"Lower Difficulty" To Be Removed From HC, Bounty Hotfix Clarifications, Legendaries From Gambling To Unlock Visuals, and More

Disenchant Adjustments Ending, Beta Season 2 Ending Soon, MG Interviews

World of Warcraft: Azeroth by the Numbers
Blizzard released a nice infographic today that shares lots of fun WoW stats!


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
From the rise of Onyxia to the fight for Pandaria, more than 100 million of you across the globe have visited Azeroth since the first realms went live in 2004. We’ve gathered some epic statistics to show what you’ve been up to all this time.

Curious about the faction breakdown among the 500 million characters you’ve created? Wonder how many instances your fellow adventurers run every day, or which pet is the most popular? Take a look at World of Warcraft’s first official infographic below for some fun and surprising never-before-seen facts about the game.

We hope everyone enjoys this glimpse at the inner workings of Azeroth—feel free to find and share it on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for being a part of World of Warcraft’s history, and here’s to new adventures with you in Warlords of Draenor!

Garrosh Heirlooms and Bonus Rolls
Following up on the Garrosh Heirloom bonus roll information yesterday comes some more bonus roll clarifications:

  • Quivering Blob can be won with a bonus roll, and doesn't take the place of an item you would have won. (Source)
  • Nalak, Oondasta, Galleon, and Sha of Anger mounts can be Bonus Rolled. Raid mounts cannot. (Source)
  • Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent aren't (and have never been) Bonus Rollable. (Source)
  • Kor'kron Shaman's Treasure cannot be bonus rolled. (Source)
  • You can bonus roll Siege pets in appropriate difficulties due to community feedback about Quivering Blob. The pet is a separate roll from items, so it doesn't have any impact on winning other loot. (Source)


Patch 5.4.2 Hotfixes: January 28
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
  • Siege of Orgrimmar
    • Immerseus
      • Immerseus' Swelling Corruption ability should no longer be incorrectly triggering from Balance Druid's Starfall and the Hunter talent, A Murder of Crows on Heroic difficulty.
    • General Nazgrim
      • General Nazgrim should no longer incorrectly be gaining Rage while in Defensive Stance from Balance Druid's Starfall and the Hunter talent, A Murder of Crows.
    • Malkorok
      • Living Corruption's Languish effect should no longer be incorrectly reapplied to players that were under the effect of a Mage's Alter Time spell on Heroic difficulty.

Items
  • Figurine - Khorium Boar should no longer incorrectly summon more than one Khorium Boar.

Patch 5.4.7 PTR Notes Update - Jan 28
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • Arenas
    • For the 2v2 Arena bracket, Dampening is now applied to the match starting at the 5 minute mark (down from 10 minutes).
    • For 3v3 and 5v5 Arena brackets, there is no change. Dampening will continue to be applied at the 10 minute mark.
  • Alterac Valley
    • The following NPCs now have more health and deal more damage.
      • Alliance: Vanndar Stormpike, Balinda Stonehearth, Stormpike Defenders, Stormpike Bowman, and all Marshals.
      • Horde: Captain Galvangar, Drek'thar, Frostwolf Guardian, Frostwolf Bowman, and all Warmasters.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Random Battleground Balance and Queue Times
We talk about stuff like this from time to time, but it's not quite so simple. For example, queue times are a big issue. Separating players out by item level certainly wouldn't help, and in fact, could make things far worse. Having more equally-matched opponents in your random BG would be nice, but having to wait an hour or longer... not so much.

That said, we're hoping to make a lot of improvements to Random BG's in Warlords. If we get the opportunity to do something like this, we can look into it.

Side note since I brought it up: we're also looking into queue times. We have a few ideas for changes we might make, but nothing for certain to share just yet. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Blue Posts
One of my personal goals since I started at Blizzard has been to help improve communication with the PvP community. And, though I know it's technically a different forum, I've been as active as possible on the Arena forums contributing what I can. Many of those concerns extend to BGs and RBGs as well, and if you have a concern here that's PvP-related but not necessarily specific to Battlegrounds, it might be a good idea to check the Arena forums too just in case.

