because they have next to no one playing them so the strain on the servers is non existent.
  1. koltec's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arbsbear View Post
    People complain about anything, its not something new, we all know it happens.
    i think the yak having item upgrade would be ideal to have as replacement for reforging, I do agree transmog not necessary as most wait to get more then 1 piece before transmoggin
  1. mmoc1e4c5b7903's Avatar
    It's cool we'll wait.
    But we won't wait while paying subscription. We will wait 6.1 with the acounts frozen.
  1. Mychelle's Avatar
    It amazes me how by now people who have played this game for years still don't understand how things work. At the beginning of an expansion they DO. NOT. WANT. you to rush through anything. That puts a lot more pressure on them to produce a patch, giving them less time to produce it, and thus a crappy patch which will get complained about because they think Blizzard didn't put enough effort into it. (Well duh, crying that your bored because you've been able to rush to 100 by flying everywhere.) By forcing us to take things slower (again, at the beginning of an expansion), it gives them a small breather and more room to work on following patches. The only time they ever want you to really "rush" through anything is at the end of an expansion. Because by then you've done everything on your main, and they want to give you the ability to rush an alt up to actually keep you playing when they aren't producing patches, and are focusing on the next expansion. (ex: Timeless Isle). That is just how this whole thing works, and the people that are whining about not being able to rush through crap just really don't get it. That is not how your supposed to play this game.
  1. derpkitteh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Archypew View Post
    and there goes wow pvp down the toilet
    why exactly? you scared you actually have to use skill instead of gear? lol... i guess you just suck at pvp then.
  1. fifteenBit's Avatar
    The people complaining about this WoD flying situation are acting like Blizzard also somehow made it illegal to drive a car and are forcing you to get to work on foot. This isn't real life. This is a game. I'll admit, its a very addicting game, but no one is forcing you to play it.

    Generally speaking, if your post seems whiny, then very few people are going to take your opinion seriously. If you want Blizzard to hear you, try complaining in a manner that doesn't make you sound like such an asshole. That being said, I don't think Blizzard is going to budge on this one. So, show them your concern, and don't buy the expansion. If not being able to fly for a few months is that much of a deal-breaker, just don't play until the change is implemented.
  1. Ayla's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    [I]

    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 - - -
    Why don't you check achievement dates before you start the old man speech? I'm clearly a BC player. And no, its not about the gold. Its about every single mount ive earned. All 260 of them. I earned Epic flight for all 3 of my 70s through questing and professions in BC ALONE. Name ONE expansion where if I had the gold I couldnt fly at max level. Thats right, there isnt one. Yes, my mounts are my babies to me.
  1. Kazuchika's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by vandam View Post
    But we won't wait while paying subscription. We will wait 6.1 with the acounts frozen.
    Sure you will.

    See you on launch day or better yet don't even come back. The game will be better off without children like you throwing a fit over such a pointless thing as "BAWW I CANT FLY RIGHT AWAY"
  1. mmoc1e4c5b7903's Avatar
    Sure you will.
    Nope , subscription already frozen. Will end in 18 days , then bye .
  1. shoooter's Avatar
    The reason for no multi-character transfer is just plain greed then. Realm population should be no concern when you can only play one at a time.
  1. Krisshaman's Avatar
    Im so confused by this Trial of the Gladiator issue. When did a blue (or anyone at blizzcon) say that the existing arena ladder would be gone? When did they say that the existing title and mount rewards would be gone? I see people constantly "quoting" things that seem to come from absolutely nowhere, but none of them actually say that the ladder or titles or mount rewards are leaving the current system. All they say is that there is a newer, different system being introduced that uses the same system as the Arena Server, not replacing the current system. Did people complain like this when Blizzard announced Heroic raiding, thinking that normal raiding was going to disappear?
  1. Shiroh's Avatar
    I am really looking forward to better quests and a livelier world that can only be achieved if people stay on the ground.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zurich View Post
    I don't know if you noticed but to keep up and stay competitive you have stuff to do on daily basis and no flying = a lot more time every day

    I don't mind taking longer to get to 100 ... actually I would prefer it taking longer really, I do mind taking longer to do stuff you kinda have to do every day/week/... to stay at the ''top'' and be able to stay competitive so you can do the content properly (raids)
    What makes you think that they won't adapt the lvl 100 content to not having a flying mount? I doubt you'll have to do dailies in 6 different zones in 6.0. Well, there won't be many dailies anyways but I still doubt they'll "force" you to travel too much without flying mounts. I imagine that the max level content will be way more locally focused than it was in 5.0.
  1. Self Inflicted Wounds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ThirdWizard View Post
    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.
    No, this doesn't make sense. Being prepared doesn't make anyone a hardcore. Being prepared is also a choice. Obviously, if you can't be bothered to check out changed, then you don't really give a shit anyway.