That said, I completely hear you guys on wanting to see more interaction in the Battlegrounds forums. I do read them regularly already, but I'll make a stronger effort to interact here more often. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvE
I miss using CC in dungeons and raids. Will this come back in WoD?
Not using CC in dungeons currently is mostly a result of being way stronger than the content is designed for. (Celestalon)
I have needed 0 CC in MoP dungeons ever. Day 1 they were faceroll. Not saying that's 100% bad but it is true.
You are more experienced/skilled than most. That was not the experience for the majority. (Celestalon)

PvP
With cross-realm arena it feels like there is still one final barrier: faction. Any plans for cross-faction teaming for real ID?
No plans for that. (holinka)

yeah probably. I blame the 15 min ques between games! why are Horde ques so terrible?
There are more horde queuing. The problem is exacerbated if you opt out of unpopular BGs. Looking into options. (holinka)

Future
Trying Monk heals on my 90, all proving grounds does is say "you suck" No benefit to me over failing thru LFR
Proving Grounds currently just "tests", it doesn't "teach". That's something we hope to change in the future. (Celestalon)

Misc
'scuse me could you shed some light on a little red dragon named Andrestrasz? Is he a tribute, a memorial, something else...?
I believe that commented earlier that he was a tribute, but wasn't sure. (Celestalon)
I'd bet $20 it's a homage to someone's 5 yr old named Andre but would have to dig into data to find out for sure. (Source)

Return to WoW Giveaway (EU)
Curse is giving away five 6 month WoW subscriptions in a few days, so be sure to sign up for a chance to win. This contest is only open to EU players, so please only sign up if you play on EU realms.

This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Infographic, Bonus Rolls, Jan 28 Hotfixes, PTR Notes Update, Blue Posts, Giveaway started by chaud View original post
Comments 94 Comments
  1. Halifax's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vesci View Post
    100 Million "players" (bullshit detector is going nuts) with ~7 million active is a horrible retention rate.
    How many 10 year old games have retained 7% of all players who have ever purchased/made an account after that amount of time with a monthly subscription cost?

    I have no facts to back it up, but I would make an educated guess that the answer is "one". World of Warcraft.
  1. Alltat's Avatar
    I wonder if they count Battle.net accounts that have tried WoW or just WoW accounts. I missclicked in account management once and accidentally added a trial account to my already active WoW account. It still shows up as a separate game on my B.net account.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vesci View Post
    100 Million "players" (bullshit detector is going nuts) with ~7 million active is a horrible retention rate.
    Over almost ten years, it's pretty good. That 7% of all people who tried the demo would still be playing is a great figure.
  1. Mukki's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Halifax View Post
    How many 10 year old games have retained 7% of all players who have ever purchased/made an account after that amount of time with a monthly subscription cost?

    I have no facts to back it up, but I would make an educated guess that the answer is "one". World of Warcraft.
    Just to give you perspective, look at a website like Skyrim Nexus where even the top rated mods only have about 1 or 2% of the downloaders actually endorsing them. Seems like the same concept. 7% is a good number.
  1. Yakshamash's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dujith View Post
    EU my #ss



    Missing quite some countries there
    Plz change it to UK instead of EU
    Aye, here we go again...
  1. Alexeht's Avatar
    For me that "giveaway" do not work at all - when I click get started it do NOTHING! If someone know how to resolve this please PM me ...
  1. Korru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Santoryu View Post
    I can't believe the Heavenly serpent is rarer than the Black Qiraji mount.
    I have a hard time believing that too. I saw 3 people having the serpent in my server while I saw the Qiraji only once.
  1. mmoc7f92428552's Avatar
    uuuu give a way?!
  1. frogger237's Avatar
    I think the most interesting fact is that out of the 1000-5000 people that are on Antarctica at any given time atleast one of them has logged into WoW atleast once from there.
  1. tntmax's Avatar
    Return to WoW Giveaway (EU)
    .... This contest is only open to EU players, so please only sign up if you play on EU realms.
    Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland)
    It is okay if you do not know every country what belongs to EU, afterall most European couldn't tell each and every states of the US.. but thinking UK == EU is kinda harsh...
  1. mmoc2d47959902's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Korru View Post
    I have a hard time believing that too. I saw 3 people having the serpent in my server while I saw the Qiraji only once.
    I think they made this one up so they could have a new and nice looking mount there. The Sha serpent is a nice mount which represents the current expansion.
  1. Shadee's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vesci View Post
    100 Million "players" (bullshit detector is going nuts) with ~7 million active is a horrible retention rate.
    Yeah I found that number to be pretty funny too. Blizzard counts all those bots and gold spammers as "players" I guess. A fine example of false advertising here.
  1. Phaty's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Korru View Post
    I have a hard time believing that too. I saw 3 people having the serpent in my server while I saw the Qiraji only once.
    pretty sure they only use obtainable mounts. showing an un-obtainable mount is poor marketing
  1. Treeh's Avatar
    must win
  1. moveth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    Oh look, chaud is getting the first post again on his alt account.
    I wish I was Chaud.

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