    If no flying means you do things 10% slower, this 10% is still effecting your gameplay, whether you play for 1 hour a day, or 10 hours a day. Not to mention, no flying won't change a thing if you just sit in a city and queue for things.

    - - - Updated - - -

    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.
    I want a full set or T-17 on all my toons, Blizzard better gimme it! Why can;t I rush things when I want? I also want all my toons to level 100! Blizzard better do that too! Its only fair!

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by ihyln View Post
    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.
    Sorry dingus, a quest chain isn;t dailies. STOP WHINING.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Cheesewheelz View Post
    One thing I don't think people are mentioning about the no flying, when they take flying away for one zone it feels ok, but when you take it away for all 7 zones it feels like your being cheated. I love little zones like Timeless Isle and Isle of Thunder not having flying. However I don't understand how taking a flight path allows you to "see more of the content" when I take flight paths 90% of the ground loads and unloads before I have a chance to see any of it, when I am on my flying mount I am near the ground flying between trees looking for things, exploring for random Easter eggs. Seems to me that they don't want to polish things to much for 6.0 so they can deliver it faster and polish things for 6.1.
    Likely story man. Even if this is true, I doubt you spend much time at all doing it, and you're probably in a .05% minority that does. Pro Flyers just want and easy ride and more convenience.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Durandro View Post
    Let events speak for themselves, "son".

    The level of whine on the forums vastly outnumbers that in-game. No-one in my guild has vocalised any real issues with the current news. Tradechat isn't being spammed by butthurt players. The only tears I see are here and on official forums.

    Please, carry on. Make assumptions and prejudge and complain. Its amusing to those of us who've seen it all happen before, and know that waiting patiently for the end result usually results in few disappointments.
    That's because none of those people know what's going on. They won't know until they hit 100 and start spamming "where is the flight trainer?" in trade. Then we'll see who the vocal minority is. Remember when they gutted talents? The forums were bitching about it, and fanboys were defending it. That all happened when it was announced. Months later and it got put into place, THAT was when they started losing massive subs from it. Because those casual players don't read announcements and patch notes. They just log in when it happens and say what the fuck.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Umbranox View Post
    If you can fly you can just pick up the quest, fly in a straight line to the objective, complete it and fly straight back. Where's the fun in that?
    Gotta love this hypocrisy. I can bet my savings this guy doesn't use ground mounts. When you were doing your klaxxi and golden lotus etc dailies were you using your ground mount? Hmm? No? Oh so why were you using your flying mount to do them? You just said yourself it's not fun when you fly. So why the hell were you purposely doing something that isn't fun? Is it not fun unless you're forced into it? And everyone else is forced? I thought so. Hypocrite.
  1. ihyln's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemonpartyfan View Post
    No, this doesn't make sense. Being prepared doesn't make anyone a hardcore. Being prepared is also a choice. Obviously, if you can't be bothered to check out changed, then you don't really give a shit anyway.

    If no flying means you do things 10% slower, this 10% is still effecting your gameplay, whether you play for 1 hour a day, or 10 hours a day. Not to mention, no flying won't change a thing if you just sit in a city and queue for things.

    - - - Updated - - -



    I want a full set or T-17 on all my toons, Blizzard better gimme it! Why can;t I rush things when I want? I also want all my toons to level 100! Blizzard better do that too! Its only fair!

    - - - Updated - - -



    Sorry dingus, a quest chain isn;t dailies. STOP WHINING.

    - - - Updated - - -



    Likely story man. Even if this is true, I doubt you spend much time at all doing it, and you're probably in a .05% minority that does. Pro Flyers just want and easy ride and more convenience.
    rofl, is anyone listening to this dingus with a lemonparty username? Stay in school, kid.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ThirdWizard View Post
    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.
    You know it won't be account wide. Look at cloud serpent rep. They made us get it for all our alts which is entirely retarded. They will for sure force us to do the long "legendary" like quest chain to get flying on all our alts.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Kektonic View Post
    Feel free to show us the MMOs with 7 million players that lets them just randomly hop around for free.

    It's cool we'll wait.

    Oh that's right it's not a big deal for most MMOs because they have next to no one playing them so the strain on the servers is non existent.
    7 million, that's hilarious. Here's the deal champ, most of those are in china. The last time they gave numbers per zone was when they were at 10m. They said 6m were in china, 2m in EU and 2m in US. So let's just be generous and say we're at 1.5m for US and EU, that they didn't drop that much. Those two zones can't play with each other. In other mmo's they can. I personally see more people running around in Rift than I do in WoW and that's with CRZ cheating. So if you look at it from US WoW which is 1.5m to Rift which is actually more than that since they had 1m BEFORE they went free to play. They allow bouncing around for free and it didn't screw up realm balance one but. But please, continue to blindly defend your gf while she gouges her customers for no reason.
  1. Shiroh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ihyln View Post
    rofl, is anyone listening to this dingus with a lemonparty username? Stay in school, kid.
    At least he makes sense.

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